ABCNews.com(WASHINGTON) -- Amid mounting accusations that data firm Cambridge Analytica misused the Facebook data of up to 50 million user profiles, the U.K.-based firm and its top executives are now also under fire for alleged violations of U.S. election laws.



Government watchdog group Common Cause Monday filed a pair of legal complaints with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Department of Justice accusing Cambridge Analytica LTD, its parent company SCL Group Limited, CEO Alexander Nix, SCL co-founder Nigel Oakes, data scientist Alexander Tayler, and former employee-turned-whistleblower Christopher Wylie of violating federal election laws that prohibit foreigners from participating directly or indirectly in the decision-making process of U.S. political campaigns.



The defendants are all non-U.S. citizens, according to the complaints.



The Trump campaign paid Cambridge Analytica nearly $6 million for services during the 2016 election cycle, according to data from the FEC.



Seventeen other Republican political organizations, including Ted Cruz's presidential campaign and a super PAC headed by incoming National Security Adviser John Bolton, also paid the firm a combined $16 million for services that included research and micro-targeting of voters, government records show.



The complaints cite a New York Times report of an alleged memo dated July 22, 2014 from lawyer Laurence Levy, then at the firm Bracewell & Giuliani, to GOP megadonor Rebekah Mercer, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and the now-suspended Nix. The memo warns them that foreign nationals may not play strategic roles in U.S. political campaigns, including giving strategic advice, but that foreigners can still act as functionaries that collect and process data as long as the final analysis of that data is conducted by U.S. citizens.



Levy suggested at the time that as a foreign national, Nix should recuse himself from substantive management of clients involved in U.S. elections, according to the complaints.



The legal filings allege that Cambridge Analytica and its executives ignored Levys advice and allowed foreigners to be involved in management decisions of U.S. political committee clients concerning expenditures and disbursements during the 2014 and 2016 elections.



Common Cause is calling for both the FEC and the Justice Department to investigate any potential election law violations and impose appropriate sanctions and restraints.



It defies belief that even after their own attorney warned them that they would be violating the prohibition on performing certain election-related activities in U.S. elections that they did so anyway, said Paul S. Ryan, Common Cause vice president for policy and litigation. A full investigation must be conducted, and if Cambridge Analytica and its staff did in fact repeatedly violate our laws, then there must be punishment levied sufficient to deter similar lawbreaking in future.



Cambridge Analytica has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing involving accusations of collecting data from millions of Facebook profiles without knowledge and issued a statement to that effect last week.



We take the disturbing recent allegations of unethical practices in our non-US political business very seriously, acting CEO Alexander Taylor said in a statement. As anyone who is familiar with our staff and work can testify, we in no way resemble the politically-motivated and unethical company that some have sought to portray.



The company did not immediately reply to requests for comment from ABC News about the newest claims of alleged violations of U.S. election laws.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.



It was late on Nov. 2, 2015 when Ron Blake was sitting on his couch in Phoenix, Arizona. The Late Show With Stephen Colbert had just started, and per usual, he opened the show with a monologue taking jabs at politics and pop culture.

Blake doesnt remember what it was exactly, but Colbert made a joke during the monologue that had him cracking up with laughter. When he realized he was laughing  something he hadnt done in a while  he paused the show to take in that moment.

Its not the fact that I laughed at that show that saved my life, its that I recognized that something was good . . . I went to bed with hope that night.

Before the outburst of laughter, Blake was in the throes of suicidal thoughts. For four years, he had been struggling with the effects of PTSD after he was sexually assaulted by an ex-partner and two others.

But things were starting to turn around for Blake. Soon after, he was shopping at office supply store Staples when he saw a stack of foam poster boards. A sales associate asked if she could help him, and he had an ah ha! moment.

Ill take all of them, he told her, and armed with Sharpies, he has traveled to half a dozen states to meet with complete strangers, open up about his story, and ask them to sign his board to get him on the The Late Show.

So far, he has met roughly 24,000 people and they have signed more than 350 poster boards.

I always said I would keep going every day until I get on this show, he said. I dont know how Im going to do it, but I think the beautiful part is everybody I meet, I open up. Its a grassroots campaign.

This chapter of Blakes story began years earlier in 2011. He and his partner had been together for a number of years despite animosity, including alcoholism  his Catholic upbringing had engrained the mantra of for better or worse. One night when Blake was at home, sick, he said his partner and two acquaintances came to his home, drunk, and raped him. After the assault, he called the police.

No one was held accountable.

People Blake opened up to doubted his story. How could someone so in shape not fight them off? How could someone you know do this to you?

It was just sheer hell for me, absolute sheer hell, Blake said. That night was just horrific for me  I took ownership for that night because no one else would.

For years, he suffered from the invisible effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. Then that night when Stephen Colbert took the stage, Blake found laughter and a light at the end of the tunnel.

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), one in 10 victims of rape are male and they are even less likely than women to report their assaults.

Sexual assault can happen to anyone, said Sara McGovern, RAINN press secretary. Cultural stereotypes about men and how they portray masculinity can make it harder for men to disclose their assault and add additional challenges to their recovery. Many men feel intense shame and embarrassment about being abused or assaulted and stay silent.

According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 26 percent of gay men will experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner. Thats 3 percent lower than the rate for straight men  however, gay men often dont want to report these crimes because it means they have to out themselves and they fear it being on the public record.

In Blake opening up to others, many reciprocate. Women and men share their stories of surviving rape, and a police officer told Blake she got a call of a man who was raped, but he only wanted them to be there as he packed his bags and begged them not to do anything more.

For some, sharing their story was the first time their friends with them had heard of it. When Blake attended a pride festival in rural Oklahoma, he came across a group of men and asked them to sign his poster. One of them spoke up.

He said, Hey, I want to tell you something, I think its time, Blake remembers. He said that 'About 15 or 20 years ago, I was sexually assaulted ' All his friends got up and they hugged him and none of them knew. It was shocking that here hes with a big group of his friends at a gay pride festival, but none of them even knew. He kept the secret from every one of them.

McGovern explained that every survivors story is different and their means of recovery is different as well.

It can be extremely difficult for survivors to disclose their assault, even to close friends and family. Encountering judgement or a negative reaction can be traumatizing, she said. The most important thing you can do is listen and believe them. It's important to be supportive, non-judgemental, and patient. There is no timetable to recovering from trauma.

When Blake is feeling down  hes proud of not needing medication for 15 months, but it still happens  the poster boards filled with poems, Bible verses, jokes, stories, and signatures remind him about his mission. Its to get on The Late Show, sure, but the self-funded project has become much more than that.

Its really incumbent on all of us in our LGBT communities to keep talking about this, especially the gay men, Blake said. Guys dont talk about this stuff.

I think theres a reason for everything that happens in life, Im starting to figure that out, he said. We cant leave anybody behind.

Are you or a loved one the survivor of rape? For help, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673).Yazidis were forced to flee Sinjar after being attacked by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey had begun operations in Iraq's Sinjar region, an area where it has threatened a military incursion, two days after sources said Kurdish PKK militants would withdraw from the area.

"We said we would go into Sinjar. Now operations have begun there. The fight is internal and external," Mr Erdogan told a crowd in the Black Sea province of Trabzon, without elaborating on what operations he was referring to.

Iraq's Joint Operations Command denied that any foreign forces had crossed the border into Iraq.

"The operations command confirmed that the situation in Nineveh, Sinjar and the border areas was under the control of Iraqi security forces and there is no reason for troops to cross the Iraqi border into those areas," it said in a statement.

Sources in Sinjar said there was no unusual military activity in the area on Sunday.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the members of his ruling party in Giresun, Turkey Credit: Kayhan Ozer/Pool Photo via AP

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state for decades. President Erdogan said last week they were creating a new base in Sinjar, and that Turkish forces would attack if necessary.

Sources in northern Iraq said on Friday the PKK would withdraw from Sinjar, where it gained a foothold in 2014 after coming to the aid of the Yazidi minority community, who were under attack by Islamic State militants.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, has for decades been based in Iraq's Qandil mountain range, near the border with Iran.

Turkish-backed Syrian rebel drives past a burning shop after capturing the city of Afrin Credit: BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images

Turkish troops and their rebel allies swept into northwest Syria's Afrin town this month, the culmination of an eight-week campaign to drive Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters from the region. Turkey sees the YPG as terrorists and an extension of the outlawed PKK.

Erdogan has vowed to extend the military operation along the Syrian border and on Sunday said the Turkish-led forces would take control of the town of Tel Rifaat.

Many civilians and YPG have gathered in and around Tel Rifaat after Turkey seized control of Afrin. It is a Kurdish-controlled enclave, cut off from a larger expanse of Kurdish territory in the northeast of Syria.

The United Nations said last week that around 75,000 people had been displaced to Tel Rifaat and surrounding areas from Afrin, and more were expected to come.Istanbul (AFP) - A Turkish daily strongly supportive of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday portrayed German Chancellor Angela Merkel on its front cover as Adolf Hitler, accusing her of having a "Nazi mentality".

The Yeni Akit daily, known for its hardline views on Turkish foreign policy, printed a photo-shopped picture of Merkel with a Hitler moustache, swastika arm band and belt diagonally across her chest in the style of Nazi militia.

"We are very worried by this mentality," it said.

Its front page came as European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker were to meet Erdogan at the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna in a bid to mend ties with Turkey and the EU.

Ankara has been infuriated by a statement from EU leaders condemning Turkey's "illegal actions" towards Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea.

In particular, the EU lambasted Turkey over Ankara's arrest of two Greek soldiers who strayed into Turkish territory.

Yeni Akit alleged that while Merkel had "protected" fugitives wanted by Turkey and remained silent on arson attacks against mosques in Germany, "she is worried on the issue of the Greek soldiers who were trying to spy on us."

"It's exasperating that Merkel, with her Nazi mentality, makes comments against Turkey at every moment," it added.

This is not the first time that a Turkish newspaper has portrayed Merkel as the Nazi dictator who led the Third Reich, caused World War II and presided over the Holocaust.

Erdogan himself had accused Germany and other EU governments of showing the mentality of the Nazis for banning Turkish ministers from giving rallies in the run-up to an April referendum last year.

Then, the right-wing tabloid-style daily Gunes printed a picture of her in Nazi uniform along with the words in German: "#Frau Hitler" and called Merkel an "ugly aunt".Varna (Bulgaria) (AFP) - The EU on Monday said it failed to reach any "concrete solutions or compromises" with Turkey in talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeking to repair their tattered relations.

Erdogan held a working dinner with European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker in Bulgaria with a litany of issues clouding their discussions.

These include EU alarm at Erdogan's crackdown on perceived opponents following a coup attempt in 2016, the arrest of journalists, Turkey's military operations against Kurds in northern Syria and squabbling over Ankara's deal to halt the flow of refugees into Europe.

This has all whipped up an increasingly acrimonious war of words and made Turkey's prospects of joining the EU -- an objective that Erdogan insisted earlier on Monday that Turkey still pursues -- appear even more remote.

But despite hopes for a breakthrough at the summit in the Black Sea resort of Varna, Tusk said they made little tangible headway.

"In terms of concrete solutions, we did not reach a concrete compromise today but I still hope it will be possible in the future," Tusk told a joint news conference.

Tusk said improved relations would depend on progress on issues including the rule of law and press freedom as well as Syria.

But Erdogan struck a more optimistic tone, telling reporters: "We hope that we have left a very difficult period behind in Turkey-EU relations."

However he added: "We don't want rambling or unfair criticisms on sensitive issues like the fight against terror. We expect strong support."

- 'Mixed feelings' -

Juncker said the summit was one of "mixed feelings but not mixed messages", adding: "It was a good meeting because as this is the normal principle between big democracies, we were able to talk in all frankness and openness."

Temperatures rose further last week after EU leaders condemned Turkey's "illegal actions" towards Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea.

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Ankara hit back at the "unacceptable comments" and said the EU had lost its objectivity on Cyprus, which is divided between the Greek-majority internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus and the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.

The statement on Thursday by the 28 EU members meeting in Brussels condemned Turkey over Ankara's arrest of two Greek soldiers and its promise to prevent the Greek Cypriot government from exploring for oil and gas.

"For as long as the EU does not take a fair attitude, it will not have any contribution to the solution of the Cyprus issue," Erdogan said.

And Juncker raised the issue of the Greek soldiers during the press conference, saying they had confidence in the Turkish side "to solve that in the best way".

Ankara and Brussels had in March 2016 agreed a controversial deal to stop the flow of migrants, in what was seen as a landmark in cooperation and which Turkey hoped would yield visa free travel to Europe.

So far this incentive has not been realised and Erdogan stressed the issue during the talks.

Last month Turkey said it had fulfilled the 72 criteria for visa-free travel and Erdogan told reporters that the necessary paperwork had been sent to the European Commission.

Erdogan said he told the EU leaders that it was "necessary to complete their work at once" on the issue.

- Looser partnership? -

Brussels has repeatedly criticised the post-coup crackdown, which has seen nearly 160,000 people detained, including dozens of journalists.

Turkey, for its part, has accused Brussels of failing to show solidarity after the coup and appears set on forging a strong partnership with President Vladimir Putin's Russia.

But Juncker stressed that the EU showed its support for Erdogan merely hours after the attempted putsch began.

In contrast to Erdogan's brisk evening meeting with the EU leadership, Putin -- whose relations with the West have nosedived further following the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain -- is expected to make a full two-day visit to Turkey next week.

Ankara has agreed to buy air defence systems from Russia and Moscow will also build Turkey's first nuclear power station.

Next month the EU will release its latest progress report, which is "bound to illustrate a substantial regression" in Turkey, Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and a former EU ambassador to Turkey, said in a study.

During a visit by Erdogan to Paris earlier this year, French President Emmanuel Macron said Ankara should settle instead for a looser "partnership" with the EU and suggested no more progress was possible in accession talks.

Juncker insisted that he was not in favour of stopping negotiations with Turkey but urged Ankara to improve relations with member states like Cyprus and Greece.

burs-raz/stu/gdBy Aradhana Aravindan SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A mix of concern and disappointment met Uber Technologies Inc's [UBER.UL] deal to sell its Southeast Asian business to bigger regional rival Grab, as drivers and users of the ride-hailing firms took in the prospect of sharply reduced competition. The services throughout Asia have long relied on discounts and promotions for consumers and incentives for drivers, which made for tough competition, pushing down profit margins. Grab said the Uber acquisition accelerated its path to profitability in its core transport business, as it would become the most cost-efficient Southeast Asian platform. While drivers were split on which of the two services offered better compensation, they generally expected fares to go up with the reduced competition. Rennu Mahajan, who has driven a combined three-and-a-half years for both companies in Singapore, said some of her driver friends were concerned because now they would not be able to switch to the other app. "But I am personally not worried. I am quite confident that the fares will go up. If incentives don't go up, fares will increase and we will still get a little bit more," said Mahajan, 57. On its Singapore website, Grab said passengers could expect better service with more drivers and transport options available on one app and that fares would not change. For drivers, it said the benefits and incentives structure remained the same. According to mobile data analytics firm App Annie, Grab was ranked fifth among top apps based on monthly active users in Singapore in 2017 versus Uber at No. 7. In Indonesia, Go-Jek was at No. 9 just ahead of Grab. REGULATORY CONCERN Whether the merger would eliminate competition in Singapore will be the focus of government review, a spokeswoman for the Land Transport Authority said. "We will ensure that no one single market player dominates the sector to the detriment of commuters and drivers," she said. Malaysia's Land Transport Authority issued a similar statement, saying it "will work closely with relevant consumer and various regulatory agencies such as the Malaysia Competition Commission to safeguard passengers from unfair terms". For both Ricky Tan, who has driven for Uber in Singapore for over a year, and Andre Pereira who uses both services, Grab's ability to exert greater control on prices was cause for concern as it may drive away customers to public transport. "As the only app left, Grab can easily increase prices," Pereira, 24, said. While there are smaller ride-hailing apps in each market, Grab and Uber have a presence across the region, while Indonesia's popular Go-Jek only operates within its home country. Drivers in Cambodia, one of the last frontiers in the battle of apps, say competition is fierce and the market will not be easy for Grab. "A lot of people are used to using Uber, Grab isn't strong yet, Uber is stronger...Grab just arrived," said Krem Sokhom. DISCOUNTS AND PROMOTIONS The apps have also grown in popularity in countries with fewer public transportation options, such as Vietnam. Le Minh Quan, 30, who drives with both Grab and Uber in Vietnam, said: "Without competition they could enforce higher commission or reduce their support, and that's worrying. Before we had a choice, but now we don't." Banker Le Hoang Ngan also uses both. "Whoever gives me discount codes I'll go with it, if not, I'll skip. So one down will just give me less option," he said. In Thailand, ride-hailing services by privately owned vehicles are illegal but many drivers work with both Uber and Grab. There was no shortage of drivers and riders who liked the service that Grab had to offer. "Grab provides enough promotions for my liking, and even if sometimes they don't, I don't mind paying the full price," said Choltanutkun Tun-atiruj, a magazine writer, who said she preferred Grabs services and relied on it in her everyday life. "I prefer convenience and what's the quickest, easiest." (Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan and Dewey Sim in SINGAPORE, Mai Nguyen in HANOI, Prak Chan Thul in PHNOM PENH, Patpicha Tanakasempipat in BANGKOK; Editing by Jack Kim)Singapore (AFP) - Uber sold its Southeast Asian business to rival Grab on Monday, ending a bruising battle between the ride-hailing behemoths and marking the US firm's latest retreat from international markets.

Singapore-based Grab is taking over the ride-sharing and food delivery operations of Uber in the region, with the California-headquartered company to receive a 27.5 percent stake in the business in return.

The sale is Uber's latest withdrawal from a market where it had faced tough competition, as new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi seeks to stem huge losses and move past a series of scandals.

After a fierce battle, Uber sold its China operations to rival Didi Chuxing in 2016 in return for a stake, and last year the US firm merged in Russia with the taxi-hailing app of internet giant Yandex.

The deal with Grab -- which operates in eight Southeast Asian countries -- is similar to the one struck with Didi, and ends a fight for market share in a region that is home to some 650 million people and an increasingly affluent middle class.

"Today's acquisition marks the beginning of a new era," said Grab chief executive Anthony Tan. "The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region."

Khosrowshahi, who is joining Grab's board as part of the agreement, said: "This deal is a testament to Uber's exceptional growth across Southeast Asia over the last five years. It will help us double down on our plans for growth."

The value of the deal, which Grab said was the largest ever acquisition by a Southeast Asian internet company, was not disclosed.

Grab has long been the dominant force in ride-hailing in Southeast Asia and speculation mounted that a deal with Uber was on the cards after Japanese financial titan Softbank invested huge sums in the US firm.

Softbank is also a major investor in Grab, and is known for pushing for consolidation in the global ride-hailing industry, which has been losing billions of dollars a year due to turf wars.

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- 'Fewer choices for commuters' -

As part of Monday's deal, Grab is combining Uber's food delivery service in the region with its own and plans to expand it to more countries.

While both sides said the move would benefit customers, analysts raised concerns a lack of competition could push up prices.

"Industry consolidation will mean fewer choices for commuters and fares are likely to trend higher over time as the remaining players seek to improve their profitability longer term," Corrine Png, a transport analyst from Singapore-based research firm Crucial Perspective, told AFP.

Grab, launched in 2012, has poured money into expanding its regional fleet and now operates in 195 cities in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.

As well as linking customers up with private cars, it has services offering motorbike taxis in some countries, regular taxis and carpooling, as well as food and package delivery.

Before the acquisition, Uber operated in 64 cities in eight Southeast Asian countries.

Competition between ride-hailing apps has been heating up in Southeast Asia, with the market forecast to grow more than five times to $13.1 billion by 2025, according to a 2016 report by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek.

Uber is the largest firm of its kind with a presence in more than 600 cities, but it has been rocked by scandals and is facing fierce competition from rivals in Asia and Europe.

Chief executive Travis Kalanick was ousted in June last year after missteps including allegations of executive misconduct, a toxic workplace atmosphere and potentially unethical competitive practices.

New boss Khosrowshahi has vowed to turn the company around as Uber gears up for a 2019 public share offering.

But he has a fight on his hands -- Uber's losses in 2017 grew to $4.5 billion from the $2.8 billion the company lost a year earlier.By Anshuman Daga

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian business to bigger regional rival Grab, sources with knowledge of the matter said on Sunday, in what would be the U.S. company's second retreat from Asia.

The deal, which could be announced as early as Monday, marks the industry's first big consolidation in Southeast Asia, home to about 640 million people, and puts pressure on rivals such as Indonesia's Go-Jek, backed by Alphabet Inc's Google and China's Tencent Holdings Ltd.

As part of the transaction, Uber would get a stake of as much as 30 percent in the combined business, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter who did not want to be identified as the deal is not yet public.

Another source familiar with the deal said Uber would acquire a 25 percent to 30 percent stake in Grab, valuing the entire business at $6 billion, the same valuation it commanded in its most recent capital raising.

Uber and Singapore-based Grab, Southeast Asia's biggest ride-hailing firm, declined to comment.

Expectations of consolidation in Asia's fiercely competitive ride-hailing industry were stoked earlier this year when Japan's SoftBank Group Corp made a multi-billion dollar investment in Uber.

SoftBank is also one of the main investors in several of Uber's rivals, including Grab, China's Didi Chuxing, and India's Ola.

Ride-hailing companies throughout Asia have relied on discounts and promotions to attract both riders and drivers in the fast-growing market, driving down profit margins.

Uber, which is preparing for a potential initial public offering in 2019, lost $4.5 billion last year and is facing fierce competition at home and in Asia, as well as a regulatory crackdown in Europe.

It is also recovering from a year of scandals that saw co-founder Travis Kalanick forced out as chief executive in June amid U.S. criminal inquiries and a workplace marred by sexual harassment allegations.

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SoftBank gained two seats on Uber's board of directors through its investment and has said it wants the company to focus on growing in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Australia, but not in Asia, due to the lack of profitability.

Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at a conference in New York in November that the company's Asia operations were not going to be "profitable any time soon," particularly because of how heavily Uber was subsidizing rides there.

"The economics of that market are not what we want them to be," he said at the time.

Khosrowshahi, who took over the top job at Uber in August, has been working to clean up the company's financials ahead taking it public.

Still, during a visit to India in February, he pledged to continue investing aggressively in Southeast Asia.

Now that Uber is pulling out of Southeast Asia, attention may turn to the company's operations in India, which accounts for more than 10 percent of Uber's trips globally, but is not making money yet.

Uber's deal with Grab would be similar to the one struck in China in 2016, when a bruising price war ended in Didi Chuxing buying out Uber's China business in return for a stake in the company.

Grab raised about $2.5 billion last July from Didi, SoftBank and others in a deal valuing the company at around $6 billion. Bloomberg first reported the deal.

(Reporting by Anshuman Daga; Additional reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and John McCrank in New York, and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Grant McCool)TALLINN (Reuters) - British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said on Monday that the world was united behind Britain's stance over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and that patience was wearing thin with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Britain has blamed Russia for the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a military-grade Soviet-era nerve agent on March 4, winning the support of NATO and European leaders. The Kremlin has denied any involvement and says Britain is orchestrating an anti-Russia campaign. During a visit to Estonia, Williamson said the backing for Britain was in "itself a defeat for President Putin". "The world's patience is rather wearing thin with President Putin and his actions, and the fact that right across the NATO alliance, right across the European Union, nations have stood up in support of the United Kingdom ... I actually think that is the very best response that we could have," he told reporters. "Their (the Kremlin's) intention, their aim is to divide and what we are seeing is the world uniting behind the British stance and that in itself is a great victory and sends an exceptionally powerful message to the Kremlin and President Putin." European Union member states agreed on Friday to take additional punitive measures against Russia over the attack on Skripal, found slumped on a bench with his daughter in the southern English city of Salisbury. U.S. President Donald Trump is also considering the expulsion of some Russian diplomats, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday. Williamson also said he was surprised and disappointed by reports about European Union proposals to freeze Britain out of the Galileo satellite navigation project as part of negotiations over Britain's exit from the bloc next year. The Financial Times newspaper reported that the EU was looking to lock Britain's space industry out of the 10 billion euro program to protect its security after Britain leaves the bloc next year. "The United Kingdom has been absolutely clear that we do not want to bring the defense and security of Europe into part of the negotiations because we think it is absolutely vital," Williamson said. "So I very mush hope that the European Union commission will take the opportunity to see sense, re-calibrate its position and not play politics on something that is so vitally important which is European defense and security." (Reporting by David Marditste; writing by Michael Holden; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)London (AFP) - Around 500 Jewish protesters gathered outside Britain's parliament on Monday accusing opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of allowing anti-Semitism to spread in his party.

Demonstrators at the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BOD) event were met with counter-protests by Jewish Corbyn supporters, leading to heated exchanges and minor physical confrontations.

Members of the main protest shouted "shame on you" and "scum" at the group of around 50 Corbyn supporters, who claim that the accusations of anti-Semitism against their leader are politically motivated.

BOD President Jonathan Arkush led a chant of "enough is enough" as he demanded Corbyn take a firm stance against those accused of anti-Semitism in the party.

"Jeremy Corbyn has failed to take meaningful action, creating space for racists," he told the crowd.

"Jewish people are deserting the party, it's not good enough."

An open letter from the BOD and the Jewish Leadership Council earlier accused the veteran leftist siding with anti-Semites "again and again".

The letter said Corbyn was "repeatedly found alongside people with blatantly anti-Semitic views" but "claims never to hear or read them".

Protester Richard Galber, 67, said that he didn't think Corbyn was an anti-Semite but that "there is an element of anti-Jewish sentiment that's running though the country and, pity as it is, Corbyn has come to represent that.

"Too many people that he associates with are anti-Semites," he told AFP.

Counter-protester Patricia Sheerin said that she had come to support Corbyn "against the attacks that have been levelled against him by certain Zionist groups with links to far-right organisations."

She accused them of deliberately "blurring the lines" between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel in order to "damage" Corbyn.

The letter, set to be delivered to a group of Labour lawmakers, said the Labour leader "cannot seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities.

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"Corbyn did not invent this form of politics, but he has had a lifetime within it, and now personifies its problems and dangers."

- Far left's 'obsessive hatred' -

The final straw that triggered the protest was a Facebook comment from 2012 that recently came to light.

Corbyn had offered support to a street artist whose mural in east London depicting bankers playing Monopoly on the backs of the poor was about to be swiftly removed.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson on Sunday branded the image a "horrible anti-Semitic mural that was rightly taken down".

The British Jewish leaders' letter said: "When Jews complain about an obviously anti-Semitic mural in Tower Hamlets, Corbyn of course supports the artist.

"Hezbollah commits terrorist atrocities against Jews, but Corbyn calls them his friends and attends pro-Hezbollah rallies in London. Exactly the same goes for Hamas.

"Raed Salah says Jews kill Christian children to drink their blood. Corbyn opposes his extradition and invites him for tea," it said, referring to the firebrand cleric who heads the Islamic Movement in Israel.

"At best, this derives from the far left's obsessive hatred of Zionism, Zionists and Israel.

"At worst, it suggests a conspiratorial worldview in which mainstream Jewish communities are believed to be a hostile entity."

The letter claimed a "repeated institutional failure" within Labour to tackle anti-Semitism and there was "literally not a single day" in which Labour spaces, either online or in meetings, did not repeat "slanders against Jews".

Corbyn said he would meet Jewish community representatives in the coming days to rebuild its confidence in his party.

"Anti-Semitism has occurred in pockets within the Labour Party, causing pain and hurt to our Jewish community in the Labour Party and the rest of the country," he said.London (AFP) - The mass international expulsion of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former double agent in Britain represents a key diplomatic victory for Prime Minister Theresa May despite Brexit tensions with London's EU partners, commentators said.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a leading Brexit advocate, hailed an "extraordinary international response", while May said it showed "great solidarity" with the EU and NATO.

"Together we have sent a message that we will not tolerate Russia's continued attempts to flout international law and undermine our values," May told parliament.

"As a sovereign European democracy, the United Kingdom will stand shoulder to shoulder with the EU and with NATO to face down these threats together," she said.

Washington led the way, ordering out 60 alleged Russian agents.

Sixteen European Union countries have so far matched the move with smaller-scale expulsions, after Britain urged allies to respond to the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia and expelled 23 Russian diplomats.

At an EU summit last week May persuaded member states to agree with Britain's assessment that it was "highly likely" Moscow was to blame for the nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury.

EU leaders at the summit also agreed to recall the bloc's ambassador from Moscow over the March 4 incident.

After the summit, EU President Donald Tusk told a press conference: "In these difficult circumstances I am personally especially pleased that despite the tough Brexit negotiations, the European Union has demonstrated unanimous and unequivocal unity with the UK in the face of this attack."

Russia on Monday accused Britain of "exploiting the factor of solidarity" within Europe and imposing worsening relations on other countries.

"When London withdraws from the EU, it will not be bound by any obligations within the framework of the single foreign policy line," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

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"Depending on its wishes, it can start a game of either rapprochement or growing further apart, while the countries that will remain in the EU will continue to be bound by the conspiracy of anti-Russian solidarity imposed by the British," she added.

- 'This is just geopolitics' -

Before the Skripal poisoning, May last month had pleaded for an urgent deal with the European Union on post-Brexit security cooperation in a speech at the Munich Security Conference.

"This cannot be a time when any of us allow competition between partners, rigid institutional restrictions or deep-seated ideology to inhibit our cooperation and jeopardise the security of our citizens," May told the audience.

Jan Techau, a Berlin-based analyst for the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said Monday's response presaged continued cooperation on common security and defence concerns whatever the status of Brexit negotiations.

"Since immediately after the Brexit vote, it has been made clear again and again by both the UK and the EU that security would still be considered a shared concern and that both sides would coordinate and cooperate very closely," he said.

Anand Menon, European politics professor at King's College London, agreed that the response did not depend on Brexit.

"Whether we have Brexit, whether we don't have Brexit, Russia has been shown to have used aggression on the territory of a member state and member states react."

"I don't think it's got anything to do with Brexit... This is just geopolitics," he said.

Brexit supporters seized on the response as evidence that Britain's foreign policy clout would not be affected.

The political blog Guido Fawkes said the expulsions were "one of the biggest wins of the May premiership" and made "a mockery of those claims the UK would be isolated internationally if we voted to leave the EU".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.



Washington (AFP) - The United States and Britain's allies around the world have expelled scores of suspected Russian spies in an unprecedented response to a nerve agent attack.

At least 116 alleged agents working under diplomatic cover were ordered out by 22 governments, dwarfing similar measures in even the most notorious Cold War spying disputes, and marking a British diplomatic victory.

Washington led the way, ordering out 60 Russians, in a new blow to US-Russia ties less than a week after President Donald Trump congratulated his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on his re-election.

Canada, Ukraine, Albania, Australia, and most European Union states matched the move with smaller-scale expulsions, after Britain urged allies to respond to the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal.

Russia has denied it was behind the attempted assassination, which left Skripal and his daughter gravely ill in perhaps the first nerve agent attack in Europe since World War II.

It warned that there would be a tit-for-tat response to those countries "pandering to British authorities" without, Moscow claims, fully understanding what had happened.

But Western officials made it clear in announcing the expulsions that they share Britain's assessment that only the Kremlin could have been behind the March 4 incident in Salisbury, England.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Washington and its allies were acting "in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom."

The strong language contrasted with Trump's warm words of last week, when he overrode his advisors' concerns and congratulated Putin on his election win.

- Consulate closed -

US officials said that 48 "intelligence officers" attached to Russian diplomatic missions in the US would be expelled, along with 12 accredited to the United Nations in New York.

The Russians have been given until April 2 to leave US territory and close the consulate -- although the consul's residence will be left open until April 25.

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"Once that deadline has passed the properties will no longer enjoy diplomatic status or protections," a State Department official told AFP.

Trump's ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, welcomed the move while condemning the alleged Russian attack, as did the US ambassador to Moscow Jon Huntsman.

But Trump himself, who usually likes to tweet or hold a press event for major announcements, was silent.

In addition, the Russian consulate general in Seattle will be closed, the White House said.

This represents the largest US expulsion of Russian or Soviet agents ever and comes after Trump's predecessor Barack Obama expelled 35 in late 2016 over alleged election meddling.

Russia's foreign ministry warned that the "unfriendly step by this group of countries will not pass without trace and we will respond to it."

The Russian embassy in Washington asked its Twitter followers to vote on which US consulate should be closed, listing those in Vladivostok, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg as options.

Russia's ambassador to the United States told state-run Sputnik News the move was "a serious blow to the quantitative and qualitative composition of the Russian embassy in Washington, DC."

It was not immediately clear how many Russians are assigned to its various US missions, but in 2016 Putin ordered the United States to reduce its Moscow personnel to 455 to achieve parity.

Canada confirmed it was expelling four Russians, Ukraine 13, Albania two, Norway two and Macedonia two. At least 16 EU member states are kicking out agents.

Australia expelled two Russian diplomats Tuesday in response to the "shocking" Skripal attack, which Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said was part of "a pattern of reckless and deliberate conduct by the Russian state that constitutes a growing threat to international security".

Iceland said Monday that it would send no government officials to Russia to accompany its team to the football World Cup this summer.

Britain welcomed its allies' decision as a diplomatic and moral victory, after concerns that some would prefer not to offend Moscow despite international horror over the attack.

"I have found great solidarity from our friends and partners in the EU, NATO, America and beyond," Prime Minister Theresa May told parliament.

More than three weeks after the attack, which Britain says was carried out by a nerve agent exclusively developed by Russia, the Skripals are still in a coma in hospital.

A British policeman who was exposed to the nerve agent when he responded to the attack on the former Russian officer has now been released from treatment.

A British judge ruled last week that blood samples from former Russian spy Skripal and his daughter Yulia could be taken for testing by the world chemical weapons body (OPCW).In the U.S., 9-to-5 is considered to be the average workday, but a new survey from employees around the world reveals that Americans actually work a bit more.

After analyzing commuting time, working hours and breaks, Printerland, an office supply company, found that US workers typically clock in around 8:15 a.m., and head home at around 5:30 p.m. If you throw in commuting time, the day starts at about 7:30 a.m. and ends a little after 6:00pm.

While U.S. work days are longer than expected, theyre far shorter compared to other countries. Nigerians have the longest work day in the world, starting at 4:30 a.m. and ending at 9:30 p.m. Why so long? The average worker has a three-hour commute, each way, due to terrible road and traffic conditions. The one bright spot in all of this is that the Nigerian government recently said it plans to increase the minimum wage this year.

Japanese workers also routinely get home around 9:30 p.m., after a 7:30 a.m commuting start. One reason is that workers are expected to show up early and work overtime without earning extra pay. Another reason: happy hour. In Japanese culture, its considered rude to turn down a drink offer, so many people oblige, even if theyd rather be at home. The same goes in Korea, where after-work meals and the commute home can keep people out until 10:30 p.m.

Work days around the world. Check out the full results here.

Give me a break

Nothing makes the workday go faster like a nice long lunch break. In the U.S., most workers take a 30-minute lunch break, but some dont even do that. A 2015 survey from the employment agency Right Management found that nearly 30% of American workers said they actually work through their break and eat lunch at their desks.

That trend doesnt fly in the rest of the world. Take Italy, where many workers take a two-hour lunch break. And they arent heating up a Lean Cuisine in the office microwave: many workers actually take time to go home and have a meal with their families. Other countries that take at least a two-hour lunch break include Saudi Arabia, Peru and China.

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In Spain, workers are also known to take two or three hours for lunch, mainly in the summer when its too hot to work. A lot of businesses even shut down in the middle of the day so that people can take a siesta. That said, Spains employment minister proposed a plan at the end of 2016 that would shorten breaks and end the work day at 6 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. The region of Catalonia proposed the same plan in 2017.

Working hard, hardly working

There are also a handful of countries that have mastered the art of squeezing a full workday into the least amount of hours possible. According to Printland, the average working day in Finland lasts from about 8 a.m. to about 3:30 p.m.  the shortest on the list  and is punctuated by a 30-minute lunch and two short 15-minute breaks. This work-life balance probably contributes to why Finland is consistently recognized as one of the happiest countries in the world. In addition to fewer hours worked per week, the gender pay gap is small, and the annual median salary is $31,947 compared to $27,317.06 in France. Finland is also known for its generous parental leave.

Canada has a shorter work day as well, with the average employee clocking in at 8 a.m. and punching out at 3:30 p.m. There were rumors in 2016 that the country would move to a six-hour work day, but the needle hasnt moved in that direction just yet.

Brittany is reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @bjonescooper.

Credit card debt has now reached pre-recession levels

The craziest things people have tried to expense at work

As medical costs overwhelm, more people turn to crowdfunding sites for help

Americans spend over $3,600 a year just to work  How you can saveUtah has legalized a controversial child-rearing method known as free-range parenting that encourages the fostering of self-sufficiency in children from a young age, which is believed to be the first legislation of its kind in the United States.

The so-called free-range kids bill was signed into law by Republican Gov. Gary Herbert on Friday after the state House and Senate voted unanimously to approve the legislation.

The new law, which will take effect on May 8, specifies that it is not a crime for parents to allow kids who display maturity and good judgment to do things like walk to school alone or play outside without supervision.

An age limit was not defined, but the bills sponsors said it was left purposely open-ended so police and prosecutors can work on a case-by-case basis if abuse or neglect is suspected, according to The Associated Press.

If there are clear signs of abuse, obviously that is grounds for action, and in no way is excluded [from the law], Rep. Brad Daw (R), the bills House sponsor, told the Salt Lake Tribune.

Daw said he was convinced to pursue the legislation after seeing cases in other states of parents being investigated or even arrested for allowing their kids to do things alone. A Maryland couple made headlines in 2015 after they were accused of neglect for letting their two children  aged 10 and 6  walk home without adult supervision. In 2014, a Florida mom was arrested on a felony child neglect charge for allowing her 7-year-old son to walk to a nearby park alone. (That charge was eventually dropped.)

Sen. Lincoln Filmore (R), the Utah bills chief sponsor, said he introduced the legislation to encourage more self-reliance among children.

I feel strongly about the issue because we have become so over-the-top when protecting children that we are refusing to let them learn the lessons of self-reliance and problem-solving that they will need to be successful as adults, Filmore told Yahoo Lifestyle last week.

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Advocates of free-range parenting have celebrated Utahs new law.

This is wonderful news; could be a turning point in America's long slide into oversupervision of kids... let them walk to school, play in parks, without putting parents at risk of being charged with neglect. https://t.co/GtWm0huroE  Jonathan Haidt (@JonHaidt) March 21, 2018

We live in a fear-infused culture in which weve lost perspective on safety, Lenore Skenazy, who coined the term free-range parenting about a decade ago, told Yahoo Lifestyle. Common activities like leaving a child in a car are often presented as though they pose enormous threats to our safety.

Yes, anything can happen. But I hate the idea that imagination becomes the basis of law, she added.

Free-range parenting is a method not without critics, however.

Arkansas tried to pass a similar free-range kids bill last year but failed after receiving pushback from critics who said it was too dangerous to leave children unsupervised.

CORRECTION: An earlier version misspelled Rep. Brad Daws surname as Draw.

Also on HuffPost

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a historic groundswell of youth activism, hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied across the U.S. against gun violence Saturday, vowing to transform fear and grief into a "vote-them-out" movement and tougher laws against weapons and ammo.

They took to the streets of the nation's capital and such cities as Boston, New York, Chicago, Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Oakland, California, in the kind of numbers seen during the Vietnam era, sweeping up activists long frustrated by stalemate in the gun debate and bringing in lots of new, young voices.

They were called to action by a brand-new corps of leaders: student survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead Feb. 14.

"If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking," Parkland survivor David Hogg said to roars from the protesters packing Pennsylvania Avenue from the stage near the Capitol many blocks back toward the White House. "We're going to take this to every election, to every state and every city. We're going to make sure the best people get in our elections to run, not as politicians but as Americans.

"Because this," he said, pointing behind him to the Capitol dome, "this is not cutting it."

Some of the young voices were very young. Yolanda Renee King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 9-year-old granddaughter, drew from the civil rights leader's most famous words in declaring from the stage: "I have a dream that enough is enough. That this should be a gun-free world. Period."

By all appearances  there were no official numbers  Washington's March for Our Lives rally rivaled the women's march last year that drew far more than the predicted 300,000.

The National Rifle Association went silent on Twitter as the protests unfolded, in contrast to its reaction to the nationwide school walkouts against gun violence March 14, when it tweeted a photo of an assault rifle and the message "I'll control my own guns, thank you."

Story continues

President Donald Trump was in Florida for the weekend and did not weigh in on Twitter either.

White House spokesman Zach Parkinson said: "We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their First Amendment rights today." He pointed to Trump's efforts to ban bump stocks and his support for school-safety measures and extended background checks for gun purchases.

Since the bloodshed in Florida, students have tapped into a current of gun control sentiment that has been building for years  yet still faces a powerful foe in the NRA, its millions of supporters and lawmakers who have resisted any encroachment on gun rights.

Organizers are hoping the electricity of the crowds, their sheer numbers and the under-18 roster of speakers will create a tipping point, starting with the midterm congressional elections this fall. To that end, chants of "Vote them out!" rang through the Washington crowd.

Emma Gonzalez, one of the first students from Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to speak out after the tragedy there, implored those of voting age to vote.

In her speech, she recited the names of the Parkland dead, then held the crowd in rapt, tearful silence for more than six minutes, the time it took the gunman to kill them.

"We will continue to fight for our dead friends," Delaney Tarr, another Parkland survivor, declared from the stage. The crowd roared with approval as she laid down the students' central demand: a ban on "weapons of war" for all but warriors.

Student protesters called for a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault-type weapons like the one used by the killer in Parkland, comprehensive background checks, and a higher minimum age to buy guns.

Gun violence was fresh for some who watched the speakers in Washington: Ayanne Johnson of Great Mills High School in Maryland held a sign declaring, "I March for Jaelynn," honoring Jaelynn Willey, who died Thursday two days after being shot by a classmate at the school. The gunman also died.

About 30 gun-rights supporters staged a counter-demonstration in front of FBI headquarters, standing quietly with signs such as "Armed Victims Live Longer" and "Stop Violating Civil Rights." Other gun-control protests around the country were also met with small counter-demonstrations.

The president's call to arm certain teachers fell flat at the protest, and from critics as young as Zoe Tate, 11, from Gaithersburg, Maryland.

"I think guns are dumb. It's scary enough with the security guards we have in school," she said. "We don't need teachers carrying guns now. I find it amazing that I have to explain that idea to adults."

Parkland itself was home to a rally as more than 20,000 people filled a park near the Florida school, chanting slogans such as "Enough is enough" and carrying signs that read "Why do your guns matter more than our lives?" and "Our ballots will stop bullets."

Around the country, protesters complained that they are scared of getting shot in school and tired of inaction by grown-ups after one mass shooting after another.

"People have been dying since 1999 in Columbine and nothing has changed. People are still dying," said Ben Stewart, a 17-year-old senior at Shiloh Hills Christian School in Kennesaw, Georgia, who took part in a march in Atlanta.

Callie Cavanaugh, a 14-year-old at a march in Omaha, Nebraska, said: "This just needs to stop. It's been going on my entire life."

___

Associated Press writers Terry Spencer in Parkland, Florida; Jacob Jordan in Atlanta; Ed White in Detroit; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Ben Nadler in Atlanta; and Lynn Berry in Washington contributed to this report.Nevest Coleman will return to Guaranteed Rate Field on Monday after spending 23 years in jail for a crime he did not commit. (Getty/Icon Sportswire)

On Monday, 23 years after he last tended the grass at what is now Guaranteed Rate Field, Nevest Coleman will return to his job as a Chicago White Sox groundskeeper. His long absence wasnt due to another job, but to a prison sentence. And his return is due to DNA evidence, and the work of his friends and family.

[Batter up: Join a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for free today]

In 1994, 25-year-old Coleman was arrested, tried, and convicted of a brutal rape and murder. He and his accomplice were sentenced to life in prison, but both spent years maintaining their innocence behind bars. In 2017, new DNA evidence was discovered that seriously called into question the previous conviction, and a judge called for a retrial and freed both men in November. In February, Colemans name was officially cleared and he was granted a certificate of innocence.

According to a Chicago Tribune interview with Coleman and his family, it was Colemans loved ones who worked to make his return to the White Sox a reality. Before his release, Coleman often talked about returning to the White Sox. According to Colemans cousin Richard Coleman, he wished for two things: to get his old job back, and a hamburger.

Richard contacted the team to share his cousins story, but he wasnt the only one. Rev. William Vanecko, a retired Catholic priest and a friend from Colemans old neighborhood, also called the team. So did Russell Ainsworth, Colemans attorney, who reached out to a relative who works in the White Sox ticket office.

Their efforts were not in vain. Once the White Sox heard Colemans story, they invited him down to the stadium for an interview, which led to a job offer. Coleman accepted, and the White Sox are delighted to have him back in the family.

Were grateful that after more than two decades, justice has been carried out for Nevest, the team said in a statement. It has been a long time, but were thrilled that we have the opportunity to welcome him back to the White Sox family. Were looking forward to having Nevest back on Opening Day at home in our ballpark.

Story continues

When he comes to work on Monday for the first time in 23 years, there will be a lot of changes at what Coleman still calls Comiskey Park. But there will be two familiar faces: Jerry Powe and Harry Smith. They worked with Coleman before he went to prison, and testified on his behalf at the 1994 sentencing, when the death penalty was a possibility. Both men still work with the White Sox, and will be there to greet Coleman when he arrives.

Coleman told the Tribune that working as a White Sox groundskeeper was the best job he ever had. And after two decades and an incredible amount of perseverance, hes back where he belongs.

More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:

     

Liz Roscher is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscherBy Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) - With Brexit a year away, European Union leaders made a point on Friday of embracing Theresa May, with some treating her troubles with Russia and the United States as an opportunity to show Britain who its friends are. The prime minister won a display of continental solidarity in her push to punish Moscow for the nerve agent attack in Salisbury. It surprised some British officials and contrasted sharply with the past two years of frosty summitry since Britons voted to quit the bloc and seek a better global role alone. Summit chair Donald Tusk, so often a prophet of doom for Britain's prospects after Brexit, hailed the warm atmosphere: "In these difficult circumstances, I am personally especially pleased that, despite the tough Brexit negotiations, the European Union has demonstrated unanimous and unequivocal unity with the UK in the face of this attack," he said. British hopes of closer bilateral relations with its similarly free-trading former colonies have been challenged by fears of a trade war with Washington. President Donald Trump has slapped new tariffs on steel imports, but offered respite on Friday to the EU after a fierce collective response from Brussels. May made a point of staying in Brussels overnight in order to join the 27 remaining EU leaders in a joint affirmation of their belief in free trade, reminding voters back home that blocking U.S. tariff barriers was in the interest of British steelworkers. Elsewhere in Europe, Norway's important metals exporters got less comfort than May. Outside the European Union, Oslo was left complaining that it was not covered by Trump's exemption order. May's peers, who after her departure confirmed their plan to give Britain an "ambitious" post-Brexit free trade pact, hoped she took away a message from a summit for once dominated by external challenges rather than Brexit. "In a perverse way, Russia and the United States help us," said one senior EU diplomat hoping to keep the British close. "Britain has a chance to see who their real friends are." Few believe the British can be persuaded to change their minds on membership before March next year - though some would like that. But the approach of that deadline prompted some summiteers into wistful musings on what they saw as the ironies of Brexit. "With the state of the world today, from Trump to Putin," said a second EU diplomat, "this summit shows again what madness Brexit is." Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, one of May's closest allies on the continent, summed up the mood of regret: "It's so strange, isn't it, that when this is going on in the world, Salisbury, the situation with the United States, and we are all standing together in solidarity ... that we now have to talk about the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU. "Bizarre." (Editing by Alastair Macdonald and John Stonestreet)Photo credit: Getty

From ELLE UK

Over the weekend, Parkland survivor Emma Gonzalez went silent for six long minutes to honour the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

Real Quick: my speech today was abt 6 mins & 30 secs, including both my speech and my silence. The fact that people think the silence was 6 minutes... imagine how long it would have felt if it actually was 6 minutes, or how it would feel if you had to hide during that silence - Emma Gonzalez (@Emma4Change) March 25, 2018

However, while the 18-year-old activist and icon has since being praised on her powerful moment of protest and bravery, the student has now become the victim of doctored footage of her ripping up the US Constitution.

On Saturday, videos of Gonzalez tearing up a gun-range target were lifted from a Teen Vogue story about teenage activists and photoshopped to show her ripping up the Constitution, widely viewed as the supreme law of the US.

It is believed the altered images were created to spread propaganda that liberal activists like Gonzalez are trying to destroy the very identity of the US.

Here is the original footage:

"We, the youth of the United States, have built a new movement to denounce gun violence and call for safety in all of our communities. This is only the beginning." @Emma4Change pens a searing op-ed on this generation's plans to make change: https://t.co/MV34GJgrdI #NeverAgain pic.twitter.com/FWTpOD1WKL - Teen Vogue (@TeenVogue) March 23, 2018

Here are the doctored images:

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Justy a sample of what NRA supporters are doing to teenagers who survived a massacre (real picture on the right). pic.twitter.com/czX7IHD8ur - Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) March 25, 2018

Creators of the photoshop job have also been accused of whitewashing Gonzalez, making her eyes appear darker and changing the shape of her head.

Interesting that they whitewashed her. - (((MK ULTA))) (@malkatz) March 25, 2018

They used high contrast to make her look more hardened and cruel. - AltPaul (@realaltpaul) March 25, 2018

I looked at it more closely and they even changed the shape of her head. It seems more square than her oval face. Just look at how her skull protrudes more just above her right ear (that's on our left). Man, the lengths they're going to... Smh - AndrogynousPyroTiger (@LittlePyroTiger) March 25, 2018

The animation was shared across conservative US Twitter accounts on Saturday afternoon, following the #MarchForOurLives protest in the US capital.

Actor Adam Baldwin even tweeted the clip to a quarter of a million followers with a hashtag reading '#Vorwarts!', which is the German word for 'forward' and an apparent reference to the Hitler Youth, whose march song included the phrase.

Unfortunately, the doctored footage appears to have gained more traction than the original images.

However, it has also resulted in several celebrities and liberal activists calling out the fakes online, warning for the public to stay vigilant when it comes to fake news.

Last month, Twitter revealed it was actively taking down tweets abusing and harassing Parkland survivors who have suffered a torrent of insults since speaking out against current gun-control regulations in the US.

We are actively working on reports of targeted abuse and harassment of a number of survivors of the tragic mass shooting in #Parkland. Such behavior goes against everything we stand for at Twitter, and we are taking action on any content that violates our terms of service. - Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) February 21, 2018

The news comes amid an announcement that BBC journalists including Huw Edwards and Tina Daheley are to visit schools to teach children how to identify fake news.

The initiative has been designed to tackle false information that the corporation says 'threatens fact-based public debate and trust in journalism'.

This serves as a poignant reminder not to believe everything you read or see online.

You Might Also LikeOn Saturday, a Twitter user going by the name Sukie, with the handle @FroggyBottomPnd, posted a photo of a young woman standing alongside Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R).

Hey @tedcruz - She opened her jacket right before the photo was taken!  pic.twitter.com/pvTOjSDdg9  Sukie (@FroggyBottomPnd) March 24, 2018

As Cruz likely didnt know, the young woman had opened her jacket just before the photo was taken, revealing a small sign on a lanyard reading, Texas deserves better than Cruz!

Twitter user @LazyyMillennial and Austin resident Rebecca identifies herself as the young woman in the photo. The picture, she says in her feed, was taken at the airport after a flight from Washington to Texas.

Here is her original tweet: Got to meet someone who supposedly represents me today. Not for much longer, though! # BetoForTexas.

Cruz, a failed 2016 GOP presidential candidate, is up for re-election in November, facing Democratic Rep. Beto ORourke. ORourke has a tough road ahead of him, but he did raise more money than Cruz in the first six weeks of the year.

This story has been updated with the @LazyyMillennials Twitter post.

Also on HuffPost

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Riyadh (AFP) - An Egyptian labourer died in his bed when shrapnel ripped into his ramshackle Riyadh room Sunday night, the first known fatality in a Yemeni rebel attack on the Saudi capital.

On Monday, a gaping hole in the roof and scattered piles of concrete debris were all that remained of the small room which Abdul-Moteleb Ahmed shared with other labourers.

Witnesses said a burning shrapnel pierced through the low-slung building in Riyadh's Um Al-Hammam district, killing Ahmed, a 38-year-old father of two, just before midnight when Iran-aligned Huthi rebels fired a barrage of missiles at Riyadh.

"He was the father of two young children and the sole breadwinner of his family," an Egyptian who said he was Ahmed's roommate told AFP, standing amid wrecked wrought iron furniture, an upturned television and littered clothing.

"How will his family survive without him?".

Three other Egyptians in the same room were wounded and hospitalised, witnesses said.

Saudi authorities said one Egyptian had been killed and two others wounded.

Authorities by Monday had collected all evidence of shrapnel from the site, residents said.

Nearly 10,000 people have been killed and 53,000 wounded since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the Yemeni government's fight against the Huthi rebels, triggering what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

But the war -- which entered its fourth year on Monday -- is also spilling into Saudi territory, with dozens of Huthi missile attacks since last year which have affected not only border towns and villages but also the capital Riyadh.

A major attack targeting Riyadh international airport on November 4 triggered the tightening of a longstanding Saudi-led blockade of Yemen -- already on the verge of famine.

Another strike on December 19 targeted Riyadh's Yamamah palace, the official residence of King Salman.

But Ahmed, who residents say had been working in Riyadh as a daily wage labourer for around a year and a half, is the first civilian reported to be killed in the capital from the strikes.

Story continues

"He was a poor man trying to make an honest living," his roommate said, adding he narrowly survived as he was on the rooftop when the shrapnel smashed into the house.

Residents in Riyadh reported loud explosions and bright flashes in the sky shortly before midnight.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said Huthi rebels fired three missiles at Riyadh and four others at the southern cities of Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran, claiming they were all intercepted and destroyed.

The rebels confirmed they had fired seven missiles.Riyadh (AFP) - A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia on Monday threatened retaliation against arch-foe Iran, accusing the Shiite power of being behind a barrage of Yemeni rebel missile attacks on the kingdom.

Saudi forces said they intercepted seven missiles on Sunday, including over the capital Riyadh, in a deadly escalation that coincided with the third anniversary of the coalition's intervention in Yemen.

Displaying wreckage at a news conference in Riyadh of what it said were fragments of those ballistic missiles, the coalition claimed forensic analysis showed they were supplied to Huthi rebels by their ally Iran.

"The missiles launched against Saudi territory were smuggled from Iran," coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki told reporters.

We "reserve the right to respond against Iran at the right time and right place", he added.

The missile strikes resulted in the first reported fatality from Huthi fire in the Saudi capital.

Egyptian national Abdul-Moteleb Ahmed, 38, died instantly in his bed when what appeared to be burning shrapnel struck his ramshackle room in Riyadh's Um al-Hammam district, leaving a gaping hole in the roof, witnesses told by AFP at the site.

Three other Egyptian labourers in the same room were wounded and hospitalised, they said.

The Iran-aligned Huthis said on their Al-Masirah television that Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport was among the targets.

Malki alleged the rebels in Sanaa were using the airport there to launch missiles on Saudi territory, adding the coalition had seized a number of smuggled weapons.

Iran has repeatedly denied arming the Huthis in Yemen, despite claims by the United States and Saudi Arabia that the evidence of an arms connection is irrefutable.

- Show of strength -

A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen on March 26, 2015 to try to restore the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after the Shiite Huthis and their allies took over large parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

Story continues

Hours after the missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, hundreds of thousands of Huthi rebel supporters flooded the streets of Yemen's capital Monday to mark three years of war.

Sanaa's Sabaeen Square was a sea of Yemeni flags as rebel authorities ordered all schools and government offices shut for the anniversary.

Huthi supporters carried portraits of rebel chief Abdulmalik al-Huthi and speakers blasted out a fiery speech by Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah Shiite movement, praising the "steadfastness" of the Yemeni people.

War songs, poems and speeches condemning the United States, the main arms supplier for the Saudi-led coalition, echoed across the square.

"No one can speak on behalf of the Yemeni people. The people taking to the streets today are the real voice," Ibtisam al-Mutawakel, head of a Huthi cultural committee, told AFP.

About 10,000 Yemenis have been killed and 53,000 wounded since the start of the coalition intervention in Yemen, which triggered what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Despite the intervention the rebels remain in control of the capital, northern Yemen and the country's largest port.

- 'Possible war crime' -

Amnesty International, which has criticised both sides in the Yemen war for neglecting civilian safety, on Monday said the "indiscriminate" Huthi missile attack "could constitute a war crime".

The rights group has also slammed the Saudi-led alliance for possible war crimes in Yemen.

Britain urged Iran to "stop sending in weapons which prolong the conflict", while Tehran accused London -- a key arms supplier for Saudi Arabia -- of hypocrisy.

Delivering a veiled swipe at Iran, France called the transfer of missile capabilities to non-state actors "irresponsible".

The US State Department said Washington would support the Saudis' "right to defend their borders against these threats".

Rebel leaders have sought to highlight the role of the United States in the Saudi-led intervention.

At Monday's rally, Saleh al-Sammad, head of the rebels' Supreme Political Council, said the rebels were "ready to reach an understanding" to end the intervention and the coalition's blockade of Yemen.

"It is the Americans who are directing this aggression and participating directly on a number of fronts," Sammad told the rally.

The Hadi government said Monday that the overnight attacks on Saudi Arabia amounted to "an open rejection of peace".

The US Senate last week rejected a bipartisan bid to end American involvement in Yemen's war, voting down a rare effort to overrule presidential military authorisation.

The US has provided weapons, intelligence and aerial refuelling to the Saudi-led coalition.

Washington formally approved defence contracts worth more than $1 billion with Riyadh last Thursday during a high-profile visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

burs-ac/bpAfrica is the birthplace of humanity, but in the 21st century there is still the sense that it is a continent largely left behind by the march towards economic development and modernity. Agriculture continues to be the largest contributor to the economies of most sub-Saharan African countries, but the sector is dominated by subsistence rainfed production, characterised by low productivity and underdeveloped market opportunities.

Some of the major contributing factors include poor infrastructure, limited access to and availability of inputs, and the difficulty that farmers face in getting up-to-date and relevant information to improve their farm output.

Of course, these challenges do not mean that agricultural development programmes are not delivering. On the contrary, important successes are being realised in all areas of agricultural development. But the speed of change can be frustratingly slow. Technological innovation is having remarkable impacts on a wide range of human endeavours, including agriculture. Are there opportunities for Africa to fast-track the improvement of its farming systems through the targeted application of these technologies? I would argue that the answer to this question is, yes. My reason for this answer is three-fold:

Leapfrogging technology  African countries have already proven to be very adept at overcoming infrastructural weaknesses by leapfrogging steps in technological development. Prominent examples include the adoption of mobile phone technology by users who have never had a cabled landline connection, and the use of mobile banking services by rural communities that lack even the most basic physical banking facilities. Rapid penetration of mobile communications technology  according to reports from the GSM Association, penetration of mobile subscriptions in Africa will increase from 44-52% between 2018 and 2025. More importantly for data applications, mobile internet usage will rise from 21-40% and smartphone adoption from 34-68% over this period. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI)  the development of AI applications is moving into an almost exponential phase. The co-occurrence of this new technology with the on-going mobile revolution in Africa will mean that AI will be at the forefront of novel phone apps aiming to strengthen African agriculture.

Harnessing the potential of AI

With these points in mind, my team from IITA has joined forces with a team from Penn State University, led by David Hughes, to begin walking the walk with AI for agricultural development in Africa. Together, we are developing a smartphone app that will use machine learning-based AI to diagnose cassava disease and pest damage. More cassava is produced in Africa than any other crop, and it plays a critical role in safeguarding food security, but it has been plagued by virus diseases for decades. In fact, more than half of all cassava plants in Africa are affected by two virus diseases: cassava mosaic disease (CMD) and cassava brown streak disease (CBSD).

CMD and CBSD result in losses of over 800 million every year in Africa. The diseases both have symptoms that can be clearly recognised by trained researchers or extension workers, and, once identified, good control advice is available. However, very few farmers know about the diseases, and even fewer still have access to control information. This problem set myself and the other researchers at Penn State and IITA thinking, what if farmers could recognise these diseases themselves? What if they could also get advice on how to control them? And, what if they could be linked up with a network of growers, agricultural workers and researchers all working towards controlling the diseases and improving cassava productivity?

Scaling adoption of the app

Trials of the AI app in Tanzania are providing highly promising results: the app can distinguish between CMD and CBSD, as well as cassava green mite damage and healthy leaves. The app will also provide farmers with control information and links to nearby extension/research officers, as well as other sources of information. Initially the app will be released to a limited number of targeted users to obtain final validation data. However, it is hoped that a beta version will be rolled out before the end of 2018. This should be freely downloadable and usable offline by any person with a smartphone.

The team plans to promote the app and encourage farmers and extension workers to use it through an extensive training and awareness-raising effort planned for 2019. A key aspect of this will be demonstrating how the app can be used to help farmers access disease control measures  such as improved seed varieties and disease-free planting material  as well as to apply basic phytosanitary measures, including the selection of healthy stems for planting.

The AI app is one small example of the information and farming revolution that is coming to Africa very soon. The Penn State/IITA team is hugely confident about the potential for the cassava AI app, but this will surely be just one of an increasing number of phone-based software tools that will help to raise hundreds of millions of African farmers out of poverty.Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!

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Edit CloseRoyal Coffee is hitting the road again, but not like the road road, more like the air road this time, because y'know, there aren't a lot of roads that cross the Pacific Ocean. Starting this week, they will be hosting four different events around Japan that will feature some very cool special guests.

The tour starts Friday, March 30th at 7:30pm at FabCafe in Tokyo with a roasting demo and Q&A with Coffee Wrights roaster and co-owner Yuki Mune. After the talk, Ikawa will offer spectators a chance to roast their own coffee using Royal-created roast profiles. The event will conclude with a cupping of some of Royals coffee and a chance to use Minedrip Coffees new flavor wheel app. Tickets for the event are 1,000 and can be purchased here.

Then, two days later Royal heads to Osaka for a collaborative roasting event at Hoop Coffee. Four roastersLilo Coffee, Rio Ashiya, Hoop, and The Coffee Timewill each receive a green coffee from Royal, which will all be presented, cupped, and discussed at the event. But bad news for everyone who doesnt already have a ticket, as this event is sold out. The good news for residents of Osaka, though, is that a cupping and brew instruction will take place the very next day at School Bus Coffee Stop.

Finally, Royal will be heading to Gunma on April 3rd for a cupping hosted by Kaffa Coffee.

For more information on the events, visit the Facebook event pages for each event:

3/30: FabCafe in Tokyo

4/1: Hoop Coffee in Osaka

4/2: School Bus Coffee Stop in Osaka

4/3: Kaffa Coffee in Gunma

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

*top image via Hoop Coffee Facebook event pageThe State of Israel is a special country, exceptional in almost every aspect. Our many achievements might soon be joined by another record: We could become the first democracy in the 21st century with the dubious honor of sending two prime ministers in a row to jail for corruption.

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Ehud Olmert has already served out his sentence and has been released. Benjamin Netanyahu might also find himself, after a lot of wriggling and many delays, in the Maasiyahu Prison. Our wheels of justice turn very slowly when it comes to strong, brilliant and influential people, but at the end of the day, they usually grind exceedingly fine.

The words rule of law simply dont appeal to the majority of voters here, and Netanyahu understands that very well (Photo: MCT)

Why is this happening to us? Are we just a particularly corrupt country, which produces particularly corrupt politicians? I dont think so. In most global corruption indices, we make it to the middle of the democratic countries list. And our situation is much better than countries like Turkey, Russia, Iran, all the Arab states, and almost all Third-World and Fourth-World countries. Granted, not everything is wonderful here, but were not Sodom and Gomorrah.

I think our problem, which is the reason many people in Israels political echelon are afflicted with corruption, is different: We are people with no borders.

Where do we draw the line?

We are literally borderless. Israel is the only country in the world which has been persistently refusing, for more than 50 years now, to outline its borders, even in its official maps. Remind me, where does Israel end? Along the Jordan River? Or possibly on the Green Line, may its memory be blessed? Or along the separation barrier in Judea and Samaria? Its unclear, and not incidentally.

We dont like to know, and we mainly dont want to say, where we start and where we end. We dont like that question. And we really dont like borders. When Israelis see a border, they immediately start thinking about how to expand it and how to cross it. Ask the Egyptians, the Lebanese, the Syrians, the Palestinians and everyone whose bad luck got them involved in an armed conflict with us. Its an experience I wouldnt recommend to anyone.

New immigrants in 1949. Left the parental authority in their homelands (Photo: David Eldan, GPO)

Where does it come from, this thing with our borderlessness? I dont know, but I have a hypothesis. The State of Israel was established by people who rebelled against their parents and went against the laws and rules of the societies they were born in. They came here to start over, their own way. Also the immigrants who arrived after the states establishment, from Islamic countries and from Europe, left the parental authority in their homelands.

The new Sabra were ashamed of their parents ghetto mentality. Most importantly, they discounted them and they discounted their rules and borders. And so, Israel raised millions of people who are great at testing limits and love seeing what can be done without getting caught.

In my opinion, there are two reasons why half of Israelis still support Netanyahu, although he has pink champagne on his hands: First, its unclear to us where a quid-pro-quo relationship between acquaintances and friends ends and where naked corruption begins.

In a country where we are all brothers and buddies, where a friend brings a friend, its hard to know where exactly to draw the line between PR and lobbyist activitywhich may stink but is nevertheless legaland the criminal corruption in the meeting of government, capital and the press.

Most of the people in Israel today hate the Supreme Court, and our quick politicians are finding it easy to incite against it and harass it. Why? In my opinion, its because the honorable court speaks a foreign language, rather than local Hebrew. The words rule of law simply dont appeal to the majority of voters here, and Netanyahu understands that very well.

Undermining and rebellious elements

Which brings me to the second reason I believe Netanyahu will keep enjoying wide public support, even behind bars: Deep down inside, we want to be a bit like him. Many people here like to test the limits, to maneuver within the gray area between right and wrong, to stretch the possible to the limit and to successfully and quickly get away from those trying to catch them.

Winston Churchill, Netanyahu's hero, said: Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result. From personal experience, I know he was right. In fact, we all do. Later this week, well all sit around the Passover Seder table and sing: Not only one has risen against us to annihilate us, but in every generation (our enemies) stand up against us to annihilate us. Well sing, think and perhaps say out loud: Isnt it great that they tried and failed? We showed them, didnt we?

The Jewish and Israeli inclination to cross lines and find ways around restrictions is part of what makes the IDF such an efficient and dangerous army (Photo: Shutterstock)

There are undermining and rebellious elements both in Judaism and in the Jews. Its a national trait, which has been following us like a shadow for 3,500 years now. Since Abraham got into an argument with God over the number of righteous people needed to save Sodom, we like to see what can be achieved through a combination of chutzpah, initiative, craftiness and a willingness to test the limits.

The Jewish and Israeli inclination to cross lines and find ways around restrictions holds advantages too: Part of what makes the IDF such an efficient and dangerous army to its enemies is this spirit, which constitutes part of the education and socialization of all our commanders and fighters. Phrases like pursuing contact, exploiting success and thats what we have, and with that well win are not only cliches, but also a mentality which leads to resourcefulness, improvisation, thinking on ones feet, and eventually victory.

And its not only in the army. Chutzpah, initiative, thinking outside the box and a desire to test limits and do the impossible are part of the raw materials of many of the initiatives and inventions that have developed here, turning Israel into the startup nation we take so much pride in.

In conclusion, can we have it both ways? Can we be brave, cheeky entrepreneurs without being corrupt, hedonist criminals? I think so. In the 70 years of the State of Israel, we have had several prime ministers, from the Right and from the Left, who were a nice, personal example of such conduct.

Im talking about David Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin, about Levi Eshkol and Yitzhak Shamir. Its not a pie in the sky, and its no dream. It will take time, but after the Netanyahu affair is over and behind us, we may succeed in doing what were so good at: Starting over.An Israeli woman faced off in court on Sunday with a Palestinian who had confessed to stabbing her, in a case that suggested the swirl of political and personal motives that can drive such attacks.

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Malek Saada, a 20-year-old from the West Bank, was working illegally as a baker in Lod, a mixed Jewish-Arab town south of Tel Aviv, when, a year ago, he ambushed Revital Danino outside her home, moderately wounding her before fleeing.

Captured by Israeli police, court papers showed, Saada confessed to the attack and said he had "purified himself" in advance at a mosque and targeted Danino because she was wearing religious Jewish garb.

Revital Danino (L) confronted would-be terrorist Malek Saada in court (Photo: Eli Segal)

"(The attack) was definitely nationalistic in nature," Saada's lawyer, Alaa Tellawi, said, reiterating what he described as his client's position from the outset.

Testifying at the opening of Saada's trial, Danino, a 45-year-old school principal, raised another possible factor in the attack: drink.

"When he was close to me, he had a smell of alcohol, but his behavior was very decisive," she told the three judges, as Saada sat slumped in the dock, watching impassively.

Officials on both sides have said a wave of Palestinian street terror attacks that began in 2015 stemmed from a volatile combination of political tensions in the conflict with Israel and personal problems suffered by some of the assailants.

"He had murder in his eyes," Danino said, short of breath, her face flushed. "I curled up by instinct, and felt his knife slipping from my neck and further down, to where I was stabbed."

"I elbowed him and apparently it was then that he dropped the knife and ran away," she added, holding up a sweater, perforated between the shoulders, that she said she had been wearing on the evening of the attack.

Saada did not address the court. Tellawi said his client did not dispute the events described in the indictment, but the lawyer also suggested that while Saada had a political motive, personal emotions linked to his conservative Muslim background also came into play.

Attorney Alaa Tellawi said the murder was motivated by a mixture of nationalistic and personal motives (Photo: Eli Segal)

"This is a young man who, while in Lod, drank alcohol, behavior that his father learned about. When he asked his father to arrange for him to marry the woman he loved, his father refused," Tellawi told Reuters.

"That led my client to wake up one day and say, 'I've had it with this life,' and to find a Jew to attack."

Tellawi said his client had "thrown away" the knife after stabbing Danino oncea possible suggestion that Saada had second thoughts about killing her.

The court adjourned until April 26. Tellawi said his client wanted to consider how to respond to the main charge filed against himattempted murder during a terrorist act.

Wrapping up her testimony, Danino turned to the defendant and said her survival showed that "my God is strong, my faith is stronger than the power of your hand."Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interrogated for four hours on Monday as part of the Bezeq corruption case, while his wife Sara and son Yair was also questioned in the affair.

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The Netanyahu couple, questioned separately but simultaneously under caution, were presented for the first time with details revealed in testimony given by their former media advisor, Nir Hefetz, who recently signed a state's witness agreement in the case.

Mr. and Mrs. Netanyahu were also questioned on suspicion of obstructing the investigation, based on Hefetzs testimony.

PM Netanyahu and Sara Netanyahu (Photo: Reuters)

While the prime minister was questioned in the official residence in Jerusalem, his wife was summoned to the offices of the police's Lahav 433 investigations unit, while their son Yair was questioned for the first time at the Israel Securities Authority's offices.

State's witnesses Hefetz and former Communications Ministry director-general Shlomo Filber were both present at the Lahav 433 offices during the Netanyahu family's questioning.

Retiring Bezeq CEO Stella Handler and Bezeq majority shareholder Shaul Elovitch were also be questioned.

David Sharan, the former chief of staff at the Prime Minister's Office, also arrived at the Lahav 433 offices on Monday and gave his testimony.

Following his questioning, Netanyahu posted a video on Facebook, repeating his regular response: "There will be nothing, because there was nothing."

"I want to wish you all a happy and kosher Passover. Enjoy it with your families. I'll enjoy it with my family. I will celebrate this holiday with great joy, with great confidence, with a lot of haroset and zero bitter herb," he said, referring to two traditional foods on the Passover table.

The couple were supposed to be questioned in the investigation, also known as Case 4000, last week. However, it was postponed until Monday due to the prime minister falling sick.

Over the last two weeks, Hefetz has sat with investigators who have compiled masses of testimony relating to the case, which erupted in February when the Israel Securities Authority completed its inquiry into Elovitch's ties with Netanyahu and the suspicion he enjoyed benefits for Bezeq in return for favorable coverage of Netanyahu on the Walla! News website, which is fully owned by Bezeq.

Hefetz allegedly presented evidence to the interrogators, some of which are backed up by documents and recordings about the behind-the-scenes moves.

He identified himself as the individual who acted as the liaison between the Netanyahu family and Walla! News CEO Ilan Yeshua.

Nir Hefetz (Photo: Reuters)

The states witness also provided his investigators with his cellphone which contained messages from Sara Netanyahu and recordings of other relevant officials. The recordings and messages are believed to buttress suspicions that Elovitch and Netanyahu were engaged in a quid pro quo arrangement.

At the beginning of March, Police investigators questioned Netanyahu under caution for five hours on in the Bezeq affair. Investigators chose not to question the premier on the submarine, probe, however.

While the prime minister was questioned at the official residence in Jerusalem, his wife Sara Netanyahu gave testimony at the offices of the police's Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit in Lod. Her testimonywhich was also collected over the course of five hoursthen became a questioning under caution.

Last Thursday, Netanyahu accused his detractors of exerting constant bullying pressure on law-enforcement bodies to bring him and his support base down.

Speaking at a Likud rally in celebration of the upcoming Passover festival, he told thousands of party members, supporters and MKs that his opponents had failed to depose him democratically, and were therefore employing other tactics.RIYADH  Saudi air defenses shot down seven ballistic missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi militia on Sunday, with debris killing a man in what was the first death in the capital during the Saudi-led coalition's three-year military campaign in Yemen.

Saudi forces destroyed three missiles over northeastern Riyadh shortly before midnight, as well as others fired at the southern cities of Najran, Jizan and Khamis Mushait, the coalition said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

Debris from the missiles fell on a home in Riyadh, killing an Egyptian resident and wounding two other Egyptians, said coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki, according to SPA.

Reuters reporters in Riyadh heard several booms and saw smoke in the air. Another witness said he saw a long stream of light followed by additional explosions.IDF, Shin Bet and Israel Police forces have arrested 43 people in the West Bank overnight suspected of terrorism and violent clashes.

They were taken in for questioning by security forces.

During the scans, several weapons and ammo cartridges were found.The leader of Britain's opposition Labor Party, Jeremy Corbyn, apologized on Sunday for anti-Semitism within his party, as he faced the prospect of protests over a perceived failure to act on such incidents in the past.

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"We recognize that anti-Semitism has occurred in pockets within the Labor Party , causing pain and hurt to our Jewish community in the Labor Party and the rest of the country," Corbyn said in a statement posted on Facebook. "I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused."

Labor has faced persistent criticism in recent years for anti-Semitic comments made by party members and even lawmakers. Corbyn himself was criticized last week for a comment made in 2012 showing solidarity with the creator of a mural deemed by many to be anti-Semitic.

Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn apologized for his party's anti-Semitism (Photo: Getty Images)

I asked the Leaders Office for an explanation about this Facebook post first thing this morning. Im still waiting for a response. pic.twitter.com/DL8ynBtES4  Luciana Berger (@lucianaberger) March 23, 2018

Local authorities removed the mural after receiving complaints from residents. Corbyn then made a Facebook comment wondering why the mural was being removed, telling the artist, "You are in good company. Rockefeller destroyed Diego Viera's mural because it includes a picture of Lenin."

The Labor leader responded Friday by saying he wished he had looked at the contents of the mural more closely, and condemning it. But that apology fell short for some, with one Jewish lawmaker in his party describing it as "wholly inadequate."

Corbyn's apology nevertheless allowed several of his party members to speak out in his defense. His deputy, Tom Watson, told BBC, "I'm very, very sorry that people feel hurt by this. I think Corbyn did the right thing by expressing regret for it."

Labor Party Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald defended Corbyn as well in a Sky News interview, saying he didn't have "an anti-Semitic bone in his body."

The row, coupled with persistent ideological differences within Labor over Brexit, threatens to break the delicate truce Corbyn's left-wing leadership had earned from more centrist elements of his party after a stronger than expected performance in last summer's election.

Before Corbyn's statement, Jewish community leaders had announced a protest outside parliament on Monday.

"He never sees or understands the anti-Semitism, whether it is from overseas terrorist groups or local Facebook groups," said a joint statement from two groups representing the communitythe Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council said Corbyn's Labour Party has shown a "repeated institutional failure" to address anti-Jewish prejudice. They say that "again and again, Jeremy Corbyn has sided with anti-Semites rather than Jews."

The groups plan to protest outside Parliament on Monday.

Corbyn's Sunday statement did not address the mural comments any further, but he said, "Labor is an anti-racist party and I utterly condemn anti-Semitism, which is why as leader of the Labor Party I want to be clear that I will not tolerate any form of anti-Semitism that exists in and around our movement."

Corbyn also said he would be meeting with Jewish representatives over the coming days.

The Labor leader is well known as a pro-Palestinian and a strident critic of Israel. In a 2009 speech, he called Hamas and Hezbollah "my friends," a statement he recanted and apologized for in 2016.

Corbyn's comments could be construed as conflating IS with Israel

X

He once again got into hot water with Jews around the world when he said , "Our Jewish friends are no more responsible for the actions of Israel or the Netanyahu government than our Muslim friends are for those various self-styled Islamic states or organizations."

After the ire this statement raised, Corbyn claimed he was not drawing any parallels between Israel and the Islamic State.Investigators from the police's Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit have arrived at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem's Balfour Street.

During the interrogation, he will be confronted with details provided by state's witnesses Nir Hefetz and Shlomo Filber regarding the Bezeq-Walla! probe (Case 4000) and alleged benefits furnished to Bezeq majority shareholder Shaul Elovitch in return for positive coverage.

The prime minister's wife Sara will be questioned at the Lahav 433 Lod offices at the same time, including for tampering with an investigation.

The couple's son Yair Netanyahu is also expected to provide testimony for the first time.El-Aaiun (occupied territories), March 26, 2018 (SPS) - The League for the Sahrawi Prisoners Protection expressed deep concern over the critical situation of those prisoners in the Moroccan jails, calling upon all the international organizations to bring on pressure to bear on Morocco to stop the sufferings of the Sahrawi detainees on hunger strike and guarantee their legitimate rights as political detainees.

"Today (Sunday) is the sixteenth day of the unlimited hunger strike of the Sahrawi political prisoners in the Moroccan prisons of Kenitra, Ait Melloul and Tata. Their health is deteriorating because of the lack of medical treatment and serious dialogue from the Moroccan penitentiary direction," said the League in a communique made public on Sunday.

It also denounced that this "penitentiary direction rigorously rejects the legitimate demands of the strikers, notably their transfer to prisons in Western Sahara, to bring them closer to their families."

Besides, "the penitentiary direction puts pressure on those prisoners by depriving them from their rights included in the International Conventions and Treaties, chiefly the right to meet their families," added the League.

Recently, the families of the Sahrawi detainees of "Gdeim Izik" Group called on UN General Secretary Antonio Gueterres, to rapidly intervene to put pressure on Morocco to bring it to respect its international commitments stated in the charters, which guarantee rights and dignity to the Sahrawi political detainees. (SPS)

062/SPS/TRA



Paris police attempted to ascertained Sunday who stabbed an elderly Jewish woman to death in her apartment in the French capital's 11th arrondissement and then set fire to the property.

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The elderly woman, 85-year-old Mireille K., was found dead in her home Friday evening by firefighters at around 6:30pm local time who were called in to put out a fire.

The woman's body was found to have been riddled with 11 stab wounds, and it was clear to the firefighters that the fire was the result of arson, with the unknown arsonist setting fire to five different points in her apartment.

Mireille K. (L) with her granddaughter. (Photo courtesy of the family)

Suicide was ruled out by police, and the Parisian Jewish community fears the murder may have been motivated by anti-Semitism. The woman previously complained to authorities that one of her neighbors threatened to burn her, according to reports.

French media also said the woman was a Holocaust survivor and that police have arrested a suspect, whose identity was not released to the public.

A worrying trend of rising anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incidents have been reported in Europe in general and France in particular. A kosher supermarket was put to the flame in January of this year, three years after the terror attack at the city's Hypercacher supermarket that claimed the life of four Jewish people , carried out by an Islamic State-inspired terrorist

It was reported in September of last year that a Jewish family was attacked in their home by unknown assailants. They tied the family up and made their getaway with a significant amount of property.

In April of last year, another Jewish woman was killed in France, when she was pushed out of a third floor window by her Muslim neighbor.Britains Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has slammed his Sephardic counterpart in Israel Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef for making deeply offensive remarks about black people, comparing them to monkeys.

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Yosef drew criticism last week for comparing , during one of his weekly religious lessons, black people with monkeys, referring to them using the pejorative term in Israel, kushi.

"We dont say a blessing for every kushi  He needs to be a kushi whose father and mother are white  if you know, they had a monkey for a son, Rabbi Yosef said.

Delivering a sermon last week, Mirvis said that the comments, which were made in the context of a Talmudic discussion, were totally unacceptable" and said that his office "has contacted the Chief Rabbinate in Israel directly" to voice its objections.

Rabbi Mirvis (L) and Rabbi Yosef (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky, Getty Images)

According to the UK chief rabbis offices, Rabbi Yosefs bureau had replied that he never intended to cause any offense.

During the sermon on the weekly Torah portion of Vayakhel-Pekudei, Rabbi Yosef spoke about the blessings of trees which is a customary ritual during the month of Nissan.

The halachic question revolves around whether to bless one tree or at least two and in this context, Rabbi Yosef offered examples of other blessings, for example the blessing of "strange creatures" that evoke attention or repulsion, rather than aesthetic pleasure.

Mirviss lashing out at Rabbi Yosef marked the first time that a chief rabbi in the UK has publicly criticized a chief rabbi of Israel.

Rabbi Mirviss comments were also preceded by criticism from the UKs Board of Deputies.

It deplored the reprehensible racist remarks made by Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, who used a slang term and apparently referred to a black person as a monkey, said the organizations president, Jonathan Arkush.

Rabbi Yosef

In so doing he has betrayed his office. He should be working to eliminate all forms of racism, not voicing backwards ideas.

A statement issued on Rabbi Yosefs behalf after the remarks insisted that The words of the rabbi are quoted from the Babylonian Talmud in Berakhot. R. Joshua b. Levi said: 'On seeing pockmarked persons one says: Blessed be He who makes strange creatures. An objection was raised: If one sees a kushi  he says: Blessed be He who makes strange creatures. Our Rabbis taught: On seeing an elephant, an ape, or a long-tailed ape, one says: Blessed is He who makes strange creatures.

Last week, the Anti-Defamation League also rebuked rabbi Yosef for his derogatory comments.

The New York City-based organization devoted to battling anti-Semitism and racism called Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef's comments "racially charged" and "utterly unacceptable."President Reuven Rivlin and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked presented an agreement for pardons in honor of Israel's upcoming 70th Independence Day.

As part of the plan, prisoners suffering from serious illnesses or otherwise suffering from disabilities will be considered for pardon, as well prisoners over 70 and those who themselves were victims of crimes.Construction of West Bank settlements surged during the first year of the Trump presidency, an Israeli left-wing Peace Now group said Sunday, releasing data that added to Palestinian mistrust of the American administration.

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Peace Now said that Israel began construction of 2,783 settlement homes in 2017. That was about 17 percent higher than the annual average since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in 2009.

It said that 78 percent of the new homes were in outlying settlements that would likely have to be evacuated if a Palestinian state is established. And 234 units, or 8 percent, were in tiny outposts that are not authorized by Israel, it said.

Three illegal outposts were said to have been established last year.

The isolated settlements described by Peace Now included Karnei Shomron, in which construction on 261 housing units began, Elon Moreh in which 22 units were underway, and 39 in Na'ale. Thirty-three units were built in Mitzpe Yeriho, and 11 in Ramat Gilad.

Trump has taken a softer line on Israeli construction in the West Bank than some of his predecessors. He has asked Israel to show restraint at times, but avoided the strong condemnations voiced particularly by Barack Obama.

Peace Now said its data is collected through aerial surveys and inspections by monitors on the ground. In its report, Peace Now stopped short of blaming the jump in construction exclusively on White House policies.

Netanyahu has been a strong supporter of the settlements throughout his career, and his coalition is dominated by religious and nationalist politicians aligned with the settlement enterprise and who oppose Palestinian independence, fearing that it would constitue an aggressive threat on its doorstep.

"The steady pace of construction and building deep in the West Bank attest to Prime Minister Netanyahu's steadfast abetting of the settlement enterprise," the report said. "It is also apparent that the new US presidency in 2017 had no marginal deterrent effect on these Israeli unilateral moves."

Israeli proponents of constructing in the West Bank, referred to by them as Judea and Samaria, have issued their own data showing growth in their communities. Last month, a settler leader, using official government data, said the West Bank Israeli population grew 3.4 percent last year, nearly double the growth rate of Israel's overall population, to more than 435,000 people.

For the Palestinians, the Peace Now data was another cause for mistrust of the US administration just as the White House is trying to wrap up a Mideast peace initiative.

The Palestinians have severed most contacts with the White House since Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December. The Palestinians view the move as being unfairly biased toward Israel on the most sensitive issue in the conflict, and have already rejected the US peace plan before it has been made public.

Ma'ale Adumim (Photo: AFP)

Nabil Shaath, a top adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the figures proved that Netanyahu is "not interested in peace" and is destroying hopes for a two-state solution.

"Netanyahu is continuing his settlement project, enjoying the fact that the US is silent," he said. "These numbers are very dangerous. We condemn it, and will continue working politically to stop it."

Netanyahu, by contrast, has consistently argued that the Palestinians are opposed to direct negotiations with the Israelis, and have instead dedicated their efforts to delegitimize Israel and incitie Palestinians to commit acts of terror.

Both Netanyahu's office and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.In anticipation of protests expected this weekend near the border fence with the Gaza Strip, the IDF will station soldiers inside Gaza perimeter communities for the purpose of providing security, Ynet has learned.

The combat soldiers will be posted at the entrance to communities defined as "border adjacent" and patrols will also be held for a limited duration.Once again, we seem to be at the start of a period of security-related events both in Judea and Samaria and in Gaza. While the two areas are linked, primarily by Hamas from a strategic perspective, these are two different stories that call for a different attitude.

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The situation in Judea and Samaria is static and stable. As we are expecting no diplomatic breakthroughunless US President Donald Trump suddenly surprises usall we need to do is to pursue the current policy, which is based on economic and security cooperation. If there are any lessons to be learned from the recent events, they are essentially of a tactical nature.

In Gaza, things are different: There, an Israeli initiative is required. The situation is unstable and could deteriorate very soon, whether in the form of a military outburst like Operation Protective Edge or in a more complicated scenario of a mass protest aimed at breaking through the fence and marching towards Israel.

Israel-Gaza border. Gaza has been a de-facto independent state for 11 years now (Photo: AP)

The difference between the way we have gotten used to look at Gaza and the right way is based on three insights. First of all, Gaza has been a de-facto independent state for 11 years now. A state has four characteristics: A defined area; an efficient central government; an independent foreign policy; and an army of its own. Gaza meets all four requirements.

The second insight has to do with an examination of the interests. Israel has no political, economic or territorial interests concerning Gaza, but only a security interest to maintain calm. While Hamas vision is to destroy Israel, when it comes to its short-term interests it will settle for maintaining its control of Gaza. For that purpose, it needs international legitimization and urgent financial aidwhich is why there is no real contradiction between the Israeli interests and Hamas immediate interests.

The third insight is that Gaza cant be rebuilt as long as we insist that the money for the reconstruction is transferred directly to the Palestinian Authority. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas isnt interested in the strips reconstruction. He is interested in toppling the Hamas regime and has no compunction about doing so at the expense of the two million miserable people living there. He has no problem with another military conflict between Israel and Hamas either, as he sees it as a conflict between his two enemies.

The conclusion from these three insights is clear: Israel must change its policy and acknowledge the fact that it has an independent state named Gaza on its border, whose government was elected in a relatively democratic manner.

Israel is better off adopting a proper carrot and stick policy vis-a-vis Gaza than threatening it with sticks alone and hoping Egypt or Abbas will deal with the strips reconstruction (Photo: AP)

Furthermore, Israel should encourage Western and Arab states to invest in Gazas reconstruction, together with the Hamas government rather than behind its back. The more power stations, desalination facilities or sewage development projects are built in Gaza, the more it will restrain the Hamas government.

I am familiar with the claim that Hamas will use the aid to build more tunnels, but my claim is different: This has been happening in recent years because of the lack of negotiations with Hamas and because the money and the means arent being transferred directly to Hamas. If Hamas is recognized as a de-facto state, and if it signs agreements calling for strict supervision of the concrete and all other means sent into the strip, it will invest more in a civil infrastructure.

The political rift between the two parts of the Palestinian entity, the one in the West Bank and the one in Gaza, was created by the Palestiniansnot by Israel. For that reason, Israel has no interest in turning the two areas into one state. We are better off adopting a proper carrot and stick policy vis-a-vis the independent state in Gaza than threatening it with sticks alone and hoping that Egypt or Abbas will deal with the strips reconstruction.The United Nations Human Rights Council concluded its first and longest session of the year Friday by adopting five resolutions critical of Israel, for which they were soundly criticized by the United States' Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.

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The council's 47 member states convened Friday to adopt a series of resolutions. Apart from ones relating to North Korea and Mali, the council adopted five lengthy resolutions dealing with the Golan Heights, the status of Palestinians in territories taken in the Six Day War and the actions of Jewish extremists against Palestinians.

The resolutions were passed with 27 members in favor, including Israeli allies such as the United Kingdom, four opposing and 15 abstentions.

The UNHRC adopted 5 anti-Israeli resolutions (Photo: AP)

"Today's actions make clear that the organization lacks the credibility needed to be a true advocate for human rights," Haley added.

The Golan Heights

The council reiterated its 1981 Resolution 497 that rejected applying Israeli law to the Golan Heights and determined it had no legal basis, stressing that Israel was systemically in violation of the Security Council's resolution. Among the alleged violations documented were municipal elections, to be held nationwide later this year.

"We denounce the announcement of municipal elections to be held this coming October in four different authorities in the Syrian Golan," the council members wrote, before once against denouncing the Israeli law determining that any withdrawal decision will only be made through a plebiscite, and calling to reconsider the "turbine farm project" and the previously announced construction of 1,600 housing units in the Golan.

The Syrian border fence (Photo: Avihu Shapira)

The council also contacted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asking him to present Israeli violations to all of the world's government and to the organization's agencies, further calling on all countries to not recognize the Israeli presence in the Golan and its military actions there, including laying down mines along the Syrian border.

The IDF, it should be noted, is constructing a fence in the region to serve as the border with Syria.

Commenting on Druze citizens residing in the Golan Heights , who have been separated from their family members on the other side of the border, the council "expressed deep concern with the suffering of Syrian nationals in the occupied Golan territory."

The council also demanded that Israel allow refugees who escaped to Syria to return to their homes and to their propertysince impoundedand called on the country to "stop forcing Israeli citizenship on Syrian residents in the Golan."

"The Syrian populace in the region must be allowed to visit their families through the Quneitra border crossing and with supervision by the International Committee of the Red Cross," the council demanded, stressing that the Israeli prohibition on family reunifications was in contravention of the fourth Geneva Convention.

Druze residents in Majdal Shams

"The council calls to immediately release Syrian prisoners in Israel jails," the resolution elaborated, "some of whom have been incarcerated for over 30 years. Red Cross personnel should be allowed visitation along with doctors to ascertain their medical conditions."

Right to Palestinian self-determination

The council also discussed a motion presented by the Palestinians along with Bangladesh, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Jordan, Venezuela and Pakistansome of which were stand-ins for Arab and Muslim countriesdealing with violations of the Palestinians' rights to self-determination.

Millions of Palestinian refugees have been uprooted from their homes, the resolution saidhalf of whom have been living in exile in refugee camps. The council members iterated self-determination was a "fundamental right of all people" and said it was a "necessary prerequisite to bringing peace closer to the region."

Israel, furthermore, has purportedly been "systematically violating Palestinians' natural rights by continuing to build in the occupied territories, and must cease the occupation immediately and strive towards a two-state solution."

On the separation wall, the council expressed "deep concern" over the wall's planned route, which is set to allow the inclusion of most settlement blocs into Israel.

Construction in the settlements was pushing Palestinians out, the council claimed (Photo: Reuters)

"The settlement enterprise brings about the mass transfer of population from the occupying power to the occupied territories," the resolution continued. "This transfer causes the destruction of homes and projects intended for the Palestinianssome of which received international funding."

The council then called on the world's countries to stop recognizing and assisting the settlement enterprise and the building of the separation wall in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

According to the document, Israel was forcefully pushing out Palestinian and Bedouin families and expropriated natural resources from them. "Countries should push for Israel to enforce its international commitment," the resolution said.

It further stated that countries should fall in line behind the council's resolutions, and halt all weapons trade with Israel so as not to be considered in collusion with Israeli policy.

'A forgiving attitude towards extremist settlers'

A third resolution scathingly attacked settlers who it said harass Palestinians and damage their property while and also scorning authorities for their allegedly forgiving approach to them.

"The council harshly denounces any act of violence, destruction, harassment and provocation on the part of hard-line Israeli settlers and armed groups against Palestinians in the occupied territories," it said.

File photo. The council blasted authorities' allegedly forgiving approach to extremist settlers' actions

The document noted that instances of violence referred to "harming civilians, properties, agricultural land and historical and religious sites. These are the terroristic actions of single extremists whose age-old purpose is pushing Palestinians out and expanding settlements."

On enforcement regarding the aforementioned cases, the council denounced the allegedly forgiving approach towards activists harming Palestinians, adding, "Israel should investigate these instances and account for each and every one."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a tweet Saturday night that the resolutions were, "More resolutions detached from reality by the circus of the absurd known as the Human Rights Council." He called to change its name to "The Council for Resolutions Against the Only Democracy in the Middle East."

PM Netanyahu said the council's name should be changed to 'The Council for Resolutions Against the Only Democracy in the Middle East' (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman also commented on the resolutions adopted and said that he had previously led a move to withdraw from the council, which successive governments overturned.

The defense minister added in a tweet that Israel "has no business being in the UNs Human Rights Council," adding that its "presence there gives legitimacy to anti-Semitic resolutions, and the farce must end."President Reuven Rivlin and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked presented Monday morning their joint plan for pardoning prison inmates in honor of Israel's 70th Independence Day, as part of which pardons will be considered for hundreds of prisoners who meet certain criteria, such as serving a third of their term.

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As part of the plan, prisoners suffering from serious illnesses or from disabilities will be considered for pardon, as will prisoners over 70 and those who themselves were victims of crimes.

The latter criteria will make it possible for Yonatan Heilowho was initially convicted of the murder of a man who raped him but later received a downgraded charge of manslaughter and a reduced sentenceto once again seek a pardon.

President Rivlin (L) and Justice Minister Shaked agreed on an agreement relating to pardons for Israel's 70th Independence Day (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

lighten Heilo's sentence in November of last year, and to commute part of his sentence to probation to make him eligible to seek parole. The parole board, however, rejected Heilo's request for early release this past January, after he had served seven and a half years of his 12 year sentence

Pardons will also be mulled for prisoners who have minor children cared for by someone other than a parent due to the parent's incarceration and for prisoners serving a first stint in prison of up to two years.

Each request will be examined according to the severity and circumstances of the offense, the length of the prison term, the degree of repeat offending, danger levels, prison conduct, regret, rehabilitation and treatment processes, the stances of victims in applicable cases and more.

However, prisoners convicted of murder and manslaughter, security offenses, sex offenses and offenses relating to the jurisdiction of a military tribunalsuch as Elor Azaria will not be able to seek pardons as part of the proposed plan, which notes pardons will be give in the form of shortening jail terms, thereby making prisoners eligible to seek early release through the parole board.

Yonatan Heilo (center), who killed the man who raped him, will be ineligible for a pardon based on the new agreement (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

Shaked: 'An opportunity to exercise mercy'

The last part of the agreement pertains to striking criminal records. The movea collaborative effort by the President's Residence, the Justice Ministry's Pardon Department and the IDFseeks to expunge the criminal records of soldiers who committed offenses prior to their army service, to allow them to easily return to society when they are discharged.

The plan is intended to raise awareness among soldiers with criminal records to the possibility of requesting the record be stricken and to remove bureaucratic blockages making submitting requests difficult.

A committee chaired by the IDF's chief Education and Youth officer will contact relevant soldiers personally and of its own volition and will explain to them the possibility of seeking this form of pardon, and will assist them with the submission process and gathering the requisite materials.

The pardon request will then be forwarded to President Rivlin and Minister Shaked, after being appended with a recommendation from the aforementioned committee. The same mechanism will endeavor to assist those in national service.

Commenting on the pardon plan, President Rivlin said, "A society's character is measured no less than by the way it considers its prisoners an inseparable part of its identity.

President Rivlin said a society's character is also measured by how it treats its prisoners (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

"That is precisely the relation between pardons and national milestones (such as Independence Dayed). During these national milestones, as we do during personal ones, we stop for a moment and look beyond the daily existence to the future.

"In Israel's seventieth year, I wish to see an opportunity to extend a helping handa chance to stop, look and see the people we may not be able to on a daily basisto return to our collective those who have left it and were deemed worthy of retuning."

Justice Minister Shaked weighed in as well. "Israel's 70th Independence Day celebrations are a fine opportunity to exercise a degree of mercy and to bring into the celebrations people who have made missteps in obeying the law," she said.

"The special criteria (for pardons) balance between protecting victims of offenseshence denying pardons to those who have committed murder, manslaughter, sex crimes or security offensesand considering the special status of those who have committed lighter offenses," Shaked continued.

"I will therefore recommend to the president to reduce the prison terms of prisoners meeting special criteria. I can only hope the State of Israel's gesture towards those prisoners will assist in their rehabilitation and return to the path of law-abiding citizens."MOSCOW  The Russian ambassadors to Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were summoned to the foreign ministries of those countries on Monday, Russian news agencies reported.

The RIA news agency cited a spokesman for the Russian embassy to Poland, and a representative of the embassy in Lithuania. TASS referred to unnamed diplomatic sources. The agencies did not give a reason for the summoning.GOC Army Headquarters Brig.-Gen. Itai Virob, who formerly commanded the Gaza Division, said in a meeting with students of a pre-army preparatory program regarding mounting tensions in the south that, "You don't have to be a great military man or an erstwhile intelligence operative to know that these fields will know the treads of our tanks, that infantrymen will run to the fence here and that the houses in Gaza not yet renovated from the last campaign will know our strikes in the next one."Raising Richard halted Upvote Hanover's five-race win streak with a front-striding score in Sunday night's co-featured $8,100 Preferred Handicap Trot at Rideau Carleton Raceway while driver Louis-Philippe Roy added to his season-leading win totals.

Driven by Darrell Coville, Raising Richard led the field of six trotters in the evening's first Preferred event through panels of :28.3, :59.2 and 1:28 en route to victory in 1:57.2. Sent postward as the 4-5 second choice following a victory in last Sunday night's top trot, Raising Richard paid $3.20 to win. Returning to action after the week off, slight favourite Upvote Hanover progressed first-up from fourth at the midway mark, but could not catch the sharp Raising Richard, who prevailed by two and three-quarter lengths. Jetcrest finished third off a two-hole trip.

Raising Richard has now won half of his six starts this year following a 13-win campaign in 2017. Lifetime, he boasts 36 victories and more than $200,000 in earnings. Edward McHale trains the six-year-old Deweycheatumnhowe gelding for owners John MacMillan of Spencerville, Ont., and 099551 Ontario Inc.

Winless in his first five starts this year, Bali pulled off a 16-1 surprise in the $8,550 Preferred Pace as he pulled the pocket in the stretch and wore down the pacesetting D J Power in the final strides to score a 1:54.1 victory for trainer/driver Marie Claude Auger. D J Power, the 2-1 second wagering choice, settled for the runner-up role a neck back after leading the field through panels of :26.4, :56.2 and 1:25. Favourite Ufdragons Rocket launched his attack from the three-hole approaching the third quarter mark and ended up third, finishing less than a length behind.

A homebred son of Dali, seven-year-old pacer Bali notched his 35th career victory for owners Denise Auger and Emilie Auger while his bankroll climbed over $168,000.

The hot-handed Louis-Philippe Roy was the most-photographed reinsman of the night as he made six visits to the winner's circle. The leading driver in the nation's capital and Canada-wide partnered with Bettim Vicky ($4.80), J K Cowboy ($5.30), Warrawee Proton ($3.40), Ten Carat ($4.20), Cliff Drummond ($8.90) and Big Sport ($7.70) for his Sunday victories.

To view Sunday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Sunday Results - Rideau Carleton Raceway.GOC Army Headquarters Brig.-Gen. Itai Virob, who formerly commanded the IDF's Gaza Division, briefed students of the Yonatan pre-army preparatory program on the current situation in Gaza, telling them that houses affected in the strip "suffer our wrath in the next" confrontation.

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"Each passing day gets us farther away from the previous campaign, but closer to the next one. It's only a matter of time," he told the students at the Alumim kibbutz.

"We paid a heavy price in Operation Protective Edge. You don't have to be a great military man or an erstwhile intelligence operative to know that these fields will know the treads of our tanks, that infantrymen will run to the fence here and that the houses in Gaza not yet rehabilitated from the last campaign will suffer our wrath in the next one," the students were told.

"So how do we measure victory here?" he asked rhetorically. "Victory is not measured in tanks or conquests. It's measured in the height of the wheat and the amount of the crops cultivated in the potato, carrot or peanut fields. We're standing here, 800 meters from the border fences and Gaza's immense tunnel enterprises, and we're still herethat's victory."

Brig.-Gen. Virob speaking to students (Photo: Matan Tzuri)

In anticipation of mass protests expected to take place in Gaza this weekend, Ynet has learned the IDF will position soldiers inside the enclave's surrounding Gaza perimeter communities for the purpose of providing security.

Combat soldiers will be stationed at the entrance gates to communities deemed "border adjacent" and patrols in the vicinity will take place for a limited duration.

Preparations for the enormous march leaving the strip for the border fence are ongoing, with soldiers being stationed in at least five border communities in the coming days, but forces of a smaller magnitude will be stationed in additional communities on the perimeter.

The IDF is attempting to prevent the possibility of Palestinian protesters bypassing the army's forces and infiltrating communities near the fence this Friday. While the army has presumed the likelihood of that as being low, no risks will be taken and forces will be beefed up.

Forces were routinely stationed in Gaza border communities up until several years ago to provide security, but the army decided to withdraw themraising public outcry among the local populace in the process.

IDF forces on the Gaza perimeter (Photo: Barel Efraim)

Gaza perimeter security officials told Ynet that soldiers will be carrying out guard duty at entrance gates and hold patrols. Despite increased alertness, however, the situation remains the same with no special instructions issued to residents.

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin commented on the issue in a Ynet studio interview, saying that while all scnearios were being prepared for, Israel is hopeful that the march concludes without incident or the need to open fire.

"It's all up to the Palestinians themselves. They need to decide whether they liberate themselves from the yoke of Hamas's rule or prefer to invest resources pouring into the strip on procuring food and developing the health system," Levin said. "As long as the money transferred to Gaza is used for terror and tunnels, Palestinians are the ones subjecting themselves to these conditions."

Gaza journalist Sami Obeid said Monday that the march was not a Hamas but a popular initiative. "It's the initiative of residents sick of living without power, water, food or work. There's nothing to tell them to keep living, so they reached the conclusion the solution is to come to the fence," he told Ynet.

"The people of Gaza, or most of them, want Israel to rule the strip rather than Hamas or Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority. But the conflict has no resolutiononly two people living together," he concluded.The state asked the High Court for a two weeks' stay in replying to a petition seeking to block asylum seekers' expulsion, asking to reply by April 9.

During this time, the state said, the temporary injunction issued by the court to freeze the plan to expel will remain in place.

Should the state's request be accepted, expulsion will not begin on April 1 as planned.The state requested from the High Court of Justice (HCJ) Monday a two week extension to reply to a petition seeking to block a government-led plan to deport illegal African migrants from Israel, asking to shift the deadline to April 9.

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During this time, the state said, the temporary injunction issued by the court to freeze the plan to deport the migrants will remain in place.

Should the state's request be accepted, expulsion will not begin on April 1 as planned.

The Population and Immigration Authority called at the beginning of the year on migrants from Sudan and Eritrea to leave "to their country or to a third country," meaning Rwanda or Uganda. Those who leave by the end of March will be given $3,500, along with airfare and other incentives.

The ultimatum is part of a large-scale campaign to remove 42,000 illegal African migrants from Israel.

The latest request also noted that the extension is being sought in order to allow for the senior legal and political echelons to consider the subject more closely."

In addition, the state asked to submit to the court on Monday a confidential document that it said will present an additional reason of weight that underlies the extension request that can be presented to the court only.

The request was filed in response to two separate petitions against the governments program to deport the migrants, thousands of whom made their way into Israel via its once porous southern border.

(Photo: Yariv Katz)

The first was submitted by 119 human rights activists while the second was filed by attorney Avigdor Feldman who said in response to the states request that he agreed with the extension but opposed the presentation of a confidential document.

Attorney Itay Mack, who represented the 119 petitioners, wrote in response to the latest request that the impression was being given that the state was not prepared for the mass deportations.

There is a slender chance that the respondents will get an extension in light of the Passover holiday. The respondents are even asking to submit a confidential document that is at the heart, so they claim, of their request. It can be surmised that this is another thing on which the Rwanadan dictatorship has sought clarification before they state their position, Mack said.

The lawyer representing the activists requested that the court immediately release the 280 migrants who have been imprisoned in Saharonim Prison after refusing to voluntarily leave and are set for deportation.

Given the fact that the respondents did not meet the deadline by which they were obligated, there is no justice whatsoever in the prisoners in Saharonim Prison becoming scapegoats for the respondents and in waiting there without any actual time frame on the horizon of when they are going to Rwanda, while another 40,000 asylum seekers are not imprisoned.

It is inconceivable that the Jewish state of Israel will celebrate its freedom in a time when a few hundred asylum seekers are languishing in prison until the state finds it appropriate to submit its updated position, Mack added.

The group Stop the deportation responded to the request, saying that it proved that there was never an apparatus for ensuring the safety of the deportees. It cannot be that at a time when the state is requesting an extension, men and women are imprisoned in Saharonim Prison without any time limit on the injustice.The United States and more than a dozen European nations kicked out Russian diplomats on Monday and the Trump administration ordered Russia's consulate in Seattle to close, as the West sought joint punishment for Moscow's alleged role in poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

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Warning of an "unacceptably high" number of Russian spies in the US, the Trump administration said 60 diplomats would be expelledall Russian intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover, the US said.

The group includes a dozen posted to Russia's mission to the United Nations who the officials said were engaged in "aggressive collection" of intelligence on American soil. The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the US, said the officials.

US president Trump and Russian President Putin (Photos: Reuters, MCT)

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the actions would make the US safer by "reducing Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations" that threaten US national security.

"With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences," Sanders said.

The move was one of the most significant actions President Donald Trump's administration has taken to date to push back on Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin by phone for his re-election but didn't raise the spy case, renewing questions about whether the US president is too soft on the Kremlin.

Canada also said Monday it was expelling four Russian diplomats and denying accreditation for three more in response to a "despicable, heinous and reckless" nerve agent attack.

"The four have been identified as intelligence officers or individuals who have used their diplomatic status to undermine Canada's security or interfere in our democracy," Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement

Across the Atlantic Ocean, 14 European Union nations, including those in Russia's backyard, announced they expelling Russian diplomats, with more likely to follow. An EU official put the total from those countries at more than 30 Russians. Germany, Poland and France each planned to boot four, the Czech Republic three and Italy two. The Netherlands and Denmark are expeling two each, while Sweden is kicking out one Russian diplomat.

Ukraine, a non-EU country with its own conflicts with Moscow, was expelling 13 Russians, President Petro Poroshenko said. Finland and Romania have also announced they will each expel one Russian diplomat. All three Baltic states said they would kick diplomats out, with Estonia, Latvia expeling one each and Lithuania expeling three.

Croatia will declare one Russian diplomat 'persona non grata,' Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said. "We thus show that we do not accept such an attack to which the United Kingdom has been exposed," Plenkovic said, without providing any details on the diplomat to be expelled.

French President Macron, left, British Prime Minister May, center, and German Chancellor Merkel, right (Photo: AFP)

Almost all of the countries said publicly that the Russian diplomats they were expelling were actually spies.

The expulsions came with a chorus of condemnation for the Kremlinfor the poisoning, Russian spying and other Western grievances. Poland's Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz called it "the right response to the unfriendly, aggressive actions of Russia." In the Czech Republic, where Russian officials have claimed the poison may have originated, Prime Minister Andrej Babis dismissed that allegation as "an utter lie."

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tweeted that "Today's extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever and will help defend our shared security."

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the coordinated measures "clearly demonstrate that we all stand shoulder to shoulder in sending the strongest signal to Russia that it cannot continue to flout international law".

Embassy calls on Russians to vote which US consulate to close

Russia's Foreign Ministry called the actions a "provocative gesture" and promised to respond in kind and in the coming days. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters President Vladimir Putin would make the final decision about how Russian responds to the expulsions.

"The provocative gesture of solidarity with London by these countries, who have bowed to the British authorities in the so-called Skripal affair and did not bother to understand the circumstances of what happened, is a continuation of the confrontational path to escalation," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"Britain's allies ... are blindly following the principle of Euro-Atlantic unity, to the detriment of common sense, the norms of civilized international dialogue, and the principles of international law."

"It goes without saying that this unfriendly act by this group of countries will not go without notice and we will react to it," the statement said.

Russian's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (Photo: EPA)

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested that the EU's expression of support for Britain was misguided given that it would be leaving the bloc next year.

"Britain is leaving the European family. No one cancelled Brexit, and the divorce process is in full swing," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook.

"Therefore a country which is leaving the European Union is exploiting the solidarity factor and is foisting on those countries that remain a worsening of relations with Russia."

Russia's Embassy in Washington responded to the decisions on Twitter by hinting at retaliation, asking its followers to vote which US consulate should be shuttered: St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok.

In Washington, Russia's ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, was summoned early Friday to the State Department and told that the 60 diplomats would have one week to leave the country, a State Department official said. Antonov was later quoted by Russian news wire Tass as saying he "expressed resolute protest to the "illegal actions" and emphasized there's no proof of Russian involvement in the poisoning.

Russia's Consulate General in Seattle must close by April 2. The facility is a particular counter-intelligence concern to the US because of its proximity to a US Navy base, said the senior US officials.

Britain has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being undeclared intelligence agents, which led Russia to expel the same number of British diplomats. The European Union has already recalled its ambassador to Russia.

The expulsions add to a serious escalation of tensions between Russia and the West that has been building since the March 4 poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for the UK, and his daughter, Yulia. The two remain in critical condition and unconscious. A policeman who responded to their home was also injured.

Investigating the poisoning in Salisbury (Photo: AP)

Britain has accused Moscow of perpetrating the attack using a Soviet-developed nerve agent known as Novichok. The US, France and Germany have agreed it's highly likely Russia was responsible.

Russia's government has denied responsibility and has blasted Britain's investigation into the poisoning. There was no immediate reaction from Russia to the US announcement.North Korea said on Monday its policy of seeking better ties with the South was enjoying broad international support, and called on the United States to halt its sanctions and pressure.

Ri Jong Hyok, director of North Korea's National Reunification Institute and deputy head of its Supreme People's Assembly, said that his country sought to build a "just and peaceful new world, free from aggression and war".

Nothing could block the goal of inter-Korean dialogue and reunification, he told the general assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva. North Korea's efforts to improve bilateral ties with South Korea now enjoyed a "broad spectrum of support" internationally, he said.

"Now is the high time to put an end to the US anachronistic anti-DPRK hostile policy and its futile moves of sanctions and pressure," Ri said, referring to his country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).MEXICO CITY - Mexico condemns the March 4 nerve agent attack in the United Kingdom and reserves the right to take action, such as expelling diplomats, pending the results of investigations, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Mexico's warning followed moves by the United States and Europe to expel scores of Russian diplomats to punish the Kremlin for the attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that they have blamed on MoscowThe Central District Attorney's Office said Monday it has decided to close the case against two Israelis who shot dead a Palestinian who was part of a group throwing stones at a group of children they were accompanying, citing lack of guilt.

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The decision stated the shooting of 47-year-old Mahmoud Zaal Odeh from the village of Qusra was found to be in self defense

On November 30, 2017, a group of 20 Israeli children and two parents accompanying them went on a Bar Mitzva trip near the village of Qusra, in the Nablus Governorate.





One of the parents accompanying the children, who was wounded in the incident

During their hike, the Israeli group came under attack by dozens of Palestinian rioters, including Odeh, who hurled rocks and stones at them from up a slope.

The two parents, who claimed they felt their lives were in danger, said they only fired warning shots into the air. One of the bullets hit Odeh, killing him.

The Israeli group fled their attackers into a cave, with some of the Palestinians pursuing and attacking the children and one of the parents, wounding the adult.

Some residents from Qusra came to aid the group of Israelis and protect them until IDF forces arrived at the scene to extract them.

The Israeli group leaving the area after the arrival of Israeli forces (Photo: EPA)

The investigation confirmed that the shooting was done while the attackers were standing up the slope and throwing stones down at the Israeli group. This was in line with the Israeli suspects' version, whose shooting into the air could have conceivably hit Odeh, who was among the stone throwers.

In addition, the Israelis' version of events was backed by the testimony of one of Qusra's residents, who said the suspects fired only in self defense and only after stones were thrown at them.

Some of the attackers have been indicted by the Military Advocate General's Office.

Honenu, a legal NGO that has provided the Israeli suspects with legal assistance, said in a statement: "From the first moment it was clear that a barbaric mob attacked a group of hikers whose only sin was that they were Jews who went on a Bar Mitzva trip in the Land of Israel. We lament the injustice done to the parents so far, and the fact that immediately upon their discharge from the hospital they had to be questioned at the police station, and rather than receive a commendation, they were made suspects. The police in their actions personally hurt the brave parents."ROME - League leader Matteo Salvini, head of Italy's conservative bloc of parties, criticised the United States and several EU countries on Monday for expelling Russian diplomats following a nerve agent attack in Britain.

The conservative alliance, which includes former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, emerged as the single largest group in parliament at a March 4 national election and is now seeking to build a coalition government.

"Boycotting Russia, renewing sanctions and expelling diplomats does not resolve problems, it aggravates them," Salvini said in a Tweet.

Giorgia Meloni, who heads the Brothers of Italy party, was also enraged. "Unacceptable that a caretaker government has expelled two staffers at the Russian embassy," Meloni tweeted, accusing the administration of being servile to foreign states.

"Luckily it will soon no longer be in a position to damage Italy's national interests," she added.Arab MK Ahmad Tibi (Joint List) asserted Monday that Israel could soon have an Arab prime minister in light of new statistics showing the number of Jews and Muslims living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is at or near parity

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"The vision of an Arab prime minister, which now looks like a delusional idea, is drawing near. And then this will be an equal and democratic country, and not a Jewish and democratic one," Tibi said.

He described the Israeli reality as one of "apartheid being maintained by military rule," adding that "those who eliminated the two-state vision must decide: either one democratic state with equal rights to all, or an apartheid state."

MK Ahmad Tibi (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

Five million Palestinians live in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and in east Jerusalem, the data indicatedlater discussed in detail by the Deputy Commander of the Israel Civil Administration (ICA)which operates Israeli governance in the West BankCol. Haim Mendes.

According to 2016 figures from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), 6.44 million Jews live in Israel alongside 1.52 million Muslims.

In total, the demographic report concludes that 6.5 million Muslims live between the sea and the Jordan River.

The report, it should be noted, relies on figures provided by the Palestinian CBS, which is considered to be a relatively reliable source.

Figures that the latter agency presented at the end of 2014 concluded that there were 2.8 million Palestinians residing in the West Bank and 1.8 million in the Gaza Strip. At the time, the Palestinian CBS said that the number of Palestinians and Arab-Israelis combined, between the river and the sea, stood at 6.1 million and that the number is expected to increase to 7.1 million until 2020.

MK Avi Dichter (Likud), who chairs the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, expressed his skepticism at the veracity of the figures, and requested the official documents on population numbers from the Defense Ministry.

I dont remember the Palestinians presenting this kind of number. This is a completely new, significant and surprising fact. If it is accurate, it is surprising and concerning. If it isn't accurate, we obviously want to know what the accurate number is, he said.

Mendes told the committee there are some 3 million Palestinians registered as residents of the West Bank.

"In reality, we estimate there is a population of 2.5-2.7 million Palestinians (in the West Bank), both because those deceased might still be listed and because of the immigration to other countries. For example, a Palestinian born in Brazil and living there his entire life may still be listed in the Palestinian population registry, and the Palestinians issue him a passport," Mendes said.

Dichter, however, remained circumspect about the statistics. No demographic survey is able to show a threefold increase in population within 25 years. There is no way to go from a million to three million except by immigration. This kind of increase would be interesting for the Guinness Book of World Records, he quipped.

Israeli settlers immediately disputed the population figures, citing one study that put the number of Palestinians in the West Bank at 1.8 million.

"The slanted publication about Arab demography in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley relies on data from the Palestinian statistics bureau which are not true or accurate. They (Palestinians) have an interest in inflating the numbers," settler spokesman Yigal Dilmoni said.

Ofer Shelah, a committee member from the opposition centrist Yesh Atid party, said it is clear the Jewish majority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean is "precarious".

"From a demographic perspective, if Israel does not part with the Palestinians then there is real danger to realizing the Zionist dream of a Jewish and democratic Israel," Shelah told Reuters.

Sergio DellaPergola, a demographer and professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said one state taking in two nations was not viable.

"The answer is separation, the answer is manifestly separation. Two countries for two people, which of course has to be negotiated," said DellaPergola.

Underlying political dynamics, he said, are more important than exact population percentages.

Reuters contributed to this story.LONDON - Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday Russia had "spectacularly failed" in efforts to divide Britain's allies following a nerve agent attack this month on a former Russian spy in an English city.

"If the Kremlin's goal is to divide and intimidate the Western alliance, then their efforts have spectacularly backfired," May told lawmakers in parliament.

Earlier on Monday, the United States said it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe in punishing the Kremlin for the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter that they have blamed on Moscow.

Russia has denied being behind the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4.Equestrian Canadas health and welfare committee has announced that on Sunday, April 15, Dr. Ashley Whitehead will be delivering a one and a half-hour Biosecurity Training Webinar.

Did you know that since February 1, 2018 (less than 60 days) there have been 45 reports of Equine Herpes Myelitis and four reports of strangles in the United States? Both of these diseases are entirely preventable, and are spread rapidly through horse shows, stables, and racetracks  wherever horses mix. Develop a plan for your facility or event with these free online workshops provided by Equestrian Canada.

Workshops are an hour and a half in length. Participants should have a high-speed internet connection, headphones and a computer. Horse event operators/facility managers/horse owners will participate actively in developing a biosecurity plan for their event or farm, coming away with a draft plan after the workshop. Biosecurity plan (disease prevention plans) are a crucial part of operating a profitable, well-respected facility or event.

Dr. Ashley Whitehead is following a Bachelor of Science program at the University of Guelph. Dr. Whitehead completed her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree at the Ontario Veterinary College in 2005. She then moved to Wisconsin where she completed a rotating equine internship at the Wisconsin Equine Clinic & Hospital. In 2006, Dr. Whitehead returned to Guelph to start a combined clinical residency and graduate degree program in large animal internal medicine. Dr. Whitehead obtained the status of Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (DACVIM) in 2012.

Dr. Whitehead practices within UCVMs Distributed Veterinary Learning Community at Moore Equine Veterinary Centre and provides large animal internal medicine consultations. Dr. Whiteheads clinical interests include equine health management, equine infectious diseases, equine gastrointestinal conditions, neonatal foal intensive care and camelid (llamas and alpacas) medicine. Dr. Whitehead is also trained in veterinary acupuncture.

Don't be the farm or event without a plan to prevent disease this season. The webinar is open to any horse owner, event operator or facility manger in Canada. If you are interested in participating, please register here.

(Equestrian Canada)RAMALLAH - Germany's new foreign minister on Monday urged the Palestinians "not to tear down bridges," an apparent reference to President Mahmoud Abbas' contentious relationship with the US and political rival Hamas.

Heiko Mass also acknowledged differences with Israel about the international community's nuclear deal with Iran, but gave no commitment to altering the deal ahead of a mid-May deadline set by President Donald Trump.

Mass was on his first trip to the Middle East since becoming foreign minister earlier this month.PRAGUE - Czech President Milos Zeman has ordered the country's counter-intelligence service to see if the type of nerve agent used in an attack in Britain could have been made in the Czech Republic.

Zeman's request to look into whether the Czechs produced the nerve agent Novichok was announced by his spokesman after the president met the head of the BIS counter-intelligence service.

"The president has tasked the BIS to find out whether or not the nerve gas 'Novichok' was developed or stored on the Czech Republic's territory, be it at industrial or scientific facilities," Zeman's spokesman said in a statement.

The spokesman later said on Twitter, in reaction to a news website headline that interpreted the decision as siding with Russia: "Fake news. The tasking of BIS is a reaction to Russia's repeated allegations against the Czech Republic."BEIJING - North Korea leader Kim Jong Un has visited China, Bloomberg reported on Monday citing three unnamed sources, in what would be his first known overseas trip since taking power in 2011 and ahead of a potential summit with US President Donald Trump.

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Details of his visit including its purpose and itinerary were not yet known, Bloomberg said. Japanese media reported earlier on Monday that a high-ranking Pyongyang official appeared to have arrived by train in Beijing.

Kyodo, citing sources close to the matter, said the visit of the official was intended to improve ties between Beijing and Pyongyang that have been frayed by North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and China's backing of tough sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations Security Council.





North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (Photo: Reuters)

The visit could not immediately be confirmed by Reuters.

Footage from Nippon News Network, owned by Nippon TV, showed what an announcer described as a green train carriage with yellow horizontal lines, part of a 21-car train, similar to the kind that Kim's late father, Kim Jong Il, rode when he visited Beijing in 2011.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive and isolated North Korea. But Kim is due to hold summit meetings separately with China's rivals, South Korea and the United States.

Asked earlier at a daily news briefing about reports of an important North Korean visitor arriving at the Chinese border city of Dandong, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was unaware of the situation.

Roads blocked in Beijing on Monday (Photo: Reuters)

Nobody answered the telephone at the North Korean embassy in Beijing on Monday evening.

"The government is closely communicating with relevant countries and monitoring the situation," South Korea's presidential Blue House said in a statement via a messaging app earlier on Monday.

Kyodo, citing sources, reported that on Sunday, a special train that might have carried the official passed through the Chinese border city of Dandong.

Two sources in northeastern China also told Reuters that a North Korean visitor had crossed into Dandong by train.

The rail journey between Dandong and Beijing covers more than 1,100 km (680 miles). It takes at least 14 hours by ordinary service, according to Chinese railway timetables.

Heavy security

On Chinese social media some residents of Dandong said there had been high security around the train station there and said there were rumors that Kim was passing through.

Police tightened security along Beijing's main east-west thoroughfare, Changan Avenue, mid-afternoon Monday, closing off the entrances to some of the buildings which face the road.

Police also cleared out all tourists from Tiananmen Square around the same time, which normally only happens when important meetings are happening in the Great Hall of the People, where top Chinese leaders often meet visiting heads of state.

There was a large security presence outside the Great Hall on Monday evening.

Roads blocked in Beijing on Monday (Photo: Reuters)

Late on Monday evening, Reuters reporters saw a lengthy motorcade, including a limousine with dark tinted windows, heading down Changan Avenue in the direction of the Diaoyutai State Guest House and away from the Great Hall of the People, flanked by a police escort on motor-bikes.

Also on Monday evening, the Beijing railway bureau warned on its microblog, without giving a reason, of multiple train delays of up to two hours in the Beijing region.

A source with ties to the Chinese military told Reuters that it was "not possible to rule out the possibility" that Kim was visiting Beijing, but cautioned this was not confirmed.

A diplomatic source told Reuters that there was heavy security around the Diaoyutai State Guest House, where some high level foreign visitors stay during visits to the city. Other diplomatic sources said they were aware of the speculation that Kim was visiting but were not able to immediately confirm it.

Visits to China by Kim Jong Il were only confirmed by both China and North Korea once he had left the country.

Kim Jong Il travelled by private train during his rare visits to China or Russia under tight security. Diplomats and other sources have said Kim Jong Il avoided flying for overseas trips due to security concerns.

The younger Kim, who was educated in Switzerland, is not known to have any fear of flying and state media have shown pictures of him aboard a plane. However, he is not known to have travelled outside the country since assuming power in late 2011 after his father's death.Dozens of extremist ultra-Orthodox men protested in Jerusalem on Monday evening against the IDF draft and blocked Strauss Street.

The protesters set fire to copies of Yated Ne'eman, a Haredi newspaper they claim supports the recruitment of ultra-Orthodox to the IDF.IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot cautioned Monday that "the Palestinian arena is highly explosive, which requires us to remain constantly vigilant."

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Tensions have been on the rise on the Gaza border after Hamas held a large-scale military exercise on Sunday and machinegun fire from the strip triggered the Iron Dome missile defense system.

In addition, Hamas is planning a mass march of Palestinians in Gaza towards the border with Israel and protests starting this Friday, Land Day, and ending on May 15, Nakba Day.

IDF Chief of Staff Eisenkot (Photo: Yair Sagi)

"Each and every generation of the country's protectors had to continue fulfilling the mission of its predecessorfor the present generation and the future generation, which will follow in its path," the IDF chief continued in a speech at a ceremony recognizing excelling officers and non-commissioned officers (NCO).

"Seventy years have passed and the IDF has turned from a young army taking shape in the storm of battles to an army that is ready, fit and powerful," Eisenkot added.

"Even at this time, we are facing many challenges. And when facing the threats developing in the changing strategic environment, we are required to act with determination and might," he concluded.

The IDF chief at ceremony recognizing excelling officers and NCOs (Photo: Roee Idan)

Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, launched a large-scale military exercise in the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning, which lasted until Monday morning.

The exercise incorporated several replicas of the Israeli-made Merkava tanks to simulate IDF forces. Eye-witnesses in Gaza said Hamas launched at least one rocket into the sea as part of the exercise.

Hamas launches rocket toward the sea in large-scale military exercise (Photo: AFP)

The regional councils originally reported that Iron Dome was said to have intercepted every rocket. However, the IDF later confirmed that no salvo had been fired at Israel.

An Israel Air Force inquiry Monday found that neither human nor technical errors were responsible for triggering the Iron Dome missile-defense system against machinegun fire from Gaza, and the salvo was the result of simple risk aversion.

Hamas conducts large-scale military exercise (: )

"There was system oversensitivity, and we had five seconds to decide. We don't take chances in situations with even the slightest potential of harming either civilians or property," said Brig.-Gen. Zvika Haimovich, the commander of the IAF's air defense systems.

The IDF's Gaza Division is also making preparations for the march, including reinforcing the obstacles on the border with pyramids of barbed-wire. The army also plans to use advanced measures against rioters.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, slammed Hamas ahead of the planned demonstration, warning the terror organization of exploiting it for their own ends. "Hamas is and will continue exploiting the demonstrations in front of the fence to incorporate Hamas members, who will blend in with the protesters in civilian clothing. A transparent and obvious move."Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman thanked the United States on Monday for including a "record-breaking" $705 million to aid the country's missile defense in the spending bill passed last week.

Lieberman said that the aid will be used for the development of Israel's multi-layered system, which is designed to shoot down short-range rockets from Gaza and Lebanon and counter long-range threats like that posed by Iran.

The US provides $3.1 billion in military aid to Israel each year under a 10-year security arrangement. The $705 million is a separate allocation, and is up from the $600 million provided for missile defense last year.

US President Donald Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill on Friday that provides billions in new funding for the military and national security.Germany's new foreign minister on Monday urged the Palestinians "not to tear down bridges," an apparent reference to President Mahmoud Abbas' contentious relationship with the US and political rival Hamas.

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Heiko Maas also acknowledged differences with Israel about the international community's nuclear deal with Iran, but gave no commitment to altering the deal ahead of a mid-May deadline set by US President Donald Trump.

Maas was on his first trip to the Middle East since becoming foreign minister earlier this month.

Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with German Foreign Minister Maas in Jerusalem (Photo: Koby Gideon/GPO)

The Trump administration has refused to make such a commitment. In December, President Trump recognized contested Jerusalem as Israel's capital , prompting Abbas to rule out the US as a future Mideast broker.

Maas said Monday that peace efforts without the US "would be difficult."

Meanwhile, months-long efforts to sideline Hamas in Gaza through a deal with Abbas appear to have collapsed after a Gaza bombing narrowly missed Abbas' prime minister this month.

Later in Jerusalem, Maas professed his country's friendship with Israel, despite differences over the two-state solution, which Netanyahu no longer endorses, and the Iranian nuclear issue.

"Our views differ, but first and foremost we are friends," he said. "We want to hear from our friends their concerns and fears, and therefore I have come here."

Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with German Foreign Minister Mass in Jerusalem (Photo: Koby Gideon/GPO)

Netanyahu has been an outspoken critic of the 2015 nuclear deal, and urged the international community to "fix it or nix it." He says the deal does not have sufficient safeguards to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Given Trump's mid-May deadline, US negotiators have been working with Britain, France and Germany on a follow-on pact that would address Trump's three major complaints . Trump wants to penalize Iran for ballistic missiles, which weren't part of the original deal. He also wants to expand access for international nuclear inspectors and prolong the limits on Iran's nuclear activity, currently scheduled to expire in several years.

Maas has said he was profoundly affected by the Holocaust, and his agenda included a meeting with Israeli Holocaust survivors and a visit to Israel's Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem.

"As a German this was a very moving visit," he said, professing his opposition to anti-Semitism and praising the warm welcome he received. "I am moved as if I have received a gift that I do not deserve."The UN envoy for the Middle East urged restraint on Monday as he raised concern about children at risk during Palestinian protests starting this week near the Gaza-Israel border.

Palestinian families are planning to pitch hundreds of tents in the Gaza Strip near the border starting on Friday, launching a six-week show of support for Palestinian refugees.

"It is imperative that civilians, in particular children, not be targeted and that all actors refrain from putting children at risk at any time," Nickolay Mladenov told the council via video conference from Jerusalem.

"I call on all sides to exercise restraint and to take the necessary steps to avoid violent escalation," he said.Fifteen Jewish families moved into two buildings near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron on Monday, claiming they purchased the structures with the approval of the Israeli Civil Administration.

Two years ago, settlers invaded the structures, dubbed Beit Rachel and Beit Leah, claiming they purchased them, but were evicted shortly thereafter.Turkey condemned Monday the poison attack against the former Russian spy in Britain but has no plans to expel any Russian diplomats.

Without mentioning Russia, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement that Turkey considers the use of chemical weapons as a crime against humanity and said the perpetrators of the attack on British soil should be caught and brought to justice.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said, however, that Turkey maintained "positive" ties with Russia and would not take any actions against Moscow.

Speaking to reporters following a Cabinet meeting, Bozdag said: "Turkey is not contemplating taking any decisions against Russia."BUDAPEST - Hungary's foreign ministry said on Monday it had decided to expel from the country a Russian diplomat whom it said was involved in spying.

"Based on what was said at the session of the European Council, Hungary is expelling a Russian diplomat, who also performs espionage activities," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement to news agency MTI that was later posted on the government's website.

The United States said earlier on Monday it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe in punishing the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that they have blamed on Moscow.- The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has not responded to cases of earth tremors

- Residents say the tremor lasted for hours

- The GMA is also warning of terrible rains as the rainy season approaches

The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) is yet to officially comment on reports of an earth tremor across some areas in Accra over the weekend.

YEN.com.gh gathered that some parts of Accra experienced some earth tremors at dawn and the afternoon of March 24.

READ ALSO: White Jesus leads dozens of African Christians on Palm Sunday

In fact, residents of Weija-Broadcasting, Sampa Valley, SCC, West Hills Mall area, Gbawe, Anyaa, all expressed concerns over the tremor.

The tremors caused panic among some residents of the affected areas, with some fearing the trembling could be followed by an earthquake.

An earth tremor is a relatively small or short-lived movement of the earth's surface caused by the same forces that produce earthquakes.

Here in Ghana, the only severe earth tremor was recorded way back in 1999 to 2000 - a development which left many buildings with wide cracks.

READ ALSO: Mammoth crowd welcomes late Francis Atsu Vondees body

Meanwhile, the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMA) has released basic safety tips for Ghanaians ahead of what it describes as heavy and protracted rains from April to July.

Below are the six safety tips:

1. Don't use a mobile phone when raining.

2. Switch off your TV set.

3. Avoid holding metallic objects.

4. Stay away from transformers and electronic objects.

5 Stay away from mirrors and glass objects.

6. Don't take your bath when it's raining.

In memory of Ebony Reigns, YEN.com.gh put together this lovely video:

Send us a message via our official Facebook or Instagram page to get it published on YEN.com.gh

Source: YenPOLICE Constable Anthony Skippings was suspended from the Royal TCI Police Force this past week after allegations of rape committed against a child surfaced against him.





Following weeks of investigations into the allegations of serious sexual assaults, on Friday, March 16, police administration placed Skippings on administrative leave.





On Tuesday (March 20) investigators formally charged the constable with rape, indecent assault and attempting to pervert the course of justice.





He was then suspended from active duty.





The suspended officer appeared before the Grand Turk Magistrates Court on Wednesday (March 21) charged with the offences and was granted undisclosed bail.





Police said that the offences were not committed recently and according to information received by Weekly News the victim is a male child. (Delana Isles)



UPON its arrival in TCI waters, the Royal Navy ship RFA Mounts Bay immediately hosted acting Governor Anya Williams and Commissioner of Police James Smith.





On Tuesday (March 20) the two met with the Commanding Officer of RFA Mounts Bay, Captain David Buck and crew to discuss how best to assist TCI police and immigration authorities in boosting both maritime and aerial surveillance following the recent increase in the number of illegal sloop arrivals from Haiti.





In officially welcoming the ship to the Turks and Caicos Islands, acting Governor Williams said:

"We are grateful to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence and other agencies for swiftly deploying support to the Turks and Caicos Islands and to RFA Mounts Bay for coming to TCI at such short notice.





"The Royal Navy ship will be providing much needed support. At the time of our request, RFA Mounts Bay was deployed on other operational duties.





"The shift in deployment has altered several of the ships operational plans and has also come at significant costs, but for this we are grateful.





She stated that the RFA Mounts Bay will work very closely with the Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force maritime vessels, Sea Defender, Sea Guardian and Sea Justice, to ensure that the territorys borders are protected and its waters are significantly patrolled.





This will be supplemented by aerial helicopter support as well while the Government focuses on internal operation guardian efforts.





Captain Buck confirmed that the ship immediately established maritime security operations on arrival in the TCI.





He said: "The ship is delighted to be here to assist and weve met for an operational brief and are looking forward to supporting the Islands.





Commissioner of Police James Smith also welcomed the crew, stating that the ship will assist the force with valuable support enabling them to combine assets to boost patrols and combat the increase of illegal sloops coming to the Turks and Caicos Islands.





RFA Mounts Bay was launched in April 2004 and accepted into service in July 2006. It is currently on a deployment to the North Atlantic, performing patrol duties after taking over from RFA Wave Knight in 2017.





The ship is not new to Turks and Caicos Islands waters as the ship provided hurricane relief and support following hurricanes Irma and Maria in September and October 2017.



By Delana Isles

ON MONDAY (March 19) a directive from the United Kingdom government saw the Royal Navy ship, RFA Mounts Bay being deployed to the waters of the Turks and Caicos Islands.





A request for assistance from the TCI Government was aired locally on Friday, March 16, during a press conference hosted by the acting Governor Anya Williams, Premier Hon Sharlene Cartwright Robinson, Deputy Premier Hon Sean Astwood, Attorney General Rhondalee Braithwaite-Knowles and acting Commissioner of Police Trevor Botting.





The ship was redeployed at short notice from regional operations, arriving on Monday to assist the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police and border control authorities with tackling the recent upsurge in the number of illegal sloop landings in the TCI.





Crew have since been working alongside the TCI enforcement authorities and regional partners to boost the maritime and aerial surveillance and interdiction capability of the TCI authorities.





The main task of the ship is usually to supply naval warships at sea, and some of its other roles include aviation support to Royal Navy, amphibious support to Royal Marines, HADR/CN OPS.





The ship is part of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, founded in 1905, which is a civilian manned fleet of 13 ships and owned by UK Ministry of Defence.





Commenting on the arrival of the ship in the TCI, the acting governor said: "I am grateful that the UK government swiftly responded to the request to deploy RFA Mounts Bay to the Turks and Caicos Islands.





"The Royal Navy ship will provide invaluable support to the RTCIPF to help detect and interdict the illegal sloops heading to TCI while we focus on our internal operations.





She stated that she has been in contact with the commanding officer of RFA Mounts Bay, Captain David Buck to welcome and him and his crew.





Premier Cartwright Robinson also expressed similar sentiments: "We are pleased that the British government has responded positively to a request from TCIs Government to provide immediate assistance in maritime coverage.





She also pointed out that the Government has made other requests of the UK government for manpower to help officers on the ground and for a devised sustainable approach and way forward in tackling border patrol issues.





"We will, as promised, identify ways to receive ideas from our people in a secured fashion and will continue the successful efforts of Operation Guardian.





She added that the TCI, with its wide coastline, requires much resources and the bolstering of patrol at this time is much needed together with regional and other international support.





"We continue active discussions with the Bahamas on how its defence force can assist. We are also pleased to welcome the aerial support also now in country.





The premier said that these "brazen attacks are an assault on the UKs sovereignty and that the UK must do more in a sustainable way to fulfil its constitutional mandate for external and internal security.





"We encourage residents to not harbour or employ any undocumented individual. We will strictly enforce the laws and will deal with any and all culprits to its fullest extent.





She added that as the territory bolsters its patrol, upgrades the radar and carries out special operations, residents must remain vigilant and report all suspicious activities and individuals.



By Olivia Rose

NO NEW work permits should be given to Haitian nationals in order to stem illegal migration, according to Leader of the Opposition Washington Misick.





He said the move will send a strong message to the Haiti government which has not been "an honest partner.





"And as a neighbour we should have a relationship with them, but we need to speak sternly to them, we need to make sure that they understand that were not going to allow our Islands to be colonised by Haiti.





The suggestion comes following a recent influx of illegal migrants, which has prompted the deployment of Royal Navy ship RFA Mounts Bay to the TCI.





It arrived on Monday (March 19) to assist the police and border control authorities in tackling the upsurge in the number of illegal sloop landings.





At a press briefing on Tuesday (March 20) Misick urged the Government to impose a moratorium as a temporary solution to the problem.





"I think we all agree that if the economy is going to grow we are going to have to import labour, he said.





"We have a choice to either restrict that growth or put measures and policies in place to manage that growth to the advantage of our own people.





"So one of the things that we need to do is look at the makeup of the population and I think we have to draw the line.





"The largest immigrant population in this country is from Haiti, and the second largest is from Jamaica.





"With the exception of those persons who are already in the system, it is time for us to say that were not going to issue any more work permits to Haitian nationals until we get this problem under control. None.





Misick said that in the last census TC Islanders did not make up the majority of the population.





He added that a large percentage are from "one particular demographic which he said "cant be healthy.





"So what we need to do is to come up with a policy that puts a quota for different countries and we put a moratorium on the Haitian quota for now. We can revisit it in the future, but for right now we need to put a quota on it.





The opposition leader reminded that as a member of Caricom it is imperative for the TCI to have a relationship with Haiti.





But he said the Turks and Caicos Islands Government needs to send a strong message to the Haitian administration.





Ulterior motives

Misick believes that efforts on the part of the TCI Government to foster better bilateral relations with Haiti has proved futile because the Haitian government has ulterior motives.





He said: "There is suspicion as to who is behind the immigrants coming in. I was very critical about the aid that was received from Haiti.





"But I want it to be very clear that the Haitian government is not an honest partner, its not in their interest, they generate significant foreign exchange, foreign reserves from Haitians who send their money back home.





He said he saw statistics from the Financial Services Commission which indicated that about $30 billion was sent to Haiti through the money transfer companies in an unspecified period.





"Theres a lot more that is sent by envelopes by people going back into the country and so they see places like Turks and Caicos as a way of generating foreign currency for Haiti.





He reiterated that the Haitian government has no interest in stemming that flow of traffic into the TCI.





"And they may not even have the capability of doing so, but even if they do or did, they dont have any interest in doing so.





"So I think we have to hold their feet to the fire, we have to have a frank and open discussion with the Haitian consul here.





He further suggested the need for an honest broker who understands the problem and the long term strain these issues puts on the relationship between two countries to be consulted.





Misick turned his attention to the arrival of Royal Navy ship, which will provide essential support to the police force in helping to identify and interdict the illegal sloops heading to TCI.





"The British has arrived and unlike some other people I welcome the intervention that they will make.





"I think we have to be realistic; we curse them when they dont intervene and we curse them when they do intervene, so we need to make up our mind.





"Id like to make a point theyre not here for long; as soon as the situation is brought under control, that may be a matter of days or weeks, they will be gone again.





He further propounded the need for the TCI to have a comprehensive plan to address the immigration issue on all fronts.





"What we need to do is to have a strategy to contain the problem. We have the financial resources to do so, we have money in the sovereign wealth fund.





"I think its currently up to $16 million thereabout, so under the arrangement we have with the United Kingdom we could actually use some of those funds if necessary to balance a deficit budget or use it in ways that are going to enhance the security and then replenish it later.





"But we dont even need to do that at this juncture; theres a huge surplus and we need to come up with a strategy to ensure that our borders are protected and this is an area as far as I see it, it is an existential strength.





"This economy has been doing well but the social cost of illegal immigration both in repatriating them and caring for mothers prenatal care, those are some of the areas that are costing us a lot of money.



Mindtree, a global technology services and digital transformation company, today announced that its insights platform, Decision Moments, built on the Microsoft Azure Platform, now leverages Adobe Experience Cloud, helping marketers drive faster conversions and increase customer lifetime value. Marketers need to reimagine the consumer journey by understanding the areas where the customer experience becomes less intuitive and individualized, and to deliver contextual and personalized experiences. This is critical for marketers to better direct their marketing investments.

Mindtree built Decision Moments to help marketers solve this challenge. Its designed to integrate with the digital footprints from Adobe Experience Cloud and enrich it with offline and third-party data. This helps marketers achieve a 360-degree view of the customer, with micro-segmentation. The modeling sandbox in Decision Moments allows marketers to run controlled experiments to validate the micro-segments. Marketers can more effectively target consumers using applications such as next best offers, product recommendations and purchase inclination. These insights are delivered as personalized content by Adobe Experience Cloud. Decision Moments leverages Adobe Experience Cloud, and is powered by Microsoft Azure services, including Cortana Intelligence Suite, in a cloud-native solution.

Marketers are evaluating ways to deliver connected experiences in the right context across touchpoints to their customers. Taking the data science view will help them unearth and apply insights to achieve their marketing goals, said Sreedhar Bhagavatheeswaran, Senior Vice President and Global Head  Digital Business for Mindtree. The data-driven experience delivered by Adobe Experience Cloud coupled with consumer insights from Decision Moments is the secret sauce for effectively influencing and engaging customers at multiple micro-moments across touchpoints. An exceptional experience is the most effective way for businesses to establish long-term relationships and create brand loyalty with customers. This requires meaningful customer insights, said Jay Dettling, Vice President, Global Partners, Adobe. With Adobe Experience Cloud, businesses have access to everything they need to make sure every interaction with customers is personalized and seamless, across all touchpoints. Mindtrees Decision Moments platform will use Adobe Experience Cloud to drive higher conversions, increase lifetime value and speed to market.

Mindtree experts will attend the Adobe Summit 2018 in Las Vegas March 25-29, where theyll be available to discuss Decision Moments for Adobe Experience Cloud further.

@Technuter.com News ServiceA French police officer who offered himself up to an Islamic extremist gunman in exchange for a hostage died of his injuries, raising the death toll in the attack to four, and the officer was honoured Saturday as a national hero of exceptional courage and selflessness.



Col. Arnaud Beltrame was among the first officers to respond to the attack on the supermarket in the south of France on Friday.



Beltrame, who first took his place among the elite police special forces in 2003 and served in Iraq in 2005, had organised a training session in the Aude region in December for just such a hostage situation. At the time, he armed his officers with paintball guns, according to Depeche du Midi, the local newspaper.



We want to be as close to real conditions as possible, he said then.



But when he went inside the supermarket on Friday, he had given up his own weapon and volunteered himself in exchange for a female hostage.



Unbeknownst to the Morocco-born captor, he left his mobile phone on so police outside could hear what was happening in the store. They stormed the building when they heard gunshots, officials said. Beltrame was fatally wounded.



His death raises the toll to four. The gunman was also killed, and 15 people were injured in the attack.



Arnaud Beltrame died in the service of the nation to which he had already given so much, President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement. In giving his life to end the deadly plan of a jihadi terrorist, he fell as a hero.

An 85-year-old French-Jewish Holocaust survivor was found dead on Friday in an incinerated apartment in Paris, according to reports.



The incident, the Le Parisien newspaper said, took place at the womans home on Avenue Philippe Auguste in the French capitals 11th arrondissement.



A French-Jewish communal security organization, the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Antisemitism (BNVCA), said five fires had been set at the apartment and the victim  named as Mireille K.  was also stabbed 11 times.



Police are investigating the case, and suicide has been ruled out, Le Parisien reported.



The BNVCA said a suspect was being questioned by police.



The victim had reportedly filed police complaints against a local resident who had threatened to burn her.



The BNVCA called for authorities to find and bring the perpetrator to justice, and also determine whether it was an antisemitic crime, as everything suggests.

First is the sad death of a policeman who'd traded himself as a hostage to save a girl in Trebes:The country's now mourning his death . He was very brave to exchange his life to save an innocent girl, and it's terrible he had to lose his life.Next, there's the horrible murder of a Holocaust survivor in Paris This is similar to the Sarah Halimi case, and the authorities failed to act properly in that case too. They're going to have to be sued for failure to prevent a crime, and a demand must be made that any officials who failed to investigate earlier be forced to resign.

Labels: anti-semitism, dhimmitude, France, islam, jihad, misogyny, Moonbattery, racism, terrorism, war on terrorInstagram is one of the most popular social networking platforms on the internet today -- and for good reason! Not only is thYes, the decision belongs on the local level

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View ResultsIf you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs.The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option.The inaugural edition of Big 5 Heavy, a unique showcase of machinery for the heavy construction sector, opened today (March 26) in Dubai, UAE.



The Big 5 Heavy was inaugurated by Mattar Al Tayer, the director general and chairman of board of executive directors at Roads & Transport Authority (RTA). The event will run till March 28 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.



In its inaugural edition, the Middle Easts largest heavy construction event is hosting Caterpillars latest revolutionary innovations and NFTs virtual reality feature, which is transporting visitors up to a first-class seat above their state-of-the-art 300,000 square meter yard.



There is plenty to see at The Big 5 Heavy with over 300 exhibitors from more than 30 countries providing visitors with a unique and visually stunning showcase of machinery and innovation for construction industries, said the organisers.



Exclusive dealer Al-Bahar has partnered with Caterpillar to launch the two new machines: the Next Generation Cat 320 Excavator and Cat 962L Wheel Loader. The theme for the duos participation is New Range. New Rules. portraying the new machine collection and its revolutionizing technology as a promise to transform the partnership between man and machine.



At the NFT stand, as well as launching visitors above their yard with virtual reality, the company is promoting their MCH Hydraulic Tower Crane and the new Hup technology - a 100 per cent digital and self-erecting crane development ideal for narrow and compact building areas.



Exhibitor Deewan Equipment will promote their advanced concrete printing technology at the event and present portraits of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said the organisers.



"Thanks to government vision, GCC countries are the fastest developing across the world and we are honored to capture this inspiration with a portrait of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan printed onto the very building blocks of tomorrows skyline," remarked Ghaith A. Yaseen, the managing partner, Deewan.



In the Year of Zayed we also celebrate the great visionary leader of today, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and his dedication to innovation across all industries, he stated.



Welcoming the visitors, Richard Pavitt, the event director for The Big 5 Heavy, said: "With the total estimated value of projects in the GCC put at $1.7 trillion, and with approximately 37 per cent of all project values being in the design, concept and tender stages of development, demand for heavy machinery in the region is guaranteed to peak."



We expect to see a packed event over the next week on the back of a growing market, and hope to see new partnerships and deals filling the floor, he added.



A varied agenda of 40+ free to attend workshops is also underway at the event, assisting construction professionals in their jobs and offering CPD (Continued Professional Development) certified points. The workshop programme covers project management, mining & quarrying and foundation & geotechnical sessions.-TradeArabia News Service

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has announced the signing two major contracts between Adnoc Refining, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adnoc, and Samsung Engineering of South Korea worth in excess of $3.5 billion.

The signing of the two agreements was witnessed by Dr Sultan bin Ahmad Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of State and Adnoc Group CEO, and Paik Ungyu, South Korea's Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy. The agreements were signed by Abdulaziz Alhajri, Adnocs Downstream Director, and Choi Sung-An, CEO of Samsung Engineering, said a Wam news agency report.

The agreements come on the occasion of the visit of Korean President Moon Jae-in to the UAE.

The two contracts  the award of a $3.1 billion project to introduce crude oil processing flexibility and the award of a $473 million project to recover power and water, both at the Adnoc-owned Ruwais oil refinery  mark another significant step forward as Adnoc accelerates the delivery of its downstream strategy.

Dr Al Jaber said: "Adnoc has a long and successful history of working with Korean companies as partners in our concession areas, as contractors for our major projects, and as a customer of our crude oil and refined products. The award of two major engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts reinforces the strong business relationship that exists between the UAE and Korea.

"As Adnoc continues to deliver on its 2030 smart growth strategy, a number of new and exciting opportunities exist across our value chain, particularly in the downstream, which offer the potential to deepen and develop the longstanding relationship between Adnoc and its Korean counterparts."

Paik Ungyu said: "We offer congratulations on the signing between Samsung Engineering and Adnoc Refining. I hope that these contracts will not only enhance bilateral cooperation in the energy industry, but will also contribute to identifying new joint projects."

The first of the two new contracts awarded by Adnoc Refining to Samsung Engineering was an EPC contract for a crude oil processing flexibility project. Scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022, this project will enable Adnocs Ruwais Refinery-West complex to process up to 420,000 bpd of Upper Zakum crude, or similar crude types from the market, allowing Adnoc to extract greater value from its crude resources by liberating Murban crude, which commands a higher price on global oil markets, to be utilised for export sales.

The second contract awarded is an EPC contract for a new Waste Heat Recovery Project. This project, scheduled for completion by the end of 2023, will generate an additional 230 MW of electricity for sale and 62,400 cu m water daily by capturing waste heat, which is currently vented into the atmosphere, by upgrading four giant gas turbines with closed-cycle power generation technology. The project will play a significant role in reducing the environmental impact of Adnocs refining and power operations, whilst improving energy efficiency.

In line with the standard selection criteria for all EPC contracts, Adnoc Refining carefully reviewed the In-Country Value (ICV) component of all bids submitted for both of the awarded contracts. ICV was a critical consideration in the tender evaluation and contractor selection process. Adnocs ICV strategy seeks to stimulate private sector partnerships and opportunities resulting from Adnocs 2030 growth strategy, catalyse socio-economic development, improve knowledge transfer and create additional employment for UAE nationals. It reinforces the companys commitment to supporting local businesses and their role in driving economic diversification and GDP growth.

ADNOC is making significant investments in new downstream projects to grow its refining capability and expand its petrochemical production three-fold to 14.4 mpta by 2025. Planned projects include a world scale, mixed liquid feedstock Naphtha cracker, as well as investments in new refinery capacity. As a result of the planned expansions in its Downstream business, Adnoc will create one of the worlds largest integrated refining and petrochemical complexes at Ruwais, located in Abu Dhabis Al Dhafra region.

Adnoc will be hosting a major Downstream Investment Forum in Abu Dhabi on May 13 and 14, where it will unveil more details of its Downstream Strategy, including the new Ruwais industrial hub masterplan.

In the upstream, Koreas GS Energy was awarded a three percent stake in the Adnoc Onshore concession in May 2015, while Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) and GS Energy hold a 40 percent stake in the Al Dhafra Petroleum concession area, where first crude oil production is expected in 2019.More than 7,000 chiefs of industry and visionary technologists from around the world will look to help accelerate blockchain application in Dubai and beyond, at the inaugural Future Blockchain Summit, to be held next month in Dubai, UAE.



In line with the Dubai Blockchain Strategy, announced by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of The Executive Council, which mandates that Dubai becomes the worlds first-ever government to execute all applicable transactions using blockchain technology by 2020, the first official Dubai government-hosted event, will take place on May 2 and 3, at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC).



The Summit is officially hosted by Smart Dubai Office, the entity recognised as the global first-mover in blockchain adoption, in partnership with Dubai World Trade Centre.



Designed to be the worlds most influential and creative blockchain event, the summit will focus on moving beyond technical feasibility and theories, this rich conference with over 70 sessions dives deep into real-world applications, creating opportunities and catalysing adoption across a range of sectors - retail and ecommerce, creative economy, healthcare, transportation, education, food, hospitality and tourism, energy, fintech and banking as well as safety and security, said a statement.



The two-day event will also include the worlds first Global Leaders Exchange programme, closed door sessions gathering senior government blockchain champions and C-Level industry enablers resulting in a white paper report; a free to the public, experiential exhibition set to showcase pilot projects and innovative advancements from over 60 government and private organisations and; the grand finale of the Smart Dubai Blockchain Challenge, a startup pitch competition for blockchain-powered entrepreneurs. Further, the event will offer complimentary workshops, such as Blockchain 101, designed to demystify blockchain technology.



Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, director general, Smart Dubai Office said: Blockchain has immense untapped potential for many different industries; ranging from healthcare to transportation to energy.



Dubai is the global leader in committing to adopt this transformational technology to ultimately improve the lives and happiness of its citizens. Beyond this, Dubai is also acting as a pioneering catalyst and collaboration platform to innovations in blockchain technology and its application, he said.



We are extremely proud to host the summit and we look forward to the world coming to Dubai to showcase latest advancements, build strategic global partnerships and develop a deeper understanding of this powerful tool, he added.



The flagship event will host over 60 speakers, with over 50 per cent making their regional debut, including blockchain entrepreneurs and tech world headliners Imogen Heap, 2x Grammy Winner and Founder of Mycelia, an experimental music distribution platform using blockchain-based technology and Dr Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia and CIO, Everipedia, a Wikipedia 2.0 built on the blockchain.



Other blockchain game-changers include Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Hyperledger, a globally renowned figure in the open-source movement run by the Linux Foundation as well as a host of early adopters from the United Nations, Toyota, Vodafone, the European Parliament, DHL and Bank of America among others.



Dubai is a global hub for cutting-edge technology, and its blockchain-powered initiatives have made the international technology community take note. According to IDC, spending on Blockchain in the Middle East and Africa will double this year to $80.8 million, up from $38.9 million spent in 2017. By 2020, the global market for digital transactions will amount to $9.5 billion, and the global investment in blockchain technology is poised to reach the $300 billion.



Through the Dubai Blockchain Strategy, the city aims to eliminate 100 million annual paper transactions, saving $1.5 billion annually in document processing alone. The strategy is in collaboration with the Smart Dubai Office and the Dubai Future Foundation.



Wesam Lootah, CEO, Smart Dubai Government, said: Dubai has taken great strides in experimenting with the application of the blockchain technology across various government functions to establish the worlds first blockchain-powered city.



Smart Dubai is pleased to host this exciting Summit, at the helm of global blockchain adoption, bringing brilliant international industry leaders and innovators to our city who will play a pivotal role in discussions on blockchain implementation across different sectors, he said.



The first city-hosted event of its kind, Future Blockchain Summit is the gateway to the world's most advanced blockchain government and a business platform for government, industry leaders and tech start-ups.



A truly international blockchain event, Future Blockchain Summit has already attracted over 40 percent of its participants from outside of the UAE.



Trixie LohMirmand, senior vice president, exhibitions and events management, DWTC, said: As the first city-hosted blockchain event, the summit is a must-attend platform for the best in innovation and creativity.



With an unprecedented line up of first time projects, and speakers making their regional debut, this event will elevate Dubais position as a global knowledge hub for blockchain technology, she said.



It will help unlock multi-million dollar opportunities not only for Dubai, but for international blockchain innovators. We are pleased to partner with Smart Dubai on this exciting, strategic, initiative event that will shape the industry, she added.  TradeArabia News ServiceEmirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has opened its first electric car charging station at its site in Jebel Ali, in support of the Dubai Green Mobility Initiative.



The opening was attended by EGA executives, as well as representatives from the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa).



Four EGA employees, who already own Tesla vehicles, also attended and will be the first to regularly use the charging station, said a statement from the company.



The Dubai Green Mobility Initiative was launched by the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy in 2016 with an aim to increase the proportion of electric and hybrid vehicles in Dubai to two per cent of new sales by 2020 and 10 per cent by 2030.



Transportation is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Dubai and exhaust fumes from internal combustion engines also affect local air quality.



EGAs Managing Director and CEO Abdulla Kalban, said, "The vision of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, is for Dubai to be the worlds smartest city and switching to green transportation is part of that future. Making charging stations available where people need them is critical for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles so we are pleased to play our part."



Lubna Dhuhair, a senior analyst at EGA and one of the four Tesla owners, said: "I decided to invest in an electric vehicle because of the fuel cost savings, but also because it allows me to play an active role in our leaders initiative to building a more sustainable and green Dubai."



"Having a charging station at EGA will be convenient, and I hope it will encourage more of my colleagues to switch to electric vehicles to help our environment," she noted.



As a major producer and consumer of electricity for its operations, EGA is a member organisation of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy.-TradeArabia News ServiceSiemens executives will discuss how digitalisation and technological innovation are making oil and gas operations safer, more efficient, and more reliable, during the upcoming Oman Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference (OGWA) 2018, in the sultanate.



The event which will open tomorrow (March 26) will run until March 28, at the Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre, Muscat.



Siemens will demonstrate how its digital solutions and services can help the industry reduce costs and enhance operational efficiency, said a statement.



In the future, offshore platforms are to be increasingly controlled and operated from onshore locations. With oil and gas companies producing large amounts of data from hardware and process-related activities, Siemens digital solutions portfolio ranges from early feed to abandonment, helping customers collect and convert data into real-time knowledge for faster, smarter decision-making, it said.



Jean-Claude Nasr, senior executive vice president of power generation in the Middle East at Siemens, said: Today the oil and gas industry face a number of challenges, including a potentially lower for longer price of oil and gas, intense competition, the need to reduce Capex and Opex, aging assets, the effective management of large amounts of data as well as cyber security concerns.



We work with our regional customers to help them maximise safety, efficiency, predictability, and reliability of their operations. Oman represents a really important market to Siemens, and the event is a great opportunity to meet the industrys experts and talk about the latest innovations, he added.



Siemens main booth will include a series of scheduled expert dialogues, where the companys executives will discuss key topics and trends in the industry via live demonstrations. These topics include digitalisation, production optimization, automation and cyber security, it added.



Additive manufacturing will also be a focus of Siemens participation at the show. The company will showcase a 3D-printed model for Siemens SGT-400 industrial gas turbines, which is a breakthrough success in the use of additive manufacturing in the power generation field.



In addition, Siemens will demonstrate a number of solutions designed to reduce capital and operating expenses for companies in Oman. For the oil and gas industry, Siemens supplies a broad spectrum of products, services and solutions that support upstream, midstream and downstream applications.



With the recent acquisitions of Dresser-Rand and the operating assets of Rolls Royce Energy, Siemens created the industrys most comprehensive portfolio of high-speed rotating equipment and services for customers in the oil and gas, process and power industries.



On the data analytics front, Siemens will demonstrate its software solutions designed to optimise performance across the oil and gas value chain  from automated process analysis to seamless data integration, remote monitoring, preventive maintenance, and simulated training.



Another innovation featured at the show is Siemens Totally Integrated Power and Control solutions, designed to make projects more economically viable by enabling long-distance subsea tiebacks, processing and heating, it stated.  TradeArabia News ServiceKABUL (Reuters) - Russia has rejected comments by NATOs top commander in Afghanistan that it has been supporting and even supplying weapons to the Taliban, in a clash of words that underlines growing tension over Moscows involvement in the conflict.





In an interview with the BBC last week, General John Nicholson said that Russia had been acting to undermine U.S. efforts in Afghanistan despite shared interests in fighting terrorism and narcotics, with indications that Moscow was providing financial support and even arms.





Weve had weapons brought to this headquarters and given to us by Afghan leaders and said this was given by the Russians to the Taliban, he said.





A statement from the Russian embassy in Kabul dismissed the comments as idle gossip, repeating previous denials by Russian officials.





Once again, we insist that such statements are absolutely baseless and appeal to officials not to talk nonsense, the embassy said.





U.S. commanders, including Nicholson, have said on several occasions over the past year that Russia may be supplying arms to the Taliban although no confirmed evidence has so far been made public.



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Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday (Mar 26) meets the leaders of the EU's top bodies for a potentially stormy encounter that will seek ways to repair an increasingly fractured relationship. As Channel News Asia writes in an article "Turkey's Erdogan, EU chiefs meet to mend eroded ties", European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker will talk with Erdogan at the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna with a litany of problems clouding their discussions. Topics including the crackdown in Turkey after the July 2016 failed coup, Turkish demands for visa liberalisation and the near-endless saga of Ankara's own EU membership bid are expected to loom high.

And while all the leaders were hoping at least a more harmonious mood music would come out of the working dinner, a row over Greece and Cyprus added a new shadow days before the talks. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council, said it was expected to be "a very difficult meeting". But both sides - with a joint interest in improving security cooperation and economic relations - will also not want the talks to fail. "The Varna summit will provide a platform to re-launch the dialogue between the two parties, even though no real breakthrough is expected in concrete terms," said Jana Jabbour, professor of political science at Sciences Po university in Paris and the author of a book on Turkish foreign policy.

"Mixed feelings"

Temperatures were raised after EU leaders last week condemned Turkey's "illegal actions" towards Greece and Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. Ankara hit back at the "unacceptable comments" and said the EU had lost its objectivity on Cyprus, which is divided between the Greek-majority internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus and the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.

The statement on Thursday by the 28 EU members meeting in Brussels condemned Turkey over Ankara's arrest of two Greek soldiers and its promise to prevent the Greek Cypriot government from exploring for oil and gas. Turkish EU Minister Omer Celik said Turkey could not accept such statements by the EU. "This issue will be raised in Varna, where we hope to have a wide-ranging discussion on EU-Turkey relations and on the way ahead," Tusk said.

Juncker said he was "looking with mixed feelings towards the summit because the differences in views between the EU and Turkey are many". But, he added "we will have a frank and open debate with President Erdogan".

Ankara and Brussels had in March 2016 agreed a controversial deal to stop the flow of migrants, in what was seen as a landmark in cooperation and which Turkey hoped would yield visa free travel to Europe. So far this incentive has not been realised and Erdogan is expected to press this strongly in the talks. "Turkey considers it (visa liberalisation) a priority", Jabbour told AFP. But, she added, "it would be delusional to believe that the EU would grant Turkey concessions on this matter."

Looser partnership?

Brussels has repeatedly criticised the post coup crackdown which has seen nearly 160,000 people arrested, including dozens of journalists. Turkey, for its part, accused Brussels of failing to show solidarity after the coup and appears set on forging a strong partnership with President Vladimir Putin's Russia.

In contrast to the evening meeting with the EU leadership, Putin is expected to make a full two-day visit to Turkey early next month.

Ankara's long-stalled bid to join the EU will also be discussed during the summit, but Western diplomats and analysts agree meaningful steps are unlikely. Even Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey did not have "any expectations right now from the EU regarding the membership process." Nonetheless, Erdogan has for now dropped from speeches his threats to reimpose the death penalty in Turkey, a move that would automatically end the EU membership bid.

Next month the bloc will release its latest progress report, which is "bound to illustrate a substantial regression" in Turkey, Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and a former EU ambassador to Turkey, said in a study.

During a visit by Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron said earlier this year Ankara should settle instead for a looser "partnership", after suggesting no progress was possible.Iran must strengthen its ties with Russia and China in response to growing hostility from the US, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament's foreign affairs committee, said on Saturday.

The Middle East Online reports in its article Iran should turn to China, Russia, in response to US hostility: Official that Boroujerdi said the use of radical elements hostile to the Islamic Republic shows that the Americans are trying to increase the pressure against Iran. "We need to strengthen our relations with important countries like China and Russia, which are also subject to US sanctions and face significant challenges from that country," he said.

His comments, carried by the semi-official ISNA news agency, were the first reaction by a senior Iranian official to President Donald Trump's appointment of conservative firebrand John Bolton as his national security chief.

On Iran, the former UN ambassador Bolton and Trump are in sync. Bolton opposes the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which he has described as "the worst act of appeasement in American history".

The deal, a signature achievement of former-president Barack Obama lifted harsh sanctions on Iran in return for restriction on Iran's nuclear energy programme, which Western governments fear is being used to create a nuclear arsenal.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to tear up the deal, saying it was too easy on Iran and that Tehran has already broken parts of it.

In March 2015, Bolton argued in a New York Times op-ed that only military action similar to Israel's 1981 attack on Saddam Hussein's Osirak reactor in Iraq, or its recently confirmed 2007 destruction of a Syrian reactor, "can accomplish what is required".

The moving of Bolton to replace H R McMaster as national security advisor came days after Trump chose Mike Pompeo as secretary of state. That post was formally held by Rex Tillerson, who had argued the US should seek to "fix" the Iran deal.

Pompeo has also taken a tough stance on Iran. Both appointments have raised fear of US military action against Iran.

Iran has in recent years developed its relations with China and Russia. Tehran and Moscow are key backers of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, while China is Iran's top trading partner.

Boroujerdi added that Trump was working "to reassure the Zionists [Israel] and Saudi Arabia," and that boosting ties with China and Russia, which are both permanent members of the UN Security Council, would "help reduce the impact of US pressure".

Decision points to US 'war footing'

An Iranian response has been slow to come, as Bolton's appointment coincided with the Iranian New Year celebration, Nowruz. But political analysts have been quick raise concerns.

Most analysts have said that the appointment makes both a US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and US military action against Tehran more likely.

Trita Parsi from the US-based National Iranian American Council released a statement calling Bolton's appointment a move towards war.

"Donald Trump may have just effectively declared war on Iran. With the appointment of John Bolton, and nomination of Mike Pompeo at State, Trump is clearly putting together a war cabinet. As the world awaits Trump's May 12 decision as to whether he will abandon the Iran nuclear deal, all of the signs now point to a decision to move to war footing," wrote Parsi.

"Bolton is an unhinged advocate for waging World War III. He has explicitly called for bombing Iran for the past 10 years and has suggested the US engage in nuclear first strikes in North Korea. "Bolton's first order of business will be to convince Trump to exit the Iran nuclear deal and lay the groundwork for the war he has urged over the past decade."

Ellie Geranmayeh, senior policy fellow at the European Council of Foreign Relations, said: "Bolton's appointment, combined with Pompeo's nomination last week, significantly lowers the odds that Trump will stick to the nuclear deal beyond May. Both men have vocally opposed the nuclear deal, advocated for regime change in Iran, and Bolton has repeatedly called for bombing rather than diplomacy as a fix to the nuclear issue."

Esfandiar Batmanghelidj, the founder of the Iran-Europe forum, which bills itself as an annual gathering for business and civil society leaders committed to Iran's economic development, wrote that while Trump and his appointees might succeed in killing the nuclear deal, the world and Iran have no choice to continue on a path of trust and negotiation. "Trump is old and has a few years left in his term. The forces that brought the [nuclear deal] to fruition may have been interrupted by his erratic governance and distorted worldview, but those forces will certainly outlast him," he wrote in a blog post after Bolton's appointment. "The imminent demise of the Iran deal should not obscure the fundamental reality of what [it] was - a reminder to the international community that it must deal with Iran and that dialogue can be fruitful if conducted on the basis of trust and mutual goals. "Even if the [nuclear deal] falls apart, the lesson cannot be dismissed."The Karachays are a Turkic people of the North Caucasus, mostly situated in the Russian KarachayCherkess Republic. The city of Cherkessk, Ust-Dzhegutinsky district, Karachaevsky urban district, Karachaevsky district, Malokarachayevsky district, Prikubansky district, Zelenchuksky district, Urupsky District are the areas where they mainly live. The Dombai and Teberda valleys, the Elbrus region, and partially Arkhyz are their original place of residence. The oldest settlements are Kart-Dzhurt, Uchkulan, Khurzuk, Duut and Dzhazlyk. The Karachays are Sunni Muslims belonging to the Hanafi madhhab. According to the 2002 All-Russia Census, their number was 192,182 people.

There is no categorical version of the Karachay's origin. According to anthropology, they belong to the central cluster of the Caucasionic race, which is one of the sub-races of Caucasian race, like the Balkars, Ossetians, Ingush, Chechens, Bats, AvarAndic-Tsezic peoples, some of the Mountain Jews. However, there is not enough genetic data. From the existing data, we can say that the following haplogroups dominate: R1A1 ((23.2%) Aryan) and G2 ((27.5%) Caucasian). The percentage of other haplogroups is insignificant. However, as far as is known, the selections are not large.

The Karachay people speak the Karachay-Balkar language, which belongs to the Western Turkic group, the Kipchak-Polovtsian subgroup of Turkic languages. The researchers suggest that in the ethnogenesis of the Karachais could participate the following people:

1. autochthonous Caucasian tribes;

2. Alans;

3. Bulgars;

4. Khazars;

5. Kipchaks.

This version was approved on June 22-26, 1959 at the symposium devoted to the problem of origin of Balkar and Karachay peoples, held in the city of Nalchik.

***

Karachays and Balkars

If we describe the Balkars, then we can say that they have exactly the same anthropology data, genetics data and language (not to mention the culture) with the Karachays. That is, all the classifications and definitions given to the Karachays can be attributed to the Balkars. They consider themselves as one people. To be precise, the people who are called the Balkars now acquired such a common name already after it was included to Russia. These were five mountain societies: Cherekskoe, Kholam, Bezengi, Chegemskoye and Baksanskoe (Urusbievskoe), which were governed by aristocratic families (taueys).

The most famous of them are the Abaevs, the Aidebolovs, the Zhankhotovs and the Misakovs in the Malkarian society, the Balkarukovs and the Kelemetovs in Chegem, the Shakmanovs in Kholam, the Syunyuchevs in Bezengievsky, the Urusbievs (the separated branch of Syuyunchevs) in Baksansky.

There were some differences in the language of these mountain societies. Based on these differences, the corresponding dialects were later identified. The inhabitants of the largest Chereks society were called the Balkars. They speak Karachay-Balkar with the tsch merger (tsokanye) ((chach (kar.) - tsats (cherk.) - hair), there are some other phonetic differences).

The Chegems and the Baksans (Urusbievites, named after the Urusbievs) speak a language that does not differ from Karachay (except for dzhzh merger dzhash/zhash - a guy). There is the Khulam-Bezengi mixed language as well. But there are no lexical differences between these dialects. Today's literary Karachay-Balkar language was formed on the basis of the languages of Karachays, Chegems and Urusbievievs. Initially the Balkars called themselves the inhabitants of the Cherek society, the others called themselves - Taulula (mountaineers). That is, the ethnonym Balkar historically applies not to the entire Balkar people, although this is not a matter of today's self-identification, but rather of the past.

***

The Balkars are the indigenous population of Kabardino-Balkaria, which mainly lives in its mountain and foothill areas in the upper reaches of the Khaznidon, Balkar Cherek (Malarka), Cherek-Bezengi (Bezengi, Kholamtsy), Chegem (Chegems), Baksan (Baksans or Urusbievs ) and Malka rivers. They speak the Karachay-Balkar language, which is referred to the Kipchak-Polovtsian subgroup of Turkic languages. They belong to the Caucasionic race, which is one of the sub-races of Caucasian race. They are Sunni Muslims belonging to the Hanafi madhhab. Their number in Russia is 108 thousand people (2002), 105 thousand of which live in Kabardino-Balkaria (11.6% of the population of the republic).

The Balkars are one of the most high-mountainous peoples of the region. They live in the gorges and foothills of the Central Caucasus along the valleys of the Malka, Baksan, Chegem, Cherek rivers and their affluents. In fact, the Balkars are a single people with the Karachays, administratively divided into two parts. Their material culture is also identical. The only thing, because of the specifics of the gorges the Karachays built their houses of wood, while the Balkars - of stone, their ancestral princely towers and crypts of stone were preserved. Speaking of mentality, the Karachays consider the Balkars to be more cheerful, soft and joke-lovers. Balkar poet Qaysin Quli said that songs are written in Karachay, but performed in Balkaria.

***

If we talk about the self-name of Balkar, then it is difficult to correlate it with the ethnonym of the Bulgar, because in the original it sounds - malkarly. It can be correlated with the name of the Malka river in Kabardino-Balkaria. But probably it is possible to argue that the Balkars are descendants of the Bulgars. According to the legend, the Great Bulgaria under the leadership of Kubrat, which covered part of the northwestern Caucasus, disintegrated and the people were divided among his sons, so it can be more or less surely asserted that part of the Bulgars could remain in the North Caucasus (the Bulgars of Batbayan ) and contribute to the ethnogenesis of local peoples, including the Karachays and the Balkars.

The existence of the Bulgars in the foothills and partly in the mountains of Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria has some archaeological confirmation.

In this regard, it is possible to draw a symbolic line from Danube Bulgaria through the Caucasus to Volga Bulgaria and Kazan. However, given the multifaceted ethnogenesis of the majority of the peoples of the North Caucasus, especially the Karachay-Balkar people (a conditional term that has long been used), the possibility of participation of several ethnic groups in the ethnogenesis of the people, we would not affirm now that the Balkars are the Bulgars of our days. But we cannot exclude the participation of the Bulgars in this formation of the people as well.

***

By the way, modern Bulgarians, as well as Kazan Tatars, show a constant interest in this issue. We think that this topic should be subject to a separate study, which could if not confirm this version, then give additional knowledge in the relevant context, which should be welcomed.Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi will be visiting Russia on March 27-28, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said at the briefing.

"This trip shows that relations between China and Russia have reached a very high level and are of a special character. Meetings with Russian administration members, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, will be held during this visit," TASS cited the diplomat as saying.

According to her, a wide range of diplomatic issues are expected to be discussed and the positions of Moscow and Beijing to be coordinated during this visit.Turkey said the northern Syrian town of Tal Rifaat would be the next target of its cross-border campaign after the capture of Afrin from Syrian Kurdish militia.

"God willing, we will ensure this operation achieves its goal after taking control of Tal Rifaat in a short period of time," the country's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during the provincial congress of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Trabzon, AFP reported.

On January 20, Ankara launched an air and ground offensive in the enclave of Afrin in Syria to root out the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) there, which Turkey brands a terrorist group, but which is seen by the United States as a key player in the fight against ISIS militants.Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi in a message has sympathized with victims of fire at a shopping center in the Russian city of Kemerovo.

Qasemi expressed condolences to Russian people and government and bereaved families of the deadly incident, IRNA reported.

The death toll of the blaze in Kemerovo shopping mall has risen to 56 people.President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has sent a letter of condolences to Russian President Vladimir Putin over the deadly mall fire in Kemerovo, the Akorda press service reports.

"On behalf of the people of Kazakhstan and personally, I express words condolences and empathy to relatives and acquaintances of those killed," the letter says.

Nazarbayev wished fast recovery and homecoming to all the victims.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Kremlin had no information on the causes of the fire in the Kemerovo shopping center.

"It would be completely wrong to talk about some versions now. You know that the Investigative Committee is working on the scene of the tragedy," he said.

"In fact, only the Investigative Committee can now put forward any versions of what has happened, and it is wrong to get ahead of ourselves and talk about something now," Sputnik cited Peskov as saying.

The spokesman added that if Russian President Vladimir Putin decides to visit Kemerovo, the Kremlin will report about it.Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter of condolences to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I was deeply saddened by the news of heavy casualties caused by a fire at a shopping mall in Kemerovo," the statement posted on the website of the Azerbaijani President says.

Ilham Aliyev extended his deepest condolences to Vladimir Putin, families and loved ones of those who died and wished the injured the swiftest possible recovery.The United Kingdom intends to take action against Russian capital of dubious origin, Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said.

According to Williamson, there are already warrants for the arrest of Russian finances of doubtful origin, for which a new law has recently begun to operate in the UK. The British goal is to ensure that any property attained by unknown means is registered, and for this, the necessary steps are being taken.

He promised that the government in the coming weeks and months would work very diligently and that these problems would be solved.

In his view, the goal of the Russian president is to "split the UK and its allies, but Estonia and many other states have shown that this is impossible," Sputnik reported.

Known as unexplained wealth orders, the new investigative powers allow British law enforcement to demand that any person holding property or assets worth more than 50,000 ($71,000) in the UK explain the origin of their wealth. After the High Court issues an order, the respondent is required to explain the extent of their interest in the specified property and how it was obtained - shifting the burden of proof from investigators to suspects.

A failure to comply can spark attempts to seize it under civil proceedings, on the assumption it has been obtained through unlawful conduct. Providing false or misleading information in response can also be punished with up to two years imprisonment.

Associate Professor of European law at the MGIMO university, Nikolai Topornin, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the West is deliberately trying to aggravate contacts with Russia. "The fact that the United Kingdom expelled 23 Russian diplomats shows that our diplomatic relations have fallen to a very low level," he said.

"Undoubtedly, today the ball is the court of the EU and the US, and they must show what they want from our relations." If they want friendship and good-neighborly cooperation, we are open and welcome such relations. But for now we only see that the West seeks to worsen our relations, moreover, isolate Russia from Western Europe and the Euro-Atlantic partnership. It worries us very much, because historically Russia has always been very closely connected with Europe, and we will always resist attempts to break the centuries-old Russian-European ties. Today's relations with the EU do not suit us, and we want to improve them, although, unfortunately, our powers are limited," Nikolai Topornin added.Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said that Georgia sees a huge resource in the relations with Belarus.

"We see a great resource in these relations and between two freedom-loving and hard-working nations," the Georgian President stressed.

"This is the friendship of the two leaders, which has already yielded fruits, and not abstract, but concrete. This will be the cooperation that will be tangible for all the Belarusians and all the Georgians. The prospects are growing. I cannot see any factors that could create problems for these prospects," BelTA cited Margvelashvili as saying.

Giorgi Margvelashvili also mentioned a big number of agreements Georgia and Belarus signed during the official visit of the Belarusian head of state on 22-23 March.A miner died last night during underground works in Shukruti mine in the village of Chiatura - a city in the western Georgian region of Imereti.

The mining accident claimed the life of 45-year-old Zaza Abramishvili at around 3 am.

Georgian American Alloys, the company responsible for the mine, said in a statement that part of the ceiling had collapsed and killed Abramishvili.

Deputy Head of Professional Unions Tamaz Dolaberidze claimed the place where the ceiling fell down in the mine was hazardous. He believes the administration of the mine should not be sending miners to work at places without appropriate safety conditions.

An investigation of the case is underway, Agenda.ge reported.The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) denies reports on the alleged launch of Turkeys operation against its militants in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, PKK member Kawa Sheikh Mus said.

"At the moment, there is no movement of Turkish [forces] in the town of Sinjar, Nineveh Governorate. If this happens, we will respond with force to protect the Yazidis [a Kurdish religious minority]," Sputnik cited the party's member as saying.

On Sunday, Turkish media cited President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying that that the operation against the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara, had started in Iraqs Sinjar.US authorities have decided to expel 60 Russian diplomats and close the Russian consulate in Seattle, an administration official said at a special briefing today.

"Today President Donald Trump ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian intelligence officers from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing," the White House official said.

According the the official, the United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world.

The diplomats being expelled from the US include 48 embassy staff and 12 members of Russias Permanent Mission to the United Nations. They are supposed to leave the United States within a week.

At the same time, the official noted that Washington planned to leave the door open for dialogue with Moscow.

Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said that he had expressed strong objection to the US decision to expel Russian diplomats, adding that by this move the US destroyed what had left of bilateral relations.

The European Council president, Donald Tusk, said 14 EU states had expelled Russian diplomats in response to the attack, adding that additional measures including further expulsions are not excluded in coming days, weeks.

Germany will expel four Russian diplomats, the countrys Foreign Ministry said. "We did not make the decision in a hurry," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter, noting that Moscow was not providing assistance to the investigation.

The Polish authorities have made a decision to expel four Russian diplomats by April 4, Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said. "Poland has made a decision to declare four Russian diplomats as personae non-gratae," he said.

France will also expel four Russian diplomats with intelligence agency backgrounds. Lithuania and the Czech Republic said they would expel three with Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands expelling two each.

Ukraine, which is not an EU member, is to expel 13 Russian diplomats and Canada four.Chinas yuan-denominated crude-oil futures surged on their long-awaited debut on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange today, indicating positive initial sentiment toward the new market, which Beijing hopes will eventually give the country an oil benchmark to rival those in the US and Europe.

Futures for September settlement, the most active contract, opened at 440 yuan a barrel, up from a reference price of 416 yuan. About 20,300 contracts changed hands over the course of the day, which excluded an additional 5 1/2 hours of overnight trading.

At one point, volume eclipsed trading in front-month Brent futures, which is typically lightest during the Asian day. But by 5 p.m. Shanghai time, 37,655 of those Brent contracts had changed hands. The daily average is about 285,000 for March. September Brent and WTI traded near $68.22 a barrel and $63.94, respectively, on Monday.

Commodity giants Glencore Plc and Trafigura Group were among foreign participants as the yuan-denominated futures started on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange today. After an initial surge in volume that outpaced overnight transactions in global benchmark Brent crude in London, trading tapered off toward the end of the session and the contract closed at 429.9 yuan a barrel ($68.22).

Glencore and Trafigura joined trading via overseas brokers, according to the Shanghai International Energy Exchange, which is known as INE. Other participants included Freepoint Commodities, BOCI Global Commodities and North Petroleum International. Among domestic companies, firms including Unipec, Chinaoil, Cnooc Ltd. and Sinochem took part. Independent refiner Shandong Huifeng Petrochemical did too, Bloomberg reported.

To attract more foreign participation, China will waive income taxes for overseas individuals and institutions. About 19 foreign brokers had registered to trade the contracts as of last week, the exchange said. While the country hopes to establish a benchmark for global oil transactions, whether the Asian nation will achieve that goal has been the subject of hot debate.

A senior analyst of 'Uralsib Capital', Alexei Kokin, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that in the first place the Shanghai International Energy Exchange will engage in Chinese domestic issues. "I believe that the main function of this contract in the near future is to offer Chinese investors access to global commodity markets. As for international investors, I think the contract may be of interest to them as an arbitrage opportunity, but it is unlikely to be convenient for hedging risks of oil suppliers," he warned.

"Typically, contracts that are convenient for hedging are tied to a place of storage that is close enough to the producing region. For example, Brent oil is the North Sea, WTI is Cushing. So I don't expect that the contract will lead to any special changes in the world oil market," Alexei Kokin stressed.The international community has expressed condolences after the fire at a shopping mall in the Russian city of Kemerovo killed more than 60 people.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was one of the first to extend condolences. "Vladimir Putin extends his sincere condolences to the families of those who died in the fire and wishes the soonest recovery to all those hurt," Putins press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

The staff of the information-analytical agency Vestnik Kavkaza expresses their condolences to the family of those killed in this terrible fire and can't find the right words to describe their pain for the children, who died in the fire, as well as wishes the soonest recovery to the injured.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter of condolences to Vladimir Putin.

"I was deeply saddened by the news of heavy casualties caused by a fire at a shopping mall in Kemerovo. I extend my deepest condolences to Vladimir Putin, families and loved ones of those who died and wish the injured the swiftest possible recovery," the statement posted on the website of the Azerbaijani President says.

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev also sent a letter of condolences to Vladimir Putin over the deadly mall fire in Kemerovo, the Akorda press service reports.

"On behalf of the people of Kazakhstan and personally, I express words condolences and empathy to relatives and acquaintances of those killed. I wish fast recovery and homecoming to all the victims," the letter says.

The leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Armenia, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Serzh Sargsyan, also offered condolences to the Russian president over the deadly fire.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi has sympathized with victims of fire at a shopping center. Qasemi expressed condolences to Russian people and government and bereaved families of the deadly incident.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also expressed condolences over the deadly mall fire. "I would like to extend my condolences to the Russian nation and state. I wish patience to everyone, who lost their relatives in the blaze," Cavusoglu wrote on its Twitter account.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic sent a telegram with condolences and an offer to provide assistance to Vladimir Putin.

"Please accept my sincere condolences over the tragedy in Kemerovo where the awful fire claimed many lives. We were deeply shocked that many children were among those dead. Serbia, as a small country but a big friend, may provide any kind of assistance, we are ready to do what we can," the telegram said

Moldovan President Igor Dodon sent a telegram to Putin saying he was deeply saddened. "The report about the death of children in this terrible tragedy is especially regrettable."

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said that the people and government of China extend their deepest condolences over numerous deaths in the shopping mall fire.

Spokesperson for the US Embassy in Moscow Maria Olson also wrote on Twitter: "Terrible, terrible tragedy in Siberia. Our hearts go out to the victims and families."

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders also extended condolences over the tragedy on Twitter. "Very sad to hear the news of the deadly fire in #Kemerovo, #Russia. I express my sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of the victims."

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir tweeted: "Terrible news from #Kemerovo. My deepest condolences to the family and friends of the victims of the fire of the shopping center."

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz expressed his condolences over the tragedy. "My condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the terrible fire in the shopping mall in Kemerovo," the Austrian chancellor wrote on his Twitter account. "It is tragic that so many children are dead or missing," Chancellor Kurz stated. "I wish a speedy recovery to those injured."

Condolences also came from Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics and Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs.

The fire at the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping mall in central Kemerovo erupted yesterday on the top floor of the four-storey building engulfing an area of some 1600 square meters. According to the latest data, 64 people were killed, many of them children, and 44 others sought medical assistance.Land Law to be revised Updated: 10:37 - 26/03/2018

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) has recently introduced a raft of draft amendments to the 2013 Land Law.



According to the MONRE, several shortcomings have been revealed after three years implementation of the Land Law. Access to land remains a problem hindering the improvement of the countrys investment environment and the development of the business circle.



Land use efficiency remains low. Corruptive practices, self-seeking acts and under-collection of state budget revenues still exist in the land management sector. Land-related complaints and denunciations continue to be complicated, posing a threat to public security. In addition, the process of agricultural land accumulation and concentration takes a slow pace, discouraging investment in agriculture.



Farmers in Quang Son commune, Tam Diep city, Ninh Binh province, switch

from rice growing to lotus farming for higher economic value__Photo: Thuy Dung/VNA



Hence, the 2013 Land Law should be revised to meet socio-economic development requirements in the new period, the MONRE argued.



The revision would focus on several major issues, including the agricultural land management and use mechanism, land recovery, change of land use purposes, and land pricing.



Eradicating farmland acquisition quota



The MONRE proposes two options on the quota for acquisition of agricultural land.



In the first option, the farmland acquisition quota, which currently ranges between 30 hectares and 550 hectares per farmer or farming household depending on land use purposes, would be increased by 10 times. As per the second option, such quota would be abolished.



The MONRE supports the second option but admits that such option, if selected, might give rise to some negative practices.



As explained by the MONRE, the abolishment of the farmland acquisition quota would help ensure households and individuals access to agricultural land in conformity with their demand and capacity, thus breaking down the existing bottleneck in agricultural development for the time being.



However, there remain some worries about this option. Experts warned that one might abuse the eradication of the land acquisition quota to accumulate and speculate land and consequently, not a few farmers would become landless.



Top leader of MONRE Tran Hong Ha, in an interview with the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper, said: Land constitutes a political-economic-social topic. The settlement of land-related issues, including land accumulation and concentration policies, should deal with all these aspects.



There should be comprehensive solutions to regulate the multilateral relationship among agriculture, farmers and rural areas such as rural economic restructuring, and building appropriate models and methods of coordination among farmers and between farmers and businesses, Ha stressed.



Increasing cases of land recovery by the State



The MONRE proposes three changes to the current Land Laws provisions on land recovery by the State.



The first change is to increase cases of land recovery for socio-economic development for national or public interests to cover also recovering land, especially land plots at advantageous positions, from state agencies, non-business units and state enterprises under plans on relocation of production and business establishments and state agencies from inner cities.



Particularly, the MONRE recommends allowing allocation or lease of land for implementation of projects on socio-economic development for national or public interests not through auction of land use rights or bidding for selection of investors. Once the ministrys proposal is approved, investors may themselves negotiate with land users on transfer of land use rights, if they so wish.



The second amendment is to establish a mechanism for handling cases in which investors and land users cannot reach agreement on acquisition, lease or contribution of land for implementation of production and business projects.



The third change is to add some other cases in which land recovery will be decided by the Government.



Assigning district-level administrations to fix land prices serving compensation work



Under the 2013 Land Law, provincial-level Peoples Committees may decide on land prices serving land allocation, land lease and compensation for land recovery by the State. Meanwhile, the competence to decide on land recovery from households and individuals is vested with district-level administrations. According to the MONRE, such provisions lead to delayed and impractical determination of land prices.



To address this issue, the MONRE suggests empowering district-level Peoples Committees to decide on land prices in case of recovering land from, or allocating or leasing land to, households and individuals. The ministry also recommends adding representatives of households and individuals whose land is recovered to land pricing councils.



Allowing foreigners to own homes in Vietnam



Although the 2013 Land Law has a separate article on subjects having the right to use land in Vietnam, it is silent about foreigners eligibility for house ownership and grant of house ownership certificates under the Housing Law. In order to make the Land Law compatible with the Housing Law, the MONRE proposes adding foreigners to groups of persons allowed to own homes in Vietnam.-

, , ,Vietnam calls for stronger cooperation to solve migration crises Updated: 15:01 - 26/03/2018

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan speaks at the general debate on migrants and refugees of the 138th IPU Assembly in Geneva on March 25__Photo: VNA

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Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan has emphasized that to solve migration crises, it is necessary to enhance cooperation at global level with the active participation of countries and international organizations.Ngan was addressing the first general debate, themed Strengthening the global regime for migrants and refugees: the need for evidence-based policy solutions, at the 138th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 25 (local time).In her speech, she underscored the need to create a full legal framework to help protect human dignity and rights along with the fundamental freedoms of migrants, while promoting their contributions to the development of each nation in terms of not only economy but also culture and knowledge.The top Vietnamese legislator said as the worlds biggest inter-parliamentary organization, the IPU should continue taking the lead in promoting cooperation for development among countries. It should encourage the participation of member parliaments in protecting the rights of people and contribute to coping with challenges and risks, particularly those relating to migration, she said.Meanwhile, member parliaments also need to play an active role in building international and regional peace and security by requesting their respective governments to resolve disputes and conflicts through peaceful measures, not use or threaten to use force, and respect international law, Ngan stressed.The chairwoman affirmed Vietnams consistent policy of ensuring all people are equal before the law and creating conditions for people to adopt the right to migrate and engage in socio-economic development, exchanges and community connectivity.At international level, Vietnam supports legal migration activities, particularly labor migration and resolutely fights against illegal migration, especially human trafficking and transnational crimes, the ensuring of safe migration and the protection of rights and legitimate interests of migrants during the migration process, she said.As an active and responsible member of the international community, Vietnam is willing to actively join global efforts in dealing with the migration issue in line with its development level, law and international treaties of which the country is a member, she said.Peace and stability are the prerequisites for boosting socio-economic development and ensuring fundamental rights and happiness of people in any country around the world, she said, stressing that they are the key to thoroughly addressing current crises.While suggesting solutions, the lawmaker said the international community should continue consolidating a peaceful and stable environment for sustainable development and preventing the seeds of conflicts and disputes. The international community should promote proper international legal frameworks with international commitments to ensure the rights and interests of legal migrants and to prevent illegal migration, human trafficking and transnational crimes.According to Ngan, the role of parliaments and parliamentarians should be enhanced in building and perfecting the law, supervising governments enforcement of policies and laws in this field. They need to ensure that people from all strata are treated equally and to create conditions for migrants to benefit from healthcare, educational and social welfare policies and seek jobs like local people.The chairwoman called for dialogue and cooperation to prevent violent extremism, terrorism, poverty and social inequality which could lead to migrant crises like in recent years.She also pointed to the need to promote cooperation between nations and regional and international organizations to create resources and support countries affected by illegal migration and to devise sustainable solutions.Concluding her speech, Chairwoman Ngan affirmed that the National Assembly of Vietnam pledges to be a responsible member ready to work with the IPU and member parliaments to carry out the IPUs resolutions and initiatives, thus contributing to peace and sustainable development.-HCM CITY  The exhibition and conference "Science and Technology for Agricultural Development in the South Central Coast - Central Highlands in 2018" will be held in Khanh Hoa Provinces Nha Trang city from June 28 to July 1.

The programme will feature five main activities: an exhibition introducing agricultural products, and technology and equipment used in the agricultural sector; a conference on science and technology applications in agriculture; a programme to promote investment in technology and technology transfer; an agricultural extension programme; and a technology demonstration.

The exhibition is expected to have 300-400 booths set up by businesses, co-operatives and farmers from more than 20 provinces and cities.

Tran Xuan ich, deputy director of the National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said, in addition to tourism, the agricultural sector plays an important role in contributing to social-economic development in the South Central Coast region.

The regions agricultural development was still slow compared to its potential, he said, adding that farmers and businesses need to embrace the application of advanced technologies to create specific products of each locality that are highly competitive in both domestic and export markets.

The programme promises to provide a good chance for farmers, businesses, organisations and scientists to exchange information, understand each others challenges and enhance co-operation in technology application in the agricultural sector so as to improve product quality and productivity as well as the value of Vietnamese farm produce, he said.

Phan Thi My Yen, director of the Centre for Viet-Trademark Research Application and Development, said recent research conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that science and technology contributed 30-40 per cent of the agricultural sectors growth in past years.

"The figure is expected to increase since more and more businesses have made big investments in the sector," she said.

The event is organised by the National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development and the Centre for Viet-Trademark Research Application and Development in collaboration with the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development and Industry and Trade together with 24 localities nationwide.  VNSHA NOI - Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong visited Belgium and the European Union last week to promote agricultural cooperation with the two partners.

At the four-day visit ending last Saturday, he also demonstrated Viet Nams efforts in fighting illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.



Through a series of meetings, the Vietnamese minister urged the European Union to lift the yellow card, which was imposed on Viet Nam on October 23, 2017, due to its failure to meet the requirements on IUU fishing prevention.



In his meeting with Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Cuong reported about the current implementation of the European Unions recommendations on anti-IUU fishing in Viet Nam, highlighting concerted efforts of the entire nation and challenges facing the effort.



Cuong expressed hope of improved cooperation between Viet Nam and the European Union in fighting IUU fishing and carrying out the Voluntary Partnership Agreement in line with the European Unions Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade as well as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.



The minister also had a working session with Phil Hogan, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, during which he stressed the European Unions significant role in Viet Nams farming sector in terms of partnership, investment and knowledge-technical transfer.



Highlighting the importance of the European Union- Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), Cuong suggested both sides to soon ratify the pact to boost trade, particularly of agro-fishery-forestry products.



Cuong asked the European Union to consider practical conditions for developing countries such as Viet Nam during its assessment and inspection of the seafood safety control system.



Regarding measures to implement the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement, both the host and guest agreed to hold more dialogues to discuss the document content and implementation of SPS regulations in EVFTA.



Both the commissioners acknowledged and lauded Viet Nams drastic efforts in increasing laws and policies to counter IUU fishing and monitor food safety. They said the efforts would help stimulate the growth of comprehensive bilateral partnership and facilitate EVFTAs signing and ratification.



The European Union announced it would send a technical team to Viet Nam in May to review the countrys actions against IUU fishing.



In another meeting with Alain Cadec, Chair of the European Parliaments Committee on Fisheries, Cuong talked about the measures employed by Viet Nam to deter IUU fishing and asked for Cadecs support, in addition to the support of the European Union, to make the process more effective.



While in Brussels, the minister met Belgiums Federal Minister for Agriculture Denis Ducarme to beef up farming cooperation with the European country.



Both ministers agreed to promote investment collaboration in agriculture, with Cuong suggesting the Belgian side to assist Viet Nam in meeting standards and regulations of the country as well as the European Union.



Ducarme said Belgium prioritised collaboration with Viet Nam and expressed belief that bilateral farming engagements would expand in future. - VNSHAI PHONG  Japanese businesses have become an important part of Hai Phongs economy, said municipal Party Committee Secretary Le Van Thanh at a conference in the northern port city on Saturday.

The conference was held to promote Japanese investment and tourism.



At the conference, Vietnamese and Japanese firms discussed cooperation opportunities and their potential in the sectors of tourism, auto support industry, logistics and human resources training. The Hai Phong Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Centre signed seven memoranda of understanding on cooperation with Japanese companies.



Speaking at the event, Japanese Ambassador to Viet Nam Umeda Kunio highlighted the growth of ties between Japan and Hai Phong as reflected in several Viet Nam-Japan trade pacts on major projects in the city, adding that the local Tan Vu bridge and port were built using Japanese technologies.



Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Hai Phong had convenient infrastructure and was active in institutional reforms, which were plus points in attracting investors.



He expected 60 participating investors to promote Hai Phongs favourable business climate among their Japanese peers.



He also said attracting Japanese investment was a goal set by the Vietnamese Government, Hai Phong authorities in particular.



As of February 2018, Japan had 134 FDI (foreign direct investment) projects in Hai Phong, capitalised at US$4.31 billion, ranking first in volume and second in value.



Hai Phongs tourism-culture cooperation with Japanese localities also recorded positive outcomes, with frequent delegation and cultural exchanges, trade promotion events and joint educational programmes. - VNSIn December Ho Chi Minh Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank) had sold stakes to more than 76 foreign investors before listing. Photo ndh.vn

by Thien Ly

Since last year there has been a churn in the banking sector with some foreign investors selling their stakes in local banks and others buying in.

Frances BNP Paribas, HSBC and Australias Commonwealth Bank have been among those pulling out.

ANZ sold its retail banking division to Koreas Shinhan Bank and Standard Chartered Bank sold its entire 8.75 per cent stake in Asia Commercial Bank.

Analysts said foreign banks are merely pulling out to invest in more profitable markets.

Some pointed out that Asian banks which enter Viet Nam seem to be more successful than their western counterparts. They attributed this to their better understanding of the local market and business culture.

But even in the case of western funds, the flow is not one-way: Just this month Viet Nam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) revealed it is selling stakes worth over US$370 million to US private equity firm Warburg Pincus.

In December Ho Chi Minh Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank) had sold stakes to more than 76 foreign investors before listing.

The investors include some familiar names like VinaCapital, Dragon Capital, Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Vietnam Opportunities Fund and financial institutions like CAM Bank (Japan), RWC Frontier Markets Opportunity Master Fund (UK), Macquarie Bank (Australia), and Charlemagne (UK).

HDBanks partner in the consumer finance division, Credit Saison (Japan), also bought a stake.

In all investors paid $300 million for a 21.5 per cent stake in HDBank.

Finnish independent fund management company PYN Fund Management recently completed acquisition of a 4.99 per cent stake in Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank) for $40 million, marking its largest investment yet in Viet Nam.

With a total portfolio value of 417 million euros, PYN is now the third largest foreign investment fund in Viet Nam.

South-Korean based Hana Financial Group has acquired a stake in the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV).

The banking sector is at an historic point now, with a cleaning up of books well under way. The real estate market is booming, meaning banks bad debts are being settled increasingly and their revenues are increasing.

But for analysts the most important factor is that the Government is forcing banks to meet Basel II standards.

They said foreign investors recognise the potential of Viet Nams financial market, especially on mobile platforms, since the country has 53 million mobile subscribers and 40 million users.

The Government is making policy changes that would help the industry overcome its limitations in technology, capital and management, making foreign investors feel secure.

While foreign investors would like to woo Vietnamese banks, they are hamstrung by the fact that most of the latter have reached or are close to reaching foreign ownership caps.

Vietnamese law allows maximum ownership of a bank by a single foreign investor of 20 per cent and combined ownership by foreign entities of 30 per cent.

Based on these numbers, only a few banks remain below the threshold, most of them still in the process of restructuring, including SCB, BacA Bank, VietABank, and Sacombank.

Many lenders have suggested that the State Bank of Viet Nam should increase the foreign ownership caps to 35-40 per cent in case of State-owned banks and 49-51 per cent in case of private banks.

Foreign investors want the ratio to be increased to 50 per cent or even 65 per cent.

Traditional grocers lose out to modern retail

Hai Huong, 66, owns a small grocery store in an alley off Huynh inh Hai Street in HCM Citys Binh Thanh District. The shop has helped her run her family for the last 20-odd years.

But now she plans to close it following a terminal slump and bad losses in recent times.

Business has dropped day after day, she said.

Most of her once-regular customers have switched to convenience stores or mini supermarkets, which are mushrooming in that area.

But she admitted their choice was easy to understand because the modern retail stores have a huge range of products, a majority of them of high quality, and routinely offer promotions.

I cannot compete with them, she said.

Thousands of these so-called mom and pop shops in cities and towns around the country face a similar fate as modern retail shops spring up everywhere.

According to a recent survey by the Viet Nam High Quality Goods Association, traditional grocery shops share of business has gone down from 17 per cent in 2011 to 9 per cent now.

From just two supermarkets in HCM City in the late 1990s growth has been dizzying and now there are thousands of modern stores of all types around the country. By 2015 there were round 2,000 convenience stores and mini supermarkets.

Vinmart+ for instance entered the retail business only three years ago but has already become the biggest convenience store chain in the country with 1,000 outlets.

According to IDG research Viet Nams convenience store market is expected to grow at 37.4 per cent annually, the highest rate in Asia.

A recent report by Kantar Worldpanel said the modern retail channel is growing at 15 per cent, a much higher rate than traditional channels like wet markets and grocery shops.

Experts said the reasons for the strong growth of the modern retail sector can in fact be linked to the limitations of pop and mom stores.

Most of the latter are small, measuring under 20 square metres on average, meaning the area for displaying goods is limited, a major factor in shopping.

Many of the products sold at these traditional stores do not have clear information with regard to product origin, expiry date, quality and usage instructions.

Viet Nams strong economic growth, a rapidly growing middle class with higher disposable incomes, frenetic urbanisation and increasing concern about hygiene and food safety are major factors fuelling the rapid growth of modern retail.

The country also has a growing number of sophisticated consumers, especially young urban consumers, and middle-class shoppers who have little time to shop daily for food.

It also has a large number of women in the workforce with rising disposable incomes, who buy higher value consumer items for their children and families.

Products sold at modern retail stores are perceived as safer than those sold in wet markets and traditional grocery shops.

Food safety and hygiene have an increasingly important influence over consumers food purchasing decisions. As a result, many are willing to pay a premium for perceived quality, nutrition and hygiene in their food and drinks.

The USs A.T. Kearney says 24-hour convenience stores and mini supermarkets are now the most favoured shopping outlets among Vietnamese consumers.

There is a dizzying range of chains now -- Circle K, Bs mart, Family Mart, MiniStop, Shop&Go and 7-Eleven owned by foreigners and CoopFood, Co.op Smile, SatraFoods, Vinmart+, Hapro and Vissan owned by Vietnamese companies -- with all of them having a presence all over the nation.

The rapid development of the modern retail channel is also thanks to Government policies, which are always favourable to it.

For instance, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trades Circular No.08/2013, in case of setting up a retail establishment of foreign retailers with area of less than 500 square meters in area planned for goods trading activities by central-affiliated cities and provinces and already finished construction of infrastructure, it is not required to perform provision on checking the economic demand.  VNSSamina Naz, ambassador of Bangladesh to Viet Nam, sends a message to Viet Nam News readers to mark Bangladeshs National and Independence Day (March 26) and celebrate the 45th year of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

It is a matter of additional celebration for Bangladesh, as it has been successfully attained all the criteria for graduating from Least Developed Country to Developing Country this year. In April 2018, Bangladesh is being elevated from the lower income status to the lower middle income one for the first time since its independence, meeting the World Bank and IMFs requirements comfortably. Bangladesh now plans to secure the higher middle-income status by 2021.

On the occasion of the Independence and National day of Bangladesh, the nation deeply recalls with gratitude and profound respect the name of the Father of the Nation of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who proclaimed countrys independence on this day in 1971. It is due to his Charismatic call for freedom of war through his historic speech of in March of that year, which has been recognised by UNESCO as a part of world heritage and documentary evidence, and his dynamic leadership, the nation achieved its much awaited independence, through a nine-month long armed struggle.

Bangladesh is grateful to all foreign friends who supported, assisted, extended direct help to Bangladesh during the war including Viet Nam.

To materialise the dream of the Father of the Nation of a Sonar Bangla or Golden Bengal  Bangladesh  under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Bangabandhu, is progressing rapidly to emerge as a middle income Country by 2021 and a developed nation by 2041. Bangladesh achieved its highest growth in the last nine years in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017 by securing a rate of 7.28 per cent.

We have attained notable progress in private sectors, in the areas of readymade garments, pharmaceuticals, ceramic and ship-building industry. Progress in infrastructure development, electricity production, education and health sectors, use of technology, women empowerment, human resources development, and extension of social safety net all are bringing changes in Bangladesh.

Today, Bangladesh has been acclaimed as a role model by the United Nations for successful implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Now, we are committed to the Sustainable Development Goals. Bangladesh as one of the worlds largest contributors of troops to the UN peacekeeping missions, has been making great contributions to the worlds peace and security. Bangladeshs initiatives to respond to global challenges such as terrorism, climate change, water security have been highly appreciated by the international community.

There has been a significant progress in agricultural sector. Bangladesh has achieved self-sufficiency in food production at national level. The country is now the third and 5th largest producer of fish and vegetable in the world. Progress is also taking place in the industrial sector, Industry now accounts for 32.48 per cent of the GDP. Readymade garments are the leading sector. With a view to accelerating and decentralising industrialisation and expanding employment, special economic zones are now being established in different parts of the country, in both public and private sectors.

Bangladesh attaches great importance to its relations with Viet Nam. The current status of bilateral relations that so happily exists between the two countries have commonality and similarity of history of struggle for independence, socio-economic development, culture, livelihood, food habit (both rice and fish producing and consuming counties) and importantly, empowerment and advancement of women. Both Bangladesh and Viet Nam National Parliaments are headed by women. The Government of Bangladesh is headed by a woman leader for consecutive nine years at a row.

Bangladeshs Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Viet Nams President Ho Chi Minh, both envisaged the dream of free people and dedicated their lives to realise the dream. Both the countries peoples are, therefore, not only bonded by shared values and culture but also by a deep commitment to carry forward the beacon of humanity. In this regard, I pay my deepest respect to great leader of Viet Nam Ho Chi Minh.

On our Independence month, March 2018 witnessed a historic development in Bangladesh-Viet Nam relations. President of Viet Nam Tran ai Quang paid a State visit to Bangladesh with a delegation over 200 members on March 4-6. This was the first visit by a Vietnamese President to Bangladesh within last 14 years, to mark the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations to a new height.

Bangladesh believes that the visit of President Quang strengthened the bonds of traditional friendly relationship between the two countries in a remarkable way.

Leaders of the two countries agreed to exert greater efforts to double the two-way trade, which stood at US$920 million in 2017 and reached consensus on strengthening collaboration in agriculture, trade, education, IT, defence, security, tourism, culture and people-to-people exchanges, and maintaining good relationship at regional and international forums. Both Bangladesh and Viet Nam hoped that the bilateral trade could be reached at US$2 billion by 2020.

However, one of the problems is that both Bangladeshi and Vietnamese companies are not fully aware about each others market, which we need to explore. We need to tap the full potential and opportunities that we may offer and extend to each other. Bangladesh government is more and more focusing on attracting foreign investment by setting up 100 special economic zones nationwide. As of now, some Vietnamese companies, especially those in the field of IT and communication, are taking initial steps to establish joint venture projects in Bangladesh. I would request the Viet Nam business sectors to consider investing in those special economic zones and to avail the incentives we offer.

I feel it is my honour and great happiness to welcome the President of Viet Nam to Bangladesh within the six months of taking the charges of Bangladesh Ambassador, I could materialise a long awaited visit of the President to Bangladesh, introduce my country as a promising market to Vietnamese business community. In the future, the Bangladesh Embassy plans to organise a number of seminars and programme on bilateral trade and investment promotion in Ha Noi aiming to create platforms for companies of both countries to meet, discuss and establish partnership.

I wish for the prosperity, good health and happiness of the peoples of Bangladesh and Viet Nam and the traditional friendship between Bangladesh and Viet Nam be further strengthened in the coming days.  VNSHa Noi  I wish my dream car could actually work in reality. I drew fire trucks with lightning speed which could help firefighters get to fires in no time, Ho Ngoc Anh Thi, a fourth grade student from Tran Nhat Duat primary school in Ha Noi said.

Thi was speaking at the award ceremony of the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest held in Ha Noi on Saturday.

This work entitled Fire extinguisher car with lighting speed is among the 14 first prize winners.

This years 14 first prizes, 16 second prizes, 30 third prizes and 100 consolation prizes were given to children in three age categories (under eight, 8-11 and 12-15) with artworks representing their dream cars.

I was amazed by the creativity of the children, there are hundreds of artworks hung in the gallery, but they are all different. Each one sends different messages but they are all innocent ideas with pure desire of improving the environment, Nguyen Ngoc Tan, a father of one student said.

Toru Kinoshita, Toyota Motor Vietnam president said: Beloved pupils, we have seen your imagination and creativeness through the dream cars that will be helpful for peoples lives and transportation in the future. I strongly believe that one day your dream cars will become a reality.

The nine best artworks were selected and will participate in the World Contest. The winners of the World Contest (together with their guardians) will be invited to Japan to attend the Award Ceremony and experience various aspects of Japanese culture in August 2018.

This years contest received 345,185 entries.

The Toyota Dream Car Art Contest, initiated in 2004, has been held annually to inspire childrens imagination.

Viet Nam, since the school year 2011-2012, is one of the countries which achieved many awards in the world contest in Japan, including one gold award, one silver award and three best finalist awards.  VNSPhoto courtesy of laodong.vn

by Thu Van

There seemed to be a collective gasp of horror as the news spread recently of a mother and her new-born dying as she tried to give birth at home.

It was, thankfully, followed by a collective sigh of relief as the deaths turned out to be a piece of fake news.

But this fake news opened the door to a very real, very scary movement involving hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese mothers, one that swears by nature, but swears off modern medicine.

While their motto of letting nature take its course seems sensible, even desirable, the rejection of scientific knowledge sows some doubt over it, the rejection, being an informed decision.

While it has to be conceded that there have been and still are several problems with vaccination, its conceptualisation, impacts and risks involved, these have to be weighed against what has actually been achieved. Furthermore, the risks involved in the nothing-but-nature approach have to be critically examined.

Earlier this month, a mother from northern Hung Yen Province posted a picture of her newborn baby on a Facebook group page called Thuan tu nhien (Natural Life), which has around 250,000 members. The baby was shown with a plastic bowl holding the placenta that was still connected to the babys belly button. The mother said she was following the lotus birth method, giving birth at home without doctors or nurses, and presumably, no midwives. The post that accompanied the photo said the umbilical cord would be left uncut till it naturally separates at the umbilicus six days later.

Theres more. After the natural childbirth and its attendant risks, the natural people also take their belief in breastfeeding and breast milk to the extreme. In their eyes, breast milk is a panacea for all infant ills. The founder of the group, who claims to have international lactation consultation certificates, often provides advice to other mothers while answering questions posted on the groups Facebook page. The information she provides stretches credulity, at least from a modern scientific perspective. For instance, she claims that breast milk can treat heart disease in newborns and that it even allows a childs cut thumbs to grow back."

It is not a surprise that people who hold such strong positions, also refuse to have their children vaccinated, fearing their side effects, which includes death.

Why would we inject poisons into our babies bodies, one of them has asked, and received many nods in agreement.

Before dismissing such statements as cult-like fanaticism, the rational, reasonable response would be to examine and re-examine available evidence on which they are based.

For instance, is homebirth safe? The answer depends on where it happens.

In Canada, studies have shown that in carefully selected populations, there is no difference between the number of babies who die at home or in the hospital. The situation similar is the Netherlands, where homebirths account for 16 per cent of the total number of births.

However, in the US, yes, a so-called developed country lik the US, things are very different. Figures from Oregon state in 2012 found the the death rate for babies in planned home births with midwives was about seven times that of births in hospitals. A reasonable conclusion that can be drawn from this is that homebirth is a process fraught with risk.

Those in the nothing but nature movement might find it convenient to imagine a glorious past, but the truth is that the rate of early deaths and neonatal deaths, as also maternal deaths, was much higher until several decades ago.

Lets just take the year 1990 for example: the rate of neonatal deaths was 59 per every 1,000 babies, asnd the maternity death rate was 233 per every 100,000 cases. With the achievement of the healthcare sector using technology and modern medicine, these rates reduced correspondingly to 18 and 54 in 2015. This is irrefutable evidence of a modern miracle.

We cannot ignore the impact of mass vaccination campaigns of the past all over the world. It has led to the virtual disappearance of several infectious diseases, beginning with small pox.

The evidence is also that in countries without efficient vaccination programmes, the all but extinct diseases continue to kill children and adults.

While the risks inherent in vaccinations, some of which have come to light recently in Viet Nam, cannot be denied, the approval of vaccines is a long, stringent process.

Last November, a 16-day-old baby was hospitalised in Ha Noi with her eyes in critical condition, after her mother used breast milk to treat her eyesores. The poor baby was almost blinded. The mother admitted that she was following a tip shared on Facebook.

It seems that a section of people have resorted to Facebook and other social media the way people have been using pharmacists and drugstores instead of doctors.

This is no way to settle the vaccination question. Parents have a choice, but they have to ensure that it is an informed decision, keeping in mind that they bear ultimate responsibility for how their children are affected by their choices.

We know that the number of encephalitis and whooping cough cases, diseases that are mostly preventable by vaccination, are on the rise in Viet Nam.

During the Jan-May period last year, 119 cases of whooping cough were recorded, with two children killed by the disease. A large number of the patients were found to have had no vaccination or insufficient vaccinations.

Similarly, while children are expected to get encephalitis vaccinations, 21 infections were recorded in June 2017, and many of the patients in critical conditions had not been vaccinated.

Today across Europe and America, measles outbreaks, once on the verge of extinction thanks to widespread vaccination, have become endemic again.

Before the measles vaccine was introduced, nine out of every 10 kids would contract the disease before 15. Two million people died every year.

Europe recorded some 21,000 cases last year, according to the World Health Organisation, which is nearly four times as many cases in the previous year. The countries worst affected were Romania, Italy, and Ukraine, which each recorded about 5,000 cases. The WHO reckons this is due to a decline in routine immunization, low vaccination rates in marginalized groups, interruption in vaccine supplies, or lack of adequate disease surveillance.

Anti-vaccine parents often refer to studies showing the fatal effects of vaccines, citing, for example, one by Andrew Wakefield, who released a paper linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to the onset of autism. But do they know that in 2010, an ethics review board found that Wakefield had falsified the data in his report, causing an immediate retraction of his original paper and revocation of his medical license?

All parents want the best for their babies, but their decision not to vaccinate their children has to be based on scientific evidence and be aware that it can do more damage than good. If only ten babies are not vaccinated, the risk of the community suffering from some disease epidemics is much higher.

The Vietnamese Government has been coming down hard on advertising-based choices made by mothers to feed their children formula milk instead of breast milk.

Stephen Hawking once said The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge".

The illusion of knowledge can, and has led to fanatic beliefs. We should act before the beliefs of the let nature take its course community descend into extremism and fanaticism.  VNSGENEVA  It is essential to create a full legal framework to protect the rights of migrants and promote their contributions to the development of each nation in terms of both economy, culture and knowledge, said Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

Ngan made the statement during the general debate on migrants and refugees of the 138th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly which opened in Geneva, Switzerland yesterday.

Themed Strengthening the global regime for migrants and refugees: the need for evidence-based policy solutions, the general debate drew 700 parliamentarians and National Assembly deputies, including more than 60 heads of legislative bodies.

Ngan said the IPU should encourage the participation of member countries in protecting the rights and interests of people and contribute to coping with challenges and risks, particularly migration.

She affirmed Viet Nams policy to ensure all people are equal and create conditions for people to adopt the right to migrate and join socio-economic development, exchanges and community connectivity.

At international level, Viet Nam supports legal migration activities, particularly labour migration and resolutely fights against illegal migration, especially human trafficking and transnational crimes, she said.

Viet Nam is willing and actively joins global efforts in dealing with migration issue in line with development level, national law and international treaties of which Viet Nam is a member, she said.

To deal with crises relating to immigration, it was necessary to increase co-operation at global level with countries and international organisations, Ngan said.

The international community should continue promoting legal frameworks with international commitments to ensure the rights of legal migrants and to prevent illegal immigration, human trafficking and transnational crimes, she added.

She also pointed to the need to promote co-operation among nations with regional and international organisations to create resources and support countries affected by illegal immigration and to give propose solutions to the issue.

In her opening remarks, IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron stressed the importance of the Asia-Pacific region, which holds 60 per cent of the worlds GDP, adding that the region plays an important role in addressing major challenges like climate change, sustainable development, migration, inequality and terrorism.

She emphasised the necessity of regional co-operation to tackle these challenges.

At the event, IPU General Secretary Martin Chungong reported on IPU activities in 2017, with the focus on activities to intensify democracy of member parliaments, promote gender equality and human rights and contribute to consolidating peace and ensuring security.

The meeting of the IPU-138 Executive Committee, to last until March 28, will look into issues regarding IPU members, as well as financial matters, the IPU Strategy for 2017-2021, the unions co-operation with the UN, and preparations for the IPU-139 slated for October 2018 in Geneva.

The First Standing Committee on Peace and International Security will discuss maintaining peace to achieve sustainable development.

Meanwhile, the Second Standing Committee on Sustainable Development, Finance and Trade will talk about promoting the private sectors engagement in implementing sustainable development goals (SDGs), especially those regarding renewable energy.

The Third Standing Committee on Democracy and Human Rights will mull enhancing inter-parliamentary co-operation in migration and migration administration.

The Fourth Standing Committee on UN Affairs is expected to deliberate SDGs and preparations for the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in 2018.

Alongside forums of female and young parliaments, there will be a forum of the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments on collaboration between parliaments and Governments in planning and organisation of parliamentary activities.

On the sidelines the IPU-138, Chairwoman Ngan met with Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament Karu Jayasuriya and Speaker of the National Assembly of Bulgaria Tsveta Karayancheva on Sunday.  VNSStudents help sell the turnips at the gate of the Thong Nhat Park, on Le Duan Street.  Photo dantri.com.vn

by Thu Trang

HA NOI  Nguyen Ngoc Hoang is a man on a mission. He turns up at university to study two days of the week but the rest of the time he goes somewhere else - at the farm to help sell turnips.

He is one of a number of volunteers who give up their spare time to help farmers sell their vegetables.

This was because after over farming, many were left with too many turnips and not enough customers.

So moved after hearing the plight of farmers in Trang Viet Commune, Me Linh District in Ha Noi, Hoang decided to do something about it.

Hoang, a Ha Noi University of Technology student, has spent the past 10 days volunteering at the Thong Nhat Park because he knows farmers have been unable to sell 140ha of their produce after harvesting.

Many vegetables will be thrown away, but not if Hoang has anything to do with it. And he found out about the sale thanks to a modern twist  Facebook.

The information was shared on Facebook, and said local farmers needed help to bring the turnips to several places in inner Ha Noi for sale, so I decided to go there to join, said Hoang.

Hoang helps sell the turnips at the gate of the Thong Nhat Park, on Le Duan Street, from 7am to 6.30pm.

And hes not the only one offering a helping hand.

There are several places on Tran Nhan Tong and Tran Hung ao streets, plus Cau Giay Road, where sellers are volunteers.

The turnips are sold at VN25,000 (US$1.1) per five-kilo bag.

Hoang can sell about 10 tonnes of turnips per day.

Nguyen Thuy Van, a journalist of the Nhan Dan (The People) newspaper, launched the helping programme.

Once Van went to Me Linh District on business, and knew that local farmers could not sell their turnips, she decided to post on her Facebook to call for some help.

The turnips were planted with Japanese seeds, and under Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGAP).

To my surprise, many people encourage me, so I connect with local farmers to help them bring the turnips to inner Ha Noi for sale, said Van.

After only several hours, thousands of orders were sent to Vans Facebook.

Not only individuals, but also organisations, schools, pagodas and companies ordered the turnips in great amount.

My happiness is multiplied when many students and State workers met me and proposed to be volunteers to sell the turnips, Van said.

Many people do not fear long distance and determine to go and support the farmers.

Nguyen Van Cu, a war invalid, took a bus early morning from his house in Ha ong District, a suburban district of Ha Noi, to the Thong Nhat Park to buy turnips.

He bought dozens of kilogrammes of turnips.

I use my little invalids allowance to buy the turnips, just want to contribute a part in helping the farmers, Cu said.

He intends to share the turnips, and also the programme information to his relatives, friends and neighbours.

The programme also receives encouragement from local authorities and security forces.

Nguyen Manh Duy, a local security guard, who often goes on patrol on Le Duan Road, said that he found the programme very humanitarian.

I help keep public order in the area and remind them about keeping traffic safety because many people come here to buy the turnips, he said.

Duy himself also encourages his family and colleagues to join the effort easing the farmers hardship.  VNSNGHE AN  An unlicensed doctor in the central province of Nghe An was fined VN50 million (US$2,200) for performing an unsafe abortion that killed a local woman.

The unlicensed doctor, inh Thi Thanh, 52, performed the abortion by placing a catheter into the womans uterus and fed her boiled katuk (Sauropus androgynus) water on March 12, Vietnamnetonline newspaper reported.

Two days later the woman died, after showing symptoms of numbness in half of her body, having difficulty breathing, vomiting, and losing consciousness.

Local officials said Thanh had only finished secondary school and possessed neither medical qualifications nor a medical license.

Thanh reportedly agreed to perform the abortion at the price of VN1.7 million ($75), as per the earlier request of the dead womans mother.

The woman, 32, was in her third month of pregnancy. She was said to have had two children.  VNSHCM CITY  Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh on Sunday ordered authorities of HCM City to take good care of victims of a fire that killed 13 people last week.

Visiting the Carina Plaza apartment complex in District 8 where the fire occurred with a working group yesterday, the Deputy PM said the fire was a fatal accident that hurts the whole nation.

It left us with a major lesson about safety management of apartment complexes, he said.

He ordered the citys authorities to help the victims stabilise their lives and provide medical care for the injured, as well as identifying the cause of fire, and recongising those who risked their lives to save the victims.

He expressed concerns over the citys fire prevention measures as another fire broke out at an eight-storey hotel in District 5 a day later, on Saturday.

He also visited 70 residents that are taking temporary shelter at the City Gate apartment complex, opposite Carina Plaza, and ordered the complexs management board to ensure their needs are met.

Management authorities must soon review all housing conditions and fire safety measures at [the Carina Plaza complex] before allowing residents to move back in, he said.

Later during the day, the Deputy PM visited 11 injured victims that are receiving treatment at Cho Ray Hospital, including the firefighter Tran Tuan Thanh who was severely burned in the hands and legs while doing his duty.

On behalf of the Government, he presented each victim VN3 million (US$132) of financial support.

The Deputy PM also visited and offered condolences to families of the victims killed by the fire.

The fire broke out on early last Friday morning at the Carina Plaza in District 8 in HCM City, killing 13 and injuring dozens of others. Its cause is under investigation.  VNSHA NOI  Three products of famous French brand Dior were recalled from circulation, reported online newspaper Vietnamplus.vn.

The Dior Sourcil Poudre Cayron a Sourcils Mine Poudre Power Eyebrow Pencils with colours 093 black, 593 brown, and 453 sand, which were granted certificates of cosmetic product announcement by the Ministry of Healths Drug Adminstration on April 10, 2014, was one of the three recalled products since it contains propylparaben in amounts exceeding norms based on ASEAN regulations.

The two perfumes that were recalled are Dior Homme Sport Very Cool Spray Fresh eau de toilette and Dior JAdore Lor Essence de Parfum, which were granted certificates of cosmetic product announcement on January 3, 2018.

The perfume products were withdrawn because the formula noted on their labels differed from those submitted to the administration.

The three products are imported and sold by L-Beauty Viet Nam Company, based in HCM City.

The company was asked to stop selling the products and inform its dealers about the revocation of their certificates by April 25.

The Drug Administration has sent letters to health departments nationwide to inforrm them of the repossesion orders.

HCM Citys Health Department is in charge of supervising the products withdrawal.  VNSLONDON - Britains main opposition Labour Party said today it will propose legislation to stop Britain leaving the EU without a deal if parliament rejects the final agreement struck with Brussels.

The partys Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer was to say in a speech that Labour hopes to get enough cross-party backing to reject the "take it or leave it" approach on offer, in which a parliamentary vote against the final agreement is interpreted as a decision to back a "no deal" Brexit.

Prime Minister Theresa May is running a minority Conservative government that relies on a Northern Ireland party for a slender majority.

"Labour will ensure that an amendment is tabled to the EU Withdrawal Bill," Starmer was to say, according to released extracts of his speech.

"Should the prime ministers deal be defeated, it must be for parliament to say what happens next, not the executive.

"Labours preference in that scenario is clear: the government should go back to the negotiating table and work towards securing a deal that works for Britain.

"This would provide a safety valve in the Brexit process."

This week marks a year to go until Britain leaves the European Union.

On Friday, EU leaders without Britain approved guidelines for the next phase of Brexit talks on the future relationship including trade, and approved a deal for a 21-month transition period.

The transition deal agreed last week by negotiators effectively maintains Britains ties with the EU until December 2020, although it will have no voting rights, to allow time for a deal on future relations.

Meanwhile Tony Blair, Britains Labour prime minister from 1997 to 2007, warned that May would try to fudge the details of the final Brexit plan for as long as possible, as he stepped up his call for a second referendum on whether Britain should stay in the EU. The UK voted in 2016 to leave the bloc.

Blair was also set to give a speech on Monday where he was to say that the Conservatives "are in mortal danger of putting a proposition to parliament which will not pass", calling the approach "deeply, dangerously irresponsible".

The final deal will either mean divergence from Europe, damaging the economy, or alignment with Europe, infuriating Brexit supporters, he was to claim.

Blair also plans to say that the "sensible strategic course" if the Conservatives wanted to survive in office was to "share the responsibility".

"Resolve the dilemma before March 2019. Put the proposition to parliament," he says, according to released excerpts of his speech.

"If it succeeds, then no one can say we voted in parliament in ignorance.

Even better, let the MPs have a free vote.

"Then let the people make the final judgement." -- AFPEmail To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required.

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(1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1)Trump Orders Expulsion of 60 Russians Over Poison Attack in Britain: The expulsion order included 12 people identified as Russian intelligence officers stationed at the United Nations. The Russian Consulate in Seattle also must closeWhite House officials called the nerve agent used against the Skripals military grade, but declined to elaborate on the substance used.

Source: Trump Orders Expulsion of 60 Russians Over Poison Attack in Britain

It seems we (Americans) have lost our way and while we were lost, our parents packed the home and moved

WtRUAE and South Korea celebrate completion of Barakah NPP unit 1

Press release: 26 March 2018

A ceremony has marked the completion of construction of unit 1 at Barakah , the first nuclear power plant to be constructed in United Arab Emirates (UAE).

South Koreas President Moon Jae-in and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan attended the ceremony marking the completion of construction of the first unit at Barakah on 26 March.

All four units at Barakah are scheduled for completion by 2020. The four APR1400 nuclear reactors will supply up to 25% of the UAEs electricity needs and save up to 21 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

Agneta Rising, Director General of World Nuclear Association said, This is an important step towards start-up of the first reactor at Barakah. The UAE will soon benefit from the reliable supply of clean electricity that Barakah will produce.

Ahead of the opening ceremony President Moon commented that the success of the Barakah nuclear power plant could be said to be the joint success of South Korea and the UAE and that he would visit the plant to see the potential for expanding collaboration in the nuclear power sector (1).

South Korea has also been interested in international collaboration in other regions. Last November, South Korea signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Kingdom calling for greater collaboration on new nuclear power plants.

President Moons pride and support for cooperation between South Korea and countries such as the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom is in contrast to his own domestic energy policy, which aims to stop construction of new nuclear power reactors and not extend the operation of existing units beyond their original design life.

Agneta Rising said, The UAEs policy of reducing electricity generation from fossil fuels by developing a mix of clean energy technologies that includes a substantial contribution from nuclear energy is one that should be embraced worldwide, including in South Korea. Using nuclear energy will help ensure the swiftest and most cost-effective transition to a clean, secure and reliable energy future.



World Nuclear Association is the international organisation that represents the global nuclear industry. Its mission is to promote a wider understanding of nuclear energy among key international influencers by producing authoritative information, developing common industry positions, and contributing to the energy debate, as well as to pave the way for expanding nuclear business.

Media Contact

Jonathan Cobb: +44(0)20 7451 1536

press@world-nuclear.org

Further Information

(1) President Moon's comments were reported by Gulf News

(2) Nuclear power in United Arab Emirates

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You may also be interested inISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The United States has imposed sanctions on seven Pakistani companies over suspicion they have links to the nuclear trade, potentially hurting Pakistans ambitions to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).





Pakistani government spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment on Monday.





Relations between the United States and Pakistan have been strained in recent years over Pakistans alleged support for Islamist militants waging war in Afghanistan, something Pakistani officials deny.





The U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security, Commerce imposed the sanctions on the Pakistani companies on March 22 by placing them on its Entity List.





The companies had been determined by the U.S. government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States, the bureau said in a report on a U.S. government website.





The Department of Commerces Entity List does not freeze assets but requires that U.S. and foreign companies doing business with those on the list first obtain a license.





Companies placed on the Entity List will need special licenses to do business in the United States.



David Reich in the New York Times:

In 1942, the anthropologist Ashley Montagu published Mans Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race, an influential book that argued that race is a social concept with no genetic basis. A classic example often cited is the inconsistent definition of black. In the United States, historically, a person is black if he has any sub-Saharan African ancestry; in Brazil, a person is not black if he is known to have any European ancestry. If black refers to different people in different contexts, how can there be any genetic basis to it?

Beginning in 1972, genetic findings began to be incorporated into this argument. That year, the geneticist Richard Lewontin published an important study of variation in protein types in blood. He grouped the human populations he analyzed into seven races  West Eurasians, Africans, East Asians, South Asians, Native Americans, Oceanians and Australians  and found that around 85 percent of variation in the protein types could be accounted for by variation within populations and races, and only 15 percent by variation across them. To the extent that there was variation among humans, he concluded, most of it was because of differences between individuals.

In this way, a consensus was established that among human populations there are no differences large enough to support the concept of biological race. Instead, it was argued, race is a social construct, a way of categorizing people that changes over time and across countries.

It is true that race is a social construct. It is also true, as Dr. Lewontin wrote, that human populations are remarkably similar to each other from a genetic point of view.

But over the years this consensus has morphed, seemingly without questioning, into an orthodoxy. The orthodoxy maintains that the average genetic differences among people grouped according to todays racial terms are so trivial when it comes to any meaningful biological traits that those differences can be ignored.

More here.If you've spent too much time already wondering where and what to eat for Passover this week, you can breathe a sigh of relief.

We've got the skinny on where you can dine out (or order in) for your most relaxed holiday yet. Pesach Sameach!

Belcampo

Get a hot, ready-to-serve meal for eight to 12 people ($149) from Belcampo's chefs and dine at home without the stress. The customizable four-course selection could include red wine braised beef brisket; herb crusted, boneless leg of lamb; or slow smoked boneless, honey glazed ham. And then there are the sidesroasted Brussels sprouts; sweet glazed root vegetables; and French green beans with trumpet mushrooms. Orders can be placed in store or over the phone to be picked up from any Belcampo location March 30th through April 1st. // 1998 Polk St. (Nob Hill), belcampo.com





Wise Sons

Looking for a full-on experience? Head to Wise Sons' seventh annual set of Passover seder dinners at Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) on the 30th and 31st at 7pm. They'll kick off with a reading of the Haggadah and then serve up traditional dishes including housemade gefilte fish, matzo ball soup, and coconut macaroons with optional wine pairings with Scribe Winery. Wise Sons' 24th Street location will also serve a $35 pre fixe dinner both nights. // CJM, 736 Mission St. (SoMa); $75, reservations available at squareup.com. Wise Sons, 3150 24th St. (Mission), $35, reservations available at opentable.com, wisesonsdeli.com.





The Pasta Shop

Head down to The Pasta Shop at Rockridge Market Hall for all of your Passover needs. An entire Kosher menu includes such delicacies as chopped liver, roasted lamb bones, and savory vegetable kugelyou don't need to lift a finger except to place your order no later than Tuesday, March 27th at noon. Pick up your goodies at your leisure between March 28th and 31st. // Rockridge Market Hall: 5655 College Ave. (Oakland), rockridgemarkethall.com

Comal

Nosh on multi-course family-style dinners with Mexican flair at Comal April 2nd and 3rd. Executive chef Matt Gandin infuses traditional Passover dishes with some spicethink rod cod fish cakes with chipotle aioli; lamb barbacoa quesadilla with Anaheim chiles; beef brisket in adobo; and mandarin orange raspado with tequila whipped crema. Dinners will incorporate rice, beans and corn into the meal and forego haggadah readings for lively conversation at the communal table. // 2020 Shattuck Ave. (Berkeley), comalberkeley.com; $80 tickets are available at ticketfly.com.





Perbacco

If you're down for a slightly unorthodox approach to Passover, pull up a chair at Perbacco. The fine dining Italian restaurant will be offering a special menu that delicately balances Italian cuisine with traditional Jewish dishes (thanks to the input of famed chef Joyce Goldstein) such as Passover soup with chicken dumplings and eggs. // Perbacco, 230 California St. (FiDi), perbaccosf.com

Jalapeno matzo balls. (Courtesy of Comal)

Canela Bistro and Winebar



Want your Passover meal to have a Mediterranean flair? From March 30th through April 7th, Canela will be offering a four-course prix fixe Passover menu ($69/person) with matzo ball soup with farfel, dill and mixed picked vegetables; chilled smoked whitefish spread with chive matzo and haroset; braised short ribs with tzimmes, parsnip puree and horseradish vinaigrette; and house-made chocolate almond cake with coconut cream and caramel. // Canela, 2272 Market St. (Duboce Triangle), canelasf.com





One Market Restaurant

Indulge in chef Mark Dommen's chicken matzo ball soup for their 25th anniversary this year. Available March 30th through April 6ths, this is one way to pay homage to all the bubbies, near and far. // One Market Restaurant, 1 Market St. (Embarcadero), onemarket.com





Marla Bakery

If it's your sweet tooth that gives you the most trouble during Passover, Marla Bakery has a delectable dessert menu including flourless chocolate torte with candied orange and coconut macaroons (with or without chocolate). Available from March 30th through April 7th, simply place your order online and head down to one of their locations to pick it up. No muss, no fuss! // Marla Bakery, 3619 Balboa St. (Outer Richmond) and Ferry Building, Kiosk 52 (Embarcadero), marlabakery.com

Entitlement Offer Prospectus

Ballarat, Mar 26, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - White Rock Minerals Ltd ( ASX:WRM ) provides the Company's Entitlement Offer Prospectus. A non renounceable entitlement offer of New Shares on a 1 for 3 basis at an issue price of $0.01 per New Share and New Options on the basis of 1 for every 2 New Shares (exercisable at $0.02 expiring 26 March 2021), with the ability to apply for additional New Shares and New Options.Chairman's LetterOn behalf of the Board of White Rock Minerals Limited (White Rock), it is my pleasure to invite you to participate in a pro rata, non-renounceable entitlement offer of 1 new fully paid ordinary share in White Rock (New Shares) for every 3 Shares held by you on the Record Date (7.00 pm (Melbourne time) on 3 April 2018) at an issue price of $0.01 (1 cent) per New Share together with 1 for 2 new options for every New Share exercisable at $0.02 (2 cents) expiring 26 March 2021 (New Options) (together Entitlement Offer) to raise up to $3,570,261 (before costs).On 21 March 2018, White Rock announced an equity raising of up to $5.2 million, comprising a placement to certain institutional and sophisticated investors to raise approximately $1.6 million (Placement) and the Entitlement Offer (together, the Equity Raising). The Placement is expected to complete on 27 March 2018. This Entitlement Offer Prospectus relates to the Entitlement Offer.Funds raised from the Equity Raising (after costs) will be used to fund White Rock's exploration activities at its globally significant high-grade zinc VMS Red Mountain Project in Alaska and for general working capital purposes.Overview of Entitlement OfferThe Entitlement Offer is being made to all eligible shareholders (Eligible Shareholders) who are registered as a holder of White Rock Shares as at 7.00 pm (Melbourne time) on 3 April 2018 (Record Date).Each Director who holds shares in White Rock, or controls an entity that holds shares in White Rock, has indicated that they intend to participate in the Entitlement Offer.Under the Entitlement Offer, Eligible Shareholders have the opportunity to subscribe for 1 New Share for every 3 Shares of which they are the registered holder at 7.00 pm (Melbourne time) on the Record Date at an issue price of $0.01 (1 cent) per New Share and 1 for 2 New Options for every New Share exercisable at $0.02 (2 cents) expiring 26 March 2021 (Issue Price). The Entitlement Offer is non-renounceable. Eligible Shareholders are also invited to apply for additional New Shares and 1 for 2 New Options in excess of their entitlement under the Top-Up Facility if there is a shortfall between applications received from Eligible Shareholders and the number of New Shares and New Options proposed to be issued under the Entitlement Offer.DJ Carmichael Pty Limited is acting as the lead manager and underwriter to the Entitlement Offer (Lead Manager or Underwriter). The Lead Manager has underwritten the Entitlement Offer to the first $1,600,000. The directors have reserved the right to place any shortfall within 3 months of lodgement of this Prospectus.The Issue Price represents a discount of:- 33% to the price of White Rock shares as at the close of trading on 16 March 2018, being the last day of trading of White Rock shares before the Entitlement Offer was announced; and- 25% and 22% to the 15 trading day and one month volume weighted average price (VWAP) respectively of White Rock shares prior to the announcement of the Entitlement Offer.Further information about White Rock is also contained in the Investor Presentation in connection with the Equity Raising, which was released to the ASX on 21 March 2018. A copy of the Investor Presentation is available from the ASX website (www.asx.com.au) and on White Rock's website (www.whiterockminerals.com.au).Underwriting ArrangementsThe Entitlement Offer is lead managed and underwritten by the Lead Manager pursuant to an underwriting agreement dated 20 March 2018 (Underwriting Agreement). Further details regarding the underwriting arrangements are set out in Sections 3.3 and 7.17.Action you should takeThe Entitlement Offer is currently scheduled to close at 5.00 pm (Melbourne time) on 19 April 2018. If you wish to subscribe for New Shares, you must ensure that your application and payment is received by this time in accordance with the instructions set out in Section 3.4.This Entitlement Offer Prospectus contains important information regarding the Entitlement Offer, and I encourage you to read it carefully before making any investment decision. If you have any questions, you should consult your financial or other professional adviser.For any enquiries please call Security Transfer Australia Pty Ltd as Share Registry on +61 8 9315 2333, or contact your stockbroker, accountant or other professional adviser.To view the full Entitlement Offer Prospectus, please visit:To view Entitlement Offer - Information for Optionholders, please visit:To view Entitlement Offer - Information for Shareholders, please visit:About White Rock Minerals Ltd

White Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX:WRM) (OTCMKTS:WRMCF) is a diversified explorer and near-stage producer, headquartered in Ballarat, Victoria. The Company's flagship exploration project is Red Mountain in central Alaska. At Red Mountain, there are already two high grade zinc - silver - gold - lead VMS deposits, with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 9.1 million tonnes @ 609g/t AgEq / 13% ZnEq. The Company is also exploring its recently discovered large intrusion related gold anomaly at Last Chance, also located in the Tintina gold belt of Alaska, home to multi-million gold ounce deposits like Pogo, Fort Knox and the Donlin Project. The Company also has the Mt Carrington project, located near Drake, in Northern NSW, which is a near-production precious metals asset with a resource of 341,000 ounces of gold and 23.2 million ounces of silver on an approved mining lease, and with a Gold First PFS and JORC Reserve.

Partners with Australian Made

Sydney, Mar 26, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Brand Protection and Consumer Connection solutions company YPB Group Ltd ( ASX:YPB ) has signed a MOU with the Australian Made Campaign to offer its full PROTECT DETECT CONNECT product suite to Australian Made licensees. This collaboration is effective immediately and has no fixed term. Under the agreement Australian Made commits to (amongst other things) recommend YPB's solutions to its 2700+ licensees.- YPB to PROTECT Australian Exporters from fakes and help CONNECT to end consumers- MOU gives YPB access to Australian Made's 2700 Licensees- Opens potentially high-volume web-sales channel with shorter sales cycle and accelerated market penetrationAustralian Made has been helping Australian Brands certify their products as 'Australian made' for over 30 years. The familiar green and gold kangaroo Australian Made logo was first launched by Prime Minister Bob Hawke in the late 1980's and has become a trusted mark for manufacturers and consumers alike of authentically Australian products.Australian Made has long recognised the flourishing export opportunity for Australian exporters to Asia comes with high counterfeit risk. Strategies to preserve the integrity of both the Australian Made logo and that of individual brands is a vital element of a well-executed Asian export strategy. YPB's PROTECT and DETECT anti-counterfeit solutions provide forensic level security at low cost to minimise brand damage and consumer harm.In addition, YPB CONNECT consumer engagement software enables brands to leverage their investment in packaging to both build detailed profiles of otherwise invisible and unknowable consumers and, more importantly, to operate a personalised, digital marketing channel directly to the consumer's smartphone. The effectiveness of this channel at minimal cost is substantially greater than other marketing spend.Information about YPB's products will be available via the Australian Made website (www.australianmade.com.au). This will be YPB's first online referral portal with the potential to reach 2,700+ Australian Made licensees and over 20,000 individual products. This development is expected to contribute to shortened sales cycles and accelerated market penetration when launched.YPB's solutions include the soon to be released revolutionary protected QR code, 'PROTECTcode'. QR codes dominate e-commerce in Asia, particularly in China, making them effectively mandatory for exporters to Asia. In addition to being the dominant and convenient entry point for an online relationship with the consumer, QR codes provide a further layer of product integrity via individual item serialisation.Unfortunately, QR codes have a fatal flaw in that they are easily copied and this is proving a growing problem in China. YPB's PROTECTcode will incorporate forensic level confirmation of authenticity. In H2 2018, a major breakthrough in mass-market forensic confirmation of authenticity via consumer smartphone, believed to be a world first, is due for release based on YPB's recently acquired Motif Micro technology.YPB expects this partnership with Australian Made to deliver a moderate revenue contribution in 2018 with the potential to become a major revenue contributor in subsequent years. (see Note below)Ian Harrison, CEO of Australian Made Campaign Ltd (AMCL), said: "Australian Made is pleased to be working with YPB to provide our licensees with access to leading brand protection technology. As product copying and brand appropriation become a global market issue, it is important that Australian producers adopt appropriate technology that will help ensure supply chain integrity and combat counterfeiting, both in Australia and overseas. Combining the Australian Made logo with technological solutions can contribute to product and brand integrity."YPB Executive Chairman John Houston said: "This partnership with Australian Made is clear evidence of the growing recognition by Australian brands of the need for active protection for exporters from the risk and cost of counterfeit. The potential damage to 'Brand Australia' from fakes is enormous as various food scandals, particularly in China over the last ten years, demonstrate. The fact that YPB is also able to CONNECT Australian brands with their end consumers while protecting against counterfeit is a complete and powerful solution. Our web-sales channel is an important leg in accelerating our market penetration. Our ambition is to become a mission critical partner of every Australian consumer brand exporting to Asia and look forward to working with Australian Made to achieve that goal."Note: YPB's expected revenue bands:- Modest revenue contribution: < AUD100K per annum- Moderate revenue contribution: > AUD100K < AUD1m per annum- Major revenue contribution: > AUD1m per annumAbout YPB Group Ltd

DEACTIVATED

ABX Update for ALCORE Project

Sydney, Mar 26, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Bauxite producer, Australian Bauxite Limited ( ASX:ABX ) (ABx) has made significant progress with its ALCORE project which is the development of bauxite beneficiation and refining technology to produce the highvalue Aluminium Fluoride used in aluminium smelters and Lithium Ion batteries. ALCORE will also produce Corethane ultra-pure hydrocarbon that can substitute for natural gas, diesel, heating and industrial applications. ALCORE's progress is meeting the schedule announced to the ASX on 13th November & 11th December 2017.Highlights: Australian Bauxite's ongoing R&D and bauxite beneficiation program is bearing fruit.- Engineering and cost study completed on 28 February for the Stage 1 ("EV Plant") has been accepted by the Board of Directors of Australian Bauxite Limited- Cost estimate of Stage 1 has reduced by more than 50% to between $5.5 and $6.5 million depending on success rates and testing of co-products including Corethane and/or graphite- Further cost reductions are possible and are being pursued aggressively- Cost reductions arose from:1. Simplification of the technology to make it robust (patent appln 5th June 2017)2. Lower cost of modern high-technology alloys that suit the reagents being used3. Suppliers routinely manufacture the reactors used in ALCORENow that an updated design and budget has been achieved, and subject to regulatory, statutory and shareholder approvals as required, the following is being undertaken:- Discussions with governments and agencies are progressing at the highest levels- Companies that showed strong interest in both the Aluminium Fluoride and the main coproducts Corethane and silica fume will be consulted- $1 million of funding has already been promised by a party that will provide services to ALCORE, subject to acceptance of the budget which is based on maximum cost-efficiency- Parties interested in investing in and/or supporting ALCORE will be consulted with a view to determining the optimum investment structure- An advisory committee will be assembled to recommend the investment structure terms, with a priority to avoid significant capital raising by ABx which has always been ABx policy- The Stage 1 project has commenced with quotations for construction and securing the site in Berkeley Vale, NSW and the required approvals to do this Stage 1 testwork- Funding arrangements for Stage 1 will be finalised by 30 June 2018- Funding proposals under consideration include an eBOOT method whereby an engineering firm would part-fund Stage 1 evaluations of the ALCORE process and if satisfied, will Build, Own, Operate & Transfer the large bauxite refinery production plant to ALCOREABx CEO, Ian Levy said; "ALCORE is looking more exciting at every stage and would increase the profits from our very clean type of bauxite by a factor of 10 to 30 times. It's a game-changer."The current ABx group available cash is A$1.58 million. ABx has sales revenues pending and unused lines of credit for working capital if required and has no current plans for capital raisings.Recent Progress1. Stage 1: Engineering Validation Stage ("EV Plant") designed and costedABx received its commissioned engineering, design and costing study on schedule on 28 February 2018 for Stage 1 of the ALCORE project, designed to generate bulk samples to be tested and validated by ALCORE's prospective customers for:a. High density Aluminium Fluoride (AlF3)b. Corethane (ultra pure hydrocarbon fuel) andc. Silica Fume.The Stage 1 EV Plant which is to be constructed in mid-2018 and work has commenced.The chemical process was patented on 5th June 2017.2. Financing PlansFinancing plans are to be finalised before the end of the fiscal year 30 June 2018 but $1.2 million has already been offered by sophisticated investors and a party that will supply services to ALCORE, subject to documentation of the final plans, now that the budget has been updated.ABx has been approached by three parties involved in the Aluminium Fluoride industry to discuss future sales. All three are interested in providing finance for the Stage 2 construction of the 50,000 tonne per year production plant, subject to offtake agreements. One has expressed interest in providing part-finance for the Stage 1 EV Plant, should it be required.A third party is seeking access to the EV Plant for the purification of graphite on terms that may supply one-third of the cost of the EV Plant during its 12 to 18 months of testwork.Discussions are continuing with Federal and State Government ministries and with a government authority. These discussions will continue in 2018 and become quite specific once the Stage 1 process makes its first samples of final products.ABx presented its plans to the Bell Bay Manufacturing Precinct Sub-committee in Tasmania in December 2017 and that committee has expressed support for the ALCORE development to government authorities.3. Expressions of Interest in Coproducts Corethane and Silica FumeABx has been approached by two major companies seeking negotiations for access to two of the major co-products from the ALCORE production plant, namely Corethane and Silica Fume.In addition, ABx has made presentations to two other possible customers for Corethane and to one large electricity generation company with spare gas turbine capacity.Corethane is a high-efficiency fuel for gas turbine electricity generators and can also be used to provide high-energy, low emission heat for several industrial applications. It can be used as a chemical reductant in the manufacture of metals, including ultra-pure silicon metal for electronics.Silica Fume is a rapidly growing industry, being an amorphous, micro-fine form of silica (SiO2) that is increasingly used in making high strength concrete (complementing ABx's existing marketing of its cement-grade bauxite) and CO2-free geopolymer cements. Silica fume from the ALCORE process is an ultra-pure micron-sized powder with many other applications, including high purity glass, silicon metal and photovoltaic solar panels.4. Expressions of Interest in Gas Turbine Electricity Production using CorethaneALCORE officers and ABx management are in discussions with a state-of-the-art developer of robust gas turbines that are already generating electricity from fuels less refined than Corethane. Robust turbine technology would allow ALCORE's production plant to make its own electricity immediately if required, thus minimising start-up risks.OTHER BUSINESS MATTERSABx remains focussed on its bauxite project businesses.Emphasis on bauxite sales continues for ABxIn the short-term, sales of bauxite remains ABx's highest priority and there are significant opportunities arising in the traditional bauxite markets during 2018 when many major bauxite supply contracts are up for renewal and political instability in other countries are reminding customers of Australia's reputation for reliable supply.Binjour Project in QLD Under Economic AssessmentConsiderable progress is also being made on the feasibility study for the Binjour project located inland from Port of Bundaberg, central Queensland. Three major bulk samples were collected in December 2017 and physico-chemical tests were conducted in 5 laboratories in Queensland, Western Australia and India. And independent expert's report on the characterisation of Binjour bauxite was produced for presentations to prospective customers.Research and Development on White Bauxite From Penrose QuarryStaff have conducted significant R&D laboratory work on the special low-iron bauxite from ABx's Penrose project in NSW, located 90km inland from Port Kembla. A prospective customer has visited Australia to progress a business plan for exploiting this project on a low-tonnage, high value basis which would be an ideal development for this project located in a state owned pine plantation where harvesting will commence in the next few years.To view figures, please visit:About Australian Bauxite Ltd

Australian Bauxite Limited (ABx) (ASX:ABX) has its first bauxite mine in Tasmania & controls the Eastern Australian Bauxite Province. ABx's 11 bauxite tenements in Queensland, New South Wales & Tasmania totalling 662 km2 are all 100% owned, unencumbered & free of third-party royalties. ABx's bauxite is gibbsite trihydrate (THA) bauxite that can be processed into alumina at low temperature.

ABx has committed a large proportion of its expenditure into Research and Development to find ways to capitalise on the main strengths of its bauxite type which is very clean, free of all deleterious elements and partitioned into layers, nodules, particles and grains of different qualities that can be separated into different product streams using physical, chemical and geophysical methods.

ABx has declared large Mineral Resources in northern NSW, southern NSW, Binjour in central QLD & in northern Tasmania.

ABx's first mine commenced at Bald Hill near Campbell Town, Tasmania in December 2014 - the first new Australian bauxite mine for more than 35 years.

ABx aspires to identify large bauxite resources in the Eastern Australian Bauxite Province and has created significant bauxite development projects in 3 states, Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania. Its bauxite deposits are favourably located for direct shipping of bauxite to both local and export customers.

ABx endorses best practices on agricultural land, strives to leave land and environment better than we find it. We only operate where welcomed.Onazi Ogenyi has told Nigerians to expect the best from the Super Eagles when they face Serbia in London on Tuesday.

The

midfielder said the 1-0 win over Poland is in the past and that beating Serbia is achievable. He said the Super Eagles are aware of the quality of Serbia given the pedigree of players like

and

in the side, but all hands will be on deck to make it two out of two for Nigeria in March friendlies.





He said We bless God for the win over Poland even though it was a tough game. We have put that win behind us now and Serbia is next on our mind at the moment. Nigerians should rest assured that we wont get carried away, Nigerians should continue to support us.Here is some background information about the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on April 19, 1995.

Other Facts: The blast killed 168 people, including 19 children. More than 500 people were injured.

Timothy J. McVeigh and Terry L. Nichols were convicted of the attack.

The Federal Building was later razed and a park and memorial were built on the site.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum has 168 stone and glass chairs placed in rows on a lawn, one for each victim.

Both McVeigh and Nichols were former US Army soldiers and were associated with the extreme right-wing and militant Patriot Movement.

The Patriot Movement rejects the legitimacy of the federal government and law enforcement.

April 19 marks two anniversaries. Patriots' Day is the anniversary of the American rebellion against British authority at Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1775. It is also the date that federal agents raided the compound of a religious sect in Waco, Texas, in 1993. More than 80 members of the Branch Davidian sect died in a fire that began during the raid.

McVeigh claimed he targeted the building in Oklahoma City to avenge the raid on Waco.

Timeline: April 19, 1995 - At 9:02 a.m. CST, a rental truck filled with explosives is detonated outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

April 19, 1995 - Near Perry, Oklahoma, Army veteran Timothy McVeigh is arrested during a traffic stop for driving a vehicle without a license plate.

April 21, 1995 - McVeigh's alleged co-conspirator, Terry Nichols turns himself in.

May 23, 1995 - The remaining parts of the Murrah building are imploded.

August 11, 1995 - McVeigh and Nichols are indicted on murder and conspiracy charges.

April 24, 1997 - McVeigh's trial begins in Denver, Colorado.

June 2, 1997 - McVeigh is convicted on 11 counts of murder, conspiracy and using a weapon of mass destruction. He is later sentenced to death.

November 2, 1997 - Nichols' trial begins in McAlester, Oklahoma.

December 23, 1997 - Nichols is convicted on federal charges of conspiracy and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter. He is sentenced to life in prison. He is serving his sentence at the Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado.

June 11, 2001 - McVeigh is executed by lethal injection. He is the first person executed for a federal crime in the United States since 1963.

May 26, 2004 - Nichols is found guilty in Oklahoma state court on 161 counts of murder. The jury spends five hours deliberating before announcing the verdict.

August 9, 2004 - District Judge Steven Taylor sentences Nichols to 161 consecutive life terms, without the possibility of parole.Ever wanted to see the Northern Lights ... from an Arctic cabin ... on a sled? Now's your chance. And here's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door. (You can also get "5 Things You Need to Know Today" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

1. March for Our Lives

The March for Our Lives is over, but the student drive for gun reform is just beginning. After hundreds of thousands of people across the US marched to put pressure on Washington to make changes to the country's gun laws, a group of student activists in Wisconsin started a four-day, 50-mile march to take their message to Janesville, Wisconsin, home of House Speaker Paul Ryan. One thing seems for sure, CNN's AJ Willingham explains: The era of slacktivism seems to be over.

It's remarkable how the Parkland students pulled off a massive national protest in only five weeks since the attack on their school. There were so many moments to remember from the weekend's marches: MLK Jr.'s granddaughter's dream of "enough is enough;" Paul McCartney participating in the march, in honor of John Lennon; the Parkland shooting survivor who threw up during her emotional speech but then kept right on talking. But the march will be best remembered for someone who said nothing. Parkland survivor Emma Gonzalez was on stage for six minutes and 20 seconds -- and for several minutes stood in complete silence. It was exactly how long it took a gunman to kill 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. She has a fascinating life story.

2. Stormy Daniels

The big headline out of Stormy Daniels' big interview with Anderson Cooper on "60 Minutes" is her claim that she was threatened in 2011 after she tried to sell her story of an alleged affair with Donald Trump to a magazine. Daniels said a man walked up to her in Las Vegas in 2011 and told her to "leave Trump alone" and that "it'd be a shame" if something happened to her infant daughter.

Daniels provided a couple of other tidbits -- she says she spanked Trump with a magazine and that he compared her to his daughter Ivanka -- but she declined to reveal any evidence. Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, through his own attorney, feels Daniels defamed him during the interview and demanded a retraction and apology. President Trump had no comment on any of this.

3. Russian mall fire

At least 53 people are dead after a huge fire at a shopping center in Siberia. The blaze broke out on the top floor of the Zimnyaya Vishnya mall in the city of Kemerovo. Authorities say the worst damage was in the mall's movie theaters; two of them collapsed and dozens of bodies were found there. The blaze is out, but dozens of children are still unaccounted for.

4. Saudi Arabia and Yemen

Saudi Arabia's air force intercepted seven missiles fired from Yemen yesterday. This isn't the first time the kingdom was the target of missile strikes from neighboring Yemen, but it's the first time someone died in Saudi soil from such an attack. After previous interceptions, the Saudis responded with airstrikes on the Yemeni capital of Sana'a. The response to a fatal incident such as Sunday's is likely to be even more punishing. The Saudis blame Houthi rebels for the attack. Saudi Arabia's been leading a coalition against the Iran-backed rebels, who toppled Yemen's internationally-recognized government in 2015.

5. Army vet deported

He served two tours in Afghanistan, but US Army veteran Miguel Perez was deported to Mexico anyway. ICE said it escorted Perez across the US-Mexico border Friday and handed him over to Mexican officials. Perez and his supporters, including Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, said he'd earned the right to stay in America because of his wartime service. But his citizenship application was denied because he had a felony drug conviction. Perez was born in Mexico and came to the US legally at age 8 after his father got a job offer in Chicago.

BREAKFAST BROWSE

An emoji for everyone

If Apple gets its way (and it usually does), we'll be getting 13 new emojis to represent people with disabilities, including a person with a cane.

Girl power

The Spice Girls are getting back together, not just how we thought. Word is they'll be in an animated movie with each member sporting a special "girl power."

Not horsing around

In Qatar there are some nice resorts, but perhaps none quite as luxurious as al Shaqab, the five-star resort for horses.

From Sahara to Sochi

Where did all that orange snow in Russia over the weekend come from? Believe it or not, from a sandstorm in Africa.

AND FINALLY ...

A new look

Grandpa's been exposed to Snapchat filters, and his life will never be the same. (Click to view)FedEx is no longer pursuing its plans to build a multimillion-dollar distribution center in Greenwood.

The company is canceling its plans to bring 80 full-time jobs and 300 part-time jobs to the area saying "operational needs" no longer require the facility to be built.

The announcement was first made in October 2017.

FedEx issued the following statement about the news on Saturday.

"FedEx Ground is constantly evaluating the capacity needs of its network. Automation and technological enhancements we have made to our network over the last decade have enabled us to continue to increase the utilization of our existing capacity while serving the growing needs of our customers."

Incentives offered by the City of Greenwood were generous and very much a positive for our initial consideration of that location, and we thank Greenwood for its partnership throughout this process. The Indianapolis area remains an important market for FedEx, both for our current operations and as we consider the future needs of our network."

Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said the plans for the facility had been in the works for more than nine months.

The city of Greenwood issued the following statement about the news.

"We're certainly disappointed in the decision but appreciate FedEx's transparency and collaboration throughout the evaluation process. The silver lining is that the initial decision by FedEx to explore such a large investment in Greenwood has led to interest from a number of other high-profile companies. Pitney Bowes will soon open a large facility nearby, and we anticipate several others will express interest as news spreads that this desirable property is now available."

It was initially scheduled to open in June 2020.CHICAGO (AP)  A man with a loaded handgun, wearing a bullet proof vest and carrying a bag of SWAT equipment authorities believe was stolen from New York City police has been arrested at Chicagos busiest train station.

Chicago police say 21-year-old Isaiah Malailua was arrested Friday morning at a Union Station ticket counter and charged with unlawful use of a weapon for wearing body armor.

Cook County Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke set bail at $100,000 and ordered Malailua, from Redding, California, to remain in the Chicago area.

Lyke says: This is troubling, to say the least, in light of whats happening in our country.

Malailua was arrested after police dogs sniffed explosive residue in an unattended bag, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Officers found materials with NYPD SWAT patches inside and a bus ticket for Malailua.Today Age of Autism reproduces a letter to be circulated to members of the European Parliament in advance of a resolution about vaccine hesitancy aimed at creating a false emergency and putting pressure on member states to maximise vaccine uptake. John Stone made a response on behalf of AoA to the European Commission at the beginning of the year in regard to this initiative, which argued that it was an egregious attempt to hi-jack policy on behalf of a greedy and rapacious industry. It was one of hundreds of negative responses to the consultation, with almost none favourable. The reality is that though popular opinion can no doubt be manipulated the drive for this comes from the institutions and their industrial cronies: the cry is not coming from below. Although the resolution proposes no specific actions it is evidently intended to support anti-democratic, inegalitarian and illiberal measures in member states, disregarding for example the major political upheavals in Italy with mass demonstrations, and a collapse in the vote of the responsible parties, much reported in AoA in recent months. Moreover, it looks as if much of this came through the agency of the Obama administration in the US.

Notable are clauses 3 and 12:

3. Points out that Vaccines are safe according to the WHO, as a licensed vaccine is rigorously tested across multiple phases of trials before its use is approved, and regularly reassessed once it is on the market...12. Condemns the spread of unreliable, misleading and unscientific information on vaccination aggravated by media controversies; calls on Member States and the Commission to take effective steps against the spread of such misinformation and to further develop awareness and information campaigns, especially for parents, including the creation of a European platform aimed at increasing vaccination coverage...

Particularly absurd is the appeal to authority, as if the World Health Organization is inherently trustworthy, free of conflicts etc., meanwhile by inference suggesting that contrary information is necessarily unreliable  a view which the document tackles head on, making available for the first time the utterly damning report of the Parliamentary commission of inquiry into case of deaths and severe illnesses affecting Italian military personnel assigned to military missions abroad... a document officially published amid an international mainstream media blackout earlier this year

An obvious interpretation of all this is that we have institutions which while behaving in an ultra-aggressive manner, are terrified at ever being held to account, and are moving in pre-emptive way.

EUROPEAN CITIZENS: PLEASE WRITE TO NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES AT THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT FORWARDING THIS LETTER:-

To our members of the European Institutions



















Are you living in Ottawa? Have you ever wanted to publish a novel but havent been sure where to start? Then, this article would be of great help. Today, its incredibly easy to birth a book into the world than it used to be several years ago, thanks to self-publishing. But its not always so easy to discover the perfect platform to showcase your work.



Presently, there are thousands of book self-publishing agencies each offering different services in a bid to attract writers. However, finding high quality and yet incredibly affordable publishing services can be quite a challenge. This is usually because most self-publishing agencies employ whatever tactics in their arsenal to lure unsuspecting writers into their net, before ripping them off their hard-earned money.



Finding a legitimate self-publishing agency has been made more accessible to writers, as AgoraPublishing.com is one of the best agencies that provides incredible services for aspiring and established authors alike. They are an agency that completely understands the self-publishing process and effortlessly gives you the desired result you require from your book after it is published.



Going head-to-head with online publishing services such as CreateSpace, AgoraPublishing.com offers writers high quality typesetting services amongst other things. Most writers suffer drastically due to poor typesetting and it greatly affects the success of their book. However, Ottawa writers can now ensure that their book is provided with expert typesetting services to give it a competitive and professional edge in its intended market. Hiring the services of Agora Publishing saves you from all the headaches and risk attributed to substandard typesetting.



It is quite a popular notion that nothing good comes cheap. However, this is a phrase that has trapped lots of writers, as phony self-publishing agencies capitalize on this to siphon money from unsuspecting writers. That's why AgoraPublishing.com has come to the rescue of Ottawa writers by offering high quality services at a very affordable price that wouldn't leave holes in your pocket.



Though self-publishing is most times made extremely strenuous by some self-publishing agencies and traditional publishing housesas writers have to go through and unnecessary long and tedious process to push out a book that might eventually suffer poor sales. But with AgoraPublishing.com, the entire process is simplified, yet highly effective in achieving the writer's goals.



Also, unlike CreateSpace or Lulu, AgoraPublishing.com is offering local writers a lot more personalized customer services and attention, to ensure that all their inquiries are attended to much better. They are backed by over 20 years of experience as a not-for-profit book publishing organization, and are run by a group of renowned writers who understand the intricacies of every writer's needs.



So, if you're an author or an aspiring writer in Ottawa, contact AgoraPublishing.com now, to get the best personalized self-publishing services to get your work to the desired audienceall at an affordable price and quite hassle-free process.



















Date: 06 March, 2018.

Place: Marietta, State of Georgia, United States.

Early this month, a very rare event occurred in the city of Marietta, Georgia.

According to an anonymous testimony published on Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) online database, a local resident affirmed to have seen a humanoid creature piloting a UFO which was hovering very low over the American town.

On 06 March 2018, at approximately 09:40 PM, like every night at that time, I took the dog out to use the potty before bed, the witness explained. As I turned onto the next block, facing the street I live on, I noticed bright, white lights above the treetops. The lights were slowly moving left. My first impression was that when I saw the lights, was that it might have been an aircraft turned sideways about to crash. However the lights stayed in a direct path, skimming above the treetops, he added.

The Georgia resident claimed that the object continued hovering over the trees until it almost disappeared. As I turned the corner, it [the UFO] turned, and it followed the wood-line along my street in the opposite direction I was walking. The trees were now denser and I thought I was about to lose sight of the object, he stated. I felt a little disappointment that I had not figured out what I was looking at, he said.

As soon as I thought I was going to lose sight of the object, a smaller object swooped down and came right at me. I could tell that it was approximately the size of a medium-sized sedan, the author of the report stated. It had grid a pattern of shiny, silver metal paned glass on top. It had a dim light emanating from the inside. I could tell there was a figure inside. The head, neck and shoulders were of a larger proportion than a normal human shape, he continued.

Finally, the two UFOs made a fast turn and disappeared. As it suddenly shot over my head, I could hear the roar. I didn't feel any breeze or air flow. I ran into my house as fast as I could after the dog, and slammed the door. I was out of breath and in a state of shock and disbelief. I heard the sound of the object one more time, shortly after, but I was too scared to look outside to see if it was still there, the American citizen asserted.

I'm not surprised that there are these things out there, I'm just surprised it happened to me and where I live, he commented.

Draw your own conclusions

For more information: https://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl?req=view_long_desc&id=90698&rnd=Air Seychelles has appointed M&C Aviation  a founder member of the 1GSA independent GSSA network  as its exclusive sales agent covering the Indian market.

M&C was formerly the airlines Cargo Sales Agent for India on a non-exclusive basis and it was restricted to certain activities.

However, the deal has now been expanded with M&A becoming the exclusive General Sales Agent (GSA). The company is also GSA for Madagascar and Mauritius.

M&C said the new contract enables it to take a more active role in Air Seychelles development throughout India.

M&C is also in discussions to further expand its GSA coverage for Air Seychelles to include additional south Asian markets.

M&C Aviation chief executive for India Harish Shah said: We have introduced Air Seychelles services for the first time to the other major markets of India, including Bangalore, Madras and Delhi.

"We have also added products to their portfolio, such as small parcels express, as well as increasing their coverage using interline partners in Europe and the USA, and connections to East Africa.



Air Seychelles operates five times weekly from Mumbai to its Seychelles hub, with A320s. Its network also covers the Indian Oceania region of Mauritius and Madagascar, as well as South Africa and parts of Europe. Air Seychelles mainstay traffic is pharmaceuticals, textiles and courier shipments.

Read more GSSA news

Share this story



Cathay Pacific Cargo has awarded Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) new cargo handling contracts at Brussels and Copenhagen airports.

Hong Kongs home airline has signed a three-year contract for WFS to provide cargo handling for its new Brussels-Hong Kong direct service, which commenced this week.

Cathay Pacific will begin four flights a week on the route, transporting passengers and cargo onboard its Airbus A350-900 aircraft. WFS expects to handle some 7,000 tonnes of cargo and mail per annum for Cathay Pacific in Brussels.

WFS will also continue to provide handling for Cathay Pacifics trucking network to and from Belgium.

In addition, the airline has also selected WFS for cargo handling in Copenhagen. Cathay Pacific will commence a seasonal three-times-weekly direct service to the Danish capital from May 2.

Marc Claesen, regional vice president of WFS, commented: WFS has been providing offline handling services for Cathay Pacifics trucking operations to and from Brussels for several years so we are delighted that the airline has chosen to partner with us for the launch of its new direct air services connecting the airport and Hong Kong.

To also be chosen to handle the airlines cargo in Copenhagen further reflects the strength of the WFS network and the quality of service we provide. We have a clear understanding of Cathay Pacifics requirements having worked together for some time and are ready to seamlessly step up to handle the strong cargo support the airline will earn at both airports.

This is the latest in a series of new contract successes for WFS in Brussels, which last month announced agreements with CAL Cargo Airlines, Japan Airlines, MNG Airlines and Oman Air.

Brussels is also the first WFS cargo stations in Europe to achieve IATA CEIV Pharma certification. WFS also opened a dedicated temperature-controlled pharma handling facility in Copenhagen at the end of 2017.

Read more Airline, Ground Handler and Cargo Airport news

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A Birmingham police officer was arrested Monday morning following an altercation with an acquaintance.

Birmingham police identified the officer as Christopher Burrell. The incident happened while he was off-duty and not acting in the capacity of a police officer, said BPD spokesman Lt. Pete Williston. No additional details were released.

Burrell and the other person both were arrested and booked into the Birmingham City Jail. Williston said the charge is a misdemeanor but did not name the charge. "This case will need to proceed through the courts, and the Birmingham Police Department encourages that process to take place as we would with anyone that faces criminal charges,'' according to a prepared statement from the department.

An internal investigation is underway. Burrell graduated from the Birmingham Police Academy in November 2015. In 2016, he was recognized for his exemplary work at the city's West Precinct.

On Friday, the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office issued warrants against another officer, Tony Noble Williams, for first-degree theft of property and ethics law violation, police said.

No details of his alleged crimes have been released either. Jail records indicate the crimes happened March 14. Williams is assigned to the South Precinct. Williams was booked into the Jefferson County Jail at 1:26 a.m. Saturday and released at 3:23 a.m. after posting $10,000 bond.Think being the face of law enforcement at a 600-student city high school is daunting?

That ain't nothing.

It's the dancing that takes guts.

Just ask Birmingham Police Officer Alex Vildibill, whose first day at Ramsay High School also happened to be the senior cookout at Ramsay High School.

The officer training him, SRO Larry Heath, told Vildibill he needed to jump right in and that's what he did. Heath, who has been at Ramsay for three years, was right there, catching the fancy footwork on video and giving encouragement to protege.

"You've got to get involved with the kids,'' Heath told AL.com in an interview Monday. "He did a really good job. But even if he had just stood there, he was showing he cared about them."

Heath, who has been a school resource officer in Birmingham for 10 years, said he shared the video because he wants the public to see the relationship between the police and students, and between whites and blacks.

"Police have been seen in such a negative light, in particular the white police pertaining to the black community,'' said Heath, who is black. "We've got good white police officers and good black police officers, but nobody ever hears that."

"My whole idea is to help turn some of that negative around,'' Heath said. "We do have a unity between blacks and whites, and everyone needs to see that."

Vildibill said he actually learned to line dance when he was serving in Afghanistan. "We're trying to show the kids that we're people too,'' he said. "We try to be a positive influence on the them and show them that if they need to talk to us, they can."Students at tornado-ravaged Jacksonville State University may not have to return to campus for the rest of the spring semester.

The school posted an update on its website Saturday outlining options for students - including taking the grades they currently have as their final grades or taking "incompletes" in classes.

The options came two days after school president John Beehler announced that the school would complete the spring semester.

The school in northeast Alabama is recovering from an EF-3 tornado that slammed into campus buildings and nearby apartment complexes on March 19. There were four injuries attributed to the storm, according to the National Weather Service forecast office in Birmingham.

The weather service said in its storm survey that the tornado - with peak estimated wind speeds of 150 mph - "affected the entire campus" and that "several buildings sustained significant damage."

Classes would typically be resuming Monday after students were away last week - during the tornado - for spring break.

In a statement addressed to students posted on the school website, Timothy King, vice president for student affairs, said that the administration "heard your concerns about being able to complete the semester."

As a result of those concerns, the school is providing students three options:

Use the current grade earned as the final grade for all classes or for select classes.

Take an incomplete in all or select classes and finish the class(es) through the applicable incomplete procedure.

Complete the semester for all or select classes and complete course requirements.

"Each student's situation is different; therefore, it is imperative that students make these decisions wisely and with input from faculty and academic advisers who are very knowledgeable about degree and accreditation requirements," King wrote.

King also wrote that the administration still must develop a procedure for students who wish to return to their studies in the spring semester. He said an update is expected late Monday afternoon.

The school's marching band has also announced that its annual Honor Band festival, scheduled for May 10-12, has been canceled due to tornado damage on campus.The young man fatally shot while walking down a Bessemer street over the weekend made news last year when he was accused of trying to sexually assault a woman at an Auburn bar.

The Jefferson County Coroner's Office on Monday identified the victim as Devonte Rashaud Hunter. He was 22.

Hunter was killed Friday night while he was walking in a Bessemer neighborhood. Bessemer police and rescue workers were dispatched at 6:06 p.m. to 27th Street and Seventh Avenue North, said Chief Mike Roper. Hunter was pronounced dead on the scene.

No arrests have yet been announced.

Hunter, who was from Gadsden but had relatives in the Bessemer and Birmingham areas, was arrested in November when Auburn police responded to a suspicious incident call at a bar in the 100 block of East Magnolia Street about 2 a.m., according to authorities. When officers arrived on the scene, they were met by employees of the bar who were detaining Hunter until police could get there.

Investigators learned that a 20-year-old female patron of the bar reported that she was forced into a restroom by Hunter. Once in the bathroom, she said Hunter grabbed her, threatened her with a handgun in an attempt to coerce her to perform a sexual act.

She fled and notified bar security. Hunter was identified and detained until police arrived. Officials said he also was in possession of marijuana.

Hunter was charged with first-degree attempted sodomy, second-degree possession of marijuana and carrying a pistol without a license. In January 2018, the cases were sent to a grand jury for indictment consideration.

The homicide is Bessemer's fourth this year and the 38th in all of Jefferson County. Anyone with information is asked to call Bessemer police.A 22-year-old suspect sought for months in connection with the shooting death of a Birmingham father who was gunned down nearly two years ago was taken into custody Monday morning.

Ladarrion Raemon Copes is charged with capital murder in the June 7, 2016 killing of 26-year-old Quentin McDaniel. The shooting happened at 7:50 p.m. that Tuesday in the 800 block of 45th Street North in the city's Kingston public housing community.

South Precinct officers were dispatched to the scene on a report of someone shot. When they arrived, they found McDaniel inside his vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. Birmingham Fire and Rescue transported McDaniel to UAB Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:17 p.m.

Witnesses told police McDaniel was driving down the street when an unidentified black male began to shoot at his car. The vehicle crashed into a tree after being shot, and the suspect fled the scene on foot.

In a previous interview, McDaniel's mother, Jacqueline Jones, said her son was in Kingston that night because his fiance and two of his three children lived there. She said there had been a problem over a woman that involved one of her other sons and that woman's boyfriend, and that McDaniel was threatened because of that. "This was not his fight,'' the grieving mother said. "They were mad at his brother."

On the night McDaniel was killed, Jones said, he was outside playing with his two daughters when he spotted the people who had threatened him. "He got in his car and peeled away to keep his children from being harmed,'' Jones said. "His fiancee said she knew something was wrong because he just left the children. She watched him driving away and when she couldn't see him no more, she heard five shots."

Jones said McDaniel graduated from Huffman High School and had worked various jobs since graduation. He lived at home with her, and was devoted to all of his family, she said.

"He had a good heart,'' she said. "He would be there for anybody. He was the person I talked to and it was vice versa. I could call on Quentin for anything."

The capital murder warrant against Copes was issued on Friday, Jan. 26. The police department's Crime Reduction Team has been searching for him since then.

He was booked into the Jefferson County Jail at 12:23 a.m. Monday where he is held without bond. Copes was just arrested on Jan. 11 for possession of marijuana for something other than personal use, but he bonded out the same day.

Jones said she wants justice in the slaying but said Copes' arrest still won't bring back her son. "I've tried finding him myself because I wanted to ask him why,'' Jones said Monday. "But God wouldn't allow me to cross paths with him."

"I really feel sorry for this young man, and his kids and his mother. Both families were impacted,'' she said. "These young men don't think about the impact on the families, even their own, when they take someone else's life. I pray his children, and even my own grandchildren, don't follow in those footsteps."

"He took my son's life for no reason. He took a good man, '' she said. "It's still hurtful but I ask God for healing and strength."It was borne from frustration, with a police encounter that Johnathan Crum thought was unfair. It started with a question:

Where they at tho?

And with that, the Facebook group WTAT was born. And with that, Crum seemingly touched a nerve.

In a little more than five years the group, originally formed as a grass-roots effort to keep an eye on the police, has become a network of 77,000-strong, a group that has evolved - especially in Birmingham's black community - from an eye on cops to an eye on crime, an eye on kids, an eye on everything really.

It is now larger, Crum points out, than any Alabama church. So, it's mission has changed.

"At first it was just like 'Bump 12' or "Let's keep our eyes on them' but as I got older, I looked at it like it was a blessing,'' said Crum, a father of 7 and full-time employee with a large food services company in Birmingham. "A church doesn't even have a congregation that big, so I thought 'Let's start putting some positive back in the community.'''

It all began one night in October 2012 when Crum was stopped by police in Valley Brook, an east Birmingham apartment complex that has seen its fair share of high-profile crimes. "One particular night, we were outside, and the police just ran up on me for no reason, because of the neighborhood,'' he said. "I just said I'm going to make a group to keep the eyes on the police to make sure they're doing the right thing. There was nothing bad about it."

That night he started the secret group, initially called "Where the roadblocks at?" He added 500 of his Facebook friends and, within a week, made his first post on the page. It was like the social media version of flashing headlights when you pass a police officer running radar to warn other motorists to slow down.

"After I made the first post, people took interest in it,'' Crum said. "There were maybe two or three people posting a week, not like they do now, but I still looked at that like it was good thing."

In August 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. The shooting sparked riots, weeks of protests and brought even more attention to race, crime and police use of force. Then came the death of Eric Garner was approached by police on the sidewalk for illegally selling loose cigarettes. A New York police officer used a chokehold on Garner. A bystander video showed Garner saying "I can't breathe" 11 times before he died. Laquan McDonald, 17, died in Chicago that same year in a police-involved shooting and 12-year-old Tamir Rice died the same way in Cleveland.

2015 brought the deaths of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and Sandra Bland in Prairie View. Alton Sterling died in 2016 in Baton Rouge, as did Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minn.

"WTAT took off in 2015 and I think that was a big part in why it took off,'' he said. "We started letting people know their rights and stuff like that. Soon we had 10,000 members and we got organized."

Crum wants one thing to be crystal clear: "The group is not against police or any laws,'' he said. "It was only created to make sure that officers of the law were doing their job right." They even feature a "Cop of the Week" to highlight an officer doing a good job.

The group became a clearinghouse for all topics, ranging from police roadblocks to missing, or found, children. If there's a shooting, WTAT usually knows about it first. The same goes for a wreck, a drug bust, or a robbery at the neighborhood store. And, more often than not, one of the members of WTAT is on the scene, streaming a Facebook Live video. Stolen cars have been found, as have dropped wallets and lost kids. When anyone is hurt, even police officers, there are thousands praying for them and openly rejoicing when there is recovery.

"We're really more about news now,'' he said. "I think that's why everybody is so tuned in."

As of this week, there were more than 77,000 WTAT members on Facebook, more than twice the size of any Birmingham area community Facebook page. Of those, there are 58,000 active members who contributed to 286,800 posts, comments and reactions just over the past 28 days. About 60 percent of the members are women.

"I didn't think it would get that big,'' Crum said. "I'm surprised every day. I'm still in awe about it."

Crum said he treats WTAT like a corporation, though he doesn't make a dime. He has rules, and 25 administrators to make sure people behave. Police are not officially allowed in the group, though it's common knowledge there are at least a few who are.

Also not allowed are pictures of drugs, guns, weed or dead bodies, and no racial slurs. Daytime postings are restricted to public safety issues. After 10 p.m., people can post prayer requests and words of encouragement.

Despite the rules, there is sometimes drama that comes with any community Facebook page. "We're pretty strict. This is the best admin team I've ever had,'' Crum said. "I try to teach them to be professional and put their feelings to the side. I run it like a business."

Though WTAT remains a "secret" group and will stay that way, it is anything but a secret. That's why Crum is willing to talk publicly about the endeavor. "It's a household name now, you can't hide that,'' he said. "I just want to protect the members."

A spinoff group was launched several months ago called WTAT Topics and Discussion, which is open to anyone and has nearly 4,000 members. "You can ask anything about the community, politics, anything that's education,'' Crum said. "It's for things like, 'What can we do to help reduce crime in the community.'''

Crum said the best thing about WTAT is the sense of community. "It's a family,'' he said. "I let everybody have an opinion. You can voice your opinion as long as it's in a respectful manner. People don't feel like they're in a communist country."

There already is a WTAT Montgomery, as well as WTAT Georgia, though the memberships aren't near the Birmingham group. Crum said he'd like to see WTAT in every major city.

"Seeing all the crime and sadness, it brings everyone together,'' he said. "I knew I had to do something good with this platform."

He said he has no idea how far WTAT will go, and how it will further evolve. "I'm just being patient,'' he said, "and waiting on God."The Huntsville area needs bigger roads to accommodate its big economic development successes, U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks said.

The congressman dispatched a letter Monday to Gov. Kay Ivey, calling for plans in his Congressional district to widen I-565 between Madison and I-65 to be put on the fast track. And Brooks pointed to the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA facility as well as BOCAR, an auto parts manufacturer, as justification.

The Mazda Toyota plant is expected to create 4,000 jobs as well as spur about another 6,000 indirect jobs. BOCAR has announced plans to hire 300 people.

Both facilities will be located on the I-565 corridor.

"I understand the competing demands for limited resources but the projected growth rates along this corridor should be evaluated when prioritizing Alabama's transportation projects," Brooks said in the letter.

And therein lies the rub: Money is limited and there is a lot of demand for that money.

The cost for widening I-565 - which shrinks to two lanes in each direction west of Huntsville International Airport - is about $100 million. But even before the influence of Mazda Toyota and BOCAR, traffic on I-565 comes to a stop during morning and evening commutes.

"It's imperative that it gets done and gets done in the next five years," state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, told AL.com in November. "It's that important."

And that was before the Mazda Toyota announcement.

Orr's Senate district includes that corridor of congestion. His voice is also one of the most influential among state legislators on budget matters as a member of the Senate's General Fund Committee and chair of the Senate's Education Fund Committee.

Decatur Mayor Tab Bowling and other Morgan County officials are also in support of widening I-565.

Orr said that I-565 was third on the list of top priorities for interstate improvements in the state, trailing the expansion of I-65 in Shelby County as well as I-10 bridge work in Mobile - both traffic bottlenecks perhaps even worse than I-565.

But when 10,000 workers in the area are added into the equation, I-565 might match up with any traffic gridlock in the state, Brooks said, who estimated there will be 10,000-15,000 workers in the area eventually.

"If just 10 percent or so of these workers travel the busy I-565 corridor, then this four-lane section of I-565 would easily rank as the most congested rush hour four-lane interstate section in Alabama," Brooks wrote in his letter.

The city of Huntsville is spending $60 million to accelerate completion of the Greenbrier Parkway - a partially-completed four-lane highway north of I-565 that will be adjacent to the Mazda Toyota site. The highway is planned to be completed to the I-65 interchange at Tanner before Mazda Toyota begins production in late 2020.

Huntsville officials have said they hope Greenbrier Parkway relieves some of the congestion on I-565.

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks letter to Gov. Kay Ivey by pgattis7719 on ScribdOne woman died of a heart attack and two men suffered severe head injuries after falling off roofs while attempting to repair damage caused by a strong line of storms that sparked at least 13 tornadoes in Alabama Monday.

Deborah Gaither, head of the Gadsden-Etowah County Emergency Management Agency, said the incidents occurred this week, several days after an EF-2 tornado touched down near Southside and Rainbow City.

No fatalities were reported from the storms, but Gaither said these incidents serve as a reminder that even storm cleanup can be dangerous.

"We just want to remind everyone to be extremely careful during the cleanup and not try to take on a job that's too big for them," Gaither said.

The first incident occurred Wednesday, when Gaither said a man fell off his roof in the Riddles Bend area of Rainbow City. Gaither said he suffered from a severe head injury that left him in serious condition at Grand View hospital.

A second man fell from a roof in Southside on Friday, resulting in a concussion. He was taken to a local hospital.

Also Friday, a woman working in her yard in Southside clearing debris suffered a fatal heart attack. Gaither said the woman had gone inside for a break, where she was found "in distress," and was later pronounced dead.Al Sharpton's half-brother was arrested and charged with capital murder after a deadly shooting in Dothan Sunday night.

Kenneth Glasgow, 52, who was released from jail several years ago and has more recently been an advocate for prisoners' rights, was arrested along with Jamie Towns after the killing of Breunia Jennings, 23, who was shot in the head. Towns was also charged with capital murder. It's unclear if Glasgow was aware that Towns was going to shoot Jennings.



Both men were initially booked into Dothan City Jail and will be moved to Houston County jail shortly, according to an official with the Dothan Police Department.

Dothan Chief of Police Steven Parrish told the Dothan Eagle that it appears Jennings stole Towns' vehicle. "Instead of him notifying law enforcement, he took matter in his own hands and jumped in Mr. Glasgow's vehicle to find Breunia Jennings," said Parrish.

Jennings was pronounced dead at the scene.Hundreds of fans of comics, movies, anime, gaming, cosplay and more gathered at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex's South Exhibition Hall this weekend for the first-ever Alabama Comic Con, organized by AVC Conventions in Mississippi.

AVC co-owner Greg Hanks said the event sold more than 1000 advance tickets, in addition to people buying entry at the gate. Full attendance figures were not yet available Sunday.

"We've done events all over the Southeast, and we really wanted to do one in Birmingham," Hanks said. "We want everybody to have a great time, we want families to come out and give everybody the experience of having a Comic Con in their town."

This year's Comic Con featured dozens of vendors selling comics, apparel, crafts, costumes and accessories, memorabilia and more, along with a costume contest on Saturday and scheduled signings by celebrity guests including Marina Sirtis (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Jeremy Bulloch (Star Wars), Jason David Frank (Power Rangers), Ron Simmons (WWE) and more.

Hanks said the organizers have already booked with the BJCC to return next year, although the dates have not been announced yet.

See the gallery above for photos from Sunday afternoon at Alabama Comic Con.Alabama interim state superintendent Dr. Ed Richardson has called out more than 150 schools for not preparing their high school graduates to either go to college or begin a successful path to a career.

In a strongly-worded memo to superintendents statewide last week, Richardson wrote, "This is one of the most serious issues facing our schools."

"Failure to address this issue immediately," Richardson wrote, "will only result in more high school graduates and their families being led to believe they are ready for the next step in their lives when they are not."

Alabama's college and career readiness rate of 66 percent is 21 percentage points lower than the graduation rate of 87 percent. Richardson calls that gap "unacceptable" in his memo to superintendents.

Beginning in 2015, education officials began using college and career readiness indicators tied to benchmarks that signify graduates are ready for that next step.

Those college and career readiness indicators, from the 2016-2017 school year, counted as part of the grade in the state's recently-released report cards.

The memo contains a list of 155 schools with a 12th grade, nearly half of all of those in the state, where that gap is more than 21 percentage points and the college and career readiness rate is lower than 66 percent.

After the state board of education voted in 2013 to drop Alabama's high school graduation test, education officials looked for a new way to show that graduates were ready for college or a career.

Officials determined that a graduate is college- or career-ready if one or more of the following indicators are earned:

A benchmark score in any section of the ACT college entrance exam,

A score of "3" or greater on an Advanced Placement test, or a score of "4" or greater on an International Baccalaureate test,

College credit through a dual enrollment course or other postsecondary course,

An industry credential in a career tech course,

Accepted into the military, or

Reaching the silver or gold level on the ACT WorkKeys exam.

The use of college and career readiness indicators is becoming standard across the country, but the actual indicators can differ in each state.

Richardson asked superintendents of those schools to submit a plan to improve that rate by April 13.

State department spokesperson Dr. Michael Sibley told AL.com, "We don't expect there will be a silver bullet that collectively solves this problem. But through thoughtful, active participation in developing a plan and utilizing best practices in the most impacted areas we hope to realize positive change over time."

Here's a look at where those schools are. Hover over each marker to learn more about the student population at each school. Click here to view the map in a separate browser window.

Here's the full list. Sort the list by clicking at the top of each column. Click here to view the list in your browser.Seven cities across Alabama held March for Our Lives event on Sat., March 24, and Birmingham's crowd of 5,000 at Railroad Park was the largest in the state. More than 800 marches were held across the world. In Washington, D.C., a crowd estimated at 800,000 gathered for the march.

Marches were also held in Mobile, Dothan, Montgomery, Selma, Jasper and Florence, with crowds varying from dozens to hundreds.

Survivors of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., conceived the march in the days following the Feb. 14 shooting deaths of 17 students and staff. Other marches, called sibling or sister marches, were planned to support the Parkland students.

Marchers across the country rallied to protest gun violence and promote common sense solutions to save lives. With chants of "Vote them out" and "Never again," marchers vowed to vote out lawmakers at the state and national level who didn't actively pursue laws to keep children safe from gun violence.

Here's a roundup of what happened in the marches across Alabama.

Mobile's march was held at Public Safety Memorial Park, where a crowd estimated at 500 people gathered. Students from Murphy High School in Mobile County started planning the march there in the days following the announcement of the national march.

In her speech to the crowd, provided to AL.com, 16-year-old sophomore Chloe Duren encouraged attendees to vote out politicians who refuse to support common sense gun law reform. She said she shouldn't have to plan an "escape route" from her classroom.

"I've practiced lock downs and active shooter drills for as long as I can remember," Chloe said to the crowd. "The first thing I think when I walk into a room is 'Where am I going to hide?'" She implored those at the rally to register to vote, and, echoing comments from Birmingham students, said, "This is only the beginning."

Here are some videos and pictures of the Mobile march, presented here with permission.

Wendy McArthur of Mobile posted these pictures of the march on her Facebook page.

More photo from Mobiles March For Our Life. Posted by Wendy Mcarthur on Saturday, March 24, 2018

Liz Stewart posted this video of some of the speeches at the rally in Mobile on her Facebook page.

The League of Women Voters of Mobile posted a Facebook album of pictures of the march, linked here.

In Montgomery, around 200 people gathered at the state Capitol on Saturday morning to rally for smarter gun laws and action from their lawmakers. The Montgomery Advertiser posted an album of pictures from the rally, linked here.

The Selma Times-Journal reported dozens of people gathered at the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the March for Our Lives in Selma. The Times-Journal reported two counter-protesters, a father who home-schools his children, and one of his daughters, stood in support of allowing teachers to carry guns in classrooms.

In Dothan, local news reported more than 100 people gathered for the march on Saturday. Kailee Maciulla helped students organize the event there. Maciulla told AL.com she was very pleased with the turnout.

"I've never seen such a diverse population turn out for an event like this," Maciulla said. There was also a voter registration effort at the march, she said.

She has four children, three of whom are in public elementary school in Dothan and said she wants all children to be safe at school. Maciulla said the lead student organizer for the march is a senior at Enterprise High School, Morgan Shaw.

Maciulla said they plan to continue to push for gun law reform and school safety issues and have now started a Wiregrass chapter of Moms Demand Action, one of the groups that helped organize the national March for Our Lives efforts.

Photographer Christiane Robinson documented the event, and her videos and pictures are presented here with permission.

March for Our Lives in Dothan, Alabama "What are we marching for....our lives..." Video 10 Posted by Christiane Robinson on Sunday, March 25, 2018

March for Our Lives in Dothan, Alabama [Quote] The kids know when something is wrong [Unquote]. Listen to the children. Please. Video 4 Posted by Christiane Robinson on Sunday, March 25, 2018

This album, from Robinson's Facebook page, is shared with permission.

Feel free to share. Please give me photo credit if possible. Still working on tons of video footage. Stay tuned. Posted by Christiane Robinson on Sunday, March 25, 2018

The March for Our Lives - The Shoals event was held in Florence, where, according to WHNT, more than a hundred people marched at Wilson Park in Florence. Some estimates placed the crowd at more than 200.

A press release ahead of the march said voter registration would be held and speakers would address on gun violence, school shootings, bullying, arming teachers and other related issues

WHNT reported a few counter-protesters were at the march with signs reading, "I Am the NRA" attended the march calling for their Second Amendment right to be protected.

These photos, shared by Lora Kay Morrow, a Democratic candidate for Alabama House District 2, on her personal Facebook page, are shared here with permission.

I was truly inspired by the students who participated in the March For Our Lives event today in Florence, Alabama! #MarchForOurLives #IWillMarch #MarchForOurLivesTheShoals Posted by Lora Morrow on Saturday, March 24, 2018

A march was held in Jasper at the Courthouse Square. Walker County Democrat chair Tim Bowen said they hosted the march as there wasn't much interest from students in the area. Bowen, who has a son at Jasper High School and a daughter in college, said he has been worried about school shootings.

Bowen said this isn't a partisan issue. "I haven't heard any solutions from either side that will fix it all," he said, but he hopes elected leaders can get together and do something to make schools safer.

Bowen said he was very happy with the turnout of about 70 people in a county that has a strong conservative base. "I felt like it was a historic day," he said, "and that we'll look back and say we were on the right side of history." He said most attendees were grandparents there with their grandchildren.

Bowen said there was a small counter-protest, but there was no disruption to the planned activities.

Walker County resident Ed Scott is a county leader of the group BamaCarry, which opposes any restrictions on guns. In a written response to AL.com, Scott said he and members of BamaCarry attended the march to learn about what the group had to say about gun violence, one of the topics that would be discussed according to the Facebook page for the Jasper march.

Scott said he strongly believes in the rights given under the Second Amendment and disagrees with the premise of the march. "We don't have a gun problem, we have a mental issue problem," Scott said. "Sane folks don't go on killing sprees."

Bowen said participants held a poster with one of the 17 Parkland victims' names and as each name was read aloud, the participant stepped forward. Bowen said the highlight of the march was having people who didn't know each other participate in the memorial and the march.

The pictures below were shared with AL.com by Donna Smalley, who is running for the office of Alabama Supreme Court Associate Justice and attended the march on Saturday.

Participants in the March for Our Lives in Jasper on March 24, 2018.

Participants in the March for Our Lives in Jasper on March 24, 2018.

Here are some posts shared on social media by those who attended the Birmingham March for Our Lives.

This video was created by Savannah Cook.

Here's a taste of what was shared on Twitter.

An honor to march among so many at @mfolbirmingham to say #NotOneMore life lost to gun violence. pic.twitter.com/NIuelEGzws  Emily Nelms Chastain (@emchasily) March 24, 2018

Thank you to the Steel City Mens Chorus!! pic.twitter.com/EZHeTyZAC7  mfolbirmingham (@mfolbirmingham) March 24, 2018

And finally, Instagram.

Birmingham's March for Our Lives 2018 164 Gallery: Birmingham's March for Our Lives 2018

AL.com broadcast live from the rally on Saturday.The Army is rolling out more details on its planned new Futures Command at a major military conference in Huntsville this week, but the city that will be home to the command is still a mystery.

The command's job will be to oversee teams designed to cut through the Army's bureaucracy and deliver new weapons and technology faster to troops. Those weapons could include hypersonic warheads that can fly faster than the speed of sound.

An "urban center" will be home to the new Futures Command, which will be only the Army's fourth command, said Undersecretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy. McCarthy spoke at Monday's opening session of the 2018 AUSA Global Force Symposium & Exposition at the Von Braun Center.

Huntsville is known to have made a bid for the command.

McCarthy said the Army is looking for proximity to talent, private sector innovation, academic research and development in STEM fields, quality of life, availability, civic support and the cost and time to set up.

"We will announce the final 10 cities in the next few months," McCarthy said. When those are narrowed to four cities, McCarthy and Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville will tour each site and recommend the winner to Army Secretary Mark Esper and Chief of Staff Mark Milley, who will make the decision.

The final choice is expected to be made this summer, McCarthy said.

Even if Huntsville does not win the command, McCarthy said it won't lose jobs it already has.

"We're not going to move thousands of people from Alabama or Virginia around the country," McCarthy said. "We're going to look at their roles and responsibilities and align them."

He compared the job to "rewiring a task" rather than "moving pieces on a board."

The conference continues through Wednesday with panels on training, next-generation combat vehicles, air and missile defense and long-range weapons.Much of the city of Atlanta's computer network remains down after a malware attack last week.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Monday progress is being made on restoring services, but the situation is not yet resolved. The malware that shut down the system last Thursday has been traced to a vulnerable server, with hackers demanding 6 Bitcoin - or about $51,000 - to release the system.

Officials have not said if they plan to pay the ransom.

City officials stressed no critical services such as water and public safety have been impacted, but Atlanta employees have been told not to turn on their computers until the situation is resolved. Employees, as well as those who had conducted business with the city, were urged to check their bank accounts to ensure their financial information is correct.

GENERAL REMINDER: At this time, there is no evidence to show that customer or employee data has been compromised. However, customers and employees are encouraged to take precautionary measures to monitor and protect their personal information.  City of Atlanta, GA (@CityofAtlanta) March 26, 2018

WiFi services at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport remain down as a precautionary measure. Online security wait times and flight information remains unavailable as well.

Atlanta police are hand-writing reports; online bill payment is down; municipal court actions are stalled; and city hiring has been temporarily stopped.

As we continue to work around the clock to resolve issues related to the recent ransomware cyberattack, applications for new employment are suspended until further notice.  City of Atlanta, GA (@CityofAtlanta) March 26, 2018

The city's IT staff are working with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Georgia Tech experts, Microsoft and Cisco to determine what data has been encrypted.Tuesday update:



Double red flags remain at Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, meaning the water is off limits to swimmers due to the presence of dangerous surf and the potential for rip currents.

"The City of Orange Beach is going to Double Red Flags due to the rough surf and strong rip currents. That means the water is now closed to swimming and it will extend to Tuesday as well," Orange Beach officials said in a Facebook post.

Single red flags - indicating hazardous surf but leaving Gulf waters open - had been posted earlier in the week.

The latest hazardous conditions are expected to last until Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

There is still rough surf along the beaches. High risk of Rip Currents until at least Thursday night. https://t.co/yJdFHmJmvm  NWS Mobile (@NWSMobile) March 28, 2018

For beach conditions in Gulf Shores, dial 251-968-TIDE (8433).

For beach conditions in Orange Beach, dial 251-981-SURF (7873).

3/27 SURF REPORT: Double Red flags flying on #GulfShores beaches due to high surf and/or strong currents closing Gulf... Posted by City of Gulf Shores - Municipal Government on Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Double red flags are also flying at Navarre Beach.

Red flags indicating the presence of dangerous surf are flying in Destin and Panama City.

Original story:

Red flags indicating dangerous surf conditions are flying along parts of the Gulf Coast today.

The red flags in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach indicate high surf and strong currents.

The water remains open to the public though swimmers are advised to use extreme caution. You can call 251-981-SURF to check beach conditions in Gulf Shores.

The National Weather Service said the rip current threat along the Alabama coast should remain high through today, with moderate currents forecast for the remainder of the week.

Red flag conditions had existed along much of the Gulf Coast over the weekend but switched to yellow - indicting a medium surf hazard - on Monday. Surf in those areas is expected to build into the afternoon and overnight, according to the South Walton Fire District.

Yellow flags are flying in Destin and Panama City.

The strong surf comes amid the busy spring break period for the coast.

On Sunday, Jevon Lemke, 17, was swimming off the coast of Fort Morgan when he disappeared. Search efforts for the teen have been hampered by the surf conditions.

Caught in a #RipCurrent?  Relax & float to conserve energy. Staying calm may save your life! #BreakTheGrip pic.twitter.com/Mm6e0zhZAC  NWS Mobile (@NWSMobile) March 26, 2018Pending city council approval, Mobile is months away from having its first citywide bike sharing service.

"In every progressive city today you will see bicycles and ride shares," Mayor Sandy Stimpson said Monday morning, celebrating the agreement with LimeBike that will make it happen.

Stimpson and LimeBike executive Todd O'Boyle described a franchise agreement that won't involve any subsidy from the city to the company. "It's zero cost to the city," said Stimpson.

This summer, after lining up the staff, warehouse and other resources it needs to keep its Mobile fleet rolling, LimeBike will deploy its first 500 bikes in downtown and the University of South Alabama campus. Using a smartphone app, LimeBike customers can unlock one of the distinctive green-and-yellow two-wheelers. The rate is $1 per half hour.

Stimpson and O'Boyle said one feature that distinguishes LimeBike from some other bike sharing companies is that it doesn't use docking stations. Rather than being required to turn bikes in at specific locations, they can lock and leave one anywhere.

The bikes themselves are what O'Boyle described as "dockless smart bikes" custom built for the purpose: They have GPS locators with batteries powered by solar panels. Aside from the built-in locks, features include foam-filled tires that can't go flat, a simple three-speed transmission, low-maintenance drum and disc brakes, generator-powered lights and a seat that can be adjusted to fit riders from five feet tall to about 6 feet four inches.

LimeBike launched last summer and has spread to about 45 cities. Mobile is its first location in Alabama; Birmingham has had docked sharing via a different company since 2015, and another docked service launched this month in Huntsville.

As LimeBike representative Todd O'Boyle speaks about his company's approach to bike sharing, Mobile City Councilman John Williams prepares to test-drive a LimeBike bicycle. Williams is co-sponsoring a measure that would give the company a franchise to do business in Mobile. (Lawrence Specker/LSpecker@AL.com)

"It is going to be one of those things that is going to change not only our downtown but our city," said Councilman John Williams, who is co-sponsoring the ordinance the council will consider tomorrow. "And it's going to do it in a healthy way." (If the council follows normal procedure, it'll hold the measure over for a week before voting, but it sometimes suspends that process to fast-track agenda items.)

O'Boyle said that LimeBike's local staff will track usage patterns and will move the supply of bikes around to meet demand as needed. They'll also provided regular maintenance. He said that people interested in jobs with the company should keep an eye on www.limebike.com for openings.

USA was represented at Monday's announcement by Michael Brown, who said the growth of the university's student population, as well as its faculty and staff, fueled its interest in partnering with LimeBike. "At times our transportation issues can definitely be challenging," he said.

The city has gradually been adding bike lanes, as bicycle advocacy groups have provided bike racks and other amenities. Some major developments are pending, including a redevelopment of the Broad Street corridor funded by a federal TIGER grant. Stimpson said higher-than-expected contract bids had prompted the city to revamp some of its plans, causing a delay.

But another major project recently got a big boost: a planned city greenway following the course of Three Mile Creek. The first section has been built, and engineering work has been done on some of the remainder. When complete, it'll provide a pedestrian and bike pathway from Langan Municipal Park and South all the way to downtown.

The project recently was approved for $9.7 million in RESTORE Act funding. That could fund around two-thirds of the total cost of the effort. Assuming the grant gets final approval later this year, the impact will be dramatic, Stimpson said.

"It ramps up the timeline, tremendously," he said. While the project likely will still take several years to complete, "It does more than cut it in half," the mayor said.

Monday's announcement covered only "app-driven" rentals and conventional pedal-powered bikes. In other markets it also provides the Lime-E, a bike that helps riders along with a 250-watt electric motor, and the Lime-S, a stand-up electric scooter with a 37-mile range.A bill to exempt economic developers from the state ethics law and one aimed at identifying racial profiling by police will be two of the most watched bills during the final two days of the legislative session.

Alabama lawmakers plan to finish the election-year session in two days this week, meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. That would leave five of their 30 allowed meeting days unused.

Legislative leaders have said all year they want to finish early to allow time to campaign for the June 5 primaries.

An early finish is possible because next year's budgets have moved more smoothly than most years. Gov. Kay Ivey has signed into law the $2 billion General Fund budget, which boosted funding for state prisons by $56 million, 13 percent.

The education budget has passed both houses and is in a conference committee. Lawmakers expect to finalize it this week.

The two budgets fund raises for education employees (2.5 percent) and state employees (3 percent). Ivey has already signed those into law.

This week, a key bill to watch in the Senate is the ethics bill by Rep. Ken Johnson, R-Moulton. It has cleared the House and could get final passage this week.

The ethics law requires lobbyists to register, list their clients, file quarterly activity reports and take ethics training.

Alabama Department of Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield, who leads industry recruiting for the state, wants to exempt economic developers from those requirements. Canfield and other supporters of Johnson's bill say the disclosures would hurt Alabama's chances of recruiting employers who want to keep their searches for project sites confidential.

Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton has said such an exemption would weaken the ethics law. The bill has opposition in the Senate, too.

The House, meanwhile, plans to revisit the racial profiling bill that failed by a wide margin on Thursday.

House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, said Thursday night he planned to work with the bill's sponsors and other lawmakers on possible changes to the bill. It's on the House calendar Tuesday.

The bill, by Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, has passed the Senate. It would require police to keep records of traffic stops that include the race, age and gender of the driver and the officer, the nature of the alleged violation that prompted the stop and whether there was an arrest, ticket, warning or search involved.

Supporters say the records would show if there's a pattern of police stopping drivers just because they are African-American.

Last week's vote was split mostly along party lines and racial lines, with most Republicans opposing the bill and Democrats supporting it. Black lawmakers consider the bill a priority and have shown they will use delaying tactics to try to block other legislation if the bill fails.

Other bills pending this week include:

A bill to strengthen the penalty

A bill to change

A bill to require the state to collect and analyze data on

A bill to impose new notification requirements on businesses and government agencies when they determine there has been a breach of security that exposes consumers' personal identification information.

A bill to reduce the maximum number of weeks to receive

Some other bills that attracted considerable attention are dead or appear to be dead for this session:Remington, one of the nation's oldest gunmakers, has filed for bankruptcy.

The filing, first announced in the Wall Street Journal, will allow Remington to continue manufacturing firearms with operations "not disrupted by the restructuring process," the company said.

Remington is planning to reduce its debt by $700 million through its Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

Founded in 1816, North Carolina-based Remington is owned by Cerberus Capital Management. As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the company is expected to hand over control to its creditors, Franklin Resources Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co's asset-management division.

Remington currently is facing lawsuits stemming for the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. The Journal reported Remington planned to file for bankruptcy last month but delayed after the deadly Feb. 14 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The company has faced declining revenues with sales plunging 27 percent in the first nine months of 2017.

In 2014, Remington opened a production facility in Huntsville. Officials there said they are confident the gunmaker will meet its obligations - including creating as many as 2,000 jobs - in the North Alabama area.

Remington received $68.9 million in incentives from the state of Alabama and local governments.A rural Pennsylvania school district's use of rocks as a last-ditch effort against intruders is gaining national attention.

Blue Mountain School District Superintendent David Helsel said last week each classroom in the district was equipped with a 5-gallon bucket of river rocks that could be used against someone trying to harm students or faculty.

"Throwing river stones or other items will only be used if all other steps have been taken to avoid contact with an intruder," the school's guidelines note.

The plan is similar to one used in Alabama, when a school in Chambers could asked students to bring in canned foods as part of the "ALICE: Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate" plan. The program teaches students to make as much noise, movement and other distractions - including canned goods or books - at an intruder.

Blue Mountain is also using ALICE.

"If an armed intruder attempts to gain entrance into any of our classrooms, they will face a classroom full students armed with rocks and they will be stoned," said Helsel, stressing that the rocks are just a part of the district's safety plans.

Blue Mountain's rocks have been in place for more than two years, but came to light in the wake of the deadly February shootings in Parkland, Florida in which 17 people were killed.

Security at the school has been beefed up in the wake of stories about the rocks.

"Starting tomorrow and into the near future, we have arranged for additional armed security for our buildings. We will continue to reevaluate this situation moving forward. Please be assured, the safety of our students and staff is of paramount importance to us," Helsel said in a Sunday night Facebook post.Former President Jimmy Carter said Donald Trump should not be impeached even if investigators discover wrongdoing by the president.

"My own preference would be that he not be impeached, but that he be able to serve out his term, because I think he wants to do a good job. And I'm willing to help him, if I can help him, and give him the benefit of the doubt," Carter said on CBS' Sunday Morning.

"You know, I have confidence in the American system of government," Carter added. "I think ultimately the restraints on a president from the Congress and from the Supreme Court will be adequate to protect our nation if he serves a full term.

"And I think (Trump) will serve a full term unless the special investigator... brings some criminal charges against him," added Carter, a Democrat who served as president from 1977-1981.

Special investigator Robert Mueller is currently investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election and if Trump personally obstructed the probe. The president had denied the allegations, calling the investigation a "witch hunt."

Carter urged Mueller to be transparent but also expedient in his work.

"I think Mueller's been very successful in keeping his cards close to his vest and not revealing any plans," Carter said. "But my wish is that Mr. Mueller would go ahead and make a decision, even if it's not anything personally that President Trump has done to violate the law; then I think he ought to make that obvious."The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a 16-year-old male last seen swimming off Fort Morgan Beach Sunday.

Coast Guard Sector Mobile received a notification at 1:58 p.m. of the 16-year-old swimming and reportedly being swept under by the rip current in view of Fort Morgan Beach, near Gulf Shores.

Involved in the search are:

Coast Guard Sector Mobile

Coast Guard Station Dauphin Island 29-foot Response Boat-Small boatcrew

Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans MH-65 helicopter aircrew

Baldwin County Sheriff's Department

Bon Secour Fire Department

No additional information was available as of 6:51 p.m. Sunday.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Coast Guard Sector Mobile at 251-441-6211.On Friday, Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin released a lot of documents. The packet of paper he gave to the media was about an inch thick.

Two years of tax returns were in that packet.

Mortgage records for his beach property were in there.

He even included a weekly menu for his jail.

If you told me Entrekin's eighth grade report card was in there, I'd have to look twice before I'd say you were wrong.

But you know what wasn't in that packet? All the records the Southern Center for Human Rights and Alabama Appleseed sought through a public information request -- the bank statements, check registers and other documents that show how he's spending his jail food funds and who's getting that money.

That's the most important thing for us to see right now. And he's still keeping that secret.

Chew on that one for a moment: Whatever those records show, he'd rather show you his last two tax returns than what's in those documents.

When I challenged him on it Friday, Entrekin tried to argue that he couldn't make those records public because of an ongoing lawsuit.

"The reason you don't have that today is because there is a court case pending," he said. "You can look at mine right there. I put you what I made. Take it from there. I paid taxes on it. So there's my money, right there."

There are a couple of things wrong with that.

First, we know from one check Reckon's Connor Sheets obtained that Entrekin pays for personal expenses out of the jail food fund. At least once, he paid a man to mow his grass with that fund.

Without seeing the jail food fund bank records, it's impossible to tell whether he reported that as compensation to the IRS. It's also impossible to tell what all else he's paying for out of the fund.

So no, we can't tell from the inch-thick packet whether he paid taxes on what he's supposed to.

And this business of him not making the other documents public because he's being sued? He's being sued because he didn't make the documents public.

Alabama's open records law says that all public writings are public documents, to be made available for inspection upon request, unless those documents are protected by statute. There's no statute protecting Entrekin's food fund documents from public disclosure, or if there is, no sheriff in Alabama has invoked that protection.

Instead, Entrekin and 48 other Alabama sheriffs, who are also hiding their documents from similar public information requests, have argued that these are their personal documents and that the jail food funds are their personal businesses.

None of this is to say that documents Entrekin did make public are worthless. In fact, looking at them, you might wonder why he turned them over. I certainly have.

For instance, they show that in 2015, Entrekin's gross receipts for the jail food fund (which he treats as a private sole proprietorship on his taxes) were $698,251. From that, he paid $340,079 toward the costs of goods sold (the food in the jail) and then he claimed a $358,172 profit.

Did you catch that? He pocketed more money than he spent on inmate food.

Further, in his press conference, Entrekin gave some rough details on how many prisoners he feeds, where the funds come from and how he manages the money for feeding them. For starters, he doesn't keep federal, state and local funds separate. He said he puts them all into one food provisions fund.

Also, he said he has about 850 prisoners at one time, with about 500 of those being state inmates, which the state pays him $1.75 a day to feed.

There's going to be some math here, but please hang with me.

If you multiply 500 by $1.75 a day, that's $875 per day in state money.

If you multiply that $875 by 365 days, that's $319,375 a year in state inmate food funds. That's the maximum he should be allowed to keep for himself under this archaic state law, supposing he figured out a way to magically feed state inmates for free.

All of this is really rough math, but remember, in 2015, Entrekin pocketed $358,172 of excess jail food funds. In 2016, he pocketed $336,204.

Even if he's pocketing all of the state funds, it's hard to see how he gets to the amount his taxes show he's keeping as profit.

Depending on how you dice the onion, it appears he's either feeding all his prisoners with federal money or pocketing federal money, or maybe both.

Again, the documents he released don't tell.

Of course, there's an easy way for Entrekin to show exactly where the money's going so we wouldn't need any rough math at all. If he wants to clear the air, he could make the jail food fund documents public.

But to that, he'd have to do something really transparent -- he'd have to obey the law.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group.

Want access to the best analysis and in-depth reporting about Alabama each week? Sign up for the weekly Reckon Report newsletter and follow Reckon on Facebook and Twitter.By Parker Snider, Manager of Policy Relations, Alabama Policy Institute

Across the country, lawmakers are realizing the costs associated with the rampant overuse of occupational licensing laws.

Alabama Policy Institute's recent report shows that over 21% of Alabama workers are licensed. This means that more than one in five Alabamians need a government permission slip to work.

Although the original impetus behind states' licensing practices was the assurance of public safety, the current system of occupational licensing has become so burdensome that voices from left, right, and center have noticed.

The Trump and Obama administrations, The Institute for Justice, and the Brookings Institute, among others, are all in agreement: occupational licensing practices need to be changed.

The fact is that these laws affect real people - real, everyday Alabamians.

Bruce Locke, a retired construction company owner and north Alabama native, is one of those people. A dedicated husband, father, grandpa, and Army veteran, Mr. Locke, after retiring, became an auctioneer.

Before he could work, however, Mr. Locke had to pay for state-approved education, apprentice for one year, and hand over hundreds of dollars in fees to the government.

He fulfilled the state's licensure requirements but, after years of being a successful auctioneer, was suddenly fined $500 by the Alabama State Board of Auctioneers.

According to the board-hired investigator, Mr. Locke, who had a current license to work, was being fined for not filling out a specific form. The problem, however, is that Mr. Locke, after being a licensed auctioneer for years, had no knowledge of this form. When he asked, Mr. Locke learned that the form was created recently. Even so, he was not told about the form nor given any sort of warning. He was instead fined.

Mr. Locke, therefore, under the threat of losing his business, had no choice but to pay the $500 fine.

He later, out of frustration and disgust in the board's apparent greed, gave up his license and sold his business.

This is just one example of occupational licensing gone awry. Thanks to occupational licensing, Alabama ran a profitable man out of business, forsaking revenue in both sales and income tax.

The truth is, as Mr. Locke put it, "There are a lot of states that do not have auctioneer licenses, and they're doing just fine."

He's right. There are twenty states that do not license the occupation of auctioneers. In fact, the report found, more broadly, that Alabama licenses thirty-one occupations that are not widely licensed in other states, including locksmiths and sign language interpreters.

If it were truly a matter of public safety, one would think there would be relative conformity among the states. The report, however, found that licensing practices are widely varied, even among our neighboring and nearby states. One explanation of this may be economic protectionism - when members of an occupation, in a desire to limit competition, lobby the state legislature to establish licensure.

In Montgomery, lawmakers are reviewing legislation that addresses occupational licensing, specifically when it affects military families and veterans. Conservatives should applaud these attempts to curb big government's grip on citizens while continuing to push for more comprehensive reforms.

You can view Mr. Locke telling his story

and API's recent report on occupational licensing

.Zach Huang planned to ask one of his best friends and on-and-off crush Carmen Schentrup to senior prom, but not before texting her to see if she was OK with it.

The two knew each other since middle school, when Carmen moved to Parkland in 2012. They became friends as sophomores at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when added to a mutual group chat. Then, they started hanging out with friends.

Together, they picked up a habit of watching and laughing at the worst-rated movies they could find or some of Carmens picks, like superhero movies or Star Wars, despite her dislike for the most recent one  Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Carmen had an unusual skill of perfectly predicting endings and cliche dialogues in movies, Huang said.

On Feb. 14, they walked together after lunch to third period and exchanged their usual sarcastic banter before splitting up with a funny yell of Goodbye!

It was the last time Huang would see her.

During her last period, AP Psychology, a shooter shattered the window of Carmens classroom on the first floor of the freshman building, said her father, Philip Schentrup. He said authorities told him the accused gunman stuck the barrel of the gun through the window and shot rapidly and randomly.

Four bullets struck Carmen, taking her life a week before her 17th birthday.

At the end of the 6-minute shooting, 17 lives were taken and more than a dozen were injured.

Just five days earlier, Feb. 9, Carmen received a letter from UF. She was one of 14,866 accepted.

Carmen excitedly came home to tell her dad she was accepted into UF and its Honors Program. Philip had graduated from UF with a bachelors and masters in electrical engineering in the 90s. Her mother, April, had also earned her bachelors and masters from UF in elementary school education.

UF was one of her options  she was still waiting to hear back from the University of Washington  where she wanted to pursue her dream of being a medical researcher. She wanted to find a cure for Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, a disease that took one of her relatives and one of her piano teachers.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now

Halfway through first grade, she skipped to second grade. She vigorously played piano and read books. She maintained being a straight-A student. She learned German fluently enough through mobile apps to act as a translator for her familys trip to Germany, which she planned herself.

Carmen knew she was a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship. Her congratulation letter naming her as a finalist came a day after she was killed.

She was the kind of kid who you didnt have to push, Philip said. She would do things all on her own.

Before news broke of the shooting, the Schentrups youngest daughter, Evelyn, sent her mom a text saying she was OK.

April, the principal of nearby Pembroke Pines Elementary School, didnt know what it was about. She started calling the school board and everyone she could until she realized there was a shooting at her childrens high school. Carmen wasnt answering.

Huang drove from hospital to hospital to try to find her. After hours of searching, he found himself in the nearby Marriott hotel with other friends of Carmen as everyone waited for information.

Around 2 a.m., Carmens mother walked up to him. The FBI just told them Carmen was dead, she said to him.

Philip said he just cried uncontrollably. He went home to tell Evelyn. He then called Robert, his 18-year-old son in college.

You dont cope, Philip said. You just struggle to get up.

A friends father had to drive Huang home after he slammed his fist into a pole and shouted out in frustration. When he got home, he couldnt go inside. He threw his phone into the bushes and ran. He sat on top of the sign leading into his neighborhood. He went back to retrieve his phone and sat on the sign again. He started typing. He wanted to remember what happened that day. What happened to Carmen.

After hours of sitting outside, he laid in bed but couldnt sleep. He would never see her again.

One of the brightest minds out there is gone forever, he said.

Contact Paige Fry at pfry@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @paigexfry.

Carmen SchentrupThe UF Student Government Senate might advocate for on-campus early voting locations soon.

On Sunday afternoon, the Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a resolution advocating for on-campus early voting locations at Florida universities. A resolution is a document through which the Senate expresses an opinion or takes a stance. The committee also tabled four bills that intend to revise SG codes.

Senator Katelyn Hernandez (Impact, District C), who co-wrote the resolution, said it advocates for increased early voting accessibility and promotes civic engagement for students.

We have so many students that want to be politically engaged, and I think that accessibility is a huge part of that, she said.

Judiciary committee chair Nick Adams said he hopes the resolution passes the Senate vote Tuesday night. If approved, the resolution will be sent to several Florida universities as well as politicians, including Gov. Rick Scott and Secretary of State Ken Detzner.

The committee was originally scheduled to address four code-revision bills presented by Senator Richard German (Inspire, District D). However, Adams deemed the bills unconstitutional because each had merged revisions, and he wanted an individual bill for each revision.

Instead of failing the bills, Adams decided to table them for future discussion, he said. German submitted the code revisions in separate bills Sunday. The committee will most likely look at the bills April 8, German said.

The suggested code revisions, if passed by Senate, would make changes to how SG information is disseminated, including requiring the judiciary branch notices to be advertised by Action SG, an agency that promotes SG activities. Code changes would also add closed captioning to prerecorded SG videos, and live-stream State of the Campus Address and SG debates.

Im just really looking forward to seeing them get signed into law, German said.

Contact Amanda Rosa at arosa@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @AmandaNicRosa.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe NowSouth Korea has negotiated an exemption from the United States' Section 232 steel tariff and instead will be subject to a quota.

South Korea will be assigned an annual US steel import quota of 2.68 million tons, Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said in a statement on the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's website on Monday March 26. This is roughly equivalent to 70% of South Korea's annual export volume to the US between 2015 and 2017.



US domestic energy-tubular mills were hoping for a quota of 50% on imports from South Korea, a domestic mill source said. Seventy percent is somewhat of a disappointment but it still installs a ceiling and would prevent a huge flood of import volumes.



"So there's a finite end to it," the US mill source said.



Producers in the United States are bound to enjoy market share gains as a result of the quota, KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Philip Gibbs wrote in a research note.



"Tenaris should be the biggest gainer given [its] new seamless [oil country tubular goods] capacity in Texas of 600,000 tons annualized, while U.S. Steel and a slew of private producers could benefit on the line pipe side," he said.



American Metal Market's pricing assessment for US import high-collapse seamless P110 casing stands at $1,275-1,300 per ton.



Gibbs noted that South Korea purchases about 10% of US ferrous scrap exports.



The agreement to accept quotas instead of the 25% steel tariff is part of ongoing talks to amend the six-year-old US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, known as "Korus," South Korea's trade ministry said. President Donald Trump's administration wants to reduce the bilateral trade deficit, which totaled $27.7 billion in 2016, according to the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR).



Trump has sought greater US access to South Korea's domestic automotive market.



Kim said on Monday that amendments were agreed to, although he did not elaborate except to state that South Korea made no concessions on its agriculture markets and there were no changes to existing tariffs.



Within hours of announcing the deal with the US, South Korea already might be attempting to ease the quota limits, according to the Korea Iron & Steel Association.



South Korea exported 3.62 million tonnes of steel into the United States in 2017, of which about 1.06 million tonnes was comprised of OCTG product and 697,086 tonnes was line pipe. The next-largest category was metallic coated sheet and strip, at 229,000 tonnes.



South Korea was the sixth-largest trading partner to the US in 2016, the USTR said.





About 2 km off the coast of Madagascar, in the Bay of Antongil, is a small, uninhabited, tropical island called Nosy Mangabe. The island is covered in dense forest and there are no permanent settlements there. But in the 16th and 17th centuries, Dutch ships on their way to the far east, around the Cape of Good Hope, frequently stopped on the island to replenish their supplies of fresh water, repair damaged ship or recover from sickness.

Nosy Mangabe has plenty of fresh water from rains that washes the island practically all round the year. More than 160 inches of it falls on this 1,300-acres island in a year. The abundant fresh water running down the sides of the islands many peaks and cliffs was too good to pass.

Photo credit: Mark E. Polzer

As ships stopped and restocked their fresh water hold, sailors wandered around the beaches and etched their names on rocks. Some wrote the name of the ship, its captain, their date of arrival and departure. Over time, an ingenious system of messaging began to develop. Sailors began to leave messages, or at times, letters carefully wrapped in canvas and made watertight with tar, which they then buried at the base of the stones. The idea was that the next Dutch ship to anchor on the island would collect the letters or read the message and pass it on to the intended recipient.

In the early 1920s, a French colonial adjunct-inspector of waters and forests, discovered about a dozen of these so-called postal stones and managed to read them. In 2012, a team of researchers lead by maritime archaeologist, Wendy van Duivenvoorde, from Flinders University in Australia found more.

Duivenvoorde and her team found about 40 inscriptions, left by officers and sailors of at least 13 different Dutch East India ships that sailed between 1601 and 1657. The inscriptions were carved into several large rock outcrops and the cliff face on a small beach that still carries the name Plage des Hollandais, meaning the beach of the Dutch.

Photo credit: Mark E. Polzer

Some of these inscription told amazing stories. One inscription reveals that the ship Middleburg reached the island in 1625 after having lost all its mast and sails after a cyclone. It was anchored there for a good seven months while it was being repaired.

It is quite amazing to think that they managed to reach the bay without masts and sails, said Duivenvoorde.

Once the Middelburg crew finished building a new mast, the ship continued its voyage back to the Netherlands. Unfortunately, it never reached home. Near the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, it was attacked and sunkwith no survivorsby the Portuguese. However, the Middelburg did stop briefly at Table Bay, South Africa, to deliver a parcel of crew letters. These letters, which are now in the archives of the Dutch East India Company in The Hague, are the last surviving records of the crew and officers.

By the late 1600s, the Dutch had abandoned the system of postal stones because they discovered that the messages didnt always go to whom they were meant to. Increasingly, crews from rival companies had begun stealing letters from around the rocks and using the information to track the activities of their competitors. So the Dutch ships began employing locals to hold letters.

Postal stones such as those in Nosy Mangabe have also been found on St Helena Island and at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Indeed, postal stones are a unique part of the South African postal history. In 1500, the captain of a Portuguese ship, tucked a letter into the hollow of a tree at Mossel Bay, reporting the loss of several ships in his fleet during a heavy storm over the Atlantic Ocean. Three months later another the crew of another Portuguese ship found the letter and delivered it to Portugal.

You can see these stones at several museums in Cape Town, but Nosy Mangabe is the only place where postal stones can be found in situ.

Photo credit: Mark E. Polzer

Wendy van Duivenvoorde inspects a postal stone in Nosy Mangabe. Photo credit: Mark E. Polzer

A postal stone found on the coast of South Africa with inscription dating from 1632. The inscription translated reads: "Hereunder lie letters from the commander Dirk van der Lee and vice-commander P Crook with the ships Nassau, Frederik Hendrik, Nimegen Wessel and the galliots. Arrived here 9 April 1632 from Batavia and departed 15th ditto." Photo credit: Andrew Massyn/WikimediaThe General Secretary of USPG  United Society Partners in the Gospel  the Revd Duncan Dormor, offers his thoughts on the World Council of Churches (WCC) Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, which was held this month in Arusha, Tanzania.

I have agency, I am worthy, I have a voice, and I am free!

The voice in question is that of Adi Mariana Waqa, a young woman from the Aisokula tribe of the northern island of Taveuni in Fiji  who spoke powerfully last week in Arusha, Tanzania, about Gods mission being at, and critically from the margins.

Arusha was the setting for a truly global gathering of the nations, with over 1,000 delegates from all denominations  Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. The ethos was deeply shaped by African Christianity  most evident in the joyful worship that even set stiff-limbed northern Europeans in motion; and the tone by the strong representation of women and younger speakers, especially those of young indigenous leaders.

Mission from the margins: Again and again, this theme emerged powerfully in Arusha: that the poor and the marginalised are not mute and invisible; are not simply beneficiaries (and certainly not objects of sympathy, pity or charity), but rather transformative agents of change.

This theme was enscribed early with a keynote speech from Dr Mutale Mulenga-Kaunda, who spoke powerfully out of her own personal story of profound struggle of poverty compounded by the death of her mother from Aids: I am young, and an African woman, but I am more than that.

Her personal testimony to resilience and transformative agency found an echo in the voice of the Patriarch of Antioch and of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church, Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, who spoke movingly of a range of relief and development initiatives throughout Syria and Iraq that would primarily benefit the majority Muslim population, alongside some Christians.

Indeed, it is those on the margins, who in articulating stories of hope and transformation in the midst of struggle are often most capable of speaking the language of prophetic discipleship; of bringing the most powerful articulation to the Nazarene manifesto (Luke 4 16-20). And indeed, to deny the agency of such discipleship through continued, unreflective paternalism is to perpetuate the injurious wounds of those colonial encounters that wrote off whole cultures as savage or barbaric.

The challenge in hearing of a mission from the margins does not lie with the voice, but rather with the hearing. All too often such voices have been talked over. Because that voice can be a challenging one. This is most obvious when we reflect on the environment: Adi again: as an indigenous person, I cannot help caring in my being and bringing along with me the pain and cry of mother earth which is Gods precious creation.

As the economic imperative drives people to the ends of the earth and to the bottom of the oceans to harvest or squeeze every last drop of sustenance from mother earth, so the awkward voices of those who hold the land and the sea and the air to be sacred hit a discordant note. Yet as wealth continues to be used to capitalise on the vulnerability of people these are exactly the prophetic voices that need to be raised for the benefit of all, if the earth is to remain our common home.

Voices from the margins are also challenging for they so often carry the scars that remind western Christians of the past, and ongoing, patterns of exploitation that followed discovery and colonialism: the scars of genocide, of enslavement, of displacement and of the destruction of peoples and cultures.

The ecumenical nature of the Arusha gathering was also a powerful reminder that Anglicans (six per cent of those present) are but a small part of a rich, diverse, global family; of brothers and sisters. In the face of such hospitable and joyful company  with English the dominant language  the only possible response, as a member of the Church of England is humility.

Humility, because it is especially in such company that one fully realises the degree to which British identity and self-worth is still nurtured by nostalgia for a glorious past. We remain sharp of hearing when our African sister or Indian brother articulates a partial defence of the British Empire.

Yet, as British Christians, many of us remain deaf to its many destructive legacies and continue, unwittingly, in paternalistic patterns of thinking. Yet the mission of Jesus Christ is from the margins. For, we will only begin the journey of being set free and start the process of transformation, if and when we sit down, break bread, and listen to the voices of others.Posted on: March 26, 2018 12:44 PM

A Royal Commission of Inquiry established to investigate historical abuse in state care in New Zealand should be expanded to include the role of the church-related bodies, the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia said today. In a letter to the countrys Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and the Childrens Minister, Tracey Martin, Archbishops Winston Halapua and Philip Richardson said that the decision to ask for churches to be included in the Inquiry was made by the Standing Committee of the provinces General Synod when it met earlier this month.

Our Christian faith teaches us the power of truth, justice and reconciliation, they said. We see this Commission of Inquiry as one way we can put that faith into action, and we encourage you to give this request serious consideration, in the hope that this will provide a pathway to healing and wholeness for all concerned.

In their letter, the co-Primates said: Our primary concern is for the needs of those whose lives have been impacted by abuse, and we are conscious that abuse has been perpetrated by agencies across our society, including the Church and its agencies. We are concerned that it will be unhelpful to victims and survivors, if the inquiry and its process is limited only to the state sector, denying some the right to have their voices heard.

We believe that victims, survivors and the public at large would have greater confidence in the processes and outcomes of the Royal Commissions Inquiry if it was fully inclusive. By contrast, for example, if we were to hold a parallel inquiry into our Church organisations we believe it would have a lesser standing and therefore lesser restorative benefit.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry is a form of statutory public inquiry in New Zealand. It was announced in February and will be chaired by Sir Anand Satyanand, the countrys former governor-general. Its scope includes youth detention centres, psychiatric hospitals and orphanages. Private organisations, such as churches, are only covered by the Inquiry in terms of any government care services contracted out to them.

This is a chance to confront our history and make sure we dont make the same mistakes again, Martin said at the time the Commission was announced. It is a significant step towards acknowledging and learning from the experiences of those who have been abused in state care.

A similar Royal Commission in Australia has completed its work. A public inquiry in England and Wales is ongoing and last week concluded three-weeks of public hearings in its first case-study in its investigation into The Anglican Church  the Church of England and the Church in Wales.

The issue of safeguarding across the Communion is being examined by an international Anglican Safechurch Commission, which will next meet in South Africa in May.Posted on: March 26, 2018 10:44 AM

[ENS, by Mary Frances Schjonberg] The presiding Bishop of the US-based Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, has been installed as a canon of St Georges Cathedral in Jerusalem, during a Palm Sunday Evensong yesterday (Sunday, 25 March). The Archbishop in Jerusalem, Suheil Dawani, said that he prayed that the honour would help the Presiding Bishop carry this cathedral and the people of this land in your heart throughout your ministry.

The Very Revd Hosam Naoum, Dean of St Georges, told Episcopal News Service that it is intrinsic and essential to have the Episcopal Church represented in the cathedral as an episcopal canon. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, as well as the leaders of Anglican Communion provinces in each continent, also hold such status. Presiding Bishops Ed Browning, Frank Griswold and Katharine Jefferts Schori also held the position during their tenures.

The cathedral here becomes a sign for unity in the Anglican Communion, despite all the difference we have, Naoum said. That is the message that comes out from Jerusalem to the whole worldwide church.

The canons are expected to pray for the cathedral and the dioceses ministry as a way to strengthen and deepen the existing relationships. It also becomes a mutual relationship where we will also be supportive of your ministry in the Episcopal Church, the dean said.

Those relationships become a beacon of how for the whole world when the church is united as a community and as a family of Christ, he said.

Such unified Christian communities are becoming more and more important, the archbishop said. During his sermon, Dawani said Jerusalems traditional Palm Sunday procession up and down the Mount of Olives includes Christians of every denomination and expression. More than 20,000 pilgrims walk together, reminding us that in this land the Christians speak with one voice; this is a voice that must speak in a way that speaks the truth of Christ, sometimes even in the face of great forces.

Those who would be what Dawani called Christs prophets in the world must know that, especially in the Middle East, communities and people are suffering because others do not respond in love, but in hate.(ANSA) - Rome, March 26 - Popular TV presenter Fabrizio Frizzi died of a brain haemorrhage in a Rome hospital overnight, his family said Monday. He was 60.

Frizzi, who presented prime-time shows on State broadcaster RAI, had had to take time out following an ischemia in October but had recently returned to his show L'Eredita (The Inheritance) which led into the evening news on Raiuno.

"Thank you Fabrizio for all the love you gave us," said his wife Carlotta, his brother Fabio and the rest of his family.

Upon his return to the show in December, Frizzi said: "L'Eredita is a joy, its good for your health.

"I feel that the adrenalin helps me get better".

He turned 60 on February 5 and on that occasion said "the illness has not passed yet." He said "if I get well I will tell it all in all the details, because I'll become a witness for research.

"Now research is helping me".

RAI said in a statement: "From children's television to prime time, over a 40-year career, he was a fresh-faced figure, totally beloved by the public.

"He was a great artist and showbusiness figure.

"A man of smiles, and hugs for all.

"An extraordinary interpreter of courage and will to live," the public broadcaster said.

RAI said Frizzi's body would lie in State at RAI's headquarters in viale Mazzini in Rome on Tuesday and that his funeral would take place at noon on Wednesday at the Chiesa degli Artisti in Piazza del Popolo.

As tributes poured in from politicians and fellow entertainers, veteran RAI presenter Pippo Baudo said: "he was a boy who loved his work".

La7 news chief Enrico Mentana said "it was impossible not to love him".

Evergreen pop star Gianni Morandi said "I never once saw him get angry".

Former Italian president Giorgio Napolitano said "his disappearance makes me very sad".

Showgirl and 1988 Miss Italy Nadia Bengala said, fighting back the tears, "he was the cleanest person you could ever have met".

(ANSA) - Rome, March 26 - Italy on Monday expelled two Russian diplomats, the foreign ministry said. "Following the conclusions adopted by the European Council on March 22 and 23, as a sign of solidarity with the United Kingdom and in coordination with European partners and NATO allies," the ministry said, "the foreign ministry has today notified the decision of expelling from Italian territory within a week two functionaries of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Rome accredited on the diplomatic list".

Other EU countries expelled Russian diplomats Monday in the wake of the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, southern England.

In all, EU countries expelled 14 diplomats, European Council President Donald Tusk said, adding that further expulsions were "not to be ruled out in the coming weeks and months".

US President Donald Trump expelled 60 Russian diplomats and closed the Russian consulate in Seattle.

Canada expelled four diplomats, and Albania two.

Moscow said it would respond with further reprisals.

Culture: 34th International Book Fair presented in Tunis Homage to Tunisian woman, Algeria guest of honor

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, MARCH 26 - The palace of exhibitions of Kram on April 6-15 will host the 34th edition of the International Book fair of Tunis, one of the country's most important cultural events. The program this year, said director Chokri Mabkhout, is varied and includes an homage to Tunisia and the Tunisian woman, Algeria as a guest of honor, prizes, literary meetings and debates, presentations and laboratories on creative writing. A total of 259 exhibitors from 25 countries will attend the event.



''We want to turn the fair of Tunis into a great book market'', said the director of the event's committee of organizers, Chokri Mabbout, the author of the award-winning novel ''The Italian''. The winners of several prizes, including the Prix Taoufik Baccar, to be awarded for the first time to a Tunisian woman this year, will be announced on the opening day on April 6, during which a special section will be devoted to Palestinian novels. (ANSAmed)AMMAN - A total of 100 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and 60 innovative startups from across Jordan will be looking to boost their productivity and expand, thus creating more jobs, after joining an EU funded programme aimed at providing development opportunity for aspiring businesses.



"The EU supports the Jordanian private sector and wants to make sure that companies grow, new jobs are created and Jordanian products gain more access to the world's most competitive markets," said EU delegation chief EU Ambassador to Jordan Andrea Matteo Fontana during ceremony to launch the project on Sunday.



The accord was signed between the Jordanian Action for the Development of Enterprises (JADE) and six business associations and five start-up incubators. The Jordanian Action for the Development of Enterprises - JADE- is part of a broader EU program to support the private sector development (PSD) in Jordan, which intends to promote systemic change in the enterprise ecosystem supporting the economic development potential of Jordan and its private sector.



The project, based in Amman, Jordan, is aimed at improving the technical and management capacity within the enterprise and entrepreneurial ecosystems, in addition, to increasing the private sector competitiveness, through working with various business service providers, local Jordanian intermediaries, and a diverse group of other intermediaries, including incubators, chambers of commerce, and the industry.



Officials from JAED said the project will work with various public and private sector stakeholders including the Jordanian government, the chambers of industry and commerce, local business development service providers and incubators.



Economists have identified that SMEs represent an ideal way to improve performance of the struggling local economy amid absence of high profile foreign investment due to political and economic challenges in Jordan. They say such projects can reach wide range of areas across Jordan, create more jobs and help fight increasing poverty. (ANSAmed)AMMAN - King Abdullah of Jordan on Monday inaugurated the 2nd Nobel Laureates and Leaders for Children Summit at king Hussein centre in the Dead Sea in presence of former world leaders, Nobel Laureates and children rights stakeholders.



Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela and his wife are among the high profile guests of the summit as well as about 450 participants from around around the world.



The summit will see participants engaged in dialogue on means of protecting children from human rights abuse, creating safe environment and social integration for refugees in host countries. Participants will work together to priorities the world's children in their spheres of influence, said organizers, according to organizers.



A special emphasis will be put on refugees and displaced children from the war torn Syria and other countries from around the Middle East, who fled their homes in search for security and stability.



Access to education, health care and protection from abuse in the new environment represent a major challenge for children rights groups and governments, according to Jordanian officials.



The summit is meant to lay the foundation for a more sustainable and forward-thinking leadership to safeguard the future of the world's children, particularly in the face of global challenges and chronic social challenges impacting communities worldwide.Oxfam says Yemen 'worst humanitarian crisis' after 3 years Cholera, famine, 80% of population needs urgent aid

(ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 26 - The people of Yemen are fighting for survival without access to food and clean water, three years since the start of one of the most atrocious conflicts in recent history, said Oxfam in a statement on the crisis in the country.



It said 22 million people there depend on humanitarian aid, and the price of many food items has become unsustainable.



The price of rice, for example, has risen 131%, and nearly 18 million people are going hungry.



Behind all of this is a brutal war that has caused more than 5,500 civilian deaths and forced three million people to flee their homes. With half of the health facilities destroyed or out of service, the country is facing the largest outbreak of cholera in recent decades, with more than one million cases and another 2,000 deaths, Oxfam said.



It said 80% of the population is in urgent need of aid, making Yemen "the world's worst humanitarian crisis".



Oxfam said it is working to provide clean water and food in nine of the country's governorates. (ANSAmed).



ROME - An Egyptian citizen died and two other people were wounded after missiles launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen on Sunday night were intercepted by defence systems, which caused fragments of one of the missiles to fall in a residential district.



The Houthis said they wanted to hit Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on the third anniversary of the start of the Saudi-led Arab coalition intervention in the Yemen conflict.



According to Saudi authorities, three of the six missiles launched by Yemeni Shiite rebels were aimed at the capital, and four at other areas.



Saudi-owned pan-Arab broadcaster Al Arabiya showed images of what it described as the interception of one of the carriers by a missile of the Patriot defence systems.



Since the start of the civil war in Yemen, the Houthis have launched about 90 missiles at Saudi Arabia, all of which were intercepted.



This has escalated since November 4 of last year, when a missile was launched on Riyadh.



The US has openly accused Tehran of supplying missiles to the Houthis.



Other Western countries and the UN also suspect Iran is sharing its missile technology with the Yemeni rebels, or supplying carriers in separate parts that are then assembled on-site.Saudi Arabia: '1 dead,2 injured' in missile attack on Riyadh Intercepted by army, Iran accused

(ANSAmed) - DUBAI, MARCH 26 - At least one person died and two others were injured in the Saudi capital Riyadh in the night between Sunday and Monday following a missile attack carried out by Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reports. The Saudi army had previously announced that it had intercepted seven ballistic missiles launched from Yemen. The victim and wounded were reportedly injured by debris from one of the intercepted missiles.



Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of being behind the attack. Saudi-led coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki was quoted as saying by Saudi pan-Arab television Al Arabiya that this ''aggressive and hostile action by the Houthis, supported by Iran, proves that the Iranian regime continues to support militarily this armed group''.



''The launch of several ballistic missiles against cities is a serious development'', added Malki, quoted by Al Arabiya.



(ANSAmed)(ANSAmed) - BARCELONA, MARCH 26 - Tens of thousands of demonstrators in Barcelona, Girona and other cities in Catalonia staged demonstrations and clashed with police to protest against the arrest of Catalan separatist president Carles Puigdemont in Germany.



At least 101 people were wounded, including police officers.



Their injuries were not reportedly serious. Anti-riot police charged protesters with batons and demonstrators in some instances hurled objects at the officers, set up barricades and set dustbins on fire. At least six people were arrested in Barcelona, according to Catalan police, as they were trying to forcibly reach government offices in Madrid. Demonstrators also blocked traffic in four highways in the region.



Medical emergency services Sem said they treated 93 people in Barcelona, including 23 police officers, mostly for concussions, seven in Lleida and one in Tarragona.



The president of Catalan Parliament, Roger Torrent, denounced in an institutional message last night an ''attack against the heart of democracy'' and an ''unprecedented democratic regression'' by the Spanish state.



Shortly after Puigdemont's arrest in Germany, Torrent denounced that ''the time is serious'', stressing its ''clear exceptionality''. Torrent accused Madrid of turning Catalonia into a ''laboratory to pursue dissidence'', putting the ''foundations of European constructions'' in peril. (ANSAmed)ISIS jihadists' transfer could bring new migrant crisis UN sounds alarm for Europe, says new local support needed

(ANSAmed) - David Beasley, executive director of the UN's World Food Program, on Monday warned that Europe could face a new migrant crisis as jihadists move from the Middle East to Africa.



He said many militants who fled Syria after the fall of its Caliphate there are moving into the Sahel region (which includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauritania), where they are collaborating with other extremist groups including al-Qaeda, al-Shabab and Boko Haram.



Beasley warned European leaders that they could be facing a migratory crisis much larger than the one caused by the Syrian conflict, if they don't contribute to bringing food and stability to the region.



"Youre talking about the greater Sahel region of 500 million people, so the Syria crisis could be like a drop in the bucket compared to whats coming your way," Beasley said he told them.



He said extremists are "coming into an already fragile area and theyre infiltrating, using food as a weapon of recruitment to destabilize, so that they can have mass migration into Europe". (ANSAmed).



By Murtaza Ali Khan

Source: Twitter

I consider myself fortunate to have interviewed His Excellency the Ambassador of Indonesia to India, Sidharto Reza Suryodipuro, during a recent launch event "The Pride and Glory of Bali-Yatra" as part of the cultural exchange between India and Indonesia at the consider myself fortunate to have interviewed His Excellency the Ambassador of Indonesia to India, Sidharto Reza Suryodipuro, during a recent launch event "The Pride and Glory of Bali-Yatra" as part of the cultural exchange between India and Indonesia at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, New Delhi





We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to H.E. Mr. Suryodipuro for making himself available, despite having a very busy schedule, for an exclusive interview, and, for sharing his vision and strategy to further boost the cultural exchange between India and Indonesia across various sectors including travel and food, in a most elaborate manner.







Edited Excerpts

Q1. Could you please share with us the vision behind The Pride and Glory of Bali-Yatra?





A. The Pride and Glory of Bali Yatra is a project undertaken by Mr. Sudip Sen of Resource Indica based in Kolkata to promote the linkages between Odisha and Bali in particular, but also Java, Sumatra and other islands in Southeast Asia. It seeks to promote the linkages of the past to highlight the cultural similarities between India and Southeast Asia and turn it into a photographic and video journey for the Indian audience. This is a project that we welcome and would like to highlight in our own work to promote Indonesia in India. We promoted Mr. Sudip Sens work by having a launch of the coffee table book of The Pride and Glory of Bali Yatra at the Embassy of Indonesia recently in the form of a Gala Dinner combined with cultural events and networking with various stakeholders in India, in particular in New Delhi area, covering stakeholders such as tour operators, media, the intelligentsia, officials and others.





Q2. India and Indonesia share a lot in common in terms of culture. How do you see this cultural bond?





A. India-Indonesia cultural bonds are deep rooted in history. Both countries want to not only develop and strengthen the existing cultural bonds, more importantly we want to build on those bonds that will prepare us better to seize the opportunities and address the challenges of today and the future, such as economic development, human development, climate change, and the challenges that come with globalization. A stronger cultural bond will also help us deal with issues such as extremism, radicalism, and identity politics. My job as Indonesia's Ambassador in India has been made easier by the fact that many of my Indian counterparts and friends share the same view.





Q3. Since your appointment, the cultural exchange between India and Indonesia has witnessed a boost. What would be your strategy going forth?





A. Our response or our strategy will be two parts. First, we shall continue to build upon the work that all of us have been doing, such as in the form of exchanges of cultural troupes and artists. This has been long-standing, and the Embassy of Indonesia and our counterparts in India, such as the Indian Centre on Cultural Relations, are endeavoring to develop and strengthen the work that has already been done in the past.





Secondly, we seek to enhance people-to-people contact. To do so, we will work with our Indian counterparts and intensify connectivity between our two countries. At the moment the majority of air connectivity between India and Indonesia are undertaken through third countries. But we do have direct flights between India and Indonesia, 28 times per week, that are served by Indonesian carriers. Batik Air, Garuda Indonesia, Air Asia Indonesia are all flying to India directly from Medan, Jakarta, and Denpasar Bali, and they fly to Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. We are happy to see that the number of Indian visitors to Indonesia has been increasing in a very healthy way. Last year in 2017, the number of Indian visitors to Indonesia reached 485,000 people. We hope that this year that number will increase to 700,000 visitors or more. By having more people-to-people interaction, our bonds and our shared heritage will grow further, and this will be good for both our countries, for our region, and for the world.





Q4. Indonesian cuisine in India has seen a rise in popularity in recent times but it is not yet as popular as other Oriental cuisine. How committed are you in taking the Indonesia delicacies to the common Indian household?





A. It is not as though Indonesian dishes are not known to the Indian consumers or Indian foodies or connoisseurs. If you go to restaurants, cafes, even airlines, you will see a number of Indonesian cuisines being displayed on the menu, such as Nasi goreng and Satay . The fact that there are currently no Indonesian restaurants in New Delhi is a shortcoming in terms of promoting Indonesia to the public at large.





A recent CNN survey indicated that Rendang is the most popular food among the CNN survey respondents. Nasi goreng was also one of the most popular cuisines. Thus, it is for us and above all for entrepreneurs and business community to build on this success story and reputation of Indonesian cuisine into a viable and working business model. I am very optimistic that this is doable. We at the Embassy can help in terms of mobilizing support for those businesses that wish to open Indonesian restaurant in New Delhi.





On our part, the Embassy of Indonesia has been active in promoting its Indonesian food by holding gala dinners, dinners, cocktail receptions, and other events for our Indian friends and colleagues, and other connections. We are cognizant that this is only for a very limited number of people and we have to do more and better, including by eliciting the help of the media.





Q5. What would be your recommended delicacies/preparations to someone uninitiated to Indonesian Cuisine?





A. Indonesian cuisine is very rich and covers the whole gamut of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. In fact, our problem might be because of our diversity. Diversity is good and strengthens our heritage, but we would like to see efforts be focused on certain dishes or on certain region of Indonesia. For example, Indians might be interested as a start to go to restaurants of certain Indonesian regions that is familiar with Indian food. Food from Sumatra such as West Sumatera, North Sumatera, and Aceh, come to mind because of the similarity they share with food from Bengal and Tamil Nadu. This is only one example. We can also promote other foods that are unfamiliar in India, therefore making it an adventure for Indians.EgyptAir will resume flight operations between Cairo international Airport and Moscow Domodedovo Airport, Russia starting from 12 April 2018.

The flight will be operated three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays with a two-class Boeing 737-800 featuring on-seats video screens in both Business and Economy classes.Departure time from Cairo is scheduled at 09:35 and 15:50 from Moscow with a flight duration of 4h 20m.

EgyptAir had in 2015 stopped flying to Russia after it was banned by Russian authorities following the suspension of all Russian flights to Egypt after a deadly crash.Emirates is celebrating 10 years of enabling mobile phone use on board its aircraft.

Emirates made history in March 2008 by becoming the first airline in the world to allow customers to make and receive calls, as well as send SMS messages from their own mobile phones.

The inaugural phone call was made on March 20, 2008 on Emirates flight EK751 from Dubai to Casablanca. Since then over 2.8 million calls have been made, 60% of which were made from the aircraft, while over a million calls were answered by passengers travelling on Emirates. The longest call recorded was on a flight from Orlando to Dubai on February 5, 2018 lasting 3 hours and 50 minutes. Over the last 10 years, 87 million SMS messages have also been sent or received.Emirates has completed the application of the specially-designed Year of Zayed livery on ten of its aircraft.

This tribute to the late His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was first unveiled in November 2017 on the fuselage of Emirates 100th A380 aircraft, and commemorates the 100th year of HH Sheikh Zayeds birth.

His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group, said: His Highness Sheikh Zayed was a legendary leader, a true pioneer, and an inspirational figure. His legacy for sustainable development lives on in the spirit of the UAE. Emirates is proud to spread his universal message to global audiences in airports and cities around the globe.

Five Airbus A380s and five Boeing 777-300ERs with the Year of Zayed livery have circled the globe on over 1,500 flights to date, and will continue to carry its message of inspiration from the UAEs late founding father throughout 2018.

The Year of Zayed is a year-long tribute to HH Sheikh Zayeds remarkable legacy and values which have shaped the formation of the UAE. Through the pillars of wisdom, respect, sustainability and human development, the inspirational leader has created a lasting vision of prosperity, determination and tolerance  attributes that remain strongly embedded in UAE culture.

Each bespoke decal covers an area of 480m on the A380 and 312m on the Boeing 777-300ER. Since November 2017, the ten aircraft have travelled to 90 destinations across six continents including Rome, Sydney, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Accra. The aircraft have collectively flown more than 4 million kilometres. Dedicated Emirates staff at the Emirates Engineering Aircraft Appearance Centre spent a total of 119 days to install the decals.Mohamed Moneir had been retired for five years and was growing citrus fruit on his farm when he was given the chance to cultivate something rather different than oranges and mandarins an airline.

The airline that Mohamed Moneir was called back from retirement to oversee was Air Leisure.

Previously known as Air Memphis, an Egyptian charter airline that had been operating for 20 years, it had been bought by new owners in 2013, renamed and given a new role of operating long-haul charters.

The vision of the airline is to operate long-haul routes, concentrating on Asia, explained Moneir who, before he became Air Leisures chairman, had a long career with EgyptAir including as vice-president, commercial of EgyptAir Holding Company and several regional manager roles around the world.

One advantage of focusing on Asia, he said, was that the region (with the exception of Japan) was not so sensitive to the Middle Easts geopolitical problems and so did not suffer from sudden dips in tourist traffic. Another was simply to break away from what he described as cut-throat competition in the shorter-haul charter market.

Air Leisure particularly focuses on China, with charter services operating from more than 10 Chinese cities. Chinese tourists tend to want to sample different aspects of Egypt, combining time at the historical sites of Upper Egypt with a few days relaxing at Red Sea resorts, such as Sharm El-Sheikh or Hurghada, followed by a stay in Cairo.

From January to the end of September 2017, Air Leisure flew some 60,000 Chinese tourists into Egypt. This market is particularly attractive, not only because of its size  Boeing has estimated that 130 million Chinese took foreign holidays in 2016  but also because the countrys tourists tend to be high spenders.

The two main seasons for Chinese tourists are January to March and July to September. In those periods, Air Leisure typically operates 10 to 14 flights weekly to China.

And the focus on overseas markets means that Air Leisure is pulling in hard currencies, so the company has been less affected by the drop in the value of the Egyptian Pound than have many of the countrys other airlines.

Air Leisures initial equipment consisted of three Airbus A340-200s, acquired from EgyptAir from late 2014. This made it, at one time, the worlds last commercial operator of the initial variant of the European four-motor wide-body.

In 2017, it moved on to the more economical twin-engined A330-200, with three former Emirates Airline examples acquired via lessor Dubai Aerospace Enterprise on 10-year finance leases.

Latterly, the A340s were modified internally into a single-class 283-seat layout, to suit them for religious tourists heading for Mecca on the Hajj or Umrah pilgrimages from long-haul points such as Malaysia and Indonesia. However, the type was finally withdrawn in July 2017.

Air Leisure is now in negotiations to acquire more A330s and has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Russias Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Corporation (SCAC) for four SSJ100 Superjets. The latter would be used for domestic charter flights and to cater for the Chinese and Japanese tourists, who like to make multi-sector visits, basing themselves in Egypt but making short side-trips to destinations such as Athens.

If the Sukhoi deal goes ahead  and SCAC president Alexander Rubtsov was hopeful at the Dubai Air Show that it would  the aircraft would initially be operated by Russian pilots, said Moneir, while Egyptian pilots were trained on the type.

Airbus had been surprised that an A330/340 operator would not take on examples of its A320, he added. It was possible that the European narrow-body could yet be procured and operate alongside the SSJ100  it all depended on the right markets becoming available to the carrier.

Air Leisure is seeking to become more recognised internationally through joining the International Air Transport Association and by undertaking the IATA operational safety audit (IOSA), which assesses an airlines operational management and control system, as well as ensuring that it is adhering to evolving quality standards.

With these plans in place, Moneir and his colleagues hope that the taste of success will be as sweet as the mandarins that he used to grow on his farm.

NCB Capital (DIFC), a subsidiary of NCB Capital Company, a Middle East investment firm, has announced the end of the offering period and the launch of NCB Capital Aviation Fund I with USD 200 million of commitments raised through a private placement.

The Fund holds a majority stake in Peregrine Aviation Topco Limited, an NCB Capital (DIFC) Limited managed vehicle that has acquired a USD 800 million portfolio of 21 aircraft.

The portfolio comprises a mix of narrow-body and wide-body Airbus and Boeing aircraft on lease to 14 airlines across the world. AerCap Holdings N.V., the world leader in aircraft leasing and aviation finance, is providing technical and lease management services. AerCap holds a minority stake in the portfolio.

The Fund offers investors exposure to the global aviation leasing industry that provides eturns that are uncorrelated with other alternative asset classes

We were delighted to offer this unique investment opportunity to our investors. The Fund attracted a large number of investors, highlighting the appeal of this differentiated opportunity. NCB Capital is committed to offering a robust platform of innovative and diverse investment solutions that meet our clients needs, said Sarah Al Suhaimi, NCB Capitals chief executive officer.Qantas and Emirates welcome the Australian Competition and Consumer Commissions (ACCC) reauthorisation of their partnership until 2023.

For customers, the continuation of the joint business, announced in August 2017, will deliver expanded services, greater schedule choice, increased frequent flyer benefits and an ongoing commitment to the development of world class products and travel experiences.

Qantas International CEO Alison Webster said: The ACCCs reauthorisation of our joint business is an important milestone in helping us continue deliver benefits for travellers and Australian tourism for the next five years.

The evolution of our partnership reflects changes in customer demand and will allow us to leverage the latest aircraft technology and maximise new routes.

With three options to get to Europe; via Perth, Singapore and Dubai, and greater frequency across the Tasman, the ACCCs decision allows us to continue to jointly provide the best network, the best service and the best frequent flyer programs for millions of customers travelling between Australia/New Zealand and the UK and Europe.

Thierry Antinori, Emirates Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer: We look forward to progressing on the plans that will take our successful partnership to its next phase. Together, we offer travellers access to even more destinations on our joint network, more convenient flight choices, and frequent flyer benefits.

Over the next five years, we will continue to work closely with our partner Qantas to deliver benefits for our customers, for Australias air transport connectivity, and for both airlines.RJ celebrated on Mothers Day 100 Jordanian mothers in cooperation with Haya Cultural Center. This gesture comes in appreciation of the great role they play in serving their families and the local communities.

RJ and Haya Cultural Center staff and the mothers participated in various activities held on the occasion; gifts were distributed to the women from different charity societies.

RJ President/CEO Stefan Pichler said: RJ is the national carrier of Jordan, and it is our duty to take part in these social events, by positively interacting with the local community in such activities that bring joy and happiness to the people, which is what we aim for. RJ organizes many charity events each year, as part of its social responsibility towards the local community, targeting the less fortunate in Amman and other cities in Jordan.

Haya Cultural Centre General Manager Diala Khamra said: We are very happy to celebrate this occasion with mothers; this is one way we thank them for all what they do. We also thank RJ for its continuous support for this event that brings happiness to the mothers and their children.by

The most galvanizing Shakespeare experience I know is the 1971 Soviet film version of King Lear directed by Grigory Kozintsev with music by Dmitri Shostakovich. Its dimensions are such that it fails on a home screen; it demands a big theater and big sound.

The profound Russianness of the Kozintsev/Shostakovich Lear transcends language. Re-encountering this great film in the context of PostClassical Ensembles ongoing two-season Russian Revolution immersion experience, I realized its Russian lineage connects to the most famous of all Russian operas: Mussorgskys Boris Godunov. It would hardly be an exaggeration to suggest that Shakespeares iconic seventheenth century play is here conflated with Mussorgskys iconic nineteenth century opera.

Obviously, both play and opera deal with a ruler who sins, and who dies consumed by crazed guilt. (Boris was complicit in the murder of the Tsarevich, and so ascended the throne.) But there is a more literal resemblance, a character common to Lear and Boris, and of special importance to Shostakovich. And that is the Fool.

The Fool can say what others cannot. In Boris Godunov, he alone can tell the Tsar to his face that hes a murderer  and not be punished.

In Boris, the Fool comes last: one of the most original finales in opera. A conventional ending would have been the Tsars agonized death. He empties the throne room of all but the Tsarevich, sings Farewell, my son, I am dying, and expires. And that in fact is how the first version of Boris Godunov ends. But in Mussorgskys final version of 1872, Boriss death, however affecting, is penultimate. Mussorgsky trumps it with a culminating vignette in the Kromy Forest. The People  a pervasive presence  acclaim a false pretender to the throne. They march with him on Moscow, emptying the stage. And  the culminating stroke  the Fool sings:

Cry, cry Russian land

Russian people

Cry

(Here is the peerless Ivan Kozlovsky, as Mussorgskys Fool, from a Soviet film version of the opera.)

In the Kozintsev/Shostakovich Lear, Lears death is witnessed by the People  an oppressed ubiquitous presence, as in Mussorgskys opera. The funeral cortege exits. And the Fool plays his plaintive song. It is Mussorgskys ending, transplanted to King Lear.

(You wont find the Soviet Lear on youtube, but there is a video of excerpts with live accompaniment conducted by Claudio Abbado; the pertinent ending begins at 1:08.)

Mussorgskys sad, suffering Fool embodies a mass of sad, suffering humanity. So, too, does the Kozintsev/Shostakovich Fool. His centrality is such that his song begins the movie, accompanying the credits. Then comes a trudging horde of placeless people. Shostakovichs scoring of this procession practically mimics Mussorgsky. The beginning of Shakespeares play is delayed fully five minutes.

The People even turn up in Edgars hut  it becomes a homeless shelter. And they elicit some of Shostakovichs most potent and characteristic music. Their effect is to explicitly amplify and ramify the tragedy. Doubtless, Shakespeares dysfunctional royal family implicitly embodies a larger malaise. In the Kozintsev/Shostakovich King Lear, this malaise is explicit. We see it. It is epic, as vast as Russia itself.

Kozintsev wrote of the ending of Shakespeares King Lear: Lear has no end  at least there is no finale in the play: none of the usual solemn trumpets of tragedy, or magnificent burials. The bodies, even of kings, are carried out under conditions of war; nobody even says a few elevated words. The time for words is over.

This dire view of the human condition was also Shostakovichs view, numbed by decades of Stalinist fear and oppression.

Reinforcing these linkages of Lear with Boris is Shostakovichs reverence for Mussorgsky. He undertook a new orchestration of Boris Godunov. He orchestrated Mussorgskys Songs and Dances of Death. For Shostakovich, as for Mussorgsky, art was never for arts sake. It possessed an ethical dimension. It commented on human affairs. Shostakovich said of Mussorgsky:

Mussorgskys concept is profoundly democratic. The people are the base of everything. The people are here and the rulers are there. The rule forced on the people is immoral and fundamentally anti-people. The best intentions of individuals dont count. Thats Mussorgkys position and I dare hope that it is also mine.

Meaning in music  that must sound very strange for most people. Particularly in the West. Its here in Russia that the question is usually posed: What was the composer trying to say, after all? The questions are naive, of course, but despite their naivete and crudity, they definitely merit being asked. Can music make man stop and think? Can it cry out and thereby draw mans attention to various vile acts? All these questions began for me with Mussorgsky.

The official Soviet view of Mussorgsky, as propagated under Stalin, is not irrelevant: he was an artist of the masses, an enemy of art for arts sake. He projected a social conscience.

Stalin of course would never have endorsed Shostakovichs Mussorgsky encomium, with its repudiation of the rule forced on the people. But as surely as Mussorgsky, as surely as Shostakovich, he rejected art for arts sake. It was an instrument of patriotism, of propaganda, of Socialist Realist uplift.

A remarkable recent book  Stalins Music Prize by Marina Frolova-Walker  opens a window on Shostakovich the cultural bureaucrat. Culling Soviet archives previously shut, she documents the deliberations deciding the Stalin Prizes awarded to Soviet composers and musical performers. One discovers that Shostakovich took his role seriously. He embraced the criterion of popular appeal. His predilection that art make man stop and think resonates with Mussorgsky, with (an inescapable example) Tolstoy.

It bears mentioning, in this context, that Shostakovich evidently didnt care for the United States. Also, that he said of his great expatriate contemporary Igor Stravinsky that he detected a flaw in his personality, a loss of some important moral principles. . . . Maybe he was the most brilliant composer of the twentieth century. But he always spoke only for himself, while Mussorgsky spoke for himself and for his country.

I am not suggesting that Shostakovich was an ideologue; there is no Socialist Realist uplift at the conclusion Kozintsev/Shostakovich King Lear. But it aligns with ideals of Russian art that endured into Soviet times. It insists upon a social context. It make us ponder people other than ourselves.

The Shostakovich quotes I cite above are from Solomon Volkovs Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich. This invaluable book is today widely reviled as fraudulent. But there is no objective reading of Shostakovich the man. I am certain that Testimony records a true picture of Shostakovich as experienced by Solomon Volkov. (The same could be said of my own Conversations with Arrau, which Claudio Arraus cousin  a Pinochet supporter  repudiated as a false portrait.) Today, no one can deny that Shostakovichs scores are packed with encoded meanings subverting the Stalinist status quo.

In his Introduction to Testimony, Volkov calls Shostakovich the second great yurodivy composer, Mussorgsky having been the first. The yurodivy is a Russian religious phenomenon, which even the cautious Soviet scholars call a national trait. . . . The yurodivy has the gift to see and hear what others know nothing about. But he tells the world about his insight in an intentionally paradoxical sway, in code. The plays the fool, which actually being a persistent exposer of evil and injustice. The yurodivy is an anarchist and individualist, who in his public role breaks the commonly held moral laws of behavior and flouts conventions. But he sets strict limitations, rules, and taboos for himself.

I would say that the King Lear adaptation of Grigori Kozintsev and Dmitiri Shostakovich suggests that Shostakovich identified with Shakespeares Fool. And that is why the Fool, not Shakespeares Albany, has the last word.

A final observation: during the Cold War, Shostakovich was widely perceived in the West as a composer whose early genius had been snuffed out by ideology and politics: a Soviet stooge. The notion of Shostakovich the yurodivy was as yet unglimpsed. The Congress for Cultural Freedom, funded by the CIA, extolled Stravinsky and other artists of the Free World. And JFK delivered eloquent speeches denying that art could flourish in totalitarian states. In retrospect, many delicious paradoxes complicate these decades of cultural propaganda, during which the most enduring concert music was being composed in the Soviet Union, not Europe or the US. PostClassical Ensemble ends its two-year commemoration of the Russian Revolution on May 23 at Washington National Cathedral with Secret Music Skirmishes of the Cold War: The Shostakovich Case  an evening including former US Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle, former CIA Staff Historian Nicholas Dujmovic, and former Soviet refusenik Vladimir Feltsman.

And next weekend we present the first Kozintsev-Shostakovich collaboration  the classic avant-garde Soviet silent film The New Babylon (1929)  with Shostakovichs enfant terrible score performed live by PostClassical Ensemble and Angel Gil-Ordonez. Thats at the American Film Institute (Silver Spring, Md.). Information: http://postclassical.com/performances/newbabylon/The bankers had met on March 23 in Mumbai and had rejected ArcelorMittal's bid along with that of Numetal.

The Section 29A debars promoters with direct or indirect links to the defaulted promoter of a bankrupt asset from bidding for the same through the insolvency process.

Mumbai: ArcelorMittal has challenged the committee of creditors' last week decision to reject its bid for Essar Steel on technical grounds at the Ahmedabad bench of the NCLT, the company said in a statement today.

The bankers had met on March 23 in Mumbai and had rejected ArcelorMittal's bid along with that of Numetal - the only two bidders for the crippled 10-million tonne Essar Steel assets at Hazira in Gujarat - citing technical issues.

These two bids were from the beginning questioned by the insolvency resolution professional (IRP) and others as the promoters of both these firms were defaulters in other firms - the Ruias in Essar Steel and the Mittals in Uttam Galva.

"We have already informed the stock exchanges that ArcelorMittal was declassified as a promoter of Uttam Galva. We have therefore today proposed a legal challenge to the decision of the resolution professional in the court in Ahmedabad.

"This legal challenge is also critical to ensure that we protect our rights in the process given the legal challenge by Numetal against the decision of the committee of creditors," ArcelorMittal said in a statement.

It can be noted that ArcelorMittal had a joint venture with Uttan Galwa, while Numetal is 25 per cent owned by Essar Steel's original promoter Ravai Ruia's son Rewant Ruia through a Mauritius based investment vehicle called Aurora Trusts.

Rejecting both the bids, the SBI-led consortium said under the provisions of Section 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), both the bids by the Mittal's and Numetal were ineligible.

The Section 29A debars promoters with direct or indirect links to the defaulted promoter of a bankrupt asset from bidding for the same through the insolvency process.

In the statement, ArcelorMittal said it continues to believe that it's February 12th bid was strong and competitive and that it was fully eligible and therefore should have been placed before the committee of creditors by the IRP.

"However, we received formal notification on March 23 that our bid was ineligible due to the technicality of still being a promoter of Uttam Galva on the stock exchange, even though we had sold our shareholding before submitting our offer," it said.

The 30-bankers consortium has allowed rebid till April 2, while the petition of Numetal, which has already challenged the rejection at the NCLT, will be taken up on March 27.

Under the insolvency resolution process, the case should be settled within a maximum 270 days, which ends on April 29 in the case of Essar Steel.The actor took to Instagram on Sunday to express his feelings about his mother in an emotional post.

Mumbai: Arjun Kapoors life has not been easy, be it seeing his father Boney Kapoor separate from the family to marry Sridevi or losing his mother Mona Kapoor to cancer in 2012.

In a shocking co-incidence pointed out when his stepmother Sridevi recently died, Mona passed away just three months before his debut Ishaqzaade released, something similar for Janhvi as well.

On Sunday, it was six years since Monas death, and Arjun remembered her with a touching and emotional post on Instagram.

Writing from Patiala where he is currently shooting for Namastey England, the actor wished he could send his mother a picture of the location. He shared how despite she never walking the red carpet with him, was a part of every moment of his nine films and his sister Anshula and his journeys.

Arjun wished he could seek her for answers and draw strength from her if she was alive today. He also wrote that he is trying to make every moment count in his career by trying to be a truthful reflection of her and her teachings. He added that it is still hard for him to come to terms with her death even after six years and how he still thinks about her in every single breath he takes.

While his mother's death six years ago left him all alone, he can at least seek solace from the fact that he has patched up with his fathers second family after Sridevis death and they have become one family.After hearing continuous chants of their names, the 'Judwa' actor and 'Pari' actress came out to greet the crowd.

Screengrabs from the pictures and videos posted on Instagram.

New Delhi: Anushka Sharma and Varun Dhawan left their fans in frenzy as the duo reached the national capital for the shoot of their next venture 'Sui Dhaaga'.

They were greeted by at least thousand fans that landed up at the movie set to wish them luck and get a glimpse of the actors.

After hearing continuous chants of their names, the 'Judwa' actor and 'Pari' actress came out to greet the crowd.

Check out their pictures and videos:

'Sui Dhaaga' is based on the stories of self-reliance and high spirits of the two central characters rooted in an earthy town of India.

The love story is helmed by Sharat Katariya and is slated to hit the screens on September 28.Naveen and his friend Vijay Singh were riding a motorcycle on Sunday night when they were crushed to death by the SUV near Nahsi village.

Irate villagers intercepted the vehicle, but its occupants fled. The mob set the SUV on fire, Avakash Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Bhojpur, said. (Photo: ANI)

Ara (Bihar): Two local journalists were killed when an SUV rammed into their bike in Bhojpur district, with the family alleging that it was a case of murder and a former village head was behind it, police said on Monday.

Naveen and his friend Vijay Singh were riding a motorcycle on Sunday night when they were crushed to death by the SUV near Nahsi village.

Irate villagers intercepted the vehicle, but its occupants fled. The mob set the SUV on fire, Avakash Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Bhojpur, said.

Rajesh, brother of Naveen Nishchal who worked for a Hindi daily, had alleged in the FIR that it was a case of murder and a former Panchayat Mukhiya Ahmed Ali alias Harsu and his son Dabloo were behind it, the SP said. The SUV belongs to Harsu.

It was alleged in the FIR that Harsu had been nursing a grouse against the reporter, the SP said.

Efforts are on to nab the father-son duo who is absconding, the SP said adding that villagers had also vandalised the house of the ex-village head.

Police have been deployed in the village where the situation is tense but under control.The accused, caught after victim lodged the complaint on Sunday morning, were paraded through busy streets by the police.

The accused were paraded through busy streets, and some women among the onlookers were seen thrashing them. (Photo: ANI)

Bhopal: The city police on Sunday arrested four men for allegedly raping a 20-year-old college student.

The accused, caught after she lodged the complaint on Sunday morning, were paraded through busy streets by the police.

While the alleged incident took place on Saturday evening, the woman lodged a complaint with the Maharana Pratap (MP) Nagar Police Station on Sunday morning, and all four accused were arrested within an hour, Deputy Inspector General of Police Dharmendra Choudhary said.

The accused were paraded through busy streets, and some women among the onlookers were seen thrashing them.

Of late, police in Madhya Pradesh have taken to parading habitual eve-teasers or those accused of sexual offences through streets, as a measure of deterrence after the government came under fire for the increase in crime against women.

The DIG said that Shailendra Dangi (21), who is the victim's senior in her college, called her to a restaurant in the MP Nagar locality on Saturday.

According to her complaint, after she met him, they had a fight over some issue. Shailendra snatched her cell phone and took her to his friend Sonu Dangi's room near Apsara cinema, she told police.

Sonu Dangi (21), Dhiraj Rajput (26) and Chiman Rajput (25) were already present in the room, according to the complaint.

Shailendra and Dhiraj threatened to kill her and her family, and raped her, while Sonu and Chiman helped the duo, she told police.

Afterwards, they let her go, but warned not to disclose the incident to anyone, she said.

All were booked for gang-rape as they were supposed to have acted with a common intention, additional superintendent of police Vikas Kumar Sahwal said. IPC sections 376 (rape), 376 (d) (gang-rape) and 365 (kidnapping) were pressed against them.

The accused confessed to the crime, DIG Choudhary said, adding that further probe is on.

When asked why police is parading the accused through the streets, Bhopal Inspector General of Police Jaideep Kumar said it has boosted women's confidence, and they are now coming forward to lodge complaints in such cases.

The parading has instilled a fear in offenders, he said.The UP CM has repeatedly said that the police have a right to fire back if criminals open fire at them.

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh police went trigger-happy carrying out seven encounters in western districts since Saturday night in which three criminals were gunned down and six arrested.

The encounters took place in Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar and Muzaffarnagar districts, DIG (law and order) Praveen Kumar said.

Six policemen were also injured in the encounters, he told reporters here.

Uttar Pradesh police have been on an encounter spree since the past one year when chief minister Yogi Adityanath gave the green signal for a crackdown on criminals. More than 1,300 encounters have taken place in the state in the past few months.

The chief minister has repeatedly said that the police have a right to fire back if criminals open fire at them.

In Gautam Buddha Nagars Sector 119, police on Sunday gunned down a wanted criminal Shravan Chaudhary, a resident of Siddharth Vihar in Ghaziabad, who carried a reward of Rs one lakh on his head. One AK 47 rifle and another gun were recovered from him. In Dankaur town, two criminals, Asraf and Salim, were injured in an encounter while two of their accomplices managed to escape, police said. The four culprits had allegedly stolen a truck from Noida Sector 39 area.

In Ghaziabad, Rahul, a dreaded criminal, was arrested after he sustained gunshot injuries in an exchange of fire with police in Sihani Gate area on Saturday. Rahul and constable Sachin were admitted to hospital for treatment of injuries.

In Vijay Nagar police station area of Ghaziabad, a local history sheeter, Sunder, carrying a reward of Rs 25,000, was arrested on Saturday after an encounter but died in hospital on Sunday, Ghaziabad SSP Vaibhav Krishna said.

Sunder, hailing from Pilkhuwa town and wanted in five cases of attempt to murder, killing and robbery, succumbed to his injuries in a Noida hospital on Sunday, he said.

In Dadri, a criminal identified as Jitendra, carrying a reward of Rs 25,000 on his head, was arrested, a senior police officer said.

Wanted criminal Ahsan, who carried a reward of Rs 25,000 on his head, was killed after a brief clash with Saharanpur police in Jhinjhana Shamli. He was declared dead in hospital. His accomplice managed to escape. In Muzaffarnagar, two criminals were arrested after an encounter.The BJP is making an all-out effort to unseat the Congress from the only big state where the Grand Old Party is in power.

New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah will be touring Karnataka for two days from Monday during which he will visit mutts associated with the Lingayat and dalit communities.

Besides visiting a number of mutts associated with various communities, including Lingayats and dalits, Mr Shah will also address farmers and traders meetings, take out a roadshow and attend party events in the poll-bound state, a BJP statement said.

Following the Siddaramaiah governments decision to accord minority religion status to Lingayats, who have mostly welcomed the move, Mr Shahs visits to their holy places and meeting gurus is seen as part of his efforts to ensure that the community, the largest in the state, continues to back the BJP.

The Congress governments decision, political observers have said, is aimed at denting the vote bank of the BJP, which has declared B.S. Yeddyurappa its chief ministerial candidate.

Mr Shah will go to Siddaganga mutt on Monday and seek the blessings of its seer, the statement said. He will on Tuesday visit Madara Chennaiah mutt, which has been traditionally associated with dalits.

He will also visit the Bekkinkal, Sirgere and Muruga mutts among others during his visit to the states central region.

The BJP is making an all-out effort to unseat the Congress from the only big state where the Grand Old Party is in power.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has also been frequenting the state and visited holy places linked to different religions and castes.Bhagwant Mann resigned as its Punjab unit chief on March 17 in protest against Kejriwal's apology to Bikram Singh Majithia in a defamation case.

At least 10 AAP legislators from Punjab met Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi on March 18 to understand the circumstances under which he apologised to Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia in the defamation case.

AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal has averted a split in the partys Punjab unit, for now, but it is not going to be easy for him to prevent its disgruntled MLAs in the state from breaking away or joining other parties.

Chandigarh: The AAP in Punjab in the throes of a crisis with its state unit chief and MP Bhagwant Mann resigning in protest against the apology by the AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal to former Punjab minister and Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia, who had filed a defamation case against the Delhi chief minister for charging him of being involved in drug trade.

The new outfit is almost vertically split in the state where it made its Assembly debut by winning 20 seats last March. Punjab is the only state, other than Delhi, where the new outfit has legislators but the latest crisis in the party is threatening to dent its image in the Congress-ruled state.

Mr Kejriwals apology to Mr Majithia, which came without consulting the state unit, had caused huge embarrassment to party MLAs and workers in Punjab as it reflected a step down from the earlier stand taken by the AAP on the drugs menace getting political patronage in the state.

Although some of the AAP MLAs went to Delhi for a meeting with Mr Kejriwal on March 18 for understanding the reasons why he went ahead with his apology to the Akali leader, there were others who refused to listen to the AAP convenor's excuse.

Mr Kejriwal has claimed that he has averted a split within the Punjab unit after explaining his position to the legislators during a meeting with them last week.

But the crisis does not seem to be over completely as some party voices are still pitching for detachment from the Delhi-controlled set up. Others are saying to wait and watch.

MLA from Kotkapura Kultar Singh Sandhwan opened the front against Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly and his party colleague Sukhpal Singh Khaira for what he termed as an attempt to split the party by putting pressure on the legislators and bringing a resolution in a meeting in Chandigarh.

Mr Sandhwan said that the AAP should take action against Mr Khaira who violated the partys code of discipline by making attempts to create a new outfit. He lashed out at Mr Khaira and other MLAs claiming that they won election in the name of the party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal but were not trying to challenge his authority.

If Mr Khaira wants to create a new party, he must vacate the MLAs seat and fight elections, said Mr Sandhwan.

We attended the meeting at New Delhi on March 18 because we wanted to know under what circumstances Mr Kejriwal apologised to Mr Majithia in the defamation case, said Mr Sandhwan, who went Delhi to attend the party meeting.

The Congress was quick to take a dig at Mr Kejriwal for his apology. Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu described Kejriwals apology a murder of AAP in Punjab.

It is a let down to the people of Punjab. I feel Kejriwal has murdered AAP in Punjab. It is as if their existence has been wiped off. With what face will they speak against drugs in Punjab now? asked the Congress leader.

After 10 MLAs met Mr Kejriwal in Delhi, Mr Khaira backed down and said he was open to meeting the Delhi leadership. However, he has insisted that the meeting should take place in Chandigarh.

There is no problem in meeting, we are in the same party. There is no ego involved in this. But we would still want that they (Delhi leaders) come down here. We have had several meetings in Delhi and this time it can be here, he said.

As the controversy continues, some AAP leaders like H.S. Phoolka are trying to find a middle path and trying to avoid a spit in the party.

Mr Phoolka has asked party MLAs in Punjab to seek autonomy for the state unit rather than forming a separate outfit in the best interests of the state.

Giving his views for the first time after party Mr Kejriwals apology to Mr Majithia on drug allegations, which pushed the state unit into a crisis, the former Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Assembly and Dakha MLA also suggested that the state unit should function like a regional party with total independence on state matters.So far foreign tourists require a special permit from the home ministry to visit such locations.

According to the MHA, discussions are being held with various state governments to relax the Restricted Area Permit norms, which have been in existence for over 50 years, in some areas.

New Delhi: The Union home ministry is all set to relax the travel restrictions for foreign tourists, except those from Pakistan and China, to visit remote areas in states like Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and parts of Himachal Pradesh, among others.

So far foreign tourists require a special permit from the home ministry to visit such locations. The Centre is now planning to relax some provisions of Restricted Area Permit system, and allow foreigners to visit such places and in turn give tourism a further boost.

According to the MHA, discussions are being held with various state governments to relax the Restricted Area Permit norms, which have been in existence for over 50 years, in some areas. The MHA and other stakeholders have identified the possible places where restrictions on the movement of foreign tourists can be relaxed further. But tourists from Pakistan and China will be kept out of these relaxed norms.

This will help both the Centre and states generate extra revenue with the growth of tourism. As per the existing provisions of the Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order 1958, some areas which are between the Inner Line and the international border in a few states are identified as protected areas, and foreigners require special permits from the home ministry to travel there.

Foreign tourists, except those from Bhutan, who want to visit protected or restricted areas need a special permit from a competent authority with the power to issue such permits. In cases such powers are not granted to a competent authority, the powers lie with the MHA.

As of now, most northeastern states like Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, as well as Sikkim, fall under this category; while some parts of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir are also out of bounds for foreign tourists.

As part of its bid to promote tourism, the government at times exempts some areas which foreigners want to visit. For diplomats and United Nations personnel, as well as the staff of some international organisations with valid diplomatic or official passports, these special permits to visit restricted areas are granted by the external affairs ministry.

However, for citizens of Afghanistan, China and Pakistan, no special permit can be issued without prior security clearance from the home ministry.The Prime Minister informed that on the occasion Mr Ambedkars birth anniversary, from April 14 to May 5 Gram-Swaraj Abhiyan, is being organised.

New Delhi: Hailing the resilience of Bhimrao Ambedkar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that despite efforts made to ensure that the son of a backward family does not progress, the father of the Indian Constitution succeeded as New India belongs to the poor and the backward.

Many people mocked Ambedkar, tried to pull him back and made every possible effort to ensure that the son of an impoverished and backward family does not progress in life, be something and succeed in life. But, the picture of new India is altogether different. It is an India which is Ambedkars India, of the poor and the backward, Mr Modi said during his monthly radio broadcast, Mann Ki Baat.

The Prime Minister also hailed the role of leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Ram Manohar Lohia, Charan Singh and Devi Lal for recognising agriculture and the farmer as vital aspects of the nations economy. He said that Mr Ambedkar showed us that to succeed it is not necessary for a person to be born in an illustrious or rich family, but even those who are born in poor families in India can dare to dream their dreams and realise those dreams by achieving success. Mr Modi said he himself is an example of Mr Ambedkars philosophy.

The Prime Minister informed that on the occasion Mr Ambedkars birth anniversary, from April 14 to May 5 Gram-Swaraj Abhiyan, is being organised. Years ago, Mr Modi said, Mr Ambedkar spoke of Indias industrialisation as a means to generate new jobs and push development.

Today, the campaign of Make in India is progressing successfully in consonance with Ambedkars dream of India as an industrial super power,- that vision of his has become our inspiration today, he noted. Mr Modi also hailed the role of Ambedkar in propagating the idea of having ports and waterways to boost economy. He said when India was discussing Partition, the World War II and the Cold War, Mr Ambedkar in a way laid the foundation of Team Indias spirit.

The Prime Minister also talked about the importance of federalism, federal system and stressed on the Centre and states working together for uplift of the country.Analytics on the user data is done for offering users the most contextual content.

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modis official app was sharing data without users consent, a charge trashed by the BJP as a fake story.

After the ruling party accused the Congress and its president of having links with the disgraced data firm, Cambridge Analytica (CA), Mr Gandhi tweeted against NaMo App  the PMs personal mobile application  based on a media report in which a French vigilante hacker has purportedly alleged that data was stolen from NaMo App without consent of the users. The Congress chief also accused the media of burying the story.

Mr Gandhis tweet said, Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am Indias Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies.

The Congress president also attached a news story titled, Data theft allegations reach PM Modis doorstep, French vigilante hackers stunning revelation.

Hitting back, the BJP said that Mr Gandhi was no match for Mr Modi and it was amusing to see Congress presidents fright about the App.

Union minister of state for electronics and information technology K.J. Alphons on Sunday dismissed allegations of data leak from NaMo App as fake stories.

You think Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to give your data to a private company in the US. Dont believe in such fake stories, he told a news agency in Thiruvananthapuram.

Mr Alpohns said, What is given in Aadhaar are just name and address. Your biometric data is with UIDAI and let me assure you that it has not been breached, its absolutely secure. We have given authorisation to government agencies to access Aadhaar information.

The minister attacked critics of Aadhaar in tweet and said, I filled up to 10 pages for US Visa form. We have absolutely no problem giving our fingerprints & getting body naked before the white man at all. When your own govt asks for your name & address there is a massive revolution saying it intrusion in privacy.

On Saturday, French security researcher Elliot Alderson took to Twitter to claim that the NaMo App shares private information of users to a third-party US company Clever Tap without their consent.

The BJPs official twitter handle said, Rahul Gandhi is no match for Narendra Modi. But seeing his fright about the Namo App, is very amusing. When his bots tried to trend #DeleteNamoApp day before yesterday, the popularity and downloads of Namo App only increased.

The ruling party also said that it did not expect any better from the Congress chief and insisted that the data is used only for analytics using third party service, similar to Google Analytics.

Analytics on the user data is done for offering users the most contextual content.

We also take this opportunity to encourage Rahul Gandhi to download NaMo App to keep himself appraised of the good things happening in India, the BJP4India said in a tweet.

It said the App gives access to users in guest mode without even any permission or data. The permissions required are all contextual and cause-specific, the BJP said.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit back at Mr Gandhi over his claim about huge pendency of cases in courts and shortage of judges, saying the governments notice to Cambridge Analytica for data mining has unnerved the Congress president.

Mr Prasad said the judiciary has never been made part of any political debate in the country. He also said that in 2016, a record 126 high court judges were appointed in one year, which he claimed was the highest since independence.

The tradition of the country has been that even in case of extreme political hostility, we keep judiciary aside, and we should continue to do so, said Mr Prasad while wondering whether Mr Gandhis tweet on judicial pendency was a result of his nervousness after governments notice to Cambridge Analytica for data mining.The UP ATS raided the hideout of the ISI suspect in Rewa following inputs on his alleged links with the Pak spy agency.

The arrested suspected ISI operative is a cousin of one Balaram Singh, said to be kingpin of a racket working for the spy agency in the country. (Representational Image)

Bhopal: A suspected operative of Pakistan spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was on Sunday arrested in Rewa in Madhya Pradesh. The UP anti-terrorist squad (ATS) raided the hideout of the ISI suspect Uma Pratap Singh in Rewa following inputs on his alleged links with the Pakistan spy agency, sources in Madhya Pradesh ATS said.

The arrested suspected ISI operative is a cousin of one Balaram Singh, said to be kingpin of a racket working for the spy agency in the country. Mr Balaram along with his alleged 10 other associates have been arrested when the MP ATS busted the spy ring last year.

We have gathered evidence of their link with their handlers in Pakistan by way of receiving funds from them and also sending funds to them. The spy ring was running private telephone exchange slyly to facilitate calls from Pakistan to various defence and strategic establishments in India, the ATS officer said. The spy network was busted following arrest of two members of the alleged racket in Jammu last year.Rahul Gandhi: Bigg Boss PM spies; Smriti Irani takes Chhota Bheem dig.

New Delhi: The high-decibel war between the Congress and BJP on data leak spiralled on Monday with the two accusing each other of sharing users data via their apps while hurling insults.

Twitter was the battleground for the app war as the debate on the prickly issue of data sharing escalated on a day when Congress president Rahul Gandhi dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians, while Union minister Smriti Irani, taking a dig at the Congress chief, said, Even Chhota Bheem (an Indian animation character) knows that commonly asked permission on Apps does not tantamount to snooping.

Amid the war of words, the Congress took down its app (a short form for software application) from Googles play store, a digital distribution service, allegedly after a nudge from Baptiste Robert (@ Elliot Alderson), a French security researcher, tweeted, The IP address of http://membership.inc.in is 52.77.237.47. This server is located in Singapore. As you are an #Indian political party, having your server in #India is probably a good idea,

The Congress chief had earlier targeted the BJP over the official mobile app of Mr Modi claiming that NaMo apps data is shared with third party companies.

In a tweet, Mr Gandhi said, Modis NaMo app secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians. If as PM he wants to use tech to communicate with India, no problem. But use the official PMO APP for it. This data belongs to India, not Modi.

Information and broadcasting minister Smriti Irani led the BJPs counter attack on the Congress.

Now that were talking tech, would you care to answer @RahulGandhiji why Congress sends data to Singapore Servers which can be accessed by any Tom, Dick and Analytica? asked Ms Irani.

The BJP said that Mr Gandhi was rattled as his plan to influence the next Lok Sabha election with the help of disgraced UK-based data mining firm Cambridge Analytica was exposed.

BJP spokesman Sambit Patra alleged that it was the Congress app that was stealing peoples data and as soon as the BJP exposed, it the Opposition party took it down from Googles play store, making it Congress-mukt.

Rahul Gandhi is technologically illiterate. He does not know that data analysis is not equivalent to spying. This new age is the age of information which Rahulji will not understand, said Mr Patra.

Taking a dig at the Congress chief, he said Mr Gandhi would tweet tomorrow that Mr Modi and BJP are connected to electronic voting machines through the NaMo App and they have been winning election after election because they have hacked it.

The Congress questioned how safe peoples money and their personal information were under the BJP-led government in the wake of a string of bank frauds and allegations related to data theft.

Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, It is an attempt like Bigg Boss of spying on Indians. Modiji is attacking the privacy. It is a data leak government.

He said that when there is an official government app that seeks information on 15 points, what is the need for having a personal NaMo Aap which seeks data on 22 indicators. The two parties social media experts also crossed their swords.

Amit Malviya, BJPs IT cell in-charge, attacked the Congress for taking down its app after the controvery.

He said, When Congress says they will share your data with like-minded groups, the implications are grave. From Maoists, stone pelters, Bharat Ke Tukde Gang, Chinese embassy to globally renowned orgs like Cambridge Analytica, the field is extensive and wide open.

Divya Spandana Ramya, Congress social media chief responded by saying, Forget sharing, we dont collect any data through the app. What a dimwit  We dont have any other membership site. Nothing is compromised...We havent taken down anything.

WithINC is only a membership app and had not been in use for over five months since the party moved membership to www.inc.in from November 16, 2017, said the Congress Twitter handle.The case was initially registered at Solapur but later was later transferred to Mumbai.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has granted anticipatory bail to a man in dowry death case. Accused Alim Saudagars wife Ayesha had died within a month of their marriage in 2017. Her family alleged that barely 10 days after their wedding, Ayesha had telephoned her brother and sister on May 26 and 29 and complained about dowry harassment by her husband.

However, during investigation it was revealed that there was no phone calls from Ayesha to her family on the mentioned dates. Taking this point into account, the court granted bail to Saudagar.

Justice Revati Mohite Dere granted bail to Saudagar, who fears arrest at the hands of Chunabhatti police. The case was initially registered at Solapur but later was later transferred to Mumbai.

Saudagars lawyer Shivraj Kunchge claimed that his client got married to Ayesha in Solapur on May 15, 2017. Few days later, Ayesha got ill and hence Saudagar admitted her to a hospital in Mumbai on May 30. But her health didnt improve and her father Abdul Gani Tamboli took her to Solapur and admitted her in a hospital there. She died in June 2017.

After Ayeshas death her family registered a case of dowry harassment against Saudagar and alleged that he was responsible for her death. Mr Kunchge pointed out that the familys claims were false.According to BMC officials, the fire brigade officials received the fire call at around 1.30 pm on Sunday.

Mumbai: Two fires broke out in the city on Sunday, the first of which occurred in the slums of Rajiv Nagar in Chembur, causing injuries to eight people, including two toddlers.

The injured were taken to the Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

In the other incident, a major fire (level 3) was reported from Andheri (east) where the basement of a private firm was gutted in fire.

According to BMC officials, the fire brigade officials received the fire call at around 1.30 pm on Sunday.

Two fire engines and one jumbo tanker were rushed to the spot. The fire erupted in a ground-plus-three storey commercial structure at the Thakkar Bappa slum colony in Chembur, said a fire

official.

According to the details released by the civic disaster management officials, two people including a 45-year-old male and a 15-month old toddler sustained most injuries.

Jagdish Jatholiya (45), who sustained 70 per cent burn injuries is in a critical condition as are the toddlers Chandini Jatholiya (15-month) and Tanuja Jatholiya (three-month).

In the blaze on Saki Vihar Road in Andheri (east), no casualties were reported. The fire was confined to the basement of a building which belonged to a firm named Net Magic Service Private Limited.The Ministry of Defence has conveyed to the Dubai-based former president through his counsel that providing him security is not its job.

The 74-year-old retired Army general has been living in Dubai since 2017, when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on the pretext of medical treatment. (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: The Pakistan government has rejected former dictator Pervez Musharraf's request for security on returning to the country to face a special court trying him on treason charges, according to a media report.

The Ministry of Defence has conveyed to the Dubai-based former president through his counsel that providing him security is not its job, the Dawn newspaper reported.

In a letter written to Musharraf's counsel Akhtar Shah, the ministry said "provision of security in the subject case does not fall under the purview of Ministry of Defence", according to the report.

The 74-year-old retired Army general has been living in Dubai since 2017, when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on the pretext of medical treatment.

He was indicted in March, 2014 on treason charges for imposing emergency in 2007 in the country which led to the confinement of a number of superior court judges in their houses and sacking of over 100 judges.

He has been declared "proclaimed offender" by courts in the treason and the Benazir Bhutto assassination cases.

He is the first general to face trial for treason in Pakistan's history and if convicted, he could be given life imprisonment or the death penalty.

An application was moved on behalf of Musharraf on March 13 that the former president be provided security by the Ministry of Defence on his return to Pakistan.

"His team contends that he faces serious security threats," it said.

However, responding to a similar application, the Interior Ministry had earlier assured Musharraf of security and also sought his travel plan and details of stay in Pakistan. The details have not been shared with the Interior Ministry so far, the report said.

"We are still working on the details and will make the decision public once there is something final," All Pakistan Muslim League leader Muhammad Amjad, a close aide to Musharraf, was quoted as saying by Dawn.

On March 16, the special court hearing the treason case against Musharraf authorised the government to suspend his passport as well as his computerised national identity card.

The court had also directed the Interior Ministry to approach the Interpol for the arrest of the former president.

On March 21, he convened a meeting of his aides in Dubai to decide the future course of action but the meeting remained inconclusive.

The Islamabad High Court had in February, ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate Musharraf over charges of accumulating assets beyond his known means of income.

The Pakistan government has rejected former dictator Pervez Musharraf's request for security on returning to the country to face a special court trying him on treason charges, according to a media report.

The Ministry of Defence has conveyed to the Dubai-based former president through his counsel that providing him security is not its job, the Dawn newspaper reported.

In a letter written to Musharraf's counsel Akhtar Shah, the ministry said "provision of security in the subject case does not fall under the purview of Ministry of Defence", according to the report.

The 74-year-old retired Army general has been living in Dubai since 2017, when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on the pretext of medical treatment.

He was indicted in March, 2014 on treason charges for imposing emergency in 2007 in the country which led to the confinement of a number of superior court judges in their houses and sacking of over 100 judges.

He has been declared "proclaimed offender" by courts in the treason and the Benazir Bhutto assassination cases.

He is the first general to face trial for treason in Pakistan's history and if convicted, he could be given life imprisonment or the death penalty.

An application was moved on behalf of Musharraf on March 13 that the former president be provided security by the Ministry of Defence on his return to Pakistan.

"His team contends that he faces serious security threats," it said.

However, responding to a similar application, the Interior Ministry had earlier assured Musharraf of security and also sought his travel plan and details of stay in Pakistan. The details have not been shared with the Interior Ministry so far, the report said.

"We are still working on the details and will make the decision public once there is something final," All Pakistan Muslim League leader Muhammad Amjad, a close aide to Musharraf, was quoted as saying by Dawn.

On March 16, the special court hearing the treason case against Musharraf authorised the government to suspend his passport as well as his computerised national identity card.

The court had also directed the Interior Ministry to approach the Interpol for the arrest of the former president.

On March 21, he convened a meeting of his aides in Dubai to decide the future course of action but the meeting remained inconclusive.

The Islamabad High Court had in February, ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate Musharraf over charges of accumulating assets beyond his known means of income.Facebook, the world's largest social media network is facing growing government scrutiny in Europe and the United States.

'We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't, we don't deserve it,' said the advert, signed by Facebook founder Zuckerberg. (Photo: AFP)

London: Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg apologised to Britons on Sunday over a "breach of trust", taking out full page advertisements in British newspapers after a political consultancy got its hands on data on 50 million users.

"We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't, we don't deserve it," said the advert, signed by Facebook founder Zuckerberg.

The world's largest social media network is facing growing government scrutiny in Europe and the United States.

This follows allegations by a whistleblower that British consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed users' information to build profiles on American voters that were later used to help elect US President Donald Trump in 2016.

The plain black text apology on a white background, with only a tiny Facebook logo, appeared in Sunday publications including The Observer - one of the newspapers whose reporting on the issue has sent Facebook's share price tumbling.

Zuckerberg said an app built by a university researcher "leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014".

"This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time," Zuckerberg said, reiterating an apology first made last week in US television interviews.

Cambridge Analytica says it initially believed the data had been obtained in line with data protection laws, and later deleted it at Facebook's request. The consultancy said it did not use the data in work it did for the 2016 US election.

On Friday night, investigators from Britain's data watchdog searched the London offices of Cambridge Analytica for several hours.

Zuckerberg, whose firm has lost more than USD 50 billion in market value since the allegations, said Facebook would give users more information and control about who can access their data.

"Thank you for believing in this community. I promise to do better for you," he wrote.

Advertisers Mozilla and German bank Commerzbank have suspended ads on the service and the hashtag #DeleteFacebook has been trending online.

On Friday, electric carmaker Tesla Inc and its rocket company SpaceX's Facebook pages - each with more than 2.6 million followers - were deleted after Chief Executive Elon Musk promised to do so.The Iran-aligned Huthi rebels fired three missiles at Riyadh and four others at the southern cities of Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran.

The latest attack could further escalate the coalitions military campaign. (Photo: Representational Image | AP)

Riyadh: Saudi forces intercepted seven Yemeni rebel missiles on Sunday, including over the capital Riyadh, in a deadly escalation on the eve of the third anniversary of the Saudi-led coalitions intervention in Yemen.

One Egyptian was killed and two of his countrymen were wounded by falling shrapnel in Riyadh, authorities said, with residents reporting loud explosions and bright flashes in the sky shortly before midnight.

The Iran-aligned Huthi rebels fired three missiles at Riyadh and four others at the southern cities of Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran, with the coalition saying they all targeted populated areas.

This aggressive and hostile action by the Iran-backed Huthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities, coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said.

The firing of multiple ballistic missiles towards cities is a serious development.

The Huthi-run Al-Masira television channel claimed the rebels had targeted Riyadhs King Khalid International Airport as well as other airstrips in the south of the kingdom.

The strikes come after the US defence secretary last week urged Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to Washington to pursue urgent efforts to end Yemens wrenching conflict.

The Huthi rebels have fired dozens of missiles into Saudi Arabia since last year, all of which Saudi forces claim to have intercepted, underscoring their capacity to strike deep within the kingdom amid a stalemated war in Yemen.

The latest attack could further escalate the coalitions military campaign.

A major attack targeting Riyadh international airport on November 4 triggered the tightening of a longstanding Saudi-led blockade of Yemen  already on the verge of famine.

Another strike on December 19 targeted Riyadhs Yamamah palace, the official residence of King Salman.

Humanitarian crisis

Saudi Arabia has accused its arch foe Iran of supplying the missile to the rebels, a charge Tehran strongly denied.

The Huthis expelled pro-government forces from the capital in September 2014 and went on to seize swathes of the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country.

This prompted a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia to intervene in Yemen on March 26, 2015, to help the government push back the Shiite rebels.

Since then, around 10,000 people have been killed and 53,000 wounded in Yemen, triggering what the United Nations has called the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

Huthi rebel chief Abdelmalik al-Huthi on Sunday said his fighters were ready to make more sacrifices against the Saudi-led coalition, in an address marking the wars third anniversary.

The Huthis plan a huge rally in Sanaa on Monday to mark the anniversary.

The UN says living conditions in the war-scarred country have reached catastrophic levels and that 8.4 million people face imminent famine.

The UN urgently needs USD 350 million for humanitarian projects in Yemen, a senior agency official said on Sunday, insisting it was mere peanuts compared with the cost of the countrys war.

Saudi Arabia and its allies  aided by billions of dollars worth of military equipment from the US and Britain  could stand guilty of war crimes, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Numerous rounds of UN-sponsored peace talks have failed to stem the bloodshed in Yemen.Hate, injustice and conflict are the stones that hinder the blessings of the people of Myanmar. Following in the footsteps of Pope Franciss apostolic journey, the archbishop of Yangon reiterated the Churchs commitment to national reconciliation. "The Church, he said, will use its local and international influence to work towards a durable peace based on Justice.

Yangon (AsiaNews)  Charles Maung Bo, archbishop of Yangon and Myanmars first cardinal, issued his Easter message to the countrys Catholic community.

In it, he reminded fellow Catholics that Easter is a day of hope. He also urged the nation to come out man-made graves and rolldown the stones that block our people.

In his message for Holy Week, the cardinal makes a new appeal for the building of a nation of hope and peace", urging the people of Myanmar to choose life over death.

"The great event of the Resurrection has three significant steps: The suffering of the innocent Lamb of God, Jesus; the hope of Holy Saturday; and the gravestone removed with Jesus rising again in triumph over the powers of darkness.

Card Bo noted that Myanmar has also gone through these phases in its recent history. Millions of its people have suffered in the past. At present our people are living in the hope of Holy Saturday, hoping that this country will leave its addiction to wounds behind.

The prelate mentioned Pope Franciss appeal for peace and reconciliation to the Myanmar people, delivered at the solemn Mass he celebrated in Yangon during his recent apostolic visit to the country when he urged people to leave behind the wounds, known or hidden, of the past.

To do this, the country must "come out of man-made graves, and roll down the stones that block our peoples blessings." For Card Bo, there are three "stones" that must be rolled down: the first one is hate.

"This nation's spiritual heritage was built on the great virtue of compassion  Karuna. But hate speech has been used by a small fringe to promote fratricidal killing.

Therefore, there is an "urgent need" for the people of Myanmar to listen to the pope's call to stay away from revenge in favour of forgiveness, renewing their commitment to religious tolerance vis-a-vis the countrys various communities.

The second "stone" is injustice. "When there is no justice there is no peace," the cardinal said, citing some of the social evils that afflict the nation.

Millions are buried in the grave of economic injustice in this country; thousands are buried as 'modern slaves' in unsafe migration to nearby countries. Resources have become the deep grave for our ethnic brothers and sisters. Looting has buried thousands in conflict and displacement.

The last "stone" is conflict. Card Bo directly addresses the government and ethnic groups, telling them "let us move away from the grave of conflict".

Sixty years of war have devastated a nation that, despite its wealth of resources, is among the poorest in the world. "The conflict has eaten the core of Myanmar peoples dignity. Peace is the only way forward," the archbishop said.

Conflict has mutilated this country. Nearly three million of our youth are out, a million are displaced, a million have fled the country as refugees. This was once a golden land blessed with great wealth. Our wounds are self-inflicted wounds. Refusing to accept the multicultural nature of this country has brought ethnic conflicts.

In his message, Card Bo renewed the commitment of the Myanmar Church in favour of the process of reconciliation and building a nation based on justice, which found new impetus in the words of the pontiff in Myanmar.

The prelate noted the suffering of the countrys Christian minorities, who have been the victims of decades of ethnic strife and have seen their religious freedom and human rights violated.

We accompany all the people in their Way of the Cross and their unending Lent. Christ continues to suffer, carrying his Cross in our ethnic brothers and sisters.

Following the mandate of the pope, the Church in Myanmar has undertaken the sacred pilgrimage of peace, participating in peace conferences, supporting Pang Long Peace Conferences. The Church will use its local and international influence to work towards a durable peace based on Justice.

War and displacement and enforced poverty are some of the graves in which our people are buried alive. Rolling down the stones that cover these man-made graves and breathe life into our brothers and sisters living in the valley of death is the prophetic mission of the Church today in Myanmar.

Let peace break forth in the dawn. Let my country be raised from hopelessness into peace and prosperity and become the Golden Land once again, said Card Bo.11 thousand polling stations have been secured. The count will start immediately after polls close on March 28 and the announcement of the results is expected for April 2nd. The voices of the Egyptians.

Cairo (AsiaNews) - The polling stations are officially open: from nine o'clock this morning, Egypt is called to choose its next president. A vote that according to analysts will see the certain victory of the outgoing president Abdel-Fattah Al-Sissi, with voter turnout the only real question.

Yesterday, the Ministry of the Interior concluded the securing of the 11 thousand polling stations, which will remain open until 9 pm on Wednesday 28. The National Elections Authority (Nea) states that it will allow 54 local NGOs and 15 international Arab and African organizations to monitor the elections, and that there will also be 1,558 local and 680 foreigner journalists. There are 59 million eligible voters in Egypt. The counting will start immediately after the closing of polls, and the results will be made public on April 2nd.

Some comments:

I ask the Egyptians not to be afraid. Going to the polls will be our response to terrorism.

Abdel-Hadi Al-Qassabi, supreme leader of the Sufi congregations

Seriously and very seriously, this state would like to expel you completely from Sinai.

Mossaad Abou-Fagr, activist in Sinai.

All appeals to boycott elections have failed.

Makram Mohamed Ahmed, Supreme Leader of the Organization of Media and Press.

Looking at the streets with all the thousands of pro-Sisi posters disgusts me.

Nesrine Badawi, internauta

I lived in Egypt for seven years. I was stopped while interviewing a citizen during the election campaigns, and threatened with a military trial if I refused to board a plane in the following days. I do not understand what's happening.

Bel Trew, ex- Cairo correspondent for The Times, expelled

Take part in the elections. It matters little if you say yes (to the outgoing president) or not ...

Government advertising on Egyptian television

Observe the reality of our lives and you will experience the happiness in which we live.

Abdel-Razek Tewfik, editor-in-chief of the pro-government daily al-Gomhouriya ("La Repubblica")

(Loula Lahham collaborated)The event is set for this Wednesday with government, religious and civil authorities present. For the patriarchal vicar to Amman, this will be part of the "theological, religious, spiritual dialogue" that accompanies everyday life. We want to show the common points between Christians and Muslims, concerning the event of the Annunciation, in which even Muslims believe," he said.

Amman (AsiaNews)  This year, Jordan will hold its first interreligious celebration on the feast day of the Annunciation of Mary. On Wednesday, 28 March, government and civil authorities, Muslim religious leaders, Christian bishops and ordinary believers from both faiths will gather in a large hall in the capital to mark the occasion.

The event will serve to highlight "the importance of Mary in the Quran, and the value of the narrative of the Annunciation in the Gospel of Luke, noted Mgr William H. Shomali, patriarchal vicar of the Latin Patriarchate in Amman.

In doing so, We want to show the shared points between Christians and Muslims, concerning the event of the Annunciation, in which even Muslims believe.

For the past 12 years, the feast day of the Annunciation on 25 March has been a national holiday in Lebanon, a day off for everyone and an important moment for dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

The event is part of the "theological, religious and spiritual dialogue" between Christians and Muslims, explained the prelate. It comes on top of the existential dialogue of everyday life".

Speaking before the General Assembly of the United Nations in September 2016, King Abdullah II stressed the importance of Jesus and Mary in the Quran, whose names are cited 25 and 35 times respectively.

Mary is "the 'best of all women in creation' [. . .] And there is a chapter in the Quran called Maryam. The khawarij deliberately hide these truths about Islam in order to drive Muslims and non-Muslims apart. We cannot allow this to happen.

Announcing the event in the online newspaper Abouna, Fr Rifat Bader noted that the Jordanian king made Christmas a national holiday in 2000. "Now we ask to celebrate the feast of the Annunciation, so that its religious meaning can serve an incentive to enrich our national unity and social cohesion."

* Also known as Kharijites, the Khawarij were Muslim extremists who broke away from mainstream Islam.by Wang Zhicheng

United Front Officers escorted him to his village, forcing him to abandon his ministry. Alternating threats and bribes to make him enrol in the Patriotic Association. "Even the Holy See has now made compromises". The implementation of the new regulations, to wipe out underground communities.

Beijing (AsiaNews)  Fr. Ding Zhanmin, parish priest in Beishaliang (Baotoukun district, Hohot archdiocese, Inner Mongolia), was forced to abandon his parish and return to the countryside to work as a farmer in Xilin Gol (also in Inner Mongolia). His expulsion took place on March 19, under the escort of officials from the Baotou Religious Affairs Bureau.

United Front Department agents - responsible for religious affairs - had spoken many times with Fr. Ding, alternating threats and bribes. The priest belongs to the underground community which is not registered with the government.

The United Front officers wanted to convince him to join the Patriotic Association, the organ that controls the Church and wants to build an "independent" Church (from the Holy See), a principle that is "irreconcilable with Catholic doctrine", as the Letter of Pope Benedict XVI to Chinese Catholics states.

As has also happened in other situations, officials tried to bribe the priest with promises of cash and aid for the parish. However, underground priests depend only on the charity of the faithful, who are very poor in regions like Inner Mongolia.

One faithful tells: "Fr. Ding remained faithful to his conscience and the principles gained in the underground Church over the years. In the end he had nothing left but to lose his parish and return to being a farmer".

Fr. Dings parish will now be passed on to priests of the official community, members of the Patriotic Association, who will administer the celebrations of the Easter Triduum.

"The faithful - says a source - were disconsolate and confused. I believe that most of them will refuse to follow this new course imposed by the government ".

According to witnesses close to Fr. Ding, the United Front is pushing priests to join the PA, stressing that "even the Holy See has now made compromises".

In fact, since the so-called dialogue between China and the Holy See got under way, the rumour is spreading that membership of the PA no longer poses any problem.

Many priests of the underground Church have turned to the Holy See for clarification, but without receiving an answer.

In any case, the expulsion of Fr. Ding from his parish and the ban he has been issued on exercising his priestly ministry follow the directives of the new regulations on religious activities, launched last February 1, which provide for arrests, fines and expropriations for unofficial communities.

Father Ding is not new to the government harassment: he was arrested along with four other priests in a police raid in January 2012.The apostolic administrator spoke about the festive atmosphere during Palm Sunday. Large number of people experienced an ambiance of sharing, boosted by the proximity of Orthodox celebrations. After years of crisis, pilgrims are back in large numbers. Christians pray for the end of emigration and conflicts.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews)  "Tens of thousands of believers" celebrated Palm Sunday yesterday, "not only pilgrims, but also many locals coming from the different areas that make up the diocese," said Mgr Pierbattista Pizzaballa, apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Speaking to AsiaNews, he noted that this is perhaps "the only moment when Christians meet, a time of celebrations that start the rites and services of the Week with huge numbers, partly because of the proximity of Orthodox festivities, which fall only a week after Catholic ones".

The atmosphere of sharing and celebration "felt in all the parish communities" was boosted by the number of pilgrims that keeps growing compared to the past" when a worrying drop was recorded.

It is important not only to be close to the heart of Christianity, but also to fuel one of the main economic activities of the local community whose earnings depend for 30 per cent on religious tourism.

"In 2017, the number of stays was double over the previous year, Mgr Pizzaballa said. For the first months of 2018, the number of pilgrims is even higher. So, from this point of view, we can say that the situation is much improved and this is an element of relief "after a critical period.

Some of the reasons for the higher numbers include "the liberalisation of air travel by Israel, which has allowed many low-cost companies to fly in from all over the world, especially Asia. What is more, the Holy Land has not any bad stories lately, and this has contributed to allaying fears about the pilgrimages."

On 24 June 2016, the former Custos of the Holy Land was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem of the Latins, which had been vacant since the resignation due to age limit of Patriarch Fouad Twal.

The 52-year-old archbishop (53 on 21 April) received his episcopal consecration on 10 September 2016 in the cathedral of Bergamo (Italy), his diocese of origin.

The prelate has been in the Holy Land since 1999 where, in May 2004, he was elected custodian. On 22 March 2010, he was chosen a second time. In 2013 he got another three years. His posting ended in April 2016.

A fine expert of Jewish culture, he also taught Biblical Hebrew at the Franciscan Faculty of Biblical and Archaeological Sciences in Jerusalem and has ties with prominent Israeli Jewish figures.

This year "there are no particular situations that cause concern," Mgr Pizzaballa noted. "We hope to experienced the holy days in a more serene and shared atmosphere."

Political and social problems remain, the Israeli-Palestinian question "is always topical" and the clash with Israeli authorities over taxes that led to the closure of the Holy Sepulcher is only "on hold". However, for now the goal is "to celebrate Easter rites".

For Christians*, the greatest desire is that this situation of conflict and waiting be over. People pray and make invocations for "a more peaceful life, like the other citizens who make up the country.

In this sense, the participation, even this year, of a certain number of Christians from the Gaza Strip is something positive, but to come to Jerusalem they must be authorised by Israeli authorities.

Still, "The Christian presence is at risk, Mgr Pizzaballa noted. It is necessary to ensure a future by encouraging social and economic initiatives, by strengthening training and education, and by supporting Christian schools as a privileged place to meet and exchange."

"On the occasion of Easter, he said, I renew the invitation to Christians from all over the world, especially in the West, to come to the Holy Land and experience a humanity reconciled by the death and resurrection of Christ.

"There is nothing in the human experience that cannot be touched by His love. For this reason too, it is necessary to continue to pray and work for peace, even if there are no results in the short term because of the lack of political action. (DS)

* Christians represent just over 1 per cent of the population in the Holy Land, and their presence here as elsewhere in the Middle East is at risk due to large-scale emigration.by Michele Brambilla

Fr Michele Brambilla, superior of the mission, speaks about the celebration of Palm Sunday at St Vincent Hospital in Dinajpur. Faced with suffering "no one can remain insensitive". Muslims and Hindus gathered in prayer for the anointing of a Catholic woman.

Dinajpur (AsiaNews)  The mystery of suffering" unites everyone before what no one can remain insensitive, said Fr Michele Brambilla, regional superior of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in Bangladesh.

This year the missionary chose to celebrate Palm Sunday at St Vincent Hospital in Dinajpur, the diocesan hospital he runs. It is in this place of sickness and suffering, he says, that "there is a lot of humanity and solidarity". This humanity transcends religious differences. His letter follows below.

Palm Sunday, 2018

Dear friends, many greetings from Bangladesh.

I have just finished the Eucharistic celebration of Palm Sunday in our diocesan hospital. I chose to spend this Lenten period until to Easter celebrating in the place that has been entrusted to me by my bishop for more than two years.

It was a beautiful Lent. Moments of weekly prayer and two days of spiritual retreat in the diocesan seminary adjacent to the hospital were organised for all the medical personnel, paramedics, nurses, washerwomen, cooks and cleaners. The sisters of the Holy Child Mary are behind this; they live and work in the hospital taking care of the sick, the young and yours truly.

Two days ago, Lent Friday, I was called to the general medical ward to give the sacrament of the sick to a very ill woman. There was a choral participation. Everyone stopped to pray around this woman, and we contemplated together the mystery of suffering and entrusted her life to God's hands.

At the end of the prayer, I came out of the room and found Shifat, a 12-year-old Muslim boy who together with his mother attended the prayer. Looking around, I also saw Hindu women and women followers of traditional religions. In the face of someones suffering no one can remain insensitive and they are bear witness to it.

I stopped in the corridor to greet Shifat, the first of three siblings without a father, who died three years ago. Two weeks ago, he had his lower leg removed because of a carcinoma. He was serene, he smiled at me and I asked him if he was in pain. He said no, I smiled and left him to his mother's loving care.

These are the glimpses of everyday life that I live in this place full of sickness and suffering but where there is a lot of humanity and solidarity.

I wish you all a joyful Easter in the Lord Jesus, living and present among us.

Hugs to all.ACCC to focus on franchising in 2018





The ACCC has warned it will be focusing on franchising issues involving large or national franchisors in 2018.

The warning comes with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) releasing its Small Business 2017 snapshot that gives an overview of its activities within the small business sector in 2017.

Across 2017, the ACCC took out seven small business related enforcement actions, including five for alleged breaches of the Franchising Code.

The ACCC also did 29 compliance checks in 2017 to ensure adherence with the franchising, horticulture, and food and grocery industry codes.

ACCC Deputy Chair, Dr Michael Schaper, said throughout 2018, the ACCC will have a particular focus on Franchising Code of Conduct issues involving large or national franchisors.

The majority of small businesses that contact us are micro sized with less than four staff, Dr Schaper said.

We want small businesses to have a level playing field and every chance to succeed, so its our job to ensure everyone plays by the rules.

The ACCC warning also comes as the Australian Federal Parliament prepares to conduct an inquiry into franchising in Australia. The inquiry was initiated after a series of reported issues with franchising within Australia.

Related articlesBrisbane Marketing throws support behind food innovators





Brisbane Marketing has started a boot camp business program to help drive Brisbanes food innovators and start-ups.

The new Future Food Brisbane program offers four eight-week courses designed to help food businesses in the region and provides the chance to work with the likes of SilverChef, KPMG, Wandering Cooks and Bentleys.

The four courses on offer include:

Future Food Global Readiness Accelerator: An eight-week program run by professional services company KPMG for businesses with existing products and high-growth potential.

An eight-week program run by professional services company KPMG for businesses with existing products and high-growth potential. Future Food Product Development and Market Readiness Incubator: An eight-week program run by corporate services company Bentleys for businesses at an early stage of development.

An eight-week program run by corporate services company Bentleys for businesses at an early stage of development. Startup Launchpad: An eight-week program for businesses at the concept development or startup stage, presented by SilverChef in conjunction with Wandering Cooks.

An eight-week program for businesses at the concept development or startup stage, presented by SilverChef in conjunction with Wandering Cooks. Industry development workshops and seminars covering important aspects of food and beverage commercialisation, from e-commerce to IP protection.

Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL) is delivering all four courses.

Brisbane Lord Mayor, Graham Quirk, said the Future Food Brisbane program is part of the citys strategy to drive investment and job growth in the food and agribusiness sector.

Brisbane and its surrounds are recognised for producing delicious high-quality produce, and combined with our robust supply chain infrastructure, research capability and support for start-ups, we are seeing more innovative food products and ideas emerge, Cr Quirk said.

There is a hunger from Brisbanes food community to expand their capabilities, capacity and expertise and the Future Food Brisbane initiative will deliver a range of targeted education and industry development advice to help them achieve this.

Growing Brisbanes food and agribusiness industry is a priority of the Brisbane 2022 New World City Action Plan for economic growth, which is why we want to help our local food and beverage businesses to prosper.

Food businesses interested in Future Food Brisbane can visit futurefoodbrisbane.com.au

Related articlesIt depends on the document.



But you can bet your ass that if a previous document contradicts something that it will resurface and bite you on the bum.South Australians celebrated Peter Lanes 30 years of service, commitment and dedication to both the state and national print industries at a cocktail function in Adelaide.

Australian Printer has a gallery of the event, which you can view here: http://australianprinter.com.au/Gallery/21093,peter-lane-piaa-retirement-party.aspx/1

Peter Lane retired from the Board of the Printing Industries Association of Australia at the end of 2017, ending his 30 years of Association Board membership.

Lane says, One year went by, then another, I never really sat and counted them until the end.

I was humbled and honoured that so many people took time out to have a few drinks with me. There were a lot of people I have not seen in a long time.

I have always represented South Australia on the board, and worked closely with the people sitting around, particularly in the previous structure where there were regional councils, I was encouraged to keep participating and chose to do so, while the company behind me was supportive.

The private event was organised by former print industry employees, Peter Mansfield and Mary Jo Fisher, with 70 turning up on Thursday to celebrate.

Fisher says, Peters 30 years of Board membership is a record term, during which he served two stints as National President.

The South Australian industry wanted to recognise and applaud Peters amazing contribution. Almost 100 South Australians in the industry did so, with many apologies beyond the 70 or so who were able to attend the event.

Lane says, It was interesting having discussions with guests on Thursday night. They are finding that within their own business cycles they are bullish about the industry. I am sure everybody would love to charge more and do less, but significantly all could see a positive future for the businesses and areas in which they operate.

Fisher noted that several of SAs country printers came along, some travelling a six-hour round trip just to attend the event and drive home right afterwards.

Don Woolman, former National and SA President of label and tag association LATMA was the guest speaker. Now retired, Woolman notes that in their official roles, he and Lane were never shy of having vigorous public debates on industry issues.

We often got grumpy with one another, but never lost mutual respect for the others unwavering advocacy for the industry, says Woolman.

Fisher says, Peter Lanes office-bearing journey with the Association started in 1985. Lane Print Group was resigning from the Association, because the Association had negotiated a 35-hour week with the union. Of course, the Industrial Relations Commission subsequently refused to ratify the deal. The then-SA President and SA Manager of the Association both visited Peter. They suggested that rather than resign, Peter should join the Associations Regional Council to experience and understand the Associations workings. The rest, as they say, is history.

Local entertainer Nick Catalano got guests singing along to his piano accordion renditions.

Fisher says, In my time helping the industry, the maximum audience we could get to any local event (other than PICAs) was just over 30. And that used to take real work. Beyond the 70 or so guests were many who couldnt attend and sent Peter congratulatory messages. Thats easy testimony to the regard in which he is held.

I expect that there would be many people nationally who would like a similar opportunity to celebrate Peters unequalled industry contribution, said Fisher.

Fisher says, From my knowledge of the expertise of the Associations Board members, together with my experience in the governance of industry organisations and compliance with workplace relations laws, I think it will take quite some time for the Association to find or help a current Board member to replace Peters extensive skills and experience. I trust the Association has that work in progress.

Please may the industry have another Peter Lane."

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Photo of 2019 Insight hybrid courtesy of Honda.

Honda's 2019 Insight gasoline-electric hybrid should achieve 55 miles per gallon in city driving, when it arrives at dealer lots this summer, Honda announced. The automaker will debut the vehicle at the New York International Auto Show this week.

The 2019 Insight pairs a 1.5-liter Atkinson cycle engine, electric motor, and 60-cell lithium-ion battery back. The two-motor system makes 151 horsepower and 197 pound-feet of torque. The vehicle can drive on all-electric power for about 1 mile.

Three selectable driving modes include Normal, Econ, and Sport. Drivers can use steering-wheel-mounted deceleration selectors to choose among the three levels of regenerative braking performance.

The hybrid doesn't need an automatic transmission because the electric propulsion motor powers the drive axles. At higher speeds, a lock-up clutch connects the engine to the drive axles.

Honda is reviving the Insight nameplate that it used for the first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid in the U.S. Honda discontinued the vehicle in 2014.Merchants Fleet Management has streamlined its offerings to increase long-term customer value, and now offers a single point of entry for all products and services including fleet management services (core fleet business), business leasing services (executive, hospitality, and franchise vehicles), and mobility leasing services (short-term fleet options and automated pool management technology).

The move allows Merchants to provide customers a broader set of solutions, by making it easier to access the entire Merchants toolset, according to the fleet management company.

"As a former customer myself, I always wanted a single point of contact for everything Merchants," explained Merchants CEO Brendan P. Keegan. "Now we are making that happen. By centralizing our full breadth of services, we can better provide complete long-term customer value. It doesn't matter if you're interested in short- or long-term leases, if you have one vehicle or a thousand, our customers can now seamlessly integrate everything Merchants has to offer."

Merchants will hold an in-depth demonstration of its new service structure at NAFA I&E in Anaheim, Calif., from April 24 to 27. On April 23, Merchants will sponsor an IFA pre-convention networking lunch centered around mobility. Those attending the event are also encouraged to visit the educational seminar, "Stewardship and Standards in the Era of Big Data," on April 24.

For more information, including how to enter to win a fitbittm ionic watch, visit the company's website.Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Mostly clear. Areas of smoke and haze are possible, reducing visibility at times. Low 69F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Areas of smoke and haze are possible, reducing visibility at times. Low 69F. Winds light and variable.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.Spectrum News is covering the trial of Noor Salman, who is accused of helping her husband, Omar Mateen, carry out the attack at Pulse nightclub in June 2016. The attack, in which Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, killed 49 people and injured another 53.



Keep up with the latest updates from Spectrum News reporters at the federal courthouse in downtown Orlando. Cameras are not allowed in federal court, but we have a team at the scene:

Live updates

Live Blog LIVE UPDATES: Noor Salman Trial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.LONDON, UK - Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in nine major British and US newspapers on Sunday to apologise for a huge data privacy scandal.

We will ban them

Facebook took out full page ads in the NYT, WSJ, WashPost, and 6 UK papers today https://t.co/kMA822kTpU pic.twitter.com/CUEYwyWuTT  Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 25, 2018

"We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't we don't deserve it," he said.The ads ran in prominent positions in six British nationals, including the best-selling Mail on Sunday, The Sunday Times and The Observer  which helped break the story  as well as the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.Zuckerberg explained there was a quiz developed by a university researcher "that leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014"."This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again," he said.The ad reflects public statements Zuckerberg made last week after the row prompted investigations in Europe and the United States, and sent Facebook's share price plunging.He repeated that the social media giant had changed the rules on apps so no such data breach could happen again."We're also investigating every single app that had access to large amounts of data before we fixed this. We expect there are others," he wrote."And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected."There was no mention of the British firm accused of using the data, Cambridge Analytica, which worked on US President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.It too has blamed the University of Cambridge researcher Alexsandr Kogan, for any potential breach of data rules.Kogan created a lifestyle quiz app for Facebook which was downloaded by 270,000 people but allowed access to tens of millions of their contacts.Facebook says he passed this to Cambridge Analytica without its knowledge. Kogan says he is being made a scapegoat.AFP via I-Net Bridge.After a few years hovering around the 1% mark, Spree predicts online shopping's share of total retail sales in South Africa will increase exponentially over the next three years, rising to about 4% by 2021.

1. Barriers have fallen

2. Tech is helping us live our best lives

3. Well get our purchases delivered faster and faster

4. The mall will embrace digital too

5. Well get increasingly creative with who and how retail is delivered

According to the online fashion retailer, barriers to entry such as lack of internet access and limited online payment methods are rapidly being overcome. There are also great improvements in the experience and convenience of online shopping that will draw shoppers online.Vincent Hoogduijn, CEO of e-commerce at Media24, the company that owns Spree, says growth figures have been exponential for their online fashion business. In mid-2017, total sales at Spree were up 88% year-on-year, sales on the shopping app more than doubled and daily transactions increased by 76%. If this growth continues and is mirrored by other players we will see online retail gaining serious ground and growing market share measurably over the next couple of years.Hoogduijn further says South African shopping trends often follow big global ones. Globally, online retail currently stands at 11% of all retail sales with China coming in well over 20% and large markets such as the UK and Germany standing at 18% and 11% respectively. This is according to the Centre for Retail Research, Emarketer and Internet Retailer.These are Hoogduijns top reasons why online retail will see its potential realised in South Africa over the next few years.New research from After Access shows that 55.5% of South Africans now have a smartphone  and this figure is rising steadily. So the connectivity gap is no longer a major barrier. Many South Africans leapfrogged the desktop stage straight to mobile so the growing penetration of smartphones is likely to deliver a big boost for online retail.Technological advancements and our increasingly digital lifestyle also help to break down barriers such as lack of trust in delivery and payment, as multiple digital payment options (and even digital credit) are now being offered.Shopping is increasingly about personalisation, with machine learning building up a psychographic profile of every customer at a granular level and suggesting products accordingly. In 2017 Spree introduced a fashion image search feature that allows shoppers to upload a photo in the Spree app, which then suggests visually similar items.Essentially, machine learning serves customers looks they will love. Once shoppers get used to this feature theyll grow impatient with the shop-to-shop mall walk quickly. This technology, along with improved online search functionality through voice (think Alexa), will extend beyond clothing and will help shoppers find the best possible skincare products as well as other items such as homeware, sportswear and even groceries.In the US, drone deliveries and smart distribution tech are already reducing a three-day delivery time to three hours. Next to faster and more accurate deliveries, were likely to see at least some local deliveries arriving by drones in 2021.Since South Africans have a penchant for instant gratification, faster delivery times are likely to speed up the uptake of online shopping as shoppers know that their purchases will arrive very soon after the order is placed. There is a huge correlation between speed to customer and revenue growth.South Africans love a mall outing  it is part of our national DNA. As a result, South Africa has an oversupply of malls  1,950 of the 2,082 shopping centres in Africa are in SA, according to Dion Changs Flux Trends Report. Based on this, we know the mall will still be alive and well in two years time, but the way we shop there is likely to evolve as physical and online shops increasingly work in tandem.More and more shops in malls will be shop fronts with limited stock  essentially more a brand presence than a store. Shoppers will browse there but want to buy online. This will mean that even mall shoppers will be making purchases online, demystifying the process. Soon they may no longer feel the need to go to the mall at all.Well also see some interesting moves from traditional industries over the next few years. One interesting convergence, which Media24 has already been able to explore, is opportunities between online retail and media.Firstly, by using its considerable distribution experience to offer a third-party e-commerce distribution service for online retailers. And secondly, by tapping into its decades-long understanding of consumers media consumption habits to help and improve brands such as Spree to cater for the best possible customer experience. Increased variety in the online retail space and novel ways of approaching this will also help grow the sector.According to Hoogduijn, Media24s e-commerce division capitalises on synergies between media and e-commerce to deliver excellence through Spree as well as a robust and growing e-commerce fulfilment and distribution business.In a first for South Africa, the government has launched a R37.5m biorefinery facility in Durban. The facility is set to extract maximum value from biomass waste and will support innovation in a range of industries, including forestry, agro-processing and other biomass-based industries.

Initial focus on forestry

Adressing low levels of investment in innovation, research and development

Use science and technology to make SA more competitive

All images supplied

Making a meaningful contribution to the sector and economy

The Minister of Science and Technology, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, launched the Biorefinery Industry Development Facility (BIDF) at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) campus in Durban on 20 March 2018. The initial focus of the BIDF is the forestry sector, which is under financial strain globally. Technology innovations have been earmarked to help prevent job losses and enable growth in this sector.Biorefinery in South Africas pulp and paper industry is practised on a very limited scale. Wood, pulp and paper waste ends up in landfill sites or is burnt, stockpiled or even pumped out to sea. The potential to extract value from it is not realised, which means lost opportunities for the countrys economy.Additionally, the country is running out of landfill space. High-value speciality chemicals can be extracted from sawmill and dust shavings, while mill sludge can be converted into nanocrystalline cellulose, biopolymers and biogas.The facility is the third Industry Innovation Partnership Fund (IIPF) initiative to be launched by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and its entity, the CSIR. The other two are the Biomanufacturing Industry Development Centre and the Nanomaterials Industrial Development Facility. The purpose of the IIPF is to support research and development programmes that enhance industry competitiveness.Speaking at the launch, Minister Kubayi-Ngubane said a ministerial review report highlighted several challenges that impeded the growth and strengthening of the countrys national system of innovation, one of which was low levels of investments in research and development by the private sector.A key recommendation of the report was for the government to put in place effective measures and mechanisms to attract the private sector to invest in R&D and innovation, said the minister.The minister further stated that the Industry Innovation Partnership (IIP) was a response to those recommendations whose key objectives were to leverage industry investment in RDI by stimulating increased co-funding and participation by industry players in projects to maintain and increase their export market share and mitigate under-spending in technology and innovation in identified niche or strategic sectors in the South African economy. A key long-term outcomes measure would be increased sector contribution to the GDP through stronger RDI-based industrial development, said the minister, adding that the IIP should support initiatives, such as satellite development and manufacturing and titanium powder development, among others.Talking about the need for science to support industrial development, CSIR CEO, Dr Thulani Dlamini said making South Africa more competitive was at the heart of the CSIR.Our mandate requires us to use science and technology to contribute to scientific and industrial development, which will improve the competitiveness of the South African industry and also create new industries. The CSIR is using innovation to contribute to economic growth and thus assisting in the fight against poverty, inequality and unemployment, said Dlamini.Prof Bruce Sithole, the CSIR manager for forestry products, emphasised the potential of the BIDF to be of service to other sectors, for example, exploring the use of chicken feathers in high-value products. Small quantities of waste chicken feathers are processed into feed for livestock, but the majority of the waste is traditionally disposed of by burning or landfilling. However, the BIDF is demonstrating that keratin can be successfully extracted from the poultry by-product to be used in high-value applications, such as nanostructured materials for biomedical applications.The BIDF is accessible to large industry and small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) for their research and development, analytical and pilot scale testing, evaluation, processing and development of technologies for processing biomass. Some of the equipment at the BIDF is unique in South Africa. The facility is home to highly-skilled chemists, engineers and biologists who are well-versed in technologies for beneficiation and valorisation of biomass, said Sithole.Significant investments are being made to develop the human capital required to support the sector. The CSIR has partnered with the University of KwaZulu-Natal to develop the required skills and expertise that will enable and promote biorefinery technologies in South Africa.Jane Molony, executive director of the Pulp and Paper Manufacturing Association of South Africa, expressed confidence in the potential of the facility to make a meaningful contribution to the sector and the South African economy.Transnet and global mining conglomerate South32 have signed a manganese-ore bulkshipping agreement worth R10.4bn in revenue to the stateowned transport entity.

Photo: South32

The deal will allow Transnet to invest in greater bulk-shipping capacity, specifically between Hotazel in the Northern Cape and Port Elizabeth, and the deep-water port at Coega in the Eastern Cape. As part of the deal, 15% of Transnet's capacity would be allocated to new entrants to the manganese export market, Transnet's chief new business development officer, Gert de Beer, said on Thursday.SA's export capacity has been severely constrained by a slowdown in Transnet's capital spending programme. This meant that SA's bulk commodity producers - the iron-ore and manganese producers in particular - could not gai nthe full benefit of a resources sector boom led by demand from the rapidly industrialising Chinese economy.In 2012, Transnet launched a market-demand strategy that would see it invest about R300bn in infrastructure over seven years. Of that amount, about R200bn was earmarked for Transnet Freight Rail to expand its rail infrastructure to create capacity and increase cargo volumes.SA accounts for about 75% of the world's manganese reserves and is the biggest supplier of chrome and manganese used in China's stainless-steel production. Demand for manganese from China rose 39% in 2017, prompting South African producers to ship much of their ore by road at much greater cost than rail.The Transnet-South32 agreement, in terms of which South32 guarantees a capacity uptake of 2.6-million tonnes of export manganese a year for seven and a half years at a fixed price, provides contractual security to Transnet to allow it to develop its infrastructure.The agreement is back-dated to September 2015.Transnet's resulting investment would include upgrading railway-line ballast to handle the weight of manganese ore and adding second tracks to existing lines. It would also allow the development of facilities to handle open skip-containers and the construction of a new bulk terminal at the port of Ngqura.Kalagadi Manganese, a potential beneficiary of Transnet's expanded capacity, is expected to produce about 2.4million tonnes a year of sintered manganese from October 2019,reported on Thursday. South32 is the only other South African mine which produces sintered manganese.Lucas Msimanga, South32's South African vice-president, said the contract provided a stable base for export sales, with no significant exposure to the business market down-cycle.De Beer said that, as a partner to South32, it recognised the risks associated with a fixedterm fixed-price agreement, and that it would be open to arrangements if commodity prices fell below sustainable levels, as it had done before when mines experienced difficulties. Transnet would not, however, be willing to write that into a contract.Macquarie has identified manganese prices as the most volatile among commodities over the past year. An industry insider said, however, that the deal would benefit South32 because it reduced the risks posed by Transnet's capacity constraints. "It would allow further investment and expansion in the industry. This deal benefits both parties," he said.Bottomup outreach programme inspires learners to stay in school

By catering to under-resourced schools in the Grassy Park, Lotus River and Ottery areas, Bottomup - a non-profit organisation in Plumstead, Cape Town - goes far and beyond to provide schools with programmes that nurture belonging and identity.

Image via Bottomup Facebook

These programmes, which include a before and after school chess club, teacher and learner support group, and a high school dropout prevention initiative, not only facilitate change in school culture, but have been designed to address school disengagement factors. They also support the needs of educators, learners and parents using critical thinking projects and offering guidance support, especially to those students who are frequently absent from school as a result of problems that the communities they live in face  from gangsterism to drug abuse.



Through these programmes, Bottomup undertakes to understand why the youth of these areas have become disconnected, and where learners, educators and parents can come together and work toward building viable solutions for those who are hoping to make their desire to have a better life a reality.



We caught up with Ashley Visagie, director of Bottomup, to find out more about the organisation, its outreach programmes, what it's trying to tackle, the statistics around the dropout rate and the difference its efforts have been making.



Education in South Africa - improving the system with art



Can you tell us more about Bottomups outreach and what it entails? How did Bottomup come to be what it is today? Can you tell us more about Bottomups outreach and what it entails? How did Bottomup come to be what it is today? These programmes, which include a before and after school chess club, teacher and learner support group, and a high school dropout prevention initiative, not only facilitate change in school culture, but have been designed to address school disengagement factors. They also support the needs of educators, learners and parents using critical thinking projects and offering guidance support, especially to those students who are frequently absent from school as a result of problems that the communities they live in face  from gangsterism to drug abuse.Through these programmes, Bottomup undertakes to understand why the youth of these areas have become disconnected, and where learners, educators and parents can come together and work toward building viable solutions for those who are hoping to make their desire to have a better life a reality.We caught up with Ashley Visagie, director of Bottomup, to find out more about the organisation, its outreach programmes, what it's trying to tackle, the statistics around the dropout rate and the difference its efforts have been making.

Ashley Visagie, director of Bottomup

What changes have you personally seen in the schools that you assist? What changes have you personally seen in the schools that you assist?

ParkwoodTechCentre - Bringing hope to the children of Parkwood - https://t.co/3uGoJqu6Aa pic.twitter.com/IotfWbQm48

 Bottomup Nonprofit (@bottomupsd) December 4, 2016

Could you provide us with some statistics on some of the issues youre trying to address? What is the dropout rate that you are trying to tackle? Could you provide us with some statistics on some of the issues youre trying to address? What is the dropout rate that you are trying to tackle?

The projects that Bottomup has engineered  could you tell us more about this. How have children, parents and educators adapted and grown from this? The projects that Bottomup has engineered  could you tell us more about this. How have children, parents and educators adapted and grown from this?

Student committee Saturday Workshop

How will you be ensuring that the work that Bottomup is doing is sustainable in the long-term? How will you be ensuring that the work that Bottomup is doing is sustainable in the long-term?

Tell us how we as the community and businesses can assist Bottomup with their projects and initiatives? Tell us how we as the community and businesses can assist Bottomup with their projects and initiatives?

Image via Bottomup Facebook - Bottomup's critical action researchers in dialogue with the school principal

How do you see Bottomup and its initiatives developing in the long term? How do you see Bottomup and its initiatives developing in the long term?

If any, what are the future projects that you will be focusing on and/or launching? If any, what are the future projects that you will be focusing on and/or launching?

Robin Fredericks' articles About Robin Fredericks Editor at Bizcommunity. Editor at Bizcommunity.

Bottomup is 10 years old and our approach has shifted significantly from when we started out. In the early days, we were focused mainly on co-curricular and extra-curricular activities aimed at creating opportunities for students that were simply not available or easily accessible in under-resourced schools.After years of taking the typical non-profit approach we recognised that unless attention was put on the structural/macro-level factors that produce disadvantage and educational inequality in the first place, there would be little hope of genuinely transforming schools in a lasting way. Our main focus now is on promoting student agency through critical pedagogy and youth critical action research. It is about helping students to recognise injustice and to exercise the power they have in ways that can meaningfully transform their situation.There have been several small victories over the years. The greatest change I think has been the growth of social capital for the schools we have worked with. Through the relationships we have built, schools have seen their own networks expanded. Perhaps an excellent example of this is the construction of the Parkwood Tech Centre at Parkwood Primary School, which was enabled totally through voluntary assistance and crowdfunding and was led by two Stanford University graduates, Morgan Abbett and Adrienne Johnson. Other very practical ways in which we have seen change recently has been through our action research committees which are student-led.The students identified issues contributing to student disengagement (and drop out) on their school, one of which included corporal punishment. They then took responsibility to address the school principal on the seriousness of the matter and they have even had an influence on our organisation as we have made plans to host a teacher workshop on corporal punishment, non-violent discipline and restorative justice.The national dropout rate from Grade R-12 is around 45% which is incredibly alarming yet unsurprising given some of the broader issues in education, including policies which do not really favour redistribution of resources in an equitable manner and the fact that many South African students are being asked to do school in a language that is not their home language. Added to the macro-level political issues are the more contextual and community level concerns such as the prevalence of crime and gang violence, lack of access to basic services and other such factors which make schooling and learning a challenge.In some of the schools we work, the dropout rate is even higher than the national dropout rate. I do need to mention though that as an organisation we have taken the stance that the term dropout is sometimes unhelpful because it masks many of the issues contributing to the problem and can sometimes lead to a focus on trying to solve the problem only at the level of the individual. We believe students come to school in order to learn but often suffer several troubles at a micro, meso and macro level that lead them to disengage from school. So we need to stop viewing the student as a dropout with all the stigma that goes along with that and begin to ask more serious questions about what is wrong with the system that half of the students are being excluded from education through its effects.In the youth action research committee groups, students have learned to recognise power and structure and the influence societal structures have on human suffering. They have also learned about their own agency and that they have the power to able to speak back to power. In this regard, the student committees have all identified key concerns at the school relating to student disengagement and have started working toward solutions.This has included students meeting with teachers and principals, conducting interviews and discussing alternatives to problematic disciplinary policies or school codes of conduct that are one-sided and hold students accountable without also holding educators accountable.Sustainability in the social sector is always a challenge as much of what takes place is dependent on third-party donors. If schools were adequately resourced to provide quality education and teaching resources were distributed equitably, a non-profit sector would not really be needed as much. As an organisation, we believe the non-profit is a helpful vehicle to contribute to social change but we also recognise that it is an interim measure and so in all we do, we try to include an advocacy component to draw attention to and lobby support for the broader macro-level issues in education.We dont really want to deliver extra-curricular and co-curricular programmes forever, we want schools to be well resourced to be able to deliver these themselves. This is also not just a matter of attitude or skills development, there are very real financial, physical and human resource capacity problems as a result of Apartheids inequitable funding models as well as contemporary problems in policy that do not really do enough to redistribute resources equitably.We obviously welcome volunteers who can assist in a long-term capacity (12 months) and one such initiative that could benefit from skilled volunteer assistance is a music project we have recently launched at Lotus High School. However, the greatest need for many organisations is for regular financial support to cover human resource expenses to staff projects. We would welcome regular financial support from individuals or organisations who wish to build a long-term relationship with Bottomup.Our next steps are to see our Youth Action Research Committees implemented in more schools within our target zone. We believe it is a project that is working and which has great potential to work both in individual schools as well as across schools through the development of a student network/movement.In the long-term future, we are considering establishing a school that will foster ethical thinking and use social justice education in a more integrated, deliberate and intentional way. The obvious drawback with the idea is that it will only be able to cater to a small number of students. On the other hand, perhaps it would also have the possibility of showcasing a model that has the ability to speak back to the education system as a whole, a kind of proof of concept.In the next three to six months, to complement our work we also wish to establish a mobile library of readings for social justice. Many of our schools do not have libraries at all and in those school who are fortunate to have a library or book room we have noticed a serious lack of African literature and non-fiction books.It is quite sad that a student should go through their entire school career and never be introduced to great thinkers like Paulo Freire, Frantz Fanon or Ngugi wa Thiongo, or that they should live in the city and not be able to even know who the people are behind our new road names because their history textbooks do not cover the contributions of people like Philip Kgosana or Imam Haroun. Our library will be housed at our office and books will move with our facilitators in mobile book crates from which students can check out books using a mobile classroom library app.For more on Bottomup and its initiatives, be sure to visit the following social media channels: Facebook Twitter and InstagramAntique ivory  defined as pre-1947 worked ivory  is an exception and can be traded in the UK and EU. Flickr/James Picht

Desire for ivory

New legislation

I cant say more than say to the UK just do the right thing, close the ivory trade

Their intervention in the debate is welcome.There has been considerable concern over the ivory trade, and the damage caused to Africas wild elephant population, on the part of countries who have historically been consumers of ivory goods. Elephant populations have declined from 1.3-million in 1979 to 352,000 today. But elephant range states  including Botswana, Kenya and South Africa  have been slow to point the finger of blame at their old colonial masters.In taking the lead, African countries are showing two things: that they see the illegal wildlife trade as a global issue. And that they arent afraid to say so.This new stance is exactly what wildlife campaigners have wanted to see. In putting African demands for change by the EU central to the ivory trade debate, we are witnessing a shift in paradigm that could do more for elephant conservation than a host of international conferences. The message from Botswanas President Ian Khama was loud and clear: shut your ivory markets and stop fuelling the poaching of our elephants.Those of us who work in and study the nature and effect of the ivory trade appreciate that it is a complex problem and one that demands a multi-dimensional solution. Millions of dollars have been spent on education and community programmes in Africa in an attempt to solve the poaching problem.But that does not address the issue that Khama and his fellow leaders pointed to last Friday - the continuing desire for ivory in the West and Far East. The EU, for example, is the largest exporter of legal ivory. CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) trade data shows that the amount of commercially worked ivory exported legally between 2012 and 2016 amounted to an average of 7,500 items and 121 kg each year.Khama was not shirking his continents responsibility in dealing with the trade in newly poached ivory. But he was highlighting the fact that the EU was fuelling the illegal trade through its continuing sale of legal ivory items. These are ivory artefacts exported to EU member states before elephants were internationally protected under the CITES Convention in 1975. Current EU rules mean that these older ivory items can be traded within the EU and re-exported from the EU, as long as sellers have the correct certification. Its a similar case for the UK. It is legal to buy and sell ivory in the UK so long as they have the correct CITES certification. The most common exception is with regards to the sale of antique ivory  defined as pre-1947 worked ivory. This means the elephant the ivory came from was killed before 1947 and that any carving or working to the item took place before this date as well.183 states are signatories to CITES. This bans the commercial international trade in species listed on Appendix I, under which most African elephants fall. Nevertheless, ivory can still be sold legally in several European and Asian countries. And, there is evidence that signatories are failing to comply with the regulations. One notable example is Japan. Although Japan signed the 1989 convention banning the global trade in ivory, it has been alleged that Japanese sellers are registering tusks that are of undetermined origin.The EU and the UK now have the opportunity to end their historic links to the ivory trade. The terms of new proposed legislation in the UK are awaited following consultations which ended in December 2017. It seems likely that the new legislation will ban transactions in almost all ivory artefacts and that the remaining exceptions will be narrow and more easily enforceable.When Khama announced last Friday thathis demands for action were well timed. Both the EU and UK are due shortly to announce the outcomes of their respective public consultations on the ivory trade both of which ended in December 2017. By working together they have tackled a target that would otherwise be too big and too powerful to face alone. Africa has put the solution to the elephant crisis squarely on Europe.As more and more people flock to cities, the threat of environmental pollution and its associated health risks grow - conjuring images of swarms of people in pollution masks.

Compounding this is the growth in "dirty" industry and urban sprawl that brings people in closer contact with factories, mines and manufacturing plants - and the pollution they produce. But technology presents city management with a new tool to measure and even combat this. One such project is playing out on the streets of Johannesburg.Exposure to air pollution is a risk factor in respiratory complaints, heart disease, stroke and cancer. The World Health Organisation (WHO) calls it the world's single biggest environmental health risk, and in 2012 attributed around 7-million deaths to its effects - with the majority of these in low- and middle-income countries.The World Bank estimates air pollution kills around 20,000 people annually in SA, and puts the cost to the economy, through factors like health-care costs and lost productivity, at R300m.SA has standards in place to try to curb this. Gauteng subscribes to a provincial air quality control management plan - drawn from the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act - that prescribes limits to things like particulate matter and the levels of certain compounds and elements, including sulphur dioxide, ozone, lead and carbon monoxide, in the air. But measuring these, and potentially identifying and punishing transgressors, remains a challenge.Here the power of the internet of things and big data gives us the kind of insight that city governments and regulators could previously only dream of.That's the crux of a Joburg air quality project being run by the City of Johannesburg and IBM Research. At the IBM Research lab in the Tshimologong precinct in Braamfontein, Tapiwa Chiwewe is using machine learning and analytics to measure several air quality factors, forecast potential poor air quality events, and even use "reverse-forecasting" to pinpoint culprits not sticking to the standards.The lab was established in 2016, as IBM's second research facility on the continent. Chiwewe is its manager for advanced and applied artificial intelligence."We like to speak about solving Africa's grand challenges, and one that we identified is air pollution."The idea first sparked for Chiwewe on his daily commute into town from Pretoria, when he noticed the haze hanging over the city. From there they reached out to the city authorities, who Chiwewe describes as progressive in their thinking about the issue.They struck an agreement to draw pollutant monitoring data from six air quality monitoring stations around Johannesburg, as well as historical data from the city dating back to 2004, and further data from the Vaal Triangle and City of Tshwane monitoring stations. The stations also monitor other parameters, such as weather conditions.Unlike some big data applications, a key element here is not the size (in terabytes, for example) of data being crunched, but the rate, says Chiwewe. Each of the stations is taking multiple readings an hour (some every 10 minutes) and these feed back to IBM and are processed for near real-time insight.City of Johannesburg spokesman Nthatisi Modingoane says the analytics and forecasting strengthen the city's air quality management strategies. Among other things it enables an early-warning system and tracks the effectiveness of intervention strategies. "In future it will change the way air-quality information is communicated to the public," he says."Air quality data is meaningful only if it's easily interpreted and readily available. It is at this level that it changes the lives of people, as forecasting can enable members of communities that are sensitive to poor air quality to [choose] whether to expose themselves or not," he says.In exchange for data access, the city gets access to a platform IBM developed that stores and crunches the data. This can produce an air quality index and alerts, and show location and temporal trends in air pollution that can be mapped onto the city, and could potentially be a tool to check actual emissions against the values on an emissions licence. It also feeds into city and developmental planning. This transforms the monitoring from a manual process - using spreadsheets and pivot tables - to one showing real-time data visualisations.The platform is not public, but it has the potential to feed into public-facing applications, such as websites or apps that could colour-code the air quality status to be less scientific and more user-friendly, or issue alerts for certain areas if they anticipate an "adverse pollution event".There are many similar projects running throughout the world - both private and publicly backed - as the internet of things becomes mainstream. In SA, Open Data Durban won a grant to install air- and water-quality sensors in a Durban township for monitoring and data journalism purposes. The City of Cape Town also makes a portion of its historical air quality data (2013-2016) publicly available online.Pontsho Manzi, VIP guest speaker at the 2018 Standard Bank TOP Women Conference in Cape Town

Manzi's success story

L-R: Vuyo Dubese, startup partnerships lead for Africa, Thomson Reuters; Xoliswa Daku, founder and CEO of DCI Holdings and Daku Group of Companies; Pontsho Manzi, MD of Botlhokwa Group; Sharon Smith, WC provincial head: retail markets, Standard Bank

Policy implementation lacking

Ethical leadership

An incredible day its been to be able to moderate the @SBTopWomen Regional Conference in Cape Town and talk not only access to market, but what it means for the stakeholders of industry and entrepreneurs alike to enable businesses to thrive. Thank you #SBTopWomenCT  pic.twitter.com/njc5BrCjX6  Vuyo Dubese (@VDubese) March 15, 2018

Tips and tricks to entrepreneurship Manzi shared at the regional conference:

Cash flow is important - be strict with clients to make sure payment is made timeously.



Self-belief is key - entrepreneurship entails many challenges, and if you lack self-belief, people will drag you from pillar to post.



Integrity will take you places. "When they block that door asking you to bribe, another bigger one opens up to you. Just be patient and work hard."



Formalise all agreements in contracts because if there isn't a contract, you won't be able to cover yourself if they are not paying you.



Take calculated risks.



Don't dwell on your mistakes - face your fears and take action.



Build a great team through skills transfer and delegate.



Understand your customers.



Develop yourself; learn more about the business that you're in. You, unfortunately, need to be a jack of all trades.



Have a morning routine. Plan your day, and then go for it. "It's all about being present, as opposed to seeking balance."



Celebrate and sponsor other women.



Be of service to others - your community is important.

"Ladies, write your vision, pray over your vision, and everything will come together at the end of the day. There is power in what you write down," Manzi shared at the Cape Town leg of the 2018 Top Women Conference series held earlier this month.After matriculating, Manzi completed a degree in Human Resource Management and went on to work for a number of large corporates, equipping herself with all the skills she needed to start her first business - Recrutrain. Two months after founding the recruitment company in her bedroom/office, she secured offices in Sandton and was contracting for big brands. She admits though to still not feeling completely fulfilled at the time, but not knowing why.Manzi's next business was an image consultancy called FabImage, part of which entailed her hosting high teas for women. At these events she found quite a few women sharing their personal challenges with her. After a conversation with her father, she had her aha moment on realising her purpose - women empowerment. Thereafter she changed her talks from being mainly about image and personal branding to beauty from the inside out. It was from this point that Manzi's life changed, she said - she started feeling happy and fulfilled. But she didn't stop there...Manzi then entered the publishing industry, launching a diary as well as a magazine about womanhood, spirituality and self-belief. With everything at Bonisa Media running smoothly, two years ago she bought land and is now farming herbs to produce a variety of teas.Looking back at her initial vision now, it seems Manzi has just about attained her life goal - as a young girl, she'd imagined a big beautiful building for women from all walks of life - she envisioned women reading, writing, being pampered, and being inspired, she described. All that's left on her to-do list is to acquire that big beautiful building and transform it into a "10-star hotel"!Manzi's success story as a women entrepreneur is an inspiring one, but it is one of only a few within the South African business sector. Female-owned businesses make up a very low proportion of the total number of entrepreneurs in the country, and while policies exist to promote more female participation, implementation is lacking, said Manzi in an interview with Bizcommunity."[Government] really needs to execute and implement all the policies available. They need to push and make sure doors are open for women entrepreneurs in corporate and government entities. There are a lot of challenges for women to get big deals, for example. They believe big deals belong to male-owned businesses rather than female-owned businesses. They need to believe in us more and open up more opportunities for us and not just talk but implement, make sure they push and open those doors for us," she said.Manzi also commented on ethical leadership in the country and on the continent, attributing rampant corruption in the region to a "mentality of deprivation". "Most Africans were deprived previously so they feel they need to get everything that they've been deprived of. You land in Nigeria at the airport and they need a bribe for doing their job."It's everywhere and it's such a challenge, but it's up to us to stop it ... to walk away from dirty business, and walk away from bribery.""Never ever concentrate on money when you are running your business," concluded Manzi. "Serve people and money will follow you everywhere you go."Standard Bank TOP Women regional conferences will be held in Durban, Limpopo and Port Elizabeth. For more info, click hereSmallholders in sub-Saharan Africa could increase livestock productivity if efforts towards creating reliable data systems, especially on livestock diseases, are strengthened, experts say.

Matthew Bowden via FreeImages

Investing in the creation of agricultural and livestock data

Capacity to use data a major problem

The experts from academic institutions, government and the private sector from Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Australia, Canada and Scotland told a forum in Kenya last month (20-22 February) that the continents livestock sector has the potential to transform the lives of smallholders but inadequate, unreliable and unavailable data in some instances is a major challenge in the sector.For instance, the experts said that the management of livestock diseases such as East Coast Fever requires data to effectively understand the impacts of the disease and its control interventions to prevent economic losses to smallholder farmers.At the forum organised by the Supporting Evidence-Based Interventions (SEBI) project, which is being implemented by the UK-based University of Edinburgh with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the experts noted that livestock data could boost the adoption of interventions for improving animal nutrition, husbandry, healthcare and genetics, which are important for increasing productivity.In his keynote address to the forum, Jimmy Smith, the director-general of the International Livestock Research Institute, said that investing in the creation of agricultural and livestock data is key to global, big data-driven companies. Smith said that most countries in sub-Saharan Africa have scanty or lack real-time data on livestock disease outbreaks, especially in arid and semi-arid areas.Although livestock makes up 40% of the total agricultural GDP [gross domestic products] globally, we have given low attention to the sector which can help the rural poor, Smith said.Karen Smyth, SEBIs deputy-director, said that addressing challenges in livestock health and productivity needs a better understanding of the available data. We need to bring together livestock data suppliers and users, Smyth told SciDev.Net, explaining that it would help develop opportunities to share livestock data and innovations that can help smallholders.But Musa Mulongo, senior programme officer of the International Development Research Centre, Canada, said that lack of data is not the major problem facing livestock but the capacity of policymakers to use the data available to make decisions.Mulongo added that the continent needs to increase studies in livestock diseases and the involvement of smallholders in such studies, and cited the mismatch between academic training and entrepreneurship as a problem.We need entrepreneurs who can help commercialise new technologies that can help in the collection and processing of livestock data, explained Mulongo. We are not harnessing the power of technology [such as drones] to survey and fight livestock diseases.Mulongo urged policymakers and scientists to increase collaborations and avoid over-reliance on donor-funded projects.A contract dispute between the Department of Justice and publisher Juta has resulted in judges being locked out from accessing Juta's content, on which they rely as an archive of judgments and legal commentary.

The dispute, which is over payment has left judges frustrated and could obstruct the administration of justice.Juta provides premier law journals, law reports and commentary covering in-depth debate on current issues by expert subject specialists.The journals are often cited and relied on by the courts.Two judges, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that they had been barred from Juta's online content and had limited access to LexisNexis, another crucial data source."Because of the dispute judges have been cut off from Jutastat, an electronic library we use every day for doing our work ... it is an indispensable tool for judges ... we are basically not being provided with the basic tools to be able to do our work," said one judge.The judges called on the office of the chief justice to intervene and put pressure on the Department of Justice.The office of the chief justice referred questions to the department, saying that the dispute was between Juta and the department.Numerous attempts to get comment from the department were unsuccessful.Juta did not provide details on the exact amount owed by the department ."Juta regrets it is unable to comment on the exact amount owed to Juta by the [department] ... we remain committed to working with the [department] to resolve all issues, including processes, systems, contracts and outstanding payments," Juta-acting CEO Megan Marinus said at the weekend."We can confirm that the situation is receiving urgent attention from both parties."The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) has set aside R415m to refurbish 11 industrial parks across South Africa.

Black industrialists

Presenting the dtis Annual Performance Plan to Parliaments Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry this week, director general Lionel October said the revitalisation of industrial parks is one of the departments key areas.The Industrial Parks Revitalisation Programme is one of the flagship programmes of our department aimed at facilitating broad-based economic participation to achieve inclusive growth, as well as facilitating the transformation of the economy.These industrial parks will promote industrial development, investment, competitiveness and employment creation.The department has therefore allocated R415m for the revitalisation of eleven industrial parks across the country. The ten industrial parks employ a total of 55,000 people, said the director general.October added that the implementation of the programme, which focuses on both the physical infrastructure and other support requirements, was started in 2016.Industrial parks that have already been renovated and launched as they have completed the first phase of the programme include Vulindlela and Komani in the Eastern Cape, Botshabelo in the Free State, Seshego in Limpopo and Isithebe in KwaZulu-Natal.The revitalisation programme will help to enhance the occupancy rate of the parks and drive retention and expansion. It will also contribute to economic growth and diversification of economic activity, attract investments and promote job creation as well as address inequality.It is also aimed at providing new opportunities and support high growth in the townships, rural and distressed areas.Turning to the departments Black Industrialists Programme, the director general said the department is on course to support 100 black industrialists by the end of March as per the target set by Minister Rob Davies.Since its launch in November 2015, the Black Industrialists Scheme has supported 78 projects owned by black industrialists, empowering them to leverage projected investment of R7.2bn. These are estimated to result in the retention of almost 8,000 baseline jobs and the creation of 9,459 new jobs, said October.He also said the future work of the dti will remain in the implementation of the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) which is implemented in order to grow the manufacturing sector to promote industrial development, job creation, investment and exports.The tenth iteration of IPAP is expected to be launched soon.In a surprise move, Investec Bank will buy back its Sandton head office from SA's largest listed real estate group, Growthpoint Properties, for R2.2bn.

The office, which lies in the heart of SA's richest business district, is set to be upgraded to stand out among other corporate headquarters.Investec is best placed to ensure the upgrade is done optimally, says chief financial officer Nishlan Samujh."Having been a long-term tenant, we want to be an owner-operator of this iconic office. We have plans to spend capital to make certain changes and believe we understand how to go about it cost effectively, so that we can enhance what it offers for our staff and clients," said Samujh.Investec originally sold the property, known as 100 Grayston Drive and Merchant Place Parkade, to Growthpoint Properties in November 2003, along with its Cape Town headquarters, for R975m.Growthpoint was disappointed to let go of Investec as a tenant in Sandton, where it owns various offices already."This is a big asset for us. While the sale is part of a larger disposal process, it's still the loss of an excellent tenant for us," said Growthpoint MD Estienne de Klerk."We are a large presence in Sandton already and this was a part of it. However, the funds could be used elsewhere in Sandton as we look to strengthen our balance sheet."While Investec does not traditionally own property nor rent it out, the Investec group does have property businesses within it. These include Investec Property, which specialises in developments, land conversion, private equity and listed property fund management, as well as the real estate investment trusts Investec Property Fund and Investec Australia Property Fund.Including the sale of Investec Bank's head office, Growthpoint would have sold about R3.2bn worth of properties in the past few months. The two other large sales were that of Hatfield Plaza and Turbine Hall.De Klerk said Growthpoint was also in talks to sell a R6.5bn property portfolio in the coming weeks. The property fund has been trying to free up some capital as it looks to expand its international presence."We want our international business to account for 30% of earnings before interest and tax. Currently about 20% does."Growthpoint owns R4.9bn, or 29%, of London Stock Exchange AIM-listed Globalworth Real Estate Investments. This investment has returned 13.7m (R200m) in distributions in 2017.At the end of February, Growthpoint Properties reported financial results for the six months to December, wherein it posted distribution growth of 6.5% per share, matching its guidance, and growing its asset base to R127.7bn. Similar dividend growth was expected for the full year to June 2018.Kenya is losing its competitive edge in the global tourism market to less endowed destinations due to failure to adapt and innovate in line with global trends. This is according to the government, which has also cited over-reliance on seasonal foreign tourists and a perception that Kenya is an expensive stop.

Open skies

Speaking during the official opening of the Tourism Research Institute's Board retreat at Pride Inn Resort in Mombasa, Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala also blamed old accommodation facilities as a challenge facing the sector."Other challenges include the concentration of tourism activities in only a few parts of the country, weaknesses in tourism training resulting to unsatisfactory service delivery, lack of proper research and data management systems for the sector," Balala said.The Tourism Research Institute is mandated to undertake and coordinate research that informs government policy on tourism as well as business decisions by investors."The year 2017, despite being an election year, recorded an upward trend in terms of arrivals, domestic bed nights, as well as earnings. This shows how resilient the sector has become and is proof that there is huge potential... However, due to a number of challenges, we are losing our competitive edge in the global tourism market to less endowed destinations," Balala said.When asked about the issue of open skies policy where flights can land in Kenya without being charged, Balala said it is a question he cannot answer.Hoteliers at the coast have been lobbying for the policy which they say will ease air transport through Moi International Airport and attract more tourists. Tourism players have often cited lack of international direct flights to Malindi and traffic jams at Kibarani towards Mombasa's airport as a major stumbling block to their business.Kenya has been working on its adoption to encourage more airlines to fly into the country.PARIS, France - The maker of France's iconic TGV trains Alstom and German industrial leader Siemens have signed an agreement on creating a global leader in the rail industry.

 yuliya rosher via 123RF

The Business Combination Agreement (BCA) sets the terms of combining Alstom with Siemens' mobility business, including its rail traction drive business, after the two firms unveiled their plans last year."With the signing of the BCA, we have reached an important milestone on the way to building a new leader capable of tackling the challenges of tomorrow's mobility," said Henri Poupart-Lafarge, the chief executive of Alstom who will be the CEO of the new company, in a statement.Roland Busch, a member of the management board of Siemens, is to serve as chairman of the board of directors of the combined entity, which is to be based in France.Siemens will control 50% of Alstom immediately but will be blocked from taking a bigger than 50.5% stake for the four coming years.Alstom trade unions objected to the merger, fearing job cuts and closures.An Alstom-Siemens merger has been mooted for years and completes the transformation of the French group which sold off its energy business to American rival General Electric in 2015 for 9.5bn.The merger will create the world's top firm for rail signalisation and the number two for building train carriages, which should help the firms face rising Chinese competition.The merger is expected to be completed by the end of the year.Alstom employs 32,800 people worldwide while Siemens Mobility has 28,800 staff.This year marked a 25-year partnership between GL events South Africa and the Johannesburg Homemakers Expo.

The Johannesburg Homemakers Expo celebrates the authenticity behind real homes and their beauty. Home is the very place where we laugh, we cry, we grow up and raise our children so it's no wonder that we all want to tell our stories through our decor and designs, mimicking the past, present and future between our four walls.The show presents the very latest in-home renovation, interiors, soft furnishings, lighting, kitchens, furniture, and more. It provides the opportunity to meet leaders in the home lifestyle industry with exclusive insider tips and professional advice. The expo features a significant amount of attractions to keep visitors informed and entertained ranging from demonstrations by DIY celebs to food theatres.GL events South Africa has been providing main contractor services to the expo for 25 years. These services include venue carpeting, shell scheme booths, graphics and on-site services. Each year proves new challenges as the show grows and innovates.The 2018 edition of the show, held at the Ticketpro Dome from 22-25 February consisted of more than 320 exhibitors. GL events South Africa supplied in excess of 1700 square meters of premium packages, 12,000 square meters of carpeting and more than 1000 electrical components ranging from DB Boards to plug points.On 23 February GL events South Africa received a certificate of appreciation from Johannesburg Homemakers Expo for 25 Years of service excellence. This certificate is truly a milestone achievement.Said Adri Pentz, Project Manager at GL events South Africa "We are honoured to receive this certificate of appreciation. Having directly managed this project for the last eight years, I spend many late hours on site with our dedicated teams, the gratitude from our customer makes it all worthwhile. We hope to further grow and strengthen our relationship with Homemakers Expo for many years to come."Between 15 April and 6 May 2018, visitors to this year's Lusito Land Festival, which takes place in Cayman Road, Alewynspoort, Johannesburg South, can look forward to a music lineup comprising the likes of AKA, Sketchy Bongo, The Parlotones, Micasa, Bobby van Jaarsveld, Snotkop, Matthew Mole, Lady Zamar, GoodLuck, Shekhinah, Dr Victor & The Rasta Rebels.

Image via AKA Facebook page

Tickets pricing

Lusito Association spokesperson, Noemia Contente says the festival is more than just a celebration of Portuguese cuisine and culture: "This is our 37year and we are more committed than ever to ensuring everyone in the family has an incredible time. This years line-up has been carefully selected to cover a wide range of musical genres to cater for every taste."R130R50R50FreeTickets are available via ComputicketDrunk driving is an ongoing problem in South Africa that no amount of media coverage seems to be curbing. Despite ramped up awareness campaigns, highly publicised death toll statistics, and the imminent threat of a demerit system, South African drivers continue being notoriously irresponsible when it comes to drinking and driving.

Totalled SUV automobile after drunk driving accident.  Jonathan Weiss via 123RF

It's not enough

The pending demerit system should bring about some positive changes in the number of drunk drivers on our roads.

Giving drunk driving a bad rep

We should adopt the same mindset towards driving drunk in South Africa, where friends don't let friends drive drunk, and where people who do risk drunk driving are treated as social pariahs.

The people who get behind the wheel of a car while under the influence tend to either genuinely believe they are sober enough to drive, or they are inebriated enough to believe in their own invincibility.They don't generally consider the possibility of causing or being involved in an accident, and the thought of being pulled over isn't terrifying enough in the face of the prevalence of corruption and bribery. As such, they drive drunk anyway.Traffic laws and increased roadblocks are somewhat of a deterrent, as is the knowledge that insurance companies will not pay out in the event of an accident caused by a drunk driver. Unfortunately, it is not enough, and the marketing around the insurance component is not visible enough for drivers to sit up and take notice.So, if the current system and awareness campaigns aren't cutting it, what will work to bring down the terrifying death-toll statistics, and how can South Africans be a part of implementing a country-wide attitude shift towards driving under the influence of alcohol?When the system is implemented, people are likely to be more careful of the way they drive. The possibility of having your license suspended or taken away for good, is definitely a deterrent for driving drunk.People may still take chances in the initial stages of the demerit system, until they have their first points deducted. It's likely that they will only realise the gravity of possibly losing their license on the first points-deductible offence.The concern is that there is no set date for the demerit system to be in effect, so drivers are still relatively unconcerned about the consequences. The effectiveness of the system will only be determined once it is implemented and working. However, I believe we will see a slow shift in driving behaviour when it happens.In the meantime, people should start being less lenient about driving under the influence of alcohol and other substances within their own circles. If the idea of drunk driving loses its 'cool' or 'rebel' associations, it is more likely to be considered distasteful and frowned upon.In countries such as the UK, there is an aura of distaste around people who opt to drive drunk. It is socially frowned upon, and people actively discourage allowing their colleagues and friends to get behind the wheel after having a few drinks.In many circles, there is a slowly emerging trend where people who admit to offering bribes are not always celebrated, but a few people will openly criticise them. The same attitude should be adopted with drunk driving.Unfortunately, most people will wag a teasing finger and gently, half-jokingly chastise those who admit to driving while under the influence. However, this criticism is not usually taken seriously. If a person is made to genuinely feel bad about their reckless behaviour, it will only be a matter of time before they start to change that behaviour.Meter or application based taxi services are increasingly popular and many people are opting for this option when they know they will be drinking. However, the recent spate of attacks against metered or app-based taxis is actively deterring people from making use of those services.The reality is, that the number of drunk-driving associated deaths is exponentially higher than those related to the vendetta against metered taxi services. It is still much safer to take an Uber than it is to run the risk of death, or killing someone else while driving drunk.BMW investment in its subsidiary in SA has peaked and the German car maker is unlikely to increase manufacturing capacity beyond current levels, global production head Oliver Zipse said.

Rather, BMW would reconsider its whole presence in SA if the government followed through on suggestions that it reduce export incentives.BMW SA's Rosslyn assembly plant, near Pretoria, is about to begin production of the X3 sport utility vehicle after a R6.2bn investment from the German parent. The plant recently stopped producing the 3-Series sedan after 35 years.When the investment was announced in 2015, Rosslyn was to be one of only two plants in the world to build X3. Now, with demand stronger than expected, another plant will open in China in a few weeks.Though Rosslyn's planned annual capacity had been raised slightly to nearly 80,000 to soak up some extra sales, Zipse made it clear it would remain a smallscale producer. "We will definitely not expand the plant more than we already have," he said.In recent years, BMW SA has exported more than 80% of its local production and that share is likely to increase initially with X3. Under the 2013-20 Automotive Production and Development Programme, exports earn credits that allow manufacturers to import vehicles at reduced, or even zero, duty.Some government officials want to see these incentives removed after 2020. Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said in February that while he wanted as much continuity as possible in the next phase of automotive policy, there would be some unpopular changes.Zipse said: "It is important that you continue your framework of export credits. If the new SA government takes this away, it might be dangerous."He pointed to the example of Australia, which has lost its motor industry after the government scrapped many incentives. "If you endanger export credits, there is no reason we should have a plant in SA," Zipse said.Though there was no danger to the soon-to-be-launched X3, its successors could be in doubt.Zipse was speaking in an interview in Munich following the release of BMW's 2017 annual results. He said the company was not worried by potential threats from land expropriation or pressure for more black participation in the industry.Multinational motor companies have rejected calls to hand over equity in their South African subsidiaries to black empowerment partners and have offered instead to underwrite a R3.5bn fund to develop black components suppliers. "We are ready to make our contribution to this fund," he said.However, he said the government must be realistic in its pursuit of increased local content. BMW SA has one of the industry's lowest levels of local content, importing more than two-thirds of the parts that go into its vehicles.Local management has expressed its desire to do better but Zipse said improvements would be small. "Our level will remain around where it is."As store closures continue across the globe, we're witnessing the demise of physical retail as we know it. But the 'retail apocalypse' conversation is incomplete without considering the impact shopping mall overdevelopment has had to play in the industry shakeup, suggests South African retail entrepreneur Nicholas Haralambous.

Nicholas Haralambous

Building products from experiences

A post shared by MUSEUM OF ICE CREAM (@museumoficecream) on Mar 21, 2018 at 6:54am PDT

Advice for the future

Speaking at the DHL E-commerce MoneyAfrica conference in Cape Town recently, the Nic Harry Socks founder drew attention to South Africas unsustainable shopping mall oversupply.Out of 2,082 shopping centres in Africa, 1,950 are located in South Africa, making it the country with the sixth most shopping malls in the world, according to the South African Council of Shopping Centres.While were building malls were closing stores, Haralambous said, making reference to the spate of local closures including that of Mango, Nine West , River Island and of course Stuttafords There are too many malls and theyre too big. And we wonder why we cant kickstart retail.The United States, meanwhile, has just experienced the liquidation of toy giant Toys 'R' Us. The resultant 33,000 jobs expected to be lost adds to the American retail sectors devastating job loss tally after 3,500 stores closed in 2017 alone  Payless, Radioshack, J.C. Penney and Macy's among them.But once again, Haralambous pointed out the oversupply of retail space that was present in the market. Between 1970 and 2005 the number of malls in America grew at double the rate of the population. Thats not an apocalypse, its a correction.Previously flourishing shopping centres now lie vacant, a phenomenon that has inspired a YouTube series in which filmmaker Dan Bell tours the country offering a look into these abandoned retail spaces.Haralambous has also had to close two out of the five Nic Harry outlets. Reasons for the closures vary  from a lack of foot traffic to the high costs of store maintenance  but ultimately they just werent profitable enough to remain open.Haralambous said that brick and mortar retail as we know it may be dying, but e-commerce isnt necessarily whats killing it. E-commerce accounts for less than 3% of SA retail, less than 14% of USA retail and less than 15% of German retail.He proposed that a much more fundamental shift is in play. The product has changed. Consumer spending has changed. The V&A Waterfront reports that people are spending more money on things like food, for instance.Brands are not only focusing on experience, they're building products out of experiences. A pop-up museum in San Francisco called The Color Factory is focused on offering visitors a range of conceptual, interactive and Instagrammable experiences.Jump into a ball pit filled with 200,000 balls, draw on the walls in a room-sized colouring book or make your way through an installation made of 10,000 colourful ribbons.Another interesting art exhibition is the Museum of Ice Cream, composed of a maze of rooms filled with brightly coloured ice cream and candy themed exhibits, from a rock-candy cave to a swimming pool of rainbow sprinkles.Companies need to adapt to the changing face of global retail or risk going out of business. Haralambous shared the following tips for remaining relevant and profitable: Create interesting customer experiences Seek lower rentals Diversify your offering, you cant be a one-trick pony Remove bureaucracy Avoid a price war by picking your market and pricing correctly  this helps build a fanbase Surprise and delight your customers Know your customer and reward their loyalty Own the vertical by removing the middleman Fish where the fish swim by embracing omnichannel retail Cut your losses  close stores, find margin and increase sales Produce locally and sell globally to open all distribution channels and access the spending power of the world The world is changing, change with itIts not an apocalypse, its an evolution. The ones that are dying are those refusing to adapt.COTONOU, Benin - Benin's President Patrice Talon has asked local firm Petrolin and French giant Bollore to "withdraw" from a major rail infrastructure project to make way for China, in the latest development of the controversial scheme.

 khunaspix via 123RF

Ongoing saga

No formal notice yet

In an interview published in the French magazine, Talon asked the two companies to "withdraw amicably from the project", which links Benin to Niger to the north, promising they will be "compensated fairly"."A private investor cannot finance the railway we want alone," the head of state was quoted as saying, describing Bollore's offer as "lower-end"."China has the necessary financial means" to support work estimated to cost around $4bn (3.3bn), said Talon. "China has demonstrated its technical know-how" to build infrastructure in Africa, added the president, who rarely speaks to the media.Talon's remarks are the latest twist in a saga that has been going on for years.In 2008, Benin and Niger launched a bid to manage the construction and management of a 740-kilometre (462-mile) railway network linking Cotonou and Niamey.The bid was won by Petrolin, a company owned by Beninese businessman Samuel Dossou, but was handed over by the government in 2013 to the Bollore group through Benirail, a company representing a public-private partnership.However last October, a Benin judge ruled that Petrolin should have had the contract and dismissed Bollore.After years in court and months of negotiations, the project remains at a standstill, strangling growth in the country of 10 million inhabitants whose economy depends on the distribution of goods from its port.Petrolin representatives said that despite Talon's statement they have not been given formal notice to withdraw."The withdrawal of Petrolin will be the result of negotiations between Benin and Niger," said Petrolin spokeswoman Claudine Affiavi Prudencio."This option (the withdrawal of the project) is not yet formally notified to the Petrolin group" and "at this moment the group hasn't failed", said a source close to the Beninese businessman contacted by AFP.But a source at the presidency said that the onus was now on the companies to show they can move forward on the project. "Heads of state (Benin and Niger) have tried to bring them together (Petrolin and Bollore) without success," a presidency source told AFP. "It would be up to them to show them that they can agree to carry a convincing project," he said.There was no immediate comment from the Bollore group when contacted by AFP.Pizza Hut's African growth story continues as the restaurant chain celebrates the opening of its 100th store in sub-Saharan Africa in the historic Ghandi Square, Johannesburg. A division of global giant Yum! Brands Inc., the pizza franchise entered the African market three and a half years ago with its first restaurant opening in Johannesburg, and ambitious expansion plans for the continent.

Pizza Hut restaurants now trade in 13 sub-Saharan African countries, with an additional 90 stores in Morocco, Egypt and Algeria, bringing the total to 190 across the African continent. According to the brand, this aggressive growth in Africa reflects the untapped opportunities offered by emerging markets for the chain, which already has over 16,700 restaurants in more than 100 countries.General manager of Pizza Hut Africa, Ewan Davenport, says, We are on track with the African growth story we started in September 2014 and we are hugely proud of our progress. As we expand our footprint in these markets, we continue to add and develop strong local supply chain partners so that we can bring our top quality, affordable pizza to customers in African regions where pizza is not as prevalent as elsewhere in the world.South Africas Gauteng and Western Cape provinces currently have the most restaurants in sub-Saharan Africa. Free delivery for online orders was recently launched in the competitive South African market and Davenport says this will be available in African markets in the near future.We started our journey in Johannesburg and it feels great that our 100th sub-Saharan Africa store is opening here now. With many more stores to follow, weve just scratched the surface of growth. Were passionate about bringing Pizza Hut pizza to Africa by accelerating our expansion across the continent. We are prepped, ready and looking forward to developing Pizza Hut restaurants in more African countries, ultimately making us not only the largest pizza brand in the world but also on the African continent, Davenport concludes.The biggest challenge most people face when choosing a career is figuring out whether it's the right path for them, and now that you're a working professional, keeping up with technology and the industry shifts is one of the biggest challenges professionals of all ages and backgrounds face.

While it can be frustrating to keep up with the pace of technology and the ever evolving tools at our disposal, the best way to ensure youre improving your skill set and future-proofing your career is to commit to learning something new once a year, says Shevon Lurie, MD at Vega  a brand of The Independent Institute of Education ( The IIE ).In response to the need for professionals to reinforce their careers, Vega in partnership with the Advertising Media Association of South Africa ( AMASA ), CoinED CodeSpace and a variety of industry specialists, has launched six new short courses, each designed to help qualified professionals get ahead of the latest trends and changes relevant to their industry, and to respond to these advancements more effectively.Considering the freelance market grew by 63% in 2015 alone, there are likely many young and creative 20-somethings in need of a more structured approach to running their own freelance businesses. The What the Freelance (WTF) short course is an adaptation of Brent Spilkin s book of the same name, offering freelancers or employers valuable insight into the gig economy of South Africa.The 12-week short course delivers fundamental best practice for creative and digital freelancers who typically have all the practical skills necessary to make money as a freelancer but lack the business acumen needed to manage revenue and expenses. The course focuses on teaching the core elements of strategy, accounting for small businesses (including the tricky topic of taxes), sales and marketing, and much more.If youre intrigued by cryptocurrency, blockchain and Bitcoin, and want to find out how you can get in on the action, theres no reason why you cant take a quick short course to improve your understanding of these very new and often confusing concepts. An Introduction to Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology is one of the new short courses that are available to attend at Vega. This three-week course offers two highly engaging sessions per week (only available at Vegas Johannesburg campus), covering everything from the history of some of the worlds leading cryptocurrencies to buying, trading and using Bitcoin.The IIE Shopper Marketing for Brand Building short course ensures those responsible for brand, shopper marketing and customer management functions are equipped with the skills they need to create an effective brand and marketing strategy.Many people are assigned the role of shopper marketer without having the necessary capabilities to carry out the responsibilities of this role effectively enough, says course navigator and MD at Future Shopper, Colleen Francis. Shopper marketing requires an in-depth understanding of the latest trends and how they come to be, which this course aims to provide.For individuals working in the brand, marketing and communications industries hoping to gain a better understanding of brand-building from a media-management perspective, Media Management in Brand Building short course is definitely worth a few hours of your time per week.This course, available to study at Vegas Johannesburg and Cape Town campuses, covers everything from the local and international media landscape to media planning and strategy tactics, and is ideal for those looking to change careers, or learn more about how the media and brand building plug into their respective fields.Knowing how to make optimum use of social media for the benefit of your businesss bottom line is no longer a skill thats nice to have, but a requirement for brand and marketing managers, communications professionals and entrepreneurs alike.The Social Media Marketing short course is a must for those gunning to edge out the competition and use social tools and platforms to their full potential. The course, presented over six weeks with one class per week, offers a guide to social media as it exists in South Africa and around the world today, how to study and use social media metrics to gauge ROI, and social media policy implementation.The Introduction to UI/UX and Coding for Web short course teaches participants the fundamental principles of creating and maintaining simple websites, with an emphasis on web development as it relates to user experience, based on industry best practice. Using industry-standard software to design, code, and implement web media, participants dont just learn how to make a website, but how to plan out the process from start to finish.This short course runs over six weeks with two sessions per week, and covers HTML5, CSS3 and responsive web design, while unpacking the principles of User Experience Design (UX) and the relationship between UX and User Interface (UI) design.Pursuing short courses to support higher learning is vital in the modern working environment, which is constantly in flux with new and exciting changes, says Lurie. The six new short courses are designed by industry-leading organisations and agencies, as well as a range of talented individuals who are highly experienced in their fields, and who have personally taken the time to facilitate and deliver these courses for the purpose of building better, more productive leaders in South Africa.The new short courses add to an already comprehensive range of IIE qualifications and short courses available to study at Vega, designed to nurture people who are work-ready and prepared to tackle real-world problems. With 94% of IIE Vega students finding employment within just six months of graduating, these courses offer professionals support in reaching their career goals.Pan-African strategy and communications consulting firm, africapractice, has launched a new office in Gaborone to serve as the group's regional headquarters, consolidating group operations.

Marcus Courage, CEO, africapractice.

Speaking at the launch, Marcus Courage, CEO of the group, said, our presence in Southern Africa was established more than 10 years ago when Cyril Ramaphosa launched our first office in Sandton, South Africa.Since then we have maintained a presence in Lusaka and Harare and served clients in Malawi, Mozambique, Angola and Congo (DRC). We are excited by the prospects that new political leadership in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Angola, represent for industry and society in the region. We are strengthening our leadership team and consolidating many of our group operations in Gaborone, to benefit from these developments.Permanent Secretary for The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry of Botswana, Peggy O. Serame, was the keynote speaker at the launch of the groups new regional HQ.The location of africapractices regional headquarters in Botswana is an exciting development. We are happy with the companys plans to hire Botswana citizens and to invest in our country. This demonstrates the companys approval of Botswana as an attractive destination for foreign direct investment, underlined Peggy Serame.Courage concluded his remarks by thanking the Botswana Government for appealing to his company to invest in Botswana and for supporting africapractice at every stage of the process.All of the staff at the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) have been impeccable. We have been brilliantly well served by them. We intend to show our gratitude by serving Botswana well.The africapractice group now has offices in Casablanca, Dar es Salaam, Gaborone, Johannesburg, Lagos and Nairobi, and maintains a presence in Mogadishu, Conakry and Lusaka. Outside of the continent, the group has offices in London, UK and Perth, Australia.For 15 years, africapractice has been supplying insights and advocacy to help clients unlock more social and economic value and drive transformation. The company is active advising companies in mining, oil and gas, finance, FMCG, agriculture and technology, as well as some of the biggest philanthropic foundations and donors operating in Africa.SADC comprises a market of 300 million people in 15 countries, with zero tariffs on 85% of all goods from the region.Relations continue to sour between media and security forces in the DRC, as media continue to be harassed at protests; and internet and social media shutdowns a regular occurrence since January 2018.

 skantgarg via 123RF

Congolese security forces on November 30, 2017, detained at least six local journalists and confiscated their equipment as they tried to cover countrywide protests over President Joseph Kabila's refusal to stand down when his second five-year term in office expired in 2016 and his refusal to hold elections, according to a local press freedom group Observatoire de la Liberte de la Presse en Afrique (Observatory of Press Freedom in Africa or OLPA.)All of the journalists were released the same day without charge, but as of March 22, 2018, police were still holding some of the confiscated equipment, some of the journalists told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).Security forces in the eastern city of Beni, in South Kivu province, briefly detained Tresor Malu, a reporter with the university radio station De la Voix de l' Universite Officielle de Semuliki (VUOS), and Delphin Mupanda, a reporter with the community broadcaster Radio Television Rwanzururu (RTR), according to Malu and OLPA.Malu told CPJ that police briefly seized the journalists' audio recorders, but that the equipment was returned when police released the two reporters a few hours later.In the eastern city of Bukavu, in North Kivu province, security forces briefly detained Emmanuel Elameji wa Kabedi, a journalist with the U.N.-backed Radio Okapi, while he was covering a pro-democracy protest, the journalist told CPJ. Elameji wa Kabedi said that police seized his two phones, an audio recorder, and US$140.Elameji wa Kabedi said that when he was released a few hours later, authorities returned one of his phones and recorder, which was damaged during the arrest. He said that the security forces did not return the other phone and his cash.CPJ's repeated phone calls to General Louis Segond Kawara, a provincial police commissioner of Bukavu, and a WhatsApp message sent to his phone went unanswered.In Tshikapa, a city in Kasai province, security forces detained Pierre Tshiabu and Texas Tshipamba from the community radio station Notre Chaine Radio (NCR) while they were covering the protest, Tshiabu told CPJ.CPJ is aware of at least one other case of security forces stopping a journalist from filming a protest in the capital, Kinshasa. The journalist asked that details of the incident, including their name, be withheld for fear of reprisal.When asked for comment about the incidents, Colonel Pierre-Rombaut Mwanamputu, a spokesperson for the national police, told CPJ it was difficult for security forces to make the distinction between journalists and protesters."Everyone can wear a press jacket. It is not a sign that someone is a journalist," Mwanamputu said, referring to jackets with the word "Press" written on the front and back that some members of the media wear.Internet and social media shutdowns are also a regular occurrence since protests began.This job expired on 22 May 2018.This job expired on 25 May 2018.This job expired on 23 May 2018.This job expired on 2 May 2018.An anti-refugee, anti-Muslim Minneapolis-based organizer for Act! for America is urging supporters to contact the chair of the Government Operations and Elections Policy, asking that the committee hear HF4122, introduced on March 21 by state representative and US Senate candidate Jim Newberger, R-Becker.

The bill, which has no senate companion, has yet to be heard in a house committee. If the measure became law, a county could ask local and national resettlement agencies and sponsors to pay for public assistance provided to a noncitizen:

If a noncitizen receives public assistance administered by a single county for at least six months, that county may collect the cost, including administrative cost, of any additional public assistance administered by that county to the noncitizen. The costs may be collected from any of the following: (1) a local resettlement agency directly involved with the resettlement of the noncitizen; (2) a national voluntary agency affiliated with such a local resettlement agency; or (3) a sponsor that has agreed to help in the reception and placement of the noncitizen.

The bill--offered by a cluster of Republican lawmakers--was introduced nearly two weeks after the Office of the Legislative Auditor determined Refugee resettlement costs are difficult to gather, report says, according to the St. Cloud Times.

The push by anti-refugee activists. comes after the deadline for first hearings for bills. It's not the first time this cohort has united over going-nowhere legislation. Witness the freak-out this year over hearing-less house and senate bills stillborn in committee that we described in Anatomy of a smear: Jihad Watch blasts MN01 hopeful Nelson for economic development bill and MN1: Anti-Somali Minnesotans turn Facebook attention toward Anoka's Senator Jim Abeler.

March 22, the deadline for a first committee hearing of a bill in the house o this session of the Minnesota state legislature, has come and gone. Ordinarily, this means:

The 2018 committee deadlines are listed in this letter signed by House and Senate leadership. The committee deadlines are: 1st deadline - March 22, 2018 at midnight

2nd deadline - March 29, 2018 at midnight

3rd deadline - April 20, 2018 at midnight Explanation There is no yearly deadline for the introduction of bills. However, each year the Legislature establishes deadlines for committee action on bills. Committee deadlines are announced during the first half of a session in order to winnow the list of topics to be dealt with that year. "The deadlines do not apply to the House committees on Capital Investment, Ways and Means, Taxes, or Rules and Legislative Administration, nor to the Senate committees on Capital Investment, Finance, Taxes, or Rules and Administration." "The first deadline is for committees to act favorably on bills in the house of origin." "The second deadline is for committees to act favorably on bills, or companions of bills, that met the first deadline in the other house." "The third deadline is for committees to act favorably on major appropriation and finance bills." "When a committee in either house acts favorably on a bill after a deadline established in the concurrent resolution, the bill must be referred in the Senate to the Committee on Rules and Administration and in the House of Representatives to the Committee on Rules and Legislative Administration for disposition. Either rules committee, when reporting a bill referred to the committee under this rule, may waive application of the rule to subsequent actions on that bill by other committees." (Joint Rule 2.03, Deadlines)

That last paragraph indicates that there are exceptions to the rule, and we certainly see a few happening next week in the Minnesota House Government Operations and Elections Policy Committee, where HF4122 now slumbers. According to the committee's webpage, there's at least one bill being heard that missed the deadline and which has no Senate companion:

HF4114 - (Miller): Compensation to businesses provided for loss of business opportunity from sale and closure of biomass energy plant, account created, and money transferred.

While that measure has no senate companion (there's a similiar bill, HF4118, that does; it originated in the Senate and is moving forward), the issue itself does employ a number of lobbyists working for some of those businesses (example here) affected by the closing. Their clients would be able to tap into $20 million (HF4114) or $40 million from the renewable energy fund fueled by Xcel ratepayers under modifications to the Prairie Island agreement made last year.

Meanwhile, the anti-refugee folks--who have no representation in the phalanx of lobbyists in St. Paul--are asking for calls that the Newberger bill be heard. Anderson posts in part on Facebook:

Heads up MN: URGENT! SUPPORT LEGISLATION HF 4122 Allows Limits to Public Assistance for Refugee Resettlement.

After six months, counties may collect public assistance resettlement costs from a local or national resettlement agency or sponsor. . . . Call Tim ODriscoll, Chair of the House Government Operations Committee . . .

Urge him to schedule HF4122 for a committee hearing! The 2018 House deadline for passing bills out of a committee has passed, but our state is in urgent need of some fiscal responsibility being brought to bear on the nongovernmental Voluntary Agencies. Until very recently, they have been so lacking in transparency that they literally have barred local taxpayers from even attending their planning meetings, all this while the costs of the resettlement program are extraordinary. Efforts for a cost accounting are being stymied at every turn. This issue is an urgent concern and public policy matter. Scheduling a committee hearing will go a long way toward easing tensions by bringing these issues to light and laying the groundwork for addressing them legislatively.

Bluestem doubts that tensions would be eased by such a hearing--only the airing of grievances by anti-refugee advocates and a chance for Newberger to play to his base, such as it is, in his struggle to gain a few moments in the sun in his windmill tilting at the popular U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar .

We suggest that O'Driscoll not waste time on this one.

Photo: State rep and US Senate candidate Jim Newberger (far left), R-Becker.

If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.



Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen@gmail.com as recipient.Schusterman Center for Israel Studies celebrates its 10th anniversary

Photo/Bob Keene Left to right: founding Schusterman director Ilan Troen, Schusterman Foundation Vice President Lisa Eisen, Schusterman Center executive director Rachel Fish Phd'13, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro '91, Schusterman Foundation co-chair Stacy Schusterman, Ben-Gurion University President Rivka Carmi, Schusterman Foundation founder co-chair Lynn Schusterman, Brandeis University President Ron Liebowitz, Schusterman Center director David Ellenson, Schusterman Foundation President Sanford Cardin

The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University celebrated its 10th anniversary Sunday, March 25 with a conference featuring keynotes from former United States Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro 91 and Ben-Gurion University President Rivka Carmi.

In all, more than 200 guests attended the conference at Olin-Sang auditorium on the Brandeis campus.

The event also highlighted the Schusterman Centers accomplishments in its first decade, including educating undergraduate and graduate students, and fostering postgraduate fellows and early-career academics. Its vaunted Summer Institute has promoted Israel studies throughout the world, and has drawn 291 professors from every continent to study at Brandeis over a two-week period.

Founding director Ilan Troen has overseen the publication of 24 books, while the journal, Israel Studies, recognized globally as the leading academic journal in the field, counts more than 3,000 subscriptions.

Recognized as one of the worlds leading academic research institutions for Israel studies, the Schusterman Center was founded at Brandeis in 2007, primarily with gifts from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.

As my mother said at the Centers dedication, Israel past, present and future deserves a place in the academic world and Brandeis will be its standard bearer, noted Stacy Schusterman of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.

We feel great pride in the Centers accomplishments and the growth of Israel studies generally, Schusterman added. We also believe our work is far from finished. College campuses are where tomorrows diplomats, artists, executives and elected officials form their worldview. It is the students studying at Brandeis and campuses nationwide who will determine the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Praising the centers research accomplishments, Brandeis President Ron Liebowitz announced three new faculty appointments and the creation of a new academic chair in conjunction with the 10th anniversary.

University Professor Jonathan D. Sarna 75, MA75, will succeed professor David Ellenson as Schusterman Center director on Aug. 1, 2018. Meanwhile, Rachel Fish, PhD13, will be promoted to executive director. Assistant professor Alexander Kaye has also been appointed to the Stoll Family Chair in Israel Studies, succeeding founding Schusterman Center director Ilan Troen in that position.

Additionally, the newly endowed Marash and Ocuin Chair in Ottoman, Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish Studies will be awarded to a future tenure-track or tenured faculty member with expertise in the history and experience of Sephardic or Mizrahi Jews in Israel. A search to fill the chair will begin this year.

These appointments suggest a bright future of Israel studies at Brandeis, Liebowitz said. We are confident we will grow from strength to strength and hope that all of you are proud of what has been and will yet be accomplished. I thank all who have made this possible, but no one more than Lynn Schusterman and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.

In prepared remarks, Shapiro spoke about his time as U.S. Ambassador to Israel during the Obama Administration. He added his take on the ongoing relationship between the U.S. and Israel and highlighted the strong ties between both countries while also outlining how the two nations perspectives can sometimes diverge on issues like Syria, the Iran nuclear deal and Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The first step is to try and understand where our interests converge and, less often of course, when they diverge, Shapiro said. We must realize and accept that we are extremely close and supportive allies, but ultimately two different countries whose interests are not always identical.

We shouldnt be afraid of that fact; its more a question of management and doing it with our eyes open Shapiro added. Like in any relationship, its best to confront questions honestly rather than with denial. Instead of being scared of occasional daylight, relationship strong when we recognize and deal with it honestly.

During a Q&A session following his lecture, Shapiro also discussed the implications of the #MeToo movement in the Middle East, the final days of the Obama administration and the pros and cons of being a Jewish ambassador to Israel.

Carmi, the first woman president of an Israeli academic institution and a world renowned geneticist, used her remarks to outline what it was like to grow up in Israel. She described her personal growth in the aftermath of her nations euphoria following the Six-Day War, the horror of the Yom Kippur War, and her current role in academia.

Under Carmis guidance, Ben-Gurion University, already recognized as a global hub for cybersecurity studies, has committed to undertake research across all disciplines. The university also encourages its students to be involved in community service.

Unfulfilled visions are false visions, said Carmi, quoting her universitys namesake, David Ben-Gurion.

I want to humbly add to that: Visions not coupled with a sense of mission cannot be implemented. The incredible vision of creating a homeland for the Jewish people required a great deal of a sense of mission vision on behalf on many. I feel incredibly lucky and privileged, as a child of the state, to have been one of them.

Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy attended Sundays celebration and delivered a city proclamation congratulating the Schusterman Center and Brandeis University.

The 10th anniversary celebration continued on Monday, as the Center hosted an academic conference featuring Harvard University professor Safa Abu Rabia, Binghampton University professor Shay Rabineau and Brandeis associate professor of Near Eastern and Judaic studies Yehudah Mirsky. Artists Hagar Ophir and Hakim Bishara also held a special workshop.





Jonathan Sarna named director of Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University

Schusterman Center celebrates 10th anniversary, announces new leadership and unveils new academic chair.

Photo/Mike Lovett Brandeis University Professor Jonathan D. Sarna

Brandeis University has appointed two faculty members to new positions, created an endowed chair in Ottoman, Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish studies and named a new director in conjunction with the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies  10-year anniversary celebration.

University Professor Jonathan D. Sarna 75, MA75, will succeed Professor David Ellenson as director of the Schusterman Center on Aug. 1, 2018.

Rachel Fish, PhD13, will be promoted to executive director of the center. Additionally, assistant professor Alexander Kaye has been appointed to the Stoll Family Chair in Israel Studies, succeeding founding Schusterman Center director Ilan Troen in that position.

The Schusterman Center, established at Brandeis in 2007 by gifts from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and other generous donors, has become one of the worlds leading academic institutions for Israel studies. Over the past decade, it has educated a host of undergraduate and graduate students, fostered postgraduate fellows and early-career academics and created a dynamic new generation of scholars whose research and teaching focuses on the modern State of Israel.

The Schusterman Center is a hallmark of Brandeis and a key voice for scholarly research on Israel studies that is recognized and respected around the world, said Brandeis University President Ron Liebowitz. As we celebrate the Schusterman Centers 10th anniversary, we look to its future and the unique role it will play in advancing fields of study, unlocking new frontiers and making Brandeis a premier academic global leader.

The Schusterman Centers renowned faculty have cumulatively written dozens of books and thousands of academic articles. They have led a rich, multidisciplinary array of Israel studies courses and provided dedicated mentorship to Brandeis students.

We are grateful for David Ellensons stewardship of the Schusterman Center and congratulate Professors Sarna, Fish and Kaye on their new appointments, said Stacy Schusterman, Co-Chair, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. Our family has long envisioned Brandeis as a leading university where students and scholars can learn about modern Israel. We know the centers new leadership will build on the accomplishments of its first decade to fully realize this vision and expand the reach and impact of Israel studies at Brandeis and beyond.

Sarna, the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History and a three-time chair of the Near Eastern and Judaic studies department at Brandeis, is a pre-eminent scholar on American Jewish history, modern Judaism and Israel studies.

Sarna is the chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, and his scholarship includes authoring or editing more than 30 books and hundreds of academic articles. He served twice as the Lady Davis Visiting Professor of the Humanities at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was also the senior scholar at the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem.

Sarna was promoted to University Professor, Brandeis Universitys highest academic title, in 2017.

Fish, a board member for the Association for Israel Studies and the Schusterman Centers current associate director, is an assistant research professor who teaches the Myra Kraft Seminar in Israel as part of the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. She has also served on the Harvard University faculty.

Kaye has written extensively on Israeli legal history, religion and democracy. He formerly taught at Princeton University and is currently the Saul and Sonia Schottenstein Chair in Israel Studies at The Ohio State University. He will join the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis this summer.

Ellenson is a scholar of modern Jewish thought and history. He served as president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion from 2001 to 2013 and is chancellor emeritus there. For two decades, Ellenson served as head of the Louchheim School for Judaic Studies, the undergraduate program in Jewish studies at the University of Southern California.

The newly endowed Marash and Ocuin Chair in Ottoman, Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish Studies will be awarded to a future tenure-track or tenured faculty member with expertise in the history and experience of Sephardic or Mizrahi Jews in Israel. A search to fill the chair will begin this year.UB partners with South African, Zimbabwean universities to battle tuberculosis, HIV

Faculty of the UB Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences with the Africaid Adolescent Support Group in Zimbabwe. Photo: Gene Morse

...There is a global recognition that a vision for the end of the HIV epidemic must include behavioral strategies... 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  To help fight the tuberculosis and HIV epidemics facing the world, the University at Buffalo Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences will partner with the University of the Western Cape to launch a tuberculosis treatment and nanomedicine development program, and with the University of Zimbabwe to expand cancer- and behavioral health-related HIV research programs.

The treatments developed through the research collaboration with the University of the Western Cape aim to slow the spread of tuberculosis, which is the leading infectious cause of death worldwide, killing 1.7 million people each year, according to the World Health Organization.

The program is funded by a 2017 Emerging Global Health Leaders Award presented to Admire Dube, PhD, senior lecturer at the University of the Western Cape, by the U.S. National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center.

The five-year award provides 12 early-career faculty with $5 million in research support, career development activities and access to mentorship from U.S. researchers.

Gene Morse, PharmD, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and director of the Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences, will serve as Dubes primary mentor.

Additional mentors include Mervin Meyer, PhD, professor at the University of the Western Cape, Muazzam Jacobs, PhD, professor at the University of Cape Town, and Samantha Sampson, PhD, associate professor at Stellenbosch University.

Along with the University of Zimbabwe, a team of researchers from the Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences also received two awards totaling $300,000 from the Fogarty International Center to expand the HIV Research Training Program.

The program, which calls on faculty from both universities to provide University of Zimbabwe scholars with mentored training in HIV research, will expand to include cancer- and behavioral health-related research areas.

Cancer is common among patients with HIV and AIDS and remains an important area for capacity-building throughout Africa, said Morse, also co-director of the SUNY Global Health Institute. And there is a global recognition that a vision for the end of the HIV epidemic must include behavioral strategies that promote prevention of HIV transmission and adherence to lifelong antiretroviral medications.

The funding will allow the program to train additional University of Zimbabwe graduate students and faculty, including the programs first behavioral health research scholar.

The UB team of participating faculty include Morse; Gale Burstein, MD, Erie County Health Commissioner and clinical professor in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB; Sarahmona Przybyla, PhD, assistant professor in the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions; Robin DiFrancesco, research assistant professor, and Joshua Sawyer, PharmD, clinical assistant professor, both in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Chiedza Maponga, PharmD, director of the School of Pharmacy in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Zimbabwe, will also participate.

The Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences is an international hub for addressing global health challenges through pharmacological research and drug and vaccine development. The center brings together faculty from research, clinical and applied programs to promote drug discovery, advance nanotechnology applications and develop sustainable business models for products and services for the global health market.D.W. Nye has acquired Fixings and Powertool Center in Redhill, Surrey.

This is the first acquisition for family-run D.W. Nye, which has been operating for over 30 years and is based in Kingsfold on the Sussex/Surrey border. The company has confirmed that Fixings and Powertool Center will continue to trade under its existing name.

Its Manager, Ralph Whitehead, will remain at Fixings and Powertool Center alongside the full team of existing employees.

Rex Nye, owner and Managing Director at D.W. Nye, said: We are delighted to welcome Fixings and Powertool Center to the D.W. Nye family and are looking forward to what the future holds. The company has very successfully operated in the fixings and power tools market for the last 20 years and its range of products perfectly complements D.W. Nyes offer and brand ethos. We look forward to continuing to deliver a highly professional, expert service to all its customers.

Ralph Whitehead, Manager at Fixings and Powertools Center, added: This is an exciting time for Fixings and Powertools Center. We are pleased to be joining forces with such a well-respected and established business.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.

We, however, have a request.



As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.



Digital EditorHow do traditional organisations reach out to young workers and keep them coming for more? With some humour, a new sensibility and some amount of plainspeak is how Ceat Tyres believes it can do that.

With an ongoing digital campaign called #thingsthathappenatwork that satirizes a typical Indian office environment, the company is pitching itself as one that thinks differently on equality of opportunities, on ideas and ownership and such other issues. Not only is the company keen to spin a different story for the young employee, it is reaching out via a medium that holds their attention ...What do you get when two brothers, third-generation scions of a business house with a solid reputation, exit their stake in their flagship company for $2.4 billion? Such inheritors who leverage cash, industry know-how and pedigree to step bravely into the future would be the ideal answer. However, the sad reality is that Malvinder and Shivinder Singh have all but destroyed the very legacy that their grandfather Bhai Mohan Singh and father Parvinder built and stood for as the brothers find their capital evaporating, a result of their bad investments and misplaced strategies amid a flurry of lawsuits and allegations.

Just recently, the Delhi high court ordered attachment of all moveable property disclosed in an affidavit by Singh brothers and others in relation to the Rs 35-billion arbitration case by Daiichi Sankyo, Japan. After the Singapore arbitration court had asked Singh brothers to compensate Daiichi for withholding vital information at the time of sale, the Japanese firm had approached the Delhi high court to collect dues, which was challenged by the brothers.



However, the Delhi court has upheld the arbitration order and attached their properties. The Singh duo is also being accused and sued by private equity Siguler Guff & Company on allegations of having siphoned funds from Religare; finally, auditors Deloitte waved red flags at them for over Rs 5 billion in unsecured advances fronted to vendors and an inter-corporate group deposit given to a promoter-related company.

Back in 2014, the US Food and Drug Administration had come down hard on the generic drug giant Ranbaxy Laboratories. The agency announced a ban on imports from the companys manufacturing plant in Toansa, Punjab. It was the fourth Ranbaxy factory to be barred by the agency since 2008 where it found numerous infractions that included laboratories in significant disrepair, and overwriting of data until acceptable results were achieved.

It is not that the brothers did not try to build new businesses. After their stake sale in 2008, they set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) RHC Financial Services in Mauritius to allow them to buy overseas assets with ease. Shortly thereafter, the SPV-controlled Fortis International (separate from the Indian company Fortis Healthcare) as well as six other that it snapped up and which included ready and under construction hospitals in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore. There was even a diagnostics play they made in Dubai recently.

In the meantime, Fortis India growth was more substantial, going from one location in 2001 to 66 hospitals by 2011, which included 10 hospitals it bought from rival Wockhardt. The tell-tale signs should have been evident when the company spent a sizeable chunk of change - $650 million - to buy a one-fourth stake in Parkway Hospitals of Singapore.

Fuelled by cash from selling inherited shares, the brothers were biting off more than they could chew, despite being strait-laced in every other way. One former employee who interacted with both of them and declined to be named said that neither was a profligate spender nor a party animal, which could have caused them to let business spiral. In fact, they had novice, they did not smoke or drink, and were vegetarian, he adds. On the contrary, Malvinder, a regular at the World Economic Forum in Davos spoke about Indias pioneering role in health care and partnered Bollywood actor Salman Khans Being Human Foundation to subsidise surgeries for children. Then in 2015, Fortis Healthcares co-founder Shivinder said he would move on to serve full-time at the spiritual retreat Radha Soami Satsang Beas to pay heed to an inner calling. He was just 40 years old at the time.

A management expert says there are two ways to succeed with international acquisitions: Find strategic fits to the core business or if it is a diversification, buy and then rebuild culture from the ground up or allow what remains to thrive. It is not clear if any of that was thought through clearly when expanding and the business establishment was noticing. One executive search professional, who declined to be named, said it was difficult to get notable independent directors on board because they all saw what was happening. She goes on to add that in 2009, million-dollar salaries were being thrown at chief executive officers by the company.

Another former financial executive at Fortis, who declined to be named, said, Malvinder was the big-picture guy looking at deals and buyouts, while Shivinder was in charge of day-to-day operations. When pressed for answers as to what really went wrong at the core of it, the executive said it was Religare Enterprises, the duos financial services foray, which was the undoing of the group. They were paid salaries of over Rs 10 million a year to many mid-level employees and the whole approach was a little overboard, he adds. In 2009, Religare even gave 30 German luxury cars to top employees as retention bonuses, according to public reports.

All of the spendings was, however, coming at a cost. By 2011, debt on the publicly traded Fortis had crossed Rs 70 billion, and debt-to-equity, which a year ago was at 0.3, spiked 2.2 times. The cause? The buying of promoter stakes in SRL Diagnostics for Rs 9.6 billion and the collective debt of Fortis International at Rs 32.7 billion.

Realising they had taken on more responsibility than they could handle, the brothers aggressively started paring their holdings. First up was the profitable Australian subsidiary Dental Corporation that was sold to Bupa Healthcare for Rs 15.5 billion. That was followed by getting rid of the Singapore-listed Religare Health Trust for Rs 22 billion, followed by hiving off Rs 3.7 billion worth of equity in SRL Diagnostics. All these measures helped the company bring down debt to a reasonable Rs 23 billion and debt-equity to about 0.6 times.



More than 98 per cent of the promoters holdings in Fortis is pledged, and would eventually get sold to a new investor. The companys inconsistent model of growth and an absence of consistent leadership, coupled with its current spate of lawsuits and alleged malpractice, means that restoring a reputation the Singh family built over the generations may be the hardest thing to pull off. The good is this. The brothers are here in India to defend their position, explain their actions and perhaps justify their stand, if ever there was one.Microsoft announced on Monday, March 26, the formal opening in Hyderabad of the Microsoft Garage, a facility that supports its employees' endeavours in experimentation and encourages problem solving in new and innovative ways. "The Garage is an initiative that democratises the process of innovation, where anyone can take his or her idea to its logical end, using the resources and collaborating within the organisation," Geff Ramos, partner director of Microsoft Garage, said while describing the initiative.

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.

We, however, have a request.



As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



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Digital EditorBodies of 39 Indians killed in war-torn Iraq will be brought to India in a week's time, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the families of the deceased on Saturday.

This was conveyed by the minister during her meeting with families, who were "appreciative" of efforts made by the government, specially by Sawraj and Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh, official sources said.

"The minister told them that bodies will be brought to India in a week's time and Singh will go to Iraq to oversee the entire process," a source said.

Singh is expected to fly out soon in a cargo plane to get bodies, sources said.

Davinder Singh, younger brother of Gobinder Singh, who was among those killed in Iraq, told PTI over phone after meeting Swaraj in New Delhi, "We were assured all kind of assistance, including the possibility of a government job to the next of kin."



On the demand of bringing the mortal remains of the 39 killed to India as soon as possible, the minister "assured us of all possible steps", he said.

The meeting with Swaraj lasted for about 45 minute, he said.

The family of the deceased sought financial help as their bread earners are dead and also government jobs for the next of kin, Kumar said.

"The minister told us that she would meet the CMs of the four states from where the Indians belonged to take a decision on possibility of providing a government job to the next of kin," he said.

Earlier in the day, the family members of those killed in Iraq met Punjab Congress chief and party MP Sunil Kumar Jakhar in New Delhi and he assured them "all possible assistance" to them.

Swaraj had told Parliament last week that all the 39 Indians, abducted by the ISIS in Iraq in 2014, had been killed and their bodies recovered.

As many as 40 Indians were abducted by the ISIS terror group from Mosul in Iraq but one of them escaped posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, Swaraj had said in Rajya Sabha.

The remaining 39 Indians were taken to Badoosh and killed, she had said.

Search operations led to a mound in Badoosh where locals said some bodies were buried by the ISIS. Deep penetration radars were used to establish that the mound indeed was a mass grave, she had said, adding the Indian authorities requested their Iraqi counterpart to exhume the bodies.

Swaraj said the mass grave had exactly 39 bodies, with distinctive features such as long hair, non-Iraqi shoes and IDs. The bodies were then sent to Baghdad for DNA testing.

DNA testing by Martyrs Foundation established the identity of 38 Indians while there has been 70 per cent matching of the DNA for the 39th person, she had said.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress spent the whole of Monday exchanging barbs over whose app accumulated more public data and stowed it away either at US- or Singapore-based data centres.

Technology experts believe that while the data accumulated by the INC App, run by the Congress, might have accumulated some data on its users, the damage done by NaMo app might be far more, considering the sheer number of downloads (five million to date), as well as the past history of risk owing to its in-app security features or the lack of them. Problems in the in-app security in the ...A Delhi court on Monday sent former media baron Peter Mukerjea to CBI custody till March 31 in the which also involves Karti Chidamabram, son of former Union minister P Chidambaram.

Special judge Sunil Rana allowed CBI's plea seeking five-day custody of Mukerjea after the probe agency claimed that he was required to be confronted with Karti and others in the case.

The court also allowed CBI's plea to formally arrest Mukerjea in the case.

The special CBI court conducting the trial in the Sheena Bora murder case, had on March 23, allowed Mukerjea to be produced before the Delhi court in the

The murder of Sheena Bora, Indrani Mukerjea's 24-year-old daughter from an earlier relationship, had come to light in August 2015.

Police then arrested Indrani and her former husband Sanjiv Khanna for allegedly murdering Sheena over a financial dispute in April, 2012. Peter Mukerjea was arrested later for being a part of the conspiracy.

The INX Media case, registered by the CBI, relates to a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted to INX Media, founded by the Mukerjeas, for receiving foreign funds in 2007.

The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a case against INX Media, the Mukerjeas and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

INX Media is accused of violating the FIPB guidelines while receiving investments from Mauritius.

The Delhi High Court, had on March 23, granted bail to Karti in theIn a sign of the times, K. K. Sharma, director general of the Border Security Force, attended a public meeting organised by an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh last month, even though it is widely known that the organisation is politically aligned.

He could not have done this without the backing of the Union Ministry for Home Affairs. Also last month, army chief Bipin Rawat gave a speech at an army think tank expressing concern about immigration in the northeast, and at the rate of growth of a particular political party, the AIUDF. He did not say so in so many words but the ...The Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018 are different from other upcoming assembly elections because here there is a three way fight and not just the two national parties taking on each other. Janata Dal Secular or JD(S) in the midst makes the Karnataka Assembly Elections more interesting and challenging for the BJP and the Congress. The JD(S) is a regional force which was formed in July 1999 and is led by former Prime Minister of India, H. D.

Deve Gowda. His son H. D. Kumaraswamy is the Karnataka State President and has been a former Chief Minister of Karnataka. He is also the nominated chief ...China called on World Trade Organization members on Monday to unite to prevent the United States "wrecking" the WTO and urged them to oppose US tariffs targeting China's alleged theft of intellectual property. Beijing's envoy Zhang Xiangchen told delegates at the Geneva-based trade body that President Donald Trump's plan to impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese goods under Section 301 of the 1974 US Trade Act broke WTO rules. "The U.S. is setting a very bad precedent by bluntly breaching its commitment made to the world. WTO members should ...Voting was underway in Egypt for the country's presidential election on Monday with incumbent President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi expected be returned by a landslide.

Polls opened at 9 a.m., on the first of three days of voting, reports Xinhua news agency.

Sisi cast his vote in Cairo, according to local media reports.

Egypt has over 59 million eligible voters out of the country's 104 million population.

Last week, the country wrapped up the voting process of Egyptian expatriates in 124 countries across the world.

There are some 13,706 polling stations schools nationwide, with about 18,000 judges overseeing the voting process that is also being monitored by at least 53 local organisations and nine ones.

Sisi's sole rival in the race is little-known politician Moussa Mostafa Moussa, Chairman of liberal Ghad Party, after a couple of possible strong challengers have either withdrawn or disqualified for violations.

Sisi has been in power since 2013, when he led the military's overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi following mass protests against his rule. He then won a landslide in the 2014 presidential election.

The result will be announced on April 2, according to the National Election Authority.The Saudi Arabian Air Defence forces on Monday intercepted seven ballistic missiles launched by Yemeni Houthi rebels, according to authorities.

According to Turki al-Malki, the spokesperson for the Saudi Arabia-led Arab coalition who blamed Iran for the attack, three of the projectiles were heading towards Riyadh, one to Khamis Mushait in the province of Asir, another to Najran and the other two to Jizan, reports Efe news.

The interception of the missiles resulted in the dispersal of fragments of the shells, which fell over nearby residential areas, killing an Egyptian civilian, according to al-Malki.

Material damage was also reported, but the spokesperson did not provide further details on its extent.

"This aggressive and random act by the Iran-backed Houthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed Houthi group with qualitative capabilities," said Al-Malki, adding that the missile attack aimed to threaten the security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the region.

The Houthi-run news agency Saba claimed that the Army Missile Force sympathizing with the rebel group had launched ballistic missiles against several targets in Saudi Arabia, without providing further details.

The attack coincides with the third anniversary of the Saudi-led Arab coalition's military intervention in Yemen, which provoked the world's worst humanitarian crisis in 2017.

The Saudi-led military operations in Yemen, which began on March 26, 2015, has targeted the Houthi rebels that have fought against Yemen's ruling forces of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi since 2014.

Ballistic missile attacks by the rebels against Saudi territory have become a regular practice, but very rarely have shells reached Riyadh.

Saudi authorities blame Iran for these assaults and accuse it of threatening Saudi Arabia's national security and supporting Shia groups in the region.A group of Baloch political and student activists in Canada gathered at Fairview Library in Toronto to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Pakistan's occupation of the land of the Baloch people.

The event organized by Baloch National Movement (BNM) was supported by Sindhi, Pashtun, Kashmiri, Kurd and other human rights activists.

Speaking at the event, Zaffar Baloch, President, Baloch National Movement - North America said, "The seven decades of Baloch struggle has witnessed worst forms of military operations under military and civilian rulers; General Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization of society to counter secular politics; rise of Taliban and the jihadist terror outfits; and of course the Chinese military and economic expansion in the coastal Balochistan and the Arabian Sea".

He added, "Balochistan's invasion on March 27, 1948 by Pakistan wasn't simply territorial; it was this newly founded jihadist state's first assault on democracy and the democratic will of a people. The bicameral legislative assembly of Kalat State had unanimously decided for Balochistan to be an independent country as of August 11, 1947".

"The military invasion of Balochistan in 1948 and that of Kashmir a year earlier marked the beginning of successive military dictatorships and Talibanization phenomenon in South Asia, said Zaffar while addressing a gathering.

The Baloch activists demanded a peaceful end to the Pakistani military occupation of Balochistan that took place on March 27, 1948. They also demand an end to the genocidal military operation in Balochistan that has claimed thousands of innocent lives.

Women chairperson of the Baloch Students Organisation - Azad (BSO-A), Karima Baloch said, "We did not just loose our self rule and a piece of land to Pakistan on March 27, we lost our cultural identity and our language. We lost our right to a peaceful and self life".

Canadian writer of Pakistani origin, Tarek Fatah also attended the event as a special guest and spoke about the history of Baloch struggle.

Balochistan is Pakistan's largest and resource rich province, but the people are living in intense poverty where unemployment and illiteracy is rampant.

The political activists and intellectuals are being targeted by the army and intelligence agencies as the province witnesses' frequent incidents of enforced disappearances, killings and tortures.

The Baloch also demand an end to all China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects in Balochistan that are basically designed by the Pakistani military to plunder natural wealth and build settlers colonies to further marginalize indigenous population through demographic changes.

They demand complete halt to Chinese control of Gwadar port and withdrawal of all the Chinese personnel from the area.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Delhi court on Monday dismissed Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) MLA Somnath Bharti's plea seeking re-investigation of African women assault case.

The Delhi Police have already filed a chargesheet against him and 17 others in connection with the 2014 case.

He is facing charges of molestation and assault and promoting enmity stemming from the January 2014 raid on the African nationals in Malviya Nagar's Khirki Extension.

Bharti was chargesheeted under relevant sections of molestation, assault, outraging a woman's modesty, criminal trespass and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Television footage aired on news channels had shown Bharti asking police officers to conduct the raid as he had received complaints of drugs and prostitution racket in that area.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Bihar deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav said the arrest warrant issued against Ashwini Choubey's son by the state government is a mere show-off.

Yadav taking to his twitter handle said, Arjit Chaube against whom an arrest warrant has been issued, has carried out another procession where he can be seen armed with a sword.

"Arjit Chaube son of Union Min Ashwini Chaube is Wanted in a case. Nitish govt have issued arrest warrant on him for inciting riots in Bhagalpur but today he took out another procession on the occasion of Ram Navami armed with a sword accompanied by BJP MLAs," read a tweet.

Arjit Shaswat had allegedly incited communal clashes in Bihar Bhagalpur on March 17, during a procession that was carried out by workers from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), RSS and Bajrang Dal.

Earlier on Saturday, Ashwini Choubey refuted the charge, saying his son did not do anything wrong.

"I am proud that he is my son. I am proud that my son did not do anything wrong, he was raising slogans in tribute of Bharat Mata, the people from Bharatiya Navvarsh Jagran Samiti and Bhagalpur took out a procession for Hindu New Year. No one was hurt during the procession," Choubey told ANI.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Minister Ashwini Choubey on Monday dubbed the First Information Report (FIR) filed against his son Arijit Shashwat for inciting a communal violence in Bihar's Bhagalpur mere a "piece of garbage".

He further said that his son has made no mistake and FIR is field by corrupt officers.

"The FIR is nothing but a piece of garbage which was registered by corrupt officers of the area. My son made no mistake," Choubey told the reporters.

Earlier in the day, Shashwat said that he will move an anticipatory bail application against the arrest warrant issued against him and will co-operate with the police when they will visit him.

Bihar police earlier on Sunday issued arrest warrant against Shashwat for allegedly inciting communal clashes that broke out in Bhagalpur, on March 17.

The incident took place during a procession that was carried out by workers from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), RSS and Bajrang Dal, and was led by Choubey's son Arijit Shashwat.

An FIR was also registered against Shashwat for allegedly inciting communal clash.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Madhya Pradesh to regularise illegal colonies

Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Madhya Pradesh government on Monday announced the regularisation of illegal colonies in the state.

"We will remove this tag of 'Illegal Colonies' and regularise them. We will give people an opportunity to live with their head held high. However, attention also needs to be paid that no other illegal colonies sprout up after this process is over," said Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at a workshop here.

Calling the step a 'historic decision', the Chief Minister congratulated the state's Urban Development and Housing Department for initiating this process of regularisation.

According to an estimate, nearly 2.5 Lakh people will benefit by this move and nearly 5000 colonies across the state will be regularised in a phased manner over the next five months.

"Our targets of bringing change should not be achieved ruthlessly. We need to adopt a humane outlook and work towards development. I will monitor this process of regularisation every month and I am sure work will be completed within our deadline of August 15," said Chouhan.

The Chief Minister also announced that registration of labourers from unorganised sectors will begin soon and conferences of labourers will be held in April and May.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 56 prisoners on Sunday sat for a examination in Ramanujganj district jail of Balrampur - Ramanujganj district in Chhattisgarh under 'Rashtravyapi Mahapariksha Abhiyan'.

"Prisoners are very enthusiastic about the examination. We are thinking of organising such kind of examination campaign in the future," said Jail Superintendent GS Markam.

This is the first time that a 'Mahapariksha Abhiyan' has been organised in a district jail.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress on Monday appealed for a CBI Investigation into the death of a journalist, who was run over by a truck in Madhya Pradesh.

The TV journalist, Sandeep Sharma, who was reporting on sand mafia in the state, was mowed down by a speeding truck in Bhind district on Sunday.

Congress MP Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia said, "He was killed in broad daylight. Nothing less than a CBI inquiry should be done. Media is the fourth pillar of democracy and that is being crushed under BJP's rule."

Earlier, police said they have formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) team to probe the matter.

Reportedly, the journalist had earlier notified police that he had been receiving death threats by some unknown people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)If you are fond of dogs, chances are there that you will definitely fall in love with these creatures, which will surely give you the 'aww' moment!

On Sunday, Dublin's Light House Cinema held a dog-friendly screening, ahead of American director Wes Anderson's new animated movie - Isle Of Dogs release in Irish cinema halls from March 30, joe.ie reported.

Dozens of dogs along with its owners occupied the seats to enjoy the new quirky Anderson tale.

In its official Twitter handle, dogs of different breeds were seen enjoying the 'historic moment'!

An Instagram page named 'thedoggiedo' captured the moment.

Ireland's largest dog welfare society, Dogs Trust Ireland also posted on their official Twitter

Hence, it is proved that dog is indeed man's best friend and this is evident from the above pictures.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Voting for the Presidential elections in Egypt has begun on Monday.

Around 60 million will cast their votes for the Presidential elections which will continue for three days.

With no real opposition to the ruling President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi apart from Moussa Mustafa Moussa of Al-Ghad party, various political analyst has already determined the outcome in favour of the former, as per media reports.

Some of the major issues which will determine the results of the elections are lack of employment opportunities, healthcare facilities and growth of infrastructure under Sisi's rule.

Sisi took over as Egypt's president for the first time in 2012 replacing the democratically elected now-jailed Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi.

He also banned Morsi's political party Moslem Brotherhood party and either imprisoned his supporters or drove them underground.

Later Sisi was democratically elected in 2014 as less than half of the eligible voters had cast their votes since the toppling of its first democratic government in 2013.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The central government in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday deliberated over its borrowing programme for 2018-19 and finalised its borrowing calendar for the first half of 2018-19 (April-September).

After making a careful assessment of its financial needs for the first half, the government's gross G-Sec borrowing will be only Rs. 2,88,000 crore in H1 of 2018-19, the Ministry of Finance said.

This makes up only 47.5 percent as against 60-65 percent share in this period in previous years.

"We expect large flow of funds in National Small Savings Fund. Rs. 75,000 crore were to be used for funding fiscal deficit. Now we've decided that instead of Rs. 75,000 cr, we will raise it to Rs. 1 lakh crore. We are planning gross borrowing of Rs. 2.88 lakh crore in first half of 2018-19," Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Subhash Chandra Garg told reporters.

The government had budgeted for 2018 - 19 Gross G-Sec borrowing of Rs. 6,05,539 crore.

It intends to use larger inflows from small savings schemes to fund its fiscal deficit during the year.

Further, the government will borrow Rs. 1,00,000 crore from National Small Savings Fund (NSSF) as against the budgeted amount of Rs. 75,000 crore.

The government also plans to issue more Floating Rate Bonds (FRBs) and introduce Consumer Price Index (CPI) linked bonds, both put together, to the extent of 10 percent of issuances during the year.

The government will introduce two benchmarks during this half year - two-year and five-year, to meet the market demand.

More issuance will be planned in short and long-term maturity bucket, reducing the issuance in medium term segments of 10-14 years to around 29 percent, as against more than 50 percent issuances in previous years.

The share of issuances under different maturities bucket will be as follows

1 - 4 years: 8.3 percent

5 - 9 years: 25 percent

10 - 14 years: 29.2 percent

15 - 19 years: 14.6 percent

More than 20 years: 22.9 percent

The government's T Bill programme for the first quarter is to raise Rs. 1,95,000 crore.

During this period, T Bills of Rs. 1,53,000 crore will expire.

The gross borrowing per week under T-Bills will be Rs. 15,000 crores.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress party appears to have taken their app 'With INC' off Google PlayStore. A cursory search for the app on Apple App Store also fails to throw up any results for the Congress app.

Clicking on links which come up after a Google search reads, "This content is not available in your country yet. We're working to bring the content you love to more countries as quickly as possible. Please check back again soon."

French security researcher Baptiste Robert, who is known by his Twitter username Elliot Alderson, also put out a tweet saying, "Did @INCIndia removed their #android #app from the PlayStore just before my tweet?"

Earlier in the day, Robert had tweeted, "The IP address of http://membership.inc.in is 52.77.237.47. This server is located in Singapore. As you are an #Indian political party, having your server in #India is probably a good idea."

The development comes hours after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head Amit Malviya questioned the Congress party for sharing the personal details of its app's users with a Singapore-based firm.

On Sunday, Congress party president Rahul Gandhi, in his tweet, had questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official app 'NaMo' and alleged that it shares details of users to some firms based in the United States of America.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Adult star Stormy Daniels on Sunday claimed that she was 'threatened' publicly by a man, who told her - "Leave Trump alone."

Speaking to Anderson Cooper in a highly-anticipated broadcast on CBS's news magazine, "60 Minutes", Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, recalled an encounter she said took place in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011, The Guardian reported.

Daniels was on her way to a fitness class with her infant daughter when she said she was approached by a man.

"A guy walked up on me and said to me, 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story. It was then at that point that the alleged threat of physical violence was made, according to her account," Daniels recalled.

The adult star added that the man, whom she could not identify, leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom."

After such comments, the man dissappeared from the scene, according to Daniels.

The allegation that an individual threatened Daniels with "actual violence" while attempting to frighten her off going public about her alleged sexual encounter with US President Donald Trump took the dispute between them to an entirely new level.

With days to go before the November 2016 presidential election, Daniels signed the non-disclosure agreement in return for USD 130,000 in hush money arranged by the US President's attorney Michael Cohen.

Daniels told CBS that she agreed to the gagging contract because "I was concerned for my family and their safety."

"Then in January 2018, after the Wall Street Journal had revealed the existence of the non-disclosure agreement, she signed another document that denied that any affair had taken place - a statement that she now says was a lie," she added.

Asked by Cooper why she signed a false statement, Daniels replied: "Because they made it sound like I had no choice."

Cooper then asked Daniels if the latter thought there would be legal repercussions if there was no sign to which she answered that "they can make your life hell in many different ways." Asked who "they" were, Daniels named Cohen.

The Guardian noted that Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti complained in the course of the 60 Minutes film that the veiled threat that was allegedly made against his client in 2011 was effectively repeated in the filing of a lawsuit earlier this month by Trump's legal team claiming USD 20 million in damages against her with a further USD 1 million penalty for any further violation of the non-disclosure agreement.

Avenatti said the suit was a form of intimidation. "You threaten someone with a USD 20 million lawsuit, it's a thuggish tactic. It's no different than what happened in the parking lot in Las Vegas."

Daniels refused to answer a question from Cooper about whether she had handed over all digital images, email messages and text messages relating to Trump as part of the 2016 gagging contract. She then replied that her lawyer had advised her not to discuss "those things".

On Thursday, Avenatti posted a tweet that featured a picture of a digital disc in a safe deposit box with the words "If 'a picture is worth a thousand words', how many words is this worth?"

On March 6, Daniels filed a civil lawsuit against President Trump claiming the nondisclosure agreement, which contains details about her alleged nine-month affair with the latter is "invalid" because the US President had "never signed it."

In response, President Trump's team sued Daniels, claiming that "she violated the agreement."

On Friday, former Playboy model named Karen McDougal in a CNN interview claimed that President Trump had tried to offer her money after they allegedly went intimate.

Further, McDougal expressed regret and apologised to Melania for her alleged encounter with the US President.

Both McDougal and Daniels claim that President Trump had allegedly had a sexual encounter, when the latter's wife and First Lady Melania Trump, had given birth to his son, Barron.

Many women have in the past have alleged that they had allegedly went intimate with the US President.

However, the White House has refuted claims that President Trump had affairs with so many women, including Daniels and McDougal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah visited the Siddaganga Mutt here on Monday as a part of his two-day visit to Karnataka.

Accompanied by the state BJP chief B. S. Yeddyurappa and supporters, Shah also met the mutt's pontiff Shivakumara Swami to seek his blessings ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

"I am here in the mutt and took blessings from Swamiji Sidhaganga, who I am meeting for the first time. This mutt runs various educational institutions and students have gained a lot from these. We are contesting elections and his blessings will give us a new strength," Shah told reporters here.

On the first day of his two-day visit, the BJP president is expected to visit a number of temples and conventions, followed by a road show in central Karnataka's Shivamogga and a visit to the Bekkinakal Mutt.

During his ongoing visit, Shah is reportedly visiting a number of mutts, which are primarily associated with the Lingayat and Dalit communities, days after the Congress party-led state government in Karnataka granted minority status to the Lingayats.

Meanwhile, Congress party president Rahul Gandhi, along with other leaders, had visited Shringeri Sharadamba Temple in Chikmagalur district and Sringeri Mutt last week as a part of his 'Jana Aashirwada Yatre'.

The Election Commission of India is soon likely to announce the exact schedule of Karnataka Assembly elections, which are expected to be held in April or May.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs Gen (Retd) Vijay Kumar Singh and interim Director General of International Solar Alliance Upendra Tripathy on Monday signed a headquarters agreement to lay the foundation of the solar energy framework at a global level.

The agreement marks India's continued commitment to the goals of ISA as outlined in the founding summit held at New Delhi two weeks ago.

Various other members of external affairs ministry and ISA attended the event.

At the event, Gen. VK Singh said, "India has taken a lead in (ISA Summit). When the founding conference was held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan culture centre out of 121 countries who were eligible to get into ISA, 62 have expressed their willingness, 32 have ratified the framework agreement."

He further reflected upon the efforts to increase the production of solar energy to175 Gigawatts to help the prices of solar energy per unit to come down and reduce the storage space required by the solar power.

Meanwhile, Tripathy went on to dwell upon the laws to be made as part of the ISA.

"We are talking about 1,000 billion dollar investment in the solar sector and 1,000 Gigawatt of solar energy in the member countries. We shall make laws that enable the treaty-based organisations to conduct research. We will try our best bring a solar revolution to get affordable solar energy everywhere," Tripathy said.

Further, Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy Raj Kumar Singh informed that the solar energy would be provided at affordable rates of 3.5 US cents per unit.

The founding conference of the alliance was held in New Delhi on March 11.

As per the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1986 Headquarters Agreement includes legally binding agreements between states and International Organisations as well as between other global organisations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi on Monday called for a report from the Chief Secretary after three nominated Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP) MLAs were allegedly denied entry in the state Assembly.

Speaking to ANI, Bedi said, "It's been brought to our notice that three nominated BJP MLAs have been obstructed from coming into the assembly despiteclear orders of the Madras High Court. I am calling for a report from the Chief Secretary and will take required follow-up action."

Earlier today, the three BJP MLAs, V Saminathan, KG Shankar and S Selvaganapathy, staged a protest outside Puducherry Legislative Assembly after they were allegedly stopped by the speaker V. Vaithilingam from entering the assembly.

The three BJP members were nominated by Kiran Bedi last year. The Madras High Court on March 22 upheld the appointment of three MLA, declaring the nominations to be valid.

Speaking to media, one of the MLAs said, "Now the judgement has come. It's clearly stated that the nomination is as per the constitution. So now we are eligible to enter the assembly. The speaker is a seasoned politician, he knows the judgement but he is acting on his own."

The Puducherry Assembly Speaker yesterday wrote a letter to the three BJP MLAs, saying, "I should be given an opportunity of 'being heard'. I was neither heard nor made a party in writ petitions. Principles of natural justice haven't been followed. I am scrutinizing High Court's order and will give my decision shortly.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis, affecting millions of people worldwide. According to a study, knee pain from OA, which damages the quality of life, can in turn lead to depression.

A research team from Japan recently published a study examining the effects of knee pain on depression since, until now, few studies have focused on how knee pain and impaired knee function relate to depression.

To learn more, the researchers examined information from 573 people aged 65 or older who participated in the Kurabuchi Study, an ongoing look at the of older adults living in central Japan.

When the study began (between 2005 and 2006) none of the participants had symptoms of depression. Two years later, nearly all of them completed follow-up interviews. The participants answered questions about their knee pain and were evaluated for symptoms of depression.

Nearly 12 percent of the participants had developed symptoms of depression. People who experienced knee pain at night while in bed, while putting on socks, or while getting in or out of a car were more likely to report having symptoms of depression, noted the researchers.

The researchers concluded that asking older adults with knee pain whether they have pain at night in bed, when putting on socks, or while getting in or out of a car could be useful for helping to screen people at risk for developing depression.

The study has been published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Dr B R Ambedkar, on Monday said Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has assured that actions will be taken within eight days in Bhima-Koregaon violence case.

Ambedkar responded to media after meeting Fadnavis and submitted what he claims to be evidence in the case.

Talking to media, Ambedkar said, "We have been assured that actions will be taken within eight days and therefore, the government is trying to reach Sambhaji Bhide."

Earlier in the day, the Mumbai Police denied permission to a protest march planned by Yalgar Parishad headed by Ambedkar to demand the arrest of Hindutva leader Bhide in connection with the case.

The city police asked the Yalgar Parishad to assemble at Azad Maidan rather than taking out a rally from the Byculla Jail, as taking out the march from the jail "would create inconvenience".

Bhide is accused of instigating the violence against Dalits during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle in January. However, he has denied all such allegations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Driver of the truck which ran over the Madhya Pradesh journalist, investigating sand mafia-police nexus, was arrested by the police on Monday night from Bhind.

Identified as Ranbir Yadav, the driver hails from Gadu Pura village.

The truck, with registration number MP 07 HB 4164, belonged to Bhaskar Sharma, a resident of Gwalior.

As per the driver, in order to save a woman's life, TV journalist Sandeep Sharma was mowed down by his truck.

"I was trying to save a woman when I took the turn. I didn't even see the side glass," said the accused to ANI.

Meanwhile, the police are investigating the matter and interrogating the accused.

In a chilling CCTV footage that surfaced on Monday morning, an investigative journalist was mowed down by a truck in Madhya Pradesh's Bhind.

Sandeep Sharma, a journalist with a news channel, was probing a possible nexus between the police and the sand mafia.

In the video, Sharma was seen riding a motorcycle when a truck crushed him from. The journalist had earlier filed a police complaint about the threat to his life.

While the state police have set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the Sandeep Sharma's death, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has also assured strict action against the culprits involved in the murder.

Congress has appealed for a CBI Investigation into the death of Sandeep Sharma.

Reportedly, the journalist had earlier notified police that he had been receiving death threats by some unknown people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)North Korea considers South Korea's military build-up with US and Japan as 'military threats', reported South Korean news agency.

North Korea on Monday slammed South Korea's recent security consultation meetings with the United States and Japan, accusing them of weighing down inter-Korean relations, The Rodong Sinmun, newspaper of the North Korea's ruling Worker's Party said.

Further, the Yonhap News Agency quoted Cho Seong-ryoul, a senior researcher at the North Korea's Institute for National Security Strategy who said North Korea is considering South Korea's military buildup and security collaboration with the U.S. and Japan as "military threats."

"The recent criticism toward the South indicates that the North may put the agenda of arms control and military issues on the table, alongside the denuclearization issue, during the inter-Korean summit," he said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are scheduled to conduct a meeting in late April.

"In order for North-South relations to develop in a way that meets the vision and the demand of the Korean people, national cooperation (between the two Koreas) should be accomplished more than anything", Seong-ryoul said while referring to the proposed meeting between Moon Jae-In and Kim Jong-un.

The newspaper also accused the South of "relying on foreign forces," saying distrust between the two Koreas cannot be resolved if the South collaborates with the foreign powers that seek lasting tension on the peninsula and provocations against North Korea.

The North Korean newspaper further mentioned the South Korean's security policy consultation meeting with Japan and integrated defence dialogue with the US, both of which were held in March.

"(They) are foul meetings to plot confrontation which run counter to the current reconciliatory mood for inter-Korean relations and improving the security situation of the Korean Peninsula," according to the Rodong Sinmin.

Earlier on March 24, North Korea agreed to hold high-level talks with South next week to discuss the details about an inter-Korean summit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A day after Congress president Rahul Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official app was sharing data without users' consent, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head Amit Malviya hit back at the former and accused him of sharing users' data from his party's official App with Singapore firm.

Taking to his Twitter handle, Malviya shared a picture of the disclaimer of the site and targeted the Congress party for being upfront to accept that they will share the data with a third party.

"Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of India's oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore," Malviya Tweeted.

"Full marks to @INCIndia for stating upfront that they'll give your data to **practically anyone** - undisclosed vendors, unknown volunteers, even 'groups with similar causes'. In the theft of all forms, Congress has never been discreet!," he added.

The BJP IT cell head further alleged that if the "Congress party says that they will share data with like-minded people, then chances are that it could be people like Maoists, stone pelters, Chinese embassy and Cambridge Analytica."

Further targeting United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chief Sonia Gandhi, Malviya accused the Congress party of following 'all power no accountability' dictum.

"When Congress says they will share your data with like-minded groups, the implications are grave. From Maoists, stone pelters, Bharat Ke Tukde Gang, Chinese embassy to globally 'renowned' orgs like Cambridge Analytica, the field is extensive and wide open," he said in the tweet.

"Inspired by Sonia Gandhi's 'all power no accountability' dictum, Congress will take all your data, even share it worldwide with orgs like Cambridge Analytica but will not take responsibility for it! Their own policy says so" he added.

A furore erupted yesterday after Rahul accused Prime Minister Modi of leaking details of users to US firms through the NaMo app.

"Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies," Rahul tweeted.

Rahul made the statement referring to a media report that quoted a French security researcher claiming that the Narendra Modi app sends all the device info and personal data including email IDs, photos, gender and names of the users without consent to a third-party domain belonging to an American company.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has accepted the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) pre-condition to let the Pakistani rupee depreciate by over four percent to qualify for any fresh bailout package needed to avoid a default-like situation.

Notwithstanding Adviser on Finance Miftah Ismail's statement that the government is not seeking any IMF assistance, the latter is said to have been obliged to steer through highly difficult 2017-18 and 2018-19 financial years respectively.

The PML-N government is likely to take up the issue of new IMF financing in April during Bank-IMF spring meetings in Washington D.C, in lieu of the worsening Balance of Payments (BOP).

According to Ismail, he does not foresee any further downward readjustment of the currency in the near future. However, officials of State Bank of Pakistan, the central bank of the country and the Ministry of Finance have maintained that lobbyists at home and abroad are working to persuade the authorities to go for another depreciation, not before June.

Sources described it as a 'panic situation' in the Ministry of Finance and the word 'bottom line' is being used for seeking an emergency USD 6-7 billion in IMF assistance, in order to make timely repayments and tackle the looming balance of payments crisis, The Express Tribune reported.

In the absence of any credible economic team, two finance ministry officials, Talib Balouch and Khaqan Najeeb, have suggested two options.

While Talib is calling for the seeking IMF assistance to ward off the impending balance of payments crisis, Khaqan suggests acquiring commercial loans continuously at a high markup.

Since the Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have linked their annual assistance to the IMF's signal, seeking commercial loans, particularly from China and Chinese commercial banks, are seen a viable option to manage external inflows.

A total of USD 1.3 billion in commercial borrowing had been obtained in the last few months, which also included USD 900 million in just one quarter.

Successive secretaries of the Ministry of Finance and governors of State Bank of Pakistan are being held responsible for having created the current economic mess due to which the fiscal and current account deficits have increased disproportionately, causing new difficulties for the country.

Meanwhile, uncertainty over the economic situation in Pakistan has grown following the release of post-programme monitoring report by the IMF that believes risks to macroeconomic stability are increasing and widening fiscal and external deficits could land the country into new trouble.

The timing of the report has been termed "intriguing" by independent economists as it eroded investors' confidence. Experts have said that the IMF officials were 'partners in crime' as they had been waiving things by giving a clean bill of health to the Pakistani economy during the three-year USD 6.67 billion Extended Fund Facility that ended in September 2016.

The report pointed out serious risks that the believe of IMF officials surfaced after the completion of the programme. In fact, experts are suggesting that as long as the IMF programme continued, Pakistan's economy will keep on collapsing.

The PML-N government will complete its five-year term by early June this year. By at that time, external debt and liabilities would have crossed the USD 100 billion mark, which also includes the USD 2.5 billion added by the latest depreciation of the Pakistani rupee.

The Pakistan government plans to have its revenue collection target fixed at 4.5 trillion Pakistani rupees for the financial year 2018-19.

Furthermore, the country will be forced to go for a strict stabilisation policy in the name of "austerity". But there is a growing consensus that the so-called stabilisation has caused problems to the economy's growth.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In yet another potshot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official app NaMo, Congress Party president Rahul Gandhi equated the former to the "Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians."

Firing a fresh salvo, Rahul, in a tweet alleged that the NaMo app secretly records the user's location, audio, video, contact information and other personal data.

He also accused Prime Minister Modi of "forcing" 13 lakh NCC cadets to download the mobile application.

"Modi's NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. He's the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians. Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP," Rahul tweeted.

A furore erupted yesterday after Rahul accused Prime Minister Modi of leaking details of users to US firms through the NaMo app.

"Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies," Rahul tweeted.

Rahul made the statement after media report quoted a French security researcher claiming that the Narendra Modi app sends all the device info and personal data including email IDs, photos, gender and names of the users without consent to a third-party domain belonging to an American company.

However, government sources on Sunday clarified that the app does not ask for a blanket access to the users' personal data.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for misusing his app NaMo to build a personal database with data on millions of Indians.

Rahul took to Twitter hours after the official app of his own party was pulled down seemingly over slugfest on data sharing.

He tweeted saying, "Modi misusing PM position to build personal database with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by Govt. If as PM he wants to use tech to communicate with India, no problem. But use the official PMO APP for it. This data belongs to India, not Modi". (sic)

The Congress president earlier in the day even called Prime Minister Modi the 'Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians', after the famous TV reality game show.

The Twitter war between the Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) escalated after Union Minister Smriti Irani tore into Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for cornering Prime Minister Narendra Modi over NaMo app.

Taking to her Twitter handle, Irani mocked Congress president with 'Chhota Bheem' jibe and said even the cartoon character, "knows that commonly asked permission on Apps don't tantamount to snooping."

This comes after Rahul fired a fresh salvo at the Prime Minister and equated him the "Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians."

Rahul, in a tweet, alleged that the NaMo app secretly records the user's location, audio, video, contact information and other personal data.

"Modi's NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. He's the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians. Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP," Rahul tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)West Bengal edged past Chandigarh 1-0 to confirm their place in the semi-final of the ongoing 72nd Santosh Trophy here at the Mohun Bagan ground last evening.

Bidyasagar Singh scored the only goal of the match in the 18th minute to seal all three points for the Eastern state.

Bengal started the match as favourites against minnows Chandigarh. The defending champions had won their last two matches 3-1 and 5-1 against Manipur and Maharashtra respectively. Chandigarh, on the other hand, had collected just one point from their first three matches and were already knocked out of the competition.

The home side saw just one change in their starting XI. Star striker and captain Jiten Murmu was left out of the squad due to illness. Rajon Barman replaced him with Tirthankar Sarkar leading the side.

Meanwhile, there were two changes in the Chandigarh XI. Pawandeep Singh and Manvir Singh made way for Prateek Joshi and Nitish Mehra.

Bengal completely dominated proceedings right from kickoff and enjoyed the lion's share of possession with Bidyasagar Singh and Tirthankar Sarkar being the star performers for their side. While Bidyasagar built the pressure on the flanks, Tirthankar commanded the midfield and created the opportunities.

Bidyasagar scored the opening and lone goal of the match in the 18th minute. He went past a defender as he cut into the middle from the right flank and took a shot at goal. The ball took a deflection off a Chandigarh defender and went inside the net.

Chandigarh did not have a single shot on goal until the half-hour mark. Vishal Sharma entered the box and attempted a shot at goal, unfortunately, the ball went wide. The reigning champions received their first blow in the 36th minute when defender Monotosh Chakladar had to leave the field with a head injury. Nabi Hussein Khan replaced him.

Chandigarh custodian Salman Lateef almost gifted West Bengal their second goal when he accidentally threw the ball into Rajon Barman's feet but the striker hesitated in front of the goal and the ball was finally cleared. Ranjan Chowdhury's West Bengal took a pragmatic approach in the second half. They were playing too many long balls which hampered their game.

In the 68th minute, Rajon Barman and Tanmoy Ghosh played a one-two before Rajon took a shot at goal but it was somehow saved by Salman.

Chandigarh squandered the best chance of the match in the dying moments. Vivek Rana's header from a corner struck the crossbar and came back. Prateek Joshi attempted a volley from the rebound but it went above the crossbar.

West Bengal will play their final match of the group stage on March 27 against Kerala while Chandigarh have ended their Santosh Trophy campaign with three defeats in four matches.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The India head of Israel's Ministry of Tourism, Hasan Madah lauded Saudi Arabia for opening its airspace for the newly operational Israel-bound Air India flights and expressed hope for influx in tourists.

"Saudi Arabia has opened its airspace for Air India to fly to Israel, I think it is a great move. I hope many more people will come to Israel and there will be peace in the region," Madah told ANI.

In a first, Air India began its direct flight service between New Delhi and Air India, on March 22.

The flights will fly over Saudi Arabia covering a shorter route that will save three hours, to complete the journey in mere seven hours.

Earlier, the only direct flight between Israel and India was operated by Israel's carrier, El Al, between Tel Aviv and Mumbai.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre on Maharashtra's former deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal's plea, which has been filed in connection with the Maharashtra Sadan scam and Kalina land cases.

The plea by Bhujbal had challenged his arrest under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 14, 2016, in connection with the cases, wherein he and his relatives have been accused of receiving kickbacks.

The Bombay High Court had earlier dismissed Bhujbal's petition after the ED challenged the same.

Bhujbal is not only being investigated for alleged corruption in contracts given for the construction of Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi, but also various other projects during his tenure as public works department (PWD) minister of Maharashtra are under scanner.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Supreme Court judge, Justice L. Nageswar Rao on Monday recused himself from hearing the sexual assault case against Tehelka Magazine's Editor-in-Chief Tarun Tejpal.

The case will now be heard by a new bench of the top court. However, the next date of hearing has not been decided yet.

Tejpal has been indicted of sexually assaulting a junior woman colleague inside a lift at Hotel Grand Hyatt during an event organised by the Tehelka magazine in Goa in November.

He has also been charged and booked under the various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The charges against him are 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354-A (sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment), 354-b (assault or use of criminal force on a woman with intent to disrobe), 341 and 342 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 376 (rape), 376C (sexual intercourse by person in authority), 376(2)(f) (person in position of trust or authority over women, committing rape of such women) and 376(2) (k) (rape of a woman by a person being in position of control or dominance over the woman).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court (SC) today proposed a roll out of Bharat Stage-VI (BS-VI) fuel across 13 metros by April 1, 2019.

The top court directed the central government to consult the Oil Marketing Companies(OMCs) and get their reply on this proposal.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had earlier said: "We plan to launch BS-VI compliant fuel by April 2020".

Earlier the apex court had slapped a ban on all BS-III vehicles, which came as a big blow to the automobile companies, as they were sitting on an inventory worth Rs. 12,000 crore. March 31, 2018, had been set as the deadline to take all these vehicles off the roads.

With pollution in Delhi reaching alarming levels, the Petroleum Ministry had earlier decided to prepone the introduction of BS-VI grade auto fuels in the Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi from April 1, 2018, instead of April 1, 2020.

The measure is expected to help mitigate the problem of air pollution in NCT of Delhi and surrounding areas by reducing vehicular emissions and improving fuel efficiency.

"The decision to leapfrog directly from BS-IV to BS-VI is also in line with the Prime Minister's commitment at @COP21 to voluntarily cut our carbon emissions," said the minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least four people including a suicide bomber were killed and five others injured in a suicide car bomb attack near the Somalian parliament at Mogadishu late on Sunday.

"What we can confirm is that a suicide car bomb blast belonging to al-Shabaab exploded here, as you can see, killing himself and three others, including soldiers," the Anadolu Agency quoted police chief General Bashir Abdi Mohamed as saying.

The injured have been admitted to a nearby hospital.

Further, the security forces have captured two vehicles full of explosive material during the search operations at the site of the blast.

Earlier on Sunday another bomb blast took place at Sinka Dher village on the outskirts of Mogadishu.

No terror group has claimed the responsibility for either of the attack but the police have blamed Al-Shabaab terror group for the blast.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Smoking in patients with heart attack was reduced significantly with the drug varenicline, according to a study.

Patients who smoke after an acute coronary syndrome, including a heart attack (myocardial infarction) or unstable angina (reduced blood flow to the heart) are at increased risk of another attack and death if they do not quit.

Researchers from Canada looked at the efficacy of varenicline in patients with acute coronary syndrome to determine whether it would increase smoking abstinence.

The randomized controlled trial included 302 patients at centres in Canada and the US who had been admitted to hospital for acute coronary syndrome, were motivated to quit smoking and who smoked at least 10 cigarettes a day for the previous year. Patients received smoking cessation counselling as well as either varenicline or a placebo control for 12 weeks. Most participants had moderate to severe nicotine dependency.

Varenicline has been shown to be efficacious in stopping smoking in patients with heart attack within the first 6 months, but its longer term efficacy was not previously known.

About 40% of participants who received varenicline were not smoking at one year, compared with 29% in the placebo group. Reductions in daily cigarette smoking of at least 50% were also higher in the varenicline group (57.8%) compared with the placebo group (49.7%). Rates of adverse events were similar in both groups.

"This suggests that varenicline is safe for use in these patients," writes Dr. Mark Eisenberg, Jewish General Hospital and McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, with coauthors. "However, new strategies for smoking cessation are still needed, given that 60% of smokers who received treatment with varenicline returned to smoking by one year after their acute coronary syndrome."

The authors note that if varenicline was used as routine treatment in smokers after heart attack, it would reduce smoking in this group by about 10%.

The findings have been published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen on Monday sent a cease and desist letter to adult star Stormy Daniels over her claims of being threatened by a man, purportedly sent by Cohen and having an alleged sexual encounter with the US President.

Cohen's lawyer, Brent Blakely, wrote in a letter to Daniels' attorney saying that she had made false and defamatory comments, "namely that he [Cohen] was responsible for an alleged thug who supposedly visited" and threatened Daniels.

"In truth, Mr. Cohen had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any such person or incident, and does not even believe that any such person exists, or that such incident ever occurred," Blakely added.

In a highly-anticipated interview on CBS's news magazine, hosted by American journalist Anderson Cooper, '60 Minutes', Daniels on Sunday claimed that she was 'threatened' publicly by a man, who told her - "Leave Trump alone."

The adult star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, recalled an encounter she said took place in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011, The Guardian reported.

Daniels was on her way to a fitness class with her infant daughter when she said she was approached by a man.

"A guy walked up on me and said to me, 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story. It was then at that point that the alleged threat of physical violence was made," Daniels recalled.

The adult star added that the man, whom she could not identify, leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, "That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom."

After such comments, the man disappeared from the scene, according to Daniels.

She acknowledged that she started her "intimate relationship" with President Trump at Lake Tahoe in 2006 and continued it in 2007 as well. Further, Daniels claimed that she had a sexual encounter with the US President "just once with consent".

With days to go before the November 2016 presidential election, Daniels signed the non-disclosure agreement in return for USD 130,000 in hush money arranged by the US President's attorney Michael Cohen.

Daniels told CBS that she agreed to the gagging contract because "I was concerned for my family and their safety".

Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti complained in the course of the 60 Minutes film that the veiled threat that was allegedly made against his client in 2011 was effectively repeated in the filing of a lawsuit earlier this month by Trump's legal team claiming USD 20 million in damages against her with a further USD 1 million penalty for any further violation of the non-disclosure agreement.

Avenatti said the suit was a form of intimidation. "You threaten someone with a USD 20 million lawsuit, it's a thuggish tactic. It's no different than what happened in the parking lot in Las Vegas."

Daniels refused to answer a question from Cooper about whether she had handed over all digital images, email messages and text messages relating to Trump as part of the 2016 gagging contract. She then replied that her lawyer had advised her not to discuss "those things".

On Thursday, Avenatti posted a tweet that featured a picture of a digital disc in a safe deposit box with the words "If 'a picture is worth a thousand words', how many words is this worth?"

On March 6, Daniels filed a civil lawsuit against President Trump claiming the nondisclosure agreement, which contains details about her alleged nine-month affair with the latter is "invalid" because the US President had "never signed it."

In response, President Trump's team sued Daniels, claiming that "she violated the agreement."

On Friday, former Playboy model named Karen McDougal in a CNN interview claimed that President Trump had tried to offer her money after they allegedly went intimate.

Further, McDougal expressed regret and apologised to Melania for her alleged encounter with the US President.

Both McDougal and Daniels claim that President Trump had allegedly had a sexual encounter, when the latter's wife and First Lady Melania Trump, had given birth to his son, Barron.

Many women have in the past have alleged that they had allegedly went intimate with the US President.

However, the White House has refuted claims that President Trump had affairs with other women, including Daniels and McDougal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has conjecturally made a secret visit to Beijing, as an armoured train, accompanied by an unusually heavy security detail, arrived at the Chinese capital on Monday.

According to South China Morning Post, the reports come after a heavy police presence was noted at the border of China and North Korea, and at a Beijing hotel popular with foreign dignitaries.

However, it has not been confirmed yet whether it is, in fact, the North Korean autocrat on board the train, though the security suggests it would be a very high-level official.

There has been a spike in police activity in Beijing recently, especially around the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where foreign dignitaries usually stay, with a large number of officers and about 50 vehicles seen in the area. Nearby roads have been cordoned off.

The news has quickly been caught up by the Twitterati, with one user sharing a video of a green, armoured North Korean train, with Kim likely on board, being spotted in Beijing.

"Breaking: North Korean armored train spotted at Beijing, China. Kim Jong Un probably on board," he tweeted.

If the rumours turn out to be true, this would be the first time Kim would have stepped out of North Korean soil since he took power in 2011.

Kim is also supposed to hold meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and United States President Donald Trump, in April and May, respectively, to hold discussions about de-nuclearisation of North Korea.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A SpiceJet flight landed back at Visakhapatnam's airport after 30 minutes of taking off due to some technical problem.

Reportedly, all crew and passengers are safe.

"SpiceJet flight from Visakhapatnam to Hyderabad had a minor air conditioning issue. It made a normal landing and not an emergency landing in Visakhapatnam. The defect is being rectified and the aircraft will continue with its daily rotation soon," SpiceJet spokesperson said a while ago.

Technical glitches faced in more than a dozen scheduled flights almost every other day in the month of March have dealt a major blow to the civil aviation industry's reputation in India.

In the past few weeks around 11 Airbus 320 neo aircraft of Indigo Airlines were grounded following several instances of glitches on its engines.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)West Bengal Agricultural Marketing Minister Tapan Dasgupta's brother Gopal Dasgupta was found dead in a hotel in Nayapalli area of Bhubaneswar on Monday.

The reason behind his death has not been ascertained yet.

Reportedly, Gopal had been staying in the hotel for the last few days.

The body has been sent for postmortem, and a probe into the matter has been initiated, according to police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The stock is quoting at Rs 4854.75, up 0.31% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. Britannia Industries Ltd is up 46.93% in last one year as compared to a 10.71% gain in NIFTY and a 10.9% gain in the Nifty FMCG.

Britannia Industries Ltd rose for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 4854.75, up 0.31% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.16% on the day, quoting at 10013.6. The Sensex is at 32705.46, up 0.33%. Britannia Industries Ltd has dropped around 1.97% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty FMCG index of which Britannia Industries Ltd is a constituent, has dropped around 2.72% in last one month and is currently quoting at 25910.05, up 0.35% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 46692 shares today, compared to the daily average of 1.34 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark March futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 4870.9, up 0.55% on the day. Britannia Industries Ltd is up 46.93% in last one year as compared to a 10.71% gain in NIFTY and a 10.9% gain in the Nifty FMCG index.

The PE of the stock is 64.58 based on TTM earnings ending December 17.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The stock market may extend Friday's losses amid weak global cues. Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could fall 40 points at the opening bell.

Overseas, Asian stocks edged lower amid fears that rising tensions between the United States and China could lead to a full-blown trade war. US stocks fell sharply on Friday, 23 March 2018 as investors assessed the possibility of a trade war brewing between the US and China.

Back home, Reliance Industries (RIL) on 23 March 2018 executed definitive agreements for combination of Saavn, a leading global music OTT platform, with its digital music service, JioMusic. The combined entity is valued at over US$1 billion, with JioMusic's implied valuation at US$ 670 million. The integrated business will be developed into a media platform of the future with global reach, cross-border original content, an independent artist marketplace, consolidated data and one of the largest mobile advertising mediums.

Reliance will also invest upto Rupee equivalent of US$100 million, out of which Rupee equivalent of US$20 million will be invested upfront, for growth and expansion of the platform into one of the largest streaming services in the world. The company will continue to operate the over-the-top media platform available on all app stores. The three co-founders of Saavn, Rishi Malhotra, Paramdeep Singh and Vinodh Bhat, will continue in their leadership roles and will drive growth of the combined entity.

In addition, Reliance is acquiring partial stake from the existing shareholders of Saavn for US$104 million, while these shareholders retain their balance stake. The shareholder base of Saavn includes Tiger Global Management, Liberty Media and Bertelsmann among others. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 23 March 2018.

The stock market tumbled on Friday, 23 March 2018 due to weak global equities after US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on Chinese goods, stoking fears of a trade war. The Sensex had fallen 409.73 points or 1.24% to settle at 32,596.54, its lowest closing level since 23 October 2017.

The trading activity showed that the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1628.19 crore on 23 March 2018 as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 935.41 crore on 23 March 2018, as per provisional data.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Key benchmark indices witnessed small movement in opening trade amid initial volatility. At 9:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex rose 35.69 points or 0.11% at 32,632.23. The Nifty 50 index dropped 9.85 points or 0.1% at 9,988.20.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.37%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index advanced 0.42%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

Overseas, Asian stocks edged lower amid fears that rising tensions between the United States and China could lead to a full-blown trade war. US stocks fell sharply on Friday, 23 March 2018 as investors assessed the possibility of a trade war brewing between the US and China.

Closer home, the breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 740 shares advanced and 455 shares declined. A total of 70 shares were unchanged.

Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 0.68% after the company on 23 March 2018 executed definitive agreements for combination of Saavn, a leading global music OTT platform, with its digital music service, JioMusic. The combined entity is valued at over US$1 billion, with JioMusic's implied valuation at US$ 670 million. The integrated business will be developed into a media platform of the future with global reach, cross-border original content, an independent artist marketplace, consolidated data and one of the largest mobile advertising mediums.

Reliance will also invest upto Rupee equivalent of US$100 million, out of which Rupee equivalent of US$20 million will be invested upfront, for growth and expansion of the platform into one of the largest streaming services in the world. The company will continue to operate the over-the-top media platform available on all app stores. The three co-founders of Saavn, Rishi Malhotra, Paramdeep Singh and Vinodh Bhat, will continue in their leadership roles and will drive growth of the combined entity.

In addition, Reliance is acquiring partial stake from the existing shareholders of Saavn for US$104 million, while these shareholders retain their balance stake. The shareholder base of Saavn includes Tiger Global Management, Liberty Media and Bertelsmann among others. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 23 March 2018.

Cipla rose 0.74% after the company announced the launch of an authorized generic version of Aloxi in the United States under applicable agreements with Helsinn Healthcare SA, in response to the at-risk launch by Teva. It is indicated for prevention of acute and delayed nausea and vomiting associated with initial and repeat courses of moderately emetogenic cancer chemotherapy and for prevention of acute nausea and vomiting associated with initial and repeat courses of highly emetogenic cancer chemotherapy. The product is available for shipping immediately, Cipla said in a statement. The announcement was made before market hours today, 26 March 2018.

HCL Technologies was down 0.07%. The company said it has transferred its entire shareholding in HCL Training and Staffing Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, to HCL Comnet, another wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 23 March 2018.

Tata Power Company rose 1.44%. The company announced that it has signed a share purchase agreement (SPA) with Tata Sons for sale of 59.08 crore shares in Panatone Finvest (Panatone), representing 39.985% in Panatone. Tata Power also signed a SPA with Panatone for sale of 1.33 crore shares in Tata Communications (TCom), representing 4.7% in TCom. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 23 March 2018.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rs. 513.5647 Crore funds have been released to State Governments/UT under the Scheme of Pre-Matric Scholarship for ST students studying in classes IX & X during 2014-2015 to 2016-2017. During 2014-2015 -Rs-200.7088 Crore, 2015-2016- Rs-228.6895 Crore, 2016-2017-Rs-84.1664 crore have been released.

The Ministry is implementing the following Scholarship schemes for ST students in the country with a view to provide financial assistance and to enable them to complete their Pre-Matric Scholarship for ST students (9th& 10thStd) , Post-Matric Scholarship for ST students (Class 11thonwards),National Fellowship and Scholarship for Higher of ST students, National Overseas Scholarship (NOS) for ST candidates for studying abroad The Schemes Pre-Matric Scholarship for ST students (9th& 10thStd) , Post-Matric Scholarship for ST students (Class 11thonwards) are implemented through the States / UTs, and funds are released to States / UTs for disbursement to eligible ST students.

Under these schemes, viz., Pre-Matric Scholarship and Post-Matric Scholarship for ST students, the funds are being shared at the ratio of 75:25 between the Centre and State Government / UTs, and 90:10 for the North Eastern States and Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Under the scheme National Fellowship and Scholarship for Higher of ST students, funds are released to the Institutes / students, and under NOS scheme, funds are released to Ministry of External Affairs on reimbursement basis.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)One person was killed and two injured in a ballistic missile attack on Saudi Arabia's territory by Houthi militias from Yemen, the Saudi civil defence said.

Saudi forces said they shot down seven missiles launched from Yemen. According to Turki al-Malki, the spokesperson for the Saudi Arabia-led Arab coalition, three of the missiles were fired at Riyadh late Sunday and one Egyptian civilian was killed when fragments landed in a suburb, the BBC reported.

Al-Malki blamed Iran for the attack in which two other Egyptians were also injured. One missile was fired towards Khamis Mushait in the province of Asir, another towards Najran and the other two at Jizan.

Material damage was also reported, but the spokesperson did not provide further details.

"This aggressive and random act by the Iran-backed Houthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed Houthi group with qualitative capabilities," said Al-Malki, adding that the missile attack aimed to threaten the security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the region.

Witnesses in Riyadh reported hearing explosions overhead and seeing smoke. Houthi rebels said they had been aiming at a number of locations, including Riyadh's airport.

The attack coincided with the third anniversary of the Saudi-led Arab coalition's military intervention in Yemen, which provoked the world's worst humanitarian crisis in 2017.

The Saudi-led military operations in Yemen, which began on March 26, 2015, targeted the Houthi rebels that have fought against Yemen's ruling forces of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi since 2014.

The Saudi-led coalition accuse Iran of supplying the Houthis with the missiles, threatening Saudi Arabia's national security and supporting Shia groups in the region.

However, Tehran denies arming the rebels, who have been fighting against Yemen's government and the Saudi-led coalition since March 2015.

Tehran says the missile launches are "independent actions" in response to Saudi-led coalition aggression.At least 37 people including children were killed and 69 others reported missing after a massive blaze broke out at a shopping mall in the Russian city of Kemerovo, authorities said on Monday.

The first reports of the fire at the Winter Cherry mall started coming in on Sunday afternoon, reports Sputnik news.

The police immediately cordoned off the area began evacuations.

An emergency services official confirmed on Sunday night that the missing people included 40 children. Forty-five people were injured.

Various social media posts said that fire alarms failed to go off as people rushed in panic through thick clouds of smoke, some jumping out of windows.

Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said that firefighters were not being able to reach the interiors of the mall due to high temperature.

"The firefighters and rescuers are working at the risk of their own lives... There is no access to certain rooms because of high temperatures," Sputnik news quoted the minister as saying.

According to the latest data, over 660 people are engaged in emergency response activities.

Russian Deputy Emergencies Minister Vladlen Aksyonov said on Monday morning that "at the moment the firefighting process is ongoing, the interfloor constructions could collapse".

A group of children from a school in Terescevsky were at a movie theatre near the centre of the blaze.

According to local KP News, some of the trapped children called their families from inside the theatre.

"Tell mom that I loved her. Tell everyone that I loved them," a 12-year-old girl told her aunt before her phone switched off.

The cause of the blaze is not yet known but authorities have launched an investigation.

Besides cinema screens, the complex, opened in 2013, includes restaurants, a sauna, a bowling alley and a petting zoo.

--IANS

ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 64 people, including many children, were killed in a deadly blaze that engulfed a shopping mall in Russia's industrial city of Kemerovo, the Emergencies Minister said on Monday.

The inferno ripped through the top floor of the four-storey Winter Cherry commercial complex on Sunday afternoon in Kemerovo, located in southern Siberia around 3,000 km east of Moscow. Many of the victims were children as the mall's shops, cinema and bowling alley were packed due to school holidays.

Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov confirmed the death toll and said six bodies were yet to be recovered, TASS news agency reported.

A video posted on social media showed people jumping from windows to escape the flames. "According to preliminary information, the roof collapsed in two cinemas," Russia's Investigative Committee (ICR) said in a statement.

The fire was extinguished but Puchkov said that the rubble started to smoulder due to the multilayer floorings in the building. Firefighters said smoke was billowing out and the remaining structures were at risk of collapse. Some 1,500 square metres of the 23,000 square metre mall were destroyed.

The region's deputy governor Vladimir Chernov was quoted as saying the fire probably began in a children's trampoline room. "The preliminary suspicion is that a child had a cigarette lighter which ignited foam rubber in this trampoline room, and it erupted like gunpowder," he said.

However, Rossiya 24 TV, a national broadcaster, said an electrical fault was the most likely cause.

Two witnesses told the BBC that they had seen the fire blazing in the trampoline room on the fourth floor but had not heard any fire alarm. Witness Anna Zarechneva said "a woman burst into the cinema during the film and shouted 'Fire! Fire!', and we started running out".

"The lights didn't come on in there to help us escape... no alarm bells were ringing. I only heard an alarm when I reached the first floor," she said.

The most serious case was of a 11-year-old boy whose family died in the fire, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said. He reportedly fell from the fourth floor and was in intensive care with multiple injuries.

The Emergencies Minister said firefighters and emergency services were risking their lives in the rescue efforts as the mall's infrastructure was severely damaged.

Svetlana Petrenko, spokesperson for ICR, said four people had been detained in connection with an investigation into the fire. Russian Deputy Emergencies Minister Vladlen Aksyonov said: "Two out of three cinema halls caved in from the fourth to the third floor of the building."

A group of children from a school in Terescevsky were at a movie theatre near the centre of the blaze. According to local KP News, some of the trapped children called their families from inside the theatre.

"Tell mom that I loved her. Tell everyone that I loved them," a 12-year-old girl told her aunt before her phone switched off.

--IANS

soni/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Adani Enterprises on Monday said its subsidiary Talabira (Odisha) Mining Private Ltd along with it has signed a coal mining agreement with NLC India for development and operation of Talabira II and III coal block in Odisha.

"Talabira (Odisha) Mining Private Ltd (TOMPL), a subsidiary of the company, has signed coal mining agreement with NLC India Ltd alongwith the company for development and operation of Talabira II and III coal block," it said in a regulatory filing.

The project is expected to generate a revenue of Rs 12,200 crore, it said.

The subsidiary has become successful bidder for mine developer and operator tender of Talabira II and II coal block, located at IB Valley coalfields in the state's Sambalpur and Jharsuguda districts.

The mine capacity would be of 20 million tonnes per annum with total minable reserve of about 554 million tonnes.

The contract period will be till exhaustion of reserves, that is, about 35 years, including development period, it said.

The Ministry of Coal allocated these two coal blocks to NLC India in 2016 under Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 for development, mining and captive consumption.

--IANS

bdc/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Uttar Pradesh has included the office of the Lokayukta under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, an official said on Monday.

This follows a directive by the Allahabad High Court after a petition by social activist Nutan Thakur.

The previous Samajwadi Party (SP) government had on August 3, 2012 removed the ombudsman's office from under the purview of the RTI.

Thakur had challenged this in the high court, which directed the state government to quash its earlier order.

The court had also noted that in removing the Lokayukta out of the RTI Act, the state government had done something "unlawful, illegal and beyond its authority".

With the state government doing nothing even after the court directive, the petitioner had filed a contempt of court petition citing the fact that there has been non-compliance of its earlier order.

The state government hurried through the process thereafter and on March 22 quashed its earlier order, thereby bringing back the office of the Lokayukta in the purview of RTI.

--IANS

md/sar/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Monday sought blessings of 110-year-old Lingayat seer Shivakumara Swami of the Siddaganga Mutt here for the party's success in the ensuing assembly elections in the state due in April-May.

'I felt like seeing God when I met the revered pontiff. I sought his blessings for our party's success in the state assembly election,' Shah told reporters later here, about 70 km from Bengaluru.

Shah also expressed happiness that the popular Lingayat Mutt runs 125 educational institutions across the state and was involved in many pro-people programmes.

'The seer has succeeded in bringing all sections of society together through education,' Shah said.

Shah's meeting with the pontiff comes a week after the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in the state decided on March 19 to recognise Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats as a religion.

On March 23, the state government had notified the minority religion status to the followers of 12th century social reformer Basava, amid protests by few communities, in a bid to woo the dominant community of Lingayats (17 per cent), ahead of the state polls.

The BJP, whose Chief Ministerial face B.S. Yeddyurappa is a Lingayat, saw the Congress move as an attempt to divide the Hindu votes.

Shah's visit to the Mutt is seen by political observers as an attempt to ensure the dominant Lingayats back his party.

Shah, who is on a two-day visit to the state since Monday, will be interacting with coconut and areca nut growers and traders in the district during the day.

He will also be holding road shows and visiting other Mutts in the interior districts of 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.)Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "Big Boss who likes to spy" and accused him of recording audio, video and tracking user location through GPS from his mobile app.

"Modi's NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS (Geo-positioning System). He's the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians," Gandhi tweeted.

"Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC (National Cadet Core) cadets are being forced to download the app," he said, urging the people to delete the Namo App from their smartphones.

The Congress chief's remarks comes after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earlier on Monday accused him of sharing users data with a Singapore-based firm.

Earlier, the BJP had accused the Congress of compromising national security by roping in London-based political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica to run its 2019 election campaign. The firm is allegedly involved in social media data manipulation.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The European Union (EU) has "grave suspicions" about Google's abuse of the monopoly it enjoys over Internet search in Europe and is open to breaking the tech giant into smaller companies, the bloc's competition commissioner has warned.

According to 'The Daily Telegraph', Margrethe Vestager has said that the threat to split the Internet giant up into smaller companies must be kept open.

In June last year, the Danish commissioner slapped the technology giant with a record fine of 2.42 billion euros or $2.7 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules by abusing the monopoly it enjoys over Internet search.

Google has a 91.5 per cent share of the search-engine market in Europe, the report said.

"I think it is important to keep that question open and on the agenda. We are not there yet but it is important to keep an awakened eye," Vestager was quoted as saying when asked if the only solution to its dominance was to break up the company.

She warned that the search engine could become so big as to be indispensable for businesses and the economy.

"There is no ban on success in Europe. You get to be dominant and you get a special responsibility that you do not destroy the already weakened competition," she was quoted as saying.

"We have proven their dominance in search and we have found they have misused this dominance to promote themselves and diminish competitors," she added.

This development comes at a time when another Silicon Valley giant Facebook is facing flak for data breach.

Facebook is facing the heat after Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting company, was accused of harvesting data of up to 50 million Facebook users without permission and using the data to help politicians, including US President Donald Trump and the Brexit campaign.

EU and British lawmakers have demanded that social media giant Facebook should clarify data breach following revelations that personal data was massively misused for political purposes.

--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 on Monday issued whip to party members in Lok Sabha in view of the notice given by it for no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government.

The party had tabled in the Lok Sabha a notice for no-confidence motion on Friday.

Besides Congress, the other parties that have filed notices for no-confidence motion against the government are the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress Party.

Congress sources said the party decided to give the notice for No-Confidence as it felt it was its duty as the main opposition to question the government on its "failure on all fronts" including the issue of corruption and highlight the demand of special category status for Andhra Pradesh.

The TDP and YSR Congress Party have filed notices for no-confidence motion against the government over the issue of special category status for Andhra Pradesh, but they have not been taken up due to continued disruption of the House.

The notices for the Motion of no-Confidence had been given by Thota Narasimham of the TDP and Y.V. Subba Reddy of the YSR Congress.

The Congress also hoped to get support on the no-confidence motion from parties including Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, the CPI-M, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Nationalist Congress Party, apart from the TDP, YSR Congress and other opposition parties.

"The parties which may not agree with each other across the country, today have a very strong feeling about the various malpractice of this government.

"This government has created a climate of fear of oppression, of mis-governance, threat, vendetta and you are finding a natural conversions. It is not that anybody is making much of an effort," said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

"Not only one from Congress, there are three or four 'no-confidence motions' pending tomorrow (Tuesday). I do not want to name the parties. Now, nobody has gone collecting 'no confidences'. TDP never asked the Congress party, nor has the Congress asked TDP," he added.

Singhvi further said: "There is a spontaneous way of action by the people, by the parties, which have diverse and maybe warring at that state level. I find no contradiction in that - state level vs. central level coordination."

The AIADMK and the TRS have been paralysing the House with protests, pressing for their demands for setting of Cauvery Water Management Board and increase in the reservation quota for jobs in Telangana.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that construction of his much-touted wall along the US-Mexico border will begin "immediately" given that Congress last week approved $1.6 billion to launch the task.

"Much can be done with the $1.6 Billion given to building and fixing the border wall. It is just a down payment. Work will start immediately," said Trump on Twitter.

Last Friday, just hours before funding for federal government operations was expected to run out, Congress approved -- and Trump signed -- a $1.3 trillion budget bill for Fiscal 2018, including $1.6 billion to start building the controversial wall the president claims will choke off illegal migration from Mexico, Efe reported.

The funding provided by lawmakers for the wall -- with the support of Democratic legislators -- will not be nearly enough to build the entire $25-billion structure demanded by Trump, but it will be enough to build a stretch of fencing and/or actual wall some 33 miles long.

"The rest of the money will come -- and remember DACA, the Democrats abandoned you (but we will not)!" Trump continued in his tweet, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that sheltered from deportation -- until the president eliminated it -- hundreds of thousands of young undomented migrants brought to the US as children.

The funding bill sets forth restrictions on how the $1.6 billion may be spent, including how long the stretch of allowed wall will be and where it will be located. Of the funds, $251 million must be used to renovate or revamp the double fence that already stands between San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico.

"Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M(exico)!" Trump said in another tweet.

On his recent visit to California, the president reviewed eight prototypes for the border wall, one of his key election promises, erected at a spot between Otay Mesa, California, and Tijuana.

Trump said at the time in a speech to US troops after inspecting the prototypes that "two or three" of the models were quite good and would work fine at keeping illegal migrants on the Mexican side of the border.

Meanwhile, Trump also tweeted on Sunday that the $1.3 trillion federal budget passed by Congress last week includes increased funding to help "rebuild" the US military, which will create many new jobs and ensure that "our Military is again rich."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets worth Rs 55.65 crore of the city-based computer manufacturing firm, RP Info Systems, in connection with alleged defrauding a consortium of ten banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore, an official said on Monday.

"Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the assets worth Rs 55.65 crore of RP Info Systems have been attached. The company and its directors have already been booked by CBI. We have also booked a case under PMLA on the basis of CBI FIR," an ED official said.

According to the agency, attached assets include lands and residential flats located in cities in West Bengal, as well as Ahmedabad, Kochi, Mumbai and Bengaluru along with 60 odds vehicles and bank deposits of Rs two lakh.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently booked the computer company and its directors for an allegedly defrauding a consortium of ten banks after the state-run Canara Bank had lodged a complaint.

The agency had booked the company, which involved in manufacturing and trading of computers in the name "Chirag" brand, in June 2015 following IDBI Bank's compliant.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Egyptian police killed six terrorists on Sunday during an anti-terror raid in Beheira province north of the capital Cairo, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said.

The anti-terror police raid came hours before Egypt's 2018 presidential election kicks off on Monday morning, in which incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is expected to easily win a second four-year term.

The interior ministry said the terrorist cell in Beheira was involved in Saturday's car bomb in nearby coastal province of Alexandria that killed two policemen and wounded at least four others.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators on Monday slammed bureaucrats for not giving a proper written reply to an Assembly question.

Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel later referred the matter to the Question and Reference Committee of the House.

The question was related to encroachments in the city and "the officers who allowed these encroachments".

Last week also, the AAP MLAs had attacked officers for giving "incomplete" and "false" answers to Assembly questions.

Bureaucrats have been boycotting meetings with AAP ministers after an alleged physical attack on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by two party legislators in the presence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

--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 on Monday objected to Goa Assembly Speaker Pramod Sawant, updating ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on administrative and governance-related issues and claimed that Parrikar had no trust in a three-member ministerial committee formed to take administrative decisions in his absence.

At a press conference here, outgoing state Congress President Shantaram Naik also said that the three-minister committee, which includes one minister each from two alliance partners and one BJP minster and tasked with overseeing day-to-day governance matters was unconstitutional.

"Seeking a report on administration of the state from the Speaker is wrong," he said, adding that the Speaker's office was supposed to be politically neutral and isolated from governance and administration-related issues.

The party's criticism comes a day after the Goa Speaker's office issued a statement on Sunday, which said that Parrikar, who is currently being treated in the US for advanced pancreatic cancer, in a telephonic conversation with Sawant on Sunday, had sought an update on general and administrative matters in the state.

Naik also maintained that Parrikar's arrangement of appointing a three-member committee to oversee governance issues was also unconstitutional.

"The committee and the decisions it is taking are unconstitutional. There is no government business rule which endorses such an arrangement," he said.

Contacted for a response on the issue of alleged interference of the Speaker in matters of governance and administration, BJP spokeperson Narendra Savoikar refused to comment.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Commemorating the traditionally celebrated mythological event of Lord Krishna's wedding with Rukmini, who is believed to have hailed from Arunachal Pradesh, the Gujarat government is holding an epic celebration from March 25 to 28 at the Madhavpur-Ghed village fair.

The event is likely to see the Chief Ministers of both states as well as that of Manipur, and the Governors of both states and some Union ministers joining it.

The Chief Ministers and Governors of northeastern state Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat will visit Madhavpur-Ghed, situated 59 km from Porbandar, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, where Lord Krishna is said to have married princess Rukmini.

The Gujarat government's plan is inspired by the Central government's mission to strengthen cultural ties between the North East and the rest of the country.

Talking to the media, state Tourism Minister Ganapatsinh Vasava said: "The event is being organised jointly with the central government, with 50 per cent (cost) shared by both. The state government has allocated Rs 2.5-Rs 3 crore for the event.

"The central government wants this event to become a national festival and wants to make it a big attraction for the tourists. Around one lakh visitors are expected to visit the fair."

The Minister informed that Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Arunachal Pradesh (AP) CM Pema Khandu, Gujarat Governor O.P. Kohli and Arunachal Governor Brigadier B.D. Mishra will be there at the event on the 27th.

"Besides them, there will be a number of Union ministers like Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Cultural Minister of State Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Home Kiran Rijiju and some ministers and MLAs from Gujarat. The state government wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the event, but last-minute engagements made him change the plan."

The Minister also announced to revive the 15th century temple of Madhavraiji, an incarnation of Lord Krishna at Madhavpur, and Rs 5 crore has been allocated for that.

During the event, many cultural programmes depicting mythological incidents will be held. The programmes will include a classical dance recital by Sonal Mansingh and performances by around 500 artistes, including 300 from Arunachal Pradesh and 200 from Gujarat. According to the state Tourism Department, 200 stalls have been set up at the fair.

According to folklore and mythology, Rukmini belonged to the Idu Mishmi community of Arunachal Pradesh. She lived in what was known as Mishwaknagar. Lord Krishna brought her to Madhavpur-Ghed and married her.

Legend has it that Rukmini's father, king Bhismaka, wanted her to marry Shishupala, the king of Chedi, which lay roughly where Madhya Pradesh is today. Shishupala was Ravana in his previous birth, whereas Rukmini was in love with Lord Krishna and wrote a letter to him to save her. Lord Krishna rescued Rukmini and brought her to Madhavpur-Ghed.

During the campaign for the 2014 general elections, in an election rally held in Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh, then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi had said that members of the Adi tribe who bear the name "Modi" may be related to the Modis of Gujarat. He stressed that Lord Krishna of Dwarka had married princess Rukmini of Arunachal Pradesh.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams is now helping privately-held companies like Space X and Boeing to develop their new spacecraft systems, which will eventually provide round-trip crew transportation services to the International Space Station (ISS).

After completing two missions to the orbiting laboratory, she is continuing her career in space on Earth as a member of NASA's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap), npr.org reported on Sunday.

She is among the four astronauts who were selected by NASA in 2015 to train and prepare for commercial space flights that will return American launches to US soil and further open up low-Earth orbit transportation to the private sector, according to the US space agency.

Since the discontinuation of NASA's Space Shuttle programme in 2011, US astronauts have had to rely on Russian shuttles to get into orbit.

The goal of the commercial crew programme is safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the US through a public-private approach.

NASA, Boeing and SpaceX have significant testing underway, which will ultimately lead to test missions when the systems are ready and meet safety requirements.

Boeing's Starliner will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 and SpaceX's Crew Dragon will launch on the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A, according to NASA.

After completion of each company's uncrewed and crewed flight tests, NASA will review the flight data to verify the systems meet the requirements for certification.

Upon NASA certification, the companies are each slated to fly six crew missions to the ISS beginning in 2019 and continuing through 2024, NASA said in January this year.

Williams, 52, has spent 50 hours and 40 minutes outside the ISS and part of her new job is to verify that the companies' spacecraft can launch, manoeuvre in orbit and dock to stationary spacecraft like the ISS, according to the npr.org report.

"This is really different from my old job, you know," Williams was quoted as saying.

"She is currently assigned to the cadre of astronauts training to fly the initial test flights for America's first commercially built spacecraft the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Dragon," according to the biography of the astronaut at the NASA website.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad (IIT-H) will undertake a study on the ways in which aging is conceptualised within in-vitro fertilization (IVF) by researching on elderly couples conceiving and birthing children through the method, it was announced here on Monday.

The project has been sanctioned with funding of Rs 25 lakh under the Wellcome UK Small Projects Grant for 2018 and is titled "A preliminary study of ageing and assisted reproduction in India".

The project will commence in April and includes fieldwork, a conference on 'Reframing the Biological Clock: Exploring Ethnographic Research on Ageing and Reproduction' in August with presentations from academics across the world, IIT Hyderabad said.

The conference will focus on ongoing research on aspects of the ageing reproductive body and how technology and society imagine childbirth and families in such a context.

Research from Europe, the US and Asia will be presented at the conference, which will be hosted by IIT Hyderabad.

Anindita Majumdar, assistant professor, Department of Liberal Arts, IIT Hyderabad, will be leading the research.

"The aim of the research is to contribute conceptually and through field data to ongoing, and future research on assisted conception, infertility and reproduction in India. This would include publications emerging from research, and the development of a larger research project that will look at the impact that societal and environmental factors have on increasing fears of declining fertility in urban India," said Majumdar.

This research firmly embeds itself within emerging issues of the "biological clock", and declining fertility which has long-term significance on demographic and population trends, as well as on the social care and responsibility of an ageing population.

Wellcome UK is a global charitable organization that supports scientists and researchers take on big problems, fuel imaginations, and spark debate. It supports over 14,000 people in more than 70 countries and is one of the world's biggest funders of biomedical research.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife and son will be questioned by the police on Monday as part of an ongoing corruption investigation, the police confirmed on Sunday.

Shaul Elovitch, former chairman of Israel's largest telecom company Bezeq, and his wife, Iris Elovitch, will be questioned too, Xinhua quoted a police spokesperson as saying.

The five are suspects in a major bribery case, dubbed by the police "case 4000," in which Bezeq under Elovitch allegedly received regulatory and financial benefits in return to positive coverage for Netanyahu in Walla, a news site under Elovitch's control.

Netanyahu will be questioned in the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem, while the other four in the offices of Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit in Lod, outside Tel Aviv, the police said.

Their questioning will be held at the same time in separate rooms. They will be investigated under caution, meaning they are all suspects in the case.

The questionings are expected to focus on the information provided by Nir Hefetz, Netanyahu's former media adviser and until recently one of his closest associate, who turned a state witness against him last month.

It will be Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu's second questioning in the "case 4000."

Netanyahu and his associate have been entangled in at least four corruption investigations over the past months.

The long-time leader denies any wrongdoing and maintains that the investigations are part of a witch-hunt perpetrated by the media and "the left."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, who is behind bars in the fodder scam cases, may be shifted to AIIMS in the national capital for medical treatment, said a doctor on Monday.

"There is slight swelling on Lalu Yadav's face. He is suffering from multiple health-related issues," said Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) Director R.K. Srivastav in a medical bulletin, adding: "He may be shifted to AIIMS for further treatment."

Lalu Prasad was shifted to RIMS on March 17 after he complained of chest pain and discomfort. He was convicted in the fourth fodder scam case by a CBI court on March 19 and was subsequently awarded 14 years in jail and a fine of Rs 60 lakh.

RIMS formed a medical board last week to assess his health condition. The medical board recommended that he be shifted to a higher medical centre as he has multiple health-related issues which need better care and monitoring.

Informed sources in RIMS said the officials of Birsa Munda Central Jail, where he has been lodged, have conveyed to the hospital to keep Lalu Prasad there till his shifting to AIIMS in Delhi.

The process of shifting may take sometime, according to sources in the Jharkhand government. The jail administration will have to seek the permission of the court to shift Lalu Prasad from RIMS to AIIMS.

Lalu Prasad was convicted in the first fodder scam case in 2013 and awarded five years in jail. The court charged the RJD chief with fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 47 lakh from the treasuries in Banka and Bhagalpur districts. Later, he had got bail.

He has been in the Ranchi jail since December 23 last year when he was convicted by a special CBI court in fraudulent withdrawal from the Deoghar treasury and was subsequently awarded three-and-a-half years' of imprisonment on January 6 this year.

On January 24, he was awarded a five-year jail term and imposed a fine in the Chaibasa treasury case, before being awarded 14 years in jail and a fine of Rs 60 lakh in the fourth case for fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.5 crore from the Dumka treasury.

--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 Monday reached Delhi where she is expected to meet several opposition leaders including Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar to discuss ways to take on Narendra Modi government inside and outside the parliament.

Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress chief, is also expected to meet UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

During her meeting with Pawar, Banerjee is expected to discuss the current political situation.

Pawar had convened a meeting of opposition parties in January this year.

There have been suggestions that the opposition parties should put up common candidates against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

There also have been efforts to form a third front of parties that want to be equi-distant from both BJP and Congress.

The Trinamool leader is expected to visit Parliament House Tuesday and meet "her old colleagues, party MPs and leaders of other political parties", a senior Trinamool leader said.

She is expected to meet Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday.

Banerjee is seen as a key player in the possible grouping of non-BJP political parties ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who is keen on a third front, had met Banerjee earlier this month.

--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 Monday instructed the state administration to take "strong action" against those who took out rallies with arms here on occasion of Ram Navami, defying the state's directive.

Stating that rallying with arms is not a part of Bengal's culture, she said those who are resorting to such hooliganism are actually trying to politicising and defaming the religion.

"Did Lord Ram ask anybody to rally with arms and swords? Can we leave the state's administration and law and order in the hands of these hooligans, who are defaming Ram? I am instructing the DG (Director General of Police) and all the Police Superintendents to take strong action against such rallyists. No one should be spared.

"If anybody from the police force does any kind of understanding to overlook the issue, I will take action against them," Banerjee said during the district level administrative meet in South 24 Parganas.

"People got scared seeing some rallies yesterday (Sunday). This is not the culture of Bengal. I am giving out a clear message that this will not be tolerated. They are doing business in the name of religion and maligning the religion. This issue cannot be left out for future. It has to dealt with strongly," she thundered.

Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, said that the state administration permitted certain organisations that celebrate Ram Navami for more than a decade to conduct processions with traditional weapons but those who resorted to hooliganism in the name of religious rallies, will be prosecuted under the Arms Act.

"I allowed the peaceful rallies. But one was given permission to rally with guns and swords in the name of Ram and enter the locality of other communities to harass or murder them.

"Some thugs got out on the streets wearing headbands and carrying swords and guns to foment trouble. This cannot happen in Bengal. Bengal has a distinctly different culture. We celebrate all kinds of festivals and rituals starting from Durga Puja to Ramadan and Christmas but always maintain peace and harmony," she claimed.

Defying the Bengal government's ban on carrying weapons in public, several armed rallies were taken out by the Sangh affiliates in various parts of the state including Birbhum, West Midnapore, Howrah and certain places in Kolkata, where men, women and even minors waved saffron flags and walked with sharp weapons like swords, knives and axes while chanting the name of Lord Ram.

One person was killed and five police personnel were injured during a clash between two groups over a Ram Navami procession in Purulia district as sword-wielding BJP supporters came out in thousands to celebrate.

A number of heavyweight state BJP leaders were also seen participating in the procession with weapons. State BJP President Dilip Ghosh rallied with a sword in West Midnapore while party's state women wing president Locket Chatterjee was seen carrying a trident. Party's national secretary Rahul Sinha was also seen brandishing a weapon at a rally.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 35-year-old man committed suicide along with his wife and a minor daughter by consuming poison in the national capital over a property dispute with his father, police said on Monday.

According to the police, the deceased have been identified as Vickey, his wife Lalita, 30, and their six-year-old daughter Ranchi. Vickey and Lalita were declared dead on arrival at the hospital, while Ranchi succumbed during treatment at the AIIMS Trauma Centre here.

The incident occurred on Saturday when Kishori Lal, father of deceased Vickey, informed the local police regarding a quarrel at his house in Govindpuri in south Delhi.

"Vickey stayed with Lalita, Ranchi and his three-year-old son on the first floor of a three-storey house owned by his father. He wanted his father to give him the first and second floors of the house but his father refused," Deputy Commissioner of Police Chinmoy Biswal said.

"On Saturday, Vickey had a heated argument with his father and brothers over the property in the presence of some neighbours. Later, he went in his room and gave some poison to Lalita and Ranchi before consuming it himself. When his father and other family members did not see them for some time, they went there only to find the couple lying unconscious while Ranchi was complaining of pain. They informed the police," Biswal said.

Vickey had around a year back also threatened Kishori Lal that he would end his life along with his family after which his father had given a written complaint to the Senior Citizens Cell at the Delhi Police Headquarters on January 2, 2017, but the matter was sorted out through counselling, he said.

Vickey ran a shop on rent where he used to sell eggs and Lalita was a housewife. They also have a son who was at a neighbour's house when the incident took place.

Kishori Lal supplies tiffin to students and tenants who reside on the third floor of his house, the DCP added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mass protests broke out across Spain's Catelonia region after its former separatist leader Carles Puigdemont was arrested in Germany, media reports said.

The former Catalonian regional president's lawyer said he was being held at a police station in Neumunster, Germany and was arrested on Sunday as he was returning from Finland to Belgium, the country he fled to in October after the Spanish judiciary announced it would be investigating him for his alleged part in organising a separatist referendum and the subsequent declaration of independence.

A spokesperson for the Kiel city criminal police told Efe news that Puigdemont was picked up at 11.19 a.m., on a road that connects Germany and Denmark.

Judicial sources have said that Germany now has up to 90 days to decide whether to extradite Puigdemont to Spain, a move to which he is opposed as he believes he would not get a fair trial there.

Puigdemont will appear before a German judge on Monday.

The biggest protest took place in Barcelona where over 55,000 pro-independence protesters took to the streets on Sunday night, carrying Catalonian flags and banners with slogans emblazoned across them, reports CNN.

Footage posted on social media shows crowds meeting with police wearing helmets, but the protests appeared to be peaceful.

A spokesman for the regional police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, said four people were arrested during the demonstrations, and the Catalan Emergency Services said about 50 people received medical attention for mild injuries.

Smaller demonstrations were held in Girona, where Puigdemont once served as mayor, Tarragona and Lleida. Some protesters also formed road blocks in various locations, the BBC reported.

Tensions in Catalonia are very high and its separatist leaders abandoned plans to name a new President after the arrest on Friday of the latest candidate, Jordi Turull.

Spain's Supreme Court has ruled 25 that Catalan leaders should be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state. They all have denied the allegations.

The charges Puigdemont faces in Spain could result in up to 30 years in prison.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Monday indicated that her party might align with Samajwadi Party (SP) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections after the one-time bitter rivals helped defeat the BJP in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur parliamentary bypolls.

According the official sources, the four-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister told party legislators that such an alliance was necessary to "rout the common and bigger adversary, the Bharatiya Janata Party".

She also warned party members not to get carried away by the propaganda unleashed by the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

"Whatever negative is being said by the BJP is nothing but its fear of our coming together so stand guard," Mayawati said.

A close aide told IANS that she has also tried to ease fears that following the defeat of her party candidate in the Rajya Sabha biennial polls, the SP-BSP bonhomie will end.

Mayawati noted that that alliance was not for personal or party gains but for the larger goal of vanquishing the "evil and cruel Modi sarkar".

She also slammed the BJP's recent attempts to reach out to the Dalits, terming it as hogwash, aimed at confusing the support base of the BSP.

Both the SP and BSP have been trying to cement the historic differences that has existed for the past 23 years.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has been thanking Mayawati after the Gorakhpur-Phulpur wins.

--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 on Monday attacked the Narendra Modi government for infringing upon people's privacy, calling it a "data leak government" while taking down its 'WithINC mobile app and emphasising that there was no breach of data through it.

Accusing the Prime Minister of misuing his position by spying on Indians, and calling him 'Big Boss', the party said the NaMo App, run by the BJP is sharing data of millions of users with American companies.

"Not only people's money, but people's privacy is also in question. Modi Government mocks and flouts the right to privacy with brazen impunity," said Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi, while terming allegations of Congress collecting data through its app were the "half truth".

"As is usual with the BJP, they did not tell you that the 'WithINC' app had only 15,000 downloads. It had become defunct because our people do not like the 'missed call' membership. Congressmen believe in physical or offline membership. In contrast the Narendra Modi app has had 50 lakh downloads," he said.

"While the Prime Minister's Office, PMO India App, asks users to voluntarily part with their identity on 14 data points, the NaMo App asks for a sweeping access to 22 data points.

"The NaMo App records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. Modiji is like the 'Big Boss' who brazenness likes to spy on Indians," he said, adding that IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who holds daily press conferences on the issue of data security and democracy has much to answer on the unscrupulous means of Narendra Modi's personal app.

"Why does Modi, in his own book 'Exam Warriors' urges to download the NaMo App. Is Modi now planning to snoop in on minors?

"Modi is misusing the PM's position to build personal database with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by government," he added.

The party also said if as PM he wants to use technology to communicate with India, there is no problem in that, but he should use the official PMO app.

Claming neither people's money, nor Aadhaar details or personal details of people are secure under Modi government, Singhvi said: "No wonder this government fought against making right to privacy as a fundamental right and did nothing when our banks were looted by fraudsters."

Earlier, the Congress, on its official Twitter handle, said that the 'WithINC' was only a membership app and had not been in use since the party moved membership to www.inc.in from November 16, 2017 and there has been no breach of data from it.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actress Madhuri Dixit-Nene says her bucket list keeps changing as she finds new challenges.

"My bucket list is constantly changing as I find new challenges. The moment I cross out things done, I add a few more I want to do. But ultimately it is about embracing life and enjoying the journey," Madhuri tweeted on Monday morning.

The actress, 50, is gearing up for the release of her maiden Marathi film "Bucket List", the trailer of which released on Sunday night.

Besides starring in "Bucket List", she is also reportedly producing another upcoming Marathi film -- "15 August".

Madhuri was last seen on-screen in "Gulaab Gang" and in Vishal Bharadwaj's "Dedh Ishqiya" with Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi in 2014.

Directed by Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar, "Bucket List" has been produced by DAR Motion Pictures, Dark Horse Cinemas and Blue Mustang Creations.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China on Monday said Doklam is a "Chinese territory" and the question of changing the status quo does not arise after India's envoy Gautam Bambawale warned Beijing against any attempt to change the present state of affairs on the plateau.

In an interview to Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, Bambawale said any attempt to change the status quo in Doklam would lead to another stand-off.

The ambassador, however, said both the nations were well within their rights for an Army build up behind the point of the face-off and the status quo in Doklam remained in place.

"Regarding the border issue, China is committed to maintaining peace, stability and tranquillity there and Donglang (Doklam) belongs to China as we have historical conventions. So China's activity there is within its sovereign rights. There is no such thing as changing the status quo," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

"Last year, thanks to our concerted efforts, our diplomatic efforts and wisdom that we properly resolved this issue.

"We hope the Indian side could learn some lessons from this, stick to historical conventions and work with China to ensure the peace and stability in the border area as well as a good atmosphere for the development of bilateral ties," Hua said.

"China and India are exploring ways to resolve their territorial dispute through negotiations so that we can arrive at a mutually acceptable solution and pending the final solution, the two sides should work together and maintain peace and tranquillity in the area."

India and China were locked in a 73-day stand-off at Doklam in the eastern section of their border.

The crisis erupted after Indian troops halted road construction at Doka La in the region, citing Bhutan's claim to the area.

Doka La is very close to India's artery which connects its northeast with the rest of the country. The stand-off was resolved in August.

The ambassador also stressed the need to demarcate the 3,448-km-long disputed border, which is the root cause of friction between India and China.

Talking about the delimitation of the boundary, Hua said: "China's position is clear and consistent. The east, middle and western side is yet to be officially demarcated. China is committed to resolving the relevant dispute through negotiations."

The long-winding India-China border has three sectors: the western sector between Ladakh and the Chinese-held Aksai Chin; the central sector ranges from Uttarakhand and Tibet; the eastern sector divides Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh from Tibet.

Asked how China viewed Bambawale's remarks that India does not see China's growing engagement with the South Asian countries as a threat, Hua said: "I commend these positive remarks made by the Indian ambassador. As the two countries are growing at a fast pace, China and India present each other opportunities and also to the world.

"We share similar national conditions, development goals as well as common interests".

"We have every reason to be each other's partners. So we would like to work with India to enhance political trust and mutually beneficial cooperation under the guidance of two leaders (Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping) to achieve the common development," said Hua.

(Gaurav Sharma is the IANS correspondent in Beijing. He can be contacted at gaurav.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bharatiya Janata Paty on Monday dubbed as "technological illiteracy" Congress President Rahul Gandhi's accusations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was misusing his position to build a personal database "with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App and said commonly asked permission on apps does not amount to snooping.

"This is a classic case of technological illiteracy of Rahul Gandhi. Technologically he is very backward. Analytics is not equivalent to spying or snoopoing. Those technologically ignorant are trying to describe it as snooping and spying," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said at a press conference.

Patra said that rattled by the Cambridge Analyitca expose, the Congress is trying everything to divert attention and to stop Prime Minister from communicating with others.

"The Congress does not want any kind of communication of the Prime Minister with people, volunteers and students. When he shares his thoughts on monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', the Congress leaders complain about it to Election Commission. Their's one point agenda is to stop the Prime Minister from communicating with others because the Congress is scared of it," he said.

Earlier on the day, Gandhi accused Modi of misusing his position to build personal database "with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by the government" and termed him "Big Boss who likes to spy".

In a hard-hitting attack, he also alleged that NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts and even tracks location via GPS.

Reacting to it, Patra accused Gandhi of spreading lies. "He is so rattled by the Cambridge Analytica expose that he daily tries to divert attention from it," he said.

Refuting Gandhi's allegations of spying through App data, he said that Narendra Modi App provides a platform for millions of his fans and party cadre to connect directly with the Prime Minister.

"It is a 'one of its kind' App which enables unprecedented engagement and interactivity with the Prime Minister," he said adding that the Congress chief needs to brush up his knowledge.

He claimed that it would be no wonder if Rahul Gandhi will tweet tomorrow that NaMo App is connected to EVM machines and EVM tampering happens through it.

Patra also accused Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of using government money to run the 'Siddaramaiah App'.

"Is it right to use public money for personal political branding? This is not only data theft but also robbery of public money," he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Condemning the armed rallies organised on occasion of Ram Navami in Bengal, the CPI-M on Monday accused state and the Central governments of indulging in "competitive communalism" to divert people's attention from major issues of life and livelihood.

The state Communist Party of India-Marxist leadership also questioned the Bengal government's role in curbing such violence in the name of religion and accused the state ruling's Trinamool Congress of deliberately creating space for RSS and other Sangh affiliates to hold armed processions in the state.

"There is a planned attempt to break down the secular fabric in the state. This is intentional and politically motivated. The state government, Central government and the forces behind them are intentionally fueling this of division, in order to divert people's attention from their failure in addressing the more pertinent issues of life and livelihood," CPI-M state secretary Surja Kanta Misra told reporters here.

"Another new phenomena this year has been the competitive communalism by the state ruling party and those in power at the centre.

"The Trinamool Congress also organised Ram Navami rallies across the state this year and RSS welcomed the move. We have even witnessed that BJP and Trinamool Congress leadership in north Bengal's Alipuduar unitedly organised a Ram Navami rally. In many places Trinamool's presence in the rallies were academic. They left spaces open for the RSS and other forces," he alleged.

Taking a swipe at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for relaxing the blanket ban on armed rallies in the state, Misra claimed the relaxation encouraged Hindutva outfits to hold so many armed rallies on Ram Navami on Sunday.

Noting that the Left parties raised questions on the state administration's role after so many people rallied with arms during Ram Navami last year, the CPI-M leader questioned how the rallyists were allowed gather so many weapons and claimed it is certain that preparations of such magnitude cannot be made in short while, bypassing the local administration.

Warning about more such rallies to be held in the state in the next few days, Misra demanded arrest of political leaders involved in such preparations and sought an all-party meeting on the issue.

"We demand these issues to be immediately addressed. The people who were leading these rallies, are leaders of certain political parties. Both the leaders of state's ruling party and the party ruling at the centre have been involved in promoting such actions. These people should be immediately arrested. But there is no such actions yet.

"If needed, the state government should call an all party meeting to neutralise the tensions and stop rumours from spreading. There is news that similar rallies would be held at some places today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday) as well. Those need to be curbed," 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.)South Koreans are disproportionately impacted by ransomware campaigns, with analysis revealing that $2.5 million of the $16 million in ransomware payments over the past two years was paid in South Korea.

Ransomware attacks, which encrypt and hold a computer user's files hostage in exchange for payment, comprise one of the fastest growing forms of cyber attack.

In a paper, scheduled to be presented at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy at San Francisco in May, the researchers provide a detailed account of the ransomware payment ecosystem, from initial attack to cash-out.

The team comprised researchers from New York University Tandon School of Engineering; University of California, San Diego; Princeton University; Google; and the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

They also found that most ransomware operators used a Russian bitcoin exchange, BTC-E, to convert bitcoin to fiat currencies.

The team estimates that at least 20,000 individuals made ransomware payments over the past two years, at a confirmed cost of $16 million, although the actual payment total is likely far higher.

The researchers took advantage of the public nature of the bitcoin blockchain technology to trace ransom payments over a two-year period.

Bitcoins are the most common currency of ransomware payments, and because most victims do not own them, the initial bitcoin purchase provides a starting point for tracking payments.

Each ransomware victim is often given a unique payment address that directs to a bitcoin wallet where the ransom is collected.

The research team tapped public reports of ransomware attacks to identify these addresses and correlate them with blockchain transactions.

The team also executed real ransomware binaries in a controlled experimental environment, essentially becoming victims themselves and making micro-payments to real ransom wallets in order to follow the bitcoin trail.

"Ransomware operators ultimately direct bitcoin to a central account that they cash out periodically, and by injecting a little bit of our own money into the larger flow we could identify those central accounts, see the other payments flowing in, and begin to understand the number of victims and the amount of money being collected," said lead researcher Damon McCoy, Assistant Professor at New York University Tandon School of Engineering.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South Korea conducted maritime drills on Monday to commemorate the sinking of one of its ships by the North, even as preparations for an upcoming summit between the leaders of the two nations in late April are in full swing.

Around 10 ships and several aircraft were deployed in the Sea of Japan (known as the East Sea in two Koreas), a South Korean Defence Ministry spokesperson told Efe news.

The drills have been conducted every year since 2011 and this year marked the eighth year of the Cheonan sinking incident in the Yellow Sea that had killed 46 crew members.

An international probe had concluded that the ship sank after it was torpedoed by a North Korean submarine. A small ceremony in memory of the victims was also held, the spokesperson added.

This year, the South Korean Navy did not make any official announcement about the drills to avoid escalating tension between the two countries ahead of the proposed summit between Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April.

The North Korean leader is also expected to meet US President Donald Trump in May to discuss the possible denuclearisation of the North Korean regime.

However, the North Korean media on Sunday had accused Seoul of hampering the current climate of rapprochement between the two countries by deploying stealth jets and acquiring more long-range missiles.

The meeting in April would be the first inter-Korean summit in 11 years while the one in May would be the first ever summit between the leaders of North Korea and the US after seven decades of conflict and 25 years of failed negotiations and tensions over North Korea's nuclear programme.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A massive clash broke out in West Bengal's Raniganj around a Ram Navami rally on Monday, injuring at least six police personnel including a senior officer. While the RSS said one person was killed in the incident, police did not confirm it.

Activists of a saffron outfit allegedly clashed with police and hurled crude bombs at them after police tried to stop the clash in the West Burdwan district town.

"Six police personnel including the Deputy Police Commissioner were attacked by a mob near Raniganj. 16 people have been arrested so far in the incident. The situation is now under control," Police Commissioner, Asansol-Durgapur, Laxmi Narayan Meena told IANS.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Assansole-Durgapur Arindam Dutta Choudhury sustained multiple fractures in his arm after being hit by a bomb and has been admitted to the hospital. Five other police personnel were also injured in the attack, police said.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) south Bengal General Secretary Jishu Basu claimed that the rally-goers were attacked first by a group of locals and said one person was killed in the clash. However, there was no police confirmation about the death.

"The raids are going on. There is no confirmed news about anyone's death yet," ADG, Law and Order Anuj Sharma told IANS.

Meanwhile, another clash ensued in Murshidabad district's Kandi after a group of armed Ram Navami rallyists tried to enter the local police station.

Police resorted to baton charge to disperse the mob resulting in injuries to at least 10 members of the Ram Navami Utsav Committee. However, no one was arrested so far in the incident.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani on Monday took a swipe at Congress President Rahul Gandhi amid allegations that his party had shared user data with a Singapore-based firm from its official app "WithINC" that has now disappeared from the Google Play Store.

Irani tweeted to Gandhi, asking him if his team had misunderstood his demand to get Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "NaMo" app deleted and instead removed "WithINC" from the Google store.

"Ye kya Rahul Gandhi ji. It seems your team is doing the opposite of what you asked for. Instead of deleting NaMoApp, they have deleted the Congress App itself," Irani said, posting screen shots of the play store that shows the Congress app is not available.

She asked the Congress chief if he would care to answer "why Congress sends data to Singapore servers which can be accessed by any Tom, Dick and Analytica", referring to the British firm that was at the centre of a storm for illegally accessing Facebook user data for political purposes.

The minister's remarks came after the Congress described the allegations of its involvement in the data breach baseless.

The Congress said the "WithINC" app was being used for social media updates alone since transitioning the membership to the website.

"This morning, we were forced to remove the app from the Playstore as the wrong URL was being circulated and people were being misled. The "WithINC" app is a membership app and has not been in use for over five months since we moved membership to http://www.inc.in from 16th Nov 2017," the party said in a series of tweets.

Amid allegations and counter allegations, Gandhi also accused Modi of misusing his position to build a personal database with the data of millions of Indians via the NaMoApp promoted by the government.

"If as PM, he wants to use tech to communicate with India, no problem. But use the official PMO APP for it. This data belongs to India, not Modi," Gandhi said hitting out at Modi and the BJP after the ruling party accused the Congress of sharing users' data with a Singapore-based firm.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three nominated BJP legislators were denied entry into the Puducherry Assembly on Monday.

The Madras High Court had recently upheld the nomination of the three legislators -- V. Saminathan, K.G. Shankar and S. Selvaganapathy.

Meanwhile, three AIADMK members walked out of the Assembly in protest against the central government for not setting up the Caurvery Management Board (CMB).

They walked out when Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi began her speech to the budget session of the assembly.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two ATM hackers have been arrested in Uttar Pradseh's Azamgarh district, a police official said on Monday.

Ajay Kumar Singh and Vikrant Singh were arrested from the Kotwali area late Sunday, the official told IANS.

The accused, both working as engineers at Lipi Data Systems, informed the police about two other accomplices -- Saddam and Ashok Prajapati -- who were still at-large.

When these criminals were called for some technical glitch at an ATM, they used to take a hard disc with them with a software uploaded already on it, the official said.

The hard disc, which is provided by the company, was used to create a common key to open the hood of the ATM. After the machine was open, they would steal the money. This information can not be traced by the ATM custodian. Only engineers could trace it.

Apart from this, they also put off the CCTV installed in the ATM and erase the previous stored data.

The accused have admitted committing crimes at Varanasi, Jaunpur and Azamgarh districts.

They have been involved in at least six incidents with over Rs 15 lakhs stolen.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Uttar Pradesh assembly witnessed an uproar on Monday as opposition legislators protested against the Yogi Adityanath government's recent decision to privatise electricity in five major cities of the state.

Terming the decision "unfortunate", the opposition accused the BJP government of playing in the hands of the corporate houses.

Protesting against the cabinet go ahead for privatization, Samajwadi Party members walked out of the House.

The state government however justified its decision, saying that this would lead to better and adequate power supply to the people. Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said that the move stemmed from the commitment of the BJP government to provide better power supply to the people, while clarifying that private companies would only be involved in revenue collection and minimizing line losses.

He also categorically denied that production and transmission of power was being passed on to private players.

The minister also assured the house that the power arrears of state government departments would be cleared and deposited within one year and informed that a process of installing prepaid meters in all government offices and buildings has been initiated.

Leader of the Congress Legislature Party Ajay Kumar 'Lallu' however said that the decision of the state government was very unfortunate. He also drew the attention of the minister and the state government that power employees in the state were demonstrating on the streets and had snapped the power connection of the Darul Shafa complex, where many MLAs live.

He also said that the threat by power employees' organizations that they will go on a statewide strike on March 27 was a worrying signal, as this could plunge the state into chaos.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US on Monday expelled 60 Russian diplomats accusing them of being "intelligence agents" and shut down the consulate in Seattle in retaliation for the chemical attack in Britain on a former Russian spy and his daughter.

As tensions rose to new levels between the West and Moscow, a senior administration official said Washington was responding in concert with its allies to the Russian attack on "our closest ally" by using military grade chemical weapons when it poisoned a former agent, who is now a British citizen, and endangered hundreds of British people.

"When you attack our allies, you face consequences," the official told reporters while explaining the US actions in a conference call.

The Seattle consulate was targeted for closure because it was near a submarine base, and although it was not linked to a particular activity there, it was meant to "degrade Russian spying operations on the West Coast of the US, the official said.

There was a steady drumbeat of Russian efforts to destabilise democracies around the world, the official added.

Acknowledging that the US had close ties with countries like India, the official said the action against Russia was not intended to send a message for them to follow suit.

On March 4, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia suffered a chemical attack in Salisbury in Britain and were in a critical but stable condition in hospital.

British officials identified the chemical as Novichok, a nerve agent developed by Russia during the Cold War.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said last week that it was "overwhelmingly likely" that Russian President Vladimir Putin himself ordered the attack. However, Russia denied its involvement.

Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats last week and Russia ordered retaliatory expulsions.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for coordinated measures by European Union members and the group's ambassadors were meeting in Brussels to discuss action against Russia.

Trump was criticised for being soft on Russia, which, in turn, was accused of interfering in US elections to help bring him to power in 2017.

Earlier this month, Trump imposed sanctions on several Russian individuals and an organisation for their "malicious cyberattacks" and interference in the US elections.

The Guardian reported that apart from Germany, EU members France and Poland are each to expel four Russian diplomats with intelligence agency backgrounds. Lithuania said it would expel three Russian diplomats and ban 44 Russian nationals from entering the country. Ukraine, which is not an EU member, is also to expel 13 Russian diplomats.

Russia promised it would take reciprocal action against Washington. It said Britain had not presented a single fact proving that Moscow was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Of the 60 Russian diplomats, whom the US official identified as "Russian spies", 12 were members of the Russian mission to the UN and all had seven days to leave the US.

The official estimated that there were about "100 Russian spies" in the US.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@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.)US President Donald Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the US on Monday, including 12 people identified as Russian intelligence officers who have been stationed at the UN in New York, in response to Russias alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

The Russian consulate in Seattle is also being closed as part of the US's package of punitive measures. A senior US official quoted by the Guardian said that the consulate closure and the expulsions would be carried out "in solidarity with our closest allies" in reaction to what he said was "a reckless attempt by the (Russian) government to murder a British citizen and his daughter with a military grade nerve agent."

A second official said the measures were also intended as a response to a "steady drumbeat of destabilising and aggressive actions" by Moscow against the US and its allies.

The expulsion order, announced by US administration, gives the Russians and their families seven days to leave the US.

The expulsions are the toughest action taken against the Kremlin by President Trump, who has been criticised for not being firm enough with President Vladimir Putin.

In a call with reporters, senior White House officials said that the move was to root out Russians actively engaging in intelligence operations against the country, and to show that the US would stand by NATO allies.

The officials said that the closure of the consulate in Seattle was ordered because of its proximity to a US naval base.

Britain previously expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the poisoning, raising tensions between the two countries to a level not seen since the heights of the Cold War. The government vowed to crack down on Russian spies, corrupt elites and ill-gotten wealth in Britain.

EU members Germany, France and Poland are each to expel four Russian diplomats with intelligence agency backgrounds. Lithuania said it would expel three Russian diplomats and ban 44 Russian nationals from entering the country. Ukraine, which is not an EU member, is to expel 13 Russian diplomats.

Russia promised it would take reciprocal action against Washington. It said Britain had not presented a single fact proving that Moscow was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Facebook has said that it does not save call and text data of Android users without their permission, adding the practice is "widely used" with users having an option to opt-out from it.

Facebook was replying to several media reports which claimed that the social media giant was saving the call and text data of Android users for years.

A report in technology website Ars Technica said that Android cellphone users have noticed that Facebook has saved a virtual trove of their personal call data.

"This past week, a New Zealand man was looking through the data Facebook had collected from him in an archive he had pulled down from the social networking site," the report said.

"While scanning the information Facebook had stored about his contacts, Dylan McKay discovered that Facebook also had about two years' worth of phone call metadata from his Android phone, including names, phone numbers, and the length of each call made or received," the report added.

However, a Facebook spokesperson pointed out that the call log was "a widely used practice to begin by uploading your phone contacts".

The spokesperson added that users give their consent by uploading their contacts, a function that's optional. People can also delete contact data from their profiles by using a tool available on Web browsers, Facebook stated.

Later, Facebook issued a statement saying, "You may have seen some recent reports that Facebook has been logging people's call and SMS (text) history without their permission. This is not the case."

Facebook even explained how users could opt out from giving the social media giant permission to log the contacts.

"When you sign up for Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android, or log into Messenger on an Android device, you are given the option to continuously upload your contacts as well as your call and text history," the company said.

"For Messenger, you can either turn it on, choose 'learn more' or 'not now'. On Facebook Lite, the options are to turn it on or 'skip'. If you chose to turn this feature on, we will begin to continuously log this information," Facebook added.

The tech giant also said that its users' information is securely stored and is not sold to third parties.

"You are always in control of the information you share with Facebook," it said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)All MPs of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) will resign immediately if Parliament is adjourned sine die without an announcement over the issue of special status to Andhra Pradesh, a party leader said on Monday.

This decision was taken at a meeting that YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy had with the party MPs to discuss the future course of action.

Lok Sabha member M. Rajmohan Reddy told reporters after the meeting that if Parliament is adjourned sine die on April 5 without any announcement, all YSRCP MPs will tender their resignations the next day.

The party had earlier decided that if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government fails to make an announcement on the special status demand, its MPs would quit on the last day of the ongoing Parliament session.

The party has also urged the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MPs to resign over the issue, saying this would put pressure on the Centre.

Both the YSRCP and the TDP, which pulled out of the NDA on March 16, have moved no-confidence motions against the government over its refusal to accord special category status to Andhra Pradesh as committed at the time of the state's bifurcation in 2014. But, the same could not be taken up by the Lok Sabha Speaker throughout last week due to the protests by the AIADMK and TRS members over various issues.

Jaganmohan Reddy, who is currently on a statewide "padyatra" (foot march), on Monday held a meeting with the party MPs in Guntur district to take stock of the latest situation.

Out of the six Lok Sabha members of the YSR Congress, five attended the meeting. Both members of the Rajya Sabha were also present.

As Parliament will resume on Tuesday after the holidays and the Congress party has also decided to move a no-confidence motion, the meeting chalked out the strategy to be adopted by the party.

Rajmohan Reddy ruled out any alliance with the BJP and said the YSR Congress would go it alone in the elections. He, however, said the party will consider joining hands with the Left parties.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)One swallow does not make a summer, just as one more by-poll election loss does not a political rout predict. But there have now been multiple by-poll losses for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies in 2018. A symbolic no-confidence motion is being lobbed at the government by its own erstwhile ally.

The Opposition parties are seen capitalising on the momentum and plotting a grand coalition, while the governments allies are getting restive. Five states are headed for elections this year, the most immediate one being Karnataka in May. Battle for the key agrarian states of ...A resolution professional (RP) has levelled allegations, through a filing at the National Company Law Tribunal, or NCLT, against the promoters of Binani Cement. The allegations are that the promoters used fraudulent transactions to siphon off money from the company through the usual methods  loans at preferential rates and capital advances, for example.

There has, as yet, been no formal investigation of these allegations, and the company itself has not had a chance to answer them properly. Thus, nothing can be said about whether they are true. However, they have been made at a ...Director Milan Bhowmik's "1946 Calcutta Killings" will be released on April 14 after Central Board of Film Certification issued a U/A certificate to the movie.

The film, in Hindi and Bengali, will be released in 350 theatres across the country.

"The CBFC's Film Certificate Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) has asked me to cut one comment about Jawaharlal Nehru uttered by the character of Muhammad Ali Jinnah that him in poor light and I agreed," Bhowmik told PTI.

The movie is set during the months leading up to the riots that broke out in the city from August 16, 1946 which claimed thousands of lives.

Bhowmik said he had appealed to the FCAT in early 2017 after the CBFC's Kolkata and Mumbai offices refused to grant certificate to the film on the ground that it had derogatory comments about certain political figures of the time and might cause communal disharmony.

On May 8, 2017, the FCAT suggested some changes and directed the CBFC to come to a decision after Bhowmik submitted the film with necessary cuts. It was sent back to FCAT in July and a nod was given.

"My film has not glorified riots. People from different communities had been killed in the riots in 1946. My aim is to make people aware of the perpetrators of such acts and to educate the youth about the dangers of riots. I think I was able to explain this to the tribunal members and they understood. Neither are we glorifying any political group or vilifying any community," the director said.

The makers have also put a disclaimer stating that the movie was aimed at educating the youth about dangers of communal violence.

In the film, former Film and Television Institute of India Chairman, Gajendra Chauhan, is essaying the role of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.

The movie will have special screenings for invited guests in three BJP-ruled states - Tripura on April 4, in Assam on April 8 and in Jharkhand on April 12. It will also be screened in Kolkata on April 10.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mozambique police said today that a pick-up truck ploughed into a crowd of party-goers at the weekend killing 23 people, many of whom were teenagers.

The speeding vehicle ignored orders from traffic police, hit an obstacle and veered into the local carnival in the working-class Luis Cabral neighbourhood of Maputo in the early hours of yesterday.

"The driver was speeding when he did not obey the signal from a traffic police officer," Maputo police spokesman Orlando Mudumane told reporters in the capital.

"A few metres (yards) later he lost control of the car, crashed into an obstacle and caused the accident."



The male driver and his passenger were among the dead, with 30 others injured.

"Five victims are still hospitalised in a critical condition," said Farida Ursi, clinical director of Maputo central hospital.

The accident happened on a highway where the speed limit is 60 kilometres per hour.

Scores of young people were at an all-night party close to the roadside.

"The car turned over and went towards people who were participating in the carnival," Mudumane said, suggesting the driver may have been drunk.

"We requested an autopsy and as soon as we have results we will share them with the public," he said.

According to police statistics, an average of 30 people die each week in accidents on Mozambique's roads.

President Filipe Nyusi offered his condolences.

"We condemn the disrespect for traffic rules by drivers and we express our sympathies to the victims of the accident and their families," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)More than three lakh poison tablets were placed in the Maharashtra secretariat in May 2016 to check the rat menace, a minister said today, clarifying that it was not the number of rodents killed in the exercise.

The minister's clarification came after senior BJP leader and former Maharashtra minister Eknath Khadse had last week demanded an inquiry into the way a contract to kill rats in 'Mantralaya', or the state secretariat, was executed.

How could the company which was given the contract to kill 3,19,400 rats in Mantralaya accomplish the task in a mere seven days? Khadse had asked on March 22, while speaking in the Legislative Assembly.

Making a statement on the issue in the Lower House today, Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Chandrakant Patil said, "3,19,400 is the number of poison tablets placed in 'Mantralaya' for the eradication of rats and not the number of rats killed."



The contract of putting the tablets in the secretariat premises in south Mumbai was given to M/S Vinayak Mazoor Sahkari Sanstha. The time frame for completing the work was two months. But, it was donein a week between May 3 and May 9, 2016, he said.

Khadse had last week said "a survey found that there were 3,19,400 rats in the secretariat. A work order was issued by the General Administration Department. The company was given six months. But it claimed to have killed them in just seven days."



"It is very surprising that this company killed over three lakh rats in just seven days while the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation took two years to kill six lakh rats.There is a discrepancy in the claim made by the company," he had said, demanding an inquiry.

He also alleged that Dharma Patil, a farmer who committed suicide in February, consumed poison from the stock kept by the company in the secretariat premises.

The farmer, alleging injustice in award of compensation for land acquisition, had allegedly consumed poison at Mantralaya in January this year and died a few days later.

Meanwhile, the PWD minister said since 1984, the task of placing the poison tabletswas being done in the secretariat's main building, the annexe and the front portion to protect official files and the network of cables, and to prevent short-circuit.

The anti-rodent exercise involves placement of poison baits of zinc phosphide mixed with some food material, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The work on the country's first high speed bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is on in full swing with the designing of bridges and tunnels progressing well, a senior official has said.

A process has also been initiated to acquire land for the project, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe had last year launched the ambitious project, which is expected to be completed by 2022.

The high speed train would cover the distance of over 500 km between the two cities in less than three hours, from the present seven hours.

The train will halt at 12 stations, out of which four fall in Maharashtra.

Japan has extended a soft loan for the project, which is a joint venture between Indian Railways and Japan's Shinkansen Technology.

Almost 80 per cent work of designing of the bridges, viaducts and tunnels has been completed by engineers based in Delhi, Mumbai and Japan, said Achal Khare, managing director of the High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC), which is implementing the project.

The proposed corridor will start from the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai and end near the Sabarmati Railway Station in Ahmedabad.

The works of surveying the route and soil testing are underway, Khare said.

The preliminary work of acquiring land in both the states has also begun, he said.

"Our route passes through 108 villages of Maharashtra. A majority of these villages fall in Palghar district. We have issued a notice to acquire land in 17 villages and informed the land owners about it," Khare said.

Those who give their land will be compensated over and above the current prevailing market rates. Those who do not turn up, their lands will be acquired under section 19 of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013, he said.

The NHSRC has earmarked Rs 10,000 crore for the purpose, he mentioned.

The entire project will be fire and earthquake resistant. Seismometers (a ground motion detection centre) will be installed in the earthquake susceptible areas while the wind monitor systems will also be put up, he said.

"The speed of the train will depend upon the velocity of the wind, and in case of wind blowing at 30 metres per second, the train operation will be stopped," Khare said.

"Though the entire 508-km corridor will be foolproof, however, we are focusing on a strong evacuation system and in case of any eventuality, a relief car will arrive within eight to 10 minutes," he said.

The train will attain the maximum speed of 320 km/hr in 320 seconds and by this time, it will travel up to 18 km, the official said.

He said passengers will reach from BKC in Mumbai to the neighbouring Thane in just 10 minutes and to Virar in Palghar district in 24 minutes.

The plan is to run three trains during peak hours and two trains in the non-peak hours, Khare said.

"We will have two types of train operations. A few trains will have limited stops while others will stop at all the stations between Mumbai (BKC) and Sabarmati," he said.

"There will total 70 trips each day (35 in each direction) between the two stations and according to our estimates, our ridership will be 40,000 passengers per day," he further said.

The limited halt trains will stop at BKC, Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati stations, he said, adding that before the launch, the empty trains will have extensive trial runs of about 10,000 kms.

The 10-car train will have a business class and nine cars of the standard class.

"After 2033, the trains will have 16 cars," Khare told reporters invited to Shimla by the Railway Board for a workshop to familiarise them with various rail projects.The Airport Authority of India (AAI) today signed an MoU with Assam government under its Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) initiative for sustainable development of human settlements at villages in Kamrup district, an AAI statement said here.

The AAI would provide financial assistance under its CSR initiative of Rs 4.58 crore for the Kamrup district as per the estimates prepared by the UNDP to improve the resilience of communities around Guwahati Airport.

The AAI through its CSR policy supports such initiatives for promoting infrastructure for convenience of the population with a view to improve the resilience of communities, the statement added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US military has been flying UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter missions in Afghanistan for years, but the storied aircraft will soon take to the country's battlefields manned by pilots and crews from the Afghan military.

The first group of Afghan trainees is in the final phase of instruction by US advisers at an air base in southern Kandahar province, as part of the process of transitioning Afghanistan's military from Soviet-era Mi-17 helicopters to the US-made Black Hawks. They are scheduled to begin flying missions in May.

"The Mi-17 that the UH-60 is going to replace is not sustainable as a helicopter, so what we are doing, we are giving to the Afghan Air Force sustainable, very highly capable and battle-proven helicopters so that they can take the fight forward as they continue to safeguard this country," said US Air Force Major Ted Rogers, director of operations for the 441st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron.

He called the transition "hugely important." According to the Afghan Air Force, it has 46 of the Russian Mi-17 multi-mission helicopters, of which 25 are active. The rest are unusable either because of scheduled overhauls or major repairs.

The transfer of the Black Hawks is part of broader plans for the expansion of the Afghan Air Force. The Afghan government and the international community, including the United States and NATO, have stepped up efforts to bolster its capacity and capabilities and the US is spending USD 814 million on the seven-year effort.

Along with the Black Hawks, the plan includes the introduction of AC-208 light attack and surveillance aircraft, A-29 attack aircraft and additional MD-530 attack helicopters to the Afghan Air Force.

Since November, 11 Black Hawks have arrived at Kandahar Air Field. By the end of the year, a total 28 copters will be handed over to the Afghan military, with a total 159 transferred by the end of the programme in 2023. The aircraft have or will undergo engine upgrades, US military officials said.

The primary purpose of the aircraft will be for troop and cargo transport, including evacuating casualties and remains. However, many of the aircraft will be weaponised to provide close air support in battle.

The UH-60 Black Hawk manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft was first entered into service in the late 1970s as the US Army's tactical transport helicopter. Now a mainstay in militaries around the world, a version of the aircraft was modified for stealth in the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan in 2011.

The image of the aircraft is ubiquitous in popular culture, gaining fame when it was featured in the film "Black Hawk Down" about the 1993 Battle for Mogadishu in Somalia.

According to Major Nick Plante, TAAC-Air spokesman and senior public affairs adviser to the Afghan Air Force, the Black Hawk flight training lasts around 16 weeks. This includes six weeks for aircraft qualification training and then 10 more weeks for mission qualification training.

Besides classroom studies, students perform take-offs, landings and emergency scenarios with their instructors as part of the training. There are both young, inexperienced pilots and crew members being trained, as well those with experience flying the Mi-17s.

More than 30 Afghan Air Force members are about to start their second phase of training and most have had some of their instruction in the US, the Czech Republic or the United Arab Emirates.

Soon after completing the last phase at Kandahar Air Field, the students will be introduced as UH-60 Black Hawk pilots and special mission operators.

Lt Massihullah Kakar, 25, in his first week of pilot training in Kandahar after receiving initial training in the Czech Republic, said the main things that ground forces need from Black Hawk missions are to be provided timely reinforcements and equipment.

He pointed to a nearby UH-60 and said: "This is the only aircraft (with which) we can reach the ground forces on time and we can reinforce them better because it is powerful and fast." Kakar, who said he was happy after successfully performing a take-off and landing of one of the aircraft for the first time, said Afghans must be able to defend their own air space.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Assam government has incurred an expenditure of Rs 27.23 crore on advertisements during 11 months of 2017-18 fiscal, a minister informed the state Assembly today.

In a written reply to a query by AGP MLA Pabindra Deka, Assam Irrigation Minister Ranjit Dutta said the government's total expenditure for advertisements stood at Rs 27,22,79,761 from April 2017 to February this year.

On behalf of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who also holds the Information & Public Relations portfolio, Dutta said out of the total expenditure, Rs 16.79 crore had been released, while Rs 10.44 crore were due to various media houses.

In addition to the spending for advertisements in media, the government had sent a proposal of Rs 1.91 crore to the finance department for putting up hoardings at public places.

Giving a break-up, Dutta said Rs 21.72 crore had been spent for giving government advertisements to newspapers in the state.

For the electronic media, including TV, radio, SMS services and on line, the government gave advertisements worth Rs 95.91 lakh during the first 11 months of the current financial year.

The minister also informed the House that a total of Rs 4.55 crore had been spent for giving advertisements in 14 national newspapers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Axis Bank's failure to honour a bank guarantee due to legal tangles does not amount to a default, and the third largest private sector lender's ratings will not be affected, global rating agency Fitch said today.

"Axis Bank's failure to honour a guarantee it issued is not a default and thus, does not affect the bank's long-term rating," it said in a note.

The agency has a 'BBB-' rating with a stable outlook on the Shikha Sharma-led bank.

Fitch said the bank decided not to honour the guarantee because it believed doing so would have "contravened a court order related to a separate legal case."



The agency said its bank rating criteria does not view a bank as having failed if it has defaulted as a result of "legal restrictions" on servicing obligations while it remains solvent and liquid.

It also took note of a communication to exchanges, wherein the bank had affirmed to honour all commitments.

Fitch said the issue has arisen because of a legal battle between the now-bankrupt telecom company Aircel and the department of telecommunication (DoT).

The agency said the Axis Bank has informed it that the guarantee was issued to Bharti Airtel, which had an agreement to trade spectrum held by Aircel but the bankruptcy filing led to the DoT calling on the bank to cover the amount guaranteed.

"However, an earlier order from the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal prevented Axis Bank from doing so, and thus, revoking the payment under the bank guarantee was the only way the bank could avoid being in contempt of court," the agency said.

It added that the bank does not have any other exposure to Aircel and a bulk of its Rs 9,200-crore outstanding non-funded exposure to the telecom sector, including this, is almost entirely to well-rated borrowers.

It can be noted that following the Axis Bank's failure to honour the said guarantee, the DoT had ordered that bank guarantees from the lender should not be taken, calling it as a serious breach of trust and contract with the government.

The Axis Bank scrip was trading flat at Rs 501 a piece at 1326 hrs on the BSE, as against 0.30 per cent gains on the benchmark.Poland and Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania today summoned the Russian ambassadors to their countries, as international pressure builds on Moscow over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England.

Latvia on Friday had said it would expel "one or several" Russian diplomats over the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, while fellow NATO and EU members Lithuania and Poland were also expected to follow suit.

The moves come after Britain, which blames Russia for the poisoning, expelled 23 Russian diplomats they said were spies and pressed EU allies to follow suit despite Moscow's warning against confrontational steps.

"The Russian Federation's ambassador has been summoned to the Latvian foreign ministry today, and later there will be a public announcement," ministry deputy press secretary Vita Dobele told AFP.

In Poland, Russian ambassador Sergei Andreev was called to the foreign ministry in Warsaw, which has announced a press conference for 1300 GMT.

"No comment. The information will be conveyed by the Polish foreign ministry," a smiling Andreev told reporters while leaving the ministry.

Pressed by journalists, he added that he was staying in Poland but said "we'll see" when asked about the fate of other Russian diplomats in Warsaw.

Lithuanian foreign ministry spokeswoman for her part told AFP: "I can confirm Russian ambassador is summoned to the foreign ministry," but refused to elaborate.

No press briefing is planned in Vilnius, but diplomatic sources say the ambassador will be informed of the expulsion of several diplomats.

Fellow Baltic country Estonia refused to confirm or deny whether its Russian ambassador was summoned, but foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Belovas said the minister would give a press conference on the Salisbury attack later today.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP President Amit Shah today asserted there was a "tsunami" in favour of his party which will not only defeat the ruling Congress but also 'uproot' it in the coming assembly polls in Karnataka.

He also lashed out at the Siddaramaiah government on multiple fronts, saying it had distanced itself from the people.

"After Gujarat elections, this is my Karnataka trip. Extraordinary enthusiasm is witnessed here. Earlier I was saying it was a BJP wave. Now I say it's a BJP tsunami" Shah said.

He was addressing a public rally here in the home district of state unit BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa, who is being projected as the party's chief ministerial face in the elections to be held in the next couple of months.

Shah, who began a two-day tour of the central Karnataka region, said in five years the Siddaramaiah government had "distanced itself from people and development."



Coming to Karnataka a day after Congress president Rahul Gandhi ended his fourth round of visit, he said "Rahul Gandhi is touring. He has been saying that congress government will come in Karnataka.

"Since 2014 see the election records," he added citing BJP's winning streak since coming to power at the centre.

Shah said the party had formed governments in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Assam, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura,.

"This vijayarath of Modi has reached Karnataka. What will happen? We will not only defeat them, we will uproot Congress," he declared.

Shah alleged that in the last four and a half years, 20 BJP/RSS workers had been killed in Karnataka by Popular Front of India activists.

"It won't happen anymore. People know who'll come to power here," he said.

PFI had earlier rejected the BJP's repeated charge about its involvement in the killings.

Shah said the Modi government had launched many welfare schemes transforming poor people's lives.

"But it's not reaching people in Karnataka. Modi government is like high tension line. To draw power from it directly is not possible. You need a transformer. However the transformer of Siddaramaiah government is burnt. Such transformer should be removed," he said.

Speaking at Tiptur in Tumakuru district earlier, Shah maintained that the Siddaramaiah government's move to accord separate religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats was aimed at preventing Yeddyurappa from becoming the Chief Minister.

"This Siddaramaiah government has brought this proposal, not because it has love for Lingayats, but to prevent Yeddyurappa from becoming Chief Minister," he said addressing a Coconut Growers Convention.

"I want to tell Karnataka people that if BJP wins a majority, we will make Yeddyurappa Chief Minister," he added.

Yeddyurappa is considered a Lingayat strongman.

The state cabinet had recently decided to recommend to the Centre grant of religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats, in a move seen as an attempt to chip away at the BJP's strong Lingayat voter base.

Shah said that the proposal, which was rejected by the then Manmohan Singh government at the Centre in 2013, was only aimed at creating confusion among people.

He, however, believed that the people of the state would not be enticed by Siddaramaiah's "divide-and-rule politics."



Rahul Gandhi should first point fingers at Siddaramaiah for dividing people before accusing BJP of it, Shah said.

Accusing Siddaramiah of playing "divide-and-rule" politics, he likened it to that of the British.

"The Congress ship is sinking and to save it,the Congress is making its last efforts, and what it is doing? It is making efforts to divide people," he charged and questioned why the Siddaramiah government had not made the proposal earlier.

He also launched a scathing attack on the state government for "failure" to prevent farmers' suicides.

"In five years of Siddaramaiah's rule as many as 3,781 farmers committed suicides. I want to ask the government, who is responsible for these suicides?" Shah said.

Shah also held a massive roadshow in Shivamogga, where he launched the state BJP's "Karunadu Jagruti Yatre' a rally to awaken the electorate of Karnataka against the "misrule" of the Siddaramaiah government.

The BJP president began his two-day tour by seeking blessings of Sri Shivakumara Swami of Siddhaganga Mutt in Tumakuru, a revered seer of the Lingayat community.

Shah's meeting with the seer is being seen as an attempt to reach out to the Lingayats/Veeshaivas, who are numerically and politically powerful in the state and form a major vote base for the BJP.

"Today I had the good fortune to seek blessings from the 'Walking God' Sri Sri Sri Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddhaganga Mutt, Tumakuru. His tireless work even at his advanced age is inspiring. His life is a living lesson and guiding light for all of us," Shah said in a tweet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The appointment of John Bolton by President Donald Trump as his National Security Advisor (NSA) is an "excellent choice" to confront the challenges of a dangerous world, the White House said today.

Trump on Thursday fired his NSA Lt Gen H R McMaster and replaced him with Bolton, a conservative hawk and former US Ambassador to the UN, the latest high-level shakeup in the chaotic White House.

The White House said that there has been a widespread support for Bolton, who has a reputation of being hawkish.

"Commentators agree that by appointing Bolton as National Security Advisor (NSA), the President has made an excellent choice to confront the challenges of a dangerous world and build on the accomplishments of outgoing NSA HR McMaster," the White House said.

Bolton would replace McMaster on April 9. He would be the third NSA to Trump.

Critics have said that appointment of Bolton indicates that the US under Trump would give preference to war or taking strong actions against its adversaries.

The White House has denied these allegations and today it pulled out excerpts of comments from major dailies, lawmakers and think tanks which hailed Bolton's appointment as the NSA.

"Trump has said he is at last assembling a Cabinet team to his liking, and late Thursday he announced that John Bolton will replace General HR McMaster as his NSA. It is a solid and experienced choice... Mr Bolton's first job will be to prepare the President for a historic meeting with Kim Jong Un. We may assume Pyongyang knows now that bluffing the US won't work," said the editorial board of the popular Wall Street Journal.

Former Senator Tom Coburn said the decision reflects an understanding of the critical lessons of history, and the designation will greatly reduce the grave risks now faced by America during today's increasingly troubled times.

"If the president can get a better trade deal for American workers while also encouraging Beijing to make Pyongyang see reason and abandon its nuclear weapons, he could be in the running for a Nobel Peace Prize. And Bolton and Pompeo are likely to help him get there," said USA Today's James S Robbins.

National Review's David French said Bolton isn't Dangerous. The World is.

"He's a conservative hawk, yes, but he's squarely in the mainstream of conservative foreign-policy thought," he said.

The New York Times's Bret Stephens said if his presence in the White House helps scare the organisation into real reform, so much the better.

"But Bolton is a formidable intellect, a clear thinker, organised, and a team player. The purpose of the National Security Council is to coordinate the interagency process.

"Not only is Bolton meticulous about process, but he also has the wherewithal to do two things so many past national security advisers did not: force decisions when they needed to be made and then impose discipline on the process to ensure those decisions were carried out," said Michael Rubin from American Enterprise Institute.

"As the president's top security aide, Bolton will be an honest broker and someone who can drive decisions through molasses-thick resistance. These qualities, plus his top-shelf intellect, make Bolton the best national security player to join Trump's West Wing team so far," wrote Hugh Hewitt in The Washington Post.

"In truth, Bolton is a hawk because the world is full of dangerous actors and some evil ones and he sensibly believes there's no point of being America if we're going to roll over and surrender our advantages. Already there are rumblings that Russia, China and North Korea won't be happy to see Bolton having the president's ear - which proves Trump chose wisely," said New York Post's Michael Goodwin.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bombay High Court today restrained the trustee of an international school in Andheri, who had been accused of rape, from entering the school premises until further orders, after the parents of some of the students approached it.

The trustee, a French national, was arrested last year for allegedly raping a three-year-old student.

He was granted bail in November last year and resumed his duties at the school.

However, the mother of the victim, filed a plea in HC seeking cancellation of his bail.

The parents of 42 other students from the school also filed an application in HC seeking that he be directed to stay away from the school since they feared for the safety of their children.

Vijay Hiremath, the counsel for the victim's mother, today argued that the session court's order of November 24 last year, granting bail to the trustee, was bad in law.

He submitted that the victim had given cohesive and consistent testimony on multiple occasions and had also identified the perpetrator.

"However, surprisingly, the sessions court held that the victim's statement was full of inconsistencies," Hiremath said.

The trustee's counsel Shirish Gupte, however, told HC that the sessions court order was a "well reasoned" one.

Gupte told HC that the prosecution had also told the sessions court that it had not found any incriminating evidence against the accused.

Justice Revati Mohite-Dere, who was presiding over the pleas, noticed after going through the victim's statements that they were indeed cohesive.

Thus, when she asked the prosecution how it had made the above statement before the sessions court, the investigating officer told HC that the prosecution had never made such a statement.

"This is a serious matter. There is sufficient material against the present accused. Therefore, if the Assistant Public Prosecutor never made such a statement before the sessions court then this is even more disturbing," Justice Mohite-Dere said.

She also directed the state's officer present, who had appeared before the sessions court, to file an affidavit on the prosecution's statement made before the sessions court during the bail hearing.

The incident dates back to May last year, when the victim's parents noticed changes in her behaviour, and difficulty in sitting and walking.

When they asked her if anyone had hurt her or touched her inappropriately, she pointed to a picture of the school trustee, the child's mother said in the plea.

An FIR was lodged against the trustee in May 2017, however he was arrested only in November 2017, after the victim's parents filed a writ petition in the high court alleging police inaction.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Brazilian court today rejected former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's latest appeal against a corruption conviction that could see him sent to prison for 12 years and prevented from making a political comeback.

The three judges at the lower appeals court in Porto Alegre unanimously turned down Lula's appeal on technical issues to his conviction and sentencing, the official Agencia Brasil reported.

In theory, the ruling meant Lula might have been ordered immediately to begin his sentence of 12 years and one month for accepting a luxury seaside apartment as a bribe from a construction company seeking contracts with state-controlled oil giant Petrobras.

However, Lula was handed a temporary get-out-of-jail card last week by the Supreme Court, while it considers his claim that he should be free until he has exhausted options at higher appeals courts.

The Supreme Court said it will rule on this on April 4th, and that until then Lula can remain at liberty.

The 72-year-old, who faces six other corruption cases, says the legal onslaught is part of a politicized campaign to prevent him from running in October's presidential election.

Lula has surprised many by holding a huge lead in opinion polls, which shows he would win what is shaping up to be an unusually turbulent contest.

The other threat to Lula's comeback is a Brazilian law barring candidates with criminal convictions from seeking public office. However, even this is in question and could end up becoming another prolonged court battle.

Brazilian media reports say that Lula's strategy will be to keep campaigning for as long as possible -- even from behind bars -- in order to maximize his impact on the campaign.

If barred from being on the ballot, he'd then endorse a replacement at the last possible minute, according to media reports.

In polling, the two-term former president would come on top in a first round of the election and win the runoff against any other currently expected challenger.

However, he also has high rejection ratings and is blamed by the right and many in the center for Brazil's slide into the mammoth "Car Wash" corruption scandal that has shaken the country over the last four years.

On Sunday, Lula and his entourage were pelted with eggs and stones while on a campaign stop in the south of the country, his staff said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain today urged Iran to stop sending weapons into Yemen and instead use its influence to end the conflict, as the Saudi-led coalition's military intervention enters its fourth year.

Saudi Arabia has been leading an aerial bombing campaign in support of the government and against the Iranian-backed Huthi rebels.

The United Nations has found Tehran in violation of an arms embargo on Yemen by failing to block supplies of missiles and drones to the Huthis.

In a joint statement, Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt urged Iran to change course.

"If Iran is genuinely committed to supporting a political solution in Yemen -- as it has publicly stated -- then it should stop sending in weapons which prolong the conflict, fuel regional tensions, and pose threats to international peace and security," they said in the statement.

"We question why Iran is spending significant revenue in a country with which it has no real historical ties or interests, rather than using its influence to end the conflict for the good of the Yemeni people."



The Huthis expelled pro-government forces from the capital Sanaa in September 2014 and went on to seize swathes of the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country.

This prompted the Saudi-led coalition to intervene militarily on March 26, 2015.

Since then, around 10,000 people have been killed and 53,000 wounded in Yemen.

The war has created what the UN describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

It is seen as both a civil conflict and a proxy war between regional titans Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Johnson and Mordaunt said: "We support the Saudi-led coalition's efforts to restore legitimacy in Yemen, as accepted by the UN Security Council.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canada today ordered the expulsion of four Russian diplomats and denied credentials for three others over the poisoning of a former spy in Britain, said a statement.

"We are taking these measures in solidarity with the United Kingdom," Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said.

"The nerve agent attack in Salisbury, on the soil of Canada's close partner and ally, is a despicable, heinous and reckless act, potentially endangering the lives of hundreds.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Canadian national was apprehended by the CISF today for allegedly entering the Delhi airport using a cancelled ticket to see off his wife, officials said.

J S Duhra, a Canadian national, was held when Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel found him roaming suspiciously inside the Terminal-3 (T3) building of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, they said.

The man told the personnel that he had entered the terminal to see off his wife, who was travelling to Toronto, the officials said.

He told the officials that he used a cancelled ticket to enter the airport.

The man was subsequently handed over to the police as the cancelled ticket was a fake entry document, they said.

Entering an airport terminal without a valid ticket is illegal under the Indian aviation rules.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Arijit Shashwat, son of Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, booked in the communal violence in Bhagalpur recently, today accused the police of having registered a fabricated case against him under political pressure.

He further questioned why no action was taken, so far, against miscreants belonging to one particular community in connection with the episode.

A Bhagalpur court had issued an arrest warrant on Saturday against Shashwat and nine others named in one of the two FIRs filed in connection with the violence that broke out on March 17 wherein a number of persons, including two police personnel, were injured.

The case that has been lodged is not related to incitement of violence. Moreover, the clash that broke out was a result of the SHO of Nathnagar and the Deputy SP concerned acting as per the directions of the Bhagalpur MLA, Shashwat alleged before reporters here.

Although Shashwat did not name anybody, the Bhagalpur assembly segment is represented by Ajeet Sharma of the Congress, who won the seat in the 2015 elections, defeating Shashwat in the constituency that was his fathers stronghold.

Notably, Sharma had last week moved an adjournment motion in the state assembly over the issue of Nathnagar clashes which was backed by the main opposition RJD and led to stalling of proceedings of the House for the day.

Till now, the administration has not been able to touch miscreants belonging to one particular community who were involved in opening fire at policemen, hurling bombs, setting shops on fire and misbehaving with women on their way home after taking a holy dip in the river Ganges, Shashwat alleged.

Clashes had erupted after a procession, led by Shashwat and taken out on the occasion of the new year as per Hindu calendar, passed through Nathnagar which is heavily populated by a minority community.

Replying to a query, Shashwat said why should I surrender. I am not a fugitive. I am here, at my residence. The Bhagalpur unit of the BJP has made up its mind to oppose, tooth and nail, the fabricated case lodged against the partys workers.

Meanwhile, leader of the opposition in the state assembly Tejashwi Yadav launched a frontal attack on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the issue, charging him with running his government in constant fear of the BJP



It is startling that the police is unable to arrest a person who is talking to the media just a few hundred metres away from the Chief Ministers residence. Moreover, Choubey has made disparaging remarks against the administration while defending his son. This is a clear indication of Kumars diminished standing as the Chief Minister of Bihar, Yadav told reporters outside the state assembly.

The Chief Minister is wary of facing the people on the issue which is why he did not attend the House today. I would have loved to ask him what explanation he has.....so fond has he been of explanations, the former Bihar Deputy CM said in an obvious dig at Kumars exit from the Grand Alliance last year citing Yadavs inability to give an explanation regarding the corruption cases lodged against him.

Meanwhile, Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters), S K Singhal said adequate action will be taken against all those who have been named in the FIRs at Bhagalpur. The police had its hands full because of the festive season, but now there will be action.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The police has arrested a cattle smuggler and recovered 32 animals in two separate cases of cattle smuggling in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir.

In the first case, the police intercepted a gang of cattle smugglers near Nakkian in Kathua district last night, said a police official, adding that the smugglers, however, fled the under the cover of darkness, leaving behind their herd of 23 cattle, which were seized.

The smugglers, who escaped included two women and two men, with one of them identified as Ajay.

The police is on look out for him and his gang members, the official said.

In another incident, the police arrested one cattle smuggler, identified as Mubarak Hussain and recovered 9 animals from him, the official said, adding two cases have been registered and investigation is on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Centre today reached out to Anna Hazare, who is on an indefinite hunger strike here since March 23, with its emissary and Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajana assuring the social activist that most of his "demands will be taken care of".

"Tomorrow, we will give a written proposal to Anna ji," Mahajan told PTI after meeting Hazare, adding "we are hopeful that he will end his indefinite hunger strike tomorrow."



The minister said he was representing both the Centre as well as the state government.

However, there was no word from the Hazare camp on the meeting.

Mahajan, who is Minister for Water Resources and Medical Education in the state, said of the 11 main demands put forth by Hazare, which include appointment of a Lokpal and giving better price for farmers for their yield, nearly 7-8 have been agreed upon.

"Most of his demands will be taken care of," Mahajan said.

"The chief minister (Devendra Fadnavis) is in loop of what is happening. Even the central leadership (of the BJP), including party president Amit Shah, is looking into the matter," Mahajan added.

He said that the Union Budget has taken care of the demand to give better price for farmers for their yield.

In case of Lokpal, two meetings have taken place and the issue is likely to be resolved in the third meeting, the minister claimed.

Hazare's demand for abolition of party symbol in elections was not accepted as it was impractical, Mahajan added.

Hazare has been on hunger strike since March 23 to press his demands, including Lokpal, better deal for farmers and electoral reforms.

He has lost four kilograms, his aide claimed, as his indefinite hunger strike continued on the fourth day.

His blood pressure, however, is normal, his close associate Datta Awari said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China today promised to address the issue of widening trade deficit with India as the country sought greater market access for its goods and services, the Commerce and Industry Ministry said today.

The issue of trade imbalance with the neighbouring country was discussed in detail during the meeting of India-China Joint Group on Economic Relations, Trade, Science and Technology here.

Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu and his Chinese counterpart Zhong Shan chaired the meeting.

The Chinese minister "promised to address the trade deficit between the two countries," the ministry said in a statement.

Both the sides deliberated upon ways to boost two-way trade, preparation of an action plan, greater focus on Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and e-dialogue.

Prabhu said addressing India's trade imbalance with China is the most important matter to be taken up by the group.

"Minister exhorted his Chinese counterpart for greater market access for agricultural products like rapeseed, soyabean, basmati and non-basmati rice, fruits, vegetables and sugar," it said.

He also said that India can export high quality pharmaceutical products besides IT and ITeS services to China and increase cooperation in the sectors like tourism and healthcare.

Trade deficit with China stood at USD 36.73 billion during April-October this fiscal. India's trade deficit with China has marginally dipped to USD 51 billion in 2016-17 from USD 52.69 billion in the previous fiscal.

The group was formed in December 1988 during the visit of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to Beijing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Chinese officer saluted today as the remains of 20 former comrades were arrayed in a South Korean military facility ahead of their return home, decades after they died in the Korean War.

The brown-stained bones -- including some near-complete skulls -- were laid out on tables at the temporary ossuary in Incheon before being placed in identical boxes pending their repatriation Wednesday.

It will be the fifth annual return under a 2013 agreement which has so far seen 569 sets of remains sent back.

Communist Chinese forces played a crucial role in support of the North during the 1950-53 Korean War, but former South Korean president Park Geun-hye offered to return the bodies of Beijing's war dead as a goodwill gesture.

Mao Zedong sent millions of troops to intervene as US-led United Nations forces drove Kim Il Sung's army back towards the Chinese frontier in late 1950, saving the North from defeat in a decisive turning point in the war.

South Korean and UN forces were pushed back south, losing control of Seoul before recovering to recapture the capital and end up in a stalemate along what is now the Demilitarized Zone.

Casualty figures remain disputed but Western estimates commonly cite a figure of 400,000 Chinese deaths, while Chinese sources mention a death toll of about 180,000.

The repatriations take place ahead of China's annual Qingming -- tomb-sweeping -- festival, when many people visit and clean the graves of their ancestors.

The bodies being sent back Wednesday were exhumed last year from multiple sites in Gangwon province in South Korea's northeast, a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

Hundreds of North Korean soldiers remain interred at a special cemetery plot in Paju, just south of the heavily fortified border with North Korea, but Pyongyang has ignored Seoul's offers to return them despite sporadic talks on the issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress today criticised the Maharashtra government for refusing permission to a protest march planned by a group of activists to demand the arrest of Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.

Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) leader Prakash Ambedkar had earlier planned the 'Elgar Morcha' for today, to demand the arrest of Bhide, one of the prime accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.

The Mumbai police yesterday refused permission for the protest march, saying it could cause inconvenience to people on a working day.

The activists of BBM wanted to take out the protest march from Ranubaug in Byculla. They were appealed to gather directly at the Azad Maidan in south Mumbai where they could stage their agitation, the police earlier said in a release.

Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil today said in the state Assembly that two people were named in the FIR in the Bhima-Koregaon case.

One of them (Milind Ekbote) has been arrested while Bhide is absconding, he said.

The Congress legislator accusedthe government of being biased in denying permission to Ambedkar and his associatesto hold the protest march in Mumbai.

"Why is the government trying to save the accused?" he asked.

"The government has denied permission to the protest march. The accused of Bhima-Koregaon violence, Sambhaji Bhide, is absconding. The government is protecting the accused and is insensitive towards the issue," Vikhe Patil alleged.

Jitendra Awhad (NCP) said Bhide has held three press conferences since January but the police is not able to trace him.

Following the denial of permission for the march, the protesters directly came to the Azad Maidan today.

Minister of State for HomeRanjit Patil said in the Lower House that the government has taken note of the protest by Ambedkar at Azad Maidan and adequate security has been put in place in the area.

Meanwhile, Sanjay Kadam (NCP), the legislator from Dapoli, said a statue of B R Ambedkar was desecrated at Khed in Ratnagiri district yesterday.

He alleged that the intention behind the incident was to create caste tensions in Ratnagiri.

To this, the MoS for Home said the government has taken note of the incident and appropriate steps are being taken.

Notably, Ambedkar had on March 15 demanded that the state government arrest Bhide in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, failing which he will launch a protest.

Though Hindu Ekta Aghadi leader Milind Ekbote has been arrested, the government is yet to take Bhide into custody, he had said.

A case was registered against Ekbote and Bhide, the head of the right-wing outfit Shiv Pratishthan Sansthan, for allegedly inciting the anti-Dalit violence that left a man dead near the Bhima Koregaon war memorial in Pune district on January 1.

The incident took place during an event to commemorate the bicentenary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle.

Subsequent protests had disrupted normal life in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra.

The Pune rural police had earlier this month arrested Ekbote, after the Supreme Court turned down his anticipatory bail plea.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP President Amit Shah on Monday maintained that the Siddaramaiah government's move to accord separate religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats was aimed at preventing B S Yeddyurappa from becoming Chief Minister.

"This Siddaramaiah government has brought this proposal, not because it has a love for Lingayats, but to prevent Yeddyurappa from becoming Chief Minister," he said addressing a Coconut Growers Convention here, as he began his two-day tour of election-bound Karnataka.

"I want to tell Karnataka people that if BJP wins a majority, we will make Yeddyurappa Chief Minister," he added.

Yeddyurappa is considered a Lingayat strongman.

The state cabinet had recently decided to recommend to the Centre to accord religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats, in a move seen as an attempt to chip away at the BJP's strong Lingayat voter base.

Shah said that the proposal, which was rejected by the Manmohan Singh Government at the Centre in 2013, was only aimed at creating confusion among people.

He, however, believed that the people of the state would not be enticed by Siddaramaiah's "divide-and-rule politics."



Congress President Rahul Gandhi should first point fingers at Siddaramaiah for dividing people before accusing BJP of it, Shah said.

He also likened Siddaramiah's divide-and-rule politics to that of the British.

"The Congress ship is sinking and to save it,the Congress is making its last efforts, and what it is doing? It is making efforts to divide people."



"The Congress Chief Minister is playing divide-and-rule politics of the British," he said.

Shah also criticised the Siddaramiah government for not bringing in the proposal earlier.

"The Siddaramaiah government has proposed to accord religion and minority status to Lingayats, but why did it not do it earlier? Because that time, there was no need for gaining votes," he said.

He also launched a scathing attack on the Siddaramaiah government for failing to prevent farmers' suicides in the state.

"In five years of Siddaramaiah's rule as many as 3,781 farmers committed suicides. I want to ask the government, who is responsible for these suicides?" he asked.

Shah said suicides in Congress-ruled states are always on the increase, whereas it dwindles in BJP-ruled states like Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

"In BJP-ruled states farmers' suicides are nigh to nothing. Wherever the Congress rules, the suicides of farmers increases, but decreases in BJP-ruled states."



"If you voteYeddyurappa to become Chief Minister, I assure you farmers' suicides will come to a halt," he said.The Bombay High Court today asked the Maharashtra government to consider allotting two plots in suburbs, originally reserved for a cancer hospital and a public housing project, to rehabilitate over 60,000 people whose houses were demolished by the local civic body on the court's order as they were near the Tansa water pipeline.

The high court was today informed that while some of the affected people were rehabilitated at suburban Mahul, several families are yet to be provided alternative accommodation. The number of such people stood at more than 60,000.

The government told a division bench of justices A S Oka and Riyaz Chagla it was yet to finalise the revised draft Development Plan (DP) for the metropolis.

Thousands of tenements located within 10 metres of Tansa water pipeline here were demolished by the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) following orders from the high court.

"It would be appropriate if the government considers two plots at suburban Marol and Dindoshi, which, as per the earlier Development Plan, were reserved for a cancer hospital and a public housing project, for these people," the court said while hearing a PIL.

"Considering the gravity of the situation, the state government will have to either consider de-reservation of these two plots or immediately make available some other place to rehabilitate these people," Justice Oka said.

The court said its order of directing demolition of structures falling within 10 metres of the pipeline cannot be delayed or suspended because of absence of rehabilitation plans.

"The demolition process is important and necessary to ensure continued water supply to the citizens of Mumbai," the judges noted.

The bench directed the government to file an affidavit by April 20.

The PIL raised concerns over the hazards caused to the Tansa water pipeline due to construction of residential and commercial establishments near it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A case was registered today against a Delhi Police inspector accused of molesting a journalist during a march organised by JNU students and he was sent to district lines, police said.

Dependra Pathak, the special commissioner of police (traffic) and chief spokesperson for the Delhi Police, said that following a vigilance inquiry, the Delhi Cantt SHO was booked under molestation charges and sent to district police line.

Police said the case will be investigated by the crime branch.

On Friday, Jawaharlal Nehru University students had taken out the march from the varsity campus towards parliament.

At the Sanjay Jheel in Lakshmi Bai Nagar area, police lathicharged and used water canons to disperse the crowd of students, teachers and journalists who were covering the protests.

Two journalists filed separate complaints -- one for molestation and another for assault -- with regard to incidents during the protest march.

Yesterday, a woman constable and a male head constable were suspended for allegedly allegedly snatching the camera of a photojournalist during the march.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A wanted criminal, carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head, was today arrested following an encounter with the police in the Tarwa area of Azamgarh district.

Sunil Ram alias Sipahi was intercepted by the police during a routine checking, the police said.

Sipahi opened fire at the policemen, who retaliated and overpowered him following a chase, a police officer said.

Sipahi, who received bullet injuries in the encounter, was rushed to a hospital, from where he was referred to Varanasi.

He was wanted in over a dozen criminal cases.

In a major crackdown on criminals in western Uttar Pradesh yesterday, three wanted law-breakers were killed while six others arrested in seven encounters in four districts, in which six policemen were also injured.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Acrimonious exchanges between the Congress and the BJP on the issue of data 'theft' escalated today with the opposition party dubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi the "Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians" and the ruling party hitting back, saying even "Chhota Bheem" knows it is not snooping.

Apart from the cartoon character, mythological characters from the epic 'Mahabharata' were also used by the two parties to take jibes at each other.

After allegations that data from the prime minister's official app was shared with foreign firms without the consent of users, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said the NaMo app secretly recorded audio, video and contacts.

"Modi's NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. He's the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians.

"Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP," Gandhi said on Twitter using the hashtag "DeleteNaMoApp".

He also alleged that Modi was misusing his position to build a personal database.

"This data belongs to India, not Modi," he said on Twitter.

Union minister Smriti Irani retorted that Gandhi now knows what the NCC is thanks to the NaMo App and that even "Chhota Bheem", a cartoon character, knows that commonly asked permission on Apps do not "tantamount to snooping".

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala hit back, tweeting, "Ohh Ms Irani! But Kauravas wouldn't remember that Bheem represented the righteous Pandavas! Also, those who persecuted Rohith Vemula and denigrate Babasaheb 'Bhimrao's' legacy everyday can only set this level of discourse!"



The Congress alleged that this regime had become a "data leak" government that mocks and flouts the 'right to privacy' with brazen impunity and for it "IT means identity theft".

Charges flew thick and fast on the Twitter as the debate on the prickly issue escalated and the ruling BJP accused the opposition Congress of data "theft", saying it had taken off its app after the allegations came out in the open. The Congress, however, claimed it had not done so.

The site was "dysfunctional" and all memberships were done through the party's official website, the Congress said.

"Ye kya Rahul Gandhi ji it seems your team is doing the opposite of what you asked for. Instead of #DeleteNaMoApp, they have deleted the Congress App itself," Irani tweeted.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra dubbed Gandhi's allegations as a "classical case of technological illiteracy" never seen before in Indian

Patra also claimed that the Congress president was rattled after his plan to influence the next Lok Sabha polls with Cambridge Analytica's help was "exposed".

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi questioned how safe was people's money and their personal information under the BJP-led government in the wake of a string of bank frauds and allegations related to data theft.

"It is an attempt like Bigg Boss of spying on Indians. Modiji is attacking the privacy. It is a data leak government," Singhvi told reporters.

He said that not only people's money, but people's privacy was also in question.

While Nirav Modis and Mehul Choksis dupe Indian banks of thousands of crores, data breaches in banks galore, he said and claimed that "neither our identity is safe, nor is our money secure!".

Singhvi alleged NaMo App records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks location via GPS.

"No wonder, Modi ji is like the 'Big Boss' who with brazenness likes to spy on Indians. The BJP whose IT (Identity Theft?) Minister does daily press conferences on the issue of data security and democracy has much to answer to people of India on the unscrupulous means by which Narendra Modi's personal App is accessing data and passing on data of more than 50 lakh Indians," Singhvi said.

Patra alleged that it was the Congress app that was "stealing" people's data and as soon as the BJP exposed it, the opposition party took it down from the Google's play store, making it "Congress-mukt".

He claimed that the Congress was stealing data of 20 crore Indian Facebook users with the help of Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm embroiled in charges of harvesting people's social media profile illegally, but was caught, leaving Gandhi rattled.

The private firm was allegedly using data theft, sleaze and honey trap to influence the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he alleged.

"Because of his technological illiteracy he should not deceive the people of this country," Patra said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi Assembly today passed a government resolution seeking restructuring of Delhi Administrative Subordinate Services (DASS) and Steno cadres within one month, days after some officers met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, fuelling rumours of a rift between the bureaucrats and lower-rank officers on the chief secretary assault row.

The resolution, moved by Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam who was recently appointed "peacemaker" to find a solution to the chief secretary assault row, also urged Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal to consider the proposal on priority.

The resolution was passed in the House with voice vote.

While tabling the resolution, Gautam said officers of Delhi Administration Subordinate Service (DASS) have been facing "acute stagnation" at all levels due to long pending restructuring despite the fact that the Delhi Cabinet had approved a proposal for the same on December 31, 2015.

"The House resolves that pursuant to Cabinet decision, DASS cadre be restructured and parity between DASS and CSS be established immediately without any delay...

"All procedural formalities for amending the DASS Rules, 1967 and restructuring of DASS and steno cadres be completed by the services department within a month," the resolution stated.

Earlier this month, a section of DASS officers met Kejriwal at his residence, leading to an apparent rift between the bureaucracy and lower-rank officers over the alleged attack on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by some legislators at the CM's residence at midnight of February 19.

Since the alleged attack, both IAS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS) officers have been boycotting all meetings, excepting those pertaining to the Assembly, in solidarity with the top bureaucrat.

Since the Aam Aadmi Party has formed government in Delhi, both the Delhi government and bureaucracy have been at loggerheads on a range of issues.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands said today they had ordered the expulsion of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former spy and his daughter in England, as EU nations step up the pressure on Moscow.

Denmark, the only Nordic country to be both a member of NATO and the EU, and the Netherlands said they were each expelling two diplomats, while Finland -- a Russian grand duchy until 1917 -- said it was expelling one.

Sweden, also a Nordic EU member, had yet to announce any expulsions.

Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands were among 14 EU nations to announce the expulsion of Russian diplomats over the brazen nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4.

The United States has meanwhile decided to expel 60 Russian "spies".

"There is no doubt about our solidarity with Britain," Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen told reporters.

"We agree with Britain that it is very likely that Russia is behind (the nerve agent attack). There are no other plausible explanations," he said, urging Russia "to change course."



He did not disclose the identities nor the functions of the two diplomats to be expelled, but said they had one week to leave the country.

A statement from the office of Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said the attack "poses a serious threat to the security of the whole of Europe."



Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Twitter the Russian envoys had "two weeks to leave the Netherlands.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The DMK today convened an urgent meeting of its Executive Committee, an apex body, on March 30 to discuss the Cauvery issue amid strident demands by parties in Tamil Nadu that the Centre set up the water management board.

The meeting, to be held after the expiry of the Supreme Court's deadline of March 29 to formulate a scheme, will see the party evolving a "stand for the state's welfare," after seeing the Centre's response, party sources said here.

A DMK release said an urgent meeting of the apex executive council will be chaired by party working president M K Stalin on March 30 at its headquarters here to deliberate the Cauvery issue.

The main opposition party, which has been aggressively targeting the ruling AIADMK on the issue, asked all its executive members to attend it without fail.

The announcement comes a day after the party at its two-day regional conference in Erode said setting up of any other panel in the place of the board was unacceptable.

Senior AIADMK leader and Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar meanwhile said the Cauvery Management Board and a regulatory committee should be set up by the Centre as per the apex court order.

"It should be done, and we will make them (Centre) do it," he said while expressing confidence that it will be done by the Central government.

Stalin, meanwhile sarcastically, told reporters here that he expected the AIADMK to lead a big protest of its MLAs and MPs to Delhi if the Cauvery Management Board was not set up by the Centre within the timeframe fixed by Supreme Court for it.

"The Centre is not going make efforts to set up the CMB before March 29," he claimed.

BJP Tamil Nadu unit chief Tamilisai Soundararajan hit out at the DMK for 'posturing' on the inter-state river water issue and dared the party to ask its Rajya Sabha MPs including Kanimozhi to resign.

DMK had earlier mooted resignation of all Tamil Nadu MPs on the Cauvery issue to bring pressure on the Centre.

In the recently concluded assembly sitting, DMK had urged the ruling AIADMK to support the no-trust move by TDP against the BJP-led Centre over the Cauvery issue.

Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam had said the next course of action on Cauvery issue will be decided after the March 29 deadline.

In its judgement on petitions by Karnatka and Tamil Nadu over the final order of the Cauvery water disputes tribunal apportioning the water among the riparian states, the Supreme Court hadraised the 270 tmcft share of Karnataka by14.75 tmcft and reduced Tamil Nadu's share.

The court compensated Tamil Nadu's reduction by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft ground water from theriver basin.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Egyptians began voting today in a presidential election set to deliver an easy victory for incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi over his rival - little-known politician and al Ghad party chief Moussa Mostafa Moussa.

The voting started at 9.00 am (local time) at all polling stations across the country. The polling stations are expected to close at 9 pm (local time).

In front of some polling stations, voters raised photos of President Sisi and chanted slogans like 'Long Live Egypt'.

President Sisi, 63, cast his vote in the election early today at the opening of the polling stations in Heliopolis.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, other ministers, judges and officials were among the first people to cast their votes.

Sherif urged Egyptians to cast their votes in the election. He also mentioned that he expects high voter turnout.

"Egypt has passed through difficult economic situation and was targeted by terrorist attacks in the past, but in the coming four years, it will witness a notable progress," Sherif told reporters after casting his vote.

About 60 million people are eligible to vote in the election on March 26, 27 and 28, under the supervision of 18,678 judges from various judicial bodies and authorities. There are 13,687 polling stations across Egypt.

The result is expected to be announced on April 2.

President Sisi led the military's overthrow of Egypt's first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. He was sworn into office on June 8, 2014 for a four-year term.

His rival Moussa Mostafa Moussa, a longtime supporter of the president, emerged as a last-minute challenger.

Police and army forces were deployed across the country to secure the polling stations and armoured vehicles were stationed at several points around Cairo.

The Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center prepared a central operation room to allow Prime Minister Ismail to follow up the electoral process in all Egyptian governorates through video-conference.

Another operation room was set up in Alexandria city hall and equipped with video conference equipment and TV screens to follow up the elections and receive any complaints from the citizens, according to Alexandria Governor Mohamed Sultan.

The interior ministry also launched a hotline to receive calls from old people who want to cast their votes.

Senior voters and women made a significant turnout to polling stations during morning hours in Cairo's Sayyeda Zeinab, Old Cairo, other areas of the capital, as well as in Qalyubia governorate, local media reported.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Egyptians began voting today in a three-day presidential election set to deliver an easy victory for incumbent Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, firmly in power since 2013, when he led a coup against the largest Arab nation's first democratically elected president Mohammed Morsi.

There are few doubts that President Sisi will win a second term after most challengers withdrew. The only other candidate is the little-known centrist politician and al Ghad party chief Moussa Mostafa Moussa.

Sisi overthrew Islamist president Morsi in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. He then won a landslide in the 2014 presidential election.

The voting started at 9.00 am (local time) at all polling stations across the country. The polling stations are expected to close at 9 pm (local time).

About 60 million people are eligible to vote in the election spread over March 26, 27 and 28. There are 13,687 polling stations across Egypt.

The result is expected to be announced on April 2.

In front of some polling stations, voters raised photos of President Sisi and chanted slogans like 'Long Live Egypt'.

President Sisi, 63, cast his vote in the election early today at the opening of the polling stations in Heliopolis.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, other ministers, judges and officials were among the first people to cast their votes.

Sherif urged Egyptians to cast their votes in the election.

"Egypt has passed through difficult economic situation and was targeted by terrorist attacks in the past, but in the coming four years, it will witness a notable progress," Sherif told reporters after casting his vote.

President Sisi's rival Moussa Mostafa Moussa, a longtime supporter of the president, emerged as a last-minute challenger.

Police and army forces were deployed across the country to secure the polling stations and armoured vehicles were stationed at several points around Cairo.

The Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center prepared a central operation room to allow Prime Minister Ismail to follow up the electoral process in all Egyptian governorates through video-conference.

Another operation room was set up in Alexandria city hall and equipped with video conference equipment and TV screens to follow up the elections and receive any complaints from the citizens, according to Alexandria Governor Mohamed Sultan.

The interior ministry also launched a hotline to receive calls from old people who want to cast their votes.

Senior voters and women made a significant turnout to polling stations during morning hours in Cairo's Sayyeda Zeinab, Old Cairo, other areas of the capital, as well as in Qalyubia governorate, local media reported.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 12-year-old male elephant was found dead today near a farm in Dharamjaygarh forest under Chhal range in Raigad district of Chhattisgarh, an official said.

Forest Range Officer Pranay Mishra said they suspect that the elephant might have died after consuming poisonous grains as farmers in the area use pesticide on their crops.

He said a group of 24 elephants had been roaming in the area for last few days.

This is the sixth such death of an elephant in the last one year under Dharamjaygarh forest.

Forest department has launched an investigation against a farmer.

He said the exact cause behind the death of the pachyderm would be known through postmortem report, which is awaited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The film '1946 Calcutta Killings' in which Shyama Prasad Mukherjee's character is cast in the lead role, will be released next month after the Central Board of Film Certification issued a U/A certificate, the director said.

The film, in Hindi and Bengali, will be released in 350 theatres across the country on April 14, the day before the Bengali new year, its director Milan Bhowmik told PTI.

"The CBFC's Film Certificate Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) has asked me to cut one comment about Jawaharlal Nehru uttered by the character of Muhammad Ali Jinnah on the ground that it showed the future Prime Minister of the country in poor light and I agreed," Bhowmik said.

The makers of the film also put a disclaimer stating that the film was aimed at educating the youth about dangers of communal violence as asked by the CBFC Tribunal, he said.

The film will show Shyama Prasad as a great visionary and architect of Bengal, a leader of all communities and not a baiter of any community, Bhowmik said here.

The film, set in Kolkata of 1946, featured historical characters such as Nehru, Jinnah, the British-ruled Bengal's last Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Syama Prasad, the founder of the then Bharatiya Jana Sangh.

Shyama Prasad's character is essayed by former Film and Television Institute of India Chairman Gajendra Chauhan.

Bhowmik said he had appealed to the FCAT in early 2017 after the CBFC's Kolkata and Mumbai offices refused to grant certificate to the film on the ground that it had derogatory comments about certain political figures of the time and might cause communal disharmony.

On May 8, 2017, the FCAT suggested some changes and directed the CBFC to come to a decision after Bhowmik submitted the film with necessary cuts. It was sent back to FCAT in July and a nod was given, the director said.

"My film has not glorified riots, people from different communities had been killed in the riots in 1946. My aim is to make people aware of the perpetrators of such acts and to educate the youth about the dangers of riots. I think I was able to explain this to the tribunal members and they understood. Neither are we glorifying any political group or vilifying any community," he said.

The film will have special screenings for invited guests in Tripura on April 4, in Assam on April 8, in Kolkata on April 10 and in Jharkhand on April 12.

"At the screening in Tripura, Governor Tathagata Roy was expected to be present among others," he said adding prominent personalities including leaders of different political parties will be invited at the special shows.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least five civilians were killed and several others wounded in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants in southeast Niger, near the border with Nigeria, according to local sources.

"The BH (Boko Haram) came to the market place early Friday evening, they shot the crowd and took food," said a resident of Toummour, in the southwest Diffa region, which was targeted by the attack.

A local official yesterday confirmed the toll of "five dead, all civilians", adding that several were also wounded in the attack.

Diffa governor Mahamadou Laoualy Dan went to Toummour on Saturday to "offer his condolences" to relatives of the dead and "encourage" the army who "routed" the attackers, Niger television reported.

"We ask the people to hold on... 2018 will be a decisive year in the war against Boko Haram," he said in front of Toummour residents.

In January, seven Niger soldiers were killed and 17 wounded in an attack in Toummour, which is located in the east of Diffa close to the Lake Chad basin, a strategic area where the borders of four countries converge.

Diffa has suffered several Boko Haram attacks since the insurgency spilled over from Nigeria in 2015.

On June 3, 2016, the militants killed 26 soldiers and left an unknown number of civilian casualties in a massive attack in the town of Bosso, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Toummour.

Between 2015 and 2017, UN monitors recorded 582 civilian casualties in 244 raids blamed on Boko Haram in Diffa.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)France has told four Russian diplomats to leave the country within one week in response to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in Britain, the foreign ministry said today.

"In solidarity with our British partners, we have notified today the Russian authorities of our decision to expel from French territory four Russian employees with diplomatic status," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Germany's new foreign minister has urged the Palestinians "not to tear down bridges," an apparent reference President Mahmoud Abbas' contentious relationship with the US and political rival Hamas.

Heiko Maas spoke Monday, after meeting with Abbas and the Palestinian foreign minister.

Maas says the new German government remains committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Trump administration has refused to make such a commitment. In December, President Donald Trump recognized contested Jerusalem as Israel's capital, prompting Abbas to rule out the US as a future Mideast broker.

Maas said Monday that peace efforts without the U.S. "would be difficult."



Meanwhile, months-long efforts to sideline Hamas in Gaza through a deal with Abbas appear to have collapsed after a Gaza bombing narrowly missed Abbas' prime minister this month.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Germany's foreign minister today said Berlin had ordered the expulsion of four Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former spy in England, as EU nations step up the pressure on Moscow.

"After the Salisbury poisoning Russia has still not helped clarify the situation. We did not take this decision lightly," foreign minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter.

The move comes as part of a coordinated effort by EU nations and the US to punish Russia over the brazen nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a bid enrich its coffers by about Rs 1 lakh crore, the government has started the process of monetisation of more than 9,400 enemy properties by issuing guidelines and directing the office of the custodian to submit a list of all such movable and immovable assets within three months, officials said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has also constituted a valuation committee at the district level, headed by the district magistrate, and an inter-ministerial disposal committee, headed by an additional secretary, so that the process could be completed in a time-bound manner.

The move comes after the amendment of the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act 2017 and the Enemy Property (Amendment) Rules, 2018, which ensured that the heirs of those who migrated to Pakistan and China during partition and afterwards will have no claim over the properties left behind in India.

The enemy properties were those left behind by the people who took citizenship of Pakistan and China. There are 9,280 properties left behind by Pakistani nationals and 126 properties left behind by Chinese nationals, a ministry official said.

The government has vested these properties in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India, an office instituted under the central government.

The office of the custodian should submit a list of all enemy properties to the central government, the Home Ministry said.

"A list of all vested enemy properties (movable and immovable) shall be prepared by the Custodian for its submission to the central government within three months from the publication of this order," it said.

For the purpose of valuation of the immovable enemy property, a valuation committee will be constituted at the district level with the district magistrate as the chairman besides two other official members.

The committee shall consider the circle rate of the area where the property is situated or a rate fixed by the district administration as a mode of valuation of the property along with other valuation modes.

The custodian will prepare and submit the state-wise list of the enemy properties along with their valuation to the central government within one month from the date of receipt of the valuation report from the valuation committee.

The central government will also constitute an Enemy Property Disposal Committee, with an additional secretary of the MHA as chairman and an additional secretary and financial adviser in the ministry, joint secretary in the Department of Disinvestment and Public Asset Management, joint secretary in the Ministry of Law and Justice, chief engineer, CPWD, Custodian of the enemy property for India as members, and the joint secretary in the MHA dealing with the enemy property as member-secretary.

The committee shall give its recommendation to the central government for the disposal of the enemy property or the manner in which the enemy property may be dealt with and matters connected with it.

The Enemy Property Disposal Committee will make recommendations to the central government in relation to the enemy property which includes sale of enemy property, usage of enemy property by the ministries or departments of the central government, maintaining status quo and the transfer of the enemy property.

In case of vacant immovable enemy property, the Committee may recommend the purchaser offering the highest price for disposal of vacant immovable enemy property.

In case of occupied immovable enemy property, the Committee may recommend the percentage of valuation for its disposal to the existing occupier.

The central government shall consider the recommendations of the Committee and take its decision, the order said.

The Custodian may sell the movable enemy property such as shares, with the prior approval of the central government, in one or more lots by itself or by authorising any professional body for such a sale.

In case of a vacant immovable enemy property, the custodian or any authorised body may sell the property, in one or more lots to secure maximum sale price, with the prior approval of the central government by obtaining quotations from the persons interested in buying the immovable property, by inviting tenders from the public, by holding public auction or by any other method of sale.

The Custodian will also send a report to the central government of the enemy property (movable and immovable) disposed of whether by sale or otherwise, containing details such as the price for which the enemy property has been sold and the particulars of the buyer to whom the properties have been sold or disposed of and the details of the proceeds of sale or disposal, deposited into the Consolidated Fund of India.

Among the 9,280 properties left behind by Pakistani nationals, the highest 4,991 properties are located in Uttar Pradesh followed by West Bengal which has 2,735 such estates. There are 487 such properties in Delhi.

Among the 126 properties left behind by Chinese nationals, the highest 57 are located in Meghalaya followed by West Bengal with 29. Assam has seven such properties.

"The estimated value of all enemy properties is approximately Rs 1 lakh crore," Union minister of state for home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir had told Rajya Sabha earlier.

According to the new Act, 'enemy property' refers to any property belonging to, held or managed on behalf of an enemy, an enemy subject or an enemy firm.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The government is likely to extend financial support of Rs 8,730 crore for the second phase of the FAME India spanning five years but the incentives will be restricted to new energy vehicles used for public transport, commercial purposes and high-speed two-wheelers.

According to officials in the Heavy Industry Ministry, which has proposed the outlay and road-map for the scheme, the government has decided to adopt a 'technology agnostic' approach and only advanced chemistry batteries will be promoted in the Phase II of the scheme.

The second phase of the scheme, which was expected to be implemented from April 1, is likely to be delayed and the proposals entailing financial support to the tune of Rs 8,730 crore are likely to sent to the Union Cabinet for approval soon, an official said.

Out of the Rs 8,730 crore, support to the tune of Rs 5,550 crore has been proposed as demand side incentives during the second phase of the scheme spanning five years, said sources.

The fund support includes Rs 2,500 crore for buses, Rs 1,000 crore for four-wheelers, Rs 600 crore for high-speed two wheelers (with maximum speed greater than 25 km) and Rs 750 crore for high-speed three-wheelers.

The proposed plan for the second phase has been submitted recently to government think tank NITI Aayog, which is in the process of collating inputs from related ministries including Power and Road, Transport & Highways.

The phase one or pilot phase of the scheme was to expire on March 31 and is likely to be extended by few more months, another official added.

Making it clear that the government's focus is on public transport and commercial vehicles, a top government official told PTI, "Support under FAME II, will be extended exclusively to public transport and/or commercial transport. However, two-wheeler segment with maximum speed greater than 25 km/h will continue to be supported for all users."



The proposal also seeks to link incentives to demand for electric vehicles and their localisation level to promote 'Make in India' programme.

"It is proposed to begin with 50 per cent localisation; to be increased to 60 per cent by second year and 70 per cent thereafter. Proportionate reduction in incentives by 10 per cent each year after Year 2 is envisaged," the official added.

The government has also decided not to specify any type of technology for providing support under the scheme with "all zero emission vehicles (ZEV), including fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV), envisaged to be supported".

"The proposed scheme is also intended to support hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles to build volume of EV components which are similar for electric and hybrid vehicles," the official said, adding, however, stringent norms based on optimal energy saving as per market viability would be defined for strong hybrid vehicles.

The official further said in order to prevent very high-end vehicles to take advantage of government incentives, it has been proposed to restrict incentives to vehicles with ex-factory prices lower than a particular threshold value.

These ex-factory prices range from Rs 1.5 lakh for high-speed two-wheelers to Rs 3 crore for buses, while for four-wheelers, including strong hybrid and plug-in hybrid, it is capped at Rs 15 lakh.

For heavy duty trucks, the factory price has been capped at Rs 2 crore and for light commercial vehicle it is Rs 10 lakh.

"The incentives proposed are in proportion to the fuel efficiency of these vehicles when compared to corporate average of vehicles of that category," the official said.

Under the FAME II, the ministry has also proposed that in cases where vehicles are sold without batteries for any fleet of 50 vehicles and above, operators can claim incentives for purchase of bulk batteries.

The official also said the proposal aims to balance the extra acquisition cost of zero emission vehicles compared to internal combustion engines (ICE) to be recovered through operational savings within a maximum period of three years for all vehicles and for busses in seven years.

On the infrastructure front, under the second phase of the scheme, the government plans to set up a network of charging stations in all metros, cities with million plus population and smart cities.

The Heavy Industry Ministry had estimated an overall requirement of Rs 14,000 crore for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric (and Hybrid) scheme, dubbed as FAME India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The grand finale of the Smart India Hackathon 2018 (Software Edition) will be held on March 30 and 31 at 28 nodal centres across the country, an official release said today.

Twenty-six teams have shortlisted for the event which will try to find solutions for seven software problems related to the HUA ministry.

Around 1,300 teams would find solutions for 340 software problems related to various ministries and departments, the release said.

The hackathon includes 2 sub-editions -- the software edition which is a 36-hour software product development competition. The second is the hardware edition, involving building of hardware solutions will be held later this year, it said.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is a premier partner' in this initiative.

HUA minister Hardeep S Puri will be the chief guest during the valedictory session of the event of the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry to be held on March 31 at RMK Engineering College, Chennai.

Launched on October 16, 2017 in Pune, the Hackathon harnesses creativity of students, builds funnel for Startup India, Standup India' campaign, crowdsources solutions for improving governance and quality of life, and provides opportunity to citizens to provide innovative solutions to daunting problems.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Gujarat Legislative Assembly today passed a bill exempting restaurants in the state from securing a mandatory police license to run their business, which the government said would boost new investment in the state.

The bill amended certain provisions of the Gujarat Police Act 1951 that mandate restaurants to get a license from the police official concerned to start their operations.

The present Act also makes the renewal of the license, also called as 'certificate of registration' compulsory at regular intervals.

While introducing the Gujarat Police (Amendment) Bill' in the House, Minister of State for Home, Pradeepsinh Jadeja said the decision to do away with the mandatory police approval has been taken by the government in view of representations made by various trade bodies.

"It came to our notice that restaurant owners are going through unnecessary hardships in getting a license from police under this Act to start their business. The problem was conveyed to us by the Hotel and Restaurant Association as well as by the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industry," said the minister.

Jadeja said the restaurant business is an important component in promoting tourism sector in the state and this decision would promote new investment in that sector.

"In order to promote ease of doing business in the state, we have decided to amend the present Act so as to save the restaurant owners from facing unnecessary hardships in getting or renewing their license from police. Now, they are no longer required to get that license from police," he said.

Jadeja said the police license is not required anymore as restaurant owners are already required to obtain many other permissions, such as health license, GST registration, fire safety and Building Use permission.

The bill was passed by a majority vote in the 182-member Assembly where the BJP has 99 MLAs and the Congress 77.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Haryana agriculture minister O P Dhankar today emphasised upon expanding mutual cooperation at the global level in agriculture and allied sectors.

"Today the world has become a global village. Even in weddings in Haryana, there is an increasing trend of serving international fruits and dishes, which is compelling us to think that mutual cooperation should be expanded at the global level in agriculture and allied sectors," the Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister said.

Dhankar was speaking during a round-table conference on possibilities of international cooperation in agriculture at the third Agri Leadership Summit here.

Haryana in collaboration with the World Wholesale Market Federation will organise an international conference in October 2018. Prior to the conference, the agriculture minister would lead a delegation to Brazil, Argentina, Spain and the Netherlands, Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Abhilaksh Likhi said.

There are ample opportunities of international cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors in the state, the minister said.

The Governor of Himachal Pradesh, Acharya Dev Vrat gave a special presentation on the concept of zero budgeting.

He said that he himself a farmer and engaged in zero budgeting farming on 200 acres of land with 300 indigenous cows.

Earlier, he used to cultivate the land using pesticides, but now he is engaged in cultivation through organic farming for four years and now he has been doing zero budgeting farming for seven years, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Farmers should limit use of pesticides and adopt organic farming as excessive use of such chemicals could impact the ecological balance, a senior Haryana government official said today.

Speaking during the meeting of farmers and Krishi Vigyan Kendras and agricultural scientists during the third Agri Leadership Summit here, Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Department, Abhilaksh Likhi said that aggressive use of pesticides result in adversely impact on the ecological balance.

There is an urgent need to reduce use of pesticides for ensuring fertility of soil, he said.

Likhi also emphasised on diversification of crops.

He said that rotational cultivation of traditional one or two crops would not be aprofitable venture and advised them todiversify their crops from traditional to horticulture.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Haryana procured 59.24 lakh tonnes of paddy during 2017-18 season against 53.47 lakh tonnes in the previous kharif season, a senior official said today.

Additional Chief Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, Ram Niwas said that of the total procurement, 39,69,237 tonnes would be delivered to Food Corporation of India (FCI).

Till date, 34,61,646 tonnes have been delivered to FCI against 30,99,016 tonnes during the same period last year.

He said that proper coordination was maintained with the rice millers to ensure timely supply of rice.

Steps are being taken for physical verification by Deputy Commissioners and necessary action as per the contract is being initiated against the millers not adhering terms and conditions, he said.

He said a case has been registered against For Fresh Rice mill at Tarawari mandi of Karnal under various sections for not following terms and conditions.

The government has started registering cases against all defaulting rice millers who have not returned the rice of the departments in the year 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2016-17, he said.

As many as 13 such rice millers belonged to Karnal and three from Kurukshetra, he said.

This would not only de-motivate the defaulters but it would also send a clear message to others that no one would be spared for not returning the government rice, he said.

Besides, disciplinary action against responsible officers and officials is being taken underrule 7 including District Food and Supply Controllers, District Food and Supply officers and Inspectors concerned.

He said that a review meeting was held by the Chief Minister recently with all the procurement agencies, presidents and representatives of Rice Millers Associations wherein they have been directed to deliver maximum rice to FCI by April 10, 2018 before the onset of procurement of rabi crop.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Haryana government has decided to invite first generation descendants of freedom fighters in important functions and ceremonies to be organized in the state, an official said.

A letter was circulated to all divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners and sub divisional officers (civil) asking them to invite first generation descendants of freedom fighters to all such functions and ceremonies, the official spokesperson said.

Presently freedom fighters, ex-members of Azad Hind Fouj and their widows were invited in national functions and important ceremonies, the spokesperson said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi High Court has directed social media sites Facebook, Google and YouTube to take down a video blog which allegedly disparages the 'atta' made and marketed by Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved.

The interim order was given by Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw who directed the three social media platforms to restrict access to the links and contents of the blog.

The court also issued notices asking them to disclose the identity of the persons in whose name the blog and the urls leading to it, were registered. It listed the matter for further hearing on May 15.

The direction came on a plea by Patanjali seeking taking down of a Tamil-language video blog which allegedly disparaged the atta made by them as well as that of ITC's 'Aashirvaad' brand.

The video had termed as rubber the atta made by the two brands, Patanjali told the court in its plea.

Appearing for Patanjali, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar told the court that ITC has already obtained an interim stay order against the blog from a Bengaluru court.

He said his client had notified the three social media platforms about the disparaging video blog and its contents and asked them to block it. But as they did nothing, Patanjali filed the instant plea, he said.Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) today said it has inked a pact with a Delhi government department to provide industry specific job oriented to students of two Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs).

The company has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Directorate of Training and Technical (DTTE), Delhi government's nodal body for providing technical manpower, HMSI said in a statement.

Honda and the DTTE will now collaborate to provide industry specific job oriented to students of two Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in Delhi at Jaffarpur and Nand Nagri, it added.

As part of the collaboration, HMSI would be investing in fully functional service workshops with tools in the two ITIs.

"Students can now have more industry relevant skills and increase their employability chances. Contributing to further boost the industry, Honda 2Wheelers will be collaborating with more ITIs in India in the next financial year," HMSI Vice President - Customer Service Prabhu Nagraj said.

Since 2016, HMSI is actively working to support education of students on an industry focused curriculum. The company has so far trained more than 3,000 technicians across the country at its five existing Honda Technical Centres of Excellence located in Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Bangalore and Karnal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In an appalling incident, inmates of a college hostel here were allegedly strip-searched on the direction of the warden after a sanitary napkin was found discarded carelessly near the toilet.

The incident, which has sparked protests by students, occurred yesterday at the hostel of the Dr. Hari Singh Gour's Central University when the warden, Professor Chanda Ben, was undertaking an inspection, the hostel inmates told reporters here.

They said that the warden, angry at the napkin not being properly disposed of, asked the hostel's women staff to check the private parts of students to find if they were menstruating after no one owned up.

Over 40 of them staged a protest in front of the Vice-Chancellor's residence, situated within the campus, demanding action against the warden.

Speaking to PTI, VC Professor RP Tiwari said, "Nearly 40 students came to my residence to complain about the incident. They are like my daughters and I apologised to them. It is very shameful, condemnable and highly painful."



He said that he had constituted a three-member committee to probe the incident and it would submit its report in three days.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, student wing of the RSS, and other unions staged a protest today with ABVP leader Jyotish Pandey asking authorities to keep the warden away from work till the probe was completed.

The leader of Congress' student wing National Students Union of India (NSUI), Rahul Khare, submitted a memorandum to the university administration demanding that retired judges and other eminent persons be appointed to the probe committee instead of university teachers.

In order to raise awareness among teachers, they also distributed sanitary napkins to them.

Sagar Lok Sabha MP Laxminarayan Yadav called the alleged action of the warden as "shameful", but added that it was a "small incident" and the media should not get "agitated" over it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court today wondered as to how convicted persons, who are barred from electoral politics, can decide candidates in polls and ensure maintenance of probity in public life.

The apex court, which was hearing a PIL seeking that convicted persons be restrained from forming and holding posts in political parties for the period they are disqualified under the election law, posted the matter to May 3 for final disposal.

"Here is a person who is convicted and disqualified from contesting an election. How can he decide the candidates for election? How the purity of democracy can be maintained," the bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked.

The bench, also comprising justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, on a lighter note said the convicted persons can form an "association of convicted persons".

"They cannot contest election because they are constitutionally debarred. Can they hold the party post and can they form a political party. Of course they can form an association of convicted persons, but can they form a political party?" the court said.

The bench, asked both the parties to submit their written notes on May 3.

Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for the Centre, referred to the affidavit and said that no person can be barred from creating a party and holding posts in such an organisation.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by lawyer and BJP leader Ashwini K Upadhyay seeking that convicted people be restrained from forming political parties and becoming office-bearers during the period they are disqualified.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Upadhyay, said 40 per cent of the legislators are either convicted or facing trial.

"40 per cent of legislators are either convicted or facing trial. That is why there is resistance. They do not want probity," he said.

The top court had on December 1 last year sought the response of the Centre and the Election Commission on the PIL and agreed to examine the constitutional validity of section 29A of the Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1951 (RPA), which deals with the power of the poll panel to register a political party.

The plea said convicted politicians, who are barred from contesting elections, can still run political parties and hold posts, besides deciding as to who will become a lawmaker.

It has sought a direction to declare section 29A of the RPA as "arbitrary, irrational and ultra-vires" to the Constitution and to authorise the poll panel to register and de-register political parties.

The petitioner has also sought a direction to the Election Commission to frame guidelines to decriminalise the electoral system and ensure inner party democracy, as proposed by the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC).

The petition said currently, even a person who has been convicted of heinous crimes like murder, rape, smuggling, money laundering, loot, sedition, or dacoity, can form a political party and become its president or office bearer.

The petition named several top political leaders who have been convicted or have charges framed against them and are holding top political posts and "wielding political power".

It said the proliferation of political parties has become a major concern as Section 29A of the RP Act allows a small group of people to form a political party by making a very simple declaration.

"Presently, about 20 per cent of registered political parties contest election and remaining 80 per cent parties create excessive load on electoral system and public money," the plea said.

The plea also claimed that in 2004, the poll panel had proposed amendment to Section 29A, authorising it to issue apt orders regulating the registration or de-registration of political parties.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)IIT-Hyderabad is going to undertake a study on ways in which ageing is conceptualised within In-Vitro Fertilisation by researching on elderly couples conceiving and giving birth to children in north India with the help of IVF.

The project has been sanctioned funding of Rs 25 lakh under the Wellcome UK Small Projects Grant for 2018, the institute said in a statement.

The project will commence next month and includes fieldwork and a conference on 'Reframing the Biological Clock: Exploring Ethnographic Research on Ageing and Reproduction' in August this year with presentations from academics across the world, it said.

The conference will focus on ongoing research on aspects of the ageing reproductive body and how technology and society imagine childbirth and families in such a context.

Research from Europe, the USA and Asia will be presented at the conference, which will be hosted by IIT Hyderabad.

Dr. Anindita Majumdar, Assistant Professor, Department of Liberal Arts, IIT Hyderabad, who will be leading the research, said, "The aim of the research is to contribute conceptually and through field data to ongoing, and future research on assisted conception, infertility and reproduction in India."



"This would include publications emerging from research, and the development of a larger research project that will look at the impact that societal and environmental factors have on increasing fears of declining fertility in urban India."



According to the statement, Wellcome UK is a global charitable organisation that supports scientists and researchers take on big problems, fuel imaginations, and spark debate.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad are going to conduct a research on whether technologies like IVF are helping in reframing the "biological clock" and giving mothers more time to conceive.

The project, titled "A Preliminary Study of Ageing and Assisted Reproduction in India", has been sanctioned a funding of Rs 25 lakh under the Wellcome UK Small Projects Grant for 2018.

The researchers are going to undertake a study on the ways in which ageing is conceptualised through In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) by researching on elderly couples conceiving and giving birth to children in north India with the help of the technology.

"The aim of the research is to contribute conceptually and through field data to ongoing and future research on assisted conception, infertility and reproduction in India.

"This will include publications emerging from research and the development of a larger research project that will look at the impact that societal and environmental factors have on the increasing fears of declining fertility in urban India," Anindita Majumdar, Assistant Professor at IIT Hyderabad who will be leading the group of researchers, said.

The research firmly embeds itself within the emerging issues of "biological clock" and declining fertility, which have a long-term significance on demographic and population trends as well as on the social care and responsibilities of an ageing population.

The project will commence in April and include fieldwork and a conference on "Reframing the Biological Clock: Exploring Ethnographic Research on Ageing and Reproduction" in August with presentations from academics across the world.

The conference will focus on ongoing research on the aspects of ageing reproductive body and how technology and society imagine childbirth and families in such a context.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chennai-based IMC Ltd has won oil regulator PNGRB's nod to lay a natural gas pipeline from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Nellore in Tamil Nadu.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) last month issued the authorisation for the Kakinada-Vijayawada-Nellore pipeline.

According to the authorisation letter, the 522-km pipeline would have a capacity to carry 18 million standard cubic metres per day of natural gas.

Starting from Kakinada it will go to Rajahmundry and Vijayawada and onwards to Guntur and Ongole before terminating at Nellore, PNGRB said in the letter.

IMC is a port terminalling and infrastructure company that is engaged in bulk liquid tank storage, dry bulk terminals, international trading, and oil exploration businesses. Incorporated in 1935, the company was formerly known as The Indian Molasses Company.

According to the approval, IMC would also build 145 km of spur lines to feed customers enroute.

Kakinada is the landfall point of natural gas being produced from KG basin fields in Bay of Bengal. A floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility is also planned at Kakinada and the pipeline would help that the fuel to customers down south.

Previously, Relogistics Infrastructure Ltd (Relog), a subsidiary of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd (RGTIL), had won approval to lay a KakinadaChennai pipeline. But the authorisation was cancelled as the company made little progress in implementing the pipeline.

Relog had also won government authorisation to lay KakinadaBasudebpurHowrah pipeline, ChennaiBangaloreMangalore pipeline and ChennaiTuticorin line but nod for these too along with the KakinadaChennai line was cancelled because of little progress in implementation of these projects.

PNGRB said IMC's Kakinada-Vijayawada-Nellore pipeline would have 4.5 mmscmd capacity for leasing to third parties on common carrier principle basis.

"The entity is allowed a maximum period of 36 months from the date of issue of the authorisation letter for commissioning of the natural gas pipeline project," it said.

Failure do comply with the target deadline would attract consequences, the regulator said adding the company would have to submitted a financial closure report to the Board within 180 days.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An India-born millionaire is fighting a divorce battle akin to Britain's exit from the European Union after disputing his estranged wife's right to bring the case before a UK court.

John Pyres lived in the UK before moving to Europe to work for the European Commission in Brussels years ago, where he met his wife, Una Kelly.

He argued in the Court of Appeal in London today that Kelly's Irish roots made her more European than British. The couple, who got married in Italy in 2005, had only lived together in England for a year between 2001 and 2002.

Kelly, who grew up in Ireland and now works for the EU in Serbia, last year chose to bring divorce proceedings in London, despite not being a UK resident.

Pyres believes the case should be heard in Bosnia, where the couple most recently lived together.

The 73-year-old's barrister, Timothy Scott, told the court that Kelly never considered London her "permanent home", and only came to the UK in the Nineties to study for a Master's degree in Manchester.

The couple, who separated in 2015, are fighting over assets including a 2.5-million-pound home in Fulham, west London, property in Brussels and a Tuscan farmhouse in Italy, Evening Standard newspaper reported.

Scott pointed out that the judge who allowed the divorce proceedings to commence, Justice Cobb, had noted "the absence in her (Kelly's) evidence of either emotional warmth or attachment to England as a country".

He said although Kelly was born in Stoke-on-Trent in England, the family moved to Ireland before she was a year old. Despite having Irish-British nationality since 1995, she had "repeatedly presented herself to the world as an Irish national".

The court was also told that Pyres believes Italy to be his "spiritual home" and had left the UK as he did not enjoy his time in the country because of racial discrimination.

Barrister Charles Hale, arguing for 44-year-old Kelly, showed the court a paper for her Master's degree as proof of her connect with England.

"She demonstrated her passion for England by writing a thesis on English country houses, rather than Irish art or Irish cultural heritage for instance," he said.

Hale said she considered the house in west London as her home, adding that she had been paying UK taxes, has a doctor in Fulham, and had moved back temporarily to London around the time she gave birth to her first child. He also claimed that she intends to retire in England when she turns 65.

Three judges, hearing the case in the Court of Appeal, have reserved their judgment on the matter until a later date.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India expressed today its deepest condolences to the families and friends of the 64 victims who were killed in a major fire at a busy shopping mall packed with children and their parents in Russia's Kemerovo city.

The fire at the Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometres east of Moscow, was doused this morning.

Russian television showed images of thick black smoke billowing out of the roof of the shopping centre.

Emergency services minister Vladimir Puchkov said on Russian television: "We have recorded that unfortunately as a result of the accident 64 people died."



Embassy of India said in a tweet that it "expresses its deepest condolences to the families and friends of victims of Kemerovo tragedy".

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of lives, including many children. Our prayers and thoughts are with them," Embassy of India said in a tweet here.

India's Ambassador to Russia Pankaj Saran said in a tweet: "Deepest condolences on tragic loss of lives in fire in Keremovo mall in Siberia".

Russia's Investigative Committee said the roof collapsed in two theatres of the cinema in the blaze, which erupted at around 4 PM local time yesterday.

The doors of one of the shopping centre's cinemas, where children were watching cartoon films, were locked and people did not hear alarms, Witnesses told Russian television.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India may extend the anti-dumping duty to jute sacking clothes from Bangladesh as the commerce ministry has found imports of the product to avoid duties on jute bags from the neighbouring country.

The commerce ministry's investigation arm Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) has initiated a probe into circumvention of anti-dumping duties on jute sacking bags from the neighbouring country.

The Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA) has filed an application before the authority alleging that the duty on jute sacking bags is being circumvented by imports of jute sacking cloth, which is an unfinished and penultimate form of the bags, from Bangladesh.

The DGAD in a notification has said that it has found "sufficient prima facie evidence" of circumvention of the anti-dumping duties leviable on jute bags by the country.

It "hereby initiates an investigation into the alleged circumvention of the anti-dumping duties...to determine the existence, degree and effect of the alleged circumvention and to examine the need to extend the existing anti-dumping duty to the circumventing product," the DGAD said.

The finance ministry in January 2017 imposed the anti-dumping duty on jute sacking bags to protect domestic manufacturers from cheap imports.

The petitioners have sought extension of the existing anti-dumping duty to jute sacking clothes as well.

The product under investigation is jute sacking cloth, alleged to be circumventing the anti-dumping duty, the DGAD said adding the circumventing product goes into use of jute sacking bags.

The period of investigation is from October 2016 to December 2017 (15 months).

Companies involved in jute goods manufacturing in the country includes Gloster Ltd and Ludlow Jute & Specialities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The domestic industry should work on improving product standards to enhance competitiveness and not always seek tariff protection as it has not worked, a top government official said today.

"We have continuously as a country chosen to use tariff, use protectionism, use some other fig leaf to sort of insulate ourselves from the world. It has not worked," Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said.

Citing example of using trade remedies such as imposing anti-dumping duties, she said India is the largest user of these measures but it has not stopped the inflow of imports.

India has the space to increase duties when required, "but it is not desirable. So what exists that is useful and good for us is technical regulations and certification of those regulations", she said.

"This is how all other countries ensure to protect their own markets, consumers and meet global standards," she added.

Teaotia also asked the industry to manufacture and sell high quality goods and services to domestic consumers as well.

"...we should not keep (ourselves) behind tariff barriers. Ultimately we will need to reduce tariffs," she said.

When asked about US challenging India's export incentive schemes in the World Trade Organisation, she said the foreign trade policy clearly stated that India would soon cross the threshold of GDP per capita and India needs to adopt schemes that are 100 per cent WTO compliant.

However, she added that India recognises its obligation but there is also a "very clear timeline by which we should be achieving that".

Replying to a question on a possibility to start talks for a free trade pact with the US, she said it is an "interesting idea", but both the the markets are "pretty" open and one has to see the gain of such pacts for India.

Talking about a FTA with UK, the secretary said Britain has expressed interest for this but "we would be awaiting the contours of Brexit".

Replying to a question on refund of Goods and Services Tax (GST) to exporters, she said revenue authorities have set up camps across the country to ease the refund woes and industry should visit those camps and give feedback to the commerce ministry.

Agreeing with exporters that banks have become conservative, she said efforts would be made to resolve exporters' issues.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court today extended the interim protection against arrest to Karti Chidambaram, granted by the Delhi High Court in the INX Media money laundering case, till April 2.

The order came as the Enforcement Directorate sought an authoritative pronouncement from the top court in view of several conflicting orders of different high courts on the probe agency's power of arrest under section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud was told by Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the ED has been armed with the power of arrest under the statute, keeping in mind the several international conventions underlining the need to curb money laundering generated from drugs smuggling, terror financing and blackmoney routing.

Mehta referred to the 1988 UN convention and said the member countries felt the need to have a law to deal with the offence money laundering.

The advent of e-commerce has made investigation into money laundering more difficult as ill-gotten wealth have been transferred to all corners of the world very conveniently after the globalisation, he said.

The bench said the interim order of March 15 granting protection of arrest to Karti, son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, till today, is extended till April 2. The hearing, which remained inconclusive, would also continue on April 2.

On March 15, the apex court had given the interim relief to Karti in the INX media money laundering case and said it would clear the "confusion" which has crept in due to the divergent views of different high courts on ED's power to arrest.

The apex court had also transferred to itself the matters pending before the Delhi High Court relating to the power of Enforcement Directorate (ED) to arrest in money laundering cases and also a plea filed by Karti seeking protection from arrest in ED's case.

The top court had said it would answer the question about interpretation of section 19 of the PMLA relating to ED's power to arrest and also deal with the issue whether high courts can grant protection from arrest on a plea under Article 226 of the Constitution which deals with high court's power to issue writs and orders.

Karti was on March 23 granted bail by the Delhi High Court in connection with the INX Media corruption case lodged by the CBI. He was arrested by the CBI on February 28 in Chennai immediately after he returned from abroad.

In his plea before the high court, Karti has sought striking down of ED's power of arrest under section 19 of the PMLA, besides seeking quashing of the enforcement case information report (ECIR) and the probe being carried out by the agency.

He has also sought striking down the presumption codified in section 24 of the PMLA which says that when a person is accused of having committed an offence under section 3 (money laundering), the burden of proving that proceeds of the crime are untainted property, shall be on the accused.

An FIR by CBI, filed on May 15 last year, had alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving Rs 305 crore in overseas funds in 2007 when P Chidambaram was union finance minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Jammu and Kashmir Police is all set to include over 150 bulletproof gypsies in its fleet, a step taken after increasing terror attacks on security forces, a police official said today.

In this regard, the police had floated a notice last week inviting tender for fabrication of the vehicles into bullet resistant vehicles (BRVs) to arm officers, cops and moving patrol teams against the terror attacks.

The Centre government has already announced Rs 500 crores for the modernization of J&K Police under Prime Minister Development Programme.

"J&K government hereby invited reputed and registered manufacturers of fabrication of bullet resistant vehicles to unarmour 154 gypsies with protection against 7.62mmX39mm (AK-47) without run flat system", Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Provisions, Mubassir Latifi, said.

A lot of things are being procured to modernize the police force after recent attacks on policemen by terrorists. The Ministry of Home Affairs was kind enough to take swift action and sanctioned the bullet proof vehicles for almost all police stations and senior officers, Director General of Police (DGP) J&K, S P Vaid, said.

The underbelly of vehicles shall be protected against the blasts of two hand grenades of HE-36 intensity, the AIG said, adding the bullet resistant material and bullet resistant glasses to be used shall withstand the required protection levels as laid down in the test direction of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

In terrorist attacks in the state, as many as 72 civilians and 201 security personnel were killed during 2015-17, the officer said.

In 2018, there were 28 incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir in which four security personnel and eight militants were killed, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Japanese food processing and seasoning company Ajinomoto would tap social and digital media to create awareness about safe consumption of its popular monosodium glutamate (MSG) seasoning product aji-no-moto in India, a top company official has said.

The Indian subsidiary of Japan-headquartered company currently imports aji-no-moto from its Thailand factory which mainly serves to the South East Asian countries.

As part of boosting demand in Indian market, the company, would adopt various methodologies towards addressing consumers on safety, Ajinomoto India, Marketing Manager, Govind Biswas said here.

Through the social media, the company would launch series of cookery videos and shows on Indian recipies besides an awareness campaign, he told visiting Indian journalists at the company's factory located at Si Ayutthaya about 100 kms from here.

The Thailand factory produces 64,000 tonnes of aji-no-moto per year which also serves the Indian market.

Talking about Indian operations, Biswas said, the Ajinomoto Group formally launched the Indian subsidiary in 2003 which retails a range of products including aji-no-moto, specific menu seasoning mix Hapima, Blendy-3 in 1 Masala Chai or coffee mix.

Elaborating, he said, Ajinomoto is the brand name and the product name is the Mono Sodium Glutamate (MSG) made from Tapioca starch and Sugarcane molasses through fermentation process at the factory here.

He said the Indian market for MSG was about 10,500 tonne per year and 90 per cent of the market was served from Chinese local brands.

"Ajinomoto India is exploring various methodologies addressing consumers about its MSG product's safety. Especially by taking social media as a tool, it is developing a series of cookery videos, shows on Indian recipies and also taking awareness activities," he said.

According to him, the usage of MSG was to enhance taste, increase deliciousness of the food. "The Glutamate gives sense of 'enough feel' to consumers avoiding excess eating," he said.

Stating that consumers having high blood pressure are advised to restrict or resist consuming sodium normally contained in common salt, he said, use of MSG reduces 35 per cent of sodium in-take, without compromising on the palatability of the foods.

To a query, he said, aji-no-moto MSG can also be produced by using corn, wheat, rice and sugar beet (apart from Tapioca starch and sugarcane molasses).

Aji-no-moto was consumed in over 130 countries, he said, adding in India the company has presence in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, New Delhi, Mizoram and West Bengal.

Asked the reasons to import from Thailand factory than to produce at its five acre facility near Chennai, he said, "Since the consumption of Aji-no-moto is less (in India), we are importing from Thailand. Once demand increases, we will be looking at producing in India."



Currently, the company retails specific menu seasoning mix Hapima, which is available in fried rice mix-original, hot and spicy and masala.

Declining to reveal figures, he said, the consumption of Hapima in India witnessed 200 per cent last year.

As part of diversifying the company's products apart from Aji-no-moto, he said, the company was also retailing Blendy-3-in-1 Masala Chai and Coffee for the Indian market.

"Blendy can be consumed as an instant coffee by adding a cup of hot water," he said.

The pre-mix powdered beverages market in India is estimated at 4,100 tonne and is growing at a rate of six per cent, every year, he said.

Aji-no-moto currently has about 44,000 outlets in Tamil Nadu and plans to offer Blendy in 22,000 outlets by next year.

He said Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has certified Aji-no-moto while US Food and Drug Administration has given MSG as "generally recognised as safe".

Currently, MSG was widely used in China, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mexico, African markets, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) today lodged a complaint against the police department accusing its personnel of "assaulting" students during a protest march last week.

The union also demanded an FIR against all police personnel who were involved in the alleged attacks.

According to the complaint filed at Sarojini Nagar police station, "The mayhem which Delhi Police unleashed on students and teachers was unprecedented. It is shameful that Delhi Police which claims to be gender sensitive had allowed its male police force to indiscriminately assault and molest women protesters."



On March 23, during a 'Padyatra' conducted by JNU students and teachers, the police resorted to lathicharge and used water canons to disperse the crowd near Sanjay Jheel in Lakshmi Bai Nagar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A local journalist was among two persons killed when an SUV rammed into their bike in Bhojpur district, with the family alleging that it was a case of murder and a former village head was behind it, police said today.

Naveen and his friend Vijay Singh were riding a motorcycle last night when they were crushed to death by the SUV near Nahsi village.

Irate villagers intercepted the vehicle, but its occupants fled. The mob set the SUV on fire, Avakash Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Bhojpur, said.

Rajesh, brother of Naveen Nishchal who worked for a Hindi daily, had alleged in the FIR that it was a case of murder and a former Panchayat Mukhiya Ahmed Ali alias Harsu and his son Dabloo were behind it, the SP said.

The SUV belongs to Harsu.

It was alleged in the FIR that Harsu had been nursing a grouse against the reporter, the SP said.

Efforts are on to nab the father-son duo who are absconding, the SP said adding that villagers had also vandalised the house of the ex-village head.

Police have been deployed in the village where the situation is tense but under control.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A group of journalists today took out a protest march from Press Club of India to the Parliament Complex, demanding action against Delhi Police officials accused of attacking journalists during a protest march organised by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students and teachers last week.

In a statement, the protesting journalists demanded that two separate FIRs be filed against policemen based on two complaints and immediate action be taken.

The statement was issued by Press Club of India, Indian Women's Press Corps, Press Association and Federation of Press Clubs in India, and Indian Crime Reporters' Association.

The journalists were stopped by the police on Raisina Road. They submitted a memorandum of their demands to the police.

Two journalists had on March 23 filed separate complaints - one for molestation and another for assault during the protest march on Friday last.

The police resorted to lathicharge and used water canons to disperse the crowd near Sanjay Jheel in Lakshmi Bai Nagar.

A woman constable and a head constable of the Delhi Police were suspended for allegedly snatching the camera of a photo journalist during the protest march.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The JSW Group will invest up to USD 500 million more in its steel pipes and plates facility in Texas, helping it achieve the full 1-million tonne installed capacity of the plant it had bought in 2007 and stop sourcing raw steel from Latin America and India.

The JSW group had bought the then bankrupt Baytown steel asset for USD 810 million in October 2007, and is operating at just about 30 per cent or 3 lakh tonne now.

Since the acquisition, JSW has invested around USD 220 million in working capital and incurred USD 170 million in losses, taking its total exposure to the facility to USD 1.2 billion, JSW Group chairman Sajjan Jindal said here today.

"The Jindals' investment will go into backward integration and also to create the first melt and manufacture contiguous plates and pipes facility in Texas," Texas governor Gregory Abbott told reporters here while signing the investment pact.

Junior Jindal, Prath, who is also a director at the Group and also heads the US operations of JSW Steel, was quick to add the plant since then has almost turned around with cash profit of USD 180 million last year and expressed optimism that it will turnaround fully by 2020.

The plant will serve the oil and gas rich Texas, which is the second largest American state and also the largest exporter from the world's largest economy, Abbott said.

He said the investment over the next two years will create 500 new jobs. The plant already employs 350 people.

The junior Jindal said currently the plant, which runs at 30 per cent of the installed 1-million tonne capacity, sources steel from Brazil, Mexico and India, which will stop completely once the new facility is commissioned as it will sourcing raw steel from within Texas/US itself.

"From India alone, we have been importing 1.5 lakh tonne of raw steel plates. This will come to an end by October 2020 when the second phase of expansion is complete. The first phase will be over by March 2019," Parth Jindal said.

Sajjan Jindal said the plant will get USD 3.4 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund on completion of the investment, which is subject to the approval from the environmental protection agency.

The plant will come up at Baytown in the minerals-rich state, around 30 miles from Houston, senior Jindal said.

Parth Jindal also said JSW Steel USA Inc will be rebranded as JSW USA.

When asked about the timing of investment as to whether this was aimed at circumventing the new duties slapped on steel imports by the Donald Trump regimen, Parth parried a direct answer saying, "this investment is part of our long-term strategy to enhance our US footprint.

"It reiterates our commitment to stay invested and grow in the US market. It also provides us with an opportunity to participate in America's infrastructure development and job creation priorities."



He further said the decision is also driven by the easy access to natural gas at extremely economical prices and abundant availability of scrap steel in Texas.

He said this investment was in the works for the past 18 months but was delayed due to very low crude prices.

"Since the prices have recovered to reasonable levels now, we thought of speeding up our plans. The Texan oil and gas industry needs 8-mt of steel pipes and plates annually of which almost 25 per cent are met through imports. This market is what we are trying to capture.

"Since the crude prices have moved up there is lot of replacement demand for pipes and plates now in the oil sector," the junior Jindal said.

Commenting on the investment, Abbott said, "This will not only expand the steel mill in Baytown, but will also construct a facility that will use melt-and-manufacture technology thereby enabling the company to supply steel for defence and domestic infrastructure projects."



"This investment will strengthen our overall partnership and generate more economic activity in Texas, creating up to 500 new jobs as well as provide high-quality steel products to the US," the governor added.

Already a USD 150-million investment is underway at the plant to augment its capabilities, which will be completed by March 2020. JSW will invest USD 350 million more to set-up a new hot-end facility to make steel melt and manufacture.

The Baytown facility is already one of the largest steel plates and pipes mills in Texas and serves the energy, petrochemicals, defence and other heavy industries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)JSW Group today announced an investment of up to USD 500 million to set up a one million tonne steel pipe and plates facility at Texas in the US.

Announcing the investment here in the presence of Texas governor Gregory Abbott, JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal said the plant will get USD 3.4 million from the Texas enterprise fund.

The plant will come up at Baytown in the minerally rich state, that is the largest exporter from the US.

The company signed an agreement with the office of the governor of Texas.

The new facility will create at least 500 jobs in his state, Abbott said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The next of kin of four youths from Himachal Pradesh who were killed in Iraq would be given ex-gratia relief of Rs four lakh each, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur informed the state Assembly today.

The 39 Indians abducted in Iraq in 2014 were killed by Islamic State terrorists and buried in a mass grave, the government told Parliament last week.

Making a suo motu statement in the state Assembly today, Thakur said the four deceasedyouths from the state were identified as Aman Kumar, Sandeep Singh Rana, Inderjeet, residents of Kangra district and Hemraj of Mandi district.

The Indian government was in constant touch with their Iraqi counterpart but later it came to light that a large number of bodies were buried under a mountain in Badush city and the was later confirmed by Deep penetration radars, he said.

The state government would make necessary arrangements to send the bodies of four Himachali youths to their respective villages, the chief minister said.

Thakur also informed the House that all efforts were being made to rescue the three Himachali youths -- Sushil Kumar, Pankaj Kumar and Ajay Kumar -- all from Kangra district, who have been abducted by Nigerian pirates.

He said that Raghuvir Singh, the father of Sushil Kumar, one of the abducted youths,had informed the police that he received a satellite call from his son on March 12 that he along with two other Himachali youths had been kidnapped.

Further, it was also brought to our notice that on March 24, the pirates demanded ransom to be paid by today, he said, adding that the state government has talked to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and requested her to make efforts to release the abducted youths.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Land degradation will unleash a mass migration of at least 50 million people by 2050 -- as many as 700 million unless humans stop depleting the life-giving resource, dozens of scientists warned today.

Already, land decay caused by unsustainable farming, mining, pollution, and city expansion is undermining the well-being of some 3.2 billion people -- 40 per cent of the global population, they said in the first comprehensive assessment of land health.

The condition of land is "critical," said the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

"We've converted large amounts of our forests, we've converted large amounts of our grasslands, we've lost 87 percent of our wetlands... we've really changed our land surface in the last several hundred years," IPBES chairman Robert Watson said of the findings.

"The message is: land degradation, loss of productivity of those soils and those vegetations will force people to move. It will be no longer viable to live on those lands," he told AFP.

"Between now and 2050, we estimate the number could be 50 (million) to some 700 million people."



The lowest number is a best-case-scenario projection, said Watson.

It assumes "we're actually starting to be much more sustainable, we've really tried hard to have sustainable agricultural practices, sustainable forestry, we've tried to minimize climate change."



The upper end of the range is based on a "business-as-usual" approach.

The main drivers of land degradation, said the report, were "high-consumption lifestyles" in rich countries, and rising demand for products in developing ones, fueled by income and population growth.

The problem of land decay does not only impact the people who live on it, the assessment underlined.

It threatens food security for all Earth's citizens, as well as access to clean water and breathable air regulated by the soil and the plants that grow on it.

Yet less than a quarter of land has managed to escape "substantial impacts" of human activity -- primarily because it is found in inhospitable parts of the world.

And even this small repository is projected to shrink to less than 10 per cent in just 30 years' time.

"People are pushing into those frontiers," said Bob Scholes of the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, a co-author of the paper.

"One of the consequences of global warming is that we are moving agriculture into areas" such as the icy, subarctic Boreal region, he told AFP.

"Tropical rainforests historically have had low human populations because it's hard to get in there -- we are now building roads into them, we are putting agriculture into them," Scholes said.

"In the extreme desert areas we are finding deep aquifers, and we're pumping up, unsustainably, ancient water resources to irrigate."



By 2014, more than 1.5 billion hectares of natural ecosystems had been converted to croplands, said the analysis.

Crop and grazing lands now cover more than a third of the Earth's land surface.

This means not only a loss of soil, but also populations of wild plants and animals, and forests that suck up planet-warming carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.

The IPBES assessment took 100 volunteer experts from around the globe three years to compile, analyzing all the available scientific data.

The end product covers the entirety of Earth's land, as well as the lakes and rivers it supports.

The analysis estimated that land degradation cost the equivalent of 10 percent of global economic output in 2010.

Degraded land yields less, and polluted water has to be purified at high cost.

"If we did not have land degradation across the world our economy would be 10 percent stronger," Watson elaborated. "This is a major economic issue for the world."



The report identified land degradation as a major contributor to climate change.

Deforestation alone contributes to about 10 percent of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.

And by releasing carbon once locked in the soil, land decay was responsible for global emissions of up to 4.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year between 2000 and 2009.

In 30 years from now, an estimated four billion people -- about 40 per cent of the projected population by then -- will live in "dryland" areas, arid and semi-arid places with low agriculture productivity, said the report.

Today, the number is just over three billion.

"Implementing the right actions to combat land degradation can transform the lives of millions of people across the planet, but this will become more difficult and more costly the longer we take to act," concluded Watson.

The land report, which cost about $1 million (810,000 euros) to prepare, is meant to inform government policy-making.

It was approved by government envoys at a week-long meeting of the 129-member IPBES in Medellin.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Trump administration has slapped sanctions on companies across the globe to punish illicit trade with nuclear-armed North Korea, yet Myanmar, which is suspected of acquiring ballistic missile systems from the pariah state, has escaped the full force of the "maximum pressure" campaign.

US lawmakers of both parties say that's a worrying gap in the US sanctions regime.

A recent United Nations report cites Myanmar's "ongoing" arms relationship with North Korea underscoring long-standing suspicions Myanmar has failed to sever those military ties as it has transitioned to democracy.

"I want Burma to succeed," Republican Sen. Cory Gardner told The Associated Press, using the alternative name for Myanmar.

"I want its civilian leadership to succeed. But we can't stand idly by and watch this military trade with the tyrant in North Korea," said Gardner, who chairs a Senate panel on Asia.

Republican Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also said Myanmar officials "buying arms and propping up the North Korean regime" must be sanctioned.

President Barack Obama lifted all sanctions on Myanmar in the fall of 2016 after Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to power, ending five decades of army rule. That removed dozens of people and companies that had been blacklisted by the Treasury Department for human rights abuses and ties to the junta. But it also provided a reprieve to a handful of Myanmar companies and military officials accused of military trade with North Korea that violated UN Security Council resolutions.

After President Donald Trump took office, Myanmar's main player in that trade, the Directorate for Defence Industries, was designated again, but this time under a weaker sanctions authority that restricts it from US government contracts and export licensing.

However, the other Myanmar companies and persons that used to be blacklisted have not been sanctioned again, and none has been put back on the Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals. Such a designation bars them from holding any US property, doing business with Americans and conducting transactions in the US financial system.

Joseph DeThomas, a former senior State Department sanctions expert, said that for any reputable company it's bad to be under any U.S. sanctions, but "nothing makes your life more miserable than having every bank in the world know you are on the SDN list."



The UN report, recently made public, says the Directorate for Defence Industries maintains a "sophisticated global procurement network." It also mentioned Soe Min Htike Co. Ltd and Excellence Mineral Manufacturing Co. Ltd, two Myanmar companies that were also once on the Treasury blacklist.

SDN listing is a tool that Trump has used extensively on North Korea in his "maximum pressure" campaign that he credits for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's recent offer of negotiations on "denuclearization."



Despite president's surprise consent to a hold a summit with Kim by May, the administration says the campaign will continue until North Korea takes concrete action to end its nuclear program.

In the past year, the US has blacklisted about 200 companies, banks, persons and ships based in North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Marshall Islands, Russia, Georgia, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. That has intensified North Korea's economic isolation in support of UN sanctions that have cut deeply into the North's export earnings.

Myanmar is still a potentially important source of funds for Pyongyang.

When it was under junta rule, it likely became the biggest customer in Asia for North Korean armaments, said Thomas Countryman, a former top State Department official on nonproliferation. He said that included a production facility for assembling short-range ballistic missiles.

As the US normalized diplomatic relations, Myanmar took some positive steps to curtail its North Korea ties by stopping money transfers and restricting the activities of North Korean personnel. Myanmar also told U.S. officials it had cancelled North Korean contracts, Countryman said.

"There were several points at which we were assured that everything had stopped. Then it began to be clear that it hadn't," he said. That reflected differences between the civilian government, which wanted to sever the ties, and the powerful military, which did not, he said.

Myanmar is increasingly in Washington's bad books again for a scorched-earth crackdown on Rohingya Muslims that the US has called "ethnic cleansing."



The administration has already designated one military official. A bill approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month seeks sanctions on others responsible atrocities. The legislation would also require SDN listing for any Myanmar officials purchasing arms from North Korea.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The foreign ministers of Lithuania and Poland today said they would expel Russian diplomats in solidarity with Britain over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in the English city of Salisbury.

"We handed a note to the ambassador that three Russian embassy officials are declared persona non grata for activities incompatible with their diplomatic status," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told AFP.

Polish counterpart Jacek Czaputowicz, for his part, told reporters: "The four Russian diplomats have until midnight on April 3 to leave Poland.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly today unanimously passed a resolution recommending the Centre to rename the Kolhapur airport as the 'Chhatrapati Rajaram Maharaj Airport'.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis moved the resolution in the Lower House to rename the airport after the member of the erstwhile royal family of Kolhapur.

The Chair then put the resolution to vote which was passed unanimously.

Fadnavis said the resolution of the House will be sent to the Centre.

There was a long pending demand from the people and leaders of the district for renaming the Kolhapur airport after Chhatrapati Rajaram Maharaj.

The civic body of Kolhapur had passed a resolution to this effect earlier.

The Fadnavis cabinet had also decided in January this year to rename the airport after Chhatrapati Rajaram Maharaj, who is credited with launching various infrastructure projects, including the airstrip in the erstwhile princely state of Kolhapur.

He was the son of legendary king Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested eight Bangladeshi nationals from suburban Kandivali for staying in the country without valid documents, police said.

The eight were nabbed following a raid by Charkop unit of the ATS in Kandivali's Laljipada area yesterday night, officials said.

"They have confessed that they are citizens of Bangladesh. Two had managed to procure PAN and Aadhaar cards as well. They have been booked under relevant sections of the Passport( Entry Into India) Rules, the Foreigners Act and the IPC," he said.

Police said that they had been remanded in police custody till March 31 and further investigations were underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Maharashtra government has identified two buildings in suburban Govandi for setting up a sanatorium for cancer patients undergoing treatment at the Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) in the city, state Health Minister Deepak Sawant told the Assembly today.

The buildings with 300 apartments, located in Mahul in the eastern suburb, will also house relatives of the patients who visit the TMH for treatment, said Sawant.

He was replying to a supplementary raised by Ajay Chaudhary (Shiv Sena) who represents Parel assembly constituency in the city where TMH is located.

The minister said the government had forwarded a proposal for the (Govandi) sanatorium, which will also house relatives of cancer patients, to Urban Development (UD) department.

"We have also discussed this with the Tata Memorial Hospital. A bus service from Mahul to the TMH will be started. The sanatorium will also have boarding and lodging facilities," said the minister.

Raising the accommodation issues faced by patients and their relatives who visit the TMH from various parts of the country, the MLA said, "They have to sleep on the footpath outside the hospital".

Meanwhile, citing the Mumbai Cancer Registry, the minister said the breast cancer incidence among girls and women in the age group of 22 to 39 is 0.5 to 11 per one lakh.

He said a population-based screening of men and women above 30 years has been done for oral, uterine and breast cancers in Satara, Sindhudurg, Bhandara and Wardha districts of the state. "The screening will be extended to 12 more districts in 2018-19 and later across the state in a phased manner," he said.

Responding to a calling attention raised by Shirol MLA Ulhas Patil (Shiv Sena) who demanded a cancer hospital in view of the "rising number of patients" in the area, the minister said the government would set up pre-caner detection centres with chemotherapy facility at all public hospitals in the state.

He said a Cancer Registry would be set up in Shirol taluka through the TMH for conducting a survey on rising cancer prevalence as claimed by Patil.

Raising the demand for a cancer hospital, Patil said villagers are even ready to surrender their land for the facility.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The main accused in the rape and murder case of a minor girl in Nagon district last week has been arrested, police said today.

Five persons, including two teenaged boys, raped the 11-year-old girl and set her on fire when she was alone at home in Dhaniabheti Lalung Gaon in Nagon district on March 23. She died the next day.

With the arrest of the main accused Zakir Hussain, three of the five accused were captured.

Nagaon Superintendent of Police Sankarbrat Raimedhi told reporters that following the call list of the main accused, one person with whom he was in contact had been taken into custody.

After interrogating that person, the main accused Zakir Hussain was arrested from a paddy field of Itapara Laogaon area on the outskirts of Nagaon town on March 24 night, Raimedhi said.

Meanwhile, Raimedhi, Nagaon Deputy Commissioner Bishawjit Pegu and local MLA Angurlata Deka visited the house of the victim yesterday.

Parents of the class 5 student demanded strict action against the culprits, officials said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today directed the police to take strong action against those who carried swords and other weapons during Ram Navami processions in the state yesterday and not to spare anyone.

Without naming any particular political party, she said they were "using and selling" religion to continue their business.

"I am directing the DGP to instruct all the SPs to take strong action and not to spare anyone whoever he or she is. Law will take its own course. I will not tolerate this," Banerjee said at a meeting in Pailan near here.

She said if the police failed to take actions, steps would be taken against them.

"Can we let them rule our state ? They are hooligans," she said about those who carried the arms during the processions yesterday.

One person was killed and five police personnel injured in clashes between two groups during a Ram Navami procession in Purulia as sword-wielding BJP supporters defied a government ban on armed rallies in several places of West Bengal on Sunday, police said today.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh was seen participating in a Ram Navami rally with a sword and a mace at Kharagpur while some other BJP leaders too participated in processions in which arms were carried.

"It seemed that they were trying to teach us religion. Hindu religion has been practised by millions since ages. It has taught us tolerance. You cannot play politics with it. If you have to play politics, you have to do good for the people. Politics is for the welfare of the people. It is not to kill people...What we have seen yesterday is because of one political party".

"They are trying to win the entire India through bloodshed. I am sorry to say," she said.

The chief minister said, "Some unidentified people have come here from outside...These trouble-mongers holding pistols and swords are resorting to hooliganism. This is West Bengal. This is not our culture. We celebrate Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Ganpati puja peacefully. We also celebrate Ramzan, Christmas."



The state government did not allow armed processions yesterday in the name of Lord Ram. "Nobody gave them the right to hold such processions defaming the name of Lord Ram and kill a person," she said, adding peaceful processions were allowed.

People belonging to any community can organise processions and those who had organised rallies with arms on Ram Navami traditionally for the last 100 or 50 years or even for the last decade were permitted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee left for New Delhi today, saying she would be meeting the leaders of several opposition parties during her four-day visit to the national capital.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo left for New Delhi in the evening. She is scheduled to attend a meeting of the opposition parties, convened by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, in the national capital.

At the airport, she told reporters that it was a "routine visit".

"The Central Hall is a famous hall, where I will meet the leaders of my party and if the leaders of other parties want to meet me, I welcome them. We are all friends," she said.

A strident critic of the BJP-led central government and its policies, Banerjee had recently called for unity among all the anti-BJP forces to defeat the saffron party in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

On whether she would be meeting UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi during her visit to New Delhi, the chief minister said, "She is hospitalised. Let her recover. I do not want to disturb her."



Asked whether she would be meeting Pawar, Banerjee said, "We (TMC) have 46 MPs (including 12 Rajya Sabha members) there. Sometimes I get the opportunity to go there and meet them. I have worked as an MP for seven terms and I know many leaders and MPs of several political parties."



Pawar has called a meeting of all the opposition leaders, including those from the Congress, to discuss the strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

NCP leader Praful Patel had met Banerjee earlier this month here and invited her to attend the meet.

The TMC chief had also met TRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, who called on her to discuss the process of setting up a federal front against the BJP-led government at the Centre.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An Indian man has been arrested by the customs officials for allegedly trying to smuggle into the country gold valuing about Rs 29 lakh at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here.

According to an official statement released here today, the accused was intercepted by the customs officials after his arrival from London on Thursday.

"His personal search resulted in recovery of 125 gold coins weighing 96 grams, having market value of Rs 28.88 lakh," the statement said.

The gold was seized and the passenger has been arrested, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Microsoft today announced the formal opening of the 'Garage' here.

The Garage is a platform for Microsoft employees that supports and encourages a culture of experimentation, working together across organisations and technology to explore ideas and build prototypes, adding value to existing products, the company said.

The facility at the Microsoft India Development Centre here was inaugurated by Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao.

The 8,000 sq ft Garage India has been built to support teams from across the company for their various projects.

It has three dedicated lab sections A Hub for hackathons and workshops, a Makerspace and an Advanced Makerspace with electronic workbench, 3D printers, laser cutter, PCB milling machine for creating prototypes; a reality room dedicated to working in the space of augmented reality (AR) virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality applications and dedicated space and equipment for doing work on Deep Learning, it was stated.

"The Garage enables employees to bring to life innovative ideas and solutions. The Garage program in India will be a connector to bring together people across roles, skills, and experience to lend their passion to create solutions unique to this market," said Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Cloud & Enterprise, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two unidentified motorcycle-borne miscreants today looted Rs 3 lakh from an LIC agent in Bihar's Nawada district.

Town police station SHO Anjani Kumar said the incident occurred near Nayekhuri bridge where the bike-borne miscreants snatched away the bag containing the money from the LIC agent.

An FIR was lodged with the police, he said adding that police have started investigations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Mizoram government has sent a total of 50 students to Japan under the 'Learn and Earn' program for training and employment in the last two years, a state minister said today.

Speaking in the Mizoram Assembly, Minister for Labour, Employment, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship said that 16 students were sent to Japan in the first batch in December 2015, and were imparted training at Nagasaki and Sasebo.

The second batch of students, numbering 34, were sent to Nagasaki in January 2016, he said.

Of the first batch of students, four have returned to Mizoram while the rest remained in Japan, he said.

The state government has paid Rs 165 lakh for the first batch and Rs 442 lakh for the second batch to a Siliguri-based consultancy.

The students learnt the Japanese language and found employment, he said, adding, they were repaying the interest free loan to the state government, which they had availed for their training course.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore today said the Madhya Pradesh government should probe the death of a journalist who was mowed down by a truck in the state.

The 35-year-old journalist Sandeep Sharma was run over by the truck which is used to ferry sand, officials said.

Responding to the incident, the MoS for I&B said the state government is responsible for the law and order and it should take action after carrying out proper investigation in to the matter.

"The responsibility of journalists is to expose the truth. This is not just a profession but a way of living with principles," he said.

"There should be an investigation into the incident. The state government which is responsible for law and order should take action. Journalists do a job of great responsibility and their safety must be ensured," he said.

Sharma, who worked for a local channel, had told the Bhind district administration he feared for his life after he carried out a sting against the sand mafia in the state, his nephew, Vikas Purohit, said in a complaint to the police.

"Sandeep had petitioned the Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP), Inspector General (IG), Superintendent of Police (SP) and the Human Rights Commission stating that he feared for his life and had demanded security," Purohit said.

In his report to the top officials, Sharma had said because of the sting operation against the sand mafia and the Sub Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), the officer was transferred, Purohit claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A top fundraiser for President Donald Trump received millions of dollars from a political adviser to the United Arab Emirates last April, just weeks before he began handing out a series of large political donations to US lawmakers considering legislation targeting Qatar, the UAE's chief rival in the Persian Gulf, an Associated Press investigation has found.

George Nader, an adviser to the UAE who is now a witness in the US special counsel investigation into foreign meddling in American politics, wired USD 2.5 million to the Trump fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, through a company in Canada, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

They said Nader paid the money to Broidy to bankroll an effort to persuade the US to take a hard line against Qatar, a long-time American ally but now a bitter adversary of the UAE.

A month after he received the money, Broidy sponsored a conference on Qatar's alleged ties to Islamic extremism.

During the event, Republican Congressman Ed Royce of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced he was introducing legislation that would brand Qatar as a terrorist-supporting state.

In July 2017, two months after Royce introduced the bill, Broidy gave the California congressman USD 5,400 in campaign gifts the maximum allowed by law.

The donations were part of just under USD 600,000 that Broidy has given to GOP members of Congress and Republican political committees since he began the push for the legislation fingering Qatar, according to an AP analysis of campaign finance disclosure records.

Broidy said in a statement to AP that he has been outspoken for years about militant groups, including Hamas.

"I've both raised money for, and contributed my own money to, efforts by think tanks to bring the facts into the open, since Qatar is spreading millions of dollars around Washington to whitewash its image as a terror-sponsoring state," he said.

"I've also spoken to like-minded members of Congress, like Royce, about how to make sure Qatar's lobbying money does not blind lawmakers to the facts about its record in supporting terrorist groups."



While Washington is awash with political donations from all manner of interest groups and individuals, there are strict restrictions on foreign donations for political activity. Agents of foreign governments are also required to register before lobbying so that there is a public record of foreign influence.

Cory Fritz, a spokesman for Royce, said that his boss had long criticized the "destabilizing role of extremist elements in Qatar."



He pointed to comments to that effect going back to 2014. "Any attempts to influence these longstanding views would have been unsuccessful," he said.

In October, Broidy also raised the issue of Qatar at the White House in meetings with Trump and senior aides.

The details of Broidy's advocacy on US legislation have not been previously reported.

The AP found no evidence that Broidy used Nader's funds for the campaign donations or broke any laws. At the time of the advocacy work, his company, Circinus, did not have business with the UAE, but was awarded a more than USD 200 million contract in January.

The sanctions bill was approved by Royce's committee in late 2017. It remains alive in the House of Representatives, awaiting a review by the House Financial Services Committee.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan's former dictator Pervez Musharraf, ordered to appear before a special court in a high treason case, has postponed his return to the country citing security concerns, according to a media report today.

The Dubai-based retired Army general and former president informed of his decision not to return to the country to persons close to him in Pakistan, Geo reported.

Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, however, issued a statement soon after reports of Musharraf's decision to postpone his visit to Pakistan were aired by the media, stating that security should not be a concern for the former president.

"The government will provide Musharraf with security as prescribed by the law," Iqbal said.

"Security should not be a concern for him. He should continue with his plans to return to the country without any hesitation."



Musharraf, 74, has been living in Dubai since last year when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on the pretext of medical treatment.

He was indicted in March, 2014 on treason charges for imposing emergency in 2007 in the country which led to the confinement of a number of superior court judges in their houses and sacking of over 100 judges.

He has been declared "proclaimed offender" by courts in the treason and the Benazir Bhutto assassination cases.

He is the first general to face trial for treason in Pakistan's history and if convicted, he could be given life imprisonment or the death penalty.

Musharraf's legal counsel Advocate Akhter Shah also expressed distrust on the interior ministry for the provision of foolproof security to his client.

Shah said he could not advise his client to return to the country till he was satisfied with the security arrangements for Musharraf.

Pakistan's Ministry of Defence on Saturday had refused to provide security to Musharraf upon his return to Pakistan, the report said.

According to a letter sent to Musharraf's lawyer, the "provision of security under the subject case does not fall under the purview of the Ministry of Defence".

Shah had confirmed the receipt of the letter and stated that he would raise the issue, again, in the special court hearing the treason case against Musharraf.

Shah also expressed distrust on the interior ministry's ability to provide foolproof security to Musharraf.

A notification issued by the interior ministry on March 19, in response to a plea by Musharraf's lawyer requesting security, the ministry had said it was willing to provide security to the former president.

On March 16, the special court hearing the treason case against Musharraf had ordered the federal government to put special measures in place to bring the ex-military ruler back from the United Arab Emirates.

The court had ordered that the interior ministry should take action for the arrest of the former military ruler through the Interpol.

The special court had also asked the interior ministry to take action to revoke National Identity Card and passport of the former military ruler.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Minister J P Nadda today urged External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to ensure the early release of three men from Himachal Pradesh who had allegedly been abducted by Nigerian pirates.

Nadda also said the government was making "all possible efforts" to get the men back.

"I urged External Affairs Minister @SushmaSwaraj ji to ensure the early release of three young men of Himachal from the custody of Nigerian pirates," Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, said in a Tweet.

"Gov of India is making all possible efforts to bring them back as soon as possible. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family," the Rajya Sabha member from Himachal Pradesh tweeted.

Former state chief minister and BJP leader Shanta Kumar had earlier written a letter to Swaraj, asking her to help in the early release of the three Merchant Navy men.

On March 12, the family of one of the men got a satellite call from Nigeria saying that a group of pirates from that country had hijacked their ship and kidnapped the three Indians.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly today passed the Rs 18,315.76-crore state Budget for the fiscal 2018-19.

The Budget was presented by Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on March 23, with a deficit of Rs 1,630.67 crore.

This is the first Budget of the newly-formed Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP)-led People's Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (PDA).

The Assembly also passed two other bills - Nagaland Road Safety Authority Act, 2013 (First Amendment) Bill, 2018 and Nagaland Appropriation Bill (1) 2018.

Later, Assembly Speaker Vikho-o Yhoshu announced the first session of the 13th NLA sine die.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nepal will follow a balanced foreign policy and relations with all the friendly countries will be based on equality, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli said today amidst China's bid to step-up influence in the Himalayan nation.

Oli, 65, widely regarded as pro-China, was sworn in as Nepal's Prime Minister for the second time last month, weeks after his Left alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist) swept the parliamentary polls.

China and Nepal have been stepping up efforts to improve road connectivity while speeding up plans to build a railway line connecting to Nepal's border after a Transit Trade Treaty was signed in 2016 with Beijing.

Speaking at a function organised in Kathmandu to release a book on 'Nepal-China relations' at the Prime Minister's official residence in Baluwatar, Oli said "relations with all the friendly nations will be based on equality".

"We emphasise on friendship, our policy is of friendship, and hence it cannot be unequal and unbalanced. It will be equal," the Prime Minister said.

Oli, on a different note, said any matter that disturbs the newfound change and peace in Nepal is not acceptable.

"Efforts to disturb social harmony shall not be tolerated," he said, adding that efforts would continue to minimise inequality while discrimination would be ended.

Oli was hinting on a statement by the European Union that the recently-concluded Parliamentary and provincial elections in Nepal lacked transparency.

The 28-member political and economic bloc had also raised questions on the fairness of electoral process, an allegation rejected by Nepal.

Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said international relations will be expanded in a balanced manner, noting that relations between Nepal and China will scale new height in the days to come.

Former foreign minister Sujata Koirala said Nepal and China have always enjoyed profound relations and that China has never interfered in Nepal's internal affairs.

China's Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong said that the multi-billion Belt and Road Initiative is an opportunity to expand China-Nepal relations and mutual collaboration.

The book consists of 25 articles by Oli among others.

In 2016, Oli had accused India of supporting the Madhesi movement, a charge denied by India.

The Madhesis, largely of Indian-origin, launched a violent agitation in September 2015 when the new Constitution was announced, saying the statute failed to address their concerns.

Nearly 60 people had lost their lives during the six-month-long agitation that strained the Indo-Nepal ties.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Austria said today that it would not follow a number of other EU countries in expelling Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, stressing its neutrality.

"We stand behind the decision to recall the EU ambassador, but we will not take any national measures," Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said in a joint statement.

"Indeed, we want to keep the channels of communication to Russia open," they added. "Austria is a neutral country and sees itself as a bridge-builder between East and West."



Fourteen European Union countries are to expel a total of 30 Russian diplomats in a coordinated international response to Moscow over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the English city of Salisbury, according to an AFP tally.

Germany, France and Poland led the way with four expulsions each and EU President Donald Tusk warned that more diplomats could be thrown out in the coming days.

Austria is a member of the European Union but is officially neutral and is not part of the NATO military alliance.

The right-wing Kurz visited Russia in late February and his coalition partners, the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), have a "cooperation pact" with President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.

Slovakia, while condemning the Skripal poisoning, also said it was not throwing out Russian diplomats at present but will summon the Russian ambassador "without delay".

"The development of the situation, as well as Russia's response to the calls addressed to it by the EU countries -- including Slovakia -- will influence the next steps that we are prepared to consider in this case," the Slovakian foreign ministry said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Odisha Assembly was today adjourned twice following commotion by the Opposition Congress over delay in appointment of Lokayukta and implementation of Odisha Lokayukta Act in the state.

The issue was raised in the Assembly during Zero Hour by the Leader of opposition Narasingha Mishra of Congress. "We want to know why the government has not so far appointed a Lokayukta and implemented the Odisha Lokayukta Act even though the Bill got President's assent before 2015," Mishra said.

Noting that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced to implement the Odisha Lokayukta Act within six months of getting President's nod, the Leader of opposition wanted to know the reason behind the delay.

Mishra also said that as per the provision of the new Act, the old Odisha Lokpal Act should remain in force. "But, there is no appointment of a Lokpal according to the old Act also," he said adding that the post of Lokpal remained vacant for the past four years.

The Congress leader said that he had raised the same issue at least a dozen time in the Assembly, but the government did not reply. "What is the point of raising the issue if the government does not reply," he said.

The Congress MLAs led by party's chief whip Taraprasad Bahinipati rushed to the well of the House and demanded a clarification from the chief minister. As some of them attempted to climb on the Speaker's podium and started shouting slogans in well, Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat adjourned the House till 12.30 pm.

When the House reassembled, BJP legislature party leader K V Sinnghdeo also raised the same issue as the Congress MLAs demonstrated in the well of the House. Finally, Amat adjourned the House till 3 pm.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)One person was killed and five police personnel were injured during a clash between two groups over a Ram Navami procession in Purulia here as sword-wielding BJP supporters defied the ban on armed rallies in several places of West Bengal, police said today.

The incident that took place yesterday, according to TMC leaders, saw even children carrying swords in the procession.

While the Purulia SP Joy Biswas confirmed that one person was killed in the clash, the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma said five police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police-rank officer, were injured after violence erupted between two groups over the Ram Navami procession in the Arsha police station area.

Notably, the state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had last week said that the government will not allow participants to carry arms in the Ram Navami rallies barring some organisations which have been organising such rallies for a long time.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh, who was also seen participating in one such rally yesterday with a sword and a mace at Kharagpur, today said he was not aware of any such ban on carrying arms in the procession.

Ghosh said it was an age-old Hindu tradition to conduct "astra puja" (worship of weapons) on the day of Ram Navami.

"Where is the government order banning arms in Ram Navami processions. Where is the circular?" the BJP state president asked.

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the opposition BJP had organised processions to celebrate Ram Navami in various parts of the state, with the saffron party dubbing the rallies as a first step towards "uniting the Hindus" of Bengal.

The ADGP said armed processions were taken out at several places to mark the occasion.

"Despite the police not giving permission, arms were carried in rallies at various places. The police will take legal action against it," Sharma said.

TMC leaders of Purulia district have alleged that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) took out an armed Ram Navami procession, where even children were seen wielding weapons.

However, when contacted the state VHP president Sachindranath Singha he denied all the allegations.

"We had not taken out any armed Ram Navami procession. I have no information about any such armed procession with children, but still as allegations have been raised I will look into it," he said.

Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborty, chairperson of the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights, has said that she was aware of the incident and would take action against it.

The TMC, in a bid to counter the rallies organised by the BJP and Sangh Parivar affiliates, took out colourful processions and held Ram Puja in various parts of the state yesterday.

Earlier, senior TMC leader and state minister Partha Chatterjee has alleged that the BJP was trying to divide the people by using religion as a tool, asserting that the saffron party's strategy would never succeed in Bengal.

"Religion does not teach us to divide the people. If the BJP tries to divide the people on the basis of religion, we will give them a befitting reply," he has said.

But on the other hand, Ghosh claimed that these rallies were a first step towards uniting the Hindus of the state against the "anti-Hindu TMC government".

He also mocked the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC over celebrating Ram Navami.

"Better late than never. At last, they have accepted the importance of Lord Ram. We are happy that they have realised their mistake," Ghosh said.

Several Ram Navami rallies were organised yesterday in the state by the members of the Sangh Parivar.

Colourful processions with saffron flags and photos of Lord Ram were taken out with the Sangh Parivar activists shouting slogans hailing Lord Ram.

The processions were organised under the banner of "Rama Navami Utjapan Samity".

BJP leader Mukul Roy and the party's state general secretary Sayantan Basu, national secretary Rahul Sinha were among other party leaders who took part in Ram Navami rallies at various places in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Pakistan government has rejected former dictator Pervez Musharraf's request for security on returning to the country to face a special court trying him on treason charges, according to a media report.

The Ministry of Defence has conveyed to the Dubai-based former president through his counsel that providing him security is not its job, the Dawn newspaper reported.

In a letter written to Musharraf's counsel Akhtar Shah, the ministry said "provision of security in the subject case does not fall under the purview of Ministry of Defence", according to the report.

The 74-year-old retired Army general has been living in Dubai since last year when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on the pretext of medical treatment.

He was indicted in March, 2014 on treason charges for imposing emergency in 2007 in the country which led to the confinement of a number of superior court judges in their houses and sacking of over 100 judges.

He has been declared "proclaimed offender" by courts in the treason and the Benazir Bhutto assassination cases.

He is the first general to face trial for treason in Pakistan's history and if convicted, he could be given life imprisonment or the death penalty.

An application was moved on behalf of Musharraf on March 13 that the former president be provided security by the ministry of defence on his return to Pakistan.

"His team contends that he faces serious security threats," it said.

However, responding to a similar application, the Interior Ministry had earlier assured Musharraf of security and also sought his travel plan and details of stay in Pakistan. The details have not been shared with the interior ministry so far, the report said.

"We are still working on the details and will make the decision public once there is something final," All Pakistan Muslim League leader Muhammad Amjad, a close aide of Musharraf, was quoted as saying by Dawn.

On March 16, the special court hearing the treason case against Musharraf authorised the government to suspend his passport as well as his computerised national identity card.

The court had also directed the interior ministry to approach the Interpol for the arrest of the former president.

On March 21, he convened a meeting of his aides in Dubai on to decide the future course of action but the meeting remained inconclusive.

The Islamabad High Court had last month ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate Musharraf over charges of accumulating assets beyond his known means of income.Pakistan and India are in talks over the issue of alleged harassment of Pakistani diplomats stationed in New Delhi, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has said.

Pakistan has claimed that there had been as many as 26 instances of harassment and intimidation of its diplomats since March 7, following which Islamabad called back its high commissioner Sohail Mahmood for discussions on the issue. He returned to New Delhi on March 22.

"Higher authorities in both India and Pakistan are in talks to handle harassment incidents of Pakistan High Commission," Asif told Associated Press of Pakistan yesterday.

He hoped that efforts in this regard would bear fruit and relationship between the two neighbouring countries would improve, the report said.

The foreign minister also said that Pakistan is keen on establishing cordial relations with its neighbouring countries on the basis of equality for maintaining regional harmony.

"Our top priority is establishing peace in the country as well as in the region in larger interest of the people," he said.

Asif also said that Pakistan was making all-out efforts to develop healthy and durable relations with Afghanistan, Iran, India, Russia, and other countries of the region.

He said Pakistan wants peace in Afghanistan.

"We want to see Afghanistan as a peaceful and stable country because Pakistan would benefit the most from a peaceful Afghanistan," Asif added.

The minister also said that the government has been making serious efforts for purging the country of the menace of terrorism and make it a safe place for its people.

In August, US President Donald Trump had unveiled his Afghanistan and South Asia policy in which he had hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to "agents of chaos" that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has "much to lose" by harbouring terrorists.

Pakistan regularly denies that it hosts terror groups fighting the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.

Asif also stated that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would play an instrumental role in bringing revolutionary changes across the country.

He said that the resulting economic stability and prosperity would not only benefit the people of Pakistan but of the region at large.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Philippine military said today it will continue aerial patrols of a Chinese-held shoal near the South China Sea despite protests from Beijing over the flights, especially using Japanese-donated aircraft.

When asked if the Philippine military will stop the surveillance of Scarborough Shoal following the protests from Beijing, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the flights will continue because the area is within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, giving the country internationally recognized sovereign rights.

"No, we will not. Those areas are within our EEZ. They're the ones who have no rights there," Lorenzana said.

China raised concerns over the patrols, including one that used a Japanese-donated TC-90 plane, when Chinese and Philippine officials met in Manila last month to discuss their territorial disputes in the South China Sea, said a Philippine official who was involved in the meeting.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss issues taken up during the closed-door meeting.

Japanese defense officials turned over the last three of five TC-90 aircraft to the Philippine navy in a ceremony witnessed by Lorenzana and top navy commanders at a naval base in Cavite province south of Manila today.

The refurbished Beechcraft TC-90s, which can fly twice the distance that existing Philippine patrol aircraft can cover, will be used to respond to disasters and for patrols and surveillance, Lorenzana said in a speech in which he thanked the Japanese government.

Japan initially leased the TC-90s to the Philippines but later transferred them as a grant after restrictions on Japanese donations of excess defense and military equipment to allies and other countries were eased, he said.

Two of the aircraft were delivered in March last year and one was used by the Philippine navy for the first time in late January to patrol the Scarborough area, where it spotted nine Chinese vessels, including four Chinese coast guard ships, and four Philippine fishing boats, the military's Northern Luzon Command reported at the time.

Earlier in January, a US guided missile destroyer sailed near Scarborough to assert freedom of navigation, sparking protests from China. Beijing said then that it would take "necessary measures" to protect its sovereignty after the USS Hopper sailed within 12 nautical miles of Scarborough without China's permission.

China took control of Scarborough in 2012 after a tense standoff with Philippine ships. The tiny, uninhabited reef is about 200 kilometers west of the main northern Philippine island of Luzon, and about 1,000 kilometers southeast of the Chinese coast.

Japan and the Philippines, which are locked in separate territorial disputes with China, signed a pact in March 2016 that allowed Japan to transfer defense equipment and technology to the Philippines in the latest sign of blossoming security ties.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Police today opposed in the Kerala High Court the plea of Malayalam actor Dileep, an accused in an actress assault case, that a copy of visual evidence of the alleged sexual attack on her by a gang be handed over to him.

Opposing the plea, police argued that there was a likelihood of the visuals of the criminal act being misused if they were given to him.

The prosecution alleged that copy of the application by Dileep seeking visuals was leaked to media prior to filing it before the court and the same thing will happen if visuals are given to the actor.

If the copy of visuals were given to him, the victim will have to face the trauma in her entire life, police contended.

Justice Sunil Thomas posted the case for Wednesday for further hearing.

In his plea, Dileep submitted that he was denied the rights of a defendant by a trial court in Angamaly.

The Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate's court had dismissed a plea by Dileep seeking copies of visuals of the alleged sexual assault committed on the actress by a gang.

The magistrate's court had accepted the argument of the prosecution that the clippings could be misused by Dileep, affecting the privacy of the actress.

Dileep is eighth among the 12 accused in the case.

He secured bail nearly three months after his arrest on July 10 last year.

The key accused in the case, Pulsar Suni, has been in jail since his arrest early last year.

The actress, who has worked in Tamil and Telugu films, was abducted and allegedly molested inside her car for two hours by Suni and his accomplices, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17 last year and later escaped.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind today praised the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government for their efforts in rapidly developing the temple town, saying it is moving towards becoming a 21st century smart city.

The President was here to lay foundation stone of two important road projects worth Rs 3,473 crore, including the four laning of NH-7 and construction of Varanasi Ring Road Phase -2 (Bypass road).

Addressing the gathering here, Kovind praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for carrying out development works in the holy city.

The President distributed appointment letters to 10 youths,who were selected during a job fair organised by the Vyavasaik Shiksha Evam Kaushal Vikas Vibhag of the state government. He also visited the stalls of various companies that recently held training and recruitment drive here.

He received the first copy of the Sanskrit translation of book Charaiveti-Charaiveti' written by UP Governor Ram Naik.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd today said it has won a Rs 505.22 crore highway contract in Odisha from NHAI.

"The company has been awarded a contract worth Rs 505.22 crore for six/four Laning of NH 5 (New NH 16) from Puintola to Tangi in Odisha," the company said in a filing to BSE.

The project has been won from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on engineering, procurement and construction basis, it said.

The construction period is 730 days from the start of the project, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The families of 39 Indians killed in Iraq today met Punjab Congress chief and Lok Sabha member Sunil Jakhar, who urged the Centre to provide all possible help to them.

He said the central government should understand the feelings of the victims' families and extend help without delay.

"Regretfully, instead of understanding their sensitivities, the Centre was harassing them. Even Prime Minister Narender Modi did not utter a single word of sympathy for these Indians in his 'Mann ki Baat' yesterday," Jakhar alleged.

The MP from Gurdaspur said the government should help the affected families as they were in shock and facing a tough time after the deaths of their earning members were confirmed some days back.

Jakhar said it would have been good had the government announced help for the families on the same day when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed about the deaths in Parliament as the families would not have to come to Delhi today.

"But the insensitive Centre is not paying attention to the grievances of victims. While such important issues need to be raised on the floor of Parliament, but the government is not even going to run the House smoothly," he claimed.

Jakhar said in the foreign countries, Indian citizen should be properly guided by embassies so they are saved from such deadly tragedies in the future.

He also hoped that the Punjab government would stand with these families in this hour of grief and sorrow and every possible help be given to them by the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress and the BJP today again locked horns on the prickly issue of data sharing with Rahul Gandhi dubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi the "Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians" and the ruling party accusing the opposition party of "theft".

Taking to Twitter after allegations surfaced that data from the prime minister's official app was being shared without the consent of users, the Congress president said the NaMo app secretly recorded audio, video, contacts and even tracked location via GPS.

"Modi's NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. He's the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians.

"Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP," Gandhi said on Twitter using the hashtag "DeleteNaMoApp".

The BJP, however, rubbished the charge and alleged that the Congress chief was speaking a "lie".

Hitting out at Gandhi, BJP's IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya said it was his party's app that was sharing user data with his friends in Singapore.

"Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of India's oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore," Malviya said, mimicking Gandhi's tweet yesterday.

"Full marks to Congress for stating upfront that they'll give your data to **practically anyone** - undisclosed vendors, unknown volunteers, even 'groups with similar causes'. In theft of all forms, Congress has never been discreet!" Malviya tweeted.

Malviya went on to allege that the Congress, inspired by its leader Sonia Gandhi's "all power no accountability", will take all your data, even share it worldwide with organisations like Cambridge Analytica but will not take responsibility of it.

The party had yesterday said that contrary to Rahul Gandhi's lies, data was being used for only analytics using third party services, similar to Google Analytics.

"Analytics on the user data is done for offering users the most contextual content," it said.

The party claimed the Narendra Modi app is unique and gives access to users in guest mode' without even any permission or data.

"The permissions required are all contextual and cause-specific," the BJP stated on its Twitter handle.

The Congress chief had yesterday attacked Modi over allegations of data sharing from his official app without users' consent. Gandhi also accused the media of "burying" the story.

His attack on the prime minister was based on a media report in which a French vigilante hacker has purportedly alleged that data was stolen from his official NaMo app without the consent of the users.

"Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies, Gandhi said on Twitter.

In the tweet, he also attached a story titled, Data theft allegations reaches PM Modi's doorstep, French vigilante hacker's stunning revelation".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The war of words between the Congress and the BJP on data sharing spiralled today with Rahul Gandhi dubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi the "Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians" and Union minister Smriti Irani saying even 'Chhota Bheem' knows it is not snooping.

Twitter was the battleground as the debate on the prickly issue escalated and the ruling BJP accused the opposition Congress of data "theft", saying it had taken off its app after the allegations came out in the open.

The Congress, however, claimed it had not done so. The site was "dysfunctional" and all memberships were done through the party's official website, it said.

Taking to Twitter after allegations surfaced that data from the prime minister's official app was being shared without the consent of users, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said the prime minister was misusing his position and the NaMo app secretly recorded audio, video and contacts.

"Modi's NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. He's the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians.

"Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP," Gandhi said on Twitter using the hashtag "DeleteNaMoApp".

He added that Modi was misusing his position to build a personal database with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by the government.

"If as PM he wants to use tech to communicate with India, no problem. But use the official PMO APP for it. This data belongs to India, not Modi," Gandhi said.

Irani hit back with a series of derisive tweets, saying that Gandhi now knows what the NCC thanks to the NaMo app.

"RahulGandhi ji, even Chhota Bheem' knows that commonly asked permission on Apps don't tantamount to snooping," she said, recalling the character from the animated series for children.

"Ye kya RahulGandhi ji it seems your team is doing the opposite of what you asked for. Instead of #DeleteNaMoApp, they have deleted the Congress App itself."



"Now that we're talking tech, would you care to answer @RahulGandhi ji why Congress sends data to Singapore Servers which can be accessed by any Tom, Dick and Analytica?" the information and broadcasting minister added.

According to BJP's IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya, the INC membership website is no longer available.

"Message you will get 'We are incorporating minor changes to the website. Please visit us again in a while to access the INC membership process...' What is the Congress party trying to hide? http://membership.inc.in," Malviya tweeted.

Congress social media in-charge Divya Spandana Ramya said the URL pointed out has been dysfunctional for a while and membership is through the INC website.

"We don't have any other membership site. Nothing is compromised...We haven't taken down anything," she said.

The Congress added on its official Twitter handle that the 'WithINC app' has not been in use for over five months since it moved membership to http://www.inc.in on November 16, 2017.

Malviya echoed Irani, saying the Congress app was sharing user data with Gandhi's friends in Singapore.

"Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of India's oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore," Malviya said, mimicking Gandhi's tweet yesterday.

"Full marks to Congress for stating upfront that they'll give your data to **practically anyone** - undisclosed vendors, unknown volunteers, even 'groups with similar causes'. In theft of all forms, Congress has never been discreet!" Malviya tweeted.

Malviya went on to allege that the Congress, inspired by its leader Sonia Gandhi's "all power no accountability", will take all your data, even share it worldwide with organisations like Cambridge Analytica but will not take responsibility of it.

The party claimed yesterday that the Narendra Modi app is unique and gives access to users in guest mode' without any permission or data.

The Congress chief had yesterday attacked Modi over allegations of data sharing from his official app without users' consent.

His attack on the prime minister was based on a media report in which a French vigilante hacker alleged that data was stolen from his official NaMo app without the consent of the users.

"Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies, Gandhi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India was "alert" and ready to deal with any "unforeseen situation" in Doklam.

The Defence Minister, who was on a visit to Uttarakhand for the first time after assuming office, also said that the government is constantly working towards modernisation of forces.



"We are alert and ready for any unforeseen situation in Doklam. We are constantly working towards the modernisation of our forces. We will maintain our territorial integrity," she told reporters on the sidelines of a function at the CM residence here yesterday to honour families of distinguished Armymen, war widows and veterans.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam from June 16 last year after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed area by the Chinese Army. The face-off ended on August 28.

Sitharaman said Uttarakhand was not only the land of gods (devbhoomi) but also the land of bravehearts who have always been a significant part of the country's armed forces.

"I bow my head to this sacred land which also produces men of valour," she said.

"As many as 21 brave sons of Uttarakhand have been conferred with the Paramvir Chakra, the country's highest military honour," she said.

"There are brave Armymen in the state honoured with the Victoria Cross as well as families which have served in the armed forces for three generations", she said.

"At least one member of each family from Uttarakhand serves in the armed forces. Even the present Army chief is from Uttarakhand. It is indeed a matter of great pride" the Defence Minister said.

Addressing NDA and IMA cadets, she said they were going to be part of a highly modernised force as a number of new initiatives have been taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to modernise the Army, Navy and the Air Force.

Sitharaman also showered praise on the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering Director Colonel Ajay Kothiyal for training local youths to serve the armed forces, saying self-motivated people like him were a source of inspiration for everyone.

Expressing the Centre's commitment to do all it can for defence personnel and their families, she spoke of plans to build a command hospital equipped with modern facilities in the hills of Uttarakhand.

Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat, who also addressed the cadets, said he always felt proud to visit Uttarakhand.

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat felicitated 140 youths from Uttarakhand who had qualified for the IMA and NDA handing them certificates and cheques of Rs 50,000 each.

Families of Army veterans and those which had served the armed forces for generations were also honoured by the chief minister in the presence of the Defence Minister and the Army chief.

The descendants of Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali and former Army chief BC Joshi were also among those honoured at the function.Renowned sculptor Muthiah Sthapathi and another person were arrested in connection with the alleged irregularities in making an idol for the famous Sri Dhandayuthapaniswami temple here in 2004, police said today.

Muthaiah, a Padmashri awardee and a former temple executive officer, KK Raja were allegedly involved in irregularities pertaining to use of gold for making the idol meant to replace the presiding deity, they said.

A decision was taken to replace the presiding 'Nava Bhashana' idol in 2003, which was a conspiracy, the Idol Wing police claimed.

Several devotees had donated gold and other metals for making the idol, which was examined by a team of metallurgists from IIT-Madras recently.

During inspection, the team found the new idol made without the specified quantities including the gold.

While Muthiah was arrested in Chennai, the retired EO was held in Coimbatore last night.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Rosamund Pike said she wanted to play Mary Poppins in the franchise reboot and also reached out to director Rob Marshall to show her interest.

The 39-year-old actor said she thought writing to the filmmaker to let him know she was interested in playing the magical nanny in "Mary Poppins Returns" would help her land the role, which later went to Emily Blunt.

"(I wrote to him) 'Just so you know, I would really love to be Mary Poppins'. It's worth putting your hat in the ring for things sometimes," Pike told Total Film magazine.

The actor will be next seen playing a German terrorist in Jose Padilha's "Entebbe".

She said she wishes to work with the directors who are passionate about their work.

"I really want to know the director has to make the film. It's not just a job. I felt that very strongly with Jose for 'Entebbe'. You want to know, does this person have a strong take? Is it in their blood?"



Pike added working on "Hostiles" was "traumatic" traumatic experience for her.

The actor, who played a mother who lost her family in a violent attack in the film, said, "I've had to live in a very, very dark place for a while. It was really traumatic.

"It felt very real. When I re-watch that, I feel it was something I lived, rather than something I acted in," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Opposition Congress members staged a walkout from the Assembly over the rejection of an adjournment motion to discuss the reported remarks made by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur against Congress MLAs at a public meeting in Una.

The Assembly met today after nine-day recess.

Congress MLA Ram Lal Thakur was on his feet as soon as the House assembled and pointed that he had given an adjournment motion for discussion on remarks made by the chief minister against Congress MLAs at a meeting in Una.

Speaker Rajiv Bindal maintained that the notice was not admissible and he can raise the issue later, but the Congress members were unrelenting and created ruckus in the house.

The Congress members took exception to the chief minister's reported statement that Congress MLAs opposed the budget in the House but called him in the evening and praised it, and asked him to make the names of the legislators public.

Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri said that even after timely notice the discussion was not allowed.

Ministers Suresh Bharadwaj and Bikram Singh had heated exchanges with Congress members Mukesh Agnihotri, Harshwardhan Chauhan and Jagat Singh Negi. Agnihotri alleged that opposition members were not allowed to speak and their mikes were switched off when they rose to address.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Seoul has agreed to a quota for steel exports to the US 30 per cent below current sales and accepted extended tariffs on pick-up trucks to secure a revised trade deal with Washington and escape its steel duties, the government admitted today.

South Korea and the United States are security allies both threatened by the nuclear-armed North but since taking office US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to tear up their free-trade agreement, raising concerns about undermining the economic leg of their alliance.

The Trump administration instigated talks in July to renegotiate the free-trade treaty, known as KORUS, and the US last week imposed duties on steel imports from multiple countries including China, raising fears of a trade war.

South Korea and the United States have agreed "in principle" on the revisions of their free-trade agreement (FTA) and steel tariffs, Seoul's trade minister said today.

The South's economy is heavily dependent on trade, with the US as its second-biggest partner and Seoul's trade minister said Monday they had reached agreement on revising the KORUS deal after weeks of negotiations.

Under the pact, Seoul will further open its auto market to US manufacturers, while accepting a 20-year extension until 2041 to a 25 per cent US tariff on Korean pick-up trucks.

On steel, South Korea accepted an annual export quota of 2.68 million tonnes to the US, 70 percent of its average shipments in the past three years.

That amount will be exempted from the US steel tariffs, trade minister Kim Hyon-chong told reporters, but any excess will be liable to penalties.

He described the negotiations as "fierce" but insisted: "As a negotiator, I can say it was a negotiating table where I had nothing to feel inferior about."



But Sogang University international trade professor Heo Yoon told AFP: "The US got what it wanted."



"The Trump administration needed to harvest an outcome from the negotiation to show its supporters," he added, warning that Washington could in future "slap tariffs on semiconductors" -- a crucial South Korean export.

"I don't know what bargaining chips we have left to withstand trade pressures from the US."



Trump has long called the 2012 KORUS agreement a "horrible" deal and a job killer, arguing it was lopsided on the grounds that the US trade deficit had ballooned since it was signed.

The number of auto imports to South Korea from the US that will not have to meet Seoul's safety regulations was doubled to 50,000 vehicles, Kim said.

Apart from the steel tariffs exemption for the quota exports, he did not identify any other concessions on Washington's part.

He insisted that Seoul had been able to defend its "red line" on farm goods, obligatory use of US auto parts and avoid any backtracking on already exempted tariffs.

But he expected more turbulence in the relationship under the current US president.

"There are always risks in trade," Kim said.

"I think President Trump will be a two-term president and be at the White House for eight years and in my opinion, I think there will continue to be risks during this time."



The two sides will meet in the coming days to finalise the updated pact, Kim said.

All three major US automakers -- General Motors, Chrysler, Ford -- each shipped fewer than 10,000 vehicles to South Korea last year, Kim said, adding: "This is an important fact."



There were at present no South Korean pick-up truck exports to the US, he added, implying that no currently existing sales would be affected.

Trump said Friday the two sides were "very close" to a final agreement, adding: "We're going to have a wonderful deal with a wonderful ally.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Saudi forces intercepted seven Yemeni rebel missiles today, including over the capital Riyadh, in a deadly escalation on the eve of the third anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition's intervention in Yemen.

One Egyptian was killed and two of his countrymen were wounded by falling shrapnel in Riyadh, authorities said, with residents reporting loud explosions and bright flashes in the sky shortly before midnight.

The Iran-aligned Huthi rebels fired three missiles at Riyadh and four others at the southern cities of Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran, with the coalition saying they all targeted populated areas.

"This aggressive and hostile action by the Iran-backed Huthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities," coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said.

"The firing of multiple ballistic missiles towards cities is a serious development."



The Huthi-run Al-Masira television channel claimed the rebels had targeted Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport as well as other airstrips in the south of the kingdom.

The strikes come after the US defence secretary last week urged Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to Washington to pursue "urgent efforts" to end Yemen's wrenching conflict.

The Huthi rebels have fired dozens of missiles into Saudi Arabia since last year, all of which Saudi forces claim to have intercepted, underscoring their capacity to strike deep within the kingdom amid a stalemated war in Yemen.

The latest attack could further escalate the coalition's military campaign.

A major attack targeting Riyadh international airport on November 4 triggered the tightening of a longstanding Saudi-led blockade of Yemen -- already on the verge of famine.

Another strike on December 19 targeted Riyadh's Yamamah palace, the official residence of King Salman.

Saudi Arabia has accused its arch foe Iran of supplying the missile to the rebels, a charge Tehran strongly denied.

The Huthis expelled pro-government forces from the capital in September 2014 and went on to seize swathes of the impoverished Arabian peninsula country.

This prompted a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia to intervene in Yemen on March 26, 2015, to help the government push back the Shiite rebels.

Since then, around 10,000 people have been killed and 53,000 wounded in Yemen, triggering what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Huthi rebel chief Abdelmalik al-Huthi today said his fighters were ready to make more "sacrifices" against the Saudi-led coalition, in an address marking the war's third anniversary.

The Huthis plan a huge rally in Sanaa today to mark the anniversary.

The UN says living conditions in the war-scarred country have reached catastrophic levels and that 8.4 million people face imminent famine.

The UN urgently needs USD 350 million for humanitarian projects in Yemen, a senior agency official said yesterday, insisting it was mere "peanuts" compared with the cost of the country's war.

Saudi Arabia and its allies -- aided by billions of dollars worth of military equipment from the US and Britain -- could stand guilty of war crimes, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Numerous rounds of UN-sponsored peace talks have failed to stem the bloodshed in Yemen.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The LJP, a BJP ally, today filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against its order relaxing stringent provisions of a law dealing with cases of atrocities against Dalits, even as a top Union minister also favoured a similar stand from the government.

Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan told reporters that his party had filed a review plea as the apex court's order had rendered the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act "toothless" and caused a lot of anger among these communities.

Paswan said it was necessary that the original provisions of the law, which he described as a weapon for Dalits and tribals against atrocities, be restored.

While the Narendra Modi-led government has not taken a categorical stand yet on whether it would seek a review of its order from the apex court, Dalits leaders, including many from the ruling BJP, have spoken in its favour.

Udit Raj, a Dalit MP of the BJP, had said that the order, if not reviewed, can harm his party politically at a time it has been making a concerted bid to woo Dalits, who are spread across the country and will play a crucial role to its electoral fortunes.

In a first clear indication of the emerging view within the government, Social Justice Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot wrote to Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad favouring a review plea against the verdict.

He said there were concerns that the order will make the law "ineffective" and adversely impact the dispensation of justice to Dalits and tribals.

Seeking a legal opinion on the issue, Gehlot, in his note to Prasad, said, "It is felt that the Supreme Court order may make the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act ineffective and adversely impact the dispensation of justice system. In my opinion it would be right to file a review petition against the verdict."



However, it was the LJP, a party which draws its base from Dalits in Bihar, which made a political point by filing a review plea in the apex court.

Paswan said his party had stated last week that it will file a review plea if there was a delay from the government, suggesting that the Centre should have filed a petition by now.

He said he had has also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The apex court has sought prior inquiry before an accused in the case is arrested and this has made the law very weak, his letter said.

There is a widespread concern among Dalits and tribals that the new provisions will lead to a rise in the cases of atrocities against them due to the absence of its stringent measures, which acted as a deterrent for the accused, it said.

"We are worried as the order has weakened the law which has been the main protector of Dalits. It is necessary to ensure that it remains strong. We have also demanded that the government should go to the apex court at the earliest seeking a review of its order," he told reporters.

Paswan, who is chairperson of his party's parliamentary board, said the LJP has been receiving a number of memorandums from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes against the court's order.

The court in its order had expressed concern over the misuse of the act and said that government servants should not be arrested without prior sanction and private citizens too could be arrested only after an inquiry.

The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) have also conveyed their views and demanded a review of the verdict, saying the original Act, as it existed before the SC verdict, should be restored.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court today agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the prevalent practices of polygamy and 'nikah halala' among the Muslims and sought responses from the Centre and the Law Commission.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra considered the submission that an earlier five-judge constitution bench, in its 2017 verdict, had kept open the issue of polygamy and 'nikah halala' while quashing triple talaq.

Today, the bench, which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said a fresh five-judge constitution bench would be set up to deal with the constitutionality of 'nikah halala' and polygamy.

While polygamy allows a Muslim man to have four wives, 'nikah halala' deals with the process in which a Muslim woman has to marry another person and get divorced from him before being allowed to marry her divorcee husband again.

By a majority of 3:2, a five-judge constitution bench had earlier held triple talaq as unconstitutional in its judgement last year.

The bench was hearing at least three petitions including some PILs challenging the practices on various grounds including that they violate Right to Equality and gender justice.

Delhi BJP leader Aswini Kumar Upadhyay, who filed a PIL on March 5, claimed that the ban on polygamy and 'nikah-halala' was the need of the hour to secure basic rights.

The harm caused to the women due to the practices of triple talaq, polygamy and 'nikah-halala' is violative of Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution and injurious to public order, morality and health, Upadhyay's petition said.

He sought a declaration "that the provisions of the IPC are applicable on all Indian citizens and triple talaq is a cruelty under section 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the IPC, 'nikah-halala' is rape under section 375 (rape) of the IPC, and polygamy is an offence under section 494 (marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife) of the IPC."



On March 14, a Delhi-based woman, had moved the apex court saying that by virtue of Muslim Personal Law, section 494 of IPC (marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife) was rendered inapplicable to this community and no married Muslim woman has the avenue of filing a complaint against her husband for the offence of bigamy.

She sought to declare the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, unconstitutional and violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 (freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion) of the Constitution in so far as it fails to secure for Indian Muslim women the protection from bigamy which has been statutorily secured for women in India belonging to other religions.

The petitioner, who herself claimed to be a victim of such practices, has alleged that her husband and his family used to torture her for want of more dowry and she was ousted from the matrimonial home twice.

She also alleged that her husband had married another woman without taking any legal divorce from her and the police had refused to lodge FIR under section 494 and 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the IPC stating that polygamy was permitted under the Sharia.

Later on March 18, a Hyderabad-based lawyer, had also challenged the practice of polygamy, claiming that all these types of marriages under the Muslim personal law violate the fundamental rights of Muslim women.

The petition has contended that while the Muslim law allows a man to have multiple wives by way of the temporary marriages or polygamy, same permission is not extended to women.

The petition has opposed the practice of Nikah Halala, where a divorced woman has to remarry and then get a talaq before being able to marry her first husband, as well as Nikah Mutah and Nikah Misyar -- both temporary marriages where duration of the relationship is specified and agreed upon in advance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Punjab Assembly here today passed a unanimous resolution seeking that the Centre file a review petition or bring an amendment in the legislation in the wake of the recent Supreme Court verdict on the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities (POA) Act.

During the Zero Hour, the matter was raised by ruling Congress's Jalandhar (West) MLA, Sushil Kumar Rinku, who expressed serious concern over the judgement and demanded a review of the same or an amendment in the law.

He drew support from Cabinet Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who said a resolution should be passed by the House.

Channi told the Assembly that "diluting" the provisions would lead to "great miscarriage of justice".

"It will lead to a sense of insecurity among Dalits. We demand that a review petition should be filed by the Centre against the verdict. Here, we should pass a resolution," he said.

Channi also launched an attack on the BJP led government at the Centre, dubbing it as "anti-Dalit".

Later, the Speaker told the members that it was a "sensitive issue" and sought the sense of the House.

The Speaker later declared a resolution had been passed by the House unanimously.

Significantly, the Centre is facing demands from various quarters on seeking a review of the judgement of the Supreme Court that protects public servants and private employees from arbitrary arrests under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

In a bid to protect honest public servants discharging bona fide duties from being blackmailed with false cases under the SC/ST Act, the apex court on March 20 diluted the stringent provisions mandating immediate arrest under the law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union minister Maneka Gandhi today said she requested Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling to offer the resources and help to convert the whole of India into an organic farming country.

Sikkim is the only state in the country where organic farming is initiated by the state Government, the Union Woman & Child Development Minister said after meeting Chamling.

"I have sought his help in this regard so that everybody benefits. I will be very happy if I get help to turn at least my constituency organic, to start with," she said.

Gandhi said she would discuss with the Central Government about seeking Sikkim's technical support to impart training on organic farming to the rest of the states.

The Union minister, who is on a three-day visit to Sikkim, also lauded the environmental initiatives of the state government such as ban on use of plastic, grazing and felling of trees, besides poaching of wild animals.

The orchids of the state have a unique identity and should be propagated and spread throughout the country, she said adding that the youth should get into this field and more people should try greenhouse agriculture.

Gandhi said her ministry is committed to provide all assistance to Sikkim government to strengthen and improve institutions related to women and child care.

On the rise in human trafficking especially from the North Eastern states, she said a Bill on anti-trafficking has been introduced in the Parliament in the current session.

The Bill in its present form is the best in the world and will give a huge respite to victims of trafficking, especially in terms of rehabilitating them, she claimed.

On measures for rehabilitation of trafficked women, she said activities such as cooking and bakery have been experimented in places like Pune and they have been successful to rehabilitate these women.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Twenty artisans from India have joined scores of local devotees in the restoration of a 164-year-old Hindu temple, a declared national monument, here, in a nearly Rs 20 crore project.

Work has been going on for more than a year at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Little India where devotees share sacred space with the artisans and scores of other workmen.

A chief sculptor and a team of 19 highly-skilled artisans from India are "painstakingly keeping" to the colour scheme of the original temple, reported local daily 'The Straits Times'.

The biggest challenges for the restoration team is to accommodate various rituals, festivals and ceremonies while the extensive work is being done.

The temple's management committee chairman Vellayappan Karruppiah, 73, called the temple "a living monument".

"Every day, there are poojas going on and major festivals during which the work has to stop. The management committee has to plan so the work can be finished in time, and I am happy to say that we are on schedule," said Karruppiah.

The current renovations include: making more space for devotees to worship, re-painting paintings, murals and religious motifs, and re-conditioning structures like the rajagopuram (tower entrance), pillars and vimanams (temple roof).

A new multi-purpose facility for blessed meals and religious ceremonies has also been added.

At the end of the restoration process, an elaborate ceremony for the resanctification of the temple will be conducted by 39 priests on April 22, an auspicious date as per the Hindu almanac.

Rare sacred ceremonies will be performed for over five months. It is believed that the rituals will bring goodness and prosperity to the devotees, community and nation.

The iconic temple, one of the oldest in Singapore, is undergoing its fourth renovation (to the tune of some SGD 4 million) since it was declared a National Monument by the Preservation of Monuments Board of Singapore in 1978.

The last three redevelopment works for the temple were done in 1979, 1992, and 2005.

Restoration and resanctification of Hindu temples here are carried out every 12 years.

The Hindu Endowments Board funds the works and appeals for donations are made to supplement the cost.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Dissident BJP MP met the family members of Lalu Prasad in Patna, a day after visiting the jailed RJD president at a hospital in Ranchi where he is being treated.

While Sinha called on Prasad on Saturday after a CBI court handed him 14 years' jail term in a fodder scam case, he travelled to Rabri Devi's 10 Circular Road residence on Monday to meet her and her sons.

Photographs of Sinha with Rabri and her sons -- Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav -- figured prominently in newspapers and social media much to the discomfort of the BJP whose leaders have been attacking the RJD supremo on corruption charges.

Sinha, who has been at odds with his party leadership ever since he was ignored in the 2015 Bihar polls, defended seeing Prasad and his family, saying it was a "personal" matter and was about his "sanskar" (values).

"For me, it's like once a friend always a friend," he told PTI on Monday. "It is my principle not to consider political opponents as enemy."



He asserted his meeting should not be seen through political prims. "I went to meet Prasad and his kin to be with the family in this hour of crisis."



Sinha had some kind words for the jailed RJD supremo also, who he said was a "victim of conspiracy of circumstances".

"I hope he (Prasad) will get justice sooner or latter," he said.

The BJP MP from Patna Sahib also sought to blunt criticisms that might come from any quarter for his meeting.

"If my meeting is taken as a sin what about the prime minister attending the wedding of Lalu Prasad's daughter or the wedding of Congress leader Digvijay Singh's daughter and wishing Sonia Gandhi during a personal encounter?



"This (his meeting with Prasad and his family) should be seen in the same light. When the time comes we may talk also ... No problem," he added.

"I have never crossed the Lakshaman rekha (limits) of my party. I always maintain discipline".

He praised Prasad's sons saying Tejashwi has a very "bright future" and that he was impressed with him. "About Tej Pratap Yadav do not try to underestimate him also."



"Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi President) and Tejashwi Yadav are people to be watched out for," the senior BJP leader said.

Tejashwi, who is the Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly, also tweeted about the meeting.

"Indomitable, the original Bihari Babu and stalwart of Indian Cinema & Sh. @ShatruganSinha Ji came calling to show solidarity with us! He is appalled by #VendettaPolitics being meted out to fiesty @laluprasadrjd Ji! He always stands for genuine & honest friends."



His brother Tej Pratap Yadav also tweeted. "A great selfie with ji."



"Standing with us as a guardian in the fight against feudal government, many many thanks to Shatrughan Sinhaji," he added.YSR Congress today said its MPs would resign whenever the budget session of Parliament was adjourned sine die without the Centre accepting its demand for granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in Guntur district, YSRC Parliamentary Party leader Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy told reporters.

"Our president has directed us to submit the resignations immediately after the Parliament is adjourned sine die (without conceding the party's demand), whenever it would be and we need not wait for theApril 6deadline as specified earlier," he said.

Jaganmohan Reddy, whose party has nine MPs, had already announced last month that his party parliamentarians would quit on April 6, at the end of the budget session, if the special category status was not granted.

Today's decision was taken in wake of the rapidly changing political developments and the possibility of the Parliament session being cut short, Rajamohan Reddy added.

The opposition party, which has been stepping up pressure on the issue and had moved a notice for no confidence motion in Lok Sabha, also wanted the ruling Telugu Desam MPs to resign over the matter.

Earlier, addressing the MPs, the YSRC chief said there need not be any prejudice in the fight for special category status.

We have been honest and sincere on the issue from announcing the resignation to the no-confidence motion and have placed them before the people. Our main aim is to highlight our efforts and mount pressure on the Centre to implement the assurances given in the House," he said.

Jagmohan Reddy also said TDP supremo and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu too had to "toe our line as he had no other go," party leaders quoted him as having said.

He was apparently referring to TDP also moving a notice for no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government after quitting the NDA over the special category issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Varun Dhawan said that giving in to the vision of director Shoojit Sircar is one of his "biggest achievements" till date.

The 30-year-old actor, who is collaborating with the filmmaker for the first time in the upcoming film "October", said he has grown as an individual after working with the "talented" helmer.

"I would do nothing different. Surrendering to @ShoojitSircar vision and being directed by him has been one of my biggest achievements.

"We can only grow when we work with people more talented then us and this experience for me has been just that. #October," Varun tweeted.

This is the director's first full-fledged attempt at a love story.

"October" is a slice-of-life film written by Shoojit's frequent collaborator Juhi Chaturvedi.

Debutante Banita Sandhu has been cast opposite Varun in the film.

The movie is scheduled to be released on April 13.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two Congress MLAs moved the Gujarat High Court today, challenging the order of the Assembly speaker suspending them for their unruly behaviour in the House about two weeks ago.

MLAs Amrish Der and Baldevji Thakor, suspended by Speaker Rajendra Trivedi on March 14 for three years and one year respectively, filed a petition against the order.

In the petition, the Opposition lawmakers said they were suspended without any inquiry or hearing their side.

The two Congress MLAs had allegedly attacked BJP legislator Jagdish Panchal inside the House amid acrimonious scenes.

Another Congress MLA, Pratap Dudhat, who too was suspended from the House for three years for the alleged attack, is also in the process of moving the high court.

The petitioners said the persons who had "provoked" them by using abusive language were spared.

Their suspension was "malicious" and aimed at preventing the Opposition party from moving a no-confidence motion against the speaker, they claimed.

The Congress MLAs had allegedly hit Panchal with the rod of a microphone and also punched him. In retaliation, some BJP members had allegedly assaulted Der.

Thakor was also involved in allegedly threatening BJP MLAs at the lobby of the House.

The disruptions had erupted immediately after the Question Hour on March 14 as Congress MLA Vikram Madam sought to raise a point of order over the death of two children in the Asaram Ashram here in 2008 even as Pradeepsinh Jadeja of the BJP wanted a discussion on wastage of time in the House.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As part of the group's move to bring down cross-holding among group and also exit non-core businesses by restructuring investment portfolios, Tata Power on Tuesday decided to sell its stake in Tata Communications and its holding firm Panatone Finvest to Tata Sons for around Rs 21.50 billion.

"The board of Tata Power has approved sale of its shares in Tata Communications and Panatone Finvest to Tata Sons and its affiliates. Panatone Finvest holds 30.1 per cent in Tata Communications," the largest private sector power company said in a statement.

It further said the move is a part of the company's plan to monetise its non-core assets and improve the balance- sheet to set the stage for the next phase of growth.

"The estimated realisation will be about Rs 21.50 billion and is subject to shareholder approval," it said.

On March 23, the company had informed the stock exchanges it would be selling over 59 crore shares in Panatone Finvest, which represents around 39.98 per cent of its paid-up equity, to the parent Tata Sons for Rs 1,542.61 crore.

It will also sell a 4.7 per cent stake in Tata Communications to Panatone for Rs 6.13 billion.

Tata Power, together with its subsidiaries and jointly controlled entities, has an installed gross generation capacity of 10,757 mw including in the thermal, hydro, wind and solar areas.

It can be recalled that after N Chandrasekaran took over the mantle of the diversified group in February 2017 as chairman after the acrimonious exit of his predecessor Cyrus Mistry in October 2016, the Bombay House, as the over $105 billion conglomerate's headquarters is known, had decided to consolidate group entities.

The salt-to-software empire has around 30 key listed companies, most of which are cross-held by the themselves, while Tata Sons own only around a third of equity in most of these

Earlier this fiscal year, Tata Steel and Tata Motors had pared their stakes in each other and also in other group companies like Indian Hotels, Tata Chemicals, TCS, and Tata Global Beverages among others, which were all snapped up by Tata Sons, helping the parent increases its holding in group companies.

The software major TCS, which also contributes over 85 per cent of the group profit is the only large group company in which Tata Sons owns more than 70 per cent now. Till early this month, it had 75 per cent holding when it sold in the market around 2 per cent for over Rs 90 billion.

Late last June, Tata Sons bought around 2.9 per cent shares in Tata Motors from Tata Steel for Rs 37.83 billion as part of its move to reduce cross-holdings among group companies. With that it had also increased its holding in the country's largest automobile company 31.06 per cent.

Earlier this month, Tata Sons had asked group companies and holding trusts to sell their holdings in Indian Hotels, which owns the Taj brand of luxury hotels to itself. Accordingly, it had increased its holding in the largest hotels company by 6.64 per cent.

Tata Sons acquired these shares primarily from Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, Lady Tata Memorial Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust.Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has revealed that "Tintin 2" is still in works, but will not release any time soon.

The 71-year-old filmmaker helmed the first instalment "The Adventures of Tintin" in 2011. Peter Jackson was to take on directorial duties for an upcoming sequel.

However, since the first animated movie came out in, of the sequel had been quiet but now Spielberg has confirmed that Jackson "has to do the second part".

"Peter Jackson has to do the second part. Normally, if all goes well, he will soon start working on the script. As is takes two years of animation work on the film, for you, I would not expect to see it for about three years. But Peter will stick to it. 'Tintin' is not dead!" Spielberg said in an interview with French magazine Premiere.

"Adventures of Tintin" comics, created by cartoonist Georges Remi in 1929, are some of the most popular stories in comic book history and follow one of the most beloved comic book characters Tintin.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Trump administration is considering "unprecedented political penalties" on Pakistan for harbouring Afghan militants waging war on the US-backed Afghan government, a media report said today.

While the report by Foreign Policy portal gives no timeline for such an action, it says there is growing frustration among lawmakers, and the administration believes that Islamabad is doing bare minimum in the war against terrorism.

"Amid growing frustration on Capitol Hill, Trump's deputies are weighing unprecedented political penalties on Islamabad for harboring Afghan militants waging war on the US-backed government in Afghanistan," the report said.

The options under consideration include revoking Pakistan's status as a major non-NATO ally, permanently cutting off the US military aid that was suspended two months ago, and even imposing visa bans or other sanctions on individuals in the Pakistani government deemed responsible for providing support to the militants, the report said.

No final decision has been taken yet, and the issue is still being debated inside the various wings of the Administration, the report said.

The appointment last week of a fervent hawk as national security advisor, John Bolton, and the nomination of another for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, could tilt the discussion in favor of tougher measures against Islamabad, the report noted.

"The White House is also weighing even more drastic measures to include visa bans or other punitive measures against individual members of the Pakistani government, military, or ISI intelligence service suspected of allowing the Taliban and Haqqani militants to operate from sanctuaries inside Pakistan," the report said quoting unnamed present and former US officials.

"We are prepared to do whatever is necessary to protect US personnel and interests in the region," a senior administration official told reporters last week.

According to the report, there is increasing frustration in the Trump Administration.

"Pakistan is at risk of miscalculating the level of frustration both in Washington and other foreign governments," a senior State Department official said.

"In the past, Pakistan has sought to take the minimum action required to placate US concerns without fundamentally altering their policy and strategy," said the official.

Pakistan's former Ambassador to US, Husain Haqqani, said that the alliance with Pakistan no longer makes sense for the US.

"The alliance with Pakistan no longer makes sense for the US because it undercuts US policy in Afghanistan as well as its effort to build a strategic relationship with India against China. It doesn't make sense for Pakistan either," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Turkish daily strongly supportive of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today portrayed German Chancellor Angela Merkel on its front cover as Adolf Hitler, accusing her of having a "Nazi mentality".

The Yeni Akit daily, known for its hardline views on Turkish foreign policy, printed a photo-shopped picture of Merkel with a Hitler moustache, swastika arm band and belt diagonally across her chest in the style of Nazi militia.

"We are very worried by this mentality," it said.

Its front page came as European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker were to meet Erdogan at the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna in a bid to mend ties with Turkey and the EU.

Ankara has been infuriated by a statement from EU leaders condemning Turkey's "illegal actions" towards Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea.

In particular, the EU lambasted Turkey over Ankara's arrest of two Greek soldiers who strayed into Turkish territory.

Yeni Akit alleged that while Merkel had "protected" fugitives wanted by Turkey and remained silent on arson attacks against mosques in Germany, "she is worried on the issue of the Greek soldiers who were trying to spy on us."



"It's exasperating that Merkel, with her Nazi mentality, makes comments against Turkey at every moment," it added.

This is not the first time that a Turkish newspaper has portrayed Merkel as the Nazi dictator who led the Third Reich, caused World War II and presided over the Holocaust.

Erdogan himself had accused Germany and other EU governments of showing the mentality of the Nazis for banning Turkish ministers from giving rallies in the run-up to an April referendum last year.

Then, the right-wing tabloid-style daily Gunes printed a picture of her in Nazi uniform along with the words in German: "#Frau Hitler" and called Merkel an "ugly aunt".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today meets the leaders of the EU's top bodies for a potentially stormy encounter that will seek ways to repair an increasingly fractured relationship.

European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker will talk with Erdogan at the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna with a litany of problems clouding their discussions.

Topics including the crackdown in Turkey after the July 2016 failed coup, Turkish demands for visa liberalisation and the near-endless saga of Ankara's own EU membership bid are expected to loom high.

And while all the leaders were hoping at least a more harmonious mood music would come out of the working dinner, a row over Greece and Cyprus added a new shadow days before the talks.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council, said it was expected to be "a very difficult meeting".

But both sides -- with a joint interest in improving security cooperation and economic relations -- will also not want the talks to fail.

"The Varna summit will provide a platform to re-launch the dialogue between the two parties, even though no real breakthrough is expected in concrete terms," said Jana Jabbour, professor of political science at Sciences Po university in Paris and the author of a book on Turkish foreign policy.

Temperatures were raised after EU leaders last week condemned Turkey's "illegal actions" towards Greece and Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea.

Ankara hit back at the "unacceptable comments" and said the EU had lost its objectivity on Cyprus, which is divided between the Greek-majority internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus and the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.

The statement on Thursday by the 28 EU members meeting in Brussels condemned Turkey over Ankara's arrest of two Greek soldiers and its promise to prevent the Greek Cypriot government from exploring for oil and gas.

Turkish EU Minister Omer Celik said Turkey could not accept such statements by the EU.

"This issue will be raised in Varna, where we hope to have a wide-ranging discussion on EU-Turkey relations and on the way ahead," Tusk said.

Juncker said he was "looking with mixed feelings towards the summit because the differences in views between the EU and Turkey are many".

But, he added "we will have a frank and open debate with President Erdogan".

Ankara and Brussels had in March 2016 agreed a controversial deal to stop the flow of migrants, in what was seen as a landmark in cooperation and which Turkey hoped would yield visa free travel to Europe.

So far this incentive has not been realised and Erdogan is expected to press this strongly in the talks.

"Turkey considers it (visa liberalisation) a priority", Jabbour told AFP.

But, she added, "it would be delusional to believe that the EU would grant Turkey concessions on this matter."



Brussels has repeatedly criticised the post coup crackdown which has seen nearly 160,000 people arrested, including dozens of journalists.

Turkey, for its part, accused Brussels of failing to show solidarity after the coup and appears set on forging a strong partnership with President Vladimir Putin's Russia.

In contrast to the evening meeting with the EU leadership, Putin is expected to make a full two-day visit to Turkey early next month.

Ankara's long-stalled bid to join the EU will also be discussed during the summit, but Western diplomats and analysts agree meaningful steps are unlikely.

Even Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey did not have "any expectations right now from the EU regarding the membership process."



Nonetheless, Erdogan has for now dropped from speeches his threats to reimpose the death penalty in Turkey, a move that would automatically end the EU membership bid.

Next month the bloc will release its latest progress report, which is "bound to illustrate a substantial regression" in Turkey, Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and a former EU ambassador to Turkey, said in a study.

During a visit by Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron said earlier this year Ankara should settle instead for a looser "partnership", after suggesting no progress was possible.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Abu Dhabi National Oil Company said today it has awarded two contracts worth $3.5 billion to South Korea's Samsung Engineering to boost output at the largest refinery in the United Arab Emirates.

ADNOC's announcement came as South Korea's President Moon Jae-in was visiting the oil-rich Gulf state.

The main contract, worth $3.1 billion, is for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project at Ruwais refinery, the UAE's largest with a capacity of over 800,000 barrels per day.

Slated for completion in 2022, the project will handle oil from the Upper Zakum field, freeing up more expensive Murban crude for export, the state-owned ADNOC said in a statement.

It will also raise production capacity by part of the refinery, Ruwais West.

The second contract worth $473 million is to build a new waste heat recovery facility to reduce the environmental impact of the refinery and generate electricity, ADNOC said.

Several other South Korean companies are engaged in major energy projects in the UAE, including the construction of a USD20-billion nuclear plant due to open later this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Cab hailing firm Uber has decided to sell its ride and food delivery businesses in Southeast Asia to Singapore-based rival, Grab.

As per a deal, Grab is taking over the operations of Uber in the region, with the US-based company to receive a 27.5 per cent stake in the business in return.

This will however not impact Uber's operations in India, where it is locked in an intense competition with local rival Ola, sources close to the development said.

The move will free up capital to execute on Uber's growth plans in core markets like North America, Latin America, India and Europe and invest in engineering and product development, they said.

Uber sold its China operations to rival Didi Chuxing in 2016 in a deal worth $35 billion. The US firm has taken 5.89 per cent stake in Didi. Last year, Uber merged in Russia with the taxi-hailing app of internet giant Yandex.

As per the sources, the latest stake-sale would be Uber's last minority deal as the company has no intention of taking minority stake in any future merger with global competitors.

There have been speculations about Uber and Ola joining forces in the Indian market. These got stronger after SoftBank - an investor in Ola - joined Uber as an investor committing over $1 billion in the US-based firm.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, on his recent visit to India had said, India is a core market for the company. He had indicated that he would not go by the advice of investors like SoftBank, who want the US-based firm to scale back to countries where it already has a strong market position.

Uber has been pumping in substantial funds to fuel its growth in India. In 2015, Uber announced an investment of $1 billion in India to expand its services here. It has also set up a response and support centre in Hyderabad with an investment of $50 million.

In an e-mail to employees post the Grab deal, Khosrowshahi said Uber will get 27.5 per cent stake in the combined company.

"Around 500 colleagues across the region will transition to Grab, and over the coming weeks we will help our customers move to Grab's apps," he added.

He pointed that after investing $700 million in the region, Uber will hold a stake "worth several billion dollars, and strategic ownership in what we believe will be the winner in an important global region".The UK government today hailed the largest collective expulsion of Russian "intelligence officers" in history after the US and several EU members announced a coordinated response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy in the UK earlier this month.

In a House of Commons statement, British Prime Minister Theresa May said that 18 countries have announced their intention to expel more than 100 Russian intelligence officers from their countries, including 15 European Union member states as well as the US, Canada and the Ukraine.

"This is the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history... together we have sent a message that we will not tolerate Russia's continued attempts to flout international law and undermine our values," May said.

The UK had found "great solidarity" from allies around the world over the attempted murders of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a deadly Russian-made nerve agent in Salisbury on March 4.

"President Putin's regime is carrying out acts of aggression against our shared values and interests within our continent and beyond. And as a sovereign European democracy, the United Kingdom will stand shoulder to shoulder with the EU and with NATO to face down these threats together," she said.

Her statement in Parliament came as the US, Canada and European countries announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats from their countries.

Russia, which denies any role in the attack on the Skripals, said it would retaliate to the "provocative gesture".

"It goes without saying that this unfriendly act by this group of countries will not go without notice and we will react to it," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

EU leaders had agreed last week at a European Council summit in Brussels that it was highly likely Russia was behind the nerve agent poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal.

The US has ordered 60 envoys to leave, Canada four, the Ukraine 13 and the EU countries a total of 30.

The US is expelling 48 envoys at the Russian embassy in Washington and 12 more at the UN in New York. It has also ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle.

UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson said the "extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever".

The UK had expelled 23 Russian diplomats earlier this month in connection with the nerve agent poisoning of the Skripals, who remain in critical condition in hospital.

The police officer who had been exposed to the same poison as part of his investigations, Nick Bailey, was given the all-clear last week and discharged from hospital last Thursday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)British prime minister Theresa May says former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter may never recover from a nerve-agent attack that has left them in critical condition.

May says "their condition is unlikely to change in the near future, and they may never recover fully." May told lawmakers that more than 130 people in the English city of Salisbury may have been exposed to the nerve agent used to poison the Skripals.

More than 50 people have been assessed in hospitals.

A police officer left seriously ill after the March 4 attack was released from hospital last week.

The UK blames Russia for the attack, but Moscow denies responsibility. On Monday about 20 countries, including the United States, joined Britain in expelling Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Uttar Pradesh Assembly today passed an annual budget of Rs 4,28,384.52 crore by voice vote, which is 11.4 per cent higher than the last fiscal.

The House rejected the cut motion moved by Opposition leader Ram Govind Chaudhary, who in his speech described the budget as anti-poor, anti-youth, and anti-farmer.

Chaudhary said the BJP government has scored another first by passing budgets of 98 departments in one go without discussion.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was not present in the House as he was in Varanasi to attend an event chaired by President Ram Nath Kovind, had described the budget as development-oriented during a discussion last week.

After the discussion today, the House approved Rs 4,28,384.52 crore budget for 2018-19 and passed related appropriation bills by voice vote.

BSP leader Lalji Verma dubbed the budget as a bundle of mere announcements. Congress legislature Ajay Kumar Lallu also spoke in the same refrain.

Both the leaders voiced concern over the law and order situation in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US today expelled 60 Russian diplomats, describing them as "intelligence officers" and ordered closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, days after Washington warned of retaliation for the use of nerve agent against a former Russian spy in the UK.

A dozen of these expelled diplomats are based at Russia's Permanent Mission to the UN.

"Today President Donald J. Trump ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian intelligence officers from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing," the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, said.

All Russian diplomats, connected to the country's intelligence agencies, and their families have been given seven days' time to leave the country.

The White House said this is in retaliation to the use of nerve agent against former spy Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom, which blames Russia for the attack.

Moscow has denied these allegations. The United Kingdom has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats.

There are 100 Russian intelligence officials based in the US. This is the first step, a senior Trump administration official told reporters during a conference call and the US reserves the right to expel more.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A development finance institution of the US government has committed a loan of Rs 80 crore to a project aimed at expanding access to affordable clean drinking water to low and middle-income people in India, the American embassy said today.

Overseas Private Investment Corporation's loan to WaterHealth India Pvt Ltd -- a subsidiary of Water Health International Inc of Irvine, California -- will help finance installation of 900 decentralised plants in India.

These plants purify water on site and sell it at a price that is three to four times lower than bottled water alternatives currently available in the marketplace, according to a US Embassy statement.

These WaterHealth Vending Machines (WVMs) are installed at locations such as railway stations, bus stations, shopping malls, public and private institutions or any high footfall location, where consumers are able to purchase purified water weighing in the range between 300 ml to 5 litres.

Most consumers carry their own bottles and WaterHealth refills them, but consumers may also purchase reusable bottles, according to the statement.

This project offers an innovative approach to making safe water more available and affordable and illustrates how businesses can develop new solutions to longstanding global challenges, the statement quoted Ray W Washburne, OPIC president and CEO as saying.

By increasing access to clean water, the project will improve the health and quality of life for millions of Indians, particularly women who typically have the primary responsibility for obtaining and managing the household water supply, Washburne added.

According to the statement, in India alone, an estimated 163 million people lack access to safe water, a major cause of diarrheal illnesses that results in 500 deaths of children under the age of five each day.

In addition to the massive health issues, insufficient affordable water supplies pose a significant economic and overall quality of life cost, particularly for women, it said.

WaterHealth International has been committed to improving access to safe and affordable drinking water for underserved consumers for over a decade.

During that time, we have built the world's lowest cost, global operating platform for decentralised water purification plants, said Sanjay Bhatnagar, CEO of WaterHealth International, according to the statement.

OPIC's loan to WaterHealth was committed under OPIC's new 2X Global Women's Initiative to mobilise 1 billion USD (around Rs 647 crore) to invest in women and unlock the economic opportunity they represent.

In addition to expanding the availability of safe water, the project is projected to create more than 1,300 jobs in India and introduce advanced technologies and business models for providing potable water, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have launched a trilateral dialogue at the level of national security advisors, the first meeting of which was held last week, the White House said today.

The national security advisors of the three countries met at the White House on March 23 to "discuss issues of strategic importance to the three countries, including joint efforts to counter the Iranian regime's malign influence and provocative behavior," an official readout of the meeting said.

Among others it was attended by senior officials from Department of State, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Treasury, and the intelligence community participated in the meeting.

The leaders agreed to meet trilaterally on a regular basis to develop and implement joint frameworks to mitigate threats to regional security and to bring greater peace, stability, and prosperity to the Middle East.

"Additionally, the National Security Advisor of Afghanistan joined a session focused on discussing ways the US, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE can partner with Afghanistan to support the Afghan government and set conditions for an enduring peace settlement," the White House said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi government today said it will issue a notification on mixed-land use along 351 roads soon after the Supreme Court approves it, paving the way for legalising commercial establishments there.

The move intends to avoid the sealing drive against commercial establishments along these roads.

"We have submitted a notification copy in the Supreme Court seeking its approval. Once the Supreme Court allows it, Delhi government will issue the notification for these 351 roads," Delhi's Urban Development Minister Satyendra Jain told reporters here.

He said that the government has appointed two prominent lawyers to strongly present the case in the apex court, as demanded by both the BJP and the Congress.

The urban development minister said that the DDA should also appoint prominent lawyers such as Harish Salve on the sealing issue in the Supreme Court.

The sealing drive is being carried out by municipal corporations against commercial establishments, following the directions of the Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee, for allegedly violating civic norms.

The AAP government has been maintaining that the sealing drive has not taken place on 351 roads so far. The BJP has accused the government of delaying the notification due to which traders may face problems.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The woman Naxalite killed in an alleged encounter with police in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra yesterday was carrying a reward of Rs 4 lakh on her head, police said today.

The deceased, identified as Pali alias Jhunki Mangu Dorpati today, was a resident of Jharewada village in Gadchiroli district, a Nagpur police official said.

She had eight serious cases pending against her, he said, adding that Dorpati had been working with naxal company no. 4 before she was transferred to platoon no. 3 recently.

The encounter took place around 3.30 pm yesterday when a team of the anti-Naxal C-60 commando force came under fire in Mouza Mendhari forest area while conducting a combing operation.

After the ultras retreated, police found a woman's body, who was today identified as Dorpati, alongwith arifle and some explosive material.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India's highest ranked player Yuki Bhambri has pulled out of the Davis Cup tie against China owing to a minor abdominal tissue tear.

The selection committee has picked World No. 246 Prajnesh as Yuki's replacement as he is the next best singles ranked player.

After losing to hosts Canada 2-3 in the World Group play-offs in September last year, top seeds India, who got a first-round bye, will yet again play an away tie.

India will face China in the Asia/Oceania Group 1 second round at Tianjin, China on April 6-7.

The visitors, who enjoy a dominant 3-0 head-to-head record against China, last played them in 2005.

The other singles players in the squad include Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sumit Nagal. While Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna will represent India in the men's doubles.

India have made four successive attempts to climb into the World Group since 2014 having lost to Serbia, the Czech Republic, Spain and Canada.

The pull-out comes as a setback for India as Yuki, ranked 107, has created excellent results against top players of late. He registered the biggest win of his career, shocking world number 12 Lucas Pouille in the second round of Indian Wells Masters.

He continued with his commendable performance in the ATP Circuit reaching the second round of the Miami Open before losing to USA's Jack Sock 6-3 6-7.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)By Devidutta TripathyMUMBAI (Reuters) - ICICI Securities' initial public offering raised a lower-than-expected $540 million after the Indian brokerage fell short of covering its order books against a backdrop of investor caution about rich valuations and a volatile stock market.ICICI Securities' muted IPO, which follows that of state-run military aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd last week, does not augur well for the pipeline of IPOs this year after a record $11 billion was raised from first-time share sales in 2017.It is also not good news for the Indian government which has set a ...NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India plans to borrow 2.88 trillion rupees ($44.40 billion) in the first half of the 2018/19 financial year that begins in April, the government said on Monday.In the federal budget unveiled in February, the government said it envisages a gross market borrowing of 6.06 trillion rupees in 2018/19 and a net market borrowing of 4.62 trillion rupees.The government and the central bank are also considering a plan to raise the foreign investment limit in government bonds, S.C.Garg, economic affairs secretary, told reporters. ($1 = 64.8600 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Manoj ...China on Monday promised to address India's concerns about the trade deficit between the two countries, the Indian trade ministry said, adding that New Delhi has also sought greater market access for products like rapeseed, soyabean, rice and sugar. Visiting Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan "welcomed Indian investment in China and promised to address the trade deficit between the two countries," India's trade ministry said in a statement. Bilateral trade between India and China boomed to $71.45 billion in 2016-17 from $1.83 billion in 1999-2000, though most ...By Vishal Sridhar(Reuters) - India's JSW Steel Ltd said on Monday it would spend $500 million to build out its U.S. operations in Texas, amid heightened global trade tensions following U.S President Donald Trump's decision to pursue steep import tariffs.The company has signed an agreement with the Texas governor's office, under which the governor has approved a grant worth $3.4 million to the company's unit, the steelmaker said in a statement. Click https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/corpfiling/AttachLive/5749d649-df4b-4a38-9081-8931ca2edfab.pdf.The unit, JSW USA, sells high-quality carbon ...JSW Steel Ltd said on Monday its US unit would invest up to $500 million to expand its Texas operations, as part of a Memorandum of Cooperation signed with the Texas Governor's office. The governor has also approved a grant worth $3.4 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund to JSW Steel (USA) Inc, the steelmaker said in a statement. The capex plan, which will be completed by March 2020, includes setting up a melt manufacture contiguous plate and pipe facility in Texas, JSW said. The investment comes at a time of rising concerns about an escalating trade war between the ...By Henning GloysteinSINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent and WTI crude oil futures dipped on Monday as concerns of a looming trade dispute between the United States and China weighed on global markets.In Asia, Shanghai crude oil futures debuted strongly in terms of volume as investors and commodity merchants bought into the world's newest financial oil trading instrument.Looming over oil markets, however, was the possibility of a full-blown trade war between the United States and China battered Asian shares on Monday. The falls came after U.S. President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum that ...BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States asked China in a letter last week to cut the tariff on U.S. autos, buy more U.S.-made semiconductors and give U.S. firms greater access to the Chinese financial sector, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.Alarm over a possible trade war between the world's two largest economies has chilled financial markets as investors foresee dire consequences should trade barriers go up due to President Donald Trump's bid to cut the U.S. deficit with China. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer ...By Aradhana Aravindan and Heather SomervilleSINGAPORE/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian business to bigger regional rival Grab, the ride-hailing firms said on Monday, marking the U.S. company's second retreat from an Asian market.The industry's first big consolidation in Southeast Asia, home to about 640 million people, puts pressure on Indonesia's Go-Jek, which is backed by Alphabet Inc's Google and China's Tencent Holdings Ltd .A shake-up in Asia's fiercely competitive ride-hailing industry became likely earlier this year when ...The automakers will report March vehicle sales on Tuesday, April 3rd.



Note: There were 28 selling days in March 2018, up from 27 in March 2017.



From WardsAuto: U.S. Light-Vehicle Forecast: Sales Down Slightly; Inventory Declines to Match Demand



A Wards Intelligence forecast calls for U.S. automakers to deliver 1.60 million light vehicles in March. ... The report puts the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales for the month at 16.9 million units, higher than last years 16.7 million but slightly under last months 17.0 million.

emphasis added

Sales in March will probably be at the slowest sales rate since last August. After August, sales were boosted by the hurricanes.| BY Ricki Green |

Google Australia has launched a new TV campaign for its Google Home Mini product, created by 72andSunny, Sydney.

The spot has been adapted for the Australian market from the original ad, which was created by 72andSunny LA.| BY Ricki Green |

The Health Insurance Fund of Australia (HIF) has launched a new brand campaign featuring a friendly brand ambassador with four legs and a tail. The campaign created by Perth agency Gatecrasher, positions HIF as Your healths best friend and speaks to core brand themes such as valuing loyalty and standing by Members when it counts.

This is the agencys first work for the client since winning the account last year and spending the past 5 months honing the campaign.

Says Adam Barker, Gatecrasher: It was a great brief from the start, and so much fun to work on. The organisation is incredibly progressive and likes to do everything differently. The problem we were given was to gain awareness and differentiation in a marketplace which is just an alphabet soup of depersonalised company acronyms.

Our solution was to create brand linkage through a loveable, caring character who was both an embodiment of the brands essence, and a strong branding device by virtue of his name Hif.| BY Ricki Green |

On Friday 23 March to Sunday 25 March, Pandora Jewelry brought a giant multi-sensory beehive to life in Sydneys Pitt Street Mall to celebrate the global launch of Pandora Shine, Pandoras new precious metal in 18k gold-plated sterling silver. Pandoras hive activation was executed by Melbourne-based experience and environment design studio, YourStudio.

Taking design cues from Pandoras new geometric honeycomb charm, the 5 metre tall hive structure was a fully interactive experience, captivating each visitors sense of touch, sight, scent, taste and sound.

The sculptural golden hive was filled with metallic golden flowers that were subtly scented like real flowers, revealing new season Pandora charms within. Immersive humming hubs allowed visitors to place their heads inside the hive to hear the sound of bees buzzing. The PandoraShine hive also served edible gold ice-creams.

Says Glenda Wolman, vice president, marketing for Pandora in Australia and New Zealand: We wanted to bring the Pandora Shine campaign to life in a way that engages all the senses.

This was an exciting launch for the brand, representing the next step in the brands evolution. The Pandora Shine collection, in 18k gold-plated sterling silver, takes inspiration from nature and honeybees. The Hive was the perfect way to introduce our new jewellery collection to the Australian market in an innovative and engaging way.

Says Danny Newman from YourStudio: We create human experiences that connect people through sharing and making memories together, this is a perfect example of this. The Pandora Shine Hive is an immersive, multi-sensory installation showcasing the Shine collection in a really unique way.COVID-19: Case counts growing rapidly in under-10s in B.C., while declining in older age groups

"We need to get ahead of this early," says data expert Jens von Bergmann. "That little advantage that age group used to have, there was some consensus that they transmit a little less, it's just not enough any more."news, latest-news

Tender documents released ahead of a review into the Australian National University's student residences reveal the institution's fears that attention on sexual assault and harassment could hurt its reputation and finances. The university was last year revealed as one of the nation's worst for sexual violence in a survey of students released by the Australian Human Rights Commission. Publicly the ANU's response has focused on student safety. But background notes prepared for consultants make clear the institution's concerns that student demand, residence tenancy numbers and staff recruitment could suffer should the university "gain a reputation as providing an unsafe environment". "Breaches of safety and security pose a genuine risk, not only to the individual, but to the university," the tender said. "Students subject to acts of violence or aggression are at risk of academic failure, or of dropping out of their degree program. This impacts on the academic reputation of the university but also on revenue ... where a student fails to complete his or her program." " ... [potential impacts include] student demand may fall, resulting in a drop in student revenue and a decline in the quality on enrolling students; difficulty in filling the student residences, noting that the university has a high proportion of students in residence on campus; and difficulty in recruiting staff." ANU pro vice-chancellor for university experience Richard Baker said student safety was at the forefront of the university's response to the Change the Course report and pointed to the review's nine draft terms of reference, which focus on residences' culture, alcohol abuse and existing education and intervention strategies. "Our focus is always on the safety of students and that's the foremost thing driving us in this regard, but we have an obligation when we're drawing up contracts to be explicit about all the possible risks and threats to the university and that's obviously one, so we can't pretend that's not an issue," Professor Baker said. "Our focus has always been on trying to stop incidents occurring and then to respond as quickly and as most appropriately as possible when incidents do occur so we always have those two focuses on what we do." The ANU's five student halls, two houses, University House and Graduate House, two affiliate colleges and four lodges will be placed under the microscope during the review. The draft terms of reference include that the review examine residence culture and how it contributes or discourages perpetrators of sexual assault and harassment, residential "traditions", and how perpetrators "facilitate" sexual violence in a residential setting. The document was prepared in consultation with ANU staff and students. Prospective consultants are expected to submit their application by early April, but final deadlines and costs for the review will be unknown until the successful tenderer is announced. Meanwhile, the ANU has updated its discipline rule to include definitions of sexual assault and harassment, including provisions for revenge porn. This means the university can now treat allegations of sexual violence as misconduct, though clauses within the relevant legislation say the ANU may not act upon complaints where its believes there's insufficient evidence, if the conduct is deemed to be unrelated to the university or if a criminal investigation in under way. A review by consultancy firm Rapid Context released this year found it was unclear how the university could respond to allegations of sexual assault within its existing policies. The ANU has also introduced new training for staff and students based on preventing and responding to sexual assault, beefed up its counselling services and employed a dedicated respectful relationships project manager to assist in progressing its commitments to stop sexual violence. The Canberra Rape Crisis Centre this year applauded the university on its efforts to effect cultural change. If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or family violence, call the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525. Nationally, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732. In an emergency contact 000.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/9b5fe758-4486-4a73-97c7-3e3c63a56037/r0_81_2000_1211_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, latest-news

For 12 hours, Patrick Askew sat in Calvary Bruce Emergency Department's waiting room with multiple fractures to his arm, a fractured cheekbone, a fractured skull and a bleed on his brain. He was a ticking time bomb and is sure had it not been for a quick thinking nurse in a chance encounter the next day, he would be dead. The 19-year-old had fallen off his skateboard at high speed, hitting his arm and head. His mates took him straight to Calvary's emergency department in the early hours of February 19 where he waited to be treated for more than 12 hours. He was eventually treated for a broken wrist and sent home. Mr Askew's mother Jocelyn had trouble waking him up the next day and he continued to complain of nausea and a splitting headache. They had an appointment at Canberra Hospital for a follow up on his broken bones, but a nurse noticed his behaviour and told him to head straight for the emergency department. Within hours he was in emergency brain surgery as doctors worked to contain a brain bleed growing bigger by the hour. "He was walking talking dead," Ms Askew said. It is one of two cases the hospital has confirmed it has recently reviewed where a brain bleed or aneurysm was possibly missed. Calvary have defended its actions saying it tries to minimise the use of CT scans due to concerns about cancer. Studies have shown a small increase in the risk of cancer linked to CT scans, especially for children and adolescents, which has led to doctors showing caution. But the hospital conceded it should given Mr Askew written information on monitoring his condition when he got home. "My son was sitting waiting for 12 hours and 40 minutes with six breaks in the hand and the arm, a smashed cheek bone, fractured skull, acute bleed and nobody picked up anything but the arm," Ms Askew said. Mr Askew presented at Calvary emergency department at 2am on February 19 with a likely broken arm and visible injuries to his head. Notes say his first observations were taken about 7.30am and he didn't make it past the waiting room until about 11am when he was treated at the recliner chairs. The family said he only had one other observation taken during his time at the hospital. He was discharged about 2pm but given no warnings about the signs to look out for after head trauma. His family believes he showed signs of head trauma at the hospital; complaining of headaches, face pain, vomiting, a severe headache, confusion and not being able to remember the accident. They said little attention was paid to his head injury or exploring the possibility of a concussion. "Nothing was ever really said about my head," Mr Askew said. He and his mother can think of one likely reason - he was dismissed as being drunk. Mr Askew had a few drinks the night of the fall, about three over four hours. On his hospital notes - while no breath or blood test was completed - he was labelled as "intoxicated". "I can't help but feel they've made a judgement call and that judgement call has then affected the whole following processes and protocol," Ms Askew said. Mr Askew went to Canberra Hospital the morning after being discharged to see a specialist about his broken arm. It was here an orthopedic nurse named Rosemary took one look at him - at this stage unsteady on his feet and slurring his words - and told Ms Askew to take him straight to emergency. He was fast-tracked through, given a CT scan and within an hour was in emergency brain surgery. "They said the clot was sizeable and needed to be removed straight away and had I not gone to emergency and instead taken him home to return the following day for surgery for the arm he would never have woken up," Ms Askew said. "There was no could haves or maybes, it was simply he would have died." In a statement a spokesman for the Calvary Public Hospital Bruce emergency department said closed head injuries could be very complex to diagnose and treat and there is clear recognition of occurrences of delayed diagnosis in the medical literature. "In recent times, the issue of overuse of CT scanning with an inherent radiation dose and subsequent cancer risk is deeply considered by clinicians and often difficult to balance in young patients," he said. "There are differing views on the respective benefits and problems arising from either a conservative or intrusive treatment approach, and there is no 100 per cent accurate risk stratification tool to assist in decision making. "In the presence of head trauma, the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is acknowledged within medicine as a reliable and objective way of recording the conscious state of a person for initial as well as subsequent assessment. "The score helps indicate potential intracranial pressure changes, an observation further informing clinicians around the appropriateness of attending a head CT. "The score also has some level of prognostication capacity, with a repeatedly normal coma score being reassuring. "With respect to the two cases identified, Calvary Emergency Department specialists have met face-to-face with one patient and family members and explained the treatment provided and why that treatment was appropriate given the patient's symptoms at the time of their presentation. "Whilst our doctors provided this patient with advice about monitoring his wellbeing after he left Calvary and returning if his condition changed, we regret we did not provide the patient with written information about monitoring his own condition and remaining observed by others after leaving Calvary." The family dispute the hospital followed the protocol, saying only two observations were ever done - the first one five hours after he arrived. "It wasn't like there was a tiny scratch there was a pretty big graze," Mr Askew's younger sister Kelsey said "You would be willing to take a chance on someone who has fallen off their skateboard at 44km/h and hit their head? "As far as it concerns me when they sent him home they sent him home to pretty much die. "It wasn't just that they didn't do the scan but they didn't seem to do a proper check or consistent observations." In another case also throughout February, a 33-year-old woman said she presented at Calvary twice with symptoms including headaches, dizziness, nausea, loss of consciousness vomiting and pain in one of her legs. On one occasion she was treated for potassium deficiency and on the next she waited a number of hours in the emergency room before going home. Her GP, concerned about her symptoms, later organised a CT scan which showed bruising on the brain. She went to Canberra Hospital where an MRI revealed she had a brain aneurysm and had emergency surgery that night. Calvary has confirmed it also reviewed her case. Mr Askew's family wants to make sure no one else goes through what they have. They want the matter investigated and any holes in the system revealed. "I thank God every day that I've still got a son," Ms Askew said.

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Songs of Solitude: Susannah Lawergren (soprano) and Benjamin Burton (piano). Art Song Canberra. Wesley Music Centre, 20 National Circuit, Forrest. Sunday, April 8, 2018, 3pm. Admission, including program and light refreshments: Full price $35. Concessions $30. Art Song Canberra Members $25. Full-time students $15. Tickets available at the door or online: trybooking.com/UGES. An upcoming concert at Wesley Music Centre combines Samuel Barber and Franz Schubert with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in an exploration of perspectives of solitude. Soprano Susannah Lawergren says "the idea for Songs of Solitude started from a love for those achingly beautiful spare and still pieces of music, often with a Scandinavian flavour, that pierce straight through a certain kind of heart (I have Swedish in my blood after all!)". Lawergren is a frequent visitor to Canberra through her work with The Song Company and Opera Australia. She is no stranger to diverse repertoire, working both with Bach Akademie Australia and emerging composers such as Sydney-based Tristan Coelho. She will be joined by Benjamin Burton, a busy young pianist quickly establishing himself as one of the go-to accompanists in the Sydney area. Burton trained in both Sydney and Munich, and in 2016 won second prize at the Mietta Song Competition, one of the most prestigious art song competitions in the country. "The joy of going to Art Song Canberra concerts is in being transported through often wildly different personal and cultural journeys," Lawergren says. Relishing the opportunity to "let our hair down and do something that we really love", she has selected a program that ranges from art song classics through an exploration of her own Swedish heritage, with some classic jazz standards thrown in for good measure. The evening's program will provide a range of different takes on the theme of solitude, and, as Lawergren says, "all these solitary threads will weave together to form a rich tapestry of human life". The duo aim to build a complex web of themes and ideas about being alone, ranging from "the beauty of solitude, to the harshness of rejection, to the wild freedom of being the outsider beholden to no one", according to Lawergren. Among the more traditional art songs on the program are Barber's The Desire for Hermitage and The Monk and his Cat, taken from his cycle of Hermit Songs, a collection of anonymous poems written by Irish monks/scholars between the eighth and 13th centuries. Here the individual revels in solitude, finding happiness and fulfilment in his books, and the amusing antics of a furry companion. In Edvard Grieg's Solveig's Song (from Peer Gynt) the passage of time is of no consequence to the isolated lover, convinced of the certainty of a reunion with the one that got away. Schubert's Der Leiermann continues the solitary theme through the allegory of the lonely hurdy-gurdy man, a busker who continues to play, though no one seems to care. This coldness and apathy is seen again in a romantic setting in Schubert's Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel. Here we find the narrator alone and trapped by her all-consuming love for the man just out of reach. For all her hopes and dreams she is doomed to spin alone, praying for just one kiss. Lawergren is well aware that "a whole program of still, solitary pieces might be a bit too much of a good thing". The second half of the program will see her transform into a bold and brash "straight-talking Broadway broad", with bolshie characters who aren't afraid to get up close and personal with the audience. In Rodgers and Hart's The Lady is a Tramp we see a strong independent woman who knows what she wants and how to get it. Lawergren warns us, "Yes, this concert will get a little hot under the collar at times too!"

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A month ago, a central item of Australian political conversation involved the claim of politicians  Barnaby Joyce in particular  to a right of privacy from the media and the public over matters in their private lives. Now we are talking about the public's right of privacy from the politicians and their party organisations. Both debates are more than a little bit late, and a good deal of the pontificating anyway misses much of the point. The founder of Facebook seems to be admitting that there was some mistake or misfeasance, whether by Facebook itself, or by Cambridge Analytica, a company specialising in mining personal data for political purposes. Cambridge used data to help the Trump organisation focus propaganda to about 50 million Americans. A good deal of the expressed public concern, even by regulators such as privacy commissioners and consumer commissioners, seems to express surprise that this sort of thing could go on, or does. But, as any number of more sober commentators, perhaps most effectively Bernard Keane of Crikey.com has pointed out, what has been happening falls right in the middle of the business model being used by Google, Facebook, and any number of other internet and social media enterprises to make money. These companies are worth billions, and make billions, precisely because they mine information from what their "customers"  clients, members, users, consumers  voluntarily tell them. They then sell this information to people wanting access to what they find out. They have almost destroyed the old business model of conventional "old media"  newspapers, radio and televisionbecause the market thinks they are better at delivering buyers. These companies provide platforms by which ordinary consumers can communicate with each other, ask questions, buy goods and services, and express opinions. The companies monitor the traffic generated, including the networks of contacts that individual consumers have, for what it says about what sorts of goods they are interested in, what they like and do not like, and how they interact with each other. Those who specialise in this sort of analysis, and the algorithms they devise, can tell quite a lot from a pattern of Facebook entries, from the types of friends one has, the other sites visited, the inquiries and searches made for particular types of information, the sorts of clickbait clicked, and the types of quizzes entered. Analysis about the sort of person you are can be very sophisticated. But much is common sense, given clues we leave about, wittingly or otherwise. As the debate about permitting police and intelligence agencies to monitor computer use to combat terrorism and crime demonstrated, one can make deductions from far more than openly expressed opinions or statements of fact. One can also make deductions from the meta-data (information about sites visited, friendship and contact networks, the sorts of sites from which people obtain news and information, or opinion and analysis, and the types of media consumed). In a politically polarised society such as the US, where many in one side in politics scarcely know, let alone mix with, or share information sources with people of the other side, mere information about political orientation may not be especially valuable. But information about which types of issues are mobilising voters, about trigger points, about the intensity with which opinions are held, and about whether voters are minded to vote is much more useful. Some don't seem to realise that they have freely given the information being used to identify them as potential travellers on an airline, purchasers of a type of car, or customers for particular brands of deodorant. No doubt they think everyone gets much the same sort of product promotion. They may dimly recall that their joining a particular medium, or using a particular type of search engine, involved ticking a box which acknowledged that such information could be used. But they have very little idea of how sophisticated the use of such data might be, and how skilfully advertisers could use it to target particular types of customer, and to focus different types of customers with messages catering to particular types of need, emotions or attitudes to the product. That genie has long been out of the bottle. We are at the point where anyone who expressed surprise could only be described as naive, or of having been asleep for a long time. Some might not vehemently object to the cunning of internet advertisers in pushing travel products, intimate apparel or soap. But they suddenly become uneasy when they realise that it is being used to shape political opinions, or to surveil and categorise people by their beliefs, instincts and prejudices. Somehow, it is alright to do this in commerce, or, perhaps, to detect any terrorists. But, they fear, it is wrong or unsporting to be collecting such information about civilians in general, or to be using it to shape opinions or votes. Or, if it must occur, it should be subject to greater controls, and far greater accountability. Certainly everyone has been tut-tutting about the boasting of Cambridge Analytica executives that their analysis helped elect Donald Trump, by delivering critical votes in critical places through advertisements carefully designed to cater for particular emotions, beliefs and feelings. Advertisements they were able to devise by some sort of Facebook data-mining which, according to the reportage and commentaries, has been somewhat improper, illicit or beyond whatever Facebook had licensed. It has been said that Cambridge Analytica has been looking for Australian customers willing to pay for access to its algorithms. These might not, of course, be from a political party. They could be iron ore miners seeking to kill off a proposed resource rent tax, a business group seeking lower company tax rates, or a pensioner lobby seeking greater benefits. They might even be academics wondering about what factors combined to set opinions, beliefs and emotions on a particular issue, and how "hot" it was in determining political allegiances. Cambridge was able to parlay its information from an initially small group of people extensively studied into much wider conclusions from drawing in their networks and "friends," into an ultimate 50 million Facebook users. Perhaps an academic might want to study, via Facebook analysis, how opinions were formed or altered by discussions with family, friends, neighbours, and informal and formal sources of information, including mainstream media and social media. [Security officers monitoring subversive ideas, and cops investigating criminal conspiracies, have much the same sorts of interest, if about different motivators.] The truth is, of course, that major political parties have been doing close surveillance of individual Australian voters for quite some time. Cambridge is probably exaggerating its role and its success, but such surveillance works. The big parties use proprietary software to add to basic information provided by electoral rolls. They get extra demographic information, broken into small zones, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Other information about education, employment status, employment sector, approximate income, household assets, and the make-up of the family, are fairly readily obtainable in this day and age. This can be supplemented with information, and contact details, gathered by members and party officials, tame telephone polling at which guileless people (thinking themselves to be responding anonymously) answer questions about their previous and future voting intentions, the issues they care about, and their feelings about political leaders. More is garnered from participation in public events, from party door-knocking, and responses to invitations for participation in different types of event. They probably amalgamate with it information and intelligence gathered from associated entities, such as trade unions, and from their own campaigns. There is also some readily accessible information (obtainable, inter alia from politicians' electoral offices without misusing access to the data files of government agencies) about the receipt of benefits, grants and subsidies. No good or bad turn done to a voter goes unrecorded. To this is added very sophisticated polling data gathered by experienced and very professional pollsters employed by the various parties. These have long been practised at shaping messages, and road-testing the forms they take, as well as in devising different forms of the message for particular audiences. The messages sent out, even in conventional media or in mail outs, robo-phonecalls, or blitzes in particular areas, are strategised for what is known about the audience for particular messages, and for the capacity of particular messages to settle or unsettle voting intentions. Sometimes the messages come in stages, by which voters are gently detached from previously firmly held opinions to a more neutral position, than lured into a new view more favourable to a particularly party. The end-up point is that the average MP knows more about you than ASIO, the cops, or Woolworths. And any piece of knowledge she or he can exploit, will be exploited. Not necessarily successfully, of course, just as we don't buy all of the goodies on offer to us. Many of us are so inured to a barrage of messages that nothing penetrates. We do not know how much the parties are using data gleaned from Facebook or other social media, in major part because the parties simply will not say. They have already exempted themselves from any disclosure obligations under the Privacy Act. They are under no general duty  as others in government or commerce are  to use information only for the purposes for which it was obtained and for which permission was given. Although almost all of the work of political parties is funded by the taxpayer  whether through general grants or pooled allowances paid to parliamentarians  the parties are not public bodies. Nor are they subject to the scrutiny or inspection of the privacy commissioner, or anyone else with a function or duty to investigate abuse. The law of Australia is advancing to the point where one can expect the discovery of some sort of constitutional "right" to privacy almost any day now. But we are not there yet. And when we do get close, one can expect that the big political machines will yet again exempt themselves from its operation, with much the same bipartisan spirit with which they agree on political salary increases. I should be very surprised, frankly, if much of the data obtained from Cambridge algorithms, or the type of data mining being used on social media, was much more sophisticated than that already in use here. Australia has compulsory voting; many of the democracies with which we compare ourselves have voluntary voting, and struggle to get 50 or 60 per cent participating in an election. Overseas, as much, or more, energy is focused on motivating people to bestir themselves to vote as in urging them to vote for a particular party or candidate. Here, most people will vote, and messages are tailored accordingly. There is still an intensive focus on getting messages that work, and on neutralising messages from the other side. But, I suspect, the operatives here are generally surer about the motivators which will win best, or lose worst. That is not to say that political messages are more sophisticated, or less focused on the emotional or the visceral. Indeed I think that the quality of the sloganising, dumbed down monolithic messages, and appeals to the heart and head of voters deteriorates by the election. And mass communications  and perhaps the much-dreaded "mainstream media" is in any event alert for nuance, different statements to different audiences, and different stresses and priorities in different regions, to blunt some of the efforts to press each individual's vote in an individual way. Is it all too late? Do Australians care that Facebook has helped make them an open book? Did its utility, or vanity, blind us to the risks? Did panic mongering about the threats of terrorism, or refugees, drug syndicates or paedophiles soften us up for routine invasion of our most intimate secrets, relationships, and thoughts? In any event, would it be impossible now to impose controls and limits, or to hold potential abusers to account, because of the way that globalisation and communications have rendered irrelevant the national borders supposedly being protected by Peter Dutton? These have been questions canvassed last year by Professor Genevieve Bell, of the ANU, in her Boyer lectures, and by many other observers. My own view is that the public has as yet no urgent view about what has been given away and how vulnerable it is. We could retreat, but not back to where we were before the computer, before the internet and before the genius of platforms such as Facebook. But I cannot see the present crop of major party politicians convincingly whipping up much indignation, or creating the circumstances by which better balances are set. This is one for consumer action, and going over the heads of politicians. Perhaps through social media, or Twitter? Jack Waterford is a former editor of The Canberra Times. Jwaterfordcanberra@gmail.com

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Weather bureau staff will step up strikes in a fight for a new workplace deal as bosses continue to refuse conciliation at the industrial umpire. As of midnight on Tuesday public servants at the Bureau of Meteorology will take rolling strike action at any time, moving into a new phase and ramping up pressure on the agency as negotiations stay deadlocked. Bureau bosses rejected conciliation at the Fair Work Commission, but the industrial umpire on Monday scheduled another hearing for June 15 after a conference on Friday failed to end the dispute. The main public sector union's deputy secretary Beth Vincent-Pietsch said the 1600-staff agency, whose workers have been without a pay rise for more than four years, remained a workplace in turmoil and a standout example of a broken industrial relations system. "Enterprise bargaining across Commonwealth agencies has been difficult, but weather bureau bosses have taken it to a new low in their lack of respect for hardworking staff," she said. The Community and Public Sector Union and Fair Work had urged the bureau to accept conciliation, but it had ignored this, Ms Vincent-Pietsch said. "This matter should have gone to conciliation months if not years ago, rather than allowing weather bureau bosses to continue trying to railroad through a dodgy agreement. "BOM bosses are still pushing a punitive agreement that targets many of its harshest cuts at frontline staff working shifts and in remote locations, showing their agenda threatens to undermine the bureau's fundamental purpose." Union members at the Bureau of Meteorology in November began rolling strikes at times they judged would cause the most disruption to management. Another round of industrial action started in late February. Staff will be able now to take blocks of strike action at any time of the day or night, on top of existing work bans, in a new phase to continue until at least April 9. "Weather bureau staff are as determined as ever to get a fair agreement, whatever it takes, and they're angrier than ever at the ongoing attacks on their livelihoods and their important work," Ms Vincent-Pietsch said. "CPSU members are just warming up in this round of industrial action and are prepared to take things even further if that's what's needed to get a decent resolution." A bureau spokesman said it was negotiating in good faith with staff and unions, and that it wanted an enterprise agreement acceptable to staff and that was consistent with the Coalition government's workplace bargaining policy. "The bureau is committed to reaching agreement with staff and their elected workplace representatives as soon as possible," he said. The agency has used consultants to ask its public servants why they rejected a new workplace deal, after three "no" votes. Despite the rejections, the bureau asked an "independent facilitator" to meet workers and ask for their views - even though the CPSU said bureau workers and the union had been clear with bosses about what needed to change for the dispute to end. A decisive 60 per cent "no" vote in December killed the agreement offered to staff, who went into their fourth Christmas without a pay rise after years of negotiations. The result followed a resounding 69 per cent "no" in February 2016 and a 58 per cent rejection of an offer in May. Shift work and remote allowances have been among sticking points in bargaining. The Bureau of Meteorology is one of the last agencies still locked in industrial fights over new workplace deals, along with the Department of Home Affairs.

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Jakarta: The Christian former governor of Jakarta has had a request to slash his two-year jail term for blasphemy rejected by the Supreme Court, in a blow to religious tolerance and pluralism in Indonesia. The ruling could prompt a rise in the use of blasphemy laws by conservative Muslims to target liberal Muslims and non-Muslims, according to Human Right Watch Indonesia's Andreas Harsono. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, widely known as Ahok, was jailed in May last year in a case that grabbed worldwide headlines. Ahok had served as deputy governor to Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and took over the governorship of Indonesia's largest city in 2014 when Mr Joko was elected president. A political maverick, Ahok was widely popular with local residents, but became a target for conservative Islamic groups who argued he had blasphemed by suggesting that some Muslims were "deceived" by verse 51 of the fifth chapter of the Koran, which some interpret as prohibiting Muslims from living under the leadership of a non-Muslim. A spokesman for the Court, Suhadi, confirmed to Fairfax Media the panel of three justices, chaired by Artidjo Alkotsar, had rejected Ahoks request for a judicial review of his sentence. He will now serve the remaining one year and two months of his sentence. Harsono said that if Indonesia, a majority-Muslim nation of about 260 million people, wanted to protect democratic values, religious freedoms and pluralism then the blasphemy laws should be scrapped. "This ruling means that the blasphemy laws can be used by conservative Muslim groups for political purposes to target their nemeses, including non-Muslims and liberal Muslims," he said. "About 76 per cent of all countries in the world do not have or enforce blasphemy laws, but in Indonesia it is being enforced more and more." Harsono said the laws, which were introduced in 1965, were only used eight times in the 40 years until 2004. But in the decade after the election of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as president in late 2004, there had been 89 cases brought to court and 89 people jailed for blasphemy. Under his successor Jokowi, another 17 people had been jailed for blasphemy. "It's what we call a 'rubber law'," Harsono said, referring to the potential for the law's wide application and its subjectivity, "but the problem is, God can't testify in these cases". University of NSW lecturer Melissa Crouch, an expert in Indonesia's blasphemy laws, said the court's decision to reject a reduction in Ahok's sentence was unsurprising. "We are clearly seeing in the lead up to local elections this year, and the presidential election next year, that religion is becoming more prominent. Parties are using it to gain voter support," she said. "Its a difficult situation. Rather than candidates track record and policies, the overriding concern is religion and religious affiliation." Both Ahok, a Christian who is also ethnically Chinese, and Jokowi  who is a Muslim  have come under attack from political opponents and conservative religious groups over matters of faith in recent years. Harsono also pointed out that Buni Yani, the man who selectively edited and distributed the video of Ahok's comments that provoked such outrage and prompted huge anti-Ahok rallies by groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), was subsequently found guilty of spreading hate speech. Buni was sentenced to one and a half years jail but he is appealing that sentence. The two largest Islamic organisations in Indonesia, the Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), have previously said they have no problem with a Muslim voting for a non-Muslim.

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UPDATE: 6:30 p.m.

Willowbrook residents along Kearns Creek are advised that the flow in the creek will begin to rise slowly overnight and over the next few days.

There is a draw down order on a dam known locally as Pringle or Kearns Creek dam near Willowbrook, the RDOS advises.

The dam owner, under order from BC Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development will be pumping water to reduce the volume in the reservoir, which reached capacity late Sunday and spilled.

It's forecast the creek may rise up to six inches through Willowbrook while this operation is taking place.

The RDOS advises residents to add two more layers to sandbagging along the creek.

Sand and sandbags are available at the north intersection of Johnson and Carr crescents as well as at the Willowbrook Firehall.

The RDOS Emergency Operations Centre remains open and can be reached at 250-490-4225

ORIGINAL: 2 p.m.

The spring melt has started with a vengeance in the small community of Willowbrook, south of Penticton.

Kearns Creek began bursting out of its banks this weekend after heavy rainfall, leaving locals with water rushing through their yards and across roadways.

"People are scrambling to get hay out of barns, and to sandbag, and all those kind of things," said Terry Schafer, the RDOS board representative for Electoral Area C, where Willowbrook falls. "I feel really badly for them."

One possible plan of action would be to install concrete lock blocks to help pause the flow of the creek, buying time for cleaning or replacing of overworked culverts along the creek.

"I'm scrambling to come up with a solution to at least give the people in Willowbrook some breathing room," Schafer said.

Issues may arise because of a lack of jurisdiction and proper paperwork to install blocks, though Schafer sees the situation as calling for immediate action.

"I'm at my wit's end and I'm willing to just circumvent the law, pay for it myself and beg forgiveness later," Schafer said.

Property owners along creeks and waterways in the Okanagan-Similkameen in general are being urged by the RDOS to be aware of a potential flood risk brought on by recent heavy rain.

People who notice their waterways running faster or higher than normal should be prepared, they say, which includes keeping valuables out of harm's way and staying on top of checking for damage and the state of their on-property culverts.

Blocked culverts on public roadways can be reported to the Ministry of Transportation and Highways at 1-800-663-7623.

The RDOS has also provided a list of locations where sand and sandbags can be picked up:

Osoyoos: Opposite the Dairy Queen on Main Street in the vacant lot.

Willowbrook: Willowbrook Fire Hall, 3396 Willowbrook Road.

Oliver: Oliver Fire Hall, 369 Simillkameen Avenue.

Okanagan Falls: Keogan Park parking lot.

Naramata: Naramata Fire Hall, 1095 Lower Debeck Road.

The RDOS included a note in their press release which reminds the public that the KVR Trail is still closed south of Arawana Road.

There are washouts on the trail in Penticton and near Workman Place above Naramata, and risk is high for further damage. The public is asked to avoid using the trail until further notice.Photo: file photo

The provincial government has announced funding for a homeless count in Penticton next month.

Penticton is one of 12 small communities across B.C. to be included in the count this year. Data collected will be combined with counts last year in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Vernon  which will result in 85 per cent of B.C.s population being covered.

"Good solutions require good data. That's where these counts come in," said Selina Robinson, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. "We know that homelessness is a challenge across British Columbia.

100 Homes Penticton recently released the results of their own homeless count, which found an estimated 163 homeless community members in Penticton between Nov. 14 and 17.

The provincial count, to take place April 29-30, will be conducted by the Homelessness Services Association of BC. It will focus on homelessness through the provincial lens. 100 Homes Penticton says it will be supporting the project.

Volunteers for the count can apply here.Photo: Ridge Meadows RCMP

A late model Mercedes Benz sedan has the dubious honour of owning the highest recorded speed so far in 2018 on Golden Ears Way in Maple Ridge.

Ridge Meadows RCMP clocked the sedan at 162 km/h in a 70 zone.

RCMP say this latest reminder comes after the Ridge Meadows Traffic Unit clocked the driver travelling more than 90 km/h over the posted speed on Sunday.

Once officers managed to pull the car over, the driver was served a violation ticket of $483 for excessive speeding and the vehicle was impounded for a week. The driver may also be subject to a Driver Risk Premium of $320 per year for three years. Additionally, the driver was warned about the possibility of a Criminal Code dangerous driving charge.

Some drivers still feel that they can get away with operating a vehicle at these dangerous speeds, says Insp. Aaron Paradis. The decision to drive in this manner is inexcusable and can result in significant consequences, either to the driver themselves or, tragically, to others.Photo: Wayne Moore

Glenrosa Road in West Kelowna remains closed after a state of emergency was declared Friday by Mayor Doug Findlater.

Repair work continues on a portion of Lower Glenrosa Road and the road is expected to remain closed for several more days.



West Kelowna wants to make sure the road is safe for public travel before it is re-opened. Glenrosa Road serves as a critical secondary access to the Glenrosa neighbourhood, which was damaged during last Thursdays torrential rain. Crews are working to ensure the roads supporting structure is stabilized before it's re-opened.



Motorists are asked to obey all emergency traffic signage and use Glenrosa Road as an alternate route. Transit users can access Route 21 via Webber Road. Pedestrians are asked to avoid the area while emergency repairs are underway.



Mayor Doug Findlater signed a Local State of Emergency order on Friday to help facilitate the City of West Kelowna conducting the repairs.Photo: Vasiles Spiliotopoulos Click here to view gallery

Penticton's Greek community, along with Greeks around the world, came together Sunday to celebrate 197 years of Greece's independence.

A small but joyful group of Greek-Pentictonites dressed up in traditional costumes and marched in a short parade downtown, ending at the Veteran's Memorial Park Cenotaph where they laid a wreath, which they do every March 25 and Remembrance Day.

"We celebrate March 25, 1821, when it was the beginning of the resistance against the Ottoman-Turk empire," said participant Nikos Vasilakakis. "It's remembering our forefathers that died for our freedoms."

They followed up the parade with a potluck-style dinner and dance at the Greek Community Centre.Photo: Dogwood BC

A 41-year-old man has been arrested after a police officer was injured during an anti-pipeline demonstration in Burnaby.

An RCMP officer was in the process of arresting a man damaging city infrastructure when a number of demonstrators from a nearby camp rushed in and physically obstructed the officer.

The male fled with the officer in pursuit.

The police officer was in turn pursued by a number of demonstrators from the camp, one of whom allegedly pushed the police officer, causing the police officer to injure his knee, an RCMP press release states.

The injured cop still managed to catch and arrest the suspect for mischief and resisting arrest.

Our police officers have been consummate professionals and facilitated the right of thousands of people to lawful, peaceful and safe protest in this area over the past number of weeks, said Supt. Chuck McDonald.

Burnaby RCMP continue to monitor demonstrations at the Kinder Morgan worksite on Shellmont Street.

Obstructing police officers and injuring them in the course of their duties is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated, said McDonald.A Victoria mother and daughter got a surprise shout-out on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Kelsey Sims and her mother JoAnn Heap were in the audience Wednesday when actor Henry Winkler motioned to them and they were shown on camera.

"I never met that woman from Victoria," Winkler said.

The women chatted with Kimmel off-camera during a commercial break moments before the on-air surprise.

"He asked the audience if anybody had been to Victoria, and a ton of people threw up their hands," said Sims.

Her mother was thrilled to see Winkler.

"Always been a fan," she said. "It's Fonzie. Who doesn't want to see Fonzie?"

 with files from CTV Vancouver islandPhoto: Contributed

Penticton's Moog and Friends Hospice House will get a full kitchen upgrade thanks to a generous donation pledge Friday.

The Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Okanagan Commandery, presented a cheque for $10,000 at the hospice on Friday.

"Without the financial help from organizations and individuals in the community we would not be able to deliver the many extra comforts that make Hospice House a home rather than a medical facility," hospice society chair Bill Everden said.

The current facility at the hospice is long outdated and does not meet the needs of patients, families and staff on site. The kitchen has not been updated since the hospice opened its doors in May of 1998, nearly 20 years ago.

The Order of St. John has committed to matching dollar-for-dollar any donations up to $40,000 which individuals or organizations make to the hospice kitchen project, pledging to ensure a total of $80,000 gets to the project including the $10,000 delivered Friday.

Established in 2014, the Okanagan commandery of the international Christian organization headquartered in Vancouver raises funds yearlong for local organizations from Osoyoos up to Vernon.

This year's projects are the new Penticton hospice kitchen as well as a family room for hospice location JoeAnna's House in Kelowna.Chattanoogans Laura and Josh Ledbetter woke up Sunday morning to see their own smiling faces on the Washington Posts website.

It was pretty surreal to see our story in a national paper, Laura said. But we want as many people as possible to know about our battle and help us if they can.

The Ledbetters are living a surreal life these days. Their five-year-old son, Grayson, was diagnosed with Alexander disease last year, and they are in the fight of their lives.



This rare form of leukodystrophy attacks the white matter protecting the brains nerve fibers, leading to mental and physical delays in children. About 500 cases of Alexander disease have been diagnosed since 1949. The rarity of the disease makes it difficult to diagnose and treat. No cure exists today.



That wont be the case much longer if the Ledbetters have anything to say about it. Since Graysons diagnosis, they have started a nonprofit  Graysons Ladder  and enlisted thousands of fans and followers who are helping them Climb Towards a Cure. The funds are going to support an Alexander disease study at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia.



Grayson is an amazing little boy and we want to give him every chance to have more good days than bad, Laura said. We are so grateful for the people who have come alongside us to support the research.



The Ledbetters days are filled with wrestling tournaments for their 9-year-old son Cooper, and therapy and doctors appointments for Grayson, a student at Siskin Childrens Institute.



As much time as they spend keeping the disease at bay through physical, speech and occupational therapy, as well as gymnastics and horseback riding for flexibility and coordination, they know that the clock is ticking to find a cure. Most children diagnosed with Alexander disease dont live to see their 10th birthday.



We definitely live with the urgency to find a cure every day, Laura said. These doctors and researchers are focused on Alexander disease, but its also exciting for us to know that once this treatment is perfected, it should translate into treatments for all kinds of other diseases. So I know that Graysons Ladder will continue to make a difference for families for years to come.



For more information on Graysons Ladder, visit www.GraysonsLadder.org.

Voice of the People I can drive on the left lane of Ind. 49 and not have to deal with the truck traffic any more. I dont think I know you Jim Ton but apparently youre the one that made this happen. My life is a little better now....

Guest Commentary Fair maps for our children, for our Hispanic communities, for our futures My son will vote for the first time next year. And for his first time, the state of Indiana will have brand new legislative and congressional districts. It should feel like a clean...

Voice of the People During the 13 years I have called Chesterton my home, there are few small-town activities I have come to enjoy quite like the high schools homecoming parade. It is always a beautiful moment of celebrating our students, gathering for an afternoon of fun and seeing...

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...The IDs, which may already be used as CTA Ventra fare cards, to register to vote, and as Chicago Public Library cards, were initially intended for Chicagoans who otherwise might have trouble getting legal IDs, such as those living in the country illegally, homeless people and people recently released from prison. But they will be available to all city residents at the end of April, though a specific day has not yet been announced.The lawsuit joins others brought against the social media giant and Cambridge Analytica in response to a report from The New York Times and The Observer of London earlier this month. The newspapers reported that Cambridge Analytica, whose U.K.-based parent SCL Group was also named in Cook Countys suit, gained access to private information of more than 50 million Facebook users, including their profiles, locations and what they like. The firm claimed its tools could analyze voters personalities and influence their behavior with targeted messages."The Model 3 drove pretty well. It handled very well. Autopilot worked well on it. I didn't really have any issues with performance," Chris Schreiner, director of the user experience practice, said in an interview. "But the positioning of the screen is a suboptimal experience for the driver. It's an uncomfortable reach to use, and all of this information like the speedometer and the controls for the windshield wiper are on the screen, which takes some getting used to."Before the end, however, the script starts chasing its tail and its limitations become more apparent. Several critics have already weighed in on the perceived cultural appropriation going on in Isle of Dogs. The charge goes back to The Darjeeling Limited, which concerned three American brothers making their way through India. (Privileged Anglos abroad, carrying an improbably fabulous collection of designer luggage is how I put it back in 2007.) Just as limiting: Andersons relative disinterest in the female characters, who exist only in relation to how they feel about the more prominent male characters, human or canine.The salon pieces sounded overpowered, more about pure display rather than, say, domestic charm or joy. And how many, exactly, did we hear by Balakirev? Four or five? Hard to tell, owing to their unfamiliarity and the pianists tearing though them at times without pausing between. He did the same with Scriabins Opus 65, No. 3 Etude and Fifth Sonata, blurring one into the other. Inexcusable, yes. Yet the off-kilter sound world of Scriabin  one directive in the sonata is dizzily rushing ahead  bore the imposition better. In fact, Berezovskys impetuousness suited Scriabin best among the afternoons composers, despite the pianists low quotient of such Scriabin essentials as sweetness, mystery and dreamy intoxication.Elsewhere, actors have their moment. As Louis, James McArdle is entertainingly loquacious, but youre not taken in enough by the apparent genuineness of his tears to fully feel the harm he does. Lee Pace reads as too old for Joe Pitt, one of Roys boys. Hes a fine actor, but you dont see any fork left on his Reaganomic road. Denise Gough, who plays Harper, and Susan Brown (Hannah) both are hugely empathetic and very much like denizens of the 1990s, and Brown is genuinely moving in Part Two. But they dont really read as Mormon, which might sound like a reductive criticism, and it is, but it has something to do with how, in this great play, the darkness of doubt and the pain of realization must be preceded by a clear light in the eyes, flowing from the lost optimism of the all-American West.4. As people realized battle wounds are now causing zombie-dom, there were several long faces  but it could be an opportunity! There is Rick, for instance, who has a wound that he shrugs off treatment for twice. I am pretty sure he was wounded in last episodes knock-down-drag-out with Negan, and not by a weapon Negan had infected, but I guess well find out. I think were supposed to be fretting for the star of the series, but I wont hold my breath on that one.And yet, in the end, traumas large and small in The Female Persuasion get processed much like they do in real life: over a long time, through conceptual working and reworking, accompanied by a drifting and resetting of intentions. As Greer says near the end of the book, Its weird  the way sometimes youre in your life, but other times youre looking back at it like a spectator. It kind of goes back and forth, back and forth. By this point in the novel, the characters seem, despite the odds, to have become what they were always going to become. If we never quite catch them in the act, theres still something satisfying about seeing them arrive.Because timbre refers to a more complex collection of features than pitch, rhythm or volume, it is a less well-understood property of sounds. But we do know that timbre provides an important pointer to different sound sources, thus helping us identify people, animals and objects based on their characteristic auditory "fingerprints." So, we wondered whether mothers might unconsciously change their overall fingerprints when talking to their babies, perhaps to signal that an important source of speech, which is highly relevant for learning, is coming their way.219 E. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, No. 2A, Chicago: $5,115,000 | Listed: Aug. 4, 2021



This five-bedroom home has six full bathrooms, two half-baths, two large outdoor patios and two private elevators. A formal living room with a fireplace overlooks the lake and has a wall of windows. The family room has built-in bookcases and shelving, and the kitchen is equipped with a large island, granite counters and an eating area that opens onto one of the patios. The primary bedroom has a fireplace, a wall of windows overlooking the lake, two walk-in closets, a sitting room and a full Luxe bath. This unit comes with three garage parking spaces and is located in a building with a 24-hour door person.



Agents: Linda Rosenbloom, @properties, 847-892-4800; Carol Gooze, @aproperties, 847-909-5585



*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.NEW YORK  Paris-based fashion house Louis Vuitton has named Kanye West collaborator Virgil Abloh as its new menswear designer.



The 37-year-old is founder of the Off-White label and will become, alongside Balmain 's Olivier Rousteing, one of only two people of color in charge of a major fashion house. He replaces Kim Jones, who left in January to become men's wear designer for Christian Dior .



In a statement, Abloh said "I find the heritage and creative integrity of the House are key inspirations and will look to reference them both while drawing parallels to modern times."



Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke Monday praised Abloh's "innate creativity and disruptive approach (that) have made him so relevant, not just in the world of fashion but in popular culture today."



The company says Abloh's first show will take place during men's fashion week in Paris in June.For the city, the deal means that groups including the NAACP and ACLU of Illinois, and their army of lawyers, will suspend their lawsuits and join the negotiating process. If those lawsuits had continued, they might have dragged on through the 2019 mayoral election. Emanuel is seeking a third term and could face challengers who might seek to capitalize on some voters dissatisfaction with the police.As we researched the Chicago homicide spike, we were repeatedly struck by the fact that this obvious possible explanation was so often quickly swept under the rug, presumably by persons who have an ideological or other preconception that proactive law enforcement policies are not the solution for high crime rates, the study said. But the costs of crime  and particularly gun crimes  are too significant to avoid considering every possible measure for reducing the toll.Perez was deported without the customary warning and opportunity to say goodbye to his family. He had no money or clothes, except for a few items from the detention center, and was left in Matamoros, a border town in the state of Tamaulipas, where the U.S. State Department has warned Americans not to travel because of high crime.A post late Sunday on the Facebook page for Allens Aussies stated: It is with a very heavy heart that I regret having to tell you all about the tragic event that occurred at Allen's Aussies. All puppies and mothers were lost in a tragic fire tonight. I will be reaching out individually to the people who have appointments set up. I am so sorry to have to inform you all of this. We are simply heart broken at this time.The man suffered three gunshot wounds and was taken to an area hospital with injuries that were not life threatening, state police said.David Fuller, 27, is accused of leaving six grams of marijuana in an inmate bathroom at Stroger Hospital on Jan. 30, the sheriff's office said. Fuller had left it there for an inmate who had an appointment at Stroger.McCarthy also said during the radio interview that he would look to give the police superintendent the final say on discipline, instead of the mayor-appointed civilian Police Board. He said the board too often overturned his recommendations to fire officers. I had accountability, but I didnt have authority, he said.Finally, this (state) law has come to rescue homeowners rights to talk about the affairs of the association  whether it is the budget, whether it is waste of money, whether it is unnecessary assessment increases, whether it is illegal contracts, she added. Condo owners, Harandi said, can block unwanted emails or texts.In the first comprehensive imaging study of attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder in preschoolers, researchers have found evidence that structural changes in the brain are already recognizable at the age of 4. (Bec Parsons / Getty Images)The list included at least 16 European Union nations, with more likely to follow. Germany, Poland and France each planned to boot four, the Czech Republic three and Italy two. Ukraine, a non-EU country with its own conflicts with Moscow, was expelling 13 Russians, President Petro Poroshenko said. All three Baltic states said they would kick diplomats out. Canada, too, said it was taking action, kicking out four and denying three who have applied to enter the country."Are you SERIOUSLY mocking a school shooting survivor for her ethnic identity?!" wrote Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. "When it was my community, where were you? When it was Sandy Hook? Columbine? Were you on the sideline mocking those communities too? Did you question someone identifying as a mother? Did you question whether people like me were crisis actors?"I was in a parking lot," Daniels said, "going to a fitness class with my infant daughter ... and a guy walked up on me and said to me, 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.' And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.' And then he was gone."If Republicans want to hold on to the House, they will have to compete in communities that had little to do with the working-class regions that sent Trump to the White House in 2016: affluent, white-collar suburbs of Democratic cities. Many of the most competitive House seats this year are in the tony bedroom communities of Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Philadelphia, New York and Washington.While we must work to prevent the mass shootings which have become all too visible, we must also combat the other gun homicides and suicides which take many more lives each year. According to the CDC, more than 33,000 people in the U.S. die in firearm-related deaths every year. In 2016 alone, the CDC found that the rate of gun deaths in the U.S. was 12 per 100,000  up from 11 deaths per 100,000 in 2015. Statistically, nearly two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides and more than a third are homicides.It may turn out to be even worse than he thinks. One reason for this bill, paradoxically, was to fix a mistake made the last time lawmakers were in too big a hurry to find out what they were voting for. The tax overhaul passed in December included a provision that became known as the grain glitch, giving farmers an ill-considered incentive to sell to agricultural cooperatives rather than grain companies. The spending bill cleaned up that little mess. Future legislation may be required to repent of errors in this bill."This removes the last vestige of the ill-conceived billion-dollar project," said Jan Strasma, chairman of Citizens Against the Sprawlway, which organized in 2001 to fight the Prairie Parkway. "This final step removes the possibility of an unneeded expressway that would destroy thousands of acres of farmland, threaten the Fox River and its tributaries, and forever change the area's small community way of life."Once outside she encountered a neighboring couple who were out for a walk with their dog  former St. Charles District 303 School Board President Steve Spurling and his wife, Diane  and told them Turyna was trying to kill her, according to the release. The woman began to walk away with Diane Spurling when Turyna began to fire his gun at them. Steve Spurling had begun to call 911 when he heard the first gunshot. He ran toward Turyna, knocked the gun to the ground and detained Turyna until police arrived, the release stated.Village officials said that Schaller was also assigned to investigations and to the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration as a task force officer. Schaller was a recipient of the 2004 Illinois Law Enforcement Medal of Honor and 2008 Award of Valor from the Hundred Club of DuPage County.U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson, is shown at a news conference about gun violence on Sept. 25, 2017, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)Per the terms of the settlement, according to the village, Tinley Park paid $75,392 from the village's general fund, with another $684,608 coming from a legal settlement fund held on the village's behalf by its insurer, the Intergovernmental Risk Management Association. IRMA also paid an additional $1.69 million toward the total settlement of $2.45 million.Chris Sykora, an art teacher at Deerfield, is the co-director of the exhibition, which he said is a nonprofit corporation. He said the annual event showcases student art from across the state and gives seniors the opportunity to share their portfolios with colleges with the hope of earning scholarships.Daphne Browdy, a Deerfield High School junior, said she fears for her life when she goes to class as a result of the school shootings that have gone on since the one at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. For her there is no middle ground. She said she does not know a world without gun violence in school."I'll be a lot more attentive to what I hear in the classroom or at home," Garcia said, and more focused on "trying to encourage kids to be who they are no matter what gender they are."O'Hare CrossFit members invite the community on March 31 between 10 a.m. and noon for 22 minute workouts and a chance to donate to Lift for the 22, which provides veterans with a one year gym membership. (Anthony Tortoriello)"Our main goal is to be the size of someone like Tito's Handmade Vodka in Austin, Texas," said Falberg. "We are not looking to be small. We are not looking to be the next little place in town. We want to be big. We are looking to take this on to a national footprint."That was the same warning millions of young people issued during hundreds of marches to "ban the bomb" or end the Vietnam War; during the calls for No Nukes in the 1980s and the March for Women held right after the election of President Trump. Between their passion for activism to "change the world" and action at the ballot box, the young vote has failed to materialize when it counts.The Waukegan school board was unanimous in their support of the illegal immigrants. They want to help the citizens of Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, etc. to get around our laws and take advantage of us. Even our esteemed Sen. Durbin vowed not to work for the citizens who voted for him, but to concentrate on helping people of other countries. As Americans, who are we voting for? What are our taxes paying for? No longer are school boards concerned about whether little Johnny can read or not, but whether little Jose get his free stuff.Not only is Illinois perhaps the most broke and mismanaged state in the country, we now get to choose one of two billionaires to keep that status intact. Two billionaires that have no experience living paycheck to paycheck, don't need to stress about how to pay rising property taxes or inflated medical costs, how to pay for the care of their elderly parent or disabled family member, etc., and probably will find holding the office of governor a challenging new hobby. I am pretty sure that Madigan qualifies for all benefits the seniors get. However, it would be hopeful thinking that he'd move to a state that offers senior benefits.This country is going to pot with these young people trying to scream about the guns. These young people, you may have these degrees and your little special things, but you ain't got the common sense. You keep trying to push these guns down. How are you going to protect yourself? There ain't enough police to go around. You won't be able to protect yourself. This government wants to take your guns so they can take us over. Open your eyes and look at the history, young people. Don't be so brain-dead. You take our guns away, this country is done for. We'll live in a socialist country. You want the government to tell you what time to go to the bathroom, what you can do and what you can't do? That's the way it's coming. This world's in a big hurt if they keep listening to these young people. It's not the guns, it's the video games and what's on TV."Please check your home security cameras to see if anything suspicious was captured that would provide us with any clues/evidence," police asked in their alert. approved local landmark designation for an American Legion World War II monument at South Park. The monument consists of a boulder with a bronze plaque containing the names of 47 Park Ridge men killed in World War II. Originally dedicated in 1947, the monument accompanied the planting of 47 maple trees  one in remembrance of each man  on the Devon Avenue median between Prospect and Western avenues, the Chicago Tribune reported at the time. The monument was relocated from the Devon Avenue median to South Park in 2015 and rededicated by the Park Ridge Spirit of '45 Committee in recognition of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II."I think it's a very good opportunity to do something for the saving of the trees," he added. "I think what the board will have to consider  and I want it brought forth in the proper way  is how we're going to allocate the money and do what some members of the community are asking for."As the youth marched Saturday, Hart said, "our teens helped us remember that that world is still possible and challenged each of us, no matter who we are, to take steps to bring it closer."The village can only regulate the sale of tobacco products, not its use, which is a state perogative, Prezjner said. However, several organizations have studied tobacco sales trends and believe that a quarter of Midwest tobacco users are under 18 years of age, and 90 percent of those who provide tobacco to those users are themselves under 21, he said.Arrested CSU Pueblo student reportedly planned mass shooting

An arrest affidavit in the case of CSU Pueblo student Robert James Killis alleges that Killis "appeared to be in the planning stage" for an active shooter event.By Dezan Shira & Associates

In China, withholding Corporate Income Tax (CIT) is applied to the following China-sourced incomes derived by non-resident enterprises without establishments in China, or to that derived by non-resident enterprises with establishments in China but whose income is not related to these establishments:

Dividends, bonuses, and other equity investment proceeds;

Interests, rents, and royalties and income from the transfer of property; and

Any other incomes subject to CIT obtained by non-resident enterprises.

RELATED: How to Calculate Corporate Income Tax in China

The withholding CIT rate for non-tax resident enterprises in China is 20 percent (currently reduced to 10 percent). For dividends, interests, rents, and royalty income, if the respective rate in a tax treaty is higher than 10 percent, the 10 percent rate will prevail; if the rate in the tax treaty is lower than 10 percent, then the rate in the tax treaty should be adopted.

For example, Hong Kongs double tax agreement with China reduces the withholding tax rate on dividends from 10 percent to five percent where the beneficial owner directly owns more than 25 percent equity of the company that pays the dividends, unless the dividends should be regarded as business profits.

The tax payable on income derived by non-resident enterprises should be withheld at the source, with the payer (i.e., the Chinese enterprise who remits the fund overseas) as the withholding agent.

The formula for calculating withholding tax liability is: Tax payable = Taxable income x Tax rate

Filing procedure for withholding CIT

Where a non-resident enterprise derives China-sourced dividends, interest, rents, and royalties, or income from property transfers, it is required to file the withholding tax either by itself or by a withholding agent.

With the SATs Announcement on Issues Relating to Withholding Tax on China-Sourced Income of Non-resident Enterprises (SAT Announcement [2017] No.37, hereinafter Circular 37) coming into force on December 1, 2017, the filing procedure for withholding CIT was significantly clarified and revised.

Tax Compliance Services from Dezan Shira & Associates

According to Circular 37:

The record-filing of the contract is no longer required.

Previously, a copy of the contract giving rise to the taxable income, along with a contract registration record form and other relevant documents, had to be submitted to the authorized tax bureau for record-fling within 30 days of signing the contract. All documentation, including those originally in a foreign language, had to be translated into Chinese. This procedure applied to each subsequent revision, supplement, or extension of the contract.

Circular 37 reduced the burden on the withholding agent for record-filing, except in limited situations provided in other specific regulations such as SAT and SAFE Announcement [2013] No.40. The competent tax authorities still have the right to request the contract from the agent.

The additional reporting requirement for income paid by installment is canceled.

Previously, for income paid by installment, the withholding agent should, within 15 days prior to making the last payment, report to the authorized tax bureau the details of all completed payments in order to complete a tax withholding clearance.

Circular 37 canceled this reporting requirement.

The arising time of withholding obligation is revised.

Previously, the arising time of withholding obligations on equity investment income, such as dividends bonuses, should be the day on which the distribution decision was made by the board of directors or the actual payment date, whichever is earlier.

Circular 37 clarified that the time of withholding obligation arising on equity investment income should be the actual payment date.

Further, Circular 37 added that, where income of asset transfer is paid by installments, the installments can first be treated as recovery of costs of previous investments, and the withholding CIT can be calculated and withheld upon recovery of all costs, i.e. upon receiving the last installment.

The due date of the payment of withholding tax is relaxed.

Previously, the withholding agent had to file and pay withholding obligations to tax authorities within seven days of withholding obligations arising. And where the withholding agent failed to withhold tax or was unable to do so, non-resident enterprises should file and pay withholding tax to the tax authorities, where the income was derived within seven days from the date the payment is made by the withholding agent or from the date the payment becomes payable. If non-resident enterprises failed to pay as well, late payment interest would be imposed.

Circular 37 provided a more beneficial new rule. Where the non-resident enterprise has filed and paid tax before the tax authorities order it to make payment within a stipulated period, the enterprise shall be deemed to have paid tax on time. In this case, late payment interest will not be levied.

RELATED: Withholding Tax Deferral for Foreign Investment in China

In addition, Circular 37 provides for greater cooperation among different tax bureaus to improve the business environment. For example, when the non-resident enterprise generates income from different tax regions, the withholding agent can choose to pay tax to just one of the relevant tax bureaus.

Moreover, Circular 37 clarifies other issues relating to the calculation of taxable income, such as the foreign exchange rule in calculation, the retrospective effect of certain rules, as well as how to calculate taxable income in equity transfer and asset transfer.

This article was originally published on March 26, 2018 and has been updated with the latest regulatory changes.You are here: Arts

China will send five archaeologists to Saudi Arabia Monday for the excavation of the ruins of al Serrian, according to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

Six Saudi archaeologists will work with the Chinese staff at the Saudi port ruins on the Red Sea for 20 days, the administration said.

The excavation will be conducted with the aid of high technologies, including aerial photo by drones, digital surveys and mapping, 3D modeling.

This is the first time China has sent an archeological team to carry out systematic archeological work in an Arab country. China and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement for the excavation in December 2016.

Al Serrian, located in the southwestern Arabian Peninsula, was prosperous from the ninth to the 13th century.



The changes in the ongoing second edition of Gallery Weekend Beijing reflect its organizers' support of the capital's home-grown galleries and a strong desire to engage with the ordinary audience among whom they are seeking the country's next-generation collectors and patrons of contemporary art.





Launched in 2017, the annual Gallery Weekend events provide experiences in addition to art fairs for galleries, dealers, artists and collectors.





Exhibitions are held at top galleries and art institutions in the city's 798 and Caochangdi art areas, so that all stake holders in the art market can have detailed conversations, which is usually not the case at art fairs where decisions to buy or not need to be made quicker.





This year, Gallery Weekend Beijing has prolonged its duration to a full week that started on Friday. Besides exhibitions, a series of talks and workshops are being held at participating galleries. The extension in duration is to attract elites from the international art industry to visit the city before they head to Basel Hong Kong, a top art fair, which is set to open on Tuesday.



Gavin Tan, the International Regional Manager (East and South East Asia) of the University of Hertfordshire (UH), a British university near London, has advised Chinese students to be more open when they embark on academic years on foreign campuses.



"We encourage our Chinese students to be brave to speak English, never mind the grammatical mistakes, ignoring them and communicating more often, then they will soon settle down," Tan suggested in an interview with China.org.cn.

Being a British-Chinese person himself, Tan is perceptive of the changing personalities of overseas Chinese students across different generations.

According to Tan, unlike their predecessors, Chinese students who come from single-child families where they have been looked after by six adults (parents and grandparents) may consider life in a foreign environment a big challenge.

"Excessive love from the parental or grandparental generations, such as never asking their children to wash dishes, year after year will affect the children's capabilities to lead independent lives, especially when they are sharing dormitories with other students on overseas campuses," Tan explained.

In addition to being outspoken and independent, he also advised Chinese students not to show off their wealth.

During several seminars that Tan held to foster understanding between Chinese and local students, many British students expressed that the flamboyant and expensive apparel of Chinese students often makes them uneasy.

Therefore, Tan counseled the young Chinese to live a low-key lifestyle, which he said is conducive both to making friends and to avoiding potential criminals.

With more than 400 Chinese students recruited last year, UH is targeting a growth of 20 percent this year.

According to Tan, the university is competitive in their use of practice-oriented pedagogic curriculum, high employment rate and low crime incidence.

The university has partnered with the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission as well as China's prestigious Fudan University on a doctorate program.

To attract more Chinese students, UH is also setting up an independent language test equivalent to the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), so that the students who miss their chance to attempt the IELTS may still have the opportunity to attend the school.

Mimi Tessier, associate dean of the International School of Humanities of UH said that Chinese students may find limited choices since there are too few IELTS centers in China. Therefore, the UH offers them an automatic language testing system that can be booked in regional offices of the university in China.

According to Tessier, the language testing system is exactly equivalent to IELTS and benchmarked by the European training standards. The key difference, she said, is "Whereas IELTS is based on general language skills, our test more defines university skills and drafts the key information to the kind of undergraduate or postgraduate skills that are necessary." Flash

Yemeni Houthi rebels fired several long-range ballistic missiles toward four Saudi international airports on Sunday midnight, said a statement posted on the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency.

One ballistic missile was fired toward King Khaled International Airport north of the Saudi capital Riyadh.

The second missile targeted Abha International Airport in the Saudi southwestern province of Asir.

It added that the third missile was fired toward the International Airport of the southern Saudi province of Jizan, while the fourth missile targeted the regional airport of the Saudi southeastern province of Najran.

"The move came in response to an order from the leader of revolution, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi," the Houthi group said in the statement.

"The missile attacks were also in revenge against Saudi-led coalition for using all weapons in their war against the Yemeni people," they added.

The dominant group also said it fired several other ballistic missiles on several other Saudi targets, but it did not name such targets.

The missile attacks came shortly after Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi gave a televised speech through the group-controlled channels to commemorate the third anniversary of war that pitted his rebel group against the Yemeni internationally recognized government backed by the Saudi-led coalition forces.

In his speech, al-Houthi vowed to step up ballistic missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. He also called his supporters to rally on Monday in the capital Sanaa, which is under his group control since late 2014, to show strong against what he said the "enemy."

Meanwhile, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV channel reported that Saudi air defenses intercepted and destroyed one of the ballistic missiles over the King Khaled International Airport north of the capital Riyadh.

Saudi activists in the social media reported powerful explosions over the sky of Riyadh. There were no Saudi official reports on casualties yet.

The Sunday midnight attacks were the latest in a series of attacks claimed by the Yemeni Houthi group against the Saudi airports.

On Thursday, the Houthis said they fired a short-range ballistic missile toward the Saudi oil giant Aramco. However, Aramco said its plants are operating normally and declined to give further details.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia led a military coalition of Arab forces, backed by the United States, to intervene in Yemen's conflict to back the government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition has launched thousands of airstrikes on the Iran-aligned Shiite Houthis, in attempts to roll back rebel gains and reinstate Hadi in the capital Sanaa.

Houthis have launched hundreds of ballistic missiles toward Saudi cities, with most of them intercepted by Saudi air defense forces.

The war has so far killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and pushed the Arab country to the brink of mass famine. Flash

Spain's former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was arrested on the entry of Germany from Denmark on Sunday, German police confirmed.



According to the local Focus Online, a German police spokesperson confirmed the arrest, saying that based on a European warrant, Puigdemont was arrested at 11:19 a.m. local time by the Autobahn police force of Schleswig-Holstein, on the Federal Highway 7 in the direction toward Hamburg, from where he wanted to return to Belgium.

In the meantime, the local newspaper Kieler Nachrichten cited judicial circles as saying that Puigdemont was apparently considering applying for asylum in Germany.

"Should he do so, the asylum application will be examined as any other by the Federal Office for Migration," said a spokesman for the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of Interior, according to the report.

In Germany the prosecution or the execution of a European arrest warrant takes precedence over an asylum procedure. The judiciary in Schleswig-Holstein is now examining whether Puigdemont will be placed in extradition. The decision of the district court is expected on Monday.

Lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas said on his Twitter that Puigdemont was held on Sunday when he crossed the border from Denmark to Germany. He also confirmed that Puigdemont had been on his way back to Belgium where he lives in exile since fleeing Spain.

Puigdemont has been a fugitive since Catalonia's failed bid to become independent from Spain last October. The Spanish Supreme Court on Friday issued fresh arrest warrants against Puigdemont and some other individuals behind the independence bid. Flash

The presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran will meet in a trilateral summit on Syria in Istanbul on April 4.



It comes after the capture by Turkish-led forces of a Kurdish stronghold in northern Syria and amid Turkish threats to extend the massive operation further east.

The meeting will be hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and will be the second such tripartite summit following the previous one last November in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The summit will be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani as the three leaders will seek to salvage their efforts to end the seven-year Syrian conflict.

As part of peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana sponsored by Ankara, Moscow and Tehran, the three countries' foreign ministers met on Friday and discussed preparations for next month's summit, the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

The three countries have worked together despite their different positions. While Iran and Russia have provided military support to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey has repeatedly called for his ousting and supported Syrian rebels.

Message of cooperation

Experts believed that the mere fact that regional actors are gathering would be considered as a message of international dialogue in search of a negotiated peace in war-torn Syria.

"The most concrete result that would emerge from this summit will be one of the determination to pursue the cooperation between Turkey, Russia and Iran," said Kerim Has, a lecturer at Moscow State University.

The specialist on foreign relations and Russia commented that "such a message despite the Afrin operation would be important for the three (regional) players."

He was referring to the offensive launched by Turkish troops against Kurdish fighters in the Syrian enclave.

Ankara on Jan. 20 launched an air and ground offensive with Syrian rebels against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia that Ankara considers as a terrorist group in Afrin in northern Syria.

The main objective is to cleanse the Kurdish forces from its 900-km-long border with Syria, victim of a civil war for seven years.

The operation, dubbed Olive Branch, follows Turkey's 2016-2017 offensive Euphrates Shield in Syria against the YPG and the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.

Turkey vows to extend operations



Turkish-led forces captured virtually unopposed Afrin city center nearly two months into the incursion. Erdogan has vowed to expand the offensive to other Kurdish-held regions further east, sparking fears of a possible clash with U.S. troops deployed in the area.

"We will continue this process until we entirely eliminate this corridor, including in Manbij, Ayn al-Arab and Tal Abyad," the Turkish leader said, insisting also that when the "security threat for Turkey is eliminated, we will not be indefinitely there, we will retreat."

Assurances given by the Turkish leadership that Turkish troops will not stay in Syria are essential for the implementation of ground rules covered by the Astana and Geneva agreements and their signatories, reminded Has.

"It would be appropriate to consider the military and political outcome of the Afrin operation on a short and medium term ... The other actors would certainly not welcome the creation of a zone under Turkish sovereignty on Syrian soil," he added.

As part of the Astana process, Turkey, Iran and Russia have set out to create four so-called de-escalation zones in Idlib, the greater Damascus area, the southern region of Daraa and the city of Homs.

But intense bombardment has hit in recent weeks Eastern Ghouta, a rebel enclave near Damascus, designated in May 2017 as a "de-escalation zone," killing hundreds of civilian, according to independent sources.

"The deplorable situation in Eastern Ghouta will be on the table" in Istanbul, said a Turkish diplomatic source to Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The Istanbul summit will also be the latest example of the intensifying dialogue between Ankara and Moscow on the Syrian crisis.

The two countries have been working closely together since a 2016 reconciliation deal ended a crisis sparked by the downing by Turkey of a Russian war plane over Syria.

Turkey saw its bilateral relations with NATO ally the United States faltering over its military support for the YPG, who has helped the U.S.-led coalition in its fight against the IS since 2014.

Erdogan on Tuesday criticized the U.S. for not having sided with Turkey's security concerns in Syria. "You say you are our strategic partner, and then you go and collaborate with terrorists," he said, referring to the Kurdish militia, calling on Washington to "respect" Turkey.

Washington announced on Tuesday a plan to eject the YPG from Manbij, which Turkey denied having been approved by the United States, raising fears that the two NATO partners could dangerously confront each other in this area where 2,000 U.S. special forces are stationed.

Some analysts thought that by giving a green light to Turkish airplanes to use the space it controls over Syria, Russia has meddled in the Turkish-U.S. dispute to weaken the NATO alliance.

"The green light given to Operation Olive Branch shows that even though they are reluctant, Russia and Iran prefer Turkey who would transfer in the end the control of Afrin to regime forces rather to an independently manoeuvring YPG, who would be unpredictable," argued Has.

The fact that Turkey has promised to rebuild the infrastructure of Afrin and ensure the safe return of thousands of refugees is also a factor that justifies Ankara's motive.

While the U.S. State department spokesperson Heather Nauert has voiced concern over a mass evacuation of Afrin city, quoting the United Nations reporting up to 250,000 Kurds having fled the region, massive preparations are underway by Turkish aid organizations such as the Red Crescent to provide immediate assistance to the population of Afrin, said Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag on Tuesday.

"We want to make sure that our operation brings hope to all ethnic populations of Afrin," said the Turkish diplomatic source, implying that until the trilateral summit of April serious assistance will be conveyed to this part of Syria. Flash

Greece celebrated on Sunday the 197th anniversary of the start of war of independence from the 400-year rule of the Ottoman Empire on March 25, 1821 with a customary military parade in the center of Athens.



Hundreds of citizens waved the Greek national flag and mechanized units and foot soldiers marched in front of the parliament building, while flights of Armed Forces aircraft and helicopters flashed above the crowd.

In their messages for the day, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, who attended the parade in Athens and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras who travelled to Psara island in the Aegean Sea, referred to recent tensions with neighboring Turkey.

They both urged constructive dialogue and respect for international law to resolve all pending differences between the two countries.

"We are a nation and peoples of peace, friendship and democracy ... But we are also a nation and peoples who will always defend the freedom, borders and national sovereignty of our country and our great European family," Pavlopoulos said, according to an emailed statement.

Greece and the European Union support Turkey's European prospect, but they also have the will and power to defend their sovereignty, Greek national news agency AMNA quoted the Greek president as saying.

"Turkey must realize that in the 21st century the prosperity and progress of a nation cannot be guaranteed with provocations and nationalistic rhetoric, but with mutual respect and collaboration with neighbors and the constant efforts to resolve issues," said Tsipras.

Greece and Turkey, with rifts on territorial rights in the Aegean and the Cyprus issue, saw their relations further soured after eight Turkish soldiers fled to Greece in July 2016 following a failed coup attempt in Turkey.

Meanwhile, Turkey also detained two Greek soldiers who according to Athens entered Turkish soil by mistake earlier this month.



You are here: World

 Flash

At least five people were killed and several other injured when a car laden with bombs exploded in Somalia capital Mogadishu on Sunday afternoon.



A police officer who requested anonymity told Xinhua the explosion hit the entrance of the Interior Ministry.

"We now have established that five people have been killed," the officer said.

An eye witness named Mohamed Abdinasir said the blast happened at a checkpoint in front of the interior ministry.

"There were many cars at the checkpoint as police were conducting security checks when the bomb exploded," Abdinasir said.

The blast happened barely a week after another deadly attack at Wehliye Hotel in the city center claimed over 14 lives.

No group so far has claimed responsibility for the attack. Flash

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday strongly condemned the "Iranian-made missile attacks" on Saudi Arabia carried out by the Houthi militias on Sunday, UAE state news agency WAM reported.

The Houthi missile attack was aimed at "terrorizing civilians and damaging infrastructure in the kingdom through attacks," the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affaris and International Cooperation was quoted by WAM.

The statement said these repeated attacks by the Houthi militias confirm "the need to stand firm against these hostile acts and call on the international community to do its duty to stop and prevent these acts in order to ensure the stability of the region."

The statement reiterated the position of the UAE on the side of the "brothers" in the kingdom, stressing that the security of Saudi Arabia is an integral part of national security and security of the region.

Yemeni Houthi rebels fired several long-range ballistic missiles toward four Saudi international airports on Sunday midnight, said a statement posted on the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency.

Saudi Arabia's air defense intercepted ballistic missiles late Sunday over the capital of Riyadh fired from Yemen by Houthis militias, Saudi state television reported.

Saudi television said Yemen's Houthis fired two missiles toward Saudi and Saudi air defense succeeded in intercepting one over Riyadh, and another over Jazan in the Saudi border with Yemen. Several loud explosions have been heard by local citizens in Riyadh.

The attack was not the first time that Houthis fired missiles toward Riyadh.

In November last year, the Saudi air defense shot down a ballistic missile fired by Houthis at Riyadh international airport.

In December 2017, the UAE denied the claims by Yemen's Houthi rebels about firing a ballistic missile at its nuclear plant under construction.

The Houthi rebels claimed then to have fired a cruise missile at the Barakah nuclear plant south-west of Abu Dhabi.

The UAE is part of a Saudi-led military coalition which has been fighting the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015. Sunday marked the third anniversary of the start of the Saudi-led intervention to support the internationally recognized Yemeni government under the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthis forced him into exile.

The war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, half of them civilians, and displaced over 3 million others, according to UN humanitarian agencies.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have repeatedly blamed Houthi forces of obstructing humanitarian aid which was meant for Yemen's civil society. The Houthis have been occupying Yemen's capital and largest city Sanaa since September 2014.



Facebook(WASHINGTON) -- The Federal Trade Commission said it is opening an investigation into Facebook after news reports raised "substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook."



A statement from Tom Pahl, acting director of the Federal Trade Commissions Bureau of Consumer Protection, said: "the FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook."



The FTC probe comes amid reports that data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, allegedly misused Facebook data from up to 50 million user profiles. Some members of Congress and privacy advocates have pushed for the FTC to look into whether the matter violates a 2011 consent decree in which Facebook said it would uphold a number of privacy protections.



Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg signed his name in ads taken out in newspapers in the U.S. and the United Kingdom on Sunday apologizing for its failure to protect user information. "This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again," the ads said.



The Senate Judiciary invited Zuckerberg to testify at an April 10 hearing on data privacy. ABC News has reached out to Facebook for a response.



In a statement, Cambridge Analytica said, that in cooperation with the social media company, it had deleted all the Facebook data and related information in 2015. The data firm said that such information was not used as part of its work with the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.



"This Facebook data was not used by Cambridge Analytica as part of the services it provided to the Donald Trump presidential campaign; personality targeted advertising was not carried out for this client either," Cambridge Analytica said in a statement. "The company has made this clear since 2016.



Cambridge Analytica has also previously said it was unaware the data was improperly obtained by a third party and that it was destroyed as soon as they were made aware.



That third party, Aleksandr Kogan, the Cambridge University researcher who collected information on millions of Americans through Facebook for Cambridge Analytica, told ABC News that both the social media giant and the data firm are making him a scapegoat.



The Trump campaign has said it never used data from Cambridge Analytica.



Cook County in Illinois is suing Facebook and Cambridge Analytica for "harvesting of Facebook user data" and Facebook for not protecting the data.



Additionally, 37 state attorneys general sent a letter to Facebook Monday demanding to learn more about the social network's practices, privacy protections and the scope of the data breach.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Australian Business Traveller | Mar. 26, 2018

"Code One, Code One!" It's the sort of frantic call you'd expect to hear from some hospital drama show on TV. But at Boeing's sprawling facility in South Carolina, it's spoken in more relaxed tones and a distinct southern drawl.

"Code One" is Boeing-speak for the first model of an aircraft type delivered to any airline. This week that means the first Dreamliner for Singapore Airlines -- and not just any Dreamliner but the debut of the Boeing 787-10, a stretched version of the popular 787-9.

So maybe that makes this a double "Code One". It's certainly a moment of vast import for both the aircraft manufacturer and the airline.

The 787-10 is built exclusively at Boeing's facility in South Carolina, which also produces some of the smaller -8 and -9 models but is an all-Dreamliner plant.

Singapore Airlines will pick up the keys to the first of up to 49 of the Dreamliners tomorrow, ahead of start of flights to Osaka and Perth in May 2018. Also in line for the 787-10 are Etihad, Emirates, British Airways, United Airlines and ANA.

The Boeing 787-10 is 5.5 metres longer than the 787-9, and foregoes a few thousand kilometres in flying range so that can fit more passengers from tip to tail -- in the case of Singapore Airlines, this will be 337 travellers, with 36 in its all-new regional business class seats and 301 in the economy cabin.

(Singapore Airlines has opted to drop premium economy from the Boeing 787-10, and will do likewise with a forthcoming regional version of the Airbus A350.)

Boeing Marketing Director Jeffrey Haber is keen to point out that the 787-10 brings 80% of the world's population within reach from Singapore, despite its range being slightly reduced compared to the mid-sized 787-9 (11,910km versus 14,140km).

Although tomorrow's delivery flight from Charleston to Singapore features the first 787-10 delivered to an airline, it's actually the fourth in the family to be built -- three more of the stretched jets "were created for the flight test program," Haber tells Australian Business Traveller, "and these will be refreshed and resold to airlines."

Haber declined to say if these pre-loved aircraft would carry a reduced 'demonstrator model' price tag.China Aviation Daily | Mar. 23, 2018

Finnair has been selected as the Best European Airline for the third year in a row at the TTG China Travel Awards, one of the most influential travel industry awards in Greater China. TTG China has been recognizing Greater China's best companies in the travel industry, including airlines, hotels and resorts, serviced residences and travel services since 2008. The selection is done by travel industry professionals.

"It is a great honor to receive this prestigious award, and I would like to thank all our customers and partners for the recognition and support. Finnair was the first European airline to open direct flights to Beijing in 1988, and this year we are proud to celebrate the 30th anniversary of serving the Chinese market," says Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer at Finnair. "China is a key market for Finnair and we are committed to offer more choices and localized services for our Chinese customers."

Finnair connects seven cities in Greater China -- Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Hong Kong -- to over 100 destinations in Europe via its Helsinki hub.

Contributed by Finnair



WASHINGTON - Hundred of thousands of protesters rallied in Washington on Saturday, calling for stricter control on guns, more secured schools, and an end to gun violence.

Carrying signs with slogans including "Never Again", "Am I Next ", protesters gathered in Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue that connects the Capitol Hill and the White House.

The rally "March For Our Lives" was held after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people with an assault rifle in a high school in Parkland, state of Florida on Feb 14.

The shooting has revived a national debate over gun controls, as many are concerned that mass school shootings are becoming alarmingly common.

More than 800 similar events were held in cities across the country the same day, including such cities as Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, and Parkland, where more than 20,000 people filled a park near the Florida school.

There were also demonstrations overseas, according to coordinators, with events as far afield as London, Mauritius, Stockholm and Sydney.

In New York, thousands of teenagers, teachers and parents braved the chilly weather and took to the streets in their support for a nationwide students march, calling for the US Congress to pass tighter gun-control laws.

The march began with a rally at near the Central Park during which a moment of silence was observed as the names of 17 victims killed in the school shooting in Parkland were read.

Then the protesters, holding signs including "Enough is Enough", "We're the Change", "Gun violence hurts" and "I am a Teacher NOT a Security Guard," walked all the way to midtown Manhattan.

In Chicago, thousands of people gathered at Union Park to participate in the demonstration against gun violence.

On the stage of the rally, several students spoke about the shooting incidents and victims that occurred around them and called for stricter gun laws.

In San Francisco, thousands marched along the streets, chanting slogans and urging their supporters to back their protest.

"I've always heard about gun-related crimes, and so many people get killed. It's time to take actions," said high school student Danny.

Xinhua - Ap

Demonstrators hold signs during a "March for Our Lives" rally in support of gun control on Saturday in Chicago. Students and activists across the United States held events on Saturday.Associated Press

(China Daily 03/26/2018 page12)The magic returns; the strains of our music will once more ring forth. Consortium Aurora Borealis is back in action after the silence imposed on so many arts organizations by COVID-19.Termeni de referinta pentru selectarea unui expert/ e, grup de experti sau companii care va presta servicii de instruire pentru voluntarii din cadrul AO Concordia. Proiecte socialeAKRON, Ohio - Detectives are trying to identify a man who forced his way into an Akron party at gunpoint and robbed everyone in the house, police said.

No one was hurt in the robbery that happened Sunday night on Storer Avenue near Peckham Street, police said.

An Akron resident had several people over to drink and play cards when the robber walked into her house about 9:30 p.m. No one knew him, so they asked him to leave, the resident told police.

A short time later one of the men at the party went outside to take out the trash. The robber pulled a gun on the man and forced him back into the house, police said.

The robber forced all partygoers to the floor at gunpoint. He took cash, purses, wallets, cell phones and a gold watch before he left the house, police said.

No arrests have been made in the case, police said Monday.

Anyone with information about the robber is asked to call the Akron police detectives at 330-375-2490.

To comment on this story, visit Monday's crime and courts comments section.BEREA, Ohio -- Describing herself as the "mouthpiece" for her East Bridge Street neighbors, Susan Billow addressed Berea City Council March 19 about disruptive, trespassing Baldwin Wallace University students who live in rental properties on that street.

"We've been pressed to the breaking point," Billow said. "Packs of college kids will go down the street at midnight or later while we're trying to sleep. They'll be whooping it up. When I told a young man at the end of our driveway we were trying to sleep, he said: 'You live in a college town. Get over it.'"

She said some students come from other cities to attend off-campus parties up and down the street. Parking along East Bridge can be hard to find, Billow added, because commuter students leave their cars there during school days to avoid paying for on-campus parking. They then cut through residents' back yards to more directly access the campus.

"It's very disruptive this year," Billow said. "The students feel like they own our street now, and they can just walk through our property whenever they want. I wanted City Council to be aware of it."

Safety Director Barb Jones told Billow that police patrols can be increased in that area. Jones also said she will have a police sergeant visit the rental homes in question.

Students need to be aware that their behavior off campus can impact their standing with the university. When contacted by cleveland.com, BW Public Information Director Shawn Smith Salamone provided the following statement:

"BW's expectation is that all students should be responsible citizens and good neighbors both on and off campus," the university indicated. "Students living in off-campus housing are subject to the laws and ordinances of the city and are expected to follow them. Violations of city ordinances, on or off campus, will also trigger a campus Code of Conduct investigation with separate university consequences."

The university went on to advise Berea residents to file complaints with the Berea Police Department, which, in turn, will share that information with campus authorities.BROOK PARK, Ohio -- At the March 20 caucus held prior to their regular meeting, Brook Park City Council members continued to deliberate over renovations Mayor Mike Gammella has proposed for the John A. Polonye Community Center. The recreation center is housed inside the same building.

At issue is a $110,000 change order outside of the original $5 million community center energy conservation project already under way. Money to cover the change order would come from the city's Capital Improvement Fund.

The mayor, who was not in attendance, has proposed construction of a separate entrance for the south end of the building to accommodate Mayor's Court. Also included in the change order is the addition of a floor-to-ceiling privacy wall for the tax department, which, along with other City Hall operations, will move into the building after renovations are complete.

Recreation Director Mark Elliott pushed for council approval of the change order so the legislation could be passed during that evening's regular council meeting, but members decided to wait until Gammella was present.

Elliott also mentioned his desire to replace the kitchen area, which he said is operational but "in bad shape."

Council President Mike Vecchio, as well as Councilmen Ed Orcutt and Greg Stemm, emphasized, however, the need to spend the city's money wisely.

"We are in a wants-versus-needs predicament with our budget criteria," Vecchio said, while Orcutt added that council members "need to be extremely aware of every dollar that's spent in the community."

Only $1.2 million has been set aside for city road repairs, and Orcutt said residents consistently expressed concerns about street conditions when he campaigned for office last year.

"We have to remember how we got here and what the residents were talking about," Orcutt stressed. "It was about the roads ... which are completely underfunded. We have to be cognizant of our hardworking taxpayers."

Councilman Brian Poindexter encouraged council to move forward on community center renovations in order to begin reaping more than $300,000 in projected annual savings from the overall energy conservation project.

"We can really use that money," Poindexter said.

Council could vote on the change order legislation, as well as the annual city budget, during a March 27 special meeting, which was scheduled to occur after press deadline.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A judge on Monday sentenced Christopher Whitaker to death for the rape, torture and murder 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze.

Whitaker, 45, was ordered pay the ultimate price for the brutal crimes he carried out against the girl in an abandoned home in Cleveland's Kinsman neighborhood in January 2017.

The circumstances that Whitaker's attorneys presented to convince jurors to spare his life "pale in comparison to the barbarity of the evidence" of what he did to the girl, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Friedland said in imposing the sentence.

The judge also added a 48-year sentence that is separate from his death sentence for his convictions of aggravated burglary, rape, felonious assault, obstruction of justice and gross abuse of a corpse charges.

The same jury that convicted Whitaker last month also recommended his execution. Friedland had the option to impose a life sentence if she reached a different conclusion than the jury.

Update: Cuyahoga County Judge Carolyn Friedland accepted the jury's recommendation and sentenced Whitaker to death. - Watch as Christopher Whitaker is sentenced for the 2017 kidnapping, torture and killing of 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze. Posted by cleveland.com on Monday, March 26, 2018

Whitaker is the first person condemned to death from Cuyahoga County court since 2016, when Michael Madison, who was convicted of killing three women in East Cleveland, received that fate. He will join 20 other men who have been convicted in Cuyahoga County and are currently on death row.

"My thoughts and prayers go to the family and friends of Alianna DeFreeze," Prosecutor Michael O'Malley said. "The imposition of the death penalty is never an easy decision but given the facts of this horrendous case, it was the right decision."

Monday's hearing was fraught with emotion, as relatives of Alianna faced for the first the man who terrorized their daughter and granddaughter.

Alianna's mother, Donnesha Cooper, sobbed as she told Friedland that Whitaker daughter was a sweet and happy-go-lucky girl who cared about her little brother and wanted to help other people wherever she could.

"He just snuffed out a really bright light in the world because of his own selfishness," Cooper she said.

Alianna's death took a physical toll on her family members. Her stepmother, Watonya DeFreeze, said she developed congestive heart failure after the girl's death. Cooper said she no longer has the drive to go to work or, at times, even leave the house.

Damon DeFreeze, her father, spoke last. His frustration mounted as he told Friedland that he tried to warn Alianna about predators like Whitaker. He turned toward Whitaker, who was flanked by five courtroom security officers.

"Excuse me so I can look at this b---- a-- dude, " DeFreeze said.

Friedland immediately interrupted him and told him to address her. DeFreeze relented that he had said enough and returned to his seat.

Whitaker chose not to make a statement.

Whitaker's trial began on Feb. 1 and brought into a clear and disturbing focus how the seventh-grader, whose mother said still played with baby dolls, spent the torturous final hours of her life.

Whitaker approached Alianna at an RTA bus stop near Kinsman Road and East 93rd Street, where she waited to catch a bus to her school and convinced her to go with him to a vacant house on Fuller Avenue, where he carried out the crimes against her.

He also left behind his DNA, fingerprints and bloody boot prints that investigators matched to Whitaker.

Whitaker gave an unsworn statement during the penalty phase of his trial and apologized to the girl's family. He said he was truly remorseful -- a point that his attorneys reiterated at Monday's sentencing -- and said he told his lawyers not to contest the charges at trial because he didn't want his case to become "a circus."

Those words rang hollow to Friedland, who quoted a statement that Whitaker made to homicide detectives after his arrest in February. Whitaker told the police that he was concerned about news coverage of his arrest and that he was going to be made out to be a monster to his family.

"The remorse he felt was basically for himself," Friedland said.

To comment on this story, please visit Monday's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish's administration plans to spend $515,000 for a consultant to help oversee the $25 million Enterprise Resource Planning system, which will connect all county government computers and information systems.

The cost for the 20-month contract would be almost double the $264,000 that County Council is spending on a two-year contact for its own consultant to monitor the same long-delayed project.

Rather than seeking bids, the county chose the firm after issuing a request for qualifications. The legislation is expected to be introduced Tuesday at council's meeting and referred to a committee.

The county announced earlier this month that the project would face additional delays because Chief Information Technology Officer Scot Rourke cannot oversee the project.

Rourke, and Emily McNeeley, IT general counsel and director of special initiatives, were placed on paid leave a month ago after they were named in a subpoena from public-corruption investigators. Among other things, the subpoena sought records and contracts involving Westlake-based Hyland Software.

Budish has formed a committee, led by Fiscal Officer Dennis Kennedy and Chief Economic Growth and Opportunity Officer Matt Carroll, to move the ERP project forward.

"The addition of someone on our side can also give us a wealth of technical information that we have been lacking to this point and keep us on track internally," Kennedy said at a recent council Finance Committee meeting.

Council President Dan Brady told cleveland.com this month that council lacks confidence in the Budish administration's ability to implement a $25 million system.

The county plans to hire RSM US LLP, an audit, tax and consulting firm, for "third-party assurance assessment services for components of the County's Enterprise Resource Planning System," from April 17 through Dec. 31, 2019, according to the resolution. "The goal of this project is to provide validation that the various phases of the ERP project are well planned, tested and implemented."

RSM is the fifth largest accounting firm in the U.S. with more than 9,500 employees, according to its website. The consulting company chosen by council, ZCo Consulting, is essentially a one-man operation.

ZCo is owned by Zig Berzins, who has been in the technology consulting business for more than 35 years. His specialty is overseeing ERP systems, according to his qualification statement submitted to council. He recently concluded a three-year stint in Anchorage working for the city's assembly, similar to council, to oversee an ERP project that was over budget, according to council and his qualification statement.

Council was impressed by Berzins' experience working with municipalities and he had the best bid, officials said. The fee includes his travel from his office in Denver to Cleveland.

The county has been working to establish the ERP system for years. It was first proposed in 2010, when the county transitioned to a charter government. Officials issued a request for proposal in 2013. Council didn't approve the project until October 2016. Two administrators were hired last summer to oversee the system. Other staff has been added.

Three small departments, sanitary dispatch, GIS and the print shop, were the first to go online and began using the system on March 19.

But the fiscal, budget and procurement departments, which were supposed to go online June 7, are now delayed until Sept. 3. Kennedy said. And others may be delayed in the future.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County's proposed new travel policy places more oversight and restrictions on how travel is approved and reimbursed.

The policy, applicable to all employees, requires department heads to approve all in-state travel under $1,000 and the Fiscal Office to approve in-state travel exceeding $1,000 and all out-of-state travel. All receipts must be submitted.

County Executive Armond Budish's administration is expected to introduce the policy for consideration by County Council on Tuesday, weeks before the county's Internal Auditor's Office releases its report and recommendations following an audit of the 2016 travel reimbursements.

"We are finalizing our results and working with the departments to correct any issues found," Auditor Cory Swaisgood said in an email Monday. "I do not expect this report to be released until May. I can assure you we worked with the Fiscal Office to ensure issues identified in our audit were addressed in the new travel policy."

The legislation will be referred to a council committee. Fiscal Officer Dennis Kennedy will discuss the issues and the proposed policy when the committee discusses the legislation, spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan said Monday.

The county's travel policy was last revised in 2007. At that time, the county was overseen by three commissioners and elected department heads.

At that time, the county had an overall travel policy, but each department had its own rules, procedures and expense forms, according to the state auditor's office. State auditors recommended in their last two yearly financial audits that the county create one policy.

The county's internal auditors agreed and said issues they discovered included overpayments and reimbursements for meals that employees received for free at conferences.

In some cases, supervisors approved expenses without reviewing them, according to preliminary findings that the auditors presented to the county's Audit Committee in December. In other cases, travel was taken without prior approval or receipts was not submitted.

The new policy raises the daily reimbursement for breakfast, lunch and dinner and prohibits reimbursements for such things as lost and overweight baggage, in-flight movies and expenses related to personal days before or after county travel.

See the new policy below or click here if on a mobile device.

According to the new policy:FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio -- Energy efficiency has been a priority in Fairview Park for years. Director of Public Service and Development Shawn Leininger said recently that completed projects include new HVAC equipment, a boiler, and a water tower and chiller at City Hall, as well as the addition of LED lighting throughout various buildings.

Now the city will have more money to use toward such efforts after recently receiving a $70,000 Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council (NOPEC) grant for energy efficiency and/or energy infrastructure projects in the community.

"We haven't yet determined how we're going to use it," Leininger said. "We're currently evaluating different projects we can apply it towards that would qualify."

Fairview Community Development Planner Monica Rossiter said the city can use the funds toward solar energy, lighting, energy-efficient doors, windows and roof improvements, which have to be completed by the end of the year.

"We're given a lot of wiggle room to work with," Rossiter said. "It's not very specific. Ultimately, it's up to the city with City Council and NOPEC approval."

Current projects being considered include roof needs at the senior center and a service department garage. Another option is to use the grant toward the estimated $1.5 million price tag to fix the Gemini Center's leaking natatorium roof.

"I think initially right now, you're probably looking at other options than the Gemini Center roof," Leininger said. "It would be nice to put this grant elsewhere in the city infrastructure."

Speaking of the natatorium issue, last week City Council approved $90,000 for the design of the roof replacement.

"We're starting the design a little bit later than we hoped, but we'd like to get it done this year," Leininger said. "We need to advance the design a little bit to see where we're at. It'll be a several-month project.

"In terms of shutting the pool down, everything we know so far about what we need to do there we believe we can keep the pool open during construction. However, there will be a few points during the process where the pool had to be shut down temporarily for a day or two at a time."

Already, the city spent $5,900 for a 2016 Construction Resources study, which when presented last year recommended replacing the 10-year-old roof that spans the natatorium and a portion of the fitness area.

Leininger said the Gemini Center's leaking natatorium roof involves warm air getting into the wall cavity, turning into condensation and leaking into the natatorium.

Considering the popular venue is only a decade old, the city is exploring its legal options. City Council approved spending upward of $56,000 to hire The Vickers Group to further examine the issue.

"The legal issue is still pending with City Council as part of their executive session," Leininger said.Ted Steinberg's op-ed, "Ohio resolution labeling campus criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic seeks to suppress free speech: Ted Steinberg (Opinion)" denies the obvious: many current forms of anti-Semitism involve or stem from anti-Israel activity.

H.C.R. 10 rightfully seeks "To condemn the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions [BDS] movement and increasing incidents of anti-Semitism." The ADL found that anti-Semitic incidents rose by 57 percent in 2017, and by 89 percent on college campuses.

Anti-Semitism certainly manifests in classic ways, such as the suggestion by a D.C. Council member that Jews control the weather. It also manifests under the guise of anti-Israelism. At the Brandeis Center, in the wake of BDS campaigns and anti-Israel demonstrations on campuses, we have seen swastikas drawn and Jewish students verbally harassed. We represented a Jewish student who was chased by anti-Israel protestors. We have assisted when, time and again, anti-Israel activists violated First Amendment rights of Jewish and pro-Israel students and speakers by disrupting events.

Anti-Semitism masked as anti-Israelism is very real, and unfortunately very prevalent. H.C.R. 10 will not suppress speech; rather, under H.C.R. 10, Ohio's General Assembly will condemn the hateful BDS movement and anti-Semitism.

Aviva J. Vogelstein, Esq., Director of Legal Initiatives

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law

Washington, DCMAPLE HEIGHTS, Ohio - A man was shot Sunday evening in a robbery attempt, Maple Heights police said.

The shooting happened just before 6 p.m. on the 17300 block of McCracken Road, south of Interstate 480 and east of Lee Road, Maple Heights police said in a news release.

Officers were called to the robbery scene and found a 53-year-old man with a non-life-threatening gunshout wound, police said. He was taken to an area hospital for treatment.

The victim told police two suspects were wearing light gray hooded sweatshirts, blue jeans and bandanas covering their faces, the release states. They drove away from the robbery scene in a silver Volkswagen Jetta.

The license plate number for the Volkswagen was not provided.

Anyone with information about the robbery should contact the Maple Heights Police Detective Bureau at 216-587-9624 or by emailing detectives@mhpd-ohio.com. Tips can also be sent to Cuyahoga County Crime Stoppers at 216-252-7463.

If you'd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Citizens from across northeast Ohio packed into Cleveland's Public Square Saturday as part of a nationwide protest organized and led by a group of suburban Florida students who watched 17 members of their student body and some faculty members gunned down by a man with a high-power assault-style rifle.

There were speeches. There were clever signs. And just a handful of miles away, the violence in some of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods, a weekend of gun crime, continued unabated.

Someone shot a man in the leg. Someone else shot up a house with people inside. Police officers came across a car riddled with bullets.

What is often lost in gun-control conversations that follow school shootings like the one in Parkland, Florida, or mass shootings like one last year at a country music concert in Las Vegas, is that gun violence is a random chance encounter for most Americans.

In many neighborhoods in most major US cities, like Cleveland, the sound of gunfire is part of daily life.

"The reality is that families on these streets are under siege," said Khalid Samad, a long-time civil rights activist and founder of Cleveland's Peace in the Hood. "Everybody's under siege."

Activists like Samad say that national conversations about gun control that come in the wake of mass shootings, at times, exclude discussions about inner-city violence.

The protesters inspired by the Valentine's Day massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida steered the conversation directly toward the sort of everyday gun violence that affects people living in inner cities-- and not just the rash of school shootings that often dominate headlines.

Samad, who said that community and political organizing is one of the few options left to those affected by gun violence, led a small group of Cleveland residents to Saturday's March for Our Lives rally in Washington, where they spoke with some survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, Samad said.

"They said it was intentional for them to use their platform...that this massacre has afforded them. They knew that if those had been African-American children (who were shot), it wouldn't have gotten as much publicity," Samad said.

Samad's group also listened to eleven-year-old Naomi Wadler, an Alexandria, Virginia girl who spoke at Saturday morning's event and called attention to the gun-related deaths that overwhelmingly affect communities of color in urban areas.

"I am here today to acknowledge and represent the African American girls whose stories do not make the front page of every national newspaper," Wadler said. "I represent the African American women who are the victims of gun violence who are simply statistics instead of vibrant beautiful girls full of potential. I'm here to say never again for those girls too."

At least 111 of the roughly 130 homicides that happened in Cleveland last year were the result of gun violence, according to an unofficial tally of cleveland.com records. And in 2017, the city recorded 2,715 instances of felonious assault, which includes shootings and other serious assaults.

Between the beginning of this year and March 21, there were 137 shootings in Cleveland in which victims reported being shot or being fired at, Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said. Shooting and gun homicide statistics for other recent years were not immediately available for review.

One such instance of gun violence happened at about 2 a.m. Sunday when a 29-year-old man told police he was shot while trying to break up a fight outside the B&G Tavern on Lorain Avenue in the Ohio City neighborhood, according to police reports. The man suffered a gunshot wound to the knee after a car pulled up alongside a group of people outside the bar and a passenger fired several rounds at the crowd, reports say.

An hour later, police found a car riddled with bullet holes at East 55th Street and Euclid Avenue -- three bullets tore through the trunk and three more went through the side of the car. Officers found no one inside.

And about four hours before that, a bullet was fired into a home on Spring Road in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood, other reports say. Three people were in the house at the time of shooting, and one man said that a bullet flew through the bedroom wall and nearly struck him, the reports say.

Such instances rarely garner widespread attention because they have come to be commonplace in a city that was ranked in 2016 as having one of the highest rates of murder rates per capita by The Trace, an organization that monitors gun violence in America.

Cleveland ranked fifth on that list behind St. Louis, Baltimore, Detroit and New Orleans. Chicago ranked eighth, according to The Trace.

Judy Martin, founder of Cleveland's Survivors/Victims of Tragedy Inc., and the secretary treasurer of Black on Black Crime of Cleveland, praised those involved in the March for Our Lives rallies for their efforts to bring attention to everyday gun violence in America's cities.

"I think its terrible for the reason they've had to do it -- but it is amazing and wonderful that the kids are marching. Our kids shouldn't be so afraid to go to school. They shouldn't feel like they've got to carry a gun because they're being bullied. They shouldn't be afraid to walk across the street, or stay in the house and pray that a bullet doesn't come through the wall," Martin said.

She said she has been tracking homicides in Cuyahoga County since her son was killed in 1994. By her count, 1,809 children and adults under the age of 25 have been killed since 1990, and that demographic accounts for 43 percent of total homicides in the county since that year, Martin said.

"The kids have localized. And they're the future voters. When hundreds of thousands are marching all across the country, I think that speaks volumes," Martin said.

To comment on this story, visit Monday's crime and courts comments section.CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cleveland State University is partnering with Ohio University's Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine to provide another way for students to attend medical school.

The program would be similar to CSU's partnership with the Northeast Ohio Medical University. Students would attend classes at OU's Cleveland Campus at Cleveland Clinic's South Pointe Hospital in Warrensville Heights.

CSU President Ronald Berkman said the university was looking to add another medical partner and OU's college would be a shorter commute for students than NEOMED's campus in Portage County.

"This is more of a Cleveland connection and would give students a chance to work in Cleveland hospitals," he said.

Both partners are committed to primary care and providing doctors in underserved areas, he said.

CSU established the partnership with NEOMED seven years ago. The first students are graduating in May.

The state legislature recently amended legislation to allow the CSU partnership to include another medical school.

Up to 35 CSU students can apply to medical school each year, but now they can choose, Berkman said. OU will initially accept eight to 10 students.

Men and women who have a bachelor's degree can apply for a program that includes two years of pre-med courses at CSU and four years of medical school. CSU sophomores can be admitted into a program that guarantees admission to NEOMED or OU after graduation.

OU opened its medical school in Warrensvile Heights in 2015.

"We look forward to welcoming additional applicants from CSU into our existing accredited class size of 50 students per year at our Cleveland campus," Dr. Isaac Kirstein, dean of the osteopathic college in Cleveland, said. "Since launching the campus, over 75 percent of our students have come from Northeast Ohio. In fact, eight CSU graduates started our program this year, and we have already accepted nine CSU graduates into the next class."

NEOMED said it supports CSU's new partnership.

"As a community-based medical university, we pride ourselves on our collaborations with many who share in our mission to serve the medically underserved," the university said in a news release. "Cleveland State University is a great partner, and expanding the partnership to include Ohio University will give students two public medical school options, which will strengthen the partnership and its overall success."CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland Heights mother of four found dead in a garbage can in an abandoned Cleveland home died from a gunshot to her head and stab wounds to her body, officials said.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner ruled Miriam Johnson's death a homicide. Her body had stab wounds on the torso, arms and legs, according to the medical examiner.

No charges have been filed in the case. Cleveland and Cleveland Heights police are searching for Johnson's ex-boyfriend, who was convicted of violence against her three times, in order to interview him. Cleveland Heights Police Chief Annette Mecklenburg said Friday he is not considered a suspect.

Johnson was a mother of four children, including a 13 year old, a 10 year old and a set of 7-year-old twins, family members said. She was one of six siblings who grew up in Cleveland Heights and worked as a server at the Map Room restaurant in downtown Cleveland.

Johnson's family reported her missing March 6, about a week after her mother last saw her, according to police.

Cleveland Heights police at the time said they feared Johnson was in danger and that her ex-boyfriend, Yaphet Bradley, may have been holding her against her will. Investigators have not yet found Bradley.

Johnson's body was found Thursday in a garbage can in an abandoned home on Chamberlain Avenue between Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood.

The medical examiner said it identified Jonson through finger prints and family members.

To comment on this post, please visit Monday's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio Gov. John Kasich granted clemency to a Toledo-area killer who was two weeks away from execution.

Kasich's decision Monday to spare William Montgomery's life came 10 days after the Ohio Parole Board voted 6-4 to recommend mercy for him. The governor commuted Montgomery's sentence to life without parole.

The board's report showed the majority had concerns over witness statements that weren't disclosed to Montgomery when he was on trial and whether the jury made its decision on sound grounds.

Montgomery, 52, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on April 11.

He has been in prison since 1986 and was sentenced to death that year for the murder of Debra Ogle during a robbery. He was also convicted of murdering Cynthia Tincher, Ogle's roommate.

Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates had asked the parole board to deny Montgomery's request for clemency.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Monday's crime and courts comments section.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Two local events will honor National Vietnam War Veterans Day on Thursday.

American Legion Joseph J. Jacubic Post 572, 6483 State Road in Parma, will hold a tribute, 7-9 p.m.

The event to salute Vietnam-era vets, their families and POWs/MIAs will feature special presentations, reading of reflections and a complimentary dinner.

Featured speaker will be Chip Tansill, director of the Ohio Department of Veterans Services, and an Army veteran who was deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1990. He also served as chief of staff for the Ohio National Guard.

All Vietnam-era veterans will receive commemorative lapel pins.

Additionally, Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 15 will host a Vietnam War Veterans Day program at the Garfield Heights Civic Center, 5407 Turney Road.

A social hour begins at 6 p.m. followed by the program at 7 p.m.NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio -- As if the Easter Bunny wasn't busy enough this upcoming weekend, he'll also be making an appearance at North Olmsted's annual Eggstravaganza, taking place from 10 a.m. to noon March 31 at North Olmsted Park.

It's Easter egg hunt season! North Olmsted will host its annual Eggstravaganza from 10 a.m. to noon March 31 at North Olmsted Park.

"The Easter Bunny will be there taking free pictures with the kids," city Recreation Commissioner Betsy Drenski said. "There's a petting zoo, a bounce house, different prizes and community partners. Well also have free coffee, juice, water, fruit. I have 1,000 donuts ordered, as well. That's a fun pickup at Giant Eagle.

"We started this about eight years ago when we were just looking for a new event, something different. A lot of people have egg hunts, but ours is quick and easy and pretty fun. There's lots of bang for your free buck to come out for two hours."

Kids will be hunting for 22,000 eggs filled with candy; however, one egg per egg hunt age group (ages 0 to 2, 3 to 5 and 6 to 9) will have a $100 gift card.

As far as stuffing those plastic containers, Drenski said in the Eggstravaganza's early days, her department was responsible for nearly 10,000 eggs. Now she orders them pre-stuffed.

While there are other community Easter egg hunts held around the area, Drenski said the North Olmsted event, which costs roughly $750 to produce, is special due to its quaintness.

"It's just to give back to the community," Drenski said. "It gets everybody out to the park and let's them know about the rec center and other things we have to offer, as well."CLEVELAND, Ohio - Richard Cordray, a Democrat running for governor, on Monday said if elected, he would declare a "state of emergency" in Ohio to address the opioid epidemic.

Cordray, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, laid out the proposal as part of his plan to address opioid addiction and overdoses in the state. Ohio has one of the worst rates of addiction and overdoses in the country.

The emergency declaration could potentially open up resources - including the National Guard - for the governor to use to combat the problem.

"As governor, I'll bring urgency and badly needed resources to this fight, and will partner closely with local leaders to stop this plague from causing even more damage to our state," Cordray said in a statement.

Cordray laid out several other points in his plan:COLUMBUS, Ohio--While most Ohio political observers' attention this year has been on the Republican primary fights for U.S. Senate and governor, some of the most interesting - and important - GOP races to watch on primary election night are for the Ohio House of Representatives.

That's because many, if not all, of the 28 contested House GOP primary races this year have become proxy battles in the war for the House speaker's gavel in 2019 between Rep. Larry Householder and Rep. Ryan Smith (many of whose supporters are backed by the Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee, or OHROC, the House GOP caucus' campaign arm). Which side's candidates triumph in the May 8 primary may determine who wins the speaker's election this fall.

At the same time, Republicans also have to keep an eye on fending off Democratic gains in November. If Democrats win at least six House seats this year, the GOP would no longer have the three-fifths supermajority needed to override gubernatorial vetoes or put measures on the statewide ballot without Democratic votes.

Capitol Letter, cleveland.com's daily Statehouse newsletter, has compiled a list of the top 10 Republican House primaries worth keeping an eye on through the 2018 primary. Here they are, in order of district number:

District 6: Southern and eastern Cuyahoga County suburbs

Who's running: Michael Canty, Jim Trakas

Trakas, a former state representative and ex-leader of the Cuyahoga County Republican Party, enters the race for term-limited Republican Rep. Marlene Anielski's seat with a ton more name ID. But Canty, the former mayor of tiny Bentleyville who's also involved with the county party, has been quick to attack Trakas for being a lobbyist for the controversy-ridden (and now-shuttered) Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow online charter school. The animosity is limited, though: both candidates successfully asked the county party for a joint endorsement. This race could get expensive for the two, especially with help from their friends (Trakas is aligned with Householder, while OHROC has already spent money on pro-Canty mailers).

District 19: Northeast Franklin County, including Gahanna and New Albany

Who's running: Tim Barhorst, Chris Curry, Dave Ferguson

The race for term-limited Republican Rep. Anne Gonzales' seat will be among the most-watched primaries this spring, in no small part because of its proximity to Columbus. Barhorst, a Westerville insurance agent, scored the Franklin County GOP's endorsement, an important win given that all three candidates are relative unknowns. But even though Barhorst entered the race last spring, he only raised $200 as of January. Ferguson's a trustee for rural Plain Township - his task now is to introduce himself to the suburban voters who dominate the district. Barhorst is considered to be the Householder candidate, while Ferguson's seen as the favored candidate of Smith. Yet, the money that the speaker candidates put in this primary may be tempered by concerns that Democrats will flip the seat in November. Curry, a Westerville attorney and veteran, has been a non-entity so far.

District 42: Southern Montgomery County

Who's running: Niraj Antani, Sarah M. Clark, Marcus Rech

The power of incumbency is strong, but it may have limits for Antani, who's facing a primary battle for the first time. The Miamisburg resident has alienated a lot of his Republican colleagues (particularly those in the Dayton delegation), and he didn't help himself by telling a reporter earlier this month that 18-year-olds have a right to carry long guns at school (he walked the comment back amid bipartisan criticism). Antani has accused Rep. Jim Butler of recruiting Clark, the vice mayor of Miamisburg, to challenge him so Antani can't challenge Butler for term-limited Sen. Peggy Lehner's seat in 2020. Whether that's true or not (Butler and Clark say it's not), Clark has her own popularity problems, as she's rubbed many people the wrong way while serving on city council. Rech's chances of victory are slim: he just moved into the district, and he's burned some bridges by running this year instead of in 2020, when Antani departs.

District 50: Eastern Stark County

Who's running: Josh Hagan, Reggie Stoltzfus

Hagan, who works for his family's plumbing company, is looking to get involved in what's become his family's other business - his father John and sister Christina have, combined, represented the district for 16 of the last 18 years. It's hard to beat that kind of name ID, though Hagan is a political neophyte who admitted to Capitol Letter earlier this month that it may be "tricky" for him to get campaign support from his family, as they're already working to elect his sister to Congress. Enter Stoltzfus, who is fairly well known himself in the district as a business owner and a Paris Township trustee. Stoltzfus has resources to buy more publicity: as of January, his campaign raised $75,000, thanks in part to a $30,000 loan from himself and a fundraiser featuring House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger.

District 51: Southern Butler County, including Hamilton

Who's running: Sara Procter Carruthers, Greg Jolivette, Wes Retherford

Get out the popcorn for this one, in which Retherford is trying to battle his way to a fourth term despite a much-publicized scandal. (Last year, he was found passed out drunk in a fast-food drive-thru with a loaded handgun.) Retherford, a hard-working campaigner, has dug himself out of self-created holes before. But the real key to this race is how much money the wealthy Carruthers (her ancestor co-founded Procter & Gamble) decides to spend on her campaign. If she writes her campaign a six-figure check, she could blow away both the incumbent and Jolivette, a longtime Butler County politician who lost to Retherford in the 2014 primary.

District 83: Hancock and Hardin counties, northern Logan County

Who's running: Cheryl Buckland, Jon Cross

Keep an eye on this race on Election Night. Buckland, a Findlay nursing director, has the advantage when it comes to name recognition (she was elected to the state GOP central committee in 2016) and geography (Cross is from Hardin County, which has less than half the population of Buckland's native Hancock County). But Cross, president/CEO of the Hardin County Chamber and Business Alliance in Kenton, is breathing down her neck - he's been campaigning hard for more than a year, and his campaign had already spent more than $55,000 by last January.

District 84: Mercer County, northern Darke County, parts of Shelby and Auglaize counties

Who's running: Travis Faber, Aaron Heilers, Susan Manchester

Just like Buckland in District 83, Faber has an advantage here based on geography and name ID (the Mercer County attorney is the nephew of incumbent Rep. Keith Faber, who's running for state auditor instead of seeking re-election). But he can't afford to coast against Manchester, an Auglaize County resident who has raised more money (nearly $44,000 as of January) than her two opponents combined. Perhaps even more importantly, Manchester has an endorsement from her former boss, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, who's extremely popular among local Republicans. Heilers, a Shelby County farmer, has natural appeal among the district's strong agricultural community, though he needs more money to hang with the rest of the pack.

District 90: Adams and Scioto counties, a sliver of western Lawrence County

Who's running: Brian Baldridge, Gina Collinsworth, Justin Pizzulli, Scottie Powell

There's no clear frontrunner in the Republican race to succeed popular (but term-limited) GOP Rep. Terry Johnson. Baldridge, an Adams County Commissioner supported by Team Householder, has the advantage of being the only candidate to hold elected office. But he has a geographic disadvantage, as he's the only candidate not to live in Scioto County, where most of the district's voters live. Collinsworth, who runs a business with her husband selling original music to TV shows, has the support of Ryan Smith's forces. She's been actively campaigning, as has Powell, who most recently worked for the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation. The candidate seen as having the longest odds of winning is Pizzulli, a realtor who previously worked political jobs in and out of Ohio.

District 91: Clinton, Highland, and Pike counties; part of southern Ross County

Who's running: Beth Ellis, Shane Wilkin

This one is personal for House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, who's departing the seat after this year because of term limits. His chosen successor is Ellis, a farmer and president of the Clinton County Farm Bureau. Wilkin, who at one time Rosenberger was believed to have encouraged to enter the race before Ellis jumped in, is president of the Highland County Commission. That gives him more name recognition, though it remains to be seen whether he'll win Highland County by the margin Ellis will likely win in Clinton County. Rosenberger will help ensure Ellis has the money needed to win (already, OHROC has been buying ads for her). And if Wilkin stays competitive, Team Householder could pour in resources as a way to poke Rosenberger in the eye.

District 98: Tuscarawas County, eastern and southern Holmes County

Who's running: Mark Behrendt, Shane Gunnoe, Larry Hawthorne, Brett Hudson Hillyer, Greg Ress

Gunnoe and Hillyer are considered the early frontrunners here, with Ress following closely behind. Gunnoe, the president of Dover City Council and a former Tuscarawas County commissioner candidate, is an energetic campaigner, and has the backing of Rosenberger and Ryan Smith to take over for term-limited GOP Rep. Al Landis. But Hillyer, the law director for the city of Uhrichsville, has also been actively campaigning, and his family is well-known in southern Tuscarawas County (his father is president of a bank there, and his uncle and grandfather have served as judges). Ress has name recognition as a business owner and as the son of ex-state Rep. Bill Ress, and he has endorsements from two Holmes County commissioners. But his tendency to be hot-headed has alienated many locals. Hawthorne has radio ads up, and Behrendt (a minister) has held a campaign forum, but neither is well known in the district.BEIJING, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On 5 April, 2018 Air China will launch a new route from Beijing to Panama City via Houston. The new route is expected to greatly facilitate exchanges between both countries as well as neighbouring regions, while providing passengers with a greater range of options. In June 2017, China and Panama signed the Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Panama. This formal establishment of diplomatic relations carries forth a relationship that dates back more than 160 years into a new era. China is Panama's second largest trading partner and the second largest user of the Panama Canal, while Panama is China's largest trading partner in Central America. In 2017, bilateral trade amounted to nearly US $6.7 billion, while two-way passenger traffic totalled nearly 40,000, growing at an annual rate of almost 30%. Best known for the Panama Canal, Panama City is a historic port city straddled between lush mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Here, tourists can witness the contrast between the city's colourful colonial architecture and its shiny modern high rise buildings that dominate the skyline. Furthermore, Panama enjoys a unique geographical position as a land and ocean crossroadsA and is regarded by China as a natural extension of the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road into Latin America that has a pivotal role to play. In addition to improving trade relations between both countries, Air China hopes that the launch of the new Beijing-Houston-Panama City route will improve transportation links between China and Panama considerably. Moreover, it is anticipated! that the route will deepen bilateral trade, investment, maritime, education and tourism cooperation. In recent years, Air China has been working to develop Beijing into a major airport hub with a truly global reach. Air China's route network already spans all six inhabited continents, and the launch of the Beijing-Houston-Panama City route marks an important milestone in its efforts to expand coverage in the Americas. Air China currently operates over 200 weekly flights to 12 destinations in the Americas, including New York (Newark Airport and JFK Airport), Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Hawaii, Vancouver, Montreal, Havana and Sao Paulo. Moreover, its modern, airy cabins and outstanding service ensure that passengers can travel in supreme comfort. Flight information: Flight numbers: CA885/6 (All times below are local times) Outbound flights (Thu, Sun): Departure from Beijing at 07:40 and arrival in Houston at 08:20; Departure from Houston at 10:50 and arrival in Panama City at 14:30; Inbound flights (Thu, Sun): Departure from Panama City at 16:30 and arrival in Houston at 20:15; Departure from Houston at 01:00 the next day and arrival in Beijing at 04:50 the third day. The Beijing-Houston-Panama City route is operated by Boeing 777-300 ER (Extended Range) wide-body aircraft that are popular with business travellers. The First and Business Class cabins are equipped with fully-reclinable seats and a central bar area, while passengers in all travel classes have their own in-flig! ht entert ainment system and power sockets. The Boeing aircraft also feature wheelchair-accessible lavatories and dynamic LED mood lighting to ensure a more comfortable journey for all passengers. LogoA - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141017/152745LOGO A100%

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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2020-10-15, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds..We've come a long way from the early genres of classic film, which were 1) "Watch me electrocute this elephant" and 2) "Oh shit, a train!" Now we have innumerable distinct categories, from biopics to sentimental animal stories to Liam Neeson in Oh Shit, A Train! But with so many genres flooding the market, you may have missed out on some of the absolute craziest that ever existed. It is long past time to remedy that.

5 Osterns And Red Westerns Were Soviet Versions Of American Westerns

American Westerns were extremely popular in the Soviet Union, but there was a problem with that: the West. So they invented their own cowboy genre, which was about how great communism was and how much capitalism totally sucked. Many were much more progressive than their American counterparts -- often portraying Native Americans as the heroes, for instance.

Most of these movies fell into two categories: Red Westerns, wherein Russians would somehow end up in the American West, and Osterns (Easterns), which had similar themes to American Westerns, but were set in the Eurasian steppes. In contrast to American Westerns and their focus on rugged individualism on the supposed frontier of civilization, Red Westerns depicted the "Wild West" as a struggle between oppressed Natives and evil imperialist Americans. In the East German film The Sons Of Great Bear, money-grubbing white people try to steal Native land so they can mine for gold. Obviously they're defeated, because the Natives are anti-capitalist and therefore more pure. Also, they can control bears, a useful asset.Whenever it seems that those who refuse to accept the EU referendum result have scraped the bottom of the barrel of ruses and excuses, they somehow manage to go lower. Over the weekend the 'Remoaners' have done it again.

This time their argument is that a nefarious combination of mind-bending social media marketing and illicit expenditure 'bought' the result, and that therefore the British people's decision in June 2016 to leave the EU should be dismissed as illegitimate.

This concerted attempt to void the result of the biggest exercise in mass democracy ever undertaken by the British people began almost as soon as the votes had been counted and declared.

Days afterwards, Tony Blair's former spin-doctor supreme, Alastair Campbell, called (via Twitter) for the outcome to be rejected on the grounds that 'EU law allows customers to withdraw from contract if contract based on lies. Leave agenda riddled with them'.

Coming from the propaganda maestro who manufactured the 'dodgy dossier' on Iraq, this almost defied satire.

Binding

Then this gang argued that the referendum was not binding on Parliament and that it would be illegal for the Government to invoke the EU's Article 50 (which is required for a nation to secede) unless it was approved in a vote by all MPs.

The Supreme Court agreed with this legal claim, brought by that indefatigable anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller.

So then Parliament did vote. And by 498 votes to 114, it agreed that the referendum decision should be honoured. Thus, a year ago this week, Article 50 was invoked by Theresa May's Government.

End of story? Not a bit of it. Defeated both by the public and Parliament, those who don't want the result to stand are now calling for a second referendum.

According to Chuka Umunna, the London MP who chairs a political group that meets every Wednesday to discuss how to stop Brexit, this would be to 'let the people decide' whether to accept the terms of departure negotiated between the UK and the EU.

Last week Umunna came to the support of Owen Smith, after his fellow Labour MP was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet by Jeremy Corbyn for demanding a second referendum on our relationship with the EU.

Umunna complained that Smith had been 'sacked for saying what Labour voters overwhelmingly support'. This, however, is not true.

Tony Blair's former spin-doctor supreme, Alastair Campbell (pictured), called for the referendum outcome to be rejected

Last Friday, the pollsters BMG revealed the result of asking the public to respond to the statement 'the Government should get on with implementing the result of the referendum to take Britain out of the EU and in so doing take back control of our borders, laws, money and trade'.

No less than 57 per cent agreed, and only 22 per cent disagreed (with the rest saying they did not have a view).

Even among Labour voters there were 10 per cent more agreeing than disagreeing with what amounts, in layman's language, to Theresa May's policy of leaving both the single market and the customs union.

Oh, that was the other ruse of the Remoaners: because Theresa May had, through an admittedly inept election campaign, lost her Commons majority, there was no mandate for what they invariably describe as 'hard Brexit'.

This argument, too, fails on the most cursory examination. Not just the Conservatives but Labour and also Northern Ireland's biggest party, the Democratic Unionists, all pledged in the 2017 General Election not only that they would honour the result of the 2016 referendum but that the UK would no longer be a member of the single market.

Free movement is a fundamental rule of the single market, and all these parties accepted that the British people  including the majority of Labour voters as well as Conservative ones  were opposed to uncontrolled migration from the rest of the EU.

All along, however, the Brexit refuseniks have been motivated by the view that what differentiates them from the majority is that they know better: that ignorance and stupidity are what define their opponents.

In public, they try to hide this conceit, but it has always been there.

It was most clearly expressed in the days after the referendum in a reader's online comment at the foot of an article in The Independent (which itself called for the result to be rejected): 'Why should the pond life that dragged itself from the estates to the ballot box be allowed to ruin everything for the rest of us?'

Moronic

This idea  that the moronic masses have somehow been dragged or duped into voting for an outcome that defies both reason and their own interests  lies behind the latest attempt to thwart the Brexit vote.

It rests on two claims. First, that a company called Cambridge Analytica, controlled by a U.S. billionaire called Robert Mercer and using a sinister-sounding technique called 'psychographics', had played a decisive role in convincing the British to vote for Brexit.

And, second, that the official Leave campaign had broken Electoral Commission rules by funnelling 625,000 to a secretly linked group called BeLeave.

This second claim was exposed as meretricious only last week in the High Court. It determined that the Electoral Commission had approved, in writing, Vote Leave's decision to donate to other organisations campaigning for Brexit.

The assumption Robert Mercer played a decisive role in convincing the British to vote for Brexit is ludicrous

A youthful volunteer in that campaign, by the name of Shahmir Sanni, has now told Channel 4 that he still feels the way this was done was a form of 'cheating', and that 'almost two thirds of a million pounds makes all the difference'.

Really? Does anyone other than Mr Sanni and the self-deluding anti-Brexit last-ditchers believe this 625,000 of spending swung the result behind Leave, and that otherwise this outcome  a winning margin of over 4 per cent, let's remember  would not have occurred?

Let's also remember that not only did every mainstream political party organisation back Remain, but so did almost every institution in the land, including the Church of England.

Above all, we should recall that just before the official start of the campaign (thus sneakily evading the spending limits decreed by the Electoral Commission), the Government posted a leaflet to every household in the land  at a 9 million cost to taxpayers  warning of economic disaster if we did not vote to remain in the EU.

Those still campaigning to stop Brexit never mention that. Nor do they like to recall the final words of that leaflet addressed to voters: 'This is your decision. The Government will implement what you decide.'

Rejected

As for Cambridge Analytica and its allegedly spooky mind-bending techniques based on using information hoovered up from Facebook profiles: even if they were effective, this is completely irrelevant, and for one very good reason.

The company wanted to work for Vote Leave but was rejected by the campaign's mastermind, Dominic Cummings, who regarded them as nothing more than plausible charlatans. That's right: Cambridge Analytica played as big a role in the referendum as Scooby-Doo.

So the claim in the Observer newspaper that 'if the referendum result stands' it would mean we had consented to 'a result paid for by a U.S. billionaire using military-style technology' is a conspiracy theory lacking not just a conspiracy but even a credible theory.

Because no one has yet demonstrated that these techniques swing elections and I have seen no coherent explanation of how they have done so. Cambridge Analytica and Robert Mercer put CA's so-called 'micro-targeting' to work for Ted Cruz in his campaign to become the Republican candidate for the 2016 u.s. Presidential election. It was a disaster.

Perhaps those fighting to thwart Brexit need to believe that some sort of wicked brainwashing lay behind the referendum result. The people's verdict was, to them, so incredible and unbearable that they can never accept it happened fair and square: it must be a conspiracy.

So now their latest line to discredit the referendum result  gullible Britons were brainwashed by spooky Americans into voting Leave  has proved so obviously demented and doomed to fail, what will the stop Brexit crowd try next?

I don't know. But you can be sure it will be an insult to our intelligence.Parliament Square has seen some extraordinary protests  but surely none like last nights by Britains Jewish community.

No one could recall the last time hundreds, if not thousands, of people  most of whom had never demonstrated here before  felt compelled to assemble at Westminster to accuse the leader of a major party of racism.

Equally remarkable was the sight of so many MPs from both sides of the Commons showing their support for the protesters at this landmark moment in politics.

Such are the fears that unchecked anti-Semitism has taken root among Jeremy Corbyns Labour ranks. But then, just when you thought the far Left could not go any lower, there was another poke in the eye for this countrys tiny, beleaguered Jewish community last night. Jews for Jez read several Corbynista placards. And, to illustrate the point, there was a big yellow star in the middle of them. Quite extraordinary.

At a protest in Parliament square last night a women held up a 'Jews for Jez' sign. Robert Hardman says:' On the day that British Jews had finally been goaded beyond endurance, a group of Corbyn diehards decided to tell them not only to shut up'

Shame on you! Shame on you! shrieked Nor, 55, a management consultant from Harrow in north-west London. Take down that star! How dare you spit on my grandmothers grave!

On the day that British Jews had finally been goaded beyond endurance, a group of Corbyn diehards decided to tell them not only to shut up. Someone decided to take the most offensive, provocative symbol of Jewish suffering and stick it on some posters.

Shame on you! Shame on you! shrieked Nor, 55, a management consultant from Harrow in north-west London.

Take down that star! How dare you spit on my grandmothers grave!

The middle-aged woman holding up the banner gave him a blank look and stood her ground. Had they not been separated by a flowerbed and a couple of bouncers, Nor would have torn the placard out of her hands.

All my family except one died in the Holocaust and there is someone making fun of a yellow star? Nor told me. Are they a Jew or are they a pretend Jew? How could they?

The counter-demonstrators  around a hundred of Corbyns true believers  had occupied a corner of the square beneath the statue of Winston Churchill. They called themselves Jewish Voice for Labour. They had come to insist that cuddly old Jez hasnt got an anti-Semitic bone in his body. It was all a capitalist plot to undermine Labours campaign in the upcoming local elections, you know  a Tory/media/Israeli conspiracy.

Just one problem, comrade. Nearly all those I spoke to were traditional Labour voters. I am 74 and I have never voted anything except Labour. I now have nowhere to go, said Terry, a retired accountant from Pinner in Harrow.

I would have voted Labour at the last election but I just couldnt do it with Corbyn in charge, said Ben, 32, a lawyer.

What was equally remarkable was that these people had felt compelled to be here at all. Time and again, I spoke to middle-class, middle-aged professionals, many of whom had never demonstrated in their lives. Hence the organisers had arranged this demo for 5.30pm instead of a leisurely lunchtime affair. Unlike some of the rent-a-crowd who turn up to vent their anger outside Parliament, this lot had day jobs to do first.

The counter-demonstrators  around a hundred of Corbyns true believers  had occupied a corner of the square beneath the statue of Winston Churchill. They called themselves Jewish Voice for Labour

One protester told Mr Hardman: My fear is not that Corbyn is making people anti-Semitic but that he is legitimising those attitudes

You could tell they werent regular demonstrators because they had come with an utterly useless public address system. I failed to hear a single word that any of their keynote speakers had to say. But it didnt matter much.

This lot were all fully aware of the way in which all those years of anti-capitalist, anti-Zionist rhetoric have corroded the norms of Labour Party discourse and made it acceptable to let slip talk of Zio bankers, to give credence to a few Jewish conspiracy theories, to sit down to tea with a rabid Jew-hating preacher, to start asking one or two questions about that Holocaust business 

That is why the Jewish community was adamant that a line had been crossed, that it was time to stop keeping a low profile and waiting for Labour to sort itself out.

My fear is not that Corbyn is making people anti-Semitic but that he is legitimising those attitudes, said Richard, 40, one of umpteen off-duty lawyers present in the crowd. Like almost everyone here, he was afraid to give me his surname. Why? I think that speaks for itself, he said. As we know, Mr Corbyns Momentum footsoldiers do not look kindly on Labour supporters who malign the dear leader.

Fellow lawyer Stephen, 30, talked of a friend, a Jewish Labour councillor in north London whose days in the party are already numbered.

Stephen was extremely concerned by the way in which Labour deflects accusations of anti-Semitism back on to the accuser. What I find deeply worrying is the way in which so many people wont address the problem but question those who raise it as an issue.

People, in other words, like the Corbynistas gathered in the corner of the square.

Few were willing to give the Daily Mail the time of day. But I met one woman who was adamant that there was nothing anti-Semitic about that grotesque East End mural  the one Jeremy Corbyn used to like  which had been the catalyst for this entire protest. It featured a group of extremely Jewish-looking financiers playing Monopoly on the backs of huddled workers.

It was just a picture of some bankers, she insisted. It had nothing to with Jews. This is just an orchestrated media witch-hunt against Jeremy Corbyn.

But no one had orchestrated people like theatre producer Freddy Clode, 25.

No one had manipulated him into painting the poster which he was carrying. It read For The Many, Not The Jew next to a portrait of Mr Corbyn.

I have voted Labour before but I am never voting for that man, he said. Every time he gets caught out saying something disgusting and anti-Semitic or siding with some hateful organisation, he just says, Oh, that was years ago. Well not any more.She's built a $32 million fitness empire from scratch and is now a proud mother of one, a daughter named Mia.

But Emily Skye isn't pretending losing post-baby weight is an easy process, detailing every gruelling workout and meal she's prepared to help her get back on track.

While she trains five to six times a week using her fitness guides, it's what she's putting in her mouth three times a day that has helped her lose 16 kilos in three months.

While she trains five to six times a week using her fitness guides, it's what she's putting in her mouth three times a day that has helped her lose 16 kilos in three months

For breakfast she'll start with an egg, spinach and haloumi wrap to wake up her body.

'I usually aim to include protein at breakfast, like eggs and dairy, which also have a range of important minerals. A savoury breakfast means I can throw in some vegetables, plus wholegrain carbs for slow-release energy,' she told NW magazine.

She follows that up with a nutritious serving of kale, sweet potato and avocado salad with tuna for lunch.

For breakfast she'll start with an egg, spinach and haloumi wrap to wake up her body

Oftentimes she's able to pre-prepare her lunch so she's not scrambling for food at the last moment, while trying to juggle Mia's needs at the same time

Often she pre-prepares her lunch so she's not scrambling for food at the last moment, while trying to juggle Mia's needs at the same time.

'A salad or noodle bowl is a quick lunch option. I try to include fish a few times a week for lean protein and important omega-3 fats. I add some pumpkin and sesame seeds for extra mineral, protein and healthy fats,' she added.

Snacks - which Emily doesn't avoid - come in the form of a smoothie or berry yoghurt with an apple. If she's looking to increase her mineral intake for the day she'll also include a low GI treat like nut butter.

Snacks - which Emily doesn't avoid - come in the form of a smoothie or berry yoghurt with an apple

For dinner it's a beef, lime and coriander fajita bowl to satiate her hunger until the follow day - or until midnight when she sometimes fits in a workout.

'A red meat meal is a great way to increase iron intake. You don't need a huge serve of of meat, so my fajita bowl is the perfect way to get some protein, plus plenty of vegetables and high-nutrient quinoa,' she said.

Previously, the 32-year-old Gold Coast mum revealed her post-baby exercise regimen.

BEFORE: 'When I'm happy Mia seems happier too. I'm so excited to be back into lifting heavy weights - time to build some muscle back,' she said

'Some people might think my progress is due to my genetics or because of breastfeeding but I can tell you it's got a LOT to do with hard work and consistency,' Emily wrote on Instagram.

'All those midnight workouts I did after Mia fell asleep and eating healthy meals from my FIT Program are getting me great results,' she added.

'I knew it wasn't going to be easy and I'd have to work for it so that's what I'm doing. I'm very proud of what I've done so far! I'm getting stronger and leaner every day and Im in a good mood most of the time hehe (bonus)!

'When I'm happy Mia seems happier too. I'm so excited to be back into lifting heavy weights - time to build some muscle back!'One of these wedding dresses costs a mere $320 while another goes for a staggering $9,500.

But in a line up together can you tell the difference between the budget option and the designer threads?

FEMAIL spoke to four very different brides to compare how much they spent on their bridal gowns - and why they chose their dress.

FEMAIL spoke to four very different brides to compare how much they spent on their bridal gowns - and why they chose the way they did

Lauren Eccleston in Abyss By Abby

This 28-year-old who hails from Sydney had a pop up ceremony organised by Elopement Collective. Admitting she couldn't 'justify spending tens of thousands on a wedding', the idea of having 20 of her closest family and friends there was more than enough to make her happy.

'So Elopement Collective is this amazing business that uses the best suppliers and puts together small wedding and elopement packages,' she told FEMAIL.

She purchased an incredible lace off the shoulder style from online store Abyss By Abby for a shockingly low $320 - but you wouldn't guess the price tag by looking at the finished product.

This 28-year-old who hails from Sydney had a pop up ceremony organised by Elopement Collective

She purchased an incredible lace off the shoulder style from online store Abyss By Abby for an incredibly low $320 - but you wouldn't guess the price tag by looking at the finished product

'I had actually seen the brand posted on a few influencer Instagram accounts. So I thought I'd just see if they had anything white and they had HEAPS! Our wedding was in Canberra in Autumn so I wanted sleeves and it was just perfect. I'd also just had a baby so needed something stretchy to fit around my new post baby body,' she added.

Her trick? Lauren didn't search specifically for wedding dresses, with that tag usually upping the price by thousands.

Michaela Davis in Sophia Tolli

Michaela, 25, is from Cowra in rural NSW and married the love of her life in May, 2016.

She spent $2,000 on a Sophia Tolli dress, with the Australian designer specialising in princess-style ball gowns and statement bejewelled numbers.

Michaela, 25, is from Cowra in rural NSW and married the love of her life in May, 2016

She spent $2,000 on a Sophia Tolli dress, with the Australian designer specialising in princess-style ball gowns and statement bewelled numbers

'The low back was what I was initially looking for. I was trying on dresses and I tried this on and loved how it felt,' she said.

'It was my second wedding dress. When I saw it was Sophia Tolli I bought it because I'd loved all of her designs when looking online,' she added.

Amanda Bidlake in Karen Willis Holmes

New Zealand-based mother Amanda got the fairy tale wedding of her dreams when she floated down the aisle in a $5250 Karen Willis Holmes dress.

The 31-year-old wed her husband Andrew with their gorgeous daughter Liliana watching on, the pair looking every bit the loved up couple in their photographs.

New Zealand-based mother Amanda got the fairy tale wedding of her dreams when she floated down the aisle in a $5250 Karen Willis Holmes dress

The 31-year-old wed her husband Andrew with their gorgeous daughter Liliana (pictured) watching on, the pair looking every bit the loved up couple in their photographs

'It was the only dress I tried on! I saw it and fell in love. We also had a surprise wedding so I had so much party planning to do and not much time for wedding dress fitting,' she said

But it is the spaghetti strap white dress Amanda wore with her intricate train that stole the show.

'It was the only dress I tried on! I saw it and fell in love. We also had a surprise wedding so I had so much party planning to do and not much time for wedding dress fitting.

'I loved it so much that I started a company called Paperwork & Parties,' she added.

But it is the spaghetti strap white dress Amanda wore (pictured) with her intricate train that stole the show

Ashley Di Cicco in Nektaria

This 28-year-old was married in Newcastle and now lives with her husband Umberto in Melbourne.

Ashley wore an incredible Nektaria gown for her big day which cost an eye watering $9,500 - taking photos against the backdrop of a grand staircase to show off its luxurious train.

The Australian designer is famous for her lace work, which was very apparent in the bodice of Ashley's dress.

This 28-year-old was married in Newcastle and now lives with her husband Umberto in Melbourne

The Australian designer is famous for her lace work, which was very apparent in the bodice of Ashley's dress

'I feel the wedding gown sets the tone for the wedding, and mine certainly did to say the least,' she said

'I had been dreaming about our wedding day from the day I met my now husband, and during the planning of our wedding I wanted it to be perfect; and importantly, I wanted my wedding dress to be perfect,' Ashley said.

'I feel the wedding gown sets the tone for the wedding, and mine certainly did to say the least. After months of searching for wedding gowns from designer custom couture gowns to ready to wear gowns, I finally found my dress and immediately fell in love with it.

'For me, choosing my dress was never about how much or how little I could spend. It was about finding the perfect gown that suited my style and importantly, the tone of the wedding for one of the happiest days of my life and the beginning of our marriage.'

Easy Weddings annual wedding trend report revealed that last year women were spending an average of $2,552 on a bridal gown

Easy Weddings annual wedding trend report revealed that last year women were spending an average of $2,552 on a bridal gown.

Interestingly, 69 per cent of brides said they'd wear a veil and seven per cent said their friends and family were making their gown.

And even if they found the perfect dress, 71 per cent of women would still stick to the budget they had planned.The son of Australian star Barry Humphries married over the weekend in a beautiful traditional church ceremony in England.

Oscar, 36, married Sophie Oakley, 36, the daughter of British explorer Tom Oakley, at St John the Baptist Church in Kensington, London, in front of close family and friends, including Oscar's father and popular Australian expatriate comedian, Barry, 84.

'The happiest and most beautiful day of my life,' Oscar said of the service under one of his photos.

The son of Australian star Barry Humphries was married over the weekend, in a ceremony that brought tears to people's eyes

Although everyone was all-smiles on the beautiful day, Barry and Oscar's relationship has had its ups and downs.

At Oscar's engagement party in August 2017, the fine art dealer and journalist sensationally claimed his father had told him he was being disinherited.

'Changing my name,' he announced in a foul-mouthed message posted online. 'F*** you for disinheriting me.'

'I never wanted the little bit of money anyway. Liberating after the shock. The feeling is, 'Well, I'll do it myself.'

Oscar, 36, and Sophie Humphries nee Oakley, 36, held the wedding in a beautiful church with close family and friends in attendance

'The happiest and most beautiful day of my life,' Oscar wrote in the caption of one of his photos

Even the priest was all-smiles as the new bride and groom shared a kiss at the altar

He later deleted the message and claimed it was just an 'in joke with a friend' but didn't change his last name back to Humphries on his Facebook profile .

However, at Saturday's wedding there was no sign of any acrimony between father and son or indeed, his beautiful bride, Sophie, who donned a soft white cape over her gown.

She had her hair up in a chic bun that showed off her radiant smile as she walked down the aisle.

Oscar even uploaded a photo of him and his best man kissing the cheeks of his famous dad

Everyone was in high spirits during the celebrations afterwards and confetti was let off as the new husband and wife made their way into the venue

Sophie donned a soft white cape over her gown which added a fairy tale touch to the already magical day

Her bouquet was simple and made up of soft pink roses, matching the blush hued flowers in Oscar's lapel.

He opted for a fitted black suit for the special occasion.

Sophie's father, Tim, walked her down the aisle and later shared an emotional moment with his daughter as he choked back tears.

'I can't believe I'm a married woman!' Sophie wrote about the day.

Everyone was in high spirits during the celebrations afterwards and confetti was let off as the new husband and wife made their way into the venue.

Barry, who is known for playing his character Dame Edna, was also in attendance to watch his son wedA mother-of-four has revealed how her boob job, which was done by an Australian doctor, left her with a serious infection and lopsided breasts.

Samantha Humm from the Gold Coast said she dreamed of having breast implants since she was 19, and that she jumped at the chance after seeing an ad on Facebook offering affordable surgery.

The 30-year-old told 9Honey she didn't want to have the procedure overseas because she had heard that the doctors 'could be dodgy.'

Gold Coast-based Samantha Humm (pictured) said she jumped at the chance to have surgery after seen an ad online

She said she attended a consultation, chose a breast size, signed paperwork and booked in for the procedure.

Ms Humm said she didn't research her choice of surgeons extensively because she thought she would be covered by regulation as her doctor was based in Australia.

Her operation was carried out in 2015, and the Gold Coast mum said at first everything seemed fine.

'They were healing really well. I wasn't in much pain and they looked really good.'

However, two weeks into her recovery Ms Humm said she noticed her left breast had reddened and she had started to feel pain.

Two weeks after her surgery, Ms Humm said she notice her left breast had started to become red and was feeling pain

She said she didn't think too much of these changes at first and put them down to being part of the healing process.

It wasn't until she had a shower and was drying herself that she noticed how much her left breast had swelled, and there was now fluid seeping out of a wound.

She made a call to her cosmetic surgeon to alert him to the situation, but because it was a Friday she claims he told her he wouldn't be able to see her until the following Monday.

Samantha Humm (right) said although her left breast was leaking fluid her doctor assured her this was part of the healing process

At her appointment, her doctor took a swab and assured her it was part of the healing process.

But Ms Humm said her breast continued to swell, was painful and was still leaking fluid - so much so she had to wear pads in her bra.

She said she became very concerned about the state of her breast after it turned black, and that she had started 'freaking out' because now silicone was coming out of it too.

Doctors at Ms Humm's local hospital were horrified by her breast job, telling her they had never seen anything like it

'I was actually pulling it out with my fingers out of my breast,' she revealed.

She said she sent her doctor a photo to show him how bad things had become and that he had told her to come into his rooms the following week.

Instead, Ms Humm said she went to her local hospital who told her they'd never seen anything like it - telling her she looked like she been 'butchered' and that her doctor had done 'a horrible job.'

On the hospital's recommendation, she returned to her original doctor and had her left implant removed at a further cost of $2,000.

On the hospital's recommendation, Ms Humm (left) returned to her original doctor and had her left implant removed at a further cost of $2,000

Her left breast developed another infection, and while this eventually healed, she was told she would need to pay a further $2,000 to have the implant put back in.

She said she made the decision not to do this and was left with a saggy breast with nothing in it, and one with an implant that 'was a horrible job.'

The mother-of-four had the right implant removed just three weeks ago, after years of living with mismatched, lopsided breasts.

While Ms Humm has since made contact with other dissatisfied patients of the same doctor through Facebook, she wasn't aware previously there had been multiple complaints made.

In September 2017, Jean Huang, 35, died after an allegedly botched cosmetic procedure at a salon in NSW

Although it's not known whether Ms Humm's surgeon was practising without adequate qualifications - this is an issue those in the industry say is a serious problem.

As a result women are suffering disfigurement, depression and, in some rarer, cases death.

Last year, Jean Huang, 35, died after an allegedly botched cosmetic procedure at a salon in NSW.

In 2008, 28-year-old Lauren Edgar from Adelaide died from a bacterial infection resulting from a liposuction procedure.

Cosmetic procedure checklist: 1. Try to find someone you know, who has had the procedure, to give a first hand account. Then find out which doctor performed the treatment 2. Make an appointment with the doctor at a time when you're not rushed. Arrive on time, observe the clinic  is it clean, well structured and well run? It's important to take into account the cleanliness and presentation of the practice, as it can be an indication of the overall level of care provided 3. Make sure you find out what impact the procedure will have on your lifestyle and assess if you can manage that. Ensure costings have been explained. If something is temporary, find out how long will it last and when it may need repeating 4. For more major procedures, always go home and think about your decision. If you do decide to proceed with the treatment, make sure you allow for any downtime that may result from the procedure 5. Plan on having at least two opinions before proceeding with any treatment. Any consultation should be face to face, not over Skype with a remote doctor unless you live in a remote rural area Source: Cosmetic Physicians College of Australasia Advertisement

And in 2007, Melbourne-based Lauren James, died after complications from liposuction on her legs and buttocks.

According to Associate Professor Gazi Hussain, the Vice President of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons, the industry isn't properly regulated and this is leading to significant issues across Australia.

'We've really seen this increasing number of practitioners who are not trained in surgery, let alone in plastic surgery who are undertaking procedures, and it is primarily because the area is unregulated.'On average a woman will have 450 periods in her lifetime but not everyone knows how they actually work.

In a bid to simplify things, Fitbit has released a period tracker that syncs with your regular exercise routine on their app, so you can put that Sunday afternoon idleness down to your monthly cycle, rather than pure laziness.

According to the company, it will help women over the age of 13 stay on top of their menstruation.

On average a woman will have 450 periods in her lifetime but not everyone knows how they actually work

'Easily log your menstrual cycle data, and record symptoms like headaches, acne and cramps,' a media release stated.

'[It] helps you be more informed about your health and life planning, and, as needed, can help you show your doctor specific details for more personalised care.'

It also allows you to join other women through Groups in the Community tab of the Fitbit app for support around key topics like periods, birth control, trying to conceive, pregnancy, and perimenopause and menopause.

'Easily log your menstrual cycle data, and record symptoms like headaches, acne and cramps,' a media release stated

The business was prompted to create the tracker after a study revealed 70 per cent of women don't know how long an average cycle is

'In the future, as the database of female health metrics grows this data may help enable Fitbit to deliver even more insights, such as how your cycle impacts your activity, sleep, weight and nutrition, and potentially how these things can affect your cycle.'

The business was prompted to create the tracker after a study revealed 70 per cent of women don't know how long an average cycle is and 80 per cent don't know there are multiple phases in a cycle.

Female health tracking will be available on-device for Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Ionic users, and to all Fitbit app users starting in May 2018.

If you can't fork out $299.95 for the new Fitbit Versa smartwatch, there are a number of free apps women can use to keep tabs on their period.

If you can't fork out $299.95 for a Fitbit Versa, there are a number of free apps women can use to keep tabs on their period

Clue not only tracks your fertility but also examines how your mood changes throughout the cycle - so you know when to take some time out from family and friends.

MyPill similarly keeps you accountable for taking the contraceptive pill and answers common birth control-related questions.

Apple Watches Healthkit also manages to track your period alongside your UV exposure for the day.For most women in Australia, when they give birth, a maternity leave period of nine months is standard.

However, what do you do if you're a first-time entrepreneur or have your own very new business?

The founder of the online retailer, Black Swallow, Catherine Wong, was in the middle of setting up her business when she gave birth to her son, Lucas - meaning she felt she had to return to work within a week of having her baby.

'It was a difficult decision which I didn't take lightly,' Catherine, 29, told FEMAIL. 'But I don't regret my decision at all.'

The founder of the online retailer, Black Swallow, Catherine Wong, was in the middle of setting up her business when she gave birth to her son, Lucas (both pictured)

Because her business was in its infancy, Catherine (pictured with her partner), felt as though she had to return to work within a week of giving birth

At the time she became pregnant, Catherine, from Sydney, was setting up Black Swallow from her garage:

'I was still working as a nurse, when I became pregnant, in order to help pay the bills,' she recalled.

'I worked both jobs throughout my pregnancy up until around eight months, when I quit nursing to focus on Black Swallow full-time, transitioning from my garage to a warehouse.'

Even though she no longer had two jobs to juggle, the 29-year-old admitted that it was hard:

'I worked right up until my due date and was back in the office within one week of giving birth,' Catherine said.

'Within a week, I was back at my desk nursing a newborn and delegating tasks to my team, who were very supportive.'

Before she gave birth, Catherine (pictured with her family) was working as a nurse as well as setting up her business - she gave this up at eight months pregnant to focus on Black Swallow

'Within a week, I was back at my desk nursing a newborn and delegating tasks to my team, who were very supportive,' the mother-of-one (pictured with Lucas) said

Catherine's decision to return to work after giving birth wasn't purely financial, though money did have an impact:

'Quitting nursing meant that I had to pay my own maternity leave through self-employment,' she said.

'I didn't have a choice at the time because I was responsible for staff that I had hired and the business was still new and needed me full-time.'

Mothering and working also fully took its toll on the first-time mum, who confessed she was 'always tired' and 'came close to many breakdowns' - she said she felt bad for missing things with Lucas (pictured)

'There were times when I wondered if I'd made the right decision to run my own business rather than continue to work as a nurse, which would allow me to have proper time off to simply be a mother,' Catherine (pictured) admitted to FEMAIL

Mothering and working also took its toll on the first-time mum, who confessed she was 'always tired' and 'came close to many breakdowns':

'There were times when I wondered if I'd made the right decision to run my own business rather than continue to work as a nurse, which would allow me to have proper time off to simply be a mother.'

It didn't help that at the time that Catherine was recovering from a traumatic birth - after she was induced at 38 weeks due to her baby being bigger than 95 per cent of other babies.

'Looking back now, I was so sleep deprived, drained and often sad,' she admitted.

'I probably had undiagnosed post-natal depression which I didn't seek help for. I had a few breakdowns and lost a lot of bonding time with my son, which I won't get back.'

While the mother-of-one said she still occasionally feels 'guilty', Catherine also said she feels 'proud':

'I am due in two weeks with our second baby and the business is now at a point where I am able to take the proper time off to be the mother I wanted to be first time around,' Catherine said.

'I probably had undiagnosed post-natal depression which I didn't seek help for. I had a few breakdowns and lost a lot of bonding time with my son, which I won't get back,' Catherine said

Now, Catherine (pictured) is pregnant with her second child - and she told Daily Mail Australia that she plans to do things a little differently

Despite everything she's been through and the stresses and struggles, Catherine said she has no regrets:

'It was challenging, but I don't regret it,' she said.

'I worked hard each and every day for a year and hired an amazing team who continue to contribute to business growth.

'The great thing is I don't need to work full-time in the office anymore. I am able to work from home while the kids nap.'It's usually the city of Melbourne offering up a quirky and original way of drinking coffee - whether that be with charcoal added or 'de-constructing' the popular drink.

But the top end of Australia is giving them a good run for their money, this time in the way of a rainbow-tinted brew.

Piggy Back cafe in Jindalee, just outside of Brisbane, came up with the idea after seeing a video of the multi-coloured creations on social media page I Brew Coffee.

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But the top end of Australia is giving them a good run for their money, this time in the way of a rainbow-tinted brew

Head barista Emily Coumbis told FEMAIL they're very simple to make - it's merely the addition of food dye to the warmed milk after it has been frothed.

'We posted some things on Instagram and people started to take notice,' she said of the sensation.

'More people kept coming in and requesting it so we decided to put it on the menu.'

And that they did. Where a small ordinary coffee costs $3.80 and a large $4.80, customers can experience the joy of 'tasting the rainbow' for $6 a pop.

Head barista Emily Coumbis told FEMAIL they're very simple to make - it's merely the addition of food dye to the warmed milk after it has been frothed

'We get quite a few regular customers who come in every single day for it. But then we also get a lot of tourists as well,' she said

'We get quite a few regular customers who come in every single day for it. But then we also get a lot of tourists as well,' she said.

The cafe has even put up a map of the world inside and encourage customers to 'pin' where they're from - so they can track their global reach.

'At the moment there are quite a few pins in Japan, America and a big cluster in Europe. We had one person from Iceland as well which is pretty cool,' Emily added.

The cafe has even put up a map of the world inside and encourage customers to 'pin' where they're from - so they can track their global reach

And because it's the 'exact same dye they use to make rainbow cake' it's completely safe to ingest again and again

And because it's the 'exact same dye they use to make rainbow cake' it's completely safe to ingest again and again.

Emily, who is an expert at 'rainbow art', often shares her pictures of butterflies, swans and palm trees on Instagram to encourage other people to come in and try it for themselves.

And never fear, the rainbow art works perfectly with almond milk - so this isn't a treat lactose intolerant or vegan friends and family members will have to miss out on.A mother whose son was born with so much hair that it showed up on his ultrasound scan has now welcomed a daughter  also with a full bouffant.

Stay-at-home mum Amy Price, 33, was astonished when her son Jesse Price-Carelli, now 21 months, arrived in June 2016 sporting a shock of black hair.

Jesse's hair was so thick that he had his first trim within weeks of being born.

And now, Amy and her partner, teacher Julien Carelli, 39, of Bridgend, south Wales, have welcomed daughter, Rose Emilia, who was born on 15 March weighing 6lb 7oz  and also sporting a full head of hair.

Rose Emilia, from Wales, was born on 15 March weighing 6lb 7oz  sporting a full head of hair (pictured in March)

Rose was born two weeks early at Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend, with a mop of black locks

'As soon as I announced I was pregnant, the first thing everyone said was that they hoped the new baby would have hair like Jesse,' said Amy.

'Even strangers who'd stop us in the street to admire Jesse's hair would say it.

'Julien is French with Italian heritage, and I've got quite naturally thick hair anyway. So together I think we just make lovely wiggy babies.'

Amy, 33, of Bridgend, south Wales, (seen) was shocked at the amount of hair her daughter had at birth- much like her son Jesse (Jesse pictured at 14 weeks old in September 2016)

'Julien is French with Italian heritage, and I've got quite naturally thick hair anyway. So together I think we just make lovely wiggy babies.' Amy said of her teacher partner, 38, seen when Jesse met sister Rose in March)

Amy said Jesse (L) and Rose (R) look virtually identical as babies- Jesse had so much hair he needed a haircut within weeks

During both pregnancies, Amy told of how she experienced heartburn  which would fit with an old wives' tale that suggests the condition can be linked to babies being born with an above average amount of hair.

She said: 'I had nowhere near as much with Rose though.

'I did worry she'd come out completely bald and her big brother would give her hair envy.'

Unlike her brother, who arrived 15 days late, Rose was born two weeks early at Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend.

Amy's son Jesse was born with so much hair that it showed up on his ultrasound scan (seen aged 5 weeks)

During both pregnancies, Amy told of how she experienced heartburn  which would fit with an old wives' tale that suggests the condition can be linked to babies being born with an above average amount of hair (Rose seen)

Rose is yet to need a haircut  though her mum says she'd probably leave the tot's hair to grow out longer than Jesse's (Jesse seen at 2 days old)

Amy also anticipates that, as with Jesse, she will have to blow dry little Rose's hair as it continues to grow (Rose pictured)

As soon as Amy saw her, she noted the baby girl's thick black locks. Midwives also noticed the infant had incredibly long nails for a newborn.

'It was like she'd had a manicure. The nurses had never seen anything like it,' laughed Amy. 'I was amazed by how alike Jesse and Rose look. They have the same mannerisms and everything. They're like twins.'

As she's still so little, Rose is yet to need a haircut  though her mum says she'd probably leave the tot's hair to grow out longer than Jesse's.

'I was amazed by how alike Jesse and Rose look. They have the same mannerisms and everything. They're like twins.' Amy, Jesse and Julien together

'He had his first haircut at just seven weeks. It started getting into summer and his hair had grown all the way down the back of his neck like a little mullet,' she said of Jesse (seen)

'I toyed with the idea of leaving it, but it was too hot for him. It grew back ten times faster though after the cut.' (Jesse seen at 11 days old)

'We have to blow dry Jesse's hair every night and cut it every six to eight weeks. He's not bothered about the hairdryer, he's so used to it.' (Jesse seen as a baby)

'He had his first haircut at just seven weeks. It started getting into summer and his hair had grown all the way down the back of his neck like a little mullet,' she said.

'I toyed with the idea of leaving it, but it was too hot for him. It grew back ten times faster though.

'With Rose, I'd like to leave it to grow out if she's not too uncomfortable. I'd love her to have super long hair, like Pocahontas.'

Jesse pictured having his hair blow dried- something his parents have to do every night

Jesse, pictured at 16 weeks old, is used to being stopped by strangers due to his mop of hair

Amy, Julien and Jesse seen together in 2016- with the youngster's hair surprising the family

Amy also anticipates that, as with Jesse, she will have to blow dry little Rose's hair as it continues to grow.

She went on: 'We have to blow dry Jesse's hair every night and cut it every six to eight weeks. He's not bothered about the hairdryer, he's so used to it.

'I hope Rose's hair grows slightly slower than Jesse's though, or she'll cost me a fortune.

Jesse, pictured here aged seven weeks - just before his first hair cut

Jesse was just seven weeks old when he first had his hair trimmed

Jesse having his hair cut for the very first time at seven weeks old

Jesse, pictured here at 10 weeks, following his hair cut- causing it to grow faster than ever

'I went through a phase where I'd cut Jesse's hair quite short, but he prefers it long, sticking up all over the place.

'Julien and I joke that he looks like our little Liam Gallagher.'

Now, with their new addition, the family continue to be stopped by strangers when they're out and about.

'It can take us ages to get anywhere because so many people want to talk to us,' she said.

'Rose is still too little to know what's going on, but Jesse absolutely loves the attention he gets. He can be moaning then cheer up when people come over.

'He laughs and smiles when people want to touch his hair. We get nothing but compliments.'

Jesse had so much hair that it even showed up in his ultrasound scan

Jesse on his first birthday in June 2017 with his hair blow-dried into place

Like father like son! Italian Julien with his son JesseLouis Vuitton has announced its first ever black artistic director for menswear.

After months of speculation, the iconic French fashion house, known for its monogrammed leather handbags and suitcases, confirmed on Monday that Virgil Abloh would be taking on the role of chief menswear designer.

The news has been met with widespread praise online, with stars including Kim Kardashian-West and Edward Enninful OBE celebrating his appointment.

According to Management + Artists, British Vogue editor Enninful said: 'Virgil is one of the few designers who truly marries street culture with high fashion  and the first black designer to be given such a position in the gilded halls of LVMH.

'His appointment is a step in the right direction for diversity, as well as a particularly exciting creative moment for the industry.'

Star on the rise: Designer Virgil Abloh Abloh will take over from Kim Jones, who was recently appointed the new designer of menswear at Christian Dior, another LVMH brand

Abloh (pictured with supermodel Bella Hadid) will be taking on the role of chief menswear designer with his first collection due to be presented in Paris in June

The luxury brand, owned by LVMH, will present 37-year-old Abloh's first men's collection in June during Men's Fashion Week in Paris, the firm said.

Abloh, the founder of streetwear label Off-White, will take over from Kim Jones, who was recently appointed the new designer of menswear at Christian Dior, another LVMH brand.

Abloh, whose parents are from Ghana, told the New York Times he was 'elated' and excited to 'to show a younger generation that there is no one way anyone in this kind of position has to look'.

He also admitted he had put together a 'brand manual' for the iconic label and his goal was to '[make] luxury relatable across generations'.

The overhaul at Dior and Vuitton coincides with reshuffles elsewhere at LVMH, as billionaire boss Bernard Arnault seeks to breathe new life into some labels and lift others to a new level by expanding product lines.

Michael Burke, Louis Vuittons Chairman and CEO, said: 'Having followed with great interest Virgil's ascent since he worked with me at Fendi in 2006, I am thrilled to see how his innate creativity and disruptive approach have made him so relevant, not just in the world of fashion but in popular culture today.

'His sensibility towards luxury and savoir-faire will be instrumental in taking Louis Vuittons menswear into the future.'

'This is major!' The news has been met with widespread praise online, with stars including Kim Kardashian-West and Edward Enninful OBE celebrating his appointment

Abloh with model of the moment, Kaia Gerber. The designer interned at Fendi 12 years ago with long-term collaborator Kanye West - earning a reported $500 (352) a month

Abloh (pictured with predecessor Kim Jones) said he was 'elated' and excited to 'to show a younger generation that there is no one way anyone in this kind of position has to look'

Abloh added: 'It is an honor for me to accept the position of Mens Artistic Director for Louis Vuitton.

'I find the heritage and creative integrity of the House are key inspirations and will look to reference them both while drawing parallels to modern times.'

Born in Rockford, Illinois in 1980, studed Civil Engineering and Architecture at university before moving into fashion.

He interned at Fendi with long-term collaborator Kanye West - earning a reported $500 (352) a month - and despite having no formal fashion education he launched his own label, off-White, in 2012.

Since then he has showcased his designs at Paris Fashion Week since 2015, being named as International Designer of the Year at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in 2017.The Prince of Wales has arrived in a sunny Cumbria to officially declare the Lake District a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Charles, a passionate environmentalist, travelled by rail to Langwathby on Monday morning where he was greeted by a welcome party including local MP Rory Stewart and his wife Shoshana.

The region joined sites including the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon and Stonehenge on the prestigious list last summer.

A UNESCO committee in Krakow, Poland, backed the national park in Cumbria - home to England's highest mountain, Scafell Pike - which was among 33 nominations all over the world.

The Prince of Wales is given a warm welcome to the Lake District by locals including MP Rory Stewart (fourth left) after travelling by train on Monday morning

Charles is greeted by Rory Stewart's wife Shoshanna after touching down in sunny Cumbria this morning, where he is due to carry out a number of engagements

Important cause: The award bid was led by Lord Clark of Windermere, chairman of the Lake District National Park Partnership, who has urged people to attend the 'once in a lifetime event'

Charles, 69 unveiled the official plaque on Monday in a ceremony at Crow Park, in Keswick, which overlooks Derwent Water, as part of his whistlestop tour of Cumbria.

The award bid was led by Lord Clark of Windermere, chairman of the Lake District National Park Partnership, who has urged people to attend the 'once in a lifetime event'.

Lord Clark said: 'This plaque will give local people and visitors a place to come and appreciate not just the spectacular landscape but also the rich, cultural history of the Lake District as a World Heritage Site.'

Lake District National Park chief executive Richard Leafe added: 'Since last summer we have seen some great examples of organisations, businesses and communities using World Heritage status to flourish and prosper.

Clad in his trusty brown Anderson & Sheppard coat, Charles shakes the hand of Michelle Skeer, Chief Constable of Cumbria Police

Following the ceremony, Charles attended a reception at the nearby Theatre By The Lake where a selection of musical performances were staged

The royal was greeted by large crowds waving St. George's Cross flags as he touched down in Cumbria on Monday morning

The Prince of Wales looked to be in good spirits as he chatted to locals at Langwathby Railway Station today

The future's bright! Charles shields his eyes from the glare of the sun while meeting locals at the station this morning, the first stop of his tour of Cumbia

Charles meets staff from the National Centre for the Uplands at Newton Rigg College, a state-of-the-art sheep husbandry centre at Low Beckside Farm

The royal shakes hands with Michael Gove MP before heading inside for a talk at the farm, near Keswick, this afternoon

The royal looked close to nodding off as he joined British Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Michael Gove (far left) to chat to farmers and shepherds at the National Centre for the Uplands

Farmyard tour: Charles is escorted by Head of Farm Matt Bagley during his visit to the National Centre for the Uplands at Newton Rigg College on Monday afternoon

The Prince shares a laugh with Matt Bagley during his tour of Newton Rigg College today

The royal was wearing his trusty Anderson & Sheppard coat which he has owned since 1986

The royal was given a riotous welcome as he arrived at Greystoke's School during his visit to the National Centre for the Uplands on Monday, with youngsters waving Union flags

'From inspirational cultural events to welcoming first-time visitors to the park, this global recognition has encouraged new opportunities while continuing to be a much loved national park for everyone to enjoy.'

Following the ceremony, Charles attended a reception at the nearby Theatre By The Lake where a selection of musical performances will be staged.

Throughout the day, the Prince will carry other other engagements in Cumbria including visits to Langwathby railway station in Penrith, the National Centre for the Uplands at Newton Rigg College, a state-of-the-art sheep husbandry centre at Low Beckside Farm.

He also visited a Kendal paper manufacturer which recycles takeaway coffee cups.

The royal was his usual smart self in a tweed coat and red patterned tie

The royal toured James Cropper PLC to see how the innovative company recycles takeaway coffee cups into high quality paper and plastic-free packaging

The keen environmentalist was eager to learn about the coffee cup recycling initiative

The future king kicked off his week by spending the day on a whistlestop tour of CumbriaA 20-year-old has been plucked from the Welsh valleys to become a shining star in Bollywood.

Banita Sandhu, from Caerleon in Newport, has landed the lead in a new Indian film after being spotted by one of the industry's star directors.

Sandhu, a second-generation Indian, was cast in new movie October after she starred in an advert for Wrigley's chewing gum, which was watched by nearly 40million people.

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From the Welsh valleys to Dehli: Banita Sandhu, 20, is the star of a new Bollywood film after being spotted by high-profile Indian director Shoojit Sircar

Sandhu, a student at King's College London, was whisked to Delhi for nearly 40 days to film the Bollywood movie October (opposite actor Varun Dhawan) - the actress said the experience enabled her to learn more about her grandparent's heritage

Director Shoojit Sircar, who shot the commercial, then mentioned a part in his latest film that he was keen for Sandhu to take.

In an interview with the BBC, the up-and-coming star said she grew up watching the best of British television, and it inspired her to take up acting.

She says: 'I used to watch soaps as a child, with the goal of landing a part in Coronation Street. At the age of 10, I sat my mum down and told her my plans.

'Luckily, she took me seriously and found me an agent, but education still came first.'

After a few minor roles during childhood, Sandhu concentrated on landing bigger roles after turning 18 - and didn't have to wait long before filming the commercials saw her face go viral across India.

A Vodafone advert garnered a million hits in India and led to the Wrigley's ad.

While studying English Literature at King's College London, the actress got the call she was waiting for and quickly signed up to Hindi lessons.

Bandhu learnt some Hindi to make her accent more authentic but says she plans to finish her degree before taking up acting full-time

The film sees Bandhu co-star with Varun Dhawan, who is already a huge star in India

Filming October in Delhi was an education in acting but also in her cultural heritage says the rising star.

She explains: 'My grandparents came to Britain from the Punjab, northern India, shortly after World War Two.

'Both my parents were born here and my sister and I were raised in a middle-class existence in Caerleon.

'As we had no relatives in India, I had no reason to learn about it or engage with this history. So I loved learning more about the culture and my family's lives, struggles and traditions.'

The film features a group of students studying hotel management and sees her star alongside actor Varun Dhawan, who is hugely popular in India.

While fame beckons thousands of miles away, Sandhu is unknown here and has vowed to finish her degree before she acts full-time.

Sandhu's film, October is released worldwide on 13 AprilThe Duchess of Cambridge is to hold the first ever royal patronage at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Kensington Palace has announced.

Kate, due to give birth to her third child in the summer, was deemed perfect for the high-brow role thanks to her interest in the 'visual arts, photography and design.'

The London museum may carry Queen Victoria's name but no royal has ever taken up an official patronage of the museum before.

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Kate, who's currently pregnant with her third child, has added the V&A to her list of patronages

In June 2017, Kate, 36, officially opened a re-vamped area of the Exhibition Road entrance including a cafe and courtyard

The role, which begins officially today, is 'a natural fit' for Kate, said the museum's director Tristam Hunt.

Hunt said: 'From its foundation by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, the V&A has enjoyed a proud history of Royal support.

'We are delighted that Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge has agreed to serve as Royal Patron of the museum.

Hunt added that the Duchess' support 'for the role of art in supporting mental health and nurturing young people's creative talent, fits naturally with the collections and civic purpose of the V&A.'

The royal is currently the patron of 15 charities and organisations including the V&A, the Natural History Museum and the National Portrait Gallery

'The Trustees, staff and members of the V&A look forward to working with Her Royal Highness across our museums in South Kensington, Bethnal Green and Dundee.'

The Duchess of Cambridge last officially visited the South Kensington museum in June 2017 to officially open the V&A's re-vamped side entrance, courtyard and exhibition gallery on Exhibition Road.

Kate, 36, is currently patron to 14 organisations including the National Portrait Gallery and the Natural History Museum.

The only V&A Museum outside London is to open its doors in September.

Designed by internationally-acclaimed Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the 80.1 million V&A Dundee is the centrepiece of the 1 billion transformation of the citys waterfront.

V&A Dundee, funded by V&A, Dundee City Council, the University of Dundee, Abertay University and Scottish Enterprise, opens on September 15.She spent last week playing host to the glamorous Queen Rania of Jordan.

And now Queen Maxima has welcomed another leading lady to the Netherlands after throwing open the palace doors to a prominent Vietnamese politician.

Maxima, 46, met Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan chairwoman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, at the Palace Noordeinde in The Hague today.

The Dutch queen consort showcased her trim physique in a tailored brown gingham dress featuring a belted waist and fitted skirt.

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Welcome to the Hague! Queen Maxima has welcomed another leading lady to the Netherlands after throwing open the palace doors to a prominent Vietnamese politician on Monday

Never one to play it safe, the mother-of-three added a touch of flare to her outfit with a pair of yellow suede shoes and an elaborate feathered collar.

She topped off her outfit with a slick of berry lipstick and a simple gold bracelet, blending in perfectly with the opulent surroundings of the palace.

Maxima's guest, meanwhile, opted for a simple floor-length gown paired with a blue silk shawl for her visit to Noordeinde, known as the Dutch royals' 'working palace' since King Willem-Alexander ascended the throne in 2013.

It is not the first time the pair have met; Nguyen and Maxima held a meeting last June during the Dutch queen's working visit to Vietnam.

The royal was there in her role asthe UN Secretary-Generals Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development.

Important visit: Maxima, 46, met Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan chairwoman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, at the Palace Noordeinde in The Hague today

Old friends: It is not the first time the pair have met; Nguyen and Maxima held a meeting last June during the Dutch queen's working visit to Vietnam

An international financier by training, Maxima was born in Argentina and married into the Dutch royal family in 2002, three years after meeting her husband-to-be in Seville, Spain.

Despite reportedly having no inkling that Willem-Alexander was heir to the throne when the pair first met, she eventually became Queen consort when her husband ascended to the throne.

Willem-Alexander became king after his mother, Beatrix, abdicated in April 2013 after 33 years as reigning monarch.

The couple are parents to Princess Amalia, Alexia and Ariane - affectionately dubbed 'the A team' by their doting father.Marla Maples took a trip down memory lane while sharing throwback photos of herself posed with her daughter Tiffany Trump and actress Fran Drescher on set of The Nanny in 1998.

The 54-year-old actress had a cameo on the popular CBS series in the late '90s after her split from her former husband Donald Trump, and she couldn't resist praising her now 24-year-old daughter for always being patient while on set with her.

'#FBF 3/20/98 wow! How much do I love this girl and the times she would patiently join me on set,' she captioned the Instagram images. 'Like here with @officialfrandrescher on #TheNanny. Long, wonderful days on set & such a gift to always have Tiffs support. #momsanddaughters.'

Looking back: Marla Maples, 54, shares Instagram photos of her now 24-year-old daughter Tiffany Trump with her on set of The Nanny in 1998

Famous face: The mother-daughter duo posed for a photo with the show's star Fran Drescher during Marla's cameo on the CBS show

In the first snapshot, Marla is wearing a short, pale blue blazer with a matching miniskirt and heels while bending over to speak to Tiffany on set of the show.

The first daughter appears to be about four years old in the picture, and she is all dressed up in a white and pink floral dress with ruffles.

The next snapshot is a Polaroid of Marla and Fran that was taken on March 20, 1998. While Marla is in the same blue skirt suit, Fran has on a printed dress with black tights and a yellow headband that is holding her voluminous curls off her face.

Marla also posted a black and white photo of herself holding Tiffany in her arms while posing with the show's star.

The guest appearance clearly means a lot to the mother-of-one, who shared a clip from the episode on her YouTube page in 2015.

Throwback: Marla also posed a Polaroid picture of herself posed next to Fran

Support system: Marla (pictured with Tiffany in New York City in January) praised her daughter for always being patient and supportive while she was on set

In the scene, Fran's character Fran Fine is worried that Marla is going to strike up a romance with her soon-to-be husband and former boss Maxwell Sheffield following her split from Donald Trump.

'Oh honey, I'm not about about to go jump into another relationship. I'm on my own and I got my career going on,' Marla reassures Fran, before admitting she and Maxwell had a flirtatious relationship in the past.

Marla is in the Sheffield home to audition for a Broadway play, but the family's butler Niles tells her that the part has already been cast and quickly ushers her out the door at the end of the amusing clip.

A few days before she posted the throwback images from The Nanny set, Marla shared a snapshot of herself with her younger half-sister Danielle in her hometown of Cohutta, Georgia.

'I am the luckiest sister in the world to have this sister always watching my back' she wrote, revealing that she was home to say goodbye her her late Aunt Marilyn.

Younger sibling: The mother-of-one recently shared a snapshot of herself with her younger half-sister Danielle in her hometown of Cohutta, Georgia

Good times: Marla was also in Georgia at the start of the month to celebrate her grandfather's 99th birthday

All smiles: In the pictures, Marla and her family are wearing custom T-shirts in honor of her grandfather turning 99

She was also in Georgia earlier this month to celebrate the 99th birthday of her grandfather, whom she lovingly call's 'Dingdaddy.'

Marla posted plenty of photos of her family wearing matching T-shirts for the celebration while she paid tribute to her grandfather and her late mother, Ann.

'#Dingdaddy is still bringing in the sparkle at 99+,' she wrote. 'Precious family time was shared celebrating my grandfather who tells me he loves living life because its fun!

'He has lived his life not by being perfect, but by admitting his mistakes, asking forgiveness and just simply praying and living in Joy. What an inspiration!' she added.

Getting political: Tiffany, President Trump's youngest daughter, liked her friend Julia's pictures form the March For Our Lives protest over the weekend

Away: Earlier this month, the Georgetown Law student spend her spring break in Los Angeles

Scenic: Tiffany posted snapshots of herself wearing a red coat, ripped jeans, and combat boots while posing in front the city

'But my dearest mom was missed by all as today 4 yrs ago she rose up to be with her sweet Savior she loved so. #generationsoflove.'

When she shared the photos, Marla was most likely missing her only child, who is in the middle of her second semester of law school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

President Trump's only childwith his second ex-wife Marla got political over the weekend when she 'liked' her friend Julia Moshy's Instagram post featuring various signs from the March For Our Lives protest in New York on Saturday.

'It's not left or right, it's life or death,' Julia's poster reads, while another picture in the post sees a man holding up a sign that says 'Next massacre will be the GOP in the midterm elections.'

However subtle, Tiffany was the only one of Trump's children to make any statement regarding the national protests.

Travels: Tiffany has taken several trips to Los Angeles this year. She posted this snapshot at the start of the month to reveal she was headed back to LA

Stomping grounds: Tiffany grew up close to Los Angeles in Calabasas, California, with her mother Marla, who has since moved back to New York City. They are pictured in LA in January

Trump's youngest daughter is in the middle of her second semester at Georgetown Law in in full swing, but she has been taking plenty of time away from her studies to enjoy herself outside of the nation's capital.

Less than weeks ago, Tiffany shared two photos of herself enjoying part of her spring break in Los Angeles.

Tiffany, who grew up in Los Angeles in Calabasas, California, with her mother, is pictured wearing a red wool coat, ripped jeans, and combat boots while posing in front of scenic views of the city.

At the start of the month, she posted a photo of herself posed on a rooftop, revealing that she would soon be in LA.

Since the start of 2018, the first daughter has been in Los Angeles several times, and she has also traveled to New York City and Las Vegas in the midst of her studies.The woman behind the pussyhats made popular at the Women's March in 2017 was back with a new fashion statement for the March for Our Lives on Saturday: evil eye gloves.

Krista Suh, who created the popular Pussyhats Project, switched things up for this weekend's protest. She wrote on her blog that the idea of a 'sea of eyes' came to her in a dream.

'I had a dream of a protest, a huge peaceful crowd with their hands outstretched toward the sky  each palm had a huge EYE drawn on it,' she wrote.

Making a stand: Krista Suh, the creator of the pink pussyhats worn during the Women's March, had a new fashion statement for the March for Our Lives

See no evil: Krista encouraged protesters to wear the'evil eye' on their gloves

In good company: Krista pictured with mayor of Washington, D.C. Muriel Bowser and Nancy Pelosi before Saturday's march also wanted the evil eye to show Congress 'eyes are on them'

'Some of you might know I came up with the idea for the Pussyhat and the Sea of Pink in the car while driving up the 5 freeway on November 12, 2016, just days after Election Day,' she wrote.

'What many people dont know is that I had an idea, a vision, before that. It came to me in a dream, just minutes before waking up -It was a Sea of Eyes.

'Ive been hanging on to that image knowing that it was going to do something, mean something. I got invited to the March for Our Lives Facebook page,' she went on. And thats when I knew. It is time.

'Im calling on you to help make the Sea of Eyes a reality. To make a statement that enough is enough and gun violence has to stop.'

Sea of eyes: Krista wanted thousands of marchers to don evil eye gloves to create a 'Sea of Eyes' during the marches around the country

Pledge: By Saturday, Krista had logged 1,528 pairs of pledged gloves on her website

Creating a fundraising page on her blog, Krista said that she wanted to collect a minimum of 438 gloves, to represent the 438 people who have been killed or injured in school shootings since 2014.

However, she also said that she wanted to collect 'thousands more' to 'show Congress just how many pairs of eyes are on them right now  waiting for (demanding!) them to do the right thing.'

By Saturday, Krista had logged 1,528 pairs of pledged gloves on her website, with marchers promising to wear them out for the protest.

Hundreds of protesters then took to social media during the marches to show their support by posting pictures of their gloves in action.

In many cultures and religions including Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, wearing an evil eye talisman is believed to provide protection against evil forces.

Action: Hundreds of protesters took to social media during the marches to show their support by posting pictures of their gloves in action

Inclusive: While pussyhats became the de-facto feminist symbol of the Women's March, some felt they were exclusionary  however, the evil eye does not exclude any race or gender

May the force be with you: In many cultures and religions including Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, wearing an evil eye talisman is believed to provide protection against evil forces

In recent years, it has gained popularity  and in 2016, the evil eye appeared on the Alexander McQueen, Givenchy, and Chanel fall runways, bringing the ancient trend into mainstream consciousness.

Taking to Instagram the day after the march, Suh wrote: 'I am still completely in awe and SO proud of everyone who came together yesterday'.

While the hand-knitted pussyhats became the de-facto feminist symbol of the Women's March in 2017, many transgender women and gender nonbinary people felt the focus on traditional female genitals was exclusionary and offensive.

The focus on pink genitals was seen to exclude women of color also.It's every fashion gals worst nightmareshowing up wearing the same outfit as someone else.

Whether at a wedding, cocktail party or other sort of soiree, this unfortunate happenstance can easily ruin an evening. Imagine how a celebrity must feel after being snapped in a look identical to that worn by another star?

While this sartorial nightmare is simply forlorn, it does provide an op for some frivolous fodder. So without further delayWho wore it best  the denim edition. You be the judge!

Jenna vs. Isla vs. Madelaine

Triple take: Jenna, Isla and Madelaine all stepped out in the 'Gorgeous Wide Leg Jumpsuit' by AO.LA by alice + olivia

Redhead faceoff: Isla and Madelaine showed off their curves in the fitted one-piece

Poll Who wore their denim jumpsuit better? Jenna Dewan Tatum Isla Fisher Madelaine Petsch Who wore their denim jumpsuit better? Jenna Dewan Tatum 276 votes

Isla Fisher 126 votes

Madelaine Petsch 246 votes Now share your opinion





Triple take! Jenna Dewan Tatum, 37, Isla Fisher, 42, and Madelaine Petsch, 23, were all spotted in the AO.LA by alice + olivia denim jumpsuit.

Jenna wore her onezie on Saturday night to Nickelodeon's 2018 Kids' Choice Awards. She carried out it's '70s vibe with gold hoop earrings and a nameplate necklace.

Isla wore her 'Gorgeous Wide Leg Jumpsuit' while shopping in Beverly Hills with friends recently. The red-haired beauty elongated the look of her ensemble with tan heeled booties.

Yesterday, Riverdale actress Madelaine Petsch attended The Paley Center For Media's 35th Annual PaleyFest in Los Angeles wearing the one piece. A high ponytail completed the star's retro look.

Olivia vs. Eiza

Brunette beauties: Olivia and Eiza strutted their stuff in the 'Good High Rise Exposed Button Jean' by AO.LA by alice + olivia

Poll Who looked sleeker in their skinny jeans? Olivia Culpo Eiza Gonzalez Who looked sleeker in their skinny jeans? Olivia Culpo 334 votes

Eiza Gonzalez 648 votes Now share your opinion





Olivia Culpo, 25, was spotted on the streets of Los Angeles wearing jeans by AO.LA by alice + olivia. The newly single beauty queen paired the bottoms with a strapless top and matching white accessories.

Mexican actress Eiza Gonzalez, 28, was also seen in California wearing the brand's 'Good High Rise Exposed Button Jean'. She bared a sliver of her belly teaming the skinny denim with the 'Cicely Classic Cropped Tee', also by AO.LA by alice + olivia.

Millie Bobby vs. Storm

Making a statement: Millie Bobby and Storm sported denim on denim looks by Calvin Klein

Poll Who made more of a statement in their Canadian tuxedo? Millie Bobby Brown Storm Westphal Who made more of a statement in their Canadian tuxedo? Millie Bobby Brown 307 votes

Storm Westphal 309 votes Now share your opinion





Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown, 14, wore a denim on denim Calvin Klein look to Nickelodeon's 2018 Kids' Choice Awards on Saturday.

Upon first glance, she seemed to be wearing a traditional Canadian tuxedo, but if you look closely, the custom pieces are actually in tribute to the 17 victims of the Parkland shooting, with the words 'Never Again' written on the from and the victims names on the back.

Blogger Storm Westphal was spotted on March 8 wearing the same (sans custom touches) Calvin Klein denim jacket and jeans.

Selena vs. Jamie

Good jeans: Selena and Jamie appeared effortlessly cool in the same 'High Rise Cropped Gainsbourg Jean' by McGuire

Poll Who looks more fashionable in their frayed denim? Selena Gomez Jamie Chung Who looks more fashionable in their frayed denim? Selena Gomez 357 votes

Jamie Chung 397 votes Now share your opinion





Selena Gomez, 25, stepped out recently wearing frayed cropped denim by McGuire.

The actress kept her look casual by pairing her light wash jeans with a white blouse, blue trench coat and brogues.

Jamie Chung made her rounds at SXSW wearing the same 'High Rise Cropped Gainsbourg Jean'. The 34-year-old elevated the feel of the button fly bottoms with the Vivi Ruffle Dot Blouse from Storets and red booties.Tess Holliday has never been one to shy away from posting sultry lingerie photos online, and the plus-size model recently took to her Instagram Stories to share a sexy snapshot with her 1.5 million followers.

Currently on vacation with her husband Nick in Palm Springs, California, Tess uploaded a picture of herself posing in front of her hotel bathroom mirror in a sheer, nude bodysuit.

And the mom-of-two also hinted that her husband liked her revealing ensemble so much that it didn't 'stay on long'.

Belfie: Tess Holliday, 32, has shared a racy lingering belfie while on holiday in Palm Springs with her 1.5 million Instagram followers

Pillow talk: Currently on vacation with her husband Nick, the mom-of-two gave her followers an intimate glimpse into her life by sharing they had been spending their time 'laying around'

Proud hubby: The posts come just days after Nick shared these screenshots of his phone screensaver depicting racy photos of his wife in the background

However, her bedroom antics aren't for her husband's eyes only, as the Mississippi native also shared with her fans that the couple has spent most of the trip, 'laying around'.

Tucked up under the sheets, Tess captioned a shot of herself from bed with the words: 'We've spent half our vacation laying around doing nothing and it's been perfect'.

The intimate glimpse into the couple's private life comes just days after Tess posted a risque photo of her wearing a black body suit on Instagram, along with a thank-you to the self-timing feature on iPhones 'for giving me the power to take hot photos like this for my husband.'

She added: 'He got the unedited ones, [sorry].'

And her husband Nick also shared his own post, including screenshots of his iPhone lock screen and background bearing images looking to be from Tess' same selfie session.

Loved up: Tess and Nick married in a private ceremony three years ago

Sending a message: In the caption for the post he encouraged others to make sure they are valued by their partners

Nick used the opportunity to send a body-positive message, writing in the caption: 'If your partner isnt proud of you right now - not 5 years and 40 pounds ago, but right now today - they dont deserve your time and attention.'

He finished the post with hashtags such as Tess' tagline #effyourbeautystandards and #putthegentlebackingentlemen.

In her own post, Tess said that taking selfies for her partner has 'helped to boost my self esteem'.

She added: 'BBs, listen to me: If you are feeling down, I highly recommend taking photos of yourself for YOU or a partner wearing lingerie or fully clothed, whatever feels good to you!'

Tess and her husband are both advocates for body positivity, but Tess has also been open about a myriad of other issues, such as the 'extreme' postpartum depression she suffered after the birth of her nearly two-year-old son Bowie Juniper.

A little help: Tess shared her own post thanking the self-timing feature on her phone for allowing her to take hot pictures for her husband

Kisses: The couple are pictured looking cozy on the streets of New York in September, 2017

Happy family: The couple are also parents to Bowie Juniper, who was born two years ago

Also mom to an 11-year-old named Rylee, she took to Instagram early this month to share a photo of herself with her 21-month-old son Bowie, while admitting how difficult it is to raise two children.

'Since becoming a new mom (again!) Ive been very open with how hard its been. From dealing with extreme PPD, to at times feeling really isolated and overwhelmed,' she wrote.

'My boys are 10 years apart and that comes with its own set of problems, but Ive found support through other women.'

Tess explained that she came across Peanut, a matchmaking app for mothers, and has been using it to connect with other women who are the 'same stage in life.' She has also bee using the app's Pages feature to get advice from other mothers.

'There have been moments where I thought "can a tiny one year old really throw tantrums?!" GUESS WHAT, THEY CAN AND DO,' she said.

Candid: Tess took to Instagram last Wednesday to share a photo of herself with Bowie, while opening up about her 'extreme' postpartum depression

Motherhood: Tess, who also has an 11-year-old son named Rylee, noted that her boys are 10 years apart and 'that comes with its own set of problems'

'One mom suggested teaching Bowie sign language so he can communicate what he needs to lessen the tantrums, because he cant yet say what he wants.

'Being a parent is really tough, but man is it worth these bags under my eyes!'

Tess ended her post by encouraging other moms check out the app, noting: 'There's a reason they say it takes a village to raise a child!'

The next day, Tess celebrated International Women's Day by posting a glamorous photo of herself posed with her hands on her hips with a Google search for 'how to be a strong woman' pictured across her chest.

'Global search interest in "how to be a strong woman" reached an all-time high in December 2017,' she wrote. 'Im proud to be a strong woman & to have so many strong women & femmes in my life.'

In January, while shooting a swimwear campaign for Alpine Butterfly, Tess admitted it was great to be enjoying herself after having a difficult few months.

Feeling better: In January, while shooting a swimwear campaign for Alpine Butterfly (pictured), Tess admitted it was great to be enjoying herself after having a difficult few months

Opening up: 'After quite a long road of feeling sad/lost, it sure is nice to be doing what I love and be genuinely happy,' she wrote, while posting images of the sixties-inspired shoot

Body positivity: In January, in honor of the Women's March, Tess posted this nude photo of herself that was taken by her husband, Nick Holliday

While sharing a close-up photo of herself sporting glamorous, sixties-inspired make-up and voluminous hair, Tess wrote: 'After quite a long road of feeling sad/lost, it sure is nice to be doing what I love and be genuinely happy.'

Tess has more than 1.5 million Instagram followers, and she uses her platform to promote equality and body positivity.

While speaking with InStyle about diversity in the fashion industry, the size 22 model explained that there are still a lot of designers who won't dress her.

'Ive been working with my stylist Megan for a couple of years now. Shes reached out to designers that I didnt think would dress me,' she explained.

'I went to Kate Spade's presentation, and Kate Spade dressed me for my book tour. But there are a lot of people that [wont] even respond. Kate Spade was one of the big brands that did.'

Tess also praised Christian Siriano for embracing diversity, noting that she could call him tomorrow with a request for a dress for an event and he would make it for her.My mother and I were in WHSmith in Guildford on a Saturday afternoon when I first became aware of the power of good looks. We'd spent a very happy afternoon shopping when she remarked: 'You do know men are beginning to notice you, don't you?'

Then 15, I was a fairly unsophisticated schoolgirl for whom the purchase of a new pencil case held far more allure than the prospect of male attention. But I had noticed it, too. And, yes, there was a frisson of excitement at the prospect of this new phase of my life.

For my mother, a very good-looking woman whose background was in fashion, it must have been a significant moment, too. She made the comment kindly, without a hint of jealousy or disapproval. But now, as a mother of two teenage daughters, I find myself in her shoes and know that a keen sense of loss is ignited as you pass on the beauty baton.

Annabel Cole (pictured with her 14-year-old daughter Elsa) says a keen sense of loss is ignited as you pass on the beauty baton

Unlike Sadie Frost, I was not blessed with film star looks or a figure fabulous enough to grace magazine covers. But, like many women, I had the power to make heads turn

It's lovely that heads turn towards a beautiful daughter, but that also means they overlook her mother. You are becoming invisible.

I'm not unrealistic: on many days, I wouldn't look twice at myself in a mirror, so why would anyone else? But I'd be dishonest if I claimed that invisibility doesn't sting.

This is something Sadie Frost, 52, complained about last week.

Yes, it would be easy to accuse the British actress of more than a hint of narcissism.

After all, having been in the spotlight since her teens and been married to pop star Gary Kemp and actor Jude Law, she's enjoyed more glamorous moments than most of us have had trips to the supermarket. Some say she should be glad for her good fortune and learn to live in the real world.

But, seeing as I'm grappling with precisely the same set of uncomfortable feelings, I wholeheartedly thank her for raising the issue. The truth is, as vain or vapid as it may sound to some, the gradual creep of invisibility is as cold and unappealing as last night's congealed leftovers.

Unlike Sadie Frost, I was not blessed with film star looks or a figure fabulous enough to grace magazine covers; I have never been able to play the vamp or had the seductive pull to net not one but two famous husbands.

But, like many women, I had the power to make heads turn.

From a woman's teens to her mid40s, a glorious cocktail of hormones and collagen gives you the power to command attention. Pictured, Annabel Cole aged 23

From a woman's teens to her mid40s, a glorious cocktail of hormones and collagen gives you the power to command attention, to be noticed by the outside world. After which, that mysterious allure vanishes as suddenly as it appeared.

A case in point: a few months ago, my husband unearthed our wedding video, unwatched since we got married 20 years ago. At the end, we discovered some footage of the reception which we couldn't recall ever having seen.

We scanned the film, picking out familiar faces, until my husband paused on a shot of a small group including a woman with her back to the camera. 'Who on earth is that?' asked my husband with a slightly flirtatious glint in his eye. 'I don't remember her.'

I gulped. 'It's me,' I said. The fact I'd changed out of my white gown into a little black dress for the reception had slipped his mind.

It wasn't the fact that my husband didn't recognise me (I've got used to his clangers over the years and, looking on the positive side, he was at least noticing the woman he married).

What struck me was that  even without as much a glimpse of her face  he was reacting to the presence of a woman basking in the glow of youth. He didn't recognise me because that isn't me any more. There couldn't be a clearer example of my current state of invisibility.

All the old cliches apply here. Youth is wasted on the young and, of course, you only know what you've got when it's gone. In my late teens and 20s, being able to attract a longing gaze was as much a part of my daily life as shopping in TopShop or going to the wine bar on a Friday night.

As I moved through university and then into my first jobs in my 20s, I experienced the power of what I would now define as being a 'visible woman'. And it had little to do with dates and boyfriends.

The ability to be noticed was most evident in the smaller things: the awareness that people looked up when you walk into a room; the fact that almost any conversation might have the potential to carry on over a drink.

One of the most thrilling things I can ever remember happening to me was as a 21-year-old at the University Library in Cambridge, studying for my finals. I got up to fetch a book from the stacks and returned to my place in the reading room to find an anonymous note, which simply said, 'You look fantastic'. I still have it.

Annabel Cole writes that it's not superficial to mourn the loss of your ability to turn heads

Getting married in my mid-20s and giving birth to three children in quick succession, I embraced motherhood. I was happy to say goodbye to my single self and be engulfed by a new, noisy unit of five.

The usual challenges of motherhood were there: the exhaustion and 24-hour demands of little ones  as well as keeping a marriage on track  were hard but surmountable.

Like most young mums, I spent months in the sandpit and too many hours spooning goop into unwilling mouths. I had no time for blow-dries  a staple of my former office life  and any kind of stylish outfit went out of the window while I relied instead on a lacklustre uniform of flat shoes, shapeless jeans and food-splattered jumpers.

But even after a tough day, if we were lucky enough to find a babysitter, I could still pull it out of the hat. Give me an hour alone in the bathroom, I could recover the old me. Back then I was still visible. I could command attention. I could always bounce back.

It was as a mum of three children under five, holidaying in Austria, that I was picked on the street to star in a national ad campaign for McDonald's. And at adventure playgrounds, dads would ask me if I was the nanny  which I secretly loved.

There's no doubt that with visibility and allure comes a degree of harmless flirtation. Being so deep into young motherhood, an affair was the very last thing on my mind. But knowing that I could still stir feelings, make a splash, was a real and welcome ego boost.

But about two years ago when I was 44, that ability began to slip through my fingers. And it had more to do with clocking up birthdays than the ravages of child-rearing. I actually feel that I look better in some ways than I did when I had little kids  I'm certainly better dressed  but it's the allure that dies. That magic head-turning ingredient.

I hadn't put on weight but my figure suddenly lost its shape; I became fitter than I have ever been through hours of walking our new puppy  but my legs turned to tree trunks.

Youth is wasted on the young and, of course, you only know what you've got when it's gone. Pictured, Annabel with her daughter Elsa

At the same time, my skin lost its glow and no amount of make-up or expensive creams brought it back. In short, I went from being a picture which caught the eye to the wallpaper you hang it on.

To answer feminists who declare they don't want to be defined or compromised by their looks, I couldn't agree more heartily. But the power of being a visible woman is not confined to attracting men. It's about commanding attention from anyone.

As acutely as I have noticed a lack of male attention in recent years, there's the absence of scrutiny by my own sex, too.

A new outfit doesn't garner the glances from other smart women that it used to; testers in the perfume department don't immediately make a beeline for me any more. I am just not on their radar. Superficial? Absolutely. But, nevertheless, it hurts.

But what about inner beauty? Surely truly beautiful women, of any age, radiate a sense of confidence which transcends looks?

Spare me! The diminishing ability to attract attention is as fundamental a part of the ageing process as the emergence of the first streaks of grey hair or discovering you can't read fine print quite as easily as you used to.

Yes, at 46, I feel far happier in my skin than the stationery-loving 15-year-old in WHSmith, but ironically it's just as you reach your inner prime that invisibility sets in.

Once you hit your 40s, you quite literally begin to fade away.

The contours of your face lose definition and the skin begins to look less plump. Lips which were once full and sensuous appear narrow and mean. The little smile which used to look tempting now unleashes a fan of fine lines. Skin takes on a lacklustre pallor. Hair fades to grey. Whatever your figure was like in the past and even if your weight has stayed constant, I can guarantee it will change  and not in a way you'll be thrilled about.

And if you imagine bewailing invisibility is a yet another symptom of today's aggressively looks-orientated celebrity culture, I would beg to differ.

George Eliot wrote her 1866 novel Felix Holt, The Radical when she was in her mid-40s. In it, she uses the character of the sorrowful, middle-aged Mrs Transome to, among other things, explore a woman's acute awareness of her waning beauty and the loss of the influence it once wrought.

My daughters are now 15 and 18 and we've already had our WHSmith moment. I remember helping my elder daughter get ready for her leavers' ball at school. In her long dress and a pair of my borrowed shoes, she suddenly looked like a young woman.

I kissed her and wished her a wonderful evening as her mother, but squeezed her arm and whispered to her, woman to woman: 'You look amazing, but be careful  use your power wisely.'

I take great pleasure from watching my girls grow into self-confident young women, conscious of their femininity and having fun with it but using it wisely. Unlike Sadie Frost, who described feeling 'irrelevant' compared to the bright young things of today, I don't feel sidelined by younger people. I enjoy their company, socially and professionally.

But, despite all of these wonderful gifts, it's difficult to accept that at a time when you feel your best on the inside, the outside has not kept pace. Somehow, it makes daily life just a little more prosaic.

The incidental exchange you might have had on the Tube which you knew was just that and absolutely nothing more; the attention when you walk into a crowded room; the occasional glance that says: 'You still have it.' When these evade you, you notice.

It might not seem important at the time, but whoever you are, whatever your history, you miss it when it is gone.Earlier this week, it was revealed that a bottle of Mario Badescu's Facial Spray With Aloe, Herbs & Rosewater was selling every 20 second around the world.

But there's one product that has taken it a step further with a sale recorded every one second globally - and it will set you back a mere $7.

The must-have item? A tube of the Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm.

The simple yet much loved product is being sold more than 600,000 times per week, with thousands praising the 100 per cent natural balm on social media.

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One beauty product is selling every second globally - and it will set you back a mere $7 (pictured on model)

The must-have item? A tube of the Burt's Bees Beeswax Lip Balm (pictured)

So what makes it so special?

The 4.25 gram tube contains beeswax, a known natural skin conditioner, and a hint of peppermint oil and Vitamin E.

It has no parabens, phthalates, petrolatum or SLS, and the company claims the balm revitalises and hydrates the lips yet leaves a matte finish for those who prefer a less glossy look.

The balm also comes in a range of different flavours including cucumber and mint, wild cherry and mango.

The 4.25 gram tube contains beeswax, a known natural skin conditioner, and a hint of peppermint oil and Vitamin E

'This is my favourite lip balm, and I love it and all the other Burt's Bees lip balms. The scent is not too overpowering and does not linger on the lips for long. I love that it feels very comfortable on the lips, and does not feel too oily or sticky, while being moisturising at the same time,' one customer wrote.

'My lips live for this lip balm. I've been using for almost eight years now and I refuse to go back to the previous chapped-lip days of using sub-par balms,' another said.

Despite the hype, not everyone is convinced.

'It was clear and colourless, which I liked, but I really didn't like the texture - it was thick and pasty, very hard to spread over my lips. It didn't seem to last for very long; I had to reapply this several times. I didn't like the taste either, very unpleasant,' one customer wrote.

'My lips live for this lip balm. I've been using for almost eight years now and I refuse to go back to the previous chapped-lip days of using sub-par balms,' a customer said

'Of all the lipbalms I own this is the last one I reach for. I found that the beeswax made the lipbalm quite hard and therefore difficult to spread on the lips,' another added.

The other product of the year so far, the $9 Mario Badescu Facial Spray With Aloe, Herbs & Rosewater, has had similarly mixed reviews.

The budget-friendly prepping spray has been dubbed a 'miracle worker' by thousands, with the likes of Kylie Jenner and top beauty YouTuber Nikkie Tutorials endorsing it publicly.

Global beauty hub Mecca recently revealed their product that sells every 20 seconds around the world

There product is the $9 Mario Badescu Facial Spray With Aloe, Herbs & Rosewater

According to the Mecca site, the company sells 6,000 bottles of the spray per month and staff describe it as 'super-charged hydration in a bottle'.

'Just a few spritzes of this all over your face and you can say hello to that juicy glow you lost over the course of the day,' the site reads.

'Think of it as a big glass of water for your skin - a pleasantly-scented, hard-working glass of water.'

Nikkie Tutorials, a leading beauty YouTuber, regularly uses the spray before doing her make up

Yana Irbe, a beauty YouTuber also reviewed the spray

The product has been touted as 'the ultimate pick me up' and is made with 'fragrant herbal extracts' and rosewater- ideal for dehydrated, tight and uncomfortable skin.

People use the spray in combination with their day and night creams for a boost of hydration or use it to set make up.

Some even use it to spray on dry hair throughout the day.

People use the spray in combination with their day and night creams for a boost of hydration or use it to set make up

Kylie Jenner is also a fan of the spray - an endorsement likely to have contributed to its popularity today

What are the eight best selling products at Mecca? 1. EVE LOM CLEANSER 2. MARIO BADESCU DRYING LOTION 3. MECCA COSMETICA LIP DE-LUSCIOUS SPF 25+ 4. MARIO BADESCU FACIAL SPRAY WITH ALOE, HERBS AND ROSEWATER 5. MECCA COSMETICA TO SAVE FACE SUNSCREEN SPF 50+ 6. DR. DENNIS GROSS HYALURONIC MOISTURE CUSHION 7. BAREMINERALS COMPLEXION RESCUE GEL CREAM 8. GLAMGLOW SUPERMUD CLEARING TREATMENT Advertisement

'I bought this around October last year and my skin has changed for the better! I have hardly any breakouts anymore when I used to have so many,' one woman wrote.

'I love using it after I've done my makeup base to soak up any excess powder, to make me feel less dry and give me a healthy glow. I use this one when it's not as hot weather, and the Green Tea one during warmer weather as I find it's more cooling,' another wrote.

While the majority adore the product, others have been less impressed - especially after hearing the hype.

'All my friends were using it so I decided to try it out, however after using it it made me break out heavily. I stopped using it and my skin went back to normal,' one customer wrote.

'Bought this about three weeks ago and have experienced horribly clogged pores and breakouts since which is never usually an issue for me. It does smell amazing, so have been using it as a body moisturiser instead. Never again on my face though,' another wrote.A single jab which protects against all strains of flu for up to a decade could be available on the NHS in just two years.

The results of a UK human trial being announced today suggest the jab is more effective than existing vaccines which target only a few types of the virus.

Its creators claim it will end the scourge of flu globally, turning it into a mild illness rather than a killer.

The FLU-v jab, which is the work of British company Imutex, is said to fight off every strain, from the yearly winter virus to virulent strains such as swine flu and the recent Aussie flu. It is likely to cost between 20 to 50 per person but will need to be given only every five to ten years.

A single jab which protects against all strains of flu for up to a decade could be available on the NHS in just two years. File photo

Current vaccines target proteins on the virus surface, but regions of these proteins constantly change in a bid to fool the immune system.

This means the virus is always one step ahead of the vaccine, which is why it must be remade each year.

The new jab has been created to target unchanging regions of the virus proteins by boosting the immune system's T-cells that recognise and attack foreign invaders.

The trial involved 123 participants aged 18 to 60 being infected with the H1N1 swine flu virus and spending eight days in a room.

Eighty per cent were prevented from getting flu after having the jab.

The vaccine was also twice as effective at limiting flu-like symptoms, with 60 per cent of those given the jab developing fewer than two symptoms.

The results of a UK human trial being announced today suggest the jab is more effective than existing vaccines which target only a few types of the virus. File photo

This suggests that even when people catch the flu virus, the vaccine can reduce the impact of its symptoms.

And a less severe infection for the elderly would slash the likelihood of complications and hospitalisations.

After participants received FLU-v, their immune cells were tested against a range of flu strains. In all instances, the cells recognised and killed the virus.

It is hoped the results give the vaccine 'breakthrough designation' from the US Food and Drug Administration  fast-tracking it through the approval process and paving the way for it to be available on the NHS within two years.

The new study was part of the collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the world's largest medical research establishment, the National Institutes of Health in Washington, USA.

The UK's top flu expert John Oxford, emeritus professor of virology at Queen Mary University of London, said: 'I am enthusiastic about universal vaccines full-stop. It is recognised as being a good way forward.

'If one should have an effective universal flu vaccine, people could relax because you could have a dose of it and it would give years of protection against whichever virus is circulating.'

Dr Ed Schmidt, from the Universal Influenza Vaccine Consortium at Groningen University, Holland, said the vaccine could be 'a game changer', adding: 'It would lead a serious reduction in deaths and have a major impact.'

This winter, the annual jab worked in just a quarter of the population in what was called the worst epidemic in seven years.

The NHS spends more than 100million annually on its flu vaccination programme alone.

A universal jab could save the NHS around 27,000 per person over the course of their lifetime from less sickness absences and reduced pressure.Scientists have found the first concrete evidence that a mother's stress during pregnancy changes the brain connections of her unborn child.

Newly-developed scanning techniques allowed a team at Wayne State University to examine neural activity of 47 fetuses between 30 and 37 weeks gestation.

They showed for the first time that babies of mothers in high-stress setting were developing differently to those whose mothers did not have high levels of stress, anxiety or depression.

The findings, presented today at a conference in Boston, mark a breakthrough in neuroscience, confirming a long-held theory that no technology has been able to confirm or refute until now.

The newly-developed scanning techniques allowed a team at Wayne State University to examine neural activity of 47 fetuses, to detect notable changes in the stress response region

'The major thrill is that we have demonstrated what has long been theorized, but not yet observed in a human, which is that the stress of a mother during her pregnancy is reflected in connectional properties of her child's developing brain,' said lead author Moriah Thomason, of the perinatal research department who today presents her work at the annual Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting.

Beyond the huge implications for mental health, Thomason's findings also suggest that the brain may not develop in the sequence that we have always assumed.

It is widely-held that first the simplest systems such as vision, balance and motor functions develop first, before the most complex systems, such as stress response.

However, Thomason's study showed that the differences between stress-exposed babies' brains and their peers emerge almost immediately.

And those differences are most clearly seen in the stress response center (the cerebellum), suggesting this region is one of the first to develop.

New technology was crucial to make this breakthrough, to understand prenatal influences independent of environmental factors.

Using fetal resting-state fMRI, they examined functional connectivity in 47 human fetuses scanned between the 30 and 37 weeks gestation.

Conducting in-utero brain scans are challenging, mainly because it is near-impossible to keep the baby from moving about, but the new technology provides a clearer image than ever possible, making the small movements more manageable.

All of the mothers involved in the study came from poor, urban areas fraught with stress, with many reporting high levels of depression, anxiety, and worry for themselves and their loved-ones.

Above anything, Thomason said, these mothers wanted to join the study to help others like them.

'A lot of our moms are interested in being part of this research, not because of concerns they have in their pregnancy,' she explained, 'but because they appreciate the heightened vulnerability of budding human life, and this is an opportunity to help other women that may not have the same fortune in their circumstances.'

'It has long been thought that the stress of a mother during her pregnancy may imprint on the brain of her developing child.

'[But] despite the clear importance of this time frame, we presently possess very little understanding of how functional macroscale neural networks build during this precious time in human life, or the relevance of this to future human health and development.'

She added: 'We must consider the developing brain in context, thinking about the role of the environment in shaping the brain. It is a topic that inspires us to promote healthy brain growth, to ask what it is that we do for children in the lifestyles, opportunities, and learning conditions we create for them.'An Indian woman needed nasal surgery to remove a long, white worm that had lodged itself just behind her cornea.

The 42-year-old woman, from Shravasti, a tiny village in Utter Pradesh, India, was told by doctors she had a 'thread-like structure' wiggling behind her eye, after she had come in complaining about horrendous pain around her eye and nose in July 2016.

Surgeons removed the worm by stabbing up through the nose and extracted the creature, which was a little under a centimetre long, according to a report published in BMJ Case Reports, from the Ophthalmology Outpatient Department at King George's Medical University, in Lucknow, northern India.

Scientists identified it as a Loa loa worm, which is typically found in West Africa but is extremely rare in India.

An Indian woman needed nasal surgery to remove a long, white worm that from her eye

Gruesome lodger

After complaining of intense pain and impaired vision around her eye, the woman checked into the Ophthalmology Outpatient Department at King George's Medical University, in July 2016.

Doctors gave her a slit-lamp examination, during which they identified that her eyes were extremely bloodshot and the iris was inflamed.

When they checked behind her eye, they saw, as the report describes, a 'coiled up, thread-like structure, which was mobile.'

The doctors administered a topical anaesthesia to paralyse the worm, and then removed it by going through the patients nose.

After having been removed, the worm was sent to the Microbiology Department at the university.

The white, wriggling mass was identified as a female Lua lua worm, which is also known as the 'African eye worm', because it commonly migrates to the eye.

After the surgery, the report states that her symptoms vanished.

Scientists identified it as a Loa loa worm: typically found in West Africa and very rare in India

Surgeons removed the worm by stabbing up through the nose and extracted the creature

A picture of part of the Lua lua worm under the microscope, showing its reproductive organs

A rare case

The Loa loa larvae are usually transmitted to humans by a few species of biting flies, like the deer fly, in West and Central Africa.

The larvae mature in the human body. As adults, they typically live under the skin.

However, they can migrate all over the body: some have been found in the eyes, nose and even genitals.

The adult Loa worms release 'microfilariae' into the bloodstream, which float around the blood and sometimes reside in the lungs.

These are then picked up by flies in order to begin its cycle again.

The female worms usually only grow up to 0.7cm - making the one extracted from the woman from Uttar Pradesh particularly large.

While Loa infections are most common in West and central Africa, there have been a few cases in India before.

For example, a 48-year old man man from Assam had a male Lua lua worm removed in 2005, as did a woman from the Kumayun district in the Himalayas.A student was left with a persistent cough after a piece of his jawbone became stuck in his airways following a car crash.

The 21-year-old, whose identity is unknown, went to his doctor after he was confused by his four-month battle with a cough.

Doctors were baffled when cough drugs didn't work and decided to conduct various medical scans to determine what was causing it.

CT scans revealed a 'white and hard' material in his airways, which Japanese medics later discovered to be part of the man's fractured jawbone.

They suggested he unknowingly inhaled it when he temporarily lost consciousness at the time of the traffic accident.

The 21-year-old, whose identity is unknown, went to his doctor after he was confused by his four-month battle with a cough. They found a bone in his airway

Surgeons were so astounded by the bizarre tale that they published its details in the prestigious BMJ Case Reports.

Writing in the journal, they said: 'To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a fractured human bone fragment as an endobronchial foreign body.'

The medics added: 'Loss of consciousness, such as in coma, can result in foreign bodies being easily inhaled into the airways.'

The patient sought advice Kokura Medical Center in Kitakyush - situated 633 miles (1,019km) south west of the capital Tokyo.

They transferred him to an acute care hospital where he was placed on a ventilator after discovering he had previously been in a crash.

Surgeons noted how he sustained multiple injuries, including a fracture of his left mandibular, also known as the jawbone.

Surgeons were so astounded by the bizarre tale that they published its details in the prestigious BMJ Case Reports (red arrow points to the foreign body)

Writing in the journal, the team led by Dr Kouko Hidaka said: 'We concluded that this EFB was a piece of the patient's fractured mandible (jawbone)'

The patient then admitted he had suffered from a persistent cough and a crackle in his voice, known as an inspiratory rale.

Doctors were baffled when antitussive medication, or cough drugs, failed to combat his niggling cough.

They then conducted X-rays and CT scans to discover the underlying cause of his cough. The latter revealed the EDB.

Surgeons were able to remove the piece of material, which was lodged in his left main bronchus, using forceps.

Writing in the journal, the team led by Dr Kouko Hidaka said: 'We concluded that this EFB was a piece of the patient's fractured mandible.'

The patient was discharged a month later.An experimental skin spray has cured a mother-of-three of the flesh-eating bacterial infection nearly killed her earlier this year.

Christin Lipinski, 37, has spent the last three months fighting for her life since she developed necrotizing fasciitis as a complication of the flu in January and had to have one-third of her skin cut away to stop the bacteria's spread.

After 10 surgeries, Christin had lost too much skin for doctors to use any more as grafts to cover the wound, so they appealed to the FDA for compassionate use of an unapproved, experimental treatment.

A week after the skin spray was applied, Christin's doctors say that her wound is 95 percent healed, and they expect that she will be home with her family in a couple of weeks.

Christin Lipinski (right) has been cured of the a deadly flesh-eating bacterial infection using an experimental skin spray

What started as a nasty case of the flu and a tiny rash in Christin's armpit quickly became a nightmare scenario for her, her husband, Nate, and their three children.

Christin, a physical education teacher, was diagnosed with the flu on January 11.

At home in Scottsdale, Arizona, she briefly improved and then took a turn for the worse. As her flu symptoms intensified, her armpit became very painful, and Nat called an ambulance to take her to the nearest trauma department.

Doctors at Maricopa Integrated Health System in Arizona diagnosed Christin with necrotizing fasciitis and moved quickly to get her into surgery.

The infection - which can be caused by a number of bacteria, but is most commonly a result of group A strep - spreads rapidly and causes the cells in connective tissues that sit between muscles, nerves fat and blood vessels, as well as the skin.

Many who get the infection lose their limbs to it, and it proves deadly for about one quarter of sufferers.

What appeared first as a small skin rash under Christin Lipinkski's arm (left) was diagnosed as a flesh-eating bacterial infection that spread to a third of her skin (right)

To keep the infection from spreading further across Christin's body or into deeper tissues, her medical team had to remove 30 percent of her skin, stretching from her shoulder to the top of her thigh on her left side, as well as in several places on both legs, torso and the top of her head.

After her last operation in January, her husband told Daily Mail Online that the infection had not reached Christin's muscles, so she would not lose any limbs and 'the prognosis is still good.'

'She's young and healthy and her body has responded well. [But] we're not done yet, there's a chance it could still resurge,' Nate said.

His wife would recover, but she would need continued treatment and physical therapy to help her walk and function normally again.

Chrstin had to be kept heavily sedated in the intensive care while he wounds healed, but once they were, she faced another set of challenges.

Typically, a necrotizing fasciitis survivor would undergo a series of skin grafts to replace the lost tissue.

But her medical team was afraid that Christin couldn't afford to lose any more skin, and they would have needed to take large patches.

They were faced with few alternatives, so they made a 'hail Mary' application to the Food and Drug Administration, begging to use a new skin spray, called ReCell, that the agency had not yet approved for clinical use.

Avita has applied for pre-market Approval of ReCell, but, for now, the FDA allowed it to be used in a small number of cases under its 'compassionate use' option, which allows an unapproved treatment to be used on a patient who is running out of options.

The agency gave Christin's doctors permission to try ReCell on her in the hopes of saving her skin.

After surgery to remove the infected tissue, Kristin is recovering, and learning to walk again with the help of physical therapy

The 37-year-old mother-of-three was young and healthy before she came down with the flu in January and developed necrotizing fasciitis as a complication of it

The spray, manufactured by the biotech company Avita Medical, uses an enzyme to break down a small sample of healthy skin from the patient's skin into component cells.

This is combined with healing factors that promote the growth of new skin and sprayed onto the affected area.

'Normally, a wound heals from the edges, which takes time, but this allows it to heal everywhere at once,' Michael Perry from Avita told the New Scientist.

Doctors used the spray along with a piece of skin they'd taken from Christin's thigh got treat her wounds, beginning at the end of February.

A week later, they started removing the dressings, and were happily floored by what they say.

The area they had treated was 95 percent healed, other than some minor inflammation that they expect to calm down, the skin looked good.

Dr Kevin Foster, who treated Christin, told the New Scientist that these results were much better than he would have expected to see from the graft alone, and he thinks 'the spray made a real difference.'

Christin is due to be discharged from the hospital in two weeks or so.Antibiotic prescriptions have shot up by 65 percent overall and by 39 percent per person in 15 years, new research reveals.

In the period from 2000 to 2015, 24.5 billion prescriptions for the infection-fighting drugs were written a day.

This rise comes even as scientists and doctors around the world warned that overuse was driving a decline in the drugs' effectiveness that could spell disaster if humans were plagued by an antibiotic-resistant superbug.

Rates of increase varied from country to country, with higher rates in poorer countries.

These differences suggested to the authors from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy that antibiotic consumption could be reduced, a move that must be made in order to head off this mounting global health crisis.

Rates of increase varied widely, but the 65 percent global increase in antibiotic consumption between 2000 and 2015 bodes ominously as we become resistant to treatment for illnesses

Antibiotics are among the most key and revolutionary medicines to human survival.

There are six major groups of antibiotics that can fight a wide variety of bacterial infections  ranging from common STDs to meningitis and tetanus - but they are useless against viral or fungal infections.

Important though these drugs are, they have become vastly overprescribed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that as many as one in three antibiotics are wrongly prescribed.

This is the problem with biology: we can be sure resistance will emerge, it's just a question of how long it will be Dr Eili Klein, study co-author, Center for Disease Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy

Historically, there has been a common public misconception that taking antibiotics cannot do any harm, but might help fight off an illness.

Although taking an antibiotic unnecessarily is unlikely to make you sick in and of itself, doing so can create a world of trouble down the line by making room for opportunistic infections or making you resistant to the drug.

Antibiotics disable bacterial cells by destroying their walls, preventing them from replicating, or freezing the mechanics that make the invading cells run.

But in the process of this attack, they can also damage or destroy healthy bacteria  especially those that live in the gut - that are key to the human body's delicate balance.

Worse yet, the bacteria that antibiotics target mount their own defense, changing and evolving in ways that make them immune to the antibiotic's efforts.

This means that the next time someone gets an infection from the same or, in some cases, even a related, bacteria, it may be untreatable.

The sharpest increases in antibiotic prescriptions occurred in Turkey and Tunisia. Rates fell slightly in the US, which remains among the top 15 prescribers in the world

The CDC says that the development of resistance 'has been called of the world's most pressing public health problems.'

Since the development of antibiotics in the 1920s, they've become increasingly common, and so has resistance to them.

Once a strain of bacteria develops antibiotic resistance in one population of people, that resistant bacteria can spread to other people and even other countries at rates that have rapidly accelerated as travel becomes quicker and more common.

Problematically, the more resistant bacteria become, the more inclined doctors are to prescribe a second line antibiotic that would fight it, without knowing for certain that a person actually has a resistant bacteria.

The result can be a bacteria that is resistant to both drugs, which is cause for serious public health concerns.

The new study found that, globally, antibiotic consumption has gone up by about 39 percent on an individual basis, while collective consumption has soared by 65 percent.

There is some good news: prescriptions have actually fallen very slightly in high-income countries (as an aggregate), but are rising in middle- and low-income countries.

The challenge, says study co-author Dr Eili Klein of Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, is 'to safely and effectively reduce consumption [globally] but still increase access in low- and middle-income countries that still have a higher burden of disease,' he says.

And that is a very steep challenge.

Dr Klein compares our antibiotic situation to the difficulty of addressing climate change 'or any other global problem.'

Rates of prescription have dipped slightly in high-income countries - like the US and France (right) - but risen in low- and middle-income countries -including Turkey and India (right) - in the last 15 years (left)

'The impact of a single prescription is negligible. If I drive one additional mile, that has a negligible impact. but if everybody does it, then it's an aggregate problem,' and a major one.

But there is not a simple way to put a stop to over-prescription without vastly improved diagnostic methods.

Though there are rapid test for some illnesses, like strep throat, many may take hours or even days to get back.

The impact of a single prescription is negligible. If I drive one additional mile, that has a negligible impact. but if everybody does it, then it's an aggregate problem Dr Klein

In these situations, 'the points of contact are individual patients in a room with an individual physician who is looking at a sick patient and wants to make them feel better.'

It's hard to tell a physician he should let his patient get sicker while waiting to find out if an antibiotic would even help the person, when it very well might be just the thing to help them start getting better immediately.

Worse still, doctors may prescribe an unnecessarily broad spectrum or second-line antibiotic just to be sure that their patient gets well as fast as possible.

Dr Klein recalls 'screaming' when his daughter's well-meaning doctor prescribed the more powerful amoxicillin instead of penicillin to treat his daughter's strep throat - which had already started clearing up on its own - 'because many people had become resistant to amoxicillin.'

But by treating a possibly resistant strain preemptively, the doctor was contributing another proverbial mile to the road toward resistance to amoxicillin.

Despite all of his research, Dr Klein says there's no way to know just how long that road might be.

'This is the problem with biology: we can be sure resistance will emerge, it's just a question of how long it will be,' he says.A man who thought he had a beer belly has been diagnosed with a 30lb abdominal tumor.

Kevin Daly, 63, became suspicious of his large stomach after he lost 34 pounds but his pot belly stuck around.

In December, the 6'3" financial planner from Hoboken, New Jersey, convinced his doctor to do a CAT scan that revealed a cancerous tumor the size of a beach ball taking up most of his abdomen.

If he hadn't acted on his suspicion, the mass could have killed him within months.

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Doctors at Lenox Hill Hospital removed a 30lb tumor from a man's abdomen in December

Kevin Daly, 63, a financial planner from Hoboken, New Jersey, is pictured left with what doctors thought was a beer belly and right after his 30lb tumor was removed

The tumor was identified as a cancer called liposarcoma that had likely been growing for 10 to 15 years but luckily hadn't spread to any other area of Daly's body.

Liposarcoma starts in fat cells typically in the abdomen, arms or legs and often resembles fatty tissue when looked at under a microscope.

It's unusual for any type of tumor to grow as large as Daly's because they're normally detected earlier because they cause other problems in the body.

Even though he's not a beer drinker, Daly had had what others assumed to be a beer belly for several years.

After his dramatic weight loss following heart surgery in 2015 failed to reduce any of the weight around his stomach, Daly and his wife Rachelle began to wonder if something else was causing his paunch.

'I thought they literally left stuffing and tools in me from surgery,' the financial planner from Hoboken, New Jersey, told the Daily News.

Despite objections from his insurance company who thought a scan was unnecessary, Daly went to Lenox Hill Hospital for a scan that revealed what doctors thought was a 12lb mass growing in his abdomen.

Daly said the discovery left him feeling 'vindicated and scared'.

The dark gray central area of the scans above show the tumor inside of Daly's abdomen

The tumor, identified as a cancer called liposarcoma, had likely been growing for 10 to 15 years

Liposarcoma tumors can lead to abdominal pain and swelling, constipation, blood in stool and feeling fuller sooner when eating.

'Although these tumors are large and malignant, they grow slowly and tend to not metastasize,' Daly's surgeon Dr Julio Teixeira told CBS. 'Often there's a very good prognosis.'

It took doctors six hours to remove the mass that had displaced several of Daly's organs, including his descending colon, which had been pushed several inches upward under his sternum.

They also had to remove one of his kidneys because the tumor had wrapped itself around it.

Going forward he'll be monitored with regular MRIs to ensure the tumor doesn't return.

Two months later Daly says he's doing well and is back down to his college weight at 187lbs.

'I dodged a couple of bullets,' he told CBS.

He appeared on NBC's Megyn Kelly Today in February with wife Rachelle.Women, it seems, are increasingly losing interest in sex. Around a third of pre-menopausal women and half of older women report sexual problems, with lack of desire a main cause, according to the Sexual Advice Association.

A study recently published in the journal BMJ Open found that more than a third of 5,000 women aged between 16-74 surveyed said theyd lost interest in sex for three months or more in the previous year. And nearly two-thirds of these women said they found their lack of libido distressing.

This is not a problem unique to women  around one in five men experience low libido at some point, but they definitely have the advantage when it comes to treatments.

Around a third of pre-menopausal women and half of older women are reporting sexual problems (FILE photo)

Its now 20 years since Viagra provided an instant fix for men who struggled to achieve an erection, however scientists have not been able to produce as successful a pill to help women feel more in the mood.

Some experts think the reason this has proved so elusive is that many women are dealing with underlying health conditions, from incontinence to menopausal symptoms and pelvic pain, that affect their interest in sex, and no pink Viagra is going to sort this out.

Yet for years a female Viagra has been the Holy Grail. So there has been some excitement about a drug called bremelanotide, which has just undergone successful phase 3 clinical trials in the U.S., the last stage before a drug can be licensed.

It was originally tested as a tanning pill in the Eighties but was found to boost muscle recovery. Body builders of both sexes found unexpected benefits  the men reported spontaneous erections, the women said it put them in the mood. The drug company, Palatin Technologies, switched their efforts to developing it as a treatment for female sexual dysfunction.

The drug works by binding to chemicals in the brain involved in sexual desire, increasing production of the feel-good chemical dopamine which plays a key function in arousal. For best effects, the woman must inject herself around 45 minutes before sex.

Trials found it worked better than a placebo but the development of the treatment suffered a setback in 2007 when the original nasal spray version was found to cause high blood pressure in some, leading the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. to halt trials.

The manner of administering the drug was changed to an injection. The latest trials have shown that as well as improving a womans libido generally, bremalanotide also makes sex more satisfying for premenopausal women. Palatin Technologies now hopes to make billions from worldwide sales.

But before the champagne is opened, experts urge caution. Not least because bremelanotide would not be the first female Viagra to be licensed and promise much only to then fall short. Addyi was also labelled the female Viagra when it was launched in 2015.

Originally developed as an antidepressant, it reduces the effect of the brain chemical serotonin, which in turn leads to an increase in dopamine levels.

In the UK, Addyi is yet to receive approval due to the cost (up to 700 for a months supply) as well as concerns about its effectiveness.

Even in the U.S., where it is licensed, takeup has been slow, probably because Addyi doesnt help all women  only around 10 per cent found any increase in sexually satisyfing events compared to those taking a placebo, and around 75 per cent of those who take it experience side-effects such as nausea, headache and dizziness.

It also has to be taken daily, and drinking alcohol can make side-effects worse.

But if a pill isnt the answer, researchers at the University of Michigan in the U.S. have been trying out a new device which sends electrical signals from a needle inserted in a womans ankle to stimulate nerves and blood supply in the genital area.

Although it reportedly creates a pleasant tingling, there are concerns about how practical it is during energetic love-making sessions (as the needle needs to remain in situ).

Study published in the journal BMJ Open found that more than a third of 5,000 women aged between 16-74 had lost interest in sex

The focus on pills  and zappers  misses the bigger problem, say experts. This is not just that there are so many complex factors in female desire, such as stress and breakdown of relationships  though clearly these play a role.

A woman seeks intimacy which leads her to be receptive to sexual stimuli and only then feels desire, says Dr Catherine Hood, a consultant in psychosexual medicine at St Pancras Hospital, London.

However experts are increasingly admitting that often low libido in women is nothing to do with whats going on in their head  there are a whole range of physical issues that can kill desire.

It might be that the muscles in their pelvis are so tense it makes it difficult to have sex, or the impact of the menopause makes it painful. Fix the physical problem, they say, and a womans normal desire for sex will return.

There are many physical reasons why women lose their desire for sex, including illness and pelvic pain, says Dr Hood.

It may be that drugs could help solve issues that are caused by genuine chemical or hormonal imbalances, but these are just one small part of a bigger picture when it comes to low libido in women.

Yet these physical factors are often overlooked, says Myra Robson, senior womens health therapist at the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.

We see women who are trying to maintain good sex lives while dealing with issues such as endometriosis, [where womb lining-like tissue develops elsewhere, causing scarring and irritation] which can cause deep pelvic pain; fibroids, which affect the lining of the womb, and stress incontinence, which affects one in three women after childbirth, she says. These things need to be sorted out first before we go for the candles and the chocolates, and long before we even think about female Viagra.

Dyspareunia, or painful sex, is a common cause of low sex drive in women. Around 30 per cent of women experience this according to an article in the Journal of Sexual Medicine in 2015. Large numbers of women do not tell their partner when sex hurts. They might want to have sex, but go off it as it is so painful for them.

Its a common and distressing complaint and it has been a neglected female health problem and can affect young women, women after having children and women who are already through the menopause, says Mike Bowen, a consultant gynaecologist based in London and Oxford. It can be felt as deep pain within the pelvis or superficial pain in the vulva during intercourse.

It is associated with issues such as vaginal dryness and anxiety about sex as well as a range of physical problems, from painful skin conditions to urinary tract infections and endometriosis. Women who have perineal scars after childbirth are also more likely to find sex painful until the scar tissue has stretched and softened, which can take years.

Fortunately, there are many ways to treat dyspareunia, by treating the underlying causes, whether they be physical, emotional or a combination of both, says Mr Bowen.

Any form of incontinence can put women off sex: Stress incontinence, the most common form that leads to small leaks of urine when someone coughs, sneezes or laughs, affects around one in three women in the UK.

Women may feel dirty and unclean and they may not want to have sex at all, says Dr Hood.

According to the Sexual Advice Association, the main cause is a lack of desire

Stress incontinence occurs because weakness around the pelvic floor (the band of muscles that stretch from the pubic bone to the front to the spine) means the neck of the bladder is not well-supported, so urine can leak out when the bladder is put under pressure. This commonly happens after childbirth, as the ligaments that support the pelvic floor become stretched during pregnancy or labour.

Pelvic floor exercises can help  although ideally these should be done under the guidance of a specialist physiotherapist, who are in short supply.

Apps such as Squeezy and gadgets such as Innovo, which emits electrical impulses to contract the pelvic floor muscles, can help.

There is a place for these devices but women can also try simple techniques like going to the loo before sex and abstaining from coffee and tea, which are mild diuretics, says Dr Hood.

A lesser-known issue is pelvic tension, when muscles in the pelvic floor are knotted and tight, which can make sex virtually impossible. Yet it is surprisingly common: up to 15 per cent of women aged between 18 and 50 are affected, according to a study published in the March 1996 issue of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

It can be caused by stress and anxiety, slouched posture, chronic constipation and even over-exercise. It is a recognised medical condition which can be treated by internal massage, widely available on the NHS.

Amanda Savage, a specialist pelvic floor physiotherapist at the private South Cambridge Physiotherapy clinic in Hauxton, Cambridge, treats many women who suffer from pelvic tension.

We often find that women have such overly tense muscles in their pelvic region, their muscles are unable to let go and relax. This can cause long-term pain.

Its generally assumed that desire will naturally drop with age, especially following the menopause, but there is no evidence that this should happen to women.

Indeed when Tim Spector, professor of epidemiology at Kings College, London, looked at the effect of the menopause on womens libido he found that sexual dysfunction problems didnt increase but stayed constant, affecting around 22 per cent of women. Some women actually saw improvements in sexual function after the menopause.

The results of the four-year study, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine in 2015, were a little surprising, Professor Spector admits. They suggest that menopause has been exaggerated as an excuse for everything.

By modifying your life and attitudes towards desire, you can change things sometimes surprisingly for the better, although you are older, he says.

Any reduced libido is usually associated with hot flushes or vaginal dryness (which can make sex painful). As oestrogen levels drop, there can be problems like vaginal dryness, says Kathy Abernethy, specialist menopause nurse and Chair of the British Menopause Society, adding that if these are treated, for example with hormone replacement therapy (HRT), oestrogen creams and lubricants, a woman can find her desire returns.

Dr Hood says that women who maintain active sex lives are more likely to keep thinning and dryness at bay: Theres a maxim, use it or lose it, which definitely applies to women having a great sex life past the menopause. Sexual intercourse helps to keep the walls of the vagina thicker and more elastic.

Some doctors believe that a lack of sexual desire in women is linked to low levels of the male sex hormone, testosterone, which in women is produced in small amounts in the ovaries and drives sexual arousal.

Testosterone patches deliver small amounts of a synthetic form of the hormone while testosterone creams can be used by peri and post-menopausal women on an off-label basis (i.e. the drug has not been approved for that use).

Dr Martin Galy, a hormone specialist practising in London, says that at least half of his female patients complaining of loss of sex drive have inadequate levels of testosterone. However, this is a controversial area, and Dr Galy admits that the science for what counts as inadequate is inexact.

A womans testosterone levels could be very low and her libido is fine, he explains. It works for some women, but not everyone. There are also a range of potential side-effects such as bone softening, hair loss and acne.

Whatever the cause, the impact a lack of desire can have on women should not be underestimated, explains Denise Knowles, a sex and relationship counsellor for Relate. A healthy sex life is good for your relationship and how you feel, she says.

Sex stimulates the production of feel-good hormones dopamine and oxytocin, making you feel closer to your partner as well as improving blood flow, which helps keep the circulatory system in good shape and burning calories. There are all sorts of good reasons why you should take steps to foster your desire.

Dr Hood says people do have to make an effort. She often sees couples where the woman complains she no longer feels spontaneous desire and the man complains his partner wont initiate sex. But perhaps we put too much emphasis on spontaneous desire, which only really happens in new relationships. After two years or so, spontaneity is replaced by a new cycle of desire, which requires him to initiate intimacy to which she can respond sexually.

There is also very often a difference in libido between a man and woman, suggests Dr Hood. Generally speaking, one person, usually a woman, loses spontaneous desire, she has said previously. They dont think about sex that much, they dont initiate it and dont really feel like having it.

But when they do have sex, they often enjoy it  they have whats known as reactive sex drive. Also, the person with the reactive sex drive needs to be open to having sex, not just short-circuit the whole idea.

Is cough medicine killing your libido? There are dozens of everyday medications that can reduce libido in women (and men), says Sid Dajani, a community pharmacist and spokesman for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. These libido thieves include: OVER-THE-COUNTER DRUGS Antihistamines, such as Piriton, which contain chlorphenamin, which activates the sleep centres in the brain causing drowsiness. If you cant keep your eyes open, you arent really going to be in the mood for sex, says Sid Dajani. Cold and pain remedies with codeine may also switch off sexual desire in some as they switch off anything that might lead to excitement, including libido, he says (products with codeine include Solpadeine Max and Codeine Linctus). PRESCRIPTION MEDICINES Antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), affect chemical messengers in the brain and can stop sexual impulses. This happens to around half my patients on SSRIs, but libido usually returns after a few months, says Sid Dajani. Breast cancer drugs, such as Tamoxifen, that block the action of female hormone oestrogen, can lead to vaginal drying and loss of libido. Contraception can, ironically, make women less likely to want sex. The Mirena coil has been associated with a drop off in libido, although the numbers affected are small and it is usually down to an ill-fitting coil or worries about the device itself, says Sid Dajani. Oral contraceptive pills can boost desire in some women and destroy it in others. AdvertisementHum Fleming, 28 pictured, suffers from epilepsy and says she has seizures once or twice a month

Hum Fleming was just 13 when epilepsy first announced its presence in her life. Watching television at the family home in Oxfordshire with her father, Roddie, she suddenly experienced what can best be described as an out-of-body experience.

I felt everything go out of focus, says Hum (short for Hermione).

At the time, I was learning about neardeath experiences in Religious Studies at school and that was exactly how I felt  as though I was watching myself from outside my body.

I honestly thought I was having a heart attack and dying. I was having palpitations and panicking, but I couldnt move.

The next minute Im back in the room, saying to my dad: Something just happened to me. But I couldnt tell him what because I didnt know.

I burst into tears and he was looking at me, white as a sheet and dribbling slightly, saying: Whats up, Humster?

Just as suddenly the tears return now, over a pot of tea in a Central London cafe. A decade-and-a-half has passed since that day, but the memory, and the prolonged period of confusion which ensued, still cuts deep.

Even that simple word  memory  must come with a caveat. Hum, now a 28-year-old fashion PR, cannot actually remember what happened that day but has pieced it together from information others have provided.

While her memories before then remain intact (As a kid, I was like a computer  names, dates, I could give you instant recall on anything), everything since then is enveloped in impenetrable fog.

Her long-term memory has gone, leaving her with good recollection of the past six weeks to six months, but a blank space prior to that.

Today she suffers just one or two seizures a month, thanks to effective medication and leading what she describes as a responsible lifestyle. When she has one of these episodes, as theyre known, she looks absent, pale and maybe dribbles a bit, she explains.

This is unlike the more typical seizures of epilepsy, associated with loss of consciousness, stiffened muscles and jerky movements.

Epilepsy is an umbrella term; the experience can vary hugely for different people, she says. My main side-effect, the thing which has affected my life the most, is accelerated forgetting.

She is the great niece of James Bond author Ian Fleming and is fronting a new campaign to raise awareness about epilepsy

The difficult thing for me is trying to measure what I have forgotten, because how could I possibly know? Ive forgotten what Ive forgotten!

This last statement is delivered with a giggle. A natural optimist, Hum tackles the issue head on, which is one of the reasons she has teamed up with the charity Young Epilepsy to raise awareness of the true impact of this condition in a new campaign, In The Moment.

Launched this week, it is encouraging those affected, their friends and family to talk about the moment epilepsy changed their lives for ever.

Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which clusters of nerve cells misfire. In most cases, as with Hum, its not clear what causes its onset, but these episodes can leave scars on the brain, with loss of memory one of the most common problems for which people with epilepsy seek help.

It occurs as a result of damage to the temporal lobe of the brain  specifically the hippocampus  where short-term memories are converted into long-term ones.

Hum admits to being relieved when she was finally diagnosed at the age of 15. This came after a battery of tests over two years. By that stage, she was having around three episodes a week. Initially, they were thought to stem from blood pressure, heart issues or panic attacks. Wed reached the point where the words brain tumour were being bandied around, which was pretty terrifying, she says.

Oddly, it was such a relief to have the label of epilepsy rather than endlessly trying to explain I wasnt just some hysterical girl.

Hum readily admits to being fortunate that her family had the resources to seek out the best doctors. She is the great-niece of James Bonds creator Ian Fleming, while her father runs the Fleming & Partners bank, and she counts the likes of Lady Kitty Spencer and fashion darling Millie Mackintosh among her closest friends.

Health, however, is a great leveller, and as a teenager Hum was on a steep learning curve.

She did well in exams because of her short-term memory but admits she can't remember her dissertation

My only understanding of epilepsy at the time  so old-fashioned and uneducated  was that it was someone frothing at the mouth on the ground who couldnt look at flashing lights.

Im afraid thats how an awful lot of people still see it. Actually, while around one in 100 people is epileptic, only 4 per cent of those are photosensitive.

For many of us, its an invisible condition, which brings a different set of challenges.

At her boarding school in Oxfordshire, Hum was open about her condition. Her twin, Chloe, was hugely supportive. Though they are not identical, the sisters are extremely close, and as children they would trick gullible adults into believing they were telepathic by always answering 44 when asked to think of a number.

Thanks to her short-term memory, Hum did well in her exams and went on to study history of art at university. But when I ask about her dissertation, however, I am met with a blank look.

This is what its like for me every day, she says. I couldnt even name any of the artists I studied. Its a good thing Ive gone into fashion PR as its always looking to the next season. For a futurefocused person like me, thats ideal.

This positive attitude can come across as fearlessness, but Hum admits to a certain vulnerability.

Even in normal conversations, I can have this knot of anxiety in my stomach because people are talking about things I should know but Ive forgotten.

I see people I might have known for years but Ive no idea who they are. I even introduced myself to a cousin once.

Oddly enough, Im almost more comfortable socialising with strangers than my oldest friends, because I dont have to pretend to know things which I dont.

Hum has been able to control her condition through medication, though this hasnt always been straightforward. At one point she was prescribed levetiracetam, which reduces the transmission of nerve signals in the brain. The side-effects were alarming.

My mood swings were awful, she says. If I was sad, I was miserable; if I was happy, I was on top of the world. Worst of all, if angry, Id see red in a big way.

I would take the pill and then Id have a witching hour.

Once, I was taking off my boots and asked my boyfriend to help. He said: Sure, then stopped to take off his own shoes first. The next thing I knew, Id ripped my boot off and thrown it at his head.

We both sat there, stunned. I went straight to see my neurologist who changed my medication.

Hum now takes lamotragine, an anticonvulsant, and a benzodiazepine, to help relax muscles and relieve seizures.

Her only side-effects are vivid dreams (Actually rather fun) and a slightly heightened sense of anxiety (Though if you take any drug for long enough, you dont know how much is the pill and how much is your own personality, she shrugs).

When I ask how shed be without the medication, her answer is instant. That would be a terrible idea, and I know that because, without telling my specialist, I very stupidly stopped them and tried CBD oil instead.

Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a chemical compound in cannabis some believe can help with seizures. But this is highly controversial, and Hum says that her decision to ditch tried-and-tested medication was very irresponsible  because a couple of weeks later, she had two episodes within one night.

I woke up with my boyfriend hugging me tightly, and when I saw his face I realised something was wrong. There was blood on the pillow and I had a big bump on my head.

Shed bitten her tongue and banged her head on the bedside table. Without her boyfriends prompt action, she could easily have choked when a second episode swiftly followed.

The following day Hum resumed her medication.

Epilepsy has clearly affected her life, but she feels positive about the future. Hum even believes her condition has its positives.

Having epilepsy, and especially because of the memory loss, I really do find Im living in the moment, she says. I now think: Screw it  Im going to live my life to the absolute fullest. Checking in: Saudi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

New York today hosts the Saudi-US CEO Forum, which will be attended by self-assured JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon and Saudi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

I'm told His Highness, 32, and his bulging entourage have descended en masse upon The Plaza, resulting in all guests being booted over to another hotel.

One wails: 'Even a couple getting married there last weekend were then told they couldn't stay any more.'

The Plaza's owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, 63, whom the Crown Prince recently detained for 83 days during an anti-corruption drive.

Apropos Dimon, his mammoth 19.9million pay packet this year includes a 34,000 payment for 'residential and related security'.

Could that be his bodyguard's salary? Dimon, 62, previously advertised on Linkedin for an 'Executive Protection Specialist'.

Qualifications required: Ten years' experience in law enforcement plus defensive and reactive skills.

Bargain Booze owner Conviviality suspended trading in it shares after revealing a 30million tax bill.

Its dividend has been cancelled, hapless 966,000-a-year chief executive Diana Hunter, 50, has gone.

To cap it all, it's in danger of going bust after issuing its third profit warning in a month. Yet it was nominated for Speciality Retailer of the Year at last week's Retail Week awards. Eh?

Richard Caring's opulently refurbished members' club, Annabel's in Mayfair, is quite the high-roller's playground.

Both former M&S chief Lord Rose, 69, and his rakish successor Marc Bolland, 58, dined there on Friday night.

As did moneybags ex-Credit Suisse boss Russell Chambers, 56. Unlikeliest sighting thus far: Nobby hedge funder Crispin Odey, 59, with one of the Candy brothers. What could they be plotting?

Google's tedious peddling of its cuddly image continues. It plans to install gender neutral lavatories in its 1billion King's Cross offices, which a company source tells Financial News is part of the firm's overall commitment to 'expanding gender neutral facilities'.

Pity Google and its tricksy accountants can't show greater commitment to expanding its tax bill.Stock market investment can seem scary and complicated, particularly if you have only ever used ordinary savings accounts at banks and building societies.

But if you're saving for more than five years, for example for retirement, you'll be missing out on huge returns by keeping your money in cash.

Need convincing? If you had put 15,000 into the average savings account a decade ago, your money would have grown to just 15,478  a return of 3.2 per cent in total.

If you had invested the same amount into the FTSE All Share index, you would have almost doubled your money to 29,713, according to calculations by investing firm Fidelity.

If you had put 15,000 into the average savings account a decade ago, it would have grown to 15,478. The same amount put into the FTSE All Share index would have grown to 29,713

So today, Money Mail's must-read Spring Clean Your Finances series will show you how to master the stock market.

THE SECRET STRATEGY

Most inexperienced investors have three big fears: what if a sudden stock market crash destroys my nest egg? Which shares should I pick? When should I buy and sell?

Do not panic. You can beat all these potential pitfalls with a simple trick. It's used by all the pros and if you follow the rules, you'll not go far wrong.

The secret is this: invest regularly in a range of funds managed by a stock-picker with proven expertise and ignore the ups and downs in the market. Here we explain the method in three simple steps.

STEP 1

Work out how much you have in savings, what you can afford to put aside and how long you're investing for.

If you don't feel you can invest the money for at least five years  or can't face the prospect of being left with less than you started with  investing isn't for you. You'll find heaps of information about less risky savings accounts on the following pages.

The funds you must dump now Tinkering too much with your investments is never a good idea. The experts say you are likely to do more harm than good by chopping and changing your fund selections every year. But keep an eye out for serial under-performers  and be ruthless when the time comes. Investment website Bestinvest publishes an annual list of dog funds that are failing to keep up with their rivals. The largest fund on its list this year is Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity, which controls nearly 1.3 billion of savings and has grown by 5.5 per cent over the past year. The UK-focused funds in its report include Aberdeen UK Equity, which has lost 1.52 per cent of its value over the past year, and Aberdeen UK Equity Income, which is down 6.4 per cent in that time. Among the worst-ranked global funds were Templeton Growth, down 0.52 per cent in a year, which has returned 2.53 per cent over the past 12 months. Generally speaking, experts say you should give fund managers at least three years to prove their mettle against their rivals, as all professional stock-pickers are prone to temporary dips in form.

STEP 2

Next, set up a direct debit for the same amount each month going into a fund supermarket.

Companies such as Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell and Bestinvest let you set up regular investment plans from as little as 25 a month.Each month your money is spread across your chosen funds.

Drip-feeding your investments is better than bunging in a lump-sum every now and then, as it minimises the chance of you making a bad decision. Trying to time the market is almost always a mistake.

Fidelity estimates someone who invested 1,000 in the FTSE All Share 30 years ago but missed the ten top-performing days because of bad investment decisions would now have 7,215.

But if you had just left your money in the stock market the entire time it would have grown to 13,491.

Having a regular plan means you still invest money when the market falls, so you buy more shares when they are cheap and fewer when they are more expensive, which boosts returns long-term.

Tax free allowance to be cut from April 6 From April 6 the amount you can earn tax-free from share dividends will be cut from 5,000 to 2,000. Any income above that will be taxed at 7.5 per cent for basic-rate payers and 32.5 per cent and 38.1 per cent, respectively, for higher- and additional-rate payers. You can avoid the tax by investing up to 20,000 through a stocks and shares Isa, where the income and returns you make are tax-free.

STEP 3

Now you need to work out which funds will receive your hard-earned cash.

Spread your investment across funds which specialise in different countries and assets.

The benefit of this strategy is that if one fund takes a hit, the performance of the others should compensate for it.

It may not always seem like it, but markets typically go up around three-quarters of the time, so if you have money in different markets across the world they are not likely to rise and fall in tandem.

For investors who don't like the idea of swings in the value of their savings, Adrian Lowcock, of advisers Architas, tips the Fidelity Moneybuilder Dividend fund.

It invests in giant UK companies such as HSBC, drugs maker GlaxoSmithKline and insurer Legal & General, and has turned 10,000 into 10,620 in three years. You also get an income of 3.5 per cent a year.

Laith Khalaf, of advisers Hargreaves Lansdown, likes the Trojan Income fund, which has turned 10,000 into 11,720 in three years and pays 4.1 per cent income.

Among its largest investments are Lloyds Bank, BP and Vodafone.

For more adventurous savers, Mr Lowcock likes Chelverton UK Equity Income, which focuses on faster-growing smaller companies such as convenience store group McColl's.

The fund has turned 10,000 into 12,900 in three years and pays out 4.1 per cent.

A high-performing global fund is Lindsell Train Global Equity. It invests in companies in the U.S., UK and Japan including consumer brands such as games giant Nintendo, drinks firm PepsiCo and Toblerone maker Mondelez.

The fund manager, Nick Train, famously likes to buy and hold the companies he invests in for many years. It can be years before he invests in a new stock.

The fund has turned 10,000 into 16,750 in three years.

Another top performer is Fundsmith Equity, run by Terry Smith. The fund seeks out household names which have strong track records but have the potential to keep growing.

Top investments include Paypal and Microsoft and the fund has turned 10,000 into 17,250 in three years.

Savers looking to supercharge their investment returns could consider emerging markets.

Developing economies offer bumper returns, but with the risk of big falls. Typically, you need to invest your cash for ten years.

Mr Lowcock likes the Hermes Emerging Markets fund, which has investments in China, Russia and Taiwan.

The fund has turned 10,000 into 16,500 in three years by backing South Korean electronics giant Samsung and Tencent  owner of Chinese social media app WeChat, which has a valuation of $500 billion.Purplebricks yesterday warned that revenues for the year will be lower than hoped as a German media group bought a 125million stake in the online estate agent.

Shares tumbled 10 per cent, or 31.4p, to 280p after it said turnover was likely to be 5 per cent short of the 98million expected in the City for the year ending April 30.

The warning came as it agreed a deal with Axel Springer that will see the Germans receive shares worth 11.5 per cent of the company.

It means the German firm will become the fourth biggest shareholder after fund manager Neil Woodford, chief executive Michael Bruce, who owns 13.7 per cent of the company, and Old Mutual.

Shares in online estate agency Purplebricks tumbled 10%, or 31.4p, to 280p after it said turnover was likely to be 5% short of the 98m expected in the City for the year ending April 30

Purplebricks, which charges fixed fees instead of the traditional percentage of the sale price, plans to use the cash to boost its technology and to grab more share of the American market.

Axel Springer is worth an estimated 6.1billion and is the owner of the German national newspapers Die Welt and Bild.

Bruce said yesterday: 'The strategic partnership with Axel Springer is ground breaking and will propel Purplebricks further towards our strategic goals and global ambition.

'We now have the platform, funding and, through Axel Springer's experience, as well as the appointment of four new leading non-executive directors, the expertise to achieve our vision.'

The online agent's shares have fallen more than 41 per cent in the past two months as analysts have questioned its sales figures.

Stock Watch - Instem A contract win sent shares in science IT company Instem soaring yesterday. The AIM-listed business said that a top five pre-clinical research organisation has signed a contract extension to use its Send platform, which allows a more efficient review of information. The contract is worth more than 350,000. Twenty-five firms wanted to sign up to the platform in the two months to February 28. Shares rocketed 19.4 per cent, or 36.5p, to 225p.

Last month, Anthony Codling at Jefferies claimed just half the homes listed in November 2016 were sold within ten months. The firm claimed the real figure was closer to 88 per cent.

The FTSE 100 ended the day down 0.48 per cent, or 33.25 points, at 6888.69, while the FTSE 250 was off 0.69 per cent, or 132.39 points, at 19187.09.

An 88million deal to buy record management firm TNT Business Solutions boosted Restore's shares.

Restore, the AIM-listed business relocation and document management specialists, plans to fund 51.5million of the deal by placing 10.1m of new shares with institutional investors.

The rest will be funded by Restore's debt facilities at its banks.

The deal to buy TNT, which is owned by US courier service Fed Ex Corporation and employs 250 staff, should complete by May.

Restore's shares spiked by 7.4 per cent or 35p to 507p.

Antibody manufacturer Bioventix increased its interim dividend by 20 per cent to 25p a share.

In its six-month results for the period ending December 31, the biomedicine firm reported a 36 per cent increase in profits and a 13 per cent increase in revenue. Shares jumped 19.2 per cent, or 395p, to 2450p.

A decent set of results pushed up the share price of market research agency You Gov. Revenue was up 10 per cent in the six months ending January 31, while pre-tax profits shot up 78 per cent.

Broker Numis has given the firm an 'add' rating and says You Gov's interim results were 'very strong'.

Shares yesterday hopped 4.1 per cent, or 15p, to 380p.

Shares in miner Bushveld Minerals dived after it tapped investors for extra cash. The AIM-listed producer of the metal vanadium raised around $22.2million (15.7million) to increase production and pay off its debts.

Shares dived 6.3 per cent, or 0.82p, to 12.3p.

On the small cap index, embattled High Street retailers Carpetright and Mothercare were crying for mercy after yet another fall in their share prices.

Carpetright was down 6 per cent, or 2.4p, to 37.5p while Mothercare was down 2.9 per cent, or 0.5p, to 17p. It means they are down 78.3 per cent and 75 per cent, respectively, since the start of the year.

Only last week, Carpetright said it was looking to close stores as part of a turnaround plan.A man with a loaded handgun, wearing a bullet proof vest and carrying a bag of SWAT equipment authorities believe was stolen from New York City police has been arrested at Chicago's busiest train station.

Chicago police say 21-year-old Isaiah Malailua was arrested Friday morning at Union Station ticket counter and charged with unlawful use of a weapon for wearing body armor.

Cook County Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke set bail at $100,000 and ordered Malailua, from Redding, California, to remain in the Chicago area.

Isaiah Malailua, 21, of Redding, California, was arrested at Chicago's Union Station Friday morning

A police dog smelled explosive residue on the young man's duffel bag, which was found holding stolen NYPD body armor. Above, a view of Chicago's Union Station

Lyke says: 'This is troubling, to say the least, in light of what's happening in our country.'

Malailua was arrested around 9:30am, after Amtrak police dogs sniffed explosive residue in an unattended bag, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Officers found materials with NYPD SWAT patches inside and a bus ticket for Malailua. He was traveling through Chicagom but police have not said where he was headed. Illinois state law bans anyone possessing body armor if they don't have a state firearm owner's ID card.

At the time, Malailua was wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying a loaded Taurus brand 9mm pistol. Prosecutors say he doesn't legally own the gun.

In a statement to ABC 7 on Sunday, the NYPD said they 'are aware of the incident and are working with authorities in Chicago'.

Malailua's next court appearance is on Friday.

Public records show he has a criminal history in Florida.

This is the second time in a little more than a month that a man was arrested in Chicago while wearing bullet-proof armor.

on February 13, Shomari Legghette-a, a four-time felon, was arrested after he used a pistol to shoot and kill CPD Commander Paul Bauer inside a stairwell at the Illinois Thompson Center.

No shots were fired in Malailua's arrest on Friday.Two West Virginia firefighters were killed and three others were injured when a volunteer fire department's truck crashed on the way to a fatal highway accident.

Members of the Pratt Volunteer Fire Department were en route to the wreck on the West Virginia Turnpike when their truck veered into a ditch, hitting a rock wall.

The firefighters were on their way to a crash scene on the West Virginia Turnpike (pictured) where three people were killed

Assistant fire chief Michael Edwards, 46, and Lt. Thomas Craigo, 40, were killed in the crash in Kanhawa County, said Pratt Deputy Fire Chief Rod Johnson.

Edwards had been a firefighter for 25 years, while Craigo had been with the department for about 15 years.

Both men were recently married and reportedly had children. Edwards' wedding took place just a week earlier, said Johnson.

Chief Timmy Walker is in a critical condition and firefighter Billy Hypes is in a stable condition. Firefighter Kyle Jenkins was treated and released.

Meanwhile, three people were reportedly killed in the accident the firefighters were attempting to reach Saturday night.

A car driven by Beatrice Patrick, 77, of Salyersville, Kentucky, was going the wrong way in the southbound lanes, said state police spokesman Capt. Reggie Patterson.

It struck another car head-on, sending it off the road into a disabled box truck.

Patterson said the driver of the second car, James W. Platte, 49, of Westphalia, Michigan, and his wife, Tonya Platte, 38, were killed.

Box truck driver Jordan Napoleon, 40, of Greer, South Carolina, was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Survivors were being treated at Charleston Area Medical Center.

'This is a tragic event and believed to be the worst accident involving our volunteer fire service has ever suffered,' Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said in a written statement.

Survivors were being treated at Charleston Area Medical Center (pictured)

County Commission President Kent Carper said in a written statement: 'Our thoughts and prayers are with all those involved in these accidents this evening and their families.

'This is a tragic event and believed to be the worst accident involving our volunteer fire service has ever suffered.'

West Virginia State police were investigating both crashes.Overseas migration was the biggest booster to New South Wales's rising population as price of land in Sydney doubles in five years as the city struggles to cope with the demand.

A total of 98,782 migrants contributed to the 123,105 increase in NSW's population growth, the highest level of annual overseas arrivals on record, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures have revealed.

Meanwhile, prices of land and housing are rising in Sydney 'faster and higher than any other Australian city' with Sydney needing 'a dramatic increase in affordable land supply,' an Urban Development Institute of Australia State of the Land Report said.

Overseas migration was the biggest booster to NSW's population with 98,782 migrants contributing to the 123,105 increase in state population growth in the year to last September

The population gains have pushed the state's rising population well above the projected 85,000 annual increase.

A record 38,700 new homes were built in Sydney to help meet the housing demand but it fell short of the 41,250 needed, according to the UDIA report.

Similarly, the NSW Department of Planning and Environment estimated 725,000 additional dwellings would be needed by 2036, but estimated an undersupply of 100,000.

According to one property developer, Rick Graf director of Billbergia Group, the building industry does not have the capacity to meet the demand and developers are building less housing.

'The dramatic slowdown in major project approvals in 2016 and 2017 will prevent these building levels being achieved in coming years,' Mr Graf told the Daily Telegraph.

Greenfield sites - areas of agricultural or amenity land considered for urban development - have only been slowly released, the UDIA claims.

The result is that land prices have doubled in just five years.

Sydney's median land price hit $1202 per sqm in 2017, up from $580 in 2012; substantially higher than prices across other major Australian cities.

Sydney's median land price hit $1202 per sqm in 2017, up from $580 in 2012, substantially higher than prices across other major Australian cities

Sydney's median land price was more than $450,000.

It has been projected that an additional 1.74 million people will be living in Greater Sydney by 2036, a Greater Sydney Commission Planning Review found.

Overseas migration will be a key driver of population growth, with more than a quarter of people in New South Wales born overseas, the NSW 2016 Intergenerational Report found.

However, the report found that the rise in relative housing prices 'is expected to gradually abate, as the strong housing construction outlook translates into increased housing supply, and reduces the current imbalance between supply and underlying demand.'Malcolm Turnbull has lost his 29th consecutive Newspoll, as Labor's primary vote climbs to its highest level since Tony Abbott was rolled as prime minister.

The latest Newspoll of 1597 voters, published in The Australian on Monday, shows the Turnbull Government trailing Labor 47 to 53 per cent after preferences.

Turnbull is now just one bad Newspoll away from the 30 benchmark he set for his predecessor when he challenged him in September 2015.

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Malcolm Turnbull has lost his 29th consecutive Newspoll, as Labor's primary vote climbs to its highest level since Tony Abbott was rolled as prime minister

Turnbull is now just one bad Newspoll away from the 30 benchmark he set for his predecessor when he challenged him in September 2015 (pictured)

'The one thing that is clear about our current situation is the trajectory. We have lost 30 Newspolls in a row. It is clear that the people have made up their mind about Mr Abbott's leadership,' he said in 2015 at a Canberra media conference.

In more bad news for the prime minister, Labor's primary vote has climbed to 39 per cent, which is the Opposition's highest level of support since Tony Abbott was knifed as Liberal PM in September 2015.

This was despite Labor introducing a controversial superannuation policy which proposed to strip retirees of tax credits from their share dividends.

The Coalition government by comparison would win just 37 per cent of first-preference votes if an election were held now, which would be an all-time low for the conservative side of politics since the Liberal Party was founded in 1944.

While both major party leaders were unpopular with voters, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten had a higher satisfaction rating than Malcolm Turnbull, overrating him 34 per cent to 32 per cent.

However, Turnbull was the preferred PM, 39 per cent to 36 per cent.

The primary votes for the Greens and One Nation were unchanged at nine per cent and seven per cent, respectively.

Labor's primary vote has climbed to 39 per cent, which is the Opposition's highest level of support since Tony Abbott was knifed as Liberal PM in September 2015

When asked about the significance of the coalition's 29th consecutive Newspoll loss, Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said other factors played a part in the toppling of Mr Abbott.

'Sure, Malcolm did mention back in 2015, Newspoll. But there are a number of other things that he did mention at that time as a reason for change,' the minister told ABC TV on Sunday night.

Liberal Party sources have told The Australian Financial Review Tony Abbott said was positioning himself to return to the Liberal leadership in opposition.

'All his actions indicate that's what he would like to do,' a party official from New South Wales said.An Australian daredevil has been captured on video catapulting 20 metres down a waterfall - in a kayak.

Lachie Carracher, 29, took the plunge down the fast-flowing Dangar Falls in northern New South Wales after much weather-based preparation.

As the feat could only be completed when rainfall in the region hit its peak, recent wet weather conditions in the region meant the time was right for a paddle.

Daredevil Lachie Carracher, 29, took the 20 metre plunge down the fast-flowing Dangar Falls in northern New South Wales

He is believed to be the first person to take on the waterfall while in a kayak

Despite briefly capsizing, another kayaker soon came to his aid and Lachie surfaced, much to the excitement of onlookers

When he's not cascading down waterfalls the daredevil is a professional photographer and seasoned traveller.

Recently, he travelled the length of the River Ganges in India and documented the diverse landscape the river runs through.

From April 6 the photographs will be on exhibition in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood with proceeds going to building a water health centre in western India.

In the kayaking footage, Melbourne-based Lachie is shown edging towards the falls' in his blue craft before plummeting off its edge.

When he's not cascading down waterfalls Lachie (pictured) is also a professional photographer

After a high-speed ride down the cascade he hits the water, kayak-first before plunging beneath the surface.

As Lachie, an accomplished kayaker, remained capsized for several seconds after the descent those behind the camera seem unsure whether the dive was a success.

Soon after a fellow kayaker in a yellow craft flips Lachie's boat much to his, and his friend's elation.

Despite being the site of a German tourist's drowning death in 2012, Dangar Falls has long been a spot popular spot for people to jump off into the water below.

However it is thought Lachie is the first person to take on the waterfall in a kayak.EXCLUSIVE: Sabina Nessa, 28, had arranged to go on a first date at The Depot bar in Pegler Square, Kidbrooke Village, south-east London, last Friday night but she never made it. She was attacked in a park at around 8.30pm, and her body found on Saturday near the OneSpace community centre hidden under a pile of leaves. Reports have suggested her attacker was a stranger. No one reported her missing after she failed to make the rendez-vous, said police. A friend told MailOnline: 'Sabina was going on a date on Friday night when she left her flat. It was a first date. She was going to meet this guy in the local pub, The Depot.' The friend added: 'I don't know whether they knew each other before or they had met online but I know it was a first date.' The revelation comes as Detective Chief Superintendent Trevor Lawry says police are concerned the killer could strike again as investigations into her murder continue, but said there was nothing to suggest it would happen.The former husband of cruise ship victim Dianne Brimble says a federal government inquiry into her death 15 years ago was a waste of taxpayers' money.

Mark Brimble says it is disheartening that none of the recommendations from the inquiry into the death of his ex-wife, who was drugged by a group of men, had been enacted.

'Nothing has changed - it's probably the most disheartening fact about it,' Mr Brimble told Adelaide Advertiser.

The former husband of cruise ship victim Dianne Brimble (pictured) says a federal government inquiry into her death 15 years ago was a waste of taxpayers' money

The ex-husband of Dianne Brimble, Mark Brimble (pictured), says an inquiry to her death was pointless

'Not one of the main recommendations of the inquiry has ever been implemented. We spent thousands of taxpayers' money on a federal inquiry that came to nothing.'

Out of 11 recommendations put forward in June 2013 by the Troubled Waters report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee to help prevent a repeat of the tragedy in the future, on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, not one has been upheld.

The included suggesting the government increase efforts to achieve greater passenger safety by introducing CCTV cameras and monitoring, an alcohol responsibility code and alarm systems to alert guests to a 'man-overboard' as well as a number of protocol reviews.

By June 2015 just two minor recommendations had been agreed on - one which was not 'binding'.

Dianne Brimble pictured waving on the Pacific Sky before her tragic death

Another three remained by for debate in 2016 before two of them were rejected and one was agreed on in principal.

That recommendation is currently being finalised and due to be implemented in the next few months, where a voluntary initiative will see cruise ship operators departing Australia to give safety information to passengers outlining specific procedures.

In February a cruise ship was forced to turn back to Sydney after a brawl erupted after a girl allegedly 'hit a guy over the head with a bottle of wine'.

A 30 minute brawl on the P&O Explorer kicked off about 1am involving at least 15 passengers, according to witnesses.

Those involved were detained in on-board cells, while the boat turned around and headed back to Sydney.

Mark Wilhem, Matthew Slade, Dragan Losic, Petar Pantic, Ryan Kuchel, Letterio Silvestri, Luigi Vitale and Charlie Kambouris (pictured) were named as 'the persons of interest' at the inquest at Glebe Coroners Court into the death of Brisbane mother Dianne Brimble

Mr Brimble said from allocating taxpayer funds for the investigation into her death had been pointless.

He feels insulted and devastated by the lack of action after campaigning to make cruises safer following his former wife's death in 2002.

'From an advocacy point of view I am fearful that this industry is going to become so large and the Government is going to be so dependent on it will be very difficult to make an objective decision.'

Crusie lines such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean who operate in Australia said the advice had been considered and implemented outside of the inquiry.

Out of 11 recommendations made in June 2013, not one has been upheld although cruise lines say the advice had been considered and implemented outside of the inquiry

But Mr Brimble says that's not enough and Diane's death was in vain.

'I wanted to make sure there was a legacy after what we went through. At the moment it is an unfortunate legacy ... a woman died on board a cruise ship in appalling circumstances and the family was treated so badly yet nothing has changed. Why is that?'

'I think there are solutions but I think the Australian Government and the cruise line industry have fallen very, very short, far short. In fact I don't think they have even started to implement anything.'

The coroner found Ms Brimble had been 'was unknowingly drugged (with GHB or Fantasy) by unscrupulous individuals who were intent on denigrating her for their own gratification'.

In a statement Carnival Australia told Daily Mail Australia the lessons learned following Ms Brimble's death are at the forefront of their priorities.

In February a cruise ship was forced to turn back to Sydney after a brawl erupted after a girl allegedly 'hit a guy over the head with a bottle of wine'

'The tragic death of Dianne Brimble and its aftermath were a wake-up call for cruising and the catalyst for sweeping changes in which the product has been transformed across the board and has achieved strong support from the community as cruise holidays have become an integral part of Australia's tourism sector and economy.'

The spokesperson said a number of measures have been implemented since 2002 to ensure a safe and secure on-board environment.

Some of these initiatives include a zero tolerance to excessive behaviour, CCTV cameras and monitoring, updates to processes and protocol, strict alcohol policies and the introduction of Care representatives.

'The transformation to restore the reputation of cruising can be traced directly to our response to Mrs Brimbles death. The growth of cruising in recent years is testament to the communitys confidence that the lessons were learned and that the response is deeply embedded in the fabric of cruising and the holiday product we offer.'There is a 'rising tide' of drug abuse in schools as tranquillisers and 'new psychoactive substances' become more readily available, the head of a leading private school has warned.

Andrew Halls, head of King's College School in Wimbledon, South-West London, says substances such as Xanax, a highly addictive tranquilliser, have become cheaper than tobacco and easier to get hold of than alcohol.

In a strongly worded letter to parents he revealed a number of his pupils have asked teachers to help break a 'dangerous habit'.

Mr Halls said that in more than one case they have had to deal with children 'so affected by the impact of drugs on their lives that remaining had become impossible for them'.

King's pupils are given drugs tests if suspected of taking substances and offered counselling if they test positive. If they fail subsequent tests, they could be expelled.

Andrew Halls, head of King's College School in Wimbledon, South-West London, says substances such as Xanax, a highly addictive tranquilliser, have become cheaper than tobacco and easier to get hold of than alcohol

It is not the first time Mr Halls has raised concerns about drug-taking in schools.

At a meeting of head teachers earlier this month, he said that 'every single head around the table felt that drug abuse by young people was a central concern for schools and parents'.

He was joined by Helen Pike, master of Magdalen College School, Oxford, who promised to send parents a letter warning of the risks of Modafinil, a 'smart drug' taken to improve alertness during exams.

Figures show a sharp rise in numbers of children admitting to taking drugs, with 37 per cent of 15-year-olds saying they had over the previous 12 months in 2016  compared with 24 per cent in 2015.

Xanax, used to treat anxiety disorders, has become a particular concern among youth workers after it was reported this month that children were able to buy the pills illegally via dealers on Facebook and Instagram for as little as 89p.

Drugs charity Addaction warned children as young as 13 were buying them online. Neil Coles of the charity said: 'There's a lot of use in grammar schools, a lot in those high-pressure environments.'

King's College School (pictured) pupils are given drugs tests if suspected of taking substances and offered counselling if they test positive. If they fail subsequent tests, they could be expelled

Schools have a statutory duty to protect pupils' well-being and help prevent drug abuse.

According to the Government's Drug Strategy 2010, this could include consulting local health partners, getting parents involved and reporting incidents to the police.

In guidance developed by the Department for Education and the Association of Chief Police Officers, concerns were also raised about the rise of so-called 'new psychoactive substances' which are not necessarily illegal but designed to mimic the effects of banned drugs.

It is recommended schools record incidents involving these substances in the same way as illegal ones.

King's College School, where fees can reach 20,000 a year, is part of the Eton Group of 12 independent schools which includes Eton College.Davidson, 37, a father-of-four and a 15-year veteran of the FDNY, died on Thursday

The Fire Department of New York lined the streets during the wake for a fallen hero and colleague who died tackling a blaze on a movie set.

Michael Davidson, 37, died in the line of duty on Thursday after suffering critical injuries as he battled a fire that broke out on the Harlem set of a film starring Edward Norton and Bruce Willis.

His life was celebrated during a wake in Floral Park, New York, on Sunday afternoon.

His wife Eileen and colleagues were spotted lining the streets in honor of the fallen firefighter.

Another wake is planned for Monday and his funeral is scheduled on Tuesday at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown.

Colleagues have been sharing pictures of the 15-year veteran firefighter and the family he leaves behind: Eileen, and their four children; Brooke, seven; Joseph, six; Emily, three; and Amy, one.

Davidson's wife, Eileen, was pictured attending the fallen firefighters wake on Sunday in Floral Park, New York

Firefighters lined the street to celebrate the Davidson who served worked with them for 15 years. Davidson died on Thursday after he fought on Edward Norton's film set in Harlem

Another wake for the fallen hero is scheduled for Monday and his funeral will take place on Tuesday at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown

Davidson's colleagues mourned and celebrated his life on Instagram after he died from his injuries on Thursday

Alongside the pictures posted to Instagram, those who worked with Davidson told of the men who they knew as a leader who was always the first to run into a dangerous situation while holding a nozzle to try to save lives.

'Mike was on the Lieutenant list and he would have made a terrific Lieutenant. He could take charge, he could take direction, he had all the qualities that would make a good officer,' said Captain Robert Allen, a 34-year veteran of the FDNY who served with Davidson at Engine Company 69.

Davidson has been posthumously promoted to Lieutenant.

Allen also worked with Davidson's father Bobby and met him as a young boy already hanging out at the fire station.

Firefighting was the family business, with Bobby serving 26 years mostly at the same station as his son, and Davidson's brother Eric being an 11-year veteran at Engine Company 88 in the Bronx.

Davidson has been posthumously promoted to Lieutenant. Pictured is his wife, Eileen, attending his wake on Sunday afternoon

The hero firefighter is survived by his wife wife Eileen, and their four children; Brooke, seven; Joseph, six; Emily, three; and Amy, one (not pictured)

Davidson's colleagues have taken to social media to honor the man they knew as a leader

'It was nice to watch a friend's son following in his father's footsteps,' Allan added.

Lt Ray McCormack, on his part, spoke of Davidson as a man who never stopped until getting the job done. He recalled a difficult three-alarm fire in 2005 in which Davidson continued to fight the fire even after sustaining burn injuries to both hands.

The team's bravery during that fire were awarded a citation for their heroic actions, but to McCormack, the credit that day was all Davidson's.

He said: 'What [Davidson] was able to do that night was amazing. He made the rest of us look great, we all got his credit that night because he did such a good job.

'He didn't stop. Where some people might back up and start again, Mike didn't stop. There was no stopping him. Room after room of fire, where some may stop and back up and try again, he just kept going.'

Actor Edward Norton, who was on the scene of the fire, has also honored Davidson and vowed to support his family.

'Mike didn't stop. There was no stopping him. Room after room of fire, where some may stop and back up and try again, he just kept going,' said Lt Ray McCormack

One of Davidson's fellow firefighters recalled watching him grow up at the fire station where his father Bobby worked for 25 years - the same station Davidson would go on to work at

Davidson, who had been previously honored with citations for heroic actions, has been posthumously promoted to Lieutenant

Actor Edward Norton, who was on scene at the fire, has also honored the firefighter

'I have never witnessed firsthand that kind of bravery. I'm in awe of that kind of selfless courage. It's devastating to contemplate that one of the men we watched charging in there lost his life. Please send a prayer of thanks for the spirit and courage of Michael Davidson,' he wrote on Instagram on Saturday.

While the actor first vowed to establish a way to support Davidson's family through this difficult time, he later learned the NYPD Foundation has already set up a scholarship fund for the hero's four children.

Norton also fact-checked some reports that the fire started in the set of his movie, saying it 'actually appears to have started in the basement cellar of the building we were working in.

Norton vowed to help Davidson's family through the difficult time in any way he can and asked his followers to donate to his children's education fund, set up by the FDNY

The actor also clarified that, despite reports, he wasn't the first to spot the fire and alert others

He also clarified that, despite reports, he was not the one who smelled smoke and raised the alarm about the fire. He said he was actually outside of the building setting up a shot at the time and it was an assistant director who first realized something was wrong.

'I cannot praise the professionalism of our crew highly enough. Had our team not noticed the situation and responded and alerted the fire department with the speed they did, I believe the residents of the building above would have perished,' he added.

You can donate to Davidson's family by visiting www.fdnyfoundation.org/donate/ and selecting 'Firefighter Michael Davidson's Children's Educational Fund' from the drop-down menu.Popular monikers of yesteryear have resurfaced in a list of baby names that don't even scrape the top 1,000 anymore.

You might well understand why new parents are reluctant to bestow names such as Waldo on a son, but a century ago it was all the rage.

The '100 great lost names from 100 years ago' comprises male and female names such as Effie, Ferdinand and Rufus that were extremely popular in 1918.

The list of 1918's most popular names for girls has revealed Effie as a favourite for young females, with Rufus making the cut for boys

Compiled by Nameberry, it offers a selection guaranteed to make a strong first impression when introducing little Lulus and Lowells - the full list for both sexes is below.

But they were all too common a century ago, when names such as Claude and Ned nudged their way into the 500 most popular in the country.

The definitive year in British history also saw women older than 30 given the right to vote.

The year that the First World War armistice was signed was a time in which the most popular names in England And Wales were a far cry from the most popular in 2016, when Olivia, Amelia and Harry topped the list.

The BabyCentre website has also listed the most unpopular names for newborns, which includes Dermot, Coleen and Ainsley.

For those who prefer an alternative to gender-specific names, the names Quincy, Winter, Ellis and Remi are on the rise.

While now popular names include Amelia and Harry, gender neutral names such as Quincy are now on the riseA senior Cabinet member yesterday backed the 'integrity' of a No 10 aide accused of outing a former lover as gay in a Brexit funding row.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt declared his support for Theresa May's political secretary Stephen Parkinson, who was a key member in the Vote Leave campaign before the EU referendum.

Whistleblower Shahmir Sanni, who also worked on the campaign, claimed at the weekend that Vote Leave broke election rules by using another organisation to get around strict spending limits.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) declared his support for Theresa May's political secretary Stephen Parkinson

As part of his response to the allegations, Mr Parkinson revealed that he had been in a relationship with Mr Sanni. Mr Sanni's lawyers then claimed this was the first time he had been outed as gay.

But Mr Hunt defended Mr Parkinson yesterday, saying on ITV's Peston on Sunday that he was 'someone of the highest integrity  there are two sides to these stories'.

Boris Johnson, a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign, tweeted to say stories about the funding row in The Observer and on Channel 4 News based on Mr Sanni's testimony were 'utterly ludicrous'.

Tory MP Heidi Allen told Peston on Sunday: 'The whole thing feels pretty filthy and when you mix personal relationships and work it can get messy, as it has done here.'

She added: 'You need to separate the gossip and the discrediting from what actually happened.'

Whistleblower Shahmir Sanni (left) claimed Vote Leave broke election rules by using another organisation to get around strict spending limits. As part of his response to the allegations, Mr Parkinson (right) revealed that he had been in a relationship with Mr Sanni

The claims centre around Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign in the 2016 referendum, which is accused of bending the rules on election expenses.

It donated 625,000 to a smaller youth-focused group called BeLeave in the final days of the campaign. While this was legal, it would have been against the rules to tell BeLeave how to spend the money.

Mr Sanni claimed Vote Leave did exactly that  ordering the group to spend it on digital advertising with the Canadian firm AggregateIQ.

Vote Leave has denied the allegation, saying its donation was within the rules.

Mr Sanni claimed through his lawyers that he was 'outed' by Mr Parkinson in the run-up to the Channel 4 disclosure.

But the No 10 adviser said: 'I cannot see how our relationship, which was ongoing at the time of the referendum and which is a material fact in the allegations, could have remained private once Shahmir decided to publicise his false claims.'Multi-millionaire Justin Hemmes is suing his long-time lawyer after his landlord tried to evict him from the Coogee Pavilion for paying his monthly rent two days late.

Mr Hemmes claims Lands Legal made the terms of the sale more favourable to the landlord, David Kingston, allowing the merchant banker to issue an eviction notice to the pub baron in 2015, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Lands Legal, which is run by the pub baron's attorney Andrew Wennerbom, represented both Mr Hemmes and Mr Kingston in the sale of what was then known as the dilapidated Beach Palace Hotel for $37 million.

Sydney multi-millionaire Justin Hemmes (pictured with his partner Kate Fowler) is suing his long-time lawyer after his landlord tried to evict him from Coogee Pavilion for paying his monthly rent two days late

Lands Legal, which is run by the pub baron's attorney Andrew Wennerbom, represented both Mr Hemmes and Mr Kingston in the sale of what was then known as the dilapidated Beach Palace Hotel for $37 million (pictured if the Coogee Pavilion)

Mr Kingston urged for a 'put and call option' and Mr Hemmes paid a $5 million deposit and agreed to pay $1.5 million in rent annually  the interest on the remaining $32 million.

But when Mr Hemmes' rent was not deposited into Mr Kingston's account on January 3, 2015  a Saturday  the merchant banker issues him with a termination notice.

The rent was paid on the following Monday, but Mr Kingston lost $85 worth of interest because of the two day delay, according to the publication.

Mr Kingston also claimed he had not approved the Coogee Pavilion's $12 million makeover.

Mr Hemmes, who owns several prominent bars and restaurants across Sydney, took an injunction or stop the eviction and eventually bought the building in July 2015.

The pub baron paid Lands Legal $1.2 million in legal fees for himself and Mr Kingston's $600,000 bill.

Mr Hemmes (pictured with his partner Kate Fowler) claims gaps in the terms of the sale allowed Mr Kingston to take back ownership of the pavilion and keep his hefty deposit

He is now suing Lands Legal for $1.8 million to cover those costs.

Mr Hemmes claims gaps in the terms of the sale allowed Mr Kingston to take back ownership of the pavilion and keep his hefty deposit.

Mr Kingston was able to 'terminate the transaction and thus have the benefit of any deposit paid and improvements to the property for late payment of renthowever slight or modest,' Mr Hemmes said in a statement of claim, according to the publication.

Mr Wennerbom denies the claims of negligence to the Sydney Morning Herald and said Mr Hemmes knew he had to pay his rent on the specific day.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Wennerbom for comment.An elderly Queensland woman has been banned from ever owning another pet after more than a decade of prolific animal abuse.

Valerie Hicks, 70, was this time facing 11 counts of failing to fulfill her duty of care toward the animals at her home but the charges were dropped when she agreed to a lifetime ban on pet ownership.

The RSPCA told News Mail that the out-of-court decision would hopefully act as a more effective deterrent than further criminal charges and would 'protect animals into the future.'

Valerie Hick, 70, has been banned from ever owning another pet after almost a decade of rampant neglect against animals

Charges stretch back to 2008 when Hicks pleaded guilty to 83 charges and was in with a $7,500 fine

A 2015 discovery at a home in New England led to 43 cats being put down

It comes after a string of similar past charges in both New South Wales and Queensland.

In 2008, Hicks pleaded guilty to 83 charges of breaching her duty of care towards the animals kept in her home.

At the time she lived in filth with 19 cats and 64 dogs at a property near Rockhampton and was subsequently served with a three-year ban from owning pets.

She was also given a $7,500 fine.

Just last January, the pensioner was again slapped with animal neglect charges and pleaded guilty to 19 counts of animal cruelty.

She was hit with almost $20,000 worth of fines, sentenced to a month in jail, and not allowed to own another dog for five years.

Those charges stemmed from a 2015 discovery at a home in the New England region of New South Wales where the stench was so bad RSPCA staff required breathing apparatuses on entry.

The property contained 31 dogs and over 40 cats and was said to be rampant with both rubbish and faeces.

At the time RSPCA Inspector Alistair Hills said HAZMAT teams were called to see if the home was even safe to enter

'(There was) a very high build up of faeces basically everywhere, so over the floor, over all of the benches basically through every single room, on every surface,' Inspector Hills told the ABC at the time

Due to the odious conditions found inside, Inspector Alistair Hills from the RSPCA said the HAZMAT unit was required to asses the safety of the home as the air was apparently 'unbreathable'.

'(There was) a very high build up of faeces basically everywhere, so over the floor, over all of the benches basically through every single room, on every surface,' Inspector Hills told the ABC.

'Because of the large ammonia build up in the house we did have to get HAZMAT to come in.'

Following the removal of the animals, all 43 cats had to be euthanised due to 'severe psychological damage' in what local RSPCA called the worst case they'd ever seen.

Local RSPCA workers said conditions to the home were among the worst they had ever seenTrumps $1.3million federal spending bill signed Friday has made it illegal for restaurant employers to skim tips.

The 2,232-page bill included a section that bans employers from taking a cut of their employees' tip money, allowing workers to keep the extra cash for themselves.

The victory for restaurant servers followers a Department of Labor proposal last year that authorized restaurants to pocket a portion of tip money given to employees, as long as workers received the full federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

On Friday President Donald Trump signed a $1.3trillion federal spending bill that bans restaurant employers from skimming their workers' tips

Although Trump announced he opposed the bill on many counts, the spending plan was a victory for restaurant workers, allowing tip money to be split evenly among all employees

Workers rights groups protested that proposal, saying it would lower the pay of restaurant servers across the nation.

The Labor Department received a flood of 218,000 negative comments on the tip skimming proposal, according to CNN Money .

This week's federal spending bill not only allows employees to keep their tip money, it also allows the money to be split evenly among all restaurant workers including kitchen workers, dish washers, cooks and bussers.

Employers who pay their workers full minimum wage are allowed to pool their employees' tip money in the new bill to evenly distribute the cash that often ends up in servers' pockets alone.

'We beat them,' Saru Jayaraman, president of the nonprofit Restaurant Opportunities Center said.

'I think they realized how outrageous what they were proposing sounded to the public, and basically they backed down.

The National Restaurant Association said that the organization never endorsed employers to skim tips.

The bill allows employers to pool the tip money and evenly distribute it, allowing kitchen workers, bussers, and dish cleaners to earn more than they typically would when servers were allowed to keep tips

Trump shared on Twitter that he opposed the massive spending bill but still signed it as a matter of national security, even though it benefited restaurant workers

A senior VP at the organization Angelo Amador said that most employers would not skim tips even if they were legally allowed to.

'A decision by a restaurant to retain some or all of the customer tips rather than distributing them to the hourly staff would be unpopular with employees and guests alike, and it could severely damage the public's perception of the restaurant,' Amador commented on the tips skimming rule.

However, the Economic Policy Institute reports that employers do skim their employees tips, even when its forbidden.

'We want to ensure that servers, bussers, dishwashers, cooks, and others who work as a team to provide great customer service in the industry have access to share in tips left by customers, as this legislation clearly allows,' Amador said to CNN Money.

'We enthusiastically support this compromise,' Judy Conti, the director of federal affairs at the National Employment Law project said on the new wage-equality practice.

The President signed the lengthy bill on Friday, but only as a matter of national security, as he wanted the military funding but disagreed with other budgets detailed in the bill.

In a press conference and on Twitter he announced he would never again sign such a bill.The first ever winner of the Eurovision song contest, Lys Assia, has died aged 94.

The Swiss-born songstress triumphed at the inaugural edition of the competition with winning song Refrain in her home country in 1956.

Assia - who turned 94 on March 3 - died on Saturday at Zurichs Zollikerberg Hospital, organisers of the contest said.

Lys Assia has died (Daily Sketch/REX/Shutterstock)

They offered their deepest condolences to Assias friends and family and said they will be paying tribute to her life and her lasting commitment to Eurovision.

As well as her 1956 triumph, Assia also represented Switzerland in 1957 and in 1958 she finished second with Giorgio.

Born in Rupperswil in northern Switzerland in 1924, Assia started her career as a dancer before her lifelong connection with Eurovision.

She was a guest of honour at the contest in 1985 while in 2005 she performed Congratulations to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Remarkably, at the age of 87, she decided it was time to return as a contestant and unsuccessfully attempted to represent Switzerland in 2012 and 2013.A former FBI agent has reacted to an op-ed written by recently-fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe who spoke about his ousting last week.

McCabe penned the op-ed entitled 'Not in my worst nightmares did I dream my FBI career would end this way'. It was published in The Washington Post on Friday.

Robyn Gritz, who served 16 years working in the counterterrorism division of the FBI, told Fox & Friends that it was about time McCabe got axed from the agency after he allegedly mistreated her.

'I went through hell for a year and a half. Andy [McCabe] made sure I couldn't get out of the division,' Gritz said.

Scroll down for video

Former FBI agent, Robyn Gritz (pictured), has claimed recently-fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, 'slandered' her after she filed a harassment complaint against another employee

Gritz (right), who served 16 years working in the counterterrorism division of the FBI, told Fox & Friends that it was about time McCabe got axed from the agency after he allegedly mistreated her

'I was selected for certain jobs and he actually slandered me, went into the meeting at headquarters and said really nasty, false things about me. Lying, which is why he just got fired,' Gritz told the station.

Gritz, who ended up resigning after the incident, said she celebrated when news of McCabe's firing broke.

'I screamed when I found out he had been fired,' Gritz said, adding that McCabe should've been fired a year ago.

Gritz said she worked with McCabe from 2005 until her resignation several years later.

She told Fox & Friends that McCabe's alleged mistreatment stemmed from a harassment claim she filed against one of her supervisors.

Gritz said that she was working as a 'detailee' to the CIA when her boss allegedly scrutinized her work and asked her questions about whether or not she was 'fragile' after her divorce.

Gritz (left) said McCabe's alleged mistreatment stemmed from a harassment claim she filed against one of her supervisors

McCabe spoke out in a op-ed, calling President Donald Trump 'cruel' for celebrating his firing. Pictured: McCabe testifies in Congress in June 2017

'He made some discriminatory comments about why I was traveling and such,' Gritz said of her boss at the time, who was not McCabe.

She claims that right after filing the complaint, McCabe's mistreatment began.

In his op-ed published on Friday, McCabe spoke out against President Donald Trump for celebrating his firing.

'I was sad, but not surprised, to see that such unhinged public attacks on me would continue into my life after my service to the FBI,' McCabe wrote of the President's tweets.

McCabe wrote that he was waiting pensively for his 'long-planned, earned retirement' to kick in when he learned he'd been fire on March 16, just 26 hours before his pension was due to kick in.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the firing in a statement, saying that an investigation had found that McCabe had 'made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor - including under oath - on multiple occasions'.

Trump tweeted out his delight at the firing just hours after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced it. Pictured: Trump waves to the press as he leaves the White House on Friday

McCabe blasted back at those allegations in his op-ed, saying they were simply 'not true'.

'I did not knowingly mislead or lie to investigators. When asked about contacts with a reporter that were fully within my power to authorize as deputy director, and amid the chaos that surrounded me, I answered questions as completely and accurately as I could,' he wrote.

'And when I realized that some of my answers were not fully accurate or may have been misunderstood, I took the initiative to correct them.

'At worst, I was not clear in my responses, and because of what was going on around me may well have been confused and distracted  and for that I take full responsibility. But that is not a lack of candor,' he continued.

McCabe also wrote of the gut-wrenching feeling of discovering he'd been fired, when a friend called to say she'd seen the news on CNN before he checked his work email and saw an official notification.

'Despite all the preparation for the worst-case scenario, I still felt disoriented and sick to my stomach,' McCabe said.

Hours later, Trump tweeted out his delight at the firing. 'Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FB - A great day for Democracy,' wrote Trump.

'Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!' Trump continued.

Trump fired Comey as FBI director last May, citing his handling of the Clinton email investigation.

The President had long accused McCabe of being a Democrat apparatchik and of also bungling the Hillary Clinton email investigation, but said the firing decision was up to Sessions.

'I was sad, but not surprised, to see that such unhinged public attacks on me would continue into my life after my service to the FBI,' McCabe wrote.

'President Trump's cruelty reminded me of the days immediately following the firing of James B. Comey, as the White House desperately tried to push the falsehood that people in the FBI were celebrating the loss of our director,' he continued.

'The president's comments about me were equally hurtful and false, which shows that he has no idea how FBI people feel about their leaders,' wrote McCabe.Advertisement

Hundreds of protesters gathered on Parliament Square tonight to hear Jewish leaders warn Jeremy Corbyn 'enough was enough' amid an anti-Semitism storm.

Jonathan Goldstein, the Chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, told the huge crowd gathered opposite Parliament the Labour leader must do more to stamp out the 'cancer' of anti-Semitism inside his party.

Mr Corbyn tonight issued a grovelling apology for his actions and admitted the problem was bigger than 'just a few bad apples'.

The Labour leader said he is 'sincerely sorry' for the pain caused by the abuse which has taken root in the party, in a letter to Jewish leaders. He repeated pleas to meet them in person.

Mr Corbyn also admitted he was 'wrong' to defend an anti-Semitic mural on Facebook without looking at the image.

Anger has boiled over after it emerged Mr Corbyn defended the mural which showed hook-nosed men sitting around a Monopoly board while perched on the backs downtrodden people.

Jewish groups and supporters staged a protest outside Parliament to vent their fury at Mr Corbyn's failure to tackle anti-Semitism they believe has plagued the Labour party since he became the leader.

However, there was also a counter-protest held in Parliament Square at the same time. Several people could be seen coming together to support Mr Corbyn.

They held placards refuting the criticism against the Labour leader, with some calling on people to stop 'the witch hunt' against Mr Corbyn.

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Hundreds of protesters gathered on Parliament Square tonight (pictured) to hear Jewish leaders warn Jeremy Corbyn 'enough was enough' in an anti-Semitism storm

Jonathan Goldstein, the Chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, told the huge crowd gathered opposite Parliament the Labour leader must do more to stamp out anti-Semitism inside his party

Anger has boiled over after it emerged Mr Corbyn defended a mural showing hook-nosed men sitting around a Monopoly board perched on the backs downtrodden people

Protesters furious at Mr Corbyn's handling of the allegation seized on his admission there were 'pockets' of anti-Semitism to claim he was the 'pocket'

Labour MP John Mann was among the speakers to address the huge rally on Parliament Square tonight amid a storm of criticism of his leader Mr Corbyn

Jewish community leader Jonathan Arkush also delivered a speech during the protest outside of Parliament with hundreds of members of London's Jewish community watching on

The protest was organised by the British Board of Jewish Deputies and several placards were waved by protesters, as well as an Israeli flag

Labour MP Luciana Berger, who earlier slammed party leader Corbyn over his response to the mural, pictured speaking during the protest against anti-Semitism in Labour

Protesters held up placards at the emotionally charged rally with this one a play on Labour and Jeremy Corbyn's 'For the many, not the few' slogan

Yesterday, the Labour leader apologised for 'pockets' of anti-semitism in his party but this protester sees Corbyn as 'the pocket'

Members of the UK's Jewish community could be seen passionately protesting outside Parliament against anti-semitism in the Labour party

Sajid Javid MP and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and Labour MP Chuka Umunna attended

An open letter delieverd to John Cryer MP, Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party by protesters read: 'We are here to tell Jeremy Corbyn that enough is enough'

English comedian and TV personalisty Al Murray was one of the famous faces at the Parliament square protest

Some supporters of Jeremy Corbyn also attended the rally, with signs defending the Labour leader

Members of London's Jewish community could be seen protesting in support of the Labour leader and defending him against what they claimed was a 'witch hunt'

There were several banners held in support of Corbyn at the demonstration today, although it is unclear exactly how big the second protest was

Those supporting the Labour leader, who appeared to be Jews in London, also seemed to be older members of the Jewish community

A second protest supporting Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also held up a number of placards, with this sign saying that the Board of Deputies, which organised the protest against Corbyn, does not speak for some London Jews

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured outside his Islington home this morning) is facing a storm of criticism for anti-Semitism among his supporters. He refused to answer questions as he left his home

Mr Goldstein said there is 'no safe space' left for Jews inside Labour and wherever they go Jews are told 'Rothschilds run the world, ISIS is a fake front for Israel and Zionists are the new Nazis'.

He told the protest: 'We have just come from the Palace of Westminster, where we formally delivered our Open Letter to John Cryer MP, Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

'We are all here today, because we have had enough of repeatedly witnessing and condemning instances of antisemitism in and around the Labour Party. We are here to tell Jeremy Corbyn that enough is enough.

Jonathan Goldstein, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, said 'there are no safe spaces' in Labour for Jews anymore (file pic)

'I am profoundly sad that it has come to this but also heartened to how much support we have seen over these last days and to see so many of you joining forces with us.

'Antisemitism has never gone away. It festers like a cancer. It metastasises and refashions itself, over and over again.

'But antisemitism has no place whatsoever in a mainstream political party. It is a scourge on our society and it must be rooted out.'

Londoner Grant Kemp was among those protesting about Jeremy Corbyn in Parliament Square.

He said: 'Im here to support the cause of equality and to make sure people don't allow anti-Semitism to take root.

'Its important to make a stand - especially to someone who could lead our country.

'Anti Semitism is not right.

'I used to be a labour member, I left after Jeremy Corbyn became leader. Im more interested in seeing cation than Jeremy Corbyn just apologising.

'The fact such a lot of people are here does speak volumes.'

Mr Corbyn has now admitted the painting - pictured here - is offensive and insisted he did not see it properly when he leapt to its defence on Facebook

Labour MP John Mann (pictured on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show today with Karen Pollock from the Holocaust Education Trust) said Corbyn will never be PM unless he roots out anti-Semitism in the party

In a letter issued late this afternoon, Mr Corbyn said: 'I recognise that antisemitism has surfaced within the Labour Party, and has too often been dismissed as simply a matter of a few bad apples.

'This has caused pain and hurt to Jewish members of our Party and to the wider Jewish community in Britain.

'I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused, and pledge to redouble my efforts to bring this anxiety to an end.'

He apologised for defending the east London mural which triggered the latest controversy.

He said: 'The idea of Jewish bankers and capitalists exploiting the workers of the world is an old antisemitic conspiracy theory.

'This was long ago, and rightly, described as 'the socialism of fools.' I am sorry for not having studied the content of the mural more closely before wrongly questioning its removal in 2012.'

He added: 'But I acknowledge that anti-Semitic attitudes have surfaced more often in our ranks in recent years, and that the party has been too slow in processing some of the cases that have emerged...

'In that spirit, I must make it clear that I will never be anything other than a militant opponent of antisemitism. In this fight, I am your ally and always will be.'

What are the anti-Semitic incidents in Labour that have reached a crisis under Corbyn's watch? Jeremy Corbyn defended an artist who painted an anti-Semitic mural in 2012, questioning why the offensive art should be removed

He was a member of a Facebook group which was awash with anti-Semitic rhetoric, and he has described anti-Semitic groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah as 'our friends'

The Labour leader stood by when a speaker disrupted the launch of his party's anti-Semitism policy by accusing a Jewish MP of colluding with the press

Labour has still failed to expel former London mayor Ken Livingstone, two years after he claimed Hitler supported Zionism. He has still not apologised

Delegates at last year's Labour conference complained of a 'witch hunt' against anti-Semitism and heard from a speaker who said it was legitimate to question the Holocaust

The problem is so rife in the party the Jewish Labour Movement has had to hold training sessions for party members on how not to be anti-Semitic

Labour members and councillors have shared disgusting messages and images on Facebook describing Jewish people of controlling world capitalism and being to blame for the policies of the Israeli government

The party is failing to deal with a huge backlog of complaints and has failed to expel people even though they have committed offences such as referring to Jewish people as Yids

Corbyn ally Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, has dismissed anti-Semitism claims as 'mood music' spread by Blairites.

Labour's new general secretary Jennie Formby was accused of recruiting a party member suspended for saying Hitler was a Zionist god. Advertisement

But speaking this morning, Mr Goldstein said the 'time for words is over, and the time for action is now'.

President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews Jonathan Arkush told Good Morning Britain: '[Jeremy Corbyn]'s fostered a culture in which people feel free to come out with rank anti-Semitism the political sea, or perhaps I should call it a sewer, in which he swims, is totally polluted by anti-Semitism.'

Mr Goldstein told the BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: 'Jeremy Corbyn is now the figurehead for an anti-Semitic political culture, based upon obsessive hatred of Israel, conspiracy theories and fake news.

'And that is doing great harm, not just to the Labour Party, but to Britain in a wider sense.'

He said the Labour leader has willfully refused to confront the anti-Semitism spouted out by his own supporters - failing to permanently deal with his long-time ally Ken Livingtsone who said Hitler supported Zionism.'

But Mr Goldstein said the Jewish community has been reaching out to Mr Corbyn ever since he was elected leader in 2015 but to no avail.

He added: 'The time for words is over and the time for action is now important.

'The reality is there are no safe spaces online or in meetings for Jewish people within the Labour party.

'Wherever we go we are told that we act on the instructions of Israel, that Rothschilds run the world, that ISIS is a fake front for Israel, that Zionists rare the new Nazis.'

The Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council have both called the protest in Parliament Square this evening.

It is timed to coincide with a meeting of Labour MPs - although Mr Corbyn is not expected to attend.

Several Labour MPs said they will be attended the protest including Liz Kendall, the former Labour Party leader.

Last night Mr Corbyn said he is 'sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused by anti-Semitism that has occurred in pockets within the Labour Party'.

But he has been repeatedly criticised for failing to deal with the issue within the party and for not condemning a controversial mural that was removed in London over anti-Semitism claims.

Labour MP John Mann said: 'The Labour Party ceases to have a reason for existence if it cannot stand up against discrimination and racism.

'Tonight every Labour MP and member should stand in solidarity with the Jewish community.'

He added on the BBC: 'He has refused to take action on removing anti-Semites from the Labour Party.'

'If he is incapable of dealing with this problem now then the Labour party will not survive...if he cannot sort this problem now he will not be Prime minister and we will not be in power.

'The Labour party was formed to deal with prejudice and discrimination....if he fails to deal with this then he destroys the essence of the Labour Party.'

Mr Mann said: 'He should throw these people out of the Labour Party - and make a big song and dance about it.'

Ms Kendall said: 'A truly terrible day when Board of Deputies & JLC feel the need to write such a letter.

'No one in @UKLabour should try & minimise or downplay this. I will be showing my solidarity in Parliament Square tomorrow.'

In his apology last night Mr Corbyn insisted there is no place for anti-Semites in Labour.

Former Labour leadership contender Liz Kendall said she will be joining the protest

John Mann said said all Labour MPs should stand with the protesters outside

Leading Labour moderate Wes Streeting joined in the condemnation of anti-Semitism and said he supports today's protest

Wes Streeting said he has been threatened with deselection and received abuse for speaking out against anti-Semitism

He said: 'Labour is an anti-racist party and I utterly condemn anti-Semitism, which is why as leader of the Labour Party I want to be clear that I will not tolerate any form of anti-Semitism that exists in and around our movement.

'We must stamp this out from our party and movement.

'We recognise that anti-Semitism has occurred in pockets within the Labour Party, causing pain and hurt to our Jewish community in the Labour Party and the rest of the country.

'I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused.'

Tom Watson (pictured yesterday) said the anti-Semitic mural Jeremy Corbyn defended was 'horrible' - but defended the leader's handling of the row

Mr Corbyn added: 'Our party has deep roots in the Jewish community and is actively engaged with Jewish organisations across the country.

'We are campaigning to increase support and confidence in Labour among Jewish people in the UK.

'I know that to do so, we must demonstrate our total commitment to excising pockets of antisemitism that exist in and around our party.

'I will be meeting representatives from the Jewish community over the coming days, weeks and months to rebuild that confidence in Labour as a party which gives effective voice to Jewish concerns and is implacably opposed to antisemitism in all its forms.

'Labour will work to unite communities to achieve social justice in our society.'

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson was yesterday confronted live on TV by the image of the mural.

He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: 'My reaction is that was a horrible and anti-Semitic mural that was rightly taken down.

'You are showing it to me on a 32 inch screen on national TV and I've seen it over a 1,000 times on Twitter.

'That is very different from seeing it on Facebook on the move.'Saudi missile defences intercepted seven Yemeni missiles on Sunday including over the capital Riyadh, the military has said.

One Egyptian was killed and two of his countrymen injured when shrapnel fell into the streets of the Saudi capital, according to authorities.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they fired three missiles at the airport in Riyadh and four others at the southern cities of Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran.

Dramatic video showed patriot missiles being fired into the sky in Riyadh.

The Royal Saudi Air Defence intercepted 2 #Iranian #Houthi missiles over the capital city of Riyadh in #Saudi_Arabia . Thanks to our heroes in the Air Defense pic.twitter.com/l5u3wTnBKa  Bader.. (@Bader_mine) March 25, 2018

A photo from the Houthi Military Media Unit shows the launch of a ballistic missile aimed at Saudi Arabia

Seven missile were fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen into Saudi Arabia overnight, with the kingdom's military claiming to have shot down all seven

However, one video showed a rocket which appeared to malfunction and slam back into the city.

Other video showed a missile landing in the middle of a highway, with the wreckage pictured on social media afterward. It was unclear if this was a Saudi missile, or one fired by the Houthis.

The attack came on the third anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition's intervention in Yemen.

'This aggressive and hostile action by the Iran-backed Houthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities,' coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said.

'The firing of multiple ballistic missiles towards cities is a serious development.'

The Houthi-run Al-Masira television channel claimed the rebels had targeted Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport as well as other airstrips in the south.

The strikes come after the US defence secretary last week urged Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to Washington to pursue 'urgent efforts' to end Yemen's conflict.

The Houthi rebels have fired dozens of missiles into Saudi Arabia since last year, all of which Saudi forces claim to have intercepted, though doubts have been raised over several of the claims.

Last night's attack underscores the capacity of the rebels to strike deep within Saudi amid a stalemated war in Yemen.

The latest attack could further escalate the coalition's military campaign.

A major attack targeting Riyadh international airport on November 4 triggered the tightening of a Saudi-led blockade of Yemen - already on the verge of famine.

Another strike on December 19 targeted Riyadh's Yamamah palace, the official residence of King Salman.

The Houthi-run Al-Masira television channel claimed the rebels had targeted Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport as well as other airstrips in the south

Video showed Saudi defence missiles being fired over Riyadh, though other footage appeared to show a missile malfunctioning and slamming back into the city

The attack came on the third anniversary of Saudi Arabia's intervention in the Yemen conflict, which the UN says is the world's worst humanitarian disaster

Saudi Arabia has accused its arch foe Iran of supplying the missile to the rebels, a charge Tehran strongly denied.

The Houthis expelled pro-government forces from the capital in September 2014 and went on to seize swathes of the impoverished Arabian peninsula country.

This prompted a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia to intervene in Yemen on March 26, 2015, to help the government push back the Shiite rebels.

Since then, around 10,000 people have been killed and 53,000 wounded in Yemen, triggering what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Houthi rebel chief Abdelmalik al-Huthi on Sunday said his fighters were ready to make more 'sacrifices' against the Saudi-led coalition, in an address marking the war's third anniversary.

The Houthis plan a huge rally in Sanaa on Monday to mark the anniversary.

The UN says living conditions in the war-scarred country have reached catastrophic levels and that 8.4 million people face imminent famine.

The UN urgently needs $350million for humanitarian projects in Yemen, a senior agency official said on Sunday, insisting it was mere 'peanuts' compared with the cost of the country's war.

Saudi Arabia and its allies - aided by billions of dollars worth of military equipment from the US and Britain - could stand guilty of war crimes, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Numerous rounds of UN-sponsored peace talks have failed to stem the bloodshed in Yemen.

The Houthi rebels have fired dozens of missiles into Saudi Arabia since last year, all of which Saudi forces claim to have intercepted, though doubts have been raised over several of the claimsA new search is about to begin for the bodies of two men allegedly murdered 25 years ago while working as drug crop guards in Queensland.

Robert Grayson, 26, and Derek Van Der Poel, 23, were last seen alive in Gladstone in May 1993.

The pair had been guarding marijuana crops for Russell James Williams, 51, who is accused of killing them.

Robert Grayson, 26, (left) and Derek Van Der Poel, 23, (right) were last seen alive in Gladstone in May 1993

On Monday police said Williams had also been charged with trafficking in dangerous drugs, adding to his existing charges of two counts of murder, and one count of producing dangerous drugs.

He's due to face the Gladstone Magistrates Court on April 10.

Police last month searched the Kroombit Tops National Park, southwest of Gladstone, for the men's bodies but found nothing.

A new search is planned for Wednesday and Thursday, and detectives remain confident their remains will be found.

A $250,000 reward remains in place for more information about the murders.Martin Hibbert (pictured), 41, was the closest person to the explosion to survive the attack on Ariana Grande's concert in May last year

A father-of-one left paralysed by the Manchester bomb attack is able to move his legs again despite doctors telling him he'd be confined to a wheelchair forever.

Martin Hibbert, 41, was the closest person to the explosion to survive the attack on Ariana Grande's concert in May last year.

Salman Abedi's nail-laden bomb severed his spinal cord and left him paralysed from the waist down.

Doctors told him he would never walk again and was told to 'put down his iPad' when he started trawling the Internet for alternative therapy.

But 10 months after the attack that changed his life forever, Mr Hibbert is able to pull himself up, cycle, crawl and cross his legs.

It was during his stay at Salford Royal Hospital and Southport Spinal Injuries Centre that he heard about pioneering therapist Ken Ware and his rehabilitation programme in Queensland, Australia.

His determination to defy doctors' expectations saw him get on a plane with his wife Gabby, 45, and fly 10,000 miles to his NeuroPhysics Therapy centre in Gold Coast.

Just hours after starting treatment, Mr Hibbert's toes started to move again.

Doctors told him (pictured right with his daughter left) he would never walk again but 10 months after the attack that changed his life forever, Mr Hibbert is able to pull himself up, cycle, crawl and cross his legs

He told the Daily Mirror: 'It was incredible when my toes moved for the first time.

'I've always been determined and driven, so when doctors showed me the X-ray of my spine it was a case of, "How dare you say I am never going to walk again? I'll show you." That's the type of person I am.

'From the moment the blast happened I have wanted to stick two fingers up to the terrorists and say, "You can take away my legs but you are not going to take away my life."

By day three of Mr Ware's programme he had pulled himself up to a standing position, crossed his legs, crawled on all fours and managed to cycle.

His determination to defy doctors' expectations saw him get on a plane with his wife Gabby, 45, and fly 10,000 miles to his NeuroPhysics Therapy centre in Gold Coast

Now 10 months on from the attack that nearly killed him, he is determined to walk again.

Mr Ware is confident in his patient's ability after his biggest success - Australian paralympian John Maclean - learned to walk again and even completed a triathlon.

The Manchester Arena bombing killed 23 people, many of which were children, and injured over 500.

Performer Ariana Grande returned to the UK to do a tribute concert, which she dedicated to all the victims of the tragedy.A teenage boy who shattered the windscreen of an ambulance after throwing a rock at the vehicle has been slammed for the 'moronic' act.

The Gold Coast ambulance was 'responding to a person in need' at midday Saturday when a rock thrown from an overpass shattered the windscreen.

The crew and patient were lucky to escape injuries, but valuable minutes were shaved from the emergency response as another ambulance had to be sent out.

A 'moronic' teenager threw a rock at an ambulance responding to emergency on the Gold Coast, Queensland

Outraged by the incident, the ambulance media team vented on Facebook Saturday afternoon.

'How is this for an example of moronic stupidity,' the post said.

'Besides the obvious consequences this idiotic act could have caused, there may well have been a delay in getting to what could have been a life threatening case.

'Let's hope the individual responsible takes a moment to think, it could have been one of their loved ones our crew was attending.

The crew and patient were lucky to escape injuries, but the situation could have been 'very different' if the emergency service workers were responding to a cardiac arrest

'Thankfully our crew is OK and uninjured.'

Another ambulance had to be dispatched to the scene, according to the Gold Coast Bulletin

The police told 7 News a 'teenage boy' is believed to have thrown the rock but he disappeared by the time police arrived at the scene.

The incident sparked an angry reaction on social media, with one person saying' 'certainly hope this person is caught'.

'How despicable, it could (have) been a friend or family member QAS was going to. - I do sincerely hope justice is harshly served.'

A separate ambulance had to be dispatched to the scene, according to the Gold Coast Bulletin

Another Facebook user said: 'Glad the crew are OK, it is scary. Sadly this type of thing is an every night occurrence for truck drivers in a certain couple of towns in New South Wales.'

Queensland Ambulance urged anyone with information to contact the police.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Queensland Police for comment.A mentally-ill knife-wielding young woman who was shot dead by police outside a western Sydney Hungry Jack's, posed an 'imminent threat' to officer's lives, police have claimed.

Officers shot 22-year-old Courtney Topic after she was seen brandishing a 30cm-long kitchen knife after attempts to subdue the woman with pepper spray and a defective Taser had failed.

Ms Topic was shot in the chest less than a minute after police arrived on the scene, as she stood outside a Hungry Jack's in Hoxton Park in 2015.

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Officers fatally shot Courtney Topic (pictured) in 2015 as she stood outside a Hungry Jack's in Hoxton Park, Western Sydney while brandishing a 30-cm long kitchen knife

Police arrived on the scene after receiving several triple-zero calls before midday, and 41 seconds later a single fatal shot was fired

Although police carried out CPR, the young woman died shortly afterwards.

NSW Probationary Constable Angela Tyson confronted and tried to Taser the woman when she lunged at two officers.

Constable Tyson told the Glebe Coroners Court on Monday there was no time for negotiation or multiple de-escalation techniques before the woman was shot dead.

In shaky bodycam footage from the scene, Constable Tyson can be heard repeatedly asking the young woman to put the knife down.

Constable Tyson told the Glebe Coroners Court on Monday there was no time for multiple de-escalation techniques after Ms Topic lunged at officers with the knife

Probationary Constable Angela Tyson can be heard repeatedly asking Ms Topic to put the knife down (Hungry Jack's pictured)

'Put the knife on the ground for me. Put it on the ground,' she said.

When the young woman refused to put the knife down and moved towards Senior Constable Tesoriero she was fatally shot in the chest.

Constable Tyson conceded to the court that her de-escalation techniques were limited to verbal directions because there was not enough time for anything else, but insisted there was an imminent threat to her life.

'She turned immediately to her right and looked at Senior Constable Tesoriero, she raised the knife in her left hand and extended her left arm and ran towards Tesoriero,' Sergeant Glenn Sadler told an earlier inquest hearing.

NSW Police tried to subdue the 22-year-old with pepper spray and a defective Taser before shooting her in the chest, and although they carried out CPR, she died shortly afterwards

Counsel assisting Gerard Craddock SC told the court Ms Topic had suicidal thoughts and likely suffered undiagnosed schizophrenia and was in the middle of a days-long psychosis when she died.

The inquest will examine the adequacy of police training for responding to people suffering mental health problems, communication strategies and the use of weapons.

It will also examine whether 'non-lethal force' could have been used to respond to the incident.

The court previously heard two of the three officers had only one day of mental health training before the incident, and the third officer had no training at all.

In a statement to court, Ms Topic's family described her death as 'sudden, unexpected and violent'.

The inquest into Ms Topic's death continues.Stormy Daniels (pictured) told all about her alleged affair with Donald Trump

Anderson Cooper: For sitting here talking to me today you could be fined a million dollars I mean aren't you taking a big risk?

Stormy Daniels: I am.

Anderson Cooper: I guess I'm not 100% sure on why you're doing this.

Stormy Daniels: Because it was very important to me to be able to defend myself

Anderson Cooper: Is part of talking w-- wanting to set the record straight?

Stormy Daniels: 100%.

Anderson Cooper: Why does the record need to be set straight?

Stormy Daniels: Because people are just saying whatever they wanted to say about me, I was perfectly fine saying nothing at all, but I'm not okay with being made out to be a liar, or people thinking that I did this for money and people are like, "Oh, you're an opportunist. You're taking advantage of this. Yes, I'm getting more job offers now, but tell me one person who would turn down a job offer making more than they've been making, doing the same thing that they've always done?

Anderson Cooper: A lotta people are using you for a lotta different agendas.

Stormy Daniels: They're trying to. Like, oh, you know, Stormy Daniels comes out #MeToo. This is not a 'Me Too.' I was not a victim. I've never said I was a victim. I think trying to use me to-- to further someone else's agenda, does horrible damage to people who are true victims.

Stormy Daniels' real name is Stephanie Clifford. She's 39 years old, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and has been acting in, directing, and writing adult films for nearly 20 years. She was one of the most popular actresses in the adult industry when she was introduced to Mr. Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in July, 2006. She says he invited her to dinner, and she met him at his hotel suite.

Anderson Cooper: How was the conversation?

Stormy Daniels: Ummm (LAUGH) it started off-- all about him just talking about himself. And he's like-- "Have you seen my new magazine?

Anderson Cooper: He was showing you his own picture on the cover of a magazine.

Stormy Daniels: Right, right. And so I was like, "Does this-- does this normally work for you?" And he looked very taken-- taken back, like, he didn't really understand what I was saying. Like, I was-- does, just, you know, talking about yourself normally work?" And I was like, "Someone should take that magazine and spank you with it." (LAUGH) And I'll never forget the look on his face. He was like--

Anderson Cooper: What-- what was his look?

Stormy Daniels: Just, I don't think anyone's ever spoken to him like that, especially, you know, a young woman who looked like me. And I said, you know, "Give me that," and I just remember him going, "You wouldn't." "Hand it over." And-- so he did, and I was like, turn around, drop 'em."

Stormy Daniels, an adult film star and director whose real name is Stephanie Clifford is interviewed by Anderson Cooper of CBS News' 60 Minutes program

Anderson Cooper: You-- you told Donald Trump to turn around and take off his pants.

Stormy Daniels: Yes.

Anderson Cooper: And did he?

Stormy Daniels: Yes. So he turned around and pulled his pants down a little -- you know had underwear on and stuff and I just gave him a couple swats.

Anderson Cooper: This was done in a joking manner.

Stormy Daniels: Yes. and-- from that moment on, he was a completely different person.

Anderson Cooper: How so?

Stormy Daniels: He quit talking about himself and he asked me things and I asked him things and it just became like more appropriate.

Anderson Cooper: It became more comfortable.

Stormy Daniels: Yeah. He was like, "Wow, you-- you are special. You remind me of my daughter." You know-- he was like, "You're smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you. I like you."

Anderson Cooper: At this point was he doing The Apprentice?

Stormy Daniels: Yes. And he goes, "Got an idea, honeybunch. Would you ever consider going on and-- and being a contestant?" And I laughed and-- and said, "NBC's never gonna let, you know, an adult film star be on." It's, you know, he goes, "No, no," he goes, "That's why I want you. You're gonna shock a lotta people, you're smart and they won't know what to expect"

Anderson Cooper: Did you think he was serious, or did you think he was kind of dangling to get you to wanna be involved him?

Stormy Daniels: Both.

Anderson Cooper: Melania Trump had recently given birth to-- to a son, just a few months before. Did that-- did he mention his wife or child at all in this?

Stormy Daniels: I asked. And he brushed it aside, said, "Oh yeah, yeah, you know, don't worry about that. We don't even we have separate rooms and stuff."

Anderson Cooper: Did you two go out for dinner that night?

Stormy Daniels: No.

Anderson Cooper: You had dinner in the room?

Stormy Daniels: Yes.

Anderson Cooper: What happened next?

Stormy Daniels: I asked him if I could use his restroom and he said, "Yes, you know, it's through those-- through the bedroom, you'll see it." So I-- I excused myself and I went to the-- the restroom. You know, I was in there for a little bit and came out and he was sitting, you know, on the edge of the bed when I walked out, perched.

Anderson Cooper: And when you saw that, what went through your mind?

Stormy Daniels: I realized exactly what I'd gotten myself into. And I was like, "Ugh, here we go." (LAUGH) And I just felt like maybe-- (LAUGH) it was sort of-- I had it coming for making a bad decision for going to someone's room alone and I just heard the voice in my head, "well, you put yourself in a bad situation and bad things happen, so you deserve this."

Anderson Cooper: And you had sex with him.

Stormy Daniels: Yes.

Anderson Cooper: You were 27, he was 60. Were you physically attracted to him?

Stormy Daniels: No.

Stormy Daniels says she had unprotected sex with Donald Trump and spanked him with a magazine that had his face on the cover, even though she wasn't physically attracted to him

Anderson Cooper: Not at all?

Stormy Daniels: No.

Anderson Cooper: Did you want to have sex with him?

Stormy Daniels: No. But I didn't-- I didn't say no. I'm not a victim, I'm not--

Anderson Cooper: It was entirely consensual.

Stormy Daniels: Oh, yes, yes.

Anderson Cooper: You work in an industry where condom use is-- is an issue. Did-- did he use a condom?

Stormy Daniels: No.

Anderson Cooper: Did you ask him to?

Stormy Daniels: No. I honestly didn't say anything.

Anderson Cooper: After you had sex, what happened?

Stormy Daniels: He said that it was great, he had-- a great evening, and it was nothing like he expected, that I really surprised him, that a lotta people must underestimate me-- that he hoped that I would be willing to see him again and that we would discuss the things we had talked about earlier in the evening.

Anderson Cooper: Being on The Apprentice.

Stormy Daniels: Right.

Daniels says she and Mr. Trump stayed in touch. She says he invited her to a Trump Vodka launch party in California, as well as to his office in Trump Tower in New York.

Anderson Cooper: So he definitely wanted to continue to see you.

Stormy Daniels: Oh, for sure. Yes.

Stormy Daniels: And this was not a secret. He never asked me not to tell anyone he called several times when I was in front of many people and I would be like, "Oh my God, he's calling." They were like, "Shut up, the Donald?" And I'd put him on speakerphone, and he wanted to know what I was up to and "When can we get together again? I just wanted to give you a quick update, we had a meeting, it went great. There's-- it's gonna be spectacular, they're totally into the idea," and I was like mhmm that part I never believed.

Anderson Cooper: Did you still get the sense that he was kind of dangling it in front of you--

Stormy Daniels: Oh, for sure, oh yeah.

Anderson Cooper: To keep you interested, to keep you coming back.

Stormy Daniels: Of course, of course. I mean, I'm not blind. But at the same time, maybe it'll work out, you know?

Anderson Cooper: Did you view it as this is a potential opportunity. "I'm gonna see where it goes?"

Stormy Daniels: I thought of it as a business deal.

In July 2007 -- a year after they met -- Daniels says Mr. Trump asked to meet with her privately at his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles to discuss a development regarding her possible appearance on Celebrity Apprentice.

Stormy Daniels: I remember arriving, and he was watching Shark Week. He made me sit and watch an entire documentary about shark attacks.

Anderson Cooper: It wasn't at that point a business meeting, it was just watching Shark Week.

Stormy Daniels: Yeah.

Anderson Cooper: Did you have sex with him again?

Stormy Daniels: No.

Anderson Cooper: Did he want to?

Stormy Daniels: Yes.

Anderson Cooper: How do you know he wanted to?

Stormy Daniels: Because he came and sat next to me and, you know, touched my hair, and put his hand on my leg, and r-- referenced back to how great it was the last time.

Anderson Cooper: How did you get out of it?

Stormy Daniels: Well, I'd been there for, like, four hours. And so I then was like, "Well, before, you know, can we talk about what's the development?" And he was like, "I'm almost there. I'll have an answer for you next week." And I was like, "Okay, cool. Well-- I guess call me next week." And I just took my purse and left.

According to Daniels, Mr. Trump called her the following month to say he'd not been able to get her a spot on Celebrity Apprentice. She says they never met again and only had sex in that first meeting in 2006. In May 2011, Daniels agreed to tell her story to a sister publication of In Touch magazine for $15,000 dollars. Two former employees of the magazine told us the story never ran because after the magazine called Mr. Trump seeking comment, his attorney Michael Cohen threatened to sue. Daniels says she was never paid, and says a few weeks later, she was threatened by a man who approached her in Las Vegas.

Stormy Daniels: I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter. T-- taking, you know, the seats facing backwards in the backseat, diaper bag, you know, gettin' all the stuff out. And a guy walked up on me and said to me, "Leave Trump alone. Forget the story." And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, "That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom." And then he was gone.

Anderson Cooper: You took it as a direct threat?

Stormy Daniels: Absolutely.

Stormy Daniels: I was rattled. I remember going into the workout class. And my hands are shaking so much, I was afraid I was gonna-- drop her.

Anderson Cooper: Did you ever see that person again?

Stormy Daniels: No. But I-- if I did, I would know it right away.

Anderson Cooper: You'd be able to-- you'd be able to recognize that person?

Stormy Daniels: 100%. Even now, all these years later. If he walked in this door right now, I would instantly know.

Anderson Cooper: Did you go to the police?

Stormy Daniels: No.

Anderson Cooper: Why?

Stormy Daniels: Because I was scared.

When a gossip website reported a few months later that she'd had an affair with Mr. Trump, Stormy Daniels publically denied it. Five years later, Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for president.

Stormy Daniels: Suddenly people are reaching out to me again, offering me money. Large amounts of money. Was I tempted? Yes-- I struggle with it. And then I get the call. "I think I have the best deal for you."

Anderson Cooper: From your lawyer?

Stormy Daniels: Yeah.

The deal was an offer not to tell her story. It came from Mr. Trump's attorney Michael Cohen. In return for signing this non-disclosure agreement, Cohen would pay her $130,000 dollars through a Delaware-based limited liability corporation he had established in mid-October 2016 called essential consultants. Daniels says the agreement was appealing because it meant she would receive some money but also not have to worry about the effect the revelation of the affair would have on her child who was now old enough to watch the news. She signed the agreement eleven days before the election.

Anderson Cooper: Was it hush money to stay silent?

Stormy Daniels: Yes. The story was coming out again. I was concerned for my family and their safety.

Anderson Cooper: I think some people watching this are going to doubt that you entered into this negotiation-- because you feared for your safety. They're gonna think y-- that you saw an opportunity.

Stormy Daniels: I think the fact that I didn't even negotiate, I just quickly said yes to this v-- very, you know, strict contract. And what most people will agree with me extremely low number. It's all the proof I need.

Anderson Cooper: you feel like if you had wanted to go public, you could have gotten paid a lot of money to go public--

Stormy Daniels: Without a doubt. I know for a fact. I believe, without a shadow of a doubt, in my heart, and some people argue that I don't have one of those, but whatever, that I was doing the right thing. I turned down a large payday multiple times because one, I didn't wanna kiss and tell and be labeled all the things that I'm being labeled now. I didn't wanna take away from the legitimate and legal, I'd like to point out, career that I've worked very hard to establish. And most importantly, I did not want my family and my child exposed to all the things that she's being exposed to right now. because everything that I was afraid of coming out has come out anyway, and guess what? I don't have a million dollars. (LAUGH) You didn't even buy me breakfast.

Anderson Cooper asked Daniels whether she was 'taking a big risk' speaking to him

15 months after she signed the non-disclosure agreement, in January 2018, the Wall Street Journal published this story, quoting anonymous sources, saying that Mr. Trump's attorney Michael Cohen had paid her for her silence. Daniels says she was not the source of the story. But once it was published, she says she was pressured by her former attorney and former business manager to sign statements that Michael Cohen released publically, denying she'd had an affair with Mr. Trump.

Anderson Cooper: So you signed and released-- a statement that said I am not denying this affair because I was paid in hush money I'm denying it because it never happened. That's a lie?

Stormy Daniels: Yes.

Anderson Cooper: If it was untruthful, why did you sign it?

Stormy Daniels: Because they made it sound like I had no choice.

Anderson Cooper: I mean, no one was putting a gun to your head?

Stormy Daniels: Not physical violence, no.

Anderson Cooper: you thought that there would be some sort of legal repercussion if you didn't sign it?

Stormy Daniels: Correct. As a matter of fact, the exact sentence used was, "They can make your life hell in many different ways."

Anderson Cooper: They being

Stormy Daniels: I'm not exactly sure who they were. I believe it to be Michael Cohen.

President Trump's attorney Michael Cohen has denied ever threatening Stormy Daniels. The payment Cohen made to her is now the subject of complaints to the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission, alleging that it was an illegal campaign contribution.

What makes the dispute between Stormy Daniels and the president more than a high-profile tabloid scandal is that her silence was purchased eleven days before the presidential election, which may run afoul of campaign finance laws. The president's long-time lawyer Michael Cohen says he used $130,000 of his own money to pay Stormy Daniels. Cohen has said the money was not a campaign contribution. But Trevor Potter, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission appointed by President George H.W. Bush, told us he doesn't agree.

Trevor Potter: The payment of the money just creates an enormous legal mess for I think Trump, for Cohen and anyone else who was involved in this in the campaign.

Anderson Cooper: Are you saying that can be seen as a contribution to benefit a campaign?

Trevor Potter: I am. it's a $130,000 in-kind contribution by Cohen to the Trump campaign, which is about $126,500 above what he's allowed to give. And if he does this on behalf of his client, the candidate, that is a coordinated, illegal, in-kind contribution by Cohen for the purpose of influencing the election, of benefiting the candidate by keeping this secret.

The payment Stormy Daniels received is the subject of complaints by watchdog groups to the Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission, which Trevor Potter used to be chairman of. He's now president of the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center, which supports the enforcement of campaign finance laws.

Anderson Cooper: If the president paid Michael Cohen back, is that an in-kind campaign contribution that the president should've then reported?

Trevor Potter: It is. If he was then reimbursed by the president, that doesn't remove the fact that the initial payment violated Cohen's contribution limits. I guess it mitigates it if he's paid back by the candidate because the candidate could have paid for it without limit.

Anderson Cooper: What if the president never reimbursed Michael Cohen?

Trevor Potter: Then he is still out on the line, having made a illegal in-kind contribution to the campaign.

Anderson Cooper: You're saying this is more serious for Michael Cohen if the president did not pay him back?

Trevor Potter: Yes. I think that's correct.

We wanted to speak with Mr. Trump's attorney Michael Cohen about this, but he did not respond to our calls and written request for comment. Cohen told The New York Times last month he used his own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels and said, "Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump Campaign reimbursed me for the payment." this past week, Cohen told Vanity Fair magazine, "What I did defensively for my personal client, and my friend, is what attorneys do for their high-profile clients. I would have done it in 2006. I would have done it in 2011. I truly care about him and the family -- more than just as an employee and an attorney."

Michael Avenatti: It's laughable. It's ludicrous. It's preposterous.

Anderson Cooper: Lawyers don't do that, you're saying. You-- you--

Michael Avenatti: Ever.

Michael Avenatti is Stormy Daniels' attorney. He's a Los Angeles trial lawyer who is suing the president in a California court, seeking to have Stormy Daniels' non-disclosure agreement -- or "NDA" -- declared invalid, in part because the president never signed it on the lines provided for his alias -- "D.D.," David Dennison.

Anderson Cooper: Michael Cohen has said, "Look, this had nothing to do with the election." He would've made this agreement months before.

Michael Avenatti: So why didn't he? It just slipped his mind? It's just a coincidence that, in the waning days of the campaign, he thought to himself, "Oh, you know, I know I've been thinkin' about this for years. Perhaps now is a good time to get that NDA executed with Stormy Daniels."

Avenatti disputes the notion that Cohen was working in a purely personal capacity when he arranged the hush money for Stormy Daniels. He's found documents that show Michael Cohen used his Trump Organization email address in setting up the payment. He also says the non-disclosure agreement Stormy Daniels signed in 2016, when she was represented by a different lawyer, was FedExed to Cohen at his Trump Organization office in Trump Tower in New York.

Michael Avenatti: That is a copy of the Federal Express confirmation

The cover letter from Daniels' previous attorney also identifies who he thought Michael Cohen was working for.

Michael Avenatti: To Mr. Cohen as executive vice president and special counsel to Donald J. Trump, the Trump Organization, again-- listing the 5th Avenue address. this idea that there's a separation now between Mr. Cohen, individually, and the Trump Organization or Mr. Cohen, individually, and Donald Trump, it-- it-- it's nonsense.

Anderson Cooper: There are people who argue that this much ado about nothing, that if this was not a story about, an adult film actress and the President of the United States, no one would pay attention.

Michael Avenatti: This is about the cover-up. This is about the extent that Mr. Cohen and the president have gone to intimidate this woman, to silence her, to threaten her, and to put her under their thumb. It is thuggish behavior from people in power. And it has no place in American democracy.

Avenatti points to this recent court filing in which the president's lawyers claim Daniels is already liable for damages "in excess of $20 million" for unspecified violations of her non-disclosure agreement. And in that article in Vanity Fair this past week, Michael Cohen said that when he wins damages from Stormy Daniels, "I might even take an extended vacation on her dime."

Anderson Cooper: You're saying they're tryin' to intimidate her.

Michael Avenatti: There's no question. You threaten someone-- with a $20 million lawsuit, it's a thuggish tactic. It's no different than what happened in the parking lot in Las Vegas.

Anderson Cooper: People make threats in lawsuits all the time. People, you know, say, "You're gonna have to pay a lot of money when you lose this-- this case."

Michael Avenatti: People don't threaten people with $20 million lawsuits, that they're gonna take their home and take an extended vacation on the money they receive. People don't conduct themselves like this. They don't. And they shouldn't.

Anderson Cooper: Stormy Daniels did sign the agreement. She got $130,000. Isn't she welching on a deal?

Michael Avenatti: No, she's not welching on a deal, 'cause there never was a deal.

Anderson Cooper: But she still took the money.

Michael Avenatti: She took the money. But the fact of the matter is Mr. Trump never signed the agreement. He was obligated to sign the agreement in order for the agreement to spring into effect.

That's not true, according to Michael Cohen, who has said only his signature was required. What was also required under the non-disclosure agreement was for Stormy Daniels to turn over all "video images, still images, email messages, and text messages," she had regarding Mr. Trump.

Anderson Cooper: Did you do that?

Stormy Daniels: I can't answer that right now.

Anderson Cooper: You don't want to say one way or the other if you have text messages or other items?

Stormy Daniels: My attorney has recommended that I don't discuss those things.

Anderson Cooper: You seem to be saying that she has some sort of text message, or video, or-- or photographs. Or you could just be bluffing.

Michael Avenatti: You should ask some of the other people in my career when they've bet on me bluffing.

Anderson Cooper: In college and law school, you did opposition research for Democratic political operative Rahm Emanuel. Some people looking at that would say you're politically motivated,

Michael Avenatti: I haven't done anything in politics in over 20 years.

Anderson Cooper: But this is not the usual case you take on. You were a former Democratic operative. And you're talking about deposing the president. That sounds political."

Michael Avenatti: No, it sounds righteous.

Anderson Cooper: How so?

Michael Avenatti: Because my client is credible. She's tellin' the truth.

Trevor Potter, the former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, says the agency's investigations often take a long time and usually result only in monetary penalties. But there is another scenario that could present a problem for the president: special counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In March, the Washington Post reported that the "special counsel has examined episodes involving Michael Cohen," including his efforts to launch a Trump-branded project in Moscow in the fall of 2015 when Mr. Trump was seeking the Republican nomination.

Anderson Cooper: is there any way that special counsel Robert Mueller could investigate the Stormy Daniels payment?

Trevor Potter: Yeah that's the wildcard here.

Anderson Cooper: As a prosecutor, you wanna get leverage over somebody that you could then use to get them to give you other information on which--

Trevor Potter: Correct.

Anderson Cooper: --you're really interested in?

Trevor Potter: Correct.

That's what special counsel Mueller appears to be doing with Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump's former campaign chairman, who faces multiple charges including tax and bank fraud.

Anderson Cooper: Paul Manafort has been charged with crimes that don't have anything to do with Russia in some cases.

Trevor Potter: Well, and that certainly preceded the campaign. And so-- clearly, the Justice Department, the deputy attorney general who is ultimately in charge of this, has determined that looking at what Manafort did in other contexts-- is relevant to the investigation. And I think you can say exactly the same thing about Cohen. He was-- involved-- indisputably with Trump Organization activities with Russia and negotiations with the Russians. Mr. Cohen is in the middle of a place that's of great interest to the Special Counsel.

Anderson Cooper: Is there any recent precedent for p-- prosecuting somebody for an undisclosed campaign contribution?

Trevor Potter: As it happens, there is. There's sort of a pretty spectacular one.

Former Senator John Edwards was prosecuted, but never convicted, for payments a supporter and his campaign finance chairman made a year before the 2008 election to a woman who'd had Edwards' child.

Trevor Potter: I think the Edwards case is not as strong as the facts we have so far in the Trump case.

Anderson Cooper: Why do you think the potential case against Cohen or Trump is a stronger case than the Edwards case?

Trevor Potter: The timing of it. It wasn't the year before the election. It's right in the middle of the run-up to Election Day. When-- Trump's conduct with women was a prime campaign issue. In fact, it was what everyone was focused on.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders did not respond to our request for comment from the president. But we did receive a letter from Mr. Trump's attorney Charles Harder, who asked that we show on camera and read on air one of the statements Stormy Daniels signed in January, denying reports she'd had an affair with Mr. Trump. It says, in part:

"My involvement with Donald Trump was limited to a few public appearances and nothing more."

Anderson Cooper: If Stormy Daniels denied the affair in 2011, which you say is a lie, denied the affair in early January 2018, denied the affair in late January of 2018, doesn't that hurt her credibility? I mean, she's lying, she's lying, she's lying.

Michael Avenatti: I think there's no question that it calls into question her credibility. I also think that there's no question that when the American people take all of the facts and evidence into consideration, that they are going to conclude that this woman is telling the truth. And Anderson, to the extent that Mr. Cohen and the president have an alternative version of the facts let them come forward and state it unequivocally.

Anderson Cooper: But come on. You would not sign statements one, two, three times about something which you knew to be a lie.

Michael Avenatti: If the President of the United States' fixer made it clear to me, either directly or indirectly, that I needed to sign it, and I was in the position of Stormy Daniels, I might sign those statements

Stormy Daniels: I felt intimidated and s-- honestly bullied. And I didn't know what to do. And so I signed it. Even though I had repeatedly expressed that I wouldn't break the agreement, but I was not comfortable lying.

Anderson Cooper: How do we know you're telling the truth?

Stormy Daniels: 'Cause I have no reason to lie. I'm opening myself up for, you know, possible danger and definitely a whole lot of s***.

Anderson Cooper: But, you know, there is a potential ups-- financial upside maybe somebody will want you to write a book. Maybe, you know, you can go on a bigger tour and make more money--

Stormy Daniels: That's--

Anderson Cooper: --dancing?

Stormy Daniels: That's a lot of ifs. I could also get shunned. I mean, I could automatically be alienating half of my fanbase right at this very moment.

Anderson Cooper: Jenna Jameson-- another well-known-- adult film actress said recently about you, "The left looks at her as a whore and just uses her to try to discredit the president. The right looks at her like a treacherous rat. It's a lose-lose. Should've kept her trap shut."

Stormy Daniels: I think that she has a lotta wisdom in those words.

Anderson Cooper: The president watches 60 Minutes, if he's watching tonight, what would you say to him?

Stormy Daniels: he knows I'm telling the truth.The woman who notoriously performed oral sex on a train passenger after he saw her masturbating has been arrested and refused bail.

Chantell Gordon, 34, was convicted last week of wilful and obscene exposure and behaving in an offensive manner on a train south of Sydney in December.

As she did not attend the hearing at Port Kembla Local Court on March 21 a warrant was issued for her arrest.

Gordon appeared in Wollongong Local Court on Saturday and again on Monday after being charged with entering enclosed lands without lawful excuse.

She and father-of-three Shane Brennan were originally charged after Gordon performed oral sex on him in the rear carriage of a Wollongong-bound train.

Chantell Gordon, 34, (pictured) charged over a bizarre oral sex incident with a man on a train, claimed to Daily Mail Australia that she had 'no memory' of the sordid encounter

Shane Brennan (pictured) was caught by police and train station staff after leaving a 'disgusting mess' because he had rinsed his genitals with the contents of a bottle of Coca Cola

Court documents said Brennan approached her while she was masturbating in the vestibule of the rear carriage. Train CCTV then recorded her performing oral sex on him.

A police statement tendered in court said Gordon told officers it was her birthday and the encounter was 'something she had always wanted to do'.

Police facts said Gordon could be seen pacing on the platform with a bottle of orange juice and a handbag on the morning of December 14.

She boarded the train and kneeled on the seat masturbating as Brennan watched. He then approached her and she performed oral sex.

Brennan could later be seen pulling up his pants and walking away, the court facts stated.

The train guard could be seen nearby on CCTV and believed he could see Brennan urinating.

Chantell Gordon, 34, (pictured) was charged with willful and obscene exposure and offensive behaviour in a public place after the alleged daylight romp in Wollongong

Police were notified and Brennan told officers he had received oral sex from a woman.

'Two minutes later, police saw her (Gordon) and asked for an Opal card or a valid ticket which she was unable to provide,' court facts said.

'I'm in strife,' said father of three Shane Brennan, 38, after he was convicted over the train sex act and his girlfriend learned what he was up to

'When police located her to question her about the sex act she admitted she had given the man a blow job as it was her birthday and it was something she always wanted to do.'

A magistrate issued a bench warrant for Gordon's arrest.

Gordon, who has a lengthy criminal record and is affectionately known by locals as Channy, last week told Daily Mail Australia she couldn't recall the encounter.

She said she was trying to turn her life around.

During Brennan's case the previous week, a separate court heard his romp with Gordon began when she allegedly approached him on the platform and asked for sex.

Brennan said he declined but claimed Gordon started masturbating on the train carriage.

Brennan was caught by police and train station staff after leaving a 'disgusting mess' because he had rinsed his genitals with a bottle of Coca Cola.

Gordon was masturbating in the empty back carriage of the train and then performed oral sex

Shane Brennan (pictured), the father-of-three who received a criminal conviction for the encounter, has a white pride tattoo on his stomach and a long term partner at home

Shane Brennan was convicted and fined $700 for the sex incident which happened on a Sydney train (stock image)

Gordon said she was 'shocked' to learn she had been in the news.

'Someone told me yesterday and I didn't believe them because I haven't been in trouble,' she said.

She claimed police had only recently told her she hadn't been causing trouble.

'They said I hadn't been in trouble and stuff like that,' she said. 'They said I was getting a fine for (the sex incident)'.

Her co-accused Brennan, who has a 'white pride' tattoo on his stomach, was convicted and fined $700.

Brennan has since admitted being 'in strife' with his girlfriend of 12 years the train incident.

'What man would have knocked it back?' he asked.Malcolm Turnbull has proven to be a disappointment with many voters.

The Prime Minister continues to struggle in the opinion polls but the alternative Bill Shorten, who has close union ties to maintain his grip on the Labor leadership, could be even worse.

Both leaders lack conviction and in the case of Turnbull, he lacks authority among his own MPs after squandering much of the goodwill voters showed him in September 2015 when he deposed Tony Abbott.

He is also indecisive, changing his mind on key policies in a matter of days and is seemingly oblivious to what voters want, struggling to overcome the perception he's an out-of-touch multi-millionaire with a habourfront mansion in Point Piper.

Turnbull has now lost his 29th consecutive Newspoll, putting him one bad opinion poll away from the benchmark he set when he challenged his predecessor in September 2015.

The Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader are both unloved by voters, with only a third of Newspoll respondents satisfied with their performance.

Here are five reasons why the Prime Minister could go down in history as one of the worst leaders of all time - and why Bill Shorten as PM may be no better.

Malcolm Turnbull (pictured with Cher at Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras) has proven to be a disappointment with many voters

Turnbull (pictured in September 2015 challenging Tony Abbott) is unloved by voters, after presiding over a cost blowout in the NBN and flip-flopping on tax and gay marriage

MALCOLM TURNBULL

1. Weak on tax reform

After initially being well-received by voters, Turnbull quickly began to test their patience in March 2016 when he floated the idea of letting the states and territories levy their own income taxes, to fund health services, only to completely can the idea two days later.

He had also raised the idea of increasing the GST from 10 per cent, only to change his mind within a matter of weeks.

This, from a prime minister who had accused his predecessor Tony Abbott of being unable to provide 'the economic leadership our nation needs'.

Turnbull had a honeymoon with voters in September 2015, with 55 per cent of voters in his first month in the job preferring him as PM to Shorten, who was the choice of just 21 per cent of surveyed Australians.

On the night he became prime minister, Turnbull credited his New Zealand counterpart at the time, John Key, who was re-elected in 2011 despite raising the GST from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent.

Turnbull (pictured with U.S. President Donald Trump) is accused of lacking policy conviction

On the night he became prime minister, Turnbull credited his New Zealand counterpart at the time, John Key, as a leader who could explain 'complex issues and then make the case for them'

'John Key has been able to achieve very significant economic reforms in New Zealand by doing just that. By taking, by explaining complex issues and then making the case for them,' Turnbull said.

Yet in office, Australia's prime minister has failed to make the case for tax reform or raising the GST, exposing himself as a leader who lacks guts.

In a rarity for a recent Australian PM, Turnbull in his opening months in the job had a positive net approval rating of 38 per cent in November 2015, a far cry from Shorten's minus 31 at the time in Newspoll.

He doesn't believe in anything. He just chops and changes.

Yet he failed to use this goodwill to make bold decisions.

Former federal independent MP Tony Windsor said Turnbull had let people down after many swinging voters had held high expectations of the PM, who was a successful merchant banker and internet entrepreneur before entering politics in 2004.

'Turnbull's been an extraordinary disappointment,' he said.

'He doesn't believe in anything. He just chops and changes, 'I'll have a dose of this and some of that.'

Mr Windsor also claimed he was 'well up there' as one of the nation's worst performing prime ministers.

Malcolm Turnbull is struggling to overcome the perception he's an out-of-touch multi-millionaire with a habourfront mansion in Point Piper

Former independent MP Tony Windsor says Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) may go down as one of Australia's worst ever PMs

Veteran pollster Gary Morgan said while voters didn't hate Turnbull, they saw him as a PM who was failing to address their concerns and show leadership.

'The politicians are hypocritical, they take the electorate for mugs and they don't do what they know should be done,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

They take the electorate for mugs.

'He hasn't argued the case for less government expenditure.'

Federal governments from both sides of politics have failed to come to an arrangement with the states to get rid of inefficient state taxes, like hefty property stamp duty and payroll tax.

The lack of leadership on tax reform is infuriating to many voters with a Roy Morgan survey released in February showing it continued to be the top concern of Australians.

As PM and communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull has presided over a costlier and slower National Broadband Network

2. National Broadband Network

Before becoming prime minister in 2015, Malcolm Turnbull was the communications minister who presided over another cost blowout in the NBN.

His watered-down version of the project saw optical fibre cables connected to the street exchange instead of homes, yet the price of the project still ballooned from $36 billion when Labor was in power to $49 billion.

It's an inferior NBN, where homes are connected by old-fashioned copper wire to the National Broadband Network box on the street, known as the node.

This means broadband speeds are significantly slower, with download times of 70 megabits per second, the figure quoted by NBN Co.

This is much slower than the NBN fibre-to-the-premises product which has much faster speeds of one gigabit per second.

Across the Tasman Sea, 85 per cent of New Zealanders are getting fibre to their home, with much faster speeds of one gigabit per second.

The NBN Co has a government to ensure all Australian households have access to at least 25 megabits per second by 2020.

However from a political perspective, the NBN rollout is continuing to be plagued with delays, as Telstra prepares to roll out next year a next-generation 5G mobile phone network which will have internet download speeds that are 20 times faster than the NBN.

Under Turnbull's watch as both communications minister and PM, the federal government in 2015 reached a deal with Telstra, which saw taxpayers give $11 billion to the telecommunications giant to decommission its copper wire network and shift customers on to the NBN.

The PM from Sydney's ritzy eastern suburbs was an outspoken supporter of gay marriage and personally opposed a plebiscite on the issue but went ahead with a $122m postal vote survey

2. Gay marriage

The PM from Sydney's ritzy eastern suburbs was an outspoken supporter of gay marriage and personally opposed a plebiscite on the issue.

He could have used his authority as a new prime minister in late 2015 to stare down socially-conservative Liberal MPs, who were opposed to change, and demand a conscience vote in parliament be allowed on his side of politics.

He could have argued he had overthrown Tony Abbott so there would be a change in direction now that he was in charge.

Instead, two years was wasted debating an issue which polls consistently showed most Australians supported, draining away his support among voters as the matter dominated the national agenda.

Unable to take on the right-wing conservatives in his Liberal Party, the member for Wentworth proceeded with a $122 million postal vote survey in November last year.

The vote was a decisive Yes, with 61.6 per cent of Australians voting to allow same-sex marriage, versus a No vote of 38.4 per cent.

But the two-year delay in achieving change, so Turnbull could avoid a civil war in the Liberal Party, simply highlighted he was a leader with no authority to impose any kind of leadership even on a popular issue.

If he couldn't show leadership on an issue with high public support, it remains to be seen if he could make the case for an unpopular but necessary policy.

Mr Turnbull sat down for a Muslim Ramadan dinner with The Project's Waleed Aly during the 2016 election campaign which saw his government only narrowly re-elected

3. Campaigned badly in 2016

In May 2016, Turnbull called a double-dissolution election for July 2, using as a trigger the Senate's rejection of a bill to reinstate the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

The building industry watchdog was hardly mentioned during the 55-day campaign centred around the 'Jobs and Growth slogan.

The PM, who chastised his predecessor for being slogan-driven, only scraped back into office with a one-seat majority, and an even more obstructive Senate dominated by 20 demanding crossbenchers.

On election night, he gave an ungracious speech accusing Labor of lying about Medicare instead of being a statesman.

The whole charade of a double-dissolution election showed Turnbull to be a PM who lacked strategy.

Veteran public relations boss Prue MacSween said the poor election result showed Turnbull had no plan to govern after overthrowing Tony Abbott.

'It's just astounding to me that he must have been plotting to overthrow Abbott for months and months and months but when he got in he wasted a good year because he didn't have any policies,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'I have never seen a worse government from a PR perspective, from a strategic perspective they just haven't got a clue.

'It's really, really sad that we have a situation in this country. I feel very very, disheartened and I know so many people feel like they just have been betrayed.'

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce's affair with his former media adviser Vikki Campion sparked a very public spat with the prime minister

5. Barnaby Joyce affair ended up highlighting public anger at political expenses

The former deputy prime minister's affair with his 33-year-old media adviser Vikki Campion saw her moved to different Nationals offices.

Turnbull engaged in a very public spat with Joyce, with the prime minister describing his love affair as a 'error of judgement'. In return, his former deputy accused his of being 'inept' and making hurtful comments, exposing disunity in the most senior levels of the government.

While voters supported his ban on ministers sleeping with staff, they weren't impressed with how Ms Campion commanded a six-figure salary.

She was paid a reported $191,000 be a social media adviser to Nationals whip Damian Drum, after a stint working for Nationals minister Matt Canavan.

Pollster Gary Morgan said the saga highlighted how voters were sick of the political class, even if they didn't care so much about the affair between the deputy PM and his former adviser.

'What's upsetting people about politicians is they're self interested, their lack of understanding about the local issues and there's abuse of power there, the way they manage the system,' he said.

Prue MacSween, who specialises in brand management, said it was bizarre the Turnbull Government hadn't worked out a crisis strategy.

'The thing that really gets me is the hypocrisy: everybody in Canberra knew that this was going on,' she said.

'Why didn't they have some sort of a crisis management strategy in place?

'And why didn't Barnaby's girlfriend? She's supposed to be that hotshot communicator; my god, you wouldn't want her advising you on any media.'

Labor leader Bill Shorten maintains close links with the hardline Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union

BILL SHORTEN

1. Too close to militant trade unions

While Shorten hails from Labor's Right faction, he maintains close links with the militant, hard-left Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union and could let them influence Australia's industrial relations laws.

While Bob Hawke as Labor PM outlawed the old Builders Labourers Federation during the 1980s, Shorten has continued to rely on the CFMEU, which is renowned for using strong-arm tactics against the building industry.

The union is also a major donor to the Labor Party.

Last year, Shorten told striking CFMEU workers in Queensland existing industrial relations laws were like a cancer.

'We now have a situation where the laws of this land are being distorted,' he said in a recording that was reported by The Australian.

Shorten is a Labor leader who continues to rely on party donations from the CFMEU

'Where they are being mutated, where they're being metastasized like a cancer to undermine your existing conditions.'

Conservative columnist Janet Albrechtsen said this eposide showed Shorten was reliant on the CFMEU for Labor Party donations.

'We know the kinds of conversations he has with the CFMEU, because all the money comes from the unions. That's what funds the Labor Party,' she told Sydney radio 2GB.

All of the influence is being driven by the union movement.

'How can you possibly agree on a sensible industrial relations policy when all of the influence is being driven by the union movement that increasingly represents fewer and fewer workers in this country?'

With less than 10 per cent of private sector Australian workers belonging to a trade union, Shorten looks like a leader who would govern for the industrial relations interests of a small minority.

Labor's plan for a 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030 is recipe for higher power bills (Woodlawn wind farm near Canberra pictured)

2. Renewable energy policies

His party's renewable energy policy could also be a recipe for higher power prices and South Australian-style blackouts, with Labor committed to a 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030.

Australians are sick of high power prices with power bills across the nation increasingly by 20 per cent this financial year, equating to a $900 increase for average Sydney households.

Prue MacSween said Shorten was clueless about the effects green energy policies were having on power prices and transmission reliability.

'You just have to look at what's happening in South Australia - they're paying more for their energy than anybody else in this country,' she said.

'The man just has no idea and clearly is in denial.'

However, Shorten has hardly taken a political hit about the prospect of higher power bills under a Labor government.

That is because Turnbull waited two years to announce the end of renewal energy subsidies and axe the existing 20 per cent renewal energy target by 2020 renewable energy target, introduced by Labor 2009.

Still, Labor has a vexed record when it comes to power prices, or at least the perception it doesn't care about reducing the cost of living.

Labor lost the 2013 election after introducing a carbon tax.

But in a bid to appeal to progressive voters, who may otherwise support the Greens, Labor appears to be more focused on addressing climate change than bringing down power prices.

This could test the patience of voters if power prices continue to rise, even if the bill shock is often the result of bad state government policies on transmission networks.

Shorten has vowed privately to a conservationist to revoke Adani's coal mining licence

3. Mixed messages on jobs

During this month's Batman by-election campaign in Melbourne, Bill Shorten declared he was 'increasingly skeptical' about Indian resources giant Adani's proposed coal mine in Queensland's Galilee Basin.

That contradicted his promise to voters in regional regional Queensland he would be jobs-focused.

Verve Communications director Prue MacSween said that strategy would backfire politically.

'He's an each-way hitter. It's a little sad that Bill thinks that he won't be found out - the hypocrisy and the impersonation of a conman he has mastered,' she said.

'It's a pretty sad indictment on the rest of us.'

Complicating the issue is former Australian Conservation Foundation president Geoff Cousins' assertion last month that Shorten had promised him he would revoke Adani's coal mine licence if the environmental evidence didn't stack up.

That's despite the project having the support of Queensland's state Labor government, on the proviso it wasn't subsided by taxpayers.

Shorten has been mocked as a leader who is 'two faced' when it comes to support jobs in regional Queensland but opposing the Adani coal mine

Cousins told the ABC of his discussion with the federal Opposition Leader.

'When we are in government, if the evidence is as compelling as we presently believe it to be regarding the approval of the Adani mine, we will revoke the licence, as allowed in the act. That's a clear policy,' Mr Cousins quoted Mr Shorten as saying.

Mr Shorten's office confirmed he sought a meeting with the ACF and Mr Cousins to discuss the mine.

'It's no secret that Bill is deeply sceptical of the proposed Adani coal mine. He believes if it cannot stack up environmentally or commercially, it should not go ahead,' his office said in a statement to News Corp.

In trying to appeal to Greens voters in Melbourne, to win their preferences, Shorten looks like a leader selling out blue-collar workers in poorer parts of Australia.

Shorten supported a gay marriage plebiscite in 2013 only to be opposed to a public vote on the issue in 2017 (pictured at Melbourne rally celebrating resounding Yes vote)

4. Opportunistically flip-flopped on gay marriage

It's not just the Adani mine where Shorten is a flip-flopper who cares more about appeasing left-wing activist group GetUp! than ordinary voters.

His flip-flopping nature was also highlighted last year when he fiercely opposed the gay marriage postal vote survey, declaring Turnbull would be responsible for 'every hurtful bit of filth' in the public debate, after admitting in 2013 he was 'relaxed' about the idea of a plebiscite.

Ironically, of the 17 seats that voted No to gay marriage last year, 11 were held by the Labor Party.

Nine of those No voting electorates were Labor seats in suburban Sydney, mainly in the city's west which has Australia's highest concentration of Muslims who regard homosexuality as a sin.

Yet none of the Labor MPs whose seats voted No voted in the House of Representatives in accordance with their electorate.

Prue MacSween said it highlighted how Shorten was trying to appeal to Labor's conservative immigrant supporters without alienating socially left-wing voters.

'Bill, with the gay marriage issue, had his foot in both camps,' she said.

'He wanted to make sure he was covering his backside but at the same time wanting to appease and sleep with the gays but Labor, of course, has a very strong voting bloc of Muslims and people who would not be approving of gay marriage.'

Anthony Albanese was the preferred leadership candidate among Labor's rank-and-file members with Bill Shorten garnering just 41 per cent support

5. Even Labor Party members are lukewarm about him

The Opposition Leader, who continues to trail Turnbull in Newspoll's preferred prime minister rating, was supported by just 41 per cent of ordinary Labor rank-and-file members during a leadership contest with his Left-faction rival Anthony Albanese in October 2013.

Ordinary voters too would prefer someone other than Bill Shorten to lead the Australian Labor Party.

The first Newspoll for 2018, released last month, showed his Left-faction deputy Tanya Plibersek the top choice with 25 per cent support followed by Albanese on 24 per cent and Shorten third on 22 per cent.

Prue MacSween said Albanese was gunning for Shorten's job.

'Albanese's waiting and biding his time,' she said.

'I'm sure that if he gets a chance, he will pounce. He's already actively undermining Bill where he can in the sort of subtle way. Bill's looking over his shoulder.'

A Newspoll survey released in February showed Shorten's deputy Tanya Plibersek was more popular with voters

Senior Labor frontbencher Tony Burke insisted Shorten will lead Labor to the next election despite his lukewarm support from the public.

'We don't want to go back to the days, which the Liberal Party are still in, of constant leadership change and speculation,' he said.

Shorten will only remain leader because of new rule changes unveiled by his predecessor Kevin Rudd in 2013, to prevent a repeat of his 2010 knifing as a first-term prime minister.

Under rule changes, a Labor PM's leadership can't be declared vacant unless 75 per cent of federal MPs vote for a leadership spill.

In Opposition, 60 per cent of caucus has to consent to a spill motion.

Shorten, who was instrumental in bringing down Rudd in 2010 and Julia Gillard in 2013 is therefore protected, even if most of his colleagues don't want him.

Shorten, who was instrumental in bringing down Rudd in 2010 and Julia Gillard in 2013 is therefore protected, even if most of his colleagues don't want him

Malcolm Turnbull's collapsing support is a sign voters have made up their mind on his leadership

Where to from here?

Turnbull in September 2015 cited Tony Abbott's 30 consecutive Newspoll losses to justify knifing a first-term prime minister.

'It is clear that the people have made up their mind about Mr Abbott's leadership,' he said.

Less than two-and-a-half years later, the Turnbull Government is on borrowed time, with the prime minister this month chalking up his 29th consecutive Newspoll loss which would see the Coalition lose power in a landslide if the results were replicated at the next election.

With both leaders lacking conviction, it's no surprise voters aren't warming to either one of them.An Air Canada passenger jet with 67 people aboard made an emergency landing on Sunday after pilots observed smoke in the cockpit.

The flight was going from Toronto to Washington DC when it landed at an airport just outside the US capitol.

The aircraft from Toronto was originally bound for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, but it landed safety at Washington Dulles International Airport instead.

All 63 passengers and four crew members left the aircraft on the inflatable slides and no one was injured.

An Air Canada flight made an emergency landing just outside Washington DC after pilots reported the cockpit filling with smoke

All 63 passengers and four crew members were able to safely evacuate the plane on the inflatable slides. No one was injured during the incident

David Brown, a passenger on the flight, told CBC News Toronto that it took them 15 minutes to land after the pilot announced there was smoke in the cockpit.

'We smelled a slight burning odour, but there was no smoke or fire in the cabin,' he said.

'Passengers were calm and quiet after the flight attendants said we would be making an emergency landing and went through procedures.'

Another passenger said that some of the passengers were frightened during the event but still remained rather composed.

One runway at the Washington Dulles Airport was closed while crew members investigated the plane after it landed shortly after 6pm on Sunday.

But there were no delays because of the incident and all other runways were able to operate as normal.

Passengers were reportedly hugging each other and calling people once they were safely off the plane.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it would investigate the incident.

Neither the agency nor the airline provided any information about the origin of the smoke reported in the cockpit.Gossip Girl actor Ed Westwick has deleted his denials of rape and sexual assault

Gossip Girl actor Ed Westwick has deleted social media posts denying sexual assault allegations against him as prosecutors mull bringing charges.

'It has come to the attention of investigators that Mr. Westwick has removed denials about alleged rapes of the victims in this investigation from his social media accounts that he had posted last November,' a law enforcement source told Us Weekly.

In November, actress Kristina Cohen and former actress Aurelie Wynn claimed they were raped by the actor in 2014.

Creative producer Rachel Eck also claimed that he'd sexually assaulted her around the same time.

Cohen and Wynn were the first to come forward in November.

Westwick vehemently denied both claims on Twitter, writing: 'I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman. I certainly have never committed rape.'

Actress Kristina Cohen (left) and former actress Aurelie Wynn (right) were the first to come forward in November, both claiming that Westwick had raped them in 2014

He later wrote: 'It is disheartening and sad to me that as a result of two unverified and provably untrue social media claims, there are some in this environment who could ever conclude I have had anything to do with such vile and horrific conduct.

'I absolutely have not, and I am cooperating with the authorities so that they can clear my name as soon as possible.'

It is unclear when the denials were deleted.

Last week, the Los Angeles District Attorney confirmed that a case against Westwick had been submitted by police and was currently under review by prosecutors.

The British star, who played the character of dapper Chuck Bass (top right) in the teen drama Gossip Girl revolving around the fictional lives of upper-class adolescents living in Manhattan's Upper East Side, had cemented his place as a TV heartthrob

Westwick's lawyer did not respond to DailyMail.com's requests for comment at the time the lawsuit was filed.Barbara Wilson, 21, above, was arrested along with two accomplices for conspiring to sell $1million worth of fentanyl

Three Texans have been charged with drug conspiracy after they were found with $1million dollars worth of fentanyl in Ohio.

The Houston trio Anthony Robinson, 32, Darrius Lewis, 29, and Barbara Wilson, 21, were arrested on Tuesday after they were not only found with the drug, but also attempted to mail a package of fentanyl in Lucas County, Ohio.

The trio possessed enough of the dangerous opioid to 'kill everyone in Toledo several times over' according to US Attorney Justin Herdman.

They were arrested at an undisclosed Red Roof Inn in Lucas County, Ohio where authorities found with 1.1lbs (.05kg) of fentanyl and about $8,500 in cash in the motel room, according to the Toledo Blade.

The motel manager raised alarm to authorities on Monday reporting 'three persons had just checked into the hotel and that they were acting strange', according to the affidavit.

The tip led authorities to a South Toledo post office at 6020 W. Bancroft St. where a package the trio sent was seized and found to conceal 2.2lbs (1kg) of fentanyl stuffed inside a coffee can and wrapped in heat-sealed plastic, with a delivery address for Texas, according to the affidavit.

Darrius Lewis, 29, left, and Anthony Robinson, 32, right, were also arrested in the plot that saw the three attempt to mail 2.2lbs of fentanyl to Texas from an Ohio post office

Toledo, Ohio police shared this post revealing the massive amount of fentanyl the three possessed in the mail package as well as in their motel room

The total of 3.3lbs of fentanyl was seized and has a street value of $1million

Robinson and Wilson drove to the post office on Tuesday in separate cars.

Robinson reportedly entered the office with a package while Wilson returned a rental car then returned to the motel in Robinsons car, according to the Dallas Morning News.

The total of 3.3lbs (1.5lbs) has a street value of $1million, authorities say.

When questioned by police, Robinson claimed that Wilson was his half-sister and they had driven to Toledo from Texas to attend a wedding.

Lewis told police he flew to a Detroit airport and then took an Uber to Toledo to meet Wilson to help her drive back to Texas.

Robinson and Lewis have a history of 'prior arrests and convictions for narcotics and firearm-related offenses' according to the affidavit.

Atip led authorities to a South Toledo post office at 6020 W. Bancroft St. where Robinson and Wilson were caught on camera entering in separate cars

They were arrested after police used a search warrant to raid their room at an unspecified Red Roof motel in Lucas County where they found a 1.1lbs of the drug and $8,500 in cash (File image of Lucas County Red Roof above)

Robinson was also released from prison in February.

Fentanyl is 'a dangerous synthetic opioid with deadly consequences for users and those in law enforcement,' special agent Steve Francis of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement homeland security investigations in Detroit said.

They are being held at the Lucas County Jail in Ohio.

On Wednesday in an initial court appearance they were each charged with conspiracy with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

A pretrial hearing is set for March 29, according to the Toledo Blade.

Toledo police posted an image on Twitter of the massive drug bust.

'"The fentanyl seized last night is enough to kill everyone in Toledo several times over." Great work, Toledo Bulk Cash Smuggling Task Force!'Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton claims it was in the 'public interest' to grant a visa to a foreign au pair, after using his ministerial powers to intervene in her case.

The visa was granted after a young woman's bid to enter Australia was ruled unlawful following her detention at Brisbane International Airport.

Over the past two years Mr Dutton's department has been trying to suppress key details of the case and the reasons underpinning the decision.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton claims it was in the 'public interest' to grant a visa to a foreign au pair after she made a phone call when detained at Brisbane Airport

AAP sought access to details surrounding the case under freedom of information laws, but documents supplied were heavily redacted citing privacy concerns. AAP is now awaiting an outcome from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

An au pair is a person under 30 who travels abroad for a temporary period and lives with a host family. They generally receive free board, meals and spending money in exchange for child care and light housework duties.

In this case, a young woman had her eVisitor visa cancelled at the Brisbane airport on June 17, 2015, which rendered her an 'unlawful non-citizen' under migration laws

AAP understands she made a phone call to a contact while detained at the airport and was 'quickly' granted a new visa which allowed her to lawfully enter Australia.

A document tabled in parliament shows the woman was granted a tourist visa (subclass 600) after Mr Dutton used his ministerial discretion to intervene in the case.

The young woman had her eVisitor visa cancelled at the Brisbane airport which rendered her an 'unlawful non-citizen' under migration laws

'Having regard to this person's particular circumstances and personal characteristics, I have decided to exercise my discretionary powers... as it would be in the public interest to grant this person a visa,' the parliamentary document says.

'I have decided that as a discretionary and humanitarian act to an individual with ongoing needs it is in the interests of Australia as a humane and generous society to grant this person a (visa).'

An Immigration official familiar with the visa cancellation process at the airport was 'very surprised at this unusual set of events'.

'It is hard to see how the grant of the new visa ... was genuinely in the public interest,' the source told AAP.

'It is not very common for visas to be granted at the border after the visa a person arrived on is cancelled.'

The source said usually people were put on the next available flight home.

Analysis of ministerial discretion statements for 2015 tabled in parliament shows the bulk of these visas are granted to asylum seekers requiring bridging or temporary humanitarian visas or former residents returning to Australia.

A former department official told AAP under the ministerial discretion powers 'the minister is God. He can do whatever he likes.'

Ministerial submissions concerning the au pair did not involve consultation with the department secretary or the head of Customs.

Mr Dutton has declined to explain why it was in the public interest to grant a visa to the woman and refused to shed light on her 'ongoing needs'.

Mr Dutton has denied he personally knew the au pair and that she worked for him or his family. The minister and his wife Kirilly have three young children.

'The decision did not breach the statement of ministerial standards,' Mr Dutton told AAP in 2016.

Ministerial standards under the Turnbull and Abbott governments state: 'it is critical that ministers do not use public office for private purposes.'

Mr Dutton has declined to explain why it was in the public interest to grant a visa to the woman

'Ministers are required to ensure official decisions made by them as ministers are unaffected by bias or... considerations of private advantage.'

'Ministers must ensure they act with integrity - that is through the lawful and disinterested exercise of statutory and other powers available to their office.'

During the Administrative Appeals Tribunal hearing earlier this month, AAP's lawyer Surya Palaniappan argued the news outlet was not seeking the woman's name and that releasing details which might relate to her employer would not specifically identify her.

She said there were strong public interest grounds for disclosing further information from the FOI documents.

'Even if the minister has somewhat of an unfettered discretion under the Migration Act, he's nevertheless subject to these (ministerial) standards,' she told the hearing.

The department's lawyer Brooke Griffin argued disclosure of personal information of the au pair, including country of origin, employer and conversations with Border Force officials, would be unreasonable because it would breach privacy and make her identifiable.

'There is no evidence whatsoever, before the tribunal, of any personal link between the minister and the (au pair),' she argued.

'Nor could it be said that the release of the personal information ... will shed any light whatsoever on the allegation... at the moment it is mere speculation.'

Tribunal member Chris Puplick, a former Liberal senator, promised to make a decision on the case 'reasonably expeditiously' but gave no time frame.Kurt Butler, 39, has been named as one of the people who washed up on a Queensland beach last Saturday

Police are investigating why two dead bodies washed up on a Queensland beach with a number of unexplained injuries.

Kurt Butler, 39, was found alongside a 38-year-old Canadian woman just south of the northernmost tip of Bribie Island near Brisbane on Saturday.

The resident of Pelican Waters on the nearby mainland is believed to have been a FIFO worker at a mining company in Papua New Guinea.

Neighbours told The Courier Mail that Mr Butler was a friendly neighbour who was 'always happy for a chat'.

A volunteer checking for turtle nests discovered the pair early Saturday morning after they were said to be floating in the water for more than 24 hours.

An abandoned jet ski which was in a nearby passage is believed to have belonged to Mr Butler.

Both he and the Canadian victim were found in swimming apparel but without life jackets with police remaining suspicious of their unexplained injuries.

'There are some marks that we are concerned about,' Senior Sergeant Scott Wiggins told reporters at Caloundra.

'There are some injuries to the bodies but we are conducting examinations in relation to those injuries to see if they were caused by the environment.'

The bodies were found on the open surf side of the island at the high tide mark, the jet ski linked to the pair was located on the calmer, mainland side of the island.

Police are treating the discovery of the bodies as suspicious after they were found with unexplained injuries

Both bodies were found in swimming apparel but without life jackets, Mr Butler's jet ski was also discovered nearby

'There are some injuries to the bodies but we are conducting examinations in relation to those injuries to see if they were caused by the environment,' police told reporters in Queensland

Water police, detectives and crime officers have launched an investigation.

'It's fairly common for people to park their tinnies or jet skis in the calm waters... and walk across Bribie Island to the open side a go for a swim in the surf,' Sen Sgt Wiggins said.

Anyone with information has been urged to contact Policelink on 131 444 or provide information using the online form 24hrs per day.The cops who shot and killed Stephon Clark have not explained why they muted to their bodycams just moments after they gunned the unarmed black father down.

Sacramento Police officers fired 20 times at Clark, after chasing him through the streets at night, into the backyard of his grandparents' house, where he'd been staying.

Clark, 22, died at the scene holding a cellphone, which cops said they mistook as a gun.

The department released two body camera videos, the 911 call and the helicopter footage on Wednesday after the shooting occurred on March 18.

But officials have not explained why an officer can be heard saying 'Hey, mute' seven minutes after they gunned down Clark.

Police have released shocking video that shows the moment cops shot dead an unarmed father-of-two in his own back yard

Officers fired 20 times at Stephon Alonzo 'Zoe' Clark, after chasing him through the streets at night, into the backyard of his grandparents' house (pictured after being shot)

The muting of the video prompted outrage, with many questioning what was said in the moments after the shooting that could have been made public.

Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn told KCRA that muting the footage has added extra tension to the investigation.

'Muting is one of those things that we have to take a look at,' Hahn said. 'Any time there is muting on this camera, it builds suspicion - as it has in this case. And that is not healthy for us in our relationship with our community.'

But he did not give an explaination as to why the officers might have thought it was necessary.

Body cameras were implemented last year in the Sacramento Police Department with specific rules on when they should be activated.

But these rules do not specify when the camera is allowed to be muted.

The department policy includes 16 instances when a body camera is required to be activated by officers, CNN reported.

Two officers are then seen moving up the side of the house and confront him

As Clark lay dying on the ground, the officers yelled at him to 'show me your hands!'

These instances include vehicle and on-foot pursuits, like what was seen when officers chased Clark through the Sacramento neighborhood.

Officers are allowed to deactivate their cameras during certain circumstances at their discretion.

Some allowances include when officers are having a confidential conversation or when they are trying to conserve the camera's battery.

But the policy is unclear on if muting and deactivating a camera are one in the same.

'I think it's a policy we should look at very carefully and perhaps change entirely,' Mayor Darrell Steinberg said during a news conference Friday.

Seth Stoughton, an assistant law professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, told CNN that there are some circumstances where a cop would want to mute their camera.

One reason could be because they realized the recordings would be released, so they wouldn't want their every word to be analyzed by the public.

'They were in a situation where they didn't want a word to be scrutinized,' he said.

Police officers searching for a suspect who was seen breaking car windows in a Sacramento shot dead Stephon Clark. The 22-year-old father of two boys died in his grandmother's backyard

Police said officers commanded Clark to show his hands, and ultimately shot him out of fear for their safety because they mistakenly thought he was pointing a gun at them

The police officers were in the Sacramento neighborhood on March 18 searching for someone who was smashing in car windows.

Clark was allegedly observed breaking car windows and shattering a sliding door at an occupied house.

According to the news release, officers entered the front yard and observed Clark along the side of the residence. The ordered him to stop and show his hands.

'The suspect immediately fled from the officers and ran towards the back of the home,' the statement read.

Officers pursued Clark and tracked him to the backyard of his family's home. There, police say the 22-year-old 'turned and advanced towards the officers while holding an object which was extended in front of him,' and which they mistook for a firearm being pointed at them.

'Fearing for their safety, the officers fired their duty weapons striking the suspect multiple times,' police stated.

Five minutes later, backup arrived and Clark was placed in handcuffs before officers began life-saving efforts. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The police department has yet to offer an explanation on why the body camera was muted after the shooting.Salim Mehajer's estranged wife doesn't want to be in the same room as him when she gives evidence at a hearing over his alleged breach of an apprehended violence order.

The controversial businessman unsuccessfully opposed an application by prosecutors on Monday for Aysha Learmonth to instead give evidence via video link, with his lawyer saying she was being 'nothing more than a drama queen'.

'My client's view is this is nothing more than the alleged victim grandstanding and trying to demonstrate her self-importance,' Geoffrey Foster said at Burwood Local Court.

Scroll down for video

Controversial Sydney businessman Salim Mehajer appeared in court on Monday over his alleged breach of an apprehended violence order in November (pictured in December)

Mehajer unsuccessfully opposed an application by prosecutors on Monday for Aysha Learmonth (pictured together) to instead give evidence via video link

Mehajer allegedly violated the AVO taken out by police on behalf of Ms Learmonth by posting an image of the couple together to Instagram in November. The post was deleted amid claims from the 31-old-year-old that his Instagram account had been hacked (pictured)

But magistrate Jacqueline Trad ultimately granted the application, saying Ms Learmonth gave physical and mental reasons for not wanting to come to the court with a supporting document from a medical practitioner.

She will now give video evidence from a Sydney police station.

Mehajer allegedly violated the AVO taken out by police on behalf of Ms Learmonth by posting an image of the couple together to Instagram in November. He is also accused of parking at the back of her apartment.

The post was deleted amid claims from the 31-old-year-old that his Instagram account had been hacked.

Mehajer, who is behind bars accused of staging a car accident to get out of facing court for bashing a taxi driver, was accused this week of sending $20million to Lebanon.

Police are said to have prepared a report on the alleged transfer to hand to the Australian Tax Office.

Mehajer's (pictured after his arrest in November) lawyer said Ms Learmonth was being 'nothing more than a drama queen'

There is no suggestion that the alleged transfer was illegal, but it attracted police attention due to the large sums involved, reported The Australian.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted New South Wales Police for comment.

The new allegation comes after it was revealed that Mehajer has been accused of selling anxiety and pain killer drugs.

Police allegedly found 50 alprazolam tablets, commonly traded under the name Xanax, and 174 tablets of Enzone and Targin during a raid on his Lidcombe property in November last year.

Police delayed releasing details of the alleged drug haul because they were waiting for results to confirm what the drugs were.

Mehajer has been declared bankrupt by a Federal Circuit Court judge after one of his companies failed to pay a debt of over $200,000 to its creditors

The company which built a staircase (pictured) at his lavish Lidcombe home supported the bankruptcy application

Mehajer was declared bankrupt by a Federal Circuit Court judge on Tuesday after one of his companies failed to pay a debt of over $200,000.

The petitioning creditor for the bankruptcy order was the liquidator of Mehajer's property development business, SM Project Developments.

Other creditors, including the Australian Taxation Office and the company which built a staircase at his lavish Lidcombe home, supported the application.

Judge Justin Smith on Tuesday rejected his lawyer's argument that the bankruptcy notice was invalid.

Mehajer's multi-million-dollar estate, including his Lidcombe home (pictured) will now be managed by a trustee who will take control of his property and financial affairs

Mehajer made headlines after causing chaos and shutting down streets during his lavish wedding to now former wife Aysha

The order means Mehajer's multi-million-dollar estate will be managed by a trustee who will take control of his property and financial affairs - and deal with his creditors.

Legal costs of the bankruptcy application totally $20,524 will also come out of his estate.

The bankruptcy order comes as the 31-year-old faces a string of criminal charges.

His dream of becoming prime minister is well and truly shattered, as he continues to fight legal battles including electoral fraud claims and allegations he breached an AVO taken out by his former wife.

Mehajer was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after he threw an EPTPOS machine at the driver's face outside Sydney's Star casino in April last year.

He is accused of staging a car crash to avoid court over the matter - and defrauding an insurance company after he insured his Mercedes for over $150,000.

During a bail hearing last month, Mehajer said his situation was 'an absolute mess', with frozen bank accounts affecting his business, family, employees and investors.

Being incarcerated and having only one phone call a day was making it 'ever so difficult' to turn his fortunes around, Mehajer said.

'I am here between four walls and letting everything collapse... this is going to be a catastrophe,' he predicted.

Mehajer could face a lengthy jail term if convicted of perverting the course of justice and conspiring to cheat and defraud over the alleged staged crash.

Perverting the course of justice attracts a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

The 31-year-old is currently behind bars awaiting trial after allegedly faking a car crash to avoid a court appearance over the assault of a taxi driver

Mehajer is accused of staging the car crash and defrauding an insurance company, days after he'd insured his Mercedes for more than $150,000

The businessman was also last month found guilty of assaulting Channel Seven journalist Laura Banks.

The incident took place outside Day Street police station on April 2 last year, where Mehajer had been taken early that morning following the taxi driver incident.

Ms Banks had been standing in the doorway of a Porsche trying to quiz Mehajer when he slammed the car door against her.

He was found guilty of assault occasioning bodily over the incident, which left her with hand and back injuries.

The bankruptcy order comes as the 31-year-old faces a string of criminal charges

Mehajer will remain behind bars until his matter over the alleged staged car crash is heard on March 28.

He first captured the public's attention in 2015 when his wedding shut down streets in Sydney's west.

He hired four helicopters that landed in a local park, while his fiancee Aysha travelled with a $50 million motorcade of 45 motorbikes and 35 luxury cars.

In a later television interview, he stood at a lectern and said he would like to be prime minister.

'I'd like to make my way up to the very top spot,' he said. 'That would [be] my dream come true.'

Mehajer was last month found guilty of assault occasioning bodily harm against TV reporter Laura Banks (left) outside a Sydney police station last yearThe Pennsylvania school district that stocked its classrooms with a bucket of stones last week has announced that they will replace the rocks with armed guards.

Blue Mountain School District put a five-gallon bucket of river stones - which are smooth and used for landscaping - in the closet of every elementary, middle and high school classroom on Friday.

But on Sunday, David Helsel, the superintendent of the district, wrote on Facebook that the district will be putting armed guards in schools in a letter addressed to parents, students and staff.

David Helsel (pictured), the president of the Blue Mountain School District in Pennsylvania, the district that stocked its classrooms with a bucket of stones last week announced on Sunday that they will replace the rocks with armed guards

Helsel wrote on Facebook that the district will be putting armed guards in schools in a letter (pictured) addressed to parents, students and staff

'As all of you are aware, recently there has been a great deal of media attention brought to Blue Mountain School District.

'This attention was due to social media posts that took comments out of context and misrepresented our actual planned response to armed intruders (particularly with the planned use of stones),' the post read.

'This unfortunate circumstance has increased our concern regarding the possibility that something may happen because of the media attention. Starting tomorrow [Monday] and into the near future, we have arranged for additional armed security for our buildings.

Helsel said the district will continue to reevaluate the situation moving forward.

On Friday, the district stocked every classroom with a bucket of stones so students as young as four could use them to fight off shooters.

Students were encouraged to arm themselves with a stone and get out of the shooter's line of sight rather crawl under their desks, which the president of the district believes makes them more vulnerable.

Blue Mountain School District (pictured) has 2,700 students and is located 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia

Helsel told ABC News: 'We've been trying to be proactive just in case.

'We wanted to provide some type of last response to an intruder... rather than crawling under a desk and getting shot.'

Hesel said he still advises teachers evacuate their students if an armed shooter gains access to a school building.

But if the intruder gets near a certain class, they should bolt the door and arm themselves with one of the stones.

These can be used if the shooter gains access, he said, adding: 'How can you aim a gun if you're being pelted with rocks?

'While I don't like that we need to do this, this response is better than doing nothing.'

Blue Mountain School District has 2,700 students and is located 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia.A young couple has been jailed for not taking their nine-week old baby to hospital after she was found to have 35 bone fractures.

Perth's Sarah Jane Mary Deal, 24, and her former partner Hayden Shane Brooks, 25, didn't take their baby girl to the hospital for fear they would lose their Centrelink payments.

Deal and Brooks were told by a Perth doctor in May 2016 to urgently take their daughter to hospital because she was having difficulty breathing and had sunken eyes.

Deal and Brooks both pleaded guilty at Perth's District Court (pictured) to engaging in conduct that may result in harm to the child, for their failure to take the girl to hospital

The child wasn't taken to hospital until two weeks later when she was discovered to have breaks in every long bone in her body, bruises on her face, and an injury to her eye.

In an interview with the police, Deal said she didn't take the girl to hospital earlier because she feared she would lose her single parent Centrelink when authorities found she was living with her then partner, Brooks.

Deal and Brooks both pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct that may result in harm to the child, for their failure to take the girl to hospital, the ABC reported.

They were not charged with bashing the child because it couldn't be proven how she sustained the injuries.

Family members of the young family told the court they witnessed the couple 'behaving roughly' with her.

One claimed to hear the child 'screaming like she was getting murdered' on one occasion.

One family member claimed to hear the child (stock) 'screaming like she was getting murdered' on one occasion

District Court Judge Alan Troy said there was little doubt the 'horrific' injuries were inflicted deliberately.

He described the couple's failure to seek medical help for the child was 'inconceivable' and 'a profound breach of trust'.

'You both must have known she was in severe pain, that she had been deliberately injured,' he said.

He noted the girl had since recovered from her injuries and was happy and healthy.

Deal was sentenced to 18 months, and Brooks to 20 months in prison.

They will both be eligible for parole after serving half their sentences.Former deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has officially listed his former media adviser, Vikki Campion, as his partner.

Joyce, 50, is expecting his first child with the former journalist in a matter of weeks, and has been under immense pressure to list his relationship with the Australian Parliament.

Last Monday, he updated his parliamentary records to announce Ms Campion as his partner, and listed her property, shares, and bank account on his register.

Ms Campion, 33, has a property in Braddon, Canberra, which the couple are looking to 'rent out as an investment'.

Barnaby Joyce (left) has officially declared pregnant girlfriend Vikki Campion (right) as his partner to Parliament

Joyce confirmed Campion was his partner to reporters on February 13, but missed the 28-day deadline to declare his change in circumstances to Parliament

Joyce confirmed his split with wife and mother of his four children, Natalie, in December.

On February 13, he confirmed he was in a relationship with Vikki Campion. The pair are expecting a son to be born this month, and have been living in a rent-free apartment in Armidale.

Just 10 days later, Joyce resigned from his role as leader of the National Party and as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.

Earlier this month, after resigning his titles, Joyce told reporters the paternity of Campion's unborn child was a 'grey area', but that he would raise the child as his own.

Ms Campion, 33, is pregnant with Joyce's first son and fifth child. The New England MP is already a father to four daughters

Joyce also listed Ms Campion's Braddon home, her shares and savings account in his Register of Members' Interests

Joyce's relationship with Ms Campion came to light just weeks after he declared in Parliament he had separated with wife Natalie

Parliamentary rules dictate Joyce had 28 days from the day he declared Ms Campion his partner to declare a change of circumstance.

If a member of Parliament fails to update their register when circumstances change, they risk being found in contempt of parliament.

For Joyce to come under any disciplinary action, a Member of Parliament or member of the public would need to contact the House of Representatives Standing Committee of Privileges and Member's Interests to complain.

There would then be a full investigation by the committee, and punishment, if any, is decided on a case by case basis.

Joyce could still face disciplinary action for failing to disclose his relationship with Campion (pictured) within 28 daysDonald Trump ignored the bombshell interview with Stormy Daniels on Sunday night, and tweeted about a new book instead.

The president posted on Sunday night about a book by journalist Howie Carr, that 'everyone is talking about', called 'What Really Happened: How Donald J. Trump saved America from Hillary Clinton'.

He wrote: @HowieCarrShow just wrote a book which everyone is talking about. He was a great help. He is a veteran journalist who had a great influence in NH and beyond. He calls it the most amazing political campaign of modern times. The book is called, What Really Happened. Enjoy!'

Donald Trump ignored the bombshell interview with Stormy Daniels on Sunday night, and tweeted about a new book instead

The president arrived at Air Fore Base Andrews on Sunday night, without first lady Melania, 40 minutes before the interview aired

Trump emerged on social media just hours after porn star Daniels went on 60 Minutes to say she had unprotected sex with the president, and then was threatened to stay quiet.

She claimed that Trump told her she was 'special' and reminded him of daughter Ivanka during their tryst.

The adult actress's lawyer Michael Avenatti also accused Trump and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, of 'thuggish' behavior.

The president arrived at Air Fore Base Andrews on Sunday night, without first lady Melania, 40 minutes before the interview aired.

He gave a thumbs up to reporters as he boarded Marine One but did not answer shouted questions about the show.

The New York Times reported that Trump had dinner with his lawyer Cohen on Saturday night.

The first couple spent the weekend at the 'Winter White House,' the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, after a week of sending out mixed message about the state of their marriage.

The White House confirmed on Sunday that Melania stayed in Florida during the 60 Minutes interview.

Trump salutes as he steps off Air Force One at Air Force Base Andrews , 40 minutes before the interview aired

Trump was seen walking across the South Lawn of the White House from Marine One on Sunday evening after a weekend in Florida

Stormy Daniels claims she had unprotected sex with Trump and spanked him with a magazine during their alleged affair, but was never physically attracted to himAdvertisement

The first passengers on board the inaugural Qantas non-stop 17-hour flight from Perth to London have shared their in-flight experience after the historic Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner landed in London Heathrow.

The 17 hour and 20 minute journey on a plane called Emily ended a few minutes ahead of schedule at 5.02am on Sunday after travelling 9,000 miles without stopping.

Self proclaimed 'aviation geek' Wayne Kwong was a passenger in economy for the 17-hour flight and shared several photos to social media detailing his journey.

Wayne Kwong rode in economy for the 17 hour flight and shared photos detailing his journey. 'Tasty, filling but not heavy on your stomach!' he wrote describing his meal (pictured)

Passengers on board shared photos of the specially crafted menu, complimentary amenity bags and the self-serve pantry, loaded with free snacks and drinks (pictured)

A free-for-all snack cabinet was available onboard where passengers could access food and drinks throughout the flight (pictured)

He shared photos of the menu, uploading a photo of a chicken breast accompanied by a glass of wine.

'Specially designed meals for this ultra long-haul flight. Tasty, filling but not heavy on your stomach! Well Done Qantas,' he wrote.

The legroom was spacious and there was a 'lovely retro pillow' to help prevent knee injuries for taller passengers, Mr Kwong told Yahoo 7.

The aircraft is twice as fuel-efficient as the Boeing 747, has lower cabin noise, larger windows, improved air quality and technology to reduce turbulence.

Meals were designed to maintain hydration, aid sleep and reduce jet lag, according to the airline. Pictured is one of the snacks served on the flight

Passengers were greeted with complimentary amenity bags, which included a sleeping mask, ear buds, a Qantas fleece blanket and a toothbrush (pictured)

Inside the cabin (pictured) not everything was smooth sailing as the flight experienced some turbulence from Cyclone Marcus and leg room was cramped

Passengers on-board shared photos of the specially crafted menu, complimentary amenity bags and the self-serve pantry, loaded with free snacks and drinks.

The flight was 24 per cent further than the UK's previous longest route, operated by Garuda Indonesia between Heathrow and Jakarta which is just 7,275 miles in comparison.

The inaugural trip took off with more than 200 passengers and 16 crew members, and those on board began the journey with a round of applause.

One of the passengers on the historic flight was Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, who is pictured checking in for the service at Perth airport

One of the cabin crew comes through the cabin offering drinks during the inaugural flight. A crew of 16 were in charge of keeping the passengers safe and comfortable

On arrival into London Heathrow, the aircraft was greeted by Qantas staff who waved both Australian flags and the Union flag

Traditional Australian dancers and even a kangaroo met with passengers as well as the crew after they left the aircraft in London

The plane had 42 business class flat-bed seats, 28 premium economy seats and 166 economy seats.

Passengers were greeted with complimentary amenity bags, which included a sleeping mask, ear buds, a Qantas fleece blanket and a toothbrush.

There was a main meal, mid-flight, morning bakery and breakfast menus, as well as a free-for-all snack cabinet passengers could access throughout the flight for treats.

Passenger Rachel Heath said the plane had the 'smoothest of landings' once arriving in London on Sunday morning

'Free WiFi wasn't good enough,' wrote one disatisfied passenger during a complimenary tea break

Dinner offerings included, cheese ravioli with leek and mushroom cream sauce; and chicken with red rice and roasted Mediterranean vegetables.

The meals were designed to maintain hydration, aid sleep and reduce jet lag, according to the airline.

But to the dismay of many, free wifi was not available on the flight so passengers were not able detail every moment of their trip.

Another frequent complaint was the lack of legroom.

According to business class passenger Robert Williamson, a mining executive from Perth, the flight was 'was surprisingly good  above my expectation', he told the Independent.

But economy passenger Peter Robinson, a builder from Liverpool, begged to differ.

He said the specially crafted food items were bland and 'ordinary', but admitted the flight was 'good, quicker than I thought.'

An infographic showing the Dreamliner aircraft that Qantas are using on the route. It has a range of 14,400 kilometres or almost 9,000 miles

Although passengers on-board the long haul flight gave it fairly positive reviews, others were skeptical it was as smooth sailing as described.

Most were concerned they wouldn't be able to walk or feel their behinds after spending more than half a day glued to their seats.

Others drew on their experiences of flying for 12 hours as cause to never subject themselves to 17 hours on a plane.

While some were upset that the non-stop flight meant no cigarettes.

After being parked at Heathrow for eight hours, the plane was scheduled to turn right back around to Perth for another non-stop 17 hour flight for a second run.

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce, who was one of the passengers on the inaugural flight, described it as a major milestone for Australia as well as global aviation.

He said: 'This is a truly historic flight that opens up a new era of travel. For the first time, Australia and Europe have a direct air link.

'The original Kangaroo Route from Australia to London was named for the seven stops it made over four days back in 1947. Now we can do it in a single leap.

'The response to the flight has been amazing, both for the attention it's received since we announced it and the bookings we've seen coming in. It's great for Australian tourism, for business travellers and for people visiting friends and family on both sides of the world.'

Mr Joyce said a huge amount of work had gone into improving the experience for customers taking the 17-hour journey.

A timeline by Qantas showing the changes it has made to its fleet culminating in the aircraft which flies their new Perth to London route

He added: 'This is hands-down the most comfortable aircraft that Qantas has ever put in the sky.

'Boeing designed the Dreamliner with features to reduce jetlag, turbulence and noise. We've taken that a step further with our cabin design, giving passengers more space in every class as well as bigger entertainment screens and more personal storage.

'We've worked with the University of Sydney and our consulting chef Neil Perry to create a menu that helps the body cope better with jetlag and adjusted the timing of when we serve food to encourage sleep.'

The daily QF9 begins in Melbourne, flying to Perth before then flying non-stop to London. Qantas has adjusted the timing of some domestic services into Perth so that passengers from Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane can join the flight to London.

Now, Qantas customers can choose from three routes between Australia and London  the direct Perth-London service on the Dreamliner; a reinstated Sydney-Singapore-London service on the A380; and via Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth to London via Dubai with partner Emirates on a mix of A380 and 777 aircraft.

EXCLUSIVE On board the RETURN flight to Perth: Traveller on the first direct service from the UK to Australia reveals he felt so lively on landing that 'it almost felt like a trick'

By Jonathan Thompson

And just like that, Emily arrived in Australia. This morning, at 12.40pm local time (5.40am BST) the first ever direct flight from London to Australia landed in Perth, making aviation history.

Qantas' Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner  nicknamed 'Emily'  touched down to no little fanfare in Australia's sunniest city.

Fire trucks ceremoniously squirted water cannons, a crowd cheered and TV crews recorded 236 blinking passengers stepping off the historic flight and into the embers of Australian summer, all looking surprisingly lively. And I felt genuinely relaxed (though the business class seat helped, admittedly).

Traveller Jonathan Thompson is pictured here at London Heathrow before boarding Qantas's historic first direct flight from the UK to Australia

Our journey had taken just 16 hours and 30 minutes (15 minutes ahead of schedule) but it had been years in the making  the fruits of a decade of dedicated seasonal air pattern analysis for starters, and Qantas is justifiably proud to have finally achieved it.

Not only will the journey between the UK and Australia now be significantly shorter (four hours less than the next shortest flight, via Dubai), it will also be noticeably more comfortable aboard the Boeing Dreamliner. This sleek, parabolic panther of an aircraft boasts multiple advantages over its rivals, including softer cabin noise, larger windows, anti-turbulence technology, improved air quality and more space in every cabin. It's all designed to lessen jet lag - and it appears to work.

Dignitaries, business professionals, reuniting families, journalists and a smattering of celebrities  comedian Adam Hills and actress Gemma Atkinson were among those disembarking Qantas Flight 10 - all looked remarkably energetic considering they'd just travelled 9,009 miles from the other side of the planet.

Qantas' Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner  nicknamed 'Emily' - touched down at 12.40pm local time today in Perth. Jonathan is pictured here with First Officer Jim Eaglen

And I felt refreshed and raring to go.

The Dreamliner definitely makes a difference. It almost felt like a trick - like I couldn't really be in Australia, because I hadn't earned it. But ultimately I'm not complaining. It has gone from a full day flight to an overnight flight - psychologically more akin to a trip to California now.

The most senior of the plane's four pilots  the affable Captain Andrew Simpson  was also full of beans, and understandably upbeat after completing such a momentous flight.

'This is absolutely fantastic, a real game changer for the world of aviation,' he said. 'For the first time, Australia and Europe have a direct air link, and that is a big deal. It's a major honour and extremely humbling for me to be at the pointy end of this particular plane.'

Jonathan, pictured left in his business class pod, said that the direct flight makes the journey to Perth from the UK akin to a trip to California. Pictured right is one of his meals - a traditional British roast

The Dreamliner boasts several advantages over its rivals - softer cabin noise, larger windows, anti-turbulence technology, improved air quality and more space in every cabin

'Refreshed and raring to go': Jonathan gives the direct flight the thumbs up in Perth

Our journey itself was almost ludicrously smooth - the seatbelt sign did not flicker on even once, with the only remotely rough patch of air experienced a few hundred miles north of the Maldives, before the Dreamliner tore away across the Indian Ocean.

There were some nice touches with regards to the on-board service too: every passenger's plastic water bottle was refilled, never replaced, while all of the meals had been specifically designed by chef Neil Perry, in consultation with experts from The Charles Perkins Centre at Sydney University, to stave off jetlag.

Back at London Heathrow's Terminal 3, our take off had been marked in style too, with actors dressed as kangaroos and surfers, and a giant of a man playing us aboard with an enormous didgeridoo. Even our boarding passes bore the legend 'Congratulations! You are boarding the first non-stop UK-AUS flight.'

Travelling in this fashion is light years ahead of the original London-Australia flight - the infamous 'Kangaroo Route' - which began in 1947. That four-day intercontinental hopscotch  involving seven stops and costing the equivalent of more than 24,000 today - has now become a seamless, non-stop 17-hour zip Down Under. (It's significantly cheaper in real terms too, with tickets for this London-Perth route starting at just 793 per person return in economy).

The new route, which will now fly daily, officially becomes the longest anywhere in the world from London (a massive 24 per cent longer than the previous record holder, from Heathrow to Jakarta) and the first ever direct air connection between the continents of Europe and Australasia.

There's still room for improvement of course. No Wifi on the history-making QF10 is an issue  particularly as British Airways has introduced it to many of its own long-haul flights in recent weeks. And Qantas remains agonisingly short of Qatar Airway's current world record for the longest commercial flight on Earth: 9,028 miles between Doha and Auckland.

One gets the impression that record won't stand for too long, however. Qantas already have their eyes on a non-stop London to Sydney flight by 2022, with New York-Sydney potentially coming even earlier. For now, all eyes are on the historic achievement of QF10 but ultimately, success on the London-Perth service is just the beginning.

Jonathan Thompson was challenged by Huawei to take the upcoming Huawei P20 smartphone and test its features whilst onboard. Follow Huawei via @HuaweiMobileUK. To find out more about the Huawei P20, visit newrenaissance.com.A young mother who turned to ice after being raped as a 13-year-old girl was sucked into a devastating cycle of drug abuse which almost took her life.

Rach Axis, now 28, was sexually abused during the first year of high school which marked the first of many horrific events to come.

The rape led to her decline which included bullying, physical abuse, meth addiction and three attempts at suicide.

Rach Axis (pictured) is sharing her story after she was raped as a 13-year-old girl and beaten to a pulp by bullies during high school

The sexual abuse was the beginning of a sequence of horrific events which brought her trauma (pictured when she was using the drug ice)

Sneaking out of her rural home in South Canterbury, on New Zealand's south island, the opportunistic teenager decided to ditch her warm bed at 1am and head out to drink with some friends.

Fifteen years later Rach is unable to shake the memories from the night that she was raped.

She claims police officers didn't believe her story and told her she 'shouldn't have left her home and drank alcohol in the first place'.

Their alleged lack of empathy and understanding triggered Rach's distaste for authority which soon led to her rebelling, shying away from the advice of her parents and the instructions of teachers.

'I was bullied and beaten up at school more than once before and after the rape incident, I just never managed to fit in. As a result I went to nine different schools,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'Eventually; I started hanging around with people older than me, and started experimenting with alcohol, BZP, marijuana, LSD and anything I could get my hands on.

'I felt untouchable, I felt tough, I felt confident and I felt like I finally fit in and no one was going to hurt me again.'

Rach finally felt like she had found a group who she could fit in with, as they all had come together following variations of negative experiences.

Her new found friends however didn't deter bullies who one day beat Rach 'to a pulp' at high school.

Rach turned to using meth when she found a group who made her feel accepted after years of bullying

Now 28, Rach is a happy and strong young mother to her six-year-old daughter and co-parents her partner's son who is nine

This prompted Rach's mother to move her to Christchurch, where she attended an all girls school.

'Eventually I was suspended for assaulting another student because they had found out about my past and spread rumours around the school.

'I ended up dropping out of school, and started to go cruising in cars in the weekends, drinking and being a rebel.

'Meanwhile, my poor mother had no idea as I would lie to her about my whereabouts - little did she know her daughter was heading into a deep spiral of addiction and behaviour which led to heavier drugs, arrests and criminal convictions.

Rach now wants to help those in need as both of those fields helped her get her life on track and were played a huge part in her recovery

'One evening, I met a group of males - and one of them ended up becoming my boyfriend on and off for a couple of years. He was in and out of jail, on home detention and he was mentally abusive.

'They were into methamphetamine and this is where I first tried this drug. It made me feel alive, happy, intelligent, funny, I lost weight which meant I could stop starving myself or purging and most of all I made a lot of money initially when I started selling it.

'It began as a weekend treat, and within two years I was injecting, I was kidnapped, raped, beaten, arrested, homeless, lost friends and family but even worse, I lost myself.

'This was not enough to stop me from using, I was too deep in the hole. I was too afraid to leave that scene, because anyone that did was accused of being a ''nark'' and usually would be beaten or sometimes even killed. So I was stuck.

'When I eventually sought help, or wanted to - there was no where to go, the wait lists for rehabs were ridiculous and I was only 18, so no one took me seriously that I really wanted the help. I was looked at like I was a waste of time, I was too young and I would probably just go out and use again anyway.'

Rach faced trauma which included bullying, physical abuse, meth addiction, rape and three attempts at suicide (pictured when she started using meth)

In 2008, Rach's mother flew her to Greece to get away from the group she was associated with to live with family.

This put financial pressure on her mum however she was willing to do anything to save her daughter and get her beloved child back.

After just a few months she was taken back to her home in New Zealand before she was really ready or had fully recovered.

'I ended up back on the street, with anger and sadness that I had been let down yet again.'

It took another year after her return from Greece for Rach to seek help - the first step on a difficult road for her and her family.

'My parents had to have self-defence weapons at the door to fend off anyone who was looking for me if they showed up.

'We had a man in the driveway with a machete at one point.

After the rape she started her decline which included bullying, physical abuse, meth addiction and three attempts at suicide

'While I was in detox, and in early stages of recovery I really started to notice the impact my addiction had on my family, especially my mum.

'She was a mess, she hadn't had a full nights sleep for about four years, from being so worried that she would get a call that I was dead.

'I hid a lot from my mum, because I didn't want her knowing the truth, so getting clean was scary as it meant I had to be honest and break my mum's heart all over again by telling her what I had been through.

'During my addiction I had attempted suicide more than three times, including a hanging where my boyfriend found me, as I felt this was the only way I could end the trouble I was causing my family, friends and myself.

Police officers didn't believe Rach following the rape incident and their lack of empathy triggered something inside her she began to take issue with authority

'At the age of 19 I finally made it into rehab, it was three months residential and that is where I found the inspiration to become a social worker myself, because these counsellors did not have to be here, they chose their career.

'They made me feel worthy of a life without addiction. I still have contact with many of them today, and I was given a job at a youth residential rehab in 2013 by one of my rehab counsellors.'

Rach's strength to break free from substance abuse was initiated by the look she saw on her mother's face on night when they met up to go to a concert together.

'When I actually had to use in the bathroom to stay awake at this concert, while my mum was outside - that was a wake up that I needed to sort my s***.

In 2008, Rach's mother flew her to Greece to get away from the group she was associated with to live with family

'My mum and I are very close and I will forever feel sadness for the trouble I caused her, especially now I am a mother myself - I am terrified of what could happen to my daughter.'

Rach believes trauma is often the underlying cause of using substances and is calling for more support for mental heath and education around healthy relationships as well as how to practice self care.

She is now a loving mother and partner and is studying a Bachelor of Social Work as well as Advanced Personal Training, hoping to help others to overcome their addictions.

'At times it feels like there is no hope, but if someone really wants help, listen.

'Do not give up, it is not an easy road - if it was, anyone would do it and no one would be addicted to anything. Why are you using? Why are they using? What is going on for them?

'Addiction is awful, no one in that world wants to be there, so try to understand and support the need for more services and we will start seeing a shift in the statistics of addiction decrease'

'The stigma of addiction, especially the use of methamphetamine needs to shift, why is it okay for people to drink excessive amounts of alcohol but when any other drug is discussed people are so quick to judge. This makes it hard for people to ask for help, as they feel embarrassed.

'We need to focus more on rehabilitation, support, and education rather than punishment and I believe that will save many more lives, as well as save the country money.

'I always hear the argument "why should tax payers pay for druggies to get help, they should just over dose or just stop using drugs" - but actually, it costs more to incarcerate crime committed by those in addiction than to have residential rehabs available.

'Whether you are a parent of an addict, a child of an addict, a friend of an addict or even an addict yourself is that, do not be embarrassed to speak out. We need people to speak out, to save lives and to end addiction.

'Addiction is awful, no one in that world wants to be there, so try to understand and support the need for more services and we will start seeing a shift in the statistics of addiction decrease.'

She is now a loving mother, partner, daughter, granddaughter, friend and is studying a bachelor of Social Work as well as Advanced Personal Training to help others who struggle

For confidential support call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on: 13 11 14

Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800John McCaffrey fought for as long as he could, but eventually circumstances and the offers from cashed-up developers proved too much.

When the pensioner first moved to Cliff Road, Epping, in 1956, paddocks with horses, cows and a flowing creek were the first things you saw out the front door.

Today, the view across the road has been replaced with almost identical five-storey buildings, a sign of the colliding property and population booms.

Once the hobby of Mormons, door knocking instead became the work of developers in recent years as re-zoning applications were readily approved by the local council.

After long fighting the good fight and rejecting offers, Mr McCaffrey is reluctantly set to vacate the only home he has ever known, with almost $4 million proving too much for him and his two brothers to pass up.

John McCaffrey (pictured with his dog Max) will vacate his Epping home on Wednesday, where he has lived since 1956

The pensioner - who lived in the home with his mother until her recent death - had long fought off approaches from developers until reluctantly accepting a recent offer of nearly $4million

Mr McCaffrey's home (circled in red) used to be among dozens of typical suburban houses on the street, but is now surrounded by high-rise apartments

On Wednesday he'll be the last resident on his side of the block to leave Cliff Rd.

A drone image taken above his block shows it full of units either already completed or currently under construction.

Only the red brick home of Mr McCaffrey and that of his next door neighbour - with who he teamed up to maximise his property value - are left on his street.

'I've been here 62 years and when I first came here it was rural... on the other side of the road was a meadow with cows and horses, a creek and farmland,' Mr McCaffrey told Daily Mail Australia.

'I guess it was probably about two years ago I reckon these units started popping up.

'I understand people need somewhere to live and I certainly understand people wanting to sell with the prices that are being paid.

'The highest price I've ever heard about is $6 million for a big, but very rough block that was prone to flooding.

'There were several properties down the other side of the road that went for $4.3 million and some for $5 million - this one went for nearly $4 million.

'They first came hammering on the door about ten years ago, but at a very low price.

'We had it valued back then and they said about $960,000, but even then I said I wouldn't take less than $1.3 million.'

Following the death of his mother, Mr McCaffrey couldn't knock back a huge offer for the 1920s home which he will split with his two brothers.

When it was finally time to sell, Mr McCaffrey teamed up with his neighbour next door to cash-in with a massive windfall

'I've been here 62 years and when I first came here it was rural... on the other side of the road was a meadow with cows and horses, a creek and farmland,' Mr McCaffrey (pictured) recalled

Then: In 2013, Cliff Road (pictured) was just like any other suburban street in Western Sydney

Now: Today it is filled with five-storey apartment buildings which will eventually line both sides of the road

Unit blocks replacing suburban family homes are being specifically targeted towards overseas buyers, particularly those from China.

Off-the-plan units are sold to potential investors with the promise of everything from Feng Shui layouts, to Yin and Yang courtyards, and even Mandarin signage.

When Daily Mail Australia visited the Epping area a trio of Chinese businessman were looking to buy their third investment property in a recently completed block.

'It's a good area for investment because it's close to trains, easy driving access to the city, close to Macquarie University and future development is good in Epping,' Peter Hou, a local property expert, said.

'An average two-bedroom unit costs $1 million. These people I'm with already bought two, two-bedroom apartments last year for about $880k.

'They're a family of investors who have bought two and are now coming back for a third.

A house that has been purchased by developers is fenced off, awaiting demolition and building to commence

The Epping area has been central to Australia's property boom, with high-rise apartments now a regular sight throughout the suburb

A trio of Chinese businessman (pictured) look at buying their third investment property in this recently completed unit block

'They have no trouble getting tenants for them at the moment and rental fees are at roughly $700-a-week, which is a 3.4 per cent annual return on their investment.'

While many would happily give up their homes to become an instant millionaire, Mr McCaffrey says the memories from his time on Cliff Rd are priceless.

'I'm not happy about the change... from my point of view I'd be much happier if none of this had happened and I'd still be able to live here, even with the money,' he said.

'When I first came to Epping there used to be a produce shop, a fish shop and some other little shops.

'On this street kids used to go down to the creek and catch eels and fish.

'There's a couple more houses left down the street but in a year, or a year-and-a-half, they'll all be gone.

'I'm sad about losing my own home and not happy about having to go somewhere else.'A pair of robbers have been captured on CCTV breaking into a supermarket in Melbourne's southeast with a sledgehammer and a metal cutter.

In the shocking footage the hooded thieves smash through the glass entrance doors before heading straight for the locked cigarette display, which they attack with the metal cutter, throwing the cigarettes into a shopping trolley.

Finally the two use the sledgehammer to smash open the cash register and cash drawer and flee the Mt Martha IGA store with their haul of cigarettes and cash.

the hooded thieves smash through the glass entrance doors before heading straight for the locked cigarette display

The duo attack the cigarette display with the metal cutter then throw the cigarettes into a shopping trolley

The footage highlights what the convenience stores across the country are labelling as a 'crime crises' targeting tobacco black markets.

CEO of the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores, Mr Jeff Rogut told 9 News: 'Staff are terrified, and rightly sorobberies are violent, and often involve attendants being threatened with guns and knives.'

He added that the first step in tackling the issue will be to 'host summit in Canberra to discuss the illegal trade with Government, regulators and the stakeholders who have been devastated by the black market.'

Russell Zimmerman, Executive Director of the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), added that the government 'must intervene' to stop the flourishing black market.

'If we do not tackle the black market head on, this crime will not only significantly impact retailers, it will substantially impact retail workers and will further undermine the work the government has already completed to reduce smoking rates.'A US Army veteran who suffers from PTSD after serving two tours in Afghanistan has been deported to Mexico.

Father-of-two Miguel Perez Jr., 39, was escorted across the border from Texas and handed over to Mexican authorities Friday, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

This decision came after Perez applied for citizenship but was denied because of a felony drug conviction, which he says was caused by his PTSD.

He argued that he deserves to receive mental health treatment in the US since he served for the country, but customs still deported him on Friday.

Miguel Perez Jr., 39, has been deported back to Mexico after serving two tours in Afghanistan because of a felony drug conviction. The veteran suffers from PTSD

He said that his PTSD led him down a path of drug and alcohol abuse. His lawyer said he was left in Mexico with no money and only his orange jumpsuit

One of Perez' supporters is US Senator Tammy Duckworth, D-IL.

She said in a statement: 'Mr. Perez has been detained for months, separated from his family and left without access to the care he needs, deserves and has earned.

'If the military and our government hadn't failed Mr. Perez multiple times, he'd never have been in this predicament to begin with.

'He earned the opportunity to remain in this country when he vowed to defend it in our military, but today's decision is yet another example of our nation failing him once more.'

Perez' lawyer, Chris Bergen, told NBC News that the veteran was left in Mexico with no money and only his orange jumpsuit as clothing.

'He was dumped in one of the most dangerous areas of the Mexican border,' Bergen said. 'We will continue to fight his case and appeal his citizenship denial.'

Perez was born in Mexico and moved to the US legally when he was eight-years-old, CNN reported.

He has two children who were born in the US that he has now been forced to leave behind.

The 39-year-old's parents and his one sister are both American citizens, and his other sister is automatically one because she was born in the US.

There is nothing and no one left for him in Mexico.

Miguel Perez Sr. holds up a picture of his son before he was deported. The veteran's parents, two sisters and two daughters all have citizenship in the US

Perez served two tours in Afghanistan. His family wants him to be brought back to the US where he can be treated for his mental illness since he served for the country

Perez joined the Army in 2001 just months before 9/11.

He then served in the Army for two tours of Afghanistan before he was discharged for reportedly smoking marijuana.

The veteran said that his two tours set his life on a downward spiral because of his PTSD.

He become dependent on drugs and alcohol, which ultimately led to his felony conviction.

Perez was arrested in 2010 after he was caught in Cook County, Illinois, delivering more than 2lbs of cocaine.

He was sentenced 15 years in jail and halfway through customs started their deportation process.

Perez's lawyer said that while this case is a difficult one, they are going to keep fighting to bring him back into the country.A young boy has allegedly been raped in a remote desert community in the Northern Territory.

The four-year-old boy was allegedly attacked by a 17-year-old male at Ali Curung, about 170kms south of Tennant Creek, where a two-year-old girl was reported to have been raped in a house on February 15.

Police confirmed on Monday night that they have arrested 'a youth' following investigations into the alleged sexual assault of the four-year-old.

A young boy has allegedly been raped in remote desert community Ali Curung, Northern Territory

This two-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a man, 24, in a house at Tennant Creek last month

Ali Curung, where a four-year-old boy was allegedly raped, is 170km south of Tennant Creek

'Police from the Northern Territory Child Abuse Taskforce are investigating the alleged sexual assault of a child in a remote Northern Territory community,' a spokesperson said in a statement.

'A youth is currently in custody and is assisting police with their inquiries.'

The statement added that no one else is being sought in relation to the alleged rape of the four-year-old.

Ali Curung has a population of about 500, almost all of whom are indigenous, and is part of the Barkly Regional Council area which also takes in Tennant Creek.

A remote recruitment website advises of Ali Curung: 'The easiest way to find the community is to follow the overhead power lines from Tennant Creek.'

In April last year the ABC reported extra police had been sent to the community in an effort to control an ongoing conflict between two clan groups.

A Northern Territory police spokesman said at the time the fighting had continued 'on and off' for several days.

The name Ali Curung is a local indigenous phrase meaning 'country of the dogs', 'dog area', or 'dog dreaming'.

Ali Curung has historically had major problems with alcohol consumption and crime.

The road from the Stuart Highway into Ali Curung, about 170km south of Tennant Creek

Ali Curung and Tennant Creek (pictured) have long had serious problems with alcohol

Two small children have been reported as having been raped in the Northern Territory this year

Barkly Regional Council chief executive Edwina Marks said in 2015: 'It's the same thing, extraordinary consumption of alcohol. There's a lot of anti-social behaviour.'

'People are leaving their kids and going off and buying grog at 10am. People desert their family life.'

Restrictions on alcohol sale and consumption have since been tightened.

Alcohol consumption is also restricted in Tennant Creek, where a 24-year-old man has been charged with sexual assault and refused bail over the incident in February.

In that case the alleged victim was flown to Alice Springs Hospital before being rushed to the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, where she was placed in an induced coma due to the severity of her injuries.

Her parents are understood to have troubled pasts and are known to be heavy drinkers.

The Northern Territory Government has admitted it failed to protect the girl.

Tennant Creek has a population of 3,000, one supermarket and 10 main alcohol retailers, including three clubs, two pubs, three bottle shops and two licensed motels.

Tennant Creek (pictured) has a population of about 3,000 and 10 main alcohol retailers

Crime statistics showed in the year ending December 31, 2017 there were 319 assaults - more than one for every 10 Tennant Creek citizens - and 13 sexual assaults.

Domestic violence-related assaults had risen 32.7 per cent to 264 in the same period and alcohol-related assaults rose 21.9 per cent to 256 incidents.

A dispute involving a number of people in a house on Bornite Street on February 6 allegedly led to the death of a 44-year-man 10 days later.

Northern Territory Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw told reporters in February that Tennant Creek was 'probably the highest policed population in Australia.'

Tennant Creek is the fifth largest town in the Northern Territory with a population of 2991 at the 2016 Census. Slightly more than half its residents - 1536 - are indigenous.

The town is on the Stuart Highway, about 1,000km south of Darwin and 500km north of Alice Springs.

Barkly Regional Council mayor Steve Edgington demanded Chief Minister Michael Gunner address the issues plaguing Tennant Creek following the alleged rape.

'My reaction is shock and horror, like many residents of Tennant Creek,' Mr Edgington said last month.A US pilot killed when his plane crashed down during the World War Two is to be buried at Arlington Cemetery two years after his remains were found in a field in France.

Lt. Frank Fazekas was flying a P-47 Thunderbolt when it came down on a French farm 20 miles from the English Channel after being hit by German fire in May 1944.

For years, the 22-year-old's family believed he was buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium.

But all that changed when his New Jersey son, Frank Fazekas Jr., who never knew his father and was just six months old at the time of the air crash, was informed about a possible discovery.

In 2016, he traveled to France and helped out as experts excavated the crash site and found the remains of the hero pilot. On March 28, his father will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

Frank Fazekas Jr. (right) poses for a photograph with a portrait of his father, Lt. Frank Fazekas, at his home in New Hartford, New York. Fazekas never knew his father. He was just six months old at the time of the crash of the pilot's fighter plane during World War II, living with his mother in a tight-knit Hungarian community in Trenton, New Jersey

Two Thunderbolt P-47 fighter planes a shown during a test flight in the United States. In May 1944, a P-47 piloted by U.S. Lt. Frank Fazekas was hit by German fire over Buysscheure, northern France. Two boys watched from their family's farm field as the craft fell from the sky

A photo provided by Ryan Wubben shows the excavation site where Lt. Frank Fazekas' P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane went down in May 1944 during World War II in Buysscheure, France. The University of Wisconsin-Madison and others worked in 2016 and 2017 to recover his remains and the plane. Fazekas' remains will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on March 28

Frank Fazekas, Jr. examines artifacts at the excavation site where the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane his father, Lt. Frank Fazekas, was piloting went down in May 1944

On the farm in May 1944, a pair of young brothers were tending to the cows in the early afternoon when a plane started falling from the sky.

The American fighter plane had been hit by German fire. On the ground, the boys watched as the last moments of a desperate American pilot unfold.

'When the plane fell, there were still bullets exploding' from the plane's .50-caliber machines guns, recalls Marc Cooche. He was 12 then; at 86, he's still haunted by memories of that afternoon.

In Cooche's recollection, the plane veered to avoid some electric cables, maneuvering in the air for two or three minutes before plummeting nose first. The crash left a deep crater in a field of beets. Flames fed by the plane's fuel licked the sky, and the hole burned for days.

The boys and their father wanted to rescue the pilot. Cooche's father 'came with horses and barrels of water to put out the fire,' he says, but Germans had arrived at the site and turned him away.

In a world war, the loss of a single plane and its 22-year-old pilot, Lt. Frank Fazekas, in rural France drew scant attention. A little more than a week later, just a few miles away, the Allies would launch the largest seaborne invasion in history. Less than a year later, the Nazis surrendered.

Over time, the pit in the field was filled with brick, dead livestock, aluminum and ceramic roofing tiles. Dirt blanketed the makeshift grave, so the farmers could plant again.

Marc Cooche, 84, points to the sky where as a 12-year-old in 1944 he saw a P-47 Thunderbolt piloted by Lt. Frank Fazekas fall into the family's beet farm after being hit by German fire in Buysscheure, northern France

Marc Cooche, 84, and local Mayor Marc Deheele stand at the site where a war plane crashed during WWII in Buysscheure, France . Cooche was 12 when he watched the P-47 Thunderbolt carrying Frank Fazekas, 22, crash into his family's farm field. He and his brother and their father wanted to rescue the pilot. Cooche's father 'came with horses and barrels of water to put out the fire,' he says, but Germans had arrived at the site and turned him away

A couple years later, a British team looking for their missing found aircraft parts and alerted American authorities. Americans visited the site and deemed the plane and remains 'non-recoverable.' The wreckage was mangled and burned, leaving little to compare to dental records or fingerprints.

Crops grew. Train tracks were laid, 100 yards away. A road moved. Mayors changed. Some of the land, including the crash site, eventually ended up in the hands of a neighbor.

Cooche stayed on the land, started a construction business and had children.

But he never forgot about the pilot and his plane. He's not the only one.

Frank Fazekas Jr. never knew his father. He was just six months old at the time of his crash, living with his mother in a tight-knit Hungarian community in Trenton, New Jersey.

He recalls how his father's younger brother, John, 'would tell me how my father never studied, got straight A's in school. He was very talented. He taught himself to play the violin.'

Fazekas Jr. would spend summers at his great aunt and uncle's house. He would climb up to the attic and pore over letters written between his mother and father. Barely a senior himself, his father referred to his son as 'Junior.'

Marc Cooche (left) and Frank Fazekas, Jr. embrace after Fazekas gave Cooche a model of the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane

The son would focus on his father's signature. 'I would practice signing my name like he did,' he says.

In school, a teacher told him that he pledged allegiance to the flag differently - with more intent - than other kids did.

Because his dad flew, he loved airplanes. He got a degree in aeronautical engineering and became an Air Force pilot in the Vietnam War. He later worked with Department of Defense contractors and now, at 74, he's in his third career as a tour business owner in New Hartford, New York.

'For a lot of years I felt like I was trying to complete something for him ... the whole aviation thing, the flying, it was all cut short, I mean so abruptly at age 22.'

The family knew little about Fazekas Sr.'s death, other than sparse account of his the wingman, Lt. Charles H. Nott, which differs in some aspects than Cooche's recollection: Nott reported the plane spun out of control, with no radio call for help.

For years they thought he was buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. So in 1983, when Fazekas, Jr. was on active duty, he went to visit the Belgian cemetery. He found his father's name on a wall. A cemetery worker mistakenly told him that he was buried there.

His mother, Theresa, never got over the death of her husband. She was his 'darling,' ''sweetheart' and 'dearest wife' in his letters home. 'He was the love of my mother's life. She talked about him constantly, even after she remarried,' Fazekas says.

After she died in 2012, Fazekas Jr. planned to scatter her cremated remains in Belgium, near what he thought was his father's grave. But then, in 2015, he got a call from the University of Wisconsin:

They knew where his father's plane had crashed. And they knew that his remains were still there.

Marc Cooche holds a commemorative plaque for Lt. Frank Fazekas in Buysscheure, northern France

The effort to find Fazekas Sr. began in 2014, when University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers succeeded in returning the remains of another soldier to his family. That inspired them to reach out to Department of Defense officials the next year to propose a partnership to find the missing. It would become the university's Missing in Action Recovery and Identification Project.

It was good timing. After being criticized for years for failing to recover and identify more remains of U.S. service members, the Defense Department unveiled a revamped agency called Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

More than 82,000 Americans remain missing from conflicts since World War II - nearly 73,000 of them from that war.

Military officials combed through hundreds of cases. They settled on looking for Fazekas, because the statements of Cooche and the wingman pointed to a specific location. Scouts were deployed to France to inspect the crash site and talk with Cooche.

But the next spring, just a few months before excavation was to start, ground penetrating radar found no sign of the crash.

'We were frantic, we were very frantic because we put a lot of time into this case,' says Charles Konsitzke, facilitator of the project.

A few days later Department of Defense officials searching the archives found aerial images of the area taken two days after the crash. Konsitzke took the image and overlaid it with a current aerial photo - and they found the exact location.

Frank Fazekas Jr. is photographed at his home in New Hartford, New York. His father, Lt. Frank Fazekas was killed in a plane crash on May 27, 1944. The younger Fazekas visited the crash site in 2016 to help recover his remains from the crash

'It really was dumb luck,' says Leslie Eisenberg, a Wisconsin Historical Society archaeologist who also worked on the project.

Cooche's memory had been tricked because the road moved years ago to make way for the train, which was only 100 yards from the crash site.

The searchers included volunteers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, burning up their personal vacation time, along with students from the University of Wisconsin and University of Hawaii and Defense Department personnel. They ended up going twice to the site, in 2016 and 2017, digging a 10- to 15-foot deep hole in the hard clay.

They found six machine guns. They found the plane's engine. And they found some bones of Frank Fazekas Sr., and his dog tags.

They had a special visitor during the 2016 dig. Frank Fazekas Jr. felt like he was pulled to the site, for his mother: 'I feel like I am like completing a story for them.'

They gave him a pair of gloves to help out. As the hours passed, he found a piece of the dash board, part of a starter switch, a green plastic cover for the landing gear indicators. He used a wire brush to clean off the mud from the starter motor. He kept some items, including a black rubber piece that may have come off the control stick.

'I thought that might be something my father actually held on to,' he says.

He also met the man who was present for his father's last moments: Marc Cooche, who still lived 300 yards from the crash site.

Through an interpreter, they discussed what happened the day of the crash. Until then, Fazekas only knew the wingman's account. But Cooche told Fazekas what he saw, that his father may have tried to maintain control until the end, that he may still have been alive when he crashed.

There were many hugs. Fazekas gave the witness a small model of his father's plane.

'It was like family, almost,' Fazekas says.

On May 8 - the 73rd anniversary of the end of the war in Europe - Buysscheure will pay tribute to an airman whose remains had rested within its boundaries, unheralded, for almost three quarters of a century. The building that houses a library, performance room and school will be renamed the Frank Fazekas Cultural Center, and a plaque with his name will be added to the monument to local war dead.

Fazekas, his wife and some university officials plan to return for the festivities.

Cooche also will be there. He remains grateful to the Americans for liberating his country. He chokes up at the prospect of seeing Fazekas again, and standing next to him as his father is honored.

Frank Fazekas Sr., though, will be an ocean away. His remains have finally been returned to his homeland.

He will be buried Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery.

An Army uniform will be laid out on his bones. And he will share his casket with the ashes of Theresa, his 'dearest wife.'A paedophile who repeatedly raped a girl, pimped out by her own father in the so-called 'Evil Eight' case, has been sentenced to nine and a half years in jail.

Alfred John Impicciatore, 48, was sentenced on Monday after he chatted with the Perth girl's father online, then visited their home in March 2015.

He raped the vulnerable girl four times, while her father - who is serving more than two decades in jail for his involvement - watched nearby and sometimes joined in.

Alfred John Impicciatore (pictured), 48, who repeatedly raped a girl, pimped out by her own father in the so-called 'Evil Eight' case, was sentenced to nine and a half years in jail on Monday

Impicciatore (pictured) was sentenced after he chatted with the Perth girl's father online, then visited their home in March 2015

He was found guilty for his involvement in Australia's most egregious child abuse case in November

Impicciatore was found guilty for his involvement in Australia's most egregious child abuse case in November, after a judge-alone trial in the Western Australian District Court.

Judge Mark Herron said that Impicciatore had not showed any remorse or insight into his offending.

The court heard two of the charges against Impicciatore came out of admissions he made to police, which he then challenged and 'disowned'.

Judge Herron said although there was no victim impact statement, he was sure there would be long-term effects on the girl's mental health.

'You had a perverted sexual interest in young girls and you were unable to resist acting on that interest,' he said.

'You took advantage of a girl who was extremely vulnerable.

'Your actions were depraved and were entirely for your own sexual gratification.'

Impicciatore is the final abuser of the girl to be sentenced for his involvement in the notorious case.

Video of the girl's police interview was played at the trial, during which she referred to Impicciatore as the 'chubby man' with a 'round face' and the man with a black Chihuahua.

Impicciatore (pictured) is the final abuser of the girl to be sentenced for his involvement in the notorious case. He must serve at least seven and a half years behind bars before he can be eligible for parole

In his findings after the trial, Judge Herron said the girl described what happened to her in a 'detached, unemotional way, almost as though the activities were normal'.

'She spoke about sexual activity in explicit language, which I would not expect a 13-year-old girl to be able to explain,' he said.

Before the trial, the case was adjourned several times because Impicciatore failed to show up to court and changed lawyers.

He even fled the state and had to be extradited from New South Wales.

Impicciatore must serve at least seven and a half years behind bars before he can be eligible for parole.

The girl's father, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to dozens of charges and was sentenced in June 2016 to 22 and a half years in jail.

He later lost an appeal against the length of his sentence, which he had argued was manifestly excessive.

One of the 'Evil Eight' was evangelical Christian pastor Dawid Volmer (pictured), who was sentenced to ten and a half years' prison in 2015 after he admitted to blindfolding the girl and raping her in front of her father

Ryan Trevor Clegg pleaded guilty to 15 charges, including sexually penetrating and indecently recording a child, and was jailed in January for 12 years and nine months

Eight men were originally implicated in the investigation, but one was never charged with offences related to the girl.

The five other men also pleaded guilty to their involvement in the girl's sexual abuse and received sentences ranging from three years to almost 13 years.

One of the paedophiles was evangelical Christian pastor Dawid Volmer, who was sentenced to ten and a half years' prison in 2015 after he admitted to blindfolding the girl and raping her in front of her father.

Court heard horrific details at the time of how the 'deviant' father-of-two drugged and rubbed his genitals on the girl as she laid naked in tears on a bed.

Ryan Trevor Clegg received the second longest sentence of the 'Evil Eight' after he pleaded guilty to 15 charges, including sexually penetrating and indecently recording a child.

Daily Mail Australia exclusively revealed in November last year Impicciatore's vile tattoo reading 'learn to love your inner monster'

Impicciatore uploaded a photo of the ink to his Pinterest folder, 'my tatts', at some point before his arrest in late 2015

He was jailed in early 2017 for almost 13 years with a non-parole period of ten years and nine months.

Daily Mail Australia exclusively revealed in November last year Impicciatore's vile tattoo reading 'learn to love your inner monster'.

Impicciatore uploaded a photo of the ink to his Pinterest folder, 'my tatts', at some point before his arrest in late 2015.

The folder contained pictures of other tattoos on his forearms, one of which was clearly visible during court appearances.

The page was wiped from the internet along with his other social media accounts after his initial arrest.This is the moment five British men on a stag do were dragged off a plane amid claims they started fighting and lit a cigarette during a flight to Las Vegas that was forced to to divert to Canada.

Passengers clapped and cheered as the men were hauled off flight MT2924 from Manchester after it had landed at Winnipeg in the province of Manitoba.

At one point, one of the men can be heard shouting 'f*** off you f*****g Scouse c***' as police led him off the Thomas Cook plane.

But despite the footage of their aggressive behaviour the pregnant girlfriend and the sister of one of the men claim they were just being 'a bit rowdy'.

Footage has emerged showing one of the British tourists arrested on a Thomas Cook flight from Manchester to Las Vegas being escorted off the plane after it was diverted to Canada

Footage captures the moment five British men on a stag do were dragged off a plan amid claims they started fighting and lit a cigarette during a flight to Las Vegas that was forced to to divert to Canada

Passengers clapped and cheered as the men were hauled off flight MT2924 from Manchester after it had landed at Winnipeg in the province of Manitoba

They also claimed the fuss surrounding their ejection from the plane has gone too far, saying the fact the men never made it their Vegas stag is 'punishment enough'.

One of the men's girlfriends, who is four months pregnant, said: 'We feel like they are being harassed. The boys were punished for being a bit rowdy.

It didn't warrant them being taken off the plane. They've now been punished enough by not taking the flight to Las Vegas. Thomas Cook are the ones who decided to delay the flight.'

But according to eye witnesses the men were 'abusive' and 'fighting with each other', and they refused to follow the crew's instructions.

The plane was sat on the runway at Winnepeg for more than two hours while the men were ejected.

Krystyna Sczcygiel, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, filmed the men as they were being led off the flight.

She said: 'They had been fighting with each other and lighting a cigarette.

'Every time they were told to sit down or fasten their seat belt they just ignored them.

'Then other passengers were telling them to be quiet so they started abusing them.

'They were warned so many times, the captain even announced that he would divert if they didn't sit down and behave. They must have cost the airline thousands.'

The five men were arrested on Saturday morning after the plane landed at Winnipeg in the province of Manitoba.

It continued to Las Vegas after the 'disruptive' Brits were escorted away, arriving more than two and a half hours late.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed the men were arrested with help from the Canadian Border Services Agency for mischief and causing a disturbance.

Footage taken by a passenger as one of the men was led off the flight showing him cursing at other holidaymakers as he was removed in what appeared to be handcuffs

Footage taken by a passenger as one of the men was led off the flight showing him cursing at other holidaymakers as he was removed in what appeared to be handcuffs.

He could be heard turning to one and yelling: 'F*** off you f***ing Scouse c***.'

Stunned passengers watching on reacted by cheering and filming him with their mobile phones.

The incident was initially described by a spokesman at Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport as a medical emergency - but Thomas Cook Airlines later said there were no reports of any injuries.

The five men hauled off the plane have not been named and it is understood they decided to travel back to Britain after abandoning plans to continue to Las Vegas.

A spokesman for the RCMP said: 'None of the males resisted officers and all were escorted off the plane in handcuffs without incident.'

The incident was initially described by a spokesman at Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport as a medical emergency - but Thomas Cook Airlines later said there were no reports of any injuries

One passenger was seen shouting 'F*** off' at others while being lead away by officers

The British men were arrested for 'mischief and causing a disturbance' but it is understood they have since flown back to the UK

A Thomas Cook Airlines spokesman said: 'Flight MT2924 from Manchester to Las Vegas on Saturday was diverted to Winnipeg in Canada as result of disruptive passengers.

'Five passengers were offloaded in Winnipeg. Our flight then continued to Las Vegas with a delay of 2 hours 40 minutes.'

The spokesman said the airline did not fly from Winnipeg so there was no way they would be able to return to the UK with Thomas Cook Airlines from there.

He added: 'It's a police matter now so I can't go into any more detail.'ff-duty Jersey City police officer has died from a gunshot wound to his upper body.

A call came in to 911 on Sunday night that an officer had been shot inside a Woodlawn Avenue home, Jersey City's spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety, Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione told DailyMail.com.

Police arrived on the scene to find that 33-year-old Officer Ramon Torres had been shot in his own home.

Torres was taken to Jersey City Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, she said.

No more details were immediately available regarding the circumstances of the unidentified officer's death, although authorities are looking into whether he committed suicide.

Off-duty Jersey City police officer Ramon Torres, 33, has died after he was shot in the upper body on Sunday in his Greenville neighborhood home

Dozens of police officers gathered outside the hospital's emergency entrance following the officer's transfer to the hospital, the Associated Press reported.

The officer graduated from the academy about a year ago, Wallace-Scalcione said.

The police officer had been working out of the West District on the midnight tour.

Torres is pictured here with his wife, Chenel Torres, in a photo shared on December 25, 2017

Torres was a coach with the Christian Boxing Academy in Jersey City, according to NJ.com.

His father was also a superior officer with the Jersey City Police Department.

Torres had a wife named Chenel, and two children.

The shooting occurred at 340 Woodlawn Avenue in the Greenville neighborhood. The 911 call came in at 7.50pm Eastern.

The Torres' are seen here in a photo shared to social media on February 14, 2017

Responding officers found Torres shot in his own home, located at 340 Woodlawn Ave

The Hudson County Prosecutors Office has taken over the investigation, Wallace-Scalcione said.

DailyMail.com reached out to the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office seeking additional information but has not yet received a return phone call.

DailyMail.com also reached out to the Jersey City Police Department, which referred the call back to Wallace-Scalcione.An Asian immigrant has claimed an Auckland bus driver has discriminated against her and repeatedly refused to let her on board.

Bomi Kim, who is pregnant and has two young children, said she was trying to board the bus last week to take her son to the hospital but the driver refused to open the doors, according to the NZ Herald.

Ms Kim filmed herself knocking on the doors as the driver appeared to ignore her. Her son can be seen peering through the glass doors.

Scroll down for video

The mother-of-two, who doesn't have a driver's license and uses the bus for transportation, told the publication she has had several run-ins with the same driver, forcing her to cancel important appointments.

Ms Kim claims the driver has been repeatedly rude to Asian passengers and she believes she was racially discriminated against.

'If I were a good, white English speaker, would the bus driver sit in the driver's seat and open the door, and see me and mock me?' she told the NZ Herald.

'I think it's like the personality of the bus driver. New Zealand is a country of immigrants, and I will not pass on this fact that there are still white people with white supremacy.'

Ms Kim said she believes the most recent incident stems from an initial argument with the driver on February 24.

Asian immigrant Bomi Kim has claimed an Auckland bus driver has racially discriminated against her and repeatedly refused to let her on board (pictured)

She said she boarded the bus with a pram and sat on the right hand side where there is reserved seating, but the driver ordered her to move to the left hand side of the bus.

'I told the bus driver "the right seat is more secure for the baby. Can I sit on the right side?". But the bus driver told me: "I am the driver of this bus" and if I didn't move left to "get off the bus right now",' she said.

Auckland Transport told the publication the driver in question is being investigated by the bus company, Pavlovich Transport Solutions.

Pavlovich Transport Solutions did not immediately respond to requests for comment.House prices in Britain have soared by around 20 per cent in the past 15 years due to an influx of foreign money, according to a new study.

The research by King's College London showed the average price is around 215,000 but would have been about 174,000 without the investment from overseas.

University researchers said the cash has also had a 'trickle down' effect to less expensive properties.

Money from abroad has impacted house prices mostly in the South East and major cities in the north, such as Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester.

But researchers warned there was no evidence the increase in foreign investment lead to an increase in housing building or in the share of vacant homes.

A new study claims average house prices have risen by around 20 per cent in the past 15 years due to foreign investment, particularly in the north and south east. Pictured is a home in Merseyside

Instead there is evidence it reduces home ownership rates, suggesting some Britons may be priced out of the market in areas where foreign investors are more active and have to rent rather than own their homes.

The study by Professor Filipa Sa at the School of Management & Business, King's College London, was based on an analysis of new data from the Land Registry.

Prof Sa said: 'One of the factors behind house price growth in countries such as the UK, Australia and Canada is demand from foreign investors.

'This study looks at data for the UK and argues that foreign investment had a significant and positive effect on house price growth in the last 15 years.

'This effect is present at different percentiles of the distribution of house prices and is stronger in local authorities where housing supply is less elastic.

'Foreign investment is also found to reduce the rate of home ownership. There is no evidence of an effect on the housing stock or the share of vacant homes. '

The study notes since 1999 average house prices in England and Wales have almost tripled from just over 70,000 to about 215,000 in 2014.

Apart from a reduction in 2009, at the height of the global financial crisis, house prices increased every year during this period.

Behind this average lies considerable regional variation, with average prices in the prime London area of Kensington and Chelsea reaching 1.3 million in 2014.

So the analysis looked at the records all property transactions in England and Wales registered to overseas companies.

Researchers calculated the share of total transactions registered to overseas companies (in volume and in value) matched a similar upward trend to house prices,

As for house prices, foreign investment exhibits considerable regional variation

Prof Sa used regional variation in house price growth and the share of residential property transactions registered to overseas companies to identify the effect of foreign investment on house prices.

She found an increase of one percentage point in the volume share of residential transactions registered to overseas companies leads to an increase of about 2.1 per cent in house prices.

To have a better idea of the magnitude of this effect, the study used the model to construct the counterfactual evolution of house prices when the share of foreign investment is set to zero.

King's College London said without the investment the average price would be around 174,000 rather than 215,000. Pictured is a home in the West Midlands

This saw average house prices drop by nearly a fifth.

She added: 'Looking at the effect on the housing stock, there is no evidence that an increase in foreign investment leads to an increase in housing construction.

'Nor is there evidence in favour of 'buy-to-leave' - the hypothesis that foreign buyers purchase properties purely for capital appreciation and do not occupy them or rent them out.

'But there is evidence that foreign investment reduces home ownership rates, suggesting that some residents may be priced out of the market in areas where foreign investors are more active and have to rent rather than own their homes.

'These findings are useful to inform the policy debate on the impact of foreign investment on the housing market.

'This topic has attracted the attention of the Mayor of London, Sadiq Kahn, who has recently launched an inquiry into the consequences of foreign property ownership in the capital.

'Other countries - such as Australia, Switzerland and Canada - have also been debating this issue and have introduced policies to control foreign investment in the housing market.'

The findings were presented at the Royal Economic Society's annual conference at the University of Sussex in Brighton.A whistleblower who claims Vote Leave smashed election spending laws today called for a re-run of the Brexit referendum.

Christopher Wylie, who claims Facebook data was misused by Cambridge Analytica to swing polls on both sides of the Atlantic, compared allegations the Brexit campaign broke spending rules to doping in the Olympics.

Former representatives of Vote Leave have dismissed allegations they channelled funds to a secondary campaign and directed it to be spent with a marketing firm linked to Cambridge Analytica.

Mr Wylie - together with another whistleblower Shahmir Sanni and a so far unnamed third leaker from Vote Leave - presented alongside lawyers a legal argument today that the Brexit campaign broke election laws.

They have produced a 53-page dossier they claim sets out a 'prima facie' case Vote Leave broke the rules.

The press conference came amid claims Mr Sanni was wrongly outed as gay by Downing Street after he was named in connection with the allegations.

Whistleblower Christopher Wylie (pictured right today at a press conference) who claims Vote Leave smashed election spending laws today called for a re-run of the Brexit referendum

Mr Wylie, who claims Facebook data was misused by Cambridge Analytica to swing polls on both sides of the Atlantic, compared allegations the Brexit campaign broke spending rules to doping in the Olympics

Mr Wylie and a second whistleblower have produced a 53-page dossier they claim sets out a 'prima facie' case Vote Leave broke the rules

At the press event, Mr Wylie said: 'British democracy is about listening to the voice of the people, not about how much money you can spend.

'It is important we enforce the law where overspending happens.

'If you are caught doping in the Olympics, you get the gold medal taken away. There is not a debate about ''well he would have anyway if he didn't dope or how much did the doping effect him''.

'If you cheat you get your medal taken away. If we start to allow cheating it's a slippery slope.'

Insisting he was still a Brexit supporter, Mr Wylie added: 'It's not about Leave, it's not about Remain, it's about the integrity of the democratic process and ensuring we can have trust in the result and something that will have a profound impact on this country.

'Looking at this I do not feel confident in the result. I say that as someone who is Eurosceptic.'

As the row grew on several fronts today, Theresa May backed one of her closest aides after he was accused of 'outing' a Vote Leave whistleblower as gay.

The Prime Minister said her political secretary Stephen Parkinson was 'doing a very good job' despite his increasingly bitter spat with Mr Sanni.

Appearing on ITV's Good Morning Britain, Shamir Sanni said he had been forced to take security precautions for his family in Pakistan after being 'outed'

Mr Sanni, who worked on the Vote Leave campaign, claims it broke election rules by using another organisation to get around strict spending limits.

As part of his response to the allegations, Mr Parkinson revealed that he had been in a relationship with Mr Sanni.

Mr Sanni stepped up his criticism of Mr Parkinson this morning by revealing that he had been forced to take security precautions for his family in Pakistan after being 'outed'.

Mr Wylie said Downing Street had conspired in revealing his friend's sexuality.

'The PM's office, 10 Downing Street, outed my friend,' Mr Wylie told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Asked about Mr Parkinson, Mr Wylie said: 'Absolutely he should resign.'

But Mrs May told MPs this afternoon: 'My political secretary does a very good job.'

The PM's spokesman told reporters at the regular press briefing that Mrs May still had full confidence in her long-term aide.

Whistleblower Shahmir Sanni (left) claimed Vote Leave broke election rules by using another organisation to get around strict spending limits. As part of his response to the allegations, Mr Parkinson (right) revealed that he had been in a relationship with Mr Sanni

Mr Sanni told Good Morning Britain that his relationship with Mr Parkinson was 'not relevant'

Tamsin Allen, partner at Bindmans LLP, said three top barristers had assessed that there was a 'prima facie case that criminal offences were committed by Vote Leave'.

'We have now analysed a substantial body of evidence and instructed leading counsel Clare Montgomery QC, Helen Mountfield QC and Ben Silverstone to advise,' Ms Allen said.

'They have prepared a 46-page opinion which states that, on the evidence they have seen, there is a prima facie case that criminal offences were committed by Vote Leave during the Referendum Campaign.'

The Electoral Commission carried out an initial assessment of the referendum funding arrangement early last year, but found no evidence of wrongdoing.

However, in November it opened a formal investigation into Vote Leave saying new evidence had come to light.

A spokeswoman said: 'The Commission has a number of investigations open in relation to campaigners at the EU Referendum.

What allegations is Vote Leave facing and who is investigating? The Vote Leave bus from the Eu referendum in 2016 The row over spending during the Brexit referendum has been dragging on for nearly two years now. The claims centre around Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign, which is accused of bending the rules on election expenses. It donated 625,000 to a smaller youth-focused group called BeLeave in the final days of the campaign. While this was legal, it would have been against the rules to tell BeLeave how to spend the money. Shahmir Sanni claimed Vote Leave did exactly that  ordering the group to spend it on digital advertising with the Canadian firm AggregateIQ. Vote Leave has denied the allegation, saying its donation was within the rules. The Electoral Commission carried out an initial assessment of the arrangements early last year, but found no evidence of wrongdoing. However, in November it opened a formal investigation saying new evidence had come to light. Advertisement

'It does not comment on live investigations.'

Earlier, Mr Sanni told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'For this weekend has been one of the worst for me.

'I didn't want to talk about this at all because it wasn't relevant. It's not about me, people can look at the evidence for themselves.

'I had to come out to my family the day before yesterday, as well as take out security measures back in Pakistan

'I'm facilitating and providing evidence, my relationship is not relevant. It was just a campaign fling, it was not relevant.'

Mr Sanni said his claims about Vote Leave's funding were about the 'democratic process' and he was still in favour of Brexit.

'Nothing is in it for me, I've gone through a very gruelling process to see what's gone wrong,' he said.

'As a Brexiteer I am someone who would vote Leave again, and again, and again.

'All I know was that there was coordination and if there has been wrongdoing that people should come forward and say this.'

Mr Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower who disclosed the Facebook data breach, said Mr Parkinson's actions had put Mr Sanni's family in Pakistan in danger.

'He was forced to come out to his mum in the middle of the night because No 10 Downing Street decided it was appropriate to out somebody,' Mr Wylie told Today.

'He (Mr Parkison) should resign for outing somebody and endangering his family.'

Mr Parkinson was boosted yesterday when a Cabinet minister backed his 'integrity'.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt declared his support saying on ITV's Peston on Sunday that he was 'someone of the highest integrity  there are two sides to these stories'.

Boris Johnson, a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign, tweeted to say stories about the funding row in The Observer and on Channel 4 News based on Mr Sanni's testimony were 'utterly ludicrous'.

Tory MP Heidi Allen told Peston on Sunday: 'The whole thing feels pretty filthy and when you mix personal relationships and work it can get messy, as it has done here.'

She added: 'You need to separate the gossip and the discrediting from what actually happened.'

The PM's spokesman told reporters at the regular press briefing that Mrs May (pictured with husband Philip at church yesterday) still had full confidence in her long-term aide

Another whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, said Downing Street had conspired in revealing his friend's sexuality (file picture)

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (file picture) declared his support for Theresa May's political secretary Stephen Parkinson

The claims centre around Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign in the 2016 referendum, which is accused of bending the rules on election expenses.

It donated 625,000 to a smaller youth-focused group called BeLeave in the final days of the campaign. While this was legal, it would have been against the rules to tell BeLeave how to spend the money.

Mr Sanni claimed Vote Leave did exactly that  ordering the group to spend it on digital advertising with the Canadian firm AggregateIQ.

Vote Leave has denied the allegation, saying its donation was within the rules.

Mr Sanni claimed through his lawyers that he was 'outed' by Mr Parkinson in the run-up to the Channel 4 disclosure.

But the No 10 adviser said: 'I cannot see how our relationship, which was ongoing at the time of the referendum and which is a material fact in the allegations, could have remained private once Shahmir decided to publicise his false claims.'Housing prices across Australia's major cities have skyrocketed in the last few years but a property in rural Victoria has proven there a few places where a new home can cost less than a car.

The two-bedroom weatherboard priced at $19,000 has become the newest contender for the nation's cheapest house.

Positioned among vast wheat paddocks about 400 kilometres from Melbourne, the house at 160 Best Street, Sea Lake, is just a short drive from a breathtaking international tourist attraction, reported realestate.com.au.

The house at 160 Best Street, Sea Lake, has just become the cheapest in Australia

For just $19,000 potential buys can call this renovators dream their own

The house is situated near Lake Tyrell a popular international tourist attraction

Lake Tyrell is the largest inland salt lake in Victorian and each year thousands of Australian and international tourists flock to see the mesmerising landscape eight kilometres away on the Calder Highway.

The 1029sqm property could only be described as a renovators dream.

Images of the property reveal its dilapidated interior. There are cracks in the walls, dust across the floor and cobwebs across the windows.

The listing explains to potential buyers that the 'dwelling itself will need considerable work.'

Vendor Micheal Marden said the property presented a perfect opportunity for someone looking to invest.

'It's perfect for someone who wants to invest in Sea Lake,' he said.

400 kilometres from Melbourne, the propety is a four hour drive away from the states capital

The median house price in the area is $75,5000 making the two-bedroom property a bargain

'It's got a lot of tourists, a lot of Chinese tourists come up from Melbourne to Sea Lake, they bus them up every week, it's a tourist mecca for Chinese and other international tourists because of the salt lakes up there.'

Mr Marden said he had received inquiries from a range of people including artists, writers, a baker and a generous mother looking to help her son enter the market.

The price, which was originally $39,000 before being reduced several times, sits well below the area's median house price of $75,000.

Two offers above the advertised price have already been made on the property.The EU could step in to force the break-up of Google, the bloc's competition commissioner warned today.

Margrethe Vestager said she had 'grave suspicions' about the internet giant's growing power.

The European commission has had a series of run-ins with Google, including hitting the firm with a record 2billion fine last June for favouring its own comparison shopping service.

It is appealing the ruling, but two other separate cases are ongoing.

EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager (file picture) said she had 'grave suspicions' about the internet giant's growing power

Asked in an interview with the Daily Telegraph whether she thought Google might have to be broken up, Ms Vestager said: 'I think it important to keep that question open and on the agenda.

'We are not there yet but it is important to keep an awakened eye.'

The commissioner warned that the search engine - which has a 91 per cent share of the market - could become so big that it is indispensable for the economy.

Ms Vestager said: 'There is no ban on success in Europe. You get to be dominant and you get a special responsibility that you don't destroy the already weakened competition.

'We have proven their dominance in search and we have found they have misused this dominance to promote themselves and diminish competitors.'

Since taking the EU competition job in 2014, Ms Vestager has earned a reputation for taking on tech giants.

She ordered Ireland to claw back 11billion from Apple after finding the company was given illegal tax breaks.

But she rejected the idea she is hounding tech companies.

The European commission has had a series of run-ins with Google, including hitting the firm with a record 2billion fine last June for favouring its own comparison shopping service. Pictured is Google's HQ in London

'I think the motives for illegal behaviour are the same for any kind of company. Money, fear, power - these motives have been the same across centuries,' she said.

The threat comes with tech firms under unprecedented levels of scrutiny for their behaviour.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is facing demands to give evidence to a Commons committee amid a furious backlash about a data breach affecting 50million usersA 24-year-old woman is fighting for her life after being stabbed during a fight with a group of Syrian child refugees near Hanover, Germany.

The woman and a friend had gotten into an argument with two boys, aged 13 and 14, in a supermarket in the small town of Burgwedel near Hanover on Saturday evening.

The pair met the teens again on their way home, at which point they had been joined by a 17-year-old and the argument between the woman's 25-year-old friend and the Syrians escalated.

Attack: Blood can be seen on the sidewalk near a supermarket where a woman was stabbed during and argument between her friend, 25, and three teenagers

Local media reports that the 24-year-old had stepped in to calm the combatants down, when she was stabbed by the 17-year-old.

All three teenagers fled the scene, but were soon caught by police.

The 17-year-old appeared before a court on Sunday and has been charged with attempted murder.

Incident: The stabbing took place in the small town of Burgwedel near Hanover, Germany

The nationality of the woman, who remains in critical condition, and her friend are not known.

Knife crimes are spiking in Germany; a fortnight ago a 17-year-old Afghan boy was arrested for murdering his 16-year-old girlfriend in Flensburg with a switchblade.

Police report in all 16 states that the number of attacks are on the rise.Facebook is still not being 'fully forthcoming' about its data leak, Senator Mark Warner has said as he called for Mark Zuckerberg to testify 'and not just put an advert in newspapers'.

Zuckerberg has taken out full-page ads in nine major US and British publications to apologize for the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The ads, apologizing for a data breach that leaked details from 50 million Facebook users, ran in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal in the US.

They also ran in the Mail on Sunday, The Sunday Times, The Observer, Sunday Mirror, Sunday Express, and Sunday Telegraph.

But Warner, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, says Facebook has not been fully transparent about its previously unreported data leak and is calling on CEO Zuckerberg to testify before Congress.

He told on NBC's Meet The Press: 'I dont think Facebook has been fully forthcoming. I called out Facebook back in December of 16. In the Spring of 17, I questioned micro-targeting and the use of this really sketchy firm Cambridge Analytica. Early on for most of 2017, they blew that off.'

Facebook is still not being 'fully forthcoming' about its data leak, Senator Mark Warner (centre) has said as he called for Zuckerberg to testify 'and not just put an advert in newspapers'

Mark Zuckerberg has taken out full-page ads in nine major US and British newspapers to apologize for the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Pictured is the New York Times on Sunday

Zuckerberg's ads, apologizing for a data breach that leaked details from 50 million Facebook users, ran in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal in the US

The ads, done in simple black text against a plain white background, were headlined: 'We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't, we don't deserve it.'

'You may have heard about a quiz app built by a university researcher that leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014,' the apology begins.

'This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again.'

'We've already stopped apps like this from getting so much information. Now we're limiting the data apps get when you sign in using Facebook.'

'We're also investigating every single app that had access to large amounts of data before we fixed this. We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected.'

The ads, done in simple black text against a plain white background, were headlined: 'We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't, we don't deserve it.'

The ads also ran in the Mail on Sunday, The Sunday Times, The Observer, Sunday Mirror, Sunday Express, and Sunday Telegraph

'Finally, we'll remind you which apps you've given access to your information - so you can shut off the ones you don't want anymore.'

'Thank you for believing in this community. I promise to do better for you.'

The apology is formally signed off by the 33-year-old Facebook chief.

However, the gesture was dismissed by Warner, who added: 'I think Mr. Zuckerberg needs to come and testify before Congress, not just put an advertisement in the newspaper.

'He said he would if he was the guy, he is the right guy. He cant send a staff. When Im called upon on an issue, its my name on the door. I mean you wouldnt take a staff member here on your show representing me.'

'He needs to come testify before Congress and explain how theyre going to work with us to both protect privacy; there are 50 million Facebook accounts that were used by this sketchy firm, Cambridge Analytica, and how were going to make sure it doesnt happen again in terms of weaponization of these social media platforms.'

Zuckerberg's mea culpa comes after a terrible week for the social media giant, which saw its shares fall 13 percent to below $160 - the company's worst week in the stock market since July 2012.

But the apology did not mention Cambridge Analytica, the British political consultancy firm that has been accused of taking the data to target voters.

The quiz app that Zuckerberg mentions was created by Cambridge researcher Alexsandr Kogan.

Earlier this week, Zuckerberg appeared on CNN to apologise for the data breach on Facebook

Kogan's app was downloaded by 270,000 people, and allowed access to tens of millions of their contacts.

The researcher then allegedly passed on this information to Cambridge Analytica, which worked on Donald Trump's 2016 presidency campaign.

Government officials moved in on Cambridge Analytica's offices in London this week, taking vans full of evidence with them for further examination.

Teams searched the troubled tech company's headquarters after a High Court judge granted the Information Commissioner's Office a warrant.

Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix has been suspended as an undercover report showed him discussing potential bribery and entrapment

It took more than seven hours for investigators to comb through files, with paperwork and boxes of suspected evidence piled into the back of a transit van.

A spokesman for the ICO told MailOnline it would not comment where the files were being taken to but confirmed officers left the premises.

The spokesman said: 'We will now need to assess and consider the evidence before deciding the next steps and coming to any conclusions.

'This is one part of a larger investigation by the ICO into the use of personal data and analytics by political campaigns, parties, social media companies and other commercial actors.'

The Facebook data scandal deepened last night after users found the social network had harvested information including call logs and text messages.

Some users discovered the Silicon Valley giant had been storing complete logs of incoming and outgoing calls and text messages.

Others reported that data such as contacts in their address books, social events in their calendars and even friends' birthdays had been stored.

One user, Dylan McKay, reported that from October 2016 to July 2017 his logs contained 'the data of every [mobile] call I've made, including time and duration' and 'data about every text message I've received or sent'.

The discoveries came after some Facebook users tried to delete their profiles over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Rather than delete an account entirely, the social media site encourages people to 'deactivate' their profile as this leaves all personal data on its servers.

However, when users request to permanently delete their accounts, the site suggests: 'You may want to download a copy of your info from Facebook.'

It is this data dump which revealed the extent of the data held. User Mat Johnson said he found his deleted Facebook profile data dump contained information on 'every single [mobile] phone call and text I made for about a year'.

Emma Kennedy found Facebook had recorded 'every single phone number in my contacts.

'They had every single social event I went to, a list of all my friends and their birthdays, and a list of every text I've sent'.

A Facebook spokesman said: 'The first time you sign in on your phone to a messaging or social app, it's a widely used practice to begin by uploading your phone contacts.

'Contact uploading is optional. People are expressly asked if they want to give permission to upload their contacts from their phone  it's explained right there in the apps when you get started.

'People can delete previously uploaded information at any time and can find all the information available to them in their account and activity log from our Download Your Information tool.'

The company says an opt-out for uploading contacts is available and users can delete all uploaded contacts by turning off the continuous uploading setting in Facebook's Messenger app.

All previously uploaded contacts are deleted when a user permanently removes their profile. Contacts will also no longer continue to be uploaded.The sister of murdered MP Jo Cox has revealed that she is standing by her sibling's widower after he admitted to 'inappropriate' behaviour amid sex pest claims.

Kim Leadbeater said that although she does not condone any form of sexual harassment, she would support Brendan Cox as the father of her niece and nephew.

Speaking to Good Morning Britain, she said was now serving as an ambassador for the Jo Cox Foundation, which was set up by Brendan in the aftermath of Jo's death.

Asked if she was still in touch with Brendan, she added: 'Of course. I will support Brendan as the mother of two children who are growing up without their mother.

Mr Cox (left) denied preying on two women while he was married to murdered MP Jo Cox (pictured right)

Kim Leadbeater (pictured) said that although she does not condone any form of sexual harassment, she would support Brendan Cox as the father of her niece and nephew

'Do I condone inappropriate behaviour? Absolutely not. Will I support Brendan as the father of two children who had their mother murdered? Of course I will.

'It would be difficult to criticise me for doing so. It was another very tough week of which we've had many. It's very upsetting, but it's my focus now to move forward.'

Mr Cox left posts at More in Common and the Jo Cox Foundation last month after admitting 'inappropriate' behaviour while he worked at Save the Children in 2015.

Mr Cox denied preying on two women while he was married, but said: 'I made mistakes and behaved in a way that caused some women hurt and offence.'

It was claimed Mr Cox drunkenly harassed a female employee at Save the Children in London  allegedly holding her by the throat and making a lurid comment.

Labour MP Mrs Cox was fatally shot and stabbed outside her constituency office by a far-right terrorist during the EU Referendum campaign in 2016.

Jo Cox's husband Brendan Cox, mother Jean Leadbeater, father Gordon Leadbeater and sister Kim Leadbeater react after speaking to the media following the guilty verdict of Thomas Mair

Mr Cox left posts at More in Common and the Jo Cox Foundation last month after admitting 'inappropriate' behaviour while he worked at Save the Children in 2015

Speaking about the tragedy, Kim said: 'I haven't processed the grief at all. It's been 20 months. There is so much I haven't dealt with.

'Jo was just the nicest person you could meet. You won't meet anyone who didn't like her, even if they didn't agree with her on politics or whatever.

'I owe it to my sister to make sure Jo's legacy goes on and that her death was not in vain.

'Our country is amazing but it can feel divided at times, and there are those who want to exploit those divisions, which is why we as Jo's family are so determined to take the work of the Foundation forward.

'My sister Jo inspired so many when she said we had more in common than things that divide us.'The Danish inventor accused of murdering Swedish journalist Kim Wall in Copenhagen in August, enjoyed 'strangulation sex', starred in porn films, and had brought at least one of his mistresses on the submarine, a court heard today.

Peter Madsen, 47, denies killing the 30-year-old, and claims her death was an accident, after which - he claims - he panicked, dismembered her body and dumped the parts off the Danish coast.

Several of Madsen's mistresses are witnessing in Copenhagen district court today, sharing details about his 'fascination' with snuff films and BDSM sex.

Last week, the court heard that Miss Wall most likely died as a result of having her airways 'cut off'.

Scroll down for video

'Open marriage': Peter Madsen had several casual sexual relationships outside his marriage, and some have revealed that he would have sex with them on the submarine where Swedish journalist Kim Wall died

Madsen, who has had an 'open marriage' with his wife, had several casual sexual relationships with other women.

One, whose identity has been withheld from the court, revealed today that they experimented with strangulation sex and that during intercourse 'he had his hands around my neck'.

She said the had discussed snuff films and that Madsen had a 'fascination for it', Swedish newspaper Kvallsposten reports.

A second mistress, who also volunteered at Madsen's workshop, told the court that they had been to BDSM sex clubs together but that she had not seen any violence in the inventor.

'What we have done between four eyes has been very easy going. My experience is that he is a very insecure man. Peter never crossed the line in my presence'.

Heartbreaking: Miss Wall had arranged to meet Madsen to interview him about his work on his submarine in Copenhagen on August 10 last year

Murder trial: Peter Madsen claims journalist Kim Wall, 30, died as a result of a gas leak on his submarine last August, and that he then dismembered her and 'buried her at sea'

She also revealed that Madsen had starred in at least two porn films, one shot in Denmark and one in Germany, and that they had planned to start a 'Sunday club' where they would invite friends and 'be naked', but nothing came of their idea.

Last week, a female friend, told the court that Madsen had pornographic fantasies about 'women and death' that 'had turned a little bit into a manic obsession'.

She says Madsen wanted to make a snuff movie - a film which shows a real-life murder or suicide - and that it was something they had talked about making together.

'He said he would like to find some crazy women to film.'

When Buch-Jepsen asked if Madsen had told her what would happen to these women during the film, she replied: 'no he did not, but we talked about women dying.'

The trial against Peter Madsen, charged with murder, dismemberment and indecent handling of a corpse, is set to continue until next month.

Prosecutor Buch-Jepsen claims Madsen tied up and tortured Miss Wall before killing her, either by cutting her throat or strangling her.

The murder has been called premeditated because he had brought along tools he normally would not take with him on the submarine.

Coroner Christina Jacobsen testified Thursday about numerous lesions found on Wall's torso and head, with much of the questioning focused on the more-than two dozen stab wounds to her genital area.

She told the court that some of the cuts to the torso would have to have been inflicted before the moment of death.

The press and hearers line up in front of the courthouse where the trial of Danish inventor Peter Madsen, charged with murdering and dismembering Swedish journalist Kim Wall

The court heard that there was no conclusive evidence to prove the cause of death beyond doubt, but that coroners believe the 30-year-old had her airways 'cut off'.

Ms Jacobsen said this would be 'due to either strangulation, throat cutting or drowning,' she said.

The court also heard that Miss Wall had several lesions on her neck and jaw which would have been inflicted while she was still alive.

Ms Jacobsen told the court that the head may have been restrained, strapped down or that Miss Wall was 'gagged'.

On Wednesday, the court were show animated videos of naked women being impaled spikes and being decapitated by men, which had been found on Madsen's computer.

A post-mortem examination of Miss Wall found 14 interior and exterior stab wounds to the journalist's genitals.

Just hours before Madsen met Miss Wall, he searched the internet for 'beheaded girl agony', and watched a video of a girl having her throat slit.

Madsen has continued to deny causing the death of Miss Wall throughout the investigation and trial, although he has changed his story of how she died several times.

At first he claimed that she died after she was hit over the head when the hatch door slammed shut unexpectedly.

Now, he claims Miss Wall was inside the vessel when a vacuum effect meant that he was unable to open the hatch door to get to her as exhaust fumes filled the craft.

Police technicians board Peter Madsen's submarine UC3 Nautilus on a pier in Copenhagen three days after Kim Wall's disappearance

On Thursday, the medical examiner said it was an unlikely scenario as'the air seems not to have been able to leave the lungs, which is not the case with lack of oxygen or inhalation of gases.'

Miss Wall had been trying to get Madsen to agree to an interview for months before her death, and so when the opportunity arose, she left her own goodbye party.

She and he boyfriend were moving to China, and she kept in touch with her partner over the evening.

Her boyfriend received several text messages from her which were read out in court earlier this month.

'I'm still alive btw (by the way),' one of her last messages read, adding 'But going down now! I love you!!!!!!' A minute later, she added: 'He brought coffee and cookies tho.'

Her partner called police after the messages suddenly stopped coming, and authorities launched a search for the submarine, which did not have a satellite tracking system.

The 33-ton submarine sank south of Copenhagen shortly after being spotted afloat the following day and Madsen was picked up unharmed. Initially, he told police he had let Wall off on Refshale island several hours into the trip.

Investigators found dried blood inside the submarine and on Madsen's face and clothes, and divers eventually found Miss Wall's body parts in plastic bags held down on the Baltic Sea bed by metal pieces.

Kim Wall grew up in southern Sweden, and studied at Paris' Sorbonne university, the London School of Economics and Columbia University in New York, from where she graduated with a master's degree in journalism in 2013.

She wrote for The New York Times, The Guardian and other publications, reporting on topics such as tourism in post-earthquake Haiti and nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands.An Adelaide woman who fatally shook her infant son withheld information from medical staff trying to save the child, a court has heard.

Jennifer Nicole Kennison, 31, appeared in the South Australian Supreme Court on Monday March 26 after last year pleading guilty to one count of manslaughter over the 2016 death of her child, who suffered a brain injury and 16 rib fractures.

Her lawyer, Justin Wickens, told the court Kennison's actions were the result of a momentary lapse of judgment after she became frustrated with the unsettled baby.

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Jennifer Nicole Kennison (pictured), 31, appeared in the court on Monday March 26 after pleading guilty to manslaughter over the 2016 death of her child

The court was told Kennison (pictured centre) did not tell any medical staff working on her child about the extent of the shaking

'There is nothing else to suggest that this is a bad parent,' he said.

'She is not charged with intentionally killing the child.'

Mr Wickens also told the court, according to Nine News, that Kennison is an 'otherwise loving mother who is also a victim of her own offending. She has lost her child and that is something she will carry for the rest of her life.'

But prosecutor Emma Wildman said Kennison, a former childcare worker, showed no remorse and put her own interests ahead of the child's.

'Whilst the defendant called triple zero and she herself administered first aid, she did not provide an accurate history of events to any person who was rendering medical assistance on that day,' Ms Wildman told the court.

'She made one brief mention of shaking to a nurse... but to no paramedic, to no medical practitioner at any hospital did she provide an honest account of the shaking.'

Ms Wildman said Kennison's actions were not consistent with a mother who had a momentary lapse, instead suggesting she knew she had done something wrong and tried to protect herself from an early stage.

The court was told that Kennison 'showed no remorse' over shaking of her child at their Adelaide home left him with a brain injury and 16 broken ribs

Nine News reported that Kennison realised a prison sentence was warranted but asked the court if it could be served as home detention.

She allegedly delayed court proceedings to have a psychological assessment but a doctors report found that she had no cognitive difficulties, showed no signs of post-natal depression or drug abuse and had no contact with child protection agencies, the court was told according to the news program.

The court also learnt that Kennison still has custody of one of her children.

Justice David Lovell continued Kennison's bail ahead of her sentencing in April.Pauline Hanson has taken a stroll in 'Australia's most Muslim suburb' where she claims even police are 'too scared' to come to.

The Queensland Senator received a tirade of abuse from some locals as she walked through Lakemba, in Sydney's south-west - a suburb which she has claimed is no longer Australian due to its majority Muslim population.

Some yelled profanities at Ms Hanson while others told the One Nation party leader - who has previously likened Islam to a disease - to 'go back where you came from', A Current Affair reported.

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Pauline Hanson received a tirade of abuse from some locals as she walked through Lakemba, in Sydney's west - a suburb which she has claimed is no longer Australian due to its majority Muslim population

Some yelled profanities at Ms Hanson while others told the One Nation party leader - who has previously likened Islam to a disease - to 'go back where you came from'. Pictured: A local yells from their car at Ms Hanson

Ms Hanson took exception to the latter abuse, saying: 'Hey, hang on a minute, this is Australia, I was born here.

'I should be able to walk anywhere I want to in this country, go wherever I want to [and] not have people like that tell me.

She added: 'A lot of police won't come to this area, they will not attend to it because they are in fear.'

Others were more receptive of the outspoken politician, with one local asking if she 'likes it in Lakemba'.

'It's my first time here, would I move here and live here? No,' Ms Hanson responded.

Before meeting locals, she said she had 'no wish' to visit the suburb with a Muslim population of 10,076, or 59.2 per cent.

Ms Hanson (left) took exception to the abuse, saying: 'Hey, hang on a minute, this is Australia, I was born here

Others were more receptive of the outspoken politician, with one local asking if she 'likes it in Lakemba'

Before meeting locals, she said she had 'no wish' to visit the suburb with a Muslim population of 10,076, or 59.2 per cent

2016 Census data shows the figure far exceeds that of New South Wales and Australia, which has Muslim populations of 3.6 and 2.6 per cent respectively.

'It looks very foreign to me,' Ms Hanson said.

'A lot of people [in Lakemba] don't choose to actually assimilate into the Australian way of society, they don't want to speak the language, these people don't want to be part of Australia.

'They've just taken a chunk of it and they've moved from their own country and brought it out here.'

Ms Hanson also reflected on her August 2017 Senate stunt (pictured), in which she walked into the chamber wearing a burqa

She has no intention of re-wearing the Muslim modesty garment, which she said was poorly stitched and made her feel claustrophobic

Ms Hanson also reflected on her August 2017 Senate stunt, in which she walked into the chamber wearing a burqa.

She has no intention of re-wearing the Muslim modesty garment, which she said was poorly stitched and made her feel claustrophobic.

'I don't like the bloody garb and I think it's horrible,' she told A Current Affair.

Standing to address the Senate in the burqa last year, Ms Hanson called for the government to ban 'oppressive' full-face coverings.

'I'm quite happy to remove this, because this is not what should belong in this Parliament,' she said.A far right Canadian activist who claimed 'Allah is gay' said she was slapped with a lifetime ban from coming to the UK after she was accused of distributing racist material.

Lauren Southern came under fire in February after she was caught handing out leaflets in Luton that proclaimed 'Allah is a gay God' and 'Allah is trans.'

Although the 22-year-old said it was only a 'social experiment', she was detained in Calais when trying to re-enter the UK on March 13 and was questioned over the posters.

In a video posted on Thursday, Southern claimed that she received a lifetime ban from coming to the UK, stemming from the leaflet incident.

Lauren Southern, 22, said she received a lifetime ban from entering the UK, she explained in a video on Thursday

The 22-year-old was detained in Calais when trying to re-enter the UK on March 13 for a February incident in Luton where she handed out pamphlets that said 'Allah is a gay God'

Southern said the Home Office slapped her with a lifetime ban 'because she was caught distributing racist leaflets.'

A Home Office Spokesperson said: 'Border Force has the power to refuse entry to an individual if it is considered that his or her presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.'

In the blonde's video, titled ''Allah Is Gay'' - Here's What Happened in Luton', she claims it was a 'social experiment of sorts' because she wanted to explore how people would react to LGBTQ messages for the Muslim community.

She said she was inspired by a Vice article that focused on a similar theme that had LGBTQ messages involving Jesus and Christianity.

In the video Southern explains she wanted to see 'what would happen if we played the role of an LGBT social justice warrior activist and set up a stall to celebrate LGBT diversity within the Islamic community.'

The video shows Southern handing out pamphlets and passersby stopping to confront her over the posters, with Southern eventually being told by police to leave.

Southern claimed the Home Office slapped her with a lifetime ban 'because she was caught distributing racist leaflets'

In the blonde's video, titled ''Allah Is Gay'' - Here's What Happened in Luton', she claims it was a 'social experiment of sorts' because she wanted to explore how people would react to LGBTQ messages for the Muslim community

Southern claims the UK has 'blasphemy laws enforced by sharia'.

She concluded that her so-called experiment 'highlights a double standard in Western societies: why is it racist to say Allah is gay, but not Jesus is gay?

'Why does (sic) the rights of Muslims to be homophobic trump the rights of gay people to have their self expression?'

Southern added that the UK 'needs to have a conversation about this before theyre no longer able to have a conversation at all'.

Southern said she thought her police interaction in Luton was the end of the incident until she was quizzed for six hours by border guards in Calais earlier this month.

he video shows Southern handing out pamphlets and passersby stopping to confront her over the posters, with Southern eventually being told by police to leave

Southern documented her detainment in Calais. She was preparing to come to the UK to interview English Defence League co-founder Tommy Robinson

She was preparing to come to the UK to interview English Defence League co-founder Tommy Robinson.

The activist took to Twitter to document the incident, and said: 'I'm not kidding about this, but during my questioning by the UK police I was asked about my Christianity and whether I'm a radical.

'I was also asked how I feel about running Muslims over with cars.'

A British security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said authorities had denied Southern permission to enter Britain on the grounds that her 'presence in the UK was not conducive to the public good'.Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 44, had his throat repeatedly cut before being shot in the head during the French terror attack

The hero policeman who died after swapping himself for a hostage during the French terror attack had his throat repeatedly slashed and was shot in the head, an autopsy has revealed.

Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 44, succumbed to the knife wounds before being shot with a 7.65mm pistol by terrorists Radouane Lakdim, 26, inside a supermarket in the town of Trebes on Friday.

His own 9mm handgun lay close to the body, the autopsy notes, suggesting he was killed after the terrorist found it.

Lt Col Beltrame, who has been posthumously declared a national hero, was one of four people killed around the South West town of Carcassonne last Friday.

Until now, it was thought that the gendarme had been unarmed as he took the place of a 40-year-old check-out assistant identified only as Julie, who was being used as a human shield.

Julie, who has a two-year-old child, managed to get out of the supermarket, and has since credited Lt Col Beltrame with 'saving my life'.

Lt Col Beltrame died after swapping places with a hostage at the Super U supermarket in Trebes on Friday (pictured, tributes outside the police station where he worked)

Beltrame's body was found close to his own 9mm service pistol, suggesting terrorist Radouane Lakdim found the weapon before killing him

Special forces police outside could hear what was going on, because Lt Col Beltrame had left his phone connected to a colleague.

When the officers stormed in and killed Lakdim, they also found the dead bodies of shopper Herve Sosna, 65, and Christian Medves, a 50-year-old supermarket butcher.

Earlier, Ladkim had murdered 60-year-old Jean Mazieres, while hijacking a car after shooting at off-duty police officers out running.

Lakdim's former girlfriend, 18, is in custody with another male friend, 17, and both face terrorist charges in connection with the attacks.

The girlfriend, who has not been named, was  like Lakdim  subject to a Security-S file, meaning she was considered a danger to national security.

French President Emmanuel Macron declared Beltrame, who leaves behind a wife, a 'national hero' following the attack on Friday last week

Despite such concerns, Ladkim was not under surveillance while living at home with his parents and younger sisters in a council flat in Carcassonne.

On the morning of the attack, he had taken one of his siblings to school.

French president Emmanuel Macron has declared Lt Col Beltrame a 'national hero', saying he sacrificed himself for others.

Lt Col Beltrame died from his wounds in hospital on Saturday morning, shortly after being religiously married to his partner, Marielle Vandenbunder-Beltrame, a 39-year-old vet.

The couple  both devout Roman Catholics  were wed in a town hall in 2016, but had been preparing for a Church wedding in June.A grieving father-of-five has spoken out about the horrific week in which he lost both his beloved brother and his 12-year-old son.

Nightclub owner Chris Bacon, 48, from Manchester, was devastated when his brother, entrepreneur Tim Bacon, 52, died of cancer. Just four days later his 12-year-old son Jett died in his arms.

Both Tim and Jett had been battling cancer. Tim had battled lymphoma for 14 years, but in his last two years had also developed melanoma.

Nightclub owner Chris Bacon, 48, from Manchester, was devastated when his brother, entrepreneur Tim Bacon, 52, died of cancer. Just four days later his 12-year-old son Jett died in his arms. Mr Bacon is pictured left, with his brother, and right, with his late son

Jett had been diagnosed with rare bone cancer Ewing's Sarcoma at the age of 11, but lost his fight after a 12-month battle in May 2016.

Mr Bacon, who is originally from Tasmania in Australia, said: 'To watch your loved ones die in front of you, and Tim was my best buddy, but to watch your own son take his last breath, you can't ever get over that.

'It's incomprehensible really, you wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy.

'Our youngest boy was just two weeks old when Jett was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma.

The one comfort Mr Bacon takes is his belief that Tim, 52, (right) died first so he could be waiting to look after Jett (left)

'He had a terrible terrible time. That whole period was the most traumatic period of my whole life. What kept me strong was my phone calls to Tim every morning and we'd natter about all sorts of silly stuff. I miss those calls.'

The one comfort Mr Bacon takes is his belief that Tim, 52, died first so he could be waiting to look after Jett.

Mr Bacon said: 'It's still very emotional, I still cry every day. I went to see Tim to give him a cuddle, and then I went and stayed with my son.

'Me and Tim we used to talk about death. We'd talk in the early hours of the morning, but the whole situation, you just couldn't comprehend it. But I know Tim is looking after Jett now.'

Jett, centre, was diagnosed with rare bone cancer Ewing's Sarcoma at the age of 11, but lost his fight after a 12-month battle in May 2016 - just four days after his uncle, left

Mr Bacon is now paying his own tribute to his lost family members with the launch of his Club Arvina in Hale, which is named after the Latin word for Bacon.

He says: 'I'd love to feel that if they were looking down they'd love it. Tim would be laughing about it, saying why had he not thought of that name? It's our homage, something to make Tim and Jett proud.

'This is why we're doing this, this is our little family tribute.'

While Mr Bacon embarked on a successful early calling in judo, becoming a European and Commonwealth champion, his brother Tim headed to Manchester where he set up his first bar, JW Johnsons on Deansgate in 1993.

Tim went on build a restaurant and bar empire across Manchester and then across the UK with brands including The Alchemist, Gusto, Manchester House and the Blackhouse Grills.

Mr Bacon, meanwhile, set up his own security firm and settled in Manchester.

And things have come full circle since he bought Club Arvina - the former 161 and Suburbia Club had once been owned by his brother Tim.Tony Blair will renew his demand for a second referendum on Brexit today as Remain supporters step up their campaign to stop Britain quitting Europe.

The ex-Prime Minister will brand Theresa May's Brexit plans as 'dangerously irresponsible'.

Mr Blair claims the Prime Minister is refusing to spell out the details of how her Brexit plans will work until after 'we are irreversibly out of Europe'.

Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer will separately argue Labour's plans will out Parliament in charge of how the UK leaves the EU.

Tony Blair (pictured earlier this month) will renew his demand for a second referendum on Brexit today as Remain supporters step up their campaign to stop Britain quitting Europe

In a speech today, Mr Blair will say: 'People say that there will be disillusion if Brexit doesn't happen.

'Personally, I doubt this if it is the result of a fresh 'say' on the final deal.

'But even if true, the bigger disillusion will be when those who voted for Brexit because they feared the future shaped by free market globalisation, realise they are now conscripts in an adventure to embrace it more fully.

'This is the awesome responsibility which now rests with Parliament.'

Mr Blair will add: 'As time goes on, it will become crystal clear that the Government's original negotiating position was built on sand.

'They will realise that they are in mortal danger of putting a proposition to Parliament which will not pass.

'Either it will mean divergence from Europe in which case, the business community will protest the damage and MPs may take notice of that.

'Or it will mean alignment with Europe in which case the diehard Brexiteers will cry foul and the British people will wonder why we are leaving.'

Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer (pictured on ITV yesterday) will separately argue Labour's plans will out Parliament in charge of how the UK leaves the EU

In a speech in Birmingham as the countdown to Brexit approaches the one-year mark, Sir Keir will say: 'If Parliament rejects the Prime Minister's deal that cannot give licence to her - or the extreme Brexiteers in her party - to allow the UK to crash out without an agreement.

Labour's position on Brexit has come under scrutiny after Jeremy Corbyn fired Owen Smith (left) from the shadow cabinet after calling for a second referendum

'That would be the worst of all possible worlds.

'That is why in the coming days - and working with others in the Lords and the Commons - Labour will ensure that an amendment is tabled to the EU Withdrawal Bill to strengthen the terms of Parliament's meaningful vote.'

Labour's position on Brexit has come under scrutiny following Owen Smith's dismissal from the shadow cabinet after calling for a second referendum.

The party has not definitively ruled out calling for a second public vote - although deputy leader Tom Watson said it was 'highly unlikely' that Labour would call for another referendum.

Sir Keir will say that Labour would not dictate what Parliament should instruct if the Government's Brexit deal is rejected.

However, he will say: 'Labour's preference in that scenario is clear: the Government should go back to the negotiating table and work towards securing a deal that works for Britain.'A brave father has died after diving into a retention pond to save his drowning daughter.

Anthony Burgess Jr., 24, had been talking to a friend beside his car at the Core Riverbend Apartments in Castleton in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, when the tragic accident took place.

His three-year-old daughter tried to get out of the car but while clambering over the front seats she hit the gear lever, putting the car into reverse.

It then rolled into the pond with her trapped inside at about 4.30pm on Sunday, WIBC reported.

A brave father died after diving into a retention pond to save his drowning daughter at the Core Riverbend Apartments in Castleton in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana (pictured: divers at the scene)

Neither Burgess nor his friend Bobby Malone, 28, knew how to swim, but they dived in to try to save the child.

Burgess reached the car before it disappeared underwater and yelled to his daughter to get into the back seat, before grabbing her from the vehicle.

Malone made his way back to shore to avoid drowning while another man on the other side of the pond, who also could not swim, jumped in to rescue the girl.

The 30-year-old bystander then went back to help the girl's father, who had disappeared under the water, but had to turn back to shore halfway towards him.

Burgess was pulled from the pond by first responders and rushed to St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital, but died from his injuries at about 11.30pm.

He had reportedly been in the water for nearly 20 minutes.

Anthony Burgess Jr., 24, had been talking to a friend beside his car. His three-year-old daughter tried to get out of the car too and hit the gear lever, making the car roll into the water (above: a diver at the scene)

The young girl is in a critical but stable condition (pictured: divers at the scene)

His daughter was taken to Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health and remains in a critical but stable condition.

The bystander who helped to rescue the girl was in good condition but taken to hospital for checks. The condition of Burgess's friend has not been reported.

Divers found Burgess's car about 25 feet down and 50 feet out from the shore.

Retention ponds are designed to store stormwater and prevent flooding.An endangered red-crowned crane has been wounded by its keeper who violently beat it inside its enclosure in China.

The zoo worker claimed he was defending himself from being attacked by the animal, which is a protected species in the country.

Pictures and videos showed the bird, with blood on its wings, failed to stand up after the worker at Shijiazhuang Municipal Zoo launched an attack with a tool.

An endangered red-crowned crane has been brutally beaten by a worker in Shijiazhuang Municipal Zoo in China (left). The man claimed he was defending himself from the crane (right)

The zoo explained that red-crowned cranes can be aggressive when they are in heat

The zoo has been forced to apologise after a video of the beating had become widly shared on Chinese social media.

The zoo claimed the worker was trying to stop the crane from pecking on him.

The man has been suspended from his post.

According to Beijing News, the incident came into light when a tourist noticed the animal being beaten during a visit to the zoo on March 23.

'I heard the crane shrieking and I saw a worker beating the bird with a club. The red-crowned crane could not get up. Its right wing was open,' Ms Cui told Beijing News.

Mobile phone footage posted on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media site, shows a red-crowned crane pecking on a male worker in the enclosure.

The man swings a club-like tool towards the endangered animal.

Red-crowned crane, also known as Japanese cranes, is classified as an endangered animal species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list. There are around 3,050 of them worldwide.

The worker, pictured, had a minor injury below his right eye and was treated at a hospital

The crane stands on the edge of a pond after being beaten with a club in the enclosure

The crane fell into the pond and later, bleeding in the right wing, according to the zoo

An investigation report launched by the zoo indicated the crane was one of the five newly registered red-crowned cranes in the enclosure, reported Xinhua News Agency.

The report claimed that the crane approached the unnamed worker when he was fixing a blockage in the pipes inside the enclosure.

It also stated that the crane was in heat, therefore it became aggressive.

The keeper launched a counter attack to defend himself as the crane pecked on his face, said Xinhua.

Shijiazhuang Municipal Zoo confirmed that the bird sustained fractures on the right wing and had received treatment.

The worker also had a minor injury about one centimetres (0.39inch) below his right eye.

The zoo has issued an apology letter online and suspended the worker.

The management team said it would reinforce the training of all of its employees and educate them about safety regulations.Prince William's Private Secretary, Miguel Head, is to leave the role in July after more than 10 years with the royal family.

He is the latest in a wave of senior figures to resign and depart from royal households over the past year.

The Duke of Cambridge has now appointed Simon Case, the current Director General Northern Ireland and Ireland in the Department for Exiting the EU, to succeed Head in the role.

The resignation comes at a key time for the Royal Household, as the Queen, 91, and Prince Philip, 96, step back from frontline duties, leaving younger royals to take up the slack  or Operation Handover, as it is known.

Prince William 's Private Secretary Miguel Head, both pictured, is to leave the role in July after more than 10 years with the royal family. He is the latest in a wave of senior figures to resign

In August The Mail On Sunday reported that palace sources are concerned that the firm had been plunged into uncertainty following the shock resignation of the Queens right hand man, Sir Christopher Geidt, along with several other leading figures.

You could described it as a right royal shambles,  said one courtier.

It was rumoured at the time that Head was expected to leave 'before Christmas', although he denied the claims.

The Duchess of Cambridges Private Secretary, Rebecca Deacon announced her departure last year, as has Keeper of the Privy Purse, Sir Alan Reid. A week later week it emerged that a second aide to the Queen, Samantha Cohen, Assistant Private Secretary, had tendered her resignation.

The Duke of Cambridge has appointed Simon Case (right), the current Director General Northern Ireland and Ireland in the Department for Exiting the EU, to succeed Head (left)

The Queen is looking to hand over duties to the new generation of royals, palace sources say

The shake-up is also seen as a response to the increasingly chaotic rivalry between the separate households  Kensington Palace, run by the young royals, Clarence House, home to Charles and Buckingham Palace itself.

The Queen is said to have been irritated by the running of the junior households and feels that William and Harry have been given poor advice and left exposed to criticism.

Kensington Palace released a statement this morning which said: 'After a decade of service to The Royal Family, Miguel Head is to leave his role as Private Secretary to The Duke of Cambridge in July.

'Miguel joined The Royal Household as Press Secretary to Prince William and Prince Harry in September 2008 and became Private Secretary to The Duke of Cambridge in December 2012. He will now pursue a career outside of The Royal Household.'

The move comes after Sir Christopher Geidt stood down last year

A spokesman for The Duke of Cambridge said: 'His Royal Highness feels incredibly lucky to have benefited from Miguel's advice and support over the last decade.

'He has been an outstanding Press Secretary and Private Secretary and has been central to the decisions that have guided the establishment of The Duke's office.

'He has also been a valued advisor during an important period in His Royal Highness's life. He wishes Miguel all the very best for the future.'

Case has held a number of senior positions within the Civil Service, including serving as Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister.

His previous experience also includes roles as Director of Strategy at GCHQ, Director of the Implementation Group at the Cabinet Office and a posting at the Northern Ireland Office.

Case is leaving the Civil Service in order to take up the role at Kensington Palace.

The role of Private Secretary to The Duke of Cambridge is the most senior appointment in The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's Household with overall responsibility for the management of the Household.A shocking case of 'revenge rape' involving 12 members of two families has been unearthed by police in Punjab province, Pakistan.

A man had been accused of raping a woman in Pir Mahal in the Toba Tek Singh district on March 20.

Local news reports that the suspect's family had approached the victim's family for 'pardon and reconciliation'.

Shocking: The alleged rapist's family approached the victim's family for 'reconciliation', to which they agreed - on the condition that 'her brother would commit the same act with suspects sister' in Pir Mahal, Punjab

The victim's family agreed to pardon the rapist, on the condition that 'her brother would commit the same act with the suspects sister', dawn.com reports.

A dozen people attending a meeting between the two families agreed to the terms, and the brother subsequently had sex with the suspect's sister on March 21.

A police officer found out about the case when the two families prepared legal documents agreeing not to press charges against each other.

Pir Mahal Police Sub-Inspector Shaukat Ali Javed saw the and reported the families to his superiors.

Victims: The rapist's sister - who herself became a victim following the families' meeting, is also among the 12 people arrested

All 12 people in attendance , including four women, of which one was the victim of the second rape, were arrested on Saturday.

The case has echoes another incident in the southern city of Multan last July, where a village council ordered a 'revenge rape' on a 16-year-old girl.

The girl's brother had sexually assaulted a 12-year-old, and the 'revenge rape' was reportedly carried out in front of her parents and 40 members of the village council.Advertisement

Hundreds of people have today attended the funeral of an RAF veteran who died with no known family left to mourn him after a Facebook appeal went viral.

The body of Kenneth White, aged 84, was given a motorbike escort to Cambridge Crematorium and military honours after it emerged that he had no one to attend his funeral.

This morning, hundreds of people who saw the appeal on Facebook and Twitter turned out to pay their respects to the RAF veteran. His coffin was covered with a Union Jack flag and surrounded by military-themed floral wreaths.

Dozens of serving members of the RAF attended, along with veterans from the Royal British Legion and other military charities.

Mark of respect: The body of Kenneth White, aged 84, was given a 150-strong motorbike escort to Cambridge Crematorium after an online social media appeal revealed that he had no known family of friends left to attend his funeral

RAF hero: Hundreds of people attended the funeral of the RAF veteran who died with no known family left to mourn him

Power of social media: After an appeal for people to attend the funeral hundreds gave the former airman a fitting send-off

Remembered: Several groups, including the Royal British Legion, came together to ensure Mr White had a proper send off

Rob Moores, senior funeral services assistant at Dennis Easton Funeral Home in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, said: 'Everyone has been touched after hearing the story of Kenneth and so many people want to help honour the life of this veteran.'

The 150-strong motor escort met at the Seven Wives pub in St Ives and travelled with Mr White on his journey to be met at the crematorium by an Armed Forces bugler.

The funeral directors confirmed that the interest in Mr White's story was so great that the service had been moved from the crematorium's East Chapel to the larger West Chapel.

The news about Mr White went viral on social media after it was posted on a Twitter account called Veterans Honoured.

Wreath: A floral arrangement from a woman and her family thanks Mr White for his service to the country as an RAF veteran

Honour: Hundreds of those who saw the appeal on Facebook and Twitter turned out to pay their respects to the RAF veteran

Patriotic: The funeral directors confirmed that the interest in Mr White's story was so great that the service had been moved from the crematorium's East Chapel to the larger West Chapel

Support: It was feared that Mr White, 84, would have no one to honour his death after he passed away with no known relatives

The group says its aim is to 'highlight veterans' funerals where no relatives, family or friends are attending, so we may pay our respects'.

A Facebook event set up by the same group said: 'An RAF veteran called Kenneth White who has sadly passed away without any family in this country at all.

'If anyone may be able to attend his funeral (which is being arranged by the Council) on 26th March at the East Chapel of Cambridge Crematorium at 09.15hrs, it would be a lovely gesture. Thank you.'

Coming together: Flowers, a wreath and a small collection for a plaque in Kenneths memory have been organised

Military themed Flowers: The coffin was draped with the Union Jack flag and he was given full RAF honours

Together: Armed forces representatives teamed up to make sure a Royal Air Force veteran's final journey was not made aloneA group of Catholic priests in Brazil have been arrested, accused of embezzling 426,000 of church donations, funeral fees and fundraising cash.

The Bishop of Formosa, Jose Ribeiro, along with five clergymen and three lay people were detained in prison in Goias this week charged with stealing over 2 million reais (426,000) from church funds.

A police raid on one of the priests' home saw officers prise open a false wall in to find some 19,200 in plastic bags hidden in a secret storage space.

Cash stash: Police in Formosa, Goias, Brazil, prised open fake panels in the home of Monsignor Epitacio Cardoso Pereira, to find 90,000 reais (19,200) in plastic bags

Arrested: Monsignor Epitacio Cardoso Pereira, pictured with another priest, are accused of embezzling over 2 million reais (426,000) from church funds along with his colleagues

It's alleged the money was stolen over a three-year period from tithes, donations, fundraising events and from fees collected for ceremonies such as baptisms and weddings.

According to state prosecutors, the bishop, who was appointed to the Formosa diocese in 2014, is suspected of leading a sophisticated scheme that diverted funds from church coffers.

Phone taps uncovered the alleged web of deceit with conversations apparently revealing how the group laundered the money by purchasing a cattle ranch, a lottery agency, mobile phones, luxury cars, designer watches and gold chains. Large amounts of cash in foreign currencies were also found.

Accused: Bishop Jose Ribeiro is suspected of leading a sophisticated scheme that diverted funds from church coffers.

Prosecutor Fernanda Balbinot, said: 'There were indications the money was used for personal expenses and that cars from the Formosa diocese were used for private purposes.

'Instead of presenting tax bills and expense receipts with the correct amount, documents were allegedly produced saying there was nothing to declare.'

The investigation is reported to have also uncovered evidence that priests, involved in the scheme, paid the bishop a monthly 'protection allowance' of between 7,000 to 10,000 reais (1,500 to 2,100) to keep their jobs.

Prosecutor Douglas Chegyry said to Brazilian media: 'The information we have obtained is that in order to remain in the more profitable parishes that generated more money, the priests paid a cash allowance to the bishop.'

In the raid on the home of one of the accused, Monsignor Epitacio Cardoso Pereira, agents used a penknife to prise open the fake panels to discover 90,000 reais (19,200) in plastic bags hidden in a secret storage space.

Big haul: Police in Goias took hours to count the cash found in the home of Monsignor Epitacio Cardoso Pereira,

Big spender: Police say that the priests laundered the money by purchasing a cattle ranch, a lottery agency, mobile phones, luxury cars, designer watches and gold chains

They also seized three iPhones, a Macbook and found more money hidden in draws around the home which the defendant claimed did not belong to him.

Police officers were later filmed taking hours to count the haul.

The investigation into the Formosa Diocese accounts began last year after members of the congregation alleged irregularities and misuse of assets by the Catholic Church.

Churchgoers also claimed the expenses of the episcopal house rose disproportionately, from 5,000 reais to 35,000 reais (1,000 to 7,500) following the arrival of Bishop Ribeiro. At the time, the cleric denied any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors have charged the defendants with misappropriation, money laundering, 'ideological falsehood' and criminal association.

Lawyers for the accused refute the charges and said they will prove their clients innocence.

Two days after the arrests, Pope Francis named Father Paulo Mendes, who is archbishop of Uberaba, as a temporary replacement in the Goias diocese which has 33 churches distributed over 20 parishes.Billy Yoe Budier-Herrera, 33, allegedly tried to take a two-year-old boy from his mother's grocery cart at a Louisiana Walmart

Police in Louisiana say a stranger with a machete tried to snatch two children from their mothers inside a Walmart.

Kenner police describe the case in a Facebook post.

They say 33-year-old Billy Yoe Budier-Herrera tried to take a two-year-old boy from his mother's grocery cart, at one point both of them pulling the child.

Police said the man walked into the Walmart store and approached the mother telling her that if she did not listen to his instructions, she would die.

The woman tried to walk away, but Budier-Herrera blocked her path, placed his hand on the handle of the machete and told her that her child also would die if she did not listen to him, police said.

While the woman tried to get help from store employees, police said, Budier-Herrera tried to remove the child from a grocery cart.

The mother, however, was able to grab the child and run behind a counter in the deli section as store employees tried to intervene.

Budier-Herrera then ran through the store, swinging the machete at workers who got in his way.

The attack happened at Walmart. Budier-Herrera swung a machete at people in the store

Police say he then spotted another mother with a baby strapped into the child seat of a grocery cart, and was trying to remove the infant when store employees tackled him.

At one point, he turned to face them, grabbed the machete from his waistband and swung it at the employees, police said.

As he fled, he tried to take another child out of a shopping cart while continuing to run from store employees but was unable to do so because the child was strapped into its seat.

Budier-Herrera finally was tackled by an employee and a Kenner police officer working an off-duty detail at the store and was taken into custody.

Budier-Herrara is charged with two counts of kidnapping of a child and other offenses. It's unclear if he has a lawyer.

At the time of his arrest, Budier-Herrera had the 10-inch machete, a container of pepper spray and a makeshift shiv constructed of a plastic handle with razor blades attached by duct tape, police said.A 15-year-old boy who who raped a Perth grandmother after breaking into her home last year has been sentenced to six years and four months in detention.

The boy, who cannot be named, broke into the home of the 83-year-old woman, penetrated her three times over the course of the attack and then forced her to shower to wash the evidence away.

The elderly woman was left with significant injuries, including bleeding on the brain, and spent six weeks in hospital after the attack which took place in Waikiki, an outer southern suburb of Perth, PerthNow reported.

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A 15-year-old boy (pictured) admitted to raping an 84-year-old woman in Perth last year

West Australian forensic police are pictured at the scene of the violent sex attack

The young boy pleaded guilty to sexual assault, robbery and the bashing of a woman after breaking into her home in October last year.

At 4.45am he threw a brick through the window of the elderly woman to break into her home, the court heard.

After he demanded cash from her, the boy karate chopped her around the head, ripped her clothes off and sexually assaulted her.

He then dragged the woman by the hair into her bathroom and continued to terrorize her sexually.

Over the course of the attack he penetrated his victim three times, the court was told.

The woman was unable to defend herself due to her age and fragility and later told the police that she thought she was going to die as her attacker chocked her, dragged her to the floor and forced hot water down her throat and over her genitals in an attempt to destroy any DNA evidence.

Police were called to the scene of the rape of the elderly Perth woman on October 13

He then stole her purse and fled. The woman got help from a neighbor before she was taken to hospital.

The 15-year-old was arrested days later after DNA was found on the woman's clothing.

The boy's lawyer, Tony Hagar, told the court that his client had a history of robbery and burglary offences and had been released from Banksia Hill Detention Centre just six weeks before the attack.

In handing down the sentence Judge Wagner detailed how the boy's childhood had been filled with neglect, substance abuse and exposure to violence.

She said that the teenager had 'borderline intellectual functioning' and cognitive impairment.

The 84-year-old grandmother was taken to Perth's Fiona Stanley Hospital after her ordeal

Judge Wagner went on to tell the court that the attack had been committed while the boy was in an angry rage under the influence of amphetamines.

She described the offences as 'terrible', saying the victim believed she was going to be killed. She also told the court the the victim had developed a stutter after the attack and now suffered panic attacks.

In handing down her sentencing she took into account the teenagers plea of guilty to the offences and his young age.

The boy was jailed for six years and four months, and will have to serve at half the sentence before he can be released.

A lifetime restraining order was also made banning him from ever coming within 100m of the victim or her home.Two millionaire Eurocrats who married after meeting at the European Commission are locked in a bitter divorce battle over their property portfolio.

Una Kelly, 44, and John Pyres, 73, met while working at the European Commission in Brussels in the late 1990s and had a 'sumptuous' Italian wedding in 2005.

Ms Kelly grew up in Ireland and briefly studied in Manchester, while Indian-born Mr Pyres had previously lived in the UK and owned a 2.5million house in London.

Una Kelly (left), 44, and John Pyres (right), 73, met while working at the European Commission in Brussels in the late 1990s and had a 'sumptuous' Italian wedding in 2005.

However, they only ever lived together in England for a year between 2001 and 2002 - and neither has lived in the UK in the more than 15 years since, Mr Pyres claims.

They split in 2015 and are set to battle over assets including the 2.5million home in Fulham, property in Brussels and a Tuscan farmhouse.

And although she has spent only 29 months of her life living in the UK, a judge last year granted Ms Kelly's request for the divorce to be heard in England's courts.

But now Mr Pyres is fighting at the Court of Appeal to overturn the ruling, saying the case should not be heard in England, as it is in truth home to neither of them.

His wife had said nothing in her evidence to show any 'emotional warmth or attachment' to England or to suggest that she even likes it here, he said.

Mr Pyres said he was never happy living in Britain, where he faced racial prejudice, and wants the divorce fought in Bosnia, where they most recently lived together.

His barrister, Timothy Scott QC, argued that Ms Kelly should not be allowed an English divorce because she never considered London her 'permanent home'.

Even when ruling in her favour last year, Mr Justice Cobb had noted that Ms Kelly had mentioned very little about London or England which she liked, he said.

The couple are set to battle over assets including a 2.5million home in Fulham, West London

'He noted the absence in her evidence of either emotional warmth or attachment to England as a country,' he told appeal judges.

Mr Pyres came to the UK as a child with his family, but had distanced himself from the country, spending much of the recent decades around Europe and spoke of Italy as his 'spiritual home'.

Ms Kelly, pictured outside court, has spent just 29 months of her life living in the UK

Ms Kelly had only twice lived in the UK, studying in 1995 to 1997 and then in the Fulham house when she had a job in London in 2001 to 2002, he continued.

But none of that proved that the UK was her 'domicile of choice' and so allow her divorce to be played out before an English judge, argued Mr Scott.

'She never claimed that her intention in coming to England was for any purpose other than to study for her master's degree,' he said.

'She never suggested that she had any intention to remain longer than was required for that purpose, let alone to remain permanently or indefinitely.

'In the event, she left in March 1997, even before her degree was awarded in July 1997. She has never claimed that at the time she left she had any plan to return to live in England.'

Mr Scott said it was only a matter of chance that Ms Kelly was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, where her father was working as a surgeon in the 1970s.

Her family had moved back to Ireland before she was a year old and she had been brought up and educated to degree level there.

And, despite having dual Irish-British nationality since 1995, she had 'repeatedly presented herself to the world as an Irish national'.

It was only after she filed for divorce in the UK in 2015 that she began describing herself as Irish-British, he claimed.

Ms Kelly's barrister, Charles Hale QC, denied the claim that she has no emotional attachment to the UK, pointing out the subject of a paper she wrote for her master's degree.

'Whilst studying in Manchester, she demonstrated her passion for England by writing a thesis on English country houses, rather than Irish art or Irish cultural heritage for instance,' he told the court.

From 2000, she had considered Fulham as her home. She had moved much of her belongings, including expensive mahogany furniture, from Ireland and stored them there.

Throughout her adult life, she had 'an anchor laid in London', paying UK taxes and registered to a GP in Fulham and, as Mr Justice Cobb found, was not merely 'passing through' when she was here.

Although she left for work reasons in 2002, she had moved back temporarily to London around the time she gave birth to her first child, and the couple even had marriage counselling there.

'The parties have lived their married life in various countries as a result of their respective employment postings abroad,' he said.

'But they have always returned to London for holidays, business, work, medical appointments and to attend to necessary family matters.

'It was, before and throughout the marriage, the constant base of the family, notwithstanding where from time to time they lived.'

He said Ms Kelly, who currently works for the EU in Serbia, intends to retire to England when she reaches 65.

The court heard Mr Pyres moved to the UK as a child and left school at 16, but went on to university and a career in the civil service and European Commission. He is now retired and living in Bosnia.

Ms Kelly was born in Stoke to Irish parents, but brought up in Ireland and studied for her master's degree in Manchester before starting her own diplomatic career with the EU.

The couple met in 1997 and married in a 'sumptuous' ceremony at a 13th century Italian church, with a reception at Mr Pyres's Tuscan farmhouse.

The judges - Lady Justice King, Mr Justice Newey and Mr Justice McDonald - reserved their decision on his appeal until a later date.Scores of Russian spies are being expelled from capitals across the globe, as allies stand in solidarity with Great Britain in an unprecedented show of support over the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

More than 100 Russian diplomats have been ejected from the United States and 22 other nations.

The US has announced the expulsion of 60 Russians, including including 12 intelligence officers from Russia's mission to UN headquarters in New York.

Moscow's revenge: President Putin is set to 'respond to every country' in kind after EU states, the Ukraine, the US and Canada announced the expulsion of more than 100 diplomats

Trump's ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, welcomed the move and said: 'Here in New York, Russia uses the United Nations as a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders.'

Spokeswomen for the White House and the State Department, along with Haley and US ambassador to Moscow Jon Huntsman condemned the alleged Russian attack.

But Trump himself, who was expected to tweet on the subject, was silent.

Germany, France and Poland each expelled four diplomats, with Lithuania, Latvia and the Czech Republic also taking action. Ukraine - not an EU state - joined the European revolt by expelling 13 diplomats.

Canada followed suit by expelling three Kremlin staffers and, in a flurry of action yesterday evening, both Hungary and Norway announced the expulsion of one diplomat respectively. Soon after Spain announced the expulsion of two.

Macedonia will also expel one Russian diplomat after consultation with 'our allies and partners, the EU and NATO', and in solidarity with Britain.

Malta also expressed support for the UK.

However, the island refrained from expelling diplomatic staff from Russia itself due to their 'very small' mission in Moscow.

Australia also stood in solidarity with the UK, expelling two Russian diplomats this morning after waking the news of unilateral condemnation of Russia.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and minister for foreign affairs Julie Bishop issued a statement saying two Russian diplomats identified as 'undeclared intelligence officers' would be directed to leave the country within seven days.

The statement added: 'This decision reflects the shocking nature of the attack - the first offensive use of chemical weapons in Europe since the Second World War, involving a highly lethal substance in a populated area, endangering countless other members of the community.'

In the wake of the US expulsion of 60 Russian nationals, Trump has stayed silent

The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said Russia had used New York as base for 'dangerous' activities

The extraordinary Western response is a major diplomatic coup for Theresa May, who has spent days warning allies that they could face similar Russian aggression if they stand by.

The Prime Minister said the united response showed Mr Putin's attempt to use the Salisbury attack to split the West had 'spectacularly backfired'.

She told MPs: 'This is the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.

'If the Kremlin's goal is to intimidate and divide the Western alliance then their efforts have spectacularly backfired.

'Today's actions by our allies clearly demonstrate that we all stand shoulder to shoulder in sending the strongest signal to the Kremlin that Russia cannot continue to flout international law and threaten our security.'

She added the Government was 'dismantling the Russian espionage network' in the UK.

'We will not allow it to be rebuilt. We are urgently developing proposals for new legislative powers to harden our defences against all forms of hostile state activity.'

Ich bin nein Berliner: Germany's foreign minister said Berlin had ordered the expulsion of four Russian diplomats from its Berlin embassy, pictured, over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal

A policeman stands in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin after Germany's foreign minister said Berlin had ordered the expulsion of four Russian diplomats

A swathe of European states have expelled Russian diplomats alongside Canada and the US

The expulsions mark the strongest stance President Donald Trump has taken against Russia since coming to office.

He has been criticized by Democrats and members of his own Republican Party for failing to be tough enough on Russia over US allegations of Russian meddling in the US electoral system including the 2016 presidential campaign.

The Kremlin reacted in kind, threatening to 'respond to every country'.

Russia's ambassador to the US said the move had 'ruined what is left of Russian-U.S. ties,' threatening Washington by saying they will bear responsibility for the consequences.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Moscow will proceed from the 'principle of reciprocity' while mulling over its response to the decisions made by Washington and EU countries.

Peskov added the Foreign Ministry will analyze the situation and present a proposal to Putin - who will make the ultimate decision on how to respond.

Russian UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called it 'a very unfortunate, very unfriendly move'.

Valdmir Putin and the Kremlin have furiously denied responsibility for the attempted assassination earlier this month

Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babis announced the country is expelling three staffers from the Russian embassy as part of a coordinated European effort

A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry said: 'The provocative gesture of solidarity with London by these countries, who have bowed to the British authorities in the so-called Skripal affair and did not bother to understand the circumstances of what happened, is a continuation of the confrontational path to escalation.

'Britain's allies ... are blindly following the principle of Euro-Atlantic unity, to the detriment of common sense, the norms of civilized international dialogue, and the principles of international law.'

'It goes without saying that this unfriendly act by this group of countries will not go without notice and we will react to it.'

Denmark's Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen addresses the press after announcing his nation would join a coordinated expulsion effort against Russia

US Secretary of Defense James 'Mad Dog' Mattis said: 'We obviously stand united with allies that believe in the rule of law, of a rules-based order'

Au revoir: This image shows the Russian Embassy in Paris, France, from where four diplomats have been ejected

Announcing the EU's coordinated action, President of the European Council Donald Tusk said: 'Last week the European council condemned in the strongest possible terms the recent attack on Salisbury.

'The European Council agreed with the UK government assessment that its highly likely the Russian federation is responsible and there is no plausible alternative explanation.

'And we decided to recall the EU ambassador to Russia for consultation. As a direct follow up to last week's European council decision to react to Russia within a commons framework already today 17 member states have decided to expel Russian diplomats.

'Additional measures including further expulsions within the EU framework, are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks.

'We remain critical of the actions of the Russian government.'

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said his decision to expel 13 diplomats was taken 'in the spirit of solidarity with our British partners and transatlantic allies and in coordination with EU countries'.

Czech President Milos Zeman revealed he had asked his spy service to check if the nerve agent novichok had ever been produced in the Czech Republic.

A spokesman for Mr Zeman said: 'The president has tasked the BIS to find out whether or not the nerve gas novichok was developed or stored on the Czech Republic's territory, be it at industrial or scientific facilities.'

Iceland announces diplomatic boycott of the World Cup Iceland announced Monday it will stage a diplomatic boycott of the football World Cup in Russia over the poisoning of a former double agent in Britain. 'Among the measures taken by Iceland is the temporary postponement of all high-level bilateral dialogue with the Russian authorities,' the foreign ministry said in a statement said. 'Consequently, Icelandic leaders will not attend the FIFA World Cup in Russia this summer,' it said. The Reykjavik government also exhorted Moscow to provide 'clear answers' over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in southwestern England on March 4. 'The Salisbury attack constitutes a grave violation of international law and threatens security and peace in Europe,' the statement said. Advertisement

EU Council President Donald Tusk (pictured ) revealed the coordinated action at a press conference in Bulgaria

Mr Tusk took to Twitter to underline the coordinated nature of the reaction to the Salisbury attack following Mrs May's diplomatic efforts

Open the gates: The US is expelling 60 Russians, including 12 intelligence officers from Russia's mission to U.N. headquarters in New York. Pictured is the embassy in Washington DC

Reply: Russia's Embassy in Washington responded to the decisions on Twitter by hinting at retaliation, asking its followers to vote which U.S. consulate should be shuttered: St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok

Ukraine posted a gif showing Doctor's Who's arch nemesis 'the master' waving with the words 'bye bye'

In a bizarre move, Ukraine's Twitter account posted a message mocking the Kremlin.

It posted a gif showing Doctor's Who's arch nemesis 'the master' waving with the words 'bye bye'.

Relations between Ukraine and Russia are extremely tense after Moscow annexed Crimea and sparked a civil war in Ukraine which is still raging.

In an equally peculiar turn, the Russian Embassy in the US posted a poll on Twitter, asking its followers to vote on which US consulate it should close.

Which countries are expelling Russian diplomats over Salisbury? In an unprecedented move, countries across the west have banished Russian diplomats in response to the Salisbury poison outrage. Here is a list of the countries who have expelled diplomats. EU - Recalled its ambassador Britain - Expelled 23 Russians alleged to have worked as spies under diplomatic cover. Promised to freeze any Russian state assets that "may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents". United States - Expelling 60 Russians, including 12 intelligence officers from Russia's mission to U.N. headquarters in New York. Closing Russian consulate in Seattle. Canada - Expelling four Russians alleged to have worked as spies or interfered in Canadian affairs under diplomatic cover. Denying three applications for Russian diplomatic staff. Ukraine - Expelling 13 Russian diplomats France - Expelling four diplomats Germany - Expelling four diplomats Poland - Expelling four diplomats Lithuania - Expelling three diplomats Czech Republic - Expelling three diplomats Italy - Expelling two diplomats Netherlands - Expelling two diplomats Denmark - Expelling two diplomats Sweden - Expelling one diplomat Ireland - Expelling one diplomat Latvia - Expelling one diplomat Estonia - Expelling one diplomat Finland - Expelling one diplomat Romania - Expelling one diplomat Croatia - Expelling one diplomat Spain - Expelling two diplomats Norway - Expelling one diplomat Hungary - Expelling one diplomat Macedonia - Expelling one diploma t Albania - Expelling two diplomats Moldova - Expelling three diplomats Australia - Expelling two diplomats Advertisement

The Russia in USA account posted: 'US administration ordered the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle @GK_Seattle. What US Consulate General would you close in @Russia, if it was up to you to decide?', offering followers to choose between the consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok.

The expulsions were expected after the Kremlin denied a claim that Skripal wrote to Vladimir Putin asking to be pardoned and to be able to visit his home country.

The former Russian intelligence officer, who came to Britain in 2010 as part of a spy swap, regretted being a double agent and wanted to visit his family, his friend Vladimir Timoshkov told the BBC.

Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in a critical condition after they were poisoned with the highly lethal nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury on March 4.

Moscow has stepped up its campaign to discredit Theresa May's assertion that it is 'highly likely' Russia was responsible for the attack.

The diplomatic crisis has plunged relations between Russia and the UK into the deep freeze and could trigger further action by European Union members in support of the Prime Minister's stance.

But the Russian embassy in London kept up its attempts to challenge the UK's case - reiterating its suggestion that the Porton Down defence laboratory was developing its own 'military-grade poisons'.

The lab, located less than 10 miles from Salisbury, is where tests were carried out to identify the Novichok substance.

Porton Down chief executive Gary Aitkenhead told the BBC: 'We have got the highest levels of controls, of security around the work that we do here.

'We would not be allowed to operate if we had lack of control that could result in anything leaving the four walls of our facility here.'

A Russian embassy spokesman said Mr Aitkenhead's comment 'amounts to admitting that the secret facility is a place where new components of military-grade poisons are being researched and developed'.

Russia has vehemently denied any responsibility for the incident, while on Sunday Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's EU ambassador, said that 'from the legal point of view the Russian state had nothing against him (Mr Skripal)'.

The 66-year-old was accused of working for MI6 over several years, in particular disclosing the names of several dozen Russian agents working in Europe.

He was sentenced to 13 years in a high-security prison in August 2006, before being freed in the 2010 deal which saw 10 Russian sleeper agents expelled from the United States.

According to Mr Timoshkov, his friend, who he had known since school, did not see himself as a traitor as he had sworn an oath to the Soviet Union.

'Many people shunned him. His classmates felt he had betrayed the Motherland,' he said.

'In 2012 he called me. We spoke for about half an hour. He called me from London. He denied he was a traitor... (he told me) he wrote to Vladimir Putin asking to be fully pardoned and to be allowed to visit Russia. His mother, brother and other relatives were (in Russia).'

All out: Ukrainian policemen stand guard in front of the Russian embassy in Kiev where 13 Russian diplomats were ordered to leave

Time to go: Denmark was one of the 13 EU member states who ejected at least one Russian diplomat. Seen here is country's embassy in Copenhagen

A man rides a bicycle in front of the Russian embassy building in Warsaw, Poland, where four diplomats were ordered to leave

Sergei Skripal (left) and his daughter Yulia (right) have been in a critical condition since they were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury on March 4

It comes as Boris Johnson hailed the 'largest collective expulsion of Russian spies in history'.

As the Foreign Secretary praised the 'extraordinary international response' to the attempted assassination Skripal, Theresa May described the global solidarity shown as 'a message that we will not tolerate Russia's continued attempts to flout international law'.

Britain led the way in the aftermath of the March 4 attack by expelling 23 Russian diplomats from London. The Kremlin kicked out 23 Britons as a reprisal.

In a statement to the House of Commons, The Prime Minister echoed the Foreign Secretary when she told MPs this was the 'largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence in our history'.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson hailed the 'largest collective expulsion' in history and said it would help defend our 'shared security'

Downing Street said Mrs May had received a 'very positive' response from allies in Brussels last week, including a public show of support from Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel (pictured on Thursday night)

Welcoming the 'great solidarity' from Britain's allies, Mrs May said the action proved the international community would no longer 'tolerate' Russian interference.

She said: 'Together we have sent a message that we will not tolerate Russia's continued attempts to flout international law and undermine our values.'

She added: 'President Putin's regime is carrying out acts of aggression against our shared values and interests within our continent and beyond.

'As a sovereign European democracy, the United Kingdom will stand shoulder to shoulder with the EU and with Nato to face down these threats together.'Four-year-old Khristopher Gober and his two-year-old sister Kailani were killed in the fire that swept through their apartment

A brother and sister were both killed when a fire engulfed their apartment.

Khristopher Gober, four, and his little sister Kailani, two, died when the blaze started on the fourth floor of their building in Gary, Indiana, and spread quickly.

The flames prompted a boy, eight, to jump to safety from a fourth floor window into a blanket.

The siblings suffered smoke inhalation and minor burns, Fire Department Chief of Operations Mark Jones told the Northwest Indiana Times, and were rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

Their precise cause of death has yet to be released.

'We were crying and thanking God,' a neighbor told the paper, with another bystander calling the child's survival a 'miracle.'

He was examined by medics at the scene and was not injured by the flames or the jump.

Neighbors also managed to rescue several others, and firefighters pulled the two children who died from the burning fourth floor, Jones told the paper.

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The two children killed were a brother and sister pair, four-year-old Khristopher and two-year-old Kailani Gober after a fire started in the fourth floor of an apartment building in Gary, Indiana

They suffered smoke inhalation and minor burns, Fire Department Chief of Operations Mark Jones told the Northwest Indiana Times , and were rushed to the hospital in critical condition

An eight-year-old boy managed to survive the blaze after leaping from the fourth floor into a blanket being held out by neighbors

Seka Ann McClelland, who lives in a neighboring building, said she saw a child screaming and crying in a window on the fourth floor and immediately sprinted into the building.

But by the time she got to the fourth floor she said there was so much smoke she could not breathe and was forced to head back out.

'The smoke was so heavy and thick you couldn't get in, so I ran out and yelled to get a blanket,' she explained.

She said the eight-year-old was screaming and crying, scared to jump.

'We were telling him to jump, that we'd catch him,' she told the times.

'I was praying to God. I feared he'd snap his neck, and I was praying to the Father.'

Officials say the fire left the more than 50-unit building uninhabitable, displacing more than 100 people

When he finally gathered the courage to jump bystanders screamed and gasped in horror then let out a collective sigh or relief when he landed flat on his back, safe.

Officials say the fire left the more than 50-unit building uninhabitable, displacing more than 100 people.

Jones told the paper it had heavy fire, smoke and water damage, which includes the holes firefighters cut into the roof to spray the fire with aerial trucks.

It's possible that some residents in lower floors will never be able to return to their homes.

The cause is under investigation.Takehiko Ogihara (pictured) raped a woman inside his flat in central London

A Japanese bank executive who made an air hostess bow and apologise to him during a 'sinister' four-day rape ordeal has been jailed for 11 years.

Takehiko Ogihara, 40, told the woman to ask him if he wanted 'sex before bedtime' in a humiliating list of daily chores she had to complete.

Ogihara, a former executive director at Nomura International, made the woman say sorry as he raped her during the ordeal at his flat in Marylebone, central London.

Judge Michael Simon said: 'You sought to isolate her from her close friends and even told her that she would have to give up her job, so she would have time to complete her household chores.

'Out of a heightened sense of honour or some other individual characteristic, your view of what she told you about her previous relationships became a source of anger for you.

'This manifested itself on the 4 September 2013 when you were at a restaurant.

'Something she said made you angry and you accused her of not caring enough about you and that she must apologise.

'Text messages showed that you returned to the flat, you ordered her to sit in the 'Caesar' style and write a report to describe how sorry she was.

'Shortly thereafter the text messages go chillingly quiet. You subjected to her to an ordeal that was degrading, terrifying and sinister.

'The attack that you foisted upon the victim has had long term psychological effects.'

Blackfriars Crown Court in London heard Ogihara wanted to control the woman physically and sexually.

He drew up a list of chores including waking him up in the morning, bringing him breakfast and lunch and giving him 'sexual gratification'.

The victim had to say sacred oaths twice a day before asking if he needed sex before bedtime.

Ogihara also demanded that the woman stay awake after he went to sleep.

When she told him she needed the toilet he made her urinate in front of him.

He stood over the woman kicking, slapping and pulling his victim by the hair at his plush apartment between September 13 and 16, 2013.

The banker also ordered the woman to undress before he sexually assaulted her.

Blackfriars Crown Court in London heard Ogihara wanted to control the woman physically and sexually

Ogihara told police he could not remember if he had sex with the woman and claimed the list of humiliating chores was fictitious.

Charlotte Newell, prosecuting, told the court at the sentencing that the victim did not wish to provide a witness impact statement.

She said: 'She does not wish to cede any more of her dignity to Mr Ogihara by outlining what happened to her.'

Ogihara's current partner wept as the judge passed sentence.

Nomura, the largest retail financial holding company in Japan, set up a base in London in 2009 after purchasing Lehman Brothers' Asian and European operations the year before.

Ogihara, of Richmond, denied but was convicted of two counts of rape, two of sexual assault and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He was jailed for 11 years and a restraining order was imposed, preventing him from contacting the victim and he will be on the sex offenders register for life.A New York City woman is suing the makers of the NutriBullet after one of their 900 series blenders (pictured above) exploded on her and left her permanently disfigured

A New York City woman is suing the makers of the NutriBullet after one of their 900 series blenders exploded and left her with severe burns.

According to the lawsuit, filed in California, Fabiana Nishioka was blending room temperature chickpeas, garlic and lime in a NutriBullet Pro 900 to make hummus on June 5, 2017 when the device exploded.

NutriBullets are unique from other blenders in that the blade is screwed onto a canister where the food is stored.

The canister is then flipped upside down and attached into a base, which starts an electrical current when the canister is locked into place.

As Nishioka was blending her hummus, she was unaware that the contents of the blender were 'hyper-heating' inside the canister.

The blender exploded after she took the cannister off of the base and tried to unscrew the lid/blade.

Before she could even get the lid off 'the base assembly exploded from the canister, spraying the now scalding contents of the canister onto her body, including her face, neck and chest,' the lawsuit reads.

Nishioka immediately went into shock, and ran to the bathroom where she sprayed cool water all over her body.

Realizing that she needed immediate medical attention, Nishioka rushed to the emergency room at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell medical center.

After her initial treatment, Nishioka returned to the hospital several more times for follow ups, as well as the UVA skin center.

It's believed that she will be permanently scarred by the incident, according to the lawsuit.

'The explosion left Plaintiff's face, neck and chest covered in extremely hot liquid, causing significant burns, a great deal of pain and suffering, and residual and likely permanent disfigurement. Plaintiff has severe disfigurement on her neck as a result of the explosion,' the lawsuit reads.

TMZ obtained pictures of Nishioka showing skin peeling off her face and neck after the incident.

Nishioka's lawsuit demands unspecified damages from NutriBullet, for failing to warn her about the risks of their product.

She says she bought the device in October 2016, to make healthier food, and it operated without issue for nearly a year.

The lawsuit claims that NutriBullet knew about design flaws with their devices, but didn't do anything to protect their customers from harm.

They pointed out that there were complaints about the blender spraying hot liquids from as early as 2011. The lawsuit then goes on to list more than 100 examples of people being injured by their NutriBullet blenders.

'Notwithstanding its knowledge of the immediate and severe danger posed by their products to consumers, Defendants failed to do anything about the defective nature of the blender as to prevent the type of injuries it knew it caused for years prior to Plaintiff suffering their injuries,' the lawsuit says.

Nishioka's lawyers say NutriBullet should have issued warnings, changed the defective design and/or recalled their blenders to prevent injury.

'By not undertaking any of these tasks, Defendants consciously and knowingly disregarded the safety of its users, including Plaintiff, yet continuing to collect profits from the sale of over 40 million units worldwide,' the lawsuit says.An alleged gang have been arrested on suspicion of using kidnap to reclaim a $5 drug debt.

Gabriel Garcia, 30, Katherine Smith, 21, Brittney Ramirez, 28, Aubree Pando, 22, and Cheyenne Ramirez, 24, were detained March 15 by New Mexico State Police.

The group allegedly chased a car with two people inside until the pair's vehicle ran out of gas.

An alleged gang have been arrested on suspicion of using kidnap to reclaim a $5 drug debt (Gabriel Garcia, 30 and Katherine Smith, 21 were among the group of suspects arrested)

The group allegedly chased a car with two people inside until the pair's vehicle ran out of gas then held them at gunpoint (other suspects arrested were, left to right, Brittney Ramirez, 28, Aubree Pando, 22, and Cheyenne Ramirez, 24)

Two members of the group then allegedly held them at gunpoint, broke their cellphones and took their shoes. The victims called 911 for help.

Police attended an area near 26th and Fairgrounds streets in Artesia at about 3pm where they saw five people surrounding a blue vehicle.

The suspects then fled in a red pickup, but were 'safely detained without incident', according to the State Police officer.

Garcia, Smith and Ramirez, all of Carlsbad, and Pando and Cheyenne Ramirez, of Artesia, face charges including kidnapping, armed robbery and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Also among the charges are concealing identity, felony warrants, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and interference with communications.

State Police have not released the names of the two alleged victims.A waiter fired for being 'aggressive and disrespectful' has claimed that his behavior was not rude - but that he's just French.

Guillaume Rey, who worked at a Vancouver restaurant on Canada's Pacific coast, filed a complaint with British Columbia's Human Rights Tribunal against his former employer, claiming 'discrimination against my culture.'

The restaurant, operated by Cara Operations, accused Rey of violating its code of conduct and said he persisted in his behavior despite verbal and written performance reviews.

A waiter in Vancouver (pictured) fired for being 'aggressive and disrespectful' has claimed that his behavior was not rude - but simply that he's just French

In alleging discrimination Rey said French culture just 'tends to be more direct and expressive.'

He owes his sacking to his 'direct, honest and professional personality,' which he acquired while training in France's hospitality industry.

Both parties agree Rey performed well at his job despite his allegedly disagreeable demeanour.

The restaurant and its parent company had attempted to dismiss the complaint but tribunal member Devyn Cousineau denied that application, clearing the path for a yet unscheduled hearing.

She said the application's denial should not be seen as an indication of the case's outcome.

'Mr Rey will have to explain what it is about his French heritage that would result in behavior that people misinterpret as a violation of workplace standards of acceptable conduct,' she wrote in her decision.A drag artist who advises the SNP and wants to be adopted by his stepfather has had his hopes quashed by a 'uninterested' Scottish government.

Nathan Sparling, 27, is campaigning to reform family law to allow parents to adopt adults - a move currently prohibited under British law.

He believes his stepfather Brian Sparling, 44, who has been involved in his upbringing since he was 13, should be allowed to become his adoptive father.

Mr Sparling who did not know his biological father and has changed his surname to that of his stepfather - says he will 'never call another man dad'.

Nathan Sparling (left) is pictured with his stepfather Brian Sparling (middle) and mother Jenny

The Scottish Government had said it would review adoption procedures, but now say that it has no plans to extend the age of adoption of a child beyond the age of 18.

Mr Sparling, from Dunfermline, Fife, said that the response from the Government was 'disappointing'.

The Head of Policy and Campaigning at HIV Scotland said he doesn't have his father's name on his birth certificate and wants Brian to be seen as his father in the eyes of the law.

He said: 'I think the government could have had a more listening ear approach to this. We need them to want to change the law.

'Stepchildren want that symbol of belonging to their family to be legally recognised.'

Mr Sparling, who performs under the name Nancy Clench, hosts a weekly karaoke night at the famous the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho.

He also heads the Scottish National Party's karaoke night at its annual conference and advises many of its MPs.

He said since calling for adoption rights to be extended to over 18s he has had numerous messages of support for people in similar situations.

Mr Sparling, who performs under the name Nancy Clench, hosts a weekly karaoke night at the famous the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho

He said: 'Each person has their own story, their own reasons for wanting to be adopted as an adult, each story very powerful and moving.

'It seems when provided with an opportunity to make positive change to support the stronger bond of diverse families in Scotland, the Government is not interested.'

Mr Sparling is calling for changes to the Adoption And Children (Scotland) Act of 2007 and said he had drawn support from across the UK and internationally.

Many other countries already allow someone who has fulfilled the role of parent to adopt their child after they become 18, including America, Japan and Germany.

Responding to a question lodged in the Scottish Parliament, Childcare Minister Maree Todd said that current legislation was designed to protect and safeguard children and provide family stability.

She said: 'We are constantly improving the procedures, services and support around adoption and permanence for children to ensure Scotland has a modern, responsive and child-centred adoption system.

'There are no plans currently to extend the age of a child beyond 18 for this purpose.'

Mr Sparling hosts the Scottish National Party's karaoke night at its annual conference and advises many of its MPs

She said there was already other legislation 'to allow for individuals to change their names on birth certificates and for adults to make provision in wills for the sharing of property to non-biological members of their family.'

Mr Sparling said while changing a name is an important aspect of belonging to a family, it is 'just tokenism' when it is not reflected legally.

He said: 'When my birth certificate doesn't reflect the reality of my family circumstances, or marriage certificates identify mothers or fathers as step-parents, it's clear that without a change to the law to allow adult adoption, it's just tokenism.'

He added: 'Scotland, and the rest of the UK, is behind on this area of adoption law.

'It is right to consider relevant safeguards to ensure a new system for adult adoption would not be abused, but we should be allowing adoption on the basis of parenting, family and a personal sense of belonging.

'I would urge the Government to reconsider its position, and meet me and others who want to be adopted as adults to hear why this small change is so important to us.'

Lothian Labour MSP Kezia Dugdale, who raised the question in Parliament, said Mr Sparling had given a 'powerful and emotive argument to extend adopt rights to over-18s'.

She added: 'Nathan is not alone in wishing to see the system changed, and I hope ministers will reconsider their position and take the time to listen to the personal stories from those who want adoption rights to be extended.'A New York man has been left without a thumb after the self-closing doors on his $70,000 BMW chopped it off.

Godwin Boateng, 61, carried his severed right thumb into hospital, but doctors were not able to re-attach it because of the way it had been sliced from his hand.

He is now suing the German car-maker, claiming the X5's door was 'nothing short of a guillotine' and that the sensors were faulty.

A picture taken at the hospital in New York showing Godwin Boateng's severed right thumb

Godwin Boateng, 61, carried his severed right thumb into hospital, but doctors were not able to re-attach it because of the way it had been sliced from his hand. He is now suing the German car-maker, claiming the X5's door was 'nothing short of a guillotine' and that the sensors were faulty

A New York man has been left without a thump after the self-closing doors on his $70,000 BMW X5 (pictured, stock) chopped it off

Mr Boateng, who occasionally wears a fake thumb from a $3 magician's kit to hide and protect his injury, told the New York Post: 'I carried my thumb into the hospital, and they said, "What happened to you?".

'I said, "My car door". I'm holding my thumb, they took it and put it on ice.'

The software engineer faced an agonizing wait, but he was eventually told his digit could not be saved.

His lawyer Avi Cohen told the paper there was something wrong with the design of the SUV.

The incident happened back in July 2016 when he was stood with his hand in the driver's door column, according to the Post.

It's claimed the door was one foot ajar when the SCAD (Soft Closing Automatic Doors) sensor activated an electric motor.

This then pulled the door, according to Mr Boateng's lawyer, 'firmly' and not 'so softly', snapping through his thumb.

BMW declined to comment when approached, citing pending litigation amid the suit for unspecified damages

The 61-year-old is still in pain 18 months and two operations later.

Being right-handed, he is unable to perform simple tasks such as fastening buttons and tying his shoes.

BMW declined to comment when approached by the Post, citing pending litigation amid the suit for unspecified damages.A man mowed his lover down with his car while she was being given first aid from a stab wound he had inflicted on her, before he was found hanged in custody.

The body of Simon Mellors, 56, was discovered at Strangeways prison in Manchester last month - four years after he was released from jail for killing another girlfriend.

He was arrested in January after allegedly stabbing Janet Scott, 51, and then mowing her down with his car, having waited for the former NHS worker outside her home.

Simon Mellors (left), 56 was arrested in January after allegedly stabbing Janet Scott (right), 51, and then mowing her down with his car, having waited for her outside her home

He also hit community protection officer Fahad Ashfaq as he administered first aid to Mrs Scott, causing him to fly '15 metres (49ft) through the air', a court heard.

Mellors, a supermarket worker who had been described as a 'violent bully', had already been jailed in 1999 for the murder of his estranged lover Pearl Black, 36.

He was released on licence in 2014 despite her family warning he would kill again. He appeared at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on February 1 but entered no pleas.

In front of Judge Gregory Dickinson QC at the city's crown court today, the case of Mellors, of North Sherwood, Nottingham, was closed after his death on February 25.

The judge said: 'I know from dozens of cases over the years where the defendant dies before criminal proceedings take their proper course, bereaved relatives and friends can feel cheated of justice. That may well be the case here.

'Had Simon Mellors been convicted of murder then he could have been liable to a whole life sentence, imprisonment for life without any early release.

'He had previously been convicted of murder and this was a dreadfully serious incident where he clearly first stabbed Janet Scott in her own home in Arnold then drove her by car to central Nottingham where she sought to flee from him.

'He drove over her, causing the most terrible injuries. There can be no doubt Mr Mellors was the culprit, he had to be cut from the car, he was the only occupant of it.

Mellors also hit a community protection officer as he gave first aid to Mrs Scott (left). He had already been jailed in 1999 for the murder of his estranged lover Pearl Black (right), 36

'Simon Mellors had been released from prison on life licence in 2014 as he was convicted of murder in 1999, murder of his partner.

'In 2017 he began a relationship with Janet Scott and it is clear from the limited information I have Mrs Scott was aware of Mellor's previous conviction and had some contact with his parole officer.

'It may well be that that was one aspect which will feature in particular in the inquest but it is a matter, I take it, that is receiving very careful attention.

'The focus of this case has been Janet Scott, who was first stabbed in her own home then deliberately driven (over) on the street by Simon Mellors.

'It is right to have this opportunity to commend Fahad Ashfaq, he was on traffic duty at work, in uniform, doing his job.

'He was confronted with a very unusual and very dangerous situation and Mrs Scott approached him to tell him she had been stabbed and had seen her top soaked with blood.

'Mr Mellors was just getting into a car  he took a photograph of Mr Mellors in the car, radioed for assistance and began to administer first aid to Mrs Scott who was slumped on the pavement against a wall, at which Mr Mellors drove his car, obviously his target was Janet Scott but Mr Ashfaq himself suffered significant injuries.

'This was a man not just doing his job but showed considerable presence of mind and indeed bravery to assist Mrs Scott and raise the alarm. I am going to recommend Mr Ashfaq before a High Sheriff's Commendation and award.'

The body of Mellors was discovered at Strangeways prison (pictured) in Manchester last month - four years after he was released from jail for killing another girlfriend

Gregor Purcell, prosecuting, said: 'A certificate of death has been uploaded to the system.

'You will see from that he took his own life whilst on remand at Strangeways in Manchester  he was remanded in this court for murder, attempted murder and inflicting grievous bodily harm.

'It related to the incident on January 29 of this year, the defendant having been remanded, arrested at the scene trapped within a vehicle, was following his treatment detained and then placed in remand and took his own life on February 25.

'Some of the facts were in the public domain and were mentioned in court on the last occasion. There are no members of the family present, they have been informed  Mrs Scott had a grown son and daughter.

'They have been appraised, they know the situation and are not in court today, having been informed this was the likely course.

'It is right to say there was supervision and Mrs Scott did know of the previous conviction of Mr Mellors. Beyond that, I won't say more at this point.

'The detail of (Fahad Ashfaq's) involvement came about 10.15am on January 29, he became aware of Mrs Scott  he saw her coming across the road towards him in a distressed state.

'He offered her assistance and support, she was clearly distraught, she told him she had been stabbed and pointed to Simon Mellors who was across the car park in a Volkswagen vehicle. He tried to get assistance and called for help.

Mellors was remanded at Strangeways (pictured) for charges of murder, attempted murder and inflicting grievous bodily harm

'Mrs Scott told him she had been stabbed  in the course of trying to offer assistance he used a first aid kit that had been provided. She was stabbed in the chest area and blood soaked through the back of her T-shirt.

'He was in the process of assisting her sat on the pavement when Mr Mellors drove the car into the pair. Mr Ashfaq was thrown some 15 metres through the air before landing unconscious.

'He was given assistance quickly, he had significant injuries, not least a fracture to his ankle and other bruising and the like. He has been released from hospital, he spent a week or so in hospital recuperating.'

Mrs Scott, a mother of six, is understood to have met Mellors last spring, at around the time she became estranged from her fourth husband, Chris Scott, 51.

But by Christmas she had left Mellors and was soon reconciled with Mr Scott, who moved in with her in Arnold, Nottingham.

'All-controlling' Mellors was accused of stabbing her at her home on January 29, before persuading her to get into his car.

But as they neared his flat in Nottingham, she saw CPO Ashfaq and leapt out of the vehicle as it slowed in traffic. As she approached the officer for help, Mellors drove his car at them, killing Mrs Scott and injuring the CPO.

Mellors was charged with murder, attempted murder and a third count of maliciously wounding Mrs Scott, who had recently taken a job at Lidl.

He had previously bludgeoned Miss Black with an iron bar before strangling her at her home in Bramcote, Nottingham, as her two children  one of whom was his  slept nearby.

The next morning he took the handle off the bedroom door so they couldn't get in, took them to school, and tried to kill himself with beer and slug pellets, but was found and arrested.

He was given a 14-year minimum sentence before being considered for release, which was cut to 12 years on appeal.

The jury at that trial heard that Mellors had been depressed and was not normally violent.

But more than a decade before he murdered Miss Black he was described as a 'violent bully' after threatening to kill a lover.This is the shocking moment a school girl in north-west China is slapped repeatedly for her poor performance in a test.

The class teacher, being awarded as an exemplary teacher, was accused of speaking foul languages in the class as she brutally hit the girl in the face.

The video clip was shared among closed online messaging groups and alerted local education bureau to launch an investigation. The teacher is suspended until further notice.

Ms Du, left, is scolding at a student in front the class in Dingbian No.3 Secondary School, China

The 25-second footage has been circulating online since March 21, showing a school girl being scolded by a teacher in front of the class.

She was slapped five times in the face and did not retaliate.

It was believed that the girl did not sustain any serious injuries.

The incident took place in Dingbian No. 3 High School, in Yulin of Shaanxi Province, a report confirmed.

According to an investigation led by the local county education bureau, the teacher, surnamed Du, has 18 years of teaching experience. She received the highest award by the education authority as an exemplary teacher in 2000.

She explained the incident happened in last December when she was giving out test results to the class.

She claimed she got angry due to the student's performance drastic drop in performance, stated Huashang Daily.

She can be seen slapping the girl in the face five times in less than a half a minute

Ms Du was angry because her student's performance dropped 'drastically', according to report

Dingbian education bureau and the school decided to suspend the teacher for the disciplinary misconduct.

Ms Du is not allowed to be assessed for promotion in the next three years.

The school sent Ms Du and three representatives apologised in a home visit to the girl and her parents on March 23.

The family accepted and agreed to settle the dispute.An Adelaide mother is heartbroken after finding her daughter unconscious with a bloody face just metres away from home.

Alannah Davey, 10, was playing at her favourite park in Mount Barker, when she was hit by a car which then sped off leaving her sprawled unconscious and bloodied on the ground.

Three members of the public came to the girl's rescue and told Alannah's mother Lisa Davey, a man was already with her and said she was hit by a car.

Alannah Davey (pictured), 10, was playing at her favourite park in Mount Barker, when she was hit by a car which then sped off leaving her sprawled unconscious and bloodied on the ground

Alannah's mother Lisa Davey (pictured) was at home cleaning when she was informed of what had happened

By the time police and paramedics arrived, the man was no where to be seen.

'I don't know how someone could do that, how could you hit somebody and not stop?' Ms Davey told Yahoo News.

Ms Davey was at home, cleaning when she was informed of what had happened to her daughter.

Alannah was rushed to the Women's and Children's Hospital with facial injuries, skull fractures and a bruised liver.

Alannah (pictured) was rushed to the Women's and Children's Hospital with facial injuries, skull fractures and a bruised liver

One resident said she is not surprised something like this happened because people are constantly speeding in the area.

Police are appealing to members of the public and drivers who may have seen Alannah leave her home on Sunday around lunchtime to come forward.

Police are also requesting any dash came footage anyone may have from that day.

Ms Davey is asking for whoever did this to do the right thing and come forward.A Republican representative's campaign has attacked one of the Parkland shooting survivors online over her Cuban heritage.

Emma Gonzalez, 18, took to the stage at Saturday's March for Our Lives, wearing a Cuban flag badge, to mark the death of her 17 classmates and teachers who were gunned down in the fatal shooting in February.

Gonzalez's six-and-a-half minute speech brought the crowd to tears as she thanked the people who came out to call for gun control.

But Rep. Steve King's campaign chose to mock the teenager over her Cuban heritage.

Scroll down for video

Rep. Steve King's (pictured) campaign chose to mock the teenager, who was wearing a Cuban flag, over her Cuban heritage

'This is how you look when you claim Cuban heritage yet don't speak Spanish and ignore the fact that your ancestors fled the island when the dictatorship turned Cuba into a prison camp, after removing all weapons from its citizens; hence their right to self defense,' the campaign wrote in a post, over a photo of the teen.

The post sparked fury on social media where people hit out at the campaign for bullying the teen.

'Are you SERIOUSLY mocking a school shooting survivor for her ethnic identity?!' wrote Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.

Emma Gonzalez, 18, took to the stage at Saturday's March for Our Lives to mark the death of her 17 classmates and teachers who were gunned down in the fatal shooting in February

Gonzalez's six-and-a-half minute speech brought the crowd to tears as she thanked the people who came out to call for gun control

'When it was my community, where were you? When it was Sandy Hook? Columbine? Were you on the sideline mocking those communities too? Did you question someone identifying as a mother? Did you question whether people like me were crisis actors?

'Emma stood for 6 mins and 20 seconds to honor the lives of 17 gone too soon,' Wolf added. 'The least you could do is shut your privileged, ineffective trap for 6 seconds to hear someone else's perspective.'

King's campaign hit back, claiming they weren't picking on the teen, but were 'calling attention to the truth'.

'Pointing out the irony of someone wearing the flag of a communist country while simultaneously calling for gun control isn't 'picking' on anyone.

'It's calling attention to the truth, but we understand that lefties find that offensive,' they wrote.

Gonzalez, whose father migrated to New York from Cuba in 1968, has become one of the most recognizable faces of the Majory Stoneman Douglas High School survivors.

But the teen has become a target for the right as she calls for gun control in the wake of the tragedy.

Recently, NRA enthusiasts have been accused of photoshopping the Teen Vogue cover that features Gonzalez to show her tearing up a copy of the Constitution.

She is actually tearing up a paper target on the cover of the magazine, while her fellow classmates stand in solidarity behind her.

A fake image of Gonzalez ripping up the Constitution circulated on social media. The real video shows her tearing up target paper

Emma Gonzalez, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student who survived the Parkland shooting on February 14, rips up target paper for Teen Vogue cover

Teen Vogue tweeted the cover of their March issue featuring some of the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

Teen Vogue tweeted the cover with with the caption: 'We, the youth of the United States, have built a new movement to denounce gun violence and call for safety in all of our communities. This is only the beginning.'

The cover attracted a lot of attention from Trump followers and NRA supporters alike.

Many were quick to condemn and attack the high school students on Twitter with one person writing: 'Look at these little oppressors. I hope my daughter never lives in the world they imagine.'

The cover attracted a lot of attention from Trump followers and NRA supporters

Many people in the Twittersphere were quick to condemn and attack the high school students

Many were unimpressed with Gonzalez ripping the paper and looking angry

However there were some people in support of the children. 'I'm glad for the first time in human history people are against murder,' the twitter user said

Many were unimpressed with Gonzalez ripping the paper with one man sarcastically tweeting: 'Oh no. You tore up a target. Wherever will we find more...paper?' while another user wrote: 'Let the children lead us...into ripping a target in half and scowling.'

However there were some people in support of the children. 'I'm glad for the first time in human history people are against murder,' the Twitter user said.

Saturday's rally in Washington DC to fight gun control marked the biggest youth protest since Vietnam.

Hundreds of thousands of people turned out for the DC event, with 800 more events being held across world.

The rally, which was organized by the survivors of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, saw 175,000 people protest in New York.

30,000 were counted in Atlanta and Pittsburgh and 15,000 people attended a rally in Parkland, Florida - where 17 high school students were killed last month.

The movement had a global outreach, with die-ins being held in Berlin and London and marches taking place in Sydney, Mumbai, Tokyo, and Paris as well.

Despite the rally's across the US on Saturday to protest gun control, many people were still against the high school children

Some social media users blamed the youngsters, claiming they were puppets being used by politicians and seniors

Twitter users condemned the children for their lack of intelligence

The gun control debate continues to rage on both sides with people still arguing it's infringing on their Second Amendment rights

People were very outspoken on Twitter against the high school students

Gonzalez was one of the lead speakers on Saturday. She stood silent on stage for six minutes and 20 seconds - the same amount of time it took Nikolas Cruz, 19, to kill 17 or her classmates and injure 15 others with an AR-15 that he had obtained legally.

She took the crowd by surprise with her uncomfortable silence, prompting the crowd to cheer support and chant 'Never again,' as it seemed they thought she had lost her words due to emotion. Then a time went off, and she spoke.

'Since the time that I came out here, it has been six minutes and 20 seconds. The shooter has ceased shooting and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape, and walk free for an hour before arrest,' she said when she began to speak again.

People didn't take the Teen Vogue cover seriously and tweeted sarcastic remarks

A lot of Twitter users weren't interested in listening to the young high school students

'Fight for your lives before it's someone else's job,' she said, ending her time of silence.

Gonzalez, who has been an outspoken voice among the Parkland survivors, used the minutes of silence to punctuate an an already moving speech.

'Six minutes and 20 seconds... In a little over six minutes, 17 of our friends were taken, 15 were injured and everyone, absolutely everyone, in the Douglas community was forever altered,' she said.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez (center) listens with other students during the March for Our Lives Rally in Washington, DC on Saturday

Gonzalez was pictured with fellow protesters and classmates at the Washington DC rally

'Everyone who was there understands. who has been touched by the cold grip of gun violence understands. For us, long, tearful chaotic hours in the scorching afternoon sun were spent not knowing.

'No one understood the extent of what had happened. No one could believe that there were bodies in that building waiting to be identified for over a day.

'No one knew that the people who were missing had stopped breathing long before any of us even knew that a code red had been called. No one could comprehend the devastating aftermath or how far this would reach or where this would go.'

She went on to honor some of the lives lost on that day, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.A South Korean man narrowly avoided jail for deliberately making himself fat to dodge compulsory military service.

The 21-year-old, who wasn't named, packed on about 65lbs in just six months after graduating high school so he would be unfit to serve.

Standing five feet nine inches, the man ballooned from 187lbs in February 2016 to more than 250lbs when he had his second physical examination in July.

A South Korean man narrowly avoided jail for deliberately making himself fat to dodge compulsory military service (young men waiting to take their exam pictured)

His plan worked as his 36.1 body mass index was too high for the military and he was given a less demanding public service position.

However, police later found he gained the weight deliberately and he was arrested and found guilty on Sunday, according to the Korea Times.

The Cheongju District Court give him a suspended sentence instead of the up to five year maximum prison term for draft dodging.

Fleeing, causing self-injury, or otherwise cheating to avoid the two-year military service requirement is illegal under South Korean law.

All men aged 18 to 35 have to complete the service, with the only exemptions being for Olympic medalists or gold medal winners at the Asian Games.

Fleeing, causing self-injury, or otherwise cheating to avoid the two-year military service requirement is illegal under South Korean law

All men aged 18 to 35 have to complete the service, with the only exemptions being for Olympic medalists or gold medal winners at the Asian Games

Conscientious or religious objection is not recognised, leading to at least 400 people being imprisoned every year for refusing on those grounds.

Conscripts receive as little as 106 a month plus a pair of sneakers, which the government budget in some years hasn't been able to afford.

Trainees start with a grueling five-week basic training course where bullying is rife and they are subjected to gas drills.

The requirement was introduced in 1957, four years after the Korean war, so the population would be ready to defend against North Korean invasion.President Donald Trump ordered 60 Russian diplomats that his administration says are spies out of the United States on Monday.

The operatives acting on behalf of Moscow have seven days to leave the country, U.S. officials said. A consulate in Seattle, Washington, is also being shuttered.

Senior U.S. officials said the expulsions are in direct response to the nerve gas agent attack in the U.K. earlier this month that the two countries and their allies have blamed on Vladimir Putin's government.

They were part of a co-ordinated set of expulsions which saw a total of 100 Russians ordered to leave by other western countries including Canada and Germany.

'When you attack our friends, you will face serious consequences,' one senior administration official said of the message to Russia.

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President Donald Trump ordered 60 Russian diplomats that his administration says are spies out of the United States on Monday. The U.S. said the expulsions are in direct response to the nerve gas agent attack in the U.K. earlier this month that the two countries and their allies have blamed on Vladimir Putin 's government

A swathe of European states have expelled Russian diplomats alongside Canada and the US

Sergei Skripal (left) and his daughter Yulia (right) have been in a critical condition since they were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury on March 4

The 60 diplomats, 12 of whom are stationed at the United Nations, were not identified by name.

U.S. officials described the 60 as 'known intelligence officers' who 'hide behind the veneer if diplomatic immunity' while engaging in an 'aggressive collection' of information.

'The individuals who are being sent back to Russia are intelligence officers, being cloaked by their diplomatic positions in the U.S.,' a senior official said.

Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov called the move 'counterproductive' and a 'grave mistake' in a press statement.

The action, which the U.S. had floated in the press over the weekend, came after President Trump was rebuked publicly for the friendly call he had with Putin.

Trump congratulated Putin in his landslide reelection in the conversation in which the U.S. president is said not to have addressed the nerve gas attack on a former Russian spy in the U.K.

The American president fumed on Twitter afterward that having a good relationship with Russia was in the United States' benefit.

But on Monday, U.S. officials said that the government was standing by its closest ally and would punish Russia for the Salisbury attack.

'The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world,' White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

The deployment of the Russian nerve gas left double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia hospitalized in critical condition.

Putin's government has denied that the Kremlin authorized the assassination attempt.

British Prime Minister Theresa May initially assessed that it was 'highly likely' that Moscow was behind the assault - a hesitation that the U.S. pinpointed on Monday as it justified a delay in retaliatory action for the crime that took place three weeks prior.

May said later that same week, however, that 'the Russian State was culpable' for the attack as she expelled 23 Russian diplomats.

And on Monday she highlighted the coordinated response saying it was the biggest expulsion of alleged spies under such circumstances in history.

Reply: Russia's Embassy in Washington responded to the decisions on Twitter by hinting at retaliation, asking its followers to vote which U.S. consulate should be shuttered: St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok

Ukraine posted a gif showing Doctor's Who's arch nemesis 'the master' waving with the words 'bye bye'

Trump originally held off on blaming Putin's government for the assault that he was said, in a leaked description of the conversation, not to have even touched on in call last week with the Russian president.

'As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be,' Trump had said.

Two days later he admitted then that it 'looks like' Russia was behind the poisoning.

Which countries are expelling Russian diplomats over Salisbury? In an unprecedented move, countries across the west have banished Russian diplomats in response to the Salisbury poison outrage. Here is a list of the countries who have expelled diplomats. EU - Recalled its ambassador Britain - Expelled 23 Russians alleged to have worked as spies under diplomatic cover. Promised to freeze any Russian state assets that "may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents". United States - Expelling 60 Russians, including 12 intelligence officers from Russia's mission to U.N. headquarters in New York. Closing Russian consulate in Seattle. Canada - Expelling four Russians alleged to have worked as spies or interfered in Canadian affairs under diplomatic cover. Denying three applications for Russian diplomatic staff. Ukraine - Expelling 13 Russian diplomats France - Expelling four diplomats Germany - Expelling four diplomats Poland - Expelling four diplomats Lithuania - Expelling three diplomats Czech Republic - Expelling three diplomats Italy - Expelling two diplomats Netherlands - Expelling two diplomats Denmark - Expelling two diplomats Sweden - Expelling one diplomat Ireland - Expelling one diplomat Latvia - Expelling one diplomat Estonia - Expelling one diplomat Finland - Expelling one diplomat Romania - Expelling one diplomat Croatia - Expelling one diplomat Spain - Expelling two diplomats Norway - Expelling one diplomat Hungary - Expelling one diplomat Macedonia - Expelling one diploma t Albania - Expelling two diplomats Moldova - Expelling three diplomats Australia - Expelling two diplomats Advertisement

'It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it,' Trump said. 'Something that should never ever happen. And were taking it very seriously as I think are many others.'

The White House joined France, Germany and the UK in a statement that morning that delegated responsibility for Salisbury attack to Putin.

'This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War,' the four governments said.

'It is an assault on the United Kingdom's sovereignty and any such use by a state party is a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law. It threatens the security of us all.'

'We call on Russia to address all questions related to the attack in Salisbury,' they demanded. 'Russia should, in particular, provide full and complete disclosure of the Novichok program to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).'

At that time the U.S. leveled new sanctions on five institutions and 19 individuals tied to Russia's government, citing Moscow's 2016 election interference.

Despite the acknowledgements, Trump called Putin days later and congratulated him on his reelection --boasting to press after the fact that they were likely to meet again in person soon.

Antonov, the Russian ambassador, said Monday that the Trump administration's punishing actions run 'against the telephone conversation' between Trump and Putin last week that the Kremlin thought was 'constructive.'

'It's up to Untied States to decide what kind of relations they want to have with the Russian federation,' he said, 'but I'm sure that time will come, they will understand what kind of grave mistake they did, and I hope that maybe in the future our relations will be restored.'

At a White House news conference on Monday afternoon, Raj Shah, a spokesman for Trump, said that only Russian can decide it wants to have warmer relations with the U.S.

'Our relationship with Russia is frankly up to the Russian government and up to Vladimir Putin and others in senior leadership in Russia,' Shah said. 'We want to have a cooperative relationship, the president wants to work with Russia, but their actions sometimes don't allow that to happen.'

Shah said that poisoning, which he had earlier called 'brazen' and 'reckless' is 'not the type of conduct that the United States or our allies can accept.'

As for the call, the Trump spokesman also said that it had led to 'positive developments,' particularly in the realm of nuclear arms.

Downing Street said today Mrs May had received a 'very positive' response from allies in Brussels last week, including a public show of support from Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel (pictured on Thursday night)

Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican who routinely spars with Trump, accused the U.S. president after the talk of 'congratulating dictators on winning sham elections.'

Trump's action against Moscow on Monday had McCain singing an more upbeat tune. The GOP senator called it a 'welcome step forward in holding Putin accountable for his outrageous chemical attack' in the U.K. this month.

'While todays decision sends an important signal to Moscow, the only way to ensure Putin and his cronies feel the consequences of their brazen actions is by punishing them financially,' he said.

Following in Britain's footsteps, the U.S. ripped up the credentials on Monday of 60 Russian diplomats that the administration has identified as spies. Putin was not personally sanctioned by the U.S.

More than 100 Russian diplomats have been ejected altogether from the United States, Canada, Ukraine, Albania and 14 European Union countries as of Monday in the 'largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history,' according to May.

An official said that the move was 'a step' toward holding Russia accountable for the more than 100 spies it has in the U.S. portraying themselves as diplomats -- a number that the U.S. has deemed 'unacceptably high.'

U.S. officials would not say why Seattle was selected for the closure of a Russian consulate, although the White House noted its proximity to 'one of our submarine bases and Boeing.'

'Todays actions make the United States safer by reducing Russias ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten Americas national security,' Sanders stated. 'With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences.'

A U.S. official told reporters during a call that the slap-back was in response to the Salisbury attack, but it was also intended to mitigate 'a steady drumbeat of destabilizing and aggressive actions' that Putin's government has taken.

Trump has not spoken directly to Putin about the latest punishing actions, an official said. A senior official also said the message had been delivered to Moscow through the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

In a White House statement announcing Monday's actions, Sanders said, 'The United States stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian governments behavior.'

The trigger-happy U.S. president, who has been accused of being too soft on the Kremlin since before his election and was slow to definitively accuse Russia of election meddling in 2016, had not personally commented on his government's announcement hours after it happened.

A U.S. official told reporters that it was 'absolutely his decision,' though, saying it was one that Trump made personally after multiple meetings with his national security team.

Weighing in on Twitter mid-way through the day, Vice President Mike Pence said, 'President Trump has taken decisive action against the Russian government to keep our country safe and stand with the United Kingdom.

'Today's action demonstrates that the United States will not tolerate acts of foreign aggression on the soil of this country or that of our allies.'

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley hit on Russias 'destabilizing behavior across the world' making note of its actions in Syria and Ukraine, as well as the U.K.

'Here in New York, Russia uses the United Nations as a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders,' she said. 'Today, the United States and many of our friends are sending a clear message that we will not stand for Russias misconduct.'

In a major shake-up of White House personnel last week, Trump tapped former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton to succeed his current National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.

Bolton has for years said that the U.S. needs to get tough with Russia, calling Moscow's meddling in the 2016 presidential election 'a true act of war' in one op-ed.

The incoming White House official doesn't begin his post until next month, but already, his position on Russia could be affecting Trump.

An investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia that the president has labeled a 'witch hunt' has also continued to dog the administration. The president himself is expected to face to called for questioning in some capacity before the special counsel probe wraps up.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said Monday morning in a 'Fox & Friends' appearance that preceded the expulsions of the 60 Russian individuals that 'the president's been very clear that we will impose costs on Russia when it is in our interest to do so and when it is in our interest to work with Russia we'll do that as well.'

'This president has not softened or weakened any position that Barack Obama had on Russia, in fact he's gone much further,' Gidley asserted. 'You'll remember we gave lethal aid to the Ukraine, we sent troops into Poland, we authorized the bombing in Syria, which was something Barack Obama never did or would do, we even expanded oil exports into Eastern Europe, something Barack Obama didn't do.'

The White House official said, 'This president knows what's right on the international stage and how to deal with Russia and when we need them as a partner and an ally to defeat ISIS or terrorism, he works with them, but when they do things like they did in England with the poisoning of that individual, we sanction them, we stand up against them when we need to.'

The U.K. determined a week after the March 4 assault that the nerve agent, known as 'Novichok,' was of Russian design.

A former Russian intelligence officer who was convicted in 2006 of assisting the British, in 2010 Skripal resettled in Salisbury in England as part of a spy swap between the U.S. and Russia.

It is not known why the Kremlin would want to target Skripal now. His attempted murder follows in the footsteps in of 14 other assassinations in the U.K. that have been linked to Russia, in a Buzzfeed News investigation.A Louisiana high school senior's Twitter video is going viral after her family went berserk when they learnt she had been accepted into one of the top ranked girls colleges in the country.

The young girl captioned the video: 'My name is Jada Wiltz and I'm now a part of Wellesley College Class Of 2022!! Wellesley is ranked #3 in liberal arts colleges! One of the top ranked girls colleges! GO BLUE @Wellesley.'

In the video Wiltz, her family, friends and classmates are all gathered around a laptop waiting to find out the girl's college fate.

A man, presumably her father, stands by Wiltz as he says: 'Whatever happens today Lord we know that you have a greater plan, to guide us, to give us some good news and to allow us to move on to the big W baby. Now let's do this!'

Everyone begins applauding after the man's speech.

The room goes silent for a while as Wiltz can be seen searching for her results on the laptop.

A Louisiana high school senior's Twitter video is going viral after her family went berserk when they learnt she had been accepted into one of the top ranked girls colleges in the country

Then immediately the room erupts into utter excitement and Wiltz is lifted up off the chair by her brother as the entire room goes nuts.

Everyone is beyond ecstatic embracing one another and jumping up and down.

The young girl is overwhelmed by all the support as she makes sure to hug each and every family member.

At the end of the clip Wiltz can be seen tearing up as the news of her acceptance sinks in.

The room erupts into utter excitement and Wiltz is lifted up off the chair by her brother as the entire room goes nuts

The video, which was posted on March 21, has been viewed more than 900,000 times and has been retweeted nearly 10,000 times with 48,000 favorites.

The prestigious college responded to her tweet saying: 'Congratulations and welcome.'

Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college located west of Boston in Massachusetts.

The young girl is overwhelmed by all the support as she makes sure to hug each and every family member

Wiltz plans to study math with a concentration in biology, as she aspires to be an anesthesiologist, The Boston Globe reported.

She said she owes her success to the support she has received at her school and also from her family and friends.

'You realize that people matter, and some things you just can't do by yourself, and you need people,' she said.

'And for me, my family, my TM Landry family, have been those supportive people.'Kim Jong-un was rumoured to be paying a secret visit to China on Monday after an armoured North Korean train pulled into Beijing under heavy guard.

Passengers were diverted and services cancelled as the train arrived in Beijing around 3pm, before video emerged showing a car driving away under police escort.

The train bears a marked similarity to one that Kim Jong-un's father, Kim Jong-il, used for his trips to China, sparking speculation that the Supreme Leader was on board.

If the news is confirmed, it would mark Kim's first visit to any foreign country since taking the reins of power.

An armoured North Korean train arrived in Beijing on Monday amid heavy security, sparking rumours that Kim Jong-un could be on board

The dark green train bears a distinctive yellow stripe down the side and looks the same as one used by Kim Jong-il in the past

If Kim Jong-un is confirmed to be on board then this would mark his first visit to any foreign country since becoming Supreme Leader

Japanese news agency Kyodo News reported that a high-ranking North Korean official had arrived in the Chinese capital, but did not say who it was.

The agency said the visit was intended to improve ties between Beijing and Pyongyang that have been frayed by North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and China's backing of sanctions at the United Nations Security Council.

In Beijing, a car with a diplomatic license plate of the North Korean Embassy was spotted at the Great Hall of the People, a state building used for activities by the government and the Communist Party of China, Japan today reports.

Severe traffic regulations were enforced around the city.

Authorities in the Chinese city of Dandong, which borders North Korea, began putting up a security fence along train tracks that run into North Korea last week, obscuring it from view, according to Daily NK.

Police also set up road blocks around the station and the Yalv River Bridge, which leads to North Korea, on Sunday.

Hotels along the route also suspended reservations in rooms facing the North from Sunday, Japanese sources said.

The route is the same taken by Kim Jong-il when he visited in 2011, it is reported.

A police motorcade was seen leaving the Beijing station a short time later as locals reported train delays and traffic diversions

The police bikes were seen escorting a car carrying a high-ranking North Korean official (pictured) though their identity was not confirmed

Meanwhile stories circulating on Chinese social media said a train from North Korea arrived in the city of Huludao around 8am, with passengers switching vehicles before carrying on to Beijing.

Locals living along the route reported huge delays due to road closures, complaining that it made them late for work.

North Korean media did not report that a delegation had traveled to China, while a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said she was unaware of the situation.

The news also comes amid preparations for a meeting between Kim and President Trump, though a time and location have not been set.

China, once a staunch North Korean ally, has largely taken a backseat in potential North Korean-US talks, with South Korea leading the way.

President Moon Jae-in used the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang as a focal point to ease tensions between North and South, with athletes marching under a unification banner and playing together.

The train appears to be the same one that was used by Kim Jong-il to visit China multiple times in the past (pictured here in 2011)

Kim Jong-il pictured visiting China on board a North Korean armoured train in 2001

A high-level North Korean delegation attended both the opening and closing ceremonies amid rumours that they might meet with America dignitaries, though this never materialised.

But just weeks later South Korean diplomats revealed the North had approached the White House about talks between Kim and Trump, and that Trump had agreed.

Whether or not the train contained Kim Jong-un, or another high-ranking North Korean official, its arrival in Beijing could signal the start of China's involvement in the process.

The Blue House in Seoul acknowledged the reports on Monday, saying officials are monitoring the situation through a number of routes, the BBC reported.The former Catalan president will be held in Germany until a decision can be made on whether or not to extradite him to Spain.

Carles Puigdemont was detained in Germany on Sunday after he crossed the border from Denmark on his way back to Belgium.

He is facing rebellion charges over the region's campaign for independence and was detained under a European warrant.

A court in Germany today said it would likely take several days to decide whether to extradite him.

Carles Puigdemont was detained in Germany on Sunday after he crossed the border from Denmark on his way back to Belgium

Vehicle believed to contain Puigdemont leaves Neumuenster court in Germany today

It is understood he appeared in front of a judge behind closed doors to confirm his identity.

Germany has 60 days to decide whether to return him and he will remain in custody pending a decision.

Meanwhile, protests broke out across the Spanish region of Catalonia after his detention.

Hundreds of thousands answered the call by a pro-independence grassroots group to protest in the Barcelona's centre

At least 89 people are believed to have been injured following brutal clashes between the police and protestors.

It is understood four people were arrested.

A sister protest erupted in the northern city of Girona, where Puigdemont was mayor before he became regional president in 2016.

Mr Puigdemont went on the run almost five months ago after Spanish prosecutors sought to charge him with sedition and rebellion in the wake of a vote by the Catalan parliament to declare independence.

People walk past a Spanish flag displayed in a souvenir shop in Madrid, Monday, March 26, 2018. Carles Puigdemont, fugitive ex-leader of Catalonia and ardent separatist, was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant as he tried to enter the country from Denmark. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Spain has been gripped by its most severe political crisis in four decades since Puigdemont's Barcelona-based government disobeyed a court ban and held a referendum on independence for the northeastern region in October.

That prompted the Spanish government to strip away Catalonia's large degree of self-government and impose direct rule from Madrid.

Independence has long been a divisive issue in Spain's most prosperous region.

But seldom has the tension between Spanish and Catalan authorities built to such a fever pitch, with dozens injured in clashes with police in Catalonia following Puigdemont's capture.

German police, acting on a European warrant issued Friday by Spain, took Puigdemont into custody on Sunday.

His capture, facilitated by Spanish intelligence services, came as he entered Germany from Denmark by car.

He had been visiting Finland and was returning to Brussels, where he has been living for the past four months to avoid arrest in Spain.

A man throws a metal barrier at a van of the Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra regional police blocking the way of pro-independence supporters trying to reach the Spanish government office in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 25, 2018

Spain wants Puigdemont to answer for his efforts to bring about Catalonia's independence.

Spain's Constitution says the country is 'indivisible,' and Puigdemont could stand trial on charges of rebellion, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.

Germany must make a final decision on extradition within 60 days after Puigdemont's capture, though a 30-day extension is possible, and hand him over no more than 10 days after a final decision in favor of extradition.

There are very limited grounds for extradition to be refused, and European Union countries cooperate closely on criminal issues.

Spain has also issued five warrants for other Catalan separatists who fled the country.

A man kicks a police van during a protest after the detention of deposed leader of Catalonia's pro-independence party Carles Puigdemont in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 25, 2018

Catalonia has been without a president or government since December's regional election, which produced a slim majority of pro-independence lawmakers in the Catalan parliament.

The Spanish government says it won't relinquish its control over Catalonia until the region elects a new government that respects Spain's Constitution and a president who isn't facing legal proceedings.

The separatist majority failed for a third time to elect one of its own as regional president during a vote on Thursday.

Jordi Turull, a former minister in the previous Catalan government, fell short of the parliamentary votes he needed because of a split within the three parties who seek independence.

The separatist movement has long been dogged by quarreling.

Turull's failure started a two-month countdown to another election being called if no president is elected to form a government. A ballot could be held in the summer.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge's decision on Friday to charge 13 Catalan separatist politicians with rebellion could snatch away the secessionist movement's political leadership and leave its ambitions in disarray.

A man sits on the ground holding his head as Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra regional police officers clash with pro-independence supporters trying to reach the Spanish government office in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 25, 2018

Puigdemont's arrest stung the separatists, who were still smarting from the imposition of direct rule.

Tens of thousands protested Sunday in Barcelona and other Catalan towns. Some demonstrators clashed with riot police, leaving 100 civilians and police officers lightly injured.

Annual pro-independence demonstrations in Barcelona have routinely drawn around 1million people, but they have been notably nonviolent. With hostility increasing, however, Catalonia is a potential powder keg.

The secession issue has deeply divided the region, splitting families and friends. Polls show Catalonia's 7.5million residents are equally divided over secession, although a majority support holding a legal referendum on the issue.

Pro-Spain parties in the Catalan parliament say their secessionist rivals are single-issue parties and have neglected the region.Kevin Esterly, 45, is being held in a Pennsylvania jail on $500,000 after being extradited from Miami

A man who authorities say fled to Mexico with a 16-year-old girl after repeatedly checking her out of school without her parents' knowledge is now back in Pennsylvania to face charges.

The Lehigh County District Attorney's office said Saturday that 45-year-old Kevin Esterly arrived back in Allentown after being extradited from Miami.

Federal agents and Mexican authorities tracked own he fugitive and 16-year-old Amy Yu in Playa del Carmen a week ago and flew them to Miami. The two had been missing since March 5.

Prosecutors say the married father-of-four faces a felony charge of interference with the custody of a child, which would require him to register as a sex offender for 15 years, if convicted.

Authorities may opt to bring further charges upon investigation, but the age of consent is 16 in Pennsylvania, and Mexican federal law sets the age of consent at 12.

However, if Esterly gave the girl alcohol that could open up additional charges of corrupting the morals of a minor or endangering the welfare of a child, experts said.

Esterly's bail was set at $500,000. He is due in court for a preliminary hearing on April 2.

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Amy Yu disappeared with Esterly on March 5 and was found with him in Mexico on March 17

Scorned wife: Stacey Esterly, Kevin's estranged wife, has refused to accept his calls from jail and plans to divorce him

Speaking to local and national media outlets on Monday, his estranged wife, Stacey Esterly, said she plans to divorce him.

The mother-of-four told 6ABC that she had an uneasy feeling about her husband's relationship with Amy, so much so that she had contacted the girl's mother asking to keep the teen away from her family.

Yu had grown so close to the Easterly family that she would go on ski and beach vacations with the couple and their daughters.

Stacey said she had thought Amy had stopped communicating with her husband after her talk with the girl's mother, but in December 2017 she discovered that Kevin had rented an apartment four blocks from Amy's house.

When she later found out that Kevin had been signing Amy out of her school, an that the girl had listed him as her stepfather, Stacey said she was furious.

'He has four daughters of his own and a wife. And Amy is no stepchild,' she said.

She also recounted the last time she saw her husband, which was on the morning of his and Amy's disappearance.

'I kissed him goodbye. He said, "Have a great day at work. I'll see you when you get home." That was the last time I've seen him,' the wife recalled.

Esterly was found on March 17 in the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen along with 16-year-old Yu.

The next day, the man was transported to Miami and taken into custody there, while Yu was returned safe to her family in Pennsylvania after undergoing an examination at a hospital.

Mexican police are seen taking Esterly into custody in Playa del Carmen. From there US Marshals transported him to Miami

'I'd like to go back to Pennsylvania as soon as possible' Esterly told a Miami judge a week ago

Esterly's wife Stacey (pictured) had been refusing to take any of his calls from Miami jail

Esterly and Amy disappeared from Allentown on March 5.

The two met at church years ago, and the Amy is friends with one of Esterly's four daughters, according to Amy's family.

Esterly and Amy had gotten so close she often went on his family's vacations and the older man had often come to Amy's home for meals, her mother Mia Luu said.

Amy even changed school documents to list the older man as her step-father, and he signed her out of school 10 times between November 13 and February 9, police said.

Amy's mother discovered the deception when she came to get the girl from school on February 9 and found that Esterly had already signed her out. The furious mom warned him to stay away from the teen.

Before fleeing town with the girl, Esterly withdrew $4,000 from his join bank accounts with wife Stacey, she told police.

Luu discovered after her daughter vanished on March 5 that she had taken some of jewelry, her passport and cash.

Esterly and Amy had gotten so close she often went on his family's vacations with his kids

Amy changed school documents to list Esterly as her step-father, and he signed her out of school 10 times between November 13 and February 9. They are pictured with his daughters

Esterly's wife Stacey told cops he took $4,000 from their accounts before fleeing

When the pair disappeared, police were immediately suspicious. A warrant for Esterly's arrest was issued on March 7.

Cops tracked the pair to Mexico and issued an Amber Alert there on March 15. Two days later, Esterly and Yu were located near the resort Island of Cozumel.

Esterly was transported by US Marshals to Miami and waived his right to contest hs extradition.

Since he arrived in Florida, Esterly has been trying to call his wife Stacy - but she has refused all of his calls, her attorney told CBS News.

'Stacey is happy that Amy is home and that Kevin is in custody,' attorney John Waldron said in a statement.

Mexican authorities issued this Amber Alert seeking Amy and Esterly on March 15

The beach in Playa del Carmen is seen. Cops found Amy and Esterly in the town on March 17

While Esterly is behind bars, his wife Stacey is working full time to support their four daughters, according to a GoFundMe campaign to assist them.

'She is committed to making every effort to see her children through this situation as best as possible and maintain a sense of stability for them,' her attorney said.A mother and her boyfriend are behind bars after her three-year-old daughter died from an overdose of methamphetamine and a drug used to treat opioid addiction.

Brittany Higgins and Brian Bennett allegedly waited 22 hours before they checked on Logan Starliper, who was found dead at their Greencastle, Pennsylvania home on January 6.

Higgins and Bennett, both 29, have been charged with third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, drug delivery resulting in death, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Logan Starliper, three, was found dead in a Greencastle, Pennsylvania home after overdosing on methamphetamine and buprenophrine, medication used to treat opioid addiction

Brittany Higgins, Logan's mother, and her boyfriend Brian Bennett allegedly waited 22 hours before they checked on the girl, who was found dead on January 6

Rodney Mower, 43, has been charged with drug delivery resulting in death for allegedly providing the couple with methamphetamine.

The couple told police they put Logan to bed at 10.30pm on January 5. Bennett said he 'peeked' in to check on the girl 12 hours later, and thought she was sleeping.

It wasn't until 9pm on January 6 that Higgins and Bennett entered the bedroom to see if Logan was okay, and found her dead. Police were called shortly after.

Logan died from an overdose of methamphetamine and buprenophrine, a medication used to treat opioid addiction.

Buprenophrine is found in the medications Subutex and Suboxone, which Bennett and Higgins both had prescriptions for, according to Chambersburg Public Opinion.

The couple told police they put Logan to bed at 10.30pm on January 5. It wasn't until 9pm on January 6 that they entered the bedroom to see if Logan was okay, and found her dead

Authorities would not reveal how the drugs got into Logan's system.

'With the active investigation with the court events that are to take place, we can't go into the exact details of what occurred,' said Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Brent Miller.

'We do know the child's death was of a mixed-substance toxicity. All I know is the facts, and those facts state that a child is dead due to drugs that were in the house.'

Higgins told police that she had kept her meth in the bag on the top shelf of a closet and that her Suboxone was locked in a safe.

She said Bennett would keep his Subutex next to a stand on the bed. Bennett told police he kept his meth on him. Three of his pipes were found with burnt residue.

Higgins told police that she and Bennett had injected meth they bought from Mower on January 4 and 5.

An autopsy on Logan has revealed other evidence of neglect, including 'discoloration' around both her eyes and cheeks, as well as her mouth

Buprenophrine is found in the medications Subutex and Suboxone, which Bennett and Higgins both had prescriptions for (pictured)

Mower told police that the couple prepared and injected the meth in their bedroom, putting up a 'baby gate' across the door to keep Logan and another child out.

Police said Logan and the other child would often hang on the gate and watch as Higgins and Bennett did drugs.

An autopsy on Logan has revealed other evidence of neglect, including 'discoloration' around both her eyes and cheeks, as well as her mouth.

Rodney Mower, 43, (pictured) was charged with drug delivery resulting in death for allegedly providing the couple with meth

Police said friends and family members of the couple also reported seeing 'bruises and large marks' on Logan in the last six months.

Higgins and Bennett had also communicated about physically abusing Logan and the other child, according to court documents.

Authorities said Higgins had a 'mental breakdown' three days after her daughter died, arriving at her mother's house and confessing that she used meth.

She gave her mother a bag with several needles and a spoon with white residue and, weeks later, gave her another bag containing more needles with residue and spoons that contained white residue and powder. The bag was handed over to police.

While Bennett has previously faced drug and DUI charges, Higgins was only found to have a traffic ticket on her record before Logan's death.

Higgins, Bennett, and Mower have all been denied bail and are being held in Franklin County Jail.

They each have a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 3.Spanish police say they have arrested a Ukrainian man thought to be the biggest cyber bank robber in the world.

The unnamed middle-aged man is reported to have stolen more than one billion dollars over the past 12 months from banks around the world.

He was detained early this month at Playa de San Juan, a popular high rise resort in the northern suburbs of Alicante, the capital of the south-eastern holiday coast.

Arrested: Ukrainian middle-aged man, who is accused of stealing one billion dollar in the past year alone, was detained at Playa de San Juan in Alicante, Spain

A statement issued today by the National Police said that the man, who also carried a Russian passport, had been living there with his wife since 2014 without signs of excessive wealth.

Later the Ukrainian arrested in Alicante was identified by police only as Denis K., aged 35.

Police said that he was the brains behind the cyber scam in which he created a virus with which he and three close associates, all of them with Ukrainian and Russian backgrounds, flooded bank online systems.

The man has been wanted by the FBI, police in Belarus, Interpol and Europol as a result of his alleged robberies.

His alleged massive thefts involve hacking into banks' online systems, planting malware, and emptying cashpoints.

Robbery: The man reportedly carried out the thefts from his Alicante home, pictured, hacking cash points and getting helpers around the world to fetch the cash for him

He is said to have helpers around the world who are sent to banks at a specific place and set time and just take the cash as it spews out onto the streets and stuff it into plastic bags.

They are later taken to other banks and wired to accounts in other countries.

Fifteen other arrests have been made in the United Kingdom, Belarus, Taiwan and Kyrgyzstan.

Investigators in Spain were reported to have described the man as a 'computer genius'.Superdrug has been accused of racism after putting up CCTV warning signs in the 'black and Asian' haircare section of a store.

Xavy Wright, 31, complained there were no warning notices aimed at potential shoplifters in the section of the Brighton shop containing 'white' hair products.

The marketing worker claimed that the signage in the store at the main railway station in the East Sussex city suggested only black people were likely to steal.

Xavy Wright took this video of CCTV warning signs in the 'black and Asian' haircare section, complaining there were no warning notices in the section with 'white' hair products (right)

Miss Wright, who is originally from Jamaica, filmed herself walking along rows of shampoo, hair dye, and other hair products - none of which have the CCTV warning.

Yet her 25-second video showed how the small section aimed at black and Asian customers features two signs just two shelves apart.

She posted a clip on the chain's Facebook page with the caption: 'Saw this at your Brighton store at the train station. I think it's just rude and quite racist if I'm honest.'

The video begins with her filming the black and Asian hair section. The small section of shelves has two bright yellow CCTV notices in front of the selection of products.

Miss Wright (pictured) claimed the signage suggested only black people were likely to steal

Miss Wright spotted the signage in the store at Brighton railway station in the East Sussex city

The sign clearly reads: 'For your safety and security this area is monitored by CCTV.'

How Boots had to say sorry over 'offensive' skin colour chart Boots was forced to apologise last year after customers dubbed an in-store skincare chart 'offensive' because they believed it implied that brown and black skin 'is not normal'. The skincare chart seen at a Boots store Shopper 'Simran' tweeted a picture of the chart - which showed a list of ideal SPF factors for skin types and colours, including one listed as 'normal' - after seeing it at a London store. She asked Boots to explain 'why brown and black (skin) was implied to be abnormal', and also questioned why minorities were being urged to use lighter SPF factors of sun cream, despite facing skin cancer risks. On the chart, 'normal' skin was listed above 'brown' and 'black' and below 'fair' and 'sensitive', in an apparent conflation of skin type and skin colour. A Boots spokesman apologised at the time, saying: 'We can confirm it was an isolated incident to only one Boots store and that the content featured was not official Boots show material.' Advertisement

Miss Wright can be heard saying: 'So Superdrug, apparently only black people steal things, because they decided to put two CCTV things in the black hair products.'

As she scans down the aisle filled with products which she claims are for use on Caucasian hair, she says: 'Look at all the white products, nothing.'

Turning to the hair dye section and going further up the line, she adds: 'Nothing, nothing, not one.'

Finally, Miss Wright finds a CCTV sticker nestled in the corner above a selection of makeup brushes and nail products. She said: 'Until... there's one there, but there's two on the black hair products. Hmm.'

Speaking yesterday, she said: 'I think it's just terrible in this day and age to have such blatant disrespect to a race of people.'

A Superdrug spokesman apologised, saying: 'We apologise for any offence this has caused to Ms Wright and any other customers this was certainly never our intention.

'Superdrug prides itself on the diversity of its customers and colleagues and a lot of work has been done over the last few years to ensure we provide a wide range of products for all our customers.

'There are CCTV cameras and signs placed throughout Superdrug stores to prevent theft and to ensure the safety and security of our customers.

'We're investigating the placement of the signs in the Brighton station store and will ensure these are now placed throughout the store in line with our company policy.'

The spokesman later added: 'We have carried out a full investigation with the duty manager today (Monday) and can confirm that we have 15 CCTV security signs in multiple locations around the Brighton station store in line with our company policy.'A teenager who was forced to have 'I am a thief and an idiot' inked across his forehead has been arrested for stealing deodorant in Brazil.

Ruan Rocha da Silva, 18, was caught trying to steal five cans of deodorant from a supermarket in Sao Paulo.

Silva made headlines last year after two men tortured him by tattooing his forehead as a punishment for trying to steal a bike.

Ruan Rocha da Silva (pictured) was tattooed by two men a year ago (left) after he tried to steal their bike. He has now been caught stealing five cans of deodorant from a supermarket in Sao Paulo (right)

Tattoo artist Maycon Wesley Carvalho, 27, and his neighbour Ronildo Moreira de Aruajo, 29, were both found guilty by a judge after being caught by police filming themselves inking the tattoo and sending the images to friends

In the video, Carvalho can be heard saying: 'It is going to hurt, it is going to hurt'. He is now awaiting trial himself for stealing

Tattoo artist Maycon Wesley Carvalho, 27, and his neighbour Ronildo Moreira de Aruajo, 29, were both found guilty by a judge, with Carvalho given a sentence of three years and four months in prison and Aruajo three years and five months.

Both were caught by police after filming themselves inking the tattoo and sending the images to friends.

In the video, Carvalho can be heard saying: 'It is going to hurt, it is going to hurt.'

In the most recent case, Silva was caught by a shop assistant trying to steal the deodorant before he was taken to a police station.

Silva was arrested and charged but he was released after paying the 1,000 Brazilian real (213) bail and is awaiting trial.

A cousin of the alleged thief told reporters that Silva's shoplifting was down to a relapse in his drug use.

Silva's lawyers had told the judge in the tattoo case that Silva had been addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol and was receiving treatment.A wedding ceremony in a Fort Myers, Florida park saw a couple that weren't your typical bride and groom on Saturday.

Karen Cooper and Dana Foglesong, wearing white wedding dresses, both 'married' a giant ficus tree that has been rooted in the Snell Family Park for more than a century.

The nuptials - although not considered a legal wedding- were in an effort to stop city officials from cutting down the tree.

Karen Cooper (left) and Dana Foglesong (right) 'married' a ficus tree during a ceremony held at a Fort Myers, Florida park

The two brides served guests a tree-decorated wedding cake with the words 'Higher Love' on it

In December, city officials started discussing how to remove the ficus because its roots extend to a neighboring lot, which is for sale for $1million.

After a meeting with the Beautification Board, officials agreed to spend the $13,000 to cut down the tree and replace it with smaller geiger trees.

Cooper 'married' a giant ficus tree in an effort to stop the city from cutting the tree down

Cooper said she doesn't want to see the tree removed from the family park so she hatched a plan to try and get the city to reconsider.

After reading about women in Mexico who were 'marrying' trees to bring attention to deforestation, Cooper brought the idea to her friends.

'So I saw that and I thought, "Oh we should marry the ficus tree" - kind of giggle, giggle - but everyone thought it's a really good idea, so I said, "OK. Let's do it,"' Cooper said.

With the support of her pals, Cooper started planning the ceremony.

Over the weekend, roughly 50 people gathered in the park to watch Cooper and her friend Foglesong marry the ficus.

Following the ceremony, both newlyweds posed for photos in their gowns with the ficus. They also served guests a tree-decorated wedding cake with the words 'Higher Love' on it.

One of the guests at Saturday's nuptials was Ward 5 Councilman Fred Burson, who vowed to save the tree.

'If we don't get it settled at the Beautification Board meeting, I'll take it to the City Council,' he said, posing with his family in front of the tree.

City officials in Fort Myers were discussing cutting down the ficus because its roots extended to a neighboring lot, for sale for $1million

It appears Cooper's wedding may have changed the minds of city officials.

City spokeswoman Stephanie Schaffer said in a statement to the Review-Journal that the city was 'moving forward to save the Snell Park ficus tree'.

She added: 'Every day city employees care for the trees and plants that give our city a sense of community and shared history.'

Cooper, however, is still worried her beloved ficus could still be removed.

'If they cut down this tree, I'm going to be a widow,' she told the News-Press.Despite tweets protesting otherwise, President Trump is having trouble recruiting lawyers to his legal team navigating the Russia probe, with it currently functioning as a one-man show.

The New York Times reported that Jay Sekulow is now the only Trump attorney working full-time on legal issues related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe.

The president tried to recruit Theodore Olson without success, and met with veteran lawyer Emmet Flood, who the president didn't like because he had defended President Clinton.

President Trump (right) only has one lawyer working full-time on defending him in the Mueller probe, that of Jay Sekulow (left)

President Trump dashed off two tweets early Sunday morning arguing that his legal team for the Russia probe was in good shape

Attorneys Joe diGenova (left) and Victoria Toensing (right) had been announced as hires for the president's legal team dealing with the Mueller probe. On Sunday, another attorney for the president told the New York Times that they had 'conflicts' preventing that from happening

And while lawyer William A. Burck is working for former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, ex-Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and White Counsel Don McGahn, he wouldn't take the president's case, the Times reported.

Additionally, two new lawyer hires who were announced last week now won't be joining the president's legal team.

While Trump's attorney John Dowd resigned from his post last week.

On Sunday, the president put out a nothing-to-see-here tweet, suggesting he was having no problem finding legal representation.

'Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case...dont believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on,' Trump wrote.

'Fame & fortune will NEVER be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted,' the president continued.

The president said the problem is that a 'new lawyer or law firm will take months to get up to speed (if for no other reason than they can bill more), which is unfair to our great country.'

And he said he was 'happy with my existing team.'

A short time after, Sekulow put out a statement saying the two new hires wouldn't actually be doing work on the Russia probe.

'The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the presidents special counsel legal team,' Jay Sekulow said in a statement Sunday to the Times.

Sekulow said that the two lawyers, who are a married couple, would still be able to assist the president with matters outside the Russia probe and so 'the president looks forward to working with them.'

Now it's down to Sekulow and Ty Cobb, who's working within the White House, dealing with Mueller's demands.

Dowd had been working on negotiating with Mueller on the scope and terms of an interview with the president.

Dowd's decision to resign, according to the Times, came after Trump signaled he planned to ignore the lawyer's advice and sit down for an interview with investigators.

Dowd had deemed the decision as too risky.

The choice of diGenova also seemed risky as he had floated conspiracy theories on the Fox News Channel that the FBI and the Department of Justice had framed the president on the Russia matter.

Meanwhile, Trump again publicly said he wished to sit down with Mueller, telling reporters at the White House 'I would like to' when asked whether he would meet with the special counsel.

It's this attitude that has made working for the president such a tough sell among top legal talent.

The turmoil among Trump's legal team started early on, the Times reported, with the president's longtime personal attorney Marc Kasowitz recommending that Trump handle the Mueller probe like Clinton did  with an outside legal and communications team handling all aspects of the inquiry.

But Trump didn't like the idea, nor did he manage the two teams well, and so the Mueller team and the White House were often not on the same page.

Kasowitz also wished to deal with Mueller in an adversarial way, an approach Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner disagreed with, the Times wrote.

Kasowitz was out the door in July.

Next up came Cobb, and then Dowd, who both urged cooperation.

Cobb handled the first phase of the inquiry, which was the turning over of documents.

He then passed the baton to Dowd, who was dealing with the second phase of the Mueller inquiry, an interview with the president.

The president has been insistent about sitting down with Mueller, believing that if he testifies under oath, it will improve his chances of being cleared.Pauline Hanson has has had a busy few days - she's confirmed that One Nation will support the governments company tax rate cuts and announced her previous nemesis Tony Abbott will launch her upcoming book.

Speaking to Sky News, Hanson said the decision to support the Turnbull governments company tax cut came after 'a lot of deliberation'.

'I've travelled around Australia quite extensively. A couple of weeks ago I was in Western Australia and I went to Fortescue Metals, had a good long talk to Twiggy Forrest, and other businesses I went to through Queensland, plus the other states.' she said.

Senator Hanson caused audible gasps of shock when she wore the full Islamic dress into Question Time, in 2017, calling for the dress to be banned in Australia. She is releasing a book this week of her speeches

'They're either going to shut down or go off-shore. They cannot continue with the escalating energy costs, gas and electricity. They have to have some relief or they'll put workers off and they'll start bringing in their families or doing longer hours themselves, we can't keep going the way that we're going.'

The government has been trying to push through the bill, which cuts the cooperate tax rate from 30 percent to 25 percent, through parliament this week.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has accused Mr Turnbull of planning to give big businesses a tax handout while hitting Australian workers with a Medicare levy increase.

Senator Hanson will also be publishing a collection of her political speeches this coming week.

In a bizarre twist that demonstratives the fickle nature of allies and foes in federal parliament she has chosen former Prime Minister Tony Abbott to launch the book.

She revealed she made a 'cheeky' request for the former prime minister to launch a new collection of her political speeches.

She has announced that Mr Abbott, her previous nemesis will launch her book of speeches

Mr Abbott will do the honours in Canberra on Tuesday - more than 14 years after Senator Hanson was released from prison and said, 'Heaven help this country if Tony Abbott is ever in control of it. I detest the man.'

Senator Hanson says she asked Mr Abbott to launch her book because they are similar in some ways, and because he was among the first to congratulate her on her re-election to federal parliament in 2016.

'I said to Tony over the phone 'I'm going to be a little cheeky with this question' and he laughed and said 'yes' to launching my book,' she told AAP in a statement.

'Tony Abbott strangely has a few similarities to myself. We've both seen the highs and lows of this place and I'm not a person to wallow in self pity over the past.'

Senator Hanson blamed former Prime Minister Tony Abbott for stint in jail and has previously said she detested him

Mr Abbott's office said he was 'delighted' to accept Senator Hanson's invitation, and that One Nation voters deserve respect.

Senator Hanson has always blamed Mr Abbott for her brief imprisonment for electoral fraud, a conviction that was later quashed.

Mr Abbott was behind a trust fund set up to fund civil cases against One Nation in the 1990s, when the party posed a threat to the Liberal Party.

Senator Hanson and One Nation co-founder David Ettridge served 11 weeks of a three-year jail sentence after being convicted of electoral fraud in 2003. The convictions were later overturned on appeal.

Their relationship has thawed in recent years and Mr Abbott made headlines when he stopped by Senator Hanson's parliamentary office for a coffee, to welcome her back to parliament in 2016.

Mr Abbott said that the One Nation voters deserved respect but has previously been accused of setting up a fund to help civil cases against the party because it posed a threat to the Liberal party

The cover of the new book, Pauline, In Her Own Words, features the One Nation leader peeking out from beneath a burqa.

It's a nod to her controversial stunt when she wore a burqa into the Senate chamber in August last year.

She later said she wasn't embarrassed and she did it to spark a debate about security challenges posed by the burqa, adding she was able to walk into the chamber without being challenged. She wants the burqa and other full face coverings banned in public.

The stunt drew a stinging rebuke from then attorney-general George Brandis, who said mocking religious garments was an appalling thing to do.Police say a 73-year-old woman was killed by a stray bullet that apparently came into her home from a neighbor's target practice in rural Michigan.

Michigan State Police say the woman's husband reported that his wife collapsed Sunday shortly after he heard a 'loud crack.'

He said his wife was in a kitchen area of their home when she was shot in Riley Township, about 45 miles northeast of Detroit.

Police say a 73-year-old woman was killed by a stray bullet that apparently came into her home from a neighbor's target practice in rural Michigan

The victim was then rushed to the hospital, but did not survive.

Police said a neighbor had been shooting at a berm on his nearby property. Apparently he is cooperating with investigators and 'is devastated.'

The names of those involved haven't been released.

Michigan State Police say the woman's husband reported that his wife collapsed Sunday shortly after he heard a 'loud crack'

'This is a reminder that when you're target shooting, even if doing so legally, you need to be aware of your backstop and what is behind your backstop and where that bullet could potentially travel,' Michigan State Police Lt. David Kaiser said according to Click On Detroit.

He added 'It must also be very tragic to the young man that was out target shooting, doing something he enjoyed to learn that he took the life of another.'

He said his wife was in a kitchen area of their home when she was shot in Riley Township, about 45 miles northeast of Detroit

Police said a neighbor had been shooting at a berm on his nearby property. Apparently he is cooperating with investigators and 'is devastated'

The St. Clair County prosecutor's office is expected to review the case once Michigan State Police officials complete their investigation to determine whether charges will be filed.

Investigators seized the weapon, which has been described as something longer than a .22 caliber, which has a range of a mile and a half.

Charges could include reckless discharge of a firearm causing death.A 23-year-old woman was sexually assaulted outside of a Brunswick, Melbourne, bar on October 12, 2017, according to police.

Police investigators were told that the woman was 'outside at the rear of a bar on Dawson Street when she was sexually assaulted by an unknown man about 10.45pm', according to a statement.

The man is described as being 170cm tall, aged in his 20s with a solid build and brown hair.

Police have released images of a man who may be able to help with a Melbourne sexual assault investigation

He is also described as being 'Caucasian in appearance'.

The police statement said he was wearing a long sleeve top with a 'RL GRIME' slogan.

He was also wearing a light coloured cap, it said.

Fawkner Sexual Offence and Child Abuse Investigation Team detectives have released images of a man who may be able to assist with their enquiries.

Anyone with information on the sexual assault is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit an online report here.Uber secretly ditched a policy of having two engineers pilot its self-driving cars and replaced them with 'safety drivers' who receive just three weeks of training, DailyMail.com can reveal.

The move to water down the level of supervision of its fleet of autonomous Volvos was never publicized to authorities, its investors or the public in the cities where Uber is trialing the cars.

It has also insisted the 'safety drivers' - who include a felon and a former Pizza Hut supervisor - sign gag orders stopping them from talking about what happens when they are 'pilots' in the cars.

None are required to have an engineering or technical background, although all must pass a manual driving exam, submit to Uber's background check and complete a 21-day training course.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators examine the self-driving Uber vehicle involved in the fatal accident in Tempe

Homeless woman Elaine Herzberg (left), 49, died on March 18 in Tempe, Arizona, after being struck by a gray Volvo XC-90 SUV piloted by Rafaela Vasquez (right), 44. Vasquez, a convicted felon, told police she had attempted to brake but was unable to avoid the mother-of-two

The truth about who is really behind the wheel emerged as DailyMail.com investigated how one of Uber's fleet of self-driving vehicles came to kill a pedestrian.

Homeless woman Elaine Herzberg, 49, died on March 18 in Tempe, Arizona, after being struck by a gray Volvo XC-90 SUV piloted by Rafaela Vasquez, 44.

Vasquez, a convicted felon who was sentenced to five years in jail in 2001 after being caught attempting to rob a branch of Blockbuster Video using an imitation firearm, told police she had attempted to brake but was unable to avoid the mother-of-two.

A video of the incident appears to show her looking repeatedly down at something inside the car before her jaw drops in horror as she finally spots the 49-year-old.

Herzberg, a three-time-married mother-of-two, was crossing busy thoroughfare North Mill Avenue and had already made it across three lanes and a wide central meridian when she was struck.

The incident is now being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, who are delving into why the car's Lidar laser detection system failed to spot Herzberg, among other things.

The death, the first caused to a pedestrian by a self-driving car, has also raised fresh questions for Uber  not least how a single 'safety driver' with limited training came to be behind the wheel.

At the launch of their self-driving car project in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Arizona, Uber showed off cars with two engineers up front and never challenged reports that claimed this would always be the case during the pilot scheme.

But it admitted in a statement to DailyMail.com that it has now ditched that requirement and has switched to drivers with just 21 days of training and no technical background.

'After more than a year of thorough planning, development and safety reviews, we transitioned most operations to having a single vehicle operator, without a second person to collect feedback for our engineers using a laptop in the passenger seat,' the company said in the statement.

'This transition happened slowly as we worked with our vehicle operators to make sure they were well-trained and felt comfortable with this new job.

The video, released by Tempe police, shows the car traveling at about 40mph in a 45mph zone along a relatively empty roadway on Sunday night

In the seconds leading up to the collision, Rafaela Vasquez, 44, the safety driver who must take control of the car if there are any problems, is seen looking down and to the side

Seconds later, Vasquez grows alarmed when she realizes the car is about to hit the pedestrian. The footage appears to back up her claims that she was alert during the ride and nothing she could have done would have prevented the fatal collision

'We decided to make this transition because after testing, we felt we could accomplish the task of the second person - annotating each intervention with information about what was happening around the car - by looking at our logs after the vehicle had returned to base, rather than in real time.

'We continue to use two operators for tests in which detailed in-vehicle feedback is important. It was not and never has been the role of the passenger-seat operator to maintain the vehicle's safety.

'That is and always has been the clear and primary responsibility of the operator behind the wheel.'

On Friday, the company claimed to have 'introduced this' change to the local press in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, last Fall.

But after being informed that no contemporary news reports could be found, Uber admitted that the move had never been publicized either via a press release or a public announcement.

Indeed, a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette dating from September 2017 again refers to 'two technicians' being at the wheel.

Uber made last week's statement after first falsely claiming to DailyMail.com that it had never suggested two engineers would always be present in each car.

Friday's statement also points the finger of blame in the death of Herzberg at Vasquez, a felon who had committed a series of driving offenses - all of which was known to Uber when she was hired.

She has not responded to requests for comment from DailyMail.com.

However, DailyMail.com has also learned that Uber requires all of its drivers, including those in the regular fleet, to sign non-disclosure agreements - meaning they would face financial penalties for publicly discussing any safety concerns they might have.

When DailyMail.com approached another driver, Patrick Murphy, 49, of Chandler, Arizona, who had been involved in a previous non-fatal crash, he declined to comment citing the NDA.

The disclosures over the level of supervision of its self-driving cars and the secrecy Uber has insisted on for its drivers are likely to be seized on by lawyers for the family of the dead woman.

Rafaela Vasquez was behind the wheel of the self-driving Volvo SUV which struck Herzberg. Police say she stepped in front of it with her bicycle (shown above next to the car)

The revelations are also likely to be looked upon with interest by regulatory authorities and Uber investors, as well as the growing number of advocacy groups concerned about safety standards.

Rosemary Shahan of Sacramento-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS) claims Uber does not do enough to protect the public and slammed the company for opposing proposed Federal safety measures for self-driving cars.

'I think Uber has a real contempt for the law and a very high disregard for public safety, Shahan, 68, told DailyMail.com.

'They did not even screen out cars that are subject to a Federal safety recall in their fleet.'

She added: 'They're trying to do this without any safety standards  they're even opposing just a basic standard saying a car should be secure from being hacked.

'The FBI has been warning them they're very concerned about the potential for criminals or terrorists to hack into these cars and weaponize them  to deliver bombs or potentially drive them off the road or over a bridge.

'But Uber and the auto manufacturers are saying, no, no, no, trust us - we will self-certify that our cars are OK.

'They give a lot of lip service to safety but if they really cared about safety they wouldn't be allowing their drivers to drive around in these recall cars that they know are unsafe.

'That's just playing Russian Roulette with their customers' lives.'

The watering down of the two engineers requirement and the imposition of NDAs took place when the company was still led by Travis Kalanick.

Forty-one-year-old Kalanick was forced to resign from Uber last June after a series of scandals rocked the firm  including accusations of sexual harassment and a 'toxic' workplace culture.

In February 2017, former Uber engineer Susan J Fowler penned an explosive blog post that claimed, among other things, she had been pestered for sex by a manager.

The watering down of the two engineers requirement and the imposition of NDAs took place when the company was still led by Travis Kalanick (pictured), who stepped down from the company last year

This is not the first time Uber has grounded its fleet of self-driving cars. In March 2017, an autonomous Volvo SUV (pictured on its side) got into accident when the other vehicle 'failed to yield' while making a left turn, according to police

Ten days later, senior executive Amit Singhal was forced to quit after he failed to disclose he had been subject to a sexual harassment complaint while working for Google.

Then, a video showing Kalanick berating an Uber driver as he was being transported from a Super Bowl party emerged, which also captured the 41-year-old boasting: 'I make sure every year is a hard year.

'That's kind of how I roll. I make sure every year is a hard year. If it's easy, I'm not pushing hard enough.'

Less than a month later, Kalanick's ex-girlfriend Gabi Holzwarth publicly revealed he and five other Uber employees had visited an escort bar in Seoul, South Korea, in mid-2014.

On June 6, 2017, 20 Uber employees were fired after a law firm conducted an investigation into 215 staff complaints dating from 2012.

A day later, another executive was canned for obtaining the medical records of a woman raped by an Uber driver in India in 2014 and sharing them with Kalanick.

Kalanick, who had initially announced he was taking 'an indefinite leave of absence' from the company, eventually stepped down on June 21.

Uber, which was launched in 2009, has also previously been accused of targeting reporters who produce negative reports about the company, and of operating a 'Grayball' system that makes it impossible for certain individuals  including law enforcement officers  to use the app.

The company's self-driving car scheme has also been hit by scandal, including a lawsuit filed by Waymo  the autonomous vehicle company set up by Google  accusing it of filching trade secrets.

In the lawsuit, filed in March 2017, Waymo said one of its former engineers who became chief of Uber's self-driving car project took thousands of confidential documents with him.

The case was settled last month in San Francisco after Uber agreed to hand over $245million-worth of its shares to Waymo's parent company and said it would not use any of Waymo's technology in future designs.An online Twitter spat has erupted between Russia and Britain's allies after dozens of Moscow's diplomats were expelled around the world in retaliation for the Salisbury attack.

The United States, Canada, Ukraine and countries across the EU banished Russian embassy staff in the biggest wave of collective expulsions in history.

Donald Trump ordered 60 Russian diplomats out of the country and also announced a consulate in Seattle is being shut down.

And within minutes of the announcement the stand-off had sparked a war of words on social media.

Shortly after announcing that it is kicking out 13 Russian diplomats, Ukraine's Twitter account posted a message mocking the Kremlin.

Ukraine posted a gif showing Doctor's Who's arch nemesis 'the master' waving with the words 'bye bye'

And the Russian embassy in the UK posted an image of a British arm shaking hands with an American with a sneering message.

Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in the United States hit back at Mr Trump's announcement that one of their consulate's would be closed to announce a tit for tat.

It posted a gif showing Doctor's Who's arch nemesis 'the master' waving with the words 'bye bye'.

Relations between Ukraine and Russia are extremely tense after Moscow annexed Crimea and sparked a civil war in Ukraine which is still raging.

Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in the United States hit back at Mr Trump's announcement that one of their consulate's would be closed to announce a tit for tat.

It posted a Twitter poll asking its readers which American consulate it should close in Russia - the one in St Petersburg, in Vladivostok or in Yekaterinburg.

And the Russian embassy in the UK posted an image of a British arm shaking hands with an American with a sneering message.

It stated: 'A country leaving the #EU is exploiting the factor of solidarity and forcing the remaining countries to spoil relations with #Russia

'The one them all and all under the one  a new slogan given by #London to #Brussels.'

Vladimir Putin's Kremlin has vowed to hit back at the global expulsions that were announced today (file pic)

Over 100 Russian diplomats are being banished from their posts around the world, and EU Council President Donald Tusk warned that further expulsions could lie ahead.

It is a major diplomatic victory for Theresa May, who has been on a diplomatic blitz urging allies to hit back at Russia after the nerve agent attack.

Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are both in comas in hospital fighting for their lives after being poisoned by Novichok earlier this month.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson hailed the 'largest collective expulsion' in history and said it would help defend our 'shared security'.

Russia's Foreign ministry slammed the 'provocative' expulsions and vowed to respond in kind.This is the shocking moment a university lecturer was brutally attacked and suffered a head injury as he sat at the wheel of his car in London.

Abdullah Al Hosani, from the United Arab Emirates, was assaulted in his Mercedes G-class SUV on Brompton road - west London.

A video, filmed on a smartphone, shows a man trying to pull Mr Al Hosani through his open car window, while repeatedly punching him in the head.

Mr Al Hosani later took to social networking sites to assure his friends and family that he was safe, after the video was posted online.

He added: 'While we always see such incidents happening to others, we don't think that it will ever happen to ourselves. But I am fine.

Horrified pedestrians can be seen watching the sustained assault in the background, moments before police officers arrived on the scene to arrest the attacker.

Mr Hosani, who teaches business administration at a university in London, said two young Lebanese men, who worked at a restaurant opposite the street, rushed to his aid, and held the suspect until police arrived.

But he added that he had been surprised that nobody else intervened even though many people of Arabic origin had witnessed the attack.

Mr Al Hosani's car was not the only vehicle targeted that night, as a nearby car had been spray-painted with the word: War.

This is the shocking moment a university lecturer was brutally attacked and suffered a head injury as he sat at the wheel of his car in London

Abdullah Al Hosani, from the United Arab Emirates, was assaulted in his Mercedes G-class SUV on Brompton road - west London

A video, filmed by an eyewitness with a smartphone, shows a man trying to pull Mr Al Hosani through his open car window, while repeatedly punching him in the head

A police spokesperson said: 'Detectives from Westminster have charged a man with Common Assault by beating, racially aggravated criminal damage and possession of a class B drug.

'Adnan Musa Basim, 24 of no fixed abode was arrested on suspicion of GBH and causing criminal damage on Saturday, 24 March and subsequently charged on Sunday, 25 March.

'He was remanded to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday, 26 March.

'Police were called at 7.30pm on Saturday, 24 March to reports of an assault and criminal damage on Brompton Road, SW3.

'Officers and London Ambulance Service arrived at the scene to find the victim, a 31-year-old man, suffering from a head injury - a vehicle was also damaged.

'A 24-year-old man was arrested at the scene for grievous bodily harm and criminal damage. He was further arrested for possession of a class B drug. He was taken to a central London police station and charged as above.A mother and daughter running a rogue wedding dress boutique conned brides-to-be out of nearly 12,000 for 'hand-made' white gowns actually made in China.

Bridal boutique owner Melanie Bishop, 36, and her mother Patricia, 60, tricked 13 brides into thinking they were buying bespoke gowns for their big day.

But the owners of Anna Sara Bridal in Newport, South Wales, avoided jail today despite falsely advertising the handmade bridal dresses for up to 1,000.

Bridal boutique owner Melanie Bishop (left) and her mother Patricia (right, outside Cardiff Crown Court) tricked 13 brides into thinking they were buying bespoke gowns for their big day

Furious brides first found out they had been duped when they spotted 'made in China' labels on their dresses - and launched a campaign to get their cash back.

But the Bishops quickly shut up shop, leaving more than 100 other brides worried they would be left without their white dresses on their big day.

Both women avoided jail after pleading guilty to 18 counts of 'engaging in unfair commercial practice' after heartbroken brides complained to consumer watchdogs.

Before she was charged with fraud, Melanie Bishop spoke about the 'hellish nightmare' that led to close her bridal boutique.

Melanie Bishop (left) with one of the dresses that had tatty seams, and bride Alex Antsey (right) wearing an ill-fitting dress

Disgruntled brides and their relatives outside the bridal boutique at the time that it closed

One bride, Nichola Pakau, 34, said: 'It has been an awful experience. It has affected my home life and work life.'

Another bride's mother Kim Burroughs, 55, said: 'You expect everything to be perfect for your daughter's wedding. I didn't expect this.'

The Bishops pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to 18 counts of the charge between March 2015 and April 2016.

Melanie Bishop claimed her customers should have known their dresses from 700 to 1,000 were manufactured in China - and said she was the victim of a campaign of 'abuse and lies'.

Ms Antsey, pictured with her badly fitting wedding dress, was one of the victims of the fraud

Bishop said: 'In the space of three weeks my reputation is in tatters and I believe I will lose my house, my livelihood and the business I worked so hard to build up from scratch. I haven't stopped crying since it all spiralled out of control.

Before she was charged with fraud, Melanie Bishop spoke about the 'hellish nightmare' that led to close her bridal boutique

'The reality is that these women have rallied together and whipped themselves up into a hysteria that is only based on one thing - the fact that my dress suppliers are based in China.

'The dresses are not worth 40 and from eBay as these women believe. That couldn't be further from the truth. We own a factory that is staffed by 15 seamstresses.

'We run a legitimate business and I am devastated that this Facebook campaign of hate and lies is stopping my genuine customers from receiving their dresses.

'It's not that we set out to deliberately mislead people, that's not it. When I said our dresses were all our own designs that was true.

'The only thing I could have done differently was be explicitly clear about the origins of the dresses, but so many shops outsource their materials and labour from China.

'It's not uncommon and I never hid it. I left the made in China labels in. And yes there is a mark up. As a company we pay around 200 for each dress and sell them to the customer from 700 to 1000.

'That's how a business operates. That's how I paid my rent, taxes, import fees and overheads but that markup does not take away from the quality of the product offered.'

One bride, Nichola Pakau, 34, pictured with her husband-to-be Andrew Hutchins, said it had been an 'awful experience', adding: 'It has affected my home life and work life'

But an investigation by Newport Trading Standards ended with Bishop and her mother being charged with fraud.

The court heard they accepted claiming they had designed and made the dresses themselves.

The pair pleaded guilty to failing to inform customers the wedding dresses were actually made in China, falsely stating they would be made in their local workshop.

The Bishops, of Oakdale, Caerphilly, admitted their behaviour was likely to distort the behaviour of the average consumer. Another 20 charges will lie on file.

Melanie Bishop, who has avoided jail, is pictured with one of her wedding gowns from China

This sign was posted on the bridal boutique shop in Newport at the time of the closure

They were sentenced to six months imprisonment each, suspended for a year and three months.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins said: 'The dresses in some cases would not fit, they deviated in colour and they were not hand made, one off, or bespoke as was advertised.

'Many brides were left with no choice other than to accept the dresses of inferior quality.'

A Proceeds of Crime Act will not be pursued against either mother or daughter.Former youth prison worker Anthony Dance claimed the BBC has ruined his life after he was involved in a trial sparked by the network

Staff at a youth prison who were secretly filmed by the BBC's Panorama programme allegedly assaulting and threatening inmates have been cleared of misconduct.

The four men, employed by private security firm G4S at Medway Secure Training Centre in Rochester, Kent, were said to have been captured behaving violently and abusive to the 'trainees' during an undercover investigation in late 2015.

Since the half-hour programme, entitled Teenage Prison Abuse Exposed, was aired more than two years ago, there has been a lengthy police investigation, several arrests, three trials and a BAFTA award for current affairs.

But after a 43-day trial, officers Anthony Dance, Matthew Cunningham, Gareth Evans and Christopher Lomax were all cleared of misconduct in a public office on March 9.

However, due to reporting restrictions imposed at the end of the trial, the acquittals can only now be revealed.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Dance, 27, who was employed as a team leader, told how the BBC programme had 'destroyed' his life.

Mr Dance said he has been subjected to death threats and abuse, resorted to anti-depressants to cope mentally and had suicidal thoughts during the trial.

The father said he was even told by social services that if he was convicted he may not be able to see his child.

Mr Dance was one of four men, employed by private security firm G4S at Medway Secure Training Centre in Rochester, Kent, (pictured) who were said to have been captured behaving violently and abusive to the 'trainees' during an undercover investigation in late 2015

He said: 'My reaction is one of relief but this destroyed me. I didn't come out of the house for a year, received death threats and was branded a paedophile because I'm gay.

'We were sacked the day after the programme. I was told over the phone and there was no investigation by the centre, nothing.

'The BBC has ruined my career. I was due for promotion to a duty operations manager when all this happened. They have literally shot my career to pieces.

'I loved my job. It wasn't easy and it was long hours, but it was a good job.

'After I was sacked I went into the job centre and someone said ''I saw you on TV last night.'' I just walked out.'

Matthew Cunningham also criticised the BBC, claiming he is 'on the verge of bankruptcy' after being sacked when allegations of abuse came out.

Married father Mr Cunningham, 37, said: 'The show was broadcast and the next day I was fired without any notice, and arrested the day after that.

'I've not been able to get a job, I'm on the verge of bankruptcy. I've had depression and anxiety since.

'I liked my job, I had been there eight years and I did nothing wrong.'

He accused the BBC of 'shocking editing' and claimed the programme lacked facts or context.

He said he is considering legal action and accused G4S of treating him unfairly but wants to move on with his life.

The jury of seven men and five women couldn't reach a verdict on one charge of misconduct against fellow team leader Matthew Cunningham (pictured), and the 37-year-old from Gillingham, Kent, was also formally cleared by the judge

A BBC spokeswoman responded:

'There is a serious case review underway, prompted by our investigation, looking at the lessons to be learned. That would not have happened without BBC Panorama's investigation and our undercover reporter's work and we remain committed to investigative journalism'.

Mr Dance said he has had to rely financially on his husband but is now hoping to work in the care profession.

He added: 'The mental side of it hasn't been easy. I have been branded this absolute monster and bully, and I have had to move.

'No one knows the full story and the biggest thing that frustrates me is that I know I'm not going to get an apology from anyone.'

The other men involved in the trial included, Mr Evans, 27, from Rochester, Kent, who was employed as a team leader. He was found not guilty by the jury of misconduct in relation to assaulting and threatening two inmates.

Mr Lomax, 36, from Gillingham, Kent, was a duty operations manager at the centre. He was also cleared of two charges relating to alleged assaults and threats made against one trainee.

Christopher Lomax (pictured), 36, from Gillingham, Kent, was a duty operations manager at the centre. He was cleared of two charges relating to alleged assaults and threats made against one trainee

The jury of seven men and five women couldn't reach a verdict on one charge of misconduct against fellow team leader Mr Cunningham, and the 37-year-old from Gillingham, Kent, was also formally cleared by the judge.

Prosecutor Edward Franklin told the court the Crown had 'carefully considered' whether to seek a retrial in respect of Mr Dance and Mr Cunningham but 'on reflection declines to do so'.

The trial was sparked by undercover freelance journalist Robert Padmore, who wore a covert camera at chest height, during his 'employment' at the centre as a secure care officer between October 3 and December 30, 2015.

A court heard Mr Padmore was straight out of film school, on his first assignment and later had to be served with a witness summons to attend the legal proceedings against officers.

The alleged violence he filmed included the use of headlocks, kicks, abusive language, as well as threats to 'annihilate, suppress or smash' trainees aged between 14 and 17.

Padmore's footage, which aired in January 2016, was edited down from 150 hours of tape from 39 shifts into just 30 minutes.

All four men were sacked as a result of the programme.

During the men's trial it was revealed a witness summons was issued by the court in relation to the undercover reporter after it was claimed he 'failed to engage' with police during their subsequent investigation.

The other men involved in the trial included, Gareth Evans, 27, (pictured) from Rochester, Kent, who was employed as a team leader. He was found not guilty by the jury of misconduct in relation to assaulting and threatening two inmates

Mr Padmore left the country and was arrested on his return from Australia in December of 2017 because of 'concern' he would not attend court, the jury heard.

They were also told he had no journalistic experience other than completing a film course at the City of Islington College in London, and no experience of working with youths, offenders, or even in an undercover capacity.

Panorama was in fact his first-ever assignment as a freelance journalist. He did not record continuously and could stop and start his camera at will.

He agreed during cross-examination by Mr Dance's barrister Emma Goodallthat filming was 'partial and selective', with further editing and 'piecing together' for the programme.

Mr Padmore also told the court that violence between inmates and attacks on both male and female staff occurred constantly on a day to day basis.

He himself was assaulted on 10 occasions during his employment and required hospital treatment.

Mr Padmore, who has been left suffering from anxiety, also said there was a general lack of managers, management and support in the unit.

At least 10 members of staff at the centre were charged in relation to the award-winning programme or subsequent police investigation.

One was cleared by magistrates, one was found not guilty by a jury at Maidstone Crown Court last year while two others had the charges against them dropped.

Only one staff member has been successfully convicted so far after he pleaded guilty to misconduct by taking selfies while on duty and sending to his girlfriend.

He also lost his job and was ordered by magistrates to carry out unpaid work.

The tenth staff member, who did not feature in the programme, awaits trial later this year for an unrelated matter of misconduct.

The Panorama footage was played in court alongside CCTV recordings from cameras within the youth jail itself, which houses up to 70 boys and girls aged between 12 and 17 who are in custody awaiting trial or been convicted.

The court was told some were considered the most dangerous and challenging within the criminal justice system.

Those allegedly physically and verbally abused by the four men gave evidence evidence during the trial.

It was alleged they were left crying out in pain, having difficulty breathing or even sobbing.

At the start of the trial in January, prosecutor Jennifer Knight said the incidents were not simply 'a lapse or isolated' breach of duty, and trainees were bullied, goaded and assaulted 'casually and frequently'.

One piece of covert footage showed Mr Dance repeatedly swearing at the trainee who had trashed his cell with shower gel and was refusing to clean it up.

The team leader told the teenager: 'If you behave like a c**t, you'll get treated like a c**t. Watch what I f***ing do to you, damage anything, watch what happens to you, I will f***ing annihilate you.'

But following their arrests in January 2016, three of the officers dismissed the allegations as 'messing around, banter, or lies'.

They added that any restraints used were appropriate and approved techniques.

Wearing a covert camera at chest height, freelance journalist Robert Padmore (pictured) recorded incidents of alleged physical and verbal abuse during his'employment' at the centre as a secure care officer between October 3 and December 30, 2015

Mr Padmore also agreed with Miss Goodall that staff used their smoking breaks to 'decompress and mouth off' about inmates to colleagues.

Some of the trainees themselves could not recall the alleged incidents when interviewed by police following the programme.

One even said any slap to his head would have been done as 'a laugh and a joke'.

G4S held the contract to run Medway Secure Training Centre from its opening in 1998 and until July 2016 when it was taken over by HM Prison and Probation Service.

Having been told there would not be a retrial, Judge Carey said it was a decision for the Crown Prosecution Service and not the court.

But he added police were required to investigate after the programme was aired, and subsequently gathered 'a body of evidence' which 'amply justified' proceedings against the four defendants.

Judge Carey also remarked on the fact the 30-minute programme was not itself shown in court, and played only a 'very limited' part in the trial.

He said: 'It is important to emphasise therefore, particularly for those having seen the programme and having any recollection of its content, that the trial evidence bore no relation necessarily to the programme that was aired.

'This trial was a quite separate consideration of vast quantities of evidence which was never the subject of the footage in the Panorama programme.

'The scrutinising of evidence and first-hand evidence of that given by young offenders to the jury formed the principal part of the prosecution case, not the short clips that may have been shown as part of the programme.'

Having praised both the legal profession and police for their handling of the case, Judge Carey concluded: 'Finally, I put on record the opinion that this case was thoroughly investigated and to the highest standards by those required to investigate it.

'To put it mildly, it was a very difficult and sensitive case from a number of points of view I need hardly make reference to.'Romanian David Lupu, 29, lured fellow nationals into the country with the promise of demolition work for 50 a day and free accommodation

A migrant offered his countrymen the dream of a better life in Britain before he enslaved them with brutal threats of violence.

Romanian David Lupu, 29, lured fellow nationals into the country with the promise of demolition work for 50 a day and free accommodation.

But he paid them only a fraction of the wages and confiscated their ID papers before cramming up to 14 people into a filthy one bedroom flat in Leyton, East London.

At one stage the workers revolted after discovering Lupu's comparatively lavish lifestyle, but he punched one and threatened to beat them to death if they insisted on being paid more.

The workers slept wherever they could in the kitchen, bedroom, hallway and storage cupboard on mattresses they found in the street.

He ordered they were only allowed out the house two at a time and were warned they could be arrested by police if they were discovered.

The men were also told they owed Lupu hundreds of pounds in rent and other exaggerated costs and forced to work long hours in the demolition industry to repay the money.

All the while Lupu enjoyed spacious conditions in an upstairs flat and ate good food, but bought low quality food for his workmen, who were left gaunt and dishevelled, Inner London Crown Court heard.

He paid them only a fraction of the wages and confiscated their ID papers before cramming up to 14 people into a filthy one bedroom flat (pictured) in Leyton, East London

The workers slept wherever they could in the kitchen, bedroom, hallway and storage cupboard on mattresses they found in the street

He was paid sizeable fees for building work and made profits and eventually relented to pressure and began giving each of the workers 50.

Eventually two of the men sought help while Lupu was briefly out of the country, but when he returned he threatened to break the legs of others and attack their families in Romania to try and keep them under control.

Following a trial he was convicted of holding a person in slavery or servitude.

David Davies, of the London CPS Complex Casework Unit, said: 'After promising these men the chance to earn a wage they could never earn in Romania, David Lupu exploited them and treated them like slaves out of sheer greed.

'Although these victims were not physically restrained, once Lupu had taken their IDs away, they were controlled and intimidated with violence, threats and the false hope they would eventually be paid.'

Lupu was jailed for seven years at Inner London Crown Court last Friday.

Detective Constable Marie Marshall, of the Met's Modern Slavery and Kidnap Unit, said: 'The victims in this case were promised work and a future in London.

'The reality was very different and they were exploited by the Lupu who arranged work with no intention of payment, saddling the victims in debt.

The one bedroom flat in Leyton where David Lupu, who has been jailed, forced seven men like slaves after they were recruited to work in London from Romania

'The victims were forced to live in cramped conditions and their movements were controlled by Lupu.

'When interviewed by officers, the men said they felt like they were treated like animals.

'The Metropolitan Police Service will continue to protect victims of labour exploitation and seek to dismantle criminal groups intent on bringing misery to people's lives.

'We will continue to work with Europol and our international law enforcement partners to tackle Modern Slavery in London.'Edward Gabbai, 30, who has a doctorate from Cambridge University, allegedly carried out sex attacks on three women after telling one he was 'into rape fantasies'

A Cambridge graduate accused of raping three women told how one of the alleged victims held his hand on her neck and said: I like that.

Edward Gabbai, 30, who has a doctorate from Cambridge University, allegedly carried out sex attacks on three women after telling one he was into rape fantasies

Gabbai is accused of raping a 17-year-old escort, a young Swedish woman and a 23-year-old stranger he offered to share a cab with.

The third alleged victim met the entrepreneur on a night out in December 2016 and shared an Uber taxi home with him after her phone battery ran out.

She said he slapped her across both cheeks as soon as they reached the bedroom of a house he was staying at in Battersea, south London.

The woman said she was shown around the downstairs of a house in Battersea that Gabbai was cat-sitting before he told her: You have to let me do whatever I want to you.'

She also claimed he grabbed her by the hair and hauled her upstairs to the bedroom.

Giving evidence, Gabbai said the woman had approached him as he walked along after a night out.

He said: A young girl came up to me and I think asked me for a cigarette and we got to speaking. She was alone.

I think she asked if I had been in The Lexington. And I told her I was there and I told her what I had been there for, I was out with mates for a birthday party. She was quite smiley and interested in chatting.

I felt she was interested in me a little and I suggested did she want to come back to mine. I did feel like there was a certain type of eye contact at that moment.

It was a thing to say. Its quite a statement inviting someone back to your place and you only just met them.

There was no other possible interpretation of what I was saying at all.

The third alleged victim told jurors at Kingston Crown Court the businessman said he would 'make it worse for her' if she didn't do what he said

Gabbai said he agreed the womans friend could also crash on the sofa and he ordered an Uber to come and collect them.

We asked if we could get four in the back, obviously the Uber driver said no. The friend was saying she could come back to hers and [the alleged victim] was saying she wanted to go in the Uber.

I distinctly remember not making any effort to encourage her to come back. I just thought if she wants to come then she will come. And to be honest I didnt think she would, I thought she was end up going back with her friend.

[The friend] said she lived around the corner. I think [the woman] was saying that she was fine and she wants to come with me.

Gabbai said they started kissing in the kitchen shortly after they arrived. He claims after asking her if she wanted to go into the bedroom, she followed him up the stairs willingly.

We got undressed. It wasnt one or the other, it was both of us, he said.

We eventually became fully undressed. At some point we were kissing and I had my hand down running over her body and I had it towards her neck and then moved it away and then asked her if that was OK and she took my hand and she put it back on her neck and she pressed it down and said "I like that".

And I didnt push down I kind of held her down. I didnt do it like she wanted me to do it. I just had my hand on her neck.

And she took my hand and sort of pushed it again, this was 10 seconds later. She was sort of saying "not like that, like this with force".

The woman had told police she thought Gabbai would suffocate her and was hysterical with crying as she tried to push him away from her.

She claims Gabbai continued to hold her down, telling her if you cry out or try to get away Ill make it worse for you.

He allegedly raped her three times as she screamed out, the court has heard.

But Gabbai denies the claims and says he asked her if she wanted to engage in submissive-dominance sex because of the way she placed his hand on her neck.

The woman had told police she thought Gabbai (pictured leaving court) would suffocate her and was hysterical with crying as she tried to push him away from her

There was a bit of role play language, when she said yeah I said "OK so if I ask you to suck my fingers then you suck" or something. Thats to the best of my recollection.

I thought she was into it and she was turned on by it.

He said he instructed the woman to say please before performing sex acts and that he at one point during sex he had slapped her softly on the side of her face and bit her shoulder.

I was pulling her hair, I bit her body on the shoulder. And there was one time where she had her face to the side and I slapped it but very softly, not like in the video.

Jurors have seen a video recording from Gabbais phone which is said to show him telling the alleged victim to look up at him with her eyes closed, before he slaps her and she shouts stop stop stop.

Gabbai admitted: That [slap] was really hard.

Sarah Forshaw QC defending, said: This was a woman you hadnt known very long. Why did you think that this was appropriate with somebody you hadnt known for very long?

Gabbai replied: I think I have been asking myself that as well. I think that thats a mistake, because I didnt know her. I really didnt know her at all.

The businessman said he got the impression the alleged victim was adventurous and promiscuous when she accepted his invitation to come home with him.

She was very keen to come back to mine and after getting together downstairs to come upstairs to bed.

She was clearly adventurous on some level because its not that typical to go back to someone who you have just met, and it didnt strike me as unusual that she was asking me to do that and she was happy to do that.

Looking back I didnt think what risk that was because I didnt know her.

She was quite confident. I did get the impression to go back in this way on a night out this seemed like something she was used to doing.

'Some people are promiscuous, some people are not and Im fairly promiscuous and I didnt think that she wasnt.

Gabbai completed his PhD in microbiology and nanoscience at Cambridge University in 2014.

The young entrepreneur founded the prestigious annual World Boutique Hotel Awards - a glittering event celebrating boutique hotels from across the globe.

Gabbai, from Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, denies five counts of rape.

The trial continues.Pilots on two separate aircraft reported a UFO flying through the Arizona airspace last month - about 500 miles from the 1947 UFO 'crash' in Roswell, New Mexico.

New audio confirms that the pilots both independently reported seeing an object flying at around 40,000 feet. War Zone obtained a recording from the FAA of the calls reporting the bizarre encounters.

Those two planes were each flying east at about 37,000 feet between the Sonoran Desert National Monument and the Arizona-New Mexico Border between 3.30pm and 4.15pm local time on February 24.

The first report came in from the pilot of a Learjet, who called the Albuquerque Center air traffic control while flying over the southeastern Arizona desert to report the unidentifiable object.

'I don't know what it was. It wasn't an airplane, but it was, the path was going the opposite direction,' the pilot told the center.

New audio confirms that the pilots both independently reported seeing an object flying at around 40,000 feet. War Zone obtained a recording from the FAA of the calls into the Albuquerque Center air traffic control (pictured) reporting the bizarre encounters

The air traffic controllers then called to the American Airlines pilot and asked him to let them know if anything passed overhead of the craft.

'If anything passes over us?' the pilot can be heard asking the controllers.

A few minutes later he called in to let them know he'd seen the object.

'Something just passed over us, like a, don't know what it was, but at least two, three thousand feet above us,' he can be heard saying.

'Yeah it passed right over the top of us.'

He said he couldn't quite make out what the object was but said it had a 'big reflection.'

The air traffic controller asked if it could be a Google balloon, to which the pilot responded it was 'doubtful.'

Another person can then be heard saying 'UFO' in a matter-of-fact manner.

The first report came in from the pilot of a Learjet, who called the Albuquerque Center air traffic control while flying over the southeastern Arizona desert to report the unidentifiable object. The object was reportedly about 100 miles from the Luke Air Force Base (pictured)

The air traffic controllers then called to the American Airlines pilot and asked him to let them know if anything passed overhead of the craft, and a few minutes later he said he saw the object and described it as having a 'big reflection'. It was reportedly seen near the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (pictured)

It's still not clear exactly what the two pilots saw floating in the air last month- and the FAA told NBC it has no comment.

'Other than a brief conversation between the two aircraft, the controller was unable to verify that any other aircraft was in the area,' spokesperson Lynn Lunsford told the station.

The sightings happened between the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and the Luke Air Force Base - but Lunsford said they would know if there was a military aircraft flying in the area at the time.

'We have a close working relationship with a number of other agencies and safely handle military aircraft and civilian aircraft of all types in the area every day, including high-altitude weather balloons,' she said.The Chicago White Sox have welcomed back a former groundskeeper who spent 23 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

The Chicago Tribune reported that DNA evidence led prosecutors last year to vacate the conviction of 49-year-old Nevest Coleman.

He'd been convicted in a 1994 rape and murder of Antwinica Bridgeman. The woman celebrated her 20th birthday at a gathering of friends, including Coleman.

The Chicago White Sox have welcomed back former groundskeeper, Nevest Coleman, who spent 23 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit

She disappeared that night and was discovered weeks later in Coleman's basement.

Both the then-25-year-old Coleman and 27-year-old Darryl Fulton confessed to the crime. The two later said their confessions were coerced.

After a fresh round of DNA testing the semen stains on Bridgeman's clothing matched a serial rapist. The rapist has not been publicly identified.

The Chicago Tribune reported that DNA evidence led prosecutors last year to vacate the conviction of 49-year-old Nevest Coleman

Coleman was released from prison in November 2017 and a Cook County judge granted him a certificate of innocence.

Coleman's friends and family reached out to the White Sox after his release.

He was was excited to see during his interview last week that Jerry Powe, a former co-worker, was still working for the Sox.

Not only that but Powe and others with the club had followed the progress of his case.

Coleman, center, laughs with friend and fellow grounds crew Harry Smith Jr., left, and friend and now supervisor Jerry Powe, at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago on Monday

Coleman, center, helps Harry Smith Jr., left, and Jerry Powe with the tarp at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago on Monday

'He was like "Man, we missed you,"' Coleman said. Although he got his job back, Coleman admitted it wasn't an easy process.

'He laid down the rules. There wasnt no favoritism because he knew me,' Coleman said.

He said he was told to report for his first day of work last Thursday and he has already marked the first home game, April 5, on his calendar.

The team says they're grateful 'justice has been carried out' and thrilled to welcome Coleman 'back to the White Sox family.'An Australian senator claims white South African farmers are suffering a 'state-sponsored genocide' at the hands of their black countrymen.

Independent senator Fraser Anning urged the Australian government to grant farmers refugee status in a speech to a rally in Brisbane on Sunday.

'This is the start of a genocide as far as I'm concerned, and it's only going to get worse because the genocide has just started,' he said.

Scroll down for video

Independent senator Fraser Anning claims white South African farmers are suffering a 'state-sponsored genocide' at the hands of their black countrymen

The Queensland MP called the black thugs pillaging and stealing farms 'subhuman' as police statistics showed 638 attacks on farms and 74 murders in 2016-17.

'Anyone who would boil a child in a bath, rape his mother and slaughter people the way they are slaughtering them now are subhuman,' he said.

Senator Anning claimed the farms would fail when taken over by black people, plunging South Africa into famine.

'These people, when they do take over the farms, as we've seen in [Zimbabwe], the farms will run into ruin,' he said.

Independent senator Fraser Anning urged the Australian government to grant farmers refugee status in a speech to a rally in Brisbane (pictured) on Sunday

Another MP who spoke, LNP Queensland MP Andrew Laming, referenced a photo claimed to be of an 87-year-old farmer who was bashed with an iron bar and his wife raped

'Within a few more years they'll be asking, demanding our support, and you can be sure that the United Nations will be demanding that we support these people with foreign aid.

'[Foreign Minister] Julie Bishop will throw your money around like a drunken sailor.'

Senator Anning, who grew up on a cattle farm, said Australia should prioritise bringing white South African farms in over other refugees.

'They integrate, they are industrious, they're hardworking, they have the same Christian values as us,' he said.

'As opposed to some of the other people we've been bringing into the country, who do not integrate, who are a burden on our welfare system, and intent on tearing our country apart.'

Pictures posted to the Stop Farm Attacks & Murders in South Africa Facebook page show the horrific injuries inflicted on farmers

Another image posted on the Stop Farm Attacks & Murders in South Africa Facebook page shows this man's horrific injuries

Piet Els and his partner Rikkie Alsemgeest were the alleged victims of a brutal attack which saw four black men storm their farm

In an interview with conservative video blogger Ben Shand after his speech, Senator Anning compared 'racial' attacks on white farmers to the Holocaust and Joseph Stalin's Soviet regime.

He also claimed South African politicians, who criticised Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's refugee proposal, were complicit in the attacks.

'This is the start of a state-supported genocide,' he said.

'They are being persecuted by black Africans who've never really done anything with their lives except want these farms that have been built up over generations.'

Senator Anning was likely referencing statements by Economic Freedom Fighters party leader Julius Malema in support of the country's new plan to confiscate white-owned farms and give them to blacks.

'We are starting with this whiteness. We are cutting the throat of whiteness,' Mr Malema said.

Australia's Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton last week announced controversial plans to fast-track white South African farmers through Australia's refugee program

EFF leader Julius Malema said two weeks ago: 'We are starting with this whiteness. We are cutting the throat of whiteness'

He later said anyone who immigrated to South Africa from Australia must 'leave quietly' and added: 'Don't make a noise because you will irritate us.'

LNP Queensland MP Andrew Laming also spoke at the rally in support of Mr Dutton's proposal, saying the attacks were telling white farmers to 'get out of our country'.

'[Mr Dutton] could have ignored [farmers] completely, and hid behind PC departments, who continue to say the murder rate here is no different from the murder rate down the road,' he said.

Mr Laming said he became aware of the issue through a photo claimed to be of an 87-year-old farmer who was bashed with an iron bar and his wife raped.

He reposted the image to his official Facebook page, where it racked up 27,000 shares in two weeks.

More than 1,000 people marched at the rally in Brisbane's CBD on Sunday

More than 1,000 people marched at the rally in Brisbane's CBD on Sunday, waving placards reading 'save the farmers in South Africa' and 'Australia is against reverse apartheid', along with crosses mourning murdered farmers.

Mr Dutton directed his department to explore whether the farmers could be accepted into Australia through refugee, humanitarian or other visas.

He said they needed help for a 'civilised' country like Australia, in comments the South African government called 'sad' and 'regrettable'.

'We regret that the Australian government chose not to use the available diplomatic channels available for them to raise concerns or to seek clarification,' it said.

Ms Bishop said last week there were no plans to 'fast-track' white farmers into Australia as refugees or otherwise.

The number of white farmers murdered or attacked in South Africa is hotly contested due to a lack of hard data.

Protesters held crosses mourning dozens of murdered farmers from the past few years

Local rights group Afriforum claimed 156 commercial farmers were killed per 100,000 of the population, though others said it could be as low as 0.4

Protesters waved placards reading 'save the farmers in South Africa' and 'Australia is against reverse apartheid'

Local rights group Afriforum claimed 156 commercial farmers were killed per 100,000 of the population, though others said it could be as low as 0.4.

Some of the killings were reported to have been barbaric, with farm owners tortured, raped, burned alive, and slaughtered in front of their families.

Farm attack victims are usually restrained with shoe laces, telephone wires or electric cables, according to a previous AfriForum report.

Some have had their nails pulled out, had boiling water poured over their bodies and been beaten to death with makeshift weapons.

'Some of the murders have been accompanied by gratuitous violence and torture that can only be explained as racial hatred,' Australian National University international law expert Associate Professor Jolyon Ford told SBS.Ghosthunters claim that they have spotted a soldier from the 1600s walking near headstones and haunting a cemetry.

The ghostly figure was spotted by Louisa Farell as she took part in a ghost walk at St James Cemetery in Liverpool.

It appears to be wearing armour and the uniform of a soldier from the 17th century.

Ghostwalkers claim that the figure above is the ghost of a 17th century soldier which was spotted in a cemetery in Liverpool

Ghosthunters have long claimed that the cemetery is haunted and the photos, which were taken on March 7, appear to back up the claim.

The eerie photo shows a white figure which looks to be dressed in a three quarter length suit of armour with its legs covered.

This, reports the Liverpool Echo, was the armour used in the Civil War era in the 1600s.

It would provide protection for the chest, arms and elbows of troops.

The ghost's face can be seen and the soldier also seems to be wearing a helmet.

Keith Braithwaite, who has been hosting ghost walks at the cemetery since 2002, described the soldier as wearing battle dress.

The ghost hunter also described the cemetery as one of the most haunted in the region.

The eerie photos, taken at St James Cemetery in Liverpool, appear to show a soldier dressed in armour from the 1600s

Ms Farell told the Liverpool Echo that it was her first ghost walk at the cemetery.

She said: 'I was really excited to have seen something show up and the first thing I saw was a face on the right hand side.

'But then I noticed the figure on the left which I thought looked like some sort of priest.'

Mr Braithwaite believes that the ghost is a soldier from when Prince Rupert came to Liverpool.

During the Civil War siege of Liverpool in 1644, Prince Rupert of Germany and 10,000 came to they city.

They erected a lock-up that remains to this day.

Mr Braithwaite told the Liverpool Echo: 'I have done walks since 2002 and I do one in St James once a month.

'It is a very active place and we always get a result but at the same time the people I take around have respect for the dead.'Anderson Cooper's interview with the porn star Stormy Daniels has given 60 Minutes its best ratings in a decade.

On Sunday, the news magazine aired its much anticipated interview with Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford), in which she details her alleged affair with President Trump.

Daniels also speaks about how she was threatened and bribed not to speak out about the one time they had sex in 2006.

Anderson Cooper's (right) interview with the porn star Stormy Daniels (left) has given 60 Minutes its best ratings in a decade.

Early estimates show that more than 20 million people tuned into Cooper's interview with Daniels, which was recorded earlier this month

Preliminary ratings information provided by Nielson Media Research shows more than 20 million people tuned into the interview.

The episode garnered a 16.3/27 rating, its best since Steve Kroft interview Barack and Michelle Obama shortly after the 2008 presidential election. That interview scored a rating of 17.4/26 and more than 23 million viewers. (For comparison, 16.4 million tuned in for President Trump's post-election interview in November 2016.)

It also scored high in the 18-49 demographic, with a 4.7 score.

Final ratings will be in later today, giving a better understanding of the total viewers.

It's likely that the ratings could be adjusted down a bit, since there was a strong lead-in from the NCAA game between Kansas and Duke that went into overtime and caused 60 Minutes to be delayed more than half an hour.

However, the current ratings more about double the audience that usually tunes into 60 Minutes. For example, last week's interview scored just a 7.6/13 rating.

Sunday's interview, which was recorded earlier this month, is the first time that Daniels has spoken on air about her affair with Trump.

She says she had sex with the mogul one time in 2006, shortly after the birth of his son Barron, and that she stayed in contact with him as he continued to promise to put her on The Apprentice.

When she was working with InTouch magazine to tell her story in 2011, she says she was threatened by a man in a Las Vegas parking lot who came up to her and told her to 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story'.

She also says that before the 2016 election, Trump's lawyer gave her $130,000 as part of a non-disclosure agreement not to talk about her affair, creating questions about whether Trump misused campaign funds. Daniels' attorney says the agreement is not legal because Trump never signed the document.A 15 year-old public schoolboy who stabbed his best friend in the chest during a bad trip on LSD at his parents 1.8million home was spared jail today.

The gifted teenager, who cannot be named, plunged a seven-inch kitchen knife into the chest of the victim - missing the heart by less than half an inch - because he believed the boy was the Devil.

By chance the blade did not cause lasting injuries despite puncturing the lung and his friend, also 15, has made a full recovery after spending only one day in hospital.

The schoolboy had gone off the rails despite his privileged background and had been taking a cocktail of cannabis, cocaine and ketamine in the year leading up to the attack, the Old Bailey heard.

The schoolboy had gone off the rails despite his privileged background and had been taking cannabis, cocaine and ketamine in the year leading up to the attack, the Old Bailey heard

He was originally charged with attempted murder but the prosecution accepted a plea to the lesser charge of unlawful wounding on the grounds he did not realise what he was doing at the time.

Judge Richard Marks QC told the boy: This case is a vivid reminder and demonstration if ever one were needed of how extremely dangerous drugs can be for the simple reason that you have no idea what you are taking nor how the drugs may affect you.

The teenager sat in the witness box as he was sentenced to a 12 month youth rehabilitation order with three months on an electronically tagged curfew between 8pm and 7am.

Judge Marks said: I want to make it clear to you that the background you have come from is not a mitigating factor but rather an aggravating feature in your case.

With all the advantages you have had in life you should have had more sense and self control than getting involved in class A drugs and understanding where that might lead.

That said I do regard this as a wholly exceptional case and I am prepared to deal with you by imposing a youth rehabilitation order.

You owe a great deal of gratitude to many people who have come together to assist you, not least your parents for whom this must have been a terrible ordeal.

The boy, who cannot be identified because of his age, was a pupil in year 10 at a public and lived with his parents and sister in a leafy suburb in south London.

Neither his mother nor his father knew he had been taking drugs for the past year although there were tensions at home and his schoolwork had deteriorated, the court heard.

Judge Richard Marks QC (pictured) told the boy the case was 'a vivid reminder and demonstration how extremely dangerous drugs can be'

On 16 December last year, a few days after school broke up for the Christmas holidays, he spent the day with his friend by visiting an art gallery in Sloane Square.

The pair then travelled to Ravenscourt Park to buy drugs from their regular dealer, met some friends and then returned to the schoolboys home for the night at around midnight.

While his sister and parents were in bed, the boys watched a movie before taking the LSD.

His friend later told police the boy reacted badly to the acid and was looking around as if in another world.

The boy appeared confused, began talking to himself and asked How can I kill myself before trying to leave the house.

His friend took the boy back to the kitchen before being suddenly pushed to the floor and stabbed.

Prosecutor Anita Arora said: He took a kitchen knife and plunged it into his friends chest with full force.

The blade penetrated one centimetre from his heart and his lung could be seen clearly through the open wound.

His friend later told police it was all surreal and he could not feel his wound and did not believe he had been stabbed.

The friend also described the boy as out of it and claimed that they had not argued and the stabbing was not done maliciously.

At around 3.30am the boys father was woken by the sound of a bang followed by shouting and went downstairs to find the victim wrapped in a bloodstained sheet.

They called the emergency services and roused a surgeon living nearby to try and help.

The victim told the surgeon that they had both taken acid and that the boy had a bad trip.

Police officers who attended the scene described the attacker as gurning his lips and appearing not to understand what was happening.

The boy was heard to ask: When will this end and When do memories start.

He did not answer questions in police interview but gave a statement admitting he had taken acid.

At first I was find but then I started getting scared. I remember picking up a knife. I do not remember stabbing [my friend]. I remember my parents coming and seeing him covered in blood.

Although I cant remember stabbing him I accept I must have done. I feel really awful about the whole thing. He is my best friend, I would never want to hurt him.

Tests on a blood sample taken at 4pm on 18 December revealed only the presence of cocaine as the LSD may have been eliminated from the system since over the 12 hours since the attack.

The victim had suffered a single knife wound which had caused a collapsed left lung, bleeding in the chest cavity and a fracture to the third rib and was discharged from hospital the following day.

Crispin Aylett, QC, representing the attacker, said the youth had spent four weeks locked up at a secure training facility after the stabbing and had been wearing an electronic tag since.

The boy was originally charged with attempted murder but the prosecution accepted a plea to the lesser charge of unlawful wounding on the grounds he did not realise what he was doing at the time. Pictured: The Old Bailey in London

Instead of spending Christmas with his family and friends he found himself locked up and far from home. If he has not learnt from that then he wouldnt learn from anything.

Nobody underestimates the seriousness of this incident which could have had catastrophic consequences, said Mr Aylett.

It could have been very much worse and it is fortunate that the victim appears to have made a complete recovery, albeit that is perhaps a matter of chance.

Mr Aylett said the boy had been going off the rails for some time and said: He had been experimenting with drugs and there had been tensions with his parents. There was undoubtedly a lack of interest and effort at school.

The court heard the boy has been receiving tutoring at home since the attack and will attend a college over the summer before possibly returning to school for Year 11 and his GCSEs.

Judge Marks said: It appears that you were having what is sometimes called a bad trip almost certainly as a result of the effects of the LSD.

You were clearly confused and appeared to be in a world of your own.

Evidently believing at the time that your friend was the devil you pinned him down on the floor, sat astride his chest and stabbed him once in the chest with full force.

By dint of good fortune the knife missed his heart by one centimetre.

You could have easily found yourself in this court facing a murder charge for which had you been convicted there would have been a sentence of life imprisonment.

It is apparent that you are gifted both academically and in sport and in your previous year had been doing extremely well.

In Year 10 you started to go rapidly downhill. Your relationship with your parents deteriorated badly and there can be no doubt that all of this must be in large measure down to the fact that you have been involved in regular taking of drugs.

The judge said the guidelines for sentencing young people suggested that prison should only be used a last resort.

If you had been an adult an immediate custodial sentence would have been inevitable,' he said.

I accept your behaviour that night was out of character and it is most unlikely you will re-offend.

The 15 year-old boy, from south London, hugged his mother and smiled before walking out of court.

He pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding at an earlier hearing.Autism now affects one in 68 children and is one of the fastest-growing disorders in the United States, costing a family $60,000 (42,000) a year.

World Autism Awareness Week, another annual event like International Day of Happiness that has been adopted by the United Nations, aims to bring attention to this global health crisis.

The National Autistic Society encourages people to take part in World Autism Awareness Week

While Autism Awareness Day has been marked for many years, the resolution that was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007 meant that the week in the lead up to the day is also considered a time to spread awareness about the disability.

In 2018, the National Autistic Society has also released a video as part of the Too Much Information campaign called Diverted, that portrays the struggle an autistic person endures when travelling on public transport.

Staff on the transport network are trained to help people with hidden disabilities. Find out how you can support https://t.co/uAvscb5Vl1 #WAAW @Autism pic.twitter.com/Zh0cfmWwWV  Dept for Transport (@transportgovuk) March 26, 2018

In addition to many autism-friendly events taking place, iconic landmarks and buildings around the world will be lit up in blue light, but when is World Autism Awareness Week 2018?

What is autism?

According to the NHS, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a name that covers a range of similar disorders that affect a persons interaction, communication and behaviour. Asperger syndrome is included in this range.

Symptoms start to be presented before the age of three, even though diagnosis can be made after this time. An estimated 1 in 100 people in the UK has ASD and while there is no cure, support can be provided in the form of speech and language therapy and educational support.

Those with ASD may also experience cognitive, learning, emotional and behavioural problems and could have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety or depression. 70 percent of children with ASD have a non-verbal IQ below 70, but of this percentage, half have below 50.

While the cause of ASD is unknown, people in the past believed that the MMR vaccine was to blame and this was extensively researched around the world, but no evidence of a link was found.

Autism signs and symptoms

As revealed by the CDC, or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people with autism have trouble with social, emotional and communication skills and these signs usually develop in early childhood, but last throughout a persons life. Signs of autism include:

Reactions to smell, taste, look, feel or sound are unusual

Difficulty adapting to changes in routine

Unable to repeat or echo what is said to them

Difficulty expressing desires using words or motions

Unable to discuss their own feelings or other peoples

Difficulty with acts of affection like hugging

Prefer to be alone and avoid eye contact

Difficulty relating to other people

Unable to point at objects or look at objects when others point to them

What is World Autism Awareness Week?

Every year the National Autistic Society encourages the general public to take part in activities during the seven days of World Autism Awareness Week in order to raise money and awareness with campaigns like Too Much Information.

When is World Autism Awareness Week 2018?

As Autism Awareness Day is marked on April 2 every year, World Autism Awareness Week will be from March 26 to April 2 in 2018.

What is the Too Much Information campaign?

The National Autistic Societys TMI campaign was launched in 2016 when the first film was created featuring 11-year-old Alex Marshall. 56 million people viewed the film on social media and it quickly went viral after one million shared it. NASs partnership with The Guardian led to 400,000 visits and a 26 percent rise in autism awareness.

NASs campaign also focused on Too Much Information in the workplace and talked to those with autism who feel as if their employers do not see their ability and just their disability. 29,000 people signed a petition to close the autism employment gap which was presented to the Minister for Disabilities, Penny Mordaunt MP in 2017.

The second TMI film told the story of school girl Holly, which again went viral with 6.2 million people having watched it.

In October 2017, the worlds biggest mass-participation quiet shopping hour, otherwise known as the Autism Hour, was held and saw 5,000 retailers do the same across the UK.

2018s Too Much Information film tells the story of Saskia and her struggle to travel on public transport as an autistic woman and how people can support others in similar situations.

Get involved with World Autism Awareness Week

There are many ways that you can get involved and start fundraising for the National Autistic Society, which include joining a Night Walk or taking part in the new virtual challenge event, 7k for 700k.

Night Walks for Autism took place on Saturday, March 17 2018 and were held in London, Manchester, Bristol and Glasgow. The entry fee was 20 per person and walkers were given a t-shirt and medal when they completed the 5k, 10k or 15k journey.

The 7k for 700k leaves it up to you to decide how far you want to walk for autism and after paying the 12 entry fee, supporters are able to fundraise as they wish.A suspected methamphetamine dealer was arrested near the produce section of a Walmart in Alabama over the weekend after allegedly leading police officers on a 20-mile chase.

Steven Dawson's dramatic capture was caught on cellphone video that was shot inside the Walmart Superstore in Tuscaloosa on Saturday night.

A shopper's video recording posted on Facebook shows no fewer than eight unformed officers holding down the 52-year-old suspect on the floor of the big-box store, before pulling him to his feet and leading him away in handcuffs.

Final stop: Steve Dawson's pickup truck is pictured outside the Walmart Superstore in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, following a 20-mile police pursuit on Saturday

Dawson ran into the store after crashing his vehicle into a concrete barrier during the chase

According to a news release from the Tuscaloosa Police Department, at around 10.15pm on Saturday, agents from West Alabama Narcotics Task Force and Lakeview police officers attempted to pull over Dawsons truck near exit 86, but he refused to stop and a chase ensued.

Suspect: Dawson, 52, allegedly fled from narcotics tasks force officers investigating methamphetamine trafficking

The thwarted traffic stop followed the conclusion of an investigation into the trafficking of methamphetamine from Fairfield to the Brookwood community.

Officers pursued Dawson through Brookwood to Interstate 20/59 to Skyland Boulevard East, where the chase came to an end after the fugitive crashed into a concrete barrier in front of Walmart Superstore.

Dawson jumped out of his damaged pickup truck and fled on foot into the store, where he was apprehended near the produce section.

The Duncanville resident was taken into custody and escorted back to his vehicle, where agents discovered 41-year-old Bandy Weaver passed out in the front passenger seat.

The woman was taken to a hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries. Weaver was found to have been in possession of Xanax pills, according to police.

Walmart dust-up: Officers caught up with Dawson near the produce section. It took at least eight cops to pin the man down

Photos and video from the scene show Dawson being pulled up to his feet and marched out of the sore in handcuffs

Landry list of counts: Dawson has been charged with trafficking in methamphetamine, reckless endangerment and attempting to elude

When agents search Dawsons pickup, they allegedly recovered 4oz of methamphetamine ice, digital scales and an unknown liquid.

The 52-year-old, who has a long criminal history, has been charged with trafficking in methamphetamine, reckless endangerment, attempting to elude, failure to affix tax stamp and giving a false address.

Dawson is being held in Tuscaloosa County Jail on bond totaling more than $1.5million.

His record dating back at least 17 years includes charges of drug possession, domestic violence, making terroristic threats and DUI, as AL.com reported.

As recently as last month, Dawson was indicted in Tuscaloosa County on a charge of possession of methamphetamine stemming from an arrest in November 2017.Ministers were warned the 'cheapest is not necessarily the best' today amid a storm over the awarding of a contract for UK passports to a Franco-Dutch firm.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said British passports should be made in the UK, citing concerns over security and protection of jobs.

Gemalto is set to win the deal to make the next generation of British passports over north east firm De La Rue.

Labour has led calls for the Government to re-think its decision to award the contract overseas, with shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer also criticising the move.

Home Office Minister Caroline Nokes insisted today the continental firm would cost taxpayers 120million less over the course of the contract.

She told MPs the firm was printing blank passports only - meaning no sensitive data would be sent across the Channel.

More than 125,000 Daily Mail and MailOnline readers have signed a petition demanding a rethink.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott (pictured in the Commons today) said British passports should be made in the UK, citing concerns over security and protection of jobs

Home Office Minister Caroline Nokes (pictured in the Commons today) insisted today the continental firm would cost taxpayers 120million less over the course of the contract

Gemalto is set to win the deal to make the next generation of Brexit blue British passports (left) over north east firm De La Rue which makes the current version (right)

Ms Abbott said the Government could not be 'allowed to hide behind EU procurement rules'.

She warned ministers must 'take responsibility for the potential fallout this may have on workers, their families, the community and their wider industrial strategy'.

She described the episode as a 'farce' and called on ministers to re-examine the decision, adding: 'Ministers have to understand that the cheapest is not necessarily the best.'

Answering an urgent question in the Commons, Ms Nokes said all passports will continue to have personal data added to them in the UK, adding that 'robust processes established over a number of years' have determined that manufacturing passports overseas 'presents no security concerns'.

She said: 'Under the current contract, up to 20 per cent of blank passports are produced in Europe.

'There is no reason why overseas production should not continue in the future - and as such, a national security waiver could not apply.'

Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said he was 'concerned' for the De La Rue plant in Bathford, in his North East Somerset constituency, which he said produces the 'very high-quality security paper used in Chinese passports, among others'.

He asked: 'I wondered if it would be possible for the Franco-Dutch consortium to be able to buy their secure paper from Somerset which would, of course, be De La Rue paper and a very high quality.'

Conservative former cabinet minister Ken Clarke said there has been a 'slightly childlike, jingoistic element' to the debate over passports

Conservative Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg (left) said he was 'concerned' for the De La Rue plant in his constituency but Tory Peter Bone (right) suggested a French-made passport could increase support for Brexit

Tory Brexiteer Peter Bone said French people will 'rise up and want to leave the EU' when they see the new passports, which he described as a 'symbol of freedom and independence'.

Conservative former cabinet minister Ken Clarke said there has been a 'slightly childlike, jingoistic element' to the debate over passports from the moment it began, including on the colour.

He described De La Rue as a 'very successful British company which wins fair, international, tendered contracts' and said: 'When we negotiate trade agreements, we will be pressing other countries to open up their public procurement processes to genuine, fair, international competition.

'And it'd be totally ridiculous to abandon that principle now in order to give in to constituency pressures, which I understand, and otherwise nationalist nonsense which ought to be ignored.'

Ms Nokes said Mr Clarke was 'absolutely right' to highlight the UK's desire to be a 'global, outward-looking trading nation', adding: 'The reality is in a fair procurement process we had to look at quality, security and indeed price - and this was the contract that provided the best value on all counts.'

Labour has led calls for the Government to re-think its decision to award the contract overseas, with shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer also criticising the move

Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir claimed yesterday the decision to send passport production overseas underlined what was wrong with Brexit.

He told ITV: 'Well look I think the passport is such an important issue, of course it should be a British company.

'I think this, the story of the passport sums up the government's approach really to Brexit.

'It starts by saying that it's going to be blue, then it's not going to be blue, starts saying it's going to be the UK and now it's France.

'It's this sort of overpromising and under-delivering which for me absolutely categorises year one of negotiations.'

Former Cabinet minister Priti Patel called the decision 'a national humiliation'. However, it is expected that the move will save the British taxpayer 120m over the lifetime of the contract.

Mail petition: Give the contract for the UK's new blue passport to a British firm

The Government has decided Britain's post-Brexit blue passports should be made by a European company.

Now the Daily Mail and MailOnline are calling on ministers to put British workers first by reversing the decision and giving the contract to a British firm.

Simply enter your name, email address and home town into the form below to add YOUR voice - the total will be regularly refreshed so you can see how you've made a difference.

Be assured, your details will be kept confidential. If you can't see the entry form details, simply copy and paste this address into your browser www.dailymail.co.uk/passportsThe scandals surrounding Cambridge Analytica are continuing to unfurl, with former employees now claiming the firm sent dozens of foreigners to influence US elections.

Three former employees, including whistleblower Christopher Wylie, have claimed that dozens of non-US citizens were involved in the firm's effort to elect Republicans.

'Its dirty little secret was that there was no one American involved in it, that it was a de facto foreign agent, working on an American election,' Wylie told The Washington Post.

Foreigners are not allowed to 'directly or indirectly participate in the decision-making process' of an American political campaign, according to US election regulations.

Three former Cambridge Analytica employees, including Christopher Wylie (pictured), have claimed that dozens of non-US citizens were involved in the firm's effort to elect Republicans

This law was made explicitly clear to Cambridge Analytica President Rebekah Mercer, Vice President Stephen Bannon, and chief executive Alexander Nix in the 2014 Levy memo.

New York attorney Laurence Levy warned the firm's leaders that foreign nationals could not play 'strategic roles' in American campaigns.

This included the 'giving of strategic advice to candidates, campaigns, political parties, or independent expenditure committees,' Levy's memo read.

Levy noted that foreigners could only act as 'functionaries that collect and process data' - but final analysis of the data still needed to be handed over by a US citizen.

But the Cambridge Analytica employees claim these laws were ignored, as dozens of foreigners worked on congressional and legislative campaigns across the US in 2014.

Documents show that 41 employees and contractors worked for the US program, which Cambridge Analytica spent $7.5million on between April and July 2014.

The employees said that foreigners were sent to work on these campaigns despite the fact that CEO Alexander Nix (pictured) was aware it was against US election laws

Wylie provided documents to the Post that showed these employees did everything from 'fundraising, planning events, and providing communications strategy, to talking points, speeches, and debate prep'.

The former employees claim these foreign nationals - mainly Canadians and Europeans - were essential components to the firm's 'Project Ripon'.

Ripon was the brainchild of Nix, who wanted to use big data to psychologically profile individual voters and target online ads and mailers specifically tailored to influence them.

The aim was to help GOP campaigns find these 'hidden Republicans' with data, and then influence their vote.

'The nature of targeting is fundamentally influential to the direction of a campaign because you're deciding what messages to go whom and when,' Wylie told the Post.

'There's no such thing as managing targeting in a non-influential way.'

New York attorney Laurence Levy warned the firm's leaders, including President Rebekah Mercer (pictured), that foreign nationals could not play 'strategic roles' in US campaigns

This included the 'giving of strategic advice to candidates, campaigns, political parties, or independent expenditure committees,' Levy's memo, also sent to VP Stephen Bannon, read

Cambridge Analytica has since been accused of purchasing the Facebook account data of 50 million users that was breached via a lifestyle personality app on the site.

In 2014 Cambridge Analytica worked on state legislative campaigns in Colorado, a congressional campaign in Oregon, and the successful senatorial campaign for North Carolina Sen Thom Tillis.

Both Tillis and North Carolina GOP director Dallas Woodhouse said they believed all provided services were lawful and that they were unaware of any involved foreign workers.

Cambridge Analytica also provided support to candidates in Arkansas, New Hampshire, and North Carolina through John Bolton's super PAC.

A spokesman for Bolton, who was named Trump's newest national security adviser last week, claims he 'made all strategic decisions related to the super PAC's work'.

Two former Cambridge Analytica workers, who asked to remain anonymous, said employees at the company frequently discussed concerns that they may have been violating US laws in 2014.

Wylie provided documents that showed these employees did everything from 'fundraising, planning events, and communications strategy, to talking points, speeches, and debate prep'

The employees also claimed the firm was providing 'potentially inaccurate immigration documents' to enter the US, as the papers did not state they were there for working purposes.

'We knew that everything was not above board, but we weren't too concerned about it,' one of the employees told the Post.

'It was the Wild West. That's certainly how they carried on in 2014.'

Wylie likewise said he had been part of a number of conference calls in which Bannon and Nix, who is British, discussed strategic campaign matters.

Cambridge Analytica previously claimed to the New York Times that Nix 'never had any strategic or operational role' in US election campaigns.

But Nix would go on to claim that Cambridge Analytica played a major role in Trump's campaign after it was hired to help in 2016.

In a secretly recorded video released by Britain's Channel 4, Nix claimed the firm 'did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting, the digital campaign, the television campaign, and our data informed all the strategy'.

Brad Parscale, then Trump's digital director and his campaign manager for 2020, has since said that $5million of the $5.9million the Trump campaign paid Cambridge was for a large TV ad buy.

In 2014 Cambridge Analytica worked on campaigns in Colorado, a congressional campaign in Oregon, and the successful senatorial campaign for North Carolina Sen Thom Tillis (pictured)

Cambridge Analytica also provided support to candidates in Arkansas, New Hampshire, and North Carolina through John Bolton's super PAC (pictured)

When Cambridge bungled that by running some of the commercials in the District of Columbia the firm was not used for future ad buys, Parscale said.

The Trump campaign has said that it relied on the Republican National Committee as its main source of data analytics.

'Any claims that voter data from any other source played a key role in the victory are false,' Michael Glassner, the Trump campaign's executive director, said in a statement.

Government officials moved in on Cambridge Analytica's offices in London this week, taking vans full of evidence with them for further examination.

Teams searched the troubled tech company's headquarters after a High Court judge granted the Information Commissioner's Office a warrant.

Nix would go on to claim that Cambridge Analytica played a major role in Trump's campaign after it was hired to help in 2016

It took more than seven hours for investigators to comb through files, with paperwork and boxes of suspected evidence piled into the back of a transit van.

A spokesman for the ICO told MailOnline it would not comment where the files were being taken to but confirmed officers left the premises.

The spokesman said: 'We will now need to assess and consider the evidence before deciding the next steps and coming to any conclusions.

'This is one part of a larger investigation by the ICO into the use of personal data and analytics by political campaigns, parties, social media companies and other commercial actors.'

Nix was suspended last week, and Cambridge Analytica's acting chief executive Alexander Tayler said the firm has since deleted the Facebook data from its server.

Tayler also claimed that none of the Facebook data was used in 2016 to help Trump or Ted Cruz, who also hired the firm for his presidency campaign.

'As anyone who is familiar with our staff and work can testify, we in no way resemble the politically-motivated and unethical company that some have sought to portray,' Tayler said in a statement.

'Our staff are a talented, diverse and vibrant group of people.'Kevin Esterly's wife Stacey said she has had concerns about the 45-year-old's relationship with Amy Yu for months. He is being held in a Pennsylvania jail on $500,000 after being extradited from Miami

The wife of the man who fled to Mexico with a 16-year-old girl has spoken out with her side of the story, and said she knew of her husband's fascination with the teenager.

Kevin Esterly's wife Stacey said she has had concerns about the 45-year-old's relationship with Amy Yu for months.

Esterly arrived back in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Saturday after being extradited from Miami, the Lehigh County District Attorney's office said.

He and Yu were tracked down together in Playa del Carmen on March 17 and then flown to Mexico. They had been missing since March 5. His bail has been set at $500,000 and he is due in court on April 2.

And though Stacey was concerned, she said she 'never had any inkling it would lead up to this'.

Yu grew close to the Esterly family and went on ski and beach vacations with the couple and their daughters.

'I did reach out to her mother, just saying I didn't want [her] around as much, around my family and my children,' she told ABC 6.

'We thought the communication had stopped.'

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Scorned wife: Though Stacey was concerned, she said she 'never had any inkling it would lead up to this'

'It got to the point in December, I had found out that he had rented an apartment four blocks away from [the teen's] house,' she said. Yu grew close to the Esterly family and went on ski and beach vacations with the couple and their daughters

She said she believed her husband when he told her nothing was happening between he and the teenager, and believed she would never do anything to harm either she or the couple's four daughters.

'But it got to the point in December, I had found out that he had rented an apartment four blocks away from [the teen's] house,' she said.

According to police, Esterly had been checking Yu out of school without her parents knowledge for months.

Stacey said she knew about this - but explains she was shocked she when she found out.

'There were several times I found out that my husband Kevin had signed her out of school with no permission... I was very upset that the school would allow somebody to sign a child out of the school,' she told the news station.

'I guess it was alleged that he was her stepfather which in any means is not true.

'He has four daughters of his own and a wife. And [she] is no stepchild.'

Stacey said she saw her husband the morning he went missing, and that he told her he'd see her when she got home from work.

'I kissed him goodbye. He said, "Have a great day at work. I'll see you when you get home,'" she said.

'That was the last time I've seen him.'

Stacey said she now plans to divorce her husband.

According to police, Esterly had been checking Yu out of school without her parents knowledge for months. Stacey (pictured) said she knew about this - but explains she was shocked she when she found out

Esterly's wife Stacey told cops he took $4,000 from their accounts before fleeing

Amy changed school documents to list Esterly as her step-father, and he signed her out of school 10 times between November 13 and February 9. They are pictured with his daughters

Esterly now faces a felony charge of interference with the custody of a child, which would require him to register as a sex offender for 15 years if convicted.

Authorities may opt to bring further charges upon the investigation, but the age of consent is 16 in Pennsylvania, and Mexican federal law sets the age of consent at 12.

However, if he gave Yu alcohol that could open up additional charges of corrupting the morals of a minor or endangering the welfare of a child, experts said.

Esterly and Yu first met at church years ago, because the teen is friends with one of the man's daughters.

THey got so close that she went on their family vacations and Esterly came over to Amy's family's home for meals, her mother Mia Luu said.

The teen even changed school documents to list the older man as her step-father, and he signed her out of school 10 times between November 13 and February 9, police explained.

Amy's mother discovered the deception when she came to get the girl from school on February 9 and found that Esterly had already signed her out. The furious mom warned him to stay away from the teen.

Before fleeing town with the girl, Esterly withdrew $4,000 from his join bank accounts with wife Stacey, she told police.

Mexican police are seen taking Esterly into custody in Playa del Carmen. From there US Marshals transported him to Miami

'I'd like to go back to Pennsylvania as soon as possible' Esterly told a Miami judge a week ago

Luu discovered after her daughter vanished on March 5 that she had taken some of jewelry, her passport and cash.

When the pair disappeared, police were immediately suspicious. A warrant for Esterly's arrest was issued on March 7.

Cops tracked the pair to Mexico and issued an Amber Alert there on March 15. Two days later, Esterly and Yu were located near the resort Island of Cozumel.

Esterly was transported by US Marshals to Miami and waived his right to contest hs extradition.

Since he arrived in Florida, Esterly has been trying to call his wife Stacey - but she has refused all of his calls, her attorney told CBS News.

'Stacey is happy that Amy is home and that Kevin is in custody,' attorney John Waldron said in a statement.Israel fired Iron Dome missiles after mistakenly thinking militants had launched rockets in the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday night, air raid sirens sounded across southern Israel, and the country's Iron Dome missile defense system launched multiple projectiles into the night sky.

The military fired tank shells at targets in the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli media also reported.

But an Israeli military spokesman afterward said that no missiles had been fired at Israeli territory, and the sirens and Iron Dome missiles were triggered by machine gun fire in the Gaza Strip.

Israel fired Iron Dome missiles after mistakenly thinking militants had launched rockets in the Gaza Strip

The mistake likely cost Israel around $500,000, according to Business Insider, as the missiles could cost anything between $40,000 and $90,000 each.

About 10 Iron Dome rockets could be seen rising into the sky, but there was no indication that Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip had fired rockets, the spokeswoman said.

She said the firing detected was from machine guns.

Earlier, Israeli media had reported that Iron Dome had intercepted a number of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system launched multiple projectiles into the night sky

About 10 Iron Dome rockets could be seen rising into the night sky on Sunday night

Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, staged a large-scale military drill in the impoverished territory on Sunday.

Hamas detonated bombs, launched missiles and fired machine guns in the streets during the 24-hour exercise.

A spokesman for the group told Reuters no rockets had been fired towards Israel.

The drill comes amid tensions on Gaza's border with Israel.

The Israeli military bombed a Hamas position in the southern Gaza Strip early Sunday morning after four Palestinians broke through the border fence on Saturday and attempted to torch a military engineering vehicle.

An Israeli military spokesman afterward said that no missiles had been fired at Israeli territory

Hamas is planning a mass protest on the Israel-Gaza border on Friday and urging Gaza residents to gather near the fence and march toward Israeli positions with the intent of crossing into the Jewish state.

Most Palestinians have been split since Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, ousting forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who now governs just parts of the West Bank.

Abbas' government has called on Hamas to disarm and relinquish control of security in Gaza as a condition for Egyptian-mediated reconciliation talks to proceed.Kim Jong-un has ordered the investigation of more than 20,000 North Korean citizens by asking them to provide samples of their handwriting.

The bizarre request is part of an investigation into the author of a handwritten leaflet which describes the North Korean leader as a 'son of a b****'.

As well as the leaflets, the words have been graffiti-ed onto the walls of train stations and other public places in some of the country's main cities.

Leaflets and graffiti describing Kim Jong-un as a 'son of a b****' has been seen in several cities across North Korea

The investigation has been ongoing for several months, with authorities discovering graffiti in the cities of Pyongyang, Sariwon, Pyongsong, Hamhung and Chongjin.

Despite the desperate attempts to stop the anti-Kim Jong-un writings, they have grown in number.

Authorities have also increased propaganda praising the leader.

Kim Jong-un also threatened harsh punishment for whoever authored the leaflet and graffiti.

During the last three months, authorities have investigated more than 20,000 residents living on farms and in the district.

They have attempted to find suspects by matching their handwriting to that on the leaflet, sources said.

Authorities have already investigated more than 20,000 citizens by matching their handwriting to the leaflets

But so far, they have been unsuccessful.

The most famous case of the graffiti was at a train station in the town of Posong in Samsu county, where express trains to Pyongyang pass through.

Someone sprayed graffiti in Chinese ink on a wall that vilified Kim Jong Un, said an anonymous source.

'The authorities are trying to hunt down suspects whose handwriting matches that of the writing,' he told RFA's Korean Service. 'The leaflet was reportedly plastered right below the portrait of [former leader] Kim Il Sung on a wall.'

'The leaflet found last New Year's Day said, 'Kim Jong Un is a son of b**** in Chinese ink,' the source said.

'There were so many people from across the country mobilized at Posong station on Jan. 1st for the New Year's Day celebrations that the news may have spread nationwide.'

The investigation has proved unsuccessful so far with Kim Jong-un promising harsh punishments to the people behind the writings

More than 1,000 people held a meeting near the station a few days later, but instead of discussing their leader's New Year address, the meeting was rife with gossip about the graffiti.

Another source claimed: 'The idolization of Kim Jong Un seems to have been damped down by outrageous rumors about what the graffiti said.'

This isn't the first time North Korean authorities have reacted strongly to criticism of a leader.

In June 2011, authorities in Pyongyang shut down the city for three days after they discovered graffiti denouncing Kim Jong Il as a 'dictator who starved people to death'

Authorities narrowed down the investigation to college students blocked the movement of people between provinces to try to stop rumors about the incident from spreading.

More recently, in last October, people across the country defaced posters glorifying North Korea's ruling Korean Workers' Party in protest against government policies.A North Carolina man was found guilty of first-degree murder of his wife and two-year-old daughter and then posting photos of their dead bodies to Facebook.

Eljadji Seydou Diop was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the death of his wife Aminata 'Ami' Drame, and an additional 20 to 25 years for his daughter Fatim's death, according to the News & Observer.

Prosecutors said the 55-year-old strangled Ami, who was 40, in April 2016, but medical examiners couldn't determine if Fatim had also been strangled.

They believe the toddler may have been smothered when her fighting parents fell on top of her in their Raleigh townhouse.

Police went to the family's home after Diop's niece in Senegal saw the dead bodies on his Facebook page. The images were captioned: 'Look what God did 2 me. A beautiful family all gone.'

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Eljadji Seydou Diop (pictured right on April 14, 2016) was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the death of his wife Aminata 'Ami' Drame (right), and an additional 20 to 25 years for his daughter Fatim's death

Police went to the family's home after Diop's niece in Senegal saw the dead bodies on his Facebook page. The images were captioned: 'Look what God did 2 me. A beautiful family all gone'

The family immigrated to the United States from Somalia, and Diop is originally from Dakar, Senegal, where much of his family still lives.

The jury began deliberations on Friday afternoon and hadn't reached a verdict yet by the time they were allowed to leave for the weekend.

It appears they had a hard time determining if the death of Fatim was murder, because she may have been accidentally smothered as her parents fought.

Prosecutors gave the couple's cell-phone records in the closing arguments, providing evidence of money problems between the couple.

The argument in April, 2016, is thought to have turned physical, with the couple wrestling for roughly 10 minutes in their kitchen.

At some point Diop murdered his wife, police said.

Prosecutors said the 55-year-old strangled Ami, who was 40, in April 2016, but medical examiners couldn't determine if Fatim had also been strangled. Diop is pictured being lead into court by his lawyers and police in 2016

It appears the jury had a hard time determining if the death of Fatim was murder, because she may have been accidentally smothered as her parents fought. The family's west Raleigh apartment is pictured

Prosecutors also argued that it pointed to murder because Diop posted the photo of his wife and daughter on his Facebook instead of calling an ambulance.

'For most of us, it's difficult to understand how a husband can murder his wife and daughter, pose them on the floor and not call 911,' Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said.

'That goes to intent. The defense is going to make you feel sorry for the defendant, who killed his wife and daughter and posed their pictures on Facebook like trophies.'

But a defense lawyer said Diop tried to kill himself after the deaths by cutting his throat and wrists and ingesting rat poison, roach killer and grease remover.

'His grief was real. One does not build a shrine to someone they wanted to kill,' public defender Chuck Caldwell said.

'Horrible things can occur that are the result of an accident.'Ant McPartlin will return to Saturday Night Takeaway this weekend as ITV airs a pre-recorded episode of the special segment in which he stars as a secret agent.

The presenter, who was charged for drink-driving and has returned to rehab, will appear in new footage from the Saturday Knight Takeaway mini-series.

Declan Donnelly will present this week's edition of the show solo for the first time after his presenting partner entered a treatment centre.

But the final, already recorded episodes of Saturday Knight Takeaway will be screened with Ant appearing in them, The Sun reports.

Ant McPartlin (left), who was arrested for drink-driving and has returned to rehab, will appear in an episode of the Saturday Knight Takeaway mini-series

'After a lot of soul searching it was decided that the final two episodes should run because viewers have loved the series and want to find out the conclusion in the final two episodes' of the mini-series, a source told the newspaper.

Fans on Twitter expressed their delight at Ant's return, with one saying: 'Looking forward till Saturday and the return of Ant & Dec's amazing show.'

Another said: 'Looove Saturday Knight Takeaway!!! Cannot wait to see what happens next.'

While last weekend's episode of Saturday Night Takeaway was cancelled as crisis talks continued, the final two shows will go ahead, it was confirmed by ITV and Dec last week.

Fans on Twitter expressed their delight at Ant's return to Saturday Night Takeaway as he is set to appear in pre-recorded segments

Finale: Hollywood stars are being lined up by ITV to stand in for embattled star Ant McPartlin during the finale of their flagship show Saturday Night Takeaway, it's been reported

Dec confirmed he will present the final two Saturday Night Takeaway episodes solo in a Twitter statement last week, telling fans:

'Whilst I never thought I'd be in this position, after much discussion and careful consideration we've decided that the remaining two shows of this series of Saturday Night Takeaway will go ahead.

'We made a promise to take hundreds of deserving winners to Florida to watch the series finale, and we will honour that.

'Everyone at ITV and the Takeaway team feels we owe it to the audience to complete the series.'

ITV were apparently affected by the decision not to air last weekend's episode, with the broadcaster reportedly losing three million viewers after the show was replaced by The Voice on Saturday evening.An Idaho couple married for more than six decades knew their love was so strong that nothing would be able to separate them - not even death.

Edna Huntley, 81, died on March 20 in her Nampa home after a battle with late-stage cancer.

Her son, Kenneth Huntley, told Idaho Press-Tribune that a few days before her death Edna had told a friend: 'When one of us dies, (we're) going to wrap the hand of the other and take them along with us'.

Less than an hour after Edna died, Kenneth said his father, Bob Huntley, had died too.

Bob and Edna Huntley, 83 and 81, died minutes apart on March 20 at their Idaho home

'We're very grateful it happened this way,' he said, telling the outlet that his father would not have wanted to continue on without his wife of 63 years.

According to the Idaho Press-Tribune, Edna was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. Bob, 83, had been suffering from dementia for some time.

Kenneth said his father had worked as a millwright in Washington and Oregon. His mother was a homemaker. The couple moved to Nampa two years ago to be closer to one of their daughters.

The couple's granson, Ammon Tunnell, said Edna and Bob's marriage was something everyone in the family admired.

'We saw what love really is,' he said.

Bob and Edna are survived by their five children, 20 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren.

Their story bears similarities with the movie The Notebook where the two main characters die moments apart.A furious Corbyn ally demanded one of his colleagues join the Tories after he berated the Labour leader over his claim to be a 'robust critic' of Russia.

John Woodcock staged an extraordinary intervention in the Commons to denounce Mr Corbyn for lying about his record.

MPs on both sides of the House laughed out loud at Mr Corbyn as he made the claim in a debate about Russia and national security.

But after Mr Woodcock broke in to insist the veteran-left-winger's statement was 'not true', fellow MP Chris Williamson turned on him and shouted that he should cross the floor and sit with the government.

An unmoved Mr Woodcock merely put his hand to his ear and looked scathingly at the prominent Corbynista.

The angry spat in the Commons last night exposed the scale of the tensions among Labour MPs amid a renewed outcry at Mr Corbyn's performance.

After John Woodcock broke in to denounce Mr Corbyn last night, fellow MP Chris Williamson turned on him and shouted that he should cross the floor and sit with the government

Mr Corbyn (right) was accused of lying by Mr Woodcock (left) in the Commons last night after the Labour leader claimed to have been a 'robust critic' of Russia

Many MPs are unhappy with how he has handled Russia's nerve agent attack on ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury while the party is also mired in a new anti-Semitism storm because of a 2012 Facebook post by Mr Corbyn.

Mr Corbyn told MPs he had been 'a robust critic of the actions of the Russian government for more than 20 years'.

The Labour leader said he had opposed abuse in Chechnya, the oppression of LGBT rights and 'dodgy laundering by Russian oligarchs of money through London'.

Mr Woodcock, a frequent critic of Mr Corbyn, immediately intervened to demand: 'I was not intending to intervene in this, but I cannot actually let that remark go by.

'I've sat here reading his article in the Morning Star after Russia annexed part of Ukraine, where the strongest criticism he makes there is 'on Ukraine, I would not condone Russian behaviour or expansion, but it is not unprovoked'.

'And then into the usual criticism of the US and Nato and UK policy.

'It's just not true.'

Sergei Skripal (left) and his daughter Yulia (right) have been in a critical condition since they were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury on March 4

Tory MPs screamed 'more' after Mr Woodcock's remarks, while Mr Corbyn said: 'I thank my honourable friend for his usual helpful intervention. Thank you very much.'

Conservative Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, claimed Mr Corbyn's speech had been 'a demonstration of moral relativism' and an 'apologia in many ways' for a regime that has 'done nothing to justify the explanations that have been permitted it'.

He said: 'We've had obfuscation, we've had deception, dissimulation: we have had all the tricks and all the turns that we are used to when we talk about a regime that has institutionalised lies, deception and dishonesty, not as Churchill put it as vanguards for the truth but instead of the truth.

'These are not attempts to succeed to build a better world but to destroy one that is trying to serve the people of these islands and our allies and friends.'A Chicago father has been arrested after he allegedly threatened to send his armed brother to the elementary school where his son was being bullied.

Police say Paul R. Chapman wrote on Facebook that his brother would go in 'full uniform' and armed with an AR-15 to Robinson Elementary School in Lyons to 'make an impression' on his first-grader's bullies.

The 43-year-old included a picture of his brother in military uniform in the chilling message, posted on Thursday.

Paul Chapman, 43, said on Thursday he would send his brother to Robinson Elementary School in Lyons to 'make an impression' on his first grader's bullies

He was charged with felony disorderly conduct after police and school officials were alerted to the threats on Friday morning, according to the Chicago Sun Times.

Six schools in the district were placed on 'soft lock-down' as a prevention but officials have said no one was in real danger at any point.

Chapman's son allegedly suffered a head injury when he was pushed into a bookshelf by another student last week, according to prosecutors.

In the same threatening post, Chapman allegedly also claimed teachers sprayed kids in the face with Windex and bleach and criticized the school for not 'teaching kids how to be soldiers', leaving him to have to do it himself at home.

Six schools in the district were placed on 'soft lock-down' as a prevention but officials have said no one was in real danger at any point (pictured is Robinson Elementary School)

The assault rifle the father mentioned is the same used by gunman Nikolas Cruz who murdered 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, last month.

It is also the weapon used in the Orlando nightclub shooting, the Las Vegas concert shooting, the Aurora movie theater shooting, and the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting.

Chapman remains in custody with bail set at $10,000.

His lawyer says the father never threatened a specific person or place.

DailyMail.com has contacted the school about which actions, if any, were taken after Chapman's son was injured by bullies.A 21-year-old man was left with horrific injuries after he was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver during an attack by a gang of men outside a nightclub.

Thomas Hickey will be unable to walk until his broken knee heals after the vicious attack outside Liquid and Envy in Oldham, Greater Manchester, in the early hours of Saturday.

After the attack by a group of four to eight people in the smoking area outside the club, Mr Hickey was rushed to hospital.

On Sunday he underwent surgery to fix his broken knee but he will be unable to walk until it heals.

Thomas Hickey, 21, was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver outside Liquid and Envy in Oldham, Greater Manchester

A gang of between four and eight men attacked him outside the nightclub. He was left with two stab wounds and a broken knee

His father, Martin, has taken photos of his son's injuries and shared them from his hospital bed.

Mr Hickey was left with two deep wounds in the back of the head after he was stabbed twice with a screwdriver.

Martin, from Oldham, said his son was 'lucky to be alive'.

He said: 'He got stabbed twice in the head, he has got a broken knee and bruises all over him.

'He has got two puncture wounds in his head. The doctor was saying Thomas was really lucky not to be dead.'

Martin added: 'It needs to be sorted out. You can't even go out at night without something happening.

'There is something wrong - it is not good for the community. Thomas is a happy-go-lucky lad, he is not into things like that. He keeps himself to himself.

'He doesn't cause any trouble. I don't know what this attack is going to do to him. He is a young lad - he isn't a fighter.'

Martin has appealed for witnesses to talk to the police.

The incident, which happened on Retiro Street, is being investigated by police. No arrests have been made.

GMP confirmed a man suffered a wound to the head after being attacked with a 'screwdriver-like' implement at around 2.30am on Saturday, March 24.

Any witnesses or anyone with information is asked to call GMP on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.Brittany Zamora, 27, a teacher from Arizona, has been accused of having sex with a 13-year-old student on three occasions and performing oral sex on him in a classroom

New graphic details have emerged in the case of a married teacher from Arizona accused of having sex with her 13-year-old student, including how she allegedly performed oral sex on the boy in a classroom just two weeks before her arrest.

The boy's parents also claim Brittany Zamora's husband Daniel called them and begged them not to report his wife to police after they saw lewd texts between the pair.

He insisted that she had made a mistake.

Zamora, 27, a beloved sixth-grade teacher at Las Brisas Academy Elementary School on Goodyear, was taken into custody last Wednesday, just hours after the alleged victims parents contacted the school principal, who then contacted police.

Documents filed in court on Friday alleged that Zamora had sex with her student on three occasions and performed oral sex in the classroom and in her car between February 1 and March 1.

The teacher also allegedly exchanged sexually explicit text messages and naked selfies with her student.

During one text exchange, which presumably followed one of the pairs alleged sex romps, the boy wrote to the married teacher that he wanted to have sex with her again.

'I know baby! I want you every day with no time limit,' Zamora was alleged to have responded to him, reported AZcentral.com.

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The teacher married Daniel Zamora, who she knew since she was 16, in 2015

At her initial court appearance on Friday (pictured above), Zamora said: 'Id love to go home to my husband.' Her bail was set at $250,000

She also allegedly wrote to him: If I could quit my job and (have sex with) you all day long, I would, according to court records.

When interviewed by police, the 13-year-old boy claimed that his relationship with his teacher started when Zamora began flirting with him in a classroom chat group.

Rookie: Zamora had been at Las Brisas Academy Elementary School for less than a year

A second student later came forward to police saying he had witnessed Zamora having sex with the 13-year-old and admitted to receiving naked photos from the woman as well.

The parents of the alleged victim told police that Zamora's husband harassed the father over the phone, begging him not to go to the authorities and insisting that his wife had made a big mistake, but that she loved the kids, according to the documents.

Daniel Zamora also allegedly suggested that he and the boys dad meet up and settle this, but the parent turned down his offer and hung up on him.

Zamora made her initial court appearance on Friday, telling a court commissioner: Id love to go home to my husband.

Her bond was set at $250,000 and she is due back in court on Thursday morning.

The boy's parents learned of the alleged inappropriate relationship after an app they used to monitor their son's text messages alerted them to certain key words of a sexual nature, officials said.

They took screenshots of the texts, which reportedly implied the relationship was physical and had taken place both on and off school grounds.

'The text messages found are sexual in nature [and] allege an ongoing relationship between the two,' said Lisa Kutis of the Goodyear Police Department.

Superintendent Dr. Richard Rundhaug said school officials asked Zamora to come in to the school for a meeting with the principal on Thursday but she was arrested before.

Zamora was taken into custody hours after the boy's parents reported the relationship to the school principal

'While employee privacy law does not allow us to comment on the employee issues, we have taken the corrective steps to separate the students and staff member,' the school said in a statement posted to their website.

Zamora had taught at the Goodyear school for less than a year.

According to Fox10, Zamora was known by parents as a wife and teacher of the year. They said she was the 'most sought-out' sixth-grade teacher.

Students who spoke to the local media outlet said Zamora's relationship with the student in question seemed irregular.

Students who spoke to the local media outlet said Zamora's relationship with the student in question seemed irregular (pictured is Las Brisas Academy)

'We all had suspicions, because they were really close,' one unnamed female student told Fox10. 'I hoped it was just rumors going around school.'

Zamora faces two counts of molestation of a child, one count of furnishing harmful material and nine counts of sexual conduct with a minor.

She married Daniel Zamora, whom she has known since she was 16, in 2015. They don't have any children.

'From the moment we first saw each other, we had been falling for one another. So, it was only appropriate to ask Brittany [to marry me] while falling; a.k.a. skydiving,' Daniel wrote on a blog about his over-the-top marriage proposal.Christopher Whitaker was convicted of murdering Alianna Defreeze last month and has been sentenced to death

A sex offender has been sentenced to death in Ohio for kidnapping, torturing, raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl in a horrific attack.

Christopher Whitaker, 45, will spend the rest of his days on death row after the judge followed the jury's recommendation for the horrific slaying of Alianna Defreeze in Januaury, 2017.

Whitaker was found guilty March 13 of aggravated murder and charges including kidnapping and rape in Alianna DeFreeze's death.

Whitaker, who pleaded not guilty, kidnapped the teenager from a bus stop as she waited for the bus to school.

He took her to an abandoned home in Cleveland where he raped and beat her then stabbed her to death, leaving her body inside.

'He snatched a branch off our family tree and our lives will never be the same,' said Wytonya DeFreeze, the victim's stepmother at Whitaker's sentencing on Monday. 'She had dreams and aspirations and he took all that away from her.'

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Christopher Whitaker, 45, (left in court in February) was convicted of the 2017 rape and murder of 14-year-old Alianna Defreeze who he kidnapped from a bus stop as she waited to be taken to school then assaulted in an abandoned house before killing her

'I don't believe he'll have any remorse until he suffers like my daughter suffered,' said Donnesha Cooper, Alianna's mother. 'He just snuffed out a really bright light in the world because of his own selfishness,' Cooper said. 'I appreciate the jury's recommendation, but that's too good for him,' Cooper said through tears. 'I will not let his monstrous heart consume my life, because my daughter would want me to live my life and be happy.'

'I can see the evil that's in him and we have to tell everybody, this is what evil looks like,' Alianna's grandmother said. 'He will not torture anyone else again. I cannot forgive this man yet. I'm still in pain.'

Damon DeFreeze, her father, spoke last. His frustration mounted as he told Friedland that he tried to warn Alianna about predators like Whitaker. He turned toward Whitaker, who was flanked by five courtroom security officers.

'Excuse me so I can look at this b**** a** dude, ' DeFreeze said. 'It takes a real monster to take a child who's going on the way happily to school. It happens too often.'

A death sentence was not the outcome Alianna's family wanted, they said.

'We preferred life without the possibility of parole, but we respect the judge's decision,' Alianna's father said. 'It's not over, it will never be over.'

'He snatched a branch off our family tree and our lives will never be the same,' said Wytonya DeFreeze, the victim's stepmother

Her body was found three days after her mother reported her missing when she didn't arrive at school.

Authorities say Alianna was beaten and stabbed and the South Euclid man's DNA matched evidence.

He used a collection of tools including an electric drill to inflict horrific injuries on her.

He confessed to the killing and told police his drug addiction caused him to do it.

During Monday's sentencing, the judge also added a 48-year sentence that is separate from his death sentence for his convictions of aggravated burglary, rape, felonious assault, obstruction of justice and gross abuse of a corpse charges.

Whitaker, 45, said he was high on cocaine when he attacked the girl. He was previously jailed for raping and stabbing another woman who survived

Whitaker took Alianna to this home in Cleveland, Ohio, where he hurt her with a collection of tools then stabbed her to death

Whitaker said he was under the influence of crack cocaine at the time of the killing and did not remember murdering her.

Alianna's body was found three days after she vanished

Whitaker gave an unsworn statement during the penalty phase of his trial and apologized to the girl's family.

He said he was truly remorseful

During the trial, his lawyers did not argue with prosecutors' chain of events but they said he should not be held responsible for the murder because of his state of mind at the time.

A message seeking comment with his attorney wasn't immediately returned.

After the jury returned their verdict last month, Alianna's mother told reporters outside the courtroom she was 'relieved and happy' with the decision.

'Justice has been served,' Donnesha Cooper said. 'The law was on our side.'

At the time of the killing, Whitaker had already served four years behind bars for the rape and stabbing of another woman in 2005.

That woman was not killed.President Donald Trump's school safety commission will convene for the first time this Wednesday, just days after students held marches across the country and in Washington and demanded new government action on guns.

One of the commission's first orders of business will be a review of the federal funds for school safety and background check compliance set aside for states by Congress last week in a massive spending bill.

A senior administration official said Monday that the committee comprised of four cabinet secretaries will also be looking at whether the money can be put toward grants for states that are interested in passing extreme risk protection orders that authorize law enforcement to temporarily seize mentally ill individuals' guns.

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President Donald Trump 's school safety commission will convene for the first time this Wednesday, just days after students held marches across the country and in Washington and demanded new government action on guns

Only six states have laws in place giving police and families the right to petition the courts for the temporary restraining orders, including Florida, which only just passed the measure as part of a package of reforms it's implementing in the wake of Parkland.

The five others are Connecticut, Indiana, California, Washington and Oregon.

The White House said it had asked the Justice Department to look into existing funding that it could direct to states interested in pursuing such laws as it pushed back on complaints that Trump had talked a big game on gun violence prevention only to cave to the gun lobby when it came to writing federal legislation.

In the end, Trump was only willing to put his weight behind two widely-supported, bipartisan bills that addressed background checks and training, funding to prevent school violence and a proposal to arm teachers in schools.

He left the rest to a school safety committee led by his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

On Monday, the White House said that it was also lobbying state governors and attorneys general on the extreme risk protection orders.

To some people that will sound insufficient, or that will sound like thats a say something do nothing premise, the official said of the calls to state officials. The paucity of information and the general ignorance about the existence of [the orders] is pretty pervasive, so getting people to look into this and see that theyre actually working in the jurisdictions where theyre implemented, thats a pretty big thing.

The senior official could not say which states were ready to bite while noting that Tennessee's Bill Haslam had created a school safety task force and that Nevada's Brian Sandoval and Colorado's John Hickenlooper had made favorable comments about laws that would keep individuals who are deemed unstable away from firearms.

The official said the White House would be putting more heat on governors and attorneys general in calls on Tuesday.

'Just that bully pulpit power alone,' the official said, 'will have enormous benefits in sort of making sure that these are enacted nationwide.'

Trump's school safety committee is led by his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. She's seen here at a White House event in February

Arkansas Attorney General and Republican Attorneys General Association head Leslie Rutledge signaled her support for the orders in a Monday statement provided to DailyMail.com.

'In order to protect our constitutional Second Amendment freedoms while ensuring safe and responsible firearm ownership, it is important to give families and specified individuals a way to petition the courts to temporarily remove firearms from those who have made statements or exhibited behavior demonstrating that theyre a threat to themselves or others,' a spokeswoman for the attorney general said.

Republicans have been especially concerned about the effect such orders would have on individuals' Second Amendment right to bear firearms.

On Monday, the White House said that the laws can be crafted in a way that are sensitive to due process protections and Americans' constitutional right to wield guns.

The senior official said that the White House is working closely with DOJ to 'drill down' on ways to make the orders most effective and to provide technical assistance to states that want to adopt the measures.

'It will be in the near term that we are able to determine what money is available to states,' the official also said, bringing up Trump's school safety commission.

The committee that meets this week for the first time is entirely devoid of Democrats or any educators or law enforcement officials who are not part of his Cabinet, inviting criticism from opponents of the president.

Only DeVos, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will have a say in the report advising the the president on what he should back.

The White House had previously deferred its stance on raising the minimum age for purchasing certain firearms from 18 to 21 until the committee has finished its work.

Now it says the commission will seek out federal funding that can be directed to states interested in pursuing the extreme risk protection orders that are backed by politicians from both political parties.

'Were searching,' the official said, 'flipping over every stone.'

Several senators have proposed federal laws that would authorize state and local officials to confiscate mentally unwell individual's guns, but they lost steam after President Trump withheld his support for them.

A spending bill that Trump approved Friday effectively excused federal lawmakers from Washington for a two-week, spring break. They're unlikely to take up major firearms legislation when they they get back.

An administration official said Monday that Trump supports federal legislation like the 'red flag' law that Florida Sens. Marco Rubio, a Republican, and Bill Nelson, a Democrat, proposed last week in theory, but he believes that a one-sized fits all policy is not the best solution.

'At this point, at this time, we still think the best way is to put this on the radar screen of state governors, state legislators, states attorneys general, and urge and sort of gently prod with incentivization -- IE money -- for them to adopt these things,' the official said.

Most American states have only part-time legislatures, however, and many have already adjourned or are about to adjourn for the rest of the calendar year.

The official said Monday in a defense of the White House approach that those states could still form task forces to look into the issue before the next legislative session or convene for an emergency discussion on gun violence prevention.Rosendo Rodriguez III, 38, is scheduled to be executed in Texas after being found guilty of capital murder in the 2005 death of Summer Baldwin, 29, who was pregnant at the time

A Texas man who admitted he killed a 10-week pregnant woman and then stuffed her body in a suitcase will be executed on Tuesday.

Rosendo Rodriguez III, 38, of San Antonio, Texas, is set for execution for the 2005 slaying of Summer Baldwin, 29, who was 10 weeks pregnant when she died. Rodriguez's execution, scheduled for after 6pm Tuesday, comes the day after his birthday.

Rodriguez became known as Lubbock, Texas' 'suitcase killer,' after killing Baldwin and, later, admitting to having murdered Lubbock high school student Joanna Rogers, 16.

An employee at the Lubbock city landfill spotted a brand-new piece of luggage amid the mountain of trash, opened the suitcase and discovered Baldwin's beaten naked body stuffed inside.

Detectives used a barcode label sewn to the luggage to establish it was purchased a day earlier at a Walmart. Debit card records and store surveillance video identified the buyer as Rodriguez, a Marine reservist from San Antonio, Texas, who'd been in Lubbock for training that included martial arts combat.

Rogers' mummified remains were found, like Baldwin's, inside a suitcase at the city garbage dump. The 16-year-old disappeared from her home in May 2004 and had been missing for more than a year by the time Rodriguez confessed to slaying her.

Court records show Rodriguez was linked to at least five other sexual assaults, as well.

Rodriguez was found guilty of capital murder in Baldwin's case in 2008.

Rodriguez, a Marine reservist from San Antonio, Texas, was in Lubbock, Texas, for training at the time when he admitted to killing Baldwin at a hotel after he said they had consensual sex

Rodriguez's attorneys appealed to the US Supreme Court on Monday, after lower courts rejected appeals to delay his execution on March 19

Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell, who prosecuted Rodriguez, described him Monday as 'very cold-blooded and very calculated.'

'What kind of person does that, just throws them out like the morning trash?' Powell said.

Rodriguez would be the fourth Texas inmate executed this year and the seventh nationally.

Attorneys for Rodriguez appealed Monday to the U.S. Supreme Court as their 'last hope' after lower courts rejected appeals that focused on the medical examiner who testified about Baldwin's autopsy at his trial.

Rodriguez's lawyers said the coroner recently settled a whistleblower lawsuit, previously unknown to them, that alleged he delegated some duties to unqualified underlings. The lawsuit 'bears directly on the credibility and admissibility of the medical examiner's testimony in this case,' attorney Seth Kretzer said.

Baldwin, 29, was 10 weeks pregnant at the time of her death. Court records describe Baldwin, the mother of four, as a prostitute. She'd served jail time in Lubbock for a drug conviction

Rodriguez admitted to murdering Lubbock high school student Joanna Rogers, 16, who went missing in 2004. Authorities said that they had met online in a chat room

Assistant Texas Attorney General Tomee Heining said Rodriguez's appeals were 'nothing more than a last-ditch effort' that were improper, untimely and meritless.

The settlement involving a dismissed former employee, who didn't start work until five years after Rodriguez went to trial, included a statement that there was no reason to question the scientific validity of findings or opinions made by the medical examiner's office. Court records show the medical examiner personally conducted Baldwin's autopsy.

Rodriguez was arrested at his parents' home in San Antonio days after Baldwin's body was discovered.

Court records describe Baldwin, the mother of four, as a prostitute. She'd served jail time in Lubbock for a drug conviction.

Three weeks after his arrest, Rodriguez gave Lubbock police a statement saying he killed Baldwin in self-defense when she pulled a knife on him after the two had consensual sex on September 12, 2005, at a hotel room.

Investigators tracked Rodriguez's debit card transactions and found surveillance footage of him buying and walking out of a Walmart with a black suitcase that was identical to the one that was found in the landfill containing Baldwin's body, KCBD reported.

Rodriguez's debit card activity also led investigators to a possible crime scene  he had used a debit card to withdraw $22 at an ATM inside a Holiday Inn the night before he appeared to have purchased the suitcase.

Testimony at his 2008 trial showed she had about 50 blunt force wounds and may have been alive when she was folded into the suitcase and tossed into a trash bin.

The contents of the bin subsequently wound up at the city dump. Defense attorneys suggested a trash compactor could have killed her.

Jurors who convicted him of capital murder heard during the trial's punishment phase from five women, including his high school girlfriend, who testified he raped them. Jurors also heard about his confession to killing Rogers, the 16-year-old Lubbock girl who evidence showed he initially met in an online chat room.

Prosecutors decided to seek the death penalty after Rodriguez scuttled a deal where he'd plead guilty to killing Baldwin and the teenager in exchange for a life prison term.Three teenage killers who murdered a young actor in revenge for speaking to the police are facing life sentences.

Nashon Esbrand, 27, complained to officers five months before his death after he received death threats from the Islington-based Cally Boyz gang for being a grass.

Mr Esbrand, a former pupil at the Anna Scher theatre school, told his doctor that he was afraid to walk in the street, before he was stabbed in the legs and side and died in hospital in August last year.

Jhon Berhane, 18, and Dillon Zambon, 20, were convicted of murder at the Old Bailey today, while a 16-year-old youth, who cannot be named, previously pleaded guilty.

Nashon Esbrand (pictured), 27, complained to officers five months before his death after he received death threats from the Islington-based Cally Boyz gang for being a grass'

On the day he died, August 24, Mr Esbrand was spotted by the group as he walked home just minutes after saying goodbye to his one-week-old daughter.

Zambon and Jack Stevens, 18, chased him on their pushbikes, calling in reinforcements on their mobiles, and were soon joined by Jhon Berhane, 18, and a 16-year-old youth, who cannot be named, armed with a knife.

They made a co-ordinated team effort to corral Mr Esbrand on the doorstep of a house, while a horrified neighbour recorded the incident on his mobile phone.

Mr Esbrand suffered one stab wound to his side and two wounds to the back of his legs, one of which punctured the femoral artery in his right thigh causing fatal blood loss.

His father rushed to the scene following a desperate call from his son but Mr Esbrand died after being taken to hospital.

The 16-year-old defendant, who cannot be named, admitted the murder as well as possession of an offensive weapon before the trial started earlier this month.

An Old Bailey jury today convicted Zambon and Berhane of Mr Esbrands murder, while prosecutor Hugh Davies QC said Stevens is still at large and is believed to be in hiding abroad.

Judge Anuja Dhir QC said that the killers will inevitably spend a long period of time behind bars when they are sentenced at a later date.

Jhon Berhane (left), 18, and Dillon Zambon (right), 20, were convicted of murder at the Old Bailey today while another man, aged 16, previously pleaded guilty

Mr Davies told the court that all three - together with the fugitive Stevens and a fifth man who has not been identified - acted as a team and left as a team.

He described how Mr Esbrand had been involved in a violent incident with Stevens and members of the Cally Boyz gang five months earlier on 1 March last year.

The young father told police he believed the boys were gang members who were after him because of an old complaint he made to police.

Ive spoken with the police and co-operated with the police and Ive got loads of threats because of that so theyre coming to maybe hurt me because of this, Mr Esbrand was recorded as saying.

Because Ive spoken with the police Ive been targeted more by boys, cos theyre actually saying cos youve spoken with the police, were going to get you and target you.

So I just feel that because Ive actually spoken with the police regarding it, its just made it worse for me and just made my life in danger.

Mr Davies told the court the murder was part of a pattern of hostility from Stevens, his associates and the Cally Boyz gang.

A jury at the Old Bailey (pictured) today convicted Zambon and Berhane of Mr Esbrands murder. They and the 16-year-old will be sentenced at a later hearing

They regarded him as deserving attack because he had spoken to the police, said the prosecutor.

When confronted by CCTV footage of him and Stevens giving chase to Mr Esbrand, Zambon initially suggested the young father was jogging, not running.

At the time, sir, I thought Nashon was going to get beaten up, he said of the subsequent attack.

I didnt intend for anyone to cause him very serious harm.

Zambon, who was on a tagged curfew to be home shortly after the killing at 7pm, added that he made himself busy when they got to Mitchison Road.

It means that I knew there was going to be a fight and I basically wanted to see what was going to happen, he said.

Berhane opted not to give evidence but his barrister, Philippa McAtasney QC, warned jurors in her closing speech: Just because Jhon Berhane knows people around knives do not think that everyone he associates with must have a knife, or even may have a knife.

Zambon, of Leirum Street, Islington, north London, and Berhane, now aged 20 and of no fixed address, denied murder but were found guilty by the jury.

The 16 year-old from Islington admitted murder and possession of an offensive weapon before the trial.

All three remain in custody awaiting sentence, on a date to be fixed later.Three more former nurse practitioners have been arrested for having sexual relationships with patients at a Fayette, Iowa care facility.

On Friday, 44-year-old Carolyn Marie Wiedrich, 24-year-old Shelby Mariah Sebring, and 32-year-old Jamie Leah Pagel were arrested and charged with sexual exploitation by a counselor, therapist or school employee.

Investigators say the three women had 'unhealthy relationships with patients' at Prairie View Management Facility, where people with mental illness, intellectual disability, or medical conditions are cared for.

Three more former nurse practitioners at Prairie View Management Facility in Fayette, Iowa have been arrested for having sex with patients. Above, one of the women who was arrested on Friday, Carolyn Wiedrich, 44

Shelby Mariah Sebring, 24 (left), and 32-year-old Jamie Leah Pagel (right) were also arrested for having sex with patients on Friday

Wiedrich allegedly had inappropriate sexual relationships with patients in 2015, while the other two women crossed that line in 2016.

Their arrests on Friday come nearly three weeks after two other former nurse practitioners at the facility were arrested on the same charge.

Megan Marie Penney, 26, and Paige Lynn Johanningmeier, 23, were arrested on March 5 for allegedly sneaking patients out of the facility to have sex.

Prairie View Management Facility (pictured) cares for people with mental illness, intellectual disability, or medical conditions

An investigation into the facility started back in February. Investigators continued to look into the care home after the arrests of Penney and Johanningmeier and discovered that the other three women had been discharged in the past for inappropriate relationships as well.

They all face the possibility of up to five years in prison and having to register as a sex offender if they are convicted.

'These CNAs have violated the trust of not only their employers, but also the families of these patients who put their trust in these individuals to care for their family members,' said Fayette County Sheriff Marty Fisher.

Earlier this month, two other former nurse practitioners at the facility - Megan Marie Penney, 26 (left), and Paige Lynn Johanningmeier, 23 (right), were arrested on the same charge

Wiedrich, Sebring and Pagel posted $10,000 bail to be released after their Friday arrest.

Penney and Johanningmeier were previously released on $2,000 bond.

According to previous reports, Penney and Johanningmeier's started relationships with two patients at work.

The relationships allegedly turned sexual when the women stopped working at the facility.

Prairie View is a facility that provides 'supportive and skill building services to adults with functional limitations caused by chronic mental illness, intellectual disability, or medical conditions,' the center's official website states.

The services offered are '24 hour staffing, medication management, on site visits by medical doctor and psychiatrist, transportation to local medical appointments, activities and leisure skill planning and skill building services.Timothy Lambert, 29, is accused of running into traffic while drunk and kicking a police officer in the head in Utah

A Utah man has been arrested on charges of assault and disorderly conduct after police say he kicked a police officer in the head while in a state of intoxication and had to be Tasered twice.

Police responded to Lindon City, Utah, at around 1am after a man, later identified as 29-year-old Timothy Lambert, was seen stumbling into traffic and yelling at passing cars.

Lambert, who was described in a probable cause statement as intoxicated and non-compliant, nevertheless submitted to a Breathalyzer test, which showed that his blood alcohol level was more than 3.5 times the legal limit for driving and equal to approximately 10 drinks.

The man was transported to Timpanogos Regional Hospital, where he allegedly proceeded to fight with officers.

During the struggle, Lambert allegedly kicked one of the officers in the head, prompting another to deploy a Taser to his torso in an effort to subdue him, reported Fox13.

The action had 'minimal effect' on the 29-year-old, leading the second officer to use the stun gun on him again, this time deploying it to his leg.

Lambert was taken to Timpanogos Regional Hospital (pictured), where he allegedly showed resistance and had to be Tasered twice

Lambert was examined in the hospital and then booked into the Utah County Jail on charges of intoxication, resisting arrest, assault against a police officer and disorderly conduct.

His bail was set at $1,250. As of Monday afternoon, Lamberts name was not listed on the jail's website, suggesting that he has been released.

His past criminal record included charges of aggravated assault and assault-attempt to do bodily harm stemming from two separate incidents last year.

Lamberts Facebook page indicates that at one point, the Pleasant Grove resident worked in technical support at Utah Valley University.

In late January, Lambert launched a GoFundMe campaign asking for donations to help him buy new water and gas heaters for his rundown mobile home. Only four people answered his plea and contributed a total of $80.The investigation into Madeleine McCann has been allocated further funding

The Met Police has been granted more funds to continue its 11-year-long search for Madeleine McCann.

The Home Office revealed today it had allocated further funds to Operation Grange - the Met's investigation into her disappearance.

The new fund is believed to be as large as 150,000.

A representative of the Home Office told MailOnline: 'The Government remains committed to the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

'We have briefed the Metropolitan Police Service that its application for Special Grant funding for Operation Grange will be granted.'

Detectives refused to discuss details of the 'important final line of inquiry' they are pursuing.

A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: 'We cannot give a running commentary on the investigation while it is ongoing.'

Kate and Gerry McCann are 'incredibly grateful' to the Home Office for approving Scotland Yard's latest cash request amid stringent Government cutbacks, family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said tonight

'They are very encouraged that the Met Police still believe there is work left to be done and they are incredibly grateful to the Home Office for providing an extra budget for the investigation,' he said.

'It gives them hope that one day they may finally find out what happened to their daughter.'

Scotland Yard has received an amount, thought to be around 150,000, towards the search for Madeleine McCann (pictured: left, aged three; and right, in 2007)

Last week it was revealed Madeleine's parents have set aside almost 750,000 to fund a private search if police stop looking for their missing daughter

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann applied for more funding for the search in February.

Government funding for the investigation has historically been agreed every six months, with 154,000 being granted from October last year.

That funding is due to run out in just five days.

More than 11million has been spent so far on the probe to find the missing girl, who vanished from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007, aged three.

She would now be nearly 15.

More than 11 million has been spent so far on the probe to find the missing girl, who vanished from the family's holiday apartment (pictured) in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007

A Home Office spokesperson added: 'The inquiry has not reached a conclusion and we're continuing with focus and determination. There are no immediate plans to reduce officer numbers further at this time.'

Operation Grange has been one of the longest, most high-profile and costly police investigations in history.

Launched in May 2011, officers have sifted (and translated) 40,000 documents produced by Portuguese police who conducted the initial investigation, and by the eight teams of private detectives who have worked on the case.

Some 600 'persons of interest' have been examined and 'sightings' of Madeleine  in Brazil, India, Morocco and Paraguay, on a German plane and in a New Zealand supermarket  assessed.

The Portuguese investigation of Madeleine's disappearance was criticised by the British authorities as being not fit for purpose.

Scotland Yard began an investigative review into the disappearance in 2011, on the orders of then-Prime Minister David Cameron.

It comes after the couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, pledged to never give up on Madeleine in a message to supporters at Christmas.

They wrote on the Find Madeleine Facebook page: We just wanted to pass on our love and thanks to everyone who has continued to support us throughout another year.

Friendship, solidarity and warm wishes go a long way in giving us the strength to get through and make the very best of it.

Mrs McCann has previously said that Christmas is always tinged with pain and longing, saying: Madeleine should be here and we should be celebrating with her.

She has also said that she would simply like to know if her daughter is alive or dead because the not knowing is the worst part.The US Navy's Virginia Class submarines will now be armed with nuclear warheads.

This brings the Virginia Class up to par with the Ohio and the forthcoming Columbia classes of submarines, as far as capability of firing nuclear weapons is concerned.

'While Virginia Class submarines can use conventional deterrence to keep adversaries in check, a sub-launched cruise missile with a nuclear warhead would be incorporated into Virginias and give national command authority additional escalation control,' Rear Adm. John Tammen, Director of the Undersea Warfare Division, told Congress, as reported by Fox News.

There are currently 13 existing commissioned Virginia Class submarines and 14 commissioned Ohio Class submarines.

This announcement comes as concern continues to grow over North Korea's long-range nuclear capabilities, and less than a week after President Donald Trump mentioned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin 'in the not-too-distant-future' to discuss 'the arms race.'

The Navy's Virginia Class submarines will now be armed with nuclear warheads

Adding nuclear weapons to the Virginia Class would give combatant commanders new options and expand the fleet's mission, Tammen added, in addition to the already existing ability to fire Tomahawk missiles and torpedoes.

A total of 13 Virginia Class submarines have been commissioned to date, according to Navy.mil.

The Virginia Class are intended to replace the existing fleet of 40 Los Angeles Class submarines, as they retire.

Prior to this change in mission, the Los Angeles Class, the Virginia Class, and the three existing Seawolf Class submarines were classified as SSNs, which means, they are powered by nuclear reactors, but not nuclear weapons capable.

Navy.mil described the mission of SSNs as follows:

'Attack submarines are designed to seek and destroy enemy submarines and surface ships; project power ashore with Tomahawk cruise missiles and Special Operation Forces (SOF); carry out Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions; support battle group operations; and engage in mine warfare.'

Now, the mission of the Virginia Class will expand to be more similar to that of the already existing Ohio Class, 'strategic deterrence.' The 14 commissioned Ohio Class submarines are classified as SSBNs, standing for 'ballistic missile submarines,' with the purpose of serving 'as an undetectable launch platform for intercontinental missiles,' which are 'designed specifically for stealth and the precise delivery of nuclear warheads.'

A trident II D-5 ballistic missile is launched from the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS West Virginia (SSBN 736) during a missile test at the Atlantic Missile Range on June 2, 2014

The Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS North Carolina (SSN 777) transits Tokyo Bay before arriving at Fleet Activities Yokosuka on November 5, 2015

However, the Virginia Class will be equipped with sub-launch cruise missiles with nuclear warheads, rather than the sub-launch intercontinental ballistic missiles that the Ohio Class carries.

A ballistic missile is fired on a trajectory that will ultimately follow the course determined by gravity, once the power source of its launch has been exhausted, according to the Center For Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

A cruise missile, however, is self-guided and its path is powered throughout its entire flight until it reaches its destination, which is generally after traveling a much shorter distance than that of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Per the Commander Submarine Force Atlantic public information page, a separate classification doesn't currently exists for submarines that carry cruise missiles with nuclear warheads.

Previously, four of what was then-18 Ohio Class submarines had been converted to carry non-nuclear ready cruise missiles. These four submarines are classified as SSGNs, standing for 'guided missile submarines.'

For this reason, its not clear whether the Virginia Class fleet will be reclassified once its equipped the cruise missiles carrying nuclear warheads, and if so, what that new classification will be.

The 12-ship Columbia Class will replace the existing fleet of 14 Ohio Class nuclear ballistic submarines, as outlined in President Donald Trump's 2018 Nuclear Posture Review.

The Navy awarded a $5.1 billion contract to General Dynamics Electric Boat for the design, completion, component and technology development of the Columbia Class submarine on September 21, Navy.mil reported.

'Awarding this contract is an important step in ensuring an on-time construction start in Fiscal Year 2021,' Rear Adm. David Goggins, Columbia Class Program manager, said at the time.

The first patrol of the lead Columbia Class ship, SSBN 826, is scheduled for fiscal year 2031.Drivers of keyless Ford Fiestas are being targeted by thieves as part of a hi-tech crime spree.

Police say crooks hack into the cars with electronic devices such as relay boxes  which are widely available to buy on Amazon and eBay.

Although all models of keyless cars have been stolen  including luxury BMWs and Range Rovers  owners of Britain's most popular vehicle have been among the hardest hit.

Cleveland Police said they have had 90 reports of keyless cars being stolen since December  and half of them were Fiestas, the country's best-selling motor for the past decade.

Drivers of keyless Ford Fiestas are being targeted by thieves as part of a hi-tech crime spree

Since 2008, when the keyless technology first became available, more than a million Fiestas have been sold to Britons. Overall, more than 4.5million Fiestas have been sold since 1976.

Cleveland Police said each of the cars was stolen using a device that bypasses security systems  without thieves needing to steal keys or smash a window.

Instead, they use transmitting devices known as 'relay boxes' to extend the signal from the car's keyless fob, which is usually inside the owner's home  and use this signal to unlock and start the car.

Crooks use transmitting devices known as 'relay boxes' to extend the signal from the car's keyless fob

In November, footage emerged of thieves in Solihull, West Midlands using a relay box to steal a Mercedes van and driving off without keys.

The devices are available online for around 260. Criminals also use 'signal blocking' gadgets to prevent drivers with keyless fobs locking vehicles in car parks.

Vehicle thefts in England and Wales have soared by almost a third in just three years, after years of decline.

The latest figures were released by 40 police forces following Freedom of Information requests by the RAC. They reveal 85,688 vehicles were stolen in 2016, up 30 per cent from 65,783 in 2013.

Police in Warwickshire reported the largest rise, up 189 per cent between 2013 and 2016.

Suggested precautions against keyless car theft include buying an old-fashioned steering wheel lock, keeping keys well away from doors and windows in a metal tin  which can block the relay boxes from working  and asking dealers for security software updates.

A Ford spokesman said: 'Fords are sold with competitive levels of standard security equipment.'

An eBay spokesman said the firm had 'not been advised of any restrictions on the sale of this kind of device'.Ex-President Jimmy Carter said President Trump's pick of John Bolton as his latest national security adviser is a 'disaster,' the Democrat told USA Today.

'Maybe one of the worst mistakes that President Trump has made since he's been in office is his employment of John Bolton, who has been advocating a war with North Korea for a long time and even an attack on Iran, and who has been one of the leading figures on orchestrating the decision to invade Iraq,' Carter said.

In another interview, this time a sit-down with CBS This Morning host Norah O'Donnell, Carter's pronouncement was more definitive: 'I think John Bolton has been the worst mistake he's made.'

Former President Jimmy Carter criticized President Trump's pick for national security adviser, John Bolton, saying that choice is a 'disaster' and 'the worst mistake [Trump]'s made.' Trump announced Bolton as his choice on Twitter Thursday night

President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, didn't like the choice of John Bolton (pictured), who worked for the last Republican administration, because Bolton advocated for the Iraq War, and has expressed interest in attacking North Korea and Iran, Carter charged

Bolton, whose selection was announced Thursday night, is the president's third national security adviser since taking office.

His first, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, has since been indicted, pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.

Trump's second, H.R. McMaster, had been rumored to be getting the boot for the better part of the month.

The president announced Bolton's hiring with a tweet, an announcement that surprised Bolton, a contributor on Fox News.

'I didn't really expect that announcement this afternoon,' Bolton said when appearing Thursday night on the network. 'But it's obviously a great honor. It's always an honor to serve our country and I think particularly in these times, internationally, it's a particular honor.'

Zooming out from the Bolton hire, Carter told USA Today he was concerned, generally, with the high staff turnover at the Trump White House.

'I am concerned as a matter of fact about his deliberate moves to get into the key positions of government just people who agree with him,' the former president said.

Carter wasn't speaking just of McMaster being replaced, but of President Trump's decision to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and replace him with the former Republican Congressman who's now leading the CIA, Mike Pompeo.

Additionally, rumors that Trump may replace his Chief of Staff John Kelly continue to swirl.

The president also seems to be on the verge of ousting his one holdover from the Obama administration, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin.

On the short list for taking that job, another frequent Fox News face, Pete Hegseth.

'Access to different opinion before you make a final decision is very valuable, and in the last few days I think President Trump's choice of close advisers, powerful advisers, have gone to unanimity rather than diversity,' Carter said.

With Carter's strong words against Trump's pick of Bolton, he will likely not be tapped  as the Democrat offered  to be a special envoy to North Korea for the Trump administration, a role he played for President Clinton in 1994.

He helped President Obama with North Korea too, traveling to the country in 2010 to help negotiate the release of an American citizen.

But his first words of advice for Trump: 'Fire Bolton.'

Beyond that, he explained that what the North Koreans have wanted for years is the assurance that the United States won't attack the country as long as it plays nice with its neighbors.

Carter gave the caveat, though, that he'd never met North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un.

He believed that the U.S. might have to agree to holder fewer military exercises or draw down troops.

But Carter believed a deal with the North Koreans would be an agreement worth making.

'If a deal can be confirmed by the constant inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency, yes, it certainly would be,' the former president said.A Michigan woman has died after a fire broke out at the front porch she usually smoked at, officials have said.

The woman succumbed to the burns she suffered at her Inkster home on Monday morning.

Local news outlets report that the badly burned woman was taken to the hospital by the Inkster Fire Department and listed in critical condition before being pronounced dead.

A Michigan woman died on Monday morning after a fire broke out at her front porch

Neighbors of the unidentified women said she regularly smoked in her front porch

Authorities have not yet determined what caused the fire but said there was no signs of accelerates, as reported by Click on Detroit.

Neighbors said the victim regularly smoked on the front porch.

Officials were photographed examining the scene after the fire was contained; the photos show a big black burn mark by the home's front door.

The woman's identity has not yet been released.The changing economy, high fees and dishonest employers could see millennials lose hundreds of thousands of dollars from their superannuation funds, experts have revealed.

Despite the country having a $2.5trillion superannuation cache, financial specialists have warned the 'gig economy'  an increase in temporary or freelance work  has contributed to what they believe will be a 'bleak' future for young Australians.

'We have debt from HECS, we have unbelievable debt from trying to buy your first house, we have the prospect of seven, eight, possibly nine or ten jobs in your life, incredible uncertainty about where your next pay cheque is going to be,' investment banker Mark Carnegie told ABC's Four Corners on Monday night.

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Despite having a $2.5trillion superannuation cache, financial experts have warned the 'gig economy' has contributed to what they believe will be a 'bleak' future for young Australians (stock image)

'They are facing Game of Thrones. Winter is coming.'

Associate Professor Sarah Kaine with UTS Business School warned that if those working as independent contractors for companies like Uber and Deliveroo do not have super arrangements, it will 'come back and bite us' when they want to retire.

Someone will have to bear the brunt of not enough superannuation, she said.

Ms Kaine also revealed that women in the workforce fair 'poorly' and 'have about half the super savings that men generally do' because of their lower salaries and maternity leave.

Hospitality worker Lisa Pellegrino (pictured) claims a former boss did not contribute $6,500 to her super, despite it being listed on the 28-year-old's pay checks

In 2015, more than 5 per cent of the superannuation due - $3billion - was not paid by employers, according to the Australian Tax office (stock image)

SuperRating's founder Jeff Bresnahan told the program man millennials are not paying enough attention to their superannuation funds and encouraged people to change to MySuper accounts, which has a set low fee.

'If you've got a 2 per cent fee coming out of your account, year in, year out, versus a 1 per cent fee, then that could make something like a 30 to 40 per cent difference to your retirement benefit. It's like saying, 'Do you want to receive $500,000 or $750,000?' he told Four Corners.

Hospitality worker Lisa Pellegrino claims a former boss did not contribute $6,500 to her super, despite it being listed on the 28-year-old's pay checks.

In 2015, more than 5 per cent of the superannuation due - $3billion - was not paid by employers, according to the Australian Tax office.Remain supporters who refuse to accept the referendum result are like the Japanese soldier who surrendered nearly 30 years after the war ended, Jacob Rees-Mogg will say today.

In a major speech to mark one year before Brexit, the leading Eurosceptic MP will argue that Brexit will mean better government and more global influence.

Mr Rees-Mogg, chairman of the European Research Group of backbench Tory MPs will argue that leaving the EU will mean that the UK will be able to control its borders.

Rounding on those who want to reverse the referendum result, he will compare them to Mr Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who finally surrendered in 1974, having previously refused to believe that the Second World War had ended.

Jacob Rees-Mogg will give a major speech to mark one year before Brexit today and will argue Remain supporters are like Mr Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who finally surrendered in 1974, having previously refused to believe that the Second World War had ended

Brexit star wars! Now EU tries to cut us out of satellite project we funded Britain will threaten to block access to three vital island territories if it is cut out of an EU satellite project. The European Commission has warned the UKs involvement in the 8.5billion Galileo programme will have to be readjusted to reflect security fears about third nations after Brexit. Ministers are furious because Britain has given 350million to the project, which aims to build a European rival to the American GPS system. They fear UK companies could be frozen out of lucrative work  to the benefit of French rivals. Our armed forces might also be denied technology that helps planes, cars and mobile phones with pin-point navigation. Sources say ministers are preparing to remind the EU the project needs access to equipment on the Falklands and the Ascension Islands in the South Atlantic, and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, Business Secretary Greg Clark and Brexit Secretary David Davis will write to Theresa May setting out the UKs options. Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein said yesterday: Now is the right time to start thinking about adjusting co-operation with regard to Galileo. Advertisement

Last night Tony Blair insisted again that the country should hold a second referendum. The former prime minister said the public should be given the chance to revisit the most important political decision of their lifetimes once they know the full facts of the final deal.

He argued that it is the duty of Labour MPs to thwart Brexit and ensure that there is another vote on the terms of the agreement with the EU  before we leave.

But today, in a speech in central London, Mr Rees-Mogg will say that restoring Britains constitutional order will mean better government.

Politicians will no longer be able to evade the blame if things go wrong by saying it was decided elsewhere, they will have to take responsibility for their actions, he will say.

Equally it will not be possible to pretend that if it was not for a remote bureaucracy we would not make mistakes. Power and responsibility go hand-in-hand and will be reconnected once we have left the European Union.

Britains influence in the world will be boosted by taking seats on international bodies that are delegated to the EU such as the World Trade Organisation.

This will inevitably give us more influence because we will be there arguing our corner rather than leaving it to an EU representative to have to stand up for us, Mr Rees-Mogg will say. There is a world of opportunity ahead of us. Economically, leaving the European Union by getting rid of unfair, anti-competitive tariffs and by controlling our borders will help the least well off in society the most.

Constitutionally, we will be in charge of our own destiny [and] protected by our own laws. In international affairs, we will be setting our own direction, not hiding behind the skirts of the German chancellor.Jeremy Corbyn was forced into a grovelling apology last night as he was branded the poster boy of anti-Semites everywhere by a senior Labour MP.

As around 1,500 from the Jewish community protested outside Parliament, accusing the Labour leader of turning his party into a refuge for racists, he finally said sorry for supporting an anti-Semitic mural on Facebook.

In a letter to the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, Mr Corbyn admitted he had been too slow to act and pledged he would be a militant opponent of anti-Semitism. The organisations had accused him of siding with anti-Semites again and again.

Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies, had accused Mr Corbyn of swimming in a sewer that is totally polluted by anti-Semitism, adding: Finally, Jeremy, take some responsibility. Because Jeremy its you, and your leadership, that are responsible for this. Token words, token apologies, are no longer enough. We need to see action

Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge said she was deeply offended by persistent and pervasive anti-Semitism in and around her party

She said: 'While Jeremy is not himself anti-Semitic, he has allowed himself to become the poster boy of anti-Semites everywhere'

At least a dozen Labour MPs joined the protest. Wes Streeting, MP for Ilford North, said anti-Semitism was a stain on the conscience of the Labour Party as he called on Mr Corbyn to take action  such as expelling Ken Livingstone, who has been suspended over accusations of anti-Semitism  instead of issuing mealy-mouthed statements.

...As he's linked to third hate-filled online group The Labour leader was a member of a third Facebook group riddled with prejudice against Jews and Israel, it emerged last night. Jeremy Corbyn joined the Labour Party Supporter group seven years ago. The page is awash with anti-Semitic comments, references to Zionist scum and conspiracy theories linking Israel and the Islamic State terror group. One post labels Labour MP Stella Creasy a Zionist terrorist-supporting traitor. The group also features an offensive graphic about a solution to the Middle East problem. The post suggests that Israel should be relocated to the US. It was revealed earlier this month that Mr Corbyn had been a member of two other Facebook groups which feature anti-Semitic comments. Screenshots show he was a member of the Palestine Live group until around the time he became Labour leader in 2015. He was also a member of the History of Palestine Group which features anti-Semitic comments about the Rothschild family. A spokesman for Mr Corbyn, who is no longer a member of the Labour Party Supporter group, said the Labour leader did not see the anti-Semitic content, adding: Jeremy has never posted in the group, did not follow its content and was not an active participant. Advertisement

Around 100 hardline Corbyn supporters staged a counter-demonstration organised by Jewish Voice for Labour. Their spokesman, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, suggested the public would think Jews were interfering with the UK by attending the protest outside Parliament.

Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge said she was deeply offended by persistent and pervasive anti-Semitism in and around her party.

In a Facebook post, she wrote: While Jeremy is not himself anti-Semitic, he has allowed himself to become the poster boy of anti-Semites everywhere.

In his letter last night, Mr Corbyn apologised for questioning the removal of a controversial mural in the East End in 2012 without studying its content.

He wrote: I recognise that anti-Semitism has surfaced within the Labour Party, and has too often been dismissed as simply a matter of a few bad apples. This has caused pain and hurt to Jewish members of our party and to the wider Jewish community in Britain. I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused, and pledge to redouble my efforts to bring this anxiety to an end.

I must make it clear that I will never be anything other than a militant opponent of anti-Semitism.

Luciana Berger wrote to fellow Labour MPs last night on behalf of the Jewish Labour Movement to warn: We have faced consistent attack from within in our own party. We are told we only exist to weaponise anti-Semitism in order to undermine the leadership.A cult leader accused of branding female followers with his initials as part of an initiation ceremony has been arrested in Mexico and charged with sex-trafficking.

Keith Raniere, 57, was taken into custody by Mexican authorities after he was found at a luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta on Sunday.

Raniere was extradited to Fort Worth, Texas on Monday and charged with sex trafficking and forced labor conspiracy.

He is the leader of the secretive New York-based group called NXIVM.

Sex cult leader Keith Raniere, 57, was taken into custody by Mexican authorities and deported back to the US after he was found at a luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta on Sunday

The group, which has been described by former members as a 'sex cult', claims to be a self-help organization that operates centers in US, Mexico, Canada and South America.

It emerged last year that the Dalai Lama was paid $1 million to speak to 3,000 NXIVM followers and place a khata - a traditional ceremonial Tibetan scarf - around Raniere's neck.

Raniere left the US last year after the New York Times reported that some women who joined a group in his organization had been branded with a symbol that included his initials.

The women told investigators they were subjected to 'master-slave' conditions that involved physical punishments for disobeying orders.

Raniere is due to face court on Tuesday, according to a federal criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York.

'As alleged in the complaint, Keith Raniere created a secret society of women whom he had sex with and branded with his initials, coercing them with the threat of releasing their highly personal information and taking their assets,' US attorney Richard P. Donoghue said.

Many DOS slaves were branded on their pelvic areas using a cauterizing pen with a symbol which, unbeknownst to them, incorporated Raniere's initials, according to past members

The complaint says Raniere founded NXIVM about 20 years ago and held a series of purported self-help workshops.

Since NXIVM's creation, Raniere has maintained poly-amorous relationships with its members, according to the complaint.

Courses associated with the group costs thousands of dollars each and participants are encouraged to pay for additional classes and to recruit others in order to rise within the ranks of NXIVM.

According to the complaint, Raniere created a secret society within Nxivm called DOS in 2015, which loosely translated to 'Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions', or 'The Vow'.

DOS operated with levels of women slaves headed by masters and most were recruited from within NXIVM's ranks.

When new DOS slaves were recruited, they were required to provide collateral, which included highly damaging information about friends and family members, nude photographs and/or rights to the recruit's assets.

The complaint says DOS slaves feared that their collateral could be released by the group if they left.

Smallville actress Allison Mack was considering a high-ranking member of the cult and was believed to have been second in charge to Raniere

Former Dynasty star Catherine Oxenberg had previously met with prosecutors in New York to detail her daughter India's experience in the group

Many DOS slaves were branded on their pelvic areas using a cauterizing pen with a symbol which, unbeknownst to them, incorporated Raniere's initials, according to the court documents.

During the branding ceremonies, slaves were required to be fully naked and a master would order one slave to film the branding while the others restrained the slave being branded.

Smallville actress Allison Mack was considering a high-ranking member of the cult and was believed to have been second in charge to Raniere.

Former Dynasty star Catherine Oxenberg had previously met with prosecutors in New York to detail her daughter's experience in the group.

Oxenberg, through her lawyers at Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss, said she hoped Raniere's arrest would go as far as reuniting her with her daughter.

'I want to help all the young women affected by this cult. They are the victims of human trafficking, which is slavery,' she said.

'For months, I have worked to expose Keith Raniere and Nxivm and today's arrest vindicates my efforts.

'I want my daughter to know I love her and that I want her back in my life.'

If convicted, Raniere is facing up to life in prison.

'As alleged, Keith Raniere displayed a disgusting abuse of power in his efforts to denigrate and manipulate women he considered his sex slaves,' FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney said.

'He allegedly participated in horrifying acts of branding and burning them, with the cooperation of other women operating within this unorthodox pyramid scheme.

'These serious crimes against humanity are not only shocking, but disconcerting to say the least, and we are putting an end to this torture today.'A Missouri man was shocked to find a pit bull chained up in the basement of the house he was moving into.

The unnamed man called the Stray Rescue of St Louis after he found the pooch chained up with no food or water and surrounded by her own excrement.

According to the group, when the man called, he said: 'I just bought a house and there is a pit bull chained up in the basement. I'm not sure how long it's been down there.'

A man was shocked to find a pit bull chained up in the basement of the house he was moving into in St Louis, Missouri

The unnamed man called the Stray Rescue of St Louis after he found the pooch chained up with no food or water and surrounded by her own excrement.

When rescuers arrived, they were told that a squatter had been staying at the home and had left behind garbage, debris and the dog

When rescuers arrived, they were told that a squatter had been staying at the home and had left behind garbage, debris and the dog, according to The Dodo.

'When we opened the door to the basement and shined our flashlight down, we saw a wagging tail,' Natalie Thomson, the group's communications director, told the website.

'She was nearly choking herself as she was so excited to see us. When we freed her, she couldn't stop jumping up and down and giving hugs.'

It is currently unclear who left the dog behind or why, but it is certain that the canine would not have survived for long.

'There was no food or water bowls that we could see,' Thomson said. 'She was not spayed and had no microchip.'

It is currently unclear who left the dog behind or why, but it is certain that the canine would not have survived for long

Due to the dog's excitement upon seeing her rescuers, she was named Jumping Bean

Jumping Bean is currently being housed at the organization's shelter and is waiting to be adopted

Due to the dog's excitement upon seeing her rescuers, she was named Jumping Bean.

'Her personality is completely adorable,' Thomson said.

'She loves everyone she meets and craves attention. She makes sure she is not ignored! She's an energetic and very affectionate pup! She is so happy all the time.'

Jumping Bean is currently being housed at the organization's shelter and is waiting to be adopted.Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has said 'I don't care about diversity' and that it 'isn't important any more', it was reported Monday.

CNN said that 'several employees' in the Interior Department had heard Zinke say make the point that he would not focus on diversity at the agency.

The network said three high-ranking officials from different parts of it had heard him say 'I really don't think that's important any more.'

He then followed his comments by saying 'what's important is having the right person for the right job' or 'I care about excellence, and I'm going to get the best people, and you'll find we have the most diverse group anyone's ever had;, sources told it.

The claim comes after Zinke was accused of insensitivity for saying 'konnichiwa' to a Japanese-American congresswoman who was questioning him on funding for memorials to Japanese-Americans rounded up and interned during World War II.

'I don't really think that's important any more.' What Ryan Zinke, Trump's interior secretary, is alleged to have said about diversity

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke put his foot in his mouth during a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee

He is also under investigation over his spending on travel and facing scrutiny for an order for new office doors which cost more than $100,000.

His spokeswoman Heather Swift - who is white - pushed back strongly against the report of the comments about diversity claiming that: 'As a woman who has worked for him for a number of years in senior positions, I say without a doubt this claim is untrue, and I am hopeful that they are a result of a misunderstanding and not a deliberate mistruth.'

She also highlighted that he had appointed two women and an African-American to senior roles and said: 'Zinke has filled several other senior positions at the career and appointed level with individuals from diverse backgrounds.'

CNN however said that he had make the comments during a meet and greet shortly after his appointment was confirmed by the Senate and was asked directly about diversity.

'(Zinke) flat out said, "I don't really think that's important anymore. We don't need to focus on that anymore",' the source told CNN.

Other sources said he had repeated the comment to a different group of employees and at a holiday party, while a third person, whom the news network said was a minority man, said he had heard a similar comment 'during a management meeting'.

The Interior Department is disproportionately white, official figures suggest.

More than 70 per cent of its 68,000 employees are non-Hispanic white, compared to 62 per cent of the population.

One woman seated behind Zinke was visibly horrified by his Japanese greeting

Zinke has already stirred controversy by reassigning 33 senior staff who are non-political appointees.

One of them quit and is suing. His attorney told CNN she believes that out of the 33, 15 are minorities.

The diversity comments come after Pruit doubled down on his use of 'konnichiwa'.

The Arizona Republic reported that Zinke was asked about his use of the word 'konnichiwa' while touring the U.S-Mexico border in Arizona earlier this month.

Zinke told reporters: 'How could ever saying 'good morning' be bad?'

Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, of Hawaii, asked Zinke on Thursday March 15 whether he would continue a program that preserves sites where Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II.

Zinke replied with 'konnichiwa' - a Japanese greeting typically spoken in the afternoon.

The Democratic congresswoman corrected him and used the Japanese phrase for good morning.

'I think it's still 'Ohayo gozaimasu',' she shot back, correcting him. 'But that's okay.'

In a statement Saturday, Hanabusa said 'this is precisely why Japanese Americans were treated as they were more than 75 years ago. It is racial stereotyping.'

Video footage shot in the House Natural Resources Committee hearing room showed a woman in the audience behind Zinke with a horrified look on her face.

Hawaii Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono was equally horrified.

'The internment of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans is no laughing matter, @SecretaryZinke, Hirono tweeted. 'What you thought was a clever response to @RepHanabusa was flippant & juvenile.'

Hirono is the first female Asian-American U.S. senator, and the first senator born on Japanese soil.

Sen. Mazie Hirono slammed Zinke as 'flippant and juvenile,' while Hanabusa called his gaffe a 'teachable moment'

This photo shows Japanese-Americans in Los Angeles being rounded up in April 1942 before being taken to internment camps under 'War Emergency Orders' issued by the U.S. ArmyLinda Brown has died at the age of 76 leaving behind a legacy as the girl that inspired the Supreme Court decision to end racial segregation in schools

Linda Brown, who made history as the Kansas girl who ended racial segregation in public schools, has died at the age of 76.

The Topeka girl was just nine years old when her father Oliver Brown tried to enroll her at Sumner Elementary School, an all white school in 1951.

When the school refused to allow the black pupil to enroll, her father sued the Topeka Board of Education.

The lawsuit led to the famous 1954 Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education.

Linda's father was lead plaintiff in the case that saw the Supreme Court end school segregation.

Linda Brown died Sunday afternoon at the Peaceful Rest Funeral Chapel in Topeka.

Her sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson, founding president of The Brown Foundation, confirmed the death to The Topeka Capital-Journal.

Brown is pictured front center in an all-black classroom at Monroe School in Topeka in 1953, one year before her lawsuit deemed such racial segregation illegal

Brown (left) is pictured in an undated photo in a classroom with white peers after the Supreme Court case centered on her ended racial segregation in schools across the nation

Brown stands in front of Sumner School in Topeka, Kansas, in 1964 where she was refused enrollment when she was nine, causing her father Oliver Brown to file the 1954 lawsuit

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the famous Supreme Court decision she inspired she spoke at Purdue University in 2004 to share her experience growing up in segregated Topeka

Her family has not commented on her passing.

Her legacy is not only renown in Kansas, but nationwide, according to Kansas Deputy Education Commissioner Dale Dennis.

He says the effect she had 'on our society would be unbelievable and insurmountable.'

'This is a huge loss to our community,' Topeka mayor Michelle De La Isla said.

'We will continue to champion civil rights. When you look at the diversity of our community, I think were already honoring her legacy,' she added.

'Sixty-four years ago a young girl from Topeka brought a case that ended segregation in public schools in America. Linda Brown's life reminds us that sometimes the most unlikely people can have an incredible impact and that by serving our community we can truly change the world,' Kansas governor Jeff Colyer said in a statement on Twitter.

In 1951 after Linda was denied enrollment at Sumner Elementary, she attended Monroe Elementary School where she sat in an all-black classroom.

Just three years later her father's efforts - working with the parents of five other black children who also rallied to integrate schools - would change the face of public schools forever.

Oliver Brown joined a dozen other plaintiffs to form a NAACP legal challenge of segregation in Kansas schools, according to CNN.

Brown, third from left, was one of six children involved in the civil rights lawsuit that challenged racial segregation in public schools, pictured in 1953

Linda (left) sits with three other black students whose parents also filed lawsuits against their school boards in an effort to integrate schools, 10 years after the victory in 1964

Brown (right) poses with her two children in 1974 in Topeka, Kansas, where at age nine she was at the center of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case

At the 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling banning racial segregation in schools, Linda Brown Smith, left, listens to NAACP executive director Benjamin L Hooks at a ceremony in Columbus, South Carolina in May 1979

The lawsuit saw the US Supreme Court rule unanimously that 'separate but equal' schools violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution's 14th Amendment in May 1954.

In 1985 Linda reflected on her father's lawsuit for the documentary series Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years.

'My father was like a lot of other black parents here in Topeka at that time. They were concerned not about the quality of education that their children were receiving, they were concerned about the amount -- or distance, that the child had to go to receive an education,' she said.

'He felt that it was wrong for black people to have to accept second-class citizenship, and that meant being segregated in their schools, when in fact, there were schools right in their neighborhoods that they could attend, and they had to go clear across town to attend an all-black school,' she added.

'And this is one of the reasons that he became involved in this suit, because he felt that it was wrong for his child to have to go so far a distance to receive a quality education,' she said.

On May 4, 1987 both of the elementary schools she attended - Monroe and Sumner - became National Historic Landmarks.Uber's self-driving cars were 400 times worse than Waymo before the fatal Arizona crash, according to a leaked internal report.

The firm's cars were unable to reach 13 miles (21km) without human intervention, while cars made by the Google subsidiary Waymo could drive 5,600 miles (9,000km).

According to a 100-page company document, Uber was also struggling to meet various other safety goals in the weeks before the crash.

For instance, the cars were having trouble driving through construction zones and next to tall vehicles.

The CEO of Google's Waymo has since said that the recent death of a pedestrian in an accident involving an autonomous Uber car would not have occurred with his company's technology.

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According to a 100-page company document, Uber was also struggling to meet safety goals in the weeks before the crash. An image from a test in Pittsburgh last winter is pictured

'At Waymo, we have a lot of confidence that our technology would be able to handle a situation like that,' John Krafcik told a car dealership conference in Las Vegas on Saturday.

He added that Waymo's vehicles had clocked more than eight million kilometers (4.9 million miles) on routes frequented by pedestrians since 2009 without being involved in a fatal accident.

But he said he was nevertheless troubled by the incident when an autonomously-operating Uber struck and killed a pedestrian on March 18 in the US state of Arizona.

The woman had been walking in the street in the city of Tempe when she was hit, and died from her injuries in a hospital.

As a result of the accident, Uber suspended its self-driving tests which it had been conducting in Tempe, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Toronto, Canada.

It also raised fears about the future of such cars, which supporters claim will dramatically reduce accidents.

According to the company document obtained by The New York Times and two people familiar with the issue, prior to the accident Uber's test drivers were being asked to do too much.

For example they were told to go on solo runs when they were meant to work in pairs.

The CEO of Waymo, John Krafcik, tasked with developing driverless cars, has said the recent death of a pedestrian in an accident involving an autonomous car would not have occurred with his company's technology

The second person was in charge of tracking the system's performance as well as labelling data on a laptop.

Some employees expressed concerns over safety and said they worried going solo would make it harder to remain alert during hours of driving.

Sources suggests one driver was also fired for falling asleep at the wheel.

Another was spotted air drumming as the autonomous car passed through an intersection.

Police in Arizona are still investigating the incident and have released footage of the moment Elaine Herzberg, 49, was hit by the self-driving Volvo SUV. According to a 100-page company document, Uber was also struggling to meet safety goals in the weeks before the crash

As a result of the accident, Uber suspended its self-driving tests which it had been conducting in Tempe, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Toronto, Canada. This image shows National Transportation Safety Board investigators examining the self-driving Uber vehicle involved in the fatal accident

HOW DID AN UBER AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE HIT AND KILL A WOMAN IN ARIZONA? A self-driving Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in the first death involving a fully autonomous test vehicle on March 19, 2018. The accident prompted the ride-hailing company to suspend road-testing of such cars in the US and Canada. The Volvo SUV was in self-driving mode with a human back-up operator behind the wheel in Tempe when a woman walking a bicycle was hit. Elaine Herzberg, 49, died in hospital. Police have said that the victim, 49 year old Elaine Herzberg, stepped out in front of the car suddenly and they do not believe the car was to blame. Uber suspended its self-driving vehicle testing in the Phoenix area, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. The testing has been going on for months as car makers and technology companies compete to be the first with cars that operate on their own. Uber's self-driving car crash that led to the death of a mother-of-two could have been avoided, driverless vehicle experts have claimed. Cortica, a firm that develops artificial intelligence for autonomous vehicles, has analysed the dash cam video. The company concludes the car, which failed to brake or swerve before the collision, had enough time to react and potentially save Ms Herzberg's life. Speaking to CNET, Cortica's CEO Igal Raichelgauz said the firm's self-driving AI system detected Ms Herzberg 0.9 seconds before impact. At this point the car was around 50 feet (15 metres) away. He said the autonomous car's cameras and radar system should have had enough time to pick up the pedestrian and react to the situation. Driverless cars are fitted with a system of cameras, radar and lidar sensors that allow them to 'see' their surroundings and detect traffic, pedestrians and other objects. An AI computer system then decides what actions the car takes to avoid a collision - a setup that is supposed to work as well at night as during the day. A top executive for the maker of Lidar sensors used on Uber's self-driving car said she was 'baffled' as to why the vehicle failed to recognise Ms Herzberg. Advertisement

Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber's chief executive, was due to visit Arizona in April.

People working in the development group were under pressure to give him an issue-free ride in an autonomous car.

The trip was called 'Milestone 1: Confidence' in the company documents, writes Wral Tech Wire.

It is still unclear how the crash affects the company's long-term plans.

The company said their vehicles would have to be safer than human drivers before they would commercialise it.

'As we develop self-driving technology, safety is our primary concern every step of the way,' said Matt Kallman, an Uber spokesman.

'We're heartbroken by what happened this week, and our cars remain grounded. We continue to assist investigators in any way we can.'

The woman had been walking in the street in the city of Tempe when she was hit, and died from her injuries in a hospital. Pictured is the mother-of-two's bicycle following the incident

The footage appears to back up Vasquez's (left) claims that she was alert during the ride and nothing she could have done would have prevented the fatal collision. She told police that Herzberg (right) stepped out in front of her with a bicycle carrying multiple shopping bags'Emotional' robots have taken a step closer to reality, thanks to a mind-reading machine capable of mimicking human feelings.

The robot, named Charles, is equipped with cameras and software that can record and analyse a person's facial expressions.

This information is then relayed to artificial muscles on the robot, which can replicate facial movements associated with a variety of moods.

Experts at Cambridge University hope that the breakthrough will help robots respond to subtle cues revealed by people during a conversation.

The development could aid the creation of robots that can think and feel like people, which some researchers claim could be a reality within the next decade.

Creating more lifelike robots has taken a step closer to reality, thanks to a 'mind-reading' machine capable of mimicking human facial expressions. Scientists created an automaton that can record and analyse subtle gestures on a person's face during conversation

Charles is the creation of Professor Peter Robinson from the University of Cambridge's department of computer science, who worked with Hanson Robotics to design the machine.

The robot is equipped with specialised software that can read people's faces, including movements of the eyebrows, jaw, mouth and elsewhere, recorded by an on-board camera.

Charles then recreates their expression, mirroring their muscular movements using its own mechanical servomotors.

The whole process takes around two to three seconds.

Speaking to the Cambridge News, Professor Robinson said: 'We've been interested in seeing if we can give computers the ability to understand social signals, to understand facial expressions, tone of voice, body posture and gesture.

'We thought it would also be interesting to see if the computer system, the machine, could actually exhibit those same characteristics, and see if people engage with it more because it is showing the sort of responses in it's facial expressions that a person would show. So we had Charles made.'

Charles is the creation of Professor Peter Robinson from the University of Cambridge's department of computer science, who worked with Hanson Robotics to design the machine

The robot is equipped with specialised software that can read people's faces, including movements of the eyebrows, jaw, mouth and elsewhere, recorded by an on-board camera

Charles then recreates their expression, mirroring their muscular movements using its own mechanical servomotors

Professor Robinson says Charles came about thanks to research into emotionally intelligent computer interfaces.

However, he does admit that his creation does need some work to improve his expressions.

'Charles is remarkably realistic, the prosthetics are very good, but the motors are just not like human muscles,' Professor Robinson added.

'Our control programmes are just not quite fine enough and the monitoring of the human face we're using at the moment is just not quite good enough and so it looks unnatural.'

This is not the first time that robots with lifelike faces have been created.

Roboticist David Hanson, who is responsible for building Charles, envisions a future in which AI-powered robots evolve to become 'super-intelligent genius machines' that might help solve some of mankind's most challenging problems.

The Texas-born former sculptor at Walt Disney Imagineering and his Hong Kong-based startup Hanson Robotics are combining artificial intelligence with southern China's expertise in toy design, electronics and manufacturing to craft humanoid 'social robots'.

These come with faces designed to be lifelike and appealing enough to win trust from humans who interact with them.

Mr Hanson, 49, is perhaps best known as the creator of Sophia, a talk show-going robot partly modelled on Audrey Hepburn that he calls his 'masterpiece.'

In May, Dr Mark Sagar who is the CEO of Soul Machines, said that robots that can think and feel like people could soon be living among us.

He claimed responsive robots could be a common sight in businesses and homes around the world within the next ten years.

His Auckland-based firm has used computer graphics to develop stunning renderings of virtual people, that can mimic natural facial movements like blinking and smiling.

But behind this attractive exterior is advanced software, a type of virtual nervous system, that can learn and even mimic human emotions.Apple has its first big event of 2018 scheduled for tomorrow, and the Cupertino company may use it to announce a new iPad and MacBook.

The firm's education-focused Spring 2018 event will push 'creative new ideas for teachers and students' according to invites sent to members of the media.

Several Apple products could see a refresh, including low-cost iPad and MacBook models, new education software and a revamped Apple Pencil.

Here's everything you need to know about the event, which starts at 4pm BST (11am ET) Tuesday at the Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago.

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Apple has its first big event of 2018 scheduled for Tuesday and rumours suggest the firm may use it to announce a new iPad and MacBook. The firm's education-focussed Spring 2018 event (logo pictured) will focus on 'creative new ideas for teachers and students'

A cheaper iPad model

Apple may be preparing to release a new iPad that is its cheapest model yet at Tuesday's event.

The new version of its iPad should appeal to the education market, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg last week.

It's been rumoured for several months that Apple was considering releasing a low-cost iPad.

The cheapest model available right now is Apple's 230 ($329) iPad, which was released last year.

The forthcoming iPad is said to be priced at about 180 ($259).

Classrooms are a highly sought after market because they can serve as the breeding ground for future, or even lifetime, Apple customers.

Apple may be preparing to release a new iPad that is its cheapest model yet at Tuesday's event. The new version of its iPad should appeal to the education market, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg last week (stock image)

A low-cost MacBook or MacBook Air

Many are holding out hope that Apple will release a cheaper MacBook model.

Over the past few months, several reports have suggested Apple will release an affordable 13-inch MacBook laptop at its education event.

The gadget, which will likely cost less than 700 ($1,000_, is set to replace Apple's lightweight MacBook Air, according to Bloomberg.

The laptop was introduced a decade ago but hasn't seen a major change since 2010.

Many are holding out hope that Apple will release a cheaper MacBook model. Over the past few months, several reports have suggested Apple will release an affordable 13-inch MacBook laptop at its education event (stock image)

With new MacBook and iPad models, Apple is trying to carve out a greater share of the education market after it ceded its once-dominant position to rivals Google and Microsoft.

Students are now more likely to purchase Google's Chromebooks and Microsoft's Surface laptops over an iPad or MacBook, which are significantly more expensive than their rival products.

While it may be working on a new 13-inch MacBook model, Apple probably won't have it ready by Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.

Students are now more likely to purchase Google's Chromebooks and Microsoft's Surface laptops over an iPad or MacBook, which are significantly more expensive than their rival products

AirPower and AirPods Wireless Charging Case

Revealed alongside the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus in September 2017, the AirPower is an inductive charging mat that can wirelessly recharge Apple devices.

Apple is unlikely to market AirPower specifically to educational institutions, but rumours have hinted at a March release for the much-hyped device.

When it debuted the AirPower, Apple said it could charge Qi-based iPhones, Apple's wireless AirPod earphones and the Apple Watch Series 3 at the same time.

Some reports have suggested the firm will introduce a new charging case at tomorrow's event for its AirPods.

AirPods will have to be loaded into the revamped case to charge through the AirPower mat, according to some sources.

Images of the charging port revealed last September show a small box laying next to an iPhone X and Apple Watch Series 3, all charging at the same time.

Revealed in September 2017, the AirPower (pictured) is an inductive charging mat that can wirelessly recharge Apple devices. Apple said it could charge Qi-based iPhones (left), Apple's wireless AirPod earphones (right) and the Apple Watch Series 3 (centre) at the same time

Revamped Apple Pencil

The Apple Pencil, released in 2015, is a 100 ($140) digital stylus pen that works as an input device for the iPad Pro.

The Apple Pencil, released in 2015, is a 100 ($140) digital stylus pen that works as an input device for the iPad Pro

The invitation sent to members of the media for Tuesday's Apple event appears as if it were drawn using an Apple Pencil.

This has led some to speculate the firm may announce a new version of the stylus on Tuesday.

It's possible a lower-cost Apple Pencil could be introduced in tandem with the new low-cost iPad, which would be appealing to schools.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who often has insight into Apple's plans, said last week that he expects Apple Pencil shipments will rise to 9 to 10 million units in 2018 'given that the new low-cost iPad may support Apple Pencil.'

'In a bid to strengthen its selling points and to differentiate it more from low-price Android tablets, the new low-price 9.7-inch iPad (starting mass production in 2Q18) will likely support Apple Pencil,' he said.

IS APPLE BUILDING A STYLUS THAT CAN DRAW IN MID-AIR? Apple recently filed a patent that shows off a stylus that can draw in mid-air. The patent was originally filed in July 2016, but was made public January 18, 2018. The pen-like device can be operated without a touch-sensitive device, such as a touchscreen tablet or smartphone . It would have a force sensor in the tip of the device that detects whether it's lifting off or touching on a device. A 'motion and orientation sensor,' such as a camera, would track the movement of the stylus. It seems plausible that the camera feed could come from a computer webcam. Apple's current stylus, the Apple Pencil, is due for an upgrade since being released in September 2015. It's unclear if Apple is actually building a stylus that draws in mid-air, but if it is, this could be the next generation stylus to follow the original Apple Pencil. Advertisement

New iPhone X colours

Apple may unveil its flagship iPhone X and perhaps the cheaper iPhone 8 and 8 Plus models in new colours according to some reports.

Last week images surfaced of a 'blush gold' iPhone X model that the firm could announce at Tuesday's event.

Apple offered the iPhone X only in Silver and Space Gray at launch, and a new colour could lure more people to upgrade following the Christmas period.

At last year's March Apple event, the firm introduced a red iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and it may release its newest smartphones in a similar colour scheme this year.

Apple could release a new version of its iPhone SE2, the company's smallest and cheapest smartphone (pictured)

iPhone SE2

Apple could release a new version of its iPhone SE2, the company's smallest and cheapest smartphone.

While some sources have suggested Apple is working on a new version of the gadget on Tuesday.

But KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo does not believe the firm has the spare development resources available to dedicate to an iPhone SE this year.

He said Apple is more likely focussing on three new smartphones that many believed will be announced in September.

New iPhone cases and Apple Watch bands

On top of new gadgets that could be announced in Chicago, Apple may also reveal new accessories for its current range of devices.

The company announced a new collection of spring Apple Watch band colours on March 21, which may go on sale following Tuesday's event.

Rumours have hinted at a new range of iPhone and iPad cases in refreshed colours that could be announced at the same time.

iOS 11.3 with ClassKit

iOS 11.3 is also nearing the end of its testing run and Apple has previously promised to release the software update in spring 2018.

The operating system update includes a new Classroom 2.2 app, which is designed to turn the iPad into an assistant device for schoolteachers.

iOS 11.3, due for release this spring, includes a new Classroom 2.2 app, which is designed to turn the iPad into an assistant device for schoolteachers (pictured)

Classroom is designed to help teachers deliver assignments to students and track their progress.

iOS 11.3 also features a ClassKit 'framework' to help developers build educational apps that teachers can use with the Classroom app.

While it is unlikely Apple will launch iOS 11.3 at tomorrow's event, experts have suggested the firm could announce a spring release date.

Other educational announcements

A host of other educational announcements are expected at the event, which Apple has said it will not livestream.

The company will likely provide an update on its Everyone Can Code curriculum for students - coding lessons Apple is running for schoolchildren across the US.

It also runs a dedicated App Development With Swift curriculum for US-based community colleges, which is a full-year coding course.Ride-hailing giant Uber has sold its south-east Asia business to its leading rival Grab marking a further retreat from international operations.

It comes after Uber also pulled out of China and Russia in recent years and as new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi attempts to turn the firm#s fortunes around.

Under the terms of the deal, Uber will take a 27.5 per cent stake in Grab, which offers ride-sharing, food delivery, bicycle hire and financial services.

US firm Uber will also have a seat on Grab's board.

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Ride-hailing giant Uber is selling its Southeast Asia operation to its leading rival Grab marking a further retreat from international operations. Under the terms of the deal, Uber will take a 27.5 per cent stake in Grab, which operates ridesharing and food delivery services

Grab functions across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and Cambodia, handling more than a billion transactions a year.

Chief executive and co-founder Anthony Tan said the Uber deal 'marks the beginning of a new era' in using mobile businesses to provide an array of services.

While Uber is the world's biggest ride-hailing company, it proved no match in south- east Asia by homegrown upstart Grab, which knew better how to navigate the chaotic highways and byways of an eclectic region.

'Grab is more familiar with its home territory, south-east Asia,' said Song Seng Wun, a regional economist with CIMB Private Bank.

'They saw the Uber model and tweaked it to adapt to local conditions, giving Southeast Asians what they want.'

After a years-long fight that cost both companies huge sums as they aggressively slashed fares and rolled out special offers, Uber threw in the towel Monday and sold its ride-sharing and food delivery services to Grab for an undisclosed sum.

Grab said it plans to expand its food delivery business to Singapore and Malaysia after integrating it with Uber Eats.

Grab functions across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and Cambodia, handling more than a billion transactions a year

WHAT IS GRAB AND WHY IS IT BUYING UBER'S SOUTHEAST ASIA OPERATIONS? Founded in 2012 as GrabTaxi, Grab operates ridesharing, food delivery, bicycle hire and financial services in parts of Asia. It functions across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and Cambodia, handling a billion transactions a year. In November 2017, Grab claimed to have two million driving partners, 68 million mobile app downloads, and 3.5 million daily rides. US ride-hailing service Uber has announced it is selling its Southeast Asia operations to Grab in a landmark deal. Founded in 2012 as GrabTaxi, Grab operates ridesharing, food delivery, bicycle hire and financial services in parts of Asia. Pictured are models with Grab cars in Phnom Penh during the firm's launch in Cambodia in December 2017 Under the terms of the deal, Uber will take a 27.5 per cent stake in Grab. Uber may be the world's biggest ride-hailing company but it was left in the dust in Southeast Asia by homegrown upstart Grab, which knew better how to navigate the chaotic highways and byways of an eclectic region. The deal enables Uber to keep a foothold in the increasingly affluent market of 640 million people while cutting its losses. Grab said it plans to expand its food delivery business to Singapore and Malaysia after integrating it with Uber Eats. The company also plans to expand GrabCycle for shared bicycles and 'personal mobility devices' and is planning GrabShuttle services for on-demand bus routes. The move marks part of Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's plan to turn the company's fortunes around after a slew of scandals last year. Since becoming CEO in September, Khosrowshahi has manoeuvred to make the company profitable ahead of an initial public offering expected next year. Advertisement

The company also plans to expand GrabCycle for shared bicycles and 'personal mobility devices' and is planning GrabShuttle services for on-demand bus routes.

Uber drivers will switch to the Grab online platform and the Uber app will stop working in Asia in two weeks.

Since taking the top job last year, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been attempting to make the company profitable before a mooted initial public offering.

Grab said it plans to expand its food delivery business to Singapore and Malaysia after integrating it with Uber Eats. Pictured are Grab and Uber offices in Singapore, where Grab's headquarters are based

Uber saw an annual net loss of 3.2 billion ($4.5 billion) in 2017 in the wake of several scandals, including the departure of its co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick.

The deal enables Uber to keep a foothold in the increasingly affluent market of 640 million people while cutting its losses.

'It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology to create the best customer experience on the planet,' Khosrowshahi said in a statement.

It comes after Uber also pulled out of China and Russia in recent years and as new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi attempts to turn its fortunes around

HOW DID AN UBER AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE HIT AND KILL A WOMAN IN ARIZONA? A self-driving Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in the first death involving a fully autonomous test vehicle on March 19, 2018. The accident prompted the ride-hailing company to suspend road-testing of such cars in the US and Canada. The Volvo SUV was in self-driving mode with a human back-up operator behind the wheel in Tempe when a woman walking a bicycle was hit. Elaine Herzberg, 49, died in hospital. Police have said that the victim, 49 year old Elaine Herzberg, stepped out in front of the car suddenly and they do not believe the car was to blame. Uber suspended its self-driving vehicle testing in the Phoenix area, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto. The testing has been going on for months as car makers and technology companies compete to be the first with cars that operate on their own. Uber's self-driving car crash that led to the death of a mother-of-two could have been avoided, driverless vehicle experts have claimed. Cortica, a firm that develops artificial intelligence for autonomous vehicles, has analysed the dash cam video. The company concludes the car, which failed to brake or swerve before the collision, had enough time to react and potentially save Ms Herzberg's life. Speaking to CNET, Cortica's CEO Igal Raichelgauz said the firm's self-driving AI system detected Ms Herzberg 0.9 seconds before impact. At this point the car was around 50 feet (15 metres) away. He said the autonomous car's cameras and radar system should have had enough time to pick up the pedestrian and react to the situation. Driverless cars are fitted with a system of cameras, radar and lidar sensors that allow them to 'see' their surroundings and detect traffic, pedestrians and other objects. An AI computer system then decides what actions the car takes to avoid a collision - a setup that is supposed to work as well at night as during the day. A top executive for the maker of Lidar sensors used on Uber's self-driving car said she was 'baffled' as to why the vehicle failed to recognise Ms Herzberg. Advertisement

The deal was dismaying to many in Asia who have often compared the rival apps in search of the best deal.

Grab has been seeking to dominate the regional market for car and motorbike hailing and has expanded into other areas.

It recently announced plans to partner with a Japanese credit card company to provide credit to millions of people without bank accounts.

The deal was dismaying to many in Asia who have often compared the rival apps in search of the best deal. In this image an Uber rider talks with a Grab rider in Jakarta, Indonesia

In Indonesia, the region's biggest economy and most populous country with more than 250 million people, it's in a fierce battle for customers with local app Go-Jek, which has backing from Google and Tencent.

In China, Uber has sold off its local business to competitor Didi Chuxing, also taking a stake in the Asian firm.

In Indonesia, Grab is in a fierce battle for customers with Go-Jek, which has backing from Google

In Russia, it agreed to merge its ride-hailing business in the country with local player Yandex.

Following a string of public scandals, including problems around driver pay and accusations of a company culture of sexual harassment and bullying, Uber appears to be recovering from heavy losses made during its last financial year.

The company narrowed its fourth-quarter loss to 0.77 billion ($1.1 billion) from a loss of 1 billion ($1.46 billion) in the previous quarter.

Uber said last week that it would pay 170 million ($245 million) worth of its own shares to Alphabet Incs Waymo self-driving vehicle unit to settle a legal dispute over trade secrets with self-driving cars.

The deal allows Ubers chief executive to move past one of the companys most bruising public controversies.

Earlier this month, the company sparked controversy again when one of its self-driving cars struck and killed a pedestrian in the first death involving a fully autonomous test vehicle on March 19, 2018.

The deal enables Uber to keep a foothold in the increasingly affluent market of 640 million people while cutting its losses. In this image an Uber rider checks used helmets at a store in Jakarta, Indonesia

The accident prompted the ride-hailing company to suspend road-testing of such cars in the US and Canada.

The Volvo SUV was in self-driving mode with a human back-up operator behind the wheel in Tempe when a woman walking a bicycle was hit.

Elaine Herzberg, 49, died in hospital.

Police have said that the victim, 49 year old Elaine Herzberg, stepped out in front of the car suddenly and they do not believe the car was to blame.Sprinkling table salt in to the sky 11 miles above our planet could slow the pace of global warming, scientists have suggested.

This latest 'geo-engineering' plan could halt rising temperatures by reflecting more of the sun's rays, scientists say.

It is hoped that the particles of salt will reflect the sun's energy back into space, stopping it from warming up Earth.

The bizarre concept is based on the similar cooling effect of volcano eruptions on the atmosphere.

However, such geoengineering plans are not without controversy.

Some scientists warn artificially cooling Earth to counter global warming could destroy our planet if the process is abruptly stopped.

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Sprinkling table salt in to the sky 11 miles above our planet could slow the pace of global warming, scientists have suggested (stock image)

Geo-engineering is seen as a 'plan B' against climate change, to come into effect if the global agreements on reducing greenhouse gasses fails.

Previously experts have suggested a giant helium balloon the size of Wembley Stadium could pump droplets of sulphates and aerosol particles into the stratosphere.

Another eccentric plan involved flying a giant mirror into space to reflect the sun's rays, writes The Times.

Robert Nelson, a senior researcher at the US Planetary Science Institute proposed the latest idea at a conference in Texas.

He thought of it while studying dwarf planet Ceres which is the largest object in the asteroid belt. It has white blotches which are believed to be the result of brine.

Dr Nelson realised he could create similar white blotches on Earth using sodium chloride, or ordinary table salt.

He said sprinkling table salt into the upper troposphere would make the atmosphere whiter and would not negatively effect weather systems.

He believes it would be the most readily available, safe and reflective substance for the job.

He also looked at the possibility of using aluminium oxide and sulphur dixoide which have been associated with causing lung diseases and acid rain.

'We note the serious concerns regarding potential unintended consequences associated with geo-engineering concepts,' Dr Nelson said.

Scientists say sprinkling table salt into the upper troposphere would make the atmosphere whiter and would not negatively effect weather systems

He proposed testing his hypothesis above an area expected to be badly affected by climate change.

'While the results of our research are very promising, we are at the beginning of the research and additional work needed to understand the extent to which its hypothesized effect in the atmosphere can actually be realized,' said Dr Nelson.

'Even if successful, this would be a palliative, not a final solution', he said.

However, Matthew Watson, a geo-engineering expert at the University of Bristol has warned that chlorine could break up the ozone layer like chlorofluorocarbons.

Salt could also warp the formation of clouds, he warned.

Geo-engineering is seen as a 'plan B' against climate change, to come into effect if the global agreements on reducing greenhouse gasses fails. Some scientists warn artificially cooling Earth (pictured) could destroy our planet if the process is abruptly stopped

WHAT ARE THE SIDE EFFECTS OF GEOENGINEERING STRATEGIES? Scientists have proposed all sorts of solutions to fight climate change, including a number of controversial geoengineering strategies. Among the many include: Afforestation: This technique would irrigate deserts, such as those in Australia and North Africa, to plant millions of trees that could absorb carbon dioxide. Drawback: This vegetation would also draw in sunlight that the deserts currently reflect back into space, and so contribute to global warming. Scientists have proposed all sorts of solutions to fight climate change. File photo Artificial ocean upwelling: Engineers would use long pipes to pump cold, nutrient-rich water upward to cool ocean-surface waters. Drawback: If this process ever stopped it could cause oceans to rebalance their heat levels and rapidly change the climate. Ocean alkalinisation: This involves heaping lime into the ocean to chemically increase the absorption of carbon dioxide. Drawback: Study suggests it will have of little use in reducing global temperatures. Ocean iron fertilisation: The method involves dumping iron into the oceans to improve the growth of photosynthetic organisms that can absorb carbon dioxide. Drawback: Study suggests it will have of little use in reducing global temperatures. Solar radiation management: This would reduce the amount of sunlight Earth receives, by shooting reflective sulphate-based aerosols into the atmosphere. Drawback: Carbon dioxide would still build up in the atmosphere. Advertisement

However, earlier this month a UN report revealed spraying particles high above the Earth as a way to slow global warming might not be feasible.

Proposals by some scientists to spray chemicals such as sulphur high in the atmosphere from aeroplanes have won more attention since Paris as a relatively cheap fix, costing perhaps $1 billion to $10 billion a year.

But such geo-engineering may be 'economically, socially and institutionally infeasible,' according to a draft obtained by Reuters covering hundreds of pages on risks of droughts, floods, heat waves and more powerful storms.

The draft, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) about ways to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, is due for publication in October.

It could still change substantially, the IPCC said.

Problems involved with 'solar radiation management' include testing and working out rules for a technology that could be deployed by a single nation, or even a company, and might disrupt global weather patterns.

And it 'would result in an 'addiction problem'; once started, it's hard to stop,' the draft says.

A halt after several years could lead to a jump in temperatures because greenhouse gases would continue to build up in the atmosphere.

Many scientists are sceptical.

'To deploy it safely ... would take many decades,' said Myles Allen, a professor of geosystem science at Oxford University said back in January.

He said it was 'completely misleading' to suggest it could be an easy short-cut to slow warming.

Given the long time needed for research, it would be better to focus on ways to limit greenhouse emissions, he said.More than one in eight teenagers are spending at least three hours a day on social media, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

This number has more than doubled in four years, and girls use sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram far more than their male counterparts.

As well as using social media more often, girls are more affected by social media than boys.

A separate study by the ONS found that girls who use social media for at least an hour a day at the age of ten are unhappier throughout their teenage years.

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Nearly one in five young girls spends at least three hours a day on social media, far more than boys do. As well as being online more often, girls also show lower well-being by the time they reached 15 if they are on social media for just an hour a day

Two surveys from the Office for National Statistics, conducted five years apart between 2011/2012 and 2015/2016, assessed the online habits of 10-15 year old children in the UK.

It found that over this time period the amount of young girls spending more than three hours a day on social media increased from 8.7 per cent to 17.4 per cent.

Whilst the amount of young boys spending several hours a day on social media has also increased, it is dwarfed next to the amount of cyber-savvy females.

The amount of boys spending more than three hours a day on social networking sites rose from 4.9 per cent to 8.3 per cent over the same time period.

The figures were based on a survey of 4,410 children in 2011/12 and 3,616 in 2015/16 and was collected from Understanding Society, the UK household longitudinal study.

Two surveys from the Office for National Statistics, conducted five years apart between 2011/2012 and 2015/2016, assessed the online habits of 10-15 year old children in the UK. Time spent on social media increased for both boys and girls but the jump was larger in females

WHAT DO CHILDREN SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTS SAY ABOUT THEMSELVES? A major study has found social media firms are exposing children to emotional risks 'When you get 50 likes it makes you feel good cos you know people think you look good in that photo.' Harry, 11 'If I got 150 likes, I'd be like that's pretty cool, it means they like you.' Aaron, 11 'I send Bridie lots of messages saying 'respond' until she [replies]' Merran, 12 'When you get a buzz, and then you go to get it but you don't. And then you get another buzz and another buzz, and another buzz. And then you've just got to go get it, and then you just go off course with your homework.' Billy, 9 'I probably use it [social media] 18 hours in a day.' Bridie, 11 You might compare yourself cos you're not very pretty compared to them.' Aimee, 11 'If you don't have designer and expensive things people will make fun of you.' Harry, 11 'I saw a pretty girl and everything she has I want, my aim is to be like her. I want her stuff, her white house and her MAC make-up. Seeing her makes me feel cosy.' Bridie, 11 'My mum takes pictures of me on Snapchat, to send on Whatsapp  I don't like it when your friends and family take a picture of you when you don't want them to.' Hassan, 8 'I just edit my photos to make sure I look nice.' Annie, 11 Advertisement

A separate study, published last week by UCL and the University of Essex, found that just one hour a day on social media can be devastating to the mental health of young girls.

Girls who spent an hour or more on social media at the age of 10 showed lower well-being by the time they reached 15.

Dr Cara Brooker, one of the study's authors, said: 'Our findings suggest that it is important to monitor early interactions with social media, particularly in girls, as this could have an impact on well-being later in adolescence and perhaps throughout adulthood.

Whilst the amount of young boys spending hours a day on social media has also increased, it is dwarfed next to the amount of cyber-savvy females. Girls use social media more than boys and boys are less affected by the negative side-effects of being online

'Since we did not observe an association between social media use and well-being among boys, other factors, such as the amount of time spent gaming, might be associated with the boys' observed decline in well-being.'

This research was based on a survey of 9,859 UK adolescents aged 10 to 15 years old and confirmed that adolescent girls use social media more than boys.

The UCL study looked at how the amount of time spent on social media affects young people growing up.

In the study, the team found that by age 13, about half of the girls surveyed used social media for more than one hour per day on a typical school day.

Only a third of boys spent the equivalent time online.

Social media use increased with age in both genders, but girls were still more prolific users than boys by the age of 15.

As well as using social media more than the opposite sex, girls who use social media for at least an hour a day at the age of ten suffer with lower happiness levels in their teenage years

Fifty-nine per cent of girls interacted on social media for an hour or more each day compared to 46 per cent of boys.

The study, published in the BMC Public Health journal, found that well-being declined throughout adolescence for boys and girls, but the drop was larger for girls.

Throughout adolescence, happiness scores dropped nearly three points from 36.9 to 33.3 in girls, and two points from 36.02 to 34.55 in boys.

Participants were assessed using a happiness score on different aspects of their lives including family and school.

They also filled out a 'strengths and difficulties' questionnaire measuring negative aspects of well-being such as emotional and behavioural problems.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT CHILDREN'S MEDIA HABITS? Childwise is an independent market research agency specialising in children and young people. The Norwich based organisation has a programme of published independent research and also conducts research for government agencies, charities, broadcasters, publishers and brands. The Monitor Report 2018 covers children and their media, TV viewing, music, reading, cinema, childrens equipment, money, purchasing, sports & activities, health & well-being and social awareness. Around 2,000 children aged five to 16 in schools across the UK took part in the survey, answering questions on topics as varied as their favourite apps, what they spend money on, sports they play, and their worries and concerns. It found that they spend 2.6 hours a day watching programmes, video and short clips, compared to 2.5 hours last year. Most children now use devices other than a traditional television set to watch video content. YouTube remains the top way of watching on-demand content. Children age nine to 16 spend an average of 2.7 hours online a day. This has dropped over the last three years and is down from 2.9 hours last year. However, this fall could be a consequence of children being less able to determine which of their routine activities are carried out online or offline. Children are also taking to virtual reality with 25 per cent having mobile VR equipment at home. Of these, 11 per cent have Playstation VR, 10 per cent have Oculus Rift and six per cent have HTC Vive. Binge watching content is also a growing habit. Advertisement

The study used data from the youth panel of the UK Household Panel Study between 2009 and 2015  a large national survey which interviews all members of a household annually.

The researchers warned that the link between social media and well-being may have been underestimated in the figures because the study used self-reported data and only social media interactions on school days were recorded.

The Children's Well-being and Social Relationships report from ONS also found that boys were more likely than girls to argue with their mother more than once a week.

In 2015/16 25.2 per cent of girls aged 10-15-years-old reported quarrelling with their mother more than once a week, compared with 26.3 per cent of boys.

This is down from 31.0 per cent of girls and 30.1 per cent of boys in 2009/10.

Both genders argued with their father less than their mother on average, but more children reported talking frequently to their mothers about 'things that matter' than their fathers.An Egyptian artwork that has been sitting in storage for more than four decades has been found to depict a forgotten female pharaoh who ruled 3,500 years ago.

The rare sculpture, which was discovered on International Women's Day, depicts Hatshepsut, one of five women known the have ruled the ancient Egyptian empire.

Consisting of two irregularly shaped limestone fragments, the sculpture had been gathering dust at Swansea University's Egypt Centre when it was found during a session where students can handle objects in the archives.

The sculpture has its face missing but traces of hieroglyphs and a cobra icon on the forehead show it is a pharaoh and the text above her head indicates it is a woman.

Her successful reign lasted two decades, yet history has largely forgotten Queen Hatshepsut who was a powerful woman in a man's world.

Many monuments of Hatshepsut, who was considered 'both king and queen,' were destroyed, so images of her represented as a woman are extremely rare.

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An Egyptian artwork that has been sitting in storage for more than four decades has been found to depict a rare female pharaoh who ruled 3,500 years ago. The sculpture (pictured) depicts Hatshepsut, one of five women known the have ruled the ancient Egyptian empire

Archaeologists the discovered a relief sculpture of the queen, brought to Swansea in 1971 as part of Sir Henry Wellcome's collection.

Researchers still do not know where this object came from but the fragments are less than 5cm thick.

This suggests it had clearly been removed from the wall of a temple or tomb, as can be seen from the cut marks on the back.

Dr Kenneth Griffin, from the Univerisity's Department of Classics, Ancient History and Egyptology believes it could have come from within the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri (Luxor) in southern Egypt.

The treatment of the hair, the fillet headband with twisted cobra and the decoration of the fan are all well-known at Deir el-Bahri.

There are also remains of a fan directly behind her.

Most importantly, the hieroglyphs above the headpart of a formulaic text attested elsewhere at the templeuse a feminine pronoun, a clear indication that the figure is female.

Consisting of two irregularly shaped limestone fragments, the object was requested for the handling session based on one black and white photograph. The sculpture has its face missing but traces of hieroglyphs and a cobra icon on the forehead (pictured) show it was a pharaoh

Researchers still do not know where this object came from but the fragments are less than 5cm thick and had clearly been removed from the wall of a temple or tomb, as can be seen from the cut marks on the back (pictured)

The sculpture, which was discovered on International Women's Day, depicts Hatshepsut (pictured), one of five women known the have ruled the ancient Egyptian empire

'The identification of the object as depicting Hatshepsut caused great excitement amongst the students.

After all, it was only through conducting handling sessions for them that this discovery came to light', said Dr Griffin.

Hatshepsut had herself crowned in around 1,473BC, changing her name from the female version Hatshepsut - which means Foremost of the Noble Ladies - to the male version, Hatshepsu.

Born into the most advanced civilisation in the ancient world, Hatshepsut commandeered the throne of Egypt from her young stepson, Thutmosis III, and, in an unprecedented move, declared herself pharaoh.

To cement her position as the first female ruler, she donned the traditional clothes, head-dress and even the false beard traditionally worn by male pharaohs of Egypt.

She is thought to have reigned with little opposition for more than two decades before dying in around 1458 BC.

Dr Kenneth Griffin, from the Univerisity's Department of Classics, Ancient History and Egyptology examines the sculpture. Many monuments of Hatshepsut, who was considered 'both king and queen,' were destroyed

Dr Griffin believes it could have come from within the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri (Luxor) in southern Egypt

WHO WAS HATSHEPSUT AND WHERE IS SHE BURIED? Hatshepsut became queen of Egypt when she married her half-brother, Thutmose II, at the age of 12. She was the elder of two daughters born to Thutmose I and his queen, Ahmes. She took on the full powers of a pharaoh, becoming co-ruler of Egypt around 1473 BC. Hatshepsut knew her rise to becoming pharoah was conterversial. As a result, she attempted to reinvent her her image in statues and paintings. For instance, she ordered that she be portrayed as a male pharaoh, with a beard and large muscles in many of them. The modest resting place of Hatshepsut was discovered by Howard Carter, who famously revealed Tutankhamun's grave. Her mummy was one of a pair found inside  although that wasn't obvious when they were first found. Experts analysed a tooth known to belong to the queen to find it matched with the larger of the two mummies, suggesting the queen was obese with rotten teeth and pendulous breasts. The modest resting place of Hatshepsut was discovered by Howard Carter, who famously revealed Tutankhamun's grave. This mummy is thought to be that of her husband, Pharaoh Tuthomis II Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist, said in 2007 when the match was made: 'This is the most important discovery in the Valley of the Kings since the discovery of King Tutankhamun and one of the greatest adventures of my life. 'Queens, especially the great ones like Nefertiti and Cleopatra, capture our imaginations. 'But it is perhaps Hatshepsut, who was both a king and a queen who was most fascinating. 'Her reign during the 18th dynasty of ancient Egypt was a prosperous one, yet mysteriously she was erased from Egyptian history.' Advertisement

But all mentions of Hatshepsut's name were erased by Thutmosis on taking power and all representations of her female figure were replaced by images of a male king - her deceased husband Thutmosis II.

Only very few buildings from this early stage of her career have been discovered so far, with the only other examples having been found at Karnak, making the 'new' blocks extremely rare.

Many fragments were taken from temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri during the late nineteenth century, before the temple was excavated by the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Egypt Exploration Society) between 19021909.

Since 1961 the Polish Archaeological Mission to Egypt has been excavating, restoring, and recording the temple.

To cement her position as the first female ruler, she donned the traditional clothes, head-dress and even the false beard traditionally worn by male pharaohs of Egypt (left). She is thought to have reigned with little opposition for more than two decades before dying in around 1458 BC

Pictured is the head of Queen Hatshepsut from a colossal statue in painted limestone. All representations of her female figure were replaced by images of a male king - her deceased husband Thutmosis II

While Deir el-Bahri seems the most likely provenance for this artefact, further research is needed in order to confirm this.

It may even be possible to one day determine the exact spot the fragments originated from.

Given the importance of the object, the head of Hatshepsut has now been placed on display in a prominent position within the House of Life at the Egypt Centre so that the relief can be appreciated by visitors to the Centre.

Undergraduate Egyptology student Jamie Burns said: 'As an Egyptology student, this discovery is of remarkable significance to me.

'I have been enamoured with Egypt since I was extremely young and to be involved with identifying this fragment as Hatshepsut is extremely exciting. It truly feels like I am part of writing history', he said.Russia may soon use robots to carry out AI-powered assassinations as part of a new cold war, a computer expert has claimed.

Future attacks on exiles and dissidents could be untraceable thanks to the use of automatons, warns Dr Jeremy Straub at Dakota State University.

Intelligent machines could be programmed to hack into food ordering systems, like those used at fast food restaurants, to poison their victims.

This would have the benefit of killing a target, while appearing to the outside world to be an accidental allergic reaction.

The claims come in the wake of the high profile attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, which involved the use of a deadly nerve agent.

Prime Minister Theresa May has laid the blame at Moscow's door, expelling a number of prominent diplomats from Britain in the process.

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Intelligent machines could be programmed to hack into food ordering systems, like those used at fast food restaurants, to poison their victims.

Dr Straub believes the West and Russia are on course for a new Cold War, led by the use of AI.

Speaking to the Daily Star Online, he said: 'Certainly when you think about a robot, that (assassinating a target) would be something that a robot certainly could do.

'But I think you'd see something far more subtle to the kind of approach that a human might use, where an AI might order something with an incorrect component.

'For example, if it knew somebody had an allergy, perhaps it would get them some food with an allergy where it appears to be a kind of benign mistake, where in actuality it might be intentional.

'That would be my guess as to the tactic taking place. In the US when you go into McDonald's there are these kiosks, where you can order food.'

Dr Straub believes it is a matter of time before Russia develops AI technology sufficiently advanced to make it a threat.

The claims come in the wake of the high profile attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia (pictured together), which involved the use of a deadly nerve agent. The pair are still fighting for their lives

He added: 'Based upon what Putin has said it seems like that would be a strategy that Russia would use to the extent that they have the technology available.

'Really the question there is what technologies does Russia have, ready at that time?

'They are talking about developing it, but it's unclear if they have that stuff on the shelf.

'I think certainly if they were to enter a Cold War, and fighting, they would use the technologies at their disposal and AI would certainly be a very strong technology for them to use.

WHAT HAPPENED TO FORMER SPY SERGEI SKRIPAL AND HIS DAUGHTER? A former Russian spy and his daughter found slumped on a bench in Wiltshire on March 4 were poisoned by a nerve agent, according to Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley. Sergei, 66, and Yulia Skripal, 33, remained in a critical condition for weeks after they were targeted with a nerve agent in the middle of Salisbury town centre. Nerve agents are a group of human-made substances that target part of the body's nervous system to shut down its organs and overload the brain. Death is certain in as little as 10 minutes unless an antidote is taken almost immediately after being exposed. The minutes before death are torturous. The grisly effects include excruciating pain all over, paralysis, foaming at the mouth and nose, uncontrollable seizures and diarrhoea. Advertisement

'Russians have talked a lot about using AI and one quote, Putin said he saw AI as an equaliser between the US and Russia.

'How he was basically going to overcome the US's order of magnitude of more defence spending using AI.

'I think he certainly is looking for ways to use the technology now, whether any particular attack type would be employed is an open question.'

Russia has been the target of international condemnation since the attack on Mr Skripal earlier this month.

Blame for the poisoning, which involved the nerve agent Novichok, has been laid squarely at President Putin's door, with Prime Minister Theresa May expelling a number of prominent Russian diplomats from Britain in the process

Today it was announced that ten EU nations are preparing to expel Russian spies in solidarity with Britain over the nerve agent attack in Salisbury.

The countries thought likely to expel diplomats today include Germany, France, Ireland, Holland, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

Russia is likely to respond in kind and kick out personnel from each of the countries who act in support of Britain.

President Donald trump has also ordered60 Russian diplomats that his administration says are spies out of the United States.

The officials acting on behalf of Moscow have been given seven days to leave the country, officials said. A consulate in Seattle, Washington, will also be shuttered.Controversial YouTube star Logan Paul has now joined Twitch, the popular game streaming website.

The move comes as Paul faced withering criticism earlier this year after posting a video on YouTube of a suicide victim found in a Japanese forest.

Since joining YouTube, Paul has emerged as one of the video-sharing platforms top stars, boasting some 21 million followers through his comedy videos and vlogs. However, the sharp backlash against Pauls decision to post the video of the deceased man and his lighthearted reaction to it drew criticism from fans, fellow YouTubers and celebrities, later prompting YouTube to demonetize all of his videos.

YouTube star Logan Paul has recently joined the videogame streaming platform Twitch

The backlash has evidently prompted Paul to enter the video gaming community, showing a particular interest in Fortnite, the phenomenally popular game thats been a hit among everyday gamers and celebrities alike.

His new Twitch profile, LoganPaulWasTaken, already boasts more than 375,000 followers despite having no video uploads currently.

Who is Logan Paul?

Logan Paul is an Internet personality and actor who has garnered more than 21 million YouTube followers as of February 2018. He drew intense criticism earlier this year after posting a video of a suicide victim found in Japans infamous Aokigahara Forest.

Paul was born on April 1, 1995 in Westlake, Ohio.

He started posting YouTube and Vine videos in high school and later attended Ohio University before dropping out to relocate to Los Angeles to focus on his burgeoning career with other rising YouTube stars.

Paul soon accumulated millions of followers through his frequent vlogs and comedy videos and later started making other media appearances, including appearing on an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Weird Loners and advertising campaigns for major brands like HBO and PepsiCo.

Although Pauls videos gained him millions of fans, they also sometimes sparked controversy, the most notable of which was from a video of a deceased man in Japans suicide forest uploaded by Paul on December 31, 2017 while on a vlogging trip to the country. The video, which drew more than 6.3 million views within just 24 hours of being uploaded, immediately drew criticism from celebrities, YouTubers, fans, politicians and the general public.

Paul quickly took down the video and posted apologies on Twitter and YouTube shortly afterwards. On January 9, YouTube issued a statement on Twitter denouncing the video and pledged to take steps to ensure that similar videos are never uploaded to YouTube again. The video-sharing company soon removed Paul from its preferred ad program, Google Preferred, and halted the sequel to his YouTube film The Thinning.

On January 24, Paul uploaded a new video to his channel that focused on suicide prevention and donated $1 million (703,670) to suicide prevention organizations. He subsequently resumed his daily vlogs starting on February 4.

What is Logan Pauls net worth?

Logan Pauls net worth is approximately $14 million (9.8m).

What is Twitch?

Twitch is a live video streaming platform used primarily for video game streaming that was introduced in June 2011.

Originally a spin-off of streaming website Justin.tv from Internet entrepreneur Justin Kan, the platforms popularity soon surpassed that of Justin.tv, boasting more than 45 million unique viewers as of October 2013.

The website was acquired by Amazon in August 2014 for $970 million (683 million) and is seen as the leading video game streaming platform in the United States with more than 15 million daily active users and two million monthly broadcasters as of February 2018.

Reaction

Pauls announcement drew a mixed reaction from the Twitch community on social media:

Logan Paul is coming to Twitch, alright everyone, time to find a new streaming platform. Our current one is tainted.  Satt/Mike (@SattelizerGames) March 19, 2018

Yay, I love your videos xD  Lirik (@LIRIK) March 19, 2018

Dear @LoganPaul,



You make fun of suicide, you clickbait videos including recently @Ninja, you manipulate young kids for your content, and I am absolutely positive you are straight garbage at video games. We dont want you on Twitch. Keep the trash away.



Sincerely, everyone  Rod Breslau (@Slasher) March 19, 2018

Logan Paul is on twitch no please get that tumor out of here....  Mystic (@MysticUmbreon94) March 19, 2018

Don't mind me @Twitch, but according to your own TOS, Logan Paul should already be banned from the platform. So, please #BanLoganfromTwitch  tiana (@tianatoottoot) March 19, 2018

.@Twitch: please carefully think about allowing Logan Paul a place on our platform.



Consider the future of Twitch and what path you want it to take.  KatiePetersPlays (@PlayKatiePlay) March 19, 2018Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg may have been saved today's privacy backlash had he listened to his rival, the late Steve Jobs, it has emerged.

Footage of the former Apple boss warning over Facebook's handling of private data dating from 2010 has re-appeared in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The data breach saw details from 50 million Facebook users leaked to political activists, believed to have operated on behalf of the Trump presidential campaign.

Speaking at the time of a previous privacy row involving the social network, Jobs warned that privacy rules should be spelled out in 'plain English and repeatedly.'

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Footage of the late Apple boss Steve Jobs, pictured here in 2007, warning over Facebook's handling of private data dating from 2010 has re-appeared in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal

Jobs made the comments at The Wall Street Journals (WSJ) All Things Digital conference, held in Los Angeles, where Zuckerberg was in the audience, waiting to be interviewed.

Walt Mossberg, the WSJ'S principal technology columnist from 1991 to 2013, asked Jobs about his thoughts on recent privacy issues around Facebook and Google, as well as Silicon Valley's stance on handling sensitive data.

Facebook was at the time in the process of updating its privacy controls, in light of criticism that it was forcing people to share their data.

Google, meanwhile, had been accused of secretly intercept Americans' data sent over unencrypted Wi-Fi routers during a two-year period.

In response, Jobs said: 'Silicon Valley is not monolithic. Weve always had a very different view of privacy than some of our colleagues in the Valley.

'Privacy means people know what theyre signing up for, in plain English, and repeatedly.

'Im an optimist; I believe people are smart, and some people want to share more data than other people do.

'Ask them. Ask them every time. Make them tell you to stop asking them if they get tired of your asking them. Let them know precisely what youre going to do with their data.'

'A lot of people in the Valley think were really old-fashioned about this, and maybe we are, but we worry about stuff like this.'

Zuckerberg took out full-page adverts in nine major US and British newspapers over the weekend to apologise for the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

In the ads, the Facebook founder vowed to clamp down on allowing third parties access to data which can be sold on.

Mark Zuckerberg, pictured here in July 2017, took out full-page adverts in nine major US and British newspapers over the weekend to apologise for the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The data breach saw details from 50 million Facebook users leaked to political activists

The ads, done in simple black text against a plain white background, were headlined: 'We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't, we don't deserve it.'

'You may have heard about a quiz app built by a university researcher that leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014,' the apology begins.

'This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again.'

'We've already stopped apps like this from getting so much information. Now we're limiting the data apps get when you sign in using Facebook.'

'We're also investigating every single app that had access to large amounts of data before we fixed this. We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected.'

'Finally, we'll remind you which apps you've given access to your information - so you can shut off the ones you don't want anymore.'

'Thank you for believing in this community. I promise to do better for you.'

The apology is formally signed off by the 33-year-old Facebook chief.

The Facebook data scandal deepened over the weekend after users found the social network had harvested information including call logs and text messages.

Some users discovered the Silicon Valley giant had been storing complete logs of incoming and outgoing calls and text messages.

Others reported that data such as contacts in their address books, social events in their calendars and even friends' birthdays had been stored.

One user, Dylan McKay, reported that from October 2016 to July 2017 his logs contained 'the data of every [mobile] call I've made, including time and duration' and 'data about every text message I've received or sent'.

Rather than delete an account entirely, the social media site encourages people to 'deactivate' their profile as this leaves all personal data on its servers.

However, when users request to permanently delete their accounts, the site suggests: 'You may want to download a copy of your info from Facebook.'

Emma Kennedy tweeted that she had found that Facebook had recorded 'every single phone number in my contacts.

Facebook user Dylan McKay revealed Facebook logged every mobile call he'd ever made

'They had every single social event I went to, a list of all my friends and their birthdays, and a list of every text I've sent'

'They have plundered my phone. They have phone numbers of people who arent on Facebook. They have phone numbers of household names who, Im sure, would be furious to know their phone numbers are accessible. Im appalled.'

A Facebook spokesman said: 'The first time you sign in on your phone to a messaging or social app, it's a widely used practice to begin by uploading your phone contacts.

'Contact uploading is optional. People are expressly asked if they want to give permission to upload their contacts from their phone  it's explained right there in the apps when you get started.

'People can delete previously uploaded information at any time and can find all the information available to them in their account and activity log from our Download Your Information tool.'

The company says an opt-out for uploading contacts is available and users can delete all uploaded contacts by turning off the continuous uploading setting in Facebook's Messenger app.

All previously uploaded contacts are deleted when a user permanently removes their profile. Contacts will also no longer continue to be uploaded.The Arctic has ended the winter with one of the lowest ever recorded levels of sea ice cover, NASA research has revealed.

Arctic sea ice melts and regrows over the year, freezing throughout the winter months to reach a maximum extent in late February or March, then melting through the summer to hit a low point in early or mid-September.

The maximum sea ice cover in the middle of March - before the summer melt began - was the second lowest in the 39-year satellite record.

The 2017 measurement fell just behind last year's record low.

The new research comes from both NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

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A statement from NASA revealed that Arctic sea ice measurements taken in March reflect that the sea ice level is still dangerously low. The above chart shows the declining trend in these measurements

At its maximum extent this year, on March 17, Arctic sea ice cover was 5.59 million square miles (14.48 million square kilometers), which is 23,200 square miles (60,000 square kilometers) more than in 2017.

A statement form NASA said 2018's maximum extent measures 448,000 square miles (1.16 million square kilometers) below the average maximum extents from 1981 to 2010.

This difference is larger than the the size of Texas and California combined.

Scientists said Arctic sea ice levels both during melting and growing seasons have been declining in recent decades.

The experts said the low levels of ice again this year were due to a late autumn freeze-up and persistent high air temperatures throughout the winter.

The four lowest levels of maximum sea ice cover have all been seen in the last four years.

In February, for the fourth winter in a row, an extreme heatwave was seen over the Arctic Ocean, researchers said.

A NASA statement said: 'The Arctic has gone through repeated warm episodes this winter, with temperatures climbing more than 40 degrees above average in some regions. The North Pole even experienced temperatures above the freezing point for a few days in February.'

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF LOWER SEA ICE LEVELS? The amount of Arctic sea ice peaks around March as winter comes to a close. NASA recently announced that the maximum amount of sea ice this year was low, following three other record-low measurements taken in 2015, 2016 and 2017. This can lead to a number of negative effects that impact climate, weather patterns, plant and animal life and indigenous human communities. The amount of sea ice in the Arctic is declining, and this has dangerous consequences, NASA says Additionally, the disappearing ice can alter shipping routes and affect coastal erosion and ocean circulation. NASA researcher Claire Parkinson said: 'The Arctic sea ice cover continues to be in a decreasing trend and this is connected to the ongoing warming of the Arctic. 'It's a two-way street: the warming means less ice is going to form and more ice is going to melt, but, also, because there's less ice, less of the sun's incident solar radiation is reflected off, and this contributes to the warming.' Advertisement

The statement also explained how the Arctic's thickest and oldest ice could soon disappear.

'In February, a large area of open water appeared in the sea ice cover north of Greenland, within the multiyear ice pack. Most of the opening has refrozen, but the new ice is expected to be thinner and more fragile, and a new opening might appear during the melt season,' it said.

This could cause this region's ice to be more prone to leaving the Arctic during the summer and, eventually, melt in the Atlantic Ocean.

NASA researcher Alek Petty said: 'This old, thicker ice is what we expect to provide stability to the Arctic sea ice system, since we expect that ice not to be as vulnerable to melting out as thinner, younger ice. As ice in the Arctic becomes thinner and more mobile, it increases the likelihood for rapid ice loss in the summer.'

Rod Downie, head of polar programs at the World Wide Fund for Nature, said: 'This announcement confirms the downward spiral of Arctic sea ice.

'The Polar Regions are our planet's air conditioning unit  and it's breaking down during a heatwave.

'It shows we must take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change head-on before it is too late.'Chinese consumers can now use a smartphone app to order and test drive a car that's dispensed via an 'auto vending machine.'

Alibaba and Ford have created a 'Super Test-Drive Center,' which is an unstaffed, multi-floor building that houses up to 42 cars.

At the cat-themed vending machine, prospective buyers can see, test drive and even buy a vehicle on site using Alibaba's Tmall app.

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Pictured is the 'Super Test-Drive Center' in Guangzhou, China that can dispense Ford vehicles for users to view, test-drive and even buy. The site is open until April 23

To do that, users browse and choose from 100 Ford models, select a time for pick-up and then snap a selfie, which is used to verify their identity when picking up the car for a test drive.

It only takes about 10 minutes to check in and for the test-drive center to spit out a car, according to Alibaba.

There are a variety of Ford models available for test-drive, including the Mondeo sedan, Explorer SUV and an imported Mustang, among others.

For now, Alibaba and Ford have only set up one site in Guangzhou, China that's open until April 23.

Customers can test-drive vehicles for up to three days before returning them to the center.

Test-drives are free for people with a 'social credit score' of 700 or above.

People with a 'social credit score' above 700 can drive a car from the Super Test-Drive Center for free. They have up to three days to test-drive it before returning it to the site

There are 10 Ford models available for test-drive, including the Mondeo sedan, Explorer SUV and an imported Mustang, among others

China uses a controversial 'social credit system' that rates individuals based on their behavior and can be negatively impacted if you don't pay bills, fail to care for elders or if you're lazy and spend to much time playing video games.

The Super Test-Drive Center uses Alibaba's own social credit system, called Sesame Credit.

Consumers with a score below 700 will have to pay a fee, Alibaba noted.

Users can also only test-drive each model once and they are limited to five test-drives during the first two months of the program.

Users browse and choose from 100 Ford models, select a time for pick-up and then snap a selfie, which is used to verify their identity when picking up the car for a test drive

Alibaba plans to build dozens of car vending machines in China over the next 12 months. Along with Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Maserati, BMW, Audi and Volvo lined up to participate

Ford and Alibaba announced they were building the vending machine last December as part of a partnership to explore projects around retail, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and mobility services.

At the time, Alibaba said it had plans to build dozens of car vending machines in cities in China over the next 12 months.

With the car vending machines, the Chinese internet giant is hoping to make 'buying cars as easy as buying a can of Coke,' according to Alibaba's news website Alizila.

Adding to the experience, the vending machines are cat-themed and feature a cat's eyes and ears poking out of the building.

As part of the service, consumers can also only test-drive each model once and they are limited to five test-drives during the first two months of the program

'Our thinking behind the car vending machine is focused on helping users solve certain problems they face in the car-buying process,' Huan Lu, marketing director of Tmall's automotive division, said in a statement.

'To do that, we are building a physical, experiential store that offers staff-less car pickup through facial recognition, three-day 'deep' test-drives and a one-stop-shop that displays [cars from] all mainstream brands at once,' he added.

In addition to Ford, Alibaba is said to have Mercedes-Benz, Maserati, BMW, Audi and Volvo lined up to participate, according to CNET.Power, jealousy and ambition motivate chimpanzees to fight the same way they cause clashes between humans, researchers have found.

Scientists at Duke University found that our closest relatives are inclined to fight each other for the same reasons that humans battle.

A new analysis of the research, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, relied on work from famed primatologist Jane Goodall, which was completed in the 1970s in Tanzania's Gombe National Park.

Researchers from Duke University and Arizona State University have determined the cause of the only documented 'civil war' among chimpanzees, which occurred in the 1970s in Tanzania and was recorded by Jane Goodall. Pictured is Humphrey, one of the highest-ranking male chimpanzees living in Tanzania's Gombe National Park during this 'war'

The Duke researchers partnered with scientists at Arizona State University to delve deeper into a conflict that Goodall and her colleagues observed among monkeys there in order to prove their theory about primates' behavior.

The new study explained that Goodall watched a previously unified chimp community split into two groups and viciously fight each other during a 'civil war' in the 1970s.

'What followed [the split] was a period of killings and land grabs, the only civil war ever observed in wild chimpanzees,' the report said.

Researchers at Duke University's Jane Goodall Institute Research Center analyzed digitized field notes to try to get to the bottom of this rift for the new study.

They found that a competition among the top males most likely initiated the war.

These males were vying for mates and status when suddenly the entire group splintered, the researchers said.

Goodall labeled the subsequent split, lasting from 1974 to 1978, the 'Four-Year War'.

'During the war, males within an area of the park known as Kasekela teamed up to raid neighboring territories, brutally beating and killing half a dozen former comrades,' the report said.

Some researchers thought the fighting might have been started by a banana feeding station Goodall installed to lure chimpanzees to her for observation.

'They proposed that two distinct chimp communities may have existed all along or were already dissolving when Goodall began her research, and the feeding station merely brought them together in a temporary truce until they parted again,' the analysis said.

Chimpanzees, like humans, are driven to fight for reasons related to power and jealousy, the new research concluded (file photo)

But Duke researcher Joseph Feldblum said that the exact cause of the war had largely been a mystery to scientists prior to the new research.

The scientists behind the new report used data from Goodall's hand-written check sheets and notes for the research.

Duke professor Anne Pusey had spent the past quarter-century digitizing the notes, which allowed researchers to analyze the ways in which alliances among 19 chimpanzees - all males - shifted in the lead up to the war.

For the new research scientists relied on Goodall's hand-written notes and check sheets

The researchers mapped out these chimps' social networks between 1967 and 1972 to determine exactly when relationships began to dissolve.

'Two males were considered buddies if they were spotted arriving together at the feeding station more often than other pairs,' the report said.

The researchers identified the closest groups of each network, and they examined how the group members changed over a period of time.

Feldblum said the researchers used network analysis in order to quantify the extent to which the chimps were 'cliquish'.

The resulting report suggested that from 1967 to 1970 the males intermingled.

But, the study said, 'statistical tests revealed clusters of males that grew more distinct over time. Some males spent more time in the northern part of the range. Another group increasingly withdrew to the south.

'By 1971 the northern and southern males met less and less often. When they did encounter each other, they would hurl branches, hoot and charge through the forest as a show of strength.'

Professor Pusey witnessed this firsthand from 1970 to 1975 as a doctoral student studying at Gombe.

'We would hear these pant-hoot calls from the south and say to ourselves: the southern males are coming! All the northern ones would go up trees, and there'd be a lot of screaming and displaying,' Professor Pusey said.

The chimpanzee behavior analyzed in the new report reflects that of humans and other primates, the researchers said (file photo)

WHAT CAUSES A 'CIVIL WAR' AMONG CHIMPANZEES? Researchers from Duke University and Arizona State University worked together on a new report about what motivates fighting among chimpanzees. The scientists found that power, jealousy and ambition - some of the same motivators of human fights - cause these battles. They studied events from the 1970s for the new report, using Jane Goodall's hand-written notes on a 'civil war' between chimpanzees in Tanzania. The report said: 'The researchers say the schism was likely triggered by a power struggle between three high-ranking males. The community's troubles came amid rising tensions between a recently crowned alpha male, Humphrey, and his southern rivals Charlie and Hugh.' Pictured left to right are Hugh, Charlie and Humphrey, all of which competed for power during a 'civil war' among chimpanzees recorded by Jane Goodall in Tanzania during the 1970s Duke professor Anne Pusey explained: 'Humphrey was large and he was known to throw rocks, which was scary. He was able to intimidate Charlie and Hugh separately, but, when they were together, he tended to keep out of the way.' The report said the battle for dominance was probably heightened by a competition for females that were able to reproduce. 'The resulting hostility was not restricted to these rival males; it affected the whole web of social ties the males were embedded within,' the report said. Duke researcher Joseph Feldblum said: 'It's not possible to say for sure that any one thing was causal, since this is the only such event we've ever seen in chimpanzees.' The report said the results reflect behavior among humans and other primates that scientists have observed. Advertisement

The cliques started to harden and become increasingly exclusive over the course of a year.

'Where once the chimps groomed and spent time with other males both inside and outside their subgroup, by 1972 they socialized almost exclusively with males on the inside, with minimal range overlap between northern and southern males,' the report explained.

An earlier report that analyzed splits that happened in about 50 human societies around the world concluded that political conflicts of an internal nature commonly foreshadow splits in groups of humans - this is followed by competitions over scarce resources.

'The findings suggest that such social dynamics are deeply rooted in the primate evolutionary tree,' the study said.

Feldblum explained: 'Understanding why cohesion breaks down can give you clues about the forces that bind social groups together in the first place.'A Latvian startup has developed a super-sized drone that can do just about anything.

It can perform search and rescue missions, put out fires and, as a new video shows, clean wind turbines.

Created by Aerones, the company is hoping that the drones can step in to do some human jobs that are tedious, dirty and often dangerous.

Scroll down for videos

A Latvian startup has developed a super-sized drone that can perform search and rescue missions, put out fires and, as a new video shows, clean wind turbines

The quadcopter is designed to handle these kinds of tasks, since it's outfitted with 28 motors and 16 batteries that enable it to lift up to 400lbs for 20 minutes on a single charge.

But in most cases, the drone can fly for several hours, given that it's tethered to the ground by a few cables that provide power and water.

It can clean tall objects faster than a human because a water-shooting nozzle is attached to the device, spraying water at up to 100 liters a minute.

Aerones says the drone is tailored to clean surfaces as efficiently as posible.

The drone can move around the wind turbine's blade to every side and avoid edges, moving in snake patterns to cover each blade with water, according to the firm.

For now, Aerones is offering the turbine cleaning as a service to customers, rather than selling the drones themselves. The firm is backed by startup incubator Y Combinator in Silicon Valley

For now, Aerones is offering the turbine cleaning as a service to customers, rather than selling the drones themselves.

'Over the last two months, we've been actively talking to wind turbine owners...In places like Canada, the Nordic and Europe for de-icing,' Aerones CEO Janis Putrams told TechCrunch.

'If the weather is close to freezing, ice builds up and they have to stop the turbine,' he added.

The drones can blast snow and ice off the blades of wind turbines in a much safer way than humans, while increasing the turbines' power efficiency, Aerones said.

Aerones is currently testing its turbine-cleaning system on private property, as well as in countries with more relaxed regulatory environments, according to TechCrunch.

Aerones' search and rescue drones use a cable system that's able to carry the person to safety from regions that may not be accessible by helicopter or boat

The quadcopter is outfitted with 28 motors and 16 batteries that enable it to lift up to 400lbs for 20 minutes on a single charge. It's also tethered to the ground with several cables

The drone can move around the wind turbine's blade to every side and avoid edges, moving in snake patterns to cover each blade with water. It can also fly nearly 400m in the air in minutes

The company has been testing the drones for a variety of other uses, too.

A video posted last October shows off how the drones are able to fight fire.

In it, a 121lb-drone is able to fly higher and faster than a fire engine's ladder and can carry over 300lbs in one payload.

The drone is also able to 'endure heat in a close distance,' according to Aerones.

'There is no need to drive a truck with drone to exact firefighting locations,' the company noted.

'Aerones' drone can easily operate in narrow spaces, avoid obstacles and fly a great radius,' the firm added.

In addition to that, Aerones believes the drones could be used for other tasks like delivering packages and search and rescue missions.

The company has demoed its drones in simulated search and rescue missions before.

Aerones says that its fire-fighting drones are more efficient than humans because they can reach 300m in the air in just six minutues. Pictured, the drone is tethered to a firetruck

WHAT IS 'DRONE-DIVING?' Aerones is also the company behind 'drone-diving,' a new extreme sport that involves lifting someone into the air by a 28-propeller drone and dropping them to be parachuted safely back to the earth. Preparation for the jump lasted six months and during that time, the team increased the payload up to 440 pounds (200kg) and conducted a number of tests, including flights carrying Augstkalns over the river Daugava. The super-powered drone measures 34 feet (3.2sqm), boasts 16 rotors and weighs 154 pounds (70 kilograms). The incredible video of the 'drone-dive' shows the drone taking off from a body of water and head towards a communication tower, which stands 393 feet (120 meter) tall. A daredevil demonstrator grabbed a long handle hanging from the drone, which took him off the platform and into the air. Once the drone reached 1,082 feet (330 meters), he let go and fell to the earth for a about one second before releasing a parachute. The same drone was used in January to debut 'drone-boarding' by towing snowboarders at high speed across a frozen Latvian lake. A video shared by the firm showed a snowboarder test out the drone at an abandoned airbase. Advertisement

It tested the drones for use in dangerous scenarios like drowning, cracked ice and fire.

First, the company works with remote dispatchers to send a regular drone to the scene of an accident.

The drone is able to find the person in trouble and then send a precise location to the massive, load-bearing drone.

Aerones' search and rescue drones use a cable system that's able to carry the person to safety from regions that may not be accessible by helicopter or boat.In the film, The Martian, Matt Damon's character is stranded on Mars and uses the faeces stored in the ship as fertiliser to grow potatoes.

Many people said this would have been covered with disease and would not be possible.

Currently, solid waste from astronauts on the ISS is discarded into space where it burns up in the atmosphere.

Penn State University researchers received funding from Nasa to see if human waste could be better utilised for long-term space missions.

The team used an enclosed, cylindrical system, four feet long by four inches in diameter, in which select microbes came into contact with the waste.

The microbes broke down waste using anaerobic digestion, a process similar to the way humans digest food.

By using the methane released from the breakdown of the faeces, the team found large amounts of Methylococcus capsulatus, a bacteria which is used in animal feed.

They found that this bacteria was 52 per cent protein and 36 per cent fat which could provide a good source of nutrition for prolonged space flight.

The researchers compared it to a microbial goo which would be similar to Vegemite or Marmite.Advertisement

And just like that, Emily arrived in Australia. This morning, at 12.40pm local time (5.40am BST) the first ever direct flight from London to Australia landed in Perth, making aviation history.

Qantas's Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner  nicknamed 'Emily'  touched down to no little fanfare in Australia's sunniest city.

Fire trucks ceremoniously squirted water cannons, a crowd cheered and TV crews recorded 236 blinking passengers stepping off the historic flight and into the embers of Australian summer, all looking surprisingly lively. And I felt genuinely relaxed (though the business class seat helped, admittedly).

Traveller Jonathan Thompson is pictured here at London Heathrow before boarding Qantas's historic first direct flight from the UK to Australia

Our journey had taken just 16 hours and 30 minutes (15 minutes ahead of schedule) but it had been years in the making  the fruits of a decade of dedicated seasonal air pattern analysis for starters, and Qantas is justifiably proud to have finally achieved it.

Not only will the journey between the UK and Australia now be significantly shorter (four hours less than the next shortest flight, via Dubai), it will also be noticeably more comfortable aboard the Boeing Dreamliner. This sleek, parabolic panther of an aircraft boasts multiple advantages over its rivals, including softer cabin noise, larger windows, anti-turbulence technology, improved air quality and more space in every cabin. It's all designed to lessen jet lag - and it appears to work.

Dignitaries, business professionals, reuniting families, journalists and a smattering of celebrities  comedian Adam Hills and actress Gemma Atkinson were among those disembarking Qantas Flight 10 - all looked remarkably energetic considering they'd just travelled 9,009 miles from the other side of the planet.

And I felt refreshed and raring to go.

Qantas's Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner  nicknamed 'Emily' - touched down at 12.40pm local time today in Perth. Jonathan is pictured here with First Officer Jim Eaglen

The Dreamliner definitely makes a difference. It almost felt like a trick - like I couldn't really be in Australia, because I hadn't earned it. But ultimately I'm not complaining. It has gone from a full day flight to an overnight flight - psychologically more akin to a trip to California now.

The most senior of the plane's four pilots  the affable Captain Andrew Simpson  was also full of beans, and understandably upbeat after completing such a momentous flight.

'This is absolutely fantastic, a real game changer for the world of aviation,' he said. 'For the first time, Australia and Europe have a direct air link, and that is a big deal. It's a major honour and extremely humbling for me to be at the pointy end of this particular plane.'

Our journey itself was almost ludicrously smooth - the seatbelt sign did not flicker on even once, with the only remotely rough patch of air experienced a few hundred miles north of the Maldives, before the Dreamliner tore away across the Indian Ocean.

There were some nice touches with regards to the on-board service too: every passenger's plastic water bottle was refilled, never replaced, while all of the meals had been specifically designed by chef Neil Perry, in consultation with experts from The Charles Perkins Centre at Sydney University, to stave off jetlag.

Back at London Heathrow's Terminal 3, our take off had been marked in style too, with actors dressed as kangaroos and surfers, and a giant of a man playing us aboard with an enormous didgeridoo. Even our boarding passes bore the legend 'Congratulations! You are boarding the first non-stop UK-AUS flight.'

Jonathan, pictured left in his business class pod, said that the direct flight makes the journey to Perth from the UK akin to a trip to California. Pictured right is one of his meals - a traditional British roast

The Dreamliner boasts several advantages over its rivals - softer cabin noise, larger windows, anti-turbulence technology, improved air quality and more space in every cabin

'Refreshed and raring to go': Jonathan gives the direct flight the thumbs up in Perth

Travelling in this fashion is light years ahead of the original London-Australia flight - the infamous 'Kangaroo Route' - which began in 1947. That four-day intercontinental hopscotch  involving seven stops and costing the equivalent of more than 24,000 today - has now become a seamless, non-stop 17-hour zip Down Under. (It's significantly cheaper in real terms too, with tickets for this London-Perth route starting at just 793 per person return in economy).

The new route, which will now fly daily, officially becomes the longest anywhere in the world from London (a massive 24 per cent longer than the previous record holder, from Heathrow to Jakarta) and the first ever direct air connection between the continents of Europe and Australasia.

There's still room for improvement of course. No Wifi on the history-making QF10 is an issue  particularly as British Airways has introduced it to many of its own long-haul flights in recent weeks. And Qantas remains agonisingly short of Qatar Airway's current world record for the longest commercial flight on Earth: 9,028 miles between Doha and Auckland.

One gets the impression that record won't stand for too long, however. Qantas already has its eyes on a non-stop London to Sydney flight by 2022, with New York-Sydney potentially coming even earlier. For now, all eyes are on the historic achievement of QF10 but ultimately, success on the London-Perth service is just the beginning.

Jonathan Thompson was challenged by Huawei to take the upcoming Huawei P20 smartphone and test its features whilst onboard. Follow Huawei via @HuaweiMobileUK. To find out more about the Huawei P20, visit newrenaissance.com.Britons on holiday in France grumble that the only language they hear is English, spoken by other Brits.

The solution to this lies 3,000 miles away - in the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec.

In two weeks there, my wife Carolyn, son Daniel, 13, and I came across no other British tourists.

Water wonders: The Gaspesie National Park in Quebec boasts beautiful lakes

This was baffling, for Quebec is a place of beauty, diverse wildlife, and a rich culture which, while French-influenced, is definitively its own.

Our first stop, Montreal, revealed itself to be a city of universities, a virtual reality art gallery, excellent restaurants and, in the warren of streets known as Old Montreal, fine stone buildings.

We headed east from Montreal  driving along the St Lawrence River towards mountains, lakes and forests.

We paused to visit the nautical museum at Rimouski, a memorial to Canadas Titanic  the Empress of Ireland, in which 1,012 people were entombed after it collided with a coal ship in 1914.

Then we were into the mountains of the Gaspesie National Park, the granite spine of the Gaspe peninsula, a broad spit of land that juts out into the Gulf of St Lawrence.

We spent three days based at the Auberge Le Gite du Mont-Albert, a lodge in the shadow of the parks rugged mountains that are criss-crossed by a network of well-marked trails, several of which we sampled.

The Mail on Sunday's David Rose said he found pristine lakes, pink granite crags and herds of elk lurking in the Gaspesie National Park

There are pristine lakes, pink granite crags and herds of elk, and from the ridge-tops, spectacular wilderness views.

Next stop was the Gaspes south coast  a more populous region of seaside villages, each with its church adorned with a wooden spire painted silver. At Perce, where a sandy bay is dominated by a huge offshore rock pierced by an arched sea cave, we were in foodie paradise: first at our hotel, the Riotel Perce, and on our second night, the outstanding Maison du Pecheur.

Between meals, we visited Bonaventure island to see Canadas largest colony of seabirds and, close by on the beach, fat, furry seals.

Having rounded the end of the peninsula, we took a ferry from Matane to the St Lawrence Cote Nord. We hoped to see whales, and we were not disappointed.

Beak peek: Gannets on Bonaventure Island

From Cap de Bon Desir, we gazed for hours at minkes only yards away. Next day, we took a boat from the village where we stayed, Tadoussac, into the middle of the water, seeing not only more minkes, but pods of white belugas.

The character of our trip shifted, with two nights in the provinces capital, Quebec City. Its vibrant and architecturally alluring, with  in summer  an outdoors, cafe society buzz.

We couldnt leave eastern Canada without a trip to Niagara Falls, so we headed for Ontario. Niagara, sad to say, is tacky and amusement arcades by the falls do nothing to enhance them, extraordinary as they are.

We took a helicopter ride and rode a jetboat through the rapids at the base: an exciting way to get soaked.

We flew home from Toronto, our clothes still damp from the jetboat. It had been a memorable trip.When the Copacabana Palace opened in 1923, it was the first luxury hotel in South America.

The gleaming white icon of progress stood out among the low-rise buildings along Rio de Janeiros Copacabana beach.

Taking the style of the grand hotels of the South of France, the Palace imported the best fittings and fixtures such as English carpets and chandeliers from Czechoslovakia.

When the Copacabana Palace opened in 1923, it was the first luxury hotel in South America

It became the byword for glamour with a long list of celebrity guests from Albert Einstein to Frank Sinatra.

Today, the hotel retains the grand presence of its designers vision. The distinctive exterior is magnificent among the late 20th Century buildings on the beach.

Arriving at the hotel, you are thrown back to a romantic era. Doormen in crisp white uniforms reveal a lobby filled with flowers and the marble staircase is padded with thick carpet.

The vast outdoor swimming pool is surrounded by glamorous people lying on loungers, enjoying a cocktail and taking in the warm sun.

The Mail On Sunday's Emily Perry said her room overlooking the beach didn't disappoint

The hotel was due to open with a casino, but gambling was banned in Brazil before it was finished.

The space is now given to the hotels restaurants. Our room overlooking the beach didnt disappoint.

From the early morning, Cariocas (the residents of Rio) are up pounding the beachside paths and playing sport on the golden sand.

The desire to be outside is contagious, and we dutifully walked along the seafront to Ipanema.

Rio is known for its vibrant social scene, with dance and music and the heart of local communities

This was the setting for songwriters Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraess famous bossa nova song The Girl From Ipanema.

The sunsets in Ipanema are breathtaking  like watching a moving postcard  especially if you have a caipirinha cocktail in hand.

If youre visiting Rio, it is worth booking a guided tour to orientate yourself.

We used Xplora Rio, which offers small-group tours in a Land Rover to famous attractions such as the Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf mountain and the Lapa Steps.

The appearance of Rio has changed a lot in the past 95 years but the Copacabana Palace maintains the style and glamour of this special city.30 Seconds To Mars frontman Jared Leto intervened to calm down rowing fans at the rock band's gig on Friday night.

The Oscar-winning actor and rock star paused a performance of the group's This Is War in Cardiff and told two gig-goers to 'just chill'.

In footage shot by fan Simon Lawton Leto instructs the fans to move away from each other before adding: 'Just separate from one another.'

30 Seconds To Mars frontman Jared Leto intervened to calm down rowing fans at the rock band's gig on Friday night in Cardiff (pictured here on Sunday night in Glasgow)

'I mean what the f***  hey, the woman with the blonde one. If you want to jump around, jump around but just step aside,' Leto added.

He told the crowd: 'Our shows are all about do whatever the f*** you want to do but don't upset other people.'

The Hollywood star then restarted the song after telling fans to go 'extra f****** crazy during this song'.

The Oscar-winning actor and rock star paused a performance of the group's This Is War in Cardiff and told two gig-goers to 'just chill' (pictured here in a PA file photo)

Leto also pulled out a Welsh flag during the performance at Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena.

The band are currently on a five-stop tour across the UK ahead of the release of their upcoming album America next month.

Leto is an accomplished actor with an Academy Award under his belt for Dallas Buyers Club (2013).

He also recently portrayed The Joker in Suicide Squad and is believed to be reprising the role in three more films in the franchise.Sarah Paulson says the newly announced ban on most transgender people from serving in the military is 'despicable'.

On Saturday night, the 43-year-old actress told TMZ that she is disgusted by the Trump administration's announcement.

Paulson was out to dinner with her partner Holland Taylor, 75, who refrained from commenting on the issue.

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Not my president: Sarah Paulson is not a fan of President Trump. On Saturday night, the 43-year-old told TMZ that she finds his transgender military ban 'despicable'

Keeping quiet: The actress was out to dinner with her partner Holland Taylor, 75, but she refrained from commenting on the issue

President Donald Trump released an order Friday night banning most transgender troops from serving in the military except under 'limited circumstances,' following up on his calls last year to ban transgender individuals from serving.

The White House said retaining troops with a history or diagnosis of 'gender dysphoria' - those who may require substantial medical treatment - 'presents considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality.'

Trump surprised the Pentagon's leadership in a 2017 tweet when he declared he would reverse an Obama-era plan to allow transgender individuals to serve openly. His push for the ban has been blocked by several legal challenges, and three federal courts have ruled against the ban. The Pentagon responded by allowing those serving to stay in the military, and began allowing transgender individuals to enlist beginning January 1.

Meanwhile, Holland and Paulson walked side-by-side as they left Craig'sa celebrity hotspot in West Hollywood.

Sarah was also asked to share her thoughts about the March For Our Lives Rally.

'It was a big day,' she said agreeing with the fact that the gun violence conversations have already caused change.

Warm: She kept things monochrome underneath her jacket, donning black cropped pants and a matching shirt

Good eats! The adorable duo walked side-by-side as they left Craig'sa celebrity hotspot in West Hollywood

Sarah was all-smiles as she sported a long black-and-white plaid coat for the evening out with her lady.

She kept things monochrome underneath her jacket, donning black cropped pants and a matching shirt.

On her feet were a pair of darling all-black saddleback shoes and in her grasp was a small beige clutch.

Open and honest: In a 2016 interview with Glamour Magazine, a slew of celebrities were asked a single question: If you could deport any U.S. citizen, who would it be? Paulson's answer was unsurprisingly 'Donald Trump'

In a 2016 interview with Glamour Magazine, a slew of celebrities were asked a single question: If you could deport any U.S. citizen, who would it be?

Paulson's answer was unsurprisingly 'Donald Trump.'

'I have nothing further to add on the subject,' she said smiling. 'Just Donald Trump period.'Will Smith and Marc Anthony have been friends for years.

The 49-year-old Los Angeles based actor met up with Anthony while in Miami for Ultra Music Festival.

Will was treated to personal salsa lessons from the Latin artist while they sailed around South Beach on a yacht.

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Pals: Will Smith and Marc Anthony have been friends for years. The 49-year-old Los Angeles based actor met up with Anthony while in Miami for Ultra Music Festival

The Bad Boys star posted a video on Instagram of his new dance moves and captioned it '#bucketlist.'

Will and Marc were elated to be in each other's company as they playfully swayed to the music.

'Arriba, arriba!' they both shouted at the end of the clip.

Let's groove: Will was treated to personal salsa lessons from the Latin artist while they sailed around South Beach on a yacht

To the left: The Bad Boys star posted a video on Instagram of his new dance moves and captioned it '#bucketlist'

Brothers for life: Will and Marc were elated to be in each other's company as they playfully swayed to the music

'Arriba, arriba!' they both shouted at the end of the clip

Earlier in the night, Will made an appearance at Ultra Music Festival where he took the stage with DJ Marshmello.

The Philly native performed his throwback single Miami for the roaring crowd of thousands.

He was casually clad in a white tee, jeans, and an Adidas zip-up hoodie.

Deuces! Earlier in the night, Will made an appearance at Ultra Music Festival where he took the stage with DJ Marshmello

South Beach bringing the heat: The Philly native performed his throwback single Miami for the roaring crowd of thousands

According to his Instagram story, Smith woke up in Miami feeling a bit 'sleepy.'



'You can't front on Miami,' he said while sharing a panoramic view from his hotel balcony. 'I love Miami. My kids and Jada love LA though. So we live in LA.'

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air also shared a video of Kevin Hart comically speaking in Spanish after Will participated in Spotify's dance challenge for a new Latin tune called 'X.'

Late night: According to his Instagram story, Smith woke up in Miami feeling a bit 'sleepy'

'You can't front on Miami,' he said while sharing a panoramic view from his hotel balcony. 'I love Miami. My kids and Jada love LA though. So we live in LA'

'I see my guy Will Smith has learned Spanish so now I'm not the only one,' he said before speaking complete gibberish. 'Spanish from one guy to another. Glad you're finally up on what I'm up on. Espanol forever!'

Needless to say Will was beyond amused.

'For the last week I have literally watched this EVERYDAY,' he said. 'This dude is genius! But, what else do you expect from #PhillyBoys.'

Speaking my language: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air also shared a video of Kevin Hart comically speaking in Spanish after Will participated in Spotify's dance challenge for a new Latin dance tune called 'X'







He's currently on tour for his latest album Divide.

And New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern got the shock of her life when Ed Sheeran took up her offer of tea and scones at her Auckland home on Sunday.

The 37-year-old politician shared a snap of the pair in her lounge room, along with the caption: 'It was a real treat to meet you!'

What a treat! Ed Sheeran stops by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's home for tea and scones

Pregnant Jacinda beamed for the photo, alongside Ed, 27, who wore a simple black T-shirt and his signature black-rimmed spectacles.

'Couldn't make any of Ed Sheeran's shows while he is here so cheekily suggested he come round for a cuppa and some scones. Didn't quite expect him to say yes,' Jacinda captioned the image.

She added: 'Thanks @teddysphotos It was a real treat to meet you. And as an added bonus, my scones weren't a complete disaster!'

Jacinda's partner Clarke Gayford also took to Twitter, sharing a snap of himself and Ed seated on a chair in the family's dining room, pretending to read a book together titled 'I'm not fat, I'm pregnant!'

Domestic life: Jacinda's partner Clarke Gayford also took to Twitter, sharing a snap of himself and Ed seated on a chair in the family's dining room, pretending to read a book about pregnancy together

He's unstoppable! Ed kicked off the New Zealand leg of his Divide tour on Saturday at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium

Clarke captioned the image: 'It takes a village [and a pop star] to raise a child.'

Ed kicked off the New Zealand leg of his Divide tour on Saturday at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium.

The pal of Taylor Swift opened with Castle on the Hill as he took to the stage on a rainy night.

Speaking to the crowd, who had ventured out in the dreary weather to witness the pop sensation belt out his hit tunes, Ed expressed his gratitude for his fans rocking up to the show.

Rain, hail or shine: The pal of Taylor Swift opened with Castle on the Hill as he took to the stage on a rainy night

'Hello Auckland, thank you for coming, thank you for braving the weather,' Ed said, as reported by The New Zealand Herald.

The Shape of You hit-maker performed another show on Sunday, and then heads to Dunedin for three more concerts, to take place at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

Ed's New Zealand trip comes off the back of his record-breaking tour to Australia.

With sales of more than one million tickets, the flame-haired artist had broken the previous record of 950,000 tickets held by Dire Straits since 1986.Steve Jacobs reportedly changed the passwords on his wife's phone, chased her up the street, stole her diary and was 'aggressive' during their toxic eight-year marriage, court documents claim.

New details of the relationship between the Today show weatherman and wife Rosie have continued to emerge in the week since the couple's split became public.

Daily Mail Australia last week revealed that Ms Jacobs had taken an AVO out against her estranged husband in January this year, months after they officially separated.

Friends of the pair have told Woman's Day just how toxic things between Steve and Rosie got, while court documents relating to the AVO revealed she secretly videoed a dispute between them as they exchanged custody of their two daughters.

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The alleged 'aggressive behaviour' of Today show weatherman Steve Jacobs (pictured) is what resulted in his wife taking an AVO out against him, court documents have claimed

The Today show star (left) reportedly changed the passwords on his wife Rosie's (right) phone, chased her up the street, stole her diary and was 'aggressive' during their eight-year marriage

A close friend of the couple told the magazine Steve and Rosie had faced troubles in their marriage long before Ms Jacobs called it quits in late-2017.

'These issues have been going on for the past two years,' a friend claimed to the magazine.

'He's changed passwords on her phone, stolen her diary and chased her down the street in Coogee. He controlled all the finances.'

Rosie Jacobs, 39, filed for a Family Protection Order against her husband Steve at the Port Vila Magistrate Court in January.

According to court documents seen by Woman's Day, Ms Jacobs told police she was forced to flee their Vanuatu home 'due to his (Steve's) aggressive behaviour'.

The interim AVO granted Ms Jacobs, a Channel Seven presenter, access to their two daughters and ordered Steve stay 100 metres away from her at all times.

Daily Mail Australia understands Ms Jacobs waved some conditions of the AVO soon after and that the order it no longer remains in place.

Ms Jacobs is believed to have filmed a dispute between the pair as they exchanged care of their daughters last year, with Steve reportedly saying to her: 'You're poison'

Rosie (pictured) and Steve's separation became public last weekend, months after they split

Rosie (left) began dating highly-skilled soldier Dylan Nash (right) after she split from the Today show star

Today show weatherman Steve (left) was reportedly involved in an 'altercation' with Rosie's new lover Dylan Nash (right) at a Vanuatu gym, it can be revealed

A witness told Daily Mail Australia that Mr Nash was working out at the gym with a friend when Steve entered and an altercation ensued

Rosie's decision to file for an AVO in Vanuatu came almost two years after she spoke to police at Bondi Junction about her options in April 2016.

A TIMELINE OF THE JACOBS' MARRIAGE: 1989: Steve Jacobs marries wife Alison 2007: Rosie meets Steve while working on the Today show 2009: Steve separates from first wife Alison 2010: Steve and Rosie marry in Bali 2011: The couple welcome their first daughter Isabella in May 2013: Francesca, Steve and Rosie's second daughter, is born in April 2016: The couple move to Vanuatu in a 'last ditch effort to save their marriage' 2018: Steve and Rosie separate after eight years of marriage Advertisement

Having long faced battles in their marriage, Steve and Rosie moved to Vanuatu with their two daughters in what was seen as a 'last ditch' effort at making things work.

Leaving his $400,000-a-year role with the Today show after 12 years, Steve continued on in a position with Weekend Today after he moved to Port Vila.

At the time, he tearfully told his long-time friend Karl Stefanovic the move was what he and his family needed.

'For the past 12 years, I haven't been able to wake up once with my wife, haven't been able to get the kids to daycare,' Steve said.

But friends last week revealed the pair's marriage continued to be unworkable and in late-2017 they split.

Ms Jacobs has since begun dating Canadian ex-commando Dylan Nash who she met through mutual friends in Vanuatu.

It is understood her current and former lovers were involved in an 'altercation' inside the packed Ultimate Fitness gym in Port Vila, Vanuatu, on February 24 this year.

Police are reportedly aware of the altercation at the Ultimate Fitness Vanuatu gym (pictured) involving Mr Nash and Steve, but no official complaint was filed by either party

Rosie applied for a 'restraining ex parte temporary domestic protection order' against Steve at Port Vila Magistrates Court in January this year

A source told Daily Mail Australia that Rosie (pictured) 39, began dating Mr Nash in the months after she split from Steve, 51

A witness claimed Mr Nash was working out with a mate when Steve arrived and an altercation ensued.

'The gym was pretty busy and Dylan was standing there talking to someone when all of a sudden Stevie came up to him,' the witness told Daily Mail Australia.

'Dylan's well over six-foot and Stevie's obviously much smaller, but he went up to him and shouted something about moving in on his wife.

'I think Dylan just replied saying he'd lost his wife long before he came on the scene.'

An Ultimate Fitness employee confirmed the incident occurred at the gym but would not be drawn on further details.

'They are two good members, one happened to be doing his thing and the other was there as well and I can't really say more than that,' the employee told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.

'If you need to know more you'll have to talk to those guys. I can't really comment.'

Police are reportedly aware of the altercation, but no official complaint was filed by either party.

Neither Steve, Rosie or Mr Nash responded to attempts for comment in recent days.

The Jacobs' have put their four-bedroom home in Coogee (pictured) up for auction in April

The home has ocean views, a main bedroom with an ensuite, and a studio above the garage

The pair met on Today in 2007, where Steve was a star weatherman and Rosie one of the breakfast show's producers.

In 2010, after Steve finalised his divorce to wife of two decades Alison, he and Rosie tied the knot in Bali.

The pair welcomed their first daughter Isabella in 2011 and their second Francesca in April 2013.

The couple's family home in Coogee, in Sydney's eastern suburbs, was recently put up for sale. It is set to fetch north of $4million when it goes under the hammer.

The couple purchased the four-bedroom home in 2011 for $2.55million and had been renting it since moving to Vanuatu.

Ballard Property Group Double Bay has listed the property for auction on April 7.Florence Alexandra got into a lovers tiff with Jake Ellis on Sunday night's Bachelor In Paradise premiere after she questioned his rumoured playboy past on the Gold Coast.

And this week insiders revealed that behind the scenes Florence Alexandra well and truly 'exploded' over the incident.

A source told New Idea that 'security were called in over her meltdown before she was forced to leave the show'.

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'This is nothing like the Flo people have seen before': Security 'called in over Florence Alexander's MELTDOWN on Bachelor In Paradise before she was reportedly forced to leave the show'

'This is nothing like the Florence people have seen before,' the source revealed to the publication.

According to New Idea, the meltdown was triggered by Florence's previous romantic relationship with Jake.

'I think she thought they would just take-off where they left things, but that didn't go her way,' the insider explained to the magazine.

The publication claims Florence's breakdown involved 'tears, name calling and even an incident involving security'.

Not-so-sunny-disposition! The publication claims Florence's breakdown involved 'tears, name calling and even an incident involving security'

According to producers, Florence was ultimately sent packing after she didn't receive a rose.

These explosive claims come after the blonde beauty received a shock on Sunday night's premiere when she was warned to stay away from Jake.

Florence was told not to trust Jake by Tara Pavlovic, who revealed he had a reputation on the Gold Coast as a 'ladies man'.

'I live on the Gold Coast and everyone has been there,' Tara told a stunned Florence.

'I live on the Gold Coast and everyone has been there!' Tara Pavlovic warned Florence Alexander about Jake Ellis on Sunday's Bachelor In Paradise premiere

She then said that so many people ask 'Have you got a Jake Ellis story?', implying that the handsome marketing manager had been around the block.

Speaking privately to the camera, Tara said: 'A lot of people I know, know Jake.'

She continued: 'He's a nice guy, happy to have a conversation with him. Would I date him? Absolutely not.'

'Have you got a Jake Ellis story?' Tara said that many people on the Gold Coast have a 'story' about being with Jake, causing Florence to become concerned

Florence later expressed her fears that the whispers were true, which caused her to get into a fight with Jake after she confronted him about it.

It seems that the Dutch stunner was right to be concerned, as shortly after the episode aired The Bachelor's Jen Hawke took to Instagram to remind fans that she has her very own Jake Ellis story.

'Who do I know other than Flo that has a Jake Ellis story?' Jen said sarcastically.

'Who do I know other than Flo that has a Jake Ellis story?' Shortly after the episode aired The Bachelor's Jen Hawke took to Instagram to remind fans that she had a fling with Jake

She then followed the question by posting a photo of herself with Jake, which was accompanied by a poll that asked users: 'Do you have a Jake Ellis story?'

Jen and Jake dated for around five months in 2016, but the pair split right before Jen joined The Bachelor.

The 28-year-old also dated The Bachelorette's Blake Colman.The Only Way Is Essex returned to TV screens on Sunday night and there was more drama than ever before.

The ITVBe favourite proved to be more explosive than ever before after James 'Lockie' Lock launched into a foul-mouthed tirade aimed at his girlfriend Yazmin Oukhellou while in Barcelona.

The 31-year-old TOWIE veteran became agitated after he was confronted for his disrespectful behaviour by his other half's pals Chloe Lewis and Chloe Meadows following a recent dinner they had all attended.

R|ant: James 'Lockie' Lock launched into a foul-mouthed tirade aimed at his girlfriend Yazmin Oukhellou while in Barcelona on Sunday night's TOWIE

Although the girls were sticking up for their pal and attempting to calmly resolve the issue, James quickly became enraged and left Yazmin in tears as he repeatedly called her a 'spoilt brat'.

Taking a nasty turn, he shouted: 'Let me tell you something. Okay, youre gonna start doing that. Throwing that card. Listen Yaz, do not f***ing sit there and make me look like a d**k.

'Don't sit here playing the victim because you are a spoilt, f***ing brat. Alright? You're a spoilt, little f***ing brat. Do not sit here and f***ing play the victim. Dont start f***ing crying.I'm a f***ing nice boy...'

In the midst of his rage, Yazmin pleaded with him to stop: 'I don't care if you do it at home but this is embarrassing'.

Disrespectful: Although the girls were sticking up for their pal and attempting to calmly resolve the issue, James quickly became enraged and left Yazmin in tears as he repeatedly called her a 'spoilt brat'

Confronted: The 31-year-old TOWIE veteran became agitated after he was confronted for his disrespectful behaviour by his other half's pals Chloe Lewis and Chloe Meadows following a recent dinner they had all attended

Nasty: Taking a nasty turn, he shouted: 'Let me tell you something. Okay, youre gonna start doing that. Throwing that card. Listen Yaz, do not f***ing sit there and make me look like a d**k'

But James refused to stop and tensions continued to rise as he reduced Chloe L to tears after he insinuated she went on a night out without telling her boyfriend Danny Flasher.

The brunette fired back: 'I'm very much in love and my partner does not speak to me the way you do.' To which Lockie replied: 'Yeah, go and have a cry. Bore off...'

Shocked by his behaviour, Chloe L made her way back inside the venue screaming: 'Gentleman? You're not a gentleman! You might want to look it up in the dictionary.'

Not holding back: He added: 'Don't sit here playing the victim because you are a spoilt, f***ing brat. Alright? You're a spoilt, little f***ing brat. Do not sit here and f***ing play the victim. Dont start f***ing crying.I'm a f***ing nice boy...'

'Embarrassing': In the midst of his rage, Yazmin pleaded with him to stop: 'I don't care if you do it at home but this is embarrassing'

Claims: But James refused to stop and tensions continued to rise as he reduced Chloe L to tears after he insinuated she went on a night out without telling her boyfriend Danny Flasher

Firing back: The brunette fired back: 'I'm very much in love and my partner does not speak to me the way you do'

Tension: As tensions slowly started to simmer down, Yazmin said through her tears: 'It's embarrassing that they think you treat me like shit'

As tensions slowly started to simmer down, Yazmin said through her tears: 'It's embarrassing that they think you treat me like shit.'

Which left James angry adding: 'Me and you have a really toxic relationship. You try and wind me up, Yaz.'

Following expletive scene, viewers took to social media in their droves as they slammed the TOWIE star for his appalling behaviour while his co-star Gemma Collins and Celebs Go Dating expert Nadia Essex admitted they were outraged by his appearance.

TOWIE's Gemma Collins tweeted: 'What totally disgusting behaviour! Not for me!'

Outrage: Following expletive scene, viewers took to social media in their droves as they slammed the TOWIE star for his appalling behaviour while his co-star Gemma Collins and Celebs Go Dating expert Nadia Essex admitted they were outraged by his appearance

While Nadia shared: 'If my boyfriend spoke to me like Lockie just spoke to Yaz in or out of public...needless to say he would no longer be my boyfriend' alongside a hand-waving emoji.

A viewer wrote: '@JamesLock__ wouldn't know the meaning of the word "Gentleman" if someone smacked him round the face with a dictionary!! Vile human.'

'Sorry but shouting at your bird for crying is a joke, then going on to call her a brat. Gentleman my a**,' another posted. 'The way Lockie talks to Yaz is acc disgusting man. Ngl , it now makes sense why Danielle broke up with him'.She's just enjoyed a weekend at the Australian Grand Prix down in Melbourne.

But on Sunday, Simone Holtznagel revealed an array of painful-looking bruises on the back of her legs when she arrived back in Sydney.

The 24-year-old blonde model showed off the markings as she strutted through the terminal in a PVC leather miniskirt.

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Is everything okay? Simone Holtznagel wears a PVC leather miniskirt which reveals an array of bruises on the back of her legs... after attending the Australian Grand Prix

Simone teamed the skirt with a black Guns N' Roses T-shirt, and black high-heeled boots.

The Playboy model had her long locks out and over her shoulders, in loose tousled curls, and wore a face full of makeup.

Her makeup included a nude lip and a smokey and heavily lined eye.

Racy attire: The 24-year-old blonde model showed off the markings as she strutted through the terminal in a PVC leather miniskirt

Blonde bombshell: The Playboy model had her long blonde locks out and over her shoulders, in loose tousled curls, and wore a face full of makeup

Simone told Daily Mail Australia on Monday that the bruises are a result of fainting at a Pilates class.

'I fainted the other day at my first Pilates class back from the jungle,' Simone said.

Simone has just recently completed a stint in the jungle, on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

She has been a fixture in the headlines recently, due to her rumoured romance with fellow I'm A Celeb jungle-dweller and AFL star Josh Gibson.

Not afraid to get her hands dirty! Simone has just recently completed a stint in the jungle, on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

Making headlines: She was also at the centre of a controversy when comedian Mick Molloy fat-shamed her on his radio show, describing her as a 'plus size model' and likening her to a baby elephant

She was also at the centre of a controversy when comedian Mick Molloy fat-shamed her on his radio show, describing her as a 'plus size model' and likening her to a baby elephant.

The Triple M shock jock made the comments about Simone during his drive-time national radio show with Jane Kennedy earlier this month, leaving his co-host appalled.

'She claims to be a world class international model... I call bulls**t!' he exclaimed, to which Jane responded: 'Excuse me, thats incredibly rude of you.'

'I mean, maybe a plus-size model. She's been in the jungle for 10 weeks now and still...' he continued, then started humming the Baby Elephant Walk tune.

However, since the scandal, Simone has chosen to forgiven and forget, telling her Instagram followers 'Hatchet = buried' in a caption that accompanied a photo of herself with Mick on Friday.Sydney photographer Jayden Seyfarth has accused a Bachelor In Paradise star of staging paparazzi photos for profit.

The 20-year-old leaked private messages between himself and the unidentified reality star he names 'darling' to his Instagram Story on Sunday.

A screen grab of the conversation saw the Channel Ten personality wanting to 'shoot some controversy' and after 'the best deal'.

'Wanna shoot some controversy? I'm looking for the best deal': Photographer Jayden Seyfarth busted a Bachelor In Paradise star for STAGING paparazzi pictures, via his Instagram Story on Sunday

Jayden, who began a career as a paparazzo while in high school, shared a screen grab of the text message thread, simply captioned 'Lols'.

Marking out the sender's identity, and the co-star they were planning on shooting with, the conversation began: 'Hey going to the beach with...tomorrow. Wanna shoot some controversy?'

'And at the end of the week you find me and...;)' they went on to say.

Milking their fame: Jayden, 20, shared a screen grab of the text message thread, where the Channel Ten personality was looking to 'shoot some controversy' for the 'best deal'

Referring to the star as 'darling', Jayden responded: 'Hey darling! Ha yeah that sounds good! :) what time? You're on Bach and paradise now hey?'

Wanting to milk their newfound 15 minutes of fame, the contestant stated: Yep I'm looking for the best deal,' adding that they were also in talks with another paparazzi agency.

Jayden then declined on the gig, saying he'd save them 'the trouble'.

Slow start: Despite all the hype, Bachelor In Paradise premiered to less-than-favourable ratings on Sunday night, unable to compete with Nine's Married At First Sight. According to TV Tonight, the Bachelor and Bachelorette spin-off attracted only 750,000 viewers

Despite all the hype, Bachelor In Paradise premiered to less-than-favourable ratings on Sunday night, unable to compete with Nine's ratings juggernaut Married At First Sight.

According to TV Tonight, the Bachelor and Bachelorette spin-off attracted only 750,000 viewers.

The debut saw the return of The Bachelor's Keira Maguire, Florence Alexandra, Tara Pavlovic, Leah Costa, Lisa Hyde and Nina Rolleston.

Also obtaining air-time was The Bachelorette's Davey Lloyd, Luke McCleod, Michael Turnbull, Jake Ellis, Blake Colman, Brett Moore, Eden Schwencke and Mack Reid.Netflix has been banned from competing at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

The streaming service last year competed for the coveted Palme d'Or prize with Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories.

Film festival head Thierry Fremaux, 57, said Netflix and other streamers can still screen their movies, but can't vie for the top prize, according to an article by The Hollywood Reporter.

Festival director: Thierry Fremaux, shown last month in Paris, recently explained the decision to ban films by streaming services from the upcoming Cannes Film Festival in France

Fremaux also announced a ban on selfies on Friday in an interview with Le Film Francais.

The decision to allow Okja by director Bong Joon-ho and The Meyerowitz Stories by Noah Baumbach to compete last year sparked outrage.

Fremaux said he wanted the films by the acclaimed directors to premiere at Cannes instead of going to another festival, but neither one of them won.

'Last year, when we selected these two films, I thought I could convince Netflix to release them in cinemas. I was presumptuous, they refused,' Fremaux said.

In competition: Seo-Hyun Ahn is shown in a still from the Netflix movie Okja that competed last year for the Palme d'Or

Netflix tried to secure permits to screen the movies, but ran afoul of France's strict chronology laws surrounding film release.

The festival has since changed its rules to require theatrical release in France.

'The Netflix people loved the red carpet and would like to be present with other films. But they understand that the intransigence of their own model is now the opposite of ours,' Fremaux said.

Streaming film: Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler are shown in a still from The Meyerowitz Stories that also competed last year for a Palme d'Or

'We have to take into account the existence of these powerful new players: Amazon, Netflix and maybe soon Apple,' he added.

Fremaux said the streaming services with their big budgets have been creating 'hybrids' that are neither TV now film.

'Cinema [still] triumphs everywhere even in this golden age of series. The history of cinema and the history of the internet are two different things,' Fremaux said.

The Cannes Film Festival will be held from May 8 to May 19 with Australian actress Cate Blanchett, 48, as jury president.She previously claimed she 'barely got out alive' after enduring the affects of becoming the bride everyone loved to hate.

And Married At First Sight 'villain' Davina Rankin, 26, has now revealed her online trolling involved serious threats of physical violence by strangers who watched the controversial Nine series.

In a promo for Monday's A Current Affair, the reality star broke down in tears discussing the scary possibility of being assaulted on the street.

'What really shook me to the core!' MAFS 'villain' bride Davina Rankin breaks down in tears as she confesses to receiving assault threats by online trolls following public backlash

The Instagram model was branded a 'homewrecker' by MAFS fans after she began a secret relationship with 'alpha male' Dean Wells behind her 'husband' Ryan Gallagher's back.

Davina also angered viewers when she refused to properly apologise to Dean's TV 'wife' Tracey Jewel for her actions, instead suggesting: 'What? I thought your boyfriend was hot... But he didn't want to be with you.'

In her first television interview since Married At First Sight wrapped, Davina will share her emotional journey with 60 Minutes following the public backlash.

Scandal: Davina planned an 'affair' with Dean Wells on Married At First Sight, despite the fact they were both 'married' to other people at the time

'Even though it's words, words still carry a lot of weight': Davina is believed to open up about verbal and physical threats made by online trolls during the chat

In the interview trailer, Davina claims she'll open up about 'what really shook me to the core'.

Reporter Alison Piotrowski can be heard comforting the crying personal trainer by adding: 'Someone saying they're going to assault you on the street - that's not OK!'

Appearing to agree with her statement, Davina responds: 'Even though it's words, words still carry a lot of weight, you know.'

In the clip, the journalist promoted the chat: 'This interview might surprise you'.

Change of heart? In another teaser for her exclusive interview, the MAFS star also hints she's remorseful for her 'affair' on the show and how she treated her co-stars

In another teaser for her exclusive interview, the MAFS star also hints she's remorseful for her 'affair' on the show.

She can be heard explaining that she regrets the hurt she caused: 'I just felt really bad for them!'

Davina's chat with A Current Affair will air on Monday from 7pmHe was romantically linked with Kendall Jenner in 2014 when they were pictured getting into a taxi together in New York.

But on Monday, 5 Seconds of Summer Ashton Irwin suggested his 'relationship' with the American model may have been a simple business arrangement.

The 23-year-old hinted to hit105's Stav, Abby & Matt on Monday that his 'hang-outs' with Kendall, 22, were possibly pre-arranged for the paparazzi.

Staged for the paparazzi? On Monday, 5 Seconds of Summer Ashton Irwin suggested his 'relationship' with the American model may have been a simple business arrangement

'Yeah some people might want you to be seen with a certain person or you know... it works two-ways,' Ashton said cryptically.

Brisbane radio presenter Matt Acton began the conversation by asking about the pair's rumoured romance.

'Are you guys still hanging out? Are you still friends?' he asked Ashton.

Fake news? The 23-year-old drummer hinted to hit105's Stav, Abby & Matt on Monday that his 'hang-outs' with Kendall, 22, may have been pre-arranged for the paparazzi

Ashton replied, 'I haven't spoken to Kendall in a minute... we weren't doing...' before awkwardly trailing off.

He then paused, before saying: 'She was actually a good friend of Harry's (Styles) for a while and I guess... same crowd, that's what happens.'

Matt then mentioned how fans sometimes see paparazzi or social media photos and assume that celebrities are 'good friends'.

'A lot of people will plan what everyone sees so I don't get involved in that s**t. I don't like that': Ashton hinted that he didn't like getting involved in the business of staging 'candid' photos

In response, Ashton began discussing staged paparazzi photos, which are a common phenomenon in showbusiness.

'I think the sad thing is a lot of people will plan what everyone sees so I don't get involved in that s**t. I don't like that,' he said.

During the interview, it was also noted that the Sydneysider had started speaking with a slight 'American twang'.

Ashton explained: 'Yeah I think moving away from Australia so early. I moved to the UK when I was 16, 17. And then I moved to America when I was 18... I'm nearly 24 now, so it happens.'She announced her second pregnancy in December.

And Candice Swanepoel covered up her growing baby bump while on a stroll through New York on Sunday afternoon.

The 29-year-old stunner looked warm wearing multiple layers as she trekked across city streets with her mother Eileen and son Anacan.

Lovely: Candice Swanepoel covered up her growing baby bump while on a stroll through New York on Sunday afternoon

Her long and lean legs were wrapped up in a pair of tight maroon ribbed leggings, paired with thick black combat boots.

Candice's growing baby bump was on full display in an over-sized black sweater which hit just above her thighs.

She kept her hands in the pockets of a fuzzy olive-green coat as she walked alongside her family.

Family: The 29-year-old stunner looked warm wearing multiple layers as she trekked across city streets with her mother Eileen and son Anacan

Out and about: She kept her hands in the pockets of a fuzzy olive-green coat as she walked alongside her family

The Victoria's Secret Angel appeared to be relatively makeup-free as she kept a pair of mirrored sunglasses over her eyes.

Her long, champagne-colored hair was worn straight and peeked out from underneath her wide-brim hat.

Swanepoel's mother, Eilieen, sported a warm black coat and khaki trousers as she pushed a stroller carrying Anacan, one.

Chic: The Victoria's Secret Angel appeared to be relatively makeup-free as she kept a pair of mirrored sunglasses over her eyes

Love: Swanepoel's mother, Eilieen, sported a warm black coat and khaki trousers as she pushed a stroller carrying Anacan, one

She first publicized the pregnancy with a December Instagram snap of herself cradling her bump with the caption, 'Christmas came early.. #2'.

Candice has dated Brazilian model Hermann since 2005, having reportedly met him in Paris when she was just 17 years old.

They became engaged in August 2015 but have yet to announce wedding plans.Kevin Federline celebrated his 40th birthday with his current wife at a strip club.

The new 40-year-old and Victoria Prince enjoyed bottle service at their VIP section of Crazy Horse III Gentlemen's Club in Las Vegas, TMZ reported.

K-Fed, a rapper most famous for his ruptured marriage to Britney Spears, looked to have slimmed down at the event which found him at work at his own birthday party, stepping up to serve as DJ.

All class: Kevin Federline celebrated his 40th birthday with his current wife at a strip club

That evening, his outfit had the measure of the occasion - a black hoodie that read: 'COOKIES' over casual grey trousers and a pair of white sneakers.

K-Fed, who in his heavier days was cheekily dubbed K-Fat, lounged at a table stacked with fake money that featured his smiling face.

Kevin also posed between a couple of the club's performers - a pair of blondes slid into skimpy black lingerie and matching stilettos.

Swank: The new 40-year-old and Victoria Prince enjoyed bottle service at their VIP section of Crazy Horse III Gentlemen's Club in Las Vegas, TMZ reported

At the table: K-Fed, a rapper most famous for his ruptured marriage to Britney Spears, found himself at work at his own birthday party, stepping up to serve as DJ

Half the man he used to be! K-Fed pictured in 2009 carrying a bit more weight

He reportedly made a recent request that Britney increase the child support she gives him - which is already a whopping $20,000 a month.

The erstwhile couple share two sons - Sean, 12, and Jayden, 11 - and Kevin maintains that the boys' increasing age is making them more expensive to raise.

Jamie Spears, Britney's father and conservator, was dubious about the request and failed to get either Kevin or his lawyer to specify what precisely the rapper needed the extra money for, according to sources who gossiped to TMZ.

Photogenic: K-Fed, who in heavier days was cheekily dubbed K-Fat, lounged at a table stacked with fake money that featured his smiling face

Nor, allegedly, did they even give an exact amount they felt Kevin should be paid a month as an increase from the $20,000.

Kevin's lawyer did apparently make a point of noting Britney's increased income from such professional triumphs as her Las Vegas residency.

Sean and Jayden are Britney's only two children, but Kevin has a further four.

Mingling: Kevin also posed between a couple of the club's performers - a pair of blondes slid into skimpy black lingerie and matching stilettos

He and Victoria have two daughters - Peyton, three, and Jordan, six - and he has another two children by his ex-girlfriend Shar Jackson.

Kevin and Shar, who were together from 2001 until 2004, have a 15-year-old daughter called Kori and a 13-year-old son called Kaleb.

After a 55-hour Las Vegas marriage to her old pal Jason Allen Alexander in 2004, Britney got hitched to Kevin later that same year and divorced him in 2007.

Fundraising: He reportedly made a recent request that Britney increase the child support she gives him - which is already a whopping $20,000 a month

One night in 2008, amid her legal battle with Kevin over their sons, she refused to hand the children over to him despite the fact he'd won temporary custody.

Britney, whom police theorized was 'under the influence of an unknown substance' that evening, brought her sons into the en suite bathroom of her house's master bedroom and holed up in there with them.

The authorities were called to the hostage crisis and retrieved the pop icon on a gurney, whereupon she was briefly hospitalized and for a time lost visitation rights - though she now shares custody with Kevin.Star Jones is one happy lady.

The former star of TV's The View not only celebrated her 56th birthday on Saturday on board a cruise ship; she also got hitched Sunday.

Star exchanged vows with fiance Ricardo Lugo in front of family and friends as they sailed in The Bahamas on the Royal Caribbean's Anthem Of The Seas.

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Seafaring nuptials: Star Jones tied the knot with fiance Ricardo Lugo on board a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in The Bahamas on Sunday. She posted this snap to her Instagram

Star shared several snaps to her Instagram, first of her lavish birthday party on Saturday, then her on board bachelorette party along with her pet pooch Pinky Michelle Jones.

She also added a shot of herself and her new husband silhouetted against the sunset sky.

She wrote in the caption: 'Yesterday was my birthday...and today is our wedding day at sea! Our #AnthemToLove has officially begun on the #AnthemOfTheSeas!'

Celebrating: The former panelist on The View also shared snaps of her bachelorette party posing with her beloved dog Pinky Michelle Jones and a glass of champagne

Blowing out candles: She also posted to Instagram a montage of photos taken at her 56th birthday party on Saturday, also on board the ship

The couple, who've been dating for several years, got engaged last summer.

Lugo is an assistant state attorney who works for State Attorney Kim Foxx in Illinois, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Guests at the nuptials included Beyonce's mom Tina Knowles-Lawson who shared a snap of some of the female guests to Instagram with the caption: 'With all my beautiful fly girls on the seas here to celebrate the love and Union of Star Jones and Ricardo.'

'Fly girls': Guests at the nuptials included Beyonce's mom Tina Knowles-Lawson who shared this snap of some of the female guests

Husband number 2: Ricardo, pictured with Star in New York this past October, is an attorney

Star was previously married from 2004 to 2008 to Al Reynolds, a former investment banker.

The TV personality is best known for her stint on ABC's The View where she was one of the original panelists alongside Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg.

She appeared on the daytime show from 1997 to 2006.

In 2011 she was cast in the fourth installment of The Celebrity Apprentice, placing fifth in the reality competition.

In November 2017, her ex-husband Reynolds came out as bisexual.She made piece with the Triple M host at Melbourne's Grand Prix on Friday, after he labelled her a 'plus-sized model' and compared her to a 'baby elephant'.

And I'm A Celebrity's Simone Holtznagel told news.com.au on Monday, what they spoke about during their confrontation.

'I just reminded him that fat-shaming people isn't cool,' the 24-year-old told the publication.

'I reminded him that fat-shaming isn't cool': Simone Holtznagel, 24, speaks to news.com.au about her confrontation with Mick Molloy, 51, at Melbourne's Grand Prix on Friday, after the Triple M host compared her to a 'baby elephant'

'He was very apologetic, and said again it was a joke, and that's fine. I just reminded him that fat-shaming people isn't cool, whether you're a model or not,' Simone said of her chat with Mick, 51.

Their chat which lasted for approximately 10 minutes in the Channel Ten marquee, saw the Playboy model clearing the air.

'[I told him] you just don't need to make comments like that or resort to name calling. There's far funnier stuff to talk about than that [people's weight and body image].'

Shortly after the interaction at Grand Prix, Simone took to her Instagram account, sharing a picture of the pair embracing and letting out a wide grin.

Clearing the air: Simone said of her 10 minute chat with Mick at the Channel Ten marquee: '[I told him] you just don't need to make comments like that or resort to name calling. There's far funnier stuff to talk about than that [people's weight and body image]'

The starlet, in a leopard-print Manning Cartell frock captioned the post simply with 'Hatchet = buried'.

Earlier this month, radio host Mick Molloy critcised Simone for her figure in an on-air body shaming incident.

On Triple M's Kennedy Molloy drive show, Mick accused the blonde bombshell of being too large to be a model, in comments that left co-host Jane Kennedy shocked.

Mick said of Simone: 'She claims to be a model of some description. She claims to be a world class international model. I call bulls**t on that.'

'I mean, maybe a plus-size model,' he continued.

Harsh words: Mick said on Triple M's Kennedy Molloy drive show of Simone earlier this month: 'She claims to be a model of some description. She claims to be a world class international model. I call bulls**t on that'

'She's been in the jungle for 10 weeks now and still...' Mick added, before humming the Baby Elephant Walk.

Jane sounded shocked by Mick's remarks and defended Simone.

'Come on, that is incredibly rude of you!' she said.

Simone, who left the South African jungle earlier this month, has enjoyed an illustrious career after appearing on Australia's Next Top Model in 2011.

The genetically-blessed star has posed for Playboy and featured in campaigns for Guess and other high-profile brands.They are a generation apart on the Netflix hit Stranger Things.

But on Sunday night, Winona Ryder, 46, and Millie Bobby Brown, 14, looked like they could be mother and daughter as the young star of the sci fi series rocked a similar hairstyle and makeup to the Hollywood veteran.

Millie has grown out the shaved head look that made her famous as Eleven on the show and wore her longer locks in loose curls, in an almost identical style to Winona who shares the same dark hair color.

In the spotlight: Winona Ryder, 46, and Millie Bobby Brown, 14, looked like they could be mother and daughter as the Stranger Things co-stars rocked similar hairstyles and make up

In fact, the two were striking in their similarities as they arrived at Paleyfest in Hollywood Sunday night.

Winona plays Joyce Byers, the mother of Will Byers who in season one was abducted by the monster of Upside Down.

Millie stars as the mysterious kinetic girl Eleven who joined forces with Will's friends to try and rescue him.

Looking alike: Both actresses wore their hair with a center parting and falling to their shoulders in loose curls as well as gray shadow on their eye lids, rosy blush on cheeks and red lip color

Comeback role: Winona plays Joyce Byers, the mother of Will Byers who in season one was abducted by the monster of Upside Down

Found fame: Millie stars as the mysterious kinetic girl Eleven who joined forces with Will's friends to try and rescue him

Evolution: Millie famously shaved off her hair for her debut as Eleven, left. In season two, Eleven is growing back her hair after being freed from the experimental laboratory

While she famously shaved off her hair for her debut as Eleven, in season two of the series Eleven is seen with more hair as it grows back once she is freed from the experimental laboratory where she was kept a virtual prisoner.

Both actresses on Sunday night wore their hair with a center parting and falling to their shoulders in loose curls.

They each rocked gray dusky shadow on their eye lids along with black mascara.

Their cheeks were dusted with rosy blush and they both wore red lip color.

However, when it came to their choice of outfits, the two stars opted for very contrasting ensembles.

In the money: The teen actress is reported to have negotiated a major pay increase for season 3 of Stranger Things, as much as $300,000-350,000 per episode

Lovely: For Sunday night's event, Millie chose to go all out in a sleeveless semi-sheer black dress decorated with lots of white stars. She added Sophia Webster heels and a gold bracelet

Casual: Two-time Oscar nominee Winona played it low key in black skinny jeans with a tailored black jacket over a black graphic tee. She added black ankle boots and several necklaces

She's back: Her critically-acclaimed role as the mother of Will Byers, who was abducted by the monster from Upside Down, has reinvigorated her career

Two-time Oscar nominee Winona played it low key in a pair of black skinny jeans with a tailored black jacket over a black graphic tee.

She added black ankle boots and several necklaces.

Millie chose to go all out in a sleeveless semi-sheer black dress decorated with lots of white stars.

The teen wore black Sophia Webster heels and a gold bracelet.

Pals: Winona gave a warm welcome to actress Natalia Dyer, who plays Nancy in Stranger Things, as they arrived at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre

Stylish: Natalia, 21, wore a pretty dress that had a white short-sleeved bodice and green skirt with a pale pink satin band around the waist. She wore her hair in a high pony tail

Coordinated: The bodice of her dress had an asymmetrical low-cut neckline that was mirrored in the shape of her white heels

Also on hand for the event where the cast of Stranger Things talked about making the Netflix blockbuster was Natalia Dyer, who stars as Nancy.

The 21-year-old wore a pretty dress that had a white short-sleeved bodice and green skirt with a pale pink satin band around the waist.

The bodice had an asymmetrical low-cut neckline that was mirrored in the shape of Natalia's white heels.

The actress's co-star and real-life boyfriend Charlie Heaton was also there, looking sharp in a dark green two-piece suit with a black shirt and black shoes with blue laces.

On the blue carpet: Natalia's co-star and real-life boyfriend Charlie Heaton was also there, looking sharp in a dark green two-piece suit with a black shirt and black shoes with blue laces

Stalwart: David Harbour, who stars as Hawkins sheriff Jim Hopper, was casual in blue jeans with a plush black velvet jacket

Young star: Caleb McLaughlin, 16, who plays Lucas, showed off his eclectic style with a two-tone buttoned up shirt and plaid pants with black ankle boots

Breakout character: Sadie Sink, 15, who joined the Stranger Things cast for season two, opted for a two-tone dress with white short-sleeved bodice and black ankle-length skirt

David Harbour, who stars as Hawkins sheriff Jim Hopper, was casual in blue jeans with a plush black velvet jacket.

Caleb McLaughlin, 16, who plays Lucas, showed off his eclectic style with a two-tone buttoned up shirt and plaid pants with black ankle boots.

Sadie Sink, 15, who joined the Stranger Things cast for season two, opted for a two-tone dress with white short-sleeved bodice and black ankle-length skirt.

She went bare-legged in black lace up ankle boots and wore a black Alice band over her long red hair.

On hand, too, were actor Sean Astin, 47, who had a pivotal role in the second season and Shawn Levy, 49, an executive producer on the show.

Have roles to play: On hand, too, were actor Sean Astin, 47, left, who had a pivotal role in the second season and Shawn Levy, 49, right, an executive producer on the show

Set secrets: The event served as a way for the cast to share stories from the set with fans of Stranger Things

Stranger Things has been a phenomenal success for streaming service Netflix.

And now the company is shelling out big bucks to the show's stars for a third season that starts filming next month.

Winona Ryder and David Harbour will be paid $350,000 an episode to return, The Hollywood Reporter said last week, while child actors Finn Wolfhard, 15, Gaten Matarazzo, 15, Caleb McLaughlin, 16, and Noah Schnapp, 13, are set to receive $250,000 per episode.

However, THR.com reports, mystery surrounds the deal being made with Millie Bobby Brown who stars as the mysterious Eleven, with the trade publication reporting her team have been negotiating a separate deal for her which could be worth more.

Some sources have told THR.com that the 14-year-old is set to earn as much as Ryder and Harbour, while others suggest she's going to be paid $300,000 per episode.

If true, that would be a 1,200 percent pay increase from the previously reported $20,000+ salaries the child actors were making during seasons one and two of Stranger Things.

Other cast members Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton and Joe Keery will be paid $150,000 an episode under the new agreement.Lana Del Rey has announced the end of the lawsuit she claimed Radiohead filed against her over her 2017 song Get Free.

'I mean now that my lawsuits over, I guess I can sing that song any time I want, right?' Lana, 32, said onstage Sunday, JustJared reports.

She was playing Sao Paolo's Interlagos racetrack for Lollapalooza Sao Paulo 2018.

Bookend: Onstage in Sao Paulo this Sunday, Lana Del Rey announced the end of the lawsuit she claimed Radiohead filed against her over her 2017 song Get Free

Radiohead, who formed in 1985, apparently felt that Get Free is unduly similar to their own 1993 single Creep.

Lana tweeted this January: 'Its true about the lawsuit. Although I know my song wasnt inspired by Creep, Radiohead feel it was and want 100% of the publishing - I offered up to 40 over the last few months but they will only accept 100. Their lawyers have been relentless, so we will deal with it in court.'

However, a spokesman for Warner/Chappell, the publishers of Radiohead's music, disputed this version of events in a statement quoted by the New York Times.

On the mic: 'I mean now that my lawsuits over, I guess I can sing that song any time I want, right?' Lana, 32, said onstage Sunday, JustJared reports

Where or when: She was playing the Interlagos racetrack for Lollapalooza Sao Paulo 2018

He began: 'As Radioheads music publisher, its true that weve been in discussions since August of last year with Lana Del Reys representatives.

'Its clear that the verses of Get Free use musical elements found in the verses of Creep and weve requested that this be acknowledged in favor of all writers of Creep.

Yet he countered: 'To set the record straight, no lawsuit has been issued and Radiohead have not said they "will only accept 100%" of the publishing of Get Free.'

As seen in 2012: Radiohead, who formed in 1985, apparently felt that Get Free is unduly similar to their own 1993 single Creep

As Rolling Stone pointed out, Creep itself was so much like The Hollies 1974 record The Air That I Breathe that Radiohead were sued by the latter's songwriters.

Mike Hazlewood and Albert Hammond, the writers in question, themselves got part of the publishing when the matter was settled out of court.

Get Free is a cut off Lana's fifth and latest studio album Lust For Life, whereas Creep appeared on Radiohead's inaugural album Pablo Honey.Bella Thorne has been with her man since October and it appears as if her romance has been going from strength to strength.

The actress, 20, was spotted last week purchasing over $100,000 in jewelry at a New York City store with her boyfriend Mod Sun.

However, the massive ring Bella sported later on Instagram was not a piece of engagement jewelry but instead just some very expensive bling for the premiere of her new movie Midnight Sun, according to TMZ.

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New bling: Bella Thorne was spotted last week purchasing a nearly six figure ring at a New York City jewelry store with her boyfriend Mod Sun (seen here flashing the item on Instagram)

But Bella must surely be doing quite well for herself as she bought 7.5 karats in yellow diamonds which surrounded a massive 15 karat emerald.

Rapper boyfriend, 31, also walked out with a pendant bedazzled with 22 karats in precious stones.

Bella and Mod - real name Derek Smith - have been dating since October, but the relationship has not been short of drama.

Ice, Ice baby! The couple seen here at Pristine Jewelers in NYC's diamond district

You like what you see? Bella walked out wearing a ring bedazzled with 7.5 karats in yellow diamonds surrounding a massive 15 karat emerald

Mod was busted by Bella still using a dating site after the start of their relationship, as she shared a snap of his phone with notifications from Badoo.

After posting a topless selfie to show what he was missing, Bella then decided to give Mod a taste of his own medicine by setting up her own profile on rival site Huggle with a very raunchy profile picture.

Bella garnered plenty of attention for her very skimpy display in the profile, but captioned her photo by writing she was only looking for friends.

Not being left out! Rapper boyfriend, 31, also walked out with a pendant bedazzled with 22 karats in precious stones

Meanwhile Bella's new movie Midnight Sun costarring Patrick Schwarzenegger sees her play a teenage girl who suffers from a rare allergy to sunlight.

The screen star's acting career has gone from strength to strength since her role on the Disney Channel sitcom Shake It Up, starring in the TV drama Famous in Love as well as well as films Amityville: The Awakening, The DUFF and Assassination Nation.

Bella was also linked to numerous A-listers after coming out as bisexual in 2016, and before starting her relationship with Mod she had been paired with Keeping Up With The Kardashians' Scott Disick and Mod's pal Blackbear.Just over a year ago, she was forced to deny bizarre claims that she had six toes on each foot, following a storm of accusations from trolls online.

And Megan McKenna found herself shooting down a fresh set of allegations on Monday morning, after a group of Instagram users asserted that she had just three digits on one of her toes as they observed a snap from her recent trip to Barbados.

The 25-year-old TOWIE star, who enjoyed her sun-kissed Caribbean break with beau Mike Thalassitis, made an appearance on ITV's Lorraine, where she deemed the 'really harsh' and constant criticisms of her body 'ridiculous'.

Bizarre: Megan McKenna has hit back at critics of her feet, after she was accused of having just three toes when her beau Mike Thalassitis shared an Instagram shot of them in Barbados

Buried: In the snap, it was clear that Megan's foot was partially buried in the sand

Megan was interviewed on Lorraine alongside Helen Lederer as she promoted her upcoming stint on The Real Full Monty, where she'll join a host of celebrities as they strip for charity - but the new toe episode has left her all the more 'nervous'.

She told titular host Lorraine Kelly: 'I cant win. I think there was this time [they said I had] six toes.

'No, I have five toes! Its ridiculous. The trolls can be really really harsh on me and thats making me feel a lot more nervous for the show.'

In the snapshot in question - posted by her Mike on his Instagram account on Sunday might - a bikini-clad Megan is seen posing on a hammock with her boyfriend with one of her feet partially buried in the powdery white sand.

Soaking up the sun: The 25-year-old reality star shared a series of shots of herself soaking up the sunshine on her trip to the Eastern Caribbean, which came to an end over the weekend

Focus on the digits: However, a faction of Instagram users appeared to be fixated on her toes

And while it was clear that her foot was obscured by sand, a number of followers still flooded Mike's account with criticisms and bizarre observations.

However, others were just as quick to leap to her defence, with one fan writing: 'What's everyone's fascination with her toes? They're just toes. Can't [find] other faults so look for something as stupid as toes.'

Addressing the couple directly, another stated: 'You both looking amazing! Megan you look healthy and happy.

The comments come just over a year after Megan clapped back at critics of her feet after she uploaded a picture of herself on Instagram.

Interview: She lashed out at the trolls during a Monday morning appearance on ITV's Lorraine

Supporters: And a number of fans jumped to Megan's defence as they heaped praise on her

'Just to clarify to you stupid idiots. I have 5 toes on each foot. It's actually so sad that people troll me so much,' she began in a lengthy caption alongside the grainy picture that focused on her flip-flop clad feet.

The original picture, which had people pointing out the illusion of her six toes, saw Megan putting on an eye-popping display in a plunging pink camisole.

She teamed her billowing blouse with a pair of black slim fit trousers with lace detail running up her toned pins and baring her feet - which lured the trolls on Instagram.

Defending herself, Megan continued: 'And make me feel the need to delete photos and get upset over stuff. When an angle can look weird and make it look different.

Toe the line: Her comments come just after a year after she was accused of having six toes

'You stupid idiots': The TOWIE star shared a grainy, yet close-up picture of her feet which saw her sport five toes on each foot. She captioned a lengthy rant alongside the defiant picture

'You can all clearly see that my feet are normal. So f*** you to the p***** who have been bullying me online and finding my number through people and getting hate mail over something so f***ing small and childish.

'I had to do a post, which I didn't wanna do. But this is how you have all made me feel. Thanks!'

However, this only seemed to egg on the trolls who went through her social media account to dig up another picture of her seemingly sporting six toes.

The racy image, from her festive getaway to Dubai, saw Megan sexily throwing back one slit of her stunning silver dress to bare her long, lean legs.

Finding proof: Last year, trolls also went through Megan's social media account to dig up another picture of her seemingly sporting six toes, thanks to an awkward camera angle

However, the awkward angle gave the illusion of Megan having an extra toe.

The warped image was met with huge uproar on Twitter, with fans flocking in their hundreds to comment on the bizarre image before them.

However following her defensive tirade, fans quickly tweeted their support of the star for standing up for herself and hitting out at the ridiculous comments.

One fan wrote: 'You can't educate pork darling! If idiots can't count it's their problem. Ignore the haters, your true supporters love ya xxx' [sic]

Hair we go! On Monday morning, the reality TV star was spotted arriving at ITV's London studios with a towel on her head, ahead of going in for hair and makeupShe's been accused of failing to show 'empathy' or 'remorse' after starting an affair behind her 'husband' Ryan Gallagher's back.

But Married At First Sight's Davina Rankin proved he's not heartless as she broke down crying while explaining how the public backlash to her actions affected her parents.

The aspiring bikini model, 26, sobbed as she admitted she felt 'so helpless' when her mother and father became upset over the online abuse directed at her.

Emotional: Married At First Sight's Davina Rankin proved he's not heartless as she broke down crying while explaining how the public backlash to her actions affected her parents

'My mum and dad were ropeable. Absolutely ropeable,' Davina said during an appearance on A Current Affair on Monday.

She became choked up and stopped, before continuing: 'I just felt really bad for them because's it's all on the internet.

'And bless them, but they know nothing about the internet. They just want to get on there and say "F**k you Susan, don't call my daughter a bitch!".'

'I just have to be like, "Mum, Dad, you need to not comment, that's not how this works. If you comment, people are going to start attacking you.'

Not impressed? She also called her former love rival Tracey Jewel's new romance with Sean Thomsen 'f**king weird'

Wiping away tears, the personal trainer added shakily: 'And so it was really hard watching them feel so helpless.'

The Instagram model was branded a 'homewrecker' by MAFS fans after she began a secret relationship with 'alpha male' Dean Wells behind Ryan's back.

Davina also angered viewers when she refused to properly apologise to Dean's TV 'wife' Tracey Jewel for her actions, instead suggesting: 'What? I thought your boyfriend was hot... But he didn't want to be with you.'

Overwhelmed: The aspiring bikini model, 26, sobbed as she admitted she felt 'so helpless' when her mother and father became upset over the online abuse directed at her

Sad: 'My mum and dad were ropeable. Absolutely ropeable,' Davina said during an appearance on A Current Affair on Monday (pictured with her father Bob)

Helpless" She became choked up and stopped, before continuing: 'I just felt really bad for them because's it's all on the internet'. Pictured with her mother Barb

Discussing the backlash, she said: 'Yeah, words still have litte weight. "Screw the haters" - it's easy to say, you know, or "Yeah, whatever,". But they're pretty serious threats.

'It doesn't matter who you are, it's not nice to think that people hate you that much.'

Davina then took aim at her former love rival Tracey Jewel's new romance with MAFS star Sean Thomsen, branding it 'f**king weird'.

'I just find it so f**king weird. Like, I don't understand it,' she fumed.

'You don't understand compatible people?' asked reporter Alison Piotrowski.

Davina elaborated: 'Because they don't seem like were such a good match. Sean is so different to Dean.'

Hmm: Davina then took aim at her former love rival Tracey Jewel's new romance with MAFS star Sean Thomsen, branding it 'f**king weird'

Sceptical: Rankin continued: 'I just don't understand it. Sean is so different to Dean'

Rankin also touched on her explosive showdown with Tracey at the reunion, claiming she was 'confused' by her anger as the pair had talked after the vow renewal ceremony.

'Tracey actually called me as soon as she left Dean the aisle in the last ceremony, and that kind of stuff at so we had been fine,' she claimed.

'I was caught off guard. And that's why at the reunion because it's just like, and almost just sassy, like we haven't spoken.

'I was confused. I was like "I can't believe we're pretending".'MAFS star Ryan Gallagher told 'alpha male' Dean Wells to 'f**k off' after he was left humiliated and blindsided from Dean's 'affair' with his TV wife Davina Rankin.

But it appears as though Ryan, 29, and Dean have mended their rocky relationship in the months since filming the social experiment for Channel Nine.

Taking to Instagram on Monday, the 40-year-old was seen driving in his car serenading the Sydney tradie with a very pitchy rendition of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You.

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Friends again? It appears as though Dean Wells is trying to mend his relationship with Ryan Gallagher, serenading him to a pitchy version of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You

Wearing a plain white t-shirt, Dean illegally picked up his mobile while driving to film the short clip.

With one hand on the wheel, he continued to look back and forth between the road and camera while attempting to match pitch with the one-of-a-kind songstress.

'I will always love you @ryangallaghergram,' he captioned.

All forgiven? Wearing a plain white t-shirt, Dean illegally picked up his mobile while driving to film the short clip - serenading Ryan after he stole his wife Davina Rankin

The skateboarding enthusiast and his new found love for singing comes after he spent the weekend supporting Ryan at his stand-up comedy debut in Melbourne.

'Catching up with the gang at ryans comedy debut last night,' he captioned, tagging co-stars Charlene Perera, John Robertson, Telv Williams, Matty Lockett, Patrick Miller and last year's Nick Furphy.

And it's not the first time Dean has hinted at a fondness of karaoke.

Friends: Taking tot the social media earlier in the month, the rap artist named Visionz was seen alongside Ryan at a karaoke bar before appearing on The Footy Show

Taking tot the social media earlier in the month, the rap artist named Visionz was seen alongside Ryan at a karaoke bar before appearing on The Footy Show.

'The boys in the karaoke room at @tokosan don't let me rap,' he captioned.

And although fans were not invited inside the room, many took to social media to voice how happy they were the two controversial men were getting along.

'Ryan and Dean are a bit close,' captioned one.Hollywood stars are being lined up by ITV to stand in for embattled star Ant McPartlin during the finale of their flagship show Saturday Night Takeaway, it's been reported.

According to the Daily Star, a host of big names including Bruce Willis and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, are in talks to join Declan Donnelly for the Orlando-based finale on April 7.

Dec will present this week's edition of the show solo for the first time after his presenting partner entered a treatment centre for the second time for prescription drug and alcohol addiction following his arrest for drink driving a week ago.

Finale: Hollywood stars are being lined up by ITV to stand in for embattled star Ant McPartlin during the finale of their flagship show Saturday Night Takeaway, it's been reported

While last weekend's episode of Saturday Night Takeaway was cancelled as crisis talks continued, the final two shows will go ahead, it was confirmed by ITV and Dec last week.

While there were rumours US chat show king James Corden was in talks to join Dec on the show, Ant and Dec's representative has denied the claims he'll stand in for the Universal Studios Resort finale.

According to the Daily Star, ITV are also said to be recruiting Hollywood stars including Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Bruce Willis as an extra boost for the anticipated finale, which will also host lucky competition winners from the series.

'Dec has got a big job on his hands fronting a live show from the States all on his own,' a source told the paper.

Co-stars: 'Although Dec will have fellow show stars Scarlett Moffatt and Stephen Mulhern there to assist, the producers want to add some sparkle' a source has revealed

'Although he will have fellow show stars Scarlett Moffatt and Stephen Mulhern there to assist, the producers want to add some sparkle with some big Tinseltown names. We're confident everyone will jump on board as it's such a popular family show.'

Last year's SNT final saw special guests including Christina Ricci, CeeLo Green and Ant and Dec's SMTV co-host Cat Deeley join the duo at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.

A representative for ITV have been contacted by MailOnline for comment.

In a rollercoaster week for Dec, the star confirmed the happy news on Sunday that he is expecting his first child with wife Ali Astall.

Star power: The ITV show has a history of attracting big names, including Cuba Gooding Jr who took the role as announcer during the March 3 episode

The host, 42, confirmed the news in a brief statement published on social media platform Instagram on Sunday evening.

Sharing a black and white image from his 2015 wedding to Ali, he wrote: 'Just wanted to say thank you for all the lovely messages.

'The news has sneaked out a little earlier than we had hoped but Ali and I are delighted to be expecting our first child. Thanks for all the love, we really appreciate it.'

This comes after Ant - who split from wife Lisa Armstrong earlier this year after 11 years of marriage - was arrested for a drink drive incident over the weekend and has since made the quick decision to return to rehab earlier this week.

Pal: It's been denied James Corden will step in as Ant's replacement for the Orlando-based finale on April 7

Dec confirmed he will present the final two Saturday Night Takeaway episodes solo in a Twitter statement last week, telling fans:

'Whilst I never thought I'd be in this position, after much discussion and careful consideration we've decided that the remaining two shows of this series of Saturday Night Takeaway will go ahead.

'We made a promise to take hundreds of deserving winners to Florida to watch the series finale, and we will honour that.

'Everyone at ITV and the Takeaway team feels we owe it to the audience to complete the series.'

ITV were reportedly affected by the decision not to air last weekend's episode, with the broadcaster 'losing 3 million viewers' after the show was replaced by The Voice on Saturday evening.

The singing competition only managed to receive 4.2 million views, compared to the favoured series' average of approximately 8 million.It was recently revealed that the young stars of the hit Netflix show have struck new deals to earn a whopping $250,000 per episode.

And 15-year-old Gaten Matarazzo, who plays Dustin Henderson in the series, has all the more reason to celebrate, as his pay for the upcoming third season was originally only set to be increased by a modest $1,000, from $16,800 to $17,640 per episode.

According to TMZ, the affable teen will now enjoy a whopping 1,200 per cent in his pay for his lauded efforts on the 1980s-set paranormal drama, which castmembers are scheduled to return to next month as they shoot the anticipated third season.

He's in the money! Stranger Things star Galen Matarazzo's reported pay rise from a proposed $17,640 per episode to $250,000 will see him enjoy an 1,200 per cent increase

The report comes a week after it was revealed that all of the castmembers have landed big paydays ahead of working on the show's next season.

Winona Ryder and David Harbour will be paid $350,000 an episode to return, reports The Hollywood Reporter, while Gaten's co-stars Finn Wolfhard, 15, Caleb McLaughlin, 16, and Noah Schnapp, 13, are set to receive $250,000 per episode.

However, THR.com reports, mystery surrounds the deal being made with Millie Bobby Brown who stars as the mysterious Eleven, with the publication stating that her team have been negotiating a separate deal for her which could be worth more.

Big pay day: His co-stars (L-R) Noah Schnapp, Finn Wolfhard, and Caleb McLaughlin will reportedly each get paid $250,000 per episode also

In the money: The child stars of Netflix's Stranger Things are receiving whopping pay increases for the third season of the show. Pictured with Millie Bobby Brown in June 2017

Some sources have told THR.com that the 14-year-old is set to earn as much as Ryder and Harbour, while others suggest she's going to be paid $300,000 per episode.

Other cast members Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton and Joe Keery will be paid $150,000 an episode under the new agreement.

Brown, now 14, who famously shaved off her hair for the role of the kinetic Eleven, has become something of a pop culture phenomenon.

Ker-ching: Millie Bobby Brown had been earning the same as her child co-stars but is thought to have negotiated a separate deal for as much as $350,000 to return as the mysterious Eleven

She has 15.4 million followers on Instagram and landed a leading role in the upcoming action adventure Godzilla: King of the Monsters opposite Sally Hawkins and Bradley Whitford.

She's also building a fashion and modelling sideline, promoting Converse sneakers and working with Calvin Klein.

Doors have opened, too, for her young co-stars: Wolfhard who plays Mike is filming The Goldfinch with Nicole Kidman, Ansel Elgort and Sarah Paulson and also had a role in last year's hit remake of Stephen King's It.

Adult leads: Winona Ryder, who plays Joyce Byers (left), and David Harbour, who plays Hawkins sheriff Jim Hopper (right), will each be paid $350,000 an episode

Dyer, who plays Nancy, is currently filming Dan Gilroy's as yet untitled new movie with John Malkovich, Rene Russo and Toni Collette, and Keery has signed on for the film Beef with Timothy Olyphant and Jai Courtney.

The series which was created by brothers Matt and Ross Duffer earned 18 nominations at the Emmys last year and is believed to be one of the most watched shows in Netflix history.

The sci-fi drama has charmed viewers with its nostalgic 1980s setting including nods to the era, such as the Billy Hargrove character who was a spitting image of Rob Lowe in St. Elmore's Fire, and the music soundtrack of '80s hits.She's the raven-haired model who landed in Fiji to shake things up on Bachelor in Paradise on Monday.

And within seconds of her arrival, Laurina Fleure whisked away famed Bachelorette villain Blake Colman, offering him a date card.

Upon her arrival, the 34-year-old said: 'I'm so excited to get to paradise.'

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Mud-dled emotions! Upon her arrival in Fiji, Laurina Fleure whisked away famed Bachelorette villain Blake Colman as they stripped down and covered each other in mud before exchanging a steamy on-screen kiss

Adding: 'I'm scared of breaking a few hearts.'

On how she went about picking who she'd take on her first date, she said: 'I'm going to walk in and see who is eligible. First I'll go after looks and then I'll see who has the initiative to chat to me and make me want to give it to them.'

And it appears Blake was the lucky man to meet her every initial need.

Slather up! After briskly walking away to fondle in a mud bath with the villainous contestant, Laurina and Blake were filmed slathering each other's skin in a traditional Fijian detoxifying mud, beachside.

After briskly walking away to fondle in a mud bath with the villainous contestant, Laurina and Blake were filmed slathering each other's skin in a traditional Fijian detoxifying mud, beachside.

While the two were ever-flirtatious as their goop-covered bodies warmed closer together, Blake asked Laurina if she was capable of love.

'I have fallen in love in four days before. Twice, actually,' she proudly announced.

Love in Paradise? While the two were ever-flirtatious as their goop-covered bodies warmed closer together, Blake asked Laurina if she was capable of love before the duo locked lips

To which Blake said: 'Maybe we should make a new record?', before leaning in for a cringe-worthy kiss.

Having locked lips, Laurina was quick to rate the pash.

'I'd give our kiss a 6.2 out of 10,' she announced.

'I'd give our kiss a 6.2 out of 10': The model was quick to rate her mud-induced kiss with Blake

As for whether Blake and Laurina's relationship will flourish, the beauty previously listed an extensive set of requirements a man must have in order to interest her.

During a recent Bachelor In Paradise teaser, Laurina said she expects her ideal man 'to be intelligent and witty, loving and affectionate and funny.'

He also must be 'spontaneous and adventurous, committed and respected, playful and adoring, spiritual and a man of God'.They tied the knot in October, filming their entire big day for a two-part ITVBe special titled, Elliott And Sadie: The Wedding.

And it looks as though Elliott Wright, 37, and Sadie Stuart, 26, are still in the honeymoon period as they packed on the PDA during a romantic pool date in Marbella, Spain, last week.

The newlyweds, who live in the holiday hotspot, packed on the PDA as they enjoyed a relaxing day in the sunshine.

Honeymoon period: Elliott Wright, 37, and Sadie Stuart, 26, packed on the PDA as they enjoyed a day of poolside relaxation in Marbella, Spain, last week

Fun in the sun: The model showed off her enviable figure in a skimpy cut-out patterned swimsuit, while sipping a flute filled with a delicious-looking beverage

Sadie showed off her enviable figure in a skimpy cut-out patterned swimsuit, while sipping a flute filled with a delicious-looking beverage.

The model completed her look with her brunette locks tied into a causal bun and a pair of reflective aviator sunglasses.

Former TOWIE star Elliott showed off his toned torso in a pair of white Ralph Lauren swimming trunks with a striped unbuttoned shirt over the top.

The TV personality completed his poolside look with a pair of woven leather shoes.

Giggles: The loved-up couple couldn't stop laughing as they relaxed in the sun together, five months on from their lavish wedding day

Cute: The reality stars appeared to be celebrating as they sipped from flute glasses

Playful: Elliott teased his wife as she leaned against the pool railings

Strike a pose: Sadie couldn't resist strutting her stuff as she asked her husband to take some photographs while relaxing in the sunshine

Handsome: Elliott proved he's still a heartthrob as he showed off his toned torso in a pair of Ralph Lauren swimming trunks and unbuttoned shirt

It wasn't long until Sadie enlisted the help of her new husband to take pictures of her posing by the pool as she giggled and playfully threw her arm in the air.

The couple have lots to celebrate as Elliott has reportedly signed the freehold of his glamorous eatery, Olivia's La Cala in Costa Del Sol  where they initially laid eyes on each other, giving him complete control over the business.

Elliott - the cousin of TOWIE originals Mark and Jessica Wright - popped the question after just 10 months of dating.

The reality star, who quit TOWIE in 2015 to move back to Spain, has two children  Elliott, 10, and Olivia, seven  from his marriage to Joanne McGuinness.

Model behaviour: Sadie was beaming as she playfully put her arm in the air for her camera shot, displayed her toned and tanned figure in her plunging swimwear

Stunning: The model completed her look with her brunette locks tied into a causal bun and a pair of reflective aviator sunglasses

Give it here: Sadie was eager to admire her husband's photography work after posing for the camera

Say cheese: The stunning brunette stood on her tiptoes to get the perfect camera shot

What time is it?: Elliott couldn't resist showing of his swanky gold watch as his wife laughed at him while relaxing on her sun lounger

The entrepreneur previously explained he knew Sadie was 'the one' because of how much his children loved her.

He told MailOnline: 'I knew she was "the one" because my kids love her!

'Sadie is stunning, she's incredible. My children love her. That's important for any parent.

'If it was the case my children didn't like her, or she wasn't interested, then it would be a no go area.'

Serious: The couple appeared in deep conversation at one point as Elliott remained standing

Caring: The model readjusted Elliott's swimming trunks and shirt as he sat down beside herShe was reunited with her $2million engagement ring, after losing it while clubbing.

And Paris Hilton hit the social scene again as she attended the Armani Exchange 'New Energy, Same Spirit' party, hosted by Cara Delevingne and DJ Martin Garrix at the W South Beach hotel in Miami on Friday night.

The 37-year-old socialite turned heads as she flaunted her incredible figure in a eye-catching leopard print bra, which showed off her taut stomach, while Cara, 25, wowed in a chic cream blazer dress.

Striking Paris Hilton turned heads in a leopard print bra and sequin skirt as she attended the Armani Exchange party at the W South Beach hotel in Miami on Friday night

Paris paired the revealing top with a glittering emerald green skirt which was adorned with hundreds of over-sized sequins.

She accentuated her leggy frame with black heeled boots and kept accessories to a minimum to draw attention to her statement outfit.

The Hilton heiress styled her short blonde hair in Hollywood curls and amped up the glamour with a smoky eye, bronzed-swept cheeks and a slick of pink lipstick.

Leggy: Cara also pulled out all the stops for the glitzy bash, as she showed off her model physique in a perilously short Armani Exchange cream blazer dress

Chic: The blazer dress cinched in her waist with a material belt and featured over-sized pockets and blue piping

Expensive taste: Hosts Cara and DJ Martin Garrix were clad head-to-toe in the designer for the glamorous event

Cara also pulled out all the stops for the glitzy bash, as she showed off her model physique in a perilously short Armani Exchange cream mini dress.

The blazer dress cinched in her waist with a material belt and featured over-sized pockets and blue piping.

The Suicide Squad actress teamed the look with black suede boots which accentuated her endless pins and rocked her signature smoky eye to the event.

The beauties were joined by a host of stars, including David Guetta, Robin Schutz and Paris' fiance Chris Zylka for the bash, with took place by the hotel's pool.

Party-time! The model rubbed shoulders with David Guetta, with the pair stopping to pose for a photo

Celebrating in style: David gave Martin a helping hand on the DJ decks as revellers partied at the swanky bash

Relaxing: Rapper Desiigner, who looked suave in a green patterned jacket and matching shorts, took some time out from the celebrations

Paris, who has been inseparable from her beau since they met 2016, briefly lost her pricey engagement ring recently, after it fell into an ice bucket.

Since accepting her beau's marriage proposal, Paris has been busy making plans for her nuptials - and has revealed a few details on the style she plans to embrace.

'It's a lot of planning to do,' she told People.

Having fun: The musician entertained the crowd with his special DJ set

'Right now, we are just trying to figure out a date and a location and my dress. I definitely want it to be very magical. I love Disney princess vibes.'

She added: 'He lets me plan everything. He's always there.

'He is so supportive and so amazing, but he knows that I like to pick out everything. It's the bride's day.'

Casually-clad: Martin cut a casual figure in an all-black ensemble, donning a shiny jacket and black jeans

Dressed down: David opted for a low-key outfit, rocking a grey hoodie and light-wash jeansIt was the first-ever rose ceremony on Bachelor in Paradise.

And on Monday, the male contestants' fate was left in the hands of the female contenders.

While for many the rose-offering decision was a no-brainer, the tough and final decision of the evening wasn't made so easy for Florence Alexandra.

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Wrong pick? While for many the rose-offering decision during the Bachelor in Paradise rose ceremony was a no-brainer, the tough and final decision of the evening wasn't made so easy for Florence Alexandra

'This is painful,' she said under her breath as she faced with a predicament.

Feeling torn, Florence was left to pick between mending a past relationship with Jake Ellis and entertaining a potential new romance with Davey Lloyd.

'At this point in the rose ceremony, I have absolutely no idea who I am going to pick,' Florence said moments before the ceremony kicked off.

'Davey is standing there and Jake is standing there and I still don't know what I should do,' she finished.

Feeling torn, Florence was left to pick between mending a past relationship with Jake Ellis and entertaining a potential new romance with Davey Lloyd

Osher Gunsberg introduced the first rose ceremony, explaining that the ladies held the power by being able to offer a rose to any gentleman a potential romantic connection could be seen with.

With seven roses to hand out and nine hopeful men, the two men not offered roses would be sent home from paradise.

Nina Rolleston was up first, offering her rose to Eden Schwencke, to which he responded saying he would be 'so, so happy' to receive the rose.

Will they come back as intruders? Osher Gunsberg introduced the first rose ceremony, explaining that the ladies held the power, being given a rose to offer any gentleman they could see a potential romantic connection with

Leah Costa went next, offering her rose to Mackane Reid.

Keira Maguire was up third, offering her rose to friend Uncle Sam (also known as man-bun Sam).

Lisa Hyde followed, handing over her rose to Luke McLeod.

Not so rosy! With the suspense ever-dramatic, Florence tears up and she picks Jake over Davey

Following her date offer to Blake Coleman within minutes of her arrival in Paradise on Monday, Laurina Fleure was quick to offer him her rose.

Tara Pavlovic offered her rose to villain Michael Turnbull, who quickly and graciously accepted.

With the suspense ever-dramatic, Florence teared up and she made the last minute decision to pick Jake over Davey.

The final two men standing without roses saw Davey and Brett Moore depart Paradise on the second episode.

No luck here! Brett Moore was sent packing, following rumours that the fame-hungry star had a girlfriend, Stephanie Boulton from Matty J's season of The Bachelor, back in AustraliaHe was sent packing from the Fijian island, after his secret relationship with former Bachelor Stephanie Boulton came to light.

And following being confronted about his relationship status, Brett Moore clashed with producers during Monday night's episode.

Aired on national television and untypical for a reality series, producers of the show intervened to get to the bottom of the buzzing rumour.

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'Is it Facebook official? No': Bachelor in Paradise's Brett Moore clashed with producers during Monday night's episode after being confronted about secret girlfriend

Tara Pavlovic was first to confirm Brett's relationship with Stephanie who is set to later arrive in paradise, sharing: 'Brett and Stephthey're a thing, they're a couple.'

A producer was quick to step in, sharing: 'They have told us they were single. Both of them.'

Coping backlash for sharing the news to her fellow cast members, Tara got worked-up in an emotional outpour, asking to leave the island.

Little white lie? Tara Pavlovic was first to confirm Brett's relationship with Stephanie who is set to later arrive in paradise, sharing: 'Brett and Stephthey're a thing, they're a couple'

'I don't even want to be here. Can I go home? I don't like this and I'm not built for this. I don't want to be here!' She said in a highly-emotional state.

Following the drama, Brett was asked by yet another crew member, to which he got riled up and said: 'What more do you want from me? I don't need to clarity with anyone.'

To which the crew member responded: 'You kind of do. Why is Tara telling us that you're in a relationship?'

Under pressure! Brett was asked by yet another crew member and getting riled up he said: 'What more do you want from me? I don't need to clarity with anyone'

Responding ambiguously, the reality personality responded: 'In a relationship, seeing someone, it's a fine line.'

'Brett, what's really important for Paradise is that everyone is single. That's against the entire process of the show. Are you single?' A producer firmly demanded.

Replying vaguely once more, Brett said: 'I haven't been hooking up with people in Perth.'

Not so single! Getting angry, the crew member asks clearly: 'Are you single? Everyone's been honest, right now youre the only one who's reflecting'

Getting angry, the crew member asks clearly: 'Are you single? Everyone's been honest, right now you're the only one who's reflecting.'

Adding: 'Tell me right now. Are you in a relationship with Steph?'

Brett replied, saying: 'No! I have been seeing Steph for the past year. Is it Facebook official? No.'

After reluctantly admitting he has in fact been seeing Stephanie Boulton, who appeared on Matty J's season of The Bachelor, he was sent packing from the second episode sans rose.Kylie Minogue has cancelled all interviews during her upcoming trip home to Australia.

The London-based pop sensation, 49, is set to arrive in the country this week to perform songs from her highly-anticipated new album, Golden.

But the songstress has opted out of all accompanying promotional interviews, citing illness as the cause for the last-minute cancellation.

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Cancelled: The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday that Kylie Minogue has pulled out of all promotional interviews during her trip home to Australia this week

On Thursday, Kylie is set to take the stage in Sydney for an invitation-only Nova Red Room concert.

A spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday: 'She (Kylie) has a throat infection and needs to rest her voice ahead of the performance'.

The publication says 'all other commitments are believed to have been spiked until further notice'.

Awkward: The news comes less than 48 hours after journalist Karl Stefanovic was slammed for his interview with Kylie, which was broadcast on Sunday night's edition of 60 Minutes

The news comes less than 48 hours after journalist Karl Stefanovic was slammed for his interview with Kylie, which was broadcast on Sunday night's edition of 60 Minutes.

Viewers branded the Channel Nine star's chat a 'trainwreck' and called for someone more 'professional' to take the helm.

During the chat Karl made Kylie visibly uncomfortable by describing her as 'hot 50-year-old' and asked if she could stop dating 'incredibly good-looking d**kheads'.

Oh dear: Karl was slammed after he called a 'hot 50-year-old' and told her to stop dating 'd**kheads' in a bizarre interview

Viewers flocked to Twitter to blast the 'rubbish' interview and claimed Karl was using the chat to 'creep' on Kylie.

The Channel Nine personality concluded the interview by bringing out a birthday cake for Kylie and singing to her, in a nod to her 50th in May.

Coming up from behind her, the grinning host gestured at the camera crew and publicists to join in as he serenaded a squirming Kylie.

It's not believed that the poorly-received chat is related to the pop queen's decision to pull the pin on further interviews with Australian journalists.He went up against Jake Ellis during Monday night's first-ever rose ceremony and was left to pack his bags after being rejected by Florence Alexandra.

And Davey Lloyd, 26, has admitted that going up against his pal Jake was a mistake.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, the reality star said 'I was considering leaving. I knew it would be a hard decision for [Florence].'

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'I did make a mistake': Davey Lloyd has admitted that going up against his friend Jake Ellis was a mistake in Bachelor in Paradise rose ceremony and says he almost left as to avoid awkwardness

The Sydney-based construction worker added: 'I did make a mistake. I didn't want to go up against my mate.'

The dramatic episode featured Florence being torn between offering a rose to former fling Jake Ellis and new crush Davey Lloyd.

Having picked Jake, after rekindling their broken relationship over a romantic waterfall date, Davey was left to depart the Fijian island without a rose.

On reflection: Speaking to The Daily Telegraph , the reality star said 'I was considering leaving. I knew it would be a hard decision for [Florence]'

On going up against his friend Jake, Davey admitted: 'It was really hard for me to do.'

The controversial reality star from Sam Frost's season of The Bachelorette went on to inform the publication that he is very much single.

On this, he further shared that he is ready to focus on himself and make himself a priority.

Not his best move! On going up against his friend Jake, Davey admitted: 'It was really hard for me to do'

'I've put other people first for a long time and maybe it's time for me to put myself first,' he further shared.

Since being eliminated on Monday evening, rumours have began to spiral that the star may be set to return to Paradise as an intruder.

Bachelor in Paradise is set to return to screens for more drama on Tuesday at 7:30 pm on Channel 10.They've been happily dating for several months since meeting in Fiji last year while filming Bachelor In Paradise.

And the beginning of Keira Maguire and Jarrod Woodgate's romance has been revealed for the first time in a teaser for Tuesday's episode of the dating show.

The plastic surgery fanatic, 31, is seen wrapping her arms around Jarrod and calling him 'sexy' - after the hunk admitted he thought newcomer Ali Oetjen was 'God's gift.'

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'You're sexy!' Bachelor In Paradise's Keira Maguire flirts up a storm with Jarrod Woodgate in a teaser clip from Tuesday's episode

When Ali, a former Miss Universe South Australia, walks into the resort, Jarrod admits he feels an instant attraction.

'Ali has just walked in and that's all we're really focusing on right now,' he gushes. 'Her smile is gods gift. Wow.'

But the vineyard manager soon gets distracted by Keira, who is seen flirting and packing on the PDA with him in the clip.

Hugging him and giggling into his neck, a giddy Keira whispers, 'you're sexy' as Jarrod laughs appreciatively.

Awkward: The plastic surgery fanatic, 31, is seen wrapping her arms around Jarrod and calling him 'sexy' - after the hunk admitted he thought newcomer Ali Oetjen (pictured) was 'God's gift'

'She's all we're focusing on': When Ali, a former Miss Universe South Australia, walks into the resort, Jarrod admits he feels an instant attraction

Jarrod, who was described as a stage 5 clinger on Sophie Monk's season of The Bachelorette, soon finds himself the object of two women's affections.

'I think they call it a love triangle? Yeah I was in it,' he quips to the camera.

Another contestant who will enter the resort on Tuesday is Megan Marx, who previously dated Tiffany Scanlon.

The blonde beauty admits she's open to dating both sexes in the villa, revealing: 'I like girls and guys. I don't know if any of the girls are going to swing my way but if they do...'

She's found her target! But the vineyard manager soon gets distracted by Keira, who is seen flirting and packing on the PDA with him in the clip

Steamy: Hugging him and giggling into his neck, a giddy Keira whispers, 'you're sexy' as Jarrod laughs appreciatively

Elsewhere in the clip, Florence Alexandra admits she's having second thoughts about giving a rose to her ex-fling Jake Ellis.

The Dutch beauty, 27, confesses: 'To be honest I do regret giving Jake a rose - so what am I going to do? This is horrible.'

She's seen looking upset and storming off, before yelling in frustration: 'I'm never going to end up with that guy.'His summer return to Coronation Street was confirmed earlier this month.

And Nigel Havers proved that he is back on the cobbles with a bang as his conman character Lewis Archer was seen brawling with Roy Cropper in dramatic scenes filmed on Monday.

The 66-year-old silver fox, who last appeared in the soap in 2013, looked in his element as he filmed scenes with his old adversary Roy (played by David Neilson) with the pair trading blows as they rolled around the street.

Coronation Street comeback: Nigel Havers proved that he is back on the cobbles with a bang as his conman character Lewis Archer was seen brawling with Roy Cropper in dramatic scenes filmed on Monday

Punch up: The 66-year-old silver fox, who last appeared in the soap in 2013, looked in his element as he filmed scenes with his old adversary Roy (played by David Neilson) with the pair trading blows as they rolled around the street

A dapper Nigel was suited and booted as he rolled up the famous street in a sleek blue Jaguar and was greeted by an surly looking Roy.

It wasn't long before the niceties ended and Roy snatched Lewis' keys.

An irate Lewis jumped out of the car and lunged for Roy, who wasn't giving up too easily.

Wow: A dapper Nigel was suited and booted as he rolled up the famous street in a sleek blue Jaguar and was greeted by an surly looking Roy

Got my eye on you: It wasn't long before the niceties ended and Roy snatched Lewis' keys

Fury: Roy opened Lewis' car door as the pair prepared to do battle

Fall: An irate Lewis jumped out of the car and lunged for Roy, who wasn't giving up too easily

Rage: The pair looked animated as they fell onto crash mats during the scene

The pair tumbled down to the ground before launching into a fist fight that saw a defiant Roy refuse to let go of the keys.

A representative for the soap confirmed to MailOnline earlier this month that Audrey's former flame Lewis will return to Weatherfield this summer as part of a comedic story line

He will be joined by salon owner and former friend Claudia (Rula Lenska).

Bosh: Lewis opened his car door as Roy appeared to jump backwards

Argument: The pair looked animated during their onscreen row

Off you go: Lewis lunged for the car keys as the pair prepared to do battle

Scuffle: The pair lashed out as they battled for the car keys in the scenes

Punch up: Roy aimed a blow at Lewis as they grappled on the safety mat

Kick: Lewis appeared to aim a blow at Roy in the comedic fight scene

Nigel first arrived in the soap in 2009 as a male escort who soon caught the eye of Audrey Roberts before getting involved in a love triangle with her and Rita.

His romance with Audrey progressed and he suggested moving to a Greek island, but the relationship was doomed after he stole a large sum of money from Peter Barlow's betting shop and fled the country.

The Chariots of Fire star then returned in 2012 as a changed man who wanted to apologise to those he had hurt and to make amends for his devious ways, inclduing giving the money back to Peter.

He rekindled his romance with Audrey and decided to go on holiday with Audrey which caused a feud between her and David. But it all ended in tears as the pair went their separate ways.

Give them back! Roy grabbed for the keys as Lewis attempted to fight him off

Score to settle: Roy eyed up his old nemesis as he made a return to the cobbles

Laugh out loud: The actors laughed as they took a quick break between scenes

Redfaced: Nigel looked flushed as he grappled with David in the scenesHe has taken on the role as Al Capone in the biopic Fonzo.

And Tom Hardy unveiled the first look of him portraying the notorious Chicago gangster via Instagram on Sunday.

The actor, 40, bore a striking resemblance to the American mobster in the snap, sporting a shaven head and deep-set scars.

Surly: Tom Hardy unveiled the first look of him portraying the notorious Chicago gangster via Instagram on Sunday

In the moody shot, the hunk cut a surly figure as he sat in a cell in unkempt clothes with his inmate.

Holding Al Capone's signature white hat, his character looked anguished, which is no doubt in reference to the criminal's mind deteriorating during his 10-year imprisonment.

He simply captioned the snap: 'Chasing Fonzo'.

Notorious: The actor, 40, bore a striking resemblance to the American mobster (pictured above in 1930), sporting a shaven head and deep-set scars

Once the most feared gangster in America, the Josh Trunk movie will follow Al Capone at the age of 47, as he battles dementia.

According to production notes, the story will show how 'his past becomes present as harrowing memories of his violent and brutal origins melt into his waking life'.

The Dark Knight Rises star, who beefed up considerably to play Bane in the Batman film and MMA fight Tommy Conlon in Warrior, previously spoke about his fears for his health now he's 40.

For the project, Tom had to once again alter his appearance, however, he claimed it wouldn't be as drastic as his muscular roles.

Muscle man: The Dark Knight Rises star, who beefed up considerably to play MMA fight Tommy Conlon in Warrior, previously spoke about his fears for his health now he's 40

The Taboo star previously told the Daily Beast: 'It's not the classic Al Capone that you necessarily envision with the silhouette. I don't want to give too much away about it, but there's definitely a transformation with that role.

'I don't know if it's as drastic as Bane. I've probably damaged my body too much. I'm only little!

'If I keep putting on weight I'll collapse like a house of cards under too much pressure.'

The star added that he has aches and pains in places that he shouldn't and admitted he now struggles lifting his children Louis, nine, and the two-year-old he shares with wife Charlotte Riley.

Meanwhile, Tom has confirmed that he wants to be the next 007 - by refusing to talk about the part in fear it will get him blacklisted.

He claimed that in the industry speaking about the role could be a kiss of death and so chose his words carefully.

The star was happy to throw his support behind Inception director Christopher Nolan, however, who has revealed he would be keen take over the franchise.He was out at the end of last week on the soaking wet beaches of Malibu, catching some waves with his brother Luke.

But Liam Hemsworth looked a lot dryer on Monday evening as he attended the 2018 American Foundation for AIDS Research [amFAR] gala at Shaw Studios in Hong Kong.

The actor, 28, looked preened in the slick black number, under which he wore a crisp white shirt.

Scrubs up well! Liam Hemsworth was a far cry from his recent rain-soaked surfing excursion as he smouldered at the amFAR gala in a smart tuxedo on Monday

Liam added a bow tie and shiny loafers to the get-up, and styled his dark mane in a sweeping style.

Rocking his beard and adding a red pin to his lapel to support the occassion, Liam looked every inch the gent at the glitzy event.

The appearance comes in stark contrast to his beach trip - which he and brother Luke did without their other actor sibling Chris.

The duo were drenched before they got into the water, however, as they arrived for their surfing session in a torrential down-pouring.

Looking sharp: Rocking his beard and adding a red pin to his lapel to support the occassion, Liam looked every inch the gent at the glitzy event

Slew of credits: Liam has also starred in the Hunger Games franchise, Independence Day: Resurgence and The Dressmaker

But the boys appeared not to be bothered by the rain as they parked by the beach and unloaded their surfboards.

Donning wetsuits, Liam was seen walking down to the beach, surfboard under one arm. But the rain didn't dampen his spirits or stop the Hunger Games star hitting the waves.

The Hemsworth brothers make frequent reference of their close bond, catching up frequently in between acting projects.

Liam is currently in a relationship with Miley Cyrus, with rumours the couple may have secretly tied the knot during their Byron Bay holiday over Christmas and New Year.

The young couple stayed in the celebrity hotspot at the home of Chris and his wife Elsa Pataky.They have had one of the most amicable splits in Hollywood history.

And, exactly four years after their 'conscious uncoupling', Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin remained every inch the modern family as they headed out for dinner, along with their son Moses, in London on Sunday night.

The exes - who have both found love in different relationships - still looked the best of friends as they dined in the British capital, along with Chris' Coldplay bandmate Will Champion.

Amicable exes: Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin remained every inch the modern family as they headed out for dinner, along with their son Moses, in London on Sunday night

Chris and Gwyneth even looked to complement their styles, with both opting for off-duty, all-black outfits for the occasion.

Goop founder Gwyneth, 45, sported combat trousers and white trainers, though wrapped up in a smart, double-breasted coat.

Fix You hitmaker Chris stayed true to his rocker roots in jeans and a leather jacket, finished with a beanie hat and the offbeat choice of walking shoes.

On good terms: The former spouses still looked the best of friends as they dined in the British capital, along with Chris' Coldplay bandmate Will Champion

His style was loosely mimicked by trendy youngster Moses, 11, who sported a beanie like his dad, paired with a simple tee, padded bomber jacket and jeans.

Earlier this year Gwyneth said that Chris has become 'like a brother', adding that their cordial divorce was to ensure their children Moses and Apple, 13, remained as 'unscathed as possible'.

Appearing on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the host noted that she remained close with her ex-husband, prompting Gwyneth to respond: 'Very much so. He's like my brother. Very familial. It's nice. Great.

Matching! Chris and Gwyneth even looked to complement their styles, with both opting for off-duty, all-black outfits for the occasion

Smart meets casual! Goop founder Gwyneth, 45, sported combat trousers and white trainers, though wrapped up in a double-breasted coat

Signature style: Fix You hitmaker Chris stayed true to his rocker roots in jeans and a leather jacket, finished with a beanie hat and the offbeat choice of walking shoes

Colbert quipped that it was kind of weird saying someone you had children with is like a brother.

'Which would explain the divorce,' Paltrow joked. 'Just kidding,' she added.

Her comments came shortly after she announced her engagement to Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk in early January, just weeks after she was spotted enjoying a family holiday with her ex-husband and their children in Antigua.

Meanwhile, Chris, 41, is in a relationship with Fifty Shades of Grey star Dakota Johnson, 28,

Just like dad! Chris' style was loosely mimicked by trendy youngster Moses, 11, who sported a beanie like his dad, paired with a simple tee, padded bomber jacket and jeansShe has been by her nephew Miles' side in hospital as he recovers from a horrific stabbing, with the 21-year-old now said to be on the mend.

And Elizabeth Hurley looked in brighter spirits as she attended the Help The Hathi gala in aid of conservation charity Elephant Family in India on Saturday.

The Austin Powers actress, 52, dazzled as she donned a cream sari embellished with sequins while posing in front of an ornately decorated elephant statue.

Glamour: Elizabeth Hurley dazzled as she attended the Help The Hathi gala in aid of conservation charity Elephant Family in India on Saturday

The star wore her brunette tresses in flowing waves while her sparkling peepers were enhanced with smoky eyeshadow and liner, paired with a frosted pink glossy lip and a metallic bindi.

She accessorised with sparkling chandelier earrings and carried a red leather clutch bag.

The charitable star captioned the snap: 'Balmy Bombay Night #india #elephantfamily.'

The statues are part of the Elephant Parade comprised of 101 artistic elephant statues which will be auctioned off for the charity.

Elegant: The Austin Powers actress, 52, dazzled as she donned a cream sari embellished with sequins while posing in front of an ornately decorated elephant statue

The event is organised to raise fund to build and secure 101 crucial Indian elephant corridors, which allow the animals to get from one forest feeding ground to the next.

The photo comes after her nephew was seen for the first time since he was stabbed multiple times in a gruesome attack on the streets of south-west London last week.

In a post shared on Instagram on Monday, Miles was seen wearing a white dressing gown as he posed alongside his pal, a rising rapper known as Romz who is believed to have been attacked with the model.

Tanned: The star shared this sunkissed snap from her hotel room in Mumbai

Captioning the snapshot, which appeared to have been taken in a warmly-lit living room, their pal simply wrote: 'MY SURVIVORS. Grateful.'

Miles is reportedly recuperating at his famous aunt's palatial mansion in Herefordshire, after being discharged from a London hospital.

Elizabeth rushed back to the UK to be by her beloved nephew's bedside after he was stabbed by a gang in an apparent road rage attack on Thursday.

Miles was set upon by thugs and knifed in the back multiple times after overtaking their car moments earlier, leading to a minor collision, police said.

One wound narrowly missed severing Miles' spine. Police have said the victims injuries are not life-threatening or life-changing.

Pictured: Her sighting comes after her nephew Miles Hurley was seen for the first time since he was stabbed multiple times in a gruesome attack on the streets of south-west London last week. He is pictured with rapper pal Romz

Elizabeth flew back from a promotional tour in the US to be by his side. In an emotional Instagram post on Saturday, the actress branded his attackers animals.

My 21 year old nephew @mileshurley1 was brutally attacked by four men in London on Thursday night, she said. He was repeatedly stabbed and lost more than four pints of blood.

The deepest wound just missed severing his spine. By some miracle no vital organs were damaged. We are praying that these animals are caught before they maim, or even kill, someone else.

Miles, who is the son of Elizabeth's older sister Kate Curran, is very close to his aunt.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed on Monday that road rage was a line of inquiry.

A spokesman said the stabbing occurred after the victims became involved in a verbal altercation with the occupants of another car following a minor collision.

Elizabeth shares one son Damian, 15, with American businessman and film producer Steve Bing.Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck looked cozy together when they met up at church a week ago in Los Angeles.

But it looks as if the Oscar-winning Argo star - who recently showed off his large dragon tattoo on his back - is still going strong with his New York-based love Lindsay Shookus.

On Sunday the lovebirds looked to be happier than ever as they held hands in Honolulu, Hawaii, after a breakfast date.

Still happy: Ben Affleck holds hands with his girlfriend Lindsay Shookus after a breakfast date in Honolulu, Hawaii on Sunday

Ben has been working on Netflix's new film Triple Frontier with Charlie Hunnam and Oscar Isaac in Hawaii and it appears Lindsay was there to support him.

The Batman v Superman star, who wore a green shirt and grey shorts, was seen beaming at his blonde love interest who was clad in black-and-blue workout clothes.

They held hands and laughed as they made their way out of the casual restaurant.

There was no sign of the three kids he has with Garner: Violet, 12, Seraphina, nine, and Samuel, six.

In step: The Batman star, who wore a green shirt and grey shorts, was seen beaming at his blonde lady love who clad in black-and-blue workout clothes

UsWeekly recently claimed that the Massachusetts native 'loves and adores' Shookus.

But their relationship could ultimately be unrealistic as she lives in New York City, where she works as a producer at Saturday Night Live and raises a daughter (the father is ex Kevin Miller), and Ben lives in Los Angeles, where he raises three kids with Garner.

Ben and Lindsay have been flying across the country regularly to keep their love alive.

As far as his time with Garner a week ago, the exes looked like they were getting along well as they seemingly touched heads while tending to son Samuel.

She loves to support her man: Ben has been working on a Netflix show in Hawaii and it appears Lindsay was there to visit him. In his hand was takeout from the diner

The exes, who split nearly three years ago, mingled easily while holding red cups and looking at each other face to face.

If there was any animosity over past mistakes, it didn't seem to show. They also seemed to be happy talking to their friends and the three children.

Earlier, she looked like the ideal wife as she walked into church.

Not only did the 45-year-old appear incredibly fit in her chic outfit, but she also carried a basket of baked goods for her church friends.

The photo that had everyone confused: Garner and Affleck looked cozy together when they met up at church a week ago in Los Angeles. They are looking down at son Samuel

Later Ben, 45, was seen walking to the church alone. Affleck wore a red shirt with blue New England Patriots Starter jacket and blue jeans and grey shoes for his casual Sunday attire.

This sighting comes days after an UsWeekly source claimed she and Ben may still be dragging their feet on finalizing their divorce because the Good Will Hunting actor has told friends that he would like to get back together with the beautiful brunette.

'He had at one point been telling friends he wanted his ex back,' a source told the magazine, even though he has been dating Shookus, 37.

Doing what she loves: The mother of three has been sharing her recipes on Instagram

The Alias vet often shoots her photos inside her Pacific Palisades mansion

But then another source told UsWeekly he has not been looking back: 'When they filed and decided they were moving on, that was it.'

Also in the new article it was claimed that there was a chance they could have gotten back together in 2017.

'When Ben was in rehab, Jennifer was there every day, visiting,' said the insider.

'They did family counseling to work on their relationship. Things looked positive. Jennifer was very caring, very present. They both wanted it to work.'

There is also the issue of Ben and Jen's divorce. They have been working with a private mediator for years.

She sure has a sense of humor: The Catch And Release star put on her band uniform to perform Happy Birthday as her pal Reese Witherspoon turned 42 last week

But they have still not sorted it all out, which suggests they are stalling in case they could reconcile.

Two-time Academy Award winner Ben married 13 Going On 30 star Jennifer in 2005.

He has also dated Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez.

Triple Frontier also stars Pedro Pascal, Garrett Hedlund and Adria Arjona. Filming began on Monday.With friends spread all over the world, get togethers can be few and far between.

But Alicia Vikander found the ultimate solution, when she hosted a dinner party on Skype.

'One time, I had a Skype dinner party with my friends,' she explained. 'We decided to each buy a drink, cook something for ourselves, then sit down at a table and Skype each other.

'It started as a joke, but it actually worked. We had such a good time, we wanted to go out afterwards but, of course, we were in different parts of the world. It was a great night anyway.'

'I spend hours!' Alicia Vikander reveals her secret to the perfect dinner party... a good table plan and plenty of games; she is seen earlier this month in London

The Tomb Raider actress - who is married to Michael Fassbender - likes introducing different groups of pals to one another through fun games and spends 'hours' agonizing over seating plans to make sure everyone has a good time.

She told Britain's ELLE magazine: 'I love to get guests playing games. It's like stepping on new ground for the first five minutes and then people really, really enjoy it.

'Normally, you kind of just fall into patterns of how dinner parties should be - you should be polite and you should say these things. But I like to shake the box a bit.

'I really enjoy hosting, throwing dinner parties or surprise parties for people and I can spend weeks planning them.

'I come up with games that introduce new people to one another. I spend hours with seating plans, even for a small dinner. It really makes such a difference.

'And I always try to put people next to someone they haven't met before.'

Married couple: With her husband, Michael Fassbender, in October last year

When it comes to socialising, the 28-year-old star 'loves' drinking alcohol - but insists she rarely gets drunk.

She said: 'I do love a drink. More and more, I love wine but I like vodka Martinis or straight-up tequilas.

'I've taken to drinking straight, but I only ever have one or two and I never really get drunk.'

The Danish Girl star and her spouse live in Lisbon, Portugal, and she loves the pace of the city - and eating fish there.

She said: 'I've fallen in love with the city and the fact it's just on the waterfront, close to nature, and I like the warm weather a lot.

'It's a place that is just constantly alive. And they're known for their sardines. I do love sardines.'Their explosive argument on Sunday night's TOWIE left viewers and cast mates in shock.

Despite the uproar, Yazmin Oukhellou and James 'Lockie' Locke looked happier than ever as they packed on the PDA following a spot of retail therapy at London department store Selfridges on Monday.

The couple cosied up to one another as they were ladden down with bags filled with their designer purchases, a day after 31-year-old James launched a foul-tirade aimed at girlfriend Yazmin on The Only Way Is Essex's season premiere on ITVBe.

Packing on the PDA: Yazmin Oukhellou and James 'Lockie' Locke looked happier than ever as they packed on the PDA following a spot of retail therapy at London department store Selfridges on Monday

Showcasing her glamorous style, 24-year-old Yazmin slipped into a pair of high-waisted denims which she teamed with a attention commanding black scoop necklined top for the outing.

The reality beauty paired the look with a statement oversized black faux fur while she tackled the city's streets in her designer trainers while her brunette locks fell into a sleek style.

Despite the lack of sunshine in London, Yazmin accessorised her ensemble with a pair of oversized shades while she puckered up to her beau.

Complementing her look, beaming James donned a black wool coat over his skinny dark wash denims and leather Chelsea boots.

All smiles: The couple cosied up to one another as they were ladden down with bags filled with their designer purchases, a day after 31-year-old James launched a foul-tirade aimed at girlfriend Yazmin on The Only Way Is Essex's season premiere on ITVBe

Although putting on a smiling united front, the couple were involved in one of the more dramatic storyline's on Sunday night's The Only Way Is Essex.

The ITVBe favourite proved to be more explosive than ever before after James launched into a foul-mouthed tirade aimed at Yazmin while in Barcelona.

The TOWIE veteran became agitated after he was confronted for his disrespectful behaviour by his other half's pals Chloe Lewis and Chloe Meadows following a recent dinner they had all attended.

Rant: James launched into a foul-mouthed tirade aimed at his girlfriend Yazmin while in Barcelona on Sunday night's TOWIE

Although the girls were sticking up for their pal and attempting to calmly resolve the issue, James quickly became enraged and left Yazmin in tears as he repeatedly called her a 'spoilt brat'.

Taking a nasty turn, he shouted: 'Let me tell you something. Okay, youre gonna start doing that. Throwing that card. Listen Yaz, do not f***ing sit there and make me look like a d**k.

'Don't sit here playing the victim because you are a spoilt, f***ing brat. Alright? You're a spoilt, little f***ing brat. Do not sit here and f***ing play the victim. Dont start f***ing crying.I'm a f***ing nice boy...'

In the midst of his rage, Yazmin pleaded with him to stop: 'I don't care if you do it at home but this is embarrassing'.

Disrespectful: Although the girls were sticking up for their pal and attempting to calmly resolve the issue, James quickly became enraged and left Yazmin in tears as he repeatedly called her a 'spoilt brat'

Confronted: The TOWIE veteran became agitated after he was confronted for his disrespectful behaviour by his other half's pals Chloe Lewis and Chloe Meadows following a recent dinner they had all attended

Nasty: Taking a nasty turn, he shouted: 'Let me tell you something. Okay, youre gonna start doing that. Throwing that card. Listen Yaz, do not f***ing sit there and make me look like a d**k'

But James refused to stop and tensions continued to rise as he reduced Chloe L to tears after he insinuated she went on a night out without telling her boyfriend Danny Flasher.

The brunette fired back: 'I'm very much in love and my partner does not speak to me the way you do.' To which Lockie replied: 'Yeah, go and have a cry. Bore off...'

Shocked by his behaviour, Chloe L made her way back inside the venue screaming: 'Gentleman? You're not a gentleman! You might want to look it up in the dictionary.'

Not holding back: He added: 'Don't sit here playing the victim because you are a spoilt, f***ing brat. Alright? You're a spoilt, little f***ing brat. Do not sit here and f***ing play the victim. Dont start f***ing crying.I'm a f***ing nice boy...'

'Embarrassing': In the midst of his rage, Yazmin pleaded with him to stop: 'I don't care if you do it at home but this is embarrassing'

Claims: But James refused to stop and tensions continued to rise as he reduced Chloe L to tears after he insinuated she went on a night out without telling her boyfriend Danny Flasher

Firing back: The brunette fired back: 'I'm very much in love and my partner does not speak to me the way you do'

Tension: As tensions slowly started to simmer down, Yazmin said through her tears: 'It's embarrassing that they think you treat me like shit'

As tensions slowly started to simmer down, Yazmin said through her tears: 'It's embarrassing that they think you treat me like shit.'

Which left James angry adding: 'Me and you have a really toxic relationship. You try and wind me up, Yaz.'

Following expletive scene, viewers took to social media in their droves as they slammed the TOWIE star for his appalling behaviour while his co-star Gemma Collins and Celebs Go Dating expert Nadia Essex admitted they were outraged by his appearance.

TOWIE's Gemma Collins tweeted: 'What totally disgusting behaviour! Not for me!'

Outrage: Following expletive scene, viewers took to social media in their droves as they slammed the TOWIE star for his appalling behaviour while his co-star Gemma Collins and Celebs Go Dating expert Nadia Essex admitted they were outraged by his appearance

While Nadia shared: 'If my boyfriend spoke to me like Lockie just spoke to Yaz in or out of public...needless to say he would no longer be my boyfriend' alongside a hand-waving emoji.

A viewer wrote: '@JamesLock__ wouldn't know the meaning of the word "Gentleman" if someone smacked him round the face with a dictionary!! Vile human.'

'Sorry but shouting at your bird for crying is a joke, then going on to call her a brat. Gentleman my a**,' another posted. 'The way Lockie talks to Yaz is acc disgusting man. Ngl , it now makes sense why Danielle broke up with him'.There are only a few weeks to go until she welcomes a new baby to her family.

And Ali Fedotowsky celebrated that fact as she and husband Kevin Manno took advantage of spring break to enjoy a babymoon to Hawaii.

Showing off her large bump in a bikini on the beach, the glowing mother-to-be looked happy and relaxed as she and her husband bonded.

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'Last vacation as a family of three!' Ali Fedotowsky shows off her bump in a bikini during Hawaii babymoon on Friday

Alone time: While Ali's toddler daughter Molly was also on the trip, so was Ali's mother and mother-in-law to babysit

The 33-year-old, who found fame on The Bachelor before becoming a TV host and blogger, stood looking out to the ocean, a smile on her face.

She and radio host Kevin, who married last year, then took a stroll along the sand.

The family trip includes the couple's first child, one-year-old daughter Molly, and both of the toddler's grandmothers - on hand to give the parents-to-be some couple time.

Parents to be: She and radio host Kevin, who married last year, took a stroll along the sand

Taking to her blog, Ali thanked her mother and mother-in-law for coming along on the trip.

'I cant believe this is our last vacation as a family of 3,' she wrote, before explaining the family dynamic.

'Well were really a family of 5 this trip because were lucky enough to have both grammies come with us.

Reality bites: The 33-year-old, found fame on The Bachelor before becoming a TV host

'They are SUCH a help with Molly. We cant thank them enough.'

And with the grandmas on hand to babysit, Kevin and Ali found plenty of time to be together.

Ali wrote: 'I tried to step away from my computer for a bit to soak up some time with my family.

Pretty as a picture: The shoreline looked incredible

Like I mentioned in my last post, it rained here quite a bit during our trip. But yesterday was beautiful and we are so grateful we got such a gorgeous day to spend together.

'We spent a lot of time by the pool and on the beach!

'Whats so crazy is that the last time I stood on his beach, Molly was in my belly and now Im holding her in my arms. Its pretty crazy to think about.'The first day of spring came last week.

And Dakota Fanning is clearly ready for the new season as headed to the Today show in New York City on Monday morning in a floral mini dress with rose-tinted glasses and cute purple platform heels.

The blonde, 24, was also wearing a bright smile, probably because her new TV series, The Alienist, is a hit.

Leggy look: Dakota Fanning exited the Today show set in New York City on Monday

The Twilight star wore a plunging printed dress, despite the fact that it's still cold on the East Coast.

She matched the print with a pair of electric purple platform heels and a leather trench coat with a fur pink collar.



The Hollywood it-girl made her exit in a fun pair of accessories including round frames with pastel pink lenses.

Waving hello: The Twilight star said a quick hello to spectators and fans who waited outside the taping

Colors on colors: The street style star didn't hold back when it came to playing with color on her ensemble

All smiles: The American actress looked extra cheery while strutting down the NYC streets this morning

She paired the vibrant look with a pink, blue and green Chanel PVC shoulder bag to hold her belongings.

The glasses and trench were also seen on the former child star later in the day as she made a cross-city trek in a much cozier look.

Her outfit for this afternoon was much more weather appropriate for the frigid New York City temperatures.

Some freebies? She also carried a small white bag from fashion publicity firm Autumn PR

A pick me up: And she held onto a small iced coffee from Starbucks

She traded in her heels for a pair of white sneakers and covered her legs in a pair of floral print leggings. Dakota also wore a hoodie to add an extra layer of warmth.

The sister of Elle Fannning also made sure to let her skin breathe as she stripped herself from her makeup that she wore for the 'Today' Show taping.

Dakota recently made her directional debut for Italian fashion house, Miu Miu.

She was asked to create her own short film which followed Ava DuVernay as she moved into her first loft in Brooklyn.

When speaking to Vanity Fair on what it's like working behind the camera, rather than in front of it Dakota said: 'The post-production and the magic that happens in the editing room with color timing and sound mixing and talking with the composer and the music supervisorthats where it all kind of comes together.'

Strut like you mean it: The former child starlet walked among a busy crowd by herself in the cityHe was sent packing from Bachelor In Paradise after his not-so-secret relationship with Stephanie Boulton was exposed.

And taking to Instagram after Monday's episode, Brett Moore addressed the scandal.

In a lengthy post, Brett blamed the show's producers for making him look like a 's**t bloke' and insisted the original plan was for Stephanie to join him in Fiji.

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Brett Moore was kicked off Bachelor In Paradise on Monday after his not-so-secret relationship with Stephanie Boulton was exposed - but he claims there is another side to the story

Brett explained that he and Stephanie were both approached to appear on Bachelor In Paradise in the 'early days' of their relationship.

The idea was that they would film the series and allow their romance - which had already started back in Australia - to 'blossom' in front of the cameras.

However, things apparently went pear-shaped when Brett 'arrived on the island first' and Stephanie's contract was summarily 'ripped up' - making it 'look like (he) went on a dating show without her'.

Was it all a set-up? In a lengthy post, Brett blamed the show's producers for making him look like a 's**t bloke' and insisted the original plan was for Stephanie to join him in Fiji

The ensuing controversy over Brett's 'secret' girlfriend and what he was doing on a dating show for singletons was one of the main storylines in the first two episodes.

Bachelor fan favourite Tara Pavlovic was even dragged into the embarrassing situation after she was accused of 'covering' for Brett.

Brett explained: 'Imagine then airing it to Australia, portraying you as a s**t bloke and, as always, (TV execs) forever putting production over humanity.'

Scandal: Brett explained that he and Stephanie were both approached to appear on Bachelor In Paradise in the 'early days' of their relationship - but, for some reason, only he made it to Fiji

Insisting that he and Stephanie 'never changed (their) story about seeing each other in the lead up', Brett added that they 'couldn't wait to be reunited in Fiji'.

Brett appeared to have support from his Bachelor In Paradise co-stars after Monday's episode aired, with Megan Marx commenting below his post: 'Love you guys.'

Mackane Reid also wrote on Instagram: 'Big love to my brother from another mother. Sorry it turned out the way it did... Go to this great man's last post for the full story.'

A Warner Bros. spokesperson said: 'Once it was confirmed during filming that Brett and Stephanie were actually dating, Stephanie was no longer eligible for the show.'She might be just 20 years old, but Kylie Jenner knows exactly what she likes.

And the new mother showed her stylish take on interior designer, as she gave fans a peek inside her newly decorated living room on Monday.

While the room was far from child-friendly - featuring a sharp-edged glass coffee table and an unprotected open roaring fire - it was certainly impressive.

No baby proofing here! New mom Kylie Jenner opens doors to her opulent living room featuring signed Basquiat print, $25k side table and roaring open fire

Above the fireplace hung a signed Basquiat print of his artwork Hollywood Africans In front Of The Chinese Theater With Footprints Of Movie Stars.

Similar prints from the limited edition 1983 run of 60 are currently on sale for between $50,000 to $75,000.

The New Yorker son of Haiitain immigrants, Basquiat's work hangs in the world's top galleries, including Los Angeles' The Broad Musuem, where Kylie's sisters Kim and Kourtney Kardashian have both previously been pictured.

To the side of the fire under a round mirror stands a gold occasional table dripping with metallic bulges.

This piece is the Melting Brass Hallway Table by Zhipeng Tan, which retails for $25,000.

Watch out Stormi! The reality star will have to be careful to ensure her baby stays safe once she starts crawling

The room is furnished with soft white couches and carpeted in the same color, while a glass coffee table inlaid with floating pieces of gold leaf forms the centrepiece to the room.

On top sits a Taschen coffee table book by the photographer Bettina Rheims, which retails for $70.

After buying her first property at just 17 - a $2.7million starter home in the same gated Calabasas community where Kim and Kourtney live, she conducted extensive renovations.

She sold this for $3.15million in July last year after moving to nearby Hidden Hills, to be close to her mother, Kris Jenner.

In May 2016 she had bought the first of her Hidden Hills properties, spending $6million on a 7,000-square-foot house, which she later put back on the market.

That August, she acquired her second mansion located right next door to the first for $4.5million, which in August last year she later sold for $5.4 million.

Room for Stormi? Yet while the room looks stylish and inviting, it surely won't be long before Kylie needs to babyproof

Following the unbelievable success of her lucrative cosmetic business, her current main residence is a 13,200 square foot property which has eight bedrooms and 11 bathrooms.

She purchased the mansion in October 2016 for $12million.

This home is a long way from Kylie's first pad - where she allowed BFF Jordyn Woods's aspiring artist brother to graffiti an entire wall, and had rooms for her wigs and shoes.

Perhaps the mother-of-one has been taking advice from big sister Kourtney, whose passions include interior design.

Yet while the room looks stylish and inviting, it surely won't be long before Kylie needs to babyproof.

The make-up business owner welcomed her first child seven weeks ago, and Stormi Webster is quickly growing.

The teenage years: After buying her first property at just 17 - a $2.7million starter home in the same gated Calabasas community where Kim and Kourtney live, she conducted extensive renovations; she is seen here in her old shoe closetThe Bachelorette's Georgia Love and boyfriend Lee Elliott like to show their sense of humour on social media using funny (and often cringeworthy) hashtags.

And on Tuesday, Georgia took things to another level when she hilariously trolled the mechanical plumber on his 37th birthday.

Sharing a collage of photos of the couple on Instagram, Georgia cropped Lee out of all of them.

'She's copied what Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively do!' Georgia Love trolls boyfriend Lee Elliott on his birthday by sharing a collage of romantic photos... and cropping him out of ALL of them

It didn't take long for fans to point out which celebrity couple had inspired the post.

'Haha I see you've gone for the Ryan Reynolds to Blake Lively birthday type post!' one follower commented.

Another added: 'She's just copied what Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively do.'

'This is incredible! Hilarious!' read a similar comment.

Sweet: Georgia captioned the post, 'Happy birthday old mate! Life is simply better with you by my side, you deserve the very best day today and every day'

Georgia captioned the post: 'Happy birthday old mate! Life is simply better with you by my side, you deserve the very best day today and every day.'

She added several hashtags, including: 'You're not old, you're vintage' and 'Loving you is a piece of cake.'

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have previously made headlines for trolling each other on social media on their birthdays.

Following their lead? Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively (pictured) have previously made headlines for trolling one another on social media on their birthdays

Joke: Last year, Ryan shared a social media photo of himself and Blake - who was cropped out - alongside the caption: 'Happy birthday to my amazing wife'

'Happy birthday, baby': Blake later responded when it was his birthday, sharing a picture of Ryan with actor Ryan Gosling - but with her husband cropped out

Last year, Ryan shared a social media photo of himself and Blake - who was cropped out - alongside the caption: 'Happy birthday to my amazing wife.'

Blake later responded when it was his birthday, sharing a picture of Ryan with actor Ryan Gosling - but with her husband cropped out.

'Happy birthday, baby,' she wrote.Before his ill-fated appearance on Married At First Sight, Ryan Gallagher was a guest on Kyle and Jackie O's infamous 'Naked Dating' segment.

And the cheeky TV husband, 29, went back to his showbusiness roots on Monday by stripping off for an Easter-themed photoshoot with NW magazine.

The tattooed tradie, who hails from Maroubra, Sydney, even joked that the Easter egg used to conceal his modesty wasn't big enough and had to be replaced.

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'They needed a bigger egg!' Married At First Sight's Ryan Gallagher posed completely NAKED for an NW magazine photoshoot on Monday, barely covering his modesty with an Easter treat

In the photos, Ryan looks happy and confident while posing with nothing but a chocolate egg covering up his nether regions.

He revealed: '(The NW staffers) went to the supermarket to get a bigger egg! But I'm not shy, I never have been. You've got to be comfortable with nudity.'

In the accompanying interview, Ryan admitted he has received plenty of romance offers after being rejected by his on-screen wife Davina Rankin.

'I'm not shy, I never have been': In the photos, Ryan looks happy and confident while posing with nothing but a chocolate egg covering up his nether regions

'I don't count (the direct messages), there's a few there,' he said. 'I have had a few that say, "Marry me". I can't reply because one: I don't have the time, and two: I don't want to lead anyone on.'

Speaking of his hopes for a new relationship, Ryan said: 'I hope to be with someone by next year, so I'm looking to find someone as soon as possible, fingers crossed.'

Ryan's Married At First Sight journey ended in humiliation and heartbreak after his 'wife' Davina Rankin began a secret 'affair' with Dean Wells.

'I have had a few that say, "Marry me"': In the accompanying interview, Ryan admitted he has received plenty of romance offers after being rejected by his on-screen wife Davina Rankin

Before appearing on the show, he made headlines for appearing on The Kyle and Jackie O Show's controversial Naked Dating segment.

Ryan didn't hesitate when asked to strip down for the radio segment, and proudly boasted that he was up for 'KFC and a root' with most ladies.

Married At First Sight returns to Channel Nine next yearOlivia de Havilland has lost her legal battle against FX over the Feud: Bette And Joan mini series.

The veteran Hollywood star, 101, sued the network for defamation over what she said was a damaging portrayal of her as a gossip.

The three judge panel overturned a previous court ruling that found in the actress's favor and ruled Monday that the First Amendment allowed filmmakers to embellish the historical record, Variety reported.

Olivia de Havilland, 101, lost her legal battle against FX over the mini series Feud: Bette And Joan when an appeals court sided with the network on First Amendment grounds Monday

The Second District Court of Appeals held unanimously that portrayals of real-life people are protected by the First Amendment.

Justice Anne Egerton wrote: 'Whether a person portrayed in one of these expressive works is a world-renowned film star  a living legend  or a person no one knows, she or he does not own history. Nor does she or he have the legal right to control, dictate, approve, disapprove, or veto the creators portrayal of actual people.'

Gone With The Wind star de Havilland said producers of Feud never asked her permission to portray her and did not consult her.

The drama, which starred Catherine Zeta Jones as de Havilland, had her calling her sister, the actress Joan Fontaine, a 'b***h' and also joking about Frank Sinatra's drinking.

De Haviiland, left, had sued for defamation saying the drama gave a damaging portrayal of her as a gossip and was upset the show had her calling her sister Joan Fontaine, right, a 'b***h'

The Gone With The Wind star won the first round in court, with a judge last fall ruling in her favor. But the three judge appeals panel held that producers are entitled to creative licence and that 'no-one owns history'

Variety reports that the Motion Picture Association of America came to the networks defense, arguing in an amicus brief that the courts ruling would give politicians and celebrities veto power over films about their lives.

Last week, FX appealed last fall's court ruling with an attorney for the network, Kelly Klaus, arguing that creative licence may be used in docudramas.

'Docudramas are understood not to be a literal retelling of history, thats the role of documentaries,' Klaus said.

De Havilland's lawyer Suzelle Smith, argued that the show wrongly portrayed the Paris-based star as a hypocrite and a gossip who used vulgar terms.

'Olivia de Havilland has built a reputation of 100 years as a celebrity and she should get compensation for that,' Smith said.

On screen representation: Catherine Zeta Jones portrayed de Havilland on Feud and her character was used as a sort of commentator on the events being portrayed

Feud, which aired last year, focused on the rivalry between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, with de Havilland being used as a sort of commentator on the events.

This is not the first time a major Hollywood company has been taken on by de Havilland, who won Oscars for 1946s To Each His Own and 1949s The Heiress.

She won a landmark victory over Warner Bros in 1943 which effectively ended actors contract servitude.

Catherine Zeta Jones, left, portrayed de Havilland on Feud opposite Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis, right, and Jessica Lange as Joan CrawfordNSW are the first team into the Super W final, but Melbourne have suffered a second huge loss in the five-team women's 15-a-side rugby competition.

Melbourne, who were coming off a bye after losing 85-13 to the Western Force in their first game, were smashed 60-0 by Queensland at Ballymore on Sunday.

Queensland ran in nine tries, with centre Sarah Riordan notching a hat-trick by the 45th-minute mark, after she commenced the scoring soon after the start.

Five-eighth Lavinia Gould bagged 15 points from six conversions and a penalty, as Queensland notched a second win from three matches.

The home team led 27-0 at the break having scored four tries.

Melbourne had centre Tessa Brown sin-binned in the second half.

Unbeaten NSW remained top of the ladder after making it three wins out of three with a 24-5 home victory over the Brumbies at Sydney's Pittwater Park on Saturday.

Five-eighth Chloe Leaupepe dominated the NSW scoring, accounting for 19 of their points.

NSW have a bye next week when Melbourne host the Brumbies at AAMI Park on Good Friday and the Western Force host Queensland at Kingsway Reserve on Saturday.A man from Sydney's southwest, accused of cultivating more than 1000 cannabis plants in an elaborate greenhouse set-up in Perth, has been charged.

The Organised Crime Squad found the crop, along with about 200kg of cannabis and more than $10,500 in cash, during a search of a semi-rural property on March 13 in the Perth suburb of Oldbury.

A 26-year-old man from Cabramatta appeared in Armadale Magistrates Court on March 14 on drugs charges and was remanded in custody until April 10.Federal government cuts could mean homelessness and destitution for vulnerable asylum seekers in Australia on temporary visas, refugee advocates say.

Ninety-five advocate groups across the country banded together on Monday to oppose planned cuts to a program that provides an allowance, casework support, housing assistance and counselling to potential refugees.

"Many still have years before a decision will be known on their status," said Paul Power, Refugee Council of Australia CEO.

"The government needs to take a step back and remember for a second that we are talking about people - people who have escaped war and risked death by travelling the long treacherous journey to Australia."

The government cuts to the Status Resolution Support Service program, announced at the end of last year, will take effect from Sunday.

The allowance it provides to asylum seekers awaiting the confirmation of their refugee status in Australia is about 89 per cent of the Newstart allowance.

That equates to $247 per week, advocates say.

Department staff reportedly verbally told non-government organisations contracted to deliver the SRSS that eligibility changes would be made to wind back benefits.

Australian Council of Social Service CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie claimed parents affected were skipping meals to provide food and medicine for their families.

"It is appalling the government is wanting to cut people off income support entirely," she said.

"People will become homeless, their health will suffer and they will be unable to feed themselves."South Australia's new Liberal government has held its first joint party room meeting following the state election.

Premier Steven Marshall has welcomed the 11 new Liberal MPs elected on March 17, reminding them of the great responsibility to be in government.

"So now we've got this great combination of experience, and a lot of it, as well as new people coming in with new ideas so that we can work together to get this state back on track," Mr Marshall told the gathering on Monday.A man with a birthmark below his eye is wanted by police over an attempted carjacking in Melbourne's inner north.

Police have been told the man jumped in front of a car in Mitchell Street, Northcote, about 6.15pm on March 19, demanding the man and woman inside get out, before opening the driver's door.

The pair managed to drive away from the man, described as Caucasian, in his late 30s, between 176cm-179cm tall and of solid build. He was unshaven with shaved light brown hair and a small birth mark on his cheek.There's an irony in Australia that those working long hours want to work less, while part time and casual workers want more hours, federal Greens MP Adam Bandt says.

Flexibility in the workplace could give everyone the balance they crave, but the Melbourne MP says current laws limit workers to the right to have a conversation about flexibility.

"For too long flexibility has been a one-way street," Mr Bandt told parliament on Monday.

He wants employees to have a right to request flexibility to allow them to balance their jobs and caring responsibilities that could only be refused by an employer on "serious countervailing issues".

He said most would agree caring for children and older parents counted as work.

"We are on the verge of condemning a whole generation of young people to never having decent jobs and income," he warned.

"Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, there are people who are saying 'I'd be happy to work less, in fact I want to work less', but our law does not allow for them to have an enforceable right to do it."

Mr Bandt sought unsuccessfully to introduce flexible working legislation in 2012.

He said since then, underemployment had worsened, while the amount of unpaid overtime worked by Australians had grown from $72 billion to $130 billion a year.A naked disoriented 16-year-old boy screamed for help as he was beaten earlier this year by NSW police officers whose conduct is now being investigated in a Sydney public hearing.

Video footage of some of the arrest of the teen, who later said he had taken the drug acid, was shown on Monday at the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) hearing in Sydney.

Counsel assisting the commissioner, Terence Rowles, said four officers responded to a call that the boy was acting inappropriately before they used OC spray, a Taser and physical force including batons to restrain him in a Byron Bay laneway.A NSW police officer insists there was no time for multiple de-escalation techniques before a young knife-wielding woman was shot dead near a Sydney fast-food outlet in 2015.

Probationary Constable Angela Tyson pointed her Taser at 22-year-old Courtney Topic near the West Hoxton Hungry Jack's car park in February 2015 and yelled for her to put the knife down, but the Taser didn't fire and Ms Topic was shot in the chest by another officer.

Prob Const Tyson conceded in Glebe Coroners Court on Monday her de-escalation techniques were limited to verbal directions because there was not enough time for anything else, but she insisted there was an imminent threat to her life.Gold Coast star Ashley Taylor has been handed a maximum $1500 fine for tripping in Sunday's NRL blowout loss to St George Illawarra.

Taylor escaped a suspension but was hit with a grade-one tripping charge on Monday as one of five citings to come out of the clash in Toowoomba.

The only player facing a stint on the sidelines is Titans forward Keegan Hipgrave, who attracted a dangerous contact charge for his incident with Dragons centre Euan Aitken in the 56th minute.

An early guilty plea for the grade-one charge results in just 90 points, but Hipgrave has 45 carryover points from a previous incident.

Dragons forwards Tariq Sims and Leeson Ah Mau were also slugged financial penalties for careless high tackles, while Titans skipper Ryan James was charged for dangerous contact but avoided a ban.Patients should be given a clear choice of specialist when they are referred by a doctor, a Productivity Commission report recommends.

The wide-ranging report into human services argues patients need to be given greater "referral choice" when selecting a specialist.

It argues regulations should be changed to make it clear people can choose which private specialist they see when they are going to be referred, with the support of their doctor.

The commission says there is a common misconception a named referral for a specialist cannot be accepted by an alternative provider.

Therefore it also wants referrals to include a clear statement telling patients about their right to choose.

The commission estimates there would be an increased cost associated with longer GP visits under the changes, but they would be outweighed by the benefits of patient choice.

It could encourage providers to improve their service quality and accountability.

The cost to the government of Medicare spending on the longer GP services would be in the range of $6 million to $24 million, the report estimates.

Every year GPs make about 15 million referrals to specialists.

The report also found Australians who receive public dental services in government-operated clinics have little choice over who they see or where and when.

It calls for digital oral health records which would help people take their details with them.Former federal Liberal minister Bruce Billson should be censured by parliament for failing to put public interest first in taking a lobbying job while still an MP, a report says.

Mr Billson failed to notify parliament's interests register that he was receiving $75,000 a year as an executive director of the Franchise Council of Australia in the months before his retirement last year.

Parliament's privileges committee accepted that Mr Billson's failure to disclose was due to error and oversight, and recommended a new standing order expressly prohibit serving MPs from taking on lobbying jobs.Lano and Woodley's comedic tribute to the Wright brothers, the pioneers of flight, aims to leave fans in stitches without filling their heads with aviation facts.

The Australian comedy duo of Colin Lane and Frank Woodley on Monday hosted the launch of the 32nd Melbourne International Comedy Festival, performing an off-kilter musical number from their reunion show, Fly.

"It's about the Wright brothers, but if you're doing aeronautical engineering or you want to be a pilot, you're not going to learn anything at our show," Lane told AAP, with Woodley adding most of the research was done via the brother's Wikipedia page.Older bullies "thumped" Malcolm Turnbull when he was a little boy sent away to boarding school after his parents split up, the prime minister has revealed.

In an interview with the Australian Women's Weekly, Mr Turnbull opened up about dealing with bullies as a child at school.

"My observation as a man and as a father is that both boys and girls can be very cruel to each other," Mr Turnbull told the Women's Weekly.

"But boys tend to be more physical than girls.

"I was pushed and thumped, and the difference between a boy who is eight and a boy who is 12 is enormous."

Mr Turnbull was sent to boarding school when his mother walked out on his father, who travelled a lot for work.

He later won a scholarship to Oxford University and holidayed in Italy with his future wife Lucy, the pair buying a second-hand Fiat they called "Luigi" to drive across the Alps.

Mrs Turnbull told the magazine she was pleased her husband missed out on Liberal party preselection in 1981, because they had time to raise a family before he entered the rough-and-tumble of politics.

"I think I was slightly concerned about him going into politics when our kids were very little, so I was very happy when he decided to leave it," Mrs Turnbull said.A teenage girl who died after she was trapped under the hull of a boat that capsized on the NSW south coast has been remembered as a "beautiful soul".

Georgia Vizovitis was caught under the 6.3-metre vessel as it overturned during an attempt to cross the Moruya River bar on Saturday morning.

Police believe the 13-year-old from Canberra was trapped underwater for between 20 and 40 minutes.

Friends and family took to social media to pay tribute to the teenager, who is understood to have been the daughter of the skipper.

"RIP beautiful soul, you will be missed by everyone," Natalina Hill posted on Instagram.

"Rest easy beautiful girl! You will forever be in our hearts, heaven has gained an angel," Kristen Garavelos said on Instagram.

Three men, aged 46, 29 and 18, and two other 13-year-old children were thrown from the boat when it was hit by waves and rescued a short time later after nearby vessels raised the alarm.

The five survivors were taken to hospital to be treated for hypothermia, while one of the children suffered a foot injury.

Police understand no one in the boat was wearing a life jacket and have stressed that jackets should always be worn when crossing a coastal bar.A baby is one of six people diagnosed with measles after a man on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne unknowingly contaminated a baggage area.

All six people were in Melbourne Airport's international baggage collection area on March 7 along with the man from flight D7214, aged in his 40s, who became ill on the flight and later went to hospital.

"None of these were on the same flight, but we believe they fell ill because they were in the baggage area at the same time," Victoria's deputy Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said.A former teacher at a leading Adelaide private school has admitted grooming one of her male students for sex.

Bettina Schmoock had 12 months ago pleaded not guilty to one count of communicating with the intention of procuring a child for sex, but changed her plea in the South Australian District Court on Monday.

Her victim was in court to witness a sombre and softly spoken Schmoock admit the crime, which took place when she was teaching at prestigious Adelaide school Concordia College.

Judge Gordon Barrett will now consider evidence in the case, including text and Skype messages between the pair.

Schmoock's bail was continued and she will reappear in court next month before sentencing.A pledge from chiefs of some of Australia's biggest businesses to create more jobs if the Senate passes company tax cuts will be scrutinised by a parliamentary inquiry.

The Business Council of Australia issued a joint statement last week committing to invest, create jobs and boost wages if the cuts were approved by parliament.

The signatories included BHP, EnergyAustralia, Fortescue Metals, JBS Australia, MYOB, Origin Energy, Qantas, Wesfarmers and Woodside.

Labor successfully referred the commitment to the upper house's economics committee on Monday, with a report due the day before the budget is to be handed down on May 8.

The inquiry will look at the companies' wage growth and employment estimates, while also asking them to detail how much tax they have paid in the past five years and the expected tax benefit if the cuts are enacted.

The government is yet to get the Senate's support for its legislation to cut the corporate tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent.

Debate on the bill was postponed on Monday as the government continues to lobby for the crucial votes of independents Derryn Hinch and Tim Storer.Hundreds of childcare centres are expected to be shut on Tuesday as thousands of workers get ready to walk off the job demanding higher pay.

More than 300 centres Australia-wide are expected to participate in rolling closures on Tuesday as the industry pushes for a 30 per cent pay rise for workers, most of whom are women.

Union United Voice said about 6,500 of the nation's 100,000-strong workforce will participate, with parents urged to make alternative arrangements for their children.

"Twenty-one dollars an hour does not reflect the value of educators' work, their professional qualifications or the value of the children they educate," the union's assistant national secretary Helen Gibbons said in a statement on Monday.

It's unclear just how many parents, particularly women, could be forced to take the day off work because of the action, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said.

"Anyone who's ever been a parent with a child in childcare would know that making alternative arrangements can be complicated and difficult, and quite often the option is to take the day off," chamber spokeswoman Jenny Lambert told AAP.

United Voice said Tuesday's walk-off followed the federal government's failure to meet a February 1 union-imposed deadline to deliver funding for equal pay.

The Fair Work Commission last month rejected an application for a 35 per cent pay rise for childcare workers.

The federal government has previously said it does not set wages, which are a matter for the Fair Work Commission.

In a statement Education and Training Minister Simon Birmingham told AAP he expected early learning and childcare centres to pay workers "as much as they can afford".

"The role of government is not to run those centres but to help families access affordable care," the minister said.Australia's first pregnancy has been achieved from embryos that have been monitored and filmed using next generation time lapse digital imaging technology.

Used at Melbourne IVF laboratories, the technology allows scientists and clinicians to carefully monitor and review the development of embryos at any point in time, meaning the embryo no longer has to be removed from the incubator.

The Embryoscope by Vitrolife combines an incubator with a substantially higher resolution camera and computer software to automatically and continuously capture more focused images of an embryo.

Melbourne IVF medical director Dr Lyndon Hale says the less the embryo is disturbed, the better.

"Having the camera built into the incubator means you can actually take a picture every seven minutes without disturbing the embryo," said Dr Hale.

Usually the embryo is removed from the incubator two days after fertilisation and then again after five days.

Up until now, IVF specialists have had no way of knowing how the embryo is progressing in between.

"The embryo may do unusual things but we would never know because we're not looking," said Dr Hale.

It's hoped the EmbryoScope will better enable clinicians to choose the best embryo to implant in the woman, and therefore speed up the time it takes to achieve pregnancy.

"If you can choose the best embryo, then you'll put the best embryo back first and therefore you'll get to the baby quicker," said Dr Hale.

The time-lapse technology also allows the detection of embryos that are developing abnormally, and therefore less likely to establish a pregnancy.The chief executive of SA Health will relinquish the position in November, a memo to all health staff has revealed.

Vickie Kaminski said she had been in discussions with new Premier Steven Marshall about leadership needs across various departments and had agreed to provide working notice until the end of November.

"Recognising that my contract with SA Health will be over in 18 months or so they have decided to initiate a process to determine my successor," she said in the memo.There are questions over Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton's decision to use his ministerial discretion powers to grant visas to two foreign au pairs.

WHAT IS AN AU PAIR?

An au pair is a young person aged under 30 who travels abroad for a temporary period and lives with a host family.

They generally receive free board, meals and pocket money in exchange for childcare and light housework duties.

WHAT IS MINISTERIAL DISCRETION UNDER MIGRATION LAWS?

Immigration minister has powers under migration laws to intervene in visa cases if they think it is in public interest to do so.

The minister decides what is in the public interest.

The minister is not legally bound to intervene or to consider intervening.

Ministerial interventions can be sought to overturn a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal or in asylum seeker cases where a protection visa has been refused or cancelled.

Since 1989 immigration ministers have had the power to exercise personal discretion in visa cases.

The power was aimed being a "safety valve" for difficult cases that were outside the statutory visa criteria.

There has been a rising number of ministerial interventions. Under the Hawke and Keating governments immigration minister Gerry Hand made 81 interventions in two years while his successor Nick Bolkus made 311 in three years. Under the Howard government Philip Ruddock intervened 2513 times between 1996-2003.

In 2006-2007 the immigration department received 4000 requests for ministerial intervention.

Peter Dutton has intervened more than 450 times since he became minister at the end of 2014.

WHAT DOES MINISTER DUTTON SAY?

- His family does not employ an au pair and never has.

- Each year he makes hundreds of ministerial discretion decisions under the Migration Act.

- Cases are often brought to him by members of parliament of all political persuasions.

- He looks at individual circumstances around each matter.

- In two matters, young tourists came in on tourist visas but declared to airport officials they "intended to perform baby-sitting duties whilst they were here".

- A decision was taken by airport officials to cancel the tourist visas, detain the women and deport them.

- The minister, who says he did not personally know the women, granted the tourist visas based on their commitment not to work.

- The women did not overstay, and returned home.

PAST CONTROVERSIES?

The Senate instigated an inquiry into ministerial discretion in June 2003 after allegations were raised about the Howard Government's then-Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock's use of the power in four cases from 1998 onwards. Mr Ruddock was under fire over "cash-for-visa" allegations. There were claims visas had been granted through ministerial intervention to people who had made donations of up to $100,000 to the Liberal party or their associates.The inquiry was unable to get to the bottom of the saga because it was not given access to case files.

There were also reports Ruddock's successor Amanda Vanstone intervened to grant a suspected mafia figure a visa in 2005 after his relatives made donations to the Liberal Party.

FALL OUT?

In 2008, Rudd government immigration minister Chris Evans ordered an independent review into the ministerial discretion because he believed it gave him too much power and lacked transparency and accountability.

Evans adopted several recommendations aimed at restoring integrity and transparency.A pedophile who repeatedly raped a girl wearing a sleep mask as her father also joined in the sexual abuse has been jailed for almost 10 years, closing Perth's so-called "Evil 8" case.

Alfred John Impicciatore chatted online with the girl's father, who also pimped her out to other men, then visited their home in March 2015 where he sexually penetrated the 13-year-old girl four times.

Impicciatore was found guilty after a judge-alone trial in the WA District Court and also admitted fleeing the state in 2016, forcing police to extradite him from NSW.

Judge Mark Herron said on Monday that the 48-year-old drug user had not showed any remorse, empathy or insight.

Although there was no victim impact statement, Judge Herron said he was sure there would be long-term effects on the girl.

"You had a perverted sexual interest in young girls and you were unable to resist acting on that interest," he said.

"You took advantage of a girl who was extremely vulnerable.

"Your actions were depraved and were entirely for your own sexual gratification."

Two charges against Impicciatore came out of admissions he made to police, which he then challenged and "disowned".

Defence counsel John Hawkins said Impicciatore maintained that his comments to detectives were not said freely.

But Judge Herron said Impicciatore raped the girl knowing she was underage and her father was forcing her.

Impicciatore was sentenced for all five offences to nine-and-a-half years in prison and must serve at least seven-and-a-half years behind bars before he can be eligible for parole.

He has also been ordered to pay $27,564 to cover the cost of searching for and arresting him in NSW.

Impicciatore is the final abuser to be sentenced for his involvement in the notorious case and was the only one to fight the allegations against him at trial.

His case was drawn-out because he repeatedly failed to turn up to court and changed lawyers.

Video of the girl's police interview was played at the trial, during which she described Impicciatore as the "chubby man" with a "round face" and the man with a black Chihuahua.

In his findings at the time, Judge Herron said the girl described what happened to her in a "detached, unemotional way, almost as though the activities were normal".

"She spoke about sexual activity in explicit language, which I would not expect a 13-year-old girl to be able to explain," he said.

Eight men were originally implicated in the investigation, but one was never charged with offences related to the girl.

The girl's father, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to dozens of charges and was previously sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in jail.

The five other men also pleaded guilty to their involvement in the girl's sexual abuse and received sentences ranging from three years to almost 13 years.Malcolm Turnbull returned to Canberra after weeks away to find he's lost 29 Newspolls in a row, but the prime minister is staying upbeat.

The latest Newspoll, published in The Australian on Monday, shows the coalition trailing the opposition 47-53 on a two-party preferred basis.

Mr Turnbull was asked about the latest loss being "not good news", because it leaves him one shy of a 30th consecutive loss, which he cited as one reason for toppling Tony Abbott in 2015.

"Why are you smiling then if it is not good news?" he told the reporter who asked him on Monday.

"You are so pleased, I know why; because you are so happy about all of the jobs we have created. Because you are not distracted by polls."

Treasurer Scott Morrison also played down the significance of the result.

"If the polls were right then the Labor party would not be returned in Batman," he told Sky News.

"If the polls were right, South Australia would now have premier Nick Xenophon."

Mr Morrison said Australians cared more about the deficit being halved, unemployment falling and new jobs being created than poll numbers.

Fellow cabinet minister Simon Birmingham also downplayed the results.

"What will happen between now and whenever the federal election is, around the middle of next year, is Australians will become more acutely aware of the choices on the table," he told Sky News.

The latest poll showed Labor slightly improving its primary vote to 39 per cent against the government's 37 per cent.

The coalition has largely hovered around a 37 per cent primary vote since the start of 2017.

On the two-party preferred measure, it tied with Labor in the two polls after the July 2016 election but has come second in every one since.A call has gone out for environmentally-aware builders wanting to join a low-carbon revolution on Melbourne's outskirts.

A plan driven by Sustainability Victoria, a state government authority, seeks to sign up three domestic construction companies to build zero net-carbon homes as part of a $2.18 million pilot program.

A zero net carbon home - or a building will zero or very low carbon emissions, could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about six tonnes a year, up to half of a standard home.

Builders will design, develop and market the environmentally-friendly homes for sale in Melbourne's growth areas and at Geelong.

The successful builders - to be announced in June - will have to be able to build at least 200 homes a year and work in the program's designated suburbs.

About two million such homes are to be built in Victoria by 2050, the authority said.Collecting student loans from deceased estates could be back on the government's agenda, after a federal Liberal MP flagged the idea in parliament.

Ben Morton raised the possibility in parliament on Monday, two years after the suggestion was killed off by former prime minister Tony Abbott.

"To be very clear this would not be a death tax," Mr Morton said, pre-empting criticism levelled by Labor at the proposal first put forward by then education minister Christopher Pyne in 2014.

Mr Morton is a strong backer of legislation currently before parliament to reduce the student loan repayment threshold to $45,000 a year.

That's $3000 higher than the threshold they failed to get through the Senate last year, but $10,000 lower than the existing repayment level.

"I believe that for the long-term sustainability of the system we will need to go further," he said.

"There is a strong policy case for looking at the option of recouping student debts from certain estates."

Mr Morton said the current system meant some students would never take responsibility for repaying loans.

The government failed to get the crossbench support it needed in the Senate to pass the $42,000 threshold last year, but could have more luck this time around.

Nick Xenophon Team MP Rebekha Sharkie indicated her colleagues could be willing to support the new threshold if the government would negotiate on the lifetime cap.

The current plan would place a $150,000 cap on loans for students studying medicine, dentistry and veterinary science and $104,440 for other students.

Ms Sharkie wants the government to allow students to take out additional loans if they've paid back enough to put them back below the threshold.

Labor remains fiercely opposed to the changes.

"How can someone starting out even think of paying a mortgage, or getting married or starting a family when their income is sequestered by student loan repayments," Madeleine King questioned.

Susan Lamb said the point of student loans wasn't to churn students through university but to give them the opportunity to set up a career that would benefit the country.2015

June 17 - A foreign au pair arrives in Brisbane. Her visa was cancelled at the international airport. She makes a phone call and a tourist visa (subclass 600) is granted following ministerial intervention.

September - A one-page statement regarding the case is tabled in parliament

November 1 - A second au pair arrives in Brisbane and is granted a visitor visa (subclass 600) following ministerial intervention.

December - AAP makes a request for documents under freedom of information.

2016

March - A one-page statement regarding the second visa case is tabled in parliament

June - Immigration Department (now Home Affairs) makes the decision under the FOI request to exempt two documents in full regarding the au pair visa decisions.

September - The department makes a revised decision and offers partial access to documents but blacks out the rest of the information based on privacy provisions.

2017

May - The Office of Information Commissioner forces the department to release further documents, but exempts some information for privacy reasons.

2018

March 1 - AAP and department appear in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal over the freedom of information documents.

March 26 - After AAP publishes its story, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton is asked about the matter in question time. He denies ever having employed an au pair. He confirms two cases of young tourists coming in on tourist visas who declared to airport officials they "intended to perform baby-sitting duties whilst they were here". Airport officials cancel the visas, detain the women and plan to deport them. But the minister intervened and granted the visas based on their commitment not to work.NSW's corruption commission will dig into suspect planning proposals involving councillors and senior officials of a former Sydney council.

Michael Hawatt and Pierre Azzi, former councillors of the now-defunct Canterbury City Council, along with general manager Jim Montague and planning director Spiro Stavis will be investigated as part of the hearing which opens on April 16.

The commission will examine whether the government officials were dishonest while dealing with planning proposals or applications for properties in their council area between 2013 and 2016.

ICAC will also examine Montague's decision to appoint Stavis and whether the two councillors exerted influence by allegedly threatening to terminate his employment unless Stavis was appointed to the role.An elderly former teacher has been charged for allegedly molesting two young girls at a Catholic primary school near Newcastle decades ago.

Strike force detectives investigated reports of abuse, which allegedly took place at a Catholic primary school at West Wallsend in the 1970s and 1980s.

The three girls were aged between seven and eight at the time of the alleged abuse.

Police arrested and charged an 83-year-old former teacher at his Newcastle home just before midday on Monday.

He was charged with six counts of indecent assault on a female under 16 and granted conditional bail to appear at Newcastle Local Court on April 19.Megan Schutt became the first Australian woman to claim an international T20 hattrick as the visitors beat India to progress to the tri series final.

In a steaming Mumbai, Schutt was red hot with the ball but would likely be the first to admit she also enjoyed some luck in capturing the three wickets across two overs.

Having set the hosts 187 for victory, Schutt struck the first blow with the fifth ball of the second over when opener Smriti Mandhana was bowled for three.

Mandhana was wide on the crease as the ball ricocheted off her pads and onto the stumps.

Her dismissal brought Mithali Raj to the crease and a similar result followed, the veteran batter chopping on to a wide ball to exit for a duck.

When Schutt eventually returned from the other end to bowl the fifth over she enticed a slog from Deepti Sharma (2), who only succeeded in picking out Amanda-Jade Wellington at mid-off.

The hattrick was complete and it left India reeling at 3-26 - a position from which they never fully recovered.

Earlier, in-form Beth Mooney cracked 71 off just 46 balls to get Australia away to a solid start.

Her 114-run partnership with No.4 Elyse Villani (61 from 42 balls) ensured the Indians would have a substantial chase.

The victory ensured Australia qualified for Saturday's final against England, also in Mumbai.A world-first study using computer vision technology will monitor truck drivers' fatigue and distraction and alert them to any dangers.

Almost 2500 people were killed in heavy vehicle crashes in the decade to 2014, representing about one in six deaths on Australian roads.

The $6.5 million study, to be launched by federal minister Paul Fletcher in Canberra on Tuesday, will examine driver behaviour to better understand the impact of fatigue and distraction.

The partnership is headed by Canberra-based company Seeing Machines and includes Monash University Accident Research Centre and Ron Finemore Transport Services.

Finemore trucks will be fitted with in-cab monitors which detect fatigue and distraction and alert the driver with an audio tone and vibrating seat.

Face and eye-tracking technology measures eyelid closure, blink rate and the driver's head position, while a forward-facing camera captures footage of the road in the event of an incident.

Phase one of the project has seen the testing of truck drivers in a simulator.

Monash University's Michael Fitzharris said the technology had the potential to be applied across all vehicles.

"We would hope that this type of technology is fitted to all vehicles as standard equipment in the future," he said.

The full project is expected to be completed at the end of 2019.Victoria's forestry agreements have been extended until 2020 in a bid to boost the state's timber industry.

The agreements allow the logging of native forests on public lands, and provide exemptions to Commonwealth environmental laws.

Extensions have been granted until March 31, 2020 by the Victorian and federal government in state's East Gippsland, Central Highlands and North East regions.

It brings them into line with existing agreements in West Victoria and Gippsland and paves the way for longer-term extensions.

"The signing demonstrates our governments' shared interest in ongoing native timber industry, and the jobs and economic prosperity it creates," Assistant Agriculture Minister Anne Ruston said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Victorian native forests produce high quality, appearance-grade timber, and the RFAs ensure this is done sustainably."

The federal government wants to provide 20-year rolling extensions for all Regional Forest Agreements, which have repeatedly come under fire from environmental groups.Victoria's Labor government will face its first day in parliament since the state's ombudsman revealed the party's systematic misuse of $388,000 of public money to partially fund campaigning during the 2014 election.

Ombudsman Deborah Glass' report released last week found 21 past and present Labor MPs breached parliamentary guidelines by approving electoral officer time sheets when the staff were instead working on campaigns in other seats.

"The arrangement to employ field organisers as electorate officers was an artifice to secure partial payment for the campaign out of public funds and it was wrong," Ms Glass said at the time.

However she also found that MPs who participated believed it was within the rules.

Premier Daniel Andrews has since apologised, Labor has repaid the money and the government says it is time to move on.

But the Greens and opposition have other ideas, both calling for different parliamentary inquiries.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy revealed his party's terms of reference for an upper house select committee, which will be put to the chamber on Wednesday.

The Greens want to send the matter to a privileges committee, fine still-serving MPs named in the report, have Mr Andrews apologise to parliament, and for Labor to pay a $100,000 fine and cover the costs of the ombudsman.Melbourne will need to start work on a version of the axed East West Link in the next five years or face rising congestion, Infrastructure Australia warns.

The city also needs greater investment in rail capacity to handle the extra 2.8 million people forecast to live in Melbourne by 2046.

"Infrastructure Australia has identified increasing capacity on Melbourne's rail network as a high priority for the next wave of infrastructure investment in Victoria," chief executive Philip Davies said on Monday.

The report also listed a connection between the Eastern Freeway and CityLink as one of three high priorities for Victoria.

The Labor government in 2014 ripped up a contract to build the East West Link, which would have connected those freeways.

Tearing up the deal cost more than $1 billion, but Infrastructure Australia's priority list says a version of the road will be needed within in the next five years.

The report did not assess the West Gate Tunnel project, because the Victorian government did not submit all the requested details before deciding to pay for it without federal help.

Infrastructure Australia also called for significant public transport to be built at Fisherman's Bend, which is an area the size of Melbourne's CBD that has been slated for major development.

"Increasing public transport capacity to the area would address a significant emerging capacity shortfall and enable full development of the site," Mr Davies said.

NSW has 11 high-priority initiatives listed in the report, compared to three in Victoria.

The Victorian government says the state gets just nine per cent of federal infrastructure funding, while NSW gets 45 per cent.Brisbane's Cross River Rail project is one of Infrastructure Australia's highest priorities despite the federal government refusing to help fund it.

The Queensland Labor government is paying the $5.4 billion cost of the rail line after Canberra last year decided against putting money in.

Infrastructure Australia's latest priorities list ranked Cross River Rail as one of three high priority initiatives for Queensland.

"The Cross River Rail initiative would provide a north-south passenger rail line through Brisbane's inner city," the report released on Tuesday says.

The report says the project will be needed within the next five years, but needs business case development.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has criticised the federal government for refusing to help fund the project.

"We know they have turned a blind eye to Cross River Rail, that's our key priority, so we're going it alone on building it," she said in January.

Infrastructure Australia also identified the need for a dedicated freight rail line from Brisbane's outer west to the Port of Brisbane as a high priority.

"Passenger trains take priority over freight trains, with freight trains operating to and from the port only in the out-of-peak period," the report says.

The project is needed in the next 10 years.

Infrastructure Australia is also evaluating the business case for the Lower Fitzroy River water development, which includes the proposed Rookwood Weir.Thousands of Australian childcare workers are expected to walk off the job demanding higher pay, leading to rolling closures of hundreds of centres.

Parents are being urged to make alternative arrangements for their children on Tuesday, with more than 6000 workers at 300 centres across the country set to participate in rolling closures.

"Twenty-one dollars an hour does not reflect the value of educators' work, their professional qualifications or the value of the children they educate," United Voice assistant national secretary Helen Gibbons said in a statement.

It's unclear how many parents, especially women, could be forced to take the day off work because of the action, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said.

"Anyone who's ever been a parent with a child in childcare would know that making alternative arrangements can be complicated and difficult, and quite often the option is to take the day off," spokeswoman Jenny Lambert told AAP.

United Voice pinned the walk-off on the federal government's failure to meet a February 1 union-imposed deadline to deliver funding for equal pay.

The action also follows last month's rejection by the Fair Work Commission of an application for a 35 per cent pay rise for childcare workers.

In a statement, Education and Training Minister Simon Birmingham said he expected early learning and childcare centres to pay workers "as much as they can afford".

"The role of government is not to run those centres but to help families access affordable care," he added.Just two votes separate the Turnbull government from its plan to give big corporations a tax cut but it faces a fight to get the laws over the line.

One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson has publicly promised to back the company tax cuts, meaning the government has seven of the nine votes it needs.

She agreed to vote for the bill after getting a regional apprenticeship fund from the government and talking to billionaire Andrew 'Twiggy' Forest.

"We need to reduce the corporate tax rates," Senator Hanson told Sky News on Monday.

"I'm not talking about multinationals. I'm not worried about those.

"What we need to do is shore up and look after the Australian businesses."

The government wants its legislation to cut the corporate tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent to be passed this week, the final parliamentary sitting before the May budget.

On Monday, the government pushed off the vote on the tax cut until Tuesday when it became clear independent senators Derryn Hinch and Tim Storer had not yet agreed to vote for it.

"We respect every senator," Mr Turnbull told reporters on Monday.

"We need nine of the crossbench senators to vote for legislation if Labor and the Greens are opposing it, so we continue our very respectful negotiations."

Senator Storer, who only sat on the Senate's benches for the first time a week ago, said he was taking each piece of legislation very seriously.

"I understand that there is a nature of urgency around the matter, but I think it's important to review it," he told reporters.Logan Mayor Luke Smith won't be removed from office despite being hit with corruption charges.

Queensland's Crime and Corruption Commission alleges Smith lied to its Operation Belcarra, which was investigating alleged corruption in the March 2016 council elections.

The 48-year-old has been charged with official corruption, failing to correct his council register of interests and two counts of perjury.

Smith is the third southeast Queensland mayor to be charged by the CCC after former Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale and sacked Fraser Coast Regional Council Mayor Chris Loft were also slapped with various offences.

Pisasale resigned just before the news of his charges broke, while Loft was removed from office by Queensland Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe in February.

However, Mr Hinchliffe on Monday ruled out removing Smith despite the charges against him.

"That's not my position to do so, it's a matter for Mr Smith to take whatever action he believes is in the best interests of the people of Logan," Mr Hinchliffe told reporters.

"In relation to the Fraser Coast, the former mayor there was the subject of negative findings by tribunals in relation to his behaviour that directly related back to his duties in terms of the principles of the local government act."

The CCC found the company Logan Futures created an "artificial separation" between Smith and his financial backers, which reduced the transparency of donations.

The company was set up to direct donations and pay campaign expenses and received $377,883 from dozens of property developers and businesses.

The ABC reports the charges against Mr Smith relate to a speedboat given to him by a Chinese developer which he later sold.

Acting on the watchdog's recommendation, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in October introduced legislation banning political donations from property developers, which is due to be voted on in state parliament by May.

Smith is scheduled to front Beenleigh Magistrates Court on April 17.What started as an excuse to visit Paris twice a year has turned into a global, multi-million dollar business for women's fashion label Kookai Australia.

Rob Cromb and then-wife Danielle Vagner launched Kookai in Australia in 1990 under a franchise agreement with the brand's French founders, opening the first store in Melbourne in 1992.

"I was 23 and, to be honest, I was really looking for an excuse to travel back to Paris a couple times a year," Mr Cromb told AAP.

"I thought I was going to work in finance, in the corporate world, and I'd do this fashion thing on the side to pay for Friday night dinners, maybe sell it back after five years or so."

By 2017, the duo had more than 30 stores across Australia and were designing their own collections under the brand name.

Rather than selling, they've acquired the global Kookai business from apparel company Vivarte, increasing the number of stores from 39 in Australia and New Zealand to about 235, including 165 boutiques in France.

The brand has a design team in Paris working for European customers and a studio in Melbourne, although the two are slowly becoming more cohesive since the deal.

"We're happy to see they're using more of our designs although it's a bit ironic ... we brought the brand to Australia because of their basics and now they're buying our basics," Mr Cromb said.

Kookai Paris returned to profit in 2017 for the first time since 2008, and Mr Cromb expects 2018 will see profits triple.

"It's going to take a lot of hard work for the brand to hold its own against the likes of Zara and H&M in Europe but we know if we get back to the brand's origins it will have a place and a customer."

Kookai will unveil its autumn-winter La Parisienne collection on Tuesday night, a symbolic union of the two arms of the brand.

"When we started designing our own collections we steered clear of anything too French out of respect to the label over there, but now this feels like a return home," Mr Cromb said.

"Everything in this collection is our ode to Parisian fashion and why we fell in love with the brand in the first place."Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans has vowed to ensure the club's salary cap saga galvanises the club as they aim to reach a second straight finals series against the odds.

The Sea Eagles are renowned for thriving in their us-against-them attitude, having regularly called upon their siege mentality on a number of occasions in recent years.

Few matters will challenge Manly like the NRL's findings that club management offered $1.5 million in payments outside of the cap during negotiations with 13 players over the past five years.

No players are believed to have committed any wrongdoing, but the club faces a $330,000 reduction on both their 2018 and 2019 salary caps, as well as a $750,000 fine of which one third is suspended.

But Cherry-Evans said that would only make the group more determined after they made last year's finals series without both Brett Stewart and Steve Matai, who were counted in their 2017 cap but did not play a game.

"We'll make sure this galvanises us as a club and certainly as a playing group," Cherry-Evans told Fox Sports' Big League Wrap.

"You only have to look at Manly in the past. This thing doesn't tear the club apart, it's back-to-the-walls and it gets the best footy out of you.

"In that regard the situation isn't ideal, but what it can potentially do to our playing group, we'll use it for a benefit that's for sure."

History is mixed for Manly in terms of team's performances in the wake of significant mid-season salary cap penalties in the lead up to Saturday's clash with Canberra.

Canterbury and Parramatta both lost the week after their breaches were handed down in 2002 and 2016 respectively, while Melbourne won in the week after their 2010 penalties.

Crucially but, Manly's season has not been destroyed by a points penalty in the same way each of those teams' years were.

Cherry-Evans said it was important the players addressed and spoke about the matter as a group.

"It's the elephant in the room, there's no point just putting it in the corner and leaving it there for months to stew," Cherry-Evans said.

"We'll certainly talk about it. I'm sure Trent and the front office will talk about the repercussions that comes from it, if there are any directly to the playing groups."South Australian upper house MP Dennis Hood says he's not taken the lazy way out by leaving the Australian Conservatives to join the new Liberal state government.

Mr Hood announced his decision to jump ship on Monday, after first having talks with the government last week.

He says his decision is an "acceptance of the reality".

"We have a new government. A government I want to be part of because I like the policy agenda," Mr Hood said.

"It's a matter of moving forward."

Australian Conservatives founder Cory Bernardi says he's shocked and disappointed by Mr Hood's decision.

But Senator Bernardi says his party will fight on.

"When I started this party, it was about putting principles ahead of personalities, it was about putting policy ahead of politics and that is more important than ever," he said.

"The reality is we have just had an election and we haven't had the result we wanted to achieve, and I guess Dennis thought he could achieve the results he wants by joining the Liberal party."Home Affairs Minister is expected to face more questions on Tuesday over his decision to use ministerial discretion to grant visas on public interest grounds to two young tourists who came to Australia to perform baby-sitting duties.

Mr Dutton was asked about his June 17, 2015, decision to grant a tourist visa to a foreign au pair during question time in the lower house on Monday.

The minister also referred to a second case he intervened in on November 1, 2015.

The minister insisted he doesn't know the individuals involved.

"Our family does not employ an au pair," Mr Dutton told parliament.

"My wife takes very good care in my absence, I might say, of our three children. We have never employed a nanny."

Mr Dutton said he has intervened in hundreds of cases to either grant or cancel visas and takes the responsibility "extremely seriously".

He said he thought it was inappropriate for the two young women to be deported.

"I thought if they gave an undertaking they wouldn't work I would grant the tourist visa, they would stay, which they did, they didn't overstay, they returned back home," Mr Dutton told parliament.

Labor's immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann has asked Mr Dutton for a departmental briefing on the cases.

Greens senator Nick McKim, who also asked questions about the matter in Senate question time, is not satisfied Mr Dutton or Communications Minister Mitch Fifield adequately explained why the visa decisions were in the public interest.

"We will be pursuing the matter further on the floor of the Senate," he told AAP.

In the first case, a young woman had her eVisitor visa cancelled at the Brisbane International Airport which rendered her an "unlawful non-citizen" under migration laws

AAP understands she made a phone call to a contact and was granted a new visa which allowed her to lawfully enter Australia.

A document tabled in parliament shows the woman was granted a tourist visa (subclass 600) after Mr Dutton used his ministerial discretion to intervene in the case.

An Immigration official familiar with the visa cancellation process at the airport was "very surprised".

"It is hard to see how the grant of the new visa ... was genuinely in the public interest," the source told AAP.

"It is not very common for visas to be granted at the border after the visa a person arrived on is cancelled."

The source said usually people were put on the next available flight home.

In the second case, Mr Dutton intervened to grant a visitor visa (subclass 600) to another au pair which lasted three months, despite warnings from his department.

"There are clear indications that x is intending to work in Australia and thus, the grant of a visitor visa is of high risk," said a heavily blacked out ministerial submission obtained by AAP under freedom of information laws.

The submission also had references to Brisbane and Queensland airports.

Australian Border Force noted the woman had been "counselled previously with respect to work restrictions," when suspicions about her intentions were aroused on a previous arrival on October 31, 2015.

Analysis of ministerial discretion statements for 2015 tabled in parliament shows the bulk of these visas are granted to asylum seekers requiring bridging or temporary humanitarian visas or former residents returning to Australia.

A former department official told AAP under the ministerial discretion powers "the minister is God. He can do whatever he likes."

An au pair is a person under 30 who travels abroad for a temporary period and lives with a host family. They generally receive free board, meals and spending money in exchange for child care and light housework duties.Brexit will allow the United Kingdom to do business as a "sovereign, open and free" nation and the Turnbull government's trade minister is chomping at the bit to get Australia involved.

Trade Minister Steve Ciobo has paid tribute to the enduring bonds between Australia and the UK while pledging to advance free markets and trade liberalisation.

"Australia is committed to helping the United Kingdom define its trade policy and emerge as a great new liberal voice in the international trading system," Mr Ciobo said in a speech in London on Monday local time.

He warned Britain's efforts to liberalise trade would expose some business sectors to "painful adjustments" but it would be for the greater good.

Australia's investments in education, training, employment services and community assistance would help citizens weather the difficult times, he said.

Mr Ciobo said Australia's export industries, particularly agriculture, suffered when the UK joined the European Union in 1973.

"Australia is moving surely down our path to a formal launch of negotiations for our own free trade agreement with the EU," he said.

"Even so, I believe that Australia and the UK should prepare now, with a sense of urgency, to negotiate as soon as possible a high quality and ambitious trade agreement of our own."

He said March 30, 2019, the day Brexit is scheduled to take place, would be the ideal day to begin formal negotiations.

"The aspiration for both Australia and the UK is to be able to move to a high quality, comprehensive free trade agreement between us once the UK formally exits the EU," Mr Ciobo said earlier after meeting with his British counterpart Trade Secretary Liam Fox.

He said the aim of the bilateral relationship was to grow trade investment between the two countries, and there was more clarity with the UK and EU agreeing on the transition period for Brexit.

He emphasised the need to "commence negotiations basics on day one of the commencement of the interim period to the view of having a high-quality trade agreement ready to go essentially on January 1, 2021" so that there would be a seamless transition to trade with a UK outside the EU.

Discussions on a trade agreement with the the EU are more advanced than with the UK because the process had started earlier. Mr Ciobo said the government was waiting for the EU to complete its internal processes to commence negotiations, which he was hopeful would begin before the middle of the year.

Mr Ciobo lauded the UK's interest in joining the Trans Pacific Partnership, to which Australia is a signatory but US President Donald Trump theatrically rejected.

He also committed Australia to joining Britain in helping developing nations, particularly those in Southeast Asia, construct infrastructure and flourish.

"So bring on prosperous, free-trading, global Britain," he said.I've been driving down the curvy roads of the NSW Hunter Valley for more than an hour but I still haven't built up the courage to let go of the wheel. I am, after all, driving the quickest four-door sedan ever built.

In a mere 2.7 seconds this car can hit zero to 100 kilometres an hour - so I think my fear is justified. With just a flick of a lever I could be using Tesla's enhanced autopilot - the closest thing to automatic driving as legally possible.

So why is it so hard for me to let go?

I hesitantly gravitate towards the lever and before I know it, the power has drifted from my hands. But I can't quite bring myself to pull my arms away. Instead, I let my palms hover as if at any moment I might need to take control again.

The hands-free motion doesn't last long. After just a moment I spot a car driving at a distance. I immediately put my hands on the wheel and brake gently to snap the car out of its trance. Ten seconds - that'll do me.

Despite Tesla's impressive autopilot system, which is made up of multiple sensors including eight cameras that provide 360 degrees of visibility around the car, I can't shake the discomfort of something so foreign.

The car is capable of matching speed to traffic conditions, keeping within a lane, automatically changing lanes without requiring driver input, exiting a freeway when the destination is near, self parking and being summoned to and from a garage.

Some of these features have already been rolled out, but the company's target of complete self-driving is still subject to a series of regulatory approvals both here in Australia and overseas.

A good ten or so minutes later my heart rate returns to its normal rhythm and rather than playing with Tesla's "ludicrous" mode (yes the car literally has a button to drive "ludicrous") I decide to calm down a little and enjoy the comfort of the vehicle.

We swap drivers and I turn to the 17 inch touchscreen and play around with its features. From pumping Shania Twain through the body of the car, to roasting our bottoms to almost unbearable heats - the touch screen is sure to entertain.

I decide to give it a rest and I pull the navigation system up on the screen. Little flags are scattered along the map from South Australia through the east coast to Queensland and a growing number plotted in Western Australia. They show the various Tesla destination chargers where drivers can stop and recharge.

More and more chargers are popping up around Australia and not only in major cities but in small towns too, with the hope that the chargers will encourage more people to visit the regions.

Among the increasing number of destinations are 13 of InterContinental Hotels Group's Crowne Plaza hotels, each with two destination charges, with most locations delivering between 40 kilometres and 80 kilometres of range per hour.

The Crowne Plaza hotels are the first hotel network to install Tesla destination chargers at all of their properties across Australasia as part of a move to reach its sustainability goals.

IHG's managing directors Australasia and Japan, Leanne Harwood, says travellers are increasingly looking for ways to lower their carbon footprint when travelling.

"Tackling climate change is a global challenge and IHG puts the environment right at the heart of how we operate," Ms Harwood said.

"As electric cars gain in popularity in Australia, it also gives us an opportunity to be innovative and cater to guests who drive them."

The hotel chain's spa treatments, pools and saunas and abundance of food and wine make it difficult to drive by. It doesn't take much to convince me. By the time my driving partner parks, I already have my shoes off ready to hit the spa.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: The Hunter Valley is about a two and a half hour drive from Sydney's CBD. For a scenic road trip, guests should take the Tourist Drive.

STAYING THERE: The Crowne Plaza is located at the heart of the Hunter Valley and is surrounded by an array of vineyards including Tempus Two, Callais, Pepper Tree, Vinden Estate and the biodynamic vineyard Krinklewood. Visitors would regret not experiencing a wine tasting in the Hunter. For more info, visit www.crowneplaza.com/Lovedale and https://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/hunter/hunter-valley

PLAYING THERE: Crowne Plaza can organise for guests to take part in hot air ballooning with Beyond Ballooning who pick up visitors at the hotel early in the morning and drop them off just in time for breakfast. Visit www.beyondballooning.com.au/

For more info on Tesla cars, visit www.tesla.com

The writer travelled to the Hunter Valley as a guest of Crowne Plaza.A man has been arrested after a violent attempt to kidnap a teenage boy who was bashed in the face after answering the door of his Sydney home.

The 46-year-old was arrested on Monday in Homebush West following the January incident involving a 16-year-old boy in West Ryde, police said on Tuesday.

Police say the man forced his way into the home on Farnell Street about 9.30am on January 5 when the teenager opened the door. After a struggle, the boy broke free and ran to a neighbour's home.

The man has been refused bail to appear at Burwood Local Court on Tuesday where he faces charges of take/detain a person with the intent to obtain advantage and break and enter.The Australian government is expected to join other world powers and expel a number of Russian diplomats over the Skripal affair.

The Nine Network says two will be ordered out of the country, while Treasurer Scott Morrison has told reporters further statements would be made later on Tuesday.

The UK, United States and European allies of Britain have expelled 100 Russian diplomats over the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, the biggest expulsion since the Cold War.Nine Melbourne graffiti artists have been arrested over a spate of attacks on the state's public transport network causing more than $100,000 in damage.

Police swooped on the vandals early on Monday, executing warrants in five suburbs across Melbourne's west, Seaford in the southeast and Brunswick in the inner north.

The nine people are expected to face more than 300 serious criminal charges in total, including conduct endangering life, criminal damage, burglary and trespass. The group are linked to more than 145 incidents since March 2017, police said.Pauline Hanson says she's over the loathing she once felt for Tony Abbott, and the rest of Australia should get over it too.

The One Nation leader has invited Mr Abbott to launch her new book in Canberra on Tuesday - a man she once said she detested and blamed for her brief stint in jail for electoral fraud before her conviction was quashed.

But Senator Hanson has told ABC television that she's put all of that behind her: "If I can get over it, I think the rest of the people should".The sexual assault of a four-year-old in a remote Northern Territory town has left the small town devastated, the local mayor says.

Barkly Regional Council Mayor Steve Edgington said police are investigating a sexual assault in the remote community of Ali Curung that was shocking and will deeply impact the small community.

"We believe the four-year-old has been taken to the Alice Springs hospital and we hope the child and family are receiving all the support they need," he said in a statement.Barnaby Joyce insists the integrity of Peter Dutton should not be doubted, amid revelations the minister used his ministerial discretion powers to grant visas to two foreign au pairs.

The home affairs minister was asked about his June 17, 2015, decision to grant a tourist visa to a foreign au pair during question time in the lower house on Monday, in response to a two-year AAP investigation.

Mr Dutton also referred to a second au pair case he intervened in on November 1, 2015.

The minister insisted he doesn't know the individuals involved and his family doesn't employ au pairs.

Mr Dutton said he has intervened in hundreds of cases to either grant or cancel visas and takes the responsibility "extremely seriously".

He said he thought it was inappropriate for the two young women to be deported.

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who last month lost his cabinet post and the Nationals Party leadership following a scandal, defended his colleague on Tuesday.

"If there's one thing I'd never doubt, it's Peter Dutton's integrity," Mr Joyce told reporters in Canberra.

Labor senator Jenny McAllister was unconvinced by Mr Dutton's explanation to parliament.

"I didn't find his statement yesterday particularly persuasive," she told reporters.

The Australian Greens have flagged they'll be pursuing the issue further.

"There's still a long way to go on this," Greens senator Nick McKim told reporters.

"There's a lot of serious questions that Minister Dutton has to answer."An Egyptian youth walks past a polling station in the capital Cairo's western Giza district ahead of a presidential election

Egyptians vote in a presidential election Monday to choose between incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and a little-known candidate who has struggled to make the case he is not Sisi's minion.

Polling stations open at 0700 GMT for the three-day vote in which Sisi is all but guaranteed to win a second four-year term.

Security will be tight across the country. The Islamic State group's Egyptian affiliate, which has killed hundreds of soldiers and civilians, has threatened attacks on election-related installations.

On Saturday, two policemen were killed in a car bomb attack targeting the provincial head of security for the Alexandria governorate. The security chief was unharmed.

Some 60 million people in Egypt, the most populated Arab country, are registered to vote on March 26, 27, and 28. Official results are expected on April 2.

They will have the choice between Sisi and Moussa Mostafa Moussa, who registered right before the close date for applications, saving the election from being a one-horse race.

Moussa, who has denied he is a "puppet," had been leading a Sisi re-election campaign until the moment he registered as a candidate.

Other opponents have been sidelined, including former military chief of staff Sami Anan who was detained in January shortly after announcing his candidacy.

The military said the reserve general broke the law by illegally declaring his candidacy.

In an interview broadcast on Egyptian television last week, 63-year-old Sisi said the lack of serious opponents was not his doing.

"I wish we had one, or two, or three, or 10 of the best people and you choose however you want," he said.

Sisi had won his first term in 2014, a year after the former army chief ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi following mass protests demanding his resignation.

In that election, Sisi faced Hamdeen Sabbahi, an established left-wing politician much better known than Moussa. Still, Sisi won 96.9 percent of the vote.

With Sisi's win effectively guaranteed, the authorities' concern this year would be turnout to enhance the legitimacy of the vote.

Sisi has stressed in his pre-election appearances the importance of voters turning out in large numbers.

In 2014, about 37 percent of voters participated in the two-day election, prompting authorities to add a third day to obtain a final participation rate of 47.5 percent.

It is unlikely this year that even that 37 percent will be achieved, said analyst Mostafa Kamel al-Sayed.

"The result is known in advance, and this does not encourage Egyptians to go out and vote," he said.

During the campaign, Sisi appeared frequently on television and in newspapers, hailing factories and infrastructure projects built in the past four years.

Egyptian cities, especially Cairo, are flooded with banners featuring photographs of Sisi and messages of support from business owners. Posters vowing support for Moussa, 65, are rarely seen.

But with an economic crisis and gruelling price hikes -- and the return of a regime seen as at least as authoritative as that of Mubarak -- support for Sisi appears to be slightly in decline.Lee Ching-Yu said she would pass on "messages from the free world" during her planned visit to see her husband at a prison in China's Hunan province

The wife of a Taiwanese democracy activist jailed in China travelled to the country on Monday after being granted permission to visit him in prison for the first time, in a case that has strained cross-strait relations.

NGO worker Lee Ming-cheh was sentenced to five years in prison in November on charges of subverting state power by a court in central Hunan province, as activists face increased pressure from authorities under Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Taipei has called Lee's jailing "unacceptable" and a serious blow to relations, while his wife Lee Ching-yu has said his trial was a "political show".

She told reporters prior to her departure Monday that she intends to pass on "messages from the free world" during her planned visit to see him in prison on Tuesday.

Her flight landed in Changsha Huanghua International Airport in Hunan province at 11:57 am (03:57 GMT), according to the airport.

Lee did not answer phone calls and messages from AFP.

Her husband was arrested in March 2017 during a trip to the mainland and held incommunicado for months.

Chinese authorities cancelled Lee Ching-yu's mainland travel permit last April as she searched for her missing husband and later only granted her single-entry visas to attend the trial and sentencing.

But in January she was barred from boarding a flight to visit Lee in Hunan's Chishan prison.

- Sharing 'Taiwan's democratic experiences' -

During his trial, Lee admitted the charges, stating that he had written and distributed online articles that criticised China's ruling Communist Party and promoted democracy.

He had shared "Taiwan's democratic experiences" with his Chinese friends online for many years and often mailed books to them, according to the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.

"While it is positive that Ms. Lee will be given access to her husband in prison, Lee Ming-cheh should never have been imprisoned in the first place," said Maya Wang, China researcher for Human Rights Watch.

"Lee should be immediately released," Wang said.

Amnesty International and Taiwanese rights groups have also vowed to continue pushing for Lee's release.

Hunan's Chishan prison did not answer calls from AFP on Monday.US gunmaker Remington has filed for bankruptcy, as the more than 200-year-old firearms manufacturer vies to restructure its massive debts

US gunmaker Remington filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, as the more than 200-year-old firearms manufacturer vies to restructure its massive debts.

"Directors have determined that it is advisable and in the best interests of the Company that the Company file, or cause to be filed, a Voluntary Petition commencing the Chapter 11 Case," the bankruptcy filing says.

Remington had announced it would file for bankruptcy in February, just two days before a shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school killed 17 people and reignited a national debate on gun control.

The restructuring agreement will allow Remington to reduce some $700 million of its consolidated debt, according to the company, as well as inject a contribution of $145 million of new capital into its operating subsidiaries.

In February Remington said its "business operations will continue to operate in the normal course and will not be disrupted by the restructuring process."

Remington's financial woes illustrate a paradox of the Trump era: weapon manufacturers ramped up production in anticipation of a Hillary Clinton presidency that would drive sales of those fearing increased gun control.

Instead, they got a period of political dominance for the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby -- with Republicans controlling Congress and the White house -- that was nonetheless accompanied by financial fragility for gunmakers.

The company has also been hit with lawsuits by families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 20 small children and six adults in 2012.

The families say 20-year-old killer Adam Lanza would never have been able to carry out his 264-second attack if he had not had access to a high-capacity weapon which had been "specifically engineered" for military use in combat.

More than a million Americans flooded streets of cities nationwide on Saturday demanding tighter gun control on Saturday, marches that were spearheaded by teenagers from Parkland who survived the shooting.A commuter walks past an advertisement reading "Sharing a lie makes you a liar" at a train station in Kuala Lumpur as the government introduces a bill to combat "fake news"

The Malaysian government Monday proposed a "fake news" law which would carry a maximum 10-year jail term, including for articles published abroad, sparking fears of a crackdown on dissent as elections loom.

Governments in several countries, emboldened by US President Donald Trump's fulminations against "fake news", are considering such legislation. But rights groups warn that authoritarian regimes are likely to use such laws to silence opposing voices.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has already been targeting critics in politics and the media who have attacked him over allegations that huge sums were looted from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

The proposed law, introduced in parliament Monday, fuelled fears the government is seeking to intensify a clampdown before a general election, which must be called by August but is widely expected sooner.

Opposition MP Charles Santiago said the bill was "a powerful weapon for the government to silence dissent in the country".

"It is timed for the elections and to silence discussions on 1MDB," he told AFP.

The bill, which described fake news as a "global concern", includes a maximum 10 years in jail or fine of up to 500,000 ringgit ($130,000) for anyone guilty of creating or disseminating what authorities deem to be fake news.

It said anyone -- including foreigners -- who breaks the law outside the country by publishing fake news can face punishment in Malaysia, as long as what is published concerns Malaysia or a Malaysian citizen.

Fahmi Fadzil, spokesman for the opposition People's Justice Party, said it suggested the government was seeking to target foreign media, which have led the coverage of 1MDB.

Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director for Human Rights Watch, accused the Malaysian government of employing "Trump-style scare tactics to grant itself powers to arbitrarily determine what people can say about Malaysia in the world".

Amnesty International said the bill was "nothing but a blatant attempt to shield the government from peaceful criticism".

It was no coincidence that it had been tabled with general elections just around the corner, said Amnesty's regional director James Gomez in a statement.

- Taking aim at fake news -

Malaysia's traditional pro-government media have reported on the 1MDB controversy only occasionally and in a muted and largely uncritical fashion.

Despite the concerns, cabinet minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar insisted the law "will not be abused", adding: "It is not aimed at silencing critics."

The bill must be approved by a majority in the 222-seat lower house and also in the upper house, and this is likely as both chambers are controlled by the ruling coalition. It needs to go through several readings in parliament before it passes.

Malaysia is ranked 144th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index.

The government has the power to revoke newspapers' printing permits and regularly attacks critical media, particularly online news sites that have gained a following by reporting on official malfeasance and corruption.

Other countries in Southeast Asia have also been taking aim at what they claim is fake news.

Philippine lawmakers are mulling an anti-fake news bill introduced last year by a supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has done battle with media outlets critical of his deadly drug war.

The proposed legislation reserves its harshest penalties, up to $382,500 and imprisonment of up to 20 years, for mass media organisations that refuse to take down fake news items.

In tightly-controlled Singapore, a parliamentary committee has been holding hearings this month as it examines potential measures to combat false online information, including legislation.Tens of thousands of Huthi rebel supporters demonstrated in Yemen's capital on Monday to mark three years of war, hours after neighbouring Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted seven rebel missiles.

A Saudi-led military coalition entered Yemen in March 2015 with the goal of restoring its "legitimate" government to power after the Huthis and their allies took over Sanaa.

Sanaa's Sabaeen Square on Monday was a sea of Yemeni flags, with a smattering of posters bearing pictures of Huthi leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi or the slogan "three years of aggression".

"This is legitimacy!" one protest leader bellowed.

Around 10,000 Yemenis have been killed and 53,000 wounded since the start of the coalition intervention, triggering what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The Iran-backed rebels remain in control of the capital, north Yemen and the country's largest port.

President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's forces have controlled southern Yemen since 2015, but cracks have surfaced this year between the president and his southern separatist allies.

Saudi forces announced Sunday night they had intercepted seven Yemeni rebel missiles, including over Riyadh.

One Egyptian was killed by falling shrapnel in the capital, authorities said.

"This aggressive and hostile action by the Iran-backed Huthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities," coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said.

The Huthi-run Al-Masirah television channel claimed the rebels had targeted Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport as well as other air strips in the south of the kingdom.

The Huthis in November targeted Riyadh airport in what Saudi authorities said was a foiled missile attack, triggering a total blockade on Yemen's ports and international airport.

The blockade was later eased under international pressure.

In a speech Sunday night, rebel chief Abdelmalik al-Huthi said his fighters were ready to make more "sacrifices" against the Saudi-led coalition.A Chinese military officer salutes near the remains of Chinese soldiers who fought during the Korean War

A Chinese officer saluted Monday as the remains of 20 former comrades were arrayed in a South Korean military facility ahead of their return home, decades after they died in the Korean War.

The brown-stained bones -- including some near-complete skulls -- were laid out on tables at the temporary ossuary in Incheon before being placed in identical boxes pending their repatriation Wednesday.

It will be the fifth annual return under a 2013 agreement which has so far seen 569 sets of remains sent back.

Communist Chinese forces played a crucial role in support of the North during the 1950-53 Korean War, but former South Korean president Park Geun-hye offered to return the bodies of Beijing's war dead as a goodwill gesture.

Mao Zedong sent millions of troops to intervene as US-led United Nations forces drove Kim Il Sung's army back towards the Chinese frontier in late 1950, saving the North from defeat in a decisive turning point in the war.

South Korean and UN forces were pushed back south, losing control of Seoul before recovering to recapture the capital and end up in a stalemate along what is now the Demilitarized Zone.

Casualty figures remain disputed but Western estimates commonly cite a figure of 400,000 Chinese deaths, while Chinese sources mention a death toll of about 180,000.

The repatriations take place ahead of China's annual Qingming -- tomb-sweeping -- festival, when many people visit and clean the graves of their ancestors.

The bodies being sent back Wednesday were exhumed last year from multiple sites in Gangwon province in South Korea's northeast, a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

Hundreds of North Korean soldiers remain interred at a special cemetery plot in Paju, just south of the heavily fortified border with North Korea, but Pyongyang has ignored Seoul's offers to return them despite sporadic talks on the issue.Niger troops have suffered a string of deadly Boko Haram attacks in the Diffa region, which lies on the border with Nigeria and Chad

At least five civilians were killed and several others wounded in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants in southeast Niger, near the border with Nigeria, according to local sources.

"The BH (Boko Haram) came to the market place early Friday evening, they shot the crowd and took food," said a resident of Toummour, in the southwest Diffa region, which was targeted by the attack.

A local official on Sunday confirmed the toll of "five dead, all civilians", adding that several were also wounded in the attack.

Diffa governor Mahamadou Laoualy Dan went to Toummour on Saturday to "offer his condolences" to relatives of the dead and "encourage" the army who "routed" the attackers, Niger television reported.

"We ask the people to hold on... 2018 will be a decisive year in the war against Boko Haram," he said in front of Toummour residents.

In January, seven Niger soldiers were killed and 17 wounded in an attack in Toummour, which is located in the east of Diffa close to the Lake Chad basin, a strategic area where the borders of four countries converge.

Diffa has suffered several Boko Haram attacks since the insurgency spilled over from Nigeria in 2015.

On June 3, 2016, the militants killed 26 soldiers and left an unknown number of civilian casualties in a massive attack in the town of Bosso, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Toummour.

Between 2015 and 2017, UN monitors recorded 582 civilian casualties in 244 raids blamed on Boko Haram in Diffa.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office on March 25, 2018

Investigators on Monday questioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over one of several graft cases that threaten to topple him, a police statement said.

Several Israeli media reports said the longtime premier was questioned at his official Jerusalem residence over a case of alleged corruption involving local telecoms giant Bezeq.

The reports said he could for the first time have faced questions over information provided by Nir Hefetz, a longtime Netanyahu aide who has turned state witness.

Netanyahu's wife Sara and son Yair were questioned separately at fraud squad headquarters near Tel Aviv, as was Shaul Elovitch, Bezeq's largest shareholder, media reported.

The police statement confirmed that the Netanyahus were interviewed by investigators from the national fraud squad and the Israel Securities Authority, without giving further details.

"The prime minister, his wife and son were questioned for a number of hours," it said.

"The investigation is being carried out with the supervision of the state attorney and with the approval of the attorney general."

This is the ninth time Netanyahu has been questioned in various cases directly or indirectly concerning him.

It was the first time Yair Netanyahu had been questioned, media reports said.

Netanyahu maintains he is innocent and has denounced allegations against him as a media and police witch hunt.

On February 13, police recommended he be indicted in two cases, though the attorney general has yet to decide whether to do so.

In the Bezeq case, Netanyahu is alleged to have sought favourable coverage from Elovitch's Walla news site in exchange for government policies that may have benefited the mogul's company by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Hefetz, a former spokesman for the Netanyahu family, agreed to turn state witness earlier this month, becoming the third former Netanyahu associate to cut such a deal in recent months.

Israeli media said he was believed to have been the intermediary between Netanyahu and Elovitch in the case.

Against the backdrop of the allegations, Netanyahu's government narrowly survived a crisis last month as rival parties in his coalition fought over conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews into the army.

Critics accused Netanyahu of seeking to bring down the government to prompt fresh elections, with opinion polls showing his party likely to remain the largest in new elections.

So far his coalition partners have stood by him despite the allegations and Netanyahu is not obliged to step down even if officially charged.

However Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon recently said if that were to occur he thinks the premier would have to resign or face being forced out by his coalition.South Korea is a vibrant democracy but its executive presidency is extremely powerful, giving rise to a winner-takes-all politics which critics say enables corruption while reducing representation for opposition voices

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday proposed weakening the powers of his office and lowering the voting age in a package of constitutional reforms, while allowing the head of state to be re-elected.

South Korea is a vibrant democracy but its executive presidency is extremely powerful, giving rise to a winner-takes-all politics which critics say enables corruption while reducing representation for opposition voices.

In last year's election Moon campaigned on a promise to reform the constitution for the first time in three decades.

The vote was a by-election to choose a successor to his ousted predecessor Park Geun-hye, toppled over a wide-ranging corruption scandal that exposed shady links between big business and politics.

Prosecutors are now seeking a 30 year jail sentence for her, and her own predecessor Lee Myung-bak was arrested last week in a separate inquiry.

Moon's plan has to be approved by parliament before being put to a referendum in June, and its centrepiece measure would see the country's single five-year presidency be reduced to a four year term, with one opportunity to stand for re-election.

South Korea brought in term limits after the assassination of the late dictator Park Chung-hee, Park Geun-hye's father, who ruled from 1961 to 1979 and revised the constitution to allow him to rule indefinitely.

He also made several constitutional changes to strengthen presidential authority -- many of which remained in place decades later.

Supporters say two four-year terms would encourage longer-range thinking in the presidential Blue House, while driving incumbents to the centre ground to preserve their chances of re-election.

The bill also includes lowering the voting age from 19 to 18 and giving parliament oversight of several decisions previously made by presidential decree.

The changes will only come into effect at the next election, and so will not apply to Moon personally.

Moon, a former human rights lawyer, has vowed to end what he described as an "imperial presidency" and said in a statement Monday: "I gain nothing from the constitutional change, which gives some of the presidential power to the people, the regional governments and the parliament."

Under the changes, the president will no longer be able to name the chief justice of the constitutional court, with the judges instead choosing among themselves.

Presidential pardons will have to be reviewed by a special committee, and the powerful Board of Audit and Inspection -- an internal state inspection agency currently overseen by the president's office -- will be given its independence.A Syrian man looks at destoyed buildings after air strikes on Douma, a town in the Eastern Ghouta rebel enclave near Damascus, on March 25, 2018

Talks over the fate of Douma, the final rebel-held zone in Syria's Eastern Ghouta, have stalled over divisions within the Islamist faction that holds the area, a monitor said Monday.

Battered by a five-week regime offensive, two major rebel factions have agreed in recent days to leave other pockets of Ghouta for opposition-held territory in the country's northwest after talks with Russia.

Negotiations are now underway with Islamist group Jaish al-Islam, which controls Ghouta's largest town, Douma.

Heavy fighting and strikes on the town have largely subsided, but talks have yet to bear fruit.

"Negotiations are ongoing, but they've been delayed by internal differences in the rebel group," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

"Jaish al-Islam's commanders are divided and some are opposed to a deal," he said.

The deaths of five Syrian soldiers shot by snipers late Saturday was linked to efforts by hardliners to "sabotage" any kind of reconciliation, he added.

A potential "reconciliation deal" would see Jaish al-Islam disarm but stay in Douma, according to the Britain-based monitor.

It would also provide for the deployment of Russian military police and the return of regime institutions and basic services like water and electricity.

The Syrian army, however, would not enter.

Rebels who refuse to lay down their arms would be bussed out, the Observatory said.

Russian officials and a local negotiating committee from Douma are expected to meet in the coming days, committee members told journalists.

"The ongoing negotiations with Russia are to stay in Douma, not to leave it," Jaish al-Islam spokesman Hamza Bayraqdar said late Sunday.

The Syrian government has used sieges and heavy bombardment followed by evacutation deals to recapture swathes of rebel-held territory.

The regime smashed the Ghouta enclave into three isolated pockets before it sought separate evacuation deals for each.

But with talks suspended, the fate of Douma residents remains uncertain.

More than a thousand people fled on Sunday to areas controlled by the regime, according to Syrian state media.

The exodus came after 15,000 people left the Douma pocket in the five previous days, according to the Observatory.

"I'm leaving because I'm sick, weak, because there are shortages and hunger," 53-year-old Fayez Ali Thaljah told AFP as he left.

Others categorically refuse to leave, even though they have no illusions about life under government control.

"I've spent my whole life here and lived the revolution. My father died here. How could I abandon his grave?" said 30-year-old Abu Ayman.

"But I could never live alongside regime forces."China has unveiled a list of $3 billion worth of US goods, including pork, fruits and wine, that could be targeted with tariffs in retaliation for steel and aluminium tariffs -- if negotiations fail

China on Monday lashed out at US "economic intimidation" following President Donald Trump's announcement of new import tariffs, but said it was open to negotiations to resolve trade frictions.

The two countries have traded threats and heated rhetoric in recent days, ratcheting up fears that the world's two biggest economies are heading towards a damaging trade war.

Trump said last Thursday that the United States would impose new tariffs on some $60 billion of Chinese imports over the "theft" of intellectual property, rattling global financial markets.

Vice President Mike Pence boasted that the measures mean that the "era of economic surrender is over".

Asked about the remarks, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a press briefing on Monday that "it would have been more appropriate to say that it's time to stop the US's economic intimidation and hegemony".

Beijing has not stood idle. On Friday, it unveiled a list of $3 billion worth of US goods, including pork, fruits and wine, that could be targeted with tariffs in retaliation for steel and aluminium tariffs -- if negotiations fail.

"We also have the confidence and the capacity to safeguard our legitimate and legal interests, whatever the circumstances," Hua said. "Now the ball is in the US court."

While the two sides have traded barbs in public, US and Chinese officials have begun behind-the-scenes negotiations to improve American access to the Asian country's huge market, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"We keep saying that the Chinese side is willing to negotiate with the US to properly manage divergences, on the basis of mutual respect and equal mutual benefits," Hua said when asked about the report.

"Our door is always wide open to dialogue and consultation."No caption

A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia on Monday threatened retaliation against arch-foe Iran, accusing the Shiite power of being behind a barrage of Yemeni rebel missile attacks on the kingdom.

Saudi forces said they intercepted seven missiles on Sunday, including over the capital Riyadh, in a deadly escalation that coincided with the third anniversary of the coalition's intervention in Yemen.

Displaying wreckage at a news conference in Riyadh of what it said were fragments of those ballistic missiles, the coalition claimed forensic analysis showed they were supplied to Huthi rebels by their ally Iran.

"The missiles launched against Saudi territory were smuggled from Iran," coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki told reporters.

We "reserve the right to respond against Iran at the right time and right place", he added.

The missile strikes resulted in the first reported fatality from Huthi fire in the Saudi capital.

Conflict in Yemen

Egyptian national Abdul-Moteleb Ahmed, 38, died instantly in his bed when what appeared to be burning shrapnel struck his ramshackle room in Riyadh's Um al-Hammam district, leaving a gaping hole in the roof, witnesses told by AFP at the site.

Three other Egyptian labourers in the same room were wounded and hospitalised, they said.

The Iran-aligned Huthis said on their Al-Masirah television that Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport was among the targets.

Malki alleged the rebels in Sanaa were using the airport there to launch missiles on Saudi territory, adding the coalition had seized a number of smuggled weapons.

Iran has repeatedly denied arming the Huthis in Yemen, despite claims by the United States and Saudi Arabia that the evidence of an arms connection is irrefutable.

- Show of strength -

A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen on March 26, 2015 to try to restore the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after the Shiite Huthis and their allies took over large parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

Hours after the missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, hundreds of thousands of Huthi rebel supporters flooded the streets of Yemen's capital Monday to mark three years of war.

A picture taken on March 26, 2018 in Riyadh shows a man looking at a hole caused by falling shrapnel from Yemeni rebel missiles intercepted over the Saudi capital

Sanaa's Sabaeen Square was a sea of Yemeni flags as rebel authorities ordered all schools and government offices shut for the anniversary.

Huthi supporters carried portraits of rebel chief Abdulmalik al-Huthi and speakers blasted out a fiery speech by Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah Shiite movement, praising the "steadfastness" of the Yemeni people.

War songs, poems and speeches condemning the United States, the main arms supplier for the Saudi-led coalition, echoed across the square.

"No one can speak on behalf of the Yemeni people. The people taking to the streets today are the real voice," Ibtisam al-Mutawakel, head of a Huthi cultural committee, told AFP.

About 10,000 Yemenis have been killed and 53,000 wounded since the start of the coalition intervention in Yemen, which triggered what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Despite the intervention the rebels remain in control of the capital, northern Yemen and the country's largest port.

- 'Possible war crime' -

Amnesty International, which has criticised both sides in the Yemen war for neglecting civilian safety, on Monday said the "indiscriminate" Huthi missile attack "could constitute a war crime".

Supporters of Yemen's Huthi rebels attend a rally to mark three years of war on the country, in the capital Sanaa on March 26, 2018

The rights group has also slammed the Saudi-led alliance for possible war crimes in Yemen.

Britain urged Iran to "stop sending in weapons which prolong the conflict", while Tehran accused London -- a key arms supplier for Saudi Arabia -- of hypocrisy.

Delivering a veiled swipe at Iran, France called the transfer of missile capabilities to non-state actors "irresponsible".

The US State Department said Washington would support the Saudis' "right to defend their borders against these threats".

Rebel leaders have sought to highlight the role of the United States in the Saudi-led intervention.

At Monday's rally, Saleh al-Sammad, head of the rebels' Supreme Political Council, said the rebels were "ready to reach an understanding" to end the intervention and the coalition's blockade of Yemen.

"It is the Americans who are directing this aggression and participating directly on a number of fronts," Sammad told the rally.

Performers dance during a rally to mark three years of war in Yemen, in the capital Sanaa on March 26, 2018

The Hadi government said Monday that the overnight attacks on Saudi Arabia amounted to "an open rejection of peace".

The US Senate last week rejected a bipartisan bid to end American involvement in Yemen's war, voting down a rare effort to overrule presidential military authorisation.

The US has provided weapons, intelligence and aerial refuelling to the Saudi-led coalition.

Washington formally approved defence contracts worth more than $1 billion with Riyadh last Thursday during a high-profile visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

burs-ac/bpEastern Ghouta has been turned to rubble by years of siege

The image of a small, limbless girl lying in a hospital in Ghouta is burned into the memory of Mohammad Fadhl Akram, one of the first people to flee a rebel Syrian city under bombardment from government forces.

Years of siege left the enclave a desperate place, where hungry people depended on the kindness of neighbours for food; where disease lurked in the faltering water supply and where death fell from the sky in a hail of rockets.

"We did not know who was killing us and who wasn't," says Akram, now in Pakistan. "The one thing we knew was that they were destroying our city."

Initially the violence that has engulfed their adopted country since 2011 did not worry Akram, a Pakistani who arrived in Syria in 1974 and took two wives -- a woman from Ghouta, Rabah Jarrad, and Saghran Bibi, a Pakistani cousin.

Then foreign militants came. Two of his sons enlisted in an armed group, while a third was caught up in street violence in 2013.

Mohammad Fadhl Akram's first wife, Rabah Jarrad, died after their son was killed in street violence in Eastern Ghouta in 2013

Akram remembers darkness thickening as the family waited for their son to return home.

When he did, he lay lifeless in the back of an ambulance.

The boy's mother "could not stand it, she had a heart attack" and died, he says, clutching Rabah's blue passport.

- Prisoners -

In 2015 Akram and his family tried to flee. "The armed groups shot at us first, then the government forces, we could not get out."

Prisoners of the enclave, they found themselves witnessing the progressive annihilation of its population.

Corpses became commonplace as rockets rained down; images of human beings strewn among rubble are seared into his mind.

Despite a fierce bombardment from government forces, people still scrape an existence in Ghouta

People with horrific injuries were everywhere.

The sight of a girl "without arms and legs" particularly haunts Akram. "I pray to Allah that he should not show these scenes to any man," he said.

Increasing deprivation eroded neighbourhood solidarity. They scavenged in garbage for fuel, washed clothes in ash, and as water ran short did not shower for months.

"There was no salt, no sugar, no tea, nothing... We ate leaves," said Akram.

A livid scar on Akram's abdomen, which he pulls his white shalwar kameez up to reveal, bears witness to an appendectomy performed without anaesthestic in a clinic that lacked both drugs and doctors.

- Barrage -

On February 18 this year, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's forces turned their full fury on this hold-out enclave on the edge of Damascus.

More than 1,600 civilians have died since, and 107,000 people have fled, with many using "corridors" opened up by Syrian army troops advancing into rebel territory.

Eastern Ghouta

For Akram and Bibi, evacuated in a "humanitarian pause" announced by Russia earlier this month, the increasing desperation of the five-year siege -- and the children and grandchildren they were forced to leave behind -- will forever haunt them.

The terrifying final month of government bombardment at first brought Bibi a kind of acceptance of the inevitability of death, and she felt stronger.

But her husband began to deteriorate. "He... stopped eating, and even drinking water."

By chance they met a journalist, who warned the Pakistani embassy in Damascus of their plight. On March 1, Akram and Bibi were the first residents of Ghouta to be evacuated.

Syrian regime forces sit by a marble mosaic monument depicting a picture of late President Hafez al-Assad, at the entrance of Harasta in Eastern Ghouta

Bibi described their fearful journey out, passing through four checkpoints as planes roared overhead, dropping their bombs on the home they had left behind. "I thought we would not get out alive," she said. "It is too hard."

She was so weak that by the third checkpoint she could no longer stand, and had to be given oxygen in an ambulance. "It was so terrifying, we were hungry and thirsty, we had no strength. I could not walk... we had no hope in ourselves."

More than 1,600 civilians have died since an intense bombardment of Eastern Ghouta began in February, and 107,000 people have fled, with many using "corridors" opened up by Syrian army troops advancing into rebel territory

At the embassy, horrified officials tried to feed them, cooking Pakistani staples to strengthen their malnourished bodies. At first unable to eat, their strength slowly began to return.

But the grief was setting in. "I was so sad," Akram sobs. "I left behind 40 years of work, my house, my grandchildren running between my legs."

Bibi described a toddler at the embassy kissing her as her granddaughter had once done. It felt like a heart attack, she said. "I could not feel where I was."

- Silence -

Weeks later and thousands of kilometres (miles) away in Pakistan, the couple have not yet adjusted. Motorbikes sound like planes, slamming doors like bombs.

Bibi, still weak, closes her eyes, her face tense as her husband recounts their experiences.

Syria's civil war

"They are destroyed from within," sighs their nephew Mohammad Irfan, who has taken them in.

The decision to leave their family was agonising, and made only after the children begged them to go. "They said, 'For God's sake, you leave. We will come later,'" Bibi said.

Three days before he spoke to AFP, Akram was able to call one of his sons in Syria.

"His son told him: 'We are in the worst of situations, and soon we will not be able to talk to you anymore,'" Irfan said.

Since then, there has been silence from Syria.Evacuating Syrians look through the windshield of a bus after arriving to a government-held area at the entrance of Harasta on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, on March 25, 2018

More than 3,500 Syrian rebels and civilians prepared to leave Eastern Ghouta on Monday after the largest exodus yet from the opposition enclave, as talks stalled over the final pocket of resistance.

Five weeks since government troops launched a ferocious offensive on Ghouta, they hold more than 90 percent of the long-besieged opposition stronghold on the doorstep of Damascus.

The area has been ravaged by heavy bombardment and emptied by an exodus of tens of thousands of residents and negotiated withdrawals of rebels.

A convoy of more than 5,400 fighters and civilians left a pocket of territory held by Islamist rebel group Faylaq al-Rahman late Sunday and reached northwest Syria the following day.

It was the single largest one-day evacuation yet from Eastern Ghouta, after nearly 1,000 people were bussed out from the same area on Saturday.

Syria's ally Russia has been deeply involved in the process, negotiating with rebels and placing masked military escorts aboard buses leaving Ghouta.

More evacuations were expected from the towns of Arbin and Zamalka and the neighbouring district of Jobar, according to Faylaq al-Rahman spokesman Wael Alwan.

A Syrian child stands next to luggage as civilians wait to leave the town of Arbin in the Eastern Ghouta region near Damascus on March 25, 2018

"We don't have clear numbers, but we're expecting 7,000 fighters to leave, as well as their families and some civilians," Alwan told AFP.

"This could bring the total number to around 30,000," he said, in a marked increase from state media's reports that 7,000 in total would be evacuated.

- Mass exodus -

On Monday, more than 3,600 people, including hundreds of rebels, piled into more than 50 buses to leave the Faylaq-held pocket, state television said.

The departures are part of a deal reached last week that resembles others used by the government to recapture territory throughout Syria's seven-year war.

Eastern Ghouta lies within mortar range of Damascus, and rebels there had threatened to seize the capital from President Bashar al-Assad.

The regime responded with a crippling half-decade siege on the suburb's 400,000 residents, sealing off access to food, medicine and other goods.

On February 18, the regime, its ally Russia and loyalist militia launched an all-out assault, using air strikes and a sweeping ground assault to corner rebels in three isolated pockets.

More than 1,600 civilians have been killed in the operation, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.

To help the regime capture the rest, Moscow began talks with the rebels in each area.

The first agreement, with hardline Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, saw more than 4,500 people including rebels leave the town of Harasta last week.

A Syrian soldier takes photos in the town of Harasta in Eastern Ghouta on March 26, 2018, after government forces entered the town and struck an evacuation deal with rebels

According to state media, the deal with Faylaq al-Rahman on Friday has so far seen some 10,000 people leave the pocket it controls, putting Assad within reach of securing the second-last part of the former rebel stronghold.

The convoy of 81 buses that left late Sunday began arriving at a staging ground on the edge of opposition territory in northwest Syria on Monday afternoon.

Dozens of people had been waiting since early morning for the arrival of relatives and friends who were bussed out of Ghouta.

"I'm waiting for my wife's parents who were besieged. We've missed them so much," said Abu Laith, who himself was evacuated 10 months ago from another Damascus district.

As the buses pulled in, long-lost relatives broke into tears and hugged each other emotionally.

A third set of talks over the final pocket -- controlled by Jaish al-Islam and including the largest town in the area, Douma -- may not end in evacuation.

"The ongoing negotiations with Russia are to stay in Douma, not to leave it," said Jaish al-Islam spokesman Hamza Bayraqdar, without providing further details.

- Dilemmas in Douma -

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the deal could see Jaish al-Islam lay down heavy weapons in exchange for government-provided water and electricity returning to the town.

Russian military police, but not Syria's army, would deploy there.

Syrian civilians wait to leave the town of Arbin in the Eastern Ghouta on March 25, 2018 after an evacuation deal following heavy bombardment

But divisions within opposition ranks were holding up the talks, Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"Jaish al-Islam's commanders are divided and some are opposed to a deal," he said.

Syria's pro-government Al-Watan daily reported similar terms and said the parties had three days to study the offer.

It said a "preliminary understanding" had been reached that would see the "dissolution of Jaish al-Islam, the handover of its heavy weapons and the return of state institutions to the city."

In Douma, residents were torn.

"I've spent my whole life here and lived the revolution. My father died here. How could I abandon his grave?" said Abu Ayman, 30.

"But I could never live alongside regime forces," he added.

Some had already fled into government-held zones, using a corridor opened by regime troops.

About 16,000 people have fled Douma using the route in recent days. Some 200,000 people, including many who fled other parts of Ghouta, are estimated to remain in the town.Part of a crumbling heritage: old buildings on the waterfront in the southern Iraqi city of Basra

As a child, Adnan Khalaf used to marvel at the Iraqi city of Basra's "shanasheel", finely crafted bay windows complete with intricate wooden latticework and ornate stained glass.

Today, the Iraqi retiree can only watch as the hallmarks of his hometown -- "the city of shanasheel" -- crumble out of neglect.

Authorities in Basra, the capital of Iraq's richest oil province, are struggling to provide the bare minimum of services to its inhabitants, as nepotism and corruption divert lucrative revenues from the black gold.

But the southern port city's "golden age" was not all that long ago. At 71, Khalaf remembers it well.

He can still name the city's wealthy old families -- Jewish, Christian and Muslim -- who lived behind elaborate shanasheel in traditional homes along canals of Basra's Old City.

"But the city has been neglected, rubbish has been dumped into its waters," said Khalaf. "No one cares about it anymore."

The latticework windows -- also known as mashrabiya -- date back to the 16th and 17th centuries, according to Abdelhaq al-Moudhaffar, head of the city's Palace of Culture and Arts.

They spread to other cities in Iraq, including Baghdad, and across the Levant and to Egypt.

- 'Dismantling' heritage -

When lights are turned on at night inside the traditional homes, inspired by a mix of Indian, Persian and Islamic influences, a patchwork of orange, green, red and blue light is cast from the stained glass windows onto the streets below.

All the houses in the Old City, built by the commercial bourgeoisie and local aristocracy, were once adorned with shanasheel.

The wooden beams, coated with a natural wax to resist water and fire, made for strong homes.

Whenever King Faisal II, the last monarch of Iraq, visited Basra, he would stay with the governor on the river running through the city, now just a trickle of water where waste floats.

Heritage of port city of Basra in southern Iraq: "shanasheel", finely crafted bay windows complete with intricate wooden latticework and ornate stained glass

But with the fall of the monarchy, Saddam Hussein's rise to power and Iraq's multiple wars, the situation in Basra has slowly but surely deteriorated.

The 2003 US-led invasion was the coup de grace.

"The original inhabitants have gone, others have arrived. I've seen some dismantle the pieces of wood from their houses to sell them," said Khalaf.

The newcomers have "changed the buildings, demolished them and rebuilt them with breeze blocks", said heritage specialist Hashem al-Azzam.

"If there had been a mechanism for the renovations and financing, the shanasheel would still be in good condition," he said.

Of all Basra's traditional buildings and shanasheel -- which allow inhabitants to see outside without being seen -- "today about 400 are left more or less intact", according to Qahtan al-Obeid, head of archaeology and heritage in Basra province.

Where there once stood a Jewish library, a women's steam room and the home of a Kuwaiti sheikh, locals say, all that remains are crumbling walls, wooden beams eaten away by termites and dangerously leaning shanasheel.

Obeid said that decision-makers at the local and national levels were failing to prioritise "heritage preservation" in their budgets.

- No budget for heritage -

Like elsewhere in Iraq, power cuts in Basra are chronic.

The Old City's walls, where engraved inscriptions still remain, are now covered by webs of electrical wires connected to generators at every corner.

Air conditioners have been installed in holes dug into the weather-worn stone facades.

Endangered old buildings of Basra in southern Iraq

Some buildings, however, have been restored and now house a handful of cultural institutions, such as the union of visual artists, or centres dedicated to heritage.

In another rare success story, the home of Basra's most famous poet, Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, has also been saved with funding from local authorities.

With the ravages of time, the house had turned into a ruin piled up with rubbish. "Today, all the architecture and wooden ornaments have been redone to the original design," said Obeid.

He said the province's antiquities department had been "there to oversee and provide technical support, but not to fund the renovation because it doesn't have the funds".Lim Guan Eng, who has been chief minister of Malaysia'a Penang state since 2008 and has led the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) since 2004, denies two counts of abuse of office

A leading Malaysian opposition politician and vocal critic of Prime Minister Najib Razak went on trial for corruption Monday as elections loom, in a case critics say is politically motivated.

Lim Guan Eng, who has repeatedly demanded that Najib explain a massive financial scandal that has engulfed his administration, appeared in the High Court in the northern state of Penang.

Supporters gathered outside the court, shouting "Support Guan Eng" and "Arrest Najib", as Lim denied two counts of abuse of office at the start of the trial.

Lim, who has been chief minister of Penang state since 2008 and has led the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) since 2004, faces one charge relating to the purchase of a house, allegedly below market price.

The second relates to the improper change of use of public land to allow development. He faces up to 20 years in jail if found guilty.

At Monday's hearing the prosecution called several witnesses. The first was blogger Muhsin Latheef, who lodged reports with anti-corruption authorities and the police about the house purchase that triggered the probe into Lim.

Under cross-examination by Lim's lawyer Gobind Singh Deo, Muhsin said he did not know what the appropriate price for the property was but denied that he made inaccurate statements in his report to the police.

Also standing trial was businesswoman Phang Li Koon, who is accused of abetting Lim in the purchase of the bungalow. She denies the charge.

Najib faces allegations that billions of dollars were plundered from a state-owned investment fund, 1MDB, he founded. Najib and 1MDB deny any wrongdoing.

Lim's DAP is a member of four-party opposition coalition, the Pact of Hope. Their candidate for the forthcoming polls is veteran ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad, 92, who has come out of retirement to take on former protege Najib.

The general election must be called by August but is widely expected sooner.Abu Dhabi National Oil Company said Monday it has awarded two contracts worth $3.5 billion to South Korea's Samsung Engineering to boost output at the largest refinery in the United Arab Emirates.

ADNOC's announcement came as South Korea's President Moon Jae-in was visiting the oil-rich Gulf state.

The main contract, worth $3.1 billion, is for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project at Ruwais refinery, the UAE's largest with a capacity of over 800,000 barrels per day.

Slated for completion in 2022, the project will handle oil from the Upper Zakum field, freeing up more expensive Murban crude for export, the state-owned ADNOC said in a statement.

It will also raise production capacity by part of the refinery, Ruwais West.

The second contract worth $473 million is to build a new waste heat recovery facility to reduce the environmental impact of the refinery and generate electricity, ADNOC said.

Several other South Korean companies are engaged in major energy projects in the UAE, including the construction of a $20-billion nuclear plant due to open later this year.A handout photo released by the ENEC on June 1, 2017 shows part of the Barakah nuclear power plant under construction near al-Hamra west of Abu Dhabi in May 2017

The United Arab Emirates said Monday that one of four nuclear reactors at its debut plant has been completed as it moves closer to becoming the first Arab nation to produce atomic power.

The announcement came after visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed toured the $20-billion Barakah plant, the state-run WAM news agency reported.

The plant west of Abu Dhabi is being constructed by a consortium led by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).

Sheikh Mohammed described the achievement as "historical" for the energy sector of UAE, which is rich in oil and gas but is looking to increase other sources of power.

The UAE previously announced the first reactor would start operations in 2017 before delaying the start date.

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, which is overseeing the nuclear programme, is awaiting the approvals from the regulatory authority to start operating.

Nuclear and renewables, which currently make up a small portion of the federation's energy sources, are slated to contribute around 27 percent to UAE electricity needs by 2021.

The second reactor is 92 percent complete, the third 81 percent while 66 percent of the fourth has been completed, WAM reported.

When fully operational, the four reactors will produce 5,600 megawatts of electricity, or around 25 percent of the country's needs, according to the UAE energy ministry.

UAE says it aims to continue diversifying toward its goal of 50-percent clean energy by 2050.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude oil exporter, also has accelerated plans to acquire nuclear energy and is expected to prequalify several international companies next month to bid for building two nuclear reactors.US President Donald Trump orders the expulsion of 60 alleged Russian spies

US President Donald Trump has ordered the expulsion of 60 alleged Russian spies from the United States in response to a nerve agent attack on an ex-spy in the English city of Salisbury.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the move, part of globally coordinated retaliation against Moscow, was taken "in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom."

Officials said that 48 "known intelligence officers" posted to the United States and 12 more at the Russian mission to the United Nations now have seven days to leave the country.

Trump has also ordered the closure of the consulate in Seattle, which officials said was the focus of spying efforts against the nearby Kitsap submarine base and Boeing.

One senior administration official said that there were still more that 40 known Russian intelligence officers operating in the United States, but Moscow's "collection capabilities" would be "significantly" affected by the move.

On March 4, former spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious, slumped on a bench outside a shopping center in Salisbury.

After initial mixed messages about who was to blame, Washington now agrees with Britain's assessment Russia was behind the attack.

The message, a second senior administration said, is "when you attack our friends you will face consequences."Egyptians dance and celebrate with an electoral poster of incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi outside a polling station in central Cairo

Hundreds of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's supporters revelled outside polling stations in Cairo on Monday as voting got underway to celebrate what they expect will be his certain re-election.

In the southwestern neighbourhood of Al-Haram, close to the ancient Giza pyramids, women danced and a man beat a large drum, while those gathered around them waved the Egyptian flag and sang in unison.

Nearby, trucks carrying large speakers blasted nationalistic and pro-military pop songs, encouraging people to take part in the vote.

"In spite of America, long live Egypt. Long live Egypt with its great military," chanted a woman dressed in a black gown and a bandana in the colours of the Egyptian flag, and with a flag wrapped around her shoulders.

Scores of employees, mainly assembly line workers, at a government pharmaceutical company across the street arrived together, not to vote, as they were not registered at this station, but to cheer for Sisi, the military, and the police.

Sisi was elected a year after leading the 2013 military ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, amid mass protests against his rule.

"We got together with the officials from the (company's) union and they told us all to come to this school... The whole company is united... we all love Sisi," said Sahar Nasr, 41.

Mother-of-six Nasr said: "We came here to salute Sisi and each of us will go to their (polling) station and then go back to work".

Sisi is facing a single opponent, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, a little-known politician and head of the liberal Al-Ghad party who himself is a supporter of the incumbent.

All other presidential hopefuls were arrested or withdrew.

An Egyptian voter searches for his name on the voting records upon arriving at a polling station to cast his vote on the first day of the 2018 presidential elections, in Al-Haram neighbourhood of Cairo

The opposition has called on people for weeks to boycott the vote, calling it a "charade".

-'Duty to vote'-

A few motorists passing by hurled insults at the pro-Sisi crowds, accusing them of being "liars" before quickly driving away.

With Sisi's win a certainty and without a serious contender, the only barometer that concerns Sisi is the turnout.

In the past few weeks, and increasingly in recent days, Sisi, his government, and pro-state media have called on people to go and vote, saying that by doing so, they were standing up to terrorism.

In Al-Haram, police barricaded the street where the polling station is set up, two days after a car bomb killed two policemen in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

Egyptians celebrate outside a polling station in Cairo's Al-Haram neighbourhood as the first day of voting in a presidential election got underway on March 26, 2018

The Islamic State group's affiliate in Egypt, based in North Sinai, has vowed to disrupt the elections.

Since polling stations opened at 9:00 am (0700 GMT), both candidates have voted, Sisi in the eastern district of Heliopolis, according to state TV, and Moussa at a station in downtown Cairo.

In front of Sisi's polling station, guarded by the military, ordinary citizens also came to vote to the tune of a new song by Egyptian pop star Hakim, calling on people to participate.

"Since the revolution (2011), I have considered it as my duty to vote," said Basma Sherif, a physical education professor.

The January 2011 uprising, which toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, left Egyptians to endure years of political, security, and economic turmoil, as well as successive presidents and ruling councils.

Since Sisi's election in 2014, conditions have calmed, although the opposition says it has been effectively silenced, while domestic and international rights groups say abuses are on the rise.

In the middle of Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the 2011 uprising, a large truck played loud patriotic songs as dozens of young men and women waved the Egyptian flag and danced.

Excerpts of Sisi's speech, often spoken in a nationalistic tone, played in sequence on a large screen, installed a few days earlier in the place were, seven years ago, Egyptians celebrated Mubarak's fall.US President Donald Trump (L) joins Britain's allies in a mass expulsion of suspected Russian spies, less than a week after congratulating Russian President Vladimir Putin on his election win

The United States and Britain's allies around the world have expelled scores of suspected Russian spies in an unprecedented response to a nerve agent attack.

At least 116 alleged agents working under diplomatic cover were ordered out by 22 governments, dwarfing similar measures in even the most notorious Cold War spying disputes, and marking a British diplomatic victory.

Washington led the way, ordering out 60 Russians, in a new blow to US-Russia ties less than a week after President Donald Trump congratulated his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on his re-election.

Canada, Ukraine, Albania, Australia, and most European Union states matched the move with smaller-scale expulsions, after Britain urged allies to respond to the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal.

Russia has denied it was behind the attempted assassination, which left Skripal and his daughter gravely ill in perhaps the first nerve agent attack in Europe since World War II.

It warned that there would be a tit-for-tat response to those countries "pandering to British authorities" without, Moscow claims, fully understanding what had happened.

But Western officials made it clear in announcing the expulsions that they share Britain's assessment that only the Kremlin could have been behind the March 4 incident in Salisbury, England.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Washington and its allies were acting "in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom."

The strong language contrasted with Trump's warm words of last week, when he overrode his advisors' concerns and congratulated Putin on his election win.

- Consulate closed -

US officials said that 48 "intelligence officers" attached to Russian diplomatic missions in the US would be expelled, along with 12 accredited to the United Nations in New York.

The Russians have been given until April 2 to leave US territory and close the consulate -- although the consul's residence will be left open until April 25.

A New York police department van drives past the building that houses the Russian mission to the United Nations

"Once that deadline has passed the properties will no longer enjoy diplomatic status or protections," a State Department official told AFP.

Trump's ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, welcomed the move while condemning the alleged Russian attack, as did the US ambassador to Moscow Jon Huntsman.

But Trump himself, who usually likes to tweet or hold a press event for major announcements, was silent.

In addition, the Russian consulate general in Seattle will be closed, the White House said.

This represents the largest US expulsion of Russian or Soviet agents ever and comes after Trump's predecessor Barack Obama expelled 35 in late 2016 over alleged election meddling.

Russia's foreign ministry warned that the "unfriendly step by this group of countries will not pass without trace and we will respond to it."

The Russian embassy in Washington asked its Twitter followers to vote on which US consulate should be closed, listing those in Vladivostok, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg as options.

Russia's ambassador to the United States told state-run Sputnik News the move was "a serious blow to the quantitative and qualitative composition of the Russian embassy in Washington, DC."

It was not immediately clear how many Russians are assigned to its various US missions, but in 2016 Putin ordered the United States to reduce its Moscow personnel to 455 to achieve parity.

Canada confirmed it was expelling four Russians, Ukraine 13, Albania two, Norway two and Macedonia two. At least 16 EU member states are kicking out agents.

Australia expelled two Russian diplomats Tuesday in response to the "shocking" Skripal attack, which Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said was part of "a pattern of reckless and deliberate conduct by the Russian state that constitutes a growing threat to international security".

Iceland said Monday that it would send no government officials to Russia to accompany its team to the football World Cup this summer.

The sign for the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC

Britain welcomed its allies' decision as a diplomatic and moral victory, after concerns that some would prefer not to offend Moscow despite international horror over the attack.

"I have found great solidarity from our friends and partners in the EU, NATO, America and beyond," Prime Minister Theresa May told parliament.

More than three weeks after the attack, which Britain says was carried out by a nerve agent exclusively developed by Russia, the Skripals are still in a coma in hospital.

A British policeman who was exposed to the nerve agent when he responded to the attack on the former Russian officer has now been released from treatment.

A British judge ruled last week that blood samples from former Russian spy Skripal and his daughter Yulia could be taken for testing by the world chemical weapons body (OPCW).No caption

Mayss Ahmad scans busloads of evacuees exiting a bombed-out town near Damascus, determined to see her long-lost father and brother again after they spent years in rebel captivity.

She has spent sleepless nights waiting by the roadside near Harasta, after hearing rebels were releasing detainees as part of a deal with the regime to evacuate the battered town.

"I'm scared they'll come out at nighttime and won't find me. I'm staying here until they're freed," she says.

Ahmad travelled all the way from the coastal city of Tartus in the hope of seeing her father and brother, after they were detained by rebels more than four years ago.

Last month, Russia-backed regime forces launched a blistering assault on Harasta and the wider area of Eastern Ghouta, retaking large parts of it and forcing rebels into evacuation deals.

In Harasta, a Russia-brokered evacuation agreement mandated rebels release people they were detaining, and provided for hundreds of opposition fighters and members of their families to be bused out of the devastated town.

Ahmad last heard her brother and father were in good health around a month ago, but since she has had no news.

"My only hope now is God," says the young woman in her 20s, breaking down in tears.

For three days, she has been sleeping on the grass outside Harasta, living off food and drink that soldiers stationed in the area have shared with her from their rations.

Ahmad says opposition fighters abducted her, her father and brother after they overran the Ghouta area of Adra in December 2013, but she alone was released.

Syrian men evacuated from Eastern Ghouta wait on a bus at the entrance of Harasta on the outskirts of Damascus

"My eyes have melted away from all the crying. My mother's heart is broken from waiting," she says.

Tens of thousands of Syrians have been reported missing in Syria since its civil war broke out in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

- 'What's the point?' -

Both regime forces and opposition factions have been criticised by rights groups for indiscriminate attacks on civilians during the conflict.

As part of the evacuation deals reached for Ghouta, rebels have released just 21 people, including civilians and soldiers, in recent days.

Outside Harasta, Sabah Salloum has also been waiting nervously with her husband and daughter for the release of her son, Ahd, also kidnapped in Adra.

The 63-year-old, who wears a long black robe, has sworn not to wear any colours until she is reunited with him.

Suddenly, her daughter runs over to hand her a mobile phone.

Syrian man looks at a bus as civilians and rebel fighters evacuated from Eastern Ghouta arrive in the government-held area of Harasta on March 26, 2018

"Ahd spoke, Ahd spoke," Salloum cries, after hearing her son's voice for the first time in more than four years, her loosely tied white headscarf slipping from her greying hair in the excitement.

"Not once did I lose hope of seeing him get out," she says.

In November 2015, a Britain-based war monitor reported rebels in Eastern Ghouta were using dozens of captives taken hostage in Adra as "human shields".

They put regime soldiers and civilians they were holding captive in metal cages, then placed them in public squares to prevent regime bombardment, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Nearby, Aqeel Maeeta, 49, waits for his nephew, a soldier in the Syrian army, after he was taken prisoner by opposition fighters on the front line in the Damascus neighbourhood of Jobar.

A year ago, Maeeta and his family managed to get in touch with the soldier's captors.

"They asked for $5,000, ammunition and medicine," he says.

Maeeta slaps his thigh in frustration as he sees buses pull away into the distance carrying rebels and their families.

"What's the point of these deals, if my detained nephew's fate remains unknown but the kidnappers walk free?"The North Korean flag flies above Pyongyang's embassy in Beijing

Japanese media reported on Monday that a train possibly carrying a high-level official from North Korea has arrived in Beijing, sparking speculation that the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, may have been aboard.

The Kyodo news agency, citing unidentified sources close to the matter, said the visit -- if confirmed that it was a North Korean official -- would likely be to improve ties between North Korea and China.

Kim has not conducted an official trip abroad since taking power in 2011 and relations between China and North Korea are frosty as Beijing has backed UN sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile tests.

China is North Korea's only diplomatic ally and its most important trade partner, but Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping have never met.

Kim, however, is expected to hold historic summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April and US President Donald Trump in May. Talks between North and South Korean officials to plan the rare inter-Korean summit are expected to take place on Thursday.

Chinese state media did not report the train's arrival in Beijing, or any North Korean visit to Beijing. There was also no mention of a visit on North Korean state media either.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman earlier told a regular press briefing that she was unaware of reports that North Korean officials were spotted at a train station in the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong, which borders North Korea, at the weekend.

Japanese broadcaster NNN showed images of a green train with yellow stripes arriving in China. Kim's father, the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, used a similar-looking train to travel abroad.

There was nothing out of the ordinary at the Beijing railway station when an AFP reporter visited it on Monday evening.

But the manager of a store at the plaza outside the station said there had been "unusual" activity in the afternoon.

"There were a lot of police officers outside and along the road in front of the station. The station was blocked inside," the man said.

Other shopkeepers declined to comment, saying they were not allowed to give interviews.

Train delays had fuelled speculation that a special train had arrived in Beijing.

The delays were posted on one of the railway network's accounts on Twitter-like Weibo, prompting users to post comments speculating about Kim's presence, which were later censored.

The North Korean embassy did not appear to have extra security. A police car stood idle outside one of the side entrances. The compound was quiet except for birds chirping.Jacob Zuma is accused of taking kickbacks before he became president in 2009 from the $5 billion purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and military equipment manufactured by five European firms

Former South African president Jacob Zuma is set to appear in court on April 6 to face corruption charges, police said Monday.

Zuma is accused of taking kickbacks before he became president in 2009 from the $5 billion purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and military equipment manufactured by five European firms.

He resigned on February 14 when the ruling African National Congress party turned against him after a nine-year reign scarred by corruption allegations, an economic slowdown and diminished popularity.

"We can confirm that the summons has been served to the former president," Hangwani Mulaudzi, spokesman for the Hawks police investigation unit, told AFP.

"The case is going to be heard on April 6 at the Durban High Court. It is the formal charging."

Mulaudzi confirmed that the former president would have to be in court for the hearing.

Local media said Zuma's lawyers will try to halt the case by appealing against the reinstatement of the charges, which date back to the 1990s.

Prosecutors dropped the charges in 2009 just months before Zuma became president. They said that tapped phone calls between officials in then-president Thabo Mbeki's administration showed undue official interference in the case.Zuma is accused of taking kickbacks before he became president from the purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and military equipment manufactured by five European firms

Former South African president Jacob Zuma is set to appear in court on April 6 to face corruption charges, police said Monday, in a case that could see him jailed.

Zuma is accused of taking kickbacks before he became president from the $5 billion (4.0 billion euro) purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and military equipment manufactured by five European firms.

He resigned as president on February 14 after the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party turned against him following a nine-year reign marred by corruption allegations, an economic slowdown and diminished popularity.

"We can confirm that the summons has been served to the former president," Hangwani Mulaudzi, spokesman for the Hawks police investigation unit, told AFP.

"The case is going to be heard on April 6 at the Durban High Court. It is the formal charging."

Mulaudzi added that the former president would have to be present in court for the hearing.

Local media said Zuma's lawyers would appeal against the reinstatement of the charges, which date back to the 1990s.

Prosecutors dropped the charges in 2009, just months before Zuma became president.

They said that tapped phone calls between officials in then-president Thabo Mbeki's administration showed undue official interference in the case.

French firm Thales was also issued with a summons on Monday over the allegations and is due in court on the same day.

Zuma, 75, denies any wrongdoing, while Thales has declined to comment.

Zuma will face one count of racketeering, two counts of corruption, one count of money laundering and 12 counts of fraud -- all of which are punishable by lengthy custodial sentences.

- From high office to high court -

The charges relate to arms procurement deals struck by the government in the late 1990s and from which Zuma is accused of profiting corruptly to the tune of four million rand ($345,000, 280,000 euros).

In 2005, Zuma's former financial adviser Schabir Shaik was convicted for facilitating bribes over the contracts and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was later released on medical parole.

Zuma was deputy president from 1999 to 2005, when he was sacked by Mbeki.

The previously loyal ANC last weekend distanced itself from its former leader, saying that it was determined "to put the sad chapter of systemic corruption" behind the party.

Once in office, many of the graft allegations against Zuma centred on the Gupta business family, who are accused of unfairly obtaining lucrative government contracts and even influencing Zuma's ministerial appointments.

Zuma's successor Cyril Ramaphosa, a multi-millionaire former trade union leader, has admitted graft was a major problem in the previous government and vowed a clean-up.

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.

Zuma's hold over the ANC was shaken in December when his preferred successor -- his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma -- narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in a vote for the new party leader.Swedish-Chilean Zaida Catalan, pictured in 2009, was with American Michael Sharp investigating reports of mass graves in the Kasai region when they were murdered

The head of a local militia group and a policeman have been arrested over the shock killing of two UN experts in DR Congo a year ago, officials said on Monday.

The two were arrested by troops on Saturday in the village of Bukundo, where the pair were found murdered, the deputy governor of Central Kasai province, Manix Kabuanga, told AFP.

The militia chief was named as Vincent Manga, while the policeman was not identified.

The two "are currently in the hands of the military judiciary," a source at the military prosecutor's office in Kananga, the provincial capital, said.

The two experts, Swedish-Chilean Zaida Catalan and American Michael Sharp, were investigating reports of mass graves in the Kasai region, where fierce fighting had erupted the previous year.

They reportedly left the city of Kananga on March 12 and their bodies were found 15 days later. Catalan had been decapitated.

Their deaths sent shockwaves through political and diplomatic circles in Kinshasa -- especially so among humanitarian workers grappling with the country's entrenched violence and escalating humanitarian crisis.

The authorities initially blamed the murder on "terrorists" of Kamwina Nsapu -- the followers of a local traditional leader whose killing by government soldiers unleashed a revolt.

The violence has cost several thousand lives and forced around 1.4 million people from their homes.

Rights activists say government troops or militias supported by the authorities have been involved in many acts of brutality.

A trial of the suspected killers got underway at a military court but has been suspended since October 22, amid allegations that Manga's group had intercepted the UN convoy and led it into the bush to carry out the murders.

On December 20, an investigation by Radio France Internationale (RFI) and Reuters implicated three state agents in the "organisation" of the attack.

A senior army official, asked by AFP to react to the latest developments, said the arrests marked "a significant advance" in the probe.Planes are seen under construction at a Boeing assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina -- which President Donald Trump visited a year ago to cries of "God Bless Boeing"

The sparkling new Boeing 787s bound for China Southern Airlines and Air China are waiting to be delivered, but the prospect of a trade war could make for a less rosy future.

At this Boeing manufacturing plant in Charleston, South Carolina -- which President Donald Trump visited a year ago to cries of "God Bless Boeing" -- the trade battle he unleashed with Beijing last week is far off.

Or so it seems. Like the company itself, workers at the plant, which produces the Boeing 787 and where unions have struggled to organize the labor force, say little when the question comes up.

But the threat of losing export markets is still clear and present.

"Unfortunately, Boeing makes an easy target for anyone wishing to retaliate against the new US trade measures," Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at Teal Group, told AFP.

A flagship of US industry and one of the best known American brands, the company says it is the largest US exporter because about 80 percent of its planes are for export.

As a result, any trade major conflict would leave the company dangerously exposed -- in particular one involving the world's fastest growing aviation market in China.

Boeing was one of the first companies Trump attacked on Twitter, when he threatened to cancel an order for a new presidential plane he said was too expensive.

The company has managed to work its way back into the president's good graces, with its share price up 129 percent since the election in November 2016.

But since peaking in February, Boeing's shares are down more than 10 percent as investors consider the company's prospects in the new trade environment Trump has created.

At least in the short term, the company has little to fear, with a healthy order portfolio of 5,864 planes -- meaning it will be in constant production through 2024.

Furthermore, China, where air travel is booming, can scarcely afford to push its partly state-owned domestic carriers to cancel their orders or boycott the US manufacturer because they simply have no alternative, experts say.

- Where China could strike Boeing -

The Chinese manufacturer Comac, which soon hopes to market its C919 -- a potential competitor to the mid-range Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 jets -- is not yet ready for large-scale production. The plane had its first test flight in December.

"In the best case scenario, Comac will need another five or six years to reach a respectable production capacity," said Michel Merluzeau, an analyst at AirInsight.

Meanwhile, Airbus, Boeing's main competitor, also has a healthy backlog of orders and its suppliers are already struggling to keep up with the speedy new pace of production.

"In the short term, China has no choice if it doesn't want to put the brakes on the growth of its air transport sector," according to Merluzeau.

Boeing is also due to open a new finishing center for its medium-range 737 jets in Zhoushan, south of Shanghai, this year. And Beijing will certainly do nothing to jeopardize that, added Merluzeau.

When Boeing considers the longer term, however, its grounds for self-confidence become shakier.

Scott Hamilton, managing director at aviation consultants Leeham Company, said China can use industrial orders for political messaging.

"If China were to retaliate against Boeing, it would more likely be in freezing new orders for an indefinite time, placing them with rival Airbus instead," he told AFP.

Aboulafia of Teal Group agrees: "A few large block orders for Airbus would send a strong message, particularly if China abstains from any Boeing orders for some time," he said.

Between January of 2016 and the start of this year, China accounted for a fifth of all Boeing's deliveries, or 303 out of 1511 aircraft received by commercial air carriers, according to the company's figures.

The company's order backlog also shows China's share of Boeing deliveries set to grow, analysts say.

Furthermore, Beijing could frustrate Boeing's plans to expand into the so-called mid-market by introducing a new jet in the 220-to-260-seat range, an industry segment where Airbus currently has a head start.

"Chinese air carriers would only have to place a few large orders of A330-800neo and A321neo jets to hurt the newer aircraft's potential," said Merluzeau of AirInsight.

Other countries in addition to China could also retaliate against Boeing because of President Donald Trump's promised new tariffs.

Brazil, for example, could block Boeing's efforts to form a commercial jet joint venture with the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer.In this handout picture made available by the official Omani News Agency (ONA, Oman's minister responsible for foreign affairs Yusif bin Alawi (L) receives Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Muscat on March 26, 2018

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem arrived in the Omani capital on Monday for talks with officials, the two countries' official news agencies said.

Oman, a US ally bordering Saudi Arabia and Yemen, has good ties with Iran, a key backer of the Syrian regime, and has frequently served as a mediator in the Arab world.

Its state news agency ONA said Muallem's visit would cover "several days during which he will meet with a number of senior officials in the sultanate", without giving details.

The talks would cover "the current situation in the region and means of strengthening bilateral ties", as well as regional and international issues, said Syria's SANA news agency.

During the visit, which comes in response to an invitation from the Omani minister responsible for foreign affairs Yusuf bin Alawi, Muallem is to inaugurate the headquarters of Syria's new embassy in Muscat, SANA said.

The agency said Muallem was heading a delegation which includes deputy foreign minister Faisal Muqdad.

It is Muallem's second trip to Oman since the 2011 outbreak of Syria's conflict, during which it has been the only Gulf state to host a Syrian foreign minister.The Dapchi schoolgirls were released after a month-long ordeal -- the Nigerian government has confirmed it has been speaking for months with the jihadists over a ceasefire

As the Dapchi schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram were finally reuniting with their families, Nigeria delivered a small bombshell: it revealed it had begun ceasefire talks with the notorious jihadists.

The talks began months ago, according to officials.

But, to those desperate for a breakthrough in the bloody insurgency, they also caution that divisions among the militants may well hamper progress toward peace -- and analysts say similar initiatives have foundered in the past.

"Government is ever ready to accept the unconditional laying down of arms by any member of the Boko Haram group who show strong commitment," President Muhammadu Buhari said on Friday when he met the schoolgirls in Abuja, the national capital.

"We are ready to rehabilitate and integrate such repented member(s) into the larger society," said Buhari. "This country has suffered enough of hostilities."

A total of 111 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram from the northeastern town of Dapchi on February 19 in the largest mass kidnapping since 2014 when over 200 schoolgirls were taken from Chibok.

In a scene that shocked many Nigerians, the jihadists returned to the town in an unobstructed convoy, flying the black Boko Haram flag, to drop off most of the girls.

Six girls are still missing, including one who was held back for refusing to renounce Christianity. The five others are believed to have died in the initial stages of the kidnapping.

Information Minister Lai Mohammed said that a week-long ceasefire was declared on March 19 as part of "intense back channel" negotiations to allow Boko Haram to return the hostages.

The Nigerian government has repeatedly denied paying a ransom or releasing imprisoned Boko Haram fighters in exchange for the schoolgirls.

"The insurgents' only condition was their demands for a cessation of hostilities and a temporary ceasefire to enable them to return the girls (to) the point they picked them (up)," explained Lawal Daura, a senior security official, on Friday.

The talks with Boko Haram explored the "permanent, possible cessation of hostilities" and the "possibility of granting amnesty to repentant insurgents," Daura said.

But he warned that achieving success would be "problematic" since the group is splintered into rival camps.

- Competing factions -

A source close to the Dapchi negotiations told AFP that the government has been negotiating with the Islamic State-affiliated Abu Mus'ab al-Barnawi faction of Boko Haram.

Al-Barnawi, the son of deceased Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf, leads one faction, while Abubakar Shekau, Yusuf's former deputy, leads another.

"Talks have been ongoing between the government and the insurgents from the Al-Barnawi faction," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The source said peace talks began in earnest after the July 2017 ambush on an oil exploration team in Lake Chad that killed at least 69 people.

"The major headache now is extending the talks to the Shekau faction which is averse to negotiations," said the source.

Striking a deal with one faction doesn't guarantee that the other faction will follow, said security analyst Ryan Cummings.

"You're not talking to a homogenous, centralised insurgent group," said Cummings.

"Boko Haram is an umbrella movement comprised of various factions motivated for different reasons, some ideological, others profit, some might be a combination."

Others fear that the talks are being used as a diversion by Boko Haram to regroup.

"The military is opposed to negotiations with the militant groups, especially on release of hostages, which is believed to mostly involve ransom payment," said another source close to the talks.

"The military sees Boko Haram using the halt to buy time."

- Rebel negotiators -

It's not the first time Nigeria has talked about a ceasefire with Boko Haram.

In 2014, former president Goodluck Jonathan's government claimed it had brokered a deal with the militants, though Boko Haram attacks continued quickly soon after.

Then, as now, experts questioned the legitimacy and influence of the rebel negotiators.

Shortly after being elected in 2015, Buhari said he was mulling amnesty for Boko Haram fighters.

"If the Boko Haram leadership eventually agrees to turn over the Chibok girls to us -- the complete number -- then we may decide to give them (the prisoners) amnesty," said Buhari at the time.

"We've had previous conversations about ceasefire that turned out to be illusions," said political analyst Chris Ngwodo.

"The distinction here is that this appears to be a specific initiative targeted at a specific faction of Boko Haram," said Ngwodo.

"Perhaps for the first time, at least publically, the federal government is trying to exploit the factions."Critics say the 'anti-social' budget taxes the country's teeming poor

Police in Niger have arrested 23 people after a demonstration against new taxes in one of the world's poorest nations turned violent, the interior minister said Monday.

The arrests came after a protest on Sunday, Bazoum Mohamed told AFP, adding that the organisers had defied a ban and then clashed with the police.

"They incited (the public) and disrupted public order and were arrested for rebellion for describing the ban as illegal," he said.

A radio and television network owned by Ali Idrissa, one of four leading civil society members arrested, was also closed on Sunday.

"They aired live images of tyres burning on the streets ... asked people to take to the streets and carried a subversive message of revolt," the minister said. "They will remain closed until further notice."

Protests have been regularly held in Niger against the new taxes and concessions to telephone companies to the tune of 30 million euros ($37 million), according to the opposition.

More than 80 percent of Niger is covered by the Sahara desert. Its economy has been affected by falls in both oil prices, which it officially began exporting in 2011, and uranium, of which it is a major exporter.

The government says it is cash strapped as it has to spend resources to combat attacks by Boko Haram, whose Islamist insurgency has spilled over from Nigeria, as well as from jihadists, including the Daesh group, near the border with Mali.

Finance Minister Hassoumi Massadou said in February that the 2018 budget hardly affected people in the countryside, where more than 80 percent of Niger's 20 million people live.Shiite Huthi rebel fighters stand guard during a rally to mark three years of war on the country, in the capital Sanaa

Iran accused Britain of hypocrisy on Monday for saying it should stop supplying weapons to Yemeni rebels.

"Britain undoubtedly has direct responsibility for the war crimes committed over the past three years in Yemen by selling arms and providing logistical and intelligence support to the countries attacking Yemen," said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi on the ministry's website.

"This country is in no position to accuse other countries and it would be better for it to end as soon as possible its opportunistic and profiteering approach to this blind war," he added.

Saudi Arabia has been engaged for the past three years in an aerial bombing campaign against Yemen's Huthi rebels, who it says are being supplied by Iran.

Tehran has repeatedly denied the allegations, but Riyadh again accused Iran of supplying the seven missiles that were fired by the Huthis into Saudi territory on Sunday, killing one person.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt on Monday called on Iran to "stop sending in weapons which prolong the conflict, fuel regional tensions, and pose threats to international peace and security."

Britain and the US have supplied billions of dollars' worth of arms to Saudi Arabia in recent years.

London is close to signing another multi-billion-dollar deal to supply Typhoon fighter jets to Riyadh.

"If Britain is honest in its claim to want a political solution to the crisis in Yemen, it would be better to ask those large buyers of British weapons in the war coalition against Yemen to stop the conflict and end the siege of the oppressed people of that country," said Ghasemi.

On Friday, Amnesty International said all parties in the conflict were guilty of neglecting civilian safety.

But it said the Saudi-led coalition -- armed by the US and Britain -- may be guilty of war crimes.

"There is extensive evidence that irresponsible arms flows to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition have resulted in enormous harm to Yemeni civilians," said Lynn Maalouf, head of Middle East research at Amnesty.Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani shake hands during a signing ceremony following a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 26, 2018

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Syria conflict with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Moscow Monday, as Syrian regime forces, backed by Moscow, close in on the last vestiges of rebel resistance around Damascus.

The talks, the first between Putin and the Qatari leader for two years, were focussed on "boosting bilateral cooperation in various fields... and on the situation in Syria," the Kremlin said in a statement.

More than 2,500 Syrian rebels and civilians prepared to leave Eastern Ghouta on Monday after the largest exodus yet from the opposition enclave, as talks stalled over the final pocket of resistance.

Russia has been militarily involved in support of the forces of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime since 2015.

Last June Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates broke off diplomatic ties with Qatar which they accuse of supporting radical Islamists.

To counter its regional isolation, Qatar has sought to deepen trade, military and technological ties with the broader international community.

"We count on our Russian friends, with whom we have a cooperative relationship, knowing that Russia plays a significant role in the problems of the Arab world," the emir said at the start of the talks with Putin.

"Even though we have solid ties and mutual trust, we must go further to reinforce our relations in all areas," he added.

In January, Qatar's ambassador in Moscow, Fahad bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah, told the official TASS news agency that Qatar is finalising a deal to buy Russian S-400 air defence systems.Visitors at the memorial outside Orlando's Pulse nightclub, where 49 people were shot dead on June 12, 2016

The father of Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people in a 2016 attack on an Orlando nightclub, was a long-time confidential informant for the FBI, according to court documents.

Seddique Mateen's past as a source for federal law enforcement emerged at the trial in Orlando of Noor Salman, 31, Omar Mateen's widow, who prosecutors allege had prior knowledge of her husband's plans.

Omar Mateen died in the June 12, 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub, which he claimed to have carried out on behalf of the Islamic State group.

Defense attorneys, in documents filed with the court over the weekend, called for a mistrial in Salman's case following the revelation that her father-in-law had served as an FBI informant.

But US District Judge Paul Byron rejected the request on Monday, the Orlando Sentinel newspaper reported.

According to Salman's lawyers, the US Attorney's office acknowledged in an email over the weekend that Seddique Mateen was an "FBI confidential human source at various points in time between January 2005 and June 2016."

In addition, it said, Seddique Mateen was the subject of an investigation for money transfers he had made to Turkey and Afghanistan.

The FBI also said it had received a tip that Seddique Mateen was engaged in fund-raising that may have been intended to contribute to "an attack against the government of Pakistan."

The defense attorneys said the government's failure to disclose the information violated Salman's "right to a fair trial" and called for the charges against her to be thrown out.

"If the government had provided this information, the defense would have investigated whether a tie existed between Seddique Mateen and his son, specifically whether Mateen's father was involved in or had foreknowledge of the Pulse attack," the defense said.

Seddique Mateen, who is originally from Afghanistan, was on the government's initial witness list but was finally not called to testify.

Judge Byron dismissed the request for a mistrial.

"This trial is not about Seddique Mateen," the Orlando Sentinel quoted the judge as saying. "It's about Noor Salman."

Salman is facing charges of providing support to a foreign terrorist organization and obstructing justice.

Defense lawyers have told the court she was in an abusive relationship with Omar Mateen and had no knowledge of his plans.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has criticized Myanmar's army chief for comments about the country's Muslim Rohingya minority

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday criticized Myanmar's army chief after he declared that the Muslim Rohingya had nothing in common with the country's other ethnic groups.

Guterres said he was "shocked" at reports of General U Min Aung Hlaing's remarks at a military gathering and urged Myanmar's leaders to "take a unified stance against incitement to hatred and to promote cultural harmony."

At the gathering in northern Kachin state on Monday, Hlaing referred to the Rohingya as "Bengalis," a term meant to describe them as foreigners, and said they "do not have the characteristics or culture in common with the ethnicities of Myanmar."

"The tensions were fuelled because the 'Bengalis' demanded citizenship," said the general who was quoted in the Dhaka Tribune.

Some 700,000 Rohingya have been driven into neighbouring Bangladesh since last August by a major army crackdown that the United Nations has likened to ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar authorities say the operation is aimed at rooting out extremists.

Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize laureate, has lost her democratic credentials on the world stage for failing to speak out in favour of the Rohingya.

Guterres said it was "critical that conditions are put in place to ensure that the Rohingya are able to return home voluntarily, in safety and in dignity."

The UN Security Council is hoping to travel to Myanmar to get a first-hand look at the refugee crisis, but has not yet been given the green light for the trip by Myanmar authorities.

Guterres has for months been weighing the appointment of a special envoy for Myanmar that would keep the plight of the Rohingya in the international spotlight.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkey still aims to become a full member of the EU ahead of a summit with the bloc's chiefs

The EU on Monday said it failed to reach any "concrete solutions or compromises" with Turkey in talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeking to repair their tattered relations.

Erdogan held a working dinner with European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker in Bulgaria with a litany of issues clouding their discussions.

These include EU alarm at Erdogan's crackdown on perceived opponents following a coup attempt in 2016, the arrest of journalists, Turkey's military operations against Kurds in northern Syria and squabbling over Ankara's deal to halt the flow of refugees into Europe.

This has all whipped up an increasingly acrimonious war of words and made Turkey's prospects of joining the EU -- an objective that Erdogan insisted earlier on Monday that Turkey still pursues -- appear even more remote.

But despite hopes for a breakthrough at the summit in the Black Sea resort of Varna, Tusk said they made little tangible headway.

"In terms of concrete solutions, we did not reach a concrete compromise today but I still hope it will be possible in the future," Tusk told a joint news conference.

Tusk said improved relations would depend on progress on issues including the rule of law and press freedom as well as Syria.

But Erdogan struck a more optimistic tone, telling reporters: "We hope that we have left a very difficult period behind in Turkey-EU relations."

However he added: "We don't want rambling or unfair criticisms on sensitive issues like the fight against terror. We expect strong support."

- 'Mixed feelings' -

Juncker said the summit was one of "mixed feelings but not mixed messages", adding: "It was a good meeting because as this is the normal principle between big democracies, we were able to talk in all frankness and openness."

A demonstration against the upcoming visit of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Varna, Bulgaria on Monday

Temperatures rose further last week after EU leaders condemned Turkey's "illegal actions" towards Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea.

Ankara hit back at the "unacceptable comments" and said the EU had lost its objectivity on Cyprus, which is divided between the Greek-majority internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus and the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.

The statement on Thursday by the 28 EU members meeting in Brussels condemned Turkey over Ankara's arrest of two Greek soldiers and its promise to prevent the Greek Cypriot government from exploring for oil and gas.

"For as long as the EU does not take a fair attitude, it will not have any contribution to the solution of the Cyprus issue," Erdogan said.

And Juncker raised the issue of the Greek soldiers during the press conference, saying they had confidence in the Turkish side "to solve that in the best way".

Ankara and Brussels had in March 2016 agreed a controversial deal to stop the flow of migrants, in what was seen as a landmark in cooperation and which Turkey hoped would yield visa free travel to Europe.

So far this incentive has not been realised and Erdogan stressed the issue during the talks.

Last month Turkey said it had fulfilled the 72 criteria for visa-free travel and Erdogan told reporters that the necessary paperwork had been sent to the European Commission.

Erdogan said he told the EU leaders that it was "necessary to complete their work at once" on the issue.

- Looser partnership? -

"We don't want rambling or unfair criticisms on sensitive issues like the fight against terror. We expect strong support," Erdogan said

Brussels has repeatedly criticised the post-coup crackdown, which has seen nearly 160,000 people detained, including dozens of journalists.

Turkey, for its part, has accused Brussels of failing to show solidarity after the coup and appears set on forging a strong partnership with President Vladimir Putin's Russia.

But Juncker stressed that the EU showed its support for Erdogan merely hours after the attempted putsch began.

In contrast to Erdogan's brisk evening meeting with the EU leadership, Putin -- whose relations with the West have nosedived further following the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain -- is expected to make a full two-day visit to Turkey next week.

Ankara has agreed to buy air defence systems from Russia and Moscow will also build Turkey's first nuclear power station.

Next month the EU will release its latest progress report, which is "bound to illustrate a substantial regression" in Turkey, Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and a former EU ambassador to Turkey, said in a study.

During a visit by Erdogan to Paris earlier this year, French President Emmanuel Macron said Ankara should settle instead for a looser "partnership" with the EU and suggested no more progress was possible in accession talks.

Juncker insisted that he was not in favour of stopping negotiations with Turkey but urged Ankara to improve relations with member states like Cyprus and Greece.

burs-raz/stu/gdDUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Roadside bombs disguised as rocks in Yemen bear similarities to others used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and by insurgents in Iraq and Bahrain, suggesting at the least an Iranian influence in their manufacture, a watchdog group said Monday.

The report by Conflict Armament Research comes as the West and United Nations researchers accuse Iran of supplying arms to Yemen's Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who have held the country's capital since September 2014.

Those weapons allegedly included ballistic missiles used to target Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition of Arab nations backed by the U.S. that is stuck in a stalemate war with the Houthis. A barrage of Houthi missile fire late Sunday killed one person in Riyadh and wounded two others.

In this undated photograph provided by Conflict Armament Research, an independent London-based group that researches battlefield weaponry, three explosives disguised as rocks are on display in Yemen. Roadside bombs disguised as rocks in Yemen bear similarities to others used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and by insurgents in Iraq and Bahrain, suggesting at the least an Iranian influence in their manufacturing, a report released Monday, March 26, 2018, by Conflict Armament Research alleges. The report comes comes as the West and United Nations researchers accuse Iran of supplying arms to Yemen's Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who have held the country's capital since September 2014. (Tim Michetti/Conflict Armament Research via AP)

Iran has long denied supplying arms to the Houthis, and its mission to the United Nations is dismissing the new report. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has derided such weapons research as "fabricating evidence."

The report is just the latest sign of how the conflict in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country where over 10,000 people have been killed, has changed from a civil war to a proxy fight among Mideast rivals. The Saudi-led war there turned three years old Sunday.

"What we're hoping this does is make plausible deniability not very plausible," said Tim Michetti, head of regional operations for Conflict Armament Research. "You can't really deny this anymore once the components these things are made with are traced to Iranian distributors."

Michetti's organization, an independent watchdog group that receives funding from the United Arab Emirates, Germany and the European Union to research weaponry recovered in Yemen, said it examined a fake rock bomb in January near Mokha, some 250 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of the capital, Sanaa.

The fiberglass-encased bomb, packed with explosives, could be armed by radio and triggered by an infrared beam, the group said. It said there were three varieties, including anti-personnel mines and so-called explosively formed projectiles, which can penetrate armored vehicles and were used with lethal effect against U.S. troops following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Electrical circuitry in the bombs mirrored those manufactured by militants in Bahrain, while the bombs bore markings suggesting one workshop mass-produced the explosives, the report said. Such bombs, however, have yet to be used in Bahrain, an island kingdom off Saudi Arabia in the midst of a crackdown on all dissent.

Investigators also found a type of Chinese-manufactured wire covering used in other Iranian materiel, the report said.

It said independent experts also examined the explosives. Those experts said that "construction indicates that the bomb maker had a degree of knowledge in constructing devices that resembled, and possibly functioned in a manner similar to (explosively formed projectile bombs) that have been forensically tied to Iran and Hezbollah," the report said.

Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Iran's mission to the United Nations, dismissed the report, saying the Houthis had no need for such weapons as they control stockpiles of arms purchased under former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Houthis killed Saleh, their one-time ally, in December.

"President Saleh was the sweetheart of America and Saudi Arabia," Miryousefi told The Associated Press. "It seems petro-dollars are promoting such reports in order to rationalize war crimes in Yemen as well as the oppression of Bahrain's completely civil and popular protests."

Told of the Iranian response, Michetti invited officials from Tehran to take part in his organization's research in the future.

This is not the first time Iran has been accused of arming the Houthis.

The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, has repeatedly said Iran sends arms into Yemen. It points to seizures over a four-week period in early 2016, when coalition warships stopped three dhows, traditional ships that ferry cargo in the Persian Gulf. The dhows carried thousands of Kalashnikov assault rifles as well as sniper rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank missiles and other weapons.

One dhow carried 2,000 new assault rifles with serial numbers in sequential order, suggesting they came from a national stockpile, a previous Conflict Armament Research report said. The rocket-propelled grenade launchers also bore hallmarks of being manufactured in Iran, the group said.

The group has also said drones used by the Houthis to crash into Patriot missile batteries in Saudi Arabia share "near-identical design and construction characteristics" of Iranian drones.

The weapons transfers also allegedly include ballistic missile technology. The United Nations, Western countries and the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen all say the Houthis' Burkan or Volcano missile mirrors characteristics of an Iranian Qiam ballistic missile. They say that suggests Tehran either shared the technology or smuggled disassembled missiles to the Houthis who then rebuilt them.

Iran denies sharing missiles with the Houthis, though such a move would fit a pattern followed by the Islamic Republic since its 1980s war with Iraq. Iran largely has avoided direct confrontation with its foreign adversaries, instead relying on proxy groups that it arms through the hard-line Revolutionary Guard's expeditionary Quds Force or other middlemen.

The latest accusation comes as the Saudi-led coalition faces intense international criticism for its airstrike campaign that has struck hospitals and markets, killing numerous civilians. The U.N. also says a Saudi-led blockade on Yemen's ports is "essentially using the threat of starvation as a bargaining tool and an instrument of war" in a country already facing diphtheria and cholera outbreaks while on the verge of famine.

Iran's weapons transfers to Yemen bleed Saudi Arabia, its regional rival, at a low cost while providing deniability for Tehran, analysts say.

"This has been just a golden opportunity for Iran to have this access and to do it so cheaply and continue to be this thorn in Saudi Arabia's throat," said Fatima Abo Alasrar, a senior analyst at the Washington-based Arabia Foundation and a Yemeni national critical of the Houthis. "It's been a huge win for them."

___

Jon Gambrell on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jongambrellap. His work can be found at http://apne.ws/2galNpz.

In this undated photograph provided by Conflict Armament Research, an independent London-based group that researches battlefield weaponry, an explosive disguised as a rock is on display in Yemen. Roadside bombs disguised as rocks in Yemen bear similarities to others used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and by insurgents in Iraq and Bahrain, suggesting at the least an Iranian influence in their manufacturing, a report released Monday, March 26, 2018, by Conflict Armament Research alleges. The report comes comes as the West and United Nations researchers accuse Iran of supplying arms to Yemen's Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who have held the country's capital since September 2014. (Tim Michetti/Conflict Armament Research via AP)

In this undated photograph provided by Conflict Armament Research, an independent London-based group that researches battlefield weaponry, an explosive disguised as a rock is on display in Yemen. Roadside bombs disguised as rocks in Yemen bear similarities to others used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and by insurgents in Iraq and Bahrain, suggesting at the least an Iranian influence in their manufacturing, a report released Monday, March 26, 2018, by Conflict Armament Research alleges. The report comes comes as the West and United Nations researchers accuse Iran of supplying arms to Yemen's Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who have held the country's capital since September 2014. (Tim Michetti/Conflict Armament Research via AP)CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) - Eun-Hee Ji had a hole-in-one to dramatically finish off Cristie Kerr and the other challengers Sunday in the Kia Classic.

Her lead cut from four strokes to one, Ji aced the 152-yard 14th with a 7-iron, the ball bouncing and rolling into the hole, to push her advantage to three shots.

"It was little downwind and I hit the same club as yesterday," Ji said. "My ball end up right there where the hole is. So, I just choose 7-iron and I hit it really good. Soon as I saw the ball fly, 'That's going to be good.'"

Ji finished with a 5-under 67 at Aviara for a two-stroke victory over Kerr and Lizette Salas in the final event before the major ANA Inspiration next week at Mission Hills.

"I hit it pretty well today," Ki said. "I am driving the ball really nice. I holed nice putts."

Ji finished at 16-under 272. The 31-year-old South Korean player earned $270,000 and two Kia cars, a Sorento for the hole-in-one and a Stinger for the victory. She has four LPGA Tour victories, including the 2009 U.S. Women's Open.

"This is my eighth hole in one, but I never have a car for hole-in-one," Ji said.

The 40-year-old Kerr closed with a 68. She shot a 64 on Friday to take a five-stroke lead into the weekend, then had a 75 on Saturday to drop a stroke behind Ji, Salas and In-Kyung Kim.

"I did my best," Kerr said. "I had a tough day yesterday. It would've taken a super low round today to catch Eun Hee. I'm happy with my first good tournament of the year."

Salas finished with a 69 playing alongside Ji in the final pairing.

"I'm really pleased," Salas said. "Things just went Eun Hee's way today. I kept fighting and I woke up a little late, started making birdies on the back nine."

Ji followed the ace with three-putt bogey on the par-4 15th and 18th. She had five birdies in a seven-hole stretch that ended on No. 10 to open a four-stroke lead. Ji hit all 18 greens in regulation and all but one fairway - the drivable par-4 16th.

Jane Park (67), Kris Tamulis (68) and Kim (70) tied for fourth at 13 under, and Anna Nordqvist (69), Jeong Eun Lee (69) and Wei-Ling Hsu (70) were another stroke back.

Inbee Park, the Founders Cup winner last week in Phoenix, shot a 69 to tie for 18th at 9 under. Singapore winner Michelle Wie (69) was 8 under, and top-ranked Shanshan Feng (72) was 7 under. Lexi Thompson (72) tied for 58th at 2 under.TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - A Taiwanese human rights group says the wife of a jailed pro-democracy activist will visit him in prison in China this week.

The Taiwan Association for Human Rights said Lee Ching-yu left Taiwan on Monday to see her husband Lee Ming-che in prison in central China. The group said Lee Ching-yu would meet with her husband on Tuesday.

Lee Ming-che is serving a five-year prison sentence after being convicted by a Chinese court in November of the vaguely defined charge of "subversion of state power."

Lee was found guilty of subversion for holding online political lectures and helping the families of jailed dissidents in China.

His conviction showed how Beijing's harshest crackdown on human rights in decades has extended beyond the Chinese mainland. Beijing regards self-ruled Taiwan as part of Chinese territory.

The Yueyang City Intermediate People's Court in central China handed down the sentence against Lee in November after finding him guilty of subversion of state power. Lee had confessed during his trial in September, which his wife dismissed as "a political show."WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump isn't always bringing genuine statistics to the fight as he goes after China on trade.

Trump stretched credulity on a variety of subjects over the past week, trade among them. He mangled comments from 2016 presidential rival Hillary Clinton, inflated expectations of an overhaul in health services for veterans and gave his administration too much credit for defeating the Islamic State. Here's a look at some of his recent statements.

TRUMP: "Last year we lost $500 billion on trade with China. We can't let that happen." - comments at the White House on Friday.

U.S. President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Sunday, March 25, 2018, after returning from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

THE FACTS: That didn't happen. Last year, Americans bought about $506 billion in goods from China. That's not "lost" money but purchases of products that Americans wanted. And it's only part of the equation. China bought more than $130 billion in goods from the U.S. So the actual trade deficit in goods was $375 billion.

Factor in trade in services and the actual U.S trade deficit with China was $337 billion.

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TRUMP: "On terrorism, in Iraq and Syria, we've taken back almost 100 percent, in a very short period of time, of the land that they took. And it all took place since our election. We've taken back close to 100 percent." - National Republican Congressional Committee dinner Tuesday. Comments Friday: "We've gotten just about 100 percent of our land back from ISIS."

THE FACTS: It's not true that progress against the Islamic State group "all took place" since the election. The Obama administration said IS had lost more than 40 percent of its territory by the time the last president left office.

IS was pushed to the point of collapse in Mosul, its main Iraqi stronghold, before Trump took office. In 2016, Iraqi military forces, supported by the U.S.-led coalition, waged successful battles to oust IS from Fallujah, Ramadi, eastern Mosul and a number of smaller towns along the Tigris River. They also established logistical hubs for the push that began in February 2017 to retake western Mosul.

It's true that advances since then have decimated IS as a territorial force. Those advances came on many fronts from multiple foes of the Islamic State, including U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and fighters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, supported by Russia. The assertion that "we've taken back close to 100 percent" is only supportable if "we" means the various groups, often hostile to one another, that have been battling IS.

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TRUMP, on Clinton: "I would say her last statement about women - they have to get approval from their husbands, their sons, and their male bosses to vote for Trump. That was not a good statement. Not good." - Republican dinner Tuesday.

THE FACTS: That's not what she said. In remarks this month in India, Clinton advanced the theory that a slim majority of white women voted for Trump because of "ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should." She did not say women felt they needed approval from men to vote for Trump - but rather that they faced pressure from them to side with Trump instead of her.

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TRUMP: "Republicans also repealed one of the nation's cruelest and most unfair taxes ever: the Obamacare individual mandate. And the mandate is gone forever. And that's a beauty. You pay a lot of money not to have to pay and not to get health care. So you're paying not to have health care. I mean, that wasn't so good. But we got rid of it." - Republican dinner Tuesday.

THE FACTS: The mandate is not gone. Fines for going without health insurance coverage are still in effect this year. They disappear next year under the repeal law he signed.

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TRUMP on a marketing campaign against opioid abuse: "That's the least expensive thing we can do, where you scare them from ending up like the people in the commercials. And we'll make them very, very bad commercials. We'll make them pretty unsavory situations." - speech in New Hampshire, March 19.

THE FACTS: This "scared straight" advertising was neither inexpensive nor particularly effective the last time it was tried and researched. There is some evidence, though, that anti-drug messages focused on teenagers' need for independence can help discourage drug use.

Between 1998 and 2004, the U.S. government spent nearly $1 billion on a national campaign to persuade young people to avoid illegal drugs, particularly marijuana. A 2008 follow-up study funded by the National Institutes of Health found the campaign "had no favorable effects on youths' behavior" and may actually have prompted some to experiment with drugs - an unintended "boomerang" effect.

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TRUMP: "Choice is coming. Choice - where the veterans can actually, instead of waiting on line for weeks and weeks and weeks, they can actually go and see a doctor and have it taken care of, and we pay. And that's going to be the big one." - Republican dinner Tuesday.

THE FACTS: A long-term plan along these lines doesn't appear to be coming any time soon. It's stalled in Congress and delays experienced in the program so far mean it won't be fully implemented until 2019 or later.

A choice program was put in place after a 2014 wait-time scandal that was discovered at the Phoenix VA hospital and elsewhere throughout the country. It allows veterans to go to private doctors if they endure long waits for VA appointments. According to the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, people using the program suffer wait times potentially as long as 81 days. Last summer, an unexpected budget shortfall in the program forced VA to limit outside referrals, leading to additional delays in medical care.

VA Secretary David Shulkin said last month VA care is "often 40 percent better in terms of wait times" compared with the private sector.

He hoped a long-term overhaul would be approved by Congress in December, but proposals have stalled due to disagreements over cost and how much access veterans should have to private doctors.

___

DEMOCRATIC SEN. PATTY MURRAY, questioning VA Secretary David Shulkin: "I was really concerned to see your budget asks for a large decrease in the Office of Inspector General ... . I want to know why this budget doesn't provide the OIG with the full funding that they need." - Senate hearing Wednesday on VA budget.

SHULKIN: "We are supportive of the role of the OIG as well. And in fact this budget actually does provide them the resources. ...They do have the staffing they need." - Senate hearing Wednesday.

THE FACTS: Neither is entirely correct.

The Trump administration's proposed budget would provide $172 million to VA's internal watchdog office for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. That's technically an increase from the administration's $159 million budget level in 2018, but a decline from the office's actual spending of roughly $174 million due to increased demands to investigate problems at VA. The inspector general's office used leftover money from previous years to fill the gap, cash that is now largely gone.

To maintain current staffing levels, the IG's office is seeking $181 million for the next budget year, or $9 million above what the Trump administration is proposing. Without that money, it says it will have to cut the equivalent of 30 full-time staff positions, most of them directly involved with the IG's core criminal investigations, auditing and health inspections work.

The IG office, with about 850 full-time staff, is charged with keeping watch over the government's second largest department, whose 360,000 employees provide medical care and other benefits to 9 million military veterans. In recent months, the watchdog has put out blistering reports concluding that Shulkin violated ethics rules during an 11-day trip to Europe and that systemic leadership problems at VA put patients at risk. Shulkin is now being investigated over allegations that he used his security detail to run personal errands for him; he has denied wrongdoing.

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Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone, Bradley Klapper and Christopher Rugaber in Washington and Carla K. Johnson in Seattle contributed to this report.MOSCOW (AP) - With the fire alarms silent and staff reportedly nowhere to be seen, a fire at a shopping mall packed with children and their parents on the first weekend of the school recess killed 64 people in Russia's Siberia.

The fire at the Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo, a city about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, was extinguished by Monday morning after burning through the night. Firefighters were still recovering bodies as parts of the buildings were still smoldering. Some of the dead were found inside a cinema, which one witness said had been locked shut.

Investigators said Monday that emergency exits were blocked and a security guard turned off the public announcement system when he received a call about the blaze.

A group of firefighters walk near the scene of the multi-story shopping center after a fire, in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 26, 2018. Russian officials say a fire at a shopping mall in a Siberian city has killed over 50 people. The Ekho Mosvky radio station quoted witnesses who said the fire alarm did not go off and that the staff in the mall in Kemerovo did not organize the evacuation. (AP Photo)

On Monday morning, Kemerovo residents were bringing flowers, candles and stuffed animals to a plaza outside the mall, and local hospitals reported an influx of people wanting to donate blood for the victims.

Sixty-four deaths were confirmed after the firefighters finished combing through the four floors of the mall, Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov told a televised briefing. Six of the bodies have not yet been recovered.

Out of 17 victims whose bodies have been identified, eight are children, the emergency officials said.

Twelve people have been hospitalized. Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova, who visited the Keremovo hospital where the victims were receiving treatment, said on Russian state television that the patient in the gravest condition is an 11-year-old boy who jumped out of a window from the fourth floor. The boy's parents and younger sister died in the fire, Skvortsova said.

Some 200 animals are also believed to have died in the mall's petting zoo. The zoo's manager told the Tass news agency that the animals included rabbits, turtles, pigs, goats and rodents.

Russia's top investigative body said Monday afternoon that they are searching for a security officer who appears to have turned off the PA system when he received a call about the blaze.

Four people have been detained in connection with the deadly, fire including one of the mall's tenants. The investigators did not give the cause of the fire but said they have obtained evidence proving "flagrant violations" that could have contributed to the heavy loss of life, including the fact that the fire escapes were blocked.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday it was too early to draw conclusions about whether local officials failed in Kemerovo.

Witness testimony indicated that the fire alarm did not go off and that staff did not arrange for the evacuation at the shopping mall, which was converted from a former confectionery factory in 2013.

Winter Cherry was one of Kemerovo's most popular entertainment centers for children, with its own indoor skating rink, petting zoo and trampolines. Kemerovo residents said the mall was packed with children and their parents.

The Ekho Mosvky radio station on Monday quoted witnesses who said the fire alarm did not go off and that the mall's staff did not organize the evacuation.

Anna Zarechneva who was on the top floor where the fire started, watching a movie with her husband and son, said they only found out about the fire when a man ran into the theater shouting.

"We didn't hear the fire alarm, they even didn't turn on the light during the show," she said. "That movie could have been the last for us, I've only just realized that."

Alexander Lillevyali lost three daughters, 11-year-old twins and a 5-year-old, who were in a cinema hall on the top floor watching a cartoon.

Lillevyali told the Meduza news website that one of his daughters called him, saying that they could smell the smoke but could not get out because the door was locked.

"I was shouting into the phone, telling her to get out but there was nothing I could do - the fire was in front of me," he said.

The Prosecutor General's Office on Monday ordered all shopping malls in Russia to be checked for fire safety features.

Russian companies routinely complain about excessive checks from various government agencies, which often abuse elaborate rules and regulations to pressure businesses. As a result, many companies prefer to pay bribes instead of complying with outdated and excessive regulations, including fire safety rules.

President Vladimir Putin late on Sunday offered his "deep condolences" to the families of the victims. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called for a moment of silence at a session of the government on Monday.

Pope Francis said in a telegram to Putin that he is "deeply saddened" by the loss of life. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel both issued condolences to Russia, with Merkel quoted as telling Putin: "We grieve with you."

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This story has been corrected to say that the boy who jumped lost his sister, not brother.

Firefighters work at the scene of the multi-story shopping center after a fire, in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 26, 2018. Russian officials say a fire at a shopping mall in a Siberian city has killed over 50 people. The Ekho Mosvky radio station quoted witnesses who said the fire alarm did not go off and that the staff in the mall in Kemerovo did not organize the evacuation. (AP Photo)

People lay flowers for the victims of a fire in a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 26, 2018. Russian officials say a fire at a shopping mall in a Siberian city has killed over 50 people. The Ekho Mosvky radio station quoted witnesses who said the fire alarm did not go off and that the staff in the mall in Kemerovo did not organize the evacuation. (AP Photo)

People react after laying flowers for the victims of a fire in a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 26, 2018. Russian officials say a fire at a shopping mall in a Siberian city has killed over 50 people. The Ekho Mosvky radio station quoted witnesses who said the fire alarm did not go off and that the staff in the mall in Kemerovo did not organize the evacuation. (AP Photo/Sergei Gavrilenko)

A young girl lays a toy by a floral tribute for the victims of a fire in a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 26, 2018. Russian officials say a fire at a shopping mall in a Siberian city has killed over 50 people. The Ekho Mosvky radio station quoted witnesses who said the fire alarm did not go off and that the staff in the mall in Kemerovo did not organize the evacuation. (AP Photo)

In this Russian Emergency Situations Ministry photo, on Sunday, March 25, 2018, smoke rises above a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia. At least three children and a woman have died in a fire that broke out in a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. (Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations photo via AP)

Smoke rises above a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, on Sunday, March 25, 2018. At least three children and a woman have died in a fire that broke out in a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. (AP Photo/Sergei Gavrilenko)

In this Russian Emergency Situations Ministry photo on Sunday, March 25, 2018, smoke rises above a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia. At least three children and a woman have died in a fire that broke out in a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. (Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations photo via AP)

A woman reacts after laying flowers for the victims of a fire in a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 26, 2018. Russian officials say a fire at a shopping mall in a Siberian city has killed over 50 people. The Ekho Mosvky radio station quoted witnesses who said the fire alarm did not go off and that the staff in the mall in Kemerovo did not organize the evacuation. (AP Photo/Sergei Gavrilenko)

People lay flowers for the victims of a fire at a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 26, 2018. Russian officials say a fire at a shopping mall in a Siberian city has killed over 50 people. The Ekho Mosvky radio station quoted witnesses who said the fire alarm did not go off and that the staff in the mall in Kemerovo did not organize the evacuation. (AP Photo/Sergei Gavrilenko)Alaska is heading for a showdown over the slashing of oil wealth checks amid anger among residents in rural areas where milk can cost up to $10 a gallon.

Eligible residents in the state receive payments from an oil wealth trust fund with the sum reaching an all time high of $2,072 in 2015 - but the dividends have been cut to $1,100.

The system could now undergo a massive change, as Alaska struggles to pay state troopers and fix roads amid years of low oil prices.

After oil started flowing from Alaska's North Slope in the late 1970s, so did the checks, which were eventually paid with earnings from an oil-wealth fund that's grown to about $65 billion through investments.

Alaska is heading for a showdown over the slashing of oil wealth checks amid fury among residents in rural areas where milk can cost up to $10 a gallon (file picture)

Times were so good, the state in 1980 repealed its personal income tax, a decision that has been politically impossible to undo as the state grapples with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

Now, with their options for filling the deficit dwindling, lawmakers may have no choice but to use earnings from the Alaska Permanent Fund to help pay the state's bills.

Over the years, the size of residents' annual checks has varied based on the market's performance, averaging about $1,145.

They reached an all-time high of $2,072 in 2015 - totaling more than an extra $10,000 for a family of five - before state leaders started contemplating some use of fund earnings for government costs and Gov. Bill Walker limited the payout.

The prospect isn't sitting well with some.

'I'm not willing to give them anything,' said Clem Tillion, a former state lawmaker and longtime permanent fund defender who with others unsuccessfully sued over Walker's halving of dividend checks in 2016.

Former Sen. Clem Tillion (pictured), has supported the existing law for calculating the annual check that Alaska residents receive from the state's oil-wealth fund and was part of an effort that unsuccessfully challenged Gov. Bill Walker's 2016 halving of the payments

Alaska received more than 156,000 square miles of land as a 'dowry' at statehood, with mineral rights belonging to the people, Tillion said. The checks are their share, he said.

Major proposals for using the fund's earnings involve changing how the checks are calculated, fueling a political debate expected to spill into this year's gubernatorial and legislative races.

The choices are limited: With oil revenue unable to sustain the state budget, savings accounts drawn low, Republicans seeing new or higher taxes as unnecessary, and Democrats against deeper budget cuts, what's left are the earnings from the state's nest-egg.

Fund earnings, by one estimate, could total around $16 billion by the end of this fiscal year, though lawmakers are eyeing only a fraction of that. The Legislature is scheduled to end its session in mid-April but has run long in recent years.

The checks are widely seen as an entitlement - discretionary money for many Alaskans but critical income for others, particularly lower-income residents living in high-cost rural communities where a gallon of milk can cost about $10.

The decision, first by Walker, then by lawmakers, to not follow the formula in law for dividend calculations the past two years has fueled anger and distrust among some Alaskans who fear a money grab, even as state leaders say they're motivated by a desire to protect a dividend into the future.

Checks reached an all-time high of $2,072 in 2015 - totaling more than an extra $10,000 for a family of five - before state leaders started contemplating some use of fund earnings for government costs and Gov. Bill Walker (pictured) limited the payout

'I don't believe them,' said Jeff Taylor, a single dad in the tiny town of Anderson, about 75 miles southwest of Fairbanks.

Life in Alaska is tough, said Taylor, whose home is intentionally small to reduce heating costs. He sees the slashed checks as taking money from children, including his five-year-old son.

Taylor blames Walker, whom he says he's 'pretty sure' he voted for in 2014. Walker, an independent, cut dividends in 2016 to $1,022. Lawmakers agreed to a similarly reduced amount last year.

'Right now, I'd rather have him just sit on his hands and don't touch nothing until the next election is over,' Taylor said.

Walker, who has unsuccessfully pushed tax proposals to help fill the deficit, stands by his actions.

He and legislative leaders have favored turning the permanent fund into an endowment, where a portion of earnings would be drawn based on an average of the fund's market value.

After oil started flowing from Alaska's North Slope in the late 1970s, so did the checks, which were eventually paid with earnings from an oil-wealth fund that's grown to about $65 billion through investments

Under existing proposals, which vary in their draw rates, the split that could go to state government ranges from about two-thirds to three-fourths, with the rest to residents. The yearly checks initially would range from about $1,000 to $1,250.

The House majority, composed largely of Democrats, and the Republican-led Senate are divided over what more should be done before permanently altering the dividend.

With higher oil prices and improved production estimates from the prodigious North Slope, there is no need to discuss taxes now, said Senate President Pete Kelly, a Fairbanks Republican.

State Revenue Commissioner Sheldon Fisher noted even with a rosier price outlook, Alaska faces a deficit of about $2.3 billion.

The permanent fund's principal is protected in the state constitution; the checks aren't. House leaders have flirted with the idea of changing that, though legislative legal adviser Doug Gardner said constitutionally guaranteeing a specific amount could improperly infringe upon legislative appropriation and gubernatorial veto powers. Any proposed constitutional change would need two-thirds backing in the House and Senate before going to voters.

While many Alaskans support protecting the annual checks, they have urged a more equal split between their share and the government's.

Don Fritz said he's a longtime Alaska resident and in between jobs, though he said his wife says he's retired. He said the dividend doesn't belong in the constitution. At best, he said it should compete with other programs for funding.

'To me, it's one of many things that need to be prioritized,' such as public safety and education, he said.KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysia's government proposed new legislation Monday to outlaw fake news with a 10-year jail term for offenders, a move slammed by critics as a draconian bid to crack down on dissent ahead of a general election.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has been dogged by a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal involving an indebted state fund, and rights activists fear the new law could be used to criminalize news reports and critical opinions on government misconduct. A general election must be held by August but is widely expected in the next few weeks.

The anti-fake news bill, which must be approved by parliament, calls for penalizing those who create, offer, circulate, print or publish fake news or publications containing fake news with a 10-year jail term, a fine of up to 500,000 ringgit ($128,000) or both.

A man takes a copy of newspaper at a grocery shop in Shah Alam, Malaysia, Monday, March 26, 2018. Malaysia's government on Monday proposed new legislation to outlaw fake news with a 10-year jail term for offenders, in a move slammed by critics as a draconian bid to crack down on dissent ahead of a general election. Prime Minister Najib Razak has been dogged by a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal involving an indebted state fund, and rights activists fear the new law could be used to criminalize reports on government misconduct and critical opinions. (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf)

The bill defines fake news as "any news, information, data and reports which is, or are, wholly or partly false whether in the form of features, visuals or audio recordings or in any other form capable of suggesting words or ideas." It covers all mediums and extends to even foreigners outside Malaysia as long as Malaysia or its citizens are affected.

"This is an attack on the press and an attempt to instill fear among the (people)" before the general election, opposition lawmaker Ong Kian Ming tweeted.

Government officials have said the law is needed to protect public harmony and national security. They have accused the opposition coalition of using fake news as a key weapon to win votes and warned that any news on the indebted 1MDB state fund that had not been verified by the government is fake.

The U.S. and several other countries are investigating allegations of cross-border embezzlement and money laundering at 1MDB, which was set up and previously led by Najib to promote economic development, but which accumulated billions in debt. The U.S. Justice Department says at least $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB by associates of Najib, and it is working to seize $1.7 billion taken from the fund to buy assets in the U.S., potentially its largest asset seizure ever.

Najib, who denies any wrongdoing, has fired critics in his government and muzzled the media since the corruption scandal erupted three years ago.

Support for Najib's ruling coalition has dwindled in the last two elections. In 2013, it lost the popular vote for the first time to the opposition. Yet analysts say Najib is expected to win a third term due to infighting in the opposition, unfavorable electoral boundary changes and strong support for the government among rural ethnic Malays.

Critics say the anti-fake news bill will add to a range of repressive laws - including a sedition law, a press and publications act, an official secrets act and a security act - that have been used against critics, violated freedom of expression and undermined media freedom. A coalition of human rights and civic groups also has expressed concern that the government is rushing through the legislation, without consulting key stakeholders and releasing details in advance for public scrutiny.

Other Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore and the Philippines, have also proposed laws to clamp down on fake news.JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Mozambican media say 23 people were killed when a vehicle veered into a crowd attending a party in the capital of the southern African nation.

Radio Mocambique says the vehicle was traveling at high speed when it hit the crowd early Sunday in Maputo. The radio station describes it as an accident.

A senior police official Paulo Langa says the driver of the vehicle ignored a police order to stop just before hitting the party-goers beside a pedestrian bridge on a main road.

Radio Mocambique quotes Langa as saying the driver died.

An investigation is underway.CAIRO (AP) - The Latest on Egypt's presidential election (all times local):

2:30 p.m.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has met with his campaign workers after casting his ballot in an election he is virtually guaranteed to win.

Ballots with photos and names of presidential candidates Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, at top, and Moussa Mustafa Moussa, are visible inside a ballot box at a polling station, during the first day of the presidential election, in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, March 26, 2018. Egyptians head to the polls on Monday but the presidential election this time is not about who wins - that was settled long ago - but about how many people bother to cast ballots. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

El-Sissi's only challenger is a little-known politician who joined the race at the last minute to spare the government the embarrassment of a one-candidate election after a string of serious hopefuls were forced out of the running or arrested.

The meeting on Monday, detailed by el-Sissi's office, was the president's first publicized meeting with his campaign leaders. El-Sissi has not done any traditional campaigning in the run-up to Monday's voting, which will continue for another two days.

El-Sissi led the 2013 military overthrow of Egypt's first freely elected president, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi, and the government has waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent since then.

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12:45 p.m.

Egypt has deployed tens of thousands of policemen and soldiers to protect polling centers across the country as Egyptians vote to elect their president for the next four years.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's victory is a foregone conclusion. His only challenger is Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a little known politician who joined the race in the last minute to spare the government the embarrassment of a one-candidate election after several hopefuls were forced out or arrested.

Authorities hope enough people - there are nearly 60 million eligible voters - will vote in the three-day balloting that started on Monday to give the election legitimacy.

El-Sissi cast his ballot as soon as the polls opened at 9 a.m. at a girls' school in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis. Local TV stations showed festive scenes outside polling centers, with women and school children singing.

___

9:35 a.m.

Egypt's Interior Ministry says it has killed six militants believed to be involved in a weekend bombing in the coastal city of Alexandria that killed two policemen.

The statement late on Sunday said the militants belonged to the Hasm movement and were killed in a raid on their hideout in Beheira province.

The Alexandria blast occurred when an explosive device that was placed under a car detonated as the city's security chief's convoy was driving by in Saturday. He was unharmed.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The bombing came just ahead of Egypt's presidential election that got underway on Monday. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi faces no serious challenge in the vote.

Authorities consider Hasm, which routinely targets security personnel, to be a splinter group of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group. Militant attacks have surged in Egypt since the military's 2013 ouster of an elected Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi.

___

9:05 a.m.

Polls have opened in Egypt's presidential election with the outcome - a second term for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi - a foregone conclusion.

The election will last three days, starting on Monday.

A general-turned-president, el-Sissi is challenged by Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a little known politician who joined the race in the last minute to spare the government the embarrassment of a one-candidate election.

Moussa has made no effort to challenge el-Sissi, who never mentioned his challenger once in public.

Authorities hope enough people - there are nearly 60 million eligible voters - will vote in the balloting to give the election legitimacy.

A number of other presidential hopefuls stepped forward earlier this year, including some who might have attracted a sizable protest vote. But they were all either arrested or intimidated out of the race.

___

7:30 a.m.

Egyptians are heading to the polls but the presidential election this time is not about who wins - that was settled long ago - but about how many people bother to cast ballots.

Voting starts on Monday and is to last three days.

Authorities hope enough people will vote for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to lend legitimacy to an election in which the only other candidate is an obscure politician who has made no effort to challenge him.

Cairo streets are lined with campaign banners and posters extolling el-Sissi, who has done little in the way of traditional campaigning, and has not publicly mentioned his ostensive challenger, Moussa Mustafa Moussa.

Several other presidential hopefuls who had stepped forward earlier this year have either been arrested or pressured to withdraw.

A woman casts her ballot during the first day of the presidential election at a polling station in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, March 26, 2018. Polls opened on Monday in Egypt's presidential election with the outcome - a second, four-year term for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi - a foregone conclusion, in what is seen by critics as a signal of the country's return to the authoritarian rule that prevailed since the 1950s. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

A woman casts her vote during the first day of the presidential election at a polling station in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, March 26, 2018. Egyptians head to the polls on Monday but the presidential election this time is not about who wins - that was settled long ago - but about how many people bother to cast ballots. Arabic reads, "choose one candidate, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Moussa Mustafa Moussa". (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

An army officer checks voters bags as they prepare to enter a polling station during the first day of the presidential election in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, March 26, 2018. Polls opened on Monday in Egypt's presidential election with the outcome - a second, four-year term for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi - a foregone conclusion, in what is seen by critics as a signal of the country's return to the authoritarian rule that prevailed since the 1950s. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

A woman poses for a photo after voting during the first day of the presidential election outside a polling site in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, March 26, 2018. Polls opened on Monday in Egypt's presidential election with the outcome - a second, four-year term for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi - a foregone conclusion, in what is seen by critics as a signal of the country's return to the authoritarian rule that prevailed since the 1950s. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Women pose for a photograph after voting during the first day of the presidential election outside a polling site in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, March 26, 2018. Polls opened on Monday in Egypt's presidential election with the outcome - a second, four-year term for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi - a foregone conclusion, in what is seen by critics as a signal of the country's return to the authoritarian rule that prevailed since the 1950s. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Egyptian men wave national flags as they wait in line to vote during the first day of the presidential election in front of a polling site in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, March 26, 2018. Egyptians head to the polls on Monday but the presidential election this time is not about who wins - that was settled long ago - but about how many people bother to cast ballots. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

People chat and smoke traditional water pipes under an election campaign banner for Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, with Arabic that reads, "for the sake of the nation security", in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, March 24, 2018. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the general-turned-president, will stand for re-election next week against Moussa, a little-known politician who has made no effort to challenge him. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)NEUMUENSTER, Germany (AP) - The Latest on the detention of the former leader of the Spanish region of Catalonia (all times local):

8:10 p.m.

A German prosecutor says a court has ordered Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont held in custody for the length of extradition proceedings.

Media people stand near a black van leaving the prison in Neumuenster, northern Germany, Monday, March 26, 2018 where Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive ex-leader of Catalonia and ardent separatist, was probably held after he was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant as he tried to enter the country from Denmark. Letters read "free uiddemont". (Frank Molter/dpa via AP)

Schleswig Holstein state prosecutor Georg Guentge says the court in Neumuenster formally determined Puigdemont's identity and also heard arguments from his lawyer claiming legal flaws in Spain's extradition request.

Guentge said the judge on Monday rejected the motion from Puigdemont's lawyer, but the issues can be raised again during the formal extradition process than begins now.

Puigdemont was detained by German highway police Sunday after entering from Denmark.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemont's government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the northeastern region in October.

___

2:55 p.m.

Spain's deputy prime minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, says the arrest of the ousted Catalan separatist president in Germany is "good news" because "nobody can infinitely mock justice."

Carles Puigdemont was to be brought before a court in Germany on Monday for an initial hearing on whether he stays in custody, kicking off an extradition process that could take weeks.

"Democrats and those who believe in the rule of law are relieved to see that the institutions work and in this country that is Spain we are all equal under the law," Saenz de Santamaria told reporters in Madrid.

The arrest, she says, shows how "Europe is a space of security and justice" with "democratic trust."

"We respect the procedures of the German justice system because that is an agreement that all Europeans have reached," she added.

___

1:55 p.m.

Separatist politicians have condemned Sunday's street violence in Barcelona and other Catalan cities that led to 100 people, including 23 police agents, to be treated for minor injuries.

The riots followed another massive peaceful demonstration earlier in the day in support of the former regional president, Carles Puigdemont.

Puigdemont's wife, Marcela Topor, told Catalan newspaper El Punt Avui that her husband has said violence is not the way forward. She said he told her that during a phone call shortly after he was arrested in Germany.

Roger Torrent, the Catalan parliament's speaker has also called for "calm" and "responsibility."

Torrent said in a speech on Sunday that was echoed on Monday by other separatists: "We do not give away victories to those who do not want democracy to win."

Catalonia's police say nine people linked to the riots were arrested, five of whom have been released.

___

9:30 a.m.

Catalonia's former president, Carles Puigdemont, is to be brought before a court in Germany to determine whether he stays in custody pending further decisions on extradition proceedings.

Prosecutors in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein wouldn't say where Monday's closed-doors hearing would take place. German news agency dpa said Puigdemont was taken to a prison in the town of Neumuenster Sunday, hours after his arrest on a European warrant as he entered Germany from Denmark.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemont's government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the northeastern region in October.

The Catalan parliament's subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities.

FILE - In this July 5, 2011 file photo a truck passes the German-Danish border on highway A7 near Flensburg, Germany and Froslev, Denmark, The lawyer for fugitive former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says that he is being held by German police. Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas has confirmed to The Associated Press that German police stopped Puigdemont on Sunday March 25, 2018 when he was crossing the border from Denmark. According to dpa news agency he was stopped on highway A7. (Bodo Marks/dpa via AP,file)

FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2017 file photo ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont takes the podium at a gathering to watch the election results for Spain's Catalonia region at the Square Meeting Center in Brussels. The lawyer for fugitive former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says that he is being held by German police. Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas has confirmed to The Associated Press that German police stopped Puigdemont on Sunday, March 25, 2018 when he was crossing the border from Denmark. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo,file)

A van with tinted windows which is believed to transport Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive ex-leader of Catalonia and ardent separatist, arrives at a prison in Neumuenster, northern Germany, Sunday, March 25, 2018. Puigdemont was arrested Sunday by German police on an international warrant as he tried to enter the country from Denmark. (Carsten Rehder/dpa via AP)WASHINGTON (AP) - With his job status in danger, embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin sought to lower his public profile Monday as a White House spokesman insisted that President Donald Trump still had confidence in his leadership "at this point in time."

Shulkin, the lone Obama administration official in Trump's Cabinet, abruptly backed out of a media availability Monday morning that had been scheduled at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Elsmere, Delaware, as part of an annual Veterans Summit hosted by Democratic Sen. Tom Carper. Shulkin told organizers he needed to "get back on the road to Washington."

"Secretary Shulkin's singular focus is on finding the best ways to provide care and benefits to our country's heroes," said Shulkin's strategic adviser, Ashleigh Barry, in response to questions about his public plans in the coming days.

FILE - In this March 7, 2018, file photo, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin speaks at a news conference at the Washington Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, file)

Three administration officials told The Associated Press that Trump is planning to oust the Shulkin within the next week or two amid an extraordinary rebellion at the agency and damaging government investigations into his alleged spending abuses. The three officials demanded anonymity to discuss a sensitive personnel matter.

Early Monday, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley sought to dismiss reports of Shulkin's imminent dismissal as head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the government's second largest department with 370,000 employees. He told Fox News Channel, "we hear these types of rumors every day."

"At this point in time, though he does have confidence in Dr. Shulkin," Gidley said. "But as you know, the president wants to put the right people in the right place at the right time and that could change."

Asked repeatedly Monday about Shulkin's status, White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters there were "no personnel announcements to make at this time." Addressing Trump's relationship with Shulkin, Shah said: "I haven't asked the president about it today so I don't want to comment on it too specifically."

Shulkin's fate has remained in doubt following a blistering report by VA's internal watchdog in February that found he had improperly accepted Wimbledon tennis tickets and his staff had doctored emails to justify his wife traveling to Europe with him at taxpayer expense. Earlier this month, two people familiar with the White House discussions told the AP that Trump increasingly viewed Shulkin as a distraction as the White House floated the names of possible candidates to replace him, including conservative "Fox & Friends" contributor Pete Hegseth.

A separate VA watchdog investigation, due out in the coming weeks, is also looking into a complaint that Shulkin asked his security detail to accompany him to a Home Depot store and cart furniture items, according to two people familiar with the allegation who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Last week, as replacement rumors swirled around him, Shulkin did not appear at a major veterans' event Friday held at the White House to preview a film. Shulkin typically is a regular presence at veterans' events in Washington, raising some questions among the more than 100 veterans in attendance on Friday about his job status.

Joe Chenelly, national executive director of AMVETS, said he worries that a lack of clarity from the White House on Shulkin's future was hurting veterans' care. Several major veterans' organizations were largely standing behind Shulkin as the best guardian of VA amid a planned overhaul of the Veterans Choice program, a Trump campaign priority aimed at expanding private care outside the VA system.

"Saying there are no changes 'at this point' each time does not provide the stabilizing moment the Trump administration needs to keep its veterans issues agenda strong," Chenelly said.

The White House has been actively vetting roughly half a dozen candidates who could replace Shulkin amid his ongoing ethics troubles, according to one person familiar with the White House discussions.

The potential replacements include Hegseth, a former military officer and former CEO of the conservative Concerned Veterans for America; former Rep. Jeff Miller, who had been chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee; retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg; Michael Kussman, a former VA undersecretary of health; Toby Cosgrove, a former president and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic; and Leo Mackay Jr., a former VA deputy secretary who is now senior vice president at Lockheed Martin Corp.

In the event of Shulkin's departure, deputy VA secretary Tom Bowman would serve as acting head of the VA until a nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Bowman has also come under criticism at the White House for being too moderate to push Trump's agenda of fixing veterans' care.

The department provides medical care and other benefits to 9 million military veterans in more than 1,700 health facilities around the U.S.

___

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.WARSAW, Poland (AP) - The Latest on the diplomatic fallout over the nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy in Britain (all times local):

7:45 a.m.

Russia's Embassy in Canberra has accused Australia of blindly following Britain by deciding to expel two Russian diplomats.

A man walks past the Russian embassy in Prague, Czech Republic, Monday, March 26, 2018. Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babis said during a press conference that the country is expelling three staffers from the Russian embassy as part of a coordinated European effort to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

The Australian government says the two are undeclared intelligence officers and must leave within seven days in response to the recent nerve agent attack on a former Russian military intelligence officer and his daughter in Britain.

The Russian Embassy said the regrettable decision jeopardized the bilateral relationship.

The embassy also said in a statement: "It is astonishing how easily the allies of Great Britain follow it blindly contrary to the norms of civilized bilateral dialogue and international relations, and against ... common sense."

Western nations have expelled more than 130 diplomats in recent days and almost all have said the personnel were actually intelligence officers.

___

12:30 a.m.

Australia has announced it is expelling two Russian diplomats in response to the recent nerve agent attack on a former Russian military intelligence officer and his daughter in Britain.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in a statement the two diplomats were undeclared intelligence officers and have been given seven days to leave Australia.

Turnbull slammed the attack as "the first offensive use of chemical weapons in Europe since World War II."

He also called it "reckless and deliberate" conduct by Russia that harms global security and violates rules against the use of chemical weapons.

___

11:35 p.m.

An Australian government minister has praised Western nations expelling more than 100 Russian diplomats and suggested Australia will soon follow their example.

Treasurer Scott Morrison told Sky News television his government will make an announcement later Tuesday on its response to allegations that Moscow used the Soviet-developed nerve agent to poison Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for the U.K., and his daughter, Yulia, on British soil. The two remain in critical condition and unconscious

Morrison says "we obviously have shown a lot of solidarity with Great Britain over this issue and welcome the announcements made by our allies and partners around the world."

Local media is reporting Australia will expel two Russian diplomats.

___

10:15 p.m.

Turkey is condemning the poison attack against the former Russian spy in Britain but has no plans to expel any Russian diplomats.

Without mentioning Russia, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement Monday that Turkey considers the use of chemical weapons as a crime against humanity and said the perpetrators of the attack on British soil should be caught and brought to justice.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said, however, that Turkey maintained "positive" ties with Russia and would not take any actions against Moscow.

Speaking to reporters following a Cabinet meeting, Bozdag said: "Turkey is not contemplating taking any decisions against Russia."

Turkey is a member of NATO but remains outside the European Union.

___

9:30 p.m.

Iceland says it has temporarily broken off high-level contacts with Russia and won't send any of its leaders to the soccer World Cup because of the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal.

Iceland's Foreign Ministry says the nerve-agent attack is a "grave violation of international law and threatens security and peace in Europe." It says it is suspending high-level bilateral contacts in solidarity with Britain and other Western nations who have imposed diplomatic sanctions on Moscow.

About 20 countries, including the United States and many EU nations, are expelling Russian diplomats over the attack, which has left former double agent Skripal and his daughter in critical condition.

Iceland's team is still due to compete in this summer's World Cup. The tiny North Atlantic nation, population 340,000, has qualified for the completion for the first time.

___

8:30 p.m.

Russia's U.N. envoy is calling a U.S. decision to expel a dozen diplomats posted to his country's U.N. mission "a very unfortunate, very unfriendly move."

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia spoke briefly to reporters outside a diplomatic luncheon Monday. He wouldn't give the diplomats' names, citing their privacy.

Meanwhile, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is closely following the developments and will "engage as appropriate with the governments concerned."

The U.S. and at least 16 European countries on Monday announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats, as the West sought joint punishment for Moscow's alleged poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain.

The U.S. and almost all the other countries publicly said the Russians being expelled were actually spies.

Russia's Foreign Ministry expressed its "strong protest" of the expulsions.

__

7:30 p.m.

The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman says Britain has made European countries hostage of its anti-Russian policy.

Maria Zakharova said in televised remarks that Britain failed to provide any evidence to back its accusations of Moscow's involvement in the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

The U.S., Canada, and more than a dozen European countries have joined Britain in expelling Russian diplomats in a show of solidarity over the poisoning. Russia has fiercely denied its involvement in the poisoning and warned that it will respond in kind.

Zakharova alleged that "powerful forces" in Britain and the United States were behind the attack, which she called a "provocation" aimed at unleashing a "Russophobic" campaign.

___

6:45 p.m.

A sign on the glass door of the Russian consulate's office in downtown Seattle said in Russian that the office was closed and would not be accepting new passport applications.

On Monday the United States ordered that the office in Seattle be shuttered and that a total of 60 diplomats in the country be expelled as punishment for Moscow's alleged role in poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

The move followed the closure last year of the Russian consulate in San Francisco. In Seattle, three people who showed up seeking new passports walked away in frustration. One young man, who declined to give his name, said: "The West Coast now has no consulates whatsoever, which means the closest one is in Houston...It's a huge inconvenience."

In a statement, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said "the real question is why it takes so long to stand with our allies and take action against a government who continues to threaten and undermine our democracy."

Durkan, a Democrat, is a former federal prosecutor appointed by President Barack Obama.

___

6:30 p.m.

Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs says authorities are expelling two diplomats from the Russian embassy in Madrid, adding that it considers the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England as an incident of "extreme gravity."

The ministry said in a statement the March 4 poisoning "represents a serious threat to our collective safety and to international laws." It did not identify the Russian diplomats in an email but said both have been told to abandon Spanish territory.

The U.S. and more than a dozen European nations announced coordinated expulsions of Russian diplomats Monday in solidarity with Britain, which blames Russia for the attack.

___

5:20 p.m.

British Prime Minister Theresa May says 18 countries have announced they are expelling more than 100 Russian intelligence officers in response to the nerve-agent poisoning of a former spy.

The U.S., Canada, Ukraine and 15 European nations have joined Britain in ordering out Russian diplomats who are accused of being spies working under diplomatic cover.

May told lawmakers in the House of Commons that the action is the "largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history."

The coordinated expulsions are a victory for U.K. attempts to rally an international response to the use of a nerve agent against Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury.

May says that Russia's "increasingly aggressive" behavior is a threat to the West's collective security.

___

5 p.m.

The Kremlin says Russia will likely respond quid pro quo to the expulsions of Russian diplomats by the United States and the European Union nations over the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies that Moscow will proceed from the "principle of reciprocity" while mulling over its response to the decisions made by Washington and EU countries.

Peskov said that the Foreign Ministry will analyze the situation and present a proposal to Putin, who will make the ultimate decision on how to respond.

Britain has accused Russia of involvement in the March 4 poisoning of former Russian spy Serge Skripal and his daughter who have remained in critical condition, accusations that Moscow has fiercely denied.

___

4:40 p.m.

Russia's ambassador to the U.S. says Washington's decision to expel 60 Russian diplomats over the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain is destroying what is left of Russia-U.S. ties.

Anatoly Antonov denounced the U.S. move as ill-considered and provocative and said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies that Moscow will make an "adequate" response.

He said Monday that the U.S. is "ruining what is left of Russian-U.S. ties," adding that Washington will bear responsibility for the consequences.

Britain has blamed Russia for the March 4 poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, accusations Moscow has fiercely denied.

In a show of solidarity with Britain, the U.S. and the EU have announced expulsions of Russian diplomats.

___

4:25 p.m.

Britain's foreign secretary says the coordinated expulsion of Russian diplomats by the U.S., Canada and European nations is "the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever."

Boris Johnson calls the expulsions an "extraordinary international response by our allies" and show that "Russia cannot break international rules with impunity."

Britain blames Russia for the March 4 poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. On Friday, the 28-nation European Union said it agreed that there is no other plausible explanation.

Russia and Britain have expelled 23 of each other's diplomats over the incident, which has sparked a Cold War-style diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West.

Britain says the Russians it expelled were spies operating under diplomatic cover.

___

4:20 p.m.

Russia's Foreign Ministry is expressing its outrage over the expulsions of Russian diplomats by European Union and NATO members in solidarity with Britain, saying that Moscow will respond.

Britain has accused Russia of involvement in the March 4 poisoning of former Russian spy Serge Skripal and his daughter, accusations that Moscow has denied. The United States and many EU nations have announced that they are expelling Russian diplomats.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reaffirms in Monday's statement that the British accusations are unfounded. It adds that the allies of Britain are "blindly following the principle of Euro-Atlantic solidarity in violation of common sense, norms of civilized international dialogue and international law."

It says Russia will respond to the "unfriendly" move but doesn't immediately say how.

___

4:15 p.m.

Canada says it is expelling four Russian diplomats in solidarity with Britain.

Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland says the nerve agent attack carried out on the soil of Canada's close ally is despicable and potentially endangered the lives of hundreds of people.

Canada also says three applications by the Russian government for additional diplomatic staff will now be denied.

The four being expelled have been identified as intelligence officers or individuals who have used their diplomatic status to "undermine Canada's security or interfere in our democracy." They are at the embassy in Ottawa and the consulate in Montreal.

Meanwhile, Romania's foreign ministry says it is expelling one Russian diplomat, calling the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal "a threat to collective security and international law." The ministry says it agrees with Britain's assessment that Russia likely was responsible for the attack.

___

4:05 p.m.

A senior Russian lawmaker says Moscow must respond in kind to the expulsions of Russian diplomats ordered by the United States and the European Union over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of parliament, says on Facebook that Russia must respond proportionately.

He denounces the wave of expulsions as a "dirty and mean game that has no precedent."

Britain has blamed Russia for the March 4 poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, accusations Russia has fiercely denied.

In a show of solidarity with Britain, the United States now says it is kicking out 60 Russian diplomats, while many EU nations also are announcing similar expulsions.

___

3:50 p.m.

A European Union official says 14 member nations have expelled a total of more than 30 Russian officials over the nerve agent attack on an ex-spy in Britain.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the process hasn't been completed yet.

EU governments and the White House on Monday made coordinated announcements to expel Russian diplomats from their countries to show solidarity with Britain over the poisoning, which Britain blames on Russia. Russia denies responsibility.

France announced it was expelling four Russian diplomats by next week. In a statement, the foreign ministry said the attack "represents a serious threat to our collective security and international law."

___

3:40 p.m.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says his nation is expelling 13 Russian diplomats, acting in sync with the U.S. and the EU nations.

Poroshenko says on Facebook that Ukraine is acting in the "spirit of solidarity" with its "British partners and trans-Atlantic allies." The U.S. is kicking out 60 Russian diplomats, Germany and Poland said they have asked four Russian diplomats to leave and other EU nations have made similar moves.

Russia and Ukraine have been in a tug-of-war since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and support for pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Poroshenko on Monday called for further "raising the price" for Moscow through financial and economic sanctions.

___

3:30 p.m.

The White House says the expulsion of Russian diplomats and closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle will "make the United States safer."

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says in a statement Monday President Donald Trump is responding to "Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom." She says the move will reduce "Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten America's national security."

The administration expelled 60 Russian diplomats and ordered Russia's consulate in Seattle to close, as the United States and European nations sought to jointly punish Moscow for its alleged role in poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

Sanders says the United States and allies want to send a message to Russia that "actions have consequences."

___

3:20 p.m.

European Union chief Donald Tusk says 14 member nations are expelling Russian diplomatic staff over the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Britain.

Tusk said Monday that there may be additional measures including further expulsions in the coming days and weeks.

In coordinated announcements of expulsions on Monday, the Czech Republic said it is kicking out three staffers from the Russian embassy. Andrej Babis calls the measure an expression of solidarity with Britain.

The Netherlands said it is expelling two Russian intelligence officers, while Estonia said it was expelling the Russian defense attache. The Italian Foreign Ministry announced that Italy would expel two Russian diplomats assigned to the embassy within a week

__

3:10 p.m.

Poland, Germany and Lithuania are among the European countries announcing they are expelling Russian diplomats over the poisoning of Russian ex-spy in Britain.

Germany and Poland both say they have asked four Russian diplomats to leave, while in Lithuania, three Russian diplomats were ordered to leave.

The German foreign ministry said in a statement that the move was part of a joint European response to the Skripal case.

It said "the expulsion of four diplomats is a strong signal of solidarity with Great Britain and signals the resolve of the Germany government not to leave attacks against our closest partners and allies unanswered."

The ministry added that the move was also a response to the recent cyberattacks against German government networks, "which according to information so far is highly likely to be attributable to Russian sources."

___

3 p.m.

The United States is kicking out 60 Russian diplomats and ordering Russia's consulate in Seattle to close in response to the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain.

Senior Trump administration officials say the expelled Russians include 12 spies who the U.S. believes are working under diplomatic cover at Russia's mission to the United Nations. They say the Seattle consulate is a counter-intelligence concern because of its proximity to a U.S. Navy base.

The officials say the actions are being taken to send a message about the "unacceptably high" number of Russian spies in the U.S. and to respond to the attack in the U.K. The officials weren't authorized to be identified by name and requested anonymity.

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the U.S.

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila talks to the media during a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, on Monday March 26, 2018. Finland has decided to expel one Russian diplomat in response to the nerve agent attack on an ex-spy in Salisbury England. Fourteen European Union nations were expelling Russian diplomats, EU chief Donald Tusk said, with more likely to follow (Emmi KorhonenLehtikuva via AP)

Poland's Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz tells reporters that Poland is expelling four high-ranking Russian diplomats over the poisoning of Russian ex-spy in Britain, at the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 26, 2018.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babis gestures during a press conference in Prague, Czech Republic, Monday, March 26, 2018. Babis said that the country is expelling three staffers from the Russian embassy as part of a coordinated European effort to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Czech Republic's Foreign Minister Martin Stropnicky arrives for a press conference in Prague, Czech Republic, Monday, March 26, 2018. Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babis said during a press conference that the country is expelling three staffers from the Russian embassy as part of a coordinated European effort to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain. Stropnicky said the three have to leave by April 1, together with the members of their families. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babis leaves after a press conference in Prague, Czech Republic, Monday, March 26, 2018. Babis said that the country is expelling three staffers from the Russian embassy as part of a coordinated European effort to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

A taxi in front of the Russian Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 26, 2018.Russia's Ambassador to Poland Sergei Andreev was summoned Monday to Poland's Foreign Ministry and said he will stay in Warsaw in the coming weeks, but "we will see" about other embassy employees.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

A taxi in front of the Russian Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 26, 2018.Russia's Ambassador to Poland Sergei Andreev was summoned Monday to Poland's Foreign Ministry and said he will stay in Warsaw in the coming weeks, but "we will see" about other embassy employees.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - In a story March 26 about German diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, The Associated Press misspelled the last name of Germany's new foreign minister, Heiko Maas. A corrected version of the story is below:

German FM urges Palestinians 'not to tear down bridges'

Germany's foreign minister says the new government remains committed to two-state solution, urges Palestinians "not to tear down bridges"

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Germany's new foreign minister on Monday urged the Palestinians "not to tear down bridges," an apparent reference to President Mahmoud Abbas' contentious relationship with the U.S. and political rival Hamas.

Heiko Maas also acknowledged differences with Israel about the international community's nuclear deal with Iran, but gave no commitment to altering the deal ahead of a mid-May deadline set by President Donald Trump.

Maas was on his first trip to the Middle East since becoming foreign minister earlier this month.

Meeting Palestinian leaders in Ramallah, he said the new German government remains committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Trump administration has refused to make such a commitment. In December, President Donald Trump recognized contested Jerusalem as Israel's capital, prompting Abbas to rule out the U.S. as a future Mideast broker.

Maas said Monday that peace efforts without the U.S. "would be difficult."

Meanwhile, months-long efforts to sideline Hamas in Gaza through a deal with Abbas appear to have collapsed after a Gaza bombing narrowly missed Abbas' prime minister this month.

Later in Jerusalem, Maas professed his country's friendship with Israel, despite differences over the two-state solution, which Netanyahu no longer endorses, and the Iranian nuclear issue.

"Our views differ, but first and foremost we are friends," he said. "We want to hear from our friends their concerns and fears, and therefore I have come here."

Netanyahu has been an outspoken critic of the 2015 nuclear deal, and urged the international community to "fix it or nix it." He says the deal does not have sufficient safeguards to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Given Trump's mid-May deadline, U.S. negotiators have been working with Britain, France and Germany on a follow-on pact that would address Trump's three major complaints. Trump wants to penalize Iran for ballistic missiles, which weren't part of the original deal. He also wants to expand access for international nuclear inspectors and prolong the limits on Iran's nuclear activity, currently scheduled to expire in several years.

Maas has said he was profoundly affected by the Holocaust, and his agenda included a meeting with Israeli Holocaust survivors and a visit to Israel's Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem.

"As a German this was a very moving visit," he said, professing his opposition to anti-Semitism and praising the warm welcome he received. "I am moved as if I have received a gift that I do not deserve."The government has revealed only now that the Pulse nightclub shooter's father was an FBI informant for 11 years before the attack, lawyers for his widow said Monday.

They said prosecutors also told them in an email Saturday that the government found evidence on the day of the attack that Omar Mateen's father, Seddique Mateen, had been sending money to Afghanistan and Turkey, and that he had been accused of raising money to fund violence against the government of Pakistan.

Noor Salman's lawyers say this new information - shared only after prosecutors rested their case - should result in a mistrial or an outright dismissal of the charges against her. Salman is accused of helping her husband plan his June 2016 attack at the gay nightclub in Orlando, where he killed 49 people.

FILE- In this June 15, 2016 file photo Seddique Mir Mateen, father of Omar Mateen, the shooter of the Pulse nightclub massacre, talks to reporters in Fort Pierce, Fla. Lawyers for Noor Salman, the widow of the Pulse nightclub shooter, say they've only just been told that the attacker's father was an FBI informant for 11 years. The attorneys are seeking a mistrial in her case. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)

Her lawyers say the government's belated disclosure has prevented them from exploring the possibilities that Seddique Mateen was more directly involved, and that Salman may have been framed to hide the government's mistakes.

What is clear is that the federal government's failure to disclose these details is keeping her from getting a fair trial, her attorneys said.

The government's "violations in this case have placed Ms. Salman, the jury, and this Court in a dark wood where the search for truth has been thwarted," they wrote, paraphrasing and citing 15th Century Italian poet Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy.

Her lawyers' federal court motion filed Monday says U.S. Attorney Sara Sweeney sent them an email Saturday revealing some details of the FBI's involvement with and knowledge of Seddique Mateen's activities leading up to the Pulse attack.

"I have just received authorization to disclose the following information about Seddique Mateen," her email said. "Seddique Mateen was a FBI confidential human source at various points in time between January 2005 and June 2016."

This email was sent after jurors heard Shahla Mateen deny during cross-examination that her husband had any relationship with the FBI.

The email also revealed other details the prosecution didn't tell jurors before resting its case against Salman, including the discovery in the hours after the shooting that "receipts for money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan" made in the days and weeks before the shooting were found at Seddique Mateen's home, and that in 2012, an anonymous tipster had accused Seddique Mateen of "seeking to raise $50,000 - $100,000 via a donation drive to contribute towards an attack against the government of Pakistan."

Defense attorneys say the failure to share this information in advance of her trial violates Salman's Fifth Amendment right to due process and Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial, because her defense would have investigated "whether Mateen's father was involved in or had foreknowledge of the Pulse attack," they wrote.

Prosecutors told the jury that Salman knew Omar Mateen was buying rounds of ammunition for his AR-15, helped him spend thousands of dollars before the attack and knew about his plan when he left their home in the hours before the shooting. They also say she lied, tried to mislead FBI agents and had knowledge of her husband's sick fascination with violent jihadist videos and terrorism.

But defense attorneys describe Salman as a simple woman with a low IQ, who was abused emotionally, mentally and physically by her husband. This latest evidence, they say, points instead to Mateen's father as a potential accomplice.

"There are two viable theories of defense that could have been developed . First, Omar Mateen conspired with his father, rather than Noor Salman, to commit the acts," the defense wrote.

"Alternatively, the FBI's purported interviews with Ms. Salman were directed to evading the negligence they exercised with their own informant," the motion says, and "to finding an additional culprit rather than their own informant."

Former federal prosecutor David S. Weinstein agreed that if the defense had this information about Mateen's father before trial, they could have planted doubt in the minds of jurors that Salman was ever involved. The defense began presenting its case on Monday, and at this point the judge will likely keep the trial going while he evaluates the motion, he said.

"The judge has to digest everything that's in there and give the government chance to respond. He doesn't want to lose days of trial," Weinstein told The Associated Press.

Ahmed Bedier, president of the civil rights advocacy group United Voices, has been attending the trial in support of Salman. He said Salman's family had suspected Seddique Mateen might have been working with the FBI, but they lacked evidence to support this. Bedier also noted that when Omar Mateen was interviewed by the FBI in 2013 and not charged with false statements or any other crime, it enabled him to legally secure the firearms he used in the Pulse attack.

"We always felt that there were huge problems with this case and suspicious motivations on behalf of the government to prosecute Noor on such little evidence. This new discovery is very revealing and raises a lot of questions about the FBI and the Department of Justice's actions in investigating the mass shooting," Bedier said.

"They chose to protect their own informant and their own connection to Omar Mateen," Bedier said. "The fact that Omar Mateen's father was an informant for 11 years, and the FBI interviewed Omar Mateen himself in 2013, there's suspicion now that it's because of this father that the government closed that case."

Salman, now 31 and the mother of a small child, is being tried in federal court in Orlando. It's unclear when the judge will rule on the motion to dismiss.

As for Seddique Mateen, the government had listed him as a potential witness in February, but did not make him testify before resting its case. The wording of the Saturday email, cited by the defense in its motion, suggests the government still doesn't want him to talk too much in front of the jury: "If you should call S. Mateen to the stand, the government will not seek to elicit any of this information from him," Sweeney wrote.

A man who answered a Florida phone number for Seddique Mateen hung up after asking an AP reporter to identify himself.

A Homeland Security K-9 officer, left, approaches Bob Kunst, of Miami Beach, Fla., who came to make a statement outside federal court, in Orlando, Fla., where the widow of the man who shot 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando is going on trial, Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Noor Salman is charged with aiding and abetting her husband Omar Mateen in planning the 2016 attack on the Pulse nightclub. She's faces life in prison if convicted. She has pleaded not guilty. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

Jean McCann,left, and Melba Underbakke, executive director, Coalition for Civil Freedom, hold a banner outside the Federal Courthouse in Orlando, Fla., during opening statements Wednesday, March 14, 2018 in the trial of Noor Salman. Salman went on trial Wednesday in Orlando. The 31-year-old is accused of aiding and abetting her husband in his attack on the Pulse nightclub in June of 2016. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)WASHINGTON (AP) - A doctored animation and photo have surfaced online appearing to show one of the survivors of the Florida high school shooting tearing up the U.S. Constitution.

The image of Emma Gonzalez was doctored from a March 23 "Teen Vogue" story in which she ripped up a shooting range target. The publication's editors pointed out the fake image on Twitter.

The doctored animation and news stories about it were shared nearly 70,000 times on social media.

FILE -- In this March 24, 2018 file photo, Emma Gonzalez, a survivor of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., closes her eyes and cries as she stands silently at the podium for the amount of time it took the Parkland shooter to go on his killing spree during the "March for Our Lives" rally in support of gun control in Washington. A doctored photo online appeared to show Gonzalez tearing up the U.S. Constitution. , Saturday, March 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik File)

Supporters of the Second Amendment pointed to the image as evidence that gun control supporters are going too far.

Gun control supporters expressed outrage when the image was shown to be fake.

Gonzalez spoke with other Parkland, Florida, students on Saturday at a protest in Washington to demand action on gun control.JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Former South African president Jacob Zuma has been summoned to appear in court on April 6 on charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering.

South African police confirm that the summons to a court in the coastal city of Durban was issued on Monday.

Earlier this month, prosecutors announced they were reinstating charges that were thrown out nearly a decade ago in a contentious decision that opened the way for Zuma to become president. The charges relate to an arms deal in the 1990s, when he was deputy president.

Zuma, whose tenure was marked by scandals, says he has not done anything wrong. He resigned Feb. 14 after he was ordered to do so by his party, the African National Congress.JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The joke has always been that Alaska is so wealthy, it pays its residents to live here. But those yearly checks have gotten smaller, and could undergo a massive change, as Alaska struggles to pay state troopers and fix roads amid years of low oil prices.

After oil started flowing from Alaska's North Slope in the late 1970s, so did the checks, which eventually were paid with earnings from an oil-wealth fund that's grown to about $65 billion through investments. Times were so good, the state in 1980 repealed its personal income tax, a decision that has been politically impossible to undo as the state grapples with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

Now, with their options for filling the deficit dwindling, lawmakers may have no choice but to use Alaska Permanent Fund earnings to help pay the state's bills. Over the years, the size of residents' annual checks has varied based on the market's performance, averaging about $1,145. They reached an all-time high of $2,072 in 2015 - totaling more than an extra $10,000 for a family of five - before state leaders started contemplating some use of fund earnings for government costs and Gov. Bill Walker limited the payout.

In this March 13, 2018, photo, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker speaks by phone to a reporter not physically present for a media availability at the governor's mansion in Juneau, Alaska. Walker has taken heat for limiting the size of the check that residents receive from Alaska's oil-wealth fund earnings but has stood by that action, saying it was taken to help save the program into the future. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

The prospect isn't sitting well with some.

"I'm not willing to give them anything," said Clem Tillion, a former state lawmaker and longtime fund defender who with others unsuccessfully sued over Walker's halving of dividend checks in 2016.

Alaska received more than 156,000 square miles (404,000 square kilometers) of land as a "dowry" at statehood, with mineral rights belonging to the people, Tillion said. The checks are their share, he said.

Major proposals for using the fund's earnings involve changing how the checks are calculated, fueling a political debate expected to spill into this year's gubernatorial and legislative races.

The choices are limited: With oil revenue unable to sustain the state budget, savings accounts drawn low, Republicans seeing new or higher taxes as unnecessary, and Democrats against deeper budget cuts, what's left are the earnings from the state's nest-egg.

Fund earnings, by one estimate, could total around $16 billion by the end of this fiscal year, though lawmakers are eyeing only a fraction of that. The Legislature is scheduled to end its session in mid-April but has run long in recent years.

The checks are widely seen as an entitlement - discretionary money for many Alaskans but critical income for others, particularly lower-income residents living in high-cost rural communities where a gallon of milk can cost about $10.

The decision, first by Walker, then by lawmakers, to not follow the formula in law for dividend calculations the past two years has fueled anger and distrust among some Alaskans who fear a money grab, even as state leaders say they're motivated by a desire to protect a dividend into the future.

"I don't believe them," said Jeff Taylor, a single dad in the tiny town of Anderson, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southwest of Fairbanks.

Life in Alaska is tough, said Taylor, whose home is intentionally small to reduce heating costs. He sees the slashed checks as taking money from children, including his 5-year-old son.

Taylor blames Walker, an independent who cut dividends in 2016 to $1,022. Lawmakers agreed to a similarly reduced amount last year.

"Right now, I'd rather have him just sit on his hands and don't touch nothing until the next election is over," Taylor said.

Walker, who has unsuccessfully pushed tax proposals to help fill the deficit, stands by his actions. He and legislative leaders have favored turning the permanent fund into an endowment, where a portion of earnings would be drawn based on an average of the fund's market value.

Under existing proposals, which vary in their draw rates, the split that could go to state government ranges from about two-thirds to three-fourths, with the rest to residents. The yearly checks initially would range from about $1,000 to $1,250.

The House majority, composed largely of Democrats, and the Republican-led Senate are divided over what more should be done before permanently altering the dividend.

With higher oil prices and improved production estimates from the prodigious North Slope, there is no need to discuss taxes now, said Senate President Pete Kelly, a Fairbanks Republican.

State Revenue Commissioner Sheldon Fisher noted even with a rosier price outlook, Alaska faces a deficit of about $2.3 billion.

The permanent fund's principal is protected in the state constitution; the checks aren't. House leaders have flirted with the idea of changing that, though legislative legal adviser Doug Gardner said constitutionally guaranteeing a specific amount could improperly infringe upon legislative appropriation and gubernatorial veto powers. Any proposed constitutional change would need two-thirds backing in the House and Senate before going to voters.

While many Alaskans support protecting the annual checks, they have urged a more equal split between their share and the government's.

Don Fritz said he's a longtime Alaska resident and in between jobs, though he said his wife says he's retired. He said the dividend doesn't belong in the constitution. At best, he said it should compete with other programs for funding.

"To me, it's one of many things that need to be prioritized," such as public safety and education, he said.

FILE - In this March 5, 2013, file photo, former Sen. Clem Tillion speaks during the Alaska Legislative Centennial at Rockwell's restaurant in Juneau, Alaska. Tillion, a former state legislator, has supported the existing law for calculating the annual check that Alaska residents receive from the state's oil-wealth fund and was part of an effort that unsuccessfully challenged Gov. Bill Walker's 2016 halving of the checks. (Michael Penn/The Juneau Empire via AP, File)LONDON (AP) - British prime minister Theresa May says former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter may never recover from a nerve-agent attack that has left them in critical condition.

May says "their condition is unlikely to change in the near future, and they may never recover fully."

May told lawmakers that more than 130 people in the English city of Salisbury may have been exposed to the nerve agent used to poison the Skripals. More than 50 people have been assessed in hospitals.

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks with the media as she leaves an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, March 23, 2018. Leaders from the 28 European Union nations meet for a two-day summit to assess the state of Brexit negotiations, the prospect of a trade war with the United States and how to react to Russia following to the nerve agent attack in Britain. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

A police officer left seriously ill after the March 4 attack was released from hospital last week.

The U.K. blames Russia for the attack, but Moscow denies responsibility. On Monday about 20 countries, including the United States, joined Britain in expelling Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning.JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's defense minister has thanked the United States for including a "record-breaking" $705 million to aid the country's missile defense in the spending bill passed last week.

Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that the aid will be used for the development of Israel's multi-layered system, which is designed to shoot down short-range rockets from Gaza and Lebanon and counter long-range threats like that posed by Iran.

The U.S. provides $3.1 billion in military aid to Israel each year under a 10-year security arrangement. The $705 million is a separate allocation, and is up from the $600 million provided for missile defense last year.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill on Friday that provides billions in new funding for the military and national security.QUEBEC CITY (AP) - The man accused in the slayings of six men at a Quebec City mosque has pleaded not guilty.

Alexandre Bissonnette entered the pleas in a courtroom Monday ahead of pretrial motions to be debated this week.

Bissonnette faces six charges of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder. More than 50 people were at the Islamic Cultural Centre in January 2017 when the shooting began during evening prayers on a Sunday.

Those who monitor extremist groups in Quebec described the French-Canadian university student as someone who took extreme nationalist positions at Laval University and on social media. He was a supporter of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Quebec's premier previously acknowledged the French-speaking province has its "demons" in terms of attitudes toward Muslims.As questions mounted last year about whether Facebook had been exploited to tilt the U.S. presidential election, Mark Zuckerberg's to-do list landed him on a fishing trawler off Alabama's Gulf coast.

But the chatter surrounding the CEO's arrival in port was that it signaled something bigger than just the start of a 30-state personal tour: his designs on a job even more powerful than leading the social network that links 2.2 billion people worldwide.

"It was one of the last things I asked him, thinking it would put a smile on his face - and it did," said Dominick Ficarino, who owns a shrimp business in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, and hosted a dockside lunch for Zuckerberg that Sunday afternoon.

"I asked him if he was interested in running for president of the United States. And his answer to me was: 'Can I answer you with a question? If you were me, would you?'"

Thirteen months later, Zuckerberg no longer has the luxury of mulling a hypothetical next act. Instead, he is grappling with a crisis that has enveloped the company synonymous with his face and name. It does not help that the most glaring reminder of Facebook's flaws is the unabated uproar over the American presidency itself.

"The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to do," Zuckerberg wrote in January, laying out the "personal challenge" that he sets for himself each year.

In 2017, the billionaire challenged himself to travel to every state he'd never visited. This year, long after critics began demanding an overhaul, Zuckerberg said his personal goal is to "fix" the platform that he has engineered to build community - but that is increasingly blamed for warping it.

Yet things continue to get worse. Scrutiny of Facebook has intensified following reports that it failed to prevent the data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica from amassing personal information about millions of users - possibly used to aid Donald Trump's campaign - and that the social network has been collecting Android users' phone call and text message histories without notice. That adds to criticism that Facebook manipulates its users and has allowed Russian bots to divide Americans by spreading false information.

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission announced it was investigating Facebook for its privacy practices.

Throughout the mounting crisis, Zuckerberg's response has been a study in contradictions. He crisscrossed the country, even as his company back home came under increasing fire. He preaches transparency, but flinches at questioning and craves privacy. He is undeniably brilliant, but stubborn in his reluctance to acknowledge the extent of Facebook's problems.

Even his critics say he is uniquely capable of righting the ship. But at 33, is he prepared to do all it will take?

"If he fails to do it, it may take a while but eventually people are going to rebel," said Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor and adviser who has become one of the company's most pointed critics.

"I thought Facebook was a force for good in the world for a really long time," McNamee said. "I think it's really hard to make that case today."

___

Days after Trump's election, Zuckerberg was pressed on the possibility that foreign agents had used his social network to divide voters.

"The idea that fake news on Facebook ... influenced the election in any way, I think, is a pretty crazy idea," the CEO told the audience at a California technology conference.

"I think all of us were shocked to learn how wrong he was," said David Kirkpatrick, the author of a 2010 book about Facebook who questioned Zuckerberg that day. "You can certainly say that he was culpable, in that he was naive and inattentive to what was happening in his system. But I don't think he was lying."

Zuckerberg walked back the remark soon after, continuing a years-long routine of self-correction. But errors that reflect his stubbornness, those who know him say, are tempered by an eagerness to learn from mistakes and a deep sense of reflection.

Donald Graham, the former chairman of the Washington Post Co., recalled that when he met Zuckerberg in 2005, outsiders still weren't sure what to make of Facebook.

"I would ask him a question and he would pause long enough - 15 seconds, 20 seconds - that I would think 'Did I insult him? Did he not hear me?'" said Graham, who went on to serve on the company's board from 2008 to 2015.

"Since I am from Washington, I'm not used to people thinking before they are answering a question. ... But Mark, then as now, was thinking about the right answer."

Zuckerberg's boyish appearance, even today, is a reminder of just how young he was when he created what would become the world's biggest social network, back in his dorm room at Harvard.

"I didn't know anything about building a company or global internet service," he wrote in January. "Over the years I've made almost every mistake you can imagine."

Naomi Gleit, Facebook's longest-serving employee after the CEO, said Zuckerberg - who declined an interview request from The Associated Press - has been talking about making the world a better place since he was 21. But his view of that world and his place in it "seemed almost like a gravity, a burden of responsibility," she said.

That seriousness coincides with a sense of certainty.

Gleit recalled Zuckerberg's steadfast attachment to a Facebook message service similar to email, even as more people began using phones to send text messages. But co-workers eventually swayed the CEO, who she described as a "learn-it-all." That change-of-mind informed Facebook's 2014 purchase of the WhatsApp messaging service for $19 billion.

"I think he would even say now that he was initially wrong," Gleit said.

With Zuckerberg, "its experiment, learn, experiment, learn," said LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who has known him since 2004. Hoffman said that is evident in Zuckerberg's enthusiasm for software, which can be overwritten to fix problems. That facility, he said, makes Zuckerberg the equal of executives with far more experience.

But in the process of learning, Zuckerberg's inexperience has sometimes played out in public view.

___

In 2010, Zuckerberg announced on Oprah Winfrey's television show that he would donate $100 million to schools in Newark, New Jersey.

Critics labeled it an attempt to polish his image, just as the biopic "The Social Network" was being released. Still, there was little questioning his generosity. The problem was that Zuckerberg - who knew little about education - made the gift with few specifics outlining how it should be spent.

"He was just a very young, naive, inexperienced guy who was brilliant at technology and computers and the internet, but just really didn't know much about how the world worked," said Dale Russakoff, author of "The Prize," a book chronicling how the money went to high-priced consultants, with minimal effort by leaders to build community support.

By the end of the process, Zuckerberg had developed a clearer understanding of how to get things done. He and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, have since chartered their own foundation and structured it to take on mammoth goals, like a $3 billion investment to cure, prevent or manage all diseases. He has pledged to donate 99 percent of his Facebook stock to philanthropy.

"Zuck's maturation has occurred in front of the public," said Kirkpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that Is Connecting the World." ''But he also still lives with the consequences of the decisions he made when he was less mature."

At Facebook, Zuckerberg has grown increasingly bold in using huge sums of money to pursue corporate goals, which includes purchasing competitors - or companies that could grow into competitors.

Facebook's $1 billion purchase of Instagram in 2012 - then unprofitable and little-known - came as a shock to Wall Street. Two years later came the multibillion-dollar deal to buy WhatsApp, a company that remains unprofitable but has given Facebook a prime portal into developing countries and other regions outside the U.S.

In 2014, soon after Facebook bought a virtual reality firm called Oculus, Zuckerberg found himself being grilled in a lawsuit brought by a competitor who accused an Oculus executive of stealing trade secrets. Under questioning, he talked about the pressure he exerted to make the Oculus deal happen, and his vision of growing it so fast "that we can get every developer and studio in the world building just for Oculus before any big competitor exists."

Last year, in a bid to free up his fortune for philanthropy, Zuckerberg pushed board members to restructure Facebook's stock, allowing him to sell off part of his stake while maintaining control. That prompted a suit by a group of shareholders who argued that the move would benefit only Zuckerberg while diluting the value of other investors' stakes. Days before Zuckerberg was scheduled to testify as part of the suit, the company dropped the plan.

The gambit hints at the complexity of being Zuckerberg, who advocates for transparency and the interests of the community but whose individual interests don't always align.

The paradox is self-inflicted, the trade-off for creating a venture premised on users' willingness to share details of their lives. That requires Zuckerberg, who has 105 million Facebook "friends," to reveal far more about himself than would be expected of any other CEO, whether its photos of him and Chan baking sweets for the Jewish holiday of Purim or dressing their daughters for the Chinese New Year.

Yet he fiercely guards his privacy.

When calls went out last year for Zuckerberg to testify before a Senate committee, the company sent its lawyer. And when he and Chan bought 700 acres on the Hawaiian island of Kauai last year, they quietly filed lawsuits against hundreds of Hawaiians - withdrawn after protests - that would have cut off locals' access to the land by negating their interest in small ancestral tracts within the estate's boundaries.

"Intellectually, he believes in transparency," Kirkpatrick said. "But emotionally, it's very difficult for him."

____

Facebook works hard to present Zuckerberg as someone deeply interested in the ordinary people whose lives are at the heart of its business.

Stops on last year's U.S. tour, never announced, were set up by facilitators who revealed details to only a select few. But many of the visits were covered by the media and documented in professional-quality photos on Zuckerberg's Facebook page soon after he'd departed.

Ostensibly, the idea was for Zuckerberg to learn. But in their brief interactions, many people were just as interested in finding a way to connect with him.

In Hazard, Kentucky, educator Paul Green became custodian of the small town's biggest secret. A staffer from Zuckerberg's foundation, peppering Green with questions about the region's educational cooperative, finally admitted it was because the CEO himself wanted to visit. Green's reward for keeping it quiet was seeing the wide-eyed grins when Zuckerberg pulled up and greeted local high schoolers studying robotics and programming.

Walking through science demonstrations, Zuckerberg spent more time trading tech tales with the teenagers than quizzing the teachers.

"He just lit up with those kids," Green said. "The way he talked with them about some of the things he did when he was in school and his passion for technology, it really was cool."

When Zuckerberg toured an oil rig near Williston, North Dakota, last July, "from the minute he got out of the car to the minute he got back in the car, he was nothing but questions," said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, which arranged the visit.

"I had Bakken shale, limestone, dolomite, and he was able to hold them in his hand, along with a bottle of crude oil. And I remember him asking, 'How do you get that oil out of that rock?'" geologist Kathleen Neset said.

In Dayton, Ohio, Zuckerberg met with officials, caregivers and families battling drug addiction. Lori Erion, the founder of the group Families of Addicts, said she told him what it was like to learn her daughter, April, had shot up heroin in their own home.

"It seemed to get him really emotional," Erion said, recalling how Zuckerberg stood up suddenly and told the group he needed a few minutes to steady himself. When he returned, he asked what makes an addict stay clean and how families got their loved ones into treatment.

"We didn't ever talk about Facebook at all," Erion said, "which is really interesting because Facebook is really the main way of us getting information out. He really was just like a regular person."

___

As Zuckerberg connected with Americans face-to-face, controversy over Facebook continued to spiral.

Shortly before the election, McNamee sent a letter to Zuckerberg and Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, warning that Facebook was being manipulated in ways its creators never intended. It wasn't just about the U.S. election: A consulting firm had collected data on people interested in the Black Lives Matter movement and sold it to police departments, and critics had detected a well-organized, clandestine campaign supporting Brexit.

All this pointed to a deep problem with Facebook - that it was simply not equipped or not willing to prevent the misuse of its platform.

McNamee said he has been disappointed in the incremental changes announced since.

Facebook has adopted this "libertarian philosophy that says 'we are not responsible for anything downstream, we are allowed to disrupt media, we are allowed to addict our users and we are not responsible for any of the consequences of any of that,'" he said.

Zuckerberg could change that. But McNamee said it is not enough to hire thousands of workers to weed through fake and abusive posts if those posts keep getting through. And tweaking Facebook's newsfeed so users see more posts from families and friends does not address his certainty that the algorithms underlying Facebook make it dangerously addictive.

"You cannot cure addiction by doing more of the thing that got you addicted in the first place, which is what Zuck recommends," McNamee wrote in an email.

Critics say Facebook continues to ignore the possibility of the social network being used for dark purposes, but Zuckerberg's supporters counter that he is unfairly blamed for problems he could not have foreseen.

Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder, credits Zuckerberg with leading Facebook through a shift in mindset, making changes that will nudge users into a more positive virtual environment - without completely shutting out inflammatory content.

"Facebook basically is saying we enable people based on the way they behave. That's a very democratic argument. If people want to live in filter bubbles, who are we to say 'Don't live in filter bubbles,' even though we don't want them to?" Hoffman said.

But Kirkpatrick argued that Zuckerberg's and Sandberg's surety that Facebook has a positive impact on society has blinded them to parallel realities. The company can't be fixed, Kirkpatrick said, until Zuckerberg comes to terms with existential threats to the way the social network does business - its potential to negatively affect democracy and the way it hooks in users.

"There's no question in my mind that Mark Zuckerberg is an ethical and responsible human being who wants to do the right thing," he said. "However, I do not think he has yet grasped the gravity with which his service is being perceived to be a socially harmful force all around the world. And I also don't think he realizes the extent to which that really is true."

McNamee, recalling Zuckerberg as a 22-year-old visionary, said the CEO must be willing to rethink long-held assumptions. But that does not mean he has to abandon building his global community.

"You've won," McNamee said he would tell Zuckerberg if asked again for his counsel.

"You've achieved more than your wildest dreams. You're a billionaire. Now you have a chance to be a hero."FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) - Sierra Leone's Supreme Court on Monday approved the election commission's request to delay Tuesday's runoff presidential vote until the weekend after the lifting of an interim injunction that had stalled preparations.

The commission applied for more time once the West African nation's high court vacated the injunction that was granted Saturday after a member of the ruling party filed a petition citing irregularities in the first round on March 7. The opposition called the petition a delay tactic.

The runoff election is now set for Saturday.

Tensions have risen in the nation of 7 million people after neither the ruling All Peoples Congress party candidate nor the leading opposition candidate won the first round outright. The opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party, which took 43.3 percent to the ruling party's 42.7 in the first round, has not held the presidency since 2007.

Opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio, a former military leader, on Sunday said his party would not accept a delay in the vote. He also accused President Ernest Bai Koroma and the ruling party of "pushing us to the point of chaos in the country." Koroma has served two terms and is barred by the constitution from running again.

Bio, who is making his second bid for the presidency after losing in 2012, stands to pick up votes from the 14 candidates eliminated in the first round.

The winner of the runoff will be tasked with helping the country continue to rebuild after the devastating 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic as well as a deadly mudslide in August that claimed some 1,000 lives in the capital, Freetown.

The election is the fourth since Sierra Leone's brutal civil war ended in 2002, and the previous vote in 2012 was largely peaceful.HOUSTON (AP) - The flood control district for the Houston area is considering a proposal to build massive underground tunnels to drain floodwaters from bayous across the county.

Harris County Flood Control District officials said the idea could be a bold solution to alleviating the chronic flooding that has plagued the Houston area, including during Hurricane Harvey.

The project could cost several billion dollars and take several years to complete, the Houston Chronicle reported . It would build a network of deep tunnels to carry water from several of Houston's waterways, so that they'd be able to keep a 100-year storm event within their banks.

A 100-year storm event refers to rainfall that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year. It usually ranges from 12 to 14 inches in a 24-hour period. During each of the last three years, Houston has experienced a 500-year flood, which has a 0.2 percent chance of happening in any given year.

"What the flood control district has been doing for decades doesn't occur fast enough or it doesn't have the benefits that the public really wants," said Matthew Zeve, director of operations at the flood control district. "We've been challenged to try to think of new ideas and new strategies and this is an answer to that challenge."

He said the tunnel project would displace and disrupt far fewer people than other methods of reducing the flooding risk, such as widening bayous and buying out homes in especially flood-prone areas.

Commissioners will vote Tuesday on whether to pursue a feasibility study to assess the tunnel proposal. It's estimated that the study would cost about $400,000 and be completed by October.

Republican Rep. John Culberson, of Houston, said he's "encouraged" that the district "is thinking outside the box."

"It certainly seems like this type of project could be partially funded by FEMA hazard mitigation grants and, perhaps, through other federal sources, as well," he said.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Greg Abbott said it's too early to comment on the proposal.MEXICO CITY (AP) - Officials in Mexico are offering a $55,000 reward for information about three film students who were abducted a week ago.

The government of western Jalisco state offered the reward Monday after protesters demanded they be found.

Award-winning Mexican directors like Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron also joined their calls.

The students were reportedly abducted last Monday on the outskirts of the city of Guadalajara as they were returning from filming material for a project. An informational poster from the film school said armed men forced them into SUVs.

In January, three Italian men disappeared in another part of Jalisco and have not been found.

A medical student named Cesar Arellano disappeared last week as well. But prosecutors said Sunday his body had been found with signs showing that he had committed suicide.MINOT, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota and Canadian officials are working to settle differences over a long-delayed project that would bring Missouri River water to residents in the northwestern part of North Dakota.

Federal Judge Rosemary Collyer last August ruled that the $244 million Northwest Area Water Supply project first authorized by Congress 31 years ago complies with federal environmental law, the Minot Daily News reported. But the Canadian province of Manitoba and the state of Missouri appealed over concerns about water quality and water depletion.

Minot Public Works Director Dan Jonasson last week told the city-county-school-parks liaison committee that Manitoba might be willing to drop the appeal in exchange for being involved in the NAWS design.

"We wouldn't be opposed to them being involved in the design process, but they will be, by no means, involved in the final say," Jonasson said.

Tim Freije, who is North Dakota's NAWS director, said the appeal was put on hold Jan. 31, which gave Manitoba and the appellees, North Dakota and the U.S. Department of the Interior, 90 days to negotiate a settlement. He said the negotiation depends on Manitoba's desire to have a greater role in NAWS and getting both sides to agree on what that role should be.

"We are very close. It's a matter of finalizing the details," Freije said.

Freije said Missouri's appeal is tied to Manitoba's, and that he doesn't think Missouri has a strong case on its own. However, if Missouri continues to move ahead with its lawsuit, briefs are due in federal court by May 14.

___

Information from: Minot Daily News, http://www.minotdailynews.comPARIS (AP) - The Latest on the southern France attack (all times local):

10 p.m.

French authorities say the girlfriend of an Islamic extremist who attacked a supermarket in southern France last week is a radicalized convert to Islam and that she shouted "Allahu akbar," or "God is Great," when she was arrested.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian , center, walks during a tour of Jerusalem, Monday, March 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Monday night the 18-year-old woman "shows all signs of radicalization."

She was taken into custody hours after the gunman killed four people on Friday before being fatally shot by police who stormed the supermarket in Trebes.

Molins said during a news conference that the woman told investigators that she denied "having been informed and associated with the deadly project of her boyfriend."

But Molins said the woman posted online a Quran verse "indicating that infidels were promised to hell" just a few hours before the attacks.

___

5 p.m.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed solidarity with France after the death of a police officer in an Islamic extremist attack last week.

Speaking during the visit to Jerusalem of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Netanyahu said: "We grieve with you over the loss of innocent French lives and of a true hero, the officer Arnaud Beltrame, a hero of humanity, not only a hero of France, and we understand this very well."

Beltrame died after exchanging places with a hostage during the attack Friday in southern France. Four people were killed, including the officer, at a supermarket and in a carjacking. The gunman was killed when police stormed the supermarket.

Le Drian thanked Netanyahu, saying that Beltrame "paid his life, his fight against terrorism. We have this fight in common; the basis of everything is security."

___

4 p.m.

The pope has condemned the attacks in southern France, while lauding the "heroic act" of the French policeman who died after taking the place of a supermarket employee held hostage by an Islamic extremist.

Pope Francis has sent a telegram offering condolences for the loss of life in the attacks, and sympathy to the injured and their families and all those affected. He added: "I particularly welcome the generous and heroic act of Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, who gave his life to protect people."

The pope said that "I condemn such acts of indiscriminate violence which cause so much suffering, and fervently ask God for the gift of peace."

The rampage Friday claimed four victims, including Beltrame, two others in the supermarket and a carjacking victim. The Morocco-born attacker was killed by police when they stormed the supermarket, with Beltrame's help.

___

9:30 a.m.

A French judicial official says the partner of the Islamist extremist who carried out an attack last week in southern France was, like him, known to police as radicalized.

The 18-year-old woman was still being detained Monday by police for questioning in the case, as well as a 17-year-old friend of gunman Radouane Lakdim, the official said. He was speaking anonymously to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Lakdim was known to police for drug-dealing, and since 2014 had been on the so-called "Fiche S" list, a government register of individuals suspected of being radicalized but who have yet to perform acts of terrorism.

Four people were killed in a carjacking and the supermarket attack Friday near the city of Carcassonne.

Lakdim was killed by police who stormed the supermarket.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian holds maps during a tour of Jerusalem, Monday, March 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian uses binoculars during a tour of Jerusalem, Monday, March 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

A photo of Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame placed on a bunch of flowers at the main gate of the Police headquarters in Carcassonne, France, Saturday, March 24, 2018, following an attack on a supermarket in Trebes in the south of the country on Friday. A French police officer who offered himself up to an Islamic extremist gunman in exchange for a hostage died of his injuries, raising the death toll in the attack to four, and the officer was honored Saturday as a national hero of "exceptional courage and selflessness." (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Police officers stand guard outside the Saint-Etienne-de-Trebes church in Trebes, southern France, Sunday, March 25, 2018, as people arrive for a special church service to honor the heroic police officer and three others killed in a rampage by an Islamic extremist. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Schaeffer)CORYDON, Ind. (AP) - A southern Indiana elementary school teacher faces three dozen counts of child molestation that occurred over a three-year period, authorities said Monday.

A not-guilty plea was entered on behalf of Corey Faith, 40, during an initial hearing in Harrison Superior Court. The Corydon man was being held at the Harrison County Jail on a $250,000 cash-only bond.

Faith admitted the incidents of molestation occurred from 2005 to 2007 in his home, his classroom at New Middletown Elementary School in Corydon and elsewhere, Harrison County Prosecutor Otto Schalk said.

A probable cause affidavit said the alleged victim was 12 years old when the molestations began. She had been a student of Faith's when he taught sixth grade. He most recently taught third grade.

Court records said the investigation began March 19 when the Harrison County Sheriff's Department received a tip from a friend of the alleged victim after she spoke of multiple sexual encounters with Faith when she was under 14 years old.

The South Harrison Community School Corp. delivered notice Monday of its intent to fire Faith. It issued a statement saying it was "deeply saddened to learn of the events and critical lapses" in judgment by Faith that occurred.

Online court records didn't list an attorney for Faith.TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The Latest on the criminal case arising from a 10-year-old boy's death on a giant slide at a Kansas City water park (all times local):

7:05 p.m.

A spokeswoman says a water park company was not surprised by the arrest of its co-owner in connection with a Kansas criminal case arising from a boy's death on a giant waterslide.

Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said Monday that the company is confident it will be clear 10-year-old Caleb Schwab's death was an accident once the facts are presented. The boy died in August 2016 at Schlitterbahn's park in Kansas City, Kansas.

Records showed that Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeffrey Henry was booked into the jail in Cameron County, Texas.

Henry's arrest follows a Kansas grand jury's indictment last week of the Kansas City park and former operations director Tyler Austin Miles on 20 felony charges. They included a single count of involuntary manslaughter over Caleb's death.

___

5:15 p.m.

A newspaper report says the co-owner of the company operating a Kansas water park has been arrested in connection with a criminal case arising from a 10-year-old boy's death on a giant waterslide.

The Kansas City Star reports that Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts co-owner Jeffrey Henry was arrested Monday in Cameron County, Texas. A captain in the local sheriff's department told the newspaper that Henry was arrested by U.S. marshals on a Kansas warrant.

A grand jury in Kansas last week indicted the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City, Kansas, and its former operations director on 20 felony counts. They included involuntary manslaughter over the August 2016 death of 10-year-old Caleb Schwab.

The boy was decapitated while riding what was billed as the world's largest waterslide.

___

Editors: The first name of Schlitterbahn's co-owner has been corrected in the second paragraph of this item to Jeffrey.

___

4:15 p.m.

A Kansas water park's operator says it will open again as scheduled this spring and aggressively contest criminal charges arising from a 10-year-old boy's death on a giant slide.

Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts said in a statement Monday that a grand jury indictment's allegation that the 2016 accident was foreseeable is "beyond the pale of speculation."

The company also promised to respond to the allegations in the indictment "point by point" in coming weeks.

A Wyandotte County grand jury indicted the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City, Kansas, and former executive Tyler Miles on 20 felony charges. Miles' attorneys also said he is innocent.

The charges include involuntary manslaughter in the death of Caleb Schwab in August 2016. He was decapitated on the Verruckt waterslide touted as the world's largest.NEW YORK (AP) - A lawyer for DMX plans to use music to convince a judge that his client deserves leniency for his tax evasion conviction.

Attorney Murray Richman said in a court document made public Monday that he wants to play a few DMX compositions at Thursday's sentencing in Manhattan for the rapper also known as Earl Simmons.

He has been incarcerated since his bail was revoked in January by a judge who scolded him for failing to obey bail conditions. The 47-year-old DMX's songs include the hit "X Gon' Give it to Ya."

Richman says DMX might be too emotional to speak Thursday so he plans to play his music so Judge Jed Rakoff may "understand him genuinely in his voice."

Prosecutors call DMX's crime brazen and seek a five-year prison sentence.The family of a woman who was killed by her husband in Dubai have said justice has not yet been done after he was jailed for 10 years.

British newspaper editor Francis Matthew was found guilty in the Emirate of killing his 62-year-old wife Jane Matthew with a hammer on July 4 last year.

In a statement issued after they attended the sentencing, the victims family said: Jane was a loving wife, mother, daughter, sister and aunt.

Mrs Matthews family said justice had not been done (PA)

Losing her in such a brutal manner has left the family both bewildered and shocked.

We feel that justice has not yet been done as we realise that the actual sentence served may be less than the 10-year sentence.

We hope that this sentence is changed on appeal.

Matthew was not present in the Dubai Court of the First Instance for the verdict read by Judge Fahad al-Shamsi, which is common in courts in the United Arab Emirates.

The former editor of the English-language Gulf News had faced the possibility of the death penalty for the killing.

After the incident in the couples three-bedroom villa in the Jumeirah neighbourhood, Matthew told police robbers had broken in and killed his wife of 30 years.

But during a later interrogation he allegedly told officers his wife had grown angry with him because they were in debt and needed to move.

Matthew said his temper rose when his wife called him a loser and told him you should provide financially, according to police.

He claimed his wife pushed him during the argument and he then got a hammer, followed her into the bedroom and struck her twice in the head, killing her, according to a police report.

The family continued in their statement: We attended the Dubai Courts today, and our family has been saddened by the sentence given to Francis Matthew, Janes killer.

We believe the facts clearly demonstrate that this crime was a deliberate act. In the defendants own version of events, he collected the murder weapon, a hammer, in the kitchen and carried it down two corridors of the house to the bedroom.

There was time for him to consider his actions  instead he delivered two hammer blows to the front of Janes head. He made no attempt to call an ambulance afterwards.

We also know, contrary to the defences argument, that Jane had been aware for months that the villa was due for demolition.

The defendant has admitted that rows over money had occurred frequently for some time. Ongoing arguments, about money or a house, can arise in any marriage and cannot justify this killing.US car parts firm Dana has increased its cash offer for GKN's automotive business by $140million (100million) as shareholders prepare to cast their votes on the controversial Melrose takeover bid this week.

The offer, which seeks to persuade GKN shareholders to back Dana's deal instead of Melrose's, brings the total cash consideration to $1.77billion (1.28billion).

It comes as GKN separately issued an unusual stock market statement retracting some statements by its chief executive and finance director to the Sunday press suggesting that shareholders supported their opposition to the Melrose bid.

It comes just days before investors cast their ballots on the Melrose deal (PA)

The engineering group said that such statements of shareholder support in respect of GKN were 'not verified and are hereby retracted'.

Shares in GKN were trading 0.6 per cent higher at 431.5p.

Shareholders have until Thursday this week to either choose Melrose's offer for the whole company, or back a plan from GKN's management to revive the business's fortunes by selling two divisions - including the automotive business to America's Dana - shifting the focus onto aerospace parts.

Dana's upped bid also includes doubling the size of its share repurchase programme to $200million (145million), helping sweeten the overall deal which was previously valued at around 4.5billion.

GKN welcomed the announcement, which will see its shareholders own more than 47 per cent of the combined company that is set to be listed on both the New York Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange.

It said 700million would be returned to shareholders 'as soon as practicable' after the deal is completed.

GKN chairman Mike Turner said: 'This transaction, which along with Project Boost was initiated prior to the Melrose bid, offers by far the best strategic route forward for GKN Driveline.

'The challenges and opportunities of electrification mean that consolidation is required. By moving now, the Dana-GKN Driveline combination will be strongly positioned to be a global leader in this field.'

He added: 'We believe that Melrose would find it extremely difficult to create equivalent value in the future from GKN Driveline if its offer were to be successful.'

GKN has doggedly rejected Melroses advances, with chief executive Anne Stevens describing Melroses takeover as 'high-risk' and the offer not coming close to reflecting true value.

Numis analyst David Larkam said that while the Driveline deal has strategic merits, it is being sold 'too cheaply and too early'.

'We see the combination of Dana and GKN Driveline as making industrial and commercial sense as scale benefits increase. Synergy benefits also help to support a transaction.

'Both have electric vehicle capabilities, although we believe GKN is more advanced, as highlighted by current auto programmes,' Larkam said.Ben Stokes brave and admirable defiance was in vain as England subsided by an innings and 49 runs against New Zealand for a 10th away Test defeat in their last 12 attempts.

Joe Roots men had scant chance of recovering from the moment they were bowled out for 58 at Eden Park in Auckland in only 20.4 overs of the first session in this pink-ball series opener.

Almost two days of rain gave them a glimmer of keeping the Black Caps at bay for an improbable stalemate  but after their captain fell to what became the last ball of day four, hopes gradually dwindled on the way to 320 all out in the 127th over of the 146 Kane Williamsons declaration challenged them to bat out.

No way back from 58 all out

Two days of rain gave England hope to cling to for a while  and thankfully, they fared significantly better second time round. But without fail, teams who score 58 or fewer in their first innings go on to lose Test matches. There was the odd twist and turn on this occasion before the inevitable outcome.

Tweet of the day

After that lovely catch from Williamson we see Moeen Ali enter the fray.



Can he be the hero England need? 



England 186/5

trail by 183



Join us LIVE:

 @5liveSport extra

 https://t.co/67vKbWkeev

#NZvsENG #bbccricket pic.twitter.com/cV0XMzZPwj  Test Match Special (@bbctms) March 26, 2018

Err  no. Test Match Special posed the same question about a succession of batsmen, but none could quite answer the call.

Give Stokes his due

Ben Stokes batted admirably in Englands rearguard (Ross Setford/AP)

It was in vain, but Stokes bid for survival  batting entirely against his adventurous instincts  was highly laudable. In his first Test since last September, when he was man-of-the-match in a series-sealing win over the West Indies, Englands high-profile Ashes absentee was runless  along with four others  in a hapless first innings. He was unable to bowl too because of a stiff back which returned towards the end of his rearguard effort, but still demonstrated why England prize his mere presence.

Stat of the day

Three wickets each for Trent Boult, Neil Wagner and Todd Astle in the final innings. Boult finishing with match figures of 9-99. Card | https://t.co/MiIfpeaU9o #NZvENG  = @PhotosportNZ pic.twitter.com/Fk3ww2nFAl  BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) March 26, 2018

98  A mountain of overs at New Zealands disposal to take seven wickets. In the end, it was plenty.

What next?

England have three days, including one travelling to the South Island, to dust themselves down in time to hit back in the second and final Test in Christchurch.Catalonias former president, Carles Puigdemont, is to appear before a court in Germany to determine whether he stays in custody pending further decisions on extradition proceedings.

Prosecutors in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein would not say where Mondays closed-doors hearing would take place.

German news agency dpa said Puigdemont was taken to a prison in the town of Neumunster on Sunday, hours after his arrest on a European warrant as he entered Germany from Denmark.

The entrance building of the prison in Neumunster (Frank Molter/dpa via AP)

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemonts government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the north-eastern region in October.

The Catalan parliaments subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities.

Spanish authorities accuse Puigdemont, 55, of rebellion and of misuse of public funds in organising the referendum.

Spain had originally asked for Puigdemonts extradition from Belgium after he fled there in October, but later withdrew the request until Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena concluded his investigation this week.

Llarena ruled that a total of 25 Catalan separatists would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience.

In the meantime, Puigdemont was free to make trips to Denmark, Switzerland and Finland, as part of his effort to gain international support for the secessionist movement.

The international arrest warrant for Puigdemont was reactivated on Friday, when he was visiting Finland.

Spain has also issued five warrants for other separatists who fled the country.Ride-hailing giant Uber is to sell its business in Southeast Asia to regional rival Grab in a move that signals another international retreat for the US firm.

It comes after Uber also pulled out of China and Russia in recent years and as new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi attempts to turn its fortunes around.

Under the terms of the deal, Uber will take a 27.5% stake in Grab, which operates ridesharing, food delivery and financial services businesses. Uber will also have a seat on Grabs board.

Uber will take a 27.5% stake in Grab, a fast growing Southeast Asian ridesharing, food delivery and financial services business (Wong Maye-E/AP)

Grab functions across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and Cambodia, handling more than a billion transactions a year.

Chief executive and co-founder Anthony Tan said the Uber deal marks the beginning of a new era in using mobile businesses to provide an array of services.

Grab said it plans to expand its food delivery business to Singapore and Malaysia after integrating it with Uber Eats.

The company also plans to expand GrabCycle for shared bicycles and personal mobility devices and is planning GrabShuttle services for on-demand bus routes.

An Uber rider talks with a Grab rider in Jakarta, Indonesia (Achmad Ibrahim/AP)

Uber drivers will switch to the Grab online platform and the Uber app will stop working in Asia in two weeks.

Since taking the top job last year, Mr Khosrowshahi has been attempting to make the company profitable before a mooted initial public offering.

Uber booked a full-year net loss of 4.5 billion US dollars in 2017 in the wake of several scandals.

In China, Uber has sold off its local business to competitor Didi Chuxing, also taking a stake in the Asian firm. In Russia, it agreed to merge its ride-hailing business in the country with local player Yandex.Actress Joely Richardson called on Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia as she spoke of the need to protect children in Yemen.

Marking the third anniversary of the escalation of the Yemen conflict, Save The Children ambassadors Richardson and TV presenter Natasha Kaplinsky have signed a petition which is being handed in to the Foreign Office.

The petition, which has more than 60,000 signatures, is calling on the UK Government to immediately suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia and ensure unfettered humanitarian access to children in Yemen.

Richardson told the Press Association: Children should never be the victims of war, and they should be protected, and we shouldnt be selling arms towards anyone that would bomb children and civilians.

Natasha Kaplinsky joins us today to stand up for Yemens children.#DontBombChildren #YemenCantWait pic.twitter.com/BOr3mYpzIj  Save the Children UK (@savechildrenuk) March 26, 2018

Asked what her message to the Foreign Secretary would be, Richardson said: Save the children of Yemen.

The actress added: The point is that its year three of a war, and that there are 17 million people who are being starved  famine, cholera, the air strikes.

Its a terrible situation, but Im here specifically to save the children.

Again, children shouldnt be victims of war.

Richardson and Kaplinsky joined school pupils from around the UK outside the Houses of Parliament on Monday morning.

Over 60,000 called on government to stand up for Yemens children.

Today were making your voices heard! #YemenCantWait #DontBombChildren pic.twitter.com/soZVdIJ2Qa  Save the Children UK (@savechildrenuk) March 26, 2018

The celebrity duo held the charitys red petition box and stood next to the unnamed child statue which symbolises the children of Yemen.

The UK has sold 4.6 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since air strikes in Yemen began, according to the Campaign Against Arms Trade.

Saudi Arabia has faced criticism over its role in Yemens civil war, with warnings that the kingdom was orchestrating what will potentially become the worst famine in the last 50 years.

Save The Children said there have been more than 15,000 air strikes and 1,600 children have been killed, more than half in air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition, since the beginning of the conflict.

Natasha Kaplinsky and Joely Richardson hand in a Save the Children petition with more than 60,000 signatures to the Foreign Office, urging the Government to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Jack Madden, senior campaigns adviser at Save The Children, said it is one of the largest campaign petitions the charity has ever had.

Its because people feel so strongly about what the Government are doing, and feel strongly about whats happening to children in Yemen.

Its the largest humanitarian disaster on the planet right now, and people across the UK want to see the Government do more to protect Yemens children, he said.

Mr Madden said Mr Johnson must use the relationship that Britain has with Saudi Arabia and all other actors as a global leader to do more to protect the children of Yemen.

He said more needs to be done to make sure that humanitarian and commercial goods are let into the country, and that people who have committed violations against children are held to account in Yemen.

He can suspend weapon sales to Saudi Arabia to help stop fuelling the conflict, and to make sure that we maintain funding and access for aid into the country in order to help rebuild childrens lives in Yemen, he said.

Natasha Kaplinsky and Joely Richardson (left) with the `unnamed child statue which symbolises the children of Yemen (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Mr Madden said one particular story that has stuck with him is that of one-year-old Zuhoor, whose family home was hit by an air strike when her family were gathered for a funeral.

She was one of the only people to survive and was pulled out of the rubble. She was saved because she ended up in an air pocket in the rubble.

She lost all the fingers on her hand and was obviously traumatised by the event and lost several members of her family, he said.

Mr Madden said Save The Children has been working on the ground to help children like Zuhoor rebuild their lives.

He said he hopes the Foreign Secretary will consider suspending arms sales to Saudi Arabia given the weight of people behind this, adding: Whether he does it today or not, Save The Children are still going to be here standing up and fighting for children in Yemen and children around the world that need our help most.

And we hope that Boris Johnson will use his role as a global leader to do the same.

International Deve;opment Secretary Penny Mordaunt (Nick Ansell/PA)

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said Iran should stop sending weapons into Yemen if it is genuinely committed to supporting a political solution to the conflict.

In a joint statement, the two Cabinet ministers highlighted how a UN panel of experts recently concluded that Iran is in non-compliance with UN Security Council Resolutions.

The UN experts said Iran had failed to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale, or transfer of items including ballistic missiles.

Mr Johnson and Ms Mordaunt said Saudi Arabia has the right to defend itself against security threats including missiles launched from Yemen.

They added: We support the Saudi-led coalitions efforts to restore legitimacy in Yemen, as accepted by the UN Security Council.

Calling on all parties to return to the negotiating table to find an inclusive political solution, they also warned that without de-escalation and a political settlement millions of civilians risk starvation.

We will continue to play our part in restoring the peace and security needed for Yemenis to resume normal lives.The search for missing airman Corrie McKeague will be handed over to a cold case squad, police have confirmed.

No trace of the 23-year-old has been found since he was last seen in Bury St Edmunds on September 24, 2016, and the current theory is that he climbed into a waste bin and was taken away by a bin lorry.

Detective Superintendent Katie Elliott said: It is extremely disappointing that we have not been able to find Corrie. I can only imagine the strain Corries family have been under over the past 18 months and I thank them for their patience and understanding.

Whilst the investigation has drawn to a natural conclusion we will continue to work with the family to provide answers to their questions and help them understand what may have happened.

Since Corrie disappeared, police have been exploring all proportionate and relevant lines of enquiry.

We have now reached a point where we are unable to make any further progress, and have gone as far as we realistically can with the information we have. If any new, credible and proportionate enquiries relating to Corries disappearance emerge we will pursue them.

Corrie McKeague has been missing since September 2016 (Suffolk Police/PA)

Suffolk Constabulary said in a statement that investigators had been through all realistic possibilities in detail and that there was no evidence of foul play.

Police carried out two searches of a landfill site at Milton near Cambridge last year, with the first search lasting 20 weeks and the second, lasting seven weeks, concluding in December.

They sifted through thousands of tonnes of waste in the two areas where it was most likely for Mr McKeague to have ended up, but the records used were not detailed enough to rule out him being elsewhere.

Investigators were also initially given the wrong weight of the bin that Mr McKeague may have climbed in, making it too light to support the theory that he was in there. However this was later corrected, showing that it was actually much heavier than normal.

Police searched a landfill site in Milton, Cambridgeshire (Chris Radburn/PA)

Mr McKeagues father Martin told the Daily Mirror he fears the airman may have killed himself.

Mr McKeague, 49, said he thought his son knew he was going to become a father which may have affected his mental state.

He said: I just cant help thinking this would have weighed on him heavily and he may have actually chosen to get in that bin that night knowing what would happen.

Its as probable as anything else and it makes it no less heartbreaking.

Assistant Chief Constable Simon Megicks said the inquiry had been reviewed by senior officers as well as external experts, and he had absolute confidence in the way the investigation was conducted.Russia expects to reach an agreement with a major Syrian rebel group to arrange its exit from the last rebel-held town in eastern Ghouta.

The defence ministrys Lt Gen Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov told Russian news agencies that Russias military is in talks with the Army of Islam, the largest and most powerful group in eastern Ghouta, for it to leave the town of Douma.

Lt Gen Gadzhimagomedov said he expects the Russian military to take them out soon and that the rebels have reportedly indicated their willingness to lay down their arms.

Civilians carrying their belongings leave towns and villages, in the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus (SANA/AP)

Thousands of rebel fighters and their families have left three eastern Ghouta pockets in the past few weeks, after years of siege and weeks of heavy bombardment by the Syrian army and Russias air force.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there are divisions within the rebel group over the negotiations, with some hardliners refusing any talks with Russians.

The Observatory said some fighters asked to be allowed to go to the southern province of Daraa, but that the Russians rejected this request.

Syrias pro-government Al-Watan daily said the Army of Islam and the Russians have reached an understanding, adding that each side will study a draft agreement within the next three days.

Al-Watan quoted Syrian legislator Mohammed Kheir Seiryoul, who is originally from Douma, as saying the understanding could lead to an agreement to dissolve the Army of Islam.

During this period, its members would hand over their heavy weapons and the Syrian government would assume control of state institutions in the town.

A civilian committee representing Douma said in a statement after meeting Russian officials that the negotiations are extremely difficult and no quick results should be expected.

Talks with the Russians will resume within three days, it said.

Douma-based opposition activist Haitham Bakkar said the town was subjected to some artillery shelling early on Monday that wounded several people.

On Monday, a convoy of 56 buses carrying 3,641 people, including 850 fighters from various rebel factions, was preparing to leave the towns of Jobar, Zamalka, Ein Terma, and Arbeen toward Idlib, state-affiliated al-Ikhbariya TV reported.

The Russian Defence Ministrys Centre for Reconciliation in Syria said in a statement that more than 400 people left Douma early on Monday. It put the total figure of civilians and rebels evacuated from the area since the Russia-sponsored humanitarian pauses were announced at 114,000.

Army of Islam spokesman Hamza Bayraqdar blasted the groups former ally, the Faylaq al-Rahman rebel group, accusing it of helping government forces capture more than 80% of rebel-held districts after they dried out artificial swamps set up by insurgents to slow down the army offensive.Chinas foreign ministry has said Beijing is open to negotiating with Washington amid a spiralling tariff dispute.

This follows a report the two sides are negotiating, with American officials submitting a list of market-opening requests to China.

A foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, did not confirm the report by The Wall Street Journal, but said at a regular briefing: Our door for dialogue and discussion is always open.

Mr Trump has approved higher tariffs on steel and aluminium imports (AP)

The Journal said the negotiations were led by US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinas economic czar, vice premier Liu He. It said American market-opening requests covered the car, finance and semiconductor industries.

US president Donald Trump has approved higher tariffs on steel and aluminium imports and a possible increase on 60 billion dollars (42 billion) of Chinese goods in a dispute over technology policy.

China has said it might retaliate.Many regions of the UK are falling short when it comes to providing charging points for electric vehicles, new analysis has indicated.

Currently there are almost 17,000 people for every publicly funded charge point, research by HSBC found.

The North East of England has the highest level of provision, with 664 charge points across the area, representing one for every 3,931 people

New analysis showed provision of charge points for electric vehicles is falling short in parts of the UK (Peter Byrne/PA)

Scotland was next best, with 743 charge points across the country  meaning there is one for every 7,127 people.

But only two other areas, Northern Ireland and the South East of England, had higher than average levels.

Another charger installed, our first in Scotland! @evtronic rapid at @MotorFuelGroup BP petrol station, Glasgow Airport @GLA_Airport pic.twitter.com/UHwNbpgrl0  GeniePoint (@GeniePointEV) October 19, 2017

And in Wales there are just 31 publicly funded charge points  one for every 98,806 people.

The UK Government wants to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040, with Scotland aiming to do this eight years earlier by 2032.

But while about 47,000 electric vehicles were registered in 2017, only 173 new publicly funded charge points were installed last year, according to HSBC.

Scott McClurg, head of energy and sustainability for HSBC Corporate Banking, said urgent attention must be given to the number of charge points available, as more and more people switch to electric vehicles.

He stated: Charge points are a vital barometer for the health of the electric vehicle market. Infrastructure is fundamental to the successful transition to emission-free driving and so far the UK is falling short in many regions.

While the major forecourt owners plan how to balance rising demand for charge points with the ongoing need for petrol and diesel pumps, there is an opportunity for private investors to plug the charge point gap across the UK.

He added: National Grid recently announced plans to overcome the challenge of long-distance electric vehicle travel. Urgent attention must now be given to local, urban solutions as more consumers and businesses transition to electric vehicles.

If Scotland is to shift to electric vehicles in the long term, the overall volume of chargepoints has to improve across the board.

While there are clear opportunities to meet rising demand through the private sector, local authorities and central government are also looking closely at this space to ensure the right infrastructure is in place.

Scottish Transport Minister Humza Yousaf said drivers there currently benefited from one of the most comprehensive charge point networks in Europe.

He stated: There are currently more than 800 publicly available charge points on the ChargePlace Scotland network, including over 175 rapid charge points, and the average distance from any given location to the nearest public charge point is just 2.78 miles in Scotland  the lowest in Great Britain where the average is 4.09-miles.

The Programme for Government sets a bold new vision on ultra-low emission vehicles and we are well-positioned to continue to work with industry, to phase out the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032, by continuing to provide the infrastructure to allow ultra-low emission vehicles to flourish.British star Olivia Cooke has spoken about her first meeting with Steven Spielberg ahead of her starring role in Ready Player One.

The Bates Motel star plays Samantha and her virtual alter-ego Art3mis in the directors latest film about a battle for control of a virtual world called the Oasis.

She told the Press Association: It was at a chemistry reading scenario at his offices in Los Angeles, and youre put into a waiting room that has various Steven Spielberg memorabilia from all his different films.

Olivia Cooke and Steven Spielberg (Ian West/PA)

Youre just sat there just trying to calm yourself down and then you get brought into the room and you meet him.

He comes in and hes just so lovely, youre so disarmed by how charming and kind he is, and he then operates the camera whilst youre in the audition.

She added: He put me at ease as much as he possibly could, but I was still having a panic attack.

Her co-star Tye Sheridan, who first found fame opposite Matthew McConaughey in Mud, added: I was waiting and I was about to go in and I was so nervous, I actually remember calling my dad and he was like, You know what, just enjoy the opportunity and Im sure youre going to be great.

Tye Sheridan with the veteran director (Ian West/PA)

I always call my dad before I do stuff, it puts me at ease, and I walked into the room and I was surprised to only see Olivia and Steven and the casting director and no one else.

I thought, Whos going to operate the camera? And Steven was like, Alright, well, just jump into it and he picks up the camera.

He continued: Theres always an intimacy with him, which I think does disarm you.

Cooke, 24, said she was not a gaming fan but saw the film as inclusive for women, who have had a complicated relationship with the platform.

Save the OASIS, save the world. See #ReadyPlayerOne only in cinemas March 29. Get advance tickets now: https://t.co/mzXCGPBgrt pic.twitter.com/Qc7SRzVbGn  WarnerBrosUK (@WarnerBrosUK) March 15, 2018

She said: I think weve got such wonderful female characters and the reason why there are sometimes underwritten or weak female characters in films is just testament to bad writing.

So I think people can really relate to Lena (Waithe)s character H (Helen), and mine for being so selfless and so intelligent and so passionate and active the whole time.

Ready Player One is released in UK cinemas on March 28.A Glasgow city centre block at the centre of a major fire is to be demolished on safety grounds.

At the height of the blaze on Thursday morning more than 120 firefighters were at the scene on Sauchiehall Street, tackling flames that started in the roof of the building which houses Victorias nightclub.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it was one of the biggest incidents the service has had to deal with and officers remained at the scene over the weekend to damp down the site.

Glasgow City Council said the building could not be saved with demolition expected over the next two months.

The properties affected are 92 to 106 Sauchiehall Street  from The Works stationery shop to Savers at the junction with Hope Street.

The council said it has met with the building owners and shops in the block including Greggs, Specsavers and Victorias nightclub are dealing with insurers.

Pictures from a police helicopter showed the extent of the damage (Police Scotland/PA)

A council spokeswoman said: An exclusion zone has been erected around the site of the dangerous buildings, which will be demolished as they cannot be saved.

We have met with the owners of buildings affected by the fire, and will maintain this dialogue over the period.

The owners of properties in the buildings to be demolished have met with insurers to discuss the next steps.

An asbestos warning was issued to local residents and businesses as firefighters battled the blaze but atmospheric testing later found there was no risk.

No-one was injured in the incident but shows at the Pavilion and nearby Theatre Royal were cancelled in the wake of the fire.

The Pavilion thanked emergency services for saving the grand old lady of Renfield Street, close to the fire.European Council president Donald Tusk has said 14 member nations have expelled Russian diplomatic staff over the poisoning of an ex-spy in the UK.

Mr Tusk said that there may be additional measures including further expulsions in the coming days and weeks.

In coordinated announcements of expulsions on Monday, the Czech Republic said it is removing three staffers from the Russian embassy over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

European Council president Donald Tusk (Olivier Matthys/AP)

The Netherlands said it is expelling two Russian intelligence officers, while Estonia said it was expelling the Russian defence attache. The Italian Foreign Ministry announced that Italy would expel two Russian diplomats assigned to the embassy within a week.

Poland, Germany and Lithuania earlier confirmed they were among the European countries set to expel Russian diplomats.

Today 14 EU Member States decided to expel Russian diplomats as direct follow-up to #EUCO discussion last week on #SalisburyAttack. Additional measures including further expulsions are not excluded in coming days, weeks.  Charles Michel (@eucopresident) March 26, 2018

Germany and Poland both said they had asked four Russian diplomats to leave, while in Lithuania, three Russian diplomats were ordered to leave.

The German foreign ministry said in a statement that the move was part of a joint European response to the Skripal case.

It said: The expulsion of four diplomats is a strong signal of solidarity with Great Britain and signals the resolve of the Germany government not to leave attacks against our closest partners and allies unanswered.

The ministry added that the move was also a response to the recent cyber-attacks against German government networks, which according to information so far is highly likely to be attributable to Russian sources.A car that knocked down a group of children leaving one girl with a broken neck was trying to hit a man crossing the road in front of them, police have said.

Five youngsters, aged between 12 and 14, were standing on a pavement in Stravanan Road in Castlemilk, Glasgow, around 3.30pm on Saturday when they were hit by a silver Vauxhall Astra.

Police Scotland said the target of the attempted murder was a 21-year-old man who was crossing the road in front of the children.

Police are treating the incident as attempted murder (Andrew Milligan/PA)

He was hit by the car which then continued into the young group and hit a VolksWagen Passat. The Astra was later found burnt out.

The 21-year-old and four of the children were treated for minor injuries while one 14-year-old girl is in a serious but stable condition at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire.

Her family said she has a broken neck and may need surgery.

The girls mother told the Scottish Sun: She doesnt know what happened because she had her back to the car.

I went with her in the ambulance and she was still complaining about her sore arm. We didnt know her neck was broken then.

She added: Whoever did this must hand themselves in. I hope karma catches up with them.

Whoever did this is evil  its a vile, vile act.

The car had two men inside and drove off towards Birgidale Road after the incident.

It was found burnt out in a rural spot in Carmunnock and has been moved for forensic checks.

Detective Inspector Peter Sharp said: Six people have been injured in this incident, five of whom are children. Those responsible have shown total disregard for the safety of the public, this must have been a terrifying experience for those involved and its imperative we trace whoever is responsible.

I am appealing to people to contact us with any information, it doesnt matter if you think your information is not important, still pass it on as it could help us piece together the exact circumstances of what has happened and why.

I have no doubt that that local knowledge will be key to this inquiry and I would urge people to get in touch with us.

We understand this incident will be of great concern to the local community and we have additional patrols in the area to provide reassurance to local residents.Russia is facing the expulsion of dozens diplomats from America and Europe as key allies rallied behind Britain over the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

The United States led the way with the announcement that 60 suspected Russian spies have been given seven days to leave the country.

In Brussels, European Council president Donald Tusk said that 14 member states were expelling diplomats in a co-ordinated show of support for the UK.

(PA Graphics)

Among the EU member states taking action were Germany and Poland  which each said they were expelling four diplomats. Lithuania and the Czech Republic have each ordered three diplomats to leave while Denmark is expelling two.

The expulsions were welcomed by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who said on Twitter: Todays extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever & will help defend our shared security. Russia cannot break international rules with impunity.

Today 14 EU Member States decided to expel Russian diplomats as direct follow-up to #EUCO discussion last week on #SalisburyAttack. Additional measures including further expulsions are not excluded in coming days, weeks.  Charles Michel (@eucopresident) March 26, 2018

The moves come after EU leaders last week backed Theresa Mays assertion that there was no plausible alternative explanation other than Russia was responsible for the attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

In addition to the expulsions, the White House said that the US was also closing the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing.

Todays extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever & will help defend our shared security. Russia cannot break international rules with impunity  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 26, 2018

A White House statement said: The United States takes this action in conjunction with our Nato allies and partners around the world in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilising activities around the world.

Todays actions make the United States safer by reducing Russias ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten Americas national security.

With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences.

Danish prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen tweeted: Russia has gone too far. An assassination attempt in a European city with a Russian nerve agent is completely unacceptable.

Statement on Expulsion of Russian intelligence officers. pic.twitter.com/4uCzMOMG3f  Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) March 26, 2018

A German foreign ministry statement said the expulsions were a strong signal of solidarity with Great Britain and signals the resolve of the Germany government not to leave attacks against our closest partners and allies unanswered.

The ministry added that the move was also a response to the recent cyber attacks against German government networks, which according to information so far is highly likely to be attributable to Russian sources.

The expulsions came after Britain expelled 23 undeclared intelligence officers  prompting the tit-for-tat expulsion by the Russians of the same number of UK diplomats.

A No 10 spokesman said: We welcome todays actions by our allies, which clearly demonstrate that we all stand shoulder to shoulder in sending the strongest signal to Russia that it cannot continue to flout international law.

Russia has gone too far. An assassination attempt in a European city with a Russian nerve agent is completely unacceptable. The UK has our full support. Denmark will expel two Russian diplomats in our joint European response to the #SalisburyAttack. #dkpol  Lars Lkke Rasmussen (@larsloekke) March 26, 2018

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, visiting Estonia, also welcomed the expulsions.

I think that is the very best response that we can have because their intention, their aim, is to divide and what we are seeing is the world uniting behind the British stance, he said.

That in itself is a great victory and that sends an exceptionally powerful message to the Kremlin and President Putin.

In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry accused Britains allies of blindly following the principle of Euro-Atlantic solidarity in violation of common sense, norms of civilised international dialogue and international law.

It said Russia would respond to the unfriendly move but gave no further details.Lawyers for the widow of the Pulse nightclub gunman said they have only just been told that the attackers father was an FBI informant for 11 years.

Representatives of Noor Salman are asking for a mistrial, saying this information should have been disclosed earlier by prosecutors.

Salman is accused of helping her husband, Omar Mateen, plan the June 2016 attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where he killed 49 people.

The gunmans widow is accused of helping him plan the deadly attack (AP)

Her lawyers federal court motion said prosecutors contacted them on Saturday night and told them about Seddique Mateens relationship with the FBI.

Salman is standing trial on accusations of aiding her husband in the attack against the gay nightclub in Florida.TV presenter Chris Packham has paid tribute to conservation film pioneer and Tarka The Otter director David Cobham, following his death aged 87.

Cobham died on Sunday night after suffering a stroke some weeks ago, his family confirmed.

The producer, director, and author made Vanishing Hedgerows, said to be the BBCs first conservation film.

Tarka from Tarka The Otter (David Cobham)

Vanishing Hedgerows (1972) tackled the destruction of the countryside from modern farming techniques.

He also directed screen classic Tarka The Otter and much-loved childrens series Woof!

Springwatch host Packham, who was influenced by Cobham, told the Press Association in a statement: Kind , calm and committed, a great enthusiast with an insatiable passion for birds of prey David leaves a legacy of great books and films and inspiration.

He was a fabulous mentor and conservationist.

Cobham, who died in Norfolk, was a founding member of the Hawk And Owl Trust.

He is survived by his wife, actress Liza Goddard.A driver who fatally crashed his BMW X5 into two pedestrians after bingeing on cocaine has been jailed.

Richard Frost, 39, took the drug for the previous 18 hours before he struck the two men at Yaxley near Peterborough and fled across fields with 72,000 in a suitcase, prosecutor Jonathon Polnay told an earlier hearing at Cambridge Crown Court.

Frost took drugs at the wheel with two passengers who were in his car, but he assaulted one and left them both at a service station before the fatal crash, the court heard.

Undated handout photo issued by Cambridgeshire Constabulary of Richard Frost, 39, who has been jailed at Cambridge Crown Court for crashing his BMW X5 into two male pedestrians after bingeing on cocaine.

He also assaulted a man who tried to make him wait for police after the crash, and officers found him asleep that night at his mothers house in Chelmsford, Essex.

Frost admitted to causing the deaths of 19-year-old Thomas Fletcher and Thomas Northam, 22, by dangerous driving on January 3 last year.

He also admitted two counts of common assault and one of money laundering.

The defendant, of Dorset Avenue, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced at Cambridge Crown Court to a 14-year extended sentence on both counts of causing death by dangerous driving, comprising a custodial term of 10 years and nine months and an extension period of three years and three months.

He was sentenced to 16 months in prison for money laundering and three months in prison on both counts of assault, with these sentences concurrent to each other but consecutive to the extended sentence.

He was also banned from driving for 11 years and seven months.

Judge David Farrell QC told Frost: Theres no doubt in my mind that your behaviour on January 3 last year encompassed a most appalling, deliberate and flagrant disregard for the rules of the road and not a care for the danger that you caused to other road users including vulnerable pedestrians.

He described it as a prolonged, persistent course of bad driving at a time when Frost was consuming illicit drugs, causing significant impairment.

Judge Farrell said Frost was dangerous and that his deliberate drug consumption played a more significant part in his actions than a pre-existing mental disorder.

Frost had driven from Essex to Grimsby then south through Boston, Lincolnshire, to the site of the crash.

Mr Polnay said Frost took drugs at the wheel and reached speeds of up to 117mph.

One witness described him as driving like a nutter.

Shauna Ritchie, mitigating, said Frost was extremely sorry for the suffering he had caused the families of the deceased.

A restraining order was made banning Frost from contacting the passenger he assaulted, Tracey Anderson.

Judge Farrell also ordered that Stefon Mills, the man who gave chase to Frost, was assaulted and dialled 999, be awarded 500 in recognition of his bravery.

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing is listed to be heard at Cambridge Crown Court on June 8 in respect of the money in the suitcase.A 26-year-old man has died after he was gunned down in the street in east London.

Armed police were called to Ferncliff Road in Hackney shortly after 11pm on Sunday, where the victim was found fatally wounded.

One witness who lives near the scene described hearing one shot and a cry of pain before he saw the man lying on the ground.

Police at the scene in Hackney, east London (Jamie Johnson/PA)

Detective Chief Inspector Larry Smith, from Scotland Yards murder squad, said: We are appealing for information so we can establish the circumstances which led to a young man losing his life.

Anyone with information who hasnt yet spoken with us should come forward without delay.

Your call will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Officers carried out house-to-house inquiries on Monday, while distressed family members and friends were seen visiting what is understood to be the victims home.

Police near the scene inFerncliff Road (Jamie Johnson/PA)

One neighbour said: As soon as I heard the bang, I knew it was a gun shot. Im ex-military and knew that couldnt be a firework.

I went to my balcony and saw a man slumped over on the ground at the back of a car.

There was just one shot and a cry of pain. No speeding scooter and no speeding car.

I didnt see anyone make off.

He has been living on Mountford Estate since it was built in the 1980s but says he is now considering moving out.

Im trying to raise a child here but with the number of people carrying knives and guns it just isnt safe, he said.

Another woman who lives nearby said: We are not safe here.

Concerns have been raised about rising levels of violent crime in the UK, and earlier this month eight people were shot or stabbed in London in the space of a week.

Patrick Green, chief executive of knife-crime awareness charity the Ben Kinsella Trust, said a crisis point had been reached.

Anyone with information about the Hackney shooting can call police on 020 8345 3985 quoting reference 7601/25March, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.Sinn Feins Stormont leader has said her party has no interest in a Mickey Mouse shadow Assembly to scrutinise decisions taken in Westminster.

Michelle ONeill said the proposal being considered by the UK Government would deliver nothing and instead represent an abandonment of the terms of the Good Friday peace agreement.

In the ongoing absence of devolution, the Democratic Unionists have voiced support for a form of shadow Assembly that would give locally elected politicians a role in scrutinising decisions taken in Westminster.

Sinn Feins Northern Ireland leader Michelle ONeill (left), Sinn Feins party president Gerry Adams after talks at 10 Downing Street, London, as negotiations continue between Theresa Mays Conservatives and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) over a deal under which the Northern Irish party could prop up a minority Tory administration.

The Alliance party has also proposed handing MLAs a role in examining the Governments handling of the regions affairs while the powersharing crisis limps on.

Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley is examining the half-way house proposal as a potential means to govern the region on an interim basis.

Mrs ONeill dismissed the notion outright in Belfast on Monday.

I think we would be better focusing our efforts on where they should be, which is actually getting the institutions up and running again, she said.

Any attempt to scramble together some sort of Assembly light, a scrutiny role is not the direction.

Its clearly an abandonment of the Good Friday Agreement  it is not going to deliver what we need to deliver for citizens, which is legislation and rights.

We have no interest in scrutinising direct rule ministers  what we want is the institutions up and running again, what we want is the executive up and running again and what we want is to be setting a programme for government and setting a budget, not focusing our efforts on some Mickey Mouse affair.

Powersharing imploded last January amid a row over a botched green energy scheme.

The rift subsequently widened to take in disputes over issues such as the Irish language, same-sex marriage and how to handle the legacy of the Troubles.

Sinn Fein has claimed DUP leader Arlene Foster agreed a draft deal to resurrect powersharing last month before pulling the plug in the face of an internal revolt among party members angry at the prospect of concessions on the thorny issue of the Irish language. It is an allegation Mrs Foster has strenuously denied.

Responding to recent claims from senior DUP figures that devolution may not return this year, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said delaying tactics were not acceptable.

We are not going to ask citizens to endlessly wait for the delivery of basic rights, she said.

The truth is if the DUP or anyone else is playing a delaying game, well then I think they ought to be roundly criticised for that.The United States and more than a dozen European nations have kicked out Russian diplomats, with the Russian consulate in Seattle ordered closed, as the West punished Moscows alleged role in the poisoning of an ex-spy in the UK.

Warning of an unacceptably high number of Russian spies in the US, the Trump administration said 60 diplomats would be expelled  all said to be Russian intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover.

The group includes a dozen posted to Russias mission to the United Nations who were engaged in aggressive collection of intelligence on American soil, officials said.

A Russian flag flies outside the Embassy of the Russian Federation to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario (AP)

Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, remain in a critical condition after they were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury on March 4.

The move is one of the most significant actions Donald Trumps administration has taken to date to punish Moscow and Russian president Vladimir Putin, especially over its intelligence activities.

The last time they spoke, less than a week ago, Mr Trump congratulated Mr Putin for his re-election but did not raise the March 4 spy poisoning, Russias alleged election-meddling in the US or its own tainted voting process, prompting dismayed critiques even from Mr Trumps fellow Republicans.

Today 14 EU Member States decided to expel Russian diplomats as direct follow-up to #EUCO discussion last week on #SalisburyAttack. Additional measures including further expulsions are not excluded in coming days, weeks.  Charles Michel (@eucopresident) March 26, 2018

This is the largest expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in United States history, said US ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman.

The American penalties were echoed by announcements in European capitals across the continent, including those in Russias backyard. All told, 18 countries are ousting more than 100 Russian spies, in addition to 23 already kicked out by the UK.

The list included at least 16 European Union nations, with more likely to follow. Germany, Poland and France each planned to remove four, the Czech Republic three and Italy two. Ukraine, a non-EU country with its own conflicts with Moscow, is expelling 13 Russians, President Petro Poroshenko said. All three Baltic states said they would kick diplomats out. Canada, too, said it was taking action, kicking out four and denying three who have applied to enter the country.

Almost all of the countries said publicly that the Russian diplomats they were expelling were actually spies.

The expulsions led to a chorus of condemnation for the Kremlin  for the poisoning, Russian spying and other Western grievances. Polands foreign minister Jacek Czaputowicz called it the right response to the unfriendly, aggressive actions of Russia.

In the Czech Republic, where Russian officials have claimed the poison may have originated, Prime Minister Andrej Babis dismissed that allegation as an utter lie.

US administration ordered the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle @GK_Seattle. What US Consulate General would you close in @Russia, if it was up to you to decide  Russian Embassy in USA  (@RusEmbUSA) March 26, 2018

Russias embassy in Washington responded to the decisions on Twitter by hinting at retaliation, asking its followers to vote on which US consulate should be closed: St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok.

Russias Consulate General in Seattle must close by April 2. The facility is a particular counter-intelligence concern to the US because of its proximity to a US Navy base, senior US officials said.

US ambassador Nikki Haley, Mr Trumps envoy to the UN, said: The United States and many of our friends are sending a clear message that we will not stand for Russias misconduct.Jeremy Corbyn has written to Jewish leaders insisting he is a militant opponent of anti-Semitism.

The opposition leader apologised for hurt and pain caused by instances of anti-Semitism in Labour as he faced a wave of criticism from within the Jewish community.

The letter to the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council came after the organisations launched a stinging attack on Mr Corbyn, accusing him of siding with anti-Semites again and again.

I have written to the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council. I will never be anything other than a militant opponent of antisemitism. In this fight, I am an ally and always will be. pic.twitter.com/QhQnFEpplU  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) March 26, 2018

Mr Corbyn said: I recognise that anti-Semitism has surfaced within the Labour Party, and has too often been dismissed as simply a matter of a few bad apples.

This has caused pain and hurt to Jewish members of our party and to the wider Jewish community in Britain. I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused, and pledge to redouble my efforts to bring this anxiety to an end.

I must make it clear that I will never be anything other than a militant opponent of anti-Semitism.

Mr Corbyn also personally apologised for questioning the removal of a controversial mural in London.

The Labour leader said there needed to be a deeper understanding of what constitutes anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

He said: Sometimes this evil takes familiar forms  the east London mural which has caused such understandable controversy is an example. The idea of Jewish bankers and capitalists exploiting the workers of the world is an old anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.

This was long ago, and rightly, described as the socialism of fools. I am sorry for not having studied the content of the mural more closely before wrongly questioning its removal in 2012.

The Labour leader said the party had been to slow to acting in the past.

I acknowledge that anti-Semitic attitudes have surfaced more often in our ranks in recent years, and that the party has been too slow in processing some of the cases that have emerged. Early action has nevertheless been taken, and we will work to speed up procedures, to deal with cases of anti-Semitic abuse or attitudes.

Mr Corbyn said criticism of Israel in relation to the continuing dispossession of the Palestinian people cannot be avoided.

People protest against anti-Semitism in the Labour party in Parliament Square, London (Yui Mok/PA)

Adding: Nevertheless, comparing Israel or the actions of Israeli governments to the Nazis, attributing criticisms of Israel to Jewish characteristics or to Jewish people in general and using abusive phraseology about supporters of Israel such as Zio all constitute aspects of contemporary anti-Semitism.

In their original letter, Jewish leaders took aim at Mr Corbyn personally, saying he was repeatedly found alongside people with blatantly anti-Semitic views but claims never to hear or read them.

The organisations were protesting outside Parliament on Monday before delivering an open letter to a meeting of Labour MPs and peers at which concerns about anti-Semitism are expected to be raised  although Mr Corbyn is not expected to attend.

In their letter they said: Today, leaders of British Jewry tell Jeremy Corbyn that enough is enough.

They said there was a repeated institutional failure to properly address Jewish concerns and to tackle anti-Semitism.

We conclude that he cannot seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities.

There was loud applause at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party for Luciana Berger, the MP who initially highlighted concerns over Mr Corbyns response to the mural.

The Labour leader did not attend the meeting, which saw a string of MPs call for the problem of anti-Semitism to be addressed by the party.

I am glad that it was not just Jewish MPs making their views known, said Ms Berger. It was MPs from all over the country, from all faiths and none saying this is a stain on the conscience of the party.

Ms Berger said some MPs had expressed disappointment he did not go outside to talk with the protesters on Parliament Square, while some also said he should have come to the PLP, which he was not scheduled to attend.

Someone advocated that the one thing he could do is to disassociate himself from people who are carrying banners saying this is all some kind of smear, she said. Many people said that inaction is not enough.The path towards privatising Royal Bank of Scotland will be made clearer once a multibillion-pound US mis-selling fine is announced, the man overseeing the process has said, but choppy markets could still derail any sale of the taxpayers stake.

James Leigh-Pemberton, the head of UK Financial Investments (UKFI), said that while settling the fine is not a road block to kick-starting the process, investors would prefer it to be out of the way.

It would be very helpful to have out of the way to enable a future sale, but its not the necessary condition for future sales.

RBS is still 72% owned by the taxpayer (Philip Toscano/PA)

In the current environment, there are investors who I think would like to see that matter resolved before committing themselves to RBS equity.

The fine, which the US Department of Justice is expected to issue imminently, relates to the mis-selling of retail mortgage-backed securities (RMBS).

Once a settlement is reached, it would allow RBS to kick-start the process of resuming dividends, thereby attracting funds who only invest in such stocks.

Taxpayers own 72% of RBS following a 45.5 billion Government bailout at the height of the financial crisis.

The Government said last year that plans to re-privatise the taxpayer-backed lender were under way, with the aim of selling 15 billion of its shares by 2023.

It wants to restart share sales in RBS by the end of the 2018-19 financial year and sell off 3 billion a year over five years  around two-thirds of its stake.

However, Mr Leigh-Pemberton, who was being quizzed by the Treasury Sub-Committee, added that market conditions could derail the timetable.

In order to sell these shares we must have markets that are conducive, we must have good investor appetite and that is highly variable, he said.

We have had periods over the last 24 months during which markets have been closed effectively to the making of new issues of equity.

A long period of muted risk sentiment and a lack of demand on the part of investors to increase their exposure to equity markets could have an impact on the deliverability of this sale.

That could be a constraint on the time table.

The Government faces a 26.2 billion loss on its stake in RBS, with the lenders shares languishing well below the average 502p share price paid during the 2008 and 2009 bail-out  at around 258p at todays prices.A 26-year-old man who was shot dead in the street has been named by police.

Abraham Badru was gunned down in Hackney, east London, where he lived.

Armed police were called to Ferncliff Road shortly after 11pm on Sunday, where Mr Badru was found fatally wounded.

One witness who lives near the scene described hearing one shot and a cry of pain before he saw the man lying on the ground.

Police at the scene in Hackney, east London (Jamie Johnson/PA)

Detective Chief Inspector Larry Smith, from Scotland Yards murder squad, said: We are appealing for information so we can establish the circumstances which led to a young man losing his life.

Anyone with information who hasnt yet spoken with us should come forward without delay.

Your call will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Officers carried out house-to-house inquiries on Monday, while distressed family members and friends were seen visiting what is understood to be the victims home.

Police near the scene inFerncliff Road (Jamie Johnson/PA)

One neighbour said: As soon as I heard the bang, I knew it was a gunshot. Im ex-military and knew that couldnt be a firework.

I went to my balcony and saw a man slumped over on the ground at the back of a car.

There was just one shot and a cry of pain. No speeding scooter and no speeding car.

I didnt see anyone make off.

He has been living on Mountford Estate since it was built in the 1980s but says he is now considering moving out.

Im trying to raise a child here but with the number of people carrying knives and guns it just isnt safe, he said.

Another woman who lives nearby said: We are not safe here.

Concerns have been raised about rising levels of violent crime in the UK, and earlier this month eight people were shot or stabbed in London in the space of a week.

Patrick Green, chief executive of knife-crime awareness charity the Ben Kinsella Trust, said a crisis point had been reached.Protesters have held a rally in Edinburgh to show their support for a former member of Catalonias regional government facing extradition to Spain.

Clara Ponsati, the ex-Catalan education minister, is expected to hand herself in to police in Scotland later this week.

Her lawyer has said she will oppose the political prosecution after a European arrest warrant was issued for her.

Protesters have condemned the actions of the Spanish authorities (Jane Barlow/PA)

A Spanish judge issued arrest warrants on Friday for Ms Ponsati and other fugitive politicians including Catalonias ex-leader Carles Puigdemont, now detained by German police.

Around 60 people congregated outside the Consulate of Spain in Edinburgh on Monday to demonstrate against the arrest warrant for Ms Ponsati and criticise the actions of the Spanish Government.

Speaking during the rally, David Aguirre said: I think that the moment that Europe has people in prison only because of their ideas, its a moment where everybody  no matter what are your beliefs  should be protesting against that.

The 32-year-old, from Barcelona and living in Edinburgh, called for all of the arrest warrants to be dropped.

Pat Lee, 54, co-convener of Solidarity, said the protesters were demanding that the democratic rights of the Catalonian people should be observed.

He said: The Catalonia government in exile was democratically elected. It is Europes shame that they are not standing up for the democracy that they claim to represent.

What the Spanish Government are now doing is dictatorial. This is an affront to justice, its an affront to democracy and it should stop.

Around 60 people attended the rally (Jane Barlow/PA)

Ewan Hunter, 43, from Linlithgow, said: The people of Scotland are entirely behind her (Ms Ponsati), in fact every democrat round the world should be behind her. Its simply an affront to the concept of democracy.

Ms Ponsati returned to Scotland earlier this month, having been in Belgium since fleeing Spain with Mr Puigdemont and three other former cabinet members following an unsuccessful bid to declare independence from Spain in October.

She posted on social media she had resumed working at the University of St Andrews in Fife.

Her lawyer Aamer Anwar said he will oppose her extradition to Spain under the arrest warrant.

Mr Anwar said following discussions with Police Scotland and the Crown Office, arrangements would be made for Ms Ponsati to voluntarily attend a police station this week then appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Bail would be applied for and a full hearing on the extradition request is expected to follow several weeks later.

Demonstrators outside the Spanish Consulate in Edinburgh protest against the extradition (Jane Barlow/PA)

In a statement, Mr Anwar said: I am instructed to oppose the extradition on the basis that this is a political prosecution of Clara and a systematic attempt to criminalise the desire for independence by more than two million voters in Catalonia.

She faces charges of rebellion with violence against the unity of the Spanish nation, but along with other politicians she promoted a peaceful referendum to express a democratic desire for independence from Spain. This offence is punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment.

We will submit there are there are no guarantees of due process in Spain, of a right to a fair trial in a country where most members of the Catalan Government are already in prison or in exile.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has written to the Spanish Ambassador in London requesting a meeting on the issue as a matter of urgency.

His letter states: It is deeply disappointing that as part of this pursuit of pro-Catalan independence politicians a former minister, who is a respected academic in Scotland, now faces charges of rebellion  a charge which is not recognised in Scots law.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the Scottish Government supports the right of the people of Catalonia to determine their own future and that we strongly oppose the Spanish Governments decision to seek the arrest and imprisonment of independence supporting politicians.

Professor Sally Mapstone, the principal and vice chancellor of St Andrews University, said staff there were deeply concerned by what was happening.A German court has ordered Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont to be held in custody for the length of extradition proceedings, prosecutors said.

Schleswig Holstein state prosecutor Georg Guentge said the court in Neumuenster formally determined Puigdemonts identity and also heard arguments from his lawyer claiming legal flaws in Spains extradition request.

Mr Guentge said the judge on Monday rejected the motion from Puigdemonts lawyer, but the issues can be raised again during the formal extradition process which begins immediately.

The entrance building of the prison in Neumuenster Frank Molter/dpa/AP)

Puigdemont was detained by German highway police on Sunday after entering from Denmark.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemonts government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the north-eastern region in October.The director of TV drama Ordeal By Innocence has said the entire cast stepped up when scenes had to be reshot after Ed Westwicks role was recast.

Westwick was replaced by British actor Christian Cooke after the Gossip Girl star was accused of sexual assault, which he has denied.

The BBC adaptation of Agatha Christies story was pulled from the Christmas schedule after the accusations.

Westwick denies sexual assault claims (Ian West/PA)

Speaking at a screening, director Sandra Goldbacher said the reshoot took around 12 days.

She said: Everyone really stepped up. It was great. All the actors came back which was fantastic.

Everyone was generous with their time.

Writer Sarah Phelps said getting everyone to return was like defying gravity and physics.

She said the extra time allowed her to make some additions to the drama.

The script stood as it was because everything had been thought about really, really hard, she said.

What I did do was add a few little extra things for some of the characters because there was a real pleasure in getting the opportunity to see the things I was thinking of doing the first time around and didnt get the chance to do.

Cooke, whose credits include The Art Of More, The Promise and Cemetery Junction, said it was a great experience and the cast appreciated that he was shooting the material for the first time.

It was such a welcoming environment, I had enough time to prepare, well over a month, said the actor.

From my point of view, it didnt seem like people had been there before. The cast were sensitive towards the fact that they wanted it to be a fresh experience for me. It was a really great experience.

The cast of the three-part drama also includes Bill Nighy, Anna Chancellor and Crystal Clarke.

The first episode airs on BBC1 on Sunday April 1.From March 23 to 25, art film lovers of Colombo were treated to a fine collection of Bangladeshi films by the Bangladesh High Commission here and the

Sri Lankan National Film Corporation.



What was remarkable about the ensemble of films was the variation in the theme. The entire gamut of issues facing Bangladesh was covered like never before. It spanned the historical and the contemporary; the traumatic past associated with the 1971 liberation struggle and the challenges of present-day Bangladesh; the distinctiveness of issues confronting urban and rural Bangladesh; the ideological clash between anachronistic Islamic fundamentalists and present-day youth exposed to modern means of communication. Last but not the least, the issue of gender was presented forcefully.



The films shown also clearly brought out how, despite the rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism, Bangladesh is a culturally integrated country and is unabashedly so. Heres a country where the Hindus and the Muslims work together, united by a passion for the soil of Bengal, the Bengali language and Bengali culture which embraces both Muslims and Hindus. The casting was multi-religious, and borders were transcended in the process. The credit titles featured even South Indian names like Krishnamoorthy and Pillai! The star cast included Irfan Khan and Rahul Roy of India. Bangladeshi cinema is a true integrator.



The resultant blend is both unique and captivating. It gives multi-cultural and multi-religious countries, currently under assault by fanatic majoritarian forces, reasons to hope that they will survive.



The opening film was Mostafa Sarwar Farookis Doob (No Bed of Roses), starring famous Indian actor Irfan Khan. It was about famous film director Javed Hassan who, due to his over commitment to his work, gets distanced from his wife and children. He complicates matters by falling for an attractive starlet. But Javed is unable to communicate his dilemmas to his school teacher wife.



The theme is not unusual but Director Farooki brought out the inner tension without resorting to melodrama. He told the tale of human vanity and egotism and the paradoxes that crop up in our lives realistically but with sensitivity.

Aynabaji

Amitabh Rezas directorial debut Aynabaji has an unusual theme. Protagonist Sharafat Karim Ayna is a human chameleon serving as a double for socially highly placed but convicted criminals. The dark underbelly of Dhakas criminal and judiciary system is portrayed starkly. The doubles mystery is chased by inquisitive and stubborn crime reporter Saber.



But like every cocky-confident professional, Ayna gets into deep trouble and eventually finds himself not having any control over the proceedings. He becomes a prisoner who, to his dismay, is finally sentenced to death. But ingenuity and daring help him escape from prison to cycle away as a prison guard going home after duty.



The thriller has ample twists and surprises, with Chanchal Chowdhury turning in an unforgettable performance as Ayna. Partha Barua is every inch a committed reporter struggling to dig the truth but only to be cold shouldered by the editor.

Television

In this film on Islamic fundamentalism in rural Bangladesh, a patriarchal and dictatorial village chairman, Amin, bans every kind of image in his village, including cinema, television sets, cameras and mobile phones. He even declares that imagination is sinful as it leads one into prohibited territory.



Amins orders are met with obedience first, and then by subtle defiance, and eventually by open revolt. Muslim villagers were secretly watching TV in the Hindu school teachers house and a mirror was used to reflect TV images to help beat the religious taboo. But those caught doing this were punished.



Eventually, defiance became confrontational with agitators intimidating the aged chairman publicly. Surprisingly, the seeds of revolt were planted by his imbecile son, having been influenced by his progressive and daring lady love.



But the hold of tradition being what it is, the son apologizes to the father. But the father continues to shun images as haram and struggled hard to accept being photographed for a passport to go to Mecca. But a chance glance at a television set showing a direct telecast from Mecca made him change his mind about TV. What was haram, became halal.

Under Construction

The age-old problem of patriarchy and class divisions in urban Bangladesh is examined in Rubaiyat Hossains Under Construction. On the surface, protagonist Roya seems to have a perfectly built life, with a long-standing acting career, a businessman husband and a sleek apartment with a full-time maid, Moyna.



But Royas life is dictated to by the husband who has no empathy for her or her achievements and struggles in her artistic career. At work, it is the director who dictates to her. She finally throws off the yolk of the husband as well as that of the director and takes charge of her life, partly inspired by her plucky housemaid.



Director Rubaiyat Hossain is no stranger to controversy. Her debut film Meherjaan about a love affair between a Bangladeshi woman and a Pakistani soldier during the 1971 war of independence was pulled out of cinemas after a week due to a public outcry. Under Construction is in line with Rubaiyats passion for challenging stereotypes and dragging people out of their cocoons.

BhubanMajhi

BhubanMajhi by Fakhrul Arefeen Khan is set against the backdrop of the 1971 Bangladesh war of liberation from Pakistan. Being a documentary filmmaker gives Arefeen an edge in portraying historic events. But he tells the story not in a drab way, but with the sensitivity of a creative artiste.



However, the long time-frame of the film, spanning the years between 1971 and 2013 with all their complexity, posed a challenge to the director. Whether he met the challenge is for the audience to judge, but critics said the film was a must watch.

Anil BagchirEkdin

Anil BagchirEkdin is also set against the backdrop of the liberation struggle of 1971. It revolves round a Hindu family which is partly located in Dhaka and partly in its native village. When the Pakistani army began its crackdown on Bangladeshis, especially the Hindus among them, Anil is told that his father had been killed by the Pakistani army. He rushes to his village against advice. In the bus he is told by a Muslim co-passenger not to reveal his Hindu name but to go as Mohsin. But being a timid man, Anil gives away his real name when confronted by a Pakistan military search party.



He is taken to be tortured and killed. But while being taken away he told his Muslim fellow-traveller to tell his sister, Atoshi, who is in love with a Muslim, to marry the lover, disregarding Hindu social taboos.A 39-year-old Chinese national was arrested with gems worth over Rs. 21 million while he was trying to smuggle them into the country last night, BIA Deputy Customs Director and Customs Spokesman Vipula Minuwanpitiya said.

He said the suspect was arrested while he was leaving the Katunayake airport through the Green Channel with 12 pieces of Gemstones weighing 68.87 ct valued at Rs 21,131,227.

The suspect arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) from Shanghai, China, he said.

He was arrested with gemstones like Ceylon Sapphire, Cats Eye, Ruby and Star Stones. The suspect was a worker at an expressway construction site in Colombo, Mr. Minuwanpitiya said.

During questioning the suspect had told the customs officers that he had taken out several gemstones out from Sri Lanka earlier to sell in China and brought back the ones which could not be sold there, Mr. Minuwanpitiya said.

Mr. Minuwanpitiya told the Daily Mirror that more than 12 million people used to travel through the Katunayake airport annually and it was unable to check each and every individual who were passing the airport but people were being checked randomly to nab this type of illegal smuggling attempts.

The case was detected by Assistant customs Superintendents R.G.S. Wijewickrama, W.D.G. Vitharana, H.C.M. Peters, PMI Vimukthi and A.M.A.S Amarasinghe.

Investigations were carried out under the Directions of Customs Director O.M Jabeer and Deputy Director RCM Livera .

Later the gemstones were confiscated and a penalty of Rs 100,000 was imposed on the suspect, Mr. Minuwanpitiya said. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama and T.K.G. Kapila)A trip to the North through a path dotted with a palmyrah trees and parched terrains reminds us of a bygone era. Its unique cultural identity highlighted through colours, cuisine and chimes emerging from kovils is slowly returning to its former glory. Among the many opportunities the people in the North have lost, education takes centre-stage. Although the North was known for producing many intellects to this country, years of bloodshed have resulted in a major brain drain. Today we see and hear of students struggling to remember simple theories in maths, science and other subjects as a result of the trauma they have experienced. Among a school system separating girls from boys, many vocational training centres have found potential in the Northern terrains. These training centres are usually frequented by students of both genders, who aspire to find jobs at a nearby garment factory or a welding shop.



During a recent visit to Kilinochchi, the Daily Mirror visited the Don Bosco Vocational Training Centre (DBVTC) in Pallawarayankattu and spoke to its students and teachers. Although many of them were shy to speak at first, they didnt hesitate to tell us who they want to be in future and how their College has helped them in their lifes journey.



A ray of hope



DBVTC commenced operations back in 2005 and has provided vocational training to many under-privileged children in the area. While the majority of them come from war-torn areas, they are deprived of an economic and social status. Almost all students get jobs. There are garment factories in Mannar, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Jaffna and other places, said Fr. Vincent Sebastian, Director of the Centre. Fr. Vincent is of Indian origin and resumed work in June 2016, dedicating his time and efforts for the future of the students at this Centre. Having worked as a professor in three universities, a parish priest and a secretary in a mixed-school in India, Fr. Vincent is aware of how important it is for one to be educated. I saw pictures and news of the war and how people were affected by it in Sri Lanka. Then I wanted to come and help the children to continue their education,he said.



Courses at DBVTC include tailoring, computing, baking, welding and carpentry among others. Other facilities include a hostel, youth centre, farming and animal husbandry, counselling services, English Academy, rehabilitation of ex-combatants among others. Students have to follow a six-month course and at the end they receive a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) certificate. According to Fr. Vincent although the German Government has been funding to upgrade its facilities, since March 2017 the Centre functions with its own funds. What we collect from the students is used to pay teachers. Its about Rs. 25,000 with EPF and ETF. In order to raise funds we have installed a solar panel system which contributes to the National Grid; it is one of the main sources of income. Some of the students pay Rs. 500 or Rs. 600 because we cant expect everybody to pay Rs. 1000, he added.



Mental trauma and dropout rates



Although around 90 students initially registered for the course many of them seem to dropout during the course. According to the teachings of psychology, a disturbed childhood would affect the overall well-being of a child. There are vital stages in the development cycle which requires proper nurturing and care. A traumatic childhood disrupts this cycle to the point that children would no longer retain what they learn and will lose their fear to do certain activities. Statistics show that those with a traumatic childhood often get involved in substance abuse and even become criminals at a later stage.



Absenteeism is very common here, said Fr. Vincent expressing his concerns about the future of these students. They are shy to express their ideas even in the class. We cant force them because they have already gone through a forceful childhood. We cant inculcate discipline in this system. The moment we become strict, students stop attending the course. As a result there are only around 62 students remaining from the initially enrolled number. Their self-confidence needs to developed and this takes time. They want to be free and sometimes they dont remember certain things we have taught them. This could be seen during the spoken English sessions I do, Fr. Vincent further said.



Thoughts of students and teachers



We spoke to a few students and they shared their thoughts with us :



The certificate we get from here is very useful for our future careers. said R. Nirojini



I would like to start my own tailoring shop because I have learned it in college, said Diluxshy



I like to go ahead in IT and through this course I have learned Microsoft Excel, Windows operations and other IT related subjects said Thanojan



Through the spoken English lessons we have learned correct pronunciations. We have learned many words and grammar. Its quite interesting. said Naseem

We learned about tenses and various other grammatical terms in English. Its new, but interesting as well. said Lakshi

Two teachers also shared their experiences with us had this to say.



They dont show an interest to continue with these subjects- Komathy



K. Komathy joined the Don Bosco Technical College in October 2010 and teaches ICT to the students. I have taught ICT in a non-formal educational setup in a school in Pallimunai, Mannar. Most of these students have had a traumatic childhood. They come from war-torn areas and have economically experienced hardships. Therefore they dont show an interest to continue with these subjects. As a result theres a high dropout rate. They dont get enough jobs in computer-related fields and the only solution is to go to the South or abroad. We have a computer lab and students get both practical and theory lessons,said Komathy.



Girls show an interest in tailoring- Sashiraji



Students learn with a lot of interest, said R. Sashiraji who joined the institute in 2011 and now teaches tailoring. I have been a teacher for 16 years. We were trained by the German Government before we started working here. Students at Don Bosco have to participate in a six-month course. Unlike in other subjects girls show an interest in it. This may be because there are many garment factories in the area and they are sure of getting a job there. We want to teach the children and check their progress,said Sashiraji.



Whats in store for the future?



The DBVTC has provided many opportunities to children in the area and those from afar. The Don Bosco Trust has a number of establishments around the country and will be starting many more schools in English medium up to the A/L standard. I too joined after seeing an advertisement in the papers. Except for tailoring and welding these areas dont create any other jobs. We have invested in a lot of equipment for carpentry, but there are no students. Before the war there were many students interested in carpentry, but its not so now.said one of the officials.



Upon observing their performances Fr. Vincent said that they are picking up English slowly. But they have the interest. Most of these children speak colloquial Tamil when compared to those in the rest of the country. Now they want to learn English and Sinhala as well. Through education we could remove many barriers. Through communication we could speak to them and listen to their problems. I always tell the students that Sri Lanka is one country. They always think it is divided and feel they are like refugees. They feel that they are being discriminated against, that their rights have been deprived of and because of the military presence they also feel threatened, said a concerned Fr. Vincent.



With his experience in India, Fr. Vincent believes that the authorities must introduce values to the education system. Without values the entire education system will be disrupted. Here, they can also introduce more extra-curricular activities, team work, field visits, practical activities and group work. he said.



In his concluding remarks, Fr. Vincent said that he likes to remain in Sri Lanka and promote education among children. Now the negative effects of the war are slowly vanishing. The education system will create change and upgrade the standard of life. I want people to forget the past and integrate into the society. After all they have a duty towards establishing unity in the country,said Fr.Vincent.



Pics by Kalani KumarasinghePrime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has told the newly-elected UNP local council members, at their swearing-in ceremony at Temple Trees on March 19, that people had elected them not to see those who came on bicycles leaving office in Benz cars.



Interestingly his main rival, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had also expressed similar views to the newly-elected local councillors of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) from the districts of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Ratnapura at their swearing-in ceremony held in Colombo just one day after the Prime Minister met his local councillors.



Mr. Rajapaksa is reported to have said that one should not enter politics with the objective of making money and if they go after contractors handling development projects the councillors would be taught a good lesson by the people at the next election.



If the two leaders had said what they really meant and if they were serious about what they said, it could be assumed that they might have discovered where the Sri Lankan politics have gone wrong. It is the money-making motive of politicians that has ruined politics and thereby the country. Against this background, the speeches of the two leaders, had the local councillors really thought that they were made after a serious thought, would not have gone well with them.



Never in the history of the country had any political party at the helm of affairs had prepared a overall development programme that would fulfil the aspirations of the people in the field of income generation, employment, education, health, housing, transport, reconciliation, etc., except with regard to certain concepts such as socialism put forward by leftist parties. Yet, those concepts seem to be Utopian in the context of the present world order. And no party had hitherto had at least thought of such an overall programme. They indeed do not seem to want one.

If the two leaders had said what they really meant and if they were serious about what they said, it could be assumed that they might have discovered where the Sri Lankan politics have gone wrong



On the other hand, never in the history of individual politicians, except for those rebels in the north as well as in the south who genuinely had thought of sacrificing their lives in search of solutions to the problems of the people they represented had any dream of economic and social progress. All that they want is to plunder government coffers in the guise of development. At the local government level they would want to get the local level contracts under the name of their relatives or friends and to climb up to the next administrative level, the provincial councils. There, they would get more perks, privileges, powers to plunder and the opportunity to ascend to the top level, the Parliament.



The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna parliamentarian and the Chairman of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), Sunil Handunnetti when asked at a TV debate during the recent local government elections as to why these politicians spent such a huge amount of their personal funds for the election campaign while knowing fully well that they would be receiving a salary of about Rs.15,000, if elected. He said many local government members, at the end of their tenure become the owners of at least a backhoe.



At the parliamentary level their chances to become rich are ample, apart from the perks provided to them such as vehicle permits, housing allowance, fuel and telephone allowance, at the expense of the tax-payers. A recent newspaper report said the government spent Rs.7.5 million a month to maintain a minister. There have been parliamentarians who literally came on motorbikes, as the Premier stated and become multi-millionaires, if not billionaires.



It is not the personal weaknesses of individual politicians, but the system which had been developed by the politicians over the years with the assistance of the unquestioning masses that had created this situation. Never in history had any political party or a trade union or a social organisation demonstrated against the moves by parliamentarians to increase their perks. In the contrary, supporters of the UNP, SLFP and the SLPP prefer to defend their respective leaders who had been accused of high profile corruption, involving billions. Hence, it is pointless to advise the politicians at the lowest level not to go after money while maintaining the corrupt system.At least 48 people died in a fire at the shopping mall in the Russian city of Kemerovo, the Russian emergencies ministry said, TASS reports.

March 26, 2018, 09:59 At least 48 dead in fire at shopping mall in Russias Kemerovo

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 26, ARTSAKHPRESS:11 more bodies were found in the fire at the cinema part. Deaths of 48 people have been confirmed, the representative of the operative emergencies headquarters said. Search for 16 people is underway. At least 9 of the victims are children. The representative said the fire has been extinguished in the shopping mall.

11 people have been hospitalized.

Kemerovo will declare mourning in coming days for the memory of the shopping mall fire victims.

The fire at the Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) shopping mall in central Kemerovo erupted on Sunday on the top floor of the four-storey building engulfing an area of some 1,500 square meters.

Twenty people were rescued from the blaze and about 100 were evacuated.

A criminal investigation has been launched.Disaster Management Minister Anura PriyadarshanaYapa, who is a senior member of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), speaks about political developments in the wake of a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.



The Excerpts:

Q As a senior Minister representing Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), what is your view on the no confidence motion?

This is not against him personally, according to my understanding. After the results of the local polls were announced, the people have voiced their disappointment with the government, its policies and performance. I think people wanted a change of policies and direction. They asked for economic revival. My thinking is that this is an attempt by the opposition to voice the concerns of people. They think the direction is not good. The best option is to try a no confidence motion against the Prime Minister. That is my political understanding.

We will have to understand that there are lots of reasons for it. People always have expectations. They have lost hope now. Who is to take the responsibility? That is the question to be raised next.

Q The SLFP is part and parcel of this government; in fact, the Head of State is from the SLFP and your party held key ministerial portfolios. Dont you think that the SLFP is also responsible for the current economic mess which you referred to?

We are partly responsible, I agree to that. But, we are not solely responsible. The important Ministries, such as the ones dealing with economic affairs and investment, were vested with the United National Party (UNP). I am not going to put the blame on them entirely. As a whole, they are more responsible than us. They hold those key ministries - Finance, Investment Promotion, Economic Development etc. That is the reason.

Q From your perspective, what are the wrongful decisions taken as far as the economy is concerned?

There was a system ongoing regarding the economic development during the term of the last regime. There were criticisms against them regarding the nature of economic development being implemented. This government came and stopped the development momentum. They could not restart. The rhythm of development was gone. They could have allowed the development process to go on and found the areas to be corrected. Instead of doing it, they stopped all development works on the assumption that everything was corrupt. It cannot be like that. On the other hand, they have taken some decisions not healthy for a developing economy like ours.

Q What do you mean by that?

They immediately brought down fuel prices by a sizeable margin. Also, they increased the salaries of public servants by Rs.10,000. They could have done it in a phased out manner. It dented the economy. Thirdly, we should have been involved in getting small and medium scale investment to the country. It did not happen because there were huge delays in decision making. In fact, decision making was very poor. The other thing is public service. Most of the senior public servants were treated shabbily by the government.

They were hauled before special investigative units. It completely eroded the confidence of public servants. Decision making in the country is very slow as a result. No-one is prepared to take decisions in fear of repercussions. It all contributed to the downfall of economy. That is my view. It is one thing to find a person or persons involved in wrongdoing. It is another thing to consider all of them as a thieving lot. You cannot run a government like this. You have to take decisions, be it right or wrong. Decisions may sometimes go wrong. Where is the cover for them? Who is there to look after them if their decisions go wrong? I am referring to bona fide decisions, not mala fide decisions. There is no protection for them in such a situation. That is what happened under this government.

Q What is the SLFPs decision on the no confidence motion?

The SLFP will decide unanimously. It will be a collective decision. We will not take individual decisions.

Q Have you discussed this matter?

There were a lot of discussions. There are some ideas which were exchanged. Beyond that, if we are to support the motion, we will do it as a party, not as individuals.

Q What is the general mood of the party?

As you have seen, the SLFP members who signed the no confidence motion reflect the mood of the party.

Q But, no SLFP Minister has placed the signature. Why is it?

I do not think the Ministers can do it. If the Ministers were to resign, they should have resigned and signed.

Q The President is from the SLFP. If the SLFP wants to remove the Prime Minister, the President can act in this regard rather than bringing a no confidence motion. Why didnt that happen?

Dont involve the President here! He is the leader of the party. We are a democratic party.

Q In Sri Lanka, as far as the party politics are concerned, the decisions by the leaders prevail in most cases. Why is there any difference this time?

It is not the case on this matter. This is a special occasion. The SLFP takes decisions after discussing among its members when it comes to issues of parliamentarians. When it comes to other issues, we discussed it with the Central Committee. We will take the appropriate decision.

Q What will be the next step if the no confidence motion succeeds?

Then, it is up to the President to take decisions. As the Head of State, he has to decide what could be the next move.

Q You have any personal suggestion for premiership?

I have no suggestion regarding any person.

Q As a senior SLFP Minister, how do you see your experience in governing together with the UNP?

There is very slow progress actually. As a SLFP Minister, I would like to see the country progressing economically and socially. Those two things are very important. I have been a Minister in three governments. Economic development is the key area where we have to put our fullest possible effort. After the war, everyone wanted to see a development in the country. We have a young, robust population. They are very educated. Along with economic development, there should be fair play. It is a vital aspect. It has been a political debate for a long time. It is equally important to control corruption. These are the aspirations of young people. I cannot think of any country being able to eradicate

corruption totally.



Yet, there has to be methodology to curb corruption by taking appropriate measures. I am not merely talking about remanding those indulging in corruption and bringing them before law. I do not say it will serve the purpose. It has its own merits for sure. There must be futuristic, transparent systems. They are adopted in other countries. Young people are urging for that. I do not see that it has taken place in the country.



Q What is the future of SLFP under the current circumstances?

The future of the SLFP is very good. My humble wish is that these two factions should be united.



Q One faction is now in the opposition. There is one faction in the government. You also belong to it. The faction in the opposition now functions under the Lotus Bud symbol. Do you want the two factions to be under that symbol or under the symbol of the SLFP?

That depends on how the political situation develops in the country. I cannot say we are joining hands with them or they are joining us. It is a rational question. You have to wait for the last moment to see the answer. I am visualizing a situation where the SLFP is getting united.



The SLFP is a party with a large vote base. It is the largest political party in the country. It has produced very good leaders. Our leadership ladder is very broad even today. We have a great ladder. It is a party no one can destroy. We have temporary issues. It is something different. I think these temporary issues can be resolved very soon. We will get united. We will decide what to do.

Q How do you look to the next Presidential Election?

It is too early to comment. We have to wait for these developments to take place.

Q Are you positively adopting the election?

Yes.

Q When it comes to the subjects of your ministry, what are your plans for disaster mitigation?

It is a key area where we have to take action. It is not an easy thing, though. It is because of unpredictability of rain pattern. Last year, we had rain and floods in one area and drought in another area. We have to educate people. Land use pattern is very important. Preserving water is quite essential. Looking after tanks and rehabilitating them are urgently needed.

Q Actually, you promised to enact certain legislations to deal with disaster management. How is the progress now?

I have done that. They are pending with the Legal Draftsmans Department.

Q You promised legislation to prevent constructions in river basin areas. What is the progress?

That is the prerogative of other Ministers. We only put the Cabinet papers. We need to keep special corridors, bunts in such areas. Also, we need to prevent excessive sand mining in rivers. Our forest areas have to be protected.HSBC has always been in the forefront of Sri Lankas growth storymay it be funding the big infrastructure projects, raising funds for the government in the international capital markets or helping out local corporates to expand their presence and capabilities locally and internationally.But it seems that the development work that is happening now at an improved pace, largely driven by the private sector, has enticed HSBC even more towards Sri Lanka as the bank is seeing ample opportunities to grow its presence and support the new wave of growth.In this backdrop, Mirror Business met with Tim Evans, Head of Commercial Banking International Markets, Asia Pacific for HSBC, who was on a brief visit to Sri Lanka, to discuss HSBCs further energized plans for Sri Lanka. Tim currently looks after commercial banking operations in Bangladesh, Maldives, Mauritius, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.



What is the purpose of your visit to Sri Lanka?



I look after 10 countries in the Asia Pacific region and Sri Lanka is one of them. Its a market where we see increased opportunity for us and as a part of our investment into the market weve appointed Stuart Rogers as the new head of the corporate bank here.



And one of the things I challenged Stuart about was that I wanted him to put together a strategic review of the business and how we would look to do more going forward. Weve been here in Sri Lanka for over 125 years. We are very committed to the market and we think that there is opportunity to do a lot more. HSBC strategically has engaged in a strategy what is called Pivot to Asia, basically it means greater focus on Asia from a business perspective. We believe that there are opportunities in Sri Lanka going forward that HSBC will be able to contribute to. If you look out of the window youd see the port over there and weve been involved with some of the players there. So my point is you dont have to travel too far from this building to realize the opportunities we are trying to tap into.



What are the key sectors HSBC has identified in Sri Lanka that the bank hopes to fund?



We operate across a number of sectors. Obviously we touch on infrastructure and Belt and Road. As a bank with its history in Hong Kong and Shanghai we are very close to China. We have a strong presence in China. When China goes out whether its RMB internationalization or Belt and Road initiativewe will look at projects in a selected basis and look to fund them. As you know there is an infrastructure piece, specially around Belt and Road.



We also continue to support Sri Lankas garment industry playersthe main big players. We support them not just here but as they go out and start operating internationally creating production capabilities in surrounding markets whether its Bangladesh, India or Vietnam.



We look to support pretty much any import-export business into the country. And then we also support the multi-nationals that will look to come and operate in this market. So we have a dedicated team who look after the multinational or the international subsidiaries that are operating in the market. We have different pillars that we target in the market. Its pretty broad spectrum.

I think the challenges are not limited to Sri Lanka. Globally there is a little bit of concern around what seems to be a growing impression of protectionism, which I think impacts not just Sri Lanka but all the different economies



You talked about the opportunities. But what are the challenges this market presents?



I think the challenges are not limited to Sri Lanka. Globally there is a little bit of concern around what seems to be a growing impression of protectionism, which I think impacts not just Sri Lanka but all the different economies. Now whether or not that actually manifests itself into something concrete remains to be seen. If you are an export-based economy, if you have strong export flows that is something that one has to be mindful of. But right now we see more opportunities than adversities in this market and we feel positive about them. Thats why we invest in people, in processes, technology, all of which will benefit our franchise here.



What are the opportunities the Sri Lanka banking space presents to a global bank like HSBC?



I dont live in Sri Lanka. I live in Hong Kong. To my understanding there are 25 banks in Sri Lanka. Its 50:50 between international and local banks. We have been here for 125 years. My understanding is that we are the largest international bank that is operating here. And I think that going forward, there will be greater opportunities for all banks.



As Sri Lankan firms get more internationally connected, you would start to see some large Sri Lankan entities, who have already ventured out to closer shores, such as India, Bangladesh or Vietnam, looking to have presences in the U.S. or the Caribbean to source into the U.S. So I think as Sri Lanka becomes more internationally connected, the opportunities for international banks will be there.



How concerned is HSBC about the anti global trade, protectionist sentiment that is propagated by Trump policies in the US?



We dont make political comments. I think our view would be that one has to be very careful with protectionism and what the knock-on impact would be. Trade wars that start small could escalate quickly. Hopefully its more rhetoric than it is anything practised. We look at it very closely. Im not a politician and Im not an economist. Im just a simple banker. So I can only relate to you the stories that our customers tell us. Depending in which industry you are in and where you are operating from, the customers have started to make contingency plans around it.

We look to support pretty much any import-export business into the country. And then we also support the multi-nationals that will look to come and operate in this market



Which is the bigger threat to global bankingprotectionism or cyber financial crimes now taking place at a heightened pace?



As a bank we look at all risks and to be able to say which one is greater than the other is very difficult to quantify. I think protectionism is a risk. Likewise geo-political risk is always there. There is economic risk and there is financial crimes risk. We have spent a lot of time to combat financial crime. I mean as an industry if you look at the statistics its between 2-5 percent of global GDP that is related to financial crime. We spend a significant amount of time and effort and investment ensuring that we have processes and technology in place that enables us to fight against that. Like all banks we have risk meetings where we sit down and look at all the emerging risks that may impact us and they vary over time. We have to be mindful to face them when they arrive.



From where do you see competition for global banks like you coming in the near future? Is it from within or outsidelike from the fintech firms?



Well, banks are very big organizations and they operate in different areas. If you look at the retail banking space its s different competitive landscape from the corporate banking landscape, which is completely different from investment banking space. But touching on fintech, my personal view is that some banks may have seen fintech as a threat and they were going to take over banks. I think we have a slightly different view. Our view is that you have these little pockets of innovations that are finding ways within the industry where we havent innovated quickly enough or we havent been able to keep up with the demand from our customers. If you can effectively partner some of these fintechsI mean we are spending US $ 2 billion on that to work with them in partnership so we have an ecosystem where fintechs will help us in delivering banking services, mainly in the retail banking side. So, I dont see fintechs as a threat. If you embrace it and if you engage with them I see it as a sense of opportunity. I dont think they will disrupt the banking the same way you download music or how Uber has disrupted the taxi industry. We embrace it and we support a number of them and they bring a lot of good ideas to us and we used to adopt some of them. We havent gone and approached a fintech to buy it and integrate it to HSBC. We work with them and we allow them to sit outside and still be very entrepreneurial, creative and nimble.



So the banks shouldnt try and develop fintech capabilities within?



I can comment on what we are doing. Our view is that the very reason that fintechs are creative and forward thinking and innovative is because they have the freedom to think very clearly and are not constrained by processes, policies, history and legacy systems. So our view is that you are better off partnering with people that have that creative skill rather than trying to build them in house, where you will sometimes get bogged down by archaic thinking.



So with this fintech revolution, have recruitment policies of global banks like your changed? I mean favouring more IT related professionals than people with finance backgrounds?



We will always need banking professionals. But we will continue to evolve. We need to make sure that we have the best talent whether it is into our marketing functions or finance functions or innovation functions. We will try and get the best people possibly we can. That is all part of an organization evolving and getting better.



Fundamentally, in very simpler terms what does a bank do? A bank takes deposits from people who have a lot of cash and then lend it to people who have a lot of ideas but are short of cash. In the middle banks take a margin. So you will continue to need bankers who understand the customers and what their business is and what the risks are to lend the money profitably. That will always be at the very essence of what banking is. Yes absolutely we will hire people with more innovative thinking. But like myself, Ive been in the industry for about 25 years. But I had to learn what is financial crime, innovation etc. which I probably didnt have to do 15 years ago. So its not just hiring people but also the people we have are evolving to become slightly different form of bankers.

We dont make political comments. I think our view would be that one has to be very careful with protectionism and what the knock-on impact would be. Trade wars that start small could escalate quickly



What is the next big thing for HSBC Sri Lanka?



Well, I dont think there is a big strategic move here. I think a lot of it is more of the same. I think we are partnering a lot of the infrastructure development that is taking place. It wont be everything but selectively we will look to work with partners. The project that is happening at the Colombo port is a very interesting project. Ive been coming here for the last three years. When I came here three years ago and from the top of the Kingsbury when I looked across out they said to me that they were going to reclaim the land there. I was not sure that would happen but now its there. If you look at it along the Galle Face road, you see the Shangri-La hotel and that whole complex being built. So clearly there is activity, there is development taking place, and we need to tap into that for the benefit of our customers and for the benefit of the country.



We are very committed to the market and weve been here for over 125 years. We are a long-term player. Our investments dont necessarily be in the form of acquiring other banks. We will continue to bring modern technology, processes and international thinking to Sri Lanka. That is how we intend to develop the franchise in Sri Lanka.Steven Mayes - Managing Director, Jones Lang LaSalle Sri Lanka

Global real estate consultancy Jones Lang La Salle (JLL)recently announced the companys predictions for Sri Lankas commercial office and retail markets in 2018, identifying opportunities related to the increased investments in the country and broad challenges in the face of policy inconsistency and a tighter fiscal environment.

JLL is a professional services and investment management firm offering specialized real estate services to clients in more than 80 countries worldwide. The Fortune 500 Company operates from 280 corporate offices with a global workforce of 70,000 providing management and real estate outsourcing services for a property portfolio of 4 billion square feet. We remain optimistic about the commercial sector real estate space, noted JLL, Lanka, Managing Director Steven Mayes. However, we are advising our clients to remain cautious about retail and residential markets, both of which face challenges going forward.

The commercial sector continues to gather pace buoyed by strong demand, especially in the international grade A space which is currently undersupplied in Colombo 1, 2 and 3. The residential sector, especially high end condominiums,faces over supply challenges, with the recent re-imposition of 15% VAT on condominium sales, denting sentiment further. Retail markets too demonstrate less sustainability, in the medium to longer term, due to the considerable number of ongoing mall development projects.

The existing stock of office space in the grade A sector in Colombo is just over 1.5 million square feet. When considered in the context of anticipated total demand for Grade A in 2018, at around 5 million square feet, it is very apparent that there is a shortage of about 200% in supply. Absorption of most Grade B spaces have also seen an uptick, as occupiers run out of Grade A options and are forced to compromise with alternatives.

While an uptick in demand is expected for spaces in Colombo from IT and related sectors stemming from 2018 budget provisions for the sector, it would be prudent to note that IT companies typically prefer out of town locations and lower cost options to fit with their business model. The newly signed Free Trade Agreements with India and Singapore are also positives for the economy and the maintenance of robust demand for commercial office space. Infrastructure development focused on connectivity between Colombo and Kandy could potentially increase tourism activity, further infrastructure developments, logistics activity, and generate more general business, which will bring in more demand for office space in both cities.

Prospects for the retail sector look encouraging over 2018/19, but beyond this lies potential excess supply issues. While the ongoing mall developments will experience the first-mover advantage, those that follow may experience demand related issues due to a lack of brands to occupy space. The longer-term success of this sector is heavily dependent upon government policy, especially with import tariff rates and infrastructure spending, on roads and public transport, as traffic congestion is a major impediment to retail growth. In current retail outlets demand for space still outstrips supply, but the gap will narrow after 2019, with other malls coming on stream in central and secondary business districts and residential zones.India says cheap Vietnamese pepper coming to India through Sri Lanka under FTA



The Spices and Allied Product Producers and Traders Association (SAPPTA) of Sri Lanka yesterday said that the Indian governments decision to unilaterally set a minimum import price for pepper imported from Sri Lanka is adversely affecting the Sri Lankan pepper exporters and the spirit of the Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement.



The Indian government last December introduced a minimum import price of 500 Indian rupees per kilogramme of imported pepper, which works out to US $ 7,700 per metric tonne, which the SAPPTA said is not feasible for Indian importers, since the pepper in the Sri Lankan market is US $ 4,600 per metric tonne.



This is another measure introduced by India to prevent imports of pepper, which is allowed under the free trade agreement (FTA). Besides, the shipments that have been made earlier are also being subjected to considerable delay in their clearance, the SAPPTA said.



The Indian government has implemented this minimum import price since the farmers in the pepper growing southern states of India had complained that cheap Vietnamese pepper is shipped to Sri Lanka and then re-exported to India under the FTAs.



Last month, the Indian pepper lobby called on the Indian central government to further raise the minimum import prices since the current regulated price is having minimal effect.

Under the Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement, Sri Lanka can export 2,500 metric tonnes of pepper per annum to India with zero duty, while under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement, Sri Lanka can export pepper with a tariff of 8 percent. Pepper shipped to India outside an FTA is subjected to 70 percent duty.



The rules of origin under the FTAs require at least 35 percent value addition when goods are re-exported. Last year, Primary Industries Minister Daya Gamage confirmed that Vietnamese pepper is imported to Sri Lanka, value added and re-exported to India, although he had called for further investigation into the matter.

India in the past introduced significant unilateral barriers specifically targeting imports from Sri Lanka through the FTA following protests made by domestic Indian industries, despite an FTA being a bilateral document that binds the two sovereign states into the terms of the agreement.



The late Dr. Saman Kelegama, who was the former Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies, outlined how India had introduced unilateral quotas on pepper, bakery shortening and Vanaspati produced in Sri Lanka in the past, while also taking measures to restrict the copper shipped from Sri Lanka to India under the FTA.

When a situation similar to today prevailed in 2006 with the Indian pepper farmers complaining of third party pepper coming to India through the FTA, India unilaterally imposed the 2,500 metric tonne quota and restricted pepper imported from Sri Lanka to only be processed through the designated port of Kochi to monitor imports.

More than the disruptions to the industries as a result of such quantitative restrictions, what is of concern is the undermining of confidence in the FTA as a whole due to strong unilateral measures, Dr. Kelegama said in a working paper authored for the Asian Development Bank.



Sri Lanka is negotiating a deeper economic pact with India, as well as an FTA with China and those opposing these agreements are pointing out that Sri Lanka does not have the political power to oppose any terms governing these agreements or subsequent unilateral measures by the geopolitical heavyweights.(Left to Right)Mohan Ratnayake, Managing Director of Colonial Motors, and Rajieve Fernando, Chief Executive Officer of Autobahn Private Limited, exchanging the MoU at a Colonial Motors service center.

Autobahn, a one stop shop for premium vehicle brands in Sri Lanka, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Colonial Motors. This MoU will give customers of Autobahn access to a wide array of unparalleled services at state-of-the-art Colonial Motors facilities.

Commenting on this landmark partnership Rajieve Fernando, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Autobahn Private Limited, said, The idea behind Autobahn has always been to improve the ownership experience of these fine luxury European vehicles. This is why I am excited to be partnering with Colonial Motors, a prestigious brand whose own story is intricately entwined with that of Sri Lankas automotive history. Now clients of Autobahn will have unfettered access to some of the most advanced equipment handled by the most well trained staff on the island. I look forward to this partnership flourishing in the years to come.

This partnership will grant Autobahn customers with a concierge service which will pick up and drop off their vehicles, 24-hour breakdown warranty, tow truck facility, access to an in-house paint booth, online service booking facility, and a well-stocked spare part center all at acompetitive price.

Rajieve is an automobile expert with impeccable credentials. His strong customer insights and ability to understand customer needs have made him a trusted name in the industry. This is why we have every confidence in his latest venture, Autobahn, and are excited to be partnering with him, said Mohan Ratnayake, Managing Director of Colonial Motors. Our service centers are built to international standards and are second to none anywhere in the world.Run by a team of experienced staff with access to the latest technology and diagnostic testers, Autobahn clients could not be in better hands. And the level of service we provide will make any visit to a Colonial Motors service center a pleasurable experience.

Founded in 1909 Colonial Motors began as a motor engineering company before progressing to providing Sri Lanka with automobiles. Today the company also has state-of-the-art service centers with trained staff in Palawatte, Battaramulla and Peliyagoda. Throughout its history it has represented some of the worlds most renowned brands such as Fiat, Nash, Citron Cars, Rover Cars, Alfa Romeo, Land Rover, Francis Barnett Motor Bikes, Lambrate Scooter, and Champion Spark Plugs.

The brainchild of Rajieve Fernando, a two decade veteran of the automobile industry, Autobahn is an importer of luxury European vehicles designed to be powered by ideas rooted in key lifestyle insights and particular life stage needs. This data driven approach to adding value and convenience to their customers makes Autobahn a cut above the regular vehicle importer.The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which enjoys 16 seats in Parliament, said yesterday it would take a decision regarding the no confidence motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe only on April 2, a party official said yesterday.

Last week the joint opposition handed over a No-confidence Motion against the Prime Minister to the Speaker. It is scheduled to be debated only on April 4. Already however some ministers of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) have come out and said they would support the motion.

Asked about the TNAs position, its Jaffna district MP M.A. Sumanthiran told Daily Mirror the party would have its parliamentary group meeting on April 2 and decide on its position.

The TNA is the main opposition in Parliament. If the no-confident motion goes through the Prime Minister will have to relinquish office.(Kelum Bandara)The Department of Examination today announced that the results of the 2017 GCE O/L examination will be released on Wednesday, March 28 and also that it decided to cancel the results of 969 applicants who sat for the examination.

The results would be uploaded to the Examination Departments website http://www.doenets.lk on Wednesday night while the results of outstation schools would be posted on Thursday (29), the Department said.

Acting Commissioner General of Examinations, B. Sanath Pujitha said the Department had decided to cancel the results of 969 applicants who sat for the examination due to reports on several irregularities such as using high tech equipment and violating examination rules and regulations.

He said a total of 2,804 complaints were received out of which 2,798 complaints were regarding incidents related to applicants.

Following initial investigations, 1,829 applicants had been released. However, the results of the 969 applicants had been cancelled, the Commissioner said.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam also instructed the Examinations Commissioner and the Police to take legal action against the persons who violated the rules and regulations of the examinations in order to comply with the rules and regulations of the exams.

Minister Kariyawassam also instructed the Examination Commissioner to issue the results of the three main cut-off examinations every year on the scheduled fixed dates as follows; G.C.E. A/L on December 28, G.C.E. O/L on March 28 and Grade Five Scholarship exam on October 5. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)While saying that the Central Banks former governor Arjuna Mahendran, the mastermind of the bond scam claimed to be the largest financial fraud in Sri Lanka, is still missing, Deputy Leader of Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU),Madumadawa Aravinda said today they would complain to the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) about Mr. Mahendran going missing.

He told a news conference that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was connected to Mahendrans disappearance.

It was Premier Wickremesinghe who said he would take responsibility for the appointment of Mr. Mahendran who is a citizen of Singapore. How can we further trust the PM when he says he would bring Mr. Mahendran back to Sri Lanka? Everybody wants Mr. Mahendran to arrive in Sri Lanka and prove his innocence or guilt on the controversial Central Bank bond issue. It is questionable as to why the government appointed OMP in haste during the recent unrests period. However, we presume the OMP would consider our case and act efficiently to bring Mr. Mahendran back to Sri Lanka, he added. (Sheain Fernandopulle)UNP MP Ranjan Ramanayake yesterday called the opposition MPs including former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who accused him of insulting Supreme Court judges for a public debate.

Mr. Ramanayake was responding to the allegation made by the opposition MPs that he had insulted judicial offices using his parliamentary privileges.

The MPs last week complained to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya that Mr. Ramanayake was insulting the Supreme Court judges. The MPs said Mr. Ramanayake should not have been allowed to insult the judges.

Speaker should look into this matter, Former President Rajapaksa said while questioning as to where the Parliament would end up if the MPs used their privileges to insult others.

Those who are accusing me of insulting the judicial officers are the very same people who insulted judges when they were ruling the country. These MPs insulted Former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake. Judgments were decided upon at Temple Trees during that time, Mr. Ramanayake said.

 I am challenging these MPs for a public debate and I will prove my allegations during this debate, he added. (Yohan Perera)PART I

There are songs that remain etched in our minds long after we listen to them and long, long after we forget the first time we came across them. They bring to mind certain experiences that we like to forget but for some inscrutable reason dont want to forget. Like schooldays. First crushes. Unfulfilled romances. Friendships that sour into enmities. And so on. Either way, for better or worse, the words we hum and the tunes we strum stay with us for the simple reason that such songs, the best of them at least, were meant to be retained in the repository of our collective imagination. In other words, they were initially conceived to be as unprofessional and simple as possible. They lend flavour to experience and help us associate a particular memory, bitter or jovial, with a certain time and place.



Just as there are stories behind the first times we hear such tunes, however, there are also stories behind the how, when, and wherefore of those tunes, those who ideated and came up with the melody, those who wrote down the lyrics, and those who lent their voices. Out of 100-odd songs, Im willing to wager that not even 30 can boast of such worthy prefaces. But those 30 sadly tend to be overlooked, because we arent really bothered about their foreword. Whod have thought, for instance, that Ajantha Ranasinghe wrote Tharu Arundathi after coming across a girl down the street whom he never dared to introduce himself to?



This is the story of one such song. Before I get to it, though, I need to get to the names of those involved in it. Two names. Victor Silva and Nirasha Perera.

Few would know of Victor and Nirasha and fewer would know that they were the two vocalists behind the song they ended up singing, right before it was appropriated, unjustly I should think, by other more established vocalists



Few would know of Victor and Nirasha and fewer would know that they were the two vocalists behind the song they ended up singing, right before it was appropriated, unjustly I should think, by other more established vocalists. Indeed, outside their immediate circle not many would believe that they were destined to become professionals in the field, right before the professions theyd carved for themselves through their education got them out of that field.



Lets start with Victor. Victor had a passion for singing. From an early age. But there was a problem. His father didnt want him to sing. He wanted him to become a Chartered Accountant, back then (as of now) a lucrative career. So during his early schoolboy days at Holy Cross College, Kalutara (his hometown), he didnt pursue music despite the fact that he could perform quite well. Things changed, however, when he shifted to St Aloysius College in Galle and became a boarder. The priest in charge of the boarders was Father Debura, straight from Italy. He was also in charge of the Choir. Naturally, the Father tried the boarders out with their voices. Having heard Victor, he selected him then and there.



Victor obviously had a problem with his father and this he confided to the Reverend Father. The Reverend Father, thankfully, understood him well. Dont worry, tell him to see me, he confidently told the young man, and the next time the parents of the boarders came to meet the priests and the rectors who ran the school, Victor readily took his mother and father to meet Father Debura. The Father had only one question to ask: Mr Silva, would you like your son to use his voice to sing the praises of God? The question, craftily crafted, won Victors father over: No Father. Let him sing! Remembering this conversation decades later, for me, Victor had one thing to say: By the grace of God, and also Father Debura, I didnt let my voice waste away! Subsequently, he was taken in.



In 1965, St Aloysius took in Anton Weerasinghe, a layman practising and learning to become a priest (what one called a Scholast). Weerasinghe was versatile, with an ability to play the tabla and guitar and also to compose. Victor, who took part in various dramas and sang for them as well, soon came under his tutelage, when Weerasinghe got him and a friend of his, Eric Gunaratne, to come up with an original song. Having hankered after a tune and a set of lyrics to fit that tune, the boys finally hit upon an original they could be happy with: Suran Menika. Weerasinghe heard it, smiled, and polished it in his own special way.



Time passed by rather quickly. Victor left school and moved to Colombo in 1967, having passed his exams well enough to contemplate on his higher education: as usual, in accountancy. Just as it was as looked up to as it is today, however, it was as tough as it is today, so he had to stay at a hostel to get his mind on his education. The hostel he stayed at, situated near Ananda Rajakaruna Mawatha in Borella (back then called Campbell Place), housed several students engaged in various subjects, from medicine to law to engineering to accountancy. Given that they were all boys, they indulged in the usual bajaw session with the guitar (which Victor had by then mastered, to a certain extent). Among those friends he encountered, there was Duleep de Silva, member of the then phenomenally popular Los Flamencos (remember Bolanda Katha and Kalu Kelle?) and like Victor an article clerk at a company. What happened was this: one fine day, Duleep asked me to come up with a song. He wanted to have it recorded.



Neither Duleep nor Victor could versify. But they had another friend, a medical student called Nihal de Silva. Whenever Victor strummed a tune, he would rush to Nihal and the two of them would brainstorm a set of lyrics to suit that tune. So having brainstormed over and over again with respect to the tune that came up at Duleeps request, the two of them hit on an original. They titled it Bale Bale, a mock, tongue-in-cheek reference to the bales of used cloth material that were imported during the Sirimavo Bandaranaike regime (owing to the fact that imports were restricted on all fronts). To crown what they done, they then came up with two more songs: Pasal Kaale, a ditty on the evolution of schoolboys from students to lovers, and Suneetha, composed by Anton Weerasinghe, by now domiciled in Manila. Having heard all three with Suran Menika, Duleepa took Victor and Nihal to meet Gerald Wickremesooriya.

Several stints at the SLBC English Commercial Service aboard the Sooriya Show (hosted by Vijaya Corea, who introduced him as a rising star) later, Victor found himself returning to the career hed left behind, in Accountancy, when (by the grace of God) he managed to pass his exams quite well



Gerald, who had started the Sooriya label, was thrilled. He got them to come to his residence, in Colpetty. Having gotten hold of another popular performer, Chandima de Alwis (band member of The Spitfires, a beat group), apparently now domiciled in Australia, they all went and met Gerald and ultimately persuaded him to record all four songs. The recording, Victor remembers, was done by Patrick Denipitiya, an Old Boy of St Aloysius, and was completed by the end of 1970. The following year, at the height of the insurrection, the four of them would record four more songs at the Dalugama Studios, polishing up the recording from 6 pm to 6 am. Back then, if you got one tune or word wrong, you had no option but to start from scratch all over again! Victor tells me.



Several stints at the SLBC English Commercial Service aboard the Sooriya Show (hosted by Vijaya Corea, who introduced him as a rising star) later, Victor found himself returning to the career hed left behind, in Accountancy, when (by the grace of God) he managed to pass his exams quite well. My father was extremely happy. I had proved to him that I could sing and balance the books. By 1972, he was working comfortably (to my hearts content) at the Ceylon Tobacco Company. But before he abandoned singing, at least for a short while, hed meet one person whod figure in his life a few years later: Nimal Mendis.



This is where Nirasha comes in. Victor married Nirashas mothers younger sister in 1973. When the two of them would meet at family parties, theyd almost always be selected to perform middle class baila and pop tunes like Koheda Yanne Rukmani?, which was first performed and popularised at Nirashas school (Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya) and was a rehashed version of the nursery rhyme Where Are You Going My Pretty Maid? Uncle and niece would meet each other for a more serious song, however, when in 1978 Nimal Mendis, composing the music for Sumitra Periess film Ganga Addara, requested him to perform a theme song. There was a catch though: he had to perform it with a small girl. Obviously, Nirasha fitted the bill! Victor heartily chortles.



To be continued...Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was detained in Germany on Sunday, five months after entering self-imposed exile from Spain, where he faces up to 25 years in prison for organizing an illegal secession referendum last year, Reuters reported.

March 26, 2018, 10:24 Former Catalan leader detained in Germany

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 26, ARTSAKHPRESS:Puigdemont had entered Germany from Denmark after leaving Finland on Friday when it appeared that police would arrest him there and begin an extradition process requested by Spain.

The detention threatens to worsen the Catalan crisis that flared last year when the region made a symbolic declaration of independence, prompting Madrid to take direct rule.

Tens of thousands of Catalans, many of them wearing yellow in support of jailed separatist leaders, demonstrated in Barcelona on Sunday afternoon, chanting Puigdemont, our president and freedom for political prisoners.US President Donald Trump has ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States on Monday, adding to a growing cascade of similar actions taken by western allies in response to Russias alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, the New York Times reported a short while ago.

Poland, Italy, Denmark, France and Germany were among 14 European Union member nations announcing plans to expel Russians from their countries in solidarity with Britain, which previously expelled 23 Russian diplomats after the poisoning. Canada also said it would expel four.

The American expulsion order, announced by administration officials, includes 12 people identified as Russian intelligence officers who have been stationed at the United Nations in New York, and also closes the Russian consulate in Seattle.

The Russians and their families have seven days to leave the United States, according to officials.

The expulsions are the toughest action taken against the Kremlin by President Trump, who has been criticized for not being firm enough with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

The officials said the action was a coordinated effort with other allies. Poland announced it will expel the Russian ambassador and several other diplomats in response to the poisoning. And Germany announced plans to expel four Russian diplomats within the next week.

In a call with reporters, senior White House officials said that the move was to root out Russians actively engaging in intelligence operations against the country, and to show that the United States would stand with NATO allies.

The officials said that the closure of the consulate in Seattle was ordered because of its proximity to a US naval base.Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz condemned Turkeys military operations in Syria and urged the EU to stop that countrys accession talks, Sputnik News reports.

March 26, 2018, 10:32 Austrian Chancellor Kurz urges to stop Turkeys EU accession talks

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 26, ARTSAKHPRESS:The talks on membership between the European Union and Turkey should be ended taking into account the systematic violations of human rights and essential democratic values, and because the Copenhagen Criteria [rules defining if the state is ready to join the European Union] are not implemented anymore, Kurz said in an interview to the Welt magazine.

But the Austrian Chancellor added that Turkey still remains the EUs key strategic partner with which the cooperation should continue within the policy of good neighborliness.September 23, 2021 17:31

Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani prosecutors general discuss Nagorno Karabakh in Nur-Sultan

The trilateral meeting of the Prosecutors General of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan  Artur Davtyan, Igor Krasnov and Kamran Aliyev, was held in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan, during which they discussed issues relating to Nagorno Karabakh, the Russian Prosecutor Generals Office said.Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Ara Babloyan delivered speech titled Strengthening single regime for migrants and refugees: Necessity for effective political solutions based on facts in Geneva on March 25 on the sidelines of 138th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Parliament said.

March 26, 2018, 13:09 Armenia committed to continue ensuring stability and security in the world  Speaker of Parliament

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 26, ARTSAKHPRESS:The speech runs as follows:

Dear chairperson,

Dear colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all I want to thank for organizing this Assembly.

The issue of migration and refugees concerns all of us and is one of the priorities of the agenda of our countries.

The world is shocked by crisis one after another. The causes of migration are numerous. It concerns not only those people who search for a dignified work and better living conditions, but also those who have to leave their homes with the hope to find safety and security.

Its much more painful when the reason of this catastrophe becomes the states xenophobic policy: when it spreads intolerance and hatred among the citizens.

We, Armenians, are well aware of the consequences of such policy. In the beginning of the past century in order to survive the Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire millions of Armenians left their homeland and found shelter in different countries of the world.

Today, as a result of the situation in the Middle East, more than 20.000 Armenians had to leave Syria and find shelter in Armenia. Our country is third in Europe in the list of countries hosting Syrian refugees. The Armenian government has taken numerous measures for the refugees living and integration. This is a huge number for a country with such a small population like Armenia which in the late 20th century hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees from Azerbaijan where Armenians were subject to ethnic cleansing.

Migration is not a geographically limited phenomenon. It extends to all continents and turns into a tragic situation on a global scale.

Its much more painful when this issue concerns children, the most vulnerable group, who are subject to violence, moral and psychological aggression. First of all the childs rights must be ensured  to have a family, live in healthy and secure atmosphere and receive education.

Dear colleagues,

As Pope Francis once said our common response must be expressed by four actions  to welcome, protect, contribute and integrate.

While looking for solutions to migration issues first of all its necessary to touch upon their reasons. The international community should be united in fight against terrorism and giving political settlements to conflicts.

Moreover, programs ensuring long-term solutions are needed aimed at strengthening the status of migrants and refugees. Well thought and developed policy will promote the integration of migrants in hosting societies and will contribute to the active participation of each person in the countrys development.

Armenia, being part of a civilized society, is committed to continue ensuring stability and security in the world.by Loula Lahham

Polls open tomorrow. The choice is between Al-Sisi, a former general, and Moussa Moustapha Moussa, an obscure last-minute candidate. Others who wanted to run have either pulled out or been arrested. A low turnout and violence by the Islamic State are major concerns. Yesterday, an attack in Alexandria left two people dead and five seriously wounded.

Cairo (AsiaNews)  A news blackout started yesterday in Egypt ahead of the countrys three-day presidential elections set to start tomorrow. Polling stations will be open Monday through Wednesday from 9 am to 7 pm.

Some 60 million people (out of a population of 100 million) will be eligible to vote, with the opportunity of choosing one of only two candidates: the outgoing president, Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, who has led the country for the past four years, and a certain Moussa Moustapha Moussa, head of a small political Al-Ghad party.

Observers have already concluded that, without any real opposition, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi will be a shoo-in for a second four-year term. For him, the only issue is how many voters will stay away since they already know the outcome. The only major unknown factor will be the turnout.

Who is Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi?

He is a former army general who took over the reins of power in June 2014, following a popular uprising against the Islamist regime under the Muslim Brotherhood. Between 30 and 35 million Egyptians took to the streets for three days in late June 2013 to challenge the sectarian regime that had strengthened Muslim fundamentalism at the expense of national unity and on the backs of Coptic Christians.

In order to revive the countrys troubled economy, al-Sisi embarked on grandiose plans of infrastructure construction. The latter has had some important successes but also led the Treasury to devalue the Egyptian lira in 2016 pushing prices up considerably, affecting increasingly impoverished Egyptians. His adversaries have also criticised him for the lack of freedom of expression and for the police state he runs.

Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, 63, gave orders to restore security and stability in the Sinai Peninsula, to end a jihadist insurgency that has hurt the region for the past five years. The operation did weaken the Islamic State (IS) in the Sinai, which has a thousand radical militants, but, according to some observers, it did not lead to any decisive victory nor end IS attacks.

Moussa Moustapha Moussa, last-minute candidate

He is the only challenger since all other serious contenders have been arrested or forced to pull out. Khaled Ali, one of the emblematic figures of the revolution of 25 January 2011, was forced to drop out under intense pressure. Former General Ahmad Chafiq announced his candidacy after a visit to the United Arab Emirates. On his return to Egypt, he gave up. General Sami Annan, a former chief of staff, was charged by military justice. Colonel Ahmad Konsowa, also a candidate, was imprisoned for "behaviour that harms the needs of the military system".

A candidate was thus needed to give the election a pluralist flavour. According to some, Moussa Moustapha Moussa was hand-picked by the regime, a claim denied by the authorities. He heads a small liberal party that has no seats in parliament and does not represent a serious challenge, given that before putting his name forward, he supported the outgoing president. Moussa filed his candidacy papers 15 minutes before the official deadline for nomination, on 29 January.

Unexpected twist of the Islamic State

Yesterday around 11 am, 48 hours before the election began, a car bomb exploded when a convoy carrying Police General Moustapha Al-Nemr drove by. The general is head of security in the Governorate of Alexandria, Egypts second largest city some 220 km north-west of Cairo, on the Mediterranean. He was unharmed, but two officers were killed and five others seriously injured. Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek opened an urgent inquiry into the terrorist act that was claimed by an Islamic State branch that has infiltrated the country.

The authorities expect violence to rise during voting. For this reason, thousands of police officers and soldiers will be deployed to secure polling stations in major cities, from the north to the south of the Nile valley, as well as in the cities of the eastern and western desert and the Sinai Peninsula.

All governorates are ready to ensure that the final results are announced on 2 April. In any case, voters are caught between voting and boycotting. Meanwhile, non-governmental organisations and human rights groups are increasingly worried, especially over the lack of freedom, as epitomised by the recent expulsion of Bel Trew, the correspondent of the Times of London in Cairo.This item is available in full to subscribers.

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Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.The 53-year-old Zaini Misrin was sentenced to death. He was accused of killing his employer in 2004. During the trial, the right to defence was denied and the confession was extorted with deception. Since the rise to power of Mohammed bin Salman the number of executions have doubled.

Riyadh (AsiaNews) - The Saudi executioner strikes again, beheading an Indonesian immigrant worker for a murder that the man allegedly carried out in the summer of 2004. Activists and human rights organizations complain about the lack of protection of the rights of the accused, who was denied legal assistance and whose confession was extorted under duress during the trial. Furthermore, the authorities gave their assent to the execution without informing the leaders of the Jakarta government who, through President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, had appealed for clemency.

According to reports by the NGO Migrant Care, which deals with the status of Indonesian workers in the world, Zaini Misrin - a professional chauffeur - was executed by beheading on 18 March. The 53-year-old man was arrested in 2008 for the murder - four years earlier - of his employer.

During the trial the defendant was pressured; the judges forcibly extracted the confession, depriving him of legal assistance and providing him with only a translator in the courtroom. Witnesses report that it was the interpreter who extracted the (alleged) confession with deception, in the face of a crime that he did not commit.

Moreover, Saudi Arabia failed to notify Indonesia of the imminent execution, leaving the foreign ministry and the Indonesian consulate in Jeddah unaware of the matter. "The trial in Mistrin and its execution - emphasizes the director of Migrant Care Wahyu Susilo in a note - represent a blatant violation of human rights". He also suffered "pressure and intimidation" from the Saudi authorities.

In recent years, the Indonesian president Widodo has repeatedly appealed for the extradition of man. His story emerged during the 2015 meeting between the Indonesian head of state and King Salman, during the visit of the monarch in the Asian country. However, repeated calls have gone unheard.

A report prepared by some AFP experts show that, since the beginning of the year, Saudi Arabia has executed at least 30 immigrants of different nationalities. And from the rise to power of the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (Mbs) executions have more doubled: since his nomination last June the executioner has struck in at least 133 occasions, compared to 67 of the previous eight months.

Human rights organizations and many Western governments have been fighting for years to impose fair trials and less cruel executions on the Saudi kingdom (Sunnita wahhabita). Saudi Arabia - which has strict observance of sharia, Islamic law - is the only country in the world where the death sentence can be executed by beheading in public places.

Capital punishment in the kingdom is foreseen for those guilty of murder, armed robbery, rape and drug trafficking, but also for witchcraft and sodomy. No less cruel are convictions for minor crimes, such as theft and the crime of opinion, which in addition to imprisonment, provide for the cutting of the hand or foot and public flogging.

In the past the number of executions was so high that it resulted in a "lack of executioners.What do I call it? Dance? Fight? Game? I'm still not sure. I was at a capoeira (cop-o-ai-ra) performance recently, and I was deeply mesmerised by the art form that defies any known labels. Yes, it is popularly known as an Afro-Brazilian martial art. It was a fine combination of acrobatics, music and dance. The grace, agility and the speed of movement of the practitioners was simply mind-boggling.



My interest in the art form prompted my host, Gabriela, to relate its history, which was equally awe-inspiring.

The story goes back to 16th century Brazil, to the beginnings of Brazil's slave trade, when the Portuguese colonists brought slaves from Angola to build their economy. As always, slaves suffered inhumane treatment at the hands of the colonisers, and developed a physical tactic, which later came to be known as capoeira, for their survival. Especially the slaves who managed to escape from the clutches of their colonisers. They comprised not just Angolans, but also Brazilian natives and Europeans. Such slaves got together and began settlements known as quilombos in places that were difficult for the colonial agents to reach.

It is in these multi-ethnic settlements that capoeira took the form of a martial art, a defence strategy the escaped slaves developed to deal with the Portuguese colonial troops.

Once slavery ended, former slaves found themselves with no means of livelihood as the locals refused to employ them, considering them to be lazy. With nothing to show as skill other than capoeira, they took up employment as hitmen and bodyguards with the local crime lords. Frustrated by the use of capoeira for criminal activities, the colonial government in Rio banned its practice in the entire country.

By the 1920s, however, the clampdown on capoeira was almost lifted. Many dedicated practitioners seized the opportunity and worked tirelessly to integrate capoeira into mainstream Brazilian culture.

According to Gabriela, the credit for bringing capoeira out of the shadows and legitimising it should mainly go to Mestre Bimba, who refined the art form and developed a training style that made it popular. His efforts bore fruit when in 1937, capoeira was recognised as the national sport of Brazil.

Today, not only is it considered a form of physical and spiritual empowerment, but is also much sought after in different parts of the world.

The two main styles of this art form are Capoeira Regional and Capoeira Angola, and a combination of both is known as Capoeira Contemporary. The performance I watched was Capoeira Contemporary, happening in a circle known as roda.

As two capoeiristas were engaged in a physical dialogue in the centre of the roda, an orchestra with Brazilian musical instruments played at the head of the circle. As the songs were in Portuguese, I couldn't follow the lyrics, but was told that they were about the art form's history and the struggle of its legendary practitioners to make it acceptable.

And, capoeira is quite popular in our dear old Bengaluru, too.It wasnt just their efforts to deliver health and dental care and education that brought smiles to the residents there.

The pair was among more than 170 volunteers from 15 countries who spent two weeks aboard the YWAM PNG medical ship, visiting various villages along the coast.

When retired teacher Debbie Murley and retired paediatrics nurse Juanita Jacobs of Corner Brook left recently on such a mission to Papua New Guinea with the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) organization, they knew they could be of some help.

CORNER BROOK, CANADA - You just never know what might come in handy during a humanitarian mission to a country where the needs are countless.

Each day, they would be given a backpack full of items they could use to help the people they encountered as they went ashore.

One day, Murley was looking through her pack and found, of all things, a pack of guitar strings.

At some of the schools she visited, Murley said there no desks, chairs or school supplies and students had to practice their letters by writing on the dirt floor. At one school, she asked if they had any musical instruments.

The teacher said they had a guitar, but it only had two strings.

It was that schools lucky day as Murley reached into her bag and pulled out the guitar strings she had otherwise thought were an odd item to have been included.

With nearly all the supplies, even the fuel for the ship, coming by way of donation, Murley figured the strings had simply been another graciously accepted donation.

It just goes to show that every little bit counts, she said.

Debbie Murley with two schoolchildren who welcomed her to their village

At another school, there were four guitars with none having any strings. Murley managed to find one more package of strings aboard the ship for that school.

The teacher was so excited and he promised that he would play us some music if we came back, she said.

While that was an unexpected turn of events, seeing the poor residents of PNG receive much needed school supplies, vaccinations and dental care, or watching the reaction of someone getting glasses and being able to see clearly for the first time in their lives, was truly the most rewarding part of the experience.

It was the second time Jacobs has been on this sort of mission to PNG and she said she saw many improvements in the population health this time around, which she credits to Youth With a Mission (YWAM).

The goal here is not for international people to come in and constantly take care of and be the saviours, if you will, in that country, she said.

Its to go in and partner with the government there and the local people to teach them good health care practices and for them to then take a hold of that and improve their situation when the ship is not there.

A major focus for Jacobs, who helped provide vaccinations, was teaching the local residents how to avoid contracting tuberculosis and malaria, two diseases which are serious problems in the country. But she said its the wide-ranging approach to how the organization could help these people in whatever way they could that attracted her to YWAM.

That approach, combined with the appreciation and gratitude of the people they met, gives Jacobs reason to believe this wont be her last mission to PNG.

When you go with an organisation that wants to help the lives of the kind of people we met, its absolutely heart-warming, said Jacobs. Its how were supposed to be in this life, I think: not just isolated and self-absorbed in this society where we have everything at our fingertips.

Murley agreed, saying she was a little concerned at first about how receptive the residents would be to this ship of foreigners coming to show them how to live their lives better.

It was amazing, said Murley. Its a different world. They have what we would consider nothing, but they are very happy people and were very appreciative of what we could do.

Murley was also impressed with how YWAM conducted community assessments to determine how to make their future missions even more effective in addressing the needs of those theyre trying to help.

Jacobs offered a challenge to anyone looking for this sort of experience, or a health care professional able to offer their expertise on such a mission, to get in touch with her for more information and to join them next time.Uber sold its Southeast Asian business to rival Grab today, ending a bruising battle between the ride-hailing behemoths and marking the US firm's latest retreat from international markets.



Singapore-based Grab is taking over the ride-sharing and food delivery operations of Uber in the region, with the California-based company to receive a 27.5 percent stake in the business in return.

The sale is Uber's latest withdrawal from a market where it had faced fierce competition, as new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi seeks to stem huge losses and move past a series of scandals.

After a fierce battle, Uber sold its China operations to rival Didi Chuxing in 2016 in return for a stake, and last year the US firm merged in Russia with the taxi-hailing app of internet giant Yandex.

The deal with Grab is similar to the one struck with Didi, and ends a years-long fight for market share in a region that is home to some 650 million people and an increasingly affluent middle class.

"Today's acquisition marks the beginning of a new era," said Grab chief executive Anthony Tan. "The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region."

Khosrowshahi, who is joining Grab's board as part of the deal, said: "This deal is a testament to Uber's exceptional growth across Southeast Asia over the last five years. It will help us double down on our plans for growth."

Grab has long been the dominant force in ride-hailing in Southeast Asia and speculation mounted that a deal with Uber was on the cards after Japanese financial titan Softbank invested huge sums in the US firm.

Softbank is also a major investor in Grab, and is known for pushing for consolidation in the global ride-hailing industry, which has been losing billions of dollars a year due to turf wars.

Grab, launched in 2012, has poured money into expanding its regional fleet and now has more than 2.1 million drivers in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Competition between ride-hailing apps has been heating up in Southeast Asia, with the market forecast to grow more than five times to $13.1 billion by 2025, according to a 2016 report by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek.

Uber is the largest firm of its kind with a presence in more than 600 cities, but it has been rocked by scandals and is facing fierce competition from rivals in Asia and Europe.

Chief executive Travis Kalanick was ousted in June last year after missteps including allegations of executive misconduct, a toxic workplace atmosphere and potentially unethical competitive practices.

New boss Khosrowshahi has vowed to turn the company around as Uber gears up for 2019 public share offering.

But he has a fight on his hands -- Uber's losses in 2017 grew to USD 4.5 billion from the USD 2.8 billion the company lost a year earlier.Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's government tabled a bill in Parliament on Monday outlawing "fake news", with hefty fines and up to 10 years in jail, raising more concerns about media freedom in the wake of a multi-billion dollar graft scandal.



The bill was tabled ahead of a national election that is expected to be called within weeks and as Najib faces widespread criticism over the scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Under the Anti-Fake News 2018 bill, anyone who published so-called fake news could face fines of up to 500,000 ringgit ($128,140), up to 10 years in jail, or both.

"The proposed Act seeks to safeguard the public against the proliferation of fake news whilst ensuring the right to freedom of speech and expression under the Federal Constitution is respected," it said.

It defines fake news as "news, information, data or reports which is or are wholly or partly false" and includes features, visuals and audio recordings.

The law, which covers digital publications and social media, also applies to offenders outside Malaysia, including foreigners, as long as Malaysia or a Malaysian citizen were affected.

The bill states it is hoped the public would be more responsible and cautious in sharing news and information.

Opposition lawmakers have questioned the need for such a law, arguing that the government already had broad powers over free speech and the media.

"This is an attack on the press and an attempt to instill fear among the rakyat (people) before GE14," Opposition lawmaker Ong Kian Ming said on Twitter after the bill was tabled, using a Malaysian term for this year's election.

The 1MDB scandal, exposed by foreign media and news blogs in 2015, refuses to die down despite Najib's consistent denials of any wrongdoing and his government's firm grip on Malaysia's state-owned mainstream media.

Transactions related to 1MDB are under investigation in six countries, including the United States, where the Department of Justice has launched civil cases to recover assets linked to the fund after investigations under an anti-kleptocracy initiative.

The Malaysian government has acted harshly against media reporting on 1MDB. It suspended one newspaper, 'The Edge', in 2015 and blocked other websites for publishing stories critical of Najib's role.

A deputy minister was quoted in Malaysian media last week as saying that any news on 1MDB that had not been verified by the government was "fake".

Governments elsewhere in Southeast Asia, including Singapore and the Philippines, have proposed laws aimed at clamping down on the spread of "fake news", moves decried by media rights advocates.BJP National President Amit Shah who called on Siddaganga mutt seer Dr Shivakumara Swamiji on Monday morning, said that on meeting the latter, he felt as though he had seen God himself.

After the meeting with the seer, Shah told reporters he was happy over the fact that the mutt was running over 125 institutions and was running several pro-people programs.

Amit Shah's visit comes after the Siddaramaiah government's decision to accord minority religion status to Lingayats. Shah's visit to Siddaganga mutt is seen as part of his efforts to ensure that the Lingayat community continues to back the BJP.

BJP would fight the elections in the state under the leadership of State BJP President B S Yeddyurappa. "Swamiji's blessings will make us stronger," Shah added.

Yeddyurappa, Union Minister Anant Kumar, State in-charge Muralidhar Rao, MP Prahlad Joshi and other state and local party leaders were present at the meeting.

In the two-day tour, the BJP chief will also hold road shows, address coconut and arecanut growers conventions.A Delhi court today sent former media baron Peter Mukerjea to CBI custody till March 31 in the INX Media case which also involves Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union minister P Chidambaram.



Special judge Sunil Rana allowed CBI's plea seeking five-day custody of Mukerjea after the probe agency claimed that he was required to be confronted with Karti and others in the case.

The court also allowed CBI's plea to formally arrest Mukerjea in the case.

The special CBI court conducting the trial in the Sheena Bora murder case had on March 23, allowed Mukerjea to be produced before the Delhi court in the INX Media case.

The murder of Sheena Bora, Indrani Mukerjea's 24-year-old daughter from an earlier relationship, had come to light in August 2015.

Police then arrested Indrani and her former husband Sanjiv Khanna for allegedly murdering Sheena over a financial dispute in April 2012. Peter Mukerjea was arrested later for being a part of the conspiracy.

The INX Media case, registered by the CBI, relates to a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted to INX Media, founded by the Mukerjeas, for receiving foreign funds in 2007.

The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a case against INX Media, the Mukerjeas and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

INX Media is accused of violating the FIPB guidelines while receiving investments from Mauritius.

The Delhi High Court, had on March 23, granted bail to Karti in the INX Media case.Only David Reich's eyes were visible as he inspected the batch of bones. David, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School, USA, wore a hooded white clean room suit, cream-coloured clogs, and a blue surgical mask. On a counter in front of him lay a row of bone fragments. He pointed out a strawberry-size chunk: "This is from a 4,000-year-old site in Central Asia - from Uzbekistan, I think." He moved down the row. "This is a 2,500-year-old sample from a site in Britain. This is Bronze Age Russian, and these are Arabian samples. These people would have never met each other in time or space." David hopes that his team of scientists and technicians can find DNA in these bones. Odds are good that they will.



In less than three years, David's laboratory has published DNA from the genomes of 938 ancient humans - more than all other research teams working in this field combined. The work in his lab has reshaped our understanding of human prehistory. "They often answer age-old questions and sometimes provide astonishing unanticipated insights," said Svante Paabo, the director of the Max Planck Institute of Paleoanthropology, Germany.

David, Svante and other experts in ancient DNA are putting together a new history of humanity, one that runs in parallel with the narratives gleaned from fossils and written records. In David's research, he and his colleagues have shed light on the peopling of the planet and the spread of agriculture, among other momentous events. In a book that releases today, Who We Are and How We Got Here, David explains how advances in DNA sequencing and analysis have helped this new field take off. "It's really like the invention of a new scientific instrument, like a microscope or a telescope," he said. "When an instrument that powerful is invented, it opens up all these horizons, and everything is new and surprising."

Finding hidden patterns

David began studying sociology as a Harvard undergraduate, but later he turned to physics and then to medicine. Abandoning medical school, David went into genetics research and was hired by Harvard Medical School in 2003. By then, he had developed a close partnership with a mathematician named Neil Patterson, who had come late in life to genetics. David appointed Neil as deputy head of the newly formed genetics lab, and together they began developing new statistical techniques to plumb genetic data for hidden patterns.

The two researchers devised a way to determine whether a single population descended from two or more distinct groups. Collaborating with researchers at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, they put their method to its first big test. Analysing DNA from hundreds of villages, they discovered that just about every living Indian descends from two distinct groups. One, which the researchers called Ancestral North Indians, is related to Central Asians, Near Easterners and Europeans. The second group, Ancestral South Indians, is a mysterious population that is not closely related to any living people outside of India.

As David and his colleagues gained attention for their new methods, they got an extraordinary invitation: to study the DNA of Neanderthals. The invitation came from Svante. While he studied many extinct species, Neanderthals were his deepest passion. In 2006, he invited David's team to help figure out how modern humans and Neanderthals were related.

David threw himself into the project, and over the next few years, the scientists made a series of landmark discoveries. The DNA of Neanderthals indicates that their ancestors split from our own about 6,00,000 years ago. But David's tests revealed that living humans outside of Africa still carry traces of Neanderthal DNA. How is that possible? Before Neanderthals became extinct in Europe, they encountered and interbred with the ancestors of modern humans as they departed Africa.

As the scientists searched in more fossils for Neanderthal DNA, they got another surprise. In 2010, a nondescript pinkie bone recovered in a Siberian cave called Denisova yielded the entire genome of a previously unknown, and extinct, lineage of humans. The Denisovans, as they came to be known, split off from Neanderthals about 4,00,000 years ago, genetic analysis revealed. Denisovan DNA has turned up only in a few additional teeth discovered in that Siberian cave.

The oldest such fossils date to over 1,00,000 years old; the pinkie bone belonged to a Denisovan who lived 48,000 to 60,000 years ago. David and his colleagues discovered that Denisovans, like Neanderthals, left a genetic legacy in living people, mostly in Australia, New Guinea and Asia. Their research also suggested that Denisovans divided early in their history into two lineages. "They were isolated from each other for many hundreds of thousands of years," David said. A recent study by geneticist Joshua Akey and his colleagues confirmed this finding and brought Denisovans into sharper focus. Each branch, the new study suggests, interbred with the ancestors of living humans. One Denisovan group left behind DNA in modern-day Asians and Oceanians. But the other branch left genetic traces only in living people in China and Japan.

Recent narratives

David's voyage through prehistory left him wondering about what DNA could reveal about more recent events. Museums around the world were loaded with bones of people who lived within the last 20,000 years, after all. Since those remains were younger, they would be more likely to still have some DNA in them. To begin retrieving it, David retooled his laboratory. But in important ways, David broke from the standard scientific strategy for searching for ancient DNA. Svante and other experts typically examine many fossils to find a rare one packed with DNA. They then try to reconstruct the entire genome. David's lab instead designed DNA 'traps' that snag hundreds of thousands of genetic fragments from the human genome. The result is far from a complete genome sequence, but enough to get some clues about the traits of ancient people.

In 2015, the first results emerged from David's new research pipeline. He and his colleagues published DNA from 69 ancient Europeans who lived 3,000 to 8,000 years ago. According to their results, farmers with Near East ancestry displaced hunter-gatherers already living in Europe. Then, about 4,500 years ago, another wave of people arrived, descended from the horse-riding nomads of what are now the Russian steppes.

Less than three years since that study, David's team has published a torrent of similar findings. They have traced the spread of the first farmers in the Near East, for example, and have tracked the rise and fall of various populations in ancient Africa. David's plan is to find ancient DNA from every culture known to archaeology everywhere in the world. Ultimately, he hopes to build a genetic atlas of humanity over the past 50,000 years.Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul have won the support of the largest union representing supermarket workers in New York.

UFCW Local 1500, which represents more than 18,500 members who work at Fairway, ShopRite and other grocery stores in the Hudson Valley, on Long Island and in New York City, endorsed Cuomo and Hochul for re-election. Cuomo is seeking his third term as governor. Hochul, Cuomo's running mate since 2014, is running for a second term as lieutenant governor.

Anthony Speelman, president of UFCW Local 1500, cited Cuomo's push to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour and improving the Wage Theft Prevention Act to punish employers that steal wages from workers.

Speelman also mentioned Cuomo's advocacy for marriage equality in New York. Marriage equality was one of Cuomo's first legislative achievements as governor.

"It is easy to talk a progressive talk, but Andrew Cuomo walks the walk," Speelman said.

The union also lauded Hochul, a Buffalo-area Democrat, for her work to boost the economy and preserve access to health care. Before becoming lieutenant governor, Hochul served in the House of Representatives and as county clerk in Erie County.The budget session of the Puducherry Assembly began on Monday with high drama after three nominated MLAs belonging to the BJP were prevented from entering the premises following Speaker V Vaithilingam's order.



Despite the Madras High Court validating their nomination in a ruling last week, Vaithilingam refused entry to the lawmakers to participate in the budget session that began with customary address by Lt Governor Kiran Bedi.

Vaithilingam, in a letter to the MLAs on Sunday evening, said the high court has not followed the principles of natural justice since it has passed the order without hearing him.

After the three MLAs - V Saminathan, KG Shankar and S Selvaganapathi were barred from entering the Assembly premises, Kiran sought a report from the chief secretary on the incident and said she will also inform the Union government about the incident.

"I am calling for a report from the chief secretary and will take required follow-up action at our administrative end. The GOI, MHA shall be informed accordingly too," Bedi said in a statement.

Unfazed by the high court order, the Assembly also passed a resolution recommending that Speaker Vaithilingam appeal against the order validating the nomination of the three MLAs.

"The resolution was passed in the Assembly since the MLAs felt only an elected government can nominate MLAs to the legislature. Since due procedure was not followed in their nomination, the Speaker rejected their appointment. Speaker's order should be respected since he enjoys supreme power in the House," Chief Minister V Narayanasamy told DH.

Kiran and Narayanaswamy have been locked in a bitter battle ever since they assumed office, almost around the same time in 2016, on several issues and the MLAs nomination is the latest thorn in their relationship.

The Congress-led government says Kirani "overstepped" her authority by recommending nomination of the three MLAs without consulting the Cabinet.

Vaithilingam had in November last year struck down their appointment, which was declared "null and void" by the Madras High Court last Thursday.

The high court also allowed the MLAs to take their seat in the Assembly.

After they were denied entry into the Assembly on Monday, the nominated MLAs met Kiran at the Raj Nivas and "placed their anguish."

Leader of Opposition N Rangasamy also met Kiran and complained about the "high-handedness" of the Speaker.In 2004, the then newly-sculpted "panchaloha" idol of Lord Murugan in the famous Sri Dandayuthapaniswamy Temple on the Palani hills was placed next to the 3,000-year-old navabashana idol, to replace the latter since it was "wearing away".



However, within a couple of months, the new idol, was removed and shifted to a strong room of the temple, where it is lying since then.

Fourteen years later, officials now suspect that the new idol was sculpted only to "smuggle" the centuries-old navabashana idol to a foreign land and possibly sell it to an art gallery to rake in crores of rupees, after moving it from the sanctum sanctorum.

The idol wing of the Tamil Nadu Police on Sunday arrested Padma Shri awardee M Muthiah Sthapathi, chief sculptor of the government, and K K Raja, the then executive officer of the Palani Temple, for causing a loss of Rs 1.31 crore in making the statue.

Spoiling the plans, the new idol was removed since it began turning dark and till date, all poojas and abhishekams are being performed only on the navabashana idol after it was restored to its original status, sources in the idol wing told DH.

The idol turning dark and weighing more than the original measure of 200 kg, including 10 kilos of gold led to doubts whether it was sculpted by using required quantities of metals.

The new idol, that was made at a cost of Rs 65 lakh in 2003-2004, actually weighs 221.08 kg and has been found to have been sculpted without specified quantities of the five metals, including gold, during an inspection by an expert team from IIT-Madras in January this year.

"First of all, Muthiah does not have any experience in sculpting panchaloka idols. He is a stone sculptor and it is being investigated on who actually gave the job to him. We are also investigating on how Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department agreed to clear the statue to be installed in the temple when it weighed more than 200 kg," a senior officer attached to the idol wing told DH.

The IIT-Madras was roped in to inspect the statue after the idol wing began inspecting idols in temples across the state.

The idol wing police also suspect that Muthiah might have stolen some of the gold that was meant for sculpting the idol.

It is also investigating on who actually ordered sculpting of the new idol since no records are available with the Temple authorities on the issue.

Temple authorities had then attributed the removal to complaints from devotees that they were not able to have head-to-toe darshan of the old idol, made of nine minerals and herbs.

Devotees also objected to two idols of Lord Murugan at the sanctum sanctorum of temple arguing that it was against agama rules of Hinduism.

The Supreme Court today extended the interim protection against arrest to Karti Chidambaram, granted by the Delhi High Court in the INX Media money laundering case, till April 2.



The order came as the Enforcement Directorate sought an authoritative pronouncement from the top court in view of several conflicting orders of different high courts on the probe agency's power of arrest under section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud was told by Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the ED has been armed with the power of arrest under the statute, keeping in mind the several international conventions underlining the need to curb money laundering generated from drugs smuggling, terror financing and black money routing.

Mehta referred to the 1988 UN convention and said the member countries felt the need to have a law to deal with the offence money laundering.

The advent of e-commerce has made an investigation into money laundering more difficult as ill-gotten wealth has been transferred to all corners of the world very conveniently after the globalisation, he said.

The bench said the interim order of March 15 granting protection of arrest to Karti, son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, till today, is extended till April 2. The hearing, which remained inconclusive, would also continue on April 2.

On March 15, the apex court had given the interim relief to Karti in the INX media money laundering case and said it would clear the "confusion" which has crept in due to the divergent views of different high courts on ED's power to arrest.

The apex court had also transferred to itself the matters pending before the Delhi High Court relating to the power of Enforcement Directorate (ED) to arrest in money laundering cases and also a plea filed by Karti seeking protection from arrest in ED's case.

The top court had said it would answer the question about interpretation of section 19 of the PMLA relating to ED's power to arrest and also deal with the issue whether high courts can grant protection from arrest on a plea under Article 226 of the Constitution which deals with high court's power to issue writs and orders.

Karti was on March 23 granted bail by the Delhi High Court in connection with the INX Media corruption case lodged by the CBI. He was arrested by the CBI on February 28 in Chennai immediately after he returned from abroad.

In his plea before the high court, Karti has sought striking down of ED's power of arrest under section 19 of the PMLA, besides seeking quashing of the enforcement case information report (ECIR) and the probe being carried out by the agency.

He has also sought striking down the presumption codified in section 24 of the PMLA which says that when a person is accused of having committed an offence under section 3 (money laundering), the burden of proving that proceeds of the crime are untainted property, shall be on the accused.

An FIR by CBI, filed on May 15 last year, had alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving Rs 305 crore in overseas funds in 2007 when P Chidambaram was union finance minister.A 16-year-old girl was injured after she was allegedly pushed off the roof of a building by a man for objecting to his eve-teasing attempts, police said today.



The alleged incident happened yesterday in the Diviyapur village under the Roza police station area here, they said.

Police station in-charge Jasvir Singh said the 18-year-old accused and the girl were from the same village and knew each other.

The accused threw the girl off the roof after she objected his attempts to eve-tease her, Singh said, adding she was injured in the incident.

She was rushed to a hospital with the help of police and a case has been lodged in this connection, Singh said, adding a hunt was on to nab the accused.HMD Global, the makers of Nokia brand of phones, on Thursday launched Nokia 1 via leading mobile phone outlets across the country at a best buy price of Rs 5,499 from March 28.



Nokia 1, launched at Mobile World Congress (MWC 2018), is part of Google's Android Go initiative to bring all the features and benefits of smartphone with low price.

Running the latest Android Oreo (Go edition), a version of Android for devices with 1GB RAM or less, the Nokia 1 delivers extraordinary value with an exceptional experience.

With a quad-core processor, front and rear cameras, 4G connectivity and dual SIM and microSD slot, the Nokia 1 elevates everything users would love about an entry level smartphone.

Combining a removable 2150 mAh battery and power-efficient IPS display, its hardware works with the optimised apps so users can make the most out of each charge.

Announcing the India launch, HMD Global India Vice President Ajey Mehta said there are more than 1.3 billion feature phone users around the world, many from markets in Asia and Africa.

"As the value market leader in feature phones, we understand the barriers and challenges people face when it comes to stepping up to a smartphone which is where the Nokia 1 fits in perfectly. It also realize our dream of creating a complete smartphone experience that is accessible to everyone." he said.

Tailored to devices with 1GB RAM or less, Android Oreo (Go edition) comes with a new range of apps from Google designed to run faster while consuming less data.

Optimised to be smooth and fast, these include Google Go a web search app, Google Maps Go, YouTube Go and Google Assistant for Android (Go edition), to quickly send messages, make calls, set alarms and do more, simply by using your voice.

Available in warm red and dark blue colours, the Nokia 1 will be up for sale starting March 28 at a recommended best buy price of Rs 5,499. The Xpress On covers will be available separately starting April at an MRP of Rs 450.

The Nokia 1 has cashback offer from Jio of Rs 2200, making the effective price of Nokia 1 to come down to Rs 3299. In addition, consumer also gets 60GB od additional data. Offer applicable for new and existing Jio customers.

All Nokia 1 users will be eligible for a complimentary 12-month accidental damage insurance by Servify on opening the Kotak 811 savings account and activating it with an initial deposit of Rs 1,000 in the introductory period. 20% off on booking first ride via redBus - https://www.redbus.in/BJP President Amit Shah today maintained that the Siddaramaiah government's move to accord separate religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats was aimed at preventing B S Yeddyurappa from becoming Chief Minister.



"This Siddaramaiah government has brought this proposal, not because it has a love for Lingayats, but to prevent Yeddyurappa from becoming Chief Minister," he said addressing a Coconut Growers Convention here, as he began his two-day tour of election-bound Karnataka.



"I want to tell Karnataka people that if BJP wins a majority, we will make Yeddyurappa Chief Minister," he added.



Yeddyurappa is considered a Lingayat strongman. The state cabinet had recently decided to recommend to the Centre to accord religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats, in a move seen as an attempt to chip away at the BJP's strong Lingayat voter base.



Shah said that the proposal, which was rejected by the then Manmohan Singh government at the Centre in 2013, was only aimed at creating confusion among people. He, however, believed that the people of the state would not be enticed by Siddaramaiah's "divide-and-rule politics."



Congress President Rahul Gandhi should first point fingers at Siddaramaiah for dividing people before accusing BJP of it, Shah said. He also likened Siddaramiah's divide-and-rule politics to that of the British. "The Congress ship is sinking and to save it, the Congress is making its last efforts, and what it is doing? It is making efforts to divide people."



"The Congress Chief Minister is playing divide-and-rule politics of the British," he said.



Shah also criticised the Siddaramiah government for not bringing in the proposal earlier. "The Siddaramaiah government has proposed to accord religion and minority status to Lingayats, but why did it not do it earlier?



Because that time, there was no need for gaining votes," he said. He also launched a scathing attack on the Siddaramaiah government for failing to prevent farmers' suicides in the state.



"In five years of Siddaramaiah's rule as many as 3,781 farmers committed suicides. I want to ask the government, who is responsible for these suicides?" he asked.



Shah said suicides in Congress-ruled states are always on the increase, whereas it dwindles in BJP-ruled states like Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. "In BJP-ruled states, farmers' suicides are nigh to nothing. Wherever the Congress rules, the suicides of farmers increases, but decreases in BJP-ruled states."



"If you vote Yeddyurappa to become Chief Minister, I assure you farmers' suicides will come to a halt," he said.A television journalist who had complained about threats to his life after he carried out a sting operation on illicit sand mining was today mowed down by a truck, officials said.



Sandeep Sharma, who worked for a local news channel, had told the district administration he feared he could be killed by the sand mafia, his nephew, Vikas Purohit, said in a complaint to the police.

The 35-year-old journalist was talking on his phone by the side of Ater Road in front of a police station when the truck, used to ferry sand, ran over him, the officials said.

Purohit, in his complaint to the City Kotwali police, alleged that Sharma had been facing a threat to his life because of the recent sting operation he had carried out on the sand mafia.

"Sandeep had petitioned the Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP), Inspector General (IG), Superintendent of Police (SP) and the Human Rights Commission stating that he feared for his life and had demanded security," Purohit said.

In his report to the top officials, Sharma had said because of the sting operation against the sand mafia and the Sub Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), the officer was transferred, Purohit claimed.

Sharma was to have recorded his statement against the SDPO and was being threatened by unidentified people, Purohit added.

Bhind SP Prashant Khare said Sharma's application to the authorities was being examined and the incident probed.

The driver of the truck fled the scene after the accident, the police said.

#WATCH:Chilling CCTV footage of moment when Journalist Sandeep Sharma was run over by a truck in Bhind. He had been reporting on the sand mafia and had earlier complained to Police about threat to his life. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/LZxNuTLyap  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018





"We have formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the entire incident. A case under section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) has been registered," Khare said.Two journalists were killed at Ara in Bihar's Bhojpur district on Sunday night when a Scorpio smashed into their bike.



The owner of the vehicle, Mohammad Harsu, husband of a former mukhiya, had a heated exchange with one of the journalists, Navin Nishcal, on Sunday evening. Harsu, who earlier had threatened to kill Navin, has been arrested.

Harsu's son Dabloo and his driver were in the SUV when the incident took place.

Within hours of the heated exchange, Navin, who worked for Dainik Bhaskar, and his friend Vijay Singh, who was a journalist with a weekly magazine, were crushed by the Scorpio on the Ara-Sasaram highway.

The incident took place when Navin and Vijay were returning home after covering the Ram Navami events.

Soon after the accident, Dabloo and the driver fled from the site of the accident, leaving the vehicle there.

An irate mob, which blocked the state highway till late on Sunday night to protest the killing of the two journalists, set the SUV on fire.

On Monday, a delegation of the journalists met the ADG (Headquarters) S K Singhal and demanded the immediate arrest of the accused.

"A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted under a DSP-rank officer. Besides, the police have arrested Mohammad Harsu, the prime accused, on Monday," said the ADG, adding that Patna IG Nayaar Hasnain Khan would monitor the investigation into the case.

"Raids are on to nab Dabloo and the other accused," he said.

Two years back, the bureau chief of the Hindi daily Hindustan Rajdeo Ranjan was shot dead in Siwan in May 2016.

He reportedly earned the wrath of a former MP, who was then lodged in Siwan jail, by writing articles against him.The restoration project, which began in the late '90s, is estimated to cost $6 million and conclude by October 2019. Progress accelerated last year when the Schine's owner, the Cayuga County Arts Council, partnered with Bowers Development, of Syracuse, on the project. The council plans to sell the theater to Bowers for $15,000, but is waiting for the sale to be approved by the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The office must approve the sale because it holds a preservation covenant on the building until July 2036 due to grants the state has awarded the council.The war of words between the Congress and the JD(S) has intensified, with JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda on Monday launching a direct attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Addressing reporters, Gowda took serious exception to Rahul questioning the JD(S)' credentials recently without having any understanding of the political developments of the past. A furious Gowda said Rahul was naive and lacked maturity.

Cautioning Rahul to be "careful," Gowda asked the Congress leader not to test his patience, that he would no more tolerate his "irresponsible" statements. He took a swipe at Rahul for his dependence on a "chit" for attacking the JD(S).

"Rahul has charged that JD(S) is BJP's 'B' team - he has compared JD(S) to the Sangh Parivar. He has even asked the JD(S) to come clean on its secular credentials - whether my party is supporting the BJP. Do you want to question my credentials young man, when you are not even aware of the events of the past? You need to first understand which Congress is there in Karnataka - Indira Gandhi Congress, Sonia Gandhi Congress or Siddaramaiah Congress. If you have the maturity, you will understand these realities. You will not be making accusations against the JD(S) by reading out speeches, written by somebody else, from a chit of paper," he said.

Dubbing the Congress as an opportunist party, Gowda said he had faced betrayal by it. He said that he had endorsed Sonia Gandhi to the prime minister's post at a time when the opposition had branded her as an outsider.

"The least she could do was to be grateful to me. But her party ungraciously withdrew support when I was the prime minister. Why did they withdraw support? I had no corruption charges against me - unlike Siddaramaiah, who is facing a bundle of corruption charges," he said.

He said that the JD(S) would not forge ties with either the BJP or the Congress. If his party fails to get a majority in the elections, it was "happy" to sit on the opposition benches, he added.Apparently buoyed by the success of her "experiment" (supporting the Samajwadi Party in the Phulpur and Gorakhpur by-polls), BSP supremo Mayawati on Monday hinted that she was "ready" for a 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) with the other Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh to counter the BJP.



According to BSP sources, Mayawati told the party zonal coordinators and senior leaders to work towards taking the alliance to the ground level.

"We were told to prepare the booth-level workers to work with other Opposition parties at the ground level so that the alliance succeeds," said a senior BSP leader here.

The leader said Mayawati may soon meet senior Opposition leaders in Delhi to formally discuss the grand alliance.

He said that party will soon identify the Lok Sabha seats where it would like to field its candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

He indicated that the BSP may contest in around 30-35 seats in the state in the next General Elections.

The BSP supremo addressed a meeting of the zonal coordinators of the party and other senior leaders here on Monday, in which she attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

She accused Modi of using the name of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar to garner support from the community.

"It is nothing but an attempt to misguide the Dalit community and gather its support in the elections," Mayawati said.

The BSP supremo said Dalits had been "targeted" and "persecuted" in different parts of the country during the four years of the NDA rule.The US today expelled 60 Russian diplomats, describing them as "intelligence officers" and ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, days after Washington warned of retaliation for the use of nerve agent against a former Russian spy in the UK.



A dozen of these expelled diplomats are based at Russia's Permanent Mission to the UN.



"Today President Donald J. Trump ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian intelligence officers from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing," the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, said.



All Russian diplomats, connected to the country's intelligence agencies, and their families have been given seven days' time to leave the country.



The White House said this is in retaliation for the use of nerve agent against former spy Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom, which blames Russia for the attack.



Moscow has denied these allegations. The United Kingdom has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats.



There are 100 Russian intelligence officials based in the US. This is the first step, a senior Trump administration official told reporters during a conference call and the US reserves the right to expel more."In my political career of 35 years, I have never seen as highly corrupt a government as the Congress-led state government," said Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Telecommunications and Information Technology.



Speaking during the Baindur booth-level BJP leaders meeting at the Kollur Mookambika Auditorium near Kundapur on Sunday, he said that the BJP workers should not rest until the anti-people government in Karnataka is rooted out.



"The world is now all eyes towards the Modi government, which has come to power with a total majority after 30 years in India. The achievements of the Central government should be conveyed to the people. The party should be strengthened from the booth-level. The election results in the North Eastern states have proved that achievements will bear fruits," he said and hoped that similar results would be witnessed in the state elections.



"There is a good response for BJP in the Assembly constituencies that I have paid visits to," he stated.



Inaugurating the programme, BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa said that the Siddaramaiah government has looted the treasury and the administration is at its worst. The people of the state have pledged to throw away the Congress-led state government. Farmers are committing suicide and women are not safe. The Congress is dividing the society on the basis of caste. People will teach a befitting lesson to the Congress party in the upcoming Assembly elections, he said.



BJP district president Mattaru Ratnakar Hegde presided over the programme.



BJP state committee secretary Tingale Vikramarjun Hegde, BJP Mahila Morcha state president Bharati Shetty, leaders Kidiyuru Udaykumar Shetty and Sujata Patil were present.The Parliament will reconvene after a three-day break on Tuesday with the Opposition deciding to vigorously press for multiple no-confidence motions, including the new motions submitted by CPM and RSP, while TRS decided to join the bandwagon.



TRS has so far not joined the Opposition on the no-trust motion and has been protesting in the Lok Sabha raising their demand for reservation for Muslims, which has aroused murmurs in the Opposition ranks that they were playing to BJP tunes to avoid a discussion on the motion.

The vociferous protests by the TRS and the AIADMK, which is demanding the setting up of the Cauvery Management Board, were the reasons cited by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for not being able to take up the motions submitted by the TDP and YSR Congress.

The Speaker has to do a head count to find out whether the motion has the support of the necessary 50 MPs before moving ahead with the procedure to fix a date for discussion.

On Monday, TRS MP and K Chandrashekhar Rao's daughter K Kavita said, "the government is evading the no-confidence motion. We will now sit silently in Parliament and if there is a discussion, we will take part in the debate to highlight our issues."

However, the AIADMK threw a spanner in the Opposition's plans when it said it will continue its protest, which could result in a repeat of what has been happening in the past few days. The Parliament has not functioned since it began.

While Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge submitted his notice on Friday, CPM's P Karunakaran and Mohd Salim, as well as RSP's lone member N K Premachandran, submitted their notices on Monday, asking the Speaker to consider it on Tuesday when the House assembles.

Asked why separate notices are being given, Premachandran, while speaking to DH, said, "we have to send the message that all parties are against the government. That will have a different impact. Also, we have our own issues to raise against the government through the no-confidence motion."

Sources in the Opposition camp said there were informal discussions among parties and they had agreed to give separate notices.

"TDP and YSR Congress have their own issue of the special category status for Andhra Pradesh. But that is not the only issue. There were discussions between Trinamool Congress, CPI, Samajwadi Party and RJD, too," a senior leader said.

The YSR Congress also tweaked its strategy on its MPs' resignation, saying they will quit on the day Parliament is adjourned sine die and not on April 6 as declared earlier.

"The decision was taken in wake of the rapidly changing political developments and the possibility of Parliament session being shortened," a statement said.Visiting Chinese Commerce minister Zhong Shan on Monday promised to address trade related issues including a large deficit with India after New Delhi sought greater market access for its agriculture and non-agriculture products and IT-enabled services in the neighbouring country.



"Chinese Minister Zhong Shan welcomed Indian investment in China and promised to address the trade deficit between the two countries," commerce ministry said in a statement after India-China Joint Group on Economic Relations, Trade, Science and Technology here.

During the meeting, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu had asked his Chinese counterpart for greater market access for agricultural products like rapeseed, soyabean, basmati and non-basmati rice, fruits, vegetables and sugar.

"Another commodity which could be exported from India to China is the high quality pharmaceutical products. Export of India's IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) to China and cooperation in the sectors of tourism and healthcare needs to be focused on," he said.

The minister highlighted the important issues discussed in the meeting like two-way trade relations, preparation of an action plan, greater focus on regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) and e-dialogue.

India, China bilateral trade reached $71.45 billion in 2016-17 but most of it is tilted in Chinese favour.



The plight of a CRPF personnel, who was injured in a Maoist attack and has been forced to carry his intestine in a polythene bag wrapped around his waist for last four years, has prompted the NHRC on Monday to seek a report from the government.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also warned that such attitude will lower the morale of security personnel.

The NHRC action came following a media report about Manoj Tomar, who has served in the CRPF for 16 years and also in the elite Special Protection Group (SPG) that protected top VIPs of the country.

Taking suo motu action on the report, the NHRC said he has has been "forced to carry his intestine in a polythene bag wrapped around his waist for the last four years" despite running from pillar to post. He has not got the required assistance for the costly treatment.

"He has made several visits to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi but has not been provided proper treatment. He was injured in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district in 2014...Such incidents of alleged negligence on the part of the authorities may lower the morale of the soldiers," an NHRC statement said.

It said if the contents of the news report are true, it amounts to "gross violation" of the right to dignity and medical care of the victim. He survived even after being hit by seven bullets but apparently fell prey to apathy by the administration, it said.

The NHRC has asked the Union home secretary to submit a detailed report within four weeks. It has also sought comments of the director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, on the status of Tomar's treatment.

In the attack, Tomar lost vision in one eye and could never recover completely as a portion of his intestine remained outside his stomach.Police, firefighters, and emergency first responders put their lives on the line and put the lives of others first. It is imperative that we help protect these real-life heroes while they are on the job. Thats why I have joined with my senate colleagues to advance several measures designed to increase protections for the states law enforcement community, firefighters, and other emergency service workers.

The Community Heroes Protection Act (S.1114A/A.2962A) designates crimes that specifically target police, firefighters, and other emergency service workers as hate crimes. If signed into law, this would serve as a strong deterrent for criminals who target people for violence simply because they are wearing uniforms.

The bill was inspired by the many brave men and women in uniform who have lost their lives, were injured or targeted specifically because of their jobs as protectors of the community. The bill classifies all crimes against first responders, such as law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical services personnel as hate crimes. These offenses are designated as hate crimes only if they are intentionally aimed at first responders based on the profile of their careers.India may tone down its criticism on Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of Chinese President Xi Jinping, limiting its opposition only to its key component China-Pakistan Economic Corridor - at least publicly.

With the two neighbouring nations trying to bring their troubled ties back on track, New Delhi may avoid criticising the BRI as a whole in public, but limit its opposition only to the CPEC, which infringes on the sovereignty of India, sources told the DH.

New Delhi has since long been opposing China's BRI, arguing that the cross-continental connectivity initiative should have been "based on universally recognised international norms, good governance, rule of law, openness, transparency and equality".

India is particularly opposed to the BRI's flagship component CPEC, which will link Kashgar in Xinjiang in north-western China and a deep sea port at Gwadar in Balochistan in south-western Pakistan. New Delhi has been opposed to the CPEC corridor, as it is proposed to pass through parts of Kashmir that India claims as its own and accuses Pakistan of illegally occupying.

A source said New Delhi would continue to oppose the CPEC and keep on underlining its concern over the implication of the economic corridor on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India. It, however, might not be as harsh as it had so far been on the other issues involving the BRI as a whole, the source, who is aware of New Delhi's engagement with Beijing, said.

New Delhi is apparently re-calibrating its stance on the BRI, as it seeks to create some space for it and Beijing to make efforts to mend bilateral ties, which hit a new low in the wake of the face-off between Indian Army and Chinese People's Liberation Army in Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan from June 18 to August 28, 2017.

Tacitly criticising the BRI as a whole, New Delhi in the past noted that connectivity initiatives "must follow principles of financial responsibility to avoid projects that would create unsustainable debt burden for communities; balanced ecological and environmental protection and preservation standards; transparent assessment of project costs; and skill and technology transfer to help long-term running and maintenance of the assets created by local communities".

A second source said that New Delhi might tone down on its criticism on the BRI, particularly on the issues like lack of consultation and transparency, environmental concerns and the debt traps in which the countries joining the initiative might land in.

India of late said that it was open to "any effort" to address its legitimate concerns on the cross-continental connectivity initiative launched by China.

Sources in New Delhi pointed out that India and China were already cooperating within the framework of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for financing development projects across Asia.



New Delhi has been viewing Xi's grand connectivity initiative distinctly from the AIIB, which was also conceived by Beijing but was set up by over 50 nations collectively through a consultative process.

India has not only joined the AIIB but is the second largest shareholder in the bank after China. New Delhi will host the annual governors' meeting of the AIIB this year.External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday assured the families of 39 Indians killed in Iraq that the bodies would be brought to India by next week, a relative of one of the deceased said.



"We were assured all kind of assistance, including the possibility of a government job to the next of kin," Davinder Singh, younger brother of Gobinder Singh, who was among those killed in Iraq, said after the families of those killed met Sushma in New Delhi.

The minister "assured us of all possible steps" to bring back the mortal remains of the 39 killed as soon as possible, he said.

"We were assured that the remains will be brought back by next week," Kumar said. The meeting with Sushma lasted for 45 minutes, he said.

The families sought financial help and also government jobs for the next of kin, Kumar said.

"The minister told us that she would meet the chief ministers of the four states from where the Indians belonged to take a decision on possibility of providing a government job to the next of kin," he said.

Sushma had told Parliament last week that all the 39 Indians, abducted by the IS in Iraq in 2014, had been killed and their bodies recovered.

As many as 40 Indians were abducted by the IS from Mosul in Iraq but one of them escaped posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, Sushma had said in the Rajya Sabha.

The remaining 39 Indians were taken to Badoosh and killed, she had said.Veteran actor Jayanthi (68) was admitted to Vikram Hospital on Monday morning due to severe asthma and acute respiratory failure.



The hospital authorities said that all possible care has been extended to Jayanthi, and she is being treated for asthma by a team of doctors, headed by senior pulmonologist Dr K S Satish. The hospital had issued an official statement with the consent of the actor's family.The High Court of Karnataka on Monday passed an order allowing the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to continue with its probe into the murder of RSS worker Rudresh.



A division bench comprising Justices H G Ramesh and P S Dinesh Kumar passed the order allowing the writ appeal filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA).

The court quashed the single judge order directing the handing over of the probe from NIA to the Bengaluru city police on the grounds that no criminal proceedings are adjudicated in the writ petitions. The single judge had earlier quashed the NIA probe into the murder on the grounds that the accused had not committed anything listed under the scheduled offences of the NIA Act.

The order stated that Legislature has conferred the Executive with the power to direct the NIA to take up investigation and the facts on record of the ministry's file do not indicate that the decision making process is faulty in any manner.

The NIA, in the last hearing, had argued that it can take up suo motu investigation if the case was a threat to the unity of the country, national integration and security.

The provisions of NIA Act, 2008, make it amply clear that the Central government has been vested with powers to suo motu direct the NIA to investigate any case involving scheduled offences.

Rudresh, RSS secretary for Shivajinagar unit (Bengaluru), was hacked to death by two men on a motorbike in broad daylight on October 16, 2016. Four of the accused were apprehended on October 27 and another one on November 2 last year.Family vacation plans and school schedules were disrupted by a last-minute circular about examination dates issued by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) in the last week of February.



On February 24, the DPI issued a circular asking the state syllabus schools to conduct their examination for class 1 to 9 between March 21 and April 7. It said this was to compensate for several teaching hours which were lost to various activities in the academic year.

On March 8, after receiving several complaints, the DPI issued another circular that schools designated as exam centres were exempt from the rule.

Private schools in Bengaluru are irked about their schedules being thrown off track.

"Our exams should have concluded by now. Parents were upset about the new schedule because most of them had already booked their tickets for trips and would have to cancel them," the principal of a private school in South Bengaluru said.

He said the examinations for class 1 to class 9 were usually conducted before the SSLC examinations started.

"Now, since many teachers have been called for duties during the SSLC examination, it becomes difficult for us to manage our school-level exams," he added.

The principal of another school in Bengaluru said they have now arranged for re-examination for some students who had already booked expensive flight tickets well in advance.

"We had to make this adjustment because the intimation came at the last minute. It would not have been fair if the students had to miss their exam," the school head said. Their exams had been scheduled to end on March 28 but now it will be delayed, the principal said.

P C Jaffer, Commissioner for Public Instruction (CPI), said the idea was to make effective use of school working days. He added that the circular was mainly intended for government schools.The BMRCL has deferred the demolition of the Jayadeva flyover by at least four to five months as the contractor concerned is not ready to take up the subsequent work, including construction of a multi-level flyover.

Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) had planned to demolish the 12-year-old structure by the end of March and start working on a four-level flyover while retaining the underpass.

A senior BMRCL official said the decision to defer the demolition was taken to ensure that lakhs of people who use the flyover are not put to unnecessary inconvenience.

"We realised that the contractor is not prepared for the subsequent work after the demolition. We have urged the contractor to finish the other allied work and start piling work to allow the use of the flyover till its demolition becomes part of the critical stage of the project," he said.

The new flyover, which includes the Jayadeva Interchange Metro Station, is a part of Phase 2's RV Road-Bommasandra metro line (Reach 5), for which tenders were awarded in three packages, last July. The contractor for RV Road-HSR Layout package is yet to complete the road widening work, officials said.

Officials said that they were still assessing the value of 114 buildings that will make way for road widening and shifting of utilities.

"The road widening has to be completed before demolishing the flyover. We have identified Marenahalli Road as an alternative route and a 4.5-metre road will connect that road to ease the traffic flow," he said.

Sources in BMRCL, however, said that there was pressure from political leaders to delay the demolition to avoid inconvenience to the people ahead of the election. "Any metro line involves a chain of work which can't happen without removing the existing structures. A senior politician has expressed concern that the demolition will attract people's ire," the source said.

The senior official, however, said there was no political pressure and refused to comment on the possible delay in completion of the project. "The flyover works make it (RV Road-HSR Layout section) the toughest package to execute. The tender for this package was awarded We are confident of meeting the deadline," he said.Fearing "violence" by the Veerashaiva camp, the Jagathika Lingayat Mahasabha (JLM) on Friday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Union and the state governments to take precautionary measures to curb any untoward incidents during the Assembly elections.



Addressing the reporters here, JLM general secretary and retired IAS officer

S M Jamdar said that a section of Veerashaiva seers and leaders had been making provocative statements and unsavoury remarks against the Lingayat community leaders.

He claimed that the Lingayat leaders, including himself had received "direct" or "indirect" threats from certain 'panchapeetha' seers. Such provocations might be a precursor to violence during the elections, he said.

"There is every indication that there might be violence during the Assembly elections -- such an atmosphere has been created. Shreeshaila Peeta seer Channa Siddarama Panditaradhya Shivacharya swami has branded the Lingayat leaders as Pakistani agents -- that we are traitors. What evidence does he have that we are traitors? He has defamed us," he said, playing a video of the event in Vijayapura, where the swami is seen making the remarks.

Jamdar also said that the Rambhapuri seer Prasanna Veera Someshwara swami had made a personal attack against him. "He has said that I have made baseless statements during the earlier press conference. But, as a citizen and as a Lingayat, can I not question the seer? I have merely stated the fact that the seer adorns kilos of gold ornaments. If I'm wrong, he is free to move the court against me. I will reveal more details about him in the court. But, he should stop defaming me," he added.

He also said certain Veerashaiva leaders had threatened to hang Water Resources Minister M B Patil for championing the Lingayat-minority status movement. "Somebody else has said that the Lingayat movement leaders should be mutilated. The Veerashaiva camp is also publishing baseless articles against Patil, Mines and Geology Minister Vinay Kulkarni and me. The effort is to alienate us from the Lingayat community," he said.

Jamdar urged BJP president Amit Shah, who is presently touring Karnataka, to clarify the Centre's stand on Karnataka's proposal for according minority status to Lingayats. He said that Shah shouldn't restrict himself to merely visiting the Lingayat mutts. He should make an effort to understand the truth and reality of the Lingayat heritage.Nigerian hackers have broken into the Naukri.com server and have stolen nearly one lakh resumes.



The incident came to light after an IT firm 'Klaus' which manages Naukri.com's server registered a complaint with the CID Cyber Crime division. Officials from the CID Cyber Crime cell had written a letter to the company's headoffice in Mumbai seeking an explanation about the hack.

Kalus IT Solutions representatives stated in their complaint that Naukri.com had outsourced the work of maintaining their server with the city-based IT firm over a period of time. Klaus charges Naukri.com anywhere between Rs 3 and Rs 5 to maintain each resume of millions of job seekers who register on Naukri.

The complainant also stated this is the first time the server has been hacked. Soon after they came to know about the hack, the firm took measures to protect the remaining existent database of the server. But by then, a lakh resumes were already stolen, they said in the complaint.

Preliminary investigations by Cybercrime cell revealed the IP address of the laptop used for hacking originated from Nigeria.

On the Naukri.com website, there is an option called 'New to Naukri' for first-time job seekers. On this option, one can upload an attachment sized 2 MB which goes to the server managed and maintained by Klaus IT Solution in the City. Klaus then retrieves the resumes from the server and matches them with requirement from companies to intimate them about job offers.

Cybercrime sources said, initially, the hackers hacked the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) of the Naukri website and later they breached their server. The police suspect that within three days, the hackers downloaded at least three lakh resumes.

Looting job-seekers

Using the information on the stolen resumes, hackers are now contacting job aspirants faking that they are from reputed multinational companies.

They are luring job seekers into paying money for back-door entries. There have been several reports of job aspirants who were cheated in a similar manner and complaints have been lodged.

The hackers have used the names of companies such as Wipro, Bosch, Airtel, Accenture, and many others. If one responds to their mail, they are next asked to pay up for registration, interviews. Nearly 10,000 job aspirants have been contacted and attempted to be cheated.

Senior police officials from the Cybercrime cell said job aspirants need to be careful while responding to such e-mails and verify the authenticity of the emails before they go ahead with the job offer.

A few of the job aspirants have also started receiving calls stating that they were from banks and they could process loans if they are interested.

Out of 808 complaints registered before the Cybercrime cell until March 23, 250 complaints were related to fake job offers and bank loans.

Since Kalus IT Solutions is a vendor company involved, we have written to the chief of Naukri.com to come and register a formal police complaint, said a Cybercrime official.The hunt for a treasure buried in a farm in Attibele, South Bengaluru, came apart when a man hired to dig the pit ran to the police fearing he will be used for human sacrifice.



Police, who arrested the owner of the farm, found that he was looking for treasure.

The incident occurred in Lakshmigunte on TVS Factory Road on Sunday. The arrested was identified as Shankar (45).

Shankar, along with his friends named Raju and Sundar, both from Palakkad, Kerala, started digging the pit around 10 am on Sunday after performing puja using lemons, camphor, fragrance sticks and coconut. The trio dug a five-foot-long and eight-foot-deep pit. Feeling tired, they summoned Nagaraju Naik, a local cab driver, for help.

When Naik arrived at the spot, the men asked him to get into the pit and start digging further, telling him the treasure is located at a depth of 12 feet. Naik, however, became suspicious. He figured he would not be able to get out of the deep pit without the trio's help. Puja items at the spot strengthened his doubts.

He took a picture of the pit on his phone and went to Attibele police station. He told the police what was going on at the farmland and that the trio planned to use him in human sacrifice. Police rushed to the spot and found out that the men were digging for treasure. While they arrested Shankar, his friends Raju and Sundar fled the spot. Police have booked the trio for mischief. Shankar was later released on bail by a magistrate.

Police's visit, however, spread rumours in Attibele that it was a case of failed human sacrifice.Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Great Wall Motor Company Limited (Great Wall Motor), the Chinese largest SUV and pickup marker, announced that the company achieved operation revenue of RMB 101.169 billion in 2017, increasing 2.59% year on year. The net profit attributable to shareholders slumped 52.35% from a year earlier to RMB 5.027 billion last year. According to the financial report, the basic earnings per share were RMB 0.55. The company proposed distributing cash dividends of RMB 0.17 per share to shareholders.

According to the financial expectation released before, the Great Wall Motor attributed its net profit slump to the excessive sales promotion, rising advertising and publicity expenses and increasing investment in products' R&D.

The Great Wall Motor delivered a total of around 1.07 million vehicles last year, decreasing 0.4% year on year, which was far less than its initial annual sales target of 1.25 million vehicles. In terms of the unsatisfied sales performance last year, the automaker lowered its sales target to 1.16 million units in 2018.

Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motor, and Wang Fengying, the company's president, fined themselves by RMB 3 million and 2 million of annual salary respectively as self-punishment for the company failing the 2017 sales goal.

The Baoding-based automaker plans to build its vehicles in Russia with a factory capable of rolling out 80,000 vehicles annually set to start operations in 2019, the Chairman Wei Jianjun told reporters. Besides, he also said Great Wall Motor may sell vehicles in the U.S. staring 2021.The ruling Congress is looking to consolidate Muslim votes, which was evident with AICC president Rahul Gandhi hailing erstwhile Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan and firing salvos at the JD(S) and questioning its secular credentials.



To woo minority votes, Rahul dubbed the Janata Dal (Secular) as "Janata Dal (Sangh Parivar)," accusing it of supporting the "communal" BJP and working as the saffron party's B team ahead of the Assembly polls. The "Janata Dal (Sangh Parivar)" jibe came when Rahul toured the old Mysuru region on March 24-25, where the JD(S) commands significant hold.

Attacking the secular credentials of the JD(S) is seen as a way to prevent Muslim votes from going to the regional party, a split in the minority votebase that ended up benefiting the BJP.

The Siddaramaiah government's decision to celebrate the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan, a controversial historical figure, has come in handy. The Tipu Sultan Jayanti has been celebrated since 2014 amid protests. On both days of his recent Janaarshirvada Yatra, Rahul hailed Tipu Sultan for having "brought glory to India."

The scathing attack on the JD(S) was timed for the induction of the 7 former JD(S) MLAs at a rally in Mysuru. The seven were inducted just days after the high-drama Rajya Sabha polls in which the JD(S) nominee B M Farookh was defeated. The induction of the former MLAs was a clear message from the Congress that the JD(S) is no longer politically relevant.

Even Chief Minister Siddaramaiah made a scathing attack on the JD(S), helmed by his former mentor H D Deve Gowda. "Both Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy know that the JD(S) will not win more than 25 seats in the upcoming election," Siddaramaiah quipped at a rally in Mysuru on Sunday.

The Congress openly dissing the JD(S) could work in the BJP's advantage. The possibility of the BJP making moves to strike a post-poll alliance with the JD(S) is stronger. In fact, H D Kumaraswamy had recently warned Siddaramaiah that if he were to just "stand beside the BJP and cough, the Congress will be wiped out of Karnataka politics."Housing Minister M Krishnappa is learnt to have been upset with the state Congress leaders for sidelining him during AICC president Rahul Gandhi's recent visit to the state.



Sources in the party said the Krishnappa was not allowed to share the dais with Rahul who visited Mandya district on March 24 despite him (Krishnappa) being the district incharge minister. Krishnappa was denied the entry as his name did not figure in list of leaders to share the dais with Rahul. An upset Krishnappa returned to Bengaluru.

The sources said Energy Minister D K Shivakumar, who was overseeing all arrangements, took the centre stage. Shivakumar's aim was to project himself as the Vokkaliga leader of the party in Mandya, considered a Vokkaliga heartland. Krishnappa, who is Congress MLA from Vijayanagar constituency in Bengaluru, is also an influential Vokkaliga leader and a native of Mandya district.

It is learnt that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also did not come to the aide of Krishnappa. On drawing his attention on the issue, Siddaramaiah instead asked Krishnappa to attend the inauguration of Bengaluru-Mysuru six-laning projected by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in Bengaluru.

The development has come in the wake of speculations in the political circles that the BJP is trying to woo Krishnappa and his son Priya Krishna, who is also party MLA from bengaluru, to join the party ahead of the Assembly elections.Leading national voices will join local leaders for a wide-ranging community discussion on substance use and addiction April 16 in Rancho Santa Fe at The Nativity School Holy Family Activity Center.

The eventto be presented by the Hazelden Betty Ford Institute for Recovery Advocacy, a trusted national voice addiction prevention, treatment and recoveryalso will mark the 100th anniversary of former First Lady Betty Fords birth. Fordborn April 8, 1918passed away in 2011, leaving a rich legacy that included founding of the nonprofit Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage in 1982.

Collaborators for the community discussion, which is free and open to the public, include The Nativity School; The Church of the Nativity, the San Diego Diocesan Mental Health Ministry and the Betty Ford Center in San Diego, an outpatient addiction treatment center that opened in early 2017 and is the newest of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundations 17 sites nationally.

This community event furthers the work my mother-in-law started over 35 years ago in Rancho Mirage, said Juliann Ford, who lives in Rancho Santa Fe with her husband Jack Ford, the second son of Betty Ford and President Gerald Ford.

Betty Ford had a deep connection to San Diego, where she shared many peaceful summers with family and dear friends, Juliann Ford continued. As we celebrate what would have been her 100th birthday on April 8, we know she would have been honored to see the Betty Ford Centers San Diego outpatient center opened, and helping those suffering with addiction and their families.

As the nation faces its worst addiction crisis ever and Southern California confronts questions about unscrupulous treatment providers, leaders from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and the San Diego County District Attorneys Office will discuss prevention, quality care and effective strategies for empowering San Diegos neighborhoods, schools and families to confront this pervasive public health problem.

While alcohol and other drugs continue to cause needless deaths and an array of other health and social problems, we need to come together as communities to more aggressively address prevention, treatment and recovery solutions, said Dr. Marvin Seppala, chief medical officer of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, who will be one of the speakers. Attacking the opioid epidemic and the underlying issue of addiction requires we all work together  treatment providers, law enforcement officials and community residents. Its a responsibility we all share.

A forum like this allows us to bring together many expert voices and community residents, Seppala continued. When local communities are better informed about these issues, we will continue to make inroads in the fight against addiction and for public health.

In addition to Dr. Seppala, other experts speaking at the April 16 event will include:

 William C. Moyers, panel moderator, best-selling author and vice president of public affairs and community relations, Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 Summer Stephan, district attorney, San Diego County District Attorneys Office

 Kiersten Simon, executive director of FCD Prevention Works, part of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

 Dr. Joseph Lee, medical director, Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Youth Continuum

 Terri Perez, deputy district attorney and narcotics division chief, San Diego County District Attorneys Office

Event registration will begin at 6:30 p.m., with the expert panel presentation at 7 p.m., followed by a community discussion on next steps at 8:30 p.m. Because space is limited, pre-registration is encouraged online at www.hazeldenbettyford.org/letstalkSave my User ID and Password

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Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site.Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Dongfeng Nissan released a recall plan involving a total of 689,000 vehicles at the end of February. It is the defect in brake that triggered the recall. However, it is odd that the quality complaints were still escalating after the recall released. Several car owners said that the reasonability of smearing silicone oil remains to be discussed. They hope that Dongfeng Nissan could change the master cylinder and prolong the maintenance for brake system.

Industry insiders analyzed that since the problem of brake was much relevant to safety, auto manufactures will adopt effective measures to solve this problem, thus they can ensure the reliability of their brand images. However, car owners seem to disagree with this explanation, requesting Dongfeng Nissan to make a guarantee for the reliability of smearing silicone oil.

Dongfeng Nissan denied the issue on the complaints escalation, responding that smearing silicone oil is an effective and proved measure to counter the brake defect.

Started on Feb. 28, 2018, the recall involved a total of 689,031 vehicles, covering the new Nissan Lannia, the new TIIDA, the new-gen TIIDA, the Sylphy and the all-new Sylphy models manufactured between Apr. 6, 2015 and July 21, 2017.

In terms of the involved vehicles, it is said that Dongfeng Nissan will add special silicone oil on the master brake cylinders free of charge in order to prevent the oil seals from reversing. As to the models whose oil seals had reversed, Dongfeng Nissan will change master brake cylinders to eliminate the hidden danger. Dongfeng will adopt the improved parts on the newly-produced model.

According to an industry insider, the recall may impact sales of Dongfeng Nissan in a short term, but will not exert bad results on the company in the long run. Dongfeng Nissan also stated that it still saw robust growth momentum in the previous two months of 2018, compared with the same period in 2017. Statistics shows that the company posted a YoY sales growth of 6.4% during January and February, 2018.Subscriber content preview

BELLEVUE  Bellevue Gateway II, at 915 118th Ave. S.E., has sold for $25.5 million, according to King County records.

The seller was SFII 915 118th Ave SE LLC, an entity of Swift Real Estate Partners of San Francisco, which acquired the property in 2016 for $18.2 million.





. . .Country

United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of ZimbabweCloud-based HR, payroll and benefits platform Employment Hero have raised $8 million during a Series B funding round co-led by employment marketplace SEEK and OneVentures, with contributions from AirTree Ventures and AMP.

The capital injection, which will be used to roll out new products and services, follows on from Employment Heros oversubscribed $4.5 million Series A round, which was led by OneVentures with co-investment by AirTree Ventures and AMP New Ventures in 2016.

Employment Hero was founded in 2013 by CEO Ben Thompson, whose motivation was automating manual employment processes for SMEs with a view to taking the hard work out of people management and improving employee engagement. Today, more than 1,500 businesses use the companys employment management platform, which combines HR software, scheduling and payroll tools, performance management, employee benefits and financial services. Since 2015, the Sydney-based startup has enjoyed 10% month on month growth across revenue and users.

Thompson said that working closely with SEEK would make it easier for Employment Heros clients to move from recruiting to onboarding.

Were excited for a future where transitioning into new employment is a seamless and enjoyable experience and where the paperwork and administration for recruiters, HR business partners, employers and employees is drastically reduced, he said.

Given SEEKs deep understanding of the employment landscape and the challenges faced by employees and hirers it is encouraging to have them back Employment Hero. It gives us even more confidence in the opportunity that exists for our business, and the value we can offer small to medium businesses and employees.

Ronnie Fink, Corporate Development Director for SEEK, said he and his team are pleased to support the growth of a business that is closely aligned to his companys mission to help more people live fulfilling and productive working lives and help organisations succeed.

Dr Michelle Deaker, Managing Partner for OneVentures commented on the significant growth achieved by Employment Hero heading into its partnership with SEEK, adding is Ben Thompson and the team are executing well on the business plan to capture what is a very large opportunity. SEEK is well regarded for their positive impact on their investments and we look forward to the opportunity afforded by the partnership.

Related: HR start-up Employment Hero lands ANZ dealConsidered to be the Ten Best UFO Photos Ever Taken I am sure that we could add more pictures to this list but these are considered ten o...To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020.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 Business Advertising / Marketing Books Consumer Research Direct Marketing e-Commerce Entrepreneurs Finance Franchise Human Resources Insurance Investment Management Markets Network Marketing Online Marketing / SEO Payday Loans Public Relations Publications Real Estate Retail Stocks Supermarkets Women in Business Careers/HR General Chemical General Coaching / Mentoring Coaching / Mentoring Computers Apple Products Databases Games & Entertainment General Hosting Instruction Linux / GNU "Open Source" Macintosh Microsoft Windows PC Operating Systems Programming Security Software Tablet PCs Utilities Construction General Consumer Gifts and Collectibles Hobbies Web sites / Internet Design Graphic Design Industrial Web E-Cigarette General eCommerce General Economy General Education College / University General Home Schooling K-12 Post Graduate Technical Electronics General Email Marketing General EmailWire Press Releases Press Release Tips Employment/Careers General Engineering General Entertainment General Environment General Events / Trade Shows General Finance General Food General Franchise General Fraud / Identity Theft General Gaming General Government General Judicial Law Enforcement Legislative Local National Public Services Security State Transportation Healthcare General Home and Family Banking / Personal Finance Bereavement / Loss Home Furnishings / Interiors Landscaping & Gardening Marriage / Relationships Money Parenting Payday Loans Pets Taxes Wedding / Bridal Home Schooling General Hotels/Resorts General Household General Industry Aerospace / Defense Agriculture Apparel / Textiles Broadcast Construction / Building Electrical Food Funeral Healthcare Leisure / Hospitality Logistics / Shipping Manufacturing / Production Mining / Metals Oil / Energy Paper / Forest Products Plumbing, Heating & AC Print Media Printing Publishing Radio Restaurants Tobacco Toy Insurance General Internet/Online General Legal General Leisure General Lifestyle Beauty Dating / Singles Diet / Weight Loss Fashion Food / Beverage Health & Fitness Hotel / Resorts Pastimes Restaurants Retirement Travel & Tourism Machinery General Maritime General Medical Addiction Allergies Alternative Medicine Asthma Cancer Cardiology Chiropractic Dental Dermatology Diabetes Emergency Family Medicine General General Geriatrics Hospitals Infectious Diseases Internal Medicine Managed Care / HMO Medical Products Mental Health Neurology Nursing Nutrition OB / GYN Pediatrics Pharmaceuticals Physical Therapy Plastic Surgery Psychology Radiology / Imaging Research Sports Medicine Surgery Vision Military General Mining/Metals General Miscellaneous General Nanotechnology Nanotechnology Non-profit General Occupational Safety Occupational Safety Oil/Energy General Opinion / Editorial Opinion / Editorial Paper Products General Paper/Forest General Pharmaceuticals General Podcasting Announce Tools and Services Politics Politics Print Media General Public Utilities Public Utilities Publishing General Radio General Real Estate General Religion Christian General Islam Jewish Other Restaurants General Retail General RSS & Content Syndication RSS & Content Syndication Science and Research Science and Research Self-Help / Personal Growth Self-Help / Personal Growth Shipbuilding General Society African American Interests Asian Interests Childrens Issues Disabled Issues / Disabilities Gay / Lesbian Hispanic Mens Interests Native American Senior Citizens Social Services Teen Issues/Interests Womens Interest Software General Sports Baseball Basketball Bicycling Boating / Maritime Bowling Boxing Fishing Football Golf Hockey Hunting Martial Arts Outdoors Rugby Soccer Tennis Water Winter/Snow Sports/Fitness General Stocks General Supermarkets General Technology Biotechnology Computer Electronics Enterprise Software Games Graphics/Printing/CAD Hardware / Peripherals Industrial Information Internet Multimedia Networking Public Sector/Government Robotics Semiconductor Software Telecommunications Webmasters Telecom General Wireless Television General Tobacco General Trade General Transportation General Travel General Utilities General Volunteer Volunteer Weather WeatherA dangerous trip to Europe

Europe is the most preferred location by tourists all around the world. But it is just a matter of time that the travel plans to turn into a disappointment.

The main reason for that is the cities full of danger

PARIS

Paris is without a doubt one of the most beautiful cities in the world, the capital of France, of art, of fashion. While every year millions of people visit the city, it has the makings to put a damper on your trip. The reason is the violent actions take place.

Every year, from March to end of summer, non-governmental organizations (ngos) repeatedly stage anti-government demonstrations. When these demonstrations meet with the police violence, even if you have no truck with the protests, you can get your share from the disproportionate force police using to protesters.

Another factor which makes Paris dangerous is the rising tide of crime. According to a research made by a French research company, it was identified that French women has lost their feelings of trust to countrys security and that they hesitate over whether to go ut or not because of the rising tides of rape, snatching and robbery. Apart from these, even the soldiers start making rounds after terrorist incidents in Paris fail to provide safety.

RACISM, PKK AND DAESH: BERLIN

Berlin, the capital and the largest city of Germany, assumed embraces tourists with its deep-rooted history and architectural structure, but the fact is far more different than that.

Racisim has reached to an advanced stage in the city. Police forces remain incapable to block Neo-nazi attacks towards foreigners and Muslims. PKK terror organization supporters are attacking mosques, non-governmental organizations, uttering threats towards Turkish citizens. The main reason that the terror supporters acting that free is the German police shutting its eyes to the attacks.

After Daeshs terror acts were brought under control by the hep of Turkeys Operation Olive Branch, Daesh terrorists as well has started to come back to their home town: Germany. Because of these situations, it become harder and harder to visit Berlin safely.

CARELESS COUNTRY, STOLID POLICES: BRUSSELS

Brussels is the top city which has been attacked. Even it is being said that the reason of these attacks is the city of Molenbeek where the Muslims live most, this claim is just a black propaganda against Muslims.

Belgian police fails to satisfy resolving a problem is making the situations more difficult. In the past, they had ignored the posibble terror list given by top level Turkish authorities. A few weeks later Belgium had been shocked by terror attacks. Therefore, you may want to reconsider your travel plans to the country. You may find yourselves in a situation that the Belgian polices couldnt provide your provide security.

PRO-INDEPENDENCE CLASHES: BARCELONA

Barcelona is most popular travel destination in Spain, but the citizens are not so welcoming. The residents of Barcelona got tired of tourists frequently organise demonstrations against more tourists to come. Last year lots of violent acts occured against tourist busses in several regions of Catalonia. It means that you may not be welcomed when you arrived to the country

Another minus is the pro-independence protests. After the former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was detained in Germany, pro-independence protests started to re-occur. Catalan police started to use disproportionate force against protesters. Therefore visiting arpund the country may turn into a torture during your trip.Passengers huddle, many on cells, near tarmac at Dulles Airport AC flight 7618 after emergency landing

Everyone is safe after an Air Canada Express flight from Toronto to Washington made an expedited landing at Dulles airport rather than its intended destination of Reagan International in the US capital. The time between the two is not great but the captain was taking no chances over what is said to be either smoke, or a burning smell, in the cockpit. Sky Regional, which operates Air Canada Express, says 63 passengers and four crew members were unharmed after exiting the plane on the tarmac at Dulles. The aircraft is believed to be a Brazilian-made Embraer 175.Spanish police didnt have mercy on protesters

Tens of thousands took to the streets of Barcelona after former Catalonia president arrested in Germany. Catalonian riot police and protesters clashed during the protests.

Protests broke out across the Spanish region of Catalonia on Sunday after former leader Carles Puigdemont was taken into custody in Germany.

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was detained in Germany on Sunday, five months after entering self-imposed exile from Spain, where he faces up to 25 years in prison for organizing an illegal secession referendum last year.

Protesters had a close brush with death WATCH

Catalan police laid aside human rights using disproportionate force against protesters. Riot police decked out in riot gear shoved and hit demonstrators with batons to keep the crowd from advancing on the office of the Spanish government's representative in Barcelona.

Some demonstrators were kicked by police. Protesters had a close brush with death with the police vans were driven upon them. At least seventy-nine people were injured during the clashes in Barcelona, mainly with bruises, emergency services said.

Spanish police didnt have mercy on protesters WATCH

Reinforcements were called in after several hours to clear the neighbouring streets, with protestors tossing street barriers and burning two garbage bins as they retreated.

European countries which tries to adjust Turkey lapsed into silence against these developments.Amy Schumer delivered a passionate speech at the Los Angeles March For Our Lives, slamming politicians for "killing children" and standing against gun reform.

March For Our Lives demonstrations in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and cities all over United States saw over a million people on the streets demanding for more stringent firearms laws. The movement has been led by the survivors of the Parkland, Florida shooting that killed 17 and injured more.

Politicians Are 'Killing Children,' Says Amy Schumer

Schumer took to the stage and began by thanking the students and other attendees for "standing up and saying 'No more.'" For much of her emotional speech, the Trainwreck star addressed lawmakers, expressing her anger at those who are neglecting the safety of the children and twisting the words of the people speaking up against them.

"How do they sleep at night?" she asks the crowd as seen in a video posted by CBS News. "You are killing children, and they call people like me 'Hollywood liberals' like there's something in it for us."

"What's in it for us, is knowing we're doing our part to keep our children alive," Schumer continues, adding that celebrities such as herself see less support and less profit for voicing their beliefs. "We sell half as many tickets because we're standing up for what's right ... You see that politicians? You can make a little less money and be able to look at yourself in the mirror with no blood on your hands."

She goes on to say that these politicians are too occupied with making money and lashing out at those who stand against them to realize they're actually "digging the graves of the people you are sworn to protect."

"There are plenty of NRA [National Rifle Association] members and gun owners who want sensible gun laws. I applaud them and I stand with them," she explains, saying that she is not addressing them in her speech. "I'm talking to the ones who ignore the halls of the schools filling with blood and tears and pictures of the children who should still be with us."

Schumer has been a very outspoken advocate for gun control since 2015, when a shooting at a Trainwreck screening in Louisiana killed two women, according to The Cut.

Olivia Wilde, Other Celebrities Speak Up

It's not just Schumer who is voicing her anger and disappointment for the lack of gun control in the United States. Fellow actress Olivia Wilde also took to the stage during the March For Our Lives rally to praise the "youth-led movement" and encourage people to vote against politicians who refuse to act against gun violence and racism.

"Apathy is no longer an option," Wilde explains, saying that the mid-term elections are coming up. "Your elected officials work for you. Do not let those who choose to accept money from the NRA profit from your hopelessness or the blood of your peers. Instead, vote them out."

Beatles legend Paul McCartney attended the New York march, saying that he attended the rally because it's what he can do.

"One of my best friends was killed in gun violence right around here, so it's important to me," he says, referring to fellow Beatle John Lennon who was gunned down in New York in 1980.'Ezria' is back together! Pretty Little Liars favorites Lucy Hale and Ian Harding reunite for a photo nine months after the end of their hit show.

An Ezria Reunion In Chicago

Hale, 28, posted the photo on her Instagram account, revealing that it was a Chicago trip that brought her closer to her onscreen love interest.

"Look who I found in Chicago," Hale's caption reads with the photo of the two stars with their arms around each other. Both donned warm and cozy clothing with heavy jackets and caps.

The actress, who currently stars in CW's Life Sentence, played the role of Aria Montgomery in Pretty Little Liars. Fellow series regular Harding was her love interest, Ezra Fitz.

While the pair had undeniable chemistry in the show, they never got together in real life. Hale did confess to a slight crush on Harding in game of "Never Have I Ever" in The Ellen Show with her former costars.

"It was Ian, Ian Harding," she admits her on-set crush during the show. "Season 1. Whatever, I was 20."

More 'Liars' Reunions

While it's been a while since the Pretty Little Liars crew has shared the screen, their real-life friendships seem to be going strong. Since the start of the year, there have already been a couple of instances of the cast getting together.

A few of the regular cast members reunited for a house party last January, according to Teen Vogue. It was documented in a number of Instagram Stories entries, which revealed who showed up for a game of Jenga and general merry-making: Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, Keegan Allen, Tyler Blackburn, and Harding.

Some of the gang also took London by storm for the Revelations Endgame convention in February including Bellisario, Harding, Allen, Sasha Pieterse, Brant Daughtery, Drew Van Acker, and Huw James Collins.

Pretty Little Liars Spinoff

Fans who want a taste of Pretty Little Liars on television can tune in to the upcoming spinoff titled The Perfectionists. Like the original, this new show is based on a novel by Sara Shepard.

Pretty Little Liars actresses Pieterse and Janel Parrish are confirmed to return as their long-time characters Alison and Mona, TV Line reports. Other television standouts are set to join them including Descendants' Sofia Carson, The Walking Dead's Sydney Park, Gossip Girl's Kelly Rutherford, and General Hospital's Hayley Erin. Newcomer Eli Brown rounds off the cast.

While fans would undoubtedly want the other cast members to show up in The Perfectionists, series' showrunner Marlene King tells Us Weekly that it's probably not happening soon.

"I think the girls all really want to grow up and do their own things, like follow their own individual projects for a while," she says. "And maybe we'll eventually come back."Star Jones weds fiance Ricardo Lugo on a cruise ship in the Bahamas on Sunday, March 25, after a few months of engagement.

A Blissful Wedding At Sea

The couple tied the knot on the Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas, E! Online reports.

The cruise also hosted a birthday party for Jones, who also turned 56.

Only 150 people were invited to witness the romantic vows between the couple, according to People. Fortunately, the bride shared a number of photos and videos that documented the event on her Instagram account.

In a collage shared by the television personality, the couple is seen sharing a kiss in front of Jones's birthday cake. Another photo shows her blowing the candles while being assisted by a group of adorable children. In one video leading up to the wedding, the bride beams at the camera and shares how much joy she is feeling.

"You know you're really happy when your kid says at lunch, 'Stop smiling, you're going to break your face,'" Jones says. "This is the happiest weekend of my entire life."

Some of the more prominent names on the limited guest list include Tina Knowles-Lawson and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks.

Jones's Relationship With Ludo

The former The View panelist got engaged to Ludo in October 2017. The pair have been in a relationship since 2016. While she is cautious about revealing too many details about her relationship, Jones have previously talked about her happiness with her partner.

"We're engaged. Not talking about it," she tells Us Weekly soon after the engagement. "He's wonderful. I'm happy and that's all anybody outside of my family needs to know."

According to Chicago Tribune, Lugo used to work as a Cook County assistant state's attorney until he was laid off with 16 other prosecutors following budget cuts to his office. He has since joined Fathers' Rights Attorney Jeffrey M. Leving's Legal Team, a firm that is dedicated to rescuing children and reuniting them with their fathers.

Lugo is father to a 12-year-old son named Jake. He is divorced.

Like her new husband, Jones has also been previously married. She and investment banker Al Reynolds split up after almost four years of marriage.Netflix has been officially cast out of the Cannes Film Festival. Cannes will no longer consider movies from the streaming service.

You Can't Compete With Us

Netflix and other streaming services, like Amazon Studios, are still welcome to show movies if they wish, but these movies will not be considered in the running for the all-important Palme d'Or.

Film festival head Thierry Fremaux announced the new stipulation along with a festival-wide selfie ban on Friday.

"The Netflix people ... would like to be present with other films. But they understand that the intransigence of their own model is now the opposite of ours," he explained.

Last year's festival saw Bong Joon-ho's Okja and Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories competing for the top prize at Cannes, much to widespread public derision.

French filmmakers and unions pledged to protest, only for the rules to change for the 2018 festival. Neither Okja or The Meyerowitz Stories ended up winning anything.

Fremaux reportedly allowed the two Netflix movies to compete last year to keep the festival from becoming stagnant. He wished to premiere films from two notable filmmakers rather than see them go to other festivals.

However, now that he knows Netflix won't give such movies a theatrical release, he realized his error.

"Last year, when we selected these two films, I thought I could convince Netflix to release them in cinemas. ... They refused," he admitted.

Strict Regulations Protect Cinema

Netflix tried to temporarily show the films for less than a week in France, to coincide with the online releases of both. The company was unsuccessful due to France's strict chronology laws, and the two sides couldn't agree on a proper solution.

Cannes changed the rules and now theatrical release in France is a requirement to enter the competition.

"Cinema [still] triumphs everywhere even in this golden age of series. The history of cinema and the history of the internet are two different things," Freemaux explained.

The issue is that, although Netflix along with other streaming platforms, proved to be powerful players when it comes to funding and distribution, there's a worry that the movies from major studios will be in the spotlight. This will make it harder for movies from smaller film studios to get attention.

The French cinema model is almost the exact antithesis of Netflix's business model. There are also strict laws in place to support local film production and movie theaters.

Still, the move will set Cannes back in relation to the changing attitudes and viewing habits.Kenya Moores husband Marc Daly officially made his debut on Bravos hit reality show The Real Housewives of Atlanta Sunday.

It didnt take long for Moores co-stars to give their real thoughts about Daly after the episode aired.

'RHOA' On Kenya Moore's Husband

During the After Show special of the series, the cast gave their opinions on Daly and his marriage to Moore. Williams didnt have much to give when she said Daly looks like his picture and shrugged.

A producer then asked Williams to compare Daly to Flat Marc, a cardboard cutout of a groom that stood in for Daly when the ladies threw Moore a fake wedding earlier this season. Interestingly enough, Williams couldnt offer up a comparison, so she laughed.

As for Sheree Whitfield, she and Kim Zolciak Biermann couldnt help but throw a little shade. Whitfield pointed out that Daly has a nose ring and Zolciak made it clear she didnt think it's attractive. Whitfield said she wasnt sure when Daly got the piercing but said Daly mentioned he always wanted to have one.

Kenya Moore's Husband Is Still Getting The Side Eye

I dont know any guys who have always wanted to have their nose pierced so I thought that was interesting, added Whitfield.

Zolciak chimed in and said there are still a few holes in Moore and Dalys romance.

The whole story doesnt add up, added Zolciak.

Marc Daly's Appearance Was A Long Time Coming

Moore also said she felt vindicated by Dalys arrival on the show. Never one to speak badly about her husband, she pointed out that many of the ladies gave [her] grief about whether Daly existed or if he was really Moores husband. She said the strife and negative attention made their newlywed days a little less blissful.

Daly made his highly anticipated debut on the show, which marked his first time meeting the women, including Moores good friend Cynthia Bailey. The two were at odds earlier this season when Bailey admitted she was hurt Moore didnt invite her to her secret wedding over the summer.

Moore made it clear the wedding was for extremely close friends and family. She pointed out in one episode that her own father didnt know about it until after they said their I Dos.

Who Is Marc Daly?

While not much was known about Daly before, fans know plenty more about him now. For starters, most have agreed that Daly, who owns a Southern cuisine restaurant in New York City, is super attractive.

He has volunteered with children in his hometown as well. Meanwhile, rumor has it that Moore is pregnant.

The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs Sundays on Bravo at 8 p.m. ET or 7 p.m. CT.

Be sure to keep up with Enstars for the latest news and updates on your favorite celebrities.The American Renaissance: Chapter Thirteen, The New World Order, Part Two By Michael Moriarty

Japan! A proven military power at the start of the 20th Century. Japan, ostensibly democratic, had also signed onto The League of Nations. What became even more shockingly dangerous, however? Most Japanese treated their Emperor as a living God. Why the 20th Century Germans of Europe chose to treat their Fuhrer as if he were the same deity to whom all of Japan also bowed?! Two, similarly bewitched nations form what ultimately becomes a double-suicide pact?! Why didnt they both surrender earlier? Germany should have given up just after their inevitable retreat from the Battle of the Bulge! Japan, after the first atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima! Why did Hitler and Company, while they had the chance to surrender to the Americans, wait for the Soviets to take bloody revenge in Berlin?!

The Rape of Berlin BBC told the Tale of Revenge!

The Soviet Flag Over Berlin The Third Reichs early surrender to England and America would have saved the German people, particularly their women, from a lot of Marxist Genghis Khans.

Soviets Stare at Berlins Welcoming Suicides Why did Japans Emperor have any hope of victory at all after the swift and sudden execution of 40,000 Japanese in one fell swoop at Hiroshima? Then again, both nations chose to solve major economic and lebensraum problems by invading their neighbors. Japan first chose China. The Third Reich chose to steal a few parcels of old land and invade a whole assortment of European nations during the beginning of their seemingly endless assault upon all of life itself. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan? Ferociously Siamese suicides! Psychotically dueling seppuku!! Competitive hara-kiri!!! While Fascist Italy?! Bizarrely along for the suicidal ride. A gang of wandering Al Capones, out looking for a particularly good Costume Ball.

In a few months, well be dining at Sardis!! Yeah, right As for the very, very English, World War II in Color? The British Empires compulsive shots at the United States for their Imperialism? Particularly in The Pacific. Imperial America and Right-wing Adolf Hitler! The Brits have always secretly resented Winston Churchill for being half-American and being able to spot British Marxists anywhere!

CHURCHILL:

A dog looks up at you? A cat looks down at you!

But a pig?! A pig looks you right in the eye!! Meanwhile, the Brits point out that America, in the Twenties, was too caught up with success and the Jazz Age than to be at all disturbed by Japans own, increasingly ruthless imperialism. Londons narrator says, America seems lost to the increasing pursuit of pleasure! In 1922, both Italy and Germany were ripe with anarchy; and eagerly awaiting their own Doomsday Machines.

Both the King of Italy and President Paul von Hindenburg chose precisely the wrong men. They both leaped into the arms of The Lucifer Brothers, Adolf and Benito.

A Nation-Burning Bonnie and Clyde

By 1928, Mussolinis power was complete. Both Mussolini and Hitler knew how to capture their nations imaginations, loyalty and, as it turned out, their dying gratitude! Their suicidal criminality!! Ironically, the Italian Mafia was, more or less, eliminated by Mussolini. Like Germany, the Italian military was expanded and empowered! Both armies, navies and air forces, under the control of these two record-breaking gangsters, began Historys deadliest war. Apparently, Il Duce wished to recreate the Roman Empire. While Hitler merely wanted to run the whole World. Mussolini began the quest with eyes on Africa. Abyssinia to be precise. He began this quest in 1934. Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia appealed to The League of Nations. The League condemned Italy but its sanctions had no effect. Italy ignored the condemnation and pulled Italy out of The League of Nations. He then invaded Abyssinia and conquered it! With gas bombs that had been outlawed at Versailles as a crime against humanity!

Africa as Eurasias Pie to Cut! Meanwhile, in 1935, Hitler re-occupied the Saarland. The League of Nations was repeatedly proven to be helpless and basically, as a governing body of any kind, a fraud! More importantly, both England and France, at that time, proved that they no longer had the will to fight. Both nations had never really recovered yet from World War I. Both had faced post-war strikes, unrest and mass unemployment. Both were then determined to say out of future conflicts. France, under Marshall Petain, continued her appeasement! England, under Winston Churchill, God bless him, fought! Battled like fogged-in tigers and lions!! Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty. HomeEt tu, Donald By Robert T. Smith

While not perfectly aligned to the Roman calendar date of March 15, beware the ides of March has echoed from the distant past warning to Julius Caesar and now on to the Americans. Unceremoniously shived this March on national TV by their President under the guise of a straw man appeal for military spending, the supporters of MAGA have been duped into being force-fed additional profligate spending by an apparent liar. Beyond any foreseeable military outside threat, the national debt and unmoored spending pose an existential threat to our country.not the geographical area that encompasses the United States of America, but the ideals that once made it the big G of MAGA. The glee of the Democrat is repulsive, the smugness of the Republican establishment as they set the agenda repugnant. Loaded beyond even past ridiculous wasteful spending, this aporkalypse written by, and disgorged upon the Americans by the special interest D.C. denizens of the establishment is treasonous. From the time of its coining by the American colonists, no taxation without representation has been foundational to Americanism. Not our generation, nor the next generation, nor generations yet born can begin to pay off the insane amount of debt accrued to date and compounding every second beyond comprehension. These future generations have no representation in this generational theft. Even if we were not an aging population, there simply will not be enough workers to pay for our retirement and healthcare, the national debt and interest, and their hoped-for way of life. Nope, no more American dreamers. Welcome to your inherited country generation loser. But maybe it was our fault. What made us mere working class believe that we could reclaim our government and country. Did we miss something when we faced physical assault to simply show up at a Trump rally or wear a MAGA hat? Did we not hear the scorn heaped upon us by the propaganda arm of the Democrat party, the mainstream media? Did we not understand when we were mocked and ridiculed for supporting a rich, playboy, businessman whose only claim was to have a love for America and Americanism? The unenlightened class has once again been put in its place and the establishment has reasserted it authority over us uppity peasants. What will become of the Donald? At this point, it is not really who would contribute to the Trump campaign or show up at a Trump rally for him or a Republican running for office, but why? Page after a thousand pages of spending on items antithetical to the former Trumpsters, and directly promised over and over again by the Donald when campaigning to be stopped. Nothing to meet the basic agenda promised over and over again at rally after Trump rally. In its simplest terms, Mr. Trump signed his own impeachment papers. Russian roulette with all the chambers loaded, cheered on to pull the trigger by the establishment Rs and Ds alike. House impeachment, count on it. Maybe he resigns before all his buddies in the Senate stand him to trial because he surely would find out just what Julius Caesar did in his Senate. He is not one of them and they loathe him. It wont be just that simple though. As good tyrants know, a lesson must be taught to anyone who may once again show up and think to drain the swamp. No, not just forced from office, but financially broken and in their most ardent hope Mr. Trump and/or his children incarcerated. That will be the lesson to the next person who thinks to rally the citizens to their cause in opposition to the ruling class. It seems at some point Mr. Trump became confused and thought we liked him and not the things he said he would do. While the swamp slowly destroys the Donald and his family, who now will have his back? Et tuEt tu... Robert T. Smith is an environmental scientist who spends his days enjoying life and the pursuit of happiness with his family. He confesses to cling to his liberty, guns and religion, with antipathy toward the arrogant ruling elites throughout the country. HomeOn the 330th anniversary of the Glorious Revolution -- the historical significance of the English Civil War (Part One) By Mark Wegierski

The persons who are likely to read ESR are hopefully very atypical of the prevailing, contemporary North American ethos: profoundly concerned with history and culture, and able to read articles requiring a large degree of cerebral effort and long attention-span. This series is written with the audacious thesis that the now very distant-seeming English Civil War of 1642-1648, and its real aftermath, the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688, constitute one of the critical defining experiences of the new cultural identity that can be termed Anglo-Americanism, which has increasingly defined the shape and substance of all subsequent world-history. The English Civil War, which is really the first great modern revolution, has set the pattern for subsequent revolutionary upheavals in the entire Anglo-American cultural sphere, and especially in America itself. As the war which set the trajectory of so many future developments, the English Civil War can be seen as one of the most crucial social, political, and cultural struggles in human history. As in the American Civil War/War Between the States, with which it can offer many parallels, the forces in the conflict are unevenly matched, because of the economic predominance of the Northern and Parliamentary sides, respectively. The Royalists, centered in the rural hinterlands of the country, with virtually no navy, and poor sources of munitions and supply, find themselves fighting a losing war against the increasingly powerful forces paid for by the enormous resources of London and other trading-centers. The panache of the Cavaliers is no match for the iron drill and discipline of Cromwell's New Model Army. The sense of the historical inevitability of Cromwell's victory, and the onward rush of successive events, has a certain profoundly tragic dimension to it. It is the historical significance of the English Civil War as it actually occurred that is described below. A large part of the essay, however, looks at the alignment of social and political forces on the eve of the conflict, to show what is really at stake in this struggle. The very mention of the English Civil War must seem obscure to virtually all contemporary Americans, yet, in a sense, much of the essential history of this society and its way of life would have probably been made impossible by a Royalist triumph. Whether this would have turned out to be a more positive or negative thing for human history as a whole is not yet known, in the strictest sense; however, this essay argues from a basically pro-Royalist perspective, a largely existentialist position given the context of contemporary late modernity. The pro-Royalist perspective is somewhat more understandable for a person rooted in authentic Canadian conservatism  as opposed to someone embracing the typical U.S. conservatism  whose traditions are anti-monarchical and republican from the very founding of the U.S. To be continued. Mark Wegierski is a Canadian writer and historical researcher. HomeRandom Thoughts III By Dr. Robert Owens

Why would someone be upset about deporting children but not upset about aborting them? Democrats want DACA. Trump offers DACA but they cant vote for 12 years. Democrats turn that down. Does that show what they really want? In California they can make plastic straws illegal but they cant seem to make illegals illegal. Socialism: Policies so good they have to be mandatory. Mark Zuckerberg calls President Trump a fascist as he deletes posts, pages, and accounts of people he disagrees with. The same people who call Preside4nt Trump a fascist are the same ones begging him to take everyones guns awaygo figure. Jay-Z: stabbed his own producer, punched his sister-in-law in the face on an elevator, and shoots his own brother. He now says he is offended because he doesnt like President Trumps tone. Two things are very expensive in international affairs: threats when they fail and promises when they succeed. President Kennedy put men on the moon. President Obama put men in the ladies room. What criminals want most is a disarmed victim. Why the study of History is exciting: If we learn how we got here we can better understand here.

If we learn how the past became the present we can better anticipate the future.

It gives us the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others.

It isnt all about memorizing names and dates to regurgitate on an exam. It is about investigating the lives of people just like us who lived in different times and in what were essentially different worlds.

Being a student of History is in many ways like being a time traveling detective. The Flat Earth Society has members all around the globe. The more Trump is investigated the more crimes involving prominent Democrats are exposed. Recently a demonstrator was seen holding a sign that said, If Trump isnt Hitler than Im a moron! Enough said? If guns kill people then I guess pencils misspell words, spoons make people fat, and cars make people drive drunk. Smooth seas never made a good sailor. The Lefts answer to homicidal maniacs attacking innocent people is to disarm innocent people. Wouldnt it be great if the Masters of the Universe in Washington were as interested in spending control as they are in gun control? When were young our grandparents try to tell us about their lives and were bored because it doesnt interest us. Later we wish we would have written it all down. Then when were old were disappointed when our grandchildren couldnt care less about the life weve livedit was all so long ago. That is part of the circle of life. Very few people know the names of all eight of their great grandparents. Few know even the names of three. In a generation or two, at most three for most of us even our names will be forgotten. All things in life will pass. Only those things done in Christ will last. From the He Said What? Department: "Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." President Kennedy from his message: Those Participating in Roosevelt Day Commemoration, 29 January 1961. This was before we went through the looking glass. The Maryland shooter of 3-20 was 17 years old. He used a 9mm Glock. According to Maryland law you must be 21 years old to purchase a hand gun. Criminals dont follow laws.thats what makes them criminals. And he was stopped by one man with his own gun. No CNN, no vigils, no walkoutsthe Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media apparently didnt notice. Undocumented isnt a race, its a criminal. So why is someone a racist if they see a problem with twenty million + criminals being allowed to walk around, work, and demonstrate with immunity? In Stockton, California during walkouts for gun violence students were arrested on charges of battery, vandalizing vehicles, and assaulting police officers. Doesnt this prove the point that it isnt the gun thats the problem its the moral values and ethics of the people who commit the crimes? Hillary needs a device around her neck with a button for, Help Ive fallen and I cant quit getting back up. Dr. Robert Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com  2018 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens Homehttps://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/03/26/world/politics-diplomacy-world/high-ranking-north-korean-official-believed-visiting-china/#.Wrj_5pC8nqA

BEIJING  A high-ranking North Korean official is apparently visiting China and it could be leader Kim Jong Un, sources close to the matter said Monday.

The visit is aimed at improving ties with Beijing, the sources said. Relations between Pyongyang and Beijing have been strained over North Koreas nuclear ambitions.

As China, worried about possible contamination from nuclear tests, has strengthened economic sanctions against Pyongyang, the official may also seek an easing of the sanctions and the provision of economic cooperation such as food aid and investment.

Kim has reportedly agreed to hold separate summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump.

On Sunday, a special train that may have carried the official passed through the Chinese border city of Dandong, the sources said.

If Kim is the official visiting China, it would be his first trip to another country since becoming North Koreas supreme leader.

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In Beijing, a car with a diplomatic license plate of the North Korean Embassy was spotted Monday at the Great Hall of the People, a state building used for activities by the government and the Communist Party of China.

Severe traffic regulations were enforced in Beijing on Monday.

Hotels around the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge linking Dandong with the North Korean town of Sinuiju have suspended reservations for rooms facing the North Korean side since Sunday, in an apparent move to prevent the train from being watched.

Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping have never met.

Kims father, who was known for shunning air travel, visited China four times by train between 2010 and 2011.Congress says this time we really mean it! By Michael R. Shannon

Theres a bill being lovingly preserved by Mitch McConnell, Curator of the Senate, thats one of those bipartisan efforts the media loves to celebrate. Senators John Cornyn (RTX) and Chris Murphy (DCT) have introduced legislation Im sure theyll be featuring in future campaign commercials. According to CNN the bill aims to strengthen how state and federal governments report offenses that could prohibit people from buying a gun. Specifically, It would ensure that federal and state authorities comply with existing law and require them to report criminal history records to the NICS. Strangely enough, we already have a law, passed by Congress, that requires just that. Yet no one ever asks what makes the esteemed senators believe the federal bureaucracy will follow this new law when they are failing to obey the old law? Or why the legislative branch allows the bureaucracy to get away with ignoring the law without consequence in the first place? Nothing demonstrates the impotency of the GOP congressional leadership like introducing a new, stringent law when these political eunuchs cant seem to convince the bureaucracy to adhere to law already on the books. Federal statutes require criminal history be reported to the NICS in a timely fashion now. Its vitally important a potential gun purchasers records be current when the dealer runs a background check. Why dont these overpaid leaders who assure us they are fighting for you force the bloated, unresponsive, inert federal government to be accountable to current law? Why are they so comfortable with being ignored by the government they assure us they are leading? Is it because most of these barnacles have been in office so long they think of themselves as government employees? Or is it fear of angering the federal workforce? If thats it, Ive got news for Republicans: Swamp bureaucrats already vote Democrat in overwhelming numbers. Virginias 2017 state election is all the proof one requires. A smart political solution would be to take the side of the taxpayer and demand current law be obeyed. Cornyn and Murphys bill is a handwringing response to the Air Forces failure to prevent the Sutherland Springs church shooter from buying a weapon. The shooter had been convicted by the USAF of domestic abuse, child abuse and had been dishonorably discharged. If any one of those three records had been entered into NICS, he would have failed the background check and wouldve been prevented from buying a rifle. Because of Air Force negligence 26 people are dead and absolutely NOTHING happened in response. I suppose taxpayers shouldnt be surprised. Since no one lost their job after 9/11, how can we expect repercussions for the relative handful of dead in Texas? A Senate or House that was truly interested in establishing a climate of responsibility and accountability in the federal government would have come down on the USAF like the Wrath of God. Could the Senate have done something? Certainly, but it requires work. For starters, the committees dealing with the services could have begun an investigation and held hearings. And I dont mean a hearing where the Secretary of the Air Force and his entourage enters the room and delivers suitably contrite and takenospecificresponsibility sound bites. I mean a hearing where the entire chain of command at the base where the paperwork failure occurred is subpoenaed, sworn in and grilled in televised hearings. I want the incompetent clerk, the supervisor and all the rest of the base chain of command on the stand being interrogated. And when base personnel are rung out, we can move up to those in the Pentagon who are responsible for records. Only afterwards does the Secretary of the Air Force make his appearance. In addition, committee investigators must refuse to accept we cant answer personnel questions due to privacy dodge. That shuffle is beloved by bureaucrats because it allows them to escape scrutiny and accountability. If these people are in public service then what they do is public, too. Settling for the privacy excuse denies the public accountability in two ways. They never learn the identity of the miscreant or what the consequences, if any, were. Plus, privacy is also a coverup for the supervisor, because we never learn if he lifted so much as a finger to fire or punish the guilty. I want the full weight of public shame and notoriety to be hung around the all the aiders and abettors necks. As far as Im concerned if an employee values his privacy, he can work in the private sector. Passing more laws to require adherence to previous laws is ridiculous on its face. As is a Congress that believes its doing its job by passing laws and then assuming the role of a bystander. Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at mandate.mmpr (at) gmail.com. He is also the author of Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!). HomeIn March 2018, Ms Samantha Shallow officially took up her duties as the National Member for the United Kingdom at Eurojust.

Ms Shallow is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. After several years' experience in private practice, engaged in criminal defence, she joined the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in 2001 as a Senior Crown Prosecutor in Nottinghamshire. In that position, she specialised in cybercrime, sexual offending, youth crime, firearms-related robberies and murder cases.

In 2006, she became a Higher Court Advocate, and in 2008, she was transferred to the CPS East Midlands Complex Casework Unit. In that role, she was responsible for some of the most complex and high-profile prosecutions in the region, including cases of organised crime, drugs and firearms trafficking, economic crime, child sexual exploitation, international online abuse, as well as murder.

In 2014, she started working at the CPS International Justice and Organised Crime Division as a Specialist Prosecutor in charge of MLA casework, policy and guidance. She also managed the UK Liaison Magistrates and Prosecutors in Spain, France, Italy, the USA and the UAE.

In 2016, Ms Shallow was promoted to Unit Head of the Specialist Fraud Division in the West Midlands, managing both international fraud work and a team responsible for a wide range of complex fraud, money laundering and tax evasion cases.

After her appointment at Eurojust, Ms Shallow said: 'I am delighted to be at Eurojust as the National Member for the UK. It is a pleasure to be able to work in partnership with colleagues from the UK, Eurojust and the Member States' judicial authorities. I am looking forward to building on the excellent cooperation the UK already has with international partners in the common fight against the threats of serious crime and terrorism.'

Photo:  Eurojust

For interviews and further information, please contact:

EUROJUST

Corporate Communications Office

E-mail: media@eurojust.europa.eu

For all Eurojust press releases, please see www.eurojust.europa.eu (Press centre)abhi2111 said: How is the present market scenario for SAP SD jobs in Canada. Click to expand...

Any particular states or regions where the requirement is high. Click to expand...

Canada is the second largest country in the world so you cannot ask about the job market in Canada as it varies widely from one region to the next.Canada does not have states. Shouldn't you know the most basic information about a country you are seeking to emigrate to?Hi,

My parents had Biometrics appointment today for B2 Visa of USA. my father was not allowed inside for biometrics as the passport number in Appointment Confirmation was wrong (My Passort number was taken from the profile while booking appointment for his B2 visa). I used same account which I had created for my Visa application appointment booking, so Passport number defaulted as mine in application confirmation page but the visa fee is paid to Embassy with his application number and got proper barcode with his application number. Also DS-160 has his correct Passport number and application number.

The only problem was wrong passport number in the appointment confirmation which we did not notice till he went to interview. He tried requesting at office showing DS_160 confirmation page, his original passport, visa fee recipt and other documents but he was not allowed for biometrics but with same application they allowed my mother to get biometrics as we booked their appointment together.(my mothers name and passport number was not shown appointment confirmation page as appointment was booked with my father's name yet she is allowed as they checked only her DS-160 confirmation page and passport). Should wait and see what happens to her consular interview tomorrow.

now

1. what should I do with my father's visa application?

2. Is my father's visa application considered rejected?

3. Should I pay the visa fee again to book an appointment for my father again?

4. In the website my father's consular appointment is marked cancelled but no option to reschedule but there is option to schedule new appointment.

5. If i try to book new appointment for my father it is still taking my passport number in appointment details and its not possible to edit anywhere while booking appointment on website.

6. If I have to reapply for my father's B2 visa after how many days its best to apply ?

7. Should i fill DS_160 again to book appointment again ?

8. what should he fill for the question Have you ever been rejected with B2 visa in his next application or interview?



Please clarify above things if anyone has any experience in this as soon as possible. Many Thanks in advance.

SiyaThe short-season variety was first trialled commercially by Quaker Oats on behalf of the Grain Industry Association of Western Australia (GIWA) Oat Council in February 2017, when it passed industry standards for physical milling characteristics, but fell short of the required four per-cent beta-glucan content.

It was initially thought frost throughout the 2016 season played a role in the varieties trial shortcomings, however further testing from the 2017 and 2018 Durack crop have seen the variety again fail to consistently meet required beta-glucan content standards, making it only eligible for OAT2 classification in WA.

According to GIWA Oat Council chairman Ash Wiese, Duracks failure to meet nutritional standards was somewhat unexpected.

It has come as a bit of a surprise given that the beta-glucan data from the breeding trials in South Australia showed pretty strong beta-glucan levels and when it was trialled in WA those levels have dropped a bit, Mr Wiese said.

That was a concern to the market because we want to maintain our reputation of good beta-glucan levels.

Mr Wiese said Durack would remain included in trials throughout the next year but there were no plans to change its accreditation.

Despite its OAT2 classification, Mr Wiese said he still expected growers in low rainfall areas to grow the variety.

Its a very short season variety and its got the ability to produce quality grain even with a shorter finish, but it doesnt have the yield as some of the higher yielding varieties have in the high rainfall varieties, Mr Wiese said.

I know there is definitely people interested in the lower rainfall areas.

Meantime, new variety Kowari has received the tick of approval and been granted OAT1 milling classification by GIWA.

The Heritage Seed variety met all physical and nutritional specifications in its commercial milling trial carried out by Quaker Oats.

Based on its agronomic performance in research trials, Mr Wiese said Kowari was not expected to compete with high yielding varieties Bannister or Williams.

Its a very new variety available for purchase this year and its really a replacement for Mitika which has been a high quality milling variety in the past, Mr Wiese said.2020 was a year marked by hardships and challenges, but the Fauquier community has proven resilient. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you for your continued support, wed like to offer all our subscribers -- new or returning --

4 WEEKS FREE DIGITAL AND PRINT ACCESS.

We understand the importance of working to keep our community strong and connected. As we move forward together into 2021, it will take commitment, communication, creativity, and a strong connection with those who are most affected by the stories we cover.

We are dedicated to providing the reliable, local journalism you have come to expect. We are committed to serving you with renewed energy and growing resources. Let the Fauquier Times be your community companion throughout 2021, and for many years to come.Kinross Gold Corporation settled FCPA charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday for repeated failure to put in place anti-corruption compliance programs and adequate accounting controls at two African subsidiaries.

Kinross paid a civil penalty of $950,000 for violating the FCPAs books and records and internal accounting controls provisions.

The SEC settled the case with an internal administrative order (pdf) and didnt go to court.

Kinross didnt admit or deny the SECs findings.

The Toronto-based company said it received a declination from the DOJ.

In an SEC filing Monday, Kinross said:

On November 7, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) also notified Kinross that it closed its investigation, declining to pursue further the matter against the Company and noting the Companys full cooperation during the inquiry.

The SEC said Kinross acquired two African mining companies in 2010 from Red Back Mining, a Vancouver-based gold miner for $7.1 billion.

One of the companies operated in Mauritania and the other in Ghana.

The subsidiaries lacked anti-corruption compliance programs and internal accounting controls, the SEC said.

It took Kinross Gold almost three years to implement adequate controls, despite multiple internal audits flagging widespread deficiencies, according to the SEC order.

Even after adopting the controls, Kinross failed to maintain them, the SEC said.

For example, Kinross awarded a logistics contract to a company preferred by Mauritanian government officials.

It contracted with a consultant who had contacts with high-level Mauritanian government officials. Despite the links to government officials, Kinross didnt conduct required, heightened due diligence on the consultant.

And Kinross paid vendors and consultants without making sure the payments were consistent with its anti-bribery compliance policy, the SEC said.

In its securities filing Monday, Kinross said the FCPA investigations and SEC settlement were concluded without any material adverse effect on the companys financial position or business operations.

Kinross cooperated fully with the SEC throughout the investigation and has taken steps to improve and strengthen its compliance program and internal accounting controls and practices, the filing said.



Kinross learned about the Africa allegations through a whistleblower.

The SEC investigation started in March 2014 and the DOJ investigation started in December 2014.

Kinross first disclosed the investigations in October 2015.

In addition to Mauritania and Ghana, the company has mines and projects in the United States, Brazil, Russia, and Chile.

It trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol KGC and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol K.

____

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.I conspired to bribe a Dutch police officer to win a pepper spray contract. Yet the formula of spray I was selling was world class, with an exemplary health and safety record.

I wasnt selling a commodity item or a generic brand. My product stood out for all the right reasons. But thats not what I thought about during the sales process.

What I thought about instead was, What if one of my competitors pays a bribe to win the contract?

And from that thought came this one: If I dont pay a bribe, someone else will.

And thats part of how I rationalized paying bribes.

Im not making any excuses for what I did. There are none. Im describing the reality of my state of mind.

But its a reality I often see today at the core of FCPA and UKBA enforcement actions. And I know many salespeople, particularly those in the field, in high-risk environments, are struggling with this reality every day.

Again, the products I was selling for my then employer were typically best in class. In some product categories, our brand faced little competition with state-of-the-art technology. And yet somehow I never grasped the importance of that market position. Instead of having confidence that the products would produce successful outcomes during the bidding and sales process, I let my own fear of losing seep into my thoughts and decisions.

If I dont bribe, someone else will.

This month in the Harvard Business Review, Denise Lee Yohn wrote a great article about employee brand engagement.

The goal is to make sure employees know what the brand stands for and are committed to reinforcing it with their actions, she said. Its about helping employees feel an emotional connection with the brand and act as brand ambassadors.

According to Yohn, employee brand engagement is more than training a commercial workforce about products and marketing strategies. Its about informing, inspiring and involving employees so that they want to support and advance the brand.

Yohns ideas might seem obvious. But having spent twenty years attending and leading sales meetings, I know her concept of employee brand engagement is often missing. She cites research that confirms it. Only 28 percent of employees strongly agree that they know their companys brand values, she says.

And yet, if we want a workforce confident enough to reject bribery in all circumstances, isnt employee brand engagement the best way forward? Belief in the brand produces confidence. And confidence keeps us from acting out of fear  fear that if I dont pay a bribe, someone else will.

Heres how Yohn describes the outcome of employee brand engagement:

Employee brand engagement doesnt produce just happy, engaged employees; it develops happy, engaged employees who produce the right results. The company isnt recognized just as a great place to work; the work itself becomes great. And the company doesnt establish itself just as a great employer; it lays the foundation for great customer relationships.

Some pharmas and medical device companies bring in patients whose lives have been transformed, or even saved, by their products. The patients talk about their experiences to the sales force. Its hard not to be moved to tears during those sessions. Those are times that create a deep and lasting employee brand engagement.

But you dont have to have a lifesaving product. Every company should have its own unique qualities and reasons for existing. Find that uniqueness and use it to build employee brand engagement. There can be no better protection against illegal or unethical behavior than faith in the brand instead of the bribe.

_______

Richard Bistrong, pictured above, is a contributing editor of the FCPA Blog and CEO of Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC. In 2010 he pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate the FCPA and served fourteen and a half months at a U.S. federal prison camp. He was named to Compliance Weeks list of Top Minds in 2017 and was one of Ethispheres 100 Most Influential in Business Ethics in 2015.

His popular real-life compliance training video, Behind the Bribe, produced in cooperation with Mastercard, was released in 2017.

To request a demo of the full eleven-minute video or a licensing fee schedule, please click here.Anna Faris was angered by the reaction on social media to her split from Chris Pratt.

Anna Faris

The 41-year-old actress and Chris, 38, announced their shock split last year, and Anna has admitted that the over-the-top reaction from some of her fans quickly got on her nerves, saying they need to "grow up".

She explained: "I had a little bit of a childish feeling like, 'Oh, come on, f***ing grow up,' like, a little anger."

The Hollywood star - who has a five-year-old son called Jack with her estranged husband - admitted that she was partially to blame for the online reaction, having "cultivated" the perception that they were the perfect family.

Speaking on the Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepard, she shared: "I do think, we obviously cultivated something [the idea of a perfect relationship], and it was rewarding for a while, like, 'Oh, people seem to think that we got all this s**t sorted, that's nice!'"

In fact, Anna revealed that she and Chris have even discussed the online reaction to their split.

The actress - who has starred in films such as 'Scary Movie' and 'Lost in Translation' - confessed: "Chris and I did talk about, like, 'Oh boy ... [we're letting fans down]', and we got on the Twitter feed, 'Love is dead' and 'relationship goals...'"

Anna and Chris are currently in the midst of finalising their divorce.

But the blonde beauty is thrilled she's been able to maintain a healthy friendship with the hunky actor, which wasn't the case following her first marriage to Ben Indra.

She said: "We had an unbelievable marriage, and we have a great friendship now, we love our son to death, and I'm really proud of that, because I'm not sure I did that well the first time."Stephen Fry worries about becoming "professionally mentally unstable".

Stephen Fry

The 60-year-old presenter suffers from bipolar disorder and though he is "always prepared" to talk about his struggles, he is concerned that could make his problems worse.

Speaking to Fearne Cotton on her 'Happy Place' podcast, he said: "There was, and still is, and I still feel it occasionally, a danger of becoming sort of professionally mentally unstable, that that's what I am, that's who I am.

"I've always viewed it's not who I am. It's a condition I live with.

"I'm always prepared to talk about it, but there's also a danger, because I do live with this condition.

"I'm not going to kid myself that it's cured, because it isn't, that if I keep picking at the scab, it's not going to be good for me. It's not going to be good for my mental health."

The former 'Q.I.' presenter is thankful his management team and assistant take steps to preserve his mental health and advise him not to push himself too hard.

He said: "I, and certainly the people I work with, my beloved assistant and all the people at my agency, they're very aware of it, and they sense that if I've been asked to do something, and it's a time when I'm just in a cycle, which is not particularly energetic or particularly hopeful, particularly happy, they will...

"I'll say, 'Yes, I'll do it', because I think it's my duty. They'll say, 'No, don't. Don't, or if you do, do it in a month's time'."

The 'Wilde' actor also spoke of how much he missed his "dear friend" Carrie Fisher, who died aged 60 in December 2016, and how she used electroconvulsive therapy to combat her own bipolar disorder.

He said: "I saw her in some states where it really was touch and go, but she would go for electric shock therapy. Of course, she never lost her sense of humour.

"I remember her saying, she said, 'The thing about it is it works for me. It works. It has a few drawbacks. Memory, short-term memory. You lose your short-term memory. The other thing is you lose your short-term memory, losing your short-term memory.' I said, 'Carrie, you're so bad'. She was able to laugh at herself. That's an amazing thing.

"She was a hero, but she also showed that it can bring you down. Her life was shortened by it, there's no question about that."Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-CategoryBroadGroup,the information media technology company, today announced the winners of the second Datacloud Asia awards 2018 in honor of the year's outstanding individuals and businesses currently shaping the Asian data economy. The awards, one of the most revered accolades in the technology sector, recognise innovation and excellence in the flourishing Asia digital infrastructure market.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180325005036/en/

Dancers Entertain Guests at Datacloud Asia 2018 Awards Ceremony (Photo: Business Wire)

Set against the backdrop of the magnificent Capella Hotel in Singapore and hosted by BBC anchor Rico Hizon, the awards were presented on the closing day of Datacloud Asia, the premier congress for investing, powering, connecting, building and deploying datacentre, cloud and Edge technologies.

Philip Low, chairman BroadGroup commented: "Datacloud Asia goes from strength to strength and the award winners mirror the optimism, dynamism and entrepreneurism that is permeating throughout the region. The Asia data economy is thriving and, in many ways, leading the world in its ability to innovate and disrupt. All of this year's recipients have achieved something truly special and should be proud of the transformative impact that they have made on people, business and society across this diverse and dynamic part of the world. We congratulate all the winners on their incredible achievements."

The winners of the Datacloud Asia awards 2018:

Excellence in Cloud Service Award Equinix

Excellence in Cloud Service Award South East Asia Global Cloud Xchange

Excellence in Data Centre Service Award: India GPX India Pvt ltd

Best Data Centre Energy Solution Munters

Marketer of the Year Omer Wilson Digital Realty

Excellence in Data Centre Service Award: South East Asia SUPERNAP Thailand

Excellence in Data Centre Service Award Equinix

Data Centre Location Award Chonburi Province, Thailand

Individual Industry Contribution Ambassador Award Krupal Raval Digital Realty

Data Centre Leader of the Year Digital Realty

Cloud Leader of the Year Equinix

Best programme for Data Centre training and professional development Cnet Training

The Excellence in Data Centre IT Architecture and Design NEXTDC

Data Centre Thought Leadership Award Bill Barney Global Cloud Xchange

About BroadGroup

BroadGroup is an Information Media Technology company. Established in 2002, the company delivers premium event brands including Datacloud and Edge and Awards, which are an internationally recognised beacon of high quality content, deal making, networking and industry recognition for data centre, cloud and Edge leaders, their enterprise customers, investors and senior executives. It also owns the widely acclaimed Data Economy online and offline global news resource and investor forums provider for the tech sector. BroadGroup is now a member company of FTSE 250 firm Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC whose leading brands include Capacity, Metro Connect, Subsea Connect and ITW. www.broad-group.com www.data-economy.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180325005036/en/

Contacts:

BroadGroup

Julia Vockrodt, +44 (0)7710 942943BEIJING, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Beijing and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Shanghai announced the launch of three new Czech Republic Visa Application Centres located in Changsha, Jinan, and Fuzhou, in the People's Republic of China (P.R. China). Services at the new centres, managed by VFS Global through its local Chinese partners, have been operational from 19 March 2018.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/624234/VFS_Global_Logo.jpg )

With the addition of the three new centres, applicants can now visit any of the 14 modern and professionally managed visa application centres located across P. R. China to enrol their biometrics and submit their visa applications. Some of the key features of the centres include automated queue governance for smooth flow of applicants, Premium Lounge services, and a dedicated website for easy access to all visa-related information.

In a move to deliver an enhanced customer experience, 'doorstep' visa services will also soon be introduced in the 14 cities in which Czech Republic visa services are provided, enabling travellers to submit their biometrics and visa applications from a location of their choice.

H.E. Ambassador of the Czech Republic, Mr. Bedrich KopeckA, welcomed the opening of yet another three visa centres. He commented, "This will further promote people-to-people contacts between our two countries." He also said, "Last year the number of tourists from China reached almost 500,000 and with four direct flights in operation, this number is likely to increase even further."

Also commenting, Mr. Harish Bhojwani, Regional Head - China, VFS Global, said, "We are honoured to extend our network of Czech Republic Visa Application Centres in P. R. China on behalf of the Government of the Czech Republic to provide applicants with greater accessibility to proficiently managed visa processing services."

VFS Global has been serving the Government of the Czech Republic since 2008, and currently provides visa application processing services on behalf of the client government in 20 countries globally through 93 visa application centres. In P. R. China, VFS Global in partnership with its local Chinese partners has been present since 2005 and currently provides visa application processing services for on behalf of 27 client governments in the country.

All centres are operational from Monday to Friday from 08:00 hrs to 15:00 hrs. Information on the centre addresses, dedicated helpline numbers and email support can be obtained athttp://www.vfsglobal.cn/czechrepublic/china/

About VFS Global

VFS Globalis the world's largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. With2574 Application Centres, operations in137 countriesacrossfive continents and over 165 million applications processedas on 28 February 2018, 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.TechnipFMC (Paris:FTI) (NYSE:FTI) has been awarded an iEPCI (integrated Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation) contract by Energean Oil Gas for the Karish full field development, located offshore Israel at a water depth of 1,750 meters. This award extends our iEPCI offering from seabed to offshore producing facility.

The execution of this iEPCI contract covers the design, procurement, construction and installation of the complete subsea system, a Floating Production Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO) designed to allow the subsequent tie-back of the Tanin field, the pipeline system, and the onshore pipeline and valve station at the receiving station.

Hallvard Hasselknippe, President of TechnipFMC's Subsea business, stated: "This award demonstrates our leadership position in iEPCI. It also highlights our unique ability to combine a fully integrated field development encompassing both the entire subsea and FPSO scope. Our strong value proposition builds on early involvement and integrated solutions. By simplifying subsea field architecture, we help our clients significantly improve their project economics. We are honored that Energean Oil Gas has embraced this new way of doing business, engaging with us early through an integrated FEED (iFEED) study and directly awarding the full project scope through an integrated EPCI (iEPCI) model."

Important Information for Investors and Securityholders

Forward-Looking Statement

This release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The words "scheduled," "estimated" and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which are generally not historical in nature. Such forward-looking statements involve significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. Known material factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements include the Company's ability to successfully deliver, and Energean Oil Gas' acceptance of, the various iEPCIproducts ordered. For additional information regarding known material factors that could cause actual results to differ from projected results, please see our risk factors set forth in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, which include our Registration Statement on Form S-4, Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K.

We caution you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any of our forward-looking statements after the date they are made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law.

About TechnipFMC

TechnipFMC is a global leader in subsea, onshore/offshore, and surface projects. With our proprietary technologies and production systems, integrated expertise, and comprehensive solutions, we are transforming our clients' project economics.

We are uniquely positioned to deliver greater efficiency across project lifecycles from concept to project delivery and beyond. Through innovative technologies and improved efficiencies, our offering unlocks new possibilities for our clients in developing their oil and gas resources.

Each of our more than 37,000 employees is driven by a steady commitment to clients and a culture of purposeful innovation, challenging industry conventions, and rethinking how the best results are achieved.

To learn more about us and how we are enhancing the performance of the world's energy industry, go to TechnipFMC.com and follow us on Twitter @TechnipFMC.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180325005048/en/

Contacts:

TechnipFMC

Investor relations

Matt Seinsheimer, +1 281 260 3665

Vice President Investor Relations

Email: Matt Seinsheimer

or

Phillip Lindsay, +44 203 429 3929

Director Investor Relations Europe

Email: Phillip Lindsay

or

Media relations

Christophe Belorgeot, +33 1 47 78 39 92

Vice President Corporate Communications

Email: Christophe Belorgeot

or

Delphine Nayral, +33 1 47 78 34 83

Senior Manager Public Relations

Email: Delphine NayralTechnipFMC (NYSE:FTI) (PARIS:FTI) has been awarded an Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation contract by Sabah Shell Petroleum Company Ltd.

This award covers the delivery and installation of subsea equipment including umbilicals, flowlines and the subsea production system for the Gumusut-Kakap Phase 2 Project.

Hallvard Hasselknippe, President of TechnipFMC's Subsea business, commented: "We are extremely honored to have been awarded this project by Sabah Shell Petroleum. This award demonstrates the added value of our unique integrated offering (iEPCI) and brings TechnipFMC's integrated model to the Asia Pacific region."

Important Information for Investors and Securityholders

Forward-Looking Statement

This release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The words "scheduled," "estimated" and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which are generally not historical in nature. Such forward-looking statements involve significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. Known material factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements include the Company's ability to successfully deliver, and Sabah Shell Petroleum Company Ltd's acceptance of, the various subsea products ordered. For additional information regarding known material factors that could cause actual results to differ from projected results, please see our risk factors set forth in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, which include our Registration Statement on Form S-4, Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K.

We caution you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any of our forward-looking statements after the date they are made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law.

About TechnipFMC

TechnipFMC is a global leader in subsea, onshore/offshore, and surface projects. With our proprietary technologies and production systems, integrated expertise, and comprehensive solutions, we are transforming our clients' project economics.

We are uniquely positioned to deliver greater efficiency across project lifecycles from concept to project delivery and beyond. Through innovative technologies and improved efficiencies, our offering unlocks new possibilities for our clients in developing their oil and gas resources.

Each of our more than 37,000 employees is driven by a steady commitment to clients and a culture of purposeful innovation, challenging industry conventions, and rethinking how the best results are achieved.

To learn more about us and how we are enhancing the performance of the world's energy industry, go to TechnipFMC.com and follow us on Twitter @TechnipFMC.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180325005040/en/

Contacts:

TechnipFMC

Investor relations

Matt Seinsheimer, +1 281-260-3665

Vice President Investor Relations

Email: Matt Seinsheimer

or

Phillip Lindsay, +44 203 429 3929

Director Investor Relations Europe

Email: Phillip Lindsay

or

Media relations

Christophe Belorgeot, +33 1 47 78 39 92

Vice President Corporate Communications

Email: Christophe Belorgeot

or

Delphine Nayral, +33 1 47 78 34 83

Senior Manager Public Relations

Email: Delphine NayralHitachi Ltd Corporate Communications Tel: +81-3-3258-1111

TOKYO, Mar 26, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (TSE: 4508) and Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501) today announced that they have initiated collaborative creation for improving the efficiency of clinical trials for the development of new drugs. The companies undertake a wide range of operations to make clinical trials more efficient overall, using Hitachi's advanced digital technology such as AI(1), aiming to shorten the period for development of new drugs and reduce development cost, while improving the probability of successful development.The business environment surrounding pharmaceutical companies in Japan is expected to become increasingly severe given the lowering of drug prices and the substantial increase of the market share of generics. For the business to achieve continued growth, a review of the process for the fast development of new drugs that satisfy unmet medical needs(2) is required. In particular, clinical trials in which new drugs are administered to humans for evaluating efficacy and safety as well as possible side-effects are an important process for the successful development of new drugs. However, since the elaborate design of a trial plan is needed, a huge amount of time and the know-how as well as the experience of skilled experts are necessary.To meet these challenges, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma and Hitachi focused on the fact that a lot of time is spent searching and collecting information from technical knowledge in medicine such as medical papers and ClinicalTrials.gov(3) in the planning stage of clinical trials, and the two companies began considering automated information search and collection jointly at the beginning of 2017. By utilizing AI technology such as natural language processing and deep learning(4), which the Research & Development Group of Hitachi has developed for medical use, the companies have confirmed that the time spent collecting information is shortened by about 70% when compared with conventional operations, which depend on the know-how of skilled experts, while the accuracy of the data collected and organized is also verified, so that the companies have obtained a perspective on the feasibility of full-scale use.Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma and Hitachi have initiated collaborative creation for making a wide range of operations related to the entire clinical trial process more efficient. Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, with a corporate philosophy of that "We contribute to the healthier lives of people around the world through the creation of pharmaceuticals," has long been involved in the research and development of pharmaceuticals, having an advantage in its extensive medical knowledge and wide ranging capabilities for drug discovery. Meanwhile, Hitachi utilizes the knowledge and experience that it has accumulated as a manufacturer over many years, and the digital solution created by its IoT platform "Lumada," undertaking the social innovation business to provide solutions to the issues of its clients. The two companies use their technology and know-how, collaboratively working on improving the efficiency of clinical trials by using an array of advanced digital technologies, including AI. In addition, the companies plan to expand the scope of their collaborative creation in the future to undertake a wide range of demonstration experiments.As a first step, Hitachi will roll out a solution of automated technology for collection of information from medical literature to the pharmaceutical industry in Japan and overseas starting in 2018. This automated solution will be developed through collaborative creation with utilization of Hitachi's IoT platform, "Lumada."(1) AI: Artificial Intelligence(2) Unmet medical needs: medical needs for disease, for which no effective treatment is available.(3) ClinicalTrials.gov: Database that provides information on ongoing clinical trials and clinical research through the US National Library of Medicine(NLM), which is jointly run by the National Institute of Health(NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) in the United States.(4) Deep learning: Machine learning method using a multi-layer deep neural network.About Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma CorporationMitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation is a research-driven pharmaceutical company based in Osaka Japan. Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma is taking on the challenge of drug discovery in the fields of autoimmune disorders, central nervous system diseases, diabetes and kidney diseases, and vaccines. To those ends, the Company is strengthening its R&D pipeline. Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma contributes to the healthier lives of people around the world through the creation of pharmaceuticals. https://www.mt-pharma.co.jp/e.About Hitachi, Ltd.Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society's challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2014 (ended March 31, 2015) totaled 9,761 billion yen ($81.3 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at www.hitachi.com.Source: Hitachi, Ltd.Contact:Copyright 2018 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.Elektrenai, Lithuania, 2018-03-26 11:26 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB, company code 302648707, registered office at Elektrines st. 21, Elektrenai (hereinafter referred to as the Company). The total number of registered ordinary shares issued by company is 635 083 615, ISIN code - LT0000128571. On 26 March 2018 the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company approved the Annual Report of the Company for the year 2017 and the Annual Financial Statements of the Company for the year 2017, audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, UAB, the Company's auditor. Information on the operational results of the Company for the year 2017: RESULTS OF LIETUVOS ENERGIJOS GAMYBA OF 2017: MORE ELECTRICITY FROM WATER AND SUSTAINABLE PROFITABILITY INDICATORS Audited financial indicators of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba of 2017 reflect successful efforts of the electricity producer, which is a part of Lietuvos Energija Group, to adapt to the changing market and to efficiently manage operating expenses. The Company managed achieving sustainable profitability indicators: the adjusted EBITDA of 2017 reached EUR 53.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 35.9 percent (36.8 percent in 2016) "The results of 2017 were significantly affected by the volume of electric power generated and sold in Kaunas Algirdas Brazauskas' Hydroelectric Power Plant, which increased by more than a quarter - last year was record both in terms of the amount of water and the generated electricity. Effectively exploiting market opportunities and being more actively engaged in intraday trading on the market, we also produced somewhat more electricity in the Kruonis Pumped Storage Power Plant compared to 2016. Changed market conditions resulted in lower electricity production in Elektrenai Complex only. In 2017, we have ensured high availability and reliable operation of all power plants, responding to the needs of the market and the transmission system operator. Reliable contribution to stable operation of the energy system and its security is one of our most important goals", Egle Ciuzaite, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba commented the performance and the results of the power plants of the Company. A total of 1.147 TWh of electricity was generated in the power plants owned by the Company in 2017, which is 16 percent less than in 2016 (1.371 TWh). Elektrenai Complex generated 0.139 TWh of electricity, or 71.8 percent less than in 2016 (0.491 TWh in 2016), Kruonis PSP - 0.549 TWh or 6 percent more than in 2016 (0.517 TWh in 2016), Kaunas A. Brazauskas' HPP - 0.459 TWh or 26 percent more electricity than in 2016 (0.363 TWh in 2016). Key indicators of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba of 2017: -- Despite the decreased electricity generation in Elektrenai complex, the Company's sales revenue remained fairly stable - in 2017, it totalled EUR 147.2 million and was only 3 percent lower than in 2016 (EUR 151.8 million). The Company's revenue totalled EUR 149.8 million in 2017 and was 13 percent lower than in 2016 (EUR 172.9 million). The main factor having determined the decline was the positive result of the sales of a part of business accounted for in 2016. -- Operating expenses of the Company decreased by 14 percent and were EUR 20.0 million in 2017 (compared to EUR 23.1 million in 2016). Excluding impairment of an amount receivable reflected in expenses for 2016 in relation to the shares of Kauno Energetikos Remontas UAB and NT Valdos UAB, operating expenses would be slightly higher than in 2016 due to higher expenses of dismantling project. -- The adjusted (comparative) EBITDA* of the Company totalled EUR 53.7 million in 2017 and were 16 percent lower than in 2016 (EUR 63.7 million). This indicator mainly changed due to increased costs of works of dismantling of Units 5 and 6 of Elektrenai Complex started in 2017 and decreased sales of activated secondary power reserve of Kruonis PSP in 2017 compared to 2016, also due to lower EBITDA of regulated activity of Elektrenai Complex. -- Net profit of the Company was EUR 20.5 million in 2017, i.e. 44 percent lower than in 2016 (EUR 40.0 million). The Company's profit decreased as a result of the impact of one-time factors in 2017: the positive result of the sales of a part of business (EUR 15.4 million) was accounted for in 2016, and the decline in the value of assets of Units 7 and 8 of Elektrenai complex was accounted for in 2017 (negative effect of EUR 31.4 million on profit before tax). -- The Company's investment in non-current tangible and intangible assets totalled EUR 1.9 million in 2017 and EUR 3.3 million in 2016. *The Company's EBITDA results are reported after the adjustments made by management by eliminating the impact of one-off factors. These adjustments are made aiming to disclose the results of the Company's operating activities after the elimination of the impact of non-typical, one-off factors or factors that are not directly related to the current reporting period. All adjustments made by management are disclosed in the Company's interim and annual reports. Valentas Neviera, Head of Communication Division, tel. +370 670 25997, e-mail. valentas.neviera@le.lt Attachment: https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=670500WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures were flat Monday morning as U.S. stocks were poised to rebound on easing U.S.-China tensions. Gold was down $1 at $1354 an ounce, having touched the highest since early February on safe haven appeal. On the economic front, Chicago Fed National Activity Index for February will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The market analysts are looking for consensus of 0.05, compared to 0.12 last month. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' Manufacturing Survey for March will be published at 10.30 am ET. The consensus for General Activity Index is 30.9, down from 37.2 in February. In the prior month, the production index was 27.9. New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley will speak about regulatory reform at the 'Conversation with New York Fed President William Dudley' event held by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, with audience Q&A. Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester will speak about monetary policy at the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance at Princeton University event in Princeton, NJ, with audience Q&A at 4.30 pm ET. 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.STOCKHOLM, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Electrolux today announced the U.S. launch of its award-winning Pure i9 robotic vacuum cleaner, with a revolutionary design and game-changing technology that takes the quality of autonomous cleaning to a new level.

The Pure i9 will be brought directly to U.S. consumers through cutting-edge online sales and marketing channels. Working out of a newly established innovation hub in San Francisco, Electrolux is leveraging the digital expertise and consumer-focused approach of Anova - a leading smart kitchen brand acquired in 2017 by the Electrolux Group.

"We are extremely proud of this product, which we believe will make robotic vacuum cleaners a relevant category for all consumers. This is no longer a gadget for early adopters but a high-performing vacuum cleaner that effortlessly cleans your home while you are away," said Ola Nilsson, Head of Electrolux Home Care & SDA. "With the Pure i9, we're taking the first step in creating a truly responsive ecosystem of products for wellbeing in the home."

With over 100 years of experience in building vacuum cleaners, Electrolux truly understands consumers and the category. As the pioneer in robotic vacuums, Electrolux launched the world's first robotic vacuum cleaner in 2001 with the revolutionary Trilobite. The company is re-entering the category in the United States with the launch of Pure i9, which is available for purchase at purei9.com. The product was launched in Europe in September, recently won the prestigious iF Design award. It has earned best-in-class ratings from leading tech publications around the world.

"We are excited to be involved in launching this product in the United States," said Stephen Svajian, CEO and co-founder of Anova. "The way we meet and engage with consumers in social media has helped make the Anova Precision Cooker the world's best-selling sous vide device. We believe the Pure i9 has great potential with a similar approach."

For further information, please contact Electrolux Press Hotline, +46-8-657-65-07.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/electrolux/r/electrolux-launches-pure-i9-robotic-vacuum-in-the-united-states,c2480318

The following files are available for download:PUNE, India, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report"EHS Market by Solution, Service (Project Deployment & Implementation Service, Consulting & Advisory Service, Audit, Assessment, & Regulatory Compliance Service), Vertical (Energy & Utilities, Healthcare), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022", published by MarketsandMarkets', the global market size is expected to grow from USD 4.36 Billion in 2017 to USD 7.38 Billion by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11.1% during the forecast period. The major factors driving the growth of the EHS Market include stringent government regulations and guidelines, and rising awareness about EHS among employees and organizations.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 81 market data Tables and29 Figures spread through 125 Pages and in-depth TOC on"EHS Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/environment-health-safety-ehs-market-59608773.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

The project deployment & implementation service segment is expected to hold the largest market size in 2017.

Project deployment & implementation services are provided during the deployment and implementation of EHS solutions. The successful implementation of EHS solutions requires a thorough review of the organizational structure and processes, accurate migration of legacy data, and a well-organized deployment plan. During the project deployment, these services help in reviewing the organizational structure and configuring site-specific profiles with proper roles and permissions based on unique EHS processes.

The construction & engineering vertical is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

For every organization, worker safety is critical; however, there is high requirement for safety in the construction and engineering vertical. Companies need to provide workers with proper training, conduct regular safety inspections, and identify and eliminate site hazards. The construction and engineering vertical includes 5 major solutions, namely, incident management, audit and inspection, waste management, on-demand training, and compliance management.

Ask for PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=59608773

The North America region is estimated to hold the largest market size in 2017.

The major reason behind the strong growth of the EHS Market in North America can be attributed to the stringent rules and regulations followed by the US and Canada governments. The EHS department of the US is responsible for the development and implementation of safety programs intended at protecting the safety and well-being of federal, state, and local occupational safety and health and environmental regulations. The EHS department manages chemical safety, occupational safety, biosafety, industrial hygiene, hazardous waste, asbestos, radon, and indoor air quality programs.

Major vendors in the Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) Market include SAP (Germany), Enablon (US), EtQ (US), Intelex (Canada), Gensuite (US), Enviance (US), Cority (Canada), Verisk 3E (US), VelocityEHS (US), Optial (UK), Sphera Solutions (US), and SiteHawk (US).

Know more about Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/environment-health-safety-ehs-market-59608773.html



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Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets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.Pacific Beach Real Estate Brokerage Empey Realty Defies Lackluster Market to Reach Successful Record-Setting Sale

San Diego, California--(Newsfile Corp. - March 26, 2018) - Empey Realty proudly announces the record-setting closing of a luxury condo on Ocean Front Walk in South Mission Beach, San Diego. Located at 2985 Ocean Front Walk Unit B, this 3-bedroom; 3-bath; 1,586 square foot Penthouse Condo sold for $2,625,000; financing was all cash. Per Multiple Listing Service ("MLS") records, this is the highest sale price of a condo of this size on Ocean Front Walk since 2008. Empey Realty represented the seller in the sale.



Market conditions were challenging because this remarkable property is so different than anything else that has sold on Ocean Front Walk in Mission Beach for several years. It was taken down to the studs in 2015, with all major systems replaced, including plumbing, electrical, and roof. It boasts impeccable contemporary design, with incredible functionality like a large 2-car side by side garage (complete with electric vehicle charging), and every other imaginable upgrade.



Only two other condos of this size have sold on Ocean Front Walk in the last year, eight total in the past two years, and the average sale price was $1,874,236. Despite record gains in housing values across San Diego County in recent years, the average price per square foot for condos sold on Ocean Front Walk has actually gone down by 5% in the past 2 years, which is again due to the lack of inventory. In short, the market data did not provide an applicable sample to help buyers understand the true value of this oceanfront luxury condo.



"At one point we were the highest priced condo for sale on Ocean Front Walk in Mission Beach by almost a million dollars," said Lauren Empey, broker and owner of Empey Realty, and the Pacific Beach Realtor who represented the seller in the sale. "But I was up for the challenge."



Empey's marketing strategy included print, digital, and local campaigns. The listing reached 99+ international audiences and had over 72,000 views and engagements across YouTube, Facebook, other social media sites (Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+), the property's "for sale" website (http://pacificdreampenthouse.com), and syndication across the web. Multiple broker's open houses brought top real estate agents from La Jolla, Pacific Beach, and Mission Beach to preview the oceanfront Mission Beach home for their clients.



In the end, the buyer was found in Chicago, an appraiser himself by trade. He was able to understand the market dynamics and how this remarkable oceanfront luxury home stood apart from any other oceanfront condos for sale in Mission Beach in several years.



"You have to get creative to sell a one-of-a-kind luxury property, and there's definitely an element of matchmaking to find the right buyer. I hit the marketing hard, and in the end, I think we found the right connection," said Empey.



The condo had built a name for itself as a luxury vacation rental, one of two units known as the Pacific Dream House (http://pacificdreamhouse.com). The buyer was looking for Mission Beach income property and appreciated how turn-key this investment was. He will continue to offer the South Mission Beach condo as a high-end vacation rental.



"We were in serious negotiations with another buyer at a higher sale price, but there were timing issues, and then our successful buyer came along and he was qualified and motivated, so we got it done. His timing helped score him a great deal," said Empey.



It was a successful outcome for all parties, and a boon for anyone who owns property on Ocean Front Walk in Mission Beach, San Diego. Your property values just got the boost they needed after a few years of lackluster sales.



About Empey Realty:



Founded by real estate attorney and broker, Lauren Empey, Empey Realty specializes in real estate sales and investments in the San Diego coastal areas, from La Jolla to Point Loma. Clients enjoy exceptional representation in complex real estate transactions including 1031 exchanges, multi-unit investment property purchases and sales, flip/rehab properties, Prop 60/90 tax basis transfers, probate sales, and more. Lauren's background practicing real estate law gives Empey Realty clients a huge advantage in their contract negotiations, personalized success strategies, and all the other details needed to keep escrow on track from contract negotiations to closing day. At Empey Realty, the client's best interests are always the bottom line. For more information, visit: http://sandiegobeachareahomes.com



Media Contact:

Denise Sparks

(858) 230-8644

office@sandiegobeachareahomes.comNew successes for the strategy centered on Microsoft Dynamics 365 technology and digital transformation

Regulatory News:

Prodware Group (Paris:ALPRO) is pleased to announce the signing of three high-profile contracts in Spain, validating its strategy focusing on the new Microsoft Dynamics 365 online platform and the digital transformation of businesses.

The Group was selected by three companies in Spain in the agri-food, industrial, and leisure sectors.

In agri-food, Prodware was chosen by Liasa (Lacteos Industriales Agrupados), Spain's largest dairy producer and subsidiary of North American giant Rich Products Corporate. As part of its expansion strategy, Liasa, which generated 80 million in revenue in 2016, asked Prodware to initiate the technological transformation plan encompassing operation of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform, including use of Prodware's EDI solution.

In industry, Bandalux, European's leader in designing, manufacturing and distributing an extensive range of blinds for both private and business customers, selected Prodware to carry out its digital transformation and roll out the Dynamics 365 platform in the cloud. The company, which generated revenue of 70 million in 2016, aims to optimize all of its business processes (customer service, business management, finance, purchasing, planning, production, projects, logistics, quality, transportation and sales) as well as accelerate its time-to-market. The digital transformation project will be extended gradually to include the French and Belgian subsidiaries before reaching other international entities.

As for the leisure sector, Parques Reunidos, Europe's second-largest leisure park operator with revenue of 612 million in 2017, is expanding its collaboration with Prodware.

The Spanish group has asked Prodware to scale the management of its customer and customer experience databases through migration to the Dynamics 365 platform and the Microsoft Azure platform for Big Data.

"In the last 6 months, we experience a fantastic momentum in the market, the velocity needed from companies in adopt the digital transformation, has produce an acceleration of our intelligent applications business, on top of it, key components of Prodware intellectual property are fastening the deployments and customers adaption to cloud solutions" said Jose Maria Sanchez, Country Manager of Prodware Spain.

Next publication: Revenues for 1st quarter 2018: 15 May 2018 after close of trading.

About Prodware

Prodware (www.prodware.fr) is an international group specializing in the integration, publishing and hosting of IT solutions for sectors and businesses.

The Group brings customers its technical expertise and knowledge of new uses and business lines to support them in their digital transformation processes.

Drawing on the strength of its partnerships with Microsoft and Sage in particular, Prodware is one of the only players capable of supporting businesses across their entire information system, both in France and abroad.

The Prodware group has more around 1300 employees across 15 countries and 4 continents. It generated revenues of 167.7 million in 2017.

Listed on Euronext Growth, Prodware SA is eligible for FCPIs (mutual funds for investment in innovation) and the PEA-PME (SME equity savings plan).

EURONEXT GROWTH (formerly ALTERNEXT)

ISIN FR0010313486 ALPRO FTSE 972 IT services

Prodware is eligible for inclusion in FCPIs Prodware is a responsible

company and is a signatory to the UN Global Compact

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005612/en/

Contacts:

PRODWARE

Stephane Conrard, T: +33 (0)9 79 99 90 00

Chief Financial Officer

investisseurs@prodware.fr

or

PRESS

Gilles Broquelet, T: +33 (0)1 80 81 50 01

CAP VALUE

gbroquelet@capvalue.frBRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Swiss stock market traded in the green during the first half of Monday's session, thanks to reports of easing tensions between the U.S. and China on trade. However, the market turned lower in the afternoon along with the rest of Europe following an increase in the value of the Euro. Traders also turned cautious after the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, and various other European countries in expelled Russian diplomats in response to a nerve agent attack on a former spy. Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were hospitalized after being exposed to a nerve agent in the U.K. earlier this month. The Swiss Market Index decreased by 0.70 percent Monday and finished at 8,509.29. The Swiss Leader Index dropped 0.65 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.63 percent. Credit Suisse declined 1.9 percent, Lonza weakened by 1.7 percent, Dufry surrendered 1.4 percent and Logitech lost 1.4 percent. Sika also finished lower by 1.3 percent. The next chapter in the fight against a takeover by Saint-Gobain is reportedly approaching its conclusion. Givaudan dropped 2.2 percent after it began trading on an ex-dividend basis. Zurich Insurance climbed 3.7 percent. Swatch advanced 0.6 percent, Vifor Pharma gained 0.5 percent, Kuehne + Nagel rose 0.4 percent and Baloise added 0.1 percent. The index heavyweights all finished in the red. Novartis decreased 1.2 percent and Roche fell 0.7 percent. Roche's lung-cancer treatment saw positive results. Nestle also finished lower by 1.0 percent. Royal Bank of Canada trimmed its price target on the stock. 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.VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 26, 2018 / Gungnir Resources Inc. (TSX-V: GUG, OTC PINK: ASWRF) ("Gungnir" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the Company has received all required permits for its planned 2018 drill program on its Knaften project. Drilling is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2018.

The Company's focus will be primarily targeting gold mineralization at its Knaften project with up to 4,000 metres of diamond drilling planned to expand the Knaften 300 Gold Zone (or "Knaften 300") and to test multiple new targets for potential high-grade gold and additionally copper-nickel mineralization. The Company's planned work program at Knaften is expected to consist of approximately 20 diamond drill holes testing six target areas over a strike length of more than 8 km:

1. Test the Knaften 300 Gold Zone up-dip, along strike and at depth;

2. Test for grade and continuity of gold mineralization related to strong near-surface alteration and anomalous gold mineralization encountered in a historic drill hole. The target is located approximately 2.5 km southwest of the Knaften 300 Gold Zone;

3. Drill a magnetic anomaly near cluster of gold-bearing boulders (with associated magnetic iron-sulphides) discovered by Gungnir which includes boulders grading up to 8.52 g/t gold. The target is located 3.5 km northwest of Knaften 300;

4. Test below outcropping anomalous gold mineralization 5 km northwest of Knaften 300;

5. With wide-spaced holes, test the northwest trending regional magnetics break extending from the Knaften 300 Gold Zone; and

6. Drill new untested electromagnetic (EM) conductors in the area of Gungnir's 2017 drill discovery of gabbro-hosted copper-nickel bearing sulphides in the central part of the property.

Please refer to slide #14 for a map of the target areas in an updated Corporate presentation on Gungnir's website: www.gungnirresources.com.

The Knaften 300 Gold Zone consists of over 50 previously drilled holes with gold mineralization covering an area measuring 400 x 500 metres at an average depth of approximately 75 m below surface. Knaften 300 appears to be a shallow-dipping zone(s) and includes several thick, promising gold intersections including 3.45 g/t Au over 10.75 m, 3.20 g/t Au over 10.0 m, and 3.11 g/t Au over 8.0 m. In 2017 Gungnir confirmed near-surface gold mineralization with its own drilling and re-sampling of available archived core. Results include 2.92 g/t Au over 13 m starting at a down-hole depth of 81.5 m. Previous drilling includes intervals of up to 23.4 g/t Au in individual assays which demonstrates that the mineralizing system is capable of producing higher-grade gold.

Gungnir is also planning a first-phase prospecting program on its newly staked Norrbotten group of claims with a particular focus on locating the source of several polymetallic boulders including high-grade nickel (3.5% Ni) and cobalt (1.76% Co). Ground geophysical surveys will be considered for later in the year at Norrbotten. At the Lappvattnet and Rormyrberget nickel-copper-cobalt deposits, the Company plans to review archived drill core and is currently in the process of evaluating newly built 3-D models with the goal of identifying future drill targets that could expand the limits of known historic resources.

Funding for exploration work will come from the second of five annual $1M advance royalty payments due to the Company and other financing opportunities as they may arise.

Mr. Jari Paakki, M.Sc., P.Geo., is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Paakki prepared the technical information contained in this news release and has approved its disclosure.

About Gungnir Resources

Gungnir Resources Inc. is a Canadian-based TSX-V listed mineral exploration company (GUG: TSX-V) with gold and base metal permits in northern Sweden within a region hosting 12 million ounces of gold delineated in existing and mined resources plus several past-producing and producing base metal mines. The Company's key gold project, Knaften, is situated at the southern extension of the "Gold Line" which hosts a number of gold deposits including Faboliden and Svartliden (Dragon Mining), and Barsele (Agnico Eagle and Barsele Minerals). The Company also has permits covering two nickel deposits in Sweden, Lappvattnet and Rormyrberget which collectively host 70 million pounds of nickel in historical resources (see NR dated February 24, 2015), and newly staked Norrbotten gold and base metal permits in the Norrbotten District. Gungnir additionally holds a $5,000,000 royalty stream and received the first annual payment of $1,000,000 on May 2, 2017. The next annual payment of $1,000,000 is due on April 30, 2018. Further information about the Company and its properties may be found at www.gungnirresources.com or at www.sedar.com.

On behalf of the Board,

Jari Paakki, CEO and Director

For further information, contact:

Jari Paakki, CEO

Tel: 705-507-4470

jpaakki@eastlink.ca

Chris Robbins, CFO

Tel: 604-683-0484

robbinscr@shaw.ca

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements made herein may contain forward-looking statements or information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans," "expects," "is expected," "budget," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates" 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," or the negative of these words or comparable terminology. By their very nature forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual performance of the Company to be materially different from any anticipated performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements or information include, but are not limited to, statements or information with respect to Gungnir Resources' plan for future funding, and exploration and development of its properties. Forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of estimates and assumptions and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements or information. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying estimates and assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements or information. For example, there is no certainty, that any economically viable mineral deposit will be located on the properties, or that the Company will receive or be able to raise sufficient capital to complete all of its exploration programs. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements or information. Gungnir does not expect to update forward-looking statements or information continually as conditions change, except as may be required by securities law.

SOURCE: Gungnir Resources Inc.Regulatory News:

Following exchange with a proxy advisory firm, Vivendi (Paris:VIV) today agreed to terminate Dominique Delport consulting agreement as well as his membership on the Governance, Nominations and Remuneration Committee of the Vivendi Supervisory Board, while remaining a Board member.

Under the terms of this agreement, since October 1, 2015 Dominique Delport, who will no longer exercize any executive functions within Vivendi, has provided advice in creating and new digital content tools as part of the development of Vivendi Content and Dailymotion. This agreement was approved by the Shareholders' Meeting on April 21, 2016.

About Vivendi

Vivendi is an integrated content, media and communications group. The company operates businesses throughout the value chain, from talent discovery to the creation, production and distribution of content. Universal Music Group is the world leader in music, engaged in recorded music, music publishing and merchandising. It owns more than 50 labels covering all music genres. Canal+ Group is the leading pay-TV operator in France, also engaged in Africa, Poland, Vietnam and Myanmar. Its subsidiary Studiocanal is the leading European player in production, sales and distribution of movies and TV series. Havas Group is one of the world's largest global communications group. It is organized in three main business segments covering all the communications disciplines: creativity, media expertise and healthcare/wellness. Gameloft is a worldwide leader in mobile games, with 2 million games downloaded per day. Vivendi Village brings together the Paddington brand's licensing activities, Vivendi Ticketing (in the United Kingdom, the United States and France), MyBestPro (expert counseling), the venues L'Olympia and Theatre de L'uvre in Paris, and CanalOlympia in Africa, as well as Olympia Production. With 300 million unique users per month, Dailymotion is one of the biggest video content aggregation and distribution platforms in the world. www.vivendi.comwww.cultureswithvivendi.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005884/en/

Contacts:

VivendiTSX:ORV

TORONTO, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Orvana Minerals Corp. (TSX:ORV) (the "Company" or "Orvana") announces that it has amended certain terms of the $12.5 million copper concentrates and gold dore prepayment agreement (the "Facility") that was originally announced on July 27, 2016 with Samsung C&T U.K. Ltd. ("Samsung C&T").All dollar figures are in US unless otherwise expressed.

Pursuant to an amending agreement (the "Amendment"), the remaining principal outstanding of $9.3 million payable to Samsung C&T was re-scheduled and extended by two months to April 2019, such that: i) principal repayments due between February 2018 and October 2018 are reduced to $20,000 per month; ii) principal repayments due from November 2018 to February 2019 are increased to $1.65 million per month; and iii) remaining principal repayments, now due in March and April 2019, are paid in equal instalments of $1.25 million. The Facility, as amended, will bear interest at LIBOR plus 7.5%. In connection with the Amendment, the Company will pay a set up fee of $73,200 representing 1% of the re-scheduled principal amount. Interest payments and principal repayments will continue to be made against Orvana's future shipments of gold dore and/or copper concentrates during the extended Facility term.Amongst certain other terms, the Company also agreed to extend gold dore shipments to Samsung C&T to April 2020 as a result of the Amendment.Samsung C&Twill continue to pay for gold dore at a price based on the prevailing metal prices for the gold and silver content around time of shipment, less customary refining and shipping charges, and pursuant to the terms of the Facility.

Mr. Juan Gavidia, Interim CEO, said, "We are pleased to announce this amendment to our facility. Samsung C&T is a valued and committed partner that continues to be very supportive of our operational plans at El Valle Mine in Spain and the Don Mario Mine in Bolivia. With this amended arrangement in place, we have greater flexibility and liquidity to ensure timely execution of our higher gold grade, oxide ramp up activities at El Valle Mine over the remainder of fiscal 2018."

About Orvana

Orvana is a multi-mine gold and copper producer. Orvana's operating assets consist of the producing gold-copper-silver El Valle and Carles mines in northern Spain and the producing gold-copper-silver Don Mario mine in Bolivia. Additional information is available at Orvana's website (www.orvana.com).

Cautionary Statements - Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this information constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, potentials, future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "believes", "expects", "plans", "estimates" or "intends" or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "are projected to" be taken or achieved) are not statements of historical fact, but are forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements herein relate to, among other things, Orvana's ability to achieve improvement in free cash flow; the potential to extend the mine life of El Valle and Don Mario beyond their current life-of-mine estimates including specifically, but not limited to in the case of Don Mario, the completion of the major tailings storage facility expansion, the mining of the Cerro Felix deposit, the processing of the mineral stockpiles and the reprocessing of the tailings material; Orvana's ability to optimize its assets to deliver shareholder value; the Company's ability to optimize productivity at Don Mario and El Valle; estimates of future production, operating costs and capital expenditures; mineral resource and reserve estimates; statements and information regarding future feasibility studies and their results; future transactions; future metal prices; the ability to achieve additional growth and geographic diversification; future financial performance, including the ability to increase cash flow and profits; future financing requirements;mine development plans; and the results of the search for a new Chief Executive Officer.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. The estimates and assumptions of the Company contained or incorporated by reference in this information, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to, the various assumptions set forth herein and in Orvana's most recently filed Management's Discussion & Analysis and Annual Information Form in respect of the Company's most recently completed fiscal year (the "Company Disclosures") or as otherwise expressly incorporated herein by reference as well as: there being no significant disruptions affecting operations, whether due to labour disruptions, supply disruptions, power disruptions, damage to equipment or otherwise; permitting, development, operations, expansion and acquisitions at El Valle and Don Mario being consistent with the Company's current expectations; political developments in any jurisdiction in which the Company operates being consistent with its current expectations; certain price assumptions for gold, copper and silver; prices for key supplies being approximately consistent with current levels; production and cost of sales forecasts meeting expectations; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates; and labour and materials costs increasing on a basis consistent with Orvana's current expectations.

A variety of inherent risks, uncertainties and factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control, affect the operations, performance and results of the Company and its business, and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results expressed or implied by forward looking statements. Some of these risks, uncertainties and factors include fluctuations in the price of gold, silver and copper; the need to recalculate estimates of resources based on actual production experience; the failure to achieve production estimates; variations in the grade of ore mined; variations in the cost of operations; the availability of qualified personnel; the Company's ability to obtain and maintain all necessary regulatory approvals and licenses; the Company's ability to use cyanide in its mining operations; risks generally associated with mineral exploration and development, including the Company's ability to continue to operate the El Valle and/or Don Mario and/or ability to resume long-term operations at Carles Mine; the Company's ability to acquire and develop mineral properties and to successfully integrate such acquisitions; the Company's ability to execute on its strategy; the Company's ability to obtain financing when required on terms that are acceptable to the Company; challenges to the Company's interests in its property and mineral rights; current, pending and proposed legislative or regulatory developments or changes in political, social or economic conditions in the countries in which the Company operates; general economic conditions worldwide; and the risks identified in the Company's Disclosures under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties". This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the Company's forward-looking statements and reference should also be made to the Company's Disclosures for a description of additional risk factors.

Any forward-looking statements made in this information with respect to the anticipated development and exploration of the Company's mineral projects are intended to provide an overview of management's expectations with respect to certain future activities of the Company and may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-looking statements are based on management's current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions and, except as required by law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this information are intended to provide an overview of management's expectations with respect to certain future operating activities of the Company and may not be appropriate for other purposes.

For further information - Jeffrey Hillis, CFO, T (416) 369-6281, E jhillis@orvana.com

OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Kinross Gold Corp. (K.TO, KGC) announced the end of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory investigation of its West African mining operations.



Kinross said it is pleased to resolve this matter through an agreed-upon cease and desist order and that the SEC's investigation has been concluded, as expected, without any material adverse effect on the Company's financial position or business operations. The cease and desist order with the SEC makes no findings of bribery by the Company but is instead premised on allegations of various deficiencies in Kinross' internal accounting controls and practices.



On November 7, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) also notified Kinross that it closed its investigation, declining to pursue further the matter against the Company and noting the Company's full cooperation during the inquiry.



Both investigations related to allegations of improper payments made to government officials and certain internal control deficiencies at the Company's West African mining operations, which Kinross first became aware of in August 2013. The Company immediately commenced an internal investigation into the allegations in accordance with its Whistleblower Policy. In March 2014, the SEC commenced an investigation seeking information and documents relating to these allegations, and in December 2014, the DOJ commenced a similar investigation. On October 2, 2015, the Company publicly disclosed the SEC and DOJ investigations.



The Company entered into the cease and desist order with the SEC without admitting or denying the findings of the order to resolve the investigation. As part of the settlement, the Company has agreed to pay US$950,000 to the SEC as a civil penalty and report to the SEC semi-annually for a one-year term on the status of its West African compliance measures. The order is final and not conditional on court approval.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.deWASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Facing a difficult re-election fight in a newly redrawn district, Republican Congressman Ryan Costello, R-Penn., has revealed that he intends to retire rather than seek another term. 'At this moment in time running for re-election is not the prudent course of action,' Costello said in an interview on MSNBC on Sunday. 'It's been a very tough decision for me to make, but I think I'm making the right decision.' Costello partly attributed his decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision to redraw his suburban Philadelphia district, which he called 'obscene.' The two-term congressman also cited the current political environment, noting it has been difficult for him to criticize President Donald Trump's behavior without facing backlash from within his party. Costello's decision is likely to make the district an even easier target for Democrats, who had already been hoping to pick up the seat. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee DCCC Spokesman Evan Lukaske said Costello's retirement should set off alarm bells for vulnerable House Republicans. 'Saddled with a toxic Republican agenda that no 'moderate' spin could erase, and facing a strong challenge from veteran and businesswoman Chrissy Houlahan, Costello is taking a very early exit from this swing district,' Lukaske said. Meanwhile, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, said the GOP will work tirelessly to ensure Costello's seat remains in Republican hands. 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.HKTDC Acting Executive Director Benjamin Chau (R) and HKTDC Electronics/Electrical Appliances Industries Advisory Committee Chairman Ir Dr Lo Wai-kwok (L) announce details of the Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition), International ICT Expo, as well as the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Spring Edition) at today's press conference.

Gomer is a smart robot with a soft hand, capable of holding various-shaped objects. Its embedded artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm recognises the user's face and emotions and provides relevant reactions. It can also be used for home monitoring, with live video and two-way audio functions. (Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition) Exhibitor: Shen Zhen GLI Technology Ltd; Booth: 3CON-B04)

OpenVR.shop is an online service for physical store owners without e-commerce experience to create a 24-hour online branch via VR (Virtual Reality). Rolled out in 2016, OpenVR.shop has served 100 retail shops in Hong Kong and Tokyo. (International ICT Expo Exhibitor: Wee Creation Company Ltd; Booth: 3F-E04 (Cyberport Pavilion))



HKTDC Comms & Public Affairs Dept. Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition) and the International ICT Expo Joshua Cheng Tel: +852 2584 4395, Email: joshua.cp.cheng@hktdc.org Angela Cheu Tel: +852 2584 4546, Email: angela.ly.cheu@hktdc.org Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Spring Edition) Sam Ho Tel: +852 2584 4569, Email: sam.sy.ho@hktdc.org

HONG KONG, Mar 26, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Spring Edition), Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition), and the International ICT Expo will kick off during the peak April season for exhibitions and sourcing. The Spring Lighting Fair will take place from 6-9 April, while the Spring Electronics Fair and the concurrent International ICT Expo will be staged from 13-16 April. The three fairs will gather a total of about 4,900 exhibitors from around the world to showcase a range of innovative products and cutting-edge technologies.- Exports for electronics, ICT and lighting products go up"As the global economy improves, Hong Kong's exports figures for electronics, ICT (computers and parts) and lighting products in 2017 saw significant growth," said Benjamin Chau, Acting Executive Director, HKTDC. "The Spring Lighting Fair, Spring Electronics Fair and International ICT Expo offer a quality sourcing and marketing platform for the industry and international buyers to build on their success and grasp opportunities in this economic revival."The HKTDC will organise about 240 buying missions, comprising representatives from some 12,500 companies from around the world to visit the three fairs. The hktdc.com Small Orders zone returns to the Spring Electronics Fair, offering a convenient platform for buyers to source in smaller lots. More than 250 showcases featuring around 2,000 products will be available in minimum order quantities of between five and 1,000 pieces. The zone works in conjunction with an online trading platform (http://smallorders.hktdc.com) to facilitate negotiation and buyer sourcing.Mr Chau added that innovation and technology are a huge driving force behind Hong Kong's economic growth. The recent Hong Kong Government Policy Address and Budget speech proposed strengthening the innovation and technology industry, promoting smart city development as well as supporting innovation and technology and start-up enterprises. "The HKTDC is keeping up with the trend and is committed to creating business opportunities for Hong Kong," said Mr Chau. "We are strengthening start-up and smart living elements at the Spring Lighting Fair, Spring Electronics Fair and ICT Expo. Besides staging the Startup zone at the Spring Electronics Fair and the ICT Expo to enable start-ups to reach more potential suppliers, buyers and investors, the HKTDC is also spotlighting a wide range of smart products and technologies at the fairs, allowing global enterprises to leverage Hong Kong's exhibitions as a platform to promote innovative ideas and drive global economic and social developments."- Startup zone at the Fairs fosters start-upsThe 15th edition of the Spring Electronics Fair and ICT Expo will be held from 13-16 April at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). The Startup zone, which debuted last year, will return with more than 100 start-ups from Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland, Canada, Japan, Taiwan and the United States to present innovative technologies to global buyers.To help start-ups gain entrepreneurial insights from experts, a series of start-up themed events, including Smart Launch sessions, sharing sessions and mentoring sessions, will be organised in collaboration with several start-up accelerators and incubators, including Angel Investment Foundation, Backer, Hello Reporter, Hong Kong Business Angel Network, HSBC, Inculab, Jumpstart, Qianhai International Liaison Services, StartHub and Techstars. Pitching sessions, Media Pitch Day and Investment Matchmaking will also be staged to help start-ups gain exposure and meet potential investors.- Previewing the latest tech trends at the Spring Electronics FairAs the largest spring electronics event in Asia, the Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition) this year will feature some 2,950 exhibitors from 23 countries and regions, with new exhibitors from Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Malaysia, Mexico and Poland. Key electronics production centres such as the Chinese mainland, Korea and Taiwan will set up group pavilions. The Hall of Fame will showcase more than 570 internationally renowned brands, including Bourgini, Desay, Greatwall, HKC, Latitude, Roadrover, SKROSS, and Polaroid.The Tech Hall returns with four thematic zones: Connected Home, which will showcase Internet of Things (IoT) applications for home automation; Robotics & Unmanned Tech, displaying the latest aerial cameras, electric scooters, industrial and household robots; Virtual Reality, which will feature a range of VR headsets, video cameras and related technology; as well as Wearable Electronics, showcasing a range of products such as smart watches and smart wristbands.During the first three days of the fair (13-15 April), a series of seminars will be held under the "2018 Tech Trends Symposium," featuring industry experts who will examine issues such as the application of AI and robotics, smart home, wearable electronics, as well as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR). Other events include Tesla electric vehicle test drives, robot demonstrations, launch pads and buyer forums to showcase the latest industry developments and product trends.Hong Kong's electronics industry is the city's largest merchandise export earner, comprising 66.2 per cent of total exports valued at HK$2,567.4 billion in 2017, up nine per cent year on year. Most of the exports are high tech products, such as telecommunication equipment, semi-conductors and computer-related products.- International ICT Expo explores smart city developmentRunning concurrently with the Spring Electronics Fair, the ICT Expo gathers products and business solutions in information, communication and technologies, featuring about 600 exhibitors from eight countries and regions.Under the theme "Smart City: The Way of the Future," this year's Expo will debut a Smart City zone to showcase related solutions and applications. The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) will present the government's Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint at the zone, mapping out development plans for the next five years. Exhibitors include Alicloud, Cisco, Hong Kong Airport Authority, Microsoft, NEC, PwC, Smart City Consortium, ZTE as well as top local research institutes, such as the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), Hong Kong R&D Centre for LSCM Enabling Technologies (LSCM), and the Automotive Parts and Accessory Systems R&D Centre (APAS).The HKTDC will organise the Smart City Seminar Series with industry experts exploring hot topics, such as Internet security, Fintech, smart home, electronic ID, developing smart business through IoT applications, and how disruptive technology is driving smart city development.SME IT Clinic will return to the ICT Expo, providing complimentary professional consultation services on ICT systems and solutions to help SMEs enhance business efficiency. The award winners of the Hong Kong ICT Awards 2018, organised by the OGCIO, will showcase quality products and solutions at the fair.Hong Kong's total exports of information technology (computer and parts) totalled HK$404.1 billion, up 11 per cent year on year.- Spring Lighting Fair showcases smart lighting products with four new zonesThe 10th edition of the Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Spring Edition) will be held from 6-9 April, with more than 1,350 exhibitors from 13 countries and regions expected to take part this year, including new participants from Canada, India, Macau and Malaysia. Companies from Jiangmen, Henglan, Shunde, Gaoyou and the Zhongshan Semiconductor Lighting Industry Association in the Chinese mainland will set up group pavilions. Four new thematic zones will launch this year, namely Horticultural Lighting, Residential Lighting, Technical Lighting and Urban & Architectural Lighting.With the advent of IoT, governments have been keen to promote smart city development, including smart lighting. The Smart Lighting & Solution zone, launched last year, returns to highlight the latest trends and showcase smart lighting systems, remote control, accessories and fixtures. The Hall of Aurora will feature top-notch brands to showcase their high-quality lighting fixtures and solutions. Leading brands taking part in the zone include Tuya Smart, TCL and MLS Co. Together with other thematic zones, the fair gathers a wide range of lighting products, technology and solutions to cater for the various sourcing needs of global buyers.The Asian Lighting Forum 2018, to be held on the first day of the fair (6 April), will gather experts and professional organisations, including Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Microsoft, CREE, Phillips, OSRAM, and Highways Department, to discuss the daily-life applications of smart lighting, connected lighting and IoT, as well as the latest technologies and industry outlook. Another conference on Artificial Intelligence and Smart Lighting (7 April) will gather experts from companies, such as Alibaba AI Labs, iFLYTEK, JD Smart, Tuya, Yeelight and ZTE, to share insights. A series of seminars, launch pads and buyer forums will also be organised to facilitate industry exchange.Hong Kong's total exports of lighting products exceeded HK$9.7 billion in 2017, up 2.6 per cent year on year. A number of markets recorded satisfactory performance, including the United States, the Chinese mainland, the Netherlands and Thailand.About the FairsHong Kong International Lighting Fair (Spring Edition)Edition: 10thFair Period: 6-9 AprilVenue: HKCECNo of Exhibitors: Over 1,350 exhibitors from 13 countries and regionsFair Websites: hklightingfairse.hktdc.comProduct Highlights: https://goo.gl/Fi622iHong Kong Electronics Fair (Spring Edition)Edition: 15thFair Period: 13-16 AprilVenue: HKCECNo of Exhibitors: Some 2,950 exhibitors from 23 countries and regionsFair Websites: hkelectronicsfairse.hktdc.comProduct Highlights: https://goo.gl/2HBLP7International ICT ExpoEdition: 15thFair Period: 13-16 AprilVenue: HKCECNo of Exhibitors: Around 600 exhibitors from 8 countries and regionsFair Websites: ictexpo.hktdc.comProduct Highlights: https://goo.gl/YpgfV6Photo Download: https://bit.ly/2GpYXXjAbout HKTDCEstablished in 1966, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body dedicated to creating opportunities for Hong Kong's businesses. With more than 40 offices globally, including 13 on the Chinese mainland, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a platform for doing business with China, Asia and the world. With 50 years of experience, the HKTDC organises international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to provide companies, particularly SMEs, with business opportunities on the mainland and in international markets, while providing information via trade publications, research reports and digital channels including the media room. For more information, please visit: www.hktdc.com/aboutus. Follow us on Google+, Twitter @hktdc, LinkedIn.- Google+: https://plus.google.com/+hktdc- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/hktdc- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/hong-kong-trade-development-councilSource: HKTDCContact:Copyright 2018 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 26, 2018 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Advance Auto Parts, Inc. ("Advance Auto" or the "Company") (NYSE: AAP). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether Advance Auto and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On May 24, 2017, Advance Auto reported financial and operating results for the first fiscal quarter of 2017, including a quarterly sales decrease of 3.0%. Advance Auto also reported a quarterly decrease in gross profit, "primarily driven by investments in the customer, inventory optimization efforts, and supply chain expense deleverage due to the comparable store sales decline." Further, Advance Auto reported that its quarterly comparable store sales had declined 2.7%. Following this news, the Company's share price fell $7.64, or roughly 5.4%, to close at $133.02 on May 24, 2017. Then, on August 15, 2017, Advance Auto reported its financial and operational results for the second quarter of 2017, disclosing to investors that "[c]omparable store sales for the quarter were flat." Further, and with respect to full-year fiscal 2017 financial and operational guidance, the Company: (i) decreased its comparable store sales guidance from 0-2% growth to 3-1% decline; (ii) decreased its adjusted operating income rate guidance from a 15-35 basis point year-over-year improvement to a 200-300 basis point year-over-year reduction; (iii) decreased its free cash flow guidance by $100 million; and (iv) increased its "integration and transformation" guidance from approximately $30-35 million to approximately $100-150 million.

Following this news, the Company's share price fell an additional $22.24, or over 20.3%, to close at $87.08 on August 15, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLPAgreement adds organic oil recovery to product list

Hunting PLC, the international energy services company, today announced that it has signed a collaboration agreement with US-based enhanced oil recovery company, Titan Oil Recovery Inc.

The agreement allows Hunting to add Organic Oil Recovery (OOR) to a growing list of Hunting 'TEK-Hub' products and technologies focussed on enhancing production in late field life.

The OOR process involves stimulating the growth of specific species of indigenous microbes within producing reservoirs, which have the effect of reducing the physical size of trapped oil droplets, greatly enhancing production rates at a fraction of the cost of alternate Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technologies.

Founder and Chairman of Titan, Ken Gerbino commented, "We are very pleased to have established this agreement with Hunting and look forward to working closely with our new partners to maximise economic recovery from ageing oil producing assets in the UKCS, Norway and other global provinces."

Managing Director of the Europe Africa division for Hunting, Bruce Ferguson added, "In the UK, we are committed to the agenda set out by the OGA to ensure maximised economic recovery from the North Sea. This has led us to add several new production enhancement products and technologies to our portfolio. We have done our homework on Titan OOR, and on the evidence of a 94% success rate on 48 commercial fields in the US, Canada, Australia, and Indonesia, we are convinced that this technology can provide a low cost highly effective alternate to mainstream polymer and low saline-based EOR options."

To support the roll out of OOR in the UK and internationally, Hunting have engaged Dave Puckett. In his former role as Senior Reservoir Engineer EOR Specialist within the OGA, Dave was a co-author of the 2016 OGA EOR Strategy and EOR Delivery Programme. Dave is now a member of a combined Hunting-Titan OOR team engaged in well ecology sampling and laboratory testing programmes for reservoirs in the UK and Norway.

Within a total of over 300 production well implementations of OOR, multiple customer authored SPE papers record average oil production increases within the range of 25% to 700%, and costs per incremental barrel of under $6 USD. No topside modifications are required for offshore implementation of OOR.

About Hunting

Hunting PLC is an international energy services provider to the world's leading upstream oil and gas companies. Established in 1874, it is a premium-listed public company traded on the London Stock Exchange. The Company maintains a corporate office in Houston and is headquartered in London. As well as the United Kingdom, the Company has operations in Canada, China, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.

About Titan Oil Recovery Inc.

Titan Oil Recovery Inc. is the global leader of Organic Oil Recovery with significant field successes on oilfields on four continents. The company's unique biodegradable technology allows for oil production from late stage as well as mid-stage oil production to be enhanced by creating micro-droplets within the tiny pore spaces of a typical oil reservoir. Micro-droplets and other changes in the reservoir unique to the Titan Process allow for a dramatic increase in oil mobility and hence production increases. The technology recovers trapped oil and requires no capital expense.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005675/en/

Contacts:

Business Contacts:

Hunting:

Roger Findlay, +44 (0) 1224 787021

Technology Manager, Europe

or

Titan Oil Recovery:

Kenneth J. Gerbino, 310 281 0015

Founder and ChairmanNoon Care, a Milan, Italy-based provider of a mobile platform connecting people in need with caregivers, raised an investment from Barcamper Ventures.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

The company will use the funds to finalize the development and launch its solution in Milan together with Genera Onlus and such partners as Microsoft, Reale Group, HMD Global and UGO.

Led by Adam James Cavallari and Andrea Alessandri, Noon Care provides a platform that offers personalized caregiving services, which can be managed remotely. Through a mobile app, a caregiver can manage and monitor the services delivered to the patient, including localizing the patient in real time, create meno, get access to services such as support, nursing and emergence services.

Based on Microsoft Azure, the platform will also integrate different services, increasing the range of tools available allowing the caregiver to assist patients.

FinSMEs

26/03/2018Tela Bio, Inc., a Malvern, Pa.-based surgical reconstruction company focused on development and commercialization of OviTex Reinforced BioScaffolds (RBSs) for soft tissue repair, received $1m in funding.

ProMedica, a mission-based, not-for-profit healthcare organization serving northwest Ohio and southern Michigan, has agreed to invest $1m in Tela Bio through the ProMedica Innovations Venture Fund.

Under the agreement, Tela Bio and ProMedica Innovations plan to explore a strategic partnership in research and education with the surgical specialists at the ProMedica Hernia Center. The first half of the investment closes immediately, and a second tranche will close pending revenue milestones outlined in the agreement.

Led by Antony Koblish, president and CEO, Tela Bio is advancing OviTex RBSs, a distinct class of surgical implants that integrate biologic and synthetic materials in an embroidered construction that allows free movement of fluid and cells through the construct. The biologic material, derived from ovine rumen, allows for functional tissue remodeling, while the polymer provides additional strength and improved handling.

Tela Bio first commercialized OviTex RBSs in July 2016 and over 1,800 implantations have been completed to-date in a wide range of hernia procedures using a variety of surgical techniques.

FinSMEs

26/03/2018Tourlane, a Berlin, Germany-based booking platform for customized travel packages, secured $8.5m in Series A funding.

Backers included Spark Capital, Holtzbrinck Ventures and DN Capital.

The company intends to use the funds to expand its service to new locations and to improve the product and user experience.

Founded in 2016 by Julian Weselek and Julian Stiefel, Tourlane is a booking platform for customized travel packages, offering multi-week experiences to over 30 countries worldwide in Africa, Asia, North and South America and Australia. Its product matches travellers with pre-selected travel specialists, making the booking of individual and adventure trips comparable and fast.

The company currently has more than 100 partners in its system.

FinSMEs

26/03/2018As many as 500 Air India pilots are awaiting government's nod for the common pay structure recommended by the Dharmadhikari committee in 2012, nearly six months after the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) consented to it.

Mumbai: As many as 500 Air India pilots are awaiting government's nod for the common pay structure recommended by the Dharmadhikari committee in 2012, nearly six months after the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) consented to it. According to sources, the IPG gave consent to the common pay structure in October 2017, following which the proposal was sent to the Civil Aviation Ministry for its

approval, which is still "awaited".

The Dharmadhikari panel had submitted its report to the government way back in January 2012, calling for common pay and allowances as per the norms for other public sector enterprises. The IPG represents the Boeing wide-body fleet at the flag carrier. It agreed to accept the common pay structure for pilots in line with the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) guidelines.

Under the common pay structure, flying allowance will be paid only in rupees and not in dollars, the IPG had said. Besides, pilots' flying allowance hours will be reduced to 70 hours per month from 80 earlier. However, they will be entitled to higher over-time fees. When contacted, an Air India spokesperson declined to comment, saying it is an internal policy issue.

The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), which represents the Airbus fleet pilots at the state-owned carrier, has long ago accepted the recommendations. Meanwhile, Air India has decided to promote some 100 pilots to the executive rank as part of the level-mapping exercise, sources said.

"At the time of merger, a section of Air India narrow-body (erstwhile Indian Airlines) pilots got promoted. On the other hand, a section of wide-body (Air India) pilots had not got any promotion since 2007, resulting in anomalies," they said.

The promotion of 100-odd pilots is aimed at removing such discrepancies, sources said. Once the agreement is in place, the pilots in Air India will have a uniform salary structure for both the Airbus and Boeing fleets, as per the sources.

Following the decision to merge the two airlines in 2007, various processes were to be integrated within 18-24 months, including HR. To arrive at common structure, the ministry constituted a committee of external experts under Justice Dharmadhikari. The panel submitted its report in January 2012, which was further examined by a three-member inter-ministerial committee to suggest a time frame for implementation.

The inter-ministerial panel submitted its report in May 2012, and subsequently an implementation-cum-anomaly rectification committee was set up to implement the recommendations of the panel.When grey areas in data science meet political innuendo, as with the controversy around the Narendra Modi app, results can be incendiary in the age of real-time social media

Thanks to last week's ugly turn of events involving data harvesting, psychographic profiling and the alleged unethical influencing of votes in the US elections by British firm Cambridge Analytica and social network Facebook, any data gathering involving Internet apps is suddenly being viewed with suspicion.

It comes as no surprise therefore that the Narendra Modi app has become a matter of controversy. Allegations of data being sent overseas, without consent, to a US company reek of what happened in the US and the UK last week.

When grey areas in data science meet political innuendo, the results can be incendiary in the age of real-time social media. So what are we to make out, as some engaged digital-age activists are saying, of a society that loves to share personal data but does not like it to be unsafe?

Last week, I had said half in jest that 'consent has moved from sex to data'. Truth is that both are separately important, but last week at least, the public focus was more on Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's beleaguered CEO, than on disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein or even President Donald Trump, whose sexual misdemeanours are hogging headlines the world-over.

Given that we are entering an election year in India, mutual swipes and wild accusations by the Congress, the AAP and the BJP on use or abuse of data is bound to go up. We are also faced with the unique situation where Google and Facebook, friends of the Election Commission up until yesterday for their awesome reach into Indian voter minds, are suddenly becoming unwanted wannabe spies. One piece of bad news is enough.

Now take a deep breath. Apps  be it of Facebook or Narendra Modi  are meant to gather data. Targeted content, sales offers and advertisements are part of the official business models of Google, Amazon and Facebook. All of a sudden, there are three hard issues at stake: unethical use of profiling; use of such profiling to mislead people into voting (you can call it data-based ambush); and the presence or alleged interference of foreign powers in a scenario of a globally connected social network.

In India, the harsh ground reality is that we are being forced to leapfrog into a Big Brother syndrome and deal with it. Laws are yet to catch up with reality. It's a bit like someone discovering the joys of sex being suddenly informed that there is also such a thing called a sexually transmitted disease.

The Supreme Court (SC), which is still hearing a case on whether the Aadhaar unique ID breaches the rights of citizens in terms of data protection, safety and freedom, passed a verdict on the right to privacy less than a year ago.

Data protection was a key issue in the software industry a year ago when business process outsourcing (BPO) companies were targeted by trade unions and protectionists in Europe as violative of data privacy. Too much has happened across the globe since then, including in India.

The country does not yet have a real law in place for data protection. Only contract laws and the Information Technology Act of 2000 are in place and a real data protection law is still in the works. The Justice Srikrishna committee, which is drafting a proposed data protection framework, began its public consultation process with an open house only two months ago.

It is time perhaps for the Supreme Court to pronounce a quick view on the subject and for the Srikrishna panel to push out an early set of data hygiene guidelines, so that those already thriving in the grey areas or caught on the wrong side of an emerging discipline can quickly learn and act in the interest of national consensus. Political mudslinging has found a new platform in data hygiene but it is best for us to ignore the noise and focus on real safety and protection.

And while at that, it would be a good idea to have a Lokpal for data -- some kind of a 'go-to' data ombudsman with credibility and political neutrality who can issue quick pronouncements to block out the emerging noise. It is best done with some constitutional validity, as an ombudsman friendly to the government can only be viewed with suspicion. Given the way India's courts are burdened with cases, it is too much to expect a creaking judiciary to talk in detail just as more cases pile up.

Note: The Congress pulled its 'With INC' app off all OS stores on Monday

The author is a senior journalist. He tweets as @madversityGlobalisation is going through a phase where countries are 'revisiting and evaluating' their role in it, Union minister Suresh Prabhu said

New Delhi: Globalisation is going through a phase where countries are "revisiting and evaluating" their role in it, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Monday.

According to Prabhu, who also holds the charge of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the first phase of globalisation had faced a "lot of opposition", while in the second phase, countries tried to embrace it and participate more.

"I think we have come to the stage where people (countries) are re-examining, revisiting and evaluating what should be the role of the nation in the community," the minister said during his address at an industry event by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Emphasising on having more trade among countries, he added that while most countries were revisiting their roles in globalisation, India was trying to engage with traditional and new partners.

"India has to position itself very appropriately and we have decided that we will be a country which will engage with all our traditional friends and also start making new friends," he said.

Talking about the new trade initiatives of the government, he said: "We have started working on EU-India FTA (Free Trade Agreement). After 2013, when there were 16 rounds (of talks), (but) nothing happened, now we have invited them."

"With Africa, we have told that we would like to work with you and prepare an FTA in such a way, that it will be in the long-term interest of both Africans and Indians," he said.

Nothing would ever be sustainable unless it is a win-win combination, he added.Only a third of Indian IT firms are compliant with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will come into force on 25 May

Only a third of Indian IT firms are compliant with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will come into force on 25 May, according to a media report.

The GDPR, the EU's new online privacy rules, is designed to protect users' online privacy. The European Parliament has adopted the regulation but European governments have yet to approve the text.

Only 30-35 percent of all IT/ITeS companies have started their journey to work towards GDPR compliance, Jaspreet Singh, Cyber Security Partner at EY, was quoted as saying by The Economic Times.

The GDPR is applicable to companies globally, and has significant potential financial penalties. Damages of any breach of privacy of user data from Europe could cost companies as much as four percent of their revenue, according to The Economic Times. For the Indian IT sector, Europe ranks number two in terms of the amount of business it drives, with US still taking the lead.

Indian firms, according to Business Standard, are struggling to understand the GDPR policies. A survey by EY had shown that 60 percent of Indian respondents were unfamiliar with the new regulation.

"When asked to describe their companys current status with respect to complying with the GDPR, only 33 percent of respondents said that they have a plan, while 39 percent said that they are not familiar with the GDPR at all and 17 percent said that they have heard of the GDPR but have not yet taken any action," EYs Global Forensic Data Analytics Survey 2018 had said.

What the GDPR is all about?

The GDPR attempts to unify data protection laws across the EU. It applies to all companies, regardless of location, that process the personal data of people living in the European Union. It aims to strengthen the protection of EU citizens' personal details. It will apply to all companies, including those outside of the EU.

The GDPR is considered the biggest shake-up of personal data privacy rules since the birth of the internet. It is intended to give European citizens more control over their online information.

Under the new regulation, users will be asked once and for all whether to accept cookies, rather than every time they visit a new website. Users will have the option of going invisible online, while the rules enshrine the so-called "right to be forgotten" legislation. The industries most deeply affected will be those that collect large amounts of customer data and include technology companies, retailers, healthcare providers, insurers and banks.

Companies must be able to provide European customers with a copy of their personal data and under some circumstances delete it at their behest. They will also be required to report data breaches within 72 hours.

How Indian firms will be affected?

According to a study published by The Centre for Internet and Society, as a result of GDPR, data protection procedures like breach notification; excessive documentation and appointment of data protection officer may have to be incorporated in the Indian laws as well.

"As non  compliance involves high fines, inability of India or the organizations situated in India to qualify as data secure destinations is likely to divert business opportunities to safer locations," the study said.

(With inputs from agencies)It's too early to say which model is the best. One also cannot be dogmatic. The first two years will bring to fore the pitfalls and good aspects of a model.

Free secondary and tertiary medicare to 10 crore families or 50 crore people i.e. 40 percent of Indias population as envisaged by the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM), announced on 1 February by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget 2018 speech, is easy to understand but difficult to implement. The mission as it is toys with the idea of fulfilment or implementation either through the trust or the insurance model.

The insurance model widely practiced in the United States both under the state-subsidised Obamacare model as well as otherwise is a subset of the health insurance model with a vital difference. When an individual takes health insurance policy on his own, it is strictly between him and the insurer. Some insurance companies offer policies on take it or leave it basis whereas others are flexible. But when the government negotiates through its proposed agency Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission Agency (AB-NHPMA), there could be a lot of wheeling and dealing given the volume of business an insurer is likely to get.

Indeed the government is banking on volume discount from the insurers more than on anything else including the four percent education and health cess. An insurer makes more profit from group insurance offered by a company. What AB-NHPMA would be offering would be a gigantic group insurance policy an insurer cannot afford to spurn. But then health insurance has not been a very profitable experience for insurers anywhere in the world. Of course the scale of business under Modicare could change this.

As against the insurance model which could get a muted or less than enthusiastic response from the insurers based on their sobering experience, the trust model could find a large number of adherents both among the policymakers and the academia. Indeed global evidence shows that trust-based models have proved to be more successful in implementing such schemes that profit-maximising insurance firms are hesitant to take up.

Under this plan, trusts, funded by the Centre and states, will likely pilot the scheme. The trusts will act as the main gatekeeper for processing and settling claims of hospitals that treat the schemes beneficiaries. Andhra Pradeshs Arogyasri scheme and Karnatakas Yeshasvinis programme serve as a proof-of-concept for trust-driven group health protection model, without cover from insurance companies. But then the downside of this model is micro-management resulting in greater administrative expenses with the dangerous possibility of mutual back scratching by the hospitals and the trust staff not ruled out.

A third possible model, the one which curiously has not been posited or visualised so far by the Health Ministry, is the managed healthcare model widely in vogue in the USA as an alternative to health insurance. A hospital or a clutch of hospitals offer a healthcare scheme akin to the one offered by insurance companies. For example, a private hospital can float a scheme under which for a fixed annual upfront fee, it undertakes to treat the insured and his family free.

The downside of managed healthcare is the natural tendency on the part of the hospital to scrimp on expenses and hence the treatment given could be sub-standard, defeating the very purpose of healthcare. This is the direct opposite of splurge hospitals indulge in including unnecessary diagnostic tests and hospitalisation knowing full well that after all the tab is going to be picked up by the insurance company. However hospitals quote pretty low vis-a-vis insurance company which then becomes the gravitas for the public.

The government can offer beneficiaries under Modicare the option of managed medicare so that they can choose the hospitals they are comfortable with either by reason of proximity with their residence or quality of medicare. This would reduce administrative expenses though it would doubtless condemn the beneficiaries to the hospital they have chosen. The insurance and the trust model could leave a number of hospitals in the cold without business whereas if they are allowed to quote under the managed healthcare model, they would find some of the business coming their way. Incidentally this would also reduce pressure on premium and high-end hospitals.

It is too early to say which model is the best. One also cannot be dogmatic. Perhaps the first two years would bring to fore more prominently the pitfalls and good aspects of a model. The office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) would in all probability examine the issue more dispassionately, of course with the benefit of hindsight.

(The writer is a senior columnist. He tweets @smurlidharan)The Indian banking sector might just witness an unprecedented event, if Union Bank adds Punjab National Bank in its defaulters' list.

The Punjab National Bank (PNB) could be labelled a defaulter if it does not pay the Union Bank of India about Rs 1,000 crore by 31 March, according to a media report.

PNB has to settle claims against letters of undertakings (LoUs) issued by it earlier.

If PNB fails to do so, the Indian banking sector, already troubled by frauds, will witness an unprecedented event, where, for the first time, a bank will be "technically described as defaulter, reported The Economic Times.

Auditors could insist the LoUs, maturing before 31 March, be described as NPAs for the current financial year, the newspaper added.

For us, its a genuine claim on PNB backed by documents. It is not a fraud in our books. We will take the auditors view. However, we dont want to list PNB as a defaulter. We are expecting some intervention from either the government or RBI so that there is a resolution by March 31, Rajkiran Rai, MD of Union Bank was quoted as saying in the report.

In February, state-owned Union Bank said it had an exposure of $ 300 million (around Rs 1,915 crore) to the Rs 11,400-crore PNB fraud case, but stressed that its money was safe and that it would recover it, the PTI had reported. "The outstanding exposure related to the incident is approximately $ 300 Million and the Bank is fully secured by LoU /LC /Other documents and fully confident to receive the payment," said the Union Bank statement.

The State Bank of India (SBI) too has an exposure of at least $200 million to the PNB fraud involving Nirav Modi-helmed companies. SBI, in February, said that it had an exposure of $212 million to the PNB with respect to the fraudulent transactions, but did not have any direct exposure to Modi. We dont have any direct exposure to Nirav Modi, but we do have some exposure to PNB, SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar was quoted as saying by the PTI.

Last week, Union Bank's shares fell to an over 11-year low after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against a private company for allegedly cheating eight banks, including the Union Bank, of 13.94 billion rupees. The CBI registered a case against Hyderabad-based Totem Infrastructure and its directors post a Union Bank complaint, which said the lender had been cheated of about 3.14 billion rupees.

With inputs from agenciesWith an IPO scheduled for 2019, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will focus on consolidating the firm's prospects in markets where it has a strong presence.

Will ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Incs latest move, surrendering to rival Grab in southeast Asia, augur well for its India operations? Experts are divided. "It may bode well for Uber to focus on the Indian market and use its resources here, instead of fighting a losing battle in other geographies, said one expert, while others said it's unclear as to what Uber will do next with regard to its Indian operations.

Uber on Monday said it will sell its Southeast Asian business to larger regional rival Grab, marking the American firm's second retreat from an Asian market, reported Reuters. Uber still has a few fingers in that pie, for it will pick a 27.5 percent stake in Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Singapore-headquartered Grabs Board.

Uber retreats from key markets

Under founder and CEO Travis Kalanick, Uber retreated from China and Russia, where Didi Chuxing and Yandex offered strong competition respectively. The deal with Grab is the first operations sale by Khosrowshahi, who took charge in September. The founders strategy was to try and create a global footprint. That led him to all markets to grab a foothold, Harish HV, Partner, India Leadership Team, Grant Thornton India LLP, told Firspost. The sale to Grab should be seen in the light of Uber being practical and retreating from markets that house strong regional players, Harish added.

Uber counts the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America among its core markets  regions where it has an over 50 percent market share and is profitable, or sees a path to profitability. Unlike Kalanick, Khosrowshahi will remain practical and invest in those geographies where it is doing well. With an IPO scheduled for 2019, his focus would be to consolidate Uber's prospects in markets where it has a strong presence, according to the experts .

But India holds opportunities

The US-based company will keep retreating from markets where its operations are not viable, said Arvind Singhal, CMD, Teknopak Advisors, pointing out that it was pushed to second place in the Middle East too, with local ride-hailing player Careem ruling the roost there. However, India offers a huge opportunity for Uber India is the largest by its population, sheer mobility and lack of public infrastructure. I doubt whether they will want to move out. Other markets may be marginal in size and the cost of benefit is not so high, he said.

Another favourable aspect for Uber is that Indias market is not regulated like China's is, for instance, where neither Google nor Amazon could make much headway. The India market is not heavily bogged down by regulations like China is, said Satish Meena, a senior forecast analyst at Forrester Research, adding, China wont allow US companies to work in its market and so no matter how much money Uber was willing to spend, it just would not win there.

Though India is not currently a big market for Uber, it has the potential to become one in the near future, Meena said. India will be a big market for Uber in the coming years. They have the majority of rides from the top 8-9 cities in India and though India is a small market for Uber now, with disposable incomes set to grow higher in the coming years and customers open to the ride-hailing app, Uber stands a better chance to succeed in India, he said. Another point in favour for India, according to Meena, is that not many countries offer opportunities like India and he is confident that Uber will remain in the country.

Khosrowshahi's take

About the sale to SoftBank-backed Grab, Khosrowshahi, in a statement, said: It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology. Grab President Ming Maa told Reuters that it was really a very independent decision by both companies, adding that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son was highly supportive. SoftBank has been backing Ubers rivals across Asia, with investments in Didi and in India's Ola, according to an Economic Times report.

In February 2018, Uber and Russias Yandex completed a deal to combine their ride-sharing businesses in Russia and neighbouring countries.

Uber invested $700 million in its Southeast Asia business, which is much less than the $2 billion it burned in China. Competition for passengers and drivers has been on the rise in Southeast Asia, home to 640 million people, many of whom are tech-savvy smartphone users.Ubers deal with Grab would be similar to the one struck in China in 2016, when a bruising price war ended in Didi Chuxing buying out Ubers China business in return for a stake in the company.

Singapore: Ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian business to bigger regional rival Grab, sources with knowledge of the matter said on Sunday, in what would be the US companys second retreat from Asia.

The deal, which could be announced as early as Monday, marks the industrys first big consolidation in Southeast Asia, home to about 640 million people, and puts pressure on rivals such as Indonesias Go-Jek, backed by Alphabet Incs Google and Chinas Tencent Holdings Ltd. The sale price wasnt disclosed, but as part of the deal, Uber will be getting a 27.5 percent stake in the company, described as worth several billion dollars by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in an email sent to employees. He will also be joining Grabs board.

As part of the transaction, Uber would get a stake of as much as 30 percent in the combined business, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter who did not want to be identified as the deal is not yet public.

Another source familiar with the deal said Uber would acquire a 25 percent to 30 percent stake in Grab, valuing the entire business at $6 billion, the same valuation it commanded in its most recent capital raising.

Uber and Singapore-based Grab, Southeast Asias biggest ride-hailing firm, declined to comment.

Expectations of consolidation in Asias fiercely competitive ride-hailing industry were stoked earlier this year when Japans SoftBank Group Corp made a multi-billion dollar investment in Uber.

SoftBank is also one of the main investors in several of Ubers rivals, including Grab, Chinas Didi Chuxing, and Indias Ola.

Ride-hailing companies throughout Asia have relied on discounts and promotions to attract both riders and drivers in the fast-growing market, driving down profit margins.

Uber, which is preparing for a potential initial public offering in 2019, lost $4.5 billion last year and is facing fierce competition at home and in Asia, as well as a regulatory crackdown in Europe.

It is also recovering from a year of scandals that saw co-founder Travis Kalanick forced out as chief executive in June amid U.S. criminal inquiries and a workplace marred by sexual harassment allegations.

SoftBank gained two seats on Ubers board of directors through its investment and has said it wants the company to focus on growing in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Australia, but not in Asia, due to the lack of profitability.

Ubers CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at a conference in New York in November that the companys Asia operations were not going to be profitable any time soon, particularly because of how heavily Uber was subsidizing rides there.

The economics of that market are not what we want them to be, he said at the time.

Khosrowshahi, who took over the top job at Uber in August, has been working to clean up the companys financials ahead taking it public.

Still, during a visit to India in February, he pledged to continue investing aggressively in Southeast Asia.

Now that Uber is pulling out of Southeast Asia, attention may turn to the companys operations in India, which accounts for more than 10 percent of Ubers trips globally, but is not making money yet.

Ubers deal with Grab would be similar to the one struck in China in 2016, when a bruising price war ended in Didi Chuxing buying out Ubers China business in return for a stake in the company.

Grab raised about $2.5 billion last July from Didi, SoftBank and others in a deal valuing the company at around $6 billion. Bloomberg first reported the deal.Shah said that the proposal, which was rejected by the then Manmohan Singh government at the Centre in 2013, was only aimed at creating confusion among people

Poll fever in the southern state of Karnataka hit new highs on Monday as Bharatiya Janata Party's national president Amit Shah was in the state, trying to counter Siddaramiah government's latest move to turn over BJP's support base amid the Lingayat community.

From meeting the 110-year-old seer of the community to terming Chief Minister Siddaramaiah "Ahindu (anti-Hindu)", Shah was in full-swing to counter the Karnataka government's latest move to grant the community a separate religion status.

In between, he also reached out to the areca nut and coconut growers, while he had another program scheduled in Shivamogga to address the state's traders' community. But the thrust of Shah's two-day visit seemed to remain on retaining Lingayat community's support as he visited several Mutts of the community.

"This Siddaramaiah government has brought this proposal, not because it has love for Lingayats, but to prevent Yeddyurappa from becoming chief minister," he said addressing a Coconut Growers Convention here, as he began his two-day tour of election-bound Karnataka.

"Rahul Gandhi says that Congress unites Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians. He should look at how Siddaramaiah is trying to divide even Hindus, leave alone all other religions. In reality, Siddaramaiah is not an 'AHINDA' leader but 'Ahindu," Shah said.

AHINDA is the Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits, which was pitted as a superior socio-political philosophy to combat Hindutva, by Siddaramaiah

"I want to tell Karnataka people that if BJP wins a majority, we will make Yeddyurappa chief minister," he added.

The BJP had bent its own rules to name Lingayat heavyweight septuagenarian Yeddyurappa as BJP's chief ministerial candidate, even as the leader was embroiled in a corruption case.

However, the state cabinet's recent decision to recommend to the Centre to accord religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats seems to have outwitted the party's strategy to woo the community in the name of Yeddyurappa.

Shah said that the proposal, which was rejected by the then Manmohan Singh government at the Centre in 2013, was only aimed at creating confusion among people. He, however, believed that the people of the state would not be enticed by Siddaramaiah's "divide-and-rule politics."

Rahul should first point fingers at Siddaramaiah for dividing people before accusing BJP of it, Shah said.

"The Congress ship is sinking and to save it, the Congress is making its last efforts, and what it is doing? It is making efforts to divide people. The Congress chief minister is playing divide-and-rule politics of the British," Shah said.

He also criticised the Siddaramiah government for not bringing in the proposal earlier. "The Siddaramaiah government has proposed to accord religion and minority status to Lingayats, but why did it not do it earlier? Because that time, there was no need for gaining votes," the BJP president said.

He also launched a scathing attack on the Siddaramaiah government for failing to prevent farmers' suicides.

"In five years of Siddaramaiah's rule, as many as 3,781 farmers committed suicides. I want to ask the government, who is responsible for these suicides?" he asked.

"If you vote Yeddyurappa to become chief minister, I assure you farmers' suicides will come to a halt," he said. At a meeting in Shivamogga, the home district of Yeddyurappa. Shah said all development works in Karnataka under the Siddaramaiah government had come to a standstill. Shah also praised Yeddyurappa for tirelessly fighting for farmers' rights.

"Yeddyurappaji is regarded as the leader who has always stood for the interests of farmers. He had taken a Padyatra of 65 kilometres in 1982 for the farmers in Karnataka. He continues to fight for farmers," Shah said.

He alleged that the Rs 40-lakh watch controversy has exposed Siddaramaiah's corrupt practises.

"Siddaramaiah seeks proof from us about his corrupt practices. I have a big list before me, but everyone knows about Siddaramaiah wearing a Rs 40 lakh watch, which has only exposed his corruption and false credential of a socialist leader," he said.

"How many people can afford such a watch? Siddaramaiah is the socialist leader who wears watch worth Rs 40 lakh, that indicates how much corruption they have done," Shah said, answering his own question.

A controversy had arisen in May 2016 over Siddaramaiah wearing a gifted diamond-studded Hublot watch, whose value was then estimated at Rs 70 lakh.

But after the row erupted, he had handed it over to the Assembly speaker with a request to treat it as a state asset.

Shah urged the people to ask the Siddaramaiah government where the grants given by the Centre had vanished. He said the Modi government has introduced 112 central schemes, but their benefits were not reaching people.

Shah also likened the Siddaramaiah government to a burnt electricity transformer and asked people to overthrow it because the grants by the Centre for various central schemes were not percolating down to the people.

He also held a massive roadshow in Shivamogga, where he launched the state BJP's "Karunadu Jagruti Yatre'  a rally to awaken the electorate of Karnataka against the "misrule" of the Siddaramaiah government. The move was apparently a counter to Rahul's Jan Ashirwad Yatre.

The BJP president began his two-day tour by seeking the blessings of Sri Shivakumara Swami of Siddhaganga Mutt in Tumakuru, a revered seer of the Lingayat community. Shah's meeting with the seer is being seen as an attempt to reach out to the Lingayats/Veeshaivas, who are numerically and politically powerful in the state and form a major voter base for the BJP.

"Standing in front of Sri Sri Sri Shivakumaraji feels like standing in front of God. He has succeeded in bringing all sections of society together through education. I pray for his long life," Shah said.

He also visited the Bekkinakkal mutt in Shivamogga district.

With inputs from agencies.Anna Hazare's andolan at New Delhi's Ramlila Maidan was sparsely populated with protestors because of the tripartite nature of his demands.

Eighty-eight years ago, around these very dates (12 March to 6 April, 1930), a frail and bespectacled man led a group of some 78 followers towards the marshy edges of a coast in Gujarat and picked up a handful of non-purified salt in one small gesture. But in that gesture, British salt-tax laws were defied and a nation found itself firmly on the path of confrontation against its imperial rulers.

Later, Jawahar Lal Nehru wrote in his autobiography Toward Freedom (1936), "as we saw the abounding enthusiasm of the people and the way salt making was spreading like a prairie fire, we felt a little abashed and ashamed for having questioned the efficacy of this method when it was first proposed by Gandhijiwe marvelled at the amazing knack of the man to impress the multitude and make it act in an organised way." It is not the scale that defines the success and failure of a social movement, neither is it spirit, but the unbroken and undivided desperation of the times within which it takes place.

On the second and third day of Anna Hazare's satyagraha andolan, which fell on a balmy spring weekend, New Delhi's Ramlila Maidan was sparsely populated with protestors  the reason for that was the tripartite split in the concerns raised by the andolan.

The first one being farmers' distress. Anna's andolan is demanding that the farmer be compensated with 50 percent more than the cost of production of crops, that those above the age of 60 and solely dependent on agrarian activities be granted a pension of Rs 5,000 a month and that the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Price (CAPC) be made an autonomous institution.

Second is the implementation of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 and taking action on the issue of appointment of Lokayuktas, an anti-corruption ombudsman organisation in the Indian states. There's also the demand of doing away with the 2016 amendments in relation to the declaration of assets and liabilities by public servants, which in Anna's vision, weaken the said law.

As per the amendments, the Lokpal Act that requires a public servant to declare his assets and liabilities, and that of his spouse and dependent children, must be made to the competent authority within 30 days of entering the office.

Further, the public servant must file an annual return of such assets and liabilities by 31 July each year and the Lokpal Act of 2013 mandates that statements of declarations be published on the website of the relevant Ministry by 31 August. But, the 2016 bill states that a public servant shall be required to declare assets and liabilities but the form and manner of making such a declaration will be prescribed by the Union government.

The third and final demand the andolan is making is, in the wake of rising doubts over EVM hacks, the use of ballot paper in elections and the use of totaliser machines for counting of votes. He is also stressing on the Right to Reject that extends the NOTA (None of the Above) principle and invalidates the election in cases where a majority of the voters have chosen to press the NOTA button.

Finally, he is also voicing the demand for the Right to Recall. In 2017, Varun Gandhi had introduced a private bill that sought an amendment to the Representation of People Act, 1951 and suggested conferring on the electorate an option of recall that can be initiated by any elector through a recall petition signed by one-fourth of the total number of electors.

Unlike in 2012, where there was a clear-cut cause, of installing stringent checks on corruption within the system in the form of the Jan Lokpal Bill, this time around the issues seem too scattered and somewhat ambitious for any system to accept all at once.

The Aam Aadmi Party, that took birth on the stage Anna fasted on back then, has now grown up and walked away, leaving a sense of vacuum behind. A tired looking Anna, who has lost weight, is still a glimmer of hope to those who have nowhere else to go and hence, the ground was populated with protestors with concerns that stretched beyond the ones mentioned on the pamphlet.

Aside from aggrieved farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Odisha, present at the venue was a seven year old Krishna, who suffers from a rare genetic disorder and whose auto rickshaw driving father hadnt found the empathy of the Delhi government that has a budget of Rs 100 crore for curing patients with rare diseases.

Under the same tent were members of a panchayat union in Delhi demanding greater decentralisation of power. There was a retired fauji from the Purva Nausainik Sansthan who had come all the way from Rajasthan demanding, quite radically, that command and control of the forces be withdrawn from the government.

A small-time peasant from Meerut was roaming around and asking everybody whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to ever sell off extra chai (tea) when he worked as a chaiwala, just the way had been dumping extra produce to find a fair price.

The All Investor Safety Organisation unleashed on the protest site more than a hundred of those investors from whom money was allegedly collected by PACL and Pearls Golden Forest Limited in the name of sale and development of agricultural land.

Earlier this year, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had asked investors whose total outstanding amount with PACL was up to Rs 2,500 (per investor) to submit their claims for refund. The Supreme Court-appointed RM Lodha committee is overseeing the disposal of PACL assets to repay these affected investors but they seemed to want Annas help.

Even for the farmers, there isnt a dearth of protest marches to join nowadays. Some farmers from Nashik said they were here because they couldnt join the mammoth march to Mumbai some weeks ago.

The scene on the ground featured men in the Gandhi topi (cap) with the signature 'Mai bhi Anna' (I'm also Anna) message stamped along its flaps and some women in tri-coloured sarees sitting in a huddle, and some others walking through the mud pits that double up as toilets for the lack of a better arrangement made by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Most of the protesters were lying on a large carpeted floor around heaps of luggage like at any of Indias railway stations, drifting into a lethargic siesta as they waited for the next hope to arrive. The organisers seemed aware of the fragility of the mood and spun out AR Rahmans Maa Tujhe Salaam on loudspeakers, and then many Indian flags were pulled out and some people even rose up to wave them, as if suddenly remembering why they were there.

Aside from the protestors, not many made their presence felt  no celebrities, no student activists, no frenzied photographers, not even an eager bunch of chana sellers.

The concept of satyagraha has an immortality to it because suffering changes form and deceives time to linger on. However, the same movement may gain, loose and regain strength. In India, where fasts-unto-death are a popular recourse for those fighting for a cause, the delivery of justice is most likely delayed.

Take the case of Putti Sreeramulu, who was on an indefinite hunger strike in 1952 demanding the formation of an Indian state for the Telugu-speaking population of the Madras Presidency. Since Nehru was against the formation of states on linguistic lines, Shreeramulu's demand didnt garner prominence during the 58 days that it lasted.

It was only after his death that clashes erupted and Nehru agreed to the formation of Andhra Pradesh for the Telugu-speaking Indians with Kurnool as its capital. Today, each of Indias four South Indian states speaks its own language.

Anna is now older and failing to fill up one tent in a country of over 125 crore Indians, who will in some way or the other benefit from the issues he is raising. This isnt Annas defeat, this is the defeat of a democracy that has learnt how to brand and market protest and move on quickly from the reasons that may have led to it.Labourers and workers have alleged that they were promised Rs 350 each and food to participate in a public rally organised by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Haryana's Hisar, but they received neither the money, nor the food, despite attending the rally

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal found himself at the receiving end of criticism on social media after labourers and workers in Haryana alleged that they were not paid the promised amount of Rs 350 for appearing in a public rally organised by the Aam Aadmi Party in Hisar district on Monday.

ANI reported that labourers have claimed that the state party unit promised money to the labourers and workers if they appeared for the rally. They also claimed that the party had promised them food as well. However, they received neither despite attending the rally.

At the rally, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced that his party would contest all 90 seats in the elections in Haryana, which are scheduled to be held in October 2018. According to NewsX, Kejriwal had also attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress, accusing former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and present chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar of only being interested in gathering votes, at his Haryana Bachao Rally in Hisar. He also vowed to implement the Swaminathan committee recommendations for the welfare and betterment of farmers.

The party came under fire for promising to pay workers to attend AAP's rally. Twitterati slammed the party and AAP supremo Kejriwal once the allegations surfaced, condemning the action while also grabbing the opportunity to mock the Delhi chief minister and react to the allegations with a bit of humour.

Laborers allege they were promised Rs 350 each & food, to be present at Kejriwal's rally in Haryana yesterday but they neither got money nor food. Don't worry Laborers, You'll get apology letters signed by Kejriwal. And, All who're angry with these Laborers, please donate to AAP.  Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) March 26, 2018

We strongly condemn @AamAadmiParty 4 using money & fake promises to bring public in #ArvindKejriwal's public rally @ Haryana's Hisar yesterday. Labourers allege that they were promised Rs 350 each and food, to be present at but they neither got money nor food. Shame on U... pic.twitter.com/3HhvxduHk6  khemchand sharma (@SharmaKhemchand) March 26, 2018If Narendra Modi wants more initiatives like that of Ahmed Alis that he mentioned in his Mann Ki Baat address, he has to bring in a drastic overhaul of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, if not a complete junking of it

In his Man Ki Baat programme on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cited the example of a rickshaw puller from Karimganj district in Assam who built nine schools for poor children. That, he said, gave him a glimpse into the nations willpower.

But did he get a glimpse into the determination of state governments, cutting across party lines, to kill initiatives like this using the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (better known as the Right to Education or RTE Act)?

Maharashtra, where the government is headed by his protege Devendra Fadnis, has sent closure notices to 7,000 schools. The state is currently in the thick of a row over delayed reimbursements for admitting children under a 25 percent quota for economically weaker sections (EWS). It has not given refunds for five years now.

When the schools said that they will not admit students under the EWS category till their dues were settled, the state government threatened to cancel their registration. Some schools went to the court and got an interim stay. The state government has now said that the stay will apply only to schools that have gone to the court while administrators will be appointed in others.

But reimbursement is not the only issue troubling budget private schools (which is probably what the rickshaw pullers schools are) across the country. Saying that schools are not conforming to the various infrastructure and input norms stipulated by the RTE Act as a condition for recognition, many of these are being slapped with closure notices.

Kerala and Delhi have sent notices to 2,500 and 300 schools respectively, with a deadline of 30 March. Haryana too has sent notices to 1,300 schools. According to data put out by the National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA), as of May 2016 (the latest available consolidated data), a little over 4,000 schools have been closed since 2013 under the RTE Act while closure notices have been issued to around 7,700.

The RTE Act does not make a distinction between posh private schools charging around Rs 6,000 a month and budget private school that charges Rs 500-600 a month. Both are required to pay their teachers according to the latest Pay Commission award. The area requirement for both is same even though budget private schools operate out of congested low-income localities where the required space may not be available. Unfortunately, much of the lament-laden commentary about private schools fail to make this distinction.

At the risk of being accused of injecting a communal element into this important issue, one point needs to be made. The rickshaw puller in Assam may not face many of these issues. His name is Ahmed Ali and it is possible that the schools he has set up will be categorised as minority-run institutions, which are exempt from these stipulations. The answer to this, however, is not to bring minority institutions within the Acts fold. It is to insist on the scrapping of the Act itself.

Because this is not the only discrimination built into the RTE Act. Many government schools, too, do not have proper classrooms or conform to the prescribed pupil-teacher ratio. This is confirmed by both data from the District Information System for Education (DISE) as well the last Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the implementation of the RTE Act. Government schools, however, do not face the threat of de-recognition.

Worse, the RTE Act has only opened up avenues for corruption. The CAG report talks about excessive and irregular reimbursements, schools not meeting the required norms as well as those functioning without recognition. Could Ahmed Ali have set up nine schools if he did not enjoy exemption from the sundry conditions of the RTE Act and thus get freedom from paying bribes or spending time in compliance-related paperwork?

The working of the RTE Act has proved what critics warned when it was being debated and legislated  that it will do more harm than good. Even the good is questionable. The CAG report had pointed out, using the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE), that the net enrolment ratio (NER) in primary education (Class 1-5) has declined steadily from 96 percent in 2012-13 to 87.3 percent in 2015-16.

The demand for education among low-income groups is growing  there is a realisation that this is the only way out of poverty. But government schools alone cannot cater to this demand. Budget private schools are chipping in big time.

If Modi wants more initiatives like that of Ahmed Alis, he has to bring in a drastic overhaul of the RTE Act, if not a complete junking of it. The BJP now has a majority in the Rajya Sabha and is in power in 19 states. There can be no excuse to dither on this vital issue.

The writer is a senior journalist. She tweets at @soorpanakhaChina asserted that Doka La belongs to it and India should have 'learnt lessons' from the stand-off last year, days after India's envoy blamed China for the face-off

Beijing: China on Monday asserted that Doka La belongs to it and India should have "learnt lessons" from the stand-off last year, days after India's envoy blamed China for the face-off, saying it happened because Beijing tried to alter the "status quo" in the disputed area.

Reacting to India's Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale's remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, "Donglong (Doka La) belongs to China because we have historical conventions."

"China's activities there are within our sovereign rights. There is no such thing as changing status quo," she said at a media briefing here.

"Last year thanks to our concerted efforts and our wisdom we properly resolved this issue. We hope the Indian side could learn some lessons from this and stick to the historical conventions and work with China to ensure the atmosphere in the border areas is conducive for the development of bilateral ties," she said.

The India's envoy in an interview to Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post had blamed China for the stand-off in Doka La saying it happened because Beijing tried to alter the "status quo" which it should not have.

He had said that any change of status quo along the India-China border may lead to another Doka La-like crisis.

He said that though "no change" has taken place in the standoff site at Doka La after it was resolved last year, the PLA may be reinforcing its troops "well behind the sensitive area".

Asked about Bambawale's comments that the 3488-km long Line of Actual Control (LAC) should be demarcated and delineated, the foreign ministry spokesperson said on the delimitation China's position is clear and consistent.

"The east, middle and western side is yet to be officially demarcated," she said.

"China is committed to resolving the disputes through negotiations. China and India are exploring ways to resolve this territorial dispute through negotiations so that we can arrive at mutually acceptable solution," she said, referring to the boundary talks between the two countries.

The two sides have so far held 20 rounds of boundary talks.

"Pending final solution both sides should work together to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border area," she said.

Hua, however, commended Bambawale's comments that India has no concern about China's rise instead regard it as a motivation and China is not a competitor, rival or a threat but a partner in progress.

"I commend these remarks made by the India ambassador and all these positive remarks. The two countries are growing at fast pace. China and India are each other's important opportunities and to the whole world we present important opportunities," she said.

Both countries also share similar national conditions and development goals as well as common interests.

"We have every reason to be each other's partners. We would like to work with India to enhance political trust, mutually beneficial cooperation under the guidance of the two leaders to achieve common development," she said.

The 73-day standoff over China's attempt to build a road close to India's narrow Chicken Neck area connecting northeastern states ended in August last year after Chinese troops agreed to halt the road building activities at Doka La in Sikkim section.The city police on Sunday refused permission to a protest march planned by a group of activists to demand the arrest of Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.

Mumbai: The city police on Sunday refused permission to a protest march planned by a group of activists to demand the arrest of Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.

Permission for the 'Elgar Morcha' was denied as it could cause inconvenience to people on a working day, and the protesters were appealed to gather directly at the Azad Maidan in South Mumbai, police said in a release.

The activists wanted to take out the protest march from Ranubaug in Byculla, the release said.

Bhide is accused of instigating the violence against Dalits during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle in January. He has denied the allegation.

The violence that occurred near the war memorial at Bhima-Koregaon in Pune district on 1 January triggered a sharp reaction from Dalit organisations.

Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar had last week demanded Bhide's arrest by 26 March, warning of an agitation if the government didn't oblige.After the Mumbai police denied protesters permission to carry out a march demanding the arrest of Sambhaji Bhide, people instead gathered at Azad Maidan to register their demands.

After the Mumbai Police denied protesters permission to carry out a march demanding the arrest of Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, people instead gathered at Azad Maidan to register their demands.

Those in attendance included well-known Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar who is also the president of the Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh. Ambedkar's organisation has taken out the "Elgar Morcha", which saw thousands of supporters gathering at Azad Maidan at 11 am on Monday to ask for Bhide's arrest for his alleged involvement in the Bhima-Koregaon violence on 1 January, 2018.

More than 10,000 Dalit supporters gathered at Azad Maidan which caused some traffic jams but these were resolved after police officials stepped in to restore order.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has acknowledged the protest and will meet a delegation of protesters to discuss their demands.

Bhide is accused of instigating the violence against Dalits during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle in January. He has denied the allegation. The violence that occurred near the war memorial at Bhima-Koregaon in Pune district on 1 January triggered a sharp reaction from Dalit organisations.

Ambedkar had last week demanded Bhide's arrest by 26 March, warning of an agitation if the government didn't oblige.

The Mumbai Police had on Sunday denied permission for the march due to SSC exams and traffic problems and had asked protesters to assemble near Azad Maidan area instead. As per the earlier schedule, the protesters had to walk from Rani Baug in Byculla to Azad Maidan in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT). However, after the permission was denied, thousands of supporters took buses, private vehicles and trains to reach Azad Maidan.

Ambedkar however said that they were informed about the denial of permission only at 4 pm on Sunday and the same could not be communicated to everyone. As a result, "the people across the state, who wanted to join the march, had already left for Mumbai and now some of them are walking from Byculla," said Ambedkar.Prohibitory orders were clamped in Bihar's Aurangabad town following a clash between members of two communities during Ram Navami celebrations

Aurangabad/Patna: Prohibitory orders were clamped, on Monday, in Bihar's Aurangabad town following a clash between members of two communities during Ram Navami celebrations, an official said. The violence left several persons injured and nearly a dozen shops gutted. The incident also led to a heated exchange between Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in the Bihar Assembly.

People from both sides indulged in heavy stone-pelting and arson on Sunday while a Ram Navami procession was being taken out.

"We have clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC. The situation in the town is tense but under control," Aurangabad District Magistrate Rahul Ranjan Mahiwal told PTI over the phone.

The issue led to a war of words in the Bihar Assembly where the Leader of Opposition, Tejashwi Yadav, alleged that for the past several hours, riots had been taking place at Aurangabad and shops belonging to a community were being set afire and curfew had to be imposed.

Yadav made the allegations while state minister Vijender Yadav was reading out the government's reply to the debate on the budgetary allocation for the home department.

A visibly upset chief minister, Nitish Kumar, rose to intervene and said the floor of the House must not be used to give publicity to rumours which could aggravate communal tensions.

Kumar said Ram Navami had passed off peacefully in Bihar "with a few exceptions" and asserted that there was no report of curfew or police firing in Aurangabad.

"If you (Tejashwi) try to give vent to rumours through the House, it vitiates the atmosphere...Please don't do such things," Kumar said.

"If there is any local issue and you want to make it a state-level one through the House, then it will be construed that you are willing to whip up passions... We all should try to maintain peace and amity," the chief minister said.

Using the endearment "Babu" to address the young RJD leader more than once, Kumar told his former deputy that he has a long political career ahead of him and hence should be willing to learn.

He turned towards veteran RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui, who was seated beside Yadav, and was heard asking "Why does anyone not teach him (Tejashwi) some basics?"

"We all, including the DGP and the Home Secretary, are talking to the people concerned. Senior officials have been rushed to the spot to keep things under control", he said, adding "No one will be spared".The parents of 42 other students from the school also filed an application in high court seeking that he be directed to stay away from the school since they feared for the safety of their children.

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday restrained the trustee of an international school in Andheri, who had been accused of rape, from entering the school premises until further orders, after the parents of some of the students approached it.

The trustee, a French national, was arrested last year for allegedly raping a three-year-old student.

He was granted bail in November last year and resumed his duties at the school.

However, the mother of the victim, filed a plea in the high court seeking cancellation of his bail.

The parents of 42 other students from the school also filed an application in high court seeking that he be directed to stay away from the school since they feared for the safety of their children.

Vijay Hiremath, the counsel for the victim's mother, today argued that the session court's order of November 24 last year, granting bail to the trustee, was bad in law.

He submitted that the victim had given cohesive and consistent testimony on multiple occasions and had also identified the perpetrator.

"However, surprisingly, the sessions court held that the victim's statement was full of inconsistencies," Hiremath said.

The trustee's counsel Shirish Gupte, however, told the high court that the sessions court order was a "well reasoned" one.

Gupte told the court that the prosecution had also told the sessions court that it had not found any incriminating evidence against the accused.

Justice Revati Mohite-Dere, who was presiding over the pleas, noticed after going through the victim's statements that they were indeed cohesive.

Thus, when she asked the prosecution how it had made the above statement before the sessions court, the investigating officer told the court that the prosecution had never made such a statement.

"This is a serious matter. There is sufficient material against the present accused. Therefore, if the Assistant Public Prosecutor never made such a statement before the sessions court then this is even more disturbing," Justice Mohite-Dere said.

She also directed the state's officer present, who had appeared before the sessions court, to file an affidavit on the prosecution's statement made before the sessions court during the bail hearing.

The incident dates back to May last year, when the victim's parents noticed changes in her behaviour, and difficulty in sitting and walking.

When they asked her if anyone had hurt her or touched her inappropriately, she pointed to a picture of the school trustee, the child's mother said in the plea.

An FIR was lodged against the trustee in May 2017, however he was arrested only in November 2017, after the victim's parents filed a writ petition in the high court alleging police inaction.The Rajya Sabha, rocked by constant disruptions, will meet at 11 am on Monday. The Lok Sabha will not convene on account of Ramnavami on Sunday.

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Amid the outrage over the Nirav Modi scam and Karti Chidambaram's arrest in the INX Media case, the NDA government is possibly staring at a stormy second half of Budget Session which begins from Monday. The first part of the budget session was held from 29 January to 9 February, while second half of the session will come to a close on 9 April.

The Congress is also likely to denounce the government over the arrest of former Union finance minister P Chidambaram's son Karti by the CBI in the INX Media alleged bribery case. The Congress has termed the CBI action "political vendetta".

The Opposition is also likely to corner the government over the tussle between Prasar Bharti and the Information and Broadcasting ministry. It is likely to raise issues concerning farmers, the Rafale deal, Staff Selection Commission "job scam", loss of life and property due to ceasefire violations on the LoC and increase in cost of petroleum products.

Meanwhile, YSRCP MPs from Andhra Pradesh are likely to hold a dharna against the Centre in the Parliament premises. The party is also expected to initiate a no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha on 21 March, reported Livemint.

BJP MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe calls for suspension of today's session under rule 267 of the Parliament in order to discuss allegations of corruption indulged by family members of former ministers under the tacit protection of ministers.

D Raja of the CPI too has issued an adjournment notice in the Rajya Sabha in order to discuss the Punjab National Bank scam. This is the third adjournment motion on the issue.

CNN-News18 is reporting that the BJP president will be meeting a delegation from the TDP to discuss the issue of special status to the state of Andhra Pradesh. According to the report, TDP is currently adamant on the 19 demands for the state. On the other hand, the YSRCP is also pressurizing the government over the same issue.

The bill to target economic offenders was approved by the government following the escape of diamond merchant Nirav Modi and other accused in the over Rs 12,700-crore Punjab National Bank scam.

The passage of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, which seeks confiscation of assets of absconding fraudsters and loan defaulters, and the triple talaq bill will be high on the government's agenda.

The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill 2017 and The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill 2017 will be tabled in the Lower House of the Parliament, reported PTI.

TDP MPs prtoest outside the Parliament over the issue of special status for Andhra Pradesh

Today has been the day of adjournment motions. A notice for an adjournment motion can be issued under rule 267 of the Parliament. It is generally utilised by an MP to discuss a matter of public importance. Three of the adjournment motions have been issued to discuss the Nirav Modi scam, while Pappu Yadav has issued an adjournment motion to discuss the alleged scam in the SSC exams. On the other hand, BJP MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe has issued an adjournment notice to discuss the allegations of corruption by relatives of former ministers.

While the Opposition is expected to target the government over financial scams in the recent past, the BJP is likely to pin the blame on the Congress-led UPA regime. The BJP has already claimed that the PNB scam had begun when the UPA was in power and its government has acted with alacrity after the fraud came out in the open. The party, energised by the win in Tripura and impressive performance in Nagaland and Meghalaya elections, is likely to be aggressive in Parliament and rake up scams that happened on the Congress watch to pin it down, party sources said.

However, Opposition created a ruckus in the House as soon as the session began.

Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Venkaiah Naidu is saying that everyone who issued an adjournment notices under rule 267 will get a chance once he holds a discussion with Arun Jaitley, the Leader of Rajya Sabha. He added that many of the members have to look at some other rule in the Parliament rule book to talk in the Parliament. On the issue of Cauvery water, Naidu said that the adjournment notice issued by AIADMK MP Navneethakrishnan will be discussed in Zero Hour.

According to Financial Express, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and BJP president Amit Shah are scheduled to meet a TDP delegation, and more importantly the Andhra Pradesh finance minister, over the issue of granting Andhra Pradesh with special category status.

"Don't create hungama," said Venkaiah Naidu as Opposition continued to create ruckus over PNB scam, 'Special Category Status' to Andhra Pradesh and other issues. This forced Naidu to adjourn the Upper House of the Parliament till 2 pm.

However, the Opposition continues to create ruckus. The Opposition has also walked into the Well of the House to protest against the government.

The resignation of Neiphiu Rio, who was elected to the Nagaland Assembly unopposed, and who is likely to be the next Chief Minister of Nagaland, has been accepted by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

The Rajya Sabha has resumed operations, with PJ Kurien seated at the Chair. However, MP's continued there agitation even as the Speaker took his seat. Slogans of "Nirav Modi vapas lao" raged in the Parliament while Kurien urged the MPs to maintain decorum of the House.

PJ Kuries, in an attempt to calm down the agitated members, acknowledged that the issues raised by them were important and agreed to allow discussion on them one by one. For today, he granted permission to conduct a debate on the frauds in public sector banks. However, Opposition MPs refused to vacate the Well and continued raising slogans. There demand was that the prime minister must explain why he could not keep his promise to bring back Nirav Modi and other people alleged scamsters.

In the Rajya Sabha, ministers are laying the papers on the table

Members of the Opposition come to the Well of the House to protest against Nirav Modi. Slogans of "Nirav Modi ko wapas lao" are being heard. Meanwhile, Venkaiah Naidu has adjourned Rajya Sabha till 11.30 am.

Times Now is reporting that Lok Sabha will be holding a marathon four-hour-long discussion on the issue, starting at noon.

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the much talked about Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) Bill, 2018 which will be tabled in the remaining Budget session in Parliament. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that the government has also decided to set up an independent body NFRA (National Financial Reporting Authority) to crackdown on big scams and avoid Nirav Modi-like situation in future. For the purpose the government will amend Companies Act.

While the ministers have tabled their papers, the Opposition continue raise slogans against the government. The Opposition is raising slogans like "Chota Modi, bada Modi Murdabad".

"The second half of the Budget Session is important for passing financial bills. I request the Congress, TDP, TRS and other parties to calm down and let the Hosue continue its work," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said.

While speaking in the Parliament, Union Minister Ananth Kumar said that Arun Jaitley will be making a statement on the issue. However, he also took the opportunity to target the Congress and the previous UPA government. "No one involved in the Congress-led UPA era corruption scandals will be spared," he said.

According to News18, MPs from four parties storming the Well to protest for different demands. While the Congress and the Trinamool Congress want debate on the PNB scam, the AIADMK is protesting over the Cauvery issue. The TRS wants the Constitution amended to skirt the 50% ceiling for reservation in jobs and education, while the TDP wants special status for Andhra Pradesh.

"We have to look at the importance of passing the women's reservation bill," Kanimozhi said.

"Families want to abort and kill the girl child. There are so many dowry deaths. Domestic violence is on the rise. When is all this going to stop?" she further said.

"Men are celebrating us today as mothers, sisters, daughter. I think it's time for women to say, 'enough of that'. We don't want to be celebrated for our sacrifices. We want to be celebrated for our identity," Kanimozhi said in the Rajya Sabha.

Women don't want to be celebrated for their sacrifices, they want to be celebrated for their identities: Kanimozhi

"I find it strange that we celebrate Women's Day. But men don't celebrate any particular day. I am not in favour of this tokenism. I request all the men to stop throwing crumbs at us and treat us with respect throughout the year," Anu Aga said in the Rajya Sabha.

"Earlier, people used to say, 'behing every successful man, there is a woman'. But now, the saying has become 'behind every successful man, there is a nationalised bank," said Derek O'Brien in the Rajya Sabha, clearly taking a dig at the Modi government over the PNB scam.

"Everyone should promise that the restrictions imposed on women by men will be abolished. On Valentine's Day, girls and couples should not be beaten up. In the name of anti-Romeo squad, women were beaten up in UP," AAP's Sanjay Singh said in the Rajya Sabha.

"On other hand, there are crimes against women which bring about shame to us. Which is why this day is one on which we should take a pledge to end such crimes," Swaraj said. "This should be a movement," she added.

"India is a country where a woman became president, prime minister, twice became the Speaker of a House," she said. "Today, women are doing combat duty in the army, flying planes in the air force," she added.

"International Women's Day gives us an opportunity to look at the requirements for gender equality," Sushma Swaraj said in the Rajya Sabha. "Women's reservation bill is important. But there are achievements by women even without reservation," she said.

We should take a pledge this day to end crimes against women: Sushma Swaraj

The Opposition parties protested against the passage of the budget without debate, as the session is slated to continue till 6 April.

The Finance Bill as well as the Appropriation Bill were passed in a matter of 25 minutes during which Opposition parties and ruling NDA ally TDP shouted slogans and created a din. The Lower House was adjourned for the day immediately thereafter.

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the crucial Finance Bill 2018 and a Rs 89.25 lakh crore spending plan for the next fiscal year without discussion amid ruckus, which led to the adjournment of both the Houses of Parliament for the eighth day.

The Rajya Sabha began Thursday's session with an obituary of former MP Hamida Habibullah. The members observed a minute of silence for the same.

Lok Sabha MPs could be heard protesting in the background even as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan tries to conduct the Thursday's session. Congress and other Opposition party members stormed the Well. Ministers speaking can hardly be heard over the din.

Even as Opposition party members stormed the Well in the Lok Sabha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the Centre is willing to discuss the Cauvery issue and special package to Andhra Pradesh but it cannot be done so with protests in the Well.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was forced to adjourn the Lower House till 12 pm on Thursday within less than 10 minutes of the session's beginning.

Former Union minister and TDP MP YS Chowdary speaks on why he resigned from the BJP-led Centre in Rajya Sabha

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, former Union MoS for Science and Technology YS Chowdary said that the Andhra Pradesh bifurcation was done unjustly and unscientifically. "The division could have been done after taking care of employment potential, development in both states. Both states must have been developed equally for 10 years by the government in power at the time," he said. Following his opening remarks, other members of the House began to clamour and protest, creating a din.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu was forced to adjourn the House due to loud protests over former Union minister and TDP MP YS Chowdary's remarks on why he resigned from the Council of Ministers of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government.

Opposition MPs continued to storm the Well of the House even as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan resumed the session.

The Rajya Sabha was earlier adjourned till 2 pm on Thursday amid sharp exchanges between former Union minister from the TDP, YS Chowdary, and the Congress members over the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 under the UPA government.

If accepted, it will be the first no-confidence motion moved against the Modi-government.

The motion can be accepted only if it has the support of at least 50 members in the House. YSR Congress has nine MPs in the Lok Sabha.

The YSR Congress's MP YV Subba Reddy gave the notice to the Lok Sabha secretariat for including the motion in Friday's list of business, his office said.

The YSR Congress on Thursday gave a notice for moving a no-confidence motion against the BJP-led NDA government following the Centre's refusal to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh and found unlikely support from its arch-rival Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

YSR Congress Party MP YV Subba Reddy submitted a notice to the Lok Sabha Secretary-General Snehalata Shrivastava for moving a motion on 'No-Confidence in the Council of Ministers' in the house.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has become the first BJP ally to break away from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Follow LIVE updates on the same here.

After announcing the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) pulls out of the NDA, party MP Thota Narasimhan told ANI that the TDP will be moving a no-confidence motion on Friday. "We have decided... we are out of the NDA," he added.

"TDP withdrew support from the NDA, which did injustice to Andhra Pradesh. TDP president Chandrababu Naidu took this decision in an emergency teleconference with party politburo members and MPs, which was unanimously supported. TDP to also introduce no-confidence motion against NDA government," ANI quoted the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's Office as saying.

"TDP's decision to quit was inevitable after its mischievous propaganda against Centre. People of Andhra Pradesh have now realised that TDP is resorting to lies to cover up its inert governance. TDP's exit is a timely opportunity for the BJP to grow in Andhra Pradesh," BJP national spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao tweeted.

Speaking to ANI , BJP MP Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi commented on the TDP-NDA break up saying that every year before actual elections, there is always a rehearsal in Parliament. "We will see what happens in Parliament, which party chooses to go which way. In a way it is election year, and every state has demands and issues. It is not right for us to comment on it. It is a custom, before actual elections there is always a rehearsal in Parliament," he said.

Sarfaraz Alam (Araria, Bihar), Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel (Phulpur, Uttar Pradesh), Pravin Kumar Nishad (Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh), who won the recent bypolls held in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, took their oath as Lok Sabha MPs on Friday.

Supporting the no-confidence motion against the NDA government, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury tweeted: "Its (BJP's) betrayal of the promise of special status for Andhra Pradesh is inexcuseable. Its all-round failure and evasion of parliamentary accountability needs to be highlighted."

After the obituary references were read out, Opposition parties' MPs created a ruckus over the no-confidence motion against the NDA government. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House till 12 pm.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said his party will support the no-confidence motion against the NDA government in the Lok Sabha. "MIM party will support the no confidence motion in Lok Sabha, not only for failure of Modi government to implement State Reorganisation Act but their failure to fulfill their promise to provide employment to youth ans for injustice to Muslim women and minorities," CNN-News18 quoted him as saying.

"We have no confidence in their no-confidence motion, so we have decided to go on our own," he said. - PTI

TDP MP CM Ramesh added that YSR Congress MP Vijaysai Reddy was seen making attempts to meet the prime minister and this hinted at a nexus between both parties.

Andhra Pradesh's ruling party had on Thursday offered to back the YSR Congress' no-confidence motion but has now said it withdraws the support as it smells a nexus between it and the BJP.

TDP decided to move its own no-confidence motion after suspecting nexus between YSRCP and BJP

Speaking to ANI , BJP national spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao claimed that the Andhra Pradesh government and TDP are wary of the BJP's rise in the state. "The state government and TDP are feeling the pinch of the public opinion going against them and BJP will use this as an opportunity to grow as a political party and emerge as a dominant political force in Andhra Pradesh. For us it will prove to be the next Tripura," Rao said.

Even as Opposition MPs continued to chant slogans in the House, with TRS, TDP MPs storming the Well of the House, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan began with business for the day. She also said that she is duty-bound to introduce the two no-confidence motions but asked protesting MPs to sit in their places. As she said this, Opposition protests began to get louder.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day after Telagana Rashra Samithi (TRS) MPs stormed the Well. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said she cannot introduce the two no confidence motions by YSRCP and TDP if House members continued to disrupt proceedings as she needed to check if there are 50 members to support each motion. Protesting MPs created more ruckus in response, forcing her to adjourn Lok Sabha till Monday.

The NDA had stormed to power with 336 seats in 2014, of which the BJP alone claimed 282 seats. However, a series of bypolls that went against the saffron party meant that its tally in the Lok Sabha currently stands at 273 seats. When one adds the allies the BJP does have by its side  Shiv Sena, JD(U), Apna Dal, LJP, SAD, RLSP, PDP  the tally rises to 312. If the TDP can be persuaded to come around once again, this could rise to 328, a comfortable majority.

The TDP has 16 MPs, and it said it would move a no-confidence motion against the Central government. In doing so, it would be following in the footsteps of rival Andhra Pradesh party, the YSR Congress, which has also said it would be moving a no-confidence motion against the Centre. The two Andhra parties have been miffed with the BJP following the latter's inability to grant special status for the state.

As some other Congress members were on their feet trying to join the issue simultaneously, Naidu adjourned the House till 2.30 PM.

"Do you want this sort of a thing to continue? ... Is that your suggestion. This is your party view," he said.

To this, Naidu asked if somebody committed a mistake in the past, does it mean that he should also do the same.

As he was making the appeal, Congress member Satyabrat Chaturvedi stood up and said he agreed with the Chair, but sought to know whether it was for the first time that he is witnessing such a scenario in Parliament.

"I am very much pained that the Upper House of Parliament is not able to transact its business for last two weeks. Dont't test my patience...We are meeting, greeting and not doing anything and adjourning," the Chairman said.

Before adjourning the House till 2.30 PM, Naidu said there were larger issues like banking scam, Cauvery river water sharing, demand for a special package to Andhra Pradesh and sealing in the national capital, which were agitating the minds of people and needed to be discussed.

After tabling of the listed papers, Naidu expressed his anguish saying the House has not functioned ever since it resumed on March 5 after recess during the Budget session.

The Rajya Sabha today witnessed an abrupt adjournment following a brief argument between Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and some Congress members soon after the House assembled for the day.

Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha told Chowsary to resume his speech from yesterday, which was interrupted due to the disruption of the House. He, however, added that Chowdary must stick to the speech approved by the Chairman and resist making any allegations.

Chowdary said that the former prime minister Manmohan Singh has promised that Centre's hand-holing to Andhra. He then added that both the national parties were responsible for the secession of Andhra Pradesh and a certain help was promised to us at the time. Chowdary further said that the new constitutional restriction being cited by the Centre should not be applicable retrospectively to what was promised to Andhra.

The deputy chairman, however, expunged those remarks as he said the Chairman had seen and vetted the speech but Chowdary had deviated from the approved version.

In the course of his speech, Chowdary quoted the Opposition MP Venkaiah Naidu requesting special status for Andhra for at least 10 years. This elicited an objection from Railway Minister Piyush Goyal who said that Chowdary was trying to cast aspersions on the Chair (Venkaiah Naidu). This was met with sharp opposition from the Congress members who requested the quotes to be repeated.

It is expected to be a stormy day in the Parliament on Monday, especially for the Lok Sabha where the two no-confidence motions against the Narendra Modi-led NDA government by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and YSR Congress Party are likely to be taken up.

However, equations with the existing allies aren't particularly rosy. In particular with Shiv Sena, the largest non-BJP constituent of the NDA. If the Sena follows TDP by backing out, the figure of 314 will go down to 296, just 23 more than the magic figure of 273, and the BJP can no longer be certain of its future.

The NDA had stormed to power with 336 seats in 2014, of which the BJP alone claimed 282 seats. However, a series of bypolls that went against the saffron party meant that its tally in the Lok Sabha currently stands at 274 seats. When one adds the 11 allies the BJP still has by its side  Shiv Sena, JD(U), Apna Dal, LJP, SAD, RLSP, PDP, PMK, SWP, NPP and AINR Congress  the tally rises to 314 . If the TDP can be persuaded to come around once again, this could rise to 330, a comfortable majority.

RECAP: With TDP quitting NDA, Centre's strength comes down to 314 from 336 in Lok Sabha

RJD's JP Yadav gave an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha on Monday over the recent "communal incidents of violence in Araria, Bhagalpur and Darbhanga", reported ANI .

Speaking to ANI, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said the party will "wait and watch" what happens in the Parliament on Monday. He said: "We will also have to see if the Speaker allows the no confidence motion or rejects it. TDP has its own state issues and we welcome them. As of now we have not decided yet on no confidence motion. Uddhav ji (Thackeray) will take a call."

The Parliament secretariat received three separate notices for a no-confidence motion against the BJP government on Monday, two of which were from TDP and one from the YSR Congress, reported ANI . Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan is likely to take up the notices after Question Hour if the House is in order.

CPI leader Duraisamy Raja said that the Left parties will be supporting the no-confidence motion in the Parliament on Monday. "People have started expressing their no confidence in the Modi government, it is time the Parliament does it too," ANI quoted him as saying.

He had earlier also said the BJP enjoys support "inside and outside" the Parliament, according to Business Standard . "I want to tell the Congress and other Opposition members that there is confidence inside and outside the House. That's why the BJP is ready to face the no-confidence motion," said Kumar.

Ahead of Monday's Parliament session, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said that the saffron party was ready to face the no-confidence motion as it is sure it has the necessary support.

In less than two minutes of being in session, the Lok Sabha was adjourned till 12 pm. As soon as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan entered the House, loud protests and sloganeering dominated the scene, making it impossible for any business to be conducted amid the din.

Slogans of "We want justice" could be heard as Chairman Venkaiah Naidu said, "This is not in the interest of the country, and Parliament. I am willing to allow also these discussions. How long should we continue like this?"

The Upper House of the Parliament was adjourned till tomorrow after TDP and AIADMK MPs began protesting in the Rajya Sabha.

He also said that the TDP also increased the state's budget by Rs 1100 crores. "We will strive to do the same in future. We are moving to work to move forward in skill development to help the people of Andhra Pradesh," he said.

He also claimed that the YSR Congress Party is only 'playing politics' and has no interest in the state's welfare. Trying to assuage people's sentiments, Naidu said that the "TDP government is undertaking multiple irrigation projects to ensure the state's development is not stalled amid all this."

Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday said that the state is being cheated by the Central government. "We are being cheated by the government. The BJP is making false allegations against me," he said.

Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant told ANI that the party will abstain from the no-confidence motion. "We will neither support the government nor the Opposition. We will abstain," he said.

As soon as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan took up the Question Hour, members from these parties trooped into the Well holding placards. While members from the TDP, YSR Congress, TRS and AIADMK were in the Well raising slogans and holding placards, MPs from the TMC and Congress were seen standing at their seats. This forced the House to be adjourned till 12 pm.

The Lok Sabha proceedings were disrupted for the 11th day on Monday as the TDP, YSR Congress, TRS and AIADMK continued their noisy protests over various issues, including the banking scam and special status for Andhra Pradesh.

Even as the Lower House resumed its proceedings, sloganeering dominated the scene as TDP, AIADMK MPs could be heard shouting "We want justice". However, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan began with day's business, asking ministers to lay their papers on the table.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said: "We want discussion on the no-confidence motion. I request all MPs to maintain decorum so that we can discuss it. We are ready to discuss any issue with any member."

Following continuous uproar in the Lok Sabha, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House till Tuesday. TSR, YSRCP MPs trooped into the Well, while chanting slogans such as "We want justice". Mahajan tried to introduce the no-confidence motion notices but requested all MPs to sit at their designated spots so that a quorum could be established. Opposition members and other parties' MPs continued to create a ruckus, forcing the House to be adjourned for the day.

The Samajwadi Party on Monday accused the government of egging AIADMK to stage protests in the Lok Sabha to avoid a no-confidence motion even as Tamil Nadu's ruling party warned that it would not allow business in both the Houses of Parliament till the Centre gives an assurance on the constitution of the Cauvery River Management Board.

MoS Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel said the government is ready discuss all issues. However protests cause Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu to adjourn the Rajya Sabha till 21 March.

Sushma Swaraj starts speaking about the Indians in Mosul. She had spoken about the issue in the Rajya Sabha earlier.

The Bills have already been passed in the Lok Sabha

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to move Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill in Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The Bill gives the government power to confiscate the assets of such defaulters.

"Let us all protest and, if required, sit on hunger strike at every place, sport black badges during working hours in offices. Let us awaken the people," party chief N Chandrababu Naidu said at a meeting of women self-help groups.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) held protests in Vijayawada on Thursday about the Andhra Pradesh special status row, reported CNN-News18. The TDP had decided to extend support to the National Highways blockade programme called by the Opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh seeking special category status to the state.

As the deadlock in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha continued on Wednesday, here is a look at how both the Houses spent their time while in session ( as per PRS ):

What has the Parliament been spending its time on?

Protests and sloganeering marked the day's proceedings in the Lok Sabha as it began on Thursday. Opposition MPs could be heard chanting "We want justice" in the background, even as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan tried to conduct the day's business. As the protests grew louder, she said, "Nobody wants to listen, nobody wants to run the House." She then adjourned the Lok Sabha till 12 pm.

"At the time of passing the AP Reorganisation Act, they (government) gave some provisions under it. People are suffering in Andhra Pradesh," said TDP's CM Ramesh.

Chairman Venkaiah Naidu said that several leaders had approached him personally and let the the amendment Bill be passed.

MoS Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel said, "The government wants to discuss everyone's issues. I request we discuss and pass other Bills."

Just as the House passed the Gratuity Bill, AIADMK and TDP MPs trooped into the Well of the House holding placards and created ruckus. To this, Chairman Venkaiah Naidu said " People want to know why the Chairman is adjourning the House? I would like to tell the people that I don't want these ugly scenes to be seen by them. Each day, some or the other party troops into the Well." Nearly 20 MPs stood in the Well surrounding Naidu, and chanting loud slogans.

As the Opposition refused to back down, Chairman Venkaiah Naidu adjourned Rajya Sabha for the day.

"I would like to request all the MPs to go back to their places and let the House function. We are ready to talk about all issues, including the no-confidence motion notices that are being brought to the House," said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, even as AIADMK and TDP MPs continued their sloganeering near the Well of the House.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said she cannot act upon the no-confidence motion notices until there is order in the House. "I can't see anybody. I need to count heads (to establish a quorum of 50 members)," she said.

After 14 days of low productivity in the second edition of the Budget Session of the Parliament, the Centre is likely to make a fresh push to pass pending bills even as the Opposition remain vehement to corner the government over issues like the Punjab National Bank scam, the murder of 39 Indians in Iraq by Islamic State among others.

The Congress has issued a three-line whip to all its MPs in the Rajya Sabha asking them to be present in the House at 11 am in full strength on Friday and support the party's stand, PTI reported.

The Parliament is lagging behind in terms of finishing scheduled tasks with productivity level really low. The Budget Session of Parliament, which reconvened after a brief break on 5 March, has been marred with protests, with the daily functioning in both Lok Sabha and Rajya well below 0.1 hours (six minutes), according to PRS data.

With TDP's no-confidence motion notice still pending before the Lok Sabha, Chandrababu Naidu's party, which recently exited the NDA alliance, has appealed to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to hold an all-party meeting on special status to Andhra Pradesh as well, reports said.

"I request the leaders of the parties to come to the chamber of the chairman," Naidu also said.

"This is totally undemocratic, totally unbecoming of Members of Parliament. You are weaking your cause. Please, you are all members. You must uphold the dignity of the House," Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said before adjourning the House for 15 minutes.

"Madame Speaker, you have always asked the House to be conducted in order. The government is ready for a discussion...Congress has become a marginal party," said Union minister Ananth Kumar in response.

"There are more than 50 members here who want to move a no-confidence motion," said Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.

As the ruckus in the Lower House continued, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House for the day.

Narendra Modi to retiring Rajya Sabha MPs: I am sorry Parliament failed you in this last session

Modi also said that the doors of Parliament and his Prime Minister's Office (PMO) will always remain open to them, and they are welcome to visit him whenever they like.

While bidding the departing MPs goodbye, Modi also took a sarcastic jibe at protesting Opposition MPs, saying they nearly ensured this Session didn't take place and nearly denied this vote of thanks.

Opposition ensured this Sesssion didn't take place and nearly denied this vote of thanks: Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi also added that it was unfortunate that they didn't get a chance to pass important legislations in their final session, but may look back at their tenure gladly given the passing of landmark bills like the Triple Talaq bill.

Unfortunate that you didn't get chance to pass important legislations in their final session: Narendra Modi

"People have been agitating for special status, for their water, for their poor farmers and labourers. The MPs have been fighting on their behalf. If the people get what is rightfully theirs, it's not their parliamentarians who will stand to benefit," Azad said.

He added that it's unfair to say MPs have been fighting and disrupting Parliament, because they are sent to Parliament to represent the needs of the people.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, meanwhile, said the Central Hall of Parliament is full of former MPs and he looks forward to seeing many of the retiring MPs at the same place in the future.

Unfair to say MPs have been disrupting Parliament, because they are sent to Parliament to represent needs of the people: Ghulam Nabi Azad

The second part of this session has 22 sittings, and is scheduled to conclude on 6 April. Five more sittings are slated.

This is the final week that the Houses are functioning in the Budget Session

Members from the Congress, the Left, the TDP and some other parties stood up holding the blue placards, apparently to show her that there were 80 members supporting the no-confidence motion

After a brief discussion on scams in public-sector banks, Bills such as the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill and the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill to be tabled in Rajya Sabha today

Arun Jaitley to move Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill in the Lok Sabha today, which is a Bill to deal with economic offenders who leave the country

"Most MPs are already seated. If everyone stops shouting and goes back to their seat, I can see how many support for the no-confidence motion. the House must be in order," Sumitra Mahajan said.

Day 19 of Parliament's Budget Session is likely to get underway shortly, but MPs from various Opposition parties have already begun protesting inside Parliament premises, drawing attention to various causes.

With Opposition parties slamming the central government over atrocities being committed on Dalits, Union minister Ananth Kumar has said the government is "committed" towards protecting the rights of Dalits. "Whenever Congress is in power, they are responsible for inciting people and spreading violence," Ananth Kumar said.

Lok Sabha was adjourned till noon within six minutes of starting proceedings, with Tamil Nadu MPs launching their demand the formation of a Cauvery Management Board.

Congress MPs from Punjab have climbed on to the roof of Parliament

When Lok Sabha reconvenes at noon, Home Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to address the House. Rajnath is expected to talk about the violence that singed large parts of the country of Monday.

As Opposition MPs kept up noisy protests, Home Minister Rajnath Singh addresses Lok Sabha over violence that singed large parts of the country on Monday. "The government has not diluted the provisions of the SC/ST Atrocities Act. In fact, we have strengthened the act. We have introduced provisions for the protection of victims, who are already suffered enough. Moreover, if officials are found lacking in their response to a complaint filed by anybody, we want action initiated against them as well," Rajnath Singh said.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan tried to address Lok Sabha on Tuesday, but noisy protests kept her from speaking. She was responding to Home Minister Rajnath Singh's speech earlier in the day. Faced with unrelenting Opposition protests, Mahajan adjourned Lok Sabha for the day.

Within minutes of proceedings beginning, Lok Sabha was adjourned till 12 pm after MPs raised slogans of 'We want justice, we want Cauvery board'

Amid loud protests, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien adjourned the Rajya Sabha for 30 minutes, after having pleaded with protesting MPs to go back to their seats.

New members who took oath on Wednesday, have not been given division: Anand Sharma

Announcing the decision, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said it has been decided that the NDA MPs would be giving up their salary and other allowances for 23 days "for which parliament was not allowed to function by the Congress".

BJP and NDA party MPs announced on Wednesday night that they will take a pay cut for the 23 days wasted in the second phase of the Budget Session as they accused the Congress party of playing negative politics.

Congress issues three-line whip to its Rajya Sabha MPs asking them to be present in Upper House, reports ANI

Over a dozen Opposition parties had appealed to Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday for holding discussion on key matters like the SC/ST Act, PNB bank fraud, CBSE paper leak and Cauvery issue. Opposition leaders, including from the Congress, BSP, SP, DMK, NCP, TMC and the Left parties, had met in Parliament to discuss the lack of debate.

Leaders of several Opposition parties are holding a demonstration inside the Parliament premises over various issues.

Congress had said on Wednesday that it would not mind if Parliament session was extended by a day or two, but a debate on key issues should take place. "We want to hold discussions on key issues of national importance and we also want to pass legislation. The government should take the lead in doing so. We are not averse even if the session is extended by a day or two," Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad had told reporters.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi have joined the Opposition protest in New Delhi against the Centre.

Asserting that he attended the House proceedings daily, Subramanian Swamy said that it isn't his fault if the Parliament didn't function. "Anyhow, I'm the president's representative. Until he says so, how can I say I'll not take my salary?" ANI quoted him as saying.

Both the Houses of the Parliament were adjourned within minutes of reconvening on Thursday amid protests by the Opposition parties.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge urged Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to take up the no-confidence motion as the AIADMK continued protesting in the Lower House.

Kurien went on to read the rules of the Rajya Sabha. "You are all eligible for suspension," he said.

Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said that he has an alternative to deal with the protests in the Upper House. "As per rule. I will see that a motion is moved to expel all protesting members. Thereby, you will lose all your voting right," he told the protesting MPs.

LS Speaker reminded the MPs that today was the last day of the second leg of the Budget Session, even though the MPs continued shouting.

"This Sabha is for a platform the raise issues for the welfare of the people. I understand that MPs have several issues they want to raise but they should keep in mind that the country has a variety of issues which need to be focused on," said Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

"I make an appeal to all of you to appear here next time to do what we were given to do at the time of Independence," said Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

BJP works for connecting people, Congress works for dividing people. Congress indulges in divisive, negative politics. It didn't let the House function. We'll sit in protest against the negative attitude of Congress during last 23 days: Ananth Kumar,Parliamentary Affairs Minister pic.twitter.com/T710ENwveX

BJP MPs to observe fast on 12 April to protest the impasse in Parliament caused by Congress: Union minister Ananth Kumar | PTI

"Congress has become a marginal party, even in the Parliament," he said. "They don't have their own parliamentary strategy for both the Houses. They don't have parliamentary logic," he added.

"From 5 March to 27 March, why did the Congress not allow business to happen?" said Union minister Ananth Kumar. "On 15 and 16 March, the YSRCP and TDP motions of no-confidence were brought up. Congress brought it up on 27 March? Why did they bring it up so late?" he added.

Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned for the 15th day on Friday as the stalemate between the Opposition and the government continued for the third week of the second leg of the budget session with ruckus prevailing unabated.

While the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day in less than 20 minutes after it assembled on Friday morning, the Lok Sabha was first adjourned till noon and then for the day after laying of the listed papers.

The Lower House also did not take up the no-confidence motion against the government due to the noisy protests. It has been a week since the motion has not been taken up due to the unruly scenes.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had last Friday announced that she had received two notices for the motion but was unable to start the process due to the disruptions.

However before they were adjourned on Friday, both the Houses paid glowing tributes to freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, who were hanged on 23 March 87 years ago by the British rulers.

The Rajya Sabha could not transact any business on Friday, as Opposition parties continued to create ruckus, forcing the adjournment of proceedings.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu adjourned the proceedings for the day but not before expressing anguish over the House not functioning since it met on 5 March when the second part of the budget session started.

Naidu said past disruptions should not be cited to justify the "present wrong" and expressed hope that the government will take the opposition into confidence to ensure that the House functions next week.

He said it was distressing that the Rajya Sabha has not discharged its mandate for three weeks. "People of the country have been let down."

Andhra parties, including the TDP, and KVP Ramachandra Rao of the Congress trooped into the Well shouting slogans for special status to the state, while Tamil Nadu parties  DMK and AIADMK  demanded setting up of the Cauvery management board for river water sharing between riparian states.

Congress members too were in the Well raising slogans that the government was against scheduled castes and tribes, in an apparent reference to the recent Supreme Court ruling diluting certain provisions of the Scheduled castes and tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Naidu said he could understand that MPs may resort to disruption for a couple of days to press their issues but "persisting with it for three weeks has no justification".

Congress members countered this by blaming the government for the stalemate and alleged that it has not engaged with the Opposition parties on these matters so far.

The Chairman, however, went on to state that while some may cite past instances to justify the present impasse, the three-week long disruption had no justification.

"How long do you want to justify the present wrong, based on the past," he said. "People of the country are aspiring for a change. Should the change not begin from Rajya Sabha."

He said people were asking why the House was not being adjourned sine die but added that this was not in his hands.

"I am pained, I am sad," he said, adding he would not like to hazard a guess about what will happen next week or "if you are going to change for better ... If you are not interested in running of this House, it is another matter."

When Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel read out the government agenda for next week, Naidu hoped the government will take the opposition into confidence to ensure that the House functions.

Naidu said he was willing to allow discussion on any issue the members wanted, but placards, demonstrations and slogan shouting was not justified. He then adjourned the proceedings till Monday.

The Lok Sabha proceedings were also disrupted again today due to noisy protests by the AIADMK and TRS members, following which Speaker Sumitra Mahajan expressed her inability to take up the notices for no-confidence motion and later adjourned the proceedings for the day.

She also announced a holiday for members on Monday on account of Ramnavami on Sunday as many of them had conveyed they would be busy in various related events and would find it difficult to join the House the next day.

The House was adjourned till noon soon after it met at 11 am following noisy protests by members of the AIADMK and the TRS over the Cauvery and quota issues respectively.

When it reassembled, the protests continued and Mahajan said she cannot not take up the notices for no-confidence motions as the House was not in order. The requisite head-count of members supporting the notices can be done only if they are in their seats, she added.

At least 50 members need to support a no-confidence notice for the House to accept it and start a debate.

The Speaker said the government had expressed its readiness for a discussion on it. The BJP-led NDA government enjoys a comfortable majority in the House.

The Lok Sabha was then adjourned for the day as the protests continued.

This is the third straight week that both the Houses were adjourned without undertaking any significant business, barring the Finance Bill in the Lok Sabha.

Earlier when the House met for the day, Mahajan paid tributes to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev - who were hanged on 23 March, 1931 by the British. The House observed silence as a mark of respect to the martyrs.

Before taking up the question hour, the Speaker urged members to maintain order but those from AIADMK and TRS trooped into the Well holding placards and raising slogans.

Congress members too were on their feet protesting against the Supreme Court verdict on the SC/ST Act. It has been demanding that the Centre seek a review of the court order which diluted provisions related to immediate arrest in cases related to atrocities on scheduled castes and tribes.

Expelled RJD member Pappu Yadav was seen holding two placards demanding special status for Bihar.

With inputs from PTIThe Colonel Hunny Bakshi case offers a chance for Narendra Modi to shatter the syndicate that compromised India's national security

Media is agog with reports of proceedings against Colonel Hunny Bakshi being dropped, but not about commendations for covert operations undertaken. The Latter is rightly so because covert operations should never be publicised. Even as RAW has declassified some missions for whatever reasons, India has not declassified official records of the 1962 India-China War, whereas the official records of the 1971 India-Pakistan War are not so official and sans inputs from HQ Eastern Command. For inexplicable reasons, author of the book, India's External Intelligence  Secrets of Research and Intelligence Wing (RAW) is reportedly being subjected to pressures.

One prominent national newspaper headline reads Army drops all charges against Col Hunny. The report says that the Army has called off the general court martial (GCM) against Baksi, a former CO of Technical Support Division (TSD), a secretive military intelligence unit, which was set up in 2010 under former army chief General VK Singh, and disbanded after he retired in 2012.

TSD faced allegations ranging from misuse of secret funds, using off-the-air interceptors to tap phones of Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials, attempt to topple Jammu and Kashmir government, and change the line of succession in the Indian Army.

The cases against TSD began after a Havildar from the outfit was allegedly intercepted with classified information by the Department of Revenue Intelligence in Kerala during May 2012.

But the manner in which the UPA II government orchestrated the sordid affair of shutting down TSD  which was giving ISI sleepless nights  and moulded perceptions through disinformation would put even the capabilities of Cambridge Analytica to shame. The TSD was sanctioned by the Ministry of Defence when General VK Kapoor (VK Singhs predecessor) was the army chief.

The 'mobile interceptors', around which the whole story was cooked, were neither procured nor held by the TSD. These were imported by the director general of Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) which functioned directly under Defence Minister AK Anthony and had nothing to do with the Indian Army or the army chief. If mobile interceptors were deployed in Delhi in 2012, it would be on orders of Anthony, then prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The story of bugging Anthonys office was cooked up to give credence to the mobile interceptors narrative.

The same director general of DIA offered bribes of Rs 14 cr to General VK Singh in the latters office to push a defence deal, and when jailed later, a prominent lawyer from the ruling party went rushing to get him bail.

The UPA II wanted to place this director general of DIA as director general of National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) but called it off after the mobile interceptors scandal emerged in the media. The worst part was leaking classified military intelligence to the media by the Ministry of Defence, which again could not have been without Anthonys indulgence. Whether the higher-ups were under ISI blackmail due to the hawala transactions or feared exposure to the narcotics mafia, the entire episode amounted to high treason involving the highest level political dispensation of that time. Significantly, several Indian politicians are known to be in the net of Dawood Ibrahim.

There is jubilation about charges being dropped against Colonel Bakshi, some even attributing the movie Aiyaari replicating the affair in an outstanding manner to the public at large. But the real reason is that GCM was impossible without letting Colonel Bakshi cross-examine the witnesses, which would have brought scores of skeletons tumbling out. For the same reason, he was also not provided with copies of documents used against him, not even a copy of the board of officers implicating him  which he is authorised by law. His wife, Aparna has alleged in an interview recently that it was not just her husband but that she too faced problems because of two former army chiefs.

It is obvious that the UPA II used the army hierarchy to shut down the TSD but posts on social media question why some senior officers became a party to political maneuvering despite adverse impact on army capability and national security.

The 1993 Vohra Committee Report pointed to mafia virtually running a parallel government: money power used to develop a network of muscle-power, also used by the politicians during elections; rapid spread and growth of criminal gangs, armed senas, drug mafias, smuggling gangs, drug peddlers and economic lobbies, having developed extensive network of contacts with bureaucrats/government functionaries at local levels, politicians, media persons and strategically located individuals in non-State sector, some having international linkages and foreign intelligence; various mafias operating with impunity due links with governmental functionaries, political leaders, and others; any leakage of linkages of this crime syndicate with senior government functionaries or political leaders in the states or at the Centre could have a destabilising effect on the functioning of government.

The above mafia is what some refer to as Hamam. Having infiltrated all institutions in the country, the Hamam found a simple solution to make the military to fall in line. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) was ordered to initiate annual confidential reports (ACRs) on senior officers that went directly to the party high command. Those with whatever misdemeanors were tagged for future placements (and blackmail if needed), not that only they were promoted. But these ACRs certainly helped crucial placement at crucial times in all three Services.

The army cannot proceed against Bakshi though justice has come by default on legal grounds, with his career ruined. He will probably be posted to an obscure appointment from where he would probably resign. There are many write-ups that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasnt done enough against corruption. But here is a case of high treason that requires the Hamam to be shattered. The least requirement is speedy trial by a special court for all the traitors.

The author is former Lieutenant GeneralThe tussle between the Delhi Lt Governor and the AAP government on Monday reached the state Assembly after Speaker Ram Niwas Goel announced that Lt Governor Anil Baijal has said that the Speaker cannot accept any question on reserved subjects, like land, law and order, and services among others.

New Delhi: The tussle between the Delhi Lt Governor and the AAP government on Monday reached the state Assembly after Speaker Ram Niwas Goel announced that Lt Governor Anil Baijal has said that the Speaker cannot accept any question on reserved subjects, like land, law and order, and services among others.

"Secretariat has also received copies of letters from some departments such as Services, Vigilance, Land and Building refusing to attend meetings with ministers concerned," he said.

However, Goel stressed that legislation on reserved subjects and seeking replies on matters of public interest are two different issues and hence he ruled that "officers are duty bound to provide replies to all questions which are admitted (by the Assembly)".

The Lt. Governor had sent a letter stating that the Speaker cannot accept any questions on reserved subjects to the law deaprtment of Delhi government after taking opinion from the Legal Affairs Department of Central government.

"Delhi Assembly is not subordinate to any central government 'babu'," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in the House as both members of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party members said that all questions raised by the Assembly should be answered.Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Centre is 'ready and alert' for any eventuality in Doka La, in Dehradun on Sunday.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Centre is "ready and alert" for any eventuality in Doka La (Dokalam in Bhutanese), where the Indian and Chinese military were locked in a 73-day stand-off near the Sikkim border last year, in Dehradun on Sunday.

Speaking at an event at Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawats residence in Dehradun, Sitharaman said, "We are alert and ready for any unforeseen situation in Dokalam. We are constantly working on the modernisation of our forces. We will maintain our territorial integrity," The Hindu reported.

Her comments came at a time when the two neighbouring countries are attempting to reset their ties ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in June, where a host of bilateral meetings are lined-up, including the one between Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping on the sidelines. The summit will be held in Qingdao from 9-10 June.

Sitharaman expressed her stance just two days after India's envoy to China Gautam Bambawale said in an interview that the Dokalam standoff took place because the Chinese military changed the status quo and India merely reacted to it. "If anyone changes the status quo, it will lead to a situation like what happened in Doka La," he told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, adding that the best way to prevent such incidents is through candid and frank talks.

Speaking about the recent debates on lack of funds for modernising and strengthening of Indian armed forces, the defence minister said there is no "laxity" in the modernisation and preparedness of the forces, reported Hindustan Times.

"Today, many talks are doing the rounds in the public about the preparedness of our armed forces. I want to clarify that there is no laxity in the preparedness and modernisation of our forces. The government has given all powers to the vice chiefs of the three services (army, navy and air force)," the newspaper quoted Sitharaman as saying.

She also added that the armed forces have been given a "free-hand" to exercise emergency powers to purchase ammunition and weapons to ensure the forces' preparedness.

With inputs from IANSAgritech startups are disrupting the Indian agricultural economy in unexpected ways by employing data mining and AI to help improve crop yield.

Bangalore: In 2016, The Times of India reported that 253 farmers from Lalkheda village in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh received an average of Rs 2.83 (4 US cents) each as insurance payouts for the loss of their soybean crop under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (the flagship prime minister's crop-insurance scheme). The insurer blamed the farmers for taking insufficient cover.

The story got 29-year-old Prateep Basu, then an engineer with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), thinking. How was it possible, he wondered, that a country which had been using remote-sensing technology for decades could fail to use it for accurate crop forecasting when the lives of so many millions crucially depended on such information?

Basu brainstormed with two of his colleagues, Ishan Tomar and Vivek Kumar, and the trio roped in another ISRO engineer, Abhishek Raju. The four of them went on to form SatSure, a data-analytics startup with "a mission to evolve crop insurance products and provide an accurate risk assessment of crop yield by integrating climatic variables with geospatial and economic datasets."

Agritech startups seem to be having their moment in the sun. There are many startups like SatSure that are disrupting the Indian agricultural economy in unexpected ways. Intello Labs, for example, uses image-recognition software to monitor crops and predict the health of farm yields.

Aibono uses agri-data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide solutions to stabilise farm yields. Trithi Robotics uses drone technology to allow farmers to monitor crops in real time and provide precise analyses of their soil and seeds. Farmers can use these data-driven insights to improve the quality of their crops and better manage their land.

Over a cup of coffee, an excited Basu says, "We are working towards changing the lives of farmers not just by predicting crop patterns and yield, but also by improving crop insurance, innovating agri-lending services, and creating a better link among banking agencies, insurance providers and farmers. And we do all this by analysing data gathered from satellite imagery."

SatSure's website says the company helps "make sense of disparate operational and agronomic data to simplify complex decisions related to crop risk management and for making agriculture predictable and profitable."

SatSure has tied up with the government of Andhra Pradesh to provide the data to build a reliable credit-rating system for farmers. "For any bank, giving a loan to a farmer is a risk, as they can't be sure if the loan will be repaid," explains Raju. "Now, suppose a bank had data about the size of farmland owned by the farmer, his yield over a period of three years, the productivity potential of the soil and the seeds used. This would help the bank decide what it could safely lend to the farmer."

This system will also give farmers an idea of how much their crop will be worth and thus calculate the loan amount they can avail. Though SatSure doesn't supply this information to farmers directly, it plans to do so in the future. "Our algorithms are constantly studying data collected from satellites and generating real insights on crop parameters," says Raju. "We plan to share these insights with farmers via web dashboards." Raju is also the founder of Dhruva Space, a satellite-manufacturing and design startup.

According to a report released by Inc42, a startup database, 15 agritech startups received around $36 million in investment in 2017. These include Pune-based Agrostar and Noida-based EM3 Agri services. Raju is cautiously optimistic, saying, "Investors, like many startup founders and farmers, are still learning how data and technology can be beneficial for agriculture. I would say that investments and startups in the sector are growing incrementally."

According to the State of Indian Agriculture report released by the ministry of agriculture in May 2016, "Out of the total land mass of 328.73 million hectares in the country, about 181.95 million hectares is agricultural land, which consists of 139.9 million hectares net sown area." The problem is that the net sown area, which measures the amount of land cultivated in a given year, whether once or multiple times, is declining.

Several schemes launched by the government have sought to increase agricultural productivity through schemes to improve soil health, organic farming and better water management practices. The agriculture ministry has also tied up with ISRO to launch FASAL, a remote-sensing and data-analysis platform to analyse and predict yields of most major crops including rice, jowar, bajra, wheat, sugarcane, and oilseeds.

"The Indian agricultural sector has several inefficiencies: farmers are not aware of the quality of their product, what are the chances of their produce getting impacted by pests and hence their shelf life. They find it difficult to determine how they should price their product," says Milan Sharma, founder Intello Labs.

He explains that his company employs deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse images captured by farmers to grade their produce. "Our solutions empower farmers to demand a fair price for their produce. We aim to supplement this with crop-sowing data, weather predictions, soil quality, and price visibility to give a holistic tech platform for income augmentation."

Pankaj Rai, senior vice-president for strategy at Wells Fargo Enterprise Global Services, believes that while agritech and AI can help cure some of the problems afflicting Indian agriculture, many challenges remain. "There is a steady decrease in land under cultivation when compared to the needs of the country's growing population. The lack of mechanisation and continued dependence on middlemen post-harvest are becoming hurdles for AI to completely penetrate the sector," he said at a recent event held in Bangalore.

But Basu feels the government has realised how important it is to use technology to improve agricultural outcomes and to empower farmers. "There are immense amounts of data and data sources already available, and self-learning AI algorithms are capable of constantly analysing these huge amounts of data and predicting accurate results." Together they can change the face of Indian agriculture, he insists

The author is a Bengaluru-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.Delhi's Patiala House court sent former media baron Peter Mukerjea to five-day CBI custody for his involvement in INX Media case till 31 March on Monday, media reports said.

Delhi's Patiala House court sent former media baron Peter Mukerjea to five-day CBI custody for his involvement in INX Media case till 31 March on Monday, media reports said. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had sought the custody of Peter, Times Now reported.

#Delhi's Patiala House court sends Peter Mukerjea to CBI custody till 31st March in connection with the #INXMediaCase  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

Earlier, on Sunday, CBI officials had taken Mukerjea, who has been lodged in the Arthur Road jail in the Sheena Bora murder case, to New Delhi for interrogation in the INX Media case, which also involves Karti Chidambaram. On 23 March, the Delhi High Court had granted bail to Karti in the INX Media case.

"The Delhi court had issued a production warrant against Peter, and directed that he be produced before it. The Mumbai court has allowed the warrant, so he will be taken to Delhi between 26 March and 3 April," a CBI official had said. Indrani Mukerjea, Peter's wife and the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, was arrested in the INX Media case in February.

The CBI had, on 20 March, moved a petition before the special CBI court conducting the trial in the murder case and said that the central agency needed to interrogate Mukerjea in the INX Media case registered at New Delhi.

The INX Media case, registered by the CBI, relates to a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted to INX Media, founded by the Mukerjeas, for receiving foreign funds in 2007. The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a case against INX Media, the Mukerjeas and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

INX Media is accused of violating the FIPB guidelines while receiving investments from Mauritius. Meanwhile, the trial of the Sheena Bora murder case continues before special judge JC Jagdale in New Delhi, Hindustan Times had reported.

With inputs from PTIThe JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) and teachers' association have the university under a complete lock-down, with hardly any classes being held, since last Monday over various differences with the varsity administration, including sexual harassment charges against a number of professors and alleged scuttling of reservation in admission for the SC, ST, and OBCs.

New Delhi: Facing a total lock-down, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Monday proclaimed teachers' and students' demands as "completely unreasonable" and appealed them to not obstruct study of non-agitating students.

The JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) and teachers' association have the university under a complete lock-down, with hardly any classes being held, since last Monday over various differences with the varsity administration, including sexual harassment charges against a number of professors and alleged scuttling of reservation in admission for the SC, ST, and OBCs.

"Some teachers have demanded to 'reinstate the faculty members who were summarily dismissed from their administrative posts as dean/chairperson', to 'put on hold implementation of all the decisions' regarding holding of M Phil/PhD viva through video conferencing, mandatory attendance for students, de-linking of M Phil/PhD programmes etc.

"All these demands are completely unreasonable and tantamount to going against JNU rules and regulation," the university Registrar said in a note appealing the protesters to call off their strike.

The administration attacked the JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA) especially, accusing it of violating the university rules by "organising protests, demonstrations and marches in the prohibited area" despite their advice.

"The administration urges the JNUTA and JNUSU office bearers to refrain from all those activities that have vitiated the academic atmosphere of the university and prevented normal functioning of various offices," it added.

On Monday, the JNUTA announced an extension of its strike for another three days. Responding to this, the administration warned the teachers of non--payment of their salaries for the days they were on strike "under the principle of 'no work, no pay'".

Later, in another note, the administration invited the agitating teachers for a "discussion... to put forth their views on this critical issues".A woman constable and a head constable of the Delhi Police have been suspended for allegedly snatching the camera of a photojournalist during a protest march organised by JNU students.

New Delhi: A woman constable and a head constable of the Delhi Police have been suspended for allegedly snatching the camera of a photojournalist during a protest march organised by JNU students, the department said on Sunday.

On Friday, Jawaharlal Nehru University students had taken out the march from the varsity campus towards the Parliament Complex over various demands, including academic freedom. They were, however, stopped near Sanjay Jheel area in south Delhi by the police, who also resorted to baton-charge and used water cannons to disperse the students participating in the march.

In the clashes that followed, journalists were targeted. Two journalists have filed separate complaints accusing police personnel of assaulting and molesting media persons.

"On a complaint received from the photojournalist who had alleged snatching of her camera, a case was registered and taken up for investigation. The camera has since been traced and the police is contacting the photojournalist to facilitate its restoration," the police said.

Madhur Verma, Delhi Police PRO, said two police personnel have been placed under suspension. "On the basis of the preliminary findings of vigilance enquiry for the unprofessional conduct of mishandling the journalist's camera during crowd control, one woman constable of the Delhi Armed Police and one head constable (male) have been placed under suspension," he added.

A group of journalists had on Saturday protested outside the Delhi Police Headquarters, demanding strict action against the police personnel accused of assaulting and molesting media persons.A local journalist was among two persons killed when an SUV rammed into their bike in Bhojpur, with the family alleging that it was a case of murder.

Ara: A local journalist was among two persons killed when an SUV rammed into their bike in Bhojpur district, with the family alleging that it was a case of murder and a former village head was behind it, police said on Monday.

Naveen and his friend Vijay Singh were riding a motorcycle on Sunday night when they were crushed to death by the SUV near Nahsi village.

Irate villagers intercepted the vehicle, but its occupants fled. The mob set the SUV on fire, Avakash Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Bhojpur, said.

Rajesh, brother of Naveen Nishchal who worked for a Hindi daily, had alleged in the FIR that it was a case of murder and a former Panchayat Mukhiya Ahmed Ali alias Harsu and his son Dabloo were behind it, the SP said.

The SUV belongs to Harsu. It was alleged in the FIR that Harsu had been nursing a grouse against the reporter, the SP said.

Efforts are on to nab the father-son duo who are absconding, the SP said adding that villagers had also vandalised the house of the ex-village head. Police have been deployed in the village where the situation is tense but under control.A seriously injured man was left on an inclined stretcher upside down outside a hospital in Thrissur by an ambulance driver, who was apparently angry over the patient vomiting and defecating in the vehicle

A seriously injured elderly man was left on an inclined stretcher upside down outside a hospital in Thrissur by an ambulance driver, who was apparently angry over the patient vomiting and defecating in the vehicle.

The man later died and a case was registered against the ambulance driver. The patient was brought from Natukkal in Palakkad district after being injured in a road mishap on 20 March.

According to India Today, after the accident, the man was rushed to a private hospital. He was later admitted to Thrissur Medical College Hospital on Saturday, where he died.

A case was registered under IPC 336 (endangering the life or personal safety of others) against the ambulance driver. The driver, who works for a private ambulance service, was reportedly angered over the patient vomiting and defecating in the vehicle.

Malayalam television channels aired visuals of the man lying on an inclined stretcher in front of the hospital with his head down.

According to The Hindu, after the driver left the man unattended while the attendant went to the hospital to collect gloves. The stretcher with the patient was kept in the upside down position till the attendant returned.

The police on Monday said the deceased was yet to be identified. According to News Minute, Khadar Pasha, a civil police officer in Palakkad said that the body will be kept in the hospital for two days for the family to identify it. "If nobody claims the body, he will be buried with the help of the local panchayat funds set aside for this purpose," Pasha added.

With inputs from agenciesA journalist investigating illegal sand mining cases in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh was run over by a truck on Monday

A journalist investigating illegal sand mining cases in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh was run over by a truck on Monday, media reports said.

ANI shared CCTV footage of the moment when journalist Sandeep Sharma was run over by a truck. The 35-year-old stringer had even complained to the police about a threat to his life before the incident occurred.

#WATCH:Chilling CCTV footage of moment when Journalist Sandeep Sharma was run over by a truck in Bhind. He had been reporting on the sand mafia and had earlier complained to Police about threat to his life. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/LZxNuTLyap  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

According to The Times of India, Sharma had allegedly filed the complaint after he carried out a sting operation against a police officer. The report adds that Sharma had filed a story with a national news channel, accusing the officer in question of being involved with the sand mafia.

The police officer was transferred after the news channel had aired an audio conversation of him. According to the Indian Express, the officer was a sub-divisional police officer (SDOP) and the report on him was aired on the News World channel.

According to ANI, the police have formed an SIT (Special Investigation Team) to investigate the matter. Indian Express reports that Bhind SP Prashant Khare said an offence under Section 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) has been registered in connection with the death.

Khare added that the truck involved in the incident has been seized and a search is on for the driver, who fled after the accident. According to News Laundry, Bhind press club president Sathyanarayan Sharma was quoted saying Sharmas death was "highly suspicious" and should be probed. "The fact that the dumper was empty gives rise to suspicion, Sathyanarayan Sharma said.

The Times of India report adds that the incident took place near Kotwali police station, but the police still took 15 to 20 minutes to respond to the incident. However, Khare, in an attempt to appease the local media, said that "no stones would be left unturned" in the investigation.

According to ANI, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reacted to the incident, saying "strict action" will be taken against the accused. "Security of journalists is our priority and strict action will be taken against the culprit," Chouhan said.

He was killed in broad daylight. Nothing less than a CBI inquiry should be done. Media is the 4th pillar of democracy & that is being crushed under BJP's rule: Jyotiraditya Scindia, Congress on journalist reporting on sand mafia killed after being hit by a truck. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/08tVsAjuJl  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia also reacted to the death of the journalist, saying "nothing less than a CBI inquiry" should be held on the matter. "Media is the fourth pillar of democracy and that is being crushed under BJP's rule," Scindia added.

With inputs from agenciesResidents of a college hostel in Sagar city in Madhya Pradesh were allegedly strip-searched on the direction of the warden after a sanitary napkin was found discarded near a toilet

Sagar (Madhya Pradesh): In an appalling incident, inmates of a college hostel in Sagar city in Madhya Pradesh were allegedly strip-searched on the direction of the warden after a sanitary napkin was found discarded carelessly near a toilet.

The incident, which has sparked protests by students, occurred yesterday at the hostel of the Dr Hari Singh Gour's Central University when the warden, Professor Chanda Ben, was undertaking an inspection, the hostel inmates told reporters in Sagar.

They said that the warden, angry at the napkin not being properly disposed of, asked the hostel's women staff to check the private parts of students to find if they were menstruating after no one owned up.

Over 40 of them staged a protest in front of the vice-chancellor's residence, situated within the campus, demanding action against the warden.

Speaking to PTI, the vice-chancellor, Professor RP Tiwari said, "Nearly 40 students came to my residence to complain about the incident. They are like my daughters and I apologised to them. It is very shameful, condemnable and highly painful."

#MadhyaPradesh: At least 40 girls, residing in one of the hostels of Dr Hari Singh Gour University in Sagar, allege that they were stripped & searched by hostel warden after a used sanitary pad was found lying in the hostel premises. pic.twitter.com/G2m1rMnGkG  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

He said that he had constituted a three-member committee to probe the incident and it would submit its report in three days.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, student wing of the RSS, and other unions staged a protest on Monday with ABVP leader Jyotish Pandey asking authorities to keep the warden away from work till the probe was completed.

The leader of Congress' student wing National Students Union of India (NSUI), Rahul Khare, submitted a memorandum to the university administration demanding that retired judges and other eminent persons be appointed to the probe committee instead of university teachers.

In order to raise awareness among teachers, they also distributed sanitary napkins to them.

Sagar Lok Sabha MP Laxminarayan Yadav called the alleged action of the warden as "shameful", but added that it was a "small incident" and the media should not get "agitated" over it.As many as 91 farmers from Buldhana district of Maharashtra have submitted a letter to the governor and SDO and sought permission for euthanasia.

As many as 91 farmers from Buldhana district of Maharashtra have submitted a letter to the governor and Sub-Divisional Office (SDO) and sought permission for euthanasia, according to reports. They claim that they are not being paid remunerative prices for crops and adequate compensation for their land, which has been acquired by the government for construction of a highway, ANI reported.

The farmers further said that they are unable to feed their families and their helplessness is turning into despair, according to Zee News.

Maharashtra: 91 farmers from Buldhana submitted a letter to the Governor & SDO seeking permission for Euthanasia as they are not getting remunerative prices for crops and adequate compensation for their land which has been aquired by the government for construction of a highway. pic.twitter.com/lltXRgrjpt  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

This comes just days after thousands of farmers thronged the streets of Mumbai to protest the alleged failures of the BJP government on the farm front, including non-implementation of recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission and the Forest Rights Act by the CPM-affiliated All India Kisan Sabha.

The protest was called off after the farmers received a written reassurance from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The state government agreed to sincerely look into their requests, while also promising time-bound action into some of them.

The Fadnavis government also assured farmers to ensure better implementation of social welfare schemes and promised to issue new BPL ration cards to the farmers and tribals as they have not been renewed in many years. The chief minister also announced setting up a ministerial committee to review and process the farmers' demands.

With inputs from agenciesPakistan and India are in talks over the issue of alleged harassment of Pakistani diplomats stationed in New Delhi, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has said

Islamabad: Pakistan and India are in talks over the issue of alleged harassment of Pakistani diplomats stationed in New Delhi, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has said.

Pakistan has claimed that there had been as many as 26 instances of harassment and intimidation of its diplomats since 7 March, following which Islamabad called back its high commissioner Sohail Mahmood for discussions on the issue. He returned to New Delhi on 22 March.

"Higher authorities in both India and Pakistan are in talks to handle harassment incidents of Pakistan High Commission,"

Asif told Associated Press of Pakistan on Sunday.

He hoped that efforts in this regard would bear fruit and relationship between the two neighbouring countries would improve, the report said.

The foreign minister also said that Pakistan is keen on establishing cordial relations with its neighbouring countries on the basis of equality for maintaining regional harmony.

"Our top priority is establishing peace in the country as well as in the region in the larger interest of the people," he said.

Asif also said that Pakistan was making all-out efforts to develop healthy and durable relations with Afghanistan, Iran, India, Russia, and other countries of the region.

He said Pakistan wants peace in Afghanistan.

"We want to see Afghanistan as a peaceful and stable country because Pakistan would benefit the most from a peaceful Afghanistan," Asif added.

The minister also said that the government has been making serious efforts for purging the country of the menace of terrorism and make it a safe place for its people.

In August, US president Donald Trump had unveiled his Afghanistan and South Asia policy in which he had hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to "agents of chaos" that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has "much to lose" by harbouring terrorists.

Pakistan regularly denies that it hosts terror groups fighting the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.

Asif also stated that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would play an instrumental role in bringing revolutionary changes across the country.

He said that the resulting economic stability and prosperity would not only benefit the people of Pakistan but of the region at large.Former media baron Peter Mukherjea was produced in the Patiala House Court in connection with the INX media corruption case on Monday

Former media baron Peter Mukerjea was produced in Delhi's Patiala House Court in connection with the INX media corruption case on Monday.

The CBI is likely to seek a five-day custody of Mukerjea.

The CBI will also seek to confront Mukerjea along with Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, and others involved in the case, according to Times Now.

Earlier, on Sunday, CBI officials had taken Mukerjea, who has been lodged in the Arthur Road jail in the Sheena Bora murder case, to New Delhi for interrogation in the INX media case, which also involves Karti, according to a report in The Times of India.

The CBI had, on Tuesday, moved a petition before the special CBI court conducting the trial in the murder case and said that the central agency needed to interrogate Mukerjea in the INX Media case registered at New Delhi. Additional sessions judge J Jagdale of the special CBI court, on Friday, had granted the CBI permission to take Mukerjea in custody, Hindustan Times had reported.

The custody of accused Peter, alias Pratim Mukerjea, is passed to the CBI, EOU-IV, New Delhi, said the special judge while handing over his custody to CBI for a period of 26 March to 3 April, according to the report. The court had also directed the investigation agency to produce the former media baron before a special CBI judge at Patiala House Court while in Delhi.

The Delhi High Court had granted bail to Karti in the INX Media case on Friday .

Previously, Karti was taken to the Byculla prison and confronted with Indrani Mukerjea as part of the CBI's probe into the matter in March. An official had said that Karti and Indrani were brought face-to-face and questioned by a CBI team for about four hours.

On 15 May, 2017, the CBI had registered an FIR alleging irregularities in Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Karti's father was the Union finance minister.

With inputs from PTIPuducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi on Monday stressed the need for austerity measures to reduce the debt burden of the territorial government.

Puducherry: Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi on Monday stressed the need for austerity measures to reduce the debt burden of the territorial government.

Presenting her customary address on the opening day of the Union Territory Assembly, she said, "Puducherry is now facing financial constraints due to servicing of the past debt... There is an urgent need to reduce our debt burden."

She expressed hope that the members would certainly appreciate the need for austerity measures.

The former IPS officer said the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of the Union Territory had been estimated at Rs 30,845.43 crores (current price) for 2017-2018 which is 11.82 percent higher than the previous year figure of Rs 27,586.09 crores.

Bedi also noted that the per capita income of Puducherry increased from Rs 1,73,687 for the year 2016-2017 to Rs 1,89,124 for the year 2017-2018 showing a growth rate of 8.89 percent.

"The growth in GSDP augurs well for the Union Territory's economy," she said.

Highlighting the achievements and implementation of various developmental schemes by the government departments during 2017-2018, Bedi pointed out that the PIPDIC had approved 121 projects and allotted 183 acres of land, 17 industrial sheds and seven plots with investment proposal of Rs 620 crores to create employment for 2440 persons.

Bedi said the Centre had sanctioned Rs 66 crores under Heritage Circuit and Rs 41 crores under Spiritual Circuit for Puducherry during the current fiscal (2017-2018) through the Swadesh Dharshan scheme.

There was a growth of 9.5 percent in tourist arrivals in 2017 in Puducherry over the previous year.

Earlier, four MLAs belonging to Opposition AIADMK staged a dharna on the floor of the House for a few minutes in protest against the "failure" of the Congress government to implement welfare schemes and to address the woes of the farmers of Karaikal region. Later, they walked out of the House.

AINRC MLAs also followed suit condemning the government's "failure" to bring new schemes and maintain "cordial relations" with the NDA government at the Centre.

Leader of the Opposition N Rangasamy who led the walkout after Bedi's address told the House that the Puducherry chief minister should ensure that the government brings in schemes to ameliorate a lot of the poor and the farmers.

The House then adjourned sine die after adopting the Vote on Account Bill earmarking Rs 2,466.66 crores to the government to meet the expenditure during the first four months from April of fiscal 2018-2019.The Supreme Court on Monday extended, till April 2, the interim protection from arrest it granted to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media alleged money laundering case.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday extended, till April 2, the interim protection from arrest it granted to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media alleged money laundering case.

The top court had earlier on March 15 extended till March 26 the Delhi High Court's interim order of March 9 directing the ED not to take any coercive action against him till 20 March.

The top court bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud had on March 15 extended the relief to Karti Chidambram while transferring to itself the cases pending before the Delhi High Court relating to adjudication of Enforcement Directorate's (ED) power to arrest an accused under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The court extended the interim protection to Karti Chidambram as Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who commenced his arguments defending the powers of ED to arrest an accused and that will continue on 2 April.

The SC had embarked on examining the ED's powers to arrest under Section 19 as it noted that several high courts in the country have given conflicting views on its interpretation.Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi were allegedly abducted by the Gujarat police's Anti-Terrorism Squad from Hyderabad on their way to Sangli in Maharashtra in November 2005.

Mumbai: Two more witnesses were on Monday declared hostile in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh alleged fake encounter case, taking the number of such witnesses in the case to 44.

The witnesses, Nikunj Dalvadi and Kiran Panchal, examined by the CBI before special judge SJ Sharma did not support the statements they had recorded earlier.

So far, 62 witnesses have been examined, of whom 44 have been declared hostile by the CBI, the prosecuting agency.

The statements of Dalvadi and Pachal were recorded as 'panch' witnesses for recovering empty cartridges from the policemen after the encounter.

The panch witnesses are those before whom police initiate an investigation, like sealing of an article from the crime scene.

However, in the court, the duo did not stand by their statements and said that the police had asked them to sign on blank papers.

Meanwhile, another witness E Radhakrishnaiah, a Gujarat cadre IPS officer, was also examined.

He said that discharged accused Rajkumar Pandiyan had visited him in Hyderabad in November 2005 and had requested him to arrange a guest room.

The court had, in October last year, framed charges against 22 accused for murder, abduction and destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code and for offences under the Arms Act in connection with the alleged staged encounter of Sheikh near Gandhinagar on November 26, 2005. All the accused had pleaded innocence.

BJP president Amit Shah, Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan-based businessman Vimal Patni, former Gujarat police chief PC Pande, Additional Director General of Police (Gujarat) Geeta Johri and Gujarat police officers Abhay Chudasama and N K Amin have been discharged from the case.

Besides them, Yashpal Chudasama and Ajay Patel (both senior officials of Ahmedabad District Co-operative Bank), Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandiyan and Andhra Pradesh-cadre IPS official N Balasubramanyam, Rajasthan IPS officer Dinesh MN and former senior Gujarat police officer DG Vanzara have also been discharged.

Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi were allegedly abducted by the Gujarat police's Anti-Terrorism Squad from Hyderabad on their way to Sangli in Maharashtra in November 2005. According to the prosecution, Sheikh was allegedly killed in a fake encounter.

Kausar Bi was also allegedly killed later.

Tulsi Prajapati, an aide of Sheikh and who was said to be a witness to the encounter, was allegedly killed by police at Chapri village in Gujarat's Banaskantha district in December 2006.

The fake encounter case was transferred to Mumbai in September 2012 on the request of the CBI for ensuring a fair trial. In 2013, the Supreme Court clubbed the Sheikh and Prajapati encounter cases.The Supreme Court agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the prevalent practices of polygamy and 'nikah halala' among the Muslims and sought responses from the Centre and the law commission

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the prevalent practices of polygamy and 'nikah halala' among the Muslims and sought responses from the Centre and the law commission.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra considered the submission that an earlier five-judge constitution bench, in its 2017 verdict, had kept open the issue of polygamy and 'nikah halala' while quashing triple talaq.

On Monday, the bench, which also comprised Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, said a fresh five-judge constitution bench would be set up to deal with the constitutionality of 'nikah halala' and polygamy.

While polygamy allows a Muslim man to have four wives, 'nikah halala' deals with the process in which a Muslim woman has to marry another person and get divorced from him before being allowed to marry her divorcee husband again.

By a majority of 3:2, a five-judge constitution bench had earlier held triple talaq as unconstitutional in its judgement last year.

The bench was hearing at least three petitions including some PILs challenging the practices on various grounds including that they violate Right to Equality and gender justice.

Delhi BJP leader Aswini Kumar Upadhyay, who filed a PIL on 5 March, claimed that the ban on polygamy and 'nikah halala' was the need of the hour to secure basic rights.

The harm caused to the women due to the practices of triple talaq, polygamy and 'nikah halala' is violative of Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution and injurious to public order, morality and health, Upadhyay's petition said.

He sought a declaration "that the provisions of the IPC are applicable on all Indian citizens and triple talaq is a cruelty under section 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the IPC, 'nikah halala' is rape under section 375 (rape) of the IPC, and polygamy is an offence under section 494 (marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife) of the IPC."

On 14 March, a Delhi-based woman, had moved the apex court saying that by virtue of Muslim Personal Law, section 494 of IPC (marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife) was rendered inapplicable to this community and no married Muslim woman has the avenue of filing a complaint against her husband for the offence of bigamy.

She sought to declare the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, unconstitutional and violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 (freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion) of the Constitution in so far as it fails to secure for Indian Muslim women the protection from bigamy which has been statutorily secured for women in India belonging to other religions.

The petitioner, who herself claimed to be a victim of such practices, has alleged that her husband and his family used to torture her for want of more dowry and she was ousted from the matrimonial home twice.

She also alleged that her husband had married another woman without taking any legal divorce from her and the police had refused to lodge FIR under section 494 and 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the IPC stating that polygamy was permitted under the Sharia.

Later on 18 March, a Hyderabad-based lawyer, had also challenged the practice of polygamy, claiming that all these types of marriages under the Muslim personal law violate the fundamental rights of Muslim women.

The petition has contended that while the Muslim law allows a man to have multiple wives by way of the temporary marriages or polygamy, same permission is not extended to women.

The petition has opposed the practice of nikah halala, where a divorced woman has to remarry and then get a talaq before being able to marry her first husband, as well as nikah mutah and nikah misyar  both temporary marriages where the duration of the relationship is specified and agreed upon in advance.Bodies of 39 Indians killed in war-torn Iraq will be brought to India in a week's time, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the families of the deceased

New Delhi/Chandigarh: Bodies of 39 Indians killed in war-torn Iraq will be brought to India in a week's time, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the families of the deceased on Monday.

This was conveyed by the minister during her meeting with families, who were "appreciative" of efforts made by the government, especially by Swaraj and Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh, official sources said.

"The minister told them that bodies will be brought to India in a week's time and Singh will go to Iraq to oversee the entire process," a source said.

Singh is expected to fly out soon in a cargo plane to get bodies, sources said.

Davinder Singh, the younger brother of Gobinder Singh, who was among those killed in Iraq, told PTI over the phone after meeting Swaraj in New Delhi, "We were assured all kind of assistance, including the possibility of a government job to the next of kin."

On the demand of bringing the mortal remains of the 39 killed to India as soon as possible, the minister "assured us of all possible steps", he said.

The meeting with Swaraj lasted for about 45 minutes, he said.

The family of the deceased sought financial help as their bread earners are dead and also government jobs for the next of kin, Kumar said.

"The minister told us that she would meet the chief ministers of the four states from where the Indians belonged to take a decision on the possibility of providing a government job to the next of kin," he said.

Earlier in the day, the family members of those killed in Iraq met Punjab Congress chief and party MP Sunil Kumar Jakhar in New Delhi and he assured them "all possible assistance" to them.

Swaraj had told Parliament last week that all the 39 Indians, abducted by the IS in Iraq in 2014, had been killed and their bodies recovered.

As many as 40 Indians were abducted by the IS terror group from Mosul in Iraq but one of them escaped posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, Swaraj had said in Rajya Sabha.

The remaining 39 Indians were taken to Badush and killed, she had said.

Search operations led to a mound in Badush where locals said some bodies were buried by the IS. Deep penetration radars were used to establish that the mound indeed was a mass grave, she had said, adding the Indian authorities requested their Iraqi counterpart to exhume the bodies.

Swaraj said the mass grave had exactly 39 bodies, with distinctive features such as long hair, non-Iraqi shoes and IDs. The bodies were then sent to Baghdad for DNA testing.

DNA testing by Martyrs Foundation established the identity of 38 Indians while there has been 70 percent matching of the DNA for the 39th person, she had said.In a major crackdown on criminals in western Uttar Pradesh, three wanted law-breakers were killed while seven others arrested in seven encounters in four districts

Lucknow/Ghaziabad: In a major crackdown on criminals in western Uttar Pradesh, three wanted law-breakers were killed while seven others arrested in seven encounters in four districts, in which six policemen were also injured, officials claimed on Sunday.

Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar and Muzaffarnagar were the districts where shoot-outs took place in the past 24 hours in which three "criminals were killed and seven arrested", DIG (Law and Order) Praveen Kumar said.

Six policemen were also injured in the encounters, he told reporters in the state capital.

After it swept the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the Yogi Adityanath-led government has repeatedly claimed that improving law and order was one of its priorities.

One of the gun-fights that took place on Sunday was in Sector 119 (phase-3) area in Gautam Buddha Nagar where Shravan Chowdhury, carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh, was injured, while his accomplice escaped, police officials said.

Chowdhury was taken to a district hospital, where he died during treatment, they said. Crime Branch Inspector Balwan Singh and constables Satyaveer and Sanjeev were also injured in the encounter, the DIG said.

In Saharanpur, a notorious gangster, Salim, was killed in a shootout in which Sub-Inspector Sachin Sharma of Mandi police station was also hurt, Saharanpur Senior Superintendent of Police Bablu Kumar said.

Acting on a late-night information that a gang had robbed a farmer of Rs 1 lakh and a motorcycle in Manoharpur village under the Sarsawa police station area, a swift action police team was deployed to nab the criminals, he said.

The SWAT team spotted bike-borne gangsters coming from Chilkana side and flagged them to stop, but they opened fire, the official said. The police returned fire, killing one of the gangsters, while another fled under the cover of darkness, he said.

The slain criminal was identified as Salim, Bablu Kumar said.

The police recovered the looted money and the bike of farmer, Nawab, besides a pistol and several rounds of cartridges, the SSP said.

Another shoot-out occurred in the area under Vijay Nagar police station in Ghaziabad, where a local history sheeter, carrying a reward of Rs 25,000, was involved, Ghaziabad SSP Vaibhav Krishna said.

Sunder (35), hailing from Pilkhuwa town, was wanted in five cases of attempt to murder, killing and robbery, he said.

SSP Krishna said the encounter took place around 8.15 pm on Saturday near Akbarpur Bahrampur on National Highway 24. Sunder was on a bike, and when the police signalled him to stop, he fired on the police team, he said.

The police returned fire hitting Sunder in the right leg, Krishna said, adding Vijay Nagar SHO Naresh Kumar was also injured. Both Naresh Kumar and Sunder were admitted to a hospital, officials said.

A country-made pistol, a knife and a few live cartridges were seized from Sunder, the official said.

The SSP said Sunder on Sunday died at a private hospital in Noida.

As reports of encounters poured in, Uttar Pradesh DGP OP Singh said wrong-doers would not be spared and the long arm of the law will catch up with them.

"Encounters are not planned. But if anyone attacks us, we will deal with them with an iron hand," Singh told PTI when asked about the spate of gun-fights.

In another encounter in Noida's Dankaur town, two criminals were injured while two of their accomplices escaped, police said.

The two injured criminals, Asraf and Salim, residents of Sambhal district, were later arrested. The four persons allegedly stole a truck from the Sector 39 area, police said.

The police claimed to have seized a country-made pistol, three empty cartridges, six live cartridges and a truck from their possession, they said.

Another gun-fight took place in neighbouring Dadri where Jitendra, carrying a reward of Rs 25,000 on his head, was arrested, a senior police officer said.

In Muzaffarnagar district, two criminals  Raees and Javed  were injured in a shoot-out in Budhana area after which they were arrested, police said. During the encounter a policeman, Sauveer, was also injured.

Twelve cases of loot and murder were pending against the two criminals.

In yet another encounter in Ghaziabad, a wanted criminal, Rahul, was arrested while constable Sachin was injured in the Sihani gate area, the police official said.

The Sihani Gate police on Saturday night signalled a biker to stop for checking. After halting, the rider opened fire on the police team and tried to escape. In retaliation the police fired during which the rider, later identified as Rahul, and a constable sustained bullet shot injuries, police officials said.

Both were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Rahul had committed crimes in Ghaziabad, Hapur and east Delhi, officials claimed.One might ask why the lack of Committees is 'murdering Parliament', especially when these laws were duly passed by Parliament. After all, basic lessons in Civics classes taught us that we are a democracy because we elect representatives to Parliament who pass laws

Last week, Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O' Brien tweeted these stats about Parliamentary Committees:

Murdering Parliament. In this BJP regime, only 9 out of 74 bills passed have been scrutinized by a committee. In contrast, from 2009-14, 66 out of 116 bills passed were scrutinized by Parliamentary committees  Derek O'Brien (@derekobrienmp) March 15, 2018

What is Derek O'Brien talking about?

Upon being introduced in the Lok Sabha, Bills are referred to Standing Committees for a deeper analysis. Standing Committees, appointed for a period of a year, mirror the composition of the Parliament with up to 21 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. They thus represent divergent interests. Ministers  or members of the Council of Ministers responsible for formulating the Bill  cannot be nominated onto such Committees, to ensure a fresh and unbiased study of the Bill is carried out. Under the present government, only seven of 76 passed Bills were referred to Standing Committees.

Bills can also be referred to ad hoc Committees  Select Committees or Joint Committees of the Houses - which are appointed for a limited duration with the task of scrutinising a particular Bill. Unlike in Standing Committees, ad hoc Committees don't have a cap on the number of members who can be appointed. They also do not have a bar on ministers being appointed to such committees. Under this government, two Bills were referred to Joint Committees of the Houses, while three others were referred to Select Committees constituted by the Rajya Sabha, after they had been passed in the Lok Sabha. No Bills were referred to Select Committees constituted by the Lok Sabha.

Of the 76 Bills passed by both Houses, a total of 12 Bills had been scrutinised by some Committee.

One might ask why the lack of Committees is "murdering Parliament", especially when these laws were duly passed by Parliament. After all, basic lessons in Civics classes taught us that we are a democracy because we elect representatives to Parliament who pass laws. The "executive" wing of government has to merely 'execute' or implement the law.

There is more to this story.

Are all our laws democratically enacted?

The short answer is 'not really'.

In the Indian democratic model, the executive does execute laws through its officers in the administrative, tax, railway, police and other services. However, the executive also formulates policy  either as schemes or drafted as Bills  through the Council of Ministers comprising the Union Cabinet, Ministers of State and sometimes Parliamentary Secretaries.

The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha. This is because they must enjoy the confidence of the representatives elected by the people, in order for their policies to acquire the status of binding law. The Lok Sabha, in particular, is supposed to check the bills formulated by the Council of Ministers to ensure that they represent the will of the people. Only then can the Lok Sabha pass the Bills.

That the Lok Sabha has passed a Bill does not, of itself, imply that the Council of Ministers has discharged its collective responsibility to the Sabha, or the people. In governments such as the present one, the Union Cabinet enjoys a majority in the Lok Sabha, and thus significantly controls both the legislative and the executive wings of government. Therefore, policies formulated by the Council of Ministers can easily be legislated into Bills which are passed in the Lok Sabha, sometimes without debate, by the sheer strength of numbers of the party in power. This explains why Bills once passed in the Lok Sabha, get referred to Select Committees constituted by the Rajya Sabha.

The Committee system is therefore crucial in ensuring that Bills are analysed in a way that does justice to their complexity and the larger eco-system of laws they will fit into. Crucially, in analysing Bills, members of Committees do not have to worry about making recommendations in keeping with their party's stance on the issue. MPs are able to use their independent expertise as well as consider the interests of the people at large in analysing Bills in Committees.

MPs can also file dissent notes on issues in the Bill or in the Committee Report. Since these Reports do not document the names of members against their specific contributions, MPs who do not toe the party line do not have to fear being disqualified from the House - a factor that significantly limits their discretion on the floor of the House. Moreover, Committees conduct their business behind closed-door thus facilitating a free exchange of opinions of the members. Lastly, Committees also consult other persons for their comments on Bills referred to them.

While the Ad-Hoc Committees and Standing Committees can consult experts and stakeholders, Standing Committees can also elicit public opinion.

When Bills are not referred to Committees, the ruling party controls not only the formulation of the policy in the Union Cabinet but also the passing of the Bill in the Lok Sabha. This is why Bills can be passed within minutes, by sheer force of numbers, without engaging in any debate, as has been the case in the ongoing Budget Session.

No doubt, the Bill does not acquire the status of law unless the Rajya Sabha also passes it; the Rajya Sabha would, in fact, be well within its powers to vote against a Bill. However, if the Rajya Sabha proposes amendments to a Bill it is otherwise in agreement with, they become part of the final law only if the Lok Sabha also agrees to them. This means the ruling party enjoying a majority in the Lok Sabha can reject the Rajya Sabha's proposed amendments if it likes the original version of the Bill more.

In short, a handful of Ministers in the Union Cabinet get to decide what shall be the law for an entire nation of a billion people.

What we have today is the supremacy of the executive in a democratic Constitution's clothing. High school civics may have been simplistic, but it certainly was not wrong in teaching us that India's is a democratic government because a Parliament elected by citizens enacts laws.Amit Shah will tour Karnataka for two days starting Monday as the party seeks to win back the Lingayat vote bank ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections.

BJP president Amit Shah met Shivakumara Swami of the Siddaganga Mutt in Tumkur on Monday as part of his two-day Karnataka tour. The BJP president is in the state as part of his party' efforts to win back the Lingayat vote bank ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections.

Shah is scheduled to visit multiple mutts associated with the Lingayat and Dalit communities during his visit.

#WATCH: BJP President Amit Shah met Shivakumara Swami of Siddaganga Mutt in Karnataka's Tumkur pic.twitter.com/jEn8rscZ9c  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

 BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) March 25, 2018

BJP members are upbeat about Shah's visit as they expect a change in the party's fortune in the state.

"We think our party president will talk to the mutt heads and convince them to continue supporting us and not the Congress," a BJP office-bearer in central Karnataka told The Economic Times on the condition of anonymity. He added, "Shajis visit could also be a move to take suggestions from the pontiffs on whether the Centre should accept the Karnataka governments recommendation, reject it or just put it on the backburner."

Following the Siddaramaiah government's decision to accord minority religion status to Lingayats, who have mostly welcomed the move, Shah's visits to their holy places and meeting gurus is seen as part of his efforts to ensure that the community, the largest in the state, continues to back the BJP. The Congress government's decision, political observers have said, is aimed at denting the vote bank of the BJP, which has declared BS Yeddyurappa its chief ministerial candidate.

On Tuesday, Shah will visit the Madara Chennaiah mutt, which has been traditionally associated with Dalits. He will also visit the Bekkinkal, Sirgere and Muruga mutts among others during his visit to the state's central region. He will end his tour with a rally aimed at the ST community in Challakere in Chitradurga.

Shah's visit comes a few weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Davanagere on 28 February, said the report. "We are likely to make maximum gains this time in the central Karnataka region and that is why Shahji is focusing on retaining our Lingayat votebank here," a BJP office-bearer was quoted as saying by The News Indian Express.

Besides visiting a number of mutts associated with various communities, including Lingayats and Dalits, Shah will also address farmers' and traders' meetings, take out a road show and attend party events in the poll-bound state, a BJP statement said.

The BJP is making an all-out effort to unseat the Congress from the only big state where the grand old party is in power.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has also been frequenting the state and visited holy places linked to different religions and castes.

With inputs from PTIWest Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will meet non-BJP, non-Congress leaders in New Delhi on 27 March. The role of the Congress is at present unclear.

Aiming to put the brakes on Narendra Modi's juggernaut in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee will meet non-BJP, non-Congress leaders in New Delhi on 27 March and explore possibilities of forming a federal front.

Mamata is expected to hold meetings with like-minded Opposition political parties at NCP supremo Sharad Pawars residence in New Delhi on 27 March.

Besides Pawar, who has called the meeting, she will also meet Delhi chief Arvind Kejriwal, rebel JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav, representatives of Shiv Sena, TDP and others.

The meeting is important given that Pawar had said that his party would like to ally with other like-minded parties' to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election and the Maharashtra Assembly polls.

According to sources, the focus of the Tuesday meeting will be to form a non-BJP, non-Congress coalition with a collective, federal leadership.

Sources confirmed that it is not a dinner meeting but a meet to discuss a strategy for the Lok Sabha election.

The idea was mooted by Telangana chief minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, who met Mamata in Kolkata on 19 March. Both had discussed possibilities of forming a federal front  an alternative political force with an alternative agenda and collective, federal leadership. The thrust was to get support of regional parties.

Even earlier in the month, NCP leader Praful Patel had met the West Bengal chief minister at her office Nabanna in Kolkata and invited her to attend Pawars meeting in Delhi.

Mamata got a possible future ally after Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) vociferously attacked the Modi government in the Parliament and quit the NDA. The TDP subsequently moved a no-confidence motion against the Centre.

She took to micro-blogging site Twitter to speak in favour of Naidu on 24 March and said

I appreciate that Chandrababu Naidu Ji @ncbn has stated the facts. Very good. There are many so called leaders who spread lies. They make this a habit. They try and bulldoze States and show that they are doing the States a favour by giving funds. This is fake federalism  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) March 24, 2018

Is a non-Congress block possible?

Though the federal front proposes a non-Congress coalition, whether it can become a reality needs to be seen.

The Bengal chief minister didnt attend UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhis dinner in which Pawar was present with other Opposition leaders.

According to sources, Sonia has sought a meeting with Mamata during her Delhi visit. However, it is not clear whether the latter has accepted the invitation or not. Given her cordial relation with Sonia, speculations are rife that Mamata may pay a courtesy call.

Even if an informal meeting happens, it doesnt create a possibility of having the Congress as an ally in the federal front. The Congress has to make its stand clear on whether it is with the CPM or TMC. Theres no clarity on the part of Congress, a TMC source told Firstpost.

The Congress had an alliance with the CPM against the ruling TMC during the West Bengal Assembly election in 2016 and faced a major debacle.

However, given the numbers the Congress party has in both the Houses of Parliament, the grand old party of India cant be ignored. The Congress would like to take the lead in an anti-BJP formation.

The TMC stands fourth in the number game, and the AIADMK stands third.

The Opposition parties are neither willing to accept the Congress' leadership of the new coalition, if at all it is formed, nor the leadership of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. They would like to have a new leader, political analyst MD Nalapat, professor, Geopolitics at Manipal University told Firstpost.

But ultimately, if a federal front joins hand with the Congress, will it be complementary to the Congress idea of a strong united Opposition to take Modi head on? Or will it be an alternative to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA)? Only time will tell.Both the Congress and the ruling TRS are competing to ally with the TDP in Telangana. However, the choice before the TDP is a difficult one.

The TDPs action of walking out of the NDA in Andhra Pradesh has now led to tremors in neighbouring Telangana. The BJP in Telangana has parted ways with the TDP long back. After leaving the NDA, the TDP has now become the most sought-after alliance partner in Telangana.

Both the Congress and the ruling TRS are competing to ally with the TDP to have an edge in 2019. Despite bifurcation inflicting heavy damage on the prospects of TDP in Telangana, it is still stronger in a few pockets, especially Hyderabad, where there is a sizable presence of Seemandhra voters. The TDP, which is desperate to ally with some party to survive in Telangana, is caught between the devil and the deep sea as any alliance choice in Telangana can have implications for the party in Andhra Pradesh.

The TRS and the Congress are wooing TDP in Telangana for the simple reason that the party still enjoys support among certain sections and pockets. This was evident from the TDPs performance in Telangana in 2014, that too in the backdrop of bifurcation.

The TDP was the victim of the politics of bifurcation in the Telangana region, though it benefitted from it in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. The TDP is seen as a party under the Seemandhra leadership. The Seemandhra region now constitutes the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh. The inter-regional acrimony inflicted heavy damage on TDP. The TRS successfully depicted TDP as a Seemandhra party during the 2014 elections. Despite such political headwinds created by the wounds of bifurcation, the TDP successfully won one Lok Sabha seat and 15 Assembly seats. Its alliance partner BJP, which was a votary of bifurcation, could get only one Lok Sabha seat and five Assembly seats. The BJP was instrumental in the bifurcation of the state. Still, the TDP performance was considerably percent better than the BJP, indicating the support enjoyed by the former in the Telangana region despite an unfavourable political climate.

In fact, the TDP's performance was only marginally lower than the Congress that delivered a separate state to the people of Telangana.

However, the TDP suffered deep erosion as most of its MLAs were poached by the TRS and the party is now left with only two legislators. Its lone MP also defected to the TRS. Besides, the party lost its cadre and lower rank leadership, mostly to the TRS. The party working president and MLA Revanth Reddy joined Congress.

In the wake of the 'notes for votes scam' (in which the TDP attempted to buy a nominated MLA for winning MLC elections; Chandrababu Naidu was caught on tape endorsing the deal), Naidu is shying away from leading the party's campaign against TRS from the front. This has further demoralised the party in Telangana.

There are historical and demographic reasons why the TDP still enjoys support in this region. The TDP under NT Rama Rao abolished the traditional village revenue system called Patwari, which local people hated for its high handedness. The introduction of mandal system has decentralised the public administration. Besides, the party has politically empowered OBCs. The sizable presence of Seemandhra origin voters especially in Hyderabad further bolsters the TDP.

The TDP's strength has significantly come down post-2014. However, the TRS and the Congress expect a very keen contest in 2019. In fact, the TRS did not get a landslide mandate in 2014 either. The party amassed its strength only by encouraging defections from other parties. In a narrow contest, any small additions to political parties tallies could prove to be decisive in defining the people's mandate in 2019. Thus, both the TRS and the Congress hope to secure these crucial additional votes with the support of TDP. The TDP may not get sizable seats. There is no question of the party repeating its 2014 performance if it contests on its own. Thus, the TDP leadership also feels that an alliance is crucial for the party's survival in Telangana. Thus, the TDP on one hand and the TRS or Congress on the other feel that any alliance between them can prove to be a win-win partnership in 2019.

However, the TDP's course of political action cannot be independent of its interests in Andhra Pradesh, as the party leadership is from this region and will be from Seemandhra even in future, given the dynastic character of leadership transition in the party.

The TDP is finding it difficult to make its choice and the party in Telangana is divided. A section is already batting for an alliance with ruling TRS, hoping to win few seats. The Revanth Reddy-led faction lobbied for an understanding with Congress. But, he left the party to join the Congress, making the pro-Congress voice feeble.

Chandrababu Naidu fears a possible backlash in Andhra Pradesh by arriving at an electoral understanding with TRS. The wounds of bifurcation are still fresh in the minds of the people. Several disputes between the two states remain unresolved. Such disputes include sharing of river waters, distribution of assets etc. These have the potential to flare up further in the run-up to elections.

Similarly, the TDP was historically an anti-Congress party. The TDP came to power in residuary Andhra Pradesh by exploiting people's resentment over what they believed to be an arbitrary bifurcation. Chandrababu Naidu, through all these years, left no stone unturned to keep the issue alive for his own political ends. The people of Andhra Pradesh still believe the bifurcation to be a nightmare and refuse to forgive the Congress for authoring it. Thus, the TDP is worried of the political fallout of any alliance with Congress. However, a section of the party argues that as of now, the electoral fight would be over the BJP's injustice to the state. Thus, according to this section, an alliance with the Congress may not be a cause of concern.

However, the party is yet to come to a decision on this. Thus, even as the TRS and Congress are keen on forging an electoral understanding with it, the TDP leadership is still to decide its Telangana strategy.

The writer is a former MLC in Telangana, former editor, The Hans India and Professor, Journalism, Osmania UniversityThe Opposition YSR Congress is engaged in no holds barred fight with the ruling TDP leaving no space for a new force in Andhra to capitalise on whatever anti-incumbency

The BJP hopes to repeat its Tripura win in Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections. The party is likely to appoint Ram Madhav, the architect of BJP's success in the North East, as party in-charge for the state. This gives credence to BJP's ambitious project Andhra. However, the political landscape and the correlation of forces in Andhra Pradesh are dissimilar to Tripura, making it a mission impossible for the saffron party at least in 2019. The battle cry is essentially aimed at weakening the friend-turned-foe, Chandrababu Naidu. However, there is always the possibility that the move can even boomerang to split Opposition vote in favour of TDP.

The BJP's spectacular success in the tiny state of Tripura has certainly enthused the party cadre across India; more so because Tripura was ideologically alien to BJP. That the party which got little over one percent vote share in the last Assembly elections could win the state this time, makes it a spectacular feat. But can any party repeat a mandate in an altogether different context? A few weeks after the remarkable win in North East, the party lost crucial by-elections in its stronghold of Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile in Andhra Pradesh, the state BJP was in fact sulking over its alliance with TDP. A section has been firmly voicing the concern that alliance with TDP proved to be an impediment in the way of BJP independently growing in the state. The state unit leaders even feel that they were asked to sacrifice for the national party's strategic interests.

The BJP's success in Tripura has several factors. The state has been under the Left rule for a long time  an uninterrupted rule for over two decades and almost a four decade spell if you rule out five years of Congress rule in between. This meant that generations of voters, especially the new and young voters, were unfamiliar with any other party's rule. Thus, anti-incumbency was bound to exist. If not, at least an urge for change was obvious. Thus, the BJP's slogan of 'Chalo Paltai' could catch people's imagination.

But this is not the case with Andhra Pradesh. The TDP came to power only in 2014 after sitting in Opposition for a decade in the united Andhra Pradesh. The people of the state still have hopes from Chandrababu Naidu. Besides, the truncated state has its own set of problems giving Naidu an additional advantage to convince the electorate that he alone could deliver things for them given his vast political administration experience in the state. Moreover, the anti-bifurcation narrative assiduously promoted by Naidu still holds sway on the state electorate.

Tripura had 48 percent anti-Left vote even in 2013 when the CPM-led Left Front swept the polls. But then the Congress was the only principal anti-CPM political force in the state and it failed to seriously take on the Left juggernaut. The party was no match to CPM's organisational strength and propaganda machine. Besides, the Congress was desperate for the Left support at the national level, which forced it to play a feeble opponent at the state level.

The BJP has exploited this weakness and limitation of the Congress and galvanised the anti-Left voters. This is evident from the fact that the Congress which had significant vote share all these years was completely wiped out in the recent Assembly elections.

On the contrary, the YSR Congress lost the elections of 2014 by a slender margin in Andhra and has remained a spirited Opponent of ruling TDP. The Opposition YSR Congress is engaged in no holds barred fight with the ruling TDP leaving no space for a new force to capitalise on any anti-incumbency, if at all it exists.

Besides, the political scene in Andhra Pradesh is already crowded with the presence of Congress, Jana Sena, and the Left  despite their limited strength  preventing an anti-TDP vote consolidation.

The BJP's successes in North East have come in the backdrop of hard work and dedicated effort by the activists of Sangh parivar for decades. The BJP could only derive political capital from the grassroots work of RSS. Such a Sangh activity is not there in Andhra Pradesh though it has been making significant effort to penetrate this crucial south Indian state ever since NDA came to power both in the state and at the Centre.

Tripura is a remote state with limited revenue and resource base. The Left government constrained by this limitation could not meet the expectations of voters. While the government has the fiscal limitation, the party's ideological predilections made it difficult for the state government to invite private capital to realise the developmental aspirations. But, Andhra Pradesh despite bifurcation blues, is a relatively strong economy. Naidu government has no such reservations as the Left had.

The BJP arrived at an electoral understanding with Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) despite no ideological commonalities with the tribal outfit that calls for a separate state of Tipraland. The outfit joined hands with the BJP for its traditional rivalry with the CPM.

But, owing to the special status discourse, the BJP finds it extremely difficult to find any pre-election allies in Andhra Pradesh.

It is wrong to conclude that TDP scripted mandate in 2014 only due to its alliance with the BJP. In fact, the TDP won even in the local bodies elections much before the party arrived at an understanding with BJP and Pawan Kalyan's Jan Sena. Yet, this does not mean BJP had no role in Chandrababu Naidu's victory in 2014.

The possibility of the active presence of BJP in the Opposition camp dividing the anti-government vote and ultimately benefitting the TDP cannot also be ruled out. In fact, the Tripura or Assam BJP never said that they would repeat Gujarat in those states. The party has invented home grown solutions and native political idiom to come to power in these northeastern states. But Andhra Pradesh BJP, failing to innovate state specific political solutions, is relying on models that worked in different political contexts.Misgovernance and the central government's efforts to spread a climate of fear and oppression have brought together various parties irrespective of their differences in states, the Congress said on Monday.

New Delhi: Misgovernance and the central government's efforts to spread a climate of fear and oppression have brought together various parties irrespective of their differences in states, the Congress said on Monday.

With the CPM moving a notice of 'no confidence' motion against the BJP-led NDA government on Monday, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said parties which may not agree with each other across the country today have a very strong feeling about the various malpractice of this government.

"This government in a short while has started a climate of fear of oppression, of misgovernance, of threat, of vendetta and you are finding a natural conversion, it is not that anybody is making much of an effort," he told reporters.

Singhvi said not only the Congress, three-four other parties have moved no confidence motions' against this government. "This must have something to do with the kind of mal-governance you are having in this country," he said.

He said there is a spontaneous way of action by the people and by parties which have diverse and may be warring at that state level.

The Congress leader said he finds no contradiction in that as state-level and central-level coordinations were two different things and parties that may have differences in states can come together on a central issue.

With the logjam in Parliament entering the 15th day, the CPM on Monday submitted a notice of no confidence against the BJP-led central government in Lok Sabha, the fourth party to do so after the Congress, TDP and YSR-Congress.

Parliament will resume its sitting on Tuesday after a three-day recess amid indications that the logjam may continue.On Friday, the Congress gave a notice of no-confidence against the government in Lok Sabha, days after the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress adopted a similar measure.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has not taken up the no-confidence motions, saying the "House is not in order". Asked about the emergence of a third front, Singhvi said no government has done the task of uniting so many parties as the Modi dispensation. He said despite their differences with each other the Modi government has brought diverse parties together, be it the BSP and SP, DMK or Trinamool Congress or even Shiv Sena.After the Congress, the CPM submitted a notice of no-confidence against the BJP-led central government in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

New Delhi: After the Congress, the CPM submitted a notice of no-confidence against the BJP-led central government in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The leader of the party in Lok Sabha, P Karunakaran, submitted the notice to the Lok Sabha Secretariat and urged Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to include the no-confidence motion in the revised list of business for Tuesday.

"Under rule 198 (b) of chapter XVII of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha, I hereby give the notice to move the motion of no-confidence in the council of ministers in the House on 27 March, 2018. I request you to kindly include the motion in the revised list of business," the notice says.

According to the Left MPs, the notice is part of an opposition strategy to step up pressure on the NDA government in the Lok Sabha. On Friday, the Congress had become the third political party to move a no-confidence motion against the government in the Lok Sabha, following the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress.

Both the parties from Andhra Pradesh had moved no-confidence motions against the government recently for the latter's failure to honour the "promise" of granting special category status to the southern state and seeking a special financial package for it.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday accused the Congress of sharing users' data to a Singapore-based firm.

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday accused the Congress of sharing users' data to a Singapore-based firm.

The accusation comes a day after Congress President Rahul Gandhi referred to a media report in which a French vigilante hacker in a series of tweets alleged that the personal data including email IDs, photos, gender and names of the users of Prime Minister Modi's mobile app were being sent to a third party domain without their consent.

"Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of India's oldest political party. When you sign up for our official Application, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore," BJP leader Amit Malviya said in a series of tweets attaching screenshots of the Congress' website privacy policy listings.

Malviya is in-charge of BJP's national Information and Technology wing.

"Full marks to Congress for stating upfront that they'll give your data to practically anyone  undisclosed vendors, unknown volunteers, even groups with similar causes. In theft of all forms, Congress has never been discreet!

"When Congress says they will share your data with like-minded groups, the implications are grave. From Maoists, stone pelters, Bharat ke Tukde Gang, Chinese embassy to globally renowned' organisations like Cambridge Analytica, the field is extensive and wide open. Inspired by Sonia Gandhi's all power no accountability dictum, Congress will take all your data, even share it worldwide with organisations like Cambridge Analytica but will not take responsibility of it! Their own policy says so," the BJP leader said.

Earlier, the BJP accused the Congress of compromising national security by roping in political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica to run its 2019 election campaign.

The London-based data consultancy firm is currently in the midst of a global row after reports surfaced that the data of more than 50 million Facebook users were inappropriately used by Cambridge Analytica, in activities allegedly connected with US President Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign.If we look at the political discourse leading up to the 2016 Assembly elections, the focus was on unabashed minorityism and the TMC chief was quite explicit in wooing the 'votebank'.

West Bengal residents were treated to a curious sight on Sunday, the day Ram Navami was celebrated across the country. Both BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress were trying to outdo each other in holding Ram Navami processions. In some rallies, TMC leaders reportedly even ditched the party flag in favour of saffron headband!

There are two ways of looking at the competitive celebrations of a Hindu festival that marked West Bengal's political landscape. One, though a nascent force in Bengal, BJP has already succeeded in triggering a fundamental shift in the state's political discourse. Two, Mamata Banerjee is trying to pro-actively nip in the bud BJP's attempts to consolidate the Hindu votes. These statements are not at variance with each other.

If we look at the political discourse leading up to the 2016 Assembly elections, the focus was on unabashed minorityism. At roughly 30 percent, Bengal has a sizeable Muslim population. Through her policies and politics, the Trinamool Congress chief was quite explicit in wooing the 'votebank'.

Soon after ending Left's three-decade stranglehold over Bengal and rising to power in 2011, Mamata had proposed a state-sponsored monthly stipend of Rs 2500 and "own land, own house" for each of the state's "30000 to 40000" imams. Over the years, she has enthusiastically pursued this strategy. The Bengal chief minister has set up Haj houses, new campus for Aliah University, sanctioned 400 madrasa hostels, and introduced scholarships for Muslim students, The Indian Express reported.

If any criticism for these policies came her way, Mamata showed a remarkable intolerance for dissent and an autocratic style of functioning, quite unlike the "liberal icon" image that she is of late trying to promote.

In September 2012, The New York Times reported how police tried to intimidate the publishers of a book written in Bengali by a senior police officer criticizing Banerjee's policies. The 102-page book Musalamander Koroniyo (What Muslims Should Do) written by Narzul Islam  then the additional director general of the West Bengal police  had criticized the chief minister's move to allow stipends for imams and plans to "recognize 10,000 madrasas".

According to The New York Times, "police raided the College Street office of the books Kolkata publisher, Mitra & Ghosh". Publisher Indrani Roy told the US-based newspaper that "government has tried to intimidate us in different ways". The report further stated, "Roy said she believes the raid, the first in the publishers 80-year history, stems from Banerjees intolerance to criticism. 'It is rather unnerving,' she said. 'We are actually very scared. Our freedom is at stake and who knows what will happen tomorrow'."

These days, however, Mamata claims that "only West Bengal can fight against this communal politics and intolerance and save the country."

During the campaign stage for 2016 Assembly polls, huge cutouts of the chief minister  head covered in white chador and arms joined in prayers to the Almighty  were ubiquitous. Mamata also religiously attended iftaar parties.

As an India Today report from June 2016 notes, "Banerjee can be seen attending several fast-breaking ceremonies with her cabinet colleagues. With her head covered and her colleagues wearing skull caps. Banerjee can be even heard quoting Urdu couplets in a bid to display her skills with the language and familiarity with the community."

Mamata's campaign speeches in Muslim-majority areas ended with an invocation to Allah, as a report in The Hindu in April 2016 noted. "Allah ho Akbar,' she (Mamata) cries out, adding, 'La Ilah Ilalah Mohammad un Rasool Allah. Inshallah, paribartan hobe (God willing, there will be change).' For West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, no stump speech is complete without a string of invocations aimed at Muslims, who number close to 28 per cent of the States population".

Her zeal often led to decisions that drew condemnation from the courts. The Bengal chief minister has been rebuked by Calcutta High Court for trying to "appease the minority section of the public at the cost of the majority section without there being any plausible justification". Her attempts to prevent the BJP from holding a rally in the state has been quashed. Mamata evidently believed that she can afford to pay a small cost for consolidation of Muslim votes.

Two things happened in 2016 Assembly polls. One, the Left and Congress were decimated despite forming an alliance. Two, BJP emerged as the chief Opposition. It didn't take long for Mamata to realise that the Left and the Congress are no longer a threat to TMC. She also realized the need now to focus her attention on BJP, a party that is cadre-based, organised and is adept at playing the waiting game.

Mamata drew some quick conclusions. If the Left and Congress are insignificant in Bengal, then there is no longer any need for TMC to attempt a Muslim consolidation. Conversely, she needed to quickly move and prevent BJP's attempts to consolidate the Hindu votes by portraying Mamata as "anti-Hindu".

Theoretically, even if Mamata succeeds in getting the backing of state's Muslim population, any consolidation of Hindu votes as a countermeasure would damage her politically.

The 2017 Ram Navami celebrations, organised by the RSS across Bengal, drew unprecedented response. It was enough to tell Mamata that she needs a quick resetting of her priorities. The zeal of TMC ministers in snatching Ram away from BJP during Sunday's celebrations was a culmination of this "reset" that Mamata has embarked on since last year.

Gone were the huge cutouts in strategic locations of the city. On April 2017, Mamata had tweeted:

Greetings to all on Hanuman Jayanti. Jai Bajrangbali  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) April 11, 2017

Around this time, Anubrata Mondal, a party leader and a Mamata loyalist, was quoted as saying in newspapers: "There are 127 Bajrangbali (other name for Hanuman) temples in Birbhum district. On Wednesday evening in each of the temples, puja will be held. All our legislators and other party leaders and workers will take part. We will worship Bajrangbali everywhere."

In January 2018, TMC organised a convention of Brahmins and Hindu priests in Bolpur town of Birbhum district where thousands of priests and attendees were given "a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a shawl and pictures of Sarada Maa and Ramakrishna" ostensibly to teach them "real meaning of Hinduism".

Rahul Gandhi's temple run during last year's Gujarat elections seemed to have rubbed on to Mamata as well.

It is in this context that we must see TMC leaders' zeal in taking out Ram Navami processions and state food minister attending the rally armed with a mace. .

Livemint reported that Arup Roy, a state minister, has said "the chief minister had asked all key party functionaries to take out rallies every Sunday until the upcoming panchayat election."

The winds of change are evident. Trinamool's shift from blatant minorityism to soft Hindutva is in sync with similar attempts from the Congress at the national level. Notably, both parties are at pains to insist that they have been wrongly portrayed as "pro-Muslim" in the past, and their temple visits and taking up of Hindu causes are not examples of "soft Hindutva" but a move to deny BJP the chance to project itself as the sole savior of Hinduism. Both claim that doing so does not make them "any less secular".

It is here that BJP has scored a major victory. Under Narendra Modi, the party has reinvented "secularism", breaking its unanimity with "minorityism". What we are witnessing in Bengal is TMC's attempt to respond to this changed definition. The likely repercussions of this churning (disempowerment of Muslims, for one) will be evident over time. What is of immediate interest is how it affects voter behavior. By all purposes, we should get a definitive answer by 2019.Sinha had some kind words for the jailed RJD supremo also, who he said was a 'victim of conspiracy of circumstances'. 'I hope he (Prasad) will get justice sooner or latter,' he said.

Patna: Dissident BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha met the family members of Lalu Prasad in Patna, a day after visiting the jailed RJD president at a hospital in Ranchi where he is being treated.

While Sinha called on Prasad on Saturday after a CBI court handed him 14 years' jail term in a fodder scam case, he travelled to Rabri Devi's 10 Circular Road residence in Patna on Sunday to meet her and her sons.

Photographs of Sinha with Rabri and her sons  Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav  figured prominently in newspapers and social media much to the discomfort of the BJP whose leaders have been attacking the RJD supremo on corruption charges.

Sinha, who has been at odds with his party leadership ever since he was ignored in the 2015 Bihar polls, defended seeing Prasad and his family, saying it was a "personal" matter and was about his "sanskar" (values).

"For me, it's like once a friend always a friend," he told PTI on Monday. "It is my principle not to consider political opponents as enemy."

He asserted his meeting should not be seen through political prims. "I went to meet Prasad and his kin to be with the family in this hour of crisis."

Sinha had some kind words for the jailed RJD supremo also, who he said was a "victim of conspiracy of circumstances". "I hope he (Prasad) will get justice sooner or latter," he said.

The BJP MP from Patna Sahib also sought to blunt criticisms that might come from any quarter for his meeting. "If my meeting is taken as a sin what about the prime minister attending the wedding of Lalu Prasad's daughter or the wedding of Congress leader Digvijay Singh's daughter and wishing Sonia Gandhi during a personal encounter?

"This (his meeting with Prasad and his family) should be seen in the same light. When the time comes we may talk politics also ... No problem," he added. "I have never crossed the Lakshaman rekha (limits) of my party. I always maintain discipline".

He praised Prasad's sons saying Tejashwi has a very "bright future" and that he was impressed with him. "About Tej Pratap Yadav do not try to underestimate him also." "Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi President) and Tejashwi Yadav are people to be watched out for," the senior BJP leader said.

Tejashwi, who is the Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly, also tweeted about the meeting.

Indomitable, the original Bihari Babu and stalwart of Indian Cinema & Politics Sh. @ShatruganSinha Ji came calling to show solidarity with us! He is appalled by #VendettaPolitics being meted out to fiesty @laluprasadrjd Ji! He always stands for genuine & honest friends . pic.twitter.com/2r4eN2d4TK  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) March 25, 2018

His brother Tej Pratap Yadav also tweeted. "A great selfie with Shatrughan Sinha ji." "Standing with us as a guardian in the fight against feudal government, many many thanks to Shatrughan Sinhaji," he added.Three nominated BJP legislators were denied entry into the Puducherry Assembly on Monday.

Chennai: Three nominated BJP legislators were denied entry into the Puducherry Assembly on Monday.

The Madras High Court had recently upheld the nomination of the three legislators - V Saminathan, KG Shankar and S Selvaganapathy.

Responding to it, Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi said that law will take its own course, according to ANI.

Meanwhile, three AIADMK members walked out of the Assembly in protest against the central government for not setting up the Caurvery Management Board (CMB).

They walked out when Bedi began her speech to the budget session of the Assembly.

With inputs from IANStech2 News Staff

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday accused the Congress of sharing users' data with a Singapore-based firm soon after a French vigilante hacker claimed that its server was located in the island city-state instead of India.

The accusation comes a day after Congress President Rahul Gandhi referred to a media report in which the French hacker Elliot Alderson, in a series of tweets alleged that the personal data including email IDs, photos, gender and names of the users of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mobile app were being sent to a third party domain without their consent.

"Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of India's oldest political party. When you sign up for our official Application, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore," BJP leader Amit Malviya said in a series of tweets attaching screenshots of the Congress' website privacy policy listings.

Malviya is in-charge of the BJP's national information and technology wing and he shared the information on the social networking site soon after Alderson in a series of tweets claimed that the Congress was also storing the data in Singapore.

"When you apply for membership in the official Congress android app, your personal data are send encoded through a HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) request to http://membership.inc.in," the French hacker said.

I found something interesting on the With INC #android app, details will be published tomorrow   Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 25, 2018

As per a Times of India report, the app seemed to have disappeared from the Google Play Store after the French hacker on Sunday hinted that he would look into the Indian National Congress's (INC) app and would put out a report shortly.

The IP address of https://t.co/t1pidQUmtq is 52.77.237.47. This server is located in Singapore. As you are an #Indian political party, having your server in #India is probably a good idea. pic.twitter.com/tbspCtOPfB  Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 26, 2018

A day later, on Monday, Alderson alleged that the app was indeed sending across the data of registered users to a server in Singapore.

To this, the INC's social media head Divya Spandana tweeted out an explanation, stating the Congress app was "defunct for while" and that that the party registers members through its INC website.

The URL for membership on the INC app has been defunct for a while now. Our membership is through the INC website. How difficult is that to understand- https://t.co/UbS5vrTcNL  Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) March 26, 2018

Alderson, on the other hand, told the Times of India, that "they (Congress) got scared after my first tweet, saying that I will look into their app." Today's developments come after Alderson first tweeted out details of the Narendra Modi's NaMo app on Saturday.

On Sunday, the hacker also put out another tweet stating that after the NaMo app expose their developer team had updated the privacy policy.

With inputs from IANSAnita Gurumurthy and Amrita Vasudevan

After days of prodding by the media, Mark Zuckerberg offered a mea culpa, apologising for the breach of trust between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it. The news that Facebook shared user data with a number of organisations including Cambridge Analytica seems to reflect the paradox of surveillance society  that our data is never safe, but share it we must.

So once again, in a Snowdenish moment, we are hit by the revelation that Cambridge Analytica conducted behavioural modeling and psychographic profiling (creating personality profiles by gauging motives, interests, attitudes, beliefs, values, etc) based on data it collected, to successfully (allegedly) target Americans prior to the recent presidential election.

Meanwhile, in India, political parties have accused each other of hiring Cambridge Analytica for their own election campaigns.

The soothsayer

Facebook collects all kinds of social data about its users, like their relationship status, place of work, colleagues, last time they visited their parents, songs they like listening to, as well as other kinds of information such as device data, websites visited from the platform, etc. This may be information that is shared by the user or what their friends may share about them on the platform.

That aside, let us not forget that Facebook has bought over WhatsApp and Instagram and can tap into data from those platforms as well, apart from the data it buys from data brokers!

Data that is collected is used to draw up the profile of users  a detailed picture of the persona that emerges by piecing together known activity and aptitude and generating predictions about possible proclivities and predispositions. The mechanics of big data thus recreate the sum total of user traits and attributes  without necessarily verifying them per user.

What follows then is the clustering of users into hyper segments with similar attributes for micro-targeting ads. You may merely be liking an article on the last male white Rhino, but Facebook will use it to predict with a fair amount of accuracy your political affiliation and sexual orientation, using algorithmic modelling to nudge you to buy something you are most likely to. Hyper-segmentation based on social media profiling can also be used to create a consumer base for political messaging, as has been suggested in the case of Cambridge Analytica.

The target

Many digital corporations, including Uber, Twitter and Microsoft sell their data to third parties who build apps and provide services on top of it. With machine learning, the targeting of individuals assumes new dimensions; it becomes possible to do nano-targeting, zoom in precisely on one individual.

A fintech startup in India recently rejected an applicant because they could uncover that she had actually filed for a loan on behalf of her live-in partner who was unemployed. The boyfriends loan request had been rejected earlier. The start-ups machine learning algorithm had used GPS and social media data  both of which the duo had given permissions for while downloading the app  to make the connection that they were in a relationship.

That big data can be put to use in ways that reinforce social and cultural segregation and exclusion is fairly well accepted now. It is this slippery slope from micro-targeting to the social allocation by algorithms of opportunities and privileges that poses serious concerns. A ProPublica investigation from 2016 collected more than 52,000 unique attributes that Facebook used to classify users into micro target-able groups. It then went on to buy Facebook advertisement for housing that demonstrated how it was possible to exclude African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans. As Frank Pasquale notes, constitutionally inculcated rights and morality are slowly being undone by the use of automated processes to assess risk and allocate opportunity.

The public sphere

This brings us to the question of what the social role of digital intelligence means for the future of democracy. Elections play a vital role in a robust democracy. We seek to safeguard their free and fair nature through regulations that impose restrictions on exit polls or call out parties for unduly influencing voters through the distribution of freebies. Wouldnt then, a nudging of voters through intimate knowledge of their behaviour be a threat to this socio-political hygiene we seek to maintain?

Can we allow the replacement of the will of the people by a market democracy in which the masses can be gamed? How should the Election Commission take due cognisance of and address such mass-scale manipulation?

Beyond electoral fairness, there are severe repercussions for the sanctity of the public sphere in the rapidly unfolding role of algorithms. When people know that online behaviour is monitored, they carefully moderate how they interact online, a phenomenon referred to as social cooling.

The collusion

The Cambridge Analytica episode bears a close resemblance to the Snowden disclosure of the unholy nexus of the state, private corporation, and uninhibited surveillance. India has already succeeded in building a cradle to grave Panspectron by seeding citizens unique biometric identifier across databases. Aadhaar has allowed for an informationisation of life where ...the human body is reduced to a set of numbers that can be stored, retrieved and reconstituted across terminals, screens and interfaces.

With the biometric, the body can never disassociate with its data and may be recalled, whenever convenient sans the individual. To add psychographic data akin to a behavioural biometric to this mix is to give a Gods eye view of society to the state, one that the state is bound to abuse to determine the human condition. For instance, Chinas profoundly disturbing, Sesame Credit uses citizen data including data from everyday transactions, biometric data, etc, to dole out instant karma.

From the other end, corporations who already collect behavioural data are keen on accessing Aadhaar data, for this will allow them to trade data around a unique data point to attain, much like the state, a 360-degree view of their customers.

Facebook has faced criticism in the past for experimenting with users emotions, using unethical manipulation of information to influence the moods of users. The plausibility of nano-surveillance raises fundamental philosophical questions about society and human agency, calling attention to the urgent task of reining in the data capitalists.

The norm

While digital corporations claim to audit how third parties may use the data they have shared, monitoring is lax. India does have rules on data sharing; however, these pertain to a predefined list of data types. Traditionally, data protection legislation has focused on personally identifiable information(PII), but with technological advances  a la big data analysis and artificial intelligence, what is or is not PII is contested. The law, therefore, needs to be re-imagined to suit contemporary techniques of data analysis.

Besides the fact of unencumbered data sharing, that Facebook was able to collect such vast amounts and varied kinds of data is itself unsettling. To prevent the frightening prospect of future society being reduced to an aggregate of manipulated data points, it may well be necessary to determine that certain kinds of data will not be collected and certain types of data processing will not be done. Restrictions on collection and use can be sector specific, based on well debated social norms and constitutionally driven, much like how the Delhi High Court held on the grounds of the Right to Health that excluding genetic disorders from insurance policies is illegal.

It is time we moved from individual-centred notions of privacy where the user is constantly asked to barter the right to privacy for entitlements, credits, and conveniences. Nandan Nilekani's exhortation that citizens be empowered to monetise the plentiful data they generate and get easier credit, better healthcare, better skills and welfare benefits is a recipe for a disempowered society left to the whims of neo-liberal market democracy. The social value of privacy needs to be spotlighted for it urges us to look not only at the individual right over data, but the social benefits that we derive from its recognition.

So far as societies are products of behavioural modelling, Zuckerbergs apology does not really count.

The authors are with IT for Change, an NGO that works at the intersection of digital technologies and social justicetech2 News Staff

Google Doodle is celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Chipko Movement where the women of Uttarakhand protested against the cutting of trees in the regional forest. The account of the Chipko Movement first appeared in the 1970s in the writings of the Indian poet Ghanasyam Raturi.

The Chipko Movement took place in the 18th Century. Under the leadership of Amrita Devi, 363 women from 84 villages of the then Uttar Pradesh (now Uttarakhand) took to themselves to protect khejri trees from being cut down at the order of the king of Jodhpur. The resistance was important for these women since deforestation would have directly affected the supply of firewood. The king later decreed an order that the trees would be left unaffected.

In the Doodle, women in traditional Garhwali attire can be seen under the moonlight, holding hands with each other to protect the trees from deforestation. The background in the doodle gives a picture of the flora and fauna these women were fighting for.

This movement is one of the earliest eco-feminist movements where women linked their hands together to save the forest. Some even hugged the trees from being cut down. Initially, this movement was known as "angalwaltha", a Garhwali word which means "embrace". It was later termed as the Chipko Movement.

The efforts of these women inspired several environmental protests since generations. It is also known as the Chipko Aandolan.

Svabhu Kohli and Viplov Singh are the illustrators of the colourful doodle.

Ghanasyam Raturi had once quoted in his writing about the movement. He said, " Embrace the trees and, Save them from being felled; The property of our hills, Save them from being looted."

The Doodle is available on in India and you can check the process of making the Doodle here.PTI

Tech giant Microsoft will host 'AI for All' summit in Bengaluru on March 28 to showcase use cases of artificial intelligence across sectors.

The event will feature discussions around the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), and how this can be used to amplify human ingenuity, a Microsoft India spokesperson told PTI.

"This is our first summit of its kind in the country. While we had an AI event last year for developers, this one is for a broader audience," the spokesperson added.

Participation is expected from industry representatives spanning across verticals like healthcare, auto and IT and IT-enabled services, among others.

The event will be addressed by global and Indian Microsoft executives, including Peggy Johnson (Executive Vice President, Business Development), Anant Maheshwari (President, Microsoft India) and Anil Bhansali, Managing Director at Microsoft India (R&D).

Besides, representatives from Microsoft's partners and customers will also speak at the event, showcasing use cases of AI across various areas.

The event will also showcase how AI can augment people's capability to be more productive and the potential of AI in India for both businesses and society at large.

There will also be a Design Thinking workshop around AI, the spokesperson said.Israeli police arrived at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Jerusalem residence on Monday morning to interrogate him over one of several graft cases that threaten to topple him, Israeli media said.

Jerusalem: Israeli police arrived at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Jerusalem residence on Monday morning to interrogate him over one of several graft cases that threaten to topple him, Israeli media said.

Multiple Israeli media reports said the longtime premier was to be questioned over a case of alleged corruption involving Israeli telecoms giant Bezeq.

He could for the first time face questions over information provided to police by Nir Hefetz, a longtime Netanyahu ally who has turned state witness.

Netanyahu's wife Sara and son Yair are also being questioned along with Shaul Elovitch, Bezeq's largest shareholder, Israeli media reported.

A police spokesman confirmed "various investigative activities" linked to the probes, without mentioning the Netanyahus by name.

This is the ninth time Netanyahu has been questioned in various cases directly or indirectly concerning him.

He maintains he is innocent and has denounced allegations against him as a media and police witch hunt.

On 13 February, police recommended Netanyahu be indicted in two cases, though the attorney general has yet to decide whether to do so.

In the Bezeq case, Netanyahu is alleged to have sought favourable coverage from Elovich's Walla news site in exchange for government policies that may have benefited the mogul's Bezeq by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Netanyahu has been in power for almost 12 years during two stints and the allegations have raised questions about his successor.The Donald Trump administration expelled 60 Russian diplomats on Monday and ordered Russia's consulate in Seattle to close.

Washington: The Donald Trump administration expelled 60 Russian diplomats on Monday and ordered Russia's consulate in Seattle to close, as the United States and European nations sought to jointly punish Moscow for its alleged role in poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

Senior Trump administration officials said all 60 Russians were spies working in the US under diplomatic cover, including a dozen at Russia's mission to the United Nations. The officials said the administration was taking the action to send a message to Russia's leaders about the "unacceptably high" number of Russian intelligence operatives in the US.

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the US, said the officials. They weren't authorised to be identified by name and requested anonymity. They added that the Seattle consulate is a counter-intelligence concern because of its proximity to a US Navy base.

The move was one of the most significant actions President Donald Trump's administration has taken to date to push back on Moscow and Russian president Vladimir Putin. Less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin by phone for his re-election but didn't raise the spy case, renewing questions about whether the US president is too soft on the Kremlin.

The US actions came as more than a dozen nations, including those in Russia's neighborhood, were expected to announce similar steps to reduce Russia's diplomatic presence in their countries or other actions to punish Moscow. Poland summoned Russia's ambassador for talks, and its foreign ministry was among several in Europe planning news conferences later Monday.

Last week, EU chief Donald Tusk predicted that member states would introduce measures against Moscow over its suspected role in the spy poisoning case.

Britain has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being undeclared intelligence agents, which led Russia to expel the same number of British diplomats. The European Union has already recalled its ambassador to Russia.

Britain has accused Moscow of perpetrating the attack. The US, France and Germany have agreed it's highly likely that's the case.Egyptians vote in a presidential election on Monday to choose between incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and a little-known candidate.

Cairo: Egyptians vote in a presidential election on Monday to choose between incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and a little-known candidate who has struggled to make the case he is not Sisi's minion.

Polling stations open at 0700 GMT for the three-day vote in which Sisi is all but guaranteed to win a second four-year term. Security will be tight across the country. The Islamic State group's Egyptian affiliate, which has killed hundreds of soldiers and civilians, has threatened attacks on election-related installations.

On Saturday, two policemen were killed in a car bomb attack targeting the provincial head of security for the Alexandria governorate. The security chief was unharmed.

Some 60 million people in Egypt, the most populated Arab country, are registered to vote on 26, 27, and 28 March. Official results are expected on 2 April. They will have the choice between Sisi and Moussa Mostafa Moussa, who registered right before the close date for applications, saving the election from being a one-horse race.

Moussa, who has denied he is a "puppet," had been leading a Sisi re-election campaign until the moment he registered as a candidate. Other opponents have been sidelined, including former military chief of staff Sami Anan who was detained in January shortly after announcing his candidacy.

The military said the reserve general broke the law by illegally declaring his candidacy.

In an interview broadcast on Egyptian television last week, 63-year-old Sisi said the lack of serious opponents was not his doing. "I wish we had one, or two, or three, or 10 of the best people and you choose however you want," he said.

Sisi had won his first term in 2014, a year after the former army chief ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi following mass protests demanding his resignation. In that election, Sisi faced Hamdeen Sabbahi, an established left-wing politician much better known than Moussa. Still, Sisi won 96.9 percent of the vote.

With Sisi's win effectively guaranteed, the authorities' concern this year would be turnout to enhance the legitimacy of the vote. Sisi has stressed in his pre-election appearances the importance of voters turning out in large numbers.

In 2014, about 37 percent of voters participated in the two-day election, prompting authorities to add a third day to obtain a final participation rate of 47.5 percent. It is unlikely this year that even that 37 percent will be achieved, said analyst Mostafa Kamel al-Sayed. "The result is known in advance, and this does not encourage Egyptians to go out and vote," he said.

During the campaign, Sisi appeared frequently on television and in newspapers, hailing factories and infrastructure projects built in the past four years. Egyptian cities, especially Cairo, are flooded with banners featuring photographs of Sisi and messages of support from business owners. Posters vowing support for Moussa, 65, are rarely seen.

But with an economic crisis and gruelling price hikes  and the return of a regime seen as at least as authoritative as that of Mubarak  support for Sisi appears to be slightly in decline.Egypts police killed, on Sunday, six militants belonging to a group the interior ministry accuses of carrying out a bombing in the coastal city of Alexandria that targeted a security chief on Saturday

On the eve of the 2018 presidential election in Egypt, the police on Sunday killed six militants belonging to a group that carried out Saturday's bomb blast in the coastal city of Alexandria.

The city's security chief was the target of the bomb blast that had killed two policemen, reports had said.

The interior ministry has dealt an effective blow to the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Hasam movement, on the dawn of 25 March. The ministry uncovered a terrorist den... and exchanged fire with its elements which led to the killing of six, the police said in a statement, according to Reuters.

The Muslim Brotherhood, however, says it rejects violence.

The anti-terror police raid came on the eve of Egypt's 2018 presidential election that kicks off on Monday morning, in which incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is expected to win a second four-year term.

Police have identified three of the six militants killed. The ministry said its investigations showed the same group had carried out the bombing on Saturday. The police, however, didn't indicate if those killed on Sunday had taken part in the bombing.

With inputs from Reuters and IANSThe Pakistan government has rejected former dictator Pervez Musharraf's request for security on returning to the country to face treason charges.

Islamabad: The Pakistan government has rejected former dictator Pervez Musharraf's request for security on returning to the country to face a special court trying him on treason charges, according to a media report.

The Ministry of Defence has conveyed to the Dubai-based former president through his counsel that providing him security is not its job, the Dawn newspaper reported. In a letter written to Musharraf's counsel Akhtar Shah, the ministry said "provision of security in the subject case does not fall under the purview of Ministry of Defence", according to the report.

The 74-year-old retired Army general has been living in Dubai since 2017 when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on the pretext of medical treatment.

He was indicted in March, 2014 on treason charges for imposing emergency in 2007 in the country which led to the confinement of a number of superior court judges in their houses and sacking of over 100 judges. He has been declared "proclaimed offender" by courts in the treason and the Benazir Bhutto assassination cases. He is the first general to face trial for treason in Pakistan's history and if convicted, he could be given life imprisonment or the death penalty.

An application was moved on behalf of Musharraf on 13 March that the former president be provided security by the ministry of defence on his return to Pakistan. "His team contends that he faces serious security threats," it said.

However, responding to a similar application, the Interior Ministry had earlier assured Musharraf of security and also sought his travel plan and details of stay in Pakistan. The details have not been shared with the interior ministry so far, the report said. "We are still working on the details and will make the decision public once there is something final," All Pakistan Muslim League leader Muhammad Amjad, a close aide of Musharraf, was quoted as saying by Dawn.

On 16 March, the special court hearing the treason case against Musharraf authorised the government to suspend his passport as well as his computerised national identity card. The court had also directed the interior ministry to approach the Interpol for the arrest of the former president.

On 21 March, he convened a meeting of his aides in Dubai on to decide the future course of action but the meeting remained inconclusive. The Islamabad High Court had in February ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate Musharraf over charges of accumulating assets beyond his known means of income.The United States said it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe punishing the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that they have blamed on Moscow

London/Washington: The United States said on Monday it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe punishing the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that they have blamed on Moscow.

It was the strongest action that US president Donald Trump had taken against Russia since coming to office. He has come under criticism from Democrats and from members of his own Republican party for failing to be tough enough on Russia over allegations of Russian meddling in the US electoral system including the 2016 presidential campaign.

Besides the United States, 14 European Union countries also expelled Russian diplomats, European Council President Donald Tusk said. Ukraine and Canada also took action, and in total Mondays announcements affected more than 100 Russian diplomats  the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War.

Todays extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever & will help defend our shared security. Russia cannot break international rules with impunity  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 26, 2018

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tweeted that, Todays extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever and will help defend our shared security.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the coordinated measures clearly demonstrate that we all stand shoulder to shoulder in sending the strongest signal to Russia that it cannot continue to flout international law.

Russias Foreign Ministry called the actions a provocative gesture and promised to respond. The Kremlin spokesman said the Wests response was a mistake and that Russian President Vladimir Putin would make a final decision about Russias response.

Moscow has denied being behind the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the southern English city of Salisbury on 4 March. Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a public bench in a shopping centre, and remain critically ill in hospital.

The staff expelled by the United States included 12 intelligence officers from Russias mission to United Nations headquarters in New York. Trump also ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle.

To the Russian government we say: when you attack our friends, you will face serious consequences, a senior US administration official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The individuals concerned and their families have been given a week to leave the United States, according to one of the officials briefing reporters.

Trump, who before he took office in January last year promised warmer ties with Putin, last week congratulated the Russian leader on his re-election, drawing criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. Trump said the two leaders had made tentative plans to meet in the not too distant future.

The last time that the United States expelled so many Russian spies was when the Reagan administration ordered 55 Soviet diplomats out of the country in 1986, said Angela Stent, director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University.

This US solidarity with Britain and other European allies after the Skripal poisoning is unprecedented in the post-Soviet era and highlights the continuing downward spiral of Russias relations with the West, she said.

EU leaders said last week that evidence of Russian involvement in the Salisbury attack presented by British Prime Minister Theresa May was a solid basis for further action.

Germany and France made good on those threats by announcing expulsions and in a coordinated move, a string of other EU states also ordered expulsions, along with Canada and Ukraine.

Skripals poisoning, alleged to have employed the Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent Novichok, is the first known offensive use of a nerve toxin in Europe since World War Two.

In solidarity with our British partners, we have today notified the Russian authorities of our decision to expel four Russian personnel with diplomatic status from French territory within one week, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian.

Response will be symmetrical

Tusk said further measures could be taken in the coming weeks and months.

Russia said it would respond in kind.

The response will be symmetrical. We will work on it in the coming days and will respond to every country in turn, the RIA news agency cited an unnamed foreign ministry source as saying.

The Kremlin has accused Britain of whipping up an anti-Russia campaign and has sought to cast doubt on the British analysis that Moscow was responsible. Russia has already ordered 23 British diplomats out of the country after Britain expelled 23 diplomats.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested that the EUs expression of support for Britain was misguided given that it would be leaving the bloc next year.

Britain is leaving the European family. No one cancelled Brexit, and the divorce process is in full swing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook.

Therefore a country which is leaving the European Union is exploiting the solidarity factor and is foisting on those countries that remain a worsening of relations with Russia.

A British court has said Skripal and his daughter may have suffered brain damage, while a policeman who went to help them has also indicated that he has suffered lasting damage to his health.

British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson hailed the support for Britain during a visit on Monday to Estonia. Britain has troops there as part of a NATO mission to deter any Russian aggression following its seizure of Ukraines Crimea in 2014.

The worlds patience is rather wearing thin with President Putin and his actions, Williamson said.

Their aim is to divide, and what we are seeing is the world uniting behind the British stance  and that in itself is a great victory and sends an exceptionally powerful message to the Kremlin and president Putin.The United States has imposed sanctions on seven Pakistani companies over suspicion they have links to the nuclear trade, potentially hurting Pakistans ambitions to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Islamabad: The United States has imposed sanctions on seven Pakistani companies over suspicion they have links to the nuclear trade, potentially hurting Pakistans ambitions to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Pakistani government spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment on Monday.

Relations between the United States and Pakistan have been strained in recent years over Pakistans alleged support for Islamist militants waging war in Afghanistan, something Pakistani officials deny.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security, Commerce imposed the sanctions on the Pakistani companies on March 22 by placing them on its "Entity List".

The companies had been "determined by the US government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States", the bureau said in a report on a US government website.

The Department of Commerces Entity List does not freeze assets but requires that US and foreign companies doing business with those on the list first obtain a license.

Companies placed on the Entity List will need special licenses to do business in the United States.

None of the seven sanctioned Pakistani companies, which are not well known, could be immediately reached for comment, nor could a Singapore-based company which the bureau said was linked to one of the Pakistani companies.

Pakistani officials have in the past been accused of handing over nuclear secrets to North Korea. The government has denied the accusations though Pakistan has a poor record on nuclear proliferation.

The Pakistani scientist lionized as the father of Pakistans atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, in 2004 said he had sold nuclear secrets to North Korea.

A UN nuclear watchdog said in 2008 that Khans network smuggled nuclear weaponisation blueprints to Iran, Libya and North Korea and was active in 12 countries.

Sanctioned companies

Of the latest companies to be sanctioned, Singapore-based Mushko Logistics and Pakistan-based Mushko Electronics "procured items for several Pakistani entities on the Entity List", the US bureau said in its report.

Another company, Solutions Engineering, "has been involved in the procurement of US-origin items on behalf of nuclear-related entities in Pakistan that are already listed on the Entity List".

Three of the companies - Akhtar & Munir, Proficient Engineers and Pervaiz Commercial Trading Co. (PCTC) - were on the list due to "involvement in the proliferation of unsafeguarded nuclear activities that are contrary to the national security and/or foreign policy interests of the United States".

Marine Systems was placed on the Entity list for helping other already-sanctioned bodies obtain items without a licence, while Engineering and Commercial Services (ECS) was sanctioned for "involvement in supplying a Pakistani nuclear-related entity on the Entity List".

The sanctions could deal a blow to Pakistans application to join the NSG, a 48-nation club dedicated to curbing nuclear arms proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that could foster nuclear weapons development.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan applied to join the NSG in 2016 but little progress has been made.

The United States has been concerned about Pakistans development of new nuclear weapons systems, including small tactical nuclear weapons, and has been trying to persuade Islamabad to make a unilateral declaration of "restraint"..                ,     ,   London...This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.Even as fuel prices are still low compared to their peaks of the last decade, automakers are ramping up production of electrified models to meet tough new fuel economy and emisisons standards, and Honda is not to be left out.

The Japanese automaker on Monday revealed a handsome redesign for the Insight, whose formal debut takes place Wednesday at the 2018 New York auto show. A thinly veiled prototype was shown in January during the 2018 Detroit auto show.

The new Insight, which reaches showrooms in the summer as a 2019 model, represents the third iteration of Honda's hybrid nameplate. It also represents the third body style for the car. The original Insight of the early 2000s was a 3-door hatch. The car morphed into a Prius-like 5-door hatch for its second generation. Its now taken on a somewhat stylish sedan form.

The design looks a lot like that of the 10th-generation Civic, though Honda describes the new Insight as an upscale 5-seater positioned above the Civic. Nice touches include LED headlights, perforated leather, an 8.0-inch touchscreen display, and a Wi-Fi-enabled infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration. Buyers can also look forward to electronic driver aids such as automatic braking, traffic crawling, and lane departure warning.

The real star of the show, however, is the car's 2-motor hybrid system. It uses a 1.5-liter Atkinson cycle engine for its internal combustion component, plus a pair of electric motors that replace the transmission. Peak output is 151 horsepower and 197 pound-feet of torque, and there's a Sport mode for spirited driving.

When you drive a bit more conservatively, Honda says the new Insight will deliver an EPA-rated fuel economy of 50 mpg combined or better. The previous Insight could only muster 41 mpg while popular hybrids like the Hyundai Ioniq and Toyota Prius return 58 and 56 mpg, respectively.

Production of the 2019 Insight will take place at a plant in Greensburg, Indiana, where Honda produces the Civic and CR-V. Pricing will be announced closer to this summer's market launch.

For more N.Y. auto show coverage, head to our dedicated hub.At long last, the Saviors and The Hilltop had their battle during Season 8, episode 13 of AMCs The Walking Dead. With Negan temporarily out of the picture, things go awry on both sides of the conflict as walkers get involved.

[SPOILER ALERT]

The episode, titled Do Not Send Us Astray began with the remaining refugees from The Hilltop, Alexandria and The Kingdom alerting the base that The Saviors convoy had arrived. Things are tense as they all wait eagerly for nightfall. Maggie is leading the show, hoping to use her 38 hostages as human shields to protect them from the attack. Unfortunately for her, thanks to Ricks intervention during last weeks episode, the relatively sensible Negan is not running the show on the other end. Instead, its Simon who seems to have adopted the policy of killing everyone that crosses them rather than use them as resources.

When the time comes, Simon orders his people to go at them full-tilt. Dwight, who is secretly on the side of our heroes, notes that this isnt what Negan would have wanted. Additionally, in the event their maniacal leader returned, Simon will have a lot to answer for. Still, Simon pushes through the gates undeterred. Maggie, however, was ready for him and blocks further entry with a bus. Just like that, The Saviors are sitting ducks and get chewed to pieces.

Simon and Dwight manage to take cover and find that theyve got a clear path to sneak up on Tara. Simon plans to take her out, but Dwight is more hesitant given his allegiance to The Hilltop. When they get close, Darly manages to warn Tara, but Dwight fires an arrow into her shoulder just in time to stop Simons advance. Its unclear from the moment what his true intentions were, but it might be more fatal than anyone realizes as Negan ordered his people to outfit their arrow tips with infected guts. Tara isnt alone. Tobin gets cut pretty bad on his chest in the fray, as do a handful of others. Simon manages to push them back and calls for an advance, but its yet another trap and their forced into a hasty retreat. Theyre cut off, however, by Rick and the rest of the returning lookouts, but Simon and Dwight managed to get away.

I wanted them dead. All of them. Negan most of all, Maggie says.

Yeah me too, Rick replies, before confessing that he went after Negan alone.

Meanwhile, Daryl informs Tara about what he saw, but shes had an incredibly abrupt change of heart. She used to have an itchy trigger finger for Dwight, but it seems winging her with an arrow somehow made her realize that hes stuck on the wrong side of things. She remembers that the only reason she made it to this group is because she joined in line with The Governor. While she makes a strong point, it's new, and Daryl isn't on board.

A calm washes over The Hilltop as the next day falls into night. Theyve patched up their wounded, corralled the prisoners back into their cage and everyone is bunked up inside the mansion for safety. However, it doesnt take long before Negans plan starts to work. The wounded turn from their infected cuts and find their way to the sleeping survivors. One even falls down an entire flight of stairs, but it seems The Hilltop soldiers are fast asleep after a night of fighting and no one wakes up. Everyone only wakes when things get completely crazy and people start dying left and right inside. As Rick and the gang clear the place out, a new debacle errupts outside.

Earlier in the day, viewers saw Henry, the young boy who lost his brother to an execution by one of the captive Saviors, pick up a rifle. With the cover of night, the boy goes to the apparently unguarded prisoners to demand the man who killed his brother come forward. One prisoner, who asked Maggie to help in the fight against the Saviors the night before, tries to talk him down but it doesnt work.

Henry makes the colossal mistake of getting inside the pen with the Savior captives just as one of their numbers turns. Chaos ensued and Jared was able to tackle Henry and take his gun. Just like that, there was a massive prison break. However, things werent all bad for The Hilltop survivors. Maggie goes outside to see the pen empty, but a good number of the prisoners were still there. In fact, most of them were trying to re-secure the gates after the escapees took off.

Inside, Carol carries out the unfortunate task of putting Tobin down before they all put together what The Saviors did with their weapons. Daryl goes inside to break the news to Tara, who may or may not have been hit with an infected arrow. One thing is for sure, it seems Tara just became the loyalty test for Dwight and hed very well better pass it before Daryl finds him as hes out for Dwight's blood.Alice Cooper had a major wake-up call nearly 40 years ago, when he found himself throwing up blood.

"Everything that could go wrong was shutting down inside of me, Cooper, who is preparing to reprise his role as King Herod in NBC's live version of "Jesus Christ Superstar," told the New York Daily News' Confidential.

The rocker, who saw his good friends and fellow musicians die young, knew he needed to clean up his act.

"I was drinking with Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix and trying to keep up with Keith Moon and they all died at 27," Cooper recalled.

The legendary rocker said it was at that moment he knew he either had to give up drinking or he would die too. It was then that Cooper turned to his faith.

"My wife and I are both Christian," the 70-year-old said. "My father was a pastor, my grandfather was an evangelist. I grew up in the church, went as far away as I could from it  almost died  and then came back to the church."

Cooper acknowledges that a lot of people don't understand how he can be a rock musician but still be a Christian.

"Theres nothing in Christianity that says I cant be a rock star, he explained. "People have a very warped view of Christianity. They think its all very precise and we never do wrong and were praying all day and were right wing. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with a one-on-one relationship with Jesus Christ."

Cooper, who first played the role of King Herod in a 1996 London revival of "Jesus Christ Superstar," spoke about being a part of the upcoming live version starring John Legend.

He revealed that his inspiration for the role comes from Alan Rickman's portrayal of Professor Snape in "Harry Potter."

"When I first heard about it, I thought Alan Rickman  that condescending sort of arrogant character  and I kind of fashioned what I would do after what I thought Alan Rickman would do if he were alive, he said.

Fox News caught up with the Godfather of Shock Rock last year when he told us he and his wife, Sheryl Goddard, have been faithful to each other over the course of their 41-year marriage.



"You know what, we have never cheated on each other," Cooper told us. "First of all, marry the girl you are in love with. Thats the important thing. Dont just marry the girl that you love."A boy with cancer will receive several video greetings from his favorite on-screen superheroes after several stars of Marvels Avengers rallied to fulfill the 11-year-olds dying wish.

Fox News @ Night host Shannon Bream took to Twitter to ask for help Sunday after she met a man during a flight who spoke about his nephew Emilio with cancer. The uncle said the boy was very sick and only had a few days left to live. Its unclear what type of cancer the 11-year-old was diagnosed with.

The boys uncle later reached out to Bream, saying his nephew was a huge fan of the Avengers. He asked if it would be possible to have an actor who plays one of the superheroes to send him a video.

Bream happily said yes, tweeting Sunday night: Need your help Twitterverse - trying to help a young boy who is dying. He probably has just days and all he want is a greeting from one of the Avengers. If you have a celeb connection, please let me know. Otherwise, could you help out with a RT? Thank you in advance!

Within a few hours, Chris Evans, who plays Captain America, and Paul Bettany, who takes on the role of Vision, offered to help.

Happy to! DM me, Evans tweeted Bream.

Bettany replied, I'm the purple one. DM me.

Ryan Reynolds also chimed in, saying he was more of a reserve Avenger but would be happy to send a video message to the boy. Reynolds plays superhero Deadpool, which is also part of Marvel Comics but is an installment of the X-Men film series.

Avengers actors Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch) and Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) will also be sending videos to the boy. Bream thanked CNN host Jake Tapper for helping to connect with Rudd on the video.

Thank you, EVERYONE! Major progress has been made because of you. A special assist coming in from @jaketapper I guess Twitter can be full of love when someone really needs it, she tweeted.

As of Monday afternoon, Evans and Bettany sent their videos to the boy, Fox News can report.

Breams tweet also received an outpouring of responses from followers and other celebrities, including Chloe Bennet and Meghan McCain. She thanked her followers for the help and support on Monday.Corey Lewandowski said he may take action against New York Magazine star Olivia Nuzzi after she admitted she entered his home office without permission.

I can confirm I did not grant her permission to enter my office, Lewandowski told Fox News.

Nuzzi penned a recent profile on the former White House communications director Hope Hicks, who is so reclusive that Columbia Journalism Review interviewed Nuzzi about her revealing feature. During the interview, Nuzzi explained how she wound up inside a townhouse where Lewandowski, President Trumps former campaign manager, lives.

I tried to knock on the basement door, but the gate wasnt open. Then I walked up the steps to the main door and knocked for, like, 10 minutes. And Im knocking, knocking, nobodys answering. But after a while, I just touched the door knob, and the door was open. I walked in and Im in the house, by myself, Nuzzi said. So I took this photo of the quote on a wall. I peered around but I didnt walk fully into the house.

Nuzzi then explained that she left the residence after texting her boyfriend, who advised her that it probably wasnt legal.

Lewandowski told Fox News he has not made any decision regarding whether he would take any action against Nuzzi for entering the office, but he did not rule out the possibility.

"That decision has not been finalized yet, Lewandowski said.

Lewandowski apparently lives above the offices of Turnberry Solutions, a lobbying firm. Nuzzi told Fox News that the door she opened was technically the Turnberry Solutions entrance.

In September, Corey Lewandowski told Politico, Get your facts right... I have nothing to do with Turnberry Solutions. Mr. Lewandowski, who hasn't been registered as a lobbyist since 2011, reportedly signed a noncompete when he departed his firm, Avenue Strategies, in May 2017, which prevents him from lobbying or directing others to lobby for foreign or domestic clients for a year, according to his former partner there, Nuzzi told Fox News. So it's very interesting that Mr. Lewandowski refers to the offices of Turnberry Solutions, in his statement to Fox News, as my office. If Mr. Lewandowski has nothing to do with Turnberry Solutions, why would he be in a position to grant or deny anyone permission to enter offices belonging to Turnberry Solutions?

In the article Nuzzi referenced, Politico reported that Turnberry Solutions was staffed by two lobbyists who worked for Lewandowskis old firm and he denied involvement despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said that Nuzzi committed a crime when she passed the invisible dividing line, invading privacy.

You can do that by just sticking your hand in, Napolitano said.

However, the difference between it being the entrance to Turnberry Solutions compared to Lewandowskis residence is a key factor. Law enforcement is more aggressive when breaking and entering occurs at a home as opposed to an office, Napolitano said.

Either way she broke, entered, trespassed, he said.

Nuzzi said she made repeated attempts to speak with Lewandowski for her feature on Hicks, but he didnt respond until after the story was published. Her feature detailed Lewandowskis fallout with Hicks and members of Trumps family as well as his living arrangement.

Lewandowski lived in a townhouse he shared with a former Trump-campaign operative... The townhouse belonged to Citizens United, Nuzzi wrote. She explained, Lewandowski occupied the top floor while his roommate dwelled in the basement apartment, and Turnberry Solutions occupied the floors in between.

Nuzzi has been criticized on social media for entering the office, but her employer is standing by her.

We stand by Olivias reporting methods and dont believe she did anything wrong, a New York Magazine spokesperson told Fox News.

Nuzzi recently told CNN that Lewandowski reached out to her after the story was published, calling her dishonest, but he ignored several questions she asked during the process of her reporting.When Mayim Bialik met with Israel's president, she was "taken aback" by his one request.

The "Big Bang Theory" star was visiting Israel last week and shared on Facebook that she met with President Reuven Rivlin while she was there.

Much to Bialik's surprise, Rivlin is a fan of her hit series "The Big Bang Theory" and even asked the actress to act out a famous photo from the sitcom with him.

The photo was one that was originally taken of Bialik, who plays Amy, and co-star Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon.

"I was incredibly taken aback when the President of Israel asked me to mimic this famous Shamy photo... I happily obliged before cracking up... Who knew this would be a part of my visit," Bialik shared on Facebook.

Rivlin also shared a photo from their meeting on his Twitter page.Consider this a public service announcement, as well as a lesson in cooking 101: to cook pasta, boil water first.

Three American students living abroad in Florence, Italy, learned this the hard way this week when they started a fire in their apartment by cooking pasta without the most basic of ingredients.

According to Italian newspaper La Nazione, the 20-year-old students brought home pasta from the supermarket, put the dry noodles straight into a pot without any water, and lit the stove. Instead of getting a delicious pasta dinner for three, the pot quickly burst into flames and caused a fire. The group called upon local firefighters who promptly extinguished the fire  perhaps with water?  and apart from some damaged kitchen furniture, it appears that no one was harmed.

The girls told the police on the scene that they earnestly did not know water was needed to cook pasta. Of course this begs the question: Had no one in the group ever made pasta or seen anyone else  on TV, in a movie, at home  make pasta? Perhaps they had trouble understanding the cooking instructions in Italian? Or perhaps they had heard somewhere that you could sear pasta until its cooked?

Not surprisingly, Italian commenters on the story left some pretty snarky remarks.

Return to the USA to eat hamburgers & chips from [McDonalds], wrote one commenter on Il Giornale.

Another sought to find a logical reason for the students absurd cooking fail: It derives from the fact that in the USA everything is bought already COOKED, American women in the kitchen are a disaster, they do not even know how to make a hard egg.

One even warned others not to be too ironic in their comments, as from one of those three could come the next US Secretary of State ... or the next president!

But this story does have a happy ending. Upon hearing about the plight of the Americans and their difficulty with navigating a boiling pot of water, famed Florentine chef Fabio Picchi of the restaurant Cibreo offered them a free four-hour Italian cooking class. After learning some basics in the kitchen, the girls have been invited to have lunch together with the chefs at the restaurant.

When asked why he was so eager to help the exchange students (clearly in dire need of some direction in the kitchen), he told La Nazione: I feel guilty, I feel there was a strong communication deficit on the part of this city. By teaching them the basics of Italian cooking, the chef says, I think this can be useful to them, but also to us. Understanding is always  with simplicity and cognition  what is beautiful and necessary."

No word yet whether the students have accepted Chef Picchis invitation, but it certainly seems that it would be a most beneficial learning experience for them.A French waiter at a Canadian restaurant accused his former employer of discrimination based on his culture after being fired for aggressive, rude and disrespectful demeanor.

Guillaume Rey filed a complaint with British Columbia's Human Rights Tribunal against Vancouver's Milestones Restaurant and its parent company, Cara Operations, claiming discrimination against my culture, CBC reported Saturday.

Rey worked as shift lead at the restaurant, where his duties included supervising other waiters, according to the outlet. He was fired in August 2016 after an incident that left one of the servers borderline in tears, the restaurant manager said.

Rey claimed in his discrimination complaint that French culture tends to be more direct and expressive and he was fired for the direct, honest and professional personality he acquired during his training in Frances hospitality industry.

However, the restaurant said Rey often violated its code of conduct policy and continued his concerning behavior toward his colleagues, even after verbal and written performance reviews pointed it out.

The restaurant did not object to Reys claim that he performed well at his job, despite the alleged unpleasant behavior.

The eatery and its parent company tried to dismiss the complaint, but the human rights tribunal denied the application, according to AFP. A hearing on the case was expected, although not yet scheduled.

Devyn Cousineau, a member of the tribunal, said the denial of the application to dismiss the case should not be viewed as an indication of the cases outcome, according to AFP.

"Mr. Rey will have to explain what it is about his French heritage that would result in behavior that people misinterpret as a violation of workplace standards of acceptable conduct," she wrote in her decision.A Canadian ice cream company is facing backlash from the Christian community over its name, Sweet Jesus, and branding imagery, which features upside down crosses.

Sweet Jesus ice cream has been facing criticism over its brand name since it was founded in 2015. However, as the Toronto-based brand rapidly expands across the border, critics have become more vocal and are demanding a company name change.

NYC RESTAURANT FIRES EMPLOYEE WHO WROTE 'CHING CHONG' ON ASIAN CUSTOMER'S RECEIPT

In January, a woman wrote a blog post on Mommy Activist saying the name blasphemes Christ and fetishizes children before calling out the soft serve chain's logo.

their logo, which features an SS style 'S', popular among equally blasphemous and Satanic metal bands of the 70s and 80s, and an upside down cross. So they want to make quite sure we know they are in fact, not Christian, and that the entire marketing concept of their company is to mock the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thousands of others have responded to the name and logo similarly. One upset Canadian citizen set up a petition on website CitizenGo calling for the Sweet Jesus owners to issue a public apology for misusing the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and change the name and branding of your franchise.

We are calling on [owners] Richmond, Todai, and their parent company Monarch & Misfits to issue an apology for their blasphemy. We want them to consider how they have attacked the Christian community, and how they have attacked God. We are also asking them to immediately change their name and branding to eliminate every instance of mockery toward our Lord Jesus, the petition reads.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Nearly 9,000 people have digitally signed the petition, 1,000 shy of its goal. Another petition was created on Change.org calling for the same changes. It has nearly reached its goal of 500 signatures.

While many in the Christian community have also called for a boycott of the popular ice cream shop  its Instagram page has over 114,000 followers  Sweet Jesus has denied any claims that its name is offensive.

Our name was created from the popular phrase that people use as an expression of enjoyment, surprise, or disbelief. Our aim is not to offer commentary on anyones religion or belief systems. Our own organization is made up of amazing people that represent a wide range of cultural and religious beliefs, the company website reads.If you cant sell enough food and booze, try marketing the toilet.

Slammed by soaring costs for food, labor and rent, New Yorks bars, restaurants and nightclubs are using a growing crop of third-party apps and services to rent out their dining rooms, coat-check areas and even their bathrooms to make extra cash.

Luluapp  a mobile app that, for a fee, promises to direct tourists and other assorted weak bladders to the nearest available bathroom  says it has already signed up more than 100 New York restaurants and bars ahead of its summer launch.

WOMAN USES $400 HAIR DRYER TO MAKE A 'ROASTED' CHICKEN

Instead of paying a lot of money for a Facebook or Yelp ad, we let restaurants promote a free drink or discount to our users after they use the facilities, Luluapp CEO Paolo Cogliati told The Post.

Luluapp generates a digital bathroom pass charging anywhere from 99 cents to duck into a pizza dive to $5 for a swanky bathroom that offers lotions, super-private stalls and high-end hand towels. The restaurants get 65 percent of the fee.

Restaurants do want to hear our pitch because its just so weird, Cogliati says.

He declined to name any of the restaurants hes working with, but Burak Karacam, owner of the swanky Pera Mediterranean Brasserie near Grande Central Terminal, said he got pitched by Luluapp and passed.

Instead, he decided to work with Bagbnb, a Rome-based luggage storage startup that allows travelers to store their bags at bars and restaurants in 60 cities worldwide, including 26 venues in the Big Apple.

Bagbnb, which splits its $6, per-bag fee with restaurants, has also expanded by offering commissions to tour operators, Airbnb hosts and hotels for suggesting its services to their lodgers.

It can be a little hectic in the morning when you have 10 people lined up ready to drop off their bags, said Chelsea Feldcher, a manager at Pennsylvania 6, a restaurant near Penn Station that started using Bagbnb a few months go. But obviously any extra revenue is great for us and we are introducing new people to the restaurant.

PIZZA WITH 111 TYPES OF CHEESE BREAKS WORLD RECORD

Pennsylvania 6 pulls in about $2,000 a month from storing peoples bags for a few hours or for the day, according to Feldcher. About 25 percent of those customers end up grabbing a drink or meal at the eatery before they catch their train, she says.

As restaurants and bars face a slew of rising costs, including hefty minimum wage hikes, seemingly oddball strategies like these increasingly make sense, said Andrew Rigie, executive director of NYC Hospitality Alliance.

Its becoming more difficult to run a profitable restaurant in the city, Rigie said, Opening up new streams of revenue is extremely important.

KettleSpace, a six-month-old startup, has inked about half a dozen deals with restaurants and bars to open their dining rooms to freelancers and entrepreneurs during the off hours. It charges its laptop-toting clientele $25 for 10 hours to $99 a month for unlimited access to use the restaurant spaces, where free coffee, snacks and meals are sometimes part of the deal. By comparison, WeWorks least expensive plan in New York costs $220 a month.

KettleSpace is the cheapest alternative that I found, said Bradley Orego, a graphic designer and professional dancer who was working at P.S. Kitchen, a restaurant off Times Square at 248 W. 48th St., on a recent afternoon.

For P.S. Kitchen, KettleSpace helps fill space that would otherwise be empty during the day, said general manager Timothy Carberry. The intent is that maybe some of the KettleSpace people will stay for Happy Hour or order lunch from us, he added.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOD LIFESTYLE NEWS

Its newfound money for us, said nightclub owner Ravi Patel, whose Hotel Chantelle recently opened up its rooftop lounge  and its retractable roof  to KettleSpace workers.

This has the potential to reach $3,000 to $5,000 a week for us, which could slash my rent by up to 30 percent, Patel said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Post.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Beleaguered politicians like to complain they are too hemmed in by circumstances and handlers. If only they could throw off the shackles and be themselves, they would surely succeed.

President Trump is going through one of those moments now and the restraints are flying off before our eyes.

Look out, world  no more Mr. Nice Guy!

Trumps decision to be more Trumpian is reflected in a flurry of personnel changes that signal shifts in policies, including his approach to special counsel Robert Mueller.

To continue reading Michael Goodwin on The New York Post click here.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

There is nothing very intimidating about Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, the 38-year-old grandson of a farmer with a slight frame, affable personality and constant smile. Hes a package filled with grace not heat.

But beware the silent warrior. Like David taking on Goliath, Hawley is going after Google  a company so entrenched in our lives, it knows how we shop, where we travel, what we read and, thanks to our calendars, what were up to every single day of our lives.

A single company holding such an awesome amount of power deserves scrutiny, says Hawley, who served in private practice and as a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court before becoming AG.

So, in November of last year, the father of two launched an investigation to find out if Google is violating antitrust laws to crush its competitors.

Someone at some point has to take a stand and ask the hard question, What exactly is it that Google is doing with our personal information?  Hawley told The Post. Its time somebody held them accountable for the information they are collecting and how they are using it.

To continue reading Salena Zito on The New York Post click here.The massive, $1.3 trillion spending bill capped off a busy few months for Congress, highlighted by tax cuts for Americans and additional money for the military. However, Congress did not make much progress on such voter concerns as immigration reform and gun safety -- with hundreds of lawmakers now focusing on re-election in November.

All 435 House seats are up for re-election in 2018, with Democrats optimistic about controlling the chamber for the first time in roughly nine years.

They would need to gain at least 24 seats, a likely possibility for the party that doesnt control the White House in so-called "mid-term" elections.

In addition, Democrats until recently were almost singularly focused on Southern California, where changing demographics could lead to them winning a handful of GOP-held seats.

But now, Pennsylvania -- bolstered by Democrat Conor Lambs victory earlier this month in a southwestern district Trump won by nearly 20 points -- appears to have opened up more possibilities.

Still, a Fox News poll released Sunday shows Democrats 2018 congressional lead slipping, based on voters being asked in recent months whether they'd prefer a congressional Democratic or Republican candidate in November. Democrats now have a 5-point lead, compared to 50-to-35 percent lead in October, in the so-called generic ballot test.

Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducted the poll with Democrat Chris Anderson, doesnt foresee the single-digit lead as enough for Democrats to take the House, considering Republicans still have more favorable voting districts.

"Data from 2012 and 2014 show the Democrats need an edge of at least 5 points to bring the majority into play," Shaw said. "Just winning the popular national vote is not enough to flip the House."

Said Anderson: "I like this question as a gauge of perceptions month to month. But its predictive power seven months from the election is dubious."

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE POLL RESULTS

Democrats argued after the Lamb win that Washington Republicans have abandoned the tax-cut pitch because it fails to resonate with voters, or is mere crumbs, as House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said after the cuts were passed in late-December 2017.

However, the GOP appeared to focus more on appealing to voters in the Pennsylvania district by touting Trumps more recent tariffs on steel and aluminum, and they continue to say the cuts remain a big part of the 2018 platform.

"It's very clear that tax reform was going to be the biggest legislative crown jewel of this Congress. That is a massive centerpiece of our campaign, said Matt Gorman, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, whose goal is to get GOP candidates elected and re-elected to the chamber.

But polls swing wildly these days, strategists say. Voters are rarely focused for too long on single issues that could make or break campaigns, as when Republicans seized control of the House in 2010 amid the slow economic recovery or Democrats pushed to the majority in 2006 over opposition to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and congressional ethics scandals.

The GOP-controlled Congress, before leaving for a two-week recess, passed some measures on gun safety in the aftermath of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 people were killed.

Lawmakers took modest steps to increase school-safety funds and strengthen the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. However, they did not pass any legislation to limit gun sales, nor did they approve measures to ban the sale of so-called bump stocks, which essentially enable semi-automatic rifles to fire bullets rapidly.

Another Fox News poll Sunday suggests voters want lawmakers to do something to prevent gun violence.

The poll found voters, by a 53-to-40 percent margin, consider protecting against gun violence more important than protecting gun rights.

And the large-scale marches in Washington and other major cities Saturday -- the student-led March for Our Lives events -- suggested voters would hold incumbents and challengers accountable this year on what they would do to curb gun violence in schools and elsewhere across the country.

Kris Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said the measures passed in Congress are "just not enough."

"The American people have been screaming from the rooftops for real, bold change to fight against" tragedies such as the Florida and Las Vegas shootings, Brown said. "We have seen the consequences of Congress's inaction."

Democrats tried and failed in recent weeks to pass legislation to create a permanent fix for the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protects from deportation an estimated 800,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer effectively shut down the government over the issue by withholding Democratic votes in January to pass a spending bill, only to relent three days later without a deal.

Even Trump appeared upset that the new spending bill had no DACA fix.

At the White House on Friday, he toyed with a veto of the budget package, complaining it lacked his immigration deal and smacked of overspending, before ultimately signing it.

Remember DACA, the Democrats abandoned you (but we will not)! he tweeted Sunday.

Congress' spring agenda is thin. It includes modest plans to finish a banking bill that rolls back some of the regulations put in place after the financial crisis, and to pass a big farm bill that sets agriculture and school nutrition policies. The Senate also has to start confirmation hearings for Trump's nominees for secretary of state and CIA director.

Strategists say it will be up to Republican candidates to make the case that the GOP's signature legislative accomplishment is worth their re-election.

Pennsylvania is emerging as a source of hope for Democrats in their quest to take control of the House for several reasons.

Victories in two key battles were cemented last week: Republicans dropped talk of legal challenges to Lamb's improbable victory in a special election and federal courts rejected two GOP lawsuits seeking to block a state court-drawn map of more competitive districts.

For years, Pennsylvania has hosted one of the nation's biggest Republican congressional delegations. Now, what had been a 13-to-5 Republican advantage in Pennsylvania's 18-member delegation could get wiped out. In all, five Republican congressmen have decided not to run again.

In addition, the state Supreme Court, ruling in a gerrymandering lawsuit, junked Pennsylvania's 6-year-old district boundaries that were drawn by Republicans to get Republicans elected. The court's Democratic majority redrew the boundaries, improving Democrats' chances in five districts in particular.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.On Thursday, three days before CBS 60 Minutes aired an interview with adult film star Stormy Daniels about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump and the alleged threats to keep quiet about it, her attorney tweeted a mysterious picture of a CD or DVD.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is this worth, asked Michael Avenatti who later added the hashtags #60minutes, #pleasedenyit, and #basta (Italian for enough).

On Monday, one attorney argued that Avenatti had opened himself up to criminal charges if the disc turns out to be a recording of Trump and Daniels, as has been speculated.

In a piece for Law & Crime, Robert Barnes argued that Avenatti and Daniels could be on the hook for illegally recording Trump -- a crime in California, where so-called two-party consent is required to record private conversations -- as well as invasion of privacy and disclosure of revenge porn if the tape shows sexual activity between Daniels and Trump.

Fox News judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano, while noting that he had no idea what was on the disc, said Monday that Avenatti can threaten all he wants, but if he goes into court and says I have something and that material was obtained illegally, then he has serious issues on his hands.

Los Angeles defense attorney Ken White, a former federal prosecutor, told Fox News he didnt think Avenatti would be held responsible for the material on the disc, though he added, I suppose hypothetically Daniels could be sued over it. White did describe Avenattis initial tweet as posturing and silly and showing questionable professionalism.

Daniels received a $130,000 payment days before the 2016 presidential election for her silence about the alleged encounter and has sought to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement she signed. Trumps personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, has said he paid the $130,000 out of his pocket while asserting Trump never had sex with the porn actress.

STORMY DANIELS FILES DEFAMATION SUIT AGAINST MICHAEL COHEN

Napolitano said he thought Avenatti had erred earlier this month when he sued to invalidate the nondisclosure agreement in federal court, claiming that Trump had never signed off on an agreement.

He should have proceeded like the agreement was already invalid, Napolitano said. It [would have] put Cohens back to the wall.

In the wake of Daniels interview with 60 Minutes, attorney Kyle Bristow argued that Trump had a case to sue Daniels for so-called specific performance and pursue liquidated damages. According to Bristow, the agreement went into effect when Daniels received the money and could be enforceable against her.

If shes out doing interviews, clearly thats a violation of the agreement, Bristow said, and I dont think the First Amendment applies... People have the right to enter into agreements whereby their rights are waived.

White said if he were advising Daniels, he would tell her to keep in mind what her goal is.

If her goal is chaos and notoriety and money, then this is the right way to go about it, he said. If her goal is to win in court, then this sort of thing will not please most judges.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A Senate race between Hillary Clintons running mate and a candidate characterized as the Donald Trump of Virginia is likely to garner massive national attention, even if it isnt competitiveand for now, polls indicate it isnt.

President Trumps approval rating took its toll on Republicans in Virginias 2017 state elections, while Clinton has drawn little positive attention since her 2016 loss in the presidential race. Nevertheless, both will be paramount in this contest.

If Hillary Clinton wants to come to Virginia, of course we would welcome her, Ian Sams, the campaign spokesman for Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told Fox News. Remember, she did win Virginia in 2016 by five-and-a-half points.

The top Republicans vying to challenge Kaine seem ready for Hillary themselves.

Corey Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, is known for battling illegal immigration and defending Confederate statues.

Were not just going to tie him to her run for president, but to the things she has said since November 2016, Stewart told Fox News, referencing the recent Clinton comment on married womens inability to think for themselves if they didnt vote for her.

The Clinton campaign outspent the Trump campaign 7-1 in Virginia, Stewart said. Trump pulled his resources from Virginia to focus on more competitive states. It was probably the right call, but even after all that, Clinton-Kaine only won by 5 points.

Trumps campaign fired Stewart a month before election day for joining a protest in front of Republican National Committee headquarters.

Stewart has name recognition after nearly winning the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2017.

That could be changing after state Del. Nick Freitas delivered a viral speech on the Virginia House floor regarding the Second Amendment and Democratic rhetoric. Freitas said hes gotten an overwhelming increase in volunteers, social media followers and donors since the speech. Republican legislative leaders in Virginia, as well as U.S. Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, endorsed Freitas.

After a March 17 debate in Richmond between Stewart and Freitasthe only two so far to gain enough signatures for ballot access before the March 29 deadlineFreitas won a non-scientific straw poll of 217 tea party activist by 65 percent to 35 percent.

Freitas similarly said Kaines presence on a ticket with Clinton should be a big issue.

Hillary Clinton has done her level best to alienate as many Americans as possible by saying they are evil, cruel and bigoted human beings if they didnt vote for her, Freitas told Fox News. Sen. Kaine ran alongside her and I am tired of that divisiveness.

Freitas, a veteran Green Beret and Iraq war veteran, could unite Trump voters and Chamber of Commerce voters, said Stephen Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Freitas is the one to watch. He is drawing Republican support to his campaign with the viral video appeals to conservatives, while hes also appealing to Republican insiders, Farnsworth told Fox News.

The Kaine campaign contends the senator has bridged partisan divide on issues such as immigration and veterans.

His record of working together to get things done will be a focus of this campaign, regardless of who the Republicans nominate, his spokesman Sams said.

Kaine once referred to the Russia probe as a treason investigation.

If I were Tim Kaine, I wouldnt run as Hillary Clintons running mate, but as a successful former governor and a U.S. senator."  Quentin Kidd, Christopher Newport University

The June 12 primary could be wide open. The most recent scientific poll, released by Christopher Newport University in early Marchbefore the Freitas speechfound Stewart with 16 percent support against just 6 percent for Freitas and 7 percent for E.W. Jackson, a conservative black pastor who was the 2013 GOP nominee for lieutenant governor. The poll found that 66 percent were still undecided, while 5 percent backed other candidates. Stewart, Jackson and Freitas all lose by a dozen points to Kaine in a hypothetical matchup.

If I were Tim Kaine, I wouldnt run as Hillary Clintons running mate, but as a successful former governor and a U.S. senator, Quentin Kidd, director of the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia told Fox News. There are few worse things he could do than bring Hillary Clinton to the state to campaign for him. It wouldnt gain any Democratic support but it would energize the Republican base.

The Washington Post reported last December on an anybody-but-Stewart sentiment among some state and national Republicans.

These so-called strategists that say I cant win have never won in Virginia, Stewart said, later adding, Im not going to be more controversial than the president himself.

The region of commonwealth where Republicans consistently get hammered is the Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia. Thats a region where Stewart has repeatedly won, elected to the board of supervisors for Prince William Countythe states second most populous countyin 2002, and becoming its chairman in 2006.

For his part, Freitas notes that he won in his district by 68 percent last year, despite the statewide wave election that saw Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam win by 9 points and massive down ticket gains for Democrats in the state legislature.

Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for the Daily Signal.The Sunshine State is one step closer to being a little brighter every evening after passing a bill to enact year-round daylight saving time to boost the economy and tourism.

After weeks of debate over guns, schools and budgets during the legislative session, Floridas House and Senate members voted on something they could agree on: daylight.

H.B. 1013, also known as the Sunshine Protection Act, would enact year-round daylight-saving time to improve the economy, public safety and mental health of Floridas residents and visitors.

Gov. Rick Scott gave his stamp of approval Friday, sending the bill to Congress for final approval.

If you talk to people in the tourism world, theyll tell you theyd much rather have daylight later because people after work would be able to go shopping, go to the beach, do things they want to do, said State Sen. Greg Steube, R-Bradenton, who sponsored the Senate version of the bill.

The bill has attracted widespread attention and public support, but its not a done deal yet. The issues?

Florida would secede from the national timetable, and to do that requires an act of congressional approval.

The federal government controls the nations time zones, as well as the start and end dates of daylight saving time. States can choose to exempt themselves from daylight saving time, take Arizona and Hawaii for example, but nothing in federal law allows them to exempt themselves from Standard Time.

Because of this, even with Scott's signature on the bill, Congress would still have to exempt the state of Florida from the law.

Steube says he isnt worried because the bill is not partisan.

If theres no real reason why were doing something so big like changing our clocks back and forth every year, twice a year, then I dont know why we cant change it, he said.

If approved by the federal government, Floridas residents will move into the Atlantic Time Zone for part of the year, aligning cities from Jacksonville to Miami with Nova Scotia rather than New York and Washington, D.C.

But some say the move would cause more harm than good  it would confuse U.S. and foreign travelers heading to Florida and businesses dealing with the state.

I think it would be disruptive in that it would potentially cause confusion, particularly between interstate business enterprises, said State Rep. Julio Gonzalez, R-Venice, who opposed the bill in the House.

Scott announced last week that Florida set another tourism record by welcoming the highest number of tourists in the states history with 116.5 million people visiting in 2017.

City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez says 40 million of them come to Miami.

Anything that we can do, whether its majorly substantive or minor, that can continue to boost those numbers is something that Id be in favor of, obviously, he said. Our tourists are coming here to enjoy our beaches, theyre coming here to go on cruises, theyre coming here to do outdoor activities because of the weather, so I think having more daylight allows them to do more of the activities that they would want to do anyways.

Gonzalez says Florida doesnt need the boost in tourism, adding we accomplished all these wonderful improvements in our tourism numbers without adjusting our clock!

The idea of making daylight saving time year-round isnt a new one. President Nixon attempted the change in 1974 to help alleviate an energy crisis but the consequences were immediate  and deadly.

In less than a month, eight children died in traffic accidents in Florida, and six of the deaths were attributed directly to children going to school in darkness.

If it becomes that big of a problem, independent school districts can move the time of when they start school to be able to make sure our children are getting to school safely, Steube said.

Florida isnt the only state considering the change either. Twenty-six other states want to adopt daylight saving time year-round, including New York and Massachusetts, but Florida would be the first and only state to exempt itself from Standard Time.

I honestly believe that more states will do it if Florida takes a leading role, Steube said.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has announced his support for the bill and introduced legislation to standardize daylight saving time for the entire calendar year and try to make the change nationwide.

If were going do it in a national waythen I think my analysis would be different, Gonzalez said. Im kind of curious myself to see which way it would goI have no idea which way Congress will go with this.

Lawmakers in the Sunshine State say if Congress approves the exemption, time would change as soon as practicable.Senate Republicans fed up with the Democrats' refusal to allow confirmation votes on a slew of critical appointments - including the high-profile case of the Trump administration's first openly gay ambassadorial nominee  may move more aggressively to finally break the logjam.

"It's time to end this partisan spectacle. We have 78 more nominees for various jobs whove made it through their committee hearings and are waiting for a vote on this floor," Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said on the floor of the Senate last week. "Most of these people have bipartisan support, they can be confirmed easily."

Barrasso wants to change a rule that allows for 30 hours of Senate discussion for each nominee, which Republicans say effectively allows Democrats to jam up the appointment process to a ridiculously slow crawl. Barrasso wants to limit the number of hours of discussion down to eight - a standard Democrats themselves supported under the Obama administration.

TRUMP ACCUSES DEMS OF SLOW-WALKING 'HUNDREDS' OF NOMINATIONS

"Its time to return to the rules for debating nominations that the Senate used four years ago  Democrats controlled the Senate at the time  and a Democrat was making the nominations, that was President Obama," Barrasso said.

The logjam holding up one particular nomination has attracted more attention in recent weeks, and may be contributing to the effort to change the rules. Richard Grenell, a conservative and experienced foreign policy expert who is openly gay, was nominated by Trump to be ambassador to Germany last year, but remains among those held up in the process.

Grenell's nomination, which has been championed by a broad range of Republican and conservative officials and commentators, recently picked up the support of a liberal gay rights group, the Harvey Milk Foundation.

I understand those who are frustrated with the Trump administration and the actions the Trump administration has taken who have also opposed Grenell, Stuart Milk, the co-founder of the group, told the New York Times. And I think thats misguided."

In response to the growing calls to approve Grenell, Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., last week went to the floor of the Senate and called for a unanimous voice consent to push the nomination through. But Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., objected, citing his objections to some comments Grenell, a former Fox News contributor, posted on his Twitter feed. According to Merkley, some of Grenell's tweets showed "a complete disregard for the Senate confirmation process."

Grenells supporters have pushed back strongly on Merkleys objections, and say Grenells tweets since he was nominated last fall have focused on foreign policy issues. His supporters have taken their case to twitter, through #confirmgrenell and other online efforts.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has also stepped up its effort to push through Grenell's nomination. Speaking at a White House press briefing last month, spokesperson Sarah Sanders cited the Democrats' "historic obstruction" in blocking that and the growing number of other nominations.

"Mr. Grenell, a Harvard-educated experienced diplomat, was the longest-serving U.S. spokesperson at the United Nations. He was nominated in September of last year. He was reported out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with bipartisan support. He is waiting to represent America's interest and be our country's top voice in a G-7 country," Sanders said.

The hyper-political delay on Mr. Grenell puts our national security and America's foreign policy interests in jeopardy," Sanders said. "The Senate should move to confirm him immediately."

A range of foreign policy experts have also expressed their concern over the lack of a U.S. ambassador to Germany. The U.S.-Germany relationship is a critical one, particularly with the Berlin government's involvement in issues like the Iran nuclear deal, trade, and NATO security.

The holdup of Grenells nomination has also irritated German politicians and the media.

"America needs a voice in Germany!" read the headline of a commentary piece by Florian von Heintze, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of BILD. "When the German-America relationship suffers, that damages Germany. We have no more an important ally in the world.Adult film star Stormy Daniels filed a lawsuit against President Trumps personal attorney Michael Cohen on Monday for defamation, Fox News has confirmed.

Daniels suit came just hours after Cohens attorney, Brent Blakely, sent a cease and desist letter to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, demanding she refrain from making any further false and defamatory statements about Cohen following her tell-all 60 Minutes interview Sunday evening.

Daniels attorney, Michael Avenatti, on Monday, filed the defamation suit against Cohen in California.

This case just became much more problematic for the president and Mr. Cohen, Avenatti told Fox News.

Blakely did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.

Cohen has denied having any involvement in Daniels claim that a man threatened her in Las Vegas in 2011, warning her to leave Trump alone.

WHITE HOUSE: STORMY DANIELS IS 'INCONSISTENT,' TRUMP DOESN'T BELIEVE HER CLAIMS ARE 'ACCURATE'

But the complaint said Cohens denial represented a defamatory statement against Daniels.

It was reasonably understood Mr. Cohen meant to convey that Ms. Clifford is a liar, the complaint read. Mr. Cohen made the statement knowing it was false or had serious doubts about the truth of the statements.

The White House on Monday blasted Daniels for being inconsistent, and said President Trump did not believe her claims were accurate.

The president doesnt believe any of the claims Ms. Daniels made in the interview last night were accurate, White House Deputy press secretary Raj Shah said Monday.

The president has strongly, clearly and consistently denied these claims. The only one whos been inconsistent is the one making the claims, Shah added.

In terms of Daniels inconsistency, Shah was referring to a statement signed by the adult film star in January, denying any type of sexual or romantic affair.

I recently became aware that certain news outlets are alleging that I had a sexual and/or romantic affair with Donald Trump many, many, many years ago, the statement signed by Daniels read. I am stating with complete clarity that this is absolutely false. My involvement with Donald Trump was limited to a few public appearances and nothing more. When I met Donald Trump, he was gracious, professional and a complete gentleman to me and EVERYONE in my presence.

In recent months, though, Daniels position has shifted. On 60 Minutes, when asked why she signed that statement if she knew it was false, Daniels said she felt intimidated.

Cohen said he paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence days ahead of the 2016 presidential election.Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Sunday that students who have rallied for gun control should instead learn CPR or find their own way to prevent a school shooting.

"How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that," the Republican said on CNN's "State of the Union."

The 2012 and 2016 presidential candidate said students could work to stop bullying in their communities or respond themselves to a shooter instead of asking lawmakers to approve legislation to protect them.

Santorum's comments prompted outrage on social media a day after hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied across the U.S. to push for tougher laws to fight gun violence.

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., posted on Twitter, Dear Rick Santorum: CPR is good for heart stoppage. Not good for victims of multiple AR-15 bullets, which typically impart 3 times the lethal energy upon impact than a 9mm handgun bullet. AR-15 bullets obliterate organs and cause so much bleeding that victims die very quickly.

The demonstrations Saturday were led by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed last month.

I think @RickSantorum might need to learn CPR for the NRA following midterms, David Hogg, an #NeverAgain activist tweeted.

Santorum said that if the rallies are about more than politics, then the country needs to have a broader discussion that doesn't revolve around "phony gun laws" that don't work.

"They took action to ask someone to pass a law," he said of the demonstrators. "They didn't take action to say, `How do I, as an individual, deal with this problem?'"

The Associated Press contributed to this reportPresident Trump on Monday ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian intelligence officers in the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle in response to the nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy in the U.K. earlier this month, senior administration officials said.

The steps, following Britain's expulsion of Russian diplomats, are meant to send a message to Moscow that actions have consequences, the officials said. The Seattle consulate is being closed because of its proximity to submarine bases, as well as Boeing.

With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. The United States stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian governments behavior.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BACKS UK AFTER EX-SPY POISONING

Russia, which has been blamed for the attack, has denied wrongdoing. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov vowed a reciprocal response over Mondays expulsion, according to Russian state run media.

"Weve said more than once and we say once again: Russia has had nothing to do with this affair whatsoever. Naturally, as before, we will proceed from the principle of reciprocity," Peskov said.

U.S. officials said a total of 60 Russians are being expelled, including 48 at the Russian embassy and 12 at the United Nations. The individuals and their families have been given seven days to leave the United States.

"Today, the United States began the process of expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission to the United Nations who have abused their privilege of residence in the United States," UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said Monday. "After a review, we have determined that the 12 intelligence operatives engaged in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security."

Officials said the president made the decision after several intelligence meetings last week, and was continuously briefed about the process over the weekend.

The administration had said it was considering a range of options in response to the March 4 poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. They were apparently poisoned with a Soviet-produced, military-grade nerve agent and remain unconscious and in critical condition.

At a summit in Brussels, the 28 EU leaders agreed with Britain that it is "highly likely" Russia is responsible for the attack on Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

TRUMP DEMANDS RUSSIA PROVIDE 'UNAMBIGUOUS ANSWERS' ON NERVE AGENT ATTACK IN UK

Trump previously joined British Prime Minister Theresa May and the leaders of France and Germany in condemning the poisoning.

"It is an assault on UK sovereignty and any such use by a state party is a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law. It threatens the security of us all, they said in a joint statement.

They also wrote there is no plausible alternative explanation for the attack and that the Kremlins failure to respond to a legitimate request for an explanation further underlines its responsibility."

Russia has fiercely denied any involvement in the poisoning, saying that it had destroyed its chemical weapons and had no motive to kill Skripal, who was convicted of spying for Britain but released in a 2010 spy swap. Still, Moscow has in turn ordered 23 British diplomats to leave.

We obviously stand united with allies that believe in the rule of law, of a rules based order, and whether it be North Korea using a weapon of mass destruction somewhere or any other country, we are against the use of weapons of mass destruction especially when therere violations of a treaty, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters Monday.

The EUs position follows May sharing with group leaders information about why Britain is convinced Moscow was behind the attack, including the type of poison used -- a Soviet-developed nerve agent known as Novichok -- and intelligence that Russia has produced it within the past decade.

Fox News Joseph Weber, Nick Kalman, Rich Edson, John Roberts, Lucia I. Suarez Sang, Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.It may be called The Boring Company, but Elon Musk's infrastructure plans and unique products are anything but "boring." The tunnel-building firm's founder just introduced new merchandise: lifesize LEGO-like interlocking bricks used to build sculptures and buildings.

The bricks will be made out of sturdy material such as tunneling rock, Musk said.

"Rated for California seismic loads, so super strong, but bored in the middle, like an aircraft wing spar, so not heavy," Musk explained in an early Monday tweet that has already been shared by nearly 5,000 people.

THE SPACEX FALCON HEAVY ROCKET, AND OTHER ELON MUSK PROJECTS ON THE WAY

Musk said the first kit will follow an ancient Egypt theme: "pyramids, Sphinx, temple of Horus, etc."

Fans were quick to share their excitement over the latest project, though some were still fixated on the company's popular flamethrowers, which start shipping in the spring.

Earlier this year, The Boring Company sold 20,000 flamethrowers -- for $500 a piece -- in just a few days. According to the company's website, the product is the "world's safest" and "guaranteed to liven up any party."

Flamethrower aficionados frantically searched online to find any leftovers, some discovered flamethrowers on eBay being sold for as much as $25,000.



"How long for flame thrower deliveries?" one eager Twitter user asked Musk in reply to his announcement about the new LEGO-style tools.

"Prob May," Musk replied.

"Impervious to my soon to arrive 'not a flame thrower'?" another asked.

"Guaranteed to be Flamethrower-proof!" Musk responded.

HOW THE SPACEX FALCON HEAVY ROCKET COMPARES TO ELON MUSK'S OTHER POWERFUL SPACECRAFT

While the flamethrowers are marketed as "big boys toys," the LEGO-like bricks are designed for speed and efficiency.

"Hey @elonmusk any way to turn this into affordable housing etc. in the areas of future drilling locations? Little to no transportation costs if contractors come to the drill sites to pick up material by the pound," a Twitter user suggested.

Musk said he believes the boring bricks, which will interlock "with a precise surface finish," will be so easy to handle that two people could build the outer walls of a small house "in a day or so." People were shocked to hear Musk's prediction.

"Wow. Is it biodegradable? Whats its impact factor on the environment?" one man asked.

"Uhh, its literally made of rock," Musk said.

Musk said he plans to ship the product worldwide once it's developed. He said in his initial tweet that the bricks will be "coming soon."Kyle Morningstar was fishing with his friends off Ponce Inlet on the east coast of Florida Saturday when he spotted a dark shadow in the water slowly approaching his boat.

The 31-year-old Port Orange resident was pulling up the anchor of the boat around 2:30 p.m. when he looked over the side of his 23-foot boat and saw a fin poke out of the water.

It was a giant great white shark -- and it was starting to pick up the pace.

"It did two to three laps around my boat," Morningstar told Fox News. "It was well over half the length of my boat ... we guess it was around a 12- to 15-foot shark."

Morningstar has been fishing for awhile, but he's never encountered a great white before, especially one as large as this.

"No. Never seen a great white before other than 'Shark Week,'" Morningstar said. "Just how massive it was and then it was like, 'Oh my God, that's a great white.'"

It's hard to explain what was going through his mind as he watched the shark swim laps around his seemingly tiny -- in comparison -- fishing boat, Morningstar said the only way to describe it was that it was "like a movie."

"I looked down and saw a gray thing coming up as two or three ramora fish swam towards it," he explained.

As the shark came into view, Morningstar grabbed his phone and started filming.

"Holy f***ing sh*t. Oh my f***ing God, bro," men repeated on the boat as they watched the shark swim just feet away.

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS PROFANITY

Morningstar posted the video on Instagram and received dozens of comments from both terrified and impressed viewers alike.

"Dude, that's amazing! What a rush," one Instagram user commented.

"I would have died," another added.

Morning called the encounter "shocking" and said he "couldn't believe it happened." Fortunately, he added, the shark only stuck around for about five minutes.

Great white sharks can grow up to 20-feet long and weigh up to 2.5 tons, making them the largest predatory fish to roam the sea, according to National Geographic. But they're not as lethal as you might imagine.

"Of the 100-plus annual shark attacks worldwide, fully one-third to one-half are attributable to great whites," National Geographic reports. "However, most of these are not fatal, and new research finds that great whites, who are naturally curious, are 'sample biting' then releasing their victims rather than preying on humans."

But George Burgess, director of the Emeritus Florida Program for Shark Research, told the Miami Herald that shark encounters aren't unusual this time of year in Florida.King Tutankhamun may have been a boy soldier, stunning new research claims, challenging the theory that the King was a weak and sickly youth before his mysterious death at around 18 years of age.

Analysis of leather armor found in the boy kings tomb could indicate that he even may have seen battle, according to a documentary that aired recently on Channel 5 in the U.K. Experts used specialized photography to identify signs of wear and tear on the 3,000-year-old armor.

It was possible to see abrasion along the edges of the leather scales, meaning that the armor had seen considerable use. That suggests that Tutankhamun had worn it, and that perhaps he had even seen battle, said Lucy Skinner, an expert on ancient Egyptian leather at the U.K.s University of Northampton, who took part in the documentary.

IS THIS THE FACE OF TUTANKHAMUN?

Previous research has suggested that the boy king struggled with health issues. In 2014, a BBC documentary harnessed 2,000 Computerized Tomography (CT) scans of the pharaohs mummified body, to create a full size computer-generated image of Tutankhamun. The virtual autopsy revealed that Tutankhamun suffered from a genetic bone wasting disease and a club foot, making him unable to walk unaided.

Another theory suggests that Tutankhamun, who is said to have reigned between 1332 and 1323 B.C., died in a chariot crash.

Analysis of the armor, however, could shed new light on the ancient pharaoh. The remains of the tunic-like garment, known as a cuirass, are held in the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

A new technique called Reflectance Transformation Imaging was used to merge several images of the object photographed under different lighting angles, according to the University of Northampton. This enabled Skinner to see features on the armor for the first time, revealing that the garment was well worn.

If this is true, it would be an amazing revelation, countering the idea that Tut was a weak and sickly boy-king, Skinner said, in the statement. The University of Northampton notes that, despite being excavated almost 100 years ago, it remains a mystery how the overlapping leather scales used in the armor were made, or whether it even had a military use.

KING TUT'S DAGGER IS 'OUT OF THIS WORLD'

The pharaohs tomb, which was full of spectacular artifacts, was discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922. The cuirass suffered damage during the excavation, likely while being removed from its original box and when an attempt was made to unfold it.

While only a small part of the armor remains, experts are hopeful that they can find out more about the garment.

I have been working on some experimental tanning to create replicas of the individual scales, Skinner said. The ancient methods used for making this type of leather are not really well understood. Materials will invariably change chemically and physically after being buried for thousands of years, so there are a lot of complicated scientific processes involved in finding these things out.

She wants to help find funding for a replica of the armor.

MYSTERY OF 'SCREAMING EGYPTIAN MUMMY' WHICH HAS BAFFLED ARCHAEOLOGISTS FOR YEARS FINALLY RESOLVED

It would be great if my experimental work in Northampton helped my Egyptian colleagues to make an accurate reconstruction for display alongside the fragments of the original, Skinner explained.

Ancient Egypt continues to reveal its secrets. Experts in the U.K., for example, recently found the worlds oldest figurative tattoos on two ancient Egyptian mummies, one of which is the oldest tattooed female ever discovered.

Other recent finds include an ancient cemetery in Egypt with more than 40 mummies and a necklace containing a message from the afterlife. An ancient statue of a Nubian king with an inscription written in Egyptian hieroglyphics was also found at a Nile River temple in Sudan.

Scientists also believe that they may have found the secret of the Great Pyramids near-perfect alignment. Experts are also confident that they have solved the long-standing mystery of the screaming mummy.

DESERT DISCOVERY: LOST TEMPLE OF RAMSES II UNCOVERED BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS

In February, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 4,400-year-old tomb near the pyramids. Late last year, archaeologists also revealed that they had uncovered the graves of four children at an ancient site in Egypt.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogersAuthorities in Southern California had to tranquilize a mountain lion after it was found roaming through backyards on Monday morning.

The Azusa Police Department said in a Facebook post the animal was spotted in the residential area on the 600 block of Virginia Ann Drive around 7 a.m., located about 25 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

The area was swarmed by law enforcement and wildlife officials, who went door-to-door to warn residents of the visitor in their neighborhood. A drone was also deployed by police to track the lion behind homes.

"What we're doing right now is to just contain the mountain lion and make sure that he doesn't pose any threat to anyone's safety," a police officer said in a video on Twitter.

MOUNTAIN LION CAUGHT AFTER WANDERING THROUGH TEXAS NEIGHBORHOOD

The big cat was eventually tranquilized around 9:30 a.m., according to FOX 11.

Officials then moved the mountain lion to the back of a pickup truck, where it was to be safely removed from the neighborhood.A self-taught rocket scientist who believes the Earth is flat and wants to run for California governor shot himself up about 1,875 feet in the air in his homemade rocket on Saturday.

Mad Mike Hughes, a 61-year-old limo driver, promised last year to propel himself up in the air and snap a photo proving that astronauts conspired to fabricate the shape of the planet. The stunt was supposed to be the first phase of the flat-Earth space program and received backing from flat-Earth groups.

Relieved, the daredevil said after a landing that left him with minor injuries. Im tired of people saying I chickened out and didnt build a rocket. Im tired of that stuff. I manned up and did it.

The rocket launch near Amboy, California  about 200 miles east of Los Angeles  was first scheduled last year, but it was postponed multiple times amid mechanical problems and logistical issues with the Bureau of Land Management.

Despite having some minor technical issues on Saturday, Hughes went ahead and shot himself in the air, reaching around 350 mph before pulling his parachute. He had to deploy a second parachute because he was dropping too fast.

Footage shot shortly after the landing appears to show Hughes disorientated, but conscious. Paramedics shortly got him out of the cockpit and examined him.

Am I glad I did it? Yeah. I guess. Ill feel it in the morning. I wont be able to get out of bed. At least I can go home and have dinner and see my cats tonight, Hughes said after the stunt.

The daredevil, who said he wants to run for the governorship of California, claims he built the steam-powered rocket out of scrap metal parts in his garage. The project cost around $20,000.

Many mocked Hughes for his plans.

He told a flat-Earth group last year that the project will shut the doors on this ball Earth, but has since backtracked on the claims that his mission will prove the Earth is flat.

Do I believe the Earth is shaped like a Frisbee? I believe it is, he said on social media. Do I know for sure? No. Thats why I want to go up in space.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Only 41 percent of Americans trust Facebook to obey existing U.S. privacy laws, while 50 percent of Germans fear that the social network is having a negative impact on democracy, according to new surveys.

The polls, taken prior to Facebooks full-page apology advertisements on Sunday in major U.S. and U.K. newspapers, paint a bleak picture as the tech company struggles to move forward in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for a breach of trust in the ads. We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we cant, we dont deserve it, the advertisement said.

FACEBOOK DENIES IT COLLECTED PHONE CALL, SMS DATA DESPITE MEDIA REPORTS

The biggest social media network is facing growing scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic and trying to rebuild trust after allegations that a data-mining firm improperly gained access to users information that was later used to help elect Donald Trump in 2016.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner D.-VA., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a Sunday interview on NBC that Facebook had not been fully forthcoming over how Cambridge Analytica had used Facebook data.

Warner repeated calls for Zuckerberg to testify in person before U.S. lawmakers, saying Facebook and other internet companies had been reluctant to confront the dark underbelly of social media. In an interview with tech website Recode, Zuckerberg said he would be open to testifying if he felt he was the right person.

Facebook has lost nearly $50 billion in market cap and hashtags like #QuitFacebook and #DeleteFacebook have gained traction online since the outrage has unfolded.

FACEBOOK DATA SCANDAL: ACADEMICS REFUSED TO CARRY OUT 'UNETHICAL' CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA RESEARCH

Respondents to the Reuters poll had more trust in Amazon (66 percent), Google (62 percent) and Microsoft (60 percent) with their personal data.

It's far too early to say if users will actually leave Facebook en masse following the scandal, eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson said in an interview with Reuters. Customers of banks or other industries do not necessarily quit after losing faith, she said.

Its psychologically harder to let go of a platform like Facebook thats become pretty well ingrained into peoples lives, she said.Despite media reports to the contrary, including one showing multiple screenshots where data is shown in detail, Facebook is denying it collected phone call and messaging history in a secretive manner.

In a blog post on March 25, Facebook said that logging the call and text history on Facebook Lite and Facebook Messenger on Android devices is an "opt-in feature," letting users find and stay connected with friends. The company said users have to "expressly agree to use the feature."

"If, at any time, they no longer wish to use this feature they can turn it off in settings, or here for Facebook Lite users, and all previously shared call and text history shared via that app is deleted," Facebook wrote in the post. "While we receive certain permissions from Android, uploading this information has always been opt-in only."

FACEBOOK DENIES CLAIM THAT IT FAVORED OBAMA'S 2012 CAMPAIGN

The blog post follows several media reports, including one from the tech website Ars Technica that details multiple examples in which Facebook tracked data such as the length of a phone call, who was it made to, and whether it was an outgoing or incoming call.

In the story, New Zealand Facebook user Dylan McKay downloaded his Facebook data as a Zip file and uncovered the findings. He says he told the website that he installed Messenger in 2015, but only gave it permissions that the Android version of the app needed to be installed. He claims he uninstalled and reinstalled the app several times since then, but did not give it permission to read his messaging and call history.

The story's author, Sean Gallagher, noted that while the data collection is technically "opt-in," it is the default setting for Facebook's app and is not a separate notification. It also did not reveal that the data was being collected.

"In my case, a review of my Google Play data confirms that Messenger was never installed on the Android devices I used," Gallagher wrote. "Facebook was installed on a Nexus tablet I used and on the Blackphone 2 in 2015, and there was never an explicit message requesting access to phone call and SMS data. Yet there is call data from the end of 2015 until late 2016, when I reinstalled the operating system on the Blackphone 2 and wiped all applications."

ADVERTISERS TELL FACEBOOK 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH' AS GROUP REPRESENTING 3,000 BRANDS THREATENS TO LEAVE

The Ars Technica article adds that Facebook started to explicitly ask for permission for Messenger and Facebook Lite users to access their SMS and call data  to "help friends find each other"  after an outcry in 2016 over the way it handled collecting the data.

Originally, the message did not mention collecting SMS and call data, but simply offered an "OK" button to allow users to keep all of their SMS messages in one spot.

In its retort, Facebook was adamant that it does not sell the data to third parties and is stored "securely."

"Your information is securely stored and we do not sell this information to third parties," Facebook added in its post. "You are always in control of the information you share with Facebook."

ELON MUSK YANKS SPACEX AND TESLA'S FACEBOOK PAGES

Facebook under fire

The Mark Zuckerberg-led company has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks, most notably for the way it has handled the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Over the weekend, Zuckerberg took out full-page newspaper ads in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and the U.K.'s The Observer, The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph to apologize and offer an explanation of what his company was doing to fix the situation.

"We have a responsibility to protect your information," the ad starts. "If we can't, we don't deserve it."

Facebook, which along with Google dominates the online advertising industry, has attracted intense scrutiny from lawmakers and other tech execs, including Apple's Tim Cook, who have called for it to be regulated, something Zuckerberg said last week makes sense if done properly. "I actually am not sure we shouldn't be regulated," Zuckerberg told CNN in a pre-taped interview."

Lawmakers have also requested that Zuckerberg testify before Congress on the Cambridge Analytica mess, something he said he would be open to.

Fox News' Nicole Darrah and Christopher Carbone contributed to this story. Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_CiacciaAn Air Canada flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Virginia Sunday night, after smoke was discovered in the cockpit.

Flight 7618 was on its way to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport from Toronto when the pilots noticed the smoke, forcing them to land at nearby Washington Dulles International Airport, in Virginia, around 6:18 p.m., Reuters reported.

HOMEAWAY REMOVES RENTAL LISTING WHERE IOWA FAMILY WAS FOUND DEAD

All 63 passengers and four crew members were safely evacuated onto the tarmac with no injuries reported, according to Reuters. Images on Twitter show emergency vehicles on site and people huddled nearby, waiting.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates Dulles, told the Washington Post no fire was found on board and its suspected the smoke may have been caused by a faulty circuit.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

The FAA plans to investigate the incident, spokesman Rick Breitenfeldt told Reuters.HomeAway, a popular online platform used by travelers to find and book vacation rentals, has removed a listing for a condo in Quintana Roo, Mexico, where an Iowa family was found dead last week.

"Our most heartfelt condolences go out to the loved ones of the Sharp family for their tragic loss," a company spokesman said in a statement.

VACATION RENTALS IN HAWAII ARE DEVASTATING ECONOMY, STUDY ARGUES

The company also confirmed to Fox News that condo where the family of four was found, near the town of Tulum, will not be available via HomeAway for the time being.

"We are monitoring this devastating situation closely and the property was removed from our site for any future bookings while we wait for more details."

Mexican officials concluded on Monday that the Sharp family, who were vacationing from Creston, Iowa, had died of gas inhalation which may have leaked into the property via a faulty water heater. These findings concur with initial suspicions the officials had after conducting physical investigations of the gas connection in the room. The local prosecutors office had earlier ruled out any evidence of foul play.

AIRBNB LAUNCHES 'AIRBNB PLUS' TO WIN OVER WEALTHIER TRAVELERS

Kevin and Amy Sharp, 41 and 38, respectively, and their children Sterling, 12, and Adrianna, 7, had flown from St. Louis to Cancun for a family vacation on March 14, before renting a car and driving to their destination on the Yucatan Peninsula, Amys sister told the Creston News Advertiser. They notified family members that they had arrived safely, but that was reportedly the last anyone heard from them.

Family members became concerned when the Sharps did not return from the trip on March 21 as scheduled. Attempts to track the family via their cell phones revealed there had been no movement. The deceased family was subsequently found during a welfare check on March 23.

The Quintana Roo prosecutors' office said the family had been dead for between 36 and 48 hours by the time they were found.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE TRAVEL NEWS

A spokesperson for the Quintana Roo prosecutors office could not confirm whether the owner of the condominium, in the Tao condominium complex, would be facing charges, Reuters reported.

HomeAway would not disclose the owner's name or address to the Des Moines Register for privacy reasons.Southwest Airlines condemned a racist anti-Muslim tweet from a passenger targeting one of its employees, but people are calling for the company to do more.

John Guandolo posted the tweet Saturday night along with a photo of the Southwest employee, though it has since been removed from his account. I wish this were shockinga sharia adherent muslim (aka jihadi) at my plane as I head to AZ to speak at the Western Conservative Conference," he wrote, along with a hashtag reading #ShariaKills."

MEXICAN RESTAURANT IN NORWAY TROLLS TRUMP WITH WINDOW SIGN

After the tweet caught Southwests attention, the airline sent out a series of responses. The airline wrote that they had reported Guandolos tweet and hoped it would be removed, and expressed their disgust with the cruel and inappropriate post.

We pride ourselves on our People-focused Culture fostered by the most caring and loving Employees in the world, and the Southwest Family stands strong with our Employee who was the target of this cruel and inappropriate post, the company tweeted.

At Southwest, we stand for embracing civility and living by the Golden Rule, and we ask our Customers to do the same, they added.

But despite their public statement, people want Southwest to take action and ban Guandolo from ever flying with the airline again.

I implore you to take action against @JohnGuandolo and his inappropriate characterization of your employee, based on his appearance or beliefs. There is no excuse for this type of [blatant] racism from John, or his ilk. #FightRacism, one person wrote.

Thank you for your response, but that isn't enough. This employee is literally at risk now. This customer most likely broke the law. This should be determined, customer should be reported to authorities, and he definitely should be banned from future flights, another tweeted.

Southwest is a great place to work and it shows, because you treat your employees like family. Dont change that. Ban him. Stand up for your employees no matter the consequences, someone else added.

The airline needs to absolutely ban this person from ever flying. What happens if he flies again, finds someone who worries him, then someones safety is threatened. Where is the line drawn? #BanHimNow, another person wrote.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Southwest made no comment as to whether or not they plan to ban Guandolo from flying with them, but they did say they are further investigating. We are disheartened by these comments, and we are looking into the situation, Southwest spokesperson Chris Mainz told Fox News.Two volunteer firefighters were killed and three others were hurt after their fire truck crashed while responding to a deadly highway wreck in West Virginia on Saturday night.

The five members of the Pratt Volunteer Fire Department were heading toward the wreck on the West Virginia Turnpike.

The fire truck careened off a road and into a ditch, striking a rock wall, Pratt Deputy Fire Chief Rod Johnson said Sunday, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported, correcting initial reports that the truck had flipped. It's unclear what triggered the crash.

Two of the firefighters were confirmed dead while the three injured were taken to the Charleston Area Medical Center for treatment, according to officials.

This is a tragic event and believed to be the worst accident involving our volunteer fire service has ever suffered," Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said in a written statement.

Assistant fire chief Michael Edwards, 46, and Lt. Thomas Craigo, 40, were killed, Johnson said. Edwards had 25 years of service as a firefighter and Craigo spent about 15 years with the department.

Johnson said both men recently had gotten married, including Edwards about a week ago. Edwards and Craigo also have children, the Gazette-Mail reports.

Chief Timmy Walker and firefighter Billy Hypes are in critical and stable condition, respectively, the report said. Firefighter Kyle Jenkins was treated and released.

Local media reported three people were killed in the first crash the firefighters had been attempting to reach.

State police spokesman Capt. Reggie Patterson said in a release that a car driven by Beatrice Patrick, 77, of Salyersville, Kentucky, was going the wrong way in the southbound lanes when it struck another car head-on. The second car then ran off the road and struck a disabled box truck.

Patterson said the driver of the second car, James W. Platte, 49, of Westphalia, Michigan, and his wife, Tonya Platte, 38, were killed. Box truck driver Jordan Napoleon, 40, of Greer, South Carolina, was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice was joined by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in tweeting condolences to the victims of the two accidents.

West Virginia State police were investigating both crashes.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with all those involved in these accidents this evening and their families, Carper said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The bodies of the American family of four found dead in their Mexico vacation condo on Friday will be returned to the U.S. this week.

The Sharp family  Kevin, 41, Amy, 38, Sterling, 12, and Adrianna 7  will come home to Iowa on Wednesday, ABC News reported.

The Sharps loved ones were coordinating their funerals on Sunday. One family member said she felt like she lost half her family.

My mother is holding up, doing the best she can, Amys sister, Renee Hoyt, told ABC News. Were all supporting her. For my mother, it was just me and my sister. So she feels that she lost half her family.

IOWA FAMILY FOUND DEAD IN MEXICO INHALED TOXIC GAS, AUTOPSIES REVEAL

The Sharp family was found dead in Tulum on Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula, officials said.

Investigators quickly ruled out foul play and later determined the family died from inhaling toxic gas. Mexican officials on Saturday said that any violent act or suicide has been discounted.

Authorities told Hoyt the toxic gas was from either the hot water heater or the gas stove.

The family had traveled to Mexico for spring break and booked a vacation condo through VBNO (Vacation Rentals by Owner), according to ABC News. The company told the news outlet it removed the property where the Sharps were staying from its website as the investigation continues.

Relatives reported the family missing about a week after they left for vacation. Police in Creston, Iowa, contacted the State Department, and the bodies were found during a welfare check at the condo.

The Quintana Roo prosecutors' office said the family had been dead for between 36 and 48 hours by the time they were found Friday at the condominium complex.

Fox News Dom Calicchio contributed to this report.Firearms manufacturer Remington Outdoor Company has filed for bankruptcy protection in the face of falling sales and lawsuits stemming from the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday night.

According to the Journal, Remington announced that it would file for Chapter 11 last month but the actual filing was delayed after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. that killed 17 people.

The paper reported that Remington officials plan to hand over the reins to its creditors in exchange for writing off most of the company's debt. Cerberus Capital Management LP bought Remington for $118 million in 2007, assuming $252 million in debt in the process.

Cerberus later formed a holding company called the Freedom Group Inc., consisting of Remington and other firearms manufacturers -- including Bushmaster, which Cerberus had purchased in 2006.

WEAPON MAKERS FLEE LIBERAL TOWNS AND HEAD TO GUN-FRIENDLY STATES

The Journal reported that the gun industry is facing low demand and high stock after Donald Trump's unexpected election to the presidency in 2016. According to the paper, firearms manufacturers boosted output in the run-up to the election, expecting that a Hillary Clinton victory would lead to a boost in sales ahead of tighter gun laws.

In 2016, families of the Sandy Hook victims filed a wrongful-death suit against Remington, claiming that it had negligently marketed "military-style" weapons to younger demographics -- namely, 20-year-old Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza.

A trial judge dismissed the initial lawsuit, but the plaintiffs appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court, which is considering the matter.

Katie-Mesner Hage, an attorney with Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, which represents Sandy Hook families in their lawsuit against the gun manufacturer said in a statement that We do not expect this filing to affect the families case in any material way.

Founded in 1816, Remington is America's oldest gun maker.

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Organizers of the March for Our Lives demonstration in Washington, D.C. claimed Sunday that some 850,000 people attended the pro-gun control event, but an imaging company said the turnout was much less.

Virginia-based Digital Design & Imaging Service Inc., which uses aerial photos to calculate crowd sizes, reported the events peak crowd size was at 202,796 people around 1 p.m., CBS News reported. The firm said the number's margin of error is 15 percent.

The January 2017 Women's March turnout in Washington, for comparison, was estimated at 440,000 people.

The National Park Service stopped providing crowd its own numbers.

Saturday's demonstration down Pennsylvania Avenue included students from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., the site of the shooting massacre last month. The march was not allowed to be held on the National Mall because a "talent show" was being filmed, The Washington Post reported.

Many other cities outside of the nation's capital, including Portland, Boise, New York City, Chicago and Dallas, held their own marches calling for gun reform.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Police are warning residents in Fairfield, Connecticut to be alert: hawks are apparently targeting heads of clueless pedestrians in the area.

The warning comes after a hawk attacked an Old Mill Road resident in her yard on March 19, the Fairfield Police Department said in a Facebook post Sunday.

Due to this encounter and numerous previous hawk incidents, authorities said they have asked state and federal wildlife experts to come in and remove the hawk or hawks in question from one neighborhood.

All past hawk incidents involve hawks flying in undetected from behind a single person walking, with the hawk targeting the head area of the walker, Fairfield police explained.

MAN REACHING FOR BASEBALLS GETS STUCK BETWEEN 2 BUILDINGS, IS FREED 3 HOURS LATER

Police urged residents to use caution when walking alone around the neighborhood, especially around Old Mill Road, Sycamore Lane and Henry Street. Animal control officers will regularly patrol the neighborhood until the situation is resolved.

Residents can contact Animal Control at 203-254-4857 to report a hawk sighting. Anyone with a complaint about a hawk incident is asked to call the Fairfield Police Department at 203-254-4800.

This isnt the first time residents have battled the big birds.

The Fairfield Citizen says there were reports of hawk attacks around Old Mill Road in 2016 and 2017. According to the local newspaper, the neighborhood is near Mill River, a common nesting area for birds.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A father of five and his 14-year-old son were killed Saturday after the grain inside a silo at their Wisconsin dairy farm collapsed and trapped the pair, officials said.

The Barron County Sheriffs Department said in statement that 51-year-old Daniel Briel and 14-year-old David Briel were working inside the silo when an internal collapse of silage occurred. Briel's 15-year-old son, Caleb, was also with them inside when the collapse took place, but Caleb was able to escape.

In the farming world these accidents do happen, but they usually dont lead to death, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald told FOX9. This one was just a tragic accident.

Rescuers had to use thermal imaging devices and extraction equipment to get to the pair. It took 45 minutes until the father and son were able to be pulled free, fire officials said.

Authorities said Dan was dead when firefighters arrived at the scene and pulled him out, and David died shortly afterward.

I have peace knowing that he was praying with our son, Melissa Briel told FOX9. I have peace knowing that he was holding onto our son.

IOWA FAMILY FOUND DEAD IN MEXICO INHALED TOXIC GAS, AUTOPSIES REVEAL

Melissa said she was out of town when she got the call that the silage had collapsed at the farm in Hillsdale, located 89 miles east of Minneapolis.

This time of the year silage gets caught up on the side and you have to get it off when it warms, but it just so happened to be too big of a chunk, she said.

She's now turned to her faith to carry her through the next steps, as the community has set up a GoFundMe page for the family to help pay for funeral expenses.

God is good even through hard times, Briel told FOX9. I want people to take away that God is there and if you keep your faith in him hes going to see you through.A gun-toting woman was shot by New York City police officers Sunday after a weekend crime spree that began when she allegedly choked a parent at a school play, reports said.

Lori Gjenashaj, 41, was shot in the shoulder at around 12:45 p.m. after police received a 911 call about a woman breaking into a Staten Island home, NYPD Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison said.

Police conducted a traffic stop of a black SUV that Gjenashaj was driving and when officers approached the vehicle she brandished a firearm, authorities said. Officers then fired five rounds at her, striking her once in the shoulder.

I heard a woman screaming, Im f---ing shot! Im shaken, Roland Molina told the New York Daily News. You dont expect it.

Gjenashajs alleged crime spree reportedly began the night before she was shot.

Gjenashaj was initially arrested around 11:20 p.m. Saturday after she allegedly choked another parent at a school play in Academy of St. Dorothy, the Staten Island Advance reported, citing police sources. She reportedly called the womans children a sexually explicit name.

Gjenashaj was charged with misdemeanor assault and issued a desk appearance ticket and was released, according to the Staten Island Advance.

The next day, police said Gjenashaj went to her mother-in-laws home on Staten Island and threatened her.

I heard a woman screaming, Im f---ing shot! Im shaken."  Roland Molina

She then drove to a former friends home and tried to break in by smashing the door with a brick, the New York Daily News reported. She also fired her gun at her friends 13-year-old son, who was in the house, and then fled the area.

At one point during her alleged rampage, Gjenashaj let a male relative out of her car before police caught up with her, according to the Daily News. The man was not charged.

Gjenashaj was taken to the hospital after she was shot in the shoulder. She is said to be in stable condition as of Monday. Her gun was recovered at the scene.

No charges have been filed in the case yet.Linda Brown, the woman who was at the center of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision that ended school segregation, has died at age 76.

Brown's sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson, confirmed her death to The Topeka Capital-Journal.

The Supreme Court in 1954 ruled segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The landmark ruling came after Brown's father tried to enroll her in Topeka's all-white Sumner School.

The Topeka Board of Education denied Brown admission, which led to her father, Oliver, challenging the decision in the nation's highest court.

"Her legacy is not only here but nationwide," Kansas Deputy Education Commissioner Dale Dennis said. "The effect she had on our society would be unbelievable and insurmountable."

The NAACP, which took up the case alongside former Associate Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, tweeted that Brown was a "hero for our nation!"

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer said that "Brown's life reminds us that sometimes the most unlikely people can have an incredible impact and that by serving our community we can truly change the world."

"As a young girl, her courage in the face of one of the darkest forces in American history fundamentally changed our nation," the Legal Defense Fund for the NAACP tweeted. "For that, we owe her our eternal gratitude."

Brown v. Board of Education began after several black families in Topeka were turned down when they tried to enroll their children in white schools near their homes. The lawsuit was joined with cases from Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that separating black and white children was unconstitutional because it denied black children the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law.

"In the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place," Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote. "Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The Maryland high school student who fatally shot a classmate last week and injured another died from a self-inflicted gunshot, officials said Monday.

Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17, shot himself in the head at Great Mills High School Tuesday after opening fire in a hallway with his father's legally-owned handgun, the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office said.

Just before 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Rollins "fired a single shot from a handgun" in a school hallway, which hit both Jaelynn Willey, 16, and Desmond Barnes, 14, according to officials.

Rollins continued to walk throughout the school before engaging with the school's armed resource officer, Deputy Blaine Gaskill. Both Rollins and Gaskill "simultaneously" fired, but Rollins "fired one fatal shot to his head."

Gaskill's shot "struck the weapon in Rollins hand." Initial reports in the wake of the shooting were unclear whether Rollins committed suicide or was shot by the deputy.

Willey, who police said "had a prior relationship" with Rollins "which recently ended," died Thursday after her family pulled her off life support.

Barnes was hit in the leg during the incident, and has since been released from the hospital, according to The Baltimore Sun.

The school shooting came just weeks after 17 people were massacred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Students from both schools participated in the March for Our Lives demonstration in Washington, D.C. in protest of gun violence over the weekend.The mother and sister of an Indiana sheriff's deputy who was fatally shot in 2016 were attacked in a courthouse Monday.

Howard County Deputy Carl Koontz died two years ago after he was shot while attempting to serve a warrant in Russiaville.

OHIO GOV. KASICH COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE OF MAN WHO KILLED WOMAN DURING ROBBERY

His sister, Alice, 27, and their mother, 54-year-old Jackie, were in the Howard County Courthouse in Kokomo for a paternity hearing when a man identified as Bryson Small, 36, allegedly assaulted them, Fox 59 reported.

Witnesses reportedly said Small was walking toward the Koontzs when he attacked them. The women were knocked to the floor and hit several times, officials said.

Bystanders helped the women, according to WRTV, and also helped deputies stop Small.

The Koontzs both suffered facial and head injuries, and Alice was knocked unconcious. She was hospitalized to be treated for her injuries.

A baby, Amelia Koontz, was in a carrier but not injured in the incident.

Small reportedly approached the two "to answer questions about the case," but it remains unclear why he attacked the women.

He was booked at the the Howard County Jail on felony assault charges.A North Carolina man accused of killing his wife and daughter and posting pictures of their bodies to Facebook was found guilty in their deaths Monday.

Local news outlets report a Wake County jury reached its verdict in the trial of Elhadji Seydou Diop. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for first-degree murder in the death of his wife, and an additional 20 to 25 years for second-degree murder in his daughter's death.

Prosecutors said Diop strangled 40-year-old Aminata Drame in April 2016, but medical examiners couldn't tell if 2-year-old Fatim Diop had been strangled, suggesting she may have been smothered when her fighting parents fell on her in their Raleigh townhouse.

Police went to the family's home after Diop's niece in Senegal saw the dead bodies on his Facebook page.

"Look what god did 2. Me.," investigators believe Diop posted on the day of the slayings. "A beautiful family. all gone."

A Senegalese online newspaper reported Diop had also written on his Facebook page, "They just died, and I will be next. Who will stop me?"

Initially, Diop rejected a plea agreement last September. At the time, Diop had agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, according to Kristen Fetter, a Wake County prosecutor.

But Charles Caldwell, Diop's court-appointed attorney, said his client "had a change of heart."An off-duty New Jersey cop was shot and killed Sunday night inside a home, officials said -- though many other details surrounding the rookie officer's death remained unclear.

The 33-year-old, who had only been on the force for about a year, suffered a gunshot wound to the chest around 7:50 p.m., NJ.com reported.

Police responding to the scene found the unidentified officer had been shot, and he was later pronounced dead at Jersey City Medical Center.

City spokesperson Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said the officer had been working for the Jersey City Police Department for about a year and had recently graduated from the police academy, according to NorthJersey.com.

The Hudson County Prosecutors Office said it was investigating the shooting, however, no suspect was immediately named.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The Orlando nightclub shooter's dad  revealed to be an FBI informant  told authorities who were investigating Omar Mateen before the attack that pro-terror comments the would-be gunman made to coworkers were just examples of him being stupid," an agent testified Monday.

FBI Special Agent Juvenal Martin, who was on the stand in the terrorism trial of Noor Salman, Omar Mateens wife, said Omar's father, Seddique, had called him while his son was being investigated for the comments in 2006, a decade before the Pulse attack, and was upset.

Martin testified Seddique told him something like if he had done those things he was being stupid, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Martin said the FBI interviewed Omar two other times as part of that investigation, but eventually determined he wasn't a security threat. The bureau even considered turning Omar into a confidential informant himself, according to Martin's testimony.

Mateen, during the June 2016 shooting that left 49 dead at the gay nightclub, claimed allegiance to ISIS.

In interviews with Martin, Seddique also said there was a distant family connection on his wifes side to the Fort Hood shooter, but Martin told the court Monday the claim could not be corroborated.

The news of Seddique being an FBI informant, disclosed Saturday to lawyers representing Salman, led to immediate calls by the defense for a mistrial.

"Seddique Mateen was a FBI confidential human source at various points in time between January 2005 and June 2016, the defense lawyers, in a court document filed Sunday, quoted Assistant United States Attorney Sara Sweeney as saying in a letter.

The 31-year-old Salman is accused of obstruction of justice, as FBI agents say she lied to them in the hours after the Pulse nightclub attack, and charges of aiding and abetting Mateen's allegiance to ISIS.

Sweeney's letter said, during a search of Seddique Mateens home in June 2016, investigators found receipts for money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan in the months leading up to the horrific attack at the Orlando gay nightclub, which left 49 people dead.

"As a result of the discovery of these receipts, an FBI investigation into Seddique Mateen was opened," the letter reportedly said. S. Mateen has not been informed by the FBI about the investigation.

The letter also stated that, in November 2012, an anonymous tip indicated Mateen was seeking to raise up to $100,000 in donations to contribute toward an attack on the Pakistan government, the lawyers wrote.

Salman's attorneys argue that the revelations have a significant impact on the ongoing court proceedings.

"It is apparent from the Governments belated disclosure that Ms. Salman has been defending a case without a complete set of facts and evidence that the Government was required to disclose," the court document said. "If the Government had provided this information, the Defense would have investigated whether a tie existed between Seddique Mateen and his son, specifically whether Mateens father was involved in or had foreknowledge of the Pulse attack."

The defense lawyers also accused the government of violating Salman's rights to due process and a fair trial.

The lawyers added: Moreover, the defenses questioning of the Governments witnesses has also been hindered by the Governments actions. During the cross-examination of Shahla Mateenshe denied any knowledge of a relationship between Seddique Mateen and the FBI. This was either false and the Government knew it since Seddique Mateen had been working with the FBI for eleven years or Seddique Mateen had kept this information from his wife  a situation ripe for cross-examination.

Salmans lawyers, who deny she has anything to do with the attack, started presenting their case Monday. The government prosecutors rested Thursday without ever calling Seddique to the stand, despite him being on the witness list, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

In opening statements, defense attorney Linda Moreno said Salman was a person with a low IQ who did not know she would wake up a widow, and Omar Mateen a martyr for a cause that she didnt support.

In a November 2016 interview with The New York Times, Salman apologized for her husband's act and claimed she was unaware of his plan.

"I don't condone what he has done," she told the newspaper. "I am very sorry for what has happened. He has hurt a lot of people."

The Orlando Sentinel added closing arguments could start Wednesday and a verdict could come by the end of the week.

FBI agents arrested Salman in January 2017 inside her California home, where she had been living with her young son, whom she shared with Mateen.

Months earlier, at the height of the 2016 presidential election cycle, Seddique was spotted cheering on Hillary Clinton and waving an American flag at an Orlando-area rally where she paid tribute to the victims of his son's rampage and condemned his hatred.

Mateens presence -- right behind Clinton -- was first noticed by WPTV in Florida. The TV station later interviewed Mateen, who held up a large, yellow pro-Clinton banner calling her good for national security and gun control laws.

Though Mateen claimed he had been invited to the Kissimmee, Fla., rally outside of Orlando, he also suggested the invitation may have come in the form of a mass email.

"The rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public, a campaign official told Fox News. This individual wasn't invited as a guest and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event."

Mateen was quoted as saying that its a Democratic Party so everybody can join.

He also called Clinton good for [the] United States versus Donald Trump. As for his sons actions, he said he wishes his son had joined the Army and fought ISIS.

That would be much better," he told WPTV.

Fox News' Jennifer Earl contributed to this report.Multiple suspicious packages containing explosive material were sent to at least three military installations in the Washington, D.C. area, a senior defense official told Fox News Monday.

Officials told Fox 5 DC a suspicious package was received at the National Defense University on Fort McNair in Southwest Washington D.C. at around 8:30 a.m. The building was evacuated and an Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team from Fort Belvoir, Va. examined the package, which tested positive for black powder and residue.

An X-ray of the package indicated a suspected GPS and an expedient fuse were attached, Army officials said. The package later was rendered safe.

At approximately 11 a.m., Naval Support Facility Dahlgren in King George County, Va. also received a suspicious package that was found to be safe, officials said.

Later in the day, officials at Fort Belvoir said they had also received a suspicious package, but it was rendered safe.

"The FBI responded to multiple government facilities today for the reports of suspicious packages. Each package was collected for further analysis by the FBI," said Nicole Schwab, a spokesperson for the FBI Washington Field Office.

Fox News has learned that the packages were being examined at the FBI's field office in Quantico, Va.

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.

Click for more from Fox5DC.com.A possible illegal immigrant armed to the teeth with a machete, a homemade shiv and pepper spray is accused of trying to swipe two infants from their mothers during a pair of terrifying encounters at a Louisiana Walmart, police say.

Billy Yoe Budier-Herrera, 33, of Metairie, first entered a Walmart in Kenner on Friday afternoon and told a mother in front of her 2-year-old child that she would be killed if she didnt follow his instructions, according to the Kenner Police Department.

The startled mother tried to walk away but Budier-Herrera blocked her and brandished a machete before telling the mother her son would also die if she did not obey him, police said. A struggle ensued as Budier-Herrera reportedly tried to snatch the boy from the mom's grocery cart. However, the woman was able to safely bring her child behind a deli counter and Budier-Herrera fled after she called for help and store employees intervened, according to police.

While running through the store, Budier-Herrera began swinging the machete to scare off the Walmart employees and tried to grab another infant from the child seat of a grocery cart, police said. But a seat strap allegedly prevented Budier-Herrera from snatching the child.

The chaos reportedly ended when Budier-Herrera was tackled by Walmart employees and an off-duty Kenner police officer who was inside the store.

Police say they found a homemade shiv on Budier-Herrera that was made of a plastic handle with razor blades taped on it, as well as a 10-inch machete and pepper spray.

He was charged with two counts each of second degree kidnapping of a child, aggravated assault, illegal carrying of weapons and one count of disturbing the peace.

Budier-Herrera also was charged with an immigration detainer and no bond was set for him.

Kenner police say numerous customers recorded cell phone footage of the incident and are asking them to come forward.

At one point, it was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Two years after 49 people were massacred inside a crowded nightclub in Orlando, the wife of the gunman responsible was put on trial -- with families of the victims looking for justice.

Omar Mateen opened fire with a Sig Saur semi-automatic rifle on June 12, 2016, killing dozens of people before he was fatally shot hours later by police. The trial of his widow, Noor Salman, was the only criminal prosecution for the incident.

Testimony began on March 14. After deliberating for three days, the jury announced on March 30 that Salman was found not guilty of obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization.

In light of the verdict, here's what you need to know.

What was she being accused of?

Salman pleaded not guilty to charges of aiding and abetting Mateen's allegiance to the Islamic State. She was also charged with obstruction of justice, as FBI agents say she lied to them during questioning hours after the attack.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Mandolfo said Salman gave conflicting statements to FBI agents. In one conversation with authorities, before they informed her of any details of the attack, she said, "My husband is safe with guns."

"No one ever told her about guns," Mandolfo said.

FBI agents interviewed Salman three times after the attack. They said she was aware Mateen was planning to do something and that texts to her husband prove it.

"She knew he was going to conduct the attack," federal prosecutor Roger Handberg told a judge during a hearing in Oakland on Jan. 17, 2017.

One text recovered from Salmans phone reads, If ur mom calls say nimo invited you out and noor wants to stay home. Another reads, She asked where you were xoxo. Love you.

Nimo, or Nemo, is the name of one of Mateens friends, whom defense attorneys said Mateen often used to cover his tracks when he went out to cheat on his wife.

She shopped with her husband at Walmart the night before the attack when he bought five containers of ammunition, a source close to the investigation previously told Fox News.

A law enforcement source also told Fox she had driven her husband to Pulse nightclub at least once before the deadly shooting.

What was her defense?

The family and Salmans lawyers denied she had anything to do with Mateens plot.

In a November 2016 interview with The New York Times, Salman apologized for her husband's act and claimed she was unaware of his plan.

"I don't condone what he has done," she told the newspaper. "I am very sorry for what has happened. He has hurt a lot of people."

Defense attorneys described Salman as a simple woman with a low IQ, who was abused by her husband and was in constant fear for her life. Her attorneys also claimed she wasn't given proper Miranda warnings, which tell suspects they have a right to remain silent and have an attorney present, before she made statements.

I knew when he left the house he was going to Orlando to attack the Pulse Night Club, Salman confirmed in a signed statement written by an FBI agent, according to documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.

Defense attorney Linda Moreno argued that this confession was coerced and, therefore, should not be admissible in court.

"Noor Salman denied any knowledge of Omar Mateen's plans for hours," Moreno said, claiming agents told Salman that she could go to jail and not see her child.

What about her family?

FBI agents arrested Salman in January 2017 inside her California home, where she had been living with her young son, whom she shared with Mateen.

The now 5-year-old boy, who lives with his maternal grandmother in California, has since learned about his father's act and hasn't had any contact with Mateen's side of the family, Susan Clary, spokeswoman for Salmans family, told the Orlando Sentinel.

Salman reportedly calls the boy daily.

"They talk about what he learned in his kindergarten class that day and what his favorite toys are," according to the Florida newspaper.

What were the highlights of her trial?

U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron, federal prosecutors and defense attorneys picked 12 jury members and six alternates on March 12.

Opening statements started in federal court on March 14 in downtown Orlando.

On the first day of the trial, jurors listened to a witness who hid under a dead body for three hours as shots were fired and an Orlando police detective who choked up on the stand. They also watched a video taken during the shooting by a survivor inside the club.

Jurors watched graphic videos of the massacre the next day. Salman shielded her face as the videos and images were displayed on screen, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

One video showed Mateen opening fire  shooting people already lying motionless on the dance floor. He then walked toward the restroom where he began targeting people hiding in the bathroom stalls.

On March 18, Salman's defense team filed a motion, asking the judge to ban the prosecution from using any damning statements the widow may have made to an FBI agent about Mateen's plan, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The next day, FBI Special Agent Ricardo Enriquez took the stand to reveal the statement Salman had given him the night he questioned her about the mass shooting.

I am sorry for what happened, Enriquez read Salman's note, according to the Orlando Sentinel. I wish Id go back and tell his family and the police what he was going to do.

Salman's defense attorneys argued those statements weren't accurate.

On March 20, the mother of Mateen's friend, known only by the nickname "Nemo," testified in court. She discussed the pair's relationship, and told the court her son was working that night in Washington, D.C., and had not been with Mateen.

Jurors got a deeper look into Mateen's past on March 21 as they searched through his browser history, which included ISIS propaganda and beheading videos. They also flipped through photos taken inside his Florida home.

Final text messages between the couple were then read aloud in court.

Salman texted Mateen twice during his hours-long standoff with police, asking, "Where are you?"

Mateen responded, "You heard what happened."

"????" Salman replied. "What happened?!" Salman texted.

"I love you babe," Mateen wrote in his last text message at 4:29 a.m.

"Habibi what happened?!" Salman wrote, using an Arabic term of endearment. "Your mom said that she said to come over and you never did."

On March 22, jurors watched security footage of Salman standing by her husband's side -- with their young son close by -- as Mateen bought ammunition at Walmart.

"I knew Omar was preparing for Jihad when he bought the rifle, was going to the range to shoot, was spending a lot of money and bought the ammunition, Salman said, according to a transcribed statement jurors were given earlier, the Orlando Sentinel reported. I saw these things as a green light for Omar to do an act of violence."

On March 24, lawyers revealed that Mateen's dad was a secret FBI informant for more than a decade -- a revelation that led to immediate calls by the defense for a mistrial.

"Seddique Mateen was a FBI confidential human source at various points in time between January 2005 and June 2016, the defense lawyers, in a court document, quoted United States Attorney Sara Sweeney as saying in a letter.

Salmans lawyers, who denied she had anything to do with the attack, added: Moreover, the defenses questioning of the Governments witnesses has also been hindered by the Governments actions. During the cross-examination of Shahla Mateenshe denied any knowledge of a relationship between Seddique Mateen and the FBI. This was either false and the Government knew it since Seddique Mateen had been working with the FBI for eleven years or Seddique Mateen had kept this information from his wife  a situation ripe for cross-examination.

U.S. District Judge Paul Byron rejected the defense's motion for a mistrial on March 26, saying it had little bearing on the trial.

"This trial is not about Seddique Mateen. It's about Noor Salman," Byron said.

Sweeney told the 12 jurors on March 28 that Mateen's initial target was not Pulse, but Disney Springs.

The target of that terrorist attack was not the Pulse nightclub. ... The target of his attack was Disney, Sweeney argued during closing arguments, showing the jury photos of a baby stroller and doll she believed Mateen planned to use to hide his weapons and get into Disney, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Salman's defense lawyers said Sweeney's information didn't make the incident "any less tragic" and argued that it had nothing to do with his wife's knowledge of an attack.

"It's a horrible, random, senseless killing by a monster. But it wasn't pre-planned," defense attorney Charles Swift said. "And if he didn't know, she couldn't know."

Deliberations began following the closing arguments around 2 p.m. on March 28.

On March 30, after deliberating for three days and 12 hours, the jury in Salman's case reached a not guilty verdict on all counts. The widow was found not guilty of obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization.

Fox News' Phil Keating and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Hours after his son murdered 49 people at an Orlando nightclub, a teary-eyed Seddique Mateen stood in front of a crowd with cameras to express shock at his son's actions, saying the 29-year-old "went against my principles as a father and a U.S. citizen."

The dad arranged several media interviews in the days following the attack, welcoming cameras into his home, to discuss his son's actions. He even weighed in on his own Facebook page.

"I don't know what caused this," he said in a video posted on June 13. "I did not know and did not understand that he had anger in his heart. My son...was a good boy, an educated boy, who had a child and a wife, very respectful of his parents."

But Mateen's wife, Noor Salman, painted a very different picture, claiming she was in an abusive marriage and constantly feared for her life.

Seddique told NBC News in a June 13, 2016 interview that his son once got angry after seeing two men kissing in Miami, suggesting that may have helped trigger the attack.

"We were in Downtown Miami, Bayside, people were playing music. And he saw two men kissing each other in front of his wife and kid and he got very angry," he told the news outlet. "They were kissing each other and touching each other and he said, 'Look at that. In front of my son they are doing that.'"

Soon, the gunman's father found himself in the spotlight. Here are three things the public learned about Seddique after the deadly attack that raised eyebrows.

He was reportedly an FBI informant

Seddique was an FBI informant for 11 years before the attack, lawyers for his widow said during her trial on March 26.

Salman has been accused of obstruction of justice, as FBI agents say she lied to them in the hours after the Pulse nightclub attack, and charges of aiding and abetting Mateen's allegiance to ISIS.

"I have just received authorization to disclose the following information about Seddique Mateen," U.S. Attorney Sara Sweeney said in an email. "Seddique Mateen was a FBI confidential human source at various points in time between January 2005 and June 2016."

They said prosecutors also told them in an email that the government found evidence on the day of the attack that Seddique had been sending money to Afghanistan and Turkey, and that he had been accused of raising money to fund violence against the government of Pakistan.

He hosted a political talk show

Seddique started a religious nonprofit in 2010 called Durand Jirga, Inc., a reference to the Durand line -- the disputed international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Former Durand Jirga board member Qasim Tarin said Seddique had a television show called the "Durand Jirga Show" on which they discussed issues facing Afghanistan.

Some of the shows were posted on YouTube, garnering thousands of views. Seddique told Time magazine in June 2016 he had 20 million subscribers in Afghanistan.

During one episode, a sign in the background read, "Long live the U.S.A! Long live Afghanistan. ... Afghans are the best friends to the U.S.A."

The show expressed support for the Taliban, had an anti-Pakistan slant, complained about foreigners in Afghanistan and criticized U.S. actions there, a former Afghan official told The Associated Press in 2016.

Seddique praised current Afghan President Ashraf Ghani when he appeared on the show in January 2014. However, he has since denounced the Ghani government, according to the official.

He told Time in 2016 that he was the "president of the provisional government of Afghanistan," and even posted an image on Facebook -- which has since been deleted -- of what appears to be a campaign t-shirt with a printed picture of himself sporting a suit and tie.

My followers sent it to me and said 'put that, we want this picture of you,' he told the magazine. That shows our popularity.

He attended a Clinton rally months after the massacre

Two months after the attack, Seddique was spotted in the stands cheering on presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and waving an American flag at an Orlando-area rally where she paid tribute to the Pulse victims.

Seddique's presence -- right behind Clinton -- was first noticed by WPTV in Florida. The TV station later interviewed Mateen, who held up a large, yellow pro-Clinton banner calling her good for national security and gun control laws.

"The rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public, a campaign official told Fox News. This individual wasn't invited as a guest and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event."

Seddique snapped photos at the event and told WPTV he received a chain mail invite to Clinton's rally, Its a Democratic Party so everybody can join.

At the time, Seddiquq called Clinton good for [the] United States versus Donald Trump. As for his sons actions, he said he wished his son had joined the Army and fought ISIS.

That would be much better," he told the news station.

Fox News' Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.The Broward County Sheriff's Office arrested two people on Sunday night at Marjory Stoneman Douglas for allegedly stealing mementos from a memorial site outside the high school.

Michael Kennedy, 37, of Florida, and Kara O'Neil, 40, of New York, were arrested after witnesses said they saw the pair stealing items placed at the memorial in Parkland, which was created after 17 people were killed at the school in a Feb. 14 massacre, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

A deputy reportedly found "teddy bears, plaques and pin wheels" in the backseat of their car. The two were charged with removing or disfiguring a tomb or movement.

ZACHARY CRUZ ARREST VIDEO RELEASED FOLLOWED ALLEGED UNLAWFUL TRESPASSING AT PARKLAND SCHOOL

In court Monday, Kennedy reportedly told a judge that he "feel[s] the charging document has insufficient facia elements ... it is neither a tomb nor a monument."

The judge disagreed with Kenney and said Florida law protects memorials for the dead, or burial artifacts.

Both Kenney and O'Neil are being held at the Broward County Jail on $1,000 bond.Malaysia has had enough with fake news.

Country lawmakers want to take drastic steps to punish those peddling false stories. A bill proposed Monday would impose a 10-year prison sentence and a stiff fine  up to $128,000  to those who create, offer, circulate, print or publish fake news or publications containing fake news.

According to the bill, fake news is any news, information, data and reports which is, or are, wholly or partly false whether in the form of features, visuals, or audio recordings, or in any other form capable of suggesting words or ideas.

The anti-fake bill would include all digital publications and social media and includes foreigners outside Malaysia if it affects Malaysia or its citizens.

The proposed act seeks to safeguard the public against the proliferation of fake news whilst ensuring the right to freedom of speech and expression under the Federal Constitution is respected, the bill states, according to Reuters.

The bill has stirred controversy in the country. Prime Minister Najib Razak came under fire after the bill was proposed and critics have said its a veiled attempt to silence dissent ahead of the general election.

"This is an attack on the press and an attempt to instill fear among the (people)" before the general election, opposition lawmaker Ong Kian Ming wrote in a tweet.

Government officials defending the bill have said the law is necessary to protect public harmony and national security. Officials have accused opposition leadership of using fake news to win votes and warned that any news on the 1MDB scandal that had not been verified by the government is fake.

1MDB, a company setup and previously led by Najib, was supposed to promote economic development. Instead, it accumulated billions in debt and is being investigated by the U.S. and several other countries over allegations of cross-border embezzlement and money laundering.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The Saudi-Iranian proxy war in Yemen entered its third, bloody year last week, an infamous anniversary that quickly gave way to a ballistic missile blitz of Saudi Arabia's capital city by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels -- an act that threatened to further ratchet up already boiling regional tensions.

Saudis military said it intercepted seven ballistic missiles Sunday night using the U.S.-made MIM-104 Patriot missile defense system, but videos shared online that couldn't be independently verified show one interceptor exploding in midair and another making a strange U-turn before hitting the ground.

Three of the missiles were lobbed in the direction of the Saudi capital Riyadh and all were targeting civilian, populated areas, the military said. One person of Egyptian descent was killed by falling debris and two other civilians were injured, officials said.

The incident comes at a tense moment in the region: a coalition of Arabic countries and the U.S. are aligned against the rebels in Yemen; Israel has said the Iran nuclear deal inked by the Obama administration must be fixed or ripped up and President Trump appears inclined to agree; Iran stands accused of providing arms to the Houthi rebels, who have held power in Yemens capital since September 2014; and the United Nations has been hamstrung in its efforts to broker peace and provide aid in what is now a humanitarian crisis.

IRAN SAYS BOLTON PICK AS NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER A 'MATTER OF SHAME'

More than 9,245 people have been killed in Yemen since March 2015, and of those, at least 5,558 were civilians, according to a U.N. report. Across the country, 22 million people are in need of humanitarian aid, including more than 8.4 million who the U.N. describes as severely food insecure. A watchdog group recently accused Iran of supplying weaponry to Houthi rebels in the form of roadside bombs disguised as rocks.

However, Iran has consistently denied supplying arms to the Houthis. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has derided such allegations as fabricating evidence.

Meanwhile, an Iranian official blasted the Trump administration's elevation of John Bolton to the role of national security adviser, calling it "a matter of shame." Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has openly advocated for regime change in Iran and is against the nuclear deal.

The UAE condemned the Sunday attack, labeling the missile volley an attempt to terrorize civilians and damage the Kingdom's infrastructure, adding in a statement that such incidents are evidence of the Iranian-backed Houthi militias intransigence and its insistence on destabilizing the region's security and stability.

US CHARGES 9 IRANIANS IN HACKING SCHEME AGAINST HUNDREDS OF UNIVERSITIES, GOV'T AGENCIES

During his departing statement as the U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen late last month, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said that all parties involved must be prepared to make concessions in the countrys national interest in order to end the war and stop the humanitarian crisis from deepening.

Conflict has gradually destroyed the economy, healthcare services, housing, roads and schools, everything that Yemenis need in order to live and prosper, he said.

In a statement to Fox News, the U.S. State Department strongly condemned the Houthi missile attacks.

Our condolences go out to the families of any who were killed or injured. We support the right of our Saudi partners to defend their borders against these threats, said Heather Nauert, State Department spokesperson. We continue to call on all parties, including the Houthis, to return to political negotiations and move toward ending the war in Yemen.

The missile attack on Saudi Arabia by the Houthis this weekend provides even more evidence that the Iranian regime is continuing its efforts to incite conflict and further destabilization in the region, United Against Nuclear Iran Chairman Joe Lieberman, the former independent Connecticut senator, reacted. The Iranian regime's continued aggression demonstrates the urgent need to hold the regime accountable by cracking down on its illicit non-nuclear activities.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.A water heater that was leaking gas, maybe from use or lack of maintenance" was likely the source of the toxic fumes that led to the deaths of an Iowa family last week in their Mexican vacation home, one of the countrys prosecutors revealed Monday.

The head prosecutor of the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo, Miguel Angel Pech, told the Radio Formula station that "a high level" of gas was found in the rented condo where the couple was staying, according to the Associated Press.

Iowa officials identified the family as Kevin Sharp, 41; his wife, Amy Sharp, 38, and their children Sterling, 12, and Adrianna, 7. They were from Creston, Iowa.

Autopsies had indicated the family died from inhaling toxic gas in the resort of Tulum, but the source hadn't been determined.

Jana Weland, Amy Sharp's cousin, told the Des Moines Register Monday that they were informed of the suspected source of the leak by the U.S. Consulate in Mexico. The family is working on getting the bodies back to U.S. soil for a funeral.

Photos released by Pech's office over the weekend showed investigators in anti-contamination suits and firefighters with air tanks examining gas connections to a stove in the condo in Tulum. The office said investigators "carried out a physical investigation of the gas connections in the room," and the civil defense office of Tulum would issue a technical report on the findings.

The family was reported missing by relatives in their hometown about a week after the family left for vacation. Creston police contacted the U.S. State Department, and the bodies were found Friday during a welfare check at the condo in Tulum, on the Yucatan Peninsula.

The Quintana Roo prosecutor's office said the family had been dead for between 36 and 48 hours by the time they were found Friday at the Tao condominium complex.

The developer of the condo complex where the deaths occurred declined to comment Friday.

The Creston News Advertiser newspaper in Iowa reported that the family flew to Cancun on March 14. According to her sister, Amy Sharp texted their mother the next day to say they had reached Tulum, but relatives didn't hear any more from the family.

The sister, Renee Hoyt, said the Sharps were scheduled to return to the U.S. last week. They were set to depart from the Cancun airport on Wednesday and fly to St. Louis on a non-stop flight.

When the family didn't arrive in St. Louis, family members contacted authorities, she said.

The father, Kevin, used to race stock cars at Adams County Speedway in Corning, notching eight wins over his career.

Bob Harris, the longtime public address announcer at the track, told the Des Moines Register that Sharp was nicknamed The Sharpshooter and hailed him as a true family man.

Sharps No. 2 cars would have themes of things that were important to him, such as breast cancer awareness, according to the newspaper.

"He was truly a champion on both sides of the fence at the speedway," Harris said.

Fox News' Dom Calicchio and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Latest on the diplomatic fallout over the nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy in Britain (all times local):

3 p.m.

The United States is kicking out 60 Russian diplomats and ordering Russia's consulate in Seattle to close in response to the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain.

Senior Trump administration officials say the expelled Russians include 12 spies who the U.S. believes are working under diplomatic cover at Russia's mission to the United Nations. They say the Seattle consulate is a counter-intelligence concern because of its proximity to a U.S. Navy base.

The officials say the actions are being taken to send a message about the "unacceptably high" number of Russian spies in the U.S. and to respond to the attack in the U.K. The officials weren't authorized to be identified by name and requested anonymity.

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the U.S.

___

2:50 p.m.

Lithuania's foreign minister has strongly condemned the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain, saying his country is poised to expel Russian diplomats in response.

Linas Linkevicius said Monday "We have to do the utmost to show ... solidarity with our allies," and to come up with "coordinated measures" as well as national measures.

He said the attack was the first time after World War II that military chemical weapons were used on NATO, EU territory against civilians, adding these "methods... are not acceptable."

Asked whether the Baltic country would expel Russian diplomats, he said: "Lithuania will announce today national measures, including what you mentioned but not only that."

Romania's Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu also expressed solidarity with Britain and said authorities would announce measures later.

__

2:40 p.m.

Poland has summoned Russia's ambassador for talks, and its foreign ministry is among several in Europe planning news conferences later Monday after EU chief Donald Tusk predicted that member states would introduce measures against Moscow over its suspected role in the spy poisoning case.

Ambassador Sergei Andreev said details will be released by the Polish side later in the day. Foreign ministries in Denmark, Estonia and other EU countries are expected to announce measures to reporters. In the U.S., the White House is also expected to make a statement.

Several EU countries said Friday they may follow Britain in expelling Russian diplomats in a deepening crisis over the nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy in England. Britain has blamed Russia, but Moscow denies responsibility.Japanese media reports said a special North Korean train arrived in Beijing under unusually heavy security on Monday, suggesting a senior delegation might have been aboard.

A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said she was not aware of the situation and had no further comment. North Korea's state-run media had no reports of a delegation traveling to China.

Japanese television network NTV and public broadcaster NHK reported the arrival of the train and said the heavy security in the city suggested a senior official was aboard.

The reports sparked speculation that leader Kim Jong Un might have been aboard the train. Kim is expected to have a summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April and with U.S. President Donald Trump by May.

There had been no word of Kim planning a summit with Beijing, however. China has been one of North Korea's most important allies, but relations have grown chilly because of Kim's development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

Heavy security was reported at the Friendship Bridge before the train passed from North Korea to China, and there were reports of it passing through several stations on the way from North Korea to Beijing. The NTV network said the green and yellow train appears very similar to the one that former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un's late father, took to Beijing in 2011 and has 21 cars.

A video that aired on NTV also showed a motorcade of black limousines waiting at the train station and rows of Chinese soldiers marching on what appeared to be a train platform. The video did not show anyone getting off the train.Roadside bombs disguised as rocks in Yemen bear similarities to others used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and by insurgents in Iraq and Bahrain, suggesting at the least an Iranian influence in their manufacture.

The report by Conflict Armament Research comes as the West and United Nations researchers accuse Iran of supplying arms to Yemens Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who have held the countrys capital since September 2014.

Those weapons allegedly included ballistic missiles used to target Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition of Arab nations backed by the US that is stuck in a stalemate war with the Houthis. A barrage of Houthi missile fire late Sunday killed one person in Riyadh and wounded two others.

Iran has long denied supplying arms to the Houthis, and its mission to the United Nations is dismissing the new report. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has derided such weapons research as fabricating evidence.

The report is just the latest sign of how the conflict in Yemen, the Arab worlds poorest country where over 10,000 people have been killed, has changed from a civil war to a proxy fight among Mideast rivals. The Saudi-led war there turned three years old Sunday.

What were hoping this does is make plausible deniability not very plausible, said Tim Michetti, head of regional operations for Conflict Armament Research. You cant really deny this anymore once the components these things are made with are traced to Iranian distributors.

Michettis organization, an independent watchdog group that receives funding from the United Arab Emirates, Germany and the European Union to research weaponry recovered in Yemen, said it examined a fake rock bomb in January near Mokha, some 250 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of the capital, Sanaa.

The fiberglass-encased bomb, packed with explosives, could be armed by radio and triggered by an infrared beam, the group said. It said there were three varieties, including anti-personnel mines and so-called explosively formed projectiles, which can penetrate armored vehicles and were used with lethal effect against US troops following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Electrical circuitry in the bombs mirrored those manufactured by militants in Bahrain, while the bombs bore markings suggesting one workshop mass-produced the explosives, the report said. Such bombs, however, have yet to be used in Bahrain, an island kingdom off Saudi Arabia in the midst of a crackdown on all dissent.

Investigators also found a type of Chinese-manufactured wire covering used in other Iranian materiel, the report said.

It said independent experts also examined the explosives. Those experts said that construction indicates that the bomb maker had a degree of knowledge in constructing devices that resembled, and possibly functioned in a manner similar to (explosively formed projectile bombs) that have been forensically tied to Iran and Hezbollah, the report said.

Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Irans mission to the United Nations, dismissed the report, saying the Houthis had no need for such weapons as they control stockpiles of arms purchased under former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Houthis killed Saleh, their one-time ally, in December.

President Saleh was the sweetheart of America and Saudi Arabia, Miryousefi told The Associated Press. It seems petro-dollars are promoting such reports in order to rationalize war crimes in Yemen as well as the oppression of Bahrains completely civil and popular protests.

Told of the Iranian response, Michetti invited officials from Tehran to take part in his organizations research in the future.

This is not the first time Iran has been accused of arming the Houthis.

The US Navys 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, has repeatedly said Iran sends arms into Yemen. It points to seizures over a four-week period in early 2016, when coalition warships stopped three dhows, traditional ships that ferry cargo in the Persian Gulf. The dhows carried thousands of Kalashnikov assault rifles as well as sniper rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank missiles and other weapons.

One dhow carried 2,000 new assault rifles with serial numbers in sequential order, suggesting they came from a national stockpile, a previous Conflict Armament Research report said. The rocket-propelled grenade launchers also bore hallmarks of being manufactured in Iran, the group said.

The group has also said drones used by the Houthis to crash into Patriot missile batteries in Saudi Arabia share near-identical design and construction characteristics of Iranian drones.

The weapons transfers also allegedly include ballistic missile technology. The United Nations, Western countries and the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen all say the Houthis Burkan or Volcano missile mirrors characteristics of an Iranian Qiam ballistic missile. They say that suggests Tehran either shared the technology or smuggled disassembled missiles to the Houthis who then rebuilt them.

Iran denies sharing missiles with the Houthis, though such a move would fit a pattern followed by the Islamic Republic since its 1980s war with Iraq. Iran largely has avoided direct confrontation with its foreign adversaries, instead relying on proxy groups that it arms through the hard-line Revolutionary Guards expeditionary Quds Force or other middlemen.

The latest accusation comes as the Saudi-led coalition faces intense international criticism for its airstrike campaign that has struck hospitals and markets, killing numerous civilians. The UN also says a Saudi-led blockade on Yemens ports is essentially using the threat of starvation as a bargaining tool and an instrument of war in a country already facing diphtheria and cholera outbreaks while on the verge of famine.

Irans weapons transfers to Yemen bleed Saudi Arabia, its regional rival, at a low cost while providing deniability for Tehran, analysts say.

This has been just a golden opportunity for Iran to have this access and to do it so cheaply and continue to be this thorn in Saudi Arabias throat, said Fatima Abo Alasrar, a senior analyst at the Washington-based Arabia Foundation and a Yemeni national critical of the Houthis. Its been a huge win for them.A train believed to be carrying high-level North Korean officials departed a Beijing station Tuesday as rumors indicated that Kim Jong Un may have been aboard.

Japans Kyodo News reported that the train had departed, but it didnt clarify how it learned of the departure. The news agency reported that security around the Chinese capital continued to be extra tight.

Reports of the train arriving in Beijing first surfaced when photos emerged from the station. Japans NTV and public broadcaster NHK said heavy security was seen in video and photos suggested a high-level official was aboard.

Monday's arrival sparked speculation that the North Korean despot was on board the train. The train may have traveled through the northeastern Chinese border city of Dandong, according to Kyodo News. Sources told Bloomberg that Kim was visiting Beijing, though further details were not provided.

China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters Tuesday that she knew they were "all very curious" about Kim's possible visit to the country, but she had "no information" regarding his or any North Korean official's potential visit.

The White House said in Monday's press briefing it could not confirm reports of Kim's potential visit to Beijing. A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said she was not aware of the situation and had no further comment. North Korea's state-run media had no reports of a delegation traveling to China.

There was also heavy security reported at the Friendship Bridge before it crossed from North Korea to China. To deepen the mystery, a motorcade of black limousines was also seen waiting at the train station. Rows of Chinese soldiers appeared to be marching on the platform.

Kim is expected to have a summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April and with President Trump in May.

There had been no word of Kim planning a summit with Beijing, however. China has been one of North Korea's most important allies, but relations have grown chilly because of Kim's development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

Kims late father, Kim Jong Il, visited Beijing in 2011. The late leader also took a similar green and yellow train that was spotted on Monday for his sons visit. This would be the first known visit to an outside country for Kim since he assumed power in 2011.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Former South African president Jacob Zuma has been summoned to appear in court on April 6 on charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering.

South African media say police and a lawyer for Zuma confirm that the summons to a court in the coastal city of Durban was issued on Monday.

Earlier this month, prosecutors announced they were reinstating charges that were thrown out nearly a decade ago in a contentious decision that opened the way for Zuma to become president. The charges relate to an arms deal in the 1990s, when he was deputy president.

Zuma, whose tenure was marked by scandals, says he has not done anything wrong. He resigned Feb. 14 after he was ordered to do so by his party, the African National Congress.



Some agricultural pesticides require a respirator. Heres what you need to know to keep yourself safe from inhalation hazards while using these products.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.Rick Kern/WireImageEagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes ripped the March for Our Lives movement and the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting as "pathetic and disgusting," and criticized their protests as "playing hooky."

In November 2015, Hughes was performing with Eagles of Death Metal at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris when armed terrorists stormed the venue and killed 89 people.

"As the survivor of a mass shooting I can tell you from first-hand experience that all of you protesting and taking days off from school insult the memory of those who were killed and abuse and insult me and every other lover of liberty by your every action," Hughes writes in an Instagram post.

Hughes also belittles the Parkland survivors' call for gun control as "the plan of like a kid maybe like a high school student" -- "The Whitney Houston song about letting the children lead the way wasn't actually had [sic] operating paradigm for life," he writes -- and says that gun control did not "protect me and my friends in Paris."

He continues by calling the students and protestors "disgusting vile abuses of the dead," and writes that he hopes they "live as long as possible so they can have the maximum amount of time to endure their shame...and be cursed."

Additionally, Hughes reportedly shared and deleted a widely-circulated photoshopped picture of Parkland student Emma Gonzalez ripping up the Constitution. A screengrab of that was posted to Twitter. Gonzalez was actually ripping a shooting target.

Several rock artists have expressed their support for the Parkland students and the March for Our Lives movement, including Pearl Jam, Slash, Jared Leto, Lzzy Hale, Steven Tyler and Nikki Sixx. Additionally, Fall Out Boy headlined an anti-gun violence concert in Washington, D.C. the night before Saturday's March for Our Lives protests.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Carl Helrich and wife Kris Miller are approaching 20 years since they purchased Allegro Winery and Vineyards from John and Tim Crouch.

The couple running the southern York County producer, possessing some of the mid-Atlantic's oldest vines that date back to the early 1970s, spent the first 10 to 15 years working to build on the reputation that the brothers had developed during their 20 years in Brogue while also growing the business. Helrich has been the winemaker since he got there.

But a few years ago they took the first steps toward putting their own signature on the business, which through the years has enhanced its reputation as a producer of premium wines while making enough sweeter wines to maintain cash flow. Indeed, several of Allegro's wines are among the top Pa. Preferred wines sold at Fine Wine and Good Spirits stores.

READ MORE: Top sales of Pa. wines in Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores, 2016-17

Helrich began an ambitious vineyard replanting in 2015, putting in Chardonnay, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. That activity doubled the number of acres the owners had under vine and tripled the number of vines. A year later, the winery planted white Bordeaux grapes over 4 acres, including 2 acres of Sauvignon Blanc, 1 acre of Albarino and a half-acre each of Semillon and Viognier.

These two plantings altered the makeup of a vineyard that originally was planted in 1973. Some of these vines, including Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, are still producing. They make up part of the 16 acres now under vine.

The lineup of wines served at Saturday's night annual library tasting, providing unusual access on the East Coast to having a chance to taste wines that are 20 and 30 years old.

In addition, this replanting set the stage for the creation of a second label called Cadenza Vineyards, which is expected to debut in 2019 and feature Helrich's top-flight wines, some of which he makes now and others he'll start producing with the grapes from his revamped vineyards.

"We're starting to come to a crossroads at Allegro a little bit," he summarized last night, noting that he and his wife started thinking about this new line as far back as 2013. After tasting his library wines, he talked to those in attendance about the replantings and this decision to take his current reserve wines and put those behind the Cadenza label, along with others that he'll choose in the months and years ahead.

These wines won't be available at the winery or its stores or festivals. They will be available to members of a Cadenza Vineyards wine club to taste and purchase. He did not talk about the price point for the Cadenza wines. Currently, his dry wines sell from the teens to the high $20s, with his Bourdeaux blend called Bridge costing the most at $31.

The 1987 Chardonnay and 1987 Cabernet Sauvignon, the final two offerings during Saturday night's Allegro library tasting. That vintage, he said, included a wet September and dry October.

Similar to many wineries that produce a top-of-the-line blend, he makes his Cadenza wine only with grapes from superior vintages. The last one he made and sold was from 2013, which was included in the first duo of library wines tasted Saturday night. It's a Bordeaux blend that is dominated by either Cab Sauv or Merlot or equal amounts of both, depending on the vintage.

There's nothing new about these second lines and labels, although it's a concept that's newer to the East Coast than the West Coast and is done in a variety of ways.

Boordy Vineyards in Baltimore County, Maryland, a couple years ago split its Broody brand into two lines (Landmark and Icon) and then split its sweeter line of wines under a new label called Sweetland Cellars. Those Landmark wines are at a higher price point than the others. Moon Dancer Winery & Cider House in eastern York County took its sweetest wines and gave them a new label called Moon Dog Cellars. In Chester County, Penns Wood Winery makes a line of wines under the Bancroft label that it sells largely to restaurants.

Those are a few of the more obvious examples.

At Allegro, a lot of the details remain to be worked out for this new label, including the development of the second wine club and the number of wines the new label will feature. Helrich on Saturday night gave visitors a sample of his Merlot and Cabernet Franc, both from 2016 and being readied to be used in his new line of wines. He did note that all of the wines under the new label will use only estate grapes.

It's a label that already has a presence on the web and on Facebook. Asked when he thought the first bottles will be ready, he hinted at perhaps the end of this year but spoke more confidently about them being ready to ship by May 2019.Galapagos is synonymous with nature and biology and, since the time of Charles Darwin, world-renowned for its endemic wildlife species. Therefore, protecting its biodiversity is an important task, but increased restrictions on fishing stress the local fishermen. Already under strict regulations to fish in artisanal ways without the use of more efficient but environmentally damaging industrial techniques, fishermen often struggle to make ends. With roughly 3 percent of the employed population working as fishermen, this is a problem for the local community and its economy.

In 2015, the Galapagos Marine Reserve instituted various no-take zones, which restricted fishing in areas deemed vital for adequate biodiversity and sustainability of fish stocks. Our AMR team is working with Conservation International to increase the market value of local fishermens tuna catch. Tuna is an important source of income for the people in the Galapagos Islands, and they need ways to sustain and improve their lives while still protecting the natural beauty and diversity of the Galapagos.

This story is one of the four by students who collaborated with CI to help find sustainable solutions to enhance economies in environmentally sensitive parts of the world. UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 AMR students made their final presentations on March 9.

UCLA Anderson MBA students conduct Applied Management Research (AMR) projects in lieu of a thesis. The nations first business school field study program, AMR partners students with top organizations to solve a key strategic problem. The Center for Global Management sponsored four UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 teams to work with Conservation International , which partners with indigenous groups internationally and pairs local expertise with student consultants.

A busy fish market in the Galapagos

While our team conducted many interviews via Skype and performed extensive secondary research online, there is no substitute for on-the-ground research. There are many important stakeholder groups that would be nearly impossible to reach online, including fishermen and local fishermen cooperatives. Published research on fisheries in the Galapagos is slim to nonexistent, so much of the necessary information had to be gathered firsthand. We traveled to the Galapagos in early January to collect the information and experience the context that would shape effective, actionable suggestions for increasing the value of Galapagos tuna. Our main goals were to conduct interviews with all the relevant stakeholders, perform local market analysis on supermarkets, restaurants and fish markets, and to see firsthand how tuna is being processed and sold.

Our team was mainly located in the town of Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz, although we took day trips to two other nearby islands to get a more complete view of the tuna industry in the Galapagos. Puerto Ayora is the main town in the Galapagos, with nearly 50 percent of all residents living here. Through collaboration with Conservation International, we conducted numerous interviews with fishermen, cooperatives, NGOs like the Charles Darwin Foundation, government organizations like the Galapagos National Park Service and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, cruise ships and seafood vendors. We surveyed local restaurants to see how tuna is marketed and prepared and visited a fish processing plant to learn how tuna is being prepared for export to mainland Ecuador and beyond.

Based on the information we gathered, we devised potential solutions that broadly fit in two buckets: (1) improving efficiency in the current supply chain to allow fishermen to capture a high percentage of the total value; and (2) identifying additional business opportunities that would increase the total value for all players in the supply chain.

The floor manager (right) of a cooperative processing plant explains to Traci Kuratomi (left) and Conservation International client lead Cesar how fish are iced for export

Through our interviews, we developed an understanding of the local and export markets, including prices paid and value added at each point in the supply chain. We learned about various initiatives that could be leveraged to the benefit of the fishermen, including new sustainable fishing techniques. Our market analysis illuminated various marketing opportunities for local tuna. And our discussions with buyers of Galapagos tuna allowed us to be more strategic about which channels we suggest fishermen sell tuna through. Ultimately, the field study enabled us to identify supply chain improvements and new business opportunities that would provide the largest impact in the most efficient way possible.

Going to the Galapagos Islands provided a wealth of information crucial to the success of this project, which would have been impossible to gather otherwise. At the same time, we greatly enjoyed meeting people in the local community and each of us has been left with memories we will take well beyond the conclusion of this project.

We would like to thank UCLA Anderson and the Center for Global Management for the opportunity to conduct this important and personally enriching work.

Follow Us:Young farmers are helping to promote British food in the run-up to Easter, using social media to get the message across about the high standards that exist in the industry.

Organised by food advocacy organisation, Love British Food, some 14 young farmers are spearheading the My name is campaign, posting details about themselves on Twitter and Instagram under the hashtag #BritishFoodisGreat.

The tweets include a photograph or video of the young farmer involved, a quick introduction about who they are and what they produce.

My name is Georgie, I farm sheep in Shropshire, and Im really looking forward to showing off how fantastic all that British farmers produce is. @LoveBritishFood #BritishFoodIsGreat pic.twitter.com/lJOCmqlZtk  Georgina Gater-Moore (@georgielmgm) March 19, 2018

Some participants are also using the campaign to say something about the high standards they adhere to, and to give a flavour of farming life.

One young farmer taking part is Richard Bower, who recently stood as a candidate for vice-president at the NFU  the youngest farmer ever to do so.

In a video posted on the #BritshFoodisGreat twitter feed, he explains how proud he is to be part of a vibrant farming community, and urges consumers to continue to Buy British to secure high standards for the future.

Great British food is quite simply some of the best quality food in the world produced today, he says.

The campaign was launched in London on Thursday 22 March, and was attended by Defra secretary Michael Gove, plus Love British Food ambassadors including top chef Raymond Blanc, Great British Bake Off star Candice Brown and former cosmetics entrepreneur Liz Earle.

New Blog Post! All about the @LoveBritishFood Launch attended by the 2018 Youth Ambassadors as well as ambassadors @LizEarleMe, @raymond_blanc and @CandiceBrown as well as so many other people passionate about British Food! #BritishFoodIsGreat https://t.co/W0nFxxCRQB pic.twitter.com/r7juAVFfjo  Katie (@woesofwellies) March 25, 2018

Speaking at the launch, Mr Gove said British food was going through an amazing renaissance.

The fact we are exporting tea to China, chocolate to Belgium and cheese to France reflected the incredibly high standards delivered by British food manufacturers and farmers.

Animal welfare and environmental quality, but also taste and provenance, are hallmarks of British food, he said.

Bright future

Mr Gove predicted a bright future for food based on quality, noting there was growing demand for British produce from pubs, restaurants, artisan shops and butchers, while farm shops and farmers markets provided further outlets.

Also speaking at the launch was Love British Food founder Alexia Robinson, who said that, if British Food was a brand, it would have a TV and marketing campaign to back it.

She added: But what it does have is a network of superb, inspirational, young farmers across the country who are increasingly taking it upon themselves to do what they can to promote their industry whether via social media or through the deep reach they have in their communities.

We want to tap into their energy and get them all to be walking, talking advertisements for British food.About 200 nonprofits have banded together under the Long Beach Gives umbrella in an attempt to raise $2 million in 24 hours.Since it was established 25 years ago, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has generated a total of $61 billion in U.S. exports and supported over 500,000 American jobs.

The USTDA is a small independent federal agency whose mission is to help American companies create U.S. jobs through the export of U.S. goods and services in emerging economies.

If you are reading this blog, you know that transportation and transportation infrastructure  a focus area for the USTDA  is a catalyst for business. The USTDAs published statistics cite $95 in trade generated for every dollar spent by the agency.

According to the USTDA website, Transportation is a critical sector, as it links people and, even more importantly, drives trade, investment and economic growth. USTDA activities in the transportation sector support the development of higher capacity aviation, rail, port and highway systems, improved safety management, and the adoption of international safety and security standards.

Describing what they do, the USTDA says, From providing technical assistance that supports trade facilitation, to piloting U.S. technologies for customs systems at borders, to modernizing hard infrastructure at ports, railways and airports, the Agency introduces high-performing U.S. solutions that can increase capacity, enhance efficiency and improve safety.

In 2016, USTDA launched the Global Procurement Initiative, to provide partner nations with the knowledge needed to make best value decisions and understand life cycle cost analysis to level the playing field for US companies seeking international opportunities.

The natural follow-on to any infrastructure development funded by the United States is trade with the United States. Businessmen understand taxes when they yield an asset. Logisticians understand taxes when that asset is transportation infrastructure.

Thats what USTDA does: build transportation capability to drive business for the United States. Notably, transportation is just one of their sectors. They also focus on energy and telecommunications. The Agency has actually gotten ink from Forbes, so they must be doing something right.

Now, if Congress would only apply the same logic to transportation within the United States that USTDA uses to drive international trade . . . for more, please see my February blog, Memo to Washington: Do the math, then do your job.U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has given a stamp of approval to Texas plan to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act.

A pioneer in the accountability movement, Texas is planning to stick with its A through F system of grading schools. And it will use college and career readiness as its school quality indicator, gauging that through Advanced Placement and military readiness, among other factors.

An independent review of ESSA plans by Bellwether Education Partners and the Collaborative for Student Success noted that Texas long-term goals expected graduation rates for white students to dip in the future. Thats something the department noticed, tooand asked Texas to change.

For those keeping score at home, DeVos has now approved ESSA plans for 34 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Photo: Swikar Patel for Education Week

Want to learn more about the Every Student Succeeds Act? Heres some useful information:Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.By Alyson Klein and Andrew Ujifusa

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is frustrated with Congress these days. And it appears the feeling is mutual.

But shes hardly the first education secretary to clash with lawmakers in her own party, over the departments budget, policy direction, and more.

I dont see this being unique to Betsy as a person, said John Bailey, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank that has received donations from DeVos and her family. This seems to be the institutional clashes weve seen for a while.

DeVos, who lead the American Federation for Children before becoming secretary, has spent her advocacy career doling out millions in campaign donations, mostly to GOP candidates, and many of them members of Congress. Her family has also donated to Republican causes. But that hasnt stopped lawmakers from largely rejecting her proposals, including cuts to the agencys bottom-line, a new private school choice program, and new federal resources for public school choice.

Congresswhich is controlled by Republicansalso put language in the recently enacted spending bill that would block DeVos from moving forward on a reorganization of the departments budget office, which arguably interacts with Capitol Hill more than any other arm of the department.

Whats more, during a recent budget hearing, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees K-12 spending , said he doesnt understand why DeVos reupped her ask for choice programs that Congress was already poised to nix.

Meanwhile, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., the chairman of the House appropriations committee, chided DeVos about the lack of coordination and communication between House staff and her departmenta problem he said hes had with Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross staff as well.

Michele McLaughlin, the president of the Knowledge Alliance, which advocates for using research in policy and practice and a one-time aide to former Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said its not a big surprise that Republicans in Congress werent taken with DeVos budget pitches.

Both Cole and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who oversees education appropriations in the Senate, represent relatively rural states where school choice often doesnt get the traction it does elsewhere.

Im sure they are very discouraged, McLaughlin said of DeVos and her staff. Whether theyre more discouraged than any other year, I dont know.

But Frelinghuysens remarks to DeVos were more striking, McLaughlin said: That clearly looked like it had some backstory to it.

One Republican source noted that, as a major GOP donor, DeVos had long-standing relationships with congressional leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan. The source is surprised that those lawmakers havent done more to defend her.

To be sure, GOP lawmakers have stepped in to support her. For example, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., defended the secretary against Democratic attacks at last weeks hearing, saying he supported her move to consider changes to Obama-era discipline guidance.

If I Could Snap My Fingers

DeVos, too, hasnt exactly been brimming with praise for the Hill.

Clearly if I could snap my fingers and things would happen with that body up there, theres lots of things that I would tell them to do, she said in an interview with four reporters back in February. Not only around choice. Lots of things.

One of her biggest complaints: The Senate has been achingly slow to confirm the presidents nominees for key positions at the department.

It really has been going on much too long. [Theres] a very, very high level of frustration around that, she said. We have many qualified, capable individuals waiting to come and contribute here, and theyre just messing around at that building on the Hill.

Of course, DeVos isnt the first secretary who didnt always see eye-to-eye with members of her own party in Congress.

Arne Duncan, who lead the department for most of President Barack Obamas tenure, locked horns repeatedly with powerful Democrats, including former Rep. David Obey, D-Wisc., the chairman of the House appropriations committee. Back in 2010, Obey sought to scrap some of Duncans favorite programs , including Race to the Top, the Teacher Incentive Fund, and charter school grants, to pay for an emergency funding bill to cover teachers salaries in the midst of the Great Recession.

When Duncan objected, Obey made it clear he didnt have much sympathy, calling Race to the TopDuncans signature program"walking around money.

Duncan also caught flak from Democrats for his school improvement grants , which called for dramatic steps like firing teachers and removing principals of low-performing schools.

Toward the end of his time as secretary, former Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who had been one of Duncans staunchest allies on the Hill, harshly criticized his waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act for jettisoning protections for vulnerable groups of students .

And, just before Duncan left office, Congress approved the Every Student Succeeds Act, which included a long list of prohibitions on the secretarys role, many of which directly referenced Duncans actions and policies.

While it never got quite that personal with Margaret Spellings, President George W. Bushs secretary of education, she wasnt able to sell her plan to consolidate all of the federal programs aimed at high schools into a single block grant for states to a GOP-controlled Congress . She also couldnt get Republicans on the Hill to bite on a school choice program that looked similar to the Trump administrations pitch, or on new resources to improve math curriculum.

And the NCLB law that she helped shepherd over the finish line as a top domestic policy adviser in the White House became a prime target of the House Republican Study Committee , a conservative caucus headed up by now-Vice President Mike Pence, who at the time was an Indiana congressman.

Michael Yudin, a former official in the Education Department under Secretary of Education Arne Duncan who also worked for several Democratic senators, remembered his own boss disagreements with Congress on the waivers. No one loved what we did on waivers in Congress, he recalled.

But Yudin said DeVos needs to grasp that you cant move anything in Washington without trust. You have to be responsive to members of Congress and work on those relationships, he said.

This article has been updated to sharpen details about DeVos campaign donation activities.

AP File Photo by Andrew Harnik

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .kacylee at 26-03-2018 08:39 AM (3 years ago) (f)

Seven Libyan returnees at the weekend recounted their ordeal in Libya before their rescue.

Seven Libyan returnees at the weekend recounted their ordeal in Libya before their rescue.

They spoke in Abeokuta, Ogun State, at a session with former President, Olusegun Obasanjo during the maiden Youth Migration Summit themed Curbing Youth Irregular Migration.



One of the victims, Ubong Rosemary, mother of four, shared her story.



She said: I am a native of Delta. I was living in Lagos before I lost my husband in an car crash. After I lost him; things became very hard for me and my children.



I could not pay house rent or school fees for my children, so my children dropped out and I went back to help my mother who was a food vendor in the village in her one room apartment.



We had a lot issues and quarreled. She had an accident and at point could not cook.



I decided to go somewhere far because I could not provide for my kids. I wanted to go far from my predicament and met a lady who introduced me to a Madam.



On the way to Libya; I lost my way and contact.

They were just carrying me with the people- I was like somebody lost. I didnt know where I was going.



I made it to Sabat and saw our fellow men and women selling women into prostitution. I was sold in Tripoli and not Sabat.



I was not able to pay the cross money over the Mediterranean. They sold me to connection house. Someone else bought me.



We were there for days until they pushed three boats into the Mediterranean. I saw two boats capsized before my very own eyes. Someone kidnapped us and jailed us.



I was about to be killed as it was the very day I was to be killed that IOM raided us and saved us from death.



What they did to us was very bad. The use sponge along with harmful chemicals like shampoo to clean the private parts of women.



They push it into the womens wombs and the wombs fall out, after that, they will put the womb back in again and urge women to continue to sleep with the men there.



Rosemary said that she could not forgive herself for abandoning her four children with her mother who was still alive and taking care of them in Edo state.



I havent seen my children, except for just once, she said in tears as Obasanjo consoled her. They spoke in Abeokuta, Ogun State, at a session with former President, Olusegun Obasanjo during the maiden Youth Migration Summit themed Curbing Youth Irregular Migration.One of the victims, Ubong Rosemary, mother of four, shared her story.She said: I am a native of Delta. I was living in Lagos before I lost my husband in an car crash. After I lost him; things became very hard for me and my children.I could not pay house rent or school fees for my children, so my children dropped out and I went back to help my mother who was a food vendor in the village in her one room apartment.We had a lot issues and quarreled. She had an accident and at point could not cook.I decided to go somewhere far because I could not provide for my kids. I wanted to go far from my predicament and met a lady who introduced me to a Madam.On the way to Libya; I lost my way and contact.They were just carrying me with the people- I was like somebody lost. I didnt know where I was going.I made it to Sabat and saw our fellow men and women selling women into prostitution. I was sold in Tripoli and not Sabat.I was not able to pay the cross money over the Mediterranean. They sold me to connection house. Someone else bought me.Rosemary said that she could not forgive herself for abandoning her four children with her mother who was still alive and taking care of them in Edo state.I havent seen my children, except for just once, she said in tears as Obasanjo consoled her.

Post Reply I have been reporting for several years now and I am very interested in visual news reportage with strong inclusion of photos and video multimedia. Posted: at 26-03-2018 08:39 AM (3 years ago) | Addicted HeroThe Creative Learning Center in Miami is about 55 miles south of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 14 students and three staff members were shot to death in February.

In the days after the shooting, the center, which educates children ages 2 to 6, had to deal with frequent lockdowns of schools in the area. Emilu Alvarez, the director of the school, brought her staff together to designate safe zones in every classroom. Then she had to come up with an age-appropriate way to tell children how to prepare if the school faced a threat.

I went into all the rooms one by one and told the children the story of how a rabbit hides in a hole, Alvarez said in an email. I brought a puppet with me. I told them that Ms. Emi gets upset if someone she does not know comes into our school and does not go to the office, so in order to protect them if I ever say, Rabbit, rabbit find a hole, their teachers will lock the door and take them to their safe place.

The threats raised by the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High and the continuing conversations about gun violence and protests have filtered down to even the youngest children. Teachers are having to think about how to respond to young childrens anxieties and questions.

Understanding Childhood Trauma

How to mitigate childhood trauma is something the head of the Florida Association for the Education of Young Children, or FLAEYC, had been grappling with long before the Stoneman Douglas tragedy. FLAEYC Executive Director Chris Duggan said that during the groups annual conference, planned for September, one day will be set aside to discuss trauma-informed care.

Were thinking about it from the perspective of understanding that the children are experiencing trauma from all different perspectives, said Duggan. How do we provide child care in a way that nurtures the children, supports the families, supports the teachers?

Duggan stresses that this trauma doesnt just come from incidents like Parkland but from things like domestic violence in the home or natural disasters such as hurricanes.

Our broader perspective is how do we as a community help our families and children and caregivers handle this, whatever it is, because they come every day, said Duggan. We all have to be ready because you never know what day its going to be, [or] what its going to be.

Gege Kreischer, an early-childhood program consultant and FLAEYCs vice president of organizational development, has been working in early-childhood education for 45 years. She says some people believe traumatic events go over the heads of young children, but thats not true.

Trust me, theyre sponges, said Kreischer. They may not understand the details and the technical pieces of something like Parkland. But they are absorbing the stress. They are absorbing the fear, and they are absorbing the trauma that their families and communities are going through.

Am I Going to Be Okay?

Ruby Velasco, a mental health specialist at the nonprofit Child360 in Los Angeles, agreed with Kreischers point. She said that teachers need to be mindful of what they talk about when they are around young students. Child360, formerly called Los Angeles Universal Preschool, supports high-quality early-learning programs.

Its very important to think about the energy you bring into the classroom, and its very important to think about what youre discussing, Velasco said. Educators should also pay attention if children have questions about what they may be seeing or hearing around thembut its important to let parents know about the topics their children might be bringing up.

The most important thing is for [teachers] to create that sense of safety by validating the child in a kid-friendly way, Velasco said.

Some educators have created ways for children to particpate in social activities in an age-appropriate manner. Abigail Miller, the director of elementary/middle school programs for Cambridge Montessori School in Massachusetts, said her school planned a peace march on March 14, the day that many students across the country walked out of school to protest gun violence. That day ended up being a snow day, so the school held another short event on March 23, the day before another set of rallies planned nationwide.

The teachers have been talking to the kids a lot at the lower levels about how they can make a better world, person by person, how their words count, how their actions count, Miller said. The school-based event offers an opportunity to demonstrate the schools beliefs in peace and diversity, she said.

Most of all, young children want reassurance, said Sarah Erdman, the lead teacher for the 3- and 4-year-old classroom at F.B. Meekins Cooperative Preschool in Vienna, Va. and a lead volunteer with Be SMART for Kids , an organization that advocates for gun safety.

At the core of every question theyre asking is, But what about me, am I going to be OK? Erdman said. And to that, Erdman says she would tell young children that her job is to keep them safe. Thats answering that core question, she said. There will always be someone to take care of you.

Associate Editor Christina A. Samuels contributed to this blog post.

Photo: Nine year-old Daisy Simard, right, is joined by Tanner McPherson, 10, during a protest in Los Angeles on March 11. The student-activist group No Guns LA held a rally to call for stricter gun control laws.Richard Vogel/APMONTREAL, Quebec, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Colt Resources Inc. (Colt or the Company) (TSXV:GTP) (FRA:P01) (OTC Pink:COLTF) announces that its wholly owned subsidiary, Q.S.P.A. - SOCIEDADE VITICOLA UNIPESSOAL, LDA., (QSPA), sold its winery in Portugal for gross proceeds of approximately 3.7 million net of transaction costs and subject to closing adjustments. Closing adjustments continue to be negotiated.



Once closing adjustments are finalized, QSPA anticipates receiving net proceeds of approximately 125,000 after repaying debts secured by the winery and posting legally required withholdings in Portugal. Additional amounts may be received by QSPA if certain accounts receivable, most of which are past due, are collected. Colt will work with counsel in Portugal to release the withholdings. Colt will provide additional updates in this regard when appropriate.

This is a significant milestone in the restructuring process of Colt that began in early 2017. A press release with highlights of the Companys 2017 year will be issued shortly.

About Colt Resources Inc.



Colt Resources Inc. (www.coltresources.com) is a Canadian mining exploration and development company engaged in acquiring, exploring, and developing mineral properties with an emphasis on copper and gold.

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.

The Companys shares trade on the TSXV, symbol: GTP; the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, symbol: P01; and, the OTC Pink, symbol: COLTF.

For more information contact:

John Gravelle

Interim President & CEO

Colt Resources Inc.

Tel: +1.416.568.2740

j ohn.gravelle@rogers.com

FORWARDLOOKING STATEMENTS: Certain of the information contained in this news release may contain forwardlooking information. Forwardlooking information and statements may include, among others, statements regarding the future plans, costs, objectives or performance of Colt Resources Inc. (the Company), or the assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. In this news release, words such as may, would, could, will, likely, believe, expect, anticipate, intend, plan, estimate and similar words and the negative form thereof are used to identify forwardlooking statements. Forwardlooking statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether, or the times at or by which, such future performance will be achieved. Forwardlooking statements and information are based on information available at the time and/or managements goodfaith belief with respect to future events and are subject to known or unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other unpredictable factors, many of which are beyond the Companys control. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions include, but are not limited to, those described under Risk Factors in the Companys annual information form available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in any forwardlooking statements. The Company does not intend, nor does the Company undertake any obligation, to update or revise any forwardlooking information or statements contained in this news release to reflect subsequent information, events or circumstances or otherwise, except if required by applicable laws.Waukesha, WI (53187)

Today

Mainly clear. Low around 45F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Mainly clear. Low around 45F. Winds light and variable.More than 40 percent of elementary schools in North Carolina are providing students with weekly lessons in cursive writing, according to a new report by the state education board .

The board approved the report this month, which was sent to state lawmakers. It included the results of a survey to school districts around the state about handwriting instruction.

It found that 41 percent of elementary schools provide lessons in cursive writing weekly, while only about 7 percent do so on a daily basis. A large percentage of schools (38 percent) reported providing cursive instruction occasionally, and 14 percent provide monthly lessons.

The survey also broke down instructional practices by grade level. For example, about 23 percent of 3rd graders spend class time practicing cursive writing, while only about 10 percent receive homework related to cursive practice.

A law passed in the state in 2013 required that schools teach cursive writing and that students memorize multiplication tables. The law specifically calls on public schools to provide instruction in cursive writing so that students create readable documents through legible cursive handwriting by the end of 5th grade.

State Rep. Pat Hurley, a Republican from Asheboro, N.C., was the main sponsor of the 2013 bill. She discussed the report with us via email.

I have asked for more information from this report, wrote Hurley. I need to know exactly which individual school systems are teaching it and which ones are not. I have had many calls and emails from parents and grandparents that their child cannot write their name or read or write cursive and they are not being taught it at their school.

North Carolina is one of several states that have passed laws requiring schools to teach cursive writing since the Common Core State Standards, which dont call for teaching cursive, were released in 2010. The Education Commission of the States reports that since 2014, nine states have passed laws requiring schools to teach cursive writing, and bills requiring cursive instruction are under consideration this year in five other states.

Applying the Law

Courtney Banks teaches 3rd grade at Powhatan Elementary School in Clayton, N.C. She says the 2013 law didnt change things for her because her school had never stopped teaching cursive writing.

Its important because ultimately theyre going to have to write their signature, said Banks. We just feel its important that they know how to write in cursive.

She says once testing is done, shes able to focus on teaching the skill much more than during the early part of the school year.

Banks says she uses multi-sensory methods such as allowing the students to form the letters in shaving cream, and each child is shown how to write his or her name. She says the students practice writing their names each morning on mini whiteboards.

They absolutely love it because they want to learn it, said Banks. They see us write in cursive. They see their parents writing it, and theyre so excited when we finally break it out for them.

Rhonda McFarland also teaches 3rd grade. She says her students at Hodge Road Elementary in Knightdale, N.C., enjoy practicing their cursive writing, too.

They love learning it, said McFarland. They absolutely love it.

McFarland says students start with their names first and then branch out from there.

She says she really focuses on it toward the end of the school year once testing is done. She says many of the students at her Title I school are learning English, and she has to prioritize her instructional time.

When you have a student who is reading below grade level, do you teach them that, or do you focus on handwriting? she asked. I have a lot of students who are Spanish-speaking, so my main focus, my top priority, is reading.

Stock photo by GettyLogistical Constraints

Expanding Treatment

Working Vans

From California to Vermont, mobile methadone vans have served people with opioid addiction in rural towns and underserved inner-city neighborhoods for nearly three decades.But the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which regulates dispensing of the FDA-approved addiction medicine, has refused to license any new methadone vans since 2007 over concerns about potential diversion of the medication.Now, in an unrelenting opioid epidemic that is killing more than a hundred Americans every day, some state and local addiction agencies are asking the federal government to lift its moratorium as quickly as possible.In Seattle and surrounding King County, for example, federal grant money has been set aside to deploy four new mobile methadone vans to provide treatment on demand in addiction hotspots around the city and county. But the project is on hold until the DEA lifts the ban.Mobile treatment vans are critical to addressing the opioid epidemic, said King County behavioral health official Brad Finegood. As this epidemic grows and changes, concentrations of people who are affected by it can be found in shifting locations within the city and county. If were going to be effective, we need to be nimble and bring the medication to them instead of asking everybody to trudge across town to get their daily dose at a fixed facility.Joining the chorus of state and local behavioral health agencies is another federal agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which provides grants to King County and other locations to make it easier for people with dangerous opioid addictions to receive treatment with methadone and other evidence-based medications.According to a spokesperson at SAMHSA, agency officials are urging the DEA to remove the ban.At a recent New York City gathering of the methadone industrys professional organization, the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, DEA official James Arnold said a proposal for a new set of regulations that would permit new methadone vans to be licensed was months away from completion.Mark Parrino, who heads the industry group, said no security breach in any of the mobile vans licensed before the moratorium has ever been reported, leading industry experts to question why the ban persists.Treatment officials in Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Washington state have expressed interest in deploying new methadone vans to fight the epidemic but have been stymied by the DEA moratorium, Parrino said. The most urgent need for mobile methadone, he said, is in Puerto Rico, where Hurricane Maria destroyed much of the territorys transportation infrastructure and medical facilities last year.More than 2 million Americans are addicted to opioid painkillers or heroin, but only 1 in 5 is receiving treatment for their disorder, according to SAMHSA. Of those, most are not receiving methadone or one of the two other approved medications considered by addiction specialists to be the standard of care.Thats partly because many people who use opioids and other drugs are in denial that they have a problem. But among those who decide they need treatment, many report they cant afford it or are unable to find a program within commuting distance.Only about a third of all treatment facilities offer all three medications, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, and Medicaid and private insurance coverage of the medications varies widely from state to state.Of the three available medications for opioid addiction, methadone is the oldest, most researched and most widely used. But it is also the most tightly regulated.Taken daily under supervision as required by federal regulations, methadone is out of reach for many who do not live within a reasonable distance of the nations roughly 1,500 methadone dispensing locations. The two newer approved medications  buprenorphine and a time-release form of naltrexone called Vivitrol  can be prescribed by a physician and taken at home.Similar to patients with other chronic diseases, people addicted to opioids typically respond better to one medication than to another. For many, methadone is the only addiction medicine that successfully reduces drug cravings and wards off relapse. But many people live far away from brick-and-mortar methadone clinics.Although relapse is common in all types of drug treatment, research indicates that people who take any of the three approved medications have a greater shot at remaining sober compared to those who receive therapies without medication. But to remain in recovery, people with opioid addictions often must stay on what is known as maintenance therapy for years, or for life.In Washington state, Seattle-based Evergreen Treatment Services, which operates the only methadone van in the state, just received an $11 million grant from SAMHSA, part of which has been set aside to buy four new customized vans for about $200,000 each.The vans  designed to provide space for counseling, urine drug screens and methadone dispensing  are slated to make daily visits to one or more hard-hit Seattle neighborhoods, as well as the city of Renton in surrounding King County, and two other underserved cities with high addiction rates outside of the county  Olympia and Hoquiam.According to Evergreen director Molly Carney, Washington states substance abuse agency is working with SAMHSA to get DEA permission to purchase and outfit the vans. Were told theyre actively working on it, she said, but theres no timeline and no promise of when it will get released.In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has dedicated millions in state dollars to expanding access to treatment using all three medications  methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone  and officials at the states alcohol and substance abuse agency are talking to the DEA about lifting the ban, a spokesperson said.According to the agency, mobile addiction treatment and transportation services are a critical part of New Yorks strategy to offer treatment to more people with addiction. Location and access to transportation should never be a barrier for someone to receive the services they need to fight this disease, said New Yorks drug and alcohol commissioner Arlene Gonzalez-Sanchez.In Mays Landing, New Jersey, one of a handful of grandfathered methadone vans licensed prior to the DEAs moratorium is parked outside the Atlantic County Jail and serves as a dispensing clinic for inmates. The program has proven so successful at keeping inmates in recovery from opioid addiction that another methadone program about 80 miles up the coast in Neptune City wants to do the same thing.According to JSAS HealthCares administrative director Margaret Rizzo, incarcerated pregnant women on methadone maintenance who come into the nearby jail in Monmouth County are given daily guest doses of the addiction medication while theyre inside because of federal requirements. But if youre a male on medication assisted treatment when you come into the same jail, youre out of luck, she said.If the DEA lifts its moratorium on mobile methadone, Rizzo said, her treatment facility plans to buy a van to provide methadone to up to 50 inmates at the county jail.In 1990, opioid treatment centers in Baltimore and Boston became the first in the nation to expand their urban drug treatment operations by outfitting vans to serve high-demand neighborhoods.The drug treatment program in Baltimore, the Institutes for Behavior Resources, operated a DEA-licensed van and a backup van to dispense methadone to hundreds of patients for about 10 years, and then purchased new vans and used them for another 10 years before parking the vehicles and letting their licenses expire.Two years ago, Behavior Resources leased one of those vans to another nonprofit program, the Behavioral Health Leadership Institute, which is using the vehicle to provide buprenorphine instead of methadone. Although the DEA also has authority over buprenorphine, it has not banned licensed prescribers of the medication from working out of a van.Equipped with a bathroom and private counseling rooms, the van allows Behavioral Health Leadership to offer low-income residents drug screenings, addiction assessments, counseling and pre-paid prescriptions for buprenorphine.Parked outside the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center, the repurposed van recently offered an opportunity for Terrance Washington, 44, to start turning his life around. A heroin user for almost 20 years, he was released from the Baltimore jail in January.When I got out, I kept on going right past the van, Washington said. But later my friend told me hed been going for treatment there, so I went back to check it out.Washington got counseling, a prescription for buprenorphine, and a makeshift ID to take to a nearby drugstore. Since then, he said, hes been taking his addiction medication and stopping by the van every few days to talk to a nurse or doctor about his progress.On a sunny March morning, Washington stepped into the van and shimmied sideways to sit in a tiny counseling booth and talk to the nurse on duty about his recovery.As he left, Washington said finding the van and getting on medication for his drug cravings has been a big relief. Instead of breaking the law to pay for heroin again, he said, its allowed him to try to get caught up on his rent and take care of some outstanding legal issues.its first store in 2001, the companys attention to design and customer satisfaction permeated the whole experience. The interior was adorned in slick wood and wrapped in glass to lure in potential shoppers; the laptops, desktops, iPads and iPhones were not just on display but available for trying out; visitors got free tutorials on how to operate their new Macs; and the customer service desk was dubbed the Genius Bar.The payoff was a windfall for the worlds largest tech company. It still is. At a time when brick-and-mortar retail companies are struggling to survive and redefine themselves, Apple generates more money per square foot than any retailer in the United States.Ariel Kennan worked for Apple in those early retail years, and she became a convert to what the company called service design. Apple Stores are incredibly designed experiences, she says, the look, the feel and how people interact with customers. Apple thought through all of this.Now Kennan is putting her Apple experience to work in a dramatically different context. She is in New York City, running the new Service Design Studio at the Mayors Office for Economic Opportunity. She is convinced that what worked to sell computers can work to make municipal government better at responding to fundamental human needs. Service design, Kennan says, is the holistic view on how a service is delivered. Its a human-centered research approach to figure out how all the people and all the services fit together.More simply put, the service design concept reimagines customer relations for both business and government. Its not a quest for efficiency, or for constant repetition of time-honored practices. Its focused on the end user, and on enticing customers who have varying degrees of knowledge and experience to interact with a service and stay long enough to fully engage. And heres the secret: The customer is not really supposed to notice.Service design makes use of emerging concepts in social science, especially data points and analytics, to come up with user-based service solutions. But it applies a healthy skepticism toward social science in its traditional form. Social scientists research the way people interact with a thing, Kennan says, but dont say how to improve the interactions between humans and those things.The service design effort in New York and elsewhere is getting major assistance from Citi, the financial giant, which is interested in finding the commonalities between delivering services in business and doing it in government. When it comes to the way services are created and delivered, says Marshall Sitten, vice president for communications and service design at Citi Community Development, they may have been created in a collaborative way, but over time, services became less adaptable and produced less value for the people who need them. Sitten is convinced that problem is solvable in a public as well as in a private realm. In his spare time, he teaches a service design graduate course at the School of Visual Arts.At the moment, bringing service design to government is mostly a New York City experiment. But that may not be true for long.Oakland, Calif., launched an official service design program this past January. Its seven-person team, also assisted by Citi Community Development, has upgraded a website that allows renters to challenge rent increases they consider unlawful. It is working on programs to better connect young people with summer job opportunities and is partnering with Citi on a program of financial empowerment for low- to moderate-income mothers and their families, especially women and families of color. The need to address the problems our residents are facing is mounting constantly, and the resources we have to deal with these problems are shrinking, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf says, adding that government was not designed to take risks and move quickly. She thinks service design might be a way to break out of that public culture of excessive caution and delay.Back in New York City, Kennan is thinking along the same lines. She came to the service design project in New York from Code for America, the nonprofit that pairs software developers in the private sector with municipalities that need their skills in solving a problem. She helped launch open data projects in both Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan.In 2014, Kennan joined the administration of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio as director of design and product for the citys newly launched Office of Economic Opportunity. The creation of a formal service design lab was still three years away. But Kennan and her colleagues set out to use service design ideas to reengineer a few very specific city initiatives. For starters, they wanted to help low-income residents with tax preparation, and especially to make sure they received the earned income tax credits they were entitled to. The team also initiated an open data project for the citys health and human services agency, and started Growing Up NYC, an online resource for parents seeking assistance in monitoring their childrens health.Another early task was working to improve Access NYC, the existing portal that was meant to connect city residents to social services. Access NYC had some of the same goals that service design advocates sought, but the system was clumsy and those seeking services often gave up before they got connected to the assistance they wanted. Access NYC needed an overhaul, Kennan says. The site was hard to use, saw drop-off in usage and had material that users didnt understand.In 2017, with the help of service design concepts, Access NYC relaunched. The directions on the site were made easier to interpret, content was presented in seven languages, the new website was made responsive for mobile users and a location finder was added to help residents connect to services close to their homes.relied heavily on data analytics, the service design groups next challenge required shoe leather. The citys homeless population was growing. New York, one of the few U.S. cities required by court order to house the homeless, was sheltering more than 60,000 people. Still, despite its vast network of shelters, the city had several thousand homeless men, women and children living on the street. The issue was connecting them to services.De Blasio dispatched Kennan and members of her team to figure out and then fix the problem. They rode subway lines to the far reaches of the city to contact homeless men and women. They conducted interviews and tracked each homeless clients progress through the system.From the interviews and the data collected, the service design team created a journey map, which tracked the experiences of those contacted by field workers. To the novice, a journey map is a series of dots and arrows. In this case, dots for the homeless clients, arrows for the social workers. The arrows indicate movement from one portion of the system to the next. Where two dots meet there is an interaction. Service designers look at those journey maps and try to find the best way to move clients through the system as efficiently as possible. You start from the angle of problem identification and as you do your discovery, Sitten says, you start identifying weak signals, patterns and then you have to synthesize that with the people you are working with.The process can seem mechanical, but its far from smooth. Running a service design project in public policy space usually means overcoming old civic and political habits. The clients frequently dont interact in the way all the modeling suggests. As Sitten puts it, People are messy. They do irrational things.The Service Design Teams rubric for measuring user experience is labeled as the 5 Es: Entice, Enter, Engage, Exit and Extend. The first E, Entice, measures how people come to learn about the service and what gets them interested. Enter examines the experience upon first entering a place -- in the case of homeless services, that might mean a conversation, but in other cases it could be a website or an app. Engage looks at the steps necessary to interact with the service and asks designers to think about how to keep users engaged. Exit measures how users feel when they leave the experience and whether it is clear to them that they are finished. And Extend probes ways the user might talk about the experience to others afterward.The team found that the crucial problem in delivering homeless services wasnt the one most observers expected. The outreach workers were blamed for the homelessness issues in New York, Kennan says, but they were not the issue. There were just not enough of them.When the analysis was done, Kennans group offered recommendations that the city has adopted. It more than doubled the number of outreach workers; shortened the time clients needed to be on the street before they qualified for assistance; stationed homeless outreach services inside libraries and hospitals; and intensified canvassing efforts across the city.In late 2016, the service design team next tackled a project aimed at delivering wireless internet service to the nations largest public housing complex. Queensbridge Houses is home to nearly 7,000 residents in 26 buildings spread over 50 acres near the East River in Queens. The low- to moderate-income residents in Queensbridge were paying exorbitant internet bills, in some cases more than $200 per month for bare bones access. Many relied on their cellphones to connect to the internet, or werent online at all. But installing Wi-Fi would only be the first obstacle. Teaching digital literacy to the scores of residents who were computer neophytes would be a bigger challenge.The service design team started with classes in digital literacy and quickly realized there was a unique opportunity before them. The digital newcomers were going to be logging on to the web for the first time, and that initial experience could shape their view of how useful the tool might be. Kennan reached out to the Queensbridge Tenants Association and worked with its members to create Queensbridge Connected, a web portal dedicated to news and information about life in the housing project.The design process was decidedly low tech. Residents were given blank pieces of paper and asked to illustrate what the website might look like, where the photos would go and how the navigation would work. A few weeks later, the design team came back with a touch screen display of a mocked-up website based on what the community had suggested and asked for feedback. There is a difference, Sitten says, when you invite a group into a room and there is the notion of participation and involvement and engagement.After a few changes, Queensbridge Connected was launched. The website lists events, connects residents with job training and classes at the local library, and provides mundane but important information about parking restrictions on a given day.By 2017, with several successful projects under its belt, it was time for service design to grow. The practice had shown to many in city government that it had the potential to transform service delivery across a metropolis of more than 8 million residents.But to do that, service design needed scale, which meant it needed money.Thats where Citi came in. Its Community Development unit backs projects that promote financial inclusion and economic empowerment. Last October, with funding from the group and support from the Mayors Fund to Advance New York City, the Service Design Studio officially came into existence.So far, the design team is small and its office simply decorated. Five people occupy a conference room in Brooklyn. One table and a 10-foot-tall cork board constitute the furnishings. But the goals are ambitious: to persuade the city to think more broadly about how to design a wide array of services it must provide. The Service Design Studio website is a public-facing toolkit that offers every city employee and any interested resident some of the keys to service design -- reviewing evidence, talking to the people most impacted by a given service, connecting the dots between whats needed and whats working, followed by experimentation and then more discussion.When you apply service design with great intention, says Sitten, you get a service that not only reflects the needs of the people who are using the services. You change the culture.Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched this weekend in cities across the U.S. and in other countries in support of stricter gun control regulations.Such restrictions would affect different states in different ways.Idaho is the state that's most dependent on the gun industry, according to a new report. The economies of four other Western states -- Montana, Alaska, South Dakota and Wyoming -- are also more dependent on guns than other places.The report , released last week from the personal finance website WalletHub, measured the economic impact of the gun industry on each of the 50 states. Each state was assessed in terms of firearm industry jobs and wages; "gun prevalence," including gun ownership rates and sales; and "gun politics," including political contributions to members of Congress and other factors."Gun sales are down since Donald Trump won the White House," the report said. "And while that's good news to some, it could be a bad sign for state economies relying heavily on the firearms industry."Guns are a $51 billion-a-year industry in the United States, according to one trade estimate, and accounted for more than $6.5 billion in federal and state taxes last year.Just in terms of gun prevalence, which tallied gun ownership, gun advertising and Google searches for firearms, Kentucky ranked No. 1 in the WalletHub report. South Dakota, meanwhile, was ranked as the single most politically friendly state to firearms.Connecticut, which ranked near the bottom of the report overall, nonetheless has the highest average salary for jobs in the firearms industry. The state was once home to some of the top gun manufacturers in the country and was the birthplace of several innovations in firearms technology. But today it has some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation and is now considering cutting the NRA out of its role in training new gun permit applicants New York, Delaware, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Maryland were the states whose economies were least dependent on guns, according to the report.In the weeks since the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., a number of states have considered measures that could put restrictions on the gun industry, including raising the minimum age required to purchase a gun and outlawing certain types of firearms altogether. A few large chains, including Dick's Sporting Goods and Kroger's Fred Meyer stores, have announced they will no longer sell assault weapons or, in Kroger's case, any guns at all.It would be hard to find an American government more secretive than the one in Kansas. More than 90 percent of the bills that become law are introduced by anonymous sponsors, while administrative agencies, as a matter of policy, block many records from examination by the public or even lawmakers.Kansas is one of only four states that dont require public notice of regular public meetings. Its also one of two, along with Arkansas, that dont require minutes to be kept at those meetings. Legislators arent required to have their votes recorded at the committee level, where much of the action takes place. The practice of gut and go -- subbing out the entire text of a bill at the last minute -- has long been common. What started out as a transportation bill, say, may suddenly be about abortion. And no one outside the committee or leadership has any idea why it happened.Lots of other information is shielded. The value of tax breaks given to businesses is not disclosed, even to lawmakers. Police departments can withhold information from the public about officer-involved shootings, including video footage. When children overseen by the Department of Children and Families are abused, the agency may hide its involvement, even shredding relevant notes. My sense is that some of these practices were just taken for granted, says Michael Smith, a political scientist at Emporia State University.Thats no longer the case. The culture of secrecy in the state, which extends to local governments as well, was exposed in a series of articles last fall in the Kansas City Star. The issue has been drawing attention in the state Capitol ever since. The House has cracked down on anonymous bills, while the Senate is working on increased disclosure requirements for lobbyists.Just days after taking office earlier this year -- replacing outgoing Gov. Sam Brownback, who was appointed ambassador at large for international religious freedom -- Gov. Jeff Colyer signed a series of executive orders meant to make the state government and its workings less secretive. The governor directed cabinet agencies to come up with metrics for measuring transparency, and he also imposed some specific requirements that include making the agencies provide more free copies of open records and creating a website to list all open executive branch meetings.Even if the rules are rewritten, longstanding habits of nondisclosure will not disappear immediately. But its now a topic state leaders cannot avoid. Its turned into an election year issue, says Bob Beatty, a political scientist at Washburn University. It helps that gubernatorial candidates from both parties are endorsing these ideas.There is such a thing as a free lunch in Arkansas, but thanks to a recent court ruling you still have to pay taxes on it. That ruling could also have led to an enormous expansion of state power.Flis Enterprises owns 16 Burger King franchises in central Arkansas. It gives its managers one free meal per shift. The state Department of Finance and Administration said that Flis had to pay taxes on the retail value of those hamburgers and fries, while Flis maintained it should pay only on the wholesale price of the ingredients that go into the meal. Given the number of meals doled out over the years, the dispute involved tens of thousands of dollars.None of this would have mattered much to anyone not directly involved, except for one thing: It comes on the heels of another ruling from the state supreme court, which held that the Arkansas Constitution grants the state sovereign immunity from lawsuits. Put simply, that means state agencies cant be sued by private individuals and companies seeking to dispute a regulation, ruling or tax.Gov. Asa Hutchinson has instructed his agencies not to invoke sovereign immunity. As a matter of policy, he wants citizens who are upset about a decision to have access to the courts for redress. Ive asked my agencies not to assert sovereign immunity without the approval of the governors office, Hutchinson told an Arkansas radio station. That way, we can control it and make sure that citizens have access to the courts whenever its appropriate.The Supreme Court signaled it would use the Burger King case to determine whether sovereign immunity is optional. If the court had ruled that sovereign immunity was simply a given, rather than being something state agencies can invoke, that would have created a prohibition on any lawsuits against the state. Last month, however, the court punted. Since the parties to the case hadnt raised the issue themselves, the majority ruled, it wasnt an appropriate time to address the larger immunity issue. The state won the case -- Flis will pay a higher tax on free meals -- but not on the grounds of sovereign immunity.Courts in other states with sovereign immunity clauses in their constitutions, such as Alabama and West Virginia, have carved out exceptions. The Arkansas rulings dont do that. Theyre similar to a recent decision by the state Supreme Court in Georgia that disallows private lawsuits against the state. Now, if local governments or the state take action, theres no way to stop them, says state Rep. Wendell Willard.This may seem like a technical legal question, but you can imagine the potential for abuse if state agencies are able to take any action they like, without the possibility for citizens to appeal. A fast food outlets tax bill could shoot up, or a parent adopting a child through a public agency could be totally misled about her behavior or background. Thered be no penalty for the state and little hope of overturning a blatantly bad policy. Weve had some issues come up even with examining a zoning decision, Willard says. When people start seeing that, theres going to be a revolution on our hands.Student journalists at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., have been walking a fine line between covering the horrific story of the shooting that unfolded at their school and reacting as survivors who were themselves traumatized.

I had to be there for my friends, Kevin Trejos, an 18-year-old senior, said of the moments after a gunman killed 17 students and adults and wounded others on Feb. 14. I also had to be there as a photographer [for the school newspaper]. In a way, it helped me escape the reality of it.

Trejos and four of his colleagues from The Eagle Eye , the student paper at Stoneman Douglas, spoke at a livestreamed panel discussion Friday at the Newseum in Washington, where on Saturday they will join some 200 other students from their high schoolnot to mention an estimated 500,000 other participantsin the March for Our Lives. The march was organized by Stoneman Douglas High students, with some help from others, to call for measures to protect children from gun violence.



Emma Dowd, a senior and the co-editor-in-chief of the newspaper, spent hours locked in the photo closet as the shooting unfolded. She said she had difficulty trying to act as a journalist in the immediate hours and days after the campus was secured.

I didnt feel I was emotionally able to even go back in the school to retrieve a camera, Dowd said. I was an emotional hot mess.

But the student journalists under the guidance of teacher and newspaper adviser Melissa Falkowski have received international praise for their work in the weeks after the mass shooting. The newspaper published its first online account of the events within days, in a story by Nikhita Nookala and Christy Ma, who were also on the panel at the Newseum.

Ma, a senior, also hid in a school closet during the shooting incident, and she recalled talking with another student newspaper staffer about having to cover the incident.

We were in the middle of our third-quarter issue, Ma said, when someone declared, OK guys, we have to trash the whole issue.

Nookala recalled that at the bottom of The Eagle Eyes first account, she and Ma had to list all the victims.

I found that really hard to write, because I had to write freshman so many times, said Nookala, a senior.

The Eagle Eye launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for an ad-free print edition that was a tribute to the victims. And The Eagle Eye has partnered with Guardian US, the American edition of the British newspaper The Guardian, to cover the March for Our Lives.

Students are guest editing Guardian US coverage of the march, and the Guardian helped pay for 11 student Stoneman Douglas journalists travel to Washington. Guardian US also published a manifesto  by the editorial staff of The Eagle Eye that includes policy demands that include banning semiautomatic weapons that fire high-velocity rounds, establishing a database of gun sales and universal background checks, and changing privacy laws to allow mental health providers to communicate with law enforcement.

Rebecca Schneid, the other co-editor-in-chief of The Eagle Eye and the fifth member of the panel, said that while the newspaper staff agreed on the positions taken in the manifesto, the paper has strived to include voices in news stories that may take a different view on gun control or other issues.

In our paper, we attempt to remain as nonpartisan as possible, said Schneid, a junior. We love to publish opinions that are different from our own.

Margaret Brennan of CBS News, who moderated the hourlong panel discussion, asked the students whether they saw themselves more as participants in the March for Our Lives or as journalists covering it.

I sometimes have to separate myself as a survivor and a journalist, said Schneid.

Trejos said he was having difficulty thinking of the event as a march that ends up in the history books. For me, this is a march my friends started. Thats where I am right now. Well see after tomorrow.

The students said their experience has convinced them of the power of journalism to elevate the discussion around issues such as gun control.

Nookala said she had joined the newspaper class because it was one other thing I wanted to try and the experience covering the mass shooting has given me a passion for the profession.

Schneid said she was debating a career in either medicine or journalism and this experience may have tipped the balance toward the latter.

For journalism, Ive seen the impact it has had on peoples lives, she said. Its an amazing and noble profession if done right.Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, signed into law a bill which will limit the number of youth who can be tried as adults in criminal courts.The law restricts the use of auto-decline in the state. Previously, 16- and 17-year-olds charged with certain crimes were automatically declined to be tried as juveniles and were sent to adult court.Since 1997, most youth charged with violent crimes as well as first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary were automatically tried as adults. Under the new law, in most instances, youth will remain in the juvenile justice system with the exception of violent crimes such as murder and manslaughter.The law also allows juveniles charged with serious crimes to be held in jail up to their 25th birthday, rather than up to age 21, and provides sentence enhancements for certain crimes, such as gang involvement.The new law is part of a national trend in juvenile justice. Teens who are funneled into adult prisons do not have access to rehabilitative services that the juvenile justice system provides.Theres a growing awareness that young peoples brains are still developing and they might not fully understand the consequences of their actions. Research has shown that teens are more likely to commit additional crimes if they are prosecuted as adults.Over the past decade, at least seven states have raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18, and today most states set it there. Since October, 16-year-olds charged with a crime in New York will no longer automatically be prosecuted as adults. And starting in October 2019, 17-year-olds will no longer automatically be prosecuted as an adult, with that decision left to a judge in felony cases.Description

GIS 26 March, 2018: Th e Mauritius Standards Bureau (MSB) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Zambia Bureau of Standards, with the objective of promoting and facilitating bilateral trade between the two countries through the elimination of non-tariff barriers.

The MoU will also cover, among others, cooperation in Standardisation, Quality Assurance, Metrology, Conformity Assessment, Pre and Post-Shipment Inspection and Training and would provide a broad framework for cooperation in areas such as mutual recognition, inspection and capacity building.

The MSB is a corporate body which has been set up under the Mauritius Standards Bureau Act 1993. The Bureau is responsible for standardisation, quality assurance, testing and metrology. The MSB operates a certification marking scheme for products and a national management system certification scheme (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO 22000, HACCP). It is also the custodian of the national measurement standards and offers calibration services. It is the National Enquiry point for WTO/TBT matters.Description

GIS - 26 March, 2018: A workshop aiming at promoting good governance and transparency as core principles for cooperatives will be held on 29 March 2018 at the Mauritius Institute of Training and Development by the Mauritius Co-operative Alliance Limited (MCAL). The workshop will be attended by members of cooperatives, secondary and university students as well as other stakeholders.

This was announced by the Chairman of the MCAL, Mr D. Kona Yerukunondu this morning during a press conference at the LIC Centre in Port-Louis.

He underscored that M CAL which is the apex body of the cooperative movement is a tertiary society regrouping secondary and primary cooperative societies. Its role is to reinforce cooperatives and assist them in their operational activities while ensuring the social and economic interests of cooperatives at regional, national and international level, he pointed out.

The organisation, he emphasised, is responsible for facilitating the development of cooperatives through the creation and provision of legal and institutional environment together with adequate support as well as incentives. He highlighted that the MCAL will also provide services such as the sale of prescribed books relating to cooperatives; assistance to primary cooperative societies in updating their accounts; networking opportunities with international cooperative agencies and implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility, amongst others.

Mr D. Kona Yerukunondu stated that the MCAL, through its plan of actions, will sensitise the population especially the women and the youth about the relevance of cooperative societies and their contribution to the socio-economic activity of the country. He added that the workshop will not only enable the visibility of the MCAL as the mouthpiece of the cooperative movement but also consolidate the sector.Hickenloopers rural agenda

Economic numbers show positive signs

New money will build out broadband service

(TNS)  Gov. John Hickenlooper is poised to sign a bill to allocate $115 million in the next five years to extend high-speed internet to rural Colorado, a significant step toward achieving his goal to connect the entire state.The measure is a legacy piece for the term-limited governor and a major victory for state lawmakers who prioritized the needs of beleaguered rural communities as a way to bridge their deep divide with the states robust urban areas.People didnt think we could get it done  I wasnt sure we were going to get it done  but I think its something that down the road will make this state stronger and more resilient forever, Hickenlooper said in an interview.This legislative session, Hickenlooper made rural Colorado a top focus  a move his critics say is long overdue, but one the governor believes has been a constant throughout his two terms.His annual State of the State address in January mentioned the word rural 28 times, according to the prepared text, as many as the previous seven years combined.The Democrat said he wanted to make a point in his final address , and he acknowledged that not all parts of the state have rebounded from the economic downturn.Anytime you do something for the last time, you look back and see the places where maybe you werent convincing, or you didnt get your point across, he said.The renewed push is welcome news to rural advocates who feel left behind by the economic boom in metro areas and overlooked by political leaders in Denver.We feel like we have a lot to offer the state and we are excited about the focus on broadband, and a more renewed focus on economic development, said Cathy Shull, the executive director of Pro 15, an organization that represents northeastern Colorado. I think (Hickenlooper) has always had a very strong feeling and interest in rural Colorado. I just think there are so many things on the plate that it just became our year this year.The governors address to lawmakers outlined a legislative agenda to boost rural Colorado that included $30 million for rural schools and $10 million to address teacher shortages in those areas  both of which made the budget bill finalized Friday.Hickenlooper also suggested an extension of the tax credit for companies in economically distressed areas through the Rural Jump-Start program, which is working with 12 companies in 11 counties that anticipate creating 388 new jobs. But state lawmakers have not addressed the issue.Elsewhere, his administration is promoting a five-year initiative known as Startup Colorado that began this year to assist startups in rural areas with networking and sponsorship as part of an effort to create a model for rural areas to lure entrepreneurs.The disparities between rural and urban Colorado, Hickenlooper said, is an enduring problem that many, many people before us have tried to address.I like to think weve done a better job than most. Thats why our states rural counties have recovered better, and I think more strongly, than other states, he continued. Is it enough? No. Thats why we made it such a focus of the State of the State speech to drive home the point.Contrary to the perception, economics suggest rural Colorado is doing better than rural America as a whole.The Rural Mainstreet report in February, published by Creighton University in Omaha, showed that Colorado fares better than its peer states with positive growth, according to a survey of rural bankers.Four in 10 rural Colorado counties ranked in the top quartile nationwide for employment growth from 2007 to 2016, and more than 70 percent landed in the top half of counties, according to federal Bureau of Economic Analysis data.Relative to the market, Colorado counties have outperformed other rural counties, said Brian Lewandowski, the associate director for the business research division at the University of Colorados Leeds School of Business.But he added, the positive numbers still lag behind where Colorados rural counties once stood in terms of employment. What we do see is a lot of these counties still have not recovered from their recession, he said.This is the point that Senate President Pro Tem Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, continues to make. In addition to broadband service, he wants to see more money for road expansions and other improvements in rural Colorado.He applauded the governors focus this session  with a quip: Finally, my yelling about how important all four corners of the state hit; its sticking, he said.But he remains cautious about whether the governor will deliver on his promises. The message is there, Sonnenberg said. Are there teeth in what hes saying? Is he actually going to follow through, or is it all talk?The broadband bill, Sonnenberg acknowledges, is a good start.The measure  Senate Bill 2  will take money collected from fees levied on phone lines and divert it toward building broadband service that operates at a minimum 10 megabits per second. In 2019, 60 percent of the money will go toward broadband, with that portion increasing in 2023 to 100 percent, or roughly $27 million a year, according to a legislative analysis The state is at 77 percent coverage, according the governors office, and the goal is to reach 85 percent by the end of the year.Hickenlooper set a goal in his 2017 State of the State speech to reach 100 percent by 2020. And even though the bill is an acknowledgement that it wont happen, the governor called it a huge success.(TNS)  DAVIDSON COUNTY, N.C.  Davidson County officials now report that county systems have been completely restored following a cyber extortion attack that shut the county down on Feb. 16.Davidson County agencies, including the sheriffs office, DSS and the health department navigated a couple of days with no website, telephone or email following the shutdown. At the tax assessors office, employees were forced to resort to pen and paper.County Manager Zeb Hanner said most systems were restored within a week, although he was not allowed to discuss the situation due to an ongoing criminal investigation. With diligent work by the countys IT team, all but five of the countys 90 servers were back in service by Feb. 19.Other than no personal information was taken from our system I am not allowed to discuss much, he said. We have made some adjustments within our system. We are planning to purchase some equipment in the new budget to be more proactive in our search for events like this.Recent ransomware attacks like the one suffered by Davidson County in February and the one in Mecklenburg County in December 2017 highlight the need for a more coordinated response to such threats.To combat the growing threat of cyberattacks, the N.C. Department of Public Safety in cooperation with the N.C. Department of Information Technology will operate a new cyber unit entity. Housed in the SBIs N.C. Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAAC), it will focus on promoting cyber awareness and information sharing and to provide actionable cyberintelligence to private and public sector partners and citizens.The new cyber unit will be led by Thomas McGrath, who will work as part of the DPS Information Security Office. McGrath and his team will work with federal, state and local partners, including the North Carolina National Guard, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, U.S. Secret Service, Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) and others to thwart cyber attacks. McGrath is a veteran of the FBI, who served as a Special Agent with the FBI National Computer Crime Squad at the FBI Washington Field Office before transferring to the Raleigh Resident Agency of the FBIs Charlotte Division in 2000. Since then, he has worked on the Cyber Crime Squad and most recently was the FBIs representative at the N.C. ISAAC Fusion Center. McGrath assumed his duties at DPS on March 19.This new unit is critical due to the growing number of threats launched against our cyber infrastructure in recent years, said Public Safety Secretary Erik A. Hooks. We at DPS and the SBI are excited to be working with N.C. DIT and our other partners on this significant improvement in our cyber threat-management capability. Tom McGraths experience with counterterrorism and cybercrime investigations at the FBI goes back more than 20 years. That, plus his recent experience with the FBI at the N.C. Fusion Center, make him a perfect leader for this new team.The state continues to face a growing threat from cyberattacks, said N.C. Department of Information Technology Secretary Eric Boyette. This effort will help us to better guard against cyber threats and to increase information sharing of threat vectors and cyber actor actions across multiple state entities and boundaries. It will also increase the speed of information sharing and help place needed focus on local government and citizen outreach. With the increased coordination and sharing of information will come an increase in the speed with which we can detect, identify and recover from cyber incidents.McGrath will be responsible for ensuring that relevant, actionable information and intelligence related to global, domestic and jurisdictional cyber threats is provided to public safety officials in a timely manner.This includes furthering the Fusion Centers cyber goals and supervising analysts, managing outreach to partners and directing the collection and analysis of cyberthreat intelligence, said Chief State Risk Officer Maria Thompson.The N.C. ISAAC Fusion Center works with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in the fight against terrorism and criminal activity by sharing information.Microsoft Teams quickly became the business application of choice as state and local governments raced to equip remote teams and maintain business continuity during the COVID-19 lockdown. But in the rush to deploy Teams, many organizations overlook, ignore or fail to anticipate some of the administrative hurdles to successful adoption. As more organizations have matured their use of Teams, a set of lessons learned has emerged to help agencies ensure a successful Teams rollout  or correct course on existing implementations.Closing out this round of guest bloggers is my research assistant, Amy Cummings. Before joining AEI, Amy taught high school social studies and completed a masters degree in cognitive science at Columbias Teachers College. This week, shell share some reflections on what shes learned about cognitive science, and what it might mean for education policy.

I spent a good portion of last year cooped up in the Teachers College library furiously reading cognitive science journal articles and thinking about ways that I would use their findings to one day transform Americas classrooms. Ha.

Ive been working as a research assistant in education policy for about eight months now, and I cant think of one article that I read in graduate school to be helpful in thinking about education reform. In fact, as I write this now, I can only remember what a handful of the hundred-plus that I read (okay, at least skimmed) were even about. But with my fancy cognitive science degree I can tell you thats just a product of classic memory decay.

I refuse to believe that the entirety of what I learned last year is simply useless for education. So, in preparation for writing these blog posts, I spent some time last week recovering these decayed memories by sifting through old lecture notes, reading assignments, and papers Id written. And as it all comes back to me, I keep asking myself, why dont we see more of these findings applied in education? After all, my degree program was called cognitive science in education.

Well, the fact that I havent encountered or applied any of this information in my time working in education suggests that this research just isnt making it into the policy conversation. (And there are certainly questions about whether it should be part of the policy conversationIll leave that up for debate in the comments section.)

But a larger problem is that these findings arent making it into conversations at the school or classroom level eitherwhere people are making the in education part happen. I can speak from first-hand experience here as well. Back when I taught high school, my professional learning team sure didnt spend our collaboration time seeking out, reading, or discussing academic journal articles about cognitive science. We had more than enough lesson planning, standards alignment, and paper grading to take up that timeand then some.

The gap between what I learned in graduate school and what Ive actually used in education"both as a research assistant and as a teacherstrikes me as troublingly wide. Especially when there are valuable lessons to be learned. Here are just a few selected findings from my recent retrieval effort:



Spacing out learning leads to better memory than massed practice.



Testing gives better memory than simply reading information. This is called the test effect.



Having learners generate information leads to better memory than when they are told that information. Learning is best when this knowledge construction is done collaboratively.



People remember more when tested in the same physical or emotional context as they learned the information, so for learning to stick students should learn and be assessed across varying contexts.



Spreading information over multiple channels (e.g., visual, auditory, haptic) reduces cognitive load and helps with comprehension and memory.



Having students teach one another aids reading comprehension and memory of texts.



Now, many of these findings may seem obvious. And many great teachers already apply these in their classrooms. But the reality is that teaching and learning in too many of todays classrooms do not follow many of these findings. In fact, if I use the above list as a checklist, Id probably grade my own teaching a C at best.

What, if anything, should be done about this? Im certainly not calling for any big federal mandates for teaching and testing kids in different classrooms or creating new teacher-evaluation standards that include cognitive science indicators. But theres no reason that degree programsat the graduate or undergraduate levelshould be this siloed and far-removed from the very fields theyre meant to influence.

The reality is that most teachers will not go on to get masters degrees in cognitive science. And a majority of people who study cognitive science, even at the Ph.D. level, will not become professors. They will leave the academy and have to apply what they have learned. And its not just cognitive science that faces this challenge: The same could be said for a number of other education-related fields. Maybe there isnt a direct role for policy to play here, but it neednt take policy to encourage the academy to be more purposeful about preparing students for what comes after degree completionwhether thats teaching, research, advocacy, politics, or philanthropy. Its time for the academy to more purposely bridge the theory-practice divide and put cognitive science back in education.Mercedes has played down a conspiracy theory relating to Sebastian Vettel's surprise win in Melbourne.

The reigning champions are investigating how the virtual safety car period cost Lewis Hamilton the race victory.

One conspiracy theory is that it is no coincidence that it was the timing of the wheel problems suffered by Ferrari partner Haas that helped Ferrari's Vettel.

Team boss Gunther Steiner told Bild newspaper: "We just didn't attach the wheels correctly.

"It's hard to believe that it happened to both cars, but it happened."

Mercedes bosses Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda did not jump aboard the Haas conspiracy talk.

"I really feel for Haas," Wolff said. "They were really fast. I have no idea what happened, but when it happens it really hurts."

Lauda agrees: "Haas will have to look at how it happened but I'm just sorry for them."

Haas boss Steiner admitted the mistakes could have been made due to the unfamiliar pressure on the shoulders of the mechanics.

"The whole weekend was very stressful," he said.

"We had some problems on Friday and lacked spare parts, and we did not practice the pitstops very actively. Perhaps this was one of the reasons."

(GMM)Questions remain unanswered after Sunday's 2018 season opener in Melbourne.

Max Verstappen, for instance, wonders if viewers might be in for a particularly painful season, given how hard it was to overtake.

"It was like Monaco," the Red Bull driver told the Dutch press.

"Even if you are a second or a second and a half faster, you still cannot pass.

"As a viewer I would have turned off the TV. And until something changes, it will stay that way.

"Do they have to change the circuit? I think they should do something about the cars, because in the past, overtaking was no problem here," Verstappen added.

Lewis Hamilton agreed, saying it was impossible for him to re-pass Sebastian Vettel after the virtual safety car shakeup.

"It's like my mother or my best friend is on the edge of a cliff and I couldn't get to them with all my will and abilities. Maybe in the next race it will be different," he said.

The pecking order is also unclear after Melbourne.

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton was miles ahead in qualifying, but then Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel won thanks to the pit strategy and the virtual safety car period.

"Today he (Hamilton) was a few tenths faster on each lap but we were able to stay in the fight," said Vettel.

"Between us and Red Bull it's close, and Mercedes is a bit ahead."

Hamilton said: "I can't imagine what awaits us in Bahrain.

"There are good and bad points. Ferrari is very fast on the straight, so they'll be strong in Bahrain. What I can say for sure is that it won't be easy for us.

"I think after four races we'll get an idea about the pecking order. It's too early now," Hamilton added.

"Everyone was talking about the special mode of our engine and our advantage, but Kimi was very fast in the first stint. It was not easy for me to create a gap.

"I'm not sure that Sebastian got a good lap in qualifying, so we don't know Ferrari's true qualifying speed. In my opinion, their car is better than it seemed."

What is clear is that Vettel won the opening salvo in his personal 2018 battle with Hamilton.

After qualifying, Hamilton said he "wiped the smile" off Vettel's face, but the German had retorted: "What goes around comes around."

Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene told Sky Italia: "We must stay calm. It's only the first race.

"But there are those who speak and there are those who do the facts.

"I do not put myself in the middle of a skirmish between drivers, I just say that the race is on Sunday, the points are on Sunday and on Sunday we scored the points."

(GMM)The all-new, production version of the 2019 Insight (earlier post) will make its global production debut at the 2018 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS). The new Insight, launching at Honda dealerships nationally in early summer, joins the Clarity series and just-launched 2018 Accord Hybrid as the fifth new Honda electrified vehicle introduced over the past year. As a premium compact sedan, Insight is positioned and priced between Civic and Accord in Hondas passenger car lineup.

The third-generation Insight is powered by the third generation of Hondas two-motor hybrid system, featuring a 1.5-liter Atkinson cycle engine, electric propulsion motor, and lithium-ion battery pack. Total system output is 151 horsepower and 197 lb-ft (267 Nm) of electric motor torque. Under most conditions, the Insight operates as a series hybrid, in which the gasoline engine, connected to the generator motor, produces electricity that is supplied to either the electric propulsion motor and/or the 60-cell lithium-ion battery pack.





Honda estimates the Insight will deliver up to 55 mpg (4.27 l/100 km) in the city.

The Insight features three selectable driving modesNORMAL, ECON, and SPORTallowing drivers to customize their experience by maximizing efficiency or driving performance. Additionally, all Insights have steering wheel-mounted deceleration selectors to choose among three levels of regenerative braking performance, depending on driving conditions.





In normal mode, the Insight is capable of all-electric driving for short distances of roughly a mile. Unlike competing systems, Hondas two-motor hybrid technology works without the need for a conventional automatic transmission, with the electric propulsion motor directly powering the drive axles. During higher speed operation a lock-up clutch connects the engine to the drive axles to provide the most efficient operation during highway and freeway driving.

The placement of the lithium-ion hybrid battery pack beneath the rear seats allows for a fold-down rear seat (60/40-split on EX and Touring trims) to maximize cargo- and people-hauling flexibility.

Body and chassis. The Insight shares its basic platform architecture with the 10th-generation Civic. In keeping with its premium compact sedan character, the Insight gets numerous engineering enhancements to further improve ride quality, cabin quietness and efficiency. The body features Hondas Advance Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure. An aluminum hood, unique to Insight, reduces weight, while additional sound insulation in the engine bay, front fenders, front firewall, and front and rear floor further aids cabin quietness.

The Insights new chassis utilizes a fully-independent suspension systemMacpherson strut front and multi-link rearwith liquid-sealing compliance bushings at both ends (Touring trim only). Like Civic, the Insight also features variable-ratio dual-pinion electric power steering. Confident and linear braking performance is provided by an electro-servo brake system, which combines efficient regenerative braking and mechanical (friction) braking.

Advanced safety technology. The 2019 Honda Insight will include the Honda Sensing suite of advanced safety and driver-assistive technologies as standard equipment, which includes Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS), Lane Departure Warning, Lane Keeping Assistance System, Road Departure Mitigation, Adaptive Cruise Control with Low-Speed Follow and Traffic Sign Recognition.

Insight EX and Touring trims will also come equipped with Honda LaneWatch, and all trims will have a multi-angle rearview camera. The Insight targets top collision safety ratings, including an NCAP 5-star Overall Vehicle Score and IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK with a Good rating in all crash test modes and a Superior rating for front crash protection.

Manufacturing. The Insight will be manufactured alongside the Civic and CR-V at Hondas plant in Greensburg, Indiana. The hybrid battery unit will be assembled at the companys Marysville Auto Plant in Ohio, with the 1.5-liter Atkinson cycle engine manufactured by Hondas Anna, Ohio engine plant, which also produces the engine for the Ohio-made 2018 Accord Hybrid.Since the Parkland, Fla., school shooting last month, student activists have recieved much attention for their passionate calls for changes to the nations gun laws . Thats in part because thousands of their peers have heard that call, planting the seeds of what could be a new national youth movement.

But another group from Parklandthe families of the 17 victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schoolhas also pushed for change. And that group has already seen success in pushing for school safety compromises at the state and federal level.

Lawmakers credit support from the victims families for passage of the STOP School Violence Act, a safety bill President Trump signed into law as part of federal spending legislation Friday, and for the enactment of a Florida safety bill that included school safety measures and some changes to the states gun lawsalbeit more modest changes than some of the student protestors are pushing for.

GOP Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted about the families Thursday night, praising them for support of the federal bill, which was also championed by families of the 2012 Newtown, Conn., school shooting before the one in Florida took place.

Story media missing is that in 5 weeks since #Parkland tragedy,the families of 17 victims found common ground,treated everyone with civility,got legislation passed in #Florida & are on verge of passing #STOPSchoolViolenceAct & #FixNicsAct in D.C. Powerful lesson for all of us! pic.twitter.com/Ibshp43LI9 -- Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 22, 2018

At the federal level, the STOP School Violence Act is the first step in a long journey to improve the safety of our students and teachers at school, the families wrote in a letter to congressional leadership about the bill. The legislation funds school security and measures like threat assessment, which helps schools identify and intervene with students at risk of violence, anonymous reporting systems, and violence prevention training for teachers and students.

The families also pushed for the passage of the Fix NICS Act, which encourages more complete information in the federal background check system used for gun purchases. That bill was also signed into law as part of the spending package.

We Dont All Have to Agree

The most outspoken relatives of the Stoneman Douglas victims have various positions on gun laws.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime, 14, was killed in the shooting, has called the measures passed since that day a good starting point. But hes also pushed passionately for gun reform.

Ryan Petty, who lost his daughter Alaina, 14, has expressed concerns that the student activists calls for gun-law changes, many of which have failed in Congress previously, might distract from school safety measures that are more broadly supported and could be more quickly achieved.

Policy and political action ought to take their cues from this American majority, Petty told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee March 14. We dont have to all agree on gunsand we wont. But we can agree on the most fundamental things.

He said he didnt want to speak of the media-fed, activist-inflamed, and politically aggravated din of the past month, focusing instead on solutions that are inclusive rather than divisive.

Meanwhile at the state level, Florida legislation known as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School Safety Act represented a compromise for many of the victims families, and for most of the lawmakers who eventually voted in support of it. Many of the bills provisions were supported by some groups and raised concerns for others:



The National Rifle Association has already sued over a part of the bill that raised the minimum age for all gun purchases in the state to 21. The bills gun provisions also include a so-called red flag law that allows courts to seize guns and restrict firearms purchases for people who are deemed a threat to themselves or others, a ban on bump stocks, and a three-day waiting period for gun purchases. Collectively, those are the biggest changes in the states gun laws in years.

Teachers groups opposed the bills creation of the Aaron Feis Guardian Program, a voluntary program through which school employees could be trained and armed. Its named for a Parkland football coach who was killed in the shooting and whos been called a hero for his actions to shield students during the attack. Supporters of the measure said it would help to harden schools.



The bill created a commission to investigate system failures in the Parkland school shooting and prior mass violence incidents, and develop recommendations for system improvements. It also established a program to assist school personnel in preparing for and responding to active emergency situations and to implement local notification systems for all Florida public schools.

The bills $400 million for school mental health services and security measures, including metal detectors and the placement of at least one police officer in every school, raised concerns from some civil rights groups, who are concerned about how school police interact with black and Latino students.

But the compromise represented a good starting point for many of the families.

As families, we came from different backgrounds and we hold a variety of viewpoints; yet we united around this simple idea: our children and teachers should be safe at school, a statement from the famlies read. We rallied to the battle cry: This time must be different!

Photo: Florida Gov. Rick Scott signs the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act in his office at the state Capitol in Tallahassee on March 9. Scott is flanked by parents of several of the victims of the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland. --Mark Wallheiser/AP

Related reading about Parkland school shooting:

Follow @evieblad on Twitter or subscribe to Rules for Engagement to get blog posts delivered directly to your inbox.Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have shown that between 87 and 98 percent of ships comply with the tougher regulations for sulfur emissions that were introduced in northern Europe in 2015. The lowest levels of compliance were observed in the western part of the English Channel and in the middle of the Baltic Sea.

The highest permitted sulfur content in shipping fuel was sharply reduced at the end of 2014 for vessels sailing in the northern European sulfur Emission Control Area (SECA) from 1.00% (10,000 ppm) to 0.10% (1,000 ppm). Before the stricter regulations were implemented, sulfur emissions from the shipping industry were estimated to cause the premature death of 50,000 Europeans each year, because the sulfur forms particles that are swept inland by the wind.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a method for remotely monitoring emissions from marine vessels, which theyve used to investigate the effects of the new regulations. The work has been carried out through the Danish Environmental Protection Agency and the EU projects Compmon and Envisum.

The method that the Chalmers researchers have developed is based on a combination of established technologies that have been refined and adapted. They include optical remote sensing, physical/chemical analysis using a sniffer and monitoring vessels using an Automatic Identification System (AIS). In addition to sulfur, the system can analyze marine emissions of nitrogen oxides and particles, for which the regulations have also been tightened for the shipping industry in recent years.

Some of the measurements were taken using an airplane flying over Denmark, the English Channel and the middle of the Baltic Sea, while others used fixed measuring stations in the approach to Gothenburg, Sweden, on the Oresund Bridge (between Copenhagen and Malmo) and on the Great Belt Bridge in central Denmark.

Johan Mellqvist, professor of optical remote sensing, who heads the work at Chalmers, said that differences in how the regulations are followed depending on who owns the vessels. While the vast majority of the ships comply with the regulations, a few shipping companies seem repeatedly to use non-compliant fuel.

Other patterns we can see are that vessels that only rarely come into these waters break the rules more frequently. In addition, its more common that vessels emit excessive sulfur as they are leaving the SECA rather than on the way in, when they risk an on-board inspection. Some ships that have installed abatement technique for sulfur, so called scrubbers, have been observed with high levels on multiple occasions. Johan Mellqvist

One use of remote sensing is to advise port authorities as to which ships they should select for on-board fuel inspections. Such inspections are a prerequisite for taking legal action against rule breakers. Recently the Norwegian Maritime Authority fined a ship NOK 600,000 (about US$77,400) for non-compliance. This was detected by the Great Belt measuring station and reported to the Norwegian Authorities.

In general, the vessels carry both low-sulfur fuel oil and the less expensive high-sulfur oil on board. If they switch fuel well in advance of their passing of the measuring stations, they wont be caught out. Thats why aerial monitoring is superior. It shows how much the vessels actually emit when they are out at sea and dont know that they will be monitored. Johan Mellqvist

The aerial surveys show that 13% of vessels in the western part of the English Channel, near the SECA border, were in violation of the sulfur regulations in September 2016. For vessels around Denmark, the corresponding figure is 6-8%, depending on time period.

The fixed measuring stations on the approach to Gothenburg, on the Oresund Bridge and the Great Belt Bridge show that between 2% and 5% of the bypassing ships use non-compliant fuel. This can be compared to on-board inspections showing non-compliance rates of around 5% of the vessels at port. This may indicate that some ships change to compliant fuels too late (when entering the SECA) or change to non-compliant fuels too early (when leaving the SECA), while aiming at compliance at the fixed stations where they expect to be observed.

There is a strong financial incentive for shipping companies to continue using the prohibited high-sulfur fuel. For example, they can save around 100,000 euros by using the cheaper, high-sulfur fuel on a single round trip between the UK and Sankt Petersburg. The entirety of this journey lies within the SECA. Johan Mellqvist

Sulfur emissions are above all a health issue, but in the Nordic region, where the bedrock has low lime content, they also contribute to acidification in lakes and waterways. Since 2015, the Baltic Sea, the Kattegat, the Skagerrak, the North Sea and the English Channel have made up a sulfur Emission Control Area in which shipping fuel may contain no more than 0.1% sulfur. The rest of the EU follows the regulations set out by the UNs International Maritime Organisation, IMO, which will reduce the maximum permitted sulfur content in shipping fuel from the current 3.5% (35,000 ppm) to 0.5% (5,000 ppm) worldwide by 2020.

Reducing sulfur emissions is very costly for shipping companies, no matter how they choose to meet the requirements. There are several alternatives:Teachers in Michigan now have more than 31 days to opt out of their unionthe state supreme court ruled that they can leave the union whenever they want, instead of only in August.

In 2013, Michigan became a right-to-work state, meaning that teachers no longer had to pay dues to the union as a condition of employment. (Before then, if a teacher decided not to become a member, he or she still had to pay agency or fair-share fees, since the teacher was still represented by the unions collective bargaining. The fate of those fees, which are still in place in 22 states, is currently being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court .)

Since then, about 25,500 people have left the Michigan Education Association and its dues revenue has declined by $16.4 million, according to the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation , which represented several teachers in the case.

See also: Are Teachers Unions on the Brink of Demise?

Although MEAs August window rule has been in place for decades, it only became a major issue when teachers no longer had to pay the union dues. The teachers who sued the union over the opt-out rule were fighting to exercise their right to work, as the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation put it .

The state supreme court ruling is another blow to the union. In a single paragraph, the court ruled that that an appeal was denied because the justices are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court. Last year, the Michigan Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the Michigan Employment Relations Commissions ruling that a one-month window constituted unfair labor practices.

According to the Detroit Free Press , Doug Pratt, a spokeman for MEA, said the union has been complying with the commissions ruling since it was issued in 2015.

This type of case could be seen more frequently if the U.S. Supreme Court rules against the unions in the agency-fee case, Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31. That case is to be decided by June, and experts assume the high court, which has a conservative majority, will rule against the unions.

Already, a case that is on hold pending a decision in Janus seeks to establish that teachers should have to affirmatively opt into the union rather than opt out . The case, Yohn v. California Teachers Association, argues that the unions current opt-out rules are too burdensometeachers have to repeatedly opt out every year, and the opt-out period is typically brief.Earlier this month, I traveled to Oklahoma to hear more about why teachers across the state are preparing to walk out of their classrooms if the legislature doesnt pass a funding package that includes a $10,000 pay raise and a $200 million boost to public schools.

I learned that teachers dont necessarily want to walk outbut they are fed up with the legislature, which has consistently failed to pass a pay raise in the past several years. They feel like walking out is their last resort. Teachers in Oklahoma are among the lowest paid in the nation.

See: Fed Up With Low Pay, Oklahoma Teachers Prepare to Walk Out

We asked teachers in the state to share how the issue of teacher pay affects them. Youll see their responses in the short clips below.

Sara Doolittle is a high school English teacher in Norman, Okla., who has 20 years experience. When she moved from Colorado to Oklahoma eight years ago, her teaching salary was nearly cut in half. After the birth of her son, Doolittle decided to go to graduate school so she could use student loans to cover the cost of daycare. She is now a full-time teacher, a full-time graduate student working toward her Ph.D., and a part-time research assistant.

Ed Weeks videographer and I spent the evening at her housewe filmed the below video after she put her 4-year-old son to bed and before she started writing a paper she was planning to present at a conference. She would be back at the high school where she teaches bright and early the next morning.

Many people cant afford to teach in Oklahoma at all. I heard stories of teachers quitting to earn more by working at a Goodyear tire plant or managing a tanning salon. In the video below, Jenn Johnson discusses how she made the difficult choice to leave the classroom when she moved to Oklahoma. Previously, she taught in Arizona and Florida, and she said that teaching in Oklahoma would have meant a $15,000 pay cut.

Shelly Unsicker-Durham, a veteran middle school teacher in Norman, Okla., said she has other resources so she could afford the hobby that I do called teaching. But watching other teachers leave the profession has been disheartening, she said.

Brandi Jones, a 5th grade teacher in Duncan, said in the video below that teachers who want to stay in the profession just cant afford it anymore. The Duncan superintendent Melonie Hau is one of many district leaders who supports a teacher walkout, in part because its gotten so difficult to retain teachers.

Many teachers in Oklahoma have a second or even third job to make ends meet. Marissa McGinley, a 4th grade teacher in Oklahoma City, used to work at the department store Kohls to pay the bills.

In 1979, her parents went on strike to protest teacher pay in Oklahoma. Her father soon after quit teaching"his passion"to make more money to support his family, McGinley said. Im just really disappointed that this cycle keeps happening to where teachers arent getting what they need, she said.

Teachers in Oklahoma havent gotten a pay raise in a decade. Emily Clark, a 4th grade teacher in Oklahoma City, said this walkout was long overdue.

Im a very proud teacher, she told me. Im proud of what I do every day. But Im almost embarrassed when I talk to my friends who got out of education, because Im like, Oh, theyre the smart ones, they got out. Here I am, I must be stupid if Im still in and make so little money, and Im willing to put up with this. I dont want to feel that way anymore. I want to feel like Im appreciated by the state government.

Will Blair, a special education teacher in Norman, said low pay is hurting the quality of teachers in the state. There are about 2,000 emergency certified teachers in Oklahoma right now because districts are struggling to fill positions. Certified educators are leaving in droves to teach in neighboring states where they can make about $15,000 more off the bat.

Of course, teachers in Oklahoma are not the only ones frustrated with their compensation. We are gathering stories from teachers around the country, many of whom say they feel buoyed by the successful strike in West Virginia , where teachers received a 5 percent pay raise. You can share your own experiences and thoughts about teacher pay with the hashtag #HowTeachersGetBy.Rude? Au contraire, mon frere. Photo: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images

A French waiter has filed a discrimination complaint with Canadas Human Rights Tribunal after his restaurant fired him for being aggressive, rude, and disrespectful to customers. Guillaume Rey insists his skills are actually top-notch, thanks to the excellent training he received at hospitality school in France. The problem is his former employer, Canadian casual-dining chain Milestones Grill and Bar, which he accuses of discrimination against my culture for terminating him.

His complaint suggests Milestones  a familiar and friendly 45-location chain  didnt appreciate what they had in Rey, whose Gallic tableside demeanor just tends to be more direct and expressive than some other servers. He contends he was direct, honest, and professional, and that minus the whole aggressive and rude thing, the restaurant even agrees he was good at his job.

For its part, Milestones argues Reys attitude violated its employee code of conduct, specifically that his unacceptably rude behavior persisted despite multiple verbal and written performance reviews, leaving managers no choice but to fire him. The chain apparently tried quashing Reys legal complaint, too, after he filed it, but the tribunal in British Columbia has denied the request. Both parties now ultimately have to appear in court, although the tribunal also writes the burden is on Rey to explain what it is about his French heritage that people are specifically at risk of misinterpreting as a violation of workplace standards of acceptable conduct.Tribute To Andrew Makur Thou

General Andrew Makur Thou was not looking for a position for himself. He wanted the war to end with justice...I found him very congenial and knowledgeable about the affairs of the country..."

By Atem Yaak Atem*

Glowing tributes have been paid to General Andrew Makur Thou, who died last week. As will be seen later in this appreciation, Makur was a freedom fighter, a decorated military officer, a politician, a diplomat, a community leader, and towards the end of his life, an honest broker in peacemaking process to end the debilitating armed conflict in his country.

Reacting to the news of the death of General Makur Thou, one of the Eminent Personalities working to resolve the armed conflict in South Sudan, the office of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanism (JMEC)- headed by the former president of Botswana, Festus Mogae- released a statement to express the bodys condolence.





Ambassador General Makur was a patriot, a champion of peace and indeed a key pillar in the 2015 Peace Agreement of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS), read the release in part. It went on to describe late Makurs contribution as sober and honest, and with the generals death the entire South Sudan Peace process will miss his role.

As chair of Security Working Committee, retired General Andrew Makur worked alongside the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism (CTSAMM) team. The organs head, Major General Ibrahim Abduljellil, has recognised late Makur as a leader who had an ability to instil great understanding amongst CTSAMM forum.

Makur the patriot

Across South Sudan itself, Makurs death has been greeted with shock accompanied by tributes that are superlative-laden, depicting him as an outstanding public servant who devoted his life to the service of his people.

A former senior SPLM member, who requested anonymity, holds high late Andrew Makur and his role in the peace process:

He was a nationalist, 1 adding, he was pro-peace and pro-people. He was not like some characters within the government or in the opposition, who are bent on protecting their positions or fighting to get into government even at the expense of the ordinary citizens who are suffering because of the war they have caused.

He concluded his judgement: General Andrew Makur Thou was not looking for a position for himself. He wanted the war to end with justice.





Another South Sudanese- a civil servant and a student in Khartoum during the 1980s and 1990s, and one of the persons I interviewed for this piece- remembers General Andrew Makur as a man of principles. He was trusted by many Southern Sudanese for his stand over the rights of our people, he told me.





Within the Southern Sudanese circles in Khartoum of the time, my source stated that it was widely believed that the termination of his tenure as governor of Bahr Ghazal [region] was that authorities in Khartoum could not trust him to remain in the South where he could be in contact with the rebels of the SPLA. For that reason, the general was appointed as an ambassador at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs just a pretext, he surmised.





The former student also remembers Ambassador Andrew Makur as active in social and cultural affairs of Southern Sudanese communities in the capital, Khartoum; his frequent presence at customary marriage and dance events and church services. And he was not a passive participant during those social functions.

He used to urge Southern Sudanese not to abandon their cultural values, he said, adding the general constantly reminded students to focus on their education and baai. The last word in Dinka, baai, means home, household, land or country among others. It was a code for the liberation struggle, he elaborated.

As one of the youth who used to attend community events graced by Makurs presence, he recalls that the former Anya Nya guerrilla soldier, used to tell students to make a choice between studies or joining the SPLA rebels in the bush. Having been one of the students who cut short their education in Rumbek Secondary School in 1964 but in later years was able to obtain a master degree in military science, Andrew Makur could give that piece of advice with a clear conscience.

My source has also stated that the soldier turned diplomat was a regular churchgoer. After the coming to power of the National Islamic Front (NIF) led by Hassan el Turabi and his brand of political Islam, Christianity to many Southern Sudanese in Khartoum began to have an additional status attached to it: cultural identity, defiance and steadfastness.

Although not widespread, it was not uncommon for a few among Southern Christians to convert to Islam. Such a change of faith was done in secret by a handful of people. At the time, it paid to be a Muslim than a kafir or an infidel: gaining favours including appointment to positon of power and influence.

Young freedom fighter

Makur Thou was born in 1942 in the former Yirol district. The area later became part of Lakes province and state, respectively. He belonged to the third generation of South Sudanese freedom fighters. These were mostly members of the intelligentsia of the early 1960s, consisting of secondary and intermediate school students, civil servants, members of the armed forces, police, prison wardens and in later years, young men from rural backgrounds. Those Southern Sudanese who had been fired by nationalist fervour defected and formed Anya Nya guerrilla movement, which in the early 1960s became a force the world and the ruling class in Sudan could no longer ignore.

The second generation involved with liberation struggle for South Sudan is made of the political party leaders, legislators representing the South in Khartoum from 1953- 1958. The first generation, on the other hand, is reckoned to be represented by the community leaders who resisted foreign rule especially the Turco-Egyptian occupation of 1821 and the Condominium rule from 1898- 1956.



Andrew Makur was one of the students from Rumbek Secondary School who abandoned their studies to become part of the embryonic Anya Nya fighters, later its commanders. He trained at the rebel bases on the Southern Sudan border with Uganda. He later on went to Israel for further military course.

At the warfront, 1st Lieutenant Andrew Makur distinguished himself as a gallant guerrilla fighter. Following the death of Philip Nanga Mariik, Andrew Makur became an overall commander of a battalion that operated in Yirol and Rumbek districts, a role that involved civil administration. That was at the beginning of the second half of the 1960s.





In his book, The Genesis of Political Consciousness in South Sudan, Arop Madut Arop has written this about General Andrew Makur:  the patriotic humble [sic], gallant freedom fighter.

It is said that Andrew Makur Thou, then a lieutenant colonel, was one of the officers who had written to the Anya Nya leader, Major General Joseph Lagu, not to sign the agreement between the rebels political wing, Southern Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM), and the Government of Sudan, which in their view fell short of the aspirations of the Southern people.





The draft agreement offered the South a regional self-rule in which the South would have executive and legislative organs, to be in charge of internal security, local administration, among others. Those concessions on the side of Khartoum, had convinced a large segment within Southern internal front as well as the movements foreign backers who argued that the offer on the table was better than the status quo ante and that it was worth accepting. Consequently, pressure was brought to bear on most members of the rebel leadership. Anya Nya top commander, Major General Joseph Lagu finally signed in March 1972 the accord that became known as the Addis Ababa Agreement.





With the civil war having officially come to an end with the coming to force of regional self-rule, Andrew Makur Thou was absorbed into the Sudans armed forces with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

During the peace period that followed the end of Sudans first civil war, Col Andrew Makur became garrison commander in provincial capitals in Bor, Rumbek and Aweil. That was not an easy assignment as the forces in those units were former enemies: ex-Anya Nya guerrillas and members of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF).

The relations between the two groups were often charactrised by mutual distrust and in some garrisons such as Akobo, mutiny in 1975, when elements from the absorbed forces of Anya Nya killed their commander, Col Abel Chol, an officer originally from SAF.

Col Makur later attended advanced military course at Sudans military college at Wadi Seidna, north of Omdurman.In1982 became deputy president of the High Executive Council in the caretaker administration of Southern Region in which he also served as minister of commerce, industry and supply. A couple of years after leaving government he was elected to represent Yirol area in the legislature in Khartoum.

As his services in the army were still needed, Andrew Makur was recalled into the force in the late 1980s. He was returned with an elevation: rank of major general. From 1989 he was appointed military governor of Bahr el Ghazal region where he served until 1991.

The Islamic regime of National Islamic Front removed him from that post and retired him as ambassador at the ministry of foreign affairs. He later served as ambassador to Russia and Italy among other countries.

When Gen Makur was sought for a mission impossible

It was in about 2010 during the time when the people of what is now South Sudan were preparing to conduct their choice for independence or continued unity with the rest of Sudan, when I met General Makur in Juba. When a mutual friend tried to introduce me to him, Makur said he knew me through my writing; only that we had not met face to face. From that time until 2014 when I left the country, General Makur and I would spend hours talking whenever we met. I was listening to his version of his experience in Anya Nya. I learned a lot from him, especially about the early days of Anya Nya.

I found him very congenial and knowledgeable about the affairs of the country, particularly things military for which one would, in the absence of a better word, consider as a blue print. He rarely minced words.

One evening he told me the president of South Sudan, General Salva Kiir was one of the officers in the Bahr el Ghazal sector during Anya Nya and that they had very cordial relations, beginning from the bush war days to the time we were chatting. The South Sudanese head of state, Makur informed me, had asked him to take a role in the transformation of the former guerrilla force, the SPLA, into a modern and conventional army. He had gratefully accepted the request, he told me.

It was a story I was prepared to follow no matter how long it took him to narrate. It turned out I would spend many hours, spread over more than two weeks talking with him about his experiences in the military and how his plans for the SPLA would benefit from those.





I wondered how he was going to pull the trick where others had dismally failed in the transformation of the SPLA. Previously, the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) had assigned a retired officer from SAF, General Garang Thuch, to train the officers with the objective of turning the former guerrillas into a professional and conventional army.

He came to grief: every time he was frequently told With your professionalism, we beat your former comrades in the battlefield. What is that which is new you want to impart to us? Garang Thuch was gone, smarting with a searing disappointment. Others followed, tried but without any tangible results. The SPLA was behaving like wayward and incorrigible child, it seemed.

Cleaning Aegean stable

Any talk about the SPLA, the national army of South Sudan, was nothing but bleak; a tall catalogue of complaints about nearly everything: lack of professionalism; widespread illiteracy mostly among officers of militias which fought against the SPLA on behalf of the government in Khartoum during the war; of corruption (a top leader once told a gathering that paymasters, most of whom were NCOs [non-commissioned officers], were richer than the generals who commanded them); of senior officers in uniforms collecting salaries from the Central Bank and carrying coffin-like boxes loaded with wads of banknotes onto trucks; of officers in uniform walking between their headquarters at Bilpam because they did not have army cars or buses assigned to them; of a soldier ordering a foreign diplomatic at Juba International Airport (or is airdrome?) to open his suitcase from which he snatched money in foreign currency for his personal use; of another soldier guarding a VIP who stopped another foreign diplomat for not giving way to his boss, whom he ordered to get out his saloon car then slapped him and broke eyeglasses in his face; of SPLA officers who were in the habit of usurping the management of traffic from the police force during visits of foreign VIPs to the capital And countless misdemeanours by members of the SPLA.





During one of those sessions I used to hold with the retired general, he confided to me that he was not only aware of all those embarrassing and inexcusable blunders but that he was also aware of other shortcomings, mostly matters of relating to army professionalism, which he said the force seriously lacked. So why was he so confident that he was going to succeed where others had roundly failed in what was essentially a mission impossible or what has been described as a task similar to cleaning the proverbial Aegean stable?

He assured me, if given the task, he was confident of success; different people, especially professionals, could have different approaches to even a particular complex situation and that not all of them would fail, he assured me.





Paradoxically, before crossing the bridge, he was facing his own problem: seeing the President. Since his arrival from Khartoum, fixing an appointment with the head of the state, who is an ex-officio commander in chief of the national army, was being delayed for no obvious reasons. By the time I left Juba he was still waiting. Someone divulged to me that his presence in town had not been relayed to the President. Someone else was allegedly blocking the meeting between the two to take place. My source whispered the name of the alleged saboteur but the rationale for such a ridiculous act, if at all it was true, beggared disbelief.

I would have dismissed that out of hand such an outlandish claim, but being South Sudan where the incredible, the absurd and the outrageous, have become the new normal, I reluctantly accepted the account. It did not take days for the veracity of what was nothing but sabotage in its full nakedness and vulgarity was confirmed. The reason was that if General Makur were to get the task for which he was wanted, he was going to achieve the goal and as a result outshine others, especially the one who was obstructing the meeting between the President and General Andrew Makur Thou. His ability and commitment to the service of his country and its people were well known to the extent that if he got the mission he was going to achieve the long-awaited transformation of the SPLA as a national army of South Sudan.

*Atem Yaak Atem is a South Sudanese journalist. He is currently living in Australia where he is a full-time writer and translator.Facebook, Cambridge Fallout Spreads in Illinois With Lawsuit

Cook County, Illinois, which voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in 2016, will have its revenge.

The Democratic stronghold has sued Facebook in the ballooning analytics scandal, in which the social media giant provided user information to a Trump-affiliated political consulting firm. It is apparently the first public entity to join the cascade of lawsuits against the company since the "breach of trust," as Mark Zuckerberg described it.

So why is Cook County -- population 5 million -- suing Facebook about the 50-million-user data scandal? The short answer is: it is against the law.

Ill-Gotten Data

The county alleges Facebook and Cambridge Analytica violated the state's Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. The lawsuit claims that the defendants used the ill-gotten data to influence local voters.

Following at least five other lawsuits, the Cook County complaint came after newspaper reports about how Cambridge Analytica gained access to private information about Facebook users. The firm said it uses such information to analyze voters and target them with messages to influence their behavior.

Zuckerberg has apologized to users for not protecting their data, but his company said Cambridge did not steal the user information. According to reports, an app-maker scraped the data from Facebook and provided it to Cambridge.

Cook County, the second largest by population in the United States, is suing on behalf of all residents of Illinois. Trump took the state in the presidential election.

Data Fallout

In the meantime, Facebook has much bigger problems coming from the data fallout. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating the scandal on behalf of American consumers.

It is not the first time Facebook has promised not to share user data without consent. The company entered a consent decree with the FTC in 2011, and violations could result in huge fines or worse.

The mere announcement of the government probe pushed Facebook's market loss to $90 billion. That's almost 20 percent of its value -- in a week.

Related Resources:Secretary Zinke Praises U.S. Congress and President Trump for Funding Palau Compact Agreement in the 2018 Omnibus Funding Bill, Provides $123 Million through 2024

News Release from US DoI, March 26, 2018

WASHINGTON  U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke praised President Donald Trump for signing the 2018 Omnibus Funding Agreement which included $123 million in funding through 2024 for the 2010 Palau Compact Review Agreement as agreed to between the United States and the Republic of Palau.

On behalf of Palau, I am very happy that the U.S. Congress and President Trump have funded the 2010 Palau Compact Review Agreement demonstrating the continued U.S. commitment to Palau and the Western Pacific region, said Secretary Zinke. The agreement is an important element of the Pacific national security strategy to maintain stability in the Western Pacific Region. Interior has held a long, historic relationship with Palau and other U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands and we look forward to continuing our role on behalf of the U.S. Government in providing these funds to the Government of Palau, continued the Secretary.

We will be working closely with the State Department and other federal partners to move forward as quickly as possible, added Assistant Secretary  Insular and International Affairs  Doug Domenech.

The U.S. and Palau Governments will need to meet to update the funding schedule of the 2010 agreement which required specific annual outlays of funds. Included in the assistance are contributions to the Palau Compact Trust Fund, a capital improvement program, and an infrastructure maintenance plan. The specifics of disbursements must be reaffirmed by the parties prior to implementation of the agreement.

The Secretary of the Interior is responsible for coordinating federal policy with respect to the territories of the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and administering and overseeing U.S. Compact federal grants provided to the freely associated states of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. On behalf of the Secretary, the Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs executes these responsibilities through the Office of Insular Affairs.

###Vietnam scraps new offshore oil project under pressure from China

Vietnam has cancelled a major oil project in the South China Sea for the second time in a year in the face of Chinese pressure. State-owned PetroVietnam ordered Spanish energy firm Repsol to suspend planned operations in the Red Emperor field in Vietnams economic zone after coming under pressure from the Vietnamese Government, itself under pressure from China, according to a BBC report.

A rig similar to the one chartered by Repsol - Image ENSCO

Vietnam has been seeking to develop the field (known in Vietnamese as Ca Rong Do) since 2009, and the Repsol-chartered rig Ensco 8504 had been scheduled to depart from Singapore for the drill site last week, but has been held back after the intervention of PetroVietnam, which also has a stake in the block.



A Reuters source with direct knowledge of the situation said government ministries in Vietnam had paused the project while the decision-making politburo debates whether to suspend or indefinitely terminate the contract.



The decision, which hangs on whether the fees incurred by contract cancellation will exceed the cost of resisting Chinese pressure, is on hold until the politburo meets, the source said.



China claims most of the South China Sea, in defiance of international treaties, and has fortified a number of islands to further its claim. It has also blocked previous attempts by Vietnam to drill for oil in the latters exclusive economic zone.



There have been hostilities between the two countries over the seas islands and reefs, one of which in the Spratly Islands in 1988 resulted in the killing of 64 Vietnamese soldiers.



Repsol's local subsidiary estimates that the field contains 45 million barrels of oil and 172 billion cubic feet of gas.



The Spanish company has already committed large sums to the development of the field. It has contracted a Malaysian-owned company, Yinson, to provide a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel at the site for 10 years at an estimated cost of more than $1bn, as well as a production platform for the site.



Overall, according to the BBC source, Repsol and its partners in the project (Mubadala Petroleum and PetroVietnam) are likely to be around $200m out of pocket.



This is the second time that Repsol has been ordered to suspend drilling. This area is adjacent to Block 136/03 where Repsol was ordered by the Vietnamese government to halt its development drilling in July last year.



That decision was reportedly taken after China threatened to attack Vietnamese outposts in a nearby piece of shallow sea known as the Vanguard Bank.



Reports from July 2017 suggested that it was the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, and the Minister of Defence, Gen Ngo Xuan Lich, who insisted that the drilling in Block 136/03 be stopped in order to avoid confrontation with China. The BBC says it is likely that the same dynamics were at work in the current decision.



Other countries in the region are also keen to develop their offshore oil and gas reserves.

Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines are all coming under pressure from China to concede "joint development" in areas where the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) gives them sole rights. So far all the South East Asian states have resisted the pressure.



Vietnam has chosen to try to develop its fields alone and the result has been military threats from China and, now, a second climb-down, raising questions over Vietnam's offshore potential.



Speculation may well now turn to the fate of Exxon Mobil's Blue Whale gas project off central Vietnam. However, that is closer to land and so may not incur China's ire.



Contact Details and Archive...



We're a family of seven living in Georgia where Andrew's working as a professor at GSU. You can read more about us hereThe Swedish aviation tax will effectively raise fares for continental flights by six euros and those for longer, intercontinental flights by 25 or 40 euros.

The Parliaments Finance Committees transport division is perhaps surprisingly supportive of the idea of adopting an aviation tax similar to the one that is scheduled for introduction in Sweden on 1 April, 2018, reports Tekniikka & Talous.

The objective of the controversial tax is to make airlines operating in the country accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions. Bjrn Kjos, the founder and chief executive of Norwegian Air, told the Nordic Business Insider last year that introducing the aviation tax would be counter-intuitive.

We need to reduce [the] airline industrys climate effects [] but global problems need global solutions, he stated.

Tekniikka & Talous on Friday revealed that it asked the regular and complementary members of the transport division, first, whether they believe a similar tax should be introduced in Finland and, second, what they believe would be a suitable tax to levy on a flight costing 500 euros. Nine of the 11 members contacted responded to the survey.

The idea of an aviation tax was welcomed especially by Emma Kari (Greens) and Antti Rantakangas (Centre), the former viewing that the tax would be justified on grounds of environmental concerns and the latter on grounds of climate policy and the need to generate additional tax revenues.

Air traffic produces a notable amount of greenhouse gas emissions. It is justified to target taxes specifically at activities that are harmful to the environment, argued Kari.

The proposal also received some support from Harry Wallin (SDP), Kari Uotila (Left Alliance) and Matti Torvinen (BR). Pigouvian taxes are part of the modern-day world, but we should first see how things pan out in Sweden, viewed Torvinen.

A few members of the division, on the other hand, stated their staunch opposition to the idea.

I dont think a tax like this is necessary, said Timo Heinonen (NCP). Itd hit low-income earners and families with children the hardest and would make it even more difficult for them to travel.

Markku Rossi (Centre), in turn, voiced his doubt about the effectiveness of the proposed tax. There seems to be a tendency to try to solve all problems with new taxes and tax increases. I dont think thats the right way to go. Air traffic wont decrease because of a new tax, commented Rossi.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Daniel Leal-Olivas  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi SuomiThe pamphlet represents a continuation of a rebellion against the regional government reform personified by Jan Vapaavuori (NCP), the Mayor of Helsinki.

The City of Helsinki has published a pamphlet with contributions from 28 leading urban researchers in a bid to urge the government to pay more attention to the special characteristics of cities in drafting its urban policy.

Vapaavuori on Wednesday tweeted that the urban researchers delivered a rather devastating response to the government. He has previously accused the government of ignoring cities entirely in drafting what will be the largest administrative reform ever in Finland, the social, health care and regional government reform.

He has also predicted that the regional government reform will collapse during the course of this spring.

Urban policy making has been relatively invisible in our country in recent years and cities have had a regrettably small role in the national context, he lamented in the foreword of the pamphlet titled The Era of Cities.

His assessment that urban policy has been largely overlooked by recent governments is echoed by many of the researchers contributing to the pamphlet.

Janne Antikainen, a design director at MDI, points out that urban policy all but disappeared from the political debate roughly a decade ago following the collapse of a system founded on strong, city-based municipalities. The debate, he adds, has been re-kindled this winter by the consortium formed by the 21 largest cities in Finland, the so-called C21.

Now, the question comes down to the relationship and linkage between cities and counties in regards to efforts to promote growth and development. No one can yet tell how the overlap between cities and counties will become an interface, he reminds.

MDI is a consultancy specialising in regional development.

Ilpo Laitinen and Jari Stenvall from the University of Tampere, in turn, reminded that cities and urban development are crucial for the success of Finland.

At worst, the social, health care and regional government reform can significantly deteriorate the ability of cities to develop their operations rapidly and thoroughly. The key question is will cities be able to solve issues that are important for people and development as the resources are scattered between a growing number of operators, they say.

If the reform is carried out, will the counties even be willing to solve problems from a city-based standpoint?

Sampo Ruoppila, a research director at the University of Turku, also warned that the regional government reform could squander the resources of cities.

The regional government reform [] under consideration, which perceives all municipalities, including large, vital cities, as municipalities that are in crisis and struggling with population loss, is detrimental for urban policy, he slams.

The reform, he adds, utterly fails to take into consideration the resources, capabilities and special challenges of growing cities.

In the Nordics, the special position of large cities has been taken into account in municipal reforms. Relevance has been their guiding principle for distributing responsibilities for certain public services. Tasks and personnel have also been moved down in the regional hierarchy, towards municipalities. The Finnish government is swimming against the current, says Ruoppila.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Vesa Moilanen  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi SuomiCould not establish database connection.

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The administrator has been notified and will resolve the problem ASAP.J. L. BELL is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. He is particularly interested in the experiences of children in 1765-75. He has published scholarly papers and popular articles for both children and adults. He was consultant for an episode of History Detectives, and contributed to a display at Minute Man National Historic Park.







Indiana University: TEMPE, Arizona  March 25, 2018 - The Indiana University track and field teams both finished third overall and second within the Big Ten at the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge hosted by Arizona State at the Sun Angel Stadium.





After the two-day competition, the mens team finished with a total of 108 points behind Big Ten foe Nebraska (166.5 points) and LSU (128 points). The womens team finished with 95 points behind LSU (130 points) and Nebraska (109.5).





On the track the Hoosiers set 13 personal records Saturday afternoon starting with Zykeria Williams in the 110m hurdles and William Session in the 110m hurdles. Williams took fifth place with the time of 13.60 in her outdoor debut. Session finished second overall with the time of 13.84. Session also ran the 400m hurdles where he took fourth with the time of 53.47. Jeyland Valentin set a personal record when she finished seventh overall with the time of 1:00.59. in the womens 400m hurdles.





In the 100m, Megan Grabowski ran a personal best time of 11.82 (11.813) to earn a third place finish. Natalie Price finished close behind Grabowski with a sixth place finish and the time of 11.85 (11.846). On the mens side Treyton Harris ran his career-first 100m dash and finished fourth with the time of 10.71.





The Hoosiers set two new personal records in the 200m dash. Freshman Natalie Price was cool, calm and collected in her first outdoor collegiate meet when she crossed the finish line third with her career best time of 23.79. Derek Grimmer took fourth place with a personal best time of 21.86.





Daniel Kuhn opened his outdoor season with a first place finish in the 400m, crossing the finish line in 47.24. On the womens side Kendell Wiles earned a second place finish when she ran a personal best time of 54.24. Mallory Mulzer also set a new personal record with the time of 57.00, which earned her an eighth place finish.





In the 1500m, there were a total of four personal records set. Haley Harris led the way for the Hoosiers earning a third place finish and a new personal best time of 4:25.79. Hannah Stoffel took seventh with the time of 4:29.83 and Lexa Barrott closed out the personal records for the women with a ninth place finish with the final time of 4:31.20.





On the mens side Joe Murphy kicked off his outdoor season by leading the Hoosiers to a first place finish while setting a new personal record of 3:44.24. Teddy Browning finished second overall with the time of 3:44.84.





Cooper Williams returned to the track for the first time after taking the indoor season off. He took first in the mens 800m with the time of 1:50.19. On the womens side Kelsey Harris finished second overall with the time of 2:06.45.





The 4x400m relays closed out the track events for the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge. On the womens side the team consisting of Riley Egbula, Natalie Price, Jeyland Valentin and Kendell Wiles finished fourth overall with the time of 3:40.27. On the mens side Derek Grimmer, Cooper Williams, Treyton Harris and Zubin Muncherji took second with the time of 3:11.29.





In the field the Hoosiers set two personal records starting with Nycia Ford on day one of competition. Ford moved up *** slots in the record book when she set a new personal record in the hammer throw with the mark of 59.58m (195 5). She now holds the third best mark school history behind *** and ***.





Khayla Dawson opened her outdoor season with a first place finish and a new personal record in the womens shot put. Dawson won with the mark of 16.72m (54 10.25), which is the fifth best mark in school history. On the mens side, Willie Morrison returned to action after taking the indoor season off. Morrison finished third overall in the mens shot put with the mark of 18.82m (61' 9").





In the pole vault, Adam Coulon and Rachel Mather both took third place. Coulon cleared 5.07m (16' 7.5") to earn his third place finish and Mather cleared 3.72 m (12' 2.5").





In the jumps, Paul Galas cleared 2.10m (6' 10.75") on his *** attempted to earn a second place finish. Eric Bethea earned a third place finish with his first jump of the evening with the mark of 15.05m (49' 4.5"). On the womens side, Leah Moran finished fourth in the long jump with the mark of 5.82m (19' 1.25") and the triple jump with the mark of 12.12m (39' 9.75"). Aaliyah Armstead took fifth in the long jump with the mark of 5.79m (19' 0").





Indiana University track and field will be back in action next weekend when they travel to two meets. The Hoosiers will send athletes to the Florida Relays in Gainesville, Fla. and some distance athletes to the Stanford Invitational in Stanford, Calif.





For complete coverage of everything Indiana track and field and cross country, make sure to follow the teams via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.





#GoIUThe No. 4 Ohio State University men's volleyball team (11-3, 4-1 MIVA) tasted defeat in a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association for the first time in 747 days, coming out on the wrong end of a 25-18, 25-22, 25-23 ledger of a Top-10 battle at No. 9 Lewis University (10-4, 4-1 MIVA). The Buckeyes had won 38 consecutive MIVA match-ups, dating back to Feb. 6, 2016. Ohio State was also riding an eight-match winning streak overall the past four weeks.

Ohio State attacked .338 as a team, but struggled to slow down the Flyer attack. Lewis swung .373 and recorded three more blocks and four more aces than OSU in securing the upset victory.

Ohio State attacked .338 as a team, but struggled to slow down the Flyer attack. Lewis swung .373 and recorded three more blocks and four more aces than OSU in securing the upset victory.

A Buckeye service error opened the set and Lewis maintained the subsequent lead throughout, stretching the margin to as many as nine points without ever relinquishing the upper hand in a 25-18 winner.

SET 1: A Buckeye service error opened the set and Lewis maintained the subsequent lead throughout, stretching the margin to as many as nine points without ever relinquishing the upper hand in a 25-18 winner.This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services, to personalize ads and to analyze traffic. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. Learn more here

*Cindy* 1) $10 Amazon Gift Card: Deb Gramie Burgess 2) The Cowboys: Dawn LeGros 3) Rescuing Her Heart: Cindy Klemm *Denise* Audio Codes for The Witness Tree: Marilyn Ridgway and Licha Hanley *Mary* 1) Audio code for The Damsel's Intent: Danielle Grandinetti Owen 2) Reader's Choice: Brenda Walters *Linda* 1) Gold Rush Bride Hannah: Lisa Turley and Jennifer Devon Hibdon 2) $5.00 Gift card to retailer of their choice (Kobo, B&N, AppleBooks, Amazon): Tami le Roux *Grand Prize*: Bonnie Yepsen Weinman *Blog Winners*: 1) Spies & Sweethearts: Sheila64 2) Bent Tree Bride: Roxanne Cruz 3) Rescuing Her Heart: Natalya Lakhno 4) The Debutante's Secret: Connie Porter Saunders

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Winners must leave their email address and will be notified by email and the winners name will be announced in the days comments. No one under 18 can enter our giveaways. No purchase is necessary. All winners have one week to claim their prize. USA shipping only. Offer void where prohibited. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants.A seeming throwback to an earlier era, the Vickers 161 nevertheless packed a heavy punch.

There have been many instances in which warplanes were specifically designed around the armament they carried. Few examples have been as extreme or bizarre in appearance, however, as the Vickers Type 161. What makes the aircraft even stranger is that it looks like a fighter developed around 1915, but the Vickers 161 was actually built in 1930, when its archaic pusher configuration was generally considered long obsolete.

Vickers developed the 161 to satisfy a British Air Ministry request for a single-seat bomber interceptor, and the weapon around which it was designed was Coventry Ordnance Works 1-pounder quick-firing gun. Developed in 1915, COWs 1-pounder was a recoil-operated 37mm automatic cannon, nearly eight feet long and weighing 200 pounds. On one occasion when a COW gun was test-fired from a Voisin pusher in 1915, the recoil reportedly tore the wings off the fuselage, killing the occupants in the ensuing crash. But by the time World War I ended, further developments in both weaponry and aircraft had reached a stage where a few examples were being successfully installed on operational airplanes.

As a result of the post-WWI economic downturn, in 1925 Vickers took over Coventry Ordnance Works and its patents. Nevertheless, the Air Ministry remained interested in the COW gun. During the 1920s, COW 1-pounders were installed experimentally in the forward gunners cockpits of a few of the larger flying boats for use against submarines or small surface vessels. In addition, Bristol was contracted to develop a twin-engine, three-seat heavy fighter in 1924 that was to be armed with two of the 1-pounders. The resulting aircraft, dubbed the Bristol Bagshot, proved to be underpowered and was soon abandoned.

In 1927 the Air Ministry issued a new specification, F.29/27, for a single-engine, single-seat COW gunarmed bomber destroyer. The gun was to be mounted to fire forward and upward at a 45-degree angle. The idea was that the fighter would attack enemy bombers from below and behind.



Vickers pusher biplane design for the COW-gun fighter differed from the tractor monoplane configuration of the Westland F.29/72. (AirTeam Images) Vickers pusher biplane design for the COW-gun fighter differed from the tractor monoplane configuration of the Westland F.29/72. (AirTeam Images)

Both Westland and Vickers produced prototypes with the COW gun obliquely firing forward and upward, and positioned so the pilot could reach it to reload or clear jams. The Westland prototype was a conventional and, for the time, modern-looking low-wing tractor monoplane. Vickers solution was quite the antithesis: a pusher biplane in which the pilot was seated in a nacelle attached to the bottom of the upper wing. A Bristol Jupiter radial engine, mounted at the rear of the nacelle, drove a four-blade propeller. The tail was attached to the aircraft by means of a latticework of streamlined struts. A long, cone-shaped fairing extended from the propeller hub to the tailplane, supposedly enhancing directional stability.

That Vickers elected to use such an archaic configuration may seem less surprising when one considers that the company developed a whole series of pushers during WWI, and persisted with the configuration far longer than most other manufacturers of that period. In 1912 Vickers had built the first airplane specifically designed to carry a machine gun, the experimental Vickers EFB-1 Destroyer. That prototype evolved into the F.B.5 Gunbus, which may have been the first purpose-built air combat fighter to enter series production. As late as May 1917, when most other manufacturers had abandoned that configuration, Vickers flew its F.B.26 Vampire, a single-seat pusher fighter that shared similarities with the 161.

In spite of its anachronistic appearance, the 161 included many modern features. Apart from fabric covering on the wings and tail surfaces, the entire airframe was constructed from lightweight aluminum alloy, and the nacelle was of monocoque structure. The state-of-the-art Bristol Jupiter VIIF air-cooled radial engine produced 530 hp.

First flown on January 21, 1931, the Vickers 161 seems to have performed fairly well apart from a minor degree of directional instability, remedied by installing a slightly larger-chord fin and rudder. During September of that same year, the 161 was delivered to the Armament and Aircraft Experimental Establishment at Martlesham Heath for official evaluation. By that time, however, the Royal Air Force had begun to lose interest in the COW gun, and further development was soon abandoned. Considering that RAF fighter pilots of the day had the choice of flying either the Vickers 161 or the more advanced Hawker Fury, thats not surprising. Moreover, the COW guns 50 rounds of ammunition came loaded in five-round clips, which the pilot had to reload by hand while flying the airplane.

The sole Vickers 161 built was 23 feet 6 inches long, with a 32-foot wingspan and a gross weight of 3,350 pounds. Its top speed was recorded as either 185 mph or 169 mph; given the aircrafts outdated configuration, the latter figure seems more reasonable.

Although the RAF eventually rejected the 1-pounder COW gun and the specialized fighters designed to carry it, Vickers would go on to develop an updated version, the Vickers S Gun, chambered for its own 40mm ammunition. Armed with a single S Gun beneath each wing, the Hawker Hurricane became a very effective anti-tank and ground-attack aircraft, and was widely used in North Africa and Burma during World War II.

This feature originally appeared in the May 2018 issue of Aviation History. Subscribe today!Waco is the place to go for Ranger memorabilia.

Texas and Rangers go together like Waco and Dr. Pepper or, if thats not your drink, Waco and Big Red. This year the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco marks four decades of showcasing, interpreting and promoting the legendary Western law-enforcement agency. The museum, a joint project of the Rangers, the city of Waco and the state of Texas, presents more than 14,000 artifacts and exhibits. Its gallerieswhich include the Hall of Fame and one devoted to pop culturecover the history of the Rangers since the early 1820s and include items dating to their Spanish and Mexican origins. The museum also serves as the official historical repository and state library for the agency, as well as headquarters for the Texas Department of Public Safety and Company F, the largest Ranger contingent.

In 1821 Stephen Fuller Austin continued to bring American settlers to the Mexican territory of Tejas, as agreed upon in a contract between his late father, Moses, and Mexico. In 1823 Mexico allowed Austin to call for 10 mento act as rangers for the common defense.The wages I [Austin] will give said 10 men is $15 dollars a month payable in property. In 1835, as the movement for Texas independence approached the boiling point, colonial Texas representatives created a Corps of Rangers, ostensibly to protect the frontier from hostile Indians. They provided for three companies of Rangers; privates were to enlist for one year at $1.25 per day for pay, rations, clothing and horse service.

The Garrison Gallery recounts this early history and chronicles the transformation of the Ranger badge down through the years. It also highlights various Colts. Prior to statehood, the Republic of Texas was among the first customers for New England gunsmith Samuel Colts .36- caliber five-shot Paterson, which became the Rangers weapon of choice. When Ranger Samuel H. Walker suggested improvements to the revolver, Colt was all ears, and the Walker Colthistorys most powerful black powder repeating handgunwas born. It would take a Texan to shoot it, Walker once exclaimed.

The Morris Gallery trails the service up to 1935. In the early years, Rangers primarily fought bandits and raiding Indians, but they readily took on Mexicans in the late 1840s and then Yankees in the early 1860s. From 1865 to 1873, the state-regimented agency enforced unpopular carpetbagger laws. In 1874 the Texas legislature created two Ranger forcesthe Frontier Battalion, led by Major John B. Jones, and the Special Forces, under Captain Leander McNelly. With these new units, the Rangers were able to better track and capture such infamous outlaws as Texas tough John Wesley Hardin. Ranger John B. Armstrong nabbed the hardened killer in Pensacola, Fla., in 1877, and Hardin served a lengthy prison sentence. The Rangers caught up to and gravely wounded train robber Sam Bass at Round Rock, Texas, in 1878. A minted gold coin from one of Bass prior robberies is on display at the museum, among other outlaws loot and hardware.

While combating rustlers, robbers, feudists, lynch mobs and outright killers, the Rangers continually improved their techniques and incorporated the latest anticrime technology. By the turn of the 20th century, they boasted a solid national reputation. The Rangers reinvented themselves time and again, says Byron A. Johnson, executive director of the museum.

The Frontier Battalion disbanded in 1901, and the new Ranger force, comprising four companies, evolved into an agency with the right to perform all duties of any peace officer. Frank Hamer, who became a Ranger in 1906, made the transition from riding down frontier badmen to capturing Depression-era badmen. Hamer resigned in 1933 but was called back the following year to track down Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. On May 23, 1934, Hamer and fellow lawmen killed the infamous duo in a blaze of gunfire near Gibsland, La. The museum holds one of Parkers handguns, while Hamer graces the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame, dedicated to those who served with distinction or gave their lives in the line of duty.

In 1935 the Texas Rangers and Texas Highway Patrol were incorporated into the newly created Texas Department of Public Safety, and today Rangers still patrol the Lone Star State. The Pop Culture Gallery reflects their longstanding mass appeal, featuring the likes of the Lone Ranger and Chuck Norris (Walker, Texas Ranger). For more information, visit www .texasranger.org or call 254-750-8631.

Originally published in the October 2009 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.A Japanese spy who admired the U.S. tried to prevent warand later had a hand in punishing those responsible for it



The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, Virginia. (Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress) The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, Virginia. (Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress)

B eneath the immense crystal chandelier of the Greenbriers Cameo Ballroom, Germans and Japanese were about to fight. The scene was an April 1942 get-to-know-you dance for German and Japanese diplomats, staff, and families caught behind enemy lines since Pearl Harbor and temporarily detained at the White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, resort. But when a Japanese man invited a German woman onto the dance floor, the Germans took offense. Axis allies squared off until supervising FBI agents intervened.

Until a few days before the April dance, the Germans had shared quarters at the Greenbrier with a group of Italiansall since December 22, 1941, awaiting exchange for Americans similarly detained overseas. Though under watchful FBI eyes, the two groups were at each others throats. When Germans Sieg Heiled, Italians ignored them, and greeted German affronts with challenges to duel. On April 2, 1942, realizing the Greenbriers social dynamics needed reshuffling, authorities sent the 237 Italians to the Grove Park Innin Asheville, North Carolinaand replaced them with the 330 Japanese previously housed at the Homestead, an equally posh facility in Hot Springs, Virginia.

Unfortunately, German-Japanese cohabitation proved even worse than German-Italian. The ballroom ruckus was just one example of the racial animus and mockery the Germans displayed. On April 18, when news of the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo reached the Greenbrier, Germans greeted Japanese venturing into the dining room with long shrill whistleslike falling bombsculminating in loud slaps on the tables.

One of the Americans keeping the sides apart was 33-year-old Roy L. Morgan, a husky, balding West Virginia native. Morgans easygoing manner made him ideal to head security for the Japanese detainees and, in true G-man fashion, he cultivated low-level informants among them.

That effort evolved into a close relationship with Japans Washington embassy press attache, Hidenari Terasaki, 42. Dapper and ingratiating, Terasaki became a frequent source of information, which Morgan transmitted, from the Homestead and later the Greenbrier, to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Terasaki was angered by the authoritative and overbearing Germans whose fatherland is out to get all it can of Japan. But he was also intent on setting the record straight on just how and why Japan had stumbled into war with the United States.

POSTED TO JAPANS WASHINGTON, DC, embassy in March 1941 as war clouds gathered, Hidenari Terasaki possessed unique qualificationsalong with a potential liability. Fluent in English, he was well versed in American life and customs from studies at Brown University. But his affinity for the United States had taken a risky turn. In 1930, during his first DC posting, he met Tennessee native Gwendolen Harold at an embassy function. The couple courted and planned to marry, but their East-meets-West union (she called him Terry) faced resistance. While Gwens mother reconciled to the marriage, her father and many Tennessee relatives never did. For Terry, the marriage required special family and government dispensations. With his parents deceased, Terry, by established custom, sought and obtained permission to marry from his elder brother Taro, a highly placed foreign ministry official.

In overcoming official hurdles to marrying a foreigner, Terry could point to the example of Saburo Kurusu, a ranking diplomat who had married an American. Terry also possessed an influential patron: Mamoru Shigemitsu, then Japans ambassador to China. Still, while Japans foreign ministry reluctantly assented to the marriage, Gwen thereafter became known in Japanese diplomatic circles as Terasakis folly.

Amity with America began to sour around the time Japan transferred Terry and Gwen to Tokyo in 1932. After aggressively subjugating Manchuria that year, the belligerent empire embarked on a full-blown Sino-Japanese war. During the De- cember 1937 siege of Nanking, Japanese aircraft sank American gunboat Panay, killing or wounding scores of Americans. Then, in September 1940, Japan joined Germany and Italy in the Tripartite Pact, a mutual defense alliance supporting Japans hegemony in Asia.

In such fraught times, suspicions preceded the couples March 1941 return to the United States. In February, the FBI received a letter from Gwens first cousin, U.S. Army Air Corps Lieutenant Richard C. Hughes. Angered at Gwens disgraceful marriage, Hughes had reason to suspect her loyalty. Gwens Jap husband might order her to gain access to information or place[s]which would be inaccessible to him.



Pictured in 1929 (right), Terasaki pursued post-graduate studies in English literature at Brown University before becoming an attache at the Japanese embassy in Washington, DC. There he met his future wife, Gwenleft in 1937 with the couples daughter, Mariko. (Courtesy of Cole Miller, bridgetothesun.org) Pictured in 1929 (right), Terasaki pursued post-graduate studies in English literature at Brown University before becoming an attache at the Japanese embassy in Washington, DC. There he met his future wife, Gwenleft in 1937 with the couples daughter, Mariko. (Courtesy of Cole Miller, bridgetothesun.org)

Of more consequence, however, were the conclusions high-level American intelligence officials had reached about Terry. The U.S. military was deciphering Japanese diplomatic dispatches that suggested Terrys duties might include espionage. One December 1940 decrypt revealed that Terrys actual job would be widening the [Japanese] intelligence neteven if there should be a severance ofrelations. The State Department and FBI pegged Terry as Japans American spymaster.

THERE WAS SOME TRUTH IN THIS, but the circumstances were more complicated. There indeed were full-fledged Japanese spies using diplomatic cover. The same month Terry reached Washington, three U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence operatives burgled Japans Los Angeles consulate and photographed documents exposing Japans entire West Coast spy network. The mastermind, a consulate translator, was actually a Japanese naval officer reporting to the Washington embassys naval attache.

The upended plot demonstrated how Japanese personnel parceled out cloak-and-dagger activities. While military attaches organized wide-ranging espionage (criminal, save for diplomatic immunity), their civilian counterparts mined political and strategic intelligence. Terry, for example, had three assignments: using propaganda to sway American thought leaders, accessing open sources to gather political and strategic insights, and cultivating isolationist supporters in hopes of preventing American intervention.

This was not unusual for any nation. For Japan, however, the military-civilian divide became increasingly consequential as its militarists gained control of Japans governance through intimidation, intrigue, and assassinations. So ascendant were they that, beginning in 1936, Japans war and navy ministers had to be chosen from among active duty generals and admirals. In effect, Japans government (nominally run along parliamentary lines) belonged to military cliques: if they ordered key cabinet ministers to resign, the government would topple.

While Terry admired the United States, he considered himself a Japanese patriot. A staunch anti-Communist, he supported Japans 1932 seizure of Manchuria as a bulwark against Soviet Russia. But he also believed war with America was unthinkable and viewed the Tripartite Pact as a design for war.

Matters converged in October 1941 when General Hideki Tojo, the cabinets ultra-right army minister, became Japans premier. Terry grew convinced that to avert calamity, DC embassy officials would have to circumvent traditional channels to prompt Emperor Hirohitos direct intervention. Because Tojo was unquestioningly loyal to the emperor, Hirohito might yet prevent Tojo from going to war.

Hope rose with the mid-November arrival in Washington of diplomat Saburo Kurusu, dispatched as a special envoy at the request of Japans ambassador to the United States, Kichisaburo Nomura. Like Terry, Kurusu possessed a strong connection to the U.S.: he and his American wife Alice were parents to three children, two born in the States.

Still, war appeared inevitable. On November 26, 1941, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull handed Nomura and Kurusu a Ten Point Note outlining American terms for peace, including Japans withdrawal from China and French Indochina. Knowing Japans warlords would reject the terms and attackbut not knowing when, where, or howNomura wired Tokyo, attempting to resign. I will take no part in deceit, he professed, but received no reply.



Japanese ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura and special envoy Saburo Kurusu flank U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull en route to the White House. Bottom: personnel depart the Japanese embassy for detainment, eventually at the Greenbrier. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images) Japanese ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura and special envoy Saburo Kurusu flank U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull en route to the White House. Bottom: personnel depart the Japanese embassy for detainment, eventually at the Greenbrier. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)

Now, Kurusu enlisted Hidenari Terasaki for one last bid. I am thinking to have Mr. Roosevelt send a wire to the Emperor, Kurusu confided to Terry on November 27. No one but the Emperor can prevent war now.

Nomura and Kurusu had earlier suggested to Tokyo that Roosevelt and Hirohito exchange goodwill telegramsonly to be rebuffed. But if another party induced Roosevelt to initiate a direct appeal, it still might work. Cant you somehow manage to achieve it? Kurusu asked Terry, knowing he cultivated peace advocates who had Roosevelts ear. There was a risk, though: if Terrys role was uncovered, he and his family faced disgrace, even death. But, declared Kurusu, he and Nomura had already courted treason: It is your turn.

Terry saw a possible go-between in Eli Stanley Jones, a well-regarded Methodist evangelist, missionary, and FDR confidant. Over lunch on November 28, Terry convinced Jones to act as intermediary, emphasizing the ploy should be quite secret from Japanese militarists. Jones met with Roosevelt on December 3, explaining the telegram idea came from unnamed Japanese patriots. When FDR replied that he was already disposed to send just such an appeal, Jones urged no revelation of the source. Otherwise, their heads would not be worth much.

Roosevelts telegram reached Tokyo at 8 p.m. on December 6. American ambassador Joseph C. Grew was to personally present it to Hirohito at the earliest possible moment, but Japans military delayed its reaching Grew. Meanwhile, Tokyo began sending a 14-part dispatch to its DC embassy, breaking off talks. Its delivery to Secretary of State Hull the next afternoonwith the Pearl Harbor attack already underwaycast infamy on Nomura, Kurusu, and all of Japan.

TERRYS MOTIVES FOR SUPPLYING information to G-Man Roy Morgan while at the Homestead and Greenbrier thus mixed self-interest with the urge to resurrect the personal reputations of Nomura and Kurusu. Terry stressed that neither man knew about the Pearl Harbor attack in advance. Both, in his words, felt they had lost face with all diplomats because of their presence at the State Department trying to make peace negotiations at the same time Pearl Harbor was being bombed. Terry assailed Japans militarists while insisting Japan had been boxed-in by American intransigence.

Since Morgan and J. Edgar Hoover considered Terry Japans U.S. spymaster, they may well have viewed him as a valuable information sourceperhaps even a potential double agent. But State Department officials saw him only as a threat. Indeed, when the diplomatic exchange process finally began in June 1942, they considered him among the last persons who should be exchanged. Nonetheless, fearing retribution against U.S. diplomats trapped in Japan, the State Department cleared Terry, Gwen, and their daughter Mariko, 9, to return to Japan.

Upon arriving in Yokohama in August 1942, the Terasakis faced wartime hardships. Helped by Terrys brother, they initially resided in Tokyo, where Gwens presence caused inhabitants to starealthough more with confusion than animosity. As the war increasingly turned against Japan and conditions deteriorated, however, the family sought shelter in one of Honshus remote eastern seacoast villages. It was there, in autumn 1944, that Terry first spotted B-29s soaring over the coast, bound for inland cities. This is the beginning of the end, he told Gwen and Mariko.

In April 1945, as Japan emerged from the wars coldest winter, the Terasakis moved to a summer house in the mountains about 100 miles northwest of Tokyo. They were lucky to find sanctuary. Ever since the March 9, 1945, Tokyo fire-bombing, thousands of refugees, many with frightful burns, had fled the cities. Years of wartime privation had taken a toll. Signs of starvationdizziness, wan pallor, exposed rib cages, split and bleeding fingernailsset in for everyone. Terrys once robust health succumbed to untreated hypertension, keeping him bedridden. Mariko suffered dengue fever. She recovered, but circumstances took an apocalyptic turn. Local authorities instructed the Terasakis and their village neighbors to sharpen bamboo poles as weapons to repel American invaders.

On July 26, 1945, the Allies delivered the Potsdam Declaration, warning of utter destruction unless Japan met four surrender demands: military demobilization, Allied occupation, purging those who have deceived and misled the people of Japan, and submitting to war crimes trials administered by Allied jurists. Two weeks later, Terry learned of Hiroshimas August 6 and Nagasakis August 9 bombings. Finally, on August 15, word came to assemble for an unprecedented radio broadcast by the emperor. The end of the war was at hand.

Three weeks after the formal September 2 surrenderon September 27, 1945Emperor Hirohito first visited General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander for the Allied powers (SCAP). MacArthur greeted the diminutive emperor with easy cordiality. The general intended to use Hirohitos popularity to smooth Japans postwar transition, at the same time burnishing his own reputation. But first MacArthur had to convince vengeful skeptics that Hirohito was not responsible for Pearl Harbor. It was no easy matter: 70 percent of Americans favored Hirohitos punishment, even execution.

By then, many war crimes tribunals were well underway in jurisdictions across the Pacific, but MacArthur hoped to proceed cautiously in Japan. Still, the Potsdam Declaration demanded trials. Moreover, an August 25 communication from the London-based United Nations War Crime Commission (UNWCC) urged that Japanese war crimes suspects be apprehended for trial before an international military tribunal. Washington soon specified war crime categoriesClass A: those planning, initiating, or waging war in violation of treaties; Class B: those violating the laws and customs of war; and Class C: those carrying out torture and murder. Subject to Washingtons determination, Hirohitos prosecution was still possible.



General Douglas MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito (left) meet on September 27, 1945. Terasaki and family had returned to Japan in 1942 (right). (From left, The Everett Collection; Courtesy of Cole Miller, bridgetothesun.org) General Douglas MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito (left) meet on September 27, 1945. Terasaki and family had returned to Japan in 1942 (right). (From left, The Everett Collection; Courtesy of Cole Miller, bridgetothesun.org)

Arrests got underway. Class A suspects included Hideki Tojo who, prior to his imprisonment, had tried but failed to commit seppukuritual suicide. That November, when the UNWCC sent MacArthur its Class A suspect recommendations, the list contained an ominous surprise. Though Hirohito himself wasnt on the list, Koichi Kido, the emperors principal confidant, was. SCAP worried that Kidos prosecution might inevitably implicate Hirohito, thereby complicating Japans transition to peace.

IT WAS AT THIS JUNCTURE that Terry Terasaki, though ailing and long removed from diplomatic influence, began his own resurrection. He, Gwen, and Mariko had moved back to Tokyo, surviving by what residents called onionskin livingselling personal belongings for food, fuel, and medicine. Fortunately for them, Terrys fluency in English earned him an appointment as liaison between Hirohitos court and SCAPs General Headquarters. In that role, he met SCAPs military secretary, Brigadier General Bonner Fellers, whom MacArthur had deputized to shield Hirohito from prosecution. Learning Terry was married to an American, Fellers asked Gwens maiden name. Gwen was a Harold from Tennessee, Terasaki told him. We have to be some kind of cousins-in-law! a delighted Fellers exclaimed, implying he and Gwen shared Tennessee roots.

A second stroke of fortune came on January 31, 1946, with the Tokyo arrival of Roy Morgan who, it turned out, would be chief investigator for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE)the multinational war crimes panel set to convene that April. He and dozens of colleagues would be digging up evidence against Class A defendants. While most IMTFE investigators neither spoke Japanese nor possessed local sources, Roy Morgan was doubly advantaged. He knew many Japanese from his days at the Homestead and Greenbrier. And Terry Terasakiwhom Morgan easily tracked down via SCAPboth spoke English and was well connected.

Morgan first interviewed Terry on February 12, 1946, careful to treat him as a source, not a potential defendant. During the lengthy interview, Terry rarely mentioned Hirohito but did defend his foreign ministry colleagues and seemed ready to implicate Class A targets. The two met again six days later. This session was brief, purposely so. Terry delivered a list of individuals heand, by clear implication, Hirohitodeemed responsible for deceitfully waging war. The 44

designated culprits included military leaders but also political operatives, rightist agitators, and industrial profiteers.

In early March, with IMFTE tribunals set for May, it became General Fellerss turn to employ Terry Terasaki. To forestall implicating Hirohito in the trials, Fellers enlisted Terry to help craft a convincing defense. During five separate dictation sessions transcribed and translated by Terry, Hirohito delivered what has become known as his monologue on far-ranging mattersperhaps most consequentially, the Pearl Harbor attack. Terry periodically gave Fellers handwritten updates emphasizing the emperors powerlessness on war matters. During one monologue session, Terry even revealed to Hirohito that MacArthur had telegrammed Washington recommending the emperors exoneration.

IMTFE prosecutors eventually indicted 28 of the roughly 80 Class A suspects in custody. The defendants included four former Japanese premiers (among them Tojo), two foreign ministers, four war ministers, two navy ministers, six generals, two ambassadors, three financial leaders, one imperial advisor (Hirohito confidant Koichi Kido), one radical theorist, and one admiral. Scanning the names and charges, Terrynever an indictment risk himselfsaw that half came from the list he had supplied Morgan back in February. While it first appeared that neither Hirohito nor Terrys friends and mentors faced prosecution, his relief proved short-lived. Russias IMTFE prosecutor forced two additions. One was Mamoru ShigemitsuTerrys long-time patron and Marikos godfather.

The IMFTE trials dragged on for two and a half years, including the seven months it took the justices to reach final judgments. Terry and brother Taro would supply incriminating information (but no direct testimony) on half of the Class A defendants. For the prosecution, colluding with SCAP to absolve Hirohito, the tribunals most unsettling moment came in December 1947. Both prosecution and defense had anticipated that Hideki Tojos testimony would not implicate his beloved emperor. Instead, during cross-examination, Tojo confessed that Hirohito consented, though reluctantly, to the war andworsethat none of us [Japanese] would dare act against the emperors will. In essence, Hirohito, while instrumental in ending the war, was also instrumental in permitting it.



Terasakis patron, Mamoru Shigemitsu, attended the Japanese surrender ceremony (left) and later joined Tojo as an accused war criminal (right). (From left, Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images; Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) Terasakis patron, Mamoru Shigemitsu, attended the Japanese surrender ceremony (left) and later joined Tojo as an accused war criminal (right). (From left, Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images; Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

IMTFE verdicts came down on November 12, 1948, with all Class A defendants convicted on at least one count. Seven defendants, Tojo included, received death sentences. Kido, convicted on five counts, was sentenced to life imprisonment; Shigemitsu, convicted on six lesser counts, received seven years. Those condemned to death were hanged on December 23, 1948; Kido was released for health reasons in 1953; Shigemitsu was paroled in 1950. Hirohito sidestepped war crime accountabilityif not the judgment of historyand continued a largely symbolic reign until his 1989 death.

THOSE STRESS-LADEN YEARS exacted a heavy toll on Terry Terasaki. In 1946, long at risk but still just 45, he suffered a stroke. At years end, he suffered a brain spasm which kept him bedridden six weeks into 1947. By then his role with Morgan, Fellers, and the IMTFE had largely ended. When a heart attack followed that April, he seemed to recover, though he hobbled with a cane. Then, in February 1948, two months after Tojos testimony suggested Hirohito was complicit in war-making, Terry suffered a stroke, making it difficult to speak. Throughout, he never lacked for gratitude from Hirohito, who arranged for court physicians to attend to him. Nor did Terry lose all contact with Fellers, Morgan, or, for that matter, Eli Stanley Jones, all of whom continued warm correspondence.



Terry Terasaki, at home in Tokyo in early 1946: his ties to the U.S. and loyalty to Emperor Hirohito created a complicated legacy. (Courtesy of Cole Miller, bridgetothesun.org) Terry Terasaki, at home in Tokyo in early 1946: his ties to the U.S. and loyalty to Emperor Hirohito created a complicated legacy. (Courtesy of Cole Miller, bridgetothesun.org)

In August 1949 Gwen and Mariko left JapanMariko to attend East Tennessee State University while Gwen resided with her mother. Both were in Tennessee when, in August 1951, Terry, 50, succumbed to a fatal heart attack.

To the last, Hidenari Terasaki seemed unwilling to concede Hirohitos role in precipitating Japans war with America. Terry had risked his life just before Pearl Harbor, seeking Hirohitos intervention to avert war. And after the war, he colluded with American authorities to absolve the emperor. Terrys passing thus sealed a complex, if not contradictory, legacy for a man caught between loyalties to both the Eagle and the Rising Sun. 

For more on Hidenari Terasaki and his involvement with the war, check out the memoirs of his wife Gwen, featuring an introduction written by daughter Mariko: Bridge to the Sun: A Memoir of Love and War.

This story was originally published in the April 2018 issue of World War II magazine. Subscribe here.Calendar of Events

Want to know whats happening on campus? Youve come to the right place! From musical performances and thought-provoking lectures to signature events and the Privateers next big game, this new visual calendar gives you an overview of events at the University of New Orleans.Grammy-award winning New Zealand comedy duo Flight of the Chonords, aka Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, have announced the rescheduled dates for their Dublin gigs.

The gigs, originally planned for March 25 and April 2 were postponed after one half of the double act, Bret McKenzie, broke two bones in his hand.

coming back and finishing the tour when I have two fully functioning hands. -Bret McKenzie



Full Info: https://t.co/WFuKFltCT3 pic.twitter.com/j8WbgRnFBy  FlightoftheConchords (@fotc) 18 March 2018

The new dates for the gigs in the 3 Arena have been announced for June 15 and 16.

Tickets held for the original shows are transferable for all ticketholders.

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Since meeting as college roommates in New Zealand in the 90s, Clement and McKenzie have, among other things, had their own HBO series, titled Flight of the Conchords, hosted a BBC radio show and released two albums I Told You I Was Freaky and Grammy Award winning Flight Of The Conchords.

Remaining tickets are on-sale from Ticketmaster, with prices starting at 28 including booking fee.This article can only be read with a Premium AccountSimon Coveney now says he's publicly backing Repeal the 8th.

The Foreign Affairs Minister says that he's changed his mind after long conversations with both medical experts and the Minister for Health.

"When it comes to prescribing abortion pills early in pregnancy, I have struggled most with this issue," he wrote in this morning's Irish Independent.

"If we do nothing, we know pills will continue to be purchased online and taken without medical advice or supervision. We cannot knowingly allow this to continue, given the dangers involved."

In what will be seen as a game changer in the public debate, he added: "I will say at Cabinet tomorrow that I could support a law that allows access to such medication up to 12 weeks of gestation, effectively 10 weeks of pregnancy, if it is coupled with strict guidelines  resulting in a clinical protocol to be followed in every case when an abortion is requested."

But he admits that it wasn't an easy decision for him to make. "Removing the equal right to life of the unborn from our Constitution is not something I easily or immediately supported. I say this as a husband and father of three beautiful young girl," he wrote.

Hot Press' Editor Niall Stokes issued an open letter to Simon Coveney last month, asking him to reconsider his previously conservative position on the issue of abortion, by looking at the recommendations of the Citizens Assembly and the Oireachtas Committee.Former Augustines guitarist William McCarthy has announced a gig in The Grand Social on April 26.

McCarthy is on tour with his debut solo album Shelter, released in October 2017, a year after disbanding Brooklyn-based indie rock band Augustines for financial reasons.

Shelter is accompanied by McCarthy's book Unsheltered, an autobiographical collection of stories inspired by songs on the album. Unsheltered is available exclusively to ticketholders.

After the snow melts and the clouds part there is indeed sunlight. Ive gotten to do things this year I never thought possible. Ive worked hard, toured and sung from my heart.



Exclusive access to my new book when you join me on tour!



On sale now - https://t.co/3ELY3lLNtS pic.twitter.com/d8hL4nBjVR  William McCarthy (@thewjmccarthy) March 21, 2018

McCarthy, recognised for his intense and intimate live performances, previously served as guitarist and songwriter for New York bands Pela and Augustines.

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In his spare time, McCarthy records a podcast called Onward, available on iTunes. The podcast is self-described as McCarthy's travels, musings, rants and passions recorded remotely in intermittent Podcast form.

McCarthys tour will see him travel the US, the UK and Ireland and perform several shows in Germany.

Tickets for McCarthys Dublin gig are available now through Ticketmaster and other usual outlets, priced at 22.As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content.

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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.ZaiLab Putting the Cloud into Cloud Contact Center

Back in the early years of this decade, when cloud computing really reached the beginning of its hype cycle, countless vendors were promoting their cloud solutions and services. Yet, several obstacles stood in the way of progress, including security, interoperability and standardization, connectivity and access, service quality, and of course long-term cost models.

These obstacles have since been overcome  to the degree they no longer present a deterrent to cloud adoption. Standards have improved and there is plenty of ongoing interop work between vendors across industries, and APIs have become a common language in the tech space. Connectivity has improved dramatically and were now on the cusp on a major leap with 5G deployments looming. All of these have driven consistency in service quality that has helped increase adoption of cloud services.

Security has become an even bigger issue, but not one thats unique to cloud providers, but one that impacts every provider, business, and individual user on a daily basis. Security risk has, one might say, become a technology standard, but one that cloud providers are often better equipped to handle than most businesses.

Cloud providers using good tools can do a better job of protecting data than you would do yourself, explained John Thielens to me several years ago when he was chief architect of cloud services at Axway. He is now CEO at Cleo, but added back then that, Cloud makes sense, especially for smaller companies, from a security perspective, provided their providers are transparent about their security.

The maturation of cloud services has brought about an entirely new business mindset  and a host of thriving new providers delivering cloud-based communications, contact center, networking and IT, and even security services. While the industry has matured and large enterprises, too, are moving increasingly into the cloud, the model still holds tremendous value for the SMB market, where IT resources are at a minimum.

Many of these new cloud-based providers are taking the approach that simplicity is key  that the value of cloud is muted when there are too many deployment requirements, from minimum licenses, edge devices, and so forth, which still require in-house IT support. Businesses are looking for simple to deploy and simple to manage services at an affordable cost.

The rapid-deployment, low-cost cloud model never really made it a decade ago, because there were too many contractual requirements with the large contact center players who were moving to a cloud model, explains Fokion Natsis, chief sales and strategy officer at ZaiLab. There were all these solutions out there, but none of them were really providing what business wanted  they werent true cloud solutions.

Natsis spent almost six years at what was formerly Interactive Intelligence, which has since been acquired by Genesys, so he has a solid understanding of what businesses are looking for in a cloud solution.

Were trying to change the model at ZaiLab, he says. Were bringing an enterprise-grade contact center to market, fully hosted on Amazons cloud, on a pure consumption model.

Part of the model includes speed of deployment, which the company feels is often complicated by vendors in order to meet specific revenue targets. ZaiLabs record for a 10-seat deployment is five minutes, 35 seconds.

The key is there are no setup fees, no implementation costs, and no ongoing maintenance. Billing is done on a per-second basis for voice, and per-message, per-email, per-web session billing for other interactions.

If youre wondering about the cost model, one customer in the insurance market thought it had been under-invoiced upon receiving its first bill and called ZaiLab to verify. To the customers delight, the two-thirds reduction in cost was, indeed, accurate.

The model is ideal for the SMB market (2-200 seats), which has always seen a barrier to get into a contact center deployment, yet are very much in need of the same capabilities afforded to larger competitors. ZaiLab can scale to meet any business needs, but larger companies tend to have different requirements and in-house teams to manage software, making the model less attractive for them.

Part of the secret is AI-based routing. Voice has always been the channel that requires immediate response, but ZaiLab treats all interactions equally, sending all inbound channels into the same virtual waiting room, where the system performs optimized routing based on agents skills. Its all designed to create the best customer experience within an omnichannel environment.

We really look at all available metrics, explains Natsis. That includes SLA, agent idle time, customer feedback, customer history and other more common data.

In addition, ZaiLab is investing the agent community. The company has already created a training facility to certify home-based agents in South Africa, and is now in talks with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to introduce a similar project here. While most people are afraid of AI and fear it will cause job loss due to a need for fewer agents, ZaiLab sees it as an opportunity to use the training and certification process to create opportunities, especially for new workers, pensioners, retired military personnel, and others who may otherwise have a hard time finding employment.

AI is a very loosely used term today, and we are nowhere near what it really is, Natsis says. We want to use AI to actually create jobs, not reduce them.

Edited by Mandi Nowitz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.This blog is in violation of Blogger's Terms of Service and is open to authors only

If you are an author of this blog, tell us who you are! Sign in using your Account.Jay Gonzalez, Bob Massie, and Setti Warren were asked more than a dozen questions Sunday night.

Democratic Candidates For Governor Share Views at Pittsfield Forum

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The three Democratic candidates all believe that Republican Gov. Charlie Baker can be beat in the fall.

It is just a matter of which one of them will be on the ballot against him.

Will it be former Newton Mayor Setti Warren, former Secretary of Administration and Finance under Gov. Deval Patrick's administration Jay Gonzalez, or author and activist Bob Massie?

"There is a not a single issue where the majority of people feel he is doing a good job," Gonzalez said of Baker.

Polls have constantly shown Baker as being a very popular governor. But, the Democrats say when it comes to the issues, the Republican is just "status quo." Massie said Baker is using a "Jedi mind trick" when it comes to his popularity. But, Massie believes there is a "blue wave" growing throughout the state and with the likes of Elizabeth Warren being challenged on the ballot again, he expects Democrats to head to the polls in big numbers.

"He won by the smallest margin in the history of Massachusetts," Massie said. "This is not as hard as it looks [to beat him]."

Warren said defeating the incumbent is based on being truthful about the state's needs. He quoted Patrick as saying that "Democrats need to grow a backbone" and clearly lay out exactly what it will take to address issues such as transportation, education, and the opioid crisis.

"We cannot be afraid to tell the truth about what it is going to take to get the state heading in the right direction," Warren said.

All three of them want to be the candidate for the Democratic Party. On Sunday, the three handled nearly two dozen questions in making their pitch why they should be supported.

The candidates agreed on many of the issues, but Massie said he brings a deeper, more "structural and more systematic" look at the issues to the race and a lengthy track record in advocating for Democratic principles.

"It is important to get the governorship so we can lead state by state by state," Massie said.

Gonzalez said he is the only the candidate who served a leadership position in state government. That experience is what gives him the ability to not only set an ambitious agenda for the state but to also deliver on it.

Warren said his agenda will include significantly more resources being pushed to education, transportation, and the opioid crisis. And to pay those investments, Warren said he'd push to get millionaires and billionaires, particularly in the eastern part of the state, to contribute more in revenue.

"We've got to as people doing really well to contribute more," Warren said.

He said he'd revamp the Chapter 70 funding formula for schools and push for free public college. He'd look to bolster the regional transit authorities and develop east-west rail and north-south rail. And for opioids, he'd like to see a significant push for clinicians and treatment beds.

The debate was moderated by state Sen. Adam Hinds, who has been working on developing a model for north-south rail. He asked the three candidates what they would do to move that along.

Massie said he would look at the entire transportation system. He is calling for a 10- to 15-year plan, which starts with developing a look at all of the state's transportation needs, determining the wants, what it will take to do it, and have a statewide conversation about how to get there.

"We would launch on a 10-year plan," Massie said, saying transportation is the cornerstone of prosperity for communities.

Gonzalez agreed with the importance of transportation being a driver of economic growth. The issues facing such investments are with the revenues to fund it. Gonzalez believes that the so-called "millionaires' tax," which is a ballot question asking to implement an additional tax burden on incomes over $1 million in a year, will provide the extra revenue needed for the system.

"We need to be looking at east, west rail and not just Springfield being the end of west, but Pittsfield the end of west," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez also believes in placing a priority on broadband expansion. He said it was a priority of his when working in the Patrick administration and he still can't believe that not every corner of the state has access to high-speed internet.

"It is like running water, to have access to high-speed internet. That this hasn't been done is amazing to me," Gonzalez said. "We will do whatever we need to do at the state level to get this done. ... We're falling down on the job under Gov. Baker. This will be a priority for me."

Massie again took a wider look at the issue, saying the lack of broadband access stems from an economic system that gives too much power to corporations.

"I see it as a system problem partly driven by economic power that does not have our interest at heart," Massie said.

It is the same system that is raising electricity costs, he said. He authored a report outlining exactly how the state can move to renewable energies to lower costs. And he'd break apart the rules that give utility companies the ability to essentially set the conditions on public bidding, apply, and then be part of the decision to win the bid.

"We are being misled and ripped off by the utilities," Massie said.

Warren said tackling electric costs starts with revamping the Department of Public Utilities.

"We need to have a department of public utilities that actually works for the public because they are not right now," Warren said.

He, too, supports renewable energy, specifically solar. He said as mayor he had a program in which municipally-owned systems shared power with low-income residents to help lower their bills. It is programs like that he'd like to expand to a statewide level.

Gonzalez said not only do companies have too much power in the DPU but too much power with the governor. He said Baker won't oppose natural gas pipelines or put in policies to accelerate renewable energy. He'd like to see the state adopt carbon pricing. An added benefit is that green energy jobs are one of the fastest growing sectors.

For economic development, Massie said he'd create regional economic plans. Particularly, he said he'd focus on local businesses, change investment rules to promote more local capital investment, have programs to promote local spending, expand business models such as co-operatives, and integrate those economic strategies with goals regarding other issues such as the environment or criminal justice.

Warren also promotes small, local businesses. He'd like to see the state increase its available technical assistance and micro-loan grant programs to help local business grow quicker.

Gonzalez said his economic development goals will be based on finishing the job of expanding broadband and increasing workforce training programs to train workers for the advanced manufacturing jobs.

Massie's focus includes on support farming. He said he'd want to support young farmers taking over farms, promote locally grown food, create land trusts so that those who may not be able to afford the land can still farm it. He said food is a key piece to the state's economic future.

Warren said he'd make sure farmers were able to receive more micro-loans and small grants to survive.

"It is going to take real resources from the eastern part of the state," Warren said.

What none of the candidates said they would have done was give tax breaks to General Electric to move to the Boston area when the Housatonic River has yet to be cleaned. Massie said he'd move away from giving tax breaks to large corporations. He said he doesn't want to give more money to companies that already make a lot of money just for the favor of having them come to the state. Instead, he'd move those tax breaks to small and local companies to become the base of a sustainable economy.

"I want to build homegrown businesses," Massie said.

Warren said he wouldn't have given a tax break and if he had his way, he'd have proposals such as the one for Amazon to include goals such as expanding rail. He said his concept was to pitch Amazon for Worcester and have the company help the state build east-west rail.

All three candidates are supportive of labor unions.

"I think we need unions now more than ever. We are losing the middle class," Gonzalez said.

The former health care executive said there is a Supreme Court case pending that could weaken unions. But it was unions that build the middle the class in the past.

Warren said there is a myth about unions that it raises the costs. But he worked with 17 unions as mayor and was still able to eradicate a structural deficit, grow the city's reserves, and get the process to build five schools starts, all of which are being done with union labor and is on budget and on time.

Massie said it was in the 1980s when he edited a book on labor rights and he has been a longtime union member.

"I have fought for unions. I have defended unions. I believe they are essential to our community, essential to our economy," Massie said.

Nursing unions have pushed for a ballot initiative to set laws around the number of nurses staffed in a hospital. All of the candidates said they'd be in favor of that. Massie has a lengthy history of medical issues and said he knows firsthand the difference a nurse who has the time to give to a patient versus one who doesn't.

"I would not be here without the care I got from nurses, hundreds of nurses," Massie said.

He believes another supportive step is moving toward single-payer health care, which Massie said he's been advocating for in the United States since the 1970s when he received treatment overseas in a country with universal care.

Single-payer health care has been a cornerstone of the Gonzalez campaign. The former executive for Celticare said he is the only one in the race who has experience in the industry. He said he'll be able to work through the ins and outs of the complicated system to create a single-payer model that is "simpler, cheaper, and better."

Warren added that a secondary piece of staffing levels of nurses is making sure there isn't a shortage. He said many people are dropping out of college or not going at all because of the cost. He wants free public college for all to ensure there are enough skilled workers, including nurses.

Public colleges are one piece of Warren's educational platform. He said the state's education funding is providing inadequate amounts to districts that need it the most. He opposes the expansion of charter schools and wants to create more equity in the Chapter 70 state education funding formula.

"We've got to ensure every single district gets funding to education every single child," Warren said.

Gonzalez said he'd support changes to the system and he does not support charter schools.

"It is not in our interest to create a competitive market for public education. Every single school needs to be great for every single kid," Gonzalez said.

Further, he said early education and preschool is "game-changing" for children but many parents can't afford it. He said his priority would create more high quality and affordable preschool programs.

Massie seconded that, saying the first three years are critical in a child's life. He said the state needs creative and innovative workers to fuel the economy, but the education system isn't providing that. He is looking to "redefine" how the state handles education.

"We can't coast on what we've done in the past," Massie said.

Two students at Mount Greylock Regional School in Williamstown had just returned from Saturday's MarchForOurLives in Washington, D.C. They said they, and many teenagers, are interested in politics and policy. So they wanted to know how the candidates would engage with the youth. And, with the march being in opposition to gun violence, they wanted to know what the candidates would do for gun control.

Warren said when he took office the youth commission was structured in a way that adults did the voting and the students were advisers. He flipped that model, making the students the commissioners and giving them a voice in every policy the city took on. He'd expand that model on a state level.

As for gun control, Warren is the only candidate with a military background. He said he carried an M-16 in Iraq and can assure anyone that they have "no business being in our schools, our neighborhoods, our communities."

Massie raised three children so he's had his experience with teens. He'd make sure their voices are being heard. For guns, he said Baker has backed off support from legislation after being pressured by the NRA and he'd push for technology such as fingerprint unlocking devices to make the weapons safer.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez said he'd pursue a ban on assault rifle manufacturing in Massachusetts. He said the rifle used in Florida was manufactured in Massachusetts. Additionally, he said Baker would support lifting a ban on silencers, which Gonzalez said he'd oppose.

"You should never have to go to school or worry about some madman," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez also supports criminal justice reform. He'd like to see more diversionary programs so that those who are addicted to narcotics get treatment and not just sent to jail. He wants programs in place so that when somebody does come out of jail, they don't fall back into bad behaviors. And, he wants to eliminate minimum sentences and reform the system of fees and fines so that people aren't being locked in jail just because they can't afford the fines.

Massie said there needs to be a stronger push to address the underlying racism in the criminal justice system. He supports diversion programs and finding ways to end the cycle of people repeatedly going to jail.

For Warren, criminal justice reform ties in with his push to combat the opioid crisis. He voiced support for treatment programs.

"We need additional beds for detox. We need additional clinicians," Warren said.

Gonzalez said the state doesn't have enough urgency in addressing the epidemic. He supports treatment programs and would like to see other ideas such as safe injection sites to keep people alive long enough to get into treatment programs.

"This is a crisis across the entire state and we are not treating it with the level of urgency this crisis demands," Gonzalez said.

The debate was sponsored by the Berkshire Brigades and the Berkshire Central Labor Council. The brigades are a Democratic organization that works to get progressive candidates elected on all levels of government.

"The Brigades do not endorse a candidate before a primary but after the primary, we work like crazy to get them elected," Chairwoman Shiela Irvin said.An artist's conception of the view looking at the planned brick north building of Williams' science center across the quad to the east. The planned view of the new north building looking south down Hoxsey Street. The north building as conceived in a drawing presented to the town in 2016  seen here looking down Hoxsey Street. PreviousNext

New Williams College Science Building to Look Like One It's Replacing



The late Dagmar Bubriski's 42 Hoxsey St. home will be razed to make way for the new building unless someone comes forward to move it. The Bronfman Science Center can be seen behind it. WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Meet the new Bronfman. Same as the old Bronfman.

That was the message to the Zoning Board of Appeals when Williams College presented final plans for the north building of the college's new science center on Hoxsey Street.

With the south building nearly complete, the college last week obtained final approval from the town for changes to its permit for the north building, which will replace the current Bronfman Science Center, where demolition is set to occur this summer.

Two years ago, the ZBA approved a plan that envisioned a white stone edifice with a peaked roof for the new north building. On Thursday, Williams' general counsel and executive director of design and construction were back at Town Hall with modifications to the college's site plan.

The most noticeable change to the project over the last couple of years is aesthetic. Instead of the stone edifice originally conceived, the college has decided for a brick building largely reminiscent of the current structure  from the outside, at least.

ZBA Chairman Andrew Hoar told the college's reps he was surprised by the changes.

"I'm kind of disappointed  I am disappointed," Hoar said. "We know when we were here before it was a proposed structure. We had testimony from the neighbors, who aren't here tonight. We took testimony on the design of the building on the pitched roof. We talked about sunlight and shadow issues and making sure the neighbors were getting sun.

"We saw a building that was reminiscent of some of the early architecture on campus.  We took quite a bit of testimony based on that design and how it impacted the neighborhood. That's the Zoning Board is all about, in my view: looking at what a large entity wants to do and how it impacts the smaller people around it."

Williams counsel Jamie Art told the ZBA that the college has been in conversation with its neighbors over the last two years about the design change.

"This design is not a surprise to them as it might be other members of the public," Art said. "They have seen it.

"I think it's a testimony to that outreach, particularly by [Executive Director of Design and Construction Rita Coppola-Wallace] and her team, how engaged they are with neighbors continually in that process, that there aren't neighbors here today to express concern."

In fact, the lone resident who spoke from the floor at Thursday's public hearing was on record in support of the college's proposal for the site. And Town Planner Andrew Groff told the ZBA that three residents had visited his office and told him they felt the process with the college was productive.

The ZBA did not attempt to get into the business of being the town's "aesthetics police," but Hoar noted that the project ultimately approved by a 4-0 vote on Thursday was vastly different from the one the body considered during multiple hearings in 2016.

"You're not alone in feeling some regret that the original design is not the final design," Art said. "Personally, I loved the first design. And, I, personally, think this is also a nice design, and it's a fresher Bronfman. It's clearly reminiscent of Bronfman. It responds to the brick in the quad, the brick in the Greylock quad. It's not a markedly different architectural statement in the quad."

In the end, what matters to the psychology, math and geoscience departments that will occupy the north building is what is inside. And the new building  like the 2016 design  will offer the interior flexibility that the 1968 Bronfman Science Center lacks.

Coppola-Wallace, who, like Art, said she liked the 2016 design, explained why the college's Design Review Committee went in a different direction.

"It was so different," she said of the 2016 proposal. "I tend to like the change and difference. It was so different from what is here, Bronfman. Human nature is people sometimes don't like change.

"While it was a building that I personally thought fit nicely into the quad, others did not. Bronfman is a building that sits quietly in the quad and doesn't scream, 'Look at me! I'm 90,000 square feet!'  The other design wouldn't do that. It would say, 'See me.' And that's not what the Design Committee thought this should be."

Because of the switch to a flat roof, like the current academic building on Hoxsey Street, the new north building will have a lower profile than the one planned in 2016. Instead of an average height of 58 feet, 8 inches with the peaked roofs, the new incarnation measures 49 feet, 4 inches at the roof line, an increase of about 2 feet from the current Bronfman.

The 2016 special permit granted the college relief from the town's bylaw requiring a maximum of 35 feet for new construction. It also granted relief from a bylaw requirement limiting development to 20 percent coverage of lot; the entire project  south and north buildings included  now covers 25.89 percent of the applicable lot, Art told the ZBA, slightly less than 26.04 percent the board permitted two years ago.

One element of the special permit the ZBA granted in 2016 no longer applies. Back then, the college needed permission to continue a "pre-existing nonconformity," since the existing Bronfman Science Center is 3 feet closer to its nearest neighbor than the bylaw allows. In spring 2017 the college has acquired the neighboring property, 42 Hoxsey St.

"If anyone is interested in the [2,900-square foot] house, it's free," Art said. "You just have to take it from the site. There will be a hearing with the [town's] Historical Commission on what the timing of the removal is."

Civil engineer Sandra Brock of Nitsch Engineering told the ZBA that the acquisition of the land to the south of the current Bronfman Science Center makes the drainage plan for the new north building easier.

"With the addition of 42 Hoxsey St., there's more breathing room," Brock said. "There's a little more green space next to the building. Before, it was very close to the property line, and there was a drop in grade from where the science center was down to 42 Hoxsey St. From my perspective, we now have more room to organize utilities.

"We're not changing the design dramatically.  The biggest increase was in green space, landscaping."Adams Library Trustees Recover $92K in Stock Certificates



With the certificates in hand, the trustees are on the path to take control of a nearly century-old bequest. ADAMS, Mass.  The library trustees have made some ground on a stray Miller Trust account worth almost $100,000.

Trustee and financial adviser Karen Kettles had some good news for the trustees last week and said the Miller Trust stock certificates, believed to be lost, have been found in the annals of the Donovan O'Connor & Dodig law office.

"Good news we tracked them down," Kettles said. "This will save us money; this is wonderful."

Last month, Library Director Holli Jayko told the commission that she came upon a stray account left by Columbus Miller in his will that contains $92,000 in Bank of America stocks. The trustees want to regain control of the funds and take them out of a single, possibly volatile, stock and put them in a new account under the library's tax identification number.

However, to do this, they need the stock certificates that were nowhere to be found. Their only course of action was to pay to have them replaced.

Chairman James Loughman, who also is an attorney at Donovan O'Connor & Dodig, noted at a past meeting that his firm offered to clean up some accounting issues at the library more than 20 years ago and thought there was a file with more information somewhere in the office.

This happened to be more than true.

"A paralegal read the iBerkshires story on this and it was brought to my attention that sitting somewhere in our vault was the stock certificates," he said. "I had no idea and I turned them over to Karen."

Columbus Miller's story is just as elusive as the lost fund.

Old newspaper reports liken Miller to a recluse or a hermit. One past librarian referred to Miller as "a civic-minded farmer who loved books and frequented the library."

Miller had stock in real estate and upon his death in 1911, with no wife or children, left a sizable amount to the library, some of which was used to build the Miller Annex.

The trustees can't take the money to the bank yet and still have to figure out who is the current trustee, or trustees, of the Miller Fund.

"We will be able to sell as soon as we figure out who is the trustee so that's is where we are," Kettles said.

Loughman said they only have information on who the trustees were through to the 1970s. he suggested the trustee could be Bank of America.

"They were the ones who invested them in their stocks and its constant if you go back it is bank, bank, bank, bank all the way up to Bank of America," he said. "Call Bank of America. That's my recommendation and the recommendation of the person in my office who does this sort of a thing."

Kettles thought that currently no one was managing the money and said it is sitting with a transfer agent.

Loughman said this information may be sitting probate court but it would most likely be a lost effort to go "spelunking" in court without a docket identification number.

Trustee Virginia Duval said the Registry of Deeds used to have a metal box in which it stored estate information.

"I don't know if that box is still there, but it went back really far," she said.

She said she would check if said box still existed and if it contained an identification number for the Miller Estate.The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Berkshire County raised approximately $15,000 at its fourth annual Cupcake Wars fundraiser at Berkshire Hills Country Club.

Berkshires Beat: NAMI Berkshire County Raises $15,000 at Cupcake Wars

Cupcake Wars

The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Berkshire County raised approximately $15,000 at its fourth annual Cupcake Wars fundraiser at Berkshire Hills Country Club on Feb. 1, 250 in attendance. The event began with an Italian dinner prepared by UNICO of Pittsfield. Following dinner, three judges sampled the unique confections prepared by the following bakers and bakeries vying for the best cupcake in various categories: Gould Farm; Linda's Pastries; Berkshire Pathways, a Program of Viability; Simply Sweet; Gimme Some Sugar; Sarah's Cheesecakes & Cafe; and Jennifer's Cookies, Cupcakes & Confections.



The winners were:



People's Choice: Simply Sweet



Best Tasting: Berkshire Pathways, a Program of Viability



Best Presentation: Gimme Some Sugar



Most Creative: Linda's Pastries



All proceeds support the programs of NAMI Berkshire County, which provides information, referrals, classes, workshops, support groups and advocacy to family members and caregivers of people living with mental illnesses throughout Berkshire County. The events sponsors included The Austen Riggs Center; Berkshire Pathways, a Program of Viability; The Brien Center; Gould Farm; Greylock Federal Credit Union; ServiceNet; and Your Personal Best: Workshops for Success.

Dancing to beat cancer



More than $6,300 was raised at this year's Cabin Fever Dance.

The Cancer Center Community Crusaders hosted their fourth annual Cabin Fever Dance at the Elks Lodge in Bennington, Vt., on Saturday, Feb. 24. The event welcomed more than 300 guests who enjoyed an evening themed with the great outdoors including flannel, beard contests, a basket raffle, a 50/50 drawing, door prizes, and DJ services donated by John Wooddell.



Through tickets sales and fundraisers the evening raised over $6,300 for the Southern Vermont Regional Cancer Center's Patient Resource Fund. The 4C's mission is to provide short-term financial, physical, and emotional support to cancer patients who live within the SVRCC service area. The group's 3-year fundraising total tops $125,000. Financial assistance from the SVRCC Patient Resource Fund is available to those currently undergoing cancer treatment and struggling to make ends meet. Types of assistance available include travel expenses for treatments or second opinions, gas cards, help with utility and fuel expenses, dental care, wellness classes, and more.

Picture perfect

The Laurel Hill Association and Stockbridge Land Trust have launched their third annual photo contest. The contest celebrates Stockbridges natural beauty and supports the organizations conservation efforts. People are invtied to submit up to 10 photos of Stockbridges natural environment, in any season, by April 30. There is no fee for submission. For contest rules and to submit photos, go to the website.



The winning and honorable mention photos will appear on the Laurel Hill Association website, and the winning photos will also appear on cards and other items that the Laurel Hill Association and Stockbridge Land Trust will sell as a joint fundraiser.



All proceeds from the sale of the cards will go to Stockbridge Land Trust, whose mission is to preserve the natural, historic, and community resources in Stockbridge, and to The Laurel Hill Association, whose mission is to do such things as shall serve to improve the quality of life and of the environment in Stockbridge.

Good grant

The Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area has received a grant of $388,508 to assist in the restoration of Great Barrington's historic Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church. The funds will be used for Phase 1 construction work to address the most critical needs of the property, located at 9 Elm Court. It is anticipated that the grant funding will allow work to begin by early summer.



The National Park Service African American Civil Rights Grants Program is part of $12.6 million awarded to 51 projects in 24 states that preserve sites and highlight stories related to the African American struggle for equality in the 20th century. The Phase I work on Clinton Church will focus on areas of the building that most urgently need attention, and will include a new wood shingle roof, abatement of mold and mildew, improved drainage, replacement of the basement floor slab, raising the building to make the basement useable, and repair or modification to the parsonage to prepare it to be used for programming and interpretation.



The Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area is a partnership program administered through the National Park Service, and serves the 29 communities of the Housatonic River watershed in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

How to help

Fairview Hospital will host a full day of free programs offering important life-saving skills for lay persons and health and safety professionals on Saturday, March 31, in the Conference Room at Fairview Hospital. Advance registration is required for each program due to limited space. Those interested are asked to call 413- 854-9609 to reserve. There is no charge.



In the morning, two of the programs, both titled "Stop the Bleed Save a Life" will teach the skills of how to control bleeding. The first program, from 9 to 11 a.m., is designed for healthcare providers, emergency medical technicians, first responders and representatives from local police and fire departments. Two hours of EMS Community Education will be offered to those who attend. The second program, targeted to lay persons, will also offer attendees the opportunity of learning the basics of bleeding control. This program will be one hour long, from 11 a.m. to noon.



In the afternoon, "You Are the Help Until Help Arrives" will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. This three-hour class is designed to teach attendees basic skills to keep people with life-threatening injuries alive until professional help arrives. Topics that will be covered include calling 911, keeping you and others safe, how to stop bleeding and how to provide comfort. This class was developed in coordination with Federal Emergency Management Agency's individual and Community Preparedness Division in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and its Medical Reserve Corp.

For the dogs

The Pittsfield City Clerk's Office has begun mailing postcard reminders, a new feature this year, to dog owners about required licensing. In the past, residents have received a notification letter. The annual license period for dogs in the city begins April 1. The postcards were chosen as a cost-savings measure. For more information, please call the City Clerks Office at 413-499-9361.

Channel changes

Northern Berkshire Community Television n North Adams has had their channels moved on Spectrum Cable's local channel listing. The channels, which were formally located on Channels 15, 16, and 17 for subscribers, are now located on Channel 1301 (Public Access), 1302 (Educational Access) and 1303 (Government Access).North County young professionals Amanda Chilson of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, Annie Rodgers and Jessica Sweeney of the ROOTS Teen Center accept their 40 Under Forty awards in the 2017 ceremony.

Biz Briefs: Berkshire Community College Hosts Annual 40 Under Forty Awards

40 Under Forty



This year's awards ceremony will be held Thursday, March 29.

Berkshire Community College, in partnership with 1Berkshire and the Berkshire Eagle, is hosting the third annual Berkshire County 40 Under Forty Awards. The event aims to recognize outstanding young professionals who are excelling in their industries through their leadership roles. The event, taking place on Thursday, March 29, at 5 p.m., will be held at Berkshire Plaza Hotel.



The selection process again this year for winners was competitive and nomination driven. Nominees needed to demonstrate a commitment to business success, personal growth and community involvement. The judging panel was made up of previous winners and community members. The full list of 40 Under Forty winners can be found online.



The event is a major fundraiser for BCC. Monies raised will support a variety of initiatives at the college. The premier sponsor for the 40 Under Forty awards is Berkshire Money Management. Presenting sponsors include General Dynamics Mission Systems, Guardian Life Insurance Company of America and Greylock Federal Credit Union. The Underwriting Sponsors are Berkshire Bank and Raymond James.

Building capacity

Berkshire Bank Foundation is offering new grant opportunity to help meet the evolving needs of nonprofit organizations in communities served by Berkshire Bank. Through the Capacity Building Grant RFP, Berkshire is inviting proposals that seek to build the capacity of nonprofit organizations by providing funds for a variety of activities that will improve the organizations performance and impact. If selected, the organization will be eligible for a grant of $5,000.



The mission of the bank's charitable foundation is to strengthen and improve the quality of life in communities where Berkshire Bank or its affiliates have offices by supporting important programs that will enhance opportunities for children and adults.



Capacity building may be used to bring a nonprofit to the desired level of operational, programmatic, financial or organizational maturity. Capacity building is not just about the capacity of a nonprofit today but about the organization's ability to deliver on its mission into the future. Project examples that will be considered include but are not limited to: the development of a communications strategy, improving program design, improving volunteer recruitment, improving corporate partnerships, technology enhancements, professional development, conference attendance and more.



Gateway grant

Goodwill Industries of the Berkshires has received a $1,000 grant from the Pittsfield Cooperative Bank to obtain two state-of-the-art computers that will be used in the organization's mission services program. The program helps community members with barriers to employment attain independence and self-sufficiency, gain confidence, and enhance quality of life through vocational, educational and work training, along with other support services.

Goodwill served more than 1,400 community members in its mission services program last year and plans to offer a new, retail-focused program in April. Goodwill's "Gateway to Employment" custodial training program, launched in January, recently completed its first session. The next session will begin on May 1. For more information about enrollment in Goodwill's "Gateway to Employment" programs, call 413-442-0061.

Business talk

Business decision makers gathered recently at a round table hosted by Berkshire Money Management to address key challenges facing local business owners and organizations. Fred Rutberg, president of New England Newspapers, Barbara Pickwell of Wohrle's Foods, Zogics, LLC founder Paul LeBlanc, Sarah Eustis, managing director of the Main Street Hospitality Group, and BMM founder and CEO Allen Harris all brought their concerns and ideas to the discussion, which was aired live on the John Krol Show on March 8. The full video can be viewed here.



One of the more pressing challenges that the group brought to the floor is hiring (and retaining) skilled employees. Other general feedback that emerged from the round table included teaming up with other similar businesses to address the same challenges  Eustis said that Main Street is working with others in the local hospitality industry to create a universal training program for new hires; using the technology of big name online services such as Amazon and Airbnb to snag wider markets; and considering the value that customers and clients place on experience.



This first business round table was inspired by the consistent results of the Berkshire Business Confidence Index (BCI) that is distributed quarterly and analyzed by Berkshire Money Management. For the latest results of the Berkshire BCI, click here.

Partners

The Community Development Corporation of South Berkshire has been selected as a Community Partner and awarded a 2018 allocation of Community Investment Tax Credits in the amount of $100,000 from the Massachusetts Community Investment Tax Credit Program. These tax credits are provided by the state to increase the capacity of certified community-based organizations such as the CDC of South Berkshire.



The Department of Housing and Community Development evaluated CDCSB's Community Investment Plan, Statement of Progress and demonstration of previous credit utilization in making this investment decision. The tax credits provide a 50 percent Massachusetts tax credit for donations of $1,000 or greater. The allocation from DHCD allows CDCSB to raise $200,000 in donations. Individuals, businesses, non-profits, and out of state residents can all take advantage of this program.April is Poetry Month, and Starline Books invites the public to celebrate poetry with them on April 11 from 4:30-7 p.m. at 1467 Market St., Suite # 106 in Chattanooga.



The evening event's schedule will be:

4:30 p.m. - Reading by Carole Cohen, with questions and audience interaction following;

5 p.m. - Open Mic, hosted by Ray Zimmerman: Z=MC2; and

6 p.m. - Themed reading, by Finn Bille and Kemmer Anderson.

"Ray will announce an exciting new initiative at this event," officials said. "In the culminating reading, the two poets will use a thematic approach, each poet reading a poem on a specific topic or theme, alternating and addressing questions from the audience.





Some of the topics include Chattanooga, nature, fish and fishing, a pond, trees and birds. This will be a lively and enjoyable reading, a far cry from the sterile academic stand up-read-sit down approach. We would like for you to join us."Ms. Cohen moved from St. Louis to Chattanooga a year and a half ago. She's published two books of poetry and is working on a third. A lot of her poetry is inspired by the woods behind her residence.Mr. Bille is a life-long poet. He has published four collections, and frequently reads his poetry in Chattanooga. He is known for his clear and entertaining readings. Like Mr. Anderson, he writes about Chattanooga and its natural surroundings, as well as his experiences in his native Denmark. He is eager to interact with his audience.Mr. Anderson, teacher and traveler, has published three books of poetry. "His poems, set on his Wing Shadow Farm on Walden's Ridge, demonstrate his knowledge of the natural world and farming life, as well as a keen understanding of history and the classics."Mr. Zimmerman has served as producer and host of numerous events throughout the Chattanooga area. He will announce an new project at this event.Imperial Valley News Center

From WWII to Today: Blood Services Helps Patients Across the U.S.

Washington, DC - The American Red Cross helps millions of people in their battle back to good health every year through its Blood Services program.

Each year, the Red Cross collected approximately 4.9 million units of blood from more than 2.8 million volunteer donors. These donations are then processed into 6.7 million blood products for transfusion to meet the needs of patients at approximately 2,600 hospitals across the country.

Answering the Call

American Red Cross Blood Services began during World War II. England was facing possible invasion and officials realized massive quantities of blood would be needed for both the military and civilians. The U.S. Armed Forces asked the Red Cross to create and operate a national blood donor program to collect blood for shipment to the British Isles. To assist in this effort, the first bloodmobile visited the Farmingdale, New York Red Cross Chapter on March 10, 1941.

After the war, few hospitals had blood banks. Many relied on direct transfusion from donor to patient. In 1947, the Red Cross approved the introduction of the first national civilian blood program, the largest peacetime health project undertaken by the organization. A year later in 1948, the first regional blood center opened in Rochester, New York.

Leading in Research

Red Cross Blood Services began to focus on research with the establishment of its laboratories during the 1960s. A small lab in Washington, D.C. was expanded to study how to better preserve blood components; a lab was established in Los Angeles to work on automated blood grouping; and a lab was established at New York University to develop a product to help people with hemophilia.

During the 1970s, Red Cross scientists developed methods to freeze red blood cells and developed testing for hepatitis B. Processes were developed to test blood for purity and a uniform bar code was developed to identify blood products. At the same time, apheresis became a part of the blood program, an effort to collect platelets which continues today. In 1987, the Holland Laboratory opened in Rockville, Maryland to house Red Cross research and development programs.

Leading the way, the Red Cross was among the first to develop and implement testing for many infectious diseases. The Red Cross also operates the first-of-its-kind nationwide hemovigilance program to examine donor and patient adverse reactions. Data from the program is collected and used today to enhance blood product quality and safety.

Helping Patients Today

Today Red Cross Blood Services collects and distributes about 40 percent of the nation's blood supply. The need for blood is constant. Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs a blood transfusion.

Eligible individuals can make an appointment to give by using the Blood Donor App, visiting redcrossblood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

Our free Blood Donor App lets you schedule donation appointments, track your total donations, find blood drives and much more. This exciting app is available for download on iPhone and Android devices. Donors can also save up to 15 minutes at the blood drive by completing a RapidPass. With RapidPass, donors complete the pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of donation, from a mobile device or computer. To complete a RapidPass, follow the instructions at redcrossblood.org/RapidPass or use the Blood Donor App.

In most states, individuals who are 17 years of age (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.Imperial Valley News Center

Bringing water closer to communities in South Sudan

Washington, DC - On World Water Day, we shed light on a project in South Sudan is reducing the burden of water collection for thousands on women and girls.

Based on a story by Corrie Butler, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

Water and sanitation is a basic human right for all. Yet, the UN Report on Clean Water and Sanitation suggests water scarcity affects more than 40 per cent of the global population. In countries like South Sudan, water and sanitation-related diseases are among the top killers of children under fiveeven though they are completely preventable.

Six-year old, Mary, reaches for the water pump handle well above her head to fill her large jerry can with water. In one practiced motion, she hoists the jerry can onto her head, balancing it without her hands.

With the help of the South Sudan Red Cross, Mary and more than 500 members in her community have access to clean, drinking water. Mary and her neighbors used to fetch dirty water from a stream a half hour walk away. Now, clean water is on her doorstep.

The stream was making us sick, says Victoria Richard, another villager. In rainy season, the water would get even more dirty and when it was dry, there would be no water at all.

Now that we have this borehole, were closer to clean water.

Long distance work

The responsibility of fetching water traditionally falls to women and children in rural South Sudan. They often have to venture far distances on foot at least three times a day.

IFRCs Michael Charles says water can quickly become the major concern for a community. We see that more than 90 per cent of the people fetching water are women and girls who must travel long distances, he remarks. Were here through the power of our volunteer network to help bring water closer to the communities and ensure that women and their families are healthier and safe.

Better access to safe water globally gives women and girls more opportunity to work or go to school.

The South Sudan Red Cross is reaching 3.1 million people, including 560,000 children under the age of five to help prevent common illnesses in rural communities, including malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea. Thousands of families now have access to clean drinking water in this region through the project with millions more using safer health, sanitation and hygiene practices that keep their families safe and healthy.

How American Red Cross provides safe water around the globe

Safe, clean water isnt easy to come by in many parts of the worldespecially after earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis strike. The American Red Cross works alongside Red Cross and Red Crescent teams to deliver water in the aftermath of disasters, but we dont stop there. We also make investments in communities water and sanitation infrastructure so families can stay safer and healthier in the long-run. This includes building bathrooms and handwashing facilities in schools; restoring irrigation to fields; repairing towns water systems; teaching about health and hygiene; and so much more. Water is life.Imperial Valley News Center

The Big Inch: Fueling Americas WWII War Effort

Gaithersburg, Maryland - If you drive north from NISTs Gaithersburg, campus, you will soon reach the famed Mason-Dixon Line marking the border between the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Continue for just a few more kilometers and youll cross over a second historic line: the Inch Line (sometimes called the Inch Lines, for reasons explained below). Contrary to its diminutive name, this line stretches more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from Texas to New Jersey. Constructed during World War II, it inspired a quip that illustrates its importance: The war was won by an Inch.

The genesis of this line can be traced back to one man and his first job at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS, now called the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST).

William Gillum Heltzel (1895-1959) graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1918 and landed his first post-college job that same year in the Electrical Measuring Instruments section at NIST. About a year later, Heltzel headed West to join the oil industry as a pipeline engineer. To his surprise, Heltzel discovered that the accurate measurements hed become accustomed to at NIST did not yet exist in pipeline work. Pipeline designs of the time were based on imprecise rules of thumb, and Heltzel set about to change that. After a few years of study and experiment, he published a series of articles, beginning in 1926 with Fluid Flow and Friction in Pipelines in the Oil & Gas Journal, which introduced a more rational, science-based methodology to designing pipelines.

William G. Heltzel as an NBS/NIST employee in 1918. He would later apply his metrological training to the pipeline industry.

Credit: NIST Archives

Heltzel developed some of the earliest usable flow formulas, which are now considered basic to pipeline design. His research enabled the efficient pumping of petroleum through larger-diameter and much longer pipelines than previously possible. But Heltzels work didnt have an immediate impact because there was no economic justification for such large pipelines.

No justification, that is, until the advent of World War II.

The U-Boat Problem

Required to lubricate and fuel planes, tanks and other combat machinery, oil was a key strategic commodity. Because of its tremendous importance, both the Axis and Allies naturally tried to maintain and expand their supplies while cutting off those of their enemy. In that regard, the U.S. had an advantage. At the time, the U.S. produced 60 percent of the worlds crude oil while our primary foe, Nazi Germany, had limited domestic oil production. U.S. oil supplies, however, were far from the battlefield and had to be shipped over thousands of kilometers of ocean to Europe.

Even within the U.S., 95 percent of petroleum products were transported by ocean-going tankers, which carried the precious stuff from the Texas Gulf Coast to refiners and distributors in the industrialized Northeastern states. With Nazi submarines now roaming the Atlantic, the U.S. government realized that the sea shipping routes were vulnerable. Alternatives were needed.

Building of a crude [oil] pipeline from Texas to the East might not be economically sound, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes wrote to President Roosevelt in July 1940, but in the event of an emergency it might be absolutely necessary.

That emergency arrived quickly. The U.S. entered the war in December 1941, and in the month of February 1942 alone, Nazi submarines sunk 12 U.S. oil tankers along the East Coast. To protect the remaining tanker fleet, the government restricted the ships to the trans-Atlantic route, which stretched from the U.S. Northeast to Europe. While still dangerous, this route limited the tankers time at sea and allowed them to cross the Atlantic in an easier-to-defend convoy.

To make up for the lost tankers, oil from Texas was sent to the Northeast via trains and river barges. But those means of transport could not replace the large volume of petroleum that had been shipped by sea. By one estimate, East Coast refiners had been receiving 300,000 barrels of oil daily by ship. Trains and barges were only able to deliver a combined 140,000 barrels per day, less than half the previous supply. In the battle over oil, the Nazis had struck a decisive blow.

According to historian Michael Gannon in his book Operation Drumbeat: The Dramatic True Story of Germanys First U-Boat Attacks Along the American Coast in World War II, The U-boat assault on merchant shipping in United States waters during 1942 constituted a greater strategic setback for the Allied war effort than the defeat at Pearl Harbor.

Won by an Inch

The Big Inch pipeline being laid through Pennsylvania in 1942-43.

Credit: Library of Congress

To maintain the flow of oil, the government funded the construction of the longest and largest pipeline ever built up to that time. Officially named the War Emergency Pipeline, it passed through 10 states and connected Baytown, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico, with Linden, New Jersey. The War Emergency Pipeline was actually two pipelines running parallel along the same route: A 24-inch (60-centimeter) diameter pipe carried crude oil while a smaller 20-inch (50-centimeter) line carried refined petroleum products.

By the standards of the time, these pipes were giants. Typical pipelines of the period had diameters of no more than 8 inches (20 centimeters). In industry parlance, pipes with a diameter of more than a foot (30 cm) were called big inch pipes. Workers building the 24-inch-diameter War Emergency Pipeline named it the Big Inch. The 20-inch line was amusingly dubbed the Little Big Inch.

Completed exactly one year after construction began in June 1942, the two pipelines are collectively called the Inch Lines. The pipelines delivered more than 500,000 barrels of oil per day for the war effort, and all of it on a land route safe from Nazi submarines.

A WWII poster stressing the importance of oil for the war effort.

Credit: National Archives and Records Administration

Without the prodigious delivery of oil from the U.S., stated historian Keith Miller (link is external), this global war [WWII], quite frankly, could never have been won.

The war was truly won by an Inch.

The construction of a pipeline of sufficient size and length to support the demands of the war effort relied on the earlier metrology work of William Heltzel. In fact, both Heltzel and NIST served as consultants on various aspects of the project.

Upon Heltzels death in 1959, a petroleum industry trade publication noted that No other development in the catalog of pipeline achievements has contributed so much to the industry as [Heltzels] concept of rational pipeline design.

The Inch Lines continued to pump oil after the war and are still in use today. In 1998, the Inch Lines were added to the National Register of Historic Places both for their role in the war effort and as an outstanding engineering achievement.With the number of homes, apartments and condos built downtown, why is a 40 percent property tax increase necessary? Are these new structures on the paying property tax role? I need to know whats going on downtown and why isnt that money benefiting the city? Georgia Vaughn (click for more)

The email comes my way from a nurse at Erlanger Hospital: I wanted to thank you for the columns you have written recently regarding the need to get vaccinated. If people could see the COVID-affected patients that I see every day in the hospital I believe they would run to the nearest health department to get the vaccine. It is the worst thing I have ever seen. Watching young, previously ... (click for more)Physicists discover new quantum electronic material

Cambridge, Massachusetts - A motif of Japanese basket-weaving known as the kagome pattern has preoccupied physicists for decades. Kagome baskets are typically made from strips of bamboo woven into a highly symmetrical pattern of interlaced, corner-sharing triangles.

If a metal or other conductive material could be made to resemble such a kagome pattern at the atomic scale, with individual atoms arranged in similar triangular patterns, it should in theory exhibit exotic electronic properties.

In a paper published today in Nature, physicists from MIT, Harvard University, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report that they have for the first time produced a kagome metal  an electrically conducting crystal, made from layers of iron and tin atoms, with each atomic layer arranged in the repeating pattern of a kagome lattice.

When they flowed a current across the kagome layers within the crystal, the researchers observed that the triangular arrangement of atoms induced strange, quantum-like behaviors in the passing current. Instead of flowing straight through the lattice, electrons instead veered, or bent back within the lattice.

This behavior is a three-dimensional cousin of the so-called Quantum Hall effect, in which electrons flowing through a two-dimensional material will exhibit a chiral, topological state, in which they bend into tight, circular paths and flow along edges without losing energy.

By constructing the kagome network of iron, which is inherently magnetic, this exotic behavior persists to room temperature and higher, says Joseph Checkelsky, assistant professor of physics at MIT. The charges in the crystal feel not only the magnetic fields from these atoms, but also a purely quantum-mechanical magnetic force from the lattice. This could lead to perfect conduction, akin to superconductivity, in future generations of materials.

To explore these findings, the team measured the energy spectrum within the crystal, using a modern version of an effect first discovered by Heinrich Hertz and explained by Einstein, known as the photoelectric effect.

Fundamentally, the electrons are first ejected from the materials surface and are then detected as a function of takeoff angle and kinetic energy, says Riccardo Comin, an assistant professor of physics at MIT. The resulting images are a very direct snapshot of the electronic levels occupied by electrons, and in this case they revealed the creation of nearly massless Dirac particles, an electrically charged version of photons, the quanta of light.

The spectra revealed that electrons flow through the crystal in a way that suggests the originally massless electrons gained a relativistic mass, similar to particles known as massive Dirac fermions. Theoretically, this is explained by the presence of the lattices constituent iron and tin atoms. The former are magnetic and give rise to a handedness, or chirality. The latter possess a heavier nuclear charge, producing a large local electric field. As an external current flows by, it senses the tins field not as an electric field but as a magnetic one, and bends away.

The research team was led by Checkelsky and Comin, as well as graduate students Linda Ye and Min Gu Kang in collaboration with Liang Fu, the Biedenharn Associate Professor of Physics, and postdoc Junwei Liu. The team also includes Christina Wicker 17, research scientist Takehito Suzuki of MIT, Felix von Cube and David Bell of Harvard, and Chris Jozwiak, Aaron Bostwick, and Eli Rotenberg of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

No alchemy required

Physicists have theorized for decades that electronic materials could support exotic Quantum Hall behavior with their inherent magnetic character and lattice geometry. It wasnt until several years ago that researchers made progress in realizing such materials.

The community realized, why not make the system out of something magnetic, and then the systems inherent magnetism could perhaps drive this behavior, says Checkelsky, who at the time was working as a researcher at the University of Tokyo.

This eliminated the need for laboratory produced fields, typically 1 million times as strong as the Earths magnetic field, needed to observe this behavior.

Several research groups were able to induce a Quantum Hall effect this way, but still at ultracold temperatures a few degrees above absolute zero  the result of shoehorning magnetism into a material where it did not naturally occur, Checkelsky says.

At MIT, Checkelsky has instead looked for ways to drive this behavior with instrinsic magnetism. A key insight, motivated by the doctoral work of Evelyn Tang PhD 15 and Professor Xiao-Gang Wen, was to seek this behavior in the kagome lattice. To do so, first author Ye ground together iron and tin, then heated the resulting powder in a furnace, producing crystals at about 750 degrees Celsius  the temperature at which iron and tin atoms prefer to arrange in a kagome-like pattern. She then submerged the crystals in an ice bath to enable the lattice patterns to remain stable at room temperature.

The kagome pattern has big empty spaces that might be easy to weave by hand, but are often unstable in crystalline solids which prefer the best packing of atoms, Ye says. The trick here was to fill these voids with a second type of atom in a structure that was at least stable at high temperatures. Realizing these quantum materials doesnt need alchemy, but instead materials science and patience.

Bending and skipping toward zero-energy loss

Once the researchers grew several samples of crystals, each about a millimeter wide, they handed the samples off to collaborators at Harvard, who imaged the individual atomic layers within each crystal using transmission electron microscopy. The resulting images revealed that the arrangement of iron and tin atoms within each layer resembled the triangular patterns of the kagome lattice. Specifically, iron atoms were positioned at the corners of each triangle, while a single tin atom sat within the larger hexagonal space created between the interlacing triangles.

Ye then ran an electric current through the crystalline layers and monitored their flow via electrical voltages they produced. She found that the charges deflected in a manner that seemed two-dimensional, despite the three-dimensional nature of the crystals. The definitive proof came from the photoelectron experiments conducted by co-first author Kang who, in concert with the LBNL team, was able to show that the electronic spectra corresponded to effectively two-dimensional electrons.

As we looked closely at the electronic bands, we noticed something unusual, Kang adds. The electrons in this magnetic material behaved as massive Dirac particles, something that had been predicted long ago but never been seen before in these systems.

The unique ability of this material to intertwine magnetism and topology suggests that they may well engender other emergent phenomena, Comin says. Our next goal is to detect and manipulate the edge states which are the very consequence of the topological nature of these newly discovered quantum electronic phases.

Looking further, the team is now investigating ways to stabilize other more highly two-dimensional kagome lattice structures. Such materials, if they can be synthesized, could be used to explore not only devices with zero energy loss, such as dissipationless power lines, but also applications toward quantum computing.

For new directions in quantum information science there is a growing interest in novel quantum circuits with pathways that are dissipationless and chiral, Checkelsky says. These kagome metals offer a new materials design pathway to realizing such new platforms for quantum circuitry.

This research was supported in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the National Science Foundation.USDA Seeks Applications for Funding to Increase Access to E-Connectivity/Broadband in Unserved Rural Areas

Washington, DC - Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett today announced that USDA is accepting applications for grants to fund broadband infrastructure projects in unserved rural communities.

E-connectivity is essential to the economic vitality and quality of life in rural communities, Hazlett said. Investing in broadband can strengthen rural economic growth and improve critical access to jobs, education, health care and social services.

USDA is accepting applications through May 14 in the Community Connect program. Grants from $100,000 to $3 million are available to state and local governments, federally-recognized tribes, nonprofits and for-profit corporations. Applicants must be able to provide a 15 percent match on the desired grant amount.

The funds must be used to provide broadband service at a minimum rate-of-data transmission of 25 megabits downstream and 3 megabits upstream, which is the speed benchmark that the Federal Communications Commission has officially adopted for broadband connectivity. Awardees must use USDA funding to offer free broadband service to all critical community facilities in their proposed service areas for two years and provide a community center with free broadband service for two years.

Examples of past Community Connect Grant successes include:

Alaskas Matanuska Telephone Association used a Community Connect grant to expand a fiber network. As a result, web-based content has been developed for an array of local businesses.

Tennessees North Central Telephone Cooperative (NCTC) received a grant to offer gigabyte speed internet at reasonable rates. Today, the company provides e-connectivity services such as high-speed broadband, television, security and cloud systems. NCTC was recognized nationally in 2014 when it received a Smart Rural Community Showcase Award.

In North Dakota, the BEK Communications Cooperative used a Community Connect grant to install 462 miles of fiber. The new internet service has many uses, such as enabling Barnes County students to take online courses to qualify for college credits.Secretary of Agriculture Perdue Statement Regarding Omnibus Spending Bill

Washington, DC - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue Thursday issued the following statement regarding the omnibus spending bill released by Congressional leaders:

The omnibus spending plan released last night contains a number of our priorities at USDA. Fixing the so-called 'grain glitch' 199A problem is simply an issue of fairness. We should not be picking winners and losers through the federal tax code by favoring one side over another. Additionally, improving the way we fund wildfire suppression will help us better manage our forests. If we ensure that we have adequate resources for forest management, we can mitigate the frequency and severity of future fire seasons. Increased support for broadband Internet access is in line with Administration goals and will be an important boost as we look to improve the economy in rural America. Finally, the omnibus clears away red tape for participants in conservation programs by exempting them from having to obtain SAM and DUNS numbers. These were designed for billion-dollar government contractors, not everyday farmers trying to support their families. I thank Congressional leaders and I look forward to passage of the omnibus containing these extremely important provisions and other items supporting rural America and agriculture.Houthi Missile Attacks in Saudi Arabia

Washington, DC - The United States strongly condemns the dangerous Houthi missile attacks aimed at several cities in Saudi Arabia Sunday night. Our condolences go out to the families of any who were killed or injured.

We support the right of our Saudi partners to defend their borders against these threats.  We continue to call on all parties, including the Houthis, to return to political negotiations and move toward ending the war in Yemen.If youre in the market for a shade to suit your floor lamp, table lamp or ceiling light fitting, theres a host of creative designs to choose from that will bring personality to your bedroom or living space in an instant. And you dont need enormously deep pockets to snap up a design-led piece  many high street brands offer striking, well-crafted lampshades at a fraction of the cost of their designer counterparts.

Whether youre after a shade thats heavy on pattern and print, made from calming natural materials, or gives your room a vibrant colour pop, a good lampshade should emit softly diffused light for a cosy, ambient glow.

Look for fabric styles with a lined interior if you want to contain the light and give out a consistent and measured radiance. Alternatively, you could choose a style designed to illuminate the room with pretty shadows.

The use of multiple light sources in a living room is easier on the eyes, so consider lampshades that offer directional light. A standard lamp with a downward gleam, for example, can give an appealing spotlight effect thats perfect for reading.

In buying a lampshade, make sure you go for the correct fitting, whether youre using yours as a pendant light or on a bedside lamp, and think about bulbs too, not only in terms of shape and size but also wattage. Go low for standard and table lamps and adhere to the lampshade manufacturers advice on maximum wattage, not only for safety but to avoid fading as well.

We put our top 10 shades to the test, looking for great design, quality, and that all-important wow factor, whether illuminated or not.

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 to fund journalism across The Independent.

BHS rattan double cylinder shade, matte black Black rattan brings a grown-up twist to the materials usual laidback, boho aesthetic, and this cylindrical shade from lighting stalwarts BHS is full of dark drama. Its cage-like design not only allows for a visible vintage-style filament bulb, but it casts interesting shadows too. On close inspection, you can see the way the rattan is delicately woven on to its rigid metal frame. We also loved the way the vertical lines are naturally imperfect, adding a softness to the shades otherwise contemporary shaping. Buy now  41 , BHS {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Pooky straight empire shade in classic leopard love by Matthew Williamson Pookys range of handcrafted lampshades is seriously impressive for its attention to detail: look inside and youll find intricate stitching combined with the finest finishes. The brands recent collaboration with Williamson sees its classic gathered empire shade adorned with the fashion designers trademark flamboyant prints. Taking a walk on the wild side, the leopard love lampshade, which comes in four sizes, offers a contemporary twist on a traditional shade. With its warming brown and orange colourway, this ones as homely as it is fashion forward. Buy now  82 , Pooky {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Love Frankie silhouette cotton lampshade, rabarber in egg yolk We loved this lampshade for its quirky, inverted design. The cotton shades lining is the handiwork of late Swedish textile artist, Gocken Jobs, whose prints are considered mid-century classics. Complementing the yellows in the pattern is an arresting egg yolk overlay, which brings year-round summer cheer to your living space, brightening up the room before its even lit. Made to order, the shade comes in a choice of 12 sizes and three shapes: tall and narrow, shallow and wide, or slim shadys. Whichever you choose, make sure the shades sufficiently elevated to show off its floral interior. Buy now  40 , Not On The High Street {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Catherine Rowe Designs borzoi pattern in midnight black lampshade If youre looking for a lampshade less ordinary, its a good trick to go to your favourite wallpaper brands, where patterns and prints often cross over into lighting. Here, Catherine Rowes beautifully illustrated flora and fauna translate perfectly onto a simple drum shade. This one comes in three sizes, suitable as a ceiling lamp, table or floor lamp. Printed onto a semi-translucent fabric, the borzoi pattern, with its bright botanical motifs and symmetrical sitting dogs, is a striking addition to bedrooms and living spaces alike. Buy now  75 , Etsy {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Nala Lighting sila lampshade, natural This may be a simple rattan shade, but its all about the voluptuous shaping. The pendant style mixes a relaxed bohemian feel with a cool mid-century vibe and its another one that allows for a statement filament bulb to be seen  go warm and globular for the full effect. Once illuminated, the intricate, handwoven craftsmanship of the basket-like shade is on full show. This one brought an immediate sense of calm to our bedroom, but its tranquil qualities will easily translate into any living space. Buy now  85 , Fy! {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} H&M x Houseof large pleated shade Bringing one of our favourite lighting brands to the high street is H&M, whose homeware collection continues to impress, not least with its exciting new collaborations. Houseofs large pleated shade is a lesson in understated elegance. Here, a simple 50cm metal drum frame is covered in a finely pleated polyester fabric, bringing an arresting texture to the simple shaping  and this becomes all the more apparent once its lit up. Available in red, blue and our favourite: coral. Buy now  49.99 , H&M {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Matchimatchi the waisted one lampshade Highly textured and architectural in shape, this is the very definition of a statement lampshade. Part of a range of similarly angular and arresting shades, the waisted one features four main sections that, excitingly, can be customised to create a bespoke piece. Mix and match a comprehensive range of colours in velvet, linen or corduroy and immediately see the results online. While this may seem daunting given the lampshades price, the nature-inspired hues, from jewel lawn and cloudy lake to rusted rock, are reassuringly complementary. You really cant go wrong. Buy now  227.50 , Matchimatchi {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} BeauVamp hot pink silk tiffany lampshade This brand is unapologetic in its decadence. Known for its use of exquisite materials and excessively long tassels, BeauVamps pieces are a playful take on vintage. Available in small, medium and large sizes, the tiffany has a vibrant silk shade that has been hand-stitched around a bronze frame, while the two-tone fringing doubles up for thickness and visual interest. We loved the way the turquoise underlayer peeps through the gold. Suitable for any light, from table lamps up to ceiling lights (go large for a floor lamp), once lit, the texture of the silk really comes into its own. Buy now  355 , BeauVamp {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Lights and Lamps Capella natural rattan lampshade Relative newcomer Lights and Lamps offers a wealth of design-led lampshades alongside their pendant and floor lamp collections  and much of it is surprisingly affordable. Woven in natural rattan around a concealed metal frame, the capella style offers both big impact and a Seventies bohemian vibe that works in the dining room as much as the bedroom. This one gives off a warming glow, thanks to its natural material, and casts interesting shadows. Buy now  50 , Lights & Lamps {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}} Mint & May terrazzo effect lampshade Offering a slice of cool Mediterranean style is this striking but simple drum shade, available in small, medium and large sizes and suited to anything from table lamps to ceiling fittings. The terrazzo trend is big news right now, but the look is usually confined to bathroom walls and kitchen splashbacks  so this lampshade proved a welcome addition to our living space. We loved the colourway of cool blues, jet blacks and warm terracotta hues against the white background. Theres also the option of a metallic lining for added glamour  choose gold, silver or copper. Buy now  30 , Mint & May {{#hasItems}} Price comparison {{/hasItems}} {{#items}} {{ merchant }} {{ price }} Buy now {{/items}} {{#hasItems}} {{/hasItems}}

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.For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browserDue to the threat of strong storms in the area Monday afternoon, the My Tennessee Launch has been moved from the Bilingsly/Peet home to the Red Bank Community Center, behind Erlanger North on Morrison Springs Road.

"We will still gather at 4 p.m. for the award presentation and reception," officials said.Madhavan underwent a shoulder surgery last month, and since he is recuperating, he won't be seen in Rohit Shettys "Simmba," in which he was reportedly going to play the villain. (IANS photo)We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to formThe vehicle on flames after crashing shortly after gaining access to Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif., March 22. The driver, identified as Hafiz Kazi, was killed in the incident. (screen grab from Facebook/Airforce Forum)Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton, seen waving in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, Mar. 13 during her visit to India where she spoke at the India Today Conclave. Niraj Antani, an Indian American state representative in Ohio and national adviser to the American Hindu Coalition, expressed dismay at Clinton's comments during an interview at the event. (AFP/Getty Images)Among other stipulations Sen. Sherrod Browns (above) U.S. Call Center Workers and Consumer Protection Act would give preference in federal contracts to companies that havent relocated call-center jobs overseas and require U.S. companies to identify the location of the call center and allow the customer to be transferred to a call center located in the U.S. if asked. (Pete Marovich/Getty Images)Girls hold solar powered lamps at a gathering to mark the sixth global Earth Hour in Mumbai, March 31, 2012. On March 26, two days after Earth Hour 2018, India signed a headquarters agreement with the International Solar Alliance, making India the home of the treaty-based organization. (Punit Paranjpe/AFP/Getty Images)Former chief minister of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav (center) arrives at court in Ranchi July 27, 2017, in connection with an ongoing corruption case. Yadav was sentenced to 14 years in jail March 24 after being found guilty of embezzling state funds. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)Russian businessman Sergei Mavrodi, whose MMM pyramid scheme deprived millions of Russians of their savings in the 1990s, has died of a heart attack, according to Russia media.

Reports said the 62-year-old was rushed to the hospital late on March 25 with pain in his chest and died several hours later.

Mavrodis MMM financial pyramid was a typical Ponzi scheme in which earlier investors receive their profits from subsequent investors. Mavrodi promised returns of 20 percent to 75 percent a month, as well as lotteries and bonuses for investors.

As soon as the number of new clients stopped growing, the pyramid collapsed, causing huge financial losses for at least 10 million people, in some cases leaving them destitute.

In 1994, Mavrodi was elected as a lawmaker, a decision he later said was to ensure he received immunity from prosecution. In 1996, he lost his parliamentary mandate.

In 2007, a Moscow court found him guilty of financial fraud and sentenced him to 4 1/2 years in a penal colony.

In 2011, Mavrodi launched another pyramid scheme called MMM-2011, calling on investors to purchase so-called Mavro currency units in a bid to get rid of the unfair financial system. Some 15 months later, Mavrodi halted the project.

From 2011-16, Mavrodi launched Ponzi schemes under the MMM brand in India, China, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria.

In many of those countries, Mavrodis operations were subsequently shut down or suspended.Punch

The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, said Danjumas comment was highly uncalled for, and an invitation to anarchy, asking Nigerians to report any member of the armed forces suspected to be colluding with herdsmen.

Vanguard

THE Nigerian Army has denied allegation by one deserter personnel, David Bako, who accused it of playing major roles in the abduction of Dapchi schoolgirls.

The Sun

Benue: Were disappointed over Buharis visit Tiv leader President General of Mdzough-U-Tiv, Edward Ujege has expressed disappointment over the recent visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to Benue State. According to him, the expectation of the Benue people that the president, as a father would come and comfort them in their moment of trial was dashed as he (Buhari) refused to address the matters at hand.

Thisday

The federal government has disclosed that it is in talks with the Islamist terror group, Boko Haram, on a possible ceasefire, with the ultimate aim of securing a permanent cessation of hostilities. Daily Times

Today, what the supreme leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, said in 2014 is being re-echoed across the political landscape of Nigeria by no other than the very influential Lt. Gen. TY Danjuma, who can be rightly classified as part of the northern ruling elite. 

Guardian

Tribune

THE Nigerian Army has dissociated itself from some media reports where one Sergeant David Bako who claimed to be a deserted soldier, informed Nigerians about how the Dapchi Girls abduction was planned in Aso Rock Villa and executed with N80 million.

The Nation

More details have now emerged showing how billions of naira and hundred millions of dollars were illegally removed from the public till by the Jonathan administration specifically ahead of the 2015 presidential elections.

Leadership

Senate President, Bukola Saraki is not privy to the meeting of Northern Elders where certain decisions about the political future of the region and country were taken, a source close to Saraki has revealed.A heated debate has been sparked online after a White man was allegedly hired to play the role of Jesus Christ for Palm Sunday celebration at Munyonyo Martyrs Shrine in Kampala, Uganda.

Palm Sunday is the start of the Holy Week and the day Christians celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, one week before he was crucified.

But a community Catholic church in the countrys capital decided to use a real White man to play the role of Jesus Christ whom they probably felt is White also  thereby causing unrest among Ugandan netizens.

Some online users were quick to criticize the pictures after they were shared online. Some said Africans who are not proud of themselves  like to feel inferior to the Whites while others argued that it is just a play and nothing else matters.Adedoyin Akande, is ready to take the bull by the horn in order to achieve her goal of becoming a super star.

The Birmingham City University graduate of Business and HRM, who plays the lead character in her mothers film, Broken, told Inside Nollywood how challenging the role was.

The role was challenging. It was my first time shooting in Nigeria. Adjusting to the heat and getting a good enough Nigerian accent were my biggest worries.

Getting right the emotional part of the role was also something that was challenging. For a lot of people going through that, its their life, so I wanted to do my best to capture the right emotion, she said.

Akande noted that her skills and talents make fans mistake her for a super star, Mercy Johnson. Its so funny, a lot of people say I look like Mercy Johnson. I personally dont see it. But I love her acting; its easy, its smooth and natural. So, Id say shes my favourite.This year's theme for International Women's Day on March 8 was "Press for Progress", an initiative that strives for gender parity and inclusiveness at a time when the World Economic Forum's 2017 Global Gender Gap Report says gender pay parity is more than 200 years away. But, on the bright side, 2018 is also the year celebrating the centenary of the UK Representation of the People Act, when some women got the vote for the first time. A lot of progress has been made since then, and the world of tax is no different.

ITR's interactive one-day forum focused on US and global tax and transfer pricing developments, with women from across the Americas and Europe sharing their expertise. Topics ranged from the US Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to building an effective corporate tax department, ethics, and how to develop your career.

This opportunity to network and learn from industry thought leaders was attended by more than 100 men and women.

US tax reform

When ITR began planning its first Women in Tax event, US tax reform was just one of President Donald Trump's ambitious proposals in his economic plan. Fast forward 11 months from his inauguration and tax reform has been enacted. This overhaul of the country's tax code is on the mind of every international tax professional. With the new rules affecting the 2017 financial statements of companies operating in the US, the need to understand the changes is immediate.

I loved the format of the forum. The panel discussions with an open conversation was fluid and kept me engaged throughout each session. Overall, all panellists were well spoken and added value to each topic discussed

Kristin Mikolaitis, tax controversy and litigation partner at Mayer Brown in New York, opened the forum with a look at this big change. She was joined by her colleague Ana Luiza Martins, tax controversy partner in Sao Paulo, and Manal Corwin, national leader for international tax at KPMG in the US. Offering her perspective, Radhika Narain, vice president of international tax at News Corp in New York, was also on the panel.

Besides a run through of the key measures affecting multinationals, the leaders shared their views on whether the US has actually moved to a territorial system  one panellist said she believes the US continues to operate on a worldwide tax system  and how some of the provisions can be interpreted.

Although the alternative minimum tax has been eliminated under the new rules, the base erosion and anti-abuse tax (BEAT) is causing some concerns as a limited scope alternative minimum tax, the women said.

US and foreign companies are subject to the BEAT, which will apply to certain deductible "base erosion payments" made to related foreign companies. The rate charged will increase over the years as follows:

5% for tax years beginning in 2018;

10% for tax years beginning in 2019-2025; and

12.5% thereafter.

However, the panellists reassured the audience that not all companies will need to worry about the BEAT, as it applies to taxpayers with average annual gross receipts over a three-year period of at least $500 million and a base erosion percentage for the taxable year of at least 3% (2% for certain financials).

The women warned, however, that in the case of an M&A transaction, the purchasing company should be mindful of the BEAT threshold when combining receipts with its acquired company.

Taxpayers will need to determine which payments may be considered as "base erosion payments" under the BEAT, the panellists said.

The BEAT is not the only cause for concern. Section 951A, on the tax on global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI), is a complicated matter.

The GILTI imposes a minimum US tax on the income derived by a US shareholder's controlled foreign corporations (CFCs). In applying the GILTI provision, a US shareholder must go through subpart F, expense allocation, the foreign tax credit regime and, therefore, earnings and profits computations.

The GILTI applies to CFCs for tax years beginning after December 31 2017. US shareholders must include as income all non-exempt and non-subpart F income annually as GILTI for the taxable year.

Mikolaitis and her fellow panellists noted, however, that deductions are available. A US company can deduct up to 50% of the GILTI included in gross income for tax years beginning before December 31 2025. Thereafter, a company can deduct up to 37.5% of its foreign-derived intangible income (FDII) for the taxable year.

What taxpayers want now is guidance. It is inevitable that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will provide some guidance on the provisions, but there is no timeline for when this may happen (see this month's cover story on page 18). Some practitioners expect guidance on the GILTI to come first, in the coming weeks. However, the panellists believe this guidance will predominantly take the form of regulations.

But the issuance of guidance could be stalled because of resource constraints in the IRS, as well as personnel changes, and questions about the role of the Ombudsman in reviewing regulations.

With so much uncertainty comes risk. Without guidance, taxpayers may be forced to make an educated guess when implementing certain provisions. However, this could lead the IRS to question their approaches. Taxpayers need to be prepared to defend their positions should an audit arise and be prepared to deal with any subsequent penalties, the panel said.

Tax controversy won't stop with just the IRS, however. Taxpayers in the US need to consider the tax consequences of the new international provisions in foreign jurisdictions, as early reactions from the OECD, EU and the US's treaty partners are mixed. The panel also anticipates some challenges from the World Trade Organisation.

Managing your disputes

With US tax reform posing more risks of tax controversy, managing tax and transfer pricing disputes was what attendees to the forum needed to know.

Larissa Neumann, tax partner at Fenwick & West, chaired a panel on this with her colleague Julia Ushakova-Stein, a tax attorney. They were joined by Lucia Fedina, transfer pricing director at CBRE, and Debora Correa Talutto, senior global transfer pricing manager at Temenos.

Most taxpayers would agree that documentation is important evidence in audit situations.

To prevent transfer pricing audits, however, companies should be "transaction specific" and "detailed" in their documentation, which should be in line with their financial statements, said the panel.

To tell a "compelling story", it is important to build a file containing written inter-company agreements, interviews with prospective employees and their agreements with the company (if appointed), meeting agendas, logs that detail progress and workings, and contemporaneous transfer pricing reports.

These reports should describe the transaction and relevant functional information, select the best method to test the transaction, and support that the transaction is at arm's length.

Transactional agreements should describe the terms of the transaction, document that the legal entities agreed to the terms and, similar to TP reports, ensure there is supporting evidence to prove the transaction is at arm's length.

No matter what approach a company takes, it is important to be consistent. To avoid appearing inconsistent, companies should ensure only final documents are included in audit files, while draft versions are stored elsewhere.

The onset of country-by-country reporting (CbCR) in line with BEPS Action 13 makes the need for a consistent approach even more important. But the panellists warned that while a policy is required on these documents, some thought should be given to local country requirements for master and local files, such as India. Preparing CbC reports for tax authorities is not enough, however. Although public CbCR has not yet been enacted, these reports should be prepared with tax transparency in mind. The likelihood of public CbCR has grown in recent years and companies need to be prepared in case it becomes a reality.

These preparations are just some of the steps companies are taking to get ready for the post-BEPS era.

Great conference! Adding the softer issues made it so very interesting

Catherine O'Meara, tax partner at Matheson, led a panel examining the challenges and opportunities of the 'post-BEPS world'. Along with her co-panellists Diane Gardner, vice president of tax and treasury at Kodak Alaris, Margriet Lukkien, tax partner at Loyens & Loeff, and Erika Yumi Tukiama, partner of direct tax at Machado Associados, O'Meara reviewed the changing landscape.

On the agenda was the global implementation of the BEPS action points, the OECD report on digital taxation, and the impact of transfer pricing on financial transactions. On the topic of the EU, the panel discussed the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD), CFC rules, general anti-avoidance provisions, tax rules to tackle hybrid mismatches and the unilateral measures some countries are taking. The topics of state aid cases and the common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB) were also discussed.

The ATAD will be mostly effective from January 1 2020 once member states have transposed it into domestic legislation. However, certain provisions on hybrid mismatches will be only be phased in as late as January 1 2022.

Next to US tax reform, the ATAD will lead to the clean-up of many corporate structures, such as CV-BV structures, within the next few years, according to Pieter Frolichs, senior associate at Atlas Tax Lawyers.

But it is the CCCTB and Brexit concerns that are looming. While the French government supports taxing the revenue of tech companies rather than their profits, in order to make tax avoidance much more difficult, the German government believes the CCCTB is the way of taxing the profits of online businesses. With the new German coalition in place, the proposals for a CCCTB will stay firmly on the EU agenda  even if Ireland disagrees.

The UK's anticipated departure from the EU also poses its own risks for taxpayers, as noted by the panel. The move poses questions on trade, tax and employment, but it is also unilateral measures such as the diverted profits tax that continue to create headaches.

What kind of leader are you?

While six of the eight sessions at the forum where focused on technical tax matters, it was a panel chaired by Kathleen Russ, tax partner at Travers Smith, that took the spotlight.

Russ, alongside her colleague Elena Rowlands, a tax partner, as well as Katie Newman, senior tax counsel at Apollo Global Management, Nancy Nelson, tax director at Interactive Brokers, and Sviatlana Bitsiuk, a tax director at Prometric, shared their experiences of tax leadership.

In this panel, and a later session on working your way to a chair at the boardroom table, there was advice on embracing influence, power and running a successful tax department, as well as finding your leadership style and becoming a powerful champion and supporter of other women.

Women on the panel and throughout the room shared their experiences of balancing a challenging job with personal aspirations and responsibilities.

How do you manage your job and have a family when they both conflict? "You make yourself irreplaceable," one woman said. "If you are highly valued by your company, they will find a way to support you," said another.

Taking ownership of your career was a key theme of advice.

Also, having a mentor, whether in your organisation or outside, can provide you with the tools necessary to deal with such circumstances. If the mentor is in the same industry, they are likely to be able to relate to your situation.

Genevieve Moore, partner and head of corporate tax at Blick Rothenberg, recommends that any aspiring businesswomen seek advice, mentoring and coaching from their role models, whether they be women or men. "Whilst I have benefited hugely from working with many inspiring and talented females, it is the coaching and mentoring from our current (male) CEO that has really enabled me to grow and strive to reach my full potential," she said in a recent article published on the firm's website.

Fiona Fernie, tax risk and dispute resolution partner at the same firm, said: "My advice to young women would be to determine their goals early on, believe in themselves and what they have to offer, find someone influential who will mentor and help them, and then work with dedication towards achieving that goal."

Ultimately, the advice to young tax professionals was to determine which aspects of their jobs they really love and find a role that allows them to succeed in that area.

For those taking on leadership roles, the advice was to not to try to be a man. Be yourself, and tailor your management style to your personality and the needs of your team and business.

"People were scared to come to talk to me," said one panellist. "Apparently, I was viewed as unfriendly and stern," said another.

[I liked] being in a room full of strong business women and hearing about their experiences

So what's caused this? "I felt like I had to be more firm because I was a women leading the team. Men don't have that problem," said one forum attendee. Another said they couldn't find the right balance between being someone's boss when they were previously their equal and their friend.

But you need to find your own approach, the panellists responded. Advice was shared across the room on how to adapt, with many individuals at the forum saying it takes time to find your style.

Jo Maughan, who left the tax profession in 2014 to become a career and leadership coach to tax and finance professionals, sums it up well in a recent article written by Reshma Johar in the Taxation Journal. "It is easy to focus on developing skills but it is essential to build self-awareness to progress  use judgment, influence, networks and relationships. It is not just about whether you can do the job, it is more [about] whether you can persuade people to believe that you are the right person to lead an area. Think about the impact you have on others and, more importantly, the impact they have on you. Each of us has learned to behave in a particular way and it is about unpicking these behaviours to become more influential."

Working your way to a chair at the boardroom table is difficult for women, but the opportunities are growing. Many of the attendees of ITR's Women in Tax Forum are leaders in their fields and highly regarded by their peers  both male and female.

This year's International Women's Day campaign may focus on gender parity and inclusiveness, but ITR's Women in Tax Forum showed how the tax sector is embracing women as leaders and succeeding in developing some brilliant individuals.

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Share this articleMarch 26, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) This week, the Pennsylvania Department of Health ("the Department") announced it will begin accepting applications for medical marijuana dispensary and grower/processor permits as early as April 5, 2018. During this second round, the Department will issue 13 additional permits to grow and process medical marijuana, and 23 dispensary permits. Completed applications must be postmarked no later than May 17, 2018.

Applying for a state license to dispense or cultivate marijuana is an expensive and labor-intensive process. Typically, experienced cannabis operators have a significant advantage over those seeking their first license. Regulators are more likely to approve applicants with well-defined standard operating procedures that govern all aspects of cultivation, processing and dispensing. Moreover, those currently operating legal cannabis businesses have likely invested heavily in their security and anti-diversion systems, which are critical in protecting plants, products and the proceeds from marijuana sales. Finally, experienced applicants, and their lawyers, will be familiar with the dynamic environment in which laws and regulations are drafted and implemented through a fog of competing interests and agency priorities.

Today's largest legal cannabis operators have quickly evolved into a national network of nimble and hungry entrepreneurs. When new cannabis licenses become available, they invest time and money to evaluate the new market and weigh the costs of competing for a limited number of cultivation and dispensary licenses. Questions abound. Will marijuana flower be permitted? According to BDS Analytics, marijuana flower currently makes up over 50% of all legal marijuana sales in Colorado, Washington and Oregon. [1] If sales are restricted to cannabis concentrates, does the law include a mechanism to expand the types of cannabis products that will be allowed for sale? Is there a residency requirement for prospective licensees? Will the law give existing medical marijuana businesses preferential treatment? The answers to these questions, and many more, will directly affect the value of licenses and the strategies used by applicants to enter emerging state markets.

Before embarking on this costly and competitive process, potential applicants should be aware of all risks, including the potential for federal prosecution given cannabis's status as a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act. Seeking professional guidance in the form of cannabis consultants and attorneys can reduce risk and increase the likelihood of obtaining a license; but, it is by no means a guarantee of success.

A complete examination of the complexities and potential pitfalls involved in applying and securing a license to cultivate and dispense cannabis under state law is well beyond the scope of this article. However, the list below offers guidance to would-be applicants in five critical areas that are often overlooked, but could be the difference between a winning and losing application.

1. Local Support

The need for local support for an emerging cannabis business cannot be overstated. Marijuana legalization continues to be a polarizing issue across the country. Residents of some U.S. cities, towns and communities remain opposed to any relaxing of existing state or federal marijuana laws. In some states, proposed marijuana legislation will specifically allow individual municipalities to outright ban the cultivation and sale of cannabis regardless of state law that legalizes such activity. In Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational cannabis sales, 176 of its 272 municipalities do not allow marijuana sales. [2] In Pennsylvania, municipalities cannot outright ban medical cannabis establishments, but many have enacted specific land use and zoning ordinances that regulate where medical cannabis can be grown, processed and dispensed to patients.

Thus, even where cannabis cultivation and sale are permitted, cannabis businesses may be restricted to a limited number of sites due to local zoning and use restrictions. Before committing to a specific property to be converted into a cannabis business, applicants should be absolutely certain that the business will have the support of the local community and the site will satisfy all state and local regulations.

To enhance local support, prospective applicants should build relationships with local officials and community leaders in the municipalities in which they seek to operate. Through collaboration with local partners, applicants can assess a community's receptiveness or resistance to a prospective cannabis business and determine whether the project will face opposition in becoming operational. In Pennsylvania, several medical marijuana dispensaries that were awarded permits by the Commonwealth were forced to relocate their facilities due to local opposition to the proposed use. [3]

2. Real Estate

Most state cannabis programs require applicants to identify, and demonstrate control over, real estate that will serve as the applicant's cultivation or dispensary location. Accordingly, success in state cannabis licensing is dependent upon finding and securing one or more properties that satisfy state and local regulations.

In Pennsylvania, permits may only be issued for the specific location identified in the application by name and address and are only valid for that location. [4] Additionally, Pennsylvania prohibits locations occupying land or facilities owned by the United States or the Commonwealth to be used for medical marijuana purposes. Personal residences or any other location where law enforcement or government agents would have limited access are also prohibited and will result in an automatic denial if included in the application. [5] Pennsylvania awarded points to cultivation applicants that identified a location in a financially distressed municipality. Twenty-five percent of successful cultivation applicants identified a location in a financially distressed municipality, revealing how real estate can be a significant factor in permit determinations.

Regarding the facility itself, Pennsylvania requires the applicant to demonstrate it has the authority to use the facility for, at minimum, the term of the permit. This may be accomplished via possession of clear legal title to the property, an option to purchase or a fully-executed, unexpired lease for the proposed facility that includes the consent of the owner to the use of the location as a medical marijuana facility. [6] Additionally, applicants are required to submit to-scale plans and specifications for the interior of the facility as well as plot plans, renovation plans or architect's drawings for any element of the facility not yet in existence at the time the application is submitted. [7]

In the months leading up to licensing, applicants can expect fierce competition for qualifying real estate. The most sophisticated applicants will use outside professionals and attorneys to quickly identify properties that satisfy the state requirements and negotiate contracts to purchase or lease the properties as potential cultivation or dispensary sites.

When evaluating real estate to be used as a potential cultivation or dispensary site, applicants should view the property through the eyes of the regulator. Does the property satisfy all the criteria set forth under state law and agency regulations? Does it have any built-in features that enhance the physical security of the building? Some existing properties are ideal for conversion into cannabis dispensaries.

Are there any restrictions in the lease or deed that would prohibit the use of the property for cultivating or dispensing cannabis? In Pennsylvania, an applicant won a license to operate a medical marijuana dispensary in a former Chi-Chi's restaurant. However, the shopping complex owner who sold the property to Chi-Chi's in 1991 has since sought to block the use arguing a deed restriction forbidding "a drugstore" would strictly prohibit a medical cannabis dispensary. The dispute is currently pending in federal court. [8]

3. Building a Winning Team

An application for a cannabis dispensary or cultivation license is only as strong as its component parts. In awarding cannabis licenses, state agencies seek to avoid risk and will understandably favor applicants with a proven track record of operating cannabis businesses in tightly regulated environments.

In states with existing medical cannabis programs, this manifests in a preference for medical marijuana providers currently operating within the state. Currently, draft legislation in both New Jersey and Delaware include provisions that would give existing medical marijuana operators priority in licensing should the state legalize adult-use cannabis cultivation and sale. No doubt there will be challenges to these provisions; but, should they become law, it will give licensed medical marijuana businesses a significant advantage over first-time applicants.

Applicants without experience in the cannabis industry are thus left with two options: 1) partner with an existing cannabis business that can provide the technical knowledge necessary to secure a license and operate the business; or 2) independently build a team with experience in related fields that would be directly applicable to operating the business. Related experience could include knowledge of the following industries: security, law enforcement, pharmaceutical manufacturing, pharmacy, horticulture, alcohol licensing and gaming.

Both options require careful vetting of the proposed members of the team to ensure they have no criminal history that would prohibit them from participating in the proposed cannabis business.

In Pennsylvania, in addition to a current curriculum vitae for proposed members of the applicant's team, as well as financial backers or partners, each team member is required to submit a criminal history records check performed by the Pennsylvania State Police certifying, chiefly, that the individual has not been convicted of a criminal offense relating to the sale or possession of illegal drugs, narcotics or other controlled substances. [9] All members of the team will be fingerprinted and subject to a federal criminal history search performed by the FBI. Additionally, each principal or operator of the applicant must submit a personal affidavit stating whether they have ever been convicted of any non-summary criminal offense. [10]

4. Diversity

Diversity is a cornerstone to a successful cannabis business. It is undisputed that changing demographics affect Pennsylvania businesses and the state's economy. To be successful and maintain a competitive advantage, all businesses must draw on their most important resource - the skills of its workforce. Prospective applicants should be aware of the role workforce diversity plays in breeding innovation and creativity and enhancing the business's understanding of its customers and industry partners.

Diversity is also critically important to state regulators when awarding licenses to dispense and cultivate cannabis. In Pennsylvania, all applicants for medical marijuana permits were required to submit a Diversity Plan that accounted for 10% of the applicant's overall score (100 out of 1,000 points). Diversity can be demonstrated in a number of ways, such as: diverse ownership of the business, hiring of diverse workforce, or contracting with diverse businesses for goods and services.

To promote diversity, prospective applicants should actively seek out minority, women, veteran, disabled and other historically under-represented groups to provide opportunities for them to seek employment, contracts and/or bid on providing goods and services. Prospective applicants should formalize their internal diversity goals and designate a Director of Diversity to oversee the business's diversity initiatives and implement its Diversity Plan. Regulators will expect applicants to take affirmative action to help correct the patterns and effects of employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religious creed, ancestry, age, sex, national origin, or non-job related disability.

5. Money

Cannabis businesses often struggle to obtain loans and open traditional bank accounts because cannabis production, processing and sale is still illegal at the federal level. Under the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act of 1970 (the "Bank Secrecy Act" or "BSA"), all U.S. financial institutions must report to the federal government any suspected illegal activity which would include any transaction associated with a cannabis business. [11] These reports must be filed even though the business is operating legitimately under state law. Many banks refuse to offer financial services to the legal cannabis industry given the risk of violating federal law. While it is getting easier for some cannabis businesses to access traditional banking tools, the legal marijuana market remains cash-heavy. [12]

In the absence of banks, cannabis entrepreneurs must often rely on private equity to raise the start-up capital needed to carry the business through licensing and, if awarded a license, becoming operational.

Pennsylvania requires each grower/processor applicant to provide an affidavit stating the applicant possesses at least $2.0 million in capital, with a minimum of $500,000.00 of the affirmed amount on deposit with one or more financial institutions. [13] Dispensary applicants must also submit an affidavit, but only certifying the applicant has a minimum of $150,000.00 on deposit.

Raising capital requires careful vetting of potential investors and creditors to ensure they satisfy state requirements applicable to cannabis financial backers. Does the potential investor offer expertise or specialized knowledge of the cannabis industry that can strengthen an application for a dispensary or cultivation license? Will the investor be involved in the management of the business? Has the business properly documented the unique risks, terms and timing of all outside investments, including the risk of federal prosecution given cannabis' status as a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law?

While some high net worth applicants may be able to self-fund a new cannabis venture, most will need to seek money elsewhere. There are currently a handful of venture capital and investment funds that specifically target the cannabis industry, such as Privateer Holdings, Tuatara Capital, MedMen Capital and Casa Verde, which is partially owned by rapper/entrepreneur Snoop Dogg. These firms help cannabis businesses by connecting them with private investors interested in the industry. [14] Regardless of the source of financing, prospective cannabis licensees must carefully evaluate the financial and corporate structure of the proposed business to ensure it complies with state law and meets the company's strategic objectives.

The questions and considerations raised above represent a mere sampling of the issues that arise when applying for a license to dispense or cultivate cannabis under state law. For more information regarding the nuances of this growing industry and assistance in preparing Pennsylvania medical marijuana permit applications, please contact the authors Peter Murphy at pmurphy@eckertseamans.com and Daniel Clearfield at dclearfield@eckertseamans.com, or any other member of the Eckert Seamans' Regulated Substances Group.

1. ArcView Market Research, The State of Legal Marijuana Markets, 5th Ed. (2017) pg. 67.

2. P. Guion, Marijuana legalization would force tough choice for N.J. towns, www.nj.com, (available at http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/marijuana_legalization_would_mean_tough_choices_fo.html).

3. P. Loeb, Mt. Airy Medical Marijuana Dispensary Allowed to Relocate, CBS Philly, Sept. 1, 2017 (available at:http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2017/09/01/mt-airy-medical-marijuana-dispensary-allowed-to-relocate/).

4. See, 28 Pa. Code 1141.25.

5. Id.

6. See, 28 Pa. Code 1141.29(b)(3)(i)-(iii).

7. See, Id. at (5)(i)-(iii).

8. S. Wood, Giant Mall Operator Attempts to Snuff N.E. Philly Marijuana Dispensary, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, Oct. 18, 2017 (available at: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/cannabis/giant-mall-operator-attempts-to-snuff-n-e-philly-marijuana-dispensary-20171018.html).

9. See, 28 Pa. Code 1141.29(b)(6).

10. 28 Pa. Code 1141.31.

11. KIND FINANCIAL, The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) (available at: http://kind.financial/the-bank-secrecy-act-bsa/).

12. According to the U.S. Treasury, there are currently 400 banks and credit unions across the country that service the growing cannabis industry. That number is expected to climb as states, such as Washington and Hawaii, develop non-cash systems to accommodate the increase in transactions. S. Quinton, Why It's Getting Easier for Marijuana Companies to Open Bank Accounts, HUFFINGTON POST, Dec. 7, 2017 (available at:https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-its-getting-easier-for-marijuana-companies-to_us_5a28015de4b0cd6fb5ee8bb7).

13. See, 28 Pa. Code 1141.30.

14. J. Weed, Legal Weed Entrepreneurs Finding New Funding Options, FORBES, Sept. 9, 2017 (available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/julieweed/2017/09/09/funding-options-for-cannabusiness-expanding/#6466cdb67cf3).

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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 - March 26, 2018 (Newsfile Corp.) (Investorideas.com Newswire) Fjordland Exploration Inc. (TSXV: FEX) ("Fjordland") announces a Letter of Intent has been signed with Vulcan Minerals Inc. ("Vulcan") granting Fjordland the option to acquire a 65% interest in 30 mining claims located in the South Voisey's area, Labrador. Under the terms of the agreement, Fjordland has the option to pay to Vulcan $45,000 and incur $150,000 in exploration expenditures over a period of three years. If the option is exercised a joint venture will be formed whereby Vulcan will be carried for 100% of its joint venture expenditures on the claims until Fjordland earns its full interest from Commander Resources Ltd. ("Commander") on surrounding contiguous lands or a minimum expenditure of $7 million on those lands.

The property is contiguous to mineral tenure held by Fjordland and Commander Resources Ltd. as part of their South Voisey's Bay nickel-copper-cobalt Project ("SVB Project"). Fjordland's strategic investor, High Power Exploration Inc. has notified Fjordland that they intend to fund a minimum of $1.2 million of the proposed 2018 summer drill program on the SVB Project.

About Fjordland Exploration Inc.

Fjordland Exploration Inc. is a mineral exploration company that is focused on the discovery of large scale potentially economic deposits located in Canada. For further information visit Fjordland's website at www.fjordlandex.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

"Richard C. Atkinson"

Richard C. Atkinson, P.Eng.

President & CEO

For further information, please call:

FJORDLAND EXPLORATION INC.

Richard C. Atkinson, President and CEO

1-604-805-3232

info@fjordlandex.com

www.fjordlandex.com

Some statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include without limitation the completion of planned expenditures, the ability to complete exploration programs on schedule and the success of exploration programs.

The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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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Hampshire, UK - March 26, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) New findings from Juniper Research have concluded that the cross-border B2B money transfer market is ripe for disruption, as new technologies and legislative changes redefine traditional banking practices across the globe. Cross-border B2B transactions will exceed $218 trillion by 2022, up from $150 trillion this year. In comparison, global GDP was placed at just $77 trillion last year, rising by 3% in 2018.

For more insights, download the free whitepaper: Why is There Big Money In B2B Transfers?

Fintech Redefines B2B Transfers

The new research, B2B Money Transfer: Cross-border Market Opportunities 2018-2022, found that Fintech was having a profoundly disruptive effect on traditional cross-border B2B transactions. Research author Lauren Foye explained: Whilst traditional banks still facilitate the vast bulk of B2B cross-border transactions, new technologies, such as virtual accounts, eInvoicing, and blockchain technology will aid in driving businesses to solutions which provide savings in time, efficiencies, and transparency'

The proportion of cross-border B2B transfer values facilitated by newer Fintech start-ups and disruptive technologies, will grow from 7.5% in 2017; equating to $10.4 trillion, to reach 13.3% or $29 trillion by 2022. This will occur as more businesses utilise these efficient and transparent methods in a notoriously cloudy industry.

Juniper identifies payment facilitators Visa and Mastercard as beacons in this space. Visa has partnered with fintech start-up Billtrust' to provide virtual cards for B2B transactions, as well as offering its own Visa B2B Connect' service which utilises Chain Core, an enterprise blockchain solution. Likewise, Mastercard is working with Optal, to offer virtual accounts to businesses.

Financial Institutions: Opportunity to Lead Innovation Charge

Juniper believes that banks are well placed to benefit from the opportunity posed in B2B transfers. For instance, legislative changes such as PSD2 in Europe, serve as a perfect opportunity to partner with Fintechs to deliver innovative services to companies; lest institutions fall behind and see Fintechs ultimately out manoeuvre them.

Meanwhile, proactive banks will seek to implement blockchain technology; with Ripple now hosting more than 100 banks on its network.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.

Contact:

sam.smith@juniperresearch.com

www.juniperresearch.com

TechSectorStocks.com - investing ideas in tech stocks - mobile payments, social media, AI and Robotics, Drone Stocks, GPS, Internet of Things (IoT) Like Tech Stocks? View our Tech Stocks Directory Get News Alerts on Tech Stocks

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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DANBURY, CT - March 26, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Ross Solar, a Con Edison Solutions Company and Connecticut-based solar installer, received the SunPower "Commercial National Dealer of the Year" award for its outstanding performance as a SunPower dealer in 2017.

The Commercial National Dealer of the Year award honors SunPower commercial dealers in the United States that consistently put customers first, while demonstrating exceptional industry knowledge and leadership.

"Over the past decade, Ross Solar has become a leading solar installer in the Northeast through our focus on affordability, efficiency, quality and education," said Josh Ross, co-founder of Ross Solar. "Having our success and hard work recognized with SunPower's 2017 Commercial National Dealer of the Year award is a real honor. Working with SunPower, one of the world's most innovative and sustainable solar energy companies, allows us to effectively serve our customers by providing reliable solar energy and electricity savings."

"SunPower's outstanding national dealer network is strengthened by local solar companies like Ross Solar, selected for their quality craftsmanship, industry expertise and customer service," said Nam Nguyen, SunPower executive vice president, commercial solar. "We congratulate Ross Solar for an extraordinary performance in 2017 as a commercial dealer, delivering the value of SunPower solar to businesses in their community."

Demonstrating the continuing beneficial relationship between Ross Solar and SunPower, in January 2018 Ross Solar completed the last of four solar installations for Jetro Restaurant Depot, comprised of 2,274 high-efficiency SunPower X-Series solar panels. The combined size of the four solar installations, approximately 4.2 megawatts, makes Jetro the largest host for commercial rooftop solar in the Con Edison Company of New York utility service territory.

About Ross Solar Group

Ross Solar, a Con Edison Solutions company, provides custom designed turnkey solar solutions to commercial, municipal, and residential customers throughout the Northeast. Founded in 2007, Ross Solar received the coveted SunPower National Top Producer award in 2013, and was also named SunPower Regional Commercial Dealer of the year in 2011. Since its inception, Ross Solar has installed more than 18,000,000 watts of solar in the Northeast, including installations for Macy's, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. For more information on Ross Solar and the innovative solar solutions it provides, go to www.RossSolar.com.

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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On Tuesday, March 27, Apple is hosting an education-focused event in Chicago, Illinois, where the company is expected to announce a new, cheaper iPad option, along with new educational software.

Before that happens, though, Google and Acer want to jump ahead of the conversation and announce their own brand new, inexpensive tablet. This new option is called the Acer Tab 10, and it is the first tablet to run Googles Chrome OS. Google and Acer are obviously trying to get ahead of whatever new iPad Apple is going to announce tomorrow, with Acer positioning the new Tab 10 as an educational option, too.

As far as specs are concerned, the Tab 10 has a 9.7-inch display, which has a resolution of 20481536  which is the same size and resolution of the 9.7-inch iPad. Under the hood there is an OP1 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of built-in storage. There is a USB Type-C port for charging. Acer also included a 3.5mm headphone jacket, and there is a microSD card slot for expandable storage.

The Tab 10 also supports a stylus, which Acer will include in the box. Its from Wacom, and it doesnt need to be charged to function.

Acer revealed that the price is set at $329, and the company will start selling the tablet in North America beginning in April. It will expand worldwide sometime in May.

Our Take

Sometimes the other companies out there in the world are pretty blatant with their movies, which can make it pretty hilarious and exciting. Google and Acer obviously want to jump ahead of Apples announcement tomorrow, but can the first Chrome OS tablet really stand up against a newer, cheaper iPad? Well have to wait and see.

[via The VergeRugged and spectacular panoramas, forgotten and rediscovered villages. Crossing through Valle Maira, admiring the wonderful views and discovering the traditions, means taking a journey through time.

Valle Maira is a narrow piece of land located in the south of Piedmont, between France to the west and the Po Valley, just 45 km long and bordered by two massive mountain ranges and crossed by the Maira River.

Going up the mountain stretch of the Maira River from which the Cuneo valley, situated between Italy and France gets its name, signifies crossing an ancient sea that separated two continents millions of years ago. There are numerous stretches in which this deep geological transformation is evident and from which the Alps have been formed.

The landscape in Valle Maira is never taken for granted: in just 45 km, you go from lush oak and chestnut forests to deep canyons with plummeting vertical walls. This place is an authentic paradise for all those that love hiking and outdoor activities. Sports enthusiasts have a wide choice of hikes, climbs, via ferratas and mountain bike trips.

Those who prefer their comfort, can go on car routes and walks to admire the wonderful views in the numerous lateral valleys, choose easy hikes, suitable for all the family, walk around ancient villages where the stone and wooden architecture has remained intact, visit ethnographic museums and the works of art of the Romanesque and Gothic churches and genuinely enjoy the sun, nature and the typical local cuisine.

Variety, relaxation and outdoor activities characterise summer holidays in Valle Maira, one of the wildest places of the Western Alps, where you can feel and breathe the thrill of the Occitan culture.

The whole valley was formed 300 million years ago, emerging from the depths of a prehistoric ocean as is proven by numerous prehistoric fossils. The ancient ocean that separated Africa and Europe closed in, leading to the collision of the two continents that caused the rising of the mountain range of the Alps.Today

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning, then mainly cloudy late. High 93F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.Could you be the Island's next big thing?

Music festival Eklectica has launched a search for fresh talent, and the winner will perform to thousands on the main stage.

Eklectica will be held at Robin Hill across the weekend of September 7 to 9 and the competition winner will warm up the Saturday crowd before the days headline act, The Hoosiers.

Local bands and musicians are invited to put their talent to the test to win the opportunity of a lifetime.

Shortlisted artists will be judged at a live final on 26 April, where they will get the chance to play up to three songs for a panel of judges. The panel will include music industry experts and special guests, the alt-rock band Toploader.

With over two million in album sales, the band will lend their expert ear to the judging process.

Up to three bands who narrowly miss out on being shortlisted for the final, will be put to the vote on social media, with the winner winning a wildcard pass to the final.

To be eligible to enter, at least one member of the act must live or be based on the Isle of Wight, and all band members must be aged 14 or over. Parental consent is required for under 18s.

Along with the chance to perform, winners will receive weekend passes for themselves along with four weekend camping tickets per band member, so friends and family get to see their moment in the spotlight!

If you think you have what it takes to get the crowds rocking, visit www.eklectica.live/freshtalent and complete the application form. Applications must be received by April 8.

Eklectica will also feature chart-topping rockers The Fratellis and pop heroes Scouting for Girls.Judicial Watch Joins Allied Educational Foundation in Asking Supreme Court to Reject Maryland's Gerrymandering Scheme

Urges High Court to Overturn Lower Court Ruling that Used 'Overly Broad' Standards to Uphold the 'Most Extreme and Effective Congressional Gerrymander in the Nation'

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- Judicial Watch announced today it joined with Allied Educational Foundation (AEF) in filing an amici curiae brief in the United States Supreme Court seeking to overturn Maryland's 2011 congressional redistricting plan, which the brief calls "the most extreme and effective congressional gerrymander in the nation" ( Benisek, et al. v. Lamone, et al. , (No. 17-333)). The Benisek case is on appeal from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland after the lower court ruled for the state in dismissing the plaintiffs' claims. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in this case on Wednesday (March 28).



Critics of the Maryland plan have charged that the new congressional map was designed specifically to minimize the voting power of particular voters. Critics of the Maryland plan have charged that the new congressional map was designed specifically to minimize the voting power of particular voters. The Washington Post editorialized:



The map  mocks the idea that voting districts should be compact or easily navigable. The eight districts respect neither jurisdictional boundaries nor communities of interest. To protect incumbents and for partisan advantage, the map has been sliced, diced, shuffled and shattered, making districts resemble studies in cubism.



Judicial Watch and AEF argue that the test applied by the lower court in this case was inadequate to determine whether Maryland's redistricting scheme constitutes an unconstitutional, partisan gerrymander that violates the First Amendment. It further argues that if the lower court ruling is allowed to stand, it "will ensure that every redistricting case will become a federal case."

In their brief, Judicial Watch and AEF argue that courts must be able "to distinguish unconstitutional gerrymandering from ordinary political redistricting," which will require "manageable and politically neutral standards for detecting gerrymandering."

Traditional districting principles, such as compactness, contiguity, and respect for established political boundaries have been bedrock considerations under this Court's redistricting jurisprudence for decades, and there is no reason to discard them in favor of untried standards that rely entirely on what legislators say (or, in future, learn not to say) and on the unpredictable fortunes of political parties. Much less is there any reason to follow currently favored social science theories that disregard decades of practical knowledge and jurisprudence concerning the process of drawing district lines.

The Judicial Watch/AEF brief further explains traditional districting principles about the standards adopted by the lower courts in both the Benisek and Gill cases and argues that the lower court ruling in this case should be overturned for ignoring them.

"The Supreme Court would be on a very dangerous course if it endorses the lead of the lower courts on gerrymandering," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "The lower courts in Maryland would tell the Supreme Court to ignore the most abusive gerrymander in the country, while the lower courts in Wisconsin would have the courts overturn district lines if not enough Democrats win. The Supreme Court should pick a reasonable judicial standard for evaluating gerrymanders to ensure that voters can pick their politicians  not the other way around."Almost 6,500 militants have left the Syrian town of Irbin in the past two days, the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.

Thousands of Eastern Ghouta residents are being evacuated from the besieged enclave on Sunday, Syrian state media reported, after large groups of residents already left towns in the Damascus suburb over the past days. The safety of the route was ensured by the Syrian police under the supervision of the officers of the Russian reconciliation center and representatives of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

The deal was struck with the Failaq Al-Rahman militant group following the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria-sponsored negotiations, the Russian military said on Sunday.

Government forces have taken back up to 90 percent of eastern Ghouta after one of the fiercest offensives in the seven-year civil war.

The UN humanitarian agencies have sounded the alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation for 400,000 people in that region, where activists said around 1,000 people have been killed since late last month by the heavy bombardment and military showdown in areas of Eastern Ghouta.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main ally in the conflict, ordered daily five-hour ceasefires and the creation of a "humanitarian corridor" to allow civilians to leave Eastern Ghouta starting from February 28.

Soon after the adoption of the resolution, Russian Federation announced a daily five-hour humanitarian break in the fighting to prevent more casualties among the population and allow civilians leave Eastern Ghouta.Star Jones and Ricardo Lugo are officially married!

On Sunday, the journalist and former View co-host Wednesday her fiance Ricardo Lugo on a cruise ship, the Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas, in the Bahamas, E!

The wedding ceremony was part of the multiple-day celebration, including Jones' 56th birthday party on Saturday. "This is the happiest weekend of my entire life".

Some of the more prominent names on the limited guest list include Tina Knowles-Lawson and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks. Fortunately, the bride shared a number of photos and videos that documented the event on her Instagram account. The couple often posts cute photos together on social media.

Talking about their relationship she told Us Magazine that "I'm happy and that's all anybody outside of my family needs to know". She captioned it, "There appears to be a heatwave going across the Midwest".

The Star Jones Show alum has been looking forward to her big day for months, writing on Instagram in January, "Soon..." The extra heat is from the sun shining on my heart.

Beyonce's mom Tina Knowles Larson posted a pic on Instagram with Holly Robinson Peete, Lela Rochon and others, captioning it: "With all my attractive fly girls on the sea here to celebrate the love and Union of Star Jones and Ricardo".

For those who aren't aware, this is the second marriage for Jones. Previously, she was married to investment banker Al Reynolds in April 2004. Jones and Reynolds announced their split after nearly four years of marriage in March 2008.

Lugo is father to a 12-year-old son named Jake.Former Bosnian military leader Ratko Mladic [ICTY profile] on Thursday appealed his conviction [case materials] to the UN Mechanism for International Tribunals [official website].

Mladic was tried and convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, then sentenced [JURIST report] to life imprisonment in November 22.

On appeal, the defense cited time constraints that left them unable to review the record, conduct post-trial investigations nor conduct adequate research. Defense also stated that Mladic was not in an adequate mental condition as confirmed by neurologists during the trial.

The defense contended that Mladics rights to due process were violated by the ICTY trial court. It claimed the trial court admitted evidence based on incidents that were unscheduled and non-identifiable. The defense also claimed the trial court relied on testimony from discredited witnesses provided by the prosecution.

Mladics defense further contended that the trial court did not differentiate nor ascertain whether victims were civilian or military. It raised concerns that the trial court may have had a bias against Mladic and, therefore, did not objectively review the evidence on record. The trial court [failed] to analyze the totality of evidence and ignoring arguments advanced by the Defense; relying on insufficient evidence or improperly on Adjudicated Facts, argued Mladics defense.

The appeal states that errors of law should invalidate judgment, and errors of fact signal miscarriage of justice. The defense challenged Mladics life sentence and requested to review the trial transcript.[JURIST] Spanish Supreme Court [official website, in Spanish] judge Pablo Llarena charged [text, in Spanish] 13 Catalan leaders for rebellion on Friday.

The leaders include Jordi Sanchez, the former president of the Catalan National Assembly , as well as other former members of Catalonias Parliament.

The charges came after an investigation into Catalonias declaration of independence last year. Llarena also charged five other former members of the Catalan government with embezzlement and disobedience.

Bond was originally posted at 2.1 million euro (USD $2.6 million) to be paid jointly by 13 of the former officials charged with rebellion and one of the former officials charged with embezzlement. According to the Guardian, the judge later denied [report] bond for five of the former leaders.

The decision has sparked a cry for protests throughout Catalonia.

Earlier this month, Llarena denied [JURIST report] the release of Jordi Sanchez. Last month Spain ordered [JURIST report] the arrest of a former Catalan member of parliament.Police said a 73-year-old man in a wheelchair was fatally struck by a vehicle in Louisiana.

Baton Rouge Police told news outlets that the man was trying to cross Airline Highway on Friday night. The man in the wheelchair was going south in the outside lane before the driver of a Honda struck him.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity has not been released.

The driver of the vehicle was not injured. Police said charges are not expected against the driver.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 23)  A critically-acclaimed Filipino film and a drug war series by an award-winning Pinoy director are heading to Netflix!

The video streaming site will soon feature Mikhail Red's "Birdshot" as well as Brillante Mendozas AMO.

Birdshot, which will be released on March 26, is a coming-of-age movie that tells the story of a farm girl who accidentally shoots down a Philippine Eagle.

It is the first Filipino content that will be released locally on Netflix.

Meanwhile Cannes-Award winning director Brillante Mendozas AMO will be available worldwide starting April 9.

AMO is a bold and suspenseful show that has the potential of capturing thrill-seeking audiences worldwide, Netflix Vice President of Content Acquisition Robert Roy said in a press release.

AMO is set against the backdrop of the governments drug war. It tells the story of Joseph, a high school student and small-time shabu peddler who eventually finds himself entangled in the dangerous world of drugs.

It will be the first-ever TV series from the Philippines to be shown on Netflix.

Reds Birdshot was chosen as the Philippines entry to the Best Foreign Film category of the 90th Academy Awards. It also won the Asian Future Best Film Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2016.

Meanwhile, Mendoza is best known for his award-winning indie films.

He bagged Best Director in the prestigious Cannes Film Festival for his film, Kinatay, in 2009, in addition to being nominated for the Palme dOr for several other works.

Mendoza also directed President Rodrigo Dutertes first two State of the Nation Addresses.Manila (CNN Philippines Life)  The Philippine Islands were discovered in 1521 by Magellan, who died here in the same year, and a few years later the Spaniards, under Villalobos, took possession of the group and named it in honor of King Philip II of Spain.

- Facts About The Filipinos, Philippine Information Society (1901)

Colonizers like to name the lands they chance upon and eventually claim to own. There are places whose names are said to be based on trees, rivers, or birds. In the case of the Philippines, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos arrived in what is now called Samar and Leyte in 1543, and named the islands Las Islas Filipinas which roughly translates to islands of Philip.

In the 1898 declaration of independence, the Philippine islands were said to be liberated from the yoke of Spanish domination. Inhabitants of the Philippine islands finally had the right to be free and independent and were released from all obedience to the crown of Spain, with every political tie to Spain deemed completely severed and annulled.

And yet our country remained Philips islands, suddenly a nation of peoples bound by a colonizers claim.

***

Mekeni mekeni tugtug do re mi.

Kenneth Cadiang watched as the child recited the odd incantation, coupled with hand gestures. He asked the child where she learned the chant; it was from the new T.V. show Bagani, she said. In a scene where Enrique Gil's character, "Lakas," is presumed dead, "Gloria," a babaylan or healer played by Dimples Romana recites the incantation as she heals him.

As a teacher in the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV), Cadiang is familiar with the traditions of the Manobo. A number of his students come from the said ethnolinguistic group, and he knows that while the bagani is real and essential to Manobo communities, mekeni mekeni tugtug do re mi isnt.

But the child was already engrossed in the series, and this presented a difficulty as Cadiang tried to explain the meaning of the bagani for the Manobo peoples.

It was frustrating. The show has such an effect on how we build narratives, in the same way a child builds her own image of the bagani based on magical fiction instead of actual facts, Cadiang said.

In another episode, a scroll containing a message showed text that were a mix of stylized Greek characters among other random-looking characters.

But words of the indigenous peoples are not the only things taken from their communities or erased in national narratives. Where Cadiang teaches, ancestral lands of the indigenous peoples are under constant threat of mining and plantations.

The appropriation of indigenous concepts and cultures only furthers the exclusion of indigenous peoples while diluting indigenous peoples struggles, which are hardly ever recognized in mainstream media and popular culture to begin with. Shows like Bagani bury the reality of the Lumad, as it exploits and misrepresents their culture, Cadiang added.

***

The word bagani traces its Austronesian roots back to the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian word barani, which means hero or war-leader, also dare to do. It has many derivatives in the Philippines  the bayani as adjective in Kapampangan (brave, strong), and as noun in Tagalog (hero), along with the bagani(h) as noun in Aklanon (hero).

But to a number of indigenous peoples in the Southern Philippines, the word bagani goes beyond being a generic term for someone deemed brave or heroic. Communities across the island of Mindanao, which include the Mandaya of the Davao region and the Manobo of Central and Northeastern Mindanao, consider the bagani as a warrior class that is deeply ingrained in their social organization.

Among the Mandaya, the bagani is a warrior chief whose leadership is second only to the likid, a community elder known for the wisdom he passes on to the younger generation through oral tradition, constantly providing counsel in times of conflict. Maria Olivia Domingo, in her 2004 study on indigenous leadership and governance, noted that, in the absence of the likid, the bagani takes on the responsibility of settling disputes within their community.

"Shows like 'Bagani' bury the reality of the Lumad, as it exploits and misrepresents their culture."

On the other hand, there is a strain of the sacred and supernatural in the bagani of the Manobo. In John Garvans The Manobos of Mindanao, the bagani is known as a warrior priest who has found favor in the eyes of a deity. He is known for his strength and skill in battle, sometimes even returning to the community unscathed. This is partly due to the deity who affords him the ability to heal, in the same way it affords him the power to kill.

In the cases of the Mandaya and the Manobo peoples during the 19 century, a man needs to kill in order to earn the title of bagani, and the required number of lives taken varies from one community to another. While a man may inherit the title of bagani from his father, he still needs to fulfill the same requirements his father fulfilled to fully earn the title, which includes earning the trust and respect of his community.

Note the complexity of the bagani, and how specific it is within the cultural construct of the peoples of the south. The bagani of Mindanaos indigenous peoples is not just courageous or charismatic in the same way that the bayani of the Filipino is; he is a definitive part of their communitys structure and is not merely an abstract figure in the annals of indigenous peoples history.

***

When ABS-CBN, a major local network, released their trailers for Bagani, a show that claims to be greatest fantaserye inspired by Filipino mythology, people were quick to notice. The two-minute trailer released online was a collage of existing local tropes  the names Lakas and Ganda echoed Filipino folklore mainstays, Malakas and Maganda; an intermarriage between two distinct classes of society was used to imply a cause of conflict; and the gods interfered with the affairs of humans.

The fantaserye seemed poised for success, banking on the love team of Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil, LizQuen, as they are fondly called, have established their star power both on television and film, with no less than the 2014 primetime series Forevermore and the 2017 romantic comedy film My Ex and Whys.

But as the trailer gained traction, conversations regarding casting and colorism caught on as well.

There is a captive audience for a fantaserye like Bagani in a country that takes pride in being a melting pot of cultures, but equal rights and opportunities fall through cracks on the proverbial pot. Bearing the weight of more than three centuries of colonial rule, a post-colonial, internalized racism renders the features of Soberano and Gil as ideal, effortlessly meeting Eurocentric beauty standards.

What the network has failed to recognize, however, was a rare opportunity in having a show like Bagani. It claims to be inspired by a Filipino mythology, which includes no less than a creation story that deems the kayumanggi as the image of perfection. In an industry that often favors the fair, the people behind Bagani could have chosen to cast an actor often sidelined because of his skin color for the lead role.

And yet Gil was cast as the lead, but not without his complexion rendered darker with makeup or a tanner. Soberanos accent also became a point of discussion, to which the actress responded with an affirmation of her Filipino-ness  in a now deleted tweet  owing to her fathers nationality and her love for sinigang.

But it was not a question of their nationality, because they are Filipinos. However, it was a question of equal opportunity and representation, casting them when other actors would have been a better fit given the requirements for the role.

With a time and tested formula for ratings consisting of a strategic timeslot and a solid fanbase, it seemed like the fantaserye could do no wrong. But it did.

***

When Melissa Claire Barrera, a Manobo-Bagobo woman descending from a line of datus, wrote her open letter to ABS-CBN regarding the use of the word bagani in its latest T.V. offering, she didnt expect it to go viral. Now with more than 1,200 shares, her open letter has led to the formation of a small collective of indigenous peoples from Mindanao who are now in discussions with the network.

Some of us were happy when we heard that an upcoming series was entitled Bagani, Barrera shared. Representation of indigenous peoples in mainstream media and popular culture is rare, so we looked forward to it until we saw how they appropriated the bagani, she said.

This wasnt the first time the word bagani was used in a context outside of an indigenous community. "A paramilitary group with suspected links to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, alleged as suspects for the 2015 killings of ALCADEV's executive director and with two Manobo community leaders, is known as the Magahat Bagani, while the New Peoples Army has a Pulang Bagani Battalion which operates in the Davao region and adjacent areas. In previous years, both have been called out because actual bagani of indigenous communities have become targets for both armed groups.

This is precisely why we insist that the bagani must not be taken lightly, Barrera said. The bagani is not recruited but anointed by Mondaangan, and is sacred to the Manobo peoples.

"The bagani of Mindanaos indigenous peoples is not just courageous or charismatic in the same way that the bayani of the Filipino is; he is a definitive part of their communitys structure and is not merely an abstract figure in the annals of indigenous peoples history."

There is a difference between sharing in our culture and stealing it, she added. We have a Higaonon representative in our group and the elders of their community initially wanted to stop the use of the word in the series, because the bagani of their people does not revel in attention or publicity.

Prior to their first meeting with ABS-CBN, a disclaimer already marked the beginning of every Bagani episode. They suggested that the disclaimer be edited to a version that is unequivocal in saying that the bagani is real and not just a figment of the imagination.

Legal aspects of the use of indigenous concepts were also discussed during talks with the network. Section 32 of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (Republic Act No. 8371) was noted in particular, since it highlights the need to secure the free and prior informed consent (FPIC) of indigenous peoples before taking their cultural, intellectual, religious, and spiritual property and without violating their laws, traditions, and customs.

A memorandum of agreement which guarantees that ABS-CBN will secure an FPIC for future projects involving elements of indigenous cultures is set to be signed by representatives of Barreras group and the network in mid-April, and will be finalized with a thanksgiving ritual performed by the elders of their indigenous communities.

***

Critical discussion surrounding Bagani has died down, with chants like mekeni mekeni on television now inciting laughter instead of frustration. This is, after all, the reality of the news cycle  one issue is eventually replaced by another, unless the former develops into a related but seemingly different issue.

The struggle of indigenous peoples takes a different turn every one or two news cycles. Usually the struggles that get precious airtime and column inches are linked to ancestral lands, which are inextricably linked to their survival. But whether or not indigenous peoples are in the news, there is a constant need for them to assert their rights over what has always been rightfully theirs way before islands were named after a king, before lands were named by colonizers who, in a foreign language, asked for his location but was instead told the local name for a tree, or a river, or a bird.

The great tragedy is that we call ourselves Filipino only because we no longer know how else to name ourselves, our identity bound to a name of a king we never saw. Meanwhile, those who continue to take pride in their indigenous roots are forced to fight for their land and language  their existence defined by the defense of their local culture and traditions, and assertions of truth that are only heard when rendered in the nations official, but no less foreign, language.Manila (CNN Philippines Life)  In 2012, Brisbane- and Manila-based artist duo Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan created a large-scale installation made of cardboard boxes supported by steel scaffolding to represent the stilt settlements of the Badjao or the sea gypsies in the Philippines.

The installation, In Habit: Project Another Country, toured Australia and Japan from 2013 to 2015. This year, a reinterpretation of this show  the cardboard boxes are flattened to make collagraphs that mirror bomb sites, which are all representations of the fallibility and vulnerability of homes  will be one of the highlights at Art Basel Hong Kong.

They are one of the Philippines' most recognized international artists out there of the generation. And yet, there are so many who haven't heard of the Aquilizans. Collectors were not fully aware of who the Aquilizans are, says Adeline Ooi, director of Art Basel in Asia.

Ooi adds that showing works of globally distinguished Asian artists, such as the Aquilizans, is one of the goals of the fair, especially since Art Basel HK exists not only to build bridges between the art scenes of the East and the West, but more so among countries across Asia.

In a sense, this fair is really about serving this region because the other question that other people always ask is, How is it different in Miami? I mean, the locale in itself indicates everything, she says. Miami is very American, Latin America, and North America. Basel, obviously, being centred in Europe, is very much the European stronghold, and being the mother show, it's also obviously that jewel in the crown, very much old world.

They are one of the Philippines' most recognized international artists out there of the generation, says Adeline Ooi, director of Art Basel in Asia, of Filipino artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan. In photo: "Left Wing Project (Belok Kiri Jalan Terus), 2017-2018 by Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizans. Photo courtesy of ISABEL AND ALFREDO AQUILIZAN AND THE YAVUZ GALLERY

When asked about the fairs importance to the Philippine art market in particular, Ooi says that the art scene in the Philippines is historically one of the most significant in the region, and that next to Japan, the Philippines had a true modern art movement during a time when the countries economies were in good shape while other nations were building and rebuilding after the war.

[Just looking at] the kind of infrastructures and the artists, I mean it's a very, very interesting history. It still is. I think most people stereotypically think, 'Oh, Philippines, so Catholic, so there would be lots of crucifixes and lots of paintings that sort of references the religion,' she says.

But the truth is, if you look at something by Arturo Luz or Fernando Zobel, back in those days, like wow  there is just so much to be proud of and I think it's wonderful that there is this platform in Asia to really be able to highlight all the unique qualities of different art scenes.

The Hong Kong edition of Art Basel is part of the worlds premiere and most important modern and contemporary art fairs, along with the annual staging in Basel and Miami Beach.

Now on its sixth edition, the upcoming Art Basel Hong Kong show will be host to four galleries from the Philippines, namely, 1335Mabini, Artinformal, Silverlens, and The Drawing Room, which will all feature works of Filipino contemporary artists.

Adeline Ooi talked to CNN Philippines Life to discuss the art trends that shes seen in the fair, the selection process of Art Basel, and the relevance of the show to the Philippine art community. Below are edited excerpts from the interview.

This is already the sixth edition of Art Basel Hong Kong. Do you feel a responsibility to create something new for it?

No, I think, for us, within the Art Basel group, I think we all have a few sort of beliefs. One is we always believe in delivering the highest quality possible  the best that it can be. The other thing that we don't do is we don't invent for the sake of inventing. Because the way we feel is like, sometimes we do particular projects, sometimes we introduce particular sectors because we feel like the show needs it. But other than that, I think, often, we want to keep the focus quite pure, which is on the art that you see in the convention center, which is also to highlight the amazing artists.

Adeline Ooi leads Art Basel's show in Hong Kong and is the director of the Art Basel team in the Asia-Pacific region. Photo courtesy of ART BASEL HONG KONG

There are four galleries joining from the Philippines. Can you share how these galleries were selected? What was the criteria taken into consideration?

The Art Basel follows the tradition of Art Basel in Basel in the sense that there is a selection committee that is made up of galleries from Asia as well as those who have specialized knowledge of Asia. And every year, we convene. What happens is galleries put in proposals and then every year, we convene and we read through the proposals and then we select.

There is no quota. It's all really based on three things: the reputation of the gallery as an upstanding gallery, which means best practice in every possible way, i.e. pay your artists, do not mislead collectors with false pricing; two is their track record as well, in terms of their program  how interesting is their program throughout the year; three is the artists they intend to bring to the show.

I think, all in all, it says a lot for the Philippines that you have four. Because I mean, I come from Malaysia, and I have [none].

The [large] chunk of the galleries are from Japan. We have about 24 from Japan, we have over 40 from mainland China. Taiwan, Korea are consistent  around 9 to 10 every year. This year, we have 9 from India as well. The numbers are almost steady because it's also indicative of the art scene itself.

If you think about the mainland, if you think about the number of people alone, how many galleries would that be? And Japan makes sense because they have a very, very sophisticated and a very old art scene. They have galleries that are as old as 90 years old. Again, if you think back to history, where everyone else was in the middle of the second world war, we were so busy fighting wars, but there were already galleries in other parts of Asia.

1335Mabini and Artinformal are now part of the main exhibition area. How did they level up, so to speak?

I think they've been consistently with us. Tina [Fernandez of ArtInfomal] has been with us for three or four years, and similarly, 1335. After a certain time, I think the selection committee members just felt that it's about time. The galleries are mature enough to really take on the Gallery sector, and it's also good for the gallery because if you think about it, if you're doing Discoveries [an area for emerging contemporary artists] like Artinformal, you're only allowed to present one artist at a time.

But once you're in the Gallery sector, you can really present the full scope, right? It's good for Tina as well to be able to remind all of us of Alvin Zafra, for example, who was, two years ago, shortlisted for the BMW Art Journey Awards. And it's nice to be able to bring all this back because it's like a way of communicating with your audience.

You're not just going to see that one thing once. I wanna bring you back, show you who this person is, and show you how far he's gone. It's like a relationship, like friendships, right? Like you see each other once, then you catch up. It's about that. It's about catching up. It's about following each other's progress.

The 2018 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong features 248 premier galleries from 32 countries and territories. The 2017 edition was visited by nearly 80,000 people in over five days. Photo courtesy of ART BASEL HONG KONG

You mentioned that Hong Kong Art Basel aims to represent the region. Do you see any common trends across the art that the fair will be presenting?

I think there's no particular trend. We don't really curate until the galleries tell their artists you bring this, you bring that. But I think what is interesting always is the synergies that come together. It's not so much [that] great minds think alike, but there are certain commonalities, certain overlaps. And it's often very interesting.

For example, you see abstraction. So, abstraction from Egypt, abstraction from somewhere like India. You look at the works and you feel like, oh my gosh, you're able to actually connect the dots, one way or another. Now everyone's like, what about VR? Yeah, it's true, there's a lot of VR artists. And not just younger artists. That's another stereotype. Everyone thinks only young artists are interested in VR and AR and all that but that's not true.

And as much as you say that there is a whole bunch of that new technology, artists are also sort of resisting all that and going really, really back, the other end of the spectrum, which is like, I wanna go old school. Instead of going VR, I wanna do cut and paste but cut and paste with my hand. So you know, in as much as there's high tech ... I think there's also a portion of people who just say no, I want the whole slow movement.

Have you also seen that trend the previous year? And what other themes are to be expected this year?

I think one of the things that we can definitely expect this year are, for example, given the state of the world, a lot more works that deal with socio-political content. And if you think with where we are with everything else, there's also lots of work that addresses gender specificity, power, sexuality, given the whole #MeToo and sort of feminist movement and revisiting these feminist movements as well. Because some of these works, even though they had come and gone, they now come back and resonate in a deeper way.

Think about the likes of the Guerilla Girls back in the old days. Think about where we are again, here, in this point in time. And even though, in the '90s, the struggles were different, what they were, the immediate urgency and all that, and what they were fighting for were in a very different context, but if you apply it to now these works still mean a lot. It still implies that some of the struggles have not gone away  that we're still constantly fighting what we're fighting.

I think what is also interesting in Hong Kong is the number of new discoveries, like new artists that have been introduced in the show that we've never seen ever.

***

Art Basel Hong Kong runs from March 29 to 31. Visit the official website for more details.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 26)  Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre has apologized to prosecutors involved in the dismissal of charges against Kerwin Espinosa and Peter Lim.

In a press conference Monday, Aguirre said he apologized for "for causing the investigation, because extraordinary times or extraordinary incidents call for extraordinary solutions or at least, measures."

Aguirre had ordered the prosecutors be investigated after charges against Espinosa, Lim, and other alleged drug personalities were dropped earlier this month.

Aguirre said he ordered the investigation because of the public outcry against the decision, and because he wanted to show there was nothing to hide as the prosecutors decided on the case in accordance with the law.

"Pasensiya na po kayo sapagkat ginawa ko lamang alang-alang para protektahan kayo, ang ating DOJ (Department of Justice)," he said

[Translation: Forgive me because I did this only because to protect you and the DOJ.]

Aguirre said "it is not correct" for him to order the probe, adding the investigation into the drug case will continue.

He added he asked all of the parties involved to prepare all evidence to be considered by the new panel now in charge of investigation.

On March 20, Aguirre said the dismissal of drug charges against alleged drug lord Espinosa and others are still up for review.

"I issued an order yesterday vacating the dismissal of the case, so much so that there is no dismissal anymore, and I ordered that the case be ordered wide open for both parties," Aguirre said.

He said he issued the order following the backlash on the dropping of charges against alleged drug lords Espinosa, Lim, convicted drug lord Peter Co, and more than 20 other drug suspects.

Lack of evidence

In a 41-page resolution made public on March 12, the Task Force on Anti-illegal Drugs under the DOJ recommended the dismissal of the police's complaint against alleged drug lords Espinosa, Lim, and more than 20 others.

The document was signed on December 20, 2017 by assistant state prosecutors and approved by Acting Prosecutor General Jorge Catalan.

"The dearth of complainant's evidence and (Marcelo) Adorco's unreliability as a witness thus constrain us to dismiss the present complaint against the respondents," the resolution read.

Adorco is named as the sole witness in the complaint filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Major Crimes Investigation Unit (CIDG-MCIU).

Adorco claimed to be a close confidante of the Espinosas after meeting Kerwin in prison in 2011, and said he had a notebook that contained the list of people who had illegal drug transactions with the Espinosas.

However, the prosecutors said Adorco's testimonies were "rife with inconsistencies and contradictions," casting doubts on their truthfulness.

CNN Philippines' Pia Garcia, Eimor Santos, and Chad de Guzman contributed to this report.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 26)  Manila Police District (MPD) Director Chief Superintendent Joel Coronel defends the operation at the house of one of the suspects in the hazing death of Horacio "Atio" Castillo III.

In an interview with CNN Philippines News Night, Coronel said the police went to the house of Ralph Trangia to look for him and that it was all legitimate.

Coronel said the arresting team did not have the warrant with them as the team was dispatched at 3 p.m., while the warrant was released at 4 p.m.

Despite that Coronel said, "It's allowed under the rules of court that in making an arrest by virtue of a warrant, the officer did not have the warrant in his possession at the time. What is important is that a court has validly issued a warrant for his arrest."

The team was only there to serve the warrant and effect the physical detention of Trangia.

He added, under the rules the arresting team was allowed entry and can even forcibly break in if refused entry.

"They have the right under the law to break in and effect that warrant and the arrest of the suspect," he said.

Suspects unsafe with Manila police?

The parents of the accused sent a request to NBI Director Dante Gierran on Monday for the agency to keep custody of their children.

Salamat and Ramos, along with fellow suspects Arvin Balag, Ralph Trangia, Oliver John Audrey Onofre, Mhin Wei Chan, Hans Matthew Rodrigo, Joshua Joriel Macabali, Axel Munro Hipe, and Marcelino Bagtang surrended to the NBI  not the Manila Police District  on March 23, a day after the Manila RTC ordered their arrest.

The parents claimed their children were not safe with the MPD as its policemen allegedly searched the house of Trangia in Bulacan without a warrant.

MPD denied the claims of the parents, but said it will face the allegations if it goes through due process.

"We have a mandate to protect and to serve... If it is indeed MPD personnel, they have all the right to file necessarry charges against those personnel. But of course due process must be followed as provided by our constitution so that the accused may not be deprived also of their rights to due process," MPD Spokesperson Erwin Margarejo said in a statement.

Coronel added the MPD is not seeking custody or detention of the suspects.

"We would like the accused to be remanded to the proper and appropriate agency which should have custody over them, which is the Manila City Jail," he said.

On March 8, the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted the 10 fraternity members for violating the Anti-Hazing Law  a non-bailable offense punishable with life imprisonment.

The DOJ also indicted John Paul Solano, a primary suspect in the case, with charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Solano said he found Atio's body September 17, 2017 in Tondo, Manila but later confessed he brought Atio to the hospital after he tried to revive him.

Judge inhibits from case

A judge has inhibited from the case looking into the hazing death of UST law student Horacio "Atio" Castillo III, following the motion filed by accused fratmen.

The court granted the motion of accused Aegis Juris fraternity members Jose Miguel Salamat and John Robin Ramos for Manila Regional Trial Court 40 Judge Alfredo Ampuan to remove himself from the case.

The document was signed on March 23 and was released to the media Monday.

Salamat and Ramos earlier said Judge Ampuan is partial because he allowed the hearing of the motion of the accused without the presence of a public prosecutor. They said rules of criminal procedure require that a public prosecutor must be present during hearings.

They also said Ampuan must inhibit from the case because he is related to the head of the group that assisted Atio's family during the preliminary investigation.

While Ampuan said the petition for inhibition is baseless, he said it gave the perception that he "tilted the scales of justice" against the suspects.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 26)  The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) is preparing charges of serious neglect of duty against Boracay officials.

Assistant Secretary for Plans and Programs Epimaco Densing III said Aklan Govenor Florencio Miraflores, Malay Mayor Ceciron Cawaling, and even barangay captains could all face charges.

"We're looking at local chief executives... Most probably the local municipal council themselves  baka wiped out sila [they might be wiped out]," Densing told CNN Philippines' The Source Monday.

"Pati gobernador, kaso hindi pa ata tapos ang evidence-gathering sa gobernador [Even the governor, although evidence-gathering against him probably isn't finished yet]," he added.

The complaint will be filed at the Office of the Ombudsman before April 14.

CNN Philippines reached out to the local officials, but they have yet to respond.

The government is eyeing a six-month closure of the island beginning on April 26. Densing pegged losses in revenue between 18 to 20 billion.

The proposal has sparked concerns over the the loss of livelihoods and income of locals.

He, hovewer, said the Departments of Labor and Employment, Social Welfare and Development, Trade and Industry have all been tapped to give assistance.

The scramble to clean up the beach destination came after President Rodrigo Duterte called it "a cesspool," and threatened to shut it down permanently if pollution was not fixed.

Governor Miraflores on Thursday committed to fixing the drainage system problem by the end of May.

Related: Aklan Gov. commits to clean up Boracay drainage system by May 31

'Boracay Development Authority' floated

Densing further suggested that the government set up a Boracay Island Development Authority as a longterm solution.

"For a tourist destination of world-class level, we should not let the [LGU] manage [it] on [its] own," said Densing. "Let the national government take over... tapos isa na lang sigurong boto si local government [then the local government will have only one vote]."

He also said there was a discrepancy between the Municipality of Malay's tourist arrivals at two million and its declared environmental fees at P91 million.

"Two million times 75 pesos (per head), that's P150 million. Medyo malayo ang gap [The gap is wide]," said Densing.

Some local officials were not competent, Densing added. He said they let illegal establishments slip, and some businesses with a mayor's permit did not have environmental clearance.

Watch the full interview with Densing here.FILE - In this Sept. 20, 2017, file photo, the logo of Louis Vuitton, a fashion house and luxury retail company is pictured on their store on the Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris, France. Louis Vuitton has named Kanye West collaborator Virgil Abloh as its new men's wear artistic director. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)The builder of this proposed five-building development with 152 new homes is proposed at the corner of Highway 33 and Bryden Road in Rutland is asking for a rezoning permit.In this Sept. 9, 2017 photo, a rat looks for food in a trash can on the corner of Otis PI NW and Georgia Ave NW in the Park View neighborhood in Washington, D.C. The District of Columbia will be using dry ice as its newest weapon in its never-ending war on rats. The District of Columbia's rodent control division's program manager, Gerard Brown, tells The Washington Post the frozen form of carbon dioxide complements the poison the city uses, as reported rat complaints reach a four-year high. (Salwan Georges /The Washington Post via AP)U.S. and Canadian flags fly in Point Roberts, Wash., on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. The first-ever Canadian customs sites in the United States could be coming soon. A U.S. official said the years-long preclearance experiment could soon be taking a new step with Canadian customs facilities in the U.S., and he mentioned Arizona and Florida as leading candidates for the sites. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckMinister of Health Ginette Petitpas Taylor speaks during an announcement on funding for the opioid crisis, as Liberal MP for Ottawa-Vanier Mona Fortier looks on, in Ottawa on Monday, March 26, 2018. The government is making it easier for patients to access prescription heroin and methadone in its fight against the opioid crisis.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangMetro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 26)  Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista ordered the closure of Dimple Star Transport's bus terminal in Cubao on Monday.

This comes almost a week after one of the company's buses crashed in Occidental Mindoro, leaving 19 dead and 21 injured.

The local government said the company also lacked business permits and proper bus terminals.

Dimple Star said passengers with tickets will get refunds.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) on March 21 issued a preventive suspension order on 10 units of Dimple Star.

Upon inspection of some units, LTFRB Board member Aileen Lizada said some tires of Dimple Star buses were nearly worn out.In this photo provided by the World Food Program, World Food Program executive director David Beasley talks to children at a refugee center at CoxAos Bazar in Bangladesh in early October, 2017. Beasley says the collapse of the Islamic State movementAos self-described caliphate across Syria and Iraq has led to extremists mounting a recruitment drive in sub-Sahara Africa which threatens to trigger a new European migrant crisis. (Saikat Mojumder/World Food Program via AP)FILE - This 1998 frame from video provided by C-SPAN shows George Nader, president and editor of Middle East Insight. Nader, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates who is now a witness in the U.S. special counsel investigation into foreign meddling in American politics, wired $2.5 million to Donald Trump's fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, through a company in Canada, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. (C-SPAN via AP, File)In this Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017 photograph released by the U.S. Defense Department, German soldiers assigned to Surface Air and Missile Defense Wing 1, fire the Patriot weapons system at the NATO Missile Firing Installation in Chania, Greece. Online videos are raising new questions about Saudi Arabia's claims that it has intercepted nearly every ballistic missile launched by Shiite rebels in Yemen with its own Patriot missile systems. (Sebastian Apel/U.S. Department of Defense, via AP)A man takes a copy of newspaper at a grocery shop in Shah Alam, Malaysia, Monday, March 26, 2018. Malaysia's government on Monday proposed new legislation to outlaw fake news with a 10-year jail term for offenders, in a move slammed by critics as a draconian bid to crack down on dissent ahead of a general election. Prime Minister Najib Razak has been dogged by a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal involving an indebted state fund, and rights activists fear the new law could be used to criminalize reports on government misconduct and critical opinions. (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf)Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 26)  President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday he wants the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) passed before the year ends.

"I want to finish it this year," Duterte said during his visit in Jolo, Sulu. "I want to have a result of this at the end of the year."

Duterte inspected loose firearms surrendered by the local government and witnessed the presentation of surrendered members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).

The President has repeatedly stressed that the BBL will help satisfy the Moro people's aspirations for real autonomy.

Even as he pushes for the law's passage soon, Duterte admitted he has some concerns about its implementation specifically on governance issues among different groups.

He also expressed concern on who will lead the Moro region should the BBL pass.

"Yan ang problema ko ngayon while the BBL is being processed in Congress. Pagdating ng panahon, who heads what? Magkanya-kanya ba o ilagay mo sa isang governing authority and who would it be?" Duterte said.

[Translation: Thats my problem while the BBL is being processed in Congress. When the time comes, who heads what? Would they act on their own or assign a governing authority and who would it be?]

To help resolve the BBL-related concerns, the President said he will meet with stakeholders for a whole day next week.

He also expressed openness to working with the ASG.

"Wala akong galit sa inyo. Wala akong galit sa Abu Sayyaf. I understand the situation...If there's a way that I can help you help me make it through the night sa presidency ko, magpasalamat talga ako kasi wala ako ibang hangarin kundi bigyan ng kapayapaan ang Moro sa Mindanao, Duterte said.

[Translation: Im not mad at you. Im not mad at the Abu Sayyaf. I understand the situation...If there's a way that I can help you help me make it through the night in my presidency, I would be really thankful because I want nothing but peace for the Moro in Mindanao.]

On February 28, the Senate Committees on Local Government, Ways and Means, and Finance, and the Subcommittee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law submitted Senate Bill No. 1717 or the "Bangsamoro Basic Law."

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Miguel Zubiri, was filed after 11 public hearings, and six days of technical working group meetings.

During his campaign, Duterte promised to bring peace in the south through the passage of the BBL.

Should it pass, the BBL will provide a basic structure of government focusing on the rights of the Bangsamoro people, described as "natives or original inhabitants of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago and its adjacent islands including Palawan."

The measure paves the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro, the successor to the ARMM established in 1989 through Republic Act 6734.

It also delineates authority in the region by assigning jurisdiction of reserved powers for the Central government, exclusive powers for the Bangsamoro government, and concurrent powers for both the Central and the Bangsamoro governments.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 26)  Uber users can book their rides using the Grab app starting April 9.

This, after it was announced Monday that Grab acquired Uber's Southeast Asia operations.

"The combined services of Grab and Uber signals a wider network of TNVS (Transport Network Vehicle Services) drivers and passengers and improved ridesharing services," said Brian Cu, Country Head, Grab Philippines.

Grab Philippines said passengers will get to enjoy shorter waiting times and rides will become more affordable because of the larger fleet of drivers on their platform.

It added new users of the ride-sharing app will be able to take advantage of its loyalty programs and features for cashless transactions and real-time tracking of parcels.

The ride-hailing firm also sees a spike in app users which increases the chance of driver-partners to earn more and wait less.

Grab Philippines also reassured the government and the public that it will "continue to work in a collaborative and open manner."

Aside from the Philippines, the deal covers taking over Uber's operations and assets in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

As part of the acquisition, Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab's board.

Expanding to food delivery

Grab will also integrate Uber's ridesharing and food delivery business in the region into Grab's existing multi-modal transportation and financial technology platform.

"GrabFood will also be another great use case to drive the continued adoption of GrabPay mobile wallet and support our growing financial services platform," said Tan Hooi Ling, Grab Co-founder.

To minimize disruption, it added that both companies are working together to promptly migrate Uber drivers and riders, Uber Eats customers, merchant partners and delivery partners to the Grab platform.

"The Uber app will continue to operate for two weeks to ensure stability for Uber drivers, who can find out how to sign-up to drive with Grab online. Uber Eats will run until the end of May, after which Uber delivery and restaurant partners will move to the GrabFood platform," Grab said in the statement.

Grab is also cooperating with local regulators in relation to the acquisition, starting with a merger notification to the Competition Commission of Singapore.

Uber: 'Right thing to do'

In an open letter to its SEA employees posted on Uber's website, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said it was a tough decision.

"These are never easy decisions and I know this will mean a big change for you and your families, but I believe that combining forces with Grab is the right thing to do for Uber for the long term," he said.

He also denied consolidation is the "strategy of the day," given this is the third deal of its kind, from China to Russia and now, Southeast Asia.

"One of the potential dangers of our global strategy is that we take on too many battles across too many fronts and with too many competitors. This transaction now puts us in a position to compete with real focus and weight in the core markets where we operate, while giving us valuable and growing equity stakes in a number of big and important markets where we don't," he said.

In 2016, Uber sold its China operations to rival Did Chuxing in a landmark deal that ended its quest to be a major player in one of the world's largest markets.

Last year, Uber also threw in the towel in Russia, ceding its operations to rival Yandex in exchange for a 37 percent stake in the combined company.

Uber said that around 500 colleagues across the region will transition to Grab. It will also help Uber users to transition to Grab's apps in the coming weeks.

In Metro Manila, records from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board show that both Grab and Uber have 59,020 units.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 26)  Nine police cadets are facing criminal charges for allegedly mauling six of their upperclassmen, the police said Monday.

Inspectors Ylam Lambenecio and Arjay Divino filed serious physical injury charges against the suspects Monday at the Cavite provincial prosecution office. It was signed by Prosecutor 1 Reiner C. Luna.

The alleged incident happened on March 21, after the graduation rites of the PNPA "Maragtas" Class of 2018.

Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) Director Chief Superintendent Joseph Adnol said the report of the Silang Municipal Police Station stated witnesses identified suspects Donald Ramirez Kissing, Jem Camcam Peralta, Clint John Baguidodol, Paul Christopher de Guzman Macalalad, Loreto Aquino Tuliao Jr., and four others. All belong to the PNPA Class of 2019.

Fifteen other cadets also face administrative charges.

Those involved in the violent incident should be removed from the police academy, the National Police Commission (NAPOLCOM) said.

"They have no reasons to continue with their training they have to be dismissed from the cadetship. Masyadong mabigat, serious itong mga ginawa nila, at this very early stage dapat hindi na ipagpatuloy sila," NAPOLCOM Executive Director Rogelio Casurao said.

[Translation: They have no reasons to continue with their training, they have to be dismissed from the cadetship. Their actions were too serious. At this stage, they should not push through.]

Out of the six graduates who were mauled by their underclassmen, Philippine National Police Chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa said four cadets were severely injured, but none were confined in the hospital.

The police chief said the six were mauled after the PNPA graduation rites in Silang, Cavite, which President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Leni Robredo both attended.

Dela Rosa said after the fresh graduates went back to their barracks after the ceremony, the undergraduates were waiting to pounce.

"Naka-abang na pala doon ang underclass nila para i-celebrate pero ang celebration hindi na-control. Imbis na kiliti at dunking, nadagdagan ng hard objects na tumatama," the PNP Chief said.

[Translation: They were already waiting for their upperclassmen to celebrate, but they were not able to control it. Instead of tickling and dunking, hard objects were thrown at them.]

He added, "Sa PNPA, medyo nasobrahan dahil merong ulong hinampas, merong ilong na binali, merong nasugatan. Hindi iyon sanctioned."

[Translation: They went overboard because objects were thrown at their heads, their noses broken, some were wounded. That was not sanctioned by the school.]

Dela Rosa said these "celebrations" are an on and off tradition during the PNPA graduation rites but he said it should stop.

"That kind of tradition is not good. Sad to say, it promotes cycle of violence. Dahil kapag hindi na-stop ang tradition na iyan, every year 'yan mangyayari, ang tawag 'bawian,'" he said.

Both the PNPA and NAPOLCOM are conducting their own investigations into the incident.

CNN Philippines correspondent Gerg Cahiles contributed to this report.KIMT NEWS 3 - If you're one walking out of school or marching on the weekends like this past one to want gun laws changed area lawmakers are paying attention.

I think it keeps the issue on people's minds so the opportunity we have to move forward we're looking at those trying to figure out the best way to do it, Speaker of the House Linda Upmeyer said.

People have that opportunity to make a statement about how they feel and when they do that you notice what's happening on a different level, State Senator Amanda Ragan said.

Ragan says when it comes to gun laws her focus is on making sure workplaces and schools are getting the proper training on how to handle an active shooter.

When you do that you prepare people and you don't want to frighten students but you want to make sure you when you have that incident I feel being informed is better than not being informed, Ragan said.

Upmeyer says her goal is giving schools the choice on how to handle things.

Much of the focus has been on working with opportunitys to let schools make decisions, getting out of the way, Upmeyer said.PAYNESVILLE, Minn. (AP)  A central Minnesota man with a lengthy criminal record was charged Monday with killing his grandparents, who had taken him into their home.

Stearns County prosecutors charged Gregory Scheel, 33, with two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of 93-year-old Wilbert Scheel and 80-year-old Gloria Scheel, of Paynesville. Their bodies were found Thursday in their car along a rural road in nearby Kandiyohi County.

According to the complaint, Wilbert Scheel's body was found with his arms and legs bound and with a plastic bag over his head. Gloria Scheel was found with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck. It says their vehicle smelled of gas and some portions of the interior had been charred and covered in soot.

Gregory Scheel was arrested after the bodies were discovered when he was spotted walking in the area. A judge set bail for Scheel at $3 million with no conditions or $1.5 million with conditions. He remained in jail Monday and is due back in court April 9. His public defender, Luke Neuville, declined to comment Monday.

Gregory Scheel has been convicted of crimes ranging from burglary to domestic assault, the St. Cloud Times reported . The complaint accusing him of killing his grandparents does not list a motive.

Police in Paynesville, a small town about 95 miles (153 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis, conducted a welfare check on Wilbert and Gloria Scheel at their home on Wednesday night after they did not show up a family dinner, but did not find anyone home. A family member had been at the home earlier that evening and spoken to Gregory Scheel, who said his grandparents had left earlier in the day "with unknown individuals," according to the complaint.

Officers went back to the home Thursday and found blood in the garage, where the concrete floor apparently had been cleaned recently. Police also found an eyeglass lens in the garage floor drain. When the couple's bodies were found in their Prius, Gloria Scheel's glasses were missing a lens, the complaint states.

Investigators searched the couple's home and also found cut electrical cords matching those found on the bodies, a plastic bag matching the one found over Wilbert Scheel's head, and carpet similar to carpet that was covering the bodies.

Gloria Scheel was remembered for running a Christmas program at a Paynesville church where she also had led Sunday school. Wilbert Scheel, meanwhile, played pingpong and drove beauty queens in summer parades in his classic convertibles, the Star Tribune reported .

"It was just in their nature to help people," Paynesville Mayor Jeff Thompson told The Associated Press.CRESCO, Iowa  A trial has been set for a Howard County man accused of killing his wife.

Brian Fullhart, 34 of Cresco, is accused of fatally shooting his wife on February 28 and then barricading himself inside his home. He was arrested on March 1 and police say they found Zoanne Fullhart dead inside the home.

Brian Fullhart is also accused of threatening the police as they tried to arrest him.

He is pleading not guilty to 1st degree murder and going armed with intent and his trial is scheduled to begin August 8.

For previous coverage of this case, click here.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 26)  Consultative committee head Reynato Puno said Monday that President Rodrigo Duterte cannot run for a second term even if the new Constitution would allow a President to serve for two terms.

Puno explained that Duterte was elected under the 1987 Constitution so he is bound by its provisions that prevent him from running again.

He said there is also no need for Duterte to extend his term beyond 2022.

"The transition period will not go beyond 2022, the term of President Duterte," Puno pointed out. "If you look at the transitory provisions of our different constitutions, it did not take an indefinite length of time to be able to go to the regular government.

Puno said it is impossible to have the new Constitution approved by the people through a plebiscite by October this year.

He explained that convening the Constituent Assembly, especially now that the Senate has refused to join the House of Representatives in discussing charter change, will take some time. In addition, the Senate could be very busy acting as an impeachment court if the case against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno is brought to the chamber in the latter half of the year.MASON CITY, Iowa - It's a situation those at Cerro Gordo County dispatch haven't dealt with yet and hope not to.

First of all we'd probably asking a lot more questions than what we need to, Denise Largent a dispatcher for CGC said.

Largent says she's never gotten a call from someone asking for a pepperoni pizza. This "situation" is trending on social media. It suggests you can call 9-1-1 and pretend to order a pizza in an emergency when you can't talk and want to disguise who you're calling.

At my age Im not into the social media as much as the younger dispatchers here, they may know more about this, Largent said.

Largent is pleading with callers to not believe the pizza theory. Instead just text 9-1-1 they can text you back immediately.

The only time I would suggest you text 9-1-1 if you're in a situation you can't talk. Other than that call 9-1-1 we can talk directly with you, Largent said.

If worst case scenario you cant talk on the phone Largent suggests putting the phone down but not hanging up. She also stresses no matter if you send a text or can call listing your address should be first priority.Winter Weather Advisory

Areas Affected: Emmet; Humboldt; Kossuth; Palo Alto; Pocahontas

NWS DesMoines (Central Iowa)

...Light Freezing Rain Overnight Into Monday Morning... .Rain and drizzle will move across northwest Iowa at times from tonight through Monday. As air and road temperatures fall below freezing overnight, this will lead to light accumulations on elevated surfaces and some untreated roads, resulting in difficult travel by Monday morning. ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 10 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 AM CDT MONDAY...

* WHAT...A light wintry mix, becoming light freezing rain or freezing drizzle at times overnight. Ice accumulations from a few hundredths to around a tenth of an inch expected.

* WHERE...Portions of northwest Iowa roughly north and west of Fort Dodge.

* WHEN...From 10 PM this evening to 10 AM CDT Monday.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...The ice will result in difficult travel conditions, including during the morning commute on Monday. Be prepared for reduced visibilities at times.

A Winter Weather Advisory means that periods of snow, sleet or freezing rain will cause travel difficulties. Be prepared for slippery roads and limited visibilities, and use caution while driving. The latest road conditions for the state you are calling from can be obtained by calling 5 1 1.

Areas Affected: Emmet; Humboldt; Kossuth; Palo Alto; Pocahontas

NWS DesMoines (Central Iowa)

...Light Freezing Rain Overnight Into Monday Morning... .Rain and drizzle will move across northwest Iowa at times from tonight through Monday. As air and road temperatures fall below freezing overnight, this will lead to light accumulations on elevated surfaces and some untreated roads, resulting in difficult travel by Monday morning. ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 10 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 AM CDT MONDAY...

* WHAT...A light wintry mix, becoming light freezing rain or freezing drizzle at times overnight. Ice accumulations from a few hundredths to around a tenth of an inch expected.

* WHERE...Portions of northwest Iowa roughly north and west of Fort Dodge.

* WHEN...From 10 PM this evening to 10 AM CDT Monday.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...The ice will result in difficult travel conditions, including during the morning commute on Monday. Be prepared for reduced visibilities at times.

A Winter Weather Advisory means that periods of snow, sleet or freezing rain will cause travel difficulties. Be prepared for slippery roads and limited visibilities, and use caution while driving. The latest road conditions for the state you are calling from can be obtained by calling 5 1 1.TORONTO (Reuters) - Barrick Gold Corp, the worlds largest producer of bullion, cut the 2017 compensation for its top two executives to reflect a challenging shareholder experience and operations at some mines.

Shares in the Canadian miner declined 15 percent last year, even as the price of gold gained 11 percent. In 2017 Barrick had a third cyanide spill in 18 months at its Veladero mine in Argentina and struggled under an export ban for its Acacia Mining unit in Zambia that is still not resolved.

The Toronto-based company cut the 2017 long-term bonus for Executive Chairman John Thornton by 18 percent to $4.3 million. That reduced his total compensation to $7.7 million, down 9.4 percent from $8.5 million in 2016.

President Kelvin Dushniksys 2017 total compensation dropped nearly 19 percent to $4.2 million. Barrick reduced his annual bonus to $693,000, from $1.4 million in 2016, to better align total compensation with the shareholder experience in 2017.

Barrick shareholders rejected the companys executive pay plan in 2013 under a non-binding vote, in part because of a $11.9 million signing bonus awarded to Thornton.

In a new scheme introduced in 2014, the largest portion of top executive compensation was based on performance and paid in units that convert to Barrick shares, which cannot be sold until retirement or leaving the company.

Thornton purchased shares worth $3.6 million last year and now holds a total of 2.7 million common shares of Barrick.(Kitco News) - The gold market has taken one giant leap in to the futures after Tradewind Inc. officially launched a new digital gold platform Monday.

The new gold exchange has been in the works for more than two years, with the company receiving support from major players in the gold industry, including Sprott Inc and Goldcorp Inc.

The firm said that its new digital exchange is expected to revolutionize the trading, settlement, and ownership of physical gold.

The Tradewind blockchain can directly link precious-metals producers, custodians, market makers, dealers and investors, said Mike Haughton, co-founder of Tradewind. This will unlock opportunities for market participants to conduct business more efficiently, securely, and profitably across existing business operations, and to enable future utility including provenance tracking and collateral management.

According to a press release, through blockchain technology, investors will be able to buy fractional quantities of gold through the new platform. The gold will be vaulted by the Royal Canadian Mint. A network of authorized dealers will provide liquidity for the new exchange.

The Royal Canadian Mint will facilitate the registration of investment-grade physical gold on the Tradewind platform as VaultChain Gold by confirming that it is in possession of the physical gold that underlies the platform, the company said in a press release. Together with the authorized liquidity providers and dealers, the Mint will recognize the Tradewind blockchain as the authoritative record of title for ownership. The Mint will also contractually guarantee the option for physical delivery of the gold underlying the program to the network of authorized liquidity providers and dealers.

According to media reports, Matt Trudeau, president and co-founder of Tradewind, said that one of the advantages of the revolutionary technology is lower investment costs. The company explained that VaultChain Gold will not be subject to the ongoing management and administrative fees associated with securities products like exchange-traded funds.

Instead of charging administration fees, Tradewind will make its profits through exchange fees.

According to reports, Sprott owns about 20% of the new platform and plans to be a dealer on the exchange. Tradewind also received an investment from Goldcorp in 2017 when it was one of the finalists in the minings giants inaugural #Distruptmining showcase.(Kitco News) - Gold prices are slightly lower in early U.S. trading Monday, on a normal, corrective pullback from recent good gains and after hitting a five-week high overnight. April Comex gold futures were last down $1.70 an ounce at $1,348.20.May Comex silver was last up $0.048 at $16.63 an ounce.

World stock markets were mostly higher overnight. U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward solidly higher openings when the New York day session begins.

Reports Sunday said Chinese trade officials have agreed to sit down and negotiate with U.S. trade officials regarding the U.S.s issues regarding bilateral trade with China. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday said the U.S. was working on a pathway to reach agreement with the Chinese. And the South Koreans have agreed to some U.S. terms on U.S. trade disputes with that country. All of the above had made a world trade war less likely. This has put some risk appetite back into the world marketplace and is a negative for the safe-haven gold and silver markets.

The key outside markets on Monday morning see the U.S. dollar index lower and hitting a five-week low overnight. The greenback bears have downside momentum. Meantime, Nymex crude oil prices are slightly lower but hit a two-month high overnight.

U.S. economic data due for release Monday includes the Chicago Fed national activity index and the Texas manufacturing outlook survey.

Technically, April gold bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage. Gold bulls' next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at the January high of $1,370.50. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is pushing prices below solid technical support at $1,300.00. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $1,351.20 and then at $1,360.00. First support is seen at the overnight low of $1,343.40 and then at $1,335.00. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.5

May silver futures bears have the overall near-term technical advantage. Silver bulls' next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at the March high of $16.895 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $16.00. First resistance is seen at last weeks high of $16.675 and then at the March high of $16.895. Next support is seen at $16.50 and then at $16.33. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 4.0.March 26 (Reuters) - BMO Global Asset Management, owned by Canadas Bank of Montreal, on Monday appointed Bart Kuijpers as managing director and head of its fiduciary management business, effective April. Kuijpers joins from International Pension Platform, a provider of pension fund-related services, which he founded in 2014 via a joint venture with Swiss Re and Credit Suisse. (Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru)

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.BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea leader Kim Jong Un has visited China, Bloomberg reported on Monday citing three unnamed sources, in what would be his first known overseas trip since taking power in 2011 and ahead of a potential summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Details of his visit including its purpose and itinerary were not yet known, Bloomberg said. Japanese media reported earlier on Monday that a high-ranking Pyongyang official appeared to have arrived by train in Beijing.

Kyodo, citing sources close to the matter, said the visit of the official was intended to improve ties between Beijing and Pyongyang that have been frayed by North Koreas pursuit of nuclear weapons and Chinas backing of tough sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations Security Council.

The visit could not immediately be confirmed by Reuters.

Footage from Nippon News Network, owned by Nippon TV, showed what an announcer described as a green train carriage with yellow horizontal lines, part of a 21-car train, similar to the kind that Kims late father, Kim Jong Il, rode when he visited Beijing in 2011.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive and isolated North Korea. But Kim is due to hold summit meetings separately with Chinas rivals, South Korea and the United States.

Asked earlier at a daily news briefing about reports of an important North Korean visitor arriving at the Chinese border city of Dandong, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was unaware of the situation.

Nobody answered the telephone at the North Korean embassy in Beijing on Monday evening.

The government is closely communicating with relevant countries and monitoring the situation, South Koreas presidential Blue House said in a statement via a messaging app earlier on Monday.

Kyodo, citing sources, reported that on Sunday, a special train that might have carried the official passed through the Chinese border city of Dandong.

Two sources in northeastern China also told Reuters that a North Korean visitor had crossed into Dandong by train.

The rail journey between Dandong and Beijing covers more than 1,100 km (680 miles). It takes at least 14 hours by ordinary service, according to Chinese railway timetables.

HEAVY SECURITY

On Chinese social media some residents of Dandong said there had been high security around the train station there and said there were rumors that Kim was passing through.

Police tightened security along Beijings main east-west thoroughfare, Changan Avenue, mid-afternoon Monday, closing off the entrances to some of the buildings which face the road.

Police also cleared out all tourists from Tiananmen Square around the same time, which normally only happens when important meetings are happening in the Great Hall of the People, where top Chinese leaders often meet visiting heads of state.

There was a large security presence outside the Great Hall on Monday evening.

Late on Monday evening, Reuters reporters saw a lengthy motorcade, including a limousine with dark tinted windows, heading down Changan Avenue in the direction of the Diaoyutai State Guest House and away from the Great Hall of the People, flanked by a police escort on motor-bikes.

Also on Monday evening, the Beijing railway bureau warned on its microblog, without giving a reason, of multiple train delays of up to two hours in the Beijing region.

A source with ties to the Chinese military told Reuters that it was not possible to rule out the possibility that Kim was visiting Beijing, but cautioned this was not confirmed.

A diplomatic source told Reuters that there was heavy security around the Diaoyutai State Guest House, where some high level foreign visitors stay during visits to the city. Other diplomatic sources said they were aware of the speculation that Kim was visiting but were not able to immediately confirm it.

Visits to China by Kim Jong Il were only confirmed by both China and North Korea once he had left the country.

Kim Jong Il traveled by private train during his rare visits to China or Russia under tight security. Diplomats and other sources have said Kim Jong Il avoided flying for overseas trips due to security concerns.

The younger Kim, who was educated in Switzerland, is not known to have any fear of flying and state media have shown pictures of him aboard a plane. However, he is not known to have traveled outside the country since assuming power in late 2011 after his fathers death.(Kitco News) - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States and closed the Russian consulate in Seattle over a nerve agent attack earlier this month in Britain, senior U.S. officials said. The order includes 12 Russian intelligence officers from Russia's mission to the United Nations headquarters in New York and reflects concerns that Russian intelligence activities have been increasingly aggressive, senior U.S. administration officials told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Editing by Franklin Paul



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.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 25)  Pope Francis, in his Palm Sunday homily, urged the youth to speak up.

"Dear young people, you have it in you to shout...It is up to you not to keep quiet. Even if others keep quiet, if we older people and leaders - so often corrupt - keep quiet, if the whole world keeps quiet and loses its joy, I ask you: Will you cry out?" the pope said.

The pontiff's message coincided with the 33rd World Youth Day.

Pope Francis also warned the youth against those who aim to silence them.

"The temptation to silence young people has always existed...There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. Many ways to anaesthetize them, to make them keep quiet, ask nothing, question nothing," the pope said.

He also drew parallels of these instances with biblical references.

"The Pharisees themselves rebuke Jesus and ask him to silence them...It is up to you to opt for Sunday's 'Hosanna!', so as not to fall into Friday's 'Crucify him!'," he said.

The message came at the heels of the March for Our Lives movement in the United States, where thousands of students, teachers, and other groups rallied against gun violence following a school shooting in Parkland, Florida that left 17 people dead.

READ: March for Our Lives: Top moments that made up a movement

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, which ends on Easter Sunday on April 1.Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong speaks during a press briefing on the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement renegotiations at the Government Complex in Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy



Gov't defends steel, agriculture, auto parts in return



By Nam Hyun-woo



Korea consented to a number of U.S. demands on automobiles during negotiations for a revision to the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (KORUS FTA), while protecting its agriculture and steel sectors. Trade Minister Kim Hyun-jong said Monday both countries have agreed in principle on revisions to the KORUS FTA. Also, the two agreed to exclude Korea from the U.S. list of countries subject to hefty steel tariffs



"With the negotiations, Korea has removed the two biggest trade uncertainties of U.S. steel tariffs and revisions to the KORUS FTA," Kim said during a press briefing at the Government Complex in Seoul.



"There will be no additional opening of domestic agriculture markets, no mandatory use of U.S. auto parts and no rollback on tariffs which have already been lifted," Kim stressed. "In terms of the steel tariff issue, Korea became the first country to have concluded negotiations to exclude itself from the U.S. move."



Along with the FTA renegotiations, 30 negotiators engaged in talks to remove Korea from the U.S. plan to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent duty on imported aluminum, which took effect last Friday.



Key revisions revealed by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy include new rules on automobiles.



The two countries agreed to lift the duty on Korean pickup trucks by 2041, 20 years after 2021 stated in the current deal. Also, they agreed to increase the 25,000-vehicle per U.S. automaker threshold for U.S. car shipments to Korea to 50,000.



Currently, the pact regards up to 25,000 vehicles per U.S. automaker as having met Korea's safety standards, if the automaker keeps the U.S. safety standards. The U.S. had been claiming the cap has been virtually operating as a non-tariff barrier for its carmakers.



The U.S. has been exerting a tough pressure on automobiles as Korea's car and auto parts manufacturers posted a $17.75 billion trade surplus, which accounted for most of Seoul's trade surplus with Washington last year.



Describing the negotiations, Kim said, "there was nothing that should make us flinch," stressing automakers here are yet to export pickup trucks to the U.S., while no U.S. carmaker sells more than 10,000 vehicles a year in Korea.



Regarding the steel tariff, Kim said Korea was excluded from the U.S. move, while setting up a 2.68 million ton export quota to the U.S., which is 70 percent of the average steel export volume from 2015 to 2017.



"This bears extra significance because Korea clinched the outcome under harsh conditions. Korea was on the list of 12 countries that could be slapped with a 53 percent duty as the U.S. said Korea was harming its industry through transshipping Chinese steel," Kim noted.



The negotiations were widely interpreted as Korea giving up its "leverage" on automobiles in return for being excluded from the steel tariffs.



"I don't agree to the leverage interpretation," Kim said, adding trade issues can be linked to each other.



To Korea's demand for revisions on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) he said the two countries have agreed to prevent investors from exploiting it, while reflecting the governments' legitimate authority.



ISDS allows investors to sue countries for alleged discriminatory practices via international arbitration bodies, but many have expressed concerns that multinational firms could exploit it, thus infringing on Korea's judicial sovereignty.

By Jhoo Dong-chan



The nation's major banks are having a hard time making inroads into Southeast Asia as their future growth engine despite the government's strong drive to promote the region.



The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said local lenders have opened 428 branches abroad as of September 2017. Their earning dependence on foreign branches was only 4.6 percent on average, a stark contrast to global financial companies' figures.



Banking giant Citi Group's dependence on foreign branches reached 54 percent.



In a bid to diversify their profit portfolio, the nation's major banks are gearing up to open more branches abroad, especially in Southeast Asian countries. Of their 428 foreign branches, Korean banks have opened 156 branches in 10 ASEAN countries and India.



The figure is 36 percent of their total foreign branches. Forty-eight branches are located in Vietnam followed by Indonesia with 24 and Myanmar with 20 branches.



Banks said an increasing number of Southeast Asian countries have strengthened the minimum capital requirement while limiting foreign shareholders' portion in foreign banks' entry to the region.



Thailand demands at least 692.2 billion won (20 billion Thai baht) as the minimum capital requirement for foreign banks' entry to the country. Indonesia also sets about 300 billion won for the capital requirement.



"Considering the size of their economies, their demand for a minimum capital requirement is absurdly high," a financial circle insider said.



"They have raised the hurdles as an increasing number of advanced economies compete with each other over entry to the region."



There is also a trust issue.



During the IMF crisis, Korean banks withdrew from Thailand in 1997despite the Thai government's opposition. Due to their withdrawal, the Thai government decided to prohibit Korean banks' entry to the country until 2020.



Only Samsung Life Insurance decided to stay in Thailand, managing to turn a profit last year for the first time in 10 years.



Some experts point out Korean banks operating in the region have focused mainly on the micro finance sector to enjoy short-term return with high-interest loans.



"Such practices won't help Korean banks' entry to Southeast Asian countries in the future," KDB researcher Kang Myeong-koo said.



"Learning from the experience with Thailand, banks should maintain consistent operations in the region to win their trust while introducing differentiated strategies to attract locals."



KEB Hana Bank signed a strategic partnership MOU with Laos' top bank by assets last July, establishing a foothold in the region.



The agreement was aimed at boosting the two lenders' partnership on remittance and trade financing. KEB Hana said the collaboration will allow the two sides to provide financial services to Laotians working in Korea.

Sungkyunkwan University students perform a traditional Korean dance "palilmu" during a grand ritual in honor of Confucius and Confucian sages called "Seokjeon" at the school's shrine, Daeseongjeon, Monday. The performance is designated as Korea's 85th Intangible Cultural Asset. /Korea Times photos by Choi Won-sukWashington may signal Pyongyang 'not to get greedy at summit'



By Kim Jae-kyoung



U.S. President Donald Trump is aiming to achieve two goals through his recent picks for hawkish national security adviser and secretary of state, American experts on North Korea said, Monnday.



First, Trump is pressuring North Korean leader Kim Jong-un not to expect too much from the upcoming summit slated for May.



Second, he wants to clarify his position to his staff and politicians in Washington about his hard-line approach _ maximum pressure while being open to talks. Simply speaking, there will be no let-up in sanctions against the reclusive regime.



"I'm pretty sure Trump is signaling Kim not to get greedy about the proposed summit, and not to ask for relief from maximum pressure without real progress," William Brown, adjunct professor at Georgetown School of Foreign Service, told The Korea Times



"But Trump may be equally talking to the Washington establishment, who won't like the picks, pulling them back from expectations that the administration is going to go easy on North Korea."



Brown, who previously worked for the CIA and the National Intelligence Council, compared Trump's strategy to the "Nixon engagement with Mao," saying he has to cover his conservative bases in order to reach out.



"He certainly has done that with these two appointments so let's see how Kim responds," he said.



"I expect there is even more pressure now on Pyongyang's America experts, trying to figure an agenda for their meeting."



Brown's analysis came after Trump picked John Bolton, a hawkish former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as his new security adviser, Friday.



Bolton has backed the use of military force against North Korea, and was previously rejected as a negotiating partner by Pyongyang which described him as "human scum."



The appointment came a week after Trump tapped Mike Pompeo, another hardliner, as the secretary of state. Pompeo is a former CIA director who is known as a staunch loyalist of the U.S. president.



Sean King, senior vice president of Park Strategies, said Bolton's rise signals little chance that Trump will fall for possible tricks by the recalcitrant North Korean leader.



"With Bolton around, Trump's less likely to be taken in by Kim and believe whatever North Korea tells him," the New York-based East Asia specialist said.





President Moon Jae-in and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan stand with government officials and workers of Korea and the United Arab Emirates, momon, in front of a reactor in Barakah which Korean companies completed construction of. / Yonhap



By Kim Rahn



ABU DHABI  President Moon Jae-in said Monday the nuclear power plant being built by Korean companies in Barakah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be a stable supply of energy for the country and become a next-generation growth engine for Korea.

He said the successful construction will give Korea a better chance to win another bid for a nuclear plant project in Saudi Arabia

Moon celebrated the completion of the construction of the UAE's first nuclear reactor at the construction site at the invitation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Some 200 officials from the two governments and related companies took part in the ceremony.

The reactor is the UAE's first and also the first for a Korean company to build overseas. Korea won the bid for the $18.6 billion project to build four reactors at the end of 2009. The construction of the remaining three is slated for completion in 2020, and then the nuclear plant will generate 25 percent of the UAE's total electricity demand.

Saying he was proud of Korea's nuclear technology, the President said the Barakah project was a model for nuclear plant construction, as the Korean companies managed to install the first reactor safely within the promised time period and designated budget, despite unfavorable environmental factors including high temperatures and a remote desert location.

"At Sunday's summit, the crown prince expressed gratitude toward the Korean workers, companies and government, showing full confidence in Korea's technology," Moon told Korean workers there after the celebration. "He also promised to give priority to Korea for other development projects in western Abu Dhabi."

Moon also told the crown prince that after Korea adopted nuclear reactor construction technologies and skills from the United States, it developed its own technologies and now exports them.

"He said he would help the UAE walk the same path as Korea," presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.

The government regards the Barakah project as the start of Korean companies' advancement into the Middle East in energy. During the summit, the crown prince told Moon that he would help Korea win the bid for a nuclear plant project in Saudi Arabia, showing his satisfaction with how Korea is carrying out the Barakah project.

When the dignitaries moved from a celebration ceremony to the reactor for photographs, the crown prince personally drove a car with Moon in the passenger seat.

"The cooperation in the Barakah project, where Korea's technology and the UAE's capital was successfully combined, will be expanded in more varied ways," Moon said, adding the two nations could seek to advance into energy development projects in third countries.

After the ceremony, Moon met and encouraged Korean workers there, having lunch with them. Of about 14,300 workers at the construction site, some 2,700 are Korean.

"The successful completion of the reactor is attributable to your endeavors," Moon told them. "The project has shown Korea's nuclear reactor technology and business capabilities to the world. I hope you will be confident in your follow-up management of the reactor."Numerous cram schools are concentrated in Gangnam, Seoul. Daechi-dong is one of Korea's traditional education hubs. The Korea Times file photo



By Kim Hyun-bin



The gap between the rich and the poor has been growing wider each year.



This is noticeable in the country's spending on private education.



Spending by low-income families on private education has dropped significantly over the last decade.



Only 58.3 percent of low income households sent their children to private tutoring in 2017, down almost 20 percent from 2007, according to the latest data by Statistics Korea.



The low income households consist of those that make two to three million won per month.



Meanwhile, about 81 percent of households that earn six to seven million won a month have been sending their children to private institutes during the same period.



Experts say at this pace, the gap in education spending between the rich and the poor is expected to increase further in the coming years.



This will limit opportunity and undermine the value of education for the poor.



But in private education, the government cannot do anything about it because it is out of its jurisdiction.



"Low-income households have little room to spend on private tutoring," said Yang Jung-ho, a professor of education at Sungkyunkwan University.



"A gap in expenditures for private education among income levels will continue to exist."



The Ministry of Education says that the government is providing an array of assistance for low-income families, but that is limited to public education.



"Depending on the income, the education ministry offers an array of aids to help reduce income inequality at public schools," said You Hee-jin, deputy director of education welfare at the Ministry of Education.



"But supporting families for private education is out of our jurisdiction."



Some experts say the government needs to first tackle income inequality in the labor market.



"Growing income inequality is a big problem," said Sung Tae-yoon, professor of economics at Yonsei University.

"People are fiercely competing to land a limited number of high paying jobs to improve their livelihoods. But if the labor market improves, that would result in higher wages. This, in turn, could reduce the gap in all fields including education."



Analysts point out the government needs to change and restructure the current education system.



"To reduce the gap, there needs to be a change in the education system. The government has been trying to systematically approach the issue, but it takes a while to plan and even longer to implement a medium- to long-term plan," said Kim Doo-un, an analyst at Hana Financial Investment.



The average amount of spending on private education continues to rise each year, as private tutoring in the country is seen to help students enter prestigious universities.



The average monthly spending for private education rose 33 percent from a decade ago.



In 2017, households averaged spending 384,000 won ($359) per child on private tutoring, up from 288,000 won in 2007.



Spending on private education for high school students rose the highest, costing 515,000 won per month per household, up 43.5 percent from 2007.



The average cost of private tutoring per student from elementary through high school stood at slightly more than 64 million won ($60,000), according to data by Shinhan Bank.



Households in Korea's traditional education hub in the affluent districts of Seocho, Songpa and Gangnam spent on average 95.5 million won per child from elementary to high school.

By Park Si-soo







South Korea's top tech university KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) has joined forces with Khalifa University, a tech university in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), to nurture nuclear scientists.







The universities signed a memorandum of understanding during the UAE-ROK Nuclear Friendship and KAIST Alumni Night at Khalifa University on Sunday. ROK is an acronym for the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.







The event coincided with President Moon Jae-In's state visit to the UAE.







Under the MOU, the universities will work together to offer education and training in areas related to atomic energy.







"I look forward to more students in the UAE having the opportunity to experience the world's top-level education and global environment that KAIST offers," said KAIST President Shin Sung-chul in a welcoming speech.



"The collaboration with Khalifa University and the UAE is very important for the growth of both countries."







Khalifa's interim chief Tod Laursen said: "This MOU on research cooperation focusing on technologies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, nuclear engineering, and other technical areas will further consolidate our partnership with KAIST and support us in developing human capital suitable to take on future challenges in the science and technology sectors.



"We firmly believe the talent pool of experts created by this initiative will contribute to the overall economic growth of the UAE."







KAIST and Khalifa have been in an academic partnership since 2009, under which they have worked together in the areas of nuclear engineering, bio-medical engineering, robotics, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, and materials science.

Buses head for cities in Gyeonggi Province from Seoul in this 2016 file photo. / Korea Times file



By Kim Jae-heun



With three months left before the local elections, Gyeonggi Province Governor Nam Kyung-pil is pushing forward with a plan to adopt a semipublic bus system.



This would also turn all airport buses into intercity ones.



He argues that the measure will bring down overall fares by 10 percent on average.



The semipublic bus system will enable the local government to manage all the service income and redistribute profits to individual transportation companies.



The firms will operate the bus services, but Gyeonggi Province will make decisions on management and take responsibility for any mishaps.



Currently, seven cities and provinces in the country are running this system including Seoul and Incheon.

According to Nam, the new system will allow double daily shifts for drivers, reducing their current working hours from 17 hours every two days to nine hours a day.



The bus routes will also be diversified, and they will no longer only travel on lucrative ones.

"The problem with bus drivers dozing off behind the wheel will be solved, and bus companies will suffer less from severe competition," Nam said.



Gyeonggi Province recently announced it will begin operating the system on 59 routes in 14 cities and counties within next month, after reaching an agreement on standard transport costs with the province's bus union by Saturday.



The local government promised to hire additional drivers for the double-shift plan.



However, the Construction and Transportation Committee of the Gyeonggi Province Assembly said Nam is pushing forward too quickly without having enough time to discuss the system and make preparations.



"We understand the plan helps drivers transport passengers in safer conditions, but less than half of the cities and counties in the province have agreed to participate in the initiative. He has not yet established a committee required by the ordinance to co-manage the bus fare income when the semipublic system takes effect," said Jang Hyun-kuk, head of the committee.



"A total of 24.2 billion won will be invested in Nam's initiative. Once it is introduced, it will be hard to go back on it, and so needs a thorough examination. Adopting the system after the local elections won't be too late. There is no need to rush it."



The Party for Democracy and Peace issued a statement Monday, saying, "The local government does not have a prerequisite operational system for its semipublic bus system. It is only trying to invest tens of billions of won of taxpayers' money.



It accused Nam of trying to push the plan forward for his re-election. The party argued it would not be too late to adopt the system after the elections.



Nam has already announced he will run for re-election as governor of Gyeonggi Province.



Airport bus conflict



The project to switch all airport bus licenses to intercity ones is another controversial issue.

The provincial government has been issuing limited licenses to three airport bus companies that have been operating transportation services on unpopular routes.



These firms do not have to follow the distance scale rate system legislated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, but can fix the price on their own according to their profitability forecast.



Intercity buses, however, have a fixed fare system regulated by the transport ministry.



Nam argued his second initiative can pull down bus fares to Incheon International Airport by an average 10 percent.

He will stop issuing limited licenses for airport buses by June 3.



The governor also added he will open bidding for new transportation companies to fill in three new empty spots hopefully by today.



A total of 164 buses have been traveling with limited licenses along 20 unpopular routes.



Former Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung, who is competing against Nam for the governor position in the upcoming election, criticized Nam for his "rough-and-ready" administration.



"You can lower fares by negotiating with bus companies but his new initiative will only result in privatizing bus routes," Lee said.



"Also, adopting a semipublic bus system only helps enterprises to secure eternal wealth down through future generations. You are only securing a profit for the bus companies when you reduce the drivers' working hours by law and directly pay them an increased amount.



"You have ignored regulations and the provincial committee's opinion and are dogmatically pushing forward your plans before the local election. These are violations of the law and you could face hard punishment from it," he said addressing Nam.Empty tombs placed in the Jeju 4.3 Peace Park commemorate 3,895 people whose bodies were never recovered after being arrested without due process. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar



By Choi Ha-young



JEJU ISLAND  Camellia, called "dongbaek" in Korean, is an iconic flower of Jeju Island. The flower bursts into bloom during winter and begins to fall from trees as spring comes. Islanders, fearing misfortune, tend not to plant dongbaek trees on their properties. The bloody red flowers falling remind of families and friends beheaded in the bloody spring of 1948.



Seventy years have passed since the beginning of the massacres, which claimed 25,000 to 30,000 lives  about 10 percent of islanders. This year's decennial event is especially meaningful for Jeju residents, since it could be the last one for most of the aging survivors.



It's not very long ago that islanders could openly mourn the victims, said Ko Wan-soon, 80, who lived through a massacre in the island's northern Bukchon Village. There, 398 people were shot dead within only two days, the second-largest number of victims in Jeju.



About 3 p.m. on Dec. 19, 1949, a nine-year-old Ko, along with her mother, older sister and younger brother was summoned to Bukchon Elementary School. "I stood up to see what's going on, and was beaten by a soldier. At the moment, I heard a series of gunshots and saw seven to eight men collapse," Ko told reporters.





Ko Wan-soon, 80, speaks to reporters visiting Jeju Island on the 70th anniversary of the April 3 Incident of 1948.



Struggling to escape, Ko's younger brother screamed out of fear. "Then a soldier gave a hard blow to my brother's head with a club," she said. The soldier yelled at the boy: "No matter if you are killed now or later." She only survived by a commander's order made about 5 p.m. Her brother later died of his head injury in August 1952.



According to a former soldier's testimony, the troops originally planned to fire a mortar to annihilate the villagers, but decided to shoot them individually to "train" new recruits, said Kim Nam-hoon, a staffer of Jeju Dark Tours, a civic group that organized the press tour.



A few days before the massacre, a group of "mountain people"  the guerillas who resisted the May 10 general elections  killed two ROK soldiers near Bukchon, Kim said. The military slaughtered the villagers in retaliation, suspecting collusion between the anti-government guerillas and the villagers.



"According to a former soldier's testimony, some soldiers born on Jeju appealed to the general to stop the killings and the general accepted their plea," Kim said.



Traces of the killings remain within Ko's body and nerves. "To this day, I can never bear hunger due to memories of starvation throughout my childhood," Ko said. She vividly remembers stealing boiling rice at her friend's home, not even using a spoon. "I still feel scared when I go to Ompangbat, where bodies were piled. Rumors still circulate that someone saw a ghost in front of Bukchon Elementary School."



Many of the elderly women of Bukchon  dubbed "Moonam-chon," or village without men, as they were all massacred  live alone, suffering depression and PTSD. Like others, they want to sing, dance and travel, but they can't. "Because of injuries received during the massacres, we can't even stand up. I am always afraid of dying alone," Ko said.





Why Jeju targeted?



The May 10 general election to form the Constitutional Assembly brought a bitter ideological conflict to southern Jeju Island. Islanders boycotted the election, as it would consolidate the division of the peninsula. Anti-election sentiment was widespread in the nation but it turned especially bloody on Jeju.



The resistant mood was kindled by police shootings on March 1, 1947, under the U.S. Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK). About 30,000 people had gathered to mark the nationwide independent movement that took place on March 1, 1919. The incident brought demonstrations across the island, with 95 percent of islanders joining in.



Yang Jo-hoon, chairman of the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, analyzes the high education level among Jeju residents as a reason for the tragedy. "In 1947, USAMGIK conducted a nationwide survey on education level. Jeju was the most educated area of the nation," Yang said.



"Progressive thoughts intensified their resistance against the USAMGIK-backed elections. If they were totally ignorant, they wouldn't have protested like that."



About 50,000 Jeju islanders had moved to Japan during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation, according to Japan's policy to supplement work forces in Osaka, Yang said. "Living as foreign workers, Koreans in Japan struggled to educate themselves and their children."



Ko's uncle was among them. He graduated from a college of education in Tokyo and worked as a middle school math teacher on Jeju. In such a progressive atmosphere, Ko was familiar with socialism during her childhood. "Amid poverty during the occupation era, I could easily sympathize with communism aimed at achieving equal society," Ko said.



In this respect, Yang pointed out administrative failures of the 1945-48 USAMGIK, as well as Syngman Rhee's government afterward. "Without policies to handle public unrest, the authorities recklessly arrested protesters even including teenagers, by mobilizing far-rightists," Yang said.



He also called out the U.S. for its part. "Though massacres were committed under Rhee, the U.S. military provided weapons, as shown by the carbines used. General William Lynn Roberts, chief of the U.S. Military Advisory Group to the ROK, lauded the killings in a letter sent to the Korean government in December 1948."





Two holes show mass graves where 210 bodies were dumped after a massacre in August 1950. The authorities banned bereaved families from collecting their remains until 1956.





Dark Tourism



Mount Halla, with forests to feed people and caves to hide them, provided refuge. Those who boycotted the May 10 elections headed for the volcano, while government officials in charge of the elections also went to the mountain to defend the electoral register. This means every corner of the mountain could be the site of past atrocities.



Traces of Japanese imperialism also linger at Seotal Oreum in Seogwipo. Imperial Japan used to operate an anti-aircraft emplacement there to bomb mainland China. "In 1937, 36 aircraft left here to bomb China," said Kim Eun-hee, chief researcher of Jeju 4.3 Research Institute.



After those aircraft were all scuttled by the U.S. military after the collapse of imperial Japan, yet another tragedy swept the area on Aug. 20, 1950. Right by the aircraft shelters, you can find a memorial to commemorate 210 people who were shot dead in the wake of "preventive custody" during the 1950-53 Korean War. Preventive custody refers to detention without legal procedure under the pretext of countering acts benefiting the enemy.



"The assailants were the ROK Marine Corps," Kim told reporters. "on Jeju, those who took part in the 1947 March 1 protest were blacklisted for preventive custody and those who boycotted the 1948 general elections were added to the list."



The victims' bodies, which were retrieved in May 1956, are now buried nearby. The bereaved families failed to identify the bodies, so they decided to establish collective graves, named "Bagjo Ilson Jiji," which means "tombs of descendants of grandparents who are buried together." The bereaved families still gather every July 7 to perform ancestral rites.





A tombstone erected at Bagjo Ilson Jiji. Pieces of the tombstone vandalized during the Park Chung-hee era are kept in a plastic box, left.About 8,000 thousands protesters scream, "Hire Koreans," at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul last year. / Korea Times photo by Jung Min-ho



Unlike their Western counterparts, liberals in Korea tend to oppose immigration



By Jung Min-ho





By Lee Min-hyung





Vice Defense Minister Seo Joo-seok plans to visit the United States on Tuesday to attend a ceremony of the launch of the first F-35A fighter jet to be delivered to South Korea's Air Force.







According to the Ministry of National Defense, Monday, Seo and a group of military officials will visit Lockheed Martin's F-35A production line in Texas for two days beginning Tuesday.







The U.S.-based aerospace giant plans to complete the first F-35A Lightning II delivery to the Republic of Korea Air Force next year, and will supply 40 aircraft by 2021.







"Seo will exchange ideas on how the two countries can cooperate to enhance bilateral defense ties and national security in a planned meeting with Ellen Lord, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at the U.S. Department of Defense, and Mat Winter, the Pentagon director for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program," a defense ministry official said.







The fifth-generation fighter is renowned for its stealth capabilities and state-of-the-art sensors and a speed of up to 1,940 kilometers per hour. The F35-A is also cited as one of the most advanced strategic weapons that can be in use for preemptive strikes against North Korea's major nuclear and ballistic missile facilities.



President Moon Jae-in submits a constitutional revision bill to the National Assembly using an electronic signing system, Monday, during his visit to the United Arab Emirates. / Yonhap



Parties to begin constitutional negotiations



By Choi Ha-young



President Moon Jae-in submitted his constitutional revision bill centered on reforming the country's presidential system and enhancing people's basic rights Monday, despite protests from the opposition parties.



Moon approved the bill using an electronic signing system while visiting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after the Cabinet endorsed it earlier the same day. Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon presided over the Cabinet meeting despite the death of his mother, Sunday.



The National Assembly should put the bill to a vote within 60 days to decide on whether to discard it or hold a referendum.



"To keep the promise to complete the constitutional revision by June, in tandem with the local elections, I submitted the revision bill today," Moon said in a statement.



The President explained why he decided to push ahead with the revision, despite bitter protests from the opposition parties. "For over one year, there has been no progress in the Assembly's constitutional talks. If I give up the bid, the promise to citizens will fall apart."



Moon said the simultaneous votes in June will save taxpayers' money. If Moon's bill goes smoothly, the nation will also be able to combine the presidential and local elections, according to an election timetable outlined in the revision bill.



The three major parties  the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), the largest conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP) and the minor centrist Bareun Mirae Party (BMP)  will begin their own constitutional negotiations today, according to the floor leaders of the DPK and LKP.



The agenda for these includes reform of the country's power structure, electoral system and law enforcement authorities, and the deadline for the constitutional revision, said LKP floor leader Kim Sung-tae. The interparty discussion will focus on creating an Assembly-led revision bill, separate from Moon's bill. The LKP has been threatening to boycott legislative proceedings to protest Moon's actions.



A constitutional revision requires approval of two thirds of lawmakers at an Assembly plenary session that must be held by May 25. This necessitates bipartisan consent over the revision before the planned national referendum slated for June 13. Therefore, if the parties manage to reach a consensus to present their own revision bill, the President is expected to withdraw his and respect the bipartisan one.



Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun pinned his hopes on a last-minute agreement between the rival parties. "If the parties create a united constitutional revision bill, I will propose delaying the national referendum to the President," Chung said.



The LKP has demanded giving the Assembly authority to elect the prime minister, and other opposition parties generally agree with this. Cheong Wa Dae, however, has dismissed the idea, saying the "duel power structure" will throw state affairs into confusion.



The Party for Democracy and Peace (PDP) and the Justice Party, which usually support the ruling camp, are trying to relieve the showdown between Cheong Wa Dae and the LKP.



"In exchange for the Assembly's right to recommend the prime minister, the PDP urges the LKP to adopt electoral reforms to impartially reflect voters' wishes," Rep. Chun Jung-bae of the PDP said.



Justice Party lawmaker Shim Sang-jung also called for dialogue between the ruling camp and the LKP, saying constitutional revision is impossible with an ongoing severe interparty dispute.



Meanwhile, opinion surveys are overwhelmingly in favor of Moon's initiative. According to a Realmeter survey Monday, 64.3 percent of respondents backed Moon's bill, while 28.5 percent opposed it.



The outcome showed an ideological division around the bill  88.5 percent of liberals support Moon's bill, while 56.6 percent of conservatives are against it. This reflects the impact of the LKP's continuous ideological attack on the bill, branding it as a move toward "socialism."



Support has increased after briefings by the presidential office from March 20 to 22, the pollster said. On March 21, the support stood at 59.6 percent. For three days, Moon's aides elaborated on his bill in public, putting the emphasis on human rights, checks and balances between the authorities and the history of pro-democracy movements.

By Kim Jae-heun



Former President Lee Myung-bak said Monday he will not cooperate with the prosecution while he is kept in jail, adding that he cannot expect a fair investigation.



Prosecutors arrived at the detention center in Songpa-gu, southeastern Seoul, the same day to question Lee, but decided to postpone this after failing to persuade him over three hours. Lee's lawyer Kang Hoon held a press conference earlier, after meeting his client before the prosecutors arrived. He expressed the ex-president's decision to refuse to cooperate.



"Lee accepted the prosecutions questioning last time to observe the law as a former president. But the prosecution continued to summon his close aides for questioning after he was arrested, and revealed their findings on suspected crimes indiscriminately and unilaterally," Kang said.



"We've decided that it is meaningless to expect a fair investigation in such a situation," he added.

The prosecution planned to question the ex-president on his involvement with DAS, an auto parts company at the center of many allegations involving Lee's alleged corruption, embezzlement and abuse of power.



Prosecutors decided to focus first on the allegations concerning DAS.



However, Lee's refusal to answer questions has made it difficult for them to proceed with this as the detention term for Lee expires April 10.



Lee and his lawyers said they have spent enough time with prosecutors and they will no longer cooperate with them if they insist on asking the same questions over and over.



The former president has continued to say that he never owned the company and was not involved in its management.



The prosecution has complained that Lee should answer questions regarding the company's ownership as this was not a political issue.



Prior to Lee's arrest, prosecutors charged the ex-president with 14 counts of corruption, bribery and embezzlement.

He reportedly accepted 11 billion won in bribes, and embezzled 35 billion won through DAS using his son Lee Si-hyung.



The prosecution suspect Lee created a 35 billion won slush fund via the auto parts company and handed the firm's shares from his elder brother, Lee Sang-eun, the legal owner of DAS, to his son.

Wearing gas masks, participants in a campaign to reduce fine particulate matter make their point at Gwanghwamun Square in Jongno-gu, Monday. / Yonhap



By Ko Dong-hwan



Seoul residents are fearful about their health, particularly respiratory problems following the city's record-breaking spell of poor air quality.



Visibility across the South Korean capital and the nation's central regions has been poor for several days due to dangerously high particulate matter concentration levels and fog from the West Sea.



On Monday morning many people wore air-filter masks or covered their mouths and noses with clothing.





Poor visibility delayed flights at Incheon International Airport. / Yonhap



Some residents have suffered from stinging eyes, sore throats, rashes and coughs. Rush hour crowds and crowded buses and trains aggravated the situation.



One of the common sights when air quality is bad is crowded coffee shops or other indoor spaces. Because residents cannot stroll outside, many people crowd these indoor venues.



On Sunday, the average concentration of particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less (PM2.5) in Seoul was the worst since South Korean weather watchdogs started monitoring the air pollutants in 2015  99 micrograms per cubic meters.





People wearing air-filter masks head to work at Gwanghwamun Square in Jongno-gu, Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap







Gyeonggi Province also had a record level of 102. The figures for Seoul and Gyeonggi Province were worse than 95 on Dec. 30 last year and 100 on Jan. 16, respectively.



The "bad" air quality  within 51-100 micrograms per cubic meter  continued the following day. As of Monday at 9 a.m., PM2.5 levels recorded 88 in Seoul, 53 in Busan, 68 in Gwangju, 55 in Daejeon, 66 in Gyeonggi Province, 52 in Gangwon Province, 67 in North Chungcheong Province and 56 on Jeju Island.



PM2.5 is more lethal than PM10 because its smaller size enables it to infiltrate deeper into human organs. Accumulated amounts can cause cancer.





Elementary school students in Seoul were forced to brave Monday's extreme air pollution. / Yonhap



According to the Korea Environment Corporation's air quality monitoring agency Air Korea, Seoul recorded the worst PM2.5 and PM10 in the nation on Monday, with levels of 143 for PM2.5 and 171 for PM10. North Chungcheong Province, Gyeonggi Province and Gwangju all had levels over 100 for PM10 and over 90 for PM2.5.



On Monday morning, Seoul Metropolitan Government issued special anti-air pollution directives, the fourth time since December. These included shutting down more than 450 public parking lots in the city and not using 33,000 government-registered vehicles. The city also encouraged drivers of cars with license plates ending in even numbers not to drive.





Participants in a traditional Confucius rite at Sungkyunkwan University in Jongno-gu, Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap



In January, the special directives included free public transport for two consecutive days. But critics said this was not effective enough and a waste of taxpayers' money.



Seoul's air quality began to deteriorate on Mar. 21, and was at its worst on Sunday. The bad air is now forecast to dissipate gradually.



The environment ministry said stagnant air was the main cause of the pollution, because it prevented pollutants from drifting away. Instead the situation worsened, with more particulate matter from within and outside the country.





Anti-dust filter masks were available free on bus travelling between Seoul and Suwon on Monday. Gyeonggi Province, one of the areas worst-hit by air pollution, distributed 18,000 masks on 185 buses. / Yonhap



1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.By Albert R. Hunt



President Donald Trump knows little history. But he can read a short take, so someone should slip him a copy of Dwight Eisenhower's brief note of June 5, 1944, on the eve of the largest seaborne assault in history, D-Day, with World War II at stake.



"The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do," the supreme allied commander wrote in a message he intended to deliver only if the Normandy invasion failed. "If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone."



Imagine Trump's reaction. He'd probably wonder why Ike didn't blame a British military leader like Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, or insult General George C. Marshall. And what about President Franklin D. Roosevelt? The Germans are laughing their asses off.



Trump never accepts responsibility for anything. Reflecting the lessons he learned decades ago from his fixer-lawyer-mentor Roy Cohn, his approach is always to stay on the offensive, as if any sign of contrition amounts to an unacceptable show of weakness. At some stage this tactic will threaten his already fragile presidency.



Most of Trump's blame-spraying during his 14 months in the White House has involved small stuff. Before voters gave the nod last week to a Democratic congressional candidate in a Pennsylvania district that Trump had carried in 2016 by 20 percentage points, the White House sneered that the Republican candidate was weak and that the winner, Conor Lamb, ran as a Trumpite.



That was nonsense; Lamb consistently blasted the Republican tax cuts, Trump's signature legislative achievement. The truth is that Trump's standing has tumbled. He doesn't have coattails.



Trump played the same blame game last fall when Republicans took a beating in the Virginia governor's race and suffered the loss of an Alabama Senate seat for the first time in 26 years. Trump went out of his way to say that these defeats had nothing to do with him.



OK, that's just politics, somebody might say, but it's just as bad when it comes to policy. When the House of Representatives failed last year in its first attempt to repeal Obamacare, Trump first blamed Democrats, then Republican Speaker Paul Ryan, then the right-wing congressmen of the Freedom Caucus.



But Republican representatives reported that when they were being lobbied at the White House, Trump's lack of knowledge was striking, making the task of persuading skeptics tougher.



Trump's most dangerous evasion of presidential responsibility involves the investigation into possible connections between his campaign and Russian hackers who, according to a U.S. intelligence report, tried to help him win the 2016 election.



Trump started by blaming former President Barack Obama. Confronted with reports that a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer met secretly with his son and son-in-law, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner, to dish dirt on Hillary Clinton, he first lied about the purpose of the meeting.



Then he blamed it on Obama's attorney general, Loretta Lynch, on the grounds that the Justice Department had approved a visa for one of the Russian attendees. More recently he has attacked his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for failing to hold Obama responsible for Russian election meddling.



If Americans believe that a president won't admit a mistake, "the public fears he will go on to make the same error again," said the presidential scholar Michael Beschloss. Acknowledging mistakes, by contrast, shows that a president is "human and learns from his shortcomings, all qualities the public finds attractive in a leader," Beschloss added.



There are many examples illustrating his point.



In the opening months of John F. Kennedy's presidency, Cuban refugees directed by the U.S. government invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs to try to topple Fidel Castro. They failed. Kennedy, observing that "victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan," took the blame. "I am the responsible officer of the government," he said.



Voters recognized his candor and his approval rose. "The worse I do the more popular I get," Kennedy later joked.



A quarter-century later, President Ronald Reagan, embroiled in the Iran-Contra scandal involving attempts by his administration to swap arms for U.S. hostages held in Tehran, ultimately owned up to his mistakes. Of his earlier representation that the U.S. doesn't trade weapons for hostages, he said: "My heart and my best intentions still tell me that is true. But the facts and evidence tell me it is not. I take full responsibility."



That admission, Beschloss said, took a scandal threatening Reagan's presidency and "helped the public to turn the page."



It would be a disaster if a president had to apologize repeatedly for some long series of errors; that would convey a lack of steadiness and stability.



But when there's a crisis of the president's creation _ and there are always a few of those _ there's a premium on candor and credibility. Trump is incapable of the former, which means he won't have the latter.





Albert R. Hunt is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the executive editor of Bloomberg News, before which he was a reporter, bureau chief and executive Washington editor at the Wall Street Journal. The above article was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Rival parties should agree on constitutional revision



The ball is now in the court of the National Assembly after President Moon Jae-in signed a government-proposed constitutional revision bill and sent it to parliament Monday. Moon has officially embarked on the process of rewriting the Constitution to enhance people's basic rights, limit presidential power and promote decentralization.



Now his task is to get parliamentary approval of the bill by a May 24 deadline and put it to a national referendum June 13, when voters go to the polls to elect governors, mayors and councilors. But he faces an uphill battle because the main opposition Liberty Korea Party vehemently opposes the simultaneous holding of the referendum and the elections. Without support from the LKP which holds 116 Assembly seats of the total 293, the bill cannot gain the required two thirds majority vote.



Another challenge is how to change the power structure to address the president's monopoly of power  a key reason to rewrite the Constitution. The power abuse problem culminated when Moon's predecessor Park Geun-hye was impeached in March 2017 for her involvement in a massive corruption scandal.



One positive thing is the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the LKP and the minor Bareun Mirae Party have agreed to start their own negotiations on the government-initiated amendment bill. President Moon plans to speak at the Assembly next month to urge lawmakers to go beyond their partisan interests and pass the bill.



The country should no longer delay the constitutional amendment, in order to better cope with the rapidly changing world and usher in a bright future. In the lead-up to the May 9 presidential poll, Moon and other candidates all promised to hold a referendum concurrently with the local elections.



It is not desirable for LKP Chairman Hong Joon-pyo to break the promise just because he thinks his party could suffer a stunning defeat in the local elections if the referendum were to be held simultaneously. He should not betray the people's aspirations for a new Constitution which is aimed at transforming Korea into a mature democracy.



We call on the rival parties not to miss the opportunity to change the Constitution. If they do not like the government bill, they can pool their wisdom to draft their own. And if they succeed in doing so, an Assembly-proposed bill can replace the government one.



Lawmakers need to think seriously about what will happen if they fail to pass the government bill without coming up with their own proposal. They will have to take the blame and face a strong backlash from the public.



Holding the referendum and the local polls at the same time can help all political actors keep their promises and save the country a fortune. A separate vote on the constitutional revision would cost up to 120 billion won ($111 million). More than anything else, lawmakers and politicians can regain lost trust by narrowing their differences and agreeing to the amendment.



By Andrew Salmon





President Moon Jae-in is casting a bright halo over Asia and across the Pacific.



This is a surprise. When he assumed office, many (myself included) anticipated domestic action. After all, Moon's professional experiences, from soldier to lawyer to politician, have been local, not international. He has no diplomatic background, no foreign languages.



Yet his local achievements have been minimal. He has been reversed on nuclear power, has flip-flopped on cryptocurrency and made zero progress on the big-ticket issue, conglomerate reform. The most significant national development his administration has overseen is a gloves-off judicial onslaught on former presidents.



Moon's rise has been far more spectacular in international affairs.



He has  according to credible rumors  promoted backdoor outreach to North Korea, resulting in Kim Jong-un's New Year broadcast. He has overseen a highly successful "Peace Olympics" during which he welcomed the first-ever member of the Kim monarchy to the South.



The results of Moon's Olympic politicking are myriad. North-South communications have been restored. Kim has offered Moon a summit, plus a nuclear and missile test moratorium. Kim has also  via South Korean envoys  mooted a first-ever summit with a U.S. president.



Donald Trump has approved all Moon's initiatives, delaying and downgrading military drills and accepting Kim's summit offer. This is remarkable. Usually, Washington sets the agenda and Seoul follows. Meanwhile, Trump is offering Moon better deals on trade and tariffs than Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.



Tokyo, caught wrong-footed, now looks like it wants to play the summit game, too. Beijing has remained quiet, but Moon has managed to get at least some of the most onerous anti-THAAD measures lifted. Even so, naysayers are legion.



Some insist that Pyongyang will outfox and overcome Seoul. (As if a nation with half the population and an economy one 40th the size represents a real risk in any sphere beyond military affairs.)



Some insist that Trump will be "played" by Kim. (As if a man with decades of negotiating experience will be suckered by a young man who has, as far as is known, never once undertaken a negotiation, and whose diplomatic experience is precisely nothing.)



Some insist that all talks with North Korea are time wasted. (In which case, why bother with negotiations  or even sanctions designed to lead to negotiations? Better, surely, to simply start preparing the bombs and body bags for the inevitable carnage?)



Some insist that North Korea is flat-out untrustworthy. (This overlooks the fact that Washington did not fulfill its obligations toward Pyongyang under the 1994 "Agreed Framework." It also overlooks the fact that Pyongyang, far from being rewarded for honesty when it confessed to Tokyo that it had abducted Japanese citizens  and returned a handful  actually met with further ostracism.)



Many insist that North Korea will never denuclearize. (Given the fates of regimes which have abandoned strategic weapons  Iraq, Libya and Ukraine  one can understand the logic if so. Even then: Pyongyang can offer missile and nuclear freezes, international oversight of its atomic facilities, abandonment of some fissile materials, and more).



In sum: Most anti-negotiation voices seem focused on an ideal endgame (denuclearization) and overlook the very nature of a negotiation (a step-by-step interaction between parties, in which both sides make concessions, and a pragmatic outcome agreeable to both is eventually achieved.)



Most of the above, of course, is Trump's business. Moon's foremost task is getting the players to the table and laying the groundwork. And prudently  perhaps anticipating a frosty Kim-Trump meeting  Moon is already floating the idea of a subsequent trilateral summit.



In all this, Moon has astutely realized he is not simply playing the role of U.S. ally: He is playing the role of intermediary.



Why so? Because formerly, the Seoul-Washington alliance was exclusively about protecting South Korea from North Korea. Now that Pyongyang's missiles threaten Washington directly, the strategic calculus has shifted profoundly.



I suspect Moon is as horrified by the possibility of a renewed Korean War as is Kim. In this sense, Moon's adroit diplomatic plays deserve the thanks of all peninsula residents  for if war comes, people on both sides of the DMZ face immense perils.





Andrew Salmon (andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk) is a Seoul-based reporter and author.

By Kang Seung-woo



Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong has embarked on a business trip to Europe to secure new growth engines and meet with global business partners, according to the company, Monday.





Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong

By Kim Yoo-chul



It's quite one thing to be a "culturally vibrant brand" in one part of the world. It's another to radiate that vibrancy at high amplitude across the world.



Brand analysts say that means the brand has not only tapped into global shifts in values and attitudes, but also expressed itself and engaged people in ways that resonate culturally on a local level.



As the world shrinks and technologies converge, brands are advised to stay true to their roots, and do so in lots of ways that inspire, regardless of where they play, they said.



But Korea's Hyundai Motor Group, the country's top carmaker, is seemingly out of sight over its partnership with Samsung Electronics. What makes this standoff particularly interesting is while Hyundai is a good friend of Samsung on multiple fronts, the car manufacturer doesn't want Samsung to gain traction in the car industry which Hyundai believes is territory it can't yield.



On Monday, industry sources said Hyundai excluded Samsung from its suppliers' list for components in premium sedans. Hyundai is not cooperative with Samsung.



"Hyundai Motor limited the use of in-car audio systems by U.S.-based high-end sound system producer of Harman Kardon, which Samsung bought last year for $8 billion, for its brand new models. Rather, Hyundai's flagship models are equipped with such systems supplied by Krell," one senior industry executive said.



Out of seven flagship models that Hyundai has so far released, only two have featured Harman's in-vehicle audio systems, according to the executive.



Harman's audio brands range from JBL to AKG and other premium ones. It's been available for consumers to select either of Harman's in-vehicle systems. "But since Samsung's acquisition of Harman, Hyundai is apparently cutting its reliance on Harman with Krell brand getting more orders," the executive said.



The 2019 Hyundai Veloster is the only brand that has Harman's audio systems.



For Samsung, which identified in-vehicle business as one of its next growth engines, Hyundai's backing would be beneficial, said market analysts, as Samsung expects to have reference by supplying in-vehicle systems to the Korean carmaker.



Samsung is selling Harman's consumer audio products in Korea such as speakers, earphones and sound bars via its digital plaza outlets.



One reason is that Samsung has all the technologies to resume its car business if such plans get implemented from its board meetings.



Samsung is the world's top manufacturer of displays and memory chips _ two vital technologies to manage the car business. Samsung ran a car business in the late 1990s; however, it exited years later.



"Global carmakers are investing more for driverless vehicles and connected cars with the help of technology companies such as Google and Cisco. By reflecting on this, if Hyundai helps Samsung and vice versa, then that does make sense; however, Hyundai is worrying over Samsung's market entry in the car industry," another industry executive said by telephone.



A Samsung Electronics spokesman said the company is working on various "next business projects" with Hyundai, but didn't elaborate further.





Korea Development Bank (KDB) Chairman Lee Dong-gull speaks during a press conference at KDB headquarters on Yeouido in Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap



KDB demands union hold votes on acquisition



By Park Jae-hyuk



The Korea Development Bank (KDB) has urged Kumho Tire's union to fulfill its promise to accept the Chinese-based Doublestar Tire's acquisition of the financially troubled Korean tiremaker.



The state-run bank has also demanded Kumho Tire's management and union hold a vote for all employees on the Doublestar deal as soon as possible, so as to know whether the company employees oppose the plan as the union does.



According to the main creditor of the debt-ridden company, Doublestar has agreed to offer stock options to Kumho Tire's executives and employees.



Kumho Tire's union, however, said it never agreed with the foreign acquisition.



It also refused to take a vote or accept stock options from the Chinese firm.



The union's stubbornness will likely lead Kumho Tire to move closer to court receivership, because the creditors have already set a March 30 deadline for management and the union to reach an agreement on a self-rescue plan.



During a press conference at KDB's Seoul headquarters, Monday, KDB Chairman Lee Dong-gull said the labor union had made an oral agreement on the attraction of foreign capital, while having multiple secret meetings with the KDB chairman, KDB vice president Lee Dae-hyun and Doublestar Chairman Chai Yongsen last week.



It was initially known that Chai could not meet the Kumho Tire union during his three-day stay in Korea.



The Chinese businessman, however, reportedly met the union leaders with the KDB chairman at the Ramada Hotel near Kumho Tire's factory in Gwangju and promised them independent management, job security and win-win growth for Kumho Tire and Doublestar.



"KDB asked the labor union to give its final answer by Sunday at midnight," Chairman Lee said. "However, the union mentioned the chance of a Korean company's acquisition of Kumho Tire during its strike Saturday, and declined to give an answer."



Chung Song-gang, head of the Gokseong branch of Kumho Tire's union, told other union members an influential local politician confirmed a domestic company is willing to acquire Kumho Tire.



Kumho Tire and its creditors, however, denied his claim, saying no Korean company has offered to invest in Kumho Tire since Doublestar announced it wants to take over the Korean tiremaker.



Although Hoban Construction, Harim, CJ, Hankook Tire and Hyundai Motor Group were mentioned as probable buyers, all of them denied the rumor.



Kumho Tire's union said it would not disclose the name of the company, unless the creditors withdraw the foreign acquisition.



Criticizing the labor union for spreading unconfirmed information, the KDB chairman suggested a poll of all employees.



His suggestion backs Kumho Tire's non-union workers, who have expressed their support for the foreign acquisition.

Shinsegae Group Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin

By Park Jae-hyuk



E-mart has decided to shut several more stagnant stores this year to improve the company's efficiency, the discount chain of Shinsegae Group said Monday.



The retail giant said it has recently sold its Deoki-dong branch in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province.



The outlet had initially opened as a Walmart store in 1996, but became an E-mart store in 2006, after Shinsegae's acquisition of the U.S.-based discount chain's Korean affiliate.



"We realized we needed to reform our existing stores for continuous growth," an E-mart official said, "so we began closing down our stores that showed sluggish sales."



The company sold its store in Hakseong in Ulsan, the store in Bupyeong in Incheon and the store in Siji in Daegu last year. It also sold land in Hanam and Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.



Following the closure of an SSG Food Market's Mokdong store in Seoul in January, E-mart plans to shut down the Bupyeong and Siji branches in the first half of this year at the earliest.



The restructuring is regarded as a move to offset the retailer's sluggish growth rate over the past few years.



E-mart posted 566.9 billion won ($524.3 million) in operating profits last year, down 0.3 percent from the previous year.



Disposing of its stores showing losses, the company is considering opening a couple of new stores this year.



It has implemented similar strategies in other countries as well.



Last year, E-mart left the Chinese market, due to its lingering losses in the world's most populous country.



After opening the first E-mart store in China in 1997, E-mart had at one time operated 30 stores there.



However, the Chinese affiliate posted 21.6 billion won in losses in 2016, and its accumulated deficit between 2013 and 2016 reached 150 billion won.



After the withdrawal, the company seeks to expand its presence in the United States, Europe and other Asian countries.



According to industry officials, Shinsegae Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin visited Los Angeles and San Francisco to survey California's real estate market during his recent trip to the U.S.



E-mart, which already set up its U.S. affiliate it named E-Mart America in 2005, is reportedly pushing ahead with opening an outlet combining a grocery store with a restaurant this year.



In addition, the discount chain will begin building its second store in Ho Chi Minh City in May.



The company will use its Vietnamese affiliate as a base for its expansion in other Southeast Asian countries, such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Page Content

The Enlargement Day is the European Committee of the Regions' annual flagship event on EU enlargement policy, now organized for the fourth time.

In 2018, the event is organized with the co-operation of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU.

On 3 May (afternoon), local and regional representatives from the EU and the enlargement countries meet in country-specific Joint Consultative Committees and Working Groups for thematic debates.

The joint plenary session on 4 May (morning) will feature a high-level opening session followed by a panel of experts who will take a critical look at the state and future of the EU enlargement process. Another panel of elected representatives will then bring the debate back to the level of governance closest to the citizen  the local and regional authorities.

The theme running through the whole event is that a country joining the EU will need to prepare not just its central government and administration, but also the local and regional level  as that level will eventually implement much of the EU legislation.

Day 1: Thursday 3 May 2018 Joint Consultative Committees (JCC) and Working Groups (WG) Parallel sessions 15:00-18:30 Click on the title of the group to access its agenda for 3 May JCC former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Room: VMA 1 Thematic session: Waste management JCC Montenegro Room: JDE 63 Thematic session: Preventing corruption at the local level JCC Serbia Room: JDE 53 Thematic session: Sub-national authorities and the protection of cultural heritage WG Western Balkans Room: JDE 70 Thematic session: Digital transformation of the Western Balkans WG Turkey Room: JDE 51 Thematic session: Twinning: City to City Partnerships

Day 2: Friday 4 May 2018 Enlargement Day Plenary Session Room: JDE 52 (Listening room 51) FR/DE/EN/IT/EL/SL/BG/HR/TR/SQ/SR/MK[*]/BS (listening into) FR/DE/EN/IT/EL/PL/SL/BG/RO/HR/TR/SQ/SR/MK[*]/BS 20(speaking) 09:00-10:00  Opening Session Karl-Heinz Lambertz (BE/PES), President of the European Committee of the Regions

Lilyana Pavlova, Minister for the Presidency of the EU Council, Bulgaria

Goran Svilanovic, Secretary General, Regional Cooperation Council (RCC)

Darko Fras, Mayor of Sveta Trojica (Slovenia), President of the Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS) 10:00-10:15  Keynote speaker: Johannes Hahn, Commissioner, European Commission, Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) 10:15-10:30  Coffee Break 10:30-11:30  Panel Debate 1 State and Future of the Enlargement Process  As seen by Experts Moderator: Ian Barber, Director, Committee of the Regions, Directorate for Communication A panel of experts discusses the enlargement process Dr Dusan Reljic, Head of Brussels Office, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)

Vessela Tcherneva, Deputy Director, European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)

Erwan Fouere, Associate Senior Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)

Sran Majstorovic, Chairman of the Governing Board, European Policy Centre (CEP), Belgrade 11:30-12:45  Panel Debate 2 State and Future of the Enlargement Process  As seen by Local Representatives Chair: Barbara Duden (DE/PES), Chair of the CIVEX Commission, European Committee of the Regions A panel of elected representatives responds to the previous panel Co-Chairs of JCC Serbia, JCC former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, JCC Montenegro

Chairs of the Working Groups on Turkey and Western Balkans 12:45-13:00  Closing remarks Prof. Dr Franz Schausberger (AT/EPP), Chairman of the Committee of the Regions' Working Group on Western Balkans, Rapporteur-General on 'Enlargement: Inclusion of Western Balkans Local and Regional Authorities in the EU's Macro-Regional, Cross-Border and Other Transnational Cooperation Initiatives' [**], Special Adviser to Commissioner HahnVatican City, March 26 - Pope Francis on Monday urged police to work against madmen who perpetrate massacres. "You work to protect people like me, I don't know how to thank you," the pope said at the end of an audience in the Vatican. He said the police "guard and protect so that there aren't madmen who carry out massacres and ruin many families". He gave the police an image of "St Joseph, Jesus's guardian"Milan, March 26 - Milan prosecutors on Monday insisted that Silvio Berlusconi be tried in the so-called Ruby Ter case. The prosecutors told a preliminary hearings judge that the ex-premier and media magnate should be put on trial along with four young women who were guests at his alleged bunga bunga parties. The charges against the five are corruption in judicial acts and false testimony. Berlusconi is alleged to have paid the women to lie about the true nature of the parties, which he has always insisted were harmless, elegant soirees. The trial is one of many stemming from the case of an underage alleged prostitute nicknamed Ruby.Milan, March 26 - A Milan appeals court on Monday said a government 'baby bonus' should go to all foreign women with regular stay permits and not just to mothers who have been in Italy long-term or are under international protection as refugees. In its ruling, the appeals court rejected an appeal by the pensions and social-security agency INPS against a sentence by a lower court. Immigrant associations ASGI, APN and Fondazione Piccini said they were confident that "INPS will take a definitive decision on the question, ending the dispute and guaranteeing a full and unreserved respect for the (appeals court's) decision".Rome, March 26 - Italian police on Monday arrested five people allegedly linked to the Camorra Neapolitan mafia on suspicion of pocketing millions of euros for public works that were never carried out. Police said the money was laundered through firms in Tuscany and Campania. The Lucca-based organisation was allegedly linked to the Casalesi clan of the Camorra, the one that forced anti-mafia writer Roberto Saviano into police protection, prosecutors said. The organisation was said to be "contiguous with the Casalesi clan". Finance police carried out some 50 searches and seized assets in Tuscany and Campania belonging to businessmen linked to Camorra clans. They also seized assets from firms, front men and also a public functionary, police said. The Tuscan investigation is closely linked to one by anti-mafia police in Naples, judicial sources said.Potenza, March 26 - Italian police on Monday arrested 15 people in a probe into the alleged mistreatment of disabled people in a facility at Venosa near Potenza in Basilicata. The 15 are suspected of "repeated and violent mistreatment" of their victims. Among those involved in the probe are staff, doctors and a religious, police said.Rome, March 26 - The documents and cellphone of an Italian who went missing in Istanbul two weeks ago were found in a bin in his hotel room while his Italian bank account has been emptied, sources said Sunday. Manager Alessandro Fiori's suitcases and clothes were found in his room. The parents of Fiori, a 33-year-old from Soncino near Cremona, have ruled out his having fled. Witnesses told Turkish TV they had seen him near the Sultanhamet Hotel and then in a taxi that allegedly took him to the city centre.Rome, March 26 - The documents and cellphone of an Italian who went missing in Istanbul two weeks ago were found in a bin in his hotel room while his Italian bank account has been emptied, sources said Sunday. Manager Alessandro Fiori's suitcases and clothes were found in his room. The parents of Fiori, a 33-year-old from Soncino near Cremona, have ruled out his having fled. Witnesses told Turkish TV they had seen him near the Sultanhamet Hotel and then in a taxi that allegedly took him to the city centre. Eligio Fiori, Alessandro's father, said he could "rule out it was a flit" on Monday. He said his son often took low-cost flights to places for a few days when work permitted. The man reportedly told his tobacconist he was going to Istanbul for a short holiday.Rome, March 26 - The next Italian premier must come from the centre right, the coalition that got 37% in the March general election, anti-migrant Euroskeptic League leader Matteo Salvini said Sunday. "The next premier can only be indicated by the centre right," he said. "We are ready". Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio, the other big winner of the general election with 32% of the vote, did not rule out a government with the League. "We are open to all," he said. But centre-right Forza Italia (FI) leader Silvio Berlusconi, a three-time former premier and media magnate who was eclisped as leader of the coalition by Salvini's surprisingly stronger showing, 17.5% to 14%, said Salvini and Di Maio on their own would be a "sort of goat-stag," an unnatural combination only found in mythology. "That mythological animal was often cited by the ancient philosophers as an example of absurdity, because in it co-exist opposite and irreconcilable characteristics". The election of parliamentary Speakers Saturday was seen by some as a dry run for government cooperation, despite Di Maio saying the centre right-M5S deal to split the two Speakers among them was not linked to a possible government deal. In the Senate, centre right Forza Italia (FI) Senator Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, an ally of leader Silvio Berlusconi, was elected to the second highest institutional post in Italy after the president of the republic. The House Speakership went to M5S former RAI state broadcaster watchdog chair Roberto Fico. The M5S has promised a basic income, a vow which helped it sweep the poorer south of Italy. The League has promised a flat tax of 15%, a vow that helped it prosper in the richer north. The two forces have several apparently irreconcilable policies but are united in wanting to crack down on what they see as uncontrolled immigration.Milan, March 26 - League leader Matteo Salvini said Monday on the prospect of his becoming a minister and not premier that he didn't want to lead the government at all costs, saying "it isn't Salvini or death". He stressed he would not put up vetoes on someone else being premier. "I'm interested in Italy changing," he told Telelombardia. "I'm ready to front up in the first person and work 24 hours a day. But since I want change, it isn't Salvini or death". "I'm ready, I think there is a team ready" to govern Italy," he said, dismissing ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's description of an alliance between Salvini and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio as an improbable mythological animal called "stag-goat". "Those who voted for us gave us trust to do things like abolishing the Fornero (pension) law and we'll see who agrees with us in parliament". Salvini said it would be an "honour" to be premier but he did not rule out other possibilities, and would not veto them if they proved to be right. "I'm not the problem in this country," he said. "I'm putting myself at the disposal (of the country)". He went on: "If I were to realise that to help my country there are other people who can give a hand, for God's sake, I'm not the one to say no". Salvini said Di Maio had shown he was "trustworthy" after a deal between the centre right and the M5S to share the parliamentary Speakers. "For now the Five Stars have shown they are trustworthy," Salvini said. "I judge people by their deeds, not words," he said. "I appreciate people who say something and then do it", he said, adding that "that goes for (Silvio) Berlusconi too: in the end we closed the deal with a compact centre right".Milan, March 26 - Agnelli family holding company Exor on Monday posted 2017 profits up 136% to 1.39 billion euros, compared to 588 million in 2016, thanks to over one billion from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the company said in a statement. photo: Exor President John ElkannMilan, March 26 - League leader Matteo Salvini said Monday on the prospect of his becoming a minister and not premier that he didn't want to lead the government at all costs, saying "it isn't Salvini or death". He stressed he would not put up vetoes on someone else being premier. "I'm interested in Italy changing," he told Telelombardia. "I'm ready to front up in the first person and work 24 hours a day. But since I want change, it isn't Salvini or death". "I'm ready, I think there is a team ready" to govern Italy," he said, dismissing ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's description of an alliance between Salvini and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio as an improbable mythological animal called "stag-goat". "Those who voted for us gave us trust to do things like abolishing the Fornero (pension) law and we'll see who agrees with us in parliament". Salvini said it would be an "honour" to be premier but he did not rule out other possibilities, and would not veto them if they proved to be right. "I'm not the problem in this country," he said. "I'm putting myself at the disposal (of the country)". He went on: "If I were to realise that to help my country there are other people who can give a hand, for God's sake, I'm not the one to say no". Salvini said Di Maio had shown he was "trustworthy" after a deal between the centre right and the M5S to share the parliamentary Speakers. "For now the Five Stars have shown they are trustworthy," Salvini said. "I judge people by their deeds, not words," he said. "I appreciate people who say something and then do it", he said, adding that "that goes for (Silvio) Berlusconi too: in the end we closed the deal with a compact centre right". In other remarks, the rightwing populist leader said after 14 EU expulsions of Russian diplomats including two from Italy in the UK ex-Russian spy poison affair Monday that "isolating and boycotting Russia, renewing economic sanctions and expelling its diplomats does not solve problems, on the contrary it worsens them". Salvini went on: "arresting the ex-president of Catalonia does not solve problems, on the contrary it worsens them. "Sanctions and handcuffs? I prefer dialogue. I want a government that works for a future of peace, growth and security, am I asking too much?" The League leader has frequently praised Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moscow has been blamed by the UK for the poisoning of ex-psy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury. He has also voiced solidarity with Carles Puigdemont, arrested on a Spanish warrant in Germany Sunday, and Catalonia's independence bid.Rome, March 26 - The economy ministry on Monday denied there was a draft of the Economic and Financial Document (DEF), the government's economic blueprint, ready. It said there only a "partial" document for internal use without giving future indications and only stating progress in the implementation of reforms between ministries, as they relate to EU recommendations.Joe Ngo and Brooke Ishibashi in "Cambodian Rock Band." Photo: Tania Thompson/SCR.



The family unit used to be the lodestone for serious American playwrights. Yet judging from recent offerings in LA, those who run America's theaters increasingly want plays involving larger social groups, with at least some visible roots outside America. They want writers who'll explore how and why these characters arrived in America, how they fit or don't fit into the national culture.

These plays can still revolve around a focal point of one particular family, but a wider context raises the stakes, in an era when immigration and assimilation issues are on the front burner.

Take the premiere of "Cambodian Rock Band," at South Coast Repertory. Lauren Yee's play is about a man who fled the Khmer Rouge in the '70s and managed to surface in Massachusetts. There, he raised an American daughter - all grown up in 2008 -- who has returned to her father's previous country in order to help prosecute a Khmer Rouge prison commandant. Little does she know about her father's personal connection to this war criminal.

It sounds grim, and parts of it are indeed bleak. But the title is our big clue about how Yee manages to make this play lively in the face of death, joyful in the face of profound sorrow.

In a flashback to 1975 in Phnom Penh, the script focuses on the teenagers in an American-influenced rock band -- including the future Massachusetts father, just before the Khmer Rouge took charge and enforced an ideology that forbade such Western lures as rock music. This emphasis on the band requires a cast who can credibly perform cover versions of early-'70s Cambodian pop (and more recent but similarly inspired compositions by the LA-based band Dengue Fever) and then also portray themselves or other characters in 1978 and 2008.

Under the direction of Chay Yew, Joe Ngo does a remarkable double turn, toggling between the younger would-be rock star and the middle-aged immigrant and dad (Ngo appears to be the only cast member who is actually descended from parents who fled the Khmer Rouge). Daisuke Tsuji also plays only one role, the Khmer Rouge prison commandant, but he doesn't have to age in it. Although the real-life commandant on whom the role is based is still alive, in a Cambodian prison, Yee allows this character to stay young, cynically observing the events from a distance, in a style akin to the use of the emcee in "Cabaret."

Nevertheless, with the valuable assistance of the musical stylings that managed to survive the Khmer Rouge, the play doesn't seem cynical, nor does it even seem sentimental. It feels vibrantly alive. It's much better than "King of the Yees," by the same playwright, which Center Theatre Group produced at the Kirk Douglas Theatre last year. Someday I want to see "Cambodian Rock Band" produced alongside "Harmony," the underrated Barry Manilow musical - which CTG presented at the Ahmanson Theatre in 2014. It's about a pop group who faced the German Holocaust.

None of "Cambodian Rock Band" is set in the United States, but "Allegiance," the musical based on the incarceration of Japanese Americans in remote camps during World War II, is set entirely in the U.S. Of course, American residency and roots weren't enough to provide safety and security for the play's characters. In the early '40s, even Japanese Americans who had never set foot in Japan were regarded as potentially dangerous enemies and lost their homes and freedoms as a result.

Originally produced at the Old Globe in San Diego before a short Broadway run, "Allegiance" is now in its LA premiere at the 880-seat Aratani Theatre in Little Tokyo. It's a welcome co-production of East West Players (whose smaller and much narrower home venue is three blocks away) and Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, under the direction of East West artistic director Snehal Desai.

Scott Watanabe, George Takei, Jordan Goodsell, Elena Wang and Ethan Le Phong in "Allegiance." Photo: Michael Lamont.

"Allegiance" delves sharply into the friction between two factions within the camps - those who want to prove their loyalty by enlisting in the war effort and those who are so outraged by the discrimination against them that they refuse to sign the government's loyalty oaths. This dispute, personified in the rift between Sammy Kimura (Ethan Le Phong in the 1940s, George Takei in the 21st century) and his sister (Elena Wang) who raised him, provokes misty eyes as well as what-would-I-have-done thoughts.

The performances and production values are impressive, but Jay Kuo's music and lyrics and the book he wrote with Marc Acito and Lorenzo Thione occasionally become heavy-handed, with one especially contrived moment of melodrama interrupting the second act.

"The New Colossus," at Actors' Gang in the Culver City area, takes its title from the Emma Lazarus poem that refers to "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." No wonder. The leading character in this production is not any particular immigrant but rather a "huddled mass" - a group of 12 people who are depicted in the course of an extremely perilous journey toward freedom in America. Each actor's performance is based on a family member's or ancestor's or friend's immigrant journey. But we don't hear many details about these personal stories - and when we do, we usually have to read them in English supertitles.

These characters don't speak a common language or (except in one case) English. They're traveling together, even though they're from different eras - their birth years, listed in the program, range from 1830 to 1984.

This largely word-free production uses group movement to express the inchoate anxieties of these strangers as they wander between unseen dangers, often literally going in circles, sometimes just waiting, occasionally banding together in a common effort to accomplish a small task. The movement never quite crosses over into choreographed dance. Or at least I'm guessing that was the intent, because no choreographer is credited. Presumably the movement was developed by the ensemble and coordinated by director Tim Robbins.

"Colossus" creates an air of quiet suspense. But it remains somewhat abstract until the curtain call, when the actors face us and identify the people who inspired them. Then director Robbins appears and leads a brief audience discussion about our own roots and immigrant journeys. It's one of the only productions I've seen in which the audience talkback seems almost as important as the play itself.

Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" is one of the classics from the post-World War II era that most clearly connected the dots between one family's story and the larger cultural clashes taking place in America. That's probably why the classics company A Noise Within, in Pasadena, chose to revive it in the current moment. It depicts a black family in the late '50s, trying to use the deceased patriarch's life insurance to buy a house in the previously whites-only neighborhood of Clybourne Park in Chicago.

Of course Hansberry's characters weren't immigrants per se; their ancestors had been forcibly brought to America as slaves. Different generational attitudes toward Africa, which doesn't much interest the matriarch but fascinates her daughter, are among the topics Hansberry explored.

Director Gregg T. Daniel converts this "Raisin" back into a fresh grape. By the way, A Noise Within has explicitly paired "Raisin" in repertory with a brisk, inventive rendition of Shakespeare's "Henry V," powerfully staged by ANW artistic director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott. Why? Well, both Henry (Rafael Goldstein) and "Raisin" protagonist Walter Lee (Ben Cain) are young men who are seeking to use the legacy they inherited to accomplish something big and vital that they can call their own. They have to rely on previously untouched reserves of eloquence to get the job done, during a moment of crisis. They succeed. So does A Noise Within.

And elsewhere...

Playwrights can also juxtapose different famous people as well as different groups. In "The Art Couple" at Sacred Fools Theater's Broadwater complex, Brendan Hunt places an already famous Neil Simon and an unknown Sam Shepard into the same room so that they can collaborate on what Hunt imagines was an early draft of Simon's "The Odd Couple" -- in which the characters were not Felix and Oscar but rather Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh, who actually were roommates in Arles, France for nine weeks in 1888.

The ingenuity and wit here are abundant. If I had to choose, however, I'd still pick Hunt's "Absolutely Filthy," his 2013 play with adult characters loosely inspired by the "Peanuts" people. As an actor, Hunt hula-hooped throughout "Filthy" with unforgettable results, although his brusque van Gogh in this play is very funny, too.

In my last column, I wrote that I wouldn't comment on the recent trilogy of "Elliot" plays by Quiara Alegria Hudes until after I had seen all three. All are now closed, and I have to join the chorus of disappointment. The best production was the first, "Elliot: a Soldier's Fugue", directed by Shishir Kurup at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, but at the time it felt like a mere prelude to the presumably meatier "Water by the Spoonful" at the Taper and "The Happiest Song Plays Last" at LATC.

The opening night of "Water" was plagued by an actor's missed entrance, followed by an unplanned five-minute pause that put a damper on the rest of "Water." Also, this production's Elliot sounded too different from the Elliots in the other plays. "Happiest Song" is the least cohesive of the plays, and consequently the least memorable, or so it seemed at LATC.

Why did this trilogy receive a collaboration between CTG and LATC's Latino Theater Company, when the two companies might have joined forces much more easily and successfully on an effort to spread Evelina Fernandez's "A Mexican Trilogy, An American Story" beyond the relatively small audience that saw it at LATC, where it premiered in its trilogy format in 2016?

I'll speculate that the answer to that question is probably that "Water by the Spoonful" somehow won the Pulitzer Prize, while "A Mexican Trilogy" or its components never had a reasonable chance of competing for the Pulitzer. But Fernandez's work is easily the better trilogy, and part of it is set in Los Angeles - yet another reason to revive it for a wider, different LA audience. Unfortunately I'm afraid that the failure of the Hudes trilogy could now postpone the return of "Mexican Trilogy" for years to come.

On a brighter note, Sarah Jones' "Sell/Buy/Date" at the Geffen Playhouse is my favorite solo show so far in 2018, with large doses of insight, virtuosity, humor and humanity - and many diverse American women and men from many backgrounds, all embodied by the astonishing Jones.The highly anticipated 60 Minutes interview with adult film star Stormy Daniels on Sunday, during which she discussed President Trump, was watched by 21.3 million viewers, the CBS programs largest audience since 2008.

Data from Nielsen showed that was the most viewers an episode of the newsmagazine has had since 24.5 million people watched Barack and Michelle Obama give their first post-election interview on the show on Nov. 16, 2008.

How Stormy Daniels candor and humor in her 60 Minutes interview showed a woman to be reckoned with 

In recent weeks, 60 Minutes has been drawing about 10 million viewers.

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In Sundays sit-down with correspondent Anderson Cooper, Daniels described the affair she says she had with Trump in 2006. She also said she was threatened with physical harm in 2011 if she went public with her story.

Daniels said that a few weeks after Trumps attorney Michael Cohen learned that she had shared her story with In Touch magazine, a stranger approached her and her young daughter in a Las Vegas parking lot, told her to leave Trump alone and delivered a warning.

Thats a beautiful little girl, she said the man told her. Itd be a shame if something happened to her mom.

Trump lawyer and fixer demands apology from Stormy Daniels 

In Touch did not publish Daniels story until January of this year, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen had arranged to pay Daniels $130,000 just before the November 2016 presidential election in return for her silence.

Daniels has denied the affair in the past. She told Cooper that she was intimidated into signing nondisclosure agreements about the liaison.

stephen.battaglio@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveBattaglio

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UPDATES:

9:25 a.m.: This article was updated with newly released data from Nielsen.

This article was originally published at 8:20 a.m.California signed up an estimated 450,000 people under Medicaid expansion who may not have been eligible for coverage, according to a report by the U.S. Health and Human Services Departments chief watchdog.

In a Feb. 21 report, the HHS inspector general estimated that California spent $738.2 million on 366,078 expansion beneficiaries who were ineligible. It spent an additional $416.5 million for 79,055 expansion enrollees who were potentially ineligible, auditors found.

Auditors said nearly 90% of the $1.15 billion in questionable payments involved federal money, while the rest came from the states Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. They examined a six-month period from Oct. 1, 2014, to March 31, 2015, when Medicaid payments of $6.2 billion were made related to 1.9 million newly eligible enrollees.

There were limitations to the California review, however. The audit extrapolated from a sample of 150 beneficiaries. The authors reported a 90% confidence level in their results  whereas 95% would be more common. That meant that the number of those ineligible could have been as low as 260,000 or as high as 630,000.

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If HHS has a strong reason to believe that California is systematically making enrollment errors, it would be helpful to show that in a more robust analysis, said Ben Ippolito, a healthcare economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. The federal government should ensure that states are being good stewards of federal money.

Nonetheless, the audit highlighted weaknesses in Californias Medicaid program, the largest in the nation with 13.4 million enrollees and an annual budget topping $100 billion, counting federal and state money. Medicaid covers 1 in 3 Californians.

The inspector general found deficiencies in the states computer system for verifying eligibility and discovered errors by caseworkers. The Medicaid payments cited in the report covered people in the states fee-for-service system, managed-care plans, drug treatment programs and those receiving mental health services.

Californias Department of Health Care Services, which runs Medi-Cal, said in a statement that it agreed with nearly all of the auditors recommendations and that the agency has taken steps to address all of the findings.

In a written response to the inspector general, California officials said several computer upgrades were made after the audit period and before publication of the report that should improve the accuracy of eligibility decisions.

Among the 150 expansion enrollees analyzed in detail, 75%, or 112, were deemed eligible for the Medicaid program in California. Auditors discovered a variety of problems with the other 38 enrollees.

During the audit period, 12 enrollees in the sample group had incomes above 138% of the federal poverty line, making them ineligible financially for public assistance, according to the report.

In other instances, beneficiaries were already enrolled in Medicare  the federal health insurance for people 65 and older or who have severe disabilities  and did not qualify for Medi-Cal. One woman indicated she didnt want Medi-Cal but was enrolled anyway.

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In 2014, the state struggled to clear a massive backlog of Medi-Cal applications, which reached about 900,000 at one point. Many people complained about being mistakenly rejected for coverage, or their applications were lost in the state or county computer systems.

California was one of 31 states to expand Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The health law established a higher federal reimbursement for these newly eligible patients, primarily low-income adults without children. After expansion started in 2014, the HHS inspector generals office began reviewing whether states were determining eligibility correctly and spending taxpayer dollars appropriately.

In a similar audit released in January, the inspector general estimated that New York spent $26.2 million in federal Medicaid money on 47,271 expansion enrollees who were ineligible for coverage. (The sample size there was 130 enrollees.) Overall, New York had far fewer expansion enrollees and related spending than California.

It is inevitable that in a big rollout of new eligibility for any public program there are going to be glitches in implementation, said Kathy Hempstead, a health policy expert and senior advisor at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The inspector general wants to make sure that states are being sufficiently careful.

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The California audit didnt request a specific repayment from the state, but the findings were sent to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for review. CMS officials didnt respond to a request for comment.

Donald White, a spokesman for the inspector generals office, said the agency stood by the reports findings and declined to comment further.

Terhune is a senior correspondent for Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent publication of the Kaiser Family Foundation.Remington Outdoor Co., which began making flintlock rifles when there were only 19 states in the union, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Mounting debts at the arms manufacturer have snowballed, ironically since the election of President Trump, who has called himself a true friend to the gun industry.

Remington, which has roots dating to 1816, has lined up $100 million with lenders to continue operations.

It remains unclear what will happen to the 3,500 or so employees at Remington as the company reorganizes.

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Panic sales that drove revenue for gun makers ever higher evaporated with Trumps arrival in the White House, and Remingtons production of one of the most well-known weapons in the world, the Bushmaster AR-15, has proved problematic for the Madison, N.C., company.

Late Sunday, according to records from the Bankruptcy Court of the district of Delaware, Remington agreed to a prepackaged deal that would give holders of the companys $550-million term loan an 82.5% stake, according to a release.

Third-lien note-holders will take 17.5% of Remington and four-year warrants get a 15% stake.

The Bushmaster AR-15 rifle was used in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut in which 20 first-graders and six educators were killed.

A similar gun was used to kill 17 in a Parkland, Fla., high school, a massacre that led to rallies that drew hundreds of thousands protesting gun violence to the nations capital and to the streets in cities across the nation Saturday.

The company was cleared of wrongdoing in the Sandy Hook shooting, but investors wanted nothing to do with it. Cerberus Capital Management, which acquired the company in 2007 as gun sales began to boom, tried to sell it less than a week after the shooting.

There were no takers.

But what doomed Remington was larger trends that already were underway.

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For years, arms manufacturers had ramped up production as gun ownership became a red-hot social and political flashpoint. Some gun-rights advocates have binged on guns on the misguided belief that a Democratic administration would harshly restrict gun sales.

Those misperceptions became moot with Trumps rise to the White House.

Trump was the first sitting president to address the National Rifle Assn. in three decades, telling members at their annual meeting in spring 2017: You have a true friend and champion in the White House.

Any belief that more restrictive regulation was on the way evaporated.

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In 2017, firearm background checks  a good barometer of sales  declined faster than in any year since 1998, when the FBI first began compiling that data.

But there were clear signs that even as production of guns increased, gun sales were already in decline. By 2015, Colt Holdings Co., another storied gun maker, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Profit growth at Sturm, Ruger & Co. is under severe pressure, and the companys shares are down 18% this year.

Some of Wall Streets heaviest hitters are stepping into the national debate on guns as investment firms ask firearms makers what they are doing about gun violence.

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BlackRock is a major shareholder in gun makers Sturm, Ruger, American Outdoor Brands and Vista Outdoor Brands. About a week after the shooting in Parkland, BlackRock said it wanted to speak with the three firearms makers about their responses to the tragedy.

Its also looking into creating new investment funds for investors that exclude firearms makers and retailers.One of the hottest topics in astronomy today is the search for and study of exoplanets. Since the confirmation in 1992 that our solar system is not unique in the universe, astronomers have striven to find more exotic, more difficult-to-see, and, simply put, more exoplanets. This search is extremely important, because it helps us answer the question of how we got here  how our solar system formed, how our planets were born, and how they have evolved (and will evolve) over time.

But amid the excitement and pressure of such a search, and particularly the quest to determine whether any of these extrasolar worlds might be capable of sustaining life or habitable for Earth-like beings, we often forget that there is one planet we absolutely know can provide the ingredients necessary for life, as well as a host of other amazing features we have yet to see anywhere else: Earth.

National Geographics 10-part series One Strange Rock changes all that, presenting Earth as a fascinating, vibrant, and living place where conditions have all converged in just the right ways to produce everything from simplistic microbes to complex human beings. The series, by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and producer Jane Root, is hosted by Will Smith and tells Earths extraordinary story from the viewpoint of some of the elite few who have ever left the world to float above it: a group of astronauts that includes Mae Jemison, Chris Hadfield, Peggy Whitson, and Jerry Linenger.

Making One Strange Rock

I recently spoke with showrunner Arif Nurohamed, whose filmmaking experience includes Richard Hammond Builds a Planet and Earths Natural Wonders. For Nurohamed, One Strange Rock offered an amazing opportunity to take a look at the bigger picture of our planet, linking in the narratives of astronauts who have seen our planet from above as an engaging and emotional vehicle that connects viewers to the planet that pulses beneath our feet. The heart of it is the astronauts, he says: They are that vital link between the small and the large, the everyday and the extraordinary.

Nurohamed further emphasized that the show became the final product youll see through the humanity, the authenticity, and the sincerity of all the people who speak for our planet. He spoke highly of Will Smiths role as host, particularly the intelligence, charm, and lightness he brings to the series. Smith serves as a guide and a conduit, helping to link you as a first-time viewer to the fantastic sights youve never imagined could come from your very own planet. Earth is no longer the mundane dirt beneath your feet or that partly-cloudy sky that many of us in the Northern Hemisphere are ready to be rid of as spring finally arrives  instead, it is a colorful, mysterious, astounding, and sometimes frightening and fragile place that will jump off the screen and into your heart.

And thats the point  Youre going to see the world as youve never seen it before, Nurohamed says, describing the show as a visual kaleidoscope that he wants viewers to feast on, taking them to places that connect to their gut, rather than their brain. Ultimately, We want people to love their planet and be awed by their planet, Nurohamed says. This is not a plea, he adds, but a chance to unpack complex systems and the story of how life came to be. Even so, there is a message of frailty, of uniqueness, and these are as genuine as they are true. Earth is the only planet of its kind we have ever found, and it is our only home. But, says Nurohamed, the purpose of the show is first and foremost to show how our complex world came to be, and how it has changed and continues to change. First you have to fall in love with the planet, and then you can save it, he says.

Exploring the rock

So, what will you see? One Strange Rock will ultimately take you on a journey of a million miles, through 45 countries and six continents (and into space). To get these stunning shots, the team often developed innovative and original solutions to the filmmaking challenges in their path when trying to capture our planets most awe-inspiring features.

Film crews trekked into crystal caves with water so pure that its the standard used for laboratory controls in purity testing. The team spent several days inside the caves, following strict sterilization requirements and ensure nothing from the outside was left behind  including both trash and biological waste.

The team also traveled to the erupting lava lake of Mount Nyiragongo, taking a nine-hour trek to the craters rim as red-hot, radioactive lava spewed from an active vent. Well be sleeping with gas masks on, says the expedition leader, as they stand at the crater rim and overlook a moving river of molten rock.

On the other end of the spectrum is footage taken 250 miles above our planet, including theatrical-quality shots from the International Space Station, captured by European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli and American astronaut Peggy Whitson. Nespoli spent several weeks with Aronofsky prior to launch, learning how to use a high-quality camera and implement common cinematography techniques to capture the perfect shots of Whitson for use in the series, offering viewers a first-time look at space and the planet below through an experienced filmmakers eye.

A perfectly calibrated home

I am going to tell you about the most incredible place, Will Smith says, as the first episode of One Strange Rock begins. And you know what? Youre walking on it.

Those lines truly encompass the heart and soul of the series, which seeks to show you our home as youve never seen it before. Each episode emphasizes how beautifully calibrated Earth is for life, how everyone and everything is interconnected  all part of the same system, Nurohamed says. And when you can see that, You will look at the planet with new eyes.

I had the opportunity to watch the series first three episodes before they air. Gasp tells the tale of the air we breathe, the oxygen-rich envelope that surrounds our planet and makes complex life possible at all. The episode travels from lakes of acid to the ISS and back again, focusing on the cycles of life and how our planet stays perfectly balanced to provide every breath you take.

Storm explores the chaos and violence all around us: the planetary body blows that formed our planet within the solar nebula, the delivery of precious life-giving water to Earth, and the interwoven role our Moon plays in our everyday lives, from the duration of our day to the tides and the timing of our seasons.

Shield ties everything together, from smallest to largest, oldest to newest, to show how our world is perfect for us  but also how we evolved perfectly to fit our environment. Because, of course, not only is our planet perfectly calibrated for life, but we are a product of that calibration, and we rely on that delicate balance because it exists at all.

Throughout each episode, youll learn more about the planet you call home in a holistic, interconnected way. One Strange Rock doesnt just throw out astounding facts one after another, but weaves each new discovery into an interconnected and ever-growing web that, when seen from above, contains everything we know, and everything we are.

All these things that came before us and made this world possible, says Smith, as Shield draws to a close. Those chance events, those planetary systems that allow our little mote of dust to survive in a sunbeam.

One Strange Rock premiers tonight, March 26, at 10pm Eastern/9pm Central on the National Geographic Channel. You can learn more or watch the trailer and several short clips on the National Geographic website.Right on schedule, a former home of the late Soul Train creator-producer Don Cornelius has sold in Beverly Crest for $1.85 million.

The Traditional-style two-story home, built in 1982, sits at the end of a gated driveway. A three-car garage faces the street.

Vaulted ceilings, stained glass and sunken floors are among the features within the 3,500 square feet of living space. The formal dining room opens to a step-down living room, which shares a two-sided flagstone fireplace with a billiards/game room.

1 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 2 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 3 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 4 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 5 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 6 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 7 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 8 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 9 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 10 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 11 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 12 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 13 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 14 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 15 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 16 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency) 17 / 17 Don Cornelius | Hot Property (The Agency)

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The den features a tiled wet bar, and the kitchen has a bay window. There are four bedrooms and three bathrooms.

Lawn, mature trees and patios make up the grounds.

Cornelius, who died in 2012 at 75, served as a writer, producer and host of the syndicated music show. The long-running series, which premiered in 1970, featured such artists as James Brown, Marvin Gaye and the Jackson 5.

He bought the house in 2009 for $1.475 million. The seller was his ex-wife, former model Viktoria Chapman-Cornelius.

Eric Delgado and Amador Contreras Mendoza of Keller Williams were the listing agents. Laura J. Mattick of Re/Max Estate Properties represented the buyer.

lauren.beale2@latimes.com

Twitter: @laurenebealeUber Technologies Inc. has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian operations to Grab, withdrawing from yet another fast-growing region to end a war of attrition with a fierce local rival.

Under the agreement, Grab will acquire all of Ubers operations in a region of 620 million people, including food delivery service UberEats. The U.S. ride-hailing behemoth in return gets a 27.5% stake in Grab and its chief executive will join the board of the Singapore-based company.

The cease-fire marks a victory for Grab as well as SoftBank Group Corp., the biggest shareholder in both companies. Masayoshi Sons firm is pushing to reduce competition in a Southeast Asian ride-hailing market forecast to reach $20.1 billion by 2025. Uber and Grab, together with two other SoftBank-backed ride-hailing firms  Indias Ola and Chinas Didi Chuxing  provide about 45 million rides a day, according to SoftBank presentation material in February.

For San Francisco-based Uber, pulling out of running its own business in Southeast Asia cuts back on losses ahead of a planned initial public offering in 2019. But the deal marks the latest retreat by the worlds most valuable start-up from a rapidly expanding arena: Uber sold its business in China to Didi in 2016 after a battle in which both burned through cash to court drivers and riders with rich subsidies. Uber negotiated a similar move in Russia last year.

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Shares of ComfortDelGro Corp., Singapores largest taxi company, rose as much as 3% on Monday.

Todays acquisition marks the beginning of a new era. The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region, Grab CEO Anthony Tan said in a statement.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been pushing to bolster the financials of a company that has burned through $10.7 billion since its founding nine years ago. Khosrowshahi signaled during a trip through Asia last month that hes committed to other key markets such as Japan and India. But its latest exit suggests Uber is more than ever dependent on its home market of North America, not unlike Khosrowshahis previous U.S.-centric employer, Expedia Inc.

For Grabs Tan, the truce brings to an end a bruising battle for leadership in Southeast Asia.

Grab, which started out as a taxi-hailing app in Kuala Lumpur in 2012, became the regions dominant ride-hailing service in past years with $4 billion raised from investors. It was most recently valued at $6 billion, according to CB Insights. Today, with more than 86 million mobile app downloads, it offers a wide range of ride-hailing services in 191 cities across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.

The deal will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology, Khosrowshahi said in the statement.Stormy Daniels attorney, Michael Avenatti, made the morning-show rounds on Monday to field additional questions about the porn stars latest revelations regarding her alleged 2006 affair with now-President Trump.

During an interview with Anderson Cooper on Sundays 60 Minutes, Daniels said that she was threatened with physical harm in 2011 if she spoke out about the alleged affair a few weeks after Donald Trumps longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, learned that she shared her story with InTouch magazine.

Avenatti stood by his client on Monday, asserting that the threat came from someone associated with Trump, not the magazine, and shared plans to uncover the identity of the man Daniels claims threatened her. Avenatti also promised that he would get to the bottom of the alleged threat, the nondisclosure agreement and the $130,000 payment.

Were not going to play our hand right now, and the reason is because we have a case to win, Avenatti told Savannah Guthrie after she pressed him to clarify claims about their evidence on NBCs Today show. Im not playing games, there will be more evidence.

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Avenatti, a Los Angeles attorney, noted that there were a number of details and facts that didnt make it into Daniels 60 Minutes interview and his client was prepared to discuss intimate details relating to Trump, including describing his genitalia and conversations that would leave no doubt as to whether this woman is telling the truth.

And if shes not telling the truth, let the president take to the podium and call her a liar. Let the president come forward and say it never happened, he said. There is a reason why this $130,000 was paid, and it wasnt paid because she made this story up. Its absurd.

On CBS This Morning. Avenatti responded to the cease-and-desist order Cohens lawyer issued about the interview, which demanded a retraction and apology.

Were only getting started, Avenatti told Gayle King. He also said that Cohen has zero credibility and plans to prove it, summing up Cohens statements about the matter as laughable.

This is a man who has a history of thuggish behavior, using intimidation tactics, and trying to step on little people. And as it relates to my client, its going to come to an end and were going to show the American people exactly who Michael Cohen is, Avenatti said.

On ABCs Good Morning America, Avenatti again dismissed the cease-and-desist letter with this sound bite: Michael Cohen needs to be less concerned about role-playing Ray Donovan and more concerned about coming clean with the American people, he said.

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He again promised a litany of more evidence in this case that would prove an affair, calling his recent tweet teasing potential evidence on a CD or DVD a warning shot to Mr. Cohen and the president that they better be very careful about denying what happened.

Meanwhile, Cohens attorney, David Schwartz, also appearing on GMA, claimed that Daniels was lying in her 60 Minutes interview and accused Avenatti of publicity mongering.

The lying is all over that piece, Schwartz said. We dont have to go further than the piece to see the lying, the inconsistencies, the fact that she said nothing happened and now she says something happened. Shes in it for the money. And Michael Avenatti is in it for all the press and money also.

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The White House has denied the alleged affair and the president has not yet publicly addressed Daniels latest interview. However, he did share a vague tweet about fake news on Monday morning.

So much Fake News. Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate. But through it all, our country is doing great! Trump wrote.

Follow me: @NardineSaadThe San Diego-Coronado Bridge is among the deadliest spans in America for suicides.

Only the Golden Gate Bridge has regularly seen more people plunge to their death in recent years, and there officials are in the process of installing a net below its deck to deter would-be jumpers at a cost of roughly $204 million.

State transportation officials released a long-anticipated report outlining several prototypes intended to prevent or dissuade people from jumping off the Coronado bridge, including fencing, transparent barriers and netting.

The community of Coronado now hopes that one of the envisioned projects will soon stem the carnage that has claimed more than 400 lives in the bridges roughly 50-year history  including 98 in the last six years.

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However, while none of the proposals would take more than about two years to construct, authorities on Thursday emphasized that funding for design and construction was far from guaranteed.

Asked if the bridge would likely see a suicide-prevention alternative selected and built within the next decade, Division Chief for Caltrans District 11 Marcelo Peinado offered little reassurance.

I just cant say, he said. Think about the cost. These are weighty decisions.

The projected price tags in the recently released study range from $5 million for a short thistle barrier of hard plastic or metal spikes along the bridges railing to $137 million for a transparent glass or plexiglass barrier.

Caltrans plans to select a handful of alternatives by this time next year to undergo environmental analysis. After that, state and federal funding would need to start rolling in to keep the process moving.

Local advocates for suicide prevention remain optimistic, hoping that efforts on the Golden Gate Bridge will provide a blueprint going forward. Roughly 40% of the funding for that project is coming from state coffers, with local public dollars and private donations making up the rest.

They paved the way, said Rhonda Haiston, founder of Bridge Collaborative for Suicide Prevention. Its an astounding amount of money they secured for their project. If they were able to do that, theres no way we will not be successful down here.

With limited funding in California available for mental health projects, elected officials have started looking to transportation funding, making the case that such projects are needed to ensure a free flow of traffic.

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The 2-mile-long bridge serves about 83,000 vehicles a day, according to the Caltrans report. State Route 75 along the Silver Strand is the only other way on or off the peninsula.

Suicide attempts on the Coronado bridge can close it for hours as law enforcement crisis teams try to talk down a potential jumper, said Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey. Most people dont actually jump, and the bridge gets shut down in both directions. Lets improve traffic efficiency by preventing suicides.

While this approach could help tap into more readily available public money, Bailey said his ultimate goal is ending the suicides.

I know personally a couple individuals who have taken their lives on the bridge, he said. I feel a moral obligation to prevent that where possible.

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The suicides have for years deeply scarred the community, according to local residents. Last summer, for example, many mourned the loss of 49-year-old Susan Ahern, an active member in the community and St. Pauls Methodist Church. Her Facebook page is filled with tearful and loving messages posted as recently as March.

We witness people taking their own lives, said Wayne Strickland, a retired Coronado firefighter who is president of the Bridge Collaborative for Suicide Prevention. You see the abandoned cars. You see people looking over the side. A lot of times, people try to stop someone, and their lifes in peril also.

Caltrans agreed to study the suicide-prevention alternatives after state Sen. Ben Hueso (D-San Diego) introduced legislation in February 2017 that would have required the agency report to the Legislature on such efforts.

The proposed law came after a man drove a pickup truck into the bridges retaining wall and landed in Chicano Park, located about 60 feet below a section of the bridge suspended over Barrio Logan in the city of San Diego. Four people were killed and nine others injured as a result of the crash.

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Its thought that some of the designs being proposed could have prevented the vehicle from toppling off the bridge.

The safety of residents and visitors traveling on the bridge, and those who gather below it in Chicano Park, is of the utmost importance, Hueso said in an email. Once we complete the final study, locating the funds will be my biggest priority.

Asked about the timing of its study, Caltrans said it was responding to public pressure.

It was just the right time, said Peinado. There was a little more coming from the community, a louder cry for doing something.

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Beyond funding, suicide-prevention barriers often face opposition from residents concerned about obstructed views and aesthetic changes. Caltrans feasibility study takes these concerns into account, and while the agency will make the final decision on which prototype to embrace, the agency plans to base its selection heavily on comments from the public in coming months and years.

Another option being considered would be to simply augment existing non-physical measures such as signs for a suicide counseling hotline, video monitoring and telephones or push-button intercoms.

According to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline physical barriers are the most effective way to prevent bridge suicides.

Opposition to such projects is often rooted in the idea that people who are intent on dying will find other means, said Mark Sinyor, a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Toronto who specializes in issues around suicide.

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In fact, we know that suicidal crises are often fleeting and that removing a common means of suicide through an intervention like a bridge barrier is one of the most evidenced-based strategies for suicide prevention, he said.

The anti-suicide design for the Golden Gate Bridge was debated for decades. Those living in the shadow of the Coronado bridge are eager to move much more swiftly.

Smith writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.Police are searching for three men they say ordered a Lyft then carjacked the driver at gunpoint after an hourlong ride around Los Angeles.

South Pasadena police said the Lyft driver picked up three men from somewhere in Los Angeles at about 1 a.m. early Sunday morning and made two stops at unknown locations before making a final stop in the 1800 block of State Street in South Pasadena.

The driver told police one of the suspects then pointed a black handgun at him, while another had a silver revolver. The three told the driver they wanted his car and other property, police said, and then fled westbound on State Street.

The car is a gray 2010 Honda Accord with a California license plate: 6MGW956. Police investigators are in the process of obtaining a search warrant for the Lyft customers information, police said.Two Orange County families were grieving Monday after a pair of teens who were in car packed with seven people died when their vehicle rolled over in a Tustin crash, authorities said.

The boys were riding in an Infiniti M37 eastbound on Legacy Road on Friday afternoon before 3 p.m. when police say it veered off the road and into a cement post, causing it to spin and slam into the rear of a parked moving van.

The car the two victims were riding in was designed to hold up to five people.

The Infiniti rolled over after hitting the van, trapping the seven occupants, Tustin police said. Orange County fire officials said they had to use the Jaws of Life to free the people inside. The passengers were between 17 and 20 years old, according to KTLA.

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Tustin - OCFA & Tustin PD on scene of a traffic collision on the 16000 block of Legacy. 6 patients transported, 1 DOA. Jaws of Life used to extricate patients. Tustin PD is Investigating incident. pic.twitter.com/FbZVprvdwS  OCFA PIO (@OCFA_PIO) March 23, 2018

Pedro Fuentes, 17, was inside the car and pronounced dead at the scene. A second passenger, 17-year-old Jason Anguiano of Santa Ana, died Sunday night, the coroner said.

It feels like a nightmare, said Fuentes sister, Julie Quiroz. His room is now just empty. Thats all we have left of him.

The teens were students at Century High School in Santa Ana, KTLA reported.

Fuentes family launched a GoFundMe account over the weekend to help pay for funeral expenses.

He was an amazing loving son, brother, and friend, his family wrote. Pedro will always be remembered as caring, humble, and full of happiness.

The investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

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For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.An armored mystery train. A flurry of activity at a Beijing guesthouse where senior North Korean officials have been known to stay. Tourists barred from Tiananmen Square.

The strangeness in the Chinese capital on Monday suggested that something big was happening, and the speculation was that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was visiting for consultations ahead of a pair of crucial summits  including a possible meeting in May with President Trump.

There was no official word from Chinese or South Korean officials  or from North Korea, which in years past routinely announced visits to Beijing by Kims late father, Kim Jong Il, only after he had come and gone.

News media in Japan, which keeps a close eye on its nuclear-armed neighbor, first took note of an armored train crossing from North Korea at the Chinese border city of Dandong. Japanese broadcaster Nippon television on Monday evening showed images of the 21-car train, with green carriages bearing a distinctive yellow stripe. And the Bloomberg news agency cited unidentified sources as saying the North Korean leader was in Beijing.

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Signs swiftly materialized on the ground that a high-level visit was afoot. A large motorcade was seen entering the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, greeted by an honor guard, the Associated Press reported. The Reuters news agency said Beijings Tiananmen Square was emptied of tourists, the usual prelude to a state meeting taking place in the Great Hall of the People.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un visits China: Bloomberg https://t.co/KqwKd7R7EB pic.twitter.com/jSGnmrIkZ1  Reuters Top News (@Reuters) March 26, 2018

Social media in Japan, South Korea and China lit up with reports of other portents: extensive train delays in and near Beijing, screens blocking the view of the station in Dandong, and stepped-up security starting Monday afternoon on a major Beijing thoroughfare.

If the reports are true, it would be Kims first known foray outside North Korea since he took power upon his fathers death in 2011. And it would signal that the leadership in China, North Koreas most important patron, wanted to have a face-to-face encounter with the untested and impetuous young leader before he sits down with South Koreas president in April, and possibly with Trump the following month.

Kim has not been seen in public since March 5, when he met with a South Korean delegation. The South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported on speculation that he is hard at work preparing for scheduled summits with South Korea and the U.S.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said Monday that he could not confirm the reports.

In South Korea, government officials said the same.

The government is closely monitoring the situation and movements while communicating closely with related countries, said Nam Sang-kyu, a spokesman for President Moon Jae-in.

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North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency did not announce a trip to Beijing. Its top stories on Monday included a commentary accusing Japan of impudence and moral baseness for its criticism of Pyongyangs nuclear and missile programs, and news of an official inspection of an industrial area.

The Norths invitation to Trump was relayed this month by South Korean officials. Pyongyang has not confirmed that the talks will take place, and no date or venue has been set.

The U.S. president caught his own advisors by surprise by announcing he was prepared to meet Kim. The unexpected move drew praise from Trumps backers, who said it showed his bellicose style  including mocking Kim as Little Rocket Man and warning of fire and fury if the North took its provocations too far  had paid dividends.

Critics of the president, though, said agreeing to the meeting signaled naivete, bestowing enormous prestige on Kim without any concessions having been made in advance by Pyongyang. The Trump administration swiftly clarified that the aim was denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

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Japans Kyodo news agency, without confirming that the mystery visitor was Kim, said high-level talks in the Chinese capital were meant to shore up ties between Beijing and Pyongyang.

A high-ranking #NorthKorean official appears to be currently visiting #China, but it has yet to be confirmed whether the figure is the country's leader #KimJongUn.#

https://t.co/wqzukXeBmx  Kyodo News - English (@kyodo_english) March 26, 2018

The Trump administration has reportedly sought help from China in reining in Kim, with little real success. China is by far North Koreas most significant link to the outside world, and it has been highly critical of unilateral U.S. sanctions targeting the North that go beyond those approved late last year by the United Nations Security Council.

China watchers like author and blogger Gordon G. Chang said if Kim was indeed in Beijing, all this talk of China losing influence in Pyongyang is incorrect analysis.

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China has great influence, and it gets what it wants when it pulls the string, he tweeted. It looks as if it just pulled the string.

Both of Kims predecessors  his grandfather Kim Il Sung, who ruled the country from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994, and his father, Kim Jong Il, who ruled from 1994 until his death in 2011  preferred to travel abroad on heavily armored luxury trains.

In 1984, Kim Il Sung traveled by train through China and the Soviet Union to several countries in Eastern Europe. In 2011, Kim Jong Il took a train to Ulan-Ude, Russia, to meet with Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president at the time.

Kim Jong Il reportedly preferred train travel as he was afraid to fly. He kept six trains, equipped with conference rooms and reception halls, the Chosun Ilbo reported in 2009. His personal train would travel between two other trains  one that ran ahead as a safety check, and another that carried staff and security.

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King reported from Washington and Kaiman reported from Beijing. Special correspondent Matt Stiles in Seoul contributed to this report.

laura.king@latimes.com

@laurakingLAT

jonathan.kaiman@latimes.com

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@JRKaiman

UPDATES:

8 p.m.: This article was updated with background as well as statements from the White House and the South Korean government.

This article was originally published at 1:15 p.m.The White House on Monday announced the most aggressive diplomatic slap-down of Russia since the end of the Cold War, but President Trump  rarely shy about claiming credit for his administrations bold action  remained quiet, offering no tweets or public statements about the retaliatory measures.

The U.S. expulsion of 60 alleged Russian spies operating under a cloak of diplomacy and the closing of Moscows last diplomatic outpost on the West Coast came in response to the nerve agent attack on a former Soviet spy and his daughter in Britain earlier this month that British and U.S. intelligence agencies blamed on the Russian government.

The move was announced in coordination with more than a dozen European allies and received bipartisan praise from lawmakers, diplomats and foreign-policy experts in what is normally an uncompromisingly bifurcated political atmosphere.

All 60 Russians  48 based at the Russian Embassy in Washington and elsewhere and 12 at the United Nations in New York  are intelligence agents cloaked by diplomatic disguise, said a senior administration official who briefed reporters in advance on condition of anonymity. The order also includes closing the Russian Consulate in Seattle.

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The U.S. action followed earlier decisions by Britain to expel 40% of the Russian diplomatic staff there. Other countries joining in Mondays action against Russia included 15 members of the European Union and several former Soviet Baltic states. Germany and France expelled four diplomats each; Poland four, Ukraine 13, Lithuania three.

Canada also joined the coordinated action, saying it would expel four Russians and reject the applications of three others identified as intelligence officers or individuals who have used their diplomatic status to undermine Canadas security or interfere in our democracy.

Jon Huntsman Jr., the Trump-appointed U.S. ambassador to Russia, said the administrations decision Monday represented the largest expulsion of Russian intelligence agents in United States history.

In a statement, the White House said Trump had ordered the expulsions to make the United States safer by reducing Russias ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten Americas national security.

The Seattle consulate was ordered closed because of its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing, the statement said.

In language unusually harsh for the Trump administration where Russia is concerned, the statement added that Moscows use of a military-grade chemical weapon on British soil was the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world.

Notably however, Trump did not immediately make a statement in his own voice. No public appearances were scheduled for Monday, nor did he speak to reporters while at his resort in Florida over the weekend.

And White House principal deputy spokesman Raj Shah said the administration remained open to working with Russia. The president wants to work with Russia, Shah said at the regular White House briefing Monday. But their actions sometimes dont allow that to happen.

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Normally a move as monumental as expelling 60 foreign operatives would be accompanied by a formal unveiling by the president or senior officials of his Cabinet.

By evening, Trump had tweeted only three times, once about the economy, another about the stock market and one on an undetermined topic, presumably his alleged affair with an adult film star in 2006: So much Fake News. Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate. But through it all, our country is doing great!

He has so far refused to personally condemn Vladimir Putin for the attack, instead calling the Russian leader recently to congratulate him for his victory in a dubious election.

Trump was slow to publicly acknowledge Russian complicity in the poisoning, which critically injured Sergei Skripal and his adult daughter, Yulia, on March 4 in the British city of Salisbury.

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A White House official, also briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, insisted the order Monday was absolutely Trumps decision. But it stood in marked contrast to Trumps own description last week of a very good call with Putin, and plans to meet him in a summit to discuss the arms race. His spokeswoman said at the time that the Skripal attack did not come up in the call.

Last year, the administration ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco, an iconic building and the oldest Russian diplomatic mission in the United States. That order left Seattle as the only Russian diplomatic post on the West Coast. It came as part of a tit-for-tat dispute between Moscow and Washington over economic sanctions approved overwhelmingly by Congress, but only reluctantly enacted by Trump.

The sanctions then were in response to Russias meddling in the 2016 election campaign.

Foreign policy experts said the expulsions were significant and sent a strong message to Russia. However, several advocated measures that would more directly target money controlled by Putin and the oligarchs and business tycoons who surround him.

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The expulsion of Russian diplomats alone ... is unlikely to deter Russia from its aggressive behavior, said Michael Carpenter, a former National Security Council director for Russia during the Obama administration who is now at the Atlantic Council think tank.

A strong response would impose financial sanctions on Russia, he added, including Iran-style bans on Russias participation in global financial institutions and markets, and an end to construction of the $10-billion Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline through Europe.

Russia immediately responded to Mondays action with threats of reciprocal retaliation, presumably the expulsion of U.S. diplomats from already diminished missions in Russia.

We already stated and reconfirm that Russia has never had any relation to this [Skripal] case, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Tass Russian news agency. We will be guided by the principle of reciprocity as before.

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The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the provocative gesture by the United States and its allies was continuation of the confrontational policy to escalate the situation.

Countries had chosen to blindly follow the principle of Euro-Atlantic unity at the expense of common sense, the ministry said, repeating claims that Britain had not supplied evidence of Russian involvement in the poison attack.

Members of the U.S. Congress almost universally welcomed the administrations move, including those lawmakers who have criticized Trump for failing to challenge Russia.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, praised what he called long overdue steps and urged a comprehensive strategy to counter the Russian states reprehensible behavior.

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It is long past time for the administration to take this national security threat seriously, Menendez said.

The expulsion decision also represents the United States complete rejection of Russias denial of involvement in the attack, said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a frequent critic of Trump, welcomed the expulsions as an important step forward but added: While todays decision sends an important signal to Moscow, the only way to ensure Putin and his cronies feel the consequences of their brazen actions is by punishing them financially.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, who has long been more hawkish on Russia than Trump, also praised the removal of the Russians, especially of the dozen from U.N. headquarters. There, she said, Russia has found a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders.

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Despite Trumps apparent affinity for and reluctance to criticize Putin, most of his senior advisors have long advocated a tougher stance, including two who just departed: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom Trump fired on March 13 after he spoke especially harshly about Moscows actions, and national security advisor H.R. McMaster, who stepped down on Thursday.

They are being replaced by veteran politicians known for hard-line foreign-policy views, including regarding Russia: CIA Director Mike Pompeo for Tillerson and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton for McMaster. But it seems unlikely they had a role in Mondays decision, which had been in the works for some time, officials said.

The Russian diplomats and intelligence operatives have been given a week to depart the United States with their families.

Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy in Washington posted a Twitter poll inviting followers to help decide which U.S. consulate in Russia should be shut down in retaliation: Vladivostok, St. Petersburg or Yekaterinburg.

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Special correspondent Sabra Ayres contributed from Moscow.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter.

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UPDATES:

12:30 p.m.: This article was updated with reaction from the White House, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr. and others.

7:15 a.m.: This article was updated with information on actions taken by other countries and background on the U.S. decision.

This article was originally published at 6:05 a.m.The federal government will spend a record $4.6 billion this year to fight the nations deepening opioid crisis, which killed 42,000 Americans in 2016.

But some advocates say the funding included in the spending plan the president signed Friday is not nearly enough to establish the kind of treatment system needed to reverse the crisis. A White House report last fall put the cost to the country of the overdose epidemic at more than $500 billion a year.

Former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a Democrat who served on President Trumps opioid commission last year, said that there are clear solutions but that Congress needs to devote more money to them.

We still have lacked the insight that this is a crisis, a cataclysmic crisis, he said.

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By comparison, the Kaiser Family Foundation found the U.S. is spending more than $7 billion annually on discretionary domestic funding on AIDS, an epidemic with a death toll that peaked in 1995 at 43,000.

States also have begun putting money toward the opioid epidemic. The office of Ohio Gov. John Kasich estimates the state is spending $1 billion a year to address the crisis. Last year, New Jersey allocated $200 million to opioid programs, and the budget proposal in Minnesota calls for spending $12 million in the coming fiscal year.

The opioid allocation is part of the $1.3-trillion budget appropriation Trump signed Friday. In a budget deal full of compromises, this was one element both parties heralded.

Addiction to opioid painkillers, including prescription drugs such as Vicodin and OxyContin and illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl, is causing deep problems across the country. Its being blamed for shortened life expectancies, growing burdens on foster care systems, and strains on police and fire departments.

The budgeted response amounts to about three times as much as the federal government is spending now to address the epidemic, not counting treatment money that flows through Medicaid and Medicare. A spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the agency does not track how much money it spends on drug treatment.

This bill provides the funding necessary to tackle this crisis from every angle, Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican who is chairman of a subcommittee overseeing much of the funding, said in a statement. Its another major step in our effort to get this epidemic under control and save lives.

The biggest chunk of new money in the congressional appropriation  $1 billion  is to be distributed to states and American Indian tribes. States with the highest overdose mortality rates would receive larger shares, a provision thats important to hard-hit states with small populations such as West Virginia and New Hampshire. Every state would receive at least $4 million.

The plan also includes $500 million for opioid-related research and hundreds of millions more to expand treatment availability.

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Andrew Kolodny, co-director of an opioid policy research group at Brandeis University, said he believes it would take a 10-year commitment to funding $6 billion annually to build a system that would make medication-assisted treatment accessible to everyone who needs it.

The federal appropriation also contains money for law enforcement and equipment to help identify and intercept opioids at borders and ports of entry.

Van Ingram, executive director for the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, said that law enforcement is not the key to solving the epidemic but that he appreciates the additional federal money for policing.

We are many years into this drug epidemic and the worst one in our history, and there have never been any new dollars for law enforcement to speak of, he said.

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Providing law enforcement in Kentucky with naloxone, a drug that can reverse overdoses, is a major expense for his office. Federal help is now available to defray some of those costs.

Some of the federal money also will go toward helping people being released from prison avoid the drugs and toward expanding specialized courts for veterans and people with drug dependency.

The federal spending plan incorporates language inspired by the 2016 death of a 30-year-old woman who overdosed on pain pills she was prescribed as she left a hospital after surgery.

The woman, Jessie Grubb, received the pills from a Michigan hospital despite medical records reflecting her past heroin addiction and recovery. Under the law, federal authorities are encouraged to establish procedures for healthcare providers to share information about addiction histories.

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In honor of Jessie, but really in honor of thousands of families and recovering addicts, this legislation will go a long way to save lives, Grubbs father, David, said.It was heartening to see the outpouring of personal stories, anger and resolve during the weekend March for Our Lives anti-gun violence protests and the ensuing social media discussions, a long-running debate re-energized through the activism and resolve of kids. It was their day in the sun, and they performed admirably, as did the adults who helped give significant mass to their movement. But the nation cant let the demonstrations vent off righteous anger over Congress subservience to the gun lobby and its embrace of the mythical sanctity of the 2nd Amendment. This weekend must be the beginning of something.

But how to achieve that? Another day of mass disobedience is scheduled for April 20, with more than 250,000 high schoolers already vowing via a Change.org petition to walk out of their classes, an echo of the protest that arose a month after the Valentines Day massacre at Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. More power to them  another day of action will help keep the issue current. But as the March for Our Lives activists have done, organizers of the high school walkouts should focus on results and launch voter registration drives ahead of the summer primaries and November general election. The nation has learned to its disgrace that tears of rage and grief over the slaughter of innocents are insufficient to move the cold hearts in Congress, or the cold hearts of the National Rifle Assn. leadership and its more radical members. It will take a much more potent form of political pressure to get anywhere near where we need to be on gun control.

Weve been in a similar place before.

So what does the nation need? Universal background checks for any transfer of a firearm should be an easy law to enact, given that polls have found significant public support for the idea. Second, there is no need for civilians to own such weapons of war as semiautomatic rifles. Some might find them fun to shoot, but thats hardly reason to loose them upon a civil society. And as for those who say these weapons are necessary for hunting, they need target practice more than they need access to a firearm that can fire bullets as fast as a shooter can make successive pulls on a trigger. If a ban on such weapons is beyond political reach, Congress should at a minimum outlaw bump stocks and other related devices that can convert semiautomatic guns to near-automatics. President Trump has proposed doing that by regulation, but its unclear whether his move will pass a court challenge; Congress can and should do it by law.

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There are solutions to pursue at the state level too. Given the lack of action in Congress, many states  including California  have adopted much more stringent restrictions than federal law imposes. For instance, it is illegal to buy or sell an assault-style rifle in this state, and county sheriffs can deny concealed weapon permits to applicants who do not make a plausible case for why they need one. So Capitol Hill isnt the only pressure point for gun control; statehouses across the country should be pushed as well. Many gun owners say they disagree with the absolutist positions of the NRA; this would be a good time to join with those seeking reforms to establish a common ground that could help marginalize the NRAs lobbying and ballot-box influence, especially in states with a long history of hunting-rooted gun culture.

And we have to recognize, too, that while massacres such as the one in Parkland, Fla., grab the nations attention, our biggest daily gun risk comes from one-on-one encounters involving people we know. Murder-suicides occur all too easily in moments of domestic violence just because a gun is within reach. Middle-aged white males, who as a group traditionally are the largest bloc of support for 2nd Amendment rights, also are at the highest risk of killing themselves with their weapons.

Still, it is the massacres that might move the political needle. Weve been in a similar place before  the outpouring of anger and grief that followed the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre felt like a galvanizing moment. But it dissipated as the grief faded. We cant let that happen again. This is a moment that must be seized and, finally, converted into meaningful change.

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Andre Bernard made a killing selling a mirage.

As oil refineries struggled to comply with federal mandates for blending renewable fuels into the nations gasoline and diesel supply, Bernard offered a solution: millions of dollars worth of biofuel credits they could buy to help meet their obligation. The credits were ostensibly generated by biofuel companies Bernard and his partners owned.

The only problem is they werent making the fuel. They were faking it, generating at least $42 million worth of phony credits. Bernard was sent to prison last month.

The scams just keep coming, said Doug Parker, a former director of the Environmental Protection Agencys criminal investigation division. There has already been north of $500 million in fraud prosecuted. That to me means there have been billions of dollars in fraud losses out there.

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More than a decade after Congress created it at the behest of the corn lobby, the far-reaching mandate to blend increasing volumes of corn-based ethanol and other biofuels into the gas and diesel sold at the pump faces a reckoning.

Influential early allies of the mandate declare it a flop. The billions of gallons of next-generation, climate-friendly fuels the program was supposed to generate arent getting made. And the loosely regulated market of biofuel credits that the mandates are built around has become prey for speculators and swindlers.

The Renewable Fuel Standard is starting to resemble Californias misadventures in electricity deregulation, where a well-intentioned vision spawned an oblique regulatory scheme that confused the public and invited exploitation by shrewd market players.

The law hasnt worked out as we intended, said Henry A. Waxman, the former Los Angeles congressman who crusaded for its passage a decade ago. We made a mistake.

Now, Washington cant figure out how to fix it.

The same system of credit trading that Bernard exploited for a windfall is creating all manner of havoc for fuel businesses operating legally across the country. Fraud is only one piece of the problem.

The Renewable Identification Number credits, or RINs, that refiners must purchase are swinging wildly in price for reasons lawmakers cant agree on. Half a dozen governors in states with refineries obligated to buy RINs warn that the price volatility puts the facilities at risk of financial collapse  a prospect alarming the White House.

The credit-trading market is so murky that regulators are finding it impossible to determine whether there is a price-fixing problem.

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It all came to a head a few weeks ago when President Trump summoned oil and agriculture industry leaders and their allies in Congress to the White House to try to find some kind of fix. They couldnt.

The issue got on the White House radar amid the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Philadelphia Energy Solutions, a Pennsylvania oil refinery that said the crushing credit prices are driving it to financial ruin. The company says it spent more on credits in 2017 than it did on the salaries of its hundreds of employees.

Can you imagine running a business where you spend more than double your payroll to write a check  not to buy anything, not to pay anybody, not to buy any supplies, but simply to purchase a government license, so to speak, that is crushing and it is destroying jobs? Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on the Senate floor in February.

A fuel nozzle for E-85, left, and traditional gasoline is seen at a gas station in Batesville, Miss., in 2009. (Rogelio V. Solis / Associated Press )

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Prices for credits started soaring when the Renewable Fuel Standard, which mandates escalating volumes of renewables be produced each year, began requiring production of more corn ethanol and other biofuels than Americas increasingly energy-efficient cars need or can even handle. That led to another perversity of this market: Even when there is a glut of ethanol available, the price of biofuel credits can go up. Because fuel blenders cant absorb all the renewables the law requires they purchase, they go on the hunt for the type of credit Bernard was purporting to sell. Demand for these credits increases, and their prices go up.

That has made the credits a lucrative commodity, luring financial gamesmanship into a market that operates in the shadows. Aside from fraudsters like Bernard, the refineries complain they are contending with investors who are hoarding credits to manipulate the market. Commodities regulators are struggling to investigate these complaints because the rules around the market are so lax that trades can be made over apps that leave no paper trail.

Its clear that market manipulation in the RIN market is occurring, and it is causing market volatility and price spikes, Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) wrote in a March 15 letter to Trump. It is directly harming my constituents.

Yet the refiners have brought on some of the hardship themselves. The wildly fluctuating cost of the credits has drawn some of them to place risky bets on prices. Instead of purchasing the credits as the oil is refined, at which point they can most easily pass the cost on to consumers, they might take a chance on waiting, hoping they can fetch a cheaper price later.

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One economist who closely monitors the market for the credits, Scott Irwin at the University of Illinois, says it is largely functioning as it should, and it is not being manipulated by the kind of alleged price fixing that recently prompted Carper and several other senators to demand a federal investigation.

But asked whether the arcane system of credit trades was interfering with the programs high-minded goals of developing new, climate-friendly fuels and cleaner-burning cars, Irwin seemed surprised by the question.

You are fooling yourself if you think this law was ever passed in the first place for its environmental benefits, he said. The drivers of the Renewable Fuel Standard have always been farm interests that have had decades-and-decades-old goals to expand their markets and the demand for farm commodities. That is the driving political impulse. It always has been.

That reality is complicating efforts in California to pursue fuel mandates that actually are grounded in environmental goals. Californias program is designed to build on the climate action Waxman and his allies baked into the renewables mandate in 2007 when they shepherded the Energy Independence and Security Act through Congress.

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The federal act is intended to infuse into the fuel supply tens of billions of gallons of futuristic, environmentally sound biofuel made from such things as cornstalks, switch grass and wood chips. Environmentalists hoped that fuel, called cellulosic ethanol, would quickly overtake corn ethanol, as its production does not require the huge amount of water, land and fuel that makes corn ethanol of questionable environmental value.

But advancements in cellulosic ethanol havent materialized, and there is barely any on the market. The Trump administration keeps signaling it wants to further ease federal pressure to develop it, much to the dismay of Sacramento.

As the program lumbers toward its 2022 expiration, Trump is trying to figure out how it can be tweaked to take some stress off the refineries without breaking his campaign pledge not to relax the mandates that are so lucrative for the corn industry. But many Democrats in Congress are now championing an all-out rewrite that accelerates the evolution of advanced biofuels and orients the credit market in that direction.

The push is getting scant attention, as the environmentalists behind it have little sway with this White House or congressional leadership. That could change next year, depending on who wins in the midterm election. This month, Democratic lawmakers unveiled the measure in a news call. They invited Waxman to join them.

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We are concerned about the environmental problems created by this law, he said. We want environmental solutions. The RIN market is not giving us environmental solutions.

evan.halper@latimes.com

Follow me: @evanhalperThe clash between Stormy Daniels and President Trump intensified Monday in the aftermath of the porn stars 60 Minutes interview, with each side claiming the other is lying about an alleged sexual encounter in Lake Tahoe.

The spectacle of an adult entertainer recalling the time she spanked a future president with a magazine featuring his face on the cover was a major draw for CBS on Sunday night; more than 21 million viewers tuned in.

Tawdry details aside, the legal stakes  and political trouble for Trump  mounted Monday as Daniels filed a defamation claim against the presidents personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Cohen in effect called Daniels a liar last month in a public statement challenging her comments about having sex with Trump, her complaint said.

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He made the statement knowing it was false or had serious doubts about the truth, Daniels charged in papers filed in Los Angeles federal court.

The complaint, expanding on a lawsuit she filed against Trump on March 6, accused Cohen of breaking federal law when he set up a shell corporation to pay her $130,000 in hush money 11 days before the November 2016 presidential election.

Former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who was also paid during the campaign to stay quiet about an alleged 10-month romance with Trump, has filed a similar lawsuit. Both suits say the payments were meant to influence the election by keeping Trumps extramarital affairs from voters and thus were illegal campaign donations.

Cohen, who had dinner with Trump over the weekend at the presidents Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, did not respond to emails seeking comment. He has denied the payments to the women had anything to do with Trumps run for president.

Trump maintained his uncharacteristic silence about Daniels on Monday, letting White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah speak for him. Shah declined to say whether the president watched her on 60 Minutes, but attacked Daniels credibility on his behalf.

The president doesnt believe that any of the claims that Ms. Daniels made last night in the interview are accurate, Shah said.

Daniels, he said, had no corroboration for her charge that a man threatened her with physical harm if she were to go public with her story about Trump.

Daniels, 39, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, told CBS that the man confronted her and her infant daughter in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 after Cohen learned she had told a magazine reporter about having sex with Trump.

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The man warned Daniels not to talk about her relationship with Trump. He glanced at her baby and said, Itd be a shame if something happened to her mom, according to Daniels.

Cohens lawyer demanded a retraction and apology from Daniels, saying shed suggested on 60 Minutes that Cohen was behind that threat.

Although Daniels did not accuse Cohen of arranging the threat, her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, said on television networks Monday that it had to have been Cohen or someone else involved with Trump.

In a letter to Avenatti, Cohens lawyer, Brent H. Blakely, said statements blaming Cohen for the threat were false and defamatory.

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In truth, Mr. Cohen had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any such person or incident, and does not even believe that any such person exists, or that such incident ever occurred, Blakely wrote.

Blakely called on Daniels and Avenatti to make clear through the media that you have no facts or evidence whatsoever to support your allegations that my client had anything whatsoever to do with this alleged thug.

Avenatti responded by taunting Cohen.

Will this guy ever come clean with the American people or is he more interested in trying to role play Ray Donovan (badly), Avenatti told the Los Angeles Times in a text message, referring to the television show about a shady fixer.

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Daniels lawsuit seeks to void the October 2016 confidentiality agreement that bars her from talking about the alleged affair. The pact requires Daniels to pay Trump $1 million each time she violates the terms.

Lawyers for Trump say she had already done so at least 20 times even before the 60 Minutes interview. She could be liable for more than $20 million in damages, they say.

Trumps legal team has requested a court order forcing Daniels to settle the dispute in private arbitration, as required by the confidentiality agreement.

In her updated legal complaint, Daniels argues that requirement was specifically designed to prevent public disclosure of an illegal campaign contribution. It also suppresses speech on a matter of enormous public concern about a presidential candidate, her legal papers say.

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At the White House, Shah declined to comment on allegations that Cohen broke federal law when he arranged payment of the hush money.

The campaign or Mr. Cohen can address anything with respect to their actions, Shah said.

President Trumps lawyer Michael Cohen (Mark Wilson / Getty Images )

More broadly, Shah said, Trump strongly, clearly and has consistently denied these underlying claims, and the only person whos been inconsistent is the one making the claims.

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Trump actually has never spoken publicly about Daniels, leaving the task to Cohen and White House press aides.

As for the rationale for the $130,000 payment, Shah said: False charges are settled out of court all the time. You have to ask Michael Cohen about the specifics.

Stormy Daniels says she was threatened with physical harm if she talked about her affair with Donald Trump 

Trump is also facing legal trouble in New York, where former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos is suing him for defamation.

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A few weeks before the presidential election, Zervos accused him of trying to force himself on her in his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2007. He called her a liar, prompting her lawsuit.

With the surge of news on the sex scandals, a spokeswoman for First Lady Melania Trump urged the media to stop mentioning the couples son, Barron.

At the time of Trumps alleged extramarital affairs in 2006, Barron, who turned 12 last week, was a baby.

While I know the media is enjoying speculation & salacious gossip, Id like to remind people theres a minor child whos name should be kept out of news stories when at all possible.  Stephanie Grisham (@StephGrisham45) March 26, 2018

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The first lady remained at Mar-a-Lago when the president returned to the White House on Sunday night after a weekend getaway at the estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

Cohen has a history of using aggressive tactics on Trumps behalf.

NBC anchor Megyn Kelly, who sparred with Trump when he was running for president, posted a sample Sunday night on Twitter: Cohens 2015 threats against Tim Mak, then a reporter at the Daily Beast.

Mak asked Cohen about a deposition by Ivana Trump in which the presidents first wife alleged that Trump raped her in 1989.

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I will make sure that you and I meet one day while were in the courthouse. And I will take you for every penny you still dont have, Cohen responded, according to the Daily Beast.

With a burst of profanity, Cohen warned Mak to tread lightly, because he was going to do something disgusting to the reporter.

You write a story that has Mr. Trumps name in it, with the word rape, and Im going to mess your life up  for as long as youre on this frickin planet, Cohen told Mak, adding, youre going to have judgments against you, so much money, youll never know how to get out from underneath it.

When Ivana Trumps statement about rape became public after the couples 1991 divorce, she said the incident had made her feel violated, but did not want her accusation interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.

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Avenatti also sought to draw attention to Cohens threats against the Daily Beast. This is a man who has a history of thuggish behavior, using intimidation tactics, and trying to step on little people, Avenatti said on CBS This Morning.

And as it relates to my client, its going to come to an end, and were going to show the American people exactly who Michael Cohen is.

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

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Twitter: @finneganLAT

UPDATES:

8:55 p.m.: This article was updated to include Summer Zervos lawsuit against Trump.

8:35 p.m.: This article was updated with new details throughout.

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3:15 p.m.: This article was updated with information on the federal defamation complaint filed by Stormy Daniels.

12:35 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from White House spokesman Raj Shah.

11 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from Melania Trumps spokeswoman and Michael Avenattis remarks on CBS This Morning.

10:20 a.m.: This article was updated with Megyn Kellys tweet and Michael Cohens comments to the Daily Beast on Ivana Trumps rape allegation.

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This article was originally published at 9:30 a.m.The best way to judge a job applicant is to look at his past work record. So lets look at state Sen. Kevin de Leons.

The Los Angeles Democrat is challenging U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the grande dame of his party, trying to grab the coveted seat she has held for 26 years.

De Leons job performance as a legislator, including the last three-plus years as leader of the California Senate, indicates hed be an energetic, in-your-face, ultimately effective U.S. senator  and much more liberal than Feinstein.

That doesnt necessarily mean he should oust her. She has been very effective, one of the most influential Californians ever to hold the office. The main rap on Feinstein, brought up only with subtleties, is her age: 84. De Leon is 51.

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That said, Feinstein shows no sign of slowing down. And her clout would be impossible to replace immediately.

Theres another rap voiced by De Leon: Shes a centrist in an era of polarized politics. Shes accused of being out of touch.

The state has changed dramatically in the past quarter-century, De Leon tells voters, and it requires a new voice that expresses the values of California today, not yesterday.

Feinstein is a moderate by nature and by practical necessity. To get anything done in Congress, she has needed to work closely with Republicans.

De Leon has benefited from overwhelming Democratic dominance since he was first elected to the Assembly in 2006. Four years later, he moved to the Senate and was elected president pro tem in late 2014. Now he faces term limits.

Like most people, De Leon is reflective of his background. He was raised by a single mother who immigrated to California illegally from Guatemala. He never knew his father, who was half-Guatemalan and half-Chinese.

More from George Skelton 

De Leons mom, who ultimately became a legal resident, cleaned wealthy peoples houses in San Diego. He often tagged along on the bus with her to work. They and his two older half-sisters lived in a basement. The bathroom was up a flight of outside stairs.

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He has acknowledged growing up with a chip on my shoulder, thinking I wasnt good enough, maybe.

De Leon graduated from Pitzer College and became a labor organizer. In 1994, he helped organize a massive downtown L.A. march against Proposition 187, the ballot measure that sought to deny public services to undocumented immigrants. It passed overwhelmingly but was ruled unconstitutional.

With that background of illegal immigration and poverty, De Leons Sacramento agenda shouldnt have been surprising  particularly his recent sanctuary state legislation. (He doesnt call it that and detests the tag.)

His controversial bill, which the Trump administration is challenging in court, basically decrees to state and local law enforcement: Leave immigrants who are undocumented but otherwise law-abiding alone, but help federal agents kick out serious criminals. It says local cops should focus on enforcing local laws, and let federal agents enforce their own immigration laws.

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Coverage of California politics 

De Leon also played a major role in passing a bill that allowed immigrants who are undocumented to obtain drivers licenses.

And thinking of his 74-year-old aunt who cleaned houses with no retirement savings, De Leon got legislation passed to help people like her. Starting soon, it will allow low-income workers without employer retirement plans to join a modest state program financed by beneficiaries with virtually no employer or taxpayer cost.

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De Leon has had a very broad legislative agenda.

Soon after he took office in 2007, a 9-year-old girl from Thailand was playing in her kitchen near where De Leon lived and was hit by a gang members stray bullet. She died. He got seriously into gun control, including background checks for ammunition buyers.

He has been a leader on climate change legislation, pushing hard for less fossil fuel use and more alternative energy. Whered that come from?

Poor people  working-class families  dont have the financial wherewithal to be as resilient as those with economic means, he told me. I wanted to democratize the climate change benefits so everyone would have access to the latest clean energy technology.

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De Leon is like the Energizer Bunny  never stopping, always pushing major legislation, trying to form coalitions and negotiating.

Last year, he helped negotiate a gas tax increase to raise $5.2 billion annually for road repairs.

But he erred badly on a bill to create a state-run single-payer health insurance system. It carried an impossible $400-billion annual cost with no financing plan. It passed the Senate and was mercifully shelved in the Assembly. But it earned him the endorsement of the California Nurses Assn.

You can criticize some of my stuff, De Leon told me, but you cant say it wasnt big and wasnt bold. Ive always been of the strong belief that the time period you have, you use it to the fullest.

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Polls indicate he doesnt have much chance against Feinstein. For starters, he doesnt have much campaign money. Last week, a survey by the Public Policy Institute of California showed Feinstein leading De Leon by 42% to 16%, with 39% undecided.

Whoever thought that the youngest child of a single immigrant mother with a third-grade education would become the leader of the Senate? De Leon responded. The odds have always been against me. Its the story of my life.

The story of his legislating in Sacramento is that hes no slouch.

george.skelton@latimes.com

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Follow @LATimesSkelton on TwitterSometime between Thursday and the middle of next week, the Chinese space station known as Tiangong-1 is expected to fall out of the sky.

Most of the 18,740-pound space lab likely will burn up in the atmosphere, experts said.

But not all of it.

Between 10% and 40% of the stations mass probably will land somewhere on the planet.

As of now, nobody knows where.

Even predictions made 24 hours in advance about where the space station debris might wind up could be off by thousands of miles, said William Ailor, a researcher at the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at the Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo.

But Ailor urges you not to worry. The chances of Tiangong-1 causing serious injury to anyone on Earth are extremely small, he said.

In the 60 years that humans have been sending objects into space, only one person has reported being hit by a piece of space debris. It was a small part of a Delta II rocket, and the victim from Tulsa, Okla., was not injured.

It also may be a comfort to know that man-made objects fall from space quite regularly.

At least once a month, something of reasonable size comes down, Ailor said. You just dont normally hear about it because they come down in some remote place in the ocean.

(Remember, water covers 70% of our planet.)

Indeed, in the last couple of years, a few other objects in the same size range as Tiangong-1  rocket bodies and other hardware associated with launching satellites  have fallen out of the sky.

Tiangong translates to heavenly palace in Chinese. It is relatively small for a space station, weighing in at just under 20,000 pounds. For the sake of comparison, the International Space Station weighs about 925,000 pounds.

An artist's depiction shows Tiangong-1, the Chinese space station that will plummet to Earth soon. Courtesy of Aerospace Corp.

Tiangong-1 launched in 2011 and was visited twice by Chinese astronauts  once in 2012 and again in 2013.

Chinese officials have not communicated with it since December 2015, perhaps because of a malfunction with its power supply. Experts think that the space stations reentry into Earth will not be controlled, although China has not said that explicitly.

Ailor is part of a team at the Aerospace Corp. that has been tracking Tiangong-1 since 2016. He spoke with the Los Angeles Times about why the space station is destined to fall, why its so hard to predict where it will land and why its reentry should be a pretty spectacular sight.

I thought objects in orbit remain in orbit. Why is Tiangong-1 coming down?

Tiangong-1 is at a fairly low altitude of about 300 kilometers [186 miles] or so. Its about where the ISS is in low Earth orbit. Theres not much air up there, but theres some. The ISS actually has to be boosted every now and then because the atmosphere is slowly dragging it down. Thats what happened to Tiangong-1.

Why is it so hard to predict when it will fall to Earth?

The basic uncertainty is what the atmosphere is doing. For example, if the sun has an event and spews material toward us, it could increase the amount of drag in low Earth orbit and cause the space station to fall faster.

Even slight variations in density at these altitudes affect the drag on a satellite traveling at about 4 miles per second and can make the decay rate somewhat unpredictable.

Will you know more as we get closer to the day it lands?

Even if we had a prediction that was made one day ahead of time, we would have an accuracy of plus or minus 20%. Thats about plus or minus 4 hours or so in time. This thing makes one orbit around Earth every 90 minutes, so you can see that we cant do too good a job of predicting where it will land, even a day ahead.

What happens to space junk when it enters the atmosphere?

These items are traveling at 4 miles a second. When they hit the Earths heavy atmosphere, the temperature goes up and drag gets increased. That causes the temperature to go up even more.

Things like aluminum and some of the other materials that spacecraft are made of melt away pretty quickly. If the aluminum is holding something like solar panels, those will break off.

An artist's depiction of Tiangong-1 shows the space station burning up in Earth's atmosphere. Courtesy of Aerospace Corp.

How much of it will survive reentry?

Things that survive are usually relatively lightweight. We estimate 10% to 40% of the mass on orbit will come down and fall somewhere.

But it wont all land in one spot, right?

These pieces will be spread out over a footprint that can be as wide as 400 miles.

We have a 500-pound chunk of a stainless steel propellant tank that fell 50 yards from a farmers house in mid-Texas in 1997. It was part of the same Delta II rocket that brushed a woman walking in Oklahoma. From Tulsa, Okla., to mid-Texas is a fairly long distance, and there were fragments spread all along that path.

An artist's depiction shows what will happen after Tiangong-1 hits Earth's atmosphere. Courtesy of Aerospace Corp.

Ive read that some people think we should shoot Tiangong-1 before it crashes to Earth. Is that possible?

You have to be careful when it comes to shooting an object down. If you try to hit something in space, you can create a lot of debris, and we dont want that because it increases the risk of debris hitting another object. Theres a real trade-off there.

Whats the biggest thing to have fallen from orbit?

The biggest object we had come down uncontrolled was NASAs Skylab in 1979. It weighed about 150,000 pounds. Thats a big object. Parts of it landed in Australia, but nobody was injured.

Objects such as the space shuttles and Mir were bigger but were under control and deorbited into specified locations.

So, we really dont need to worry about this?

Its not a huge threat. These things come down occasionally, and we havent had a problem with them.

Will it be possible to see the space station when it falls?

Yes, and it should be magnificent. It will be like a fireworks show with one object breaking into a lot of smaller objects. And youll see streams of light going across the sky.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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.

deborah.netburn@latimes.com

Do you love science? I do! Follow me @DeborahNetburn and "like" Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.

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Oceans on ancient Mars may have got an assist from volcanoesA surge in gang killings, kidnappings and other crimes is gripping central Mexicos Jalisco state and sparking street protests in a region famed for some of the countrys singular cultural emblems  from mariachi music to tequila to Mexican-style rodeo.

And, in a disturbing but familiar scenario in Mexico, corrupt lawmen in the service of criminal gangs appear to be complicit in the escalating violence.

Recent high-profile cases in Jalisco include the disappearance of three film students, the seizure of three Italian citizens and the kidnapping and execution of a pair of Mexican federal agents from an elite squad targeting organized crime.

Police have been implicated in two of the incidents, and prosecutors are investigating reports that police were behind the students disappearance  the case that sent multitudes of protesters into the streets here last week and unleashed a social media campaign from colleagues, relatives and others, including Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro, a native tapatio, as Guadalajara residents are known.

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Armed men who identified themselves as police seized the three students on March 19 on a street in the Guadalajara suburb of Tonala and drove off with the young men in a pair of SUVs, according to witness accounts.

We demand that authorities return my son and his two companions, Sofia Avalos, mother of one of the students, Marco Avalos, 20, told reporters on March 22. We demand that he and his two colleagues be returned alive. [We] want them back. We need them back. We love them.

Forensic personnel inspect the scene in which a man was shot dead inside his car in Americana neighborhood, in the tourist area of Guadalajara, Mexico, on March 14. (Ulises Ruiz / AFP/Getty Images)

State authorities have launched a search for the vanished students  and also are seeking a fourth student who went missing the same day in a separate incident  but have not commented on possible police involvement in their seizures. Officials have offered an award of 1 million pesos  about $55,000  for information on the whereabouts of the four students.

Lawmakers have hastened to provide reassurance to edgy Jalisco residents, while pointedly offering no guarantees that the wave of violence will end anytime soon.

Difficult days are coming, I wont lie to you, Jalisco Gov. Aristoteles Sandoval warned citizens earlier this month, while vowing to send more police cruisers and uniformed officers to embattled police departments. The situation is critical, and there is no indication that it is getting better.

The governor spoke March 7, a day after six bodies were found in an abandoned vehicle parked not far from the center of Guadalajara, the state capital.

Violence has long formed a significant undercurrent of life in Jalisco, which stretches from the Mexican interior to the Pacific coast and is home to about 8 million people, mostly concentrated in the Guadalajara metropolitan zone. Jalisco, especially the coastal Puerto Vallarta area, also hosts a major tourist industry and permanent foreign population, including many U.S. retirees and vacation homeowners. The state is also a longtime source of immigrants to the United States.

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Guadalajara was the base of the former cartel that notoriously kidnapped and killed undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique Kiki Camarena in 1985. Under intense pressure from Washington at the time, Mexican authorities moved forcefully to break up the Guadalajara Cartel, which soon split into regional cartels that assumed drug-smuggling routes to the booming U.S. market.

But officials call the current violent upsurge the worst in recent memory.

This is an epoch of horror, Gov. Sandoval acknowledged. But, he declared, the criminals cannot be stronger than us. They cannot intimidate us.

There were 247 homicides recorded in Jalisco during the first two months of 2018, according to official figures. Thats a jump of almost 25% compared to the same period in 2017  a year that set a new record for murders in the state and nationwide.

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Human rights activists and others say disappearances also have surged to new highs in Jalisco, with more than 300 people reported missing already this year.

The state is now home turf to one of Mexicos most brutal and fast-growing crime syndicates: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, an offshoot of the Sinaloa Cartel once headed by Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, now jailed in New York after his extradition to the United States. New Generation is among a number of factions fighting for lucrative segments of El Chapos splintered criminal domain, resulting in periodic gangland slayings and shootouts.

A longtime trademark of Mexican mobs has been the practice of buying off or intimidating cops, prosecutors and judges. The gangs cash resources dwarf what officials can earn in public salaries.

A lot of this is about economics, said Darwin Franco, a journalist and academic in Guadalajara who has followed crime in the region. Sometimes the local police have to cooperate [with cartels] because their bosses demand it.

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Also, thugs do not hesitate to kill police officers or anyone else infringing on their illicit trade.

Kidnappings and disappearances often serve as a message directed at rivals, authorities or the general public, Franco noted. Cops often do the dirty work. Throughout Mexico, police have been implicated in the disappearances of scores of people, many with no known link to criminal activity.

Police in the town of Tecalitlan in southern Jalisco have been accused in the Jan. 31 abduction of the three Italians, who, according to Italian relatives, were in Mexico selling imported electrical equipment. Officials say police handed the Italians over to a criminal organization, reportedly an affiliate of the New Generation band. The men have not been seen since. Their disappearance has led to street protests in their hometown of Naples, Italy. The motive for their abduction remains unclear.

In Puerto Vallarta, two top municipal police commanders were among more than a dozen suspects arrested this month in the kidnapping and slaying of the two federal agents from an elite squad targeting organized crime. Their slayings were clearly meant as warning from the New Generation cartel to authorities, observers say.

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The remains of the agents turned up in the neighboring Pacific Coast state of Nayarit days after the two captive agents appeared in a chilling, jihadist-style internet video making a clearly coerced anti-police declaration against an Islamic State-like backdrop of masked gunmen toting assault rifles.

Things have gotten so out of hand in the sprawling Guadalajara suburb of San Pedro Tlaquepaque, home to some 700,000, that state and federal authorities assumed security duties this month, while more than 800 police officers were subjected to security checks. Most were later reinstated, but authorities say about 75 remained under investigation and off the streets.

The security takeover came after seven patrons were gunned down in a seafood restaurant in San Pedro Tlaquepaque in an apparent gangland hit, part of an uptick in killings and other crime in the district.

The escalating violence in Jalisco comes against a panorama of rising crime nationwide that is a contentious issue in the ongoing presidential election campaign.

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Last year, Mexico recorded more than 25,000 homicides, an almost 25% jump from 2016 and the highest annual number since officials began tracking such data two decades ago.

Soldiers of the Mexican Army stand watch as seized drugs and alcohol are incinerated in Guadalajara, Mexico, on March 23. (Ulises Ruiz / AFP/Getty Images)

In Mexico, cleaning up police corruption is a perennial political campaign promise, inevitably unfulfilled.

The governments inability to rein in criminality has been a knock against the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto and his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. While Pena Nieto cannot seek reelection, polls show the ruling party standard-bearer running well behind in presidential elections scheduled for July 1.

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Despite the widespread disquiet about violence and the protest marches, a semblance of normality somehow still prevails in Guadalajara and the vicinity. The daily TV images of slain victims dumped on streets or elsewhere have failed to dim the vibrant outdoor life here and elsewhere in Mexico.

In San Pedro Tlaquepaque, mariachi bands offer their services while tourists meander through the colonial-era streets, prowling handicraft outlets and taking breaks for margaritas, birria (roasted goat meat) and other Jalisco fare.

Red banners mark the reopening of the seafood joint known as Don Cangrejo (Sir Crab), where seven people were gunned down in February. But no patrons were present on a recent afternoon at Don Cangrejo, despite signs offering free beer and discount shrimp by the kilo.

Students take part in a protest to demand the return of three missing film students who went missing March 19. (Ulises Ruiz / AFP/Getty Images)

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Cecilia Sanchez of The Times Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Twitter: @PmcdonnellLATViolence over the weekend in Rio de Janeiro that left at least 13 dead seeped into a new week when a man was killed Monday during a military police operation, continuing a cycle of gunfire and death that has sown anger and worry in some of the citys densest neighborhoods.

The countrys army said that it will now begin patrolling the streets of Rio alongside military police officers in an effort to check the violence.

The state polices special operations battalion, known as BOPE, said Mondays shootout between officers and a group of men unfolded in a pocket of Rocinha known as Beco 199. Police said the operation was aimed at routing drug dealers, but some residents doubted that claim.

Another week begins, and with it another hectic day. Residents woke up to the sound of fireworks and gunshots, read a post on Rocinha em Foco, a Facebook page with news and information about the favela, or slum, which neighbors popular tourist beaches like Leblon.

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A view of the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro. (Mauro Pimentel / AFP/Getty Images )

Fireworks are often used by drug gangs in the area to warn other members of the arrival of police.

The worst thing is that this is getting in the way of our kids going to school, wrote Debora Lourenco on the post. Thursday, Friday, and now today without classes because of this. Its difficult. Only Jesus [can help].

However, some students were in class Monday morning when shots were fired in Rocinha, one of Rios many dense favelas. A teacher at an elementary school in the favela recorded video of students sitting up against corridor walls to protect themselves from the gunshots that can be heard in the background. Some of the children scream as the shots become more frequent.

Eight people were killed Saturday in a separate military police operation in Rocinha and rumors swirled that the victims had been executed as part of a revenge mission following the fatal shooting of a police officer Wednesday. A resident identified as Seu Marechal was caught in the crossfire Wednesday and died.

According to Rios military police, officers were patrolling in Rocinha on Saturday as part of an operation to combat drug trafficking when they were shot at, leading them to return fire. Some residents, though, said police had invaded a popular dance party known as a baile funk, and opened fire.

Ten military police officers have since given statements to the civil polices homicide department and their guns have been apprehended, a standard procedure in officer-involved shootings.

On Sunday, five teenagers were also found dead in a condominium complex in Marica, about an hour outside Rio. Police said the young men, who were laid out on the floor and each shot in the head, had no criminal history. They suspect a militia group operating in the region killed them, possibly for singing rap lyrics directed at the group.

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People hold a banner reading Marielle lives during a protest against the slaying of Councilwoman Marielle Franco. (Leo Correa / Associated Press )

The military previously occupied Rocinha six months ago when gun battles between rival gangs took over the community. Since then, 52 people have been killed in the favela and an additional 10 injured. Military police also said they have made 105 arrests in the six-month period and took 22 minors into custody.

The federal intervention in Rio de Janeiro state began Feb. 16, when President Michel Temer put the military in charge of Rios security.

Mondays shooting comes less than two weeks after the slaying of popular Rio City Council member Marielle Franco, who had just days before her death denounced recent killings of favela residents, which she blamed on police. Franco has quickly become an international symbol in the fight against gun violence.

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Langlois is a special correspondentCritics of Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski reveled this past week in what must have seemed a rare and fitting political demise: his resignation amid allegations of vote buying, illegal campaign contributions and other corrupt practices.

The former World Bank economist and Wall Street banker had been on trial after revelations that a consulting firm he co-owned received an estimated $700,000 in contracts from a disgraced Brazilian construction firm while Kuczynski held several high political posts.

But Kuczynskis case was not that rare. Charges of political misconduct, financial indiscretion and just plain dishonesty have ushered in the downfall of a surprising number of state leaders in recent years, and left others under investigation and battling to defend their reputation  even after leaving office.

In February, Israeli police recommended that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted on suspicion of bribery, fraud, favor trading and breach of trust, casting doubt that his government could survive. Netanyahu, in office since 2009, has rejected the accusations.

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This month, authorities detained former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who left office in 2012, and questioned him about allegations that he received more than $60 million in illegal campaign funds from the late Libyan dictator Moammar Kadafi. The right-wing politician has denied the charges.

Also this month, a South Korean court issued an arrest warrant for former President Lee Myung-bak on charges of financial misconduct during and after his time in office. Prosecutors charge that Lee, who held office from 2008 to 2013, accepted about $10 million in bribes from business groups and his intelligence agency and established $33 million worth of slush funds.

In just the last two years, charges of committing or being associated with political misdeeds have led to the fall of at least five world leaders.

Heres a look at the lineup:

Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, above at Parliament in Reykjavik, resigned as Icelands prime minister in April 2016. (European Pressphoto Agency )

Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson  Iceland

Icelands prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, resigned in April 2016 after revelations in the so-called Panama Papers, leaked documents detailing private financial information about thousands of offshore entities, appeared to show that Gunnlaugsson and his wife concealed millions of dollars worth of investments in an offshore company that served as a tax haven. The prime minister, who had described foreign creditors as vultures, has insisted he and his wife are innocent.

Then-Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was impeached in August 2016. (Nelson Almeida / AFP/Getty Images )

Dilma Rousseff  Brazil

In August 2016, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was impeached after the countrys Senate voted overwhelmingly to remove her from office. The countrys first female president and onetime guerrilla fighter-turned-economist was convicted of violating budgetary rules by shifting money around to cover short-term deficits. A year later, Rousseff and her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who served from 2003 to 2011, were charged with diverting funds from the state-run oil company Petrobras and from other public institutions to their Workers Party. Prosecutors estimated the loss to Petrobras was $9.33 billion.

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Prosecutors have demanded a 30-year prison term for Park Geun-hye, who was charged with bribery, abuse of power and other crimes in a landmark corruption case that marked a stunning fall from grace for South Koreas first female leader. (Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press )

Park Geun-hye  South Korea

Last March, Park Geun-hye, South Koreas first female president, was ousted after the countrys constitutional court confirmed her impeachment, which had taken place three months earlier. Parks downfall came amid allegations that she participated in a bribery scheme with tech giant Samsung Group that aimed to ensure the merger of two of the companys affiliates. Months of massive street protests were staged to call for her impeachment, after four years in office. Although her attorneys charged that the case against Park was politically motivated, she repeatedly apologized. In February, prosecutors demanded a 30-year prison term and a $110-million fine for Park, who is charged with bribery, abuse of power and other crimes.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif speaks to reporters outside the premises of the Joint Investigation Team in Islamabad on June 15, 2017. (B.K. Bangash / Associated Press )

Nawaz Sharif  Pakistan

In July 2017, Pakistans Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after investigations revealed that his children were linked to offshore companies that he had not declared in financial disclosures. The findings were revealed in the Panama Papers. Also disqualified from serving in Parliament, Sharif resigned as prime minister  a position he had held for a third time. He and his family have denied any wrongdoing.

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Bowing to pressure from his ruling African National Congress party, South African President Jacob Zuma resigned in February. (Sipa USA )

Jacob Zuma  South Africa

With his almost nine-year tenure beset by corruption scandals and charges of fiscal and administrative mismanagement, South African President Jacob Zuma bowed to pressure from his African National Congress party and resigned in February. This month, state prosecutors announced that charges against Zuma, stemming from a controversial bribery-tinged $2.5-billion arms deal from the late 1990s when he was deputy president, would be reinstated. Zuma has denied committing any transgressions.

Times staff writers Robyn Dixon in Johannesburg, South Africa, and special correspondents Matt Stiles in Seoul, Chris Kraul in Lima, Peru, and Christina Boyle in London contributed to this report.

ann.simmons@latimes.com

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To read this article in Spanish click here

For more on global development news, see our Global Development Watch page, and follow me @AMSimmons1 on TwitterIn an election all but certain to hand Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi a second term, the focus Monday was on whether people would bother to cast ballots as three days of voting got underway.

Sisi and his supporters urged Egyptians to flock to polling stations, presenting participation as a national duty. They hope a strong turnout will give the outcome a measure of credibility after any serious challengers were arrested or pressured to withdraw from the race.

Authorities also clamped down on the media and critics of the government in the run-up to the vote.

The only other name on the ballot is a relatively obscure politician, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, who leads the centrist Ghad party and is an ardent supporter of the president.

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In central districts of the capital, Cairo, some voters were already lined up outside polling stations before they opened at 9 a.m. Other locations were quiet for much of the day, although voting picked up in the evening, after people got out of work.

Most, it seemed, were there to support Sisi.

Theres no alternative, said George Hathout, 70, who cast his ballot at a school in the upscale neighborhood of Zamalek.

He said Egypt needs a military man like Sisi, a former chief of the armed forces who seized power from the countrys first democratically elected president, the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, amid a popular uprising in 2013. Militants have stepped up their attacks since Morsis fall; two policemen were killed Sunday in a bombing targeting the local security chief in the coastal city of Alexandria.

We are fighting against terror, Hathout said, speaking loudly to be heard over the patriotic songs blaring from loud speakers outside his polling station, where several men danced and waved the Egyptian flag.

Sisi, he said, is a soldier first  He knows how to fight.

Hathout conceded, however, that he knew little about the other contender in the race, a businessman who barely campaigned after submitting his candidacy hours before a January deadline.

It doesnt matter who wins as long as Egypt remains safe, Moussa was quoted as saying by the Associated Press after casting his ballot in Abdeen, in Cairos historic core.

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Sisi also voted Monday but did not address reporters.

Despite a heavy military and police presence, there was a celebratory mood outside a number of polling stations.

Mona Shalaby, 70, beamed as she emerged from a downtown school, waving a pink ink-stained finger to show she had voted. She said she had arrived early to be one of the first to vote for Sisi and declared herself very happy.

Egypts National Elections Authority reported high participation in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Giza, as well as in governorates including North Sinai, where the military is fighting an Islamist insurgency. Officials provided no figures, however.

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Analysts expect many among Egypts 59 million eligible voters to stay away from the polls, either out of apathy or in response to calls for a boycott by some of the presidents opponents.

Just over 47% of eligible voters cast ballots in 2014, despite a decision to add a third day of voting and the declaration of a last-minute public holiday. Although the turnout was respectable by the standards of most Western countries, it fell short of the 80% Sisi himself had said he hoped for. He garnered 97% of the vote against a lone challenger.

Many Egyptians see Sisi as a bastion of stability after years of political and economic turmoil following massive street protests in 2011 that toppled the countrys former strongman, Hosni Mubarak, and galvanized Arab Spring uprisings across the region.

Sisis government has vowed to crush Islamist extremists, including a branch of Islamic State in the Sinai Peninsula blamed for deadly attacks against the countrys security forces, Coptic Christian minority and a Sufi Muslim mosque.

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He also has enacted needed economic reforms  including lifting currency controls and imposing painful subsidy cuts  that earned Egypt a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

But if unsanctioned street protests have largely disappeared, it is likely because of a sweeping crackdown on dissent. Since Morsi was driven from office, thousands of his Muslim Brotherhood followers have been jailed along with leading secular activists. Others are in hiding or fled the country.

It is a game, a 25-year-old Cairo office worker said of this weeks election, explaining why she stayed home and wont be voting. She said she doesnt see any difference between Sisi and Moussa. Regardless of who you pick, she said, you will choose the same person.

Like others who were critical of the election, she asked to be identified by one name, Engy, out of fear of recriminations.

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Another woman, speaking outside a polling station in Abdeen, said she had just spoiled her ballot in protest at the lack of choice. She put a cross next to Sisis name rather than the required check mark.

I might have picked Sisi if there was more than one candidate, said the 26-year-old petroleum company worker, if I had the option to choose, instead of being forced to do so.

Special correspondent Islam reported from Cairo, and Times staff writer Zavis from Beirut.

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

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Twitter: @alexzavis

ALSO

Dozens of musicians have fled or been killed. Yet, in war-torn Syria, the orchestra plays on

War of words heats up between Trump administration, Palestinian leadership

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Guilty by association: Families of suspected Islamic State members pay a steep price

UPDATES:

12:20 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from voters and reports of voting picking up in the evening.

This article was originally published at 8:15 a.m.A woman witnessed Jeffrey "Rico" Raymond gunning down another man on an Easton street in 2016, and identified Raymond as the shooter, a city police detective testified on Monday at a preliminary hearing.

The 23-year-old is accused of fatally shooting Michael Bond on May 9, 2016, the city's only homicide that year.

Bond died of multiple gunshot wounds in the 600 block of Church Street, including three shots to his head. His body was found near his car, which was stopped on the street with the door open and 9 mm shell casings all around the vehicle.

Following Monday's hearing, District Judge Jackie Taschner sent a single homicide charge against Raymond to Northampton County Court, where he now faces possible trial.

Raymond's defense attorney referenced a fight involving Raymond that occurred before the shooting. Attorney Herbert McDuffy Jr. said he plans to counter in court what prosecutors presented at Monday's hearing.

Relatives said Bond lived in Bronx, New York, but would stay with his girlfriend in Easton.

Detective Chris Miller said Bond and his girlfriend were not in the area during the fight involving Raymond at a city club. Bond's father, who sat through Monday's hearing, said his son's friend's confirmed that.

"That boy got beat up at that club," John Bond said. "(Michael) was not there. (The friends) tried to call Michael on the phone (the night of the shooting) and tell him not to go around there, but he didn't answer his phone."

Miller testified surveillance video recorded the shooter's getaway car driving away from the shooting scene.

Police put out a call for information about the white Subaru Forester and it was found the day after the shooting parked near Center and Lincoln streets on South Side.

Tatiana Lockhart's mother approached police as they were at the car, and said her daughter was driving it.

Officers spoke with Lockhart, and she reported that right before the shooting, Bond pulled up besides her car and they argued because Bond wanted to talk with Raymond.

Lockhart was afraid, and would not tell Bond where Raymond was, Miller said.

Neighbors reported hearing people yelling in the street, Miller testified on Monday. John Bond said his son was trying to find out about the previous fight involving Raymond.

Lockhart then drove over to Church Street, where Raymond was, Miller said. As Lockhart got on her cellphone to call Bond and tell him not to come over, the detective testified, she saw Bond stop his car a few car lengths behind where she was parked.

Lockhart told police Bond told her "I got this," and she saw Raymond walking up to Bond's car.

"She heard gunshots, and she was able to see Mr. Raymond shooting Mr. Bond," Miller said.

Raymond got in Lockhart's car, and she drove away for a few blocks before telling Raymond to get out, Miller said.

Gunshot residue was found on the passenger side of Lockhart's car during a search, Miller said.

Raymond was charged in September by a Northampton County investigating grand jury, but was on the lam until last July, when he was arrested in New York City.

John Bond sat in court as he heard Northampton County's coroner testify to the multiple gunshots that pierced his son's body, into his head, through his chest.

"Shot my baby in the head. You don't shoot people in the head," he said.

Asked about hearing the graphic testimony and if it was difficult, Bond said, "That only makes me, it fuels my fire to know how badly he did my son. If I can do anything to make sure he goes to jail for a long time, I want to hear everything."

Raymond was arrested in February 2013 with Miguel Rodriguez during a raid of an apartment in the 500 block of Glendon Avenue in South Side Easton.

Rodriguez, an alleged member of the Very Crispy Gangsters street gang in New York, was charged with fatally shooting Damien "Head" Robinson at Eddie G's bar on Feb. 9, 2013. He was sentenced to life in prison for the killing in February 2016.

Raymond pleaded guilty to giving a fake name and possession of drug paraphernalia related to the raid. He was sentenced to probation, violated his probation and was sentenced to 45 days to one year in county prison, records show.

Raymond violated his parole and was sentenced to serve the balance of his prison sentence in November 2015.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Concerned that "something may happen" after national media attention about a last-resort policy of students and teachers throwing river rocks to fight off an armed intruder in a classroom, the Blue Mountain School District is bringing in "additional armed security for our buildings," Superintendent David Helsel said Sunday on Facebook.

"This attention was due to social media posts that took comments out of context and misrepresented our actual planned response to armed intruders (particularly with the planned use of stones)," Helsel wrote.

The controversy for the Schuylkill County school district began March 15 when Helsel explained to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Education Committee the district's use of guidance from the ALiCE Training Institute, which was implemented about two years ago.

The training has "many facets" and is "lengthy," he said. Some staff attended the training and in turn trained other staff when they returned, Helsel said. The processes were then explained to students, he said.

What drew national attention was when he told state representatives, "If an armed intruder attempts to gain entrance to any of our classrooms they will face a classroom full of students armed with rocks and they will be stoned."

In an attempt to provide context, Helsel on Friday posted frequently asked questions and a video on Facebook.

"We understand that a gun is much more deadly than a stone," Helsel said in the video. "It is our hope that we can somehow stop the ability of an armed intruder to gain access to our classrooms. And we certainly believe that some type of defense like throwing objects like stones at an intruder is a much more effective response than sitting passively waiting for an intruder to come in and shoot our students.

"This is a sad commentary on our current situation in our nation but we want to do everything we can possibly do at this time to help our students' safety and ensure their safety."

He made the point that the stones, which are stored in each classroom in a five-gallon bucket, are a last resort.

There are cameras and buzz-in systems at the district's schools, he said.

"God forbid an intruder gets in," he said.

There are devices to secure classroom doors and locks and training has been provided to create barricades, he said.

Efforts both made public and kept secret "greatly decrease the likelihood an armed intruder could access into one of our classrooms," he said.

In the past, students were told to lie on the ground and hide under desks, he said. That made them "passive targets," he said.

Instead, the district "decided to empower our students with tools of self-defense."

The ALiCE program -- Alert, Lock Down, Inform, Counter and Evacuate -- directs announcements be made when an intruder gets in a building, according to the frequently asked questions. The schools are "equipped with intercom systems, emergency phones systems, walkie-talkies, surveillance equipment and other equipment," the district said.

The alert factor continues with letting students and staff know where the intruder is within the building, the district said.

Teachers would evaluate whether it is safe to get their students out of the school, the district said. If not, they are to lock down the classrooms. Then physical barricades are put into place.

And then?

"This is a last resort," the district said. "Throwing river stones or other items will only be used if all other steps have been taken to avoid contact with an intruder."

The district will "continue to reevaluate" the use of armed security going forward, Helsel wrote.

"Please be assured, the safety of our students and staff is of paramount to us," he wrote.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Business How to Handle Dangerous Goods Safely and Profitably



26.03.2018 15:10:47 - ACEX experts created a simple procedure of handling dangerous cargo



(live-PR.com) - There are certified experts that know the peculiarities of dangerous cargo handling at ACEX Group. We have asked the coordinator of ACEX agency network Evgeniya Vidulina and senior expert of airfreight department Vladimir Tsyntsar to teach a master class related to the topic.



There are 9 classes of dangerous cargo but it is possible to follow one general procedure - There are certified experts that know the peculiarities of dangerous cargo handling at ACEX Group. We have asked the coordinator of ACEX agency network Evgeniya Vidulina and senior expert of airfreight department Vladimir Tsyntsar to teach a master class related to the topic.There are 9 classes of dangerous cargo but it is possible to follow one general procedure when handling it.



Step 1.

DEFINE A CLASS

It is necessary to understand what are the properties of the cargo that make it dangerous for the air freight or other cargo that is being shipped, the air carrier, its passengers or crew. Ammunition, gases or equipment that contains gases and various chemicals can be considered as dangerous goods.





Step 2.

REQUEST MSDS

If the cargo is a chemical substance or product it is required to request a MSDS from the freight owner or its representative (MSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheet). There is a certain GOST 30333-2007 in Russia that outlines the requirements to MSDS.



Evgeniya Vidulina, ACEX agency global network coordinator

It is the manufacturer that is responsible for the MSDS and accuracy of data that is included there. He is also obliged to provide the freight owner with the MSDS (GOST 30333-2007, provisions 3.3 and 3.4).



Forwarders use this document when they define the UN code of the cargo (a 4 digital code of the substance outlined by the United Nations).



IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations manual outlines the possibilities of transportation of each UN code for cargo and passenger flights, Evgeniya Vidulina says. The manual also includes the maximum allowed weight per position, the required type of package and conditions that have to be complied with.



Step 3.

SELECT PACKAGE TYPE



If it is required to provide a certain type of packaging certified by UN it is necessary to address the specialist company. Sometimes airport safety services ask a copy of the packaging company certificates during the inspection to check if the company is authorized to provide such packaging.



UN certified packaging is to be inspected by pressure test, leak test and pressure drop. The packaging that is inspected and approved is marked by a UN round sticker.



Step 4.

PREPARE A DECLARATION

Majority of the dangerous cargo require certain declarations. Such declarations are prepared by the IATA certified experts. When they sign the declarations they confirm that the dangerous cargo is classified and packaged correctly thus ready for transportation and its transportation will be safe for other cargo at the same flight, air carrier, its passengers and crew. You may ask them for consultation.



Advice from ACEX expert: Sometimes cargo that has dangerous properties doesnt fall under the classification of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations manual because there are other certain conditions that are related to them. Moreover there are lists of special conditions for some airlines and countries. It has also be noted.



Vladimir Tsyntsar, senior expert of airfreight department at ACEX

That is what Vladimir Tsyntsar, senior expert of airfreight department at ACEX did during the transportation preparation of the dental material from Russia to Algeria.



My aim was to cut the customers expenses related to the dangerous cargo handling, Vladimir Tsyntsar says, I have thoroughly studied the MSDS of the cargo and could prove that 10 out of 27 items dont fall under dangerous goods classification, and other 17 items could be defined as dangerous goods in the excepted quantity. Our colleagues from the security inspection of the Domodedovo airport had to agree with me. Logistics is the same as legislation, if you know the rules better you will win the case. As a result we could significantly cut the expenses of the customer for marking and avoid the unnecessary declarations for dangerous goods and storage, Vladimir says.



Easier said than done. That is way the experience related to the handling of dangerous goods of airfreight experts is the key factor that directly influences the expenses related to transportation.



ACEX press center







About us:

ACEX Group is an international freight forwarding company which pools together the experience of professionals fr om both Russian and European logistics markets, provides international cargo transportation and customs clearance for more than 20 years.

Offices are located in the largest cities of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Our agency network covers more than 200 countries. Companys warehouse facilities amount to nearly 30. 000 sq. m. and are located in all the largest hubs of European Union and CIS.

when handling it.Step 1.DEFINE A CLASSIt is necessary to understand what are the properties of the cargo that make it dangerous for the air freight or other cargo that is being shipped, the air carrier, its passengers or crew. Ammunition, gases or equipment that contains gases and various chemicals can be considered as dangerous goods.Step 2.REQUEST MSDSIf the cargo is a chemical substance or product it is required to request a MSDS from the freight owner or its representative (MSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheet). There is a certain GOST 30333-2007 in Russia that outlines the requirements to MSDS.Evgeniya Vidulina, ACEX agency global network coordinatorIt is the manufacturer that is responsible for the MSDS and accuracy of data that is included there. He is also obliged to provide the freight owner with the MSDS (GOST 30333-2007, provisions 3.3 and 3.4).Forwarders use this document when they define the UN code of the cargo (a 4 digital code of the substance outlined by the United Nations).IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations manual outlines the possibilities of transportation of each UN code for cargo and passenger flights, Evgeniya Vidulina says. The manual also includes the maximum allowed weight per position, the required type of package and conditions that have to be complied with.Step 3.SELECT PACKAGE TYPEIf it is required to provide a certain type of packaging certified by UN it is necessary to address the specialist company. Sometimes airport safety services ask a copy of the packaging company certificates during the inspection to check if the company is authorized to provide such packaging.UN certified packaging is to be inspected by pressure test, leak test and pressure drop. The packaging that is inspected and approved is marked by a UN round sticker.Step 4.PREPARE A DECLARATIONMajority of the dangerous cargo require certain declarations. Such declarations are prepared by the IATA certified experts. When they sign the declarations they confirm that the dangerous cargo is classified and packaged correctly thus ready for transportation and its transportation will be safe for other cargo at the same flight, air carrier, its passengers and crew. You may ask them for consultation.Advice from ACEX expert: Sometimes cargo that has dangerous properties doesnt fall under the classification of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations manual because there are other certain conditions that are related to them. Moreover there are lists of special conditions for some airlines and countries. It has also be noted.Vladimir Tsyntsar, senior expert of airfreight department at ACEXThat is what Vladimir Tsyntsar, senior expert of airfreight department at ACEX did during the transportation preparation of the dental material from Russia to Algeria.My aim was to cut the customers expenses related to the dangerous cargo handling, Vladimir Tsyntsar says, I have thoroughly studied the MSDS of the cargo and could prove that 10 out of 27 items dont fall under dangerous goods classification, and other 17 items could be defined as dangerous goods in the excepted quantity. Our colleagues from the security inspection of the Domodedovo airport had to agree with me. Logistics is the same as legislation, if you know the rules better you will win the case. As a result we could significantly cut the expenses of the customer for marking and avoid the unnecessary declarations for dangerous goods and storage, Vladimir says.Easier said than done. That is way the experience related to the handling of dangerous goods of airfreight experts is the key factor that directly influences the expenses related to transportation.ACEX press centerAbout us:ACEX Group is an international freight forwarding company which pools together the experience of professionals fr om both Russian and European logistics markets, provides international cargo transportation and customs clearance for more than 20 years.Offices are located in the largest cities of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Our agency network covers more than 200 countries. Companys warehouse facilities amount to nearly 30. 000 sq. m. and are located in all the largest hubs of European Union and CIS. Press Information:

ACEX



30, Kommunalny proezd,

Khimki, Moscow region,

141400, Russia





Contact Person:





Phone: 8-800-777-22-39, +7 495 120 66 68

eMail: eMail



Web: http://www.acex.net





26.03.2018 15:10:47 -

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Akers Biosciences seals US distribution agreement for heparin test 26-03-2018 08:57



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

Cambridge Cognition expects 'significant' revenue from new contract 26-03-2018 08:56



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Director dealings: Experian director offloads more than 55,000 shares 26-03-2018 15:57



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

Smurfit Kappa rejects renewed offer from International Paper 26-03-2018 07:19



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Stratex and IAMGOLD get approval for option agreement 26-03-2018 14:31



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

US and EU expel Russian diplomats in response to Salisbury poisoning 26-03-2018 14:45



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Marshall had a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter, but East Carolina scored 21 straight points in the final 7:31 to earn a 42-38 win over the Thundering Herd on Saturday night at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.NEWS

Pentagon transforms Campia Turzii unit into a NATO air hub at the Black Sea A former Soviet airbase in central Romania could become a hub for US Air Force operations in south-eastern Europe, where the Pentagon is seeking to Mai mult

Nuclearelectrica shareholders approved to terminate negotiations with Chinese for building reactors 3 and 4 from Cernavoda Nuclearelectrica's Board of Directors has been mandated to initiate proceedings to terminate negotiations with China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), as well as legal effects Mai mult

Renault holds expansion of its plant in Romania, 15,000 jobs cancelled at global level "Putting capacity growth projects planned in Morocco and Romania on hold" - is one of the measures included in the draft plan of Renault Group Mai mult

Romania is a net importer of electricity in 2020 as well Romania imported an amount of electricity of almost 796 GWh in the first month of this year, by more than 36% above what it exported Mai mult

Shareholders of Galati steel plant promise investments of one billion euros GFG Alliance has committed to invest one billion euros to upgrade Galati steel plant in order to reduce emissions and increase production. Another EUR 1 Mai mult

Top 3 reasons why young people leave Romania Lack of trust in authorities, corruption and low living standards are the main reasons why young people leave Romania. The data is part of a Mai mult

IMM Invest Romania  program implementing rules have been published The Ministry of Public Finance announces that it has issued the methodological norms for the implementation of the Program for supporting small and medium-sized enterprises Mai mult

Pollution import and car park expansion: comparisons with the other EU states Romania is the EU country with the fewest cars in terms of the number of inhabitants, according to data recently published by Eurostat. We appear Mai mult

Laura Codruta Kovesi remains alone in the race for European Chief Prosecutor French Prosecutor Jean-Francois Bohnert will be appointed as head of the European Financial Prosecutor's Office, a position for which he was heard on Thursday, 11 Mai multThe Warriors have reached out to their fanbase to help track down a stolen van full of game-day equipment.

Sunday night's Ed Sheeran concert at Mt Smart prevented Warriors staff from gaining access to the club's headquarters to store playing gear and other equipment, including GPS trackers and game jerseys, after returning from Canberra.

They were forced to temporarily stash it away in an unmarked van outside a staff member's home on Auckland's North Shore, where it was pillaged overnight.

Warriors CEO Cameron George said they were "devastated" by the turn of events.

"All the playing jerseys from our historic win over the Raiders have been stolen and they obviously hold special significance for the guys," George said on the team's website.

The New Zealand side went to the top of the NRL ladder with their scintillating last-gasp win over the Raiders on Saturday, marking the first time in club history they've opened a season with three consecutive wins.

"It's taken the gloss off what was an incredible weekend, but it's just another challenge and one we are certainly not going to let distract us from making our fans even prouder in the coming weeks."

George is reaching out to the public for help in tracking down their stolen goods.

"We think someone might have followed the van all the way home," he said.

"But we've got a massive fanbase and we are hoping our supporters can keep their eyes peeled in case any of this special gear ends up for sale.

"The police have been notified and we are confident that we will be able to get our gear back."

The Warriors travel to Sydney next Saturday to take on the Roosters.

Newshub.Remington Outdoor Company has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The American firearms manufacturer holding company has reported falling sales for several years.

A Remington-manufactured Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle was used in the Sandy Hook shooting that killed 26 people - 20 first-graders and six school staffers - in 2012. Family members of the victims have filed suit against the company.

Gun sales across the industry have fallen since President Trump took office. Record sales were reported in October 2016 amid fears that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would be elected president and place restrictions on gun ownership. The pro-firearms attitude presented by the Trump administration has resulted in a sharp decline in gun sales, informally dubbed the "Trump Slump" by industry experts.

President Trump has yet to address the bankruptcy announcement. Early Monday morning, the president wrote in a tweet that, "The economy is looking really good. It has been many years that we have seen these kind of numbers. The underlying strength of companies has perhaps never been better."

The economy is looking really good. It has been many years that we have seen these kind of numbers. The underlying strength of companies has perhaps never been better.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 26, 2018

Remington reported in February that the company had plans to reduce its debt by $700 million. The company filed for Chapter 11 late Sunday.

Remington Outdoor Company's headquarters are in Madison, North Carolina. It is the parent company of Remington Arms, the largest producer of shotguns and rifles in the United States.

The arms company was founded in 1816, 36 years before Smith & Wesson. Remington employs about 3,500 workers.This is the third in a series of five articles about wineries in Burgundy, France visited by the author.

Part 1 - Interview with Frederic Drouhin of Maison Joseph Drouhin

Part 2 - Domaines Albert Bichot's beautiful wines

NUITS-SAINT-GEORGES, France - Eve Faiveley talks about her family's legendary winery, Domaine Faiveley, as we walk down Rue du Tribourg, a narrow, one-way street.

It's a Wednesday morning in November. We've just left the winery's administrative offices and we're walking along a stone canal where the Meuzin River flows during certain times of the year in this small, French village.

"He was a shoemaker," Faiveley says as the sound of her heels click on the pavement.

Faiveley's talking about Pierre Faiveley, the founder of the family-owned winery in 1825. "He was passionate about wine so he decided to buy some grapes and make some wine," she adds, making the business sound deceptively simple.

Don't let Eve fool you. Like many other successful businesses, the Faiveleys have worked tirelessly for generations to turn their passion into a thriving business. Around the world, Domaine Faiveley has a reputation for making outstanding wines.

Eve continues talking about how the winery grew from being a small enterprise into a world-renowned wine producer. She talks as we walk down the street lined with two-story stone buildings wedged close to the narrow sidewalks.

Walking along the street, it's hard to imagine this quiet village seemingly frozen in time lies at the heart of one of the most revered wine regions. People from around the world flock to Burgundy every year. Many of the world's top restaurants serve wines from here. Wine collectors spend vast fortunes at auctions to acquire certain, Burgundian wines.

And yet for Eve, this town is simply home. She grew up around the winery and spent her childhood roaming around the grounds, she says as we continue walking down the street.

"I used to love drinking the grape juice, when it was just sorted and pressed," Eve says.

Less than a minute later, Eve stops and opens a wooden door.

"So this is our winery," she says.

On the outside, the building looks like all the others on the small, narrow street. Inside, construction debris lies scattered around the entryway.

"It's freezing," Eve says soon after opening the door. "It'll be warmer in the cellar."

Eve pardons the appearance, explaining that the building is being renovated.

We turn right, walk up a few steps, then stop.

Just stop.

My God.

Suddenly, we're standing in a massive, cathedral-like room with soaring ceilings and clean, white brick walls. Light streams in from the skylights and a large, three-story, arch-shaped window at the end of the long, nave-like room.

But it's not the view of the vineyards visible through the large window that first catches my eye. It's the two, long rows of large, gleaming, wooden vats made of French oak lining the long walls that stops me cold. The room looks and feels like a church. Seeing this modern wine temple for the first time gives me goosebumps.

"This winery is completely new," Eve says. "We vinified our white wines here and now we will vinify our red wines here as well."

As Eve explains matter of factly, "We should have vinified in 2017 (here) but we were not ready. Like all the time when you start something, you never know when you will end."

Fortunately, Domaine Faiveley has another winery in Nuits-Saints-George to process its wine while work on this one is being finished.

"This winery will only be to vinify the Grand Cru and some Premier Cru, all our best wines. They will all be vinified here," Eve says.

A few minutes later, we walk down stone stairs into the winery's cellar. There, we find row after row after row of barrels filled with wine in several long, arched stone rooms.

"Our cellar is from the 19th Century," Eve says. "It was the beginning cellar for Cremant Burgundy, for sparkling wine. I think it's the biggest 'cave' cellar in Nuits-Saint-Georges. It's 2,000 meters square. We have natural aging conditions."

The size of Domaine Faiveley's cellar in Nuits-Saint-Georges gives the winery flexibility when it comes to deciding when to bottle the wine.

"When you harvest, most producers need to make some space in the cellar for the new vintage because your cellar is not big enough to have two vintages at the same time," Eve says. "Most of the producers need to bottle the wine before welcoming the new harvest, the new production. As our cellar is very big, we can choose the right day for bottling because we don't have to make any room in our cellar."

This day in November, the 2016 vintage is aging in French oak barrels in Domaine Faiveley's cellar in Nuits-Saint-Georges.

"2016 is a very good vintage," Eve says. "But we had frost during three days. So the production for some appellations is very, very low."

Judging from the tasting we did that morning straight out of the barrels with Eve, wine lovers will be in for a real treat when bottles of the 2016 vintage make their way into wine stores around the world.

Another great aspect about Domaine Faiveley's wines - over the years, I have never had a single bad one, whether we're talking a delightful red wine for under $30 a bottle to some of the out-of-this-world Grand Crus I tasted that morning in Domaine Faiveley's impressive cellars.

2016 VINTAGE DOMAINE FAIVELEY BARREL TASTING NOTES

RED WINES

2016 Domaine Faiveley Volnay Premier Cru Santenots

2016 Domaine Faiveley Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru 'Aux Chaignots'

2016 Domaine Faiveley Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru 'Les Damodes'

2016 Domaine Faiveley Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru 'Les Saint Georges'

2016 Domaine Faiveley Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru 'Les Cazetiers'

2016 Domaine Faiveley Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

2016 Domaine Faiveley Corton Clos Des Cortons Faiveley Grand Cru

WHITE WINES

2016 Domaine Faiveley Meursault Premier Cru Charmes

2016 Domaine Faiveley Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru 'Champ Gain'

2016 Domaine Faiveley Bienvenues-Batard Montrachet Grand Cru

2016 Domaine Faiveley Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

MORE ABOUT DOMAINE FAIVELEY

THE FAMILY

Pierre started the winery, but his son, Joseph, helped transform Domaine Faiveley into a thriving, international business. He bought vineyards in the 1800s. He exported wines to many parts of Northern Europe, including Belgium and the Netherlands.

Like his father, Joseph was a man who worked with his hands. He was a plasterer and painter in addition to being a winemaker. Joseph oversaw the winery until he was almost 90 years old. (Joseph lived from 1825 to 1923.)

After Joseph, there was Francois, the doctor, who lived from 1859 to 1918.

After Francois, there was Georges Faiveley, a charismatic man who began running the winery in 1919.

After Georges, there was Guy, the scholar who earned a Ph.D in law and who took over operations of the winery in 1947.

Then in 1976, Guy's 25-year-old son, Francois, began working at the family winery. An entrepreneur passionate about wine, he helped expand the winery and increase recognition of Faiveley's wines around the world.

Then in 2005, Guy's son and Eve's brother, Erwan, became the seventh generation in the family to work at Domaine Faiveley.

Eve joined the family business in 2014 after working for several years in the cosmetics industry in Paris.

THE WINES

Domaine Faiveley by the numbers:

320 acres of vineyards

90 appellations (Terminology meaning specific geographic areas used to produce wine)

25 Premier Cru wines ("Premier Cru" means "first growth" in French. This term refers to the second highest rated wines and vineyards according to the official classification system for Burgundy.)

12 Grand Cru wines (Grand Cru refers to the highest rated wines and vineyards in Burgundy according to the official classification system.)

2 wineries - Domaine Faiveley has wineries in Nuits-Saint-Georges and Mercurey.

2016 VINTAGE

"In 2016, all the grapes were very ripe," Eve says. "It was very difficult to harvest because of the frost. We had two different growing cycles. We had some grapes that were already ripe and some that were not ready to be harvested."

"It was difficult for our winemaker, Jerome (Flous)... to decide the day to harvest because you cannot harvest half of your plot and then come back two days after and harvest the rest."

"During the harvest, we hire more than 400 people to harvest everything by hand and it's very difficult to manage because then you will have some grapes that are too ripe and some that are not enough ripe."

TASTING NOTES

RED WINES

(All red wines reviewed below made with Pinot Noir grapes)

2016 Domaine Faiveley Volnay Premier Cru Santenots

"This is the first plot we harvested," Eve says. "The Cru (Santenots) is very intense."

Tasting Notes - Full, ripe tasting wine with a plum-like finish mixed with roasted cherries. Hint of spiciness. Long aftertaste. Absolutely delicious.

2016 Domaine Faiveley Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru 'Aux Chaignots'

"It is an appellation located in the north of Nuits-Saint-Georges," Eve says. "It's a plot where the soil is very deep. For me, 2016 is like 2015 but more fleshy. 2016 has more personality. It's very elegant and charming like the 2015 but more spicy."

Tasting Notes - Playful, young tasting wine with more fruit-like flavors, including ripe cherries and plums. Fleshy flavor evident right away.

2016 Domaine Faiveley Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru 'Les Damodes'

"Les Damodes is close to Chaignots, but it's close to Vosne Romanee," Eve says, referring to the village just north of Nuits-Saint-Georges. "The nose is more intense."

Tasting Notes - More intense, more robust than the two wines reviewed above. Elegant finish.

2016 Domaine Faiveley Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru 'Les Saint Georges'

"This appellation is considered to be the Grand Cru of Nuits-Saint-Georges," Eve says, which is particularly high praise since there are no vineyards in Nuits-Saint-Georges classified as Grand Cru vineyards. "It's located in the south of the village. It's very intense. I love this wine."

Tasting Notes - Even more intense than the previous three wines, there's a spiciness and a hint of licorice to this dark, ruby-colored wine. Absolutely amazing. A+. Highly recommend.

2016 Domaine Faiveley Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru 'Les Cazetiers'

"The appellation is one of the best in Gevrey-Chambertin," Eve says, referring to the small village just south of Dijon, France. The wine is blend of Pinot Noir grapes from two plots in Gevrey-Chambertin. The blend "is perfect," Eve says. "It makes the perfect balance."



Tasting Notes - Full bodied, muscular wine with a ripe, fleshy finish. Really beautiful wine.

2016 Domaine Faiveley Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

"After Vosne-Romanee, you have the castle of Clos Vougeot," Eve says. "This is the biggest appellation. There are 60 hectares (148 acres) with 80 different producers." This wine is a blend of three plots in Vougeot, including one plot with older vines.

Tasting Notes - Subtle, understated taste. Less intense than previous reds reviewed above, the finish and the fruit-like flavors are lighter and less pronounced.

2016 Domaine Faiveley Corton Clos Des Cortons Faiveley Grand Cru

"This is a monopole from Corton," Eve says. "A monopole is a single vineyard. So it means we are the only producer of this wine." Eve adds, "We were very lucky because our vineyards (in Clos des Cortons) were not affected by the frost" in 2016. "I love this wine. I love the mint notes and aromas."

Tasting Notes - Owned by Faiveley family since 1874, this vineyard produced a fun, refreshing wine in 2016. Along with slight mint flavors, there's a hint of raspberry and cherries. A truly outstanding wine.

WHITE WINES

(All white wines reviewed below made with Chardonnay grapes)

2016 Domaine Faiveley Meursault Premier Cru Charmes

"This is one of the most famous appellations in Meursault," Eve says, referring to the village in Burgundy famous for its white wines. "It (the wine) smells like a croissant, like white flowers, white fruit."

Tasting Notes - Aromatic, mineral-like wine with floral aroma and long, fragrant aftertaste. Clean, bright finish. A truly charming, delightful wine.

Domaine Faiveley Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru 'Champ Gain'

"It is a vineyard we bought in 2007," Eve says. "And I love this wine. It's very well balanced."

Tasting Notes - This beautiful, buttery wine has a creamy, sea salt-like finish. A real breath of fresh air. Love this wine as well.

Domaine Faiveley Bienvenues-Batard Montrachet Grand Cru

"It is from one of the best Grand Cru," Eve says. "It has a good acidity.

Tasting Notes - This bright, mineral-like white wine tastes almost like it has been aged in a steel vat like a Chablis in northern Burgundy. Very distinct, fascinating wine. Really stands out in a crowd.

Domaine Faiveley Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

"This is my favorite white wine," Eve says. "I love this wine... The nose is more buttery, more creamy. I just love this wine. There are so many different flavors."

Tasting Notes - Absolutely stunning, beautiful white wine. Light and buttery with floral aromas and a complex blend of citrus-like flavors. Like a skilled conductor, this wine seems to bring together every flavor expressed in all the white wines tasted above in perfect harmony. An absolute gem. Highly recommend. A perfect ending to a memorable tasting.

Cheers!

Next Week - "Like a certain grape? You'll love this wine region," plus the Wine Of The Week Under $10



Wine Press by Ken Ross appears on Masslive.com every Monday and in The Republican's weekend section every Thursday.

Follow Ken Ross on Twitter or Instagram.

EASTHAMPTON -- The city's second medical marijuana dispensary and grow facility has gained local approval.

Green Life Cultivation Center and Dispensary is planned at 19 Wemelco Way, site of the former Zonolite facility. President and CEO Kot Kasom and his team appeared before the Planning Board last week and gained site plan approval. Kasom is a Southampton resident.

Plans show the rehab and expansion of a metal industrial building located between the Manhan Rail Trail and Rt. 10 near the Southampton line. The facility would have 16,160 square feet of cultivation and a 2,425 feet of retail, and include landscaping and paved parking.

Green Life Dispensary, Inc. gained a provisional certificate of registration from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on March 1 for a registered medical marijuana cultivation, dispensing, and processing site.

The application materials contain many interesting details. For instance, supplemental carbon dioxide will be added to the air to maximize plant growth. The facility will use around 550,000 gallons of water per year, and recycle a portion of that into their conservation system. Green Life expects to make 300 transactions per day.

Richard Samuelson, Green Life's director of security, was among those to address the Planning Board. Samuelson was a Massachusetts State Police officer for three decades and is a security system specialist for the Smith College Museum of Art, according to application documents. Samuelson said he is working with Police Chief Robert Alberti to ensure that all public safety requirements are met.

Under Easthampton's zoning rules, a medical marijuana facility is allowed as-of-right in industrial zones. Under site plan approval, the Planning Board may ensure protection of adjacent areas, pedestrian and vehicular circulation, adequacy of disposal methods, and protection of environmental features, but has little discretion to say no.

A more stringent special permit is required for such facilities in the mixed use mill district, which is near the city's downtown. The existing INSA dispensary on Pleasant Street went through the special permit process, and also navigated a more involved state process before it opened in February. Gov. Charlie Baker in 2015 revamped the medical marijuana permitting process to make it more efficient.

The Green Life proponents have a necessary date before the Conservation Commission Wednesday, but local officials said there are no major concerns. The news comes as Easthampton wraps up its discussions on a zoning ordinance for recreational cannabis.LUDLOW -- Voters at today's annual town election in Ludlow will consider debt exclusions for two major construction projects totaling $70 million, including $60 million to consolidate two elementary schools under one new roof and $10 million for a new Senior Center.

The projects were overwhelmingly endorsed by Ludlow voters at January's special town meeting and now require approval at today's election. Polls are open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Both debt exclusions require a majority vote to pass and only temporarily increase property taxes, which will be removed from the town's levy when the bonds for the projects are paid off.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority is expected to reimburse over 50 percent of approved costs for the $60 million project to build a new Chapin Street Elementary School. Ludlow will finance around $30 million through a 30-year bond.

The project calls for combining students in grades 2-5 from Chapin and Veterans Park Elementary School in a 106,250-square-foot building to be built on Chapin's 13.8-acre campus at 766 Chapin St.

It would cost about $20 million to adequately renovate both aging elementary schools, whose combined age is 109 years old, to current legal codes and standards, according to school district officials.

The new building will replace the current 42,672-square-foot Chapin, which officials say has multiple deficiencies that are too costly to fix.

The $9.8 million Senior Center project calls for building an up to 20,000-square-foot facility on a 4-acre parcel at First and State streets at the eastern end of Ludlow Mills.

Town officials say it would be fiscally irresponsible to renovate the current Senior Center, located in the basement of 37 Chestnut St., because Ludlow does not own the building and other restrictions.For the second year in a row, members of the public are invited to visit mosques across the state "to meet your Muslim neighbors, learn about Islam, enjoy cultural food, and have fun!"

The Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations plans its "Open Mosque Day" on April 8 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., when more than 20 houses of worship will open their doors.

Participants include Islamic centers in Worcester, Framingham, Boston, Quincy, Lowell, Hopkinton, and Methuen. Visitors will have the opportunity to tour a mosque, observe a prayer service, learn about Islam, and socialize, according to an announcement.

"In this time of widespread misunderstanding about Islam, we hope to show our communities that their Muslim neighbors live, pray and dream just like anyone else," said Wafaa Wahabi of the American Islamic Center in Everett. "We're proud to open our doors, on this day and every day."SPRINGFIELD -- Members of the Springfield Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition said Monday that a woman who is in fear of deportation and her children are taking sanctuary at South Congregational Church on Maple Street.

A formal announcement is scheduled at 11:30 a.m. at the church.

It is the first family taking sanctuary in Springfield.

A small delegation of clergy leaders and members of the coalition have driven to Hartford to inform U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials of the sanctuary plans. The coalition is a program of the Pioneer Valley Project.

"At South Congregational United Church of Christ we understand that we are called upon to love our neighbor and welcome the stranger among us," said Rev. Tom Gerstenlauer of South Congregational Church.

The group stands with the mother "as an act of faith in the face of injustice, and as partners in building the beloved community of God," he said.

The organization asked that the name of the woman not be revealed until the formal announcement, but said she arrived in the United States from Peru in 2001, "fleeing poverty in her home country in search of better economic opportunity in the United States."

While some cities, such as Northampton, have been established as sanctuary cities through mayoral executive orders, Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno has previously said that Springfield is not a so-called sanctuary city, referring to communities where police departments do not assist federal agencies in detaining and deporting selected undocumented immigrants.

Under Northampton's policy, the city's police department does not honor non-criminal detainer requests from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. But detainer requests are honored in criminal cases.

President Donald Trump's pledge to crack down on undocumented immigrants and to withhold federal funding from so-called "sanctuary cities" has led to many protests around the nation and legal challenges.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE agents seeking undocumented immigrants are encouraged not to conduct enforcement actions at "sensitive locations" unless there are extenuating circumstances, there has been some other law enforcement action at the location, or if agents are invited onto the location by designated official.

Sensitive locations are defined as schools or houses of worship.

The Pioneer Valley Project estimates that Springfield is home to between 5,000 and 6,000 undocumented residents.

Organizers announced the sanctuary plans at South Congregational Church in June of 2017, saying it would serve undocumented immigrants facing deportation.



Sarno, in response, said last June that he was "fit to be tied" upon hearing of the sanctuary plans at the church, at 45 Maple St. He called on city departments then to review the sanctuary to uphold city codes and public safety.



According to Pioneer Valley Project, the woman taking sanctuary is "a law-abiding mother of two American children and wife of an American citizen" seeking to remain in the United States with her family.



She and her husband married in 2005, and she subsequently received a work permit. The couple has two children, ages 10 and 4.



She has faced "obstacle after obstacle in her efforts to adjust her status due to multiple attorney errors," the Pioneer Valley Project said. She desperately wants to become an American citizen, the group said.

Sr. Denise Granger of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield, said the woman is among those "caught in the web of immigration enforcement that goes against one deeply held value of our country -- that of welcoming people who come here longing for a better life."SPRINGFIELD -- A Springfield woman whose family took sanctuary Monday at South Congregational Church did so just one day before her scheduled deportation and while outfitted with a GPS ankle bracelet monitored by federal immigration enforcement authorities.

Those were among the details revealed Monday as representatives of the Springfield Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition announced that the woman, identified only as Gisella, and her two children, ages 10 and 4, were confirmed as the city's first church sanctuary family.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, however, accused the sanctuary and its housing of individuals to be in violation of building and housing codes, "and proper non-taxable use of their property.

"Well their recruitment efforts have paid off for them in defiance of the edict that we are not a sanctuary city," Sarno said. "Our city inspection teams will be notified. I am disappointed that they would use and exploit this family for their own causes."

Gisella entered the country 17 years ago from Peru, and married an American citizen in 2005, and remains married, coalition officials said.

Gisella as been living in Springfield, and was scheduled to board a flight for Peru on Tuesday, as directed by immigration officials, after being unable to resolve her legal issues to stay here, said Tara Parrish, director of the Pioneer Valley Project, which operates the church sanctuary program. Parrish said Gisella is a law-abiding resident, when asked if the GPS monitor was the result of a criminal offense.

Gisella will be allowed to stay at the church as long as necessary to resolve her quest to live here without fear of deportation, said Rev. Tom Gerstenlauer, senior pastor of the church. She and the children will be able to sleep and eat and be provided with all the basic necessities, officials said.

"We will make every effort to provide hospitality to this family," Gerstenlauer said. "They may remain for as long that is needed in order to obtain relief from threats to their family, their home and their civil rights. Our faith calls upon us to love our neighbor and to welcome the stranger among us."

The two children are American citizens and Gisella is seeking "adjustment of status," Parrish said. Gisella does not wish to have her last name revealed, or to speak about the issues as of yet, Parrish said.

She has a work permit, has paid taxes, and was employed last week, Parrish said.

The news of the city's first sanctuary family was revealed earlier Monday.

The coalition worked very hard to ensure it has adequate facilities to house someone, and South Congregational "stepped up" to provide its property, Parrish said. The church was declared as a sanctuary last June for individuals or families in fear of deportation.

"It does mean sleeping, eating, laundry, everything, all basic needs being met within the confines of this property," Parrish said, adding that the length of stay for the family at the church is unknown.

Parrish said that a church inviting a person or family to stay at its sanctuary is not the same as declaring Springfield a sanctuary city. That would take a local legislative act, she said.

While Gisella cannot leave the church property, her children will be going to and from the property including to school, Parrish said.

At Monday's press conference, Rev. Jason Seymour, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Greater Springfield, said a prayer for the family and for its "comfort and safety.".

Sarno said he is "not a cold-hearted person and do have compassion for the family in question, but there must be a clear path to American citizenship, whether it's this case in Springfield or in other parts of our country."



Sarno said that "being first generation, it's simply not fair to all those immigrants, including my parents, who played by the rules and followed the legal immigration path into America."



In her quest to be an American citizen, Gisella sought assistance from multiple attorneys, beginning in 2006 after her marriage, Parrish said.

"For a variety of reasons, there were some decisions that were made that didn't lend themselves to clearing that path to adjustment," Parrish said. "She's confident in the legal representation she has now so that legal representative is p pursuing adjustment of status right now as we speak."

Although it is commonly believed that marrying a U.S. citizen automatically qualifies someone for citizenship, the process is more complex. According to the Immigration and Nationality Act, someone may qualify for naturalization if they have been a permanent resident (green card holder) for at least 3 years, have been living in marital union with the same U.S. citizen spouse during such time and meet all other eligibility requirements.

At this time, the husband is not staying in the sanctuary, but he is welcome as a visitor any time, Parrish said.



Gisella will have to remain in the confines of the church at all times, Parrish said. The children can come and go, she said.



The decision for the children to be with mother is because they are very young "and they don't want to be away from their mom," Parrish said.



In Amherst, Lucio Perez has lived at the First Congregational Church for more than five months in fear of deportation. He entered the U.S. illegally from Guatemala in 1999, and moved into the church on Oct. 19.WESTFIELD - JDog Junk Removal officially opened Friday with a celebration at American Legion Post 124.

Franchise owner Wade M. Rivest, a master sergeant in the 104th Fighter Wing and a Westfield resident, thanked everyone who gathered at the Legion in front of Rivest's camouflage-wrapped JDog trucks.

JDog Junk Removal is a national company with a mission to empower veterans through entrepreneurship. The company offers its proven operating model to veterans and military family members. To date, JDog has awarded 545 territories operating in 35 states. Rivest's franchise is the first in Massachusetts.

"This is about veterans working together," said Rivest. "We work as a team from day one. JDog isn't just about removing people's junk, it's putting veterans in the workforce and giving veterans the ability to own their own business."

Rivest, a Chicopee native, employs five local veterans and veteran family members, including two currently on active duty. The company removes unwanted items for a fee and recycles as much as possible.

"I've always known I wanted to own my own business, and JDog's veteran-owned, American-operated business model resonates strongly with me," said Rivest.

Post 124 Senior Vice Commander Ted Gage Jr. said he was happy to host the grand opening celebration at the Legion, where Rivest is a member. He said having a veteran-owned business that only employs veterans is important.

"It means so much," said Gage. "It shows that people are recognizing the value of veterans and it brings the veteran community closer together."

A resident of Westfield since 2012, Rivest served full time at Barnes Air National Guard Base from 2004 until recently, when he transitioned to part-time service so he could launch JDog Junk Removal. He started his military career in 1999 and served as a crew chief on the A-10 Warthog and helped the unit transition to the F-15 Eagle in 2007. Rivest has been deployed twice -- in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom and in 2012 in support of the unit's AEF rotation. He was recognized as Crew Chief of the Year in 2011.

"With almost two decades of military and leadership experience, Wade is an ideal JDog business owner," said Jerry Flanagan, founder and CEO of JDog. "He believes strongly in leading by doing, an approach he has already demonstrated to the vets and veteran family members he employs in Westfield."

JDog Junk Removal said in 2017 it recycled more than 20,000 tons of junk, and salvaged millions of dollars of product for donation, resale and reuse.

To schedule a service with JDog Junk Removal Westfield, call 413-378-0718 or visit jdogjunkremoval.com/franchising/westfield/.By John Fea

Special to The Washington Post

When I was a kid, the 7 p.m. hour on Sunday night was reserved for either "Mutual Omaha's Wild Kingdom" or "The Wonderful World of Disney."

Last night we all gathered around our television sets to watch a porn star talk about an adulterous affair she had with a man who would soon become the president of the United States. Times have changed.

Not since the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal of 1998 has the sex life of a president been on display in such a public manner. On Sunday it was Stormy Daniels. Last week it was former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal telling the nation, among other things, that she had unprotected sex with Donald Trump.

Walt Disney and Marlin Perkins would have blushed. Trump's evangelical supports give him a "mulligan."

When the country learned that Clinton had sex in the West Wing, evangelical Christian leaders responded with heavy doses of moral condemnation. In a letter to his followers, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson argued that Clinton's escapades with Lewinsky made him unfit for office. But he also told his readers that they should have seen this coming:

"How did our beloved nation find itself in this sorry mess? I believe it began not with the Lewinsky affair, but many years earlier. There was plenty of evidence during the first Presidential election that Bill Clinton had a moral problem. His affair with Gennifer Flowers, which he now admits to having lied about, was rationalized by the American people."

Today Dobson is one of Trump's strongest supporters. He and other evangelical leaders such as Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. and prosperity preacher Paula White make regular visits to the White House and regularly praise the president.

So far these Trump supporters - I call them the "court evangelicals" because they model the flatterers at the courts of Renaissance-era kings - have been relatively silent in the wake of the Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal allegations.

The court evangelicals do not condone Trump's behavior. But neither do they say they think that his indiscretions are in any way harmful to his presidency. They appear to believe that Trump's sins should not be held against him because they occurred a long time ago and, unlike Clinton's sins, did not occur while he was in office.

Trump, they have said, is a changed man. He deserves forgiveness. The man who said he grabs women by the genitals has been born again, they say. All evangelicals, his defenders argue, should support him because he defends their moral commitments.

All of us must deal with the consequences of Trump's sins now that he is president. He may have been forgiven, but we would be foolish to believe that his past actions are not adding to an already coarse moral culture - the kind of culture that the court evangelicals have been trying to change for nearly half a century.

The bar for what is acceptable behavior in public life has been lowered significantly. Our kids encounter unhealthy images - on television, at the theater, at school, on their computers and phones - at a much earlier age than my generation encountered them.

While our country has made great strides in correcting many of our past sins, we are arguably exposed to more vulgar language, sex and violence than at any other time in American history.

Let's take pornography. I think many Americans, whether they are religious or not, would agree that porn has a negative effect on our culture.

I am sure there will be many - libertarians or some feminists - who disagree with me about the destructive nature of pornography, but most followers of Jesus believe that pornography leads to sin. Christians who watch porn seek to gratify desires that can only be truly satisfied by God and one's marriage partner.

I know the court evangelicals agree with me. Many of Trump's most ardent supporters are pastors. I am sure they have counseled people who are addicted to pornography. They can tell stories about families that have been torn apart by porn. They have seen men squander their savings or run up massive credit card debt on internet porn sites. Some of the most unsung heroes of the evangelical world are those who work with ministries that help men whose lives have been destroyed by pornography.

I would imagine that the court evangelicals are disgusted that Stormy and Karen have replaced Walt and Marlin. But there was a time when opposing pornography was on the top of the Christian Right's agenda. Today, many conservative evangelicals have cast their lot with a president who, perhaps more than any other politician in American history, has brought pornography into the political and cultural mainstream.

If the court evangelicals are troubled by the fact that the porn industry is getting free publicity every night on the news, they must realize that they are partly to blame. Trump's past sins (forgiven or not) have found him out. Presidential character matters - past and present. The court evangelicals should be ashamed of themselves.

As the Stormy Daniels interview aired Sunday night on "60 Minutes," Texas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress was leading his congregation on a "March for Eternal Life" through the streets of Dallas. Members of First Baptist Church carried a large white cross and announced that the gospel of Jesus Christ - the message we celebrate this Holy Week - is the only hope of the nation.

Sadly, I don't think anyone was listening. The good news of the gospel will fall on deaf ears as long as the hypocrisy of the court evangelicals continues.

John Fea teaches American history at Messiah College. He is the author of the forthcoming "Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump." (Eerdmans Publishing, June 2018).

SPRINGFIELD -- A fourth candidate plans to run against state Sen. James T. Welch, D-West Springfield, for the Hampden District seat this fall.

Democrat Amaad Rivera launched his campaign Monday for the seat, which encompasses all of West Springfield and parts of Chicopee and Springfield. He went to city halls in all three cities to drop off more than 1,000 signatures he and his campaign volunteers collected over the weekend.

Rivera is a former Springfield City Councilor, and most recently served as the state policy director for U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts.

Rivera, who marched in Saturday's March for Our Lives demonstration in Springfield, said he has spoken to many people who want change.

"Over the weekend while talking to thousands of residents throughout the district, I heard a clear desire for bold new leadership, and I'm running to represent those folks," he said in a prepared statement.

Rivera ran for the Ward 6 Springfield City Council spot to represent Forest Park in 2009. He lost to Councilor Keith Wright by 152 votes. When Wright resigned in 2010, Rivera was appointed to the seat. He ran for an at-large seat in 2011, but did not receive enough votes.

He joins a growing list of candidates looking to take the seat from Welch including Springfield City Councilor Adam Gomez, former Springfield City Council candidate Lorenzo Gaines and former Springfield School Committee candidate Giselle Vizcarrondo, who have all taken out nomination papers.

Rivera said he believes he is the first candidate in the district to have the 300 certified signatures required to earn a spot on the ballot.

"As a state senator, I'll stand up to the Trump administration and fight to put our progressive values into law on Beacon Hill by working for quality, affordable health care for everyone, protecting our immigrant communities, and ensuring every student in Massachusetts has equal access to a bright future," he said.

Welch was first elected to the Senate representing the Hampden District in 2010. Before that, he served in the state House of Representatives, representing the 6th Hampden District.

The primary election will be held Sept. 4.Since President Donald Trump took office, several books have been written about his administration. Now, he is now personally promoting one.

Late Sunday, Trump tweeted about Howie Carr's new book "What Really Happened: How Donald J. Trump Saved America From Hillary Clinton" about the 2016 election.

.@HowieCarrShow just wrote a book which everyone is talking about. He was a great help. He is a veteran journalist who had a great influence in NH and beyond. He calls it the most amazing political campaign of modern times. The book is called, What Really Happened. Enjoy! #MAGA pic.twitter.com/jYhjpoJKHe  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 26, 2018

Carr is a longtime columnist for the Boston Herald and the host of The Howie Carr Show, a syndicated talk-show that is broadcast online and on radio stations in New England.

He was a vocal supporter of Trump during the 2016 election and introduced Trump at several campaign rallies.

Trump said Carr was "a great help" who was influential in New Hampshire "and beyond."

Carr thanked the president for the mention, saying it was "such an honor!"

Carr has previously written of organized crime in Boston and the Kennedys. The book is available for sale on his website, alongside graphic t-shirts featuring slogans such as "I voted to Make America Great Again" and "mother of all babies" below a photo of Kim Jong-un drawn as an infant holding a rocket.

The president has previously been critical of books written about his time in the White House and on the campaign trail.

Before Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" - which documented a chaotic scene in the Trump administration - was released, Trump lashed out, calling it a "phony book."

I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that dont exist. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018

This claim was debunked by Politifact.

Trump's tweet could give the impression that Wolff was denied access to the White House entirely. But as Trump's own press secretary has acknowledged, the author had more than a dozen interactions with administration officials at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Trump also attempted to stop Wolff's book from being released for public distribution.

The night before a book by two Washington Post journalists about Trump was released, the president spoke out. In a tweet, Trump - then a presidential candidate - called it a "hit job book" and recommended his followers not buy it.

The book, "Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power," by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher is a biography examining Trump's life before and during the 2016 election.Shelter and food are the immediate needs of people on Malekula as the most affected by cyclone HolaPrime Minister joins EU Ambassador Leonidas Tezapsidis (centre) and UNELCO General Manager David Lefevre (right) and other invited guests to tour Kawene Solar Farm ProjectVANGO amongst Pacific NGOs to call for review to criteria for LDC graduationAeroVironment, Inc. is unveiled today the Puma 3 AE, a new version of its proven RQ-20B Puma AE small tactical UAV that includes upgrades that prepare the air-vehicle for operation in rugged environments and improve its ability to carry advanced, third-party payloads and software applications. AeroVironment also improved the reliability of the system, particularly in operations in challenging electronic warfare environment and against cyber threats where interference is prevalent. The new drone is displayed at the current AUSA Global Force exhibition in Huntsville, AL this week.

AeroVironment upgraded the drones airframe to enable robust operation of its i45 EO/IR sensor suite with SIGINT payloads in harsh and demanding environments. In addition, the Puma 3 AE incorporates AeroVironments latest digital data link (DDL) with security upgrades to support operation in more challenging radio frequency (RF) environments, with M1/M2/M5 and M3/M4/M6 frequency bands and with AES-256 encryption. The company is releasing a new Puma smart battery that is more efficient and includes safety enhancements. The Puma AE delivers 3+ hours of flight endurance, with versatile smart battery options to support diverse mission requirements.

AeroVironment also has optimized the portability of Puma from six transport cases to four, with a flyable configuration in a single transport case that features luggage-type handles. A complete system includes three air vehicles and two ground control stations.

The company is also improving the Raven, its smaller drone with an upgrade to the RQ-11B Raven, called Raven 3. The upgraded Raven system will incorporate new camera technology into the i23 gimbaled sensor, similar to advancements made to Puma 3 and its i45 gimbal. These upgrades are still in progress and more information on Raven 3 will be available at the AUSA Symposium in October.GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce has come out against statewide ballot proposals that would legalize marijuana and upend the state legislature's control over redistricting.

Both proposals are headed for the November ballot as a result of voter petition drives. One proposal would change state law to legalize recreational use of marijuana while the other would amend the state constitution to reverse gerrymandering.

"After hearing from both sides on these proposals, it is clear to our members and the board that both ballot proposals would be a step back for Michigan," said Rick Baker, the chamber's president and CEO in a statement released on Monday, March 26.

"As a state and region, we need to remain focused on the priorities that are critical to West Michigan's growth such as addressing the talent gap, sound fiscal policy and quality infrastructure," Baker said. "These proposals take us in the wrong direction."

On the marijuana proposal, chamber officials said they are worried about the impact on the area's workforce at a time when labor is in short supply.

"The chamber is concerned over the negative impacts this proposal would have on the economy, talent, public health, and the fact that marijuana is still illegal under federal law," said Vice President of Government Affairs Andy Johnston.

"This proposal would create a host of new workplace issues for employers," Johnston said. Unlike alcohol, there is no reliable onsite impairment test for marijuana, he said.

"At a time when job providers are struggling to find qualified applicants and talent is the top business issue, we have significant concerns on how passage of this proposal would impact the workforce."

If marijuana is legalized, local communities also will have to develop local laws to regulate the cultivation, processing, testing and sale of marijuana, Johnston said.

On the constitutional amendment to change redistricting, Johnston said they didn't like the language that sets up a 13-member bi-partisan commission to re-set political boundaries.

The proposed language would shift the decision-making process from the state legislature and governor's office to the 13-member commission, which would consist of five independent members, four self-declared Democrats and four self-declared Republicans.

Despite recent criticisms, Johnston argued Michigan's current system, created in 1982, has worked well for both Democrats and Republicans. Other states with independent commissions, such as Arizona and California, still have district boundaries that do not pass the "smell test," Johnston said.

"The chamber sets a high bar for supporting any proposal to amend Michigan's constitution and the redistricting amendment fails to meet this test," said Johnston. "This proposal is flawed and unworthy of being enshrined in the State Constitution."

"Our concerns centered on how the proposed commission would operate, the altered and vague requirements on how districts are created and restrictions on necessary judicial safeguards for legislative maps," Johnston said.

Katie Fahey, executive director of Voters Not Politicians, which created the ballot proposal, said her group was disappointed by the chamber's stance.

"We are disappointed that the Grand Rapids Chamber has decided to support our broken system of redistricting, where lobbyists and politicians operating behind closed doors pick their voters to maintain their power," Fahey said.

"Michigan's businesses - and all citizens - will benefit from an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission that operates in public to provide a redistricting process that is fair, impartial and transparent."

Petition signatures for both proposals are under review by the Michigan Secretary of State.Photo by Susan Hadley, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

This Michigan real estate listing is dream material for anyone who's ever wished for an escape with tons of solitude -- along with a pair of postcard-perfect vintage log cabins *and* views of both the sunrise and the sunset, every day.

That's what's up for grabs in this listing for Howard Island, a two-acre wedge of land that sits in Potogannissing Bay, just off the north shore of Drummond Island. The listing price, $495,000, is for the entire island, including two cabins and a boathouse, plus a pontoon boat, which can be docked in the island's deep harbor.

Read on for more about this property, which was listed by Drummond Island Realty.

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Image via Google Maps

The island sits in the passage between Lake Huron and Lake Superior, just off the coast of Drummond Island.

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Image via Google Maps

A closer view shows the island's location in proximity to the U.P.'s eastern edge. Drummond Island is about a two-hour drive from Mackinaw City; Howard Island is about a half-mile boat ride from Drummond Island.

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

The island boasts two vintage log cabins. The main cabin, pictured, is roughly 600 square feet.

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

The cabin's interior features knotty pine, an open layout between the kitchen and the living room, and water views. The bathroom in the main cabin was renovated and updated last year; the island's septic was recently upgraded, too.

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

The listing says that the sale of the island will include the vintage furniture within the cabins.

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

The main cabin has two cozy bedrooms for guests.

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

Both cabins on the property have stone fireplaces for chilly nights.

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

The second cabin on the property is a guesthouse nicknamed "Hide-a-Way." It was built in the interior of the island and is surrounded by trees for privacy. The cabin is about 320 square feet and it has a glass-enclosed porch and a sleeping loft.

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

"Hide-a-Way" also has a native stone fireplace for extra coziness.

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

The island has a garage/boathouse as well, for storing all the tools and toys needed for island life. (We imagine filling it up with kayaks and fishing poles, but that's just us.)

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

The island has its own trails, and you can see both the sunrise and the sunset from its shores.

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

The water surrounding the island is very deep, allowing its dock to accommodate very large boats, including yachts. Listing agent Thelia Bailey Gagliardi said the island is a half-mile from a marina on Drummond Island, providing an option for where to dock during trips to Drummond, the nearest town.

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Photo by Thelia Bailey Gagliardi, courtesy Drummond Island Realty

Read more about this listing right here.

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NASA satellite image via Wikimedia Commons

Related stories:

Michigan paradise for sale: Own nearly 4 miles of Pere Marquette riverfront

11 Michigan waterfront cabins to book now for the best summer ever

30 soul-stirring photos of Michigan's Mackinac Bridge

Don't EditYPSILANTI, MI - Authorities are investigating after an Ypsilanti resident reported someone broke into their home while they were upstairs Sunday, March 25.

Police were dispatched at 10:15 p.m. Sunday for a report of a breaking an entering in the 600 block of Emmet Street, according to a news release from the Ypsilanti Police Department.

Officers made contact with a victim, who advised they heard glass breaking while they were upstairs. When they went to check the lower level, a subject was seen fleeing, according to the report.

The investigation is ongoing.ANN ARBOR, MI - Teachers at most Washtenaw County school districts have received their share of the $554 million owed them by the state, but returning the money hasn't been an easy process for local school districts.

After a seven-year legal battle between teachers unions and the state of Michigan, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in December 2017 that a 2010 law requiring teachers and other school personnel to contribute 3 percent of their salaries toward their retirement health care was unconstitutional.

The state tasked local school districts with returning the $554 million - which sat in escrow and accrued interest during the court proceedings - to the individual teachers who had that 3 percent deducted from their paychecks between July 2010 and September 2012.

The Office of Retirement Services gave local school districts their share of the money on Jan. 22 and announced employees should have their refund in 60 to 90 days.

"I think there has been an inordinate amount of time - unquantifiable how many hours - spent by local school districts to figure it out and then sort it out and then actually do it," said Sharon Raschke, chief financial officer for Dexter Community Schools.

Raschke, who is part of a statewide committee that shaped guidance for school districts on how to handle the refund, said she would have preferred for the Office of Retirement Services to refund the money.

"ORS really just threw us a hot potato and said, 'Here deal with it,'" Raschke said. "... They have more current information and they could have handled it more efficiently. ... They could have done something to try to coordinate this centrally."

Dexter Community Schools is still in the process of distributing the refund to 634 employees, 292 of whom are current Dexter Schools employees, Raschke said. The other 342 people are former employees who may be working in another district, retired or deceased.

Now that current staff have decided if they would like their refunds as a one-time payment or rolled over to a retirement plan, Raschke said the money will be distributed in April. Jessica Baese, president of the Dexter Education Association, said she was pleased with the district's process for returning the money to teachers.

Dexter Schools changed its accounting software in 2010, Raschke said, so information for the former employees had to be entered in the new system in order to track the distribution of their refunds.

Ypsilanti Community Schools found itself in a similar position, said Cathy Secor, director of business services for YCS.

Ypsilanti Community Schools moved to a new accounting system when the school district formed in 2013 from the consolidation of the former Willow Run and Ypsilanti public school districts. The new school district has to return the 3 percent refund to current YCS employees as well as former Willow Run and Ypsilanti public schools employees, Secor said.

In all, Ypsilanti Community Schools is distributing funds to 1,127 employees, 185 of whom currently work for YCS, she said.

"With the consolidation, that made it even worse because none of these people were even in our system," Secor said. "You have to touch every single person's (information) in order to make it to come through correctly, so that's the time consuming part of it."

Current YCS employees received a check for their refund on March 9, Secor said, and the business office will issue a refund to former employees soon as long as staff have updated contact information. Staff are still trying to locate some former employees.

"It's been quite an adventure," Secor said with a laugh. "I thank ORS when I go home every day for putting an extra burden on us."

Ann Arbor Public Schools issued the refund to its current teachers in a one-time payment on March 9, according to an email from the district to staff. Former employees will receive their payment by April 20, said Kendra Leib, assistant director of payroll administration for AAPS.

The district hired a temporary employee to assist with sending funds to 1,443 current employees and 2,030 former employees, said Andrew Cluley, director of communications for Ann Arbor Schools.

"So far, it's been great. Nobody's complaining," said Linda Carter, president of the Ann Arbor Education Association, who was on the Michigan Education Association board that voted to sue the state over the required 3 percent contribution. "It took a long time but it was well worth the fight on behalf of all of the teachers."

Margaret Goodly, a first-grade teacher at Ann Arbor's Carpenter Elementary School, would have liked the option to rollover the refund to a retirement plan rather than receive the money in a one-time payment and have it taxed as additional income.

Goodly said her total refund was $4,845, and one-third of it - $1,629 - ended up going to taxes.

The funds were subject to a 7.65 percent tax under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, which had to be taken out either when the money was initially collected from teachers' paychecks or now when the money is given back.

For teachers who received the refund as a one-time payment, the funds also were subject to a 22-percent federal tax and 4.25-percent state tax, according to the email from Ann Arbor Public Schools to teachers.

Rolling over the money to a retirement plan or Health Savings Account would have deferred those state and federal taxes.

"They took the whole decision out of our hands and took this big tax bite," Goodly said. "It's just a colossal failure. It's like we're getting hit again."

Cluley said AAPS went with a one-time payment for employees in order to get them the refund sooner.

"We did not allow employees to put this money into a 403b retirement plan because we didn't want to delay the payout to our active employees," he said. "However, employees are allowed to increase their 403b contributions with their regular pay as long as it is within the legal limits set by the IRS."

Washtenaw Intermediate School District gave its employees the option to receive their refund as a one-time payment or put it in a retirement plan or Health Savings Account, said Brian Marcel, assistant superintendent of administrative and support services for the WISD.

One hundred fifteen current WISD employees got their refund on March 14, Marcel said, and the district plans to have refunds distributed to 512 former employees by mid April. Three former WISD employees are deceased, he said, and staff are consulting with legal counsel on how to handle those refunds.

Lincoln Consolidated Schools teachers received their refunds on Monday, March 19, and they had the option of putting the money in a retirement plan or receiving it as a direct deposit, said teacher Mike Weathers, president of the Lincoln Education Association.

"I am very grateful for the collaborative process from our district," Weathers said, noting his appreciation for the extra work the payroll department put in to process the refunds. "We worked together on this to try to make sure that people have options."

The refund also is a sign of the importance and strength of teachers unions, he said.

"It shows how strong the MEA is and, even in a right-to-work environment, how important the MEA is for advocacy. MEA never gave up in this fight," Weathers said.

Lincoln Schools distributed a total of $1.6 million to 355 former employees and 321 current employees, said Superintendent Sean McNatt. He commended the district's finance department on meeting the state's 60- to 90-day deadline for dispersing the refunds.

Current Saline Area Schools employees received their refund via direct deposit on March 16, and former employees should get their refunds in April, said Curt Ellis, assistant superintendent of human resources for Saline Schools.

The school district is distributing funds to 411 active employees, 141 former employees, 109 retirees and the benefactors of eight former employees who are deceased.

"It was nice for employees, but it was not a task that we found much enjoyment with," Ellis said of the demands on finance staff to process the refunds.

Whitmore Lake Public School issued refunds to 90 current employees and 122 former employees on Thursday, March 22, said Superintendent Tom DeKeyser. Teachers had the option of receiving the money as a one-time payment, putting it in a retirement plan or Health Savings Account or doing a combination of those things, he said.

Current Manchester Community Schools teachers received their refunds on March 14, said teacher Jared Throneberry. Milan Area Schools distributed refunds to approximately 425 people on Friday, March 23, said Superintendent Bryan Girbach.

Chelsea School District issued refunds to a total of 424 people on March 16, and Superintendent Julie Helber said "a significant amount of extra time was spent processing the refund."ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan Board of Regents will vote on requests to rescind and remove the names on two of its buildings - the Clarence Cook Little Science Building and Alexander Winchell House - during its Board of Regents meeting on Thursday, March 29.

Little, who served as UM's president from 1925 to 1929, was an avowed eugenicist - someone who believes humans can be improved through controlled breeding of people with desirable genetic traits. He also supported policies such as compulsory sterilization of the "unfit" and immigration restriction, according to the university.

UM has a building named in his honor, the C.C. Little Science Building. UM regents named the building for Little in the 1960s as part of a broader effort to recognize previous university presidents.

Students have called for the removal of Little's name from the building since the beginning of the school year, protesting Little's association with eugenics. On Sept. 1, members of the College of Literature, Sciences & Arts faculty, along with an undergraduate student, formally submitted a case to have the name removed.

UMich protesters demand change of building name honoring ex-president



A group led by UM history professor John Carson worked throughout the summer to assemble a case aligned with the new university guidelines that govern these kinds of requests.

The petition came in response to UM's announcement in January 2017 that it defined a new set of principles and process for renaming buildings and spaces on campus in conjunction with its bicentennial.

The new principles allow any member of the UM community to submit a proposal to the president's office for review and possible reconsideration of the current name of an officially named space.

Proposals are now considered through a set of guiding principles, outlined by the advisory committee, including pedagogy, interpretation, due diligence, commitment, revision, historical and institutional context and consistency.

In a message to the university community at that time, UM President Mark Schlissel said it was an appropriate time for UM to consider the people behind the names of its buildings.

"Amid all of our historical analyses, some have wondered from where the names on and within our campus buildings have come," Schlissel wrote. "Who are these people and why are university places named after them? What ideas, values, and actions were possible for namings in a particular historical context? Similar questions are being raised at a number of campuses across the nation."

In an action request from Schlissel, the UM president noted that "The central tenet is that in the areas of eugenics and tobacco smoking."

"[Little] lent his scientific (and University) prestige to public policy campaigns supposedly based in science ... whose scientific foundations were minimal, exaggerated, or actually contradicted by mainstream scientists or the contemporary scientific consensus," the action request states.

The committee emphasized that Little's support and participation in these campaigns had serious negative consequences noting that "his 1920s campaign for eugenic measures while University President - immigration restriction, sterilization of the 'unfit,' anti-miscegenation laws - and the 1950s campaign sowing doubt about the links between smoking and cancer negatively affected the lives of millions."

The President's Advisory Committee on University History's review also took into consideration the contents of two public forums that were held on the campus in 2017 exploring the life and career of C.C. Little, according to the action request.

In the case of the Winchell House in the West Quad Residence Hall, a UM undergraduate student submitted a request that the name of the house be changed in February 2017, according to an action request submitted by Schlissel.

The President's Advisory Committee on University History unanimously recommended to Schlissel in September 2017 that the name be rescinded and removed.

In doing so, the committee independently considered "the content of Winchell's work, the trajectory of his life and career and the most recent findings of historians on the history of his period and his science," according to the action request.

"At the heart of the committee's recommendation is their conclusion that by both contemporary standards and even in the context of Winchell's day, his most notable work," the action request states, referencing the 1889 book "Preadamites, or a Demonstration of the Existence of Men before Adam," which was "unambiguously racist" and "out of step with the University's own aspirations in those times as well," according to Schlissel's action request.

According to the committee, portions of the book continue to be used today to support white supremacist views, thereby amplifying the negative contemporary effect of the Winchell naming, especially on "the actual building of communities" that we should aspire to in our residential housing.

In the case of Little, in spite of the controversial nature of many of his proposals, his administration was marked by several major accomplishments. These included Freshman Week, a period just before the fall term when incoming students were introduced to university life, and the Alumni University, designed to make the university an ongoing part of alumni life. Although it did not survive in its original form, it led to the establishment of the Bureau of Alumni Relations and the strengthening of ties between the university and its graduates. He also initiated the plan to house all students in university dormitories.

According to his university biography in the Bentley Historical library, Little's "forthright approach and a lack of skill in personal relations resulted in increased friction within the university. In addition, his outspoken views on birth control and eugenics alienated sectors of the public." Little resigned as president on Sept. 1, 1929.

If the Board of Regents vote to rescind and remove the names from the buildings, there are two different processes for renaming each of the buildings.

In the case of the Winchell House, Schlissel said he will request that the Vice President for Student Life engage a process to bring forward a recommendation for renaming the house.

The C.C. Little building, on the other hand, would be renamed in accordance with the 2008 "Policy for Naming of Facilities, Spaces and Streets."Until it is renamed, a functional designation for the space would be determined by the Associate Vice President for Facilities and Operations.BAY CITY, MI -- Michigan is home to some great coffee roasters, but the best resides in Bay City.

That's according to Food & Wine Magazine, which named Bay City's Populace Coffee its top roaster in Michigan as part of a feature that identified the best coffee in each of the 50 states.

From the magazine:

Once a self-described stoner kid who did a stint with Intelligentsia in Los Angeles, Andrew Heppner came home to open what's quietly become one of the state's most compelling roasters, one that's only recently made the decisive move into the retail game, after an early (and failed) attempt at opening their own shop. That's in the past, now--not only have they made it work with a fine cafe in Bay City, Populace also joins the much-hyped collection of outlets now opening along with Detroit's hotly-anticipated Siren Hotel.

Heppner, on Instagram, thanked the magazine for giving his business "a flicker of light."

Food & Wine also gave a nod to Madcap Coffee and Rowster Coffee. Both roasters are based in Grand Rapids.

Heppner, who founded Populace in 2010, has clients across Michigan and the country. He opened his new cafe on Saginaw Street in downtown Bay City last October, filling the void where Brewtopia used to operate.

In 2017, Populace was the national runner-up for "notable roaster of the year," as awarded by Sprudge, an online trade publication that covers the coffee industry.BAY CITY, MI -- Jen Idalski is a professional assistant and small business owner seeking to help other small businesses in Bay City "grow and thrive."

She's the owner of 989 Concierge, a new concierge service for Bay City-area businesses.

Idalski, who previously worked as director of community services for the American Red Cross and director of volunteer services for the United Way of Bay County, is available to assist non-profit organizations and small business owners, including attorneys, Realtors, and photographers. Her services include office management, program or event support, making reminder calls for meetings or appointments, running errands, delivering documents, notary services, inventory support, project development and management, working as an assistant for a day, database management, and researching contractors and obtaining quotes.

"Helping to build these small businesses' capacity is something that I find really rewarding and will, I hope, allow them to grow and thrive in the community," she said. "That really is my goal."

Idalski launched her new business this month after participating in Leadership Bay County, discussing the idea with other area business owners to gauge their interest, and working with Central Michigan University Research Corporation (CMURC) and the Michigan Small Business Development Center Great Lakes Bay Region at Delta College. She became a CoWork member at CMURC and moved forward with her business plan. As a CoWork member, she can use CMURC's office space at Uptown Bay City.

"I wanted to make sure that I was making the right decisions and they were helping me develop my ideas," she said.

"I knew I had a lot of different interests and I have a passion for solving problems and creating processes and streamlining things."

Idalski, who has a bachelor's degree in social work from Saginaw Valley State University, is drawing on her experience in the non-profit sector to serve her clients.

"When you work in a non-profit, you sort of have to be an expert at everything," she said.

Her business was introduced as a new member of the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce during the March Eye Opener Breakfast and she started receiving calls from prospective clients right away.

"It picked up very quickly, which is great," she said.

Idalski declined to name any of her current clients. She is available to perform weekly or monthly tasks or to assist on an as-needed basis, such as filling in when an employee is on vacation. Prices are negotiable, depending on the services rendered.

"We're a big little city and (I thought) a concierge service catering to businesses would be a good fit," she said.

"This really is about my being passionate for the Bay City area and helping to support the businesses here."A 21-year-old man is charged after he opened fire in the parking lot of a Detroit gas station and struck an 8-year-old girl Friday.

Detroit police said she was listed in stable condition Friday afternoon and is expected to recover.

The girl was sitting in a Dodge Journey SUV with her mother, while on her way to school, when a distraught man, angry because gas station patrons would not give him cigarettes, opened fire randomly, striking the vehicle and girl in her arm, WXYZ-TV, Channel 7 News reports.

The shooter has been identified as Damond R. Reeves, of Detroit. He is charged with four counts of assault with intent to murder, carrying a dangerous weapon without lawful intent and five counts of felony forearm use.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig told Channel 7 News it appeared that Reeves might be suffering from mental illness.

Reeves is jailed on a $200,000, 10 percent bond. A preliminary examination is scheduled for April 10 at 9 a.m.

According to Michigan Departmentof Corrections records, Reeves was on probation for a prior conviction of fourth-degree fleeing of a police officer at the time of the shooting.CLIO, MI -- A workshop is set for this week at Clio High School to gather ideas from the northern Genesee County community on how to keep students in the district safe.

The School Safety Workshop is set from 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m. Monday, March 26 at the high school building, 1 Mustang Dr., with residents of all ages welcome to attend the event.

Officials with the district have made some moves of late to bolster security including the hiring of a new, full-time school resource officer in partnership with Vienna Township through the end of the year.

A part-time resource officer is also provided between a partnership between the City of Clio and the school district.

The district has also had all middle school staff and high school staff and students go through Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate, or ALICE, safety training.

"We can never make our buildings too safe," said Clio schools Superintendent Fletcher Spears III in an event flyer. "While we have taken many steps to improve the safety for our students and staff across the district, the Clio Area Schools Board of Education is committed to the continuous improvement of safety in the district and is interested in hearing from members of the community."

Those in attendance will learn about safety training and then take part in smaller group discussions to generate ideas and suggestions to share later with the entire group.

The compiled ideas will then be used by the school board and district staff moving forward to try and create a safer environment for students.

"We know that students who feel they are safe are able to learn more effectively," commented Spears, who has discussed the possibility of allowing some staff members carry concealed weapons. "However, we must also keep in mind the environment must be welcoming for our students."

That environment, Spears continued, must be one where students and staff "are relaxed and free to teach and learn."

"We do not want to create a prison or fortress mentality," he said.

Anyone with questions about the event or seeking additional information may contact Spears at 810-591-7490.FLINT, MI -- Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon is calling on the professor who helped expose the Flint water crisis to defend him against charges of criminal wrongdoing related to it.

Virginia Tech researcher Marc Edwards is expected to be called to testify by attorneys for Lyon on Monday, March 26, during the 19th day of his preliminary examination in Genesee District Court.

Edwards is also expected to be called to testify by attorneys representing Dr. Eden Wells, the state's chief medical executive, when her exam continues later this week.

Both defendants, members of Gov. Rick Snyder's cabinet, face involuntary manslaughter and other charges related to the water crisis.

Edwards could be used to blunt some claims made by another leading Flint water researcher -- Wayne State University professor Shawn McElmurry.

McElmurry has already told Judge David Goggins that Lyon discouraged him from some testing in Flint because he "did not want to find more Legionella" in city water.

McElmurry led a research team -- Flint Area Community Health and Environment Partnership -- that contracted with the state to study the cause of Legionnaires' disease outbreaks in Flint during parts of 2014 and 2015.

A surge in infections and deaths during that time coincided with the city's use of the Flint River for drinking water, and FACHEP claimed 80 percent of Legionnaires' cases during that 17 months could be linked to city water.

The group ended its contract with the state to continue working here at the close of 2017.

Edwards used citizen water testing to prove the corrosiveness of Flint River water and to show rising levels of lead in the city's water supply -- far more than official testing carried out by the city and overseen by the state.

The Virginia Tech researcher has criticized McElmurry's group in the past for unnecessarily raising fears about Legionella bacteria in faucet filters that were used to remove lead from water.

He has also praised DHHS officials, singling out Wells, for their cooperation in studying Flint water previously.

McElmurry has testified he could not point to a specific instance in which Lyon attempted to prevent him from carrying out his research, but said "our contract was deliberately slowed" in an effort to prevent any connection between river water and outbreaks of Legionnaires'.OVID, MI -- After becoming a dental technician in the United States Army, Burgess Loar decided he wanted to do something different.

During the Korean War, Loar decided he wanted to jump out of airplanes. He went through special training including jump school to become an airborne soldier.

"I wanted to be one of the best of the best," said Loar, now 89. "It was amazing."

Loar's six years of experience in the United States Army earned him several ribbons and medals including the Purple Heart, which eventually all became lost. His military history and records also became lost in a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1973.

When American Legion Post 502 commander and service officer Gene Nethaway heard about Loar's lost medals and ribbons he worked to get him a second set of everything he earned and deserved.

"He just wants to give his medals to his wife and family before he dies," Nethaway said.

After the 10-month long process, Nethaway finally was given the opportunity to present Loar with his accolades during an honoring ceremony at Ovid Healthcare Center on Monday, March 26.

American flags flapped in front of the healthcare building while a color guard stood at its entrance with flags in hand.

Nearly 50 people, including the healthcare's residents and staff, participated in celebrating Loar.

During the ceremony, he was awarded the Purple Heart, Army of Occupation, National Defense Service, Korean Service, United Nations and Cold War medals. He also received sharpshooter and parachute badges along with an American flag given to him by Congressman Dan Kildee followed by a handshake.

Kildee's father, Jack, also fought in the Korean War. He died two years ago at age 85.

"I really miss him," Kildee said. "By thanking him, it's a way for me to thank my dad again."

Loar is also a father, grandfather and husband. During the ceremony, he was surrounded by his wife, Ramona; daughter, Carolyn Sparks; and grandson, Leonard Sparks Jr. When he left the military, Burgess started working at General Motors in Flint. He worked in the factory for 30 years while he and his wife raised their family.

Loars have been married for 64 years.

During the ceremony, she sat close to him, holding his hands and balancing his medals on her lap.

"This is amazing," Ramona said. "I didn't expect all of this."

After the ceremony, several people came to hug Loar, thank him for his service and shake his hand.

"I feel humbled," Loar said.UPDATE:

Woman IDed after fatal Grand Blanc apartment fire

GRAND BLANC, MI -- One person is dead after an apartment fire Sunday night at a Grand Blanc apartment complex.

Firefighters with the Grand Blanc Fire Department responded shortly after 7 p.m. March 25 to Sunset Plaza Apartments off South Saginaw Street, between Perry and Holly roads, and discovered smoke coming from the front of one of the buildings.

Grand Blanc fire Chief Bob Burdette said firefighters put out a small fire in an apartment and discovered the person in a bathroom. The person was pronounced dead at the scene.

A Michigan State Police fire investigator has been called to the scene to conduct an investigation of the incident along with the Grand Blanc Police Department, Burdette said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.GENESEE TWP, MI - Two people taken into custody following a March 23 bank robbery and deadly standoff with police in Genesee Township have been released pending further investigation.

A 43-year-old Flint man and 30-year-old Flint woman were in the van along with Kevin Hall, 40, just before 9 a.m. Friday morning when police say he entered the Chemical Bank on Genesee Road near Richfield Road, grabbed a teller by the shoulders and demanded money.

Genesee Township police Chief John Mullaly said the trio then stopped at the Admiral gas station at Richfield and Center roads when their vehicle, matching a description of the one used during the robbery, was spotted by officers who pulled in behind it.

The man and woman got out of the vehicle and were taken into custody as police attempted a traffic stop. Mullaly said the pair told law enforcement officials at the scene there was a gun inside the vehicle.

Mullaly added the pair who exited the van are "pleading they didn't know about" the plan to rob the bank.

Hall did not get out of the vehicle and tried to flee eastbound on Richfield Road, but he wound up colliding with a Genesee Township police cruiser.

A nearly 90-minute standoff began with police from multiple agencies gathering around the intersection, including Michigan State Police, Flint police and the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.

Officers set up a perimeter and blocked off streets in the immediate area.

Hall spoke with police on the phone amid the standoff, including a Michigan State Police negotiator and Genesee Township police lieutenant.

"He did everything he could to convince him to come out," said Mullaly of the lieutenant, but Hall remained inside the vehicle. "He made it very evident he wasn't going back to prison."

State records show Hall was released from prison on Sept. 27, 2017, after serving an eight-year sentence for unarmed robbery and fleeing from police. Hall had prison and probation sentences dating back to 1999.

Hall also asked to speak with a grandparent at one point, Mullaly said.

Around 10:30 a.m., Hall exited the vehicle and charged at officers with a weapon, according to police. Four Michigan State Police officers and five Flint Police officers opened fire, striking and killing Hall.

Police have not disclosed how many shots were fired nor how many hit Hall.

Details on the suspect's weapon have also not been released by police, though Michigan State Police Lt. David Kaiser said Hall was still holding the weapon following the shooting.

The Michigan State Police are handling the shooting investigation, while Mullaly stated the Genesee Township Police Department is dealing with the robbery investigation.

The van was taken to the Michigan State Police Crime Lab in Bridgeport and a search warrant sought to look through the vehicle as part of the ongoing investigation.

All of the officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave until the investigation is completed and reviewed by the prosecuting attorney, Kaiser said.

If the troopers and officers are cleared they'll be allowed to go back on duty.HUDSONVILLE, MI - Hudsonville Public Schools has two proposals on the Tuesday, May 8, election ballot to renew its operating cash and to expand the uses of its sinking fund tax to include security and technology.

Only non-homestead properties -- second homes, rental properties and businesses - pay the operating millage of 18 mills, not primary residences.

Hudsonville's operating millage expired in 2017. If the one-year request is approved, the district would levy $4.4 million this year.

"This funding is absolutely critical to our operations,'' said Superintendent Nicholas Ceglarek, who said the state assumes districts will receive the renewal but if rejected, state aid would be cut.

"The operating millage funds people, programs and services to support our students."

There are seven school districts with tax proposals voters in Kent and Ottawa county will weigh in on for sinking funds and/or operating millage proposals.

Kent City, West Ottawa, Zeeland, Godfrey Lee, Grand Haven, and Tri-County Area Schools.

For the past 25 years, the Hudsonville community has supported a building and site fund to pay for projects or repairs such new roofs and boilers.

The request this year is the same one not to levy no more than 1-mill. The proposal for five years, 2018 to 2022, and would generate approximately $1.4 million.

However, it isn't characterized as a renewal because the district wants to capitalize on legislation approved by state lawmakers in 2016 that allows the tax to also be used to technology and security. The increase is in uses, not dollars.

Ceglarek said the sinking fund has been a tremendous asset to the growing 6,733-student district as it manages its population surge. He said expanding the uses makes more sense financially than districts having to borrow through long-term bonds.

"We have used funds generated from this millage to allow us to build additional classrooms, repair roofs, boilers, and acquire additional land for expansion,'' he said. "We are grateful to our constituents for the trust they have placed in our district's fiscal management."

The other district tax proposals that will be on ballots in Kent and Ottawa counties include:

Godfrey-Lee Public Schools has a sinking fund millage proposal for a levy not to exceed 3 mills for 10 years, 2019 to 2029, for construction or repair, security, acquisition or upgrading technology, or acquire property. If approved, the millage would generated approximately $315,000 in 2019.

Zeeland Public Schools is seeking authorization to renew the current millage rate limitation of 18.776 mills for 2019. The estimated revenue the school district will collect if the millage is approved and the maximum 18 mills levied is approximately $7.7 million. The existing millage will expire with this year's tax levy.GRAND RAPIDS, MI - A man charged with perjury could provide critical information in the killing of Mujey Dumbuya, the Kentwood teen found dead in Kalamazoo, police said in court records.

Gerald Bennett, 58, and Daren Eckford, 50, both of Detroit, have been charged with perjury, a potential life offense, for responses given this month to a prosecutor's investigative subpoena.

"I believe (Bennett) possesses knowledge in the murder of Mujey Dumbuya and/or assisted in the planning or execution of the crime," Grand Rapids police Detective Case Weston wrote in court documents.

Dumbuya was found dead in late January, months after she accused Quinn James, 42, of Wyoming, of raping her.

The detective did not tie Bennett to James, 42, of Wyoming, who awaits trial on four charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. He said Eckford, however, "lied about his communication and/or contact with Quinn James and/or Gerald Bennett" during the homicide investigation.

No one has been charged in the killing. The teen died of "asphyxia, including strangulation," her death certificate showed.

Attorney Jonathan Schildgen, representing James, has been critical of prosecutors "littering Kent County" with investigative subpoenas which compel reluctant witnesses to answer questions or face jail or fines.

"They only use these things when they have no evidence," Schildgen told MLive and The Grand Rapids Press on Monday, March 26.

"They bring in as many people as they can. Catch as many as possible in minor mistakes etc. Charge them with life offenses and monitor their jail calls and hope something shakes out."

His client denies involvement in the crimes.

Bennett's attorney, Charles Clapp, and Eckford's attorney, Gaylor Cardinal, declined to comment.

Dumbuya went missing Jan. 24 when she failed to get on the bus for school. Four days later, her body was found in a wooded area near North Prairie Avenue on the north side of Kalamazoo.

Kalamazoo police Capt. Shannon Bagley confirmed that Quinn "did spend time in Kalamazoo in his youth."

Dumbuya, a student at East Kentwood High, accused Quinn of raping her last year.

At the time, she was dating Daquarius Daymont Bibbs, 17, who was living with his aunt, Tiara Burnett, and James, her fiance.

Bibbs testified he witnessed James rape Dumbuya four times but feared James because "he choked me out before."

Burnett has also been charged with perjury. She is free on $50,000 bond.

The Detroit men are held on $100,000 bonds.

Weston, the Grand Rapids detective, is assigned to the Major Case Unit, which is working with Kalamazoo police detectives on the homicide.

He requested a "high cash" bond for Bennett because of his knowledge or role in the killing. Bennett has no ties to Grand Rapids.

He also said that Bennett "would be extremely hard to locate" if released on bond.

Court records say Bennett "Lied about his knowledge and/or information he possesses regarding activities on January 23, 2018, and/or January 24, 2018, and/or a vehicle linked to the investigation."

Eckford is accused of lying about communication or contacts with James or Bennett related to the homicide investigation, court records said.GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The twin oil pipelines crossing the Straits of Mackinac are expected to get additional structural support this summer, though environmental groups say it's a step in the wrong direction.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has issued a permit for Enbridge to install 22 new anchor supports along the Line 5 pipeline crossing the Straits of Mackinac, the department announced in a press release Friday, March 23.

The structures clamp the 65-year-old pipelines to the lake bed while powerful currents between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron change the underwater landscape, washing away large areas of soil underneath the pipes.

Enbridge calls the new anchors a preventative measure for the aging pipeline, while critics say the span should be decommissioned before it ruptures and spews oil into the water of the Great Lakes.

"Installing these anchor supports does not make Line 5 itself safe, they do not protect the Great Lakes from a catastrophic spill," Kate Madigan, an energy policy specialist for the Michigan Environmental Council, said in a statement.

The intent is to minimize the potential for any unsupported spans of pipeline greater than 75 feet, according to the information submitted by Enbridge.

A map showing the 22 locations where Enbridge wants to install anchor supports on Line 5 this summer.

Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy called the plan for the new anchors a "proactive" step on behalf of the company.

"We are in full compliance with our easement agreement and we don't have any spans between supports that are larger than 75 feet," Duffy said in an email. "These anchors will be installed in areas where there could potentially be future erosion and we want to proactively keep span lengths from increasing."

Liz Kirkwood, executive director for Traverse City nonprofit For Love of Water (FLOW), argues that Enbridge's proposal amounts to a completely new design not included in the terms of the 1953 state easement under which the pipeline operates.

"A suspended pipeline in the currents of the Straits has not been approved and would never be approved today," Kirkwood said in a statement. "This is yet another example of the state allowing Enbridge to get around the laws designed to protect our Great Lakes."

The span already has 128 such support anchors along its length, which recent inspections showed were the site of several gaps in the pipeline's protective coating. A visual inspection of the pipeline revealed either calcareous deposits or bare metal on 42 of 48 anchor locations inspected.

Environmental groups are also critical of the anchors because of their connection to coating issues.

"The only safe and prudent action is to stop the flow of oil through the Straits until the state has fully evaluated the risks and alternatives of this suspended pipeline design," Kirkwood said. "Instead the state is authorizing additional screw anchors when they know it will cause pipeline coating damage."

In

granted by the Department of Environmental Quality, the state stipulates that either a diver or remote-operated vehicle "verify/document pipeline coating conditions after anchor placement." The permit also requires Enbridge to take photographs or video before and after the new anchors are installed, and to address any coating damage discovered within 15 days.

The requirement for monitoring the sites during installation is intended to ensure the new anchors are places "as safely as possible" to minimize potential damage to the coating, MDEQ Environmental Quality Analyst Scott Rasmusson said.

Each of the 22 new anchors will be installed with saddle mounts that wrap around the pipeline itself, which each are connected to the lake bed by two 10-foot-long, 10-inch-diameter screws. The result will be a total of 44 holes impacting about nine cubic yards of lake bottom, according to the DEQ press release.

Duffy said crews will begin installation of the new anchors as soon as the weather allows, and expect to complete the process within "the next few months." He said crews will also complete the repairs to areas of damaged coating not done in 2017.

The permit approval comes in the wake of a November agreement between Enbridge Inc. and the state government, described as a "backroom deal" by critics. Intended to improve pipeline safety and require greater transparency from Enbridge in the short-term, the agreement also set a deadline for a more permanent accord.

Rejecting a series of proposed changes to that agreement from members appointed to the state's Pipeline Safety Advisory Board, Gov. Rick Snyder in January extended that deadline to Sept. 30. The extension, Snyder wrote in a letter to advisory board members, will allow time for an ongoing risk analysis being led by Great Lakes researcher Guy Meadows of Michigan Tech University.

Enbridge is expected to complete the installation of the 22 new anchors in 2018, weather permitting, according to Rasmusson.

Rasmusson confirmed that Enbridge on March 15 applied for a permit to install another 48 anchors along the pipelines.

The additional anchors are required as part of the consent decree agreement between Enbridge and the federal government in response to the 2010 Kalamazoo River spill along the company's Line 6B near Marshall.

Rasmusson said the department's goal is for a quicker review process than was seen for the request for 22 anchors, first presented in May 2017 and approved 10 months later on Thursday, March 22.

The 645-mile Line 5 pipeline, built in 1953, runs from Superior, Wisc., to Sarnia, Canada, and transports up to 540,000 barrels of light crude oil and natural gas liquids per day.Al Johnson, 94, holding the Congressional Gold Medal.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Hudsonville resident and World War II veteran Elsworth "Al" Johnson, 94, said receiving the Congressional Gold Medal last week was "long overdue."

Johnson and other remaining members of the Office of Strategic Services, including another Hudsonville man, were honored Wednesday, March 21, in Washington, D.C.

More than 70 years after the end of World War II, the group received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress.

The Office of Strategic Services was the forerunner of the CIA and, during the war, called upon the U.S. Army Air Forces to conduct special operations based from the United Kingdom, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force website.

Johnson said he was a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. His team specifically parachuted behind enemy lines in France and later China. Its job was to collect information about enemy forces.

Founded by General William J. Donovan, a Medal of Honor recipient, the Office of Strategic Services organized, trained, supplied and fought in the war throughout Europe and Asia and played a decisive role in the United States' victory over Axis forces, according to a news release from U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan's office.

Johnson said the organization was the predecessor to the Special Forces and the father of all things covert and subversive.

After the war ended, members were not allowed to speak to anyone about their experiences.

"We were a silent organization. Nobody knew who we were, " Johnson said in a previous MLive interview.

Related: Hudsonville veteran recalls secret missions for CIA's predecessor in World War II

The release of documents on the 50th anniversary of the war's end in 1995 freed him to finally share his memories.

Johnson detailed his experiences in a memoir titled "One Small Part."

Nancy Moseler, Johnson's daughter, said she was glad they were finally able to honor her father and the other service members, especially since they needed to be quiet for so long.

Johnson joined the service at the "strapping" age of 18, he said, when he felt like he could conquer the world and was too young to be afraid.

He served for three years, from 1943 to 1945, and worked behind enemy lines doing the grunt work, he said.

"We were the ones who did the dirty work," Johnson said.

One of Johnson's missions was in July 1945, where Office of Strategic Services troops parachuted into the rice paddies of central China. It was their job to disrupt the supply of rice back to Japan.

"I never thought we would live through the Chinese operation because we were so easily identified," Johnson said in a previous MLive interview.

They were sent as "advisers," Johnson said, their orders prohibiting them from taking part in combat.

Their role was further complicated by a growing civil war between nationalist forces and communist forces led by Mao Tse-tung.

"We carried a lot of Chinese money with us. You bought intelligence. You bought loyalty," he said.

The war ended with the Japanese surrender on Aug. 15, 1945, and Johnson was finally home by the end of the year.

He said they did not have humorous adventures during the war, as they were often being shot at and shooting other people.

"That was serious," Johnson said.

His daughter and son went with him to Washington, D.C., for the ceremony. He said he thinks they are proud.

"And I'm proud of them for being patient with an old man," Johnson joked.The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services recently issued $500,000 in grants to 25 local health departments to help combat Michigan's hepatitis A outbreak.

The money will be used to increase vaccination rates in high-risk populations, and is aimed at counties outside of the outbreak jurisdiction.

Michigan is in the midst of one of the largest hepatitis A outbreaks in state history There have been more than 780 cases, with the majority in the Detroit area.

Counties with the largest spike in cases already have gotten state grants. This latest round covers the remainder of the state's local health department.

Each department is getting $20,000 that can be used for staffing to conduct educational and vaccination outreach efforts.

Hepatitis A is a serious, highly contagious liver disease. The virus is found in the feces of people with hepatitis A and spread by eating contaminated food or water, during sex or by living with an infected person.

Those with a drug use, homelessness or transient housing, incarceration and men who have sex with men are at greater risk of contracting the disease.

Hepatitis A symptoms include nausea and vomiting, belly pain, feeling tired, fever, loss of appetite, yellowing of the skin and eyes, dark urine, pale-colored faces and joint pain.

Prevention methods include getting vaccinated, practicing good hand washing and avoiding sex with infected partners.

The hepatitis A vaccine is available at local pharmacies, through health-care providers and at local health departments. For more information, including a calendar of vaccination clinics, visit Michigan.gov/hepatitisAoutbreak.

Here's a list of health departments getting funds:

Allegan;

Bay;

Benzie-Leelanau;

Berrien;

Berrien-Hillsdale-St. Joseph;

Chippewa;

Delta-Menominee;

Dickinson-Iron;

Huron;

Ionia;

Jackson;

Kalamazoo;

Kent;

Lenawee;

Luce-Mackinac;

Marquette;

Midland;

Muskegon;

Northwest Michigan;

Ottawa;

Tuscola;

Van Buren-Cass;

Western Upper Peninsula.

Also include are District Health Department Nos. 2 and 4, which collectively serve the northeast Lower Peninsula, including Alcona, Alpena, Cheboygan, Iosco, Montmorency, Oscoda, Ogemaw and Presque Isle counties.JACKSON, MI - Bradley Brow - owner, operator, hair stylist and only employee at Jackson's newest men's hair salon, Dapper Man - does not consider himself "the dapper man."

"I don't claim to be the dapper man," Brow said. "I'm making dapper men - if that makes sense."

Opened in early March at 200 E. Trail St., Dapper Man offers men's haircuts and beard trims. Brow, 31, graduated from The Salon Academy of Jackson in 2015 and is a licensed cosmetologist.

He specializes in high-end, trendy cuts - but also provides classic haircuts.

"I provide a little bit more than the average mall haircut," Brow said. "(I) always make sure you leave looking fresh. Not just cutting your hair and getting you out the door."

Brow is inspired by stylists in the United Kingdom and has some training in Toronto. The side part and undercuts are popular right now, Brow said, with the cropped haircut and longer styles starting to become trendier.

"Obviously everything happens in the U.K. first," Brow said. "And then maybe it comes to California. Then we're kind of the last to see it in the Midwest."

Some customers bring a picture of what they want their hair to look like - but some looks aren't always feasible, Brow said. He takes factors like hair texture, hair density, hair patterns and face shape into account and warns clients when styles are time consuming to re-create in the morning.

Brow hails from the Napoleon area and originally wasn't sure about opening a men's salon in Jackson. He started cutting hair at a studio in the Armory Arts Village.

"Initially when I was going to school, I didn't know for sure if Jackson would be the market for me," Brow said. "It's actually been exciting to see, because I have seen that there are a lot of stylish guys here."

The plan is to eventually relocate more centrally downtown - the rent was too expensive for him right now as a new business, Brow said. Other future plans include adding eyebrow waxing, manicures, pedicures and facials.

Customers have enjoyed the modern, "2018" feel of the interior, Brow said. The outside still needs a fresh coat of paint and some landscaping work before being up to Brow's standards, he said.

Located right down the street from The Oak Tree Lounge, Brow said that was a main selling point to the location. His building was formerly a barber shop, he said.

Haircuts start at $22 and are by appointment only. The 45-to-60-minute appointments can be made on the salon's website. While the business is still in its infancy, Dapper Man has already had to extend its hours and is booked two weeks out.

The goal is to provide a salon where men can feel comfortable, Brow said.

"I like the idea of a salon for men," Brow said. "It's new and fresh. It's definitely starting to be a trendy thing."BLACKMAN TWP., MI - Students looking ahead to the future can explore the possibilities at one of the largest gatherings of college, university and career representatives in Jackson County.

The College and Career Connection Expo is set for 5:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 27, at Northwest High School, 4200 Van Horn Road.

The free event is open to any potential student, regardless of age. It is hosted by Northwest Community Schools, Junior Achievement of the Michigan Edge and the College and Career Access Center of Jackson.

Nearly 60 admissions counselors and program representatives from public and private colleges and universities from throughout Michigan and out of state are attending, as are contacts from the U.S. Armed Services.

Information on financial aid and scholarships is available, too.

The event begins with the 30-minute presentation "College Planning for Juniors: What Can I Do Now?" The program, hosted in the cafetorium by the CCAC, is particularly good for current high school juniors as it addresses the college search, admissions and financial aid process.

From 6 to 7:30 p.m., attendees can visit as many college representatives as they wish in the high school's competition gym.

From 6:30 to 8 p.m., those interested can attend a career and hiring fair and visit with businesses who have set up booths in the high school performance area hallways and commons area.

All businesses will be organized by career pathway. Some will be doing onsite interviews for job/career openings.JACKSON, MI - Jackson Mayor Derek Dobies has formally asked the Michigan Civil Rights Commission to investigate claims of discrimination from Jackson County Sheriff Steven Rand.

Dobies sent a two-page letter and 189 pages of media coverage to Agustin Arbulu, Michigan Department of Civil Rights director, on Monday, March 26, and said he spoke with him over the phone.

Dobies is unsure if the topic will be discussed at the MCRC March 26 meeting in Detroit.

The commission investigates alleged discrimination in the state, as laid out in the Michigan Constitution.

A federal lawsuit alleges Rand is a "multifaceted bigot" whose derogatory comments have targeted women, blacks, the disabled, the LGBT community and other groups.

Audio tapes released by a lieutenant suing Jackson County and the sheriff show Rand referred to a female judge as a 'scatter-brained c---,' and that he'd like to make a pornographic film in which he kills a courthouse employee while having sex with her. The sheriff has acknowledged it is his voice on the tapes.

"Anytime a public servant not only allows their office to be a haven to degrade and demean African Americans, women, Hispanics, the LGBT community and people with disabilities, but directly participates and encourages that behavior, it erodes the public trust," Dobies said in the letter.

The Jackson City Council and Jackson County Board of Commissioners have both called on Rand to resign.

Outside of a resignation, the only paths to removing Rand, an elected official, from office are gathering 13,606 signatures from registered county voters for a recall election or to have the governor remove him.

Jackson County sent a letter to Gov. Rick Snyder asking he remove Rand. That letter was forwarded to the Attorney General's office for review, before it makes a recommendation to the governor.

"Unfortunately, Sheriff Rand has made it clear that he has no intention of resigning," Dobies said in his letter to Arbulu. "Instead, he selfishly insists on remaining and using his office to repair the self-inflicted damage made to his reputation and character."

The sheriff has said he also has reached out to the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, charged with investigating alleged discrimination and securing equal protection of civil rights. He would like the commission to make recommendations, and training is in order, for himself in particular, he has said.

Rand's trail to redemption should begin as a private citizen, Dobies said in the letter. The allegations call into question the decisions the sheriff's office makes, he added.

"Discriminatory comments like Sheriff Rand's based on race, sex, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity and disability warrant an investigation into whether those comments compounded into discriminatory decision making and treatment in law enforcement," Dobies said in the letter.

Dobies requested the commission have hearings on the matter, as allowed by the state constitution. He said he wants the commission to host the hearings in Jackson, and would help provide a venue if needed.

To read Dobies' full letter, click here.

"We live in a time where top elected leaders openly embrace a rhetoric of hate, intolerance and division," Dobies said in the letter. "That encourages and emboldens racists, bigots and those who seek to divide us to emerge from darkness, to come out from under their sheets, to poison the values and threaten the institutions that make America so great."JACKSON, MI - Outraged, a Jackson County district judge called the county jail captain into court last summer and criticized him for altering, without the judge's authorization, a hospitalized inmate's bond.

Capt. Bob Vogt told District Judge Michael Klaeren he inadvertently checked a box on paperwork for a 57-year-old taken to Henry Ford Allegiance Health for mental health treatment.

By doing so, he gave the man a personal recognizance bond, meaning he could be released without payment. It also freed Jackson County from an obligation to pay for his care.

"No. 1, that is about as contemptuous as one can get," Klaeren told Vogt on July 13, as the judge tried to determine what happened and how the man walked, unguarded, into court for an arraignment.

"And potentially borderline criminal."

This incident came to light since a lawyer for sheriff's Lt. Tommy Schuette, who is suing Sheriff Steven Rand and Jackson County, released in February recordings taken by Schuette of command staff meetings.

Schuette alleges Rand created a hostile work environment and the county retaliated against Schuette for reporting the sheriff's conduct.

In a recording of one of the meetings, one commander calls Klaeren a "f------ little b----."

The sheriff notes: "Unless you get on his bad side, then... he turns into a big old dick."

One man notes he was the judge's "b---- for about 40 minutes."

"And I appreciate you taking one for the team," Rand says.

When asked to respond to these remarks, Klaeren declined to comment but allowed a reporter to listen to a recording of the July 13 hearing.

It is the only time he could recall that he brought a jail captain, or a sheriff's commander, into his courtroom, to speak on the record.

"That was what I would consider a unique event," Klaeren said.

Vogt told the judge he did not realize until the day of the hearing that "that box was checked," and the hospital was suppose to alert jail staff when the man was released so personnel could pick him up.

The man was jailed June 23 and charged with fourth-degree fleeing and eluding for evading an officer and leading police on a pursuit. He was given a $5,000 bond and soon went to the hospital, for weeks.

At a June 26 hearing, Klaeren indicated there would be no change in the bond despite the jail's request to downgrade the provisions of his confinement.

Klaeren was concerned about the man and his condition, as he lived in Indiana and had previously been found not guilty by reason of insanity, Klaeren said at the July hearing.

"Of all the paperwork you fill out. 'Oh, I marked the wrong box'... You understand why, this particular mistake, the mistake that you made, was the one, that No. 1 that keeps you from having any responsibility for this guy and No. 2, puts the county off the hook for the money," Klaeren told Vogt on July 13.

"You understand, circumstantially, it looks bad. You need to understand, I am really outraged."

When inmates are hospitalized, the jail is responsible for the cost. Medical treatment and food are the two greatest jail expenditures, Undersheriff Chris Kuhl said, and the county tries to limit those costs.

In court, Klaeren said, as a community member, this frustrates him. "Are we running a jail or are we doing this just because of money and are we going to watch people only if it is cheap enough?"

The hospital's Charles Anderson Building, a secure behavioral health center, does not allow armed guards, Vogt told the judge, and an inmate had never before met the high standard for admission.

"So you delegate to the hospital guarding our people," Klaeren said and questioned both the reason he was uninformed of the situation and the jail's inability to make any arrangement.

The only way to get the man to a position he could be guarded was to have him leave the Anderson Building and Vogt said this made him uncomfortable.

"It was clear based on our medical professionals' observations that he needed help fast. We can't provide that in the jail," Kuhl said.

"That's basically it. He was taken over there, showed back up at his next court hearing. I think the issue was the paperwork and the judge wasn't pleased by that."

Vogt did not return a phone message, and Klaeren declined to comment beyond what he stated on the record.

"Well, in this particular situation, your err, combined with the protocol, this saved the county a lot of money, and I got to tell you that is what I think is behind this," Klaeren said at the hearing.

In court, the captain apologized to the judge, and the 57-year-old's lawyer defended Vogt's standing. Klaeren agreed with "the stellar reputation," but said people can make "dumb mistakes or do stupid stupid things."

When asked about Klaeren's skepticism that Vogt blundered unintentionally, Kuhl said: "Well that can be his contention. I respect that. He can be upset about that... Our primary concern was the gentleman's mental health."

When asked whether he has discplined, Kuhl wrote in an email: "The box that was checked was an oversight." Vogt's personnel file does not reveal any documented discplinary action.

"I don't know anything about this," Jackson County Administrator Michael Overton said. "That would have been the sheriff, I assume, dealing with one of his subordinates."

The county does not partake in any work to limit medical costs, he said. "The sheriff has complete control over that."

When given more information, about the changed bond, Overton said: "There is no policy. I can't imagine the sheriff has got a policy of doing anything like that."

The 57-year-old was arrested after he failed to heed Blackman-Leoni Township public safety officer Darin McIntosh's attempt to stop him on I-94 near Sargent Road. Driving a Honda CR-V, he was traveling 94 mph with his hazard lights flashing, following other officers heading to a vehicle crash, according to a police report.

He started to slow when McIntosh activated his lights and siren, but continued, driving between 65 and 80 mph and switching lanes. State police eventually stopped him using "spike strips" near M-52 in Washtenaw County, the report states.

The man told McIntosh he was blind, a contention later disproven, and was using the emergency lights to navigate the road. He said he did not stop because he could not see. He said he believed he was having a "psychotic break" and was driving to Ann Arbor to see his psychologist.

The man has since been assigned to Klaeren's Mental Health Court, which seeks to aid and treat defendants with mental illnesses. He posted bond in August, according to a court record, and was no longer in jail.

There is no indication Klaeren took any further action against the jail or its captain.

"I am very concerned, on a number of levels," he said on July 13, before he questioned Vogt. "Both compliance with court orders, No. 1, and No. 2, public safety and security of our jail."KALAMAZOO, MI -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, arrested 16 people in Southwest Michigan over a span of four days.

ICE, in addition to the Enforcement and Removal Operations, arrested the arrested 16 people for violating federal immigration laws, according to a news release. Nine of the 16 are convicted criminals.

Authorities said 14 men and two women were arrested during the sweep. With the exception of a Congolese man, all of the people arrested were nationals of Mexico.

Two people illegally re-entered the U.S. after deportation, according to authorities. Depending on the person's criminal history, someone who illegally re-enters the country after having been previously removed, has committed a felony punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.

The arrests primarily occurred in Berrien, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph and Van Buren counties.

Authorities said the people arrested who are not being federally prosecuted will be processed for removal from the U.S. People who have outstanding orders of removal, or who returned illegally after being deported, are subject to immediate removal from the country.

The remaining individuals are in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, or pending travel arrangements for removal in the near future.

According to a statement from ICE, the agency focuses its enforcement resources on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security, according to a news release. However, it does not exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.

All people in violation of the immigration laws might be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the U.S. ICE does not conduct sweeps or raids that arrest people indiscriminately.MUSKEGON, MI - The first sale at 557 Cafe downtown Muskegon was a Faygo pop, but the most popular items so far are the Reuben and Michigan chicken cherry wrap.

Four women opened the small cafe at 557 W. Western Ave. on Feb. 28.

"We're trying to be fast, affordable and friendly," Buffy Murphy, one of the partners, told a first-time customer on Wednesday, March 21.

Murphy, of Twin Lake, and business partner Christine Zimmer, of Newaygo, purchased the building in spring 2015 when the former restaurant there, Woody's Classic Cafe, closed. Since then, plans for a hot dog restaurant and a barbershop both fell through.

"We decided not to wait for someone else," Murphy said.

Murphy, Zimmer, Cammy Widing, of Grand Haven, and Juanita Thomas, of Fremont, decided to open a restaurant.

All of Woody's equipment was still in place, but it took three months of renovations and about $42,000 to open the cafe, Murphy said.

The little restaurant offers counter service in the long, skinny space that features exposed brick walls, a wood ceiling and tables topped with flowers.

The menu features hot and cold sandwiches, wraps, brats and hot dogs, salads, soups and baked goods. The most expensive item is the Michigan cherry salad - apples, dried cherries, pecans, blue cheese, raspberry vinaigrette and grilled chicken - for $9.99.

"There's not a lot on the menu, but what we're doing, we're doing well," Murphy said.

557 is focused on Michigan-made and homemade products. About 95 percent of the food and beverages come from Michigan companies - including Boxed Water, Faygo pop, Little Town Jerky Company meats, fresh bakery breads, Great Lakes Potato Chips and Hudsonville Ice Cream.

"We've had a wonderful reception from the people down here," Murphy said.

The partners are all experienced in the restaurant industry with Murphy bringing 20 years of waitressing to the table. Widing has worked in restaurant management. Thomas has 27 years of back-of-the-house experience. Zimmer handles all the paperwork.

"We do it all," Murphy said of the team.

557 Cafe is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - A man who ditched a moving car with children in it after fleeing police through a Walmart parking lot has been sent to prison on drug charges.

Eduardo Vasquez, 33, of Muskegon was at the Walmart on East Sherman Boulevard in Muskegon in December 2017 when police, knowing he had drug warrants for his arrest, spotted him.

"When the police saw them, they tried to apprehend him because there were warrants out, and the chase was on," said Muskegon County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Maat.

Vasquez fled through adjacent lots, including one for a Sam's Club, as he was pursued by police cars with lights and sirens activated, Maat said. He drove into the front drive of a nearby Quality Inn hotel, leapt out of the car and ran into the hotel, leaving his black Cadillac in the drive gear, Maat said.

The car continued, crashing into a snowbank, and police discovered two children, ages 5 and 9, in the back seat of the vehicle, Maat said.

Vasquez was later apprehended in the hotel, he said.

Police had stopped Vasquez in January 2017 for a stolen license plate and found 49.9 grams of heroin, 6.3 pounds of marijuana and four hydrocodone tablets inside his car, Maat said. Vasquez also was driving on a suspended license, he said.

A warrant for his arrest was signed in late March, Maat said.

On Jan. 30, 2018, Vasquez pleaded guilty to possession with intent to deliver less than 50 grams of heroin, possession with intent to deliver marijuana and possession of hydrocodone. For those charges, he was sentenced by Muskegon County Circuit Judge William C. Marietti to 18 months to 25 years in prison, with credit for 93 days.

Vasquez also pleaded guilty to criminal child neglect, and was sentenced to 90 days, with credit for 93 days. A charge of fleeing police was dismissed. He was sentenced as a four-time habitual offender.

Vasquez has prior convictions for failing to stop at a serious crash, felonious driving, drug possession and attempted unlawful use of a motor vehicle, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections website.SAGINAW, MI -- Robert Propp learned on Monday, March 26, that he will spend the rest of his life in a Michigan prison for strangling the mother of his child.

Propp, 36, was found guilty of first-degree murder after about two hours of jury deliberations on Feb. 13, for the July 2016 death of 24-year-old Melissa Thornton, with whom he has a 2-year-old daughter.

During the trial, Propp admitted responsibility for her death but maintained it was unintentional. He withheld that version of events from police because he didn't want his and Thornton's sex life scrutinized.

Propp took the stand during the trial and claimed Thornton's strangling death was a result of erotic asphyxiation gone wrong.

Police were alerted of Thornton's death in her bedroom at 607 S. Alexander by Propp, who called 911 to report she wasn't breathing.

Propp told police he had seen her the night before but came back the next morning because he hadn't heard from her.

Saginaw County Circuit Court Judge Darnell Jackson handed down the life sentence after Thorton's family members finished addressing Propp.

"I will simply say that I have heard the facts of this case," Jackson said. "It's a sad and tragic case. The sentence of the court is that you spend the rest of your life in prison without the possibility of parole."SAGINAW TWP, MI -- Katie Leuenberger relinquished her parental rights to her five surviving children ahead of a scheduled trial to see if her rights would've been terminated.

According to Attorney Referee James Perry, Leuenberger and her attorney presented paperwork forfeiting her parental rights on Monday, March 26.

Leuenberger was set to have a trial on March 26-27 to see if there was enough evidence for the court to terminate her rights to five other children who were removed from her home after the beating death of her 3-year-old son Jordan "Baby J" Brown.

Leuenberger will no longer be allowed to see the children or know anything about them, Perry said.

Baby J was brought to Covenant by Mobile Medical Response on Jan. 1 after authorities responded to Leuenberger's Saginaw Township home for a report of a child who was unresponsive.

Leuenberger said she was at Kroger at the time, and had left her six children at home under the watch of her live-in boyfriend Tavaris J. Williams, who she met in August and moved into her home in October.

Baby J was hospitalized on New Year's Day with life-threatening injuries that doctors said he would not recover from. He was placed on life support while waiting to donate his organs.

On Jan. 5, he was removed from life support and died.

Autopsy results showed that Baby J had injuries indicating previous ongoing physical abuse, of which prosecutors allege Leuenberger was aware.

Williams is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree child abuse in relation to Baby J's death. He remains jailed with no bond.

Leuenberger is charged with one count of first-degree child abuse and is free on bond.Texas Sen. Ted Cruz probably assumed he was taking a photo with an excited constituent. When in fact, the Republican senator was posing with a young woman who is actively rooting against him.

A woman, identified only as Rebecca on her social media accounts was able to take a photo with Cruz while she was wearing a lanyard that read "Texas deserves better than Cruz!"

Rebecca posted the photo on her Twitter and Instagram accounts Friday which has since been like on Twitter more than 114,000 times and retweeted 24,000 times.

When asked how she pulled off the stunt without Cruz noticing the lanyard, Rebecca said she unbuttoned her jacket right before the photo was taken to reveal the lanyard.

She said she met the senator in a Dallas airport as he was getting off of a plane from Washington D.C.

Cruz is up for reelection this November and is being challenged by Rep. Beto O'Rouke.Phil Bertolini, deputy Oakland County executive

Mark de la Vergne, city of Detroit's chief of mobility innovation

Although self-driving cars may still seem a bit like science-fiction, autonomous technology has already been present in our automobiles for decades. The first semi-autonomous technologycruise control debuted in 1950, and recent research compiled by Ohio University showed that 61 percent of U.S. drivers want one of the many other semi-autonomous features now available, such as automatic emergency brakes or self-parking technology. However, the same research showed that only 20 percent of Americans currently would trust an autonomous vehicle to drive them somewhere.Despite the skepticism, connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) promise a wide range of lesser-known benefits, both here in Detroit and across the country. We chatted with local and national experts about just a few of the ways CAV will affect safety, congestion, and transportation accessibility for the better.According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association , drivers cause an overwhelming 94 percent of vehicle crashes. So what happens when you remove drivers from the equation? The jury's still out on exactly how much that number would decrease. But one study found that even early-stage autonomous vehicles could save as many as 3,000 lives in a year. Semi-autonomous technology on the market today, like lane departure warning and lane keep assist systems, is already doing its part to prevent crashes as well."The more we can connect these vehicles together, the safer we can be," says Phil Bertolini, deputy Oakland County executive and a member of the county's Connected Vehicle Task Force . "If you look at the accidents that happen in the state of Michigan and all around the country, many of those can be avoided."Cars will save lives by talking to each other, but also by communicating with the infrastructure around them. Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology holds especially great potential in a busy urban environment like the city of Detroit, according to Mark de la Vergne, the city's chief of mobility innovation. While autonomous cars on a highway have to interact primarily with each other while traveling in a fairly linear path, the same vehicles on a Detroit street will have to reckon with pedestrians, bicycles, public transit, traffic signals, and more."It's a much greater challenge, but there is an opportunity," de la Vergne says. "I think the surface has only begun to be scratched on how technology can be layered in with traditional means of making intersections and streets safer, to get to a goal where we're actually reducing fatalities and serious injuries."Last year, the city received a $2.1 million Federal Highway Administration Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment Program grant to study safety and connectivity in four Detroit neighborhoods. De la Vergne says the city is currently looking at implementing smarter infrastructure that could delay traffic signal changes triggered by weather conditions, or a cyclist or pedestrian approaching an intersection, with an eye towards incorporating V2I as technology develops."We're going to begin to tackle a problem here, a problem there, using this grant to implement the technologies and see if they're doing what they can," he says. "Then we'll work with the private sector to improve upon those."CAV may make our commutes not only safer, but smoother. A study by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign showed that the insertion of just a single autonomous car into a traffic pattern helped to reduce the amount of "traffic waves," which are created when a car pumps its brakes and those behind it follow suit.There are also major implications for the concept of swarm intelligence, which applies design principles derived from nature to the technology that drives autonomous cars. Carla Bailo, president and CEO of the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, worked with swarm technology in her past career as senior vice president of research and development at Nissan."We began to study birds in formation, schools of fish, bees in a hive," she says. "You notice that they all go very, very fast. They travel at high speed. They travel close together. But they don't run into each other. ... So we began to look at what we need to put on the car to enable that same degree of sensory perception."In addition to reducing traffic congestion, CAVs are also likely to have a major effect in reducing the amount of parked cars that monopolize space in most urban areas. If commuters are simply taking advantage of a CAV fleet that takes them where they want to go on demand, rather than driving their own cars to work, their cars no longer need occupy a city parking spot, garage, or lot.Nico Larco, an associate professor at the University of Oregon who specializes in autonomous vehicles, says there are "tremendous" opportunities for densifying cities as a result. Larco suggests that former parking areas in cities might be used to develop more affordable housing, while the large office parks that sit on the far outskirts of cities and suburbs might move inward towards commercial and residential centers."Would you rather be in an office building surrounded by parking? Or would you rather be in an office building where you can walk to a restaurant or a bar or a coffee shop? I'd be hard-pressed to find people who actually like parking out there," Larco says. "So all these things can change. It's a huge benefit."The rise of CAVs may also democratize transportation in an unprecedented way. Larco points to the success of transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft in lower-income communities , where those services are often cheaper, faster, and less discriminatory than traditional cabs and more convenient than a bus. He describes the services as "AVs with drivers," and says a publicly accessible CAV fleet would likely be used in the same way.De la Vergne echoes that sentiment, noting that there's huge potential for CAVs to provide innovative new forms of public transit within the existing framework of DDOT and SMART's bus systems."There's the opportunity out there to understand and deliver a better way to provide mobility to parts of the city where fixed-route transportation might not be the best answer, whether that's through autonomous shuttles or on-demand technology," he says.Experts note that the many benefits of CAVs must come with some fundamental shifts in the way we think about transportation. For example, CAVs may ease congestion by driving smarter in trafficbut some researchers believe that the ease of using one will actually cause people to use them more often than they would traditional cars. Larco says that could have the effect of actually creating more traffic.The problem could be fixed by embracing microtransit options that carry even just two passengers in separate compartments of the same autonomous vehicle, but Larco says it's important to start thinking ahead to those solutions now."There's fantastic benefits to this stuff, absolutely," Larco says. "But it will depend a lot on how we structure things to make sure that we go in that direction."Bertolini, too, says there are many questions to be answered in making CAVs a daily reality for metro Detroiters. But he says the county got ahead of the issue by forming its connected vehicle task force, and he expects the metro area to stay on the cutting edge of the CAV movement."We've made some strides," he says. "I think we've opened some eyes. ... But it is about the future, not the current situation. I think the future's going to get here a lot sooner than people realize, and it's going to be an exciting time."Visit Driven and learn how the Detroit region is leading the world in next-generation mobility.Photos by David Lewinski



Report all errors to DonSurber@GMail.com





Oh, and if you see me driving my red 2010 Mustang GT convertible, please wave.

Hi, I am a retired newspaperman. I wrote 3 books on Trump and the media . I live in Poca, WV, with my wife of 43 years, Lou Ann. I grew up in Cleveland. Three kids. Grandfather.Pop star Ed Sheeran left a touching message for a Kiwi teenager recovering from a debilitating illness, before she attended his show last night.



Brooke Scully was 13 when she came down with a standard flu, meaning a few days off school for the normally healthy teenager. Her mother Tanya told Newshub today a stomach ache in the following days caused them to think her appendix had burst.

Finding nothing, doctors sent her home, where the normally robust competitive dancer went on to lose six kilos in a week, unable to eat. After collapsing, the Howick College pupil was re-admitted and doctors discovered she had contracted the intestinal infection viral gastritis. The illness left her hospitalised for two-and-a-half months, only able to eat through a feeding tube.A mum has been left not-so-surprisingly fuming after her 12-year-old daughter claims a teacher told her to dye her ginger hair because 'orange is not a natural colour'.

I was walking around school and heard somebody [a teacher] say, 'Oi.' I turned around and said, 'Me?' I didn't really see him. He said, 'You need to dye your hair back.' He said, 'Orange isn't a natural colour.

In the teachers defence, it sounds like he assumed Paris had dyed her hair that colour when in fact that shade of orange was in fact 'natural'. But still, who in their right mind would think this is OK?

Nicola Lane, mother of Paris, says she's now put in an official complaint at the school.Brewdog looks to recruit more beer fans via latest on-trade acquisition

Brewdog has ramped up its strategy of introducing its beers to more people by buying a craft beer bar chain in London.

Brewdog has acquired Draft House, an estate of 14 bars across London and the South East. Alongside his role as managing director of Brewdog bars, David McDowall will become managing director of Draft House, taking the reins from founder Charlie McVeigh.

The producer of Punk IPA said it planned to invest in the current Draft House sites and said it may look to expand on them in future. The beer selection will be different from Brewdog bars, but with the same focus on independent craft beer from around the world.

The Draft House teams will also be invited to contribute to the development and brew days for a series of beers brewed at Brewdogs headquarters in Aberdeenshire, with the resulting beers launching across all Draft House sites.

David McDowall, md of Brewdog Bars, said: At Brewdog we are obsessed with making other people as passionate about craft beer as we are and in speaking with the Draft House team we recognised that there was a great opportunity to combine our efforts and really have an impact on the UK bar landscape by working together.

Draft House has got an incredible team of engaged people and we will be doing everything we can to empower them in their business and offer them the support they need to achieve their career goals. The two most important things for us are our beer and our people and we are excited to extend that to our new family at Draft House and would like to offer a massive welcome to every single one of them.

Charlie McVeigh, Draft House founder, said: Nine years have passed since the first Draft House launched, and it has been a truly remarkable journey of discovery. We have built and awesome business, and more importantly, a team right at the heart of the UKs beer revolution. I am immensely proud of what we have achieved together and delighted to hand the business over to Brewdog for its next stage of growth. Draft House couldnt be in better hands.

Brewdog reported earlier this year that it had grown off-trade sales 116% to 62.2 million in 2017 (Nielsen). The brewer has captured a 71% share of the UK off-trade craft beer market and accounts for the top five SKUs: Punk IPA, Elvis Juice, Dead Pony Club pale ale, Punk IPA in a 66cl bottle and the 0.5% abv Nanny State.

Related articles:Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investors point of view. We also respect individual opinionsthey represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive.

To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.With more than 30 million albums sold, 18 million digital single sales, billions of streams and 12 iconic hits combined, 3 Doors Down and Collective Soul are inviting fans aboard The Rock & Roll Express Tour this summer. The amphitheater outing will kick off July 6 in Atlanta, GA and travel to 36 cities across North America, including a stop in Huber Heights, OH at Rose Music Center on Wednesday, August 8th.

Citi is the official pre-sale credit card of The Rock & Roll Express Tour. As such, Citi cardmembers will have access to purchase pre-sale tickets beginning Tuesday, March 27th at 10am local time until Thursday, March 29th at 10pm local time through Citis Private Pass program. For complete pre-sale details, visit www.citiprivatepass.com.

3 Doors Down and Collective Soul will be offering their own VIP packages, which include band meet and greets, exclusive merch, and much more. More information can be found at www.3doorsdown.com and www.collectivesoul.com.

Collective Soul and 3 Doors Down, thats a big night of hits!! Im looking forward to hopping on the Rock & Roll Express this summer, gonna be fun! said Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down.

Its going to be an exciting summer! Not only are we going to be out with a great band, but also some great friends. I look forward to seeing everyone come out and rock with us and 3 Doors Down said Ed Roland of Collective Soul.

Grammy Award-nominated multi-Platinum Mississippi rock band 3 Doors Down has been captivating audiences around the world for nearly two decades. With 20 million albums sold globally, their success has been fueled by hits including Kryptonite, When Im Gone, Here Without You, and Its Not My Time.

Collective Soul rose to international fame in 1993 with the rock anthem Shine. The multi-Platinum quintet has a catalog of #1 hits under their belts that has helped shape and define alternative rock. Theyve sold over 20 million records worldwide and continue to average over one million Spotify streams per month. They were inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2009. The bands latest live album, LIVE, was released December 8, 2017 on Suretone Records.

Collective Soul will also perform at 3 Doors Downs 15th Annual The Better Life Foundation Concert this fall. The event will take place at Harrahs Cherokee Casino Resort in Cherokee, NC for the third year in a row on October 27th. To date, The Better Life Foundation has donated over $3 Million dollars to veterans, children, womens and humanitarian relief efforts domestically and around the globe.

Tickets for the Huber Heights show will go on sale to the public beginning 11am on Friday, March 30th at www.Ticketmaster.com andwww.Rosemusiccenter.com. Charge by phone at 1.800.745.3000. *Ticket prices include parking and are subject to applicable Ticketmaster fees. Dates, times and artists subject to change without notice. All events rain or shine.Two teenagers were arrested Monday, accused of ransacked Cambridge Elementary School over the weekend, stealing iPads and keys to classrooms.

Cambridge Elementary School burglarized

Suspects broke into nearly every classroom

Parents turned suspects in

Cocoa police say parents of the teens, aged 17 and 14, turned them in after surveillance images from the school were released to local news stations and social media Monday.

Workers discovered the break-in around 6 a.m. Monday. Surveillance video shows the break-in happened on Saturday afternoon.

The teens are being charged with burglary, grand theft and felony criminal mischief. They are being sent to Juvenile Detention Center.The federal judge in the Noor Salman trial on Monday denied a defense motion to have the case dismissed after it was disclosed that the Pulse gunman's father was a FBI informant.

Defense attorneys had claimed that their client's Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights were violated by the government withholding certain evidence from them.

They claimed that after the prosecution rested last week, government attorneys emailed the defense with information that Pulse gunman Omar Mateen's father, Seddique Mateen, was a confidential informant for the FBI from 2005 to June 2016.

Attorneys for Salman argued that it was detrimental not knowing this information. But Judge Paul Byron ultimately ruled that because the gunmans father was not called as a witness, the information about his past as an informant did not negatively impact the defense's case.

In Orlando federal court Monday, defense attorneys began laying out their case for jurors, after federal prosecutors rested their case late last week.

An FBI special agent testified that after closing an investigation into Omar Mateen in 2013 and 2014 about possible terrorism related comments he made (and saying he had links to extremist organizations), the FBI considered using Mateen as an informant as well.

Mateen was never used, but the FBI but never gave a reason why it dropped exploring the idea.

In 2013/2014, FBI interviewed Omar Mateen (Pulse gunman) about comments he made about terrorism and alleged ties to terrorist organization. FBI said statements unfounded. Closed investigation. FBI Special Agent testified today Omar also considered for informant role. @MyNews13  Greg Angel (@NewsGuyGreg) March 26, 2018

Earlier, a mysterious friend of Mateen's nicknamed Nimo was one of several friends who testified.

According to Salman, on the night before the June 2016 Pulse nightclub attack that left 49 people dead, Mateen told his wife he was going to have dinner with Nimo  a friend who Salman said shes never met.

Nimo told jurors that he was living in Baltimore at the time of the attack. He also said that Mateen told him he would often use Nimo as an excuse for meeting up with women he met online.

The defense intends to use this to support its case that Salman's husband was controlling and secretive.

Several of Salmans longtime childhood friends also testified to jurors about Salmans upbringing, her need for special education courses and her affection for her son. They're using cover names to protect their privacy.

The defense is expected to take just two days to lay out its case. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Wednesday morning.

Defense wanted case tossed

The motion filed Sunday said the evidence collected on the day of the Pulse shooting showed that Seddique Mateen may have been involved in the promotion of violent activities by providing funds to unknown sources in Afghanistan and Turkey.

According to the defense motion, the email also claimed that an anonymous tip made Nov. 1, 2012, showed that Seddique Mateen was trying to raise up to $100,000 through a donation drive to contribute toward an attack against the government of Pakistan.

The defense said the omission of this evidence has prevented them from properly defending Salman in this case, as well as violating Salman's constitutional right to due process and a fair trial.

You cant make informed decisions without all of the facts, and the jury doesnt have all of the facts in the case, said Ahmed Bedier of United Voices For America, who alleges the case against Noor Salman is politically motivated.

Prosecutors last week rested their case in Orlando federal court as they doubled down on their arguments that Salman knew her husband was going to attack Pulse nightclub in June 2016.

The government highlighted Salman's statement to FBI agents that she scouted Pulse nightclub with her husband before the attack.

However, when the defense cross-examined an FBI agent on the case, he admitted the couple "likely never" drove to Pulse together because cell phone data show she had never been to the club.

Noor Salmans uncle, Al, told Spectrum News 13 Monday that Noor is a peaceful and kind woman, devoted to her son and did not deserve to have spent the past year and a half living life daily in solitary protective custody.

We have high hope when they get to see who Noor really is, theyll let her go, said Al Salman.

Salman is charged with aiding and abetting her husband and obstruction of justice.

The defense is expected to call their last witnesses tomorrow. Closing arguments will begin Wednesday morning.

'Suspicious letter' closes streets

An investigation into a suspicious letter found outside of the downtown Orlando federal courthouse Monday forced the closure of parts of several nearby streets, including North Division Avenue and West Central Boulevard.

An Orlando Fire hazmat team could be seen in white safety gear outside the courthouse.

After about an hour, it was determined not to be hazardous  firefighters said it was a clear bag with a nonhazardous substance inside.

The Salman trial was not disrupted.The votes are in! Get a recap of the 2021 Election.

The votes are in! Get a recap of the 2021 Election.

Subscribe now>Nearly four times a day. Thats how frequently underground natural gas pipelines were damaged by digging or excavating in Colorado in 2015, The Denver Post reported last year. That might sound like a lot, but in Pennsylvania the rate is more than twice as high.

Continue >UCOM offers affordable gadgets at bigger discount

Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will pay a working visit to New York

Governments preventing publication of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper during state of emergency

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Armenia: Statement by the Spokesperson on the early parliamentary elections

Armenias Parliamentary Elections PRESS STATEMENT

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Armenias early parliamentary elections were competitive and well run, but polarized and marred by aggressive rhetoric, international observers say

International election observers to Armenias early parliamentary elections held press conference

Drop Charges Against Rights Defender Sashik Sultanyan

The Coronavirus-Related Situation in ArmeniaBy PTI

NEW DELHI: The Congress today questioned how safe the people's money and their personal information were under the BJP-led government in the wake of a string of bank frauds and allegations related to data theft.

"It is an attempt like Bigg Boss of spying on Indians. Modiji is attacking the privacy. It is a data leak government," senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.

He said when there is an official government app that seeks information on 15 points, what is the need for having a personal 'Namo aap' which seeks data on 22 indicators.

"On one hand there is data leak in banks with crores being siphoned from the country by people like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallaya, and on the other there is leak of data happening in the country.

"How safe is your data in banks? Today there is a loot in banks. People have run away with money. How safe is your money in the banks," he questioned.

He cited the alleged "data leak of 10,000 ATMs of PNB and details of 32 lakh SBI credit and debit card holders being compromised".

ALSO READ: PM Modi the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians, says Rahul Gandhi; BJP hits back

The war of words between the Congress and the BJP on data sharing spiralled today with Rahul Gandhi dubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi the "Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians" while Union minister Smriti Irani saying even 'Chhota Bheem' knows it is not snooping.

The ruling BJP has accused the opposition Congress of data "theft", saying it had taken off its app after the allegations came out in the open.By PTI

NEW DELHI: The war of words between the Congress and the BJP on data sharing spiralled today with Rahul Gandhi dubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi the "Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians" and Union minister Smriti Irani saying even 'Chhota Bheem' knows it is not snooping.

Twitter was the battleground as the debate on the prickly issue escalated and the ruling BJP accused the opposition Congress of data "theft", saying it had taken off its app after the allegations came out in the open.

The Congress, however, claimed it had not done so.

The site was "dysfunctional" and all memberships were done through the party's official website, it said.

Taking to Twitter after allegations surfaced that data from the prime minister's official app was being shared without the consent of users, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said the prime minister was misusing his position and the NaMo app secretly recorded audio, video and contacts.

"Modi's NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. He's the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians.

"Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP," Gandhi said on Twitter using the hashtag "DeleteNaMoApp".

ALSO READ: After BJP allegation, Congress party deletes With INC app from Playstore

He added that Modi was misusing his position to build a personal database with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by the government.

"If as PM he wants to use tech to communicate with India, no problem. But use the official PMO APP for it. This data belongs to India, not Modi," Gandhi said.

Irani hit back with a series of derisive tweets, saying that Gandhi now knows what the NCC thanks to the NaMo app.

"RahulGandhi ji, even 'Chhota Bheem' knows that commonly asked permission on Apps don't tantamount to snooping," she said, recalling the character from the animated series for children.

"Ye kya RahulGandhi ji it seems your team is doing the opposite of what you asked for. Instead of #DeleteNaMoApp, they have deleted the Congress App itself."

"Now that we're talking tech, would you care to answer @RahulGandhi ji why Congress sends data to Singapore Servers which can be accessed by any Tom, Dick and Analytica?" the information and broadcasting minister added.

According to BJP's IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya, the INC membership website is no longer available.

Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS.



Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians.



Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP.#DeleteNaMoApp  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 26, 2018

"Message you will get 'We are incorporating minor changes to the website. Please visit us again in a while to access the INC membership process.' What is the Congress party trying to hide? http://membership.inc.in," Malviya tweeted.

Congress social media in-charge Divya Spandana Ramya said the URL pointed out has been dysfunctional for a while and membership is through the INC website.

"We don't have any other membership site. Nothing is compromised. We haven't taken down anything," she said.

The Congress added on its official Twitter handle that the 'WithINC app' has not been in use for over five months since it moved membership to http://www.inc.in on November 16, 2017.

Malviya echoed Irani, saying the Congress app was sharing user data with Gandhi's friends in Singapore.

"Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of India's oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore," Malviya said, mimicking Gandhi's tweet yesterday.

"Full marks to Congress for stating upfront that they'll give your data to **practically anyone** - undisclosed vendors, unknown volunteers, even 'groups with similar causes'.

In theft of all forms, Congress has never been discreet!" Malviya tweeted.

Malviya went on to allege that the Congress, inspired by its leader Sonia Gandhi's "all power no accountability", will take all your data, even share it worldwide with organisations like Cambridge Analytica but will not take responsibility of it.

The party claimed yesterday that the Narendra Modi app is unique and gives access to users in guest mode' without any permission or data.

The Congress chief had yesterday attacked Modi over allegations of data sharing from his official app without users' consent.

His attack on the prime minister was based on a media report in which a French vigilante hacker alleged that data was stolen from his official NaMo app without the consent of the users.

"Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies," Gandhi said.By Online Desk

Four years after 40 Indian labourers were abducted by ISIS in Iraq, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament on March 20 that 39 of them had been killed. Her statement was a reiteration of what Harjit Masih, the lone survivor of the ISIS massacre had revealed when he returned from Iraq in 2015. Sushma had, however, until two weeks back, insisted that the other labourers had been alive.

On Monday, 2nd March, 38 out of the 39 bodies were flown back from Iraq in an Indian Airforce C-17 aircraft. While 31 bodies (belonging from Punjab and Himachal Pradesh) were received by the distraught families at the Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport in Amritsar, the rest of the bodies were flown to Patna and Kolkata to be handed over to their families.

The last labourer's body will be brought back as soon as DNA testing is completed, Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs General (retired) VK Singh, who oversaw the entire procedure, said.

The minister and the central government have come under severe criticism for giving false hopes to the families of the labourers. Sushma, however, defended her stance saying there was no way to corroborate Masihs revelations about the rest of his compatriots having been killed.

Heres what happened and how the ministry of external affairs handled the situation.

Forty labourers from India who were working at a construction site in war-torn Iraqs second-largest city Mosul were abducted by the terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in June 2014. Family members approached External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for help to rescue them.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. | PTI

Sushma met them 12 times in next three years, each time assuring them that their loved ones were safe. Even after Harjit Masih returned to India in 2015 and told the media that the other 39 labourers had been killed by ISIS, Sushma denied it, reiterating to the families and the nation that the kidnapped men were alive and safe. Meanwhile, she sent her deputy VK Singh to Iraq last year to investigate the matter.

Only after the Iraqi government forces were able to free Mosul from ISIS occupation this year that the truth about the abducted labourers came out. Iraqi authorities unearthed a mass grave outside Badush village in the nation's north, in which the mortal remains of the missing 39 labourers were discovered.

The identities of 38 of them were matched by DNA analysis. Subsequently, Swaraj informed Parliament that all the missing men were dead and that their bodies would be brought back to India in about 10 days.

Who are these victims?

Daily labourers

The 39 deceased men were labourers at a construction site in Mosul, Iraq. They, like the thousands who head to countries in the Persian Gulf every year to find work, were from poor families and went to war-torn Iraq to support their families in India. As many as 27 of them were from Punjab, while six were from Bihar, four from Himachal Pradesh and two from West Bengal.

A crestfallen Harvinder Kaur, the wife of Kamaljit Singh, with her parents and two childern in Gazipur village on Tuesday. Kamaljit was among the ill-fated Indians who were killed by ISIS terrorists in Iraq. | Express File Photo

One of them, named Govinder Singh, had worked in a Punjab factory before heading to Iraq in 2014. Khokhon Sikdar from Bengal's Nadia district, who is now survived by wife Namita, a five-year-old son and a teenage daughter, was his family's sole breadwinner. Gurpinder Kaur, the sister of another victim Manjinder Singh, has told the media that he was sent to Iraq by fraudulent travel agents.

When were they kidnapped?

2014

File Photo of ISIS forces.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had begun a major offensive against the Iraqi government in 2014 and captured major cities like Mosul and Tikrit. Soon after they captured Mosul, the terrorists took the Indian labourers hostage.

What did the Indian government do?

Repeatedly claimed labourers were safe

Heres a timeline that explains the sequence of events:

2014:

June 11-16: Abducted labourers called their families in panic, asking them to approach the government to rescue them. Families sought the help of Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj.

June 20: Then MEA Secretary (East) Anil Wadhwa assured the families of the abducted men that they were safe.

June 25: Syed Akbaruddin, then MEA spokesperson, told the media, I have again told you today that we have further confirmation as of today that they remain in captivity. However, they have not been harmed. On June 28, he again reiterated about the Indians' safety.

July 23: Sushma assured the families that their abducted kin would be released by the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

July 24: Sushma told Lok Sabha: As far as the 40 captives are concerned, then I could say that we do not have direct contact with them, but I could say on the basis of some other sources that they are safe and alive and are also getting regular meals.

August 19: Sushma informed the families that the men were kept hostage in a Mosul garment factory.

During the same year, when 46 Kerala nurses abducted by ISIS in Tikrit, Iraq, the arrived at a deal via intermediaries and rescued them. Sushma made 18 calls to her foreign counterparts and other key stakeholders in that region to ensure the release of the nurses.

2015:

May 15:

Harjit Masih, a Punjab native who was among the 40 labourers abducted by ISIS, reportedly returned to India in 2014 after narrowly escaping death when the ISIS men fired at the entire group. However, he came in front of media only one year after, as he attended a press conference organised by the Aam Aadmi Party in Chandigarh and said that the other workers who had been abducted along with him had been shot dead.

Masih was one of the 40 Indian workers abducted by ISIS militant outfit. | ANI Twitter Photo

Masih later narrated the entire incident to The Quint.

He said on 11th June 2014, all the 40 labourers, including him, were abducted from a construction site in Mosuls University Lake Towers. The residents already vacated the city a day before. As per Masih' account, two Bangladeshis brought the ISIS men on the site due to some payment issue. On the pretext of giving the labourers return visas, the terrorists first took them to the Al-Qudus building within the city and then took to a factory warehouse in the Al-Mansoor Industrial area on the following day. Then the workers were divided in two groups as per their nationalities.

From the industrial area, the Indians were then taken to a sand dune in Badosh desert in a cramped van. After that, they were made to kneel down on the dune and were shot from behind. While the firing went on for two minutes, Masih got shot in his leg and fall on the ground. After few minutes, he regained consciousness and found everyone around him dead. He then escaped from the execution site and reached to the nearby highway, from where he took lift from two vehicles. After reaching the ISIS base again, he used a fake name 'Ali' and begged the terrorists to help him to reach at the construction site. The men dropped him at the University Lake Towers.

From there, he, along with few other Bangladeshis, left for the city of Erbil in a car. They cleared another ISIS checkpoint, before being detained by the Iraqi forces. Masih reached to the Indian officials after escaping from the Iraqi custody.

After his return to India, he was first asked to wait for a couple of days, before going back to Punjab. Eventually, he ended up in government custody for almost a year.

Sushma accused the man of lying, saying that two foreign intelligence agencies had informed Indian authorities that the labourers were unharmed.

July 22: Junior EAM Minister V K Singh informed Lok Sabha that the government was taking the necessary steps to secure the release of the Indians in Iraq.

Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh (File | PTI)

September 19: Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal met the families of the labourers in Jalandhar and informed the media that the men were alive and safe.

2016:

March 30: Masih was arrested for allegedly colluding with a Dubai-based individual to send the 39 Indians to Iraq during 2014.

June 19: Sushma denied Harjit Masihs account of the massacre of the 39 others who had been abducted with him; she said the government had not found any evidence to support his claim.

In this file photo dated 7 Feb 2016 EAM Sushma Swaraj meets with the family members of Indians stuck in Iraq. | PTI

August 19: The opposition Congress party raised the issue in Parliament. Rajya Sabha MP Pratap Singh Bajwa moved a Privilege Motion against Sushma Swaraj for misleading the country and families of the abducted labourers.

2017:

June 8: The external affairs minister informed the labourers families that she had received information about a few Indians being found in a Mosul church. Following this, V K Singh left for Iraq to investigate.

July 16: The labourers families were informed that the men were lodged in a Badush jail.

July 24: Iraqi Foreign Minister Dr Ibrahim Al-Eshaiker Al-Jafari informed the media that he did not have any information about the abducted workers.

July 26: Swaraj told the Parliament that search operations would continue.

September 12: Even as the search operation was on, Christian priest Father Tom Uzhunnalil from Kerala, who was kidnapped by IS militants in Yemen, was freed after 17 months with Oman's intervention.

Father Tom Uzhunnalil after his rescue, in Rome. (Photo | AP)

December: Sushma Swaraj informed the Lok Sabha that the Indian government has sent DNA samples of the families of the labourers to the Iraqi authorities, presumably in the event that the labourers are found dead and DNA matching needs to be done to verify their identities.

How did the truth about the labourers death come out?

A gravesite was discovered:

After freeing the country from the ISIS forces last year, Iraqi authorities started digging the dirt mounds on a dry hill outside Badush village, where the terror group was presumed to have buried some of their enemies four years ago.

March 20: The Iraqi authorities informed the media about finding human remains in Badush. Deep penetration radars determined the presence of the remains. The bodies discovered had long black hair and silver bracelets or karas typically worn by Sikhs.

A DNA analysis was conducted on the bodies, following which identities of 38 out of the missing 39 were established.

Iraq's forensic director Zaid Ali Abbas said that the bodies were decomposed and many of them were found with bullet wounds on their heads.

On the same day, Sushma Swaraj first broke the news in Parliament that the labourers abducted four years ago were dead. She held a press conference and revealed details to the media.

How did the victims' families react?

They were miffed about kept in the dark

The family members reacted with shock and disbelief, as they had been misled over the years by Sushma Swaraj and the ministry of external affairs with repeated assurances that their kin in Iraq were safe. They were also upset that the government had not officially informed them about the death of their loved ones; they came to know of it from news reports about Sushmas statement in Parliament.

Some of the victims' families even demanded that a DNA test be conducted in India again and the reports be shared with them.

Accusing the MEA of keeping them in the dark, some relatives also called for monetary compensation from the government.

Masih's stand vindicated:

Harjit Masih reiterated what he had said in 2015, moments after the External Affairs Minister's Parliament address.

At the press conference called after announcing the death of the 39 labourers, Sushma responded to questions about why Harjit Masih had been disbelieved, said, "Masih is just an individual; he could claim 39 others are dead. But we are the Government, we cannot say this so easily. We have to be responsible."

She also rubbished Masih's account of being harassed by the government (when he was kept in a protective custody in 2015 and the got arrested at the following year, after recalling his escape from the fate that the other 39 labourers suffered). Sushma claimed that Masih had been kept in protective custody.

In an interview with NDTV on March 22, Masih further added that after his return to India in 2014, he was kept in a protective custody, as told by Sushma Swaraj in parliament at November that year.

He also added that the Indian officials, while luring him with a job, told him to say that the other 39 labourers were not dead.

They told me to say I don't know (about the others) and that I escaped, Masih said to the channel. He also said that he was treated well during the custody. He was kept in Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore and Greater Noida.

How did the Opposition react?

Criticised the governments handling of the incident as insensitive

Rajya Sabha MP from Congress Ghulam Nabi Azad accused the MEA of misleading the nation by forcefully asserting in Parliament even as recently as in 2017 that the labourers were alive.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad (File | PTI)By Associated Press

WASHINGTON: The United States and more than a dozen European nations kicked out Russian diplomats on Monday and the Trump administration ordered Russia's consulate in Seattle to close, as the West sought joint punishment for Moscow's alleged role in poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

Warning of an "unacceptably high" number of Russian spies in the U.S., the Trump administration said 60 diplomats would be expelled  all Russian intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover, the U.S. said. The group includes a dozen posted to Russia's mission to the United Nations who the officials said were engaged in "aggressive collection" of intelligence on American soil.

The move was one of the most significant actions President Donald Trump's administration has taken to date to punish Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin, especially over its intelligence activities. The last time they spoke, less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin for his re-election but didn't raise the March 4 spy poisoning, Russia's alleged election-meddling in the U.S. or its own tainted voting process, prompting dismayed critiques even from Trump's fellow Republicans.

Ex-Russian spy poisoning row: Expulsions warning to Russia not to flout international law, says UK; Kremlin says will likely respond quid pro quo

"This is the largest expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in United States history," said U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman.

The American penalties were echoed by announcements in European capitals across the continent, including those in Russia's backyard. All told, 18 countries were ousting more than 100 Russian spies, British Prime Minister Theresa May said, in addition to 23 already kicked out by the U.K.

The list included at least 16 European Union nations, with more likely to follow. Germany, Poland and France each planned to boot four, the Czech Republic three and Italy two. Ukraine, a non-EU country with its own conflicts with Moscow, was expelling 13 Russians, President Petro Poroshenko said. All three Baltic states said they would kick diplomats out. Canada, too, said it was taking action, kicking out four and denying three who have applied to enter the country.

Almost all of the countries said publicly that the Russian diplomats they were expelling were actually spies.

The expulsions came with a chorus of condemnation for the Kremlin  for the poisoning, Russian spying and other Western grievances. Poland's Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz called it "the right response to the unfriendly, aggressive actions of Russia." In the Czech Republic, where Russian officials have claimed the poison may have originated, Prime Minister Andrej Babis dismissed that allegation as "an utter lie."

Russia's Embassy in Washington responded to the decisions on Twitter by hinting at retaliation, asking its followers to vote which U.S. consulate should be shuttered: St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok.

In Washington, Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, was summoned early Friday to the State Department and told that the 60 diplomats would have one week to leave the country, a State Department official said. Antonov was later quoted by Russian news wire Tass as saying he "expressed resolute protest to the "illegal actions" and emphasized there's no proof of Russian involvement in the poisoning.

Russia's Consulate General in Seattle must close by April 2. The facility is a particular counter-intelligence concern to the U.S. because of its proximity to a U.S. Navy base, said the senior U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to be identified by name.

The U.S. actions appeared to signal an increased level of concern about the extent of Russian spying in the United States. Senior officials said they estimated Russia had roughly 100 intelligence officials at its diplomatic posts in the U.S., suggesting that dozens will remain even after the 60 are expelled.

"The United States and many of our friends are sending a clear message that we will not stand for Russia's misconduct," said U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Trump's envoy to the U.N.

Britain had already expelled 23 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being undeclared intelligence agents, which led Russia to expel the same number of British diplomats. The European Union has already recalled its ambassador to Russia.

The steps on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean add to a serious escalation of tensions between Russia and the West that has been building since the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for the U.K., and his daughter, Yulia. The two remain in critical condition and unconscious. A policeman who responded to their home was also injured.

Britain has accused Moscow of perpetrating the attack using a Soviet-developed nerve agent known as Novichok. The U.S., France and Germany have agreed it's highly likely Russia was responsible. Russia's government has denied responsibility and has blasted Britain's investigation into the poisoning.

Monday's expulsions appear to involve the largest number of Russians kicked out of the United States since 1986, when the Reagan administration expelled 55. The George W. Bush administration expelled 50 Russians in 2001 in retaliation for Robert Hanssen spy case. In its waning days, the Obama administration expelled 35 over alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has repeatedly wavered on whether he believes Moscow was behind the election-meddling, despite assessments from U.S. intelligence agencies and the special counsel investigation into Russia's actions and potential collusion with Trump's campaign. But this month, Trump's administration hit Russians with its first sanctions for the campaign interference, and also accused Moscow of an elaborate plot to hack America's electric grid and key infrastructure.By PTI

WASHINGTON: In a decision reminiscent of the Cold War era, the US today expelled 60 Russian diplomats, describing them as "intelligence officers" and ordered closure of the country's consulate in Seattle over the use of nerve agent allegedly by Moscow against a former Russian spy in the UK.

A dozen of these expelled diplomats are based at Russia's Permanent Mission to the UN.

"Today President Donald J Trump ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian intelligence officers from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing," the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, said.

All Russian diplomats, connected to the country's intelligence agencies, and their families have been given seven days' time to leave the country.

READ | Ex-Russian spy poisoning row: 14 EU countries, US expel Russian diplomats

The White House said this is in retaliation to the use of nerve agent against former spy Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom, which blames Russia for the attack.

Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, both remain critically ill in hospital in Britain.

Moscow has denied these allegations.

The United Kingdom has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats.

The United States takes this action in conjunction with its NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilising activities around the world, Sanders said.

"Today's actions make the United States safer by reducing Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten America's national security. With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences," she said.

She said the US stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian government's behaviour.

There are 100 Russian intelligence officials based in the US.

This is the first step, a senior Trump administration official told reporters during a conference call.

The US reserves the right to expel more, the official added.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said that the United States has begun the process of expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission to the United Nations who have abused their privilege of residence in the United States.

"After a review, we have determined that the 12 intelligence operatives engaged in espionage activities that are adverse to? our national security.

Our actions are consistent with the United Nations Headquarters Agreement," she said.

Haley said Trump's decision shows that Russia's actions have consequences.

"Beyond Russia's destabilising behaviour across the world, such as its participation in the atrocities in Syria and its illegal actions in Ukraine, it has now used a chemical weapon within the borders of one of our closest allies," she said.

"Here in New York, Russia uses the UN as a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders. Today, the United States and many of our friends are sending a clear message that we will not stand for Russia's misconduct," Haley said.

The strong US move comes after the UK alleged that on March 4, Russia used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to murder a British citizen and his daughter in Salisbury.

"This attack on our Ally the United Kingdom put countless innocent lives at risk and resulted in serious injury to three people, including a police officer," the State Department Spokesperson, Heather Nauert, said.

In response to this outrageous violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and breach of international law, today the US will expel 48 Russian officials serving at Russia's bilateral mission to the United States, she said.

"We will also require the Russian government to close its Consulate General in Seattle by April 2, 2018.

We take these actions to demonstrate our unbreakable solidarity with the UK, and to impose serious consequences on Russia for its continued violations of international norms," Nauert said.

The US calls on Russia to accept responsibility for its actions and to demonstrate to the world that it is capable of living up to its international commitments and responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security, she said.

The US move was followed by 14 European Union member states who expelled a number of Russian diplomats in a coordinated response.

Germany, France and Poland have said they will each expel four Russia diplomats, the Czech Republic and Lithuania three, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands two, and Latvia one.

Colonel Skripal was convicted of treason in 2006 and jailed for 13 years for selling secrets to MI6, which had recruited him in the 1990s.

The senior intelligence officer with Russian military intelligence GRU, was pardoned in a spy swap in 2010 and settled in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

The US move revives memories of the Cold War (from 1950s to early 1990s) when the two super powers - the United States and the Soviet Union - were engaged in a competition for increasing their sphere of influence and often targeted each other with such expulsions.UCOM offers affordable gadgets at bigger discount

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UCOMS LEVEL UP 1700 REGIONAL TARIFF PLAN USERS TO RECEIVE MORE THAN THOSE IN YEREVAN

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Armenias Parliamentary Elections PRESS STATEMENT

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International election observers to Armenias early parliamentary elections held press conference

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The Coronavirus-Related Situation in ArmeniaState Police report into Terri Flynn's property released

"It very clearly finds, as expected, that there was no crime committed," attorney Allyson Quay said in an email to The Daily News.We are the co-authors of today's reality - Nikol Pashinyan (video)

Nikol Pashinyan has a strong response to those who consider him a government project. "In reallity, with those assessments, a person does not give me an estimation, because he estimates himself because he puts himself in my place, he says, I would be like that if I was sold, [if I was] someone else's project, he does not understand it in other way." Nikol Pashinyan responded to the questions of young analysts; one of them wondered if unformed society is the cause of problems in the country. "We are the co-authors of today's reality, [we are] each one piece on the puzzle, whether small or big." However, the MP considers that it is wrong to impose everything on society. One of the gathered asked for a comment on the April four-day war. "At the time I mentioned that the war was provoked by Russia so that Azerbaijan would join the EAEU, in my opinion the scenario was such," the MP said. Pashinyan is confident that there is a way out of every situation, and he has something to say to pessimists. "I generally refuse to speak about the impossibility of Armenia's development, all those people gave up, but they are also the beneficiaries of our activities."One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021Reporter

Noelle McGee is a Danville-based reporter at The News-Gazette. Her email is nmcgee@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@n_mcgee).Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.Reporter

Tim Mitchell is a reporter at The News-Gazette. His email is tmitchel@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@mitchell6).Lets Make Armenia Free Country - Yerkir Tsirani petitions to EU

The Republic of Armenia is fluctuating from authoritarianism, from controlled democracy to totalitarianism. The path to totalitarianism also began after the failure of the signature of the Association Agreement including the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas (DCFTA) with the European Union. After this breakdown the fraudulent constitutional referendum in Armenia, led to the interconnectedness for the function of the same person as ensuring the continuity of the state's first personality. It is regrettable, but Armenia, as some other former Soviet republics, repeats the reality of the same person and the same political monopoly over a decade. The Armenian people had great hopes for the construction of a democratic state with fulfillment of deep democratic reforms and with a political support of democratic countries. However, failed reforms, failure to comply with the commitments made by the Armenian authorities did not receive a practical assessment from the international community, which, in its turn, made Armenia an example of a perfect failure. Country where one million people from around 3 million are poor, 11% of the 3 million population is elderly. Country, whose external state debt will reach $ 7 billion by the end of 2018, which exceeds 60% of GDP. Country where people are persecuted for political views and civic activism. Country where people can be imprisoned for false testimony for several years and objected to inhuman and degrading treatment against them. Country, where a female candidate for the mayor (who during that time was a deputy of the National Assembly of Armenia) and her proxy, who discovered fraudsters, could be violently and aggressively abducted by the policemen from the place of crime in the presence of medias only to conceal the election fraud (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Luyz8-lU8). As a result of this violence on May 14, 2017, Yerevan Mayor candidate and MP Zaruhi Postanjyan received numerous bodily injuries, her proxy and daughter Lilit Drampyan received brain concussion and was hospitalized. Although they were recognized as victims, the criminal case, was dismissed on the grounds that the evidence was insufficient. Later, this impunity was reflected during the February 13 meeting of the Yerevan Council of Elders, when an assault on members of "Yerkir Tsirani" faction took place accompanied by insults, outrageous acts, violence, discrimination, sexual harassment, illegal deprivation of liberty and violation of liberty of expression (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA9DScLnGMI).The usurpation of power by massive falsifications under the name of elections is almost always approved by international community as "one step ahead". The "one step ahead" assessed also authoritarianism in Armenia, which led to the emigration of about one and half million people, and Serzh Sargsyans failure to sign a the Association agreement including the DCFTA with the EU. This also contributed to strengthening the totalitarianism in Armenia. The current non-legitimate parliament formed by the so-called rating elections held in 2017 will soon elect the first face of the country, the prime minister, under the new parliamentary political structure. The prime minister's candidate claims to become Serzh Sargsyan, who by "absolute" dictatorship methods wants to establish a "solid" government, and with the adoption of the new laws which provide provisions that limit the work of the media during the government sessions and during the Yerevan Council of Elders' sessions. On March 23, 2018, by the initiative of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, some laws were adopted in order to hold closed-door sessions of the government and prohibit journalists from attending the Yerevan Council of Elders' sessions (see http://parliament.am/draftreading_docs6/2/K-265_DR2.pdf, http://parliament.am/draftreading_docs6/2/K-265-3_DR2.pdf). Dear colleagues, we are convinced that you also regret the failure of Armenia's commitments, and we call on you to take immediate actions to suspend the totalitarian regime in Armenia. In this context, it should be outlined that, - Modern technologies often make it impossible to cover the cynicism and aggressive behavior of criminal-oligarchic authorities in Armenia, which has caused great concern for Serzh Sargsyan. Hence, he has decided to hold the government's sessions closed and prevent the public and journalists from attending the Yerevan Council of Elders' sessions, - The neglect of ethical rules and public accountability by public service officials in Armenia is widespread and needs camouflage by restricting media activities and using force levers, - The current illegitimate parliament formed by the so-called rating elections in 2017 is almost entirely controlled by Serzh Sargsyan and does not endanger him - Serzh Sargsyan has no concerns to this regard, but the Armenian people are restless because the parliament does not carry out its missions, - Serzh Sargsyan has always been ignoring to ethical rules, transparency and public accountability, and now, wishing to become Prime Minister, he decided to hold the government's sessions closed, which is an unacceptable reality - Serzh Sargsyan wants to avoid responsibility for the decisions that he will adopt on behalf of the public. This is inacceptable in the Parliamentary government system. - Yerevan Council of Elders has become uncontrollable for Serge Sargsyan, which has turned out during the session of February 13, 2018. Consequently, Serzh Sargsyan took action to prohibit journalists from attending the Yerevan Council of Elders' session hall. Hence, this circumstance limits the right of the public to be informed about the council meetings and makes Yerevan's Council of Eldermen's "Yerkir Tsirani" faction members' to work in a more dangerous conditions, -In the absence of ethic rules, transparency and accountability, the corruption and abuse of official position will become total, - The repressions and violence against the political stance and against the manifestation of civic activism will be total. Sincerely, Zaruhi POSTANJYAN President of "Yerkir Tsirani" party Head of "Yerkir Tsirani" faction of Yerevan Council of EldersThe country's two major political parties, Zanu PF and the MDC - which both find themselves fielding new presidential faces in this year's harmonised elections - are ramping up their preparations for the impending polls. This comes as a leading political analyst, Ibbo Mandaza, has predicted a victory for new opposition leader Nelson Chamisa in the elections - as long as the polls are free and fair.



However, respected University of Zimbabwe political science professor, Eldred Masunungure, begged to differ and said empirical evidence pointed to a comfortable Zanu PF victory in the polls.



For the first time in two decades, the forthcoming elections will not feature ousted former president Robert Mugabe and the popular late MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai  who lost his valiant battle with colon cancer in February this year.



Mugabes 37-year, iron-fisted rule was dramatically ended by the intervention of the military in the countrys governance last November, paving the way for the installation of his long-time aide Emmerson Mnangagwa as his successor both in government and in Zanu PF.



Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo told the Daily News yesterday that the former liberation movement was going to its grassroots structures to mobilise its members ahead of the polls.

He also said that this officially marked the kicking off of the partys election preparations, which included an audit of its structures, and after which it would embark on the selection of parliamentary candidates.



The partys national chairperson, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri  who also leads its elections directorate  said her team would be concluding its election manifesto soon.



We are seized with the manifesto and it wont be too long now before we conclude it, she said.

On the other hand, Chamisa has hit the campaign trail with relish, which is seeing him holding two rallies every weekend.









On Saturday, he told a well-attended party rally in Murewa that the MDC Alliance would also soon unveil its election manifesto.





More than 107 political parties have registered with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to participate in the forthcoming elections, with the presidential plebiscite seen as a two-way tussle between Chamisa and Mnangagwa.





However, Chamisas ascendancy to the leadership of the MDC has not been without its fair share of drama.





Long-serving MDC vice president, Thokozani Khupe  who was fired from the party alongside two other senior officials last Friday, has since notified Zec that she will in fact be the MDCs presidential candidate in the elections.





The firing of Khupe, national spokesperson Obert Gutu and organising secretary Abednigo Bhebhe also followed the surprising resignation of chairperson Lovemore Moyo over the leadership rumpus.

And yesterday, Gutu took to micro blogging site Twitter to announce that the splinter group led by Khupe would field candidates nationally in both parliamentary and council elections, apart from having her as the partys presidential candidate.





The genuine, lawful, rightful and legitimate MDC-T led by acting president Hon Dr Thokozani Khupe will be fielding candidates in both parliamentary and local authority seats throughout the length and breadth of Zimbabwe, Gutu said  even as critics derisively referred to the splinter group as MDC-ThokoZanu on social media.





Chamisa has been receiving widespread support among the MDCs supporters, apart from also receiving a ringing endorsement from the MDC Alliance which has said he will be its sole presidential candidate.





Apart from the MDC, the alliance includes Tendai Bitis Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Welshman Ncubes MDC, Jacob Ngarivhumes Transform Zimbabwe, Zanu Ndonga headed by Denford Masiyarira, and the Multi-Racial Christian Democrats which is led by Mathias Guchutu.





Meanwhile, Mandaza has predicted a Chamisa victory in the elections as long as the polls are held in a free, fair and credible manner.





Zanu PF is wounded and its unlikely to win a free and fair election. The new kid on the block is Chamisa who has captured the imagination of youths, and I see nothing stopping him, he said.

But Masunungure saw things differently.





We are dealing with unknown factors. Both Mnangagwa and Chamisa have not really been tested as presidential candidates. Their abilities to attract voters are not known.

We might have new players, but fundamentally, the playing field has remained the same because they are still operating with their parties.





I agree with those saying Zanu PF is winning the contest comfortably, although not as resoundingly as in 2013. I would also like to warn that the talk that youths will vote Chamisa is mistaken because the demographics have been gravitating towards Zanu PF.





So what Chamisa needs is to reverse that trend rather than focus on the lie that the youths seen at his rallies will automatically translate into votes. On the balance, I would say the scales are tipped towards Zanu PF, Masunungure told the Daily News.Cavers Say They Made It

to Bottom of the 'Well of Hell'(Newser)  Former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum thinks students should learn CPR instead of "looking to someone else to solve their problem" by protesting gun violenceand a lot of doctors think Santorum should get a clue. His remarks were slammed by numerous medical professionals on social media, many of whom pointed out that CPR generally isn't enough to save people shot with AR-15-style rifles like the one used in the Parkland mass shooting, the Huffington Post reports. "I've operated on gunshot victims who've had bullets tear through their intestines, cut through their spinal cord, and pulverize their kidneys and liver," tweeted Eugene Gu, a surgeon at a Nashville hospital. "Rick Santorum telling kids to shut up and take CPR classes is simply unconscionable."

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Santorum was also criticized by California's Rep. Ted Lieu. "CPR is good for heart stoppage. Not good for victims of multiple AR-15 bullets, which typically impart 3 times the lethal energy upon impact than a 9mm handgun bullet," the Democrat tweeted. "AR-15 bullets obliterate organs and cause so much bleeding that victims die very quickly." Santorum made his remarks on CNN on Sunday, the day after protesters demanded tighter gun laws at March for Our Lives rallies in Washington, DC, and across the US. He said students should learn CPR or learn "to deal with situations" where they could respond to a shooter instead of seeking "phony gun laws." (This was one of the DC rally's most gripping moments.)(Newser)  A far-left French politician who celebrated the death of a heroic police officer has been arrested and chucked out of the "France Unbowed" party. Stephane Poussier tweeted that the death of Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, who traded places with a hostage held by an Islamic extremist, was "great" and meant there was one less voter for French President Emmanuel Macron, the BBC reports. According to the French media, Poussier, who stood unsuccessfully for the party led by Jean-Luc Melenchon in last year's elections, could be charged with apologizing for terrorism, which is punishable by up to seven years in prison and a $120,000 fine.

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Poussier said that every time a police officer is killed, it reminds him of a friend who died when police threw a concussion grenade during protests in 2014. Beltrame is considered a national hero for his actions after the gunman stormed a supermarket Friday and Poussier's remarks were widely condemned, with his party calling them "shameful and abject" and announcing his expulsion. The 44-year-old officer, who died from stab wounds, was honored at a church service attended by both Christians and Muslims Sunday, the Telegraph reports. Flowers and message of support were left at police stations across the country. Three other people were killed in the Trebes attack, which has been claimed by ISIS. (Read more France stories.)(Newser)  A rural school district in Pennsylvania that has armed teachers and students with rocks to ward off potential school shooters has arranged for armed security, reports the AP. Blue Mountain School District Superintendent David Helsel said in a statement posted on the district's website that "Starting tomorrow and into the near future, we have arranged for additional armed security for our buildings." Helsel says media attention over the district's planned response to school shooters "has increased our concern regarding the possibility that something may happen."

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Last week, Helsel said every classroom in the district about 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia has a 5-gallon bucket of river stones. He said the rocks are one small part of the district's overall security plan. The Allentown Morning Call quotes this from the school's policy: "Students and teachers in locked down classrooms are to put up physical barricades. If the intruder gets past these barricades, all students are to Counter their entry by throwing items at the intruder to inflict as much damage as possible and protect themselves. When will the river stones actually be used? This is a last resort! Throwing river stones or other items will only be used if all other steps have been taken to avoid contact with an intruder."

(Read more school shootings stories.)(Newser)  A top fundraiser for President Trump received millions of dollars from a political adviser to the United Arab Emirates last April, just weeks before he began handing out a series of large political donations to US lawmakers considering legislation targeting Qatar, the UAE's chief rival in the Persian Gulf, an AP investigation has found. George Nader, an adviser to the UAE who is now a witness in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into foreign meddling in American politics, wired $2.5 million to the Trump fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, through a company in Canada, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

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The AP's sources say Nader paid the money to Broidy to bankroll an effort to persuade the US to take a hard line against Qatar, a long-time American ally but now a bitter adversary of the UAE. A month after he received the money, Broidy sponsored a conference on Qatar's alleged ties to Islamic extremism. During the event, Republican Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced he was introducing legislation that would brand Qatar as a terrorist-supporting state. In July 2017, two months after Royce introduced the bill, Broidy gave the California congressman $5,400 in campaign gifts, the maximum allowed by law. The donations were part of just under $600,000 that Broidy has given to GOP members of Congress and Republican political committees since he began the push for the legislation fingering Qatar.

(Read more Robert Mueller stories.)(Newser)  "Mad" Mike Hughes finally went upjust like the self-taught rocket scientist always pledged, a mission accomplished for a guy more daredevil than engineer, who drew more comparisons to Wile E. Coyote than Evel Knievel. Hughes, the rocket man who believes the Earth is flat, propelled himself about 1,875 feet into the air Saturday before a hard landing in the Mojave Desert. He told the AP that outside of an aching back he's fine after the launch near Amboy, Calif. "I'm tired of people saying I chickened out and didn't build a rocket," he said. "I manned up and did it." The 61-year-old limo driver converted a mobile home into a ramp and modified it to launch from a vertical angle so he wouldn't fall back to the ground on public land. For months he's been working on overhauling his rocket in his garage.

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Hughes reached a speed around 350mph before pulling his parachute. Hughes was dropping too fast, though, and he had to deploy a second one. He landed with a thud and the rocket's nose broke in two places like it was designed to do. "This thing wants to kill you 10 different ways," said Hughes. "Am I glad I did it? Yeah. I guess. I'll feel it in the morning. ... At least I can go home and have dinner and see my cats tonight." He got permission to launch on the land owned by Albert Okura, who bought Amboy in 2005 for $435,000. "Mike branded us as 'Rocket Town,'" Okura said. "It was amazing." Hughes always maintained that his mission isn't to prove the Earth is flat. "Do I believe the Earth is shaped like a Frisbee? I believe it is," he said. "Do I know for sure? No. That's why I want to go up in space." His future plans are simple: A run for governor. "This is no joke."

(Read more flat Earth theory stories.)(Newser) 

Some 30,000 North Korean defectors have made it all the way to South Korea, and their ranks are growing more slowly than they once did. In 2017, the South gained 1,127 defectors, a number that tended to be closer to 3,500 before Kim Jong Un took over. At the New York Times , Jane Perlez and Su-Hyun Lee look at five North Koreans who tried to flee and made it across the border to China. But what happened next didn't go according to plan. Much of the story is told through 63-year-old "Ms. Choi," who defected to the South a decade ago and had been eager to get her sister, 50, and nephew, 28, out as well. Her sister had recently recounted being beaten while detained by North Korean authorities, and she was readyand would have poison on her to end it all if anything went awry.

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The story explains that the cost of paying a broker (basically, a smuggler) to get North Koreans safely through China has skyrocketed; Choi forked over $13,000, and that was just a partial payment. And for that, she got this: a broker who subcontracted the work to a woman whose husband then hired a Chinese relative to pick the defectors up in a van and take them to Shenyang. Except "them" was larger than expected: The nephew's girlfriend and two of his friends came, too. The group made it across the Yalu River, then spent two days lost in the woods before rendezvousing with the van. "We're saved. Were going to live," Choi's nephew told her in a phone call. But as they neared Shenyang, they vanished. The van driver said only that they were dead. Read the full story for more on what might have happened, and why. (Read more Longform stories.)(Newser)  An ex-waiter at Milestones restaurant in Vancouver who was fired over "rude" behavior has filed a human rights complaint against his former employerbecause, he says, he only acted that way since he's French, and thus his firing was discriminatory. Guillaume Rey says French culture "tends to be more direct and expressive" and that while working in the French hospitality industry, he cultivated a "direct, honest, and professional personality." But his former employer alleges that while Rey was friendly toward customers, he was often "combative and aggressive" toward his co-workers, once leaving a fellow server "borderline in tears," the BBC reports.

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Rey's ex-employer also says he was warned several times that the aforementioned behavior violated the restaurant's Respect in the Workplace policy before being fired in August 2017; he had worked at the restaurant since October 2015 and was often assigned to be shift lead, putting him in a supervisory role, per the CBC. The restaurant and its parent company sought to have Rey's complaint with British Columbia's Human Rights Tribunal dismissed, but the tribunal allowed the case to move forward, meaning there will be a hearing in the future. "Mr. Rey will have to explain what it is about his French heritage that would result in behavior that people misinterpret as a violation of workplace standards of acceptable conduct," wrote a tribunal member in the decision, per the Guardian. (At least Rey never did this.)(Newser)  British prime minister Theresa May says former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter may never recover from a nerve-agent attack that left them in critical condition. May says "their condition is unlikely to change in the near future, and they may never recover fully." May also told lawmakers that more than 130 people in the English city of Salisbury may have been exposed to the nerve agent used to poison the Skripals, per the AP. More than 50 people have been assessed in hospitals, and a police officer left seriously ill after the March 4 attack was released from the hospital last week. The UK blames Russia for the attack, but Moscow denies responsibility. On Monday about 20 countries, including the United States, joined Britain in expelling Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning.

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Russia, not surprisingly, is threatening to expel western diplomats in retaliation, reports the Guardian. Russia will not allow itself to be beaten up, the harder they try to intimidate us, the tougher our response will be, said Russian lawmaker Alexei Chepa. The US expelled 60 diplomats and closed the Russian consulate in Seattle. A sign on the glass door of the office in downtown Seattle said in Russian that the office was closed and would not be accepting new passport applications, per the AP. The move followed the closure last year of the Russian consulate in San Francisco. In Seattle, three people who showed up seeking new passports walked away in frustration. One young man, who declined to give his name, said: "The West Coast now has no consulates whatsoever, which means the closest one is in Houston. ... It's a huge inconvenience." (Read more Russia stories.)(Newser)  Mexican authorities say a water heater is to blame in the deaths of an Iowa family vacationing in the Quintana Roo resort town of Tulum. An inspection over the weekend found that the water heater at the Sharp family's rented condominium was leaking gas, according to Quintana Roo's head prosecutor. "A high concentration of this toxic (gas) was found in the room," Miguel Angel Pech told local media, per the Des Moines Register. Autopsies on Kevin Sharp, 41; Amy Sharp, 38; and their children, Sterling Sharp, 12; and Adrianna Sharp, 7, previously indicated they died from inhaling toxic fumes.

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The autopsy results indicated the Sharps had been dead for 36 to 48 hours when their bodies were found Friday; they had arrived in Mexico March 15 and were due to leave for home last Wednesday. Authorities checked on them after they failed to return to the US and were reported missing. "Some were lying in their bedrooms, and the children were playing, one in one part of the room and the other in another part of the same room," Pech says. On Friday, Amy Sharp's cousin told ABC News the family was supposed to meet up with friends at a water park in Mexico during their vacation and never showed; she also said it was odd they didn't post photos during their vacation as they normally would have. It's not clear what caused the water heater to leak gas. (Read more Mexico stories.)Sorry!

This content is not available in your regionNew Delhi:

Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that India is ready to combat any unforeseen situation in Doklam and will maintain its territorial integrity at any cost.

The Defence minister's comments come ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China in June.

Talking to reporters in Dehradun, Sitharaman said that the government is on high alert and constantly working on the modernization of our forces.

Sitharaman's comments came after Indian envoy Gautam Bambawale rubbished reports suggesting fresh Chinese troop build-up in Doklam saying the status quo remains unchanged.

No, I can tell you that in Doklam area, which we call close proximity or sometimes the face-off site, the area where there was close confrontation or close proximity between Indian and Chinese military troops, there is no change taking place today, he said while speaking to a Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Earlier, Nirmala Sitharaman had said that India has established a process of engagements with China at various levels. And I dont think that Doklam will be repeated. We need to be alert and conscious at the border every minute. Anytime anything can happen at the border. She was speaking at News 18 Rising India Summit.

However, it is also learned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also likely to visit China. It was earlier reported that Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) is involved in massive road construction and infrastructure build-up near the face-off site in Doklam.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Amid the allegations of sharing user data with a US-based company without consent by Congress, the official mobile application of Prime Minister Narendra Modi allowed guest users without entering their email address or phone numbers.

No permission is compulsory on the Narendra Modi app. You can access the app even as a guest without entering your email address or phone, the description of the Narendra Modi mobile app on Google Play store reads.

Earlier on Sunday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had accused Modi of having compromised the personal data of millions of Indians, who had downloaded his personal mobile application.

Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies, Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

Also Read | Rahul Gandhi accuses PM Narendra Modi of spying on Indians; BJP hits back

Hitting back at the Gandhi scion, BJP's national Information & Technology in-charge Amit Malviya accused Congress of leaking the data of its official app users to Singapore companies.

When Congress says they will share your data with like-minded groups, the implications are grave. From Maoists, stone pelters, Bharat Ke Tukde Gang, Chinese embassy to globally renowned orgs like Cambridge Analytica, the field is extensive and wide open, Malviya tweeted with a screenshot of Congress app's privacy agreement.

Joining Malviya, Union Minister Smriti Irani also took a dig at Rahul Gandhi and said, Now that we're talking tech, would you care to answer @RahulGandhi ji why Congress sends data to Singapore Servers which can be accessed by any Tom, Dick and Analytica?

Following the BJPs allegations, the Congress party deleted its official mobile phone application from Google's Play Store.

Also Read | Congress deletes mobile App from Google Play store post BJP's data theft charge

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Scribes across the world regularly face dangers from ruling powers for revealing the truth. In India too, it is no different.

For years, editors and correspondents have been allegedly targeted in various ways by persons in the government ranks or people associated with underground groups.

An international report compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists ranks India as the deadliest nation for reporters in Asia, even more than Pakistan and Afghanistan. The killing of scribes in the country is only lower than war-torn Syria and Iraq.

The latest casualty of the profession are three young journalist  two from Bihar and one from Madhya Pradesh.

Journalist Sandeep Sharma, 35, was hit by a dumper from behind, killing him on the spot. He was going for a work assignment on Monday morning. His friends and family members have claimed that the hit and run case by a heavy vehicle was not a case of road accident.

Sharma was murdered for investigating the nexus between police and sand mafia in Madhya Pradeshs Bhind district, said a local scribe.

Navin Nishchal, a correspondent of leading vernacular newspaper in Bihar and his colleague Vijay Singh were rammed by a SUV allegedly driven by the village council headman and his son at Bihars Bhojpur district late on Sunday.

According to family members, Nishchal was recently threatened of dire consequences by a local leader for writing against him.

In February, a journalist in Lucknow was attacked by unknown assailants with rods and sharp weapons. He was lucky to survive the attack thanks to his wife who ran with a pistol for his rescue on hearing ruckus at outside the house.

According to CPJ data, 66 journalists were killed across the globe while carrying out their duty in 2017 and in India alone five journalists were brutally murdered.

The journos who lost their lives in 2017 for doing their work were Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru, Santanu Bhownik in Tripura, Sudip Datta in Tripura, Navin Gupta in Kanpur and Rajesh Sheoran in Haryana.

The profession has lost at least 64 brilliant journalists since 1992. The CPJ report states that the journalists who were killed had exposed corruption or government machinery and mafia nexus.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The Congress party on Monday deleted its official mobile phone application from Google's Play Store. The party made this move after BJP levied charged that the party's app was being used to route data to Singapore.

The BJP and Congress are at loggerheads with each other with both parties accusing each other of forcing their applications to sway citizens in their favor to gain political mileage.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that he's the "big boss who likes to spy on Indians".

Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS. Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians, Rahul tweeted.

The Congress President Rahul Gandhi accused PM Modi of forcing 13 lakh NCC cadets to download his personal mobile application, which Rahul alleged, leaks data to the American companies.

Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the (Narendra Modi) APP, the Gandhi scion said.

Earlier on Sunday, Rahul had accused PM Modi of having compromised the personal data of millions of Indians, who had downloaded his personal mobile application.

Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies, Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Bhopal:

Officials of Madhya Pradeshs Dr Hari Singh Gaur University have suspended a caretaker of a varsity hostel on Monday after she forced girls to strip to find who was menstruating.

According to reports, more than 40 students complained to the university vice chancellor on Sunday. They informed the VC Professor RP Tiwary about being body searched after a used sanitary napkin was found outside a bathroom in the varsitys New Rani Laxmi Bai Girls Hostel.

The warden, Professor Chanda Ben, ordered the caretaker to body search the girls to find out who was menstruating, the victims wrote to VC.

Soon after the incident was brought to notice the university vice chancellor visited the hostel and assured the girls that stringent action will be taken against the warden and the caretaker if found guilty.

The girls have given a written complaint in which they alleged that were made to strip," the university's vice chancellor said.

Student bodies in Madhya Pradesh are protesting against the incident. The protesting students are demanding suspension of Chandra Ben.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday fired fresh salvo at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that he's the "big boss who likes to spy on Indians".

Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS. Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians, Rahul tweeted.

The Congress president also accused Modi of forcing 13 lakh NCC cadets to download his personal mobile application, which Rahul alleged, leaks data to American companies.

Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the (Narendra Modi) APP, the Gandhi scion said.

Earlier on Sunday, Rahul had accused Modi of having compromised the personal data of millions of Indians, who had downloaded his personal mobile application.

Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies, Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

Also Read | Data of Narendra Modi app users being leaked to American companies: Rahul Gandhi

Hitting back, BJP's national Information & Technology in-charge Amit Malviya accused Rahul of leaking data of Congresss official app users to Singapore companies.

Malviya tweeted in a similar way to Rahul and said, Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of Indias oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore.

The BJP IT cell chief even went a step ahead and accused the Congress party of sharing its app users data with Maoists, Chinese embassy and Cambridge Analytica.

When Congress says they will share your data with like-minded groups, the implications are grave. From Maoists, stone pelters, Bharat Ke Tukde Gang, Chinese embassy to globally renowned orgs like Cambridge Analytica, the field is extensive and wide open, Malviya said in a series of tweets.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Three journalists were allegedly killed in the last 24 hours in separate incidents in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, according to sources.

While two journalists of a leading vernacular newspaper were rammed in Bihar's Bhojpur district, another was mowed down by a heavy vehicle in Madhya Pradesh on Monday morning.

Journalist Sandeep Sharma, 35, who had been investigating the nexus between police and sand mafia in Madhya Pradeshs Bhind district was hit by a dumper from behind, killing him on the spot, family members and friends said.

According to local scribes, the incident happened hardly a few meters away from the town Kotwali Police station but police took more than 20 minutes to reach the incident site.

Recently, the channel where Sharma worked, had aired an audio conversation on the link between police officials and sand mafias.

Bhopal Press Club president told the media that Sharma had informed the local administration about the issue.

He had submitted a written complaint citing threat of life to the Bhind superintendent of police (SP), Madhya Pradesh press club members said.

In another incident, Navin Nishchal and his colleague Vijay Singh were rammed by a SUV allegedly driven by the village council headman and his son at Bihars Bhojpur district late on Sunday.

Police have identified the village headman as Mohammad Harsu. According to a Bihar police officer, Harsu has several criminal cases against him.

Soon after the incident, local torched the SUV. However, the local headman and his son managed to escape.

Both the journalists died on the spot. An FIR has been lodged against Harsu and his son, Bihar Police added.

Nischals brother also informed the police that Harsu and his family members had recently threatened the deceased over an article published against the local headman.

We have formed a special team to nab the accused, Bhojpur SP Avkash Kumar said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Washington:

In a decision reminiscent of the Cold War era, the US on Monday expelled 60 Russian diplomats, describing them as "intelligence officers" and ordered closure of the country's consulate in Seattle over the use of nerve agent allegedly by Moscow against a former Russian spy in the UK.



A dozen of these expelled diplomats are based at Russia's Permanent Mission to the UN.



" President Donald J Trump ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian intelligence officers from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing," the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, said.



All Russian diplomats, connected to the country's intelligence agencies, and their families have been given seven days' time to leave the country.



The White House said this is in retaliation to the use of nerve agent against former spy Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom, which blames Russia for the attack.



Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, both remain critically ill in hospital in Britain.



Moscow has denied these allegations. The United Kingdom has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats.



The United States takes this action in conjunction with its NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilising activities around the world, Sanders said.



"'s actions make the United States safer by reducing Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten America's national security. With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences," she said.



She said the US stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian government's behaviour.



There are 100 Russian intelligence officials based in the US. This is the first step, a senior Trump administration official told reporters during a conference call.



The US reserves the right to expel more, the official added.



The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said that the United States has begun the process of expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission to the United Nations who have abused their privilege of residence in the United States.



"After a review, we have determined that the 12 intelligence operatives engaged in espionage activities that are adverse to? our national security. Our actions are consistent with the United Nations Headquarters Agreement," she said.



Haley said Trump's decision shows that Russia's actions have consequences.



"Beyond Russia's destabilising behaviour across the world, such as its participation in the atrocities in Syria and its illegal actions in Ukraine, it has now used a chemical weapon within the borders of one of our closest allies," she said.



"Here in New York, Russia uses the UN as a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders. , the United States and many of our friends are sending a clear message that we will not stand for Russia's misconduct," Haley said.



The strong US move comes after the UK alleged that on , Russia used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to murder a British citizen and his daughter in Salisbury.



"This attack on our Ally the United Kingdom put countless innocent lives at risk and resulted in serious injury to three people, including a police officer," the State Department Spokesperson, Heather Nauert, said.



In response to this outrageous violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and breach of international law, the US will expel 48 Russian officials serving at Russia's bilateral mission to the United States, she said.



"We will also require the Russian government to close its Consulate General in Seattle by . We take these actions to demonstrate our unbreakable solidarity with the UK, and to impose serious consequences on Russia for its continued violations of international norms," Nauert said.



The US calls on Russia to accept responsibility for its actions and to demonstrate to the world that it is capable of living up to its international commitments and responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security, she said.



The US move was followed by 14 European Union member states who expelled a number of Russian diplomats in a coordinated response.



Germany, France and Poland have said they will each expel four Russia diplomats, the Czech Republic and Lithuania three, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands two, and Latvia one.



Colonel Skripal was convicted of treason in 2006 and jailed for 13 years for selling secrets to MI6, which had recruited him in the 1990s. The senior intelligence officer with Russian military intelligence GRU, was pardoned in a spy swap in 2010 and settled in Salisbury, Wiltshire.



The US move revives memories of the Cold War (from 1950s to early 1990s) when the two super powers - the United States and the Soviet Union - were engaged in a competition for increasing their sphere of influence and often targeted each other with such expulsions.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Pravin Togadia on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not enacting a law to build Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and remaining silent on the issue.

aThe BJP has promised to enact a law to build Ram Temple in Ayodhya during its Palampur national executive meeting in 1987. It has been four years since Modi is in power but the law could not be passed,a said Togadia while addressing a press conference in Nagpur.

The VHP leader also asked that if the dispute was to be resolved through the Supreme Court, then why people sacrificed their lives in 1992 agitation.

Togadia said that the 1992 agitation was launched to create a public opinion in favour of a pro-Ram Temple government so that the a law can be enacted.

Also Read |A BJP MLA urges girls to avoid making boyfriends to curb molestation

The Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute is currently being heard by the apex court.

Togadia also took on PM Modi for anot having the courtesya to meet his childhood friend to discuss the issues of national interest.

"Just a week ago I wrote a letter to the prime minister, saying you can meet (then) Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif but you don't have the courtesy to meet your childhood friend (Togadia) and discuss issues of national interest," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The Curiosity rover launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to test and explore Mars completed 2,000 days on the soil of the Red Planet.

The US space agency had released an image of the Martian soil to commemorate the Curiosity roveras journey. The image provides a scenic view of Mount Sharp, the mound which the Curiosity rover had been climbing since September 2014.

The image of the Martian soil and the Mount Sharp was taken in January 2018 and offered a preview of the next primary target of the Curiosity rover, an area on the planet which the scientists have studied from the orbit and have claimed that it contains clay minerals.

As per NASA reports, the Curiosity rover landed on Mars in August 2016, and since then traveled 11.6 miles or 18.7 kilometers till now. The mission of the Curiosity found its first evidence in 2013 when the ancient freshwater-lake environment was discovered on the planet. The freshwater-lake environment offered all the basic chemical ingredients certain for microbial life.

Also Read: NASA's Curiosity rover marks five years exploring Mars

Since the Curiosity rover reached the Mount Sharp in August 2014, it has examined environments where both water and wind were present.

The roveras international science team concluded that the habitable conditions on the Red planet had lasted for at least millions of years.

Recently, the Curiosity rover had again started its drill on the planet since December 2016. As per reports, a new process for drilling rock samples and bringing them to Curiosityas onboard laboratories is still being carried out.

For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi on Monday announced Rs 6,000-7,000 crore investment plan in 100 Indian start-ups companies in order to strengthen their hardware and software ecosystem. Earlier in 2017, the tech giant had invested in 10 start-ups and with the new plans, they are taking a step forward towards their goal.

"Till 2017 the net investment of the company was Rs 3,000 crore. In the next five years we will invest Rs 6,000 crore to Rs 7,000 crore in around 100 start-ups in India," PTI quoted Manu Kumar Jain, the Managing Director and vice-president of Xiaomi India.

According to Jain, Xiaomi is especially interested to invest more in mobile tech side with the aim to strengthen hardware and software ecosystem of the start-ups. He has also promised to keep the momentum in Xiaomi's fastest growing success all over the world.

Much to the delight of customers, the company has recently unveiled its first flagship experience store in Chennai and is offering products sold in China but not available in India.

The products include an electric cycle, a self- balancing scooter, an electric folding bike, smart shoes, smart cooker, laptop, water purifier, he said.

"The company will use feedback from customers on these products to understand the level of customisation required before launching some of them in India," Jain added.

While Xiaomi was actually introduced to build an internet company back in 2000, currently it is known to be one of the leading smartphone companies across the globe. However, the company has several internet products called 'ecosystem products'. Smart shoes, smart cycles, smart scooters, smart air purifiers, smart water purifiers, and smart routers are some of those internet products available in China.

Also Read | Uber exits Southeast Asia; will not impact India operations

Talking about Xiaomi's future plans Jain said, "Our aim is to make everything smart, internet-enabled and eventually run by a smartphone.

"Everything that we have in China is not suitable for India market," he said. "For instance, we have a water purifier but it doesn't have a water tank whereas in India market where you have power and water shortage, you need a water tank," he added.

Xiaomi had already launched its televisions in China and is currently selling smartphones, air purifiers and different mobile accessories across Indian markets.

"India is a very important market for us and within a very short time, we have been able to capture significant market share in the smartphone market. TV is a big category after smartphones for Xiaomi and in China, we are the fastest growing TV brand," he said.

The combined market share of the company in online and offline is 27 per cent as per market research institute GFK, according to Jain.

"We grew almost 20-30 times in offline. We already have 2,500-Mi preferred partners in 25 big cities in India," he said.

While the company has over 750 mobile service centres in India, it wants to further manufacture other electronic products across the country.

"But we need certain volumes to start manufacturing and you have to do a return-on-Investment analysis. If that is favourable, we would want to set up local factories for everything here," Jain stated.

Also Read | Vivo V9 launched in India; Check price, specifications, features and more

The company has expanded to five big warehouses and 26 smaller ones in India, he added.

To a question, he said Chandigarh is one of the biggest centres for the company in north India.

"As per GFK, Xiaomi holds 40.3 per cent market share in Chandigarh's offline smartphone market for January 2018," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)New Delhi:

Is it true? No, its just another fake news doing the round on social media. But fake news keeps spreading by the second as readers quickly pass on the news as speedily as received. Alarming news or false awareness seems easier to spread than any other information. And wave of emotions and sentiments that sway the mood often helps in the dissemination of fake news. As fake news rule social media, surely stringent rules are needed to save the world from wrong information.

While government and concerned authorities in several countries are gearing up against fake news, the Malaysian Government has proposed a law to check "fake news" with the aim to safeguard the public while ensuring the right to freedom of expression. The guilty can be punished with maximum 10 years in jail or a fine of up to 500,000 ringgit ($130,000). Also, anyone who breaks the law outside the country with what authorities deem to be "fake news" concerning Malaysia would face punishment in Malaysia.

However, as the anti-fake news bill is being tabled in Malaysian Parliament - Dewan Rakyat  the news has already fuelled concern among authorities and social groups. Some fear that the government may use the bill to crack down on dissent or use it as a tool to check criticism.

Like every blade has two sides, the Malaysian Government may have a political reason for its action as elections are nearing, but the move, if implemented, may help to check the dissemination of hoaxed or fake news and the spread of false alarm.

Call it human nature or basic instinct related to the original sin. The creation of fake news is mostly associated with a certain negative intent. Believe it or not, it thrives as it has a mass consumption. Some slurp it up. Some ignore it.

While a common reader may ignore fake news as a thing that goes around endlessly, the concern is rising as the issue is posing a serious threat to those in power, democracy and free speech. While the governments attempt to sharpen tools to strengthen its hold on power, there is a strong need to weaken the weapon of fake news for reason best known.









For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Kuala Lumpur:

The Malaysian government on Monday proposed a law to combat fake news which could see offenders jailed for 10 years, sparking fears authorities aim to stifle criticism as elections loom.

Governments in several countries, emboldened by US President Donald Trump's fulminations against fake news, are considering such legislation. But rights groups warn that authoritarian regimes are likely to use the new laws to crack down on dissent.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has already been targeting critics in politics and the media who have attacked him over allegations huge sums were looted from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

The proposed law, which was introduced in parliament on Monday, fuelled fears the government is seeking to intensify a crackdown before elections, which must be called by August but are widely expected sooner.

Opposition MP Charles Santiago said the bill was 'a powerful weapon for the government to silence dissent in the country'.

"It is timed for the elections and to silence discussions on 1MDB," he told AFP.

Also Read | Pakistan's bid to enter NSG suffers big blow as US sanctions seven Pak firms for nuclear trade

The proposed law said fake news was becoming a "global concern" and the new legislation was aimed at safeguarding the public, as well as ensuring the right to freedom of expression.

Any person found guilty of creating or disseminating what authorities deem to be fake news can be punished with a maximum 10 years in jail or a fine of up to 500,000 ringgits (USD 130,000).

The bill also allows for anyone who breaks the law outside the country with what authorities deem to be "fake news" concerning Malaysia to face punishment in Malaysia.

Despite the concerns, cabinet minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar insisted the law 'will not be abused', adding: "It is not aimed at silencing critics."

Also Read | Russia shopping mall inferno kills 64, scores of children among dead

The bill must be approved by a majority in the 222-seat lower house and also in the upper house, and this is likely as both chambers are government-controlled. It needs to go through several readings in parliament before it passes.

Malaysia is ranked 144th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Riyadh:

Saudi forces intercepted seven Yemeni rebel on Monday, including over the capital Riyadh, in a deadly escalation on the eve of the third anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition's intervention in Yemen.

One Egyptian was killed and two of his countrymen were wounded by falling shrapnel in Riyadh, authorities said, with residents reporting loud explosions and bright flashes in the sky shortly before midnight.



The Iran-aligned Huthi rebels fired three missiles at Riyadh and four others at the southern cities of Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran, with the coalition saying they all targeted populated areas.

"This aggressive and hostile action by the Iran-backed Huthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities," coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said.

"The firing of multiple ballistic missiles towards cities is a serious development."

The Huthi-run Al-Masira television channel claimed the rebels had targeted Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport as well as other airstrips in the south of the kingdom.

The strikes come after the US defence secretary last week urged Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to Washington to pursue "urgent efforts" to end Yemen's wrenching conflict.

The Huthi rebels have fired dozens of missiles into Saudi Arabia since last year, all of which Saudi forces claim to have intercepted, underscoring their capacity to strike deep within the kingdom amid a stalemated war in Yemen.

The latest attack could further escalate the coalition's military campaign.

A major attack targeting Riyadh international airport on November 4 triggered the tightening of a longstanding Saudi-led blockade of Yemen -- already on the verge of famine.

Another strike on December 19 targeted Riyadh's Yamamah palace, the official residence of King Salman.

Saudi Arabia has accused its arch foe Iran of supplying the missile to the rebels, a charge Tehran strongly denied.

The Huthis expelled pro-government forces from the capital in September 2014 and went on to seize swathes of the impoverished Arabian peninsula country.

This prompted a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia to intervene in Yemen on March 26, 2015, to help the government push back the Shiite rebels.

Since then, around 10,000 people have been killed and 53,000 wounded in Yemen, triggering what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Huthi rebel chief Abdelmalik al-Huthi on Monday said his fighters were ready to make more "sacrifices" against the Saudi-led coalition, in an address marking the war's third anniversary.

The Huthis plan a huge rally in Sanaa on Monday to mark the anniversary.

The UN says living conditions in the war-scarred country have reached catastrophic levels and that 8.4 million people face imminent famine.

The UN urgently needs USD 350 million for humanitarian projects in Yemen, a senior agency official said yesterday, insisting it was mere "peanuts" compared with the cost of the country's war.

Saudi Arabia and its allies -- aided by billions of dollars worth of military equipment from the US and Britain -- could stand guilty of war crimes, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Numerous rounds of UN-sponsored peace talks have failed to stem the bloodshed in Yemen.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.DominoFranz Ferdinand has released a new version of their song "Glimpse of Love," a track from their new album Always Ascending.

According to the band, the new take, simply dubbed "Glimpse of Love (Version)," has a "little bit more kick and punch." You can download the track now via digital outlets.

Always Ascending, Franz's fifth studio album, was released in February. The Scottish rockers kick off a North American headlining tour in support of it on April 8 in Toronto.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Police in Saitama city said Sunday they have arrested a 25-year-old police officer on suspicion of abusing his three-month-old daughter.

According to police, Tsutomu Ikui, an officer with the Kumagaya police department community affairs division, violently shook his daughter at their apartment at around noon on March 22, Fuji TV reported. When the child started hyperventilating, Ikui called 119.

The child was taken to hospital where she was diagnosed as having suffered a brain hemorrhage. Hospital officials notified police of possible abuse.

Police said Ikui, whose wife was out at the time, has admitted to the charge and quoted him as saying he got irritated with his daughter because she wouldn't stop crying. He said he lost his temper and shook his daughter about 10 times.

The child remained in a coma on Sunday. - Japan TodayA grand jury has decided not to indict a Buffalo man who fired a shotgun out his window in November and seriously injured a 12-year-old boy.

The Buffalo News reported that Edward M. Bald, 61, will not face any charges for the shooting that occurred November 17 at his Quincy Street home.

Buffalo man's shot hits 12-year-old boy after home window was smashed https://t.co/8hSruwBH5O pic.twitter.com/w7TqKYCaYK  The Buffalo News (@TheBuffaloNews) November 18, 2017

Investigators determined that two boys, ages 12 and 15, had skipped school and were planning to break into Bald's house because they thought no one was home.

Bald was asleep in his bed when a brick-sized rock was lobbed through his bedroom window. He said he thought he was being robbed, so he grabbed a shotgun and fired through the hole in the glass.

The shot hit the 12-year-old in the face and caused him to lose his right eye. He was left with shotgun pellets in his brain, a collapsed lung, a blood clot, brain swelling and damage to his esophagus. He remained hospitalized until Dec. 5.

According to the Buffalo News, New York State law allows the use of deadly force to defend a home when a person reasonably believes it could stop a burglary.

"Mr. Bald said that he thought that he was being robbed," Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn Jr. said.

Bald, however, could have faced a reckless assault charge because he did not put his glasses on before firing the gun.

"I believe that there was evidence that I felt that the grand jury should hear that showed that his conduct could have been reckless, in that taking a shotgun without your glasses on, being virtually blind and just shooting randomly out the window," Flynn said.

"He called it a 'wild shot. So he even admitted to police that it was a wild shot," Flynn added. "I believe that that was credible evidence that his conduct was reckless."

The 12-year-old was granted immunity in order to get him to make a statement to police. No charges were filed against the 15-year-old.It's been years since the state Department of Environmental Conservation did a gut check on the status of the celebrated wild trout fishery in the Upper Delaware River system, and how angler pressure and practices are affecting it.

At an informational meeting on March 22 at Hancock High School in Delaware County, DEC and Pennsylvania fishery biologists announced the start of a new, 3-year study that will look at those things - and include efforts to find out what Delaware River trout anglers would like, don't like and would like to see happen on the river's fishing scene.

The plan will include monthly electrofishing, spring and fall redd counts (measures of trout spawning activity), trout tagging, aerial surveys that count numbers of anglers on the waterways -- and a unique angler creel survey approach.

Chris VanMaarten, the regional fisheries manager for DEC's Region 4, reviews the specifics of the angler creel surveys that will begin on April 1.

The creel surveys, which will take place this year and next and will be conducted between April 1 and Oct. 15, will include actual interviews of anglers on the water by "creel clerks" on weekends, holidays and randomly selected weekdays. Anglers will also be handed final "catch cards" that they'll be asked to fill out and deposit in some 40 boxes at the end of the day at various locations.

All the data from the multi-prong approach, said Steve Hurst, the DEC's chief of the Bureau of Fisheries, will all be used to come up with a new management plan for the Upper Delaware.

"The existing information is inadequate to support a scientific evaluation of whether declines in the quality of the fishery have occurred and whether changes in management objectives and strategies are warranted in response to current patterns of angler use and trout population dynamics," according to a handout given to those attending the Hancock meeting.

The Delaware River - particularly the upper part that is in Upstate New York and along the Pennsylvania border - is well known for producing large brown trout. It attracts anglers from across the Northeast and beyond. The river contains other fish species, but trout are the biggest draw, DEC officials said.

A 2014 economic study paid for by the Delaware County Industrial Development Agency and the Upper Delaware Council entitled "What's a River Worth?" estimated fishing pumps about $7.3 million each year into the local economy.

The Catskills region is known as the birthplace of fly fishing in this country. It should be noted, though, that both fly fishing and spin casting is allowed on the waterways.

The DEC/Pa. study will focus on:

*The main stem of the Delaware (from Callicoon upstream to the confluence of the East and West Branches at Hancock, N.Y.). Also, the following tributaries: Hollister Creek, Hankins Creek, Cooley Creek, Little Equinunk Creek, Basket Creek, Hoolihan Creek, Pea Brook, Bouchoux Brook, Abe Lord Creek, Humphries Brook and Equinunk Creek.

*The West Branch (from Hancock to the eel weir in Stilesville). Also, the following tributaries: Shehawken Creek, Sands Creek, Balls Creek, Roods Creek, Sherman Creek, Oquaga Creek and Cold Spring Creek.

*The East Branch (from Hancock to Downsville). Also, the following tributaries: Cadosia Creek, Peas Eddy Brook, Fish Creek, Read Creek, Morrison Brook, Baxter Brook, Trout Brook, Campbell Brook and Downs Brook.

In regard to the study, both the DEC and Pa. aquatic biologists will be pitching to collect the biological data. What's different about this study of the river system is that the DEC is making a big commitment to seek angler input, along with seeking New York volunteers to help "confirm the location of important spawning habitats and to investigate the influence of reservoir releases on the utilization of main stem and tributary spawning habitats."

Steve Hurst, the DEC's chief of the Bureau of Fisheries.

Hurst stressed at the Hancock meeting that this study -- which will combine biological data with angler input and desires, followed by public discussion on trends and problems identified - is the shape of things to come in state. What's being done here, he said, will be replicated elsewhere in various forms on other important New York waterways in devising DEC fishery management plans.

To keep anglers and others interested in the river updated,Chris VanMaaren, DEC Region 4 fisheries manager, told those in attendance at the March 22 meeting that the DEC would hold a preliminary status report sometime year.

To find out more about the Delaware River study, see the DEC website. Those who want to volunteer and help in identifying and monitoring spawning areas should contact VanMaaren at 607-652-7366 or be emailing him at chris.vanmaaren@dec.ny.gov.Questions remain unanswered after Sundays 2018 season opener in Melbourne.

Max Verstappen, for instance, wonders if viewers might be in for a particularly painful season, given how hard it was to overtake.

"It was like Monaco," the Red Bull driver told the Dutch press.

"Even if you are a second or a second and a half faster, you still cannot pass.

"As a viewer I would have turned off the TV. And until something changes, it will stay that way.

"Do they have to change the circuit? I think they should do something about the cars, because in the past, overtaking was no problem here," Verstappen added.

Lewis Hamilton agreed, saying it was impossible for him to re-pass Sebastian Vettel after the virtual safety car shakeup.

"Its like my mother or my best friend is on the edge of a cliff and I couldnt get to them with all my will and abilities. Maybe in the next race it will be different," he said.

The pecking order is also unclear after Melbourne.

Mercedes Lewis Hamilton was miles ahead in qualifying, but then Ferraris Sebastian Vettel won thanks to the pit strategy and the virtual safety car period.

"Today he (Hamilton) was a few tenths faster on each lap but we were able to stay in the fight," said Vettel.

"Between us and Red Bull its close, and Mercedes is a bit ahead."

Hamilton said: "I cant imagine what awaits us in Bahrain.

"There are good and bad points. Ferrari is very fast on the straight, so theyll be strong in Bahrain. What I can say for sure is that it wont be easy for us.

"I think after four races well get an idea about the pecking order. Its too early now," Hamilton added.

"Everyone was talking about the special mode of our engine and our advantage, but Kimi was very fast in the first stint. It was not easy for me to create a gap.

"Im not sure that Sebastian got a good lap in qualifying, so we dont know Ferraris true qualifying speed. In my opinion, their car is better than it seemed."

What is clear is that Vettel won the opening salvo in his personal 2018 battle with Hamilton.

After qualifying, Hamilton said he "wiped the smile" off Vettels face, but the German had retorted: "What goes around comes around."

Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene told Sky Italia: "We must stay calm. Its only the first race.

"But there are those who speak and there are those who do the facts.

"I do not put myself in the middle of a skirmish between drivers, I just say that the race is on Sunday, the points are on Sunday and on Sunday we scored the points."The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has fired a shot at Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed for urging the electoral commission to withdraw the partys registration certificate.The party image maker, Kola Ologbondiyan in a statement on Sunday said the ruling party has been rejected by Nigerians who are only waiting for 2019 to oust the All Progressives Congress (APC).Our attention has been drawn to a press statement by the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, wherein he demanded that the certificate of registration issued to the PDP by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be withdrawn because the PDP lost in an election and according to him, does not know how to function as an opposition party.It is clear now that the APC and its federal government have come to their wits end. All they need to do now is to sit by and watch Nigerians collectively return the PDP to powers and by so doing restore the nation to the path of unity, national cohesion and economic prosperity come 2019.We want to alert all Nigerians of a clandestine plot by the APC-led federal government to strangulate the main opposition party and plot the way for the self-succession plan of their candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari.Our party has been following all the schemes and shenanigans of the APC as 2019 general elections draw nearer.The main plank of the plot is to ensure that President Buhari runs as a sole candidate in 2019. To achieve this grand plan, they must work to exterminate all known and perceived political opposition platforms in our country.Is it not strange that a party who, in its almost five years of existence, cannot constitute a Board of Trustees (BoT) in line with the provisions of its own constitution will be asking INEC to withdraw the certificate of a party whose all organs are intact and effectively functioning?Is it not also laughable that a party, who cannot hold even a non-elective convention, will be calling for the withdrawal of PDPs certificate?It is imperative to tell Alhaji Lai Mohammed and his cohorts in the APC that any masquerade that dances first will eventually have to watch the dance steps of others from the stand, the statement read.The National Secretary of APC, Alhaji Maimala Buni, on Sunday condemned the recent statement by former minister of defense, Theophillus Da...

The National Secretary of APC, Alhaji Maimala Buni, on Sunday condemned the recent statement by former minister of defense, Theophillus Danjuma.

Danjuma on Saturday called on the people of Taraba State to rise and defend themselves against ethnic cleansing





He spoke at the maiden Convocation ceremony of Taraba State university in Jalingo, the capital.





You must rise to protect yourselves from these people, if you depend on the armed forces to protect you, you will all die.





This ethnic creasing must stop in Taraba, and it must stop in Nigeria, Danjuma said.





Reacting, Buni cautioned Nigerians against inflammatory statements capable of undermining government efforts in restoration of peace and security in the country.





He said that elder statesmen had great roles to play in uniting the country rather than preaching divisive tendencies.





Buni noted the statesmen had opportunities of reaching out to government on any national or regional issue to advise appropriately; and wondered why they opted for the media to pass their messages.





The elder statesmen have great roles in seeing the unity of Nigeria than sending signals of war and disobedience to constituted authorities, he told Daily Trust.





The play to gallery by elders to be seen as ethnic champions is detrimental to national unity and peaceful coexistence.





It is only Nigerians with skeletons in their cupboards that are scared of this administration because of its fight against corruption and the no business as usual posture, he said.





The APC scribe urged Nigerians to disregard advice that will only brew hate, disunity, even as he commended President Buhari for ensuring the return of the Dapchi girls.



Lawmakers may have dumped their agreement with party chiefs to pull the brakes on their plan to override the Presidents veto of the Ele...

Lawmakers may have dumped their agreement with party chiefs to pull the brakes on their plan to override the Presidents veto of the Electoral Amendment Bill reversing the order of elections according toUnless the National Caucus meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) slated for today at the Aso Villa and the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting billed for tomorrow can convince Senator Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara to get their colleagues to back off; the Senate and the House of Representatives are likely to proceed with the plan, a source said.Supporters of the bill have alleged that some powerful individuals sympathetic to the President at the weekend perfected a plan to bribe National Assembly members.The allegation is that pro- executive senators might receive $50,000 each. House of Representatives members sympathetic to the President will each receive $30,000 to kill the amendment, which was initiated by the lawmakers.This could however not be independently confirmed. Pro- Buhari senators described the allegation as hogwash, saying if there was any such move, those pushing that the National Assembly should override the veto were plotting to induce  those in their camp financially.They are diverting attention from their plan, a pro- Buhari senator said at the weekend.Lawmakers in support of the bill said the plot to bribe National Assembly members was perfected at some high profile meetings in Abuja at the weekend. The meeting was also said to have resolved that anti-executive lawmakers who have cases with anti-corruption agencies should be threatened with prosecution in days to come.Those said to have attended were some pro-Buhari governors from the Northwest , the Northcentral and the Northeast. A minister from Southsouth was also said to be present.They said they learnt that some key members of the executive who have been spearheading strategies for President Buharis re-election in 2019 were unequivocal that the National Assembly must be stopped from going ahead with plans to veto the President on the electoral bill as amended by us, particularly the order of the 2019 national elections. In withholding assent to the bill, the President argued that the amendment by the lawmakers infringed on the constitutional powers of INEC.The President also said that the passage of the bill could lead to a situation where the National Assembly would be seen as legislating for the states on local government management.The Legal Department of the National Assembly, however, faulted the points raised by President Buhari to withhold assent to the bill.It advised the lawmakers to go ahead with overriding the veto if they so wished.The Presidents action has further polarised both chambers of the assembly, with those in his support claiming that 54 out of the 109 senators have indicated their intention to vote against overriding the veto.An anti  Buhari senator rejected the claim that 54 senators might vote against overriding the veto. But for the death of Senator Ali Wakili (Bauchi South) the Senate would have voted on the veto last Thursday. And all this would have been laid to rest,  he said.A source at the weekend insisted that the plan to override President Buharis veto was still very much on.The National Assembly has continued with mobilising for signatures in support of a possible override of the Presidents veto.The source claimed that 67 senators had signed a pro-Senate register to override the Presidents veto.The number, said to have been in a register kept by a Northeast senator, the source claimed, swelled to 67 from last weeks 63.According to the source, the number of senators might rise far beyond 80 if the more than 20 others said to be sitting on the fence sign up this week.It was also learnt that pro-Buhari senators are unrelenting in their push to stall the plot to override the President.The source said: The Pro-Saraki group has encouraged some of its members to infiltrate the rank of the Pro-Buhari group to give them a false sense of hope that they are greater in number. That makes the pro-Buhari group have a false sense of improvement but the senators know where they really belong.A meeting of the pro- Senate group held in Lagos after the wedding party of the daughter of Africas richest man, Aliko Dangote, at the weekend. The meeting afforded the Pro-Senate Senators the opportunity to review the register and it was affirmed that 67 senators have so far signed, the source said.He noted that about 20 senators believed to be sitting on the fence who had been neutral in the meetings of the Pro-Senate and Pro-Buhari so far are set to sign the register.It was learnt that three Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) joined the Senators at the Lagos meeting.The Lagos meeting, it was gathered, adopted the interpretation of the law that the two-thirds majority required to override the Presidents veto are those present in each chamber and not two-thirds majority of all members of the Senate or the House.The source noted that baring last-minute changes, the plan to over ride veto may start this week because the Senate leadership is sure of sufficient number to act and get the desired results.Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Senator Abu Ibrahim insisted that the Electoral Act amendment 2018 is Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agenda aimed at frustrating the APC during the 2019 election.The Katsina South lawmaker, who spoke in Abuja, insisted that those plotting to override the Presidents assent on the Bill will fail.To him, it is practically impossible for those plotting to override the assent of the President to secure two-third majority on the floor of the upper chamber.Ibrahim described the adoption of the conference report which placed presidential election last in reordered sequence of elections as an afterthought that will be defeated on the floor of the Senate.He said: I am sure there is no way we can override the President on the floor of the Senate. They cannot get the two-third required to override Mr. President. I am against the Bill. You cannot just come now and say you want to change the election sequence. I will not for vote for it. I will stand up to oppose it even if it is only me alone. I will oppose it. I am from Katsina State. Whatever happens, I will oppose it.Even if the National Assembly has the power to reorder election sequence, it remained an afterthought coming when it did.The PDP has no president, APC has. From the totality of the Bill, this Bill is working for the PDP, not APC. The Bill is PDP agenda.On the legal advice which dismissed the premise upon which President Buhari withheld assent to the Bill, Ibrahim noted that whatever the legal advice might be, it will still come to the floor of the Senate for consideration.Ibrahim asked Nigerians not to worry about the Bill since it will die a natural death.Nigerians, he said, should rather worry about the inability of the National Assembly to pass the 2018 budget months after it was presented.He also said that Nigerians should be worried about the inability of the Senate to confirm many nominees forwarded to it for consideration and approval.On the insinuation that the leadership of the National Assembly is divided on the Bill, Ibrahim said that might not be far from the truth since the leadership has not spoken openly about the Bill.He said: As an experienced senator, I can see there is a problem somewhere, which we have to address. Part of it is what the President did the other day by meeting the leadership of the two chambers to find a meeting point.Ibrahim insisted that Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara must, at all times, be mindful of what their members wanted because we are the people who put them in office.The lawmaker who described the National Assembly as the melting pot of different realities noted everything we do, there will be differences because individual, ethnic, religious and political affiliations.The differences, he said, remained the live wire of the National Assembly, which should not surprise anybody.The Deputy Senate president, Dr. Ike Ekweremadu, has on Monday tackled All Progressives Party, APC, over what he termed the use of anti-corruption agencies by the current administration to harass and intimidate the opposition party members.Ekweremadu who wrote on his official facebook account @IamEkweremadu, admonished Peoples Democratic Party members to worry less.Recall that the federal government had, last week asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to freeze undeclared assets that were traced to the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.The properties which totaled 22 include nine in Nigeria, two in London, eight in Dubai and three in the United States of America respectively.Ekweremmadu on the other hand had told his supporters not to panic over the ex-parte motion for assets forfeiture filed against him by the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property.I will not be silenced or intimidated by the actions of the panel, he said.Speaking at the parties South-East zonal meeting yesterday, Ekweremadu asked his party members to remain steadfast and worry less.Read his full statements below:I attended the South East zonal meeting of my party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday at the Government House, Ebonyi State. I had the obligation to explain to my party men and women the current smear campaign and intimation by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government.Below is a verbatim of my presentation:Our dear people of PDP, South East, while I thank you for the steadfastness you have shown over the last two to three years of APC governance in Nigeria, it is also an opportunity for me also to express my thanks and gratitude to those of you that tried to reach me and show concern over the smear campaign that you have witnessed concerning me over the past three weeks.As my people, I owe you the fact of telling you the truth, which is that I committed no offence. Because the matter is already in court, I do not intend to go into the details, but let me quickly add that very soon you will find out that it is only the politics of 2019. But what you are going to find out in 2019 is that PDP will be the David that is going to save Nigeria from the hands of Goliath and no amount of intimidation or blackmail will stop it.I just want to appeal that we continue on the path of honour. The APC government believes that one can capture power by blackmail and intimidation, which can never happen, and it will never happen.I want to say clearly that what we are witnessing is unfortunate and an embarrassment to us as a country. A situation where a government in power can try to use established anti-corruption agencies to harass and intimidate the opposition and when they believe that those agencies are being professional, they decided on their own to use soft tackles, will never be accepted by anybody; not by people outside.What we have found over the last few weeks is that a bunch of APC lawyers have assembled themselves and called themselves a panel on the recovery of government property led by a man called Okoi Obla. As a lawyer common sense tells you that you cannot be a judge in your own case. There is no justice for the cockroach in the court of fowls. That is exactly what that panel is all about. Obla and his co-travellers believe that we are all stupid. There is no way Nigerians and the international community will watch a panel set up APC, constituted by APC to try PDP people; it would never happen.I just want to appeal that we continue to pray for this country because the days ahead are worrisome but by the grace of God, we will overcome.Reno Omokri, a former presidential assistant on new media, has again lambasted Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo for his persistent atta...

Reno Omokri, a former presidential assistant on new media, has again lambasted Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo for his persistent attacks on ex-President Gooduck Jonathan.





He said it was no longer surprising that Aisha Yesufu, co-founder of #BringBackOurGirls, said the VP was her greatest disappointment in the Buhari administration.





 The former presidential aide, in a statement Sunday morning, condemned latest comments by the presidency against the Jonathan government.





Osinbajos spokesman, Laolu Akande, had stated that We have a situation where a former first lady came out openly to claim over $171m found in her accounts and you think Nigerians will simply overlook that.





You have a situation where hundreds of billions have been recovered including the discovery of $43M cash in an apartment in Ikoyi, and you think Nigerians will simply forget that?





Reacting, Omokri said: First of all, there is no former First Lady from the Jonathan administration that has claimed $171 million in a bank account. Upon a promise of a suit for libel, I challenge Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to name that person.





Why was the statement silent about proven and established cases of corruption right under the nose of the current administration like the multimillion Naira grass cutter scam involving the immediate past Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, a man who has not been charged despite the obvious case against him, or the Maina scandal, where the biggest ever alleged thief in Nigerias civil service that was dismissed by the PDP government was recalled by the Buhari administration, reinstated into the civil service, given double promotion and (according to Junaid Mohammed) was given armed military escorts.





What about the $25 billion contracts that were awarded without due process at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation as detailed in the leaked memo from the minister of state for petroleum resources, and for which the Vice President himself was almost roped in and for which he had to issue a quick denial?





What about the various padded budgets from the Buhari era that are a disgrace to decent people the world over?





What about the fact that this government, after condemning the Jonathan administration for paying fuel subsidy, has turned around to secretly pay the same fuel subsidy that it claimed was a scam?









Thankfully, the Vice Presidents statement mentioned the Ikoyi Apartment $44 million. A panel was instituted to probe those funds. I challenge the Vice President to release the findings of that panels report to the public.





Of major note is the sworn testimony by the former acting Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Mohammed Dauda, to the House of Representatives Committee On National Safety and Intelligence, that elements in the Presidency pressured him to share the fabled Ikoyi apartment $44 million with them.





That the Vice Presidents statement refused to mention these glaring cases of corruption but only cherry picked alleged corruption from previous administration is proof that the Buhari government is not interested in fighting corruption, it is only focused on fighting the opposition.





If the Buhari administration were fighting corruption, it would not have registered Nigerias worst ever performance in Transparency Internationals Corruption Perception Index where Nigeria moved 12 places backward from 136 to 148. This is after Nigeria had made its best ever performance in 2014 under former President Jonathan when we moved 8 places forward from 142 in 2013 to 136 in 2014.





Only in an upside-down world does a government who took Nigeria backward on the corruption scale accuse an administration that took Nigeria forward. Only in a delusional regime does a President who scores 148 on the Transparency International CPI, go to a Ghana that scored 81 to offer to teach them how to fight corruption.





The Buhari administration should instead have asked to take anti-corruption lessons from the Jonathan government and the Ghanaian President.





And even members of this administration know that the joke is on them. Or how else would you describe the memo from the minister of finance to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission querying him on why his public boasting of monies recovered from corrupt persons differ from the actual deposits made by the EFCC and requesting him to explain the difference.





Obviously, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has forgotten his pastoral calling and has instead taken up the satanic calling of lying.





It is not surprising that Aisha Yesufu, co-founder of #BringBackOurGirls, said that the Vice President was her greatest disappointment in the Buhari administration. A man who ought to be talking about how many jobs, projects and infrastructure his administration has delivered has been reduced to telling lies about a so called anti-corruption war that is unable to impress Transparency International or other global anti-corruption activists. How unfortunate.



Sergey Mavrodi, the founder of MMM, a Russian company that ran one of the worlds largest Ponzi scheme, is dead.

Sergey Mavrodi, the founder of MMM, a Russian company that ran one of the worlds largest Ponzi scheme, is dead.

According to a report by Moskovsky Komsomolets, the founder of the MMM series of financial pyramid schemes, Mavrodi, died in Moscow at the age of 62.





Mavrodi was taken to a city hospital from a bus stop overnight Monday, March 26, after he felt weakness and pain in the chest area.





The emergency team has failed to save his life. He died this morning, the report said.





Sergei Mavrodi created the company MMM in 1992. It quickly gained popularity and became the largest financial pyramid in the history of Russia.





The income of the members who joined it was paid out of the contributions of new arrivals, and when the flow of customers ceased to grow, non-payments began.





According to various estimates, the number of victims of MMM has reached 10-15 million people.





In 1994, Mavrodi became a member of the Russian parliament. Then he announced that he was giving up his privileges: salaries and cars. Mavrodi stressed that he became a deputy only for the sake of immunity.





Two years later, before the presidential elections in 1996, he was stripped of his mandate.





In 2007, Mavrodi was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for defrauding 10,000 investors out of 110 million rubles ($4.3 million). All this time, he left during the preliminary detention while the investigation was conducted.





Mavrodi claimed he is not the beneficiary of the donations and he is not used to flamboyant lifestyle.



The Northern Governors Forum (NGF) has held a meeting with the national leadership and state chapters of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breed...

The Northern Governors Forum (NGF) has held a meeting with the national leadership and state chapters of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) as part of efforts to resolve the continued clashes between herdsmen and farmers.The meeting, which held in Sokoto, was attended by the NGF chairman and Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima, host Governor Aminu Tambuwal and their counterparts from Kano (Abdullahi Ganduje) and Kaduna (Nasir El-Rufai).Though no formal communique was issued after the meeting, reports showed that the gathering discussed genesis of the crisis, efforts to contain it and how to entrench permanent a solution.Shettima said the 19 northern states are worried by the rising insecurity involving herdsmen and farmers. He hoped that their intervention will help in resolving the conflicts.According to Shettima, the governors are adopting a local-conflict resolution mechanism to bring back trust and understanding among the people to complement the Federal Governments efforts.He said: We have seen enough crises in the Northeast. We cannot afford to allow other conflict linger without a solution. We hope to hear from all sides and finally come up with a workable plan that will restore confidence and entrench lasting peace in our region.A source said of MACBANs stand: The leadership of Miyetti Allah, led by the National President, Muhammed Kirowa, told the meeting that the approach to conflict resolution adopted by political leaders in some states is not helpful.In his views, political leaders, especially governors, should approach issues of peace in a neutral perspective, not as a biased party. He said their members have lived in many of these conflict-prone communities for centuries without conflict, but wondered why the situation is getting out of hand now.Reports said though no resolution was reached at the meeting, a new round of discussion will be scheduled for Abuja, Jos, Makurdi and Kaduna in the coming weeks and months.Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has described Libya as a failed country full of criminals and militias.

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has described Libya as a failed country full of criminals and militias.





He said the inhuman treatment meted on immigrants in the country, especially the ones from Nigeria, made the country a rogue state.





The promoter of the Coalition for Nigeria Movement stated this at a summit organised by the Youth Development Centre, an arm of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta.





He lamented the plights of Nigeria migrants still trapped in illegal prisons and cells in the country.





Libya is a rogue state. Libya is almost a failed state full of criminals and militias. Virtually no one could be held responsible for crimes in Libya.





Now, there are two governments in Libya, two national Assemblies, two National banks. What is the way forward.





The experience is hazardous, unpleasant, tasking, very dangerous, the lessons learnt are the most important. I was in Italy recently and the Nigerian Ambassador there told me that there are 1600 Nigerians in Italian prisons. All of them are youth.





I wanted to go there but I learnt the process is too long, but the story of the Libyan returnees here is more graphic, what is the solution?





We have to do what we should at home to prevent you(returnees) from taking the type of risk you took. You thought travelling to Libya would make better, but what have you got?





Pains, stress, death, deformity and anguish. Going by the desert or by the Mediterranean is not the solution.





People dont want to go back to Nigeria. They dont want to go back home, they abuse you and keep asking: Is there light in your country, is there running water? Even as bad as things are here, it is still better here.





Migration is ordained by God, whether Christian or Muslim, migration is ordained by God, God told Abraham to move, leave your home and move to another land. Is that not migration? One of the greatest migration is Israel moving to the Promised Land(Cannan).





Prophet Mohammed was born in Mecca but he migrated to Medina. Migration by itself is not anything wrong, it has led to civilization and development, we are all migrants but We have to prevent the sort of thing you(the returnees) have gone through.





We are hearing the story from the people concerned, their story of pains, sorrow and freedom.





I know many of you (the returnees) are not comfortable with the camera facing you, there is nothing to be ashamed of this time but we believe when people see the video, it will be for correction and instruction so that people who watch it would believe the story and stay away from irregular journey to Libya or Europe.



Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance, says there is no ulterior motive behind the letter she wrote to Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Eco...

Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance, says there is no ulterior motive behind the letter she wrote to Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

In a letter dated February 9,

Adeosun asked Magu to provide more information on recovered loot.





She said there were conflicting figures on recovered funds.





This is to notify you of the records of cash asset recoveries in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from May 2015 till date based on information available to the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (attached), the letter read.





It has, however, come to the notice of the ministry of finance, the use of recovery figures in media reports by the EFCC that do not reconcile with the records of the ministry.





You are, therefore, kindly requested to clarify where these cash recoveries have been deposited and provide accompanying evidence.





In a statement by Oluyinka Akintunde, the ministers media aide, Adeosun denied reports that there is a rift between her and Magu.





The minister wishes to state explicitly that the letter dated 9th February 2018, was a standard letter aimed at improving controls over the recovered funds, the statement read.





There is no ulterior motive behind the letter as alleged in some media reports but to enable the reconciliation and harmonisation of the figures on recovered funds by the government.



There are strong indications that University of Lagos, UNILAG, would soon set up conventional and standard locally-built refineries to boost the nations refinery capacity.The institutions Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, who made this known at the 1st Annual General Meeting, AGM, and 2nd Alumni Lecture of the UNILAG Faculty of Engineering Alumni Association, said as an institution that produced graduates in Chemical Engineering, students of the school needed to be exposed to refining process.According to him, committee has been set up to under-study the process from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. If you go to some of the universities in Texas, when their students graduate, because they have refineries in their universities they do not need to do certain courses when it comes to professional courses. Engineering has left that level of just setting down and starts computing. It is now about turning ideas to realities. It is about producing entrepreneurial skills and developing the skills in the life our students.We need to develop our students, all of them have skills that are unique to them, and the skills can help them set up their own businesses in future. Most of our students can develop application while some are with different skills. As a Vice Chancellor, faculty by faculty I am going to interact with students to encourage them, to develop their skills and we have already gotten the commitment of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and Bank of Industry, BOI for funds.In his keynote address, titled Alumni Association: A veritable tools for networking and promotion of professionalism, Managing Director, Kresta Laurel Limited, Lagos, Dideolu Falobi called for reforms in Engineering Faculties and need for Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, to show interest in Engineering students and young engineers.There is need to ensure that Engineers only serve in Engineering Institutions and companies during National Youth Service Corps, NYSC. Return of post-graduation training/education to create parity with other professions like Medicine, Law, and Architecture among others, enforcement of wage parity with other professionals during and after NYSC.On his part, Chairman, BoT, UNILAG Faculty of Engineering Alumni Association, Oye Eribake, said as association members were committed to promoting the well-being of other Alumni especially the young graduates and to assist the Faculty in turning out engineers fit for industry.The presidency Sunday night said that there was evidence that the nations apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN got specific inst...

The presidency Sunday night said that there was evidence that the nations apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN got specific instruction to ensure billions were moved from the bank directly to the residence of the former president Goodluck Jonathan.This new discovery is coming few days after Vice President Yemi Osinbajo described grand corruption as the elephant in the room when discussing the Nigerian economy. A source in the presidency said more compelling details have been established showing how several tranches of funds were illegally removed from the public by the Jonathans administration specifically ahead of the 2015 presidential elections.The source claimed that the former National Security Adviser, NSA personally supervised the physical transfer of the money from the CBN vaults to the private residence of the former President. According to the source, In one particular instance over N70 billion was released in parts from the national treasury between January 8 and February 25, 2015. The over $289M which was also referenced last week by the Vice President is said to be included in this particular series of illegal transactions. Besides, that in another illegal disbursement, the minutes of the Central Bank board meeting of 25th August 2014 indicated the boards okay of another N60B requested by the former President and released later by the Central Bank.A presidency source specifically claimed that sum which was okayed by the CBN board was not tied to any project or procurement, and was meant and disbursed purely for campaign purposes, through the office of the then NSA and the SSS leadership at the time. He said that N60 billion that was okayed by the CBN on August 25, 2014 was said to have been shared between the two security agencies thus: N40B went to the NSA while N20 billion was released to the State Security Services (SSS). While some of these newly emerging fund disbursements have been traced to the former NSA, there are indications that some of the funds are unconnected to the ongoing Defence contract trials of the former NSA,while some might, he said.Recall that Osinbajo, in a recent speech, had alleged that weeks to the 2015 election under the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan about N100B was released and embezzled. He also disclosed that about $289m was disbursed illegally about the same time. The new discovery revealed that the $289m mentioned by the Vice President was released on February 25, 2015 Details of the deal shows that documents including cash vouchers indicate that $289,202,382 was released in cash to the NIA by the Central Bank of Nigeria from the Joint Venture (JV) Cash Call Account No. 000-0000-11658-366 of the NNPC/NAPIMS with JP Morgan Chase Bank, New York, USA. At the exchange rate then of $199 to a naira, $289m was equivalent to about N60 billion. But had the money not been stolen, it would be at today s rate over N104B. According to the source, further findings showed that in yet another set of illegal fund withdrawals under one week between January 8 and 16, 2015, the sum of N1.5 billion was released in three tranches of N300m, N400m and N800m respectively.He said, This money was released from the MEA Research Library Account to the Jointrust Dimension reportedly owned by Danjuma Yusuf and Nenadi Esther Usman. The source further said the sum was transferred to their various political associates, which included a former minister that is critical to President Muhammadu Buharis government. Further findings showed that N350 million was allegedly transferred to the former minister through his Zenith Bank Account No. 1004735721, on February 2, 2015.Also, another N250 million was allegedly transferred to him through the same Zenith Bank Account on February 19, 2015. A document further showed that yet another N10 billion was released to the Office of the National Security Adviser by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on September 15, 2015. The money was said to have been released in tranches of foreign exchange of $47 million, $5 million, 4 million Euros and 1.6 million Euros.A letter from the Office of the NSA in November, 2014 further showed that the monies were released by the CBN as funds for special services. Further to our discussion, you are pleased requested to provide the sum of Forty Seven Million United States Dollars (USD47,000,000,00)cash out of the Ten Billion Naira (N10,000,000,000,00) and the balance in Euro to this office for special services, a letter signed by the former NSA read.Findings have shown that this particular CBN release of N10B was sourced in November 2014 from a N40 Billion CBN released funds meant for Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR. It was this N10B that former President Jonathan instructed the CBN Governor and the then NSA to deliver to him personally in a private residence in Abuja. Sources said the money was illegally transferred using CBN van for the use of PDP Presidential Primaries. An official source noted that even more illegal transactions would soon be unearthed.The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it is sorry for the mistakes it made while governing the country.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it is sorry for the mistakes it made while governing the country.





Uche Secondus, national chairman of the party, said this on Monday at an event in Abuja.





The PDP governed Nigeria for 16 years, from 1999 to 2015 when it lost power to the All Progressives Congress (APC).





We made mistakes. On behalf of my colleagues and members of these party, I apologise to Nigerians, Secondus said.





We have learnt from our mistakes. It was all part of our evolution process. Without it, there can be no maturity. I believe that PDP is more matured, to provide the best for this country.



Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has taken his battles with the political class to the media following a petition to the police over last weeks report on herdsmen killings in the state.The state government it was learnt petitioned the police over the reports which thus instigated the police to summon nine journalists to police headquarters.Vanguard among other leading national newspapers last week reported the killing of some citizens of the state by herdsmen. Penultimate weeks attack on the herdsmen was the latest in a series of attacks on the indigenes of the state.Governor Bello had in the face of the uneasiness over herdsmen killings across the country offered to provide a colony for herdsmen in the state. The governors offer has, however, been largely rebutted by some enlightened and esteemed statesmen in the state.Following the governors assertion, a community leader in the state, Chief Alhassan Ejike, warned the governor to keep off from Kogi West in order to avoid a bloodbath.You are not the owner of Kogi and you cannot allocate a land that doesnt belong to you to foreigners, he noted.The people of Kogi-East, who form the majority in the state have also warned the governor to keep off.The President, Igala Project, Mr. Atayi Babs, and the Secretary-General, Musa Haruna, while rebuffing the governor said:our people, who are largely farmers, are not prepared to host herdsmen or cattle colony masters in our land.Our position is further reinforced by the multiple acts of war and mayhem being unleashed daily on our innocent farmers and hapless law-abiding citizens in their villages, homes and farmlands by rampaging herdsmen.Besides the face off with his people over the herdsmen attacks, the governor has also been embroiled in repeated clashes with the political class including members of his own All Progressives Congress, APC.The state executive of the APC had to relocate to Abuja on account of the repeated face-offs with the governor who came into office through a bye-election after the death of the APC candidate in the 2015 election, Prince Abubakar Audu.Senator Dino Melaye, arguably the most prominent political rival of the governor in the APC last weekend petitioned the United Nations, United States and United Kingdom governments over the state of political unease in Kogi State.Bill Gates, worlds second richest man, says the federal governments investments in young people, especially in areas of health and educa...

Bill Gates, worlds second richest man, says the federal governments investments in young people, especially in areas of health and education, is not good enough.





He said this in an interview with CNN. The co-chairman of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reiterated the comments he made when he spoke at the expanded national economic council meeting on Thursday.





At the meeting which was presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Gates had said the execution priorities of the economic recovery and growth plan do not reflect the true needs of Nigerians.





The Nigerian governments economic recovery and growth plan identify investing in our people as one of three strategic objectives. But the execution priorities dont fully reflect peoples needs, prioritising physical capital over human capital, he had said.





People without roads, ports, and factories cant flourish. And roads, ports and factories without skilled workers to build and manage them cant sustain an economy.





Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, who was at the meeting had defended the federal government, saying Gates comment was incorrect.





But in the chat with CNN, the billionaire businessman defended his criticism of the Nigerian government.





He said Nigeria would become an engine of growth if the government gets health and education right.





As a partner in Nigeria, I am saying the current plan is inadequate. Nigeria has all these young people and the current quality and quantity of investment in these young generations; in health and education just isnt good enough. So, I was very direct, he told CNN.



A 49-year-old New Jersey man was charged last week with being the leader of a child pornography network, authorities said.

Joseph McCormick (Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office)

Joseph McCormick, of Egg Harbor City, was arrested Friday, three days after the FBI searched computers in his home, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.

McCormick is charged with distribution and possession of child pornography, being the leader of a child pornography network, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.

Serving as the leader of a child pornography network is a new charge in New Jersey. It's the first time someone in Atlantic County has been charged with the offense, officials said.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.It's an annual tradition.

Gerry Resnick, 64, and his son Alexander, 30, travel once a year to attend a New York Giants away game.

This year it would be a game against the Oakland Raiders, so the Resnicks and three other father-son pairs booked flights to San Francisco.

The Resnicks used Expedia to arrange round trip flights on United Airlines. They'd depart from Newark Liberty International Airport on Nov. 30 and head back to Jersey on Dec. 4. The full cost: $780.76.

It didn't go as planned.

The older Resnick wasn't feeling well on the departure date. He decided to skip his flight out and catch one the next day. Alexander Resnick, though, would take the originally scheduled flight.

"I checked in at one of the kiosks at the airport," Alexander Resnick said. "They printed out both my father's ticket and mine, so technically he was checked in for the flight."

The younger Resnick said he proceeded to the gate, and told the United representative that his dad was ill and would not make the flight, but would take another the following day.

"I then specifically asked them whether or not him not flying would be a problem, and would he still have his return flight, to which they said it will not be a problem," Resnick said.

Well, it was a problem.

Gerry Resnick never called United to change the flight, he said, because he knew there would be a change fee. Instead, he booked a flight on a different airline, using points so he wouldn't have to lay out any more cash. He planned to eat the cost of the missed flight.

Gerry and Alexander Resnick and their friends at the Giants game in Oakland in early December 2017.

The Resnicks reunited in California with all their friends. The Giants lost 24-17.

When the trip was over and the Resnicks arrived at the airport for their flights home, they were in for a surprise.

"We were told that the reservation had been cancelled," Gerry Resnick said.

Not only Gerry Resnick's reservation, but Alexander's was cancelled, too.

"The agent in San Francisco was very nonchalant, telling us that we could purchase two additional one-way tickets, but that there were no longer any seats on that flight," Gerry Resnick said.

The agent said the rep in Newark should have noted in the computer that they both planned to make the return flight.

But that didn't happen, so they were stuck.

They bought new tickets, costing nearly $900.

The Resnicks were not happy.

"I purchased two round trip flights and the fact that I could not make one leg of the trip should not knock out the whole reservation, especially for my son who did make the first leg," Gerry Resnick said. "This is especially true where they received notice that I would not make the outbound trip but would make the return."

Resnick, an attorney, said he didn't get any help from United reps after spending significant time on the phone.

Gerry Resnick (left) filed suit against United Airlines after the airline cancelled tickets for a return flight from San Francisco for him and his son Alexander without notice. He holds the tickets that he was forced to purchase to get home and the paperwork for the original flight.

He decided to file a lawsuit in Superior Court in Essex County on March 9.

The suit cites several issues.

First, it alleges United breached its contract with the Resnicks because United cancelled the reservations.

Next, it says United's actions breach New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act, which bans "unconscionable commercial practices."

The suit also alleged United benefitted from "unjust enrichment" because United was able to sell the seats a second time after cancelling the Resnicks' fully paid tickets.

Beyond his own losses, Resnick said he thought something was wrong with the airline's policy.

"What would happen if the head of a family booked a trip for his entire family and was unable to make the outgoing flight?" Resnick asked. "Would that mean that the whole family's reservations would be knocked out upon their return?"

AIRLINE POLICIES

We reached out to United, presenting hypothetical facts based on the Resnick case to see exactly how the airline's policies work.

Spokesman Robert Einhorn said a customer would have to change the round trip ticket with a new departure date in order to keep the originally booked return flight.

"If the outgoing flight wasn't changed, the passenger would have been marked as a no-show for the flight, and the return would be automatically cancelled," Einhorn said.

But that didn't explain why Alexander Resnick's return flight was cancelled.

We asked again, and the spokesman pointed to this policy:

"Failure to Occupy Space - If a Passenger fails to occupy space which has been reserved for him/her on a flight of UA and UA fails to receive notice of the cancellation of the reservation before the departure, or if any carrier cancels the reservation of any Passenger, UA may cancel all reservations (whether or not confirmed) held by such Passenger on the flights of UA or any carrier for continuing or return space, provided UA or an authorized agent of UA originally reserved that space."

We mentioned the lawsuit, but because of the suit, the spokesman said he couldn't comment further or with specifics of this case.

Gerald Resnick (left) filed suit against United Airlines after the airline cancelled tickets for a return flight from San Francisco for him and his son Alexander.

We checked with some other airlines to see if the policies were the same.

American, JetBlue, Spirit, Delta and Southwest all share a similar policy.

Each said if there is a reservation for several passengers and one of the passengers misses a flight, the reservations would be separated. This way, while the passenger who misses a flight would still have the second flight cancelled, the rest of the party's flights would remain intact.

United's written policy clearly doesn't follow that guideline, but as it reviewed this case, it said it did, indeed, follow the same policy - even though it doesn't appear in writing.

After our inquiry, Resnick was contacted by United. It further explained its policy.

"Due to the Expedia record containing both passengers in one single name field, when you did not check in for this flight on November 30, the United system automatically designated the record as a 'NO-SHOW' and subsequently canceled both reservations," a representative told Resnick in an email.

The rep further explained that the system would not divide the reservation because Alexander checked in at a kiosk.

"However, if Alexander checked-in with a Ticket Agent, the Agent should have divided the record, thereby allowing Alexander to return as scheduled," the rep said.

Alexander Resnick's communication with the gate agent wasn't addressed.

The rep further offered some credits and refunds, but the offer in the email wasn't clear.

Resnick called the rep for clarification.

United offered a credit for the full cost of Gerry Resnick's round trip ticket and a refund for the extra flight home Alexander Resnick had to book when his return was cancelled.

It also offered the pay the difference between Gerry Resnick's original flight and the more expensive return flight he had to book.

And finally, United is giving each flyer an electronic travel certificate that can be used for future travel.

In return, Resnick is dropping the lawsuit.

He said he was never looking for a windfall.

"My intention was always to impress upon United the unfairness of our treatment and the inequity of their policy," Resnick said. "The practice of United and other airlines in cancelling out an entire reservation because the passenger is unable to make one leg of trip not only can result in havoc, as occurred in our case, but it also permits the carrier to have the advantage of payment of the round trip fare, and then being able to sell the seat a second time."

Resnick said he'd like to see airlines change their policies to avoid this kind of confusion.

"The better option is for the airline to send an alert to the 'no show' traveler that he or she is in danger of losing the return flight if they do not respond in a designated period of time," he said.

United said it was "pleased to have this matter resolved."

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.A quiet night at home quickly turned into a night of heroism for six friends who broke into a burning building and saved a 90-year-old man as flames engulfed his house.

The drama unfolded on Friday shortly after midnight, when two Rutgers-Camden students, Tammy Meneses and Vanessa Solis Palma, saw flames as they left the Camden apartment of four friends.

They called one of those friends, Sehwan "Ricky" Park, who ran toward the scene with roommates Corey Zytko and Jonathan Perez-Gaytan in tow. A fourth roommate, Matteo Resanovic, followed behind as soon as he could get his slippers on.

The two women called the police, while Zytko ran for the nearest campus safety officer. Resanovic said he and Perez-Gaytan circled the house on Cooper Street, searching for the source of flames and billowing smoke. They yelled and rattled fences, but no one came outside.

Six students rescued a 90-year-old man when his Cooper Street home caught fire early Friday morning. (Amanda Hoover | NJ Advance Media For NJ.com)

"You always just assume that there's people in there," Resanovic, a 23-year-old studying mathematics, said in a phone interview Monday. "You always want to make sure people are all right."

So Resanovic broke the glass on the front door with his hand and jumped into the house.

The three other men followed him and began searching the crowded home. The smoke was contained mostly to the third floor, he said, making it easier to breathe as they ran through the second, eventually finding the 90-year-old man.

Together, they helped the man out of the house and onto a nearby bench. Resanovic took off his slippers and put them on the man's feet.

As emergency responders arrived to take over, they went back home.

"We were like, 'let's just go, everyone is taken care of.' We just wanted to go home," he said.

There, as adrenaline started to calm, reality set in.

"We looked over what just happened, like, 'whoa, did this really just happen?' "

A second resident, the 63-year-old son of the elder man, was found dead in the building by firefighters. He was on the third floor, where the fire began and heavier smoke had taken over, according to officials, who have not yet identified him.

As the dust settled Friday morning, everyone wanted to find the mystery heroes. Camden Fire Chief Michael Harper said he hoped he could thank the students "for not thinking of themselves, and for thinking of someone else. That was remarkable."

"We offer our condolences to the family of the man who died and we are heartened by the bravery of our students," Rutgers-Camden Chancellor Phoebe Haddon wrote in an email to the campus community Monday, in which she named the six students. "They are role models and displayed the very essence of civic-minded leadership that is embedded in what we do here at Rutgers University-Camden."

Resanovic said he was surprised, and overwhelmed, by the attention, as he had planned to stay anonymous and focus on upcoming exams. Aside from some scrapes on his hand and a cough that has since subsided, he said he and his friends weren't hurt.

He said he hasn't heard from the fire department or mayor's office yet. Requests for comment to both were not returned Monday afternoon.

To Resanovic, running toward -- not away from -- the flames was the obvious choice, he said.

"I kind of expect everyone to do this sort of thing," he said. "We were just the ones there."

Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsA knife-wielding man killed a 37-year-old woman and wounded another man Sunday afternoon in an attack at a home in Camden's Cramer Hill section, police said.

Both victims were rushed to Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

The woman succumbed to her injuries around 3:36 p.m., according to a spokesperson for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. The man, 20, is still being treated for his injuries.

Dan Keashen, a spokesman for Camden County, said their assailant remains at large.

Following the stabbings, a half dozen police vehicles surrounded the one-block stretch of North 29th Street between Arthur and Garfield avenues. Nearly a dozen high-visibility cones were visible along a sidewalk stretching down 29th Street as an officer took photos of the scene, which was cordoned off by crime scene tape.

No residents ventured out onto the street, which is bordered by a sprawling empty field on one side and homes on the other.

Keashen said the incident remains under investigation and that no charges have been filed.

Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsNew Jersey State Police are investigating the death of a man whose body washed ashore Saturday afternoon at a Cape May County marina, a spokesperson said Sunday.

A passerby reported the body floating near rocks around 3:15 p.m. Saturday at the All Seasons Marina, in the 500 block of Roosevelt Boulevard in the Marmora section of Upper Township, Sgt. Lawrence Peele told NJ Advance Media.

The man was not immediately identified. Peele said the case remains under investigation.

Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsDon't Edit

By Joe Brandt | For NJ.com

New Jersey has 550-plus police departments employing more than 33,000 officers. And while there are plenty of good cops in the state, others have been accused of violating the laws they have sworn to uphold.

At least 350 officers, to be more precise, were arrested in New Jersey from 2005 to 2013, according to the Henry A. Wallace Police Crime Database, which tracks arrests of officers.

Former cop and current Bowling Green State University criminologist Philip Stinson collected the data.

"The point of the research is to improve policing," he says. And it's an eye-opener when people look at this, they dont realize that these kinds of things go on.

Stinson said he found some interesting trends in the data, some contrary to some popular research. For one, a large portion of cops who get arrested are within three years of retirement, poking a hole in the belief that it was mostly young officers violating laws.

The most common charge nationwide was simple assault, followed by driving under the influence. But there were also more than 1,000 official misconduct cases.

Below, we mapped the number of cases in which cops were arrested in New Jersey. Stinson's full database is here.

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How the data on officers was collected

Stinson created the database after he and his classmates disagreed on just how often cops were arrested. Stinson, from his time on the force, knew cops committed crimes, perhaps more than the average person might think.

I had friends who worked in law enforcement who had gotten in trouble over the years," Stinson said.

And he knew agencies were not keeping track of the issue on a larger scale. So he set up dozens of Google Alerts and started gathering data.

Today, he has 17 research assistants helping him with the project, which contains information on roughly 11,000 cases from across the country.

People read these articles in the newspaper [about a cop being charged] and think its a one-off," Stinson said. "They dont realize people are reading similar articles in their hometowns every week.

He does get a lot of flak for keeping track of cops who get arrested, with some who think it's disrespectful or inappropriate to do so. But the comments don't distract him from the work because he believes it's beneficial work.

Here are some of the N.J. cops who have been charged in notable cases since 2015.

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Philip Seidle

Former Neptune Township Sgt. Philip Seidle is serving a 30-year sentence for fatally shooting his ex-wife on an Asbury Park street during an argument about custody of their children.

Police responded to domestic incidents at Seidle's home 21 times over a 21-year period, authorities said at a press conference. The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office investigated the police response to the attack and determined that police could not have prevented Seidle from killing his wife.

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Lori M. Nichols | For NJ.com

Robert Marzi

Robert E. Marzi, a former cop in Monroe Township, Gloucester County, pleaded guilty to receiving sex in exchange for helping two women receive lesser charges.

He is serving two concurrent three-year sentences on official misconduct charges.

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Pedro Abad

Abad, a former Linden police officer, was sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison after a 2015 drunk-driving crash on the way home from a strip club in Staten Island. Two of his passengers were killed and another was injured after Abad's car crashed head-on into a truck while he was going the wrong way on a highway.

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6ABC

Frank Nucera

Nucera, the former chief of the Bordentown Township police, was charged in November with hate crime assault and other civil rights offenses after federal officials learned of an arrest where he slammed a handcuffed black teenager's head into a doorframe.

A fellow police officer secretively recorded Nucera making disparaging comments about minorities while on the job.

His case is pending in federal court, and no trial date has yet been set.

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Lori M. Nichols | For NJ.com

Rafael Martinez Jr.

Martinez, a Camden County Police detective, was charged with sexual assault after he was found to have fathered a child with a 15-year-old. She gave birth to the child in August 2017.

Martinez was suspended from the force and later pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child, a spokeswoman for the Camden County Prosecutors Office said. Martinez is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

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Andrew Miller | For NJ Advance M

Joseph Reiman

Reiman, a cop in Carteret, was charged with assault and official misconduct after videos surfaced of him beating a teen during an arrest.

Reiman, whose brother is mayor of Carteret, made more than a fifth of the department's arrests involving force since July 2015.

Reiman had an appearance scheduled on March 16, but it was postponed, a Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman said. The date of his next appearance was not immediately available in court records.

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Patti Sapone

Michael Dotro

The former Edison officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison in September after admitting to firebombing a police captain's home as an act of retaliation.

The captain and his family escaped unscathed from the fire, set a day before Dotro was to appear in a trial in which he and his wife faced charges related to slashing a woman's tires.

Four other cops were charged with retaliating against a North Brunswick police officer who arrested Dotro's friend for driving drunk.

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Michael Dempsey | The Jersey Journal

Francis Styles

Styles, a Bayonne cop, was federally charged in May 2017 with helping cover up police brutality by fellow cop Domenico Lillo.

In December 2013, while arresting a suspect who had warrants out of Sussex County, Lillo hit the suspect in the face with a flashlight, according to previous reports. In September 2015, Lillo pleaded guilty to using excessive force, but his sentencing has been delayed eight times since then.

Styles' case ended in a mistrial, but a judge has denied his motion for acquittal.

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Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Wilfredo Guzman

Guzman, a Rockaway Township officer, was charged with sexually assaulting two teenage girls in 2014 and 2015.

According to court documents, one of the victims alleged Guzman provided the girls with alcohol and prescription medication during their encounters, some of which are alleged to have occurred on duty.

Guzman has not yet been tried but will appear in court on April 4, a spokesman for the Morris County Prosecutor's Office said.

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Todd Ritter

Ritter, a Piscataway officer, was charged in February with tampering with public records, falsifying and tampering with records and assault. Prosecutors say he hit a handcuffed suspect in custody and then tried to cover it up.

When the man tried to tell another officer about the assault, Ritter claimed the man had kicked him "in the nuts," a police video shows.

Ritter has not been tried on the charges; he has a pre-indictment conference on April 17.

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A memorial at Elmora Avenue and Vine Street in Elizabeth for Jairo Lozano, 29, who was struck and killed while on a motorcycle.

Marisa Iati | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Romulo Meneses-Alvarez

Elizabeth police officer Meneses-Alvarez was off duty when his Jeep Wrangler struck and killed a motorcyclist near Carteret Park in Elizabeth, prosecutors said.

Meneses-Alvarez was charged with DWI and vehicular homicide.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office is handling his case, which will be heard in Union County, a prosecutor's office spokeswoman said. There was no date yet scheduled for the next proceeding, she added.

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William Lunger Jr.

The former Sussex County sheriff's officer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit official misconduct after he was accused of having a sexual relationship with a woman who was admitted into drug court.

He was sentenced to 270 days in jail last March. The woman with whom he had the affair filed a civil suit against Lunger, the county and other parties.

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Tom Haydon | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Mike Jean-Baptiste

The suspended North Plainfield officer is accused of sexually assaulting a woman he met on duty at a hotel in Kenilworth last March, prosecutors say.

In January, Jean-Baptiste was charged wth second-degree sexual assault, second-degree official misconduct and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact.

Jean-Baptiste's next hearing is scheduled for May 21, a Union County Prosecutor's Office spokesman said.

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Robert Sciarrino | NJ Advance Me

Jason R. Miller

The former Newton police officer was accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy in a Burger King bathroom and later was offered a five-year plea deal.

Before that, he was accused of exposing himself to male drivers during traffic stops.

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Thomas McWain

The officer who was once honored with a proclamation for service in helping people with addiction was later accused of referring drug offenders to a rehab facility where he had a financial stake.

Court records did not show a next appearance listed for McWain, a trial court administrator said.

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Long Branch police Officer Jake Pascucci.

Long Branch Police Department

Jake Pascucci

Pascucci was allegedly drunk when he struck and killed a woman with his SUV while off duty. He has been charged with DWI and strict liability vehicular homicide.

Pascucci has not been tried on the charges. He has an appearance scheduled for March 29 in Middlesex County, where his case was transferred.

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Michael O'Leary, in sunglasses, leaving federal court in Newark on March 12, 2018.

Michael Dempsey | The Jersey Journal

Michael O'Leary

O'Leary, a former Jersey City cop, was recently sentenced to 18 months in prison for paying bribes to another officer authorized to give out off-duty work assignments. That officer would also sign off on vouchers indicating O'Leary completed the assignments, when he did not do the work.

He is the third cop sentenced in the bribery scheme revealed in a probe by federal prosecutors.

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Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Media

James Stuart

The former Deptford Township cop will have a new trial this year on charges that he killed his friend, David Compton, during a night of drinking and "dry-firing" guns in Stuart's home in 2013.

Stuart served 2 and a half years of a 30-year sentence before appellate judges ruled that the jury should not have convicted him of both knowing murder and manslaughter.

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Paul Pappas

Pappas, an officer in Edison, was stripped of his gun and badge after he was charged with criminal mischief for slashing someone's tires during a domestic dispute in New Brunswick.

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MORE FROM NJ.COM

The duties, pay and for most pensions of N.J.s 21 sheriffs

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Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips

Don't EditNew Jersey will still consider applications to open or expand new charter schools, even as it mulls revisions to its charter school law, the state's top education official said Thursday.

In a confirmation hearing before a panel of state lawmakers, acting education commoner Lamont Repollet was asked point blank how new Gov. Phil Murphy's administration will handle applications.

"If tomorrow, in a district that is underperforming, a charter school makes an application that comes before you, are you going to act on it or are you going to put it aside?" asked state Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Bergen.

"We are not going to put it aside," Repollet said, "because the regulation states those charter schools have a right to apply."

The answer clarified what had become an increasingly murky aspect of Murphy's education policy, an ambiguity that left school choice advocates fearing the worst.

After all, the New Jersey Education Association, the powerful teachers union that endorsed Murphy, had called for a moratorium on charter school expansion last year and Murphy himself campaigned on calling a "time out" on charter schools.

After the election, Murphy's transition team for education policy recommended a "pause" on charter school expansion. Then, earlier this month, the state announced a comprehensive review of charter school law but wouldn't answer questions about what the process would mean for charter school applications.

In a radio interview days later, Murphy said he wouldn't say "hell no" to expanding charter schools but didn't specifically address the question of how his administration would handle new applications.

Asked Thursday, Repollet appeared to finally answer that question.

"The directive that I received was a comprehensive review," he said. "I haven't heard anything about a moratorium."

Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on FacebookChristians around the world are begin the holiest week of the year with the observation of Palm Sunday.

The religious holiday is to remember Jesus Christ's triumphant entrance into Jerusalem just days before he was crucified.

In Jersey City, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church held a short procession around the outside of the church before the 10:30 a.m. service. Churchgoers waved their palms as they entered into the house of worship.

Fr. Pedro Repollet led the service.

Pope Francis, during his Vatican homily, sent a message to young people to not silence their voices on the heels of a meeting with young Catholics who called for a more transparent church and one day after the March for Our Lives was held in the United States, the Associated Press reported.

"The temptation to silence young people has always existed," Francis said. "There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. ... There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Jianbing guozi, a traditional Tianjin snack. [Photo provided to China Daily]

International food fans and organizations have shown a keen interest in contacting a new association for the renowned Chinese snack known as jianbing guozi - deep-fried dough sticks rolled in a thin pancake. The association was established this month in Tianjin, the snack's birthplace.

Song Guanming, chairman of the Tianjin branch under the Tianjin Catering Industry Association, said he didn't expect all the attention.

The food has a history of 600 years in the city and has become a favorite gourmet flavor worldwide, Song said.

In every city around China, and even in some other countries, jianbing guozi can be found. It's always beloved, but the ingredients vary by region.

Sticks made of bean with a thin pancake is traditional, but in some places, sea cucumber, ham sausage or even squid are added. Three local brands Ersao, Deluzhai and Jinlaowei have been honored as part of the city's intangible cultural heritage.

Liu Yushun is a fifth-generation member of the family business Jinlaowei, which originated in 1912.

Around the world today, the snack has gained a reputation for diverse cooking styles. But "the tradition needs to be inherited and protected from generation to generation", Liu said.

He expects the new association to make substantial efforts toward inheriting 600 years of intangible culture, preserving the most "traditional" flavor.

To that end, the association announced it would team up with local quality inspectors to research and release an industry standard, but that will take time.

"Our move has triggered debates over whether it is meaningful to unify the cooking standards of the food," Song said. "However, it's not our aim to make it standard like KFC fast food. We just aim to better regulate the cooking process, techniques and health safety for the time-honored Tianjin style in its hometown."

The association indicated that it doesn't mean to regulate the proportions of the ingredients, the taste of the sauce or make every stand selling it provide the same flavor.

However, it is dedicated to protecting the techniques of the most traditional jianbing guozi, which the genuine inheritors want to preserve.

The association also announced it will open chain services and offer membership certificates to influential and qualified vendors.

In an earlier interview with China Daily, Brian Goldberg from the United States said he opened a Mr Bing restaurant in New York and Hong Kong to sell jianbing after he studied the cooking techniques in China.

He said jianbing gave him "great memories" of his student days in China, and his restaurant in the United States soon made headlines.

In his restaurant, egg spread over crepe, followed by sea cucumber, scallions, cilantro, chili, roast duck and crispy wontons, make for an amazing experience.UPDATE: Officer was youth boxing coach

JERSEY CITY -- A city police officer died at Jersey City Medical Center tonight from a gunshot wound to his upper body, sources and officials said.

The shooting occurred at about 7:50 p.m. inside a Woodlawn Avenue home, city spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said.

Police were called to the home on reports of an officer being shot. They found the 33-year-old off-duty officer with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at Jersey City Medical Center, she said.

The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear, but the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office said it is investigating.

Dozens of police officers gathered outside the hospital's emergency entrance following the incident. Many could be seen crying and pacing up and down the driveway, while one was rushed into the building by a group of officers. They began praying at about 9:40 p.m.

The officer is a rookie who graduated from the academy about one year ago. Additional information about the incident was not immediately available.

Jersey Journal staff writer Terrence T. McDonald contributed to this report.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.JERSEY CITY -- A West New York woman and a New York City man were arrested after their baby was taken to a hospital suffering from burns and fractures, officials said.

Jamie L. Drewes, 33, of Palisade Avenue, and Brian M. Backerman, 35 of Queens, are charged with endangering the welfare of the baby by not seeking medical attention for the boy's injuries, according to a criminal complaint.

Backerman made his first court appearance on the charges Thursday in Criminal Justice Reform Court in Jersey City via video link from Hudson County jail in Kearny. It's not clear when Drewes made her first appearance.

The boy was two months old when the mother brought him to a New York City hospital in December suffering from second-degree burns to his lip, nose, left cheek and left chin. She said burns occurred in West New York when the boy was placed too close to a heater, the complaint says.

Medical staff became concerned and contacted police. Further medical testing revealed that the baby had fractures to bones in his legs, left wrist and left arm -- injuries that were between 10 and 14 days old, according to the complaint.

Both parents denied knowing of any trauma to the child and could not explain how the injuries occurred, the complaint states.

After appearing in court, Backerman was released with conditions of supervision pending trial.

The copy of the complaint obtained by The Jersey Journal contained numerous redactions. It does not say when either parent was arrested.Travis Smith, 27, of Flemington, has been sentenced to three years in state prison for the June 2017 burglary of a Lebanon Township business, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony P. Kearns III said.

Smith was arrested by New Jersey State Police troopers on July 5 and charged with two counts of third-degree burglary and one count of theft, according to a press release from the prosecutor's office.

Smith, indicted by a Hunterdon County grand jury in September, plead guilty on Oct. 30, the prosecutor's office stated. State Superior Court Judge Angela Borkowski sentenced Smith on March 16.

The prosecutor's office also announced the March 22 indictment of Jose Oyola, 36, of Paterson, on one count of second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and third-degree hindering apprehension.

Oyola was arrested on Jan. 19 after a motor-vehicle stop in Readington, according to a news release. He a handgun without a permit and provided false information to a police officer, the prosecutor's office stated.

Daniel Spiro, 44, of South Plainfield, was also indicted on March 15 on two counts of second-degree unlawful possession of a handgun, and one count of unlawful possession of a shotgun, unlawful possession of a rifle, certain persons not to possess a weapon and uttering a false government document, all third-degree offenses, the prosecutor's office stated.

Spiro was arrested by Readington police on Dec. 27 and charged with numerous weapons charges and uttering a false driver's license, according to a news release.Thousands of Hudson County residents on Saturday participated in the national "March for Our Lives" rally, joining millions across the country in demanding an end to gun violence.

In Jersey City, at least 500 people -- children, adults, community advocates and local leaders -- marched from Ferris High School to City Hall, holding signs and chanting "Enough is enough."

And in Hoboken, more than 1,000 gathered outside City Hall and on Washington Street, according to Mayor Ravi Bhalla.

"Amazing scene outside City Hall with over 1,000 people in attendance. Today we March for our children. Today we March to end gun violence. Today we March to make our schools safe,'' tweeted Bhyalla.

They joined millions across the country in a historic rally to push for an end to gun violence through legislation.

The Jersey City rally was dominated by local high school students, inspired to act after the killing of 17 students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

"(After Parkland) I said to myself 'You know what, let's do this.' I started emailing my friends and we got the ball rolling," said Jai Patel, a senior at McNair Academic High School. "Look where we are now."

Patel, along with a number of other students, organized the local rally and led a massive crowd down Christopher Columbus Drive through Downtown.

On the steps of City Hall, Patel, his sister Maya, a student at MS 4, and dozens of other local students pressed lawmakers to pass stronger gun regulations, while lambasting the National Rifle Association.

"We don't want high school students, concert-goers, movie-goers, church-goers -- and innocent first graders -- slaughtered by an assault rifle," he said to rousing cheers. "I have a job for all of you in the audience -- contact your state senators, your Congress people and your governor and inform them that we want change and we want it now."

Patel, a resident of Society Hill, spoke alongside local leaders including Mayor Steven Fulop, Councilman James Solomon and State Sen. Sandra Cunningham.

"It is both sad that we are here, yet it fills us with strength," Solomon said.

"We are a nation awash with gun violence, mass shootings, murders and suicides and too many of us accepted it as normal. The work that you're doing today -- you are going to change this country and you will save so many families from the heartache that so many others have already experienced."

Before the march, several organizations registered people to vote. Patel, who recently turned 18, said he planned on registering before the day's end.

"This is about holding politicians accountable," Patel said. "I feel like people need to put this in the politicians' faces and say 'Listen, if you're on our side, you need to know we support this and this isn't going away anytime soon.' For those of them who do not agree, we are their constituents (and) come election season, they might not be around anymore."It's March Madness in Edison, but the only players on the floor of the New Jersey Convention and Expo Center this weekend were of the four-legged variety.

More than 1,587 dogs competed over three days as part of the March Madness Circuit presented by the New Brunswick Kennel Club.

The event encompassed both the 80th and 81st New Brunswick Kennel Club All-Breed Dog Shows, as well as the Bronx Kennel Club's show on Sunday, in welcoming breeds ranging from standard poodles to bearded collies.President Trump ordered Monday the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats living in the U.S. in response to their country's alleged use of a nerve agent to kill a former Russian spy in the U.K.

The White House identified the diplomats as intelligence agents and said they and their families had seven days to leave the country. Twelve of those agents hold positions at the United Nations, according to a senior administration official.

The official said the State Department identified the Russians as agents who used their position as cover to engage in intelligence activities that threatened national security.

Congressional aides working for New Jersey lawmakers told NJ Advance Media that they are looking into whether some of those diplomats working at the U.N. live in New Jersey.

The FBI in Newark said it could not comment.

New Jersey was at the center of a high-profile case involving undercover Russian spies several years ago.

In 2010, federal officers arrested a man and woman in Montclair and charged them with carrying out "deep cover" espionage work for the Russian government. Their main goal was to recruit sources who could provide information about U.S. policy making.

Their story supposedly inspired the television show "The Americans".

It is still unclear who from the Russian Mission to the U.N. is expected to depart the country. The State Department said it would not release the names of the diplomats.

Ambassador Nikki Haley: Here in New York, Russia uses the United Nations as a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders. Today, the United States and many of our friends are sending a clear message that we will not stand for Russias misconduct. pic.twitter.com/6Z6AQIIN4m  US Mission to the UN (@USUN) March 26, 2018

New Jersey lawmakers said they supported President Trump's decision.

"Russia's destabilizing behavior, including their attempts to influence our elections and the recent attack in England, is reckless and hostile," said Rep. Tom MacArthur. "Vladimir Putin is a dangerous thug. We must continue to stand with our friends in the face of Russian aggression."

Rep. Leonard Lance issued a similar statement and said the government should continue to hold Russia accountable for its "destabilizing activities".

"We must respond strongly to Russia - its government does not share our interests or values and has succeeded in sowing discontent in the United States and among our greatest allies," he said.

Lance earlier this month introduced legislation that was supposed to force the Trump administration to implement sanctions on Russia.

Congress passed a law last year that introduced measures to punish Russia for interfering in the 2016 presidential election. The president was supposed to announce a list of people to sanction.

He refused, claiming the legislation itself was enough to cause harm to the Russian economy.

After repeated demands from Congress, Trump finally announced new sanctions on Russian oligarchs last week.

Several other countries said they would also expel Russian diplomats following the White House's announcement Monday. The U.S., European Union states, Ukraine and Canada have ousted 100 Russian diplomats.

Erin Banco may be reached at ebanco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ErinBanco. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Longshoreman Paul Moe Sr. was hardly ever at work.

The 66-year-old Port Elizabeth dockworker, who made $493,029 a year, was paid 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year--getting straight time, overtime and extra pay for holidays and weekends, authorities said.

However, investigators from the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor said he couldn't be found on the waterfront many days, and frequently was out on his boat in Atlantic Highlands, at the movies, at home or on vacation in Aruba.

Convicted of fraud and conspiracy in connection with the no-show job, he faced nearly four years in prison. But a federal judge in Newark on Monday, citing the ambiguity of the union contract and the failure of his own employer to take action against him, sentenced Moe to just 24 months in prison. U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden also allowed him to remain free on bail pending an appeal.

Despite his conviction, Moe was steadfast in court maintaining that he had done nothing wrong. "I can look myself in the mirror and I know I'm innocent," he told the judge. "I never defrauded anyone."

Moe, a former general foreman for APM Terminals in Port Elizabeth, said no one ever told him he actually had to be on site 40 hours a week to earn his pay package.

"Why I'm standing here as a convicted felon is beyond me. They never informed me," he said.

Moe, a member of the International Longshoremen's Association, was responsible for maintenance and repair of the terminal's container handling equipment.

Paid at an hourly rate that came to nearly $500,000 a year, he was seldom at work, prosecutors said. With the help of colleagues, Moe routinely submitted false time sheets on his behalf, but was caught by investigators going fishing on his boat, having dinner with a girlfriend, and taking trips to Florida and Aruba, prosecutors said.

He owned a Mercedes and a Porsche, but claimed his pay was set under the union's collective bargaining agreement, and that he had not done anything illegal.

During testimony at trial, the U.S. Attorney's office said Moe was among a group of individuals with similar "special deals" that guaranteed 24/7 pay, and other salary and work practices. At trial, witnesses said theses deals have driven up costs at the port terminals in New York and New Jersey.

In court on Monday, assistant U.S. attorney Tracey Anne Agnew urged the judge to impose a sentence of up to 46 months in prison.

"The defendant defrauded his employer by obtaining wages and pension contributions to which he was not entitled," she said. "This happened every day, day in, and day out."

Defense attorney Gerald McMahon argued during trial that Moe was not required to put in a 40-hour week to collect his full pay--only to be on call 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. McMahon said the longshoreman had never been told he had to be at the terminal and claimed he had been targeted by the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor because of his friendship with ILA President Harold Daggett.

"He had the sweetheart deal of the century and he did not know he had to be there 40 hours a week. And that's because for 15 years, nobody said he had to," McMahon told the court.

The judge herself questioned whether there was ambiguity in the language of the union's collective bargaining agreement, as well as the conduct of Moe's employer. However, she added that those arguments "were played out to this jury that rejected them in finding that submitting false timesheets, Mr. Moe was breaking the law."

However, she also noted Moe's age and the strong support of his family, agreeing to a significant sentencing downgrade to 24 months in prison.

She ordered him to pay restitution of $749,000, while agreeing to allow him to remain free on bail pending an appeal.

McMahon said he intends to appeal the conviction.

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Last year, 253 refugees found sanctuary in New Jersey--down from 601 in 2016. So far this year, just 23 have made their way here.

Under the Trump administration, the U.S. is on track to take in the smallest number of refugees since Congress passed a law in 1980 creating the modern resettlement system.

At the current rate, the U.S. will take in about 21,000 refugees this fiscal year, well below the cap of 45,000 set by the administration and roughly a quarter those granted entry in the final year of Barack Obama's presidency.

The administration is also cutting the resettlement system itself, telling executives of nine private agencies accredited by the U.S. they must close any office expected to place fewer than 100 refugees this year.

"There's certainly a pretty dramatic shift" in the mix and number of refugees being allowed in, said Kathleen Newland, a fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

With the fiscal year nearly half over, the U.S. has resettled fewer than 10,000 refugees--a small fraction of the number of people who had entered by this time in prior years. It puts the U.S. on track this year to accept the smallest number of refugees since Congress passed a law in 1980 creating the modern resettlement system.

Data obtained from the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration show the mix of refugees also has changed substantially this year:

The numbers of Iraqi, Somali and Syrian refugees--who made up more than a third of all resettlements in the U.S. in the prior five years--have almost entirely disappeared. Refugees from those three countries comprise less than 3.5 percent of the fiscal 2018 resettlements.

So far this fiscal year, Christians have made up more than half the refugee population, while the share of Muslims has dropped from roughly 45% of refugees in fiscal year 2016 to about 15% so far in 2018.

Of the states that usually average at least 100 resettlements in the first five months of the year, Maine, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, California, Tennessee and Texas have seen the largest percentage decreases in refugees. All have had their refugee caseloads drop more than 75% when comparing 2018 to the same timeframe during the prior five years.

Prior years have generally kept refugee flows steady--from 2013 to 2015, when the annual cap was 70,000 refugees, roughly 42-44% of resettlements had occurred by this point of the year. In fiscal year 2018, there have been about 9,400 resettlements--only 21% of a much smaller cap.

The most recent month saw a quickening of refugee admissions. But if the general trend continues, 2018 could mark a dramatic change in the refugee program. That affects refugees currently in the U.S., who may be waiting on relatives to arrive.

It affects refugees in other countries, hoping to get to the United States for safety or other reasons. And it affects the organizations that work to house and resettle these refugees, who only a few years ago were dealing with record numbers of people. Several agencies have already closed their doors; others have laid off workers and cut back their programs.

Kevin Hickey, executive director of Catholic Charities of Camden, whose agency oversees an active refugee resettlement program in New Jersey, said they have received just two refugees since October. They came from Colombia.

"We expect to receive in the coming weeks three refugees from Russia and one Christian Iraqi," he said.

In the last fiscal year, the Camden Diocese helped resettle about 100 people.

In citing security concerns to exclude refugees from certain countries, Newland said, the administration has skewed the ethnic and religious makeup of the much smaller number allowed entry.

U.S. officials say there is no preference for refugees of one religion over another: "The United States is committed to assisting people of all religions, ethnicities, and nationalities who are fleeing persecution, violence, and other drivers of displacement," a State Department spokeswoman said in a written response to questions. The administration resumed the program to reunify refugee families in December, she said, responding to a judge's injunction.

Man Sing Sutam, a 48-year-old refugee from Bhutan, practices writing in English during a U.S. citizenship class. (Martha Irvine | AP Photo)

For thousands of refugee families already building new lives in the U.S., meanwhile, the changes are playing out in decidedly unnerving and uneven ways. The restrictions have kept many families apart, while allowing some to reunite, sorting people by country, and effectively by religion.

In Ohio, the city of Columbus in the mid-1800s became a stronghold of German immigrants, who settled in the red-brick blocks that now form a historic "village" just south of downtown.

Pema Yanzon, right, places a momo dumpling on a tray at a restaurant in Columbus popular both with immigrants and native Ohioans. Yanzon, age 62, came to this country from Tibet in 2008. (Martha Irvine | AP Photo)

But in recent years, Ohio's capital city has become a magnet for refugees from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. They're drawn by affordable rents, plentiful jobs in distribution centers that require little or no English -- and, most importantly, family already here.

Low-rise apartment complexes on Columbus' north side have become the center of the largest U.S. population of Bhutanese refugees, most who are Buddhist or Hindu and were expelled during a government-led ethnic cleansing campaign against ethnic Nepalis in the early 1990s.

More than 20,000 Bhutanese now live alongside the country's second largest Somali refugee community -- overwhelmingly Muslim, and from one of the countries whose arrivals have been most sharply reduced. They've been joined by a growing population of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, most of them Christian.

Today, shopping centers on or near Morse Road are speckled with Nepali groceries and African restaurants serving dishes with the staple cassava flour called fufu.

Harka Gurung, a 36-year-old refugee from Bhutan, lifts her 8-year-old daughter, Eden Gurung, as she arrives from school in Columbus. Her husband and daughter were the first of their family to arrive from a refugee camp in Nepal. (Martha Irvine | AP Photo)

"Everybody has a dream that if I go, there will be a chance for my son to come or my mother to come," said Jhuma Acharya, who came to Columbus as a refugee from Bhutan and now works for Community Refugee & Immigration Services, or CRIS, one of the city's two resettlement agencies.

A family united

For many, the policies of President Donald Trump have shaken those expectations, and are playing out in what can seem haphazard ways.

A few minutes before midnight, Esta Ausa peered down the concourse of the Columbus airport, ignoring friends' teasing to relax and sit down. It had been 18 months since Ausa, 22, left her parents, brothers and sisters behind in a refugee camp in Tanzania to enter the U.S.

The family is among 675,000 Congolese the United Nations estimates have fled to neighboring countries, first to escape a brutal civil war and then renewed ethnic violence. After the U.S. put a temporary hold on new refugees last year, Ausa said, her parents' approval to enter the U.S. was canceled twice.

"We didn't know what to expect," said Ausa, her words translated by Eric Rusingiza, a CRIS caseworker.

"They thought it was the end of their family coming," Rusingiza said.

Then, the family's American dream came true.

Ausa spotted a group of bewildered arrivals -- their brand new red-yellow-and-blue winter jackets standing out in the brightly lit and nearly empty terminal.

"Mama?" she said. Then she danced toward the security perimeter, enfolding her mother, Mwavita Maulidi, in her arms.

"I thank God for everything," said her father, Ausa Emedi, 46. In coming days, one of the first tasks would be seeking out a doctor who can ensure his treatment for epilepsy. But that would have to wait.

At 1:30 a.m., Emedi hauled bags into a bare two-bedroom apartment, paid for with aid the U.S. provides to covers refugees' expenses during their first 90 days. One of his daughters, Machozi, 16, walked from room to room, opening closet and cabinet doors. Then they stood wide-eyed as the case worker demonstrated the workings of a flush toilet -- like none they had ever seen before.

"They want to learn everything on the same day and it really can't happen," Rusingiza said. "It will take time."

A mother's wait

As the Ausas woke for their first morning in America, Amina Olow, a refugee from Somalia, took a break from work to tell a decidedly different story about the daughters she has not seen in nearly a decade. She unfolded a letter from U.S. immigration officials, dated more than a year ago, that seemed to promise the two girls would join her soon. She's heard nothing since.

Amina Olow, a refugee from Somalia, looks at photos of two of her eldest daughters while siting with two of her other children in her Columbus home. (Martha Irvine | AP Photo)

When Olow last saw her daughters, 13-year-old Neemotallah and 10-year-old Nastexo, they were babies.

At the time, she was running a food shop in South Africa. After rioters attacked foreigners across that country in 2008 and looted her store, she took her daughters to live with their aunt in Kenya, and tried unsuccessfully to salvage her business. She was admitted to the U.S. in 2014.

U.S. officials eventually accepted DNA tests proving her kinship with the girls, said Olow, who now works in an apartment leasing office, the only staffer in a hijab. She unfolded the letter to her husband, a truck driver, from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, approving her older daughter's petition and dated last March.

"We are a family. We have a right to be together," she said. "And the president should have empathy for families that have been dislocated, just like mine. We need one another."

Staff writer Ted Sherman contributed to this reportBy Erika Nava

Our state policymakers can mitigate the federal government's attacks on immigrants by taking actions that would honor New Jersey's history as the golden door for immigrants and maintain our state as a welcoming, inclusive place.

One way is to help all New Jersey students attain their educational goals in the state they call home. Our Senate has that opportunity Monday with a floor vote on S-699, a bill that would allow undocumented students to access state financial aid, particularly the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients who already qualify for tuition equality.

In 2013, the state boosted educational and economic opportunities for New Jersey's undocumented students by allowing those who meet certain requirements to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities. This has helped more students pursue a higher education, which will put them - and New Jersey - on a path toward greater economic opportunity.

But the absence of financial aid keeps many eligible students from completing a four-year degree. This has direct economic impact on New Jersey, which has third-highest share of jobs in the nation that require a bachelor's degree, making it increasingly important for working-class families to send their children to college.

Undocumented students are like others from working-class families, except that their legal status disqualifies them from receiving federal financial aid and assistance from poverty relief programs. Most of the beneficiaries of DACA came to New Jersey in their parents' arms. They graduated from our high schools, worked to help their family make ends meet, became vital members of our communities, and served in our military.

There are about 74,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. before the age of 18, have lived at least four continuous years in the United States, and graduated from high school or are currently enrolled in a secondary school.

They've helped grow our economy and made New Jersey, which has the third-largest share of immigrants in the U.S., a more productive place to live. To deny them access to affordable education is to send our state into the future with one arm tied behind our backs.

Consider a young woman named Adriana, who is a member of Make the Road NJ in Passaic: After three years as a part-time student, she was forced to drop out of Bergen Community College because the ancillary costs of full-time education are unmanageable. These days, she works at the mall. Adriana has the potential to finish school but is shut out of federal and state aid programs, even if her family pays taxes.

These students should be given the opportunity to pursue higher education regardless if the federal government ultimately follows through with its threat to end DACA completely. We all benefit from having a more educated population and we should not be the state that blocks the passion of DREAMers for higher education. Lest anyone forget: We have told them since they were children that there is no better way to succeed in America than to graduate from college.

New Jersey's undocumented students are part of our community. Parents in undocumented families, like the rest of us, work hard and pay taxes - at a higher effective tax rate than the state's wealthiest one percent - just to give their kids a better shot at success than they themselves had.

And all New Jersey students who meet the educational requirements and prove their financial need should be able to access the same programs as their classmates regardless of their immigration status.

By seeking access to state financial aid for college, these families are not asking to cut to the front of the line. They are simply asking for a chance to stand in line with the rest of their classmates and make New Jersey better.

Erika Nava is a policy analyst for New Jersey Policy Perspective.There are two kinds of enemies to fear: the ones can see, and the ones you can't.

President Donald Trump is facing both kinds, but which one should he fear more?

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has conducted a stealth campaign against the president, building an army of unseen lawyers and arming them with information only he knows about.

On the other front is Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, a porn star as shameless and publicity hungry as the president himself. She alleges the two of them had a sexual fling more about 12 years ago and she was paid $130,000 to keep it mum. The president's lawyer and his press secretary say tales of a sexual encounter aren't true.

Mueller has been investigating anything and everything concerning Trump and his campaign team. So far he has indicted 17 Russians and Trump's former campaign manager, and gotten guilty pleas from others, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

If Republicans lose control of the House of Representatives in November's mid-term elections and Mueller announces information damaging to the president, it could lead to impeachment proceedings as early as January.

Trump hasn't by shy about taking to Twitter to announce in all caps NO COLLUSION. He's willing to sit face-to-face with Mueller and battle it out.

With Daniels, though, he's been unusually silent. No tweets, no comments.

She alleges the relationship took place around the time Trump's son Baron was born. His supporters shrug such infidelity off, and evangelical Christians say he can be forgiven for past sins. (See Donald Trump say he hasn't asked God for forgiveness because "I don't like to have to ask for forgiveness. And I am good. I don't do a lot of things that are bad."

The affair aside, however, the president could be in violation of federal election laws if his campaign had any hand in the hush money that was paid out just days before the election.

And then there's marital issue. Trump returned to the White House alone last night while his wife remained at their luxury resort in Florida. It wasn't clear if either watched the Stormy Daniels interview on CBS television last night.

Vote in our informal and unscientific poll and tell us why in the comments section.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong was welcomed at the Paris Orly Airport (Photo: VNA)



The Party chief, accompanied by a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, was welcomed by French Ambassador to Vietnam Bertrand Lortholary and Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Thiep along with representatives from the French Government and the overseas Vietnamese community in France.

Upon his arrival in Paris, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation visited Montreuil city, the second biggest city of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, about 15km to the northeast of Paris.

Montreuil is the headquarters of many large industrial corporations. In 1999, the city established friendly and cooperative relations with Vietnams northern province of Hai Duong. The two sides set up a centre to promote collaboration in education, health care, environment, urban planning, economics and tourism.

Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong and leaders from Montreuil city laid wreaths at the statue of President Ho Chi Minh to commemorate the national hero and the world cultural celebrity.

Mayor of Montreuil city Patrice Bessas said President Ho Chi Minh is the great leader of Vietnamese people and peace lovers around the world, including Montreuil residents.

The two sides have increased exchanges over the past few years and pledged to diversify cooperation in numerous fields such as climate change adaptation, agriculture, and sustainable use of natural resources.

Montreuil is one of the first cities in the world to support Vietnamese people in the resistance wars against French colonialism and American imperialism, the Mayor said.

Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong said he was glad to meet French friends in Montreuil in a very warm atmosphere.

He noted that Vietnam and France are celebrating the 45th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties this year. Montreuil is the symbol of the long-standing bilateral friendship, he said.

On behalf of Vietnamese people, the Party chief thanked French people for promoting solidarity and supporting Vietnam in the past and at present.

He added that his ongoing visit to France aims to strengthen bilateral cooperation in various fields, including people-to-people exchanges and coordination between localities.

Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong and Mayor Patrice Bessas jointly planted a commemorative tree at the Montreuil park. They later visited a space displaying objects and documents on President Ho Chi Minhs revolutionary life in France at the Montreuil Museum of History.

During his stay in France, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong will hold talks and meet with French leaders, representatives from the Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF) - the largest employer federation in France as well as young intellectuals and Vietnamese expatriates.

Particularly, the Party leader is expected to witness the signing of a series of importation cooperation agreements between Vietnam and France.

The visit, which is taking place on the occasion of celebrating the 45th founding anniversary of Vietnam-France diplomatic ties and fifth anniversary of the bilateral strategic partnership, has significant meaning to promote and deepen their friendship and cooperation across the fields.

It will also be an occasion to popularise Vietnam as a country with many reform achievements, a trustworthy partner ready to bolster ties with France, an emerging market with numerous investment and business opportunities for French businesses and an attractive, safe and friendly destination for French tourists.

Vietnam and France set up diplomatic ties on April 12th, 1973. Overcoming ups and downs in history, over the past 45 years, especially since the establishment of the strategic partnership in 2013, Vietnam-France relations have developed well.

France is an important European partner of Vietnam. It also respects Vietnams stature and contributions to peace, stability and development in the region and the world. Vietnams membership of the ASEAN Economic Community and many free trade agreements, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), expected to take effect in the near future, will bring new cooperation chances for both countries./.By Charles Love

I am a native Newarker, a former employee of Newark Public Schools and a father with children who have attended both district and charter schools in Newark.

I have lived in Newark for a long time and have experienced both the highs and lows of the Newark education system both as a parent and as a student.

I'm headed to Trenton to share my story with lawmakers because my son attends high school at Uncommon Schools North Star Academy, which was ranked last year by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top 25 high schools in New Jersey. Eighty percent of North Star's graduates have either graduated from college or are on track to graduate from college.

When you consider that compared to a college completion rate of fewer than 60 percent of the highest income Americans, you realize that a charter school like Uncommon Schools North Star Academy should be protected and celebrated, not threatened with a "pause."

I am also a parent and school advocate. We need high quality schools all over the city and not just in parts of the community.

I'm sure most of us would agree that having options is a good thing. We wouldn't be happy if we couldn't choose what restaurant to eat in, what stores to shop in, or what car to drive. Yet when it comes to our children's education, there are special interests in New Jersey who don't want us to have a choice.

It wasn't always like that. When the legislature passed the charter school bill in 1996, it had support from both Democrats and Republicans and the teachers' union.

But that began to change as more charter schools opened up. It is true that not every charter school was a homerun--but those that are sending kids to college at five times the rate of a typical urban public school should be valued.

Instead of asking what are these schools doing right, the special interests looked for all kinds of reasons to explain away the results. They said charters weren't taking enough poor students, enough students who didn't speak English, enough special education students - all of which have been debunked.

The special interests weren't from our community. But they really knew how to drive a wedge through our community. As charters grew, neighbors began to resent one another. We looked at parents who sent their children to a district or a charter school as an enemy. We showed up at school board meetings ready to rumble.

What message were we sending to our children?

We've come a long way since then. What us parents have come to realize is that we can't possibly help our children when we are shouting at each other. With local control coming to Newark's schools, we owe it to our community and our children to do better.

For the last several years, parents in Newark have worked to build bridges. Just like me, many parents have children in both charter and district schools.

When I talk to other parents, I realize we all want the same thing - good public schools for our children, whether they are charter, district or magnet.

Parents are the key to their children's education. In a city like Newark, we have lots of choices for our children.

Many parents opt to send their children to neighborhood schools. Others choose a charter school. There's no right answer. It's whatever works for your family.

Yes, we still have a long way to go before every child in Newark has access to an excellent education. But I know that we would be taking one giant step backwards if we were to limit a parent's ability to choose the right school for their child.

Charles Love is resident of Newark and a father of three children who have attended both district and charter schools.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.UPDATE: Lawmakers just voted to make N.J. gun laws even tougher

Two days after thousands rallied across the globe for more gun control, hundreds of gun-rights activists held a demonstration of their own in New Jersey's capital on Monday.

They gathered on the steps of the War Memorial across from the Statehouse in Trenton to protest as the state Assembly prepares to vote on a package of bills that aim to further tighten the state's already tight gun laws.

Scott Bach, director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs -- which co-hosted the rally with the National Rifle Association -- told the crowd "we are facing a perfect anti-gun storm."

"Lawmakers are in a feeding frenzy right now to push the most extreme laws," Bach said.

Monday's voting session comes amid increased calls for more gun laws in the wake of last month's school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

On Saturday, people around the world took part in the March for Our Lives, a rally organized by students who survived that shooting.

Among the Democratic-sponsored statewide proposals up Monday is one to reduce magazine capacity, another to ban armor-piercing bullets, another to make it tougher to obtain a permit to carry a handgun, another to expand background checks on private gun sales, and two to keep firearms out of the hands of people deemed a threat to themselves and others.

Both the Assembly and then the state Senate -- each controlled by Democrats -- must pass the measures before they head to Gov. Phil Murphy's desk.

Murphy, a Democrat who has repeatedly called for tougher gun laws, has vowed to sign them.

But those at the rally in Trenton argued the measures punish only law-abiding gun-owners and would do nothing to make New Jersey, which already has some of the nation's toughest firearm laws, any safer. They also said lawmakers are violating their right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.

Steve Michel, an Ocean City resident who took off from work to attend the rally, said he's afraid New Jerseyans are "losing our constitutional rights."

"I go anywhere else, and I can carry (a gun)," Michel said. "I can protect myself and my family. I can't do that in New Jersey. The only place I can is in my home."

Hundreds attend a gun-rights rally on the steps of the War Memorial in Trenton on Monday morning.

The State Police estimated that 2,000 people attended the rally.

Some of the signs in the crowd read: "Defend Freedom," "Follow the Constitution," and "N.J. & Tyranny: Perfect Together."

Donna Simon, a former member of the state Assembly, told the crowd that "what happened in Parkland was heart-wrenching."

"We all felt sick to our stomachs," said Simon, a Republican who had an A-plus rating from the NRA when she was a lawmaker.

But, she added, that it's wrong for gun-control activists to say the NRA "wants to kill our children."

"How do you expect people to hear you?" Simon asked. "Now is the time to come together."

Another gun-rights group, the New Jersey Second Amendment Society, held a news conference around the corner to speak out against the bills.

"The children of New Jersey deserve better," said Alex Roubian, the group's president. "Enough is enough. We know what stops a bad guy with a weapon."

The head of the N.J. Second Amendment Society and state lawmakers hold a news event at the @NJGOP to speak out against the gun-control bills up in the N.J. Assembly today. pic.twitter.com/oo3HqmIB5X  Brent Johnson (@johnsb01) March 26, 2018

A trio of Republican state lawmakers from rural Sussex County -- state Sen. Steven Oroho and Assemblymen Parker Space and Harold Wirths -- pushed a bill they've introduced to put bullet-proof doors on all New Jersey classrooms.

"What's the real problem?" Oroho asked. "School safety, as well as mental health issues."

Congressional candidate Steve Lonegan, a Republican who is running to unseat U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th, in November, noted that schools are running lockdown drills in which teachers are told to gather students in a corner, put themselves between them and the gunman, and then throw things at the shooter.

"What are you going to do? Throw stuffed animals at the gunman?" asked Lonegan, whose wife is a teacher.

Wirths said he is introducing another bill to require retired law enforcement officers assigned to help protect schools be allowed to have guns on campus. He said some districts require them to keep their firearms locked in their cars.

Roubian said his group is prepared to take the state to court over some of the measures if they are passed.

NJ gun owner rally at the War Memorial in Trenton 13 Gallery: NJ gun owner rally at the War Memorial in Trenton

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.The state Assembly voted Monday to pass six bills to make New Jersey's already strict gun laws even tougher amid the national outcry for more gun control in the wake of the deadly high school shooting in Florida.

Lawmakers did so even as hundreds of people descended upon the state's capital to protest Monday.

The statewide proposals -- all sponsored by Democrats -- include reducing the number of rounds allowed in a magazine from 15 to 10, banning armor-piercing bullets, strictly defining that residents must show a "justifiable need" to obtain a permit to carry a handgun, expanding background checks for private gun sales, and making it easier to seize weapons from people deemed to pose a threat to themselves or others.

The votes come two days after thousands of people took part in March for Our Lives rallies across the world -- including many in New Jersey -- calling for more gun laws after last month's massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Democrats, who control the Assembly, voted overwhelmingly for each bill at the Statehouse in Trenton, and many Republicans also voted for some. Republicans largely opposed the magazine and permit measures.

The state Senate -- also controlled by Democrats -- now must pass the bills before they head to Gov. Phil Murphy's desk.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney said Monday the Senate will likely pass the bills, too.

"We'll get them done," said Sweeney, D-Gloucester. "I'm saying right now: I'll be voting for all of the bills. And if I'm voting for them, they're gonna pass."

Murphy, a Democrat who campaigned last year for tighter gun laws, has vowed to sign all the bills.

The governor said in a statement that "the energy" of the tens of thousands of New Jerseyans who marched Saturday continued Monday. He applauded the Assembly for passing "common-sense measures to protect our communities and families."

"The people of New Jersey have demanded we act, and we must," Murphy added.

New Jersey already has some of the toughest gun-control laws in the nation.

Many of Monday's bills were introduced years ago, some after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn.

But Democrats were long stymied by former Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, who often vetoed gun legislation -- including the magazine bill twice.

Murphy's election, however, emboldened Democrats to begin pushing the bills again earlier this year. The measures received even more attention after the Parkland shooting and other recent massacres.

"There is an entire generation of students who grew up with the ever-present fear of violence in our communities, and now these students are speaking up," Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, D-Camden, said Monday.

"For all the victims and their friends who have been affected by gun violence, enough is enough," Greenwald added.

One of the stronger measures would allow law enforcement or family members to ask police or a judge for a restraining order to seize guns from someone in the state who poses a threat to themselves or others.

Assemblyman John McKeon, D-Essex, said "lives could have been saved" had a law like this been in place in Florida before the Parkland shooting.

Another bill would allow law enforcement to seize a person's guns if a mental health professional -- including those who practice medicine, nursing, psychology, psychiatry, social work, or marriage and family therapy -- determines they're a threat.

Dozens of gun-control advocates were on hand to support the bills.

Meanwhile, gun-rights activists gathered for a protest rally at the War Memorial in Trenton co-organized by the National Rifle Association.

The State Police estimated about 2,000 people attended.

The protestors argued the bills would do nothing to protect residents, would hurt law-abiding gun owners, and would violate the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

"There are a lot of tragedies and a lot of dangers, but our most important job is to protect the Constitution," Assemblyman Harold Wirths, R-Sussex, said, calling the measures "feel-good bills."

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris, warned "we are trying to do things quickly rather than doing them well."

Republicans said they voted for some bills in a bipartisan show of solidarity even though they would simply duplicate laws are already on the books.

But Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi, R-Morris, was one of a few who opposed the measure solidifying the state's standard to obtain a handgun -- that people must show a "justifiable need" for one because of a specific threat against them.

Schepisi said it's "almost impossible" for Jersyans to get a carry permit.

Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, R-Union, called the measure a "mistake."

"Sometimes in Trenton, we go too far," Bramnick said.

Christie tried to loosen the standard in 2016, but Murphy reversed that move. This bill codifies the standard.

The measures that passed are:

* A1217: Creates restraining orders in the state allowing family members and others to ask a judge to have a person's guns seized and ban them from buying weapons for up to a year. It passed 59-13, with 4 abstentions.

* A1181: Mandates law enforcement in the state take a person's guns if a mental health professional determines they are a threat to themselves or others. It passed 62-7, with 7 abstentions.

* A2758: Strictly defines that state residents need to show a "justifiable need" to obtain a permit to carry a handgun. It passed 48-26, with 2 abstentions.

* A2757: Requires all private gun sales in the state to go through a licensed dealer who can perform an additional background check at the point of sale. It passed 61-9, with 5 abstentions.

* A2759: Creates an outright ban in the state on possessing armor-piercing bullets, which are already federally outlawed. It passed 75-0, with 1 abstention.

Sponsors say the measure is needed to line up with federal law.

* A2761: Ban magazines in the state that hold more than 10 rounds, with some exceptions. It passed 48-25, with 3 abstentions.

People who currently own magazines with more than 10 rounds could keep their firearms, though they would have to register them and pay a $50 fee.

NJ gun owner rally at the War Memorial in Trenton 13 Gallery: NJ gun owner rally at the War Memorial in Trenton

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Gov. Phil Murphy's first state budget proposal includes a slight increase to New Jersey's sales tax.

But on Sunday, Murphy suggested he supports expanding a program aiming to boost struggling cities by cutting the sales tax in those places in half, among other incentives.

Murphy made the comments while appearing on New York City radio station WBLS 107.5-FM when a caller asked him if he backs the Urban Enterprise Zone program.

"It's smart policy," the Democrat responded. "It gets action in downtown areas. It's a good economic proposition and it's particularly good for our urban communities."

"We're big UEZ fans," Murphy added.

It had been unclear where Murphy stood on expanding the program. While he didn't directly mention either bill Sunday, the governor said there "good legislation moving through right now" related to it.

The program has been in place since 1983, and about 6,800 businesses across the state take part. It was originally supposed to sunset 20 years after its creation, but state lawmakers voted in 2001 to extend it another 16 years.

That ended last year. And Murphy's Republican predecessor, Gov. Chris Christie, allowed the program to expire for the original five cities that took part: Bridgeton, Camden, Newark, Plainfield, and Trenton.

Christie said the program faced "apathetic participation" and delivered a "devastating impact on state revenues without any demonstrable benefit" to the cities.

Other cities that joined the program later continue to take part, though their designations are set to end between 2019 and 2026.

The Democratic-controlled state Legislature is now considering legislation that would reinstate the program in those five cities and extend the program for another 10 years.

"Urban Enterprise Zones have been an integral part of urban revitalization for many years now," state Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, D-Hudson, said when the bill (A3549) was approved by an Assembly panel last week. "Extending their designation will help many cities remain economically competitive while spurring job growth and economic development."

Another bill (A3551) would direct the New Jersey UEZ Authority to review the program and issue a report about it to Murphy and the Legislature.

Murphy -- who succeeded Christie in January -- unveiled his first state budget plan earlier this month. It includes reversing a deal Christie made in 2016 to reduce the state's sales tax in exchange for a 23 cent increase to the state's gas tax.

The sales tax fell from 7 percent to 6.875 in 2017 and then 6.625 last year under the agreement.

Now, Murphy wants to raise it back to 7 percent. The gas tax hike would remain in effect.

Murphy called Christie's move a "gimmick" and is proposing bringing the tax back to 7 percent to raise revenue for the state.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.It was a hero's welcome.

Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday told a more than 100 public workers in Atlantic City after eight years of near-constant battle with former Gov. Chris Christie, they now have a governor who will show them respect.

Then Murphy attacked Christie, without calling him out by name.

Murphy, a Democrat, accused his Republican predecessor of being a union-busting bully, declared an end to the "era of disrespect" and instead asked to be their partner.

"Thank you" for your work, Murphy told a local chapter of New Jersey's largest state employee union, the Communications Workers of America, at the group's annual conference here.

"I know it's been awhile since you've heard that from a governor, but you just did," Murphy said.

"I know how the last administration treated you," he said. "As long as I'm governor, (that's) not coming back."

Murphy accused Christie of being a "right-wing" governor who controlled the state on his "very personal" ambitions.

"Our former governor wanted to be the next Scott Walker," Murphy said, in reference to the Wisconsin governor who, like Christie, made national headlines and drew the admiration of the GOP by forcing concessions from public workers.

"I see the men and women who I need, who we need, to be my partners, to be our partners," Murphy said. "Titles are fleeting. How we treat our fellow residents is lasting."

Murphy's speech was brief. But it was often interrupted for applause and a couple of standing ovations.

As the workers applaud him in public, his administration is in private negotiations with state employee unions over their contracts. That includes the tens of thousands of public workers whose contracts expired in 2015.

Workers without a contract had their salaries frozen and missed one or more of longevity pay bumps.

Murphy didn't discuss the negotiations. But neither did the CWA, which said it would be irresponsible to talk about ongoing discussions publicly.

The contracts expired in 2015 as unions battled with the Christie administration.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Samantha Marcus contributed to this report.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.A 34-year-old New Jersey man who was drunk when he struck and killed a recent Rutgers-Newark graduate in a hit-and-run crash last year was has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Eduardo Perez, of Elizabeth won't be eligible for parole until he's served at least 85 percent of the sentence, the Union County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.

Mujahid Henry

Perez pleaded guilty in January to second-degree vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving in the crash that killed Mujahid Henry, 23, of Newark, on May 12.

Henry's death came shortly before he was to receive his diploma from Rutgers-Newark. His father, Darryl Henry, accepted his son's degree five days after the hit-and-run.

Perez was speeding in a 2007 Ford Escape on the wrong side of East Linden Avenue when he struck Henry at 12:30 a.m. on May 12. The impact threw Henry into a parked car. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police arrested Perez after he struck several parked cars on Lidgerwood Avenue in Elizabeth and abandoned his SUV.

Investigators determined Perez's blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit of .08 and found an empty bottle of Cognac in the vehicle.

Perez, who was on probation and driving with a suspended license, had previous convictions for robbery and aggravated assault.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.A 25-year-old who stabbed another man to death in the parking lot of an Elizabeth nightclub was sentenced Friday to 52 years in prison.

Rosendo Salomon Gomez-Serpa, an undocumented immigrant who was staying in Elizabeth, will be required to spend almost 49 years locked up before he is eligible for parole, the Union County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.

Gomez-Serpas, 25, attacked Mario Ortiz, 30, of Elizabeth, in the parking lot of the Imperial Latino Lounge after the two argued around 4 a.m. on April 9, 2016, officials said.

The altercation began inside the club and spilled out into the parking area. Gomez-Serpas pulled out a knife and stabbed Ortiz five times including a fatal strike to his chest, authorities said.

Most of the fight, including the stabbing, was caught on nearby surveillance cameras and the footage was played during the three-week trial. Ortiz's blood was also found on a hat Gomez-Serpas was wearing when he was arrested 10 hours after the incident, and inside his vehicle.

Authorities in Arizona charged Gomez-Serpas with alien inadmissibility in 2012 and deported him to Guatemala. It's unclear when or how Gomez-Serpas reentered the United States.

Gomez-Serpa was convicted of murder and two weapons offenses during a trial that ended in February. Assistant prosecutor Peter Benza handled the case for the Union County Prosecutor's Office.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.A Metairie business could obtain permission Tuesday to operate one of the state's first medical marijuana pharmacies. The Louisiana Pharmacy Board is meeting in Baton Rouge for two days to discuss, and possibly give final approval, to companies seeking to obtain one of the state's operating permits.

According to the board's agenda, 44 applicants have applied for permits, although some of those companies have withdrawn from consideration.

The Rx Greenhouse announced in February its plans to open an office building at 3131 North Causeway Boulevard in Metairie after gaining preliminary approval from a state subcommittee. If approved it would open by September, the pharmacy owners have said.

The Rx Greenhouse was chosen by the subcommittee from among eight applicants seeking to dispense marijuana in the metro New Orleans area, known as Region 1 or the Metropolitan Region, which includes Jefferson, Orleans and St. Bernard parishes.

One of Louisiana's 1st medical marijuana pharmacies plans to open in Metairie

The Pharmacy Board plans to issue operating permits for one pharmacy in each of the state's nine designated health care regions and a 10th permit will be issued as needed.

The board's application review committee interviewed the 44 applicants in January and developed a ranking of the applicants by region. The committee's recommendations will be presented during the meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The board could vote during the meeting or it could take the recommendations under advisement.

The agenda for the 8 a.m. meeting includes a public comment period prior to discussion of the applicants.

In Louisiana, legislation mandates that marijuana can't be sold in any form that can be smoked. The forms sold at state-permitted pharmacies will include pills, topical creams and oils and can only be dispensed to patients with a doctor's recommendation form.

The state-permitted pharmacies will dispense marijuana that will be produced and manufactured in various forms by vendors hired by Southern University and Louisiana State University, the only agricultural centers allowed by state law to grow the medicinal-grade marijuana.

The schools finalized contracts with vendors in 2017. The state Agriculture Department will oversee the production.

On Tuesday, the Pharmacy Board will consider the following businesses that applied. (Only one from each region can be chosen, with a possible 10th permit allowed):

Region 1 - Metropolitan

. (a) The Rx Greenhouse, LLC d/b/a The Rx Greenhouse [Metairie, LA]

. (b) GNO Medical Dispensary, LLC d/b/a GNO Medical Dispensary [Metairie, LA]

. (c) P & C Herbals, LLC d/b/a P & C Herbals [New Orleans, LA]

. (d) H & W Drug Store, Inc. d/b/a H & W Drug Store [New Orleans, LA]

. (e) Expressway Pharmacy, LLC d/b/a Expressway Pharmacy [Gretna, LA]

. (f) JBL of LA, LLC d/b/a Medicine Woman Pharmacy [New Orleans, LA]

. (g) Community Choice Pharmacy, LLC d/b/a Community Choice Pharmacy [New Orleans, LA] {Withdrawn}

. (h) Claiborne Discount Pharmacy, LLC d/b/a Claiborne Discount Pharmacy [New Orleans, LA] {Withdrawn}

Region 2 - Capitol

. (a) Capitol Wellness Solutions, LLC d/b/a Capitol Wellness Solutions [Baton Rouge, LA]

. (b) Green Magnolia Rx, LLC d/b/a Green Magnolia Rx [Baton Rouge, LA]

(c) Louisiana Therapeutics Marijuana Pharmacy, LLC d/b/a Louisiana Therapeutics [Baton Rouge, LA)

. (d) Bayou Green Ventures, LLC d/b/a Strawberry Fields [Baton Rouge, LA] {Withdrawn}

. (e) Midcity Medical Pharmacy, LLC d/b/a Midcity Medical Pharmacy [Baton Rouge, LA]

Region 3 - Teche

. (a) Bayou Therapeutics Pharmacy, LLC d/b/a Bayou Therapeutics Pharmacy [Schriever, LA]

. (b) Advanced Organix Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a Advanced Organix [St. Rose, LA] {Withdrawn}

. (c) Green Leaf Dispensary, LLC d/b/a Green Leaf Dispensary [Houma, LA]

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. (d) Raceland's Express, LLC d/b/a Therapeutic Dispensary of Louisiana [Raceland, LA]

Region 4 - Acadian

. (a) Acadiana Therapeutic Remedies, LLC d/b/a Acadiana Therapeutic Remedies [Lafayette, LA]

. (b) The Apothecary Shoppe, LLC d/b/a The Apothecary Shoppe [Lafayette, LA]

. (c) CB Medical Dispensaries, LLC d/b/a CB Medical Dispensaries [Lafayette, LA] {Withdrawn}

. (d) Cajun Pharmacy, LLC d/b/a Cajun Pharmacy [Lafayette, LA] {Withdrawn}

. (e) Cajun Pharmacy, LLC d/b/a Cajun Pharmacy [New Iberia, LA] {Withdrawn}

. (f) Acadian Food Mart of Lafayette, Inc. d/b/a Acadian Food Mart [Lafayette, LA] {Withdrawn}

. (g) Nicolas Bernard LeBas d/b/a LeBas' Apothecary [Ville Platte, LA] {Withdrawn}

On Wednesday, the board will consider:

Region 5 - Southwest

. (a) Calcasieu Therapeutics, LLC d/b/a Calcasieu Therapeutics [Lake Charles, LA]

. (b) Medicis, LLC d/b/a Medicis [Lake Charles, LA]

. (c) CarMed Direct, Inc. d/b/a The Dispensary of SWLA [Lake Charles, LA]

. (d) Clinical Pharmacy of SWLA, LLC d/b/a Clinical Pharmacy of SWLA [Lake Charles, LA]

Region 6 - Central

. (a) CB Medical Dispensaries, LLC d/b/a CB Medical Dispensaries [Marksville, LA] {Withdrawn}

. (b) RAR Oil Ventures, LLC d/b/a Cenla Natural Medicine Dispensary [Alexandria, LA]

. (c) Widel, LLC d/b/a The Pill Box Pharmacy #003 [Alexandria, LA]

Region 7 - Northwest

. (a) NorLa Pharm, LLC d/b/a NorLa Pharm [Shreveport, LA]

. (b) Hope Pharmacy, LLC d/b/a Hope Pharmacy [Shreveport, LA]

. (c) Bayou Dispensary, LLC d/b/a Bayou Dispensary [Shreveport, LA]

Region 8 - Northeast

. (a) BRFHH Monroe, LLC d/b/a University Health Conway Dispensary [Monroe, LA] {Withdrawn}

. (b) Delta Medmar, LLC d/b/a Delta Medmar [West Monroe, LA]

. (c) Prescription Shoppe, LLC d/b/a Grace Specialty Pharmacy [West Monroe, LA]

Region 9 - Southeast

. (a) Willow Pharmacy, LLC d/b/a Willow Pharmacy [Madisonville, LA]

. (b) Purivera Pharmacy, LLC d/b/a Purivera Pharmacy [Covington, LA]

. (c) Remedy Rx, LLC d/b/a Remedy Rx [Mandeville, LA] {Withdrawn}

(d) Perfect Health, LLC d/b/a Perfect Health [Ponchatoula, LA] {Withdrawn}Al Sharpton's half-brother was booked with capital murder after a deadly shooting in south Alabama on Sunday night (March 25), the Dothan Eagle reported. Kenneth Glasgow, 52, was arrested along with another man after the killing of Breunia Jennings, 23, who was shot in the head.

Glasgow, who was released from jail several years ago and has more recently been an advocate for prisoners' rights, was arrested in Dothan along with and Jamie Towns, the alleged triggerman who was also booked with capital murder, the newspaper reported.

Dothan Chief of Police Steven Parrish told the Dothan Eagle that it appears Jennings stole Towns' vehicle. "Instead of him notifying law enforcement, he took matters in his own hands and jumped in Mr. Glasgow's vehicle to find Breunia Jennings," the newspaper quoted Parrish as saying.

Glasgow has referred to himself as Kenny Sharpton Glasgow and is believed to be the half-brother of Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, the newspaper reported.The Orleans Parish Coroner's office identified two men fatally shot last week, one in New Orleans East and the other in the 7th Ward.

Joseph Lewis Jr., 39, died Wednesday (March 21) after he was shot more than once on the front porch of a home in the 7100 block of Salem Drive, according to the coroner's office. The shooting was reported about 7:50 p.m., according to New Orleans police.

Brandon Antoine, 23, was fatally shot in the 7th Ward Saturday evening (March 24), in a vacant lot at the intersection of Pauger and North Rocheblave streets, according to the coroner's office.

NOPD said Antoine was shot more than once in the head and torso and was pronounced dead on the scene about 6:20 p.m. Neighbors who gathered near the scene Saturday said they heard between eight and 10 shots fired about 6 p.m.

Derrineisha Anderson, 26, said she had known Antoine since she was 13 years old. Anderson said Antoine's sister is her best friend and that she has grown to think of him as a brother.

"He was always smiling. He was amazing, kindhearted and sweet. He was lovable and one of a kind," Anderson said. "He most definitely did not deserve this."

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A man and a woman at the scene said they had known Antoine his whole life.

The woman said Antoine and his older sister were raised by their grandmother, because their mother was killed in a car crash when they were children.

"He was always joking," the woman said. "He was a good kid, a funny kid. And he loved his family."

Both Anderson and the woman said Antoine had recently been released from jail and was starting to turn his life around. According to online court records, Antoine was convicted on firearm and drug possession charges in 2014.

NOPD spokeswoman Danielle Miller said Saturday the victim was 24, but the coroner's office reported he was 23 years old.

Lewis' and Antoine's deaths mark the 47th and 48th murders reported in New Orleans in 2018.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A former New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board employee pleaded guilty Monday (March 26) to malfeasance in office and copper theft charges after authorities said he was caught stealing brass fittings from the agency in 2016.

Traivus James, 40, received a five-year suspended sentence on the malfeasance charge, and a two-year suspended sentence on the theft charge.

Criminal District Judge Arthur Hunter placed James on two years of active probation.

He ordered the sentences be served concurrently.

James also must pay $8,079 in restitution to the Sewerage and Water Board. Once that amount is paid, Assistant District Attorneys Alexis Taylor and Eric Cusimano said in court that their office would amend the theft charge to a misdemeanor.

James resigned from the agency in 2016, following allegations he and nine other employees had been stealing metal from the agency.

A security guard at the Sewerage & Water Board's Meter Shop on South Claiborne Avenue caught James loading three boxes of brass fittings into his vehicle, according to a warrant for his arrest.

Jason Cantrell represented James.A man accused of robbing a woman at gunpoint while she was parking her car in the Gentilly Terrace neighborhood on Halloween morning in 2016 pleaded guilty to armed robbery Monday (March 26), according to District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office.

Willal Brown, 27, pleaded guilty to armed robbery, illegal possession of a stolen firearm and two counts of illegal possession of a firearm by a felon.

In exchange for the plea, the district attorney's office amended his initial charge of armed robbery with a firearm to armed robbery, Cannizzaro's spokesman, Ken Daley, said.

Armed robbery carries a sentence of 10 to 99 years. The use of a firearm adds an additional five years to the sentence, according to state law.

The state also agreed it would not file a multiple bill charging Brown as an habitual offender, Daley said.

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Criminal District Judge Keva Landrum-Johnson sentenced Brown to serve 10 years in state prison on the armed robbery and illegal firearm possession by a felon charges, Daley said. Court records show she imposed a five-year sentence for illegal possession of a stolen firearm.

Landrum-Johnson ordered the sentences to run concurrently.

According to a police report from the time of the robbery, Brown, who was armed, approached a 50-year old woman in the 4300 block of Lotus Street as she was parking her car, ordered her to get out, took her backpack and fled.

New Orleans police arrested Brown the next day, as he was entering a fast-food restaurant still armed with a handgun, Daley said. The victim identified Brown in a photographic lineup, he said.

Assistant District Attorney Karen Lansden prosecuted this case. Eusi Phillips was Brown's defense attorney.School officials in St. John the Baptist Parish say it's time to "join forces" with a community group in demanding that a LaPlace chemical plant reduce emissions of chloroprene which the Environmental Protection Agency has listed as a likely carcinogen.

In 2010, the federal EPA classified chloroprene as a likely human carcinogen, and a 2015 air toxic assessment said residents living near the St. John plant have an elevated risk for cancer.

The School Board is holding a public forum Wednesday (March 28) at 6 p.m. at Lake Pontchartrain Elementary in LaPlace to discuss emission levels at Denka Performance Elastomer, also located in LaPlace.

"We have worked with and through the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals to address this grave concern and we have not received any news that reassures the safety of our students and residents," Schools Superintendent Kevin George said in a news release. "It is time to join forces as a community to demand action now."

According to a school system news release, two of the six air monitoring sites from Denka Performance are located at Fifth Ward Elementary and East St. John High School and past readings have shown chloroprene readings that "far exceeded" the EPA risk-based standard of 0.2 micrograms per cubic meter.

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The Concerned Citizens of St. John the Baptist Parish filed suit in 2017 against Denka in an effort to have the plant reduce emissions or stop production until emissions no longer exceed the EPA's risk-based standard.

The plant has operated in the parish for nearly 50 years and has agreed to reduce its emissions. It recently completed a $25 million projected aimed at reducing emissions by 85 percent.

The plant produces neoprene, a synthetic rubber developed in 1931. Chloroprene is needed to make neoprene, which is often used in chemical and weather-resistant products like wet suits and orthopedic braces.

Reserve plant accused of raising cancer risk for neighborsLouisiana State University this month has decided to ban the Phi Delta Theta fraternity from campus after a freshman who pledged at the university last year died following an apparent hazing ritual.

Baton Rouge Police said 18-year-old Maxwell Gruver of Rosewell, Ga., was involved in a hazing event at Phi Delta Theta fraternity Sept. 13, when members forced him to drink during a ritual testing their fraternity knowledge. One Phi Delta Theta pledge told authorities Gruver was "made to" take at least 10 to 12 "pulls" of 190-proof grain alcohol as other pledges drank lesser amounts of the liquor.

After members found Gruver "unresponsive" on the fraternity couch around 11 a.m. the next morning, he was taken to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge.

A coroner's report stated Gruver died from "acute alcohol intoxication with aspiration." His body had a blood alcohol level of .495, which is more than six times the legal limit to drive. A Baton Rouge grand jury March 15 indicted four of the 10 men arrested for their involvement in Gruver's death.

In a March 16 letter to the LSU chapter of Phi Delta Theta, LSU stated the fraternity's registration will be rescinded through Dec. 31, 2032. Reinstatement requests from the organization will not be considered prior to Jan. 1, 2033.

LSU's ban on Phi Delta Theta follows LSU President F. King Alexander's announcement in February that LSU students caught hazing will be expelled. In a Feb. 28 letter to the LSU community, King also stated the fraternities or student organizations involved in the hazing will be removed from campus as well.

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"No more gray areas  hazing means expulsion or removal from campus," King's letter stated.

The LSU president's letter also voiced support for two pieces of state legislation that Alexander stated would "better address the challenge of hazing at colleges and universities."

Last week, a Louisiana House committee approved House Bill 78, which would make hazing a felony that charges violators a $1,000 fine and puts them behind bars for six months. If the hazing results in serious injury or death, the violator would get a $10,000 fine and five years in prison. LSU also voiced support for House Bill 270, which would protect the identity of those who report dangerous behaviors such as hazing.

Both of those bills are scheduled for final passage in the House as early as Wednesday.

. . . . . . .

Wilborn P. Nobles III is an education reporter based in New Orleans. He can be reached at wnobles@nola.com or on Twitter at @WilNobles.Large areas of Lake Pontchartrain are now covered with algae that may be the so-called blue-green version, which are often toxic and can cause a variety of health effects in humans and pets, officials with the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation announced Monday (March 26).

That conclusion is based on aerial photographs taken by Patrick Quigley with Gulf Coast Air Photo, and observations by boaters, both of which found a large area of green to blue-green material on the surface of the lake along the North Shore and on both sides of the northern third of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.

Blue-green algae is actually made up of cyanobacteria, which can produce a variety of toxins -- or poisonous substances -- that can affect the liver, kidney and the reproductive system, and can cause abdominal pain, headaches, sore throats, nausea, diarrhea, pneumonia, tingling or burning sensations, numbness, drowsiness, and respiratory paralysis, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

John Lopez, science officer for the lake authority, said the photos and boat observations lead him to believe that it's blue-green algae, rather than a less dangerous form. He said testing to confirm the type of algae hasn't been done yet.

The lake foundation recommends that members of the public and their pets keep away from the algae blooms.

"Blooms are usually noted for their green or blue-green appearance, scummy or viscous consistency, and the presence of odors," says a news release issued by the lake foundation. "Both the EPA and CDC advise against direct and indirect contact with these materials; it is generally unsafe to swim in water with algal blooms, and even boaters may be exposed to the toxins of the blooms through water spray. "

A similar algae bloom was seen in northern parts of the lake in early March, before the Army Corps of Engineers began opening the Bonnet Carre Spillway near Montz in St. Charles Parish on March 8 to reroute part of spring floodwaters carried by the Mississippi River into Lake Pontchartrain.

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Researchers at Louisiana State University identified the earlier algae outbreak as Anabaena spiralis, a form of cyanobacteria found in blue-green algae outbreaks that can produce toxins. LSU oceanography and coastal sciences professor Eugene Turner said it's too early to determine if the spillway opening resulted in this latest bloom, or whether it was the result of earlier water conditions.

Pinning down the role of the spillway will take more tests, he said.

The corps opens the spillway to reduce pressure on river levees throughout the New Orleans area, generally limiting water heights at the Carrollton Gage in the city to no higher than 17 feet. After two weeks, 183 of the spillway's bays had been opened, and on March 22, the corps began closing them again, as water levels in the river dropped.

The freshwater from the river carries comparatively high levels of nutrients, including fertilizer from Midwest farms and untreated or incompletely treated sewage from communities along the river and its tributaries, into the lake. But earlier rainfall events around the shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain may have added nutrients to the lake water much earlier in the year, helping trigger the earlier algae bloom.

Sunlight added to the nutrients can provide just the right conditions for the cyanobacteria to bloom quickly. It will eventually die and sink to the lake's bottom, where its decomposition might also cause small areas of very low to no oxygen.

"Hopefully, the algae blooms will not last much longer than a couple of weeks," as the freshwater levels in the lake return to normal, Lopez said. Thunderstorms are likely to mix the lake's surface water and move the algae around during the next few weeks, he said.

He asked members of the public who see algae patches near shore to provide location information to the lake foundation.When Roger Bartlett and his wife decided to come to New Orleans on vacation, Bartlett had no way of knowing he would return home to England as the reigning champ of one of the city's most anticipated competitions.

Bartlett secured the honor Sunday afternoon (March 23), after he and his wife, Tina Bartlett, decided to check out the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival's closing event.

"I'm just here on holiday," Bartlett said, according to a Tennessee Williams Festival news release. "We had seen about the Tennessee Williams Festival before visiting and had just been to Super Sunday, came over and said 'why not?"

Stanwood Duval, one of the contest's judges, said Bartlett's crescendo'ing scream stood out over the rest, according to the news release. Duval said Bartlett showed "emotion and a great voice distinctive in presentation and skill."

For the past 32 years, 24 hopeful yellers have gathered in Jackson square to close out the festival by showing of their shouting skills. Of the 24, five finalists are chosen and then the top three compete.

Two New Orleans men joined Bartlett in the final shouting battle. In the end, Chris Turner-Neal won second place and Marj Brown came in third, the news release states, and Bartlett was crowned the winner.

All five finalists were given a goodie bag prize and the top three won 2019 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival passes and Stella Beer.In honor of New Orleans' 300th anniversary, Jeremy Davenport, the St. Louis-born trumpet maestro of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, has composed a jaunty tune titled "One Way Ticket To New Orleans." The song could become an anthem for all of us who planned to visit the city temporarily, but stayed for a lifetime. Davenport has been here for 30 years and says he doesn't plan to leave anytime soon.

As a teenager, Davenport aimed for a life as a classical musician. It was only natural. His dad played with the St. Louis symphony and his mom was a high school music teacher. He earned a spot studying classical music at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music in New York.

But Davenport also had a burgeoning love of jazz that would soon draw him away from the Big Apple. His New York jazz pals Harry Connick Jr. and Wynton Marsalis encouraged him to travel to the homeland of off-the-charts music.

"Harry said, 'Man, you know, I think you're a talented guy and you play beautiful, but I think you should go down to New Orleans and soak in some of that New Orleansness,'" Davenport recalls.

So he left school and headed south for a brief sojourn "submerging" in the "rich trumpet tradition in New Orleans," while continuing his studies with Wynton's dad Ellis Marsalis.

The city of Louis Armstrong has, of course, been the ruin of many a poor boy. But not Davenport. The Midwesterner somehow flourished. He even came to appreciate the reptilian summer temperatures.

"I actually like it when it's August and it's 100 degrees and just awful," he said laughing.

Unlike now, when outsiders are sometimes viewed with suspicion (even by those who are outsiders themselves), Davenport said that New Orleans horn men welcomed him into the fold immediately.

"Guys like Leroy Jones, and Wendell Brunious and George French, they were kind to me and encouraging," Davenport recalled. "You have to approach it (assimilation) with a fearlessness. I would show up with my trumpet and pretty much, in a humble way, beg to play with them. I was trying so hard to play. I think people could feel that devotion."

His hard work paid off. Eighteen years back Davenport landed a dream gig. The mythic quality of performing jazz nightly in his own room (the Davenport Lounge) on the third floor lobby of a Canal Street hotel in the center of his adopted city isn't lost on him.

"I have to pinch myself from time to time," he said. "I love it."

"One Way Ticket to New Orleans," he said, "captures my story, in that I came and never left, and I'm never going to leave, he said. "This town has been very kind to me. This town has given me a life and a career and all the good things."

"There's a line in there (the song) that says 'When you see it, you might think it's all pretend.' As corny as that sounds, on any given evening, you could be walking down Canal Street and a parade breaks out."

Davenport intended the song as a birthday tribute to the city he loves. He said, it's meant to have the same seductive tone as Paul Barbarin's 1955 classic "Bourbon Street Parade."

"I'm inviting people to come and fall in love with the city, and fall in love with me and then we're going to live together and live happily ever after in the city," he said.

Davenport will perform his Tricentennial composition at the French Quarter Fest on April 15, and at the Jazz and Heritage Festival on May 3.

Doug MacCash has the best job in the world, covering art, music, and culture in New Orleans. Contact him via email at dmaccash@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter at Doug MacCash and on Facebook at Douglas James MacCash. As always, please add your point of view to the comment stream.A federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a 11-year-old civil rights lawsuit in which a man claimed St. Tammany Parish sheriff's deputies beat him while he was handcuffed during a traffic stop on Interstate 12.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision Thursday (March 22), rejecting the appeal by Shane Gates.

In a statement, Sheriff's Office attorney Chadwick Collings said Sheriff Randy Smith was pleased that the appeals court affirmed the dismissal of the "frivolous lawsuit. The Sheriff inherited this case from the prior administration and he is glad that we have finally brought this matter to a successful conclusion."

Gates brought a lawsuit against the Sheriff's Office and others in 2007, claiming deputies smashed his face into the roadway after they pulled him over on Nov. 16, 2006. The suit claimed deputies used excessive force in arresting him and that he was being prosecuted in bad faith in state court.

A Sheriff's Office report said Gates was drunk and led deputies on a chase at speeds up to 104 mph before pulling over, the court decision said. The report said Gates resisted arrest, and a deputy threw him to the ground, causing Gates to hit the asphalt and receive a half-inch laceration near his left eye.

The incident occurred during the administration of then-Sheriff Jack Strain.

Gates' suit sought damages for the alleged beating and an injunction preventing his prosecution in state court.

The North Shore district attorney's office charged Gates with driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest -- both misdemeanors -- and aggravated flight from an officer.

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A jury found Gates not guilty on the aggravated flight felony charge in 2012, but the misdemeanor charges remained in place, and a federal judge put the civil rights suit on hold while those charges were pending.

Gates failed to appear in court in 2013 on the misdemeanor charges and has been a fugitive since then, the appeals court wrote.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier dismissed Gates' suit in March 2017, citing Gates' failure to appear in state court on the criminal charges.

In his appeal, Gates said the district court erred by not preventing the state's criminal prosecution. He maintained the prosecution was being carried out in bad faith, would constitute double jeopardy and violate state and federal speedy-trial laws.

The appeals court disagreed, saying "there is no evidence of bath faith."

Regarding the criminal prosecution, the court wrote: "There is a clear record of delay and contumacious conduct attributable to Gates himself. This matter was stayed in the district court for nearly 10 years pending the resolution of Gates underlying criminal charges. For over five years, that stay has been the result of Gates' failure to appear before the state to stand trial for his pending misdemeanor charges."

Gates alleged the DA's office pursued the misdemeanor charges against him in hopes of winning a conviction "to protect the sheriff's insurance carrier and his $500,000 deductible" and to "cover up federal and state crimes committed by the sheriff and his attorneys."

Gates' attorney, John Hollister, could not be reached for comment.An assistant district attorney in St. Tammany Parish was arrested Friday, (March 23), accused of trying to steal prescription medication from offices at the parish courthouse, authorities said.

Kim DeBrock was booked with felony attempted possession of a schedule II controlled dangerous substance and two misdemeanors - theft and illegal possessionof stolen things, according to North Shore District Attorney Warren Montgomery.

The district attorney said he contacted the Louisiana State Police and requested a criminal investigation into DeBrock after receiving complaints from courthouse employees. The investigation led to the dismissal and arrest of DeBrock, who handled juvenile prosecutions for the 22nd Judicial District Court, Montgomery said.

The District Attorney's Office has recused itself from prosecuting the case. Montgomery thanked the State Police for working the case.

"Drug addiction and the abuse of opioids is a crisis in our community. It extends even into the law enforcement community itself," Mongtomery said in a statement released Monday afternoon. "It is sad that I had to make this decision, but no one is above the law. I felt it was important to have an independent agency investigate this and treat it as a criminal matter. Everyone must be held accountable, especially those in positions of public trust.For the faithful, Palm Sunday is the final Sunday of Lent. It is the beginning of Holy Week and commemorates the triumphant arrival of Christ in Jerusalem, days before he was crucified.

Palm Sunday is known as such because the faithful will often receive palm fronds that they use to participate in the reenactment of Christ's arrival in Jerusalem. In the Gospels, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a young donkey, and to the lavish praise of the townspeople who threw clothes, or possibly palms or small branches, in front of him as a sign of homage. This was a customary practice for people of great respect.

Palm branches are widely recognized symbol of peace and victory, hence their preferred use on Palm Sunday.

The use of a donkey instead of a horse is highly symbolic, it represents the humble arrival of someone in peace, as opposed to arriving on a steed in war.

A week later, the Christian faith teaches that Christ would rise from the dead on the first Easter.

During Palm Sunday Mass, palms are distributed to parishioners who carry them in a ritual procession into church. The palms are blessed and many people will fashion them into small crosses or other items of personal devotion. These may be returned to the church, or kept for the year.

Because the palms are blessed, they may not be discarded as trash. Instead, they are appropriately gathered at the church and incinerated to create the ashes that will be used in the follow year's Ash Wednesday observance.

The colors of the Mass on Palm Sunday are red and white, symbolizing the redemption in blood that Christ paid for the world.The state will soon be pushing the locally elected officials of Powhatan out of the way to administer the finances of the northwest Louisiana village that in mid-July had only $105 in its general fund and is hiring a cop to drum up some money fromThe New Orleans Saints continued their pursuit of free-agent help this weekend by hosting wide receiver Cameron Meredith on a visit Saturday, a source familiar with the situation confirmed Monday (March 26).

The Chicago Tribune first reported the news.

Meredith, 25, is a restricted free agent with the Chicago Bears, who offered him the low tender worth $1.907 million for 2018. If another team extends an offer sheet to Meredith, the Bears can match the offer, but they would receive no compensation if they let him leave.

The Saints offered the same tender to wide receiver Willie Snead two weeks ago, but he has yet to sign it. Snead reportedly visited the Baltimore Ravens last week.

It's unclear if the visit with Meredith was a way to evaluate contingency plans if Snead leaves, or if the Saints are interested in adding in addition to trying to retain Snead.

Saints news in your inbox If you're a Saints fan you won't want to miss this newsletter. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

Meredith, who went undrafted out of Illinois State in 2015, is suddenly one of the top playmakers remaining on the market. He led the Bears with 66 receptions and 888 receiving yards in 2016, but he suffered damage to two ligaments in his knee last preseason, which forced him to sit out all of 2017.

The 6-foot-3 Meredith reportedly had visits with the Indianapolis Colts and Baltimore Ravens last week before coming to New Orleans.

The deadline for restricted free agents to sign offer sheets in April 20, which applies to Meredith and Snead.

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune's Herbie Teope contributed to this report.A former New Orleans Saints cheerleader has filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that said the team has a different set of rules for its players than it does for cheerleaders, the New York Times reported.

Bailey Davis, the former Saints cheerleader, said the team fired her in January after she posted a photo of herself in a one-piece outfit on a personal social media page that was set to private, the report said. Despite her protests, the team said the posting of that photo violated a team policy that prohibited cheerleaders from appearing nude, seminude or in lingerie, the report said.

The complaint accused the Saints of having a different set of rules for its cheerleaders, who are all women, than for its players, all men.

The report said the Saints have an anti-fraternization policy that requires cheerleaders to avoid all contact with players, in person or online. The policy requires cheerleaders to block all Saints players on social media accounts.

The New York Times' review of the cheerleader policy also said cheerleaders must avoid being in the same public places where players are present.

According to the report: "Cheerleaders are told not to dine in the same restaurant as players, or speak to them in any detail. If a Saints cheerleader enters a restaurant and a player is already there, she must leave. If a cheerleader is in a restaurant and a player arrives afterward, she must leave."

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Players do not have the same restrictions, the report said.

"If the cheerleaders can't contact the players, then the players shouldn't be able to contact the cheerleaders," Sara Blackwell, Davis's lawyer told the New York Times. "The antiquated stereotype of women needing to hide for their own protection is not permitted in America and certainly not in the workplace."

A Saints lawyer, through the New York Times, said the Saints "will defend the organization's policies and workplace rules ... at the appropriate time."

Read the full New York Times report here.

An earlier version of this report referred to the "one-piece outfit" as a swimsuit, which was the wording used by the New York Times in an earlier online posting.President Yoweri Museveni has downplayed reports of tension between Uganda and Rwanda.



This was during a joint press conference between him and Rwandan President Paul Kagame at State House Entebbe, this afternoon. Kagame, arrived earlier today for a one-day state working visit.

Museveni (R) with Rwanda President Paul Kagame at State House Entebbe Kagame, together with his host Museveni first held a closed-door meeting with their delegations that included ministers and senior security officials. Kagame was accompanied by his Foreign Affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo and the head of Rwandan intelligence Maj Gen Nzabamwita. Kagame, together with his host Museveni first held a closed-door meeting with their delegations that included ministers and senior security officials. Kagame was accompanied by his Foreign Affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo and the head of Rwandan intelligence Maj Gen Nzabamwita.

Recently, Mushikiwabo told journalists in Rwanda that her country would not return 'evil' to Ugandans in Rwanda in retaliation to how Uganda was treating Rwandans in Uganda through illegal detentions, torture.



Museveni told journalists that he agreed with Kagame to have close cooperation between intelligence services of both countries. He said that the cooperation should not only be in line with security but even other developmental issues.



He added that it was important for both countries to first get facts, discuss and where there is merit take legal action.



"There is no fundamental problem between Uganda and Rwanda. We don't even have a border problem like with Kenya on issues related to Migingo Island, with Rwanda there is nothing really." Museveni explained.



Kagame who did not go into details of the security tension between the two countries only emphasised the need to work together, bringing out facts and taking right decisions.



When further asked about Ugandans in Rwanda having their contracts terminated under mysterious circumstances, Kagame dismissed the reports saying that there are many things said out of context.



The meeting between the two heads of state comes hardly a week after Museveni called off his trip to the Rwandan Capital, Kigali, where he was slated to attend a meeting on the African Continental Free Trade Area Treaty.



The decision to cancel the visit, according to Daily Monitor, followed a disagreement between President Museveni's advance security team and the Rwandan security officials in Kigali.



Before this incident, Kagame had skipped the East African Heads of State Summit held in Kampala on February 22 to raise funds for health and infrastructure developments.



In recent months, there was a purge in the Uganda Police Force in which some senior officers and other civilians are accused of, among other things, kidnapping and aiding the repatriation of Rwandan dissidents. The policemen are currently on trial in the General Military Court Martial.



The two governments have also at different times accused each of other of supporting dissidents from the other country and espionage, among others.Pope Francis marked Palm Sunday in Saint Peters Square urging young people not to let themselves be manipulated.

A large crowd turned out at the Vatican to listen to the popes words and receive his blessing on the first of Holy Week services leading up to Easter.

Pope Francis and cardinals dressed in red robes marked Palm Sunday with a long and solemn ceremony in Saint Peter's Square attended by a large crowd, which included many young people who turned out to celebrate the Catholic Churchs World Day of Youth.



Carrying a woven palm branch, Pope Francis first led a procession in front of Saint Peters Basilica to commemorate the day Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem and was hailed as a savior, before his crucifixion five days later.

Palm fronds and olive branches surrounded the altar. In his homily, Pope Francis told young people that the temptation to silence them has always existed.

The pope said: "The temptation to silence young people has always existed...There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. Many ways to anesthetize them, to make them keep quiet, ask nothing, question nothing. There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive."

Pope Francis urged young people to keep shouting and not allow the older generations to silence their voices. He urged youth to be like the people who welcomed Jesus with palms rather than those who shouted for his crucifixion only days later.

Pope Francis said "you [youth] have it in you to shout even if we, older people and leaders, very often corrupt, keep quiet."

Palm Sunday is the start of one of the busiest weeks for the pope in the Christian calendar. On Holy Thursday he is due to preside at two services, including one in which he will wash the feet of 12 inmates at a Rome prison to commemorate Jesus Christ's gesture of humility towards his apostles the night before he died.



On Good Friday, he is due to lead a solemn Way of the Cross procession at Rome's ancient Colosseum. Then, on Saturday night he is scheduled to lead an Easter vigil service before delivering his twice-yearly "Urbi et Orbi" message and blessing on Easter Sunday.Reference is made to the article, Oil activities boost education sector, written by Ms. Gloria Sebikari of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda.

In the article, Sebikari argues that oil activities have had a positive impact on education in the oil region.

She cites the upgrading of two schools by Tullow Oil and other initiatives by oil companies in Hoima district to give the impression that oil activities have uplifted education standards in the oil region.

Sebikaris article comes short. It not only limits itself to the few initiatives undertaken by oil companies to better education services in Hoima district, it also ignores governments mass failings including failure to enable adequate access to primary, secondary and tertiary education in Uganda at large and in the oil region in particular.

Further, Sebikaris article fails to discuss governments massive destabilisation of education access for pupils affected by compulsory land acquisition projects.

Without a discussion of these failures, justice will not be served for the thousands of pupils set to be affected by old and upcoming oil sector projects such as the oil refinery, crude oil pipeline, feeder oil pipelines, central processing facilities, airstrips, roads and other mega oil sector infrastructure.

Why do we say this?

Beginning in June 2012, government started on a land acquisition process for Ugandas proposed oil refinery in which over 1,300 children were affected. The land acquisition also affected two schools including Nyahaira primary school and Kyapaloni primary school.

In 2013, these schools were closed despite the fact that over 96 per cent of the families affected by the land acquisition suffered delayed compensation and, therefore, still needed education services for their children.

As a result, pupils access to education was negatively affected. While teachers and parents requested that government provides them with alternatives to enable their children return to school, government ignored their pleas.

Parents found alternatives such as sending their older children who could walk long distances to other schools. However, the younger children who should have been in kindergarten and lower primary were not sent to school.

Consequently, to date, over four years later, at least 100 school-age-going children are still out of school.

In addition, while Sebikari argues that education in the oil region is better because of oil activities, figures by Uganda Bureau of Statistics paint a different picture. For instance, the statistics show that access to secondary school remains a challenge in Uganda and indeed in the oil rich Bunyoro and Acholi sub-regions.

Like their rural peers elsewhere, 54 per cent of the students in Bunyoro and Acholi sub-regions walk for 5km or more to access secondary school. Over 69 per cent students walk to access technical schools. This is per the 2016/2017 Uganda National Household Survey.

Little wonder then that while net primary school enrollment in the Bunyoro and Acholi sub-regions stand at 81.2 per cent and 77.2 per cent respectively, the secondary school enrollment is a paltry 24.1 per cent and 15.9 per cent respectively!

Some government schools in Hoima district are in a sorry state. In Buseruka sub-county, for instance, government-owned Kabaale Public primary school was issued with closure notices by the Hoima district local government because it poses health hazards.

The above picture does not speak of a boosted education sector because of oil activities. In fact, for some pupils, education dreams are destroyed by oil activities.

This could also be repeated for the pupils who are going to be affected by the aforementioned mega oil sector infrastructural projects. This must be avoided.

The author is a senior communications officer, Africa Institute for Energy Governance (Afiego)Africa is full of so-called prophets who have found fame and fortune by performing miracles in the name of God, but few are as popular and as wealthy as Shepherd Bushiri, a 30-something superstar from Malawi. But then again, few pastors can pull off the kinds of miracles that Bushiri is famous for  walking on air, curing virtually any disease or disability and even communicating with angels.

Known as Major One, Shepherd Bushiri has come a long way since his humble beginnings, growing up in Mzuzu, a city in northern Malawi. He is now regarded as one of the hottest Christian evangelical preachers in the world, sells out entire stadiums wherever he goes and isnt ashamed to capitalize on his fame. In fact, he claims that being successful and rich is actually an inspiration to his followers, a sign that if God can make it happen for him, He can definitely do it for them as well.

Photo: Shepherd Bushiri/Facebook

My prosperity is an inspiration for my followers  they think if God can do it for me, He can do it for them. If they believed there is anything wrong, they wouldnt be following me, Bushiri recently told the BBC. How is selling merchandise in my church different to the Catholic church selling a rosary and the UK churches selling the bible? Its not fair.

But while some of his hundreds of thousands of followers may feel inspired by the preachers business acumen, most of them are simply mesmerised by his ability to channel Gods power to perform miracles. In recent years, Shepherd Bushiri has become increasingly famous, and at the same time controversial, for putting on some pretty wild performances.



In 2015, he put out a video that he claims shows him walking on air. In it, he can be seen coming down a flight of stair, and just as he prepares to descend the last step, the camera focuses in on his feet, which are shown dangling in the air for a couple of seconds. Are some cables holding his body up? Well, theres no way to tell, but he says its all Gods power, and a lot of people are buying it.

A while back, he cured some people of HIV just by praying for them at his headquarters, in Pretoria, South Africa. He claims they were tested after the ceremony and the results came back negative.



One time I got doctors here in Pretoria to bring patients with HIV  they tested them before to show they are HIV, I prayed for them and again afterwards and now they were HIV-negative, Bushiri told the BBC.

But thats just one of the many diseases the preacher has miraculously healed over the years. He is also known to have cured people of cancer, made blind men see, and even cured various disabilities.

Another video of the Major One summoning angels during one of his sermons and causing his congregation to go into a frenzy went viral three years ago, enhancing his reputation as a miracle-man.

But the miracle that always gets people excited is Bushiris signature miracle money. After all, who doesnt like finding cash in their pocket or purse that wasnt there before. The young preacher will select followers from the audience during sermons, ask them how much money they have on them and then asks them to believe in the power of God. He prays for miracle money, and when the lucky person checks their pocket, he finds hundreds of dollars that allegedly werent there before.

Unfortunately, miracle money has gotten Shepherd Bushiris church, Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG), in trouble with authorities. In Botswana, his churches were all shut down because they wouldnt stop performing miracle money miracles, despite repeated warnings.

Youre probably thinking that Shepherd Bushiri is no different that the dozens of so-called miracle-men Africa has become famous for. Its true that his exploits are similar to some of those weve feature on Oddity Central in the past, like that pastor who sprayed followers faces with insect repellent to heal them, or the one who had his congregation drink motor oil for the same purpose. Oh, and lets not forget the Zimbabwean pastor who claimed to have Gods direct phone number.

But Bushiri is different. While the vast majority of these miracle-performing pastors are virtually unknown outside of the African continent, Shepherd Bushiri is an international superstar. In fact, if you want to witness his God-given powers first-hand, you can attend next months Enlightened Christian Gathering in Inglewood, California, but itll cost you. Apparently, entrance fees go up all the way to $505 per person. You may say thats too much, but where else are you going to see angels summoned from heaven, or money materializing in your pocket?



High entrance fees are nowadays characteristic of events featuring Shepherd Bushiri. In December, he came under fire for charging 25,000 South African rands ($2,150) for a seat at his table, at a gala dinner.

Although his fortune has not been made public, The Sun reports Bushiri is worth around $150 million. That may be an exaggeration, but he definitely had enough money to buy his six-year-old daughter a Maserati Levante for her birthday. Typical man of God behaviour, am I right?A 26-year-old woman recently made headlines in Thailand after posting photos of her enormous tattooed eyebrows on social media. They had been permanently inked by a cheap, inexperienced tattoo artist, but the woman was lucky to have them corrected for free by a kindhearted beauty therapist.

The woman, who goes by the name Kanyarat Dew Chaichan on Facebook, reportedly decided to get her eyebrows permanently tattooed last year, after finding a tattoo artist willing to do it for very little money. Unfortunately, the age-old saying you get what you pay for once again proved true, as Kanyarat was left with two giant slug-like tattoos above her eyes. She had always had wide, fluffy eyebrows, but these tattoos were almost double in size.

Photo: Kanyarat Dew Chaichan

Lacking the necessary funds to have her eyebrows corrected, the young woman was left with no option but to complain about her problem on social media. She posted several photos of the disastrous tattoo job, mentioning that it was permanent and that she would probably be stuck with those ink slugs on her face for the rest of her life.



Luckily for Kanyarat, some of the photos went viral, and were eventually picked by national news outlets as well. Thats how they reached beauty therapist Vilailak Nan Sundantom, who offered to help correct the womans eyebrows. Learning that it was hard for her to even find the 200 Baht necessary to travel to his shop, Sundantom decided to help her out completely free of charge.



In a video posted on Facebook, Vilailak Nan Sundantom, the woman can be seen undergoing laser treatment to gradually remove the dark ink from her face. Its a lengthy process, but it beats having to explain why you have two giant tattooed eyebrows every time you go outside.



Sundantom said that she usually charges between 30,000 baht ($960) and 50,000 baht ($1,600) for this kind or corrective procedures, but in this case, she was happy to work for free. She also warned her followers to do some research before having their eyebrows tattooed by random tattoo artists, or risk suffering Kanyarats fate.



Im very pleased with the results and grateful for the treatment. I feel much better now, and I think I look a lot more beautiful, Chaichan reportedly said. I thought I would be stuck with the big eyebrows for the rest of my life. Now Im just being patient and waiting for them to get better.



I could really sympathise with Kanyarat because nobody wants to have eyebrows like that for the rest of their lives, Vilailak Nan Sundantom said. It was a mistake and this was a very extreme case. I will do my best to help but it will take between three and six months to see the results.A Georgia woman recently landed in jail after she purposely drove her SUV into a concrete pole to show her kids that God would protect them if they had faith.

Traffic camera footage shows 25-year-old Bakari Warren driving northbound on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, in Gwinnett County, Georgia, before crossing into the southbound lanes and crashing straight into a concrete pole. Her two children, ages 5 and 7, were in the backseat, but luckily escaped unharmed. When questioned by Norcross Police, Warren allegedly said that she crashed her car on purpose, to show the kids that God was real and that He would protect them if they believed in Him.

Photo: Norcross Police Department

The womans bizarre version of the events was confirmed by her children. When asked whether they thought her crash was intentional one of them said: Yeah, because she turned. Her eyes were closed and she was saying, blah, blah blah, I love God.'

In her defence, the 25-year-old woman did tell her kids to fasten their seat belts before driving straight into the concrete pole. Still, she was arrested on the spot and is now facing child cruelty charges. Her bail has been set to $22,000. The kids are staying with their grandparents.

It couldve been a lot worse, Nocross Police Sgt. Eric Butynski told WSB. It couldve been heavier traffic at the time, she couldve hit the pole at such an angle that she did more damage to the car.

Bizarrely enough, when officers arrived on the scene first asked Bakari Warren what had happened, the woman told them to check her Facebook, and it would explain what happened. Her Facebook page featured nothing directly referencing the incident, but she then gave the explanation backed by her children  to prove that God would protect them.

Fraser Seitel

To begin fixing his public relations problem, Mark Zuckerberg should stop using Facebook.

By that, I dont mean the boy billionaire should join fellow Silicon Valley swells Elon Musk and Brian Acton in backing the #DeleteFacebook movement. Musk, the thin-skinned founder of Tesla, holds a grudge against Zuckerberg for bad-mouthing his rocket ship. Acton sold his WhatsApp creation to Facebook for $19 billion several years ago, and today  having apparently graduated from the Trump University Charm School  is now calling on others to boycott the network.

While Mr. Zuckerberg shouldnt abandon the social network he founded in 2004  with or without the Winklevoss brothers  in his dorm room Harvard, he should seriously think about relegating Facebook to backup communicating status as he wends his way through his current public relations thicket.

Two weeks ago, The New York Times and London Observer both blasted out front-page stories detailing how the personal data of 50 million users was stolen by a Republican-backed research firm, Cambridge Analytica, and used to help Donald Trump get elected President.

In a ham-handed attempt to get out in front of the story, Mr. Zuckerberg used his communications medium of choice, Facebook  surprised?  to file a late night blog post announcing that Facebook had suspended Cambridge Analytica for misappropriating user data. That attempt to preempt did little but energize journalists to probe further. And since the story hit, Facebook has been besieged.

The Zuckerberg public relations response has been typical of Silicon Valley hotshots, who know lots about technological communications but little about human interaction.

How did Mr. Zuckerberg confront the Barbarians at Facebooks gate?

By going radio silent.

For five excruciating days, while the media continually bashed Facebooks brazen violation of user trust, critics lit up Twitter with calls for Zuckerbergs removal or the companys downsizing, with whiny Facebook employees publicly wondering if they should transfer from the primary social network product to other less-tainted areas of the company. Zuckerberg, meanwhile, said nothing. Nor did anyone else in Facebooks executive ranks, most notably the CEOs typically loquacious right-hand woman, Sheryl Sandberg. In the face of all those Barbarians at Facebooks Gate, Ms. Sandberg, for once, wasnt leaning in.

Finally, with Congressional jackals calling for his head, the fallen Facebook founder reemerged  on Facebook. In a long and winding diatribe, Mr. Zuckerberg acknowledged that Facebook had failed in its responsibility to protect user data and if we cant, then we dont deserve to serve you. He went on to describe the steps Facebook would take to work to ensure that a similar breach doesnt happen again.

Mr. Zuckerbergs attempt at written redemption only seemed to fan the flames of his denouncers. By weeks end the Wizard of Facebook had moved out from behind the curtain to speak  for 30 minutes on the phone  with Times reporters and then later to address an internal employee gathering.

So what should Zuck do now to slither out of Facebooks worst crisis in 14 years, and what can he learn from this ordeal to aid him and the company in the future?

In a phrase: Go direct.

What was needed here, what is needed in virtually every similar catastrophic calamity that occasionally confronts an organization is face-to-face communication. People need to see the top dog; they need to hear from him or her; and they need to be reassured by his or her demeanor, grasp of the situation and his or her confidence in getting through it.

In a crisis, communicating via social media is an important element in a communications plan. But it should be secondary to more direct, face-to-face communications to primary stakeholders.

In the Cambridge Analytica case, Zuckerberg must now summon the courage to depart his Menlo Park cocoon and venture forth to meet his adversaries: newspaper and TV journalists, institutional investors and Congressional inquisitors. He must tell them what the company knows so far, what its doing to correct the problem, and how it has no plans to succumb to the wishes of its critics by cutting back or reimagining or downsizing away from the money-making operations that have made it a winner as opposed to foundering rivals like Twitter and Snapchat.

In other words, the only way for the Facebook CEO to begin to put this crisis behind him is to go direct.

***

Fraser P. Seitel has been a communications consultant, author and teacher for 40 years. He is author of the Pearson text The Practice of Public Relations, now in its 13th edition, and co-author of Rethinking Reputation" and "Idea Wise. He may be reached directly at yusake@aol.com., who is currently serving time behind bars for a probation violation.

Our criminal justice system is in need of repair, Wolf tweeted. Thats why my admin has made efforts to invest in programs that divert individuals from the system, improve public safety, and promote fairness.

Wolfs statement was in response to a post in Philadelphia Inquirer on Philly DA Larry Krasner saying he was unopposed to Meek Mills release from prison on bail.

READ: Philly DAs Office Says Meek Mills Conviction May Be Reversed

I support D.A. Larry Krasners position in the case of Robert Williams (Meek Mill). Our criminal justice system is in need of repair. Thats why my admin has made efforts to invest in programs that divert individuals from the system, improve public safety, and promote fairness. https://t.co/f8s3JjGOuP  Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) March 23, 2018

Wolf added, But more needs to be done. I am calling on the PA General Assembly to pass the Justice Reinvestment II reforms to the criminal justice system, which help address issues from arrest, trial, sentencing, incarceration, to post-release.

Wolf and Krasners backing is putting pressure on Judge Genece Brinkley, who has been overseeing Meek Mills probation since 2007. This week, the rappers attorneys asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to release him on bail, and filed a second petition to remove Brinkley from his case. Mills attorneys claim Brinkley has taken an unusual interest in his case.

Theres brothers locked down that did nothing to be here but piss off people like Brinkley, Meek Mill told Rolling Stone.

READ: Meek Mills Arresting Officer Listed Among Philadelphias Corrupt Cops

The rapper is currently serving a two-to-four year sentence and has been jailed since November.

Source: Rolling Stoneteenager killed by the Austin bomber had been accepted into one of the most prestigious music programs in the nation shortly after his death.

READ: Black Roommate Of The Austin Bomber Was Held Overnight By Police

Seventeen-year-old Draylen Mason, who played the stand-up bass, was one of just 130 students picked from a pool of 1,500 applicants to attend the music conservatory at Oberlin College, according to a report from ABC News. Michael Manderen, the admissions director for the music conservatory, said the decision to accept him to the program was made prior to his death, but notices werent sent out until this past Friday.

Mason was murdered by Austin bomber Mark Anthony Conditt on March 12. The bomb was in a package and placed on Masons doorstep when he brought it into his home and attempted to open it when it detonated. The explosive killed Mason and injured his mother.

The musician was a member of the Austin Youth Orchestra and the Austin Soundwaves music program, and had also been accepted into the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas-Austin.

He was a remarkably and precociously talented bass player whose talents developed enough through the program for him to audition into top music schools, Doug Dempster, dean of the schools College of Fine Arts, said in a statement.

Following Masons death a memorial fund was established by his family, with the fund having raised over $132,000.

Conditts death has been ruled a suicide after he detonated a bomb inside of his vehicle and killed himself.

Source: ABC NewsAuthorities on Monday identified the 56-year-old woman accused of fatally shooting her boyfriend at their Sandy-area home over the weekend.

Roxanne Martin faces a murder charge in the death of Norman Charles Terrill, the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies responded to a reported shooting near the 18000 block of Autumn Way around 5:35 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.

Terrill, 67, was found dead from a gunshot wound, the sheriff's office said. Deputies took Martin into custody that evening.

The investigation is ongoing.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skavanaugh@oregonian.com

503-294-7632 || @shanedkavanaughFormer Vice President Joe Biden said last week that he won't run for president in 2020 if "there's somebody better to do it."

He didn't offer any possible candidates he believed fit that criterion, but the Democratic Party stalwart did suggest that the next race for commander-in-chief will be critical.

"We're in a battle for the soul of this nation," he said.

Biden, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 1988 and 2008, said he's "done nothing to promote" a 2020 White House run.

He has, however, been among the most combative of President Donald Trump's critics.

"A guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, 'I can grab a woman anywhere and she likes it,'" Biden said recently, referring to the infamous 2005 "hot mic" incident that caught Trump, then a reality-TV star, bragging about sexual assault.

Don't Edit

Photos: AP

Biden continued:

"They asked me if I'd like to debate this gentleman, and I said no. I said if we were in high school, I'd take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him."

This brought a predictable response from Trump, who took to Twitter to call Biden "weak" and insist that in a schoolyard fight between them, Biden would "go down fast and hard, crying all the way."

Biden himself has faced criticism over the years for being "handsy" with women -- and for his role in the U.S. Senate's 1991 confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas despite credible sexual-harassment allegations from law professor Anita Hill.

Don't Edit

Biden was in Washington, D.C., over the weekend supporting the March for Our Lives rally there, and he's been traveling the country giving speeches. He spent last fall and winter on a promotional tour for "Promise Me, Dad," a memoir about his life and his relationship with his late son, Beau.

At the Portland book-tour stop in November, Biden insisted that the U.S. was ready to shine economically and on the world stage like never before, but first it had to overcome the destructive revanchism represented by Trump. "I've never been more optimistic about the possibilities for America -- if we'd just get out of our own way," he said.

Will Biden run for president again, even though, at age 77 in 2020, he would be one of the oldest serious candidates ever for the highest office in the land? He remains noncommittal.

"I have to be able to stand in front of a mirror and know that if I don't run, it's not because I'm afraid of losing," he said, "it's because there's somebody better to do it or because I'm not in a position to be all in. The jury is still out."

-- Douglas PerryAs a Washington County resident, I support Max Wall because we need a district attorney who will provide accountability, treatment and savings in our justice system. It's time Washington County residents elected a district attorney who will make smart choices with evidence-based practices to reduce cost and crime. Wall has the experience to be fair, keep our community safe and hold offenders accountable for crimes they've committed.

Currently, Washington County's criminal justice system is woefully out of step with the rest of Oregon in a very ineffective and expensive way. Our jails are full, despite millions in state funding that should have been used to reduce incarceration rates with addiction treatment, mental health programs and community corrections. Across the state, these programs have lowered costs and reduced recidivism.

Electing Kevin Barton, Wall's opponent, would be throwing good money after bad. His time with the Washington County District Attorney's Office has been marked by poor performance and taxpayer money wasted on a failed and outdated approach to criminal justice.

Washington County voters need a change. Our district attorney should prioritize prosecuting the most serious crimes instead of wasting vast sums keeping non-violent offenders in jail with people who will only perpetuate their self-destructive choices. Wall will invest in services to prevent crime, save tax dollars and help the vulnerable find a better, more socially productive path.

Jason Hitzert, BeavertonTyler Bechtel, a Portland man who lives close to the site of a planned Foster-Powell-area homeless shelter, has filed suit against the city and Mayor Ted Wheeler, claiming the mayor's office has improperly kept secret records about the project.

Amid growing tensions over Portland's homelessness crisis, the plan to open a shelter at Foster and Southeast 61st Avenue has been a flashpoint for some residents. Critics say the idea to bed more than 100 homeless people at the site of a closed-down grocery store is ill advised because it would be too close to a school and too far from the offices of social services agencies, and may pose a public safety problem.

Bechtel is one of the detractors and has banded together with other east Portland residents as an organization called Southeast Allied Communities, which bills itself as opposed to the Foster shelter.

"We believe that a shelter might be the right idea but not in this location," said Bechtel, who works as an Oregon State Police detective and lives in the Creston-Kenilworth neighborhood.

Wheeler and Deborah Kafoury, chairwoman of the Multnomah County Commission, have spoken publicly about their support for the shelter.

Bechtel filed a public records request for city and county emails related to the shelter plan after county commissioners approved it in January. Wheeler's office acknowledged it had some records, according to Bechtel's suit. But a city paralegal withheld an email and attachment, saying state law allows it to keep the records secret because they contain exempt financial and personal information and because the records contain "internal advisory communications," records show.

Bechtel claims in court filings the city erred on procedural grounds because it should have released to him copies of the requested records with confidential portions blacked-out. The city disagreed in its own filings. Wheeler's office declined to comment.

Bechtel said he believes the withheld email and document may shed light on officials' decision to site the shelter at 6144 Southeast Foster Road, possibly by revealing a list of other locations officials considered. He testified last year to the Multnomah County Commission that people living near the proposed shelter site have not had their concerns allayed by local officials, and asked commissioners to delay approval of the shelter lease. They approved it 4-1.

-- Gordon R. Friedman

503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedmanWhile most Oregon schools are out for spring break, and generally that would cut down on commute times, be ready for wet pavement and cold bus stops through the first part of the week. Travelers to the mountains or to the coast should be ready for winter driving conditions as snow levels will remain low (near 1,500 feet) for Monday morning.

Expect traffic delays in Aloha on Southwest 185th Avenue between Ewen Drive and Pheasant Lane from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Tuesday, March 26-27 for road work.

***

HILLSBORO 7:36 a.m.; Blocking crash reported on Northeast 25th Avenue at Sunrise Lane, north of Cornell Road.



***

INNER SOUTHEAST 7:20 a.m.; Crash involving a motorcyclist on Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Alder Street.



***

Clackamas County has announced South Matoon Road will be closed all day Monday and through 7 a.m. Tuesday, March 26-27 between South Patrick Way and Mija Lane. Crews will be removing trees.

Also, in Clackamas County, South Bradley Road remains closed 7 a.m.-6 p.m. daily through May 15 between South Holcombe Boulevard and Taylor Terrace Road for water main replacement.

Oregon and Washington have extended the deadline for removing studded tires for spring of 2018. Read more here.

Check back throughout the morning for the latest commuting updates and follow us on Twitter: @trafficportlandPhoto taken on March 13, 2018 shows a view of a historic archaeological site in the western Libyan city of Sabratha. The Libyan historic archaeological sites face multiple threats, mainly thefts and armed conflicts near historic sites. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)

by Mahmoud Darwesh, Nawas Darraji

TRIPOLI, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan historic archaeological sites face multiple threats, mainly thefts and armed conflicts near historic sites.

It is a constant concern for government agencies to develop protection plans and international agreements to secure these sites. This seems elusive in the chaos and political division in Libya.

"Libya's contribution to international agreements is an important way to protect archaeological sites from the threat of theft. Therefore, these agreements must receive attention," Mohammed Faraj, head of Libya's Antiquities Authority, told Xinhua.

"An important agreement was signed recently with the United States, which prohibits the import and export of a collection of antiquities listed and circulated by Washington on all its channels to prevent their smuggling," Faraj added.

Faraj also said that the agreement, if circulated to the countries of the world, would help protect Libyan monuments in a time of great security vacuum "because a large number of looted artifacts are being sold in public auctions in France, Spain, Britain and even in Israel."

"The issue of stolen artifacts is not new. There are international gangs still active in this field, because they choose the right time to display these pieces. Important Libyan artifacts have been smuggled illegally," he said, when asked about the smuggling activities in Libya.

Faraj stressed that the Libyan Foreign Ministry informed the Antiquities Authority of its desire to sign similar agreements with a number of European countries to protect and restore stolen artifacts from Libya.

The United States and Libya later in February signed a five-year bilateral agreement aimed at combating the smuggling and trafficking of Libyan artifacts.

According to a report by the International Council of Museums published last January, the Libyan historic cities under threat are Ghadames, Sabratha, Labda, Sousse and the Acacus Mountains.

The Libyan cities that have suffered the highest amount of artifacts robberies over the past few years were Sousse, Shahhat, Sabratha, Sirte, Bani Walid, Nafusa Mounain, Tocra and Tolmeita.

The ancient city of Sabratha in western Libya, which is classified as a historic world heritage, was damaged by armed clashes in September 2017 between government forces and armed groups involved of human trafficking.

Armed conflicts affect all the Libyan cities in light of the proliferation of weapons. Sabratha was, unfortunately, subjected to several conflicts. The archaeological city was the victim of those clashes.

"The theater was hit several times with shrapnel, missiles and bullets. Some of the city's walls were also hit," Mohamed Abo-Ajela, Sabratha's monument control official, told Xinhua.

The Authority has a plan to repair the damage. The head of the Authority visited the city following the recent conflict and pledged with the representative of Libya to UNESCO to repair the damage once the necessary financial allocations have been made.

"We have qualified Libyan technical teams who are able to repair such damage," Abo-Ajela said, when asked about plans to repair the damage on the monuments.

General Mohammad Emsallem, head of Sabratha's tourist police, said that the recent clashes near the historic city forced all parties to adopt a security plan to enhance the level of protection in the city.

"There is a security plan in coordination with the anti-IS operation chamber and things are under full control," he told Xinhua.

"The human resources are available and we are in contact with the Ministry of the Interior to provide four-wheel vehicles to carry out patrols on an ongoing basis, especially that the city is wide and needs such reinforcements."

Sabratha has witnessed violent clashes in September 2017 between the anti-IS operation chamber of the UN-backed government and and armed groups accused of involvement in human trafficking.

The three-week fighting ended the chamber's forces taking over the city, after 35 people were killed and 200 were injured on both sides, according to medical sources.

The Roman ruins and the famous theater in Sabratha are one of the five Libyan sites included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1982.

During the clashes, UNESCO expressed concern about the military action's effect on Sabratha's monuments and called for protection of archaeological sites in compliance with the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

Khaider Beshir Malek, Chairman of the Libyan Tourism Authority, called on official authorities to pay special attention to Sabratha in particular and archaeological sites in general.

"Sabratha is a city of ancient history since the Roman rule. It represents an important front for Libya throughout the ages. We strongly rely on it to promote tourism again, especially domestic tourism," Malik told Xinhua.

"I call upon decision-makers in Libya to pay attention and develop such world-class archaeological sites, because they are an invaluable world treasure," he said.

7

1

[ Editor: WPY ]WASHINGTON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Former Beatles member Paul McCartney joined thousands of people Saturday in the March for Our Lives in New York against gun violence, close to the site where John Lennon, one of McCartney's fellow Beatles, was killed 37 years ago.

Wearing a shirt that said, "We can end gun violence," McCartney told local media that he came to the march "just to support the people."

"One of my best friends was killed in gun violence right around here," he said, "so it's important to me."

On Dec. 8, 1980, a man opened fire on Lennon and killed him when Lennon was walking in Manhattan with his wife, Yoko Ono.

George and Amal Clooney, Jimmy Fallon, Miley Cyrus among other celebrities also joined the rallies held in different U.S. cities.

The March for Our Lives was a student-led demonstration in honor of the 17 students and faculty members killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida and to rally people to say enough to gun violence.

Over 800 events were scheduled around the world Saturday, the organizers said, including the anchor one in Washington.

[ Editor: Xueying ]Monday 26 March 2018 1:08pm

The University of Otagos Online MBA programme has been ranked third best on a global stage by London-based CEO Magazine.



In this years Global MBA Rankings, Otagos Online MBA was placed third in the world, up from fourth last year. The full-time on-campus programme was also ranked as a tier one programme, one of only two New Zealand programmes in the category.



Ian Rafferty, Director of Executive Programmes.

Director of Executive Programmes, Ian Lafferty says the ranking is a "great boost in confidence and morale for the team, and a recognition Otago Business School is on the right track with what it is offering students.



CEO Magazine ranked more than 270 programmes based on 11 factors, including quality of faculty, international diversity, faculty to student ratio, international exposure, work experience, and gender parity. Based on their overall scores, programmes were then ranked as either tier one or tier two.



Through the rankings, the magazine aims to cut through the noise and provide potential students with a performance benchmark for those schools under review.



The Otago Online MBA, established in 2014, is the only online MBA in New Zealand.



About 150 students are currently enrolled in the programme from both New Zealand and overseas. Another 50 are expected to start their classes in a few weeks time.



With lectures conducted live over the internet, students can study from wherever they are and fit it around work commitments. The virtual breakout rooms organised for them allow them to engage actively in group discussions.



We have gone to great lengths to ensure our Online MBA students have a fantastic learning experience, Mr Lafferty says.



We have put together a great team of lecturers who are drawn from three areas: the University, other reputable global business schools, and consultants or business practitioners. They are selected for academic excellence, strong practical experience and ability to engage well with the students.



The programme is supported by committed administrative and IT support teams ensuring that the programme and every lecture run smoothly.



Read more about CEO Magazine's 2018 Global MBA Rankings here.

For more information, please contact:

Ian Lafferty

Director of Executive Programmes

University of Otago

Email ian.lafferty@otago.ac.nzPublic joint-stock company Ukrtransgaz has launched the market demand assessment for entry capacities to Ukraine from Romania via Trans-Balkan pipeline, the company's press service has reported.

"Ukrtransgaz launches the non-binding assessment procedure to study the demand among the domestic and adjacent countries market players for firm capacities at the entry point of Isaccea-1-Orlivka (Transit-1 pipeline) in the direction of Romania-Ukraine. Based on the results of the market assessment Ukrtransgaz is going to take the decision on the future binding capacity allocation procedure (Open Season) for the firm capacities of IP Isaccea-1  Orlivka," the company said.

Ukrtransgaz said that after the completion of TANAP and Turkish Stream pipelines construction and expected development of the offshore natural gas production in Romania, the possibility to transport natural gas along the Romania-Ukraine route will have strategic meaning, since it will create a South-North bi-directional corridor and provide security of supply for Balkan countries. Moreover, the existing infrastructure of the Trans-Balkan pipelines will ensure the most cost efficient solution for gas transportation in the region, the press service said.

Transit-1 pipeline is one of three main pipelines of Trans-Balkan route, which is currently used for the natural gas transportation to Bulgaria. The long-term booking contract of the pipeline expired in 2016 and it will be possible to operate the pipeline in compliance with EU regulations after expiration of the transit contract between Naftogaz Ukrainy and Gazprom in the end of 2019.

"When Transit-1 pipeline becomes bi-directional, it would open the possibility to transport up to 5 bcm annually for the needs of both huge Ukrainian natural gas market, and markets of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe via the gas transmission system of Ukraine," the company said.

Ukrtransgaz accepts applications in the period between March 30 and April 30, 2018. The company will publish the results of the assessment by June 1, 2018.The current authorities are preparing a favorable scenario for themselves in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine in 2019, within which they clean out the electoral field from "unsystematic semi-armed street opposition," Director of the Institute of Global Strategies Vadym Karasiov has said.

"The authorities understand perfectly well that amid competitive elections they will not be elected for a second term, therefore they try to make so that the elections are held in a convenient and advantageous format for themselves, in conditions of emergency and controllability," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Friday, March 23.

According to the political scientist, the latest events in Ukraine fit perfectly into the scenario that he voiced.

"Fitting into this scenario... are all the latest events related to the beginning of the political season, including the enactment of the law on reintegration, expulsion [of former Georgian President and leader of the Movement of New Forces party Mikheil] Saakashvili, and the Ruban-Savchenko case," Karasiov said.

He also said that as part of this scenario "armed street opposition is being cleared," and on the example of the announcement of suspicion of committing a number of serious crimes and the detention of independent MP Nadiia Savchenko, the authorities are trying to "show that there are no untouchables, even if you are a Hero of Ukraine."

"They are removing unsystematic, semi-armed street opposition from the political field. Saakashvili is far away, Savchenko is in jail, [MP Semen] Semenchenko goes for interrogations to the prosecutor's office, and there is no tent camp [near the Verkhovna Rada]," Karasiov said.

Director of the Ukrainian Barometer Sociological Service Viktor Nebozhenko, in turn, said that the recent decline in the rating of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko suggested that the strategy of "the only candidate without a choice" might not work.

"When the political engineers of the Presidential Administration say that he [the presidential candidate] is the only one, and we will make sure that there will be a choice without a choice, they forget that once one president [Leonid Kuchma] burned his fingers. This means anyone, but not this president. This is about the situation with Poroshenko now. His rating can be explained [by the voter's position] - anyone, but not Poroshenko," Nebozhenko said.

According to him, "people just do not want to see the president almost physically, psychologically, despite the fact that he looks great and has become terribly rich."

According to Nebozhenko, if Poroshenko's rating drops to five percent, then "no heavenly forces will manage to repeat his success in 2014."President Andrzej Duda and Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak on Monday visited Polish soldiers serving on the NATO mission in Afghanistan. The two underlined the importance of this type of operation for allied credibility.



The president said that the Polish army has been participating in successive multi-national missions in Afghanistan for several years.

"Not since WWII have the Polish army carried out such a long and dangerous mission," said Duda. He recalled that 44 Polish soldiers and military personnel have died in Afghanistan, 361 have been wounded and over 850 injured.

"Although we have 10 contingents in various places around the world, there is no task as dangerous as this one," the president added. He noted that although the mission is not of a combat nature, "anything can happen."

"You are showing our allies that we are a responsible NATO member," President Duda told the soldiers.

The president also expressed the conviction that participation in the missions in Afghanistan and Iraq "contributed to the fact that today, and finally, allied troops, mainly US troops, are also in our country." "And when our neighbour is once again implementing his imperial ambitions," the allies are arriving in the eastern flank.

President Duda, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Armed Forces, said that "the modernisation programme of the Polish army will be implemented efficiently". "I hope more efficiently than before."

Following the completion of the mission of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) at the end of 2014, a new, follow-on, NATO-led mission called Resolute Support was launched on January 1, 2015 to provide further training, advice and assistance to the Afghan security forces and institutions. The force counts some 13,000 soldiers. The Polish contingent numbers some 250 soldiers and army employees. It consists of special forces advisors and air force instructors. The contingent is stationed in several bases, including Bagram, Kabul and Kandahar. (PAP)



aa/mf/Smurfit Kappa Rejects Revised Bid from International Paper Following careful consideration, together with its financial advisers, the Board of Smurfit Kappa has unanimously rejected the revised proposal from International Paper. March 26, 2018 (Press Release) - The Board of Smurfit Kappa (the Board) announces that it received a revised proposal (the Revised Proposal) from International Paper Company (International Paper) on Thursday evening, 22 March 2018. Under the terms of the Revised Proposal, Smurfit Kappa shareholders would receive 25.25 in cash (which would be reduced to 24.605 after payment of the final dividend of 64.5 cent recommended on 7 February 2018 and to be paid on 11 May 2018 (the Final Dividend)) and 0.3028 new shares of International Paper common stock for each Smurfit Kappa ordinary share held by them. Based on International Paper's closing share price on 23 March 2018 of $50.15 and a :$ exchange rate of 1:$1.2353, the Revised Proposal would value each Smurfit Kappa share at 37.54, reduced to 36.90 when the Final Dividend is excluded. International Paper's proposal announced and rejected by the Board on 6 March 2018 valued each Smurfit Kappa share at 36.46 (without reduction for the Final Dividend). The Revised Proposal represents an increase in value of only 1.08 per share, equivalent to less than 3%. Following careful consideration, together with its financial advisers, the Board has unanimously rejected the Revised Proposal. The Board is resolute in its belief that the best interests of the Group's stakeholders are served by pursuing its future as an independent company, operating as the European and Pan- American leader in paper-based packaging. The Revised Proposal also fundamentally undervalues the Group and remains significantly below the valuations set by recent industry transactions. The Revised Proposal continues to include a significant proportion of the consideration in the form of International Paper shares which are US-listed, represent uncertain value, and would expose Smurfit Kappa shareholders to the risk of significantly greater leverage and the challenges of integrating two businesses with fundamentally different cultures. Liam O'Mahony, Chairman of Smurfit Kappa, said: On 6 March, the Board of Smurfit Kappa unanimously rejected International Paper's unsolicited and highly opportunistic proposal. The Revised Proposal does not offer Smurfit Kappa shareholders much more than compensation for the fall in International Paper's share price since that date and again entirely fails to value the Group's true intrinsic business worth and future prospects. We delivered a record performance in 2017 and underlying trading momentum has continued into 2018. Moreover, the Revised Proposal does not make strategic sense for Smurfit Kappa and its stakeholders. Smurfit Kappa has a distinct business model and culture as a customer-oriented, performance-led packaging leader and has already communicated a strong plan to accelerate development and performance with its 2017 year-end results. The Board unanimously reaffirms its belief that it is in the best interests of the Group's stakeholders for Smurfit Kappa to pursue its future as an independent company, headquartered in Ireland, operating as the European and Pan-American leader in paper-based packaging. Shareholders are strongly advised to take no action with respect to the Revised Proposal. This announcement is made without the consent of International Paper. There can be no certainty that any firm offer will be made, nor any certainty as to the terms on which any firm offer might be made, by International Paper. This announcement contains inside information. The person responsible for arranging for the release of this announcement on behalf of Smurfit Kappa is Michael O'Riordan, Company Secretary. The date and time of this announcement is the same as the date and time that it has been communicated to the media, at 7am on 26 March 2018. SOURCE: Smurfit KappaThe Dalai Lama has many interests. As a child in Tibets Potala Palace he studied Tibetan philosophy, meditation, and politics. He was, after all, being groomed to be the religious and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. A keen student of Tibetan Buddhism will remind you that there were several branches or schools of Buddhism there at the time, so the Dalai Lamas leadership in that sense was not Pope-like. And a keen student of Tibetan politics will tell you that the Dalai Lamas temporal authority, based in Lhasa and snaking through valleys and around affiliate temples outward toward several border crossings, was also quite limited and fragile, even in the 1930s and 1940s.

Nonetheless, while his temporal authority over Tibet was lost with the Chinese invasion and occupation of 1951-9, his spiritual authority has widened to embrace other schools of Tibetan Buddhism (unofficially) and to touch the lives of countless people around the world of different faiths or no faith at all.

The Dalai Lama also played with pocket watches, a car and a telescope (gifts to his predecessor from foreigners) in his youth. Later, when the opportunity arose to engage in deep and lasting conversations with Western scientists through the early and ongoing Mind and Life dialogues, he took it. He has also given invited talks to scientific organizations and stated, If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.

Last fall, when confronted with the overwhelming evidence of sexual misconduct on the part of popular Tibetan teacher Sogyal Lakar, head of a multi-national and multi-million dollar network of centers called Rigpa, he plainly said that this man is a disgrace and that such figures represent a threat to the institution of Tibetan Buddhism:

very bad impression about monastery or monk  very bad. So we must pay more attention. You should not say, oh this is my guru, whatever the guru says I must follow  that is totally wrong. The Buddha himself mentioned, my teachings, you must examine.

When one discovers rotten institutions, as he went on to describe Rigpa, one has a responsibility to reach out and contact the media, to publicise the problem in the hope of eradicating it.

And just last month he reiterated a secular stance to dealing with our human problems that he had voiced before, stating that, Although I am a Buddhist monk, I am skeptical that prayers alone will achieve world peace. We need instead to be enthusiastic and self-confident in taking action.

If there were to be a patron saint of Progressive Buddhism, it would be the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.

So it should come as little surprise that today, delivering remarks to foreigners in India, the Dalai Lama expressed continued optimism about humanity:

On the future of humanity, I feel very much optimistic. So I make some effort as my share as one of the 7 billion human beings. My number one commitment is to promote the sense of oneness of the entire 7 billion human beings. We are same, physically, mentally and emotionally. Too much concern on nationality and religion is outdated. We have [a] common responsibility towards the wellbeing of entire human beings, he said. In the early part of the 20th century, when one nation declared war on the other, every citizen joined the war effort. This has no longer been the case from the later part of the 20th century. Many Americans were against the Vietnam War and during the Iraq War, millions expressed their desire for peace. So humans, I feel, are becoming more mature and reasonable in their thinking.

(*lightly edited for grammar; from the Central Tibetan Administration)

This expression of optimism and progress is part of our shared human inheritance. It is found in the writings of Immanuel Kant, in the work of Unitarian abolitionist Rev. Theodore Parker, who first wrote about the moral arc of the universe, the life of Abraham Lincoln, who spoke of the better angels of our nature, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who also spoke of the moral arc and of his dream for a better future, and numerous thinkers before and today.

This progress is not given to us, as these thinkers knew and those watching contemporary politics can see, but it seems evident in certain arcs of history and perhaps acts as a secular source of hope in the world today.

Support independent coverage of Buddhism by joining a community of fellow learners/practitioners at Patreon.

Like American Buddhist Perspectives on facebook.Russia's hybrid military forces have mounted 44 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas in the past 24 hours, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as killed in action (KIA) and another one as wounded in action (WIA), the press center of the headquarters of Ukraine's military operations has reported.

"Over the past day, insurgents of Russian-occupation troops opened fire on Ukrainian positions in the military zone 44 times ... Unfortunately, due to enemy fire, one Ukrainian defender was killed, another received a battle trauma and was promptly taken to a hospital and provided with medical assistance," the press center of the headquarters of Ukraine's military operations reported on Facebook on Monday morning.

In the Donetsk sector, the aggressor fired banned 120mm mortars at our fortified positions in the villages of Opytne, Lebedynske and Shyrokyne, as well as 82mm mortars and tank shells near the village of Pisky. The enemy also employed 82mm mortars attacking the defenders of the village of Talakivka, grenade launchers of various systems - against the defenders of the town of Avdiyivka, and the villages of Bohdanivka, Novotroyitske and Vodiane, and Butovka coal mine, as well as heavy machine guns - against our positions near the villages of Verkhniotoretske and Pavlopil. Moreover, the Ukrainian troops in the village of Hnutove came under fire from infantry fighting vehicles, while small arms were used near Butovka coal mine, the village of Kamianka, and the towns of Maryinka and Krasnohorivka.

Two shelling attacks of the Ukrainian positions were recorded in the Luhansk sector. Russian occupation forces opened fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms on the Ukrainian positions in the village of Novhorodske, as well as from heavy machine guns near the village of Troyitske.News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism.Iran Calls Trump's Move To Appoint Bolton 'A Matter Of Shame'

03/26/18

Source: RFE/RL

Iran has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to appoint former UN Ambassador John Bolton as national-security adviser, with a senior official saying that it is shameful and is a sign that Washington hopes to overthrow the government in Tehran.

Bolton "belongs behind a glass display in the American History Museum, not enjoying a second wind at the apex of the federal bureaucracy." https://t.co/RyFELl4cNn  The American Conservative (@amconmag) March 24, 2018

A spokesman for Bolton dismissed such remarks as "propaganda."



Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, made a reference to Bolton having attended a 2017 meeting of Iranian opposition People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), an exiled dissident group that backs the overthrow of Iran's leadership.



The semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Shamkhani as saying on March 25 that for an "apparent superpower, it is a matter of shame that its national-security adviser receives wages from a terrorist group."



The report did not indicate that he provided any evidence of his claim, and MEK denied that it has funded Bolton or any other U.S. official.

Just eight months ago, John Bolton told members of a cult-like Iranian exile group that "before 2019" they would be ruling Iran. https://t.co/Ckq0ucY1Sy  The Intercept (@theintercept) March 23, 2018

Also on March 25, Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, a spokesman for the influential parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, told the semiofficial ISNA news agency that Bolton's appointment, as well as that of former CIA chief Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, "proves that the final U.S. purpose is overthrowing [the Iranian government]."



Hosseini alleged that the United States will use the MEK to attempt to overthrow the theocratic regime in Tehran. He did not provide evidence.



Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for Bolton, on March 25 said that Bolton "doesn't respond to propaganda from a government long included on the United States' list of state sponsors of terrorism."



In Paris, MEK spokesman Shahin Ghobadi said that the suggestion that his group "has funded Ambassador Bolton or any other American officials is simply a lie and is a mere joke."



Bolton in the past has advocated for regime change in Iran and is vehemently opposed to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which provided Tehran with sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program.



In a July speech to the MEK in Paris in July, Bolton expressed hopes that Iran's government would be overthrown "by 2019."



Trump announced on March 22 that Bolton would take over from H.R. McMaster as national-security adviser beginning on April 9.



Bolton, 69, has long been a hawkish voice on foreign policy for the Republican Party. He has advocated for preemptive military strikes against North Korea and military strikes on Iran.



He served in the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and George W. Bush.



His views on Iran appear to be in line with those of Trump, who has adopted a tough stance against Tehran since taking office in January 2017.



Trump has repeatedly denounced the 2015 nuclear deal and in January said the accord must be "fixed" by May 12 or Washington will withdraw.

My @newyorker take on the warmongers circling the White House w/ appt of #johnbolton, most abrasive US diplomat in decades. https://t.co/DPkyWJq5Vy  Robin Wright (@wrightr) March 23, 2018

Meanwhile, a former Israeli defense minister on March 25 said Bolton once tried to persuade him to strike Iran.



"I knew John Bolton since he was United States ambassador to the United Nations," Shaul Mofaz, who served as defense minister from 2002-06, told a conference in Tel Aviv.



"He tried to convince me that Israel needs to attack Iran," Mofaz said, according to the Ynet news site.



"I don't think this was smart, not on the side of the Americans today and not on the side of anyone until the threat is real," Mofaz said of a potential attack on Iran.



With reporting by AP, Reuters, Fars, and ISNA

More Related Tweets:

John Bolton is considered too extreme for any position requiring Senate confirmation. Just the kind of man the president likes. https://t.co/1PqTIYZn2I  NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) March 23, 2018

John Bolton named national security adviser. It's time to panic now. https://t.co/C606XAs6ue pic.twitter.com/8LeOJjWueQ  Slate (@Slate) March 23, 2018

In an NYT interview in 2002, John Bolton was asked about the Bush administration's stance on North Korea. He grabbed a nearby book and placed it on the table. The title: "The End of North Korea."

"That," he said, "is our policy."https://t.co/TONAqxwkrN  The New York Times (@nytimes) March 23, 2018Official Suggests Iran May Soon Block Access to Widely Used Telegram Messaging App

03/26/18

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

A provocative comment by a high-level official in Iran has resulted in renewed fears among the public that the government may soon block access to the country's most widely used private messaging app, Telegram.



Abdolsamad Khorramabadi

Secretary of Iran's Taskforce to Determine Instances of Criminal Content (TDICC).

Twitter and YouTube will not be un-filtered," Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, the secretary of the Taskforce to Determine Instances of Criminal Content (TDICC), the body in charge of censoring internet content, told the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) on March 16.

"In fact, on the eve of the Iranian new year [March 20, 2018], an unprecedented consensus has developed among officials to cut the enemy's domination and influence on the country's cyberspace," he added.

Khorramabadi did not elaborate on his latter statement, but many Iranians took it to mean that Telegram-which has been the subject of ire by hardline officials for years-would also soon be blocked.

According to Telegram's latest figures, the app has more than 40 million active users in Iran.



cartoon by Massoud Raeissi, Ghanoon daily



The internet and social media apps are heavily restricted and censored in Iran, with hardliners in the government viewing any form of internet freedom as a threat to the Islamic Republic.

Khorramabadi's provocative statement follows recent, pivotal events in Iran relating to internet freedom. First, the country's widespread December 2017 protests, in which access to Telegram was blocked for two weeks. Second, a comment by an official of the policy-making Supreme Cyber Council (SCC) describing Twitter, which has been blocked since 2009, as "an effective means of public diplomacy."

"Twitter and YouTube have been filtered [blocked] by judicial order of judicial authorities and other authorities cannot interfere in matters decided by judicial authorities," insisted Khorramabadi.

"The reason Twitter and YouTube have been filtered is that they do not comply with the laws of the country and to prevent the publication of millions of criminal content and block the paths to espionage and the domination of cyberspace by foreigners," he added.

A day after Khorramabadi's statements, Hamideh Zarabadi, a reformist member of Parliament (MP), told the Iranian Labor News Agency that the Telecommunications Ministry had "approved" the decision to block Telegram.

"Based on reliable information I've received from the Telecommunications Ministry, the permanent filtering [blocking] of Telegram has been approved by the SCC," he said. "Such comments are meant to prepare the public for the implementation of this decision."

On March 18, Iran's Parliament held a closed session in the presence of state officials to discuss the role of the internet in Iran's December 2017 protests. Afterwards, MP Mohammad Hossein Ghorbani denied that Telegram would be blocked.

"I can say for certain that no decision has been made about filtering Telegram so far," he told ISNA on March 18. "Security and ethnical issues in cyberspace, especially on Telegram, are very important to us. But we can be strong and haggle with this company to make them agree to our demands."

That same day, SCC secretary Abolhassan Firouzabadi criticized "domestic extremists"-judicial and security officials-for refusing to lift the ban on Facebook and Twitter, arguing that the ban has reduced officials' abilities to present their viewpoints to an international audience. But Firouzabadi agreed with the hardline view that "the continuation of Telegram's operation in Iran is not in our interest."

"Domestic extremists have aided [Iran's absence in international media outlets] by supporting efforts to close down Twitter and Facebook, etc," he said. "But the channels on Telegram promote a kind of thuggery in the country. It's a kind of one-way news dissemination. It's sensationalist and seditious.

"We have no presence in international media," added Firouzabadi.

Telegram, a Dubai-based company founded by Russian CEO Pavel Durov, has repeatedly refused to comply with demands by the Iranian government to base its servers in Iran. Doing so would make it much easier for the government to intercept messages and censor pages on the app.

Iranians Vent on Social Media

Khorramabadi's suggestion that Telegram would soon be blocked resulted in a flurry of tweets by Iranian users.

"Regardless of whether his claims will lead to the filtering of Telegram or not, this choice of words by people like Mr. Khorramabadi is very annoying," tweeted Amin Sirjani, a social affairs reporter for the Etemad newspaper, on March 16.

"They use certain phrases that they know will anger some parts of society," he added. "They are being stubborn towards the people, to put it simply."

While expressing concern over the possibility that Telegram could be blocked, technology freelance journalist Sadegh Zangeneh tweeted on March 16, "Alarm bells are sounding for Telegram."

Twitter user Reza Kiani was more skeptical, "They [judicial officials] want to shut down Telegram again but they don't have the government's backing so they're weaving fantasies."

Censored Websites in Iran

Data published by Rotbenegar, operated by the Telecommunication Ministry's Information Technology Research Center (ITRC), shows that Telegram is the fourth most accessed mobile app in Iran.

Investigations by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) reveal that the webpage that appears when a website is blocked in Iran is meanwhile the sixth most accessed destination.

Whenever a user in Iran tries to access a blocked website, the attempt is logged as the IP address used by the servers of the state Telecommunications Infrastructure Company of Iran. The fact that that IP address is the sixth most accessed site in Iran indicates the magnitude of online content censored in the country.

The censorship of applications and websites in Iran-a long-standing policy of the Islamic Republic-has continued under President Hassan Rouhani despite ongoing declarations by him since his first election campaign in 2013 that he supports some forms of internet freedom.

"We will not be looking into filtering social media" said Rouhani on December 19, 2017, adding, "The [Telecommunication] Minister will promise the people right here that his finger will not touch the filtering button."New figures released by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) after its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting show that Ghanas public debt reached 142.5 billion cedis as at December 2017, representing 69.8 percent of GDP.



This is a reduction from the 73.3 percent recorded in December 2016.



The total debt stock in 2016 was at 122.6 billion cedis.



This means that the debt stock has almost hit the dreaded 70 percent of GDP, a point the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has constantly cautioned against.



The data shows that in September 2017, Ghanas debt stood at 138.9 billion cedis representing 68.1%; the figure dropped to 137.6 billion cedis in October representing 67.4%.



But in November 2017, it went up to 139 billion cedis representing 68.1 percent.



The domestic component of debt as at December 2017 stood at 66.7 billion cedis, while the foreign debt stock was at 75.8 billion cedis.



Export Earnings



In the first two months of the year, export earnings by February 2018, reached 2.8 billion dollars.



Gold raked in a little over 1 billion dollars, while cocoa fetched cocoa 650 million dollars. Earnings from oil export also reached 664 million dollars.



On the import side, Ghana spent 2.2 billion on imports.



Banking Sector



In the banking sector, Total Advances of banks saw a drop this year from 38.5 billion cedis in January to 35.8 billion cedis in February. Also, Banks Total Asset stood at 95.1 billion cedis, same as January this year.





Source: citifmonline.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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.President Akufo-Addo says the goal of his government is to make Ghana a world-class centre for skills development and the leading country in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) delivery in Africa.



According to President Akufo-Addo, We want to emphasize the importance of TVET, and redeem the misconception that technical and vocational education is inferior and patronized only by less endowed students.



It is for this reason that on March 15, 2018, the President, at the National Conference on Technical and Vocational Education, in Koforidua, in the Eastern Region, outlined governments strategic policy on TVET.



To this end, he stressed that government has taken the decision to align and bring all public TVET institutions in the country under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Education to streamline their curricula and improve coordination for their training, with the Deputy Minister for Education, Barbara Asher Ayisi, going to be specifically responsible at the Ministry for technical and vocational education.



The five-year Strategic Plan for TVET will result in the setting up of a TVET Service and TVET Council, and a dedicated division of the education service for technical and vocational education which would have its own Director General, he said.



President Akufo-Addo made this known on Saturday when he attended the centenary celebration of Asuansi Technical Institute at Asuansi in the Central Region.



The President told the gathering that government is tackling the perennial infrastructure problems of the TVET sector.



Work, he said, will start soon on the construction of 20 modern TVET institutions in various areas of the country, together with the upgrading of some 35 National and Vocational Training Institutes across the country and the elevation of colleges of education that specialize in technology.



The President added that a major revision of the curricula of TVET schools is underway to make them relevant to Ghanas changing economy.



We recognise that science, technology and technical skills rule industry and you rule yourself out if you are not appropriately equipped. Every child must be offered the opportunity to bring out her inherent talents for innovation. It is in the laboratories and workshops that young people get the opportunity to expand their imagination and develop the skills that would equip them for the modern world, he said.



President Akufo-Addo commented, We need to modernise all aspects of our lives and we need skilled people to lead the modernisation process. If we are to transform the structure of our economy from one dependent on the production and export of raw materials to a value-added, industrialised one, then students from technical institutions, such as yours, are crucial.



Citing the example of Germany, which has an abundance of well-qualified, technical employees in business and industry, the President indicated that the dual system of Vocational Education and Training has been credited for Germanys excellent economic performance, and her consolidation into a mighty and industrial power.



Countries such as Austria, Slovakia, Switzerland and South Korea have emulated this system. We, also, in Ghana, need to emulate them, he stressed.



President Akufo-Addo commissioned an ICT laboratory, library and an administration block for Asuansi Technical Institute, which was constructed by government in partnership with the African Development Bank, under the Development of skills for Industry Project (DSIP).



The President also cut the sod for the construction of an auditorium for the school.





Source: Daily Guide









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Former UK High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin, has wondered which Accra Mr Joseph Siaw Agyapong, Chairman of private waste management firm, Zoomlion, was talking about when he boldly compared the citys neatness to that of London at a recent sanitation forum held in Ghanas capital.



Which Accra does he live in? And which London has he visited? Mr Benjamin asked on twitter.



On Friday, 9 March, Mr Agyapong said to the amazement and laughter of his audience at the forum that: When you look on the streets now, everywhere is clean, everywhere is neat.



He explained: "I said neat because you have not moved to other African countries. When you move to The Gambia and other places and you come back to Accra, youd think that Accra is the new London. Sometimes do the benchmarking with other countries that you have visited. I have visited some countries and I think we are doing well, Mr Agyapong insisted, admitting, however, that: Even though we are not there yet, we are doing well.



At the same forum, Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Joseph Kofi Adda, however, said that Zoomlion is to blame for the filth in the capital.



Mr Adda said Zoomlion had failed to ensure that the waste in the environment are collected and disposed of properly.



He said: Dr Agyapong [CEO of Zoomlion Ghana Limited and Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies], Im sorry to disappoint you herefinding solid waste everywhere I feel really disappointed and if you were to ask me why this thing is so, I will put the blame squarely on Zoomlion. Zoomlion, to me, is the cause of it.



Mr Adda said it was the responsibility of the private waste management company to supervise the cleaning of the environment. However, they are not sweeping and collecting everyday.



According to him President Akufo-Addo had indicated at the National Sanitation Campaign launch that as waste is generated daily the proper disposal of the waste should occur daily.



For him, the sweeping, collection, transportation and disposal of waste must occur daily without leaving huge piles of rubbish all over the city. By his assessment, the performance of Zoomlion in that regard has been below par and more effort is needed to tackle the sanitation problem in the capital adding: I dont think in the past year or so, Zoomlion has done so well enough.









Source: classfmonline.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A baker who claimed she was wrongfully jailed and currently wasting away in the condemned cells of the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, is pleading with Ghanaians to support her appeal her sentence.



Madam Salamatu was charged for murdering her husband.



Narrating how she ended up in the condemned cells during an interaction with Crime Check Foundations Ibrahim Oppong Kwarteng, Salamatu said she was charged for abetment to commit murder.



She insists she is innocent and had no hand in her late husband death.



According to her, her late husband was found unconscious in his room by their younger daughter with blood oozing from his head and upon rushing him to the hospital, he was pronounced dead.



Following the demise of her husband, she was later picked by the police together with some unknown men and accused of hiring the services of assailants to kill her husband.



Aggrieved Salamatu said she was also accused of infidelity, which according to the police motivated her to murder her husband.



The police called me a prostitute. They accused me of dating a Whiteman who has secured passport and visa for me to travel out of the country thats why I killed my husband. Meanwhile I have never applied for passport or visa, she recalled.



Based on the aforementioned allegations, she was remanded to allow investigations into the case by one Chief Inspector Awuni, and the findings taken to the Osu Magistrate Court where the judge in charge, Justice Aboagye Tano declared the results as mere allegations without merit.



The case was later transferred to an Accra High Court for further probe and a post-mortem was conducted on the body.



Later when the post-mortem result was released, I was accused of poisoning my late husband. The Cuban doctor who conducted the first post-mortem was reported dead and a different doctor from the Police Hospital conducted a second one.











She recounts the emotional torture she was subjected to when Inspector Awuni took her to the graveside of her late husband, exhumed the body, dissected it in front of her and took out his intestines for another post-mortem.



He was buried three weeks but God gave me the strength to watch them exhume the corpse and take out the intestines for post-mortem. I was deeply sad and wept, she noted.



Even though the second post-mortem results confirmed her late husband died out of Shock, Salamatu said, the prosecutor in charge of the case argued that because she was not willing to talk to the police, the court must give her a stiffer punishment, hence she been charged for murder.



The prosecutor, Sefakor Gbatse said I didnt want to communicate with them because I knew why I killed my husband. Meanwhile, all the allegations levelled against me that I have a Whiteman and the food poisoning were all proved false. But because she kept insisting, the judge decided to give me same sentence as the other suspects.



If I get appeal Ill pursue it but where will I get the money for that? Even the lawyer who handled the case I havent heard from him, she pleads.





Source: Ghanaweb.com









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Featured VideoFormer President John Dramani Mahama has thrown a challenge to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to arrest and prosecute him, if indeed he (Mahama) amassed wealth and acquired property during his tenure as president.



A fired-up Mr Mahama said the government could go ahead to take over his alleged hotel in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, if indeed, he owns such a facility.



The former president also said that he had been accused of owning ships in Tokyo, Japan and wondered what the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was waiting for before taking action against him.



The former president is said to have acquired several properties, especially in Dubai, as well as in Ghana, where cronies were said to have been used to acquire those properties.



One of such properties the former president has been linked to is the Homes Chain gated estate where he was residing lately.



Pressure



Addressing opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) activists in London, United Kingdom, Mr. Mahama put pressure on the NPP government to prove that he is corrupt, adding that all the allegations against him were baseless.



He also boasted that he ran an incorruptible government.



The ex-president asserted that the NPP government is in the business of manufacturing all kinds of allegations against him and the people who served under him.



Already, some of his appointees have been caught in the corruption web and facing prosecution in court.



Mr Mahama had advised NDC supporters to storm the court in solidarity with the accused appointees.



NDCs Track Record



Ive always told the NDC that we should hold our heads high; lets not be ashamed of our records like we did nothing, he said, adding, They say there was massive corruption, massive corruption where? They just kept manufacturing it and repeating it all the time.



Go ahead and prosecute, weve told them. If I have done wrong prosecute me. They talk about hotels in Dubai, seize them, youre in office. They talk about ships in Tokyo, go and take over them; I mean they talk about all kinds of lies and they kept on repeating them and people thought such things exist.



Initial Challenge



This is not the first time Mr Mahama is throwing a challenge to President Akufo-Addo and his NPP government to take him and his appointees on, if indeed, they stole from the public purse.



At one of the NDCs so-called unity walks held in Techiman in the Brong-Ahafo Region in January, the former president had dared the NPP government to arrest him and his wife, Lordina, if the government believes they were in any way involved in the DKM Microfinance Company scandal that rocked the region and other places.



Thousands of customers of DKM Microfinance lost their investments, running into millions of Ghana cedis, after the owners of the company had allegedly squandered the investments of customers.



The unfortunate incident forced a number of people out of business while some even reportedly committed suicide.



The Bank of Ghana (BoG) subsequently stepped in and declared the company bankrupt before confiscating its assets and appointing the Registrar General to commence a liquidation process to refund the customers investments in 2016.



Political Topic



It became a heated political topic in the run-up to the 2016 general elections, which Mr Mahama lost miserably, dashing his hope of securing a second term in office and thereby making him the first sitting president in Ghanas political history to be defeated overwhelmingly by an opposition leader.



When the DKM issue came up, the NPP accused my wife and me of owning that company. So they said when they come into power, they will retrieve the money from us and give it back to those it was taken from. By Gods grace today, they are now in power. I challenge them to investigate the ownership of DKM. If DKM is owned by my wife and me, arrest us; but they are now very quiet, he had fired.



He added, For lies, if you tell one, you have to keep telling lies to save yourself. It is said that you can lie to win power but you cant govern a nation with lies, he added.

Source: Daily Guide









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International cooperation of the National Guard of Ukraine is a priority for the government, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

"The international cooperation of the National Guard is the first priority for the leadership of the state and the leadership of the National Guard," Poroshenko said during the celebrations dedicated to the fourth anniversary of the creation of the National Guard in Kyiv on Monday.

He recalled that the National Guard joined the international association of gendarmerie and police forces as a military institution.

"Accession as a full member is a sign of recognition of the proper level of military formation. Such an assessment by our foreign colleagues is extremely important for any professional," the president said.

Poroshenko stressed that the National Guard is step by step approaching the standards of the leading countries of the world. The president noted that the system of management and communication is improving rapidly, logistics is developing steadily, and new models of military equipment are being adopted.General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress [NDC], Johnson Asiedu Nketia has described Ghanas defence cooperation agreement with the United States that will allow them to have a military base in Ghana as unconstitutional.



This he said forced the leadership of the NDC to parliament last Friday to educate the majority.



Our presence there was very useful and we are pleased. We didnt go there to force the majority to vote against the agreement, but rather we went there to educate them about the agreement. Constitutionally, there is no such agreement in parliament, he said.



The Minority in Parliament last Friday staged a walkout from Parliament over the Ghana-US defence cooperation agreement for consideration and ratification.



This was after the caucus leader; Haruna Iddrisu made his sides reservations over the agreement known on the floor.



The agreement was brought before the House for consideration and ratification after the joint-committee on Defence and Interior Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of Parliament gave it a green light.



This is despite massive public protest against the deal which many including the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) described as dangerous and a sale of Ghanas sovereignty.



But the most talked about deal was approved by parliament despite the minority walk-out.



However, Asiedu Nketia in an interview with Neat FM's morning show Ghana Montie was emphatic that, his party will critically review the deal and possibly suspend it when they come to power.



We [NDC] are against the deal and we are not in support of it. That is our stance on this issue. Article 75 of our constitution state clearly how Ghana can go in such agreement with any country. The rightful procedure wasnt used in this case. We will educate them, he noted.







Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Ambrose_wash









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It has emerged per documents available to Peacefmonline that the Mahama administration signed one of the precedent agreements with the United States granting them (USA) access into the country to camp its military forces, thus exposing the hypocrisy of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).



The document - detailing an agreement granting the US military access to use Ghana as a base for staging and deploying its forces among others - sparked public debate with its emergence in the media.



The Minority in Parliament vehemently opposed the deal, describing it as attempts by government to sell out the countrys sovereignty to the US. They rejected the MoU laid before parliament last Tuesday recommending that the house ratifies the agreement.



But a one-sided Parliament on Friday night ratified the controversial defence cooperation agreement between Ghana and the US.



However, documents available to Peacefmonline, clearly suggests the previous administration sold Ghana out to the United States government in 2015 under the cover of darkness without recourse to Parliament for consideration and ratification.



A copy of the 2015 agreement signed between Hannah Tetteh on behalf of Ghana and James C. Vechery, Brigadier General of the U.S Air Force and Director of Logistics for the U.S Africa Command on behalf of the US government, and which has been kept away from even the Ghanaian Military, spelt out clearly that there will be the facilitation of a reciprocal logistic support between the parties to be used primarily during combined exercise, training, deployments, port calls, operations, or other cooperative efforts.



Peacefmonline.com has in its possession copies of a 1998 agreement signed by the Rawlings government with the USA; and also, an Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement entered into by Ghana and the United States in 2015 signed by then Minister of Foreign Affairs under the ertswhile Mahama regime, Hannah Tetteh.



A quick read through both documents (the 1998/2015 agreements) show little discrepancy in the 2018 agreement ratified in Parliament and those signed under the NDC 1 and 3 regimes headed by ex-President Jerry John Rawlings and Hannah Tetteh, respectively on the blind side of Ghana.



Some similarities between the 2018 and the 1998 agreements are cited below:



In the 1998 agreement, it was provided that US military personnel and civilian employees of the US Department of Defence who may be temporarily present in Ghana in connection with the Africa Crisis Response Initiative and other activities [should]be accorded the status equivalent to that accorded to administrative and technical staff of the United States Embassy under the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations of 18th April 1961, and that they may enter and exit Ghana with United States identifications and with collective movement or individual travel orders.



The 2018 agreement has a similar provision. It says in Article 3 Clause 1 that, Ghana shall accord to military personnel and civilian personnel the privileges, exemptions, and immunities equivalent to those accorded to the administrative and technical staff of a diplomatic mission under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of April 18, 1961.



Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, held a press conference last Thursday to expose what he described as the dishonesty and hypocrisy of the NDC.



Attached below are copies of the agreements:

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The 27-year-old man in western Pennsylvania sustained blunt impact injuries to the head, torso and his extremities when he allegedly was dragged by a van driven by his girlfriend in the throes of a domestic dispute on Friday.

The man, identified as Ryan Minett of Beaver County, Pa., has since died of his injuries.

Now his girlfriend, Jessica Ann Royall, 28, of Cranberry, Pa., is being held on charges stemming from the death, which has been ruled a homicide, according to TribLive.com in Pittsburgh.

Police said the fatal incident occurred during a domestic dispute around 4:30 p.m. Friday in Butler County.

911 callers told police a man was dragged about one-half mile and injured by a van.

At last report, Royall was being held at the Butler County Prison. But details about the charges against her were not immediately available.

TribLive.com reports Royall already faced charges filed July 4 for an accident involving personal injury, accident involving damage to a vehicle, overtaking a vehicle on the left and reckless driving. She was free on $10,000 bond in that case, according to online court records.

According to Royall's Facebook page, she and Minett had been dating for less than two months.Fire ravaged a North Philadelphia home on Wednesday. But it wasn't until Friday - amid the pleadings from family members - that the bodies of three victims were finally pulled from the rubble.

"I want to know why they waited all this time to go in there and find my granddaughter on the step with her son," Herman Fripp, a family member, told NBC-10 in Philly after the bodies were finally recovered Friday night.

The recovery came only after family members say they pleaded with the fire department to do a new search of the hollowed out property, NBC-10 writes.

In the initial blaze Wednesday, the building's second floor collapsed, two firefighters were injured and a male occupant was killed. The home has been described by officials as an illegal boarding house.

The bodies of three other fire victims - Alita Johnson, 25, her 3-year-old son Haashim Johnson and her father Horace Johnson, 64 - were not recovered until Friday night.

This, after family members told NBC-10 they spent the past several days calling the Philadelphia Fire Department saying that all three relatives were missing. They asked that firefighters go back to the home and search for their bodies. That happened Friday evening.

"They took their time just to come out here," Laleeha, Johnson's cousin, told the station. "I had to call 10 different people just for them to do another search."

Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel told NBC10 the department will review the entire response to the fire.

However, he added the collapsed floor blocked access to the 3rd floor room where the bodies were found. And he maintained firefighters were unaware that three other people were in the home during the initial entry and investigation.

"This is the worst thing possible for us. Every fire death is tragic. This is worse than that," Thiel told the station.An arbitrator over-stepped his authority by ordering the Philadelphia police to promote a cop who was filmed hitting a woman, a Commonwealth Court panel ruled Monday.

That ruling on the fate of Lieutenant Jonathan Josey upholds a decision by a Philadelphia judge and rejects an appeal by the Fraternal Order of Police.

Lt. Jonathan Josey

Judge Anne E. Covey found in the state court's opinion that the issue of whether Josey should have been promoted to captain should never have been submitted to an arbitrator. That was a managerial call not subject to arbitration, she concluded.

Josey's career path has been rocky.

Covey noted Josey was fired after he was filmed striking a woman who sprayed him with Silly String while policing the after-party for the city's annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in September 2012. The woman was knocked to the ground. The video went viral online.

Then-Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey canned Josey after concluding the officer had used excessive force.

The police union grieved the firing, however, and in 2013 an arbitrator ordered Josey's reinstatement, with back pay, after concluding Ramsey lacked just cause for the termination. The arbitrator also ordered that the firing be expunged from Josey's personnel record.

Flash forward to 2016. The reinstated Josey was ranked high on the promotion list to captain when police Chief Inspector Christopher Flacco refused to recommend him for the upgrade.

Flacco wrote a memo to the current police commissioner citing the Puerto Rican Day incident. The inspector contended the incident had a "detrimental long-term impact on the relationship between the department and the community it serves" and undermined Josey's ability to command, Covey wrote.

Josey was bypassed for promotion. The union filed another grievance, which was supported by a different arbitrator who ruled that police had to give Josey a captain's slot.

The union appealed to Commonwealth Court when the Philadelphia judge nixed that ruling.

Covey noted the police labor contract allows arbitration only for suspensions, demotions and dismissals. She concluded, the decision not to promote Josey fell outside the arbitrator's purview because it was a "managerial prerogative."Former state Rep. Stephen Stetler deserves a new trial on corruption charges because of an error his lawyer committed during his 2012 trial in Dauphin County, a state appeals court ruled Monday.

The Superior Court decision upholds a new trial order issued nearly a year ago by county Judge John F. Cherry.

The problem, as Cherry and the Superior Court panel saw it, is that defense attorney Joshua Lock should have objected when former county Judge Todd A. Hoover spoke to the jury in private during its deliberations on Stetler's fate.

Neither prosecutors, defense counsel nor Stetler were present when Hoover answered the jurors' questions in the deliberation room, Judge Paula Francisco Ott noted in the state court opinion.

"We fail to see how (defense) counsel could reasonably agree to deprive Stetler of his constitutional right to counsel during a critical stage of the" trial, Ott wrote.

The state attorney general's office had appealed Cherry's new trial order, arguing that Cherry overstepped his bounds by overturning Stetler's convictions.

Stetler, now 68, was one of the targets of a five-year probe of corruption by Democrats and Republicans in the state House of Representatives.

The York County Democrat, who was revenue secretary during the Rendell administration, was convicted of abetting a plan to use state resources and employees to conduct political campaigns from 2004 to 2006. Stetler was paroled after serving a 1 1/2- to 5-year prison term.Pennsylvania's nascent hemp industry, currently confined to a research pilot program, could see a major expansion thanks to a proposal by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to remove it from the list of controlled substances.

A 1918 photo from inside a New York factory that manufactured rope from hemp fibers.

Hemp was a major cash crop in the state until 1937, when it was outlawed alongside marijuana despite not having anywhere near the same level of the chemical that causes pot's psychotropic effect. It can be used in everything from building materials to cosmetics and health foods.

Earlier this year, the state Department of Agriculture approved 39 industrial hemp research permits that will result in the cultivation of about 1,000 acres this year. In 2017, the first year of the program, 14 growers planted 36 acres.

But those growers face significant hurdles.

Hemp's status as a controlled substance in the same category as heroin and LSD makes it virtually impossible to secure private loans or use established banks and means they are subject to stringent oversight by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. For example, seeds are imported from Europe, a costly and impractical source for upstart programs.

If McConnell's proposal passes Congress and is signed into law by President Donald Trump, it could solve all of those problems and set the stage for hemp's return as a major agricultural product.

"This is big," said Geoff Whaling, who owns a Berks County farm and chairs the National Hemp Association.

Legalization could spur public and private investment, Whaling said, into new cultivation, processing and marketing techniques. He pointed to the industries in Canada and Europe as guideposts for what's possible.

Canada, which legalized hemp in 1998, now cultivates well over 100,000 acres each year. The industry reported $1.1 million USD in exports in 2016, the most recent full year of data available, according to Statistics Canada, the national statistical office.

"If we could do the same here in Pennsylvania, we could quickly ramp up to 100,000 acres," Whaling said. "That's a huge initiative."

A 2015 Congressional Research Service report found that hemp was used in 25,000 products, including beverages, foods, nutritional supplements, paper and textiles. The United States was the largest importer of hemp, where it was a $600 million industry.

Gov. Tom Wolf, who signed legislation creating Pennsylvania's pilot program in 2016, has been a vocal hemp supporter.

"[Wolf] believes it is long overdue for these archaic federal laws to be updated," Wolf spokesman J.J. Abbott said Monday.

Wolf and Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding sent letters to the state's congressional delegation earlier this month advocating for a measure similar to the one McConnell plans to introduce.

"I believe that the designation of industrial hemp as a controlled substance is a barrier to the farmers who wish to see this crop find an appropriate home in the marketplace," Redding wrote, arguing that hemp would help both farmers and the economy as a whole.

McConnell, a Republican who's represented Kentucky in the U.S. Senate since 1985, may seem like an unlikely hemp advocate but he's been one of the driving forces behind its return. In 2014, he worked on a provision that allowed for state-level pilot programs.

Kentucky's program grew from 33 acres in 2014 to 3,200 acres last year, according to that state's agriculture department. It currently permits 194 growers and 48 processors.

"Hemp has played a foundational role in Kentucky's agricultural heritage, and I believe that it can be an important part of our future," McConnell said, in a written statement Monday announcing his legalization bill.

Although legalization faces some opponents in Congress and law enforcement, McConnell's support could go a long way toward relaxing hemp regulations nationwide. A rider on the recently signed omnibus spending bill extended existing provisions that shielded state hemp programs (and medical marijuana, too) from federal interference.

Whaling has been actively lobbying for such measures for years. In practice, that often means educating lawmakers who confuse hemp with its psychotropic cousin.

"Nothing's a done deal in Washington," he said, "but certainly having McConnell as majority leader is very important."A motorcycle gang member convicted of fatally shooting a rival biker during a melee outside a Philadelphia convention hall is fated to keep serving his 18 1/2- to 37-year prison sentence for the crime.

A state Superior Court panel guaranteed that by rejecting what Judge Alice Beck Dubow called Stanley "Stizz" Newell's "significantly underdeveloped" appeal of his third-degree murder conviction.

It didn't help Newell's case that the September 2014 shooting of Michael "Country" Baker was filmed by surveillance cameras at the Nifiji Event Hall on Chew Avenue in North Philly.

Investigators said the gunfire erupted during an anniversary ceremony for the Twisters Motorcycle Club. Newell, now 48, was a member of the rival Byrd Riders club.

Dubow cited an opinion by Philadelphia Judge Barbara A. McDermott in the state court ruling tossing Newell's appeal.

McDermott wrote how an argument among the bikers escalated to gunfire. She described the video that captured Newell firing a fatal shot into Baker's neck as Baker ran toward him. Baker and Newell traded shots before Newell's bullet hit home, according to McDermott.

She noted police later found 25 empty shell casings at the scene of the melee. Investigators said Newell didn't deny having a pistol, but claimed he dropped it or gave it to someone else before Baker was shot.

In his failed appeal, Newell insisted police didn't tell him he could have a lawyer present for questioning after they read him his rights. He claimed the evidence didn't support his conviction, and that a police officer shouldn't have been allowed to "narrate" the shooting video for the jury.

None of that gained traction with Dubow's court. She noted, for instance, that Newell had waived any appeal on the police narration issue because his lawyer didn't object to the officer's commentary during the trial.BELLEFONTE--Prosecutors on Monday used newly-recovered basement video from inside a Penn State fraternity house to provide a more comprehensive look at the actions of a pledge who died last year and his would-be brothers.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Zarallo played about two hours of video clips during a preliminary hearing Monday that represented a continuation of proceedings that began Friday. State College Police Detective David Scicchitano meanwhile narrated the actions of Piazza and 11 former students who now face criminal charges ranging from alcohol violations to involuntary manslaughter.

The new basement video footage helped fill out some gaps during the night of Feb. 2, 2017, when Piazza fell down a set of basement stairs, and the next morning when he was found rigid and with cold extremities behind an away bar. Piazza died the next day.

The gaps in the video previously left question marks that defense attorneys used to their advantage because they said it was unclear how much Piazza drank "on his own" in the basement after the active brothers put him through an alcohol-chugging obstacle course upstairs.

But the video footage played publicly for the first time Monday showed Piazza did not retrieve any of his own drinks upstairs or downstairs after accepting a bid to join the house. Scicchitano, who has reviewed the video footage extensively, testified that he never saw Piazza at the basement bar to get a drink, like the brothers or guests at the party.

Instead, fraternity brothers walked around the basement and served Piazza and other pledges by handing them beers or a bottle of vodka or holding a winebag over the pledges' mouths. The brothers stood by and watched as the pledges took extended chugs from the drinks. This serving of alcohol continued even after Piazza was visibly intoxicated and staggering across the basement, Scicchitano said.

The basement video had been intentionally deleted by a fraternity member, but was restored by the FBI, prosecutors said.

Zarallo often paused the video clips to have Scicchitano explain who was in a frame and what their actions were, presumably in an effort to establish elements of various crimes in connection with the deadly party.

No audio is available with the video.

The alcohol consumption began after a formal ceremony where Piazza and 13 other pledges agree to join the house. That's when the pledges were lead into a darkened dance floor room in the basement by the house pledge master, Daniel Casey. The only light in the room came from an exit sign and a doorway into one of the other rooms.

Scicchitano identified the pledges based on their positions when they entered the room and where they sat in a line along a bench. A vodka bottle was visible at times in the dark as the pledges raised it to chug from it and try to finish the entire bottle. Scicchitano testified that the bottle went up and down the line of pledges three times as Casey and assistant pledge master Joseph Sala meandered nearby.

As the pledges were in the basement, fraternity brothers upstairs prepared the various stations for the drinking obstacle course, or "gauntlet."

The pledges then went upstairs for most of the gauntlet, but finished in the basement with a beer pong station, after which they were handed beers to "shotgun" or drink quickly through a hole in the side of the can.

In all, police said Piazza was served 18 drinks in 82 minutes. A few minutes after his final drink at 11:17 p.m., he fell down the basement stairs and was knocked unconscious.

Scicchitano noted that the video clips showed Piazza was awake and moving "purposefully" before the fall, but was unresponsive immediately after the fall.

Even with the new basement video, none of the camera views recorded Piazza's head-first tumble down the steep basement stairs, where his head ended up against a wall and his face against the carpet.

After Piazza was carried to a couch upstairs, numerous fraternity brothers surrounded him and at various times pointed to their own heads and appeared to comprehend that Piazza had struck his head, but no one called for medical help.

Fraternity brothers rubbed Piazza's sternum and poured drinks on his face without any response from Piazza.

Piazza then spent an excruciating night upstairs, trying to stand up and repeatedly falling down.

The basement video helped to answer another question that lingered from last year: How Piazza ended up in the basement the next morning after fraternity brothers brought Piazza upstairs.

The new video showed Piazza walking toward the basement stairs after 7:50 a.m., and later through the basement where he headed toward the "away bar" room. Piazza walked around the bar and later can be seen on the floor near the bar, putting his head on the floor in between his arms.

About two hours later, another pledge found Piazza with stiff extremities behind the bar. He and two brothers carried him upstairs.

Zarallo played video clips that showed the fraternity brothers stood around an unresponsive Piazza for 40 more minutes until anyone called for medical help. The fraternity president and pledge master then helped pick up beer cans and other alcohol-related trash before the police showed up at 10:52 a.m.

The quality of the basement video wasn't as good as the upstairs video because of the low lighting and strobe lighting effects in the bars and dance room.

But Scicchitano said he had watched the video enough times to identify people by their hair or clothing and from other images with better lighting.

Defense attorneys at times questioned the identities of various people in the video footage, and whether some of the cans being chugged actually contained alcohol. They also objected at times to Scicchitano's characterizations of their clients' actions.

The defense attorneys also objected to the replaying of the upstairs video, since it was liberally shown during last year's preliminary hearing.

Monday's court hearing represented the Commonwealth's attempt to get more than 200 criminal charges refiled after Magisterial District Judge Allen Sinclair dismissed them last year at the conclusion of eight days of preliminary hearings.

Monday's hearing broke for lunch after the video clips were shown so defense attorneys did not have time to cross examine Scicchitano.

Three defense attorneys contacted after the morning session declined to comment on the new video clips, with one saying he was still absorbing the new information.

When the hearing resumed after lunch, Zarallo continued questioning Scicchitano, who read some text messages sent among the fraternity brothers after Piazza was taken to a hospital but before he died.

"At least hazing won't be as bad now that this happened," one brother said in a text message.HARRISBURG--People packed a theater on Sunday afternoon to see a side-by-side comparison of five Democrats vying to defeat Republican Scott Perry for a U.S. House seat representing Dauphin County and parts of Cumberland and York counties.



Among the many things the five have in common is this: A much better chance of winning than any of them did a few weeks ago. That's because of the state Supreme Court's ruling that the district was extremely gerrymandered in favor of Republicans. The newly-drawn district narrows the gap signicantly, with Republicans now holding a 51 percent to 46 percent registered voter advantage in the district re-named the 10th.

Moreover, President Donald Trump won the old district by 21 points; that shrinks to nine points in the re-drawn district. As one of the candidates put it, a Democrat can win by winning over independents and "reasonable Republicans" who went for Trump.



While the five candidates share many of the same Democratic and anti-Trump values, their backgrounds and circumstances differ considerably.



At 26, Shavonnia Corbin-Johnson, would become one of the youngest members of Congress, and the first African American or woman to represent the district. Corbin-Johnson grew up in York and has foreign policy related degrees from Georgetown and George Washington universities. She formerly worked in the administration of President Barack Obama, and said the experience will enable her to "hit the ground running" in Congress.



"I will not be wasting my first year. I know how the bureaucracy works and how to beat it," she said.



Eric Ding calls himself a "career public health scientist" and said science and evidenced-based arguments and approaches have the potential to overcome partisan divide and gridlock on issues including health care and gun control. "We need science in Washington because we know evidence-based things work," he said

Ding, who was raised in Shippensburg, repeatedly noted his family came as Chinese immigrants when he was a boy, and he knew first hand things such as his father being laid off from a factory and job and his family worrying about affording health care.



Christina Hartman of Lancaster County has the most experience running for major office. In 2016, before re-districting, she ran unsuccessfully against Republican U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker, losing by 11 points in a heavily Republican district. She has spent her career working for non-profits, including international efforts focused on human rights.

Hartman told the audience she is a great beneficiary of public schools as well as the Affordable Care Act, which she said provided coverage when her husband was treated for cancer. But she also cited exorbitant premiums for the coverage and said high health care costs are a major reason she and her husband don't own a home. Her proposals for strengthening the ACA and lowering health care costs include giving the government the right to negotiate with drug manufacturers over prices.



Alan Howe of Carlisle is a retired Air Force non-commissioned officer with 24 years of service. He offered one of the most blunt criticisms of Trump when, discussing immigration, he said, "We can't have a nation of immigrants being led by a racist in the White House." He also had aggressive words for the National Rifle Association, vowing to "come after" the organization over what he described as its outsized influence on the gun debate.



George Scott of Dillsburg is a retired Army officer who then went to seminary to become a Lutheran pastor. He has taken a leave from the church he presides over in East Berlin to run for office.

Scott won robust applause after he was asked to discuss his approach for unseating Perry, known as a hard right conservative and supporter of President Trump. Scott noted that Perry, also a former military officer, commonly touts his his military experience and portrays himself as strong on "faith and values." Scott said he's happy to go "face to face" with Perry over their military records, and maintained, as a pastor, he has an even bigger advantage regarding faith and moral issues.

There were few if any big differences among the five Democrats on the main issues. All support stronger gun controls, abortion rights and rights for gay and transgender people, while opposing the recent Republican tax cuts and favoring efforts to reduce income inequality.



The candidates were asked to name their top priorities. Corbin-Johnson was asked to speak first, and she named public education, protecting Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, creating jobs and raising the minimum wage. Going first was perhaps a disadvantage, because it enabled the other canditates to say they agree with her and then use their time to discuss other things.



Ding offered the most unusual response, noting that the district is heavily dependent on trucking jobs, which he also said are the closest thing to the great blue collar jobs of old. However, he predicted trucking jobs will soon be "decimated" by automation. That necessitates a proactive approach of "robotic-adjusted benefits" to retrain affected truckers for new occupations, he said.



Hartman took the opportunity to stress the need for programs to help first time homeowners, arguing that having more people able to own a home is one of the things that keeps the regional workforce and economy strong.



Regarding gun control, Corbin-Johnson said she would push for things including stronger enforcement of laws regarding background checks and making absolutely sure people convicted of domestic violence can't buy guns, and closing the "gun show loophole" to require background checks for sales and gun shows and private sales.



Howe said he supports bans on automatic and semi-automatic weapons, while Scott cited a need to "elect people who won't take NRA money under any circumstance."



All of the candidates said they would expand on the Affordable Care Act, with Scott citing an eventual goal of "single payer" health care, and Ding saying pretty much the same thing while using the term "universal health care."



Regarding abortion, Howe said he has a simple retort for Republicans who oppose the right to choose: "That's not your uterus. That's not your body. Shut up."



Scott, the paster, said he couldn't top Howe's response, and added that he supports planned parenthood. At another point, he also said he supports equal rights for gays and transgender people for things including marriage and access to government services



Corbin-Johnson, discussing abortion, said she would never consider abortion unless her life was at stake, and would never choose one under normal circumstances.



However, she said she fully supports the right to choose, and said abortion opponents wrongly equate being pro-choice with pro-abortion.







The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has began investigating the possible involvement of former deputy head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, at the time of Viktor Yanukovych, Andriy Portnov, in the annexation of Crimea by Russia in the framework of criminal proceedings under "treason" article, MP Andriy Levus (People's Front faction) has said.

The SBU opened a criminal case in response to the statement of the public organization 'Vilni Liudy' (Free People) to law enforcement agencies about the possible involvement of Portnov in the annexation of Crimea, the MP said on Facebook.

"The Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is already conducting a pretrial investigation on the "high treason" case, and the relevant information has been included in the Single Register of Pretrial Investigations," Levus explained.

He also made public on Facebook page an answer from the SBU addressed to the deputy head of the public organization 'Vilni Liudy', in which the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea submitted to the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations a statement on the commission of a criminal offense by former deputy of presidential administration of Ukraine Portnov in the crime provided for by Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (high treason).

"I recall that former deputy head of the presidential administration Andriy Portnov is probably involved in the occupation of part of Ukraine by Russia, as evidenced by the recording of a telephone conversation between Russia's presidential adviser Glazyev and chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Konstantinov, which was recorded by Ukrainian intelligence on March 1, 2014. Glazyev reported on the need for the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to adopt a resolution that was prepared by Portnov - a Ukrainian lawyer, ex-deputy head of the presidential Administration," Levus added.

The Security Service of Ukraine has not confirmed this information yet to the Interfax-Ukraine agency.Markell Merritt, a 15-year-old student from Legacy High School, center, participates in the Las Vegas March for Our Lives event, which started at Symphony Park and ended in Las Vegas City Hall, on Saturday, March 24, 2018. (Andrea Cornejo/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers a statement of exoneration on behalf of the Government of Canada to the Tsilhqot'in Nation and the descendants of six Tsilhqot'in Chiefs in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, March 26, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickA man enters the Embassy of the Russian Federation to Canada in Ottawa on Monday, March 26, 2018. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada is expelling four Russian diplomats and will deny permission for three others to bolster Russian staff in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangA coastguard ship of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service has arrested in the Ukrainian waters of the Azov Sea a fishing vessel flying the flag of the Russian Federation, with a crew of ten people on board.

"The vessel NORD was stopped 15 miles from the Obytichna spit. It was established during the inspection that it was registered in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. In addition, crew members violated the procedure for leaving the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. All of them had so-called passports of Russian citizens issued in the city of Kerch," the press office of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service reported on Monday.

The vessel with the crew on board was arrested and tugged to the port of Berdiansk for further verification and procedural actions. The identity of the detainees will also be established. In addition, a trawl for fishing and five tonnes of seafood were found during the inspection of the vessel.Ed Robertson, right, of the Barenaked Ladies, and former member and co-founder Steven Page, left, perform during the Juno Awards in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday March 25, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckCORRECTS AGE - A girl plays the violin outside of auditorium where the wake for music educator Jose Antonio Abreu is held in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, March 25, 2017. Abreu, founder of Venezuela's network of youth orchestras known as 'El Sistema' or The System, died at age 78 on Saturday, March 24. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)Journalists are positioned across the street from the Russian Embassy in Washington, Monday, March 26, 2018. The White House says the expulsion of Russian diplomats and closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle will "make the United States safer." White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says in a statement that President Donald Trump is responding to "Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom." She says the move will reduce "Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten America's national security." (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)FILE - In this Feb. 4, 2007 file photo, Prince performs during the halftime show at the Super Bowl XLI football game at Dolphin Stadium in Miami. A tribute fence will be installed at Prince's famed music studio and home in Minnesota as officials prepare for fans returning on the second anniversary of the rock star's death. A three-day celebration of the late musician also will be held next month, including a concert in Minneapolis. The tribute fence will be set up inside the grounds at Paisley Park, where Prince died from an accidental painkiller overdose on April 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)FILE - In this March 6, 2018, file photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., talks during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington. McConnell said Monday, March 26, 2018, that he'll introduce legislation to legalize hemp as an agricultural commodity. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)FILE - In this June 12, 2016 file photo, law enforcement officials work at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., following a mass shooting. The widow of the gunman who killed dozens of people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando is going on trial Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in federal court. Thirty-one-year-old Noor Salman is charged with aiding and abetting her deceased husband Omar Mateen in planning the 2016 attack on the Pulse nightclub. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)RCMP Assistant Commissioner of the Lower Mainland Peter German speaks during a news conference at RCMP headquarters in Surrey, B.C., on Saturday April 4, 2009. Former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German has been appointed by the province to review its policies that fight money laundering, and based on his findings David Eby says there are specific concerns he plans to raise with the House of Commons finance committee in Ottawa on Tuesday.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckUkraine has decided to expel 13 Russian diplomats as a sign of solidarity with its British partners and trans-Atlantic allies and in coordination with European Union countries, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

"In reply to the cynical chemical attack in Salisbury, the United Kingdom, acting in a spirit of solidarity with our British partners and trans-Atlantic allies and in coordination with the EU countries, Ukraine has decided to expel 13 of the few remaining Russian diplomats from Ukrainian territory, considering that, as is well known, our diplomatic relations with Russia have de facto been frozen," Poroshenko said on Facebook on Monday.

Russia has once again manifested its disdain not only for sovereignty of independent states but also for the value of human life, he said. Ukraine feels this everyday in the occupied Crimea and in Donbas, the president added.

"Therefore, it is important as never before not to confine ourselves to symbolic gestures. The next step should be increasing the price Moscow has to pay for international crimes it has committed, including by elevating personal, financial, and economic sanctions. Our common response to the Kremlin should continue to be resolute and tough to prevent new human tragedies and ensure respect for international law," he said.Legal challenge looms over ExxonMobil-Guyana contract -Melinda Janki





By Kaieter News



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 03 26 2018



The ExxonMobil-Guyana contract could be facing a legal challenge. Several local critics are of the view that the grounds upon which the Government granted ExxonMobil a production licence last year are against the law.

One of the lawyers working on the case is Melinda Janki. Funds for the matter are being raised through the website:



https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/fairdealforguyana/

Janki said that there are indeed enough grounds for the matter to be challenged in the courts. She noted, however, that one must be clear on who is on the other side of the deal.



The lawyer said that Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, did not sign a deal with a big company called ExxonMobil. Minister Trotman signed a deal with three much smaller off-shore companies which are being represented by ExxonMobil.



These companies are Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd, Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd, and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Ltd. These three companies are all subsidiaries of other companies. Esso, for example, is a subsidiary of ExxonMobil.



Janki was also adamant that a minister cannot just do what he likes. The lawyer said that there are legal restrictions to his power.



She contended that if citizens believe Trotman has not acted correctly they can challenge him; they can challenge whether the Minister had the power to agree to all of the things that he agreed to in the petroleum agreement.

As for the Production Licence granted to the said companies, Janki said that this too can be challenged.



She noted that the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act Cap 65:04 says that the Minister has no power to grant a petroleum production licence unless the company has adequate financial resources and technical and industrial competence.



Janki asserted, We know that in June 2016, Esso, Hess and Nexen did not meet the said requirements because the Petroleum Agreement says that Esso, Hess and Nexen will have or will acquire the financial resources, the managerial, technical and industrial competence to carry out Petroleum Operations.



She continued, Did Esso, Hess and Nexen meet the legal requirements a year later when the petroleum production licence was granted? People are entitled to ask the Minister to show that these three companies met the legal requirements and if they don't think that he acted in accordance with the law, people can challenge him in court.



Janki added that the law states that these three off-shore companies must make the most efficient and beneficial use of the petroleum resources concerned or they can't get a licence.



The lawyer queried, Is there evidence that these three off-shore companies met this legal requirement for the most efficient and beneficial use?



Again, people can ask the Minister to produce the evidence that this oil venture meets the requirement of being the most efficient and beneficial use of the petroleum resources.



Janki emphasized that beneficial use does not mean beneficial to the oil company. The lawyer stressed that it means beneficial to Guyana  a point she believes that Minister Trotman appears to have missed.



GOVT REFUTES



News of this looming court challenge was first reported by the UK Guardian. Janki was also quoted by that media outfit as she provided additional reasons as to why the matter ought to be taken to court.



In light of the aforementioned, the Ministry of Natural Resources released a statement yesterday, categorically stating that it has fulfilled all legal requirements in the award of the production licence to ExxonMobil.



The Ministry noted that the Government is prepared and willing to present all facts in this regard to any court with jurisdiction.



The Ministry of Natural Resources further said that this sort of action is not unusual in emerging oil economies, particularly during the stage leading up to first oil at which Guyana currently is.



The Ministry said it is satisfied that its partners engaged in exploration and preparation for production, are taking every precaution in ensuring that there is minimal effect to the environment and that they are diligently putting systems in place to guard against any spills or mishaps.

The Ministry also sought to assure that it will continue to engage its partners  ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC Nexen  in ensuring that the interest of Guyana's waters and environment remains top priorities.



Proposed ExxonMobil Guyana oil production should be put on hold due to enviromental grounds Int'l Lawyer By Kaieter News



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 03 26 2018



Article 149 J of the Constitution mandates that the Government shall protect the environment for the benefit of present and future generations.



It is expected to do this through reasonable legislative and other measures designed to prevent pollution and environmental degradation among other things.



Understanding the significance of this Article, citizens continue to voice their concern that the Government is not doing enough to protect Guyana from any environmental disaster that would likely result from ExxonMobil's operations.



In fact, international lawyer, Melinda Janki, told Kaieteur News that she believes the proposed oil production by ExxonMobil should be put on hold. She said that this is necessary since the Government has failed to come clean on several fronts.



Janki said that an oil spill can have several devastating obligations on Guyana's economy as well as its neighbours. She said that from Government's end, there is a deficit of information which would speak to how such matters would be dealt with. In light of this and other factors, Janki stressed that the Government has failed to live up to its obligations.



The international lawyer then turned her attention to ExxonMobil's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which she finds to be quite questionable, leaving Guyana open to further risk.



Janki noted that the EIA for the Liza well Phase 1 contains a scenario of a well blowout resulting in 20,000 barrels of oil for 30 days i.e. 600,000 barrels of oil. That is over 25 million gallons of oil.



In that scenario, how will Guyana cope with something that is more than double the size of an Exxon Valdez disaster? The marine environment in Alaska still has not recovered from the 1989 spill. A 2009 status report from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council found that the Exxon Valdez oil persists in the environment and, in places, is nearly as toxic as it was the first few weeks after the spill.



Although two decades have passed, as much as 16,000 gallons of oil persists in the Sound's intertidal zones, continuing to poison wildlife.



Janki added,  So the Guyanese people are in a very risky and dangerous situation. We have been put there because the government has failed to take expert legal advice, expert financial advice and expert environmental advice. They are in breach of their legal obligations to the people of Guyana.



The lawyer further noted that Esso's EIA also says that the prevailing currents are likely to take the oil northwest. So in addition to damaging Guyana, Janki stressed that the oil could also end up harming the nation's neighbours in the Caribbean.



With this in mind, Janki said that Guyana may well be in breach of its treaty obligations to other sovereign states. She said that trans-boundary liability is a growing issue which does not appear to have been considered in the EIA.



Janki stressed that a well blowout or a spill could wipe out all of the financial benefit that Guyana might get from the proposed oil production from the entire deal, not just from the Liza Phase 1. Each time a new phase is approved; Janki asserted that the risk to Guyana goes up.



She said that this proposed oil production should be put on hold until the government can show that they know what the cost to Guyana might be and that it is justifiable. Janki noted that given the aforementioned, there are indeed, grounds for the environmental permit to be challenged.



Janki stressed that the Government of Guyana and the oil companies must respect the Constitution and other laws of Guyana.

Story from Kaieter News



Kaieteurnewsonline.com 03 25 2018

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'98,ME,XP, Vista, Windows 7,8,10 +/ 800x600 pixelsExxonMobil should provide the names of 309 Guyana's companies it did business with in 2017 - Christopher Ram

By Kaieter News



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 03 26 2018



If ExxonMobil fails to name the 309 companies it claimed to have utilized last year, then its assertions on the matter cannot be taken as genuine or credible.



This is according to Chartered Accountant and Attorney-at-Law, Christopher Ram.



Ram recalled that it was ExxonMobil's Public and Government Affairs Advisor, Kimberly Brasington who had disclosed the questionable figure.

The lawyer said that if Brasington makes such statements, then she and the company must be able to provide the evidence.



The Chartered Accountant also stressed that it is for the company, not government to provide the facts since they are the ones benefitting from an extremely generous contract.



Ram said, Brasington has a duty to provide the evidence. This is part of the company's local content obligations Their obligation to do so is higher than any other company and it is even mandatory, otherwise how do we know that their local content efforts are genuine? It was earlier this month that Chairman of the Guyana Oil and Gas Energy Chamber (GOGEC), Manniram Prashad issued a challenge to Brasington to also name the companies she said ExxonMobil used in 2017.



Prashad told Kaieteur News, If these figures are accurate then we would obviously be happy about it; But 309 Guyanese-owned suppliers? That is just concerning when there is no evidence provided at the same time to support it. Hence, we would like the evidence of this. We would like to have a list of the companies and the services they provided and when.

When questioned by this newspaper on the matter, Brasington failed to provide the names of the entities.



Instead, the Government Affairs Advisor said, This should be a good news story not a controversial one. ExxonMobil Guyana, on behalf of all our contractors, was excited to share some of the project's local content numbers and thought Guyanese would be proud. We take building local content seriously and have demonstrated that through action and capacity building. We want Guyanese suppliers, businesses and individuals to be a part of the industry.



Brasington said that one way that Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), ExxonMobil's affiliate in Guyana, and its contractors continue to expand local content efforts is by doing business with Guyanese companies and entities and providing grants to local charities and foundations.



In 2017, Brasington said that ExxonMobil Guyana and its contractors together utilized 348 Guyanese registered suppliers, businesses, and organizations. She said that 309 of those are Guyanese owned.

The Government Affairs Advisor said that many of the 309 entities mentioned are part of the supply chain, or the knock-on effect' of the industry. She stated that the direct opportunities with ExxonMobil are relatively small in number.



Brasington said, For example, The Guyana Shore Base Inc. is a direct contractor to ExxonMobil in Guyana. The Guyana Shore Base then goes out and uses local companies to do things such as complete civil work and construct pipe racks, which all gets rolled up and reported in the 309 number.



For further context, Brasington said that Guyanese businesses provide a wide range of goods and services, including public relations, catering, security, transportation, housing, communications, legal, and IT. She commented that there is no limit to the category of support. The project needs all types of goods and services.



Brasington said that EEPGL reports its local content metrics to the Government on a quarterly basis, including the complete list. Going forward, she said that the company can put out more detailed information on all the various categories that the 309 fit into and give more details and examples.

Story from Kaieter News



Kaieteurnewsonline.com 03 26 2018

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'98,ME,XP, Vista, Windows 7,8,10 +/ 800x600 pixelsMexican president Pena Nieto defends energy reform from leftist's attacks

By Reuters



MEXICO CITY

Petroleumworld 03 26 2018

Mexico's president on Thursday defended his decision to open the energy sector against attacks from the man currently favorite to succeed him, saying a rollback of the measure could cost the country billions of dollars in lost investment.

The 2013-14 legislative overhaul that ended state oil firm Pemex's decades-long monopoly was the centerpiece of President Enrique Pena Nieto's economic agenda, and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is leading polls for the July 1 presidential election, has threatened to unpick it.

Speaking in the oil-rich state of Veracruz, Pena Nieto said those calling to walk back the reform risked condemning Mexico to an obsolete economic model, without naming Lopez Obrador.

To cancel the energy reform is practically to make disappear the investments that today require certainty, Pena Nieto said at the inauguration of a technology center.

We want ... the private sector to invest, for it to generate returns for Mexico and its people, he added.

Pena Nieto said over 800,000 jobs and $200 billion worth of investment ultimately depended on the energy reform's success.

He is barred by law from seeking re-election.

Lopez Obrador has pledged to review the oil and gas contracts awarded under Pena Nieto's government if elected, and on Wednesday evening said his administration would consider unwinding the energy reform legislatively.

Pena Nieto's reform changed the constitution to grant private operators oil and gas exploration and production rights in a bid to reverse years of declining crude output.

However, the reform coincided with a sharp decline in oil prices, and the government has said it will take time for the shake-up of the energy sector to bear fruit.

Pledging to reduce Mexico's dependence on policies sent from abroad, Lopez Obrador has attacked Pena Nieto's economic agenda on the grounds that corruption is widespread.

Corruption scandals, lackluster growth and rising violence have battered the government's reputation.

Later on Thursday, Energy Minister Pedro Joaquin Coldwell told local radio that to undo the energy reform would be extremely harmful, and would make Mexico more dependent on natural gas imports, and deny it major tax revenues.

Joaquin Coldwell noted the only body authorized to revoke oil and gas contracts - provided serious violations are shown to have occurred - is the industry regulator, the National Hydrocarbons Commission, not the president.







CEFC China Energy investigation hits $9 billion Russian oil deal

By Dmitry Zhdannikov



LONDON,

Petroleumworld 03 26 2018

Chinese conglomerate CEFC had already started paying for a stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft when authorities took its chairman Ye Jianming away, halting the $9.1 billion deal in its tracks, according to three sources close to the matter.

The fate of the deal, one of the largest Chinese investments in Russia, has become a litmus test of how far President Xi Jinping's government is prepared to go with a crackdown on financially risky activities among big-spending conglomerates.

The acquisition of the stake in Russian state oil firm is seen as strengthening relations between Russia and China, the world's top energy exporter and top energy consumer.

CEFC China Energy was buying the 14.16 stake from a consortium including Swiss trader Glencore. It had transferred the first tranche of payment before it ceased all communications, the sources told Reuters

The sources declined to say how much had been paid. One said the fact some money has changed hands would make it more difficult for any party to back out of the deal.

CEFC founder and chairman Ye was put under investigation by Chinese authorities over suspected economic crimes, Reuters reported at the beginning of March, and he will step down from his position at the firm.

Rosneft representatives have since travelled to China but failed to get any update from CEFC on the stake acquisition deal, according to the sources.

The other party (CEFC) has just vanished, one source said.

Rosneft and Glencore declined to comment, while CEFC did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Another of the sources said it was difficult to predict how the deal would unfold. One thing is clear though. The Kremlin wants China to own a stake in Rosneft. And China has long said it wants to boost Russian energy ties, he added.

The Chinese foreign ministry said it did not know about the deal, but added: China and Russia's governments pay great attention to energy collaboration and keep close communication.

The Chinese national development and reform commission, a state economic management agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Kremlin declined to comment.

RAPID GROWTH

The investigation into Ye, who founded CEFC in 2002, followed mounting concerns among Chinese authorities about the finances and opaque ownership of the Shanghai-based private firm which has grown from a niche fuel trader into an oil and finance conglomerate with assets across the world.

An investment firm owned by the Shanghai government has been tasked with evaluating CEFC's financial position as part of a restructuring and takeover process.

State-controlled China Huarong Asset Management Co has taken a 36.2-percent stake in CEFC Hainan International, the unit that is acquiring the Rosneft stake.

Complications to the deal could prove a blow for Rosneft boss Igor Sechin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sechin is keen to attract new foreign investment as a way of showing the Kremlin oil producer is not crumbling under the pressure of Western sanctions but is growing.

In 2016, Sechin clinched a deal with Glencore and Qatar's state fund QIA to sell 19.5 percent in Rosneft for 10.2 billion euros. Qatar contributed 2.5 billion euros with the rest mainly coming from Russian banks.

Less than nine months later, CEFC agreed to buy out the majority of the stake with QIA keeping its stake intact at around 5 percent, equal to its initial contribution.



Humans impacting 'alarming' decline of nature threatens food, water, energy - UN

By Alister Doyle



OSLO

Petroleumworld 03 26 2018

Human activities are causing an alarming decline in the variety of plant and animal life on Earth and jeopardising food, clean water and energy supplies, a U.N.-backed study of biodiversity said on Friday.

Pollution, climate change and forest clearances to make way for farmland were among the worsening threats to nature, according to more than 550 experts in a set of reports approved by 129 governments after talks in Colombia.

Biodiversity, the essential variety of life-forms on earth, continues to decline in every region of the world, the authors wrote. This alarming trend endangers the quality of life of people everywhere.

Four regional reports covered the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Europe and Central Asia - all areas of the planet except the poles and the high seas.

For the Americas, the report estimated that the value of nature to people - such as crops, wood, water purification or tourism - was at least $24.3 trillion a year, equivalent to the region's gross domestic product from Alaska to Argentina.

Almost two-thirds of those natural contributions were in decline in the Americas, it said.

Biodiversity and nature's contributions to people sound, to many people, academic and far removed from our daily lives, said Robert Watson, chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Nothing could be further from the truth.

ELEPHANTS AND MOSSES

Among other economic estimates, the Africa report said the absorption of greenhouse gases by a hectare (2.5 acres) of forest in Central Africa was worth $14,000 a year.

Around the world, ever more animals and plants were under threat, ranging from elephants in Africa to rare mosses in Europe. More than half of African bird and mammal species could be lost to climate change by 2100, it said.

By 2100, climate change could ... result in the loss of more than half of African bird and mammal species, said Emma Archer of South Africa, the co-chair of the African assessment.

For pollution, eight of 10 rivers around the world with most plastic waste were in Asia. On current trends, overfishing meant there could be no exploitable fish stocks in the Asia-Pacific region by mid-century.

Rising human populations in many developing nations would require new policies both to protect nature and to meet U.N. goals to eradicate poverty and hunger by 2030.

In Europe and Central Asia, wetlands have declined by half since 1970. The average ecological footprint - or land needed per person for a sustainable environment - was 5.1 hectares against an available 2.2.

Amid the gloom, there were some bright spots.

Forest cover had risen by 22.9 percent in China and other nations in northeast Asia between 1990 and 2015. Parks and other protected areas were expanding in many regions, including the Americas and Asia-Pacific.

And populations of animals such as the Iberian lynx, Amur tiger and far eastern leopard were coming back from the brink of extinction thanks to conservation.



Ecuador's indigenous women demand to president Lenin Moreno an end to Amazon's drilling

By Anastasia Moloney



BOGOTA

Petroleumworld 03 26 2018

Indigenous women from Ecuador's Amazon rainforest have called on the country's president to end oil and mining projects on their ancestral lands, as the nation pushes to open up more of its rainforest to drillers.

Their meeting with Lenin Moreno at the presidential palace in the capital Quito late Thursday comes after the Andean nation launched a new bidding round this month for foreign companies to develop oil and gas reserves.

Ecuador, one of the smallest producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), hopes to attract some $800 million in investment to boost production that the government says is vital to improve its sluggish economy.

But women from Amazon indigenous groups say oil exploration damages their livelihoods, the environment and water sources on ancestral lands, and comes amid growing deforestation in unspoiled areas of the biodiverse region.

We don't want more oil and mining companies, Alicia Cahuiya of the Waorani group told the president at the meeting.

Oil has not brought development for the Waorani - it has only left us with oil spills and sickness.

The women also told the president, who was flanked by several ministers, that the government was failing to consult properly with indigenous communities about planned oil and mining projects on their lands, a right they are entitled to under law.

The oil and mining issue does not stop worrying me, because there is a future to take care of, Moreno said at the meeting, which was streamed live on Facebook.

What you are completely right about is the importance of dialogue consensus, dialogue decisions ... about any decisions of my government with respect to oil and mining concessions.

The women presented the president with a list of demands they call the Mandate of Amazonian Women, which includes stopping oil, mining and logging projects, and conducting official investigations into attacks against indigenous leaders.

I hope (the president) will take this mandate seriously, Nina Gualinga, one of about a dozen women who took part in the meeting, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Simmering tensions - including protests - between indigenous communities seeking to protect their lands and state-owned and foreign oil companies have been ongoing in Ecuador for decades.

The issue has come before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which in 2012 ruled in favour of Ecuador's Sarayaku indigenous community in the Amazon.

The court said Ecuador had violated their right to prior, free and informed consultation before drillers in the late 1990s started exploration on lands where the Sarayaku people live.

We will return to our communities and wait for a response from the government, said Zoila Castillo, vice-president of the parliament of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE).

"If we do not receive a response in two weeks, we will be back," she said.



Mexico's proven oil reserves down over 7 pct at start of 2018, new drilling as yet to contribute

By David Alire Garcia



MEXICO CITY

Petroleumworld 03 26 2018

Proven oil and gas reserves in Mexico fell again this year as new discoveries failed to keep pace with ongoing production, but officials pointed to the first-ever reserves contributed by private companies operating their own blocks as silver lining.

Overall reserves fell by more than 7 percent at the start of 2018 compared with a year earlier to total 8.483 billion barrels of crude oil equivalent (boe), according to data published on Friday by Mexico's National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH).

The vast majority of Mexico's proven reserves have been contributed by national oil company Pemex, which enjoyed a decades-long monopoly until a 2013 constitutional reform ended it, paving the way for private producers to enter the sector.

But a relatively small amount of the reserves now reflect discoveries made by private and foreign oil companies.

They include some 251 million boe from two shallow water blocks auctioned in late 2015 to Italy's Eni and Argentina's Hokchi Energy, which is backed by British oil major BP.

What we see here is the first certification of reserves that are being presented by two companies that received contracts at auction, said Juan Carlos Zepeda, head of the CNH, as the new figures were announced.

He said reserves from the two blocks have tripled since the companies took them over from Pemex.

Zepeda said another major discovery announced last year by a consortium comprising U.S. firm Talos Energy, Britain's Premier Oil and Mexico's Sierra Oil & Gas, has yet to be certified.

That will come later, he said.

The so-called Zama find made by the Talos-led consortium is estimated to hold more than 1 billion barrels.

The 2018 reserves also reflect Pemex's onshore Ixachi discovery announced in late 2017, which added nearly 98 million boe.

According to CNH data, the total reserves consist of 6.46 billion barrels of oil as well as 10.02 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

At the start of last year, proven reserves in Latin America's second-biggest economy totaled 9.16 billion boe.

Over the past decade, reserves have slid more than 40 percent as Pemex's exploration activity yielded fewer discoveries.

The energy reform was designed in large part to reverse years of declining crude output by allowing foreign and private producers to make their own discoveries.



Spokeswoman for Ukraine's Foreign Ministry Mariana Betsa has said all 13 Russian diplomats being expelled from Ukraine work for Russia's special services.

"Together with competent agencies we decided today to expel from Ukraine 13 Russian diplomats from the small number remaining in Ukraine. We received information that they all are employees of Russia's special services," Betsa said in an interview with 112.ua TV on Monday.Jefferson Health in Philadelphia will partner with a new marijuana producer, Soltera Care LLC, to research medical marijuana. Read more

The medical marijuana program in Pennsylvania is about to enter unprecedented territory as it embarks on the nation's first state-sanctioned research program.

Medical schools will partner with marijuana companies. The med schools will design research studies. The companies, which will grow cannabis and sell it at their dispensaries, will enlist patients for the studies. The companies will collect patient data to be analyzed by the medical schools.

Unlike traditional drug studies, which provide experimental medicines at no cost, patients will buy the drug under investigation.

"It's not a normal pharmaceutical research structure by any means," said Eric Hagarty, deputy chief of staff to Gov. Wolf. "The conflict with federal law is primarily the reason for that."

The federal government considers all forms of marijuana to be illegal.

Backers say the program's research arm is unique in the U.S. and could make the state a global hub for cannabis science. Philadelphia may host up to five academic centers investigating applications for the drug.

Enabling this to happen is a provision of the marijuana law many call the "Jefferson Amendment."

Nicknamed after Philadelphia's Jefferson Health system, which was instrumental in the law's creation, the Jefferson Amendment is officially known as Chapter 20 of the state's medical marijuana act. It allows as many as eight health systems to each pair with a private company. A health system, under the law, is defined as a medical school with an acute-care hospital.

In language only a bureaucrat could love, the law calls the medical schools "Academic Clinical Research Centers" (ACRCs) and deems the marijuana companies "Clinical Registrants" (CRs).

"The whole goal is to bring research and sophistication to cannabis that doesn't exist in the rest of the state or the country," said James Connolly, a former vice president at drug maker Wyeth. Connolly will head Solterra Care, LLC, the CR affiliated with Jefferson. "It will put us on the map if Philadelphia has three, four or five research centers and brings some credibility to the industry."

Drexel, Temple, and the University of Pennsylvania are each expected to participate as research centers. Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine is also angling to get in, though the school lacks a hospital on campus.

The state Department of Health will begin accepting applications on April 5.

The research program will run parallel with the state's commercial medical marijuana enterprise, which was launched Feb. 15.

Jefferson was one of the first academic institutions in the United States to move aggressively into the cannabis space. In 2016, Thomas Jefferson University created the Lambert Center for the Study of Medicinal Cannabis and Hemp, the first center of its kind, to support marijuana education and research.

Lambert director Charles Pollack was among the first to see the value of collecting cannabis patient data on a statewide scale.

"It's not the kind of research that will change the world, but it's an important step in the right direction," Pollack said. "It's limited to observational studies [without a control group], but it will create a pathway to do more rigorous investigations."

Even before the state published the regulations that govern the research program on March 17, Jefferson had inked a memo of understanding with MainLine Investment Partners, a private-equity firm based in Wynnewood.

MainLine's CEO is William Landman, who is also the former chairman and current member of Jefferson Health's Board of Trustees. Landman is widely given credit for instigating the research idea and pitching it to state lawmakers.

The program was considered so unlikely that national marijuana advocacy groups never expected it to happen.

"No one had ever gone through this because of the legal and political implications," said Becky Dansky, legislative counsel for the Marijuana Policy Project.

Other states that have legalized marijuana had considered research programs, Dansky said, but dropped the idea because federal funding for universities and hospitals could be in jeopardy. "We didn't think any state would go through with it," she added.

Pennsylvania came up with a novel way to skirt the perils. Other states had proposed to house all marijuana operations on school campuses. In Pennsylvania, only the firms will handle the plant and products. The medical schools will stick to analyzing patient data.

Adding Chapter 20 earned support for the marijuana bill from reluctant Republicans in Pennsylvania. "It pushed it over the line in the house," said State Rep. Katharine Watson (R., Bucks), who sponsored it.

Landman's business partner, David Clapper, said many Jefferson doctors were strong supporters of medical marijuana before the law was passed.

"One oncologist said 30 percent of his cancer patients were already using it" to relieve acute pain and stimulate their appetites, Clapper said.

MainLine is making "a sizable investment" to build the Solterra CR from scratch. The state requires a minimum commitment of $15 million, "but it's going to cost a lot more than that," said Clapper.

After the permits are awarded in June, it may take Solterra about nine months to become operational, Clapper said. "We don't have the benefit of being part of a larger group."

The state medical marijuana market is forecast to grow from $350 million to $600 million by 2020. Clapper said sales will help recoup MainLine's investment. But intellectual property  proprietary knowledge garnered from the development of novel cannabis strains and medicine delivery  may generate the biggest profits, analysts said.

Industry insiders said many of the state's eligible med schools already have aligned with marijuana producers, which will be awarded permits without having to go through the competitive process. The state required the first phase of commercial marijuana growers and dispensaries to undergo a scoring review by an anonymous panel of judges.

Chris Visco, co-owner of TerraVida Holistic Center dispensaries, fears that pioneers such as herself may be squeezed out by the better-funded CR start-ups. "These research people can just buy their way into the program," said Visco. "The permits are going to be just handed to them."

Hagarty said the CR companies would be judged as critically as anyone who received a commercial permit. "It's not in our interest to give a permit to just anyone who wants one," he said.

It's unclear if research can be conducted by commercial growers or dispensaries who are not formally affiliated with med schools through the Chapter 20 program.

Pollack, of Jefferson's Lambert Center, said he thought the department of health had done its best to create a level playing field.

"I don't think there is going to be any shortage of customers," Pollack said.The Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in South Philadelphia, which has blamed its financial woes on the cost of complying with the federal ethanol mandate. Read more

A judge on Monday approved Philadelphia Energy Solutions' prepackaged plan for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, setting the stage for the troubled South Philadelphia oil-processing plant to relaunch under new ownership no later than April 10.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin Gross in Delaware approved the plan, which provides for $260 million of new capital and restructures debt. Owners of about $525 million in notes due this month will extend $417 million of debt to come due in 2022, and exchange the remainder for 75 percent equity in the company. Credit Suisse Asset Management and Halcyon Capital Management will become the largest shareholders.

The refinery's current owners, Carlyle Group and Energy Transfer Partners LP, will see their stake shrink to a combined 25 percent minority share.

The 335,000-barrel-a-day refinery, the largest on the East Coast, employs 1,100 people and about 500 contractors. Current management, led by chief executive Gregory G. Gatta, will remain in place.

The company blamed its financial demise on the soaring price for renewable energy credits, called RINs, which cost the company about $217 million last year, its greatest expense after crude oil costs.

Under the reorganization plan, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to allow PES to shed about half of its $467 million in outstanding costs to comply with the Renewable Fuel Standard. The Clean Air Council on Monday challenged EPA's authority to forgive the refinery's obligations.

" format="normal" /]A healthy society should forgive the indulgences of middle age, acknowledging the contributions of a productive life while overlooking any third-quarter regrets.

But as Jennifer Childs points out in her one-woman I Will Not Go Gently at People's Light, today's society wastes its time in narcissistic pursuits and ephemeral pleasures. The next generation will get no forgiveness in a midlife that follows the day-to-day Insta-documenting of the mundane.

Childs' show kicks off as Sierra Mist (the aging rock star, not the soft drink) promotes a new album and comeback tour after two decades' absence from the music scene. Sierra's early work in punk (songs composed by Christopher Colucci) has influenced an entire era of musicians. But today, the e-journalist sent to cover her tour for his e-magazine knows little beyond the current pop-music scene.

In vignettes, the evening moves forward from one character's monologue to another, focusing next on Abby, Sierra's frumpy, middle-aged super-fan, who hosts a late-night podcast delving into the anxieties that rob her of sleep. Her social-media-entranced daughter Tabitha ridicules mom's obsession with some old punk rocker, and Abby questions the choices, memories, and likes (real, not social media) that brought her to this point in life.

Here, Childs indulges too much, both in content and characters. Abby invites sympathy but her generic experiences earn little, and Childs tempers Abby's self-awareness with a cliched college reunion scene of alums more intent on hiding their pasts than questioning them. These stretches show off Childs' talent for nuance and dialect but do little to address the existential issues the title evokes (it stems from Dylan Thomas' poem "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night").

Lily Fossner's lighting ably creates a concert venue, motivational speaker platform, and pair of bedrooms from Lance Kniskern's tiered set. Jorge Cousineau lends some comical multimedia pieces, including a full music video of Sierra Mist's hit "Jack in the Box," replete with stirring guitars and Childs' rocking vocals.

But as a comedy written originally for 1812 Productions, it offers few laughs. The funniest bit is that of Abby's 90-year-old grandmother doing her first stand-up bit, bashing millennials and geezers alike. Childs wrote this at the same age of her characters, prompting the question of whether indulgence here is due. For more than 20 years, she, her company (1812), and her original works have helped drive the resurgence and growth of theater in Philadelphia. For those accomplishments, this indulgence needs no forgiveness.The final rehearsal isn't going well. Doors are sticking, actors are botching their cues and mixing up props, the ingenue loses a contact lens, and the half-deaf veteran with a fondness for tippling is nowhere to be found. From here, the chaos will only increase, as real-life relationships intensify and disrupt the choreographed confusions of the play within a play.

"Doors and sardines. Getting on  getting off. Getting the sardines on  getting the sardines off," the embattled director, Lloyd Dallas (Greg Wood, anchoring the ensemble), explains to the refractory cast of the sex comedy Nothing On in Michael Frayn's Noises Off. "That's farce. That's the theater. That's life."

And that's the closest this elegantly structured show, in a perfectly competent revival at the Walnut Street Theatre through April 29, comes to philosophy.

Frayn, whose 1998 drama Copenhagen was produced this season by the Lantern Theater Company, is both writing farce and sending up the form. Noises Off reaches frenetically for laughs through humor high and low, with a profusion of puns, sight gags, and physical comedy. Director Frank Anzalone and a cast of local favorites  including Ben Dibble, Mary Martello, John P. Connolly, and Susan Riley Stevens  mostly nail them.

At the same time, Frayn is painting life in the theater  and life in general  as an inevitably farcical endeavor. (One thinks of the absurdist repetitions of Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, with its more radical interrogation of language and middle-class conventions.)

In Noises Off, the director analogizes himself to a deity, albeit one in need of Valium and prone to catastrophically inept womanizing. At the Walnut, Wood's superb comic timing is matched by Dibble's, as an actor who can never quite complete his thought, and complemented by Martello's slapstick skills (though her Cockney housekeeper character is initially hard to understand).

Since its 1982 London premiere, Noises Off has enjoyed three Broadway productions (the most recent in 2015) and entered the theatrical canon. A 1992 film adaptation starring Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, and Christopher Reeve retained the British setting of the play within a play, but made the actors American, setting up strong contrasts with their characters.

The Walnut production differentiates less clearly between the actors and their roles, and Anzalone directs Alanna J. Smith, as the contact-lens-obsessed Brooke, who plays the improbable tax inspector Vicki, much more broadly than her movie counterpart. (The stereotype of the beautiful, ditzy female hasn't aged well.)

The play's title refers to a theatrical stage direction indicating sounds coming from backstage. And its principal conceit derives from Frayn's experience of standing in the wings during a performance of an earlier farce of his and finding the offstage action more comic.

Sure enough, after the intermission of Noises Off, Robert Koharchik's detailed British country house set, with its handsome wooden paneling and myriad doors, swivels to take us backstage. While the company, now touring England, is (once again) performing Act One, the actors are scheming, quarreling, and otherwise enacting another farce, often in pantomime, behind the scenes.

But the show's real comic payoff comes  after perhaps too long a wait  in the zany third act. As this final, off-the-rails take on Act One of Nothing On goes completely wrong, the Walnut ensemble gets the disaster hilariously right.Former Pennsylvania senator and current CNN contributor Rick Santorum was widely criticized for suggesting teenagers learn CPR instead of pushing for stricter gun control laws. Read more

Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg had a message for Rick Santorum after the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania suggested teenagers who marched in Philadelphia, Washington, and other cities in support of stricter gun-control laws should learn CPR instead.

"If you take a bullet from an AR-15 to the head, no amount of CPR is going to save you, because you're dead," Hogg, 17, said on CNN's New Day on Monday morning. His comments came in response to remarks Santorum made on CNN's State of the Union Sunday.

"Is this really all about politics, or is this about keeping our schools safe?" Santorum asked on the show. "How about kids, instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situation where there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that?"

Watch:

Santorum's comments, suggesting that students who survived the massacre in Parkland, Fla., weren't taking action by marching and calling for stricter gun laws have been widely criticized by pundits, reporters, and survivors of the shooting itself.

"The fact that he's saying CPR when my friends are dying on our floor and nothing's being done about it is horrible," Lauren Hogg, David Hogg's sister and a fellow student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said on New Day. "I think he's just using it as a distraction to get the attention away from guns."

>> READ MORE: At Philly's March for Our Lives, calls to remember that gun violence is nothing new

After enduring a full day of criticism (including from many fellow CNN contributors and hosts), Santorum took to Twitter Monday afternoon in an attempt to clarify his comments, writing that "relying on more government to focus on guns is a mistake."

Santorum was among a number of people who criticized the teenage survivors of the Valentine's Day shooting, who turned the tragic death of 17 people into a nationwide rally involving hundreds of thousands of participants in cities like Washington and Philadelphia.

On Fox News Sunday morning, Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth, who is reportedly being considered to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, told his co-hosts that the kids had the right to protest, but suggested they don't know enough to lecture anyone about the Second Amendment.

>> READ MORE: In D.C., hundreds from Philly protest gun violence: 'It gets to where it just hurts your heart'

"Forgive me if I don't want a lesson on the Second Amendment from a 16-year-old. Forgive me if I don't want to watch a 9-year-old tell me that her dream is a world without guns," Hegseth said, noting the anger displayed during the rally caused him to donate to the NRA. "They shouldn't be giving me lessons on the Second Amendment. They should be in civics class."

Watch:

Some pundits offered criticism of the students ahead of the marches. On Friday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson called Hogg and classmate Emma Gonzalez "extremists" for their desire to push for gun reforms, including universal background checks and banning the sale of assault rifles, that a majority of Americans support, according to a new poll by his own network.

On Fox Business Friday night, WPHT host and Daily News columnist Dom Giordano echoed Carlson's comments, calling some of the students simply "out of control."

"I have to say too  as an educator, there's a couple of these kids that are just rude in the way that they proceed here, as if they are bulletproof, so to speak," Giordano said. "But the media is almost laundering their own opinions through these kids."

A central target of the protests was the NRA. In a Facebook post Saturday morning, the NRA claimed "gun-hating billionaires and Hollywood elites" were exploiting the teenage survivors of the massacre as part of "a plan to destroy the Second Amendment."

>> READ MORE: March for Our Lives Philadelphia: The best signs from the rally

On NRATV, Noir host and gun-rights activist Colion Noir appeared to taunt the student survivors, saying he wished an armed guard would have stopped the deadly massacre because "your classmates would still be alive, and no one would know your names."

Noir, a pseudonym for Collins Iyare Idehen Jr., pointed to another recent shooting in Maryland, in which school resource officer Blaine Gaskill shot a 17-year-old male student after the student opened fire at Great Mills High School in Lexington Park.

But hours after Noir's video was posted, 16-year-old shooting victim Jaelynn Willey was taken off life support, dying from her injuries. A group of more than 100 students, alumni and teachers at Great Mills High School made the trip from St. Mary's County to Washington on Saturday to take part in the protests.

"After hitting so close to home, it becomes that much more real to us," Jillian Carty, 18, told the Baltimore Sun. "We want to be part of the movement to stop gun violence."Exclusive interview with Ukroboronprom Director General Pavlo Bukin for the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency

In 2015, Ukroboronprom announced a massive staged reform program to document strategic defense plans with the stated goal of bringing Ukraine's Armed Forces by 2020 fully in line with NATO standards. In addition, plans were announced to attract NATO members to the system of weapons purchases. Are there any objective appraisals of the level of fulfillment of these announced reforms? According to some estimates, defense sector reform measures are only 30% complete.

The other day I came from Brussels, where a meeting of the working group was held within the framework of the Ukraine-NATO Commission on reforming Ukraine's defense sector. There were representatives of all delegations at NATO Headquarters. The Ukrainian delegation was led by the head of the Interdepartmental Commission for Ukraine's military industrial complex, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade Brovchenko. Also attending were representatives of private manufacturers from the League of Defense Enterprises of Ukraine, and the NGO Practice. The alliance presented a report on the state of Ukraine's defense industry - their vision. I would not call it a comprehensive report. Incidentally, the report contained errors. For example, it said Ukroboronprom is subordinated to the Defense Ministry, and I drew their attention to this. I'm not saying that this is critical mistake.

The report was voiced by NATO's US mission? Can you clarify this, keeping in mind the statement of the recently appointed foreign advisor of the state concern, former head of the US Advanced Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Mr. Teter, about the plans of the American side to provide multifaceted support to the reform.

As for NATO's' US delegation, it expressed great support for what is being done in Ukraine ... One of the problems with the report was the lack of transparency in pricing of Defense Ministry equipment. I drew their attention to the fact that Ukraine is an export-oriented party in the production of arms and military equipment. This is well known  we export 85% of what we produce. And this puts us in a unique situation, one that is atypical for the EU countries. NATO's internal defense market is quite wealthy. The volume of domestic supplies is much greater than the export one. When they export arms it is an instrument of foreign policy. The decision to deliver to a particular country is made, first of all, for reasons of political support, and only then with an eye of whether it's economically profitable. This is all due to transparency in the domestic market. I explained that our Defense Ministry purchases are carried out 'at cost.' If we were to provide universal access, arms exports would be, to put it mildly, significantly more complicated. It is difficult to negotiate a price when the cost of the product is known. For many western colleagues, this was a surprise. And they took note. Again, this depends on the possibility of the Ukrainian defense budget. Ukraine's Armed Forces is 250,000 strong, compared to 170,000 in Germany, which has twice the population of Ukraine. I won't even talk about the German budget. I also tried to explain that we are in a unique situation. Ukraine inherited a large defense sector from the Soviet Union. It was designed to support the entire Soviet army. So, we need to go through this period of transformation, with the support of Western partners, including our NATO partners.

I tried to convey to NATO experts, what we challenges we are facing implementing defense industry reforms to date. I used an equipment repair plant working for the Defense Ministry as an example. To date, Ukraine's Defense Minister has been responsible for verifying and checking the cost of goods and services, including components, as well as setting profitability guidelines. The salaries of all employees of this repair plant enterprise are regulated by industry standards as per the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. I asked my colleagues what the enterprise is in control over and what is our social responsibility? For salary arrears, if we say that we are building an economic model? The model of pricing, which exists in the framework of the state order, is difficult to call it economic or market based. Moreover, this system does not at all stimulate the management of the defense enterprise to reduce product costs, because it would receives less money for development. I'm not talking about the element of corruption. I tried to convey to my colleagues that the current system initially creates obstacles for the functioning of the defense industry - those norms, which are in pricing in the state order system, which are probably borrowed from the Soviet Union.

Did the Western partners make any assessments regarding the pace of the reform of the defense sector? What drawbacks of the reforms, other than those mentioned by you, did our Western partners note?

I think 30% is an adequate estimate. They noted the slow transition to NATO standards. Our partners understand that budget constraints slow this process down. We gave examples of each type of weapons, including aircraft platforms. You can understand how much money this requires. But it is necessary to move in this direction and, for starters, comply with NATO standards. There are critical problems in import substitution. This is the easiest way for the Armed Forces to adopt NATO standards. For example, long-range artillery - there is a specific problem with large-calibre ammunition. We can switch to the NATO standard, but securing a guaranteed supply components and ammunition is a complex issue ... Also during the meeting we were asked the question how we and the EU cooperate in general. I said we are working with each EU country, but there is a so-called "European Union" in the EU. The Code of Conduct of Arms Exports calls on countries to be careful about developing cooperation in the defense sphere with countries involved in armed conflicts. Therefore, we have a very slow dialogue there. I gave an example of a number of countries where this dialogue does not develop quickly enough for obvious reasons. Military experts in the West understand this issue.

Current internal contradictions in the EU and in the transatlantic structures probably make it difficult for dialogue to develop dynamically 

Yes, and I do not understand at what stage preparations for the NATO summit are at now. And this atmosphere is felt when you come to the headquarters of the alliance. The current situation with the alliance with Turkey, especially after the purchase of the S-400 SAM system from the Russian Federation, is complicated. Our NATO colleagues realize this. If we talk about our progress in our movement towards NATO standards, I will try to find those points where it can be done most quickly, where Ukraine's Defense Ministry will be most comfortable to make a decision. Because the old stockpiles, the old firearms, the old platforms - they weigh on the speed of decision-making ... And again, the primary question whether we will incur additional budget costs as we accept NATO standards.

How realistic are the terms of switching over to NATO standards in terms of re-equipping Ukraine's Armed Forces, and this against the backdrop of strategic defense plans and the international audit of Ukroboronprom?

Today there is progress in the issue of international audit, in the prequalification of tender participants. I do not yet thoroughly studied all aspects of the audit, but from what I understand if we are talking about a legal audit, then in the legal audit, we are strong enough. I do not want the result of this audit to be that we receive information we already knew. There already was an audit that told us we were limited in terms of state defense. In order for the international audit to be effective, auditors need to give a clear statement of our legal framework and our vision of where problems exist today. It should move on from what we already understand ... The most difficult problem is that I do not know whether the technological audit will be part of the audit. There may be critical technology that we need, but it might already be obsolete, for example. How will we get new technical solutions and recommendations? How can we organize the production of one or another piece of military equipment, or a component used today, which is already being used? This is the most difficult question. And I can not answer for myself how much I need the first and second stages [legal and financial-economic- IF-U]. They probably need to be reorganized, but when we get to the third stage, what will we do next? Here, probably, there is no other answer, except mobilizing internal resources and attracting available experts. This is what relates to the audit.

But here there is another question: we have the State Audit Service of Ukraine (SASU), and there is the Accounting Chamber, which we should render these services for free, as they say. If there is a need, just apply. I must answer the question for myself in a legal context: how will I announce a tender for the purchase of consulting and auditing services, when I have an alternative to get the same services for free? And are there any criteria that SASU is worse than Big Five auditors? Thus, we have a situation where the SASU is not legally worse than the Big Five, and at the same time the services of the SASU are free, and this leads to the fact that many public sector companies purchase external audit services under other formulations that, in fact, describe the audit. This can not be called a systemic solution to the problem.

As far as I understand, audit is one of the key components of the reform program, approved by our political allies. Therefore, you will probably rely here, first of all, on a political argument.

Yes, for a political argument ... For example, audit activities of the NJSC Naftogaz were also conducted. In fact, trades are held for services that are essentially an audit, and are called differently. Yes, I fully understand the political argument, but the simplest solution will be if we receive dedicated funding from our partners for these audits as assistance. Or there will be a decision about some other kind of financing.

A sensitive issue, which Mr. Teter spoke about, is the corporate environment and plans for the creation of a DARPA analogue in Ukroboronprom as a priority for the updated Supervisory Board. Do you share the opinion about the political and other risks of this project?

PB: Yes, I understand what is being considered: obtaining insider information, both in the context of competition, and in the context of the struggle for the non-proliferation of critical technologies. We discussed this issue with Zgurovsky (head of the National Concern, Rector of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI). He has a proposal and I fully support him, that the analog of the DARPA (GARDA) will be based at KPI, and that this will be done on the basis of the KPI. Simply put, this will be a unit that will collect information on new technologies and introduce them into the defense industry. It seems to me, it will be organic, and once again will emphasize the role of the Supervisory Board. KPI currently has the largest number of competencies in these issues, and there are modern approaches. Therefore, I fully support this, and we will implement it: DARPA will be born with the help of the KPI, necessarily at KPI.

And what will be the role of the American side in this process?

To date, Mr. Teter, as a member of the National Assembly, carries out managerial functions within the framework of the competencies provided by the statute of the state concern. In the near future, the support office will begin to work and the work of the Advisory Board will begin. My task is to ensure constant communication between the members of the Advisory Board, the Ukroboronprom and defense enterprises. Mr. Teter will permanently establish mechanisms through which he will be able to fulfill his role as a member of the Advisory Board. As for the expert role of Mr. Teter, we had a close contact with him on his recent visit. He for a long time headed DARPA and has deep knowledge in the field of organization of the defense industry, and knows very well the approaches taken on this issue are in the US. We have discussed at length existing models, including the one when a private company is being created, but the technology that is contained in its activities is so critical that it is managed by the state. He knows this system thoroughly, and his help as an expert is really valuable. Often, brilliant things lie on the surface, and it's much faster to ask a person who knows how to do it better. That's why I'm counting on his help.

Is there any vision when this structure - GARDA - can be created?

It will appear probably this year already. In institutional form, we need to wait a bit, because I still need to make certain changes in the management body of the state concern, structure its activities, and move to an innovative component.

Ukraine is not the first, and not the only country that is carrying out reform of the defense industry. What is Ukraine's strategy on the extent to which foreign companies are present on the Ukrainian defense market, given the new long-term challenges of the hybrid war and the potential of military technical cooperation? Obviously, the answer to this question should not be formed chaotically? Is there a vision of who from the authorized authorities will regulate this market, or will it be regulated by other means? What is the role of government in this process?

There is a vision in the country of what should take place. The mechanism, what is most important, in my opinion, which should regulate the development of military-technical cooperation, is the so-called offset. How is this mechanism valuable for us? It allows us to acquire competences, obtain equipment and technologies, regardless of the market component: how much this product has the prospect of selling on the domestic market. We haven't worked out this mechanism fully yet. We have a provision that obliges the executive authorities to use offsets in the purchase of arms and military equipment for imports worth more than EUR 5 million. An offset commission has been set up at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, but this matter has not been finalized. There must be specific mechanisms, specific criteria. I think that in the near future we will launch this mechanism. As for the presence of foreign companies on the market, then, of course, the first criterion that we set for foreign partners is the localization of production in the territory of Ukraine. This is a complex issue, which, again, is related to the volume of our domestic market, the volume of the state budget, the stability of purchases and the introduction of these systems, which will be produced, the Armed Forces. But this question must be raised. No matter how complicated, but we will discuss it. That is, if someone comes to this market, we want some part of the production - if not all, then some part of the operation, needs to be localized here. And our people trained, employed and integrated in the process.

One of the branches of military-technical cooperation is also exports and direct purchases of arms and military equipment. Is there a vision, what can the share of foreign suppliers in rearmaments, as well as the risks of conflict of interests with domestic producers, taking into account the capabilities of the defense budget?

We again start with bad news, that is, budget possibilities. Those purchases of imports that are carried out by the Defense Ministry are carried out when a critical need needs to be met. And planning is also often carried out at a critical time, when you need to make a decision. Accordingly, it then affects the quality of the purchase. I understand that this is not the intentional fault of Defense Ministry. There are many external factors, and disunity, which everyone talks about. In principle, the president has already announced that next year we will have a civilian defense minister, and the entire system will change. This is positive, and it was discussed and supported by NATO partners. As for the share of imports, it is unlikely that it will be set rigidly. But I feel that it will be at least 30%. In many segments we have very good products, but very often there is no modern production line, and we still do not know what's available on foreign markets. Many conclusions in industry design bureaus are not done systematically, on the basis of what has been seen or learned. There is no connection to market electronic tools, where you can quickly get information, especially in electronics, where everything changes very quickly, where component stockpiles change constantly. The key is how to get information very quickly, to find out what's new on the market. There is more and more advertising at exhibitions. The best and most modern equipment is not always advertised. Again, the NATO countries have first and foremost an orientation toward the domestic market. So does Russia, which focuses on its domestic defense needs. The volumes there are quite different. Therefore, we need integration. If we say that this is a deliberate choice of Ukraine in favor of collective security and in favor of NATO, we must be integrated into their knowledge systems. This will take time. The other side wants to see market components. Here I do not mean political entities, but big producers. We want to see a component of national security, first of all. We will combine all this.

Attraction of private investments in the Ukrainian defense industry, including foreign ones, is a long-standing topic that has received new thinking in the changed geopolitical situation, which Poroshenko recently spoke about. Has the legal field, which meets the interests of ensuring this task, been formed in Ukraine today? What is the fate of the draft law "On guaranteeing the rights of investors and attracting private investments on the conditions of applying the mechanism of public-private partnership in the defense industry complex," as well as the bill on privatization of defense enterprises announced by the former government of the state concern?

The legislative basis has not created yet. Ukroboronprom took the first steps to create a legal framework to attract investment in the aviation industry. There are already projects - with the same Saudi TAQNIA to create a light multi-purpose An-132. We want to give the same tools to other clusters within the group and in the near future we will come out with a package of initiatives. Slowly we will begin rolling this out. On the other hand, I understand that economic conditions are important for investment. Enterprises which attract investments are healthy and attractive to the investor in terms of predictability of profit generation, predictability of product realization, payback and return on investment. On the other hand, we understand that we must carry out a set of measures to improve these enterprises, to create a transparent, clear cooperation chain. This does not depend on the director, or on the deputy director, or on the chief engineer. Decisions in this cooperation chain are taken exclusively by the factor "price-quality-delivery time". This is connected, again, with the production culture, which is immediately visible. As they say: you want to know that at the enterprise, go into the dining room.

But in addition to all the basic economic conditions listed by you, there must also be basic legal guarantees for investment protection, as our potential foreign investors say. What, in your opinion, why are the draft pieces of legislation in limbo? Is it because they are poorly conceived or because of the political situation?

Some 95% of what we have is related to our three eternal problems: they are fools, roads, and Russia. That's how we live. An example is that one of the very well-known audit organizations from the Big Five has drafted in 2015 a law on public-private partnership in the defense industry. We checked it - and it is a draft of the corresponding Russian law on public-private partnership in the defense industry, only in Russian, it is understandable. This is to say there are different approaches. The key is a conscientious and a systemic attitude that will help us overcome the so-called "provincial approach."

Is it necessary to understand that practical restructuring of the military industrial complex and defense industry privatization is a medium-term goal? Last year, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade announced the corporatization of a part of state concern enterprises, two enterprises of the aviation cluster - the state enterprise Antonov and the factory of the state-owned repair enterprise "410 GA" - The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the decision for preparing to corporatize the entities.

Yes, the key word is "preparation." So that it does not turn out that if you go to the market, you sell it, and then you will cry: either you will sell at such a price, or there will be such an offer, which initially will devalue all your attempts to attract investments to this enterprise ... You need to prepare for corporatization. You need to create and to connect to these enterprises the possibility of using market instruments. For many enterprises, including industry brands, there is a question of modernization of production, which is complicated by the decline in sales. If we say that we want to attract an investor, we need to audit ... Besides, privatization in the conditions of military operations in the country is a lot of risks that will inevitably entail a decrease in multipliers.

What is the need for investments in modernization and preparation of the industry for corporatization and privatization?

To date, the need for investment "can be felt" in the money that is needed to prepare the production. This year it is approximately UAH 3 billion. This should be allocated from the budget through the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. We have already verified these figures with the Defense Ministry, as a key state customer. We are today conducting a feasibility study of the enterprises for the expected efficiency of development of funds allocated for modernization.

What is your assessment of the performance of the import-substitution industry program? Who are we currently focusing on from the foreign partners attracted to the program, are you satisfied with the level of cooperation? By the way, NATO has also already declared import substitution, as one of the priorities of cooperation with Ukraine in the defense industry.

To date, the concern has carried out work on the subject of import substitution analysis: what we need to replace and where. This work is still going on, but we have already have compiled incomplete, albeit extensive catalogues. My task is to ensure that the import substitution mechanism works automatically. Today I can say that many enterprises are fond of the possibility of importing any components, so they do not pay attention to what they can replace. I want to implement the system under which an enterprise can justify the expediency of purchasing imported components and the impossibility of substitution, or provide a specific plan for carrying out import substitution. This task will be assigned to the deputy head of production. Let's start with metals and alloys, as well as armored vehicles ... Again, import substitution is associated with sales volumes: sometimes there is an understanding of the possibility of organizing a critical component production, but production volumes do not allow talking about its profitability, which creates difficulties in finding an investor. But these problems must be addressed, and many directors do not have an integrated approach to solving these issues. I hope we will implement solutions in the near future.

What is your position on the issue discussed in the corporate environment about the advisability of creating a single central authority to ensure the state defense-industrial and military-technical policy, the management of the defense industry and the regulation of the defense market in the new conditions?

My impression is that there has been no better mechanism than an interdepartmental commission for the military-industrial complex and military-technical cooperation in the National Security and Defense Council in the history of Ukraine. All decisions are recorded, adopted by voting, the position of all authorized agencies and agencies is taken into account and there is a work plan for the commission. For today - this is the site where the optimal point of intersection of interests of all interested parties is located. If the decision can not be taken, it is simply postponed for collecting and studying information. Our model is individually tailored and will be built in the near future. We are going to liberalize the military-technical cooperation system in the near future with the right to self-import for own production purposes and independent exports to producers for their own production. Rules are developed for private importers: for those companies that have a dealership with one of the foreign arms and military equipment manufacturers.

The question of the hybrid status of Ukroboronprom is complicated. I understand that there is a certain conflict in the fact that the concern is a hybrid of the management body and the business entity. There is a definite reason for the discussion - to talk about whom it should be subordinated to: the Cabinet of Ministers or the president.

In today's conditions it is very important for me that the president appointed me, and I have the opportunity to report the position of the concern to the head of state, as to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. This is an opportunity to overcome bureaucratic obstacles. It will be difficult if the concern is brewed in this maelstrom, since the defense industry is one of the priorities today because Ukraine is at war. We can't simply throw Ukroboronprom into this bureaucratic maelstrom together with all its enterprises. Of course, I want the defense industry to be allocated administratively. We are accountable and in the operational subordination of the Cabinet, but the head of the concern is appointed by the president, and the concern has the opportunity to convey its position to the Presidential Administration and to the head of state. For me, this is important: it is the speed of decision-making, and an additional opportunity to ensure that the necessary decisions are made. Of course, time will pass - it is connected with corporatization, and with a possible change in the situation with the settlement of the question of the return of the Crimea and Donbas. When the situation changes, Ukroboronprom will be transformed and become an ordinary economic entity. It will happen someday, but there is still a lot to do before this time.

How do you assess the degree of risk of conflict of interests between the state Concern and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, considering that according to the law passed by the parliament in 2011, do you jointly ensure the management of state property in the defense industry?

Yes, we have a conventional so-called institutional conflict. It is due to the fact that we are a management body, but we are not the manager of budgetary funds. As they say in the army: "Away from the authorities, closer to the kitchen." And always this option remains: to be closer "to the authorities, or to the kitchen." I do not see that I can change this situation today. Probably, it will be fixed. On the other hand, I have no problem for today communicating with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT). I have the opportunity to convey the essence of important problems we face. I do not aspire to any authority, but if Ukroboronprom does something, I can at least explain why we do it.

We already discussed the position of Ukroboronprom about the expediency of liberalizing the system of military and technical cooperation of Ukraine and exporting arms in a new geopolitical situation. And how do you feel about the idea of transferring the right to independent purchase of defense imports to military and law enforcement customers?

Our position: we support it. Moreover, where we will be asked, we will assist the Defense Ministry and other law-enforcement agencies in the organization and transfer of competences. In the war years we passed a large school and thoroughly studied the army's needs, the characteristics of the necessary arms and military equipment, and also customers. Initially, all security officials, first of all, the Defense Ministry, will face problems, taking into account a wide range of imports. There will be fewer problems for Ukraine's SBU Security Service, Interior Ministry and State Border Service.

To obtain these competencies, they must apply to the authorized bodies. But to date, they haven't made any official query to the Economy Ministry, or to the State Service for Export Control of Ukraine, or to the Cabinet. There is their position directed to Ukrspecexport that the Defense Ministry, is against working with the import under a commission sales agreement. And a commission sales agreement implies that we act on their behalf, and they fully see all the pricing. We provide a service, and for this we receive a fixed commission. They refused this in writing. Why? Because it's probably convenient when you set 1% or 5% profitability, and then you can torment the supplier. In imports, this is not so critical. We already worked for working capital: all shortcomings and the speed of state financing were compensated for working capital. In fact, it is so convenient for them to work: you have a supplier in front of you, torture him, put forward demands to him, and he must adapt them to a foreign supplier. When you move to a direct relationship, you'll have to settle all these things yourself. And there are a lot of questions, because the technique is often complicated. And in order to conduct a normal dialogue and be sane by the buyer, one must have an instrument and one must have people. They will have to dial them. And then we will rest against: in the size of wages, in the number of the Defense Ministry, in the presence of duplicating structures in the General Staff and the Defense Ministry. This provision of independent rights of the importer will force the Defense Ministry to adequately reform both the system and the structures. They're going to do it. We fully support this and we will help.

On the issue of Defense Ministry reforms, private and state-owned enterprises of the military industrial complex are preparing another appeal to the Cabinet with a request to bring the pricing system for defense products to the conditions of wartime and the abolition of the military units that were introduced in 2016, which put an end to new defense developments and provoke outflow of personnel from the industry, profitability limitations on defense products: 1% for components, and 20% for other costs.

The key word here is: "to wartime conditions." Linking the norm of profitability to the cost of production and control of the state customer - this model moves the head of the defense enterprise to increase the cost of the product, and private producers - encourages collusion with import suppliers. This is what this system produces. On the other hand, there is a wartime factor. In view of this factor, we ask the government not to reduce the rate of return on production costs from 30% to 20%. As is known, Defense Ministry is guided by the limited possibilities of its budget, half of which are salaries, food, clothing, etc. And they still need to solve the issue of replenishing military equipment, to modernize and put into service new military equipment. Of course, they do not have enough money, and they are looking for some affordable mechanisms. But here it is necessary to find some accessible "middle", and taking into account wartime. I do not ask you to immediately abolish the existing state order system, under which updating a large array of regulatory frameworks requires considerable time. Therefore, we ask: let's leave at least 30% of profitability for production. The state order system should serve as a locomotive for the development of the defense industry.

In Brussels, we have previously agreed that NATO in May will hold a seminar on the experience of the alliance's existing military procurement system for its armed forces, as well as their experience in shaping the price of defense products and controlling this process ... We have other wisdom that is always more authoritative.

This is question to one of the leaders Ukraine's military industrial complex. Does the current strategy of the military technical cooperation of Ukraine in the world arms markets reflect the conditions of wartime, as well as the new tendencies and priorities of the defense strategies of the world's leading players? What factors will determine the potential demand for the well-known competitive level of development of Ukrainian defense technologies, including in the aerospace and cyber segments?

As is known, in times of war, the Defense Ministry received a veto on all exports, if they are necessary for the needs of Ukraine's Armed Forces or the supplier has outstanding obligations under the state military order. It happens that some deliveries are not coordinated. This, as a rule, costs money and causes losses for the enterprises.

As for the strategy, I see a significant expansion of sales of weapons and military equipment of Ukraine in the world market, if we have a mechanism for joining the joint venture and organizing international cooperation projects. For today, these opportunities are limited. Provided this mechanism is received, the synergetic effect of already well-established and promising cooperation will increase. Today we want to get an opportunity to organize a joint venture in a number of regional markets. The most vivid example is the Thai market, where the possibility of localizing the production of Ukrainian BTR-3 and BTR-4 is being discussed. Today we are waiting for funding. When the joint venture will be established, the question arises of how a state concern's enterprise can become its participant and make a profit. There is no such mechanism today. I need to create it and fix it in the regulatory framework.

In which other areas does Ukroboronprom plan to come up with legislative initiatives?

PB: Firstly, we need normative acts, which should allow us to attract foreign investments into the defense industry. In particular, this is the draft law "On the provision of favorable conditions for attracting foreign investment in the defense industry," aimed at removing restrictions that hinder the attraction of investments. Next comes the draft law "On the peculiarities of the transformation of the state unitary commercial enterprise OPK into a joint stock company." These bills have already been approved at the meeting of the Ukroboronprom's Advisory Board. In the near future we will forward them to the government for further submission to parliament.

Can the pre-election campaign already be reflected in your plans?

More elections mean less production. Thankfully, today we do not have parliamentary elections, when the number of deputies wandering about the enterprises increases in geometric progression every day. Elections, of course, influence badly on many processes: in elections there is always a desire to please voters. In such situations it is very difficult to make difficult, unpopular decisions. At the same time during the elections, it is urgent to extinguish payroll arrears.

In general, in your opinion, will the political situation influence the course of the defense industry reform in Ukraine?

I think that the political situation will not influence. We have normal relations with everyone, including the parliamentary defense committee. And on a number of priority issues, we have already met understanding. In particular, we plan to transfer inefficient enterprises to the State Property Fund, those which have lost their significance for the defense industry. Since this is the only body that has all the tools for recovery or privatization. This is up to 30 enterprises of the state concern, where there is no active production cycle today, and there are no products. According to the results of the analysis, the intellectual property of these enterprises is planned to be transferred to sectoral research institutes. I had the same opinion, and I discussed it, and according to Mykolaiv's "Shipbuilding Plant 61 Communards," where it is necessary to repay debts on wages and to lay off people ... By the way, construction of the cruiser "Ukraine" and wage arrears are different. There is a question about the content of the cruiser, which is on the balance of the Defense Ministry. For its maintenance, which is carried out, it is necessary to pay ... The Defense Ministry does not pay for the content of this cruiser, and even there are no agreements on the responsible storage of all stocks of "used" weapons and military equipment stored at the enterprises of Ukroboronprom. This is an eternal problem: on the one hand we say that the property is stolen, and on the other hand, no one is responsible for this. Why? Because the Defense Ministry either does not have the funds, or does not want to bear the additional costs of storing all those stocks that they have. And with the issue of storage are also related to the inventory.

How do you see the most promising areas of military-technical cooperation, taking into account the needs of the army, as well as recent decisions including the US and Canada to intensify military-technical cooperation with Ukraine? Recently, the US Department of State's special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, announced Washington's plans to supply weapons to Ukraine on a comprehensive basis: in the framework of US government assistance, as well as on the basis of direct procurement, taking into account the needs of Ukraine's Armed Forces.

As for Canada, we now expect the Defense Ministry will formalize the nomenclature of military items we need from the Canadian side, after the visit of the head of the department to Canada, and we will be engaged in securing supplies.

Speaking about the US, we are very much looking forward to the first deliveries of Javelin ATGM. First, it is an effective and easy-to-use weapon. Easy to use - one of the advantages of American technology, it has very well developed protocols for its use, and even a very poorly trained person is able to learn how to use it. Our technique, as a rule, requires a well-trained instructor. On the other hand, the delivery of Javelin is a signal to all NATO partners that we can supply lethal weapons to Ukraine, and we look forward to these deliveries.

The United States itself does not hide that there have already been supplies of lethal weapons to Ukraine, which were directly carried out by producers, or by authorized contractors. Basically it is small arms. Also, under the program of international military cooperation between the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the US Armed Forces, we were provided with artillery detection systems for the trajectory of ANTPQ ammunition.

The US is our main partner here, and we hope that this cooperation will become an indicator and a driving force for other NATO and EU countries.Thousands of people have taken part in #DeleteFacebook, a trend in which Facebook users angry about its most recent blunder are disabling certain functions or deleting their accounts entirely as a way to protect their own data. Read more

Ellesia Blaque would really prefer if she didn't have to delete her Facebook account. The Philadelphia native uses the platform for social and political activism, and it's the only way she keeps in contact with an old professor with whom she's close.

But after learning Monday of secret data mining by Cambridge Analytica  the U.K. firm at the center of a data privacy scandal involving Facebook, Russia, and the election of President Trump  Blaque felt as if she had to shut down the profile she's held onto for more than a decade.

>> Read more: Facebook's poor care of customer data is driving users to social networks such as Mastodon

"It's an excellent forum to make positive change," said Blaque, 54, a professor at Kutztown University. "But at the same time, if there's something good, you can turn it into something evil."

Blaque is one of thousands of people who in the last several days have taken part in #DeleteFacebook, in which users livid about its most recent blunder are disabling certain functions or ditching their accounts. Facebook, which was already facing public scrutiny over Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, is now under fire after a whistle-blower told of how a firm tied to former presidential adviser Steve Bannon secretly harvested data from 50 million Facebook users.

Cambridge Analytica announced Tuesday that it had suspended its CEO  who was recorded by a British TV station offering to use bribes and sex to entrap politicians  though the company denies wrongdoing and says it didn't use the Facebook information it obtained.

Facebook's stock has taken a nosedive. While its top executives say there was no "data breach" because no systems were infiltrated, stolen, or hacked, many users are calling for Facebook to better protect users' data and publicly disclose how Cambridge Analytica was able to mine the information it did.

And so, the #DeleteFacebook hashtag was trending Wednesday on Twitter. It gained momentum Tuesday night when the founder of messaging app WhatsApp  which Facebook bought in 2014  tweeted: "It is time. #deletefacebook."

#DeleteFacebook is the latest social-media-driven boycott of a company for political reasons. In January 2017, a movement to delete Uber started after the ride-hailing company was accused of trying to profit off protests at airports following Trump's executive order banning some refugees and immigrants. In the last several months, opponents of the National Rifle Association have boycotted companies associated with the gun lobbying group, causing some corporations to cut ties.

But Jennifer Herman of the city's West Mount Airy section said deleting her Facebook account Monday was less about politics and more about data security.

The "magnitude" of Cambridge Analytica's data mining was too great to continue with the social media platform she had used for a decade. So on Tuesday, she pulled the plug on it.

"It's not even a Trump thing," Herman, 42, said. "Data is data. And I didn't give permission for it to be used in that manner."

Deleting a Facebook account entirely is easier said than done. While the social media company allows for users to delete their accounts permanently, users have two weeks to change their mind. If they log in during that time, the waiting period starts over.

For Herman, just starting that lengthy process was relieving.

"It was like ripping a Band-Aid off," she said. "Finally, I made the decision, and I'm done with it. And I can be a spectator when it comes to Facebook."

Herman said she also stands to lose data with other apps or sites she's connected to through Facebook, like music streaming platform Spotify.

Colleen France of Westmont, Camden County, ran into a similar problem after she deleted her Facebook account  she tried to make a dinner reservation via Open Table and realized she had no idea what her password was. The only way she'd ever connected to it was through Facebook.

And  oh, right, she remembered  Facebook owns Instagram. France deleted that account, too, and said goodbye to the dogs she follows and the cooking videos she loves.

Still, she said, deleting her accounts was almost a no-brainer. She understood when she signed up for Facebook in 2008 that her data were being used so advertisers could target her, but she said she never agreed for it to be used to benefit a political candidate.

"It's one thing to manipulate my data input to make me buy a couch," she said. "It's another thing to manipulate something as sacred as our democracy."The Earth Day Kids, a group from West Philadelphia, perform at the citys March for Our Lives rally to call out gun violence. Read more

The traumatizing effect of gun violence on children of color was a central theme at Philadelphia's March for Our Lives. Now, the challenge is making sure those voices stay prominent in the national conversation about gun control.

It's a steep task when gun violence in urban communities of color is often ignored, overlooked, or dismissed with a shrug of, "What can you do?", as if it's just accepted as the norm.

But Romaine Wright, a black consultant who helped three student leaders organize Philly's march, is hopeful. Both black and white students want to be safe when they walk out the door, she said.

"It's a shared message: That we are all standing here against gun violence," Wright said. The difference, she said, is "the suburban students want to come home from school, and the inner city kids actually want to make it to school."

The Valentine's Day shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people was at a high school in a largely white and wealthy suburb, but has stirred calls to stop ignoring children of color, who have long tried to bring attention to violence in their communities.

"I want the same thing that those kids want," said Jordyn Williams, 15, when she spoke to classmates earlier this month at Philadelphia's Parkway Center City Middle College. "I'm not saying that those kids' lives didn't matter. I'm saying they aren't the ones being treated like nothing."

At Mastery Charter School-Shoemaker in Philadelphia, Kaiyah Taylor bluntly pointed out, "We have a lot of dying in our community, and no one is paying attention."

Students of color are more exposed to shootings than white students, a recent analysis by The Washington Post found, yet their stories often go unheard. As the story explained:

These incidents rarely make the news. In part, that's because far fewer people are injured, but it's also, experts say, because of the outside world's perception of kids who grow up in high-crime neighborhoods. "Often, we have this notion that, 'Oh, they're used to it'  and that's BS," said Steven Berkowitz, director of the Penn Center for Youth and Family Trauma Response and Recovery. "They're not used to it." 

Some of the Parkland survivors, such as David Hogg, have sought to bring race to the forefront of the national conversation on guns. Hogg told Axios that the media's biggest mistake in covering Parkland was "not giving black students a voice. My school is about 25 percent black, but the way we're covered doesn't reflect that."

At March for Our Lives in Washington D.C., 11-year-old Naomi Wadler captivated the crowd when she described how gun violence victims are treated differently based on race.

"I am here today to acknowledge and represent the African American girls whose stories don't make the front page of every national newspaper, whose stories don't lead on the evening news," Wadler said in her speech, which went viral. "I represent the African American women who are victims of gun violence, who are simply statistics instead of vibrant, beautiful girls full of potential."

At Philly's march, Wright said organizers made it a priority to ensure people of color were involved in both the speeches and promotion of the event.

The student organizers are still planning their next steps, Wright said, but the goal is to continue bridging the geographic gap between suburban and urban students.

"There's a lot of different groups that are targeting gun violence in different ways, but they're all saying the same thing," she said. "So collaboration with all those organizations to share a message is powerful."

Hogg, in his speech at March for Our Lives in Washington, said the goal is to make gun control a central issue in every election. Whether the movement can have that lasting impact remains to be seen. As USA Today reported:

It won't be easy to blaze the trail. Experts and leaders of past movements say it's going to be an uphill battle to translate the #NeverAgain movement into significant changes. A lot will revolve around local efforts, keeping pressure on lawmakers and having a clear message moving forward.

The Washington Post also broke down what Congress has done  but also what it probably won't  do on guns.The Government leader said that Agribank needs to further push for restructuring in order to attract strategic investors and achieve success in its equitisation plan, at the ceremony on March 26.

As its full name, the Vietnam Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development, suggests, the bank mainly provides loans for farmers, agribusinesses and small enterprises in rural areas, which account for nearly three fourths of its total loans.

PM Phuc said that its charter capital of US$1.3 billion remains relatively low compared with its regional peers and urged the lender to take action to enhance its financial capabilities and adopt international practices in its operations.

He also called on Agribank to simplify its administrative procedures to make its loans more accessible to farmers and enterprises.

According to the lenders chairman, Trinh Ngoc Khanh, Agribank has played a significant role in lifting Vietnam from being a food importer to one of the worlds largest exporters of agricultural produce over the past 30 years.

Currently Agribank is the sixth largest enterprise and largest bank in Vietnam, and ranks 446th among the worlds largest lenders, with its total assets reaching VND1,100 trillion (US$48.4 billion).

The lender has partnered with nearly 1,000 banks throughout the world and has a customer base of over 11 million.

On the occasion of its 30th founding anniversary, Agribank was awarded with the Labour Order, first class.A Pleasantville High School teacher and a Sewell salesman on Monday became the 17th and 18th men to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Camden to participating in a multimillion-dollar New Jersey state health benefits fraud that authorities allege ensnared hundreds of police, firefighters, teachers and other public employees in Shore communities.

William Hunter, 43, who works for an industrial equipment company, and Richard McAllister, 42, a teacher who resides in Ocean City, both pleaded guilty to "submitting fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary prescriptions," according to a joint news release from U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito and state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal.

The guilty pleas took place Monday morning before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler. As with the 16 previous guilty pleas, both men were charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

The pleas are part of a wide-ranging conspiracy that authorities say resulted in as much as $50 million in improper insurance payments from the New Jersey Health Benefits Program, which covers state and local government employees, retirees, and eligible dependents, and the School Employees' Health Benefits Program, which covers teachers, school employees, retirees, and eligible dependents.

"The amounts paid for the prescription drug claims were billed to the State of New Jersey," the release noted.

Authorities have said that numerous Shore communities could be impacted by the unraveling conspiracy before authorities are finished with their investigation and prosecutions.

Both Hunter and McAllister were described as "recruiters" in the scheme, one level down the chain from the people who directly received kickbacks from the still-unidentified out-of-state pharmacy that filled the prescriptions for the expensive compounded medicines, including scar, pain, antifungal and libido creams, and passed along a percentage of the reimbursements.

Hunter and McAllister admitted receiving a percentage of those kickbacks in exchange for referring people with the right insurance plans, and also to passing along a percentage of what they collected to those they recruited, according to the criminal information filed along with the guilty pleas.

Hunter received $245,020.08 in criminal proceeds that he has agreed to forfeit, and was ordered to pay restitution of at least $1.3 million. McAllister's proceeds were calculated at $456,806.23, also subject to forfeiture. The judge ordered him to pay restitution of at least $3.4 million.

McAllister is an English teacher at Pleasantville and also served as head baseball coach, according to school board records posted online. "He hasn't resigned and he hasn't received any formal notice from the district," his attorney, Edward Borden, said. He declined to comment further.

A Pleasantville guidance counselor previously pleaded guilty in the scheme.

At a previous plea hearing, the judge issued a warning to those awaiting sentencing to fully account for the money they received in financial disclosure forms.

"I"m putting everyone on notice," Kugler said at the hearing earlier this month. "I expect to hear how they received it, what they did with it, and where it is now."

Sixteen other men, including ringleader Matthew Tedesco, Atlantic City Firefighter Michael Pepper, and Margate Firefighter Michael Sher, have pleaded guilty. Tedesco and Pepper will be sentenced July 17. Those defendants still face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello, a Chester County Republican, announced he will not seek reelection this fall. Read more

Rep. Ryan Costello won't seek reelection, he announced Sunday night, opening a major opportunity for Democrats in the fight for control of the U.S. House.

Costello, 41, a Chester County Republican who is in his second term, cited frustration with the partisan divisions as well as new congressional lines that made his reelection campaign even tougher in telling both MSNBC and the Daily Local, in his home county, his decision to drop out of the running.

"It's a very angry environment," he told the Daily Local. "It is a sad commentary on the state of our culture and political environment. It's not me doing it, but I am the one who gets the brunt of it."

Democrat Chrissy Houlahan is running for Costello's seat and considered one of her party's top recruits, and the moderate Sixth District was redrawn by the state Supreme Court in a way that makes it much more favorable to Democrats. Many Republicans believed that Costello represented their only realistic chance of holding the seat, though even he would have faced a difficult challenge.

Sabato's Crystal Ball, an election forecasting site, said Costello's retirement would move the district to likely Democratic. It had been rated a toss-up.

The web site City and State Pennsylvania had first reported on Costello's decision.

The Inquirer and Daily News had reported earlier this month that Costello was mulling retirement, and that he has been wavering on his political future for weeks, swinging from boasts that he could defeat Houlahan to anger over the new maps, calling them "racist," and arguing that the Democratic judges on the state Supreme Court were corrupt and should be impeached and disbarred.

A divided court overturned the state's congressional map last month, finding that it was unconstitutionally skewed to favor Republicans. The court imposed new district lines which created much more competitive districts and made several, including Costello's, more challenging for the GOP.

Costello's retirement marks the latest in a wave of departures for Philadelphia-area Republicans. Three other House Republicans from Pennsylvania aren't seeking reelection. Another, Lou Barletta, is running for Senate and one more, Tim Murphy, resigned last year. South Jersey's Frank LoBiondo also opted to retire rather than seek another term in a year that is showing signs of being a strong one for Democrats.

The seats held by Costello, LoBiondo, Allentown's Charlie Dent, and Delaware County's Pat Meehan all represent significant opportunities for Democrats, who need to gain 23 seats to take control of the House.

"Costello's exit should set off alarm bells for vulnerable House Republicans," said Evan Lukaske, a spokesman for Democrats' congressional campaign arm.

Houlahan, in a statement, thanked Costello for his service and wished him well.

Costello did leave one key question open: whether he will seek to have his name removed from the May 15 primary ballot. The timing of a decision could determine whether GOP officials get to pick a replacement, or whether the Republican nomination goes to attorney Greg McCauley, who is also running for the seat.

If Costello stays on the ballot, wins the primary and then drops out, election rules allow GOP officials to name a nominee. But if he quits before the primary, McCauley would almost certainly win the nomination and face Houlahan in the fall.

Costello's decision has infuriated Pennsylvania Republicans, especially as it arrived after the deadline for other candidates to file to run.

Several Republicans said Costello is likely to seek a lucrative job lobbying or otherwise trading on his experience in Congress.Gov. Wolf on Monday announced his support for a number of bills aimed at improving the elections process. Read more

HARRISBURG  A week after two courts decided not to intervene in a challenge to Pennsylvania's redrawn congressional district boundaries, Gov. Wolf on Monday renewed his call for legislators to create an independent commission to draw the state's electoral maps.

His announcement came a day before the Senate's state government committee was set to discuss that measure and other potential election changes.

That effort is supported by several groups that endorsed the lawsuit that led the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to strike down the previous congressional map and impose a new one, a move that many expect will improve Democrats' chances of gaining ground in this year's elections.

"This should not be a partisan issue," Wolf said at a Monday afternoon news conference in the Capitol. He added later, "This is really about democracy."

Wolf is also backing efforts that would allow people to register to vote on Election Day  instead of having to meet deadlines weeks before  and would automatically register eligible voters when they get a driver's license from the state unless they opt out. He also supports limits on campaign donations.

All of the bills have been referred to legislative committees, but have not left them  although some are expected to come up at a lengthy hearing Tuesday. Some face resistance or skepticism from Republicans, who hold the majorities in both chambers.

Steve Miskin, a spokesman for House Republicans, noted that people can currently change their voter registration when they update their driver's licenses and expressed concerns that same-day registration could open the door for voter fraud.

Jennifer Kocher, a spokeswoman for Senate Republicans, called the governor's announcement a "campaign stunt," noting that the Senate's committee meeting had already been in the works. "The Senate committed long ago to moving forward with the process of examining how congressional districts are drawn as soon as the court proceedings were over," she said.

A spokesman for Wolf noted that his support for the measures was not new.Becky Barger of Cornelius N.C., holds a banner during the March for Our Lives rally Saturday in Washington. Read more

Remarkably, all 50 Pennsylvania state senators voted yes on Delaware Country Republican Sen. Thomas Killian's bill to take guns away from people with a history of domestic violence.

It is remarkable because the Pennsylvania legislature is typically so cowed by the National Rifle Association that it deep-freezes even the most reasonable firearms safety measures. Even this common-sense bill, for example, sat in committee for a year before coming up for votes last week.

That's a welcome indication of how much public sentiment has changed since the survivors of the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., called out the NRA for its constant, reckless promotion of deadly weaponry that has no place in hunting or sport shooting.

The past weekend's powerful student-led demonstrations showed the depth of opposition to dangerously weak gun laws.

Pennsylvania legislators  and even the NRA  seem to feel the gathering winds of change.

The NRA was silent on the Pennsylvania bill, which requires anyone under a protection-from-abuse court order to surrender guns to law enforcement within 48 hours of its being issued. Currently, abusers have 60 days to comply and can stash guns with relatives or friends for easy retrieval the next time they want to hurt their victims.

This needed legislation still has to make it through the House, which may look at it in April. With the NRA briefly in a silent mode, even the most gutless of legislators should feel free to vote for constituent safety. House members should consider the victims, and pass it.Mayor Jim Kenney said he would release the bill for the Super Bowl parade a week or two after the event. That was six weeks ago. Read more

Mayor Kenney is testing Clout's patience a bit this week, so we feel obliged to give him a quick body check.

On Feb. 9, during a postmortem news conference on the Eagles Super Bowl parade, we asked how much of the parade bill was being picked up by taxpayers.

Kenney said the team and the city had not agreed beforehand on how to split up the costs, which were still being calculated at the time. He said the estimated price to taxpayers would be released within a week or two.

Yet here we are  six weeks later.

What's the deal, Mayor?

"We're in discussions with the Eagles, and we'll be releasing the cost figures once those discussions conclude," Kenney spokesman Mike Dunn said.

The Eagles didn't respond to a request for a comment on the discussions.

This is all a little ironic given that, as a councilman, Kenney slammed Mayor Michael Nutter for boasting about his administration's transparency while his underlings worked behind the scenes to clamp down on the flow of information.

"It has evolved from transparency to translucency," Kenney told the Daily News in 2013. "It's like putting Vaseline on glasses. You can see the light, but you can't see what you're looking at."

For the record, it took Nutter less than two weeks to disclose the cost of the Phillies World Series parade to taxpayers. It topped $1 million.

Hey, the Eagles parade was a blast. We were there. We had enormous fun, along with hundreds of thousands of other fans. But we'd like to know how much it cost us. Is that too much to ask?

Hopefully, we'll have an answer for you before the next parade following Super Bowl LIII 2019.

Pa. candidate had property tax break in another state  till we called

Despite raising a record amount of money for his campaign, Jon Ossoff lost his bid for Congress in Georgia earlier this year.

One possible reason, according to pundits: Ossoff was branded a carpetbagger.

Could the same allegations be a liability for Scott Wallace, the party-backed Democrat trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in Bucks County?

Wallace lived in the D.C. region while he and his wife led the Wallace Global Fund, a charitable organization supporting the environment and other liberal causes.

Though Wallace is originally from Bucks County, the National Republican Congressional Committee has dubbed him a "multimillionaire Washington insider." A memo for a poll conducted on behalf of Rachel Reddick, one of Wallace's primary opponents, also claimed that his "carpetbagging causes major concerns" among voters.

Now Clout has learned that Wallace had a homestead tax credit on his house in Maryland since 2009  until we asked him about it last week. Homestead credits are property tax breaks for people's primary residences.

Eric Nagy, a spokesman for Wallace's campaign, said the Wallaces pre-paid this year's real estate taxes back in June, which is before they "moved full-time" to Bucks. He said it was an "oversight" that Wallace received the credit this year. He refunded $692 to the state after our inquiry.

"Scott Wallace lives in the very same Bucks County house he was born in," added Nagy. "It's always been a big part of his life. His children's height marks are right next to his on the kitchen wall."

Fitzpatrick, a Bucks native, previously resided in D.C. too, as well as California, while he worked for the FBI. In fact, he was accused of "carpetbagging" in the 2016 election  but won anyway.

Get ready for a ward battle between two Council members

A coming brawl for ward leader in Northwest Philadelphia is giving us deja vu.

In 2016, the captains of two factions within the city's Democratic Party faced off in a congressional primary: Dwight Evans and Chaka Fattah.

Evans was victorious in no small part because he is a leading figure in the Northwest Coalition, a powerful alliance of African American politicians, along with former Councilwoman Marian Tasco. Fattah, then the boss of his own mini-political machine, was defeated and sent to prison for corruption soon after.

This spring, prepare for a rematch between the two teams: Councilman Derek Green, a member of Evans' coalition, is interested in running for leader of the city's 22nd Ward if the incumbent chooses not to run reelection. So is Councilwoman Cindy Bass, a former aide to Fattah.

Green said he wants to be ward leader in order to bring best practices that he's seen across the city back to the 22nd. Bass said she wants to keep turnout high in the area and help other wards duplicate its success.

There may be another reason the two lawmakers want the job: The 22nd is one of the top vote-getting wards in the city, which could be helpful for either pol. Green, an at-large Council member, could face stiff competition in a crowded 2019 election. Some potential candidates are also rumored to be eyeing Bass' seat on City Council.

Bass denied that 2019  or 2016, for that matter  has anything to do with her interest in the ward leader position. Green likewise said he had his eye on the seat for years.

Bass said "there wouldn't be a race" if the incumbent ward leader wasn't expected to step down: "It has a whole lot more to do with that and a whole less to do with people's grudges."

But one local political insider said the legislators may be fighting for control of the ward because a detente never took place between Team Evans and Team Fattah: "Here in Philadelphia, we carry slights, real or perceived, for generations."Do cyber charters do as well as brick-and-mortar schools where hands-on learning can occur? Read more

A new study by Public Citizens for Children and Youth takes a highly critical view of the performance of cyber charter schools and broadly characterizes suburban brick-and-mortar charters as underperforming as well.

But PCCY's report, primarily using information from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, interprets the data without a full understanding of its sources, which leads to an incorrect conclusion. Reviewing the data with an understanding of where these numbers come from reveals a better picture of Philadelphia's suburban brick-and-mortar charter schools.

An Inquirer article ("Charters rise in suburbs; results mixed," March 15) summarized PCCY's report as saying, "Half the suburban charter schools in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties fared worse on state tests in the 2015-16 school year than districts with similar shares of disadvantaged students."

The clause "with similar shares of disadvantaged students" is a problem, because the number of "disadvantaged" children reported by the state Department of Education is unreliable.

Many charter schools do not have a precise source of data on household income. They determine whether a child is "disadvantaged" through information that is volunteered by the students' parents. These schools have no access to tax or financial records. Also, the guidelines for exactly what information to collect are muddled. Pennsylvania's current criteria differ from federal guidelines.

The disadvantaged numbers are not a scientific collection of statistical data and should not be used as the basis for future educational policy.

Furthermore, it's worth remembering that charter schools do not select their students. By law, the grounds for selection must be a blind lottery. Parents are the primary party with control over enrollment; they select the school.

If we review the PCCY report's supporting documentation and put less emphasis on the "disadvantaged" data, a different story emerges, which is that a majority of the region's charter schools are outperforming their local districts.

Of the 11 suburban charters in the region, Bucks County Montessori, Chester Charter School for the Arts, Renaissance Academy, School Lane Charter School, Souderton Charter School Collaborative, and Widener Partnership Charter School outperformed school districts from which their students are drawn. The numbers are not just higher, they are a lot higher.

Bucks County Montessori and Souderton Collaborative both scored more than 15 percentage points higher than their local school districts. These schools consistently achieve top marks when compared to traditional public schools across the state as well.

PCCY has worked on many good causes since its founding in 1980, including with teen pregnancy, children's health insurance, and child advocacy. This charter school report, however, has significant flaws. The report paints a gloomy picture. The data, however, tell a brighter story.

For 20 years, dedicated charter school teachers and leaders in this region have seized on the opportunity that charter school legislation has provided to try new ideas and expand the possibilities in public education. We need to embrace their hard-won successes and look to them to lead the way forward.

John Page is a member of the board of the Souderton Charter School Collaborative (john@johnpage.net)A recent column by Ronnie Polaneczky suggested that Temple University and its leadership are "tone-deaf" when it comes to addressing sexual violence, and that Temple ignores student opinions on the issue. The suggestion is wrong, and disparages the enormous efforts made toward eradicating sexual violence at the university.

Several years ago, a group of students asked Temple to consider establishing a stand-alone rape crisis center to house the university's resources in one place. The university researched the issue, listened to students'concerns, and consulted experts. Guided by these voices, who believed that a stand-alone building compromises confidentiality, Temple invested in a more effective alternative. In February 2017, Temple and Women Organized Against Rape (WOAR) established a main campus satellite office. This safe, confidential reporting option provides 24/7 support and response. A Temple student who wants to report an incident of sexual violence can receive confidential on-campus support and counseling from a trained volunteer at any time. The university's response is immediate, but also it is intentionally dynamic and flexible, tailored to the needs of the individual student.

The Polaneczky column also takes issue with Temple board chair Patrick O'Connor's representation of Bill Cosby 13 years ago in a civil lawsuit filed by a former employee who had left the university. The north star of the legal profession is a duty to represent clients no matter the lawyer's or society's judgment of the merits of the accusation. Representing a client does not align the lawyer with the conduct or prevent the lawyer from standing up against the conduct. Yet somehow, Polaneczky concludes that O'Connor's work as a lawyer should prevent him from caring about Temple and its students; or being recognized for the great progress that Temple has made under his leadership since 2009.

For nearly 40 years, O'Connor has put his time and money to work for countless students who have been marginalized and left out of meaningful educational opportunities. He has funded scholarships, activities and campus improvements, and on the issue of sexual misconduct, he has led our commitment to provide students with: counseling services; mandatory online sexual misconduct training; special training for athletes and members of fraternal organizations; online anonymous reporting options; advisers; transportation; a specially trained police force; a centralized sexual misconduct resources website; an external adjudicator to oversee sexual misconduct cases heard through our student conduct process; and a dedicated staff to centralize and strengthen Temple's compliance efforts.

For two years in a row, Temple has been a recipient of Pennsylvania's "It's on Us" grant to combat sexual misconduct on its campuses. Last year's grant allowed Temple to convene focus groups with unique student populations  including students of color, international students, students with disabilities and LGBTQIA+  who may face barriers to reporting and to then implement their suggestions.

Temple University remains dedicated to promoting its many access points for students who need help, and continuing to implement effective prevention strategies.

Valerie Harrison serves as a senior adviser for equity, diversity and inclusion at Temple University.A blue stamp

In her stamp collection, Carolyn is particularly interested in a small Vietnamese stamp that depicts a blue dragon on a red background. At 12 years old, the little girl asked her father Where in the world is Vietnam? She was too young to figure out the location of the country but for some unknown reason, Carolyn had a good feeling about Vietnam.

In 1967 when she was a third-year student at the State University of New York, Carolyn was allowed to choose to study in any country she wanted over the course of the next two years. She chose France and it was the first opportunity for her to learn more about Vietnam.

I thought Vietnamese students were the best. My French teachers also said the same. Any educated American knows that Vietnamese students are very smart. It is one of the things, other than the war, that Americans know about Vietnam.

At that time, America was in the middle of the war in Vietnam and the Vietnamese students in France wanted to express their strong attitude against the war. They held discussions about the war and wanted Carolyn to join because she was one of the American students fluent in French.

Later she began to read more about Vietnam. A few friends gave her some books, which were significant to her. One book told the story of the young Americans who served and were killed in Vietnam.

Until then Carolyn only knew about Vietnam as a war like most of her compatriots. But then to her Vietnam was a small and weird country where Americas first war did not end in victory. Carolyn never once thought that one day she would know and understand Vietnam more than that.

A wonderful rendezvous

After two years in France, she returned home and got married. Her husband is a college professor whom she travelled around the world with as a part of his teaching profession.

In around 1986, she went into a serious state of depression while she was in Berlin. All I wanted was to go home, Carolyn recalled, her eyes filled with tears. Her elder brother in America immediately flew to Germany and took her home.

Later she happened to read a book by the Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness, which transformed her views about her own life and what she was facing. Thanks to the book, she was able to overcome the depression. She also found a compassionate and altruistic heart in Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh whom she addresses affectionately as Thay, the Vietnamese word for teacher.

Knowing her story, a friend asked her why she still had not visited him. Carolyn began to look for information and knew that the Vietnamese Zen master was living in a small village in France and came up with the idea of going there.

Coincidentally in 1987, Thich Nhat Hanh held a mindfulness meditation retreat in New York. On hearing the news, she rushed to Americas biggest city.

Can you believe it? There were around 1,200 Americans attending the retreat. It was wonderful, Carolyn said in excitement. She was put in the same group with those from Michigan and practised mindfulness meditation for five days.

Back in her home city, Carolyn and her friends participated in different meditation practice groups organised by Thais and Chinese. But she was still unable to find people that shared her aspiration.

One day on the way home, unhappy because they could not find a suitable mediation group, Carolyn and her four American friends realised that they were already a group. That was how her own meditation group was formed.

Several years later, she became aware of the Vietnamese community in Michigan. She and her friends thought that if they spoke Vietnamese it could help her mediation group. With a little apprehension, she dialled Mr Loi, the head of the Vietnamese community in Michigan. A block away, the man spoke at a slow pace on the phone: I have been waiting for this call for years. And since 1999, Carolyn and her group have been offered a dedicated mediation space in a Vietnamese Buddhist temple.

Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh brought Carolyn to Buddhism and brought her closer to the Vietnamese people and culture. She likes the Tale of Kieu. Carolyn said the Tale of Kieu mentioned a lot about destiny and she and Vietnam also seemed destined to meet each other. She did not understand every verse in the epic poem but she has a strong passion for Nguyen Dus most famous work. She liked the way the poem was written in alternating six and eight-syllable verses and began to write her own poems in that format. Carolyn smiled with interest when reading the verses describing Kieu and Van and when learning about So Khanh. To her, everything about the Tale of Kieu is amazing. She hopes that one day she will be able to interpret the Tale of Kieu in her own way in English.

A house for the mind

Carolyn likes visiting Buddhist temples more than churches. In a church, the pastor preaches and the faithful Christians listen in silence. But in a Vietnamese temple, people go around and talk to each other. Carolyn is a Jew and within the temple ground, she feels a sense of familiarity as if she was able to encounter a part of her original community.

Carolyn had never thought that she could be so close with the Vietnamese people. When her mother died, she was told by her Vietnamese friends to take a portrait of her mother to the temple, where the monks would chant sutra for her for 49 days. During those 49 days, both Vietnamese and Americans participated in prayer. They chanted the Buddhist scripture in different ways.

Carolyn only understood two words in the prayer: her name and her mothers name. If someone visits a small Buddhist temple in Michigan today, they will see on the altar a portrait of an American woman that is Carolyns mother. The temple has gradually become her own world.

During the days when Carolyn was still feeling mentally unstable, a Vietnamese nun cooked for her and Carolyn loved the food very much. She also taught Carolyn Vietnamese. The nun couldnt speak English but could teach her Vietnamese. Carolyn has learned a total of 25 Vietnamese words.

Although Carolyn knew a lot about Vietnam, it was not until 2001 that she visited Vietnam for the first time when she travelled to Ho Chi Minh City, Hue, Da Nang, Hanoi and Ha Long. To her, the traffic in Ho Chi Minh City was crazy but she was able to cross the street safely without any help. Ha Long was the place she liked most, which she described as extraordinary and distinct from all other places.

In her little house, there are many souvenirs that she bought while in Vietnam. An embroidery painting of rural Vietnam hangs in her husbands work space. It is also the place where Carolyn keeps all her beautiful memories of her childhood, globe-trotting years and deceased husband. The painting gives a sense of tranquillity: a young herdsman flying a kite in an afternoon as the sunlight was dimming. Carolyn bought the painting from a disabled vendor on a street in Hanoi.

Carolyn never leaves her home without a hat. On her first trip to Vietnam, she went into a shop, took off the hat on her head and pointed at the broad-brimmed hats on sale and told the shop owner to give her three hats.

Carolyn also has a Vietnamese palm-leaf conical hat and a pair of green gloves to use in the sun. I have never worn this pair of gloves. But this summer Im going to try wearing the broad-brimmed hat and green gloves when riding my bike. Wow, I will look like a real Vietnamese woman, Carolyn laughed heartily.



***

Carolyn is constantly surprised by how she is connected with Vietnam. She has also never been able to define the word Vietnam in her heart.

Each time the Vu Lan Festival comes, like every other Vietnamese, Carolyn visits a temple and offers incense to her mother. Carolyn is particularly impressed by the image of monks and nuns teaching how to make banh chung on the temple grounds ahead of the Lunar New Year.

That night she and others sat together by the flickering flames of the banh chung cooker. She was told the story on the origin of banh chung and now she can write the story from her memory. She called it the earth cake. This year, Carolyn and her friends in the meditation group sat together to celebrate Tet, the Vietnamese New Year.Former Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens is joining the RUMAs (Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture) Independent Scientific Group.

Mr Gibbens, who retired this month after 10 years as Defras CVO, will sit alongside other eminent researchers and scientists from the veterinary, medical and microbiological field, providing insight and recommendations to inform RUMAs policy on the responsible use of medicines in farm animals.

Professor Gibbens said he had been very impressed with recent progress made by the UK livestock sectors on reducing, refining or replacing use of antibiotics. But he said it was now time to look forward to the next steps, and how science can support further efforts to reduce on-farm antimicrobial use.

The UK livestock sectors are to be congratulated for responding to the challenge of antimicrobial resistance, especially in working with the Targets Task Force to set challenging targets for antibiotic use through to 2020, he said.

Delivering those targets is going to rest on the principle of rearing healthier, more resilient animals. This means that while antimicrobial resistance is an important threat, tackling it is also a significant opportunity to make long term sustainable changes which could raise UK farm animal health and welfare to a new level.

He said a strong evidence base around antibiotic use, and health and welfare improvements for our farmed livestock, should be integral to the stated aspirations within the Governments Command Paper on the future of food and farming.

RUMAs ongoing leadership in AMR mitigation through excellent animal husbandry in all production systems can help to differentiate UK produce and elevate its reputation post Brexit, he said.

But to achieve this, and other goals, we need sound science to underpin all the decisions we make. Sitting on the Independent Scientific Group is a great opportunity to do just that  use the knowledge and insight that Ive been fortunate to acquire in over 30 years as a Government veterinary officer.

RUMAs Independent Scientific Group, now comprises:

Professor David Barrett, Professor of Bovine Medicine, Production and Reproduction at University of Bristol (deputised by Dr Kristen Reyher, Senior Lecturer in Farm Animal Science at University of Bristol);

Dr Ian Brown, Consultant Clinical Research Fellow at Oxford University and Oxford University Hospitals and Chairman of the Governments Advisory Committee on Animal Feedstuffs;

Professor Mark Fielder, Professor of Medical Microbiology at Kingston University;

Professor Nigel Gibbens, consultant with Itinerant Vets Ltd;

Mr Daniel Parker, avian expert for UK government, technical advisor to the British Poultry Council and lecturer at Cambridge University Veterinary School;

Dr Shabbir Simjee, Technical Advisor in Microbiology & Antimicrobials, Elanco Animal Health;

Mr Martin Smith, Lead Veterinary Surgeon, British Quality Pigs.

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Red Bull Der Lange Weg endures a tough first week

26.03.2018 by by Planetmountain

The report of the first week of Red Bull Der Lange Weg, rhe ski mountaineering traverse across the Alps from Vienna to Nice currently being attempted by Tamara Lunger, Nuria Picas, Janelle Smiley, Mark Smiley, David Wallmann, Philipp Reiter and Bernhard Hug.

It's been a tough fight. This, in short, is the resume of the first week of Red Bull Der Lange Weg. After having set off on 17 March from Reichenau an der Rax close to Vienna, yesterday Tamara Lunger, Nuria Picas, Bernhard Hug, Philipp Reiter, David Wallmann and the couple Janelle and Mark Smiley arrived in Bad Gastein, Salzburg, Austria. The past eight days have demonstrated that the traverse across the Alps from Austria to Nice in France really is a mammoth task, made all the more difficult by adverse weather conditions.

After their departure last Saturday, the seven ski mountaineers had to fight with bad weather, fog, wind and cold. Only on Thursday and yesterday did the sun shine and, as a result, they often reached the supply cars in the dark.

The first stage led from Reichenau an der Rax to Murzsteg. On the second day they went on a 14-hour, 62 km march to Trago. On day three, the mountaineers reached Johnsbach and arrived at Wurzeralm on the following evening. The fifth stage led them to Lake Odensee in the Salzkammergut. On Thursday, the first highlight of the tour was carried out n sunshine: the ascent to the Dachstein plateau.

Apart from dealing with difficult weather conditions, some members have had physical problems and Nuria Picas, Janelle Smiley and Tamara Lunger have all pulled their "joker" , enabling them to travel a part of the route by car just like the 1971 team did to cover a total of 64 km by car.

With the arrival in Bad Gastein, the team has now covered 398,9 km and 21.880 vertical metres on skis and on foot, having travelled for 83:02 hoursToday they tackled Austria's highest mountain, Grossglockner (3798 m), and in the next few days they will ascend Grovenediger (3666 m) before continuing eastwards.







The traverse can be followed at all times via live tracking.







Internet: www.redbull.com/derlangeweg and Facebook Red Bull Der Lange Weg

Share TweetIn the article he stated that the world is changing rapidly and humankind is facing a political and economic landmark on a global scale, posing both challenges and opportunities for all nations.

With the Fourth Industrial Revolution, all countries rich or poor are struggling to find a way to transfer to the new stage of development. From an overall perspective, this change is most obvious when witnessing the Asia-Pacific region becoming the most dynamic region in the world in all aspects. Along with the strong development of China, Russia and India, the Asia-Pacific region, especially Asia, has become the most important convergence of the world economy and also a very complicated "playground" for powerful countries.

Great opportunities offered by the Asia-Pacific region are fostering the trend of cooperation and connectivity. Regional and inter-regional forums such as APEC and ASEM continue to play an important role in the connectivity between the Pacific and Asian states and between Europe and Asia.

Located in the centre of an area stretching from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, Vietnam and South East Asian countries boast an extremely important position in the Asia-Pacific co-operation process. Vietnam, formerly regarded as a war zone, is now known as a strongly renewed country with dynamic development and also an attractive destination for tourists and foreign investors.

The Doi moi (renewal) process over the past 30 years has turned Vietnam from a poor, backward, and war-torn country into a developing middle-income country with a relatively high economic growth rate, political and social stability, steady defence and security, expanded foreign relations, and enhanced prestige within the international arena.

From a backward agricultural economy, Vietnam is entering a period of accelerated industrialisation and modernization, with an average economic growth rate of 7% per year over the past 30 years. In 2017, Vietnam reported a total import-export turnover of US$425 billion and FDI pledges of US$36 billion. Vietnam's competitiveness also went up by 5 places and the business environment increased by 14 places, according to the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness list released in 2017. Vietnam is becoming a rapidly growing and dynamic economy in the Asia-Pacific region.

On the basis of its foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development, Vietnam has increasingly integrated into the world. Vietnam has established diplomatic relations with nearly 190 countries and has formed strategic partnership and comprehensive partnerships with all of the powerful countries, including the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

Vietnam is also an active member of the United Nations, ASEAN, APEC, ASEM, and WTO and has been negotiating and participating in many other bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements, most recently the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

It can be said that Vietnam has become a reliable partner of many countries and plays an important role in the international community, contributing more actively and effectively to peace, stability and cooperation in the region and throughout the world.

Vietnam and France, although located on two different continents, have a very special relationship with a historical, cultural and social attachment.

Looking back on the 45 years of diplomatic relations (1973 - 2018), it is easy to see that the two countries have made significant strides. First of all, a significant event was the official visit to France by late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong in 1977 which opened up a new page in the relationship between the two countries. The bilateral relations in economics, trade, culture and education have been strongly promoted since then.

In particular, in the 1980s, when Vietnam was besieged by the embargo, France was the only Western country to maintain its cultural, scientific, technical, educational and training ties with Vietnam through the re-opening of the Institute of Cultural Exchange with France (IDECAF) in Ho Chi Minh City in July 1982 and the institute has now been expanded to other localities in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese Cultural Centre in France is also working tirelessly to spread the Vietnamese culture and language to French people. Since the end of the 1980s, when Vietnam's Doi moi achieved important initial achievements and Vietnam began to re-integrate into the international community, the two countries' relations made considerable strides when former President Francois Mitterrand visited Vietnam in March 1993 and Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet visited France in June 1993.

Since then, France has carried out a consistent diplomatic policy that regards Vietnam as one of its priorities in the Asia  Pacific region and a bridge linking France and other countries in the region.

Vietnam  France relations have developed more robustly after Vietnam joined the ASEAN in 1995. The ties have developed beyond the framework of the bilateral ties to be formulated under the framework of the European Union  Vietnam relations and have been shaped by Frances policy in Southeast Asia.

The two countries share a common view on major international issues, particularly those related to sustainable development, the promotion of cultural diversity and the role of multilateral mechanism in governing and managing the globalisation process.

This year, the two countries are celebrating their 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the 5th anniversary of their strategic partnership. The Vietnamese Party chief noted with pleasure that, over the past 45 years, France has established itself as one of Vietnams leading partners and the leading European sponsor for Vietnam. Their cooperation in both bilateral and multilateral spheres has developed.

Hundreds of agreements have been signed among the universities and research institutes of the two countries and there are approximately 7,000 Vietnamese students in France.

Cooperation among localities in the two countries has also been expanded with 10 locality cooperation conferences having been held, with the participation of 20 French localities and 15 Vietnamese cities and provinces. The Vietnamese community in France, which is the largest Overseas Vietnamese community in Europe, has served as a significant bridge to connect the two countries.

The two countries have also targeted new forms of cooperation in sustainable development through projects on climate change adaption and agricultural development. Vietnam  France green projects have brought hope to places where the livelihoods of the Vietnamese residents are greatly affected by climate change.

However, he noted that there is greater potential for bilateral cooperation. The two-way trade turnover remains modest as it accounted for only 1% of Vietnams total exports and imports.

At present, the two countries have favourable conditions to strengthen their relationship. France is one of the key countries in Europe and is carrying out drastic reforms to rise above and promote its role globally, while exerting its influence in Asia. Vietnam has established itself as a rapid and dynamic economy with a population of nearly 100 million people and has played a vital role in ASEAN and East Asia. Vietnam and France have also shared their points of view and interests on international issues. Therefore, reinforcing Vietnam  France cooperation has become an objective and necessary requirement for their mutual interests.

Under the motto, he called for new momentum to deepen the Vietnam  France strategic partnership; enhance political trust; increase high-level meetings and exchanges; raise the efficiency of current dialogue and cooperation mechanisms; expand cooperation in such areas as politics, diplomacy, defence and security; foster cooperation in economics, trade, investment, science and technology, energy, healthcare, culture, education, tourism, judiciary, and environmental protection; and promote people-to-people exchanges as well as cooperation among localities.

As key members of the EU and ASEAN, he suggested that each country promotes their role in boosting EU  ASEAN relations. Stressing that Vietnam will be a bridge to facilitate France  ASEAN relations, he hoped that France would serve as a bridge connecting Vietnam and the EU.

He also placed priority on environmental cooperation and climate change response. He called on the two sides to make active contributions to the international communitys efforts in realising their national commitments in adapting to climate change, and promote a global partnership for sustainable development with an aim to effectively implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In the context that the world is changing rapidly with complicated events, he stressed that the two countries need to tighten their coordination in regional and international issues of shared concern. Vietnam and France share a common vision of a multipolar world and multilateralism based on mutual respect, equality, justice and cooperation for mutual benefit, as well as working together for peace and sustainable development.

The two sides appreciated the central role played by the United Nations in promoting international peace and security, fostering prosperity and sustainable development, while observing the UN Charter and pledging to respect the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political institutions of each country. The two countries also support settling disputes by peaceful means and refraining from the use of force or threat to use force in line with basic principles of international law and the UN Charter.

He concluded the article by expressing his firm belief in good prospects for the Vietnam  France relationship and the sustainable, comprehensive and effective development of the Vietnam  France strategic partnership in the upcoming decades of the 21st century.The high school senior from Racine was struggling with a composition recently until she took her car in for repairs.

"I was at the piano writing the night before, but it wasnt working," Novinger said. "Its much easier for me to actually sing something. The next day I was driving into Stewartville to get some work done on my car. I started singing the main melody to myself. By the time, I was home I had the whole form done."

That composition, " Transient Waltz,"a duet for trombone and violin, placed first runner-up in the Jack Stone Award for New Music, a national composition contest for community college students.

Novinger, a Post-Secondary Enrollment Options studentat Rochester Community and Technical College, will attend a master class and a concert Tuesday at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio, where her composition will be performed publicly. Other pieces that will be performed with be "Paradise Found," composed by Sam Rainey of North Idaho College, and "Little Arachnus," written by Daniel Kilhoffer of Centralia College.

Ainoa Urkijo, who teaches piano at RCTC, encouraged Novinger to enter the contest.

"Rebekah is a successful student because she looks at everything with open eyes and with curiosity and a work ethic," Urkijo said. "Without the work ethic, you cant go anywhere."

Having students like Novinger is inspirational, Urkijo said, because she does far more than whats expected of her. Novinger has asked if they could meet beyond the minimum required time.

"She wants to spend more time to learn not only piano, but other things," Urkijo said. "When I work with her, many other topics come about. Sometimes its poetry, sometimes its a movie, sometimes its something related to art. It may not be directly related to piano."

Novinger, who plays piano, upright bass, ukulele and accordion, is an accomplished actress and musician, having been a cast member of Words Players Theatreand Minnesota SkyVault Theater Co. She also has been been a performer at the Minnesota Renaissance Festivalsince 2014.

While shes been part of award-winning ensembles in theater, the Jack Stone Award is her first individual recognition.

"I never created something for a duo necessarily," said Novinger, noting the contest stipulation that the composition be for trombone and violin. "The mix of brass and string was definitely different for me."

And how did she come up the "Transient Waltz" title?

"The piece has that waltz feel with three-four time," Novinger said. "I feel it has a lot of movement, so the word transient gets you from one place to another place. It takes the first theme, moves onto something else before it comes back to the theme again at the end. I just wanted that sense of movement in the title."

Novinger doesnt do all her composing while singing and driving.

"Honestly, its different with each piece for me," she said. "Sometimes, if its melody based, it comes from singing. If its chordal based, it comes from piano. Not always, but often."

Novinger plans to transfer from RCTC after this spring. Planning to major in music composition, shes applied to four universities.

"Im very excited about her opportunities," Urkijo said, "but its going to be hard to say goodbye."Secretary General Chungong highly valued the Vietnamese delegations participation in all IPU events, which has demonstrated the countrys role as an active member of the IPU.

NA Chair Ngan noted with satisfaction the outcomes of their concrete cooperation in realising the parliamentary partnership between the IPU, the Vietnamese NA and the United Nations representative in Vietnam.

She thanked the IPU Secretary General for supporting the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam and the Vietnamese parliament to introduce the sustainable development self-assessment tool (SDAT) to NA deputies.

The top Vietnamese legislator also appreciated Chungongs contributions to the IPU, especially in reforming the IPU Secretariats activities, supporting the implementation of IPU programmes and strategies, and enhancing the IPUs cooperation and partnership with the UN, thereby helping to improving parliaments and the parliamentarians voice.

Chungong expressed his delight at Vietnams development, including its efforts to realise the Sustainable Development Goals.

He thanked Vietnam for successfully organising the 26th Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF-26) last January, adding that the country has shown itself to be an active and responsible member of the IPU.

The IPU Secretary General hoped the SDAT will soon be introduced to ministries, sectors and localities in Vietnam.

At the meeting, Chungong also talked about the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, which is within the framework of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and will take effect after it is ratified by 40 countries. He expressed his hope that Vietnam will ratify this protocol soon.

For her part, Ngan affirmed Vietnams determination to prevent the harms and illegal trading of tobacco, which is reflected in the promulgation of the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms. The country is ready to ratify the protocol, she added.

The working session with the IPU Secretary General was the last activity of the Vietnamese delegation while staying in Geneva to attend the IPU-138 before leaving for an official visit to the Netherlands.Trayon White is the D.C. Council member who explained that Jewish financiers control the climate and create natural disasters to gain political control. As I noted here, local Jewish leaders quickly forgave White and expressed their desire to work with him.

Now, with Passover approaching, White is receiving invitations to multiple Seders. White accepted one of them.

Im not sure its a great idea to have White attend a Seder, though. After all, the story that will be told during dinner can be viewed as the tale of how climate events and disasters helped Jews at the expense of Africans. Will White conclude that the Rothschilds were behind the Exodus?

To his credit, White has apologized for his idiotic and anti-Semitic remarks. However, portions of the African-American community believe no apology was required.

Activists organized a rally to support White at a church that last year hosted the rabid anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. To his credit, White had the rally cancelled.

However, the fact that it was planned suggests that the kind of sentiments White initially expressed run deep in the African-American community. As one of Whites supporters said:

Why cant we question the people who own a majority of our banks? Black people, we talk about this in private all the time, be we crazy when we speak out loud.

Theres a problem here that cant be alleviated by invitations to Seders.Poland has observed the National Day of Remembrance of Poles who saved Jews from the Holocaust during World War Two on March 24. The date refers to the day in 1944 when Nazi Germans murdered the Polish Ulma family for sheltering fellow citizens of Jewish descent. See also: President signs bill for Day of Remembrance of Poles who saved Jews

The memorial day was established by the Polish parliament on the initiative of President Andrzej Duda.

The commemmorative events were held in Markowa, the native village of the Ulma family, near Lancut (south-eastern Poland) on Saturday. They were attended by the head of the President's Office Halina Szymanska, President of Poland's national heritage-guarding Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) Jarosaw Szarek and representatives of the Polish Society of the Righteous Among the Nations.

Markowa is a place with unique symbolism and meaning in the recent history of our homeland, President Andrzej Duda wrote in a letter read by minister Szymanska. President Duda stressed that Markowa is also an important place for disseminating knowledge about Polish history thanks to the Museum of Poles Saving Jews that is located there.

"By virtue of this institution, which I was privileged to open two years ago, this almost forgotten chapter of the common history of Poles and Jews is being rediscovered today," the President wrote.

In Andrzej Duda's opinion, commemorating the victims of German crimes and "showing the world the truth" about the solidarity and aid that Polish citizens displayed during World War II is "our, contemporary Poles', civic and moral duty and a historical obligation towards past generations."

"I am deeply convinced that the new memorial day that we are observing today for the first time will serve this aim from now on," the President added.

On March 24, 1944, Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma were executed by the Nazi Germans together with their six children and the Jewish fugitives they were hiding. At the time of her execution, Wiktoria Ulma was eight months pregnant; her oldest daughter was eight years old. A museum named after the Ulma family was opened on March 17, 2016, in Markowa, southern Poland.



In 1995, Wiktoria and Jozef Ulma were posthumously honoured with the Righteous Among the Nations title from Israel's Yad Vashem Institute. The Righteous Among the Nations medals are awarded by the Jerusalem-based Yad Vashem Institute to individuals and families who risked their own lives and the lives of their loved ones to rescue Jews from the Holocaust.



During World War Two Poland was the only German-occupied country in Europe where aiding Jews was punishable by death. (PAP)President Andrzej Duda on Sunday congratulated Belarus on the 100th foundation anniversary of the Belarusian People's Republic, a short-lived independent Belarusian state incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1919.

"On the 100th anniversary of proclaiming the Belarusian People's Republic, I extend to all Belarusians my warmest wishes of prosperity and success in building their country," Duda wrote in a letter published on the Presidential Office website.

In the letter, Andrzej Duda also reminded about the historical and cultural bonds between Belarusians and Poles.

The Belarusian People's Republic was proclaimed on March 25, 1918 on territories occupied by Germany during World War I. Unrecognised by the international community, the country was incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic in the following year. (PAP)According to the Vietnamese Embassy in Madagascar, about 400 people of Vietnamese origin are living in the African country. A group of Vietnamese offspring in Madagascar has also been formed in Antananarivo.

The NA Vice Chairman stressed that Vietnam always considers the Vietnamese community abroad as an inseparable part of the nation. He also highly valued the communitys spirit of turning their interest to the homeland, expressing his hope that they would continue to foster solidarity and abide by the law of the host country.

According to the Vietnamese Honorary Consul in Madagascar, Eric Andry Ramiandrasoa, construction of the 3.4m statue of President Ho Chi Minh commenced in 2001 and it was inaugurated in 2003 at the Ho Chi Minh square in Antananarivo. At the foot of the statue is a stone etched with the late leaders famous words in French: Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom.

Later the same day, NA vice Chair Hien and the Vietnamese delegation visited the office of the Vietnamese Honorary Consul in Madagascar, during which he praised the offices contributions in maintaining and fostering the ties between Vietnam and Madagascar. He asked the office to continue improving the connections between businesses of both sides.

Earlier, on March 23, Hien and the delegation began their visit to the country by meeting President of the Madagascars National Assembly Jean Max Rakotomamojy.

This is the first time the Vietnamese NA has sent a high-ranking delegation to the South African country.The Vietnamese top legislator was welcomed at the airport by General Secretary of the Dutch House of Representatives Frans Van Dijk and Vietnamese Ambassador to the Netherlands Ngo Thi Hoa, among others.

As the first visit of a Vietnamese NA leader to the country, the trip aims to consolidate friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with the Netherlands amid the celebration of the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations (April 9). It will mark a new milestone in friendship and cooperation between the two Parliaments.

The two sides will exchange information and experience in each country's parliamentary activities and areas of interest; promote cooperation in multi-lateral parliamentary forums to which the two parliaments are members, such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and the Asia- Europe Parliamentary Partnership.The leader made the suggestion at a reception for CEO and President of Mitsubishi Corporation Takehiko Kakiuchi in Hanoi on March 26, during which he stressed that the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategy partnership has developed strongly, comprehensively and practically across fields, with high mutual political trust.

Japan was a leading economic partner, the largest official development assistance (ODA) supplier, the fourth biggest trade partner and No. 1 investor of Vietnam in 2017, he said.

The PM affirmed that Vietnam attaches great importance to economic cooperation with Japan, noting Japanese investors prestige in Vietnam as well as their contributions to the countrys socio-economic development.

However, he said, Japans foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam makes up only 3% of its total FDI in Asia, and lower than its investment in a number of Southeast Asian nations.

The Vietnamese Government has completed institutions and mechanisms to create more favourable conditions for foreign investors, including those from Japan, the PM emphasised.

Applauding investment and business activities of Mitsubishi in Vietnam, he suggested the corporation heed manufacturing, automobile and food processing industries in the country.

He used the occasion to call on Vietnamese and Japanese businesses to increase exchange and cooperation in order to utilise opportunities generated by the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) to which both Vietnam and Japan are members.

In reply, Takehiko Kakiuchi applauded PM Phucs suggestions, saying they match his corporations investment strategy in Vietnam in the time to come.

He said the great cooperation achievements between Vietnam and Japan have offered more opportunities for Japanese firms, including Mitsubishi, to intensify exchange, and expand cooperation and investment in Vietnam.

He also called on PM Phuc and competent Vietnamese agencies to continue their support and create the best possible conditions for the corporation to invest and operate in the country.GUANGZHOU, China, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The 123rd China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) has confirmed that 6 exhibitor groups from countries participating in China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), including Ukraine, Egypt, Turkey, India, Thailand and Nepal will showcase their latest products in fields such as construction, machinery, household appliances, light industry, fabrics and home textiles, as well as food and beverage.

As more countries join China's BRI project, an increasing number of companies from those regions are joining Canton Fair. The 122nd Canton Fair hosted 88,574 participants from BRI countries, which was 45.08 percent of the total number of people who participated, an 8.55 percent year-on-year increase.

"Serving as a window on China's policy of opening to the outside world, the Canton Fair is helping to build bridges between China and BRI countries via its integrated trading platform, which facilitates the transformation and upgrading of foreign trade," said Maggie Pu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of Canton Fair. "More exhibitors are consolidating their export strategies, actively exploring markets along the BRI, developing products that can target those markets and establishing research and development centers, factories and sales channels on the ground."

Canton Fair Promotes Trade among BRI Countries

Xu Bing, spokesperson for Canton Fair and Deputy Director General of the China Foreign Trade Centre, pointed out that the Canton Fair is not only an access point for companies from BRI countries to enter the Chinese market, but it also serves as an ideal international trade platform for them to connect with buyers from 210 countries and regions worldwide.

"Participating in Canton Fair can help us promote our burgeoning trading sector. The increased number of exhibitors that the Fair allows our companies to access can bring greater export efficiencies to our market while creating more jobs as trade develops," said U Yan Naing Tun, Director-general of the Trading Department of the Ministry of Commerce in Myanmar.

Special Events for BRI Exhibitors

As of now, the Canton Fair has signed cooperative agreements with 46 business and commerce organizations from 32 BRI countries, including Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry, India China Trade Centre, Egyptian Businessmen's Association.

During the 122nd Canton Fair, the China-UAE Purchasing Matchmaking area featured 53 companies from the UAE and over 80 from China, as well as a trade matchmaking meeting between Fujian Province and exporters from Malaysia and India. This year, exhibitors from BRI countries will also have access to multiple special trade matching events.

About Canton Fair

The China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, is held biannually in Guangzhou every spring and fall. Established in 1957, the fair is now a comprehensive exhibition with the longest history, highest level, largest scale and largest number of products as well as the broadest distribution of buyer origins and the highest business turnover in China.

SOURCE Canton FairSAN JOSE, California and HYDERABAD, India, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Analytics Insight has named 'The 10 Most Innovative Companies to Watch in 2018' in its March magazine issue.

The magazine features LatentView Analytics as the Cover Story. LatentView Analytics offers solutions that help organizations harness the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning to transform their business processes, drive innovation and enhance customer experience. It further includes MathWorks as Company of the Month. MathWorks provides a high-level language and interactive environment used by millions of engineers, scientists and researchers to accelerate the pace of discovery, innovation, and development worldwide.

Other eight companies which exemplify the best in technological innovation, offering industry-disruptive solutions include AImotive, Appier, Datorama, GoodData, Netradyne, Periscope Data, Pyramid Analytics and Trueface.ai.

The monumental increase in the availability of data has facilitated advances in big data analytics and artificial intelligence, particularly in areas such as machine learning, natural language processing, and predictive analytics. These technologies are catalyzing the process of innovation and revolutionizing global industries.

The March issue has been published to recognize leading companies which showcase deep domain expertise coupled with rich technical competencies. "We extend our sincere congratulations to all the 10 companies for their robust platforms and services, driving phenomenal innovation across various industry sectors," says Ashish Sukhadeve, Founder & Editor-in-Chief at Analytics Insight.

The magazine is available online through the Weblink. It has been distributed globally through various channels. For more information, please visit https://www.analyticsinsight.net.

About Analytics Insight

Analytics Insight, a brand of Stravium Intelligence, is a platform dedicated to insights, trends, and opinion from the world of data-driven technologies. It monitors developments, recognition, and achievements made by big data and analytics companies across the globe. The Analytics Insight Magazine features opinions and views from top leaders and executives in the industry who share their journey, experiences, success stories, and knowledge to grow profitable businesses.

To set up an interview or advertise your brand, contact [email protected].

Contacts:

Ashish Sukhadeve

Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +91-40-23055215

http://www.analyticsinsight.net



Media:

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +1-408-380-2566



SOURCE Stravium IntelligenceCell and gene therapy creates growth opportunities for pharmaceutical companies, finds Frost & Sullivan

SANTA CLARA, California, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan's latest analysis, Global Biologics MarketCompanies-to-Action, finds that leading pharmaceutical companies such as Roche, Amgen, Sanofi, AbbVie, Novo Nordisk, among others are increasingly focusing on biologics due to a growing demand for innovative therapies and rising patent cliffs. Frost & Sullivan expects cell and gene therapy to show strong potential, especially across the rare diseases segment. Pharmaceutical companies such as Amgen, Sanofi, and Pfizer are investing in molecules in the early stages of clinical development in this therapy. If approved, these molecules have the potential to propel the regenerative medicine market by almost seven percent, exceeding the $10 billion mark.

Frost & Sullivan's recent analysis provides a detailed profile of the top 10 global biopharmaceutical companies, including the top five products and pipelines by development phase. In addition, the study projects that the market will reach over $300 billion by 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of close to 10 percent.

For further information on this analysis, please visit: http://frost.ly/286

"To keep up with the growing demand for new and advanced therapies, companies are either adopting hybrid business models or indulging in partnerships or acquisition activities to attain technology proficiency as well as specific therapy expertise," said Aarti Chitale, Transformational Health Senior Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "As a result, virtual pharmaceutical companies are coming to the fore by collaborating with bigger pharmaceutical players and providing specific services to these partners in terms of drug discovery, development, or manufacturing."

Strategic imperatives for the global biologics companies include:

Focusing on unmet needs by investing across the most promising segments, such as oncology , neurological disorders , infectious diseases , diabetes, and immunology among others, which have shown high acceptability across regions;

, , , and among others, which have shown high acceptability across regions; Capturing investment opportunities by partnering with niche players;

by partnering with niche players; Forming strategic collaborations: Small-to-mid sized pharmaceutical companies are focusing on biologics discovery and development, by collaborating with larger pharmaceutical and generic manufacturers, contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) and Contract Research Organizations (CROs); and

Small-to-mid sized pharmaceutical companies are focusing on biologics discovery and development, by collaborating with larger pharmaceutical and generic manufacturers, contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) and Contract Research Organizations (CROs); and Adopting newer development and manufacturing techniques, including improvements in bioanalytical testing.

"Alongside industry and academic research collaborations, companies are focusing on partnering with IT players such as IBM Watson Health, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, which provide technologically advanced solutions for conducting clinical trials and supporting complex drug manufacturing processes," observed Chitale. "While these collaborations are expected to mitigate certain manufacturing difficulties and create integrated business models, higher manufacturing costs are likely to affect the pricing of these molecules, thus impacting the adoption rate, especially across emerging markets with inadequate reimbursement facilities."

Global Biologics MarketCompanies-to-Action is part of Frost & Sullivan's Transformational Health Growth Partnership Services program.

About Frost & Sullivan

For over five decades, Frost & Sullivan has become world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion

Global Biologics MarketCompanies-to-Action

MD83_52

Contact:

Mariana Fernandez

Corporate Communications  North America

P: +1 (210) 348 1012

E: [email protected]

http://ww2.frost.com

twitter: @FS_Healthcare

LinkedIn: Transform Health

Related Links

http://www.frost.com



SOURCE Frost & SullivanTAIPEI, Taiwan, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- King Car Group Chairman Mr Tien Tsai Lee and group CEO Mr Yu-Ting Lee, are a Chinese first and first father and son to be inducted into the World Whiskies Awards (WWA) "Hall of Fame."

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/658683/Kavalan_WWA_Hall_of_Fame.jpg

According to the WWA, the award recognises the Lees' standing as two of the "whisky greats" and "the most iconic individuals in the industry."

Damian Riley Smith, WWA CEO called Kavalan's founders the "father and son team who have transformed the global whisky industry, who have shifted its frontiers through entrepreneur passion and innovation."

He described what they had done as "quite truly magnificent in creating a new category, and putting Taiwan on the whisky map, where there was no whisky distilling history ever."

King Car Kavalan CEO Mr YT Lee said "Thank WWA, Kavalan team, the late Dr Jim Swan to make Kavalan's dream come true."

The Hall of Fame is a permanent tribute honouring those individuals who have made a lasting contribution to the world of whisky and, was inspired by the top 100 greatest whisky figures in history who appeared in the 100th edition of Whisky Magazine.

The Kavalan Solist Port won 2018 WWA Single Cask Single Malt Whisky-Best Taiwanese Whisky. WWA has previously given Kavalan two of its biggest awards for the Solist Amontillado Sherry Single Cask Strength which was named the "World's Best Single Cask Single Malt Whisky" in 2016 and its Solist Vinho Barrique, which won the 2015 "World's Best Single Malt Whisky."

King Car Group will launch beer, its latest business, later in the year.

About Kavalan Whisky

Taiwan's first whisky distillery has been pioneering the art of single malt whisky since 2006. Kavalan is aged in intense humidity and heat yet benefits from sea and mountain breezes and the spring water from Snow Mountain, which combine to create Kavalan's signature creaminess. The distillery takes its name from the indigenous name for Yilan County, where it is based, and is backed by 30 years of beverage-making under parent company, King Car Group. It has collected more than 250 gold awards including 8 times world whisky winner and 4 times Spirits Producers of the Year and is available in 68 countries. Visit www.kavalanwhisky.com/EN/main.aspx

Media Contact:

Yvonne Chou

+886-3922-9000#7162

[email protected]

Related Links

http://www.kavalanwhisky.com/en



SOURCE KavalanTUV Rheinland's Energy Yield evaluation tests are extremely rigorous, requiring the simulations of climatic environments in five different regions worldwide - Cologne (Germany), Datong (China), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Chennai (India) and Los Angeles (USA). At its conclusion, LONGi Solar 60-cell mono module was named the best performing module and winner in the mono group.

The "All Quality Matters" Award was established by TUV Rheinland to be an objective and credible evaluation by an authoritative and neutral body to standardize product quality, establish a quality benchmark and guide sustainable development in the photovoltaic industry. The awards are recognized by industry experts, authorities, PV plant owners and manufacturers. This year's awards were presented to companies with excellent performance and significant contributions in different aspects of the PV industry.

As a world leading mono-crystalline solar module manufacturer for achieving best LCOE solutions, LONGi Solar has received the "PV Module Energy Yield Simulation Award" for two consecutive years. Accepting the honor, Mr. Wenxue Li, President of LONGi Solar, said, "LONGi Solar has always been committed to giving to our customers the best products and services. This award is the result of objective measurement, and it also underlines the excellent performance of LONGi Solar mono modules with regard to energy yield. LONGi Solar will work harder to live up to your trust and expectations, make more reliable and efficient products, and provide customers with more cost-effective services."

With 18 years of experience and significant investments in mono R&D of more than CNY1.8 billion (approx. USD285 million) in the past five years, LONGi Solar now has a globally recognized advanced R&D capability with a team of almost 500 people, technical ability and a sophisticated quality control system. Building on these strengths, LONGi Solar will continue to focus on product quality and providing best in class LCOE solutions.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/658577/LONGi_Solar_TUV_Rheinland_Award.jpg

SOURCE LONGi SolarWARREN, New Jersey and BANGALORE, India, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The data science platform will deliver actionable insights leveraging Adobe Experience Cloud

Mindtree, a global technology services and digital transformation company, today announced that its insights platform, Decision Moments, built on the Microsoft Azure Platform, now leverages Adobe Experience Cloud, helping marketers drive faster conversions and increase customer lifetime value.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633364/Mindtree_Logo.jpg )



Marketers need to reimagine the consumer journey by understanding the areas where the customer experience becomes less intuitive and individualized, and to deliver contextual and personalized experiences. This is critical for marketers to better direct their marketing investments.

Mindtree built Decision Moments to help marketers solve this challenge. It's designed to integrate with the digital footprints from Adobe Experience Cloud and enrich it with offline and third-party data. This helps marketers achieve a 360-degree view of the customer, with micro-segmentation. The modeling sandbox in Decision Moments allows marketers to run controlled experiments to validate the micro-segments. Marketers can more effectively target consumers using applications such as next best offers, product recommendations and purchase inclination. These insights are delivered as personalized content by Adobe Experience Cloud.

Decision Moments leverages Adobe Experience Cloud, and is powered by Microsoft Azure services, including Cortana Intelligence Suite, in a cloud-native solution.

"Marketers are evaluating ways to deliver connected experiences in the right context across touchpoints to their customers. Taking the data science view will help them unearth and apply insights to achieve their marketing goals," said Sreedhar Bhagavatheeswaran, Senior Vice President and Global Head - Digital Business for Mindtree. "The data-driven experience delivered by Adobe Experience Cloud coupled with consumer insights from Decision Moments is the secret sauce for effectively influencing and engaging customers at multiple micro-moments across touchpoints."

"An exceptional experience is the most effective way for businesses to establish long-term relationships and create brand loyalty with customers. This requires meaningful customer insights," said Jay Dettling, Vice President, Global Partners, Adobe. "With Adobe Experience Cloud, businesses have access to everything they need to make sure every interaction with customers is personalized and seamless, across all touchpoints. Mindtree's Decision Moments platform will use Adobe Experience Cloud to drive higher conversions, increase lifetime value and speed to market."

To learn more about how Decision Moments will deliver actionable insights using Adobe Experience Cloud, read the blog post. Mindtree experts will attend the Adobe Summit 2018 in Las Vegas March 25-29, where they'll be available to discuss Decision Moments for Adobe Experience Cloud further.

About Mindtree

Mindtree [NSE: MINDTREE] delivers digital transformation and technology services from ideation to execution, enabling Global 2000 clients to outperform the competition. 'Born digital', Mindtree takes an agile, collaborative approach to creating customized solutions across the digital value chain. At the same time, our deep expertise in infrastructure and applications management helps optimize your IT into a strategic asset. Whether you need to differentiate your company, reinvent business functions or accelerate revenue growth, we can get you there. Visit http://www.mindtree.com to learn more.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

About Adobe Experience Cloud

Adobe Experience Cloud is a comprehensive set of cloud services designed to give enterprises everything needed to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Comprised of Adobe Marketing Cloud, Adobe Advertising Cloud and Adobe Analytics Cloud, Experience Cloud is built on Adobe Cloud Platform and integrated with Adobe Creative Cloud and Document Cloud. Leveraging Adobe Sensei's machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities, Adobe Experience Cloud combines world-class solutions, a complete extensive platform, comprehensive data and content systems, and a robust partner ecosystem that offer an unmatched expertise in experience delivery.

For more information, contact:



India

Siddhartha Tanti

Genesis Burson-Marsteller

+91-9986362435

[email protected]

United States

Erik Arvidson

Matter

+1-978-518-4542

[email protected]

Europe

Imogen Nation

Hotwire

+44-20-7608-4675

[email protected]



SOURCE MindtreeThe top legislator attended the ceremony marking the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and the Netherlands as part of her official visit to the country from March 26-28.

Vietnam and the Netherlands have become a strategic partner of each other in major spheres like climate change response and water management, and food security and sustainable development, she said.

Such cooperative achievements have been reaped not only for the past 45 years but more than 400 years since Dutch vessels anchored at Vietnams Hoi An port to trade rice and pepper, the NA Chairwoman stressed.

Nowadays, the Netherlands is affirming its role as Vietnams leading European investment and trade partner, with famous businesses like Heineken, Damen, Unilever, Fiesland Campina and Philips, she said.

The leader hailed contributions of the Dutch firms to Vietnams socio-economic development and integration, as well as cooperation between the two countries, for the sake of their people.

The sectoral strategic partnership has created a premise for bilateral collaboration in all related areas like marine economy, infrastructure, agriculture, national defence and education, she said.

Noting Vietnams reform efforts in all fields, NA Chairwoman Ngan said the country has received valuable support of the Netherland on the path, through various cooperation programmes.

The leader expressed her belief that the bilateral relationship will continue to yield fruits, and that cultural and art exchange programmes, along with investment and trade promotion forums to be held in the two countries in 2018 will help bring the them closer to each other.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, emphasised similarities shared by Vietnam and the Netherlands.

She applauded cooperative achievements gained by the two countries over the past decade, especially in water management and climate change combat, with the most noteworthy being the Mekong Delta Plan 2013.

The Netherlands wants to maintain the close cooperation with Vietnam towards a Mekong Delta of sustainability and prosperity, she said.SINGAPORE, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading Asian wine and spirits companies, including Rockland Distilleries (Sri Lanka), Siam Winery (Thailand) and Rachelle The Rabbit Meadery (Singapore) will be showcasing their latest offerings at ProWine Asia 2018, alongside some of the biggest names in the industry.

The rise in a small but growing number of Asian winemakers is due to Asian vintners, who have been trained overseas in countries like Australia and France, returning home and tapping on old winemaking styles they have mastered. By placing their own spin and incorporating new techniques for local markets, each has developed their own unique brand of wines and spirits. Despite the tropical climate, Southeast Asian wineries are producing much better wines than before, even hosting wine harvest festivals.

"My work with the Asian Wine Review has exposed me to the fact that the excitement surrounding Asian wine production is not just a passing fad. Driven by a broader interest in a wine-lifestyle; domestic wine production has seen significant growth across Asia. There are currently 13 countries in East Asia producing commercial wines and each of those locations has created their own localised demand. I see the paradigm shifting daily from an elevated consumption level of imported brands towards those that are produced on the doorstep of Asia. This is an exciting era for the artisans of the region," said Eddie McDougall, speaker at ProWine Asia 2018.

The global wine market is set to grow by 25% by 2022, the majority driven by Asian markets, according to the International Wine & Spirit Research (IWSR). In a 2015 World Health Organisation's (WHO) Global Health Observatory Data Repository report, Vietnam is second to Korea in terms of alcohol consumption in Asia, at 8.7 litres a year. Thailand came up close at 8.3 litres of alcohol a year.

The median age of the population in Asia is below 30. With the region's rising affluent middle class and millennials more likely to enjoy socialising over alcoholic drinks1, the potential of the Asian market is no longer limited to China, but also includes the smaller Southeast Asian markets.

From 24  27 April 2018, visitors can learn more about the latest wine and spirits trends through specialised masterclasses and seminars, tasting sessions and workshops by renowned industry speakers at ProWine Asia 2018. For those keen on the burgeoning Southeast Asian tropical viticulture, McDougall, awardwinning winemaker and wine critic, will be holding a variety of insightful sessions on the trends and wines in the region.

"Asian producers are beginning to make a name for themselves as their wineries and breweries expand to meet with growing demand for their native beverages, especially from international exporters." said Ms. Beattrice Ho, ProWine Asia Project Director, Messe Dusseldorf Asia.

"Southeast Asian wine is still a rather new concept to the region, hence further wine education and knowledge transfer is needed so local wine producers can continue to upsize their production and selection. We are excited that ProWine Asia is able to provide a timely platform for industry experts and businesses to gather and share their insight on the upcoming opportunities for the region."

Register for masterclasses and seminars here.

Join the social chatter:

PWA  Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube #ProWineAsia #ProWein #PWA2018

About the organisers:

UBM - www.ubm.com/singapore



Messe Dusseldorf Asia - http://mda.messe-dusseldorf.com/

1 https://blog.euromonitor.com/2018/02/demographic-social-shifts-boost-alcoholic-drink-sales.html

Media Enquiries:

Juliet Tseng / June Seah

UBM

Tel: +65 6233 6635 / +65 6233 6621

Email: [email protected] / [email protected]



Alvin Sim

Messe Dusseldorf Asia

Tel: +65 6332 9621

Email: [email protected]

Related Links

http://singapore.prowineasia.com/



SOURCE UBM AsiaNEW YORK, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 23, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued its ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in Stati et al. v. Rep. of Kazakhstan, a long-running litigation concerning the Stati Parties' efforts to enforce a $520 million arbitral award issued in their favor and against Kazakhstan under the Energy Charter Treaty.

The court refused, for the second time, Kazakhstan's request to consider evidence it claimed demonstrated that the arbitral award was "procured by fraud." The court also recognized the arbitral award, meaning that a U.S. court judgment will be issued for the full amount of the award.

Kazakhstan had first sought to introduce its evidence of alleged fraud to the U.S. court in 2016. In May 2016, the court refused to allow Kazakhstan to introduce this evidence, based on its finding that the arbitral tribunal had not relied upon the allegedly fraudulent evidence  which concerned the value of a liquefied petroleum gas plant, one of the assets Kazakhstan expropriated from the Stati Parties  in reaching its decision. The U.S. court held it had no reason to conduct a "mini-trial" on the fraud issue, since the allegations of fraud would be heard by the courts of Sweden, the jurisdiction where the arbitration took place.

Kazakhstan sought reconsideration of this ruling, offering additional facts and a different theory of fraud than it had presented in its original motion. The U.S. court refused to change its ruling, holding that Kazakhstan could have offered these additional facts and theories on its original motion, but did not. Consistent with U.S. law preventing re-litigation of issues based on facts that were available on the original motion, the U.S. court refused to consider them and declined to change its decision.

The U.S. court's judgment also rejected all of Kazakhstan's other objections to recognition of the award  including the alleged failure of the Stati Parties to observe a "cooling off" period imposed by the Energy Charter Treaty; improper constitution of the arbitral tribunal; and various alleged procedural violations concerning the conduct of the arbitration. The court fully rejected each of these arguments, citing U.S. arbitration principles that strictly limit a court's authority to second-guess arbitrators' decisions and call for deferential review.

The U.S. court's ruling is the latest development in the Stati Parties' long-running battle to enforce an arbitral award issued in December 2013 for Kazakhstan's violations of the investor protection provisions of the Energy Charter Treaty. A tribunal constituted under the auspices of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce found that Kazakhstan violated its international obligation to treat the Stati Parties' investments fairly and equitably and awarded the Stati Parties more than US$500 million in damages, legal costs, and interest. The award has since been fully upheld by two tiers of the Swedish judiciary, including the Swedish Supreme Court.

The Stati Parties have secured attachments of Kazakhstan's property worth approximately US$28 billion before various courts in the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Luxembourg.

The claims originally arose out of Kazakhstan's seizure of the Stati Parties' petroleum operations in 2010. The Stati Parties acquired two companies in 1999 that held idle licenses in the Borankol and Tolkyn fields in Kazakhstan. They invested more than US$1 billion over the ensuing decade to turn the companies into successful exploration and production businesses. By late 2008, the businesses had become profitable and had yielded considerable revenues for the Kazakh state. Just as the Stati Parties expected to start receiving dividends, more than half a dozen government agencies carried out a number of burdensome inspections and audits of the companies' businesses that resulted in false accusations of illegal conduct directed at the Stati Parties and their Kazakh companies, including criminal prosecutions of their general managers on false pretenses. Kazakhstan's actions challenged the Stati Parties' title to their investments, subjected them to hundreds of millions of dollars in unwarranted tax assessments and criminal penalties, and ultimately led to the seizure and nationalization of their investments by Kazakh authorities in 2010.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Kimberly Macleod

(917) 587-0069

[email protected]

Chris Winans

(908) 309-3959

[email protected]

SOURCE Ascom Group S.A.BANGALORE, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Mask It is an innovative product from the Vision Express In-style range, which gives one a pair of spectacle frames that can double up as sunglasses. It is an exclusive range by Vision Express. It has a mirror add-on that can be flipped on to the frame which has power lenses. It has been designed in the UK and is being introduced in India for the first time by any eyewear/optical retailer.

The best thing about owning Mask It is that it is lightweight and stylish. Mask It is a two-in-one product and it saves the hassle of carrying around two pairs of glasses. With Mask It, Vision Express aims to provide functionality at an affordable price without compromising on design. Mask It is being retailed at a singular price point of 4,999.

About Vision Express:

Vision Express is a joint venture between Grand Vision, the global leader in optical retail, present in over 40 countries and Indian retail conglomerate, Reliance Retail Limited. Vision Express India has around 158+ stores across 30 cities. At Vision Express, they believe in offering not just eyewear but superior quality eye care products. They offer a European Certified 6-step test conducted by qualified and trained optometrists. Their wide range of high-quality lenses and frames in latest designs and made of superior materials ensures that you get the best solution to correct your vision. They also offer European style sunglasses and a comprehensive range of specialized contact lenses.

SOURCE Vision ExpressGOTEBORG, Sweden, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The shareholders of Capio AB are hereby invited to attend the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held at 3 p.m. CET on Thursday, 3 May 2018 at Chalmers Karhus (hall Palmstedtsalen) at the address Chalmersplatsen, Gothenburg, Sweden. Registration will commence and coffee will be served from 2 p.m. CET.

RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Shareholders who wish to participate in the AGM must:

Firstly , be registered in the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB no later than Thursday 26 April 2018, and

Secondly , notify the company of their intention to attend the AGM under the address Capio AB, c/o Euroclear Sweden, "Annual General Meeting", P.O. Box 191, SE-101 23 Stockholm, by calling +46 8 402 91 36, weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., or at the website www.capio.com no later than Thursday 26 April 2018.

In connection with notification, shareholders must state their name, address, telephone number (daytime), personal or corporate identity number and information concerning their shareholding. Shareholders or proxies for shareholders at the AGM may take a maximum of two representatives with them to the AGM. Representatives may be brought to the Meeting only if the shareholder gives notice of their attendance as described above for notification of participation of shareholders. For shareholders who will be represented by proxy at the AGM, the original version of a signed and dated power of attorney must be enclosed with the notification. A form for the power of attorney is available on the company's website, www.capio.com and will be sent by mail on request to shareholders who state their address. For those representing a legal entity, a verified copy of the registration certificate or corresponding document showing the company's signatories must also be submitted.

In order to be entitled to participate in the AGM, shareholders whose shareholding is registered in the name of a trustee must re-register their shares in their own name at Euroclear Sweden AB. Shareholders who require such re-registration should notify their trustee well in advance of Thursday 26 April 2018, when such re-registration must have been completed.

AGENDA OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Proposal for agenda

Opening of the Meeting. Election of Chairman of the Meeting. Preparation and approval of the list of shareholders entitled to vote at the Meeting. Approval of the agenda. Election of one or two persons to approve the minutes of the Meeting. Determination of whether the Meeting has been duly convened. The Managing Director's report. Report on the work of the Board of Directors and the Committees of the Board of Directors. Presentation ofa) the annual report and the auditors' report, as well as the consolidated financial report and auditors' report on the consolidated financial report for the financial year 2017,b) statement from the company's auditor confirming compliance with the remuneration guidelines for the CEO and other senior managers that have applied since the preceding AGM, and c) the Board's proposal for appropriation of the company's profit and the Board's motivated statement thereon. Resolutions regarding a) adoption of the income statement and the balance sheet, and of the consolidated income statement and the consolidated balance sheet, all as per 31 December 2017,b) appropriation of the Company's profit as set forth in the balance sheet adopted by the Meeting and the record date for dividend distribution, and c) discharge of the Board of Directors and the Managing Director from personal liability for the financial year 2017. Determination of the number of members and deputy members of the Board. Determination of the fees to be paid to the Board members and auditor. Election of members of the Board. Election of auditor. Proposal for remuneration guidelines for the CEO and other senior managers. Closing of the Meeting.

Proposals

Election of Chairman of the Meeting (Item 2)

The Nomination Committee appointed in anticipation of the 2018 AGM, comprising Mikael Moll (Zeres Capital), Chairman, Per Hesselmark (R12 Kapital), Per Colleen (Fjarde AP-fonden), Bo Lundgren (Swedbank Robur fonder), Jan Sarlvik (Nordea Funds) and Michael Wolf (Chairman of the Board) has proposed that Michael Wolf be elected Chairman of the 2018 AGM.

Proposed appropriation of the Company's profit (Item 10 b)

The Board proposes that a dividend of SEK 0.95 per share be declared and that the record date for the dividend shall be 7 May 2018. If the AGM so resolves, the dividend is expected to be distributed by Euroclear Sweden AB on 11 May 2018.

Proposals regarding election of Board members, auditor and fees (Items 11-14)

The Nomination Committee proposes the following:

- The number of Board Members shall be eight, without deputies.

- Directors' fees shall be paid as follows: SEK 1,122,000 (1,100,000) to the Chairman of the Board, SEK 408,000 (400,000) to each of the other Board Members elected by the AGM who are not employed by the company. As remuneration for committee work, the chairman of the Finance and Audit Committee shall receive SEK 150,000 (150,000) and each member of the Finance and Audit Committee SEK 50,000 (50,000), the chairman of the Remuneration Committee shall receive SEK 50,000 (50,000) and member of the Remuneration Committee SEK 50,000 (50,000) and the chairman of the Medical Quality Committee shall receive SEK 150,000 (150,000) and member of the Medical Quality Committee SEK 75,000 (75,000). An additional compensation of SEK 20,000 (20,000) per meeting in person for travelling time will be offered to Pascale Richetta and Michael Flemming.

- Re-election of Board Members Michael Wolf, Michael Flemming, Gunnar Nemeth, Hans Ramel, Pascale Richetta, Joakim Rubin, Gunilla Rudebjer and Birgitta Stymne Goransson.

- Re-election of Michael Wolf as the Chairman of the Board.

The Nomination Committee has proposed the re-election of the registered auditing firm Ernst & Young AB as the company's auditor for a period of one year in accordance with the recommendation of the Finance and Audit Committee, whereby it is noted that the auditing firm has notified that, if the auditing firm is re-elected, the authorised public accountant Mikael Sjolander will be appointed principally responsible auditor. Fees to the auditor shall be payable according to contract.

Proposal for remuneration guidelines for the CEO and other senior managers 2018

(Item 15)

The Board of Directors proposes that the AGM 2018 adopts guidelines for remuneration to the CEO and other senior managers in accordance with the following.

These guidelines concern the remuneration and other terms of employment for the CEO and other senior managers. Senior managers include Group Management. The guidelines are valid for employment agreements entered into after the approval of the guidelines by the AGM, and for changes made to existing employment agreements thereafter. Remuneration to the CEO and other senior managers will include fixed salary (base salary), possible variable remuneration, other benefits and pension. The variable compensation comprises (i) an individual annual variable compensation, and may also, as a supplement, include (ii) a long-term incentive program. The total remuneration should correspond to market conditions and be competitive in the senior manager's relevant labor market. Fixed salary and variable remuneration is to be linked to the manager's responsibility and authority. The annual variable salary for the CEO and the other members of the management may not amount to more than 60 percent of the fixed annual gross salary. The variable remuneration is to be based on the outcome of predetermined objectives and, as far as possible, be linked to the growth in value of the Capio share, from which the shareholders benefit. Programs for variable remuneration shall be designed in such a way as to enable the Board of Directors, if exceptional economic conditions prevail, to restrict or omit payment of the variable remuneration if such action is deemed reasonable and consistent with the company's responsibility towards shareholders, employees and other stakeholders. In order to establish a long-term perspective in the decision-making and to ensure long-term achievement of goals, the Board of Directors may propose the general meeting to resolve on long-term incentive programs. The program participants shall be nominated based on, i. a. competence and performance. The outcome shall be dependent on the fulfillment of certain predetermined performance requirements. The aim of the Group's long-term incentive programs shall be to create a long-term commitment to Capio, to offer the participants to take part in Capio's long-term success and value creation and to create possibilities to attract and retain members of the management and key employees. It should however be noted that issues and transfers of securities resolved by the general meeting pursuant to the so-called Leo regulations in Chapter 16 of the Swedish Companies Act shall not be comprised by these guidelines. In the event of termination of employment, the notice period should not exceed 12 months. The right to severance payment, which shall only be payable if the termination is initiated by the company, should not exceed 12 months, and include a reduction of other income during the period. Consequently, the combined notice period and period during which the employee is entitled to severance payment should not exceed in aggregate 24 months. Pension benefits should if possible be defined by contribution but may also be defined by benefit, or by a combination thereof, and should entitle the senior manager to pension payments from the age of 65 at the earliest, unless local regulations provide otherwise. Variable remuneration shall not be included in the base when calculating pension unless local regulations provide otherwise. Matters of remuneration for the CEO shall be prepared by the Remuneration Committee and be resolved by the Board of Directors. The remuneration for senior managers who report directly to the CEO shall be prepared by the Remuneration Committee and can also be resolved by the Remuneration Committee. The Board of Directors may derogate from the guidelines in certain cases if there are special reasons for doing so. Special reasons may include, for example, offering to members of the senior management who reside outside Sweden terms that are competitive in their country of residence.

C. NUMBER OF SHARES AND VOTES IN THE COMPANY

The total number of shares and voting rights in the company is 141,159,661.

D. AVAILABLE DOCUMENTATION

The Annual Report and the auditor's statement, including the Board's proposal for remuneration guidelines for the CEO and other senior managers, as well as the auditors' statement regarding whether the guidelines have been complied with and the Board's complete proposal concerning Item 15, as well as the Board's motivated statement to the proposal for dividend distribution according to Item 10 b) will be available for the shareholders at the company's office in Gothenburg no later than Thursday, 12 April 2018. Copies of the documents will be sent to those shareholders who request to receive such information and who have provided their address. They will also be available on the company's website www.capio.com and at the AGM.

E. INFORMATION AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

At the AGM, the Board and the Managing Director shall, if requested by a shareholder and the Board considers that it can be done without material damage to the company, provide information regarding issues that may (i) affect the assessment of an item on the agenda, (ii) affect the assessment of the company's or a subsidiary's financial situation or (iii) concern the company's relation to another group company. A shareholder may send questions in advance by mail to Capio AB, "AGM 2018", P.O. Box 1064, SE-405 22 Gothenburg, Sweden, or by email to agm@capio.com.

Gothenburg in March 2018

CAPIO AB (publ)

Board of Directors

For information, please contact:

Mikael Moll

Chairman of the Nomination Committee

Telephone: +46-702-93-01-31

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/capio-ab/r/annual-general-meeting-in-capio-ab--publ-,c2479441

The following files are available for download:

Related Links

http://www.capio.com



SOURCE Capio ABBEIJING, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Beijing and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Shanghai announced the launch of three new Czech Republic Visa Application Centres located in Changsha, Jinan, and Fuzhou, in the People's Republic of China (P.R. China). Services at the new centres, managed by VFS Global through its local Chinese partners, have been operational from 19 March 2018.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/624234/VFS_Global_Logo.jpg )

With the addition of the three new centres, applicants can now visit any of the 14 modern and professionally managed visa application centres located across P. R. China to enrol their biometrics and submit their visa applications. Some of the key features of the centres include automated queue governance for smooth flow of applicants, Premium Lounge services, and a dedicated website for easy access to all visa-related information.

In a move to deliver an enhanced customer experience, 'doorstep' visa services will also soon be introduced in the 14 cities in which Czech Republic visa services are provided, enabling travellers to submit their biometrics and visa applications from a location of their choice.

H.E. Ambassador of the Czech Republic, Mr. Bedrich Kopecky, welcomed the opening of yet another three visa centres. He commented, "This will further promote people-to-people contacts between our two countries." He also said, "Last year the number of tourists from China reached almost 500,000 and with four direct flights in operation, this number is likely to increase even further."

Also commenting, Mr. Harish Bhojwani, Regional Head - China, VFS Global, said, "We are honoured to extend our network of Czech Republic Visa Application Centres in P. R. China on behalf of the Government of the Czech Republic to provide applicants with greater accessibility to proficiently managed visa processing services."

VFS Global has been serving the Government of the Czech Republic since 2008, and currently provides visa application processing services on behalf of the client government in 20 countries globally through 93 visa application centres. In P. R. China, VFS Global in partnership with its local Chinese partners has been present since 2005 and currently provides visa application processing services for on behalf of 27 client governments in the country.

All centres are operational from Monday to Friday from 08:00 hrs to 15:00 hrs. Information on the centre addresses, dedicated helpline numbers and email support can be obtained at http://www.vfsglobal.cn/czechrepublic/china/

About VFS Global

VFS Global is the world's largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. With 2574 Application Centres, operations in 137 countries across five continents and over 165 million applications processed as on 28 February 2018, VFS Global is the trusted partner of 58 client governments. VFS Global's worldwide operations are certified ISO 9001:2008 for Quality Management System, ISO 27001:2013 for Information Security Management System and ISO 14001:2004 for Environmental Management System. For more information, please visit http://www.vfsglobal.com.

SOURCE VFS GlobalLONDON, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

London is set to welcome a major piece of Hollywood history this summer, giving film fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to soak up the glamour of the 'Golden Age' of movies.

The Heart of Hollywood World Tour premieres at The O2 in June where it will spend four weeks before visiting 60 cities over the next five years.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is the 'H' from the original Hollywood sign, which stands at the height of four double decker buses. There will also be an important collection of Hollywood memorabilia, including pieces that were owned by the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, alongside costumes and other props from films, such as Gone with the Wind, Hello Dolly and The Wizard of Oz.

The man behind the tour is revered American artist Bill Mack who bought the original Hollywood sign in 2007. He painstakingly restored the 'H' and used the other panels as canvases for paintings of icons of the age, which will also be on display at the exhibition.

Bill Mack said: "We are really looking forward to launching the show in London. London is a fantastic first stop for us and we are excited to share this piece of history with those keen to soak up a little glamour of that unforgettable Golden Age."

"The Hollywood sign is among the most famous structures in the world. This is a unique opportunity to see it, alongside the most iconic artefacts from the timeless movies we all hold close to our hearts."

Much of the memorabilia on display belongs to Mack, an avid Hollywood fan, with the rest being on loan from the likes of the Hollywood Museum.

This year marks the 40th anniversary since the original sign was replaced, with the tour culminating in 2023 and returning to a permanent home in Los Angeles, exactly 100 years since it first stood tall on the Hollywood Hills.

The event's partners include the Los Angeles Tourist Board and The Savoy. It is partnering up with the 'No Predators' campaign launched by London-based Boudica films in the wake of the #MeToo movement to support access to legal advice, advocate for equality in the industry, as well as mentor and provide employment opportunities for women in film.

More information:

Pictures: http://www.heartofhollywoodtour.com/latest-news/media-resources

http://www.heartofhollywoodtour.com

Tickets on sale from http://www.theo2.co.uk

21st June - 17th July.

SOURCE The Heart of Hollywood World TourKIGALI, Rwanda, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

NEF partners with Elsevier to provide editorial expertise, infrastructure and a capacity building engine for the next generation of African researchers

A unique partnership between the Next Einstein Forum (NEF), an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), and Elsevier, the information analytics business specializing in science and health, will see the creation of a new pan-African, peer reviewed, open access publishing journal, dedicated to boosting the global reach and impact of research by Africans.

Scientific African will generate increased visibility for African researchers and provide a platform to share their research with the global community. Despite the digital revolution, African researchers continue to suffer from a lack of global exposure. They will now benefit from Elsevier's existing journal infrastructure and expertise to publish their research across a wide range of scientific disciplines. Scientific African is being launched at the Next Einstein Forum Global Gathering 2018 being held in Kigali, Rwanda, March 26-28, 2018.

"Scientific African is central to the Next Einstein Forum's vision of propelling Africa onto the global scientific stage. What better way to do this then by actively publishing the groundbreaking discoveries and excellent research of African scientists?" said Mr. Thierry Zomahoun, President and CEO of AIMS, and Founder and Chair of NEF. "The NEF is committed to promoting scientific excellence and collaboration in Africa. We believe the two go hand-in-hand to improve scientific output and outcomes and we are happy that Scientific African will be led by the NEF's brilliant Community of Scientists."

The journal's mission is to widen the availability and capacity of research by Africans, increase its impact and discoverability, and make African research more visible around the world. Scientific African will publish articles that focus on areas of critical importance to African scientists, citizens, and policymakers.

"Through the efforts of both Elsevier and the Elsevier Foundation, we are committed to building African capacity in research. Scientific African is a state of the art platform, which will complement national and regional efforts to increase visibility and provide cohesion for the African research community," said Ron Mobed, Elsevier CEO.

As part of its partnership with NEF, Elsevier will offer the publishing infrastructure for Scientific African at cost. Elsevier will also share its expertise in publishing, data sharing, marketing, editorial organization and information analytics, to help build a freely accessible flagship journal for African researchers. Headed by Fellows from NEF's Community of Scientists, the journal will allow authors to publish their articles Open Access at a low cost, enabling African researchers to share their work to an international audience on a highly-visible, prestigious publishing outlet that utilizes Elsevier's market leading technology.

Scientific African will publish peer-reviewed original research from all scientific disciplines and will also occasionally publish reviews, editorials, and invited perspectives or critical policy papers. The journal welcomes submissions to its peer reviewed, open access, inter- and multidisciplinary scientific platform dedicated to expanding access to research by Africans, increasing intra-African scientific collaboration, and building scientific capacity in Africa.

The official launch of Scientific African will take place on March 26, 2018 at 4:00pm CAT (Central Africa Time) at the Kigali Convention Centre during the Next Einstein Forum Global Gathering, in Kigali, Rwanda. The unveiling will be officiated by Mr. Thierry Zomahoun, NEF Founder and Chair and Mr. Ron Mobed, CEO of Elsevier.

Reporters wishing to attend the launch can contact Nathalie Munyampenda at nmunyampenda@nef.org.

About the Next Einstein Forum

Launched in 2013, the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) is an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in partnership with the Robert Bosch Stiftung. The NEF is a platform that connects science, society and policy in Africa and the rest of the world - with the goal to leverage science for human development globally. The NEF believes that Africa's contributions to the global scientific community are critical for global progress. At the centre of NEF efforts are Africa's young people, the driving force for Africa's scientific renaissance. The NEF is a unique youth-driven forum. At our headline biennial scientific events, 50% of participants are 42 or younger. Far from being an ordinary science forum, the NEF Global Gatherings position science at the centre of global development efforts. The next NEF Global Gathering will be held on 26-28 March 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda. In addition, through our Communities of Scientists, we showcase the contributions of Africa's brilliant youth to Africa's scientific emergence through its class of NEF Fellows, who are Africa's top scientists and technologists under the age of 42, and NEF Ambassadors, who are the NEF's 54 science and technology ambassadors on the ground.

The NEF is also working together with partners such as the African Academy of Sciences, Ministers' of Education, Science and Research across Africa, foundations and other global scientific and private sector companies, to build an African scientific identity. By bringing together key stakeholders, the NEF hopes to drive the discussion from policy to implementation by leveraging buy in and best practice results from Africa and the world. Have a look at our benchmark Dakar Declaration .

Finally, the NEF is telling untold stories of scientific research and innovation across the continent through our various platforms. We want to recalibrate what 'innovation' means in Africa. We want to make the link between science and technology, even basic sciences, to everyday life. We want the public involved in science and we have recently concluded the first coordinated Africa Science Week - an annual three to five-day celebration of science and technology through coordinated science events across the continent. We believe the next Einstein will be African.

Twitter: @NextEinsteinFor

Facebook: NextEinsteinForum

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a global information analytics business that helps institutions and professionals advance healthcare, open science and improve performance for the benefit of humanity. Elsevier provides digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support and professional education, including ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey and Sherpath. Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell, more than 35,000 e-book titles and many iconic reference works, including Gray's Anatomy. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professionals and business customers across industries. www.elsevier.com

Media contacts

Nathalie Munyampenda, Managing Director

Next Einstein Forum

+250-787-36-5464

nmunyampenda@nef.org



Jonathan Davis, Communications Officer

Elsevier

+31-20-485-2719

j.davis.1@elsevier.com



SOURCE ElsevierAt the reception for the Saudi crown prince at the White House Oval Office, US President Donald Trump praised the relationship between Washington and Riyadh. He said the two countries' relations are as good as they have been and will continue to grow. The US President appreciated the effectiveness of the arms deal signed last year, while stressing that Saudi Arabia's large investments in the US have contributed to the creation of 40,000 jobs for local workers.

In response, the crown prince said the arms deal with the US will be implemented within ten years and would reached US$400 billion when it comes to the final stage and this shows that there will be many more opportunities ahead.

The meeting between the US President and the Crown Prince Salman took place in the context of the US Senate having unanimously abolished the resolution on ending US support for the Saudi Arabias military campaign in the civil war in Yemen. The resolution made use of a provision in the 1973 War Powers Act that allows any senator to introduce a resolution on whether to withdraw US armed forces from a conflict that has not been authorised by Congress. During the Senate debate before the vote, some backers called the three-year-long conflict in Yemen a "humanitarian catastrophe." The resolution abolishment again reaffirmed the US support for Saudi Arabia, which is leading air strikes to eradicate the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia plans to strengthen its defence industry with the goal of diversifying non-oil fields. The plan could create more jobs and develop new technologies as Riyadh is seeking solutions to tackle youth unemployment and meet its growing demand for weapons. Saudi Arabia has set up a general administration for military industry, which is a government agency with great power in military procurement as well as research and development.

During the visit, the US Department of State announced the sale of anti-tank missile TOW, as well as spare parts for armoured fighting vehicles and maintenance services for Saudi Arabia under three separate agreements worth a total of US$1.1 billion. The main contractor for this deal is the Raytheon Group based in Tucson, Arizona. The Defence Security Cooperation Agency also submitted the agreement to the US Congress for approval.

The deal is expected to support US foreign policy and national security objectives by improving the security of "friends", and in line with US initiatives to provide its key partners with modern weapon systems, which helps to enhance combat capabilities in conjunction with the US forces, providing the basis for Riyadh's increased contribution to anti-terrorist campaigns in the Middle East, thereby reducing the burden on the US military.

During the visit to the US by Crown Prince Salman, in addition to meetings with American leaders and politics, there were also working sessions with representatives from leading US corporations in Wall Street. The US-Saudi Arabia Business Forum in New York, with a range of trade and investment cooperation agreements being signed during the visit, reinforces the trust between the two allies. In particular, the arms deal between the two has helped the US to reaffirm its commitment to securing a "security umbrella" in its partnership with Saudi Arabia, while expanding opportunities in the Middle East for American companies.Speaking at the launch ceremony for the International Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development 2018-2028, Head of Vietnam's Permanent Mission to the UN, Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga, emphasised the role of water in the development and prosperity of nations, as well as in the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

She stressed the need to take action immediately if humanity does not want to suffer from a state of serious water scarcity in the future, while mentioning Vietnam's efforts to promote water cooperation. She also praised the focus of the Decade for Action towards the people, especially women and children.

She expressed her hope to continue receiving support from the international community for countries vulnerable to climate change and agricultural countries in the water sector, especially in terms of resources and technology transfer. The initiatives from Vietnam were welcomed by the international delegates at the event.

The launch of the International Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development 2018-2028. (Photo: UN)



The launch of the ten-year water action plan took place on March 22, under the chairmanship of UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak. High-ranking guests at the ceremony were UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, Ministers from Bangladesh, Ecuador and Ethiopia, as well as representatives from UN member countries.

The President of Tajikistan, on behalf of the participating countries in the High-Level Panel on Water, shared the group's recommendations on the focus of the International Decade for Action, which emphasised enhancing information sharing on water, the protection of water resources, increased investment in water research, and increased attention toward vulnerable groups in gaining access to water.

Representatives from the participating countries shared their efforts in international and regional cooperation to address water-related challenges, as well as introducing innovative technologies to handle water scarcity and emphasising the need to include water issues with other development, security and environmental issues.Experts Predict Bitcoin Move Above $10K

This week Bitcoin may come close to the psychological level of 10000 USD/BTC and break above it, some international experts say.

However, according to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin was going down yesterday. In particular, the worlds first digital currency lost 2,35% of its value during yesterdays trading session by going down to 8648 USD/BTC. Earlier today, the move continued and the exchange rate dropped down below 8500 USD/BTC and then below 8400 USD/BTC. Now its trading close to 8300 USD/BTC.

As always, the BTC exchange rate has been seriously affected by the international news background. Last week, during the recent G20 summit, many of the G20 regulators agreed to work out their own rules for regulating the cryptocurrency market within the next few months. Its interesting to note that the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors refused to give Bitcoin the status of a legal payment means. For now, Bitcoin is just another financial asset to them. However, the summit participants also gave the world to understand that Bitcoin wasnt threatening the global economy, which is definitely a positive sign for the global cryptocurrency market.



There were some other news affecting the BTC exchange rate, including the SECs investigation into dozens of ICOs, as well as the Bank of Japans warning to Binance about the necessity of getting a license if the exchange still wants to work in this country, and so much more.



At the same time, NordFX experts report that all of those news made Bitcoin go flat, not to mention the reduced amount of sell offers. All of that can be seen as the rise of the bullish sentiment in the market.

You are free to discuss this article here: forum for traders and investors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Rattlers football preparing for Hanna, district Non-district high school football games are always a bit tricky to judge. They are usually played at the start of the season and teams may be a bit rusty. Teams may approach them with different mindsets as well, juggling players around at different positions to see how they doBengaluru, March 20 : AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala on Tuesday afternoon left for Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu to attend her husband M. Natarajan's last rites after securing a 15-day parole, an official said.

"She has been granted parole for 15 days. During the period, she has been directed to limit her visit to Thanjavur and not to take part in any political activity," Bengaluru Central Jail Chief Superintendent M. Somashekar told IANS.

Natarajan, 74, died on Tuesday in Chennai after he was hospitalized on March 16 for chest infection and kept on ventilator support.

His body is to be taken to his village in Thanjavur district, about 350 km south of Chennai, for last rites.

Sasikala, 60, left from the central prison in a private car. She had reportedly collapsed in the prison on hearing the news of her husband's death.

Natarajan's death made the Prison Department grant the parole a week after Sasikala's similar plea was rejected when he (Natarajan) was admitted at a Chennai hospital for treatment.

Sasikala was last granted a parole for five days from October 6-12 to meet her husband who had then undergone a liver and kidney transplant in Chennai.

Sasikala is currently serving a four-year sentence since February 15 last year after the Supreme Court upheld her conviction in a corruption case.Seoul, March 21 : South Korea on Wednesday offered to hold high-level talks with North Korea on March 29, said the Blue House.

The talks would be held at Tongilgak, a North Korean building in the truce village of Panmunjom.

Kim Eui-kyeom, the Blue House spokesman, told reporters that Seoul made the dialogue proposal to be held ahead of the inter-Korean summit, which the two Koreas agreed to hold in late April at Peace House, a South Korean building in Panmunjom.

The dialogue offer was made after the second plenary session of the Presidential committee to prepare for the April summit. It was chaired by South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Xinhua news agency reported.

Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon will lead the three-member South Korean delegation to the high-level talks.

The two other members would be officials from the Blue House and the National Intelligence Service (NIS), respectively.

South Korea proposed to Pyongyang that the basic matters for the senior-level April summit, such as summit schedules, dialogue agenda, and delegations from each side, should be discussed.

The inter-Korean summit would be followed by a summit between the US and Pyongyang.

US President Donald Trump said he would meet Kim Jong-un by the end of May to achieve a permanent denuclearisation.Los Angeles, March 21 : "American Horror Story" co-creator and writer Ryan Murphy says actress Kathy Bates will return to the series for its eighth season along with Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters.

Bates appeared in "AHS: Coven", "AHS: Freak Show", "AHS: Hotel" and "AHS: Roanoke".

The Oscar-winning actress was not in last season's "AHS: Cult" due to her Netflix comedy series "Disjointed".

"Kathy and Sarah Paulson have a lot of great stuff to get to do," ew.com quoted Murphy as saying. "So, with Evan Peters, the three of them are the leads this year."

Bates last appeared in "Roanoke", the sixth season of the show.

Murphy also spoke on online rumours that season eight might be titled "Radioactive".

"I heard about that rumour. Well, that's based on a fact that we've cleared a lot of titles for that show. It's an interesting idea. I can neither confirm nor deny," he said.* One person was killed and two others wounded in a ballistic missile attack late on March 25 over the capital of Riyadh fired from Yemen by Houthis militias, Saudi civil defense said.

* Canada is to deploy peacekeeping troops in Mali by August, Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said in an interview on CTV's Question Period aired on March 25.

According to the United Nations, there have been 162 multinational peacekeeper fatalities since the mission began in 2013.

* A total of 110,000 civilians have so far evacuated the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta area, since earlier this month, state news agency SANA reported on Sunday.

The Syrian army secured the evacuation of civilians as the number increases on a daily basis since the evacuation started in mid-March.

*An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale jolted 214 km NW of Saumlaki, Indonesia at 20:14:47 GMT on March 25, but is not potential for triggering tsunami.

According to the US Geological Survey, the epicenter, with a depth of 171.51 km, was initially determined to be at 6.6546 degrees south latitude and 129.8659 degrees east longitude.

* Libya has lost over US$145 million since the closure of Al-Fil oil field, which produces more than 70,000 barrels of oil per day, a month ago, the state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on March 25.

*Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will pay official visits to Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to discuss ways of improving mutual relations, Press TV reported on March 25.Lucknow, March 23 : The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to publish data on criminal cases against Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, an RTI activist said on Friday.

The direction was given by Information Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad in an RTI appeal filed by Lucknow-based activist Nutan Thakur.

While the MHA had denied to provide this information, the Commission said as the cadre controlling authority, MHA's role is to look after the conditions of service of IPS officers, including departmental enquiries and criminal cases. Hence, the MHA must draw such list and provide it to the petitioner.

Similarly, while the MHA denied information on cadre change of IPS officers calling it personal information, the Commission disagreed with it, saying that transfer of cadre affects public administration and must be placed in the public domain.

The Commission also directed the MHA to furnish year-wise disciplinary action taken against IPS officers.Jammu, March 24 : The security forces on Saturday launched a massive search operation in the border villages of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, police said.

Schools have been closed in these areas for the day after the villages were cordoned off late Friday evening.

Police sources said the search operation was being conducted in four to five villages in the Sunderbani area after receiving reports about suspicious movement.

"So far, no contact has been established with holed-up militants or some suspicious persons in the area, although the operation is still going on," the sources said.Beijing, March 24 : Any attempt by China to change the status quo along the Indian border may lead to another Doklam-like stand-off, India's envoy Gautam Bambawale has said, adding that the best way to prevent such incidents is through candid and frank talks.

In an interview to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, Bambwale said the un-demarcated border between India and China is "the most serious problem between the two countries" and they need to redefine the boundary soon.

Bambawale said New Delhi will oppose the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) but won't let the difference over Belt and Road become a dispute with Beijing. He also downplayed the reports of India joining the bloc of the US, Japan and Australia to counter China.

The two militaries were locked in a 73-day stand-off at Doklam in the eastern sector of their border last year. The issue was resolved in August, only after souring the bilateral ties.

"In order to maintain the peace and tranquillity (along India-China border), there are certain areas, certain sectors which are very sensitive, where we must not change the status quo. If anyone changes the status quo, it will lead to a situation like what happened in Doklam," Bambawale said in the interview published on Saturday.

"The Chinese military changed the status quo in the Doklam area and therefore India reacted to it. Ours was a reaction to the change in the status quo by the Chinese military.

"... when incidents like Doklam happened last year, it meant that we were not frank and candid enough with each other. So we need to increase the level of frankness.

"In the sense that if the Chinese military are going to build a road, they must tell us 'we are going to build a road'. If we do not agree to it then we can reply that, 'look, you're changing the status quo. Please don't do it. This is a very very sensitive area'," he said.

On India's concerns about China's Belt and Road project, Bambawale said if the initiative meets the norms of an international programme then New Delhi has no problem.

"One of the norms is that the project should not violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a country. Unfortunately, there is this thing called the CPEC which violates India's sovereignty and territory integrity. Therefore, we oppose it."

The CPEC is the flagship project of China's Belt and Road project, a network of roads, ports and sea lanes that aims to connect Asia, Africa and Europe. India opposes it as it cuts through Kashmir held by Pakistan, but claimed by it.

"We might have differences of opinion on Belt and Road, but that we must not allow that difference of opinion to become a dispute," Bambawale said.

Asked about India's concerns over China making inroads into its neighbourhood, he said New Delhi was not worried about it.

"Let me tell you very clearly that India has its own relationships with all these countries. These are very strong relationships and India is also doing a lot of projects in countries like Maldives, Nepal or Sri Lanka. So, our relationships with these countries are very strong, they are historical, people-to-people contacts."

"I don't think we are worried about what China is doing. Those countries are free to have relationships with any third country, including China."

On the talks of India joining an emerging bloc called Quad, Bambawale sought to allay China's fears. "I do not see India becoming part of any alliance. Let me also repeat what I have already said to you before."

"As far as four countries are concerned, let me tell you very clearly that India has never been a part of any alliance. I think countries like India and China are too big to be part of any alliance," he added.

The envoy said that there are hosts of bilateral meetings lined-up, including the one between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit in June.

(Gaurav Sharma is the IANS correspondent in Beijing. He can be contacted at gaurav.s@ians.in)Damascus, March 26 : A total of 3,708 rebels and their family members evacuated Syria's Eastern Ghouta area on Sunday, as the second batch to leave areas under the control of Failaq al-Rahman militia, media reporter.

The rebels and members of their families were transported by 52 buses from the outskirts of the town of Arbeen in Eastern Ghouta toward rebel-held areas in northwestern Syria, Xinhua reported.

This is the second batch to leave areas under the control of Failaq al-Rahman, a day after 981 rebels and their families evacuated toward rebel-held areas in Idlib province in northwestern Syria.

The evacuation is part of a recently-reached deal between the rebels and the Syrian army under the Russian mediation.Manama, March 26 : Bahrain announced tough measures against social media accounts that "spread malicious rumors" under the guise of the Royal Court.

Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa noted on Sunday steps to deal with unprecedented chaos by disruptive social media accounts, Xinhua reported.

"Such accounts spread malicious rumours that went against social harmony and civil peace," the minister said, adding that security authorities would tackle any offence against national and traditional values.

"Some disruptive social media accounts claimed they were run by the Royal Court while it had been proved they were operated through malicious websites and had no links with the Royal Court or any other official organization in Bahrain," he added.

He said the Royal Court is an official authority that supervises all constitutional organisations in the kingdom.

The minister said the operators of some of those accounts were identified and others would continue to be pursued. "We won't be far from tracking them down and taking legal action against them even if we need to draft new legislation to tackle the latest developments in such crimes."

The interior minister said there would be a follow-up and steps would be taken to make them accountable in accordance with the law to stop their violations.

Following the announcement, Chief Prosecutor of the city of Muharraq Hussain Khamis said the public prosecution had launched an investigation into misusing social media networks by a suspect who posted defamatory tweets.Moscow, March 26 : At least 37 people were killed in a fire in a shopping mall in the south central Russian city of Kemerovo on Sunday, while many others are missing, officials said.

Earlier reports said 69 people, including 40 children, were missing. Firefighters are working at the scene to search for the missing, Xinhua reported.

Around 120 people were evacuated from the burned building, of which more than 1,000 square meters were ripped through by the deadly fire, according to local news agency Sputnik.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry has planned to dispatch more rescuers to the scene, Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said.

The cause of fire at the shopping mall still remains unclear.Los Angeles, March 26 : After TV producers Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy struck nine figure deals with Netflix, it has left other producers dreaming of big paydays.

While Rhimes is known for projects like "Grey's Anatomy", "Private Practice" and "How to Get Away with Murder", Murphy has comedy drama "Glee", "American Horror Story" and "American Crime Story", to his credit.

"There is another 'Me Too' movement, which is all of these creators who are saying, 'Why am I not getting that huge deal? Where is my $100 million up front?" quipped Sandra Stern, president of Lionsgate TV Group at a conference, reports variety.com.

Stern was joined by top programmers at Amazon, NBC Universal and Paradigm for a provocative, wide-ranging discussion on the state of series television at a symposium.

Craig Wagner, executive Vice President of business affairs and general counsel, at Paradigm, noted that the megapacts for Rhimes and Murphy have left tongues wagging.

"For some of our clients who have created multiple shows on television, it's an enticing proposition for sure," he said.

Wagner characterised the impact Netflix made with those deals by quoting what one studio exec he preferred to keep anonymous told him: "The Shonda deal was a shot across the bow, and the Ryan Murphy deal was a punch in the face."Riyadh, March 26 : The Saudi Arabian Air Defence forces on Monday intercepted seven ballistic missiles launched by Yemeni Houthi rebels, according to authorities.

According to Turki al-Malki, the spokesperson for the Saudi Arabia-led Arab coalition who blamed Iran for the attack, three of the projectiles were heading towards Riyadh, one to Khamis Mushait in the province of Asir, another to Najran and the other two to Jizan, reports Efe news.

The interception of the missiles resulted in the dispersal of fragments of the shells, which fell over nearby residential areas, killing an Egyptian civilian, according to al-Malki.

Material damage was also reported, but the spokesperson did not provide further details on its extent.

"This aggressive and random act by the Iran-backed Houthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed Houthi group with qualitative capabilities," said Al-Malki, adding that the missile attack aimed to threaten the security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the region.

The Houthi-run news agency Saba claimed that the Army Missile Force sympathizing with the rebel group had launched ballistic missiles against several targets in Saudi Arabia, without providing further details.

The attack coincides with the third anniversary of the Saudi-led Arab coalition's military intervention in Yemen, which provoked the world's worst humanitarian crisis in 2017.

The Saudi-led military operations in Yemen, which began on March 26, 2015, has targeted the Houthi rebels that have fought against Yemen's ruling forces of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi since 2014.

Ballistic missile attacks by the rebels against Saudi territory have become a regular practice, but very rarely have shells reached Riyadh.

Saudi authorities blame Iran for these assaults and accuse it of threatening Saudi Arabia's national security and supporting Shia groups in the region.Lucknow, March 26 : Two ATM hackers have been arrested in Uttar Pradseh's Azamgarh district, a police official said on Monday.

Ajay Kumar Singh and Vikrant Singh were arrested from the Kotwali area late Sunday, the official told IANS.

The accused, both working as engineers at Lipi Data Systems, informed the police about two other accomplices -- Saddam and Ashok Prajapati -- who were still at-large.

When these criminals were called for some technical glitch at an ATM, they used to take a hard disc with them with a software uploaded already on it, the official said.

The hard disc, which is provided by the company, was used to create a common key to open the hood of the ATM. After the machine was open, they would steal the money. This information can not be traced by the ATM custodian. Only engineers could trace it.

Apart from this, they also put off the CCTV installed in the ATM and erase the previous stored data.

The accused have admitted committing crimes at Varanasi, Jaunpur and Azamgarh districts.

They have been involved in at least six incidents with over Rs 15 lakhs stolen.New Delhi : Title: A Murder on Malabar Hill; Author: Sujata Massey; Publisher: Penguin Random House India; Pages: 440; Price: Rs 399 India is modernising in the 1920s, but at its own pace. Even in Bombay, which, as one of the British Empire's greatest ports, is open to outside influences, change is slow. Some professions are still not fully open to women, and there are situations where the law must tread carefully -- especially in the brutal murder in a house full of "purdahnasheen" Muslim women.

But there is someone who can operate in such a tricky situation -- due to her profession and her background. And while for feisty Parsi lawyer Perveen Mistry, Sujata Massey draws from Indian legal history, she matches it with her thorough research and a compelling plot to create a mesmerising mystery set in Raj-era Bombay, against contemporary Japan and colonial Bengal that have served in her other books.

It is February 1921, and Perveen, the city's first woman solicitor, has been raring to show her skills after six months in her father's law firm -- the only one that will employ her. Since she cannot yet practice in court, she handles the legal paperwork for the firm - - wills, contracts and so on.

Among them is a recently-deceased Muslim businessman's will pending for execution, but now the estate's trustee sends a letter from his three widows, who want to donate their "mehr" (wife's settlement agreed at the wedding time) to the family "wakf". An intrigued and concerned -- we learn why later -- Perveen wonders if the women, in their cloistered existence, fully understand the consequences of their decision and obtains permission to go and ask them.

When she goes to their secluded Malabar Hill mansion, her concerns are not assuaged, rather they are exacerbated. Not only do the three wives have some secrets from each other, they also seem unaware what the estate trustee has in mind. This man also turns out to be an unpleasant character who is dominating the household with threats -- express or implied.

While Perveen tries to counsel the women against leaving themselves vulnerable by signing away their wealth, she is overheard by the trustee, who turns on her and she has to leave to avoid an unpleasant and even untoward scene. However, she forgets her briefcase and when she returns to pick it as it contains some important documents, she finds him stabbed to death.

Perveen is determined to aid the women by helping catch the murderer. But even with her connections -- her recently-arrived Oxford college-mate happens to be the daughter of a senior aide to the Governor -- there is only so much that a woman in India then can do on her own or convince the authorities to do.

But as our heroine tries, there is danger for her personally. Will she be able to survive to unravel the mystery?

Meanwhile, a parallel story, occasioned by the sight of a strange gentleman who appears to be Bengali by his garb, and evokes in her memories of Calcutta -- a city of happiness, humiliation and heartbreak -- gives her background and her stress on women's rights.

While the mystery set nearly a century back in a time with a different pace of life and governance -- the colonial rulers more keen to maintain order and avoid antagonising any touchy community - - is captivating, it is the skilful evocation of an era of political and social churning that sets this far above a mere "whodunnit", no matter how exotic in time and space.

The freedom struggle is yet to pick up pace among professional classes, but Massey intertwines it subtly into her narrative with episodes like Perveen's telling-off of some neighbourhood activists, her father's legal defence of a "subversive" client and an Indian policeman in a crucial role. The social aspect is more marked -- though some points may surprise those who think her community largely Westernised.

Along with the range of memorably drawn characters -- ranging from the widows to the policemen, British and Indian -- it is an engaging read with enough matters left unresolved to create interest and anticipation for the next installment. For Massey promises it will be a series.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)File photo shows the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force conducting a high-sea training mission. Shen Jinke, spokesperson for the PLA Air Force, said a formation, including H-6K bombers and Su-30 fighters, carried out a real combat training mission in the West Pacific via the Miyako Strait. The PLA Air Force has sent another team consisting of combat aircraft, including H-6K bombers and Su-35 fighter jets, for a joint combat patrol mission in the South China Sea area, according to Shen. (Xinhua)

BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force recently conducted a high-sea training mission in the West Pacific and a joint combat patrol mission in the South China Sea, an air force spokesperson confirmed Sunday.

Shen Jinke, spokesperson for the PLA Air Force, said a formation, including H-6K bombers and Su-30 fighters, carried out a real combat training mission in the West Pacific via the Miyako Strait.

The training aimed to improve high-sea combat ability, and was in line with international law and practice, he said.

The PLA Air Force has sent another team consisting of combat aircraft,including H-6K bombers and Su-35 fighter jets, for a joint combat patrol mission in the South China Sea area, according to Shen.

Shen said that the Su-35 fighter jets carrying out real combat training will enable the air force to improve real combat capability under long-distance and high-sea conditions.

The PLA Air Force will continue to safeguard national sovereignty and security, as well as support the country's peaceful development through high-sea training and combat patrol missions, according to Shen.London, March 26 : The European Union (EU) has "grave suspicions" about Google's abuse of the monopoly it enjoys over Internet search in Europe and is open to breaking the tech giant into smaller companies, the bloc's competition commissioner has warned.

According to 'The Daily Telegraph', Margrethe Vestager has said that the threat to split the Internet giant up into smaller companies must be kept open.

In June last year, the Danish commissioner slapped the technology giant with a record fine of 2.42 billion euros or $2.7 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules by abusing the monopoly it enjoys over Internet search.

Google has a 91.5 per cent share of the search-engine market in Europe, the report said.

"I think it is important to keep that question open and on the agenda. We are not there yet but it is important to keep an awakened eye," Vestager was quoted as saying when asked if the only solution to its dominance was to break up the company.

She warned that the search engine could become so big as to be indispensable for businesses and the economy.

"There is no ban on success in Europe. You get to be dominant and you get a special responsibility that you do not destroy the already weakened competition," she was quoted as saying.

"We have proven their dominance in search and we have found they have misused this dominance to promote themselves and diminish competitors," she added.

This development comes at a time when another Silicon Valley giant Facebook is facing flak for data breach.

Facebook is facing the heat after Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting company, was accused of harvesting data of up to 50 million Facebook users without permission and using the data to help politicians, including US President Donald Trump and the Brexit campaign.

EU and British lawmakers have demanded that social media giant Facebook should clarify data breach following revelations that personal data was massively misused for political purposes.London, March 26 : Scientists have discovered a way to stop the spread of rice blast, a fungus that destroys up to 30 per cent of the world's rice crop each year.

The researchers found that chemical genetic inhibition of a single protein in the fungus stops it from spreading inside a rice leaf -- leaving it trapped within a single plant cell.

The finding, published in the journal Science, could mark a major advance in understanding rice blast, a disease that is hugely important in terms of global food security.

The research revealed how the fungus can manipulate and then squeeze through natural channels (called plasmodesmata) that exist between plant cells.

"This is an exciting breakthrough because we have discovered how the fungus is able to move stealthily between rice cells, evading recognition by the plant immune system," said senior author Professor Nicholas Talbot of the University of Exeter in Britain.

"It is clearly able to suppress immune responses at pit fields (groups of plasmodesmata), and also regulate its own severe constriction to squeeze itself through such a narrow space," Talbot said.

"And all this is achieved by a single regulatory protein. It's a remarkable feat," he added.

However, the scientists caution that this is a "fundamental" discovery -- not a cure that can yet be applied outside the laboratory.

Rice blast threatens global food security, destroying enough rice each year to feed 60 million people.

It spreads within rice plants by invasive hyphae (branching filaments) which break through from cell to cell.

In their bid to understand this process, the researchers used chemical genetics to mutate a signalling protein to make it susceptible to a specific drug.

The protein, PMK1, is responsible for suppressing the rice's immunity and allowing the fungus to squeeze through pit fields. So, by inhibiting it, the researchers were able to trap the fungus within a cell.

This level of precision led the team to discover that just one enzyme, called a MAP kinase, was responsible for regulating the invasive growth of rice blast.

The research team hope this discovery will enable them to identify targets of this enzyme and thereby determine the molecular basis of this devastating disease.Mumbai, March 26 : Actress Madhuri Dixit-Nene says her bucket list keeps changing as she finds new challenges.

"My bucket list is constantly changing as I find new challenges. The moment I cross out things done, I add a few more I want to do. But ultimately it is about embracing life and enjoying the journey," Madhuri tweeted on Monday morning.

The actress, 50, is gearing up for the release of her maiden Marathi film "Bucket List", the trailer of which released on Sunday night.

Besides starring in "Bucket List", she is also reportedly producing another upcoming Marathi film -- "15 August".

Madhuri was last seen on-screen in "Gulaab Gang" and in Vishal Bharadwaj's "Dedh Ishqiya" with Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi in 2014.

Directed by Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar, "Bucket List" has been produced by DAR Motion Pictures, Dark Horse Cinemas and Blue Mustang Creations.New Delhi, March 26 : The Delhi government has submitted a notification in the Supreme Court that puts 351 city roads under commercial and mixed-use categories, in an attempt to save traders in these stretches from an ongoing sealing drive, a government spokesperson said on Monday.

"The Delhi government has submitted the notification of 351 roads in the Supreme Court," the spokesperson said.

Currently, the sealing drive going on in areas other than these 351 roads is against businesses using residential areas for commercial purposes without paying conversion charges.

It is being carried out by a Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee and being implemented by the three BJP-led municipal corporations.

Now, the court has to approve the change to commercial and mixed-use categories for it to come into force.Beijing, March 26 : China on Monday said Doklam is a "Chinese territory" and the question of changing the status quo does not arise after India's envoy Gautam Bambawale warned Beijing against any attempt to change the present state of affairs on the plateau.

In an interview to Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, Bambawale said any attempt to change the status quo in Doklam would lead to another stand-off.

The ambassador, however, said both the nations were well within their rights for an Army build up behind the point of the face-off and the status quo in Doklam remained in place.

"Regarding the border issue, China is committed to maintaining peace, stability and tranquillity there and Donglang (Doklam) belongs to China as we have historical conventions. So China's activity there is within its sovereign rights. There is no such thing as changing the status quo," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

"Last year, thanks to our concerted efforts, our diplomatic efforts and wisdom that we properly resolved this issue.

"We hope the Indian side could learn some lessons from this, stick to historical conventions and work with China to ensure the peace and stability in the border area as well as a good atmosphere for the development of bilateral ties," Hua said.

"China and India are exploring ways to resolve their territorial dispute through negotiations so that we can arrive at a mutually acceptable solution and pending the final solution, the two sides should work together and maintain peace and tranquillity in the area."

India and China were locked in a 73-day stand-off at Doklam in the eastern section of their border.

The crisis erupted after Indian troops halted road construction at Doka La in the region, citing Bhutan's claim to the area.

Doka La is very close to India's artery which connects its northeast with the rest of the country. The stand-off was resolved in August.

The ambassador also stressed the need to demarcate the 3,448-km-long disputed border, which is the root cause of friction between India and China.

Talking about the delimitation of the boundary, Hua said: "China's position is clear and consistent. The east, middle and western side is yet to be officially demarcated. China is committed to resolving the relevant dispute through negotiations."

The long-winding India-China border has three sectors: the western sector between Ladakh and the Chinese-held Aksai Chin; the central sector ranges from Uttarakhand and Tibet; the eastern sector divides Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh from Tibet.

Asked how China viewed Bambawale's remarks that India does not see China's growing engagement with the South Asian countries as a threat, Hua said: "I commend these positive remarks made by the Indian ambassador. As the two countries are growing at a fast pace, China and India present each other opportunities and also to the world.

"We share similar national conditions, development goals as well as common interests".

"We have every reason to be each other's partners. So we would like to work with India to enhance political trust and mutually beneficial cooperation under the guidance of two leaders (Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping) to achieve the common development," said Hua.

(Gaurav Sharma is the IANS correspondent in Beijing. He can be contacted at gaurav.s@ians.in)New Delhi, March 26 : The Congress on Monday took down its 'WithINC mobile app, saying it had been defunct for five months and emphasising that there was no breach of data through it.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the allegations of Congress collecting data through this app were the "half truth".

"As is usual with the BJP, they did not tell you that the 'WithINC' app had only 15,000 downloads. It had become defunct because our people do not like the 'missed call' membership. Congressmen believe in physical or offline membership. In contrast the Narendra Modi app has had 50 lakh downloads," he said.

Earlier, the Congress, on its official Twitter handle, said that the 'WithINC' was only a membership app and had not been in use for over five months since the party moved membership to www.inc.in from November 16, 2017.

"This morning we were forced to remove the app from the Google Playstore as the wrong URL was being circulated and people were being misled.

"The URL (http://membership.inc.in) quoted by the media is the defunct URL from the app," it said.

It said that the app was being used for "social media updates alone since transitioning the membership to the website".

"There is no truth to this allegation. There has been no breach of data whatsoever," it said.

On Sunday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi alleged that the users' data collected through the Narendra Modi app was being shared with American companies. The Bharatiya Janata Party retaliated by pointing fingers towards the Congress app.New Delhi, March 26 : Globalisation is going through a phase where countries were "revisiting and evaluating" their role in it, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Monday.

According to Prabhu, who also holds the charge of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the first phase of globalisation had faced "opposition", while in the second phase, countries tried to embrace it and participate more.

"I am thinking, we have come to the stage where people (countries) are re-examining, revisiting, evaluating, what should be the role of the nation in the community," the minister said in his address at an industry event by the CII.

Emphasising on having more trade among countries, he added that while most countries were revisiting their roles in globalisation, India was trying to engage with traditional and new partners.

"India has to position itself very appropriately and we have decided that we will be a country which will engage with all our traditional friends and also start making new friends," he said.

Talking about new trade initiatives of the government he said, "We have started working on EU-India FTA (Free Trade Agreement). After 2013, when there were 16 rounds (of talks), (but) nothing happened, now we have invited them."

"With Africa, we have told that we would like to work with you and prepare an FTA in such a way, that it will be in the long-term interest of Africans and Indians," he said.

"Nothing" would ever be sustainable unless it is a win-win combination, he elaborated at the event.

Regarding trade ties with the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) and the Middle East countries, Prabhu said that India's relations with both have "never been better before".

He added that: "If we don't have multilateral institutions like WTO (World Trade Organisation), each country will lose."

The minister's comments assume significance as economic tensions between the world's two largest economies escalated after the US imposed tariffs on Chinese products and China announced plans for retaliatory action.New Delhi, March 26 : The tussle between the Delhi Lt Governor and the AAP government on Monday reached the state assembly after Speaker Ram Niwas Goel announced that Lt. Governor Anil Baijal has said that the Speaker cannot accept any question on reserved subjects, like land, law and order, and services among others.

"Secretariat has also received copies of letters from some departments such as Services, Vigilance, Land and Building refusing to attend meetings with ministers concerned," he said.

However, Goel stressed that legislation on reserved subjects and seeking replies on matters of public interest are two different issues and hence he ruled that "officers are duty bound to provide replies to all questions which are admitted (by the Assembly)".

The Lt. Governor had sent a letter stating that the Speaker cannot accept any questions on reserved subjects to the law deaprtment of Delhi government after taking opinion from the Legal Affairs Department of Central government.

"Delhi Assembly is not subordinate to any central government 'babu'," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in the House as both members of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party members said that all questions raised by the Assembly should be answered.Medellin (Colombia), March 26 : Worsening land degradation caused by human activity is undermining the well-being of two fifths of humanity, driving species to extinction and intensifying climate change, the world's first comprehensive evidence-based assessment of land degradation and restoration said on Monday.

Land degradation is also a major contributor to mass human migration and increased conflict.

The dangers of land degradation, which cost the equivalent of about 10 per cent of the world's annual gross product in 2010 through the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, are detailed for policymakers, together with a catalogue of corrective options, in the three-year assessment report by more than 100 leading experts from 45 countries.

Produced by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the report was approved at the sixth session of the IPBES Plenary in this Colombian town.

The IPBES has 129 state members.

Sounding an alarm of serious danger to human well-being, the report says rapid expansion and unsustainable management of croplands and grazing lands is the most extensive global direct driver of land degradation, causing significant loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services -- food security, water purification, the provision of energy and other contributions of nature essential to people.

This has reached 'critical' levels in many parts of the world.

"With negative impacts on the well-being of at least 3.2 billion people, the degradation of the earth's land surface through human activities is pushing the planet towards a sixth mass species extinction," said Robert Scholes of South Africa, co-chair of the assessment with Luca Montanarella of Italy.

"Avoiding, reducing and reversing this problem, and restoring degraded land, is an urgent priority to protect the biodiversity and ecosystem services vital to all life on earth and to ensure human well-being."

"Wetlands have been particularly hard hit," said Montanarella.

"We have seen losses of 87 per cent in wetland areas since the start of the modern era - with 54 per cent lost since 1900."

According to the authors, land degradation manifests in many ways -- land abandonment, declining populations of wild species, loss of soil and soil health, rangelands and fresh water, as well as deforestation.

By 2014, more than 1.5 billion hectares of natural ecosystems had been converted into croplands. Less than 25 per cent of the earth's land surface has escaped substantial impact of human activity - and by 2050, the IPBES experts estimate, this will have fallen to less than 10 per cent.

"Through this report, the global community of experts has delivered a frank and urgent warning, with clear options to address dire environmental damage," said Sir Robert Watson, Chair of IPBES.

The IPBES report finds that land degradation is a major contributor to climate change, with deforestation alone contributing about 10 per cent of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.

Another major driver of the changing climate has been the release of carbon previously stored in the soil, with land degradation between 2000 and 2009 responsible for annual global emissions of up to 4.4 billion tonnes of CO2.

The report estimates that 50 million-700 million people will be forced to migrate by 2050.

"In just over three decades from now, an estimated 4 billion people will live in drylands," said Scholes.

"By then it is likely that land degradation, together with the closely related problems of climate change, will have forced 50 million-700 million people to migrate.

"Decreasing land productivity also makes societies more vulnerable to social instability -- particularly in dryland areas, where years with extremely low rainfall have been associated with an increase of up to 45 per cent in violent conflict," Scholes added.New Delhi, March 26 : The Bharatiya Janata Paty on Monday dubbed as "technological illiteracy" Congress President Rahul Gandhi's accusations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was misusing his position to build a personal database "with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App and said commonly asked permission on apps does not amount to snooping.

"This is a classic case of technological illiteracy of Rahul Gandhi. Technologically he is very backward. Analytics is not equivalent to spying or snoopoing. Those technologically ignorant are trying to describe it as snooping and spying," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said at a press conference.

Patra said that rattled by the Cambridge Analyitca expose, the Congress is trying everything to divert attention and to stop Prime Minister from communicating with others.

"The Congress does not want any kind of communication of the Prime Minister with people, volunteers and students. When he shares his thoughts on monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', the Congress leaders complain about it to Election Commission. Their's one point agenda is to stop the Prime Minister from communicating with others because the Congress is scared of it," he said.

Earlier on the day, Gandhi accused Modi of misusing his position to build personal database "with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by the government" and termed him "Big Boss who likes to spy".

In a hard-hitting attack, he also alleged that NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts and even tracks location via GPS.

Reacting to it, Patra accused Gandhi of spreading lies. "He is so rattled by the Cambridge Analytica expose that he daily tries to divert attention from it," he said.

Refuting Gandhi's allegations of spying through App data, he said that Narendra Modi App provides a platform for millions of his fans and party cadre to connect directly with the Prime Minister.

"It is a 'one of its kind' App which enables unprecedented engagement and interactivity with the Prime Minister," he said adding that the Congress chief needs to brush up his knowledge.

He claimed that it would be no wonder if Rahul Gandhi will tweet tomorrow that NaMo App is connected to EVM machines and EVM tampering happens through it.

Patra also accused Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of using government money to run the 'Siddaramaiah App'.

"Is it right to use public money for personal political branding? This is not only data theft but also robbery of public money," he said.Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the China Development Forum (CDF) in Beijing, capital of China, March 25, 2018. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese official on Sunday called for promoting high-quality development by pushing forward supply-side structural reform and accelerating the building of a modernized economy.

Vice Premier Han Zheng made the remarks in a speech at the opening ceremony of the China Development Forum, which is hosted by the Development Research Center of the State Council.

In the new era, the Chinese economy has seen a shift from high-speed growth to high-quality development, featuring medium-to-high growth, accelerated transformation of development modes, improved structure and new growth engines, said Han, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Han described the shift to high-quality development as key to understanding the Chinese economy.

To promote high-quality development, he stressed the importance of deepening reform, taking tough steps to prevent and defuse major risks, increasing investment in innovation, improving the quality of urbanization and making a success of the rural vitalization strategy, sticking to the basic national policy of opening up, and implementing high-level trade and investment liberalization and facilitation policies.

"China has a bright future and we are confident of achieving high-quality economic development," declared Han, saying that China will continue to play its role as a responsible major country and work with people from all countries to build a community with a shared future for humanity.

The annual forum, with "China in the New Era" as its theme, brought together nearly 30 globally renowned scholars, including seven Nobel laureates, and more than 80 executives of Fortune Global 500 firms.Thiruvananthapuram, March 26 : The Kerala government on Monday set aside a sum of Rs 20 crore to help rehabilitate the state's beedi workers, who are going through tough times, by helping them to start their own small ventures.

The Kerala Beedi & Cigar Workers Welfare Fund Board, which looks after the welfare of the nearly 80,000 beedi workers in the state, has been entrusted with the job of channelling the Rs 20 crore to the workers to start their own ventures in poultry farming, stitching centres, mobile recharge centres, fancy shops and such ventures.

This new programme was charted out after State Labour Minister T.P.RamakrishnanA and trade union leaders had a discussion. According to the new scheme, 3,970 new jobs will be created for erstwhile beedi workers in the first phase.

"As much as 80 per cent of the total cost of the venture will be borne by the Welfare Fund Board with the rest to be brought in by the beneficiary. The scheme also envisages the supply of 300 laptops to the students of beedi workers studying in engineering colleges. 300 students of beedi workers studying in high school will be given cycles and 50 physically challenged students will get a tricycle," said a top Labour Department official.

Kannur, Kozhikode and Kasargode - the three northern districts of the state - are the places where a huge chunk of the now almost displaced beedi workers reside and a decade back when the industry started losing out to the cigarette industry, there was diversification that was undertaken then when beedi workers started new ventures like umbrella making, food units and even readymade units.New Delhi, March 26 : Already in the line of fire for collecting people's data for Aadhaar, the Narendra Modi government is now facing the ire of privacy vigilantes for illegally sharing data from the "official app of the Prime Minister of India" with a third party company in the US.

While the FAQ section of the Narendra Modi app promises that the data that users provide on the app is strictly "private", housed safely and not passed on to anyone else, a French vigilante hacker in a series of tweets alleged that the personal data including email IDs, photos, gender and names of the users of Modi's mobile app were being sent to a third party domain without their consent.

"When you create a profile in the official @narendramodi #Android app, all your device info (OS, network type, Carrier A) and personal data (email, photo, gender, name, A) are sent without your consent to a third-party domain called http://in.wzrkt.com," the privacy vigilante who goes by the name Elliot Alderson tweeted on March 23.

Fact-checking website Alt News later backed up Alderson's finding.

Alderson claimed that this domain belongs to a US-based company called CleverTap, a mobile marketing solution provider with offices in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Co-founded by entrepreneurs Sunil Thomas, Anand Jain and Suresh Kondamudi in 2013, CleverTap says that it provides insights that their clients need to keep users engaged and drive long-term retention and growth.

The BJP responded to the allegations by saying that the data is being used for analytics using third party service, similar to Google Analytics.

While saying that using an analytics solution is standard in the mobile development world, Alderson pointed out that sharing personal data without consent of the users "is illegal".

Moreover, collecting personal data of users "without their consent is against the TOS (Terms of Service) of Google Play Store."

"I only believe in the technical truth. Don't trust political speeches from both sides. Thing is, @narendramodi's app is sending personal data to a third party company without user consent. The rest are just suppositions," Alderson said in another tweet on Sunday.

The NaMo app mentions "exclusive opportunity to receive e-mails and messages directly from the PM" and receiving "personalised birthday greetings from the PM" among its highlights.

Interestingly, at the Google Play Store, the NaMo app describes itself as the "official app of the Prime Minister of India". However, the app -- or the website "narendramodi.in" -- is not owned by or affiliated to the government, which generally uses the domain "nic.in" or "gov.in".

The website is hosted by a US-based company Akamai, headquartered in Massachusetts and the app is owned by Modi in his private capacity, not by the Prime Minister's office, and he has provided 11, Ashok Road, New Delhi -- BJP's headquarter till a few months back -- as the registered address.

The domain "narendramodi.in" was created on February 28, 2005 (around a decade before he became the Prime Minister) and is scheduled to expire on February 28, 2019.

However, the app was launched in June 2015. It has had over five million downloads on the Google Play Store so far.

The app compulsorily asks for a user's name and email ID when registering on it.

The app, however, also allows people to access it even as a guest without entering their personal details.

Emails seeking responses from Akamai and CleverTap did not elicit any response.

Latest updates on Howdy Modi HoustonBengaluru, March 26 : Karnataka's woman Indian Police Service (IPS) officer D. Roopa Moudgil, the whistleblower who exposed prison favours to jailed sidelined AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala, declined to accept an award recognising her work for the "heavy" cash reward it came with.

"I did not accept the Namma Bengaluru Award by the Namma Bengaluru Foundation on Sunday as it came with a heavy cash reward of Rs 2 lakh," Moudgil, who is the Inspector General of Police, Home Guards and Civil Defence, told IANS here.

Founded in 2009, the Foundation has been working on various citizen issues in the city, giving out annual awards for citizens and government officials for their work. The ninth edition of the awards were given out on Sunday.

In a letter to the private foundation, which is founded and supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Moudgil said as a government servant, she was expected to maintain neutrality and distance from "quasi-political" bodies.

Chandrasekhar, who was earlier an Independent, recently got re-elected as a BJP candidate.

"With the Foundation fighting against the government on various civic issues in courts, it is the government servants who represent the state in the court. Hence, I felt it was inappropriate for me to receive the award as a government servant," she said.

Moudgil, through a report last year, exposed the favours and special treatment given to Sasikala in Bengaluru Central Jail, where she is currently serving a four-year sentence since February last year after the Supreme Court upheld her conviction in a corruption case by a trial court here in September 2015.

Responding to Moudgil's letter, the Foundation called it "inappropriate".

"We are saddened and shocked at the inappropriate conduct of one of the nominees to the government official category of the awards," it said in a statement, alleging that she had "indulged in relentless lobbying" for the award, and termed her conduct "immature and malicious for not making it to the final winner".

Deputy Conservator of Forests, Bengaluru, Dipika Bajpai was given the award under the government official category on Sunday.

Moudgil, in a reply to the statement, continued to maintain that she kept her post's dignity, neutrality and fairness by declining to be part of the event.Washington, March 26 : Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams is now helping privately-held companies like Space X and Boeing to develop their new spacecraft systems, which will eventually provide round-trip crew transportation services to the International Space Station (ISS).

After completing two missions to the orbiting laboratory, she is continuing her career in space on Earth as a member of NASA's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap), npr.org reported on Sunday.

She is among the four astronauts who were selected by NASA in 2015 to train and prepare for commercial space flights that will return American launches to US soil and further open up low-Earth orbit transportation to the private sector, according to the US space agency.

Since the discontinuation of NASA's Space Shuttle programme in 2011, US astronauts have had to rely on Russian shuttles to get into orbit.

The goal of the commercial crew programme is safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the US through a public-private approach.

NASA, Boeing and SpaceX have significant testing underway, which will ultimately lead to test missions when the systems are ready and meet safety requirements.

Boeing's Starliner will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 and SpaceX's Crew Dragon will launch on the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A, according to NASA.

After completion of each company's uncrewed and crewed flight tests, NASA will review the flight data to verify the systems meet the requirements for certification.

Upon NASA certification, the companies are each slated to fly six crew missions to the ISS beginning in 2019 and continuing through 2024, NASA said in January this year.

Williams, 52, has spent 50 hours and 40 minutes outside the ISS and part of her new job is to verify that the companies' spacecraft can launch, manoeuvre in orbit and dock to stationary spacecraft like the ISS, according to the npr.org report.

"This is really different from my old job, you know," Williams was quoted as saying.

"She is currently assigned to the cadre of astronauts training to fly the initial test flights for America's first commercially built spacecraft the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Dragon," according to the biography of the astronaut at the NASA website.Lucknow, March 26 : The Uttar Pradesh assembly witnessed an uproar on Monday as opposition legislators protested against the Yogi Adityanath government's recent decision to privatise electricity in five major cities of the state.

Terming the decision "unfortunate", the opposition accused the BJP government of playing in the hands of the corporate houses.

Protesting against the cabinet go ahead for privatization, Samajwadi Party members walked out of the House.

The state government however justified its decision, saying that this would lead to better and adequate power supply to the people. Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said that the move stemmed from the commitment of the BJP government to provide better power supply to the people, while clarifying that private companies would only be involved in revenue collection and minimizing line losses.

He also categorically denied that production and transmission of power was being passed on to private players.

The minister also assured the house that the power arrears of state government departments would be cleared and deposited within one year and informed that a process of installing prepaid meters in all government offices and buildings has been initiated.

Leader of the Congress Legislature Party Ajay Kumar 'Lallu' however said that the decision of the state government was very unfortunate. He also drew the attention of the minister and the state government that power employees in the state were demonstrating on the streets and had snapped the power connection of the Darul Shafa complex, where many MLAs live.

He also said that the threat by power employees' organizations that they will go on a statewide strike on March 27 was a worrying signal, as this could plunge the state into chaos.New Delhi, March 26 : The Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) on Monday announced their three mountaineers for the Mount Everest Expedition 2018, which includes 20-year-old tribal girl Swarnalata Dalai.

Besides Swarnalata, Poonam Rana and Sandeep Toliya will also be a part of the expedition. All the three mountaineers have been trained and mentored by seasoned climber Bachendri Pal, who heads Tata Steel's Adventure Programme.

The three will leave the national capital on Tuesday for Kathmandu after which they will start the trek from Jiri, which is along the route taken by Bachendri during her expedition in 1984.

This will further help the climbers to build on their mental and physical fitness.

Speaking about the expedition, Bachendri said: "Mt. Everest represents the epitome of challenge that tests the abilities of human endeavour, leadership, strengths and weaknesses. The skills and expertise learnt for an expedition to scale Mt. Everest helps the climbers to become leaders in their spheres of life and in contributing significantly to the community and the organisations they work for."

"We wish the very best to our three mountaineers for their conquest of Mt. Everest," she added.

The trio has been trained to navigate extreme climatic conditions and to carry heavy loads up and down the mountain slopes, and sleep in tents like they will be doing on Mt Everest.

For the past one year, the mountaineers have been provided the right exposure and opportunity to participate in various expeditions to improve their mountaineering skills and stamina, thereby preparing them for Mt Everest.New Delhi, March 26 : Journalist bodies in the national capital on Monday wrote to Home Minister Rajnath Singh demanding the lodging of an FIR in the case of assault and molestation of journalists while covering a protest here.

The Indian Women's Press Corps, Press Club of India, Press Association and the Federation of Press Clubs in India drew the attention of the Home Minister to the incident on March 22, when journalists covering a protest by the students and teachers of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were assaulted by the police.

Two women journalists were roughed up, one of whom was intimidated and threatened by women police members while the other was molested by Station House Officer Vidyadhar Singh. A third male journalist has his arm in a sling after being beaten up by policemen.

"As you are aware, there was a teachers and students' protest that day at Parliament. Like always, reporters and their camera persons were on the spot covering the event as part of their journalistic responsibilities," the letter said.

"While the journalists were doing their job, members of the Delhi Police targeted media equipment and the journalists, thereby preventing them from doing their work. One woman journalist was pushed around and her camera equipment taken away forcibly as she wanted to take pictures of a student being kicked by members of the Delhi Police.

"Another reporter was similarly threatened and molested by a Station House Officer. She has named and identified the officer and filed a complaint. A third reporter sustained serious injuries on his arm while being manhandled by the police," the letter read.

The associations demanded that an FIR be registered on the basis of complaints made by the individuals and appropriate and time-bound action be taken against the police persons and officers involved in the targeted assault and molestation.

"We also demand accountability from senior officers on whose directives the journalists were targeted. The SHO, accused of the grave charge of molestation should be suspended forthwith, pending inquiry for a fair and impartial investigation to take place," the letter said.

"We hope you will take up our representation and deal with each instance of assault and molestation with the seriousness they deserve."

On Friday, the JNU teachers and students held a protest march demanding suspension of professor Atul Johri, accused of sexual harassment, and protested against the removal of some department heads and a coordinator for not complying with the university's new attendance rules.

As hundreds of protesting students and teachers from the university marched towards Parliament, the police baton-charged them and fired water canons on the agitators near INA Market in south Delhi.

The Delhi Police on Saturday tendered their "deepest apologies" for the attack on media personnel when police started the baton charge, with Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik saying the police's intention was not to obstruct the media from doing its job.Mumbai, March 26 : A 30-year-old man was arrested here for allegedly molesting a French woman tourist earlier this month, a police official said on Monday.

The incident occurred in Khar area over a fortnight ago, but police could arrest the accused - identified as Sirajuddin Sanadi - only after scanning footage of scores of CCTVs installed on roads in the western suburbs.

According to Senior Police Inspector Ramchandra Jadhav of Khar Police Station, the victim had alighted from a suburban train at Khar station late when she was accosted by a man on a bike.

As he grabbed her hand, she started screaming for help. Panicking, he sped off on his bike.

Shaken, she rushed to her paying guest accommodation and narrated the incident to her roommates who helped her lodge the police complaint.

After scanning footage from scores of CCTVs, the police found that the culprit had driven north towards Andheri. Sanadi was arrested and produced before a court which remanded him to police custody for a day.

Jadhav said that the victim is a tourist who arrived in Mumbai in January after visiting several other cities in the country. On the day of the incident, she had visited the famed Mahalaxmi Temple in south Mumbai and returned home late that night.

He added that police are investigating whether the accused, who is a driver by profession, has been involved in other similar offences in the past.New Delhi, March 26 : The Congress and BJP traded charges on Monday on the issue of alleged data theft with Congress President Rahul Gandhi stepping up his attack on Prime Minister Narendera Modi and accusing him of misusing his position to build personal database "with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by the government".The BJP hit back, terming him "technologically illiterate."

The sharp exchange of words saw some personalised attacks with Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani targeting Gandhi, tweeting that "even 'Chhota Bheem' knows that commonly asked permission on Apps don't tantamount to snooping."

The BJP also accused Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of using government money to run the 'Siddaramaiah App'.

As the BJP accusing the Congress of sharing users' data to a Singapore-based firm, the Congress took down its''WithINC mobile app, saying it had been defunct for five months and emphasising that there was no breach of data through it.

The BJP salvo came a day after Gandhi, citing a media report, accused Modi of leaking details of his official mobile app users to US firms.

Sharpening his attack on Monday, he termed Modi a "Big Boss who likes to spy" and also alleged that NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts and even tracks location via GPS.

"Modi misusing PM position to build personal database with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by Govt. If as PM he wants to use tech to communicate with India, no problem. But use the official PMO APP for it. This data belongs to India, not Modi," Gandhi said in a tweet.

"Modi's NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. He's the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians. Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC (National Cadet Corps) cadets are being forced to download the app," he added.

Irani took a swipe at Gandhi, asking him if his team had misunderstood his demand to get "NaMo" app deleted and instead removed "WithINC" from the Google store.

She also asked the Congress chief if he would care to answer "why Congress sends data to Singapore servers which can be accessed by any Tom, Dick and Analytica", referring to the British firm that was at the centre of a storm for illegally accessing Facebook user data for political purposes.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra also targeted Gandhi in a press conference and accused him of spreading lies.

"This is a classic case of technological illiteracy of Rahul Gandhi. Technologically he is very backward. Analytics is not equivalent to spying or snooping. Those technologically ignorant are trying to describe it as snooping and spying,"he said.

He alleged that Congress was rattled by the Cambridge Ana"yitca "expose" and was trying everything to divert attention and to stop Prime Minister from communicating with others.

Stating that Congress chief "needs to brush" up his knowledge," Patra said it would be no wonder if Rahul Gandhi tweets tomorrow that NaMo App was connected to EVM machines.

Accusing Siddaramaiah of using government money to run the 'Siddaramaiah App', Patra said: "Is it right to use public money for personal political branding? This is not only data theft but also robbery of public money."

Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who also addressed a press conference, said that the allegations of Congress collecting data through this app were the "half truth".

"As is usual with the BJP, they did not tell you that the 'WithINC' app had only 15,000 downloads. It had become defunct because our people do not like the 'missed call' membership. Congressmen believe in physical or offline membership. In contrast the Narendra Modi app has had 50 lakh downloads," he said.

The party also said there has been no breach of data whatsoever.

Earlier, Amit Malviya, who is incharge of BJP's Information and Technology wing, attached "screenshots" of the Congress' website privacy policy listings to attack the party.

"Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of India's oldest political party. When you sign up for our official Application, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore," one said.

Congress social media chief Divya Spandana hit back. "Forget sharing, we don't collect any data through the App. What a dimwit," she said, referring to Malviya's tweet.Gandhinagar, March 26 : Commemorating the traditionally celebrated mythological event of Lord Krishna's wedding with Rukmini, who is believed to have hailed from Arunachal Pradesh, the Gujarat government is holding an epic celebration from March 25 to 28 at the Madhavpur-Ghed village fair.

The event is likely to see the Chief Ministers of both states as well as that of Manipur, and the Governors of both states and some Union ministers joining it.

The Chief Ministers and Governors of northeastern state Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat will visit Madhavpur-Ghed, situated 59 km from Porbandar, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, where Lord Krishna is said to have married princess Rukmini.

The Gujarat government's plan is inspired by the Central government's mission to strengthen cultural ties between the North East and the rest of the country.

Talking to the media, state Tourism Minister Ganapatsinh Vasava said: "The event is being organised jointly with the central government, with 50 per cent (cost) shared by both. The state government has allocated Rs 2.5-Rs 3 crore for the event.

"The central government wants this event to become a national festival and wants to make it a big attraction for the tourists. Around one lakh visitors are expected to visit the fair."

The Minister informed that Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Arunachal Pradesh (AP) CM Pema Khandu, Gujarat Governor O.P. Kohli and Arunachal Governor Brigadier B.D. Mishra will be there at the event on the 27th.

"Besides them, there will be a number of Union ministers like Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Cultural Minister of State Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Home Kiran Rijiju and some ministers and MLAs from Gujarat. The state government wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the event, but last-minute engagements made him change the plan."

The Minister also announced to revive the 15th century temple of Madhavraiji, an incarnation of Lord Krishna at Madhavpur, and Rs 5 crore has been allocated for that.

During the event, many cultural programmes depicting mythological incidents will be held. The programmes will include a classical dance recital by Sonal Mansingh and performances by around 500 artistes, including 300 from Arunachal Pradesh and 200 from Gujarat. According to the state Tourism Department, 200 stalls have been set up at the fair.

According to folklore and mythology, Rukmini belonged to the Idu Mishmi community of Arunachal Pradesh. She lived in what was known as Mishwaknagar. Lord Krishna brought her to Madhavpur-Ghed and married her.

Legend has it that Rukmini's father, king Bhismaka, wanted her to marry Shishupala, the king of Chedi, which lay roughly where Madhya Pradesh is today. Shishupala was Ravana in his previous birth, whereas Rukmini was in love with Lord Krishna and wrote a letter to him to save her. Lord Krishna rescued Rukmini and brought her to Madhavpur-Ghed.

During the campaign for the 2014 general elections, in an election rally held in Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh, then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi had said that members of the Adi tribe who bear the name "Modi" may be related to the Modis of Gujarat. He stressed that Lord Krishna of Dwarka had married princess Rukmini of Arunachal Pradesh.Yi Gang, newly elected governor of the People's Bank of China, greets Kristalina Georgieva, chief executive officer of the World Bank, at the China Development Forum 2018 in Beijing on Sunday. WANG ZHUANGFEI/CHINA DAILY

Yi also plans to speed up tax reform, bolster rules against financial risks

China will work to accelerate financial opening-up, further taxation reform and continue strengthening regulations to reduce systemic risks and control the debt level, senior officials said on Sunday.

Yi Gang, the newly elected governor of the People's Bank of China confirmed at the China Development Forum 2018 that the next step in facilitating opening-up of the financial sector, a series of reforming measures to ease market access for foreign investors will be launched in the future.

As part of the service industry, the financial sector should allow market-oriented competition by using the existing national treatment system as well as a negative list mechanism, Yi said at the forum hosted by a think tank affiliated with the State Council, China's Cabinet.

The whole opening-up process, as Yi described, needs to be in line with the ongoing foreign exchange rate reform and the process of capital account liberalization.

"It doesn't mean the easing of financial regulation (for foreign companies)," Yi said. "Instead, there is no difference in the implementation of macro prudential regulations on domestic and foreign financial institutions, which all aim at systemic risk prevention."

China is able to forestall financial risks stimulated by external shocks, such as the current Sino-US trade and investment dispute, and any potential market fluctuations can be tamed, given the improved financial supervision system, said Yi, who just replaced former central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan.

Yi also stressed in his speech the importance of maintaining a prudent and neutral monetary policy, as well as stabilizing the whole financial sector, his key tasks for this year.

At the forum, China's new Finance Minister Liu Kun, pledged to work on new taxation policies that could encourage Chinese enterprises' overseas direct investment while attracting more foreign direct investment to China, as an important part of the country's upgrade of the opening-up strategy.

China has established and will continue to improve market-based economic development, which can be seen in the continuing GDP growth and improved living standard of residents, Liu said, responding to an allegation that China is retreating from a market-oriented economy.

The two senior officials both highlighted the importance of further fending off potential financial risks in both local government and corporate debt, although the overall macro leveraging level has been under control since last year.

Yi said that the final version of the much-discussed regulations on wealth management products, with coordinated efforts from different financial regulators, will be available soon, and more cross-area supervision will be put on financial holding groups.

According to the National Institution for Finance and Development, China's macro leverage ratio went up by 2.5 percentage points in 2017, with an increase of 4.2 percentage points for the ratio in the household sector and a rise of 0.7 percentage points for the government leverage ratio, including local government leverage.

The institution calculated China's national balance sheet data, which showed that by the end of 2017, China's sovereign assets totaled 241.4 trillion yuan ($35.8 trillion) and sovereign liabilities totaled 139.8 trillion yuan, resulting in net assets amounting to 101.6 trillion yuan.Mumbai, March 26 : Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh President Prakash Ambedkar on Monday charged the BJP-led Maharashtra government of not arresting rightwing Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide alias 'Guruji' as he "enjoys the backing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi".

Addressing a huge gathering of Dalits and other parties' activists who took part in the 'Yalgar Morcha' here this evening, Ambedkar - the grandson of the Architect of Indian Constitution B. R. Ambedkar - without mincing words, said "it is a well-known fact that Modi considers Bhide as his Guru."

"We are not interested in fighting with Modi. However, if action is not initiated against Bhide by Maharashtra government, then we know how to deal with it at the appropriate time," he warned.

Attacking the PM, Ambedkar compared him with Adolf Hitler who he said never listened to anybody.

"Hitler heeded nobody. He functioned according to his whims and ultimately committed suicide. Even Modi conducts himself like Hitler, treats all his cabinet colleagues as prisoners," he said.

Ambedkar made it clear that everybody will have to bow before the wishes of the people and "we know how to make the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister (Devendra Fadnavis) bend before the masses, or we will expose them".

"If the law is not implemented, and Bhide is not arrested within eight days, we shall chalk out our future strategy. Why should the law not be equal for everybody? If (another Hindutva leader) Milind Ekbote can be arrested, what has prevented Bhide's arrest since he is the prima accused in the Bhima-Koregaon incidents," he said.

Earlier, he led a delegation to Fadnavis reiterating his nearly three-month old demand for the arrest of Bhide.

"The CM says the state government cannot arrest him due to lack of evidence. I would like to inform him that there is ample proof against Bhide," Ambedkar countered.

Ambedkar has also sought the arrest of Maharashtra BJP chief Raosaheb Patil-Danve for his social media comments on the Bhima-Koregaon caste riots.

In a retaliatory development, Bhide's supporting groups plan to take out processions all over Maharashtra including Mumbai on Wednesday (March 28) to oppose the campaign against him by Dalit groups.

Launching a counter-attack last week, Bhide had blamed Ambedkar and others like Gujarat Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, JNU leader Umar Khalid and retired Bombay High Court judge Justice B. G. Kolse-Patil for the Bhima-Koregaon incidents.

On March 19, the Shri Shiv Pratishthan leader had demanded their arrests, alleging they had "incited people to indulge in violence and rioting" at their public meeting in Pune on December 31.

In the ongoing season of protests, Mumbai witnessed another huge congregation of Dalits and other parties, spearheaded by BBM which paralysed parts of south Mumbai, to seek Bhide's arrests for his role in the January 1 caste riots in Bhima-Koregaon.

Monday's protest was the second major one to hit Mumbai after the Long March from Nashik by over 35,000 farmers and tribals to the city on March 12.New Delhi, March 26 : India is now home to a new international treaty-based organisation following the signing of the headquarters agreement between the government and the newly-formed International Solar Alliance here on Monday.

The agreement was signed between Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh and ISA Interim Director General Upendra Tripathy.

According to a statement issued by the External Affairs Ministry, the new agreement has "provisions covering definition; interpretation and objectives; legal status, capacity and freedom of assembly; headquarters; other premises for temporary use; the ISA Secretariat property, funds and assets; communication facility for the implementation of the ISA Secretariat activity; visas; staff of the ISA Secretariat; privileges and immunities; waiver of privileges and immunities; settlement of disputes; supplemental agreements; general provisions; entry into force; and duration".

"Accordingly, the government of India recognises the international legal personality of the ISA."

"The ISA Secretariat shall enjoy independence and freedom of action in the furtherance of its official functions and shall have the rights to display its logo, flag and other identifiers, on its programmes, premises and vehicles.

"The government of India shall provide support of Rs 125 crore to ISA for creating corpus, building infrastructure and recurring expenditure over five years duration from 2016-17 to 2020-21," it said.

Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then French President Francois Hollande at the Paris climate summit in 2015, the ISA was conceived as a coalition of solar resource-rich countries to address their special energy needs and provide a platform to collaborate on dealing with the identified gaps through a common, agreed approach.

It is open to all 121 prospective member countries falling between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Of these, 62 have signed the framework agreement and 32 have also submitted their instruments of ratification.

At the agreement signing ceremony, V.K. Singh said that the dream of solar energy as an important modicum of power source has come about.

He said that this would ensure that the prices of power would now come down and ths would reach the poorer sections of society.

India has 20 GW of installed solar capacity - one of the fastest growing in the world. The country has increased its solar power capacity by about eight times over the past four years.

India's wind power generation capacity is 32.8 GW. It aims to achieve 175 GW of clean energy by 2022, of which 100 GW will be solar.

Earlier this month, Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron co-chaired the founding conference of the ISA.

While Modi presented a 10-point action plan to promote the use of solar energy, Macron announced an additional investment of 700 million euros for global solar energy generation by 2022 to reduce the use of fossil fuel and help combat climate change.

The ISA was established on December 6, 2017 following the fulfillment of the conditions laid down in the framework agreement.Australian Printer reports back after attending EFI Connect 2018, including which saw close to 1200 people descend on the Wynn, Las Vegas, in the 18th edition of the user-conference, the 12th in a row at The Wynn.

EFI CEO Guy Gecht kicked off the proceedings, giving his opening keynote address, foreshadowing an upbeat future for the future of print.

Centred on the concept of the fourth industrial revolution, which will involve big data, personalisation, virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, and the internet of things (IoT), Gecht contends that print will play a key role for consumers, bridging a gap visually between the virtual world and the physical world.

He says, This is an important moment for the world, for technology, for industry, especially for printing. We think it is the early stages of the fourth industrial revolution.

Involving artificial intelligence, robots, virtual reality, new applications that require more computing power and more data, will lead to more personalisation. Adaptable designs will become more common, and industries that use images, like fashion, building materials, display graphics, packaging, they will need a lot of the printing tools, that we as an industry build over the years.

Manufacturing on demand will change what we want. Marketing will not be the same, people have their own tastes.

We will not have advertisements targeted at everyone on the east coast that watch TV at 7am, you will target the people you want to give them the product they want.

With that, we think there will be a new definition of print. No longer are people after just documents, no longer is this an industry just about publishing, every material in the world that needs to have images is print.

If we as an industry embrace that, there is a bigger opportunity than we have ever had before. There are bigger markets than we ever addressed before.

Ten years from now when we talk about EFI being 40, whoever is on stage will be asking who remembers when boxes were just black, or white, or brown? and younger people will be confused by it. In packaging, personalisation will enable every single box leaving the factory to be tailor-made for the customer.

In apparel, the changes in the design are so fast now, that the only way to keep up is with inkjet, digital printing, and colour management. There will be a great revolution there, it is only at the beginning.

Our role will be exactly where the virtual world meets the physical world. We are going to translate the images from the virtual into the physical.

Those who were quick to embrace the first digital revolution, the third industrial revolution, took advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves, and are doing well now.

Gecht pointed out that while a lot of printing businesses had closed, many of those who remained had seen increases of revenue, benefitting from less competition. Gecht noted that Darwinian ideas of the survival of the fittest came into play, with the print business still remaining those best able to adapt to a new environment.

Australian Printer sat down with Gecht the following day to discuss Connect, EFI, and the future of the industry.

Gecht says, We are aiming to do multiple things at the conference. The first is to connect with customers, listen to them, see what is new in their business. It is a once a year opportunity to speak to them, try to understand what they are trying to accomplish, and what their customers are trying to accomplish, what opportunities they are seeing, what they want from us going forward.

We also want to share our thoughts. Where we are taking the products, where we are taking the company, what we believe is going to happen in the industry, and see what feedback we are getting.

Connect used to be a place to talk about the next year road map, and get training on current products. We took it to a more strategic level, talking about longer term objective and vision, trying to figure out how customers see their business. After Connect we come together to talk about what we learned from customers, what they like and do not like. It became a lot more two-way.

EFI has made big investments in R&D, alongside acquisitions to expand its product range, and now is across labels with Jetrion, textiles with Reggiani, wide-format with Vutek, with its latest addition being digital corrugated print with its Nozomi press.

The company indicated a change in strategic direction, it will not be looking to major acquisitions to get into new markets, but will be focusing on developing its existing markets.

Guy Gecht, CEO, EFI says, In the past we made big acquisitions to get into an area. We are not planning to do that now. What we want to do is get deeper in the areas we are currently in.

The goal is to get a lot deeper in packaging, textiles, display graphics, commercial print, and give more to the customers. We find it more rewarding and interesting to do more with existing customers than to try and get new customers in new industries.

Clearly commercial print has a lot of challenges. A lot of things which were printed are moving to electronic media, maybe not as fast as people think, with some areas seeing a bounce back. There is definitely pressure, the question is where is the gulf, where is the value?

Printing on things beyond paper is definitely going somewhere, and has a lot more value. If you speak at people that print display graphics they will tell you business is going well, and that it is a lot more profitable than commercial print. We are seeing that as a trend.

Commercial print has tremendous talent, and a lot of passion given that it is normally a family-run business, and a great customer base. So the question is how do you take that and build different applications.

You have to follow the money, and follow the trends. What kind of things can you do beyond printing documents for customers? What kind of things they do, and how can you accommodate their desire to customise, to have shorter runs, to not hold inventory. Normally that means digital printing in our industry.

Can you take out some of the waste and inefficiency in your system? That generally means automating business processes using software that you were previously doing manually.

We have smart people in the industry, and the people that invest in the right things, and have modernised are doing really well.

You need to think about print in a much broader definition. It is about putting great images on any material. If you think that is print, I have the creative skills to do what it takes, what can I do for my existing customers, what can I do with the people I get comfortable with and how can I do that, who can I learn from? That is what makes Connect a great event, being able to learn from your peers.

If you are a commercial printer, and you say I want to become a supplier to Zara, or Nike, or Adidas, that is going to take a lot of knowledge. But if you say I want to be able to do short runs, some fabrics, some decoration, you can definitely do it. A lot of signage is moving to fabric as it has a great feel, and travels well.

People found that fabric is a great way to do signage, with the Reggiani technology that started in professional textile and migrated to signage, you can do that at affordable prices, and a great quality.

For print shops looking to expand offerings, it is about being open minded with taking your skills to different applications.

Everybody wants to customise things faster. Marketing today is about tying things to a certain time, area, age, gender, and mass marketing is almost gone.

The next big trend is short run. No one wants to keep inventory, they want things to come in, then out, and then change it.

The event also featured keynotes from early adopters of the Nozomi press, EFIs single-pass corrugated digital inkjet packaging solution first shown at drupa, with Eric Bacourt of Spanish company Rafeal Hinojosa, and Mal McGowan, owner of Irish printer McGowans speaking.

Explaining how it had changed his business, McGowan says, It is the biggest change we have seen in 10 years. The print is better and looks different. It is the easiest sale for my people to do: same price, looks better.

The conference also featured a section on customer success stories. Australia was represented on the panel by Peter Wagener of WA-based All Flags.

Wagener is a big user of EFI products, dating back to the start of his company two decades ago.

He says, Being able to look at what is happening, what is available, plus the advantage of being able to speak to multiple people in the EFI network brought me here.

I have everything from a Vutek 5300, which is 20 years old, an 18 year old 5330 5m solvent machine, the Gen-1 FabriVU, a QS2000, just put an LX-Pro 3.2m, the new FabriVU 340, and the new Vutek 5r. An EFI Pro 24F is on the way, due to be launched in four weeks.

The Pro 24f is EFIs latest flatbed printer, with a 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution, coming in CMYK + dual channels of white standard. It is able to print in 107sqm/h in its fastest mode, and 7sqm/h in its highest quality, with four more options between the two, Production Mode, POP Quality, and High Quality.

It features a four-zone, user-selectable vacuum system, which EFI says is designed to match the most common media sizes without masking, ensuring efficient hold-down, no unintended media movement and easy transitions between jobs. It can also print multi-board simultaneously, even if they are different sizes. EFI says it is ideal for high-value applications, such as lenticulars and photographic backlit displays, exotic materials, and irregularly-shaped or heavy objects.

With a table width of 291.8 cm, the Pro 24f has a maximum printable area of 254 cm 132 cm, handling a maximum media thickness of 5 cm, and 180kg of weight evenly distributed.

Wagener says, The latest products are more efficient.

The information that feeds back from the machines and its ability to collect data is extremely helpful. We can look at our cost controls much better, run the machines more efficiently, and have more equipment running with less staff. They are more environmentally friendly, and better across temperature and humidity. We have less problems with colour shift over a major print run. The repeatability is a huge benefit for us.

Every machine that they have on display in here I have. It is not like I am attending Connect just to look at new equipment, it is more about being able to speak to the heads of departments like Fiery. It is information that we do not normally get to speak in Australia, but speaking to some of these specialists is invaluable.

Perth is isolated, seldom to people come to see us, reps will only come if there is something of significance. There are reps in Perth for small equipment, but not the stuff of the sort of scale All Flags uses.

Command Workstation, the new centralised platform which print shops can operate all Fiery-driven printers through, was seen first hand.

John Henze, vice president Marketing, EFI says, Command Workstation was about a more modern user interface, and a more efficient way of working with applications, a left to right type of flow. This platform now enables you to connect to all Fiery driven devices, not just cutsheet documents. Whether that is high-speed inkjet devices, or in display graphics.

There can be a tremendous amount of efficiency gained and productivity by being able to manage a broader portfolio of printers under one common, centralised job management interface.

If you are a customer that decides you want a Ricoh colour device, and a Konica Minolta black and white device, the look and feel of Command Workstation across all of the products in exactly the same. A lot of people have their proprietary workflows, that compete with Fiery in many ways, the customers position should always be to get the right workflow for them.

For the Australian market where we are focusing on software a lot of customers have mixed fleets. For anyone that is looking to integrate workflow, and management information systems, the Fiery is going to give them the best opportunity.

EFI also debuted its latest marketing automation software, MarketDirect, which has been designed to easily link in with databases to provide and generate personalised communications using pre-ready templates, across direct mail, EDMs, mobiles, and social marketing.

Taking the rise of mobiles as users main access to the internet, MarketDirect is built with HTML5, with responsive design enabled to automatically be optimised for mobile screens.

Aaron Tavakoli, segment marketing lead, E-Commerce, Cross-Media Marketing, EFI, MarketDirect Cross Media is a multi-channel marketing platform that integrates all aspects of direct mail, VDP (Variable Data Print), with email, traditional marketing, landing pages, all the necessary QR codes to connect them, along with mobile messaging, marketing, and social marketing.

It is aimed at print service providers with as few as 14-15 employees, and can be used to provide marketing services to their customers. What the system produces is a vendor ready-file that they can pass on to any printer they are using.

It can be scaled, and is great for those who cannot invest in an enterprise-sized platform like Marketo.

For a commercial printer, the advantage is integration. If they are using it alongside an e-commerce platform like EFI Digital StoreFront, they can take the campaigns they produce in MarketDirect, publish them to StoreFront, and re-use those assets, and re-sell those programmed campaigns to other customers. They can also place those campaigns online, and let their

customers self-execute.

As they move into distribution and fulfillment, if the campaigns involve shipping finished goods, that they may be warehousing or holding in inventory for their customers, our fulfillment platform will integrate, and they can convert them into shippable packages.

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Silicone-edge graphic system and framing supplier Matrix Frame is in the process of starting up its new warehouse in western Sydney, with the company launching its debut in Australia at the Visual Impact signage show in Brisbane in late April.

The site at Silverwater, Sydney, is the companys fourth distribution centre, following others established in the Netherlands, US and China. Matrix Frame makes and sells aluminium frames and LED light boxes.

Matrix Frame is currently seeking distributors and resellers in Australia and the Pacific region.

David Cross, general manager for Matrix Frame Australia says, Matrix Frame makes a framing system that holds tension fabric in place. It started in the Netherlands, then moved to the US and China and now it is in Australia.

We have two kinds of customers: people with their own printers who are able to manufacture panel faces, and people who put it all together and pass it on. We sell to distributors who are able to take the product, cut pieces and put it all together. On another level, we have resellers, with which we cut the frames up for them like Ikea kits, and they can assemble it. If someone wants a face, they have to go elsewhere, we provide the frames.

[Related: Starleaton buys Uniscreen Australia]

There are a few other systems in Australia. Matrix had an office in China, and the product was available in Australia. We have already had a lot of interest shown in Australia, some people were coming overseas to shows and seeing the frames there. Now people can come and see it for themselves, rather than having to commit hundreds of thousands of dollars to freight a framework.

Some places do not have aluminium saws, so printers for example can have us pre cut pieces for them and it will be shipped that way, so they can assemble it themselves and not be freighting air.

We have locked down the warehouse in Sydney and next week, our stock is due to arrive next week. By Visual Impact, we should be ready and staff will have had practice cutting with the aluminium saws.

There are only a couple of staff. It will be myself and two other workers. We will be working with distributors in other states so we do not need salespeople, they will be working on our behalf.

Other countries, such as the US and the Netherlands will have built immense structures and if retailers come to us wanting a particular job, we can model it based on what has been done before and ask other countries for advice.

[Related: Pozitive snags Summa F distribution]

We will be bringing in 95 per cent of the full range, there are a couple of products made that are highly specialist and they are made for a few American customers but we can still bring them in if they are requested.

We are bringing out a new LED system for lights. Traditionally, lighting systems would be 12 volts and hook up to transformers, which can limit the number of lights. In the past, Matrix Frame have made it simple and only used four lights.

With this new system, Bits, we will not need transformers, the power supply will be built into the units. This will take away the limit on the number of lights. Customers will be able to just link them together and switch it on. It is new to the market, I have not seen it before and I have been in the industry for 20-25 years.

Matrix Frame says its aluminium frames are engineered for both flexibility and longevity while being easy to assemble.

The company was established in 2006.

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These tips help people make the right choice for the safety of their possessions and their budgets.

Security is important, said Runnels, as well as other considerations. These tips help people make the right choice for the safety of their possessions and their budgets.

The report covers:

Rental cost

Location

Unit size

Security

Insurance options

These tips have been released as part of the companys continued dedication to customer service. Read the report on the River Road Mini Storage website or below.

Tips for choosing a self storage facility

These tips, prepared by the popular Paso Robles self storage company, River Road Mini Storage, cover important considerations such as cost, the facilitys location, unit sizes, security and insurance options.

Rental cost

Rental cost depends on the size of the unit. Some facilities offer discounts for long-term rentals. Some offer discounts to members of the local chamber of commerce or clubs like the 4-H. Senior citizen and veteran discounts are frequently available too. Sometimes the facility is offering specials or coupons.

Location

Location is a matter of convenience. A short drive to retrieve items to restock shelves or fill orders is important for a small business. For long-term storage and infrequent visits, the location may not be as important. Sometimes, it just feels better to have personal property as close as possible.

Unit size

Most facilities offer various sized units ranging from areas about the size of a walk-in closet to a one-car garage. Some even have secure parking for vehicles and boats. The best way to figure out how much space you need is to discuss the subject with the storage facility staff.

Security

Security is one of the top issues for both renters and management and the Paso Robles self storage facility on River Road is a model for security measures. Look for:

Code controlled gate access

Well lit and fully fenced

On-site security cameras

Other security considerations include a no tailgating policy and wide driveways between units with clear lines of sight.

Insurance options

As a general rule, self-storage facilities do not insure personal property. Sometimes you can buy insurance for stored items; this may be an option offered by the facility. Homeowners or renters insurance might cover a portion or offer coverage for an additional premium.

Overall considerations

There is rarely a single aspect that determines the best storage facility. Most of us start with an idea of a budget and how much space we can squeeze our belongings into. River Road Mini Storage owner, Rick Runnels, said that considering all of these tips is going to help customers come to the best choice.

River Road Mini Storage is a locally owned Paso Robles self-storage facility. The company offers three different sized units, with security at the gate and at each units door and drive-up access to each unit. A first time customer discount coupon is currently on the company website.

River Road Mini Storage

1631 North River Road

Paso Robles CA 93446

(805) 239-4333.

Press release by Paso Robles SEO company Access Publishing, 806 9th Street, #2D, Paso Robles, CA 93446. (805) 226-9890.Mode Effect, an Arizona-based WordPress and WooCommerce development firm, has recently joined forces with John Morrison, who has come on board with the company as partner. Morrison is a veteran in the ecommerce industry who has worked on innovative ecommerce strategies for large billion dollar companies such as H&R Block, Wallis Oil Co. and Heritage Environmental Service as well as with smaller emerging tech startups.

Johns extensive experience in ecommerce and digital strategy will be a major benefit to our existing and new WooCommerce customers, said Cody Landefeld, founder of Mode Effect. John and I have been in discussions for over a year now about how we can join forces to offer a 360-degree ecommerce solution to Mode Effects customers from initial ecommerce setup or migration to ongoing optimization and innovation.

Morrisons career includes positions as a software developer and website manager, which led him into leadership roles in the early days of ecommerce with technology startups, a couple that sold for multi-millions of dollars. In 2007, he started Morrison Consulting, a software development firm dedicated to sustaining and growing their clients online initiatives through engendering collaboration and trust. Morrison Consultings development expertise are Internet platform-centric and built on Microsoft Technologies. They focus on writing software for three areas of business: increasing revenue, reducing cost and making business processes scalable.

Digital strategies are the new ecommerce, said Morrison. Many larger companies are lagging behind with their digital strategies as they adopt their business models. With my digital strategy background coupled with Mode Effects industry-recognition as a WooCommerce expert, we are well-positioned to help both large enterprise companies as well as small- to mid-sized organizations with their digital strategies.

Since rapid growth of WooCommerce, WordPress is now a viable tool of choice for end-to-end management of a companys digital strategy. Recognizing this I started seeking a partner in the WooCommerce space. As I got familiar with the community, I developed a great appreciation for Mode Effect and started spending lots of time with Cody, shared Morrison. Through that we recognized the great potential of joining forces. While Morrison Consulting still operates as a separate entity to Mode Effect, its team lends its experience in ecommerce and resources to Mode Effect.

Ive always believed that any company is only as good as its people, stated Landefeld. Having John on board with Mode Effect will allow us to better serve our clients and truly become a long-term strategic ecommerce partner with them.

About Mode Effect:

Mode Effect was founded in 2010 by Cody Landefeld. The company focuses on being a key partner for ecommerce and enterprise companies looking for an experienced and expert WooCommerce and WordPress partner. After spending over a decade in the website design industry Landefeld launched Mode Effect to solely focus on providing solutions in WordPress and WooCommerce. The companies professional team includes world class web designers and developers, copywriters, web optimization experts and web strategists. The goal for every client engagement is to help clients transform their businesses using WordPress and WooCommerce. Learn more at https://modeeffect.com.

Media Contact: Brenda Bryan | bbryan@kalpanamarketing.com | (602) 561-9758A California-based writer has released his debut Christian book, which delivers a clear and impactful expose to the why behind Gods astonishing expression of love within His personal connection with humanity.

In Love Must Have a Body, T. L. Harper, who has more than four decades of experience working among national and international ministry leaders, presents readers with a timeless depiction of the power and transformative nature of Gods love. Through this, Harper invites readers to enter into the unique purpose and destiny God has specifically designed for them.

Having traveled extensively both in the U.S. and abroad, I want all cultures to see the inseparable interface between God and humankind through a different lens than perhaps traditional theological perspectives view it through, Harper said. Many Christians are at a loss to explain the why behind Gods decision to reveal himself to humankind the way he has done. This book will draw you into a more intimate understanding of the attention God has for each one of his human creations.

A scripture-driven, easy-to-digest and stimulating guide, Love Must Have a Body will enlighten readers to Gods intense desire toward them. Harper invites the reader to ponder the essence of his or her existence at their very core within the timeless dimensions of Gods epic love story.

Love Must Have a Body

By T. L. Harper

ISBN: 978-1-5127-9783-1 (hardback); 978-1-5127-9782-4 (paperback);

978-1-5127-9781-7 (electronic)

Available at the WestBow Press Online Bookstore, Barnes & Noble and Amazon

About the author

T. L. Harper is the director of The Phileo Foundation. Harper holds degrees in music and theology and has spent more than 40 years in ministry, 10 of which include experience conducting full-time ministry and leading a gospel singing group in the U.S. and abroad. He currently resides in San Diego. To learn more, please visit http://www.lovemusthaveabody.com.

Review Copies & Interview Requests:

LAVIDGE  Phoenix

480-648-7557

dgrobmeier(at)lavidge.com

General Inquiries:

LAVIDGE  Phoenix

480-998-2600 x 584

mdriver(at)lavidge.comTwo experienced education consultants have released their holistic approach to teaching and learning. It focuses on fostering strong relationships between students and teachers with an emphasis on social and emotional components and integrating them into classroom practices in a functional way.

In Student Voices: We Believe in You, authors Martha Casazza and Sharon Silverman intertwine the personal stories of students who overcame challenges to succeed with a research- and theory-based model for fostering student success. The books ultimate aim is to equip teachers with the tools necessary to engage with and grow their students non-cognitive skills.

Too many students are not graduating from college or not meeting their educational goals, and too often, the blame for this falls entirely on these young people who are juggling multiple demands in order to pursue higher education, Casazza said. As educators, we dont stop to ask the students what would make a difference  our hope is that this book will answer to that.

Thanks to the authors for offering an accessible tool to use when dealing with students of any age and background, an Amazon customer wrote in a five-star review of the book. Not preachy, just encouraging. This book is a pleasure to read, and it prompted my New Years resolution for 2018: listen.

A concise, easy-to-read roadmap to holistic teaching and learning, Student Voices offers a motivating approach to revitalizing the classroom, supporting student needs and success and validating the power self-efficacy, persistence and emotional awareness hold in academic motivation.

Student Voices: We Believe in You

By Martha Casazza; Sharon Silverman

ISBN: 978-1-5320-2974-5 (paperback); 978-1-5320-2973-8 (electronic)

Available at the iUniverse Online Bookstore, Barnes & Noble and Amazon

About the authors

Martha Casazza and Sharon Silverman are founding partners of educational consulting firm TRPPAssociates. Casazza and Silverman hold education doctorates, have served as Fulbright Scholars in South Africa and have co-authored two books together. They currently work and reside in Chicago. To learn more, please visit http://www.trppassociates.com.

Review Copies & Interview Requests:

LAVIDGE  Phoenix

480-648-7557

dgrobmeier(at)lavidge(dot)com

General Inquiries:

LAVIDGE  Phoenix

480-998-2600 x 584

mdriver(at)lavidge(dot)comBecker's Healthcare is pleased to welcome Dr. Richard Wohns and more than 222 other talented medical professionals as speakers for Becker's 16th Annual Future of Spine + The Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference, June 14 to 16 at the Swissotel in Chicago.

NeoSpine Founder and President Dr. Richard Wohns will deliver exciting content June 14 and 15 on investing in early stage spine and device companies; the future of spine, private practice and more; and investing as a spine surgeon. A board-certified neurosurgeon, he has performed more than 3,000 outpatient cervical and lumbar surgeries and gives international lectures on the clinical, business and legal aspects of outpatient spine surgery.

Pablo Pazmino, MD, an orthopedic spinal surgeon and medical director of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Spine Cal, will share his expertise with Becker's audience June 16. He'll discuss techniques, tricks and tips for the cervical hybrid arthroplasty in the outpatient setting. Dr. Pazmino holds hospital privileges in spinal surgery at several locations, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Board-certified neurological surgeon Ying Chen, DO, FACOS, will discuss the relationship between orthopedic and spine practices and their ASCs June 15. Dr. Chen practices at Columbus, Ohio-based OrthoNeuro, where he also serves as chairman on the IT committee. He is a member of the Ohio Osteopathic Association's House of Delegates with the Columbus chapter.

Conference attendees will have the opportunity to hear from Jamie Baisden, MD, a professor of neurosurgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Dr. Baisden, who has been named one of the "Best Doctors in America" and listed in the "Guide to America's Top Physicians," will speak June 15 on key evolutions in the medical device arena.

Becker's thanks its corporate partner, Johnson & Johnson One Medical Device, for its title sponsor support of the event.

To hear Joe Montana and other great keynotes and speakers, join Becker's Healthcare at its Future of Spine + The Spine, Orthopedic and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference, June 14 to 16 by registering here: https://www.regonline.com/registration/Checkin.aspx?EventID=2050742 or contact Jessica Cole by email at jcole@beckershealthcare.com or by phone at 312-929-3675.

For the complete conference brochure, click here: https://www.beckersasc.com/june-conference/.

About Becker's ASC Review

Becker's ASC Review offers general business, legal and clinical guidance on topics relevant to outpatient surgery including joint ventures, development and expansion, and regulatory and compliance issues, as well as analysis and insight for specialties including orthopedics and spine, gastroenterology, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, ENT, and anesthesiology. Each of the nine annual issues of the publication reaches a qualified audience of more than 25,000 key ASC leaders, including surgeons, medical directors, directors of surgery and ASC administrators. Every ASC in the nation receives Becker's ASC Review.

About Becker's Spine Review

Becker's Spine Review features news and analysis on business and legal issues relating to spine practices. Each issue of the quarterly publication reaches a qualified audience of approximately 12,500 key spine practice decision-makers, including surgeons and spine practice administrators.HIGHSTREET We selected Highstreet to assist us on this critical project. They helped select appropriate options and worked with us as we completed the migration over to our new Student Information System. The Highstreet team proved to be strong partners, stated Peter Zuge, CIO, UWSP.

The University of Wisconsin  Stevens Point (UWSP) is live on their new Student Enterprise Resource Planning system: Oracles Campus Solutions version 9.2. Employing the services of Highstreet as their integration partner, UWSP is the first major institution to conduct a full implementation and go live on Oracles latest version of Campus Solutions software.

UWSP had a home-built Student Information System (SIS) for over a decade. Over the years, other solutions arose which provided better service options to our faculty and students, and it was decided to purchase Oracles Campus Solutions as a best-of-breed replacement to offer a full suite of services for our institution. We were faced with a long history of business practices and technology that needed replacement in a short timeframe, explained Peter Zuge, Chief Information Officer of the 9400-student liberal arts public institution.

UWSP engaged Highstreet in the fall of 2015 to provide project management, implementation, integration, training, and development consulting services in support of the implementation process. Using the new system, applications were first processed in August 2016.

In the spring and summer of 2017, students could enroll for the summer and fall semesters, Financial Aid awards were determined, and students could begin paying their bills using the new system. Students also began taking advantage of a popular new feature of the Campus Solutions system, which allows them to register and access their records through their mobile devices.

Higher Education is an important vertical for Highstreet. The demands of the modern student are causing new strategies to be developed by universities and we are confident that our expertise can assist, commented Greg Furst, CEO at Highstreet.

We selected Highstreet to assist us on this critical project. They helped select appropriate options and worked with us as we completed the migration over to our new Student Information System. As with any large project, there were obstacles, but the Highstreet team proved to be strong partners, stated Peter Zuge. With Campus Solutions, we were able to streamline and consolidate separate unit business processes into seamless offerings, which significantly improved our student experience. We are pleased with the results and the assistance Highstreet provided.

Although this was a new partnership with UWSP, Highstreet and our resources have long-standing relationships with many of the University of Wisconsin (UW) schools. We wanted to provide UWSP the successful partnership that schools in the UW system were accustomed to with Highstreet, concluded Henry Tran, Executive Vice President and Practice Lead, Highstreet.

###

About Highstreet

Highstreet provides modernization and management services for enterprise applications and IT infrastructure  on premises, in the cloud or hybrid. At Highstreet, we know that companies hire us to solve business problems. Our unmatched application expertise, technical know-how, and results-driven approach have enabled more than 800 organizations to modernize their applications and infrastructure without disrupting their businesses. Only Highstreets services come with Expertise Built-In.

About the University of Wisconsin  Stevens Point

Established in 1894 and located on 400 acres in the center of Wisconsin, UWSP is a liberal arts university of approximately 9400 students. UWSP was recently ranked in the 2018 U.S. News and World Reports Top 10 Best Colleges of public universities in the 12 Midwest states.Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the China Development Forum (CDF) in Beijing, capital of China, March 25, 2018. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

Unilateralism harms everyone, says vice premier

Unilateralism and trade wars harm everyone, benefit no-one, trigger larger conflicts and exert a negative impact, Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng said on Sunday at the annual China Development Forum in Beijing amid spiraling trade disputes between the two largest economies in the world.

"The readoption of trade protectionism leads nowhere," Han said in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the high-profile forum attended by government officials, business leaders and prestigious economists.

His remarks reaffirmed China's stance against a trade war with the US, although US President Donald Trump has been shown to be keen on launching a one-man trade war with China. On Friday morning (Beijing time), the Trump administration announced plans to hit China with up to $60 billion per annum in new tariffs on Chinese imports.

During a phone conversation with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Saturday morning, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He urged concerted efforts to maintain the stability of China-US trade ties.

Mnuchin briefed the Chinese side on the latest development of a Section 301 investigation report released by the US side. Liu noted the report violates global trade rules and is detrimental to the interests of China, the US and the whole world.

The Chinese side is ready and capable of safeguarding its national interests, said Liu, who expressed the hope that the two sides will stay rational and work together to maintain the overall stability of their economic and trade relations.

The two sides agreed to maintain communication over the issue.

A trade war that goes against the trend of globalization was also badly received by business executives and economists.

In his speech on Saturday, this year's forum co-chairman Apple CEO Tim Cook championed free trade.

"Countries that embrace openness, that embrace trade, that embrace diversity are the countries that do exceptionally," Cook said, urging calm heads for China-US trade.

Hope still floats that trade tensions between the world's two largest economies could be eased, market watchers say.

"China is very good at finding compromises, and I think we can possibly avoid a trade war," Frank-Jurgen Richter, a participant at the forum, told the Global Times on Sunday.

What will happen is that the US and China will meet and discuss the pending issues, said Richter, founder and chairman of Horasis, a Switzerland-based think tank.

He noted that pressure from the outside could have a positive stimulus, especially on the financial and regulatory frameworks.

China's IPR protection

At a forum panel discussion on Sunday afternoon, Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said that the Chinese government's intellectual property rights (IPR) protection efforts have substantially benefited foreign intellectual property owners.

The country forked out $28.6 billion in payment to foreign IP owners in 2017, according to Wang, who stressed the country's IPR protection has yet to be flawless and efforts are still required to enhance IPR protection.

Wang expressed his hope that "China and the US can sit down and try to resolve trade disputes under the WTO framework."

There are no winners in a trade war, and it's important that the two sides are capable of staying sober and take measures to iron out disputes, he added.

That didn't mean China would be passive, analysts noted.

China should not give in to US pressure, Richter said. Beijing should "try to turn the pressure into a positive force. China is the safeguard of an international rule-based system, and should show the US that they are playing according to the rules, he said.

In response to Trump's proposed tariffs, the commerce ministry on Friday unveiled a $3 billion list of US imports ranging from fruit and pork to recycled aluminum that could be hit with higher tariffs.

Wei Jianguo, a former vice commerce minister disclosed Saturday that China is also researching a second and third list of US imports that could be targeted including aircraft and microchips, according to media reports.

"Beijing will likely impose tariffs on soybeans grown in farm states that voted for Donald Trump," DBS economists said in a note sent to the Global Times.

"Other retaliatory measures from Beijing would include banning the import of genetically modified products from the US and delaying trade and investment deals signed during Trump's earlier visit to China. Steering the yuan exchange rate to the weaker side is also an option. "The legal team at Williams Cedar LLC proudly announces that partner David Cedar has been honored as a New Jersey Super Lawyer in Personal Injury for 2018. Mr. Cedar has been honored numerous times before  in 2009, 2012 through 2015, and 2017; and he was recognized as a Rising Star in 2005.

David Cedar, co-founder of the firm, has been a passionate advocate for his clients for more than two decades. He focuses his practice primarily on catastrophic personal injury claims and complex tort litigation  including civil class action claims in the field of consumer law, truth in lending violations, predatory financing, toxic tort and environmental law, professional malpractice, constitutional law, and products liability in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Mr. Cedar was appointed to the Supreme Court of New Jersey in 2001. This honor is awarded to less than one percent of all attorneys in the state of New Jersey.

The prestigious Super Lawyer honor is awarded after an extensive, patented, multi-phase selection process, during which independent research is combined with peer nominations and evaluations. Every candidate is individually evaluated on twelve indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement. Selections are made annually, on a state-by-state basis. Honorees represent the top five percent of attorneys in each state. The selection process for Rising Stars is the same, with the exception being that a candidate must be either 40 years old or younger, or in practice for 10 years or less.

If you need representation, please call the legal team at Williams Cedar at 856-874-7500 or 215-557-0099 or visit our website at https://www.williamscedar.com. From their offices in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, the firm represents clients throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and nationwide.The Insatiable Pride: the story of Satans demise. The Insatiable Pride is the creation of published author, Rosanna Abanonu. Rosanna is a retired schoolteacher who taught for over twenty-five years before she returned to college for her masters degree in special education. Rosanna was born into a Christian family then raised by her maternal uncle and his wife. Her uncle was a principal at a Christian elementary school where his wife was also a schoolteacher. As a child, Rosanna loved to hear the stories about the important personalities found within the Bible. When she became an adult, she realized that these stories were written in a nutshell, very much condensed. Now that she has read the Bible over and over again, she is inspired to write creative fiction books based on stories and teachings from the Bible.

Who knows the heart of Satan? Who can fathom the depth of his wickedness? It is no other than the spirit of the Almighty God. He and He alone knows every aspect of Satans hideous aspirations; all his gross, wicked, and devastating agendas for men lay bare before the Holy Spirit. He sees and understands them all, even before Satan puts any of them into action. --Rosanna Abanonu

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Rosanna Abanonus new book unleashes the power of the Holy Spirit power to obliterate and reduce to nothing the evil agenda of the wicked one.

Satans success on Earth started as soon as the fall of Adam and Eve. He took from them the glory, power, and dominion they had over all things on Earth, which was given to them by God. His victory over Adam and his descendants allowed him to develop an insatiable, all-consuming pride. He believes that the Earth is his. He believes that he is the ruler and king of all. He believes no power can snatch it from him.

The battle Christian and Jews face against Satan is like a story. As Christians we know how the story will end for it is all reveled in the last book of the Bible although the prophecies have yet to be fulfilled. The return of Christ, the judgment of nonbelievers, the war of Armageddon, and the departure of Satan have yet to happen. Afterwards, there shall be peace on Earth. The glory, the righteousness, and the love of the Almighty God shall reign supreme. The Insatiable Pride is the story of how Satans insatiable pride leads to his own downfall.

View a synopsis of The Insatiable Pride on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase The Insatiable Pride at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about The Insatiable Pride, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.After a big city adventure, Bali is the perfect place to relax and unwind. Travellers are free to spend the time doing as much or as little as they wish, enjoying a complimentary hours spa treatment, and a romantic dinner for two

Goways newest Asia offer invites travellers to shop, dine, and explore to their hearts content in one of the continents most exciting cities, before relaxing their cares away in romantic Bali.

Globetrotters will enjoy three nights in either Hong Kong or Singapore. Both are considered foodie and shopping havens, each with their own unique thrills, sights, experiences, and history to enjoy. The Hong Kong itinerary includes a half day island tour with visits to Victoria Peak, Stanley Market, Repulse Bay Beach, and Aberdeen fishing village. Meanwhile, Singapore tempts travellers with the Peranakan Trail, including tastings of local delicacies, before a trishaw experience takes them through the colourful neighbourhoods of Little India and Kampong Glam.

Both itineraries then include six nights at leisure in beautiful Bali. Travellers are free to spend the time doing as much or as little as they wish, enjoying a complimentary hours spa treatment, and a romantic dinner for two. Bali is unique as the only predominantly Hindu island in Indonesia, and is commonly known as the Island of the Gods.

Travellers who book by March 31, 2018 for eligible departures between April 1 and October 31 will save up to $210 US, in addition to receiving the complimentary romance value adds. Prices start at just $1730 US.

Since 1970, Goway has been providing unforgettable travel experiences to Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Central & South America, Idyllic Island destinations and Europe. Today Goway is recognized as one of North America's leading travel companies for individuals, families and groups to select exotic destinations around the globe. Goway has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Manila, and Sydney, Australia.

For reservations and information, visit http://www.goway.com, or call 1-800-387-8850.Strong support for Mr. Bennett's public recognition and celebration of his achievements for more than 35 years comes from prominent industry peers as well as the MBI's board.

The Modular Building Institute (MBI) has announced the induction of Mr. Carl Bennett, into its well renowned and esteemed Hall of Fame at World of Modular 2018 in Hollywood, Florida. Strong support for Mr. Bennett's public recognition and celebration of his achievements for more than 35 years comes from prominent industry peers as well as the MBI's board.

The nomination by fellow employees, broad support within Vanguard Modular Building Systems, support from industry peers, and ultimate induction into the Hall of Fame are a true testament to Carl Bennett's contributions and dedication to the modular building industry, ethical business practices, ability to achieve success, and desire to improve the industry for future growth and achievement.

Vanguard Modular Building Systems is proud of Mr. Bennett's long term dedication to the modular building industry and celebrates the MBI's Hall of Fame with him. Carls excellent reputation and solid character are testaments to this well-deserved induction.

To be considered as an inductee into the Modular Building Institute's Hall of Fame a nominee must meet four specific criteria:

Longevity - Lifetime of dedication to or achievement in commercial modular construction with a minimum of 30 years in the industry.

Corporate Citizenship - Service to others in the industry or making significant achievements in the areas of social concern or outstanding and consistent product quality.

Success - Business or financial success that has the respect of those in the nominating process and selection.

Pioneer/Innovator - Clear and original ideas advancing the industry and adopted by others in areas of product design and engineering, financial management, marketing concepts, production methods and efficiency, or other areas adding significantly to industry competitiveness or success.

The Modular Building Institute has and continues to make substantial contributions to advance and grow the modular building industry. Vanguard Modular is a proud supporter of the MBI and extends their appreciation for the consideration and induction of Mr. Bennett into the Hall of Fame.

About Vanguard Modular Building Systems, LLC

Vanguard Modular Building Systems, LLC is a modular building dealer that leases temporary buildings and sells custom permanent modular classrooms, offices, and specialty buildings to industries including: education, commercial, industrial, healthcare, energy, oil & gas, corrections, government, and more. Our experienced team is uniquely equipped to provide clients with tailored solutions that solve their individual space needs. We offer the flexibility of lease, purchase, and financing options.

Contact

Vanguard Modular Building Systems, LLC

Mark Meyers, Vice President of Marketing Services

mmeyers@vanguardmodular.com

http://www.vanguardmodular.comThe Hennessy Group, an executive search firm specializing in the life sciences, has announced the successful placement of three key executive roles in leading small-cap pharmaceutical organizations.

Colleen Kelly became Senior Counsel at womens healthcare company Agile Therapeutics in Q4 2017. Ms. Kellys previous role was with Pepper Hamilton, a Philadelphia-based firm ranked as a top-100 U.S. law firm in terms of revenue with specialties in healthcare and life sciences. Agile Therapeutics product candidate Twirla recently completed phase 3 trials.

Also in Q4, Julia Yang joined Pacira Pharmaceuticals, where she serves at the companys VP of Clinical Research. Pacira continues to lead the charge toward the development of safe alternatives to post-surgical opioids with their product EXPAREL (bupivacaine liposome injectable suspension), a local analgesic that controls surgery-related pain while reducing or potentially eliminating the need for opioids.

Dr. Navnit Patel has joined global life sciences supply chain leader Marken as VP of Quality Affairs, where he will focus on enhancing Markens industry-leading quality systems and set new standards for the movement and storage of clinical trial materials. Dr. Patel was previously the Director of Quality Assurance & Quality Control for Rutgers University Cells and DNA Repository-Infinite Biologics.

Each of these roles will be integral to the future growth of these businesses, said Robert Hennessy, CEO of The Hennessy Group. As always, my entire team at The Hennessy Group is proud to contribute to the success of organizations like Pacira, Marken and Agile. These are organizations that make a real difference for people and the industry, and have the power to drastically change lives.

Mr. Hennessy notes that each of these organizations has worked successfully with The Hennessy Group on previous executive search projects, too. With Pacira, for example, this is just one of a long line of successful executives placements weve contributed to. Its incredibly rewarding to watch and share in the success of all 13 of the leaders weve helped Pacira find, he said.

About The Hennessy Group.

The Hennessy Group is a retained executive search firm conducting in-depth searches for executives, CEOs and board directors in the life sciences, both domestically and worldwide. With more than 30-years experience, The Hennessy Group offers guaranteed search success for U.S. companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices, and diagnostics industries. The Hennessy Group is a member of AIMS International, one of the oldest and largest alliances in the search industry. Learn more about The Hennessy Group at http://www.thehennessygroup.com.Shelly Hogan (L) and Tina Akin (R) Receive Anniversary Awards from Karen McCaffrey (C) of McCaffrey Homes. Shelly and Tina have made a big difference in the lives of our homeowners and all of us at McCaffrey Homes. We are grateful for their service and look forward to their contributions for many years to come.  Karen McCaffrey.

McCaffrey Homes  a leading local third-generation family homebuilder in Californias Central Valley  has recognized two longtime employees for their years of service.

Shelly Hogan, vice-president of sales, has completed 20 years of service for the builder of new homes in the Fresno area. Tina Akin, a sales associate for the firm, has reached her ten-year anniversary with the company.

Shelly Hogans connections with McCaffrey Homes span her lifetime. Hogan grew up in a home built by Bonadelle Homes, owned by John Bonadelle  the father of Karen McCaffrey. Hogan has lived in two homes built by McCaffrey.

Having always lived in one of our homes gives me the ability to truly relate to our homebuyers, Shelly Hogan said. Ive enjoyed helping friends and my brother become McCaffrey homeowners."

During her career, Hogan has played a key role in 52 new home communities, managed 208 model homes, and the sale of 3,990 homes that have earned 112 awards. Earlier in her career with the company, Hogan served as an escrow coordinator, sales associate and mortgage loan counselor.

Ive had the opportunity to work alongside Bob and Karen McCaffrey, learn from the best, and to help build and mentor our outstanding team, Hogan said. I look forward to the next 20 years as we launch Tesoro Viejo  a game-changing, master-planned community and the largest project in our companys history.

In her first ten years with McCaffrey Homes, Tina Akin has served in seven communities and helped 800 buyers realize their dream of a new home. Her first community, Madison Place, remains special to her, with friendships with homebuyers that continue today. Like Shelly Hogan, family ties run deep in Tina Akins life and career.

As a proud owner of a McCaffrey home, Ive had the opportunity to experience our new homes and communities first hand, Akin said, Ive helped my parents, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and my hair stylist to become McCaffrey homeowners.

Akin said that guiding the homebuyer every step of the way is her focus. The moment she most enjoys is delivering a new home to happy owners, complete with a three-foot red bow. Her clients clearly sense and appreciate Akins passion to help.

Tina made sure everything was perfect for me along the way, one homeowner said. She really cares about you and your overall satisfaction. I absolutely adore Tina. She made the entire process fun.

Reflecting upon their careers to date, Karen McCaffrey said, Shelly and Tina have made a big difference in the lives of our homeowners and all of us at McCaffrey Homes. We are grateful to them for their dedication and many years of service  and look forward to their contributions for many years to come.

About McCaffrey Homes

McCaffrey Homes is dedicated to building homes that last a lifetime, while meeting the needs of homebuyers at every stage of life. With three generations of experience, the McCaffrey team has built more than 9,000 homes and been honored nationally and locally for the quality of its construction and service.

Currently, McCaffrey Homes is building three neighborhoods in Madera and Clovis, California: the Santerra and Ivy neighborhoods at Riverstone, a new master-planned community in Madera, and Santerra Clovis, the companys newest community in Clovis, Calif. McCaffrey has also broken ground on Tesoro Viejo, their own 1,600-acre master-planned community in Madera, which won the 2016 Outstanding Planning Award in Innovation in Green Community Planning.

For more information, visit https://www.mccaffreyhomes.com/ and http://www.tesoroviejo.com/.The start-ups will pitch their businesses in front of a panel of experienced investors on the 5th of June. They will be judged on their financial potential. The two best pitches will be chosen to present in front of the 500+ summit attendees, with the winner chosen through a live audience poll of the attendees. Applications will close on May 1.

The start ups will also be able to network with the attendees of EyeforTravel Europe. These include decision makers from all sectors within the travel industry.

Some of the confirmed brands in attendance include Priceline, TUI, NH Hotels, Eurail.com, Trainline, BMI, IHG, Eurostar, Hilton, Sixt, Booking.com, Airbnb and many more.

"The 2017 Start up Awards were a fantastic opportunity for us to get in front of so many of the industry movers and shakers. The focus, exposure and third party validation these events bring to fast growing businesses like ours are an invaluable step, which accelerates the journey to success.

Charlie Cadbury, CCO, Lola Tech (2017 winner)

The judges for the 2018 awards include:

Timothy Hentschel, Co-Founder and CEO, HotelPlanner.com

Dick Porter, Portfolio Chairman and Investor (founder and former CEO, STA Travel)

Brian Harniman, Managing Director, Brand New Matter Inc

George Northcott, Cofounder, Founders factory

Artjom Dashko, Investment Director, Kings Park Capital LLP

I honestly believe that the disruptors in the travel scene will be those who can really tap into the latent needs that the market has and deliver a service that beats the traditional suppliers, said Tim Gunstone, MD of EyeforTravel.

For the past 21 years, we have consistently made EyeforTravel Europe the centre of innovation in the travel industry and 2018 is no different, expect to see the disruptive technologies and business models that will change your business.

All successful start ups receive a subsidised pass to the conference. For more information about the awards and to find out how start-ups can enter, please visit: http://events.eyefortravel.com/travel-distribution-summit-europe/awards.php

Or contact the Conference Director on the details below:

Leo Langford | Global Conference Producer

EyeforTravel Ltd.

leo(at)eyefortravel(dot)com

(Global) +44 (0)207 375 7158| (USA Toll Free) 1 800 814 3459 ext. 7158Michael Sanders of NTI Interviews Eric Howk and Zach Carothers "Its kind of a trip to see how much of a life this thing has kind of taken on of itself." Eric Howk, Guitarist of Portugal. The Man

The Emmy-winning rock band Portugal. The Man has chosen to use their voice as a social factor in society to promote inclusion and to advocate for people with Disabilities. NTIs Director of Marketing Mike Sanders sat down with band members Eric Howk and Zach Carothers recently to say thank you and ask about the bands continued passion for social justice.

The interview covered the difficulties Howk faces due to the bands tour bus and many of the venues at which they perform having no accessible ways for him to navigate in his wheelchair. The problem is a common one, and recent changes in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) have many people with disabilities worried about accessibility and inclusion. Howk expressed his surprise that accessibility and threshold free loading isnt more common in theaters since all the equipment they use could be rolled in and save time and effort. If its easy for me, its easy for the crew, its easy for everyone. Making all venues accessible would make sense for many reasons, and Howk and Carothers expressed their hope that venues will just do it!

The band has a special affinity for NTI and the support and job services they provide to Americans with Disabilities, partially because lead guitarist Eric Howk is disabled following an accident that left him paralyzed. The band has supported and spread the message of NTI since the summer of 2017 when a Public Service Announcement by Eric Howk was released to increase awareness of NTIs mission to provide work-at-home jobs for Americans with Disabilities. Its kind of a trip to see how much of a life this thing has kind of taken on of itself, Howk commented in reference to the PSAs and social media efforts of NTI. Sanders noted that since 1 in 6 Americans has a disability, Howks message has been heard by many people who have been helped or inspired by it. His message helps open a conversations about disability, whether visible or invisible. The PSAs have been picked up by over 400 stations across the nation and have been heard by millions of people. (Watch the PSA here: http://portugaltheman.nticentral.org/)

Sanders asked Howk to recall his initial response to being asked to do a PSA for NTI. Howk remembered that the band was getting flooded with a lot of left-field offers.Theres not a whole lot of undeniable yeses, but there was absolutely nothing that could keep me from aligning myself with something that is this true to home. Howk recounted the difficulty he experienced getting back to work following his spinal cord injury and said that aligning himself with the message of NTI was a no brainer. He noted that NTIs job services provide opportunities and open doors to Americans with disabilities that wouldnt otherwise be available. I just love that [NTI] is kind of a tool kit for that, Howk stated. You are taking away some of the anxiety in the process, and I think thats huge!

Watch the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d32PsKEFHFM&feature=youtu.be

# # #

About NTI: National Telecommuting Institute. Inc (NTI) is a 501 (c)(3) (http://www.nticentral.org) non- profit organization with headquarters in Boston, MA. It has been supporting Americans with disabilities since 1995. NTI provides training and job services in work at home positions across the United States through their NTI@Home and LandAjob.org programs. NTI pioneered staffing virtual call centers with Americans with Disabilities, including Disabled Veterans, who work from home.

About Portugal. The Man: Portugal. The Man is an American Indie pop/rock band from Wasilla, Alaska. The group consists of John Gourley, Zach Carothers, Kyle O'Quin, Jason Sechrist and Eric Howk. Gourley and Carothers met and began playing music together at Wasilla High School, and the band is proud of its Alaskan roots. The band has been with Atlantic Records since 2010. Portugal. The Mans Feel It Still won "Best Pop Duo/Group Performance" at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards last January.

About Atlantic Records: Atlantic Records (http://www.atlanticrecords.com) was founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson, both avid music fans and record enthusiasts. Their passion for artist development made Atlantic Records the home of choice for legendary artists including Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, Cher, Genesis, Cream and many more. With over 60 years of recorded music history, our passion for artistry in music continues today as a new generation of incredible artists including Bruno Mars, Coldplay, fun., Jason Mraz, Ed Sheeran, Wiz Khalifa, Janelle Monae, Skrillex, Trey Songz, Hunter Hayes and more continue to further the Atlantic Records legacy.Becker's Hospital Review is pleased to welcome ABC's Shark Tank co-host, Kevin O'Leary, as a celebrity keynote for its Health IT + Clinical Leadership Conference, which will be held May 10 and 11 at the Swissotel in Chicago.

Mr. O'Leary has founded numerous successful businesses ranging from software companies to a developer of climate-controlled storage facilities. Today, in addition to his investment interests, Mr. O'Leary leads the O'Leary Financial Group, which comprises O'Shares ETFs, O'Leary Publishing and a continually growing list of other businesses. He is also the founder and chief sommelier of O'Leary Fine Wines and a member of Boston's 107-year old Hamilton Trust.

Mr. O'Leary has co-hosted the Discovery Channel's Project Earth television series and he is a regular contributor on CNBC. He has written three best-selling books, including Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women and Money, and most recently, Cold Hard Truth on Family, Kids and Money.

Mr. O'Leary will deliver a keynote address Thursday, May 10 at 4:15 p.m.

Becker's thanks its corporate partner, BE Smith, Inc., for its title sponsor support of the event.

To hear Mr. O'Leary and other great keynotes and speakers, join Becker's Hospital Review at its Health IT + Clinical Leadership 2018 Conference May 10-11 by registering here: https://www.regonline.com/registration/Checkin.aspx?EventID=2082181 or contact Jess Cole by email at jcole@beckershealthcare.com or by phone at 312-929-3675

For the complete conference brochure, click here: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/health-it-cmo-cno-roundtable/

About Becker's Hospital Review

Becker's Hospital Review is a monthly publication offering up-to-date business and legal news and analysis relating to hospitals and health systems. Articles are geared toward high-level hospital leaders, and we work to provide valuable information, including hospital and health system news, best practices and legal guidance specifically for these decision-makers. Each issue of Becker's Hospital Review reaches more than 18,000 people, primarily acute care hospital CEOs, CFOs and CIOs.Throughout their careers, these individuals have made extraordinary contributions to the life sciences, spanning basic science research through the commercialization of life-saving technologies.

Life Science Washington today announced its 2018 inductees into the Washington Life Science Hall of Fame, which recognizes innovative leaders and industry pioneers in Washington state who have made significant contributions to the life sciences. The recipients will be honored at a special luncheon March 28 during Life Science Innovation Northwest, the largest annual life science conference in the Pacific Northwest.

We are delighted to honor these exceptional leaders with induction into the Washington Life Science Hall of Fame, said Leslie Alexandre, DrPH, President and CEO of Life Science Washington. Throughout their careers, these individuals have made extraordinary contributions to the life sciences, spanning basic science research through the commercialization of life-saving technologies. Washington state owes them a debt of gratitude for the thriving life science industry their work has helped create.

Former Governor Christine Gregoire will accept her 2017 Washington Life Science Hall of Fame award during the ceremony and provide an update on her work as CEO of Challenge Seattle, a private sector initiative taking on the big challenges our region must address to continue growing, transforming, and thriving, while maintaining our quality of life.

The 2018 Hall of Fame inductees include:

Alan Frazier

Founder and Chairman, Frazier Healthcare Partners

Mr. Frazier has led Frazier Healthcare Partners in raising nine institutional funds and managing nearly $3.0 billion in assets. During his 25 years as the companys Managing Partner and Chairman, hes worked with entrepreneurs to build many leading healthcare companies, among them Array, Tularik (acquired by Amgen), Rigel, CV Therapeutics (acquired by Gilead), VIVUS, Corixa (acquired by GSK), and Cadence (acquired by Mallinckrodt). He currently sits on the boards of Abode Healthcare and Orthotic Holdings.

Before founding Frazier, he was integrally involved in growing several successful healthcare companies into national prominence, including Immunex Corporation. Later, he served as the Senior Financial Advisor and CFO of Affymax and its spin-out Affymetrix. Before Immunex, Mr. Frazier was head of the Emerging Business Practice and co-head of the Technology Practice for the Seattle office of Arthur Young & Company (now, Ernst & Young).

Dr. Denise A. Galloway

Director, Pathogen-Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Research Professor, Departments of Microbiology, Pathology & Global Health, University of Washington

Dr. Galloways Lab studies the mechanisms by which human papillomaviruses contribute to cancer, with an emphasis on types most likely to progress to cervical cancer. Galloway and colleagues work to understand the natural history of genital HPV infections and why only a small subset of women infected with high-risk HPVs develop cancer. Her work has been instrumental in developing the HPV vaccines in use today.

As Director of the Fred Hutch Pathogen-Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center, Galloway brings together Hutch experts in infectious diseases, host-pathogen interactions, cancer biology, immunology, global oncology and immunotherapy to understand, treat and prevent the cancers linked to infectious agents. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a recipient of a Fred Hutch 40th Anniversary Endowed Chair and serves on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Board of Scientific Counselors.

Dr. Leland Hartwell

Professor, Center for Sustainable Health, Arizona State University and Former President and Director Emeritus, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Dr. Hartwells pioneering research has had a major influence on our understanding of cancer and the therapeutic strategies used to treat diseases caused by uncontrolled cell growth. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. By identifying "checkpoint" genes that determine whether a cell is dividing normally, Hartwell provided important clues to cancer, which arises from abnormal, uncontrolled cell growth.

From 1997-2010 Hartwell was President and Director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. During that period The Hutch completed its expansion and consolidation to the South Lake Union campus and formed the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in partnership with the University of Washington and Seattle Childrens Hospital. He joined the faculty of the Arizona State University in 2010 where he has appointments in the Schools of Education, Biomedical Engineering, and Sustainability.

Dr. Christopher H. Porter

Commercialization Consultant, Life Science Washington Institute and CEO, Medical Genesis

For the past seven years, Dr. Porter has served as a Commercialization Consultant for Life Science Washington and Life Science Washington Institute, advising over 400 life science startups in this role. He was instrumental in setting up the Washington Innovation Mentoring (WIN) program and continues to be an active mentor. He has also been an avid volunteer for WINGS, a non-profit angel network that facilitates seed and early stage investments for medical technology companies in the Pacific Northwest.

Dr. Porter is also CEO of Medical Genesis, a consulting firm and medical device incubator. Throughout his career, he has been a CEO and/or board member of numerous public and private companies. He founded, invented products for, and contributed heavily to the success of numerous life science companies. He has been influential in introducing over 30 medical products and holds 48 US patents.

Life Science Washington created the Washington Life Science Hall of Fame in 2016 to honor industry leaders and pioneers in the field. Hall of Fame inductees from 2016 and 2017 include:



Donald W. Baker

Karl William Edmark, MD

Steven Gilles, PhD

Christine Gregoire, JD

Leroy Hood, MD, PhD

Lee Huntsman, PhD

A. Bruce Montgomery, MD

H. Stewart Parker

E. Donnall Thomas, MD and Dorothy Dottie Thomas

About Life Science Washington

Life Science Washington is an independent, non-profit 501(c)(6) trade association whose mission is to stimulate life science innovation, job creation and ecosystem vibrancy across Washington state through engagement, collaboration, promotion, and advocacy. Serving more than 500 members, Life Science Washington brings together research institutions, investors and innovators to grow the states life science economy. More information can be found at http://www.lifesciencewa.org.

About Life Science Innovation Northwest: http://www.lifesciencewa.org/page/LSINW_18

http://www.lifesciencewa.org | @LifeScienceWA

###Members of the emergency ministry fire service try to put out the fire at the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping mall in Kemerovo, Russia, on March 25, 2018. At least 37 people were killed in a fire in a shopping mall in south central Russia's Kemerovo city on Sunday, while many others are missing, TASS news agency reported, citing a source with firefighters. (Xinhua/Sputnik)

MOSCOW, March 25 (Xinhua) -- At least 37 people were killed in a fire in a shopping mall in south central Russia's Kemerovo city on Sunday, while many others are missing, TASS news agency reported, citing a source with firefighters.

Earlier reports said 69 people, including 40 children, were missing.

Firefighters are working at the scene to search for the missing.St. Charles, Illinois, Attorney Matthew G. Shaw Named 2018 Leading Lawyer Firm owner Matthew G. Shaw has earned recognition as a Leading Lawyer in Illinois for 2018.

Shaw Family Law, P.C., is proud to announce that firm owner Matthew G. Shaw has earned recognition as a Leading Lawyer in Illinois for 2018. It is the seventh consecutive year he has received this honor.

Leading Lawyers, a division of the Law Bulletin Media, selects lawyers each year based on peer recommendation and internal reviews. Less than five percent of lawyers in the state receive the Leading Lawyers designation.

St. Charles, Illinois, attorney Matt Shaw has practiced family law for more than 30 years. He operated his own family law office from 1991 to 2000 and reopened it as Shaw Family Law, P.C., in 2016. In between, he was the co-founder of Shaw, Jacobs, Goostree & Associates, P.C. He is also certified as a mediator and guardian ad litem, having worked as a child support attorney for the Kane County Circuit Court Clerks Office from 1987 to 1995.

Shaw has earned a 10.0 Superb Rating from Avvo and a Distinguished BV Rating from Martindale-Hubbell. He was named a Leading West Suburban Lawyer by the Leading Lawyers Network in 2013 and 2014.

Matt Shaw has lectured and written on family law topics for many years, including authoring the first chapter of the Illinois Family Law Handbook. He has served as the co-chair of the Illinois State Bar Association Family Law Section Council and chair of the Kane County Bar Association Family Law Committee.

Shaw Family Law, P.C.:

The law firm of Shaw Family Law, P.C. is located in St. Charles, Illinois. The Kane County family law firm represents clients throughout Northern Illinois including the communities of St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, Elgin, and Aurora. Shaw Family Law, P.C. provides tailored legal counsel in the practice areas of family law, divorce, parenting (child custody), child support, adoption, paternity, and mediation.If you are seeking efficient divorce representation in Kane County contact Shaw Family Law, P.C. Call 630-206-3300 or fill out our online contact form to schedule your free consultation today.The United States is seeing a dramatic increase in cyber threats. Most recently Walmart, Orbitz, the City of Atlanta, CDOT, various Healthcare facilities and many more have fallen victim to cyber attacks. To do business in the modern age, businesses must be connected and the speeds at which data is transferred and networks communicate have pushed limits; however, cyber security and data protection have not kept pace. This is mainly due to complexity, lack of talent, and lack of awareness.

At the core of the issue is cyber awareness or lack thereof, and the awareness system is riddled with complacency. Businesses are slow to react and many smaller businesses opt out all together, hoping to fly under the radar. Information Security Assessment methods that once were considered best practice are now critically outdated, slow and complex, not taking into consideration that cyber security is a moving target. 3rd Party Risk Managers have the greatest challenge of ensuring their world of connected vendors/ suppliers are implementing modern, up-to-date cyber security strategies.

Step up or step aside. The IRS recently issued a warning to tax professionals to "step up" their cyber security to prevent sensitive taxpayer information from being stolen. CPA firms, large and small, are being targeted by hackers and identity thieves, especially during the high traffic tax season.

For an accounting firm or any firm for that matter to truly "step up" their cyber security, it requires 3 key components. The first and most important is becoming aware. The mentality that "we are all set" is not the right perspective in today's world, but unfortunately prevalent. The second element is being able to identify gaps and vulnerabilities quickly. The third is the ability and the desire to fix the problems-developing ongoing management of the issues. Some of the smaller firms will no doubt opt out of cyber security awareness all together. For the companies that decide cyber security is a priority, complexity and broken legacy methods still prevail.

Techimon has developed a fast-paced, cost-effective multi-tiered information security assessment that works with the client in stages, removing the complexity of discovery and outdated service modules, making awareness less painful.

Techimon is able to identify a clients vulnerabilities immediately as well as throughout the life-cycle of the information security assessment. After completing initial discovery and vulnerability stage with Techimon, the information security assessment moves to a deeper dive, alongside with remediation management and support.

The typical legacy approach assessment can last 3 to 6 months until the tested environment receives any useful data. Techimons assessment is agile, taking into account that the threat landscape is continuously evolving and a clients network must have real-time vulnerability information or they risk exploits of the system.

Techimon provides initial external vulnerability and comprehensive compliance checks throughout the assessment life-cycle, so companies can see results instantly, keeping pace with the current threat landscape. Compliance controls measured in the process include GDPR, HIPAA, PCI, NIST, SOX, and COBIT.

Maturity tracking, IT Security Policy Review, Critical Security Controls, Internal Active Vulnerability and Advanced Manual Penetration Testing are delivered in a tiered security assessment. Complete Remediation Support and Vulnerability Management, One-click Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM-as-a-Service) are delivered to clients looking for improved, next-generation solutions to protect and defend their networks, data, and clients.

Learn more about Information Security Assessments: https://www.techimon.com/information-security-assessment/

About Techimon

At the core, Techimon identifies and re-mediates threats, risks and vulnerabilities, helping our customers easily deploy and manage leading-edge technology that protects and defends data, networks and customer information. Customers can quickly gain insight into potential threats and with Techimon Solutions-as-a-Service they are able to improve their security posture, remain in compliance and grow their business with confidence.

Techimon provides fully Managed Network and Data protection offering multi-tiered security assessments ranging from instant vulnerability checks to highly effective penetration testing. Our assessments are designed with a customer first approach and can be deployed across SMB to Enterprise. Techimon currently operates two Network Operation Centers (NOCs) a Security Operation Center (SOC) and multiple Data Centers supporting customers Nationwide.

Not only do our solutions help the smaller to mid-sized business, our solutions help enterprise mitigate risk by first providing accurate cyber risk information that simplifies the current legacy process and removes inaccurate 3rd party risk self-assessments. Secondly, we are able to help validate and remediate connected vulnerabilities, strengthening the overall security posture of the Enterprise network.

Techimon

1312 17th Street Suite 523

Denver CO 80202

http://www.techimon.com

T. 303.566.0373They may be known as mans best friend, but dogs will lash out when its least expected and inflict traumatic wounds as a result. When youve been bitten by a dog in an unfortunate and sudden attack, there are going to be follow-up doctors office visits, medical bills and emotional damage. Further complicating the issue is the fact that applicable law when it comes to dog bites, insurance coverage and owner responsibility varies from state to state.

While those Beware of Dog and All Pets Must be on a Leash signs will protect some pedestrians, its impossible to predict the behavior of an animal. In fact, Centers for Disease Control statistics show that 4.5 million people are bitten by a dog annually -- so one out of every 72 people would suffer a dog bite in 2017. While some bites may leave no mark at all, others have proven fatal. Fortunately, the legal team at Monge & Associates is here to help ahead of the warmer weather thats sure to spell increased instances of dog bites.

If youre wondering how to pay for hospital bills incurred at no fault of your own, it may be time to talk to legal experts who are up-to-speed on laws in your state, said Scott Monge, attorney at law. While trespassers are typically tossed out of consideration, there are so many more factors to weigh when determining liability.

One major consideration that should be made during the discovery period of any dog bite case is renters insurance status. According to recent figures from the Pew Research Center, 65 percent of households headed by someone younger than 35 in 2016 were renters. Figures from that same year also show that approximately 78 million dogs in the U.S. If you happen to be bitten by one of these tens of millions of dogs owned by a renter who doesnt have renters insurance, whats your next step? Its highly unlikely that their landlord will be held responsible, but you need to collect. Retaining a lawyer and having this dog owner summoned to court could resolve outstanding medical payments youre currently dealing with. For readers whove been bit by a dog recently and are investigating possible legal recourse, the talented team at Monge and Associates can help.

About Monge & Associates:

Monge & Associates, located in Atlanta, Georgia, can assist clients recovering from auto accidents, slip-and-fall injuries, nursing home neglect, workers compensation cases and much more. For more information, contact Scott Monge, attorney at law, by calling 678-382-6043 or email scott(at)monge.lawyer.Texas Physical Therapy Specialists (TexPTS) is pleased to announce their newest clinic has opened today in Kyle, Texas. Located at 4100 Everett Street in Suite 130, the clinic is TexPTS 29th location, a proud milestone for central Texas premier physical therapy provider.

Justin Simon, PT, DPT, will serve as the Kyle Clinic Director and primary treating physical therapist.

TexPTS specializes in providing exceptional physical therapy through a combination of evidence-based practice, care excellence, and clinical excellence. Services offered from the Kyle clinic will include manual and orthopaedic physical therapy, occupational therapy, and hand therapy.

I am honored to be opening this new location and excited to provide the excellent care TexPTS is known for to the Kyle community, says Dr. Simon. This clinic is a great opportunity for us to meet the needs of our patients between our San Marcos and South Austin locations. I look forward to helping the community work towards pain free movement and healthier lifestyles.

For more information about the new Kyle clinic and a full list of TexPTS services and offerings, please visit TexPTS.com. To book an appointment with Justin, please call 512.738.8510.

The Kyle location is the groups 29th location, and the second clinic to open in 2018.Nigerians abroad can recharge their relatives' mobiles in Nigeria, that are subscribed to MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9Mobile. Online, in seconds. "Prompt delivery." (Saheeb Taiwo on Trustpilot)

TelephoneNigeria.com, the platform serving Nigerian immigrants with international calling credit and mobile credit transfers to Nigeria, introduced Glo and 9Mobile data transfers to mobile phones in Nigeria. The process takes few seconds since it is an online transaction. The environment is safe and requires no contract, but simply an online form to fill in on TelephoneNigeria.com

Making top ups to Glo and 9Mobile phones in Nigeria is no new thing on TelephoneNigeria.com. So far, anyone holding a free account could send airtime to numbers in Nigeria, pertaining to MTN, Airtel, Glo and 9Mobile Nigeria.

Payment is flexible and as safe as possible. TelephoneNigeria.com is certified by BBB, as well as Verified and Secure among other entities. Anyone can pay using any major card, as well as PayPal, which is much convenient for many Nigerian expats.

There are way over 1 million Nigerian expats worldwide, and their current location does not influence the costs or the data top up. No matter the residence country of the sender, the top up purchase on TelephoneNigeria.com applies the same low processing fee, while the amount reaches the phone in Nigeria immediately.

Besides these mobile recharges to Nigeria, TelephoneNigeria.com also makes available online credit to call landlines and cellular phones in Nigeria. The lowest rate is 9.1 cents/minute with Nigeria 350 monthly plan, but those who don't need to call that often can use Voice Credit that never expires. The unique rate with this service is 9.9 cents/minute to call landlines or mobiles. Once balance has been added in one's account on TelephoneNigeria.com, calling is possible in two different ways:

-Using KeepCalling app for Android or iOS

-Using an access number before entering the destination number; this requires no WiFi, 4G or 3G, and no download whatsoever.

On each purchase, one gets Thank You points that can be later converted into free Voice Credit for international calls. Besides this loyalty points, there are also regular offers as well as Facebook giveaways and prizes in the Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/TelephoneNigeria/

TelephoneNigeria.com is a platform for the Nigerian diaspora worldwide, that offers calling credit for Nigerians abroad and facilitates top ups to mobiles in Nigeria. It is a brand of KeepCalling, which is a global telecommunications company registered in 2002 in the USA, listed by Inc 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in the USA for 5 consecutive years. Presently, KeepCalling provides its services to hundreds of thousands of consumers , with a focus on customer satisfaction. In 2015 the company registered a revenue increase of over 200% from 2011 to 2014.Intrinsic ID We are exceptionally gratified to receive this recognition by the European Commission, and that it has seen the value in our INSTET project, which we believe will leverage European innovation to deliver scalable security for IoT devices.

Intrinsic ID, the worlds leading provider of digital authentication technology for Internet of Things security and embedded applications, announced today it has been awarded an SME Instrument Phase 2 grant by the European Commission as part of the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument program. The 1.7 million Euro grant will fund Intrinsic IDs INSTET project, a program to develop unique fingerprinting technology for securing the IoT.

We are exceptionally gratified to receive this recognition by the European Commission, and that it has seen the value in our INSTET project, which we believe will leverage European innovation to deliver scalable security for IoT devices, said Pim Tuyls, chief executive officer of Intrinsic ID. This award is all the more significant given the highly competitive field of entrants. I am immensely proud of our team. More than 1,100 companies applied in the SME competition, with less than 2 percent receiving grants.

INSTET is a security solution based on Intrinsic IDs SRAM PUF  Static Random Access Memory Physical Unclonable Function  technology. It is intended to protect chips that are widely present in IoT devices by making them physically and cryptographically secure, and thereby very resilient to advanced attacks. INSTET will work as a root of trust  a set of core software components that are always trusted by the chip, and which provide a trust foundation for the IoT device and distributed IoT systems.

The risk of attacks to IoT-connected devices represents a growing concern in Europe and throughout the world, said Bernd Reichert, Head of SME Instrument. We are pleased to support the INSTET project as Intrinsic ID continues its important work to develop security technology that protects consumers and businesses.

The SME Instrument is part of Horizon 2020, the European Union framework program dedicated to innovation and research managed by the European Commission. Its purpose is to support high-growth and highly innovative SMEs with global ambitions.

About Intrinsic ID

Intrinsic ID is the worlds leading digital authentication company, providing unclonable identities for all Internet of Things devices in the world. Its security solutions, based on Intrinsic IDs patented SRAM PUF technology, can be implemented in hardware and software, and are used to validate payment systems, secure connectivity, authenticate sensors, and protect sensitive government and military systems. Intrinsic IDs award recognition includes the Frost & Sullivan Technology Leadership Award and the EU Innovation Radar Prize. Intrinsic ID security has been proven in millions of devices certified by Common Criteria, EMVCo, Visa and multiple governments. Visit Intrinsic ID online at http://www.Intrinsic-ID.com.Patty McCord will speak at BLR's HR Comply and Workforce L&D 2018 Given todays #MeToo and #TimesUp era, Ms. McCords insights could not come at a better time.

HR Comply (formerly BLRs Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, or AEIS) provides important legal and regulatory updates and proven best practices to navigate labor and employment law and human capital management challenges. The curriculum is designed for HR professionals, executives, and in-house counsel.

Workforce L&D focuses on how to build a superior professional development program that supports business growth and workforce retention. The curriculum is designed for learning and for HR professionals and employers that understand the critical business importance of talent development.

These professional communities will converge on Las Vegas on November 15 to hear McCords innovative thoughts on how businesses should be run during her hour-long keynote address, The Time for a Culture Shift Is Now: How to Fix a Broken Culture and Inspire Teams to Achieve Greatness. Shell share insights from her new book (published January 2018), Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibilitywhich The Washington Post named one of the top 11 leadership books to read in 2018on why most companies fail at hiring, motivating, and creating exceptional teams.

McCord, who is regularly interviewed by publications such as Harvard Business Review, NPR, Fast Company, and The Wall Street Journal, brings a wealth of knowledge based on her 14 years with Netflix, where she was continuously exploring new ways to work. Her philosophy on talent development and workplace culture are revolutionary, and she will arm conference attendees with actionable strategies for shifting workplace culture to keep up with changing business needs and for motivating and inspiring the workforce.

Given todays #MeToo and #TimesUp era, Ms. McCords insights could not come at a better time. Shell touch on ways to identify and work toward fixing a broken culture that could be contributing to negative stereotypes or inequitable practices that can damage a companys reputation and its people if not put in check, said Cathy Gray, BLR senior managing editor, HR and Compensation.

To learn more about these events and secure your seat to attend, visit Live.BLR.com or call 800-727-5257.

About Simplify Compliance

Simplify Compliance helps its customers learn, comply, and succeed by providing mission-critical regulatory and business information, analysis, and tools. Serving a range of industriesincluding financial services, healthcare, human capital management, and telecommunicationsSimplify Compliance provides timesaving products and solutions that help U.S.-based businesses and their employees monitor compliance, optimize financial performance, and create and implement best practices.

Simplify Compliance operates the Argosy Group, BLR, CCMI, and H3.Group business units.

About BLR

BLR (Business & Legal Resources) helps U.S. businesses simplify compliance with state and federal legal requirements. In-house experts and an exclusive attorney network provide comprehensive, reliable state-specific information for businesses in all 50 states. Award-winning products and solutionsincluding training programs, events, Web portals, reports, and subscription servicesgive businesses of all sizes and industries the best tools available at affordable prices. For more information on their offerings, visit http://www.BLR.com.Navigating the Fight for Legal Rights of Students with Disabilities Utilizing Section 504, IDEA, and Special Education.

Leona E. Filis, founder of the Filis Law Firm, PC, was recently published in The Houston Lawyer(page 24), a publication of the Houston Bar Association. In her article, entitled Navigating the Fight for Legal Rights of Students with Disabilities Utilizing Section 504, IDEA, and Special Education, Filis discusses special education, particularly the rights of parents of children with disabilities, and outlines education rights under federal laws and recent legal cases.

Every day I am grateful for the gift of being a parent, but being a parent of a child with special needs scares me at times, said Filis Could I do more? Is that a justified judgmental look from a stranger in the store where my son is having an episode? Is my son getting better? Will he regress this year? With all this fear, I still move on to become the best version of me as a parent.

Filis focuses her practice on special needs trusts and estate planning. Filis guides her clients through the prioritization of legal issues to address, such as whether a special needs trust is right for them and their child, and more.

To learn about Steps to Consider for Parents with Children with Special Needs, visit http://www.houstonspecialneedsattorneys.com/product/steps-to-consider-for-parents-with-children-with-special-needs/. This publication has been prepared for parents with children who are diagnosed with a disability, whether it is autism, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, or Down syndrome, or a dual diagnosis.

Leona helped me navigate through the complex case of my special-need son turning 18, noted a client. Although every case is different, Leona was able to navigate issues and challenges in terms of my cases connection to family law, and the pros and cons of getting a guardianship, especially for divorced parents of a special-need child.

About Leona E. Filis, Filis Law Firm, PC

Leona E. Filis helps families with children with special needs (Autism, Down Syndrome, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, etc.) in areas including special education law, family law, probate/trusts, and guardianship. Practice areas of the Filis Law Firm also include general business law and energy law. For more information, please call (713) 462-1777, or visit http://www.filislaw.com. The law office is located at 5600 NW Central Drive, Suite 202, Houston, TX 77092. Would you like to schedule your free consultation? Click on https://calendly.com/filislawfirm and set your appointment today.

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.This project with CENGN is key in allowing us to demonstrate with third-party validation that its possible  and quite affordable  to scale a full-mesh Wide Area Network beyond the market's usual limits.

Martello, the provider of performance management solutions for real-time communications and enterprise networks, is proud to announce a project with Canadas Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN) to validate the superior scalability of its Elfiq SD-WAN technology. Elfiq Networks, a subsidiary of Martello, is an SD-WAN pioneer at the leading edge of enterprise network solutions since 2003.

The average enterprise deployment sustains up to 300 sites, said John Proctor, President and CEO of Martello. Our Elfiq SD-WAN technology can support well over 500 interconnected sites, managed by a single Controller without performance degradation. This project with CENGN is key in allowing us to demonstrate with third-party validation that its possible  and quite affordable  to scale a full-mesh Wide Area Network beyond the markets usual limits.

A typical SD-WAN deployment with Martello, using Elfiq technology consists of hardware or virtual devices installed at each of the end-users sites (edge) and networked with other devices located at the headquarters, data centers or recovery sites, or in the Cloud. The initial test will see a limited deployment of Elfiq Virtual LBX devices (VLBX) in CENGNs state-of-the-art OpenStack infrastructure. Learn more about the Martello project on CENGNs blog: https://www.cengn.ca/martello-elfiq-sdwan-scalability

Were pleased to support Martellos SD-WAN scalability project, said Richard Waterhouse, COO of CENGN. By providing access to a unique multi-vendor open-platform, CENGN provides third-party validation that can accelerate technology commercialization for businesses like Martello.

Were excited to work with CENGN to make this project happen, said Frederick Parent, co-founder of Elfiq Networks. By supporting Canadian technology commercialization, CENGN is making it possible for us push the limits of what we can bring to our clients and end-users. I really look forward to the next phase of our project

With virtual devices available for VMware, AWS, Microsoft Azure, OpenStack and Microsoft Hyper-V environments in addition to its hardware LBX devices, the company recently launched ATLAS SD-WAN, a subscription-based solution for the enterprise, on March 21st, 2018.

About CENGN

Canadas Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN), is a consortium of large multinational companies, academic institutions, and research leaders that work with small and medium Canadian companies to accelerate the commercialization of next generation communications solutions. CENGN is a not-for-profit company funded by the Canadian Governments Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) through the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) Program and the Ontario Governments Next Generation Network Program (NGNP), as well as its industry members. The organizations members include: Bell Canada, Cisco, EXFO, Huawei, Invest Ottawa, Juniper Networks, Mitel, Nokia, Ribbon Communications, Rogers, TELUS and Wind River. CENGNs mission is to create a viable Canadian ecosystem that facilitates commercialization in the next generation of networks by providing validation services to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Industry, Academia, and Government.

CENGNs internationally recognized multi-vendor infrastructure is built on open source as well as commercially available software and hardware. CENGNs technology areas of focus are: Data Centre and Cloud Infrastructure, Internet of Things (IoT), Network Function Virtualization (NFV), and Software Defined Networks (SDN), among others. The organization is at the leading edge in the development and deployment of wired and wireless technologies that are utilized by applications such as cloud, wireless 5G, autonomous vehicles, broadband Internet and cybersecurity. To learn more visit: cengn.ca

About Martello

Martello delivers confidence in the performance of real-time services on cloud and enterprise networks. Our solutions manage and optimize network performance with innovative SD-WAN technologies and performance management software as a service (SaaS). Over the top (OTT) service providers and enterprises in more than 150 countries around the world rely on Martello for business continuity and network performance. For information, visit: http://www.martellotech.comMoonwater Capital has recently acquired Montecito Tower, a six-story high rise that sits comfortably along the I-215 Beltway, just west of the US-95 Highway in the rapidly expanding Northwest Las Vegas submarket. The Class-A office space projects superior visibility and maximum exposure as the only high-rise in the vicinity.

The emerging firm secured the $41 million capital package to acquire the office building with financing arranged by Dekel Capital, a Los Angeles-based Real Estate Merchant Bank. The remaining balance of the acquisition was funded through a $27.5 million first mortgage loan from Prime Finance, along with a joint-venture equity investment from a large global private equity firm.

Although 90% occupied, Moonwater Capital seeks to further develop Montecito Tower. Not only will it improve overall quality of the property by bringing in a diverse mix of retail and office tenants, but through excess land it will add two 4,000 square foot pad sites. The intent is for the pads to be utilized for medical office, office, or retail development.

As Moonwater Capital continues to shape the greater Las Vegas landscape, its recent developments are only the beginning. The city is in the midst of opportunistic renaissance; cultivated from its gaming and bombastic roots, the city is transitioning into that of a prosperous business destination thanks in part to various state incentives and zero state income taxes.

"We are seeing growth like never before, creating an environment of unlimited business opportunity. I am so excited to be part of this revival. - Ofir Hagay, President & CEO of Moonwater Capital

In September, Moonwater Capital closed On A $24.8 million acquisition Of 8912 & 8918 Spanish Ridge, Adjacent Class-A office buildings in the southwest corridor of Las Vegas near Summerlin, Henderson, and Green Valley.

About Moonwater Capital

Founded in 1997, Moonwater Capital is a Las Vegas-based boutique private equity real estate fund headed by Mr. Ofir Hagay. Moonwater Capital specializes in value-add investments, particularly real estate properties in the greater Las Vegas and surrounding metropolitan areas. According to RealPage/MPF Research, value-add investment is an intriguing and timeless concept with optimum ROI opportunity. Through years of company-wide success, Moonwater Capital takes this timeless concept and creatively applies it to the Las Vegas Marketplace, a market in which they standalone.

The company leverages its deep knowledge, relationships and global experience to identify, secure and profit from strategic real estate projects; real estate projects that also impact the city of Las Vegas by way of job creation and community development.

About Montecito Tower

Built in 2008, Montecito Towers current occupancy is above 90% and includes anchor tenant Asurion, the leading provider of insurance & support services for consumer electronics serving 280 Million consumers worldwide. Additionally, the property is also occupied by the law firm Alverson Taylor Mortensen & Sanders. The firm began in 1977 as a partnership between two friends and former schoolmates, Bruce Alverson and Nevada Senator Harry Reid. ATM&S is now one of the largest law firms in the state of Nevada and provides legal services in the fields of civil litigation, medical malpractice, construction defect, and numerous other specialties.Editor's Note: Leading global CEOs and experts share their opinions on the trade war between China and the United States at the China Development Forum in Beijing.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc, speaks at the China Development Forum 2018 in Beijing, March 24, 2018. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc, said only countries that embrace openness, trade and diversity can achieve success and be exceptional, when asked what suggestions he would give to the US President Donald Trump on trade relations with China.

Cook made the comments Saturday at the China Development Forum in Beijing.

"One plus one equals three. The pie is going bigger through cooperation," Cook said.Thrive Internet Marketing Agency - New Arlington Office Thrive is excited to expand our Arlington-based headquarters to support our team and our clients across the country

Thrive Internet Marketing Agency just keeps growing! Although much of their workforce is remote, their local team of Marketing Consultants, administrative support staff, and Delivery Team positions has outgrown their Arlington office on Bowen Road, affectionately called The Farm. Theyll be keeping The Farm, but the team will be working out of their new 5500 square foot office space located at 700 Highlander Blvd, Suite 180 in Arlington, Texas near the Arlington Highlands and Parks Mall retail shopping centers.

The new office, just off of I-20 and Matlock Road, offers a lot more space. The growing team needed more individual offices and a larger meeting space, which the new office provides. There are plenty of single offices, a large meeting room, a smaller all-purpose space, and more.

Thrive is excited to expand our Arlington-based headquarters to support our team and our clients across the country, said Matt Bowman, President of Thrive.

Thanks to all our clients, employees, family and friends that make our work possible. Our passion is to help businesses grow and we are proof that the digital marketing formula works. We would love to give you a tour of our new space if you are ever in the area.

Thrive employs almost 60 full-time employees domestically and internationally. About 20% of their workforce lives in close proximity to their new Arlington office. Thrive has seen tremendous employee growth this past year. Having created and filled 33 new full-time positions in the last 120 days, the company is looking to expand to 80 full-time employees by the end of the year.The Gas Cube reactor fits into a shipping container for easy transport. Our reactor is in some ways a two-stomach cow.

The Gas Cube, being developed at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, can turn waste products like cardboard, discarded food, agricultural refuse or wastewater from a microbrewery into valuable methane gas for energy generation.

Cows, as many people know, have four stomachs. Cows also generate lots of methane. So, if your goal is to describe a machine that turns food waste and cardboard into methane gas, the bovine digestive system is an analogy that makes some sense.

Our reactor is in some ways a two-stomach cow, says Jorge Gonzalez-Estrella, a post-doctoral research associate in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at Mines.

Gonzalez-Estrella is one of the researchers working on the Gas Cube project. The semi-trailer-sized reactor is much larger than a cow, but its still portable. Its one of the projects in development at Mines aimed at turning a range of remote base waste into energy. This is all thanks to a $4.8 million grant from the United States Air Force, $1.2 million of which funds the Gas Cube. A remote Air Force Base can produce lots of waste. The Air Force seeks to save waste handling and fuel costs at mission-based remote bases. This is a challenge that the Gas Cube is designed to overcome.

How does it work? Back to the cow analogy. At the Gas Cubes input, or mouth, a shredder grinds up the solid cardboard or food waste and deposits it in chamber number one. This is sort of like a cow chewing and swallowing its food. Then in that first chamber, or stomach number one, hydrolytic microorganisms break down the mix of food waste and cardboard into sugars, and fermenting microbes then break up those sugars into smaller parts called volatile fatty acids. Next, in a vertical chamber or second stomach, methanogenic microbes turn the volatile fatty acids into methane gas. Then in a separate chamber any leftover solids are given more time to react and give off any remaining methane. The gas generated in this reactor can be piped out to run generators or other equipment needed to power a remote base. This process is well established, it very solid and robust, says Gonzalez-Estrella.

One challenge in this research is making this reactor portable. Jim Schultze, a chemical engineer, is helping construct the gas cube, Usually these things take up acres if theyre industrial. We put it in a twenty-by-eight-foot space, he says. The Gas Cube can be carried on a truck bed, and multiple units can be added together as a remote operation grows.

Another challenge in this project is making it user-friendly. Its going to be transported to remote places, and it needs to be easy to run for the operator, says Gonzalez-Estrella.

Besides being portable and user friendly, researchers must also provide proof of concept. Caitlin Asato, a research scientist and engineer in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Mines, is helping bring the Gas Cube from the bench scale up to the working prototype. This is no small task. The nature of scaling up these kind of chemical and biological systems is an imperfect science or engineering exercise, says Patrick Gilcrease, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the principal investigator for the project.

Gilcrease adds that another unique aspect of this project is the interdisciplinary nature. It includes researchers with expertise in agricultural engineering, chemical engineering and civil/environmental engineering. Gilcrease says this diversity brings strength to this team, A nice learning aspect of this project for me has been being able to see how different disciplines approach the same problem, and the unique advantages of the different approaches were bringing to the project, says Gilcrease.

Like many technologies initially developed for the military, the Gas Cube may have wider applications. The reactor could be deployed to disaster areas or refugee camps, and put into use when waste-handling infrastructure is down. The reactor could also be used for waste generated by agricultural operations. Microbreweries are often located inside municipalities, and they often cant dump their wastewater into sewer systems, so theyre looking for ways to treat their wastewater, says Dave Litzen, a chemical engineer and president of Litzen Process Consulting, Inc. who is helping build and test the working prototype. But, I cant think of a better first customer to have than the Air Force, he adds.

The Gas Cube team is currently undertaking the first testing phase on the prototype. If these tests are successful, the team plans to build a second lighter and more nimble prototype.Valentino mixing his Tio Pepe cocktail, Call me Cristoforo

The results are in and Valentino Longo from Four Seasons Surfside in Miami, FL is heading to Jerez, Spain to compete on behalf of the U.S. in the Tio Pepe Challenge International Finals. This was the first time that the Tio Pepe Challenge took place in the U.S.

The Tio Pepe Challenge was created by leading Sherry producer, Gonzalez Byass, to inspire mixologists from around the world to create original, great tasting cocktails using Sherry as their principle ingredient. Valentino competed against five other bartenders from around the U.S. on Tuesday, March 20 at Leyenda in Brooklyn, NY. The six competitors had to test their knowledge of Sherry through a blind tasting, showcase their use of a venencia (the tool traditionally used to extract Sherry from the barrel), and finally, to create a cocktail mixed with Sherry.

The judges, which included Julie Reiner and Ivy Mix of Leyenda, alongside Mixologist Zane Harris, Cliff Rames from Tasting Panel Magazine and Gonzalez Byass Brand Ambassador Alvaro Plata, judged on all three aspects and selected Valentino based on the creativity of using Tio Pepe in his cocktail and the knowledge and skill displayed.

Valentino will go on to compete at the International Final, which will be held on May 9, 2018 during the world-famous Feria de Jerez. The top 14 bartenders from around the world, who have created the best Sherry cocktail recipes, will compete and battle it out live in front of a panel of renowned, international experts.

Due to the increased popularity behind the Sherry Revolution, pioneered by Gonzalez Byass, one of the worlds leading Sherry producers, the Tio Pepe Challenge allows aspiring Sherry experts to test their knowledge about this wonderful fortified wine. The Challenge is designed to inform, educate and instruct on crucial aspects of Sherry

In addition to Valentino, the other five competitors in the 2018 U.S. Tio Pepe Challenge were: John Aquino from Coast Bar & Grill in Charleston, SC; Matthew Korzelius from The Roosevelt Room in Austin, TX; Jeremy Lake from Roseline in Los Angeles, CA; Jared Sadoian from The Hawthorne in Boston, MA; and Benjamin Wood from Beatnik in Chicago, IL.

Call Me Cristoforo by Valentino Longo



2 oz Tio Pepe

0.75 oz Pedro Ximenex

1.5 oz Tomato and Strawberry Shrub

0.5 oz Yellow Chartreuse

1 oz Cedrata Tassoni

Glass: White wine glass

Decoration: Served with Dry yellow tomatoes, corn shoots and essence of rosemary

About Gonzalez Byass

Gonzalez Byass is a family-owned, collection of wineries founded in 1835 which spans across Spains most important wine producing regions. From its foundation the Gonzalez family have been dedicated to making fine Sherries and brandies in Jerez, Spain, creating such well-known brands as Tio Pepe Fino Sherry and Lepanto Brandy de Jerez.

Today the fifth generation of the family are the custodians of these exceptional brands having built the company into a family of wineries which produces wine in some of Spains most famous regions; Bodegas Beronia (Rioja and Rueda), Cavas Vilarnau (Barcelona), Finca Constancia (Vino de la Tierra de Castilla), Finca Moncloa (Vino de la Tierra de Cadiz), Vinas del Vero (Somontano) and Pazo de Lusco (Rias Baixas). In each of these regions the family strives to make the best possible quality wines respecting the local terroir and the environment.

At the same time the company has also expanded its interests further in the premium spirits business and has created pioneering brands such as The London No.1, MOM Gin, Druide Vodka and Nomad Outland Whisky.

Gonzalez Byass is now one of Spains most well-recognized brand owners world-wide. Their passion for quality wine production and respect for long-standing traditions -whilst at the same time innovating- have been the guiding principles that have led to the companys global success.

Learn more at http://www.gonzalezbyass.com.Serving the Philadelphia community is extremely gratifying, we take a lot of pride in helping local businesses keep their information safe.

PROSHRED Philadelphia has been named a Velocity 50 Award winner for 2018. The awards are bestowed by CEO Report, a media connection engine for executives on a national level, and serve as the brands most prestigious awards program of the year. PROSHRED Philadelphia joins 49 other area leaders in recognition including biotech firms, law offices, and fitness centers.

Velocity 50 winners are chosen based on a continued pattern of rapid growth as well as a commitment to community involvement. Honorees are recognized specifically for the impact they have on the regional economic landscape. Were so honored to have been recognized by our peers not only for our growth, explains PROSHRED Philadelphia CEO, Ginny Heron-Doerr, but for our overall impact on the greater Philadelphia community.

The Velocity 50 Awards were formally acknowledged at a black tie-optional dinner on March 1st at the Ballroom at the Ben. The event highlighted a growth story of the year from a local business that exemplifies success.

Started by Heron-Doerr and her partner, Jim Doerr in 2006, PROSHRED Philadelphia has become one of the leading names in document destruction in the region. Serving commercial companies of all sizes, as well as residential clients, PROSHRED offers one-time shredding services and scheduled shredding for paper, hard-drives & media, and other proprietary information, while properly handling all forms of electronics. Locally-owned and operated, with a National service reach, PROSHRED Philadelphia supports it clients when, where, and how they need them!

Serving the Philadelphia community is extremely gratifying, explains Heron-Doerr. We take a lot of pride in helping local businesses keep their information safe. Its just an added bonus to be recognized in this way by the team at CEO Report.

For more information on the services offered by PROSHRED Philadelphia or on the Velocity 50 awards, please contact the Paoli, PA office at 484-323-2100 or visit https://www.proshred.com/philadelphia/.

PROSHRED PHILADEPHIA has been one of the most well-known names in corporate security in Philadelphia for over a decade. The firm offers mobile shredding, drop-off shredding, as well as auxiliary shredding services.We are excited to provide thousands of ESP users with this new functionality. The Bulk Upload technology demonstrates GlobeTaxs continued commitment to innovation, as it significantly speeds up and simplifies the data submission process for DTC Participants.

GlobeTax announces the launch of ESP Bulk Upload for claims for Japanese ADRs, allowing users to submit claims for multiple securities and beneficial owners with a single file. This pioneering feature enhances GlobeTaxs ESP platform, the worlds most popular submission portal for beneficial owner disclosure and withholding tax relief application.

Submission for Japanese ADRs is notoriously tedious, as the record date for over 200 securities falls on a single day. At present, the market standard requires users to submit claims for one security at a time  a laborious, and time-consuming task. GlobeTaxs Bulk Upload streamlines this process significantly, and includes features that:



enable users to submit claims across multiple securities for up to 30,000 beneficial owners in one file.

verify accuracy by identifying valid and invalid claims and allow users to easily edit and resubmit files marked invalid.

This new functionality ensures that clients and their customers will receive their maximum entitlements in the fastest, yet most risk-managed, manner possible.

Brett Lewis, Managing Director of Product Development and CIO at GlobeTax, summarized the impact: We are excited to provide thousands of ESP users with this new functionality. The Bulk Upload technology demonstrates GlobeTaxs continued commitment to innovation, as it significantly speeds up and simplifies the data submission process for DTC Participants. A process that previously took days will now take minutes, a boon for those servicing clients in popular, yet complicated, markets like Japan.

At launch, Bulk Upload will cover all Japanese securities relief at source record dates from March 29, 2018 onward; additional markets will be announced at a later date. Lewis continues, To prepare the marketplace for the new functionality, we will be hosting a series of webinars to demonstrate the process. Interested parties should reach out to JapanESP(at)GlobeTax(dot)com for webinar registration information.

About GlobeTax

GlobeTax is the global leader in cross-border tax relief, recovery, and reporting services for the investment community. GlobeTax's ESP system has become the standard platform for beneficial owner disclosure and applications for withholding tax relief, handling over seven million submissions in 2017. The ESP platform supports GlobeTax's position as the market infrastructure for ADR claims. GlobeTax researches tax treaties in over 245 jurisdictions to provide tax recovery for clients resident in over 40 countries. Clients include all types of beneficial owners, custodians, prime brokers, depositories, depositaries, and withholding agents.

For more information, contact:

MediaRoom(at)GlobeTax(dot)comSIUE School of Pharmacy Dean Gireesh Gupchup, PhD, FAPhA. Dean Gupchup has been a driving force in the Schools rise to regional, national and international prestige

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy (SOP) Dean Gireesh Gupchup, PhD, will step down effective June 30, 2018 for family reasons. He will continue as an SOP faculty member to assist in the Schools continued success.

While the School of Pharmacy is in an extremely strong position, I have carefully reflected on my challenging personal circumstances and the demands of the deans position, and have made a career decision to provide more flexibility for my family, Gupchup said. It has truly been an honor to serve as dean since 2010, and to help the School achieve the accolades and prominence that it has rightfully garnered.

We want to thank Dr. Gupchup for his years of dedicated service to the SIUE School of Pharmacy and his student-centered philosophy, said Chancellor Randy Pembrook, PhD. Provost Denise Cobb and I have great confidence in the SIUE School of Pharmacy, its leadership and its future. We will be working closely with the Schools faculty and staff to determine a succession plan that will capitalize upon the Schools tremendous momentum.

Dean Gupchup has been a driving force in the Schools rise to regional, national and international prestige, Cobb said. Along with excellent outcomes for students, the Schools commitment to experiential learning, global initiatives and innovative research flourished during his tenure.

I want to express my gratitude to the SIUE School of Pharmacy community and the SIUE administration for the support that the school has received during my tenure, Gupchup added. Our students, alumni, faculty and staff are second to none. I am confident that the SIUE School of Pharmacy will continue to thrive.

The Schools excellence was once again underlined as graduates of the Schools class of 2017 exceeded both state and national averages, boasting a first-attempt board pass rate of 92.86 percent on the North American Pharmacist Licensure Exam (NAPLEX). The graduates combined score was the highest board pass rate of any program in Illinois or Missouri, and exceeded the 2017 state and national averages of 84.52 percent and 87.95 percent, respectively. The NAPLEX results place SIUE in the top 30 percent of all pharmacy programs in the country.

In February 2017, the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP) selected Gupchup for its Outstanding Dean Award. The award recognizes school or college of pharmacy deans who have made significant contributions to APhA-ASP chapters and who have promoted, with distinction, the welfare of student pharmacists through various community service, leadership and professional activities

Todays pharmacists improve patients lives through the medication and education they provide. Dedicated to developing a community of caring pharmacists, the SIUE School of Pharmacy curriculum is nationally recognized as a model that offers students a unique combination of classroom education, research, community service and patient care. The School of Pharmacys areas of excellence include a drug design and discovery core; pediatric practice; chronic pain research and practice; and diabetes research and practice. As the only downstate Illinois pharmacy doctorate program, the SIUE School of Pharmacy is addressing the growing need for highly trained pharmacists in a rapidly growing field.Bedford/St Martins has always been enthusiastic about closely examining the composition curriculum and finding creative ways to elevate the experience for faculty and students. --Susan Winslow, GM, Macmillan Learning

Bedford/St Martins, an imprint of Macmillan Learning and the premier publisher in humanities, in partnership with Howard University, and the United Negro College fund, today announced the 2018 Symposium on Teaching Writing at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to take place in Washington D.C. on March 29 and 30. This innovative event will bring together educators, college administrators, and writing luminaries to discuss critical issues in rhetoric and composition, including disruptive language and writing pedagogies, technical communication, improving writing student outcomes, and HBCU leadership in the field.

Commenting on the event, Macmillan Learning General Manager, Susan Winslow, stated, Bedford/St Martins has always been enthusiastic about closely examining the composition curriculum and finding creative ways to elevate the experience for faculty and students. Its imperative that we continue to forensically evaluate the materials we create and our teaching practices in context. In the case of this unique symposium, the lens is HBCUs. I look forward to the output from the event and to building on the strong relationships we have with the writing community.

The dynamic program features a day one keynote by two-time American Book Award recipient, poet, scholar, and educator Dr. Keith Gilyard of Penn State University. In addition, Dr. Adam Banks of Stanford University speaks to his research, which lies at the intersections of writing, rhetoric and technology, during the day two keynote. The event will also include a number of thought provoking panel discussions on topics such as disruptive language, digital publics, race and gender politics, and activism, featuring speakers from a myriad of schools including Morehouse University, Howard University, Winston-Salem State University, Florida International University, Bowie State University, Spelman College, and more. The symposium closes with a featured roundtable session, titled "Challenges and Triumphs: Increasing HBCU Leadership in Professional Organizations." The session is moderated by author and scholar Andrea A. Lunsford of Stanford University, and spotlights the active roles taken by HBCU faculty Karen Keaton Jackson, Collie Fulford, Faye Spencer-Maor, Jason DePolo, Kendra Mitchell, and Pamela Simmons in organizations from CCCC to MLA.

Dr. David F. Green Jr., symposium organizer and Assistant Professor of English at Howard University, noted that "the symposium represents a hallmark event for everyone invested in, laboring at, or researching rhetorical education and writing instruction at HBCUs. It brings to the forefront a long history and tradition of language analysis, composition instruction, and critical literacy work completed at HBCUs for the benefit of students learners. I am hopeful and inspired by the possibilities afforded by such an intersection of scholars, teachers, researchers, and organizations in one space for the expressed purpose of examining, historicizing, and celebrating the HBCU learner. "

Attendees will gain a nuanced perspective on teaching writing at HBCUs, along with numerous opportunities to interact with fellow attendees and panelists. This unique, multi-faceted event will take place on the campus of Howard University and at the United Negro College Funds College Knowledge Center. Following the event, attendees will connect with colleagues via the symposium community space to continue conversations and work.

Bedford/St. Martins has a long and rich history of deep partnerships with educators in the writing community, noted Executive Marketing Manager Joy Fisher Williams. Our sponsorship of these events represents a critical opportunity for us to come together and find solutions to faculty and student challenges--and in this case, to address the unique issues facing HBCUs.

Live-stream coverage of the event, photos, and discussions can be found at: macmillanlearning.com/hbcuforum.Representatives with a Los Angeles, California-based company announced today that handbag lovers across the globe are now able to receive 20 percent off of its 2018 summer collection.

Were very excited to be able to offer current customers and potentially new customers with a great way to receive the latest and hottest handbags at a discounted price, said Jack Sun, owner and spokesman for Bellorita, LLC.

Customers will be treated to a variety of the companys fish and feather handbags. Fish, according to Sun, is the symbol of grace, confidence, persistence, caring, diligence and optimism in China and Bellorita was founded upon the rich cultural heritage of China.

Sun went on to point out that customers will be able to take advantage of bags, such as the Bellorita Blue Fish Crossbody Clutch at a discounted price.

This outstanding textured blue leather and pearl embellished clutch is truly a masterpiece of design, Sun stressed, before adding, Hand carved and sensitively blooming painted, the handbag features a delicate gold shoulder chain and short wrist strap. The pearls sparkle across the handbag, evoking playful bubbles brought to the waters surface by the fish. It can also be worn as an elegant evening clutch bag.

In addition, customers will also be able to take advantage of the Bellorita Feather Crossbody Clutch, and more, at a discounted price.

The elegant feather is reproduced into a glorious work of functional art, Sun said. Brilliant peacock feathers are hand carved, incised, painted, twisted and crafted into a one-of-a-kind fashion accessory. This exquisite clutch, produced by master craftsmen using only the finest vegetable dyed leathers will elevate your fashion ensemble to another level. In black, contrasted with creamy white, which will coordinate with all of your outfits, both summer and winter. With zippered interior compartment and elegant shoulder chain.

Sun noted that by placing a preorder with Bellorita.com, customers will receive the highest priority order fulfillment as promised in its company policy.

We fill orders based on the order they are received, Sun highlighted.

For more information about Bellorita, please visit: https://bellorita.com/story.

About Bellorita, LLC

Bellorita was founded by Jack Sun to celebrate the beauty of Chinese culture. Each product is hand carved and hand painted on the finest of supple leathers with passionate care by our master craftsmen.

Source: Bellorita, LLCStephen Popovich, CEO of Clairvoyant Networks, LLC There is a massive and growing need for more care and caregiving, and by working with the distinguished team at the Texas A&M Center for Population Health and Aging we can help drive change to make lives better.

Clairvoyant Networks, LLC announced today that its President and CEO, Stephen Popovich, has been named Fellow to the Texas A&M University (TAMU) Center for Population Health and Aging (CPHA). Clairvoyant Networks provides a suite of cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity solutions focused on providing situational awareness  knowing how, when and where loved ones might need assistance - to caregivers of persons with Alzheimers and other conditions requiring monitoring when a caregiver cannot always be present.

Popovich is a named Fellow of the Texas A&M University Center for Population Health and Aging (CPHA), which promotes population health and successful aging to improve the lives of Texans and others throughout the nation and the world. The Center has recently appointed an Executive Board who will assist in Center governance. Fellows are selected based on their research, education, and/or service contributions to the field and strong potential for ongoing collaboration with the Center. CPHAs focus is on evidence-based programming for chronic disease management, healthy lifestyles and communities, workplace health promotion, health technologies, geriatric care, and economics and policy.

Marcia G. Ory, PhD, MPH, Founding Director, Texas A&M Center for Population Health and Aging

stated, With the rapid aging of the population and associated increase in older people needing care, there is an urgent need to develop affordable technological solutions that can maximize the independence of older adults experiencing difficulties carrying out everyday activities while reducing the burdens of care for the growing number of family caregivers. What is particularly needed are innovations that can help the caregiver know where their loved one isand be able to initiate remote communication as needed. Preliminary research indicates great promise for devices that have this capacity, especially when combined with behavioral counseling to increase caregivers management skills. Mr. Popovichs personal experience as a caregiver for an older relative, combined with his desire and ability to develop technology solutions to improve the caregiving journey, make him an ideal choice for a named Fellow of CPHA.

Popovich commented, This is a huge honor for me to selected as Fellow with the Texas A&M Center for Population Health and Aging, and it is a fantastic opportunity for our Clairvoyant team to create next generation caregiving technology by collaborating with the Centers researchers. There is a massive and growing need for more care and caregiving, and by working with the distinguished team at CPHA we can help drive change to make lives better.

The growing number of people with Alzheimers disease, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Parkinsons disease and other conditions who could benefit from caregiver monitoring technology are significant. The statistics for Alzheimers disease alone are staggering, as an estimated 5.5 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer's disease. This figure is projected to rise to 16,000,000 by 2050. According to Alzheimers Facts (https://www.alz.org/facts) approximately 15,000,000 Americans provide unpaid care per year for Alzheimers alone, in addition to paid care coverage. This unpaid care is often in addition to their work, family and personal commitments. The goal of Theora Care is to help caregivers balance these demands by providing useful, intuitive and affordable technology to enhance caregiving and elder independence.

About Clairvoyant Networks, LLC

Clairvoyant Networks, LLC, has developed the Theora Care suite of IoT devices and SaaS applications to provide family and professional caregivers with better condition information, communications, and location services for care recipients. Our solutions deliver situational awareness not only for the caregiver, but also for the professionals, medical and care management that are involved in the loved ones care plan. Our customers range from family and professional caregivers to technology leaders, as well as our ongoing participation in research studies with government health organizations and academia. Clairvoyant Networks, LLC, has offices in Austin, TX, and Raleigh, NC. For further information and to see how we can help you, please reach us at http://www.theoracare.com, support@theoracare.com, or follow us on Twitter @Theora_Care, on Facebook at facebook.com/theoracare and on YouTube at youtube.com/theoracare.

Contact:

Melanie Guthrie

Clairvoyant Networks, LLC

512-751-8478

melanie.guthrie(at)clairvoyantnetworks(dot)com

 2018 Clairvoyant Networks, LLC. Theora, Theora Care, Theora Connect, Quik Connect are all trademarks of Clairvoyant Networks, LLC. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.The shipping and logistics industry will continue to change at an incredibly fast pace, and as a leader in the Canadian market, Purolator wants to help shape its future, said Ricardo Costa, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Purolator.

Purolator is pleased to announce that it has joined Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA), a consortium of leaders in the shipping and logistics industry that is creating standards in blockchain use. Purolators role in the alliance is to help lead in the development of a new framework of standards from which the transportation industry can build innovative solutions.

Blockchain is a term used to describe a shared digital ledger  essentially blocks in a chain  that relies on the consensus of all individuals in a given network to operate and, more importantly, modify. As such, falsifying data in the blockchain is next to impossible.

The shipping and logistics industry will continue to change at an incredibly fast pace, and as a leader in the Canadian market, Purolator wants to help shape its future, said Ricardo Costa, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Purolator. The applications for blockchain are endless and will provide the shipping and logistics industry with never-seen-before benefits. This is because the technology enables complete end-to-end visibility into the entire life cycle of a shipment transaction and all its connected parts. For example, vendor management, loss prevention and security, and billing and payments are just some of the transportation areas that blockchain can be applied to.

Purolator is looking deeper into ways of using blockchain to support the companys focus on providing an exceptional customer experience. These include improved shipment visibility, agility and tracking, and delivery speed, as well as opportunities to globalize products and services.

Recognized for its shipping systems and integrated solutions, Purolator will be a critical player in developing common blockchain standards for the freight industry, said Chris Burruss, President of BiTA. Purolator will also play an important role in educating the industry about blockchain technologies and applications.

BiTA was formed by experienced tech and transportation executives to create a forum for the development of blockchain standards and education for the freight industry. All companies within BiTA share a unified mission of developing a standards framework, educating the market on blockchain applications and encouraging the use of technology applications through exemplary implementation.

About Purolator

Purolator Inc. is a leading integrated freight, package and logistics solutions provider in Canada. Celebrating over 50 years of delivering its customers promises, Purolator continues to expand its reach and renowned service levels and reliability to more people, more businesses and more places across the country and around the world. Purolator is proud of its Canadian heritage and is focused on sustainably positioning itself for future growth and success. Purolator is also committed to contributing to the well-being of the communities it serves and where more than 10,000 of its employees live, work and play. For more information, visit purolator.com.

Join the conversation:

Website: purolator.com

Facebook: facebook.com/PurolatorInc

Twitter: @PurolatorInc

Instagram: @PurolatorIncPeople take part in the "March for Our Lives" rally in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 24, 2018. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered at Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. on Saturday for the "March for Our Lives" gun control rally, demanding the end of gun violence and mass school shootings. (Xinhua/Yang Chenglin)

LOS ANGELES, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Tens of thousands of people marched Saturday in southern California in solidarity with the Florida high school mass shooting, as part of a series of student-led marches for stronger gun control laws across the United States.

It was the latest display of frustration by students with the national debate on gun control.

In Los Angeles, students and demonstrators lined up near City Hall, where students, celebrities and local politicians raised their voices to put an end to the cycle of school shootings.

Protesters held banners and signs that read "Protect Kids Not Guns" and "Arms Are For Hugging", chanting "Hey NRA, how many kids did you kill today?"

The NRA refers to the pro-gun group of the National Rifle Association.

The call-and-response chants rippled through the crowd of thousands of students, parents and grandparents and echoed off the historic buildings of Broadway's theater district.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was one of the first speakers. He began by leading the crowd in a call and response: "Whose streets?" he said, and the crowd roared "Our streets!" "Whose lives?" "Our lives!" "Whose nation?" "Our nation!"

The mayor welcomed "our leaders, the students who are here today" and told them "today will be written in the history books that your children will read."

He pointed to California's bans on assault rifles, bump stocks and waiting periods on gun sales as a model for federal legislation, and closed with a message for President Donald Trump -- "Get with the program Mr. President, or get the hell out of the way."

Police officers on the scene put the early crowd estimate at more than 40,000. Organizers said they anticipated as many as 200,000 people.

Trump's supporters and the National Rifle Association staged a counter-protest at LAPD headquarters in downtown, holding signs such as "Defend the right!" and a flag "Don't Tread On Me" flag.

Other marches also took place in Southern California, according to the City News Service.

The events were organized or inspired by some student survivors of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead. The carnage was allegedly carried out by a 19-year-old former student who had legally purchased an assault rifle.Construction at The Refuge Ranch We are moving the needle on some incredible difficult issues that cause so much pain in our community.

An expected crowd of 15-thousand will gather at the University of Texas Frank Erwin Center March 30, 2018 at 6:00 pm CST to hear faith leaders from more than a dozen area churches, a 100-voice choir and the critically acclaimed Newsboys. Tickets are free, but funds raised at the historic event will help The Refuge for DMST (Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking) (http://therefugeaustin.org) finish construction of The Refuge Ranch, a long-term, residential, therapeutic community for girls, minors through age 19, who have been rescued out of sex trafficking.

This is the ninth year the non-profit Serve Our city (https://serveourcity.com) will bring churches from all over the Austin area together for a citywide worship service and to give back to a community need. Child sex trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the United States, and a recent University of Texas study reveals that Texas today has almost 79,000 minors and youth victims of sex trafficking. While Texas is the second worst in the nation for reported number of victims, the state currently only has 24 beds available for their long-term recovery. Money raised at this years service will help The Refuge for DMSTs first facility open this summer with 48 beds. We were blessed to experience Austins big-hearted response two years ago during the first Good Friday service at the Frank Erwin Center when so many heard about child sex trafficking for the first time, said Brooke Crowder, Founder and CEO of The Refuge for DMST. That outpouring of prayer and financial support from the faith community contributed directly to ground-breaking construction out at The Refuge Ranch that spring. Its exciting that Austins big hearts helped pour the first slabs and now they will help us open the gates for the first group of survivors this summer.

Through the annual citywide Good Friday service, Austins faith-based community has given more than $1-million to non-profits including AIDS Services of Austin, the Capital Area Food Bank and Mobile Loaves and Fishes. Faith leaders want this years event to bring even more hope and financial help to combat a growing community problem. The people of Austin, Texas are incredibly generous, said LifeAustin Church Pastor Randy Phillips. When they see a need and they see a plan, theyll respond. We are moving the needle on some incredible difficult issues that cause so much pain in our community.

What: Citywide Good Friday Service

When: Friday, March 30, 2018 6:00 pm CST

Where: University of Texas Frank Erwin Center, 1701 Red River St., Austin, TX 78701

About Newsboys

Multiple Dove Award winners and GRAMMY nominated Newsboys have Helped define the sound of Christian music for more than two decades. Their high-energy live performances and string of mega-hit singles, including Gods Not Dead, We Believe, and Born Again, continue to make the band one of the genres most iconic artists Newsboys.(https://newsboys.com)

About The Refuge for DMST

The Refuge for DMST (Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking) is developing The Refuge Ranch, a long-term, residential, therapeutic community for 48 girls, minors through age 19, who have been rescued out of sex trafficking. Located on 50 acres in a beautiful and restorative setting outside of Austin, TX, The Refuge Ranch will provide trauma-informed, holistic care for the girls on-site, including: a University of Texas Charter School program, a community partner-staffed medical clinic and various therapeutic programs uniquely designed for the development of a child survivor. When open, The Refuge Ranch will be one of the only long-term, live-in rehabilitation facilities for child survivors of sex trafficking in the United States. For more information, go to http://www.therefugedmst.org.

Twitter: @goodfridayatx

FB: Serve Our City

Instagram: serveourcityInfoMart's suite of products focuses on enabling consumers' access to a myriad of financial inclusion services and employment by providing identity and background screening products around the world.

Atlanta, GA. - March 26, 2018 InfoMart, an innovative global background screening and identity company with more than 28 years of experience providing services to multiple Fortune 500 clients, announced that Chief Executive Officer Marco Piovesan is nominated for CEO of the Year, and Founder and Chief Visionary Officer Tammy Cohen is nominated for Industry Leader of the Year in the 2018 KNOW Identity Awards. Winners will be announced at the KNOW Identity Conference in Washington, D.C.

Piovesan will be addressing The Role of Identity in Financial Access Across the Globe, during an expert panel taking place at the KNOW Identity Conference. The panel will focus on how companies and governments from around the world are working to address the challenges and opportunities of global identity.

Given the global trend of rapid growth in gig economies, sharing economies, and rising middle class economies, there is increasing demand to facilitate opportunities for everyone. Data regulations, compliance issues, and access to credible data for identity and verification continue to challenge global access to services, including financial inclusion and economic empowerment of people around the world.

To help overcome these challenges, InfoMart is proud to roll out its enhanced suite of products to assist the global mobility of people. The suite includes ASAP ID, InfoScreen and Pangeodata's identity and background screening platforms.

"InfoMart's suite of products focuses on enabling consumers' access to a myriad of financial inclusion services and employment by providing identity and background screening products around the world. With our trusted reliability, industry expertise, and customized solutions, we are working to make global verification seamless and trusted," said Marco Piovesan, CEO of InfoMart.

ASAP ID is a three-step mobile onboarding application that provides a streamlined background screening experience. The application combines document verification, facial biometric matching, and data verification.

In order to provide applicants self-sovereign control of the background screening process, InfoMart has also introduced InfoScreen. This platform allows an applicant to provide the required personal identifying information, pay as required, and self-control the submittal of results and access to their own data. InfoScreen Health, designed for the healthcare-specific screening of medical students, is the first of these industry-specific products.

Pangeodata is a simple-to-use, rules-based platform that has incorporated the data regulations and screening rules for over 200 countries and territories. The solution auto-populates required consent forms and specific country forms, simplifying the whole experience. Pangeodata has also recently introduced a global Identity Verification and Compliance Watchlist product to meet Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance requirements for seamless consumer onboarding.

To learn more about InfoMart's suite of products, please stop by booth 205 during KNOW Identity 2018 for a demonstration and visit InfoMart at http://www.infomart-usa.com, @InfoMartUSA, for more information.

About InfoMart

InfoMart has been revolutionizing the global identity and background screening industry for almost three decades, providing businesses the information they need to make informed hiring decisions. They develop innovative technology that modernizes talent onboarding, including a first-to-market biometric identity authentication application and a verified sanctions search. The WBENC-certified company is a founding and accredited member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners. The company is dedicated to customer service, speed, and accuracy, and has been recognized for its success, workplace culture, and corporate citizenship with over 40 industry awards.

For more information and interview requests during KNOW Identity 2018:

Tawanda Carlton

Media Frenzy Global for InfoMart

C: (910) 358-7224

E: tawanda(at)mediafrenzyglobal(dot)comComputers and the Future of Skill Demand uses a test based on the OECDs Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) to compare computers with humans. Robots seem to be better at hard skills such as mathematics and computing, while humans are much better at soft skills, such as reasoning and writing. Stuart W. Elliot, the books author, and Dirk Van Damme, the OECDs Head of the Skills Beyond Schools Division, point out that new and improved AI will continue to dramatically change our lives as were surrounded by computers that provide information, direct our attention and suggest choices. If computers are better than humans at solving complicated math problems, why should students even bother to learn mathematics? Elliott and Van Damme state that while its helpful for everyone to learn basic arithmetic as part of learning to reason with numbers, the real competence needed by people will be the critical thinking and reasoning to put all the pieces together.

Saudi Arabia gave citizenship to a humanoid robot named Sophia. C. M. Rubin (Founder of CMRubinWorld) discusses with Elliott and Van Damme the societal disruption driven by newer technologies coming soon. Should governments be drafting legislations to deal with robots now? Elliott and Van Damme acknowledge that robots could become so self-reflective that theyll describe their reasoning and goals the same way humans do. When that happens, society will need to decide whether to treat those robots legally as having a kind of self-interest comparable to humans.

Dirk Van Damme is Head of the Innovation and Measuring Progress Division (IMEP), which covers both the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) and the Indicators of Educational Systems (INES) program, in the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills. Stuart W. Elliott is an Economist and cognitive scientist working on comparing the skills of computers and humans to understand the long-term effects of automation on work, education and the economy. He is the author of Computers and the Future of Skill Demand.

Read the Full Article

CMRubinWorld launched in 2010 to explore what kind of education would prepare students to succeed in a rapidly changing globalized world. Its award-winning series, The Global Search for Education, is a celebrated trailblazer in the renaissance of the 21st century, and occupies a special place in the pulse of key issues facing every nation and the collective future of all children. It connects todays top thought leaders with a diverse global audience of parents, students and educators. Its highly readable platform allows for discourse concerning our highest ideals and the sustainable solutions we must engineer to achieve them.

Follow @CMRubinWorld on Twitter

For more information on CMRubinWorld

David Wine

CMRubinWorld

david(at)cmrubinworld(dot)comThis fusion of attention and attribution data is a game changer for the TV industry.

Today, TVision Insights, the leader in measuring eyes-on-screen attentionTM to every second of programming and advertising on television, announced a partnership with Data Plus Math, the leader in cross-screen TV attribution. The two companies are marrying attention and outcome data for clients in order to understand where target audiences are paying attention, and how targeting plus attention leads to sales. TVisions ability to report commercial-level impact at a person-level enhances attribution accuracy and answers why campaigns are succeeding in-market.

As brands calculate their return on advertising spend they need to match real exposures to outcomes. This is what makes the TVision + Data Plus Math partnership so powerful. With TVisions attention data integrated into Data Plus Maths attribution platform, marketers can see the causal relationship between ad engagement to sales, said Dan Schiffman, Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Founder of TVision Insights. Weve performed multiple studies that prove the link between audience attention and outcomes such as tune-in and store visits. This partnership with Data Plus Math ties attention to outcomes while campaigns are in-flight. For products with longer sales cycles, such as automobiles, attention can be used as a leading indicator of campaign performance.

Data Plus Math looks at the entire customer journey from product awareness to eventual purchase, and measures the conversion power of the various elements of the campaign. The company then uses that data to provide recommendations on optimal frequency for campaign goals, effectiveness by creative, and sales data by customer segment.

The Data Plus Math platform enables programming networks and marketers to better understand what aspects of their campaigns are driving real world marketing results, said John Hoctor, CEO and Co-Founder of Data Plus Math. This partnership with TVision enables us to layer in actual eyes-on-screen attention scores to further enhance our understanding of why certain programs or creatives are driving more conversions than others.

TVision Insights opt-in panel has installed proprietary, privacy-safe hardware and software that allows for passive monitoring of television viewing behavior. The result is person-level measurement data reported second-by-second.

This fusion of attention and attribution data is a game changer for the TV industry, said Tim Hanlon, Founder and CEO at The Vertere Group. While other players are ascertaining whether an ad ran, or using signals like channel changes to approximate attention, TVision Insights is measuring actual eyes-on-screen attention. Fusing attention into the leading attribution platform will help brands, their agencies, and TV networks understand what really impacts the bottom line.

About TVision Insights

TVision Insights is the television attention measurement company pioneering the way brands, their agencies, and TV networks determine the true value of their video content and advertising. The companys core technology uses patented computer vision algorithms to passively measure eyes on screen, the single most accurate way to measure person-level engagement with video content. Founded by two MIT alumni, TVision Insights is a venture-backed company headquartered in Boston with offices in New York and Tokyo.

About Data Plus Math

Data Plus Math is a media measurement company that helps connect advertising exposures to real-world outcomes. Powered by millions of households of cross-screen viewing data, the companys TV and Video attribution platform is used by cable operators, national programming networks, agencies and marketers to measure which components of their advertising campaigns are driving results. Data Plus Maths investors include Comcast Ventures and Greycroft Partners and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.SEO Image Our Long Island office will allow us to work more closely with current and new local clients and get them results.

SEO Image, (https://seoimage.com/ ) a Top 10 ranked SEO & Online Reputation Management (ORM) agency, announced the opening of its regional office in Melville, NY. Located on Long Island on the borders of Nassau & Suffolk Counties. This is officially their second location in New York. With corporate headquarters remaining where its been for 15 years in Midtown Manhattan on E 57th St. This additional facility allows the company to better serve its expanding Long Island clients. With the industry still booming, SEO Image is growing to meet the demand for Long Island SEO services for businesses that want to hire proven SEO experts.

"As the economy is picking up, many companies are now realizing that having a positive brand image with great reviews and a solid online presence from search, offers an amazing sales channel. Most businesses don't really know how to go about it properly, even when they hire in-house SEO, they are lacking in skills compared to our agency. Our Long Island office will allow us to work more closely with current and new local clients and get them results," said Alan Rabinowitz, SEO Image's CEO.

Our Reputation Management & SEO services are top rated, and help our client's websites stand out and our professional web design builds a prominent corporate image for them. We also manage their search engine marketing campaigns to increase website visitors and conversion rates. We help them convert their traffic to sales.

"Now with our expanded personnel and local presence, our team works diligently to define our client's corporate image and search. Since 2002, we have maintained clients like Sothebys International Realty for over 9 years. We have the same clients year after year, and have maintained clients longer than some of our competitors have been in business, Rabinowitz stated.

About SEO Image

A NYC SEO Company, now on Long Island, featuring search engine optimization, online reputation management, search engine marketing, branding, online advertising, light PR and web design services. Catering to ALL industries with specialties in Law, Medical, Hospitality, Real Estate and Rehab SEO. SEO Image, Inc. is dedicated to helping its clients achieve effective online results and increased conversions through idea-based marketing strategies designed to promote their clients corporate image.Christine Peyreigne owns and operates Christines Critters Inc., a Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education non-profit in Weston, Connecticut whose mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and release as many She has a natural ability for nurturing wildlife back to health to give birds a second chance at life. Christines story is quite inspirational, and intoBirds was delighted to share her story.

IntoBirds, an online magazine, community, and resource for all things birds connected with Christine Peyreigne, a female falconer, and president of Christines Critters, Inc., a Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education non-profit in Weston, Connecticut whose mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and release injured birds of prey.

Peyreigne, 21, is a licensed general class falconer, and a full-time college student with plans to become a veterinary technician. Her long-term goal is own and operates her an animal wildlife rehabilitation center in southern Connecticut.

Currently, shes caring for 15 permanent birds of prey, 40 reptiles and more than 100 birds that receive care and release each year. And she trains and hunts on a daily basis with her male Red-tailed Hawk named Theron.

How is she able to fit all this and more into her busy life?

Christines fueled by her passion and love for wildlife.

Christine is an amazing young woman driven by her passion for birds of prey, and her desire to educate people about how humanity harms wildlife, says Renee Hewitt co-founder, and editor-in-chief of intoBirds. She has a natural ability for nurturing wildlife back to health to give birds a second chance at life. Christines story is quite inspirational, and intoBirds was delighted to share her story.

Learn more about what its like to be a female falconer, aid injured birds of prey and rehabilitate them for release back into the wild, or whats its like to hunt with a Red-tailed Hawk.

And read about each of Christines amazing critters and more.

Read intoBirds profile about Christines Critters here.

People who enjoy bird watching, appreciate birds, bird photos or reading fascinating stories about birds should visit http://www.intobirds.com.

About IntoBirds

IntoBirds is an online magazine, community, and resource for all things birds based in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Whether its nature, art, architecture, engineering, literature, film or fashion, birds inspire creative minds to reach for the skies. Whatever you call yourself: a bird watcher, bird enthusiast or just love birds, we all share a common trait: we are into birds. Learn more and follow IntoBirds at http://www.intobirds.com, @intobirds, and #intobirds.With the desire to promote independent thinking and peace of mind, Jiang  releases Clean Your Heart  (published by Partridge Singapore), a book that contains 27 courses that aims to help readers understand themselves, mature and move toward enlightenment.

The book offers answers to questions such as: Why is human consciousness like a computer systemand what foundational program sustains the entire system? When the system breaks down, is that a good or a bad thing? What benefits can you attain by freeing yourself from the system? The book also guides the readers to explore whether or not feelings such as anxiety, fear, anger and pride are real or whether or not they are just a collection of programs that prevents someone from being their true selves. The author argues that God is a source code, the character system is original sin, and when the character system is unloaded, the spirit will go back to the source code.

The simplest thing is what everyone needed most, says the author. With the book, he encourages the readers to grow intellectually and spiritually, and invites them to take a journey that will bring them clarity and peace with the exercises in Clean Your Heart .

Clean Your Heart 

By Jiang 

Hardcover | 6x9 in | 94 pages | ISBN 9781543744132

Softcover | 6x9 in | 94 pages | ISBN 9781543744125

E-Book | 94 pages | ISBN 9781543744149

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Jiang  currently lives in Beijing, China.

Partridge Singapore, an imprint in partnership with Penguin Random House Singapore, aims to help writers in Singapore, Malaysia, and the rest of Southeast Asia become published authors. Partridge Singapore gives authors in the region direct access to a comprehensive range of expert publishing services that meet industry standards but are more accessible to the market. For more information or to publish a book, visit http://www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore or call 800 101 2657 (Singapore) or 1 800 81 7340 (Malaysia). For the latest, follow @PartridgeSG on Twitter.The recently established Misk Art Institute today announced the opening of Reframe Saudi, a four-day contemporary Saudi art exhibition that features a new virtual reality (VR) documentary, in New York. On the occasion of the Saudi Crown Princes visit to the United States, this groundbreaking exhibit and VR experience illustrates the continuing story of change in Saudi Arabia.

The Institute, part of the Misk Foundation, the non-profit foundation established by H.R.H. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to empower Saudi youth, will launch the U.S. premiere of the Reframe Saudi VR film together with the exhibition at Phillips New York, 450 Park Avenue, on Monday, March 26. The exhibition will continue until Thursday, March 29, and is open from 10am6pm, daily.

Reframe Saudi is a VR documentary film directed by Italian filmmaker Matteo Lonardi and produced by CULTURUNNERS that explores Saudi Arabia from the perspectives of a new generation of contemporary artists. As the country enters a new phase socially and economically, the film transports viewers to the studios of artists between Jeddah, Abha and Riyadh. Each of them, through their work, reflects on a different aspect of this transformative historical time.

The accompanying exhibition will feature major works by 27 artists from across the Kingdom. It includes the presentation of the specially commissioned Al-Qatt Al-Asiri mural paintings by women artists from southern Saudi Arabia. This specific tradition of collective mural painting was inscribed on UNESCOs Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2017. The exhibition also features a curated display of portrait photographs and a behind the scenes film about the making of Reframe Saudi.

Ahmed Mater, Director of the Misk Art Institute, said:

We are thrilled to bring the Reframe Saudi film, along with some of the best contemporary Saudi art, to New York during the visit of H.R.H. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Collectively, the documentary and exhibits demonstrate how art and the creative industries are an integral part of the change that is transforming Saudi Arabia.

Mater continued, Misk Art Institute, like the Misk Foundation more generally, works to empower the young Saudi population to unleash its talent. We do this at home, but vitally, by encouraging international cultural exchange and diplomacy, also abroad. It is essential at this time that Saudi artists engage with audiences around the world, as they are here in New York, to help to tell the continuing story of change in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi writer Ali Moghawi who resides in New York and led the Al-Qatt Al-Asiri mural paintings project, said:

For decades, reviving Al-Qatt Al-Asiri traditional art was no more than a dream. Now, we witness the realization of this dream as we are provided with an international platform where we can share it and provide art lovers and enthusiasts with the opportunity to behold the beauty of this ancient art and delve into its shapes, colors and geometric angles. Today we are with Misk, in New York, presenting Asiri art to the world. This is a new testament of our leaderships confidence in this historic art and flexibility to embrace development and present it to the world in the best manner.

Saudi artist Fatimah Fayaa said:

For many years I have been working on Asiri art in collaboration with many creative artists who are equally committed and passionate about this art. Today, I am very happy with Al-Qatt Al-Asiri traditional art being recognised as an artistic heritage and it will be protected by entities who appreciate its historical cultural and artistic value. I look forward to cooperating with these entities to further preserve and spread this art around the world. This is a great achievement by Misk Art Institute and all those who have been dedicated to this spectacular art of Asir.

On March 21, the Misk Art Institute held a pop-up exhibition and dinner reception in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. and is also arranging cultural events and meetings as part of the Crown Princes visit in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

For more information, please visit https://miskartinstitute.org/events/reframe-saudi-vr-experience-exhibition

ENDS

###

EDITORS NOTE

Please contact MiskMedia@nahigianstrategies.com for all media enquiries and to discuss interview opportunities with representatives of the Misk Foundation.

IMAGES OF ARTWORK BEING DISPLAYED

Images are available using this link: https://tinyurl.com/y8lmms6c

ABOUT MISK ART INSTITUTE

Misk Art Institute is a new cultural organization operating under the auspices of the Misk Foundation, established by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Led by Saudi artist, Ahmed Mater, the Institute was created in 2017 to encourage grassroots artistic production in Saudi Arabia and enable cultural diplomacy and international exchange. Focused on establishing itself as an artist-centered cultural innovator, Misk Art Institute will have its headquarters in Riyadh and an artist residency focused center in Abha, located in Saudi Arabias southwest region of Asir. The Institutes program will incorporate exhibitions and events, artist-led communications and an arts education program aimed at training and investing in the career development of young artists. Please visit http://www.miskartinstitute.org for more information about the Institutes 2018 program including publications, an education program aimed at young Saudi artists and international participations in London, Paris, New York, Dubai and the first ever Saudi National Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale Di Venezia.

ABOUT MISK FOUNDATION

Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Foundation (the Misk Foundation) is a non-profit philanthropic foundation established by H.R.H. Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to discover, develop and empower Saudi youth to become active participants in the knowledge economy. Misk specifically focuses on four key areas: education, creative and digital media, technology, and culture and arts. Misk pursues this agenda both through its own programs, and through partnerships with local and global organizations.https://misk.org.sa/en/

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Matteo Lonardi is an Italian photographer, journalist and director based in New York. Originally from Milan, he graduated from Columbia Journalism School in 2014. Since 2010 Matteo has been documenting artists around the world through photography, video and Virtual Reality. He is currently head of CULTURUNNERS media, directing and producing documentaries for online outlets and television. His written, photographic and video work has appeared in international publications including the BBC, Creative Time Reports, The Guardian, La Stampa, The Huffington Post and Il Corriere Della Sera.

FURTHER DETAILS ABOUT THE ARTWORK ON DISPLAY AT PHILLIPS

AL-QATT AL-ASIRI MURAL PAINTINGS

We are proud to present the first New York showing of two specially commissioned Al-Qatt Al-Asiri mural paintings by women artists from southern Saudi Arabia. This tradition of collective mural painting was inscribed on UNESCOs Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2017.

In Asir, women traditionally paint the walls of their house in vibrant colors. The paintings express a long and intimate relationship between peoples and their natural environment, presenting complex scenes narrating the stories of their family, culture, environment, rituals and agriculture. They are an important part of the cultural heritage of Asir. Over the past decades, many of the older paintings have been in the danger of being damaged or destroyed. The disappearance of these historical paintings leads to irrecoverable loss of the testimonies of Saudi womens creative brilliance, social development and their contribution to the writing of the history of the region generation after generation.

Works by the following Saudi artists are on display:

ARTISTS

Fatimah Hassan, Dana Awartani, Rashed Al Shashai, Ahmad Angawi, Ajlan Gharem, Saeed Salem, Amr Alnagmah

AL-QATT AL-ASIRI MURAL ARTISTS

Amira Al-Almai, Arwa Mohammed Alzehr, Fatemah Faya Yaqub, Fatima Yahya, Fatimah Hassan, Fawzeiyah Mohammed Barzyq, Halimah Moshabab Assiry, Jameelah Mater, Jamelah Ali Alsoghayer, Jewaher Mater, Mahdi, Nala Ali, Nawarah Abdolrahman Moghawi, Ohud Ebraheam Moghawi, Reem Mater, Safia Ahmed, Salehah Abdulazeaz Alraqde, Salehah Yahay Alalmaiy, Salha Al-Qahtani, Sharifa Ayed, Zaina Al-Shahrani, Zohrah Faya Yaqub|

Welcome Guest! You Are Here:

NEWSALERT-NKORA-SKOREA-TALKS Kim Jong Un''s sister says North Korea is willing to resume talks with South Korea if it lifts hostility on her country. (AP)Kim Jong Un's sister says North Korea is willing to resume talks with South Korea if it lifts hostility on her country. (AP)

AMS

NEWSALERT-VIRUS-US-BOOSTER CDC endorses booster shots for millions of Americans, opening a major new phase in US vaccination drive against COVID-19. (AP)CDC endorses booster shots for millions of Americans, opening a major new phase in US vaccination drive against COVID-19. (AP)

AMSTAIYUAN, March 25 (Xinhua) -- A suspect has been returned to China from Tajikistan as a campaign to capture fugitives suspected of economic crime continues, police in Shanxi Province announced Sunday.

It is the first suspect that Shanxi police have brought back from Tajikistan in the Fox Hunt campaign, which targets suspects in economic crime who have fled overseas.

According to the local police, the suspect, who was identified by the family name as Xu, illegally obtained more than 60 million yuan (9.5 million U.S. dollars) of public funds in the name of the conglomerate he controlled between January 2007 and July 2011, and spent the money by ways including paying off previous debts and interests on those debts he owed and paid bills for his personal consumption, incurring heavy losses on the public.

Xu fled overseas after his case was exposed.

Prosecutors with the people's procuratorate of Fangshan County in Shanxi issued a warrant to arrest him in June 2015 on charges of illegal acquisition of public funds.

China requested the extradition of Xu via diplomatic channels after police in Tajikistan apprehended him in February.We know that Trump is an inveterate liar because the Washington Post has keep an actual running count of his lies (now topping 2,436) since he took office. There is another word for lying on this scale. It is propaganda, and Trump doesnt just rely on his own lies to mislead the public. He has had his spokesman deliver lies from the podium in the White House press room quite literally since the day he took office, when Sean Spicer tried to make the laughable case that Trumps inauguration was the best attended in history.from a salon.com article by Lucian K. Truscott IV on March 21.

I lead off with that because whatever Deceitful Donald says about anything, this qualifier of recorded lies-per-day must be kept in mind. For the entire Salon article, see: https://www.salon.com/2018/03/21/now-we-know-who-trump-really-is/

The story is headlined: Now we know who Trump really is with the subheading Gag orders for his own people and lawsuits for everyone else. Trump has nobodys interests in mind but his own.

From another recent source: Narcissists are dangerous because they think only about themselves. Megalomaniacs are dangerous because they think only about their power and invincibility. A narcissistic megalomaniac whos unconstrainedand whos also president of the United States is about as dangerous as they come.RobertReich.org, 3/29/18

I sort of miss a troll of earlier years who could do no better than accuse me of cutting and pasting whenever I quoted from someone elses remarks. But I remain happy having knowledgeable experts on whom to draw, individuals closer to ground zero of the political scene, who spend full time digesting, analyzing and writing about it. I also dont hesitate to also quote sages of yesteryearfor instance Aristotle, Martin Luther King or the Bibleto support a point now and then.

Trump is increasingly flying solo, reported Catherine Lucey and Johnathan Lemire of Associated Press recently. Trump has told confidants recently that he wants to be less reliant on his staff, believing they often give bad advice, and that he plans to follow his own instincts. And he also says he has great instincts. Thus he continues firing his self-appointed staff at a rate never before seen in presidential historyseeking to form a backup choir that will loudly sing yes in unison. And Lord help any of his associates who receive any press headlines or TV camera time that he wants centered solely on himself.

This was never better illustrated than last week, when Demented Donald ignored his security advisors, who specifically warned him (in writing) in his daily briefing DO NOT CONGRATULATE with regard to Vladimir Putins victory in a rigged Russian election. He called the Russian premier and did just the opposite. He also ignored aides who urged him to condemn Putin for the attempted murder of a former Russian spy in England. Instead he called Vladimir to chat cordiallyand you can bet there wasnt a lot of talk about the Russian meddling in the U. S. election process, or the strong-arm tactics used in Russias own election.

But we all know Dim-Bulb Donald, who has assured us he attended the best schools and is a very intelligent persona genius even. Which is why he has left so many diplomatic posts unfilledand fires or forces to resign anyone who has the temerity to suggest his ways the wrong way. Reichs comment above pretty much nails it. Perhaps the best we can do at present with this petulant and paranoid dictator is take away some of his toyssuch as the U. S. Congressduring the 2018 mid-term election.

HANG IN THERE, JOHNSen. John McCain (R-AZ) last week said that Trump insulted every Russian citizen when he congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his re-election to another six-year term. An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections, said McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country's future, including the countless Russian patriots who have risked so much to protest and resist Putin's regime. The two leaders spoke by phone earlier last Tuesday, the White House said, and Trump congratulated Putin for winning re-election. The legitimacy of Russias election was widely condemned by international election-observers, and Putins top opponent was barred from running. Trump told reporters that he and Putin would meet in the not too distant future.

When asked at last Tuesdays press briefing whether Russias elections were free and fair, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said: Look, we dont get to dictate how other countries operate. Evasively meaning, I guess, that its OK, however, to endorse their foul play.

And unless Muellers Russian investigation turns up something specific, we can only continue to speculate about just why Donald has continued to fawn so over Putin. Its almost as if Vladimir knows where the bodies are buried.

I know that when I was writing this blog this morning that Trump expelled a few dozen minor Russian diplomats. I dont consider that significant; it was the least he could do. It was if he decided it was a cheaper sop to world opinion than retracting his recent trade tariffs.

SMARMINESS AT FULL SPEEDAs columnist Thomas Friedman of The New York Times pointed out last week, Mother Trumps little boy continues to push what he can get away with. It all started back when he promised to release his tax returns when the IRS finished auditing them. Anyone hearing much on that since back when he was first elected? He lies, he stalls, waits until the public more-or-less forgets and turns to the other daily distractions he tosses out.

The stage having been set with that toe-in-the-water get-away-with on his taxes, were now stuck with his non-stop pushing of the envelopelying, sex with adult movie stars and miscellaneous sexual assaults, seemingly vindictive general humiliation of others, trashing the FBI, tolerance of racists and gun violence, coddling Putin, lowbrow tweets. He even seems to have gotten away with lying to the Canadian premier about a U. S. trade deficit he dreamed up totally out of convenience.

Its almost beyond belief that there are now 19 women claiming to have had affairs with or have been physically violated by the president of the United States in various ways. And I forgot here for a moment that hoax of a Trump University with which he tried to bilk the unsuspectinguntil he was shut down by the courts . . . and paid a good-sized financial settlement. What in the merry hell is it that attracts people to vote for such a person to head our country?

Friedman noted: Trump and Putin are cut from the same cloth. Their strategy is: keep pushing, keep grabbing, keep lying, keep denying, no matter how implausible the denialsand never apologize. Because when you lie on an industrial scale, it overwhelms everyone else.

And he summed things up pretty well: That steady erosion of norms is what Trump is doing to America and Putin is doing to the world. And we let them get away with it. Your kids wont just grow up in a different America, theyll grow up in a different world.

Friday, Corrupt Donald, threw another mud ball at the wall to see if it would stick. He asked Congress to re-install the line-item veto for his convenience of striking, say, a socially-oriented appropriation he didnt like from a spending bill. And this is a guy trying to blame Democrats for not joining in bipartisanship as they did in the current appropriations bill. He whined about the bill before finally signing away another $1.3 trillion largely because it was heavy on military spending he had proposed.

The Supreme Court ruled the line-item veto unconstitutional back in the 1990s.

FAVORITE COMMENT OF THE WEEKA guy identified only as Ken posted this on yahoo.com last week: Karen McDougall tells of her 10 month affair with Trump. The next day during The View broadcast (the topic is Trump/McDougall) Trump holds a press conference. Of course the press conference interrupts all scheduled programming, including The View. The View's audience doesn't hear the entire discussion of the affair.

.

.



Despite President Donald Trump's national-security advisers' note reminding him "DO NOT CONGRATULATE" Russian President Vladimir Putin on his election victory during their call last Tuesday, Trump did anyway.

When asked whether Trump thought Putin's election victory was free and fair during a press briefing that day, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders demurred.

"We're focused on our elections," she said. "We don't get to dictate how other countries operate."

During another press briefing last month, Sanders argued Trump had been "tougher on Russia in the first year than [former President Barack] Obama was in eight years combined."

This argument has become a frequent line of defense Trump officials have used when pressed about the administration's complicated relationship with Russia.

Trump, whose response to the US intelligence community's assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 US election has been lukewarm at best, is often perceived as being hesitant to confront the Kremlin's aggression.

But the Trump administration has actually taken some concrete actions against Russia. Here are six examples:

Expelling diplomats

The Trump administration said it would expel 60 Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Britain.

The measures were announced on Monday morning, and follow Britain accusing Vladimir Putin's regime of being behind the attack. Moscow has denied involvement.

The US move follows Britain's decision to expel 23 diplomats working at Russia's embassy in Britain in the immediate aftermath of the attack, which took place on March 4.

A White House statement said:

"The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world.

"Today's actions make the United States safer by reducing Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten America's national security."

Sanctions

On March 15, the Trump administration announced new sanctions on Russia for its attempts to interfere in the 2016 US election.

The sanctions were scheduled to be implemented earlier this year, but Trump backed down, arguing that the sanctions bill he signed last August was already working as a deterrent against Russia.

Trump originally signed the sanctions bill  officially called the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act  last August, albeit begrudgingly.

The sanctions bill also imposes a wide range of sanctions on North Korea and Iran.

Closing of diplomatic facilities

After Congress approved Russia-related sanctions last summer, Russia expelled 755 American diplomats from the country.

In response, the Trump administration ordered Russia to close three of its diplomatic facilities in the US, including its consulate in San Francisco, and two annexes in Washington, DC, and New York City.

Arms sale to Ukraine

In December, Trump announced his support for the sale of lethal munitions to the Ukrainian government in its fight against Russian-backed separatists in the country's Donbas region, a move that angered Russia, which has been engaged in a hybrid war in the region for the past four years.

The State Department officially approved $47 million weapons sale in early March. It included Javelin launchers and anti-tank missiles.

Condemnation of nerve agent attack in the UK

On March 4, Russian dissident Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, suffered from a nerve agent attack. The father and daughter are living in London.

The US, the UK, France, and Germany all blamed Russia for the attack.

Although Trump initially failed to deliver a forceful condemnation of Russia for the attack, other officials in his administration picked up the slack.

"Over the past four years, Russia has engaged in a campaign of coercion and violence, targeting anyone opposed to its attempted annexation," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

"We stand behind those courageous individuals who continue to speak out about these abuses and we call on Russia to cease its attempts to quell fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and religion or belief."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the attack "clearly came from Russia" and US Ambassador to the US Nikki Haley said the US stood in "absolute solidarity" with the UK after the attack.

A full day after the UK blamed Russia, Trump told reporters that "as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be." Referring to the UK's findings, he added, "It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia, and I would certainly take that finding as fact."

National-security experts were baffled and alarmed by Trump's delayed reaction to the chemical attack.

Trump then joined a statement with UK Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreeing that there was "no plausible alternative explanation" than that Russia was to blame for the attack.

Trump officials repeatedly criticize Moscow

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley have been particularly critical of Russia.

On March 7, Nauert condemned Russia in a tweet, saying that it ignored a UN ceasefire agreement in Syria by bombing civilians in Damascus and Eastern Ghouta.

Her criticism elicited a direct response from Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), which told Nauert to "calm down."

"Your propaganda machine is out of control - you're spamming all of us," the MFA added.

In January, Nauert condemned Russia for supporting separatists in the country of Georgia. Trump recently promoted her to undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.The first space station China ever launched is about to return to Earth as a mess of ultra-hot, supersonic space junk.

China launched Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace," in 2011. After six successful missions to Tiangong-1  three of which were crewed  China abandoned the spacecraft in June 2013.

Since then, the two-room, 9.4-ton vessel has orbited the planet without any Chinese astronauts aboard. But in May, China told the United Nations that it'd lost contact with Tiangong-1 in March 2016 after it "fully fulfilled its historic mission."

Tiangong-1 may reenter Earth's atmosphere at 3:15 a.m. EDT on Sunday, April 1, give or take 20 hours, according to the latest prediction by the Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit spaceflight-research company.

When that happens, chunks of the space station are likely to rain down over our planet's surface. Some of the gear left inside the vessel may even reach the ground intact.

No one knows when or where Tiangong-1's debris will land, but the good news is that the garbage will most likely fall into the ocean. You're about 1 million times as likely to win the Powerball jackpot as you are to get hit by any piece of Tiangong-1.

It seems as if the brightest minds on Earth should be able to pinpoint when and where giant spacecraft will reenter Earth's atmosphere, but it's not so simple. Here's why.

Skipping off the atmosphere

To circle Earth from about 250 miles up, a spacecraft must reach a blistering speed of 17,500 mph, meaning it orbits the planet once every 90 minutes.

Even that high up, however, the outer fringes of Earth's atmosphere drag on spacecraft like Tiangong-1. If a vessel isn't sped up every so often to correct its orbit, it will eventually slow down and fall from the sky.

"You often hear space starts at 100 kilometers  that's based on where aerodynamic forces start having an effect to where you can actually control your [craft] with wings," Jesse Gossner, an orbital-mechanics engineer who teaches at the US Air Force's Advanced Space Operations School, told Business Insider.

"Above 100 kilometers"  or 62 miles  "it's a lot, lot, lot thinner than down here, and you certainly wouldn't be able to survive," Gossner said. "But it's thick enough to slow you down."

"It's really just a guessing game ... There's just no way to tell where it's going to land."

That's what has been happening to Tiangong-1  and the reason it will soon fall. But even now, about 80 hours from the space station's expected crash, the timing estimate has a 20-hour window of uncertainty on either end. It could come down as early as Saturday morning or as late as Sunday night.

"The 21st Space Wing, using its global Space Surveillance Network of ground- and space-based radar and optical sensors, is tracking Tiangong-1," Diana McKissock, a flight lead with the US Air Force's 18th Space Control Squadron, told Business Insider in an email.

Gossner said the uncertainty was due to the nature of Earth's atmosphere and how high-speed objects behave in it.

"You'd be surprised just how inaccurate and random it is because of the atmosphere," Gossner said. "Have you ever skipped a stone on a lake?" he added. "It bounces a few times, then eventually goes into the water."

A hypothetical out-of-control spacecraft like Tiangong-1, Gossner said, may behave like that stone.

"This thing can bounce off the atmosphere because it's going so fast," he said. "If it hits on its smooth side, sort of like a rock skipping on a lake, it'll bounce. But if it hits on a pointy end, or on one end of a cylinder, in the direction of the velocity, it could dig in."

Any large spacecraft that dips below an altitude of about 125 miles has just a few days left in orbit, Gossner said  and that's roughly where Tiangong-1 is drifting. Once it's about 80 miles up, it'll be within one orbit (about 90 minutes) of crashing.

"Even if you knew exactly where it hits in the atmosphere, the debris and stuff can spread out to a pretty big area," Gossner said.

"It's really just a guessing game," he said, adding: "There's just no way to tell where it's going to land."

How Tiangong-1 will die  and which pieces may survive

When space stations come down, "a funny thing" happens that helps doom the spacecraft, Gossner said.

"You start going really, really fast," he said. "Then you get slowed down really, really fast."

That's because the spacecraft is losing its forward speed, allowing gravity to accelerate the space station toward Earth. The air is still too thin to slow it down much, so it plummets faster and faster.

As the spacecraft falls into thicker air, the drag begins to rip off solar panels, antennas, and other loosely attached pieces. Superheated plasma heats the vessel to thousands of degrees, melting and disintegrating it.

Only a few types of materials can withstand such punishment.

"Titanium is a good one," Gossner said.

But there is a chance that some gear and hardware left aboard could survive intact all the way to the ground, according to Bill Ailor, an aerospace engineer who specializes in atmospheric reentry. That durability is thanks to Tiangong-1's onion-like layers of protective material.

"The thing about a space station is that it's typically got things on the inside," Ailor, who works for the Aerospace Corporation, previously told Business Insider. "So basically, the heating will just strip these various layers off.

"If you've got enough layers, a lot of the energy is gone before a particular object falls out, it doesn't get hot, and it lands on the ground."

For example, he said, after NASA's Columbia space shuttle broke up over the US in 2003, investigators recovered a working flight computer  an artifact that ultimately helped explain how the deadly incident happened.

The most likely place Tiangong-1 will fall

Tiangong-1 is likely to crash over the ocean, as water covers about 71% of Earth's surface. In fact, space agencies try to de-orbit large spacecraft over the Pacific Ocean "graveyard" since it's such a huge and innocuous target.

"So much of it lands in the ocean  that's our saving grace," Gossner said.

But some pieces of the Chinese space station may strike land, as the crash will leave a long, thin footprint of debris.

"The whole footprint length for something like this could be 1,000 miles or so," Ailor said, with heavier pieces at the front and lighter ones toward the back.

If anyone is lucky enough to witness Tiangong-1's atmospheric breakup from an airplane, it may look similar to the destruction of the European Space Agency's 14-ton Automated Transfer Vehicle, which used to resupply the International Space Station. Once astronauts and cosmonauts unloaded the vehicle's supplies, it was filled with garbage and sent careening back to Earth.

Ailor says pieces of China's space station are "really unlikely" to hit any people on Earth though.

"It's not impossible, but since the beginning of the Space Age ... a woman who was brushed on the shoulder in Oklahoma is the only one we're aware of who's been touched by a piece of space debris," he said.

Should a hunk of titanium, a computer, or another piece smash through a roof or windshield, however, international space law covers compensation for victims.We have all been affected by the sudden and troubling demise of Ghana's beloved Dancehall songstress, Priscilla Opoku-Kwarteng 'Ebony Reigns'.

It was a heart-wrenching moment to see the rising star exit this planet but they say 'death is inevitable' so we have to accept and move on.

READ MORE: 10 best Ebony Reigns songs of all time

Our cameras were around throughout the ceremony and here are the most heartbreaking yet unforgettable moments we captured.

Once again, hold your tears!

1. When she was laid in state (VIEWERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED).

2. When her broken-hearted parents filed past her mortal remains in a grief-stricken manner.

3. When her manager Bullet (Ruff N Smooth) and other Rufftown/Midas Touch Records management team members failed to hold their tears.

4. Highlife legend Amakye Dede's doleful look. It's clear he can't console himself not to talk of Ebony's family.

5. Veteran actor Kofi Adjorlolo had tears written all over his face.

6. It is well, Countryman Songo! It's is well.

7. Ebony's sister. This makes me mad!

8. This touching tribute from Methodist Girls Senior High School students -- Ebony's alma mater

9. I don't want to see this moment again!The dancehall artiste generated a lot of buzz when he opened a grill and pub joint for his baby mama, Diamond Michelle Gbagonah aka Shatta Michy sometime last year.

But like with everything Shatta Wale, there was controversy at the Diamond Pub and Grill spot at East Legon in Accra when a task force from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) tried to demolish the structure.

Diamond Pub was among some structures situated within the East Legon Green Belt zone and which had been earmarked for demolition.

READ MORE: Counselor Lutterodt apologizes to Yvonne Nelson

Pulse Ghana's constant monitoring of the structure has shown that the pub is not functioning creating the assumption is that it has collapsed from non-patronage.

A resident in the vicinity confirmed to Pulse that the pub had not been operating for months.

The facility is owned by Shatta Michy, wife of Ghanaian dancehall musician, Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jnr popularly known as Shatta Wale.

READ ALSO: Countryman Songo Receives wild welcomeThis was revealed by award-winning producer Kobby Rana, who believes the hero hit maker will make the movie come out better.

The producer took to Facebook to announce that Stonebwoy will be featuring in in latest movie titled My Name is Ramadan.

According to Kobby Rana, he once featured Stonebwoy in his movie in 2014 and the artiste completely delivered.

My first movie with him was HAPPY DEATHDAY (2014). He nailed it and won his first and only movie award. Dear world, are you ready for the Stonegod in MY NAME IS RAMADAN  A Kobi Rana Film, he wrote.

Stonebwoy may be known to be a very good musician but it appears the BhimNation leader is multi-talented and has acting also hidden in him.

Very few Ghanaian musicians have endeavoured to venture into the movie industry, with many preferring to stick to their music.

However, recently, Shatta Wale was featured in the drama series Kejetia n Makola, whiles Samini has also previously made cameo appearances in a couple of movies.In the video that looked like a campaign against authorities whose responsibility it is to fix the roads, the young man who only identified himself as Andrew, 22 poured a box of Lucky Charms in the pothole, poured a gallon of milk on it and then stirred it to create a desirable mixture.

The Eastern Michigan University student then lied close to the pothole and begun to feed on the cereal with a spoon.

The video has since gone viral after he posted it on twitter. Andrew is quoted as having told Mlive.com that it was purely for fun.

He said: "I don't know where the inspiration came from but when it hit me I knew it was a good idea and people would get a good laugh.

"I didn't really do this to protest against my government. I don't think they are doing the best job with the potholes but they will be there no matter what, so why not have a laugh with them?Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen are the three highest ranked cities in China's Comprehensive Development City Index for 2017, reports Beijing Daily.

Tiananmen Rostrum in Beijing on March 8, 2018 [File photo: IC]

The index is the product of collaboration between the National Development and Reform Commission and the Beijing Cloud River Urban Research Institute. The index ranks cities by assessing a range of development indicators that affect quality of life.

Beijing was the top ranked city on the index. As the country's capital, the city has advantages when it comes to access to a range of services. Beijing also has a rich history and culture that contributes to the quality of life in the city.

Lujiazui Finance District in Shanghai on January 9, 2018. [File photo: IC]

Shanghai came second in the rankings, thanks to factors including the quality of the city's economy and its built environment. And Shenzhen takes the third spot because of its environment, economy, and society.

KingKey Financial Center in Shenzhen [File photo: IC]

According to Zhou Muzhi, chairman of Beijing Cloud River Urban Research Institute, some changes have been made to the air pollution index. On this index, Beijing's ranks 17th in 2017.But the question is, for how long? Is it that there is no alternative available for those people?

Ghana is a democratic country and there are laws guiding every person and their activities.

Section 26.(1) of the criminal code of Ghanas 1992 constitution states that Every person is entitled to enjoy, practice, profess, maintain and promote any culture, language, tradition or religion subject to the provisions of this Constitution.

Undoubtedly, it is the clause 1 of this section that gives churches, restaurants, bars, town criers and others the right to carry out their activities especially because those activities may be their sources of livelihood.

However, knowing very well that the end of ones right is the beginning of that of another person, the framers of the constitution did not leave the clause 1 of section 26 vague.

They proceeded to give a caveat in clause 2 of the same section 26 that: All customary practices which dehumanise or are injurious to the physical and mental wellbeing of a person are prohibited.

This caveat clearly means that inasmuch as churches, restaurants, bars, town criers and others have the right under the constitution to carry out their activities, they must do them in such a moderation that they will not end up being a violation to the rights of others who equally derive theirs the same constitution.

Retired Canadian, 7 times world Champion, Hall of Fame K.I.C.K boxer, Boxer, martial artist, actor and author, Peter Cunningham, in writing his opinion on Ghanas constitution, specifically regarding noise making said: The home is a person or persons refuge from the world. When noise from outside the home invades that home without invitation or permission it interrupts and disturbs the peace and activities in that home and can even prevent the normal activities of the person/s in the home.

"Noise and its nature and contents can be a form of brainwashing and can change a person/s desires and ideas. Forcing certain religious ideas, preaching or music or other voice messages, frequencies or indoctrination into the sanctity, privacy and tranquility of a home is tantamount to brainwashing.

Clause 7 of Section 296 states that any person who in any town wilfully or wantonly, and after being warned to desist, makes any loud or unseemly noise howsoever caused to the annoyance or disturbance of any person.

Or in clause 8 of the same section 296, it states that any person who: in any town, without a license in writing from the Minister or a local authority beats or plays any drum, gong, tom-tom, or other similar instrument of music between eight oclock at night and six in the morning, commits a felony for which he or she shall be liable to a fine not exceeding 200,000.

Now, the question is how to fight for your right using the provisions of the constitution.

Criminal prosecutions are done by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, so one of the ways you can convey your grievance to the AGs office for prosecution is to lodge a complaint with the police after probably warning whoever is violating your right, but to no avail.

Once you file a complaint, it is incumbent upon the police to pursue the matter or they will be in breach of Section 22 of the constitution which states that: Every person who, knowing that a person designs to commit or is committing a felony, fails to use all reasonable means to prevent the commission or completing thereof, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

The police will then make arrest, prepare a docket and forward to the Attorney Generals office for advice and a possible prosecution.

Better still, you can go to court directly by filing a civil action against the errant person or organisation for the court to arbitrate and make a decision that will be binding on either party, depending on whose favour the verdict goes.

There are further more avenues in the same judicial system to explore up to the Supreme Court if one party is not satisfied.

So, those who keep complaining about sleepless nights because of the activities of churches, bars, restaurants clubs and the like, they are also exercising their rights derived from the constitution of Ghana. However, if you feel that they are over exercising them to your detriment, use the laid down alternatives to fight for your right and let them know that their rights end where yours begins.The president was speaking, at the 6th Edition of the Africa CEO Forum, held in Cote d'Ivoire on Monday (March 26, 2019).

He said that the government is keen on building, in Ghana, the most business-friendly economy, where security and the rule of law are upheld, and where investments are secure.

He further explained that the government is implementing a number of interventions to make their objective possible.

These interventions include the reduction in the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), implementation of programmes targeted at boosting economic activity and tax cuts.In an interview with Accra-based Citi FM, he conceded that borrowing is inevitable for governments but the borrower should not leave debts for subsequent governments to come and pay.

It should be clear to all of us Ghanaians that now, no government can say that it will not borrow. I think it should be very clear to us by now, he said, adding If you must borrow then learn to pay for the loan. Dont borrow and expect that another government will come and pay for it and this is what Ghanaians should expect from our government.

He was commenting on Ghanas debt stock which is currently at 68.3%. Speaking on how debts can be managed he said that borrowing should be planned.

He argued that parliament should take its role seriously in ensuring that the government borrows within a certain frame.

He stressed that governments should not borrow to spend on consumption but productive sectors that will help improve the economy and generate some revenue.

Ghanas public debt stock is now GHS142.5 billion as of December 2017, the Bank of Ghanas latest Summary of Economic Data has revealed.

The latest figure translates to a debt-to-GDP of 70 percent.The Director-General of the CID, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Maame Yaa Tiwa Addo Danquah said they have uncovered 2 of such online investment.

The 2 are Savanna Brokage and Peer-to-Peer.

The victims of these 2 online investment companies have been duped of various sums of money ranging between GH200 and GH15 million.

The police have so far arrested 4 suspected persons behind the illegal online investment platform from Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region and Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region.

The investment platform has not been registered with the Bank of Ghana and does not have a licence to operate.

DCOP Addo Danquah, therefore cautioned the general public to be careful of such online investment deals.

She said the scammers often invited people online to join an investment group with the promise of usually high returns after an online account was opened for interested persons.

The investors are able to log into their online accounts to track their investment but after a while, they would find out that their account on the online platform was unavailable, she said, and that ended their investment.This comes after three young girls aged 14, 19 and 20 were recently diagnosed of the disease at the Peace and Love Hospital in Ghana.

READ ALSO: Unilever to sensitize over 10 million Ghanaians on oral health

All three patients are undergoing treatment, however, there have been complications with the latter after doctors diagnosed her of being in the late-to-end-stage of the disease.

The President of BCI, Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Adda, lamented the situation, insisting it is worrying that girls are contracting breast cancer at such tender ages.

According to her, the mean age group known to be vulnerable to the disease used to be women above 43 years.

Weve realized that in Ghana and Africa, the disease is striking the younger ones, it is no more the older the woman that are getting the disease. In Africans the disease strives earlier, in Ghana our mean age is 43 years, in the developed world their mean age is 68years, Dr. Wiafe Addai said during a Breast Cancer and Health Screening exercise organized by the Eastern Regional branch of Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) in Collaboration with BCI.

She further stated that breast cancer remains the number one killer among women, urging that all women to regularly go for checkups to know their statuses.

She advised those diagnosed with the disease to seek early treatment to avoid any further escalations, adding that the youth must desist from bleaching, drinking alcohol, smoking and other sedentary lifestyles.

Breast cancer is the number one killer disease among women the World Over, so globally the disease is on the rise. Not Ghana alone so all our efforts are geared towards diagnose and for cure. Its only when we diagnose that we can talk about curing the disease, she asserted.He contends that the festivities mark the resurrection of Christ therefore any indecent exposure shouldn't be counternanced by the police.

READ ALSO: Paragliding festival kicks off in Kwahu

Kwahu is one of the places that many Ghanaians throng to enjoy the Easter festivities. The activities include the famous paragliding and musical concerts.

According to him, young girls consistently dressing shabbily at the Easter celebrations in Kwahu is gradually increasing teenage pregnancy amongst the youth of Kwahu and its environs and the earlier it is nibbed in the bud, the better for the future of the youth.The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) as a global human rights organization has a responsibility to assess how best to prevent human rights violations.

As such, it is right and fitting that it should look at one of the most disadvantaged groups of people in Ghana, often forced to live outside the law and denied their most basic human rights.

The Commissioner of CHRAJ Mr Joseph Whittal said "Prostitution could be regularized as done in different jurisdictions, we need to decriminalize it and find different ways of dealing with them."

Speaking at a forum organized by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Africa under the theme, 'Decriminalizing Poverty, Advocacy towards the Decriminalization of Petty Offences in Ghana', he said the rights of the prostitutes must be respected and protected.

"These laws were inherited from the colonial English Common laws and they are in our statutory books, times have changed and we need to remove them to avoid the incarceration of the vulnerable, who mostly commit these offenses out of need," he said.

He added that the system must be sanitized to accept the sex workers in the society.

"Why should we still keep people whose warrants have expired and those remanded and forgotten? CHRAJ should be allowed to look into these cases and free them to sanitize the system.

READ ALSO: Police arrest 18 suspected prostitutes at New Juabeng

"The rights of suspects and inmates should be respected and protected," he noted.

He however, called on government to recognise the works of the prostitutes and not criminalise their activity.Accra-based Starr FM reports that the wildlife officer was found dead with gunshot injuries.

He, however, refused to give further details on what actually transpired or led to the killing of the wildlife officer.

All I can tell you is to confirm what youve heard: a staff of the Park has been shot and killed by poachers, Mr. Umar told Starr News.

The body of the deceased has since been deposited at the morgue in the government hospital at Damongo, the West Gonja district capital.

The Mole national park is the largest in Ghana, with a host of creatures found inside the animal sanctuary.

The park also serves as a tourist site with people from far and near travelling to experience the adventure of watching the amazing creatures in the park.

READ ALSO:

However, the park has been plagued by poaches who normally come to steal elephants and antelopes.

Reports suggest that clashes between wildlife officers and poachers at the Park are common, with these clashes sometimes leading to casualties.The previous government cited challenges with the economy as their reason for scrapping the allowances.

However, in the lead up to the 2016 elections, then candidate Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) promised to restore the allowances if voted into power.

Indeed, the NPP government has delivered on its promise, and announced the restoration of the allowances during the reading of their first budget for the nation.

Each teacher trainee is expected to be given GHc 400 every month as allowance whiles they are in school.

The move has delighted the TTAG, who chose to show their appreciation to the President by honouring him with a plague.

At a colourful ceremony on Friday March 23, 2018 to mark the official launch of the restoration of the allowance, the leadership of TTAG thanked President Akufo-Addo for fulfilling his promise to restore their allowances.

The Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG) expresses its profound gratitude towards your immense contributions for the betterment of teacher education in Colleges of Education across the country, especially the restoration of the Teacher Trainees Allowance, reads a citation which accompanied the plague.

In view of this we present this citation to you and your government as a token of gratitude for prioritizing education as a major tool which will enhance quality education in general.

Generations will remember you for your effective role in quality teacher education.

May God bless you.

The President himself was not present at the ceremony, but the award was received on his behalf by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

Dr. Bawumia assured the students that the NPP government is committed to making the educational sector better for all Ghanaians.

This is another promise fulfilled. We have also restored Nursing trainee allowances, as promised. We promised to reduce electricity tarrifs, and we have done it. In the face of all the economic challenges, we still went ahead and introduced free senior high school education. We have had one year and three months of fulfilled promises, he said.

This is possible because we have prioritised education. We need a skilled workforce to transform this nation, and it can only be achieved with quality, enhanced education.Nana Addo promised a scandal free government. A government that will strife to uproot corruption to the barest minimum if not its entirety.

However, what we have seen so far since January 7, 2017 hasn't been entirely what was promised during campaigning for Election 2016.

Here are the top 5 scandals that have had Ghanaians reeling.

1. US Military Base Deal: The government of Ghana last week signed a pact with the US government that allows their military to have unfiltered access to military facilities in Ghana. That deal also entitles them to a tax waiver and no security clearance on any military equipment they ship to Ghana. Many Ghanaians have labelled the deal as bad and as an affront to Ghana's sovereignty.

2. BOST: Saga: The Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BOST) were accused of distributing contaminated oil on the market. The Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko formed an eight-member Committee to look into the saga in which the findings exonorated the CEO of BOST. However this scandal got Ghanaians talking a lot.

3. Bond Saga: The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta was accused by the minority in parliament for concealing his interests in the issuance of a $2.2 billion bond. The Minister denied any shady deal in the issuance of the bond but the opposition asked the President to sack him for conflict of interests. The Commission for Human Rights an Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) cleared the Minister after a petition was sent to it.

4. Cash-for-seat Saga: In January, the NDC MP for Asawase accused the Millennium Excellence Awards for selling seats to investors to be close to President Akufo-Addo during the Expatriates Business Awards. This accusation led to a parliamentary enquiry of the Minster of Trade and Industry and the Millennium Excellence Foundation.Op-ed: US must take all the consequences of inciting a trade war

A bag of American almonds sold in a supermarket in Beijing on Nov 20, 2012. [Photo/VCG]

Despite of strong warnings from all sides, US President Donald Trump incited a trade war by signing a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China and restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States on Thursday.

The memorandum is based on the so-called Section 301 investigation into alleged Chinese intellectual property and technology transfer practices, launched by the Trump administration in August 2017.

What the US did, in disregard of China's strengthened protection for intellectual property rights, the WTO rules and the calls from the business communities, is a typical act of unilateralism and trade protectionism.

The whole world is now saying no to this unreasonable decision as it damages the stability of China-US economic and trade ties, undermines global trade order, and jeopardizes the recovery of world economy.

A backfire is what the US side deserves for its reckless move. Under no circumstances will China sit idly and allow its legitimate rights and interests to be undermined.

Chinas Ministry of Commerce announced on Friday that it is considering higher tariffs for imported US products worth about $3 billion to balance losses caused by the US tariffs on steel and aluminum.

According to the announcement, the measures, or the suspension of tariff concessions, will target 128 US products, including pork, wine, and seamless steel tubes.

China does not hope to have a trade war with anyone, but is never afraid of it. China is fully prepared to firmly defend its legitimate interests, and also has the confidence and capability to cope with any challenge.

It must be figured out that the US side has to take all the consequences if the economic and trade ties between the two countries finally trapped in danger because of its own wilful actions.

As a major propeller of and contributor to an open global economy, as well as a guarder of free trade, China, even when dealing with the deliberate provocation from the US, has made a lot of efforts, showed great sincerity and put forward reasonable suggestions based on a principle of mutual respect and win-win cooperation.

However, Washington inclines to hasty and arbitrary choice, which will definitely result in Chinas follow-up backfire to safeguard its legitimate interests.

There is, indeed, a political force in US who completely turned a blind eye to the interests of US businesses and consumers, insisted that it can be a piece of cake for their country to win the trade war.

Such argument was strongly resisted by the academia, business, social organizations and the public of the US, who believe that the administrations unilateral move is not helpful in settling the problems of China-US trade, but hurts the US itself, since the US consumers and retailers will ultimately pay the bill for the chain reaction triggered by the tariff plan.

A trade war will not only drag down the US employment and disrupt its manufacturing sector, but also add uncertainties to the market and cost the livelihoods of US exporters.

In recent days, the US rash but complacent move has drawn mounting blames from the whole world. Finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20, in their recent-concluded ministerial meeting, voiced concerns that the US latest decision may incite a global trade war, and as a result hinder economic growth of the whole globe.

Taken together, Mr. Trumps actions demonstrate his resolve to turn away from a decades-long move toward open markets and integrated world economies and toward a more starkly protectionist approach that erects barriers around a Fortress America, the New York Times commented in a recent article.

The financial market voted no confidence to the wrong policies and moves of the US side as the US stock indexes have fallen following the signing of the memorandum.

It is predicable that the US latest move at the cost of shared interests of all countries will pose a series of threats to global trade order and world economy.

On one hand, the US irresponsible actions have shaken the market expectations and confidence, which can be evidenced by the sell-off in stock markets of Australian and Asian countries. On the other hand, its deviation from multilateralism will pose a threat to global economic governance.

Taking both China-US economic and trade ties as well as global landscape into consideration, the trade protectionism advocated by the US brings nothing but harm, and will never been accepted by the world. Those who lift a rock to attack others will only have their own toes squashed at last.

China urges the US to pull back the decision before it is too late and make a prudent and cautious decision, so as to avoid dragging bilateral economic and trade ties, global trade and world economy into crisis. The US should never underestimate Chinas resolution and capability to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.Speaking on 21 Minutes with KKB, Smith described the ex-President as untruthful.

He said, He [Rawlings] used to visit President Mahama to have coffee. I know that for a fact. When he arrives at President Mahamas residence in the morning, he is given preferential treatment because of who he [is] you know.

READ ALSO: Top 5 rants by Rawlings that we will forever remember

Mr Smith said Rawlings is untruthful if he says President Mahama didnt value or sought his counsel as someone who has been Head of State for a combined period of 19 years.

He bemoaned the attitude of the ex-President towards the own party he formed. Victor Smith said, "So we dont understand why he is doing this to us thats the why the NDC people should be asking him: why, why, why?The group, however called on him to limit his numerous travels. It said his travels doesn't add to the progress of Ghana.

Executive Secretary of ASEPA, Mensah Thompson, in a statement said he does not see how Nana Addo's presence at the ceremony adds to the development of the country.

Nana Addo, Nigerian Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and his wife Dolapo; the Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr Bill Gates, on Friday attended the wedding reception of Alhaji Aliko Dangotes daughter, Hajiya Fatima.

READ MORE: Here are the 23 billionaires in Africa

Prominent persons at the occasion included wife of the President, Hajiya Aisha Buhari; Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara; the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi; and others.

Fatima, is the daughter of billionaire businessman and Africas richest man, Aliko Dangote, while Jamil is the pilot son of former IGP, MD Abubakar.

But Mensah Thompson said "The President of Ghana seems to have a strong affinity towards airplanes. At the least opportunity he jumps on the next available aircraft embarking on needless trips that adds very little to our progress as a country. Within the past few months the President has visited close to ten countries with nothing to show for on these trips."

He, however, urged him to find solutions to the numerous problems faced by the country and halt the trips which are unproductive.

Below is the full statement:

WHAT WAS AKUFO ADDO DOING AT DANGOTE'S DAUGHTER'S WEDDING WHEN THERE ARE MORE PRESSING ISSUES IN THE COUNTRY THAT REQUIRES HIS ATTENTION

I am beginning to feel our dear country is in the hands of people who are on constant holiday.

The President of Ghana seems to have a strong affinity towards airplanes.

At the least opportunity he jumps on the next available aircraft embarking on needless trips that adds very little to our progress as a country.

Within the past few months the President has visited close to ten countries with nothing to show for on these trips.

What's more, government does not inform the people of the status of these trips or gives an update of the merits of these trips and what the President was up to whilst he was away and what our country gained from such trips.

I am beginning to feel the resources of this country is being expended heavily on the private comfort of the President in a needless "grandeurish" manner at the detriment of developmental issues confronting this nation.

Again within the past few months the number of credit facilities tabled before Parliament requiring approval runs into billions of cedis.

Last year alone over GHS 10 billion was borrowed and we have nothing to show for all these borrowed cash.

The public debt keeps rising and we have nothing to show for this accelerated debt accumulation profile.

Again I am beginning to feel we are borrowing to finance the extravagant lifestyle of our President and his 110 ministers.

Because, if you live in a country like mine with numerous challenges ranging from economic insecurity, to sanitation problems to huge infrastructural deficit, educational challenges and a host of other third world problems which a country that is 61 years old shouldn't be facing and your President has this strong affinity for aircrafts and luxurious hotels instead of the oval office for which he was voted to sit and solve the problems of the country then you know you are not far from a shithole especially when the media, the clergy and civil society seem not to have seen this worrying trend to keep the President in check.

Dangote's daughter could have gotten married in all prestige without the wobbling presence of Nana Akufo-Addo who seems to be everywhere except his office.

Unless Nana Akufo-Addo can show us any evidence of a lucrative business deal or a developmental project he got for the country or anything he added to the status of our country for being at Dangote's daughter's wedding then am afraid a well-wishing message could have just been enough gesture for the Dangote family.

This is the mediocrity we have been talking about all year long, I am sure Dangote had long list of business acquaintance who couldn't show because of more pressing issues.

Ghana is in dire need of leadership; our problems never stop growing....

Unfortunately the minds of those who are supposed to solve these problems keep dwindling.

I am not a soothsayer but if this is how our country is going to be governed for the next two years then I am afraid Ghanaians should brace themselves up for more hardship......He said the MPs likely to be shown the exit are new entrants and old MPs following Parliament's ratification of the controversial Defense Corporation Agreement between Ghana and the United States of America.

He said Ghanaians are not happy with the Majority for granting unrestricted access to a host of Ghanaian facilities and wide-ranging tax exemptions to the United States Military.

It gives tax exception to US military contractors and requires Ghana to provide the US with runway for US military operation.

"United States forces shall be responsible for the operation and maintenance, construction, and development costs of agreed facilities and areas provided for the exclusive use of United State: forces unless otherwise agreed," it said.

In return, the US will invest $20 million in the Ghana army and police service as well as host joint-military exercises together.

Interior Minister Ambrose Dery and Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul argued that the deal was in the best interest for the nation, citing growing terrorism in countries bordering Ghana.

Before the deal was passed, the minority stormed out of parliament.

Koku Anyidoho in an interview on Accra-based Adom FM, he said the NDC will move heaven on earth to ensure that the military agreement is rejected.He said he [Rawlings] attacked former President John Agyekum Kufuor, late Atta Mills and John Mahama in government but kept mute to attack the current President.

"Anytime he [Rawlings] gets the opportunity, he knocks Atta Mills, he knocks Kufuor, he knocks Mahama. The only person he is not hitting on in this current administration is the current President...he is in bed with him [Nana Addo]," he said.

Speaking on '21 Minutes with KKB', he said the relationship between Rawlings and the president hurts a lot of NDC members.He said it's too early for the men of God to say something on the deal.

I think it is early days yet, Im sure theyll come out at the appropriate time. Lets not forget that we live in an international community, therefore, we cant live in isolation, we help each other. As to whether the agreement is right or wrong, thats another thing. The debate will continue and well see the outcome by praying that every decision we take as a country should be to the benefit of our people."

READ ALSO: NDC MPs boycott approval of hosting US military

The deal has sparked a huge uproar in Ghana with many describing it as an affront on Ghana's sovereignty.She said she had been imprisoned and beaten, and could no longer bear the torment. She said she wanted to flee and join Choi in South Korea.

She said she would carry poison, to kill herself if she were captured.

For Choi, 63, a grandmother with large brown eyes and a steely fortitude, getting the rest of her family to South Korea was the most important thing left in life. She had fled North Korea 10 years ago. Her son had made it out too, as had her sisters daughter, now a hairdresser living near her in Seoul, the Souths capital.

Choi longed to be reunited with the sister, a 50-year-old dressmaker with her own home business, and also the nephew she had left behind. She wanted to get them to safety, out of the reach of the government that had arrested her husband, her brother-in-law and her son-in-law on suspicions of helping people leave. They had been targeted as enemies of the state and were never seen again.

One evening this past summer, Choi got the news she had been waiting for.

As she opened her apartment door, her niece, 25, shouted: My brother called. He said: We crossed the border. Were in China. Get the car.'

Choi, who must go by only her last name to protect her and her family against possible retribution from the North Korean government, was jubilant. But she and her niece felt a new anxiety.

Defectors usually leave North Korea by crossing into China. The border is tightly guarded by soldiers under the command of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, who views those trying to leave as traitors.

Once in China, defectors must rely on smugglers who charge extortionate rates to evade Chinese security and North Korean agents. Capture or betrayal could lead to prison, or worse.

They often make their way to Chinas southern border to seek passage to a third country, usually Thailand. From there, the South Korean government flies defectors to Seoul.

The attitude of the Chinese government makes the journey even more dangerous. Although Chinas relations with North Korea have soured, China pleases North Korea by detaining any defectors it finds and returning them to almost certain harsh imprisonment, and possible torture.

China has forcibly deported tens of thousands of North Koreans  a conservative estimate since there are no statistics available  and looks the other way when North Korean agents capture defectors inside its borders, according to the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

In total, around 30,000 North Koreans have made it to the South, where they are welcomed with free housing, inexpensive medical care and training for the cutthroat job market.

However, the passage has become more difficult since Kim became the Norths supreme leader in 2011. Last year, 1,127 North Koreans arrived in the South, just one-third of the annual number before he came to power.

China deports the North Koreans despite having signed a 1951 United Nations convention not to return refugees to countries where they will suffer persecution. The United States, the European Union, South Korea and the U.N. regularly ask China to stop such repatriations of defectors, whom they consider political refugees.

China has paid no heed. It says it views the North Koreans not as political refugees but as economic migrants seeking jobs. It says it sends them back because it cannot afford to have its depressed northeastern region destabilized by an influx of outsiders.

Choi and her niece faced an early hitch. The group of defectors was larger than they had expected. The sister and her son, 28, were joined by the sons girlfriend and two of his friends.

Now there were five people to move through China without attracting notice.

Choi and her niece phoned a South Korean man whom they had hired to handle the escape. Known in the smuggling business as a broker, he had arranged the nieces journey out of the North during less tense times five years earlier.

 The Perils of China

The group of five could hardly have picked a more precarious time to flee into China.

Chinese security was on high alert, searching for North Korean defectors. China was angry at South Korea for deploying a U.S. missile defense system, known as THAAD. The Chinese saw rounding up North Korean defectors who were heading to South Korea as a way to irritate the government of the Souths newly elected president, Moon Jae-in.

At the same time, Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, was pressing an anti-corruption campaign that was making Chinese officials much less amenable to the bribes often offered by brokers to release North Koreans arrested at the border.

Making it to South Korea depended on the skill and reliability of the broker.

Choi and her niece had paid the broker an advance fee of $13,000, most of it earned by the sale of the nieces apartment in Seoul. The broker hired by Choi and her niece was rusty at the job, and greedy. Instead of handling the sisters journey himself, he subcontracted the case to a North Korean woman in Seoul who was married to a Chinese man. The husband, in turn, hired a relative in China to pick up the group in a van after they sneaked across the border.

The relative was then supposed to drive them to Shenyang, a city in northeastern China that is often used by North Korean defectors as a base before heading south.

 Lost on the Border

The Yalu River separates China and North Korea. The river is low in the summer. The sisters group waded across.

Once across, they got lost in the woods. For two days, they wandered along the wild eastern edge of China in hills above the town of Changbai, looking for the driver.Finally, the North Koreans found their way out of the woods. The driver located them at 2 a.m. on the edge of Changbai.

Her nephew phoned. Were saved. Were going to live, he said.

The last word came from the group came at 10 a.m., when they were approaching their destination.

Then there was silence.

At first, the broker in Seoul and his subcontractor, the North Korean woman, could not explain what had happened. We are looking for them, the woman told Choi.

Soon, the woman provided an explanation: The five had been taken hostage.

Several days later, she changed her story: They must have been arrested.

More money would be needed for their release.

Carrying a wad of cash, the subcontractor jumped on a plane to Changbai, where she thought the group was being held.

The North Korean woman who went searching for the group in China returned empty-handed.

Word seeped out from North Korea that photographs of the five had appeared on a municipal notice board in their hometown  a sign that they were dead.

Rumors circulated in the defector community that five bodies had been returned to North Korea. But there was no concrete evidence, no photographs of the bodies.

 Unsolved Mystery

The Foreign Ministry in Seoul said it had asked China about the fate of Chois sister and her four companions. In this case, China did not reply.

Asked about the case, Chinas foreign ministry in Beijing repeated its standard line: that China treated fleeing North Koreans as illegal migrants who were dealt with according to international and domestic laws, and sometimes humanitarian considerations.A senior ministry official refused to accept copies of the photographs of the missing five, or to inquire about them at the Chinese detention centers along the border.

Human Rights Watch said that what little information it had suggested that the five had killed themselves. But there was no definitive proof, a spokesman said.

What does Choi think happened?

My niece and I believe my sister and her son took their lives, she said. But its not clear whether all five killed themselves.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.That speaks as much to the relative strength of Orbans base as it does to his gerrymandering and his allies takeover of most private news outlets.

But its also because Hungarys gaggle of small left-liberal opposition parties, who collectively form a majority in seats like this one, refuse to join forces behind a unity candidate.

This has enraged voters whose frustrations with Orban outweigh their support for any particular opposition politician.

Its just mind-boggling, said Anna Lengyel, a theater director living in Budapest 1, who does not want her vote to go to waste. The opposition candidates are standing in front of the mirror and forgetting what the real issue is, Lengyel added.

It is a familiar complaint in parliamentary districts, or constituencies, across the country, where a narrow majority of voters want Orban out of office, but have no single party to rally behind.

According to an analysis by Common Country, a prominent grass-roots group that has led calls for the opposition to team up, a highly coordinated opposition might even scrape together a majority. But a disjointed opposition will most likely again allow Fidesz to win two-thirds of parliamentary seats on less than half the votes.

People really want to get rid of Fidesz, said Marton Gulyas, the head of Common Country. The problem is that there is no one strong opposition party.

Polling by Common Country suggests that if the half-dozen left-liberal parties ran under one banner in Budapest 1, they would receive around 54 percent of the vote against Fideszs 36 percent, even without involving Jobbik, a far-right opposition party. But most of the parties are squabbling about who gets to carry that banner  resulting in a confusing mess.

Another issue is that few on the left want to join forces with Jobbik, whose leader, Gabor Vona, has recently attempted to rebrand it as a more moderate force.

I dont know what Jobbiks real face is, said Ferenc Gyurcsany, a former prime minister and the leader of the Democratic Coalition, a small center-left party. The moderate face of Mr. Vona  or his deputy, who said a few months ago that he wanted to shoot Ferenc Gyurcsany in the head?

A recent mayoral by-election in Hodmezovasarhely, in southern Hungary, showed what could be achieved if all opposition parties, including Jobbik, rallied behind one candidate.

Hodmezovasarhely (pronounced HOD-may-zur-vash-ar-hay) was a Fidesz stronghold, and polls strongly suggested that the party would retain the seat. But after all the opposition parties agreed to stand aside in favor of Peter Marki-Zay, an independent conservative, a strong turnout gave Marki-Zay an unexpectedly strong victory over his Fidesz opponent.

The moral of the Hodmezovasarhely victory is that if there is one candidate against Fidesz, its possible to win, Marki-Zay said in a telephone interview. But if the opposition is split and theres no hope, people wont even bother voting.

Yet in some key battleground seats in urban areas, polling suggests that a united liberal-left opposition may still defeat Fidesz without Jobbiks support. And one of those is Budapest 1  an oddly drawn parliamentary district that straddles the Danube and contains many of the citys most famous landmarks, including the national Parliament.

Gyurcsanys party has pulled out of the race, as has Peter Juhasz, the leader of Together, a small liberal party. That leaves Andras Fekete-Gyor, the leader of Momentum, a new centrist party; and Antal Csardi, a senior figure within Politics Can Be Different, another young centrist party. Both men are polling between 7 percent and 10 percent  far behind Marta Szakaly, who represents a pair of socialist parties, and is at 19 percent.

Szakaly says that she should be the unity candidate, since she clearly has the most support. But Fekete-Gyor and Csardi have refused to budge.

Thats partly out of pride. Fekete-Gyor and Csardi are leaders within their respective parties, and believe they are too senior to leave the race. Its also because of money. The more seats in which a party runs, the more state funding it receives.

But its mainly a symptom of the same political dynamic that brought Fidesz to power eight years ago. Fidesz won a landslide victory in 2010 because of the perceived incompetence and arrogance of the old left-wing politicians  people like Gyurcsany and parties like the Socialists. In an attempt to re-energize the left, new parties emerged  like those of Fekete-Gyor and Csardi.

And both say they should not concede to the groups that let Fidesz into power in the first place. The way I see it, said Csardi, these old left-wing parties neither morally or ethically have a place in Parliament.

But though the oppositions disunity is a major reason for their recent failures, their main obstacles remain the ones created by Orban himself. Most contentiously, Fidesz rewrote the map of political districts in 2011. An analysis by Political Capital, a think tank, suggested that left-leaning constituencies now contain an average of 5,000 more voters than right-leaning ones  making it harder for left-wing parties to win.

Andras Patyi, the head of the Hungarian Electoral Commission, insists, There are no gerrymandered constituencies in Hungary.

But for the opposition, there are plenty of strangely shaped new districts, and Budapest 1 is one of the best examples. It is one of the few constituencies in a major European city that stretches across a major waterway  adding a conservative-leaning district on the western bank of the Danube to a more balanced area on the other side of the wide river.

Its very weird, said Szakaly. It could be considered one of the most strangely crafted constituencies in the country.

In tandem, opposition parties quickly found it far harder to get their message into the news media. State broadcasters almost stopped giving airtime to opposition parties, while Orbans allies began buying private media outlets to reduce the oppositions exposure within the independent sector. All regional newspapers are now under the control of businessmen favorable to Orban.

In rural Hungary, if you dont use the internet, youre basically living in a governing-party media bubble, said Andras Biro-Nagy, a politics lecturer at Corvinus University of Budapest.

Nominally independent state auditors also appeared to act in a way that favored Fidesz. In late 2017, they fined five opposition parties for allegedly accepting illegal donations. Fidesz was left untouched  despite being linked to numerous corruption scandals.

Small tweaks to the electoral system also produced large disadvantages for the opposition.

Under the old two-round system, the top two parties in a constituency would face each other in a runoff  allowing smaller opposition parties to run independently in the first round, before rallying around a single candidate in the second. In 2011, Fidesz condensed the process to a single vote, creating the opposition infighting currently on show in constituencies like Budapest 1.

But with 10 days to go, a compromise is still possible, as the candidates themselves admit.

We will see what will happen, Fekete-Gyor said. I can imagine that some of the candidates might withdraw.

He added, Including me.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.You will be shocked to find out the 19 people President Muhammadu Buhari has been following on Twitter since he took over the reigns of power as Nigeria's 6th elected President.

After joining the social media platform in 2014 during his campaign for office, Buhari had not been the most vibrant President on Twitter.

Though Buhari follows just 19 Twitter users, they range from politicians to writers, African presidents and human rights activists as well his critics.

Roll Call of 19 people Buhari follows on Twitter

African Presidents

Dr John Magufuli

@MagufuliJP is the Fifth President of The United Republic of Tanzania.

Macky SALL

@Macky_Sall is the President of the Republique du Senegal.

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

@aguribfakim is the 6th President of the Republic of Mauritius.

Paul Kagame

@PaulKagame is the President of the Republic of Rwanda.

Aides

Garba Shehu

@GarShehu is the official Spokesperson to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Buhari. Shehu is the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity and he has been battling both political and social critics of the president since 2015.

Kayode Fayemi

@kfayemi is one of the aides of President Buhari. He currently occupies the position of the Minister, Solid Minerals Development in Nigeria.

Government of Nigeria

@AsoRock is the account for the activities of the Federal Government of Nigeria as handled by the Secretary to the Government of Nigeria, Boss Mustapha.

Tolu Ogunlesi

@toluogunlesi is a new media expert hired by President Muhammadu Buhari to oversee his Digital Communications as the President of Nigeria as well as the Government of Nigeria.

Politicians

Prof Yemi Osinbajo

@ProfOsinbajo is the Vice President of Nigeria. A legal luminary, who seems to have been tasked by his boss to find ways of continuously re-jigging the Nigerian economy, is another individual whom President Buhari retweets some of his tweets.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu

@AsiwajuTinubu is the former Governor of Lagos State, Nigeria. A Democrat, who has remained the voice of true Federalism, Tinubu is the National Leader of the ruling party, All Progressives Congress, APC.

Bukola Saraki

@bukolasaraki is the Nigerian Senate President and Chairman of the 8th National Assembly, Federal Republic of Nigeria. He is known to have consistently won the heart of the populace with his ability to embrace the new media when most politicians and even the President are grappling with the social media platforms.

Atiku Abubakar

@atiku is the Waziri Adamawa and former Vice President of Nigeria. A dad, businessman and philanthropist, this politician is one of the most possible contender against President Buhari in the 2019 presidential election.

Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai

@elrufai is the governor of Kaduna State. A member of The All Progressives Congress Board of Trustees and one of the most vocal and smart Nigerian politician.

New Media experts

Kayode Ogundamisi

@ogundamisi is a producer and host of the show, PolitrickswithKO. A commentator on Nigeria & Inter-Politics and a strictly anti-Corruption campaigner, Kayode is known for his tweets that critics the government policies and corrupt practices.

Adebola Williams

@DebolaLagos is a young media mogul, whose political communication agency, State Craft Inc, has helped three presidential candidates in Africa to election victory.

Critics

Oby Ezekwesili

@obyezeks is one of President Buhari's major critics. A fiercely passionate believer in the public good of nations, serving before leading. A front runner in the campaign for the Bring Back Our Girls group, Oby was a former minister under ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Gyada Ibn Gyada

@Satundee is a humble man who believes in Change. He is an entrepreneur and an introvert with a staunch believe in Allah.

Lola Shoneyin

@lolashoneyin is a writer, director of Ake Festival and founder of Book Buzz Nigeria. Lola is @BookBuzzNG. Nigerian. British. Giver. Fighter. Custard-lover. Mosquito-slayer.According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the clash was caused by alleged mobile phone theft by a student who was allegedly lynched.

Friends of the victim decided to retaliate, leading to a fracas that almost turned into a religious clash before the intervention of security agents.

When contacted, the Information Officer of the Polytechnic, Mr Albert Mathilah, confirmed the incident and said the institution would soon issue its position on the matter.

Normalcy has been restored and things are going on normally in the school. We will soon issue a statement on the incident, Mathilah said.

Also, the spokesman of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Suleiman Baba, said the corpse had deployed its men when the crisis started around 2 a.m.

Things are under control. I am still waiting for the details before I can tell you what really happened or numbers of casualties, Baba said.

FUTY shut down over blasphemy

Recall that Federal University of Technology, Yola was shut down in February following a clash between Muslim and Christian students.

The riot which started on the evening of Sunday, February 4, 2018, was said to have been triggered by a blasphemous statement a Christian student, Dave Wanjez made on Whatsapp about prophet Muhammad.

ALSO READ:University shut down as Muslim and Christian students clash

It was reported that allegedly referred to prophet Muhammad a rapist in a WhatsApp message as a rapist.According to the reports, Ribiero along with other Catholic clergymen, were arrested on Monday, March 26, 2018.

They are reported to have stolen about 2 million reais ($608,000) from the church.

During a raid of the Ribiero's home by police officers, a false wall was discovered containing some 19, 200 wrapped in plastic bags and hidden in a secret storage space.

The money was allegedly stolen over the course of a three-year period from tithes, donations, fund raising events as well as fees collected for ceremonies like baptisms and weddings.

State prosecutors disclosed that the bishop who was appointed to the Formosa diocese in 2014, was arrested on the suspicion of leading a sophisticated scheme that diverted church funds.

An alleged scheme was uncovered with the help of telephone taps, uncovering conversations which revealed how the group laundered the money, including purchasing a cattle ranch, a lottery agency, phones, luxury cars, designer watches and gold chains.

The reports reveal that large amounts of cash in foreign currencies were also discovered.Ambassador Masood Khalid and Chinese Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs Mr. Han Changfu during the recital of national anthems

A grand reception was held in Beijing to celebrate the 78th Pakistan Day and the 67th anniversary of establishment of Pakistan - China diplomatic relations by the Embassy of Pakistan on 23rd March, 2018.

The reception was attended by a large number of guests including members of Pakistani community, diplomatic corps, media representatives and Chinese dignitaries. Mr. Han Changfu, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs was the chief guest on the occasion.

Welcoming the guests, Ambassador Masood Khalid said that Pakistan Day is celebrated every year on 23rd March to pay homage to the founders of Pakistan as on this day, Lahore Resolution was adopted which heralded the struggle for attainment of Pakistan.

Ambassador said that leaders of both Pakistan & China have worked selflessly to convert the existing friendship into a strong political and economic co-operation based on mutual benefit and shared prosperity.

Cake cutting ceremony

Chief guest Mr. Han Changfu extended warm congratulations on behalf of the Chinese Government on the 78th anniversary of the passing of Pakistan Resolution. He termed Pakistan as Chinas only all-weather friend and strategic partner and said that China would continue to give priority to China-Pakistan relations. He lauded not only Pakistans positive role in multilateral organizations like UN and OIC but also the enormous sacrifices Pakistan has made in the fight against terrorism.

A cake cutting ceremony took place wherein the Ambassador, Chief Guest and other dignitaries cut the cake.

The Pakistan Day Reception witnessed an entertaining performance from Mr. Shahbaz Abdullah and Mr. Haroon Shad, two eminent pianists from Pakistan who played Pakistani, Chinese and Western tunes. The guests enjoyed the music and applauded the skill of the artists.

Other dignitaries included Major General Li Chunhao, Deputy Chief of Staff, PLA Air Force and Mr. Rashid Alimov, Secretary General, SCO.

(Source: Embassy of Pakistan)He reportedly committed the offence on a ride from Akure to Ile-Ife, the Osun State capital. The suspect timed the sexual assault after dropping off all his passengers except the victim.

The Daily Post News reported that the collected a sum of N4000, a handset and iPad belonging to the student.

Policemen were able to recover the items following a search at the residence of Saheed aged 35 years old.

A search warrant was executed in his house. A flash drive with the iPad cover of the student were also recovered.

He has confessed to the crime and blamed his action on the devil. We will soon charge him to court," police spokesperson Femi Joseph confirmed in a statement.

ALSO READ: Teen raped by Imam offered to him in marriage

Father, young son jointly rape little daughter

In Calabar, Cross River State, a man and his young son have been tied with chains based on an allegation of rape of little daughter.

A Facebook user, Kijiejake Jacob Ochang, made this known in a post.

He explained that the shocking sexual abuse occurred when the girl's mother was away from home. The suspects were apprehended and have been delivered to the police according to the Linda Ikeji's Blog (LIB).

"A woman and a son join and rape a daughter in the absence of wife," writes Ochang.

Pictures which accompanied the post showed the pair tied by the wrist with chains clipped to truck-sized tyres.According to the reports, the suspect reportedly cut the leg of the 36-year-old accused of the sordid act.

Human right activist, Prince Gwamnishu, who shared the account on social media, revealed that the dad allegedly caught the suspect inserting his finger into his babys private part.

The enraged man attacked the suspect with a machete and was later arrested for his pain while the suspect has been hospitalised and is currently receiving treatment.

The dad confessed to attacking the suspect out of annoyance and pleaded that the charge of defilement filed against the suspect, be withdrawn, allowing him to regain his freedom.

3-months-old baby sexually assaulted by mother

In the US, a 19-year-old mother, Jazmine Nichole Pacyga, who resided in Muskegon, Michigan was arrested by the state police for sexually assaulting her three-month-old son.

Pacyga, who is a second time offender confessed to making a recording of the act with the intent to use it as child pornography, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services(MDHHS) alleged.

The offender committed the crime at her residence on Sunday, February 5, 2017 according to a report by Mlive News.

She is now being held at the Muskegon County Jail where she is awaiting trial for two charges of felony.

The serial offender has also been stripped of her parental rights while the infant is under the care of the MDHHS.

ALSO READ: Police parade 2 men who raped woman inside mosque

Timothy Maat, the Muskegon County Chief Assistant Prosecutor confirmed Pacyga as a habitual offender who already has felony home invasion to her credit.The clip, shared via Twitter on Monday, March 26, 2018, revealed a man who assumed a thrusting position in a bid to penetrate the animal.

"Herdsman seen having s*x with one of his cows, today, at Kubwa, Abuja," reads a tweet by Instablogja which also included a footage of the shocking incident.

ALSO READ: Teenager commits suicide after being caught having sex with goat

15-yr-old teenage boy arrested for sleeping with goat

The police in Niger State, Nigeria, have apprehended a teenage boy, Kabiru Idi, for having sex with a goat.

His arrest was aided by a secret information offered to the law enforcement agents. The Daily Post News reported that the suspect had engaged in the act twice so far.

Babalola Adewole, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Niger State Police Command confirmed the authenticity of the report.

He stated that Idi who is from the Bosso Local Government Area of the state will be charged to court as soon as investigations are completed.

The PRO also reaffirmed the police commitment to fighting crime in Niger state. The suspect would be charged to court upon conclusion of investigations," he said.

Meanwhile, we will not relent in the fight against crime in the state until perpetrators are brought to book. We are determined to make Niger State crime-free.

ALSO READ: Married father of 6 caught having sex with goat

Just like homosexuality, sexual intercourse with animals has been another trend of immorality facing Nigeria.The tweet was put out to the community regarding the community member's contribution around a personal tragedy to the website:

The contribution stated that the contributor's wife had been raped by armed robbers in his presence. He asked us to publish his story on our platform and share anonymously with our community. He shared it to get feedback and advice on how he and his family could emotionally and mentally move on and to be supported by the community. We have done so in the past.

Now, this Pulse social platform team tried to involve the community on Twitter in this sensitive topic in 2018, which we see as more prevalent and important than ever.

We despise rape, sexual abuse and violence against women. We want to use our platform and want to communicate with our followers to be a contributor in the fight against them. We would never condone it.

However, the aforementioned question around the contributor's personal tragedy was posted on Twitter WITHOUT the important context of the contribution - and most importantly it did not at all help the cause and was insensitive. For this we as a full platform and team apologize - to you the community and every woman and man who felt personally offended. We will work hard that this mistake and failure to the community never happens again.'ALSO READ:Woman proclaims love for her brother

According to the reports, the Ezeibekwes from Agba community in Ekwulobia, Aguata LGA of Anambra State, also cancelled the controversial marriage between the two siblings, declaring it null and void.

Punch reports that the priest, who read from 1 Peter 24:2 of the Bible, warned against incest, saying, This issue does not concern only the family of Lewis, it concerns the entire Ekwulobia. We are in a world that has disintegrated. This cleansing is important for all of us and the entire country.

"We are here to make reparation for the sin that is already rampant in our society. I am particularly touched by this boy, Chiadi. When I came to Ekwulobia, I met him as a boy yearning for the things of God. "He was the leader of the block rosary group but here we are today. When I heard the story, I was taken aback. Only God knows what happened.

Prior to the commencement of the service, eight members of the Ezeibekwe family reportedly knelt down before the traditional ruler, traditional prime minister and elders of the community and apologised to the entire Agba Ekwulobia clan.

What we did was wrong and an abomination to our community. I feel pained in my heart.

"I did not do it because I was hungry for a woman or attracted to my sister. I apologise to everyone. I am very sorry for bringing all of you out here under the sun. Please forgive us.

Punch also reports that seven girls said to be virgins, dressed in white, used seven palm frond branches to sweep the Ezeibekwe compound following the cleansing rites.

ALSO READ: Man arrested for raping daughter

According to the reports, angry youths burned down the church where the brother and sister were reportedly wedded.

The Sabbath church was reportedly located in the teachers compound.

At the time, the traditional prime minister, Gabriel Ezeukwu, said the angry youths had initially considered subjecting the couple to rituals as punishment.The victim identified as Esther Theophilus reportedly travelled to India in July 2014 for a kidney transplant but got stranded there as the person who promised the transplant was part of a kidney racket group which was disbanded by the police.

HT reports that the victim had been waiting for a kidney donor for almost four years prior to her trip.

ALSO READ:Nigerian Internet fraudster arrested for duping woman in India

According to the reports, her stay in India soon became illegal as she failed to get herself registered with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) due to her poor health condition.

She revealed that she had arrived in Delhi in July 2014 and first visited a private hospital for treatment, but could not receive treatment there.

However, a stranger suggested that she go to Mumbai where she would find a donor.

Unfortunately, months passed and Theophilus was unable to find a donor.

I came across a person who assured me a kidney and demanded $50,000. I didnt have so much money, so I kept looking for a generous donor but never found one, said Theophilus.

Theophilus later discovered that the person she had paid for a kidney was probably part of one the many kidney racket group busted by the police in the country.

Police sources revealed that she lost a huge amount to the fraudster.

During her prolonged stay in India, the victim's diabetic mother passed away while she awaited her daughter's return.

With the hope of seeing her mother one last time, Theophilus approached the Mumbai police to aid her return to Nigeria.

She said, My experience in India had been awful, especially the lengthy medical and legal systems. But unlike others, the police were very polite. They didnt victimise me.

However, the police reportedly found it difficult to process her request, seeing as she has been living in the country illegally for four years.

ALSO READ:Nigerian man nabbed in India for defrauding 90 people via online lottery scam

Thankfully, the police assisted in her application for (exit certificate) on humanitarian grounds since her family had not yet buried her mother.

Theophilus was finally issued an exit permit on Thursday and flew out on Friday morning, March 23, 2018.

Reports have revealed that a major kidney racket was busted in citys Hiranandani hospital, in the last quarter of the 2016.In recent years, a new genre called magical realism has gained a foothold in the literary scene. It has been described as a form of narrative fiction that expresses a vivid view of the world while adding magical elements.

In Nigeria, the dense catalogue of our native religions is filled with magical stories and rich narratives that would interest any reader in todays world.

ALSO READ: Tomi Adeyemi says we need a fantasy book featuring black girls every month

With the full weight of their rich and extensive culture behind them, a number of Nigerian authors are blazing the trail in magical realism and taking Nigerias witchcraft to the world.

Meet them.

(1) Tomi Adeyemi:

The Nigerian-American Authors first book, Children of Blood and Bone, which has been described as the biggest fantasy debut novel of 2018, has made its first appearance atop the New York Times Bestsellers list.

The Harvard graduate studied English Literature before leaving for Brazil to study West African culture and mythology, where she says, the seeds for her debut were sown.

In the book, a young female protagonist, Zelie Adebola who is a fishermans daughter is joined by an unlikely band of allies to fight a monarchy and return magic to her home country of Orisha.

Although it is only her first book, Tomi has already inked a massive deal that will see her release two more instalments in the trilogy.

(2) Nnedi Okoroafor:

Mention magical realism in an empty room and it may just whisper Nnedis name back to you. The Nigerian-born writer is the cream of the crop.

After turning to writing short stories while she battled complications from a surgery in her teens, Nnedi gradually honed her creative writing skills, winning the Hurston Prize in 2002 for her story, Amphibious Green.

Her greatest works, however, are "Who Fears Death" which won the World Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel and the Binti Trilogy. Nnedi uses traditional Nigerian customs and spiritual concepts to tell stories of freedom, confidence and identity that often have young female African protagonists.

ALSO READ: Marvel is giving the Chibok girls their own Superhero

In recent years, Nnedis works have made the transition to comics and the small screen. In July 2017, she announced via Twitter that Who Fears Death was picked up by HBO to become a TV series with novelist and Game of Thrones producer, George R.R. Martin, joining the project as an executive producer.

She has also written for Marvels Black Panther series and Venomverse.

(3) Tochi Onyebuchi:

Tochis resume makes it seem like he was and still is an academic athlete. The Nigerian-born author holds a Bachelor of Arts from Yale, an MFA in Screenwriting from Tisch, a Masters degree in Global Economic Law from Linstitut d tudes politiques, and a JD from Columbia Law School. Scary huh?

Add to that the fact that he now works in the tech industry. When he puts pen to paper, however, Tochis works recall a reality in a tone as vivid as any memory of it can be.

ALSO READ: 5 influential Nigerian female authors worthy of recognition

In his first book, Beasts Made of the Night, which was described as Unforgettable in its darkness, inequality, and magic, Tochi creates a busy market city inspired by his Nigerian heritage and populates it with a group of outcast kids who shoulder the sins of the rich and powerful.

The central character is a young boy, Taj, who is a member of a clan indentured by the citys elite to consume the sins of others.The former Defence Minister has asked Nigerians to be alert and defend your country, defend your territory, defend your state from what he calls ethnic cleansing that may be so bad that it will cause Somalia to be a childs play

Speaking on Saturday, March 24, 2018, at the maiden convocation of Taraba State University, Danjuma said, [The armed forces] are no longer neutral, there is a need for Nigerians to rise up and defend the country, defend the state and defend yourselves."

If you depend on the armed forces to stop the killings you will all die one by one. The Nigeria armed forces are not neutral.

His statements were met by sighs of resignation, mixed with loud applause and approval from the universitys students and staff.

Its easy to see why; over the course of the last three years, every Nigerian has been introduced to a new foe. Whether you get your news on the TL or from the TV, suspected Fulani herdsmen has become part of our vocabulary.

Are the herdsmen a tribal militia or foreign terrorists?

Killings and pillaging by this group have grown from a largely Northern concern to a national issue.

This year, persons suspected to be Fulani herdsmen have killed the traditional ruler of the states Karmen community, killed four persons in Ngutsen village, and killed another 55 persons in LauCommunity, in three separate attacks.

Theophilus Danjuma hails from Takum, one of the major towns in Taraba State. No doubt as an elder and former Minister of Defence, he would have been privy to these events and the extent of the casualties more than, say, Efe in Lagos who spends all his time on his mobile phone.

Efe may not know what these villages look like, but hes probably aware that the attacks have been consistent, and that the government has been slow to respond, almost to the point of being dismissive at times.

Efe has probably heard or read somewhere, possibly on Twitter, that this sounds too much like ethnic cleansing.

Theophilus Danjumas statements echo the sentiments that many already have; that, with the largest population of any tribe and a history of holding senior positions of power, there is something more serious afoot.

Calling the army into question only served to confirm most peoples fears.

While tales of bravery abound, there are also reports that some of the suspected herdsmen move around with escorts and armed security personnel from the armed forces.

Then, theres the issue of whos talking.

There are certain names you hear growing up that you learn to respect or fear; Theophilus Danjuma is one of them.

It is why the tone of the message is even more serious given that Danjuma is the one raising these concerns.

He is seen as one of the stakeholders of Nigeria's most important period, first as an ally to military leaders and later as a member of ruling councils.

Why then is he, now, calling people of Taraba and the nation at large to arms?

The reactions on social media have mainly revolved around his nearly militant calls for people to protect themselves so they dont die one by one.

There are those who believe he is being treasonous and, like Nnamdi Kanu, should be arrested.

They would do well to throw that optimistic wish out of their minds. If there is one thing weve learned in the past few years, its that Nigerian law is a respecter of persons.

On the other hand, the more sceptical section of the crowd believes it is merely another ruse of the elite to distract us from the myriad of serious issues at hand.

Whichever way they see it, the people are talking, on the streets and on social media and theres the problem.

The more we consider its validity and the true motives, the more we grant credence to these statements and begin to consider whether we should actually protect ourselves.

What could be understood as the ramblings of a vocal member of the political class are now being interpreted as a warning that they will soon pick the official date for the start of the civil war.

That in itself is alarming because as time has revealed, the sentiment can often be more dangerous than the actual act.

Calling for people to arm themselves against a war happening is usually how war begins.

Weve seen examples in Rwanda, in Sudan and even here at home.

And Nigeria is a peculiar case; the one time, we went to war against each other, it was completely tribal.

We should not forget Biafra so quickly

Nigeria's first two military coups, the Kaduna pogroms, Murtala Mohammeds abrasive actions after the Kaduna Pogroms including seizing control of Lagos Airport and the Easts stockpiling of weapons in 66 led both sides to be wary of each other.

When both sides met at Aburi in Ghana, the suspicion was the bedrock of their deliberations and consequently, their inability to trust or reconcile left each party resigned to the eventuality of a war they had already been preparing for.

That war lasted over 31 months and saw what many commentators have already called a systemic genocide of the Igbos.

The scars of that war are still fresh in our minds and for our eyes to see; millions of young Nigerians who were not born in those years still carry that sentiment.

And as we say with the rise of IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu, are ready to act on it given the right opportunity or reason.

Warning people to protect themselves only heightens anxiety and suspicion; it creates an environment where individuals and communities are wary of one another and of insurgents.

When these attacks do happen, the communities will be protected but the risk of violence and reprisal attacks is much higher.

It creates an atmosphere where other tribes are hostile to Fulani herdsmen and Fulani people in general. When both sides feel threatened and arm themselves, a tiny spark is enough to incite the bloodletting.

Theophilus Danjumas statements were reckless, simple.

Its sad to say it but it is the people who were not lucky enough to attend Taraba State Universitys first convocation who are most likely to suffer the immediate effects of this.

Already, there are reports that a community in Taraba has been attacked by vandals and hoodlums with photos depicting huts being razed to the ground.But sometime around the 15th century, angered and disgruntled with the monarchy of the then reigning Oba, there began a mass departure from the Benin Kingdom by this tribe who first encamped at the Obadan/Okphiaghamen Community.

The settlement was about 30 miles away from Benin City.

However, it was common in those days for the Oba to give chase to his fleeing subjects in other to bring them back to his dominion.

Confronting this possibility, the fleeing people of Etsako decided to go beyond the Oba's reach. They left their encampment of 13 years and went further into the hinterland to settled at Aviele, which is today Etsako West local government area.

Also known as the KUKURUKUS, a name derived from the Kukuruku Hills which was a defence barricade for the people during the inter-tribal wars and the historical Nupe invasion, the people of Etsako are part of the Afemais:

A nationality that comprises of the Akoko Edos, the Owans and the Etsako people.

It is important to note that for a long time the Etsako people were integral with Akoko Edo and Owan. And so it was until the urge for greater autonomy led to another exodus; thereby splitting the community into various segments as they migrated to different directions from the Aviele.

Nevertheless, the biggest group of this community remained together. They are the Etsako nation of today. And despite the division, they still hold on strongly to the spirit of oneness.

These are the twelve autonomous clans in Etsako.

Another interesting thing about the Etsako people is their name. Literally, Etsako means 'people who have chopped off their teeth'.

Customarily, it is expected of men who married young women to inflict some bodily mark as a means of identification.

This they did by chopping off part of their incisor with either a knife or a chisel. Though it wasn't a painless procedure. The thought that it bespoke of their status as virgins made them love it.

Occupation

With 60% population of farmers, farming is the predominant occupation of the Etsako people. However, the presence of water also creates room for fishermen.

There are also hunters as well as specialist blacksmiths.

Hard work is largely intrinsic to their tradition. And such is their love for it that it is said a lazy man should not be found in their midst.

Be that as it may, with globalisation and it's influence, there is a steady decline in such vocations, as more and more of the Etsako people seek out white collar jobs.

Belief

Before the advent of Christianity and Islam, the Etsako people were originally practitioners of the African traditional religion.

But with the arrival of the missionaries, many got converted to those religions, this accounted for why Christianity is predominant in this region followed by a large concentration of Muslims mostly in the Auchi, Agbede and the Okpella axis.

It is important to note that with the coming of westernization, a greater part of Etsako has become one of the most vital commercial hubs in Edo state.In "Seki", the acting by members of the community on the open, exposed stage displays a vigorous freedom, as well as a proud display of heritage and independence in their accepted norms of behaviour.

Seki holds its own in a very Royal Court way. In that, people ought to consider whether they are ready for the culture shock, the masquerades, colourfully dressed royalties and rigorous dancing.

Really, we should have expected nothing else from Yibo Koko and Bolanle Austin Peters as they collaborated on smashing sensibilities with this play.

The narrative stems from the vault of the oral tradition and predominantly the pantheons of the Ijaws. This play focuses on two fishermen who became stupefied by the weird, unusual, admix of mysterious sights and drumbeats of the gods. They, the protagonist, abandon their initial pursuit and mobilize the community to narrate their unique experience at sea and in the process present a parody of a re-enacment to the amazement of the locals.

Then the audience was treated to a colourful parade of masquerades, beautiful maidens, skillful drumming and intelligent acting.

It is critical to state that as a pantomimic dramatized dance, the narration by the fishermen borrows exclusively from comic spirit in that, the fishermen in recounting their experience at sea, had conflicting perspectives. Laughter is evoke through deliberate exaggeration, stupidity, skewed expressions and body language.

However, I do not agree with Yibo Koko on tracing the American Tap dance to the Lower Niger Delta area of Nigeria with Seki. Americans never claimed ownership of tap dancing rather it all started with the African slaves working on plantations.

The early slave trade in America resulted in a rhythmic collision of cultures. In which, slaveholders already fearful of revolt, began to panic when it was discovered that Africans could communicate with each other in code through the use of drums and other native instruments. Africans held on to their traditional rhythms by transferring them to their feet. The skill of tapping out complex rhythmic passages was widely developed, and a subtle, intricate and vital physical code of expression was born.

By the mid-nineteenth century, African Americans had combined their footwork with Irish and British clogging steps to create a style called "Buck and Wing," which would eventually become Modern Tap Dance.

Not to digress into history so much, the play, "Seki" involves a dance drama originally created in 1998 as Owu-Amapu-Ti in Atlanta, Georgia. The play is a collaborative rhythmic agreement of dance patterns of different ceremonial dance groups predominantly from the Okirika, Kalabari, Bonny and Ikwerre ethnic groups in the Lower Niger Delta Area of Rivers State, Nigeria.BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) -- In speculation over future development of China-U.S. trade relations after U.S. President Donald Trump's signing of a memorandum to impose heavy tariffs on Chinese imports, the U.S. side should be aware that arrogance is no way leading to good business.

Despite risks of harming interests of China and the United States itself, Trump on Thursday signed the executive memorandum that could result in heavy tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China as well as harsher restrictions on Chinese investments.

Meanwhile, Trump also announced a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum earlier this month, triggering global criticism on his trade bullying move.

The trade protectionist policies adopted by Washington have severely violated basic trade rules built by the international community in the past several decades, and were also ruining the international image and status of the world's biggest economy.

China and the United States are each other's key trade partners. After decades of cooperation, they are no longer able to draw a clear line between their interests.

Despite competition, the two economies are remarkably complementary to each other and their relationship has been seen as a story of mutual benefit.

China has always advocated win-win cooperation and negotiated settlement of disputes. However, it will never remain silent when its rights and interests are damaged by other countries.

China has prepared and has the strength to safeguard national interests, but it also hopes that both sides could remain rational and work together to preserve the broad picture of China-U.S. economic and trade relations.

In recent years, China has promoted the development of its economic strength and technological advantages to a new level. With an optimized industrial structure, an enhanced economic resilience and a broader space for macroeconomic policies, China is not afraid of engaging in a trade war.

With a huge domestic market and a complete system of industry, China is capable of taking counter measures against hostilities.

Even so, China still underlines that it prefers to settle disputes through dialogue and consultation.

As the two largest economies in the world, China and the United States will never benefit from a trade war that may devastate global economic stability.

It is hardly avoidable for any two countries to have conflict of interests in doing business, compliance with trade rules and launching dialogue and exchange of opinions will be the only right way to solve disputes in trade.

Washington should take Beijing's stance seriously and do not be penny wise and pound foolish, which will hurt itself and others as well.

Related:

Chinese vice premier urges U.S. to maintain stability of bilateral trade

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu He had a phone conversation with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Saturday morning, urging concerted efforts to maintain the stability of China-U.S. trade ties.

During their conversation, Mnuchin briefed the Chinese side on the latest development of Section 301 investigation report released by the U.S. side. Full story

Commentary: Chinese economy resilient enough to cope with trade war

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- History tells that trade wars are a losing game. No one benefits, and everyone ends up a bit bruised.

Despite the risk of triggering a trade war, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum that could result in heavy tariffs on up to 60-billion-U.S.-dollar imports from China as well as restrictions on Chinese investments. Full story

China to take all necessary countermeasures against possible trade war: Chinese ambassador to U.S.

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Xinhua) -- China opposes trade protectionism and will fight against any possible trade war, said Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai in a TV interview with U.S. Bloomberg on Friday.

Cui said the Chinese side is clearly against any unilateral protectionist moves and a trade war, which "would hurt everybody, including the United States itself, and that would certainly hurt the daily life of the American middle-class people, the American companies and the financial market." Full story

China will fight to the end in any trade war: Foreign Ministry

BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday reaffirmed its position on recent U.S. trade moves, saying that China will fight to the end in any trade war.

Hua Chunying said at a daily news briefing that China urges the United States to make cautious decisions. Full story1. All-star guest list

Having had a ceremony in Kano the previous week, the decision to bring the party to Lagos is arguably for the purpose of actually having a society wedding and shutting it down in proper fashion - the bulging guest list, sparkling with stars, attests to this!

undefinedFrom Omotola Jalade Ekeinde who celebrated her 22nd wedding anniversary few days ago, to Genevieve Nnaji, Mo Abudu, Dr Sid and his wife Simi Esiri who was part of the bridesmaids; Bovi,Seyi Law, Omawunmi, Waje, Debola Lagos, DJ Cuppy; Politicians, VP Yemi Osinbajo , President Muhammadu Buhari was not there but his wife, Aisha was there, as was Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Femi Otedola, Dino Melaye,Senator Ademola Adeleke and a host of others.

2. Bill Gates

There were guests at the ceremony, and then there was Bill Gates; the world's richest man, gracing the occasion with his presence, too.

undefined3. Performances

With superstars, Davido, Wizkid, Alibaba, King Sunny Ade, Bovi,Timi Dakolo, Omawunmi,Seyi Law and other top entertainers attending the ceremony, of course the performances at the wedding ceremony had to be top notch.

4. Dancing senators

With Senator Ademola Adeleke present at the party that had huge party-makers like Davido and KSA, it was only a matter of time before his famed dance steps came to the fore and he did not disappoint!

ALSO READ:Fatima Dangote stuns at her bridal shower

The dancing senator had an accomplice this time, though. He was joined by the famous singing senator, Dino Melaye.

The pair did their thing during King Sunny Ade's performance.

5. Rolex as souvenirs

Guests reportedly got genuine rolex watches as souvenirs at the Lagos wedding party. That's at least $5000 on each one, because according to Daddy Freeze, a watch enthusiast, that's how much the cheapest Rolex costs.

Recall that at the reception of their first ceremony, the couple also reportedly gave guests luxurious, colourful boxes as souvenirs.

6. This romantic AF pre-wedding clip

Fatima also got the sweetest, most heartfelt, romantic video dedicated to her by her groom Jamil Abubakar, ahead of thelavish ceremony and the whole of the one-minute montage is really one of the cutest, most stirring, things you'll ever see someone in love do.

7. There was also this picture!

Oh, if you thought Fatima is all prim and without any funny bone in her body, the picture below will change your mind!

There she is in the middle with a playful, tongue-out pose alongside her excited groom, and their super-stoked bridal party!

And oh, can you see that bridesmaid with the Wakanda pose?

Class, charm, affluence, fairytale, romance, fun parties, celebrities, society's most elite, love, life and everything in between... really what's there to not love about #Famil2018?The event which started on Monday, March 26 will run until tomorrow, March 27, 2018, with an award ceremony.

With its chosen theme, "African Champions: Powering Competitiveness", the AFRICA CEO FORUM 2018 aims to enable its participants to formulate action plans for the transformation of the continent's large companies.

The forum is expected to have more than 1,200 key figures and decision makers from industry, finance and politics from 60 countries in attendance.

Nigerian participants who will be sharing their experiences and the Nigerian perspective at the two-day event include Group Chief Executive, Oando PLC Wale Tinubu, alongside other executives from the company; former President Olusegun Obasanjo; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BUA Group Alhaji Abudulsalam Rabiu; President, Africa Development Bank Akinwunmi Adesina; Chief Executive Officer, Citi Nigeria Akin Dawodu.

Leaders of economies including George Weah, President, Liberia; Emmerson Mnangagwa, President, Zimbabwe; Nana Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana will be speaking at the Doing Business in their specific countries sessions designed to give deeper insights into doing business in the various countries they govern.

In his open remarks, the Zimbabwean president, Emmerson Mnangagwa said his government is ready to eliminate all forms of investment restrictions and open for business as Zimbabwe is ready to contribute to food security in Africa.

We stand ready to share our knowledge. Zimbabwe is now open for business as its strategies to build a new and prosperous country. Together we can build our great continent. Let us be listening presidents

We would like to take a place in the family of nations. I invite you to come invest in Zimbabwe, we would like to increase gender equality in leadership positions. My government will strive to eliminate all investment restrictions."

"There is an increasing need to expand our ICT infrastructure to adapt to the world today

Our country can contribute to food security on our continent," Mnangagwa concluded.

Nana Akufo-Addo, Ghanaian president, in his welcome speech, said Africa is home to the worlds fastest-growing region for foreign direct investment.

"With Africas population set to reach 2 billion in 20 years time, there are many opportunities to bring prosperity to our continent through hard work and innovation. We have the youngest, most vibrant population of any of the regions of the world.

In its sixth consecutive year, the Forum will also award African executives whose strategies and performance have contributed most to the momentum of Africas growth over the past year.

The shortlisted top executives for the Africa CEO award are Jim Ovia founder and Chairman of Zenith Bank Plc and Abdulsamad Rabiu, Founder and Chairman, BUA Group.

Others are James Mwangi, CEO, Equity Bank, Mohamed El-Kettani, CEO, Attijariwafa Bank, Kate Kanyi Tometi Fotso, CEO, Telcar Cocoa, Strive Masiyiwa, Founder and Chairman, Econet Group and Nadia Fettah, MD, Saham Finances.The Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr Maikanti Baru said at some point, about 700 breaches were recorded on the pipeline, a situation that has hampered efficient supply and distribution of petroleum products not only in the state but in the entire South-East region.

Dr Baru stated this when he paid a courtesy call on the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, at the Government House, Enugu on Thursday.

The GMD explained that even after the Aba-Enugu pipeline was repaired, it still had to be shut down as the corporation hardly gets up to 50% of the products pumped.

He described Enugu Depot as a major NNPC supply and distribution infrastructure in the entire South-East region which requires the support of all stakeholders bring back to life.

According to the GMD, the Osisioma and Nsirimo areas (both in Abia State), as well as Ishiagwu (Ebonyi State), were the major vandalism flash points along the line where illegal connections for diversion of products had been observed almost on a daily basis.

He, therefore, called on the governor to rally his counterparts in the region to work with the NNPC and security agencies to secure the strategic pipeline, which he said would go a long way in reviving efficient supply and distribution of petroleum products in the area.

This depot is not only strategic to the South East, it also serves as a bridge to Makurdi Depot in the North Central as well as the Yola Depot in the North East, he noted.

The GMD also charged the governor to collaborate with relevant government agencies to enforce the sale of petrol at filling stations in the state at the government-regulated price of N145.

You wouldnt want to watch as unpatriotic marketers profiteer over your innocent citizens. We still believe marketers anywhere in this country can make a profit selling at the official pump price, Baru added.

Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu state governor, assured the GMD that he would rally other governors from the region to ensure that the Aba-Enugu pipeline is secured from the unwholesome activities of vandals.

Describing the GMDs visit as timely, Governor Ugwuanyi said he was now better informed as to why the Enugu Depot was not in operation.

He assured that the Enugu State Task Force on Petroleum Products would work with NNPC officials and relevant security agencies to ascertain the exact incident spots with a view to securing the pipeline.Called Tele-Health Initiative the state governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, announced while featuring on News Agency Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja that the product was ready and would be launched in a few weeks.

I want to say to Nigerians that in Abia we are going to launch in a few weeks times, our Tele-Health Initiative, Dial a Doc Initiative.

It is a prepaid card that gives you access to a medical doctor irrespective of where you are and who you are.

It will be useful and handy for our students, for our aged parents and indeed, for everybody.

And, it will deepen health care delivery service because we have successfully linked our Primary Health Care Centres to a call centre where doctors are prepared to speak in vernacular.

You have a choice to either speak to a female or male doctor.

That is where we are today in health in Abia, he said.

The governor also said that the government was harnessing the revenue potential of other sectors of the states economy to ensure that no resource area was untapped.

According to him, the state has a huge limestone deposit in Arochukwu that can service cement factories in the country.

Ikpeazu further said that the Long Juju site also in Arochukwu could serve as a tourist attraction, adding that his administration was developing road infrastructure for easy access to such resources across the state.

Apart from the Long Juju in Arochukwu for tourism, there is huge limestone deposit in Arochukwu that can sustain the biggest cement factory in this country.

First, you must create a short route to Arochukwu and we are doing that through the bridge that we built called Okobo Bridge.

We need to create easy and shorter routes to Arochukwu from the state capital before we can talk of tourism.

Our strategy is to first of all maximise the revenue potential that we have in our area of strength which is leather, garment and fabrication, he said.The UN had on March 2, suspended aid operations and withdrew its workers from Rann after a March 1 attack by suspected Boko Haram terrorists, who killed eight persons, including three aid workers, and abducted a nurse.

However, UN aid workers have not yet been authorised to stay overnight in Rann, and daily operations are expected to continue until security conditions are met by the Nigerian authorities.

The UN and partners are providing life-saving emergency assistance in Rann including food, shelter and medicine to over 80,000 women, children and men, among them 55,000 internally displaced people.

The World Food Programme is planning to distribute food to at least 61,000 people this month.

Pre-positioning of food is also key ahead of the rainy season, which starts in June, cutting off road access to Rann, the UN said on Friday.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the closed door meeting started at about 8.20 p.m at the new Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.

NAN gathered that the meeting would deliberate on reports on review of APC Constitution and consideration of report on True Federalism as well as other matters.

Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state chaired the APC Committee on true federalism and the committee submitted its report in October 2017.

The committee looked at 12 issues including merging of states, fiscal federalism and devolution of power.

The meeting is attended by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, the APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, and other members of the National Working Committee.According to Vanguard, they were in Abuja for the conferment of the First Black History Month National Black Excellence and Exceptional African Leadership Award 2018 at the Council Chambers.

Buhari inaugurates Food Council

Also, Buhari inaugurated the with a pledge to develop new programmes that would create more jobs in the agricultural sector.

Speaking during the inauguration, the President pledged that his administration would remain focused in securing the nations food requirements and employment for the people especially the youths.The President also signed the Instrument of Ratification of the Agreement between the Nigeria and Singapore for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and Capital Gains.

Mr Femi Adesina, the Presidents Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, who made this known in a statement in Abuja on Monday, said the signing of the instruments followed the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

The first one is the Instrument of Ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Government of the Republic of Singapore for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and Capital Gains.

ALSO READ:Buhari insists he will not relent until Leah Sharibu is free

The other was the Instrument of Ratification of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) among the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the Swiss Federal Council and the International Development Association on the Return, Monitoring and Management of Illegally-Acquired Assets Confiscated by Switzerland and to be restituted to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.The Kogi police command recently alleged that two suspected criminals made confessional statements indicting Melaye.

According to the police, the criminals said that the Senator gave them weapons and also financed their operations.

Melaye had earlier written a petition to the United Nations and envoys of some countries, alleging that his life is under threat from certain political enemies, including the Kogi state Governor.

Prove yourself

Kingsley Fanwo, the Governors spokesman, asked Melaye to prove that he is innocent.

Fanwo also said that Bello has no hand in Melayes case with the police.

According to Daily Post, he said He should face the issue and leave the governor out of the issues surrounding his face off with the police.

The governor is a law-abiding citizen of Nigeria who would not involve himself in such criminality, home or abroad. No organisation has ever indicted the governor of such crime. He has respect for human life.

What has the governor got to do with that? Criminals were nabbed by the police and those criminals disclosed the persons behind the supply of arms to them.

ALSO READ: Dino Melaye denies fleeing Nigeria over criminal conspiracy allegations

The simple thing to do here is for him to prove his case and leave the governor out of it. On our part as a government, we are pleased that our anti-crime efforts are yielding fruits.

Yahaya Bello is committed to ensuring the safety of all Kogi residents. That is his primary responsibility to the people of the state.

He has also commended the police for arresting criminals that were disturbing the peace of the state. Dino should rather face the law. The governor has nothing to do with his travails.We must resist it (). We must stop it. Every one of us must rise up. The armed forces are not neutral. They collude with the armed bandits that kill people. Kill Nigerians, Danjuma said, occasionally punctuating his remarks with a nervy silence.

Soldiers, Danjuma said, facilitate the sinister movement of killer herdsmen. They cover them. If you are depending you will all die one by one.

The ethnic cleansing must stop in Taraba State, must stop in all the States of Nigeria otherwise Somalia will be a childs play.

I ask every one of you to be alert and defend your country. Defend your territory, defend your State. You have nowhere else to go. God bless our country.

Emotions

It was an emotion laden speech from Danjuma. The rest of the country has been parsing all that was said by the former Minister of Defence and former Chief of Army Staff. And rightly so.

Like Olusegun Obasanjo, Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalami Abubakar, Danjumas comments on what goes on in the barracks and around our nation, shouldnt be taken lightly. Their words carry weight.

Now 79 years of age, Danjuma has been around since Nigerias independence. He has taken part in coups and counter-coups. He has led sorties to battle as a former General.

He has oil wells to his name and has submerged his hands in that proverbial cookie jar. So when he accuses the army of taking sides with the killer herdsmen, he should know what hes talking about. His experience on matters of this nature should certainly hand him an edge.

And I suggest that President Muhammadu Buhari and his team investigate if truly the army has been facilitating the activities of the killer herdsmen and providing them cover. Those are grave allegations that shouldnt be swept under the carpet.

Reckless

When herdsmen kill brazenly like they've been doing across Nigeria, there's always the temptation to resort to an emotionally charged speech like Danjuma's. That's understandable.

However, I dont agree with Danjuma when he calls upon citizens to rise and defend themselves. Its a call to anarchy. It is a reckless call. For a country dealing with all kinds of gunmen and security challenges everywhere you turn, the last thing an elder statesman should be doing is adding gasoline to a raging inferno by asking folks to rise up and defend themselves.

Don't get it twisted--there's nothing wrong with self-defense. But when reprisal attacks are couched as self defense, we could all get into trouble. When speeches seek to inflame passions, we shoot ourselves in the foot.

For all their noticeable flaws, the job of defending the country is that of the military, police and other security outfits. If everyone heeds Danjumas call and rises up in arms against the next man, well be burning this country to the ground in days.

What we should be doing is reforming relevant and constitutionally empowered security institutions charged with keeping us safe; and passing them tips.

Once a soldier, always a soldier, they say. You would think that Danjuma who spent most of his life in the army, would be the last person dragging and publicly shaming an institution that gave him everything. But here we are. You would think that Danjuma who has supervised soldiers as a civilian and in an army uniform, wont be dissing his boys out in the yard and hanging them out to drythat there would be other ways Danjuma would pass on information to the army rank and file without calling for civil disobedience.These are trying times for the all-important China-U.S. relationship after Washington recklessly lit the wick of trade war against China, setting the stage for some potentially big clashes in the foreseeable future.

On March 22, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum targeting Chinas economic aggression. Based on the results of the so-called Section 301 investigation, the Trump Administration plans to impose large-scale tariffs on goods imported from China as well as restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States.

The move was a stubborn act of unilateralism and protectionism. To reach its conclusion, the United States ignored Chinas efforts to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, ignored WTO rules, and ignored the vast majority of industry voices. A trade war prompted by U.S. protectionism would not only put the stability of China-U.S. relations in jeopardy, but also threaten to undermine the global trading system and derail the global economic recovery.

At a time of rising protectionism and anti-globalization sentiment, the facts show that China is fighting hard to keep globalization going so as to steer the world toward a bright future.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has stated, economic globalization has become an irreversible trend, and in a trade war, no one wins.

Pursuing protectionism is like locking oneself in a dark room. While wind and rain may be kept outside, that dark room will also block light and air. No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war, President Xi Jinping said in Davos last year.

China does not want a trade war with the United States, but it would be wrong to assume that China would sit idly by while countries undermine its legitimate rights and interests. If relations between the worlds two largest economies fall into peril, the United States only has itself to blame.

The belief in Washington that trade wars are good, and easy to win, is a slap in the face to American companies and consumers. There has been no shortage of warnings about getting into a trade war with China, which would not only fail to resolve the underlying issues in the bilateral trade relationship, but also harm American consumers and the American economy itself.

Criticism of Washingtons reckless ignorance has been loud and clear. At a recent meeting of G20 finance ministers, a large majority of participants expressed concerns about the potential for a global trade war triggered by the Trump Administration. And the New York Times said, Mr. Trumps actions demonstrate his resolve to turn away from a decades-long move toward open markets and integrated world economies and toward a more starkly protectionist approach that erects barriers around a Fortress America.

Washingtons irresponsibility and turn toward protectionism are moving the world closer to chaos. Despite differences and challenges in the bilateral relationship, China and the United States need each other and the world needs both of them. For its part, China has signaled that it remains committed to building an open world economy that benefits all, but it would be a mistake to underestimate Chinas determination and ability to defend its legitimate interests.

Related reading:

China fears no trade war: experts

US creates very bad precedent to break rules of global multilateral trade: expertSpeaking during a convocation ceremony of the Taraba State University which held on Saturday, March 24, 2018, Danjuma said the army has been far from neutral in the battle against the herdsmen; who have been on a killing spree across Nigeria.

The armed forces are not neutral, they collude with the armed bandits. They facilitate their movement; they cover them. We must resist it, we must stop it. Everyone of us must rise.

If you are depending on the armed forces to stop the killings, you will die one by one. This ethnic cleansing must stop in Taraba State. It must stop in all the states of Nigeria, otherwise Somalia would be a childs play, Danjuma had said.

Anarchy

However, Defence Minister Muhammed Dan-Ali says Danjumas call to arms was an invitation to anarchy.

A recent comment by one of the nations elder statesman, alleging that the Nigerian military colludes with bandits to kill people and, therefore, calling on them to rise and defend themselves outside constitutional provisions, is highly uncalled for and is an invitation to anarchy and should be disregarded by well-meaning Nigerians, the Defence minister said in a statement.

The efforts of the Nigerian Armed Forces towards restoration of peace, security and order in Nigeria continue to receive appreciation for changing the security environment from what it was before.

The Nigerian Armed Forces is well organized and highly professional in discharging its constitutional mandate.

Therefore, if anyone has evidence of wrongdoings or dereliction of duty against our troops, he should please bring forward such evidence through appropriate channels for necessary action.

For avoidance of doubt, the military will not be distracted from performing its statutory duties in accordance with the rules of engagement.

Unfortunate

The

The Nigerian Army views this statement made by the former Chief of Army Staff as most unfortunate at this critical time that the military has embarked upon demilitarisation of the North Central Region of the country, a statement from the army read.The former president took to his Facebook page on Sunday, March 25, 2018, to allege the plot, maintaining that he'll remain resolute and hope that the truth prevails.

He wrote, "It has been brought to my attention that while I am away promoting democracy in Sierra Leone, a campaign will be unleashed against me to falsely impugn my name using both faceless and identified persons.

"When I was in power I said my ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian. Even out of power, I continue to hold that belief.

"What I will say however, is that no matter how far and fast falsehood has traveled, it must eventually be overtaken by truth."

Corruption and manipulation

The former president has recently been in the news most notably for corruption during his tenure and attempted election manipulation during his reelection campaign in 2015.

While speaking on Monday, March 19, 2018, during the 7th presidential quarterly business forum in Abuja, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo accused the Jonathan administration of withdrawing N150billion from the federation account just days before the 2015 election.

He said, "In one single transaction, a few weeks to the 2015 elections, sums of N100billion and $295million were just frittered away by a few."

The former president responded to the allegations through his former aide, Reno Omokri, saying that the Vice President should provide proof.

"On this most recent allegation, let me state categorically that Jonathan did not share N150 billion two weeks to the 2015 election. If Osinbajo has proof that Jonathan did so, then we challenge him to publish his proof," Omokri said.

In new revelations that emerged last week, The Guardian UK revealed that an unnamed Nigerian billionaire paid 2m to a foreign data company called to influence the vote for Jonathan.

Cambridge Analytica staff were flown to Nigeria, Israeli hackers were hired to break into then-opponent Muhammadu Buhari's emails to exhume his financial and medical records. Staff were also handed videos put together to scare voters in Buhari's stronghold of the north.

The Cambridge Analytica team were lodged in a hotel in Abuja a few weeks to the presidential election and worked on a communications campaign for Jonathan.

The Israeli intelligence operatives who worked with Cambridge Analytica during this period claimed that France and Israel wanted Jonathan to win the presidential election.A statement signed by Mrs Henrietta Yakubu, General Manager, Corporate Affairs, FAAN, in Lagos on Monday, quoted Sirika as making the disclosure at the 2018 AVSEC Retreat in Katsina.

Sirika said discussion was at its final stage for approval, noting that it would further strengthen the integrity of the airports in view of the growing threats to the aviation industry.

The Federal Government has approved for AVSEC to bear arms, which is a notable achievement in this administrations effort at improving the general safety of its citizenry and passengers passing through our airports, he said.

The minister, who was represented by the Rector, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) Zaria, Capt. Mohammed Abdulsalami, said arming AVSEC would ensure proper policing of the sector.

He noted that rebranding of AVSEC was important towards making its personnel more professional and customer-friendly to meet up with the initiative of the Ease of Doing Business.

Sirika said some foreign investors had shown interest in the countrys growing and expanding aviation industry, stressing that aviation security was seen as a pivotal tool to sustaining safety in all the airports.

The United Nations decision to establish two aviation security training colleges in the country is another notable achievement of the present administration.

This is aimed at assisting not only in the war against terrorism, but to also provide a special class of professionally trained AVSEC unit through the training of 30 selected aviation security master trainers that will in turn train others, he said.

Sirika said that the certification of FAAN training centre by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) could not be over emphasised as it would further strengthen and boost the capacity and technical know how of aviation security personnel in the country.

The Managing Director of FAAN, Mr Saleh Dunoma, was quoted as saying that the authority was investing in aviation to create enabling environment that would encourage efficiency in tackling emerging security threats to civil aviation.

Dunoma disclosed that FAAN recently bought 10 additional patrol vehicles to boost the current fleet of vehicles for effective coverage and patrol.

He said additional screening machines were also procured and old ones replaced at the airports.

The managing director said that the agency had successfully recruited and trained over 230 AVSEC officers.

He said the management and the ministry were poised to equip the AVSEC directorate to enable them discharge their responsibilities effectively and efficiently.

Dunoma called for total commitment, determination and cooperation by all to achieve their desired objectives, both for FAAN, aviation industry and the entire nation.

He urged them to put in their best and respond to all emerging threats in timely manner, while constantly reviewing and upgrading their system holistically.

Dunoma expressed optimism that the retreat would renew their determination, commitment and zeal to achieve the onerous task of enhancing the security of the travelling public.

He charged them to also protect the facilities that government had invested huge funds to provide at the airports.

The Director of Security Services, FAAN, Capt. USA Sadiq, noted that the industry was at a critical juncture in global aviation, where terrorism was assuming a new dimension.Alhaji Mohammadu Auwal, the Chief Imam of Keffi Central Mosque, who presided over the funeral prayer, prayed God to grant the deceased eternal rest.

Lawal, who was born in 1954, died at the age of 64 in Turkish Hospital, Abuja at about 4:30 a.m., on March 25. He left behind two wives and six children.

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with Nasarawa State over the death which he described as a great loss to to the nation.

Buhari, in a statement signed by Garba Shehu, his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, described Lawals death as a personal loss.

Lawal was a very strong pillar in the politics of Nasarawa State. He made a lot of sacrifices toward a better Nigeria and will always be remembered positively, Buhari said.

Nasarawa governor Tanko Almakura, who also expressed shock at the demise of Lawal, said that he would be sorely missed by all well-meaning people of the state.

Today is a day of grief for all Nasarawa State residents. We have lost a very critical stakeholder and our prominent voice at the national level.

This loss is irreplaceable; it is irreparable and difficult to live with. Our consolation is that he lived a life worthy of emulation by all, he said.

Also speaking, Alhaji Usman Jibrin, Minister of State for Environment, described the death as a great loss to Nigeria considering Lawals contribution to national growth.

Dr. Mohammed Lawal, the late ministers immediate younger brother, described his brothers death as a big loss to the family, Nasarawea State and Nigeria at large.Danjuma had earlier noted that the country's security apparatus has been compromised.

The retired General also said that the army has failed in its responsibility to secure the country from attacks and accusing the military of bias.

Danjuma said this on Saturday, March 24, 2018, while speaking at the maiden convocation of Taraba State University.

Igbo youths vow to resist any form of Islamisation

The OYC President, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro has urged youths in the South-Eastern region to resist any form of Islamisation.

Isiguzoro also threatened that any armed herdsman found in the South-East will be severely dealt with.

He said it has been our earlier stand; we have been calling for self-defence; so, today we are re-echoing that stand.

Danjuma has justified the position of Ohanaeze Youths worldwide, we will resist any attempt to forcefully Islamize our people; the herdsmen militia, we are ready to resist them.

Like Danjuma clearly pointed out, there seems to be a serious collaboration between the security agencies and these herdsmen. It appears there are two laws in this country- one for the Igbos and another for the Hausa-Fulani.

How else will one justify the recent statements in the media that the government was considering amnesty for the Boko Haram terrorists? It is shocking; it is unthinkable. This is the same government that hurriedly branded the IPOB as a terrorist organization, but same government is not courting internationally acclaimed terrorists.

So, nobody should expect that Ndigbo would fold their arms and these killer herdsmen come here and achieve their evil agenda. We shall resist it with the last drop of our blood.

We have enough men and youths that will resist them before they get into the Atlantic; we urge more Nigerians to speak up; we are proud of some governors in the South-East who have come up to defend the course of Ndigbo.

We have no arms anywhere but Ndigbo are emergency specialists; we have our own way of fighting our battles without rockets and guns. We repeat, it shall be fire for fire.Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, disclosed this in Lagos at a media briefing to give update and clarifications on the release of the schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe state.

The minister said there were no conspiracy theories as to how the insurgents were able to return the schoolgirls to Dapchi un-attacked despite troops presence.

Unknown to many, we have been in wider cessation-of-hostility talks with the insurgents for some time now, he said.

The talks helped to secure the release of the police officers wives and the University of Maiduguri lecturers recently. And the talks did not stop thereafter.

Therefore, we were able to leverage on the wider talks when the Dapchi girls were abducted.

As I said earlier, the insurgents decided to return the girls to where they picked them from as a goodwill gesture.

All they demanded was a ceasefire that will grant them a safe corridor to drop the girls. This is not new.

Even in larger war situations, safe corridors are usually created for humanitarian and other purposes.

Consequently, a week-long ceasefire was declared, starting from Monday, March 19. That is why the insurgents were able to drop the girls.

This counters the conspiracy theories being propounded in some quarters concerning why it was so easy for the insurgents to drop off the girls without being attacked by the military.

No ransom

The minister nor swapped any Boko Haram member to secure the release of the girls.

This is a fact, irrespective of how a section of the press has tried to spin the story, he said.

The insurgents brought the girls back to the location of the kidnapping themselves as an apparent gesture of goodwill.

This follows relentless efforts by the Government to find long-lasting solutions to the conflict.

He recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed all security agencies to do everything possible to bring the girls back unharmed.Speaking during the inauguration, the President pledged that his administration would remain focused in securing the nations food requirements and employment for the people especially the youths.

According to him, the countrys exploitation of critical job-creating sectors which have been ignored for decades is beginning to yield results as his administration has introduced the National Social Investment Programme.

We shall also develop new programmes and projects that will protect and indeed, create more jobs in farming, fisheries, animal husbandry and forestry.

As we all know, land is used for farming, grazing and forestry, water is used for irrigation, livestock sustenance and fishing.

Therefore, any strategy for land and water management must take into account the inter-connectivity of all these key sectors to ensure equity and sustainability.

We will also not lose sight of the other issues that will impact our food production ambitions such as population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation, Rural Infrastructure Development and Climate Change.

These factors will also stress and stretch our land and water resources.

This means we must invest in research and development to enhance yields and outputs.

The president added that his administration had launched agricultural programmes focusing on import substitution, job creation and rural development thereby bringing socio-economic transformation to the millions of citizens living in some of the most remote rural parts of our country.

He said: We commenced the long term Pollution Remediation Projects in the Niger Delta with the hope of restoring dignity and normalcy to the millions of Nigerians impacted by decades of pollution in their communities.

Fishing and farming will resume once blighted areas are rehabilitated.

We intensified our participation in the Lake Chad Basin Commission with the goal of reversing the shrinkage of the lake, which impacts the livelihoods of over 45 million farmers, herdsmen and fishermen in the LCBC countries.

We issued the first ever green bond that will act as a catalyst for investments in renewable energy and afforestation projects. This was oversubscribed, sharing market confidence in the country and our Government.

We established the Agro Rangers Unit within the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to protect the billions of naira of investments recorded in Nigerias agricultural sector across the country.

President Buhari stated that the Federal Government had continued to equip the Nigerian Navy and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency to fight maritime criminals such as pirates and sea robbers who adversely impact offshore and inland fishing activities in the waters.

He, therefore, expressed the hope that these programmes if sustained, would transform the lives of millions of Nigerians across the country.

We are well aware that the full results will not be felt or seen overnight. The journey is long.

It is therefore our collective duty to ensure the actual and potential positive impacts of these programs are sustained, improved and expanded, he said.

According to the president, a key mandate of the food security council is to continuously assess and enhance these infant but impactful programmes thereby guaranteeing they achieve their full potential.

Gov. Bagudu Atiku of Kebbi state, who would serve as the deputy chairman of the Council, highlighted some of the benefits of the council.He lauded the president for creating the council which he said would go a long way in addressing the nations food challenges.Gov. Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos state also expressed the support of State Chief Executives to address food security challenges in the country.Lawal, who was born in 1954, died at the age of 64 in Turkish Hospital, Abuja, at 4:30 a.m., on Sunday.

The presidents condolence message is contained in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja on Sunday night.

Shehu said that Buhari was represented at the burial of the deceased by a delegation led by the Minister of State for Environment, Malam Ibrahim Jibril.

He said that the president, who described the demise of the strong political ally as painful, noted that the late statesman was a strong pillar of support in Nasarawa State and the entire North-Central Geopolitical Zone.

I was shocked to hear of the passing on of Dr Lawal. He will be missed by thousands of people whom he had assisted in one way or the other.

His role in politics and the development of his community, state and nation will remain an inspiration for other political actors.

My condolences to his family, close associates and the people of Nasarawa State, Shehu quoted the president as saying.

According to him, the presidential delegation to the burial included Sarki Abba and Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistants and Amb. Lawal Kazaure, the State House Chief of Protocol.

Gov. Umaru Tanko Almakura of Nasarawa State, who received the government delegation at the palace of the Emir of Keffi, Dr Shehu Chindo Yamusa, thanked Buhari for sharing the moment of grief with the people of the state, according to Shehu.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the late Lawal served as the Minister of Works and Housing, Minister of Labour and Productivity and Minister of Health during the Umaru YarAdua/Goodluck Jonathan administrations.On Monday, March 19, 2018, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo accused Jonathan and his men of moving N150 billion out of the treasury in one day.

In Osinbajos words: "In one single transaction, a few weeks to the 2015 elections, sums of N100billion and $295million were just frittered away by a few.

"Nobody should talk about the economy when you have this kind of huge leakages and huge corruption. Corruption that completely makes nonsense of even what you are allocating to capital projects.

We saw from the presentation of the minister of finance that N14 billion was spent on agriculture in 2014, transportation N15 billion, so the total spent on infrastructure in those three years were N153 billion and in two weeks before the elections, N150 billion was essentially shared.

"So, if your total infrastructure spending is N150 billion and you can share N153 billion, that is completely incredible. That sort of thing doesnt happen anywhere else in the world. And when we are talking about the economy, we must simply understand that that is the problem."

Proof

After Osinbajos remarks, Pulse wrote a piece asking for proof from the presidency because we were sick and tired of the endless looting allegations against Jonathan in the media.

Just before midnight of Sunday, March 25, 2018, the presidency source called our office and left us the following details:

1. Former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki personally supervised the physical transfer of billions of Naira from the CBN vaults to the private residence of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

2. Between January 8 and February 25, 2015, over N70 billion was released in parts from the national treasury.

According to the source, over $289M which was also referenced last week by the Vice President, was also withdrawn around this period.

3. In the minutes of the Central Bank board meeting of 25th August 2014, the apex bank approved N60 billion requested by the former president.

4. This sum which was okayed by the CBN board was not tied to any project or procurement, and was meant and disbursed purely for campaign purposes, through the office of the then NSA and the SSS leadership at the time, the presidency source said.

5. This N60 billion okayed by the CBN on August 25, 2014 was shared between the two security agencies as follows: N40 billion went to the NSA while N20 billion was released to the State Security Services (SSS).

6. The $289m mentioned by the Vice President was released on February 25, 2015.

Fani-Kayode

7. Documents including cash vouchers indicate that $289,202,382 was released in cash to the NIA by the Central Bank of Nigeria from the Joint Venture (JV) Cash Call Account No. 000-0000-11658-366 of the NNPC/NAPIMS with JP Morgan Chase Bank, New York, USA.

8. On January 8 and 16, 2015, the sum of N1.5 billion was released in three tranches of N300m, N400m and N800m respectively.

This money was released from the MEA Research Library Account to the Jointrust Dimension reportedly owned by Danjuma Yusuf and Nenadi Esther Usman, an official source with knowledge of the transaction disclosed.

9. N350 million was transferred to Femi Fani-Kayode through his Zenith Bank Account No. 1004735721, on February 2, 2015, was told.

10. Another N250 million was allegedly transferred to Fani-Kayode through the same Zenith Bank Account on February 19, 2015.

11. N10 billion was released to the Office of the National Security Adviser by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on September 15, 2014.

The money was released in tranches of foreign exchange of $47 million, $5 million, 4 million Euros and 1.6 million Euros.

Special services

12. A letter from the Office of the NSA in November, 2014 further showed that the monies were released by the CBN as funds for special services'.

Further to our discussion, you are please requested to provide the sum of Forty Seven Million United States Dollars (USD47,000,000,00)cash out of the Ten Billion Naira (N10,000,000,000,00) and the balance in Euro to this office for special services, a letter signed by the former NSA read.

Pulse was told by the presidency source that the CBN release of N10B was sourced in November 2014 from a N40 Billion CBN released funds meant for Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR.

It was this N10B that former President Jonathan instructed the CBN Governor and the then NSA to deliver to him personally in a private residence in Abuja".

The presidency source disclosed that the money was illegally transferred using CBN van for the use of PDP Presidential Primaries.

Jonathan response

Jonathan's media aide, Reno Omokri, wasn't immediately available for comments for this story.

However, last week, Jonathan responded to Osinbajo's allegation through Omokri by calling the Vice President a liar who has surrendered his lips to Satan.

Nigerians may recall that lying is the most consistent achievement of Prof Osinbajos almost three years as vice president.

On this most recent allegation, let me state categorically that Jonathan did not share N150billion two weeks to the 2015 election. If Osinbajo has proof that Jonathan did so, then we challenge him to publish his proof.

He is a professor of law and ought to know that he who alleges must prove.China does not expect a trade war, as no side will win, but if the country is forced to, it has no fear of one, said Chinese Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan when meeting with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on March 25.

China has repeatedly made clear its attitude that it hopes for no trade war, as all sides will lose, Zhong noted, adding that cooperation is the only option for the two sides.

He also stressed that China fears no trade war and furthermore that China will not sit idly. China is still focused on resolving disputes with the U.S. through dialogue but is fully prepared to respond if necessary.

Paulson noted that Sino-U.S. relations are some of the most important during this century, and that only cooperation between the two sides could drive global economic growth.

Paulson also disclosed that the U.S. industrial and commercial circles, as the main force that supports development of the Sino-U.S. relationship, like China also does not hope a trade war between the two sides. To some degree they represent the voice of U.S. business circles.

US President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on March 22 that could impose tariffs on imports of Chinese products worth $60 billion, fueling fears that the worlds two largest economies could be heading toward a trade war.

The U.S., regardless of WTO rules, persists in advancing a Section 301 investigation, which is undoubtedly unilateralism and trade protectionism.

In addition, many believe that recent trade investigations initiated by the U.S. are specifically targeting China, said Vice-Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen.

Taking the U.S. Section 232 Investigation into the steel and aluminum imports from China as an example, the steel imports from China account for less than 3 percent of its total, which is unlikely to pose a threat to its national security. The U.S. imposes tariffs on the imports from China, while it exempts those from other countries, Wang explained.

Wang added that the investigation, going against WTO rules, is neither in the interest of the U.S. nor of China.

China now remains calm and restrained, but this does not mean it can do nothing, said Hu Yijian, president of Institute of Public Policy and Governance at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Hu remarked that how far the trade war will go depends on how far the U.S. goes. China can take measures in lots of sectors as a form of retaliation, including soybeans and airplanes, which are all replaceable.

As the worlds second largest economy, China has the confidence to take strong measures to fight back, said Dong Ximiao, a senior researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, adding that China can impose tariffs on 128 types of imports from the U.S. to precisely hit where it hurts.Buhari gave the assurance when the UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed met him in Abuja, according to a note by the UN issued from New York.

On preparations for the 2019 elections and expected support from the United Nations, President Muhammadu Buhari welcomed continuous support from the United Nations.

And assured the Deputy Secretary-General of his commitment to ensuring credible, free and fair elections in Nigeria, the UN said.

Mohammed undertook a two-day visit to Nigeria from March 23 to 25, during which she met with Buhari in Abuja and interacted with other senior officials and stakeholders in Lagos.

The UN said the President and the Deputy Secretary-General discussed four main issues: 2019 general elections, deportation of Cameroonian asylum seekers, the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, and the humanitarian and security challenges in Northeast.

On the situation in Cameroon and the status of Cameroonian Refugees in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Deputy Secretary-General agreed on the need to respect international obligations on the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, the Cameroonians in particular.

They also called for the respect of the guarantee of fair and humane treatment of those recently arrested and deported to Cameroon, the UN said.

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On the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, President Muhammadu Buhari assured the Deputy Secretary-General of the countrys intention to sign the agreement following national consultations.

On the humanitarian and security situation in the North East, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Deputy-Secretary welcomed the speedy return of the recently abducted girls from Dapchi.

And highlighted the need for particular attention to be given to securing schools through the accelerated implementation of the Safe School Initiative, the UN added.The Yeni Akit daily, known for its hardline views on Turkish foreign policy, printed a photo-shopped picture of Merkel with a Hitler moustache, swastika arm band and belt diagonally across her chest in the style of Nazi militia.

"We are very worried by this mentality," it said.

Its front page came as European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker were to meet Erdogan at the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna in a bid to mend ties with Turkey and the EU.

In particular, the EU lambasted Turkey over Ankara's arrest of two Greek soldiers who strayed into Turkish territory.

Yeni Akit alleged that while Merkel had "protected" fugitives wanted by Turkey and remained silent on arson attacks against mosques in Germany, "she is worried on the issue of the Greek soldiers who were trying to spy on us."

"It's exasperating that Merkel, with her Nazi mentality, makes comments against Turkey at every moment," it added.

This is not the first time that a Turkish newspaper has portrayed Merkel as the Nazi dictator who led the Third Reich, caused World War II and presided over the Holocaust.

Erdogan himself had accused Germany and other EU governments of showing the mentality of the Nazis for banning Turkish ministers from giving rallies in the run-up to an April referendum last year.He was traveling by car to Belgium from Finland, and had planned to present himself to Belgian authorities, according to Puigdemonts lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas.

The arrest came two days after Spain, trying to strike a decisive blow against the secession movement, reactivated a European arrest warrant against Puigdemont and five other separatist leaders.

Catalonia has been in political turmoil since its leaders formally declared independence in October and the central government ousted them, assuming direct control of the wealthy autonomous region. Madrid also moved to prosecute Puigdemont and his allies for rebellion and sedition, prompting some to flee to several other European countries.

Now, with Spain renewing its efforts to have the former Catalan officials arrested and returned home for prosecution, Europe may be about to become more embroiled in the conflict.

Whether Spains newly aggressive posture would weaken the independence movement or strengthen it was not immediately clear.

In Catalonia, the effect of Puigdemonts arrest was immediate. Protesters took to the streets of Barcelona and clashed with authorities. Riot police officers in Barcelona shoved and struck protesters with batons to keep an angry crowd from advancing on the office of the Spanish governments representative. Police vans showed stains of yellow paint reportedly thrown by protesters.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain did not respond immediately to Puigdemonts arrest, but Albert Rivera, leader of the anti-secession party Ciudadanos, welcomed it.

Rivera accused Puigdemont of trying to destroy a European democracy and said that for this, you cant enjoy impunity, he argued.

Roger Torrent, the pro-independence speaker of the Catalan Parliament, went on Twitter on Sunday to urge fellow Catalans to form a common front to defend individual and collective rights.

Puigdemont was arrested Sunday morning on the A7 autobahn. He was transferred to a jail in Neumunster, in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, according to the German news agency DPA. He was to appear before a German judge Monday.

The government of Catalonia has been in a deadlock since December, when a snap election called by Prime Minister Rajoy resulted in separatist parties retaining a narrow parliamentary majority. Last week, however, separatist lawmakers could not agree on the latest candidate to replace Puigdemont as regional leader, Jordi Turull.

Unable to win at the ballot box, Spains central government seems to be turning its attention to the courts. In addition to reissuing the arrest warrants for the fugitive separatists, it also jailed without bail five still in Spain. One of them was Turull.

Puigdemont, the embodiment of Catalonias aspirations for independence, announced in early March that he was giving up his efforts to be reappointed as the regions president. But he continued his efforts to promote the Catalan separatist cause internationally, traveling to Switzerland and Finland to attend conferences there.

When he arrived in Brussels, Puigdemont said he could not get a fair trial in Spain. He also said he had selected Brussels, home to the main EU institutions, because he wanted to put Catalonia in the institutional heart of Europe.

Puigdemont received some support from Flemish nationalists and other separatist politicians across Europe, but his call for the European Union to mediate in Catalonia fell on deaf ears. No European government leader agreed to meet him.

But in a column Sunday in the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, Thomas Urban said Puigdemont had managed to internationalize the Catalan conflict, and that this cannot be in the interest of Madrid. He argued that Madrids hard line risked reuniting the pro-independence movement, only days after the bickering separatists could not agree on a new leader.

On Saturday, Finlands National Bureau of Investigation said it had received the warrant for Puigdemonts detention issued by Spain, but police said they had no knowledge of his whereabouts. According to Spanish media reports, Puigdemonts car was trailed by the Spanish secret service as it left Finland, who alerted their German counterparts about his arrival.

With Puigdemonts arrest in Germany, the spotlight now turns to judges in European countries who will review Spanish arrest warrants, including in Belgium, Scotland and Switzerland. The countries the separatists chose for refuge is important, because European nations have different criminal codes. Some may not recognize the charges brought by Spanish state prosecutors against the Catalan politicians, particularly rebellion.

The arrest in Germany could pose a challenge for Angela Merkel, who started her fourth term as chancellor this month at the helm of a coalition government after months of tense negotiations.

Legally, the arrest of Mr. Puigdemont is not objectionable, but politically it creates great problems, a member of parliament from the Free Democrats, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, told The Augsburger Allgemeinen Zeitung, a regional paper, on Sunday.

In Scotland, police said that the lawyer for one fugitive there, the former Catalan education minister, Clara Ponsati, had been in touch with them, and that they were preparing for her to turn herself in.

In December, Pablo Llarena, the Spanish Supreme Court judge who is leading the case against the Catalan separatist leadership, withdrew his initial European arrest warrant against Puigdemont and others who fled to Belgium, amid concerns that the Belgian judiciary might seek to limit the crimes for which the separatists could be charged if they were returned to Spain.

Altogether, the Spanish Supreme Court is seeking to try 25 Catalan separatist leaders for violating Spains Constitution during their unsuccessful secession attempt.

State prosecutors in Spain have moved to sentence the separatist leaders to decades in prison for organizing the independence referendum in October that they say violated Spanish law. The separatists followed the referendum with their declaration of a new Catalan republic.

Puigdemont is among 13 defendants who are accused of rebellion, the most serious charge, as well as other offenses that include the misuse of public funds to host the referendum.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.In addition to massive transfers for officers and 700 other officers, the directorate is now targeting graduate police officers to join its newly formed Public Crime Advisory Team at the headquarters on Kiambu Road, Nairobi.

Mr Kinoti divulged that the team will undergo local and international training to enable them deal with emerging crimes.

We have had several squads that deal with armed robberies, special crimes, homicides and terrorism, but we need a proactive team to deal with cybercrime, human trafficking, misuse of ICT gadgets, banking fraud and corruption, Mr Kinoti said.

Crimes keep changing as technology advances, that is why we need a competent team to deal with them, he said.

Rigorous interview

On Thursday last week, Mr Kinoti recalled all graduates working under the DCI for interviews at the headquarters.

Graduates were tested by both local and international detectives on forensics, ballistics, economic crimes and land fraud in a bid to establish where they fit most.

The 59 graduate police officers in the ranks of constables, corporals, superintendents and senior superintendents of police, inspectors and chief inspectors were drawn from all over the country.

We want to make use of their skills in order to revamp the specialised units, but we must conduct a scrutiny of their conducts, he said.

The recall waved a sign of good riddance to the graduate police constables whose pay spurred controversy over the past one week.

Mr Kinoti indicated his intention to recruit more officers from the Kenya Police Service and the Administration Police Service to join the DCI.

He said that those who would be attached to the DCI headquarters would be exposed to high-stake crimes committed by even the high ranking members of the society.

There have been complaints that only the poor land in jails as the people they work for to squander money from the government go free.Moi indicated that he is welcome to the forging of partnerships aimed at succeeding President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2022.

Speaking to the congregation at the Full Gospel Church of Kenya in Kabarnet, Moi said he would welcome talks to build alliances ahead of 2022 though he conceded it wasn't yet time for politics.

The Baringo Senator urged his supporters to remain patient promising that he will soon declare his stand regarding 2022.

Everybody is my friend so there is no harm if anyone decides to approach me for visionary talks meant to take over leadership and drive this country forward, Moi stated.

2022 rivalry

The son to former President Daniel Moi is on record saying that he will vie for the Presidency in 2022, a move that has put him in a direct collision course with Deputy President William Ruto, who has already declared he will also vie for the highest seat in the land after President Kenyatta completes his term in 2022.

Political alignments

Moi's statement comes in the wake of major political alignments following a truce declared by President Kenyatta and NASA leader Raila Odinga weeks ago.

Read Also: Gideon Moi now tells DP Ruto to back his presidential bid

The two leaders agreed to set aside their political differences for the sake of national unity in order to forge the country forward to prosperity.

The truce which caught many by surprise with NASA co-principals who have publicly stated that the new forged alliance was only between two individuals since they were not consulted and was not properly structured.A letter which has been doing rounds on social media showed that Sonko had appointed Mbugua to replace former Deputy Governor Polycarp Igathe.

Mbugua is currently an MP in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) and a former Kamkunji Member of Parliament.

Pulselive.co.ke has since established that the letter is fake after contacting Sonko's office.

The governor himself took to his social media page to deny he had appointed Mbugua as his new deputy governor.Orengo urged Miguna to work with ODM leader Raila Odinga who is in the process of implementing a peace deal with President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The Siaya Senator noted that Odinga had stood with Miguna by instructing a team of lawyers to move to court in defence of the NRM general.

Orengo, who is also one of the lawyers handling logistics for Miguna's return, stated that if it were not for Odinga he would not have gone to represent the embattled lawyer.

The newly elected Senate Minority Leader spoke at the burial of Justice Joseph Onguto. He thanked the Judiciary for standing up for the rights of Kenyans.

Miguna has bitterly differed with the ODM leadership regarding the deal between President Kenyatta and the NASA leader.But not for these four Kenyans who are on record rejecting nomination to plum Government jobs by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

1. Engineer John Okuna Ogango

Engineer John Okuna Ogango is the latest nominee to reject an ambassadorial offer by President Kenyatta.

Ogango declined to be vetted by the parliamentary committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, citing personal reasons.

He is a former Director-General of the Kenya Rural Roads Authority.

2. Abdikadir Mohamed

Ogango's rejection comes days after former Mandera Central MP and President Kenyattas constitutional and Legal Affairs Advisor Abdikadir Mohamed also turned down a similar offer.

Mr. Mohammed was nominated to be Kenyas ambassador to South Korea but he politely said no to the offer.

Though he never made his reasons public, close sources divulged that he did so on personal grounds which included concern for his young family, career mismatch fears and his passion for the private sector.

Abdikadir is not your ordinary politician as he is also the first MP to retire after serving for only one term.

3. Chris Okemo

Also on this list is former Finance Minister Chris Okemo who rejected an appointment to be a board member of the Kenya Seed Company.

He was offered the job by the President through former Agriculture Minister Felix Koskei.

Okemo attracted controversy as he was facing extradition, money laundering and misconduct in public office charges in the United Kingdom when the appointment was made.

Mr Kenyatta was criticized over the appointment by various lobby groups which translated it to his alleged reluctance to fight corruption in the country.

Mr. Okemo declined the offer stating: "I wish to sincerely thank His Excellency the President and the Government for considering me for the appointment. However, considering my case seeking to annul and quash the frivolous and baseless request for extradition, this will not be an opportune time to enter public service.

4. General Mohammed Hussein Ali

Lastly, former Commissioner of Police Major General (Rtd) Mohammed Hussein Ali is reported to have declined an offer to be nominated the new Inspector General of Police.

According to the unverified reports carried on the Star, Mr. Ali was to take up the position instead of the current IG Joseph Boinnet.

It is said that Mr. Kenyattas advisor preferred Ali because of his high profile and bold nature which they said would streamline the National Police Service.

However the local daily reported that efforts to convince Mr. Ali, who faced crimes against humanity charges at the ICC after the 2007 General Election, failed.Speaking on Sunday during a church service at Presbyterian Church of East Africa in Runda, Sonko alleged that Mt. Kenya politicians Wanted to replace Ruto and support one of their own."We are aware that some politicians from Mount Kenya have been holding night meetings in Nairobi to craft plans on how to support one of their own in 2022, the Nairobi Governor stated. However, DP Ruto ignored Sonko's claims and urged politicians who were in attendance to focus on development agenda.

He mentioned that the deal between President Uhuru Kenyatta and NASA leader Raila Odinga would help unite Kenyans and help in fighting ethnicity."The national conversation wont be about leaders, elections, and power. It will now be about empowerment of millions of citizens, Ruto said.Jubilee leaders Refute Sonko's allegations A section of Mt. Kenya politicians who graced the event rebuffed Sonko's claims stating that they were fully behind Ruto. Led by Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichungwa, he dismissed the allegations by Sonko maintaining that Mt. Kenya was fully behind the DP.

"Mt Kenya is solidly behind William Ruto. Any busybody will be in for a rude shock as the people rally behind the leadership they believe in and that is Ruto, Mr. Ichungwa stated.An award-winning sculptor has threatened to sue the Government for violation of his Intellectual Property rights.

In a report by the Nation, Oshottoe Ondula accuses the Government of approving the modification of the bust without consulting him.

According to Mr. Ondula, he registered the piece as intellectual property on July 25, 2010, under reference ILP/SLP/221147/NYC, by Cofylaw and Associates LLC in New York.

The popular sculptor was among 15 artists who submitted their works to the Kenyan Government in 2009 after Cuba requested to be provided with a statue of Mzee Kenyatta, to be displayed at Havanas African Heroes Park.

After his design got an approval, Mr. Ondula was contracted by the National Museum of Kenya (NMK) for Sh3.5million. He was instructed to use fiberglass and cast method, and take six months for the project.

He completed the project and handed over the bust to NMK.

In 2011, I was called to the then Culture and Heritage Minister William ole Ntimamas office to witness the handing over of the bust to the Cuban ambassador. Also present was the then Director of Sites and Monuments Dr. Hassan Wario, he was quoted by the Nation.

Trouble started when Cuba indicated that the material used to make the statue could not stand the heat in Cuba.

Ondula says that this new developments made on the bust saw adjustments mad on the sculptor which he came to know during the unveiling by President Kenyatta in Cuba.

Though the officials say they contracted another artist to make a brand new sculpture, Mr. Ondulas lawyer disclosed to him that the bust was a replica of his masterpiece.

They made a mold, minus the hand of Jomo Kenyatta holding a fly whisk, and copied it. My lawyer asked me if I gave them permission but I gave no such thing. They just infringed on my intellectual rights, he said.

Ondula wrote a complaint letter to Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyongo which he copied to State House Chief of Staff Nzioka Waita, Head of Civil Service Joseph Kinyua, Solicitor-General Kennedy Ogeto, Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma Sports, Culture and Arts CS Rashid Achesa.

In response, Mr. Nyongo , who was also in Cuba during the unveiling said:Your work commissioned by the National Museums is indeed in Cuba. It stands in front of the Kenyan Embassy. But it was not the one unveiled".

However, Ondula insists that he will take legal action noting: They cannot copy, cast or alter anything on that bust without written approval from the creator.The US has created a very bad precedent to break the rules of global multilateral trade, Paulo Robel, professor of Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro told Peoples Daily.

The US, as the largest economy in todays global economic integration, will inevitably hurt its own interests through its irrational and unilateral practices, said the professor, adding that such approach will also hurt others without necessarily benefiting itself.

US President Donald Trump recently signed a memorandum, deciding to impose tariffs on imports from China. It has aroused huge attention from the international community.

Many international experts noted that the unilateral move goes against the global trade rules, which will pose a threat to the US, China and even the world. They believe that the US will lose not only the trade war, but also its reputation. As a major country, the US should stay rational and manage differences with China through cooperation, they suggested.

The decision of the Trump administration to largely impose tariffs on Chinese imports is just the tip of an iceberg of its trade protectionism, said Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies. The US used to be an initiator of multilateral trade, but it now is marching against in the opposite direction, the director added.

According to him, the Chinese and the US economies are highly interdependent after 20 years of development, and both of the two will get hurt if one of them starts a trade war.

Henning Vopel, director of Hamburg Institute of International Economics told Peoples Daily that the punitive tariff measures of the US are not only aimed at China. They could be shifted toward the European Union (EU) at any time, so the EU will not stand aside, Vopel noted.

He pointed out that the trade war might trigger a monetary war, which would bring the most disastrous situation since the global economic crisis in 2008.

Expert Josef Braml from German Council on Foreign Relations explained that the US, driven by trade protectionism, believes global trade is a war to the knife. In addition, the US has avoided the WTO rules and managed to prove the rationality of its policies, which threatens the authority of the WTO. He suggested that the world take actions against the punitive tariff policies of the US, otherwise every exporting country will become a loser in the trade war.

The US, violating trade rules, is pressuring its partner by protectionism, Robel said, adding that it has greatly damaged the global trading system. The practice of the Trump administration will inescapably cause negative impacts on the countrys reputation, one of its core competitiveness, he noted.

Trump once declared that trade wars are good, and they are easy to win. But indeed, the reality is just the opposite, said Paul Krugman, a New York Times Op-Ed columnist.

China's trade surpluses, in other words, are largely a statistical illusion. In fact, many of the Chinese imports are just products fabricated from parts made in other countries, especially South Korea and Japan, said Krugman.

IPhones are a good example to prove the columnists point. These phones are made in China, but China only accounts for less than 4 percent of their price, Krugman explained. Therefore, nearly half of the USs trade deficits may come from those countries exporting parts to China.

Former US Ambassador to China Max Baucus told Peoples Daily that the Trump administration is promoting more antagonistic policies toward China, which will increase the tension between the two countries. However, both the peoples of China and the US hope to maintain a sound relationship with each other, because economic cooperation with China is important for the US. Therefore, the trade war is not in line with the interests of the two countries.

The next phase is critical, and I hope the two countries could stay calm and focus on important matters: employment and livelihood, said Baucus, expressing concerns toward the emerging trade war. He stressed that the tariffs are both wrong and dangerous, and such approach will not help solve the trade issues between China and the US. The two countries should stay clear and seek solutions through cooperation, he suggested.Mr. Miguna was boarding a plane to Kenya after his controversial deportation to Canada following his participation in the mock swearing-in of National Super Alliance (NASA) leader Raila Odinga as the Peoples President.

The Canadian-based lawyer is expected to land at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) at 2.30pm.

I am scheduled to arrive at the JKIA on Monday, March 26, 2018, at 2.30pm aboard Emirates EK19 via Dubai, Mr. Miguna said.

The former Nairobi Gubernatorial aspirant accused Interior and Coordination Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang and other senior officials of failing to comply with orders instructing them to issue him with his Kenyan passport.

On Friday during a meeting with Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), Siaya Senator James Orengo stated that Miguna will jet into the country using an Ethiopian Airline on Monday 26 March 2018.QUIZ: Guess the Road Songs

We can't wait to get back on the road again! Play this quiz and see if how many you can get right!Lineas has expanded its Green Xpress enhanced wagonload freight network with the launch of a Lyon Xpress service linking Lyon and Antwerpen in 16 h, with onward connections to the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia. Lyon Xpress initially runs twice a week, leaving Lyon on Thursday and Saturday, but is to ...The collection that is emblematic of the winged hourglass brand, La Grande Classique de Longines has been gaining male and female fans since its debut in 1992. Over the years, the line has expanded and offered new versions, without ever compromising its classic spirit and elegance. Longines now introduces its iconic blue to the dials and straps of this collection.

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Whether inlaid with diamonds or presenting a simpler elegance, the new models in this iconic collection come in four sizes (24 mm, 29 mm, 36 mm and 37 mm) to fit perfectly on both male and female wrists. La Grande Classique de Longines with blue sunray dial is available with inlaid stone, inlaid diamond or Roman numeral hour markers, with either a blue alligator strap that matches the dial or a stainless steel bracelet.

See all Baselworld news >>Moscow court upholds sentence of March 26 rally participant

 RIA Novosti, Ruslan Krivobok

11:59 26/03/2018

MOSCOW, March 26 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court has upheld prison sentence for Dmitry Krepkin, a participant of the unauthorized rally in Moscow that was held exactly a year ago, on March 26, 2017, the press-service of the court has told RAPSI.

According to Krepkins lawyer Ilnur Sharapov, there are no current plans for appealing the sentence in Russian courts, but defense is going to file an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

On December 8, 2017, Krepkin was found guilty of assaulting a police officer at the rally and sentenced to 1.5 years in a penal colony. A prosecutor asked the court to sentence him to 3 years in prison. Defense in turn insisted on acquittal.

Earlier, several other men, Andrey Kosykh, Yury Kuliy, Alexander Shpakov and Stanislav Zimovets, and Aleksey Politikov have been convicted and sentenced for violence against law enforcement officers during the rally. Kosykh was sentenced to 4 years in prison, but later his term was reduced by 4 months. Kuliy has been given 8 months in a penal colony settlement. Shpakov received a 1.5-year prison sentence. Zimovets has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison. A 2-year prison sentence given to Politikov has not taken effect yet.

The Interior Ministry reported that about 500 people had been arrested during the unauthorized rally on March 26. Overall number of people present in the area at the time was estimated at as high as 8,000 people. One of the police officers received injuries; a criminal case was launched over this incident.

According to the Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, arrested during the rally, Moscow authorities refused to greenlight the rally in the citys center and proposed alternative areas only a day before it was to take place.

Navalny said that in this case Russian legislation allows organizers to hold an event at the area, which was listed first.Appeal against $14,000 fine returned to Telegram

 RIA Novosti, Kirill Kallinikov

12:30 26/03/2018

MOSCOW, March 26 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court has returned an appeal against an 800,000-ruble fine ($14,000) for refusal to provide the Federal Security Service (FSB) with information on user messages decoding to Telegram Messenger LLP, the courts spokesperson Ulyana Solopova has told RAPSI.

The court has not considered the appeal because notarized copies of previous rulings have not been attached to it. The plaintiff may lodge the complaint again after corrective actions, Solopova said.

In June 2017, the communications watchdog Roskomnadzor requested Telegram management to comply with the Russian legislation or face blocking of the messenger. Telegram founder Pavel Durov agreed to register the service in Russia. However, he refused to abide by laws incompatible with Telegram privacy policy, Durov wrote on his VKontakte (VK) page in late June.

In July, Durov received the FSB requests to provide information for decoding messages of six app users. In September, law enforcement authorities drew up administrative protocols against Telegram because of law violation, as Durov failed to reply for the request.

The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow has fined the company 800,000 rubles ($14,000) for refusal to provide FSB with information on message decoding concerning several users. Telegram has been found guilty of failure to store and (or) furnish information on users and their messages to law enforcement agencies. The ruling has become effective.

In December, Telegram Messenger LLP filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court of Russia seeking to cancel the Federal Security Services (FSB) decree establishing the procedure for provision of information on decoding of user data. On March 19, the lawsuit was dismissed. Telegram was obliged to comply with the FSB order within 15 days. The company filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against the fine, lawyer Damir Gainutdinov told RAPSI on March 22.

According to the Federal Law On Information, Information Technologies and the Protection of Information, organizers of information distribution on the Internet must submit information about users and their messages to the authorized governmental bodies conducting investigative activities and ensuring the state security.Ex-staffers of Crimean government fined for illegal cryptocurrency mining

 flickr.com/BTC Keychain

13:59 26/03/2018

MOSCOW, March 26 (RAPSI)  Two former staffers of the Crimean government office have been fined 30,000 rubles ($530) each for illegal cryptocurrency mining, the Investigative Committees local directorate reports Monday.

Investigators claimed that from September 20, 2016 to January 31, 2017, the defendants organized a process of bitcoin calculation in the Cabinets building for making personal profit. They converted cryptocurrency blocks calculated with the use of the Crimean government offices electronic computing machine (ECM) into Russian rubles in the amount of 15,000 rubles ($260), the statement reads.

According to expert's opinion, they consumed electric energy totaling to more than 57,000 rubles ($1,000).

The defendants have been charged with abuse of power. They have paid full damages during investigation, according to the Investigative Committee.Second defendant in Crimea sabotage plot case goes on trial

 RIA Novosti, Andrei Stenin

15:32 26/03/2018

MOSCOW, March 26 (RAPSI)  A criminal case against Yevgeny Panov, a defendant in the case over sabotage plot in Crimea, has been forwarded to the republics Supreme Court for hearing, lawyer Sergey Legostov has told RAPSI.

In February, another defendant Andrey Zakhtey was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison and fined 220,000 rubles (about $4,000).

In August 2016, Russias Federal Security Service reported prevention of terror attacks in Crimea prepared by the Ukrainian Defense Ministrys General Directorate of Intelligence against critical infrastructure components of the peninsula.

According to a republics law enforcement source, seven suspects were arrested. Panov, an officer of the Ukrainian Defense Ministrys Intelligence Directorate, is believed to be one of the organizers of the crime. Zakhtey reportedly was arrested on suspicion of providing activities of the raiding force.Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale

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Hello and Welcome, Selling our lot in Whitepine because it is beautiful and needs to be put to some good use. White Pine is a quiet, friendly vacation town nestled in a tight valley. Popular summer retreat for people from out of state, as well as a lodging base for hunters during the Fall seasons. The first picture with the deer was taken on County Road 888 south of Whitepine, not at the lot, but it gives you an idea of the area. Lots of public lands in the area for hunting- you can use this as ...

Price: $ 23,500 Seller State of Residence: Colorado Property Address: Route 888 State/Province: Colorado City: Colorado City Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential Zip/Postal Code: 81248 Location: 810**, Colorado City, Colorado

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Please note that we are not affiliated with nor do we represent the resort described in this item ad.Item Description Elara: Hilton Grand Vacations ClubLas Vegas, Nevada All images in this listing are general images of the resort and do not necessarily reflect the actual resort or units. Please perform your own due diligenceOVERVIEW80 E HARMON AVE, LAS VEGAS, NV 89109The sleek, 52-story Elara resort boasts a premier Center Strip location. This spectacular property offers adjoining access to t...

Price: $ 1 Seller State of Residence: Texas Type: Attractions State/Province: Las Vegas Number of Bedrooms: 1 Number of Bathrooms: 1 City: Nevada Property Address: 80 E Harmon Ave. Zip/Postal Code: 89109 Location: 891**, Las Vegas, Nevada

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We're sorry, this article is not currently availableThe Senator Excellence Panorama Date Moon Phase is mounted in a 42 mm stainless steel case. With this contemporary design the brand extends its successful Senator Excellence line, which is based on the award-winning Calibre 36 automatic movement which has been introduced in 2016, and forms the heart of the entire line.

The galvanic silver-grey dial is enhanced by a delicate vertically brushed finish elaborated in Glashutte Original's in-house dial manufactory in Pforzheim. Superb craft skill and dedication to detail also guide the integration of the moon phase and Date in the dial. And last, but not least, the Pforzheim experts mount the characteristic appliques, contributing in the process to the lasting impression made by this watch  despite having been stripped down to pure essentials.

The Senator Excellence Date Panorama Moon Phase  Glashutte Original

Striking white gold indexes and colour-matched, clear and dynamic swordshaped hour and minute hands complete the harmonious appearance of the new timepieces, forming an elegant unity.

Both the Glashutte Original Panorama Date and the moon phase are set using the crown, which makes an additional corrector on the case unnecessary. Like all other Senator Excellence models, this most recent version guarantee an exceptional standard of quality. Every single one of these watches bears a special engraving in the form of a Q on the case back, to be read as a promise.

Together with an individual examination certificate, the Q guarantees the owner that his watch meets the highest standards with respect to stability, running time, precision and aesthetics, and that it has been thoroughly tested over the course of 24 days  under conditions even more demanding than those governing German chronometer certification testing.

See all Baselworld news >>As part of its Music Icons Series, Raymond Weil unveils its newest music collaboration: the Tango Marshall Edition Limitee. This timepiece part of the tango collection pays tribute to the legendary British manufacturer Marshall Amplification's amplifier and speaker cabinet. This timepiece incorporates subtle design cues, influenced by Marshalls iconic product design and intricate detailing. Measuring 43mm in diameter, this limited edition is generously proportioned, revealing a bold, masculine aesthetic, whilst maintaining the timeless appeal of its product designs.

Tango Marshall Limited Edition  Raymond Weil

The case is presented in black PVD and the dial surface replicates the appearance of an amplifiers external grille. The white ring around the circumference of the dial mirrors the finish of the Marshall amps, while the dial decoration recalls the Marshall defender paper. The indexes and hands are lined with SuperLuminova, delivering optimal readability. The chronographs gold colored panda sub-dials, inspired by the amps sound buttons, measure elapsed time periods, while the black sub-dial displays the running seconds. The timepiece is completed with a date display positioned between 4 and 5 oclock. The watch is presented on a black leather strap, paired with a black PVD folding clasp.

The numbered case-back of this watch limited to 1,000 pieces is engraved with the iconic Marshall logo and is presented with a certificate of authenticity. The lot is delivered in a custom made watchbox inspired by the aesthetic of their signature amp. Thee new Marshall Limited Edition represents another powerful performance from the watch brand synonymous with the musical universe.

Case back view  Raymond Weil

Using decades of carefully handed down watchmaking expertise to interpret musical influences into its product designs, music remains the main inspiration for Raymond Weil. Marshall Amplification further extends the collaboration with the music industry and its history of working with some of the worlds most recognized and celebrated artists and Brands. #RWmarshall

See all Baselworld news >>'Anything other than a complete, 2014-style victory will be far more devastating for him then it would be for anyone else.'

'Disciplining restive party members, and taming recalcitrant allies will then be far more difficult for him,' says Mihir S Sharma.



Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

What to make of the stunning reversal of fortunes for the Bharatiya Janata Party in three by-elections in the Hindi belt?

Both in Phulpur and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh as well as in Araria in Bihar, the BJP has lost to an Opposition that was supposed to be down and out.

In UP, it saw the effective consolidation of anti-BJP votes, but also was subject to a clear decline in its vote share since 2014.

In Bihar, the BJP's loss comes although it is now allied with Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United.

The combined vote shares of both parties in 2014 in Araria were greater than that of Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal, and yet the RJD increased its vote share at the expense of the BJP-JD-U and retained the seat.

For most political formations, the fact that it has consistently lost by-elections -- and by big margins -- in areas it needs to sweep should be seen as a sign that it is on a losing wicket.

And while I have argued there are several ways it could recover from this position -- starting with Prime Minister Narendra D Modi's extraordinary ability to drive home a campaign message in just a few weeks -- it is also true that any rational calculation of the future should assume that the government's chances are shaky.

Look at the position as things stand today. The BJP won 282 seats in 2014, a number that has come down since then dangerously close to the halfway mark. This was an extraordinary achievement.

All political observers credited both Modi and Amit A Shah for pulling off something so extraordinary -- and then promptly forgot exactly what 'extraordinary' means.

It means that this is not the sort of achievement that is easily replicated.

Consider what happened in order to win 282 seats. The BJP swept several states, such as Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Delhi.

It dominated Bihar, where it has never had much of a presence: Its alliance won over three-fourths of seats.

It had no history in Assam, either, but it won half the seats there.

It completely dominated the normally sharply contested states of Karnataka and Maharashtra, won all but two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and all but one in Chhattisgarh.

Most importantly, it did practically the best it could do in the 80 seats of UP.

By any reasonable estimates, this was the best performance possible from the BJP in that election.

In order to win the next election at a similar scale, the BJP would have to either replicate its 2014 distribution and performance, or make up for losses in the north and west elsewhere in the country.

It is now clear that it will find it difficult to repeat its 2014 performance in the north and west.

Unsurprising -- because, again, that performance was out of the ordinary. It was exceptional, and thus an exception.

The party's consistent losses in by-elections shows that it can reasonably expect, even if Modi's popularity remains strong, to see its complete dominance of states such as Rajasthan to vanish.

Even if it loses less than a third of its seats in states it completely swept or dominated in 2014 -- a conservative estimate -- it still means it is down more than 60 seats.

Can those seats be made up elsewhere? This seems doubtful.

The north east, its inroads into which the BJP has been trumpeting for years, has just a few seats in Parliament -- and remember, it already won eight seats in Assam and the Seven Sisters in 2014, so it doesn't have all that much room to improve.

In West Bengal and Kerala, it has largely failed to make a mark so far, although it has displaced the Left as a major Opposition force in the former.

In Andhra Pradesh, it is so toxic that it just lost a coalition partner, the Telugu Desam Party, and the other major force, the YSR Congress, is leading the no-confidence charge.

In Tamil Nadu, it is so unpopular that even the deputy chief minister it is propping up had to defend the notion of Dravidian politics in the assembly, in an implied rebuke to the BJP.

Only in Odisha does it look like it has room to improve at the moment. Can Odisha take the BJP to a majority? I think not.

This basic fact is what underlies the new energy in the Opposition at the moment.

It is why allies like the Shiv Sena and the TDP are abandoning the BJP. It

is time for the rest of us, also, to remember that 2019 is -- and never was -- a foregone conclusion.

And let us remember also that Modi may pay the price for the reputation of invincibility and strength that he has so carefully cultivated: It means that anything other than a complete, 2014-style victory will be seen as far more devastating for him then it would be for anyone else.

Disciplining restive party members, and taming recalcitrant allies will then be far more difficult for him.'Unlike Trump, who has an isolationist approach, Bolton would like to roam around the world, trampling upon any sign of dissent,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.



IMAGE: John Bolton arrives for a meeting with then US President-elect Donald J Trump at Trump Tower in New York, December 2, 2016. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

When news of the appointment of my contemporary at the United Nations, Ambassador John Bolton, as President Donald J Trump's national security adviser came, I tweeted, 'Appointment of John Bolton as National Security Adviser casts a shadow on the scheduled talks between the US President and the President of DPRK.'

I got an immediate response from Nina Tankina: 'It casts a shadow over international peace and security.'

The reaction of other America watchers, including traditional conservatives, was similar or worse to the report of his appointment.

Bolton's reputation is that he believes in war as an instrument of peace in all circumstances.

His appointment as the US' permanent representative to the UN (2005-2006) by then president George W Bush was astonishing in itself as, for the UN, war is the last resort.

Preventive diplomacy rather than preventive war is the desired instrument of peace at the world body. In fact, Bolton left the post as his was a recess appointment and he was not likely to be confirmed by the US Senate.

The exits and entrances into Donald J Trump's cabinet have ceased to surprise the world, because each change indicates further hardening of the American president's postures.

The struggle is not between the hawks and doves, but among the hawks themselves and each time the reasonable hawks give way to more formidable ones.

A small group of soft conservatives, known as 'adults' were the guardians of moderate conservative policy, but they are dwindling fast in the cabinet.

Jim Mattis, the secretary of defence, is the only remaining 'adult'. He had wanted NSA General H R McMaster out of the job because of the latter's extreme views, but in Bolton, he got the ultimate hawk.

Bolton is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a member of a law firm, in addition to being active in various conservative forums. He has been called a war hawk and is an advocate of regime change in Iran and DPRK and has repeatedly called for termination of the Iran deal.

He was a supporter of the second Iraq war and he has continuously supported military action and regime change in Syria, Libya and Iran.

Bolton had several diplomatic assignments including as under secretary of state for arms control and international security.

He campaigned against the constitution of the international criminal court and stopped the US from joining it. India too found Bolton's arguments against the ICC credible and had kept itself out of it.

His views on the United Nations was revolutionary. 'There is no United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world, and that is the United States, when it suits our interests and when we can get others to go along,' he said.

Bolton was opposed to any expansion of the permanent membership of the UN Security Council and opposed India's candidature on different occasions.

He led a drive to strengthen the UN human rights commission by turning it into a council, but he succeeded only in changing the name, not in giving it vast powers. Eventually, the US had to vote against its own resolution.

When he failed to change the rules of the council, he had famously said, 'We want a butterfly. We don't want to put lipstick on a caterpillar and call it a success.'

The irony of the timing of Bolton's appointment is that his known position is opposed to the twin approaches of the present administration to campaign for sanctions against North Korea and to hold direct talks with North Korea at the summit level on denuclearisation.

Bolton is ready to risk a nuclear war by bombing North Korea to denuclearise it. It remains to be seen whether Bolton will change or he will change President Trump.

The preliminary conversations have already begun and Bolton's appointment will throw a wet blanket on the summit proposal.

Bolton had extended tactical support to the Trump-Kim Jong-un summit not because he expected that it would lead to peace, but would prove North Korea's true intentions, clearing the way for an armed attack against it.

If Bolton endorses the pressure and engagement policy even with this purpose, it will be a consolation for many. His lack of faith in South Korea could be another hurdle during the negoatiations, given the fact that the prime mover of the summit is South Korea.

Bolton's concept of security is elimination of all threats by war, if necessary.

Unlike Trump, who has an isolationist approach, Bolton would like to roam around the world, trampling upon any sign of dissent.

His erstwhile colleagues in the US state department say he is skilful enough to push his way through the labyrinth of bureaucracy and that makes him even more dangerous. He filters out reports and recommendations from his colleagues to push his own agenda.

Trump will find him useful to get his ideas implemented smoothly once he sells it to Bolton. Their chemistry has not been tested, but the fear is that they will become a formidable duo.

Rex Tillerson's exit as secretary of state and Mike Pompeo's entrance as his replacement are also ominous as Bolton may find a soulmate in Pompeo who wanted Kim Jong-un to go and supported the abandonment of the Paris Agreement.

Trump cannot be dissuaded from doing anything just because he is advised about the difficulties in implementation. It is believed the quickest way to get Trump to do anything is to tell him that he cannot do it.

Bolton is likely to instigate Trump to press ahead with his agenda with regard to North Korea, Iran and China.

As a protege of then US vice-president Dick Cheney, Bolton will also be in favour of the trade war against China, which has been initiated.

Bolton called his book, Surrender Is Not An Option, which suggests that he is uncompromising in his diplomatic pursuits.

That is the trait that makes his appointment a bolt from the blue.

T P Sreenivasan, (IFS 1967), is a former Ambassador of India and Governor for India of the IAEA Chairman, Academic Council and Director, NSS Academy of Civil Services, Director General, Kerala International Centre.'In 2013, Modi said his government would be of Dalits and OBCs.'

'During his tenure, the highest number of atrocities have taken place.'

'What they want is that this Ambedkar Constitution must not be practised in India in the future.'



IMAGE: 'The government and the bureaucracy do not want Dalits to be liberated or be treated as equal,' says Kancha Ilaiah. Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters

On March 20, 2018, the Supreme Court diluted the provisions mandating immediate arrest under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which has raised fears among Dalit leaders and activists.

Reacting to the judicial pronouncement, the Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch, a Dalit rights organisation, said the verdict would lead to a 'great miscarriage of justice'

'It must be remembered that in many cases the accused are government servants and officials,' the Manch's national executive committee said in a statement.

'Government offices and departments are sites of discrimination and injustice to SCs and STs (scheduled castes and scheduled tribes). The police also has a record of committing grave crimes against these sections of society,' the Manch pointed out.

"There is nothing in Modi's hands. Everything is run by Mohan Bhagwat. Modi has no power in his hands," Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, one of India's prominent thinkers on caste issues, tells Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf.

What is your take on the Supreme Court judgment on the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act?

The lawyers representing the central government did not make any case before the court. There are several judgments of late that are going against reservations.

The government is trying to change the rules based on those judgments.

It is happening because there is a huge gap between Prime Minister Narendra D Modi's promise for Dalits and people belonging to the backward communities that he will give an administration of empowerment to them, but the entire structure is of caste and cultural inequality.

They do not want Dalits to be liberated or equals.

You mean the Modi government...

The official structure, I mean to say.

The lawyers who are arguing in the courts, the people who feed information to the courts and the government officers which the government has chosen, are against SCs, STs and OBCs.

The SC/ST Atrocities Act has been misused often. Has it not?

In my book Post-Hindu India: A Discourse in Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolution, there is a chapter called Social Smugglers. This chapter created a major agitation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The BJP used a Dalit BJP member to file a case against me under the SC/ST Atrocities Act.

The argument in the FIR was that we are also Dalit Hindus and this book hurts our sentiments.

This was definitely misuse, but this kind of misuse is exceptional. I may even go to jail for this case against me.

There have been several instances of the Act being misused in Uttar Pradesh.

The question here is: Why does untouchability exist in India?

Do Dalits practise it?

How many people are in jail because of the misuse of the SC/ST Atrocities Act?

Can you show me one Hindu priest in jail for denying temple entry (to Dalits)?

Can you show me one Brahmin officer in jail for treating an untouchable badly?

I am an OBC, but even OBCs are against the SC/ST Atrocities Act.

All my OBC friends say these SCs/STs register cases against us. The conflict in rural areas is between the OBCs and Dalits.

Brahmins and Banias are beating Dalits intellectually in offices and industries, but Dalits are being beaten physically by the OBCs.

The Constitution has accommodated the SCs/STs by giving them reservations...

Where are they accommodated?

Why did the Constitution not abolish private English medium (schools) for the rich and upper castes?

Why should government schools run only in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Marathi?

What happens to equality there?

The question here is: Why does untouchability exist in our system after 70 years?

The same Supreme Court gave a judgment that a Hindu priest should be appointed only from the Brahmin community.

According to the Agamas (Hindu treatises) no Hindu OBC, no Hindu Shudra can become a temple priest.

Why did the central government not intervene like it did in the triple talaq case?

In the same way, why did the central government allow the dilution of this SC/ST Atrocities Act?

It is because the BJP government didn't want it (to intervene).

My question is that you have data from the P L Punia report that 54,000 cases (against the Dalits) were committed and only a few hundred (of the accused) were convicted.

This report was tabled in Parliament too; but did the Modi government take this data to the Supreme Court?

Courts give judgments based on what data is put before them and what kind of arguments are put before them.

Why are these reversals happening only under the BJP government?

The BJP is not for Dalit equality and nor is the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh).

BJP Dalit MPs have come out against the judgment on the SC/ST Atrocities Act. They are putting pressure on the Modi government to intervene.

In 2013, just before the elections, Narendra D Modi said in Kerala that his government would be of Dalits and OBCs.

During his tenure, the highest number of atrocities have taken place and now the Modi government is not even defending the SC/ST Atrocities Act.

No attorney general is defending the SCs/STs because the BJP government does not believe in such things.

When the government's lawyers do not believe it, then how do you defend such cases?

Do you see a design?

It is a design of the BJP and RSS that all these things have to be reversed.

The nation should go the Ram Rajya way. In Ram Rajya, Brahmins were on top and Kshatriyas were ruling.

The Brahmins were advising Kshatriyas and Shudras were making pots, tilling the land and feeding the cattle.

What they want is that this Ambedkar Constitution must not be practised in India in the future.

Dalits vote for Modi in large numbers.

Dalits trusted Modi like they did Indira Gandhi, but Indira Gandhi had full control on the system.

She bulldozed her lawyers and she changed attorney generals if they did not listen to her. She had a bureaucracy committed to her.

Within the Congress, there was no (RSS Sarsanghchalak) Mohan Bhagwat to checkmate Indira Gandhi.

There is nothing in Modi's hands. Everything is run by Mohan Bhagwat.

Modi has no power in his hands.

Why was the SC/ST Atrocities Act implemented? Why did it become law?

Initially, people from the scheduled tribes were hardly employed. In 1989, under the V P Singh government, the SC/ST Atrocities Act came into being.

It was then that a lot of Dalit leaders became big and Ambedkarism became very active.

Critics of the BJP say L K Advani divided the country on Hindu-Muslim lines. Do you think V P Singh divided the country with the SC/ST Atrocities Act and the Mandal Commission?

The Hindu-Muslim divide is different. Today, my Muslim friends ask me to defend them and I am an OBC. I tell them there are 56 Muslim countries to defend you.

For Christians, there are 105 countries to defend them.

Who is there to defend me? I was humiliated as a shepherd for the last 4,000 years.

The sufferings of Dalits are worse than those of the Muslims.

If V P Singh had not brought in this Act, Hinduism would have died.

Why did Pakistan, Bangladesh become Muslim countries? The answer is there was caste and untouchability in those regions. Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism gave protection to these people (lower caste people).

V P Singh saved Hinduism.

On the contrary, he divided Hindus with the Mandal Commission report.

Brahmins crush me everywhere, in offices and temples. Still I will remain a Hindu.



IMAGE: 'The current dispensation wants the nation to go the Ram Rajya way. In Ram Rajya, Brahmins were on top and Kshatriyas were ruling. The Shudras tilled the land and fed the cattle,' says Kancha Ilaiah. Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters

Don't we need to remain one as a country?

Do you mean that Brahmins and Banias crush us every day and we must remain united as one with them?

Where do we (Dalits) go when Brahmins and Banias attack us every day? We have to die here.

Let them remove reservations and let them see where the Hindu religion will be.

Do you believe Hinduism will weaken if reservation was removed and the SC/ST Atrocities Act abolished?

Absolutely. Hinduism will weaken if they remove reservations and abolish the SC/ST Atrocities Act.

Hinduism has survived for thousands of years.

Where did it survive? In just 300 years, all of Pakistan and Afghanistan have gone to Islam.

The whole of Bangladesh went to Islam.

Indonesia, which was Sanskrit and headed by brahmins in every institution, has gone to Islam in just 300 years.

Hinduism is a flourishing religion.

Where is it flourishing? Which country is it spreading to?

After Prophet Mohammed, 56 countries turned Muslim.

From that period, how many countries have converted to Hinduism?

That is the beauty of the Hindu religion, that its practitioners do not propagate it by the sword/

The BJP promotes vegetarianism and yoga.

Can yoga and vegetarianism win a war with China?

Vegetarianism and yoga will see that China will engulf our country in no time.External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday assured the families of 39 Indians killed in Iraq that the bodies would be brought to India by next week, a relative of one of the deceased said.

We were assured all kind of assistance, including the possibility of a government job to the next of kin, Davinder Singh, younger brother of Gobinder Singh, who was among those killed in Iraq, said over phone after the families of those killed met Swaraj in New Delhi.

To our demand of bringing back the mortal remains of the 39 killed as soon as possible, the minister assured us of all possible steps, he said.

We were assured by the minister that the mortal remains will be brought back by next week, Kumar said. The meeting with Swaraj lasted for about 45 minute, he said.

The family of the deceased sought financial help as their bread earners are dead and also government jobs for the next of kin, Kumar said.

The minister told us that she would meet the CMs of the four states from where the Indians belonged to take a decision on possibility of providing a government job to the next of kin, he said.

Earlier in the day, the family members of the 39 Indians killed in Iraq met Punjab Congress chief and party MP Sunil Kumar Jakhar in New Delhi who assured all possible assistance to them.

Swaraj had told Parliament last week that all the 39 Indians, abducted by the Islamic State in Iraq in 2014, had been killed and their bodies recovered.

As many as 40 Indians were abducted by the IS terror group from Mosul in Iraq but one of them escaped posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, Swaraj had said in Rajya Sabha.

The remaining 39 Indians were taken to Badoosh and killed, she had said.

Search operations led to a mound in Badoosh where locals said some bodies were buried by the IS. Deep penetration radars were used to establish that the mound indeed was a mass grave, she had said, adding the Indian authorities requested their Iraqi counterpart to exhume the bodies.

Swaraj said the mass grave had exactly 39 bodies, with distinctive features such as long hair, non-Iraqi shoes and IDs. The bodies were then sent to Baghdad for DNA testing.

DNA testing by Martyrs Foundation established the identity of 38 Indians while there has been 70 per cent matching of the DNA for the 39th person, she had said.

Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh will be flying to Iraq to bring back the bodies on a special flight, Swaraj had said.

Image: Family members of 39 Indians who were killed in Iraq's Mosul, gets emotional while talking to the media after meeting Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI PhotoAmid the data breach scandal surrounding Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, the social media network's founder Mark Zuckerberg has issued a full-page apology in British and the United States newspapers.

Zuckerberg, in the advertisement, reiterated that the company has already stopped third-party apps from "getting so much information," and that Facebook has started "limiting the data apps get when you sign up."

Furthermore, Zuckerberg clarified that users would be aware of which apps have access to their information and which don't so that they can make an informed decision.

"We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't, we don't deserve it," said the advert, signed by Facebook founder Zuckerberg.

Cambridge Analytica, the political data firm with ties to United States President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign, is under fire for allegedly gaining access to private information of more than 50 million Facebook users and allegedly influencing elections by using this stolen data.

Last week, Zuckerberg apologised for a "major breach of trust" with its users and vowed to take steps to protect their data,

"I started Facebook, and at the end of the day, I'm responsible for what happens on our platform. I'm serious about doing what it takes to protect our community," he said in his first public comments since the scandal broke out.

"We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you," Zuckerberg, 33, said in a Facebook post.

He promised to make it far harder for apps to "harvest" user information.A television journalist who had complained about threats to his life after he carried out a sting operation on illicit sand mining was on Monday mowed down by a truck, officials said.

Sandeep Sharma, who worked for a local news channel, had told the district administration he feared he could be killed by the sand mafia, his nephew, Vikas Purohit, said in a complaint to the police.

The 35-year-old journalist was talking on his phone by the side of Ater Road in front of a police station when the truck, used to ferry sand, ran over him, the officials said.

Purohit, in his complaint to the City Kotwali police, alleged that Sharma had been facing a threat to his life because of the recent sting operation he had carried out on the sand mafia.

Sandeep had petitioned the Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police, Inspector General, Superintendent of Police and the Human Rights Commission stating that he feared for his life and had demanded security, Purohit said.

In his report to the top officials, Sharma had said because of the sting operation against the sand mafia and the Sub Divisional Police Officer, the officer was transferred, Purohit claimed.

Sharma was to have recorded his statement against the SDPO and was being threatened by unidentified people, Purohit added.

Bhind SP Prashant Khare said Sharma's application to the authorities was being examined and the incident probed.

The driver of the truck fled the scene after the accident, the police said.

We have formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the entire incident. A case under section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) has been registered, Khare said.

Scindia demands CBI probe

Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia said the journalist had exposed the nexus between the sand mafia and police.

This is a very serious and suspicious matter and the CBI should immediately probe it, he said.

Scindia said the mining mafia in the state was getting bolder by the day.

The helpless state government is just sitting by closing its eyes, Scindia tweeted.

The Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Ajay Singh, also demanded a CBI probe, stating that the government had not taken action though the journalist had informed the authorities that his life was under threat.Porn star Stormy Daniels claimed that she was threatened in a bid to keep her silent about her alleged fling with United States President Donald Trump.

In a highly-anticipated TV interview on Sunday, Daniels told Anderson Cooper on CBS's "60 Minutes" programme that she had unprotected sex with Trump once in 2006, and was threatened by a man in a parking lot in Las Vegas when she agreed to tell her story in 2011.

Daniels said that she was on her way to a fitness class with her infant daughter when she was approached by a man.

"A guy walked up on me and said to me, 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.' It was then at that point that the alleged threat of physical violence was made, according to her account," Daniels recalled.

The adult star added that the man, whom she could not identify, leaned around and looked at her daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom."

The experience left her shaking in fear and afraid she would drop her daughter, she added.

Daniels said that fear also motivated her to sign the non-disclosure agreement 11 days before the election in 2016.

She told CBS that she agreed to the gagging contract because "I was concerned for my family and their safety."

"Then in January 2018, after the Wall Street Journal had revealed the existence of the non-disclosure agreement, she signed another document that denied that any affair had taken place -- a statement that she now says was a lie," she added.

Asked by Cooper why she signed a false statement, Daniels replied: "Because they made it sound like I had no choice."

Cooper then asked Daniels if the latter thought there would be legal repercussions if there was no sign to which she answered that "they can make your life hell in many different ways."

Asked who "they" were, Daniels named Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Asked what she would say to Trump if he were watching the interview, she said: "He knows I'm telling the truth."

While Trump has been uncharacteristically quiet about the alleged fling, the White House has denied any sexual encounter between him and Daniels.

Photograph: ANIIn a decision reminiscent of the Cold War era, the United States on Monday expelled 60 Russian diplomats, describing them as intelligence officers and ordered closure of the countrys consulate in Seattle over the use of nerve agent allegedly by Moscow against a former Russian spy in the UK.

IMAGE: The move comes in retaliation to the use of nerve agent against former spy Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom, which blames Russia for the attack. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

A dozen of these expelled diplomats are based at Russias Permanent Mission to the UN.

Today President Donald J Trump ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian intelligence officers from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing, said the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders.

All Russian diplomats, connected to the countrys intelligence agencies, and their families have been given seven days time to leave the country.

According to an unnamed official, Trumps move to expel 60 Russian officials is the largest ever mass expulsion of Russian officials from the United States.

The US move was followed by 14 European Union member states who expelled a number of Russian diplomats in a coordinated response.

Germany, France and Poland have said they will each expel four Russia diplomats, the Czech Republic and Lithuania three, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands two, and Latvia one.

The White House said the expulsion is in retaliation to the use of nerve agent against former spy Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom, which blames Russia for the attack.

Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, both remain critically ill in hospital in Britain.

Moscow has denied these allegations. The United Kingdom has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats.

The United States takes this action in conjunction with its NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilising activities around the world, Sanders said.

Todays actions make the United States safer by reducing Russias ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten Americas national security. With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences, she said.

IMAGE: The Russian flag flies on the Consulate-General of the Russian Federation in Manhattan in New York City, US. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

She said the US stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian governments behaviour.

There are 100 Russian intelligence officials based in the US. This is the first step, a senior Trump administration official told reporters during a conference call.

The US reserves the right to expel more, the official added.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said that the United States has begun the process of expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission to the United Nations who have abused their privilege of residence in the United States.

After a review, we have determined that the 12 intelligence operatives engaged in espionage activities that are adverse to? our national security. Our actions are consistent with the United Nations Headquarters Agreement, she said.

Haley said Trumps decision shows that Russias actions have consequences.

Beyond Russias destabilising behaviour across the world, such as its participation in the atrocities in Syria and its illegal actions in Ukraine, it has now used a chemical weapon within the borders of one of our closest allies, she said.

Here in New York, Russia uses the UN as a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders. Today, the United States and many of our friends are sending a clear message that we will not stand for Russias misconduct, Haley said.

The strong US move comes after the UK alleged that on March 4, Russia used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to murder a British citizen and his daughter in Salisbury.

This attack on our Ally the United Kingdom put countless innocent lives at risk and resulted in serious injury to three people, including a police officer, the State Department Spokesperson, Heather Nauert, said.

In response to this outrageous violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and breach of international law, today the US will expel 48 Russian officials serving at Russias bilateral mission to the United States, she said.

We will also require the Russian government to close its Consulate General in Seattle by April 2, 2018. We take these actions to demonstrate our unbreakable solidarity with the UK, and to impose serious consequences on Russia for its continued violations of international norms, Nauert said.

The US calls on Russia to accept responsibility for its actions and to demonstrate to the world that it is capable of living up to its international commitments and responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security, she said.

Colonel Skripal was convicted of treason in 2006 and jailed for 13 years for selling secrets to MI6, which had recruited him in the 1990s. The senior intelligence officer with Russian military intelligence GRU, was pardoned in a spy swap in 2010 and settled in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

The US move revives memories of the Cold War (from 1950s to early 1990s) when the two super powers -- the United States and the Soviet Union -- were engaged in a competition for increasing their sphere of influence and often targeted each other with such expulsions.'Dalvi, you are saying you asked a question, but don't remember the answer?' asks Pasbola incredulously.

'Yes.'

'You are lying.'

Savera R Someshwar reports from the Sheena Bora murder trial.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

A delicate jab.

A sharp thrust.

A dogged defence.

A quick feint.

A smartly aimed slash.

A determined parry.

When the scheduled 2.45 pm hearing of the Sheena Bora murder trial began on March 23, you could be forgiven for thinking a joust -- a verbal one -- was taking place.

A joust similar to the one that had taken place many weeks ago between Sudeep Pasbola, who heads the defence team for accused number 1, Indrani Mukerjea, and Shyamvar Pinturam Rai, Accused No 3-turned-approver, and the prosecution's second witness in the trial, which began in February last year.

Only now, Rai's "Yaad nahis (I don't remember)" and "Maloom nahis" in Hindi have been replaced by Police Sub-Inspector Ganesh Dalvi's "Aathvath nahi (I don't remember)" and "Maahit nahi (I don't know)" in Marathi.

Dalvi, who was in the mobile police van that arrested Rai on Mumbai's popular promenade, Carter Road, for possessing an illegal country made revolver, cuts a smart figure -- the kind you'd probably see in a police recruitment advertisement.

Pasbola is scheduled to continue his cross-examination of the sub-inspector, the prosecution's first witness, who is now attached to the Andheri police station.

Dalvi walks into the witness stand ramrod straight, settles his blue and white cloth bag -- probably the result of Maharashtra's recent ban on plastic -- and places his police hat and a 500 ml bottle of water on the little shelf attached the front side.

Dalvi has missed the first of the dramas that were to play out in the courtroom that day, as Pasbola indicates he would like CBI Investigating Officer K K Singh to step out of the courtroom before he resumes his cross-examination.

It caused CBI Prosecutor Bharat Badami to bristle, "Why should the officer go out?"

"Because he is a gentleman," whips back Pasbola with a grin, causing a small wave of laughter in Courtroom 51 at Mumbai's civil and sessions court.

Even Judge Jayendra Chandrasen Jagdale can't repress his smile as he indicates Singh should step out and call Dalvi in.

"Ekvees aath (August 21, 2015)," booms Pasbola, "what time did you return to Khar police (after arresting Rai)?"

"Around 8.30 pm," says Dalvi softly, looking firmly at the judge, leaving the rest of the courtroom straining to hear his words and then relying on the judge's painstaking translation of the Marathi cross-examination into English for the court stenographer to ensure they have heard him correctly.

For those who had watched Pasbola cross-examine Rai, there is a sense of deja vu.

Pasbola then establishes that the Khar police station does not have a lock-up and those who are detained overnight are housed in the Bandra police station jail.

After Rai's arrest he had been kept in a room Dalvi alternately describes as a "temporary lock-up" and "detention room".

Pasbola then wants to know where Rai was held overnight, but all Dalvi is willing to admit is that he was in the police station only until "9.30-9.45" pm.

As they bat and forth about this point, Public Prosecutor Kavita Patil, dressed in her trademark while and black printed sari, jumps in and appeals to the judge, "He is saying 9.30 so why..."

"Thamba (wait) Madam... relax!" says Pasbola, sounding very much like the lawyer in Paresh Rawal's popular play, Kishan vs Kanhaiyal, which was later made into the Bollywood box-office hit, OMG: Oh My God, starring Akshay Kumar and Rawal.

What Pasbola wants to, and does underline, is Dalvi's seemingly strange disinterest in the man he has arrested.

Dalvi tells the judge he did his "regular duty" after reaching the station at "around 9 am" the next say and only saw Rai around "11.30-12" at the "police station".

Rai was presented in court that day, but Dalvi says he can neither recollect the time he was taken to court or if "anyone from Rai's family had come to the police station on August 21 or 22" after Rai was arrested.

Dalvi says has not seen the "attak panchanama (the arrest memo)" which he says may have been prepared by "Kadam sahib" (Police Inspector Dinesh Kadam who is credited with helping bust the Indian Mujahideen terror network in Maharashtra, the Abu Salem case and the 1993 Mumbai bomb blast case).

"Did you make an entry in the station diary?" asks Pasbola.

"Kadam sahib may have," Dalvi tells the judge.

"Did you see the diary?"

"Yes."

"Did you see the signature against the details entered in the diary?"

"Aathvath nahi."

"Did you see the time and number in the station diary?"

"Aathvath nahi."

"Who made the remand application?"

"Kadam sahib."

"Did you see it?"

"No."

Pasbola then wants to know if, considering Rai had an illegal weapon in his possession, the cops thought of searching Rai's house in Mosambi Chawl, Vakola, Santa Cruz East, not very far from the Khar police station.

Over a brief argument that has erupted between the excitable Badami and Pasbola -- the latter is unhappy with Dalvi's softly voiced answers, and replies that are not a direct answer to his questions, while the former feels the officer is not at fault -- the judge explains the questions to Dalvi.

"We had discussed about the search," says Dalvi.

"Kadam saab felt the search was not necessary?" asks Pasbola.

"Yes."

Pasbola moves on to Rai's interrogation, which began on August 22, 2015.

"At 2 pm," Dalvi replies, when asked when the interrogation began.

Pasbola again checks with Dalvi, as he had already done a couple of times earlier, if he knew by know whether Rai's family had been informed about his arrest.

"I had some idea," says Dalvi.

Pasbola wants to know if Dalvi was the only person conducting the interrogation.

"There were others."

"Who was interrogating?"

"Kadam sahib and I."

"How long did the interrogation last?"

"15, 20 minutes," says Dalvi, then requesting the judge's permission to have a sip of water.

In the dock for the accused, Accused No 2 Sanjeev Khanna stands in order to pay better attention.

Till August 22, when the panch (witnesses) were summoned, Dalvi, under Pasbola's searchlight, says Rai did not confess about where he obtained the weapon.

Why then, Pasbola wants to know, did Dalvi -- it was his decision, says the sub-inspector, and not "Kadam sahib's" -- to summon the panch and two witnesses were brought in by "P N (police naik) Jadhav."

Pasbola wants to know if Dalvi checked their eligibility to act as the panch, particularly if they had any kind of earlier contact with the police station in any matter.

"Chaukashi keli (I checked)."

But Pasbola wants a specific answer.

Judge Jagdale explains to Dalvi that the question relates specifically to any kind of contact between the panch and the Khar police station.

Dalvi says he "didn't ask."

"Had they acted as panch earlier?" asks Pasbola.

"I enquired."

"They said they had never visited the Khar police station or stood as panchas in any case?"

"I don't recall."

"Dalvi, you are saying you asked a question, but don't remember the answer?" asks Pasbola incredulously.

"Yes."

"You are lying. They are stock panchas, so you didn't ask them ask them any questions," the lawyer thunders.

"No, I asked. I can't remember the answers."

Both the prosecutors jump in, objecting to the defence lawyer's tone.

"He has answered three times!"

Pasbola spends some time on the interrogation after the panchas arrived.

"They asked him his name..."

"They did not ask any other questions..."

"He spoke about the Sheena Bora murder half an hour..."

"Yes, we wrote down everything he said before the panchas..."

"No, we didn't question him when he was giving his statement before the panchas..."

If all this was on record, Pasbola painstakingly underlined, via Dalvi, that there were many things that were not.

Like, there was no written record of the initial interrogation.

Like, the only record of an assistant commissioner of police's approval to investigate the case in another district (Pen, Khopoli, where Sheena's body was allegedly found based on Rai's statement about the murder) is in the panchnama.

Pasbola's repeated questioning on this matter leads to yet another objection from the public prosecutor.

A couple of minutes later, Badami is on his feet, accusing the defence lawyer of not allowing the witness to complete his answer.

Pasbola's cross has veered to the location of the Jockey store on Linking Road in Bandra West, outside which Accused no 1, 2 and 3 -- Indrani, Sanjeev and Rai -- are said to have picked up Sheena Bora.

Again, strangely, though the showroom falls under the jurisdiction of the Khar police station, to which Dalvi was then attached, the 34-year-old sub-inspector claims to never have seen it.

And while trying to get the exact location of the spot from where the attractive 25 year old was picked up, Pasbola loses his cool at Dalvi's seemingly evasive answers.

"Don't twist my question," he roars.

Finally, after some more questioning from Pasbola, it is established that Sheena was picked up on the "purvi (eastern) side" of Linking Road, on the pavement outside the Jockey showroom.

Pasbola then wants to know if the police cross-checked to find out if the Jockey showroom existed at that location in 2012.

"We didn't ask."

"Did you ask the azoo-bazoo (nearby) shops (Linking Road is popular for both its stores and its street shopping)?"

"No."

Badami jumps in to intruct Dalvi, who has started looking increasingly at Pasbola while answering the questions, that he needs to address his answer to the judge.

Pasbola shifts back to Pen, the location where the victim's body was found.

"What time did you reach Pen?"

"Around 5.30 pm."

"How long were you there?"

"At the village or the spot?"

Astonished laughter from Pasbola, followed by a sigh,

"Half an hour."

By now, Pasbola -- who has repeatedly asked the witness to speak louder -- has exhausted his patience.

"Sir," he address the judge, "he may be asked to answer the question properly..."

"Zorane, bhau (louder, brother)."

Pasbola establishes that the team from the Khar police station did not ask the villagers in Gagodh village, near the spot where Sheena's body was dumped and "10 to 15 km" from the Pen police station if they knew anything about a body being found so close to the village.

"So you didn't ask the villagers anything about a body?"

"No."

"Did you bring a copy of the application given to the Pen police station (to investigate the case in their jurisdiction)?"

"No."

"Can you bring a copy?"

"No."

"There is no such letter." You can almost see Pasbola doing the proverbial finger waggle, "that's why you can't bring it."

More then once, Pasbola has accused Witness No 1 of lying under oath.

"We have given the letter to Pen police station," Dalvi doggedly shoulders on against the peppery rain of Pasbola's questions.

"Is there a copy at the Khar police station?"

"Maahit nahi."

"Do you know what was written in the letter?"

"It was handwritten."

Pasbola is determined to get his answer.

"Do you know what was written in the letter?" he repeats.

"I told Mokashi what to write."

"So you dictated the letter. Can you remember what was in it?"

"No."

Once again, Pasbola highlights the gaps.

There is no recorded statement from anyone at Pen and Dalvi can't remember if there was forwarding letter taken for chemical analysis.

Though Dalvi admits it was necessary to obtain a copy of the post-mortem report, they didn't apply for one.

Dalvi can't remember if they asked for entries by specific dates from the Pen police station diary or if they found or met any cops who were stationed at the Pen police station in 2012 or even if they asked the Pen police how many bodies were discovered from the spot the year Sheena's body was allegedly dumped there.

They didn't show the spot where the body was found to the Pen police.

"You were there for three hours," says Pasbola. "Did you ask for the panchnama, the Accidental Death Report or any other documents?"

"We asked for the panchnama and the ADR for the spot."

"Did they give it to you?"

"Mahiti dili (they gave us information)."

"Did they give you the copy?"

"No."

"Till the 25th, did you see the panchnama, post mortem report and ADR?"

"Which 25th?"

Pasbola can't help the laugh that escapes his lips.

"August 25, 2015," he specifies with smile.

"No."

Pasbola returns to Rai's interrogation three days earlier, on August 22.

"Did you realise he was giving information regarding a cognisable offence?"

"Yes."

"So as a competent officer, you knew what to do."

"Yes."

"You had to register an FIR."

"Yes."

"So why was an FIR not registered, bhau?"

"The memorandum panchnama was recorded and we decided to go to Pen and check if he was telling the truth."

For the next few minutes, Pasbola asks the same question in different ways to find out if the investigating officers were not sure that Sheena Bora had been kidnapped and murdered.

By now, Judge Jagdale is impatient. "He has answered the question."

Badami jumps in as well. "Why repeat the question? We are not silent spectators. He has explained it satisfactorily."

Once again, witness and defence lawyer go over the fact that one more panchnama was filed on August 23, that Dalvi has no idea where the man he arrested was detained on the nights of August 23-24, that Kadam, Dalvi and "others" were interrogating Rai, that Dalvi does not remember how many of Rai's statements were recorded by "Kadam sahib" on August 22-23-24.

Pasbola's volume has been increasing as Dalvi's decreased and the latter's barely heard answer about whether Rai provided any information as to where Sheena Bora was killed led to an argument between Pasbola and the prosecutorial team about volume.

"Don't shout," Badami tells Pasbola.

"He is speaking softly out of respect," Patil defuses the mounting tension amid laugher.

"So, in your investigation, you did not know about the places they took her to."

"He told us about Linking Road."

"And nothing about Amarsons? There no record of that?"

"No."

As Pasbola calls it a day, 10 ceiling fans, 20 steel cupboards, a few steel trunks, 7 to 10 poltis (bundles of evidence), a covered television set and two of the original five women clerks who dominated the desk before the judge watched the sun set on yet another day of the Sheena Bora trial.

"Chala, chala, ghevoon ghya tyala," says the court clerk, waving her hand at Indrani Mukherjea and her current and former husbands, Peter and Sanjeev.

Judge Jagdale, clearly unhappy at the gaps in the hearing of the trial, warns the lawyers that he won't permit any unnecessary delays in the trial, particularly since the accused are in jail.

And though Peter has been remanded to the custody of the Delhi CBI for investigation into his role in the Karti Chidambaram-INX case for which Indrani has already made a trip to Delhi, the case will continue on its next date, April 3, even if he is not present.

Outside, Singh is ribbing Sanjeev about the changed positions in the dock for the accused.

Sanjeev -- who used to sit between Indrani and Peter -- is now on the left, with Peter sitting next to his wife.

The couple, whose relationship appears acrimonious on the surface, seem to have a lot to discuss.

"Do you think I have any power Sir? Peter is bigger than me in every way -- size, age, power They are sitting together in the van too."

Badami walks into the conversation and ribs Sanjeev about his former wife.

"Arre sir," says Sanjeev, "my story got over in 2001. You are forming a new story in 2015."

In the compound, an elderly lady lift operator is taking a short break. She got the job on compassionate grounds after her husband passed away.

She is shocked that someone who looks like Indrani is in trouble with the law. "Kitni acchi lagti hai (She looks so nice) I wonder what she did that she got into this kind of trouble with the law."

Peter stops to talk to Indrani.

"Baap-beti hain kya (Are they father and daughter?)"That concludes Ahram Online's live coverage of the first day of voting.

21:00 Polling stations have now closed, marking the end of the first of three days of voting.

No figures for todays turnout have been released; however National Elections Authority officials said at a press conference this afternoon that it had initial indicators showing a high turnout, with the highest participation registered in Cairo, Alexandria, Giza, Qalioubiya, Assiut and Aswan.

Polling stations will reopen tomorrow at 9am.

19:45 The State Intelligence Service, the body responsible for monitoring foreign media in the country, said it is continuing to directly communicate with foreign correspondents to follow up on their coverage on the first day of the elections.

In a statement, the SIS said its members have continued communicating with 49 representatives from foreign media between 2pm and 6pm in the governorates of Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria.

It added that its operations room had received a total of three complaints from correspondents, mainly concerning access to polling stations, which the SIS said were resolved with the NEA.

18:30 Defence Minister Sedki Sobhi visited a number of polling stations to check on the security status of voting, a statement by the Egyptian military read.

Sobhi said that the country's armed forces will be a ''deterrent against anyone who should meddle" with the Egyptian nation, adding that it will deal firmly with any attempt to affect the electoral process.

18:00 Egypt's State Information Service, a body that oversees foreign media in the country, said in a statement on Monday that it has received 19 complaints and inquiries by foreign reporters covering the elections; most were about access to the polling stations, it said, and they have all been resolved.

The SIS operations room is in communication with 110 foreign media outlets and 680 reporters, both resident and visiting, to resolve any issues, Al-Ahram Arabic reported the body as saying.

17:30 Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar has been inspecting the electoral process from the ministry's operations room, a ministry statement said.

He monitored the voting around the country via video conference, and praised security measures undertaken by his ministry and the armed forces in securing polling stations.

17:15 In Aswan governorate in Upper Egypt, the Nour Party have been transporting hundreds of voters to the polling stations in minivans decorated with the partys posters.

The Salafist party has publicly backed El-Sisi for a second four-year term; it also backed him in the 2014 election that brought him to office.

17:00 Speaking at a press conference that was broadcast on local television, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said that "no state apparatus" was interfering in the electoral process, which was fair and transparent.

Ismail said the elections were running "systematically", and called on Egyptians to participate in casting their ballots.

Prior to the presser, Ismail inspected the cabinets operations room, where he also called on governors to continue following up with the process in their governorates.

16:30 Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar cast his ballot in Cairo's Nasr City district a little earlier this afternoon. In comments to the media, he said that the electoral process is stable and that his ministry is coordinating with the armed forces and taking all procedures to allow citizens to practice their constitutional rights.

16:15 Health Minister Ahmed Emad Rady has said that there have been 43 cases of fainting, high or low blood pressure, and fever at the polls; 24 of those patients received medical treatment at hospital and have subsequently been released.

The health ministry is running an emergency and crisis operations room over the three days of voting to monitor any medical emergencies that may arise during the polling.

16:00 In Qena governorate in the country's south, hundreds of volunteers from a pro-Sisi campaign (We Are All With You) have been stationed outside more than 400 polling stations to help voters through the balloting process, municipal campaign coordinator Osama El-Hawary told an Al-Ahram Arabic reporter.

15:10 The National Elections Authority (NEA) is holding a press conference to update the public on the progress of the first day of voting.

"The strength of the election process lies in its transparency," NEA spokesperson Mahmoud El-Sherif told reporters.



The NEA has dealt swiftly with a limited number of complaints and inquiries throughout the day, El-Sherif said.

"Vote for whoever you want to vote for, but do not listen to the voices of negativity or those who call for a boycott," he added.

El-Sherif said initial turnout indications showed high participation by voters on the first day of the elections, with the highest turnout registered in Cairo, Alexandria, Giza, and Qalioubiya, the Upper Egyptian governorates of Assiut and Aswan, and in North Sinai.

"The NEA indicated a very high turnout in North Sinai," he said. "Despite the security situation, the governorates' residents challenged the conditions and delivered a very clear message to express their free will."

14:30 In Banha, a city in the Nile Delta governorate of Qalioubiya, dozens of senior citizens waving flags queued outside polling stations to vote, according to Al-Ahram Arabic news website.

"I'm casting my vote for more security and stability," said 49-year-old Somaya Ibrahim as she waited in line. "This election is a message to terrorists that we don't fear bombings and threats."

14:10 The National Elections Authority (NEA) said that a very limited number of polling stations were late opening, missing the 9am deadline by up to 20 minutes. The delays were due to health emergencies preventing the timely arrival of supervising judges.



"The NEA authorized reserve judges to supervise elections at these polling stations, while the remaining polling stations opened at their scheduled time of 9am," the NEA said in a statement.



"No complaints have been received regarding the elections, either by judges or by voters, up to this moment," the NEA said, indicating a "high turnout" at all polling stations across the country.



The elections are being supervised by 18,000 judges, assisted by 110,000 administrative assistants in 13,706 polling stations in all 26 governorates across the country.

13:45 Presidential candidate and Ghad Party chairperson Moussa Mostafa Moussa cast his ballot at Abdeen High School's polling station in central Cairo. An Ahram Online reporter said Moussa saluted voters at nearby polling stations before voting, with a large number of journalists present.

"The youth are proving to the world that they are standing by their country through voting," Moussa told reporters.



According to a supervising judge at the Abdeen station there was a relatively high turnout at the site.

"More than 400 voters showed up at the station since it opened its doors at 9am," the judge told Ahram Online.



A second Ahram Online reporter said that there was a reasonable turnout for pensioners and the elderly.

As Monday is a normal business day, turnout is likely to be slower in the first part of the day, with more voters expected in the evening.

13:30 An Ahram Online reporter at a polling station in Giza governorate said that two foreign observers briefly visited the site and asked several questions with the assistance of a translator. It was not immediately possible to identify which organization they belong to.



The National Elections Authority said last month that 62 NGOs, including nine foreign organisations, are monitoring the poll. In addition, three national councils and six Arab and international agencies, including the African Union, the Arab League and the COMESA Regional Investment Agency, are observing the vote.

13:10 In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city, there were more women than men in evidence at polling stations in the western district of Bahary and the Eastern Al-Raml district, Egypts state-run news agency MENA said.



On Sunday, just one day before the vote, two policemen were killed in a car-bomb attack in the governorate. The terrorist attack targetted the provincial security chief who emerged unscathed.

12:55 Former interim president Adly Mansour (2013-2014) voted in Cairo, as did former foreign minister and 2012 presidential candidate Amr Moussa.

12:50 Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, cast his ballot at Mostafa Yousry Emeira Schools polling station in Cairo's Heliopolis district.

Schools with polling stations at them, numbering around 11,000, are closed to students for the full three days of voting.

12:30 In North Sinai, where the Egyptian military and police continue to fight terrorist groups, residents headed to polling stations across the governorate.



Over the past two months, the Egyptian military has been conducting a major counter-terrorism initiative named Operation Sinai 2018, with land, naval and air forces aiming to defeat terror groups in north and central Sinai.

12:00 Egyptian radio and TV stations, as well as newspapers, have been encouraging voters to head the polls.



Prior to the elections, Egyptian President El-Sisi and his competitor Moussa Mostafa Moussa both urged voters to turn out in large numbers. In the 2014 presidential elections, which brought El-Sisi to office, the poll, which was initially scheduled to last two days, was extended for a third day, pushing the overall turnout from 37 percent to 47 percent.

11:20 Egypt's National Elections Authority (NEA) has announced the hotline number "19826" for receiving voters' complaints throughout the three days of elections. The authority has confirmed that the elections are running smoothly in all governorates across Egypt.

10:45 An Ahram Online reporter said an electioneering pick-up truck blaring patriotic songs from loudspeakers and plastered with posters of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has been circling polling stations in Gizas Dokki district.



At a polling station in Dokki, Samia Abdel Halim, a woman in her sixties, told Ahram Online, Im voting for El-Sisi, not because there is no one else, but because he has done many good things for the country.

She said that El-Sisis presidential rule thus far has brought security and stability to the country.



Egypt is in need of an officer to protect the country against plots being hatched against it, she said, referring to El-Sisi's military career, which culminated with the role of commander in chief of Egypt's armed forces.

10:30 Prime Minister Sherif Ismail voted at the Mostafa Yousry Emeira School polling station in the Heliopolis district of Cairo.

10:20 Egypt's Coptic Pope Tawadros II cast his ballot at El-Sarayat preparatory school polling station in Waily district of north Cairo.

10:10 Tens of thousands of army and police personnel are securing voting in more than 13,000 polling stations around the country.

Armoured vehicles are stationed outside polling stations and at several points around the capital Cairo, providing security for the voting process, Ahram Online reporters said.

09:50 Egypts PM Sherif Ismail is monitoring the polling process using video-conferencing technology, state-run news agency MENA said. Ismail is chairing a cabinet operations room comprised of officials from the ministries of defence, interior, justice, health and transport. The operations room is monitoring the polling process and maintaining contact with municipal officials in governorates nationwide.

09:30 Voters started casting their ballots in various parts of the country, lining up in Boulaq El-Dakrour neighbourhood in Cairo, El-Haram district in Giza, and the governorates of Alexandria, North Sinai, Qena in Upper Egypt, the Nile Delta's Gharbeya, and Ismailiya on the Suez Canal. Voters were waving Egyptian flags as they entered polling stations to cast their ballots.

09:02 President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi casts his ballot at Mostafa Yousry Emeirra Schools polling station in Cairo's Heliopolis district.

09:00 The 13,706 polling stations across Egypt have started to open their doors to voters in Egypts 2018 presidential elections.

08:45 Voting will take place from Monday to Wednesday, with polling stations opening at 9am and closing at 9pm.

There are two contenders: incumbent President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, and politician Moussa Mostafa Moussa, who heads the Ghad Party. Both have called on voters to turn out in large numbers.



The total number of eligible voters in the national voter database is 59 million, according to the country's National Elections Authority (NEA).

Expatriates went to the polls at Egyptian embassies around the world last week, although results from the expat voting will not be announced until the final results of the election are released, on or before 2 April, unless there is the need for a run-off vote.

The voting is being supervised by 18,000 judges assisted by 110,000 administrative assistants in 13,706 polling stations in all 26 governorates across the country, the NEA have said.

Tens of thousands of army and police personnel have been mobilised to safeguard polling stations.

The NEA has authorised 54 local NGOs to monitor the elections, along with 15 Arab, African and international bodies.

Short link:

Freedom in the World 2018 - Zimbabwe

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 15 March 2018 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2018 - Zimbabwe, 15 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5ab8bd1726.html [accessed 24 September 2021] 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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 30 (0 = Least Free, 100 = Most Free)

Freedom Rating: 5.5 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Political Rights: 6 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Civil Liberties: 5 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Quick Facts

Population: 16,000,000

Capital: Harare

GDP/capita: $1,033

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) have dominated Zimbabwean politics since independence in 1980, in part by carrying out severe and often violent crackdowns against the political opposition, critical media, and other dissenters. However, in recent years the ZANU-PF has fragmented, as politicians maneuvered for position to succeed the aging Mugabe as president. In 2017, Mugabe was removed from power through a military intervention, and Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former vice president, was installed as president. He promised that elections would be held in 2018, as scheduled.

Status Change Explanation:

Zimbabwe's status declined from Partly Free to Not Free and its political rights rating declined from 5 to 6 due to the process by which elected president Robert Mugabe was compelled to resign in November under pressure from the military.

Key Developments in 2017:

In November, Mugabe was compelled to resign under pressure from the military, and Mnangagwa became president. Mnangagwa's subsequently appointed several high-ranking military figures to his cabinet.

Following the events in November, several high-profile figures aligned with Mugabe were arrested and detained, with military officials refusing to disclose the charges against them and in some cases, where they were being held.

Earlier, in September, lawmakers approved and Mugabe signed into law a measure restoring the president's discretionary power to appoint individuals to the three highest offices of the judiciary, reducing the transparency of the selection process and threatening judicial independence.

In September, a reproductive health and rights advocacy group released an expose about underage girls engaged in commercial sex work, prompting the Ministry of Public Service, Labour, and Social Welfare to place dozens of girls in statutory care.

POLITICAL RIGHTS: 10 / 40 (-2)

A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 2 / 12 (-1)

A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 0 / 4 (-1)

The president is directly elected, and limited to two five-year terms under the 2013 constitution, which also devolved some previously presidential powers to the parliament and the provinces. Mugabe won the 2013 presidential election with 61 percent of the vote. The opposition, the Zimbabwe Electoral Coalition (ZEC), and international observers reported widespread electoral violations, but monitors from the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) deemed the irregularities not severe enough to have affected the result.

In 2017, Mugabe was forced to resign after a military intervention. The crisis broke open in November, when Mugabe fired Mnangagwa as vice president, claiming that he was preparing to seize power. The event was widely viewed as a signal that the G40 grouping, a faction of the ZANU-PF associated with Mugabe's wife, Grace Mugabe, would subsequently control the presidential succession process. A few days later, the military announced in a state broadcast that it had temporarily taken power in order to "[target] criminals around [Mugabe] who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice." The military quickly moved to legitimize their actions constitutionally, even as the SADC and AU condemned the intervention.

Mugabe resigned later in November, after the ZANU-PF dismissed him as the party's president, and impeachment proceedings against him began in Parliament. The ruling party then selected Mnangagwa as Mugabe's successor, and he was inaugurated as the new president of Zimbabwe. The High Court ruled that the military takeover was not a coup, as did the AU. President Mnangagwa announced that elections would be held in 2018 as planned, and would be "free and fair."

Score Change: The score declined from 1 to 0 due to the process by which elected president Robert Mugabe was compelled to resign in November under pressure from the military.

A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 1 / 4

Zimbabwe has a bicameral legislature. In the lower chamber, the 270-seat National Assembly, 210 members are elected through a first-past-the-post system with one member per constituency, and 60 female members are elected by proportional representation. The 80-seat Senate includes 6 members from each of Zimbabwe's 10 provinces who are elected through proportional representation, and 20 appointed members, including 18 traditional leaders and 2 members representing people with disabilities. Members in both houses serve five-year terms.

Like the concurrent presidential election, the 2013 parliamentary elections were marred by serious irregularities, though monitors from the AU and SADC endorsed the results. The ZANU-PF captured 197 of the 270 National Assembly seats, followed by 70 for Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T).

Several by-elections were held in 2017, including in Bikita West and Chiwundura constituencies, where ZANU-PF candidates won by substantial margins. The opposition alleged electoral irregularities as well as that the ZANU-PF engaged in serious voter intimidation, including assaults. Separately, following the ousting of Mugabe in November, the ZANU-PF-dominated parliament voted to expel several ZANU-PF legislators aligned with the G40 faction; they were also stripped of party membership.

A3. Are the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies? 1 / 4

The 2012 Electoral Amendment Act reconstituted the ZEC with new commissioners nominated by all political parties. However, its independence from ZANU-PF has been questioned. In 2017, opposition figures objected that its chairwoman, Rita Makarau, also served as secretary of the Judicial Service Commission, and that she was appointed in the absence of constitutionally required consultations with the parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and Orders. However, she resigned as ZEC chairperson in December, without offering any explanation for the decision.

Makarau's resignation contributed to uncertainty about the ZEC's ability to manage ongoing voter registration processes ahead of the planned 2018 elections. The polls are expected to feature the use of a biometric voter registration system, which is intended in large part to prevent the duplication of names and other inaccuracies on voter rolls  issues the opposition and election observers have identified as a serious problem in past elections.

Additionally, the ZEC was criticized in 2017 for providing fewer voter registration centers in urban areas, which are perceived strongholds of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

B. POLITICAL PLURALISM AND PARTICIPATION: 6 / 12

B1. Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system free of undue obstacles to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings? 2 / 4

Political parties may generally form without interference, and there were some 75 registered political parties in Zimbabwe at the end of 2017, many of which had newly formed ahead of the 2018 general elections. However, new and opposition parties face obstacles in their operations. State newspapers and broadcasting institutions tend not to cover opposition candidates. Opposition gatherings often draw a heavy police presence compared to the ruling party's rallies, and police often impose restrictions on opposition activities. In March 2017, the police banned the opposition from marching through Harare's business district. However, ZANU-PF supporters were able to march through the city center with minimal police presence in August, in support of Grace Mugabe. ZANU-PF supporters have reportedly attacked opposition supporters, premises and homes.

B2. Is there a realistic opportunity for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through elections? 2 / 4

Opposition parties face obstruction of their activities, curtailing their ability to challenge the ZANU-PF in elections. The main opposition party, the MDC, has split into multiple factions. The MDC-T remains the largest opposition grouping. In August 2017, several opposition parties including MDC splinter groups formed a coalition ahead of the 2018 elections. However, the coalition is viewed as weak due to the appearance of divisions between the parties.

B3. Are the people's political choices free from domination by the military, foreign powers, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group that is not democratically accountable? 1 / 4

In November 2017, the military forced Mugabe's resignation and Mnangagwa, their favored candidate, became president. Mnangagwa's subsequently appointed several high-ranking military figures to his cabinet, raising fears of deepened military involvement in civilian affairs.

Militia groups linked to the ZANU-PF have intimidated the party's political opponents, opposition supporters, and critical activists.

The constitution states that institutions such as the country's traditional leaders (as well as the military) shall remain nonpartisan. However, in October 2017, the Chief's Council president publicly called on all chiefs to support the ruling party.

B4. Do various segments of the population (including ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT, and other relevant groups) have full political rights and electoral opportunities? 1 / 4

Zimbabwe's ethnic Shona majority dominates ZANU-PF and the MDC-T, and in the past, members of the Ndebele minority have complained of political marginalization by both parties. The Constitution guarantees 60 reserved seats for women in the National Assembly, boosting women's representation in parliament after the 2013 elections to around 35 percent. The provision expires in 2023, raising concerns about whether progress in women's representation will be sustained.

C. FUNCTIONING OF GOVERNMENT: 2 / 12 (-1)

C1. Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government? 0 / 1 (-1)

Zimbabwe lacked a freely elected head of government at the end of 2017. After Mugabe was removed from power by the military in November, President Mnangagwa was installed by the ruling party in the absence of elections.

In the past, the commanders of the highly partisan military, police, and intelligence agencies played a central role in government decision making. The military takeover in November and the subsequent appointment of several military members into cabinet has made the military's role in government more evident.

In recent years, much everyday government activity has come to a standstill due to the succession crisis that has been ongoing in the ruling ZANU-PF.

Score Change: The score declined from 1 to 0 because President Mugabe was removed from power by the military, and Emmerson Mnangagwa was then installed as president by the ruling party in the absence of an election.

C2. Are safeguards against official corruption strong and effective? 1 / 4

Corruption is endemic, and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has little independent investigative or enforcement capacity. Annual reports by the country's auditor general revealing large-scale corruption in government have not been acted upon.

During Mugabe's rule, the ZACC had reportedly fallen prey to ZANU-PF factionalism, with different groups attempting to persuade it to prosecute members of rival factions. Following Mugabe's ouster, many of ZACC's investigations appeared to selectively target perceived allies of the G40 faction associated with Grace Mugabe.

C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 1 / 4

Government processes are generally opaque. While the constitution protects the right to access information, a number of restrictive laws make it very difficult for the media and public to access information from the government.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: 20 / 60

D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 8 / 16

D1. Are there free and independent media? 1 / 4

The constitution protects freedoms of the media and expression. However, the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (CLCRA) severely limit what journalists may publish and mandate harsh penalties  including long prison sentences  for violators. Journalists risk arrest and assault in connection with their work. In July 2017, three journalists and a photographer were attacked by police and arrested as they covered police attacks on protesters in the capital.

The state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) dominates broadcast media, and in a country where many people reply on the radio for information, media diversity is limited by authorities' sustained refusal to grant licenses to community radio stations. Commercial radio licenses have generally gone to state-controlled companies or individuals with close links to ZANU-PF. The government also controls the two main daily newspapers, though there are several independent print outlets.

In September 2017, the High Court ruled that the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) must grant a license to Kwese TV, a private television channel the BAZ had previously declared illegal.

D2. Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private? 3 / 4

Freedom of religion is generally respected in Zimbabwe. However, congregations perceived to be critical of the government have faced harassment. Separately, in January 2017, a pastor was arrested for prophesying Mugabe's death, on the grounds that predicting someone's death was an insult against practicers of Christianity and African tradition. The Constitutional Court in October dismissed the pastor's challenge that his fundamental rights, including the freedom of expression, had been violated.

D3. Is there academic freedom, and is the educational system free from extensive political indoctrination? 2 / 4

The Ministry of Higher Education supervises education policy at universities, and Mugabe, as president, served as the chancellor of all eight state-run universities. In December, Mnangagwa was installed as the new chancellor of Midlands State University.

There has been widespread criticism of the University of Zimbabwe's 2014 move to award a doctorate to Grace Mugabe two months after she enrolled there. Students who heckled her at a 2016 graduation ceremony were detained by authorities. Nevertheless, political pressure on teachers and academics has eased in recent years.

D4. Are individuals free to express their personal views on political or other sensitive topics without fear of surveillance or retribution? 2 / 4

Zimbabweans enjoy some freedom and openness in private discussion, but official monitoring of public gatherings, prosecution of offenses like insulting or undermining the president, and the threat of political violence serve as deterrents to unfettered speech. In October 2017, the ministry for Cyber Security, Threat Detection, and Mitigation was established, with the government saying it was needed to respond to threats against the state posed by the purported abuse of social media. Soon after, police arrested Martha O'Donovan, a project manager for the online station Magamba TV and a U.S. citizen, for a tweet that allegedly insulted Mugabe. She was charged under the CLCRA with subversion and insulting the president, and was free on bail at year's end.

E. ASSOCIATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL RIGHTS: 4 / 12

E1. Is there freedom of assembly? 1 / 4

Freedom of assembly and association are guaranteed in the constitution, but poorly upheld in practice. Repressive pieces of legislation such as the POSA  which requires police approval for demonstrations and proscribes civil and criminal penalties for violations  are used to restrict demonstrations.

Antigovernment demonstrations were not as widespread in 2017 as in 2016, when authorities had responded to a popular protest movement with massive crackdowns. Nevertheless, a number of demonstrations took place in 2017 and state security forces continued to employ excessive force to disperse protestors. Opposition and civil society activists were arrested and charged with crimes such as "subversion" and "insulting the office of the president."

In November, after Mugabe was placed on house arrest by the military, thousands of people took to the street to demand his resignation without incident. But in December, several people in Matabeleland were assaulted and arrested by security forces for demonstrating against President Mnangagwa, raising concerns about continued repression following Mugabe's fall from power.

E2. Is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that are engaged in human rights- and governance-related work? 2 / 4

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are active, but remain subject to legal restrictions under the POSA, the CLCRA, and the Private Voluntary Organisations Act, despite the rights laid out in the constitution.

E3. Is there freedom for trade unions and similar professional or labor organizations? 1 / 4

Due to unemployment and increasing informal employment accompanying Zimbabwe's economic crisis, trade unions are grossly underfunded and many face dissolution. The Labour Act allows the government to veto collective bargaining agreements it deems harmful to the economy. Strikes are allowed except in "essential" industries. In response to a weeklong doctors' strike in February 2017, the military deployed army medics to work at affected hospitals.

Authorities responded harshly to a 2016 general strike that shut down normal activity in large parts of the country, and was accompanied by antigovernment protests.

F. RULE OF LAW: 3 / 16

F1. Is there an independent judiciary? 2 / 4

Over the years, pressure from the executive has substantially eroded the independence of the judiciary. While some judges and magistrates have ruled against the government, several controversial developments in 2017 pointed to the continued influence of the executive. In a November judgment widely viewed as unconstitutional, a High Court judge upheld the intervention by the military to oust Mugabe. Earlier, in September, lawmakers approved and Mugabe signed into law Constitution Amendment Bill No. 1, which restored the president's discretionary power to appoint individuals to the three highest offices of the judiciary, reducing the transparency of the selection process and further threatening judicial independence. A constitutional challenge involving claims of irregularities in the parliamentary vote to approve the amendment was pending at year end. Corruption has also seriously undermined the functioning the judiciary.

F2. Does due process prevail in civil and criminal matters? 0 / 4

Due process protections contained within the constitution are not enforced. Security forces frequently ignore basic rights regarding detention, searches, and seizures, and accused persons are often held and interrogated for hours without legal counsel and without being notified of the reason for their arrest. Following the events in November 2017, several high-profile figures aligned with Mugabe were arrested and detained, with military officials refusing to disclose the charges against them and in some cases, where they were being held.

F3. Is there protection from the illegitimate use of physical force and freedom from war and insurgencies? 0 / 4

Security forces backed by the ZANU-PF have long engaged in acts of violence, including against opposition supporters, for which they enjoy impunity. Police brutality is common.

Despite some improvements in recent years, prison conditions are harsh and sometimes life-threatening. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, and food shortages have contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other illnesses among inmates.

F4. Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population? 1 / 4

While discrimination on the basis of a broad range of characteristics is prohibited under the 2013 constitution, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is not expressly prohibited. Sex between men is a criminal offense and can be punished with a fine and up to a year in prison. The country's land and indigenization policies have been criticized for discriminating against the white Zimbabwean minority.

G. PERSONAL AUTONOMY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: 5 / 16

G1. Do individuals enjoy freedom of movement, including the ability to change their place of residence, employment, or education? 2 / 4

Police roadblocks within and between cities, at which police frequently stop motorists to demand bribes, have become a serious inconvenience. In December 2017, the government issued a directive to reduce police roadblocks and abolish spot fines.

Passport offices, which in the past were characterized by long queues and instances of bribery, have since become more efficient. However, in September 2017, the registrar's office temporarily suspended applications for emergency passports, citing a backlog of over 2,000 applications.

G2. Are individuals able to exercise the right to own property and establish private businesses without undue interference from state or nonstate actors? 1 / 4

Land rights in Zimbabwe are poorly protected. In rural areas, the nationalization of land left both commercial farmers and smallholders with limited right to their land. In a move meant to address the scarcity of formal titles to land, the Minister of Lands announced in October 2017 that resettled black farmers would be given 99-year leases and white farmers, 5-year leases. Separately, in March, over 100 families who had lived on a parcel of land for nearly two decades were forcibly evicted by riot police, reportedly because Grace Mugabe wanted to establish a wildlife preserve there. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission condemned the evictions as unconstitutional because they were not sanctioned by the courts, and alternative accommodation was not provided to those evicted.

The government has targeted the many vendors who have set up shop on the streets of Harare and elsewhere in the wake of the economic crisis. In October 2017, Mugabe ordered the removal of street vendors operating outside of designated selling points in Harare. Police seized goods, and reportedly attacked some vendors. The new government continued the campaign against vendors in cities around the country.

In response to the country's severe foreign currency shortages, some banks have restricted the amount of cash that can be withdrawn per day, as well as that can be involved in some international transactions.

G3. Do individuals enjoy personal social freedoms, including choice of marriage partner and size of family, protection from domestic violence, and control over appearance? 1 / 4

Women enjoy extensive legal protections, but societal discrimination remains high and domestic abuse is a problem. Sexual abuse is widespread, especially against girls. Child marriages are illegal but factors such as poverty, religion and lack of strong enforcement mechanisms have prolonged the practice. The Termination of Pregnancy Act makes abortion illegal except in very limited circumstances.

G4. Do individuals enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom from economic exploitation? 1 / 4

Due to the prevailing economic crisis, many workers are not adequately compensated, and some have gone for months without pay. A 2017 assessment by the International Trade Union Confederation Global Rights Index found that Zimbabwe was among the worst countries in the world to work in.

The Zimbabwean government has made significant progress in its efforts to combat human trafficking, which women and girls are particularly vulnerable to. In September 2017, Katswe Sisterhood, a reproductive health and rights advocacy group, released an expose about underage girls engaged in commercial sex work, which prompted the Ministry of Public Service, Labour, and Social Welfare to place 54 girls in statutory care.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights ReservedFreedom in the World 2018 - Tibet

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 15 March 2018 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2018 - Tibet, 15 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5ab8bd234.html [accessed 24 September 2021] 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.

Freedom Status: Not Free

Aggregate Score: 1 (0 = Least Free, 100 = Most Free)

Freedom Rating: 7.0 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Political Rights: 7 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Civil Liberties: 7 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Quick Facts

Population: 3,000,000

OVERVIEW

Tibet is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government based in Beijing, with local decision-making power concentrated in the hands of Chinese party officials. Residents of both Chinese and Tibetan ethnicity are denied fundamental rights, but the authorities are especially rigorous in suppressing any signs of dissent among Tibetans, including manifestations of uniquely Tibetan religious belief and cultural identity. State policies encourage migration from other parts of China, reducing the ethnic Tibetan share of the population.

Key Developments in 2017:

An already heavy security presence increased ahead of the 19th Party Congress in October, during which foreigners were barred from visiting the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). At the congress, Chen Quanguo, the TAR party secretary from 2011 to 2016, was promoted to the Politburo in an apparent reward for his repressive approach to governance.

Censorship and surveillance on the popular instant-messaging platform WeChat increased during the year.

Large-scale demolitions and evictions of monks and nuns continued at two prominent Tibetan Buddhist academies in Sichuan Province, and six CCP cadres were given control over the management of one of the sites, Larung Gar.

POLITICAL RIGHTS: -2 / 40

A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 0 / 12

A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 0 / 4

The Chinese government rules Tibet through administration of the TAR and 12 Tibetan autonomous prefectures or counties in the nearby provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, and Yunnan. Under the Chinese constitution, autonomous areas have the right to formulate their own regulations and implement national legislation in accordance with local conditions. In practice, however, decision-making authority is concentrated in the hands of unelected ethnic (Han) Chinese officials of the CCP, which has a monopoly on political power. In 2016, Wu Yingjie replaced Chen Quanguo as TAR party secretary.

The few ethnic Tibetans who occupy senior positions serve mostly as figureheads and echo official doctrine. In January 2017, Che Dalha, an ethnic Tibetan and party cadre, replaced Lobsang Gyaltsen as the chairman (governor) of the TAR. The position is formally elected by the regional people's congress, but in practice such decisions are predetermined by the CCP.

A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 0 / 4

The regional people's congress of the TAR, which is formally elected by lower-level people's congresses, chooses delegates to China's 3,000-member National People's Congress (NPC) every five years, but in practice candidates are vetted by the CCP.

A3. Are the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies? 0 / 4

As in the rest of China, direct elections are only permitted at the lowest administrative levels. Tight political controls and aggressive state interference ensure that competitive races with independent candidates are even rarer in Tibet than in other parts of the country. Regulations published in 2014 placed significant restrictions on candidates for village elections, excluding those who have attended religious teachings abroad, have communicated with overseas Tibetans, or have relatives studying at monasteries outside China.

B. POLITICAL PLURALISM AND PARTICIPATION: 0 / 16

B1. Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system free of undue obstacles to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings? 0 / 4

All organized political activity outside the CCP is illegal and harshly punished, as is any evidence of loyalty to or communication with the Tibetan government in exile, based in Dharamsala, India.

The exile government includes an elected parliament serving five-year terms, a Supreme Justice Commission that adjudicates civil disputes, and a directly elected prime minister, also serving five-year terms. Votes are collected from the Tibetan diaspora around the world. The unelected Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who also traditionally served as head of state, renounced his political role in 2011. Lobsang Sangay was elected prime minister in the same year, replacing a two-term incumbent and becoming the exile government's top political official; he was reelected in April 2016.

B2. Is there a realistic opportunity for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through elections? 0 / 4

As in the rest of China, the one-party system rigorously suppresses the development of any organized political opposition.

B3. Are the people's political choices free from domination by the military, foreign powers, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group that is not democratically accountable? 0 / 4

The authoritarian CCP is not accountable to voters and denies the public any meaningful influence or participation in political affairs.

B4. Do various segments of the population (including ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT, and other relevant groups) have full political rights and electoral opportunities? 0 / 4

Political opportunities for ethnic Tibetans within Tibet remain limited by the dominance of ethnic Chinese officials at all levels of the CCP. The ethnic Tibetan population's objections to party policies are actively suppressed. Women are well represented in many public-sector jobs and CCP posts within the TAR, though most high-level officials are men, and women are unable to organize independently to advance their political interests.

C. FUNCTIONING OF GOVERNMENT: 1 / 12

C1. Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government? 0 / 4

Unelected CCP officials determine and implement government policies in Tibet.

C2. Are safeguards against official corruption strong and effective? 1 / 4

As in the rest of China, corruption is believed to be extensive, though little information is available on the scale of the problem. There have been moves in recent years to curb graft among the region's officials as part of Chinese president Xi Jinping's nationwide anticorruption campaign. However, many prosecutions are believed to be politically selective or amount to reprisals for perceived political and religious disloyalty.

C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 0 / 4

Governance is opaque in all of China, but even more so in Tibet. A study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences published in March 2017 ranked cities and counties nationwide by their level of government transparency; Lhasa scored lowest among the cities, and the TAR's Nang County was the lowest among the counties under examination.

ADDITIONAL DISCRETIONARY POLITICAL RIGHTS QUESTION

Is the government or occupying power deliberately changing the ethnic composition of a country or territory so as to destroy a culture or tip the political balance in favor of another group? -3 / 0

The Chinese government's economic development programs in Tibet have strongly encouraged ethnic Chinese migration to the region, disproportionately benefited ethnic Chinese residents, and exacerbated the marginalization of ethnic Tibetans, who have also been displaced by mass resettlement campaigns within Tibet. Ethnic Tibetans account for some 90 percent of the permanently registered population of the TAR, but many ethnic Chinese migrants have moved to the region without changing permanent residency. In recent years, officials have announced major new urbanization projects that risk further diluting the region's Tibetan population; one such plan aims to increase the "permanent urban population" of Tibet by approximately 30 percent by 2020, with many new settlers likely to be ethnic Chinese.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: 3 / 60

D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 0 / 16

D1. Are there free and independent media? 0 / 4

Chinese authorities tightly restrict all news media in Tibet. Individuals who use the internet, social media, or other means to disseminate dissenting views or share politically sensitive news content face arrest and heavy criminal penalties. Tibetan cultural expression, which the authorities associate with separatism, is subject to especially harsh restrictions; those incarcerated in recent years have included scores of Tibetan writers, intellectuals, and musicians. During 2017, Tibetans reportedly continued to be detained or sentenced to prison for actions like disseminating flyers or verbally expressing support for the Dalai Lama and freedom for Tibet, sharing images of the Dalai Lama or the Tibetan flag on WeChat, or sending information abroad about recent self-immolation protests. In June, two monks from Sogtsang Monastery in Aba (Ngaba) Prefecture, Sichuan Province, were sentenced to four and five years in prison, respectively, for offenses including passing information to contacts outside of Tibet.

Deliberate internet blackouts are common in Tibet, including in areas where public demonstrations have occurred. International broadcasts are jammed, and personal communication devices are periodically confiscated and searched. The online censorship and monitoring systems in place across China are applied even more stringently in the TAR, while censorship of Tibet-related keywords on WeChat has become more sophisticated.

Access to the TAR is highly restricted for foreign journalists, who are also regularly prevented from entering Tibetan areas of Sichuan and other provinces, though no permission is technically required to travel there. Tibetans who communicate with foreign media without permission risk arrest and prosecution. Businessman Tashi Wangchuck was detained in early 2016 on charges of inciting separatism after giving an interview to the New York Times in 2015 about his efforts to use the Chinese legal system to challenge the lack of Tibetan-language education; his case was resubmitted to a court in January 2017, and a trial was pending at year's end.

D2. Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private? 0 / 4

Freedom of religion is harshly restricted in Tibet, in large part because the authorities interpret reverence for the Dalai Lama and adherence to the region's unique form of Buddhism as a threat to CCP rule. In March 2017, authorities used cash prizes and threats of punishment in an effort to dissuade monks and nuns from making pilgrimages to India or Nepal. In August, the Chinese government promulgated revised regulations on religious affairs. The new rules reiterated many existing restrictions while strengthening controls on places of worship, travel for religious purposes, and children's religious education, including in Tibetan areas.

Religious Affairs Bureaus control who can study in monasteries and nunneries. Officials enforce a minimum age requirement of 18 for those who wish to become monks or nuns, although some institutions continue to accept younger children without registration. Monks and nuns are required to sign a declaration rejecting Tibetan independence, expressing loyalty to the government, and denouncing the Dalai Lama. Since 2012, the CCP has set up committees of government officials within monasteries to manage their daily operations and enforce party indoctrination campaigns. Police posts are increasingly common even in smaller monasteries.

Ideological education campaigns reach most monasteries and nunneries in the region. Such campaigns typically force participants to recognize the CCP claim that China "liberated" Tibet and to denounce the Dalai Lama. The effort has also been extended to the lay population in recent years, with students, civil servants, and farmers required to participate in discussions, singing sessions, and propaganda film screenings. Possession of Dalai Lama-related materials  especially in the TAR  can lead to official harassment, arrest, and punishment, including restrictions on commercial activity and loss of welfare benefits.

In June 2016, authorities ordered a sharp reduction in the size of Larung Gar  a major center for Tibetan Buddhist learning located in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province  to a maximum of 5,000 occupants, down from an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 occupants. Demolitions at the site began that July, and many of the evicted monks and nuns were reportedly forced to undergo political "reeducation" before being sent to their home districts. The process continued in 2017, and in August the Chinese government appointed six CCP cadres to take over the management of Larung Gar. The campaign of intensified evictions and demolitions has also affected Yachen Gar, another Tibetan Buddhist religious community in Sichuan Province.

D3. Is there academic freedom, and is the educational system free from extensive political indoctrination? 0 / 4

University professors cannot lecture on certain topics, and many must attend political indoctrination sessions. The government restricts course materials to prevent circulation of unofficial versions of Tibetan history, and has reduced use of Tibetan as the language of instruction in schools in recent years.

D4. Are individuals free to express their personal views on political or other sensitive topics without fear of surveillance or retribution? 0 / 4

Freedom of private discussion is severely limited by factors including the authorities' monitoring of electronic communications, the heavy security presence, and regular ideological campaigns in Tibetan areas. Surveillance and deployments of security forces intensified during 2017 in preparation for the 19th Party Congress in October. In September, authorities in a Tibetan area of Qinghai Province held a meeting of over 200 managers of WeChat groups, warning them to keep discussions "appropriate" and in compliance with laws and regulations, and requiring them to sign a pledge to uphold their responsibilities.

E. ASSOCIATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL RIGHTS: 0 / 12

E1. Is there freedom of assembly? 0 / 4

Chinese authorities severely restrict freedom of assembly as part of the government's intensified "stability maintenance" policies in Tibet. A 2016 Human Rights Watch report documented a significant increase in control and surveillance of public gatherings in rural areas in recent years, expanding the tightest restrictions beyond major towns. Even nonviolent protesters are often violently dispersed and harshly punished. Nevertheless, Tibetans continue to seek ways to express dissatisfaction with government policies; several individuals held solo protests in public places during 2017, briefly calling for the return of the Dalai Lama and freedom in Tibet before being seized by police. As in the rest of China, authorities have occasionally responded to environmental protests with minor concessions, such as temporary suspension of mining operations.

An estimated six Tibetans set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule during 2017, and one man apparently cut his own throat, but instances of self-immolation have generally declined in recent years, due in part to state-imposed deterrents. Officials respond to self-immolation incidents with information blackouts, a heightened security presence, increased surveillance, and large-scale arrests of those associated with the self-immolators. Official guidelines state that engaging in self-immolation and organizing, assisting, or gathering crowds related to such acts should be considered criminal offenses, including intentional homicide in some cases. The government employs collective-punishment tactics to discourage and punish both self-immolations and other forms of protest, including financial penalties on protesters' families, canceling public benefits for their households, and ending state-funded projects in their communities.

E2. Is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that are engaged in human rights- and governance-related work? 0 / 4

Nongovernmental organizations, including those focused only on apolitical issues like development and public health, operate under highly restrictive agreements and periodically face closure. In August 2017, the Braille Without Borders preparatory school for the blind in Lhasa, headed by German and Dutch cofounders, said it had been threatened with closure without any official explanation after operating for 19 years.

E3. Is there freedom for trade unions and similar professional or labor organizations? 0 / 4

As in the rest of China, independent trade unions are illegal. The only legal union organization is the government-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions, which has long been criticized for failing to properly defend workers' rights.

F. RULE OF LAW: 0 / 16

F1. Is there an independent judiciary? 0 / 4

The CCP controls the judicial system, and courts consequently lack independence. Courts at all levels are supervised by party political-legal committees that influence the appointment of judges, court operations, and verdicts and sentences.

F2. Does due process prevail in civil and criminal matters? 0 / 4

Defendants lack access to meaningful legal representation. Trials are closed if state security interests are invoked, and sometimes even when no political crime is listed. Chinese lawyers who offer to defend Tibetan suspects have been harassed or disbarred. Security forces routinely engage in arbitrary detention, and detainees' families are often left uninformed as to their whereabouts or well-being.

F3. Is there protection from the illegitimate use of physical force and freedom from war and insurgencies? 0 / 4

Detained suspects and prisoners are subject to torture and other forms of abuse. Tibetan prisoners of conscience have died in custody under circumstances indicating torture, and others have been released in poor health, allegedly to avoid deaths in custody. According to a partial database maintained by the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, there were still hundreds of Tibetan political prisoners behind bars as of 2017.

F4. Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population? 0 / 4

Ethnic Tibetans face a range of socioeconomic disadvantages and discriminatory treatment by employers, law enforcement agencies, and other official bodies. The dominant role of the Chinese language in education and employment limits opportunities for many Tibetans; Tibetans receive preferential treatment in university admission examinations, but this is often not enough to secure entrance. Gender bias against women remains widespread, as in the rest of China, despite laws barring workplace discrimination. LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people suffer from discrimination, though same-sex sexual activity is not criminalized. Social pressures discourage discussion of LGBT issues.

G. PERSONAL AUTONOMY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: 3 / 16

G1. Do individuals enjoy freedom of movement, including the ability to change their place of residence, employment, or education? 0 / 4

Obstacles including troop deployments, checkpoints, roadblocks, required bureaucratic approvals, and passport restrictions impede freedom of movement within and beyond Tibetan areas, particularly for travel to and from the TAR. Increased security efforts and Nepalese government cooperation have made it difficult for Tibetans to cross the border into Nepal. Obtaining a passport for foreign travel is extremely difficult for Tibetans. In January 2017, many Tibetans were prevented from traveling to India to attend a Kalachakra teaching by the Dalai Lama.

Authorities continue to restrict access to the TAR for human rights researchers, as well as for some tourists. Foreigners are often denied entry surrounding politically sensitive dates, such as before and during the 19th Party Congress in 2017. During other periods, tourists must travel in groups and obtain official permission to visit the TAR, and even then, last-minute travel bans are periodically imposed.

G2. Are individuals able to exercise the right to own property and establish private businesses without undue interference from state or nonstate actors? 1 / 4

The economy is dominated by state-owned enterprises and private businesses with informal ties to officials. Tibetans reportedly find it more difficult than ethnic Chinese residents to obtain permits and loans to open businesses. Since 2003, the authorities have intensified efforts to resettle rural and nomadic Tibetans  forcibly or with incentives  into permanent-housing areas that often have little economic infrastructure. As in the rest of China, land expropriation for development projects is regularly carried out with little consultation and inadequate compensation.

G3. Do individuals enjoy personal social freedoms, including choice of marriage partner and size of family, protection from domestic violence, and control over appearance? 1 / 4

China's restrictive family-planning policies are formally more lenient for Tibetans and other ethnic minorities. Officials limit urban Tibetans to two children and encourage rural Tibetans to stop at three. As a result, the TAR is one of the few areas of China without a skewed sex ratio. Nevertheless, the authorities continue to regulate reproduction, and related abuses are occasionally reported. State policies actively encourage interethnic marriages with financial and other incentives, and couples must designate a single ethnicity for their children. Separately, Tibetan women are vulnerable to human trafficking schemes that result in forced marriage.

G4. Do individuals enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom from economic exploitation? 1 / 4

Exploitative employment practices are pervasive in many industries, as is the case across China, though ethnic Tibetans reportedly face additional disadvantages in hiring and compensation. Human trafficking that targets Tibetan women can lead to prostitution or exploitative employment in domestic service and other sectors elsewhere in China.

Explanatory Note:

This report assesses the Tibet Autonomous Region and areas of eastern Tibet that are incorporated into neighboring Chinese provinces.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights ReservedFreedom in the World 2018 - Liberia

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 15 March 2018 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2018 - Liberia, 15 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5ab8bd299.html [accessed 24 September 2021] 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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 62 (0 = Least Free, 100 = Most Free)

Freedom Rating: 3.0 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Political Rights: 3 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Civil Liberties: 3 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Quick Facts

Population: 4,600,000

Capital: Monrovia

GDP/capita: $452

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

Liberia has enjoyed more than a decade of peace and stability since the second civil war ended in 2003. During this time, the country has made considerable progress rebuilding government capacity, reestablishing the rule of law, and ensuring the political rights and civil liberties of citizens, and 2017 saw the first peaceful transfer of power between leaders since 1944. However, Liberia still faces serious issues with corruption and unequal access to justice.

Ratings Change:

Liberia's civil liberties rating improved from 4 to 3 due to gradual improvements in freedom of movement within the country.

Key Developments in 2017:

Legislative and presidential elections held in October were described as peaceful and generally well administered by both domestic and international observers, despite some procedural challenges.

George Weah of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) won the presidency, defeating incumbent vice president Joseph Boakai with 61.5 percent of the vote in a run-off.

The National Elections Commission (NEC) was considered to have operated impartially during the election period, but struggled to enforce electoral laws. The Supreme Court also overturned two NEC decisions that were aimed at enforcing the 2014 National Code of Conduct Act, prompting concern from election observers and others.

The government debated a promised Land Reform Act needed to address ongoing land disputes, but lawmakers rejected the measure.

POLITICAL RIGHTS: 27 / 40 (-1)

A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 8 / 12 (-1)

A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 3 / 4

Liberia's president is directly elected, and can serve up to two six-year terms. Since the end of the civil wars in 2003, Liberia has had three peaceful presidential elections. The most recent election, held in 2017, was commended by domestic and international observers, who assessed the poll as generally peaceful and credible, while also noting difficulties including long queues at polling places and challenges related to voter identification.

A runoff between Weah and Boakai, the top two finishers in the first round of polling, was delayed when third-place finisher Charles Brumskine of the Liberty Party challenged the first-round results on grounds of fraud. The Supreme Court found that his fraud claim was not supported by evidence, and the run-off was held several weeks later than scheduled, in late December. Weah won the runoff with 61.5 percent of the vote, and Boakai conceded defeat. Observers noted procedural and administrative improvements in the run-off, compared to the first round.

A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 3 / 4

Liberia has a bicameral legislature composed of a 30-member Senate and a 73-member House of Representatives; senators are elected to nine-year terms, and representatives to six-year terms. Legislative elections were held concurrently with the presidential election in October 2017. While there were some administrative problems, including complaints that registered voters could not be found on the voter rolls, observers said the elections were generally peaceful and well-administered. There were minor incidents of violence between political party supporters during the campaigning period, but candidates were largely able to campaign freely.

A3. Are the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies? 2 / 4 (-1)

The independence of Liberia's NEC is mandated by law, and political parties expressed confidence in its impartiality during the 2017 election campaign. However, its capacity is limited, and it struggles to enforce electoral laws.

The 2017 elections were the first to apply the provisions of the 2014 National Code of Conduct Act, which laid out rules applying to government officials seeking to run for elected office, and included measures aimed at avoiding conflicts of interest. The NEC attempted to enforce the provisions of the Code of Conduct during the elections. However, the Supreme Court reversed the NEC's rulings in two instances where the NEC had disqualified high-profile candidates for failing to meet the Code of Conduct's eligibility requirements. Separately, the NEC failed to enforce a provision of the Election Law stipulating that parties must field candidates in at least half of all constituencies. Eleven political parties did not meet this requirement, but were permitted to run. The NEC additionally struggled to complete voter lists.

Score Change: The score declined from 3 to 2 because the National Elections Commission struggled to enforce electoral laws in the lead-up to the 2017 elections.

B. POLITICAL PLURALISM AND PARTICIPATION: 12 / 16

B1. Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system free of undue obstacles to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings? 3 / 4

Political parties generally do not face undue legal or practical obstacles that prevent them from forming or operating. However, in the run-up to the 2017 elections, election monitors recorded allegations that the ruling party drew on public resources to fund political campaigns  notably by taking advantage of state-owned vehicles and facilities.

B2. Is there a realistic opportunity for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through elections? 3 / 4

Opposition parties hold support among the population and have a realistic chance of gaining power through elections. In the 2017 presidential election, Weah, of the opposition CDC, won the presidency over the incumbent party's candidate. Similarly, the Congress for Democratic Change, the largest party within the CDC coalition that backed Weah, won 21 seats in the legislature in the elections, and displaced the Unity Party as the party with the greatest representation.

However, in the run-up to the 2017 elections, election monitors recorded allegations that opposition candidates had to pay higher fees to rent public facilities than did those affiliated with the ruling party.

B3. Are the people's political choices free from domination by the military, foreign powers, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group that is not democratically accountable? 3 / 4

Allegations of undue influence or pressure on voters by powerful groups that are not democratically accountable to the people are rare. However, a general wariness of potential electoral violence persists in Liberia. A few instances of violence between party supporters took place during the 2017 campaign, but generally the election period was peaceful.

B4. Do various segments of the population (including ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT, and other relevant groups) have full political rights and electoral opportunities? 3 / 4

Some minority groups continue to be stigmatized as outsiders. Members of Lebanese and Asian minority groups whose families have lived in Liberia for generations are denied citizenship, and cannot participate in political processes. Monitors noted that many women experienced difficulty registering to vote, attributed in part to limited hours registration offices were open.

C. FUNCTIONING OF GOVERNMENT: 7 / 12

C1. Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government? 3 / 4

Once elected, government officials are duly installed in office, and elected legislators generally operate without interference. However, bribery and corruption can influence policy prioritization.

C2. Are safeguards against official corruption strong and effective? 2 / 4

Many institutions are devoted to fighting corruption, but they lack the resources and capacity to function effectively, and corruption remains pervasive. The Supreme Court in October 2017 signaled that adjudication of a high-profile bribery case against former house speaker Alex Tyler was not a priority, and that courts would instead focus on election-related cases.

C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 2 / 4

Liberia's Freedom of Information Act is rarely used, and government responsiveness to requests tends to be slow. Transparency guidelines for public procurement processes are not fully enforced.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: 35 / 60 (+1)

D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 11 / 16

D1. Are there free and independent media? 2 / 4

Liberia's media express a range of views. Despite becoming a signatory to the Declaration of Table Mountain, a pan-African initiative that calls for the abolition of criminal defamation laws, Liberia has long been criticized for its onerous criminal and civil libel laws, which authorities have invoked to harass and intimidate journalists. The government does not restrict internet access, but poor infrastructure and high costs limit usage.

D2. Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private? 3 / 4

Religious freedom is protected in the constitution and there is no official religion. However, about 86 percent of the population is Christian, and the Muslim minority reports discrimination. In 2015, a proposal to amend the constitution to establish Christianity as the official religion contributed to interreligious tensions. While then president Sirleaf shelved this proposal, some discussion of it reemerged during the 2017 campaign period.

D3. Is there academic freedom, and is the educational system free from extensive political indoctrination? 3 / 4

The government does not restrict academic freedom, though educational quality and infrastructure remain inadequate.

D4. Are individuals free to express their personal views on political or other sensitive topics without fear of surveillance or retribution? 3 / 4

People are generally free to engage in private discussion while in public spaces, but some topics are taboo, such as discussion of issues affecting LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people. The government is not known to illegally monitor online communications.

E. ASSOCIATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL RIGHTS: 8 / 12

E1. Is there freedom of assembly? 3 / 4

Freedom of assembly and of association is constitutionally guaranteed and largely respected. While there have been some instances of violence between political party supporters, people are largely able to gather and protest freely.

E2. Is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that are engaged in human rights- and governance-related work? 3 / 4

Numerous civil society groups, including human rights organizations, operate in the country. However, groups focused on LGBT issues tend keep a low profile due to fears of retribution for their activism.

E3. Is there freedom for trade unions and similar professional or labor organizations? 2 / 4

Unions are free to form and mobilize, and are well organized. The rights of workers to strike, organize, and bargain collectively are recognized. However, the law does not protect workers from employer retaliation for legal strike activity. Labor disputes can turn violent, particularly at the country's various mines and rubber plantations.

F. RULE OF LAW: 7 / 16

F1. Is there an independent judiciary? 2 / 4

Constitutional provisions guarantee an independent judiciary. Although petty corruption and backlogs remain major impediments to justice, some rulings by the nation's highest court in recent years point to increased judicial independence and increased willingness to intervene to protect people's rights. However, the Supreme Court's move to overturn NEC rulings aimed at enforcing the National Code of Conduct Act during the 2017 election cycle prompted concern from election observers, lawmakers, NEC officials, and other observers, some of whom alleged that the court was trying to appease all parties by not fully enforcing the Code.

F2. Does due process prevail in civil and criminal matters? 1 / 4

The right to due process under the law is guaranteed by the constitution but poorly upheld. Many people accused of crimes spend more time in pre-trial detention than the length they would serve for a guilty sentence. Those with money may be able to bribe judges to rule in their favor. Reports of arbitrary arrest by law enforcement agents continue.

F3. Is there protection from the illegitimate use of physical force and freedom from war and insurgencies? 2 / 4

The security environment in Liberia has improved dramatically in the years since warfare ended in 2003. However the police force is still seen to be corrupt, and lacks the financial support to be able to provide robust protection for Liberia's people. Prison conditions are very poor, and reports of abuse and threats against detainees and prisoners by law enforcement agents and prison guards continue.

F4. Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population? 2 / 4

LGBT people face social stigma and the threat of violence. The penal code makes "voluntary sodomy" a misdemeanor offense that can carry up to a year in prison, and this provision can be invoked against LGBT people. In a presidential debate with 9 candidates, none supported same-sex marriage.

G. PERSONAL AUTONOMY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: 9 / 16 (+1)

G1. Do individuals enjoy freedom of movement, including the ability to change their place of residence, employment, or education? 3 / 4 (+1)

People enjoy increasing freedom to move throughout the country. Some unofficial border checkpoints remain, at which border patrol agents sometimes attempt to extract bribes. However, people have enjoyed a gradual increase in the right to move about freely in the years since large-scale violence ended.

Score Change: The score improved from 2 to 3 due to gradual improvements in freedom of movement within the country.

G2. Are individuals able to exercise the right to own property and establish private businesses without undue interference from state or nonstate actors? 2 / 4

Conflicts over land remain pervasive. Many of these conflicts originated in the civil wars and subsequent displacement, and resettlement. Others are the result of opaque concession agreements granting foreign corporations access to lands for production of timber and palm oil. While the government in 2017 debated a Land Reform Act that would address some of these concerns, lawmakers rejected the measure.

G3. Do individuals enjoy personal social freedoms, including choice of marriage partner and size of family, protection from domestic violence, and control over appearance? 2 / 4

While men and women enjoy equal legal rights under civil law, customary law remains dominant in many parts of the country, especially in rural areas, creating gender discrepancies in access to land, custody of children, and impartial adjudication of disputes. Violence against women and children, particularly rape, is a pervasive problem. In October 2017, the Senate voted to make rape a bailable offense  a decision that sparked protests outside the Capitol building by women's rights activists.

G4. Do individuals enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom from economic exploitation? 2 / 4

Human trafficking for the purpose of forced labor and prostitution remains a problem, with most victims trafficked from rural areas to cities. Many trafficking victims are children, who can be found working in diamond mines, agricultural operations, or as domestic laborers, or engaged in forced begging or prostitution.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights ReservedFreedom in the World 2018 - Hong Kong

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 15 March 2018 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2018 - Hong Kong, 15 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5ab8bd2b10d.html [accessed 24 September 2021] 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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 59 (0 = Least Free, 100 = Most Free)

Freedom Rating: 3.5 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Political Rights: 5 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Civil Liberties: 2 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Quick Facts

Population: 7,300,000

GDP/capita: $42,351

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

The people of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, have traditionally enjoyed substantial civil liberties and the rule of law under their local constitution, the Basic Law. However, the chief executive and half of the Legislative Council are chosen through indirect electoral systems that favor pro-Beijing interests, and the territory's freedoms and autonomy have come under threat in recent years due to growing political and economic pressure from the mainland.

Trend Arrow: 

Hong Kong received a downward trend arrow due to the expulsion of four prodemocracy lawmakers from the legislature, jail sentences against protest leaders, and other apparent efforts by pro-Beijing authorities to stamp out a movement calling for local self-determination.

Key Developments in 2017:

A July ruling by the High Court removed four prodemocracy and localist members of the Legislative Council (Legco) from their posts on the grounds that they had improperly altered their oaths of office after winning election in 2016. In August, the Court of Final Appeal upheld the earlier disqualification of two other would-be lawmakers for similar reasons.

In an unusual move in August, an appellate court granted prosecutors' request to revisit the 2016 convictions of three student leaders of the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests, increasing their sentences from community service to six to eight months in prison.

Space for academic freedom continued to shrink as Hong Kong universities issued a joint statement in September to condemn student expressions of support for Hong Kong's political independence from the mainland.

POLITICAL RIGHTS: 15 / 40 (-1)

A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 2 / 12 (-1)

A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 0 / 4

Under 2010 electoral reforms, the chief executive, who serves a five-year term, is chosen by a 1,200-member election committee. Some 200,000 "functional constituency" voters  representatives of elite business and social sectors, many with close Beijing ties  elect 900 of the committee's members, and the remaining 300 consist of Legco members, Hong Kong delegates to China's National People's Congress (NPC), religious representatives, and Hong Kong members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a Chinese government advisory body.

In March 2017, Carrie Lam, a former deputy to outgoing chief executive Leung Chun-ying and Beijing's favored candidate, was chosen as Hong Kong's fourth  and first female  chief executive, with 777 election committee votes. Her main opponent, former financial secretary John Tsang, received just 365 votes despite drawing far more support than Lam in public opinion polls. As in the past, the selection process featured reports of heavy lobbying by central government representatives.

A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 1 / 4 (-1)

Of the Legco's 70 seats, 30 are elected by functional constituency voters, 35 are chosen through direct elections in five geographical constituencies, and the remaining five are directly elected after nominations by Hong Kong's 18 district councils from among their own members. Members serve four-year terms.

In the September 2016 elections, a growing movement emphasizing localism and self-determination emerged to compete with existing pro-Beijing and prodemocracy camps. Candidates from this movement, which grew out of the 2014 Umbrella Movement, captured six seats. Other prodemocracy parties took 23 seats, while pro-Beijing parties won 40; an independent took the remaining seat.

In October 2016, after several localist and prodemocracy Legco members altered their oaths of office as a form of protest, the oaths of two newly elected localists  Sixtus "Baggio" Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching  were rejected. The NPC in Beijing issued an unusual Basic Law interpretation in November, requiring oaths to be taken "sincerely and solemnly," and the High Court then affirmed the two representatives' disqualifications. In August 2017, Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal upheld the decision.

In July 2017, a court granted the government's request to remove four other Legco members who made political statements during their 2016 swearing-in ceremonies  localist-affiliated Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Lau Siu-lai, along with the prodemocracy politicians Edward Yiu Chung-yim and Leung Kwok-hung  even though their oaths had been accepted by the Legco at the time. In September 2017, Lau and Leung indicated their intent to appeal the decision, meaning by-elections to fill their seats would be postponed. By-elections for the remaining four seats left vacant by oath-related disqualifications were scheduled for March 2018.

Score Change: The score declined from 2 to 1 due to the expulsion of four opposition members from the legislature and the confirmation of two earlier disqualifications as part of an effort by the authorities to stamp out a movement calling for local self-determination.

A3. Are the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies? 1 / 4

While universal suffrage is the "ultimate aim" under the Basic Law, only incremental changes to the electoral system have been permitted to date. Moreover, the system, which already favored pro-Beijing interests and prevented direct elections for many offices, has grown more hostile to dissenting views in recent years. Prior to the 2016 Legco elections, the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) required all candidates to attest in writing to their belief that Hong Kong is unquestionably a part of China, based on certain Basic Law provisions. The EAC invalidated the nominations of six localist candidates for failure to comply, preventing them from running. The NPC's November 2016 Basic Law interpretation concerning "sincerity" and "solemnity" in oath-taking appears to bolster the EAC's authority to block future candidates on similar grounds.

B. POLITICAL PLURALISM AND PARTICIPATION: 7 / 16

B1. Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system free of undue obstacles to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings? 2 / 4

Hong Kong residents' political choices are limited by the semidemocratic electoral system, which ensures the dominance of pro-Beijing parties and candidates. Some 18 political parties are currently represented in the Legco. The largest pro-Beijing party is the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong. The main parties in the prodemocracy camp are the Civic Party and the Democratic Party, and key localist groupings include Youngspiration and Civic Passion. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not formally registered in Hong Kong but exercises considerable influence. In 2016, the Hong Kong Companies Registry refused to register the new Hong Kong National Party on the grounds that its proindependence platform constituted illegal activity.

B2. Is there a realistic opportunity for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through elections? 1 / 4

Prodemocracy legislators have historically enjoyed substantial minority representation alongside their pro-Beijing counterparts. However, the EAC's disqualification of some localist candidates for the 2016 Legco elections, and the subsequent ouster of six other prodemocracy candidates who won seats  including two who were not associated with the localist movement  demonstrated the limits of Beijing's tolerance for movements that threaten its influence. The subjective nature of the NPC's "sincere" and "solemn" standard for oath-taking raised the possibility of further disqualifications and a broader chilling effect on opposition politics.

B3. Are the people's political choices free from domination by the military, foreign powers, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group that is not democratically accountable? 1 / 4

The CCP leadership in Beijing exerts a powerful influence on politics in Hong Kong through a variety of channels, including the NPC's ability to issue interpretations of the Basic Law, the cooptation of Hong Kong business leaders through their mainland assets and membership in the NPC or CPPCC, and lobbying or harassment of election committee members and other political figures to ensure favorable electoral outcomes.

B4. Do various segments of the population (including ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT, and other relevant groups) have full political rights and electoral opportunities? 3 / 4

While there are no restrictions on women or ethnic minorities voting or running for office, just 12 women and no ethnic minority candidates were elected to the Legco in 2016. Hong Kong's first and only openly gay Legco member, initially elected in 2012, was reelected in 2016.

C. FUNCTIONING OF GOVERNMENT: 6 / 12

C1. Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government? 1 / 4

Directly elected officials have little ability to set and implement government policies under the territory's political system, and mainland authorities are highly influential. The Basic Law restricts the Legco's lawmaking powers, prohibiting legislators from introducing bills that would affect Hong Kong's public spending, governmental operations, or political structure.

C2. Are safeguards against official corruption strong and effective? 3 / 4

Hong Kong is regarded as having generally low corruption rates, and some high-ranking officials have been successfully prosecuted for graft-related offenses in the past. However, residents perceive the government to be lagging in the fight against corruption. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has been criticized for failing to appoint a permanent head of operations since 2016; the last official in that post was dismissed in the middle of an investigation into then chief executive Leung, stirring discontent among the ICAC staff.

C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 2 / 4

Hong Kong has no freedom of information (FOI) law. Although an administrative code  the Code of Access to Information  is intended to ensure open access to government records, it includes broad exemptions and official adherence is inconsistent, prompting local journalists and watchdog groups to urge the government to give freedom of information requirements the force of law. The Law Reform Commission has been studying the subject since 2013, but it had yet to issue any reports as of 2017.

Consultations between Hong Kong officials and the Beijing government, represented by a Liaison Office in the territory, are largely opaque, leaving the extent of Beijing's influence on the local government's decisions unclear to the public.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: 44 / 60 (-1)

D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 12 / 16

D1. Are there free and independent media? 2 / 4

The Basic Law protects press freedom. Residents have access to a variety of print, broadcast, and digital news sources, and foreign media generally operate without interference. The mainland's internet censorship regime does not apply in Hong Kong. However, in recent years the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, alongside businesses with close Beijing ties, have increased political and economic pressure on media independence, resulting in self-censorship among journalists. Journalists have also faced physical assaults in the course of or in retaliation for their work, and the detention of five Hong Kong booksellers by mainland authorities in late 2015 has had a chilling effect on the territory's previously freewheeling book-publishing business.

D2. Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private? 4 / 4

Religious freedom is generally respected in Hong Kong.

D3. Is there academic freedom, and is the educational system free from extensive political indoctrination? 2 / 4

University professors can generally write and lecture freely, and political debate on campuses is lively. However, a series of incidents in recent years have stoked concerns about growing interference by the Hong Kong government and mainland authorities with Hong Kong's colleges and universities. For example, a controversy in 2016 centered on the chief executive's appointment of a pro-Beijing official to lead the governing council of the University of Hong Kong. Separately, in September 2017, student posters and signs calling for Hong Kong's independence from mainland China appeared across university campuses, causing an uproar among mainland and pro-China students and scholars. In response, the heads of all 10 Hong Kong universities issued a joint statement condemning the signs and posters as "abuses" of the Basic Law and declaring that "freedom of expression is not absolute." At least some of the universities ordered the removal of the displays.

Government-led revisions of history curriculums and textbooks, and attempts to instill Chinese patriotism over the past decade, have stirred accusations of a pro-Beijing agenda in primary and secondary education, but such efforts typically face resistance from educators and the public.

D4. Are individuals free to express their personal views on political or other sensitive topics without fear of surveillance or retribution? 4 / 4

Private discussion is open and free, though mainland security agencies are suspected of monitoring the communications of prodemocracy activists.

E. ASSOCIATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL RIGHTS: 8 / 12

E1. Is there freedom of assembly? 2 / 4

The Basic Law guarantees freedom of assembly. The Public Order Ordinance requires organizers to give police seven days' notice before protests and to obtain official assent, which is rarely denied. However, developments surrounding the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests have raised concerns that the government is growing less tolerant of political demonstrations, particularly by groups calling for greater democracy, self-determination, or independence for Hong Kong. Increased use of baton charges, pepper spray, and arrests by police as they attempted to break up that year's protest camps drew criticism, and the encampments also faced assaults by counterdemonstrators, many of whom were later found to have links with criminal gangs.

While most of the hundreds of protesters arrested in 2014 were quickly released, dozens were officially charged with unlawful assembly and related offenses. In 2016, student leaders Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, and Alex Chow were found guilty of charges including "taking part in an unlawful assembly" and "inciting others to take part in an unlawful assembly" and sentenced to penalties ranging from community service to a suspended three-week jail term.

In August 2017, following a rare government appeal seeking harsher punishments, the three received sentences of six to eight months in jail, with the Court of Appeal instructing lower courts to give greater weight to the need for deterrence when considering similar cases in the future. The Court of Appeal also imposed five-year bans from public office on the defendants. Wong, Law, and Chow were later released on bail pending a review by the Court of Final Appeal, with a hearing scheduled for 2018. Also in August, in a case related to a separate 2014 protest, the Court of Appeal similarly increased the penalties against 13 defendants from community service to between eight and 13 months in jail following an appeal by prosecutors. Other cases related to the events of 2014 were still making their way through the legal system.

While a number of assemblies, including an annual vigil marking the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in June, proceeded without incident during 2017, others encountered obstacles. In July, a small group of demonstrators protesting the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China was attacked by a pro-Beijing mob and forcibly removed by police.

E2. Is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that are engaged in human rights- and governance-related work? 4 / 4

Hong Kong hosts a vibrant and largely unfettered nongovernmental organization (NGO) sector, including a number of groups that focus on human rights in mainland China.

E3. Is there freedom for trade unions and similar professional or labor organizations? 2 / 4

Trade unions are independent, but collective-bargaining rights are not recognized, and protections against antiunion discrimination are weak.

F. RULE OF LAW: 11 / 16 (-1)

F1. Is there an independent judiciary? 2 / 4

The judiciary is largely independent, but the NPC reserves the right to make final interpretations of the Basic Law, limiting the independence of the Court of Final Appeal. The NPC's 2016 interpretation regarding oaths of office was unusual in a number of respects, particularly the fact that it was issued without a request from the Hong Kong government and before the local courts had ruled on the matter in question. It was therefore seen as a blow to the autonomy of the territory's legal system. Critics also noted that the interpretation introduced subjective concepts like "sincerity" and "solemnity" that could lead to politicized enforcement.

F2. Does due process prevail in civil and criminal matters? 3 / 4 (-1)

The courts generally adjudicate civil and criminal matters fairly and efficiently. However, the Court of Appeal's August 2017 decisions to reconsider and substantially increase the penalties handed down to 2014 protesters in response to unusual government requests raised serious concerns about political motivation and due process protections. In seeking jail terms in the cases, Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen had reportedly overruled the recommendations of several senior prosecutors in his department.

In another questionable case, police filed charges in March 2017 against nine organizers of the 2014 protest movement, including the three regarded as its founders: academics Benny Tai Yiu-ting and Chan Kin-man, and Baptist minister Chu Yiu-ming. The charges, which carried penalties of up to seven years in prison, came immediately after Lam was elected as chief executive, leading observers to speculate that the case had been delayed to avoid harming her candidacy. Defense lawyers challenged the constitutionality of the charges, which included claims that the defendants had "incited others to incite public nuisance," meaning they were twice removed from the core offense. A preliminary decision on the matter was pending at year's end.

Score Change: The score declined from 4 to 3 due to multiple cases against protest leaders in which the timing, nature, or severity of the charges and penalties sought by authorities apparently violated legal norms and raised suspicions of political motivation.

F3. Is there protection from the illegitimate use of physical force and freedom from war and insurgencies? 3 / 4

Police are forbidden by law to employ torture, disappearance, and other forms of abuse. They generally respect this ban in practice, and complaints of abuse are investigated. For example, in February 2017, seven police officers were sentenced to two years in prison for beating a protester in an incident that was captured on video in 2014.

However, the 2015 disappearances of five Hong Kong booksellers into police custody on the mainland continue to cast doubt on the local government's capacity to protect residents from abuses by Chinese authorities. One of the five, Lee Bo, was allegedly seized in Hong Kong and smuggled across the border to the mainland. He and three others were eventually released, but they reportedly faced surveillance and harassment; the fifth, Swedish citizen Gui Minhai, remained in some form of detention on the mainland in 2017. Separately, in January 2017, Chinese billionaire Xiao Jianhua was apparently abducted by Chinese officials from a Hong Kong hotel and escorted across the border to the mainland.

In December, Hong Kong and mainland officials reached agreement on an improved reciprocal notification system for detentions of their respective residents, pledging to inform each other within seven working days when a resident is arrested, detained, or prosecuted on minor charges, or when residents suffer unnatural deaths. Notification periods of 14 days and 30 days would apply to more serious criminal cases and cases involving terrorism or national security, respectively.

F4. Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population? 3 / 4

Citizens are generally treated equally under the law, though South Asian minorities face language barriers and de facto discrimination in education and employment. Women are also subject to some employment discrimination in practice. Antidiscrimination laws do not specifically protect LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people.

Roughly 9,000 asylum seekers were thought to be in Hong Kong as of 2017, mostly from South or Southeast Asia. While the government does not accept refugees for settlement, it does offer protection from refoulement, and those deemed eligible can be referred to UN officials for third-country resettlement. Some applicants reportedly wait as long as 10 years for resolution of their cases, and only a tiny percentage of claims are approved. Asylum seekers are not permitted to work and receive small cash allowances.

G. PERSONAL AUTONOMY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: 13 / 16

G1. Do individuals enjoy freedom of movement, including the ability to change their place of residence, employment, or education? 3 / 4

Hong Kong residents generally enjoy freedom of movement, though authorities periodically deny entry to visiting political activists and Falun Gong practitioners, raising suspicions of Beijing-imposed restrictions. Some Hong Kong activists and politicians have also faced difficulty traveling to the mainland.

G2. Are individuals able to exercise the right to own property and establish private businesses without undue interference from state or nonstate actors? 3 / 4

While property rights are largely respected, collusion among powerful business entities with political connections is perceived as an impediment to fair competition.

G3. Do individuals enjoy personal social freedoms, including choice of marriage partner and size of family, protection from domestic violence, and control over appearance? 4 / 4

Hong Kong residents are legally protected from rape and domestic abuse, and police generally respond appropriately to reports of such crimes. Men and women enjoy equal rights in personal status matters such as marriage and divorce.

G4. Do individuals enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom from economic exploitation? 3 / 4

Hong Kong's roughly 330,000 foreign household workers are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Since they may face deportation if dismissed, many are reluctant to bring complaints against employers. There have been reports of abuses against sex workers by law enforcement officers.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights ReservedFreedom in the World 2018 - Ghana

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 15 March 2018 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2018 - Ghana, 15 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5ab8bd2da.html [accessed 24 September 2021] 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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 83 (0 = Least Free, 100 = Most Free)

Freedom Rating: 1.5 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Political Rights: 1 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Civil Liberties: 2 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Quick Facts

Population: 28,200,000

Capital: Accra

GDP/capita: $1,361

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

Since 1992, Ghana has held competitive multiparty elections that have led to peaceful transfers of power between the two main political parties. Although Ghana has a relatively strong record of upholding civil liberties, discrimination against women and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people continues. Some weaknesses in judicial independence and rule of law persist, and political corruption presents challenges to government performance.

Key Developments in 2017:

The January inauguration of President Nana Akufo-Addo, the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), represented the third peaceful transfer of presidential power between the country's two main parties: the NPP, and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

In November, the parliament approved legislation to establish the Office of the Special Prosecutor. The office, which at year's end had yet to be established, is a key component of Akufo-Addo's anticorruption program.

In March, a vigilante group allegedly connected to the NPP responded to President Akufo-Addo's appointment of George Adjei as the Ashanti Region's Security Coordinator by physically attacking Adjei.

Ghana's Electoral Commission (EC) was plagued by controversy during the year. In July, it was reported that the Economic and Organized Crime Office had begun investigating allegations that senior EC officials had misappropriated funds in 2012 and 2013. In November, the country's chief justice assembled a panel charged with investigating an array of corruption claims against EC chairperson Charlotte Osei.

POLITICAL RIGHTS: 37 / 40

A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 12 / 12

A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4

International and domestic observers generally praised the December 2016 presidential election, and all major political parties accepted the results. Akufo-Addo, the NPP candidate, won with 53.9 percent of the vote, while incumbent John Mahama of the NDC took 44.4 percent.

Although the election and its immediate aftermath were peaceful, the campaign period was contentious. There were several reports of clashes between NPP and NDC supporters, as well as attacks on EC officials. Moreover, representatives of civil society raised concerns about what they claimed were alarming levels of hate speech used by politicians, as well as alleged abuse of state resources.

A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4

Ghana has a unicameral, 275-seat parliament to which members are elected directly, and serve four-year terms. International and domestic observers generally praised the December 2016 parliamentary elections, which were held at the same time as the presidential election. The NPP captured 169 seats while the NDC, which had held a majority going into elections, took the 106 remaining seats.

A3. Are the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies? 4 / 4

Despite controversy surrounding the preparation for the December 2016 balloting, domestic and international observers generally commended the EC for the conduct of the elections. The EC had disqualified 13 presidential candidates in October 2016 due to irregularities with their nomination papers or failure to pay the nomination fee. The Supreme Court rescinded the EC's decision in early November 2016, giving the disqualified candidates an opportunity to rectify the problems. In the end, three of the originally disqualified candidates were allowed to stand for election.

However, in 2017, the EC was embroiled in controversy as senior members of the commission accused each other of corruption and mismanagement, including the unlawful awarding of contracts, misappropriation of funds, and political bias. In response to petitions forwarded to her by President Akufo-Addo, Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo in November established a five-member judicial panel to investigate the allegations against Osei, the EC chairperson, and two of her deputies; Osei has launched a legal challenge of one of the petitions, claiming it is defamatory. In July, it was reported that the Economic and Organized Crime Office had begun investigating allegations that senior EC officials had misappropriated funds in 2012 and 2013.

B. POLITICAL PLURALISM AND PARTICIPATION: 15 / 16

B1. Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system free of undue obstacles to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings? 4 / 4

The constitution guarantees the right to form a political party, and this right is generally respected. However, a significant increase in candidate nomination fees for the 2016 elections, along with the difficulties in nomination procedures highlighted by the presidential candidate disqualifications, presented challenges to participation, especially for candidates from smaller parties. In September 2016, the Progressive People's Party (PPP) mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge against the nomination fees.

In March 2017, members of Delta Force, a pro-NPP vigilante group, attacked the Ashanti Region's new security coordinator, George Adjei; the attack came after the group had indicated its lack of support for Adjei. The following month, other members of Delta Force disrupted proceedings in a circuit court in Kumasi, the capital of the region, to release 13 suspects on trial for the attack against Adjei. Meanwhile, the trial of the Gregory Afoko, brother of former NPP chairman Paul Afoko, for the 2015 murder of the NPP chairperson of the Upper East Region, was ongoing at year's end.

B2. Is there a realistic opportunity for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through elections? 4 / 4

Ghana's multiparty system provides ample opportunity for opposition parties to meaningfully participate in the political process. The NPP and the NDC dominate the political system. Mahama's defeat by Akufo-Addo in the 2016 presidential race represented the first time since the reintroduction of the multiparty system in 1992 that an incumbent president had stood for reelection and lost. Akufo-Addo's 2017 inauguration represented the country's third peaceful transfer of presidential power between the NPP and NDC.

B3. Are the people's political choices free from domination by the military, foreign powers, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group that is not democratically accountable? 4 / 4

People's political choices are generally free from domination by powerful groups that are not democratically accountable.

B4. Do various segments of the population (including ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT, and other relevant groups) have full political rights and electoral opportunities? 3 / 4

The legal framework provides for equal participation in political life for the country's various cultural, religious, and ethnic minorities. Women took 37 of the 275 parliamentary seats in the 2016 elections, the highest since the reintroduction of multiparty rule in 1992. However, women hold comparatively few leadership positions across the country, and in 2016 women candidates received less media coverage than men.

C. FUNCTIONING OF GOVERNMENT: 10 / 12

C1. Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government? 4 / 4

Elected officials are generally free to set and implement government policy without undue interference.

C2. Are safeguards against official corruption strong and effective? 3 / 4

Political corruption remains a problem, despite robust legal and institutional frameworks to combat it, active media coverage, and government anticorruption initiatives. The latter have not quieted criticism from the media, opposition parties, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who deem the efforts ineffective. In 2017, the new Akufo-Addo administration launched various anticorruption initiatives  including plans to establish the Office of Special Prosecutor, which received parliamentary approval in November  as well as a Fiscal Responsibility Council.

Opposition parties criticized President Akufo-Addo for increasing the size of the cabinet to 110 ministers and deputy ministers in March.

C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 3 / 4

The government generally operates with transparency. However, despite over a decade of consideration by Parliament and continued efforts by advocates in 2017, the Right to Information Bill remained stalled.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: 46 / 60

D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 14 / 16

D1. Are there free and independent media? 3 / 4

Freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed and generally respected in practice. Ghana has a diverse and vibrant media landscape that includes state and privately owned television and radio stations, and several independent newspapers and magazines. The internet and social media remain unrestricted, despite some moves by the government prior to the 2016 elections to impose restrictions the latter; ultimately, the plans were abandoned following a public outcry. Government agencies occasionally restrict press freedom through harassment and arrests of journalists, especially those reporting on politically sensitive issues. In March 2017, freelance journalist Kendrick Ofei, said he was assaulted by soldiers as he recorded them attacking a civilian. Separately, in July, a court in Accra ruled that the editor and publishers of the Daily Post newspaper were guilty of defaming a former minister of state, Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, and ordered that they pay him GHC800,000 ($180,000) in damages  an amount the Media Foundation of West Africa (MWFA) called excessive and said threatened the paper's continued existence. The newspaper had repeated unverified claims that Owusu-Agyemang released a secret taping from a meeting of NPP officials, with the intention of embarrassing the party.

D2. Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private? 3 / 4

Religious freedom is constitutionally and legally protected, and the government largely upholds these protections in practice. However, Muslim families have said that compulsory Christian prayer sessions and church services that are widespread in Ghana's public schools seek to promote Christianity, and violate their children's religious freedom.

D3. Is there academic freedom, and is the educational system free from extensive political indoctrination? 4 / 4

Academic freedom is legally guaranteed and generally upheld in practice.

D4. Are individuals free to express their personal views on political or other sensitive topics without fear of surveillance or retribution? 4 / 4

Private discussion is both free and vibrant.

E. ASSOCIATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL RIGHTS: 11 / 12

E1. Is there freedom of assembly? 4 / 4

The rights to peaceful assembly and association are constitutionally guaranteed and generally respected. Permits are not required for meetings or demonstrations.

E2. Is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that are engaged in human rights- and governance-related work? 4 / 4

NGOs are generally able to operate freely, and play an important role in ensuring government accountability and transparency.

E3. Is there freedom for trade unions and similar professional or labor organizations? 3 / 4

Under the constitution and 2003 labor laws, workers have the right to form and join trade unions. However, the government forbids or restricts labor action in a number of industries, including fuel distribution, public transportation, and the prison system.

F. RULE OF LAW: 11 / 16

F1. Is there an independent judiciary? 2 / 4

Judicial independence in Ghana is constitutionally and legally enshrined. While the judiciary has demonstrated greater levels of impartiality in recent years, corruption and bribery continue to pose challenges.

F2. Does due process prevail in civil and criminal matters? 3 / 4

Constitutional protections for due process and defendants' rights are mostly upheld. However, police have been known to accept bribes, make arbitrary arrests, and hold people without charge for longer than the legally permitted limit of 48 hours. The government is not obliged to provide the accused with legal counsel, and many people unable to afford lawyers are forced to represent themselves in court.

F3. Is there protection from the illegitimate use of physical force and freedom from war and insurgencies? 3 / 4

Ghana's prisons are overcrowded, and conditions are often life-threatening, though the prison service has attempted to reduce congestion and improve the treatment of inmates in recent years. Communal and ethnic violence occasionally flare in Ghana. In April 2017, a clash in Agbogbloshie, in Accra, between members of the Dagomba and Konkomba ethnic groups claimed two lives and left many others wounded.

F4. Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population? 3 / 4

LGBT people face societal discrimination. In February 2017, parliament speaker Mike Ocquaye called for legislation that would explicitly ban all homosexual activities, though no such bill was forthcoming at year's end.

G. PERSONAL AUTONOMY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: 10 / 16

G1. Do individuals enjoy freedom of movement, including the ability to change their place of residence, employment, or education? 3 / 4

Freedom of movement is guaranteed by the constitution and respected by the government, and Ghanaians are free to choose their place of residence. However, poorly developed road networks and banditry can make travel outside the capital and touristic areas difficult. Police have been known to set up illegal checkpoints to demand bribes from travelers. Bribery is also rife in the education sector.

Despite equal rights under the law, women suffer societal discrimination, especially in rural areas, where opportunities for education and employment are limited. However, women's enrollment in universities is increasing.

G2. Are individuals able to exercise the right to own property and establish private businesses without undue interference from state or nonstate actors? 3 / 4

Weak rule of law, corruption, and an underregulated property rights system remain significant impediments to business confidence. Bribery is a common practice in starting a business and registering property.

G3. Do individuals enjoy personal social freedoms, including choice of marriage partner and size of family, protection from domestic violence, and control over appearance? 2 / 4

Domestic violence and rape are serious problems, and the practice of female genital mutilation continues in the north. The government has worked to combat gender-based violence, including by expanding the police's domestic violence and victim support unit and creating gender-based violence courts.

G4. Do individuals enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom from economic exploitation? 2 / 4

The exploitation of children in the agricultural and mining sectors remains a problem. The exploitation of children in the fishing industry too remains a problem, especially in the region surrounding Lake Volta. While the government has taken some steps in recent years, it has not implemented antitrafficking legislation or adequately funded antitrafficking agencies.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights ReservedFreedom in the World 2018 - Gambia, The

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 15 March 2018 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2018 - Gambia, The, 15 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5ab8bd31a.html [accessed 24 September 2021] 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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 41 (0 = Least Free, 100 = Most Free)

Freedom Rating: 4.5 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Political Rights: 4 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Civil Liberties: 5 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Quick Facts

Population: 2,100,000

Capital: Banjul

GDP/capita: $459

Press Freedom Status: Not Free

Net Freedom Status: Not Free

OVERVIEW

The Gambia was ruled for over two decades by President Jammeh, who mounted a bloodless coup in 1994 and consistently violated political rights and civil liberties. The 2016 election resulted in a surprise victory for opposition candidate Adama Barrow. Fundamental freedoms including the rights of assembly, association, and speech improved thereafter, but the rule of law is unconsolidated, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people face severe discrimination, and violence against women remains a serious problem.

Status Change Explanation:

The Gambia's status improved from Not Free to Partly Free, its political rights rating improved from 6 to 4, and its civil liberties rating improved from 6 to 5 due to the installation of newly elected president Adama Barrow into office in January and the holding of competitive legislative elections in April. Among other openings associated with the departure of former president Yahya Jammeh, exiled journalists and activists returned, political prisoners were released, ministers declared their assets to an ombudsman, and the press union began work on media-sector reform.

Key Developments in 2017:

Barrow, the winner of the 2016 presidential election, was inaugurated in Senegal on January 19, as Jammeh attempted to cling to power. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) then sent in troops under a previously authorized agreement that allowed the deployment of a standby force to intervene militarily if a peaceful transfer of power did not begin by the last day of Jammeh's mandate. Days after the ECOWAS force deployed, Jammeh conceded defeat and left the country.

Parliamentary elections in April were commended by international monitors as transparent, peaceful, and neutrally managed by the Independent Electoral Commission.

In separate rulings in June, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the amended 2013 Information and Communication Act punishing the "spreading of false news" via the internet, and a colonial-era law banning sedition.

POLITICAL RIGHTS: 20 / 40 (+12)

A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 7 / 12 (+4)

A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 2 / 4 (+1)

International observers were not allowed into The Gambia ahead of the December 2016 presidential election, and internet and international telephone services were cut on election day. Despite these obstacles, the Independent Electoral Commission was able to conduct an impartial vote count, and declared that Barrow had won. Jammeh initially conceded defeat, but then reversed his position, and had not stepped down by January 19, 2017, the day Barrow was inaugurated in Senegal. ECOWAS consequently sent in troops under a previously approved authorization to intervene militarily if a peaceful transfer of power did not begin by the last day of Jammeh's mandate. On January 21, Jammeh conceded defeat, and left the country.

Score Change: The score improved from 1 to 2 due to the successful inauguration of Adama Barrow, the legitimate winner of the 2016 presidential election, in late January, after a protracted diplomatic crisis sparked by former president Yahya Jammeh's attempts to stay in power.

A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 3 / 4 (+2)

Of the 58 members of the unicameral National Assembly, 53 are elected by popular vote, with the remainder appointed by the president; members serve five-year terms. The April 2017 parliamentary elections were transparent, peaceful, and neutrally managed, and were commended by ECOWAS, the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU), and the United Nations. Weaknesses included low turnout, disproportionate media attention to the president, incomplete updating of the voter registry, and weak organization of vote collation processes. Nevertheless, most polling stations operated on time and vote counting was transparent. Two hundred and thirty-nine registered candidates representing 9 political parties, along with 42 independent candidates, ran for the 53 elected seats.

Score Change: The score improved from 1 to 3 due to the April National Assembly elections, which international observers judged to be credible, transparent, and peaceful.

A3. Are the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies? 2 / 4 (+1)

The Independent Electoral Commission adequately managed the 2017 National Assembly elections (as well as the 2016 presidential election), but nevertheless faces serious challenges. Election observers have called for improvements to voter registration processes, improved polling station conditions, and more standardized counting and collation processes, as well as the redrawing of election district boundaries.

In February 2017, the National Assembly amended the Elections Act to dramatically reduce deposits required to run for office at various levels. Under the new rules, presidential candidates must pay 10,000 ($230) dalasi, down from 500,000 ($11,000) previously; parliamentary candidates must pay 5,000 dalasi, down from 50,000 previously; mayoral candidates must pay 2,500 dalasi, down from 50,000 previously, and local councilors must pay 1,250 dalasi, down from 10,000 previously.

Score Change: The score improved from 1 to 2 because the electoral commission oversaw successful National Assembly elections in 2017, and because the deposit amounts required to run for national and local offices were reduced.

B. POLITICAL PLURALISM AND PARTICIPATION: 9 / 16 (+4)

B1. Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system free of undue obstacles to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings? 2 / 4 (+1)

The Gambia has nine political parties. To register a new party, organizers must pay a 1 million dalasi ($22,000) registration fee and garner the signatures of 10,000 registered voters with at least 1,000 from each of the country's seven regions. Parties centered on a particular religion, ethnicity, or region are banned. All of a political party's executives must live in The Gambia.

All nine parties competed in the 2017 National Assembly elections; six parties and one independent won seats, compared to two parties and four independents in the 2012 elections. Jammeh and his Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) had long dominated politics previously, and the rise and fall of competing political parties has yet to be institutionalized.

Score Change: The score improved from 1 to 2 because the system was generally free of undue obstacles to the organization and participation of political parties during the April National Assembly elections.

B2. Is there a realistic opportunity for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through elections? 3 / 4 (+2)

The United Democratic Party (UDP) won 31 seats in the 2017 National Assembly elections, taking an absolute majority and displacing Jammeh's APRC, which took 5 seats, down from the 48 it held previously. A number of other opposition groups gained representation in the elections. Previously, under Jammeh, the APRC had dominated the legislature over a period of two decades. Politicized security forces had suppressed the opposition during the 2016 election period.

Separately, Barrow released dozens of political prisoners shortly after taking office.

Score Change: The score improved from 1 to 3 because multiple opposition groups gained power through the National Assembly elections.

B3. Are the people's political choices free from domination by the military, foreign powers, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group that is not democratically accountable? 2 / 4 (+1)

While people's political choices are more free from the undue dominance of unelected parties since the end of Jammeh's 22-year rule, military forces and foreign powers remain influential in Gambian politics. At the request of President Barrow, the ECOWAS mission in The Gambia (ECOMIG) will remain in country until May 2018 in order to facilitate security sector reform intended to reduce ethnically and politically skewed staffing dynamics that are a legacy of the Jammeh regime.

Score Change: The score improved from 1 to 2 due to the reduced influence of powerful groups that are not democratically accountable over people's political choices.

B4. Do various segments of the population (including ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT, and other relevant groups) have full political rights and electoral opportunities? 2 / 4

While political rights and electoral opportunities have recently improved, women remain underrepresented in politics. The newly elected National Assembly includes the first-ever woman speaker and a disabled person; both are presidential appointees." The Jola-dominated APRC no longer monopolizes political space to the extent that it did previously.

C. FUNCTIONING OF GOVERNMENT: 4 / 12 (+4)

C1. Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government? 2 / 4 (+2)

In January 2017, President Adama Barrow was duly installed in office, and formed a functioning government. Nonstate actors, armed forces, and foreign governments do not appear to enjoy preponderant influence. However, despite these improvements, representative rule has yet to be consolidated.

Score Change: The score improved from 0 to 2 because Barrow was able to assume office in January and form a functioning government that is not obstructed by excessive partisan polarization or interference from nonstate actors, armed forces, or foreign governments.

C2. Are safeguards against official corruption strong and effective? 1 / 4 (+1)

The new government has undertaken limited initiatives to reduce corruption, which remains a serious problem. A Commission of Inquiry is investigating former President Jammeh's use of state funds for private gain, and froze his assets. However, challenges remain. Gambians continue to call for laws establishing an Anti-Corruption Commission and requiring public asset declarations by government officials. There is currently no law to protect whistleblowers, and in June 2017, one in the administration was arrested after making allegations of cronyism at the state intelligence agency.

Score Change: The score improved from 0 to 1 because the Barrow administration launched an inquiry into former president Jammeh's use of state funds for private gain, and froze his assets.

C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 1 / 4 (+1)

Government operations are generally opaque, but limited steps were taken toward improving transparency in 2017. Government officials are now required to make asset declarations to the Ombudsman, but the declarations are not open to public and media scrutiny; Barrow has defended this withholding of information, citing privacy concerns. There are widespread allegations of corruption in public procurement processes. However, in a positive development, Finance Minister Amadou Sanneh proposed a budget to the National Assembly, which was debated and approved through the appropriate legislative channels. The new budget was some $24 million less than Jammeh's last budget, with a notable portion of the savings reportedly coming from the elimination of funds budgeted to the first family.

Score Change: The score improved from 0 to 1 due to the fact that all ministers are now required to make asset declarations to an ombudsman, and the National Assembly passed an amended budget that went through proper legislative channels for debate.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: 21 / 60 (+9)

D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 7 / 16 (+4)

D1. Are there free and independent media? 2 / 4 (+2)

Journalists have cited improvements in the media environment under Barrow's administration. These include decreased self-censorship, which journalists attributed to a lifting of the climate of fear most had operated in under Jammeh's severely restrictive administration, when coverage of sensitive topics could result in arrest or abduction. In the newly opened environment, more people are entering the profession, and exiled journalists have returned to the country. While restrictive laws still constrain media, the Gambia Press Union, in cooperation with the government and regional media freedom groups, has begun creating a Comprehensive Strategic Framework for media-sector reform. Additionally, arrest warrants were issued in May 2017 for those suspected of murdering journalist Deyda Hydara in 2004. In June 2017, the Supreme Court struck down a section of the Information and Communication Act that punished the "spreading of false news" via the internet. The ruling came days after it had similarly struck down a colonial-era sedition law.

However, the new administration faced criticism in connection with the arrest and detention of journalist Baboucarr Nani Sey on a variety of apparently trumped-up charges, including organizing a demonstration without a permit. A journalist was beaten in March by supporters of the ruling coalition, though authorities later apologized for the attack.

Score Change: The score improved from 0 to 2 due to improvements in the media environment, including the Barrow administration's ongoing discussions with the Gambia Press Union to reform media laws, the return of exiled journalists, and the issuing of arrest warrants for the suspected killers of journalist Deyda Hydara.

D2. Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private? 2 / 4

In 2017, President Barrow met with religious leaders, and affirmed his support for religious freedom, which is enshrined in the constitution. Barrow appointed three Christians to his cabinet, and promoted religious tolerance during Senegalese Archbishop Benjamin Ndiaye's visit to The Gambia. Various Muslim communities are no longer required to celebrate Eid on the same day.

However, in practice, some restrictions remain. Ahmadi Muslims were denied burial rights in Muslim cemeteries via a Supreme Islamic Council fatwa in 2015, and face discrimination.

D3. Is there academic freedom, and is the educational system free from extensive political indoctrination? 1 / 4

Academic freedom was severely limited at the University of The Gambia under Jammeh, and a robust environment featuring the free exchange of ideas has yet to be established following his departure.

D4. Are individuals free to express their personal views on political or other sensitive topics without fear of surveillance or retribution? 2 / 4 (+2)

Following years of repressive rule under Jammeh, freedom for ordinary people to express views  particularly those of a political nature  without fear of retaliation has increased since Barrow's administration took power. However, problems remain, including at least one instance in 2017 in which a person was arrested and detained in connection with insulting Barrow on social media.

Score Change: The score improved from 0 to 2 due to a freer environment for private discussion, especially of a political nature, under the Barrow administration.

E. ASSOCIATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL RIGHTS: 5 / 12 (+3)

E1. Is there freedom of assembly? 1 / 4 (+1)

The Constitution guarantees freedom of assembly, and while severe limitations to this right remain under the new Barrow administration, the environment improved somewhat in 2017. Freedom of assembly was generally respected during the year's campaign period, during which candidates were able to convey their platforms to voters.

Permits from the police inspector general are required for protests, but the Public Order Act requiring this has come under increasing public scrutiny after the denial of a permit to opposition leader Mama Kandeh, and the death of one citizen during unregistered protests in Kanilai, who was shot by security forces.

Score Change: The score improved from 0 to 1 due to increased space for peaceful assembly under the new administration, notably during the campaigning period ahead of the National Assembly elections.

E2. Is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that are engaged in human rights- and governance-related work? 2 / 4 (+1)

There are a number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Gambia focused on human rights and governance issues. Under Jammeh, NGO workers faced a serious risk of detention and other reprisals, but there were few reports of such suppression in 2017. Notable NGO campaigns in 2017 included advocacy for improved freedom of information and media regulations during the year.

Score Change: The score improved from 1 to 2 due to the new government's tolerance of NGO advocacy related to human rights and governance strengthening.

E3. Is there freedom for trade unions and similar professional or labor organizations? 2 / 4 (+1)

Workers  except for civil servants, household workers, and security forces  may form unions, strike, and bargain for wages, but the labor minister has the discretion to exclude other categories of workers. In August 2017, The Gambia's major trade unions formed a committee tasked with strengthening union activity. Other domestic and international trade union activity took place peacefully during the year.

Score Change: The score improved from 1 to 2 due to an increase in peaceful and free union activity, including collaboration between trade unions to strengthen the movement.

F. RULE OF LAW: 3 / 16 (+2)

F1. Is there an independent judiciary? 1 / 4 (+1)

The judiciary is hampered by corruption and inefficiency. The executive dominates judicial appointment processes. The new administration took steps to include more Gambian citizens in the judiciary, as Jammeh had frequently appointed foreign judges whose terms he could easily cancel if they issued rulings he opposed. In February 2017, Barrow appointed a new Supreme Court justice: Hassan Bubacar Jallow, an internationally respected former UN prosecutor and a Gambian citizen. He began his work by highlighting the shortage of Gambian judges as a critical problem. In November, Barrow appointed eight new Gambian judges to high-level courts, a move the Gambia Bar Association praised.

Score Change: The score improved from 0 to 1 due to the appointment of a new chief justice  an internationally respected former UN prosecutor and a Gambian citizen  in a bid to reverse Jammeh's controversial practice of appointing foreign justices.

F2. Does due process prevail in civil and criminal matters? 0 / 4

Constitutional guarantees of due process are poorly upheld. There were several reports of detention without clear charges in 2017. Of the detainees, who include at least a dozen Gambia Armed Forces members from the Jammeh era, some have not enjoyed access to lawyers, many await trial, and at least one has alleged torture.

F3. Is there protection from the illegitimate use of physical force and freedom from war and insurgencies? 1 / 4 (+1)

The use of illegitimate physical force by security agents has been less frequent under the new Barrow administration. The ex-head and deputy of the National Intelligence Agency were arrested in February 2017 on charges of torture and other human rights violations allegedly committed during the Jammeh regime.

However, serious challenges persist. There are few safeguards to prevent people accused of committing human rights abuses from holding positions of authority within the criminal justice and prison systems. Prison conditions are harsh and unsanitary.

Score Change: The score improved from 0 to 1 due to the reduced use of illegitimate physical force by the Barrow government, and moves to prosecute past abuses.

F4. Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population? 1 / 4

A number of groups encounter serious difficulties in exercising their human rights. Legal protections for disabled people require strengthening and enforcement. LGBT people face severe societal discrimination, and same-sex relations remain criminalized. (In 2017, UDP leader Ousainou Darboe called for decriminalization.) The constitution prohibits discrimination but this "does not apply in respect to adoption, marriage, divorce, burial, and devolution of property upon death."

G. PERSONAL AUTONOMY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: 6 / 16

G1. Do individuals enjoy freedom of movement, including the ability to change their place of residence, employment, or education? 2 / 4

Freedom of movement is hampered by poor roads and numerous security checkpoints.

G2. Are individuals able to exercise the right to own property and establish private businesses without undue interference from state or nonstate actors? 2 / 4

Gambian law provides formal protection of property rights, although Sharia (Islamic law) provisions on family law and inheritance can facilitate discrimination against women. Corruption hampers legitimate business activity.

G3. Do individuals enjoy personal social freedoms, including choice of marriage partner and size of family, protection from domestic violence, and control over appearance? 1 / 4

Rape and domestic violence are illegal, but common. There are no laws prohibiting polygamy, or levirate marriage (in which a widow is married off to the younger brother of her spouse). Female genital mutilation was outlawed in 2015, but is still practiced by some. Activists have called on Barrow to clearly indicate that the law prohibiting it will remain on the books.

G4. Do individuals enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom from economic exploitation? 1 / 4

Women enjoy less access to higher education, justice, and employment than men. Although child labor and forced labor are illegal, some women and children are subject to sex trafficking, domestic servitude, and forced begging. The government has recently made an increased effort to address human trafficking, including by training security officials and border guards to identify victims, and by providing better services to those identified.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights ReservedFreedom in the World 2018 - El Salvador

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 15 March 2018 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2018 - El Salvador, 15 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5ab8bd33a.html [accessed 24 September 2021] 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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 70 (0 = Least Free, 100 = Most Free)

Freedom Rating: 2.5 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Political Rights: 2 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Civil Liberties: 3 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Quick Facts

Population: 6,400,000

Capital: San Salvador

GDP/capita: $4,127

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

Violence linked to criminal gangs remains a grave problem, and concerns remain about the influence such groups have in politics. Authorities have pursued a harsh, militarized response to the country's gangs. Elections in El Salvador are generally credible and free. The country has a lively press and civil society sector, though journalists risk harassment and violence in connection with work related to gang activity or corruption.

Key Developments in 2017:

The annual homicide rate declined, with 3,947 homicides reported during the year compared to roughly 5,300 in 2016. However, murders spiked in September and October, with nearly 900 homicides reported during those two months.

In September, a judge acquitted eight police officers of murder charges related to the so-called San Blas case, in which eight people were killed in a 2015 incident at a coffee farm. Rights advocates portrayed the acquittals as a reflection of ongoing impunity for security forces involved in the fight against gangs.

Former president Mauricio Funes was convicted in absentia on charges of illicit enrichment in November. A similar case against former president Antonio Saca remained open at year's end.

POLITICAL RIGHTS: 34 / 40

A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 11 / 12

A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4

El Salvador's president is directly elected for a five-year term. Salvador Sanchez Ceren, the candidate of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), won the 2014 presidential election. The runner-up, Norman Quijano of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), accused the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of fraud, but domestic and international observers considered the elections competitive and credible.

A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 3 / 4

The 84-member, unicameral Legislative Assembly is elected for three years. In the 2015 elections, ARENA won 35 seats  32 on its own and 3 in coalition with the National Coalition Party (PCN). The FMLN won 31 seats, and the rest went to smaller groupings. Turnout was 48 percent. Some vote buying was alleged in rural areas. The Organization of American States (OAS) observation mission declared the election broadly transparent and free, but noted that the TSE had difficulties in the counting and transmission of results. San Salvadoran candidates disputed their results, prompting the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court to call for an unprecedented recount that did not affect the results, but delayed the seating of 24 deputies.

A3. Are the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies? 4 / 4

The country's electoral framework has undergone a number of changes in recent years, at times contributing to inefficiencies and confusion surrounding electoral processes. While the TSE has worked to implement reforms and clarify processes ahead of the 2018 elections, some uncertainties persist. Still pending is a complete update of the voter rolls by the TSE, a procedure the OAS and other organizations have repeatedly recommended. Political parties have expressed reservations about the capabilities of the company the TSE has contracted to process and transmit votes in the 2018 elections. There have also been concerns about whether the TSE can effectively implement a new program that calls upon citizens, rather than partisan representatives, to oversee vote counting.

In 2016, the TSE fined five political parties including ARENA and the FMLN for failing to disclose the identities of donors as required by law. A subsequent Constitutional Chamber ruling mandated that parties that fail to comply with disclosure rules by November 2017 will not receive public financing in future elections, or be able to enter candidates in the 2018 polls. Most parties complied with the rules, and in November 2017, the TSE consequently permitted the registration of those parties' candidates.

B. POLITICAL PLURALISM AND PARTICIPATION: 14 / 16

B1. Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system free of undue obstacles to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings? 4 / 4

Salvadorans are free to organize in different political parties or organizations. While two parties, FMLN and ARENA, have dominated the country's system for the past few decades, new parties have emerged and are able to participate and compete in political processes.

B2. Is there a realistic opportunity for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through elections? 4 / 4

Opposition parties have the ability to increase support and gain power through elections. Historically, executive elections are closely contested between the two main parties, but in legislative elections, smaller parties stand to gain power.

B3. Are the people's political choices free from domination by the military, foreign powers, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group that is not democratically accountable? 3 / 4

There have been reports of political parties paying criminal groups to deliver the votes of citizens living in areas under the groups' control. Party leaders reportedly engage in negotiations with criminal leaders in order to secure permission for their party to operate in gang-controlled areas. Salvadorans also continue to express concerns that foreign governments and multinational corporations exert influence over local and national government officials.

Since the transition to democracy, the military has been an apolitical institution.

B4. Do various segments of the population (including ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT, and other relevant groups) have full political rights and electoral opportunities? 3 / 4

Ethnic, religious, and gender groups, and LGBT people, have full political and electoral opportunities, but are underrepresented in the legislature and in high-level government positions. A 2013 statute requires that 30 percent of legislative and municipal candidates be women, and 32 percent of seats in the Legislative Assembly were held by women following the 2015 elections.

C. FUNCTIONING OF GOVERNMENT: 9 / 12

C1. Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government? 3 / 4

The freely elected government is generally able to determine policies. However, there are concerns that international actors and illicit organizations might unduly influence policy decisions, including through unreported contributions to political parties. However, in November 2017, some political parties, including ARENA and the FMLN, complied with financial transparency rules, and the information was published on the TSE website.

The government lacks authority over some areas that are controlled by criminal groups.

C2. Are safeguards against official corruption strong and effective? 3 / 4

The office of the attorney general, the Probity Section of the Supreme Court, and other institutions have continued to pursue an active agenda against official corruption. High-level officials and former officials have been prosecuted on corruption charges. Former president Mauricio Funes was convicted in absentia on charges of illicit enrichment in November 2017, though after the case against him opened he had fled to Nicaragua, where he was granted asylum. Former president Antonio Saca faces similar charges and was in detention at year's end, as his case moved forward.

However, those pursuing corruption cases continue to report pressure from outside interest groups, and are hampered by budget restrictions and other obstruction. In October 2017, a Supreme Court magistrate said excessive information requests lodged with it were designed to hamper the functions of the Probity Section and impede corruption investigations.

In July 2017, the legislature approved reforms to eminent domain laws that various actors, including the attorney general and the U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, criticized for making it more difficult to seize property and assets of corrupt government officials, drug traffickers, and gang members. The Constitutional Chamber suspended the reforms in August, pending the decision of a current case that argues it is unconstitutional.

C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 3 / 4

There have been advances in the implementation of the Access to Public Information Law, but challenges remain, including delays in responding to information requests and the denial of requests on dubious grounds, or for reasons not sufficiently explained. In October 2017, the Constitutional Chamber added additional limits to the law when ruling on a case involving the travel expenses of former president Funes. The Chamber ruled that the current government does not have to disclose information related to incidents that took place during previous administrations, because it would not have sufficient information regarding those events.

However, in 2017, the government took some steps toward better ensuring the transparency regarding the funding of public works projects.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: 36 / 60

D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 12 / 16

D1. Are there free and independent media? 2 / 4

The Constitution provides for freedom of the press. In practice, the media scene is robust, but reporters face significant challenges. Harassment and acts of violence following coverage of corruption and gang violence have led reporters to engage in self-censorship. In August 2017, journalists from the digital news outlets El Faro and Revista Factum faced harassment and threats on social media in apparent response to an article about corruption and violence within a state security unit. Government officials have also adopted hostile rhetoric toward the media. During an April 2017 public presentation where President Ceren was also in attendance, the mayor of Villa de Panchimalco declared that the media "throws feces" at the public with their reporting.

Most of the country depends on privately owned television and radio networks for news, and ownership in the broadcast sector is highly concentrated. Access to the internet is unrestricted. Online outlets like El Faro and Revista Factum are critical sources of independent reporting.

D2. Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private? 4 / 4

The government does not encroach upon religious freedom. However, religious leaders working with former gang members or critical of the government have faced harassment.

D3. Is there academic freedom, and is the educational system free from extensive political indoctrination? 3 / 4

Academic freedom is respected and the educational system is generally free from extensive political indoctrination. However, gang-related violence continues to present a challenge to the education system. As of mid-2017, 6 teachers and 16 students had been murdered, according to the Union of Public Education Teachers of El Salvador, with the killings generally thought to have been committed by criminal groups.

D4. Are individuals free to express their personal views on political or other sensitive topics without fear of surveillance or retribution? 3 / 4

While private discussion is generally free, the prevalence of gang activity requires many Salvadorans to curtail discussion of gang-related topics outside of their homes.

E. ASSOCIATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL RIGHTS: 8 / 12

E1. Is there freedom of assembly? 3 / 4

Freedoms of assembly and association are generally upheld, and public protests and gatherings are permitted. However, due to the prevalence of violence in El Salvador, the safety of participants is impossible to guarantee.

E2. Is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that are engaged in human rights- and governance-related work? 3 / 4

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operate freely, although those involved with human rights- and governance-related topics sometimes face threats and extortion attempts from criminal groups. Impunity for such attacks, as well as occasional pressure on NGOs by police, has prompted some observers to question the government's commitment to the protection of human rights. Several NGOs and associations have reported discovering microphones or other listening devices on their premises in recent years, including the National Association of Private Companies (ANEP), the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUSADES), and the National Development Foundation (FUNDE).

Despite these difficulties, NGOs play an important role in society and can influence policy. In March 2017, the government passed a law prohibiting metal mining across the country in response to the mobilization of civil society actors fighting severe water pollution linked with the industry.

E3. Is there freedom for trade unions and similar professional or labor organizations? 2 / 4

Labor unions have long faced obstacles in a legal environment that has traditionally favored business interests, including by mandating only light penalties for employers who interfere with strikes. The law prohibits strikes in sectors deemed essential, but is vague about the type of work falling within this designation. Over 1,000 postal workers went on strike in November 2017 to protest harassment and corruption by the postal leadership. The strike was declared illegal by a labor court three days later on grounds that it was preventing the delivery of essential medicine sent from the Salvadoran Social Security Institute (ISSS).

F. RULE OF LAW: 8 / 16

F1. Is there an independent judiciary? 3 / 4

The country's judicial system is hampered by corruption and obstructionism. However, civil society groups have pressed for reforms, and several were implemented in 2017. In January, the Legislative Assembly passed a measure requiring the National Council of the Judiciary (CNJ) to make public their short lists of candidates for the Supreme Court. And in October, the CNJ presented a manual detailing the selection criteria for magistrates serving in the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, specifying that they must not have a party affiliation, nor can they have been previously sanctioned by the Government Ethics Tribunal (TEG).

F2. Does due process prevail in civil and criminal matters? 2 / 4

Due process rights are guaranteed by the constitution, but upheld inconsistently. Powerful individuals are able to use their influence, including by pressuring members of the judiciary, to evade justice. Many cases are decided by judges, as opposed to civilian juries. Interpreters are not always provided for defendants who do not speak Spanish. Rights advocates report that police have carried out arbitrary arrests and detentions as part of the country's crackdown on gangs.

F3. Is there protection from the illegitimate use of physical force and freedom from war and insurgencies? 1 / 4

Violence  with youths as the main victims  was lower in 2017 than in 2016, though there was a significant spike in homicides in September and October 2017, which saw 435 and 452 recorded homicides, respectively. The government blamed that violence on internal fighting between Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) gang factions, and gangs trying to pressure the government to release imprisoned gang leaders. Despite the spike in violence, police reported that there had been 3,947 homicides during the year, compared to roughly 5,300 in 2016 and 6,700 in 2015.

Gangs continue to target members of security forces and their families. Attorney General Douglas Melendez received death threats in connection with anticorruption and gang-related prosecutions in 2017.

In 2017, authorities continued to pursue a harsh, militarized response to the country's criminal gangs. Police have been implicated in hundreds of extrajudicial killings as part of the campaign. A report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) released in September 2017 found that since 2015, 1,415 people, 90 percent of whom were suspected of being gang members, had been killed in "alleged confrontations" between suspected gang members and security forces. The organization raised concerns about the large discrepancy between the number of suspected gang members killed, compared to the 238 security forces members killed in such confrontations during the same time period. In September, a judge acquitted eight police officers of murder charges related to the so-called San Blas case, in which the defendants were suspected of summarily executing eight people in a 2015 incident at a coffee farm. Rights activists portrayed the acquittals as a reflection of impunity for the security forces.

Prisons remain extremely overcrowded, and conditions within can be lethal due to disease, lack of adequate medical care, and the risk of attack by other inmates.

F4. Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population? 2 / 4

Women are granted equal rights under the law, but are often subject to discrimination. Indigenous people face poverty, unemployment, and labor discrimination. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is prevalent, and LGBT people and groups are often the targets of hate crimes. Underrepresented populations, particularly internally displaced persons and LGBT people, have limited access to the justice system.

G. PERSONAL AUTONOMY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: 8 / 16

G1. Do individuals enjoy freedom of movement, including the ability to change their place of residence, employment, or education? 2 / 4

Freedom of travel within El Salvador is complicated by gang activity. The MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs control certain neighborhoods, making it dangerous for residents to travel, work, and attend school. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) estimated that over 220,000 people in the country were displaced due to violence in 2016 alone.

G2. Are individuals able to exercise the right to own property and establish private businesses without undue interference from state or nonstate actors? 2 / 4

Businesses and private citizens are regularly subject to extortion, although the police and attorney general's office noted a drop in reported extortions in the first nine months of 2017, compared to the same period in 2016. Indigenous people face challenges with regard to land rights and access to credit.

G3. Do individuals enjoy personal social freedoms, including choice of marriage partner and size of family, protection from domestic violence, and control over appearance? 2 / 4

Abortion is punishable by imprisonment even when the life of the mother is at risk. Some women have been jailed despite credible claims that their pregnancies ended due to miscarriage. The Constitutional Chamber affirmed in 2013 that the "rights of the mother cannot be privileged over the fetus." In addition, domestic violence remains high. There were over 400 recorded femicides by the end of 2017.

Separately, in August 2017, lawmakers passed a measure banning marriage for children under 15 years of age, though it contained exceptions for cases involving pregnancy.

G4. Do individuals enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom from economic exploitation? 2 / 4

El Salvador remains a source, transit, and destination country for the trafficking of women and children, though some sex trafficking cases have been prosecuted. There are instances of forced labor in the construction and informal sectors, but the government does not prosecute labor trafficking cases.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights ReservedFreedom in the World 2018 - Colombia

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 15 March 2018 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2018 - Colombia, 15 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5ab8bd35a.html [accessed 24 September 2021] 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.

Freedom Status: Partly Free

Aggregate Score: 65 (0 = Least Free, 100 = Most Free)

Freedom Rating: 3.0 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Political Rights: 3 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Civil Liberties: 3 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Quick Facts

Population: 48,800,000

Capital: Bogota

GDP/capita: $6,045

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: Partly Free

OVERVIEW

Colombia is one of the longest-standing democracies in Latin America, but one with a history of serious human rights abuses. However, the incidence of human rights abuses has declined in recent years, and institutions are becoming more effective in checking executive power. In 2016, the government and Colombia's main left-wing guerilla group signed a peace accord, but the country faces enormous challenges in consolidating peace and guaranteeing political rights and civil liberties throughout the territory.

Key Developments in 2017:

Left-wing ex-guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) completed their demobilization in August, delivering more than 8,000 weapons to United Nations monitors.

A wave of lethal attacks against human rights defenders and other social activists continued throughout the year. Scores of activists were murdered and there is widespread impunity for the killers.

Several corruption scandals generated significant political fallout, including revelations of widespread bribes of political figures by the Brazilian corporation Odebrecht, and the arrest of the country's chief anticorruption prosecutor for helping rig judicial processes.

Executive Summary:

Colombian politics in 2017 were dominated by the challenges of implementing the provisions of the peace accord signed in August 2016 by the government and the FARC. Although the deal was narrowly rejected in an October 2016 referendum, renegotiations yielded a revised accord the following month, which the legislature ratified without an additional plebiscite.

A historic moment occurred in August 2017, when over 7,000 FARC members completed a demobilization process by finalizing the handover of over 8,000 weapons to UN monitors. However, opponents of the accord, led by ex-president Alvaro Uribe, continued to oppose the accord throughout 2017, insisting that it was too magnanimous towards the guerrillas. Efforts to delay implementation on the most fraught element of the accord  a transitional justice system intended to resolve crimes perpetrated by guerrillas as well as both state actors and private citizens  were abetted by a Constitutional Court decision in May limiting the government's ability to pass accord-related laws via a "fast-track" judicial mechanism. Although a bill implementing the transitional justice system passed in November, lawmakers struggled to pass other high-priority bills.

Human rights defenders and other social activists were again the targets of systematic violent attack during the year. According to the local office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, 105 activists were killed in 2017. Many of the crimes were attributed to either successor groups to Colombia's notorious paramilitaries seeking to expand their territory following the FARC's demobilization, or a smaller insurgent group, the National Liberation Army (ELN). Peace talks between the government and ELN began in February 2017, and a tenuous, temporary ceasefire took effect in October.

Corruption scandals, a common occurrence in Colombia, again produced political turmoil in 2017. Investigations into bribes paid by Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht led to the indictments of several senators. In June, the head of the anticorruption unit within the attorney general's office, Luis Gustavo Moreno, was arrested for allegedly helping undermine judicial processes via money laundering and bribery. His cooperation resulted in the investigation or indictment of three Supreme Court justices and multiple legislators and officials.

POLITICAL RIGHTS: 29 / 40

A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 10 / 12

A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4

The president is directly elected to a four-year term. As part of a series of 2015 constitutional amendments known as the Balance of Power reform, immediate presidential reelection was eliminated. President Juan Manuel Santos won the second round of the 2014 election with 51 percent of the vote against Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, who had won the first round with 29 percent to Santos's 26 percent. The balloting was considered competitive and credible.

Regional elections in 2015 fortified parties allied with the government, which won gubernatorial races in 23 of the 32 departments. The polls were marred by accusations of improper influence by illegal groups and insufficient candidate vetting by the major parties.

A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 3 / 4

Congress is composed of the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives, with all seats up for election every four years. The nation at large selects 100 Senate members using a closed-list system; indigenous communities choose two additional members. The Chamber of Representatives consists of 166 members elected by closed-list proportional representation in multimember districts. The final peace accord between the government and the FARC, ratified in November 2016, included a provision guaranteeing former guerrillas five seats in each chamber in the 2018 and 2022 elections. The status of an additional 16 Chamber seats guaranteed to victims of the armed conflict remained in limbo at the end of 2017, pending judicial resolution of a procedural dispute.

The 2014 legislative elections were relatively peaceful, but plagued by accusations of fraud, vote buying, and connections between candidates and organized crime figures. President Santos's main allies, the Liberal Party, the Social National Unity Party (U Party), and Radical Change, won a substantial majority in the Chamber of Representatives, taking 92 seats. In the Senate, however, the coalition won only 47 seats. Former president Uribe's Democratic Center took 20 seats in the Senate and 19 in the Chamber of Representatives, becoming the primary opposition force.

A3. Are the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies? 3 / 4

The nine members of the National Electoral Council (CNE)  elected by Congress for four-year terms based on party nominations  oversee the conduct of the country's elections, including the financing of political campaigns and the counting of votes. It has faced some criticism for partisanship, and for failing to effectively enforce electoral laws. In 2016, the Inter American Press Association criticized the body over a measure requiring media outlets to report fairly on the plebiscite regarding the peace deal between the government and FARC fighters, and to submit reports about such coverage; the group said the measures saying it threatened press freedom.

B. POLITICAL PLURALISM AND PARTICIPATION: 11 / 16

B1. Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system free of undue obstacles to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings? 3 / 4

The party system still includes the traditional Liberal and Conservative parties, but is increasingly split among a variety of parties and coalitions representing regional movements, ideological groups from both the right and the left, and technocratic or issue-oriented parties. Santos's centrist National Unity coalition, which enjoyed dominance in both chambers during his first term, maintained the loose support of a significant majority of legislators following the 2014 elections, despite the vocal and cohesive presence of the Uribe-led right. In August 2017, the FARC officially reorganized as a political party, the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force (also known as FARC).

B2. Is there a realistic opportunity for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through elections? 3 / 4

Alternation in power is routine at both the national level and in the regions, though some areas remain under the control of machine-style political clans with ties to organized crime.

B3. Are the people's political choices free from domination by the military, foreign powers, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group that is not democratically accountable? 2 / 4

The Colombian state has long struggled to bring effective state presence to large swathes of the national territory. In 2017, the ELN, an armed, left-wing guerilla group, and criminal gangs subjected government officials to sporadic threats, harassment, and violence. ELN activity can have negative effects on the ability of people in some areas to assert their right to participate in political processes.

B4. Do various segments of the population (including ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT, and other relevant groups) have full political rights and electoral opportunities? 3 / 4

While general progress remains slow, the government has undertaken a series of steps to incorporate indigenous and Afro-Colombian voices into national political debates in recent years. The peace accord ratified in November 2016 included provisions for improving consultation mechanisms for marginalized groups.

C. FUNCTIONING OF GOVERNMENT: 8 / 12

C1. Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government? 3 / 4

Elected officials generally determine government policy without interference, though threats from guerilla groups and criminal gangs can cast a chill over policymaking processes.

Although a bill implementing the transitional justice system passed in November 2017, lawmakers struggled to pass other high-priority bills during the year.

C2. Are safeguards against official corruption strong and effective? 2 / 4

Corruption occurs at multiple levels of public administration. Graft scandals have emerged in recent years within an array of federal government agencies, but arrests and convictions do take place at high levels. Numerous officials from the Uribe administrations have been convicted of corruption, trading favors, and spying on political opponents. The Odebrecht scandal led to charges against two senators, Bernardo Elias, who was arrested in August 2017, and Musa Besaile, who was arrested in October, and charges or investigations against multiple former legislators and bureaucrats. The arrest of anticorruption prosecutor Luis Gustavo Moreno in June for bribery and money laundering sent shockwaves through the justice system. His cooperation with the probe resulted in graft charges against two ex-presidents of the Supreme Court, Francisco Ricaurte and Leonidas Bustos, and a corruption investigation of the current president of the Supreme Court, Gustavo Malo.

C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 3 / 4

Government information is generally available to the public, though information related to military and security affairs can be difficult to access. Congress maintains an online platform on which legislators can voluntarily publish financial disclosures.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: 36 / 60 (+1)

D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 12 / 16

D1. Are there free and independent media? 2 / 4

The constitution guarantees freedom of expression, and opposition views are commonly expressed in the media. However, journalists face intimidation, kidnapping, and violence both in the course of reporting and as retaliation for their work. Dozens of journalists have been murdered since the mid-1990s, many of them targeted for reporting on drug trafficking and corruption. The government has prosecuted several notorious cases of murdered journalists in recent years, but convictions are rare, and the statute of limitations has expired for many cases. One journalist was killed in connection with her work in 2017, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ); Maria Efigenia Vasquez Astudillo was shot and killed in October in the Cauca District of southwestern Colombia. The attack took place while she was reporting on a violent confrontation between riot police and indigenous Kokonuko demonstrators who were protesting development by a private company on land the Kokonuko community considers sacred.

Self-censorship is common, and slander and defamation remain criminal offenses. The government does not restrict access to the internet, nor does it censor websites. Twitter and other social media platforms have become important arenas for political discourse.

D2. Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private? 4 / 4

The constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the government generally respects this right in practice.

D3. Is there academic freedom, and is the educational system free from extensive political indoctrination? 3 / 4

Academic freedom is generally respected. University debates are often vigorous, though armed groups maintain a presence on some campuses to generate political support and intimidate opponents.

D4. Are individuals free to express their personal views on political or other sensitive topics without fear of surveillance or retribution? 3 / 4

Expression is generally protected in major urban centers, but it remains inhibited in areas where the state, insurgents, and criminals vie for control.

E. ASSOCIATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL RIGHTS: 5 / 12

E1. Is there freedom of assembly? 2 / 4

Although provided for in the constitution, freedoms of assembly and association are restricted in practice by violence. The riot police are known for moving aggressively to break up protests. In October, seven peasants were killed by the police during protests against forced coca eradication in Tumaco, located in southwestern Columbia.

E2. Is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that are engaged in human rights- and governance-related work? 2 / 4

The government provides protection to hundreds of threatened human rights workers, but trust in the service varies widely. Hundreds of activists have been murdered in recent years, mostly by the criminal organizations that succeeded paramilitary groups following a government-backed demobilization process in 2005. Although the Santos administration has reiterated its respect for civil society groups, violations against activists have risen in recent years. The local office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights had registered 105 activist killings as of late December 2017; moreover, according to We Are Defenders, a coalition of local and international rights groups, the country suffered an 87 percent impunity rate for the 458 activists killed between 2009 and 2016. Land rights and victims' rights campaigners in particular are threatened by former paramilitaries and other local actors seeking to silence criticism of assets acquired during the conflict and halt the implementation of rural development programs. Defense minister Luis Carlos Villegas caused a stir in December 2017 by characterizing the causes of most of the killings as petty disputes.

E3. Is there freedom for trade unions and similar professional or labor organizations? 1 / 4

Workers may form and join trade unions, bargain collectively, and strike, and antiunion discrimination is prohibited. Over the past two decades, Colombia's illegal armed groups have killed more than 2,600 labor union activists and leaders. Killings have declined substantially from their peak in the early 2000s, but 19 union leaders were murdered in 2016, according to 2017 statistics from the International Trade Union Confederation. Although a special prosecutorial unit has substantially increased prosecutions for such assassinations since 2007, few investigations have targeted those who ordered the killings.

F. RULE OF LAW: 9 / 16 (+1)

F1. Is there an independent judiciary? 3 / 4

The justice system remains compromised by corruption and extortion, although the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court have consistently exhibited independence from the executive. However, corruption allegations involving Supreme Court justices that emerged in 2017 damaged the high court's credibility.

Separately, in May 2017, the Constitutional Court contributed to uncertainty regarding the transitional justice system by limiting the government's ability to move peace-related laws through Congress via simplified, or "fast-track", legislative procedures. In a November decision upholding transitional justice provisions passed in March, the Court provided ambiguous answers to several key questions, including about the incarceration of convicted war criminals and the extent of criminal culpability for military officers whose subordinates committed grave rights abuses.

F2. Does due process prevail in civil and criminal matters? 2 / 4 (+1)

Due process protections remain weak, and trial processes move slowly. However, in recent years the government has been able to assert state control over more territory, bringing basic due process rights to more people. The prosecutorial service is relatively professional, and in July 2017 long-delayed criminal procedure code changes intended to ameliorate extended pretrial detention took effect. Separately, membership of the two key transitional justice bodies, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the Truth Commission, was finalized in September and November, respectively.

The systematic killing of civilians to fraudulently inflate guerrilla death tolls resulted in as many as 3,000 murders by the military between 2002 and 2008. By September 2017, more than 1,200 soldiers had been convicted of these crimes, though high-ranking officers have largely escaped punishment. Many of these judicial processes were disrupted in 2017 amid uncertainty regarding the proper judicial venue.

Score Change: The score improved from 1 to 2 because the gradual expansion of state control has brought basic due process protections to a larger portion of the national territory, and because transitional justice bodies were established in an orderly manner.

F3. Is there protection from the illegitimate use of physical force and freedom from war and insurgencies? 2 / 4

Many soldiers operate with limited civilian oversight, though the government has in recent years increased human rights training and investigated a greater number of violations by security forces personnel. Collaboration between security forces and illegal armed groups has declined, but rights groups report official toleration of paramilitary successor groups in some regions. Primary responsibility for combating these groups rests with the police, who lack necessary resources, are sometimes accused of colluding with criminals, and are largely absent from many rural areas where the groups are active.

Civil-military relations have been a source of significant tension in recent years. A portion of the armed forces opposed the peace process, and public uncertainty regarding the ability of accused human rights violators within the military to receive benefits under the transitional justice system is one of the most controversial elements of the peace process.

Some areas, particularly resource-rich zones and drug-trafficking corridors, remain highly insecure. Remnant guerrillas  including a notable set of FARC dissidents  and paramilitary successor groups regularly abuse the civilian population, especially in coca-growing areas. Cultivation of the plant increased dramatically as the peace process took effect. Impunity for crime in general is rampant, and most massacres that took place during the conflict have gone unpunished. In 2016, prosecutors indicted Santiago Uribe, the former president's brother, for allegedly leading a paramilitary group responsible for dozens of deaths in the 1990s; the process continued throughout 2017.

Despite these problems, violence has significantly subsided since the early 2000s. In 2017, the homicide rate  roughly 24 per 100,000 people  declined to its lowest point in four decades, and the number of conflict-related victims plummeted as a result of the peace process.

F4. Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population? 2 / 4

Afro-Colombians, who account for approximately 25 percent of the population, make up the largest segment of Colombia's more than 7 million displaced people, and 80 percent of Afro-Colombians live below the poverty line. Areas with concentrated Afro-Colombian populations continue to suffer from abuses by the FARC, security forces, and paramilitary successors. In 2017, territorial clashes among militant groups in Choco Department displaced thousands of the area's largely Afro-Colombian and indigenous residents.

Most of Colombia's more than 1.7 million indigenous inhabitants live on approximately 34 million hectares granted to them by the government, often in resource-rich, strategic regions that are increasingly contested by various armed groups. Indigenous people have been targeted by all sides in the country's various conflicts. In late October 2017, over 100,000 indigenous Colombians initiated a strike that included highway blockades to call attention to lack of implementation of relevant peace accord provisions, and to demand a national forum to negotiate indigenous issues with the government, leading to the formation of a high-level commission to monitor compliance of agreed-upon issues. High incidence of malnutrition and starvation among the Wayuu indigenous group has prompted international pressure on the Colombian government in recent years.

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people suffer societal discrimination and abuse, and there are high levels of impunity for crimes committed against them. According to the local NGO Colombia Diversa, more than 31 LGBT individuals were murdered in 2017.

G. PERSONAL AUTONOMY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: 10 / 16

G1. Do individuals enjoy freedom of movement, including the ability to change their place of residence, employment, or education? 3 / 4

Freedom of movement, choice of residence, and property rights are restricted by violence, particularly for vulnerable minority groups. Travel in rural areas is further limited by illegal checkpoints operated by criminal and guerrilla groups.

G2. Are individuals able to exercise the right to own property and establish private businesses without undue interference from state or nonstate actors? 2 / 4

Violence and instability in some areas threatens property rights and the ability to establish businesses. Guerilla and paramilitary successor groups regularly extort payments from business owners. Corruption at various levels as well as undue pressure exerted on prosecutors and members of the judiciary can disrupt legitimate business dealings.

Progress remains uneven on the implementation of the landmark 2011 Victims and Land Law, which recognized the legitimacy of claims by victims of conflict-related abuses, including those committed by government forces. While affected citizens continue receiving compensation, the legal process for land restitution is heavily backlogged, and the resettlement of those who were displaced during the conflict continues to move slowly.

G3. Do individuals enjoy personal social freedoms, including choice of marriage partner and size of family, protection from domestic violence, and control over appearance? 3 / 4

Sexual harassment, gender-based violence, and the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation remain major concerns. Thousands of rapes have occurred as part of the conflict, generally with impunity. The country has restrictive abortion laws, though a 2006 Constitutional Court ruling allowed abortion in cases of rape or incest or to protect the life of the mother.

In 2016, after several years of contradictory judicial and administrative decisions regarding same-sex unions, the Constitutional Court voted to legalize them. The court legalized adoptions by same-sex couples in 2015.

G4. Do individuals enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom from economic exploitation? 2 / 4

Child labor, the recruitment of children by illegal armed groups, and related sexual abuse are serious problems in Colombia. A 2011 free trade agreement with the United States and a subsequent Labor Action Plan called for enhanced investigation of abusive labor practices and rights violations, but progress remains deficient in several areas.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights ReservedFreedom in the World 2018 - Austria

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 15 March 2018 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2018 - Austria, 15 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5ab8bd3a4.html [accessed 24 September 2021] 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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 94 (0 = Least Free, 100 = Most Free)

Freedom Rating: 1.0 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Political Rights: 1 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Civil Liberties: 1 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Quick Facts

Population: 8,800,000

Capital: Vienna

GDP/capita: $44,256

Press Freedom Status: Free

OVERVIEW

Austria has a democratic system of government that guarantees political rights and civil liberties. It has frequently been governed by a grand coalition of the center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO), and the center-right Austrian People's Party (OVP). However, in recent years, the political system has faced pressure from the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), a right-wing, populist party that openly entertains nationalist and xenophobic sentiments. The FPO entered the Austrian government in coalition with the OVP in 2017.

Key Developments in 2017:

Austria held early elections in October, following the collapse of the governing coalition between the SPO and OVP in May. The OVP won a plurality of seats in the elections, and formed a coalition government with the right-wing, populist FPO.

In January, Austria introduced a ban on full-face coverings, including burqas and niqabs, which came into effect in October.

Major parties were unable to agree on certain provisions of a proposed freedom of information law, and the policy of official secrecy remained in the constitution at the end of the year.

POLITICAL RIGHTS: 37 / 40

A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 12 / 12

A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4

Executive elections in Austria are generally free and fair. The president is elected for a six-year term and has predominantly ceremonial duties. The president does, however, appoint the chancellor, who also needs the support of the legislature to govern. Austria's current president is the former head of the Green Party, Alexander Van der Bellen, who was elected president after a close and controversial poll that featured a repeat of the run-off between Van der Bellen and FPO candidate Norbert Hofer. The run-off was repeated after the Constitutional Court established that there had been problems with the handling of postal ballots.

Following the 2017 elections to the National Council (Nationalrat), the lower house of parliament, OVP head Sebastian Kurz became chancellor with support of the right-wing, populist FPO.

A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4

Legislative elections in Austria are generally free and fair. The National Council has 183 members chosen through proportional representation at the district, state, and federal levels. Members serve five-year terms. The 62 members of the upper house, the Federal Council (Bundesrat), are chosen by state legislatures for five- or six-year terms.

Snap elections to the National Council took place in October 2017, one year early, following the collapse of the coalition between the SPO and the OVP in May. Animosities between the two former coalition partners were reflected in an antagonistic, heavily-fought election campaign. Migration and asylum issues were particularly prominent. OVP leader Kurz became a proponent of some of the restrictive policies supported by the right-wing, populist FPO, reflecting a rightward shift in Austrian politics.

The OVP took 62 mandates  the most of any party but not enough for a governing majority. The SPO received 52 mandates, and the FPO took 51; the remaining votes were split between smaller parties. Voter turnout was around 80 percent.

The OVP formed a coalition government with the FPO in December. The formation of the coalition made Austria the only western European country to have a far-right party included in the government. President Van der Bellen approved the coalition and Kurz became chancellor that same month.

A3. Are the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies? 4 / 4

Austria's electoral laws and framework are fair and generally implemented impartially by the relevant bodies.

B. POLITICAL PLURALISM AND PARTICIPATION: 15 / 16

B1. Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system free of undue obstacles to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings? 4 / 4

Austria has competitive political parties that form and operate without encountering undue obstacles. Recent years have seen the rise and fall of various competing parties and coalitions through democratic processes. The Green Party lost its seats in the National Council after failing to meet the 4 percent voting threshold in the 2017 elections, while the recently formed Pilz List entered the chamber for the first time.

B2. Is there a realistic opportunity for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through elections? 4 / 4

Opposition parties have a realistic opportunity to gain representation. Austria has frequently been governed by grand coalitions, a trend that has fostered some public disillusionment with the political process. The SPO had formed a grand coalition with the OVP in 2013 after winning a plurality of seats in that year's elections. However, following the 2017 polls, the SPO was pushed into opposition after the best-performing OVP entered a coalition with the FPO.

B3. Are the people's political choices free from domination by the military, foreign powers, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group that is not democratically accountable? 4 / 4

Austrians are generally free to make their own political choices without pressure from the military, business leaders, or other groups that are not democratically accountable.

B4. Do various segments of the population (including ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT, and other relevant groups) have full political rights and electoral opportunities? 3 / 4

The participation of Slovene, Hungarian, and Roma minorities in local government remains limited. There is little minority representation in legislature. The number of people who have been naturalized (thus gaining certain political rights) has fallen dramatically since the establishment of a more restrictive national integration policy in 2009.

C. FUNCTIONING OF GOVERNMENT: 10 / 12

C1. Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government? 4 / 4

The freely elected president and legislative representatives work with the chancellor, vice chancellor, and cabinet ministers to determine the policies of the government.

C2. Are safeguards against official corruption strong and effective? 3 / 4

Austria has some problems with public-sector corruption, and the political class is perceived by many as corrupt. In what was considered one of the most significant corruption cases in recent years, the trial of former finance minister Karl-Heinz Grasser opened in December 2017; he is charged with bribery and embezzlement in connection with the sale of state housing in 2004. Separately, the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) criticized Austria in February for weak party finance legislation, and for failing to adequately regulate lobbying and prevent corruption amongst parliamentarians.

C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 3 / 4

Austria's government has frequently been criticized for lacking transparency. Official secrecy remains enshrined in the constitution. For over four years, a draft freedom of information law has been stuck in parliamentary procedures, and it again stalled in June 2017 when parties could not reach an agreement over certain aspects of its provisions. Austria's overall legal framework on access to information  containing vague criteria for compliance and lacking a strong appeals mechanism  is among the weakest in the world.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: 57 / 60 (-1)

D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 15 / 16 (-1)

D1. Are there free and independent media? 4 / 4

The federal constitution and the Media Law of 1981 provide the basis for free media in Austria, and the government generally respects these provisions in practice. However, libel and slander laws protect politicians and government officials, many of whom  particularly members of the FPO  have filed defamation suits in recent years. Media ownership remains highly concentrated, particularly in the provinces. The government exerts some influence on the state broadcaster, the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF). In December 2017, Heinz-Christian Strache, the head of the FPO and vice-chancellor, claimed that the ORF needed an "optimization" of its objectivity, prompting concern among media freedom advocates.

Before the October 2017 elections, then chancellor Christian Kern was heavily criticized for his decision to not place any campaign ads in or give interviews to the tabloid-style newspaper Osterreich, which had mocked him ahead of the election, a step seen by some as an attack on press freedom. While there is no official censorship, Austrian law prohibits any form of neo-Nazism or anti-Semitism, as well as the public denial, approval, or justification of Nazi crimes, including the Holocaust. There are no restrictions on internet access.

D2. Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private? 3 / 4 (-1)

Religious freedom is constitutionally guaranteed. Austrian law divides religious organizations into three legal categories: officially recognized religious societies, religious confessional communities, and associations. Many religious minority groups allege that the law impedes their legitimate claims for recognition, and demotes them to second- or third-class status.

Foreign funding for Muslim houses of worship and imams is prohibited by a 2015 law; Orthodox Christian and Jewish groups with similarly strong links to communities abroad face no such restrictions. The FPO has been accused of anti-Semitic rhetoric in recent years, and more recently has been criticized for stoking anti-Muslim sentiment through controversial advertising campaigns. Some Muslims in Austria have told journalists that they feel the need to keep a low profile following the formation of the new OVP-FPO government.

In January 2017, Austria passed a ban on full-face coverings, which was generally interpreted as targeting women who wear burqas and niqabs  even though very few women in Austria wear those garments. The law, which came into effect in October, was met with derision by opponents who pointed out that it also criminalized clown makeup, animal masks, and, under certain circumstances, scarves.

Score Change: The score declined from 4 to 3 due to increasingly unequal treatment of religious groups under the law, as reflected in a ban on foreign funding for Muslim houses of worship, and a 2017 law banning the face veil.

D3. Is there academic freedom, and is the educational system free from extensive political indoctrination? 4 / 4

Academic freedom is generally upheld, and the educational system is free from extensive political indoctrination.

D4. Are individuals free to express their personal views on political or other sensitive topics without fear of surveillance or retribution? 4 / 4

Private discussion in Austria is generally free and unrestricted. However, there have been some difficulties related to the balance between ensuring freedom of speech, and enforcing legal prohibitions on hate speech.

E. ASSOCIATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL RIGHTS: 12 / 12

E1. Is there freedom of assembly? 4 / 4

Freedom of assembly is protected in the constitution and in practice. However, the opposition SPO criticized the heavy police presence and tactics at antigovernment protests in December 2017.

E2. Is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that are engaged in human rights- and governance-related work? 4 / 4

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operate without restrictions. In March 2017, then foreign minister Sebastian Kurz strongly attacked international and other NGOs that aid migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, accusing them of supporting human trafficking.

E3. Is there freedom for trade unions and similar professional or labor organizations? 4 / 4

Trade unions are free to organize and to strike, and they are considered an essential partner in national policymaking. Around 25 percent of Austrian employees are unionized, according to 2014 figures.

F. RULE OF LAW: 15 / 16

F1. Is there an independent judiciary? 4 / 4

The judiciary is independent, and the Constitutional Court examines the compatibility of legislation with the constitution without political influence or interference.

F2. Does due process prevail in civil and criminal matters? 4 / 4

Due process generally prevails in civil and criminal matter.

F3. Is there protection from the illegitimate use of physical force and freedom from war and insurgencies? 4 / 4

People in Austria are generally free from the illegitimate use of physical force, war, and insurgencies. However, terrorist threats are a concern. In January 2017, the Austrian police arrested an 18-year-old citizen who allegedly had planned a terror attack in Vienna.

Conditions in prisons generally meet high European standards.

F4. Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population? 3 / 4

Some marginalized groups face difficulty exercising their human rights before the law. Strong rhetoric has been directed against refugees and migrants in recent years. Some asylum seekers can be deported while appeals are pending. The new Austrian government announced plans to tighten asylum policies in December 2017; the proposed reforms would include benefit cuts for refugees throughout Austria, and would require that refuges and migrants turn over their cash and phones when applying for asylum. Earlier, in August 2017, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had condemned "xenophobic debates" taking place in the lead-up to the October elections.

LGBT (lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual) people face some societal discrimination. Hate crime legislation prohibits incitement based on sexual orientation. However, no law prohibits service providers from denying services on that basis.

G. PERSONAL AUTONOMY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: 15 / 16

G1. Do individuals enjoy freedom of movement, including the ability to change their place of residence, employment, or education? 4 / 4

Austrian citizens enjoy freedom of movement and choice of residence. Roma and other ethnic minorities face discrimination in the labor and housing markets. The labor ministry has sought to promote integration of younger immigrants by providing German-language instruction and job training.

G2. Are individuals able to exercise the right to own property and establish private businesses without undue interference from state or nonstate actors? 4 / 4

Austrians may freely exercise the right to own property and establish businesses.

G3. Do individuals enjoy personal social freedoms, including choice of marriage partner and size of family, protection from domestic violence, and control over appearance? 4 / 4

In December 2017, Austria's Constitutional Court ruled that same-sex marriage will be legal starting in 2019, overturning the 2009 law that permitted civil partnerships for same-sex couples; the court ruled that the civil partnership law was not consistent with the constitutional prohibition against discrimination. Since 2016, there are no longer restrictions on same-sex couples adopting children.

The 2009 Second Protection against Violence Act increased penalties for perpetrators of domestic violence, and authorized further punitive measures against chronic offenders.

G4. Do individuals enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom from economic exploitation? 3 / 4

A 1979 law guarantees women's freedom from discrimination in various areas, including the workplace. However, the income gap between men and women remains significant. According to the U.S. State Department 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report, Austria remains "a destination and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor," but the government is making efforts to fight human trafficking; convictions and prosecutions for trafficking-related offenses have increased, and the government makes efforts at identifying victims among refugee and migrant populations.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights ReservedFreedom in the World 2018 - Argentina

Publisher Freedom House Publication Date 15 March 2018 Cite as Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2018 - Argentina, 15 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5ab8bd3c3.html [accessed 24 September 2021] 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.

Freedom Status: Free

Aggregate Score: 83 (0 = Least Free, 100 = Most Free)

Freedom Rating: 2.0 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Political Rights: 2 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Civil Liberties: 2 (1 = Most Free, 7 = Least Free)

Quick Facts

Population: 43,600,000

Capital: Buenos Aires

GDP/capita: $13,467

Press Freedom Status: Partly Free

Net Freedom Status: Free

OVERVIEW

Argentina is a vibrant representative democracy, with competitive elections and lively public debate. Corruption and drug-related violence are among the country's most serious challenges.

Key Developments in 2017:

Former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner faced several corruption investigations in connection with actions allegedly undertaken during her time in office. In December, a judge ordered her arrest on treason charges in connection with allegations that she covered up Iran's possible role in a deadly 1994 bombing, and rescinded the immunity she held as a newly elected senator.

Protests against a weak economy and the disappearance of an indigenous rights activist in August were met with disproportionate police force.

A long-awaited access to information law came into effect in September.

In November, Congress passed a new law stipulating that future party lists must have full gender parity, with men and women alternating.

POLITICAL RIGHTS: 33 / 40

A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 11 / 12

A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4

The constitution provides for a president to be elected for a four-year term, with the option of reelection for one additional term. Presidential candidates must win 45 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. Mauricio Macri was elected president in 2015 in a poll deemed competitive and credible by international observers.

A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4

The National Congress consists of a 257-member the Chamber of Deputies, whose representatives are directly elected for four-year terms with half of the seats up for election every two years; and the 72-member Senate, whose representatives are directly elected for six-year terms, with one third of the seats up for election every two years. Legislators are elected through a proportional representation system with a closed party list.

Legislative elections, including the most recent held in October 2017, are generally free and fair. Notably, former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner won a senate seat in the Buenos Aires province in the 2017 elections. However, overall the elections reflected support for Macri and his center-right Cambiemos coalition, which won in 13 out of the 23 provinces, including the capital, and after the polls was the largest coalition bloc in Congress.

A3. Are the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies? 3 / 4

Argentina has a clear, detailed, and fair legislative framework for conducting elections. There is universal suffrage, and voting is compulsory. However, the system suffers from some shortcomings, including inconsistent enforcement of electoral laws and campaign finance regulations. Some observers have criticized the country's primary system, saying that despite primary polling, in practice candidates are chosen internally by party leaders.

B. POLITICAL PLURALISM AND PARTICIPATION: 14 / 16

B1. Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system free of undue obstacles to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings? 4 / 4

Argentina has competitive political parties that form and operate without encountering undue obstacles.

B2. Is there a realistic opportunity for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through elections? 3 / 4

Argentina's multiparty political system affords opposition candidates the realistic opportunity to compete for political power. While Macri defeated the Peronist candidate in the 2015 presidential election, the Peronist party (in its various ideological forms) has dominated the political scene since 1946. Non-Peronist presidents, once elected, have struggled to win reelection in the post-dictatorship period. However, the strong performance of Cambiemos  the coalition comprised of Macri's center-right Republican Proposal (PRO), the Radical Civic Union (UCR), and the Civic Coalition (CC)  in the 2017 legislative polls was widely interpreted as a signal of robust support for Macri and his reformist agenda.

B3. Are the people's political choices free from domination by the military, foreign powers, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group that is not democratically accountable? 4 / 4

Argentines' political choices are generally free from domination by groups that are not democratically accountable.

B4. Do various segments of the population (including ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT, and other relevant groups) have full political rights and electoral opportunities? 3 / 4

Ethnic and religious minorities have full political rights in Argentina. However, in practice, the government frequently ignores legal obligations to consult with indigenous communities about legislation and government actions that affect them.

Since 1991, the country has had a law requiring that at least 30 percent of a party's legislative candidates be women, and around 40 percent of seats in both houses of Congress are currently held by women. In November 2017, Congress passed a new law stipulating that future party lists must have full gender parity, with men and women alternating.

C. FUNCTIONING OF GOVERNMENT: 8 / 12

C1. Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government? 3 / 4

Argentina's elected officials are duly installed in office without interference. However, the political system is characterized by a powerful executive, with the president having power to implement some policies by decree, thereby bypassing the legislative branch. Provincial governors are also powerful, and tend to influence senators representing their provinces.

In 2017, the Macri government continued its efforts to restore macroeconomic credibility to the country through a difficult adjustment program that has led to an erosion of real wages.

C2. Are safeguards against official corruption strong and effective? 2 / 4

Corruption scandals are common, and several members of the political class  including former presidents  have been charged with or found guilty of malfeasance in recent years. However, weak anticorruption bodies and the politicization of the judicial system hamper institutional safeguards against corruption. Many politicians hold immunity in connection with their posts, and are thus shielded from legal consequences for corrupt behavior.

Former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner faces several allegations of corruption relating to her time in office. These include charges filed in April 2017 of money laundering and leading an illegal organization, in connection with her and her family's real estate dealings. A separate fraud case filed against Kirchner in 2016, involving allegations of the irregular sale of dollars by the central bank ahead of the 2015 election, remains open. She dismisses the charges as politically-driven, and holds immunity in her current role as a sitting senator. In December, a judge ordered her arrest and requested that the Senate lift her immunity, which would require the approval of two-thirds of the chamber. The order came in connection with charges of treason relating to her alleged role in covering up Iran's possible involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed.

Several government officials linked with the Kirchner administrations faced accusations of corruption relating to the Latin America-wide Odebrecht investigation, in which Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction firm, admitted to paying bribes to win public works contracts. Additionally, in April 2017, the newspaper La Nacion revealed that Macri had accepted $500,000 from Odebrecht for his 2015 election campaign, but the company defended the payment as legal.

C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 3 / 4

In September 2017, a long-awaited access to information law came into force. The law establishes a Public Information Agency, an autonomous body operating under the executive branch, through which citizens may request information from state agencies. The law contains some exceptions for information deemed restricted. Citizens must receive a response to their request within 15 business days, and will have the right to appeal a denial within 40 days.

Adherence to and enforcement of public asset disclosure regulations is inconsistent. Macri declared millions of dollars' worth of assets only after some of his holdings were revealed in the 2016 Panama Papers leak, in which a trove of documents leaked from a Panama-based law firm were unveiled by media organizations.

Macri's government has revamped the country's statistics agency, which under the Kirchner administration had been censured by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for misrepresenting data. The government now publishes timely data that offers an accurate picture of the economy. Government officials hold press conferences, and make other efforts to communicate policy objectives to voters.

CIVIL LIBERTIES: 50 / 60 (+1)

D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 15 / 16 (+1)

D1. Are there free and independent media? 3 / 4 (+1)

Argentine law guarantees freedom of expression, and Congress decriminalized libel and slander in 2009. Macri's government holds regular press conferences, and has a much more open relationship with the press than the previous administrations of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her late husband, Nestor Kirchner, who held the presidency before her.

Macri has also reduced the state's role in advertising compared to the previous Kirchner administrations, which funded a number of friendly print and broadcasting outlets and denied advertising contracts to critical media. However, the reduction in spending, combined with the country's difficult economic situation, affected media businesses' financial sustainability, and resulted in the closure of a number of largely left-leaning outlets, in effect narrowing the scope of opposition voices. While media ownership is now concentrated among large conglomerates  which tend to side with the government  Argentineans nevertheless enjoy a robust and lively media environment, and there is no official censorship. The government does not restrict access to the internet, which is widely used in Argentina.

Score Change: The score improved from 2 to 3 because President Mauricio Macri's government has a much more open relationship with the press than the previous administrations of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her late husband, Nestor Kirchner, who held the presidency before her.

D2. Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private? 4 / 4

Argentina's constitution guarantees freedom of religion. While the population is largely Roman Catholic, public education is secular, and religions minorities express their faiths freely. The government has formally acknowledged more than 5,300 non-Catholic organizations, granting them tax-exempt status and other benefits.

D3. Is there academic freedom, and is the educational system free from extensive political indoctrination? 4 / 4

Academic freedom is largely observed in practice.

D4. Are individuals free to express their personal views on political or other sensitive topics without fear of surveillance or retribution? 4 / 4

Private discussion is vibrant and unrestricted.

E. ASSOCIATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL RIGHTS: 11 / 12

E1. Is there freedom of assembly? 4 / 4

Freedoms of assembly and association are generally respected, and citizens organize protests to make their voices heard. However, in 2017, there were numerous reports of abuses of protesters by police at demonstrations in the capital; such incidents were reported at a demonstration marking International Women's Day in March; a protest organized by striking teachers in April, and an anti-austerity protest in December, during which dozens of participants were also detained on dubious grounds. In September, a number of people were injured, and more than two dozen others were violently detailed, amid clashes in the capital between police and demonstrators protesting the disappearance weeks earlier of indigenous rights activist Santiago Maldonado.

E2. Is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that are engaged in human rights- and governance-related work? 4 / 4

Civic organizations, especially those focused on human rights and abuses committed under the 1976-83 dictatorship, are robust and play a major role in society, although some fall victim to Argentina's pervasive corruption.

E3. Is there freedom for trade unions and similar professional or labor organizations? 3 / 4

Organized labor remains dominated by Peronist unions, and union influence has decreased in recent years. Labor groups continued to call nationwide strikes in 2017, largely in protest of the austerity measures, job losses, and real wage cuts that have resulted from the Macri government's economic adjustment plan.

F. RULE OF LAW: 10 / 16

F1. Is there an independent judiciary? 2 / 4

Inefficiencies and delays plague the judicial system, which can be subject to political manipulation, particularly at lower levels. The Supreme Court, however, has maintained relative independence, and has pushed back against executive overreach during both the Kirchner and Macri administrations.

F2. Does due process prevail in civil and criminal matters? 3 / 4

Due process rights are written into the constitution and are generally upheld. However, police can face pressure from political actors, and some police collusion with drug traffickers.

Court cases dating from the mid-2000s have allowed the prosecution of crimes against humanity committed during the 1976-83 dictatorship. Dozens of military and police officers have been convicted of torture, murder, and forced disappearance, and sentenced to life in prison, helping to combat a culture of impunity.

F3. Is there protection from the illegitimate use of physical force and freedom from war and insurgencies? 2 / 4

Drug-related violence remained a serious issue in 2017 as international criminal organizations used the country as both an operational base and a transit route; the country's northern and central regions are particularly affected.

Police misconduct  including torture and brutality against suspects in custody  is endemic. Prisons are overcrowded, and conditions remain substandard throughout the country. Arbitrary arrests and abuse by police are rarely punished in the courts, and police collusion with drug traffickers is common.

In August 2017, indigenous rights activist Santiago Maldonado disappeared after being arrested by border guards, who took him into custody following his participation in a demonstration in support of land claims by the indigenous Mapuche people. His body was recovered in October, with an autopsy determining that he had drown. Further circumstances of his death remained unclear at year's end.

F4. Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population? 3 / 4

Argentina's indigenous peoples, who comprise approximately 2.4 percent of the population, are largely neglected by the government and suffer disproportionately from extreme poverty and illness. Only 11 of Argentina's 23 provinces have constitutions recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples.

Women enjoy legal equality, but continue to face economic discrimination and gender-based wage gaps.

Argentina's LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) population enjoys full legal rights, including the right to serve in the military. However, LGBT people face some degree of societal discrimination, and occasionally, serious violence.

G. PERSONAL AUTONOMY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: 14 / 16

G1. Do individuals enjoy freedom of movement, including the ability to change their place of residence, employment, or education? 4 / 4

The government respects citizens' constitutional right to free travel both inside and outside of Argentina. The Macri government's 2015 move to lift Kirchner-era currency controls increased ordinary people's access to foreign currency, making travel abroad more accessible.

G2. Are individuals able to exercise the right to own property and establish private businesses without undue interference from state or nonstate actors? 3 / 4

Citizens generally enjoy the right to own property and establish private businesses. However, approximately 70 percent of the country's rural indigenous communities lack titles to their lands, and forced evictions, while technically illegal, still occur. Indigenous communities increasingly struggled to defend their land rights in 2017 against oil and gas prospectors, as well as to reclaim traditional lands.

G3. Do individuals enjoy personal social freedoms, including choice of marriage partner and size of family, protection from domestic violence, and control over appearance? 4 / 4

Argentineans enjoy broad freedom regarding marriage and divorce. Same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide since 2010. A 2012 gender identity law allows people to legally change their gender.

Violence against women remains a serious problem, and according to the Supreme Court, 254 women died as a result of gender-based violence in 2016. Activists continue to hold highly visible protests and events aimed at drawing attention to the problem.

Access to abortion is legal only in cases where the mother's life or health are in danger, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape; women in more remote parts of the country report difficulty in accessing an abortion even when these conditions are met.

G4. Do individuals enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom from economic exploitation? 3 / 4

Some sectors of the charcoal and brick-producing industries profit from the forced labor of men, women, and children from Argentina as well as from neighboring countries; forced labor is also present in the agriculture sector and among domestic workers and street vendors. Men, women, and children are subject to sex trafficking. The government has taken steps to better fund programs to assist victims of human trafficking and draw public awareness to the problem, according to the U.S. State Department's 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report.

Scoring Key: X / Y (Z)

X = Score Received

Y = Best Possible Score

Z = Change from Previous Year

Copyright notice:  Freedom House, Inc.  All Rights ReservedTHE SUPREME COURT

Record No. 2017 No. 61

Between/



I.R.M, S.J.R. and S.O.M. (A minor suing by her Mother and Next Friend S.J.R.)

Applicants/Respondents

and



The Minister for Justice and Equality, Ireland and the Attorney General

Respondents/Appellants

Judgment of the Court delivered by the Chief Justice on the 7th March, 2018

1. Introduction

1.1 The issues with which this judgment is concerned have evolved very significantly since this case started. The legal context in which these proceedings were commenced arose from a deportation order made against the first named applicant/respondent ("Mr. M.") in 2008. In 2015, an application was made to the first named respondent/appellant ("the Minister") seeking to revoke that deportation order. The basis on which it was asserted that there was a sufficient change in circumstances to warrant the Minister taking a different view on deportation stemmed from the relationship between Mr. M. and the second named applicant/respondent ("Ms. R.") and in particular the fact that she and Mr. M. were due to have a child. The child concerned has since been born and is the third named applicant/respondent ("the third respondent"). The applicants/respondents will for convenience collectively be referred to as the respondents.

1.2 The Minister in fact made no decision regarding the application to revoke. In the absence of an undertaking on the part of the Minister not to deport Mr. M. pending the outcome of the revocation application, Mr. M. sought an injunction preventing his deportation, which injunction was granted by the High Court (Mac Eochaidh J.) (I.R.M. and anor v. Minister for Justice and Equality and ors (No. 1) [2015] IEHC 873). A contemporaneous application for leave to apply for judicial review was adjourned to be considered at a later date. It is the subsequent decision of the High Court, and the declarations made after a so-called "telescoped" hearing, which is the subject of this appeal. The case is, therefore, an immigration case. However, having regard to the approach of the trial judge, wider issues concerning the constitutional status of the unborn have come into particular focus. The High Court (Humphreys J.) (I.R.M. and ors v. Minister for Justice and Equality and ors (No. 2) [2016] IEHC 478) importantly made a declaration that the Minister was obliged to consider, as part of the application to revoke, the prospective position of the third respondent. An appeal was brought to the Court of Appeal raising a number of grounds. However, placing reliance on s. 9 of the Court of Appeal Act 2014, the Minister and the other respondents/appellants (collectively "the State") sought leave to bring a leapfrog appeal to this Court in respect of some of the broader issues which had been the subject of the judgment of Humphreys J. in the High Court. It was said that those issues were of particular importance and urgency. Leave was granted on a basis which will shortly be described which involved some but not all of the grounds of appeal which were put before the Court of Appeal.

1.3 However, in the course of case management of this appeal, it was indicated on behalf of the State that it was not intended to pursue any grounds of appeal other than those in respect of which leave to appeal had been granted. Thus, the issues which fall for determination by this Court are confined to the issues in respect of which this Court granted leave. In that context, it is appropriate to set out a very brief account of the proceedings and the important questions which they raise.

2. The Proceedings

2.1 The facts and the procedural history together with the judgment of the High Court will be set out and analysed in more detail later in this judgment. However, in simple terms this case involves a contention on the part of Mr. M. concerning the factors or considerations which the Minister was required to take into account in deciding on the application which he had made seeking the revocation of the deportation order which had previously been made against him.

2.2 In the course of the proceedings before the High Court, a wide range of issues relating to the constitutional status of the third named respondent came into sharp focus. She was unborn at the time of the application which Mr. M. made to revoke the relevant deportation order and at the time of the commencement of the proceedings. She was later joined as a party when born. The trial judge made a range of significant findings as to the constitutional status of the unborn child.

2.3 It will be necessary to address in greater detail the issues which have thereby arisen for determination by this Court on this appeal. However in summary form they are the following:-

(i) Whether the Minister was required, as a matter of law, to have regard to the position of the third respondent while unborn as a factor to be taken into account in the deportation revocation application under consideration; (ii) whether, in addition, the undoubted constitutional rights which the third respondent would enjoy as an Irish born citizen child when born were also matters which required to be taken into account; (iii) whether, as the trial judge in effect determined, the unborn enjoy a wide range of constitutional and other rights independent of the right to life guaranteed by Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution as inserted by the Eighth Amendment; (iv) whether, as again the trial judge determined, the term "any children" to be found in Article 42A of the Constitution includes the unborn; and (v) whether it is necessary, as found by the trial judge, to reassess the constitutional rights of families not based on marriage.



2.5 This judgment is a judgment of the Court. Each of the members of the Court who sat on this appeal has contributed to the content of this judgment.

2.6 It is next necessary to turn to the determination by reference to which leave to appeal to this Court was granted.

3. The Leave to Appeal

3.1 As noted above, the State applied to this Court for leapfrog leave. In its determination (I.R.M. and S.J.R. and S.O.M. v. Minister for Justice and Equality & anor [2017] IESCDET 147), this Court noted the unusual procedural history of this case. Not least, the Court noted that the case was in fact moot even when it was before the High Court. The respondents sought to resist the application for leave to appeal on grounds of mootness. However, this Court stated in that regard that:-

" it is plain that the case does involve matters of general public importance, and therefore meets the general threshold for appeal to this Court. Furthermore, the issue of law is one which is unlikely to appear significantly different after a determination of the Court of Appeal. There is also clear advantage in seeking to address those issues sooner rather than later, given the systemic importance of the matters debated, not just in the field of immigration law, but more widely. While there was clear mootness in the case at the level of the High Court, the fact that the case proceeded, now means that the law is as stated in the High Court, and it appears inappropriate to now consider refusing leave to appeal to this Court on grounds of mootness, which was explicitly addressed in the High Court, and where the case proceeded effectively by agreement."



3.3 The Court concluded that the procedural grounds raised did not meet the constitutional threshold for leave to appeal, and that, while in other circumstances it might be deemed necessary to grant leave in relation to such matters in the interests of justice, in the context of this unusual application the Court did not want to risk the possibility that the consideration of such matters could lead to the issues of general public importance not being addressed. Therefore, the Court concluded that leave to appeal should be granted in relation only to the following grounds:-

"(a)The learned Trial Judge erred in law and in fact in his determination of the matters that the Appellant Minister is obliged to take into account when considering representations involving an unborn made under s. 3 (11) of the Immigration Act 1999 (as amended) seeking to revoke a deportation order in force against a non-national prospective father of a potential Irish citizen child unborn at the date of such consideration. (b) Without prejudice to the forgoing paragraph, the learned Trial Judge erred in finding that when the Appellant Minister is presented with an application based on the prospective parentage of an Irish child who is unborn at the date of the making of the application, the Appellant Minister must address the application on the basis that appropriate consideration should be given to rights, or interests, if same are raised in the application, which that child will acquire on birth and will probably enjoy into the future in the event of being born, insofar as such prospective rights are relevant to the deportation issue. (c) The learned Trial Judge erred in law and in fact in failing to take into account and/or erroneously considering/applying the express time period under consideration by the Court, being 21 May 2015 to 21 August 2015. The Second Named Applicant's baby, subsequently joined to the proceedings as the Third Named Applicant, was born on 22 August 2015. It was expressly agreed for the purposes of further amendment of the Statement of Grounds that the period under consideration by the Court ceased on the day before the Third Named Applicant was born. (d) The learned Trial Judge erred in law and in fact in his consideration of the justiciable rights of the unborn under the Constitution of Ireland and in finding that an unborn enjoys significant statutory, common law and constitutional rights which are effective, rather than prospective and/or that such rights are justiciable before birth and/or that such rights extend beyond rights deriving under Art 40.3.3. (e) The Learned Trial Judge erred in law in his application and interpretation of Article 42A of the Constitution and in particular, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, its application to the unborn. (f) Without prejudice to the forgoing paragraph, the Learned Judge erred in law in finding that the unborn is a child for the purposes of Art 42A of the Constitution, and in finding that the meaning of "all children" in that Article extends the protection of the Article to children before and after birth. (g) The Learned Trial Judge erred in law in finding that Art 40.3.3 of the Constitution does not state the legal position of the unborn on an exclusive basis and in finding that the expression "unborn" found in that Article, must be interpreted as meaning and read as a reference to a child so that for the purposes of Art 40.3.3 an unborn equates to a child. (h) The learned Trial Judge erred in law and in fact in holding that the 28th, 31st and 34th amendment to the constitution together with societal changes, warrant recognition that members of non-marital unions and non marital parents of both sexes enjoy inherent constitutional rights in relation to their children, and to each other, on a wider basis than previously recognised under the constitution."



4. The Facts

4.1 Mr. M. is a Nigerian national who arrived in the State in December 2007. He applied for asylum, which application was refused. He appealed this decision to the Refugee Appeals Tribunal. On the 30th June 2008, he was notified that his appeal had been refused. He further applied for leave to remain on the 9th September 2008 and for subsidiary protection on the 24th November 2008. Both of these applications were also refused.

4.2 On the 30th October 2008, a deportation order was made against Mr. M. This order has not been revoked. Mr. M. remained in the State and, it would appear, worked unlawfully.

4.3 On the 12th August 2009, Mr. M. married a Czech national. He subsequently applied for residency in the State on the basis of his marriage to an EU national. This application was rejected on the 4th November 2010 on the basis of what was found to be a lack of necessary evidence.

4.4 Mr. M. entered into a relationship with a now-naturalised Congolese national in 2014. This relationship resulted in the birth of a child in Ireland on the 10th July 2015. Mr. M. represented himself to the Department of Social Protection at that time as living with the person concerned.

4.5 From September 2014, Mr. M. began a relationship with Ms. R. who is an Irish national. They are not married. As already noted, the third respondent is the child of Mr. M. and Ms. R., and was born on the 22nd August 2015.

4.6 Earlier, on the 21st May 2015, Mr. M. made an application under s. 3(11) of the Immigration Act 1999 ("Section 3(11)") seeking the revocation of the deportation order against him.

4.7 Following the birth of the third respondent in August 2015, Mr. M. applied to the Minister on the 17th December 2015 for residency, on the basis of parentage of an Irish citizen child. Residency was granted on that basis on the 10th August 2017. The application for residency superseded the application under Section 3(11), which was withdrawn. It is on that basis that it was accepted that these proceedings had become moot by the time of the trial in the High Court.

4.8 This case came before the High Court in the context of an application for leave to seek judicial review coupled with an application for an injunction restraining Mr. M's deportation. On the 1st August 2015, Mac Eochaidh J. delivered an ex tempore judgment granting an interlocutory injunction restraining deportation until further order of the Court. The application for leave was adjourned to be considered at a later date and was subsequently considered by the Humphreys J. As also already noted, the third respondent was then born on the 22nd August 2015 and later joined to these proceedings. No attempt had been made to join the third respondent prior to birth, although Mac Eochaidh J. did note in his judgment that he would have considered such an application had it been deemed necessary.

4.9 The starting point for a consideration of the issues which are before this Court requires an analysis of the judgment of the High Court on the substantive issues.

5. The High Court Decision

5.1 The High Court (Humphreys J.) delivered its judgment on the 29th July 2016. In his decision, the trial judge noted that the case had seemed to be an appropriate instance for the Court to exercise its discretion to telescope the application for leave with the substantive hearing and the parties ultimately agreed to this course of action. Therefore, Humphreys J. made an order under the Court's jurisdiction, given by O. 84, r. 24(2) of the Rules of the Superior Courts, to the effect that the application for leave be treated as the hearing of the action.

5.2 Humphreys J. also noted in his judgment that any question concerning the legal position of the unborn was strictly speaking moot by the time it fell for the High Court to reach a decision because the third respondent had been born. However, he stated that the parties appeared willing to treat the proceedings as a test case in relation to the issues. Furthermore, it was noted that there are necessary temporal limitations regarding the rights of the unborn. In this context, Humphreys J. concluded as follows:-

"A court can proceed to determine an issue that is strictly moot if the interests of justice so require. In this case there are two factors so requiring; firstly the particular suitability of issues arising from pregnancy as a basis to depart from the normal mootness doctrine, and secondly the consent of the parties."



"(i) [W]hether the first named applicant is entitled to notice of the date and time of his intended deportation (a point which is not moot in any event); (ii) whether it would have been unlawful for the Minister to deport the first named applicant without first deciding on the s. 3(11) application; and (iii) whether, when the Minister came to consider the s. 3(11) application prior to the birth of the third named applicant, she could limit herself to a consideration of the family rights of the applicants by reference to the right to life of the unborn only or whether she was obliged to consider the substantive prospective family rights as between all of the applicants that would arise on the birth of the third named applicant."



5.5 Likewise point (ii) is not relevant to the issues before this Court as Humphreys J. held that it was clear from the relevant authorities that such an application does not have the effect of suspending the deportation order concerned and that therefore, "It follows irresistibly from that conclusion that the Minister is not obliged as a matter of law to determine a s. 3(11) application prior to effecting deportation."

5.6 Humphreys J. then turned to issue (iii). In addressing this issue, the trial judge set out the positions adopted by the parties, being that the Minister considered that, where an individual was the parent of an unborn, the only rights of that unborn that should be considered was the right to be born. On the other hand, the respondents contended that the Minister had an obligation to consider a broader range of rights of an unborn potential Irish citizen, including future rights, in the context of a deportation order.

5.7 Humphreys J.'s approach to addressing the question of the matters which the Minister must take into account when considering a Section 3(11) application was to first consider the broader question of what must be taken into account in any such application before turning to the application of that test in the context of the prospective birth of an applicant's child. Humphreys J. then undertook a review of the authorities in this area at paras. 45 to 49 of his judgment and concluded as follows at paragraph 50:-

"In my view it follows from the caselaw I have referred to that the matters which the Minister must consider in the context of a s. 3(11) application are the foregoing: (i) any representations by the applicant; and (ii) any change of circumstances since the original decision which engages a legal provision which would have the effect of rendering the deportation unlawful by reason of an actual or prospective breach of rights. Such unlawfulness could arise under one of the following headings:-

(a) a change in the legal status of the person so as to deprive the Minister of jurisdiction to effect deportation (for example, the acquisition of EU citizenship or other EU rights); (b) an actual or prospective threat to the life of freedom of the person, either on Convention grounds under s. 5 of the Refugee Act 1996 or in a manner that would infringe arts. 2 or 5 of the ECHR; (c) an actual or prospective risk of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment under to s. 4 of the Criminal Justice (United Nations Convention Against Torture) Act 2000 and arts. 2 and 3 of the ECHR; (d) any other actual or prospective breach of the rights (whether legal, constitutional, EU or ECHR) of the applicant or another person that would arise if the deportation was effected."



5.9 Humphreys J. then considered whether it would be a breach of the rights of the respondents to deport a prospective parent so that the mother would not have her partner present for the birth. He stated:-

"In my view there is no basis to elevate the desirability of having one's partner present for the birth into a constitutional right that can be asserted in the deportation context."



"Is the Minister obliged to consider the prospective family rights of the parties including the prospective rights of a child who is unborn at the time of the making of a s. 3(11) application?"



5.11 Humphreys J. began his consideration of this question by noting that the Minister's position, being that the only relevant right of the unborn to be considered was the right to life, appeared to derive from Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution. The trial judge stated that this constitutional provision was adopted following a number of what he considered to be judicial decisions recognising that certain rights of the unborn are protected by Article 40.3 (for example, G. v. An Bord Uchtala [1980] I.R. 32). He rejected the contention that the introduction of Article 40.3.3 was intended to sweep away these preceding decisions and to represent the entirety of the rights of the unborn. In this regard, the trial judge differed from Cooke J.'s suggestion in Ugbelase v. Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform [2010] 4 I.R. 233 that Article 40.3.3 represented a statement of the rights of the unborn "on an exclusive basis" and expressed the view that the Article itself recognised other unenumerated rights such as the right to travel in the case of the mother.

5.12 Humphreys J. continued by stating:

"In addition to these rights, other significant rights of the unborn child are recognised, acknowledged or created by common law or statute, in turn reflecting inherent natural and constitutional rights of the unborn which are implied by the constitutional order."



5.14 Humphreys J. then referred to the judgment of Irvine J. in O.E. v. Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform [2008] 3 I.R. 760, stating:-

"It is manifest from the comprehensive and compelling analysis carried out by Irvine J. that the submission by the State that the Minister is only required to consider the right to life of the unborn, and no other rights or potential rights, is entirely without merit for a series of reasons, as identified by Irvine J., which include the following:- (i) Such an approach is arbitrary and would make the substance of rights dependent on the happenstance of the date of birth; (ii) It is clearly established in case law that the unborn child enjoyed significant rights under the Constitution even prior to the adoption of Article 40.3.3; (iii)The interpretation offered by the State would, as Irvine J. points out, at p. 777: "place the rights of the unborn child, from a constitutional perspective, at a much lower level than the rights afforded to the unborn child at common law"."



"It is irrational, and therefore unlawful, for the Minister to ignore the likely potential situation of an unborn child if to do so would be to fail to give consideration to that child's likely rights."



"Since Irvine J's decision in O.E., Article 42A of the Constitution on the rights of the child has been adopted. Section 1 of the Article provides that: 'the State recognises and affirms the natural and imprescriptible rights of all children and shall, as far as practicable, by its laws protect and vindicate those rights' (emphasis added). The reference to 'all' children is striking and grammatically unnecessary, and must therefore have very significant substantive content and intention. As well as smacking of non-discrimination, on grounds such as the marital status of parents, it must, in my view, be given a wide interpretation and should include the child before birth."



5.18 Humphreys J. did note the possibility that it was not intended that Article 42A would have such an effect on deportation proceedings. Furthermore, he acknowledged the fact that many rights guaranteed by Article 42A would not be capable of practical exercise by the unborn. However, he rejected an argument, suggesting that "child" did not include an unborn child on the basis of non-exercisability of rights, as facetious and as "a simplistic and almost sneering basis to diminish or dismiss the status of the unborn child."

5.19 The trial judge then turned to the issue of whether it could be said that Article 40.3.3 represented an exhaustive statement of the rights of the unborn. In this regard, he rejected the conclusions of Cooke J. in Ugbelase to the effect that:-

"the only right of the unborn child as the Constitution now stands which attracts the entitlement to protection and vindication is that enshrined by the amendments in Article 40.3.3 namely, the right to life or, in other words, the right to be born and, possibly, (and this is a matter for future decision) allied rights such as the right to bodily integrity which are inherent in and inseparable from the right to life itself".



5.21 Humphreys J. further referred to the decision of the High Court (Hogan J.) in X.A. v. Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform [2011] IEHC 397, stating that Hogan J. largely followed the observations of Cooke J. in Ugbelase. In relation to Hogan J.'s comment in X.A. that Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution was not intended to have an effect in the context of immigration, Humphreys J. said this was a "straw man". He continued:-

"The issue is whether in considering a deportation decision, the Minister should consider the prospective situation which is likely to unfold, and particularly such rights arising from a child's status as a citizen as are likely to exist, rather than the state of affairs as it exists as a snapshot on the date on which the Minister's decision is made in isolation from matters which are imminently prospective as a matter of likelihood. The proposition that Article 40.3.3 was not intended to affect deportation matters is just simply not an answer to this question. The need to consider the imminently probably state of affairs, whatever that might be likely to be, would exist even if Article 40.3.3 had never been enacted, or if it were hypothetically repealed or reworded."



"The consequence of that approach to my mind is that when the Minister is presented with an application based on the prospective parentage of an Irish child who is unborn at the date of the making of the application, the Minister must address the application on the basis that appropriate consideration should be given to the rights which that child will probably enjoy into the future in the event of being born, insofar as such prospective rights are relevant to the deportation issue.  The upshot of the foregoing is that the prospective legal rights and (where raised in submissions) interests that a child will acquire on birth are matters that the Minister must consider when an application is made under s. 3(11) by reference an unborn child. However she is not under any obligation to automatically allow such an application."



"Any one of these developments, and certainly all of them taken together, as well as the fundamental shifts in society since the adoption of the Constitution, in my respectful view warrant a recognition that members of a non-marital relationship, and non-marital parents of both sexes in particular, enjoy acknowledgement of inherent constitutional rights in relation to their children and each other on a wider basis than has been recognised thus far."



"(i) that leave be granted in accordance with the latest amended statement of grounds; (ii) that there be a declaration that the Minister, in considering an application under s. 3(11) of the Immigration Act 1999, is required to consider the current and prospective situation of the applicant concerned insofar as relevant to that application, including the prospective position, likely to arise on birth, of any child of the applicant unborn at the time of the application; (iii) that the remaining reliefs sought be refused; and (iv) that the respondents' undertaking not to deport the first named applicant continue until withdrawn in accordance with its terms, and that there be liberty to apply in the event that the respondents seeks to so withdraw it."



5.26 Under a range of headings the State argued that the approach of the trial judge was incorrect, first, by virtue of his identification of considerations or factors which had, as a matter of immigration law, to be taken into account by the Minister in considering an application to revoke under Section 3(11). In addition, the State argued that the analysis of the trial judge erred in holding that constitutional rights attached either to the unborn generally, to the unborn as potentially a child within the meaning of Article 42A of the Constitution and concerning non-marital family rights under the Constitution and in particular the potential rights of the third respondent.

5.27 It is in that context that it is appropriate to seek to identify the issues or groups of issues with which this Court was concerned on this appeal and to which this judgment must be directed. Those issues derive from the grounds on which leave to appeal was granted, but also involve the refinement of those grounds to be found both in the written submissions filed by the parties and to the evolution of the debate during the oral hearing.

6. The Issues

6.1 Having regard to the manner in which the issues were developed at the oral hearing it seems to the Court that the following issues or groups of issues potentially arise for decision. The Court has referred to issues "potentially" arising for, at least in some respects, there may be a question as to whether it is either necessary or appropriate for the Court to resolve those issues for the purposes of giving judgment in this case. Where that consideration applies it is proposed to identify it when referring to the issue in question.

6.2 While it might be possible to characterise the issues in a number of different ways and while there could, indeed, be questions as to the appropriate order in which those issues need to be addressed, it seems to the Court that the following represents the most convenient description of the questions to be considered on this appeal.

6.3 First, there is the question of whether the fact of the impending birth of the third respondent was a factor or consideration which was required to be taken into account by the Minister in the context of the application by Mr. M. to revoke the relevant deportation order under the provisions of Section 3(11). In that context, it became clear at the oral hearing that the Minister did not dispute the contention that one of the circumstances to which the Minister was required to have regard was the fact that Mr. M. was, at the time of the relevant application under Section 3(11), likely to become a father of a child who was likely to be born in Ireland.

6.4 There was some dispute as to whether the position thus characterised on behalf of the Minister at the oral hearing amounted to a departure from the position which the Minister had previously adopted. However, it is not necessary for the purposes of this judgment to reach a conclusion on that dispute. It is certainly now clear that the Minister does accept that the fact that Mr. M. was due to become a father of a child likely to be born in Ireland was a circumstance to which regard was required to be had.

6.5 However, that being said, there was potentially a second question under this heading being as to whether the Minister was required, as a separate matter, to have some regard to the position of the then as yet to be born third respondent. Essentially, the Minister's case in that regard was that the third respondent did not have legal or constitutional personality until birth and that it followed that the Minister did not have any obligation to pay separate regard to the position of the third respondent.

6.6 The second issue, which in many ways came to be closely aligned with the first, was as to whether the Minister was required to have regard to the fact that the third respondent, if and when born, would be an Irish citizen child who would enjoy all of the rights guaranteed to such a child under the Irish Constitution. The Minister, of course, agreed that the premise to that issue was factually correct in that it was accepted that, once born, the third respondent would be an Irish citizen and would enjoy the rights in question. However, the Minister again argued that the third respondent, not yet having been born at the time when the relevant application to the Minister was made, did not have a constitutional personality so that, it was said, the third respondent did not enjoy any constitutional rights at that time other than the right to life guaranteed by Article 40.3.3. On that basis it was said that the third respondent could not be said to enjoy any constitutional rights which the Minister was required to take into account notwithstanding the fact that it was acknowledged that, if and when born, the third respondent would enjoy significant constitutional rights.

6.7 In many ways, in the manner in which the debate developed at the oral hearing, the principal argument put forward on behalf of the Minister in respect of issues (i) and (ii) had many similarities. It was said that the third respondent did not, until born, have any legal or constitutional personality. On that basis it was argued, in respect of issue (i), that the Minister could not be required to have separate regard to the position of the third respondent and, with even greater strength, that the Minister could not be required, under issue (ii), to have regard to the fact that the third respondent would, if and when born, enjoy significant rights as an Irish citizen child.

6.8 In one sense if the respondents were to succeed on either issue (i) or issue (ii) there might be a question as to whether it was necessary to consider any further issues. If, contrary to the submissions of the Minister, it was legally required that consideration be given to the separate position of the third respondent either as a circumstance which was, as a matter of general law, required to be taken into account or because the constitutional rights which the third respondent would enjoy if and when born were themselves a matter which required to be taken into account, then the Minister would clearly have adopted a wrong position and the respondents would clearly be entitled to an appropriate form of declaration at least similar to that granted by the High Court.

6.9 However, it must be recalled that these proceedings were moot even at the time when they were before the High Court. It was for that reason that the High Court made a declaration as to the legal position rather than quashing any decision of the Minister, for there was, of course, no decision to quash. Equally, there will not now be any decision taken by the Minister on the application of Mr. M. under Section 3(11). However, part of the reason why it was considered appropriate to go ahead with these proceedings notwithstanding the fact that they were moot was that it will almost inevitably be the case that questions concerning the extent to which the Minister may or may not have to take into account the circumstances of an as yet unborn child of a potential deportee will become moot before being finally determined by a Court by virtue of the birth of the child concerned. It follows that it is almost inevitable that the only way in which such legal questions can be finally resolved is by the determination of a moot appeal. It follows in turn that the purpose of these proceedings after they became moot was clearly designed to determine the matters which the Minister was required by law to take into account in considering an application under Section 3(11) involving the potential birth of a child to the potential deportee. In addition, it is clear that, in that context, questions concerning at least the broad approach to the weight to be attached to any factors to which the Minister is required to have regard are equally important.

6.10 Even if the courts were concerned with a straightforward case where the Minister had made a decision, which was under challenge, to decline to revoke a deportation order, a decision by the court that the Minister had failed to take into account a factor or matter which the law required would lead to the decision of the Minister being quashed and the matter being remitted to the Minister. However, in such circumstances it would be more than appropriate for the court to determine any questions within the court's competence (as opposed to questions which are for the Minister) which would arise in the circumstances of the case when the matter returned to the Minister for re-consideration. Clearly, the question of whether constitutional rights are engaged is a matter which would come into sharp focus in such circumstances. If a matter were to be remitted to the Minister without a determination by the court as to whether any of the factors identified had constitutional status then the Minister would be left with insufficient guidance from the court as to the proper approach to be adopted when the matter came back before the Minister for further consideration. It is important to emphasise that, in such circumstances, the court is not determining what the ultimate decision of the Minister must be (for that is a decision which is within the jurisdiction of the Minister) but rather the court is determining a relevant matter of law which will require to be taken into account by the Minister on the matter being remitted. The relevant matter of law would be as to whether constitutional status attaches to any of the considerations which the Minister must take into account and, possibly, the nature of any such constitutional rights. In those circumstances it seems to the Court that it is necessary to determine whether any of the constitutional issues asserted on behalf of the respondents, and as found by the trial judge, are established. Those are questions of law which would require to be properly taken into account by the Minister in the event that this issue had to be reconsidered.

6.11 However, before going on to consider the specific constitutional questions which arise, it is important, as a separate matter, to briefly address certain aspects of both statutory and common law concerning the unborn not least because considerable reliance was placed by the trial judge on those matters in coming to his conclusion that the unborn enjoyed significant constitutional rights beyond the right to life guaranteed by Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution.

6.12 Thereafter, the third set of issues which arises is as to whether the third respondent had, prior to birth, any constitutional entitlements or rights which extend beyond the express terms of Article 40.3.3. Within that question it may be necessary to address the issue explored at some length at the oral hearing as to whether, prior to the adoption of the Eighth Amendment, the unborn had any constitutional rights. In addition, there is the question of whether, as the Minister argues, any such rights which may have pre-dated the Eighth Amendment were, in effect, codified by and subsumed into the Eighth Amendment so that, it is said, no continuing rights exist in the unborn beyond those which find express recognition in Article 40.3.3. It will also be necessary, for the purposes of determining the questions which arise under this heading, to address at least some issues which arise in relation to the proper approach to the interpretation of the Constitution in areas such as this. In particular. the identification of the potential source of constitutional rights which might attach to an unborn outside the scope of Article 40.3.3 needs to be considered.

6.13 Fourth, there is the question of whether an unborn is a child for the purposes of Article 42A of the Constitution. The trial judge so held. Clearly, if the trial judge was correct in that regard then, in a sense, all of the other earlier issues which have been identified would potentially become irrelevant for the very high level of constitutional protection which is conferred by Article 42A would require a very high level of regard to be paid by the Minister to the position of the third respondent prior to birth.

6.14 Fifth, and finally, it may be necessary for the Court to address the finding of the trial judge that, in the light of modern conditions and in the light of the various amendments to the Constitution on which he placed reliance, the meaning of the term "family" as used in the Constitution or the constitutional rights which attach to a non-marital family needs reconsideration. However, under that heading, an important preliminary question arises as to whether, and if so to what extent, it either was necessary or appropriate for the trial judge to go into those issues at all. It follows that similar questions need to be addressed by this Court.

7. The Submissions of the Parties

7.1 Having identified the issues or groups of issues arising, it is proposed to set out the position of the parties in respect of those issues utilising the clarification set out above. This was not necessarily the way in which the parties themselves approached those issues both in the written and in the oral submissions.

(a) The Factors to be Taken into Account

7.2 The first and second issues identified above concern the factors which the Minister was required to take into account in relation to the revocation application of Mr. M., having regard to the impending birth of the third respondent at the time the application was made. The first issue relates to the position of the third respondent as potentially an independent factor required to be taken into account by the Minister given the likelihood that the third respondent would be born in Ireland as a child of Mr. M. in circumstances where it was the deportation of Mr. M. which was under consideration. The second issue relates to the question of whether, in addition, the constitutional rights which the third respondent would enjoy as an Irish citizen once born must also be taken into account. This second issues has possible additional importance to the respondents for it has at least a constitutional character.

7.3 The State submitted that the trial judge correctly identified all of the factors which the Minister must take into account in any revocation application, by reference to Sivsivadze v. The Minister for Justice [2016] 2 I.R. 430 and P.O. and F.O. v. The Minister for Justice [2015] 3 I.R. 164. As noted above, the Minister did not dispute that one of the circumstances to which the Minister was required to have regard was the fact that Mr. M., at the time of making the Section 3(11) application, was likely to become a father of a child born in Ireland.

7.4 However, the State continued to maintain that the Minister was not required to give separate consideration to the position of the third respondent (who was at the relevant time, of course, unborn) on the basis that unborn children do not enjoy legal personality and that their position does not, therefore, require to be taken into account as a standalone matter. On the other hand, the respondents maintained that the unborn had a sufficient legal existence to justify its interest being separately considered. In addition it was said that it was not logical for the Minister to accept that the fact that Mr. M. was likely to become a father of a child born in Ireland had to be taken into account but, at the same time, assert that the position of that child could be ignored.

7.5 However, in relation to the second issue, which concerns whether the Minister was required also to have regard to the fact that when born the third respondent would be an Irish citizen child enjoying the rights that entails, the State submitted that until born the unborn has no constitutional personality. As such, while acknowledging the necessary fact that if and when born the third respondent would enjoy certain constitutional rights, the State disputed the High Court's finding that the Minister was required to take such future rights into account in the context of Mr. M.'s revocation application. The State disputed the argument that it was necessary to take into account any prospective rights of the unborn and submitted that to do so would, in effect, amount to the same thing as recognising that rights were enjoyed by the unborn before birth.

7.6 In relation to the test which the Minister is required to apply in a consideration of the immigration status of a foreign parent of a born Irish citizen child, the State placed reliance on the criteria established in the case law of this Court which, it was said, relates to the current, practical circumstances of the child and its integration into Irish society (citing Oguekwe). The State submitted that a future analysis in this context is not required and, indeed, that such an analysis would be problematic given that the nature of the unborn is such that it would be incapable of having social or factual integration in Irish society.

7.7 In the first place the respondents disagreed with the State's characterisation of this issue. It was said that the State wrongly suggested that Humphreys J. had determined that the rights of the unborn fall to be considered in the context of a revocation application as if that unborn was an Irish citizen child or that the position of the unborn must be equated with that of a born child for the purposes of Article 40.3. The respondents submitted that this mischaracterised the findings of the High Court. The respondents submitted that the key finding of the High Court is to be found at paras. 90-92 of the High Court judgment and is to the effect that the rights which the unborn child of an applicant will enjoy on birth are simply matters that the Minister must consider in the context of a revocation application without those rights being necessarily equated with those of a born child.

7.8 The respondents also noted the jurisprudence of this Court and the lower courts in relation to the rights of children and parents in immigration/deportation matters and the obligations of the Minister and the State in this regard. They noted that an Irish citizen child has personal and constitutional rights in this context. They further submitted that these rights are not unilateral and indeed in some instances rely in substance on the parents of the child concerned for their practical exercise and operation. The respondents questioned the validity of what is said to be the position of the State, being that none of the constitutional rights and protections afforded to Irish citizen children in this context apply either immediately or prospectively to the unborn.

7.9 The respondents submitted that the relevant rights of the third respondent were those identified in Oguekwe, including the right to protection of the family. The respondents argued that there was no logical reason to attribute significant constitutional weight to the presence of an Irish citizen child in the immigration context while also asserting that an unborn child, who on birth will be an Irish citizen, is what would amount to nothing more than a "constitutional cipher". They argued that the inability to exercise certain rights is not a sound basis for justifying this distinction.

7.10 With regard to the marital status of the parents of the unborn in this context, and its relation to the right to protection of the family identified in Oguekwe, the respondents relied on the decision of Irvine J. in O.E. to support the contention that an unborn, who when born will be an Irish citizen child, but whose parents are unmarried, is nonetheless entitled to expect that once born they will enjoy the care, society and support of his or her parents. The respondents further submitted that, in any event, this issue is put beyond doubt by the terms of Article 42A which applies to all children regardless of the marital status of their parents.

7.11 Ultimately, the respondents submitted that the key issue on this appeal is as to whether the constitutional rights of the unborn warrant any consideration at all, rather than a fine calibration of the consideration required. This is said to be so because of the position of the State to the effect that a decision such as that under consideration in these proceedings is argued not to involve a requirement to consider or attach any weight at all to the position of the unborn. For that reason the respondents suggested that this issue does not properly arise on this appeal.

(b) The Common Law and Statutory Position of the Unborn

7.12 As already noted the trial judge attributed significant importance in his analysis to certain provisions concerning the unborn to be found both in the common law and in statute. In their submissions, the State approached these matters by considering the various contexts in which Humphreys J. stated that it is possible to identify relevant rights relating to the unborn. Broadly speaking, the State argued that any entitlements that the unborn might have in law exist only as limited exceptions to what is said to be the established principle that an unborn does not have legal personality. Furthermore, it was argued that the examples relied on by Humphreys J., in support of the suggestion that the unborn had a broad range of rights were legal fictions or necessary corollaries thereof. The State further argued that, where the unborn is afforded a legal entitlement in the established case law, it is always contingent on the birth of the unborn. Therefore, the State's essential argument in this context was that the examples relied on by the trial judge do not justify the conclusion that the unborn enjoys a broader range of rights than suggested by the State. Furthermore, it was argued that it is inappropriate to identify constitutional rights by inference from statutory provisions and common law principles.

7.13 The respondents, while acknowledging that the High Court judgment considers the above issues at length, suggested that the detail of the questions addressed are not central to the determination of the issues involved in the appeal. The significance of the above issues, the respondents submitted, is the recognition that the unborn can be and is a repository of rights so that the question of whether such rights may be vindicated in utero or only on birth does not, it is said, determine the issues in the appeal. This is so, the respondents contended, because the State's case is that the Minister is not required to give any recognition to the position of the unborn, whether on the basis of the status as unborn or the status as a prospective born child.

(c) The Constitutional Position of the Unborn

7.14 Under this issue it is necessary to consider the submissions of the parties in relation to the constitutional position of the third respondent prior to birth and whether the constitutional protection of the unborn extends beyond the express provisions of Article 40.3.3. As noted above, the related question of the constitutional position of the unborn prior to the adoption of the Eighth Amendment may also arise under this heading but only as part of the analysis required to be carried out on the question of whether the unborn have constitutional rights beyond those guaranteed by Article 40.3.3.

7.15 The State submitted that it does not follow from the recognition of the right to life as an express right of the unborn under Article 40.3.3 that other constitutionally protected personal rights must also inhere in the unborn. In that context the State noted the jurisprudence in this regard relied on by the trial judge to support the argument that, prior to the Eight Amendment, the "rights of the unborn were in any event protected by Article 40.3". The principal decisions referred to are McGee v. Attorney General [1974] I.R. 284; G. v. An Bord Uachtala; Norris v. Attorney General [1984] I.R. 36; and Finn v. Attorney General [1983] 1 I.R. 154. The State submitted that these decisions cannot be relied on to reach the conclusion that Article 40.3 protected the rights of the unborn prior to the Eighth Amendment. It is said that none of these cases directly concerned the right to life of the unborn so that any comments in that context in those decisions are obiter. It should be noted that during oral submissions the State declined to take a definitive stance regarding the constitutional rights of the unborn, or lack thereof, prior to the Eighth Amendment, and stated merely that there was no definitive judicial decision in this regard. In that context it was said that the adoption of the Eighth Amendment meant that it was not necessary to take a stance on this issue.

7.16 In relation to judicial pronouncements in this area following the Eighth Amendment, the State suggested that the early cases dealing with this provision tend to see it as recognising a pre-existing right rather than creating a new right. However, it was further submitted that the later cases tend to focus on the purpose of the Eighth Amendment. In this regard, the State pointed to the decisions of this Court in Attorney General v. X [1992] 1 I.R. 1 and in Roche v. Roche [2010] 2 I.R. 321 and particular reliance was placed on statements in those cases to the effect that the purpose of introducing the Eighth Amendment was to prevent the introduction or legalisation of abortion. The State acknowledged that in Roche, Murray C.J. took a different view regarding the intention behind the Eight Amendment. The State noted however that, in Roche, Murray C.J. was alone among his colleagues in expressing such a view.

7.17 Ultimately, the State submitted that, even if there were indeed rights inhering in the unborn prior to the Eighth Amendment, the effect of that Amendment was to set out on an exclusive basis the extent of the constitutional protection of the unborn. In this regard, the State submitted that the approach of Cooke J. in Ugbelase is to be preferred to that of Irvine J. in O.E.

7.18 The respondents for their part submitted that the jurisprudence prior to the adoption of the Eighth Amendment clearly recognises that the unborn has constitutional personality and visibility. However, it should be noted that the respondents conceded that the trial judge erred in suggesting that there was any definitive decision in this context prior to the Eighth Amendment. They did, however, submit that there is no basis to suggest that the unborn is excluded from the protection of Article 40.3. They also submitted that, while the exact source of the protection of the right to life of the unborn within Article 40.3 prior to the Eighth Amendment might be open to debate, there was no basis for suggesting that the right to life is or was the sole right protected in relation to the unborn. This was said to be so on the basis that there is no apparent limitation in Article 40.3 to that effect.

7.19 Furthermore, the respondents submitted that it is incorrect to suggest that the Eighth Amendment was intended to represent an exclusive statement of the rights of the unborn. They disputed the argument that, if the unborn enjoyed constitutional rights prior to the adoption of Eighth Amendment, the People could have unwittingly restricted the rights of the unborn by adopting that Amendment. They argued that no one would have understood this to be the effect of the Eighth Amendment. In this regard, they submitted that the High Court was correct in declining to follow the decision of Cooke J. in Ugbelase. They submitted that the wording of Article 40.3.3 does not support the conclusion that it is intended to be an exclusive expression of the rights of the unborn. Furthermore, the respondents submitted that Cooke J.'s invocation of the maxim generalibus specialia derogant in Ugbelase is not appropriate in the context of constitutional interpretation.

(d) Article 42A

7.20 As noted above, a related issue in the context of the extent of the constitutionally protected rights of the unborn arises from the High Court's interpretation of Article 42A of the Constitution to the effect that the phrase "all children" within that Article should be taken to include the unborn.

7.21 The State submitted that Humphreys J. erred in his interpretation of this Article. The State submitted that the wording of the provision is clear and unambiguous and does not contemplate the inclusion of the unborn in the meaning of "all children". In arguing that the trial judge did not engage in linguistic or textual analysis or consider the intention behind the introduction of Articles 42A and the Eighth Amendment, the State submitted that the trial judge inappropriately reasoned backwards from the fact that the term "unborn child" was found in statutory provisions prior to the introduction of Article 42A. With regard to the use of the phrase "all children" in Article 42A, the State suggested that the intention behind the inclusion of this phrase in that formulation was to resolve uncertainty regarding the nature of constitutional rights held by marital and non-marital children. The State ultimately submitted that a linguistic analysis of the wording of Article 42A and 40.3.3 and a consideration of the purpose behind these Articles lead to the conclusion that Humphreys J. erred in this regard.

7.22 The respondents contended that it may not be necessary for this Court to address this issue for, it was said, if this Court is satisfied that the effect of the other provisions of the Constitution relied on is such as to confer constitutional recognition and protection to the unborn, then the precise scope of Article 42A is not determinative of this appeal. The respondents submitted that the fundamental reasoning of the High Court is that the prospective constitutional rights of the unborn must be considered in the context of immigration and deportation and, if this is accepted, then it follows that Article 42A is engaged. Nevertheless, the respondents submitted that the High Court was correct in its interpretation of Article 42A. They submitted that the trial judge's finding is consistent with the literal interpretation of that Article. The respondents further submitted that a purposive interpretation of Article 42A also points towards the inclusion of the unborn within the meaning of "all children". The respondents submitted that the State's argument concerning the intention behind the introduction of Article 42A amounts to nothing more than assertions without a substantive basis to support them and disputed the argument that constitutional rights under Article 42A do not apply to the unborn because some of the rights guaranteed by that article may not be capable of exercise by the unborn. Finally, they also disputed the State's submission that a harmonious interpretation of the phrase "all children" requires the exclusion of the unborn so as to avoid conflicts of rights. The respondents argued that no such conflict in fact arises.

(e) Non Marital Parents and "The Family"

7.23 This issue concerns the position of non-marital parents and the family under the Constitution.

7.24 The State submitted that the comments of Humphreys J., to the effect that there has been a shift in attitudes in Irish society, is merely a hypothesis and furthermore suggested that the trial judge did not identify the scope of any relevant rights asserted. The State submitted that the High Court thus erred in its conclusions in this regard.

7.25 The respondents argued that the issues addressed by the State in this context do not properly arise for consideration on this appeal. They submitted that the rights of the non-marital family in relation to their children are equivalent to the rights of the marital family and that this does not appear to be in dispute. They submitted that the State appears to accept that this is the effect of Article 42A. They noted that there may be some circumstances where there is a difference between the position of the father in an Article 41 family based on marriage compared with other non-marital family situations. However, the respondents submitted that this issue does not properly arise in this appeal.

7.26 Having identified the position of the parties it is next appropriate to turn to consideration of the issues raised. In that context it is proposed to consider issues (i) and (ii) together. The issues which arise under both of those headings concern the factors or circumstances which the Minister is required, by law, to take into account when considering a Section 3(11) application in circumstances such as arise in this case. However, those issues do not involve the more difficult and complex question of whether the unborn enjoys any current rights under the Constitution which go beyond the right to life expressly acknowledged in Article 40.3.3. It is proposed therefore, to turn to issues (i) and (ii).

8. Must the Minister Consider the Position of the Unborn?

8.1 The Court has already sought to identify the way in which this question arises. As already noted, the Minister accepts that the potential birth of a child of Mr. M. forms part of the circumstances of that respondent to which the Minister is required to have regard. However, the Minister stops short of accepting that any separate regard is required to be had to the position of that unborn in and of itself as opposed to as part of the circumstances applicable to the father. It is said that the position of the unborn in such circumstances is not a factor which, as a matter of general law, the Minister is required to take into account. Still less, it is said, is the Minister required to have regard to the fact that the third respondent would enjoy significant constitutional rights as an Irish citizen once born.

8.2 On one view, the distinction which the Minister makes between the matter which it is accepted the Minister must consider, being the fact that Mr. M. was about to become a father of the third respondent, and the additional matters which the respondents argue the Minister was required to consider, being the separate position of the third respondent and furthermore the fact that the third respondent would enjoy significant constitutional rights at least when born, may not appear to be very great. The underlying facts are the same. The Minister has to consider the "situation", to use a neutral term, which pertained at the time of the application to revoke, being that the birth of the then unborn third respondent was due within approximately three months. The birth was due within one month of when proceedings were commenced at which stage no decision had been made by the Minister.

8.3 However, the Minister argued that the nature of the consideration which he is required to carry out has the potential to have a significant impact on the result of any proper consideration given. On that basis it is said that a requirement to give separate and independent consideration to the position of the unborn will potentially affect the overall assessment (even though all sides accept that such additional consideration would not necessarily be decisive). Still more, the Minister argued, the overall assessment would inevitably be significantly impacted by a requirement to take into account the constitutional rights which the unborn would enjoy in the future because those constitutional rights would be required to be given particular weight in any overall assessment.

8.4 In that latter context it is important to note that counsel on behalf of the respondents did acknowledge that the weight to be attached even to those constitutional rights which the respondents assert should be considered would not necessarily be identical to the weight which would be required to be attached to the situation of a born child. However, there can be little doubt but that the Minister is at least correct in asserting that a material weight would have to be attached thereto in any analysis where he was required to give independent consideration to the position of the unborn and even more so if he was required to give consideration to the constitutional rights which that unborn would enjoy if and when born.

8.5 On that basis the question is one of some importance, because it touches on the way in which the Minister is required, as a matter of law, to have regard to the fact that the applicant for a revocation of a deportation order under Section 3(11) is expected soon to be a father of an Irish citizen child and, thus, has at least the potential to impact on the ultimate result of such an application in some cases.

8.6 It is also important to identify that the issues which arise in respect of these questions are separate and distinct from the question which will be addressed shortly concerning whether the unborn enjoy constitutional rights outside the scope of Article 40.3.3. If the unborn actually have rights qua unborn then it would be very difficult to see how those rights would not have to be taken into account as a separate matter in any assessment which might lead to an impairment of those rights even if that assessment related to a third party in the sense of the potential deportation of the father of the unborn concerned. But the argument under issues (i) and (ii) does not go so far as to assert that the unborn actually has current constitutional rights separate from Article 40.3.3. The argument simply goes to the question of whether, as a matter of immigration law, the position of the unborn likely to be born in Ireland, and, potentially, under the second issue, the rights which the unborn is likely to enjoy as an Irish citizen child when born, are factors which require to be taken into account and given appropriate weight in the Minister's assessment of an application to revoke a deportation order under Section 3(11).

8.7 These questions arise under very traditional judicial review principles which assert that the lawfulness of any decision involving rights and obligations requires the relevant decision maker to take into account all matters which the law mandates but also requires that decision maker to exclude from consideration any matters which the law regards as irrelevant. Finlay C.J. formulated the principle as follows in P. & F. Sharpe Ltd v. Dublin City and County Manager [1989] I.R. 701:-

" the decision-making authority must have regard to all relevant and legitimate factors which are before it and must disregard any irrelevant or illegitimate factor which might be advanced."



8.9 A starting point must be the acceptance by the Minister that it is necessary, as a matter of law, to have regard, as a relevant circumstance appertaining to Mr. M., that he is likely to become the father of a child born in Ireland. It is difficult to see how it does not necessarily follow from that acceptance that one of the circumstances to which the Minister is required to have regard must involve a consideration by the Minister of the position of that child. There seems little logic in attempting to draw what is, in reality, a wholly artificial distinction between having regard to the fact that Mr. M. was likely, at the time of the application to revoke the deportation order concerned, to be about to be the father of a child born in Ireland but not also to have regard to the position of that child. The two questions are so inextricably linked that it just does not make sense to suggest that it is possible to have regard to one without also having regard to the other.

8.10 But there is equally little logic in stating that it is necessary for the Minister to have regard to the position of the potential father, and thus the position of the potential child, without also accepting that regard must be had to the most important fact that, in the circumstances of this case, the child concerned, once born, will become an Irish citizen with the significant rights under the Irish Constitution which attach to that status.

8.11 In the same context it is also important to recall that the assessment which it is frequently necessary to carry out in the context of deportation (whether the relevant decision is one to make a deportation order in the first place or whether, as here, the decision concerns a potential revocation of a deportation order already in place) involves the assessment of future events. Much of immigration law is concerned with assessing the risks or likely consequences of a person being returned to another jurisdiction. The matters that a decision-maker is required to address in reality concern matters that will or may happen in the future in the event of return. While it may, theoretically, be possible to speak of a current risk of a future event such an analysis is unduly technical. In substance, the decision maker is considering the potential consequences of a current decision to deport (or not to revoke an existing deportation order) by necessary reference to events or circumstances which will or may occur or pertain in the future. Why then should the decision-maker exclude from their proper consideration, in an application such as that which is at issue in these proceedings, the future but important circumstance that it is likely that there will be a child of a potential deportee born in Ireland and, in the particular circumstances of this case, as an Irish-born citizen.

8.12 It is appreciated that this analysis leads to a somewhat different finding to that which was determined by Cooke J. in Ugbelase. However, it would appear that the only circumstance on which Cooke J. was invited to rule in that case was the assertion that an unborn enjoyed an existing constitutional right which required to be taken into account. The conclusion reached by Cooke J., to the effect that all of the constitutional rights attaching to the unborn are now to be found within the parameters of Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution, is a matter to which it will be necessary to turn in due course under the third issue. However, for the purposes of the argument under this heading it is important to emphasise that Cooke J. was not asked to consider whether it was necessary for the Minister to have regard to the position of a potential child likely to be born in Ireland or to the constitutional rights which would undoubtedly attach to such a child when born in circumstances where, as here, the child concerned would, on birth, be an Irish citizen.

8.13 While the conclusions reached in this section of this judgment necessarily point to a different answer to that given by Cooke J. in Ugbelase, the reasoning leading to those conclusions stems from an argument which was not made before him.

8.14 The Court understands the reasons why the Minister might not wish to be required to have regard to the position of the unborn and, in particular, to the rights which the unborn would enjoy when born. However, it is difficult to see that there is any real justification for the assertion that the Minister is required to have regard to the fact that Mr. M. is likely to become the father of the unborn concerned as a relevant circumstance but not have regard, simply as a factor to be taken into account, to the position of that unborn itself.

8.15 To hold that the position of the unborn has to be considered is not to say that the unborn, prior to birth, actually has currently enforceable rights to the care and company of her father. Likewise to say that the fact that the unborn, if and when born, will enjoy significant constitutional rights, is a factor to be taken into account, does not mean that the unborn necessarily has independently enforceable constitutional rights of the type contended for, being to the care and company of her father, as of the time in question. It is simply to state that both of these matters are factors which the lawful exercise of the discretion conferred on the Minister by Section 3(11) require to be taken into account.

8.16 It follows, therefore, that the debate about whether, and if so to what extent, it can be said that the unborn has a sufficient legal status to assert rights on its own behalf (or, in practical terms, to have those rights asserted on its behalf by an appropriate person) does not really affect this question. Whether or not the unborn could commence proceedings asserting its rights does not, in and of itself, determine whether the Minister is required to give appropriate consideration to the position of the unborn together with its future probable birth in Ireland, its likely status as an Irish citizen child and the constitutional rights it will then enjoy. The latter is a matter of the proper interpretation of immigration law and is not necessarily dependent on the question of whether those rights can be asserted directly.

8.17 The Court concludes, therefore, that, in assessing the position of the unborn in a case such as this, the Minister is obliged to take into account the fact that the unborn, if born, will enjoy significant constitutional rights when born.

8.18 It is, of course, the case that the reason why it was considered necessary to address these issues stems from the fact that they have the potential to affect the weight to be attached to the likely birth of an Irish citizen child to which the applicant for revocation is a father. Were it not for those questions of weight (which would have theoretically arisen had this matter been capable, in practical terms, of being remitted back to the Minister) then the issues would have been moot in circumstances where it would not have been appropriate for this Court (or indeed the High Court) to have addressed them. It follows that some weight might have to be attached to the position of the unborn and, indeed, additional weight might well have to be applied to the consideration of the undoubtedly significant constitutional rights which the unborn would enjoy on being born.

8.19 However, it is important to emphasise that the analysis which the Minister would be required, as a matter of law, to carry out in giving proper consideration to those two matters is not necessarily the same as the consideration which the Minister would be required to carry out in respect of the potential deportation of the father of a born Irish citizen child. Those later considerations are to be found in the judgment of Denham J. speaking for this Court in Oguekwe v. Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (2008) IESC 25.

8.20 Oguekwe concerned a deportation order made in respect of a Nigerian father whose Nigerian wife had been granted residency under the Irish Born Child 05 scheme on the basis of her Irish born child who was, in accordance with then law, an Irish citizen. Denham J. at p. 822 set out a non-exhaustive list of matters relevant for consideration by the Minister when making a decision as to deportation under s. 3 of the 1999 Act of a parent of an Irish born citizen child. Those matters are specified in a context where the applicants concerned were a family within the meaning of Article 41. The list of considerations includes not only rights of the applicants but also the State's interests and further specifies permissible approaches by the Minister to balancing the individual and family rights concerned with the State's interest in the common good. As submitted on behalf of the respondents, the framework articulated in Oguekwe is a flexible one capable of accommodating the circumstances and facts of the particular application and persons concerned. The list commences with the statement:-

"The Minister should consider the circumstances of each case by due inquiry in a fair and proper manner as to the facts and factors affecting the family."



"5. The Minister should consider the potential interference with rights of the applicants. This will include consideration of the nature and history of the family unit. 6. The Minister should consider expressly the Constitutional rights, including the personal rights, of the Irish born child. These rights include the right of the Irish born child to:- (a) reside in the State, (b) be reared and educated with due regard to his welfare, (c) the society, care and company of his parents, and (d) protection of the family, pursuant to Article 41.



8.22 As already stated, the third respondent when born, unlike the child in Oguekwe, did not become a member of a family of the type expressly envisaged by Article 41 of the Constitution. The question of the views of the trial judge on the definition of "family" for constitutional purposes and allied matters will be considered later in this judgment. However, it is accepted that, if a decision had been taken by the Minister on the revocation application whilst the third respondent was unborn, it was foreseeable that when born as a citizen she would have the rights identified at (a), (b) and (c) above. However, as Denham J. made clear, such constitutional (or any Convention) rights are not absolute or necessarily determinative. The State's interests also require consideration and, as she stated, "the Minister should weigh the factors and principles in a fair and just manner to achieve a reasonable and proportionate decision" and "The Minister should be satisfied that there is a substantial reason for deporting a foreign national parent, that the deportation is not disproportionate to the ends sought to be achieved, and that the order of deportation is a necessary measure for the purpose of achieving the common good."

8.23 The potential interference with one or other of the constitutional rights to reside in Ireland and to the care and company of parents by deportation of a father is obvious. However, the impact of that interference for the citizen child will depend on many factors including age, existing or future probable relationship and contact with the father, possibly the relationship with, and circumstances of, the mother and many more. The impact on a ten year old child who has lived in Ireland in the care of both parents for many years may be significantly different to that of a one month old child where the facts are such that it appears probable that, even if the father remained in Ireland, the child would not live with him. The assessment of the impact on the constitutional rights of, say, a two month old child by the deportation of his father may not differ greatly from that of an unborn child due to be born in two months time, but both might greatly differ from that of the ten year old in the circumstances already described or, indeed, an unborn in the very early stages of gestation. The interests of the State in any given application may differ significantly and possibly depend, amongst other things, on the immigration or other relevant history of the potential deportee or applicant for revocation. The weight to be attached to those factors and the potential proportionality of any decision by the Minister to refuse revocation of a deportation order are not matters for this judgment.

8.24 It suffices to say that the Court considers that, whilst the Minister must consider the constitutional rights when born of an unborn either on an application for revocation or a proposal to deport, the weight to be attached to the potential interference with such rights will depend on all the facts and circumstances of the applicant and unborn concerned and is a matter for the Minister, as is the balance to be struck with the interests of the State in reaching a proportionate decision in accordance with the principles set out by this Court in Oguekwe.

8.25 For the reasons already addressed it is now necessary to consider whether the unborn enjoys current constitutional rights which require to be taken into account in an immigration case such as this. As already noted, the trial judge held that the unborn did enjoy such rights and the State argues that the trial judge was incorrect in that regard. The Court has already set out the reasons why it feels that it is necessary to address this question notwithstanding the findings already made in relation to issues (i) and (ii). It will be necessary, therefore, shortly to discuss the important constitutional issues raised under issue (iii). However, having regard to the fact that the trial judge placed reliance on certain provisions of statute law concerning the unborn and also on certain common law provisions affecting the unborn, it is appropriate first to consider those questions both for the purposes of determining whether the trial judge's conclusion in those regards was necessarily correct but also for the purposes of considering whether any such conclusions as are or might be correct could have any proper bearing on the constitutional issues to which it will be necessary shortly to turn.

9. Statute and Common Law Concerning the Unborn

(a) The Common Law

9.1 One of the reasons given by Humphreys J. for disagreeing with the analysis in Ugbelase was that he saw as "completely incorrect" the statement by Cooke J. that the common law did not operate to enable justiciable rights to be asserted by or on behalf of the unborn child prior to birth. A number of judgments and statutes are referred to by the trial judge as supporting a contrary view to the effect that "significant" rights of the unborn child were "recognised, acknowledged or created" by common law or statute. The summary of principles identified by the trial judge in this case includes (at paragraph 101 (vi)) the following proposition:

"The unborn child enjoys significant rights and legal position at common law, by statute and under the Constitution, going well beyond the right to life alone. Many of these rights are actually effective rather than merely prospective."



9.3 At para. 65 of the High Court judgment in this case there is a reference to Burton v. Islington Health Authority [1992] EWCA Civ 2, where Dillon L.J. noted that in certain contexts English courts had adopted as part of English law the maxim of the civil law that an unborn child is deemed to be born whenever its interests so require. The authority for this is attributed to Lord Westbury in Blasson v. Blasson 2 De G.J. & S. 665, quoting from Justinian's Digest to the effect that an unborn child is taken care of, just as much as if it were in existence, in any case in which the child's own advantage comes into question although no other person could derive any benefit through the child before its birth.

9.4 Blasson v. Blasson was discussed by the House of Lords in Villar v. Gilbey [1907] A.C. 139. That case concerned a ruling by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales that there was a general rule for the construction of wills obliging a court to hold that, where a testator referred to children "born" in his lifetime, a child who was en ventre sa mere (that is, in the womb of the mother) before the testator's death but was not born until after the death was to be deemed to have been born in the testator's lifetime. The House of Lords rejected the proposition that this was a fixed rule, holding that it applied only where it was of benefit to the child. On the facts of the case, it was not in the interests of the child in question since it would have resulted in him taking a lesser estate. Where it did apply, the principle was justified on the ground that such children came within the motive and reason for the gift and should therefore be included, although it compelled the court "to do violence to the English language" (Lord Loreburn L.C.). Lord Atkinson quoted the following paragraph from Blasson v. Blasson as encapsulating the rule:

"That the fiction or indulgence of the law which treats the unborn child as actually born applies only for the purpose of enabling the unborn child to take a benefit which if born it would be entitled to, and it is limited to cases where 'de commodis ipsius partus quaeritur'."



"First, words referring to children or issue 'born' before, or 'living' at, or (as I think we must add) 'surviving', a particular point of time or event, will not in their ordinary or natural meaning include a child en ventre sa mere at the relevant date. Secondly, the ordinary or natural meaning of the words may be departed from  if, but only if, that fictional construction will secure to the child a benefit to which it would have been entitled if it had been actually born at the relevant date. Thirdly, the only reason and the only justification for applying such a fictional construction is that where a person makes a gift to a class of children or issue described as 'born' before or 'living' at or 'surviving' a particular point of time or event, a child en ventre sa mere must necessarily be within the reason and motive of the gift. Fourthly, that being the only reason and the only justification for applying the fictional construction , it follows that, if the person who uses the words under consideration confers no gift on the child or issue described as above mentioned, but confers the gift on someone else, it is impossible (except in the light of subsequent events) to affirm either that the fictional construction will secure to the child en ventre sa mere a benefit to which if born it would be entitled, or that the child en ventre sa mere must necessarily be within the reason and motive of the gift made. In these circumstances the words used must bear their ordinary or natural meaning." (Emphases added.)



9.7 It is clear from these authorities that the common law courts, in adopting this particular principle from the civil law, did so only to a limited extent and in full consciousness that as far as the common law was concerned, they were adopting a legal fiction that was to be deployed only in limited circumstances.

9.8 In Burton v. Islington Health Authority, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales was dealing with two appeals in respect of children born with disabilities as a result of pre-natal medical negligence. In each case the health authority had argued that the injury occurred while the child was still en ventre sa mere. In those circumstances the child was not considered a person in the eyes of English law and was thus not entitled to any of the remedies or the protection of the common law.

9.9 Giving the leading judgment, Dillon L.J. referred to the general proposition, not in any way doubted in the appeals, that a foetus (as it was termed in the judgment) enjoyed no independent legal personality. It could not, before birth, sue or be made a ward of court. He said that he would have been prepared to apply the civil law maxim in question to the appeals, but that it was unnecessary to do so in view of the development of the common law in other jurisdictions. In particular he cited Montreal Tramways v. Leveille [1933] 4 D.L.R. 337, Watt v. Rama [1972] V.R. 353, and Duval v. Seguin (1972) 26 D.L.R. (3d) 418, as supporting a conclusion that a child who suffered pre-natal injuries occurring during the mother's pregnancy had a cause of action at birth. It is worth stressing that the approach taken by the Court of Appeal was that the cause of action could only arise from that point, since the tort of negligence was complete only when the negligent act caused damage to a person.

9.10 Attorney General's Reference (No. 3 of 1994) [1997] 3 All E.R. 936 is cited by Humphreys J. for the proposition that the unborn child may be the subject of an unlawful act. The issue in that case was whether either a murder or manslaughter charge could lie in respect of a prematurely-born child who died at the age of about three months. For the purposes of the reference it was assumed that her death was the result of the effects of a "grossly" premature birth that came about because of an assault on the mother and therefore that the death was the result of that assault.

9.11 The House of Lords unanimously held that what it termed the foetus was neither a distinct person separate from its mother nor merely an adjunct of its mother but a unique organism.

9.12 It was considered to have been "established beyond doubt for the criminal law, as for the civil law [citing here Burton v. Islington Health Authority], that the child en ventre sa mere does not have a distinct human personality whose extinguishment gives rise to any penalties or liabilities at common law". Violence to the foetus which caused its death in utero was therefore not murder. Lord Mustill described as the foundation authority for this rule the definition of murder by Sir Edward Coke as the killing of "a reasonable creature, in rerum natura" (Co. Inst., Pt. lll, ch.7, p. 50). Since the foetus was not a human person, the doctrine of "transferred malice" could not be applied and, as the accused lacked the necessary mens rea in respect of causing death or grievous bodily harm to the child should it be born alive, he could not be guilty of murder.

9.13 It is true that the Court took a different view in relation to possible liability for manslaughter by an unlawful and dangerous act. That was because of the different mental element required for that offence which did not necessarily involve intention directed towards a person. Although the child was not alive at the time of the assault, once born she might carry with her the effects of things done to her before birth. Her subsequent death completed the actus reus once the question of causation was satisfied.

9.14 It is clear that none of these cases are authority for the suggestion by the trial judge that the common law "recognised, acknowledged or created" rights in the unborn child. On the contrary, the common law held firmly to the principle that the unborn child had no legal personality. The succession law cases are expressly based on a maxim considered by the common law to be a legal fiction that should be applied only in particular circumstances. The limitations on its use demonstrate that it was not intended to reflect a broader approach to the legal existence or status of the unborn. The position in respect of crimes of violence and the tort of negligence is not, in truth, an exception to the common law either, since in all cases the crucial requirement was that the child be born alive. If that came to pass, and the child had been injured as a result of the actions of a wrongdoer while it was still in its mother's womb, then legal consequences arising from the relevant common law rules could be visited on the person responsible but not otherwise.

(b) Statute Law

9.15 The consideration by the High Court judge of various statutory provisions relating to the unborn commences with s. 3(2) of the Succession Act 1965 which provides:

"Descendants and relatives of a deceased person begotten before his death but born alive thereafter shall, for the purposes of this Act, be regarded as having been born in the lifetime of the deceased and as having survived him."



9.16 The trial judge further noted the statutory recognition of a power to deal with property on behalf of the unborn in particular contexts, citing, amongst other provisions, s. 75 of the Public Works (Ireland) Act 1831, which states in relevant part:

"After any lands, tenements, or hereditaments shall have been set out and ascertained for making any road or bridge hereby authorized to be made or erected, or any of the approaches thereto, it shall be lawful for all bodies politic, corporate, and collegiate, corporations aggregate or sole, tenants in tail or for life, or for any other partial or qualified estates or interests, husbands, guardians, trustees, and feoffees in trust for charitable or other purposes, committees, executors, and administrators, and all trustees and persons whomsoever, not only for and on behalf of themselves, their heirs and successors, but also for and on behalf of the person or persons entitled in reversion, remainder, or expectancy after them, if incapacitated, and for and on behalf of their cestuique trusts, whether infants, issue unborn, . . . to contract for, sell, and convey the same, and every part thereof, unto the said commissioners for the execution of this Act."



"For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that the law relating to wrongs shall apply to an unborn child for his protection in like manner as if the child were born, provided the child is subsequently born alive."



"'stillborn child' means a child who, at birth, weighs not less than 500 grammes or has a gestational age of not less than 24 weeks and shows no sign of life and 'stillbirth' shall be construed accordingly."



"(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part, when a child is stillborn  (a) the parents or, if one of the parents is dead, the surviving parent of the child, or (b) if both of the parents are dead, a relative of either parent, may, not later than 12 months from the date of the stillbirth -

(i) attend before any registrar, (ii) give to the registrar, to the best of his or her knowledge and belief, the required particulars of the stillbirth and, if it has been obtained, the certificate referred to in subsection (3), (iii) after the registrar has entered the required particulars in relation to the stillbirth in the register, sign the register in the presence of the registrar."



9.20 Humphreys J. in his judgment also referred to s. 19(3) of the Registration of Title Act 1964 in the context of a statutory right for the unborn to litigate. That section provides as follows:-

"In any proceeding under this section the court shall, if so requested by the Registrar, and may in any case, if necessary, appoint a guardian or other person to represent any infant, person of unsound mind, person absent from the State, unborn person or person as to whom it is not known whether he is alive or dead; and, if satisfied that the interests of any person so represented are sufficiently protected by the representation, may make an order declaring that he shall be conclusively bound by the decision of the court and thereupon he shall, subject to the right under this Act to appeal on special leave, be bound accordingly, as if he were a party."



"An employer shall not employ a child or young person at work where a risk assessment reveals that the work -

(a)  (b) involves harmful exposure to agents which are toxic, carcinogenic, cause heritable genetic damage, or harm to the unborn child or which in any other way chronically affects human health "



9.23 The statute law does not support this view either. The purpose of the various legislative provisions set out above is to make it clear that those provisions expressly provide for the unborn child. In the absence of such language being used, the relevant statutory provisions would have no applicability to unborn children. So, for example, the provisions of the 2007 Regulations would have no application to unborn children absent the express words referring to the unborn child to be found therein.

9.24 Having reached those conclusions it is now appropriate to discuss the important questions which arise in relation to the potential rights of the unborn in the context of an immigration case such as this. In so doing it is, of course, important to emphasise that the unborn enjoys an undoubted right to life under Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution. However, there was no suggestion that there was any risk to the right to life of the unborn in this case. It follows that the precise question which this Court has to address concerns the issue of whether the unborn has any other rights guaranteed by the Constitution. It is only necessary to consider the constitutional status of any potential right to life of the unborn which might exist independent of Article 40.3.3 as a means to determining whether it followed that the unborn must enjoy other rights, beyond the right to life, which might be relevant in the context of the assessment which the Minister would be required to carry out in a case such as this.

10. The Constitutional Position of the Unborn

(a) Introduction

10.1 The next issue to be considered is whether, as held by the trial judge, the third respondent before birth, and at the time the Minister was considering the application under Section 3(11) for revocation of the deportation order in respect of Mr. M., her father, had an existing constitutional right which the Minister was required to consider when making her decision. Did the Minister have to consider not only that on birth the third respondent would have a constitutionally protected right to the care and company of her father, but that the third respondent actually had that right before birth? It may appear that little of practical consequence could follow from the resolution of this issue once it is accepted that the Minister must consider the prospective rights of the child and take account of the separation that deportation may entail, but this issue was hotly debated and has important consequences for the law more generally.

10.2 The respondents argue that, without reference to Article 40.3.3, and indeed prior to the passing into law of the Eighth Amendment inserting the first paragraph of that provision into the Constitution, the Courts had recognised that an unborn child had a right to life recognised and protected by the Constitution. It was argued that it followed logically that the unborn child must also have any other relevant right. The final step in this argument is that, on this approach, the passage of the Eighth Amendment only formalised in explicit terms the right to life of the unborn already protected by the Constitution, and made express provision for the equal right to life of the mother, but that could not be understood as limiting the constitutionally protected rights of the unborn to the right to life expressed in Article 40.3.3. It followed, therefore, it was argued that the third respondent, as an unborn child at the time of the Minister's decision, had constitutional rights which the Minister was obliged to consider.

10.3 An important element of the respondents' argument that the unborn child had a constitutionally protected right to the care and company of her father was the contention that, prior to 1983, the Courts made important observations to the effect that an unborn child had a constitutionally protected right to life. It followed, it was argued, that the unborn child was recognised as being a rights holder under the Constitution, and it must follow that there could be no basis for limiting the rights so held to a right to life. That was the most important, but not the only, right the unborn child had. Accordingly, much attention was paid to observations made in different cases prior to and subsequent to the enactment of the Eighth Amendment on the constitutional position of the unborn prior to the passage of the Eighth Amendment. However, the State parties on this appeal did not offer any submission on that issue maintaining only that it had not been decided prior to 1983 that the unborn had a constitutional right to life. This position is correct so far as it goes, which is not very far. It is difficult to understand how the merits of the issue which the respondents raised (and which the State parties considered raised issues of general public importance which furthermore merited both direct appeal to this Court and an expedited hearing of this appeal) can be addressed without at least considering the import of the judicial observations relied on by the respondents. The position taken is regrettable therefore not least because it deprived the Court of the precise focus that sharply honed opposing arguments can provide.

10.4 The respondents' argument in this regard was accepted by the High Court and is succinctly set out at paras. 55 and 56 of the judgment of the trial judge as follows:-

"55. The Minister's position that the only relevant right of the unborn to be considered was the right to life appeared to derive primarily from Article 40.3.3 which of course provides for the protection of the right to life of the unborn and obliges the State to protect that right, as far as practicable. 56. That subsection was enacted in the wake of a number of judicial decisions to the effect that the rights of the unborn were in any event protected by Article 40.3: G. v. An Bord Uch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.Indianapolis, IN -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/26/2018 --Given the complex nature of air conditioner, it is important to let someone who is professional to do it for they will know what to do. Doing it on own can be a wastage of time and labor if not treated with expertise. Even if one is qualified to do it by oneself, one might not have the modern equipment and tools to get the job done. Delegating the task to the professionals would save one's time and money while yielding rich dividends. Bolls Heating and Cooling is the right company to hand over this complicated task, considering the years of experience it holds upon its sleeve in AC repair in Carmel and Greenwood, Indiana.



At Bolls Heating and Cooling, the technicians are well skilled and qualified to repair and service the system with personalized care and attention. They will provide the new system installation necessary to keep the clients, their family, their business and their customers comfortable all summer along.



Should the system stop operating, the technicians from Bolls Heating and Cooling are just a phone call away. Available 7 days a week and every day of the year, they can execute both residential and commercial customers throughout central Indiana for the very best service.



The experts are all certified and licensed to provide the service that addresses one's specific needs. They believe in up-front pricing, taking the guesswork out of repair costs and avoiding those surprises that cost one money. By availing the service of Bolls Heating and Cooling, one can be assured that the system will function like new when it was first installed.



To keep with the changing world of technology, the expert staff go through training that helps them to be upgraded. The service techs will arrive at the home and business and treat the system as their own, using shoe covers and drop cloths to protect one's personal property.



To know more about air conditioner in Fishers and Bloomington Indiana, visit http://www.bollscomfort.com/.



About Bolls Heating & Cooling

For more than 20 years of experience in the HVAC industry, Bolls Heating & Cooling is one of the best companies offering ac repair in Greenwood and Bloomington IN. They also offer ac and heating maintenance and more.Los Angeles, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/26/2018 --Vermont Urgent Care, an LGBT friendly doctor in Los Angeles, provides a variety of services to treat many non-emergency ailments. Members of the LGBT community will not need to worry that medical professionals will not take their cases seriously. They have an LGBT friendly doctor in Los Angeles on their side that will work with them to overcome and treat their health concerns. This treatment center provides care for a variety of disorders and diseases. Patients can relax knowing that there is an LGBT friendly doctor in Los Angeles on their case. Vermont Urgent Care welcomes patients from all walks of life with open arms.



Surprisingly, there are very few centers that actually welcome LGBT patients in Los Angeles. Vermont Urgent Care prides itself on the fact that it offers the services of an LGBT friendly doctor in Los Angeles and has patients that vouch for their services. Vermont Urgent Care wants to show their support for the LGBT community by welcoming all patients. Doctors at this facility are patient and try to offer customizable solutions to put their patients at ease. Everyone who walks in receives the same care. Those concerned with receiving backlash or below average service because of their sexual orientation can relax and know that they have an LGBT friendly doctor in Los Angeles who will help them work through any medical problem.



Patients have been ecstatic by the results of this LGBT friendly doctor in Los Angeles. Many have loved the individualized care provided to them. They report attentive doctors and personalized treatments which have put them at ease. Everyone deserves the same treatment. Members of the LGBT community might have worries about finding a medical facility that will take their case. Fortunately, you now have Vermont Urgent Care, a clinic with an LGBT friendly doctor in Los Angeles and staff. Many times, urgent care centers will not disclaim whether or not they offer treatment to those with different sexual orientations, and this can be frustrating for LGBT members who are turned away. Vermont Urgent Care has a talented LGBT friendly doctor in Los Angeles who is ready to help.



About Vermont Urgent Care

Vermont Urgent Care is a well-known facility in the Los Angeles area that offers the services of an LGBT friendly doctor in Los Angeles. All patients are welcome regardless of sexual orientation and race. Learn of the many services they provide and follow any updates by visiting them at 1435 S. Vermont Ave #100 Los Angeles, or calling to make an appointment at (213-386-2511)Houston, TX -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/26/2018 --Office Systems of Texas is one of the most popular authorized dealers of Konica Minolta printers and copiers in the greater Houston region. Also, the company is also a leading supplier of Konica Minolta office systems and business solutions and aims at providing the customers with efficient and effective printing, copy, scanning, and fax solutions. Office Systems of Texas also sells, leases and provides support for a range of equipment that is needed to run a business.



Office Systems of Texas has been serving the business owners with the best office solutions in Houston and Katy Texas and the surrounding areas of Texas since 1977. The staff here are always ready to offer assistance and that too within the stipulated time frame so that businesses can carry out with their services rightly.



Office Systems of Texas is a family owned company that possesses several years of experience and expertise to solve issues related to office equipment in Tomball and Humble Texas. The technicians here ensure that the customers get personalized service at the best prices. Office Systems of Texas serves a number of industries that include healthcare, education and legal. The company has been able to gain an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau which means that one can blindly rely on the services that it offers.



Headquartered in Houston, Office Systems of Texas serves the companies that located in Houston, The Woodlands, Pasadena, Conroe, and Katy and the neighboring areas of Texas. One can visit the website of Office Systems of Texas to take a look at their complete product category list and find the best office solution. One can also reach the company at 281-443-2996 to get a free quote for the variety of products and services that they offer.



About Office Systems of Texas

Office Systems of Texas is an authorized dealer of Konica Minolta and at present it serves the businesses located in Houston and the neighboring areas.The National Elections Authority (NEA) said that a very limited number of polling stations were late opening, missing the 9am deadline by up to 20 minutes.

The delays were due to health emergencies preventing the timely arrival of supervising judges.

"The NEA authorized reserve judges to supervise elections at these polling stations, while the remaining polling stations opened at their scheduled time of 9am," the NEA said in a statement.



"No complaints have been received regarding the elections, either by judges or by voters, up to this moment," the NEA said, indicating a "high turnout" at all polling stations across the country.



The elections are being supervised by 18,000 judges, assisted by 110,000 administrative assistants in 13,706 polling stations in all 26 governorates across the country.

President Abdel-Fattal El-Sisi and Moussa Mostafa Moussa, the head of Ghad Party are the two candidates for the highest office in the country.

The vote started today and ends on Wednesday.

The NEA announced Monday the hotline number "19826" for receiving voters' complaints throughout the three days of the presidential elections.

Read Ahram Online's blow by blow coverage of the vote

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Orange County, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/26/2018 --Recently, bail reform measures have gone through in states like New Mexico, Illinois, and New Jersey, ensuring those who cannot afford bail are released without having to come up with the money.



No such measures have gone through as of yet in California, but there is concern in Orange County about the California Money Bail Reform Act, which was introduced in 2017, becoming law in the upcoming months.



The idea behind bail reform centers on the current system being two tiered, as those with money can afford to post Orange County bail bonds and buy their freedom while awaiting trial, but those without money must either sit in a cell or go into debt with bail bonds.



People who are fighting against the current system and would like to see bail reform argue that the rich have what is essentially a get out of jail free card, while the poor are often detained for months before they even get to trial, costing them their jobs, homes, and cars.



There are some problems with bail reform, however, that aren't mentioned nearly enough and should a central part of the conversation. Those who are against reforming the current rules say not charging bail eliminates accountability for the crimes committed.



Every person who is in jail has, at the very least, been accused of a crime. In the vast majority of cases, there is substantial evidence against that individual, which is why they are being charged in the first place. Without bail holding these individuals financially accountable for their actions, we could be eliminating one of the most powerful crime deterrents: financial ruin.



Another thing to consider is the potential victims of a crime. Zero regard for any victims is shown when releasing a suspect without any type of accountability. The friends and family of victims must also live with the idea that the accused can return to public life without any immediate repercussions.



A recent case from New Mexico highlights the potential for problems with bail reform. In Albuquerque, 30-year-old Steven Deskin was behind the wheel of a speeding vehicle when it ran a red light and collided with another car, killing its occupant.



At the time of the crash, Deskin had his two young children in the vehicle with him and failed a field sobriety test. He is charged with a slew of offences, including vehicular manslaughter and child abuse, but is out of jail without having to pay any bail whatsoever.



The reason Deskin is out of jail, despite the evidence against him, is that he doesn't have a criminal history and no blood evidence was available at the time. Therefore, he was released on his own recognizance and the family of his victim must suffer, knowing he is out of jail and in their community.



Many states, including New Mexico, currently use the Public Safety Assessment algorithm created by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. This algorithm takes the information available on the suspect and creates a risk profile. If the accused has a risk assessment that falls behind a certain threshold, he or she is free to go without paying any sort of bail bonds.



One thing to keep in mind is that the Laura and John Arnold Foundation has already been sued because of a major mistake that was made in New Jersey. In this situation, a suspect with a felony weapons charge was released from custody based on the algorithm's findings. This individual then murdered a man days later while out on "free bail".



Clearly, this isn't a situation we want to repeat in Orange County, as just one dangerous criminal being released prematurely is one too many. The offender in New Jersey would have remained in jail if it wasn't for bail reform laws in that state.



When looking at John Arnold's history, we see a man who frequently gets involved in public policy, seemingly to aid his own financial interests. Arnold has spent as much as $50 million of his own money lobbying against police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and librarians receiving pensions. His anti-union, anti-pension rhetoric shows he isn't interested in the rights and well-being of the vast majority of Americans.



From afar, it seems as though Arnold is more interested in selling the computer systems that run his algorithm and having significant influence over the criminal justice system. One thing for sure is that Arnold isn't to be trusted because he isn't concerned with making America a safer country.



Another aspect we aren't hearing too much about is the money involved. Looking at the situation in New Jersey, once again, we see that the system relies on the court fees collected to function. The problem is that there simply isn't enough money being created through court fees and the entire program is expected to be in serious financial trouble by 2019.



In Orange Country and the rest of California, we'll see bail reform costing the state's taxpayers between $3.5 and $5 billion annually, just to fund the pre-trial release program. This doesn't even begin to cover the costs associated with having more criminals out on the streets and the police resources that will have to go towards the problem.



Unless something drastically changes, complete bail reform will go through in California and those with insight into the situation are certain that problems will follow. We could be headed towards a first-time offender's utopia, where individuals can commit nearly any crime they want and will likely be released without having to be financially accountable for their actions.



San Francisco was recently home to the Humphrey decision in which a judge ruled that the state's current bail system is unfair to low income offenders. As a result judges in California must now incorporate the income levels of the accused when setting bail amounts. While this isn't full bail reform, it does show that we are headed that way in the very near future.An Egyptian national was killed by shrapnel in Saudi Arabia on Sunday when Saudi forces shot down seven ballistic missiles launched by Yemens Houthi rebels, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.

Saudi air-defence forces say they intercepted three missiles aimed at the capital Riyadh and four others fired at the southern cities of Khamis Mushait, Najran and Jizan, according to Colonel Turki Al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

Shrapnel from the missiles fell on residential areas in Riyadh, killing an Egyptian resident and wounding two other Egyptians, the SPA quoted Al-Malki as saying.

"This hostile action and indiscriminate action by the Iran-backed Houthi group proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting the armed Houthi group with qualitative capabilities," Al-Malki said.

"The firing of multiple ballistic missiles towards populated cities contravenes international human laws and ... is a serious development."

The Saudi-led coalition launched an airstrike campaign in Yemen in March 2015 to fight Iran-backed Houthi rebels after they seized parts of Yemen, including the capial Sanaa and forced President Abd Rabbu Mansour Al-Hadi to flee.

The Saudi military says the Houthis have fired dozens of missiles into Saudi Arabia since last year, all of which were intercepted.

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Egypt extended its condolences on Monday to the government and people of "the friendly nation of Russia", following a fire at a shopping mall in the Russian city of Kemerovo which left 64 people dead.

"The government and the people of Egypt stand by the government and people of Russia during this tribulation," the foreign ministry statement added.

According to Reuters, the fire is one of the deadliest in Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

It "swept through the upper floors of the mall where a cinema complex and children's play area were located," Reuters added.



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Egypt's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Nasser Hamdy, visited the Shomiasy hospital in the city to check on the state of three Egyptians who were injured after a number of ballistic missiles were fired at Riyadh by Houthis in Yemen on Sunday.

On Sunday Saudi air defence forces shot down seven ballistic missiles fired at the capital of Riyadh, as well as other southern cities of Saudi Arabia; however, the debris of the missiles killed an Egyptian national and injured three others, two of whom are his relatives.

The ambassador was accompanied by a number of Egyptian officials in Riyadh, including the consul and the defence attache, a foreign ministry statement added.

Egyptian authorities are paying to transfer the body of Abdel Motaleb Ahmed Hussein, the man who was killed, to Egypt, the ministry added.

The three men injured, Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, Shehab Mahmoud Hussein and Tareq Abo Taleb Mohamed, are stable and one will be released from hospital soon, the statement said.

Hussein is the first person to be killed on Saudi soil by military action since the Saudi-led coalition started their military operations in Yemen in 2015, Reuters reported.

The Saudi military says the Houthi militants have fired dozens of missiles into Saudi Arabia since last year, all of which were intercepted.

Ten thousand people have been killed during the war in Yemen, two million people have been displaced, and one million people have had cholera, Reuters reported.

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A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.Russia's UN ambassador on Monday called the US decision to expel 12 diplomats working at the Russian mission to the United Nations a "very unfortunate and very unfriendly move."

Vassily Nebenzia told reporters that the 12 diplomats will have to leave by April 2, although the Russian government will protest the US decision that comes amid a British-Russian row over the nerve gas attack on an ex-spy.

The United States informed the United Nations on Monday of the expulsions, invoking a 1947 US-UN agreement that allows such action for "abuse of privileges of residence."

The United States ordered 60 Russians to leave in a coordinated move that also saw European Union countries, Canada, Ukraine and Albania expelling scores more.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters that Russia was "increasingly" showing "bad judgment".

"When you see these espionage tactics that are taking place right here at the heart of the UN, we can't have that," she said.

"Unfortunately, Russia is now being held accountable for a lot of things and they have a decision to make."

Nebenzia declined to give details of the 12 diplomats who are among a staff of about 95 who work at the mission.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that the United States had informed the United Nations of the decision under the US-UN agreement.

"Given the sensitivity of the matter, which is ongoing, we will not comment further at this stage other than to confirm that the secretary-general will closely follow this matter and engage as appropriate with the governments concerned," said Haq.

President Donald Trump also ordered the closure of the Russian consulate general in Seattle.

"Here in New York, Russia uses the United Nations as a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders," Haley said earlier in a statement announcing the expulsions from the Russian mission.

Britain had urged allies to take strong action in response to the March 4 attack in England that left former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in critical condition.

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Zoe Mizon from the Zoe Mizon Lash Academy and Ladies Lounge at Swinton who is up for a prestigious award from the English Hair and Beauty Awards. 180353-1

STAFF at a beauty salon are celebrating after being announced as a finalist in a prestigious industry awards ceremony.

The Zoe Mizon Lash Academy and Ladies Lounge in Swinton is a finalist in the lashes extension specialists category at the English Hair and Beauty Awards.

The Rowms Lane salon, which opened 18 months ago, is up against nine other businesses from around the UK and is the only South Yorkshire company in the category.

Zoe (35), of Rawmarsh, said it was absolutely fantastic to be nominated and to win would be a massive achievement.

The salon, which is also a training academy, has had visitors from all over the world, including California.

Zoe built up her reputation after coming third in the World Volume Lash Master competition in 2015.

She said: After that, people started contacting me wanting training and mentoring and this all evolved from that, I was inundated by people who wanted to come and learn.

Zoe, whose business now employs seven people, said: Lashes are such a big business now.

Ive been a beautician for about 13 years and its one of the things thats just evolved.

Ive trained in the advanced techniques and I only really do lashes now.

I enjoy it because of the way it makes people feel, it transforms peoples appearance and gives them confidence \_ its nice to be able to give that back to somebody.

The salon is also trialling new techniques to help cancer patients.

The English Hair and Beauty Awards were set up five years ago and have become the industrys leading awards ceremony.

Hundreds of people are expected to attend the ceremony in Manchester on Sunday, which will also raise funds for the Make A Wish Foundation.

Irfan Younis, from the awards organiser, Creative Oceanic, said: The industry is booming at the moment with the entire industry contributing 17 billion to the UK economy and employing over a million people.

The English Hair and Beauty Awards offer an unrivalled opportunity to showcase, network and gain media coverage in the increasingly competitive environment.The Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) announced the appointment of Elodie Daguzan as its first Goodwill Ambassador.Ms. Daguzan, who currently works as head of communication and industry relations for the diamantaire Rubel & Menasche, brings with her 17 years of experience in the diamond and jewelry industry.Her particular fields of interest are pipeline integrity, sustainability, traceability, generic marketing, and innovation, aligning her well with the mission and activities of DDI.She says, For the past six years, I have been a strong supporter of DDIs tireless work. The unparalleled knowledge and field expertise of ASM (artisanal and small-scale mining) that DDI brings are critical for the sustainability of the diamond industry as a whole. Therefore, it is a great honour for me to represent them and contribute to their mission.The role of the Goodwill Ambassador is to promote DDI to the diamond and jewelry industry, articulating DDIs vision, mission and goals, and advancing DDIs programs and strategies.DDI Chair, Ian Smillie, says, We are very pleased to welcome Elodie Daguzan as our first Goodwill Ambassador. Her energy and enthusiasm, along with her dedication to ethical jewelry and the cause of artisanal miners, make her a great fit for DDI. We look forward to a fruitful collaboration.Rough&Polished congratulates Ms. Daguzan on her honorary appointment.HNTB

Diana Mendes, AICP, and HNTB Corporation Mid-Atlantic Division president, received the 2018 Shirley A. DeLibero Award at a March 22 event in Washington, D.C.

Mendes received the honor during the 7th Annual Celebrating Women Who Move the Nation Awards breakfast. The Conference of Minority Transportation Officials hosted the event, HNTB said.

COMTO is an extraordinary organization and Im so honored and humbled to be recognized with this national award, Mendes said. HNTB is proud to be a COMTO Industry Partner and we look forward to continuing the commitment to furthering COMTOs mission in workforce development and advancing the success of Historically Underutilized Businesses.

According to COMTO, the organization introduced the Celebrating Women Who Move the Nation awards in 2012, kicking off a new tradition of recognizing the accomplishments of outstanding women in transportation.

This year, COMTO recognized 15 women, including Mendes. HNTB said COMTO has honored more than 60 women as Women Who Move the Nation since the awards inception.

Congratulations to Diana on this impressive and well-deserved honor, said Michael Sweeney, PE, HNTB Eastern U.S. Region president. Dianas passion for advancing diversity and inclusion, the commitment she has made to COMTO and other industry organizations, along with her outstanding work on behalf of our clients and support of our employees embody HNTBs values.

COMTO operates with more than 30 chapters nationwide and members of COMTO serve in all sectors of the transportation industry, HNTB said.

As president of HNTBs Mid-Atlantic Division, Mendes manages six states and Washington, D.C. She is based in Arlington, Va., and works with clients throughout the U.S.

In addition to COMTO, Mendes is also active in several professional associations, such as the National Transit Institute and the American Planning Association. She is chair of the American Public Transportation Associations Legislative Committee and is a member of APTAs Executive Committee, HNTB said.

Mendes also was recognized with the 2017 Training Professional of the Year Award from the National Transit Institute and previously was Woman of the Year for WTS-Washington, D.C. chapter.Japan will on Tuesday release February figures for producer prices, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. Producer prices are expected to hold steady at 0.7 percent on year.

Hong Kong will provide February numbers for imports, exports and trade balance. In January, imports were worth 381.97 billion HKD and exports were at 350.05 billion HKD for a trade deficit of 31.92 billion HKD.

For comments and feedback contact: 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.Uber Technologies Inc announced that it has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian ride-hailing to rival Grab for undisclosed financial term.

Uber specified that it will get a 27.5 percent stake in Grab in exchange. Uber's chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, will join Grab's board.

In emails to Uber employees, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber was not on a consolidation path. Around 500 Uber employees in Southeast Asia would move over to Grab.

"It is fair to ask whether consolidation is now the strategy of the day, given this is the third deal of its kind, from China to Russia and now Southeast Asia. The answer is no," Khosrowshahi stated.

"One of the potential dangers of our global strategy is that we take on too many battles across too many fronts and with too many competitors," Khosrowshahi added. "

He explained in the email that the deal with Grab puts Uber in "a position to compete with real focus and weight in the core where we operate, while giving us valuable and growing equity stakes in a number of big and important markets where we don't."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsTennessee securities regulator has warned consumers in the state against the cryptocurrency investment company Bitcoiin B2G (Bitcoiin2Gen), which is alleged to have promoted the sale of unregistered securities in the State of New Jersey. Bitcoiin has nothing to do with Bitcoin, the largest digital currency.

The New Jersey Bureau of Securities had on March 7 issued a cease-and-desist order to an initial coin offering (ICO) by Bitcoiin. New Jersey alleged that Bitcoiin was engaging in fraud in connection with the offer for sale of securities.

Bitcoiin was offering "investments to the general public, including the residents of New Jersey in its Bitcoiin ICO and 'Bitcoiin Staking Program'" through a website that "projects that each B2G will be worth $388 by December 2018."

The Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance's (TDCI) Securities Division is now cautioning consumers against investing in Bitcoiin. The regulator noted that none of the companies, promoters, or investments related to Bitcoiin are registered with the TDCI Securities Division.

TDCI has also urged consumers in the state who have already invested in Bitcoiin to contact it.

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New Jersey Issues Cease-and-Desist To Bitcoiin ICO

"Rushing into an investment that you don't fully understand can be bad for your bottom line. We encourage Tennesseans to always conduct thorough research to learn the risks associated with the investments they are considering," said TDCI Assistant Commissioner Frank Borger-Gilligan.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitcoiin is seeking to capitalize on the popularity of Bitcoin, and offering its own cryptocurrency and other crypto-related investments through its website, social media, and its purported official brand ambassador, actor Steven Seagal.

Bitcoiin made headlines in February after the Hollywood action star of the 1990s publicly endorsed the cryptocurrency offering through his official Twitter account. The tweet from Team Seagal on February 20 said, "Steven has just become the worldwide ambassador for the Bitcoiin 2nd Generation crypto currency."

Bitcoiin had earlier announced it would be conducting an ICO of its cryptocurrency B2G starting on March 26, with a pre-ICO period of sixty days.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsBitcoin remained below $9,000 at the start of the week as sentiment remained lackluster amid concerns over Japanese regulatory action against crypto exchange Binance, which has also announced plans to shift operations to Malta. A survey found that bigger cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin are favored by millennials for investment. However, yet another instant messaging app decided to ban cryptocurrency related advertising on its platform.

Here is a wrap up of the main news from the cryptocurrency and blockchain world over the last 24 hours.

Binance Eyeing Malta After Japan Turns Hostile

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by 24-hour trading volume, announced plans to open in Malta as it fell out of favor with the Japanese financial regulator for failing to get a license to operate in the country. "After reviewing several different locations, the company decided to invest in the European nation due to its existing pro-blockchain legislation and the stability that it offers financial technology companies through its regulatory framework," the Hong Kong-based company said in a post on the online publishing platform Medium. Read more...

Millennials Favor Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin For Crypto Investments

For millennials, digital currencies Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin are the favored investments in cryptocurrencies, Forbes reported, citing a recent study. Among this group, aged 18-34, there were no takers for Ripple, the third largest cryptocurrency as per market capitalization. According to LendEDU's recent survey of 1000 Americans, cryptocurrencies were a popular choice among millennials to invest $10,000. Read more...

Coinbase Reportedly In Talks To Buy Startup Earn.com

Cyrptocurrency exchange Coinbase is in talks to buy Bitcoin social network startup Earn.com, reports said. Under the proposed deal terms, Earn.com CEO Balaji Srinivasan is likely to join Coinbase. The purchase price is $30 million, according to blockchain-focused media outlet Coindesk. Another report said the total value of cash, cryptocurrency, stock and earn-out in the deal would exceed $120 million. Since its founding in 2013, Earn reportedly has raised around $120 million over multiple funding rounds. Read more...

Snapchat Messaging App Bans ICO Ads

Snap Inc. has banned advertising of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) On its Popular messaging app "the Snapchat app." This was reported by Cheddar on Monday, quoting a company spokesperson. Snapchat follows Google and Facebook, which discouraged crypto ads earlier this year. Read more...

TMX Unit To Launch Cryptocurrency Brokerage Service

Canada's TSX operator TMX Group said it is launching a new cryptocurrency brokerage service through its wholly-owned subsidiary Shorcan Digital Currency Network, which has inked a deal with decentralized financial services provider Paycase Financial to this effect. Paycase CEO Joseph Weinberg said, "Paycase's partnership with the TMX solved a major problem in the blockchain ecosystem. With this partnership, we have built the first major bridge between the crypto world and the traditional financial ." Read more...

Public Ledger Is Bitcoin's Biggest Flaw: Snowden

American whistle-blower Edward Snowden believes Bitcoin's main drawback is not its ability to scale as many critics allege, but its lack of privacy. "Everybody is focused on the transaction rate limitations of bitcoin being its central flaw, and that is a major one, but I would argue that the much larger structural flaw, the long-lasting flaw, is its public ledger," according to Snowden. Read more...

Swiss Startup To Launch Real Estate-backed SwissRealCoin

Crypto Real Estate AG, a Swiss startup company, is launching a crypto token called SwissRealCoin (SRC), to be backed by the Swiss commercial real estate. The company is building a platform that is set to bring real estate assets onto the blockchain and provide investors with easy access to the Swiss real estate market. Read more....

Survey Shows U.S. University Students Buy Crypto Using Study Loan

A new survey has found that university students in the United States are using money from their student loans to buy crypto currencies such as Bitcoin. An online survey was conducted by Pollfish for The Student Loan Report, a website that reports on students' debt issues, among 1,000 students. They were asked if they had ever used student loan money to invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. One-fifth of those polled said "Yes." Read more...

Current Prices

As of 8.59 am ET, Bitcoin was down 4.49 percent at $8,120.01 and Ethereum was lower by 5.82 percent at $490.29 on Coinbase.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsBinance, the world''s largest cryptocurrency exchange by 24-hour trading volume, announced plans to open in Malta as it fell out of favor with the Japanese financial regulator for failing to get a license to operate in the country.

"After reviewing several different locations, the company decided to invest in the European nation due to its existing pro-blockchain legislation and the stability that it offers financial companies through its regulatory framework," the Hong Kong-based company said in a post on the online publishing platform Medium.



The Nikkei had reported on March 22 that Japan's Financial Services Agency warned Binance for operating in the country without a license and was concerned about its clients suffering losses due to theft and fraud. The watchdog was also planning to file criminal charges against Binance if it failed to halt its operations in Japan, the report had said.

The Japanese regulator has been tough on unregistered crypto exchanges after a major hack at the Tokyo-based unregistered exchange Coincheck in January, when NEM coins worth nearly $531 million then was stolen.



Meanwhile, Malta is welcoming cryptocurrency and blockchain businesses as the Mediterranean island nation plans to transform itself into a fintech hub.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat welcomed Binance to Malta on Twitter and said, "We aim to be the global trailblazers in the regulation of blockchain-based businesses and the jurisdiction of quality and choice for world class fintech companies."

Related Stories:

Bitcoin Suffers As Japanese Regulator Warns Crypto Exchange Binance

Binance Offers $250000 Bounty To Catch Hackers

Binance CEO & Founder Zhao Changpeng praised the "logical, clear and forward thinking nature of Malta's leadership." Citing a proposal bill, he said Malta will be the next hotbed for innovative blockchain companies, and a centre of the blockchain ecosystem in Europe.



But Binance is not the only cryptocurrency business coming to Malta, but its the biggest, The Malta Independent online reported Muscat as saying at an event on Sunday.



Muscat also said that his team is meeting several investors from the blockchain and cryptocurrency filed.

Malta hopes to be the first country to take the first step in cryptocurrency regulation, the prime minister added.



In February, Malta proposed three bills on blockchain and cryptocurrencies and launched public consultation on them.



One of the bills proposes setting up a Malta Digital Innovation Authority, which will be the central regulator.

The TAS bill will prescribe the regulatory framework for the registration of tech and blockchain companies and their registration. Finally, the VC bill proposes regulation for initial coin offerings and other cryptocurrency-related businesses.

For comments and feedback contact: 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.Multiple news sources have suggested Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin could be the latest member of President Donald Trump's administration to be ousted, but the White House is seeking to downplay the reports.

"We hear these types of rumors every day," White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley told Fox News on Monday. "At this point in time, though, [Trump] does have confidence in Dr. Shulkin."

"He is a secretary and he has done some great things at the VA," Gidley added. "As you know, the president wants to put the right people in the right place at the right time and that could change."

The comments from Gidley come as reports have indicated Shulkin could be fired amid disputes with VA staffers and government investigations of alleged spending abuses.

The inclusion of the comment "at this point in time" may not inspire much confidence, with Gidley noting that Trump has the power to make a change at any time.

"He has the power to do so whether he has a replacement or not, he can still make a change," Gidley said. "The president wants to put the best people around him to execute his policy."

In an interview on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said Trump expects to make one or two major changes to his administration.

Ruddy, a friend of Trump's, said other White House sources but not the president told him Shulkin will be out "very soon."

"But other reports, people like Ben Carson, I'm told that the president is happy with the job he's doing, he will be staying," Ruddy said. "Chief of Staff [John] Kelly, the president is happy with the job he is doing, he will be staying."

Recent reports have suggested Carson, who serves as Housing and Urban Development Secretary, and Kelly could join other recently departed White House officials, such as chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders denied reports McMaster was being removed less than a week before Trump revealed he is being replaced by former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsTreasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Monday before closing modestly lower.

Bond prices moved to the downside in afternoon trading after bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by 1.3 basis points to 2.843 percent.

The lower close by treasuries came as stocks on Wall Street rebounded amid easing concerns about a potential trade war between the U.S. and China.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday that he is "cautiously hopeful" a trade agreement can be reached.

Mnuchin said that the U.S. would proceed with plans to impose tariffs on Chinese imports but stressed that negotiations are ongoing.

"We're having very productive conversations with them," Mnuchin said. "I'm cautiously hopeful we'll reach an agreement, but if not we are proceeding with these tariffs."

He added, "We are not putting them on hold unless we have an acceptable agreement that the president signs off on."

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also told a conference on Monday that the U.S. and China should maintain negotiations to avoid a trade war.

Trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, with a lack of major U.S. economic data keeping some traders on the sidelines.

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department sold $30 billion worth of two-year notes, attracting slightly above average demand.

The two-year note auction drew a high yield of 2.310 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.91, while the ten previous two-year note auctions had an average bid-to-cover ratio of 2.87.

The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.

While the economic calendar remains relatively quiet on Tuesday, a report on consumer confidence in the month of March may attract some attention.

Bond traders are also likely to keep an eye on the results of the Treasury's auction of $35 billion worth of five-year notes.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market AnalysisSayyid Abdul Malik Al-Houthi delivers speech to mark 3 years of steadfastness [26/March/2018] br> SANAA, Mar 26 (Saba)- Sayyid Abdul Malik Badr Al-Din Al-Houthi delivered a speech to the nation to mark three years of steadfastness against the US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition on the Yemeni people.

in his telivised speech, the leader said that the aggression over the past three years has done everything it can to crush our people and occupy our independent country.

He said that those enemies have been conspiring against our country and they are seeking to break the will of the Yemeni people and turning us into a weak nation.

"We will seek to support our people in the south until the liberation of all our country," he said.

"The US has been playing a key intelligence and logistical role to back the military aggression against Yemen," he said.

The leader highly praised the military achievments by the army and popular forces against the enemy, espicially the poweful acheivements by the Rocketary Forces.





Mona M-Zak



Saba

Congress President Rahul Gandhi (file photo) Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "Big Boss who likes to spy" and accused him of recording audio, video and tracking user location through GPS from his mobile app. "Modi's NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS (Geo-positioning System). He's the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians," Gandhi tweeted.



"Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC (National Cadet Core) cadets are being forced to download the app," he said, urging the people to delete the Namo App from their smartphones.



The Congress chief's remarks comes after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earlier on Monday accused him of sharing users data with a Singapore-based firm.



Earlier, the BJP had accused the Congress of compromising national security by roping in London-based political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica to run its 2019 election campaign. The firm is allegedly involved in social media data manipulation.





At least 53 people, including 11 children, were killed and 16 people were reported missing in a massive blaze that broke out at a shopping mall in Russia's Kemerovo city, according to authorities. The bodies were recovered early Monday morning, Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko told Sputnik news.

Twenty people have been rescued and about 100 others evacuated.



The fire at the Winter Cherry (Zimnyaya Vishnya) shopping mall erupted on Sunday afternoon on the top floor of the four-storey building engulfing an area of some 1,500 sq.metres, reports TASS news agency.



There has been no official information on the cause of the fire.



Amid conflicting reports, some have described the source of the fire as the children's playground, suggesting that the trampoline there caught fire after a child allegedly misused a lighter, reports RT News.



Another version suggests that electrical wiring at the playground had short-circuited.



The fire has been contained and a criminal investigation has been launched.



Russian Deputy Emergencies Minister Vladlen Aksyonov said: "Two out of three cinema halls caved in from the fourth to the third floor of the building."



A group of children from a school in Terescevsky were at a movie theatre near the centre of the blaze.



According to local KP News, some of the trapped children called their families from inside the theatre.



"Tell mom that I loved her. Tell everyone that I loved them," a 12-year-old girl told her aunt before her phone switched off.



The mall with an overall area of 23,000 square.metres was opened in 2013. It has a parking lot for 250 cars, shops, a bowling alley, a children's centre, cinemas, food courts and a petting zoo.



Re: M.P. blames noodles for new illness

Have your cheap noodles without the MSG spice and add some vegetables.

Its a cheap option to fill their kids stomachs. Samoa needs a NZ medical facility to cater for these people, rather than spending funds to send them to NZ. People/Expats who can afford it can go to a private doctor there as well. People need to get up off their big butts and move!

They spend hours lying and sitting around. The churches could help with this, tell the congregation to be healthy-you want to keep the plate full dont you? How many hours a week are they stagnantly saying prayer?

O.R.K.What is it with Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaois administration these days? Are they in such a rush to get somewhere?

And what is so wrong with Samoa today that they feel they need to change everything?

Judging from the speed with which they are turning things in this country upside down, one cant help but wonder if there is a method to thy madness.

Surely there must be an explanation. Whatever that is, you get the feeling that perhaps these changes are about creating a new legacy.

What that legacy is, we shall wait and see. But its just not normal.

We say this because from where we stand, nothing sacred in Samoa is being spared. Everything  including our church and cultural treasurers - are being turned upside down at the whim of the ruling administration.

It started a few years ago when they tore down that old Parliament fale at Mulinuu. What they did then was significant and sad because that was the beginning of multiple changes so that today, our Constitution is almost unrecognizable.

And it continues to be changed as we speak.

Our ancestors would be turning in their graves at the alarming number of amendments that have been made. What with the significant amendments to the sacred role of the Head of State, the decision to tax the clergy, customary lands, when are they going to stop?

Maybe they wont.

Now the latest example of this madness was being debated in Parliament yesterday. This time the Government is making a raft of changes to the Electoral Act that would completely overhaul the local electoral process.

Among the biggest changes is the plan to increase the Electoral constituencies from 50 to 51. The removal of Urban Seats is another big one.

But perhaps the most sensitive one of them all is the decision to redefine the voting boundaries so that where people cast their votes are now determined by geographical location as opposed to the way our forebears designed Samoa.

Which means that in the past where people in Upolu with traditional ties to Savaii could vote for one M.P., they will no longer be able to do that.

For example, the people of Leauvaa will now vote together with residents of Aleisa. As for Salamumu, they will no longer vote in Gagaemauga No. 2 but rather they will cast their votes in one of Safatas seats.

According to Prime Minister Tuilaepa, there is nothing to be alarmed about. He rejected suggestions that they are meddling with Samoas traditional boundaries, saying the change is merely that of the working title for the Member of Parliament while the traditional and cultural elements remain unaffected.

Thats a load of hogwash if you ask me.

You cannot meddle with voting boundaries and expect people to believe all that rubbish the Government is saying that there is nothing to worry about.

These changes are redefining the boundaries of Samoa. You are meddling with history and treasures that belong to villages, constituencies and families.

Have these people not heard of the phrase e mamala measina a Samoa?

Ladies and gentlemen, some of these changes are absolutely ludicrous.

Back when the changes were first mooted, a senior Member of Parliament and representative of Gagaemauga No. 2, Faasootauloa Pati Taulapapa, cautioned Prime Minister Tuilaepa.

The move is inappropriate, he said. I believe Samoa has already been chosen (O Samoa ua uma ona tofi). Samoa wasnt chosen by numbers when our forefathers designed the boundaries, it was done through mutual respect and the fact that everyone has their own destiny.

I think it is only fair that the Alii ma Faipule of villages affected have the final say in these matters.

Lastly, Faasootauloa added: Also I am concerned about the traditional salutations of villages and constituencies. What are they going to do about that?

He then called for caution and asked the Electoral Office to slow down with what they are trying to do.

We doubt they would listen.

Have a great Tuesday Samoa , God bless!Former Speaker and Member of Parliament for Gagaifomauga No. 3, Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt, yesterday opposed the Electoral Constituencies Bill 2018.

Tabled by the Minister of the Electoral Office, Faaolesa Katopau Ainuu, the Bill proposes a raft of changes to the electoral laws including increasing the number of electoral constituencies from 50 to 51, the removal of Urban Seats and redefining of voting boundaries based on geographical location.

This means Leauvaa and Salamumu will no longer vote in Savaii. They will instead be allocated to different constituencies in Upolu.

Laauli was among a number of Members of Parliament who expressed concerns about this.

We are concerned about the renaming of the electoral constituencies, said Laauli. The essence behind our unease is because we want the integrity of the constituencies to remain intact.

We are Members of Parliament for the respective constituencies, that is our calling.

Laauli reminded that our forefathers who laid the foundation for Samoa knew the importance of traditional links.

You are a traditional leader in your District. Youre not just a lawmaker from your constituency. Your calling to your constituency does not end after the election.

Your purpose is to serve your country and you are a traditional leader endorsed by your traditional leaders in your respective districts.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi rejected the concerns. He pointed out that the changes only give the Member of Parliament a new work title.

He said the changes have nothing to do with Samoas culture and traditional boundaries, adding that these are only voting districts.

But Laauli was not convinced. He referred to the Minister of S.T.A, Sala Fata Pinati, for instance.

If the Bill is approved, you no longer represent Gagaemauga but Sagaga 4, said Laauli. Likewise Salamumu will no longer be Gagaemauga 2, but will be Safata.

Where do we draw the line when it comes to our traditional village identities? What about our salutations, ceremonial greetings and our faasamoa?

Laauli also raised another issue.

The barring of family members from voting for their relative who is running for office is somewhat a violation of peoples right to vote, said Laauli.

Laauli claims that his family members will no longer be able to vote for him because they must vote where they currently reside.

The Bill, he added, will affect family relationships.

I believe there are people who wish to reside in town but still want to vote in their respective villages where their family ties are and where they grew up.

Laauli also appealed for Government to reconsider having voting booths for Savaii voters in Apia.

It is quite expensive and for my constituency, there are more than 500 of them who live and work in town and send money and visit their families in Savaii.

If this law is approved, we are looking at spending up to $100,000 and it is a costly process.

I am merely talking about my constituency who live in Upolu, not including my other colleagues. And we are looking at $3million if this means we will all go to Savaii to vote. These are conservative numbers for your consideration. We feel that Salafai is unfairly treated.

Since Independence, Laauli said there has been no need to change the voting boundaries. Why now?

The Member of Parliament also called upon Parliament to allow the splitting of Gagaemauga No. 2 which is made up of Saleaula in Savaii and Salamumu in Upolu.

Gagaaemauga and Gagaifomauga are a family. We cannot sit idle while Salaeaula is affected. I appeal to your honourable Minister to reconsider your proposed amendments. This will affect our culture and traditions.

The former Speaker and Minister also claimed the Government is following the example by New Zealand, when it doesnt work here.

Samoa is Samoa. A village is complete when there is a Paramount Chief. For overseas countries they target the number of voters. Please be mindful that numbers are just that, numbers.

Laauli reminded the warriors of Samoa who were outcast by the German government and they passed away while overseas and their bones were brought back.

They died for the betterment of Samoa. Remember the hard work by Vaai Kolone and Tofilau Eti Alesana you are now undoing. I humbly pray that you consider the plea and not remove Saleaula from the electoral constituency, said Laauli.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa objected. He reminded that when Vaai Kolone and Tofilau Eti Alesana were in office, after the elections, they would hold a Commission of Inquiry.

Majority of those who are expressing concerns are from Savaii during the Commission of Inquiry, he said.

According to the Prime Minister, they are looking at eliminating corruption within the elections.

We need brave leaders, not weak people who cannot make hard decisions. This is not an easy task for the Cabinet but it must be done. This is the nature of things and those in Savaii have inquired as to when things will change.

According to the Prime Minister, there are people who register to vote in the Constituency they have no ties with, but rather they are friends or a relative of the representative who is running for office.

The Prime Minister also made it clear this will have no bearing on the cultural boundaries of the respective villages.Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has warned the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration.

He has told them Parliament has the power to remove any Judge if its necessary.

This can be through a motion and a vote in Parliament.

The Prime Minister issued the warning in response to concerns raised by Falealili Member of Parliament, Fuimaono Samuelu Teo, when Parliament discussed the Judicial Service Commission last week.

If Parliament perceives the Judges are not doing their job accordingly, we can remove them by way of motion and a vote, Tuilaepa said.

The Judiciary should pay attention prudently, when Members of Parliament are elaborating issues.

It is also important the prevailing mutual respect among the Executive Branch, Legislative and the Judiciary.

Tuilaepa said its important for the Judiciary to heed the concerns raised by Members of Parliament because they represent their respective districts.

He revisited the past and Parliaments Commission of Inquiry into the Land and Titles Court.

If Judges had continuously refused the demand for them to appear, the Committee would have set aside the mutual respect and summon them and if they still did not attend, Parliament has the power to act accordingly.

At the same time, Parliament should be cautious in utilising that authority and it will be the last resort for Parliament.

The same standard should be applied in our decision making so we do not abuse the authority.

Fuimaono also spoke in Parliament about the retirement age for the Judges.

I think that regulation should be reconsidered and instead of setting the retirement age for the Judges, the Judicial Service Commission should conduct assessments periodically.

If they see the Judges decisions are unfounded and biased, they should act accordingly, was the appeal by Fuimaono.

Member of Parliament, Sulamanaia Tauiliili Tuivasa, called for the removal of the retired judge under proposed amendment for the Judicial Service Commission.

Rather Sulamanaia asks for the Bill to allow a Church Minister to utilise this seat.

The J.S.C. comprises the Chief Justice, the Attorney General and a representative of the Ministry of Justice.

And the measure proposes for three new members, President of the Land and Titles Court, a retired Supreme Court Judge appointed by the Head of State on the advice of Cabinet and the Registrar of the Supreme Court as the secretary of the Commission, who shall have no voting rights.

Why do we need a retired Judge to be a member when the Judge is retired?

I agree to add more members however, why do we need a retired Judge when there have been numerous complaints by members of the public in regards to decisions by the court.

I am not ashamed to say that some have taken to the grave their anger towards the decisions.

It is gratifying the current administration has moved to make the necessary amends to address these problems, for the betterment of our people, said Sulamanaia.

Tuilaepa reminded the lawmakers the older you get, the wiser you are.

Despite the fact that under the law caps the age of retirement, this does not take away the knowledge gained from experience.

One of our Judges had to retire in compliance with our local statute compulsory retirement age and is now a Judge in Niue.

According to the M.P, there are also grumbles on the appointment of Judges.

I reject allowing a retired judge on the Judicial Service Commission. We dont need a retired Judge.

Also it goes against the current law setting the bar on the ages for Judges, so why do we need a Judge?

He appeals for the Government to consider a seat for a Church Minister.

Another aspect of the Bill I think needs to be changed is the fact the Registrar of the Supreme Court shouldnt be limited to just being the Secretary of the S.J.C. and also does not hold voting powers.

I also request for the Government to consider allowing women into the Judicial Service Commission as a Secretary.

Member of Parliament, Olo Fiti Vaai, commends the Government for increasing the members for the Judicial Service Commission, including a secretary, given that its been 55 years and there has been no record from this commission.

I conducted my research that there are no minutes or records of any kind for the Judicial Service Commission.

He also appealed to the S.J.C. to look at the authoritative clause where Lands and Titles Court decide how many Chiefs that families can have.

Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to the Judges, but they have no authority to allocate as to how many Chiefs one family can have.

The Chiefly Titles belong to us and our families and so it is not right for the Judges to make such dictations on family issues, said Olo.The driver of the E.F.K.S. TV van that ended up in the sea at Luatuanuu has been charged with negligent driving causing injuries.

He will appear before Court on 11 April 2018.

This was confirmed to the Samoa Observer by Police Spokesperson, Auapaau Filipo Logoitino.

The incident happened on Sunday night.

Leti Lofiau, a driver who was following the van, told the Samoa Observer that the driver was speeding while overtaking vehicles at Solosolo.

Not only did the van overtake us, it seems like the driver was sleeping or very drunk because the van was all over the road, Leti said.

There were two of them inside the van.

Leti was with her husband and two children.

I told my husband to slow down, but sadly when we got closer, we saw that the van ended up in the sea.

An official at the hospital told Samoa Observer that both the driver, and his passenger, sustained minor injuries and were discharged from hospital early yesterday morning.

General Manager of the E.F.K.S. T.V, Sua Henry Fruean, was also contacted for a comment.

He has left the country for Lupesoliai Joseph Parkers fight on Sunday.A young man from Vailoa was found dead on the side of the road on Sunday morning.

An 18-year-old male was yesterday charged with murder. He is scheduled to appear before Court on 16 April 2018.

This was confirmed by Police Spokesperson, Auapaau Filipo Logoitino.

A young male in his mid-20s, from the village of Vailoa, was found dead in the early hours of Sunday morning,Auapaau said.

A man is in custody now and he has been charged with murder.

A villager, Lafi Tagomoa, identified the deceased man as Mose.

He was drinking with other young men of his age on Saturday night, he said.

Im not sure whether those who were drinking with him beat him but his family found him dead where they were drinking.

The family was looking for him in the early hours of Sunday but they found him on that spot where he was drinking with his friends.

An official at the National Hospital at Motootua told the Samoa Observer Mose was pronounced dead upon arrival.

His face and head were covered with bruises when he was admitted in the hospital."The number of ambulances to service Samoa increased by two yesterday, thanks to a donation from the Government of Indonesia.

Minister of Health, Tuitama Dr. Leao Tuitama received the keys to the vehicles yesterday from Indonesias Special Envoy Ambassador, Muhammed Lutfi.

On behalf of the Government of Samoa, the Ministry of Health, and the Health Sector, l am very honoured to welcome your Excellency and delegation, and to receive with great pleasure these two ambulances as a token of your continued support and of our warm friendship over the years, the Minister said.

The Republic of Indonesia and Samoa began to develop diplomatic ties in 1980.

You have assisted us before and you continue to do so.

Apart from one of the countries spearheading peace and prosperity in the world, Indonesia has also committed to renew technical assistance to Samoa through training, apprenticeship and scholarships programmes.

The handover unfolds the two nations joint effort to improve health services.

Thus, we are very fortunate to have supporters from all around the globe, including the great Republic of Indonesia.

We hope you will enjoy your stay here in Samoa and may you all have time to explore the beauty of our country, before returning to your homeland.A local businesswoman has been awarded US$10,000 (T$25,000) supporting grant from the U.N. Environment.

Angelica Salele-Sefo is the winner of the Asia Pacific Low Carbon Lifestyles Challenge in the Plastic Waste category.

The Asia-Pacific Low-Carbon Lifestyles Challenge aims to mobilise and support young people with business ideas on how to foster energy-efficient, low-waste and low-carbon lifestyles.

Twelve winners each receive US$10,000 to support their business venture focusing on one of three different categories: mobility, plastic waste and energy.

As the winner, Mrs. Salele-Sefo also receives business and marketing training from global experts, and pitch to win an additional US$10,000 prize to bolster her business.

U.N. Environments Director for the Asia-Pacific region, Dechen Tsering, said: Plastic waste is a blight on our planet and few know this better than those living in Pacific Island nations.

We are hunting for solutions to this problem, and Angelicas innovation is an example of the type of ingenuity that helps move us forward.

Its fantastic to see that her venture also supports women and girls, who are too often marginalised despite their central role in protecting our planet.

Disposable feminine sanitary pads contribute to household waste across the globe.

Mrs. Salele-Sefos business involves producing reusable feminine hygiene products. She produces and sells reusable sanitary pads that are durable and made of natural fibers.

They offer women and girls an affordable and environmentally friendly alternative to single use, disposable sanitary pads made of toxic plastic materials.

Mrs. Salele-Sefos is also able to provide employment to a team of women seamstresses who manufacture the product.

But in Pacific Island countries and territories, isolated by the Pacific Ocean, solid waste management is an even bigger challenge.

Additionally, there are few alternatives available for women and girls that are sustainable and environmentally friendly.

She said: Growing up in Samoa, I learned early on about the negative impacts of human activities on our islands and our backyard, the Pacific Ocean.

When I first learned about the use of reusable sanitary pads in assisting rural girls and women living in poverty, the environmentally friendly aspect stuck with me and I questioned why I ever used disposable pads and tampons.

But the answer was simple: in Samoa and the Pacific, there are no alternatives. As a result, this project has been something I've wanted to do for a long time, but never had the money to do before now. UN Environments support is vital to get this effort off the ground.

About Angelica Salele

Mrs. Salele-Sefo is a Samoan national and works for the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (S.P.R.E.P.).

Her background is in Political Science and Criminology, but she has always had an interest in protecting the environment, as well as how humans assist or hinder conservation efforts and why.

As a mother, she is highly committed to protecting our environment for her children and ensuring they have a safe and secure future.

This initiative is funded by the Ministry of Environment Japan, as part of S.W.I.T.C.H.-Asias Regional Sustainable Consumption and Production Policy Advocacy Component, the Asia-Pacific Regional Roadmap on Sustainable Consumption and Production and One Planet.

It is carried out together with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, The Thai National Science and Technology Development Agency and Sasin Entrepreneurship Center.Notorious thief, Sio Afitu Masoe, has been jailed for three years and 10 months in connection to four separate burglaries, with the total value of items stolen at $14,822.74.

The sentence was handed down by Chief Justice Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu.

The incidents occurred between 2016 and 2017. Initially, the defendant entered a not guilty plea to four charges of burglary and four charges of theft.

However, he changed his guilty plea on the date of trial.

The Chief Justice, in his sentencing ruling, pointed out that there are four victims associated with this matter.

On 9 November 2016, Masoe burglarised the home of a 36- year-old male at the Samoa College hostel. He entered by tearing up the screen wire and removing three louvres of a window at the back of the house. He stole a laptop valued at $1,800 and a cellphone valued at $300.

The total value of the stolen properties is $2,100.

As the supplementary pre-sentence report shows, the accused told the probation service that he had been smoking marijuana not long before he committed this offending.

The second incident occurred in April last year at the home of a 52-year-old woman, also in Motootua.

Masoe removed three louvres of a window at the front of the house while the victim and her family were away and entered the house. He stole several items, including a guitar valued at US$2,500 (T$6,349).

As the supplementary pre-sentence report shows, the accused had told the probation service that this offending occurred at 11pm after he had been drinking three large bottles of beer next to the fence of the second victims house.

The prosecutions summary of facts show that on Sunday morning, 7 May 2017, you went to the house of the third victim, a 45-year-old female at Malifa whilst the victim and her family were away to attend church service, and removed two louvres of the shower and entered the third victims house.

You then stole several items. The total value is $1,615.90.

On the fourth incident, the prosecutions summary of facts shows that on Thursday, 14 December, 2017 in the afternoon, you went to the house of the fourth victim, a single male at Vailoa, removed the louvres of a window at the fourth victims kitchen and entered the house.

You then stole several items. The total value of the stolen properties is $4,756.84.

According to Chief Justice Patu, the defendant, who is from Asau, Savaii, and Lalovaea, was convicted and sentenced in July 2016 on separate burglary and theft charges, where he was jailed for three months and was followed with six months supervision.

So when he reoffended on 9 November 2016, he was supposed to be under supervision.

The summary of facts accepted by the accused shows that he also has a previous conviction for willful trespass in 2017 when he was convicted and discharged.

The supplementary pre-sentence report also shows that the accused did not fully comply with the conditions of his supervision in 2016 and did not show remorse over his actions.

There are several discrepancies between what the accused related to the probation service in 2016 and in 2018 about his personal circumstances as shown from his pre-sentence report dated 7 July 2016 and his supplementary pre-sentence report dated 9 March 2018.

As a result, it is difficult to be totally sure about his personal circumstances.

What appears to be certain is that he attended primary school at Asau but did not complete secondary school. He is also consistent about being employed by a rental company for about a year.

There are no victim reports on the second and third victims, but only the first and fourth victims.

It appears from their impact reports that the first and fourth victims now feel unsafe in their own homes because of the burglaries and thefts committed by the accused.

The first victim was also worried because the laptop stolen by the accused belongs to the school where he is a teacher. The fourth victim used to bring his nieces and nephews to his house, but he no longer does so since this incident because he has locked up everything in his house.

The accuseds previous convictions for burglary and theft in 2016 and for willful trespass in 2017 are aggravating features relating to the accused as offender.

The only mitigating feature relating to the accused as offender is his belated guilty plea when he changed his not guilty plea to one of guilty on the morning of the trial.As questions mounted last year about whether Facebook had been exploited to tilt the U.S. presidential election, Mark Zuckerberg's to-do list landed him on a fishing trawler off Alabama's Gulf coast.

But the chatter surrounding the CEO's arrival in port was that it signaled something bigger than just the start of a 30-state personal tour: his designs on a job even more powerful than leading the social network that links 2.2 billion people worldwide.

"It was one of the last things I asked him, thinking it would put a smile on his face  and it did," said Dominick Ficarino, who owns a shrimp business in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, and hosted a dockside lunch for Zuckerberg that Sunday afternoon.

"I asked him if he was interested in running for president of the United States. And his answer to me was: 'Can I answer you with a question? If you were me, would you?'"

Thirteen months later, Zuckerberg no longer has the luxury of mulling a hypothetical next act. Instead, he is grappling with a crisis that has enveloped the company synonymous with his face and name. It does not help that the most glaring reminder of Facebook's flaws is the unabated uproar over the American presidency itself.

"The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to do," Zuckerberg wrote in January, laying out the "personal challenge" that he sets for himself each year.

In 2017, the billionaire challenged himself to travel to every state he'd never visited. This year, long after critics began demanding an overhaul, Zuckerberg said his personal goal is to "fix" the platform that he has engineered to build community  but that is increasingly blamed for warping it.

Yet things continue to get worse. Scrutiny of Facebook has intensified following reports that it failed to prevent the data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica from amassing personal information about millions of users  possibly used to aid Donald Trump's campaign  and that the social network has been collecting Android users' phone call and text message histories without notice. That adds to criticism that Facebook manipulates its users and has allowed Russian bots to divide Americans by spreading false information.

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission announced it was investigating Facebook for its privacy practices.

Throughout the mounting crisis, Zuckerberg's response has been a study in contradictions. He crisscrossed the country, even as his company back home came under increasing fire. He preaches transparency, but flinches at questioning and craves privacy. He is undeniably brilliant, but stubborn in his reluctance to acknowledge the extent of Facebook's problems.

Even his critics say he is uniquely capable of righting the ship. But at 33, is he prepared to do all it will take?

"If he fails to do it, it may take a while but eventually people are going to rebel," said Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor and adviser who has become one of the company's most pointed critics.

"I thought Facebook was a force for good in the world for a really long time," McNamee said. "I think it's really hard to make that case today."

___

Days after Trump's election, Zuckerberg was pressed on the possibility that foreign agents had used his social network to divide voters.

"The idea that fake news on Facebook ... influenced the election in any way, I think, is a pretty crazy idea," the CEO told the audience at a California technology conference.

"I think all of us were shocked to learn how wrong he was," said David Kirkpatrick, the author of a 2010 book about Facebook who questioned Zuckerberg that day. "You can certainly say that he was culpable, in that he was naive and inattentive to what was happening in his system. But I don't think he was lying."

Zuckerberg walked back the remark soon after, continuing a years-long routine of self-correction. But errors that reflect his stubbornness, those who know him say, are tempered by an eagerness to learn from mistakes and a deep sense of reflection.

Donald Graham, the former chairman of the Washington Post Co., recalled that when he met Zuckerberg in 2005, outsiders still weren't sure what to make of Facebook.

"I would ask him a question and he would pause long enough  15 seconds, 20 seconds  that I would think 'Did I insult him? Did he not hear me?'" said Graham, who went on to serve on the company's board from 2008 to 2015.

"Since I am from Washington, I'm not used to people thinking before they are answering a question. ... But Mark, then as now, was thinking about the right answer."

Zuckerberg's boyish appearance, even today, is a reminder of just how young he was when he created what would become the world's biggest social network, back in his dorm room at Harvard.

"I didn't know anything about building a company or global internet service," he wrote in January. "Over the years I've made almost every mistake you can imagine."

Naomi Gleit, Facebook's longest-serving employee after the CEO, said Zuckerberg  who declined an interview request from The Associated Press  has been talking about making the world a better place since he was 21. But his view of that world and his place in it "seemed almost like a gravity, a burden of responsibility," she said.

That seriousness coincides with a sense of certainty.

Gleit recalled Zuckerberg's steadfast attachment to a Facebook message service similar to email, even as more people began using phones to send text messages. But co-workers eventually swayed the CEO, who she described as a "learn-it-all." That change-of-mind informed Facebook's 2014 purchase of the WhatsApp messaging service for $19 billion.

"I think he would even say now that he was initially wrong," Gleit said.

With Zuckerberg, "its experiment, learn, experiment, learn," said LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who has known him since 2004. Hoffman said that is evident in Zuckerberg's enthusiasm for software, which can be overwritten to fix problems. That facility, he said, makes Zuckerberg the equal of executives with far more experience.

But in the process of learning, Zuckerberg's inexperience has sometimes played out in public view.

___

In 2010, Zuckerberg announced on Oprah Winfrey's television show that he would donate $100 million to schools in Newark, New Jersey.

Critics labeled it an attempt to polish his image, just as the biopic "The Social Network" was being released. Still, there was little questioning his generosity. The problem was that Zuckerberg  who knew little about education  made the gift with few specifics outlining how it should be spent.

"He was just a very young, naive, inexperienced guy who was brilliant at technology and computers and the internet, but just really didn't know much about how the world worked," said Dale Russakoff, author of "The Prize," a book chronicling how the money went to high-priced consultants, with minimal effort by leaders to build community support.

By the end of the process, Zuckerberg had developed a clearer understanding of how to get things done. He and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, have since chartered their own foundation and structured it to take on mammoth goals, like a $3 billion investment to cure, prevent or manage all diseases. He has pledged to donate 99 percent of his Facebook stock to philanthropy.

"Zuck's maturation has occurred in front of the public," said Kirkpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that Is Connecting the World." ''But he also still lives with the consequences of the decisions he made when he was less mature."

At Facebook, Zuckerberg has grown increasingly bold in using huge sums of money to pursue corporate goals, which includes purchasing competitors  or companies that could grow into competitors.

Facebook's $1 billion purchase of Instagram in 2012  then unprofitable and little-known  came as a shock to Wall Street. Two years later came the multibillion-dollar deal to buy WhatsApp, a company that remains unprofitable but has given Facebook a prime portal into developing countries and other regions outside the U.S.

In 2014, soon after Facebook bought a virtual reality firm called Oculus, Zuckerberg found himself being grilled in a lawsuit brought by a competitor who accused an Oculus executive of stealing trade secrets. Under questioning, he talked about the pressure he exerted to make the Oculus deal happen, and his vision of growing it so fast "that we can get every developer and studio in the world building just for Oculus before any big competitor exists."

Last year, in a bid to free up his fortune for philanthropy, Zuckerberg pushed board members to restructure Facebook's stock, allowing him to sell off part of his stake while maintaining control. That prompted a suit by a group of shareholders who argued that the move would benefit only Zuckerberg while diluting the value of other investors' stakes. Days before Zuckerberg was scheduled to testify as part of the suit, the company dropped the plan.

The gambit hints at the complexity of being Zuckerberg, who advocates for transparency and the interests of the community but whose individual interests don't always align.

The paradox is self-inflicted, the trade-off for creating a venture premised on users' willingness to share details of their lives. That requires Zuckerberg, who has 105 million Facebook "friends," to reveal far more about himself than would be expected of any other CEO, whether its photos of him and Chan baking sweets for the Jewish holiday of Purim or dressing their daughters for the Chinese New Year.

Yet he fiercely guards his privacy.

When calls went out last year for Zuckerberg to testify before a Senate committee, the company sent its lawyer. And when he and Chan bought 700 acres on the Hawaiian island of Kauai last year, they quietly filed lawsuits against hundreds of Hawaiians  withdrawn after protests  that would have cut off locals' access to the land by negating their interest in small ancestral tracts within the estate's boundaries.

"Intellectually, he believes in transparency," Kirkpatrick said. "But emotionally, it's very difficult for him."

____

Facebook works hard to present Zuckerberg as someone deeply interested in the ordinary people whose lives are at the heart of its business.

Stops on last year's U.S. tour, never announced, were set up by facilitators who revealed details to only a select few. But many of the visits were covered by the media and documented in professional-quality photos on Zuckerberg's Facebook page soon after he'd departed.

Ostensibly, the idea was for Zuckerberg to learn. But in their brief interactions, many people were just as interested in finding a way to connect with him.

In Hazard, Kentucky, educator Paul Green became custodian of the small town's biggest secret. A staffer from Zuckerberg's foundation, peppering Green with questions about the region's educational cooperative, finally admitted it was because the CEO himself wanted to visit. Green's reward for keeping it quiet was seeing the wide-eyed grins when Zuckerberg pulled up and greeted local high schoolers studying robotics and programming.

Walking through science demonstrations, Zuckerberg spent more time trading tech tales with the teenagers than quizzing the teachers.

"He just lit up with those kids," Green said. "The way he talked with them about some of the things he did when he was in school and his passion for technology, it really was cool."

When Zuckerberg toured an oil rig near Williston, North Dakota, last July, "from the minute he got out of the car to the minute he got back in the car, he was nothing but questions," said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, which arranged the visit.

"I had Bakken shale, limestone, dolomite, and he was able to hold them in his hand, along with a bottle of crude oil. And I remember him asking, 'How do you get that oil out of that rock?'" geologist Kathleen Neset said.

In Dayton, Ohio, Zuckerberg met with officials, caregivers and families battling drug addiction. Lori Erion, the founder of the group Families of Addicts, said she told him what it was like to learn her daughter, April, had shot up heroin in their own home.

"It seemed to get him really emotional," Erion said, recalling how Zuckerberg stood up suddenly and told the group he needed a few minutes to steady himself. When he returned, he asked what makes an addict stay clean and how families got their loved ones into treatment.

"We didn't ever talk about Facebook at all," Erion said, "which is really interesting because Facebook is really the main way of us getting information out. He really was just like a regular person."

___

As Zuckerberg connected with Americans face-to-face, controversy over Facebook continued to spiral.

Shortly before the election, McNamee sent a letter to Zuckerberg and Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, warning that Facebook was being manipulated in ways its creators never intended. It wasn't just about the U.S. election: A consulting firm had collected data on people interested in the Black Lives Matter movement and sold it to police departments, and critics had detected a well-organized, clandestine campaign supporting Brexit.

All this pointed to a deep problem with Facebook  that it was simply not equipped or not willing to prevent the misuse of its platform.

McNamee said he has been disappointed in the incremental changes announced since.

Facebook has adopted this "libertarian philosophy that says 'we are not responsible for anything downstream, we are allowed to disrupt media, we are allowed to addict our users and we are not responsible for any of the consequences of any of that,'" he said.

Zuckerberg could change that. But McNamee said it is not enough to hire thousands of workers to weed through fake and abusive posts if those posts keep getting through. And tweaking Facebook's newsfeed so users see more posts from families and friends does not address his certainty that the algorithms underlying Facebook make it dangerously addictive.

"You cannot cure addiction by doing more of the thing that got you addicted in the first place, which is what Zuck recommends," McNamee wrote in an email.

Critics say Facebook continues to ignore the possibility of the social network being used for dark purposes, but Zuckerberg's supporters counter that he is unfairly blamed for problems he could not have foreseen.

Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder, credits Zuckerberg with leading Facebook through a shift in mindset, making changes that will nudge users into a more positive virtual environment  without completely shutting out inflammatory content.

"Facebook basically is saying we enable people based on the way they behave. That's a very democratic argument. If people want to live in filter bubbles, who are we to say 'Don't live in filter bubbles,' even though we don't want them to?" Hoffman said.

But Kirkpatrick argued that Zuckerberg's and Sandberg's surety that Facebook has a positive impact on society has blinded them to parallel realities. The company can't be fixed, Kirkpatrick said, until Zuckerberg comes to terms with existential threats to the way the social network does business  its potential to negatively affect democracy and the way it hooks in users.

"There's no question in my mind that Mark Zuckerberg is an ethical and responsible human being who wants to do the right thing," he said. "However, I do not think he has yet grasped the gravity with which his service is being perceived to be a socially harmful force all around the world. And I also don't think he realizes the extent to which that really is true."

McNamee, recalling Zuckerberg as a 22-year-old visionary, said the CEO must be willing to rethink long-held assumptions. But that does not mean he has to abandon building his global community.

"You've won," McNamee said he would tell Zuckerberg if asked again for his counsel.

"You've achieved more than your wildest dreams. You're a billionaire. Now you have a chance to be a hero."Ionis Pharmaceuticals on Monday reported continued favorable late-stage results with a drug given to patients with a fatal inherited disease.

The experimental drug, called inotersen, lengthened its maximum demonstrated benefit from 15 months to 27 months in patients with hereditary ATTR amyloidosis. The disease causes the liver to make a damaging mutant protein that accumulates in the body. The only effective treatment is a liver transplant.

Inotersen is one of a lengthening list of drugs that has been developed by Carlsbad-based Ionis for severe and fatal diseases that have no good treatment options. After years of testing, many of these drugs show ever-stronger signs they will work.

Earlier this year, Ionis reported preliminary signs of benefit in patients treated with its drug for Huntingtons disease, which is fatal and has no cure.

In September, Akcea Therapeutics, a majority-owned affiliate of Ionis, asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for permission to sell its cardiovascular drug, volanesorsen. Ionis originated the drug and licensed it to Akcea.

And in December 2016, Ionis partner Biogen received approval to sell an Ionis-developed drug for spinal muscular atrophy, which in its most severe form can kill in infancy.

All Ionis drugs are made with its antisense technology, which intervenes in the disease process at the genetic level. Ionis continues to develop more potent versions of antisense, which provide more efficient delivery. This can lower costs and decrease frequency of dosing, says Ionis CEO Stanley T. Crooke.

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Ionis has already asked regulators for permission to sell inotersen in the United States and European Union. In both instances, regulators agreed to expedited consideration.

And on March 15, the company and Akcea, of Cambridge, Mass., announced a deal providing Akcea commercialization rights to inotersen. While Akcea is its own publicly traded company, Ionis retains most of the equity, ensuring close ties.

The deal also includes another drug in preclinical development for the disease. Called AKCEA-TTR-LRx, the drug is meant to treat both hereditary and non-hereditary forms of the disease.

Demonstrating benefit

Meanwhile, Ionis continues testing inotersen, expanding access to patients who want the drug. Theres a potential commercial benefit, too. As patients continue to show demonstrated benefit over longer periods of time, the more attractive the drug becomes. The ultimate goal is to allow patients to live and function indefinitely with the disease.

Inotersen has been tested under a double-blind protocol, under which neither patient nor doctors knew who was getting the drug or a placebo. Mondays continued testing results were obtained on an open-label basis, meaning that patients know they are getting the drug.

Ionis has been pondering how to commercialize inotersen since last year.

In November, the company said Phase 3 clinical results demonstrated that patients given inotersen experienced benefits for up to 15 months in quality of life and less nerve damage, as compared to patients treated with a placebo.

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Phase 3, typically the last stage of testing, can qualify a drug for approval, and Ionis filed for approval shortly after Novembers announcement. The U. S. Food and Drug Administration has given the application priority review, with a reply due by July 6.

Licensing inotersen and AKCEA-TTR-LRx to Akcea was something of a surprise, because Akcea was set up by Ionis to commercialize its cardiovascular drugs. Ionis had said it would establish other spinoffs to handle other disease areas.

Akcea asked to license the drugs, and as a result Ionis discontinued plans to set up a second spinoff, Crooke said.

Skepticism and response

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The deal is worth up to $1.7 billion to Ionis, provided the drugs reach the market. Ionis will also get profit-sharing payments. Akcea agreed to pay Ionis $150 million in Akcea stock up front. Ionis also agreed to buy $200 million in Akcea stock, increasing its equity from 68 percent to 75 percent.

Investors saw the deal as more beneficial to Akcea than to Ionis; analysts said the hope was that Ionis would partner with an established large pharmaceutical company to sell the drug.

Akcea shares went from $20.35 on March 14 to $25.64 at the March 15 close. Ionis shares fell from $53.56 to $50.18. On Monday, Ionis closed at $48.99, up $1.25 for the day.

Crooke said Akcea turned out to be the best partner not only because of its interest, but because of its understanding of the drug. As part of the deal, the Ionis commercialization team moved to Akcea.

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Sarah Boyce, who had been chief business officer of Ionis, was named Akceas president, joining Akcea CEO Paula Soteropoulos. Boyce has been building the team at Ionis to commercialize inotersen.

The Akcea team made a great case for it, Crooke said. Paula and Sarah are highly synergistic, and their teams are synergistic.

The inotersen team from Ionis will remain based in Carlsbad, in a new building at the Ionis complex, Crooke said.

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Science Playlist  On Now In a first, scientists rid human embryos of a potentially fatal gene mutation by editing their DNA On Now Space station flyovers visible from San Diego this week 0:55 On Now UCSD's 'ghost drivers' begin testing people's reaction seemingly empty cars 1:29 On Now 10 interesting facts about Mars On Now Kids can add years to your life On Now LA 90: SpaceX launches recycled rocket On Now Big passions, big giving: Malin Burnham 2:30 On Now Big passions, big giving: Darlene Shiley 2:40 On Now Big passions, big giving: Joan and Irwin Jacobs 2:45 On Now Ocean temperatures warming at rapid rate, study finds

Related reading

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Ionis and Akcea Partner to Commercialize Inotersen for hATTR

Ionis earns $30 million upfront, with $300 million more possible, in massive deal with AstraZeneca

Designer DNA drugs approach a potential watershed moment

Ionis begins human trials of Alzheimers drug

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Ionis signs large pharma deal with Novartis

FDA approves Ionis spinal muscular atrophy drug Spinraza

Ionis signs large pharma deal with Novartis

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

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(619) 293-1020Sometimes, Katie Denis will flip ahead a few weeks in her daily planner and block off a week of vacation.

Its not that she has any specific plan or feels a need to get away. Its just that after studying the vacation habits of the American worker for a few years, Denis knows its a good idea for her own welfare.

I find that travel plans have a way of filling in on their own, she says. Blocking that calendar, even if you dont know what youre going to do, is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

Nearly 75 percent of all workers in private industry and 55 percent of those in service occupations earn paid vacation days, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For some employees with 10 to 20 years on the job, accumulated paid time off can be as much as 20 to 25 days a year.

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Yet since 2000, more of those vacation days have gone unused.

Denis, the chief of research and strategy for a nonprofit called Project: Time Off, has been studying that trend since 2013. Among the groups findings:

 From 1978 to 2000, Americans with paid vacation took an average of 20.3 days. That steadily dropped to 16 days in 2014 and climbed slightly to 16.8 days in 2016.

 About 662 million vacation days go unused every year. More than 200 million of those days were lost to workers in 2016 because they could not be rolled over or paid out.

 About 54 percent of employees did not use all their vacation days in 2016.

Why is it important? Because a consistent message from workers to Project: Time Offs researchers and interviewers is they want to take vacation and feel more stress when they dont. Their emotional and physical health, their relationships and their outlook suffer when they dont take vacation.

Its one reason Denis blocks out vacation time, even if she has no destination or purpose. Its a strategy that works.

Plan it out, plan it early, plan it often, Denis says, laughing. Thats the biggest difference weve seen, that the people who sit down with their calendar and try to figure it out in advance, theyre more likely to take the time and are happier in every category that we measure in their personal relationships, health, but also with their job and company.

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Vacations for better health

There are several common reasons employees dont use earned vacation time. With downsizing since the recession, some employees have more work and dont believe they can afford to step away. The say things will fall through the cracks and theyll return to extra work. Some believe they are indispensable. Other reasons cited in Project: Time Offs studies: They cant afford to go anywhere, they want to show their dedication, or theyve climbed to positions of responsibility where they believe they cant leave.

Dr. Mary Blair-Loy, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at UC San Diego, who has studied workplace environments and the competing demands of work and family obligations, says theres no question that time away from work is beneficial and should be used.

Certainly, its associated with better health and more harmonious relations in the family, she says.

Children often cite better relationships with their parents when they take time away from work. And stressed-out parents who are more tethered to their jobs pass on that stress to their kids.

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A 2013 study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies indicated vacation is beneficial for a number of reasons, including rest, happiness and better sleep.

Yet some workplaces have become more politically competitive because of the waves of layoffs during and after the recession in 2008. Some employees dont want to be perceived as less committed.

Even if the vacation days are on paper a benefit, for some it might feel as if the cost of taking this benefit would be higher than its worth, because they could give themselves a negative reputation in the eyes of colleagues and supervisors who want people completely dedicated if theyre in a crunch, who can stay all night to finish a deal, says Blair-Loy. The workers who step away might be seen as more dispensable.

Blair-Loy also points to the fact that some consider their jobs as their identity, which makes it harder to take a vacation. Part of that, she says, comes from what used to be called the American protestant work ethic, where work demands and/or deserves our full-time allegiance.

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Sometimes, though, work and family situations make it seemingly impossible for a person to take time off, especially if they are in management or ownership. One such person is Troy Knutson, who operates Custom Home Technology in San Diego. He hasnt taken a vacation in 10 years because of a variety of work and personal issues but has a week set aside this spring in Hawaii and cant wait.

Does he regret not taking time off?

Absolutely, every day, he says. Thats why Im taking one now. Finally made the decision to take some time.

On the other end of the spectrum is Lowell Silvernail, who works in the medical industry in San Diego and says he always takes the days he earns. Because of the stress of being on call night and day and working around patients who die, he believes its necessary for his mental and physical health.

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I deal with quite a bit of shock, he says. Otherwise I lose it.

Plan, set boundaries

Its not just employees who benefit when taking time off. Most business leaders in Project: Time Offs surveys say the company benefits when workers take time to refresh. Theyre happier and more productive.

They want a creative, productive, energized team, says Denis. And, she says, their research shows that employees who use their vacation time are more likely to get ahead.

Were not seeing people getting ahead by skipping vacations, she says.

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Project: Time Off  an initiative of the U.S. Travel Association  also cites economic benefits. Lost spending from unused vacation days in 2016, it says, would have generated $236 billion to the American economy.

So, what can employees and employers do fight the downward trend in vacation time?

 Companies can create an environment where employees are encouraged to take their vacations, says Denis. Managers can set examples by taking all their time, too. Because people have been asked to do more with less the last few years, its up to managers to stress its a good thing to take vacation.

 Employees should not put off planning vacation. If you plan for it, youre more likely to take it.

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 Set boundaries at work. If you never set limits for what you are OK doing  but you grudgingly agree to stay late, work weekends or put off vacation time  youre going to be unhappy and resentful. If you dont set boundaries, youre asking people to violate them, says Denis.

The United States always has had a different attitude about vacations than some other parts of the world, especially Europe. In many European countries, employees get much more time off, totally unplug when they are away and have been found to be happier and the companies still remain productive and successful.

I do a lot of research with a colleague in Norway, and I just notice this so much in our collaboration, says Blair-Loy. I just simply cant reach her during some weeks of the year, because shes simply unavailable. It doesnt seem to affect her productivity. Shes very productive. But she seems to have more relaxing and pleasant vacations than I do.

Williams is a San Diego freelance writer.A Marine recruit treated for a heart attack late Friday died in an unnamed local hospital on Sunday morning, Marine officials say.

The military is withholding his identity pending the notification of his next of kin.

A Marine drill instructor at the boot camp in San Diego treated the recruit with cardiopulmonary resuscitation around midnight Friday before first responders took over and transported him to an off base hospital, where authorities say he was he was listed in critical condition.

Citing federal health privacy rules, Marine officials on Saturday would only say that the recruit experienced a medical emergency but noted that he was being monitored due to ongoing physical health issues before the incident.

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He died at 11:43 a.m. Sunday and Marine officials say unspecified medical investigators are working to determine the cause of his death.

Supporting the recruits family is our top priority and we continue to work closely with them during this most difficult time, said Brig. Gen. William Jurney, commander of Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, in an emailed statement to the Union-Tribune.

Marine officials promised more details will be provided on Monday.

More than 17,000 men recruited west of the Mississippi River train annually at MCRD San Diego. The newest arrived Monday and were assigned to Mike Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion.

Theyre slated to graduate on June 15.

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cprine@sduniontribune.comIts hard not to wonder what Rebecca Zahaus sister and other family members are feeling as they relive the 32-year-old womans death through hours of detailed testimony in San Diego Superior Court.

Zahaus body was found naked, bound and hanging from a balcony at her boyfriends Coronado mansion in July 2011.



For the record: This story has been changed to reflect the correct date of Rebecca Zahaus death. as July 13, 2011.

County officials ruled the death a suicide, but Zahaus family has long disputed that, leading to a wrongful death lawsuit in which they contend she was murdered.

A fundraising page that aims to help the family recoup costs associated with experts the family hired to testify offers a look into their state of mind.

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The GoFundMe page, created by Zahaus sister Mary Zahau-Loehner, was set up to raise $50,000 to help pay for a handful of experts  including a forensic pathologist and a kinesiologist who were hired to help the family prove Rebecca Zahau was the victim of a homicide.

But it also doubles as a sort of diary. There are more than a dozen updates, each one referencing a different day in court.

It was tough to see demonstration on lifelike arms and legs being tied along with pictures taken at crime scene and autopsy, one entry read. I am glad my mom did not have to see that and go through the heartbreak of visualizing what was done to her daughter.

Rebecca Zahaus death was discovered on July 13, 2011. Her arms and legs were tied behind her back, and a mysterious message was a painted on a bedroom door.

It read: She saved him can you save her.

After finding no evidence of foul play, the Sheriffs Department determined she took her own life.

The family believes Zahau would never commit suicide, instead alleging in their lawsuit that Adam Shacknai  the brother of Zahaus boyfriend, pharmaceuticals tycoon Jonah Shacknai  killed her.

Adam Shacknai was the only other person at the mansion when Zahaus body was found. He cut the body down that morning and called 911.

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Many of the journal-like entries on the GoFundMe page describe long and emotionally challenging days in court. There were passages dedicated to handwriting experts who analyzed the mysterious note on the door, kinesiologists and pathologists who discussed Zahaus injuries, and the testimony of Adam and Jonah Shacknai.

It is so frustrating to sit through and listen to them nitpicking her human mistakes as if they have not taken enough from her, one of the entries read.

Other updates are dedicated to Rebecca Zahau. A couple of days before Mar. 15  what would have been her birthday  an entry read, I know she gets the best birthday party in heaven but testimonies of her murder would be topping on the cake towards justice long due.

Its also become an outlet of gratitude  a space where the family can thank those who have supported them during their lawsuit.

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I had to remind myself that there is so much good in humanity and Gods grace is in all of this despite of what I feel, another entry read.

The case will resume Monday.

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Twitter: @LAWinkley

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(619) 293-1546

lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.comEnding a 16-month quest to stay in a country where he was raised and that he fought to defend, Miguel Perez Jr., a veteran with a green card and a felony drug conviction, has been deported to Mexico, where he has not lived since childhood.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Sunday that Perez boarded an ICE Air Operations flight at Gary International Airport and was flown to Brownsville, Texas. There, ICE officers escorted Perez across the U.S.-Mexico border and turned him over to Mexican authorities.

Perez was deported without the customary warning and opportunity to say goodbye to his family. He had no money or clothes, except for a few items from the detention center, and was left in Matamoros, a border town in the state of Tamaulipas, where the U.S. State Department has warned Americans not to travel because of high crime.

While boarding the flight, Perez said, ICE agents took selfies like fishermen with a prize fish. They singled him out and escorted him across the border ahead of a busload of other deportees, he said.

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They did some horrible things, and people have got to know, he said. They wanted to make sure to get rid of me first.

ICE officials said Perez re-entered Mexico through an authorized port of entry and the agency does not provide details of impending removals until they are complete. Deportation officers routinely take photographs of removals as evidence for internal law enforcement files, according to ICE officials.

It is an ICE priority for ICE personnel to treat everyone in custody with dignity and respect, ICE said in a statement released Tuesday in response to questions from the Tribune.

Claudia Valenzuela, detention project director for the National Immigrant Justice Center, said she is not surprised by Perezs account.

Weve always heard of things over the years and knew there could be aggressive behavior and tactics by officers, Valenzuela said. But this whole issue of almost mocking folks or playing with folks emotions, which I think is particularly cruel, is one that were hearing more and more of.

On Monday, his mother, his minister and another advocate flew to Tijuana, where Perez is now in hiding, to deliver a suitcase of clothes, shoes, a Cubs baseball cap and prescriptions.

This is an intolerable way to treat a man who fought bravely for this nation, said Emma Lozano, a minister at Lincoln United Methodist Church who has been fighting Perezs case. They have left him homeless and penniless in a dangerous place, without food or money or clothes or needed medications.

His mother, Esperanza Montes Perez, said this outcome is no more painful than the past 16 months, which have kept her in constant agony.

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Who will be responsible if my son loses his life over there? she said tearfully.

Raised in Chicago since age 8, Perez enlisted before 9/11 and served until 2004. He was deployed to Afghanistan and served with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group.

After his military service, Perez sought treatment at the Veterans Affairs hospital near Maywood, where doctors diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

He was supposed to return for more tests to determine whether he also had a traumatic brain injury.

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In the meantime, he reconnected with a childhood friend who provided free drugs and alcohol.

On Nov. 26, 2008, while with that friend, Perez handed a laptop case containing cocaine to an undercover officer. Perez pleaded guilty to the drug charge and served half of a 15-year prison sentence.

While Perez was convicted of delivering less than 100 grams of cocaine, prosecutors have said he was arrested for delivering much more and received a reduced sentence after a plea deal.

Prosecutors also pointed out that Perez was given a general discharge from the military after a drug infraction.

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Perez is one of many veterans, some of whom sustained injuries and emotional trauma during combat, who have been decorated for service, then confronted with the possibility of deportation after committing a crime.

As with many others, Perez mistakenly thought he became a U.S. citizen when he took an oath to protect the nation. He discovered that was not the case when he was summoned to immigration court shortly before his release from a state penitentiary.

Instead of heading home to Chicago from prison, Perez was placed in the custody of ICE and transferred to a detention center for immigrants awaiting deportation.

Perez, 39, told the Tribune last Thursday in a call from a detention center in Kankakee that he became worried when all of his electronic devices had been shut off. He had been planning to speak to his 10-year-old son the next morning, but never got the chance.

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He still doesnt know what hell tell his son when he calls him from Mexico.

Earlier this month, Perezs petition for citizenship retroactive to when he joined the military in 2001 was denied by immigration officials.

In addition to the retroactive application for citizenship, he petitioned Gov. Bruce Rauner for clemency and appealed to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, a protection that resembles asylum.

Because drug cartels often try to recruit deported veterans for their combat experience, Perez and human rights advocates believe his life is in danger in Mexico.

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Both requests for relief were denied. Perez said he has already been approached.

The threats are very real, very serious, he said. They want to prove a point.

His supporters included U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois, who made a long-shot bid to keep him in the country by using a little-known legal maneuver known as a private bill, which is intended to help specific individuals. The bill did not get moved past committee.

Montes Perez, a U.S. citizen, was a bundle of mixed emotions Monday as she prepared to pass through security and catch her flight. Though she now fears for her sons life, he is a free man for the first time in 10 years. Across the border, she can finally wrap her arms around him.

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Now Im close to doing that, she said. I love him ... Im his mother.

mbrachear@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @TribSeeker

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Im not leaving. Theyre taking me, Afghan War veteran says as ICE prepares to deport him 

U.S. government denies Afghanistan War veterans bid for citizenship due to felony conviction 

Army veteran on a hunger strike who faces deportation no longer in solitary confinement Educators, parents, community members, school board members and support staff are among the 2018 honorees chosen by two education associations for their work with students.

The winners of the annual Honoring Our Own awards are selected by the San Diego County School Boards Association and the Association of California School Administrators Region 18, which covers San Diego and Imperial counties. Honoring Our Own is a combined effort of the two organizations.

The awards dinner will be at 5 p.m. April 27 at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina on Harbor Island. Online registration is open through April 13 at https://sdcoe.k12oms.org/1000-146584, or call Carmen Aguilar, (858) 292-3515.

The San Diego County School Boards Association winners:

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First-Term School Board Member: Maria Dalla, National School District

Community Partner: Janet Mulder, Jamul-Dulzura Union School District

Parent Volunteer: Sheri Runyen, Cajon Valley Union School District

Staff Member: Michael Bruder, Chula Vista Elementary School District

Confidential/Administrative Staff Member: Chris Carson, National School District

School Board Member: Dawn Perfect, Ramona Unified School District

DeDe Alpert Award: Mission Federal Credit Union

The Association of California School Administrators Region 18 Administrators of the Year:

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Superintendent: Katie McNamara, South Bay Elementary School District

Secondary Principal: Charles Schindler, Vista Unified School District

Middle Grades Principal: Gregory Calvert, Cajon Valley Union School District

Elementary Principal: Beverly Hayes, National School District

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Central Office: Miriam Belopolsky, Imperial County Office of Education

Central Office: Olivia Leschick, Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District

Secondary Co-Administrator: Erin Leszynski, San Diego Unified School District

Secondary Co-Administrator: Katie Salo, Poway Unified School District

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Adult Education: Pamela Garramone, Poway Unified School District

Business Services: Kristy Ann Curry, El Centro Elementary School District

Confidential Employee: Lisa Arreola, Santee School District

Continuation/Educational Options: Molly Ravenscroft, Sweetwater Union High School District

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Career Technical Education: Alfred Love, San Diego Unified School District

Career Technical Education: Lynn McConville, Poway Unified School District

Classified Leader: Christine Paik, Poway Unified School District

Curriculum & Instruction: Gloria Ciriza, Chula Vista Elementary School District

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Curriculum & Instruction: Reggie Thompkins, Oceanside Unified School District

Personnel/Human Resources: Corrie Amador, Poway Unified School District

Personnel/Human Resources: Amy Hunt, Sweetwater Union High School District

Professor of Education: Barbara L. Layaye, San Diego State University-Imperial Valley Campus

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Pupil Personnel: Kristi Kalish, Escondido Union High School District

Retired: Tom Teagle, formerly Sweetwater Union High School District

Special Education: Jenine Henry, Cajon Valley Union School District

Technology: Ben Markley, Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District

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Technology: Lucio Padilla Jr., Calexico Unified School District

Partners In Education Excellence, Harper for Kids: Brawley Elementary School District

Partners in Education Excellence, Mission Federal Credit Union: Poway Unified School District

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laura.groch@sduniontribune.comAfter months of historically low numbers of refugees resettling in San Diego County, the number of new arrivals increased significantly in February.

Sixty-eight refugees came to San Diego from abroad last month, according to the State Department. While thats still well below the hundreds-per-month that the county received before President Donald Trumps changes to the program slowed overall arrivals to a trickle, its more than San Diego had taken in for all of fiscal 2018 up to that point.

Forty refugees resettled in San Diego between October and January. Nine of the 40 came in January.

Close to half of San Diegos recently arrived refugees are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Other new arrivals are from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Myanmar and Eritrea.

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The February increase mirrors a nationwide trend with 1,927 new arrivals in February up from 1,385 in January.

The U.S. has resettled 8,635 refugees in fiscal 2018 through February. Trump set the annual cap at 45,000, down from the 110,000 that former President Barack Obama set his last year in office.

If arrivals continue at the current pace, the U.S. will resettle less than half of that.

Resettlement agencies across the country have been scrambling to rework programs, and in some cases cut staff or close smaller offices, to cope with the changes. They receive money from the federal government based on the number of refugees who come to them for help.

Historically, San Diego has taken in the most refugees of any county in California since people fleeing the war in Iraq began arriving in 2007.

Trumps travel ban particularly affected people from countries that tend to resettle in San Diego. Despite taking in the fewest refugees of any year in the last decade, the county still took in the most refugees in California in fiscal 2017.

So far this year, that looks likely to change. Sacramento County has taken in the highest number of refugees at 255. Most of them are Ukrainian.

With Februarys increase, San Diego passed Los Angeles for the second highest number of resettled refugees at 108. Los Angeles has taken in 80.

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Local resettlement agencies expected San Diego Countys arrivals total to decrease again in March.

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Immigration Videos On Now New developments in family separation case 9:53 On Now A San Diego woman volunteered as a medic in Texas helping migrant families 2:35 On Now Immigration policy protests in Carlsbad nearly cancelled after permit issue 1:38 On Now When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next On Now Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff On Now What is DACA? On Now Border wall prototype contractors selected On Now Video: Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S. On Now 30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel On Now Video: Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence

Follow me on Facebook for live updates about immigration news

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on TwitterEd Quinn has no objections to the use, sale or cultivation of marijuana. Still...

The big question is, what will Kearny Mesa be? asked Quinn, a former TV news executive and current member of the Kearny Mesa Planning Group. Does Kearny Mesa become the poster child for growing, distributing and selling marijuana?

Since California legalized recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, more than a dozen dispensaries have opened across San Diego. To this day, though, the city has no licensed marijuana farms. Every joint, tincture and gummie sold here comes from somewhere else, such as Oaklands Grizzly Peak Farms, which is owned by San Diego developer Dave Gash.

Gashs organic, pesticide-free, packaged and hermetically-sealed cannabis is already sold in local dispensaries. Still...

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Do you want it carted in from Oakland, from Los Angeles? Gash asked the Kearny Mesa group last week. I know this is hard, but its coming.

Pot farms are coming to San Diego, but when and where have yet to be determined. The city intends to grant 40 conditional use permits for pot farms, or Marijuana Production Facilities. With Grizzlys ganja going for $2,048 to $2,560 a pound, a license to farm is a license to make a killing.

The 40 conditional use permits that will be awarded? Gash said. These are the Willie Wonka tickets.

On Wednesday, he sought the planning groups blessing to transform the Kearny Mesa offices of Gold Coast Design, his real estate development firm, into an indoor marijuana farm.

Because Gash had not completed all the required paperwork, the group voted 8-0 to postpone a decision on his proposal. Even if all the boxes had been checked, it was clear that some on the advisory board had deeper concerns.

Kearny Mesa is the last bastion of large land holdings in the city of San Diego, said John Turpit, an architect and planning group member. San Diego is about to lose the last area for tech, for massive technology growth in the city.

To return to Quinns question, what is Kearny Mesas future? Will it become the citys home to high tech or high times?

Racing the clock

Kearny Mesa may be San Diegos most strategically located neighborhood, 3,607 acres bordered by I-805, I-15, Highway 52 and Highway 163.

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Its a great place to office, said Turpit, whose commute from Kearny Mesa office to Coronado home never exceeds 30 minutes, even during rush hour. Once you office in Kearny Mesa, youll never go back.

Since the advent of legal marijuana, though, the architect has been plagued by a nightmare scenario. He envisions this central location becoming the citys grasslands.

Boom! Turpit said. Forty pot production facilities and they are all coming here.

In fact, theres virtually no chance of that extreme outcome. While the city will not limit the number of pot production facility in a single district, the farms are subject to a long list of restrictions.

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They must be planted on land zoned for industrial use.

They cannot be within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, public parks, playgrounds, child care facilities, libraries, residential care facilities and minor oriented facilities.

They cannot open within 100 feet of residential zones.

Theyre also limited by the laws of supply and demand. While the city will only allow 40 marijuana farms, there are already 63 applications jockeying for approval. Of those applicants, 10 are eyeing locations in Kearny Mesa. More are proposed for Miramar/Mira Mesa (19) and Otay Mesa (15), with an additional 10 in Sorrento Valley. The remaining nine are scattered across Stockton, Morena, Barrio Logan, Logan Heights and Otay Valley.

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Still, Turpit argued that Kearny Mesa may be steamrollered by a well-financed industry.

Money, thats what this is, he said. Everybody is racing to the finish line.

Grizzlys Dave Gash worries about losing that contest. With the city preparing to dole out permits this spring, and applicants already outnumbering permits, he expects competition for those Willie Wonka tickets will intensify.

Its a race against time, he said, when asked why he wouldnt swap his Kearny Mesa property for land in Otay Mesa. I cant buy a building in 90 days.

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So far, Kearny Mesas planning group has postponed decisions on Grizzly and three other pot farms, as all lacked the necessary paperwork.

Even if these applicants are eventually voted down here, the 16-person planning group plays an advisory role. Its recommendations go to the citys planning commission, which forwards its own recommendations to the city council.

Only the councils vote is binding, and the council has ignored marijuana-related advice from the planning group before.

The bottom line is the city does not care what the Kearny Mesa Planning Group decides, said Daniel Burakowski, who failed to block a medical cannabis dispensary from opening near his Kearny Mesa architectural metalwork shop.

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Good neighbors?

In 2017, the Tree House medical marijuana dispensary opened in a garage-like space in a Kearny Mesa industrial park. This occurred despite opposition from the planning group and a lawsuit by other tenants.

We were told by the Tree House people, We have enough money to bury you in court, said Burakowski, president of a board that represents the complexs businesses.

After spending roughly $150,000 in legal combat, the tenants settled. Tree House agreed to maintain a separate parking area, limit noise and provide round-the-clock security. Tree House also became a dues-paying board member.

Its to both of our interests now to cooperate, said Burakowski. And they are cooperating.

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Attempts to reach Tree Houses manager for comment were unsuccessful. While Ed Quinn, the planning group member, said concerns about the dispensary led him to close his classic car business in this complex, other neighbors say theyve had no problems.

Just like everything else, said Jerry Sample, general manager of Greenlight Auto Care, it all worked out in the end. Weve all got to live with each other, OK?

Yet marijuana businesses still carry a stigma, noted Buzz Gibbs, chair of the Kearny Mesa Planning Groups land use committee.

We were told by the city to not put our biases out there, he said, while considering Grizzlys proposal. This is a land use issue, not a moral issue. But its difficult to separate it out.

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Case in point: Wednesdays meeting. Outlining his proposed Grizzly farm, Gash was blasted by Rick Benson, who owns a printing shop directly across from the Vickers Street property.

Gash: There is no place to manufacture in San Diego that is legal.

Benson: I certainly dont agree with Kearny Mesa needing this. I think it is a bad idea.

Gash: We want to do everything the right way. Our intent is not to sell marijuana but to raise and distribute it.

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Benson: We get to smell the marijuana every day, by the way. Dave didnt tell you that.

Gash responded by inviting planning group members to visit the location. One, Robyn Badilla, accepted the offer. Kendra Tindall, Gold Coast Designs chief operating officer, escorted Badilla, her husband, Robert Vincent, and a journalist on a tour of the offices.

While there was no marijuana on site, Tindall noted that fragrant shipments from Grizzlys three Oakland farms stop here en route to local dispensaries.

Badilla was impressed. I feel good about it, she said.

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Yet one of her colleagues, Turpit, wants a different future for Kearny Mesa. While General Dynamics closed its missile plant here in 1992 after a 35-year run, this is still home to major employers like Solar Turbines and Kyocera.

That, to me, is the essence of Kearny Mesa, Turpit said. We want to preserve those types of industries.

Is there room on the Mesa for both tech and cannabis?

As of today, I dont have an answer to that question, said Chris Cate, the councilmember whose district embraces Kearny Mesa. Because this business is so new, we have not seen the impact on property values or on other businesses.

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Still

If a choice has to be made, what will it be? Robotics or reefer?Twelve-year-old Vika Pochankina was on a class outing in the Siberian city of Kemerovo when fire broke out next to the theater where she and a dozen of her classmates were watching a movie.

There were no fire alarms to alert the students, who were celebrating the start of spring break.

Dense, black smoke began filling the theater, and the children tried to escape but found the doors locked. They were trapped. Vika, in a panic, called her aunt, Evgeniya, and told her she couldnt breathe.

She said that everything burns, and the doors are locked in the cinema, a sobbing Evgeniya told a reporter from Komsomolskaya Pravda in a recording posted on the newspapers website. The paper did not use Evgeniyas last name.

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I told her, Vika, take everything off, put your nose through your clothes, Evgeniya said in the recording. Vika, realizing that the fire was consuming the theater, cried to her aunt, Tell my mother that I loved her. Tell everyone that I loved them, Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted Evgeniya as saying.

Vika and her aunt were then disconnected.

Vika, from the nearby village of Treshchovsky, was believed to be one of at least 64 people killed Sunday afternoon in the fire at the Winter Cherry shopping mall. Russian investigators are blaming the blaze, which consumed more than 5,300 square feet of the busy mall in Siberia, on a lack of fire and safety measures. Seven of Vikas fifth-grade classmates are also presumed dead.

Firefighters at a shopping mall on fire in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russia, on March 25, 2018. (Russian Emergency Situations Ministry )

Russias Emergency Situations Ministry said hundreds were evacuated from the mall before the fourth floor collapsed. Dozens were injured or still missing as of Monday morning and the death toll was expected to rise.

Videos posted on social media showed people trying to escape by jumping out of the windows onto the sidewalks below.

On Monday, the roof of the mall collapsed as efforts to extinguish the fire continued. The raging flames kept firefighters from entering the building for 12 hours to search for the missing. The mall was built in an old Soviet cake factory and had few windows and exits.

Government reaction to the incident immediately drew criticism. Many Russians were shocked by state televisions lack of coverage of the tragedy on Sundays nightly news shows.

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Despite the fire being one of Russias deadliest in the last century, most state media did not report the incident until after the 9 p.m. news shows, five hours after the fire started.

Only one state channel, Russia 24, covered the story immediately as it unfolded.

Kemerovo, which is about 1,800 miles east of Moscow, is in a large coal mining region in Siberias southwest. By Monday, all the channels were carrying live coverage of the tragedy.

Across the country, people placed flowers and candles in central squares in memory of those killed in the Siberian city. Some changed their social media profiles to a black square with the words Kemerovo written in white letters in the middle in honor of the victims.

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People leave flowers on March 26, 2018, in tribute to the victims of a fire at a multi-story shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russia. (Sergei Gavrilenko / Associated Press )

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was reelected to a fourth term last week, expressed his condolences to the victims families, his press secretary said Monday morning. Putin ordered the head of the Emergency Situations Ministry to go to Kemerovo.

Russias federal Investigative Committee, which focuses on major crime, said it was looking into several apparent fire and safety violations at the mall. The committee said it wanted to speak to the malls owner as well as to a security guard who turned off the complexs fire alarm system after the blaze started.

Serious violations took place when the mall was being built and when it was functioning. The fire exits were blocked, Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the committee, said in a statement.

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On Monday, the committee said four people had been detained in connection with the investigation.

The Emergency Situations Ministrys chief fire inspector told the state news agency Tass that a scheduled inspection in 2016 never took place because of supervisory holidays.

Russias childrens rights commissioner, Anna Kuznetsova, said the fire had been caused by incompetence and warned there were many similar shopping centers.

The bosses of other malls in other regions must right now ask themselves: Have we done everything we can to ensure something like this doesnt happen here? Kuznetsova said in a statement.

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One of the owners of the mall, Denis Shtengelov, told RIA Novosti, another state news agency, that his company would pay the equivalent of $52,000 to the families of each person killed in the fire. The company is ready to undertake a comprehensive rehabilitation of the victims in this tragedy, RIA quoted Shtengelov as saying in an interview from Australia.

In addition, Kemerovo Gov. Aman Tuleyev said the regional government would give the victims families the equivalent of $17,500 each.

Anton Gorelkin, a deputy from Kemerovo in the State Duma, Russias lower house of parliament, posted a passionate video on his Facebook page [link in Russian] questioning why the buildings fire exits were shut, turning the complex into a trap with no organized evacuation.

Gorelkin then pointed a finger at local administrators, who allowed the complex to dodge fire and safety regulations.

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The buildings acceptance certificate was signed by the commission, he said in a separate Facebook post. The main signature was put by the deputy mayor, he is also the head of the city improvement department. He could close his eyes to obvious security problems only in one case, I think: if his eyes were closed with money.

Among Russias opposition, the message was clear: The fire was caused by corruption emanating from the top of the state, which allows bribes and law-breaking to the benefit of those in power.

If the states task was to prevent such tragedies, it would have to deal with the systemic problems  corruption and concentration of power, wrote Oleg Kozlovsky, an opposition politician, on Facebook. This cannot be done within a single ministry or one field. Therefore, alas, there is no doubt that nothing will be done. Some people will be imprisoned, will conduct checks in shopping centers and help us to forget as soon as possible. Until next time.

ALSO

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U.S. to expel 60 suspected Russian spies as punishment for poison attack in Britain

For Russias triumphant Putin, more muscle-flexing likely, especially on international stage

Vladimir Putins 18 years in power  the highs and lows, and dont forget the shirtless pics

Ayres is a special correspondent.

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UPDATES:

12:50 p.m.: This article has been updated throughout with staff reporting, details from scene.

This article was originally posted at 2:15 a.m.A dead gray whale found in the water west of Blacks Beach on Monday morning will be hauled to a landfill, officials said.

Lifeguards spotted the lifeless mammal around 11 a.m., San Diego Fire-Rescue spokeswoman Monica Munoz said.

National Marine Fisheries decided that lifeguards could tow the carcass to Fiesta Island, she said. It will be anchored there for the night, then a city crew will haul it to a landfill in the morning.

Jim Mulbery, a spokesman for with National Marine Fisheries, a federal agency, said officials will go to Fiesta Island on Tuesday to take a genetic sample of the whale. But its not likely they will be able to determine a cause of death, he said.

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Its really badly decomposed, he said.

Because the carcass was so close to shore, its towed in for disposal rather than let it wash up on a beach, where it would have to then be disposed of.

Gray whales are migrating north, as they do annually.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

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Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTA Chula Vista police dog with a medical condition died over the weekend, the department announced.

Griffen, a 7-year old Belgian Malinois, had an unfortunate medical condition, police Lt. Eric Thunberg said in a news release Monday. He did not specify the dogs ailment.

A day earlier, the department tweeted a photo of the canines handler embracing Griffen in what appears to be a medical office. The dog was lying on a table, the officer leaning over him with both arms around him.

Thunberg said Griffen passed away peacefully Saturday in the presence of his handler, his handlers family, and other members of the departments K-9 Program.

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Griffen will be remembered as a valued member of the Chula Vista Police Department and a loyal and loving partner, Thunberg said. It is hard to overstate the bond that a K-9 and his handler have when working long hours in dangerous situations.

Thunberg said Griffen spent most of his career working during the night to support the patrol division.

He also appeared at community events and public demonstrations, the lieutenant said.

On Friday, CVPD lost a trusted partner, K9 Griffen. It was a hard day for all of us, especially Griffens handler and best friend, Officer Chancellor. May you #RIP, Griffen. Thank you for your service to our Department and the city of #ChulaVista. -1180 pic.twitter.com/sdik99O4hN  Chula Vista Police (@ChulaVistaPD) March 25, 2018

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

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(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTA driver crashed a pickup truck through the doors of a Chick-fil-A in Mira Mesa early Monday afternoon, authorities said.

The truck hit the building on Camino Ruiz, just north of Mira Mesa Boulevard, shortly before 1:25 p.m., San Diego police Officer Billy Hernandez said. He said the driver was an elderly woman.

San Diego Fire-Rescue spokeswoman Monica Munoz said no one was injured in the incident, which caused minor damage. Munoz said a city engineer will assess the structure.

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teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTThe United States and more than a dozen European nations kicked out Russian diplomats on Monday and the Trump administration ordered Russias consulate in Seattle to close, as the West sought joint punishment for Moscows alleged poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain.

Warning of an unacceptably high number of Russian spies in the U.S., the Trump administration said 60 diplomats would be expelled  all Russian intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover, the U.S. said. The group includes a dozen posted to Russias mission to the United Nations who the officials said were engaged in aggressive collection of intelligence on American soil.

The move was one of the most significant actions President Donald Trumps administration has taken to date to punish Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin, especially over its intelligence activities. The last time they spoke, less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin for his re-election but didnt raise the March 4 spy poisoning, Russias alleged election-meddling in the U.S. or its own tainted voting process, prompting dismayed critiques even from Trumps fellow Republicans.

This is the largest expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in United States history, said U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman.

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Russias U.N. envoy called the U.S. decision a very unfortunate, very unfriendly move.

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia spoke briefly to reporters outside a diplomatic luncheon Monday. He wouldnt give the diplomats names, citing their privacy.

Russias Foreign Ministry expressed its strong protest of the expulsions.

The American penalties were echoed by announcements in European capitals across the continent, including those in Russias backyard. All told, 18 countries were ousting more than 100 Russian spies, British Prime Minister Theresa May said, in addition to 23 already kicked out by the U.K.

The list included at least 16 European Union nations, with more likely to follow. Germany, Poland and France each planned to boot four, the Czech Republic three and Italy two. Ukraine, a non-EU country with its own conflicts with Moscow, was expelling 13 Russians, President Petro Poroshenko said. All three Baltic states said they would kick diplomats out. Canada, too, said it was taking action, kicking out four and denying three who have applied to enter the country.

Almost all of the countries said publicly that the Russian diplomats they were expelling were actually spies.

The expulsions came with a chorus of condemnation for the Kremlin  for the poisoning, Russian spying and other Western grievances. Polands Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz called it the right response to the unfriendly, aggressive actions of Russia. In the Czech Republic, where Russian officials have claimed the poison may have originated, Prime Minister Andrej Babis dismissed that allegation as an utter lie.

In Washington, Russias ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, was summoned early Friday to the State Department and told that the 60 diplomats would have one week to leave the country, the State Department said. Russias Embassy in Washington responded on Twitter by hinting at retaliation, asking its followers to vote which U.S. consulate should be shuttered: St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok.

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Russia will likely respond quid pro quo using the principle of reciprocity, the Kremlin said  a suggestion that Russia may expel an equal number of diplomats.

Russias Consulate General in Seattle must close by April 2. The facility is a particular counter-intelligence concern to the U.S. because of its proximity to a U.S. Navy base, said the senior U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to be identified by name.

The U.S. actions appeared to signal an increased level of concern about the extent of Russian spying in the United States. Senior officials said they estimated Russia had roughly 100 intelligence officials at its diplomatic posts in the U.S., suggesting that dozens will remain even after the 60 are expelled.

The United States and many of our friends are sending a clear message that we will not stand for Russias misconduct, said U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Trumps envoy to the U.N.

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Britain had already expelled 23 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being undeclared intelligence agents, which led Russia to expel the same number of British diplomats. The European Union has already recalled its ambassador to Russia.

The steps on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean add to a serious escalation of tensions between Russia and the West that has been building since the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for the U.K., and his daughter, Yulia. The two remain in critical condition and unconscious. A policeman who responded to their home was also injured.

Britain has accused Moscow of perpetrating the attack using a Soviet-developed nerve agent known as Novichok. The U.S., France and Germany have agreed its highly likely Russia was responsible. Russias government has denied responsibility and has blasted Britains investigation into the poisoning.

Mondays expulsions appear to involve the largest number of Russians kicked out of the United States since 1986, when the Reagan administration expelled 55. The George W. Bush administration expelled 50 Russians in 2001 in retaliation for the Robert Hanssen spy case. In its waning days, the Obama administration expelled 35 over alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

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Trump has repeatedly wavered on whether he believes Moscow was behind the election-meddling, despite assessments from U.S. intelligence agencies and the special counsel investigation into Russias actions and potential collusion with Trumps campaign. But this month, Trumps administration hit Russians with its first sanctions for the campaign interference, and also accused Moscow of an elaborate plot to hack Americas electric grid and key infrastructure.

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Raf Casert in Brussels, Jill Lawless in London, Sylvia Corbett in Paris, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.A recent report in Politico delved into the drinking habits of Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, who is under federal criminal investigation for alleged personal use of campaign contributions. Officials are not supposed to use political contributions for personal benefit, to guard against undue influence by donors.

U-T Watchdog decided to review reported campaign spending with an eye toward visits to bars and restaurants that market their bar prominently.

A review of records that Hunters campaign filed with the Federal Election Commission between March 2008 and November 2017 shows at least 301 transactions totaling $138,666 at bars, cigar lounges, liquor stores, bar-dominant restaurants and similar businesses. Of those transactions, 247 charges totaling $123,786 were made at establishments in Washington, D.C.

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Of the 247 transactions Hunters campaign reported at Washington, D.C. bars, pubs and similar businesses, about 30 percent of the charges were less than $100  unlikely to be a largescale political event like a fundraiser.

Of the 72 charges below $100 at Washington, D.C. bars, almost half were at Bullfeathers, which has a reputation as a popular hang-out for lobbyists, next to House office buildings.

Explore bar and other expenses from Alaska to Washington D.C:

Some were popular political haunts near House office buildings or around Washington D.C. while others were in the Gaslamp Quarter or other parts of San Diego. Records show where the money was spent and when the charges went through, but do not specify how much was spent on food, drinks, gratuity, catering services, dining room rental or other expenses.

One regular haunt for Hunter has been the Capitol Hill Club, a staple in House politics, especially among Republicans. FEC records show that between March 12, 2008 and Oct. 18, 2017, Hunters campaign reported making 126 payments totaling $105,352 to the Capitol Hill Club. Other establishments were also reoccurring haunts.

The Capitol Hill Club is largely a destination for members of Congress, their staffs, committee members and lobbyists, but is also occasionally frequented by Democrats as well, said Jason Roe, a San Diego political consultant who has a lifetime membership at the club and previously served on its board.

Its kind of the off-campus hangout for everyone on Capitol Hill. Its just a couple blocks from the Democratic club, which is pretty similar, Roe said by phone.

It has a large dining room, a lounge, and in its basement, a busy bar and grill. There are also around a dozen upstairs meeting rooms that are popular place to host fundraisers; there may be five lunchtime events every day, and around 10 each evening. Its also just around the block from the Republican National Committee, making it particularly convenient, Roe said.

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Roe said that members have to pay dues in addition to their tabs at the bar and restaurant. As a legislator who is holding fundraisers with food (the club requires you to use their own catering), Hunters expenses seem reasonable, he said.

When I was a staffer, my tab there was $400 a month, on average, and I was a staffer. So if hes doing fundraisers and dinners and hosting meetings, that doesnt sound unreasonable at all to me, Roe said.

Hunters spokesman did not reply to a request for comment for this story. He told Politico, Any time you walk in [to the Capitol Hill Club], its work. Thats why we go there.

He also told Politico, in response to allegations about his conduct, that he never attended a meeting in Congress when he was under the influence.

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Between May 2014 and June 2017 Hunters campaign spent $7,968 over 66 visits to Bullfeathers, a restaurant with a long beer list. After the Capitol Hill Club, it was the most his campaign spent at a single establishment. Of the 66 transactions, half were for less than $100, according to the FEC data. The smallest charge was $7 on Aug. 4, 2014.

Records also show that the campaign spent $3,460 over nine visits to Pacifico Cantina, a now-closed Mexican restaurant in a neighborhood near House offices. Records show three other D.C. establishments where the campaign spent at least $1,000.

The campaign spent less in the San Diego area and preferred tobacco lounges (which sell alcohol) over standard restaurants and saloons. The most was spent at the Alpine Tobacco Company Cigar and Wine Bar, with 14 visits totaling $2,326 between December 27, 2013 and April 21, 2017. Another $1,541 went to Excalibur Cigar Lounge in Kearny Mesa over the course of seven visits.

Hunters campaign spent $2,854 at Orfila Vineyards in Escondido in one purchase on December 26, 2013, and another $1,446 during nine transactions at Hooleys Irish Pub and Grill in El Cajon.

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Hunters campaign expenses at drinking establishments exceed those reported by campaigns for the other four members of San Diegos Congressional delegation, FEC data shows.

For the filing periods covering Jan. 1, 2015 through March 31, 2016, Hunters campaign reported 66 transactions totaling $36,358 at bars, pubs, cigar lounges, liquor stores and other establishments known for their alcoholic beverages, the FEC data show. During the same time period, the next-biggest campaign spender at such establishments was Darrell Issa, R-Vista, whose campaign reported 13 charges totaling $5,402.

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The campaign for Susan Davis, D-San Diego, spent the least, with one charge for $1,026 at Bullfeathers, data showed. The purpose of the expense was listed as catering.

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Of Hunters 301 charges at bars, cigar lounges, liquor stores, bar-dominant restaurants and similar businesses, the purpose of 217 totaling $92,191 were reported as food & beverages or a variation, such as food/beverages. Another 28 charges totaling $29,222 were reported as catering, event expense or a similar purpose. Two charges totaling $271 at Zarka Cigar Lounge were reported as simply beverages.

Trouble first surfaced regarding Hunters campaign spending in April 2016, when the FEC and then The San Diego Union-Tribune began examining expenses such as video game charges and family vacations to Italy.

Hunter reviewed his campaign spending and reimbursed his treasury more than $60,000 in expenses he identified as personal, mistaken or undocumented, dating back to 2015. A grand jury is reviewing evidence in a criminal investigation of his spending, dating as far back as 2009. Hunter has denied involvement in any criminal action.

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Twitter: @jptstewart

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joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1841Four of the leading California gubernatorial candidates  Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, Republican business John Cox, and Democrats former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa  debated in San Diego on Sunday at a forum co-hosted by The San Diego Union-Tribune and ABC 10 News.

The U-T has transcribed the answers. Here is what the candidates said when asked to use only one word to describe Gov. Jerry Brown.

Villaraigosa: Prudent.

Allen: Failure.

Cox: panderer

Eastin: Creative.

Here is what the candidates said when asked to use only one word to describe President Donald Trump.

Allen: Incredible.

Cox: Businessman.

Eastin: Unhinged.

Villaraigosa: A divider.Four of the leading California gubernatorial candidates  Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, Republican business John Cox, and Democrats former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa  debated in San Diego on Sunday at a forum co-hosted by The San Diego Union-Tribune and ABC 10 News.

At the forum, the four candidates were asked about the tragic fatal shooting of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man, at the hands of police in Sacramento on March 18. The shooting has since drawn protests and has been brought to the forefront of national headlines in an ongoing narrative about use of force by police, particularly on unarmed black men.

The U-T has transcribed their responses. Here is what the candidates said about the shooting when asked to answer in 45 seconds.

As governor what would you do to help skeptical Californians, particularly people of color, have more faith in law enforcement?

Villaraigosa: First of all, that was a tragic situation. I think that having been a mayor over the years I can tell you that Chief Hahn is right  we have to have an investigation, it should be thorough and transparent. We have to gain the trust of the community, in particular the African American community in that sense. I do believe that we also have to understand that law enforcement have a tough job and in the spur of the moment these things happen. So we need to make sure that the investigation is transparent.

I think we need better training. I think we also need to stand up to the proposition that our police force needs to look like the communities they serve. In Los Angeles, they do and they do in no small part because I was focused on that.

Allen: Very simply, the man that was unfortunately shot in Sacramento, the reason this whole thing happened is he was breaking into cars. He had smashed a couple of car windows because he was stealing from those cars, apparently. He was then chased by a helicopter and he ran from the police

Villaraigosa: He was not breaking into cars.

Matt Hall, Union-Tribune Editorial and Opinion Director: Im not sure that investigation has ...

Allen: Excuse you?

Hall: Im not sure that investigation has concluded to prove he was doing that.

Allen: Why dont we reset my time. To the best of my understanding it is very clear that this individual was breaking into cars. When the police helicopter began to follow him, he then ran from police. When police finally apprehended him, he approached them with something in his hand.

Listen, number one, this person should not have been breaking into cars and number two, he should not have been running from the police. It had nothing to do with the color of his skin. There is no police officer that wakes up in the morning and wants to shoot someone. We must back the badge, respect our law enforcement and understand that there are laws enforced by our police officers in California.

Cox: I grew up on the south side of Chicago. My mom taught at an all-black school. I know how tough it is to live in that community and see the problems that exist every day. I also know how tough it is to be a police officer in those communities as well, and its a very, very risky job. I see this as a tremendous tragedy and I also see it as a situation where we have a lot more training.

But I got to tell you, you cannot expect to run from the police. And where is the leadership here? [Lieutenant Gov. Gavin] Newsom immediately pounced and said that if it was a white assailant he wouldnt have been shot. Well, Im sorry, we got to stop having politicians who divide us on race. What we need to do is have leadership that says, lets respect the police and then well get respect back. And if we have rouge police, we need to go after them and better train them.

Eastin: Ladies and gentlemen, you as social science educators know that we have to stop criminalizing poverty, skin color and mental health issues. Thats a fact. The state of California needs to hold people innocent until proven guilty. The idea that you would execute a kid at his grandparents backyard who was guilty only, so far as we know, of holding a telephone is absolutely outrageous. So I say to each of you, its time, yes, that we recruit a broader spectrum of people into our police services but its also time to look at some of the European countries that are getting a better result by not criminalizing every damn thing people do and especially not treating children as if they were adults. I met a kid that was locked up when he was 16, he was in San Quentin. Its ridiculous. Your brain is not developed when youre 16.

Newsom and state Treasurer John Chiang did not attend the debate, which was sponsored by the California Council for the Social Studies. Newsom declined an invitation two months ago. Chiang accepted but withdrew 10 days before the event, citing an unspecified scheduling conflict.

We sought out statements from Newsom and Chiang on gun violence and school safety. Heres what we found.

Newsom offered a statement on his Twitter account:

California's heart aches with the tragic loss of Stephon Clark and we grieve with his family. It's time to acknowledge some hard truths  a suspect that looks like me would still be alive. Stephon isn't. That must change.

On his site, Chiang offered the following statement:

My heart breaks for Stephon Clarks boys, his parents and his brother, his grandparents, his friends, and every other person his life was tragically taken from. I hope a fair and independent investigation will provide much-needed answers and lead down the path towards justice.

The cruel reality is that this endless cycle of innocent African American men being shot and killed continues to happen again and again, and we are doing nothing to actually tackle the real issue at hand. Too many parents across this state and our nation must sit their children down and have a conversation about how the color of their skin can play a life or death role in their interaction with the police. While I may never know what it is like to have that conversation, I know that dialogue is a reality for far too many families.Four of the leading California gubernatorial candidates  Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, Republican business John Cox, and Democrats former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa  debated in San Diego on Sunday at a forum co-hosted by The San Diego Union-Tribune and ABC 10 News.

The U-T has transcribed the answers. Here is what the candidates said about gun violence and school safety when asked to answer in 45 seconds.

Gun violence, particularly at schools, seems to be on everybodys minds these days. [On Saturday] the Parkland school shooting survivors helped organize a demonstration that became a nationwide event. As governor, what would you do to keep kids in school safe?

Allen: Look, our kids have to be made safe. This means that schools being gun free zones absolutely doesnt make any sense. The only people that theyre gun free zones for are the law-abiding citizens. The criminals that are coming onto our school campuses  this criminal child in Florida  the deputies went to his house 39 times. The F.B.I. knew about him, yet law enforcement did nothing. There was actually a law enforcement deputy that was on site armed that did absolutely nothing. We cannot leave our children unprotected. Its important that our kids are safe and that were all safe. We need to have people that are trained and have the ability to defend themselves and the children that are under their care while at our schools.

Cox: I have a 13-year-old daughter whos here today and the thought that somebody would come into that school and hurt her would be horrendous. I asked the media, when this happened, to not publicize the names and the pictures of these monsters who do this. This is mental illness writ large and we have got to do a better job. I can no longer think of killing another human being I mean thats a mental illness. It distracts us from doing the things we need to do. Travis is right. Going after law-abiding citizens is not the answer. What we need to do is we need to treat mental illness, we need to make it so that these monsters do not get the fame that they seek and we need to get solutions that actually solve the problem. Thats what a businessman does.

Eastin: Mark Twain said the problem with common sense is that its not very common. It is absolutely true that nobody in America whos not in the military should have an assault weapon. I am proud to say that I voted for the assault weapon ban. The first one in America was here in California and I was in the legislature at that time and I voted for it. Its ridiculous that you should be able to turn a gun into a machine gun. Its ridiculous that you would have banana clips. NRA guy came into my office and said, Well youve got to have banana clips, we have elderly people that go hunting. Its illegal to go hunting with a clip with more than five bullets in it. So lets not let people pull the wool over our eyes. Stick with the common sense solution. Lets get rid of assault weapons in America.

Villaraigosa: In 1999 I authored the toughest assault weapons ban in the nation. All of the package of responsible gun legislation in the 90s was passed under my speakership. I think we need universal background checks  very strong universal background checks. We need to get assault weapons out of the hands of people. I dont believe you have a Second Amendment right to a bazooka or to an assault weapon. And we need to address straw purchasers, people who can legally buy guns on behalf of others.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Treasurer John Chiang did not attend the debate, which was sponsored by the California Council for the Social Studies. Newsom declined an invitation two months ago. Chiang accepted but withdrew 10 days before the event, citing an unspecified scheduling conflict.

We sought out statements from Newsom and Chiang on gun violence and school safety. Heres what we found.

Chiang statement on March 1:

As a board member of CalSTRS and CalPERS, Ive helped push the nations two largest pension funds to divest funds from companies that manufacture firearms and ammunition that are illegal for sale or possession in California. Now, Im going even further by urging my fellow board members to also divest from any retail or wholesale supplier of firearms that are unlawful to possess or sell in California.

Im also proud to support California State Senator Portantinos bill to raise the minimum age to purchase rifles and shotguns in California to 21, and to ensure no more than one of these weapons can be purchased by an individual in a single month.

Newsom Facebook video on Feb. 15:

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WEBSITE: www.lawofficesofdurant.comWell known and respected in the UK travel industry for her roles as senior sales and marketing director for Regent Seven Seas, managing director for Hurtigruten and commercial director for Jubilee Sailing Trust, Abert will help the current Ponant UK team in driving brand awareness, market penetration and customer acquisition.

Stephen Winter, Ponants international sales director, said: We are delighted to have Cecilia on board. She has an impressive track record in the UK cruise industry and will be able to offer Ponant her incredible insights and experience to help us strengthen our position as the luxury expedition leader in the UK and Irish markets.

Abert said, With so many exciting innovations coming out; Ponants 30th anniversary, new ship launches, partnerships and new announcements, it is the perfect time to help Ponant firmly anchor itself in the UK market.

Earlier this month Ponant announced an order for two additional newbuilds from Fincantieri's Vard, making a total of seven ships under construction, including the first electric hybrid expedition cruise icebreaker powered by LNG and dual fuel propulsion.

This UK brand ambassador role follows Edie Rodriguez's appointment last October as Americas brand chairman and corporate special adviser, reporting directly to the company's Marseille head office.The new weekly Chu Lai Haiphong Express (CHX) service delivered its first inbound shipment of automobile components from Japan trans-shipped via Shekou. The cargo has arrived in line with the newly-opened Truong Hai Automobile Joint-Stock company (THACO)  Mazda owned plant situated in the Chu Lai Open Economic Zone.

At an event attended by Vietnam pm Nguyen Xuan Phuc, APL global commercial head, Indika Dassanayake said, We are excited to be opening a direct sea route to Chu Lai in Central Vietnam via the APL Chu Lai Haiphong Express service. Besides transporting materials and parts for the assembly plant for Mazda cars in Chu Lai, this service is dedicated to serving Chu Lais emerging industrial zones in Quang Nam and her neighbouring Central Coast and Central Highlands provinces. Exporters and importers are now able to leverage the service to gain immediate access to China and Hong Kong, benefit from more competitive transit times and reduce related logistics and transportation costs.

Each week, the namesake vessel deployed on the CHX service will call the ports of Chu Lai, Haiphong, Hong Kong and Shekou (China). Inbound shipments from Hong Kong and Shekou to Chu Lai will take three and two days respectively. Outbound shipments from Chu Lai will arrive in Hong Kong and Shekou in four days. From the two trans-shipment hubs, shippers can expect to be connected to more Intra-Asia markets such as Japan, Korea and Singapore; as well as farther destinations such as North America, the Middle East and Europe among others via APLs extensive global network.

APL currently offers 20 services that call the major Vietnam ports of Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Haiphong, Da Nang and now Quang Nam. The carrier is focused on enhancing its services to Vietnam as the country diversifies her industrial zones to Central Vietnam where the transportation and logistics infrastructure have been increasingly developed.

Dassanayake added: Vietnam is one of the Asian economies that is most open to international trade. As a global carrier, we seek to provide market linkages through our services at non-traditional seaports such as the Chu Lai port, as they are increasingly being developed to accommodate direct international maritime routes.Press Release

March 26, 2018 FREE COLLEGE LAW TO MINIMIZE OUT-OF-SCHOOL YOUTH IN THE COUNTRY -ANGARA Senator Sonny Angara has expressed optimism that the free college law would help reduce the number of out-of-school youth in the country. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) formally launched on Monday the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act on Monday. "Para sa mga papasok sa susunod na school year, libre na ho ang tuition niyo. Maipatutupad na rin sa wakas ang batas na magbibigay oportunidad sa bawat kabataan na maabot ang kaniyang mga pangarap at makapagbigay ng magandang buhay para sa kaniyang pamilya," said Angara, one of the authors of the law and the sponsor of its P40-billion funding. The senator cited a 2016 survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority which showed that one in every 10 Filipinos aged between 6 and 24 years is an out-of-school child/youth. Based on the survey, of the 3.8 million out-of-school children/youths, 87% were 16 to 24 years old, 8% were 12 to 15 years old, and 5% percent were 6 to 11 years old. More than half (53%) of the total out of school children/youths belong to the poorest 30 percent of Filipino families. Angara pointed out that the free elementary and high school system in the country has helped widen the access to education for Filipino children. Another study has shown that out of 100 students that start elementary education, less than 20 are able to graduate from college, and among the primary reasons for not being able to finish their education were poverty and lack of opportunities. "Three decades after the free high school law, it's high time that we replicate its benefits to our youth to help them finish college. Dapat ay siguruhin natin na 100 out of 100 na ang makapagtatapos simula elementarya hanggang kolehiyo," said the lawmaker whose father, former Senator Ed Angara, is the author of the Free High School Act of 1988. RA 10931 covers the tuition, miscellaneous and other school fees of students enrolled in 112 state universities and colleges (SUCs), 78 local universities and colleges (LUCs), and all technical-vocation education and training (TVET) programs registered under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. A Tertiary Education Subsidy will be created to provide allowance to poor students for books, supplies, transportation, room and board, personal computer or laptop, and other education-related personal expenses. The subsidy will also provide financial support to poor students enrolled in private colleges and universities for the payment of tuition and other fees. "We are hoping that this landmark law will be implemented smoothly and efficiently. The special financial assistance should reach our poor students to really help them defray the cost of college education," Angara said.Youth can ignite 'revolution of conscience' - De Lima

Amid the continuing injustices happening in the country under the leadership of President Duterte, Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has expressed confidence that the Youth Arm of the Liberal Party can ignite what she called a "revolution of conscience" among the citizenry.

In a message from her detention quarters at Camp Crame, De Lima said the youth has the power to ignite change and influence the people around them to stop turning a blind eye on the rampant human rights abuses in the Philippines.

"Kayo ang tunay na makakalunsad ng tinatawag kong 'revolution of conscience,'" she said, referring to the youth.

"Kayong mga kabataan ang tunay na makakagising at makakasindak sa mga kababayan natin na patuloy pa rin na mga nagbubulag bulagan, nagbibingi-bingihanat nagtutulug-tulugan sa mga di makatarungan at di maka-Diyos na mga pamamalakad ng mga nasa kapangyarihan ngayon," she added.

To date, Duterte continues to promote extrajudicial killings to prevent crime, which resulted to the deaths of people, including children and young students, mostly coming from poor families.

In these challenging times, the Senator from Bicol encouraged the Filipino youth to act like how heroes would in times of difficulties.

"Anyone can be a hero... Let us seize this moment to be heroes for this country," she said.

De Lima, the first prominent political prisoner under the Duterte regime, said all it takes is conviction and fidelity to one's principles in order to be considered a hero.

"Let us commemorate this hugely momentous event in our nation's life by showing our collective zeal to stand up for what is right, true, and just always," she said.

"Know that I am with you and for you in heart and spirit," she added.Press Release

March 26, 2018 JV Reiterates Support to Admin's Infrastructure Program SENATOR JV EJERCITO reaffirmed support to the programs of the Duterte administration pointing out that such move is motivated on pursuing measures to advance the interest of the public sans partisan politics. In a statement, Ejercito stressed the unwavering efforts of senators belonging to the majority bloc to craft measures in support to the administration's pro-people agenda. Ejercito, who is a member of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, said the re-electionists in the majority bloc - himself, Cynthia Villar of the Nacionalista Party, Sonny Angara of the Laban ng Demokratiko ng Pilipino, Nancy Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance, and independent Grace Poe - had been supportive of Duterte's legislative agenda. Ejercito said the bloc of re-electionists had been dubbed "The Force." "The Senators belonging to "The Force" have been working hard to champion the administration's agenda on infrastructure, education, fight against illegal drugs and corruption, among others," Ejercito said. "Our hardwork is motivated by public interest not partisan politics," he added. Ejercito's statement came following previous pronouncement by Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimetel III expressing support to the members of the majority bloc's group "The Force". Ejercito said that the public expression of support by Senate President Koko Pimentel to "The Force" is a welcome development. Pimentel, who is also PDP-Laban president bared on Sunday his own senatorial bets for the 2019 elections. He assured re-electionists in the Senate majority bloc that he was "fighting" for their inclusion in the party's lineup. Aside from him, Pimentel named 13 possible candidates of PDP-Laban in the upcoming midterm elections. The list includes Senate majority bloc members Ejercito, Angara, Villar, Binay and Poe. Pimentel also mentioned Special Assistant to the President Christopher "Bong" Go, Davao Rep. Karlo Nograles, Maguindanao Rep. Zajid "Dong" Mangudadatu, Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, political adviser Francis Tolentino, and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali. Pimentel said he was also considering Taguig City-Pateros Rep. Pia Cayetano. It will be recalled that Ejercito openly discussed in a news forum at the Senate, their "sentiment" against Pimentel who has not made any indication whether re-electionist senators aligned with the administration would be accommodated in PDP-Laban's senatorial slate. Ejercito had also said previously that they are banking on support of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio and her regional political party Hugpong ng Pagbabago especially if the PDP-Laban will not include all of them in the administration's senatorial slate.Press Release

March 26, 2018 Gov't must ink more OFW protection agreements - Gatchalian Senator Win Gatchalian is urging the Duterte administration to use the memorandum of understanding (MOU) negotiated between the Philippines and Kuwait as a blueprint for future bilateral agreements to protect the welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in countries where they are frequently deployed. Gatchalian explained that based on the details initially reported by Labor Secretary Bello, the PH-Kuwait MOU "provides concrete safeguards to stop longstanding anti-labor practices that degrade the rights of OFWs." For example, the MOU would prohibit Kuwaiti employers from withholding the passports of OFWs, ensure that employment contracts would be based on Philippine labor laws, and require written consent of an OFW before being transferred to a new employer. "The government should use this MOU as a blueprint for proactively negotiating similar agreements with other countries that attract high numbers of OFWs," Gatchalian said. The senator stressed that the government should be particularly assertive in inking similar agreements with OFW receiver countries whose national laws do not provide adequate protection to labor and migrant workers, especially in the Middle East, to satisfy the express mandate found in Section 4 of the Migrant Workers Act of 1995 (Republic Act No. 8042, as amended) - that OFWs shall only be deployed to countries where their rights are expressly protected by law or treaty. "The signing of a bilateral agreement with the Philippines to protect and uphold the most basic fundamental rights of OFWs should be a sine qua non condition for their deployment to a certain country. Any country that would refuse to enter into such an agreement does not deserve to benefit from the skills and talents of our distinguished OFWs," he added.Press Release

March 26, 2018 Legarda at IPU Calls for Coal Phase Out to Achieve SDGs As the head of the Philippine delegation to the 138th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva, Switzerland, Senator Loren Legarda called for a more aggressive effort to achieve the agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially on the aspect of renewable energy development. Speaking during the breakout session of the Standing Committee on Sustainable Development, Finance and Trade, Legarda emphasized the need to phase out the use of fossil fuels, especially coal, and subsequently shift to renewable energy to mitigate environmental pollution during the presentation of the draft resolution, "Engaging the private sector in implementing the SDGs, especially on renewable energy." As a known advocate of sustainable development, Legarda told her fellow legislators that as leaders of their respective parliaments, they must thrive to transform the world into something worthy of passing on to the future generation. "We must deliver not just development, but sustainable, inclusive and equitable development that should be enjoyed not only by the youth and children of today but also of the generations that will come after us," Legarda said. During her interventions, Legarda stressed the need to abide by the nationally determined contributions or NDCs under the Paris Agreement, be forthright not just in its implementation, but to totally end dependency on fossil fuel, particularly coal. The Senator cited that there have been many countries including the United Kingdom, Germany and France that have clearly set a timeline to shut down their coal plants. Thus, it is also doable for the rest of the countries to particularly emphasize the transition from fossil fuel and to shut down all coal plants by a certain year. Moreover, Legarda promotes the use of microgrids so that energy infrastructures will be embedded, distributed and therefore cheaper and more accessible. "The reason why electricity in other countries could be rendered expensive is because of the usual requirement of distribution utilities and transmission lines. This does not make for resilient energy infrastructure because it becomes too expensive. If we resort to using embedded generation or distribute energy through solar microgrids, we do not have to rely on long transmission lines in energizing remote areas in our countries," she explained. Legarda, UNISDR Global Champion for Resilience and UNFCCC National Adaptation Plan Champion, also called for the commitment of fellow parliamentarians to work towards limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius. She explained that a breach on the 1.5 degrees celsius threshold will result in more adverse impacts, particularly extreme weather events, resulting in eradication of a large percentage of biodiversity. "I would like to emphasize the need to cap the world's warming to only 1.5 degrees Celsius, because as it is now, we already reached 1 degree Celsius. With all the disasters and impacts of climate change in different parts of the world, we may face the complete annihilation of the world's coral reefs, the migration of tens of millions within countries and, even outside our borders, the inundation of islands, coastal cities, nations and communities. We face the collapse of agriculture and ecosystems on which each of us depend for livelihood, food, jobs and industry," she stressed. Legarda concluded that her call to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, such as microgrids, are valuable components of low carbon emissions development strategy and climate resilient growth to address growing power needs of the world today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.The liquidators of Intueri Education Group, which had its salvageable assets sold under administration last year, hired lawyers and got advice on possible legal action against parties associated with the failed education provider.

"We are currently reviewing the merits of pursuing these actions and cannot comment further in relation to possible litigation," William Black and Connor McElhinney of McGrathNicol said in their second report as liquidators. They were previously the voluntary administrators from June 1 to Sept. 1 last year and in that role had flagged the potential for legal action without being specific.

In the latest six-months ended Feb. 28, the company took in $6.5 million in receipts, of which $5.7 million was funds transferred from the administration. It made total payments of $6.3 million, of which $6.2 million went to the secured creditor.

The company was placed into voluntary administration at the start of June last year after a strategic review attracted an offer for its operating assets for less than the $70.7 million owed to ANZ Bank New Zealand, meaning the lender would be forced to take a loss.

In July last year, the administrators, said Auckland-based ACG, which was bought by Australia's Pacific Equity Partners in 2015, had completed its purchase of the Intueri New Zealand schools, including the New Zealand Institute of Sport, the New Zealand College of Massage, Global Education Group trading as NSIA The Professional Hospitality Academy, and Intueri Education New Zealand trading as Cut Above Academy, Design and Arts College of New Zealand, Academy New Zealand, and Elite International School of Beauty and Spa Therapies. No price was disclosed.

As administrators, Black and McElhinney had concluded liquidation, "given that there was no other viable alternative and that all of the assets of the companies had been sold."

Questions about the company predate the administration. In April 2017 the Serious Fraud Office dropped an investigation into enrollments at its defunct Quantum Education Group, whiles its operations were also investigated by the Tertiary Education Commission.

Intueri's 2014 initial public offering at $2.35 a share allowed vendor Arowana International to net about $102 million while selling its stake down to 24.9 percent and provided $60 million to pay for the acquisition of Quantum. In its 2015 year, Intueri wrote down the value of Quantum by $53.1 million, including wiping $27 million off the value of the school's brand and goodwill to take it down to zero. Its shares slumped to 1 cent last May and it went into voluntary administration on June 1.

(BusinessDesk)

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New Zealand's government expects moving away from using fossil fuels will take several decades so the economy and affected industries have time to adjust, the Minister of Energy, Megan Woods, told the country's main annual oil and gas conference in Wellington.

Speaking to an audience that required police intervention to run a gauntlet of protesters outside the capital's TSB Events Centre, Woods's speech was anxiously awaited after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last week announced the government is considering discontinuing the previous government's annual Block Offer programme, which invites bids for new onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration.

Woods quickly dispelled any hopes a decision on Block Offers was imminent, saying it was weeks away, but stressed the government was committed to a "a long term transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy".

"These are 10 and 20 and 30-year timelines we are talking about," she said. No existing oil and gas production permits would be affected, with some forecast to continue production until 2046.

Instead, the government was determined to lay out a plan for "just transition" to an economy with net zero carbon emissions by 2050, achieved in way that did not repeat the socially and economically wrenching economic reforms of the 1980s Labour government.

"I will not be part of a government that allows something like that to happen again. I dont want New Zealand to be the country that rips the rug out from under businesses, communities and individuals because we didnt have a plan to deal with the future.

"If we have the courage to think long term now we can avoid that.

"I dont want to see an abrupt transition that leaves industries stagnant, communities without a future and individuals without hope. What I want to see is a clear, transparent and well-managed pathway to a new economy", and "support communities that currently rely on fossil fuel extraction", Woods said.

Woods also acknowledged the oil and gas industry's acceptance that the global economy will move away from fossil fuel dependence in coming decades, and the role that natural gas would continue to play for years to come in guaranteeing a secure supply of electricity.

"No one is talking about shutting off our supply of fuels we need to keep our country and economy running strongly," she said. "This government is well aware of the huge importance of peaking to ensure security of electricity supply.

"We know we have 10 years or so of natural gas consented for drilling, and potentially many more years that could be discovered under existing exploration permits."

Planning now had to include identifying new industries and workforce planning, said Woods, who outlined a tri-partite approach involving the government, industry, and trade unions, including "how to connect the transition to a low-carbon future to the resurgence of our regions".

"Our job in the twenty-first century is to ensure that our industries and workforce currently employed in high-emission industries are not consigned to the scrap heap as we respond to the shocks of unplanned and urgent economic upheaval."

Led by the soon-to-be-created Climate Commission, the government would lay out "a step-by-step plan to take us right through until 2050", which would give the oil and gas industry the "certainty and stability" it said was paramount for its own planning.

(BusinessDesk)

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This column is written by the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com collegiate correspondent.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Are you trained in CPR? If not, then here's your chance! Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis will be holding a free basics of CPR training April 7 at 9 a.m. at New Dorp Moravian Church.

The CPR training will be provided by the Staten Island Heart Society, a local non-profit organization that promotes heart health on Staten Island through educational activities, programs, and events. It promotes the enhancement of the public access defibrillation programs and aims to reduce the rate of death and disability from heart disease and stroke.

Only between 3-5 percent of the entire United States population is trained annually in how to respond in a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) emergency with CPR. With an average of 360,000 SCA incidents occurring outside of the hospital every year, the likelihood exists that you may encounter someone who needs CPR.

Assemblywoman Malliotakis has been holding this annual event since 2014 and has found it to be consistently well-attended by community members.

"As we saw recently, two Staten Islanders' lives were saved because their heroes knew CPR and Heimlich maneuver. If we could equip one person with these skills, then that can make the difference between someone's life and death and would be well worth it," shared Malliotakis.

"Now every year we train dozens of people to react in an emergency situation and our community is that much safer because of it. I look forward to continuing this collaboration with the Staten Island Heart Society for years to come."

Statistics show over 70 percent of cardiac arrest cases occur within the home, often with no health professionals present to intervene, leaving it up to loved ones and bystanders to react during the crucial first few moments.

According to the American Heart Association, effective CPR delivered within 4 minutes of the initial arrest can double or triple an individual's rate of survival. For these reasons, Assemblywoman Malliotakis and the Staten Island Heart Society highly encourage participation in CPR training.

Training, and eventually certification, in CPR can also be useful when it comes to applying for jobs. Many jobs, such as those in healthcare, construction, industry, and education, require applicants and employees to have and maintain a current CPR certification. For example, the Occupational Health & Safety Administration, or OSHA, mandates CPR training for certain positions in a variety of fields to promote life safety.

CPR training can also give you peace of mind. Knowing CPR gives you and your loved ones peace of mind no matter where you are. Whether you're on vacation with friends or just visiting your grandmother's house with family, having the knowledge to save a life can bring you comfort and reassurance.

It is important to note that this class does not provide official CPR certification, but it will teach basic CPR skills. Anyone interested in attending this CPR training program must call Assemblywoman Malliotakis's office at 718-987-0197 or email claritd@nyassembly.gov. RSVP at your earliest convenience because space is limited.

For more Information, please visit Assemblywoman Malliotakis' official website at Assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Nicole-Malliotakis/.

-- Staten Island native Charista Mroczek is a freshman at Barnard College of Columbia University.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Security has been enhanced and counselors are on site at the Academy of St. Dorothy in Grasmere following a rampage by a parent that, authorities allege, began with an assault during a school play Saturday night and ended with the woman being shot by police on Grymes Hill on Sunday.

NYPD officers were stationed at the school as children were dropped off by their parents on Monday morning. The alleged crime spree of parent Lori Gjenashaj, 41, ended when she was wounded and taken into custody by police on Sunday afternoon near the intersection of Highland and Howard avenues.

A message from the school sent to parents acknowledged that a parent was arrested as a result of an incident on Saturday. In that situation, Gjenashaj allegedly choked a parent on Saturday night at a school play, police sources told the Advance.

"As you may have read on SILive.com, an ASD Parent was taken into custody today by the NYPD following alleged criminal activity involving the possession of a firearm," the message said.

"As you may also know, the parent in question is alleged to have assaulted another parent (Saturday) evening on ASD grounds during a school sponsored event. Following that alleged incident, the police were called and the parent was placed under arrest."

The academy is working with the Office of the Superintendent of Schools and the NYPD to ensure safety at the academy, the message said.

"While we do not believe there is any threat to our students or staff, out of an abundance of caution, we have coordinated with the NYPD to ensure there will be a police presence on site (Monday) for the duration of the school day," the message said.

"In addition, professional counselors will be at ASD (Monday) to provide support to students and staff."

Parent Christina Ante said that she was not concerned about safety since the gun incident happened off of school grounds. She believes that the principal has the situation under control based on the message sent to parents.

On the afternoon after the choking incident, Gjenashaj went to her mother-in-law's home on Nugent Avenue in Midland Beach on Sunday at about 12:15 p.m., police said.

Cops responded to a report of shots fired, but police still are probing that incident and are not yet releasing information about what took place, a police spokesman said.

Gjenashaj and a man allegedly left the scene in a black SUV. After the vehicle was curbed by police, the man got out and was questioned while the woman drove away, police said.

A police source said that the man was Gjenashaj's boyfriend and he has not been charged in connection with the spree.

From there, Gjenashaj went to a home on Sunnyside Terrace where she allegedly broke in using a brick around 12:45 p.m., sources told the Advance

The home belongs to another family at her kids' school, a source told the Advance.

At the time of the break-in, the only person home was a 13-year-old boy, law enforcement sources said. Gjenashaj allegedly pulled the gun on the teenager, sources said.

Gjenashaj, 41, allegedly produced a firearm when officers stopped her black GMC SUV near the intersection of Highland and Howard avenues around 12:45 p.m. on Sunday, said a spokesman for the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

The two police officers discharged five rounds, striking Gjenashaj one time in the shoulder after she refused to drop the gun, cops said.

She was taken in stable condition to Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton, according to police.LAUNCHING THE 2018 BEST OF STATEN ISLAND AWARDS

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Italian is King (and Queen, thanks to Angelina's) around these parts -- but this Best of Staten Island Awards category is a chance to spread some love to the borough's often underrated international restaurants.

Were bored with hearing people whine about how theres nothing to eat on The Rock beyond pasta and pie. Its fake news.

Deliciously diverse home plates, old and new, are out there to be discovered.

Before local foodies take offense: We're not calling you out. We're merely chiding pearl-clutchers who fear venturing out of their culinary comfort zones (i.e. neighborhoods).

S.I. is flush with the options that make other cities major dining destinations. Were talking rich cultural adventures and global flavors -- not just linen tablecloths and Michelin/Zagat hype.

That's why 2018's #BestofSI polls start with a call to nominate the borough's top Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Peruvian, Thai, Colombian, German, Sri Lankan, Turkish, Russian, Pakistani, Tex-Mex, Dominican, Polish, Albanian, Indian -- and, yes, even Italian -- restaurants.

Click through this slideshow to discover just a little bit of whats out there -- then nominate your favorites in six "umbrella" categories.

Note: Restaurants featured in photos and videos here are merely conversation starters. We need your input.

Share your picks in the comments section or by emailing bailey@siadvance.com with "Global Eats" in the subject line. Deadline for nominations: Midnight April 2.

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Fish taco at the Mexican/Peruvian restaurant Zabrosura in Grasmere. (Staten Island Advance | Jan Somma-Hammel)

BEST LATIN RESTAURANT (MEXICAN, SPANISH, PERUVIAN, SOUTH AMERICAN, TEX-MEX & MORE)

Sure, Tex-Mex rules at enduringly popular night spots like Adobe Blues and Burrito Bar, but more authentic Latin and South American cuisines -- from Mexican takeout at El Patron to Colombian bites at Riconcito Paisa -- are making an increasingly strong showing around the borough. We even have a growing number of Peruvian, Dominican, Baja-Cali and Brazilian options.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Victoria Priola

MAIZAL MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER: This intimate spot specializes in authentic modern Mexican cuisine. The restaurant at 990 Bay St. in Rosebank was booked solid recently with Valentine's Day reservations. Check it out in the video above.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Pamela Silvestri

ALL-YOU-CAN EAT MEAT AT RODIZIO GRILL: Peep the parade of proteins at New York City's newest Brazilian churrascaria in Charleston.

Check out Pamela Silvestri's full Rodizio feature HERE.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Victoria Priola

THE BIG KAHUNA: EXTREME NACHOS: Ho' Brah is known for being a taco joint with delectably fresh Cali-Mex fare -- but this popular small-bites restaurant is not afraid to go big.

Cut to "The Big Kahuna" fries: A cast-iron skillet of sizzling shoestring spuds doused in spices, meat, cheeses and veggies is just one of the OTT specials the West Brighton eatery features weekly.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Pamela Silvestri

MOLE POBLANO AT CASA CHONITA: Use-it-or-lose-it-warning: Enrique and Concepcion Luzero's tiny eatery specialized in breakfast -- and mole poblano, a treasured family recipe, served just down the block from Staten Island Zoo in West Brighton. Alas, not even an impressive 4.8-star Yelp rating was enough to keep its doors open.

And with that, what is your favorite hole-in-the-wall serving legit Mexican food?

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Baba ghanoush, hummus and muhamara with pita bread at Mar Mar in West Brighton. (Staten Island Advance | Bill Lyons)

BEST MEDITERRANEAN RESTAURANT (GREEK, TURKISH, ALBANIAN AND, YES, SICILIAN/ITALIAN)

Yes, there are a handful of Greek and Albanian restaurants to rave about but  in the spirit of healthy competition and inclusivity -- we're also including restaurants that serve Turkish and other Mediterranean basin cuisines.

OK, after getting chided by readers, repeatedly, for leaving Italian out of the Mediterranean Best of S.I. category in 2017 -- you will now find it included here.

So, nominate away for your fave boot joints, too. After all, Mediterranean food encompasses Italian eats outside the north and the mountainous inland regions, according to legendary cookbook author Elizabeth David, who wrote the 1950 tome on the topic. Among its best-known and most characteristic foods: risotto, pizza in Neapolitan and Sicilian styles, and pasta dishes such as spaghetti.

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Staten Island Advance | Bill Lyons

MAR MAR = MMM MMM: Signature Syrian dishes -- hot pita wedges paired with chilled pickles, olives and hummus; chargrilled lamb chops --" are consistently excellent at Alan Aldakhla's Mar Mar restaurant in West Brighton.

Read Pamela Silvestri's full feature HERE.

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The Flaming Sagnaki Appetizer

Look for more about Riviera Mediterranean Cuisine, a new Greek/Albanian restaurant in Grant City, from Pamela Silvestri later this week on SILive.com.

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Staten Island Advance Photos

INSIDE A GREEK KUZINA: Among the seemingly endless stripmalls dotting Hylan Boulevard, all with baffling parking options, are two hidden gems: Kuzina (i.e. Kitchen) of Huguenot and Dongan Hills are a trendy, warm escape from the maddening traffic outside. It's legit good food, with all the fresh tart flavors that make Greek cuisine so enduringly appetizing.

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Staten Island Advance | Pamela Silvestri

ALBA: SERVING BALKAN AT ITS BEST: A slice of the flaky meat- and feta-cheese-folded pastry called burek at Alba, a casual little place attached to a grocery store-butcher shop in Dongan Hills, will make you want to learn more about the Albanian cooking style. (Not to mention that succulent, fresh-cut lamb.)

As SILive's resident food guru, Pamela Silvestri, puts it: "We've only clipped the edge of the iceberg lettuce with Alba and with what Staten Island has to offer in Balkan foods."

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Staten Island Advance | Pamela Silvestri

HIP, HIP, ZA-RA! Delicious Turkish meals are served at Za-Ra Cafe & Grill on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Hylan Boulevard in Dongan Hills. (Yes, that's the former home of A&W.)

Read Pamela Silvestri's full feature HERE.

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Staten Island Advance Photo

BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT STANDS ALONE, RIGHT?

Yeah, I still think we need to split "Italian" out from "Mediterranean," but we will let the number of nominations be the determining factor here.

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Staten Island Advance Video

VIC RALLO'S ITALIAN 'SURF' IS ON FIRE: "If my dad saw this restaurant, he'd be a very proud Italian father," said the man behind PBS's "Eat! Drink! Italy!"

The celebrity restauranteurs two-story, 9,000-square-foot Stapleton eatery called "Surf" serves a wood-fire menu and offer panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Jan Somma-Hammel

CRACKING ANGELINA'S SUGAR-DOMED SWEET SPOT: There are so many stellar plates to showcase from this trail-blazing Tottenville fine-dining restaurant.

Here's a sweet one: Bolla di Zucchero, a Hazelnut semi-freddo in 24k gold-leaf, is served on a bed of liquor-soaked lady fingers topped with chocolate cup and fruit pearls enclosed in a sugar dome.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Victoria Priola

OLD SCHOOL SUNDAY SAUCE IN PARADISO: Loyal patrons call this unpretentious Italian restaurant one of Staten Island's best kept secrets: Villa Paradiso in Great Kills is all about fresh Sicilian food, live music, dancing, sing-alongs, Sunday Sauce, steaks  and tradition.

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Artwork from Sayori in Port Richmond. (Staten Island Advance | Pamela Silvestri)

BEST ASIAN (CHINESE, JAPANESE, THAI, VIETNAMESE, FILIPINO)

We have a little bit of everything when it comes to legit Asian cuisine: From flamboyant sushi rolls at Grant Citys Fushimi to noodle dishes at Chang Noi Thai in St. George and the Vietnamese tastes of Pho Mac and Pho Rainbow, both in New Dorp.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Pamela Silvestri

A DIM SUM TOUR WITH SUNNY NG: East Pacific at the Staten Island Mall serves 45 kinds of authentic Chinese dim sum plus soup dumplings. Read Pamela Silvestri's full chat with Sunny Ng HERE.

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Photos by Katherina Gaccione for Phil-Am Kusina

PHIL-AM KUSINA IS MICHELIN RECOGNIZED: Forget those culturally insensitive "Bizarre Foods" episodes, of yore: Filipino food has become a full-on dining out trend at cool Manhattan and Brooklyn restaurants like Jeepney, Maharlika, Pig & Khao and many more. We are lucky enough to have a really good Filipino restaurant (and attached grocery store) called Phil-Am Kusina in Rosebank.

They even host twice-weekly group dinners called Kamayan nights (Kamaya means shake hands in Tagalog), where you sit at a long, family-style table and eat with your hands. It might sound corny -- but it is really a beautiful, communal thing; almost like a ceremony. (Dont worry, a hand sink is featured prominently in the Tompkins Avenue dining room.)

Proprieter Manny Imperial's classic Filipino feast menu includes lumpia (tiny fried egg rolls), longganisa sausage, crispy fried pork, Pinoy pork ribs, garlic rice and a host of char-grilled meats.

Check out S.I.'s other Michelin-recognized restaurants HERE.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Amanda Steen

HOW TO ROLL A PINK LADY LIKE CHEF DONG: Check out the Pink Lady Roll at Kyoto 5 in West Brighton. Crab meat, shrimp tempura and other special ingredients make this a delicious and popular item.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Pamela Silvestri

MORE THAN A RESTAURANT: ASIAN FOODS IS A HIDDEN GEM: The Travis Asian grocery has a small restaurant inside -- and big flavors for adventurous home chefs.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Victoria Priola

A SIMPLE SUSHI BURRITO: The Liang family's Simple Asia, a Chinese/Japanese fusion restaurant in New Dorp, also serves sushi bowls -- and burgers. Hey, you gotta cover a lot of bases to make it in this competitive market.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Pamela Silvestri

DIY: HOW TO ROLL LIKE TOKYO SUSHI: Tokyo Sushi sushiya Taurino "Tau" Escamilla whips up a roll in Castleton Corners. Take your pick: Spicy Tuna or Salmon.

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Staten Island Advance Photo

BEST SUBCONTINENT RESTAURANT (SRI LANKAN, INDIAN, PAKISTANI)

Definitions of the extent of the Indian subcontinent differ but it usually includes the core lands of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh; Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives are often included as well.

The region also is called by a number of other names including South Asia, a name that is increasingly popular in academia and the U.S.

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Staten Island Advance Video

DISCOVER LAKRUWANA: Staten Island has the largest population of Sri Lankans outside of Sri Lanka -- and foodie tourists travel from around the country to sample "Little Sri Lanka's" (yeah, that's us) restaurants. Here's a taste of Lakruwana. (BTW: If you visit this eatery at 668 Bay St. in Stapleton, make sure to check out the gorgeous art museum downstairs.)

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Photos courtesy Al-Humza

PAKISTANI PLATES IN PARK HILL: Al-Humza Hala Meat & Restaurant on Richmond Road is a hub of Clifton's Park Hill community.

From a recent review on EatTheWorldNYC.com: "Around the corner from the restaurant, the modern spotless masjid un noor lives in a two story pale pink building and sees a steady stream of mostly Pakistani men and women with a few neighborhood Africans as well. Along with this house of worship, the other hub of the community seems to be Al-Humza, which offers both a halal meat counter and grocery store as well as full service restaurant."

The non-descript restaurant is easy to overlook (a large awning once touting its specialties is gone), but serious food tourists report the nihari and paya, lamb and goat-hoof stew, respectively, should not be missed with the house naan.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Amanda Steen

HOW THEY DO CHILI LAMB AT TASTE OF INDIA II: If spicy, tender marinated lamb sounds delicious to you, then head over to Taste of India II in New Dorp -- where chef Kamal Uddin will work his magic for you in the kitchen.

In 2012, proprietors Raman Kumar and Baldev Malhotra overhauled the cozy restaurant, adding a bar section with a more clubby vibe. The kitchen is known for its remarkably consistent curries and sauces. Service, too, puts it among Staten Island's best overall restaurants.

After more than two decades in business, Taste of India has outlasted several other subcontinent eateries and continues to thrive with its catering and Island-wide delivery.

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A heart veal shank at Killmeyer's. (Staten Island Advance Photos)

Moments after this story posted Monday, Ken Tirado, proprietor of Killmeyer's Old Bavaria Inn, made a great point on Facebook: "I can't complain here, as the Advance has always been very generous in their coverage of my businesses over the years, but I do find this a bit ironic. There is no category for German, Polish, or Russian restaurants. I would think that between Killmeyer's, Nuremberger, and the various Eastern European places -- like Korzo Klub, we would rate a mention."

You are absolutely, right, Ken.

Nominate your fave German, Polish and/or Russian restaurants now! Here are just a few of the options out there:

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Staten Island Advance Video

THE NURNBERGER BURGER

A pretzel bun imported from Germany, 10 beefy ounces of prime meat and fried onions. Check out the video above to discover some of the ingredients that go into a Nurnberger Bierhaus burger.

Also: Nurnberger Bierhaus/Bierhalle offers an impressive list of German beers to accompany its traditional eastern Europe cuisine.

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Staten Island Advance Video | Pamela Silvestri

KORZO KLUB'S DEEP-FRIED MEMBER

Chef Maria Zizak folds Emmentaller cheese, bacon, a special beef blend, house-made beet mustard and pickles into fresh dough  and then comes the deep-fry action. Watch this already award-winning specialty happen at Korzo Klub of Bay Street in the video above.

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KILLMEYER'S IN CHARLESTON

This 19th-century tavern is centered around the very culture that celebrates beer, so it's no surprise that it carries more than 50 German beers and countless other beers from New Zealand to Denmark.

Over the summer, enjoy dark German beer with wienerschnitzel while the German polka music plays in the beer garden. In the winter, this heft beer selection and hearty German fare will keep you warm.

"The oldest section of the building that today houses Killmeyer's Old Bavaria Inn dates from around 1845," says Patricia Salmon, author of Staten Island-centric books and someone considered an expert in the borough's history.

She chronicles the building at 4254 Arthur Kill Road as such: "It was originally used as a store and residence by John Batchellor. It was bought by brick baron Balthazar Kreischer in 1855. He deeded the property to Nicholas Killmeyer in 1859. The Killmeyer's ran the establishment from 1859 until 1947, when it was taken over by the Simonson family. It was later called Simonson's Inn and then the Century Inn."

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HOW THE BEST OF STATEN ISLAND AWARDS WORK

By now you probably know the drill: It's up to you to nominate and elect the borough's best of everything that makes life entertaining, delicious, sometimes challenging, but always culturally enriching.

Nomination phase: Share your passionate picks in each of the six main "umbrella" categories in the comments section or by emailing bailey@siadvance.com with "GLOBAL EATS" in the subject line. (Nominations are open from Monday, March 26, through Monday, April 2.)

Voting phase: After finalists are announced, the voting/poll phase then runs for a week: from Tuesday, April 3, to Tuesday, April 10. Votes can be cast once per hour, per device during this period. This is when you help us get the word out to make sure your finalists get their share of the voting love: Share the poll!

We encourage you to blast social media with calls to vote. Go old school with flyers and distribute them at your fave business. Stump door to door for your candidates. Whatever it takes  within legal and moral reason, of course  to get S.I. some much-deserved recognition is fine with us.

Winner announcement: After a week of voting, we feature your top picks for on SILive.com with feature stories, photo galleries and video profiles. Then another 2018 Best of S.I. poll category launches on SILive.com.

In the coming weeks: After each nominate-vote-win category cycle, we follow up with a series of additional voting categories celebrating many aspects of life on this borough. So, dine out. Catch some live music and theater. Get a tattoo. Belly up to a dive bar, cocktail lounge or dance club. Whatever. Just determine the borough's best.

Then nominate your picks as their respective categories are announced, one by one, on SILive.com. Nominees with the most votes in each category become the finalists for the individual (i.e. Best A&E, Best Mom & Pop Shops, Best Dance School, Best Bagels & Bakeries, etc.) polls.Pearl Gabel for the New York Daily News

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Sources say the woman shot by police Sunday afternoon has been involved in a two-day long string of odd and violent behavior.

Lori Gjenashaj was shot near the intersection of Highland and Howard Avenues after 12:45 p.m., after she allegedly brandished a weapon.

From an alleged attack on another parent at her children's Grasmere school to when police finally took her down -- here's how Sunday's police-involved shooting unfolded.

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Jan Somma-Hammel

Police arrested Gjenashaj Saturday night around 11:18 p.m. after she allegedly choked another parent at an Academy of St. Dorothy school play.

A parent at the school told the Advance Gjenashaj called children at the school a sexually graphic name.

When a parent asked what she said, Gjenashaj allegedly lunged at her.

Sources said she was charged with misdemeanor assault, issued a desk appearance ticket, and discharged.

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Paul Liotta

Gjenashaj went to her mother-in-law's home on Nugent Avenue in Midland Beach the next day around 12:15 p.m., police said.

Cops responded to a reported shooting, but police haven't confirmed that the shooting actually occurred, a spokesman for the NYPD said.

Gjenashaj then fled the scene in a black GMC Acadia with a man in the car.

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Paul Liotta

A law enforcement source said police caught up with the SUV, and detained the male.

During the stop Gjenashaj allegedly fled the scene, and got away from police, the source said.

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From there, Gjenashaj went to a home on Sunnyside Terrace where she allegedly broke in using a brick around 12:45 p.m.

The home belongs to another family at her kids' school, a source told the Advance.

At the time of the break-in, the only person home was a 13-year-old boy, law enforcement sources said. Upon entry, Gjenashaj allegedly pulled the gun on the teenager, sources said.

She also allegedly fled that scene in the same black SUV.

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NYPD

Police stopped the 41-year-old woman's car on Highland Avenue near Howard Avenue after she fled the home.

During the stop she allegedly brandished the weapon, and disobeyed cops' orders to drop the gun.

Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison said police fired five shots at the woman -- one of which hit her in the shoulder.

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Paul Liotta

She was transported to Richmond University Medical Center in stable condition, police said.

A neighbor on Highland Avenue said he heard at least four shots and a woman scream, "I'm f_____ shot."

"[The cops] were running behind cars, screaming at whoever it was on the ground," said the neighbor. ...It was like a crowd screaming."

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Staten Island Advance/Maura Grunlund

Police were stationed at Academy of St. Dorothy as children arrived for classes on Monday morning.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- After attending the "March for Our Lives" on Saturday in Manhattan, Sen. Charles Schumer is calling for ways to take action to prevent gun violence.

Schumer demanded for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell to bring bills to the floor of the U.S. Senate and allow for debate.

"This weekend, I marched alongside amazing kids and worried families who are doing things Congress and NRA loyalists have long refused: forcing action on gun violence," said Schumer.

Thousands marched in sister rallies across the country, including in Manhattan.

Schumer listed three priorities that can save lives: background checks, protection orders and assault weapons.

Schumer said both his experience at the Manhattan march and photos from other marches across the country "prove the moment is now and Congress can't ignore it."

The first priority is to pass tough legislation that closes existing loopholes in the background check system, such as the gun show and internet sales loopholes.

The second priority is to pass legislation that allows for protective orders to temporarily disarm individuals who have shown credible signs of being a harm to themselves or others.

Schumer's third priority demands formal debate on assault weapons on the floor of the Senate.

Schumer continued: "We may have marched yesterday but that was only the first step. We must now follow this up with action. Congress must act, and I will work night and day to make that happen."

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Pope Francis urged young people to not be silent and let their voices be heard during his Palm Sunday address, according to published reports.

The pope spoke directly to the young people present during his homily; he said here are people who try to silence and exclude the youth.

According to Catholic News Agency, the 81-year-old pope told the youth to not give into the pressure, and to stay quiet, because "you have it in you to shout."

"There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. Many ways to anesthetize them, to make them keep quiet, ask nothing, question nothing. There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive," he said.

Pope Francis spoke just a day after thousands of people participated in "March for Our Lives" rallies across the country, including 200 Staten Islanders who traveled to the march in Washington, D.C.

He said "it is up to you not to keep quiet" and "even if others keep quiet, if we older people and leaders keep quiet, if the whole world keeps quiet and loses its joy, I ask you: Will you cry out?"

Dear young people, never get tired of being instruments of peace and joy among your peers!  Pope Francis (@Pontifex) March 25, 2018

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration expelled 60 Russian diplomats on Monday and ordered Russia's consulate in Seattle to close, as the United States and European nations sought to jointly punish Moscow for its alleged role in poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

Senior Trump administration officials said all 60 Russians were spies working in the U.S. under diplomatic cover, including a dozen at Russia's mission to the United Nations. The officials said the administration was taking the action to send a message to Russia's leaders about the "unacceptably high" number of Russian intelligence operatives in the U.S

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the U.S, said the officials. They weren't authorized to be identified by name and requested anonymity. They added that the Seattle consulate is a counter-intelligence concern because of its proximity to a U.S. Navy base.

The move was one of the most significant actions President Donald Trump's administration has taken to date to push back on Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin by phone for his re-election but didn't raise the spy case, renewing questions about whether the U.S. president is too soft on the Kremlin.

Staten Island Rep. Daniel Donovan, who serves on the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said, "I fully support President Trump's response to Russia's chemical attack in the U.K. Today's expulsion coupled with the recently-announced sanctions makes it clear that the United States stands firmly with our allies and we will not tolerate Russian aggression."

The U.S. actions came as more than a dozen nations, including those in Russia's neighborhood, were expected to announce similar steps to reduce Russia's diplomatic presence in their countries or other actions to punish Moscow. Poland summoned Russia's ambassador for talks, and its foreign ministry was among several in Europe planning news conferences later Monday.

Last week, EU chief Donald Tusk predicted that member states would introduce measures against Moscow over its suspected role in the spy poisoning case.

Britain has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being undeclared intelligence agents, which led Russia to expel the same number of British diplomats. The European Union has already recalled its ambassador to Russia.

Britain has accused Moscow of perpetrating the attack. The U.S., France and Germany have agreed it's highly likely that's the case.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A city Correction officer has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault for wounding an Annadale woman when his gun discharged in a Manhattan eatery last year.

Mario Carrillo, 57, was reportedly showing his weapon to Lisa Mojica and another woman on May 23, 2017, inside Mamasita Bar & Grill at 818 10th Ave., when a round fired striking Mojica in the foot.

Carrillo, who was off-duty, also hit himself in the finger.

Carrillo was arrested and charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, for injuring another person by means of a deadly weapon through criminal negligence.

Criminal negligence means a person fails to perceive his actions will cause a "substantial and unjustifiable risk" or that such a circumstance exists, according to state law. The failure to perceive the risk constitutes a "gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation," the law says.

A Correction spokesman said Carrillo was suspended without pay immediately after the incident to June 8, 2017.

Carrillo pleaded guilty on Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court to third-degree assault.

He will be sentenced on April 26 to three years' probation, prosecutors said.

Two weeks ago, Mojica sued Carrillo, the city and the Correction Department in state Supreme Court, St. George, over the incident.

Mojica, 30, alleges the city and Correction Department were negligent by failing to "properly and adequately instruct" Carrillo in the safekeeping, operation, management and control of his gun.

Her civil complaint alleges Mojica suffered "serious, harmful and permanent injuries," but does not specify them.

The suit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, is pending.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It was fate that Susan "Sue" Bender's parents survived the Holocaust; and again that they were in W

est Germany, awaiting Sue's birth and their approval to immigrate to America. Sue was 13 months old when they arrived in the United States; her brother was born one month later. '

Years later, fate again played a part in a last-minute switch at her new job, where she expected to be a speech therapist but ended up an English teacher instead.

When, as a result of the 1970s economic crisis in New York City, Sue was excessed from her position as a teacher, she took a chance, approached the Jewish Community Center, and obtained a job; fate once again took her life on an unanticipated, but welcome, path.

What was your first job?

I went to work at McKee Vocational and Technical High School. I was originally assigned a speech therapy position, but the teacher who I was supposed to replace did not leave, because the new school he was to work in didn't open. Instead, I was assigned an English position because the teacher who had that one left to teach at Stuyvesant High School. In an interesting turn of fate, my daughter had that teacher as a creative writing teacher when she attended Stuyvesant two decades later.

Did you continue as a teacher?

By the time of my being excessed, I had two children and was familiar with the Jewish Community Center, which hired me to become a "bi-cultural" teacher for the newly formed kindergarten program. The bi-cultural curriculum I was charged with developing merged both my Yeshiva and Jewish education with teaching experience. I returned to school to become certified in education from pre-school through 12th grade and later received a certificate in not-for-profit management from Columbia University.

Did you remain at the JCC?

Working there started me off in Jewish communal services. I spent 15 years there in several positions including early childhood department director, program director and assistant director. Then I left the J.

Where did you go from there?

I became executive director at the Southern Westchester YM-YWHA in Mount Vernon, then executive director of the Sid Jacobson JC in East Hills, Long Island, from which I retired six years ago after spending 19 years as an executive director.

What have you been doing since you retired?

I am involved in a number of organizations in the Jewish community. I serve on the board of directors of the Staten Island JCC, on the board of directors of the College of Staten Island Hillel and on the board of directors of Congregation B'nai Jeshurun. In each of these organizations, I'm involved on a variety of committees and work on various of committees. This has been the kind of work I have done for the majority of my professional life and I derive great joy and satisfaction from my involvement.

Who do you admire?

I especially enjoy working with the talented and dedicated professional staff who give so much to these organizations to make them successful. The professionals who work so hard in the non-profit world are the true heroes of our society. They fight for those in need, they fight to educate our next generations, and for those experiencing pain and suffering, and even for those at the end of their lives. They make our world and society a better place for all of us to inhabit.

If you could change one thing, what would it be?

I would try to eliminate the divertissement of people who don't respect the rights of others to disagree with them and that they would listen to each other. People have the right to hold their own opinions, but not to be disrespectful when someone else is offering a different one. This is one of the NRA problems. Sometimes a good exchange of opinions could lead to a good compromise. Sometimes money intercedes and there is a lack of desire to reach a compromise.

What do you see for yourself in the future?

I hope it will be more good health to continue doing what I have been doing because I like to do what I do. I would like my grandchildren to remember me as being vibrant and involved, and as a general pain in the neck, depending on who you speak to.

What do you enjoy doing the most

Being with family is the best thing I do and the thing I enjoy most. Now that I am retired I have the freedom to play with our littlest grandkids as well as enjoy our bigger grandkids, who are rapidly achieving adulthood. Being surrounded by loved ones is absolutely the best thing in the world.

GET TO KNOW SUSAN

Where she lived: "I grew up in Brooklyn, and moved to Staten Island when I was 20. I moved to Staten Island in search of affordable housing and I've lived here ever since."

Where she went to college: "I obtained bachelor's and master's degrees from Brooklyn College."

Her family: "My husband, Dr. Jack Bender, is a dentist. He was fortunate enough to be brought to Staten Island by me when we married. We have four children and seven grandchildren. Two of the children are native Staten Islanders, although none of them live on Staten Island."

Her 'main talent': "Getting to eat out as often as it is possible. I'm a bad cook."

Her next trip: She has traveled to many places and her next trip is to Paris where she and Jack will be taking their eldest grandson for his college graduation gift.

Her feelings about Staten Island:

"Staten Island is a great place to live because of its strong sense of community, lots and lots of trees, and easy access to the greater Metropolitan area and the best Italian restaurants in the City. What more can anyone want?"Quiet business negotiations between China, US: report



New York, March 26 (AFP) Mar 26, 2018



China and the United States have begun behind-the-scenes negotiations to improve American access to the Chinese domestic market, the Wall Street Journal said Sunday.

News of the talks follow days rife with tension, raising the specter of a trade war between the world's top economies.

The daily paper said the discussions -- led by China's economic "czar" Liu He, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and US trade representative Robert Lighthizer -- cover topics including manufacturing and financial services, citing anonymous sources close to the issue.

US President Donald Trump recently announced the United States would impose new tariffs on some $60 billion of Chinese imports, news that rattled global financial markets.

China responded by unveiling a list of 128 products it would hit with customs duties in the event that talks failed.

Mnuchin and Lighthizer sent Liu a letter last week spelling out requests including greater US access to China's financial sector, the reduction of Chinese tariffs on US vehicles and for China to increase its US semiconductor purchases.

The WSJ said Mnuchin is also considering a Beijing trip to continue the talks.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, the US treasury secretary said "we're working on a pathway to see if we can reach an agreement as to what fair trade is for them."

"I am cautiously hopeful we reach an agreement, but if not we are proceeding with these tariffs."By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent.

AgreeToshiba awaits regulator approval for key chip unit sale



Tokyo, March 26 (AFP) Mar 26, 2018



Embattled Japanese conglomerate Toshiba said Monday it was still waiting for regulators to approve the key sale of its chip unit, a delay that could stymie plans to complete the deal this month.

The firm agreed in September to sell its memory chip business to a consortium led by US investor Bain Capital, which was seen as crucial to keeping it afloat after multi-billion-dollar losses.

Under the deal, Toshiba had expected to meet all the sale conditions by March 23 and complete by March 30.

"However, the satisfaction of certain conditions relating to antitrust approvals in required jurisdictions have not yet been confirmed," Toshiba said in a statement Monday.

"Although the timing of the closing has not been determined, Toshiba intends to close the transaction as soon as possible," the statement continued.

Toshiba spokeswoman Midori Hara told AFP "for now it's only China's anti-trust law" that is holding up the sale.

"We don't know the timeline for the approval, but we are still seeking to complete the deal on March 30."

The Bain-led group acquiring the memory chip business includes US tech giants Apple and Dell, as well as South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix.

Toshiba has struggled after the disastrous acquisition of US nuclear energy firm Westinghouse, which racked up billions of dollars in losses before being placed under bankruptcy protection.

In order to survive and avoid delisting, the cash-strapped group decided to sell its chip business -- the crown jewel in a vast range of businesses ranging from home appliances to nuclear reactors.

With the chip deal and the sale of Westinghouse, Toshiba said in February it would swing into the black for the full fiscal year.

kh-sah/danSpace pioneer Yury Gagarin killed in plane crash 50 years ago



Paris, March 26 (AFP) Mar 26, 2018



The first man in space, Russian Yury Gagarin, was killed in a mysterious plane crash a half-century ago, just seven years after his historic feat, a Soviet-era propaganda coup.

Gagarin's 108-minute foray into space, which beat the United States' own effort by three weeks, made him a Russian hero even after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Here is a recap of his life, which ended on March 27, 1968.



- Humble beginnings -



Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934, in the rural village of Klushino, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Moscow, to parents who worked on a Soviet socialist-style collective farm.

His schooling was interrupted by the 1941 Nazi invasion when the family's home was requisitioned and they were forced to move into a mud hut.

Passionate about planes from childhood, Gagarin joined a flying club at the age of 20 and later trained as a military fighter pilot.



- Selected for space -



As a member of the Soviet air force, Gagarin volunteered in 1959 with 19 others to train to fly what was called a "new type of apparatus".

The group was whittled down to six, including Gagarin.

In April 1961 he was picked for the first manned mission to space, an announcement made just days before the flight.

By then Gagarin was aged 27 and married to a nurse with whom he had two daughters.



- 'We're off!' -



On April 12 at 9:07 am Moscow time, Gagarin uttered the famous words "Poyekhali!" -- translated as "Let's go!" or "We're off!" -- as his spacecraft blasted off and took him into orbit.

At 9:12 am he said over the radio: "I see the Earth, it's magnificent."

After a flight of 108 minutes that included a single orbit of the Earth, Gagarin landed by parachute, the first man ever to have crossed the frontier with outer space.

Two days later he received a hero's welcome in Moscow. Thousands took to streets decked with flowers and posters as he was paraded in an open top car.



- Grounded -



The Soviet regime sent the space hero on "missions of peace" and he met world leaders such as Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Cuba's Fidel Castro.

But he had become too precious a symbol to risk on any other dangerous missions and his career as a cosmonaut or pilot was halted.

Television footage from a few years after his space flight showed he had put on weight and appeared out of condition.

Soviet general Nikolai Kamanin, head of cosmonaut training at the time, wrote in diaries published in 1995 that Gagarin had spent a lot of time at receptions.

"Everyone wanted to drink with Gagarin 'for friendship', 'for love' and for a thousand other reasons, and to drink to the bottom of the glass," he said.

Gagarin had to beg the authorities to lift his flight ban and in 1968 he was eventually allowed to return to flying, retraining as a jet pilot.



- Mysterious crash -



On a training mission on March 27, 1968, his MiG fighter plane entered a high-speed spin and crashed into the ground.

Gagarin and his instructor were killed. The circumstances were unclear and the accident was hushed up for days.

The investigation became a state secret, leading to various conspiracy theories.

Documents declassified 50 years later say the most likely cause was a sharp manoeuvre to avoid a weather balloon. Questions remain, nonetheless.

Tens of thousands attended Gagarin's state funeral three days after the crash.

But the space pioneer has become immortal, living on in statues, images and film, as well as buildings and sites named in his honour, including a launchpad at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and a crater on the moon.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Saudi forces intercept seven missiles from Yemen, one dead: coalition



Riyadh, March 25 (AFP) Mar 25, 2018



Saudi forces intercepted seven missiles fired by Yemeni rebels on Sunday, which left at least one person dead and two others wounded, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen said.

"Air defence forces intercept and destroy seven ballistic missiles fired at the kingdom," Saudi state news channel Al-Akhbariya quoted the coalition as saying.Tens of thousands rally in Sanaa to mark 3 years of war



Sanaa, March 26 (AFP) Mar 26, 2018



Tens of thousands of Huthi rebel supporters demonstrated in Yemen's capital on Monday to mark three years of war, hours after neighbouring Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted seven rebel missiles.

A Saudi-led military coalition entered Yemen in March 2015 with the goal of restoring its "legitimate" government to power after the Huthis and their allies took over Sanaa.

Sanaa's Sabaeen Square on Monday was a sea of Yemeni flags, with a smattering of posters bearing pictures of Huthi leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi or the slogan "three years of aggression".

"This is legitimacy!" one protest leader bellowed.

Around 10,000 Yemenis have been killed and 53,000 wounded since the start of the coalition intervention, triggering what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The Iran-backed rebels remain in control of the capital, north Yemen and the country's largest port.

President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's forces have controlled southern Yemen since 2015, but cracks have surfaced this year between the president and his southern separatist allies.

Saudi forces announced Sunday night they had intercepted seven Yemeni rebel missiles, including over Riyadh.

One Egyptian was killed by falling shrapnel in the capital, authorities said.

"This aggressive and hostile action by the Iran-backed Huthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities," coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said.

The Huthi-run Al-Masirah television channel claimed the rebels had targeted Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport as well as other air strips in the south of the kingdom.

The Huthis in November targeted Riyadh airport in what Saudi authorities said was a foiled missile attack, triggering a total blockade on Yemen's ports and international airport.

The blockade was later eased under international pressure.

In a speech Sunday night, rebel chief Abdelmalik al-Huthi said his fighters were ready to make more "sacrifices" against the Saudi-led coalition.Chinese Korean war dead set to return home



Seoul, March 26 (AFP) Mar 26, 2018



A Chinese officer saluted Monday as the remains of 20 former comrades were arrayed in a South Korean military facility ahead of their return home, decades after they died in the Korean War.

The brown-stained bones -- including some near-complete skulls -- were laid out on tables at the temporary ossuary in Incheon before being placed in identical boxes pending their repatriation Wednesday.

It will be the fifth annual return under a 2013 agreement which has so far seen 569 sets of remains sent back.

Communist Chinese forces played a crucial role in support of the North during the 1950-53 Korean War, but former South Korean president Park Geun-hye offered to return the bodies of Beijing's war dead as a goodwill gesture.

Mao Zedong sent millions of troops to intervene as US-led United Nations forces drove Kim Il Sung's army back towards the Chinese frontier in late 1950, saving the North from defeat in a decisive turning point in the war.

South Korean and UN forces were pushed back south, losing control of Seoul before recovering to recapture the capital and end up in a stalemate along what is now the Demilitarized Zone.

Casualty figures remain disputed but Western estimates commonly cite a figure of 400,000 Chinese deaths, while Chinese sources mention a death toll of about 180,000.

The repatriations take place ahead of China's annual Qingming -- tomb-sweeping -- festival, when many people visit and clean the graves of their ancestors.

The bodies being sent back Wednesday were exhumed last year from multiple sites in Gangwon province in South Korea's northeast, a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

Hundreds of North Korean soldiers remain interred at a special cemetery plot in Paju, just south of the heavily fortified border with North Korea, but Pyongyang has ignored Seoul's offers to return them despite sporadic talks on the issue.Yemen rebel attack on Saudi possible war crime: Amnesty



Dubai, March 26 (AFP) Mar 26, 2018



Overnight missile attacks by Yemen's Huthi rebels on arch-rival Saudi Arabia could constitute a potential war crime, Amnesty International said Monday.

"Launching indiscriminate attacks is prohibited by international humanitarian law and can constitute a war crime," said Amnesty's Samah Hadid.

"A high death toll may have been averted, possibly due to the missiles being intercepted, but that doesn't let the Huthi armed group off the hook for this reckless and unlawful act," Hadid said in a statement.

"These missiles cannot be precisely targeted at such distances, so their use in this manner unlawfully endangers civilians."

Amnesty did not say it had independently documented evidence of the attacks.

Saudi Arabia is at the helm of a military coalition that has fought alongside the Yemeni government against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels since 2015.

The coalition said Saudi Arabia's air defence forces had intercepted seven Yemeni rebel missiles late Sunday night, with one Egyptian labourer reported killed by falling shrapnel in Riyadh.

The rebels confirmed they had launched missiles at Riyadh as well as the southern cities of Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran.

Both parties in the Yemen conflict have drawn harsh condemnation for failing to protect civilians in a war that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

Amnesty last week said Saudi Arabia and its allies could stand guilty of war crimes in Yemen, which is under partial blockade by the coalition.

The Saudi-led alliance last year landed on a UN blacklist for the killing and maiming of children.Saudi-led coalition threatens retaliation against Iran over missiles



Riyadh, March 26 (AFP) Mar 26, 2018



A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia on Monday threatened retaliation against Iran, accusing the Shiite power of being behind multiple Yemeni rebel missile attacks on the kingdom.

We "reserve the right to respond against Iran at the right time and right place", coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki told a news conference, calling the development a "dangerous escalation".Saudi-led coalition threatens retaliation against Iran over missiles



Riyadh, March 26 (AFP) Mar 26, 2018



A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia on Monday threatened retaliation against arch-foe Iran, accusing the Shiite power of being behind a barrage of Yemeni rebel missile attacks on the kingdom.

Saudi forces said they intercepted seven missiles on Sunday, including over the capital Riyadh, in a deadly escalation that coincided with the third anniversary of the coalition's intervention in Yemen.

Displaying wreckage at a news conference in Riyadh of what it said were fragments of those ballistic missiles, the coalition claimed forensic analysis showed they were supplied to Huthi rebels by their ally Iran.

"The missiles launched against Saudi territory were smuggled from Iran," coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki told reporters.

We "reserve the right to respond against Iran at the right time and right place", he added.

The missile strikes resulted in the first reported fatality from Huthi fire in the Saudi capital.

Egyptian national Abdul-Moteleb Ahmed, 38, died instantly in his bed when what appeared to be burning shrapnel struck his ramshackle room in Riyadh's Um al-Hammam district, leaving a gaping hole in the roof, witnesses told by AFP at the site.

Three other Egyptian labourers in the same room were wounded and hospitalised, they said.

The Iran-aligned Huthis said on their Al-Masirah television that Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport was among the targets.

Malki alleged the rebels in Sanaa were using the airport there to launch missiles on Saudi territory, adding the coalition had seized a number of smuggled weapons.

Iran has repeatedly denied arming the Huthis in Yemen, despite claims by the United States and Saudi Arabia that the evidence of an arms connection is irrefutable.



- Show of strength -



A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen on March 26, 2015 to try to restore the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after the Shiite Huthis and their allies took over large parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

Hours after the missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, hundreds of thousands of Huthi rebel supporters flooded the streets of Yemen's capital Monday to mark three years of war.

Sanaa's Sabaeen Square was a sea of Yemeni flags as rebel authorities ordered all schools and government offices shut for the anniversary.

Huthi supporters carried portraits of rebel chief Abdulmalik al-Huthi and speakers blasted out a fiery speech by Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah Shiite movement, praising the "steadfastness" of the Yemeni people.

War songs, poems and speeches condemning the United States, the main arms supplier for the Saudi-led coalition, echoed across the square.

"No one can speak on behalf of the Yemeni people. The people taking to the streets today are the real voice," Ibtisam al-Mutawakel, head of a Huthi cultural committee, told AFP.

About 10,000 Yemenis have been killed and 53,000 wounded since the start of the coalition intervention in Yemen, which triggered what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Despite the intervention the rebels remain in control of the capital, northern Yemen and the country's largest port.

- 'Possible war crime' -



Amnesty International, which has criticised both sides in the Yemen war for neglecting civilian safety, on Monday said the "indiscriminate" Huthi missile attack "could constitute a war crime".

The rights group has also slammed the Saudi-led alliance for possible war crimes in Yemen.

Britain urged Iran to "stop sending in weapons which prolong the conflict", while Tehran accused London -- a key arms supplier for Saudi Arabia -- of hypocrisy.

Delivering a veiled swipe at Iran, France called the transfer of missile capabilities to non-state actors "irresponsible".

The US State Department said Washington would support the Saudis' "right to defend their borders against these threats".

Rebel leaders have sought to highlight the role of the United States in the Saudi-led intervention.

At Monday's rally, Saleh al-Sammad, head of the rebels' Supreme Political Council, said the rebels were "ready to reach an understanding" to end the intervention and the coalition's blockade of Yemen.

"It is the Americans who are directing this aggression and participating directly on a number of fronts," Sammad told the rally.

The Hadi government said Monday that the overnight attacks on Saudi Arabia amounted to "an open rejection of peace".

The US Senate last week rejected a bipartisan bid to end American involvement in Yemen's war, voting down a rare effort to overrule presidential military authorisation.

The US has provided weapons, intelligence and aerial refuelling to the Saudi-led coalition.

Washington formally approved defence contracts worth more than $1 billion with Riyadh last Thursday during a high-profile visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

burs-ac/bpUN chief hits out at Myanmar army chief over Rohingya comments



United Nations, United States, March 26 (AFP) Mar 26, 2018



UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday criticized Myanmar's army chief after he declared that the Muslim Rohingya had nothing in common with the country's other ethnic groups.

Guterres said he was "shocked" at reports of General U Min Aung Hlaing's remarks at a military gathering and urged Myanmar's leaders to "take a unified stance against incitement to hatred and to promote cultural harmony."

At the gathering in northern Kachin state on Monday, Hlaing referred to the Rohingya as "Bengalis," a term meant to describe them as foreigners, and said they "do not have the characteristics or culture in common with the ethnicities of Myanmar."

"The tensions were fuelled because the 'Bengalis' demanded citizenship," said the general who was quoted in the Dhaka Tribune.

Some 700,000 Rohingya have been driven into neighbouring Bangladesh since last August by a major army crackdown that the United Nations has likened to ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar authorities say the operation is aimed at rooting out extremists.

Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize laureate, has lost her democratic credentials on the world stage for failing to speak out in favour of the Rohingya.

Guterres said it was "critical that conditions are put in place to ensure that the Rohingya are able to return home voluntarily, in safety and in dignity."

The UN Security Council is hoping to travel to Myanmar to get a first-hand look at the refugee crisis, but has not yet been given the green light for the trip by Myanmar authorities.

Guterres has for months been weighing the appointment of a special envoy for Myanmar that would keep the plight of the Rohingya in the international spotlight.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.Catalonia Conflict Reaches Germany Puigdemont Is No Traitor

The legal situation is clear: Germany must extradite former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont to Spain. But not for the main charge against him. The German judicial system and politicians must do everything in their power to defuse the conflict.The rule of law requires that the government should be subject to laws rather than law should be subject to government.





by Anjum Parvez and Subhra Agarwal





( March 26, 2018, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Independent and impartial judiciary is unequivocally regarded as one of the hallmarks of a vibrant democracy. Its often said that the social development, prosperity and strengthening of democratic credentials in a society depends upon complete justice, independent judiciary and rule of law.





However, these cherished goals can be achieved only if all institutions of the state dispense their functions with dedication and devotion and pay heed to the Constitutional mandates.





In this context, the Constitutions of India, England and United Sates of America (US) have bestowed upon the judiciary the deadly task of protecting the fundamental rights of the subjects. This is the reason the judicial departments in these democracies have been made independent of other organs of state to champion the cause of judicial independency. Because, the framers of the Constitutions were of the opinion that an independent and vibrant judiciary can only succeed to garner public trust and foster social justice and Edward Cokes concept of rule of law.





Coke is said to be the originator of the concept of rule of law when he asserted that king must be under god and law and thus vindicated the supremacy of law over pretensions of the executive. He was the first person who coined a maxim called Law principally de legalite, which means Law will rule. The concept is in the negation of individuals governance.





Importantly, Cokes Rule of Law (RoL) was later explained at full-fledged length by the much-acclaimed professor of Constitutional Law AV Dicey in his popular work The Law of Constitution (1885). Diceys notion of RoL was based on three principles: supremacy of law, equality before the law; and predominance of legal spirit.





On this note, Professor Wade in his book Administrative Law argues, The rule of law requires that the government should be subject to laws rather than law should be subject to government. However, an independent judiciary could only spearhead the cause of rule of law and constitutional spirit. Conversely, an obedient judiciary would be successful in upholding the philosophy of ruling party, not the philosophy of Constitution.





Further, Wade and Philips in their work Constitutional Law (1960) observed, the theory of separation of power signifies that the same set of persons should not compose the functions of more than one organ of government.





In contrast, there is an uncontested truth that only justice can ensure unity and integrity of a state and that justice can be prevailed by an independent judiciary. This is the reason why the highest court is always considered to be the ultimate adjudicator of dispute between one state and the other or between central government and state government(s) or vice versa. In these unprecedented situations, independency of judiciary is a must for limiting the tussles among the government machineries. As per Article 131 of the Constitution of India, the Supreme Court under original jurisdiction clause is empowered with an exclusive jurisdiction to decide the disputes between the government of India at one side and one or more states at the other side; or vice-versa.





However, the US Constitution empowers the Supreme Court to consider only the matters relating to question of law or matters in want of Constitutional interpretation.





At this background, a potent weapon in the hands of judiciary could be the power of judicial review to establish the supremacy of Constitution. Judicial review is the procedure established in Britain where the courts have been conferred power to supervise the exercise of public power. In US, the Supreme Court can set aside any order pronounced or action taken by the administrative authority if it contravenes with due process clause of the Constitution. Similarly, in India the concept of judicial review is not championed by a single Article. There are plethora of Articles which include Articles 13, 32, 131 to 136, 142, 143, 226 or 246 to activate the cause of judicial review in India.





An independent judiciary helps in establishing the rule of Constitution in any state. It means the supremacy of Constitution can only be maintained when the judicial department is given an inherent duty to decide what law is. Chief Justice Marshall while dispensing the landmark judgment for Marbury v. Madison (1803) had observed that the Constitution of US is supreme law of land and its the task of judiciary to declare what the law is.





Over and above everything else, there must be continuing efforts to assure the nation that a truly independent judiciary can exist in a democracy which would not be sabotaged at any pretext.





In a bid to canvass the concepts of rule of law, judicial review or separation of power, the judicial independency is a must. Justice HR Khanna himself in his autobiography-- Neither Rose, nor Thorns--mentioned that if there are three prime requisites for the rule of law, they are: strong bar, independent judiciary and enlightened public opinion.





Justice Khanna further argued that there can be no greater indication of decay in the rule of law than a docile Bar, a subservient judiciary, and a society with a choked or coarsened conscience.





Its time for the states to acknowledge the uncontested saying of HR Khanna, at least, for maintaining constitutionalism in democratic set up. Its high time we realized that in a country with written Constitution, courts ought to have the additional functions of safeguarding the supremacy of Constitution by interpreting and applying its provisions and keeping all the authorities within the scope of Constitutional mandates.





Garner has rightly said that the rule of law is often used simply to describe the state affairs in a country where the law is observed and order is kept. And, the breeds of RoL cannot nurture in a democratic society where there is denial of independent, impartial and vibrant judiciary.





Moreover, the concept of judicial review is a sacrosanct principle embodied under the Constitutions which gives a spacious room for the judicial department to act freely for maintaining Constitutionalism in the state. It has been hailed as the basic structure of the Constitution in India. In this way, the doctrine becomes the most potent weapon in the hands of the judiciary for quickening the pulse of rule of law.





Its horizon further broadens when it comes to acknowledge that the notion neither allows the other wings of government to enact any piece of legislation in contravention to the rights conferred by the Constitution. Nor, it permits the executives or administrative authorities to go offending the principles of natural justice.





There is a common perception that the judiciary in India, UK or US has been playing a constructive role over the years. It has moved a step ahead in right direction to cement the walls of Constitutional democracy in India, UK or US. However, the judiciary cannot champion this cause unless its impartial and independent.





It would be just to conclude that sovereignty is located neither in parliaments of India, US or England nor in the judiciary but in the Constitution itself. So, there is a dire need to maintain the sanctity of our judicial department for quickening the pulse of supremacy of Constitution and rule of law.









(Mr Parvez is a faculty member at Constitutional Law in Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, India and Ms Agarwal is a student of LL.M (Constitutional and administrative laws) at Faculty of Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University.)











Organised under the Scottish Governments Farm Advisory Service (FAS) programme, and delivered by specialists from SAC Consulting, part of Scotlands Rural College (SRUC), the popular event returned to Perth Racecourse on Tuesday 27th February.

Once again, the experience and energy emanating from the speakers stoked the fire of enthusiasm on a wintery day.

The large crowd were keen to hear from the first speaker of the day, Henry Graham, chairman of Lantra Scotland and one of the Champions advising the Scottish Government on a Future Strategy for Agriculture.

Mr Graham provided more detail on over 1,000ha of new land being made available, as announced the previous day by Cabinet Secretary Fergus Ewing.

SAC Consultings Kirsten Williams, new Entrants to Farming Programme co-ordinator and Gathering chair, said:

This created a lot of interest and will hold great opportunity for some in the audience to get on to that first rung on the ladder. Just as importantly, Mr Graham laid out a need for a change in mind-set to achieve a successful future in farming, which set the tone for the rest of the day.

Jim Booth, Head of Co-op Development at the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS), highlighted the strength in co-operation, whether it is informal or through structured co-ops. He noted that co-operation is currently stronger within larger farming units and that it had great potential for smaller farmers to gain economies of scale.And to demonstrate the commitment it shows to customers across the globe the Ifor Williams Trailers distributor in Iceland drove over 200 miles to personally deliver a new livestock trailer to Bjorn Torfasson in the remote west of the country.

The farmer now is delighted with the way his TA510 trailer is performing in a landscape served only by rough roads and left frequently cut off by months of heavy snow.

The vital piece of equipment was supplied to Mr Torfasson, who is in his early sixties, by Vikurvagnar ehf, which is the official Iceland distributor for Ifor Williams Trailers.

The company, which is based in the countrys capital Reykjavic, was founded over 30 years ago and was in the same family until 2015 when it was bought by current chief executive Bjarni Benediktsson.

He said:

We keep busy selling a range of Ifor Williams trailers to customers right across the country including the TA models which feature an internal deck which is perfect for transporting farm animals.

I was contacted by Mr Torfasson who wanted something to move his sheep around.

He has about 500 sheep on his farm which is near a place called Westfjords, an island on the western side of Iceland.

Its a very isolated area and he has lived there all his life. Only 35 people have their homes there and it gets lots of snow. In fact, the roads to the farm are only passable for a short period of time from late April until the beginning of September. At all other times supplies and post have to be flown in by plane.

Iceland is just outside the Arctic Circle and is very much affected by the weather. Sometimes in winter we get the icebergs coming down from the North Pole but we also get amazing views of the Northern Lights.The $2.25 million acquisition of the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company in Iowa in 1918 marked John Deeres entry into the tractor business. This was a much debated and controversial investment at the time, as many critics did not believe in the future of tractors and continued to rely on the use of traditional horse power. Nobody expected that the tractor business would develop into the key foundation of the companys growth.

The 27hp Waterloo Boy Model N (12hp at the drawbar), manufactured from 1917 to 1924, was the first tractor built and marketed by John Deere. The first John Deere branded, fully green and yellow production tractor was the Model D, built from 1923 to 1953. This became the longest production run of any farm tractor, helping to establish the companys tractor success.

John Deeres all-time bestseller was the Model B, with 300,000 sold from 1935 to 1953, while the 4020 became the most widely sold single model tractor, with a total of 175,000 produced from 1963 to 1971. John Deere became the tractor sales leader worldwide for the first time in 1963.

In 1956 John Deere bought the tractor manufacturer Heinrich Lanz, AG in Mannheim, Germany. With this acquisition the company expanded its manufacturing business into Europe for the first time. Lanz also had a long history in the tractor industry, introducing the popular Lanz Bulldog model in 1921.

In subsequent years John Deere continued to strengthen its position in the tractor business. After being the first company to offer power steering on tractors in 1954, another major milestone was the introduction of the ROPS (Roll-Over Protective Structure) as a safety feature in 1966, which set the standard for the entire industry. Initially available as an option in the early 1970s, the Sound-Gard body was the first dust-free, temperature controlled operator station, while the PowerShift transmission first introduced in 1964 provided John Deere tractors with better, more comfortable gear shifting and higher field productivity.A special Home Office concession will continue to allow this very specific group of non-visa nationals to travel to the UK, particularly coming from Australia and New Zealand, between 1 April and 30 June. All those entering will only be allowed to stay for a three month maximum period (i.e. the latest expiry of leave would be 30 September), after which they are required to leave.

Commenting, Jill Hewitt Technical Consultant at the NAAC said,

We have continued to work with the Home Office and are pleased that UK shearing contractors can continue to access this source of expertise from across the world. We dont have sufficient UK shears to tackle the mammoth task of shearing the UK flock and it is vital for animal welfare that fleeces are removed to protect sheep from over-heating and flystrike.Strengthened statutory guidance is now in place for meat chicken keepers on how to meet the needs of their animals and improve their welfare.

This welfare code has been updated to reflect the very latest advice from vets and animal husbandry developments, as part of a programme of reforms to safeguard and enhance the welfare of animals, the Minister for animal welfare, Lord Gardiner announced today.

Minister for Animal welfare Lord Gardiner said:

We have some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world and are going further in a number of areas, including by raising maximum sentences for animal cruelty to five years and introducing mandatory CCTV in abattoirs.

This code was carefully consulted on with industry experts, and uses the most recent scientific and veterinary advice to ensure this clear guidance provides the best advice to owners and keepers to help ensure and enhance the high welfare standards of their animals.

The updated meat chicken code incorporates guidance to reflect new regulations in force since publication of the previous code, including:South Weber event to feature controversial school board member, mask-mandate foe

SOUTH WEBER  A controversial member of the Utah Board of Education and an outspoken foe of mask and vaccine mandates will speak at an outdoor festival in South Weber on Saturday. Plans for the event, to be held at the city-owned Canyon Meadows Park in South Weber, have generated a measure of heated debate on social media, both for and against. But a member of the South Weber City Council, Hayley Alberts, says regardless, the city has no authority to step in and say the Freedom Festival, as it's dubbed, can't happen. "To cancel an event just because someone doesn't like what's being ...Abortion is Not Torture--Not Having One Is

Contact: The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, pr@catholicleague.org

NEW YORK, March 26, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an editorial in the New York Times on abortion:

The March 26 editorial in the New York Times will go down in history as its most radical defense of abortion. It's hard to see how it can ever top this one. Here is what it said:

"Carrying to term a pregnancy against one's will is punishment enough--in fact, it can amount to torture--according to the United Nations Human Rights Council."

So not being able to abort one's baby is torture, but the mangling of one's baby is not.

The March 26 editorial in the Wall Street Journal sheds light on the United Nations Human Rights Council. Here is what it said:

"Syria bombs civilians with chlorine gas, China tortures dissidents, Venezuela restricts access to food and Burma is engaged in ethnic cleansing of a Muslim minority. So naturally the United Nations Human Rights Council trains the bulk of its outrage on...Israel."

So real examples of torture don't seem to bother the United Nations Human Rights Council, but not being allowed to abort one's baby does--it amounts to torture.

This is the mind-set of the pro-abortion industry. The New York Times and the United Nations Human Rights Council have become completely unhinged.Brian Bowen Smith

Last week, Josh Groban officially released "Symphony," the first single from his new album, due this fall. This will be his first album in five years to include original songs that he either wrote or co-wrote, and he says the finished product is very reminiscent of his earlier work.

"This next album is kind of a modern twist on those first albums that I did, which has been a lot of fun to make," he tells ABC Radio.

He says the new disc will feature "almost all original music," because he's had a lot of time to come up with material since releasing 2013's Awake.

"I think after having done Stages, my musical theater record, and then doing a year on Broadway, my tank was full with new creative ideas and new songs," he explains. Josh finished his Tony-nominated run in the Broadway musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 last year.

According to Josh, the new album will find him "harking back to [my] first album, Closer, Awake -- when there was a real blend of eccentric pop songs, along with some of the foreign language [tunes] and things like that."



Josh will kick off a tour October 18 in Duluth, GA, with special guest Idina Menzel.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money.

Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.Handmade cigar industry groups supported President Trumps appointment of Dr. Scott Gottlieb as the head of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Now they will see if that support was deserved.

On Friday, the agency announced its intent to seek comments about reconsidering existing regulations of premium cigars. The 90-day comment period opens today (Monday, March 26) and runs through June 25.

Here is the FDAs summary of its action:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing this advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) to obtain information related to the regulation of premium cigars under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), as amended by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act), and regulations regarding the sale and distribution of tobacco products. Specifically, this ANPRM is seeking comments, data, research results, or other information that may inform regulatory actions FDA might take with respect to premium cigars.

In the notice, the FDA asks for comments, data, research results, and other information related to the following topics: (1) definition of premium cigars, (2) use patterns of premium cigars, and (3) public health considerations associated with premium cigars.

The request for comments also zeros in on an issue regarding the definition of youth (something we raised about the original 499-page deeming document): Please provide any evidence or other information supporting your comments. Also, provide the definition of premium cigar, youth, and young adult used for the studies, information, or views provided in your responses.

The document specifically asks for additional research that might not have been considered when the FDA made the decision to not exempt premium cigars from their deeming rules in 2016. It specifically notes the PATH study published last September that reinforced the idea that different types of cigars have vastly different usage patterns.

Simply considering a premium cigar exemption, of course, doesnt guarantee that the FDA will ultimately adopt one. The FDA notably considered and rejected such an exemption in its original regulation of cigars.

However, the willingness of the new FDA leadership to spend time and resources considering rolling back its regulations is a good sign for those who make, sell, and enjoy handmade cigars. Over the next 90 days, expect a big push from the handmade cigar industry for comments urging the agency to adopt a premium cigar exemption.

Patrick S

photo credits: Stogie GuysBy Cui Mingxuan, Guo Yuandan and Fan Lingzhi

BEIJING, March 22 (ChinaMil) -- "The aircraft carrier from the Chinese mainland is coming again," the Taiwan media exclaimed on Mar. 21 at a time when the situation in the Taiwan Strait is particularly sensitive due to the "Taiwan Travel Act."

Taiwans so-called "Defense Minister" Yen Teh-fa confirmed on Mar. 21 that the aircraft carrier Liaoning from the Chinese mainland entered the Taiwan Strait on Mar. 20. Taiwans so-called "Presidential Office" claimed that the Taiwan military's "various countermeasures are in place" and that the Taiwan people can rest assured.

Compared with Taiwan's excitement, Chinese mainlanders interviewed by the Global Times responded flatly. A person who did not wish to be identified told the Global Times on Mar. 21: "This is too normal. Is it really news?"

As for the timing of the appearance of the Liaoning aircraft carrier in the Taiwan Strait and the "Taiwan Travel Act", and whether it is a countermeasure taken by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the person stated that any party can speculate as to whether it is a countermeasure or not.

However, the Chinese mainland does not need to use any tricks to counter the "Taiwan Travel Act". The Chinese mainland has a lot of powerful countermeasures for the related parties that damage China's core interests. The Chinese mainland does not need to be sneaky, shy or secretive when it comes to countermeasures. Any party that damages China's core interests must weigh if they can afford to touch China's red line, said the person.

A military expert who wished to be anonymous said in an interview with the Global Times on Mar. 21 that it is not the first time the Liaoning aircraft carrier has conducted cross-sea training and the latest sailing is also a routine one.

The fact that the PLA did not issue any news the last two times means that this is a normal training and there was no need to announce it. At present, the cross-sea training of the aircraft carrier has been normalized, and Taiwan should adapt to it, said the expert.

As for the training content, the expert said that it includes verification of long-range carrier navigation capabilities and coordinated formation methods, and improvement of combat capability.

The expert believed that the cross-sea training of the Liaoning aircraft carrier aims to improve the capability to fight and defeat the hostile. Its main purpose is to safeguard the countrys sovereignty, security, territorial integrity and unity. It is a shock to the forces of Taiwan independence, said the expert.

Disclaimer: The article is originally published by the Global Times and it is translated into English by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the authors from the Global Times and do not reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. Chinamil.com.cn does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.To mark the landmark occasion, the hotel is offering its guests an ultra-luxurious $3,000 facial for a limited time.

The Peninsula Spas Medical Beauty Research Age-Defying Customised Facial uses products by Medical Beauty Research, or MBR, a German brand that uses highly innovative patented technology.

The treatment includes four MBR enhancements, each one spread over 15 minutes. A Cell-Power Bust Up Concentrate encourages skin elasticity, while the Executive Gel Mask aims to improve the lipid barrier on the skin and smooth its surface.

Guests can also treat themselves to a hand treatment or foot therapy that treats hyperpigmentation and heaviness of the limbs.

Products used include MBRs Liquid Surgery Serum which claims to rejuvenate cell metabolism and aids in improving the appearance of wrinkles.

As well as benefiting from these state-of-the-art methods while ensconced in the sumptuous confines of the hotels spa, guests who indulgence in the offer also get to take home a 1.7 ounce bottle of this miracle serum which itself is worth $1,724.

Peninsula Hotels operates hotels across Asia, Europe and the United States. Its flagship hotel in Hong Kong opened in 1928.Antonio Banderas feels like he still has Pablo Picasso under his skin. The Malaga actor explained on Thursday, before the world premiere of the National Geographic Series, Genius: Picasso, that filming much of the series in Malaga had been a gift for him, and for Picasso himself. The series had given the artist the return trip to his home city that he never had in his lifetime.

The actor described a sense of frustration at the fact that Picasso had died three years before Franco and couldn't take one last walk along La Malagueta [beach] to receive applause from his people.

It was Banderas who convinced the producers to film in Malaga, in the artist's birthplace and on the Misericordia beach (for a scene set in France).

Hosting the premiere of the series at the city's Cervantes theatre on Thursday evening was also part of Banderas' dream to make the artist's birthplace an important player in the series and bring him home.

Before arriving in Malaga for Thursday's premiere, Banderas and National Geographic launched the series at a press conference in Madrid. There, he and series director Kenneth Biller, offered more information about the series, which has been filmed entirely in English.

The young Picasso is played by actor Alex Rich and Banderas takes over from the age of 40.

From the outset the producers, Oscar-winners Ron Howard and Brian Grazier, and the director knew they wanted Banderas for Picasso.

When we finished filming the series on Einstein we started looking at figures for the next one. When we decided it was going to be Picasso, I said, almost as a joke, that we had to have Antonio Banderas. From the very first moment we agreed it had to be him. And we didn't even know then that he was from Malaga. Ron and I got on a plane to meet Antonio and we discovered he had a great passion for the painter and knew all about him. We wanted authenticity and only he could give that, said Biller.

The actor could be forgiven for still feeling half Banderas, half Picasso. He admitted in Madrid that just last Friday he was still filming a scene in which he has an argument with Dora Maar, Picasso's muse and lover.

Both of us were born in Malaga, then left and became famous. Him more so [he laughs]; but above all we are similar in terms of the enormous sacrifices and capacity to work hard, the actor explained on Wednesday in Madrid.

With Thursday's premiere, which was attended by representatives of National Geographic, Fox and cast members, among other guests, out the way, Banderas is now concerning himself with the weather forecast for this weekend.

Palm Sunday is when the actor's Holy Week brotherhood goes out in procession in the streets of Malaga, a date that Banderas never misses.Manilva town hall is calling for local residents to join a demonstration this Monday evening to demand greater security following the death of a 27-year-old man in the town early on Sunday morning.

The victim, who was Spanish and a resident of the town, was punched twice and collapsed to the floor, hitting his head. The events took place just after 4am in the Plaza de Martin Carpena, where hundreds of people had gathered to celebrate the Primavera (spring) festival. The incident occurred in a dimly lit area where groups of young people regularly gather to drink.

It appears that the victim had been walking past as a heated argument was taking place among some young women. His attacker was apparently a youth who was with the girls. The suspect turned himself in to police in Estepona later on Sunday morning.

The mayor, Mario Jimenez, stated that while this was an "isolated incident" there was a need for more Guardia Civil officers in the town. He said that the town hall is doing all it can to make Manilva a safer place and that the Local Police force was working flat out, but "more officers from the State Security Forces" are needed.

The town hall declared three days of official mourning on Sunday.

The demonstration is this Monday at 8pm in the Plaza de la Vendimia.Find an expert for comment Search for a Swinburne researcher or academic expert who is available for media comment about their field of expertise.

Please enable JavaScript to get the full experience of this website.The picture shows the Chinese Red Arrow HJ-10A Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) system at the IQDEX-2018 exhibition in Baghdad, Iraq.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ, Mar. 23 (ChinaMil) -- The China North Industries Corp. (NORINCO), a Chinese military trade enterprise, brought the Chinese HJ-10A (Red Arrow-10A) anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system, which is extremely rare in the Middle East's weapon market, to the sixth International Defense Exhibition (IQDEX-2018) in Baghdad, Iraq, for the first time.

A few days ago, Iraqi media disclosed photos of Chinese HJ-10A ATGM system online. Unlike the HJ-10A ATGM system unveiled by the NORINCO during the Zhuhai Air Show in 2016, the HJ-10A ATGM system exhibited in the Middle East uses the export version big 4X4 wheel chassis.

Compared with the tracked chassis version of HJ-10A ATGM system, the passability of the wheeled chassis one is apparently inferior, but the overall cost should be lower.

The Chinese HJ-10A ATGM system is a heavy-duty, fiber-optic guided anti-tank missile, and its launching vehicle has an elevating mast-type photoelectric sighting system that can detect and lock the hostile armored vehicles as far as possible.

The Chinese HJ-10A anti-tank guided missile is connected to the launching vehicle with a fine fiber and has the farthest firing range at about 10 kilometers and the largest penetration depth in the its anti-tank guided missile family.

The HJ-10A ATGM system, commissioned in the Chinese PLA Army not long ago, is a newest member of China's export-oriented anti-tank missile family.

The picture shows the tracked chassis version of Chinese HJ-10A anti-tank missile system at the Zhuhai Air Show in 2016, China.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Heidi and Michael McCormick, of Canastota, worry about whether their 8-year-old autistic son will have a meltdown when they go out.

Amie and Matt Estrella, of Sherrill, know if the wait is too long, their 14-year-old autistic son will get antsy.

And Jessica and David Bumbolo, of Utica, say people tend to stare when their 8-year-old autistic son flaps his arms and talks loudly in public.

Sunday afternoon, these families and others with loved ones on the autism spectrum came together for a free homemade Italian meal at Asti restaurant on Syracuse's North Side.

"It's wonderful to come to dinner in a stress-free environment," said Heidi McCormick, of Canastota, whose 8-year-old son, Cameron, has autism.

"We have a lot of other things to worry about," she said. "Knowing our child's behavior will be accepted no matter what is a relief."

Asti owner Richard Tumino said he reached out to his pastor at Redeemer Church in Utica to ask how he could give back to the community. Tumino said he wanted to host a free meal at his restaurant in Syracuse once a month for different groups in need.

That's when his pastor introduced Tumino to Kathy Caruso, whose 23-year-old son, Nicholas, has autism.

"I didn't know there was a need in the autism community," Tumino said.

"It's hard for us; it's hard for us to feel normal," said Caruso, of New Hartford. "What typical families take for granted is a big deal for us."

Tumino wanted to help.

He invited Caruso and about 40 others, all with a family member on the autism spectrum, to his restaurant on Sunday so they could enjoy a meal without worrying about having to wait too long or someone staring.

Tumino, 49; his fiancee, Tunde Popovics, 50; and his sons, 12-year-old Lucas and 13-year-old Gabe Tumino, kept a buffet filled with homemade penne pasta with meatballs, fresh Italian bread, salad and pizza for the families.

"Going out to eat is always a challenge," Matt Estrella said, sitting next to his son Jack, who is on the autism spectrum. "Waiting for a table and for your food is difficult..."

When the family went out to eat on Valentine's Day, the wait was long, Amie Estrella said. Before they knew it, Jack had grabbed some flowers from a couple's bouquet nearby as they waited. Amie Estrella said the couple was understanding, but she and her husband felt bad.

"When you go out to dinner, you don't want to be disturbed by noises or commotion," Matt Estrella said.

But at the same time, going out to eat can be nice for caregivers who worry about having to keep an eye on children with autism while cooking dinner, or who don't want to have to clean up after a meal, he said. The Estrellas say they try to pick times to go out to eat when it's less busy, and where they can sit in a booth and get their food fairly quickly.

Jessica and David Bumbolo said they rarely go out to eat with their five children.

"We usually pick up a pizza or fast food on the way home," Jessica Bumbolo, 29 said. "We don't go out to big, fancy restaurants like this."

Bumbolo said she found out her son Cayden had autism four years ago.

"He's an arm flapper and people will stare at that," she said. "He talks very loud. And waiting is hard. The fidgeting. Getting up from the table."

On Sunday, no one stared, but instead smiled as they glanced over as Cayden and his siblings lifted their glasses and shouted, "Cheers!"

"It's nice because people around us understand," said David Bumbolo, who adopted Cayden.

Tumino said his brother, John, encouraged him to reach out to those in need in the community. John Tumino and his wife started In My Father's Kitchen in 2011.

"What he did is amazing," Richard Tumino said. "He's been a blessing to many people."

Turmino said Sunday's free meal for families with autism was the first of what he hopes is many times he can give back to the community. He is looking for other groups that he can also help on a Sunday. Turmino asks anyone with suggestions to call him at (315) 420-8065.

"I think you need to touch your community," Turmino said. "If you're not touching your community, what are we doing? We're spinning our wheels, doing it for ourselves."Syracuse, NY -- An extremely drunk Leonard Glowacki cussed out police and blamed the victims after running a red light in January 2015 and killing a man who aspired to become a cop.

"(F-word) you, I was driving and had a crash, (f-word) you," Glowacki told police after the crash.

In regards to the victim, a 19-year-old from Oneida, Glowacki said: "(F-word) them, they pulled out in front of me, (f-word) them."

But Glowacki later apologized at sentencing for the crash near Destiny USA that killed Kane Buss, 19, and seriously injured his girlfriend, Amanda Pawlikowski.

Buss -- who had widely spoken of his wish to become a police officer -- was leaving the mall with his girlfriend after a date at the Cheesecake Factory when Glowacki blew through a red light at the mall's entrance.

Glowacki, then 38, was driving with a blood-alcohol content three times the legal limt. He was going 50 mph when he slammed into Buss's vehicle.

"There are no words I can say that will change the events," Glowacki said at his October 2015 sentencing, tearing up. "If I could take it all away, I would."

He later said he hoped his plea -- and accompanying 8 1/3 to 25-year prison sentence -- would help the grieving family.

"I pray for the families, for loved ones, that this would give some closure to start the healing process," he said then.

But Glowacki apparently had second thoughts after getting to state prison. He appealed his own guilty plea, going so far as to even submit his own arguments to the court without a lawyer.

Short of having the guilty plea tossed, Glowacki asked for a more lenient sentence.

On Friday, the appellate court denied his request to overturn the plea, saying that Glowacki knew exactly what he was doing. The court noted that Glowacki gave up his right to appeal when he was sentenced.

"...the record establishes that defendant knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently waived his right to appeal," the court wrote in its decision.

Glowacki complained that his lawyer, Frank Scibilia, didn't do a good enough job -- a typical complaint for a convicted criminal.

Just for sake of argument, the court went on to note that it wouldn't have overturned the plea, even if it disregarded Glowacki's appeal waiver.By Jacob Pucci | jpucci@syracuse.com

We've received more than 400 nominations--and growing--since launching our search for Central New York's best half-moon cookie this morning.

Remember: These are just the top nominee-getters so far. The nomination process ends at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, March 29. The six places with the most nominations will advance to the finals. The winners -- judges' favorite and readers' choice -- will be crowned in April.

The nominated bakeries are listed in order from most nominations to fewest.

If your favorite place isn't in the top six yet, then get out the vote and nominate your pick!

David Lassman | The Post-Standard

No. 1 - Harrison Bakery (Syracuse)

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Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com

No. 2 - Lyncourt Bakery (Salina)

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Gary Walts | gwalts@newyorkupstate.com

No. 3 - Holland Farms (Yorkville)

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Gloria Wright | The Post-Standard

No. 4 - Green Hills Farms (Nedrow)

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No. 5 - Hemstrought's Bakeries (Utica)

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No. 6 - Mario's Bakery (North Syracuse)

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Stephen D. Cannerelli | The Post-Standard

No. 7 (tie) - Dunn's Bakery (Canastota)

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No. 7 (tie) - Murphy's Specialized Pastry (Manlius)

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No. 9 (tie) - Bella Bakery (Lakeland)

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No. 9 (tie) DeMario's Eatery (Chittenango)

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David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com

The best of the rest

Those are the current top 10 bakeries with the most nominees--the top six advance to the finals--but there is still plenty of time to nominate your favorite! Leave your nominations in the comment section.

Below are the rest of the nominees, listed in order from most nominations to fewest.

Don't Edit

Kathe Harrington for NYup.com

Cameron's Bakery (Auburn)

Geddes Bakery (North Syracuse)

Half Moon Bakery and Bistro (Jamesville) (pictured)

Ontario Orchards (Oswego)

Wegmans (multiple locations)

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Peter Chen | The Post-Standard

Byrne Dairy/Shelby's Donuts (multiple locations)

East Side Bakery (Cortland)

Gingerbread Bakeshop (New Hartford)

Kathy's Cakes & Specialty Treats (Fulton) (pictured) .

Opals Confectionary (Verona)

Provisions Bakery & Restaurant (Syracuse)

Tops Friendly Markets (multiple locations)

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Michael Greenlar | mgreenlar@syracuse.com

Lansing Market (Lansing)

North Star Orchard (Westmoreland)

P&C Fresh (Ithaca)

Patisserie (Skaneateles) (pictured)

Tasswood Bakery (Pennellville)

Don't Edit

Biscotti Cafe (Syracuse)

Cakes Galore (Oswego)

Crazy Daisies (Onondaga)

Damiano's Eatery (Mexico)

Dana Bakes (Syracuse)

Eat More Sweets (Marcellus)

Gluten Free Epiphany (Canastota)

People's Market of Lansing (Lansing)

Salvatore's Italian Bakery (New Hartford)

Skaneateles Bakery (Skaneateles)

Spera's (Cicero)

Strong Hearts Cafe (Syracuse)

The Cookie Connection (Syracuse) (pictured)

The Gingersnap Bakery (Phoenix)

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Teri Weaver | tweaver@syracuse.com

Nominate your favorite!

To nominate your favorite half-moon cookie, click this link and leave a comment!

Don't Edit

Jacob Pucci finds the best in food, entertainment and culture across Upstate New York. Contact him at (315) 282-8611, or by

Email.

Follow @JacobPucciAUBURN, N.Y.--Every Wednesday evening, after dinner hour is over, prisoners at Auburn Correctional Facility return to their cells and wait for roll to be taken.

If there are no issues, the group of men who have been granted permission are led outside and across the prison yard to the section of the compound where classes are held.

They walk down the hallway, single file, and enter the large room that's been designated for the two-hour weekly meetings of the Veterans Group of Auburn, an organization that's been run for the past 31 years by prisoners who served in the military prior to their incarceration,

Raymond VanClief, president of the Veterans Group of Auburn, calls roll: "Bass. Clay. Green. Gross..."

Some of the men present are attending a weekly stress management meeting, where they are able to watch television and talk with other inmates.

The other half of the group situate themselves at a long table, take out their crochet needles and begin to work on their latest projects.

The Crochet Club, a sub-group of the Veterans Group, has been one of the most popular organizations for the inmates at Auburn Correctional Facility for the past two decades. It is so popular, in fact, there is a waiting list of men hoping to join.

Priority is given to veterans, but inmates who are in good standing can also get involved.

The group crochets products that are donated to organizations across Central New York. Last year, they made 1,301 items that were distributed right before Christmas, including hats and scarves that were given to St. Lucy's Church for those in need, and baby blankets for new parents at Fort Drum.

Gordon Gross, who has been an inmate at the correctional facility for several years, has served as captain of the group for the past year. Gross said that when he became the group's leader, he told the men they needed to be more meticulous in their crocheting so that the products were the best they could be.

The men embraced this idea and started challenging themselves with their projects.

"When the quality went up," Gross said, "their ability got better. The guys were really proud of their work."

Not only did the quality of the projects improve, but the members were able to crochet 500 more products than they had made the previous year, and the group donated items to 10 different places in and around Auburn, including community centers and churches.

Some of the inmates got so good, they were able to work on more advanced projects.

"Five of the guys are advanced," Gross said. "We are constantly adding new people and training them."

Thanks to the Crochet Squad, St. Lucy's Church was able to distribute hats and scarves to 800 adults and 250 children this winter.

The group also crocheted 147 red hats for the American Heart Association, which were then distributed to babies born with heart defects across the state.

While the patterns for the hats, scarves and blankets are fairly simple, the crocheters also make stuffed animals, which are much more complex.

Various groups donate the yarn for the men's projects. The inmates are restricted to only certain colors of yarn; they cannot use colors that closely resemble the blue and black uniforms the officers in the facility wear.

Crocheting has provided a good outlet for the members of the Crochet Squad, which consists of about eight veterans.

Brenda Walsh, the senior librarian and staff advisor for the group, said the inmates who are in good standing and have been given permission are even able to bring their projects back to their cells with them to continue their work.

For Van Clief, who said he has not crocheted any projects--yet--working with his fellow veterans and the members of the Crochet Squad is about continuing the legacy that was started before him, and even though it's nine months away, the inmates are already starting to crochet items to be donated next Christmas.

"Our goal," Van Clief said, "is always to give more."

Save

Save

SaveNEW HARTFORD, N.Y. -- Police say a drunk driver ran a red light, then crashed into a wall in front of the Utica National Insurance building early Sunday.

Joshua Evanciew, 27, of Rome, was driving a 2015 Chevrolet Cruze north on Route 12 in New Hartford at 1:23 a.m. when the crash happened, according to police.

A witness told officers that Evanciew drove through a red light at the intersection of Route 12 and Genesee Street. Evanciew's car then struck a wall in front of Utica National Insurance, causing the car to roll over before landing upright, New Hartford Police Sgt. Matthew J. Sica said in a news release.

New Hartford police posted a photo of the wrecked car on its Facebook page Sunday.

Edwards Ambulance Evanciew to St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Police say they charged Evanciew with driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor, and passing a red light, a traffic violation.

Evanciew is scheduled to answer the charges at a later date in New Hartford Town Court.Ilion, N.Y. -- U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney said Remington Arms has assured her that its bankruptcy court filing will not result in job losses at the gun-maker's big factory in the Herkimer County village of Ilion.

"Remington has reassured our office that the Chapter 11 filing is solely for the purpose of restructuring debt to equity," she said in a statement Monday. "There will be no job losses at the Ilion, NY, plant and at this time Remington has no plans to relocate the facility."

Remington Outdoor Co., the parent of Remington Arms Co., filed for reorganization Sunday under Chapter 11 of U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The company said it will turn over control to creditors as part of a plan that will allow it to cancel $775 million of debt.

The country's oldest gun-maker is headquartered in Madison, N.C., but employs approximately 1,000 people in Ilion, 69 miles east of Syracuse.

Reuters reported that Remington has obtained commitments for nearly $300 million from its existing lenders, after new sources of funding dried up in the months leading up to its Chapter 11 filing. Without the funds, Remington might have been forced out of business, Reuters said.

In addition to its heavy debt load, Remington has seen sales drop since the election of Donald Trump as president. His election apparently ended fears among gun owners that the federal government was going to restrict gun sales, leading to a drop in gun sales.

The company also is facing the possibility of revenue losses from restrictions placed on gun sales by retailers following a shooting that killed 17 people and wounded 15 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14.

Tenney, R-New Hartford, said Remington will be in much better financial shape following the reorganization.

"Once Remington successfully undergoes the Chapter 11 process, it will emerge more streamlined and stable for the future," she said.

Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148A Chinese pilot during an exercise over the South China Sea. XINHUA

Bombers, jets hone skills over South China Sea, western Pacific

The People's Liberation Army Air Force recently conducted combat exercises over the western Pacific Ocean and South China Sea, according to its spokesman, Senior Colonel Shen Jinke.

Shen said on Sunday that a group of aircraft including H-6K bombers and Su-30 fighter jets flew over the Miyako Strait earlier last week and then carried out combat training over the western Pacific to verify their long-range operational capabilities.

At the same time, another group of H-6Ks, Su-35 fighter jets and other aircraft conducted a joint combat patrol over the South China Sea, practicing aerial maneuvers and strike tactics at sea, he said in a statement published by the Air Force.

The PLA Air Force has become adept at organizing sophisticated joint operations and is able to safeguard the country's sovereignty, national security and interests, Shen said.

This is the second time the PLA Air Force has sent its Su-35sbuilt by Russia's Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association and introduced to China in late 2016to take part in exercises over the South China Sea. The first was in early February.

Photos released by the Air Force showed air-launched cruise missiles under the wings of the H-6K bombers participating in the exercises.

The H-6K is the PLA's most advanced bomber and is capable of carrying supersonic cruise missiles to make precision strikes against land targets or ships. Foreign military observers said that the plane has a flight range of about 3,500 kilometers, while its cruise missile has a minimum range of 1,500 km, which means the bomber is able to hit targets at least 5,000 km from its takeoff point.

A news release published by Japan's Joint Staff on Friday said that in addition to bombers and fighter jets the Chinese Air Force had dispatched a Tupolev Tu-154 signal intelligence jet and a Y-8 electronic warfare aircraft to participate in the western Pacific training exercise.

The Air Force began performing long-range, ocean-bound drills in March 2015 and has organized dozens of such operations since then.

Fu Qianshao, an expert from the PLA Air Force, said that ocean-bound exercises verify not only the Air Force's long-distance combat capability, but also its logistics support and electronic warfare abilities.

According to the Air Force, China is developing a new-generation strategic bomber that will be much stronger than the H-6K. Analysts believe the new aircraft will have a range of at least 10,000 km, enough to perform intercontinental missions.WASHINGTON, D.C. - They came as strangers from across the country, with wildly different perspectives on one of the most difficult and divisive issues in America today.

But no matter where they stood on the issue of gun violence when they arrived in the nation's capital this weekend, the 21 participants of "Guns, an American Conversation" agreed they left the first of the two-day gathering with a deeper understanding of the issues, and of each other.

"Just connecting with people changes this entire conversation," said participant Ade'Kamil Kelly of East Orange, New Jersey. "Now we're talking. Now we're moving to the next level of conversation."

As hundreds of thousands of protesters thronged Pennsylvania Avenue outside the Newseum for the March Against Violence on Saturday, the participants were huddled inside, engaged in deep discussion about a topic that has bedeviled lawmakers down the street on Capitol Hill: What should be done about gun violence in the wake of recent school shootings?

The group included a suburban mother and hunter, gun control advocates, gun violence victims, a teacher, a youth counselor, a competitive shooter, police officers, a decorated military veteran, a retired diplomat, high school activists and college students.

In addition to Kelly, the participants, chosen from a pool of almost 900 applicants, included:

John Noel Bartlett, of Oil City, Pennsylvania

Jennifer Brush of Solon, Ohio

La'Daniel Boykin of Denver, Colorado

Deza-Rae Collins of Salem, Oregon

Andrew DiNapoli of Belchertown, Massachusetts

Jon Robert Godfrey of Parish, New York

Alexis Intili of Staten Island, New York

Melanie Jeffcoat of Homewood, Alabama

Peter Lotto of Fayetteville, New York

Adrian Moy of Oregon City, Oregon

Nicholas O'Connor of Cleveland, Ohio

Jennifer Ruth Partica of Moon Township, Pennsylvania

David Preston of Mobile, Alabama

Ambar Ramos of Boston, Massachusetts

Nash Salami of Canton, Michigan

Robert Edwin Stone II of Ann Arbor, Michigan

Malak Wazne of Dearborn, Michigan

Ricardo "Cobe" Williams of Chicago, Illinois

Mathilde Wimberly of Metairie, Louisiana

Daniel Zelenka II of Covington, Louisiana

Ade'Kamil Kelly of East Orange, New Jersey

The project, led by Advance Local in partnership with the Newseum and Spaceship Media, started with the in-person weekend sessions and will run throughout the month of April when the 21 participants join 130 other individuals in an online discussion about guns in America.

Advance Local websites and newspapers will chronicle their journey together, and will be joined in coverage by partners from Time magazine and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting.

"I felt I had an opportunity to walk in some other shoes," said participant Melanie Jeffcoat. "Maybe someone had the opportunity to walk in mine."Editor's note: The Syracuse Common Council passed this legislation earlier today.

Democrat Tim Rudd is an at-large member of the Syracuse Common Council.

By Tim Rudd

Today, the Syracuse City Council voted to revise the Rental Registry Ordinance to include mandatory interior inspections. I am writing to explain why I opposed this change and to identify the course I prefer.

This new law creates an illusion of action in a city that can't afford the status quo. A short walk in any neighborhood illustrates the extent to which our housing stock has deteriorated. Too many homes are neglected, which means too many residents live in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. Simply put, the housing market in much of our city is failing.

These conditions exist in spite of the fact that there is already a rental registry for non-owner occupied one- and two-family houses. As part of the rental registry process, the Codes Department performs exterior inspections of each property. But two-thirds of properties that should register ignore the law. After all, slumlords do not follow rules. The third of landlords who follow the law are put on a "Compliant Landlord List," which the city does nothing with.

This new law substantially increases the Codes Department workload by requiring interior inspections of 8,500 properties every three years (2,833 new inspections annually). An obvious question is: "Does the Codes Department have capacity to perform these inspections?" The department says yes but I remain skeptical.

The planning fallacy is a phenomenon in which predictions about how much time will be needed to complete a future task display an optimism bias and underestimate the time needed. I believe the folks in Codes are well-intentioned and hardworking, but are too optimistic about the tasks that lay before them.

To illustrate this point, New York state requires Certificate of Compliance inspections every three years on all properties with three units or more. Since there are approximately 2,800 such properties, we should be inspecting 930 annually. But we only inspect 580 a year meaning inspections are performed only every five years. Codes has been unable to perform the additional 350 such inspections annually. Yet right now by reorganizing staff, and by investing in iPads, they will suddenly be able to perform 350 additional Certificate of Compliance inspections and 2,800 additional rental registry interior inspections annually, with no new staff and no new money.

Additionally, I question the legality of mandatory interior inspections. The Fourth Amendment establishes the right of people to be secure in their houses against unreasonable searches and no warrants can be issued without probable cause. No local law will change the burden of probable cause. Currently, the Codes Department does not regularly seek warrants to search house interiors because of this burden. So, add that to the list of tasks our Codes department will begin doing July 1, that they could have been doing but failed to perform for the last eight years. And be warned that landlords will sue the city, consuming scarce resources, and creating policy uncertainty for code enforcement.

In place of these revisions I would prefer city government take the following steps:

First, focus on the reorganization within Codes that will assign individual code inspectors to zones where each will be responsible for approximately 650 parcels. This change alone will have bumps that will require attention.

Second, begin to meet the state standard for Certificates of Compliance. Such a clear demonstration of increased capacity would be a tangible win for the department.

Third, establish the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication. This will help move code violations out of the court system and into its own administrative track, like parking tickets, which will allow Codes to more efficiently administer financial penalties against code violators. In order to maximize the collection rate, we should work with our partners in state government to ensure these fines can be put onto property tax bills. As a first priority, the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication should target the two-thirds of landlords who fail to join the rental registry.

Last, and most importantly, use the Compliant Landlord List proactively (by contrast, the new law eliminates it). Specifically, take all properties in Syracuse and pull out all the Compliant Landlords, leaving Non-Compliant Landlords. Then work with Onondaga County to issue stop rent orders for all Non-Compliant properties. Third-party payers will not release funds if a property is not in compliance with local laws; it is up to us to make sure we communicate non-compliance. Letting government housing payments flow to properties in disrepair is the primary reason the housing market in Syracuse is what it is today. If we cut off the cash flow to unsafe and unhealthy properties, we will immediately begin to see investment and improvement in our housing stock.Cynthia Nixon is running for governor, but many voters in Upstate New York aren't familiar with the former "Sex & The City" star.

The 51-year-old actress, a lifelong New Yorker best known for playing Miranda on the HBO series, announced last week that she's challenging Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a Democratic primary for the 2018 gubernatorial race. She described herself as a progressive activist who advocates for reforms in public education.

But 70 percent of Upstate NY voters don't know who Nixon is or have any opinion of her, according to a Siena College poll conducted a week before she launched her campaign. The New York Post reports 13 percent had a favorable opinion of her potential ability to represent upstate and 17 percent had an unfavorable view.

Patrick McNeil, a Norwich watchmaker and local Democratic Party chair, told the Post he had to Google who Nixon is.

"Celebrities, extremely wealthy people - they can't relate to Chenango County of 50,000 people," McNeil said. "She wants to fix the subway. Well, does she want to fix the bridge on Route 12?"

Nixon's campaign strategist Rebecca Katz insists that "Cynthia is no stranger to upstate," telling the Post that the Emmy winner stayed at a Skaneateles bed and breakfast last month.

"And as she travels all over this state in the course of this campaign, I think you'll find that the more people learn about Cynthia, the more they like her. With Andrew Cuomo, it's just the opposite," Katz added.

The New York Daily News reports more than a dozen Upstate NY county executives, mayors and other officials criticized Nixon over Katz' comment.

"Spending a wkend at a Skaneateles B&B doesn't mean one is familiar w/ upstate NY, our people, & our concerns," Cortland Mayor Brian Tobin tweeted.

Katz also told the Daily News her comments were misrepresented. Nixon is "no stranger to upstate" from her public school advocacy over the past 17 years, Katz said.

Upstate residents are still more familiar with former state Sen. Terry Gipson of the Hudson Valley, who has already announced he'll challenge Cuomo in the Democratic primary, and former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, who's still considering running.

Nixon will begin campaigning in Upstate New York on Monday with a rally in Albany. According to the Times-Union, she'll be joined by members of the Alliance for Quality Education at a noon press conference at the Hilton on Lodge Street.

Downstate may still be a challenge for Nixon, too; the Post points out Cuomo won the 2014 Democratic primary with 56 percent of the upstate vote and 68 percent of NYC. And Nixon's lack of political experience is still a point of criticism across the Empire State.

Former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2013, called Nixon an "an unqualified lesbian" last week.

Nixon, who identifies as bisexual, joked that Quinn was "technically right."

"I don't have my certificate from the Department of Lesbian Affairs. But in my defense, there is a lot of paperwork involved," she said during a campaign event Wednesday.

Cuomo is overwhelmingly favored for re-election, including by nearly 30 points over two potential Republican opponents, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro and State Senator John DeFrancisco, according to the Siena poll. Head to head with Nixon, Cuomo is favored 66-19 among Democrats.An Upstate New York man with a history of drunk driving convictions has been arrested again for driving while intoxicated.

Police stopped Joel Echeverria, 34, of Hamburg, for speeding around 3 a.m. on Sunday. They soon found he was driving without a valid license, WGRZ-TV reported.

Echeverria refused a breath test, and police impounded his vehicle and took him to the station where he failed field sobriety tests.

Police said Echeverria has had his license suspended or revoked seven times due to alcohol related offenses and not paying tickets. He was charged with felony driving while intoxicated rather than a misdemeanor due to having two previous DWI convictions and one driving while ability impaired conviction in the past 10 years.

Because he was intoxicated while his license was suspended or revoked, his aggravated unlicensed operation charges were also upgraded to felonies.

He also faces a charge for driving without a court-ordered ignition interlock device, and he was cited for several traffic violations.

Watch the WGRZ-TV video report below.Federal authorities on Friday deported a U.S. Army veteran who came to the country legally as a child and later served two tours of duty in Afghanistan.



Officials escorted 39-year-old Miguel Perez to the border and handed him over to Mexican authorities, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said, according to CNN. Federal authorities previously denied Perez's citizenship application because of a felony drug conviction.



Perez was convicted in 2010 on charges related to delivering more than 2 pounds of cocaine to an undercover officer. He had his green card revoked and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to CNN.



ICE began deportation proceedings after he had served about half his sentence and he has been in the agency's custody since 2016, CNN said.



Perez said his experiences in Afghanistan led to drinking, drug addiction and post-traumatic stress.



"After the second tour, there was more alcohol and that was also when I tried some drugs," he said last month, according to CNN. "But the addiction really started after I got back to Chicago when I got back home because I did not feel very sociable."



Perez was born in Mexico, but came to the United States legally when was 8 years old. His father moved the family to Chicago because of a job offer.



His parents are now naturalized American citizens. A sister and Perez's two children are Americans by birth, according to CNN.



"This case is a tragic example of what can happen when national immigration policies are based more in hate than on logic and ICE doesn't feel accountable to anyone," Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a Perez supporter, said, according to CNN. "At the very least, Miguel should have been able to exhaust all of his legal options before being rushed out of the country under a shroud of secrecy."



Duckworth called Perez's treatment deplorable, according to NBC News.



Perez's supporters argued his military service earned him the right to stay in the U.S. and get treatment for substance abuse and mental health issues, CNN said.



Perez's lawyer, Chris Bergen, told NBC News that his client was left with no money and only his orange prison uniform.



"We will continue to fight his case and appeal his citizenship denial," Bergen said in an email, according to NBC.



ICE reviews veterans' deportation cases carefully, said Nicole Alberico, a spokeswoman for the agency, according to NBC.



"ICE exercises prosecutorial discretion, when appropriate, on a case-by-case basis for members of the armed forces who have served our country," she said. "ICE specifically identifies service in the U.S. military as a positive factor that is considered when deciding whether or not prosecutorial discretion should be exercised."

Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Google + | 315-454-2112LONDON - Cambridge Analytica assigned dozens of non-U.S. citizens to provide campaign strategy and messaging advice to Republican candidates in 2014, according to three former workers for the data firm, even as an attorney warned executives to abide by U.S. laws limiting foreign involvement in elections.

The effort was designed to present the newly created company, whose parent, SCL Group, was based in London, as "an American brand" that would appeal to U.S. political clients, according to former Cambridge Analytica research director Christopher Wylie.

Wylie, who emerged this month as a whistleblower, provided The Washington Post with documents that describe a program across several U.S. states to win campaigns for Republicans using psychological profiling to reach voters with individually tailored messages. The documents include previously unreported details about the program, which was called "Project Ripon" for the Wisconsin town where the Republican Party was born in 1854.

U.S. election regulations say foreign nationals must not "directly or indirectly participate in the decision-making process" of a political campaign, although they can play lesser roles.

Those restrictions were explained in a 10-page memo prepared in July 2014 by a New York attorney, Laurence Levy, for the heads of Cambridge Analytica, including company President Rebekah Mercer, Vice President Steve Bannon and Chief Executive Alexander Nix. The memo said that foreign nationals could serve in minor roles - for example as "functionaries" handling data - but could not involve themselves in significant campaign decisions or provide high-level analysis or strategy.

Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group were overwhelmingly staffed by non-U.S. citizens - mainly Canadians, Britons and other Europeans - at least 20 of whom fanned out across the United States in 2014 to work on congressional and legislative campaigns, the three former Cambridge workers said.

Many of those employees and contractors were involved in helping to decide what voters to target with political messages and what messages to deliver to them, the former workers said. Their tasks ran the gamut of campaign work, including "managing media relations" as well as fundraising, planning events, and providing "communications strategy" and "talking points, speeches [and] debate prep," according to a document touting the firm's 2014 work.

"It's dirty little secret was that there was no one American involved in it, that it was a de facto foreign agent, working on an American election," Wylie said.

Two other former Cambridge Analytica workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear that they may have violated U.S. law in their campaign work, said concerns about the legality of Cambridge Analytica's work in the United States were a regular subject of employee conversations at the company, especially after the 2014 vote.

The two former workers, who, like Wylie, were interviewed in London, said employees worried the company was giving its foreign employees potentially inaccurate immigration documents to provide upon entering the United States, showing that they were not there to work when they had arrived for the purpose of advising campaigns.

"We knew that everything was not above board, but we weren't too concerned about it," said one of the former Cambridge Analytica workers, who spent several months in the United States working on Republican campaigns. "It was the Wild West. That's certainly how they carried on in 2014."

Company officials did not respond to multiple queries from The Washington Post, nor did Bannon, Mercer or Nix.

The former workers' claims represent the latest in a series of complications for Cambridge Analytica, which was founded in 2013 by the wealthy Mercer family and Bannon, the conservative strategist who was executive chairman of Breitbart News and later became a top adviser to President Donald Trump.

The former workers' allegations center on the 2014 campaign, two years before Cambridge Analytica was hired by the presidential campaigns of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and, later, Trump.

The prospect of new legal scrutiny for Bannon comes at a turbulent time for the conservative strategist. He left his job as a senior White House strategist in August and in January stepped down from Breitbart News after harsh quotations attributed to him about Trump and family members appeared in the Michael Wolff book "Fire and Fury." The Mercer family, long Bannon's financial patrons, also have distanced themselves from Bannon.

Cambridge Analytica suspended Nix last week after a series of allegations about unethical practices at the company, including secretly recorded video that was broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 in which he talked about potentially using bribes and "honey pots" with sex workers to entrap political rivals.

Controversy for Nix and the company had begun days earlier amid reports in Britain's Observer and the New York Times that Cambridge Analytica officials had collected data from tens of millions of Facebook profiles under allegedly false pretenses and also improperly shared it. Facebook on March 16 announced it had suspended the account of "SCL/Cambridge Analytica" and two people involved in the data collection, including Wylie.

Cambridge Analytica, whose offices were raided over the weekend by British authorities, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing but did not reply to requests for comment from The Washington Post for this story.

Last week, Cambridge Analytica's acting chief executive, Alexander Tayler, expressed regret over the firm's handling of the Facebook data. In a tweet, he said, "As anyone who is familiar with our staff and work can testify, we in no way resemble the politically-motivated and unethical company that some have sought to portray. Our staff are a talented, diverse and vibrant group of people."

Project Ripon was described by Wylie and other workers as an ambitious effort in which Cambridge Analytica would advise American campaigns on how to use data to find "hidden Republicans." Ripon also was the name of an online campaign management tool designed for the effort and described in a company brochure produced in London that was subtitled, "WINNING BACK AMERICA."

Wylie said this initiative resembled previous SCL Group efforts to shape the outcomes of elections on behalf of candidates in several other nations, including Kenya, Nigeria and India, often through affiliated companies run out of London.

Company documents obtained by The Post show the U.S. program involved a staff of 41 employees and contractors, and spent $7.5 million between April and July 2014.

The company aggressively courted political work beginning in 2014, signing on with numerous GOP candidates in what turned out to be a successful year for the party. That year, Cambridge Analytica documents show it advised a congressional candidate in Oregon, state legislative candidates in Colorado and, on behalf of the North Carolina Republican Party, the winning campaign for Sen. Thom Tillis.

Tillis said that he expects all services provided to his campaign to be lawful and that it would be "deeply disturbing" if his campaign was misled by a vendor. Dallas Woodhouse, the North Carolina GOP's director, said that the party paid Cambridge Analytica $150,000 in 2014 for get-out-the-vote efforts and mail operations on behalf of Tillis and other GOP candidates but that he was not aware of any foreign workers involved with the effort. The party would not tolerate any unethical behavior by a vendor, he said.

"No foreign workers worked for us," Woodhouse said.

The company, which asserted that Republican candidates won most of the races it worked on in 2014, also advised candidates in Arkansas, New Hampshire and North Carolina through a super PAC controlled by former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, who was named last week by Trump to be national security adviser.

Bolton's spokesman, Garrett Marquis, said that Bolton, not individuals at Cambridge Analytica, made all strategic decisions related to the super PAC's work. Marquis added that the contract with the company stated that Cambridge Analytica's use of data "was in compliance with applicable laws," that Bolton's group hasn't worked with the company since 2016, and that Bolton had been unaware of any alleged impropriety by Cambridge Analytica until recent news reports. The group no longer uses any of the data.

Wylie, who left Cambridge Analytica at the end of 2014 because of rising uneasiness about its politics and the leadership of Nix, said in interviews with The Post that he was part of multiple conference calls in 2014 with Bannon and Nix, a Briton, in which strategic campaign matters were discussed.

Wylie said these conversations also often featured discussions about the legal issues raised in the July 2014 Levy memo, which was made public in recent days by Wylie. The memo was previously reported by the Guardian, a British paper, and the New York Times.

Levy did not respond to requests for comment. Cambridge Analytica had told the Times previously that "personnel in strategic roles were U.S. nationals or green card holders" and that Nix "never had any strategic or operational role" in election campaigns in the United States.

Wylie declined to comment on whether he believed that he may have violated U.S. election law while working for Cambridge Analytica.

The restrictions on foreigners working in U.S. elections are broad, election attorneys said, with the key distinctions centering on involvement in campaign decisions

Levy wrote in his July 2014 memo, "Foreign Nationals may work in a U.S. political campaign, but may not play strategic roles including the giving of strategic advice to candidates, campaigns, political parties, or independent expenditure committees. On the other hand foreign nationals may act as functionaries that collect and process data, but the final analysis of said data should be conducted by U.S. citizens and conveyed to any U.S. client by such citizens."

Brett Kappel, a campaign finance lawyer at Akerman LLP, said the accounts of Wylie and the other former Cambridge Analytica workers raises legal concerns. "If Mr. Wylie's allegations are true, the Justice Department could prosecute Cambridge Analytica and its managers for knowing and willful violations of the prohibition on foreign national contributions."

Trevor Potter, a campaign finance attorney who advised the 2008 presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that "it is permissible for campaigns to hire foreigners" as long as they are involved in lower-level activity in a campaign.

"It would be a problem for a U.S. super PAC - or any other domestic political actor - to have foreign nationals involved in running a political operation, including making decisions on strategy, targeting and expenditures for that political entity," he said. "If foreigners were involved in the senior levels of decision-making for a political organization, that would be a violation of federal law."

A 2014 Cambridge Analytica post-election report describing its work in congressional and legislative races said that the company played a central role in the Oregon congressional race for Republican Arthur Robinson. The report also indicated that it had played this role within the bounds of the law. Robinson lost that election.

"For the Art Robinson for Congress campaign, Cambridge Analytica SCL assumed a comprehensive set of responsibilities and effectively managed the campaign in its entirety, with strategic advice channeled through US nationals on the CA-SCL team," the document said.

The plan, according to the document, was to focus on "rehabilitating Dr. Robinson's image with voters by presenting him as a sympathetic family man and serious scientist rather than as the extremely right-wing, unstable 'mad scientist' caricature created by the opposition over the previous two campaigns."

Robinson, reached by The Post, said that his 2014 campaign hired the company, which provided useful services to his experienced campaign crew. He said he met Nix once and did not know about the nationalities of the other employees he encountered.

"Cambridge was very helpful," he said, noting that the company and his team "melded and worked side by side."

Former Cambridge Analytica workers said there were few U.S. citizens among their ranks. Yet they routinely worked on U.S. campaigns, developing messages, creating campaign materials such as ads and videos, and helping the campaigns decide whom to target with those messages.

"The nature of targeting is fundamentally influential to the direction of a campaign because you're deciding what messages go to whom and when," Wylie said. "There's no such thing as managing targeting in a non-influential way."

Questions about the legality of Cambridge Analytica's actions crystallized in the immediate aftermath of the 2014 vote, during which Republican candidates - including those helped by Cambridge Analytica - made significant gains.

In a video conference featuring Levy, the attorney brought up the restriction on foreigners working in U.S. campaigns, said a former Cambridge Analytica worker who heard the call and spoke on the condition of anonymity. For some company workers in the London office, it was the first indication of any potential violation of U.S. law, causing them unease at an otherwise celebratory moment.

"It only percolated down to the ranks once it was too late," the former CA employee said.

This former employee added, "CA didn't handle only data. They have decided targeting strategy. They helped decide messaging." The ranks of company campaign workers included a "small handful of U.S. citizens" but dozens of foreign workers.

The former Cambridge Analytica workers did not provide information about what transpired in 2016, when the company did work for Cruz and Trump.

Officials from those two presidential campaigns said Sunday that their organizations took pains to comply with the federal restrictions on foreigners in U.S. elections.

Catherine Frazier, spokeswoman for the Cruz team, said that data scientists from other countries "reported to their American supervisors - who then reported to our senior staff - to ensure they were not part of the ultimate decision-making by the campaign."

A Trump campaign official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak to the press, said the Cambridge team was managed by a U.S. citizen to ensure compliance.

Nix, the chief executive, has portrayed his role as central to Trump's winning effort, though others involved in the campaign have expressed doubts about this.

He told TechCrunch in 2016 that Cambridge Analytica, which federal records show was paid at least $6 million by the Trump campaign, was key to campaign decisions on data analytics, research, digital advertising, television spots and collecting donations: "Overnight [the contract] went from being originally just data, to end to end."

Nix made similar claims in secretly recorded video released in recent days by Channel 4 in Britain, saying the company "did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting, we ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign, and our data informed all the strategy."Jersey City, N.J. -- A Jersey City police officer died of a gunshot wound to the chest Sunday night, and authorities are looking into whether he committed suicide.

A 911 call brought officers to the 33-year-old officer's home on Woodlawn Ave. at about 7:50 p.m.

There, they found the officer shot inside, said Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione. Medics rushed him to Jersey City Medical Center, where he died.

As police raced to the scene, the cop's horrified father could be heard on emergency radio transmissions, pleading with them to hurry.

"That's my son's home!" the father said. "That's my son. Please get emergency personnel there immediately, please!"

Moments later, an officer could be heard on the air, saying, "It looks like self-inflicted. We're gonna clear the apartment now. We're taking one female out."]

The officer joined the Jersey City Police Department a year ago and worked a midnight tour in the city's West District, Wallace-Scalcione said.

The Hudson County prosecutor's office said it is investigating the cop's death.

-- By Nicole Hensley and John Annese, New York Daily NewsRick Santorum has a solution for students calling for new gun control legislation: CPR classes.

The CNN commentator and former Pennsylvania Republican senator made that suggestion Sunday morning on CNN's "State of the Union" show.

"How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter, that you can actually respond to that," Santorum said.

Discussing the March For Our Lives protests that occurred in Washington, D.C., and nationally, Santorum said, "Phony gun laws don't solve these problems."

"They took action to ask someone to pass a law," Santorum said. "They didn't take action to say, 'How do I, as an individual, deal with this problem? How am I going to do something about stopping bullying within my own community? What am I going to do to actually help respond to a shooter?'... Those are the kind of things where you can take it internally, and say, 'Here's how I'm going to deal with this. Here's how I'm going to help the situation,' instead of going and protesting and saying, 'Oh, someone else needs to pass a law to protect me.' "

Van Jones, another CNN commentator, countered, noting that his own child will soon be a high school student.

"I want him focused on algebra and other stuff," Jones said. "If his main way to survive high school is learning CPR so when his friends get shot ... that, to me, we've gone too far. I'm proud of these kids. I know you're proud of these kids, too."

Santorum, a former Penn Hills resident, said the rallies were "all about politics."

"I'm proud of them," he said. "But I think everyone should be responsible and deal with the problems that we have to confront in our lives. And ignoring those problems and saying they're not going to come to me, and saying some phony gun law is going to solve it. Phony gun laws don't solve these problems."

Thousands turned out in Downtown Pittsburgh on Saturday in a call to end gun violence and improve student safety.

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party responded quickly to Santorum's remarks. In a statement, the party called on Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul Mango to denounce Santorum's comments. Mango has been backed by Santorum, according to the statement.

"These types of disgusting and dismissive remarks have no place in our public discourse and especially not in regards to the brave students who are pushing Congress to protect them so they have a safe place to learn," said Beth Melena, the party's spokeswoman.

Mango, 59, of Pine Township, is seeking the Republican Party's nomination in the May 15 primary. He could not be reached for comment.

-- By Ben Schmitt, The Tribune-Review, GreensburgBEIJING, March 26 (ChinaMil) -- About ten thousand Chinese Marines maneuvered more than 2,000 kilometers and arrived in northern Yunnan and Shandong provinces respectively in mid-March, 2018.

This was a full-organic long-range troop delivery operation organized by the PLA Navy's Marine Corps with the combination of air, waterway, railroad, and motorized joint deliveries designed to test the Marine Corps' cross-region troop delivery capacity and further improve the long-range maneuverability and full-terrain combat capabilities of Marines.

The long-range maneuvers marked the PLA Navy's Marine Corps has kicked off the cross-region real-combat training involving all its troop units.

During the long-distance motorized march to the designated assembly area, the troops assigned to a Marine Corps brigade of the PLA Navy faced contaminated zones, surveillance by enemy planes and destroyed roads and other simulated battlefield situations.Redistricting proposal places Tama County outside Rep. Hinsons district

New maps could lead to a remaking of the political landscape in Iowa  Tama County included. What is now a quadrant of four U.S. ...Welcome, DISH customer! Please note that we cannot save your viewing history due to an arrangement with DISH.

Watchlist and resume progress features have been disabled.

ACCEPTHONGKONG, March 26 (ChinaMil) -- Forty-four teachers and students of Hon Wah College visited the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Garrison in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Sunday.

Apart from holding barrack-open day activities for Hong Kong citizens, the PLA Hong Kong Garrison have carried out successful cooperation with the HKSAR government since 2005 on opening the military summer camp for middle school students and military life experience camp for college students, to strengthen the Hong Kong young people's sense of national identity and awareness of national defense.

The teachers and students of Hon Wah College visited the military history hall of the PLA Hong Kong Garrison, where the exhibits shows the historical evolution and development of the PLA Hong Kong Garrison.

After leaving the military history hall, the teachers and students of Hon Wah College paid visit to the Stonecutters Island Barracks of the PLA Hong Kong Garrison. On the Chinese naval frigate Huizhou, Captain Weng Gongyu showed them around the frigate and introduced performance of the ship-mounted weapons and the task of the warship.

In the soldier's dormitory of the PLA Hong Kong Garrison naval squadron, the students had a chance to learn the quilt-folding skill from the soldiers. The neat dormitory really impressed the students.

At the invitation of Hon Wah College, the PLA Hong Kong Garrison assists the college to organize national defense theme activities.Japan is witnessing the world's first artificial meteor shower in spring 2020, thanks to technology being developed by private space company Astro Live Experience or ALE.

The spectacular display will be seen over a 200-kilometer area on the sky of the Setouchi Region, which covers the cities of Hiroshima, Iwakuni, Takamatsu, and Matsuyama.

A microsatellite located some 350 kilometers above ground is releasing the 15 to 20 multicolored pellets measuring half an inch wide. These orange, blue, and green shooting stars will burn for four to five seconds, resembling the length of real meteors.

At present, ALE is building two of these 150-pound satellites with the first scheduled to launch by December 2018. Each is valued at $3 million, with the capacity to carry up to 400 artificial meteors and enough propellant to stay in low-earth orbit for 27 months.

In the long term, the startup hopes to send three sets of six-satellite constellations into orbit. They will deliver artificial meteor showers anywhere on Earth at 8 p.m., 8:30 p.m., and 9 p.m. on during a dark evening. It all depends on the preference of the paying customer.

This endeavor is called as the Shooting Star Challenge or the Sky Canvas Project, with Family Mart and Japan Airlines serving as ALE's partners.

Paid Meteor Showers On Any Sky In The World

According to Josh Rodenbaugh of the startup's satellite operations team, ALE wants to provide these meteor showers at a price that's more affordable than Tokyo's fireworks displays.

Each show costs an average of $40,000, and though he won't cite a specific amount, Rodenbaugh says the company is offering its services at a lower price.

So far, their target market includes cities, large companies, amusement parks, and, of course, the elite who can pay for such an extravagant display.

However, some people in the aerospace industry are a bit worried about the realization of this ambitious venture.

For instance, University of Michigan astronomer Patrick Seitzers is concerned that artificial meteor showers are a bad idea from "an orbital degree standpoint" as it can contribute to overcrowding in the low-earth orbit in the next decade.

Artificial Meteor Showers Approved To Be Safe

Base on the U.S. Strategic Command's satellite trajectory catalog, there are only 40 other satellites that travel below the altitude of 350 kilometers.

If the meteor shower is going to come within 200 kilometers of just one satellite, the event in 2020 will be canceled.

"We ran a simulation of releasing particles every hour for a year against the catalog and didn't find any times we came close," assures Rodenbaugh in a report.

However, conditions are expected to change in the coming years, as SpaceX is planning to release 7,500 broadband internet satellites in orbits lower than 350 kilometers, just somewhere under ALE's microsatellites for artificial meteor showers.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.The restaurants in South Burlington, Vermont believed to have been involved in a norovirus outbreak have reopened following two days of voluntary closure.

On March 23, the state's Department of Health announced that it launched an investigation of the outbreak in The Windjammer and the Upper Deck Pub following over 50 reported cases of illness and nine lab-confirmed norovirus infections.

Norovirus Outbreak

During its closure, employees cleaned The Windjammer restaurant, which was downstairs, and the Upper Deck Pub, which was upstairs. Associated Press reports that management administered thorough cleaning and discarded prepared foods.

Tom O'Connell, the owner of The Windjammer, said that there's no evidence proving the norovirus outbreak began at the restaurant, as it could have originated from a customer, a food vendor, or an employee.

"Norovirus travels in mysterious ways," said O'Connell.

Nearly everything inside the restaurant has undergone sanitation, including chairs, utensils, napkins, bottles, and many others, as confirmed by Bonnie Desrochers, the manager of the Upper Deck Pub. Closure affected business as the restaurant typically had busy nights, and the incident was also tough on the staff because they missed shifts and potential income from tips. But shutting down the restaurant "was the right thing to do," she said.

Norovirus Symptoms

According to the NHS, norovirus causes diarrhea and vomiting and can be a very unpleasant experience but usually dissipates by itself after a few days. Norovirus is easily spread to others via contaminated surfaces and ingestion of contaminated food or water.

Symptoms may include:

 suddenly feeling sick

 projectile vomiting

 watery diarrhea

Some individuals may also experience slight fever, headaches, and painful stomach aches, which is why it's sometimes referred to as the "stomach flu," though norovirus isn't associated with the influenza.

"The virus causes your stomach or intestines or both to get inflamed. This leads you to have stomach pain, nausea, and diarrhea and to throw up," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's page for norovirus.

For those who are suffering from norovirus, the NHS recommends drinking plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration, taking paracetamol to ease headaches and fevers, getting plenty of rest, eating plain foods, and for adults, taking antidiarrheal and anti-vomiting medicine.

It should be mentioned that norovirus has no specific medicinal cure, and it cannot be treated with antibiotics since it's a viral infection, not a bacterial one, notes NHS. The most important risk factor to consider is severe dehydration, as it may cause hospitalization if not treated immediately.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.The 9-year-old granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr. made a rousing appearance at a huge protest for gun control in Washington on Saturday, saying that like the slain civil rights leader she too has a dream -- "a gun-free world."

The poised young girl made a surprise appearance at the "March For Our Lives" rally, held near the National Mall where her grandfather delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech calling for an end to racism in the United States in August 1963.

"My grandfather had a dream that his four little children will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character," Yolanda Renee King told the crowd.

"I have a dream that enough is enough," she said. "And that this should be a gun-free world -- period."

She then led the rapt crowd in a chant. "Spread the word have you heard, all across the nation, we are going to be a great generation," she said.

Australian actress Cate Blanchett says she is bewildered by Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's silence over the atrocities being committed against Rohingya Muslims.

More than 670,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have sought safety across the border in Bangladesh since August 2017, after a military campaign against the minority group that a UN official has previously called genocide.

Oscar-winning actress Blanchett visited some of the displaced Muslims from Myanmar last week in her capacity as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. The Australian star warns that thousands of refugees are at risk of disease and starvation as the monsoon season approaches. The Rohingya are not recognized as citizens by Myanmar and have lived under a segregated ethnic system in the country's western Rakhine state for decades.

Blanchett is criticizing Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's de facto leader, for not speaking out over the crisis.Korea and the U.S. have effectively finished renegotiations of their bilateral free trade agreement that went into effect in 2012. The two sides are expected to announce the results as soon as they fine-tune the details.

Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said Sunday, "We have reached an agreement in principle on a revised Korea-U.S. FTA and steel tariffs" on Korean exports.

Kim was in talks with U.S. trade officials in Washington until Saturday. "A few technical issues remain, but I believe they will be resolved soon," he added. He is to brief the Cabinet on Monday.

Korea apparently made considerable concessions in the automotive sector, which the U.S. has cited as the main culprit in America's trade deficit with Korea. But in exchange it was spared heavy tariffs on steel exports to the U.S.

The U.S. has been demanding lower safety and environmental standards for the gas-guzzling cars it sells here while seeking to extend tariffs imposed on Korean pickup trucks.Gov. John Bel Edwards signs into law Monday, March 26, 2018, legislation that would keep people whose homes flooded in 2016 from having to pay additional state taxes because of federal tax breaks. Standing behind the governor, from left to right, are state Reps. Barbara Carpenter, D-Baton Rouge; Rogers Pope, R-Denham Springs; Barry Ivey, R-Central; Ted James, D-Baton Rouge; and U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge.Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commissionBulletproof backpacks would be allowed in Louisiana public schools under a bill that breezed through a Senate committee Monday.

The measure, Senate Bill 178, next faces action in the full Senate.

Sen. Mike Walsworth, R-West Monroe, sponsor of the bill, conceded that offering such a proposal comes with mixed emotions.

"Gosh, I get it," Walsworth said.

"Do we want to do this? No. I don't think any one of us wants to say our kids are in danger. In Florida, that was supposedly the safest neighborhood, probably in all of Florida and most of the United States," he said, a reference to the Valentine's Day killing of 17 students at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

"That didn't help those 17 kids," Walworth said of the area's reputation for being a safe place.

"It does at least give our children some kind of protection," he said of the bill. "Our kids need to know there is some way to protect themselves."

Current state law bans wearing body armor on school property.

The bill would allow students to wear backpacks on school grounds or a school bus that have bullet-resistant metal or other material for protection against guns.

Walsworth said the backpacks cost from $50 to $300 and more.

The measure cleared the Senate Judiciary C Committee without objection.

The lone opponent who testified was Dadrius Lanus, who said he is an educator and attorney in East Baton Rouge Parish.

"It makes no sense for students and it makes no sense for teachers," Lanus said of the bill. "It absolutely makes no sense."

Sen. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, a member of the committee, echoed Walsworth's view that school shootings have forced an unpleasant discussion.

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

"What a horrible state of affairs we find ourselves in today," Carter said.

Said Walsworth, "This is the society we have."

The bill is one of series of public school safety measures awaiting action in the Legislature, including several that would allow teachers to carry concealed handguns on school grounds.

The Rundown: Edwards addresses hot-button session issues and more news in La. politics Today in The Rundown: Gov. John Bel Edwards weighs in on some hot-button session issues; lawmakers take up a mixed bag of issues from feral pi

Gov. John Bel Edwards said last week he is opposed to that approach.

Later the same committee narrowly rejected a bill also touted as a school safety measure.

The proposal, Senate Bill 406, would allow public school principals to hire a retired teacher or parent who is a military veteran, active duty military personnel or reservist to provide security at the school.

Those hired would also have to have a concealed handgun permit.

Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, emphasized that his plan is permissive, not mandatory, and that some schools would take advantage of the option.

"What we are doing is not working," Riser said efforts to protect schools. "To sit here and do nothing is not the answer."

Opponents said Riser's plan would likely cause other problems, and make children uneasy to know there are weapons at their school.

"This is more reactive than proactive," said Lanus, who also opposed Riser's bill.

Voting to shelve the bill were Sens. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, Yvonne Colomb, D-Baton Rouge and Fred Mills, R-Parks.

Voting against the motion were Sens. Dan Claitor, chairman of the committee, Jonathan Perry, R-Kaplan and Bodi White, R-Central.Hyundai will unveil a concept model of an electric version of its Genesis premium brand at the New York Auto Show, which opens later this week.

The Gran Turismo concept comes ahead of the automaker's plans to release a high-performance electric coupe by 2021 that can travel more than 500 km on a single charge.

The situation in a nutshell: Teachers are frustrated over low and stagnant pay. But labor costs for districts are going up rapidly due to penWASHINGTON (AP)  A lawyer representing adult film star Stormy Daniels declined Monday to specify additional evidence he claims he has of Daniels' alleged affair with Donald Trump in 2006, adding "it would make no sense for us to play our hand."

Michael Avenatti, making a round of morning television appearances following Sunday's airing of Daniels' "60 Minutes" interview, insisted there is more evidence to come, but that he and his client are withholding certain details, including the contents of a CD or DVD he tweeted a picture of last week.

"We're not going to get into the details of everything we have at this time, and there's a reason for that," he said on NBC's "Today" show. "We understand the American people want all the information right now, immediately. It would make no sense for us to play our hand as to this issue and we're not going to do it right now."

In the "60 Minutes" interview, Daniels said that she'd been threatened by an unidentified man in Las Vegas to keep quiet about her alleged relationship with Trump, an incident that she said happened while she was with her young daughter. She said in the interview that she had one encounter of consensual sex with the future president.

"He knows I'm telling the truth," said Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford. She does not allege that she was coerced in her encounter with Trump, saying, "This is not a 'Me too.' I was not a victim."

'He knows I'm telling the truth:' Louisiana porn star Stormy Daniels describes threat over alleged Trump encounter WASHINGTON (AP)  Adult film star Stormy Daniels says she was threatened to keep silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump in

The episode was the show's highest-rated in a decade, according to CBS.

Avenatti said Monday that he is still working to verify the man's identity, and that he has no direct evidence tying the threat to Trump or his lawyer "other than common sense."

"It had to have come from someone associated with Mr. Trump, there is no other place for it to have come from. It didn't come from the magazine, it makes no sense. It certainly didn't come from my client," he said on ABC.

He also taunted Trump for failing to tweet about the allegations, suggesting that meant they were true.

Trump did complain later Monday morning about there being, "So much Fake News," but it's unclear whether he was referring to Daniels.

In the interview, the adult film actress provided little new evidence of her alleged 2006 affair with Trump but said she faced intimidation tactics aimed at ensuring her silence in 2011.

Daniels said that in the incident, in a parking lot, the man told her: "Leave Trump alone. Forget the story." She said he then looked at her daughter and said, "That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom."

Daniels received a $130,000 payment days before the 2016 presidential election for her silence and has sought to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement.

The White House did not immediately comment Sunday on the interview. Trump, through his representatives, has denied the allegations. His attorney, Michael Cohen, has said Trump never had an affair with Daniels. Cohen has said he paid the $130,000 out of his pocket.

On Monday, Cohen's attorney, Brent H. Blakely, denied that Cohen had anything to do with the threat.

"In truth, Mr. Cohen had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any such person or incident, and does not even believe that any such person exists, or that such incident ever occurred," he said, demanding that Daniels and Avenatti "cease and desist from making any further false and defamatory statements about my client" and make a public apology.

Previously, Cohen has said neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Daniels and he was not reimbursed for the payment.

However, Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti told "60 Minutes" he has documents showing Cohen using his Trump Organization email address in setting up the payment and that the nondisclosure agreement was sent by FedEx to Cohen at his Trump Organization office in Trump Tower.

A lawyer for Cohen, David Schwartz, accused Daniels of lying about the affair in his own appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"The lying is all over that piece," he said, adding that the suggestion that someone associated with Trump or his organization was behind the alleged threatening incident was "speculation" and "guesswork."

Louisiana porn actress offers to repay $130K so she can discuss Trump -- and release texts, photos, video LOS ANGELES (AP)  An adult film actress who said she had sex with President Donald Trump offered Monday to return the $130,000 she was paid f

In the interview, Daniels described a sexual encounter with Trump that began with him talking about himself and showing her an issue of a magazine with his picture on the cover. She said she asked, "Does this ... does this normally work for you?" He was taken aback, she says. "And I was like, 'Someone should take that magazine and spank you with it.'" She says she then ordered him to drop his pants and, in a playful manner, "I just gave him a couple swats."

She said they talked some more, although he quit talking about himself, and that she became more comfortable.

"He was like, 'Wow, you  you are special. You remind me of my daughter.' You know  he was like, 'You're smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you. I like you.'"

She said after dinner in Trump's room, they had sex. He didn't use a condom, she said, and she didn't ask him to. Afterward, he asked to see her again, she said.

Daniels said that before they had sex Trump had broached the idea of her being a contestant on "The Apprentice," and she likened it to a "business opportunity."

The CBS interview came as Trump deals with allegations about his sexual exploits long before he ran for president.

Former Playboy model Karen McDougal told Cooper in a CNN interview broadcast Thursday that her affair with Trump began at a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2006. McDougal said she ended the relationship in 2007 out of guilt.

McDougal has filed suit in Los Angeles seeking to invalidate a confidentiality agreement with American Media Inc., the company that owns the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer. It paid her $150,000 during the 2016 presidential election.

The lawsuit alleges that McDougal was paid for the rights to her story of an affair, but the story never ran. It also alleges that Cohen was secretly involved in her discussions with American Media.The Gretna Police Department is having trouble attracting and retaining officers, and the city will ask voters on April 28 to approve an 8-mill property tax to fund raises for patrol officers.

Police Chief Arthur Lawson told City Council members recently that 25 officers with 145 years of cumulative experience have left the force since 2014.

Including three officers who are in the final stages of applying for jobs with the Louisiana State Police, the Gretna department is down 10 officers at the enforcement level, which would have about 94 at full strength.

Lawson said officers mainly leave to join the New Orleans Police Department or the State Police, where the pay is much higher, though others have departed for the Tulane University police, Westwego, or Plaquemines, St. Tammany and Jefferson parishes.

Its the first time we have lost officers to New Orleans, he said. Usually, that tracks the other way.

The millage would generate about $1.1 million a year, about $600,000 of which would go toward salary increases for patrol officers, detectives and community police, with the rest going to pay retirement, insurance and hospitalization costs.

Raises would be between $3,500 and $6,000 per year, depending on experience and specialty. The salary for an entry-level officer would jump from $37,000 per year to just under $40,500.

Lawson, who makes $90,000 a year, said he and other top brass would not be getting a raise, though he said there may be some minor increases in clerical salaries.

This is not an across-the-board raise, he said. I dont get a raise. Our upper management isnt going to get any big raise.  This is to keep up the level of service and keep up the salaries of those officers that are out there protecting people.

The New Orleans Police Department has boosted its starting salaries in recent years to help bolster recruitment, and Lawson said an officer there can expect to make $56,000 after their first year.

With the attrition experienced in recent years, Lawson said, the average experience of a patrol officer in Gretna is only three years, and officers need more years on the beat than that to accumulate sources and get to know the neighborhoods they patrol.

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The Police Department, which has 195 employees, had a budget of $9.3 million in 2017. About half of that  $4.8 million  came from "variable revenue," a category that includes tickets, fines and fees, while $1.6 million came from the existing millage, $735,415 from sales taxes, $269,813 from operating grants and $1.9 million from other sources.

In his public pitch at the council meeting earlier this month, Lawson sought to burnish his credentials as a prudent steward of taxpayer money.

He said he vetoed a plan under the prior administration to seek a millage for a new station on Belle Chasse Highway and has on several occasions supported rolling back the millage rate when the department didnt need the money.

This isnt a money grab, he said. If this millage passes and we dont need (all) 8 mills, Ill be the first one to say, Lets roll (it) back.' Ive done it before, and Ill do it again.

Council members spoke out in support of the millage, as did Mayor Belinda Constant, who said city officials did not take the decision to request more taxes lightly. She said the 4.4-mill tax that fuels Gretna's general fund  which pays for streets work, sidewalks, drainage and code enforcement  is as tight as it can get.

If there is any more we can pinch from (the general fund), Im the first one to do it, she said.

Constant also said that total city property taxes are low now, compared with recent history. They stand at 52.52 mills now, down from 53.76 mills in 2003.

Lawson said overall crime was down about 10 percent in 2017, including a drop in murders from two in 2016 to none last year. Thefts dropped 12 percent to 497 cases, and assaults fell 21 percent to 237.

However, burglaries were up 11 percent to 98 cases, while auto thefts roughly doubled from 24 to 47, which Lawson attributed to people leaving their vehicles unlocked.

Weve tried to do the best that we can with the least amount of effect on the taxpayers of this city, Lawson said. Im telling you what we need; you tell us whether you want us to do it. We can cut services if  thats what you tell us you want to do. But were asking for a millage increase in order to keep our level of service and keep our people safe.Stacy Head clashes with Bourbon dancers

City Councilwoman Stacy Head, who failed last week to persuade her colleagues to put a limit on the number of Bourbon Street strip clubs, is rarely shy about expressing her opinions on the council dais.

So it might have come as no surprise Thursday when she chided some of the two dozen dancers who spoke out against the proposed cap on the clubs for accepting a financial incentive from their employers in exchange for their opposition.

Head said two clubs under the Larry Flynt brand, Hustler and Barely Legal, offered to waive 10 so-called house fees for any dancer who showed up to oppose the cap. Dancers must pay such a fee to the clubs each time they perform on stage.

Thats selling yourselves out, she said.

At another point, she asked the dancers why they werent fighting for employment protections, such as workers' compensation, before the state Legislature.

We dont have any time to fight that because we are here fighting you, dancer RJ Thompson shot back.

Heads proposal to cap the number of clubs at the present number of 12, which she cast as a land-use regulation issue separate from the familiar moral debate over the clubs, failed by a 4-3 vote.

Apparently swaying some members were the dancers protests and Councilman Jason Williams arguments that massage parlors also should have been considered in a study that prompted the proposal and that police acted improperly during recent raids on eight clubs.

Head responded that there are no massage parlors in the limited area the study focused on, and Councilwoman Susan Guidry said what happened during the police raids was irrelevant to the issue before the council.

Council OKs $6.5M incentive for DXC

The City Council gave final approval last week to a $6.5 million city incentive package for a technology company that promises to bring 2,000 jobs to New Orleans over the next seven years.

The council unanimously approved the deal, which was listed with numerous other items on its consent agenda Thursday, after securing a pledge that the Fortune 500 company bringing the jobs, DXC Technology, would work to hire local talent.

That pledge came after members of The Collaborative, a coalition of small and disadvantaged businesses, urged the council to consider asking DXC to meet the same kind of hiring goals for disadvantaged and minority workers and subcontractors that apply to city contracts for public work.

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DXCs local director, Terrell Boynton, also agreed to meet regularly with Councilman Jason Williams, The Collaborative and the New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce to discuss the company's progress in hiring disadvantaged local residents.

DXC will receive the $6.5 million over the next decade, with annual installments from the city and the Industrial Development Board coming only after the company shows it has met the citys requirements for job creation.

If the actual job numbers are below the requirements, the incentive will be prorated to reflect the lower number.

That incentive is part of a much larger pool of financial inducements the state offered to lure the company, which was formed last year by the merger of Computer Services Corp. and the enterprise services business of Hewlett Packard Enterprises.

The state agreed last year to a package valued at $115 million, which includes a $25 million initiative that will focus on expanding the number of degrees that Louisiana colleges and universities award annually in science, technology, engineering and math.

The company also is in line for $18.7 million in performance-based grants over the next five years to help cover some of its initial costs, and it will participate in other benefits programs the state regularly offers to companies.

Public input sought for disparity study

The consultants behind a recent study that found that minority- and women-owned firms struggle to compete for private-sector jobs in New Orleans are seeking public input as they work to finalize their research.

Keen Independent Research, the firm Mayor Mitch Landrieus administration commissioned to conduct the "disparity study," will hold two meetings Wednesday, at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., at the New Orleans Jazz Market, 1436 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.

The firm is expected to release its final report later this spring.

Its draft report, released in March, found that while minority- and women-owned firms have a hard time finding work locally in the private sector, their chances of getting public work have generally improved in recent years under the Landrieu administration.

But the consultants said the city can do still better by making a number of changes, such as denying the disadvantaged label to firms that are doing well financially and by making prompt city payments to contractors.

The so-called disparity study fulfills a promise Landrieu made at the start of his administration to look into the issue  a move long called for by The Collaborative.

Compiled by staff writer Jessica WilliamsTahj Williams was just 9 when she found her calling.

It was 2008 and she saw another child masking Indian in her uncle's tribe, the Wild Magnolias. She remembers being entranced by the miniature headdress, the beadwork, the feathers and the chants  all traditions she had thought were only for adults, and mostly men.

She was hooked. I said, 'Uncle, can I mask, too?'  she recalled. And he said, Yeah, baby, we can start you tomorrow.' 

Over the years, Williams, now 19, worked her way up the ranks to secure a coveted spot as Second Queen in the Golden Eagles tribe led by the eminent Uptown big chief Monk Boudreaux.

As Mardi Gras Indians paraded Uptown on Sunday, known as Super Sunday, she celebrated her second year in that role by showing off a suit unlike others seen near A.L. Davis Park: a three-piece outfit involving a pencil skirt, a V-neck beaded top and a blanket-like shawl that wrapped over her shoulders.

It was what she called a mix of old school and new school, with beadwork symbolizing African queens praying and meditating, and moccasins with the words Queen Tahj adorning the back.

Williams, a Tulane University student pursuing a double major in cybersecurity and homeland security, now sees herself as a role model for younger maskers. Thats in part because shes got one foot pursuing upward mobility and the other rooted firmly in a culture her family has honored for generations.

She hopes to inspire by using suit designs that depart from the looks worn by those who came before her, so that younger people thinking about carrying on Mardi Gras Indian customs have fresh looks to aspire to.

The reason why I make suits so different is I look at myself as one of the leaders of the younger generation, Williams said. I make my suits the way I do to show that the young generation is here, and we are ready to lead.

Part of that message, she said, is to show that young Mardi Gras Indian women are strong and as deserving of attention as the men in the tribe.

The queen is often the afterthought, Williams said. I want to show how were the backbone without stepping on mens toes, so I showed it through the beadwork and the suits.

On Sunday, Williams joined dozens of other Indians who had sacrificed countless weekends and acquired signature calluses to finish their fantastical creations of reds, yellows, purples and bright blues. For many, whole paychecks went to the materials needed to complete the suits: thousands of tiny beads, feathers, straw, silk and more.

All the work is done for just a few appearances a year, like Mardi Gras, St. Josephs Day or Super Sunday, when the various tribes meet on the streets, exchanging chants and passing signals through a hierarchy that runs from spy boy to chief, with the flag boy, the wild man and often the queen in the middle.

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Williams tribe, the Golden Eagles, was among several represented Sunday by maskers who danced and sang as they met, with onlookers cheering and taking photographs as vendors sold crawfish nachos, barbecue rib sandwiches, turkey necks, mixed drinks and sno-balls.

Lets go get em! some chanted as others hit tambourines or raised spears and bows in the air.

Before the parade started, Williams paused for photographs with 57-year-old Dow Michael Edwards, a lawyer by trade and spy boy for the Mohawk Hunters. They stood inside A.L. Davis Park, which featured two stages for music and dance lessons, as well as bounce houses and a miniature merry-go-round.

Pointing to Williams suit, which featured black fur trim and beadwork of light blue, pink and purple that contrasted with the bright reds and dark blacks used to depict the queens, Edwards told onlookers that her suit was magical.

In exchange, she exclaimed over his: a massive, intricate assembly of a red, yellow and white feathered headdress, an alligator vest and a skirt with beadwork featuring Shango, an African spirit of thunder and dance, thought to be the ruler of animals in the ancient jungle.

As they admired each others handiwork, Edwards also gave a short history lesson on Louisianas "code noir," which designated Sundays as a day off work for slaves, and a later city ordinance that allowed his ancestors to gather at Congo Square.

It was there that slaves would dance, sing and otherwise carry on traditions dating back to Africa. Each year the Mardi Gras Indians gather both to celebrate their ancestors and to pay homage to those Native Americans who sometimes helped shelter them.

Edwards said he admires members of the next generation, like Williams, who understand the importance of creating suits, masking and singing chants.

This culture is over 300 years old, he said. Our ancestors fought very hard to preserve the African culture, so it's of utmost importance for us to carry on the traditions.

Williams said that after Sunday, she expects to get emails and calls from children and teenagers hoping to be mentored, which happens every time she creates a new suit and which inspires her to continue.

At first I used to worry my generation was not interested, she said, but I think when I started to step out and do different styles, the suits started to grab attention. Now I think my generation is ready to step up and take on some leadership roles and be the next cultural bearers.City Councilwoman Stacy Head, who failed last week to persuade her colleagues to put a limit on the number of Bourbon Street strip clubs, is rarely shy about expressing her opinions on the council dais.

So it might have come as no surprise Thursday when she chided some of the two dozen dancers who spoke out against the proposed cap on the clubs for accepting a financial incentive from their employers in exchange for their opposition.

Head said two clubs under the Larry Flynt brand, Hustler and Barely Legal, offered to waive 10 so-called house fees for any dancer who showed up to oppose the cap. Dancers must pay such a fee to the clubs each time they perform on stage.

Thats selling yourselves out, she said.

At another point, she asked the dancers why they werent fighting for employment protections, such as workers' compensation, before the state Legislature.

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We dont have any time to fight that because we are here fighting you, dancer RJ Thompson shot back.

Heads proposal to cap the number of clubs at the present number of 12, which she cast as a land-use regulation issue separate from the familiar moral debate over the clubs, failed by a 4-3 vote.

Apparently swaying some members were the dancers protests and Councilman Jason Williams arguments that massage parlors also should have been considered in a study that prompted the proposal and that police acted improperly during recent raids on eight clubs.

Head responded that there are no massage parlors in the limited area the study focused on, and Councilwoman Susan Guidry said what happened during the police raids was irrelevant to the issue before the council.The U.S. Forces Korea will practice the mass evacuation of American civilians from South Korea next month, the Stars and Stripes military daily reported last Thursday.

"It will transport a group of about 100 volunteers all the way to the United States this year in what is believed to be a first," the paper said citing a source.

The noncombatant evacuation operation will be held on April 16-20 during the annual joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises.

The U.S. military holds such evacuation exercises twice a year, involving mostly family members and civilian contractors. But during previous drills, they were evacuated to Yokota Air Base west of Tokyo, whereas this time they will be transported all the way to the U.S. mainland.

"The situation has calmed after North Korea's participation in the Winter Olympics last month led to a series of diplomatic breakthroughs. But U.S. officials and experts said there's a new awareness about the need to be ready for the worst-case scenario," the Stars and Stripes said.

It quoted Adm. Harry Harris, the chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, as telling a House Armed Services Committee hearing last month, "If conflict breaks out on the Korean Peninsula then we're going to have to get Americans off of there. The numbers are staggering."

Besides 200,000 American civilians, more than 1 million Chinese, and 60,000 Japanese "would also be looking for a way out," Harris added.

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said in December last year that there is a contingency plan that would pull out U.S. military families "on very short notice."

Japan is no longer an option because North Korea unveiled new missiles last year that are thought capable of striking U.S. military bases there and on Guam.

But some American pundits say the evacuation drill is unrealistic. "Given that an evacuation of so many citizens would be virtually impossible under a rain of North Korean artillery and missiles (potentially laced with biochemical weapons), these Americans would most likely have to hunker down until the war was over," wrote Victor Cha of Georgetown University, in the Washington Post on Jan. 30.

Currently, there are some 230,000 American civilians and 28,500 USFK troops in South Korea.

if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi...Cheong Wa Dae on Friday tried to downplay U.S. President Donald Trump's appointment of the belligerent former ambassador to the UN John Bolton as new White House national security adviser.

A Cheong Wa Dae official said, "Bolton is just an adviser," but privately South Korean officials are concerned that Bolton, who bungled U.S. attempts in the UN to justify the invasion of Iraq, could scupper rapprochement with North Korea.

Bolton's predecessor, H.R. McMaster, was a relatively cool head in Trump's chaotic White House and had a good rapport with his South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-yong.

McMaster had frequently contacted Chung when an important matter cropped up and narrowed differences between Trump and President Moon Jae-in.

But Bolton has made hawkishness his sole trademark besides his walrus moustache, and his views on North Korea differ starkly from those of Cheong Wa Dae's national security team.

A high-ranking Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters, "What is important is not his will as a person, but what kind of mindset President Trump and the U.S. government have in resolving this problem."

Chung was quoted as telling associates Bolton's appointment is "not bad."

It is Lee's first business trip abroad since visiting India in September 2016, before he was implicated in the corruption scandal that brought Park down.

Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong, who is on probation for bribing ex-President Park Geun-hye, has left on a business trip to Europe.

A Samsung staffer said Sunday Lee left last Thursday to meet with major clients in Europe "as well as partners in new growth businesses." He obtained court approval to travel abroad, but it is not clear when he will return.

Lee stayed away from the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, where Samsung was a major sponsor, as well as a groundbreaking ceremony for a new semiconductor plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province and Samsung Electronics' shareholder meeting.

Samsung staff say the trip will give him a chance to recover his network of business contacts and help him assess the situation facing his company.

Lee has been an outside director of Exor, the Italian holding company of Fiat Chrysler and Ferrari, and executive director of the Chinese nonprofit Boao Forum for Asia, but his months in jail put paid to some of the benefits that brought to Samsung.

North Korea is highly suspicious of the U.S.' position ahead of a scheduled summit in May and no longer confident whether the meeting will take place.

At dinner with South Korean officials last week in Helsinki, Finland, Choe Kang-il, a deputy director general for North American affairs at North Korea's Foreign Ministry, expressed deep suspicion and said, "I am not sure whether the North Korea-U.S. summit will take place. We ask the South Korean government to mediate," according to sources who were present at the dinner.

The unofficial meeting in Helsinki was to have paved the way for more concrete summit preparations. One diplomatic source said, "North Korea was busy trying to verify the U.S.' intentions. They were particularly surprised to see the U.S. maintain maximum pressure even after accepting the summit offer."

North Korean state media remain mum about the summit while slamming the U.S. sanctions, frequently citing Iraq's fate after yielding to U.S. demands.

The state-run Rodong Sinmun daily has mentioned Iraq seven times since Trump agreed on March 9 to a summit, and diplomatic sources said Trump's North Korea policy is reminiscent of the U.S.' approach to Saddam Hussein just before the invasion in 2003. The U.S. applied intense economic sanctions on Iraq over its alleged weapons of mass destruction and also pointed out human rights violations.

Libya has been another point of reference, because a few years after leader Muammar Gaddhafi gave up his nuclear program, NATO sided with rebels in the emerging civil war eventually killed him.

Nirj Deva, a member of the European Parliament in charge of Korean affairs, who held 14 closed-door meetings with North Korea over the last three years, said North Korean officials pointed out the fates of the former leaders of Libya and Iraq whenever he raised the subject of denuclearization.

North Korea's anxiety will only get worse with the appointment of the hawkish John Bolton as new White House national security adviser.

North Korean officials reportedly told South Korean envoys in Finland, "We are concerned about the hawks in the U.S. government having a stronger influence. What if Trump does not show up for talks?"

There are also concerns in the South Korean government. One former high-ranking diplomat said, "This dangerous matchmaking diplomacy may have worked so far, but if the U.S.-North Korea summit falls through, South Korea could end up losing the confidence of both the U.S. and North Korea."

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution at a plenary session in Switzerland last week urging North Korea to improve its human rights situation.

Although lauding the North's participation in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the UNHRC urged Pyongyang to grant foreign detainees access to consular officials and stressed the need for the resumption of reunions of families separated during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Shanghai Citizens Art Festival raises curtain

From:Shine | 2018-03-25 16:29

Shanghai has unveiled thousands of cultural events on Sunday across the city at its community centers and public cultural venues to unveil the 2018 Shanghai Citizens Art Festival.

People around the city took part in folk art exhibition, tea culture, theater performance, music salon and art lecture to mark the "Culture Service Day" on Sunday. Reading, traditional Chinese culture and intangible cultural heritage were highlighted in the events.

The 2018 Shanghai Citizens Art Festival under the banner of "Culture Makes a Better Life" will organize various programs throughout the year. Among them will be retrospective exhibitions to mark the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up, citywide contests of Chinese mythology, poetry and writing.

The digital service platform "Culture Shanghai Cloud" will offer information on free admission for performances and exhibitions.For most of us, all the embarrassing moments of things you've done while at a party are usually forgotten about pretty quick (unless it's your birthday and those old snaps get posted on your wall).

But for the cast of Jersey Shore, they've got a whole TV series they can re-watch to re-live those memories and before the new season of 'Jersey Shore: Family Vacation' starts up, the cast has taken a trip down memory road after watching Vinny's first audition tape.Kailali, March 26

Uttar Pradeshs Special Task Force abducted a Nepali man, held him hostage for five days and demanded Rs 1.28 million in ransom, it has been revealed.

According to sources, Kutbuddin Miya, who hails from Lekhnath Metropolitan City-4, was released by the state governments counter-organised crime unit after news about the incident spread.

Miya told officials that he went to Tikapur, Kailali, near the Indo-Nepal border on March 20 in course of his personal work. He was allegedly abducted by the STF from Tikuniya on the Indian side of the border the same day. Members of his family told police that the STF demanded INR 800,000 for his release. According to sources, Miya was brought to Kotwali near the border and released by the STF on Saturday evening.

Sources say that Indian authorities learnt about Miyas abduction when his son-in-law, who had come to Tikapur with the ransom money, was arrested on March 23 by the SSB. The SSB had recovered INR 800,000 from Razud De, who was to meet STF operatives on the Indian side of the border to secure the release of his father-in-law. De is learnt to have told the SSB about the episode. The SSB is then learnt to have relayed the information to its command and attempted to secure his release.

After news spread that Miya had been abducted by the STF, the kidnappers reduced the ransom amount and asked for INR 400,000. But after the abductors learnt that the SSB was looking for Miya, they dropped the plan and released him.

The issue of Miyas abduction was also raised during a high-level security meeting between the officials of the two countries on Saturday. Sources say that the India side admitted that Miya had been arrested and would be released soon. It would take just 20 more minutes for him to be released.

Following his release, Miya has returned home to Pokharel. Police say it was still not clear why the STF abducted Miya. Indian officials are also tight-lipped about the case.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 08:04 1278 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb80d90 4 Editorial bank,#Editorial,bri,ATM-skimming,skimming,finance,technology Free

A series of ATM-skimming attacks in a number of cities across the country of late show that Indonesia is a tempting target for overseas criminals, not only because of its outdated debit-card technology, but also because of woeful ignorance on the part of customers about protecting their bank accounts.

Following the latest frauds, which targeted customers of state-owned bank BRI in Kediri, East Java, last week, the police have arrested five Romanian and Hungarian nationals. Previous cybercrimes that caused huge losses to customers of two other state banks, Mandiri and BNI, also involved foreign nationals.

In fact, ATM skimming is a global threat and cash withdrawal machines in countries that rely on magnetic stripe technology-based debit cards, like Indonesia, are very vulnerable to the crime. Bank customers in ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, where the outdated technology is still in place, are easy prey to global ATM-skimming syndicates.

The crime involves fitting a device akin to a card reader on the ATM, which copies data when the card is passed through the device. The data is then retrieved and used for fraudulent purposes.

The easiest way to counter the skimming attacks, of course, is to replace the magnetic-stripe technology with chip technology, which is less vulnerable to digital data theft. Bank Indonesia (BI) issued a regulation in 2012 that required commercial banks to gradually apply chip technology by 2016 for the sake of the security of their customers bank accounts.

However, the policy was not implemented as most banks complained about the cost of the new technology. The central bank finally extended the deadline for the full migration to chip technology to December 2021.

In the past, it seemed that BI, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and the commercial banks themselves were half-hearted in adopting the new technology  at the expense of the security of customers accounts. Banks may cover the losses from the fraud, but a rise in the number of crimes, resulting from the failure to protect customers, will erode the credibility of our banking industry.

The arrest of ATM-skimming specialists should be a wake-up call for the banking industry to do more to protect its customers from fraudsters. The banks, for example, have no other choice but to accelerate the migration to chip technology to provide a sense of security among customers. The banks also need to improve their data-system protection and conduct regular inspections of their cash withdrawal machines.

Even if the banking industry fully adopts the new technology, it does not mean that customers will be totally safe from fraud. Criminals will always seek new ways to steal money and they will go to places where security is lax.

Educating customers on how to protect themselves from bank fraud is no less important. Their awareness of safe transactions using ATMs will minimize the crime. Both the financial authorities and banking industry are responsible for the security-awareness campaign.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Agus Sudibyo (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 11:22 1278 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb89bd1 3 Opinion Mark-Zuckerberg,Facebook,#facebook,social-media,data-privacy,data-breach,data-analytics Free

Facebook functions like a family  it knows a lot about you, youre constantly interacting. Google is more like your neighborhood  its there when you need it, but you dont need it every day.

Tara Clarke, associate editor at Money Morning was explaining the relationship between new media and its users. Providers of social media services and search engines like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Instagram and Twitter have always monitored their users.

Through algorithms and improving cloud technology these digital giants gather and record users identities, habits and behavioral data. They provide digital applications for free, but with these apps they can trace where we are, what vehicles we are using, the restaurants we frequent, items we collect, where we wish to travel, our ailments and so on. They lend us the giant cloud servers for us to use in order for us to save our personal data, but silently they mine this data for their own business interests.

As the worlds most popular social media platform, Facebook was used by 1.9 billion people as of last year according to statista. com. A fantastic figure. Even more so as it means Facebook controls the personal data and behavior of all these people. From the moment users first register on Facebook they submit themselves to the platform. As we update our status and detail our daily activities, upload pictures and comment or like other users status, we allow ourselves be recorded and identified by Facebook.

In 2015 the researcher Shoshanna Zuboff introduced the concept of surveillance capitalism  capitalism that constantly monitors and spies on internet users to yield maximum data on behavior to support the particular needs of new media companies. Through algorithms and the application of artificial intelligence, social media firms and search engines can process data on users behavior to predict patterns of consumption, decision-making and social interactions.

Behavioral data transforms into a behavioral surplus, the main instrument of new media business in its monetizing commercial digital activities. Imagine the vast economic potential of predicting consumption patterns and social interactions of internet users around the world. And this behavioral surplus data on a global scale is centralized on a few global corporations such as Google, Facebook and Amazon.

It is in this context that the latest controversy over data leakage of Facebook users takes place. A whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, has revealed that the data of some 50 million Facebookers had been used by a company called Cambridge Analytica (CA) to support the campaign of then candidate Donald Trump in the United States presidential election. Initially the users data was gathered through the This is your digit a life a pp designed by Cambridge University academic, Aleksandr Kogan.

Through a firm called Global Science Research collaborating with CA, Kogan paid hundreds of thousands of users to conduct personality tests on Facebook. However, the app also vacuumed data of the test participants acquaintances, yielding tens of millions of data items and personal details. CA processed the data to detect profiles and inclinations of voters in the US presidential election, targeting them for political campaigns.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has apologized to the American public. However he implicitly stated the fault did not lie with Facebook, but with CA. Facebook was unaware that this was happening. Really? If this is true, the problem is that Facebook does not know precisely how to control its machine used to gain enormous profits, while making serious changes to peoples lives. Therefore the problem is equally severe whether Facebook knew about or was totally clueless about the scandal.

Social media users who constantly show off remain unaware of the great potential for manipulation and crime, and criminals are unlikely to be caught because of the complexity of big data and clouds and the inability of law enforcement to reach them.

While the dark side of social media has divided society, international or national legal instruments are insufficient to handle it. This results in avoidance of responsibility by new media firms for their destructive impacts.

Such virtual impunity is reflected in how the state and social media companies and search engines react to the issue of the hacking of internet users data. Hacking involving the likes of Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, according to the researcher Vincent Mosco, shows that both authorities (in the US) and companies providing cloud services have focused on handling hacking as a mere criminal violation of privacy.

Yet there are two issues here. First, the inability of companies providing cloud services to protect the data of internet users that they gather and manage. Second, hacking by individuals or groups.

Interestingly it is only the latter activity that is considered criminal  while the second could not occur without the first factor. The companies inability to protect internet users data should be considered severe malpractice.

Cloud-providing companies gather internet users data freely and use it without users consent to earn profits. However, when they cannot protect the safety of those users data and cause losses to them, these companies do not accept any responsibility. The hacking of the data is considered merely the hackers responsibility.

According to Mosco, the hacking of internet users data, as experienced by 10 financial institutions in the US in 2014, which jeopardized the data safety of 83 million cloud users, individuals and businesses, shows the severe frailty of the cloud-data system.

Continued hacking attacks remain hidden from the public as the companies providing cloud services (Google, Amazon, Facebook etc.) seek to safeguard their reputation. All attention is focused on the crime of hacking the personal data of internet users, while the main problem lies in the monitoring  the heart of the daily business of such cloud companies and state intelligence bodies.

This practice has brought significant economic and political gains to the companies, without any responsibility for protecting the safety of the data resulting from their surveillance.

Eradicating or reducing such surveillance would reduce the profits of the cloud-providing companies and their clients, and limit governments ability to collect data on all their citizens. They will, therefore, do all they can to prevent any efforts to reduce or eliminate such monitoring, even though it would be done for the sake of privacy and the safety of internet users personal data.

Once again, is Zuckerbergs apology enough? Is the leaking of data on 50 million social media users a mere ethical problem that can be settled by sorry? Is it a mere technical glitch that can be made good with a promise to fix the data storage of social media users data in the future?

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Faaza Fakhrunnas and Yunice Karina Tumewang (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 16:57 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb9ddb0 3 Opinion World-Bank,islamic-finance,global-economy,economic-inequality Free

The World Bank will celebrate its 74th anniversary in July, this year. It is therefore high time to remind the main goal of its establishment as appears on its motto Working for a World Free of Poverty.

Since its establishment on July 1944, more than a half century ago, this motto is translated into a single mission of ending extreme poverty. Then, for the first time in the history of the World Bank Group in October, 2014, the re-appointed President Jim Yong Kim declared that they have set a twin goal by having an additional aim to reduce global inequality (World Bank, 2014).

As a result, income inequality today has become a much discussed subject around the globe which is in line with the recent survey conducted by a Pew Research Center, which found that more than 60 percent of respondents worldwide regard the gap between rich and poor as a major concern. Even some researchers found that inequality is worse than what we think with two main reasons. First, inequality impedes growth. Every a percentage point increase in the income share of the top 20 percent is associated with 0.08 percentage point lower GDP growth in the following five years.

In contrast, the same percentage increase in the income share of the bottom 20 percent is related to 0.38 percentage point higher growth (IMF, 2015). Second, it hampers poverty reduction. The Asian Development Bank (2012) says that if inequality had remained stable in the Asian economies where it increased, the same growth in 19902010 would have taken about 240 million more people out of poverty.

Considering this additional goal, there has been a shift in the approach World Bank needs to take. It moves from the traditional trickle down to shared prosperity.

Trickle down was first coined by American humorist Will Rogers, who mocked President Herbert Hoovers efforts to recover their economy after Great Depression, saying that money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes it would trickle down to the needy. It, then, becomes such economic dogma within two generations which assumes that any undifferentiated growth permeates and fortifies the soil, then everything starts to bloom even for the poor.

However in fact, this assumption went wrong. Mehrun Etebari revealed that the data from the past 50 years strongly refutes any arguments that cutting taxes for the richest Americans (in order to maximize their wealth) will improve the economic standing of the lower and middle classes or the nation as a whole.

Additionally, we can take a look at China, country which maintained one of the highest rates of growth, yet at the same time one of the highest wealth disparities on the planet. It suggests that economic benefit or growth does not trickle down.

Having this fact, we need to find an alternative approach that is more suitable to face the big challenge of our time which is in form of income inequality. As President Kim mentioned in his recent speech, The World Bank Groups approach to addressing this problem (read: inequality) is embodied in a term that suggests a solution: boosting shared prosperity. The main distinction with the traditional approach is, instead of looking at GDP growth, shared prosperity is directly looking at the income of the less well-off people. It promotes an equal opportunity to improve living standards of all citizens not just few as what depicted in the study by Oxfam (2014), nearly 50 percent of the worlds wealth is owned by only 1 percent of world population.



In achieving the shared prosperity, the efforts might differ among countries, but still share something in common which is stimulating financial inclusion. For country like Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country with the largest number of Islamic financial institutions, Islamic Finance is appropriate to be utilized as the catalyst for shared prosperity.

As what formulated in the masterplan for Indonesian Islamic Financial Architecture (2016) the Islamic finance should go beyond its banking sector and maximize the other huge potency of non-banking institution that is unique and built from the bottom such as Baitul Mal wat Tamwil (BMT).

With the large number of more than 5,000 BMTs in Indonesia, it could cover the limitation of Islamic banking to reach the grass root of society since financing the informal sector (small traders) is usually associated with high level of cost as well as risk. Moreover until now, BMTs are not tied with any regulation from government, which makes them free to innovate their products. They could integrate social products such as Zakat, Infaq, Shodaqoh and Wakaf in providing financing to poor informal sector entrepreneurs. Ultimately, the agenda of World Bank to move toward shared prosperity could be done through inclusive Islamic Finance particularly in Indonesia.

As part of its work on Islamic finance, the World Bank, in partnership with the government of Turkey, established the Global Islamic Finance Development Center in 2013 as a knowledge hub for developing Islamic finance globally, conducting research and training, and providing technical assistance and advisory services to World Bank Group client countries interested in developing Islamic financial institutions and markets.

Also, in July 2015, the World Bank and the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI), the global umbrella of Islamic financial institutions, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to help foster the development of Islamic finance globally and expand its use as an effective tool for financing development worldwide, including in non-Muslim countries.

Following that, the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) and the World Banks Treasury and Finance & Markets Global Practice Group have hosted a High-Level Seminar on Islamic Finance with the theme, Islamic Finance and the Sustainable Development Goals on Oct. 6, 2016 in Washington, D.C., US.

In addition to that, several meetings and conferences have been successfully organized by the World Bank discussing recent issues on Islamic Finance. Annual Symposium on Islamic Finance which firstly held in Istanbul on 2015, which then followed by Morocco in 2016. And recently December 2017 in Malaysia. Another conference jointly held by Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) and World Bank Group at the SCs headquarters, Kuala Lumpur on May 2017 with theme Islamic Finance and Public-Private Partnerships for Infrastructure Development.

Further, in recent operations in Egypt and Turkey, for example, the Bank Group helped governments to design Sharia-compliant financing frameworks to expand financing for small and medium scale enterprises. All of these engagements have witnessed many progress and innovations in Islamic Finance such as the launch of Green sukuk, the use of Islamic Endowment funds for long-term investments, leveraging Islamic Financial Technology (FinTech) and waqf (Islamic endowment funds) to provide alternative financing for micro small medium enterprises. Hopefully these engagements can be more and more massive ahead in order to create an enabling environment for a world without poverty.

***

Faaza Fakhrunnas is a lecturer at the Indonesia Islamic University (UII), Yogyakarta, and Yunice Karina Tumewang is a researcher at the same university.

---------------

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.Aroma Karsa, which is Dees 12th novel, tells a story of a young man named Jati Wesi who has an extraordinary sense of smell. Jatis ability to smell and perceive odors is higher than average, a condition scientifically known as hyperosmia.

Ironically, Jati grew up in Bantar Gebang landfill in Bekasi, West Java, home to a large waste processing plant that is notorious for its foul smells. Jati works many odd jobs, but the job that he is most proud of is that of perfume maker.

Over the course of the novel, readers join Jatis adventures, from meeting a wealthy businesswoman named Raras Prayagung and her daughter Tanaya Suma, who has the same ability as Jati, to searching for the mythical flower with magical powers dating back to the Majapahit era called Puspa Karsa. Legend has it that this mysterious flower can control ones will, and can only be identified through its unique scent.

The main theme of the novel is scents and the sense of smell, a subject which was previously unfamiliar to Dee. She is known for the immensely popular science fiction series Supernova, which to date consists of six books. In Aroma Karsa, Dee stays true to her roots in science fiction.

For Aroma Karsa, Dee conducted both desk and field research. With University of Indonesia (UI) lecturers, she studied Javanese calligraphy and epigraphic records from the Majapahit era, which she references in her novel.

To further grasp the idea of fragrance making, Dee took a perfumery course in Singapore. She also visited Mount Lawu in Central Java for field research, one of the sites featured in Aroma Karsa, and Bantar Gebang.

I conducted lengthy research to write Aroma Karsa and I learned many new things that I never even thought of before, Dee said recently.

For example, she learned that ambergris, a substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales, was one of the most expensive and sought after material by high-end perfume makers.

The writing process was even more of a challenge, Dee said. Scent, she explained, was difficult to describe in writing, unlike sight. She even learned theories of writing about smells.

Brand new copy: Author Dewi 'Dee' Lestari poses during a press conference for her new novel, Aroma Karsa. (Shutterstock/File)

Unlike sight, we cant see scent. Its difficult to describe with words. So as a writer, I saw this as an interesting challenge. Writing this novel has expanded my vocabulary.

Not only did she tackle a largely untouched theme, Dee also challenged herself by participating in the digital revolution. Aside from the traditional hard copy release, she also released Aroma Karsa digitally by chapter over the last few months in a style locally known as cerbung (a serialized story).

Cerbung was popular in the 1980s and the 1990s when serialized stories were published in newspapers and magazines. Readers must wait a day or a week to know how their beloved story progresses.

I wanted the readers to experience this; waiting for the next chapter and getting excited for the day when a new chapter comes. Its an interesting experience, Dee said.

The mother of two acknowledged that converting traditional hard copy readers into digital readers was a challenge. Many readers still opt to have a book in their hand and smell its scent rather than going online and reading it on their gadgets.

Despite Dees worries, many readers tuned in to her digital release of Aroma Karsa. The cerbung was released twice a week exclusively on digital platform bookslife.co and recorded up to 2,000 subscribers. Each release contained one part, which cost readers just Rp 5,000 (36 US cents), and consisted of three chapters.

Dee also created and participated in a closed group on Facebook to discuss the chapters with readers.

The key to attract readers to cerbung is by giving them new, interesting material. So they have no choice but to go online and read, Dee laughed.

It seems that overcoming all of her challenges paid off. In Aroma Karsa, Dee writes about the science of smell, incorporating it with history, sprinkled with a slice of life, in a way that captivates readers.

The way Dee describes the journey of her fictional characters in this novel is beautiful and almost poetic.

Readers not only experience the characters adventures  which are magical, surreal and hits close to home  but are also educated.

The 696-page novel is a page turner; the neat plot combined with the looming mystery of Puspa Karsa leaves readers wanting more.

This has been my most challenging novel yet, but it has been a fun challenge and I enjoyed the journey, she said.

________________________

Aroma Karsa

Written by: Dewi Dee Lestari

Format: Digital e-book

Number of pages: 696

Available at: bookslife.coA French waiter fired for being "aggressive, rude and disrespectful" says his behavior wasn't out of line -- he's simply, well, French.

Guillaume Rey, who worked at a Vancouver restaurant on Canada's Pacific coast, filed a complaint with British Columbia's Human Rights Tribunal against his former employer, claiming "discrimination against my culture."

The restaurant, operated by Cara Operations, accused Rey of violating its code of conduct and said he persisted in his behavior despite verbal and written performance reviews.

In alleging discrimination Rey said French culture just "tends to be more direct and expressive."

Read also: French founder strives to elevate Indonesian brand at Maison&Objet

He owes his sacking to his "direct, honest and professional personality," which he acquired while training in France's hospitality industry.

Both parties agree Rey performed well at his job despite his allegedly disagreeable demeanour.

The restaurant and its parent company had attempted to dismiss the complaint but tribunal member Devyn Cousineau denied that application, clearing the path for a yet unscheduled hearing.

She said the application's denial should not be seen as an indication of the case's outcome.

"Mr Rey will have to explain what it is about his French heritage that would result in behavior that people misinterpret as a violation of workplace standards of acceptable conduct," she wrote in her decision.A six-liter Imperial of Petrus 1982 sold for 45,410 pounds ($64,200) at a Sothebys auction in London as the vineyard in Bordeauxs Pomerol appellation accounted for three of the top 10 lots in the sale.

Imperials of Chateau Latour and Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 1982 sold for 17,328 pounds and 16,133 pounds respectively, while a three-liter double magnum of Petrus 82 fetched 21,510 pounds, according to emailed results from the auction house.

The 1982 vintage is rated by critics as among the top of the past half century, with prices reflecting both the quality and the increasing scarcity of the wines. Large-format bottles may also command a premium because of rarity.

The sale on March 21 also featured magnums from banner vintages of the 1940s, including a Mouton-Rothschild 1945 for 29,875 pounds, a Chateau Cheval Blanc 1947 for 23,900 pounds and a Petrus 1947 for 22,705 pounds.

Bordeaux led the way in the sale, according to Stephen Mould, head of Sothebys Wine, Europe, in an emailed statement, while noting healthy demand for fine wine across the board.

Read also: France uncorks record wine and spirits exports

From Burgundy a 12-bottle Domaine de la Romanee-Conti 1998 Assortment fetched 33,460 pounds, while six bottles of Richebourg 2005 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti sold for 16,730 pounds.She has been coming here every single day for as long as I can remember. Each time we would get excited at the prospect of getting our turn to please her.

Sumatra, please, she would say once she reached the counter. At other times, she would just say the usual.

The man behind the counter would turn to our jar, remove a few of us from the bottom cap, and before we knew it, our friends would be grounded, mixed with hot water and served in a paper cup.

She would sniff at the steam slipping out of the closed cup and her face would lighten up. Good to know that we have that impact on her. She would then leave, holding the warm cup in both hands.

We would celebrate the departure of our friends. It has become something of a routine every morning. Something we look forward to every day.

The woman with the red lips  as red as we once were  was about the only customer who came for us during the day. Some days, one or two other customers would place a similar order, but she has been the most consistent customer. She has not missed a single day. She is everyones favorite as far as our jar is concerned. Everyone wants to end their existence with her, our biggest supporter.

Our jar is rarely refilled while others next to us are constantly topped up. One jar gets refilled twice a day. Those poor beans have a shorter existence, they dont get to see life in a cafe as much as we do.

We have come to learn that were not as popular. We count our blessings.

Still, we were horrified when the people behind the counter were arguing, one recent night before closing, about whether or not they should stop selling Sumatra.

Nooo. Sumatra is exclusive. We have to keep one or two like this for the real coffee connoiseurs,  said the person who regularly serves Red Lips.

I can see from the way he serves and talks to her, and the way he defended Sumatra, that he likes her too. That explains the way he looks at her. So were not her only fans.

Its not because you like the sexy woman who orders from you every day, is it? She sure is pretty, Eliminator said cynically.

No. There are a few others who buy Sumatra every day, I assure you, he said, not too convincingly.

Yeah, right, Eliminator chuckled.

Hey, we are making more money from premium beans, Defender said, now with more conviction.

Not sure if they are; and we dont care so much about sexy and pretty  butwell take exclusive, connoiseurs and premium. Thats us. Thanks, Defender.

Coffee is not a beauty contest and our end should never be determined by whether we are popular or not.

We have come a long way, literally and figuratively, and weve gone through several transformations and we deserve a more dignified end. For those inside this jar, this means ending with Red Lips.

The people we have been dealing with are different as we went from one existence to another and we sure have traveled a long distance. We notice that most of the people in this cafe have fair complexions, while those dealing with us in our earliest existence were much darker.

My earliest memory of my existence was growing on a tree, or more like bushes. I recall a shirtless farmer who would come to check on us every day, waiting for us to become ripe. He would then handpick those of us who have turned from green to red, or reddish.

One day, my turn came. Shirtless picked me and a few other cherries off the same branch, and a few others off the same tree. We were put in a gunny sack with others from other trees.

At Shirtless home, I remember we were left to dry under the sun on the patio for God knows how many days. Our skin peeled off and we were dehydrated. I recall being sorted, and some of us were removed because they were not good enough, or so we heard.

I made it here, so I must be good. We never learned about the fate of those removed.

And then the endless journey began, from one strange place to another. We never really got to see much, as we were always inside a sack. But I remember our sack being thrown about from one place to another. That last journey seemed particularly long.

So, it was nice to breathe in the open once again. But this place we are now seems a lot colder. I remember being weighted and sorted again, this time into smaller groups, and then packaged.

We went through one more process before we got to where we are today: We were roasted so black that we started to give off some aroma. And then, we headed for the jar. They call us Sumatra, to differentiate us from other beans with their own names and smell.

So, here we are now, waiting for our turn to end our existence. There is one more transformation we have to go through, being grounded, before we are served with hot

water.

Today is going to be my turn for sure. I will be among the beans that will be picked for the next Sumatra order. I have been counting down the days, waiting with anticipation for Red Lips to come.

Sure enough, here she comes.

Wait, shes got a friend with her.

So, whats your pleasure? Let me buy this one, the friend asks Red Lips.

They seem a little too intimate. Boyfriend, perhaps?

I always take Sumatra. My favorite, says Red Lips.

We glow.

Ill go for Colombia. Sumatra? Ive never heard of it before. Is it good?

Uggh! What kind of question is that? Havent you heard? Exclusive, connoisseurs, premium. You tell him, Defender.

Its more earthy, full-bodied, thick and spicy, Red Lips says, talking us up. Attagirl.

Then comes the unexpected bombshell.

You should try it, Red Lips tells Boyfriend.

But before he could react, Defender interrupts their conversation.

Next! What will you have? Defender asks the Boyfriend, but the corners of his eyes are clearly looking at Red Lips.

Yes, man, youve got competition.

One Colombia for me, and one Sumatra for the lady, Boyfriend says. Phew, that was close.

Wait, I think Ill have the same as the one she always orders, Boyfriend says.

What? No, no. I feel like screaming. Stick to Colombia. Boyfriend cant hear me, but instead I hear chuckles from the other beans in the jar.

Two Sumatras coming right up, Defender says, his eyes fully gazing at Red Lips. She smiles.

I can just hear the laughter from behind me as I make my exit.

***

Eric Musang Piliang is an Indonesian writer, editor and coffee connoisseur.

---------------------

We are looking for contemporary fiction between 1,500 and 2,000 words by established and new authors. Stories must be original and previously unpublished in English.

The email for submitting stories is: shortstory@thejakartapost.comShare this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Moscow, Russia  Mon, March 26, 2018 13:05 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb91537 2 World fire,Russia,death Free

At least 53 people were killed when a fire ripped through a busy shopping centre in an industrial city in western Siberia, with scores more reported missing, including children.

Images on Russian television showed thick black smoke pouring out of the Winter Cherry shopping centre in the city of Kemerovo, which also houses a sauna, a bowling alley and a multiplex cinema and was packed with people on Sunday afternoon.

There is a fire in a mall in Kemerovo, Siberia and people jumping from the windows :( pic.twitter.com/a4DMqdPQNS  English Russia (@EnglishRussia1) March 25, 2018

"At this time, we can confirm the deaths of 37 people in the fire at the Kemerovo shopping centre", Russia's Investigative Committee said, according to TASS news agency.

Investigators had initially reported five people dead including a child and another 30 people injured and taken to hospital.

As the new death toll was announced, a source in the local rescue services said 69 people including 40 children were reported missing, the RIA Novosti agency reported, while the Investigative Committee said it was "verifying information that 35 people could be missing".

The preliminary findings of the inquiry said the fire started around 1100 GMT in one of the cinema halls and destroyed more than 1,000 square metres of the centre, news agencies reported.

"The roof collapsed in two theatres in the cinema," the Investigative Committee said.

Around 120 people had been evacuated from the burning centre, rescuers said.

"This shopping centre on several floors was packed with people mid-day Sunday. No one knows exactly how many people there were inside when the fire broke out," Alexandre Eremeyev, an official with the local Russian emergency services ministry, said in a statement.

"Where to look for people? How many are there? That has greatly complicated the work of the firefighters," he said, adding that the thick smoke was also hindering their task.

Some 300 firefighters and rescue personnel were rushed to the scene and the fire was brought under control around 1730 GMT, local emergency officials said.

Russia's minister of emergency services, Vladimir Putchkov has gone to Kemerovo, RIA Novosti said.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz offered his sympathies.

"My condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the terrible fire in the shopping mall in Kemerovo. It is tragic that so many children are dead or missing. I wish a speedy recovery to those injured," he said on Twitter.

It was the deadliest blaze in Russia in recent years.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Fachrul Sidiq (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 17:24 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cba280b 1 City ahok,appeal,Supreme-Court,rejection Free

The Supreme Court has rejected former Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama's case review petition against his blasphemy conviction, an official with the court has said.

Three judges  Artidjo Alkostar, Salman Luthan and Margiatmo  rejected the former Jakarta governor's challenge against his conviction, which sentenced him to two years in prison.

"The appeal has been rejected," court's spokesperson Suhadi told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

More than nine months after being convicted of blasphemy, Ahok officially challenged his conviction through a case review petition to the court.

Ahok's lawyer and sister, Fify Lety Indra, said she believed the North Jakarta District Court had made a mistake in declaring Ahok guilty of blasphemy.

She said the guilty verdict against Buni Yani, a communications lecturer found guilty of tampering with video footage of a speech given by Ahok that was used as evidence to lodge the blasphemy allegations against the former Jakarta governor, was the basis for the case review request.

"The legal argument for our petition is that the judges [at the district level] made a mistake in their verdict [on Ahok], particularly in relation to Buni Yani's verdict." she said after the preliminary hearing.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 19:30 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbab2bd 1 City building,permit,violation,East-Jakarta Free

The top floor of a four-story building near Taman Mini Indonesia Indah cultural park in East Jakarta was dismantled over alleged building permit (IMB) violations on Monday.

Cipayung Spatial Planning Agency head Magdalena Butet said the buildings IMB was issued for a three-story building.

The violations also include the height of the building as well as the free space in the back and sides, said Magdalena, noting that the buildings function had also changed from its intended use as a residential building to a store.

The dismantling was assisted by officers from the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP), resulting in the construction workers that were on site to promptly leave the premises. (jlm)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Winny Tang (The Jakarta Post) Penang, Malaysia  Mon, March 26, 2018 11:11 1278 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb8b1bb 1 Business citilink,inauguration,flight,Jakarta-Penang Free

Low-cost airline Citilink Indonesia has announced plans to serve two or three more international routes this year in addition to the Jakarta-Penang route that started operation on Sunday and the Jakarta-Dili route that has been in operation since May, last year.

The company said it took into consideration several aspects before opening new routes, including the destination citys gross domestic product (GDP), to assess the business prospects.

These [new routes] will benefit Citilink, because we can optimize the utilization of our fleet, Citilink finance director Fransetya Hutabarat said on the Citilink flight to Penang on Sunday.

Read also: Citilink opens direct route from Jakarta to Penang

Meanwhile, Andy Adrian Febryanto, Citilink Indonesias chief commercial officer, said the new routes would be within a range of four to five flying hours, a distance coverable by Airbus A320 planes.

"We plan to expand our [route network] to a number of cities, but I cannot disclose the routes yet, he said.

Citilinks inaugural flight to Penang recorded a seat occupancy rate of 97 percent, with 176 of the 180 available seats filled.

Penang is considered an attractive destination for airlines, as it is a modern international island city that offers tourists attractions such as heritage buildings in George Town, the Gurney Drive tourist belt, Penang Hill and others.

Planes on the route take off from Jakarta at 9:55 a.m. and from Penang at 2:50 p.m. local time. Fransetya said the firm might increase the flight frequency in the future if demand was high.

AirAsia has served the same route for a longer time. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar, Bali  Mon, March 26, 2018 18:30 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cba8ce6 1 National bali,drug-smuggling,drugs,Ngurah-Rai-International-Airport Free

A Bali resident was arrested at Ngurah Rai International Airport for allegedly attempting to smuggle 2 kilograms of cocaine from overseas to the resort island.

Personnel of the Customs and Excise Office arrested I Nyoman Arnaya, 47, a passenger from Qatar Airways, as he arrived at the airport on March 23 from Doha Qatar.

The personnel grew suspicious after scanning Arnayas belongings during an X-ray security check at the airports arrival terminal.

Officers found four packs of cocaine hidden inside cardboard in four folded shirts, head of Bali and West Nusa Tenggara Customs and Excise office Syarif Hidayat said in a press conference on Monday.

The officers also found 39 smaller packs of cocaine hidden inside small spaces in 39 foot files. The total weight of the cocaine was 2 kilograms worth Rp 5 billion (US$364,000), Syarif said.

Further investigation jointly conducted by the customs office and Bali Police found that Arnaya, a resident of Buleleng regency in Bali, was allegedly offered US$3,000 by a Filipino national named Bella to take the cocaine.

Arnaya told investigators he was told to go to Colombia to retrieve some things and bring it to Hong Kong. He was not allowed to open the bag by the person who allegedly ordered him.

Arnaya then departed to Colombia, where he met a man identified only as Mr. Don. He received a bag and 400,000 pesos (US$144). He said Mr. Don had asked him to wait for Bella to buy him the ticket to Hong Kong. However, as Arnaya did not hear about nor receive a ticket from Bella, he then decided to go home to Bali with the bag from Mr. Don.

Syarif said a laboratory test revealed that the substance found was cocaine.

We urge people to be more alert while traveling, at home or abroad. Dont accept any baggage from unknown people," Syarif warned.

Arnaya could be charged under the 2009 law on drugs, which carries a maximum sentence of death penalty.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 17:24 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cba1c14 4 Business bank-indonesia,candidates,house-of-representatives,approval Free

The House of Representatives Commission XI, overseeing financial affairs, among other things, will this week start an approval process of the sole candidate for Bank Indonesia governor, Perry Warjiyo, who was submitted by President Joko Jokowi Widodo, late February.

The so-called fit and proper test, which is in the form of an interview by lawmakers, is required by law, but it is likely only a formality as so far, as there is no significant opposition to Perrys nomination by House members.

We will finish the fit and proper test and the election this week. This evening, Commission XI will hold a meeting with experts to seek input, said Commission XI lawmaker Muhammad Nur Purnamasidi in Jakarta on Monday as reported by kompas.com.

Among the experts invited were former vice president and BI governor Boediono, former maritime affairs and fisheries minister Rizal Ramli and Atma Jaya Catholic University economist Antonius Prasetyantoko.

Meanwhile, the fit and proper test will be held on Wednesday, Muhammad added.

Fit and proper tests for BI deputy governor candidates  Dody Budi Waluyo, Wiwiek Sisto Widayat and Doddy Zulverdi  will be held on Tuesday.

The results for both BI governor and BI deputy governor will be announced on Thursday and will be affirmed in the Houses plenary session on April 4.

After his approval by the House, Perry, who is now a BI deputy governor, will replace BI Governor Agus Martowardojo, who will end his term in May. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) New Delhi  Mon, March 26, 2018 17:25 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cba2969 2 World India,journalist,attack,press Free

Indian police on Monday detained a former village chief accused of running over and killing a journalist with his sports-utility vehicle.

Navin Nischal, a reporter for Danik Bhaskar, a major Hindu newspaper, was the latest in a string of journalists to be killed in one of the world's most dangerous countries for media.

Nischal and an associate Vijay Singh were on a motorbike when they were run over in Bhojpur, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Patna, capital of the eastern state of Bihar.

Police said they had detained Mohammad Harsu, a former village chief in the region.

"Navin's brother filed a complaint for his journalist brother. He said it was a murder as he had an argument with the former village head yesterday," Bhojpur police superintendent Avkash Kumar told AFP.

"We had registered a murder case after the complaint and arrested Mohammad Harsu. Now we are looking for his son but it's an ongoing investigation to ascertain the murder allegations by the deceased's family," he added.

Media reports said Haru and his son fled the accident scene and his car was set on fire by local people.

Three journalists were reported killed in 2017 in India.

Journalists in the world's largest democracy often face harassment and intimidation by police, politicians and criminal gangs, while many work in hostile conditions in conflict-ridden zones.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 14:04 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb92ec6 1 Business RCEP,ASEAN,free-trade,agreement Free

Indonesia has called on ASEAN member countries to develop a unified position in negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

ASEAN needs to have only one voice when negotiating with the partner countries in RCEP, the Trade Ministrys international trade negotiation director general, Iman Pambagyo, said in a statement received by The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Iman chaired the Indonesian delegation in the second Senior Economic Officials' Meeting for the 49th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting from March 21 to 24 in Nusa Dua, Bali.

Iman stressed the importance of ASEAN member countries to discuss certain issues internally, before taking the issues to the RCEP forum.

During the meeting in Bali, ASEAN member country representatives also discussed the results of the fourth RCEP ministerial meeting. During the RCEP Summit in Manila in November 2017, heads of state agreed to complete the negotiations this year.

Iman called on the ASEAN member countries to commit to resolving all pending issues from the fourth RCEP ministerial meeting at the fifth inter-sessional ministerial meeting in Tokyo on July 1.

The issues to be discussed include rules of origin, trade in services, investment and competition.

The RCEP is a proposed free-trade agreement between the ten ASEAN members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and six other countries -- Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 16:00 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb9b3ff 1 World #NewZealand,#Jokowi,Jokowi,Tantowi-Yahya Free

Indonesian Ambassador to New Zealand Tantowi Yahya has dismissed allegations that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo had acted disrespectfully toward Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern by declining to speak in public during last week's state visit to the country.

His statement was a response to a commentary in The New Zealand Herald by columnist Audrey Young, who painted Jokowi's visit as "shameful" because the President reportedly "failed to present himself in some manner to the public of New Zealand".

In the written statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Monday, Tantowi said the decision for the two leaders not to hold a joint press conference was, in fact, proposed by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and adopted unanimously. Young claimed in her column that the MFAT proposed a joint conference, but "the Indonesians declined".

Tantowi said the two sides had agreed to publish a joint statement that reflected the results of the leaders' talks on their respective online portals.

"As guests, we respect the position taken by our host. We fully supported [the proposal], as there was nothing wrong with it," Tantowi siad. "We were very satisfied with the level of service and attention, as well as the warm welcome that the government of New Zealand has afforded us."

President Jokowi's visit to New Zealand on March 18-19 was the first by an Indonesian leader in 13 years, and marked 60 years of diplomatic relations. The two nations agreed to upgrade their ties to a comprehensive partnership, and committed to increasing two-way trade to NZ$4 billion (US$2.9 billion) by 2024.

The success of the visit, Tantowi said, was a testament to the hard work and thorough preparations that both sides expended.

However, the backlash arising from Young's comments on President Jokowi prompted the Indonesian Embassy in Wellington to protest strongly and demand clarification over the report, which the ambassador lambasted as "baseless" and a "distortion of the truth".

The commentary claims that the President reportedly declined to meet with the press and to give a statement following bilateral talks with Prime Minister Ardern on March 19.

"The author took this as a sign of disrespect on the part of President Jokowi; that's a very pretentious thing to say," said Tantowi.

"As president of the third largest democracy in the world, Joko Widodo upholds freedom of expression and independence of the press," the statement said. (evi)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 18:24 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cba85d3 1 City Palyja,Aetra-Air,PAM-Jaya,privatization,water Free

The Jakarta administration will form a team pertaining to the controversial restructuring between city-owned tap water company PAM Jaya with private-run PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) and PT Aetra Air Jakarta, an official has said.



The agreement, to be signed on March 21, which coincides with World Water Day, was halted following protests from activists and residents that opposed water privatization in the city. A Supreme Court ruling last year ordered a stop to the privatization of pipe water supply in the city.



Amin Subekti, head of the development acceleration committee with the Governors Team for Accelerated Development (TGUPP), said the team would consist of individuals from several stakeholders, including from Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, academics, architect associations and civilians.

The team will study the planned agreement and will ensure that it abides by the courts verdict, said Amin, who is also a former director for state-owned electricity company PT PLN.

[The team will comprise] representatives from PAM Jaya, city administration and other stakeholders. There are many parties that have particular interest in the tap water issue, said Amin recently as quoted by tempo.co.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan decided to postpone the agreement signing as he had yet to study the agreement. (fac)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Fachrul Sidiq (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 18:36 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cba9c9b 1 City ahok,basuki-tjahaja-purnama,case-review,rejection,North-Jakarta-District-Court Free

Josefina Agatha Syukur, a lawyer representing former Jakarta governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama in a case review over his blasphemy conviction, has said that she has yet to receive official information regarding the verdict.



We have learned about it from the media but we have yet to receive any official information [from the court]. We cant make a statement just yet as we have to gather information first and discuss our next steps with the team, she told The Jakarta Post on Monday.



The Supreme Court rejected on Monday Ahoks case review petition, which officially challenged his blasphemy conviction. Ahok filed the petition in February, nine months after the North Jakarta District Court found him guilty of blasphemy and sentenced him to two years in prison for making a comment on a Quranic verse, which Ahok believed had been used by politicians to discredit him.

The judges cannot accept the arguments presented, court spokesperson Suhadi said, confirming that the petition had been rejected.

Previously, Ahok's lawyer and sister, Fify Lety Indra, said she believed the North Jakarta District Court had made a mistake in declaring Ahok guilty of blasphemy.

She said the guilty verdict against Buni Yani, a communications lecturer found guilty of tampering with video footage of a speech given by Ahok that was used as evidence to lodge the blasphemy allegations against the former Jakarta governor, was the basis for the case review request. (fac)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar, Bali  Mon, March 26, 2018 20:52 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbaec2f 1 National CrystalMeth,crystal-methamphetamine,#drugs,Malaysia,bali Free

A Malaysian has been arrested in Bali for allegedly attempting to smuggle drugs onto the resort island.The police found crystal methamphetamine hidden in his rectum.

AA, 23, was arrested by Ngurah Rai Airport customs and excise officers on March 11 upon his arrival at the international airport via Thai AirAsia FD 396 from Bangkok. AA was arrested along with his two Indonesian friends, S, 24, and AP, 25, who also brought drugs into Bali.

AA, S and AP were looking suspicious when they were passing the security check at the customs desk of the airport's international terminal.

"X-ray scanning showed that there were suspicious things in their bodies and among their belongings," Ngurah Rai Customs and Excise office head Himawan Indarjono told a press conference on Monday.

Following the X-ray, the police took them to the customs and excise room for a further check, including a body search. Customs officers found 36.2 grams methamphetamine in AA's bag. A body search yielded three small packets of methamphetamine weighing 36.25 grams, 33.73 grams and 20.73 grams. "All those three packets were hidden in his rectum," Himawan said.

A body search on S and AP also revealed drugs hidden in both of their rectums. From S, customs seized four small packets of meth, weighing 42.32 g, 44.81 g, 39.66 g and 38.78 g.

Officers found four packets of meth on AP  two in her rectum and two others in her vagina. In total she allegedly carried about 140 g of meth.

The three suspects are now facing drug charges, which carry a death penalty. (evi)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Mon, March 26, 2018 18:19 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cba8028 1 National cantrang,trawls-seine-nets,fishermen,fisheries,North-Sumatra Free

More than 100 traditional fishermen under the Batubara Traditional Fishermen Union staged a protest at Batubara Police precinct on Monday demanding the law enforcement personnel take firm action against fishermen still using trawlers in Batubara regency, North Sumatra.

The head of the group, Syawaluddin Pane, said the fishermen were growing restless with those using fishing trawlers and vessels equipped with cantrang (seine nets) in the North Sumatra waters.

We have protested so many times, but fishing activities using trawls remains here, instead of decreasing, he said during the protest on Monday, adding that the fishermen would take the matter into their own hands if the authorities ignored their protests.

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry had issued two regulations in 2015 and 2016 banning the use of trawlers along with cantrang, considered as an unsustainable fishing method, as of Jan. 1.

However, the restriction plan was met with a string of protests from fishermen claiming that the policy would affect their income. Minister Susi Pudjiastuti then decided on Jan. 17 that it would still allow fishermen living on the north coast of Java to use the fishing equipment while gradually moving to more sustainable fishing equipment. No exact date of the total ban has been imposed.

Syawaluddin urged Susi to back up her words while meeting traditional fishermen at Sialang Buah Beach, Sedang Bedagai regency, in December. He claimed that at the meeting, Susi aimed to clear North Sumatra waters from the use of destructive fishing equipment by January.

Up to present, the governments promise has not been manifested, he added.

Batubara deputy Police chief Sr. Comr. M. Hutabarat said the police would coordinate with related parties to settle the issue in response to the protests.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 11:42 1278 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb8c938 4 Business pertalite,pertamina,price,increase Free

State-owned energy company Pertamina increased the price of Pertalite-branded gasoline to Rp 7,800 (55 US cents) per liter on Saturday, Rp 200 higher than the previous price.

The 90 RON gasoline has become a widely used alternative for customers typically preferring the subsidized Premium brand, such as drivers of public transportation minivans and motorcyclists, because gas stations in Greater Jakarta frequently run out of Premium stocks.

The new price is for gas stations in Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra, while Pertalite is sold at Rp 8,150 per liter in Riau and Riau Islands and at Rp 8,000 per liter in other Sumatra provinces.

Read also: Pertamina raises non-subsidized fuel prices

The fuel also costs Rp 8,000 in Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua.

Pertamina regional marketing operation I (MOR I) spokesman Rudi Arifianto said in Riaus provincial capital of Pekanbaru on Sunday that the company had to increase the price because of the increasing global crude oil prices and the weakening of the rupiah against the US dollar.

Fuel is a global commodity where we cannot control the price. If the global oil price declines and the rupiah exchange rate strengthens, we will revise down the price, he said, as reported by Antara.

On Feb. 24, Pertamina increased the prices of several other non-subsidized fuels. The price of Pertamax per liter was increased to Rp 8,900 (62 US cents) from Rp 8,600, while the price of Pertamax Turbo per liter was increased to Rp 10,000 from Rp 9,600.

The price of Pertamina Dex per liter was raised to Rp 10,000 from Rp 9,250 and the price of Dexlite per liter to Rp 8,100 from Rp 7,500. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 22:03 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cbb08f9 1 City Tanah-Abang,road-closure,police,maladministration Free

The Jakarta Police have demanded that the city administration show them the grand design of the Tanah Abang area in Central Jakarta, in the latest development in a prolonged dispute centering on the closure of Jl. Jatibaru Raya.

The decision of Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to close the road to accommodate street vendors in December has faced strong opposition, prompting him to be reported to the police for alleged maladministration.

The police also previously urged the administration to revoke the policy, arguing it would only worsen what was already heavy gridlock.

Jakarta Police special crimes head Sr. Comr. Adi Deriyan Jayamanta demanded that the administration submit a study it conducted on the area. He said such documents were important as they would allow his force to determine whether violations of the law had taken place.



Everyone from the administration says that the policy is based on a study, so we want to see the study. It's as simple as that, he said at the Jakarta Police headquarters on Monday as quoted by kompas.com.

He said that after reviewing the study, the police would question the experts or related parties involved in the study as part of their investigation into the case.

Anies was reported to the police last month by Cyber Indonesia.

The Jakarta representative of the Ombudsman announced on Monday that four cases of alleged maladministration had occurred as a result of the closure policy, namely incompetency, deviation of procedure, neglect of legal obligations and unlawful actions. (fac)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Zaid Sabah and Mohammed Hatem (Bloomberg) Washington, United States  Mon, March 26, 2018 13:45 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb92155 2 World war,Yemen,Saudi-Arabia Free

Saudi Arabia said it intercepted seven ballistic missiles fired at Riyadh and other cities by Houthi forces in Yemen, marking an escalation from previous rocket launches at the kingdom.

The missiles were intercepted over the northeastern part of the capital and the cities of Najran, Jazan and Khamis Mushait. Fragments killed one Egyptian national and injured two others in Riyadh, according to the Saudi Press Agency and state television El-Ekhbariya, citing the civil defense spokesman, Mohamed al-Humadi.

Dramatic footage emerges of Saudi air defense intercepting Houthi missile launched into Riyadh. pic.twitter.com/S4qttJ9MPZ  Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) March 25, 2018

The attack came while Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is touring the US, promoting his kingdoms 2030 vision. He has met with President Donald Trump and other US officials during his visit. The attacks also coincided with the third anniversary of the Saudi-led coalitions intervention in Yemens civil war.

The rebels targeted King Khaled International airport in Riyadh, Abha airport in Aseer and Najrans airport, according to the Saba news agency and al-Maseera television. Rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi said in a televised speech that the groups missile force is growing and that it enters the fourth year of the war with a developed rocket system that cannot be intercepted by the US defense systems."

Saudi Arabia and its allies have been mired since 2015 in a conflict in Yemen to back an internationally recognized government against pro-Iranian Shiite rebels. The kingdom says the Houthi rebels are armed and backed by regional rival Iran.

While the kingdoms allies have been able to recover areas in southern Yemen from the Houthis, the rebels still control the capital Sanaa and territories in the north.

New angle suggests this is actually a spectacular failure of a #Saudi interceptor and not the missile fired at #Riyadh pic.twitter.com/TejVbA8fh3  Strategic Sentinel (@StratSentinel) March 25, 2018Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 15:21 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb9a0da 1 City toll-road,jakarta,construction Free

The construction of six inner-city toll roads is expected to be completed in 2023, PT Jakarta Tollroad Development (JTD) has said.

President director of JTD Frans Sunito said half of the planned turnpikes built on the existing roads had been developed.

Furthermore, the company would acquire some land for the turnpike, for instance, the land nearby the planned Semanan-Pulo Gebang toll road, Frans said.

Previously, the government halted all elevated infrastructure projects in the country due to a series of construction accidents.

Frans said the halt would not hinder the ongoing development because the company still focused on the development of the foundation.

"We've limited the project to 3 meters from the ground. Workers shall stop the project once the construction reaches 3 m," Frans said according to wartakota.tribunnews.com.

The development of the toll road has been listed as one of the country's national strategic projects, which according to Presidential Decree No. 3/2016 shall be accelerated.

JTD is set to build 69.77 kilometers of toll roads worth Rp 41.17 trillion (US$2.9 billion).

The cost of the construction had been increased because of some design revisions, Frans said, without providing further details on the additional costs. (cal)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 11:04 1278 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb8ac77 1 National Probosutedjo,obituary Free

Probosutedjo, a prominent businessman and the younger half-brother of former president Soeharto, died in Jakarta on Monday. He was 87 years of age.

"He died at the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital at 7 a.m. this morning," Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani told The Jakarta Post.

The funeral would be held in Yogyakarta, he added.

Probosutedjo was born in Kemusuk, Yogyakarta, on May 1, 1930.

A part of the privileged Cendana family, he established a business empire, mainly in the forestry industry. He was the director of PT Menara Hutan Buana. Under the New Order regime, he co-founded the Indonesian Indigenous Entrepreneurs Association (HIPPI), a move that reportedly drew the ire of Soeharto.

In 2003, he was sentenced to four years in prison in a bribery case valued at more than Rp 100 billion (US$7,270). He was conditionally released in 2008 after serving two-thirds of his term.

Probosutedho, who owned Jakartas Mercu Buana University, remained an ardent supporter of Soeharto. In 2013, he published a book entitled 34 Palace Journalists Talk About Pak Harto, which presents stories from palace-based reporters, and inaugurated the Grand General HM Soeharto Memorial in Yogyakarta. (kuk/srs/ahw)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, March 26, 2018 17:08 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb9feec 1 City Depok,teenagers,street-crime Free

The Depok Police in West Java have arrested seven teenagers for bringing sharp weapons while they were hanging out at Taman Merdeka in Sukmajaya district.

The polices Jaguar Team, tasked with combating street crime, alleged that the teenagers were involve in a brawl on Sunday.

Weve transferred them to the Sukmajaya Police office, team chief First Insp. Winam Agus said as quoted by tribunnews.com on Monday.

Sukmajaya Police chief First Insp. Sulaeman said his team was currently investigating the case further and that they definitely will be punished [and charged under Emergency Law No. 12/1951] if theyre proven to have possessed the sharp weapons.

If the sharp weapons were not theirs and they were not involved in the crimes, Sulaeman added, the police would put them in counseling sessions before returning them to their family. (vla)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Mexico City, Mexico  Mon, March 26, 2018 12:42 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb8ff8b 2 World social-media,Twitter,election,Mexico Free

Social media network Twitter has signed an agreement with Mexico's National Electoral Institute (INE) to distribute official information during the lead-up to July's general elections.

Mexico's electoral authority has already agreed a similar accord with Facebook and is preparing another with Google in a bid to fight the spread of false information that plagued the most recent US presidential election.

A statement released Sunday by the INE said the three presidential debates will be broadcast via the Periscope platform as part of the deal.

"The INE and Twitter have signed a memorandum of understanding to achieve, through this social network that has millions of followers, informing society in an adequate and timely manner about the most important aspects of the electoral process," the statement said.

The statement said Twitter would publish information on the official accounts @TwitterLatAm and @TwitterGov to give "visibility to public information disseminated by the INE."

The INE -- which is responsible for protecting the list of Mexican voters -- emphasized the agreement "in no way implies sharing or making use of personal data with any of the parties."

The National Institute of Access (INAI) -- in charge of monitoring Mexicans' personal data -- meanwhile said it would contact authorities in the United States and Great Britain in light of the scandal engulfing Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.

The communications firm, which worked on US President Donald Trump's election campaign, has been accused of illegally mining tens of millions of users' Facebook data and using it to target potential voters.

The INAI said in a statement that there was not yet evidence the Cambridge Analytica had accessed any personal data of Mexicans.

The July 1 ballot will include presidential elections as well as those for the two branches of Congress and a number of local seats.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Yoolim Lee and Eric Newcomer (Bloomberg) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Mon, March 26, 2018 10:05 1278 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb88d6e 2 Business Uber,Grab,acquisition Free

Uber Technologies Inc. has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian operations to Grab, withdrawing from yet another fast-growing region to end a war of attrition with a fierce local rival.

Under the agreement, Grab will acquire all of Ubers operations in a region of 620 million people, including food delivery service UberEats.

The US ride-hailing behemoth in return gets a 27.5 percent stake in a combined entity and its chief executive officer will join the board of the Singapore-based company. Bloomberg News reported over the weekend that the two companies had finalized a deal.

The cease-fire marks a victory for Grab as well as SoftBank Group Corp., the biggest shareholder in both companies. Masayoshi Sons firm is pushing to reduce competition in a Southeast Asian ride-hailing market forecast to reach US$20.1 billion by 2025. Uber and Grab, together with two other SoftBank-backed ride-hailing firms -- Indias Ola and Chinas Didi Chuxing -- provide about 45 million rides a day, according to SoftBank presentation material in February.

For San Francisco-based Uber, pulling out of running its own business in Southeast Asia cuts back on losses ahead of a planned initial public offering in 2019. But the deal marks the latest retreat by the worlds most valuable startup from a rapidly expanding arena: Uber sold its business in China to Didi in 2016 after a battle in which both burned through cash to court drivers and riders with rich subsidies. Uber negotiated a similar move in Russia last year.

Todays acquisition marks the beginning of a new era. The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region, Grab CEO Anthony Tan said in a statement.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been pushing to burnish the financials of a company thats burned through $10.7 billion since its founding nine years ago. Khosrowshahi signaled during a trip through Asia last month that hes committed to other key markets such as Japan and India. But its latest exit suggests Uber is more than ever dependent on its home market of North America, not unlike Khosrowshahis previous U.S.-centric employer, Expedia Inc.

Grab, which started out as a taxi-hailing app in Kuala Lumpur in 2012, became the regions dominant ride-hailing service in past years with $4 billion raised from investors. It was most recently valued at $6 billion, according to CB Insights. Today, with more than 86 million mobile app downloads, it offers a wide range of ride-hailing services in 191 cities across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Mon, March 26, 2018 14:15 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb949a9 2 SE Asia Malaysia,Najib-Razak,fake-news,punishment Free

The Malaysian government Monday proposed a law to combat "fake news" which could see offenders jailed for 10 years, sparking fears authorities aim to stifle criticism as elections loom.

Governments in several countries, emboldened by US President Donald Trump's fulminations against "fake news", are considering such legislation. But rights groups warn that authoritarian regimes are likely to use the new laws to crack down on dissent.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has already been targeting critics in politics and the media who have attacked him over allegations huge sums were looted from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

The proposed law, which was introduced in parliament Monday, fuelled fears the government is seeking to intensify a crackdown before elections, which must be called by August but are widely expected sooner.

Opposition MP Charles Santiago said the bill was "a powerful weapon for the government to silence dissent in the country".

"It is timed for the elections and to silence discussions on 1MDB," he told AFP.

The proposed law said fake news was becoming a "global concern" and the new legislation was aimed at safeguarding the public, as well as ensuring the right to freedom of expression.

Any person found guilty of creating or disseminating what authorities deem to be fake news can be punished with a maximum 10 years in jail or a fine of up to 500,000 ringgit ($130,000).

The bill also allows for anyone who breaks the law outside the country with what authorities deem to be "fake news" concerning Malaysia to face punishment in Malaysia.

Despite the concerns, cabinet minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar insisted the law "will not be abused", adding: "It is not aimed at silencing critics."

The bill must be approved by a majority in the 222-seat lower house and also in the upper house, and this is likely as both chambers are government-controlled. It needs to go through several readings in parliament before it passes.

Malaysia is ranked 144th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index.A Tourism National Coordination Meeting (Rakornas) held from March 22 to 23 by the Tourism Ministry has led to the proposal of nomadic tourism.

Kompas.com reported that nomadic tourism is said to be a way to offer tourism in Indonesias amazing natural destinations without using up too much time.

On the closing day of the first 2018 meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Friday, the forum recommended the acceleration of deregulation in nomadic tourism amenities, such as seaplanes, helicopters and lifeboats.

Nomadic tourism is easy and affordable. With interesting tourist attractions, building access and amenities is feasible by using temporary materials, said Tourism Minister Arief Yahya in a press release on Saturday.

The idea of nomadic tourism arose from the knowledge that Indonesia is a vast country, and that the tourism industry often finds it difficult to facilitate tourists who want to visit small islands.

Building access and amenities such as airports and hotels in groups of islands is considered very challenging.

Read also: Ten diaspora restaurants set to promote Indonesian tourism

To build something fixed in every area, that is honestly something I wont be able to accomplish. My proposal is that we develop nomadic tourism, said Arief on the launch of the North Maluku Event on March 13.

He explained that nomadic tourism was temporary traveling, whether in terms of access or amenities. He expressed hope that traveling in this manner would encourage tourists to visit natural destinations on hard-to-reach islands, such as Maluku.

For instance, instead of building an airport that would take time, tourists can travel by seaplanes or planes that can land on water.

In terms of amenities, the minister said that instead of building hotels, tourists can stay in caravans, home pods or glam camps. He noted that the three options were temporary and portable.

Building hotels in Jailolo (West Halmahera) would take five years. Caravans are available on demand, and they are easily transferable to whichever spot we choose, he said.

Nomadic tourism is available in places such as Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Maldives. (wng)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Mushtaq Mojaddidi and Allison Jackson (Agence France-Presse) Kabul, Afghanistan  Mon, March 26, 2018 15:27 1277 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9cb9aef2 2 News Education,Afghanistan,teacher,student,Jahantab-Ahmadi Free

Afghan farmer Jahantab Ahmadi sits on the ground, her baby resting in her lap, as she focuses on the university entrance exam she hopes will help her fulfil her dreams.

The powerful photo, taken by a professor at Nasir Khusraw private university in central Afghanistan, has gone viral after striking a chord in a country where most women are illiterate and treated as second-class citizens.

The picture has sparked an outpouring of admiration and offers of financial help for the 25-year-old mother of three.

"I don't want to be deprived of my studies," Ahmadi, who comes from a remote farming village in Daikundi province where wheat, corn and potatoes provide a meagre income, told AFP in Kabul.

"I want to work outside the house. I want to become a doctor, someone who serves women in my community or society."

Ahmadi passed the exam after undertaking an arduous journey to reach the provincial capital Nili -- two hours on foot through mountains and nine hours in public transport on a bumpy road.

An online GoFundMe campaign launched by the Afghan Youth Association to help pay for her university fees has so far raised more than $14,000 -- a fortune in a country where about 39 percent of the population lives in poverty.

Ahmadi appears a little bemused by the attention triggered by the photo of her cradling baby Khizran during the exam last month, which she only found out about later.

"My friends in the village told me 'you have been photographed'. I said 'how did I not know that I was being photographed and they said 'you were concentrating on the paper," she said, smiling shyly.

At the beginning of the test, which was held outdoors, Ahmadi sat at a desk with Khizran in her lap.

But the infant had an ear ache and would not stop crying. To keep her quiet and not disturb others, Ahmadi sat on the ground in the shade of another person -- and kept writing.

"I had to concentrate on the baby and do the paper," she said.

Read also: Shining light on tech-friendly teachers

University a 'life goal'

This picture taken on March 24, 2018 shows Afghan mother Jahantab Ahmadi, 25, holding her youngest child during an interview with AFP at a house in Kabul. (AFP/Wakil Kohsar)

Ahmadi's story has resonated with social media users across the country, who have praised her determination to be educated.

"You are a true world champion, you have shown that a Hazara girl can do anything in any conditions or circumstances," Nazar Hussein Akbari wrote on Facebook, referring to her ethnicity.

Another user posted: "I hope this hard-working woman reaches her goals."

Afghan women's rights activist Zahra Yagana was also impressed. She contacted Ahmadi and convinced her to come to Kabul to study.

The family is staying with Yagana while she helps Ahmadi get into a private university in the Afghan capital.

"If she had to study in Daikundi it would be difficult for her," Yagana told AFP at her apartment.

"The standard of education is low. There is no student hostel in Daikundi and she would have to live in a rented house.

"We will give her a house (in Kabul). There are many friends who have promised to help her. We are trying to find a job for her husband and also raise money for her children to go to school."

For Ahmadi, this would be the fulfilment of her dreams.

"My life goal was to get admitted into university," said Ahmadi, who finished high school after she got married at the age of 18.

"But due to our poor economic situation and poverty I could not afford to study for three or four years."

Afghanistan's general literacy rate is one of the lowest in the world -- just 36 percent, according to official figures. It is much lower for women.

"I don't want to be left behind," she said.Posted Sunday, March 25, 2018 11:00 pm

An enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Litchfield Community Center Saturday evening for the annual Lincoln Day Dinner. Approximately 300 were in attendance for the event.

Due to the fact that Saturday night was also the Christian County Lincoln Day Dinner, Congressman Rodney Davis and Governor Bruce Rauner spoke to those in attendance prior to the dinner to allow both men to attend.

Congressman Davis said that "Washington is an interesting place these daysit's a fight." He encouraged everyone to get out and work for the Republicans. "We need excitement here; we need to get the vote out!" he said.

Governor Rauner spoke on wanting to end corruption in Illinois; he wants a better future for Illinois. The way to do that, he said, is to make Illinois Republican. "This election is essentialfailure is not an option."

He concluded that it is an honor to work for the people of Illinois and that he "will never give up, never give in, for a better future for the people of Illinois."

Prior to the meal, the Hillsboro High School Choir sang several patriotic songs and Montgomery County Clerk and Recorder Sandy Leitheiser led the group in the singing of the National Anthem. Amy Lemons directed the choir.

Undersheriff Rick Robbins led the Pledge of Allegiance and Circuit Clerk Holly Lemons welcomed the crowd to the 47th annual Montgomery County Lincoln Day Dinner.

Dr. Jay Martin, candidate for Montgomery County Treasurer, gave the invocation and everyone enjoyed the prime rib meal, catered by Milanos' Catering. Seth McMillan, candidate for state senator of the 48th district and David Overstreet, running for a permanent position on the Fifth District Appellate Court, also asked for support from those in attendance. Candidate for Montgomery County Treasurer, Jay Martin and Rick Robbins, candidate for Montgomery County Sheriff, also gave their thanks for support and asked for continued support in November.

Montgomery County Board Chairman Evan Young introduced county board members, and Chairman Terry Richmond introduced other special guests. Featured speaker Erika Harold, candidate for Attorney General and Darlene Senger, candidate for Illinois Comptroller, were unable to attend due to weather.

Co-Vice Chairman Jeremy Jones presented a certificate of appreciation to Sgt. Major Dave Strowmatt for his work with Toys For Tots.

This year the program served 400 children in Montgomery County to help ensure they had a good Christmas.

State Representative Avery Bourne thanked everyone for their support and those who worked so hard on the Lincoln Dinner. She also announced that she and her fiance, Aaron DeGroot, had purchased her family's farm with plans to renovate and move there, but it is in Christian County rather than Montgomery County, but still in her district. She emphasized that "the only way to win is to be united."

In conclusion, Sheriff Jim Vazzi thanked everyone for all of their help during his 32 years as sheriff of Montgomery County. He also paid tribute, as did Sgt. Major Dave Strowmatt, to three "pillars of the Republican Party," Roy Hertel, Walter "Chick" Bishop and Ron Jenkins who have all passed away during the past year.

Door prizes and raffle prizes were awarded at the conclusion of the evening.Posted Sunday, March 25, 2018 11:00 pm

"Tonight we are here to celebrate you," said Litchfield Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dawn Pezold. "We are all about celebrating business and our members."

Pezold welcomed a large crowd to the 71st annual Litchfield Chamber of Commerce awards dinner, held Thursday evening, March 22, at the Litchfield Community Center. She thanked Milanos' Catering for providing the meal and the Litchfield Eagles Club and Ladies Auxiliary for tending the bar that night. Pezold also thanked Bank & Trust for donating four St. Louis Cardinals tickets and Miranda Bergman and the Litchfield Hampton Inn for donating a hotel stay in St. Louis. That prize was won by John Michael Marty of WSMI Radio, and Vicki Corrado won $170 in the 50/50 drawing.

Pezold also introduced several special guests, including city, township and county officials, Litchfield Mayor Steve Doughtery, Hillsboro Mayor Brian Sullivan and Dillon Clark, who is running for state representative.

Before the meal, Pezold also welcomed several businesses, who have joined the chamber over the past year, including Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Greenhouse Group, Kickin' 66 Liquor and More, Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation, Petal Pushers, Hwy 55 Burgers, Shakes and Fries, Nana's Hidden Attic, G&M Vending, Animal Medical Center, Connect Hearing, Litchfield Park District, Montgomery County Toastmasters, and Dillon Clark.

Also Staunton Chrysler, Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee, Midwest Aftermarket, Time Out Relaxation, Shelter Insurance, Sylvan Learning Center, Timber Creek Village and Lily Pad Learning Center.

"Our town is growing, and it's exciting," Pezold said.

The invocation before the prime rib dinner was led by Joanne Van Leer of HSHS St. Francis Hospital.

After the meal, Litchfield Chamber of Commerce President Jessica Vickery introduced this year's 2017 Miss Chamber of Commerce Brielle Marten. She told the crowd that each month, she and fellow Litchfield royalty are planning a community service activity as a way to give back to the community.

Vickery also introduced six students from this year's Montgomery County CEO (Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities) program, and told them to continue to follow their dreams.

Before the awards presentation, John Michael Marty of WSMI Radio, along with Terry and Diane Plummer, presented a 30-minute skit, called the Redneck Radio Show.

Last year's Citizen of the Year winner Bob Reid presented this year's award to Jim Powell, creator of Litchfield Sports, Inc. Powell thanked his family, including his wife of 40 years, who continues to battle Parkinson's. He thanked the city for not putting up road blocks as he started LSI, and encouraged local athletes to dream big.

Last year's Rising Star winner Meghan Bilyeu of Fit-to-Go presented this year's Rising Star award to Jessica Vickery, owner of Petal Pushers.

"This award has a long history of local citizens venturing into entrepreneurship, with a vision of betterment and service for Litchfield," Bilyeu said.

Vickery said purchasing the flower shop was never something she had planned, but thanked the community for its support in her endeavor.

Last year's Special Recognition winner Miranda Bergman presented this year's award to Cheryl Nickerson of Bank & Trust, who is also a board member for the Litchfield Chamber of Commerce.

Nickerson said she usually prefers to be behind-the-scenes in helping with chamber events, but has loved her time working on the chamber board.

"People I work with have been so kind in letting me work with the skills I have," Nickerson said. "The chamber is full of hard workers who are so dedicated. It's a treat for me to get to know them."

Last year's Business Person of the Year winner Jennifer Reid Baugher presented this year's Business Person of the Year award to Jim Hewitt of Allscripts Healthcare Solutions.

In his remarks, Hewitt talked about how Allscripts ended up in this area. Hewitt said 30 years ago he was working for a start-up tech company in Chicago, and saw the economic impact it was creating in that area. He thought a company like that could create a real economic boom to this area.

"I was basically laughed out of the office," he said. "But we are a software company. We could be anywhere in the world. Why not be someplace where we could make a major impact on a community?"

Hewitt said that Allscripts is the second largest health care IT company in the world, employing 10,000 globally.

Eventually, Hewitt engaged Jeff Franks to take the best and brightest in the IT world to innovate the medical records industry. That venture was Care Otter, which was started with just a few employees in the former Hillsboro Area Hospital Ambulance bay. Just three weeks ago, they launched that product and now have more than 100 employees in the former Maverick building in Litchfield.

In closing, Hewitt thanked both the Hillsboro and Litchfield mayors who were in attendance at the dinner for making the company and employees feel so welcome.

"It's fun to be here," he said. "We are surrounded by our customers. It's been an entire community effort for me to be here."

Before concluding the evening, Vickery introduced the chamber's new board members and officers, including incoming President Cory Evans, Vice President Jeremy Pattillo and Treasurer Brenda Masters- Stout.

"A town is only as good as the people in it, and I've met some really great people," Evans said in closing the dinner. "I look forward to working with all of you."Mar 26 2018 12:20 pm

As first reported on TLS, a vandal or vandals sprayed a swastika and other offensive marks on the Congregation Sons of Israel Shul in Lakewood.

On Saturday March 24th at approximately 11:45 am the Lakewood Police Department responded to the Congregation Sons of Israel located at 590 Madison Avenue, to investigate the report of vandalism, Police said today. Upon arrival Officer Stephen Meyer observed, what appeared to be, several misspelled antisemitic words and phrases written in red spray paint on the building and a monument. The suspect(s) also painted a red swastika on the door of a motor vehicle left in the lot. We believe that the incident took place sometime during the overnight hours into Saturday Morning. At this time, no organized group or individuals, have claimed responsibility for the crime.

:In addition, although the offending remarks have been removed, the investigation is on going. Anyone with information is urged to contact Det. Michael Cavallo at 732-363-0200 ext. 5317A full calendar week without any access to social media (barring Facebook Messenger and other messaging apps). An insurmountable task or an easy feat?

Im always up for a challenge, big or small, so when my editor and pal Alessandro assigned this piece to me I was ready to put my self to the test. There was a new film about to come out - Ingrid Goes West - about social media stalking, and that prompted the idea for this social experiment.

Yes, its not exactly a groundbreaking piece of hard-hitting journalism, I didnt even have to work that hard for it. I just had to avoid doing something that, in theory, should only take up a small part of my day. Whether seven days of no social sounds like a piece of cake to you, or you dont think you could ever get through it alive, there are lessons to be learnt from every experience. Including this kind of self-inflicted social experiment.

I had something to prove to myself and to all millennials out there. Why should we let those out of touch boom babies taunt us with our phone addictions? Someone had to take one for the team and prove once and for all whether life sans social media is any life at all. Well take a look at how I fared throughout the experiment and what I gained from it by the end.

Precautionary measures

If you are a normal person with average self-restraint this shouldnt be necessary, but since I know I cant be trusted to avoid all social media apps just from sheer willpower I had to put up some deterrents.

blacklist extension on Chrome To block all possible distractions on my laptop I used aand selected which website I wanted to be blacklisted. I would instinctively try and log on to YouTube or Twitter whenever I had nothing better to do and Id be slapped with a blacklisted warning. As far as my phone was concerned, I ended up putting all social media (and Grindr, for my own good) in a lonesome folder away from their fellow apps.

Day One

Its Friday morning, the alarm goes off and I have a few minutes to snooze before getting up and leaving the house but with this social media blockade, I have nothing to browse through while Im in bed. How bad is that? The minute I open my eyes my finger immediately goes searching for a social feed to peruse.The rest of the day goes by pretty smoothly, now that I dont have the luxury to go on Instagram and drool over hot people. I just read a book on my Kindle app instead and at uni lectures Im not tempted by the open tabs of Facebook and Twitter.

Success.

Day Two

Productivity levels are up; this terms coming to an end and my assignments are piling up so this was actually much needed. My day feels weirdly empty without all the useless information dump but I really should implement this every time I have exams. I can live without Twitter or Facebook but the absence of Youtube is felt strongly. I wasnt even sure if YouTube is classified as a social media platform but I added it to the list just in case.

Day Three

I had a dream I forfeited the challenge by going on Instagram, so I seem to be taking this thing very seriously. We went out for a Sunday roast at this cute pub and I couldnt even post a pic of friends on my Insta story. How are people going to have confirmation of my social life? No pictures of my delicious veggie roast and brownie either.

Day Four

Revising for a test while Insta Dm'ing my friends who are also taking the test and bitching about it has been a long-standing ritual that I have had to let go. I mean I can still text them, and I do, Im not perfect, but Im feeling positive about my productivity. I watched a YouTube video embedded in an article I was reading, does that break the rules?

Day Five

My productivity came to a crashing halt. Despite not having access to my main outlets of procrastination, my addiction has simply replaced one drug with another. Instead of Youtube, Ive spent hours browsing things on Amazon that Im never going to buy and Ive started playing words with friends, to my best friends horror. So it seems that as long as theres any type of way I could procrastinate, I will choose it over revision because there's nothing I'd rather do less.

Day Six

I keep thinking of things I want to tweet when I get the chance again, what did people do with their thoughts before Twitter came around? Am I just supposed to forget them? Also, not live-tweeting new episodes of TV feels insane but theres the silver lining of no spoilers getting to me.

Day Seven

How time flies when youve lined up Instagram photos to be posted as soon as this challenge is over, videos to binge on and Reddit threads to study, but Ive had fun. My days have been a bit calmer I guess, my thoughts more gathered. Im not sure if I can go as far as saying my mental health has improved, theres been no deficit either so I dont think the internets really ever affected me that way.

Thoughts

Im thinking of things I should do as soon as I wake up tomorrow, what app to open first but Ive decided I might give up on some for good. I dont care for Facebook, as long as I can use messenger (and to be honest wed all probably be better off and safer not using it in light of its recent information breach). Twitter is a tough call because I dont need it but I do get a lot of my news and updates through it. Instagram Im not ready to give up because I use it for photography.

This would have been a completely different piece if I had to stay away from my phone for a week because I'd literally go insane / do anything in my everyday life. What the black-out illustrated is that it is easy to abstain from social media as long as you just set some boundaries. Perhaps this is something we should implement every now and then as a detox, like eating green for a week.

To sum it up this was a success overall and I feel like the try-guys on Buzzfeed, only they get to eat amazing food and I don't.

Ingrid Goes West, the film that inspired this article, is available now on DVD and Digital Download.Sweden is mainly a Lutheran country, so Easter is a secular holiday. On Easter Sunday, Swedish children dress up as Easter witches (paskkarringar) and do a sort of Easter trick-or-treating, carrying a broom and knocking on their neighbours doors for treats in exchange for paintings and drawings.As a representation of Christ rising from his grave and ascending to Heaven, the people in Bermuda fly special kites that sometimes take weeks to design and create. At the end of the day, awards are given to the best kites.Spain is a deeply Catholic country, especially the south. Easter is, therefore, mainly a religious holiday, one which is also taken very seriously. Theres no school for more than a week, and several solemn religious celebrations take place each day. During Palm Sunday, theres a procession that represents the entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem. On Holy Thursday, people attend a mass commemorating the Last Supper. On Good Friday, Spaniards are not allowed to eat meat, and there is no mass. During the day, different processions take place to solemnise the death of Christ. People follow the statues, sometimes even barefoot or carrying chains, as proof of their faith. In some places, the Nazarenes wear penitential robes and pointed tip hoods and masks to conceal their faces.During Easter, Norwegian families read and watch murder mysteries and try to figure out the killer all together. Even milk cartons come with mini murder mystery stories to read!The mix of Catholicism and Voodoo has turned Haiti into a very interesting place to celebrate holidays of the like. During Easter, pilgrimages and sacrifices take place, as well as chants and drumming to show devotion to the spirits.In Germany, it is common to decorate an Easter tree with Easter eggs. The eggs are symbols of new life and are decorated by hand. The Easter Bunny, who symbolizes fertility, is also a popular Easter icon in Germany. Chocolate eggs and bunnies are also part of the German tradition.The traditions of the Easter Bunny and the Easter eggs were imported to America by German settlers in the 16th century. Nowadays, they are still very popular. The Easter Egg Hunt is one of the most popular Easter traditions in the US: it is a game in which decorated Easter eggs are hidden for children to find.Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here

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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.What is the difference between a debt exclusion and a budget override?

Proposition 2 1/2 is a Massachusetts law passed in 1980 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.

A budget override allows a municipality to infuse funds collected from increased taxes into the base of its tax levy. Such an 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.Recover your password.

A password will be e-mailed to you.Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong begins official visit to France

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong arrived at the Paris Orly Airport on March 25 to start his three-day official visit to France at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.









General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong was welcomed at the Paris Orly Airport

The Party chief, accompanied by a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, was welcomed by French Ambassador to Vietnam Bertrand Lortholary and Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Thiep along with representatives from the French Government and the overseas Vietnamese community in France.



Upon his arrival in Paris, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation visited Montreuil city, the second biggest city of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, about 15km to the northeast of Paris.



Montreuil is the headquarters of many large industrial corporations. In 1999, the city established friendly and cooperative relations with Vietnams northern province of Hai Duong. The two sides set up a centre to promote collaboration in education, health care, environment, urban planning, economics and tourism.



Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong and leaders from Montreuil city laid wreaths at the statue of late President Ho Chi Minh to commemorate the national hero and the world cultural celebrity.













General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong and leaders from Montreuil city laid wreaths at the statue of late President Ho Chi Minh to commemorate the national hero and the world cultural celebrity (Photo: VNA)







Mayor of Montreuil city Patrice Bessas said President Ho Chi Minh is the great leader of Vietnamese people and peace lovers around the world, including Montreuil residents.



The two sides have increased exchanges over the past few years and pledged to diversify cooperation in numerous fields such as climate change adaptation, agriculture, and sustainable use of natural resources.



Montreuil is one of the first cities in the world to support Vietnamese people in the resistance wars against French colonialism and American imperialism, the Mayor said.

Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong said he was glad to meet French friends in Montreuil in a very warm atmosphere.



He noted that Vietnam and France are celebrating the 45th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties this year. Montreuil is the symbol of the long-standing bilateral friendship, he said.



On behalf of Vietnamese people, the Party chief thanked French people for promoting solidarity and supporting Vietnam in the past and at present.



He added that his ongoing visit to France aims to strengthen bilateral cooperation in various fields, including people-to-people exchanges and coordination between localities.



Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong and Mayor Patrice Bessas jointly planted a commemorative tree at the Montreuil park. They later visited a space displaying objects and documents on President Ho Chi Minhs revolutionary life in France at the Montreuil Museum of History.



During his stay in France, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong will hold talks and meet with French leaders, representatives from the Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF)  the largest employer federation in France as well as young intellectuals and Vietnamese expatriates.



Particularly, the Party leader is expected to witness the signing of a series of importation cooperation agreements between Vietnam and France.



The visit, which is taking place on the occasion of celebrating the 45th founding anniversary of Vietnam-France diplomatic ties and fifth anniversary of the bilateral strategic partnership, has significant meaning to promote and deepen their friendship and cooperation across the fields.



It will also be an occasion to popularise Vietnam as a country with many reform achievements, a trustworthy partner ready to bolster ties with France, an emerging market with numerous investment and business opportunities for French businesses and an attractive, safe and friendly destination for French tourists.



Vietnam and France set up diplomatic ties on April 12, 1973. Overcoming ups and downs in history, over the past 45 years, especially since the establishment of the strategic partnership in 2013, Vietnam-France relations have developed well.



France is an important European partner of Vietnam. It also respects Vietnams stature and contributions to peace, stability and development in the region and the world. Vietnams membership of the ASEAN Economic Community and many free trade agreements, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), expected to take effect in the near future, will bring new cooperation chances for both countries.





VNAOrganisation: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR)

Position No.: 10028858

Reports to: Head of Sub-Office

Vacancy Notice: 018/2018

Duty Station: Hoima, Uganda

Post Grade: NOA

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.

The primary functions of project control are to complement programme

management and provide support for oversight of projects including the formulation

of a monitoring plan, quality assurance, and verification. Other activities of

project control include: review of project agreements, project audit,

monitoring that there is synchrony between financial and operational

performance, participation in multi-functional monitoring activities and

reviews, tracking project risk management, and supporting project closure. It

is essential to maintain segregation of duties between project control and

programme functions for effective accountability and oversight.

Job Summary: The Assistant Project Control Officer will

play a focal role in maintaining harmonious and effective partnerships, and

often interact with implementing partners. As a result, incumbents need to be

very mindful of all dimensions of partnerships in their interaction with

partners (in accordance with the Principles of Partnership, the Code of Conduct

and other relevant documents).

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Actively contribute to

reviewing that project agreements are in conformity with Country Operation

Plans and UNHCR rules, policies and procedures.

The incumbent will

also contribute to tracking the management of project risks in

collaboration with the programme unit, and report major risks to senior

management.

Pro-actively contribute

to reviewing, analyzing and verifying Financial and Performance

Implementing Partner Reports (Part I-IPFR and Part II-IPR), and to

checking accuracy and consistency between IPFR and IPR, in accordance with

project agreements.

Regularly monitor,

track and verify that expenditure for direct implementation by UNHCR is in

line with the approved budget.

Carry out reviews of

the internal control systems of implementing partners and provide advice

as required.

Provide input on

identified variants, risks and issues to the partner, programme unit and

escalate to management as required.

Offer support to

ensure timely project closure in coordination with the programme unit.

Provide input to the

mid- and end-year programme review process on issues related to project

control.

Build and maintain

professional relationships with implementing partners.

Keep up-to-date with

all UNHCR rules, regulations and procedures necessary to perform these

duties.

Perform any other

duties as required by the Head of Sub-Office.

Key Performance Indicators:

Assurance of project

implementation and delivery of expected results within budget/resources,

timeframe, and in accordance with project agreements is provided.

Resources transferred

to implementing partners are utilized for the intended purposes and in

accordance with project agreements.

Performance delivery

and financial expenditure reported by implementing partners are accurate

and consistent.

Programme and senior

management are promptly informed of major variances and risks in the execution

of projects (budgets, finance, implementation or timeframe).









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The ideal candidate

for the United Nations UNHCR Assistant Project Control Officer job

opportunity should hold a University Degree in Accounting, Finance, Public

or Business Administration, Economics or related field, OR university

degree in another field combined with a professional qualification in

accounting, auditing or finance (CPA/CIA or equivalent).

At least two years of

previous job experience in the field of accounting/finance, project

management, business analysis, quality assurance and/or risk management.

Good knowledge of

international auditing standards.

Excellent computer

skills, in particular in MS Office applications.

Excellent communication

and negotiation skills.

Excellent knowledge of

English and working knowledge of another UN language.

Knowledge of United

Nations financial rules and procedures is desirable

Familiarity with the

workflows of major Enterprise Resource Planning financial modules (such as

PeopleSoft, SAP or Oracle) is an added advantage

Working experience

with accrual accounting (such as IPSAS or IFRS) is an added advantage

Proven experience in

working in an inter-agency context and in nurturing partnership.

Ability to work as

part of a team but also independently, in a multi-cultural environment.

Knowledge of the UN

system.

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: 28th March 2018Organisation: Danish Refugee Council (DRC)

Duty Station: Uganda

Reports to: Area Manager

About US:

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a private, independent,

humanitarian organization working on all aspects of the refugee cause in more

than 36 countries throughout the world. The aim of DRC is to protect refugees

and internally displaced persons (IDPs) against persecution and to promote

durable solutions to the problems of forced migration, on the basis of

humanitarian principles and human rights. DRC works in accordance with the UN

Conventions on Refugees and the Code of Conduct for the ICRC and NGOs in

Disaster Relief.

Job Summary: The Support Service Coordinator will assist

the Area Manager in the management and direction of support functions in the

Kyaka and in accordance to DRC guidelines. He/she will be offer support to DRC

Kyaka office in providing technical guidance, management and oversight of

finance, administration, human resources and IT. The position will also

coordinate with Kyaka staff both admin and programs on support, training,

guidelines and standard operating procedures as set by Danish Refugee Council

(DRC). The position may require frequent travel to the field as/when required.



Responsibilities: Key Duties andResponsibilities:

Finance and Grants

Overall responsible for ensuring sound

financial management in Kyaka office.

Ensure the proper grants management in

Kyaka

Ensure DRC finance regulations and

procedures are adhered to in all Kyaka II offices. Consequently

consistently assess and identify gaps for further capacity building.

Implement, manage and develop internal

controls.

Responsible for ensuring accurate and complete

entries in the accounting system and presence of an accurate filing system

and as well as accurate and complete transaction documentation.

To ensure timely completion by the finance

team of the assigned accounting tasks that are in accordance with the

outlined policies and procedures.

To assist in tracking the journal entries

by reviewing the source documentation and making relevant adjustments,

assisting in the preparation of audit requirements, supporting in the

preparation of statistical reports and to make sure that they are

standardized.

To provide support in budget preparation

and drafting of relevant documents, perform miscellaneous filing, ad hoc

reconciliation, etc.

Maintain and update the Kyaka II

operational budget (master budget).

To be present at various meetings, to

address the issues, provide appropriate guidelines for improvising the

businesses process, and to identify opportunities for improvement.

Involve and support for budget

developments with the programme staff.

Support sector leads to have the budget

projections before starting the implementation

Coordinate monthly budget review meetings

and document the action points.

Responsible for all financial reporting in

Kyaka II Region.

Procurement

Ensure DRC procurement guidelines are adhered

to in all Kyaka II offices.

Actively engage and support the program

teams in procurement planning to ensure timely delivery of project inputs

and activities.

Work in liaison with Country Office

Kampala, identify, negotiate and implement contract & framework

agreements which result in efficiencies in line with financial and

forecasting requirements.

Maintain accurate auditable records of all

procurement process which result in high process compliance.

Administer contract performance, including

delivery, receipt, warranty, damages and insurance.

Plan and engage with Project Managers to

understand contract specifications and with suppliers to develop a profile

of delivery capability which results in effective market engagement.

Conduct efficient and collaborative

procurements which are DRC and donor compliant (advice, tendering,

evaluation award & contract management) and which result in a high

value adding commercial outcome.

Build supplier, category and market

understanding through performance management, research and stakeholder

briefings which result in the management of commercial issues throughout

the procurement cycle.

Administration, IT and Human Resources

Coordinates recruitment process at field

level.

Ensures that all field staff have valid

contracts and informing Kampala HR Officer on any renewals to be made.

Provides guidance on policy issues at

field level in liaison with the Country HR and Admin Coordinator

Ensures that Monday morning minutes for

the region will be shared with the admin by Wednesday of every week.

Has the overall responsible for office

management. This refers to the coordination office in Kyaka II and all the

sub offices in the region.

Focal Person for Payroll at field level

ensuring that monthly payroll updates are sent to the Kampala HR Officer

by the 15th of every month

Responsible for staff personnel files. The

Admin and Finance Manager is to ensure that all personnel files for all

the Kyaka II will be kept updated following the prescribed checklist.

Raise staff complaints to the coordination

office in Kampala

Coordinates Medical and Workmans

insurance for field staff in liaison with Kampala HR

Responsible for all the Field office

timesheets and sends to Kampala HR by 5th of the following Month

Coordinates performance appraisal process

ensuring that all staff are appraised at the end of probation and at the

end of year.

Coordinates orientation process for all

new staff at field level.

Coordinates leave tracking and ensures

that the tracker is sent to the Kampala HR Officer at the end of every

month.

Coordinates the exit and clearance process

ensuring that all exiting staff have handed over DRC property and the exit

forms sent to Kampala HR.

Responsible for ensuring that airtime for

field staff is loaded monthly and timely. This is done in liaison with the

Kampala Admin Officer.

Responsible for all premises leases at

field level and coordinates with the Admin officer in Kampala to ensure

that we always have valid leases and that payments to the lessors are done

in a timely manner.

Ensure service contracts are respected and

paid for according to agreed terms of payments.

Support the implementation of DRC Uganda

IT strategies in Kyaka II region.

Support the Admin Assistant in the Guest

House management.

Ensure adherence to DRC procurement and

logistics guidelines.

Coordination

Ensure Kyaka II offices are compliant to

DRC operational handbook.

Provides guidance on policy issues at

field level in liaison with the Country Office.

Provide overall oversight of the support

departments by analyzing and ensuring they are working together to deliver

services on timely manner.

Responsible for the rolling out of

existing and new support and operational tools, policies and ensures

consistent application of the same in the Kyaka II Region.

Responsible for information management

& sharing in Kyaka II region especially when it relates to finance,

administration, human resources, IT and procurement.

Ensure coherent reporting is adhered to by

all support departments this relates to monthly cashbook reporting,

departmental area performance indicators (API) reporting due to the

country office by 5th of every month and any other ad hoc report requested

from time to time.

Build capacity and provide technical

supervision of support functions in Kyaka II.

Perform any other duties as may be

assigned from time to time.









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The ideal candidate for the Danish Refugee

Council (DRC) Support Service Coordinator job placement must hold a Masters

degree in Financial Management or Business Accounting.

Three to five years experience in

management of budgets exceeding 1m USD;

Three to five years International NGO

experience managing staff, and budgets funded by donors such as EC-ECHO,

USAID, UNHCR, UNICEF, DANIDA, DFID;

Previous experience with Non-Governmental

Organization in similar/related position is a must.

Previous working experience complex

environment or refugee response is an asset;

Excellent command of English language.

Excellent interpersonal, communication

skills with proven experience in liaising with local authorities;

Ability to work under pressure and with

tight deadlines;

A team player and the ability to work with

limited supervision;

Flexible, pro-active, and with the ability

on follow through on tasks;

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified and interested candidates should send their

applications including;

A cover letter (1

page) in which you explain why you are interested in the position and how

you meet the qualities and qualifications criteria

Concise and accurate

CV (maximum 3 pages). The CV should include information about your

qualification, relevant training courses, Work experience, name and

contact details of 3 relevant references.

All applications should be sent to administrator@drcuganda.org clearly

indicating position name in the subject line.

Deadline: 26th March 2018Agudath Israel of America is commending congressional negotiators for including several measures that will be of significant benefit to all Americans, and particularly to the Jewish community, in the $1.3 trillion omnibus federal spending bill just signed by the President.

Agudath Israel has worked extensively and in concert with other advocates to achieve these objectives, which will, among other things, enhance security for public and private schools and at risk community nonprofits, as well as provide financial consequences for the Palestinian Authority for condoning and supporting acts of terror.

A Jewish community priority has been the passage of the Taylor Force Act, legislation sponsored by Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Representative Doug Lamborn (R-CO), and strongly promoted by Jewish community leader, Sander Gerber. Included in the omnibus, the Act withholds financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority if it abets, condones or honors terrorists or terrorism, including making reward payments to the families of terrorists.

The Taylor Force Act is a tangible expression that when the U.S. says it will fight terrorism, it means what it says, said Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israels Vice President for Federal Affairs and Washington Director. Supporting terrorism, or those who commit acts of violence against innocents, is not to be tolerated. Period.

Moreover, among the many allocations listed in the 2,232 page omnibus bill are $60 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. Agudath Israel has spent more than a decade working with other Jewish groups at the forefront of creating and maintaining the program which currently provides funding for security enhancements for nonprofits in specified urban areas that are at high risk of terror attacks.

Agudath Israel has long advocated that, with the spike in hate crimes over the years, particularly anti-Semitic ones, a dramatic increase in funding was imperative and that eligibility should be determined on a number of threat-related factors and not be limited to certain geographical locations, noted Rabbi Cohen, The threat is real, ongoing and increasing.

Under the new spending bill, the amount of funding to nonprofits in specified at risk areas will be doubled to $50 million, while an additional $10 million will be allocated for nonprofits in other locations.

The expansion of the NSGP to wider range of areas is great news for nonprofit institutions in places like Rockland County, New York, and cities across the country which until now have not been able to access these security funds, said community activist Mrs. Rivkie Feiner. For years I have joined Agudath Israel on its missions to Washington where I have brought up this issue to elected officials and even to the person in charge of all of the Department of Homeland Security grants. Its nice to see that persistence pays off.

It has been an honor to work with the Jewish Federations of North America, the Orthodox Union and JCRCs from around the country, and it was inspirational to see our constituents respond to the call by mobilizing and making this a priority issue in their communities and with their elected officials, added Rabbi Cohen in hailing the achievement.

Also included in the package is the STOP School Violence Act, sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and other provisions that will provide billions of dollars for programs administered by the Departments of Justice, Education and Health and Human Services that will increase school security and better identify possible threats through technology and other methods. Because of foreign and domestic threats, school safety has been a perennial priority for Agudath Israel, which has consistently argued to Administration officials and congressional leaders, past and present, that safety initiatives must encompass all schools and all schoolchildren. In the aftermath of Parkland, and in the subsequent legislative effort, Agudath Israel, together with other private school advocates, renewed its call to the White House and Capitol Hill for equity between public and private schools in both new and existing programs.

Rabbi Cohen lauded the Omnibus for better ensuring the safety of Americas school children, as well as the inclusion of both public and private schools in key school safety provisions, observing that It makes an important statement that all children  regardless of the school they attend  are precious, and deserve a learning environment that enjoys the utmost protection of body, mind and spirit.

The Omnibus bill also restores and increases funding for professional development for teachers under Title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. When reports circulated that the program might be cut or eliminated, Agudath Israel had joined fellow members of the Council for American Private Education encouraging Congress to maintain and increase funding that would pay for the professional development of teachers in all schools, including religious and independent schools, thereby promoting student achievement.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)Due to a high-level terror threat in some 34 countries, the National Security Council of Israel issued travel warnings for 28 countries in addition to the pre-existing travel ban to six enemy states. These travel warnings were re-issued and heightened ahead of the Pesach holiday, a time when many Israelis travel abroad. None of them are new.

The six enemy countries to whom travel is illegal for Israeli citizens are: Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

The other 28 countries whose travel warning was heightened were divided into four categories ranging from level four, the lowest travel warning instructing people not to travel but if they need t then keep their trips short, to level one, dont travel under any circumstances.

Level four warnings were issued for the following countries: Azerbaijan, Morrocco, Nigeria, Oman, and Kenya. Regarding these countries, Israel has received information of an ongoing threat of people plotting attacks on Jewish or Israeli people or sites in the country.

Level three warnings were issued for the following countries: United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt (non-Sinai), Qatar, and Kenya in the area of Nairobi and the coast. A level three warning means that Israel intelligence has picked up a concrete threat to Jewish people or Israeli citizens in the country. A level three warning is the Israeli government asking citizens not to visit these places or they would be risking their lives.

Level two warnings were issued for: Indonesia, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, The Ivory Coast, Togo, Mauritania, Mali, Malaysia, Niger, Senegal, Pakistan, Chad, Cameroon, Tunisia, and Turkey. A level two warning, not only instructs citizens not to visit but urges any Israeli to leave the country immediately. With regards to Turkey in specific, Israelis were instructed not to visit any tourist places as well.

Level one warnings were issued for: Thailand, Chechnia, The Mindanao Islands of the Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Northern Nigeria, The Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, Libya, the Kashmir in India, and Afganistan. A level one alert means that Israeli intelligence has picked up on an immediate terrorist threat to any and all Israeli targets in the region specified. Israelis are strongly urged not to travel to these places, and to leave by any means necessary, should they currently be in one of these places.

Israelis or those interested can keep abreast of the travel bans by visiting the governments site at www.nsc.gov.il or by calling: 03-5486042/3/4

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)Israeli police on Monday questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as his wife Sara and son Yair, in a corruption case involving the countrys telecom giant, one of a slew of scandals that have engulfed the long-ruling Israeli leader.

Mr. Netanyahus questioning surrounds the case known as 4000, dealing with alleged conflict of interests involving Bezeq Telecommunications. The Prime Minister was questioned on Monday, 10 Nissan for a second time in the case, for over four hours, in his official Jerusalem Residence.

Mrs. Netanyahu was questioned under warning in the same case at the same time, but she was in Lahav 433 HQ in Lod. Yair Netanyahu, their son, was called for a first time for questioning in the case.

During the morning hours, police questioned star state witnesses Shlomo Filber and Nir Hefetz as well. Mr. Shaul Elovitch, who hold controlling shares in Bezeq, and his wife were also questioned.

It was the second time that Netanyahu has been questioned in the case, in which he is suspected of promoting regulation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the Bezeq telecom company. In return, Bezeqs popular news site, Walla, allegedly provided favorable coverage of Netanyahu and his family.

Police said the questioning lasted for a number of hours, without elaborating.

Netanyahu held the powerful communications portfolio at the time of the alleged deals with Bezeq. Two Netanyahu confidants, a former family spokesman and a former Communications Ministry director, have agreed to testify against the prime minister in exchange for immunity.

Israels Yediot Ahronot daily reported that police were to question Netanyahu over allegations made by longtime family spokesman Nir Hefetz, one of the confidants arrested and later released. The Haaretz newspaper said he will deliver recordings of Netanyahu and his wife as part of his agreement with police.

Police were seen arriving at Netanyahus residence Monday morning. Channel 2 TV reported that Netanyahus wife, Sara, and son Yair were questioned at another location. It is the first time that Yair Netanyahu has been questioned in the case.

Israeli police have already recommended indicting Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in two separate cases.

Netanyahu is suspected of accepting lavish gifts from billionaire friends, and promising to promote legislation to help a major Israeli newspaper against its free rival in exchange for favorable coverage. Longtime aide Ari Harow is a state witness in one of those cases.

Israels attorney general is now reviewing the police recommendations, a process that could take months, and will decide whether to indict Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the accusations as a witch hunt orchestrated by hostile media and an overaggressive police force.

The graft scandals have come as Israels coalition recently averted a crisis that could have led to early elections. Israels opposition accused Netanyahu of manufacturing the crisis in order to force a new election. Early polls would have shifted attention away from his legal problems, and a win would have shored up his position ahead of a possible indictment.

(AP)Thousands of investors who bought high-yield stock in West Bromwich Building Society are being asked to sell it back at a loss.

The West Brom is offering to buy back 75million of so-called permanent interest-bearing shares (Pibs) for just 51 per cent of their value.

It means savers who bought the shares to help the mutual raise cash for an expansion in 2005 are facing huge losses.

The West Brom is offering to buy back 75m of so-called permanent interest-bearing shares for just 51 per cent of their value

Reckless lending in the run-up to the financial crisis took it to the brink of collapse, losing nearly 90million from 2009 to 2013.

The Pibs are meant to pay interest of 6.15 per cent, but no money has been handed out since the West Brom plunged into the red  even though it is now back in profit.

Although savers do not have to sell up  and payments could be restarted in coming years  experts say they have been left with the option of at least getting some money back now or clinging on for an uncertain future.

Ian Millward, from Candid Financial Advice, said he had been contacted by one female pensioner who had been left distraught by the plans.

He said: This is totally legging investors over. Theyve had nothing from their Pibs for donkeys years. This woman has held on to her shares for years for no reward and now shes being told to sell them at a loss.

Adding insult to injury, the building society has offered institutional investors what looks like a better deal than ordinary savers.

For every 100 in Pibs handed over, institutional investors will get 41.500 in cash and 27.17 of new core capital deferred shares.

These will earn a dividend and will become a key part of the societys new funding structure.

However, they cannot be bought by retail investors, who are thought to make up less than 10 per cent of all Pibs holders.

Bosses at the West Brom claim they are trying to shore up its finances and simplify the system.

Chief executive Jonathan Westhoff said: The board continues to consider the measures to be in the best interests of the members of the society as a whole.

This modernisation of the societys capital base will secure the strong capital position of the society and allow us to focus on serving our membership.

The row comes after insurer Aviva said it could buy back investors preference shares, which are similar to Pibs, for less than they were worth on the open market. Its proposals triggered a furious response and were dropped.IMF chief Christine Lagarde has called for the eurozone to establish a bailout fund

International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde has called for the eurozone to establish a bailout fund amid rumours she is seeking the blocs most senior job.

She yesterday said that member states should set cash aside when times are good to help struggling nations if the economy goes sour.

Lagarde, 62, is widely thought to want to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission, and her speech was seen as an effort to enlist support from French president Emmanuel Macron.

France is a major supporter of deeper economic ties between eurozone nations, but others, such as Germany, are suspicious because they fear their taxpayers will ultimately pay for excessive spending in other countries.

Lagarde, however, added that countries more likely to need help in a crisis would have to set aside more cash during good times.MBABANE  Another day, another tax hike.

Minister of Finance, Martin Dlamini has disclosed that apart from other policy measures which include the additional taxation of alcohol and tobacco products, the State will also increase fuel tax. Dlamini said the taxation of these products was aimed at controlling the consumption of these products. There are also plans to increase the fuel tax rate by 20 cents from the current E3 effective April1, 2018, said Dlamini. The minister said government policy on user fees was basically to recoup the costs of providing the goods or services. He said government was also cautious that the increase in the user fees does not exclude sections of the populations in accessing some of the goods or services, especially those that are mandated by law such as birth certificates, identification numbers and passports. In this regard, Dlamini said a number of user fees had not been increased for over a long period, while the cost of providing these good or services had continued to increase.

In this sense, we are planning to review these fees to ensure that the government continues to provide the various goods or services, said Dlamini. The minister said the Ministry of Finance had been engaging the different line ministries during the course of 2017/18 financial year, encouraging them to investigate possibilities of revision consistent with the government policy. On the expenditure side, Dlamini said total spending for 2018/19 was estimated at E21.6 billion. He said this estimate included an amount of E2.2 billion, which was reserved for public debt payments and other statutory obligations. It should be mentioned that key stakeholders of the Swazi economy said they were strongly of the view that Finance Minister, Martin Dlaminis E21.8 billion budget for the 2018/19 financial year represents robbing the poor to pay the rich.

Despite assurances to reduce the countrys wage bill, use loans efficiently, monitor and control unnecessary and wishful expenditure, the budget tabled by Dlamini received a barrage of criticism from the youth, private sector, legislators, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and academia during the post budget seminar convened at Happy Valley Hotel on Thursday. The common stance among panellists that had been invited to make presentations on behalf of their communities was to the effect that Dlamini hiked taxes to cater for government expenditure without clearly outlined strategies as to how marginalised groups such as the unemployed populace and disabled community would ultimately benefit from the increased revenue projections.MBABANE  What a lit show!

The wet weather did not stop fun lovers from braving the cold and prove their love for South African rapper Riky Rick, by flocking to Malkerns Club last Saturday at the Road to Castle Lite Unlocks show which was hosted courtesy of Swaziland Beverages. Over 1 000 fun lovers from all over the country graced the event and defied the cold weather. Many of those who attended were personalities including model Coralee, Mozaik, King Terry, TBK, Mandisa and many others. The hip hop star rendered a sterling performance which made many to scream, dance and sing for the whole hour.

He sang his popular Sidlukotin, Boss Zonke and others which people fluently sang along to. Other DJs who rendered memorable sets were MBO and Zulu D, who played gqom music for house music fans and got many dancing the vosho style. The show is a build-up to Castle Lite Unlocks is known for bringing international artists onto African shores, giving consumers the most innovative music experience with both local and international acts performing on one Extra Cold Stage.

This year sees the birth of Road to Castle Lite Unlocks which will give other African countries a first-hand experience of the Castle Lite Unlocks Music Experience. The unlocks concert has over the years seen international artists such as Kanye West, Drake, J Cole and Travis Scott grace the South African stage and since then, it has transcended onto other African countries like Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania.The Swaziland Economic Justice Network (SEJUN) recently petitioned Parliament to allow the people to have a say in the appointment of the next prime minister  assuming the incumbent Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini is retiring when the Legislature is dissolved, to make way for elections scheduled for later in the year  in what could well have been an exercise in futility.

Ordinarily, in a country whose government frowns upon the rule of law but subscribes to rule by the law and is accountable to the people, it would not require guesswork to figure out if and when the incumbent PM would be retiring because this is clearly spelt out in the Constitution. But the Constitution is routinely flouted by those who should be the nucleus of the vanguard in the defence of its pride of place as the supreme law of the land. Hence it is not a foregone conclusion that there will be a new tenant on Hospital Hill, the official residence of the PM and seat of government, after elections later in the year. The petition delivered by SEJUN on Parliament is premised on the constitutional two-term limit of the PMs tour of duty coming to an end this year. However, in the kingdom, nothing is as clear cut even if the Constitution is crystal on the subject matter.

Nothing is ever predictable in the Swazi polity. Hence SEJUNs petition, which proposes that people should elect four candidates from the countrys four geographic and political regions from which the King would then appoint the PM, might well have been a futile exercise. But even assuming that for once, the Constitution will be respected in relation to the term limit of the PM, nothing is likely to change, at least in the foreseeable future, in the way the PM is appointed. That, after all, would be a major political transformation were it to happen because it would have an indelible impact on the evolution of the power and authority, not to speak of the legitimacy, of future PMs. This change would also translate into a partial devolution of power to the people, which would be a momentous historical feat in the polity of the kingdom. SEJUNs voice on the subject matter is not the first and unlikely to be the last given that it was also buoyed by support from political parties, which nonetheless remain outlawed in this country.

The people initially ventilated on the subject at Sibaya in 2012 as well as the last one in 2016 ahead of the kingdom hosting the summit for Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). As may be recalled, Parliament had taken up the cudgel from the 2012 Sibaya by formalising the vote of no confidence on the PM but - against the letter of the Constitution  which although was passed the PM was never removed from office contrary to the supreme law. When it became clear that the vote of no confidence on the PM would not be passed into law, an attempt was made to subvert the Constitution by the same Parliament purporting to reverse the no confidence vote  again against the letter of the Constitution  a majority of lawmakers boycotted that sitting. It is ironic that in justifying his tax-funded retirement home the PM said this was a decision of the 2012 Sibaya. He conveniently forgot that it was that same Sibaya that effectively sacked him and his Cabinet via the initial vote of no confidence.

Sibaya re-convened on the eve of the SADC summit at which the people recommended that the position of PM should become elective, after having expressed their disgruntlement with the performance of the incumbent. The SEJUN petition is riding on this recommendation but it is anyones guess if anything will change in the way the PM, is appointed when a new government is put in place later this year. Be that as it may, while well meaning and of course supported by the people as per their Sibaya recommendation, SEJUNs effort might well be a futile exercise. It is not a matter of opinion but one of fact that if there were to be changes on the appointment of the PM this would require a constitutional amendment followed by the enacting of enabling legislation.

The power to amend the Constitution is vested on Parliament. But having the power to amend the Constitution and invoking same are two different things. Presently there are no indications that this will happen before Parliament is dissolved in preparations for the elections. Therefore, it is unlikely that anything will change in respect of the appointment of the PM and Constitution of a new government after the elections. As I see it, SEJUNs efforts need not come to naught and its petition still-born but should be supported and complimented by a multi-faceted approach from all stakeholders towards the achievement of full and complete democratisation of the Swazi polity that would bring in the people from the political cold. One of these is for political parties to stop the unproductive boycotts of and fully participate in elections, beginning with this years elections, to take control of the Legislature in order to influence the kingdoms political trajectory.MANZINI  Roman Catholic Church members entered the Holy Week in style as their Bishop, Jose Luis Ponce de Leon, emulated Jesus Christ, rode a donkey.

This was during the Palm Sunday, which marks the final Sunday before Jesus was crucified and it marks the beginning of the Holy Week. The procession started at Salesian Schools and ended at the Cathedral Church in Manzini. Before riding the donkey, the bishop prayed for the church members and blessed their palms, which they carried throughout the play and service. The bishop then read a Bible verse from Luke 19:30 where Jesus sent two of his disciples to go to the village ahead and bring a young donkey, which had never been ridden, to him. Thereafter, he rode the donkey and led the church members, who were carrying palms and singing a song titled Hosanna, to Cathedral Church. As the Holy Week has already started, on Wednesday at 10am, the church will have Chrism Mass where the bishop will bless three anointing oils; the oil of the sick, the oil of catechumens and the oil of the Chrism.

The oil of the sick will be used to heal the ill and during mass. During his prayer, the bishop is expected to ask the Lord to bless the oil so that everyone who would be anointed with it could be freed from pain and illness.

On the other hand, the catechumens are the people who join the church as adults.

Baptism

During the blessing of the oil of the catechumens, the bishop will pray to the Lord to bless the oil and give wisdom and strength to all those who will be anointed with it in preparation for their baptism. He will also ask the Lord to bring them in a deeper understanding of the gospel and to help them accept the challenge of Christian living. The Chrism oil will be used to ordain pastors and for baptism. During its blessing, the bishop, usually asks the Lord to bless it so that those who will be anointed with it can be inwardly transformed and come to share internal salvation. Thereafter, on Thursday at around 6pm, they will commemorate the Maundy Thursday. During this celebration, the bishop will wash 12 church members (both men and women) feet.

At 2pm on Friday, they will have the Stations of the Cross play where they will emulate the stages when Jesus was carrying the cross on His way to crucifixion. Later on the day, there will be a service called the Passion of the Lord. During this service, the church will emulate the difficulties that Christ went through during his time on earth and kiss the cross in veneration before the end of the service. On Saturday, there will be an Easter Vigil at the Cathedral starting at 9pm which will end with an English and siSwati Mass at 9am and 10.30am, respectively. During the vigil, the church will commemorate the time when Peter denied Jesus Christ and also have fire, and before lighting candles from the Easter candle, switch off all artificial lights.MANZINI  A major shutdown is on the cards as TUCOSWA is preparing to lead a big march to deliver a petition with 16 demands to government.

The proposed date for the march and petition delivery is April 13, 2018 and the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) has called upon all members of its affiliates to attend in numbers.

To ensure that all members adhere to the call, the workers federation will have regional meetings on April 7, 2018 as a build-up to the mass protest action. The regional meetings, which will be held simultaneously, are going to be held in Manzini, Piggs Peak, Siteki and Nhlangano. At the top the list of demands is the civil servants, cost of living adjustment for 2017/18 financial year which ends on March 31, 2018. In this issue, civil servants were demanding 9.15 per cent cost of living adjustment but government offered them zero per cent. Government maintained its offer even after civil servants decreased their demand by 1.3 per cent to 7.85 per cent. The matter was taken to the Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC) but again, the two parties failed to reach consensus and as a result, the commission issued a certificate of unresolved dispute.

Another demand is the implementation of a national minimum wage, which the federation wants to be fixed at E3 500. During the commemoration of Workers Day in 2017, unions under TUCOSWA agreed that such should be implemented because it would boost the economy of the country. They argued that when people were paid better, they gained buying power and the economy would shoot up. The federation also demands improved elderly grants. Currently, elderly grants stand at E400 per month. As expected, TUCOSWA has broken its silence on the proposed increase of electricity tariffs, Value Added Tax (VAT) from 14 per cent to 15 per cent and the taxation of electricity as these issues are part of the demands in the petition to be delivered to government on April 13, 2018.

This also includes the increase of user fees like passports among others. Moreover, the federation also calls for the immediate conversion of Swaziland National Provident Fund (SNPF) to a pension Fund. It is worth noting that this demand was part of the infamous 27 demands strike of 1996. The developments were confirmed by the federations secretariat; the Acting Secretary General Mduduzi Gina and Acting Deputy Secretary General Muzi MhlangaMBABANE  A breakdown in communication saw the elderly being soaked by rain last week Friday as they went to the Mbabane Post Office to collect their monthly E400 grants, only to be turned back.

The Swaziland Post and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) premises were littered with elderly citizens who were anticipating receiving their monthly grants. Upon arrival at the post offices premises, the mood said it all as the elderly were in different groups along the corridors sharing their disbelief at governments incompetence. On Wednesday, bucopho told me to visit the post office to fetch my grant, I was unaware that government had not deposited the money, said one elderly person from Jubukweni. A majority of the elderly said they were unaware of the sudden changes and they would not have bothered themselves had they been told of these changes on time. Some were of the view that the recent changes implemented by government, that of having the elderly receive their grants monthly, was a mistake and one which was costing them.

Why did they introduce this new method because it is clear that they are failing to pay us on a consistent basis? vented another. There was division as some called for the reinstating of the previous payment method, which saw them receive their grants after every four months. There was one particular recipient who was almost in tears as she narrated how she had borrowed money with the promise to pay it back on Friday, until she met the dilemma. A fraction of the elderly, particularly those looking after the physically challenged, elected to stay at the post office with the hope that positive information would soon surface. This dissatisfaction came with a number of reactions but the most prominent was that of the Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlaminis estimated E3.5 million house. Many were not hesitant to blame this hiccup on the premiers proposed lidlokolo. They argued that the money should be used to pay their grants instead.

Why does the premier keep demanding millions for his house? His actions have left us in this predicament, is he happy to see us suffer like this? said one angry gogo. Others pointed out that this was an insult to the elderly because they no longer engaged in active employment, with only a fraction dependent on part-time jobs, which usually came at irregular intervals. It is public knowledge that, over the years, the government has not had the greatest track record when it came to forking out elderly grants. Msunduza bucopho, under Mbabane East, Zweli Mthethwa, said the announcement by government came at the eleventh hour and with the heavy rains received last Thursday, it was an impossible task to disperse the information to everyone on time. He was clear in pointing out that governments failure to engage them on time had become a norm. Since he is the one who organises men who conduct door-to-door visits to the elderly, informing them when they were due to receive their grants, Mthethwa was now facing the wrath of the elderly.



Thousands of protestors took to the streets of downtown Pittsburgh as part of a nationwide movement to protest gun violence. March For Our Lives, organized by high school students, was held in various cities across the world.[March 26, 2018] Healthfirst Honors Exceptional New York Women Leaders at Third Annual Women's History Month Community Awards Celebration

Healthfirst, the largest not-for-profit health insurance company in New York City, is recognizing the accomplishments of 10 outstanding women who have made lasting contributions to the New York communities that Healthfirst serves. Healthfirst's annual Women's History Month Community Awards Celebration takes place this year on Thursday, March 29, at Maestro's in the Bronx. "Healthfirst is proud to salute these women, who have made a positive and significant impact on residents in the neighborhoods we serve," said George Hulse, Healthfirst Vice President of Community Engagement. "The honorees represent the very best of our communities and share Healthfirst's 25 years of dedication to supporting the well-being of others. They deserve our thanks and praise for all they do." Healthfirst was founded in 1993 as a not-for-profit corporation sponsored by New York's leading hospitals with a shared mission to improve patient health and well-being. Healthfirst's approach aligns incentives between the health plan and healthcare providers by returning to our sponsor hospitals the savings from higher quality and better care management. This pioneering approach has helped spur our growth, and today 1 in 8 New Yorkers uses Healthfirst's Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, and long-term care plans; our qualified health plans; or our individual or small group plans. Healthfirst is proud to be celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The 10 women being honored have demonstrated a willingness to focus on solutions that make a difference. While each honoree has a unique story and has chosen a different career path, they share years of giving back to and improving our communitis.



This year's distinguished honorees are: Carmen M. Garcia Albarran, M.D. , a pediatrician and managing partner of Access Medicare

, a pediatrician and managing partner of Access Medicare Tonya Boyd , Deputy Chief of the New York City Fire Department

, Deputy Chief of the New York City Fire Department Gale Brewer , Manhattan's 27th Borough President

, Manhattan's 27th Borough President The Honorable Yvette D. Clarke , representative for the people of Brooklyn's Ninth Congressional District

, representative for the people of Brooklyn's Ninth Congressional District Jacqueline Contreras , Executive Director of El Show de Jackie (The Jackie Show) on Telemundo 47

, Executive Director of (The Jackie Show) on Telemundo 47 Nilda Irizarry-Hofmann , New York Police Department's Chief of Community Affairs

, New York Police Department's Chief of Community Affairs Dr. Marcella Maxwell , Clinical Supervisor of Teaching Fellows, Brooklyn College

, Clinical Supervisor of Teaching Fellows, Brooklyn College Melissa Salguero , 2018 GRAMMY Music Educator Award Honoree and teacher at P.S. 48 Joseph R. Drake in the Bronx

, 2018 GRAMMY Music Educator Award Honoree and teacher at P.S. 48 Joseph R. Drake in the Bronx April Simpson , the New York City Housing Authority's Queens Bridge Houses Resident Association President

, the New York City Housing Authority's Queens Bridge Houses Resident Association President Lin Tan, TV Host and News Anchor, Sinovision "The honorees have made an outsized impact across the five boroughs and are role models for their courage, character, and commitment," said Mr. Hulse.

More than 450 guests are expected to attend this third annual community event that brings together elected officials, journalists, and community leaders to recognize the honorees. For more information on the Women's History Month Community Awards Celebration, visit here. For more information on Healthfirst, visit www.healthfirst.org. About Healthfirst Twenty-five years ago, Healthfirst was founded on a unique approach to healthcare rooted in a heartfelt mission: partner with the very best hospitals and doctors to offer to New Yorkers health insurance with high-quality patient care at its core. Under our approach, the health plan and providers have a common goal-to make healthcare work for patients and to return the savings from better and more efficient care to sponsor hospitals. We now serve 1.3 million members across the five boroughs and Long Island. As the largest not-for-profit health insurance company in New York City, Healthfirst offers Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, and long-term care; family plans; and small group plans. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005300/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] Montreal's Reacts Platform Selected by Global Leader Philips to Revolutionize Remote Collaboration in Portable Ultrasound

MONTREAL, March 26, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - Innovative Imaging Technologies Inc. (IIT) is proud to announce that global health technology leader Philips has selected its Reacts collaborative platform for integration into the Philips Lumify portable ultrasound system, which will become the world's first integrated tele-ultrasound solution. This ground-breaking innovation connects clinicians around the globe in real time by turning a compatible smart device into an integrated tele-ultrasound machine, combining two-way audio and visual calls with live ultrasound streaming via Reacts. This innovation in point-of-care ultrasound brings endless possibilities to its users both inside and outside hospital walls. Integration of the Reacts technology, developed by Montreal-based IIT, now enables live sharing of the Philips Lumify ultrasound stream, as well as the bidirectional sharing of audio, webcam video stream and interactive virtual pointers. This innovation thereby provides limitless opportunities to portable ultrasound users, free of any geographical barriers. Through this intuitive, easy-to-use integrated system, clinicians can now: Launch a Reacts session and begin a remote face-to-face conversation on their Lumify ultrasound system. Flip the camera on their smart device to show the ultrasound probe positioning. Share the Lumify ultrasound stream, so both parties are simultaneously viewing the live ultrasound image and probe positining, while discussing and interacting through the Reacts platform



Randy Hamlin , Point-of-Care Business Leader, Philips. "This all-in-one tele-ultrasound solution will change care delivery by bringing even more confidence to ultrasound clinicians and removing longstanding barriers in education, support and training." Integrating Reacts to Lumify's Portable Ultrasound System Shatters Barriers

Reacts' integration with Lumify enables clinicians to connect and collaborate in real time like never before. This solution can help optimize patient care by bringing experts into an ultrasound exam anywhere in the world. Here are some possible uses: A professor can go on virtual ultrasound rounds with students, helping them learn anatomy and probe positioning quickly and efficiently, unrestricted by location

A doctor can consult a colleague and collaborate using live streaming ultrasound.

A midwife in a remote location can call upon an obstetrician who is miles away to receive perspective and guidance, discussing the ultrasound exam as if they were in the same room.

In acute care, Lumify with Reacts allows an emergency medical technician in an ambulance to stream the live ultrasound exam and discuss a patient's condition with an emergency department physician, expediting appropriate care delivery upon arrival. "Philips was the ideal partner for this revolutionary collaboration. Reacts' secure, versatile and interactive collaboration platform deployed on technology solutions like Lumify can change education and patient care models and enable a positive disruptive change to healthcare " said Yanick Beaulieu, MD, FRCPC, CEO of IIT and creator of Reacts. The Reacts interactive collaboration platform integrated with the Philips Lumify mobile ultrasound system will be available in Canada and globally, everywhere Lumify is sold. About Reacts

Reacts (Remote Education, Augmented Communication, Training and Supervision), is a secure, integrated, collaborative platform with unique and unparalleled interactive tools designed to suit the multiple collaborative needs of healthcare professionals and patients. It incorporates innovative tools, like augmented reality, for remote virtual guidance, supervision and training. It was created by Quebec-based Innovative Imaging Technologies Inc. (IIT). Its President, Dr. Yanick Beaulieu, leads a multi-disciplinary team specialized in multimedia and software development. Reacts is being used in 28 countries and has been deployed across various disciplines in both clinical and educational settings for uses going from secure messaging, remote wound care, tele-ultrasound, teleconsultations, to interactive tele-surgical assistance and remote procedural supervision. IIT is currently collaborating with several major hospitals in Quebec, Canada and abroad, as well as innovation and health care focused organizations like Joule, a Canadian Medical Association company. For more information, visit: www.reacts.com SOURCE Reacts

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 25, 2018] UL Certifies First Low Carbon Monoxide Portable Generator to ANSI/UL 2201

Techtronic Industries Ryobi branded portable generator model RY907022FI demonstrates compliance to UL safety certification requirements for mitigating carbon monoxide output NORTHBROOK, Illinois, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Portable generators marketed under the Ryobi brand (model RY907022FI) have achieved UL certification to ANSI/UL 2201. ANSI/UL 2201, Standard for Carbon Monoxide (CO) Emission Rate of Portable Generators, addresses performance requirements for portable generators to mitigate the risk of CO poisoning. The standard requirements are based on a comprehensive, carefully developed two-tier safeguard strategy: Reduction in CO emissions Shutoff technology providing additional protection Because field history indicates that portable generators are used, and misused, in variable conditions, both safeguards are important to help improve portable generator safety. The first safeguard calls for a reduction in CO emissions. The method by which a manufacturer achieves this is not prescriptive, allowing for the use of widely available and proven technologies already in the marketplace, such as electronic fuel injection (EFI), an onboard electronic engine management system that can greatly reduce CO emissions generated by the portable generator's engine. By significantly reducing the amount of CO a portable generator emits, the likelihood of CO poisoning and death is greatly reduced. The second safeguard, shutoff technology, provides additional protection when a generator is misusedin an enclosed space such as a garage or basement. This additional requirement contained within ANSI/UL 2201 aims to protect from the misuse of the generator in an enclosed or partially enclosed space by sensing the build-up of CO and forcing a shutdown of the unit.



"It was important for us to have our portable generators UL certified to a standard that has a wisely developed two-tier strategy based on science to give retailers a safer product to offer their customers and peace of mind to consumers," said Michael Gardner, Techtronic Industries vice president of product development. Each year, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) receives reports of incidents, including death, involving CO poisoning from portable generators used indoors or in partially-enclosed spaces. The CPSC reports that from 2005-2016, 780 non-fire deaths were caused by portable generators. UL works to help ensure the safe manufacture and use of improved technologies through rigorous assessments on portable generators. ANSI/UL 2201 offers testing for CO under a variety of conditions to verify additional protection for consumers.

"We are delighted that the industry is proactively heading down a safer path with ANSI/UL 2201 certification that addresses carbon monoxide emission rate for portable generators. This represents a public safety milestone for the industry," said Ibrahim Jilani, senior business development manager of Energy Systems and e-Mobility at UL. To identify portable generator models that have been UL certified in the marketplace, consumers should look for the UL holographic label and Enhanced Mark on the product. This makes it easy for consumers to identify genuine products that have achieved UL certification. All UL certified portable generator models can be found in UL's certification database by visiting the UL Online Certification Directory and then entering a manufacturer's name. They are listed under the UL Category Code "FTCN". The most up-to-date listing for portable generator manufacturers whose products are certified to ANSI/UL 2201 can always be found in this directory. To learn more about UL's safety testing and certification of portable generators, visit ul.com/PortableGenerators. To inquire about UL testing for ANSI/UL 2201 certification, please contact EnergyTechQuote@ul.com. Retailers with safety procurement questions can contact Retail@ul.com. Visit CPSC.gov for more safety tips and information on portable generators and carbon monoxide. About UL

UL fosters safe living and working conditions for people everywhere through the application of science to solve safety, security and sustainability challenges. The UL Mark engenders trust enabling the safe adoption of innovative new products and technologies. Everyone at UL shares a passion to make the world a safer place. We test, inspect, audit, certify, validate, verify, advise and train and we support these efforts with software solutions for safety and sustainability. To learn more about us, visit UL.com. CONTACT: Dagmar Ebaugh

Global PR & Social Media Manager

UL Commercial & Industrial

O: (678) 872.0320 C: (404) 216.4354, dagmar.ebaugh@ul.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/325015/ul_enterprise_logo.jpg SOURCE UL LLC

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 25, 2018] Exploring the Undetermined Future with Determined Abilities

-- Huawei Leads New ICT at CeBIT 2018, June 8-11 BEIJING, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Huawei has announced that it will participate in CeBIT 2018 in Hannover, Germany, from June 11 to 18. This marks the eighth consecutive year that Huawei's Enterprise Business Group (EBG) will demonstrate major new products and solutions at one of the world's largest ICT gatherings. During the event, Huawei will collaborate with more than 100 partners and customers to share best practices in digital transformation, and demonstrate innovative ICT technologies and solutions in cloud computing, AI, Big Data, the IoT, and SDN. Highlights of the conference will include AI, the IoT, AR/VR, security protection, blockchain, UAV, auto pilot, future transformation, and smart robots, illustrating out the directions of digital transformation to decision makers. At a recent press conference announcing Huawei's plans, Qiu Heng, President of Global Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer for the Enterprise Business Group at Huawei, explained how Huawei has used three core abilities to make breakthroughs in new global ICT transformations, accelerate key stages of customers' digital evolution, and help 100 partners to raise their annual income to more than CNY100 million (officially named as the "100 Partners, 100 Million Incomes" Project.) Digital Transformation Is a Huge Opportunity for All Industries In the next 30 years, the real economy will be digitized and traditional industries reshaped. Enterprises must face rapidly changing requirements and use new technologies and business models to blaze a trial if they are to survive. Thus, they need a leading digital partner to provide simple and easy-to-use digital platforms. Digitization reshapes every industry, and AI severely impacts every enterprise. Huawei will strive to bring China's best practices to the world, and global practices back to China. China is leading the emerging Safe City market. Huawei has assumed the leadership in safe city development. According to EIU's report, Chinese cities (such as Beijing and Shanghai) are the safest cities in emerging markets, catching up with, and even surpassing some cities in developed countries. Huawei helped China build these cities using the visualized, converged, and intelligent C-C4ISR Safe City Solution. In 2017, Huawei released the industry's first all-cloud Safe City Video Cloud Solution that featured distributed and network-wide intelligence. With the solution in place, customers cannot only watch video clips, but also use them. Shenzhen's crime rate dropped by 25% in 2017, thanks to Huawei's video cloud solution. The deployed cameras assisted in solving more than 60% of crime cases. Newly emerged cities pay more attention to intelligent applications. Huawei EBG analyzed global city data provided by the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, and other organizations, and found this rule: Newly emerged cities pay more attention to city intelligence. Huawei can build a city's 'nervous system' with new ICT, and design a smart city solution from the top-level architecture on through a complete ecosystem. Huawei helped Weifang complete top-level design and build a '1 network + 1 platform + N applications' solution, covering agriculture, water, parking, meter reading, and stree lamps (applications used in the solution are provided by industry partners). The solution involves intelligent upgrades in 41 domains, improves crisis response efficiency by 30%, shortens fault-locating time to seconds, and reduces relevant costs by 90%.



China is now an unchallenged leader in the manufacturing industry. Automobile currently trails other sectors a shortage, but China is confident to achieve leapfrog with the assistance of ICT. New trends, such as electric vehicles, shared vehicles, the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), and automatic driving, have led the entire automobile industry to a crossroad. ICT is driving digital transformation and helping China catch up with developed countries in the automobile industry. Huawei provides the basic communications and intelligence abilities for the automobile industry and uses its accrued technologies in communications and chip AI to drive IoV and smart vehicle development. Take Dongfeng Group as an example. Huawei helped Dongfeng build a private cloud to accelerate service transformation and reduce IT costs by 30%. To date, more than 15 of Dongfeng Group's subsidiaries have connected to the cloud data center. ICT is driving financial innovation. China will lead digital transformation and replicate successful experience to emerging countries: As the leader in online payment, mobile payment, and FinTech, China will actively guide innovation in Big Data, block chains, biological banks, AI, and inclusive finance. Huawei will provide banking customers with campus network, video surveillance, data center, financial cloud, and financial Big Data solutions. Huawei's FusionInsight Big Data solution helped China Merchants Bank build real-time risk control and credit investigation abilities, reducing the number of risk cases by 50% and raising the service continuity rate to 99.99%.

Bits driving Watts, China is building the world's strongest smart grid. China Electric Power Corporation is the parent company of State Grid Corporation of China (world's No. 1 power company) and China Southern Power Grid (world's No. 4 power company). Huawei's power cloud, power communications network, and power IoT solutions help China Electric Power Corporation improve energy management efficiency, ensure power grids' secure and reliable operations, and achieve automated, intelligent, and diversified services. Huawei provides an E2E solution that covers power transmission, transformation, distribution, and utilization to help China Electric Power Corporation build a robust smart grid. Three Magic Tricks Huawei Uses to Secure Its Advantages in Products and Solutions Business applications face great uncertainties in the future, but the ICT technology that supports these applications is to some extent foreseeable. Technology relies on chips, algorithms, and architecture design. The core parts of ICT products and solutions are communications, computing, and storage abilities. Huawei has accrued significant strength in these fields during its decades of product R&D. Based on these three basic and determined abilities, Huawei can develop advantageous products and solutions, replicate its successful experiences to global projects in the enterprise business field, and support customers' digital transformation. For example, Huawei has been leading the optical communications and wireless network fields for some time, and recently secured its leadership in the data center domain. Data center customers' major requirements are high speed, stability, and energy efficiency. Huawei has accrued abilities in chips, algorithms, and architecture design during its exploration in the optical communications and wireless network fields. Now, Huawei designs the fastest and most stable all-flash storage products in the world. Their read/write rate is 2.5 times the industry average. Additionally, Huawei has the industry's only mission-critical server that supports both open architecture and CPU board hot-swapping. On the basis of high performance and reliability, Huawei's proprietary chips and architecture design reduce data centers' power consumption by 38% and minimize device footprints. This helps customers solve power consumption and high cooling cost issues. In cellular wireless communications, Huawei has the industry-leading SingleRAN that features multi-frequency, multi-mode, and VIP experience. By applying these core technologies to Wi-Fi, Huawei provides the Smart Antenna Solution to ensure its leadership in all-scenario Wi-Fi. The solution boasts three-frequency, ultra-large capacity, multi-mode convergence (Wi-Fi + electronic label + ZigBee), and mobile signal beams. AI algorithms first emerged in the 1980, but weren't widely used until recently. The reason for AI's rise is that computing, storage, and communications abilities were significantly improved over the last few years, bringing user experience to a new level. To ensure high experience in AI's commercial use, service providers need ultra-speed computing and network resources. To help customers address this need, Huawei tailored dedicated products and solutions to maximize the computing and network transmission speeds. Seven Huawei GPU servers are equivalent to 200 traditional servers in performance. Huawei's all-flash storage keeps system latency stably below 0.5 ms, which is half of the industry average. Huawei's high-speed AI Fabric network uses innovative algorithms to reduce AI's machine learning duration by 40%. It is safe to conclude that communications, computing, and storage are Huawei's three secrets in securing the leadership in products and solutions. ICT products are, to the end, comprised of these three basic elements. These are the determined abilities that Huawei uses to explore the undetermined future. 100 Partners, 100 Million Income Future business competition isn't between companies, but between ecosystems. Whoever provides more robust and comprehensive ecosystems will win customers' favor. Huawei is committed to building a co-existent and mutually beneficial relationship with partners. To achieve this goal, Huawei will give continuous efforts to platform and ecosystem development. Huawei opens up the ICT, global marketing, training, and service platforms to partners, driving customers' cross-border development. In ecosystems, Huawei will invest CNY3.5 billion (USD $525 million) as the partner incentive fund, including a special incentive fund of CNY320 million (USD $48 million) for public cloud ecosystem partners. Huawei will continue to drive cloud ecosystem development, and work with partners to develop more competitive products and solutions. In the next three years, Huawei will help 100 partners to raise their income to 100 million RMB (USD $15 million), and develop more than 1,200 solution partners. In this year's CeBIT, Huawei will participate in the CEO Keynote Speech and demonstrate its latest vision of digital transformation. During the event, Huawei will work with its major global partners, such as SAP, Microsoft, Honeywell, and Accenture, to exhibit (or release) their latest solutions. Additionally, these industry giants will jointly host dozens of marketing activities, such as forums in intention-driven minimized network, next-generation intelligent storage, hyper-convergence technology, and FusionCloud. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/658520/Qiu_Heng.jpg

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] Notice of Annual General Meeting in Hexagon AB (publ)

NACKA STRAND, Sweden, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The shareholders of Hexagon AB are hereby invited to attend the Annual General Meeting to be held at 17:00 CET, Friday 4 May 2018, at City Conference Center Stockholm (Norra Latin), Drottninggatan 71 B, Stockholm. Shareholders who wish to attend the Annual General Meeting must: (i) be recorded in the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB on Friday 27 April 2018, and

(ii) notify the company of their intention to attend the Annual General Meeting by filling out a form at Hexagon's website, hexagon.com, or by post to: Hexagon AB, "Annual General Meeting", c/o Euroclear Sweden AB, P.O. Box 191, SE-101 23 Stockholm, Sweden, or by phone +46 8-402 92 21, on Friday 27 April 2018 at the latest. When giving notice of attendance, the shareholder shall state name, personal identity number/corporate identity number, address, telephone number (daytime) and shareholding. For shareholders that will be represented by a proxy, an original proxy to act on behalf of the shareholder shall be attached to the notice of attendance. A proxy form will be held available on the company's website hexagon.com and will be sent by post to shareholders that contact the company and state their address. Representative of a legal entity shall also send a copy of the registration certificate or similar documentation of authorisation. In order to participate at the Annual General Meeting, shareholders with nominee-registered shares should request their bank or broker to have the shares owner-registered with Euroclear Sweden AB. Such re-registration must be made by 27 April 2018, which entails that the nominee should be notified of this in due time before the said date. As stated in the AGM notice, the Board of Directors proposes an ordinary dividend of 0.53 EUR per share, and that the record date for entitlement to the dividend shall be 8 May 2018. Proposal for agenda Opening of the Meeting. Election of Chairman of the Meeting. Preparation and approval of the voting list. Approval of the agenda. Election of two persons to check the minutes. Determination of compliance with the rules of convocation. The Managing Director's report. Presentation of

(a) the Annual Report, the Auditor's Report and the Consolidated Financial Statements and the Group Auditor's Report for the financial year 2017,

(b) statement by the auditor regarding whether the guidelines for remuneration to senior executives, which have been in effect since the last annual general meeting, have been observed, and

(c) the proposal of the Board of Directors for dividend and statement thereon. Resolutions regarding

(a) adoption of the Statement of Income and the Balance Sheet and the Consolidated Statement of Income and the Consolidated Balance Sheet, as per 31 December 2017 ,

(b) appropriation of the company's profit according to the adopted Balance Sheet and resolution regarding record day, and

(c) discharge from liability of the Board of Directors and the Managing Director. Establishment of the number of members and deputy members of the Board of Directors. Establishment of fees to the board members and auditors. Election of board members and auditors. Election of members of the Nomination Committee. Guidelines for remuneration to senior executives. Closing of the Meeting. The AGM notice, including all proposals for the AGM, is available on Hexagon's website, , and is appended to this press release. For further information, please contact: Maria Luthstrom

Investor Relations Manager

Hexagon AB, +46-8-601-26-27

ir@hexagon.com Kristin Christensen

Chief Marketing Officer

Hexagon AB

+1 -04-554-0972

media@hexagon.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/hexagon/r/notice-of-annual-general-meeting-in-hexagon-ab--publ-,c2479349 The following files are available for download:







http://mb.cision.com/Main/387/2479349/810774.pdf Notice of AGM

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/notice-of-annual-general-meeting-in-hexagon-ab-publ-300619188.html SOURCE Hexagon

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] John Elvesjo to Leave the Position of Deputy CEO, Continues as a Member of Tobii's Board of Directors

STOCKHOLM, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- John Elvesjo, the Deputy CEO and a co-founder of Tobii, has announced that he wishes to leave the position of Deputy CEO in 2018. He will thereby also leave his position in the management team of Tobii AB (publ). However, he will continue his involvement in Tobii as he will continue to be a member of the Board of Directors, which he has been since the company was founded in 2001. John Elvesjo founded Tobii together with Henrik Eskilsson and Marten Skogo in 2001. In parallel with his operational duties, he has also been a member of Tobii's Board. "John has meant a great deal to Tobii. The company was founded based on his vision for eye-tracking technology, and his contribution to the business cannot be overstated. In the future, John will focus even more on his work on the Board of Directors, and I look forward to continuing to work together with him, in much the same way as before," said Tobii's CEO Henrik Eskilsson. "Tobii is a fantastic company full of committed and skilled employees, who all contribute to achieving the company's position as a global leader. It has been a real privilege to be a part of Tobii for almost my entire career. I look forward to engaging even more in the work of the board and thereby contribute to the continued progress of Tobii. I also intend to spend more time working with tech investments in the future," said Tobii's deputy CEO John Elvesjo. Tobii has decided not to appoint a new Deputy CEO at the moment. Elvesjo's operational responsibilities will be taken over by other people in the organization, and this transition will be carried out during 2018. This information is information that Tobii AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted, through the agency of the contact person set out below, for publication on March 26, 2018, at 8.00 a.m. CET. Contact Sara Hyleen, Director of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations, Tobii AB, phone: +46 709 16 16 41, email: sara.hyleen@tobii.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/tobii-ab/r/john-elvesjo-to-leave-the-position-of-deputy-ceo--continues-as-a-member-of-tobii-s-board-of-director,c2479878 The following files are available for download:







http://mb.cision.com/Main/2874/2479878/810740.pdf Elvesjo to leave as Deputy CEO continues as a member of the Board - press release - 26 March 2018 http://mb.cision.com/Public/2874/2479878/94f50de7de035dfd.pdf Elvesjo slutar som vice VD fortsatter i Tobiis styrelse - pressmeddelande - 26 mars 2018



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] HGC to sponsor community projects for "Another Possibility"

All staff members to contribute to making Teenagers' dream come true HONG KONG, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- HGC Global Communications Limited ("HGC"). HGC strives to achieve the corporate mission: "Embrace technology. Enjoy communications. Enrich your world." Apart from continuously promoting the development of information technology, HGC is also actively involved in charities. HGC proudly sponsors, on behalf of all staff members in HGC, community projects to provide support for students and teenagers with financial difficulties and help them better integrate into the society in the future with "Another Possibility". The charitable act coincides with the first anniversary staff event after the establishment of new HGC since early October last year. HGC is proud that the staff members, while actively participating in the event, also make charitable contribution to the community and fulfil the above vision in all levels of the society. To this end, HGC takes this opportunity to donate, on behalf of all staff members, part of the funds for the staff event towards two community projects respectively coordinated by "Principal Chan Free Tutorial World" and "Hong Kong Association for Specific Learning Difficulties ", in order to support students and young people to grasp opportunities, explore different possibilities in life and at the same time help them make good use of their strengths. Mr. Andrew Kwok, Chief Executive Officer of HGC, said "There are many talented young people in the society and their potential is often not fully utilised due to insufficient support. HGC takes this great opportunity to sponsor community projects on behalf of all the staff members so that the younger generation can get more resources to discover "Another Possibilty" in their life and make good use of their strengths."



"Principal Chan Free Tutorial World" provides free learning support to the under-privileged children who have financial difficulties. HGC sponsors the "Grassroots Student Emergency Tutorial Support Program" coordinated by "Principal Chan Free Tutorial World", which provides one-to-one free tutorial support for students who have not been able to be paired with suitable volunteer tutors. Chan Hung (Principal Chan), founder of "Principal Chan Free Tutorial World" said "The donation from HGC, would help students having urgent needs for tutoring due to public exams or other special reasons and reduce the delay in their learning progress". On the other hand, "Hong Kong Association for Specific Learning Disabilities" (HKASLD) agglomerate parents of children diagnosed with specific learning disabilities (SLD), striving for effective study strategies and proper supports for SLD children. The sponsored fund from HGC will be dedicated towards the HKASLD's operating funds for upgrading both computer hardware and software of HKASLD, thereby improving the ancillary facilities for SLD children. Mr. Kwok Sing Nam, Chairperson of Executive Committee of HKASLD, said "We are very pleased to see the support by HGC. This enables us to expand our service to more families in need, while at the same time promotes the understanding and acceptance of SLD children by the public."

For more information on Principal Chan Free Tutorial World, please visit www.hkcnc.org.hk For more information on Hong Kong Association for Specific Learning Disabilities (HKASLD), please visit www.asld.org.hk About HGC Global Communications Limited HGC Global Communications Limited (HGC) is a leading Hong Kong and international fixed-line operator. The company owns an extensive network and infrastructure in Hong Kong and overseas and provides various kinds of services. It provides telecom infrastructure service to other operators and serves as a service provider to corporate and households. The company provides full-fledged telecom, data centre services, ICT solutions and broadband services for local, overseas, corporate and mass markets. HGC owns and operates an extensive fibre-optic network, four cross-border telecom routes integrated into tier-one telecom operators in mainland China and connects with hundreds of world-class international telecom operators. HGC is one of Hong Kong's largest Wi-Fi service providers, running over 29,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in Hong Kong. The company is committed to further investing and enriching its current infrastructure and, in parallel, adding on top the latest technologies and developing its infrastructure services and solutions. HGC is a portfolio company of I Squared Capital, an independent global infrastructure investment manager focusing on energy, utilities and transport in North America, Europe and selected fast-growing economies. To learn more, please visit HGC's website at: www.hgc.com.hk SOURCE HGC Global Communications Limited (HGC)

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] Analytics Insight Names 'The 10 Most Innovative Companies to Watch in 2018'

SAN JOSE, California and HYDERABAD, India, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Analytics Insight has named 'The 10 Most Innovative Companies to Watch in 2018' in its March magazine issue. The magazine features LatentView Analytics as the Cover Story. LatentView Analytics offers solutions that help organizations harness the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning to transform their business processes, drive innovation and enhance customer experience. It further includes MathWorks as Company of the Month. MathWorks provides a high-level language and interactive environment used by millions of engineers, scientists and researchers to accelerate the pace of discovery, innovation, and development worldwide. Other eight companies which exemplify the best in technological innovation, offering industry-disruptive solutions include AImotive, Appier, Datorama, GoodData, Netradyne, Periscope Data, Pyramid Analytics and Trueface.ai. The monumental increase in the availability of data has facilitated advances in big data analytics and artiicial intelligence, particularly in areas such as machine learning, natural language processing, and predictive analytics. These technologies are catalyzing the process of innovation and revolutionizing global industries.



The March issue has been published to recognize leading companies which showcase deep domain expertise coupled with rich technical competencies. "We extend our sincere congratulations to all the 10 companies for their robust platforms and services, driving phenomenal innovation across various industry sectors," says Ashish Sukhadeve, Founder & Editor-in-Chief at Analytics Insight. The magazine is available online through the Weblink. It has been distributed globally through various channels. For more information, please visit https://www.analyticsinsight.net.

About Analytics Insight Analytics Insight, a brand of Stravium Intelligence, is a platform dedicated to insights, trends, and opinion from the world of data-driven technologies. It monitors developments, recognition, and achievements made by big data and analytics companies across the globe. The Analytics Insight Magazine features opinions and views from top leaders and executives in the industry who share their journey, experiences, success stories, and knowledge to grow profitable businesses. To set up an interview or advertise your brand, contact press@analyticsinsight.net. Contacts:

Ashish Sukhadeve

Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Email: ashishsukhadeve@analyticsinsight.net

Tel: +91-40-23055215

http://www.analyticsinsight.net



Media:

Email: press@analyticsinsight.net

Tel: +1-408-380-2566





[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] DSM Proudly Supports Synapse Innovation Summit 2018

TAMPA, Fla., March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DSM Technology Consultants, one of Florida's largest private cloud providers, is excited to be a proud supporter of Synapse Innovation Summit in Tampa, FL March 28th-29th and announce that it is a Silver Sponsor. According to Synapse, the Innovation Summit will bring together innovators from all industries and stages of development to connect technology, regionally-based innovation, and entrepreneurial ecosystems throughout Florida. In just a few days the Amalie Arena will be buzzing with 2500 attendees, 30 speakers, 56 breakout sessions, 60 showcases, and 250 exhibitors. And not only is DSM excited to learn from the thousands of attendees, and industry leading experts that will attend, they are also excited to contribute industry knowledge while there. DSM CEO David Robinson and VP of Marketing & Channel Brian Sallee will both speak in sessions while attending the Synapse Innovation Summit. While many conferences are limited to those already experienced in the field the conference specializes in, that is not the case with the Innovation Summit as college students are highly encouraged to attend. Synapse and ConnectWise teamed up to provide Florida Collegestudents with opportunities to win scholarships to attend the event. They will provide 50 students with $1,000 to attend and are offering options for others to volunteer their time to attend the summit free of charge.



Another reason that DSM is proud to be a sponsor at the Innovation Summit is because of the benefit it will provide our community. All proceeds from the lunches served at the event on the 28th and 29th will go directly to feeding the hungry in Tampa Bay. Companies that strive to make the communities they work in better than they found them is important to DSM. With one of their core values being community-minded, they applaud Synapse for doing the same. With hands on demonstrations of local innovators such as drones & defense innovations, blockchain, fintech, cryptocurrency, & AI/machine learning robotics, 3D printing, AR/VR, urban tech, energy/renewable tech, and medtech/biotech/digital health/wellness, there will be something for everyone at the summit.

About Synapse: The Innovation Summit is a production of Synapse. The overall vision of Synapse is to be an all-encompassing, interactive, and flexible methodology for building, facilitating, and exposing the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of Florida. About DSM: DSM is a cutting-edge cloud solutions firm focused on delivering peace of mind to customers across the nation. Business growth is enabled by DSM's amazingly flexible, secure and reliable cloud solutions. DSM is certified compliant with CJIS, SSAE16, SOC 1, SOC 2 and HIPAA standards with an inland datacenter network and 99.999% uptime, and clients receive 24 x 7 x 365 support. To learn more, visit www.dsm.net. Media Contact:

Tori Pazda

192250@email4pr.com

863-904-6947 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dsm-proudly-supports-synapse-innovation-summit-2018-300618851.html SOURCE DSM Technology Consultants

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] Vita-Stat Launching ACCUflo Version 5.0

The leading innovator in medication and care management software solutions, Vita-Stat, has announced it will release ACCUflo version 5.0 for general availability on April 1. For more than a decade, the Louisville, Kentucky-based company has provided essential point-of-care solutions to error proof the shared process between caregivers and pharmacists in the senior care, assisted living and corrections markets. ACCUflo version 5.0 is built upon an entirely new cloud-based architecture which offers far greater flexibility to clients wishing to streamline the server infrastructure expense and support required in previous versions of ACCUflo. Some of the many enhancements now available with this version are fast, easy remote access via a web browser and simplified support for mobile devices such as tablets. ACCUflo version 5.0 also incorporates a refreshed look and feel to enhance the user experience while maintaining all the proven features that have made ACCUflo among the most trusted medication and care management software solutions in senior care, assisted living and correctional settings. "Version 5.0 offers our clients all the robust capabilities they have come to appreciate in ACCUflo in a new cloud-based design which simplifies deployment at lower cost," said John Carroll, founder and president of Vita-Stat LLC. "This significant evolution of ACCUflo reinforces the passion and commitment with which we aspire to provide clinical excellence to all our clients and their residents." ACCUflo is an intuitive, electronic medication administration record (eMAR) system designed for use among long-term care pharmaciesand assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing communities. The system tracks every step in the medication administration process, simplifying caregivers' duties and workflow by allowing them easy and safe access to residents' medical records, medication, treatments and care tasks.



Care Haven Homes of Prairie Village, Kansas was among the first clients to begin working with ACCUflo version 5.0 in early 2017. Care Haven Homes provides a unique, personal approach to residential memory care through its six homes located in quiet residential neighborhoods. Each home shelters a small community of eight or fewer residents, who share a warm, family style setting. Care Haven's professional care team assists this small group around-the-clock, so each resident can continue to enjoy day-to-day life in pleasant, familiar surroundings. Since each home caters to different levels of cognitive and physical ability, most residents can live in Care Haven's homes from Alzheimer's early through last stages. "Although we were among the first users of ACCUflo version 5.0, our experience has been very smooth. The Vita-Stat team has been responsive to our needs, even helping us navigate an unanticipated change in pharmacy service," said Neil Barnett, founder and owner of Care Haven Homes LLC. "Being able to easily access each community's ACCUflo system via a web browser has been very helpful to our Nursing Supervisor who oversees the care delivery for all six of our homes."

Vita-Stat (booth #2) will be showcasing its ACCUflo version 5.0 medication and care management software solution at the upcoming Arizona Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) Conference to be held in Scottsdale, Arizona, April 3-5, 2018. About Vita-Stat LLC Based in Louisville, Kentucky, Vita-Stat LLC is a leading innovator of medication and care management software solutions to optimize and error proof the shared process between caregivers, pharmacists and residents in the senior care, assisted living and corrections markets. Our solutions are widely adopted by some of the most well respected assisted living and skilled nursing communities and correctional facilities across the country to ensure the highest levels of clinical excellence for their residents. Long-term care (LTC) pharmacies throughout the U.S. prefer our solutions for their unique capacity to keep caregivers and pharmacists on the same page at all times - from physician order to care delivery. For more information about Vita-Stat visit the company's website at www.vita-stat.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005122/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] Global Advanced Metals and LPW Technology Cooperate on 3D Printing of Tantalum

Global Advanced Metals Pty Ltd (GAM), a leading producer of tantalum and niobium products along with LPW Technology (LPW), a global manufacturer of high-quality metal powders exclusively for additive manufacturing (AM), announce a cooperative agreement to further demonstrate the suitability of spheroidized tantalum for 3D metal printing. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005539/en/ High Flow, High Purity Tantalum Powder (Photo: Business Wire) Across this emerging industry there are few examples of additively manufactured refractory metals, and a need exists for a more thorough proof of concept and development of print criteria. GAM is filling this void and expanding its product portfolio. GAM is the world leader in tantalum powder technology, and offers powders in nodular, angular, fractal and spherical morphologies for a wide range of critical applications. Successful demonstration of laser 3D printing of tantalum offers GAM customers another powder option with which to serve medical, dental, military, aerospace and other markets via tantalum-based additive manufacturing. Tantalum offers superior osteointegration, higher biocompatibility and reduced stress shielding with respect to current metals and alloys used for medical implants. "Leveraging LPW's laser powder bed fusion expertise, developed by viewing AM from the perspective of the powder, represents one step of our strategy to extend our offering in tantalum and other refractory metals to the additive manufacturing marketplace. We can now measure and share physicochemical data for both our spherical tantalum and the resulting 3D printed part and brig this solution to our partners, for example practitioners, designers and manufacturers of tantalum based surgical implants and other high reliability and critical devices," said Andrew O'Donovan, CEO, GAM.



LPW Technology is the market leader in the manufacture, development and processing of high-quality metal powders for additive manufacturing, and provides a comprehensive range of solutions and services for the AM industry. These include the development and testing of new alloys, expert application support, and innovative end-to-end hardware and software. "This initiative demonstrates the benefits of two experts in their fields partnering to expand the materials knowledge-base for AM and accelerate its adoption for production," said Ben Ferrar, LPW's COO. "The performance of metal powder feedstock is key to building consistent AM parts and delivering the required mechanical properties.

"This work will further develop understanding of the factors affecting tantalum powder spheroidization and how it performs in the AM process, adding assurance to metal AM producers of the material compatibility for AM production." About Global Advanced Metals With nearly 70 years in the Tantalum industry, GAM is the world's only fully integrated Tantalum supplier, with exclusive rights to the world's largest industrial resources of Tantalum ore located in Western Australia. GAM produces best-in-class Tantalum powders and metallurgical products in its Pennsylvania, USA and Aizu, Japan plants for a range of industries, including electronics, aerospace, automotive, medical and chemical processing. GAM's processing facilities are certified Conflict-Free through the Responsible Minerals Assurance Process (RMAP) of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA). GAM is the first metal supplier to be certified Conflict-Free under this program for eight consecutive years. For more information, visit http://www.globaladvancedmetals.com or contact:

Craig Sungail: 610-369-8152, CSungail@GlobalAdvancedMetals.com

Sandeep Jain: 781-996-7309, SJain@GlobalAdvancedMetals.com About LPW Technology Established in 2007, LPW Technology is the market leader in the manufacture, development and processing of high-quality metal powders for additive manufacturing, and provides a comprehensive range of solutions and services for the AM industry. These include the development of new alloys and expert application support, and innovative end-to-end solutions for AM. LPW will be relocating its headquarters to its purpose-built, metal AM powder manufacturing facility near Liverpool, UK, in 2018. Its US operation, LPW Technology Inc., situated near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, provides analytical services, product inventory and sales support to North and South America. From these locations the organisation supplies high quality, certified powders to a global customer base including the aerospace, medical and automotive industries. For more information, visit www.lpwtechnology.com or contact:

Dr Nicola Jones: +44(0)1928 240 530, Nicola.jones@lpwtechnology.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005539/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] ELAP Services Named a 2018 Top Workplace by The Philadelphia Inquirer

ELAP Services, LLC, a leading healthcare solution for self-funded employers across the U.S., has been named No. 9 on The Philadelphia Inquirer's "Top Workplaces 2018" list in the small-size company category (50 to 149 employees). The list ranks leading employers in the Philadelphia region based on a survey of employee feedback. ELAP employees completed a comprehensive survey about their position, the ELAP executive team and work environment. Employees named their passion for the ELAP mission to rationalize healthcare costs and advocate for families, the supportive culture focused on developing individuals and the inspirational leadership of the CEO as to why ELAP was worthy of the Top Workplaces recognition. "ELAP is honored to be named in the top 10 small-business workplaces in the Philadelphia region, and I'm inspired that the results reflect our employee's opinions about our company," said ELAP Co-founder and CEO Steve Kelly. "At ELAP, we believe in fostering a community in which our employees are passionate about a common mission: making healthcare fair. Our goal is to empower all of our 137 employees, so that they know that we value their work. It's rewarding to know tht we've successfully created a company culture that our employees can rally behind. We can feel confident that they'll bring that productivity forward to provide the best possible service to ELAP clients nationwide."



ELAP offers a variety of benefits to its employees, including a comprehensive healthcare package, with 100 percent paid costs of medical, vision and dental coverage, and 60 percent of dependent coverage. The company also supports employee philanthropic efforts through monetary donations and volunteerism, provides surprise gift celebrations and a kitchen stocked with snacks. ELAP also has an annual tradition of awarding an all-expense paid vacation to an employee who has been nominated by other team members for going above and beyond in representing the company's values. ELAP plans to continue to grow its workforce and fill up to 50 open positions in 2018 in areas of client services, operations and information technology (IT).

The Philadelphia Inquirer's "Top Workplaces" is administered by research partner Energage, LLC, and for the 2018 list, the group surveyed more than 36,000 people and recognized 125 employers. To learn more about working at ELAP Services and the company's mission to bring fairness to healthcare, visit www.elapservices.com. About ELAP Services, LLC ELAP Services is a leading healthcare solution for self-funded employers across the U.S., offering unparalleled cost savings and advocacy services. ELAP's full-service program works in conjunction with a company's health plan to promote the responsible and sustainable management of healthcare costs. ELAP's services include plan design, claims auditing, member advocacy and legal defense, and emphasize collaboration and strengthening partnerships. ELAP builds meaningful connections with employers, members, and hospitals and health systems, to ensure a fair price for quality healthcare. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005553/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] Lockheed Martin Delivers Energy Storage Systems to Cypress Creek Renewables for Solar-Plus-Storage Projects

DALLAS, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Cypress Creek Renewables have commissioned 12 MWh of GridStar Lithium energy storage systems for 12 solar-plus-storage projects. The solar-plus-storage system will provide clean electricity to communities served by Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) in southeastern North Carolina. Lockheed Martin's GridStar technology ensures that this power is rapidly dispatchable  a key benefit that allows Brunswick EMC to avoid peaking costs and pass the savings to its member-owners in Brunswick and Columbus Counties, as well as small areas of Robeson and Bladen Counties. "These projects provide solar energy to our members and compound the value by delivering it exactly when we need it," said Don Hughes, CEO/general manager of Brunswick EMC. "This collaboration will provide significant value to our members for years to come." These 12 solar-plus-storage projects represent the first set of battery storage projects developed, constructed, financed and commissioned by Cypress Creek. Cypress Creek acquired the projects from United Renewable Energy (URE), the initial developer of the projects. "We are approaching a point where many newly originated solar projects will become solar-plus-storage by default," said Brian Knowles, director of enegy storage, Cypress Creek Renewables. "Cypress Creek Renewables is proud to collaborate with Lockheed Martin and URE to provide Brunswick EMC with a dynamic solar product that is able to respond to changing conditions on the grid or in energy markets."



Roger Flanagan, director for Lockheed Martin Energy, added, "We are pleased to support Cypress Creek Renewables' innovative solar-plus-storage projects. Energy storage is key to unlocking the true potential of renewable energy generation." Lockheed Martin's GridStar Lithium energy storage systems are compact, easy to install, and scalable for 100 kW to multi-MW projects. GridStar system architecture consists of modular, purpose-built energy storage units that contain batteries, local controls software and all required balance-of-system components. The systems are certified to UL 9540 standards, a key certification for product safety for energy storage systems and equipment.

Lockheed Martin Energy is a line of business within Lockheed Martin that delivers distributed energy solutions for utility, commercial, industrial, government and military customers. For additional information, visit our website: www.lockheedmartin.com/energy. About Lockheed Martin:

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 100,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. About Cypress Creek Renewables LLC:

Cypress Creek believes solar energy makes the world safer, cleaner and better. Our team solves problems to successfully develop, build and operate solar facilities across the United States. With 2.2. gigawatts of solar energy deployed in more than a dozen states, Cypress Creek Renewables is one of the country's leading solar energy companies. For more information about Cypress Creek Renewables, visit http://www.ccrenew.com. About Brunswick EMC:

Brunswick EMC is the second largest electric co-op in NC, the 36th largest of nearly 900 co-ops in the U.S. and serves more than 94,000 locations in Brunswick and Columbus counties, plus small areas of Bladen and Robeson counties. Locally owned, the not-for-profit corporation is committed to providing safe, reliable and affordable electricity to its members. Established in 1939, the co-op has a longstanding tradition of working to improve the quality of life in the communities it serves. For more information about Brunswick EMC, visit http://www.bemc.org. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lockheed-martin-delivers-energy-storage-systems-to-cypress-creek-renewables-for-solar-plus-storage-projects-300619366.html SOURCE Lockheed Martin

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] Hoodoo Digital to Showcase Products for Adobe Experience Manager at Adobe Summit 2018

SALT LAKE CITY, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hoodoo Digital, a premier provider of Adobe Experience Manager products and solutions, will sponsor Adobe Summit 2018. After a year of building a team of the industry's most experienced AEM Architects and DevOps engineers, Hoodoo will use Adobe Summit to showcase their suite of technology solutions that enable a new paradigm for success with Adobe Experience Manager. Co-founders Kem Elbrader and Andy Wakefield started Hoodoo with the vision of transforming the technologies that drive digital experiences. Andy is very optimistic about Hoodoo's potential to make an impact: "The human experience is being greatly defined by our interactions in the digital world and we see enormous opportunity for improvement." Kem and Andy previously worked together as executives for Axis41 as chief software architect and vice president of technology respectively, where they built a large Adobe technology practice that was successfully acquired in 2016. During their time at Axis41, they built reputations as thought leaders in enterprise technology, specifically in regards to the Adobe Experience Cloud. Over the past two decades, Kem and Andy guided many organizations through digital transformations including premier brands such as Stanford, Sony and Adobe. After Adobe acquired Day Software, Kem and Andy helped Adobe transition many of their corporate properties over to the newly acquired experience platform and established themselves as experts in Adobe Experience Manager (formerly CQ). They have continued over the past seven years to lead and architect many successful Experience Cloud implementations. During that time, they have uncovered several inefficiencies and opportunities to disrupt the space. Kem summarized their approach: "We're taking our previous eperience and reinventing AEM implementations by creating lighter weight teams composed of deeper expertise, more effective processes and using a more modern set of tooling."



At Adobe Summit 2018, they will unveil their suite of technology solutions specifically targeted at improving Adobe Experience Manager solutions. The first pillar of Hoodoo's strategy is to work with forward-thinking technology vendors to strengthen the Adobe ecosystem by making AEM Connectors. They have already deployed solutions in partnership with Workfront, uStudio and Fastly to provide solutions for work management, media distribution and edge content delivery.

Next, Hoodoo has embraced the philosophy of atomic design and has developed an AEM implementation methodology that incorporates design systems as a primary deliverable. Kem described this approach as "the missing link between design teams and implementation teams," and proclaimed, "This is the part of our process that goes beyond nuts and bolts and transforms our customer experience." Finally, Kem noted that at Summit they will be heavily promoting their Automated DevOps platform AEM Cloud. AEM Cloud utilizes Kubernetes to create a full-suite platform to support Adobe Experience Manager that can be deployed on any of the public clouds (i.e., Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure) or a corporate private cloud (VMWare). AEM Cloud provides toolsets and optimizing development, operations, security, quality assurance and production support. Andy explained AEM Cloud as "finally solving the biggest problems we have continually encountered in AEM implementations." Hoodoo Digital brings simplicity to the complexity of AEM implementations. Using an optimized implementation process and a suite of software tools, Hoodoo delivers solutions that use the latest features of AEM and provide a highly effective way for marketing teams to accomplish their daily goals. To learn more, visit https://hoodoo.digital or follow us on Twitter: @HoodooDigital. Press Contact:

Peter Nash

Phone: 801-896-9667

Email: hello@hoodoo.digital Related Links Adobe Partner - Hoodoo Adobe Summit View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hoodoo-digital-to-showcase-products-for-adobe-experience-manager-at-adobe-summit-2018-300619334.html SOURCE Hoodoo Digital

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] Lumina Networks Unites Traditional BGP/MPLS Networks with White Box Switching Using New SD-Core Capabilities

LOS ANGELES, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Open Networking Summit -- Lumina Networks has implemented new features in the company's Flow Manager product that allow large network providers to begin immediately evolving their BGP/MPLS networks toward SDN, using a centralized controller and lower cost infrastructure. Lumina will be demonstrating these features this week at the Linux Foundation's Open Networking Summit in Los Angeles. SD-Core brings both existing BGP/MPLS routers and new white box switches, under the control of SDN, combining the use of BGP, PCEP, NETCONF, OpenFlow and P4, to deliver automated end-to-end services, provisioning and management. "In every SDN deployment, bringing the existing network under an automation framework is the number one priority," said Andrew Coward, CEO of Lumina Networks. "What makes Lumina different, is our ability to operate a single control plane that software defines the existing routed network and enables white box vendors to integrate into the solution with next-generation switching protocols. This allows our provider customers to offer their existing services seamlessly over both, while at the same time expanding their offers to more advanced services, thus bridging the gap between the old and new." Lumina Networks is already the trusted supplier for SD-Core, in production, at several tier-1 operators. In building the complete solution, Lumina partners with white box switching partners NoviFlow and Pica8. Lumina Flow Manager now supports the ability to define VLAN, MPLS and Segment Routing intent paths over low cost switches. In addition, Flo Manager can assign packet transport services to the paths including E-Line, E-Tree, L2VPN or L3VPN. To achieve these capabilities, Flow Manager runs using the Lumina SDN Controller, Powered by OpenDaylight, along with the OpenFlow and BGP plugins provided by the controller.



The implementation includes a centralized path policy manager function providing many of the traffic management features found in traditional BGP/MPLS networks: advanced path computation for efficient traffic flows utilizing user defined constraints, path fast failover and pre-computed backup paths, link aggregation and Equal Cost Multi Path (ECMP), and statistics for link, link group, path and service including bandwidth utilization monitoring against user defined thresholds. It also provides very unique features: fine grained traffic classification at the service ingress node, traffic replication and point to multi-point (P2MP) services including "anycast" destinations, and L2-L4 packet field manipulation at the service egress node. In addition to providing these new application features for Flow Manager, Lumina has the technology tools and experience for deep integration with routers deployed from Cisco, Juniper and other tier-1 vendors. Lumina Networks' NetDev Services will deploy the company's experienced engineering team, to develop the specific integrations needed to move rapidly from proof of concept to production deployment.

Lumina Flow Manager release 6.1 is available as a free trial version, along with the Lumina SDN Controller, Powered by OpenDaylight and can be obtained at https://www.luminanetworks.com. ABOUT LUMINA NETWORKS Lumina Networks, Inc. believes the future is open software networks where service providers are in control of their development. Lumina is the catalyst that brings open software networking out of the lab and into the live network. We develop open source platforms and provide NetDev Services to jointly deliver production systems and to transfer know-how in Agile Software Development methods. For more information, visit https://www.luminanetworks.com/. Follow us on Twitter @luminanetworks. Contact: Madeline Mains, (831) 295-7468, madeline@43pr.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lumina-networks-unites-traditional-bgpmpls-networks-with-white-box-switching-using-new-sd-core-capabilities-300619007.html SOURCE Lumina Networks

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]FB SHAREHOLDER ALERT: The Law Offices of Vincent Wong Notifies Investors of an Investigation Involving Possible Securities Fraud Violations by the Board of Directors of Facebook, Inc.

The Law Offices of Vincent Wong notifies investors of an investigation concerning whether Facebook (News - Alert) , Inc. ("Facebook" or the "Company") (NASADAQGS: FB) violated federal securities laws.

Click here to learn about the case: http://docs.wongesq.com/FB-Info-Request-Form-1867. There is no cost or obligation to you.

On March 17, 2018, The New York Times reported that voter-profiling company Cambridge Analytica ("Cambridge") had "harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 5 million users without their permission making it one of the largest data leaks in the social network's history." Then on March 18, 2018, the office of the Massachusetts Attorney General announced it had launched an investigation. Then on March 19, 2018, European Union officials also said they would commence an investigation. Following this news, Facebook shares fell to a close of $168.15 on March 20, 2018.







To learn more about the investigation of Facebook contact Vincent Wong, Esq. either via email vw@wongesq.com, by telephone at 212.425.1140, or visit http://docs.wongesq.com/FB-Info-Request-Form-1867.

Vincent Wong, Esq. is an experienced attorney that has represented investors in securities litigations involving financial fraud and violations of shareholder rights. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005771/en/[March 26, 2018] 'Transforming Commerce' Symposium set at the United Nations on April 10th

NEW YORK, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The first of its kind 'Transforming Commerce' symposium will be held on April 10th at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. This new forum promises to be one of the most-enlightening industry events for business leaders who are weaving social impact into their brand values and goals. The symposium was announced today by Paul Polizzotto, an acclaimed social entrepreneur, with support from the United Nations Office for Partnerships. 'Transforming Commerce' is committed to igniting a new era of business for social good to further advance Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. The event will be co-hosted by Polizzotto and Leslie Moonves, Chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation. 60 Minutes Correspondent Bill Whitaker will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the day, and Shiza Shahid, Cofounder of Malala Fund and Founder of NOW Ventures, will deliver the closing keynote. Leaders and experts from multiple sectors, including business, tech, finance, media, advertising, government, and civil society, are expected to attend sessions and panels throughout the day, including a keynote address from Moonves. Together, change makers across all industries will convene to reimagine everyday commerce in ways that advance social impact. "Business can go further to improve the quality of our lives and make positive social change in our communitiesand we are going to prove that brands can do just that with every transaction," said Polizzotto. "This symposium is an invitation to learn from distinguished leaders at successful brands, as well as some of the world's most-effective nonprofits. We aim to be an inspiration to those who hope to accomplish moreand to prove they too can harness commerce for social good." Additional programming includes conversations and panels on corporate social responsibility, inclusive and sustainable standards for businesses, multi-sector partnerships, and more. Speakers and attendees include: Kimberly Bryant , Founder, Black Girls Code

, Founder, Black Girls Code Mariarosa Cutillo , Chief of Strategic Partnerships Branch, United Nations Population Fund

, Chief of Strategic Partnerships Branch, United Nations Population Fund Richelieu Dennis, CEO & Fouder, Sundial Brands

Victoria Dinges , Senior Vice President, Corporate Responsibility, Allstate

, Senior Vice President, Corporate Responsibility, Allstate Michelle Ebanks , President, Essence Communications , Inc.

, President, , Inc. Edward Farrington , Executive Vice President, Natixis Global Asset ManagementU.S. Distribution

, Executive Vice President, Natixis Global Asset ManagementU.S. Distribution M. Scott Havens , Global Head of Digital, Bloomberg Media

, Global Head of Digital, Bloomberg Media Hugh Lawson , Global Head of Institutional Client Strategy and ESG & Impact Investing, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

, Global Head of Institutional Client Strategy and ESG & Impact Investing, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild , Founder and Chief Executive, Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism

, Founder and Chief Executive, Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism Tom Hogan , Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer, CBS Corporation

, Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer, CBS Corporation Alan Mayer , Senior Vice President, Commercial Customer Advocacy, Dell EMC

, Senior Vice President, Commercial Customer Advocacy, Dell EMC Kim Rubey , Global Head of Social Impact and Philanthropy, Airbnb

, Global Head of Social Impact and Philanthropy, Airbnb Shamina Singh , Executive Vice President of Sustainability and President of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth

, Executive Vice President of Sustainability and President of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth Terry Tamminen , Chief Executive Officer, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation

, Chief Executive Officer, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Adlai Wertman , David C. Bohnett Professor of Social Enterprise, USC Marshall School of Business; Founding Director, Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab

, David C. Bohnett Professor of Social Enterprise, Marshall School of Business; Founding Director, Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab David Wish , Founder & CEO, Little Kids Rock



www.transformingcommerce.nyc, as capacity is limited. ABOUT PAUL POLIZZOTTO

Paul Polizzotto's decades-long work in the area of social entrepreneurship has led to numerous honors and recognitions, including: The US Conference of Mayors Award for Excellence in Public Private Partnerships, Cynopsis Media's Social Good Leader of the Year, and the Santa Monica Baykeeper's and the Waterkeeper Alliance's "Keeper Award." Paul has also been named an "Environmental Hero" by the EPA and a "Public-Private Visionary" by Vanity Fair magazine. Paul began his career in social enterprise in 1989 when he pioneered technology to scrub toxins from run-off before it entered the storm drain system. In 2001 Paul founded EcoMedia, later acquired by CBS in 2010, where he continues to develop innovative ways to generate millions of dollars in funding for nonprofit organizations through advertising programs. Through these initiatives, brands direct a portion of radio, television, and digital ad-spends to fund critical environmental, veterans', education, and community health and wellness projects nationwide. CBS EcoMedia has guided an estimated $100 million in funding and resources to nonprofits, supporting important social impact programs and projects that haveand willtouch the lives of an estimated 60 million people.

Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development The Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by the United Nations Member States during the UN Sustainable Development Summit in 2015. Universal, inclusive and indivisible, the 2030 Agenda calls for action by all countries, businesses and civil society to improve the lives of people everywhere. The Agenda includes, under Sustainable Development Goal 17, a call to revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development, including through multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources toward achievement of the Goals. ABOUT UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR PARTNERSHIPS

The United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP) serves as a gateway for catalysing and building partnership initiatives between civil society actors and the United Nations in furtherance of the Sustainable Development Goals. For more details please visit: https://www.un.org/partnerships/. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/transforming-commerce-symposium-set-at-the-united-nations-on-april-10th-300619136.html SOURCE Transforming Commerce Symposium

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 26, 2018] IRESS unveils a string of wealth management technology collaborations following Fidelity Clearing Canada integration

TORONTO, March 26, 2018 /CNW/ - Leading global financial technology business IRESS is continuing to make strides into the wealth management market in Canada as it unveils a string of new collaborations with key businesses in the sector. The integration of its wealth management solution with Broadridge Dataphile, through Fidelity Clearing Canada, is delivering significant cost savings through the streamlining of processes for firms across the Fidelity correspondent network. This announcement follows a successful technology implementation of IRESS' wealth management solution with leading independent wealth management and capital markets firm, Echelon Wealth Partners Inc in May 2017. In the last six months, IRESS has undertaken delivery of technology solutions for five wealth management firms across the sector, including BlueSky Investment Counsel, Tactex Asset Management a wholly owned subsidiary of Mylo Financial Technologies, and most recently, Noble Bay Asset Management. Each of these firms represent an emerging group of discretionary portfolio management companies. IRESS' wealth management technology provides firms with an integrated platform to support the complete customer experience for a firm's client base. It streamlines processes, delivers end-to-end capaility and offers multi-channel client engagement, from on-boarding, client reporting and customer relationship management (CRM), through to portfolio management and trading.



IRESS' integration with Fidelity's custody and clearing services allows IRESS' wealth management clients to leverage existing order management infrastructure and end-of-day (EOD) ticketing with the Fidelity trade desk. These implementations reflect the growing trend for a new breed of discretionary portfolio managers who recognize that clients' expectations are evolving and utilize technology to support the delivery of a seamless and consistent client experience.

Mark Ellis, president, Noble Bay Asset Management said: "A key requirement for Noble Bay was a single solution capable of both meeting the needs of our clients and to cater for the unique structure of our firm and its managers. We didn't just want new software  we wanted a single technology platform to help us transform our business and to be able to continue to grow with confidence. The solution delivered by IRESS unifies and streamlines processes across the organization as well as meeting our client and compliance needs. "The IRESS team has shown a deep understanding of our business and worked closely with us to deliver a solution that meets the needs of our firm. We look forward to a long relationship with IRESS." Michael Lynds, managing director, IRESS added: "Our goal is to provide technology that meets our clients' needs, including helping our clients provide efficient and quality outcomes to their clients. We are seeing increasing interest in technology to enable firms to optimize the services they provide efficiently and at scale. We're excited to be working with these forward-thinking Canadian businesses on delivering their vision of a truly client-centric experience." "Our integration with Fidelity has helped support IRESS' substantial growth in the wealth management space in recent months. We anticipate we'll be in a position to announce further technology collaborations throughout the year as we continue to build strong relationships across the correspondent networks sector and deliver demonstrable efficiency benefits." About IRESS

IRESS is a leading supplier of technology solutions to clients in the financial markets, wealth management, and mortgage sectors. IRESS is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (IRE.ASX) with operations in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, and Asia. www.iress.com

@IRESS_CAN SOURCE IRESS Canada Holdings Ltd.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Updated, 3/29/2018, 2:25pm PT:

Microsoft clarified some of the issues for us and said that "Microsoft agents do not watch or listen to your Skype call." However, the company didn't clarify whether or not software or machine learning algorithms are used to monitor Skype calls or other services in real-time for Service Agreement violations.

The company did mention that it "responds to customer reports of inappropriate content" and then it asks for evidence of another user's conduct before investigating the claim.

Microsoft didn't respond to questions about what it believes to constitute "offensive language," and how it determines when someone's account should be suspended or banned. The company also didn't reply to questions about what prompted these recent changes in its Service Agreement.

A Microsoft's spokesperson also gave us the following statement:

We are committed to providing our customers with safe and secure experiences while using our services. The recent changes to the Microsoft Service Agreements Code of Conduct provide transparency on how we respond to customer reports of inappropriate public content.

Original, 3/29/2018, 2:15pm, PT:

In an update to the Microsoft Services Agreement, which will go into effect on May 1, Microsoft prohibited offensive language and fraudulent activity, among other things. The company will suspend or ban users from participating in its Xbox Services, and if found violating its rules, the users will forfeit their account balances, any content licenses they may own, and their Xbox Gold Membership time if they run afoul of these new rules.

Banning Users For Offensive Language

Microsofts own summary of the changes in the Microsoft Services Agreement included the following section:

In the Code of Conduct section, weve clarified that use of offensive language and fraudulent activity is prohibited. Weve also clarified that violation of the Code of Conduct through Xbox Services may result in suspensions or bans from participation in Xbox Services, including forfeiture of content licenses, Xbox Gold Membership time, and Microsoft account balances associated with the account.

In the full text of the agreement, Microsoft included the following paragraph, to which the above paragraph refers:

Dont publicly display or use the Services to share inappropriate content or material (involving, for example, nudity, bestiality, pornography, offensive language, graphic violence, or criminal activity).

Its not clear what the company means exactly by offensive language here, but presumably the company owns a list of arbitrary words it has chosen to reflect what it considers to be offensive language.

Its also not clear how the company intends to monitor such violations, on Skype or any other of its services. Would the company use machine learning to monitor everyones conversations in real-time to identify that offensive language? Will it do the same for audio calls and video calls?

Alternatively, the company may simply wait for other users to flag such content before it takes any action. It's not clear--and that's the problem.

Who Does The New Terms Target?

The companys primary target may be people who tend to say offensive things when playing Xbox Live games with others. Still, the new Service Agreement encompasses all of the companys services, not just the Xbox services, so in theory Microsoft could use the same terms for more proactive banning on other services, too.

One of the issues with banning of accounts, especially if the violation isnt too severe, is that such action could represent a major disruption to a users life.

For instance, Microsoft has been encouraging users to use Microsoft accounts to log-in to Windows instead of using local accounts. It has also encouraged users to encrypt their laptops using the same Microsoft accounts, where the keys are stored by default. Those keys cant be recovered without the Microsoft account, so the user would no longer have access to the laptops data if the account was banned. The same user may also be using Outlook and Office 365 with their main Microsoft account, too.

This is one of the main downsides of being inside a single corporations ecosystem. If that particular company ever has any reason to ban your account, you could lose access to significant portions of your personal and work data. This applies not just to Microsoft, but also Google and Apple, all of which have been trying to lock users into their own ever-expanding ecosystems.

Weve asked Microsoft to clarify what these new terms mean, how the company intends to monitor the potential violations, and how it will take enforcement action against those that break its rules. Well update the post as soon as the company responds to our questions."The Kansas City Police Department said around 10 p.m. Sunday officers were called to the 3700 block of North Oak Trafficway on a shooting. When officers arrived, police were contacted by a person that found a deceased white male in a nearby parking lot."

At the outset of holy week we notice the pace of Kansas City murder continuing to speed ahead of last year's historic levels of violence.The latest KCMO murder overnight in the Northland . . .Deets:Even more parking lot on a classic Northalnd biz . . .Anyone with information is encouraged to callThis is the 28th homicide so far this year compared to 26 at this same calendar date last year.Developing . . .PANIC AFTER KANSAS CITY DOUBLE SHOOTING SUNDAY!!!

Possible kidnapping after a double shooting Sunday in KCMO A possible child kidnapping reported after a double shooting Sunday afternoon near East 63rd Street and Troost Avenue in KCMO. Police spotted the suspect in a silver Dodge Charger about 30 minutes after the shooting. Officers gave chase, but were unable to capture the suspect.

SUBURBAN SHOTS FIRED!!!

Police investigating shooting at a Shawnee apartment complex The Shawnee Police Department is investigating an overnight shooting incident at an apartment complex. Officers were called to the 6300 block of Caenan Lake Road, the Midland Court Apartments, around 1:35 a.m. to investigate the sound of gunshots. Residents called 911 after hearing several gunshots.

Local Legal Eagle Hot Take

Local lawyers explain Schlitterbahn charges KANSAS CITY, Kan. - On the heels of a Kansas Grand Jury indictment against Schlitterbahn water park and its former manager Tyler Miles, legal experts are weighing in on the allegations. Miles, 29, and the amusement park he once managed are facing a number of felony charges.

Dead-Tree Kansas City Star Gives Mayor Credit For Playing Nice With White Guys!!!

Mayor Sly James wants to heal the city's racial divides Mayor Sly James talks about how his early years of growing up in a white-dominant world helped him understand the racial issue and how his dad showed an example to him.

CELEBRATE ROCK CHALK SPOILERS!!!

Kansas defeats Duke in OT, heads to Final Four By The Associated Press SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Kansas edges Duke in overtime thriller for last Final Four spot, joins Villanova, Loyola-Chicago, Michigan in NCAA semis. Malik Newman scored all 13 of Kansas' points in overtime, and the top-seeded Jayhawks are back in the Final Four for the first time since 2012 after beating No.

Our obligation to share some of the top news links for this holy day as. . .And this is thefor right now . . .Tui described its summer 2019 programme as its most ambitious yet boasting 720,000 more seats, 40 new routes and 16 new resorts, ttgmedia.com notes in the following report:

The tour operator claims it has significantly boosted capacity in Turkey, Greece and Croatia, as well as Cape Verde which will benefit from 200,000 seats.

More than 500,000 extra seats have been added across six regional airports, while five new UK-based aircraft will be introduced.

Launched on Monday (March 26), Tui announced its summer 2019 programme expands on the soaring popularity of Croatia, the enduring appeal and consistent value of Greece and the resurgence of Turkey. Nearly 50% of its new routes will fly to these destinations.

It also massively extends its regional flying programme the majority of its 720,000 new seats will be divided across Doncaster Sheffield, Cardiff, Manchester, Glasgow, East Midlands and Birmingham airports, with nine other regional airports also set to benefit.

Richard Sofer, commercial director Tui UK and Ireland, noted: Summer 2019 is the most ambitious programme we have ever introduced.

We are focusing firmly on growing our amazing range of holidays through an extended regional flying programming, concentrated on the core destinations holidaymakers want to travel to, while offering the flexibility of holiday duration they want.

Nearly 65% of Tuis 40 new routes (26), flying from 15 UK airports, are exclusive to the operator, including new flights to 19 overseas airports in eight countries.

Elsewhere, it will open 16 new Tui and First Choice unique concept resorts. These include five adult only Tui Sensimar resorts, three in Greece (Crete, Zakynthos and Santorini islands), one in Dalaman in Turkey and one in Agadir in Morocco.

A new Family Life resort in Antalya, Turkey, will expand Tuis range to 24 across 18 destinations, and there is further options for holidaymakers with a new First Choice holiday village in The Canaries and new First Choice Splashworlds in Egypt and the Dominican Republic.

Sofer stressed: Weve added capacity where we know we have customer demand and will be opening 16 new flagship resorts across Tui and First Choice affirming our commitment to our exclusive hotel concepts.

Our intention is to open up new possibilities to existing customers whilst attracting new holiday makers to the Tui and First Choice brands. This is just the first step in an exciting vision which will evolve over the next 12 months and beyond.

Tuis summer 2019 programme will be up for sale on April 5.

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: ttgmedia.comDeloitte Middle East and Deloitte Saudi Arabia have announced plans to support the development of a digitally skilled workforce in kingdom.



Through close collaboration with schools and universities in the kingdom, Deloitte will provide work experience opportunities for students as well as train them for future careers, said a statement.



These goals will be further supported by the establishment of a Deloitte Digital Delivery Center in Riyadh in collaboration with MCIT, announced earlier this month, which will create hundreds of job opportunities for Saudi nationals, it said.



These investments were announced during a visit by Deloitte Global CEO, Punit Renjen, to Saudi Arabia in March of this year, and are a testament to the companys commitment to the economic development of the country and education of young Saudi women and men for the careers of the 4th Industrial Revolution, it added.



The visit by the Deloitte Global CEO included a student event at the Alfaisal University in Riyadh, on March 5.



Accompanied by David Sproul, CEO, Deloitte UK and North West Europe; Omar Fahoum, CEO, Deloitte Middle East; and Ehsan Makhdoum, Riyadh managing partner; the students and faculty had the chance to discuss with the Deloitte leaders many topics including the latest disruptive technologies worldwide, and global, regional and national trends.



Deloitte Saudi Arabias employees participated in the event to engage with the students.



Renjen said: The students at Alfaisal University are impressive, some of the brightest minds in the kingdom. It is clear that they have the talent, capability and vision to lead the business community as the global economy transitions from the 3rd to the 4th Industrial Revolution.



I am confident they will deliver the digital agenda in the kingdom, in line with The National Transformation plan and Vision 2030, he added.



Makhdoum said: Our firm in the Middle East are committed to the long term economic success of the kingdom through Saudi youth talent development and the firms nationalisation programmes.



As part of the largest professional services network in the world, the initiatives and significant investments that we are putting in place are in line with the key elements needed to achieve Vision 2030, he added.  TradeArabia News ServiceBahrain-based GFH Financial Group (GFH) said its Dubai-based wholly-owned subsidiary, GFH Capital and its strategic investors have announced plans to sell their entire 70 per cent stake in the Dubai-based Philadelphia Private School.



The stake, which was acquired in October 2014, has been sold back to a leading businessman Nashat Sahawaneh, who is the schools existing 30 per cent shareholder, said the company in a statement.



PPS is a K-12 American curriculum school which was founded in 2006 and is valued at more than Dh130 million. During GFH Capitals ownership, the school was accredited by the reputed New England Association of Schools & Colleges and AdvanceEd.



The school currently has around 1,500 students, up 20 per cent over the time GFH Capital acquired the institution and despite slower economic growth in Dubai during the latter part of the holding period.



All the investors have made an overall return of 33 per cent during the three-year investment period, it added.



Commenting on the move, CEO Hisham Alrayes said: "We are pleased to announce another successful exit for the group and our investors from our well-performing regional education portfolio, which is built on the strong and growing demand in the GCC for international standard education."



"We believed the education sector in the UAE and the GCC, as a key sector, would be resilient and deliver solid, steady returns despite the recent economic challenges. We are delighted with the value we have been able to create both for the School and our investors during the hold period," said the top official.



"We will continue to work to maximise the performance of our remaining education assets and focus on identifying similar income-generating opportunities in defensive sectors for the benefit of our investors and shareholders as we go forward," he added.



In December, GFH had achieved another successful exit from its education portfolio with the $150

million acquisition of half of the groups regional education assets by Inspired, a leading global group of premium schools operating in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Australia.



A dynamic financial investment group, GFH has interests in a range of activities including real estate development, commercial banking, wealth management and asset management.-TradeArabia News ServiceSeef Properties, a leading integrated real estate company in Bahrain, has given approval for the distribution of 15 per cent of cash dividends, equivalent to BD6.9 million ($18.2 million) at BD 0.015 per share, to the investors.



The announcement was made at the company's annual general meeting held at Fraser Suites, Seef District in the presence of company directors and a number of shareholders.



Speaking at the meeting, chairman Essa Mohammed Najibi said: "Seef Properties continues to achieve success year after year. 2017 saw a significant increase in operating profits and high overall revenue. I am pleased to report the end of another year that has been marked by a number of outstanding achievements, driven by a long-term sustainable strategy supported by efficient performance, enhanced growth opportunities and an outstanding level of customer service."



Seef Properties reported a gross revenue of BD17.78 million in 2017 compared to BD15.38 million in 2016, citing a 15.6 per cent increase.



Seef Properties posted operating profits of BD15.16 million compared to BD13.9 million in 2016, resulting in an increase of 9.1 per cent.



Consolidated net profit reached BD11.06 million for the year ending on December 31, 2017 compared to BD11.04 million in 2016.



"We have also built a diverse and profitable portfolio of assets that has enabled us to achieve rewarding returns, and add value to all shareholders," he noted.



According to him, 2017 was a successful year as it witnessed the completion of the design phase of the Liwan project located in Hamala where all official approvals were obtained in order to complete it as scheduled.



The mixed-use development project Liwan generated tremendous interest since it was launched in the market and when completed, it will redefine and elevate the surrounding area, acting as a magnet for locals as well as tourists and leisure-seekers from across the GCC, and further positioning the Kingdom as an attractive tourist Hub in the region.



Seef Properties CEO Ahmed Yusuf said: "We have stepped into 2018 with increased confidence, and we are on path to achieving even greater accomplishments this year guided by a visionary strategy and a solid investment portfolio."



"Our search for profitable investment opportunities will remain a key priority for the coming year, as we set out to further expand our asset portfolio which will also benefit the community and contribute towards the kingdoms economic growth," he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceAround 2,000 Omani fishermen have signed up to be part of the National Subsidy System, which will see them receive subsidised fuel under a government-funded scheme, said a report.



About an estimated 233,000 nationals have currently joined the government-funded scheme designed to mitigate the effects of rising fuel prices on economically disadvantaged sections of the Omani community, added the Oman Daily Observer report.



Local fishermen who demonstrate that their monthly income is RO600 ($1,591) or less can participate in the subsidy scheme, once their bonafides are validated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, according to an executive of the company that helped put together the online platform underpinning the National Subsidy System, it said.



Hemant Murkoth, CEO, Business Gateways International (BGI), said a mobile app that allows Omanis to register for subsidised fuel has been suitably designed to ensure that even users lacking basic IT skills can connect with the system.



Speaking at a forum held in the city last week, Murkoth said the user-friendly design of the portal has been a key factor in eliciting a robust response from applicants.



Launched at the start of this year, the subsidy system entitles registrants to receive up to 200 litres of M91 grade of motor fuel capped at 180 baisas per litre. This compares with a price of 205 baisas per litre of M91 fuel presently dispensed to the general public.



Omanis registering for subsidised fuel must also show that they own a vehicle for personal use or transportation, subject to their monthly income being RO600 RO600 ($1,591) or less. They also need to have their vehicles registered with the Royal Oman Police, added the report.Saudi Arabia intercepted seven ballistic missiles shot towards the kingdom from within Yemen yesterday, a spokesperson for the Coalition Forces said.

Col Turki al-Maliki said three missiles were targeted towards Riyadh, one towards the southwest in Khamis Mushait, one along the Southern border targeting Najran, two aiming for the southern city of Jizan, and one was randomly launched with the intent of hitting a densely populated civilian area, a press release from Saudi Arabia's embassy in Washington said.

All seven ballistic missiles were intercepted and destroyed by the Saudi Royal Air Defense Forces, he said.

According to preliminary information, the interception resulted in fragments raining on a few residential neighbourhoods and an Egyptian national was killed due to this.

Col Al Maliki said this hostile action by the Houthi militia, which indiscriminately targets the kingdom's civilian areas, proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime that supports the military capabilities of the Houthis. - TradeArabia News ServiceSwiss-Belhotel Seef was voted the winner of the Best 4-Star Hotel and the Best Hotel of the Year titles at the prestigious Bahrain 2018 Food & Travel Awards held in the kingdom last week.

The award celebrates excellence in Bahrains hospitality industry and is only given to establishments that consistently deliver outstanding quality, said a statement.

Congratulating the team, Laurent A Voivenel, senior vice president, operations and development for the Middle East, Africa and India, Swiss-Belhotel International, said: Swiss-Belhotel Seef is one of our flagship hotels in the region that has established a fabulous reputation in Bahrain in terms of its distinctive service standards and high quality of product. We are thrilled to receive these awards that are considered a benchmark of excellence. There is nothing more gratifying than to see guests appreciate our product and service. I take this opportunity to congratulate all our team whose passion and hard work has contributed to this exceptional success.

Competing with leading hotels in the country, Swiss-Belhotel Seef Bahrains recognition came on the strength of various factors including product excellence and high quality of service, management, food, atmosphere and customer care all of which translate into excellent value for money.

Herve Peyre, general manager, Swiss-Belhotel Seef and area general manager, Bahrain, said: To be recognised as the Best 4-Star Hotel for the third consecutive year as well as receive the coveted trophy of the Best Hotel of the Year is a great honour. We are extremely proud of this achievement and attribute it to the hard work and dedication of our team who have been tirelessly delivering the most memorable experiences and excellent value to our guests at every step of their journey. Awards such as these motivate us to do better and we are truly grateful to both the organisers as well as our guests who have recognized and appreciated our efforts.

Located in Bahrains central business and commercial district only 20 minutes drive from Bahrain International Airport, Swiss-Belhotel Seef provides guests with superior facilities and standards of service. The 28-storeys tall hotel boasts a superb choice of 144 contemporary and spacious guestrooms and suites offering breath-taking sea and city views. The hotel is fully equipped to meet the needs of modern business and leisure travellers with an array of facilities and unique features including speciality dining venues, extensive banquet and conference facilities equipped with state-of-the-art technology, a fabulous fitness centre as well as outdoor swimming pool and spa.  TradeArabia News ServiceYou can opt out of certain types of cookies (e.g. those used in social media sharing) by choosing "I do not accept". The website will still largely function well, but with slightly less functionality in places. To manage your cookie preferences in future, visit the "Cookie Statement" link at the bottom of any page.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.By Pam Drellow

Next month during National Library Week (April 8-14), the country will celebrate the estimated 120,000 libraries nationwide that serve Americans in many settings, ranging from public and school libraries to specialized libraries, such as Armed Forces libraries, government and medical libraries.

Whatever their structure, however, libraries are dynamic entities that have evolved greatly over the years to reflect the changing needs of the people who rely on their services. This is especially true of public libraries, which have been called "Democracy's Makerspace."

Pub...Anna Reed and Joe Smith at Brevard Middle Smith will attend the All-State Band Clinic in May.

The following Brevard Middle School students were accepted in the 2018 Western District Bands and traveled to Western Carolina on February 9 and 10 to rehearse and perform a concert for the public.

Those with an asterisk (*) also qualified to audition for All-State Band on March 3.

Middle School Symphonic Band: Anna Reed, 1st chair* flute; Emma Patrie, 2nd chair* oboe; Sierra Gardner, 8th chair clarinet; Jaydn Garvitte, 17th chair clarinet; Grace Gentle, 3rd chair bass clarinet; Joe Smith, 1st chair* bari sax; Emma Coye, 7th chair French horn; Brayden Grosvenor, 5th chair trombone.

Midd...Most of my friends who ever came over to my dad's house probably shot his gun off his back porch and had a blast doing it (pun intended). I know my mom never liked having guns around our house, but I also know that it was an important element of my dad's past that he would never give up easily.

My dad grew up as one of 11 children in an old one-room schoolhouse near Fruitland in an area that we referred to as "McMinn Mountain" since there's some McMinn living in just about every other house. Although my dad and his family grew up with minimal material possessions, he always spoke of his c...Eleven Transylvania leaders met at the WNC Military History Museum on March 20 for a luncheon roundtable to discuss growth of the museum. The mission of the museum is to honor, educate and preserve military history.

The participants were told about the achievements of the museum in its first 10 months: 6,000 visitors to the museum, 17 educational programs to schools and other community groups, 13 free programs presented to the public and 17 personally guided tours of groups of the museum's exhibits. Members of the public have generously donated many artifacts, enabling the curators to con...Korean War Air Force veteran Joe Smith first arrived in South Vietnam in August 1967, flying into Tan Son Nhut Air Base on the outskirts of Saigon. An experienced Airman, Joe Smith was assigned as a supply specialist to the Logistical Division of the 377th Supply Squadron, tasked with providing logistical support to the U.S. and South Viet-namese armies.

Life on the air base was relatively safe.

"At that time, we were not fired on as much as the Army and the Marines," said Smith. "The Viet Cong would shoot in a 122 mm rocket now and then as harassment. We assumed they wouldn't attack the base for fear of retaliation."

Tet Offensive Attack On Tan Son Nhut Air Base

In December and January the attacks intensified. Rockets were launched against the air base every night. "We determined that rockets were coming from a steeple in a church on the outskirts of Saigon. Because of the political complications of destroying a church, it took five days to get permission from Washington to blow up the steeple," he said.

On Jan. 31, 1968, things came to a head with the beginning of the Tet Offensive, when the North Vietnamese and Communist Viet Cong staged simultaneous attacks throughout South Vietnam's cities, military installations and villages. The assault on Tan Son Nhut Air Base included mortar, rocket and ground attacks.

Just after midnight, the sirens blared and we knew the base was under attack," said Smith. "Since we'd been in a support role, we were not heavily armed. We just had side arms and M-16s."

Smith and several other airmen raced to the warehouse to retrieve heavier weapons.

"When we got there," he recalled, "we found that our weapons were still in cosmoline (protective grease) in crates. We weren't prepared for an attack of this size."

As the bombing increased, the Air Force received reinforcements from the 25th Infantry Division and Army helicopter and ground units. The combined forces drove off an estimated 2,500 attackers. "The helicopter gunships flew around the air base all night, protecting our bomb dump and fuel storage sites," Smith said. "The next day we thought, 'Boy did the Army ever save us Air Force guys!'"

The Tet Offensive had a dramatic impact on Air Force operations, noted Smith.

"It became apparent that we could be targeted by large enemy forces. Security was greatly enhanced and the Air Force became much more involved in defending our bases," he said.

Attacks On The Home Front

Smith left Vietnam in August 1968, when the United States was locked in a bitter debate about the country's involvement in Vietnam. Upon arrival at California's Travis Air Force Base, the GI's were briefed about protests and it was suggested that they change into civilian clothes.

"Some guys did, and some didn't," remembered Smith. "People were protesting everywhere we went."

Smith and two other airmen flew to Chicago to catch a train to Virginia. At the airport, they hailed a taxi to take them to the train station.

"The driver knew we were GI's returning from Vietnam," said Smith. "It took an hour to get to the station and he charged us $75."

At the train station, the GIs learned it was a 20-minute trip, usually costing $30 for the group.

"We were surprised and very upset that we were scammed by a cab driver," said Smith. "This was our introduction back into the United States."

Smith was assigned to Seymour Johnson AFB in Goldsboro, N.C., where, several weeks later, the Air Force held a decoration ceremony for returning veterans.

"I remember to this very day standing in full dress uniform, receiving the Bronze Star for service to my country, and remembering the suggestion that I change out of my uniform at Travis AFB. That's the thing that still bothers me, 50 years later," he said.

Reflections On The War

After fighting in two wars and serving 26 years in the Air Force, Joe Smith retired from HQ Strategic Air Command as a Chief Master Sergeant, the highest enlistment level of leadership. He and his wife, Joan, live in the Deer Lake Village and enjoy volunteering and traveling.

Courtesy photo Joe Smith on Special Assignment with the Department of Defense, 1976.

Said Smith of the Vietnam War, "As a career military guy, I can tell you that the Vietnam War will go down in history as the biggest blunder this country has ever made  getting involved in a war with no intention of winning. And to think of the sacrifices made for this war."

He wants readers to remember that everyone over there had a different mission.

"None of us had a choice of what we did or where we went," he said. "I still feel bitter about how I was treated when I got home. I guess it's because we felt so betrayed by our countrymen."

(In collaboration with the WNC Military History Museum and writer Michel Robertson, The Transylvania Times will publish an article once every two weeks on a local veteran who served in Vietnam.)Mission Healths Board of Directors announced Wednesday that it had signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to enter into discussions to join HCA Healthcare, a Nashville-based company.

Transylvania Regional Hospital is a member of the Mission Health system.

The LOI is an important, proactive step, according to a Mission Health press release, to ensure Mission Health remains well-positioned to continue to meet the unique needs of western North Carolina as the health care environment continues to evolve.

A key component of the proposed agreement, the release said, is the establishment of a new...The city of Brevard created the above map, which shows the priorities for the multi-use path in the city (left) and the Bracken Mountain property (right).

Last week, Brevard City Council approved an updated map for multi-use path and sidewalk priorities listed in the city's Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan, which was adopted by the city in 2006.

During its regular meeting last week, City Planning Director Daniel Cobb said the purpose of the new priorities is to set off five of them to address the most important during the annual budgeting process.

The blue line on the map represents the multi-use path that has already been built.

"Of the top 10 original priorities, the top five were built, so we were faced with the good problem of figuring out what we were going to build next, and so the parks and trails committee reviewed the maps and decided to essentially shift all the priorities that were on the list, up," Cobb said. "So what was number six is now number one, and what was number seven is now number two, and so on."

Cobb said that the next priority is the green trail on the map that goes from McLean Road to Probart Street.

The second priority is the pink line on the map going from Probart Street down to the Mary C. Jenkins Center.

The third in the light blue, Cobb said, splits from the Mary C. Jenkins Center and goes west toward the Brevard Music Center and east through the future Tannery Park.

"Four goes down as that yellow line along the southern edge of the city and crossing the Board of Education property across from the Brevard High School, which then connects to back into Gallimore Road, which was completed a few years ago," Cobb said.

The orange line, number five, goes from the end of the bike path near Western Carolina Community Action on Hillview Extension up to the Bracken Mountain Trail parking lot.

Cobb said number six is on the Bracken Mountain Master Plan, which was also adopted in 2007.

"With that plan there are a number of trails highlighted on the property," Cobb said, "three of which were built back in 2012, and the newest addition is what we generally refer to as the 'Ridge Trail,' and it follows the Western ridge of Bracken property along the National Forest Service boundary, and then drops down into Brushy Creek."

The last priority in light pink would connect a new trail from Horse Cove Road to Joel Branch Road.

Sidewalks

For the sidewalks (see related map), Cobb said a similar approach was taken.

"What was number two, which is Neely Road, is now number one," Cobb said. "Number two is along Morris Road and would connect Asheville Highway and Ecusta Road."

Number three goes along Deer Lake Road at the entrance to Deer Lake.

Four goes along Pisgah Drive out to the Transylvania Regional Hospital.

Five would connect the bike path with Asheville Highway along Mclean Road.

Six would connect from Johnson Street to Jordan to Maple.

"Number seven would connect Gaston, Varsity and Miner Street all back to Maple Street, which would complete that loop in that neighborhood," Cobb said.

Cobb said the maps aren't "binding."

"This is just a planning document for budgeting purposes," Cobb said.

In other council news:

In public participation, various non-profit organizations made budget requests and community development updates for the city.

Leslie Logemann, marketing manager for the Transylvania Farmers' Market, requested a grant for $17,000 for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1. It's the same amount that was requested for last year.

"We had 78 registered vendors in 2017," Logemann said. "We went over half a million dollars ($540,586) in vendor sales for 2017, and that's an increase from 2016, which was $487,109."

Bill Moore, representing the Bread of Life, requested $5,000.

"We really appreciate the support that we get from the city of Brevard," Moore said.

While not present, Tammy Hopkins, executive director of the Transylvania Community Arts Council, requested $10,000, the same that was requested and received last year.

Some of the projects orchestrated by the TC Arts Council include the production of Steve Martin and Steep Canyon Rangers music video, "The Strangest Christmas Yet," filmed in Brevard last year, as well as partnering with the Transylvania County Schools to host "Arts in Schools Program," with an artist in residence at each of the nine public schools.

The council's expenses totaled $190,037.56, according to Hopkins' report.

Shelly Webb, executive director of the Sharing House, requested $10,000.

"We now are at $1.6 million of service annually to the county in meeting the critical needs, crisis assistance and ministry of the county," Webb said. "We serve nearly 20 percent of the population of Transylvania County."

Webb added that there has been a spike in water bills that the Sharing House has helped people in paying.

"Just in 2017, the Sharing House spent $19,678 helping folks pay their water bills, and you all were gracious in helping assist us to meet that need," Webb said. "Already in January of 2018, and I think it's just not water bills but the cold winter and people are struggling to pay their heating bills, and rent, and in the first two months we've seen a 12 percent increase in our assistance in helping people pay their water bills for the city of Brevard."

Webb said they've helped 82 families with their water bills for a cost of $9,142.

"The most we will spend is in the first six months of the year," Webb said. "The average water bill assistance we pay is $80.12, but often what we do is try to help people solve their problems with creativity, so, if they can pay some of it, then we ask them to do that, and then we help with what's left."

The cold winter season causes people to struggle with rent and other bills, Webb said.

"It takes 140 volunteers a week to run the Sharing House, and we are open five days a week from Monday through Friday," Webb said.

She said that recently the Sharing House had a food drive at Ingles and in Cedar Mountain from which they received more than 2,000 pounds of food.

"But in one month's time we give out 29,000 pounds of food," Webb said.

She added that she is "humbled" by the generosity of the council and the people she lives among.

Micky Robinson presented a plan to establish The Homeless Youth of Transylvania County, though no grant request was made.

"There are a whole slew of homeless kids in Transylvania County: 40 elementary, 65 high school kids and about 21 middle school kids," Robinson said. "Our goal is to build a homeless youth shelter that would consist of houses that would house about six per house with house parents to fulfill the need of homeless in the county."

The city of Brevard produced this map that shows the sidewalk priorities.

Council recognized Merlyn Collings and her deceased husband, James, who moved to Brevard from Miami in 1995, for their donation of historical photographs of Brevard.

"James went to Austin's Studio on East Main Street, which is now The Cherry Tree, and he got all these photographs and he just went through them all and the girls helped him out, and the last one that he and I got together was Franklin Lake, which is now Franklin Park," Collings said. "I donated them because he would have wanted them to be here."

Collings said James loved Brevard, and they both felt the photographs that both Merlyn and James framed themselves after they met in 1996, belonged to the city.

"The city deserves to know what it used to be like," Collings said.

Search News Archive : Fast Travel News Promotion Via Search, Social Media + Email Follow Us On : TOKYO DEBUTS MAJOR MUSEUM ART EXHIBITIONS FOR SPRING 2018 Industry: Exhibitions

With April as the start of the new fiscal year in Japan, a number of new art exhibitions and art experiences are opening in April and May 2018.



(TRAVPR.COM) JAPAN - March 23rd, 2018 - Here are some of Tokyo's top Spring 2018 art museum exhibitions and art events: Tokyo National Museum Often considered a Gateway to Japanese Culture, the Tokyo National Museum, located within Ueno Park, itself famous for its vast number of blossoming cherry trees, houses a plethora of historic Japanese and Asian Art. The exhibition: Echoes of a Masterpiece: The Lineage of Beauty in Japanese Art celebrates the 130th anniversary of Kokka, a periodical of Oriental art that was first issued in October 1889. Kokka's mission was to challenge the primacy of Western art in Meiji Japan. The exhibition brings together approximately 120 works  including National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties  to uncover the stories surrounding their creation, explore their shared aesthetic, and study the influence they exerted on one another. Dates: April 13-May 27, 2018 www.tnm.jp/modules/r_free_page/index.php?id=1889&lang=en The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo Yokoyama Taikan: The 150th Anniversary of his Birth,is the blockbuster exhibition coming to the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. He is most renowned for his more than 1,500 paintings of Mt. Fuji and and Metempsychosis, a more than forty-meter long sumi ink scroll. Dates: April 13-May 27, 2018 http://www.momat.go.jp/english/am/exhibition/yokoyama-taikan/; http://taikan2018.exhn.jp/en/index.html; The Nezu Museum of Art The Nezu Museum houses the pre-modern Japanese and East Asian art collection of Nezu Kaichiro (1860-1940), who was a prominent businessman and a former president of the Tobu Railway Co., Ltd.. The upcoming spring special exhibition is: Korin and Kenzan: Brother Artists, Resonating Aesthetics. Ogata Korin (1658-1716) elevated the decorative tradition in Japanese art to the level of contemporary design. In his Irises, he applied designs for use on kosode kimono to the large picture plane of a pair of folding screens. Korins younger brother Kenzan (1663-1743) was a ceramic artist who launched new trends in the world of ceramics. Dates: April 14-May 13, 2018 http://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/en/exhibition/next.html Nerima Art Museum The Nerima Art Museum's mission is to present the art of now to the visitors of today. It strives to discover new art and fresh talent. Their spring exhibition features 90-year-old Tats Ikeda, a famous Japanese avant-garde artist, who experienced the end of WWII, while he was a Kamikaze pilot trainee. His unique artwork reflects social movements of Post War Japan through today. Dates: April 26-June 17, 2018 https://www.neribun.or.jp/event/detail_m.cgi?id=201802151518677542 Yamatane Museum of Art The 52-year-old Yamatane Museum of Art is the first museum to specialize in Nihonga painting. Nihonga usesmineral pigments  including gold and/or silver, washi paper, and other natural materials to depict natural and seasonal subjects. The next special exhibition will be The Rimpa School: From Tawaraya Sotatsu (17th C) to Tanaka Ikko (20th C). Dates: May 12-July 8, 2018 http://www.yamatane-museum.jp/english/ Roppongi Art Night This-all-night-long-beyond-dawn art event in Roppongi, includes all the major area art venues: Roppongi Hills, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo Midtown, Suntory Museum, 21-21 Design Sight, National Museum, and more with additional outdoor installations and live performances. Dates: May 26-27, 2018 http://www.roppongiartnight.com/2018/ More: For more information on museums, museum exhibitions, and art events in Tokyo, visit the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau's website at www.GoTokyo.org and also explore Tokyo's brand site at www.tokyotokyo.jp. Note: High Resolution Images are available. Please contact us, and we will send them immediately. Marian Goldberg 1-347-559-MGMC (6462); marian@mariangoldbergcomm.com Marian Goldberg Marketing Communications, LLC. In association with Aki Hirai, the Tokyo City Representative in New York On Behalf of Tokyo City Tourism (TCVB) ### Please contact the person or company listed above for information regarding the content of this press release. TravPR.com are not the issuers of this press release and are not responsible for the accuracy of the content. Share Release :



CONTACT INFORMATION Name: Marian Goldberg Company: Tokyo City Tourism (TCVB) Phone: 1-347-559-6462 Email: marian@mariangoldbergcomm.com Web: PRESS RELEASE TAGSSWISS-BELHOTEL INTERNATIONAL MAKES TRAVEL MORE REWARDING FOR SINGAPORE AIRLINESKRISFLYER MEMBERS



(TRAVPR.COM) UAE - March 24th, 2018 - HONG KONG  Swiss-Belhotel International, the award-winning global hotel chain and hospitality management group, will offer Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles to members who stay at the brands hotels, resorts and serviced residences around the world.

Swiss-Belhotel International hotel guests can Stay Happy & Fly Further, earning one KrisFlyer mile for every US Dollar spent during their stay at participating Swiss-Belhotel International hotels.

In addition to KrisFlyer miles earned when booking a stay, the more guests enjoy the restaurant, spa, bar or other hotel services, the more KrisFlyer miles they accrue.

Singapore Airlines flies to more than 60 countries and territories around the world, including many Swiss-Belhotel destinations. Members can accumulate miles through flights, credit card purchases, hotel stays and more.

Mr. Gavin M. Faull, Chairman and President of Swiss-Belhotel International believes that the new partnership with Singapore Airlines will be a high-flying success because of the way people travel today. The once-a-year family vacation has been replaced by short getaways, longer holidays and more frequent travel. More affordable and better travel routes with companies such as Singapore Airlines are creating a smaller world, one where people travel and stay in hotels more often. Rewarding guests is a great way for us to give something back, inspire them to stay with us again and perhaps fly even further with their KrisFlyer miles and visit more of our Swiss-Belhotel hotels and resorts around the world.

It is easy to earn KrisFlyer miles with unique Swiss-Belhotel International stays at high-quality, well-appointed hotels and resorts. Guests can also benefit from a range of tempting offers by booking online. These include last-minute offers; online booking discounts; early bird deals; long weekend, seasonal and sporting event specials; wedding party and special event bookings; hot deals; and weekend, week-long and extended stay promotions.

To learn more about the offers and points available visit http://www.swiss-belhotel.com/en-gb/krisflyer

For further information or high-resolution photography, please contact:

Brayna Tolledo

Group Manager - Communication and Loyalty Programme

Swiss-Belhotel International, Group Sales and Marketing Office

Tel: (62 21) 2952 7277, 2952 7278

Fax: (62 21) 2952 7275, 2952 7276

Email: braynatolledo@swiss-belhotel.com

swiss-belhotel.com

Notes to Editors

About Swiss-Belhotel International

Swiss-Belhotel International currently manages a portfolio of more than *145 hotels, resorts and projects located in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Bahrain , Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand, Bulgaria, Georgia and Tanzania. Awarded Indonesia's Leading Global Hotel Chain for seven years, Swiss-Belhotel International is one of the world's fastest-growing international hotel and hospitality management groups. The Group provides comprehensive and highly professional development and management services in all aspects of hotel, resort and serviced residences. Offices are located in Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Australia, Europe and United Arab Emirates.

*Numbers may fluctuate

###DUAL WIN FOR SWISS-BELHOTEL SEEF AT BAHRAIN 2018 FOOD & TRAVEL AWARDS



(TRAVPR.COM) UAE - March 26th, 2018 - Bahrain  Swiss-Belhotel Seef was voted the winner of the Best 4-Star Hotel and the Best Hotel of the Year titles at the prestigious Bahrain 2018 Food & Travel Awards held in the Kingdom last week. The award celebrates excellence in Bahrains hospitality industry and is only given to establishments that consistently deliver outstanding quality.

Congratulating the team, Laurent A. Voivenel, Senior Vice President, Operations and Development for the Middle East, Africa and India, Swiss-Belhotel International, said, Swiss-Belhotel Seef is one of our flagship hotels in the region that has established a fabulous reputation in Bahrain in terms of its distinctive service standards and high quality of product. We are thrilled to receive these awards that are considered a benchmark of excellence. There is nothing more gratifying than to see guests appreciate our product and service. I take this opportunity to congratulate all our team whose passion and hard work has contributed to this exceptional success.

Competing with leading hotels in the country, Swiss-Belhotel Seef Bahrains recognition came on the strength of various factors including product excellence and high quality of service, management, food, atmosphere and customer care all of which translate into excellent value for money.

Herve Peyre, General Manager, Swiss-Belhotel Seef and Area General Manager, Bahrain, said, To be recognized as the Best 4-Star Hotel for the third consecutive year as well as receive the coveted trophy of the Best Hotel of the Year is a great honour. We are extremely proud of this achievement and attribute it to the hard work and dedication of our team who have been tirelessly delivering the most memorable experiences and excellent value to our guests at every step of their journey. Awards such as these motivate us to do better and we are truly grateful to both the organizers as well as our guests who have recognized and appreciated our efforts.

Located in Bahrains central business and commercial district only 20 minutes drive from Bahrain International Airport, Swiss-Belhotel Seef provides guests with superior facilities and standards of service. The 28-storeys tall hotel boasts a superb choice of 144 contemporary and spacious guestrooms and suites offering breath-taking sea and city views. The hotel is fully equipped to meet the needs of modern business and leisure travellers with an array of facilities and unique features including specialty dining venues, extensive banquet and conference facilities equipped with state-of-the-art technology, a fabulous fitness centre as well as outdoor swimming pool and spa.

For further information visit http://www.swiss-belhotel.com

###editorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Tarn Taran, March 26

A team of doctors of the local civil hospital led by Dr Nirmal Singh, SMO-cum-in-charge of the hospital, by has added a feather in their cap by successfully conducting a Total Knee Replacement (TNR) surgery. It was the first operation of its kind in the district. Even in private-run hospitals no such operation has been perfomed till date.

Civil Surgeon Dr Shamsher Singh informed mediapersons that the Gian Singh (55) of Dode Sodian, 30 kilometres from here was suffering from osteoarthritis in his right knee for the past 15 years. He was suffering from acute pain, swelling and knee deformity. He used to walk with the help of cane and was also suffering from Hepatitis B. The patient approached the hospital complaining of severe pain in knee. The SMO consulted the concerned medical officers to take up the case. Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Tushar Ahluwalia took the job as a challenge and happily agreed to treat the patient.

Dr Shamsher Singh said the team of the doctors under the supervision of Dr Nirmal Singh including Dr Gagandeep Kaur (Anesthesia) and Dr Kanvarpuneet Singh with the assistance of Dr Ahluwalia conducted the operation on Friday. The team expressed their happiness on the success of the operation. The doctors used imported implants for knee replacement at a nominal price. Harpreet Kaur, daughter of the patient, said they have spent only Rs 75,000 till date for the treatment.

Gian Singh, hailing from a poor background, expressed his happiness over the operation done with nominal charges.

The team of doctors will be honoured on the Independence Day for their sincere efforts and contribution in the field of medical science, said Dr Singh.editorial@tribune.com

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 26

The state governments move to develop Amritsar as an Information Technology hub may get a fillip in the coming days as it has proposed a Software Technology Park of India (STPI) centre here in its Budget.

Thought it has been about 17 months since the foundation stone of the STPI centre was laid by Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Parsad, residents are not happy with a delay in its construction.

MK Sharma, a social activist, said the announcement made in the Budget about a STPI centre for the city would herald a significant turn of events in its future growth. Sharma hoped that the city would conveniently link with cyber cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad. He said real estate prices in the city would pick up.

The city is well connected by road, rail and air with various key national and international destinations. An industry in Amritsar could be the best IT destination of India as it has an international airport and bus terminal, he added.

Another resident Balram Kumar Sharma said the government had allocated land for the STPI centre at Focal Point, which was allocated by the Union government, but the project was yet to see the light of day.

He said the government took more interest in developing Mohali as an IT hub over the border city. Amritsar is the best city that can be developed as an IT hub as it is well linked with Pakistan by road and rail networks. Besides, it is the gateway to Central Asian countries like Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Notably, these countries are dependent on foreign countries for most of their IT needs, Balram Sharma said.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chamkaur Sahib, March 26

A 22-year-old youth was gunned down by a Nihang at Sandhuan village near here on Monday. The deceased has been identified as Jaspreet Singh.

Raj Bachan Singh Sandhu, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Ropar, said the Nihang, Gurinder Singh, was a witness in an attempt-to-murder case.

He said Jaspreet Singh and his accomplices did not want Gurinder Singh to depose before the court in the case and they had warned him of dire consequences if he dared to do so.

The SSP said on Monday morning, some youths, including Jaspreet, went to meet Gurinder Singh allegedly to threaten him. However, an upset Gurinder Singh resorted to firing from his gun. Jaspreet died on the spot.

The SSP said the police had registered a case under Section 302 of the IPC and had arrested Gurinder Singh from the village.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 26

Students and teachers across the tricity have declared the economics paper of the CBSE Class XII easier but its macroeconomics part was tricky.

It was a well-balanced paper, which was easy to attempt in the given time frame. I will secure good marks in the exam, said Varun Sharma, a student of Hansraj Public School, Sector 6, Panchkula.

Himanshi of Gurukul Global School, IT Park, Chandigarh, said: All questions were based on concepts. Thanks to the understanding of the subject I developed at school, I found all questions easy.

It was quiet an easy paper. Not as tough as we had expected it to be. I look forward to a good result, said Aishvarya Thakur, a student of DAV Public School, Sector 15, here.

The paper was based on our NCERT books. It was a student-friendly paper and even average student can easily pass with good marks, said Shreya Sharma, a student of DAV Public School.

What experts say

The Economics paper was as per the blue print given by the CBSE. It is a judicious mix of questions based on understanding, remembering, application and high-order thinking skills. Microeconomics section was easy and simple to attempt. However some students found a question on determination of equilibrium national income and output in macroeconomics section a little tricky. Overall, it is a scoring paper, said Khamoshi Kakkar, economics teacher at Hansraj Public School.

This years question paper was a fine example of a balancing act. It was designed to accommodate all genres of students, while at the same time to hurl some challenge to the student intelligentsia. In my opinion, the income, savings and consumption schedule from macroeconomics was a bit too much for the students, said Sameer Kamboj, economics teacher at Gurukul Global School.

It was a student-friendly paper. The questions were straight forward, not with much twist. Now, as a teacher I really wish that we should not get strict with checking of economics paper, said Jaishi, economics teacher at DAV Public School.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 25

A resident of Mohali was killed after the motorcycle he was riding was hit by an Innova vehicle on a stretch in Sector 48 on Saturday.

According to the police, the complainant, Sonu Kumar, reported that an Innova car hit the motorcycle, being ridden by the victim, Sewa Singh, a resident of Guru Nanak Colony, Sector 65, Mohali. The accident took place near the motor market in Sector 48. The victim was seriously injured and rushed to the PGI where doctors declared him brought dead. The police have registered a case.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 25

The technical committee of the Municipal Corporation has found the smart parking system in order in all lots managed by Arya Toll Infra Limited. Sources said the report of the committee was likely to be placed before the general house of the MC on Monday.

The sources said while the findings of the committee had made the case of the company for enhancing the parking rates strong, the Mayor and the Municipal Commissioner would hold a meeting with representatives of the company on Tuesday.

The MC had formed the committee to inspect the parking lots after the Finance and Contract Committee rejected the decision to double the parking fee from April 1 at 25 paid parking lots in the city. The sources said the committee visited many lots and found the smart parking system working satisfactory. It found that arrangements were made for display boards, CCTV cameras and tickets through mobiles. An official of Arya Toll Infra Limited said, We have requested the MC to allow us to enhance the rates as per the agreement signed between the company and the civic body. The company has invested a huge amount to provide better services to residents and it has been incurring losses.

Tejdeep Singh Saini, Joint Commissioner, said they had received a request from the company for increasing the rates, but the decision would be taken at the highest level on the basis of the inspection report of the technical committee and the pending amount against the company.editorial@tribune.com

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 25

Panjab University (PU) will implement the new University Grants Commission (UGC) instructions on reservation in teaching posts department-wise in view of the Allahabad High Court judgment.

In case of reservation for SC/ST, the PU has to prepare a roster system, keeping the department or subject as a unit for all levels of teachers as applicable.

Also, the roster department-wise will be applied to the total number of posts in each of the categories  professor, associate professor and assistant professor  within the department.

The UGC has passed the instructions in compliance with the Allahabad High Court judgment dated April 7, 2017, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court. It brought amendments in the policy issued earlier in 2006.

The UGC has asked all central universities and institutions which are taking grant from it to follow the reservation policy. The matter has been discussed with the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) as well.

The PU Syndicate will discuss the matter and suggestions of Prof AK Bhandari, former Dean of University Instructions (DUI).

According Prof Bhandari, each post in a department should be multiplied by prescribed percentages of reservation for different reserve categories. The product of multiplication indicates the share of the community in that post. In case, there is clash of entitlement between two categories, the category which has a higher fraction is entitled to that post, provided that the other category has got at least one representation earlier.

Action against teachers

The PU has again brought the agenda item for action against teachers who complained directly to the Vice-President, who is chancellor of the university too. This included a woman professor, who is a senator and complainant against VC Arun Kumar Grover in sexual harassment case.

The PU had formed a committee to deal with such teachers, which has called for action. Besides, the woman professor, the committee has called for action against seven other teachers, including associate professor Neelam Paul from the Department of Music and assistant professor Komal Singh from the Department of Public Administration.

The committee stated that there have been repeated violations of the Rules 12 (a) and (b) of the Service and Conduct Rules for University Employees and in none of these cases, any disciplinary proceedings were instituted. All such violations of the above rules need to be dealt with in accordance with the provisions expeditiously.

It said the authority for the management of and superintendence over the affairs of the university is vested in the Senate and there is no provision for appeal against its decision to any higher authority.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 25

Three days after a bag containing Rs 2.92 lakh was snatched by two miscreants, the Chandigarh Police arrested the second accused in the case.

The bag containing the cash was snatched by two pedestrians from Masihudin Ansari, who runs a tour, travel and money exchange business at Burail in Sector 45, on March 21. While one of the accused, Ashish (23), was nabbed at the spot, the other had managed to escape with the bag.

A team, led by Sub-Inspector Satnam Singh, arrested the second accused in the case, Ravi, a resident of Kishangarh, on Sunday. He was arrested from near the regulatory end of the lake.

Satnam said the victim was leaving his office at Burail when the duo snatched his cash bag at knife-point. We have recovered the knife used in the crime, he said.

3 more snatchings reported from city

Chandigarh: Three more snatching incidents have been reported from the city. A snatching incident was reported from Mani Majra on Saturday night. According to the police, a motorcycle-borne miscreant snatched a purse from Neetu, a resident of Mani Majra. The purse contained Rs 5,000. The police said the incident took place near a gurdwara in Mani Majra. The victim failed to note down the registration number of the motorcycle. A case has been registered at the Mani Majra police station. In another snatching incident, a motorcycle-borne miscreant snatched a mobile phone from a man near Government School, Kajheri, on Sunday evening. The victim noted down the registration number of the motorcycle. The accused was riding a Splendor motorcycle. In yet another incident, two miscreants riding a motorcycle snatched a mobile phone near DAV College, Sector 10. TNSJayshree Sengupta

Jayshree Sengupta

When the 164-member World Trade Organisation held its 11th ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina (MC11) in December 2017 and it ended in an impasse, another mini-ministerial WTO meeting was held in Delhi on March 20, in which 54 members participated. It also did not make any headway except a discussion on protectionism and denouncing unilateralism. The main reason for WTOs inability to achieve anything substantial is the lack of consensus on some controversial issues among members and the US becoming more and more belligerent in its interventions, especially on questions raised by India, China and other developing countries.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Geneva-based 22-year-old organisation, which is supposed to undertake trade monitoring and contribute to the effective functioning of the multilateral trading system, is toothless and succumbing to the pressure of the developed countries, especially the US. It, however, still remains the primary instrument governing a rules-based multilateral world trading system. The US has recently challenged Indias subsidies because it has reached a per capita income of $1,000.

Indeed, the WTO is losing its essential focus on trade negotiations and is becoming a litigation-centred organisation because the trading arrangements between member-countries is increasingly bypassing the WTO and formulating their own agreements.

In the past, there was a sympathetic treatment towards developing countries, like India, which got special and differential treatment at the WTO that gave them more time and leeway to comply with the WTO rules. But now the US has begun to question this special treatment. As Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu recently pointed out, India has to be treated differently because it has to take care of 600 million people who can be considered as poor.

In the Buenos Aires meeting, India sought a permanent solution to its public stockholding issue because currently it is under the peace clause put in place at the Bali ministerial meeting of 2013, by which India continues to undertake stockholding of foodgrains equal to 10 per cent of the value of its total production for meeting its food security requirement. But a permanent solution, which was promised, has not been delivered at the Buenos Aires conference mainly because the US blocked it.

Public stockholding is very important for Indias food security and if the issue is not settled, it may have to roll back its Food Security Act, meaning compromising on food provision for the poor. There has however been no loss of status quo on stockholding and India can continue with its support price programme. But there has to be a permanent solution on how the MSP is to be fixed because, according to the WTOs agreement on agriculture, the MSP had to be calculated on the basis of price of foodgrains in 1986-88, and the total subsidy would have to be below 10 per cent of the total value of production. India strongly disputed this formula because the current prices are much higher and hence the total MSP given as subsidy would also be higher. Indias food subsidy is still less than 10 per cent of the total value of production.

In agriculture, India and China have opposed the huge production-related price distorting subsidies given by developed countries like the US and the EU to their farmers, which make their products cheaper compared to produce from developing countries; thereby, making it harder for them to compete with advanced countries. The US alone gives around $150 billion in direct subsidies to farmers which come under the green box, according to the rules of GATT, the predecessor of the WTO, and hence are allowed. Indias MSP is considered trade distorting and comes under the amber box, and India is mandated to reduce it. But this issue of high subsidies given by developed countries to their agriculture has not been addressed recently. In general, the US refuses to have any dialogue on agricultural reforms.

The Doha Development Agenda, which the Indian Government has been keen to promote, and which is based on multilateralism, has been put on hold, much to the chagrin of many developing countries comprising the Group of 33.

So, what is it that the WTO has achieved? It has become only a dispute settlement body and even that role has been blocked by the US, as it has refused to participate in the nomination of judges to the appellate body, creating a paralysis in the WTOs dispute settlement system. Members are usually appointed by consensus and the US is an important member whose vote matters.

Throughout its existence the WTO has been dominated by the developed countries, with the US playing an important role. From supporting trade and investment liberalisation in the world, and insisting on stiff tariff reductions for prying open developing country markets, the US has itself turned protectionist. It blocked the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and wants to renegotiate the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in a bid to realise President Trumps goal of America First. He has slapped 20 per cent customs duties on steel and 19 per cent on aluminium, which will affect China and the EU.

India, too, will be affected because China will try to dump excess steel in India while facing protectionism in the US. India has to compete with the members of ASEAN in manufactures for increasing its share of global trade. It already has FTAs with a number of Asian countries and is a member of several other regional groupings, including RCEP. India needs special and differential treatment in the rules of public stockholding for its food security, and also has to cater to the needs of exporters through incentives to raise competitiveness. It needs to undertake reforms in agriculture and address the needs of poor farmers and small and micro enterprises. It is interested in Make in India policy which gives priority to its own industries.

Today, US unilateralism is not serving any purpose and it clearly wants a new type of WTO. India, on the other hand, has long been a votary of multilateralism, but with the current impasse at the WTO  especially regarding its policy on food security  it is in a quandary about what to do.Raviprasad Narayanan

Raviprasad Narayanan

With the Center for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi

Xi Jinping's 'coronation' as the 'core' leader in China did not ruffle political circles or larger civil society in Taiwan, despite Beijing warning the island of severe consequences should the Democratic People's Party (DPP) led by President Tsai Ing Wen declare 'independence.' In a hairsplitting exercise for international legal scholars, and watchers of Cross Strait relations, the two sides hold that there is only 'one China' with different interpretations'!

Being one of the flashpoints during the Cold War and after, Taiwan is not new to facing crises. Despite periodic ratcheting in Beijing and a United States under President Donald Trump floundering in the face of an aggressive Beijing, the 'unsinkable battleship' as Taiwan was called during the Cold War is not entirely worried about the irredentist intentions from the mainland.Why is Taiwan so blase about political events in China and the emergence of strongman politics across the Taiwan straits?

In Taiwan, the emerging view remains that the intensity of Cross- Strait relations at several levels will act as an equilibrium, cushioning any deterioration in ties on both sides of the Taiwan straits.

China's behaviour

While closer Cross Strait relations are a reality, the "threat" from China has never really disappeared. There remains uncertainty regarding Beijing not revoking its threat to use force against Taiwan in the eventuality of the island declaring itself independent  something beyond belief. Beijing's aggressive military posturing of deploying missiles aimed at Taiwan, seems to be a calculated instance of reminding Taipei of the limits of its autonomy in decision-making as also challenging the limited sovereignty it exercises. It is estimated that China has positioned around 1,600 missiles, mostly in Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces, targeting Taiwan.

The DPP, too, seems to have become a much mellowed entity since the heyday of Chen Shui-bian and willing to engage in a dialogue with China. Former premier and former chairman of the DPP, Frank Hsieh was the seniormost member of former President Chen Shui-bian's administration to visit the mainland and engage with senior officials managing cross-straits relations. In January 2013, Hsu Tain-tsair, a legislator of the DPP and former of mayor of Tainan, accompanied by 10 members of his party visited Shanghai, continuing the trend of Taiwanese political party's representatives visiting the mainland. That the DPP acknowledges the importance of cross-straits relations is evident from these visits made by its members. It is also advancement from the party's earlier stand of being the vanguard of "independence" for Taiwan and reflects a dramatic shift from the politically charged semantics it had adopted during the terms of now disgraced former president Chen Shui-bian. It could be argued that the mainland encourages these visits in an effort to generate a pragmatic policy by the DPP towards the issue of reunification.

Beijing has many aces up its sleeve to make Taiwan pay for any acts of verbal indiscretions. The 'diplomatic truce' in effect since Ma Ying-jeou entered office in 2008 holds with Taiwan still recognised by 20 countries or entities. Beijing could hypothetically prune this number down, further isolating Taiwan. Beijing's capabilities in dividing Taiwan's political space and deciding what diminished role Taiwan can play or not play in multilateral institutions is a lever that Beijing uses to ensure that Taiwan remains frozen out of even relatively apolitical multilateral forums like the International Civil Aviation Organization, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Beijing's economic 'soft' approach is complemented by a 'hard' coercive and belligerent strand that has perhaps succeeded in intimidating and hence polarising the Taiwanese political firmament. The joke in Taipei is that should the Holy See (the Vatican) establish a relationship with Beijing, that is when the Communists in Beijing will see a God beyond Maoand now Xi!

To conclude, a factor with immense political significance has been that Taiwan's political evolution as a democracy is parallel to the intensification of its relationship with the mainland. A rapidly prospering China, it was hoped, will thaw its ideological positions and evolve into a political system more temperate and accommodative. Xi Jinping's recent 'usurpation' and 'upgradation' of power in Beijing is a whole new game, with Taiwan being an honourable exception and prone to excesses, should something go astray in the mainland.

The 1992 Consensus

For Beijing, Tsai's not acknowledging the "1992 Consensus" is akin to challenging the entire edifice of 'One China' and the semantics revolving around this formulation. For the DPP, the "1992 Consensus" is reflective of the political shenanigans of the KMT with its political profile stamped by a 'Mainlander' content. The DPP, as part of its political legitimacy draws upon 'Taiwanese' expressions of separate identity - an expression finding favour with young people and informed segments of the populace wary of the regimented political culture across the Straits. Tsai's statements while in office have to straddle frenzied expectations from the rank and file of the DPP calling for Taiwan to stress its separateness while adhering to established mechanisms of interaction and cooperation with the mainland.Roopinder Singh

Roopinder Singh

Free comes at the cost of freedom. Never has this been as apparent as nowadays, ever since Cambridge Analytica was first exposed as a purveyor of Facebook data that is used in the worst possible manner to win friends and influence people for its clients. It also subverted democratic impulses and processes in the US, the UK, and possibly in India, too. It has shown contriteness by inserting full-page advertisements in the US and the UK, but not so in India. This despite Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad's announcement that, if needed, he would summon Mark Zuckerbergonce feted by the political elite, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modis mobile app

Now, Modi's official mobile app has been found to be sending personal user data to a third party without the users consent. Later, the Congress party deleted its app, as the blowback threatened to engulf it. Even as the predictable Congress-BJP slugfest has started, there is little doubt about the substance of the allegations, made by a cybersecurity analyst who uses the pseudonym Elliot Alderson. Elliot, it may be recalled, is the same person who had also recently pointed out vulnerabilities in the infallible Aadhaar. Thankfully, no FIR has been filed against him so far.

Unfortunately, privacy was given a short shrift in developing the app that has around 50 lakh downloads on Googles Playstore used for smartphones that use the popular Android operating system.

What was, till now, an esoteric argument, largely confined to nerd-dom, has acquired mainstream dimensions, as the damage done by the model that exchanged personal data for free services was exposed. It now turns out that we have been naive in believing the Internet giants, even those whose company motto professes to do no evil.

Monetising consumers data

Once vast quantities of data were available to these companies, they used it to monetise their operations, seemingly benignly by targeting advertisements for specific consumers who would be interested in such products. Consumers data was shared with other entities, and this enabled firms like Cambridge Analytica to misuse it. Facebook knew that its data had been in wrong hands and that it had been misused, but it ignored the problem.

Issues that consumers were dealing with have now acquired a different hue ever since political interference has come to light. It has obviously been wrong to trust technology giants to do the right thing. Oversight is necessary and is belatedly coming to the sector, unfortunately after much damage has been done. The integrity of the IT industry is being questioned, and Facebook alone has seen its stocks take a $50-billion dive.

Even as consumers, understandably, voice concern about the misuse of their personal data, they need to take a look at their own consumption pattern. The first impulse after spending a lot of money on a smartphone is to download cool new apps. Naturally, if they are free, so much the better. For most smartphone users, free apps are the norm to an extent that they would simply not pay for anything just look for a free alternative if asked to subscribe.

The cost of freebies

Seldom is any consideration given to the cost of such freebies. This is changing now. The real-world consequences of cyber manipulation are now evident. President Donald Trumps credibility has been deeply affected by revelations of Russian interference in US presidential elections. The UK is looking at the Brexit vote, and Indian political parties are distancing themselves from the toxic topic.

If all this seems too distant, it is not. Data integrity should be a concern for all of us and we must make sure that we take an informed stand. We all know that there are no free lunches. The allure of free apps needs to be examined, if not resisted. Those who make such apps for public entities like political parties and the government need to be very vigilant about what they are garnering since their actions are and should be open to public scrutiny.

The Prime Ministers app should not be sharing data with foreign entities, especially since this government espouses an ultranationalist outlook. Was not a foreign hand seen in a UPA budget that had American spellings somewhere? It was probably the result of MS Word working on a US setting, a common enough issue in India. Much hullabaloo ensued. Now that we know that the data went to foreign shores, we must find out more, and the citizens of India, too, must have a clear, transparent answer. In the four years of Digital India, various government programmes, including Aadhaar, are not secure enough, and we have not been able to secure the backbone of the Internet as it runs through India.

The government owes us an explanation. It has to do more to ensure the security and integrity of Indian citizens data. Consumers, too, have a responsibility. Think before clicking Yes for the cool apps which others are using or the ones that we have read about. Most such apps are free and, therefore, greed naturally takes over. What we dont dwell on is the cost of this freebie. It can be more than we bargained for.

roopinder@tribuneindia.comeditorial@tribune.com

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 26

In all, 13 MPs and MLAs are involved in as many criminal cases in Haryana. The situation is a shade worse in Punjab with 19 MPs and MLAs involved in 29 cases. Information to this effect was furnished by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Information provided by the High Court also made it clear that just one case was decided in a year in Haryana while the number of cases decided after expiry of one year was five. As a result, seven cases were still pending.

In Punjab, no case was decided in a year while just two cases were decided after expiry of one year, resulting in pendency of 27 cases.

The apex court had ordered in March 2014 that cases against peoples representatives should be disposed of within a year.

The Centre had already informed the Supreme Court that 3,816 criminal cases were registered against 1,765 MPs and MLAs. This information was provided by 23 High Courts and did not include cases registered in Maharashtra and Goa.

Just about two months back, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had called for information from both Punjab and Haryana on criminal cases pending before it against legislators and parliamentarians.

The High Court had asked Haryana Advocate General Baldev Raj Mahajan and his Punjab counterpart Atul Nanda to furnish details of criminal cases involving MPs and MLAs pending in the High Court.

A communication for bringing the dark side of politics to the High Courts direct notice was sent to them from the office of the High Court Registrar General.

The Supreme Courts 2013 judgment bars a convicted politician from contesting elections for six years from the date the sentence ends. The information comes at a time when the Centre has agreed to set up special courts to deal with cases against the countrys elected representatives.

The Law Ministry, in its affidavit, said: As per directions of the Supreme Court, it is proposed to have 12 special courts with an estimated expenditure of Rs7.8 crore over a period of one year to dispose of all cases involving political persons.

In 2014, 1,581 lawmakers were facing prosecution in 13,500 cases. On an average, 4,200 cases were being handled by each of the 17,000 subordinate courts.

The apex court had ordered in March 2014 that cases against peoples representatives should be disposed of within a year.

Grim scenarioeditorial@tribune.com

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, March 26

Union Minister for Road Transport and Water Resources Nitin Gadkari today said that three dams would be constructed to divert the waters of Indian rivers flowing to Pakistan. Water would be diverted to the Yamuna to end its shortage in Haryana and Rajasthan. He was speaking at the concluding ceremony of the three-day 3rd Agri Leadership Summit organised here.

He said that the Central Government had taken a decision to this effect, which would mainly benefit farmers of Haryana.

Union Steel Minister Birender Singh, Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Dev Vrat, Haryana Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankhar and Haryana Minister of State for Cooperatives Manish Grover also addressed the gathering.

Gadkari advised farmers to prepare bio-fuel from their agriculture produce and crop residue, which could be used as an eco-friendly alternative to diesel and petrol. He said that in his state Maharashtra, 55 Volvo buses were plying on bio-diesel prepared by farmers. As much as 280 litres of bio-fuel could be prepared from a tonne of crop residue parali, the burning of which adversely affects the environment.

We plan to set up 1,000 industrial units across the country to prepare bio-fuel from crop residue and 100 of these will be set up in Haryana, he added. These units would generate direct and indirect employment opportunities for nearly five lakh people.

Dhankar said that the arrival of a large number of farmers at the summit indicated its success and instilled a hope of betterment in quality and diversity of agriculture as a result of fruitful deliberations and interactions held. He was speaking during a round-table conference organised on the topic of Possibilities of International Cooperation and Understanding in the Field of Agriculture Marketing, Agriculture Industry and Food as part of the event.

Dhankar said that climate change, water management, soil health and agriculture residual management were also becoming global challenges, and there were ample opportunities of international cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors.

The Himachal Governor gave a special presentation on the concept of zero-budget farming. He said that he himself is a farmer and had been doing zero-budget farming on 200 acres with 300 indigenous cows.

Some of the speakers had to face hooting from the audience.editorial@tribune.com

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, March 26

Foreign delegates from nearly 14 countries deliberated on Future areas of International Cooperation and Understanding in Agriculture Business, Agri-Industry and Food Processing on the third and concluding day of the 3rd Agri Leadership Summit here on Monday.

Among those who attended the summit included Minister Economic from Nepal Krishna Hari Pushkar, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia Gonchig Ganbold, Agriculture Attache, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supplies Dalci de Jesus Banolin, Counsellor from Spain Dr Teresa Barras Benlloch and delegates from Zambia, New Zealand, Canada, Namibia, Germany, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Belgium, Ethiopia, Netherlands and Russia.

Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar and Principal Secretary (Agriculture) Dr Abhilaksh Likhi spoke on how the session could help the state and the delegates benefit from each others experiences and adopt new technologies to improve quality of food. Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Dev Vrat highlighter use of cow dung to increase agriculture production.

Haryana has 90 lakh acres of agricultural land. The state supplies 14 crore quintals of food grains to other states after meeting its own requirements. We have to convert agriculture sector to agriculture service by use of improved technology. We need to work collectively on challenges like climate change, water scarcity and soil health. We have to work together to deliver good nutrient food to people, said Dhankar.

Governor Acharya Dev Vrat spoke about zero budget farming on 200 acres of land to get better yield using indigenous cow dung, urine, water and milk.

Mandeep Singh Brar, Chief Administrator of the Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board, translated their speeches into English for the benefit of foreign delegates. Much to the surprise of participants, Mongolian Ambassador Gonchig Ganbold, also delivered his lecture in Hindi.

Inviting people to invest in Haryana, Principal Secretary (Industry) Sudhir Rajpal, said the Food Processing Policy focussed on processing fresh food.

Haryana is providing 35 per cent subsidy on food processing units and the cap of subsidy has also be increased to Rs 3.5 crore from 2.5 crore, he said.

Dr Likhi said that the session provided both Haryana as well as the foreign delegates an opportunity to know each others areas of strength in agriculture and share ideas.

Nepal Economic Minister Krishna Hari Pushkar told The Tribune Nepal had special relations with both Haryana and Punjab, since a lot of people from there came to these states and vice versa.

Mongolian Ambassador Gonchig Ganbold said his country was half of India in terms of territory, but has seven times lesser population than Haryana.

There is a great deal of similarity between Mongolia and Haryana in terms of agriculture, though mining is another other big source of revenue, he said.

Expressing satisfaction at the success of the Agri Leadership Summit, Dhankar said more than 1.60 lakh farmers had visited Rohtak in the past three days.editorial@tribune.com

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, March 25

Even as the state government claims that it is making endeavours to double farmers income by 2022, some progressive agriculturists are already earning more than double the normal income of a farmer, simply by taking the road less travelled.

Many of these progressive farmers have assembled here at the 3rd Agri Leadership Summit2018 underway at Mela Ground, where they have exhibited their products, and are also sharing their success stories with other farmers.

Sant Lal, for instance, ran an auto garage in Hisar. Abid Hassan, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, who grows aloe vera in Churu district of Rajasthan, used to visit his workshop for repair of his car. Hassan used to goad Sant Lal to start aloe vera farming. He used to tell him that the plant is easy to grow even on a semi-arid or arid soil and needed no pesticides or fertilisers.

With no ancestral land, Sant Lal teamed with Mukesh Soni and Raja Soni, both of whom dealt in used tyres, and sowed aloe vera on two acres taken on lease at Chawdharywas village, Hisar, in 2013. Today, the trio has aloe vera farming on 62 acres.

Hassan, who supplies aloe vera to companies such as Dabur, Patanjali and Hamdard, purchases our entire produce. We are easily earning between Rs 70,000 and Rs 80,000 per acre. In our neighbouring fields, farmers doing traditional farming hardly get returns of Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000 per acre, says Sant Lal.

Jagpal Singh Phogat ran a small-time school at Malikpur village, Jhajjar, till 2001, when he got attracted towards honeybee farming. Today, Phogat and his wife Mukesh produce 600 quintals of honey every year and sell them in different natural flavours and forms for a price ranging between Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 per kg depending on the variety.

The gross income of the family from the farming is a whopping Rs 6 crore per annum today and they have employed 30 persons on honey collection and packaging.

Surender Singh of Saharwa village, Hisar, was a PGT teacher in a government-aided school when he started farming of green chilies on one acre in 2003. Next year, he started strawberry farming on one acre. Today, he is growing strawberry on 10 acres, Lilium flowers on 6 acres and tomatoes, cucumber, biogas plant and many more diversified crops on nine more acres. He owns only four acres and the rest of 21 acres he has taken on lease. I send a pick-up van loaded with my products to Delhi every day. I manage to earn Rs 50 lakh or more in a year, he adds.

There are many others like 21-year-old Shanti from Karina village, Mahendergarh, who does mushroom farming along with her studies.

Anand Gillankhera has been earning well from guava and kinnow farming at Gillankhera village in Fatehabad. Mahabir Arya from Farukhnagar, who is into amla farming, added that agriculture can also be a profitable venture if done differently.

Success Storieseditorial@tribune.com

Nitish Sharma

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra), March 25

The body of Sikh activist Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa was finally cremated at his native village Thaska Ali in the district on Sunday.

His family, and Sikh hardliners from Haryana and Punjab had refused to cremate the body as they alleged the district administration had played mischief with the circumstances leading to Khalsas death.

He had jumped off an 80-ft water tank in Thaska Ali on Tuesday. He was protesting for the release of Sikh political prisoners, who have completed their sentence.

On Saturday night, Sikh hardliners had agreed to cremate the body following the state governments assurance to meet their demands. The cremation was to take place around 10 am on Sunday, but Sikh leaders again refused to cremate the body, seeking suspension of SHOs of Jhansa and Ismailabad police stations.

The authorities informed the Sikh leaders the SHOs would be transferred, but the latter refused to cremate the body.

BJPs Assandh MLA Bakshish Singh Virk held rounds of meeting with Sikh leaders. They served an ultimatum of an hour to the administration and warned that they will take the body to Punjab if the demands were not met in writing. A heavy posse of police was deployed at the entry and exit points of the village.

Around 3 pm, the hardliners announced to cremate the body and said they would continue Khalsas struggle for the release of Sikh prisoners. They also accused the state government and district administration of not keeping their promises.

At the time of cremation, pro-Khalistan slogans were raised. The body was draped in a cloth with Khalistan written on it.

After the cremation, Virk handed over a copy of orders about a magisterial inquiry to Khalsas son, Jhujhar Singh. The bhog ceremony will be performed at Lakhnaur Sahib Gurdwara in Ambala on March 29.

When contacted, Additional Director General of Police RC Mishra refused to make a comment on transfer of the SHOs.editorial@tribune.com

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, March 26

Assandh MLA Bakhshish Singh Virks claim that the state government had accepted the demands of protesting Sikhs has embarrassed the dispensation, which was fighting hard to end the stalemate around the cremation of the Sikh activist Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa.

All, but one claim, have proved hollow.

After a series of meetings with Sikh hardliners, including Baljit Singh Daduwal, in the districts Thaska Ali village on Friday, Virk had told the media that Kurukshetra SP Abhishek Garg and Pehowa DSP Dheeraj Kumar would be transferred.

He had also said the government had accepted the demand for booking then SHOs of the Jhansa and Ismailabad police stations on the charge of abetting Khalsas suicide. A murder case has been registered against unidentified persons.

Virk claimed to have held meetings with the Sikh hardliners on behalf of the government. He had also told the media the government had agreed to suspend the SHOs.

His only claim that has the governments stamp is about ordering a magisterial inquiry into the circumstances leading to the death of Khalsa. Virk had handed over a copy of the order to Khalsas son after the cremation on Sunday.

Sources said Virks press briefing on Friday night had come as a shocker as there was no word from the state government or the police headquarters to initiate punitive proceedings against the cops.

It is up to the political establishment to clarify whether or not Virk was empowered by Chief Minister Khattar to deliberate and accept the demands of protesters, a senior official said.

Additional Director General of Police (Ambala range) RC Mishra, who was also present in meetings with the Sikh hardliners, told The Tribune on Monday the police department was not considering transferring the SP and the DSP.

I will not make any comment on the press statements by the Assandh MLA. All I can say is the case is under investigation, he said.

The SP said SHOs Dilip Singh and Dinesh Chauhan, against whom allegations were leveled verbally, had been shifted to Ambala and Yamunanagar, respectively.

There is no plan to quash the murder case and convert it into an abetment-to-suicide case. Any legal action will be subject to investigation, he added.

When Virk was asked whether or not he was representing the state government during the talks, he evaded a reply.

I was negotiating as a community member to defuse the tension. ADGP Mishra and Kurukshetra DC SS Phulia were also present during the talks. It is appreciable that despite such a tense situation, Khalsas sympathisers did not get violent, he added.

An official, meanwhile, said the Kurukshetra police had been asked to secure evidence on persons raising pro-Khalistan slogans during Khalsas funeral Sunday.editorial@tribune.com

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 25

The legal dispute between Elan Buildcon Private Limited and M/s PVR Limited has finally come to an end with the parties reaching a settlement through mediation. As a result, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has quashed a criminal case and FIR against PVR.

The developments took place before the Bench of Justice HS Madaan on a petition filed against the state of Haryana and another respondent by M/s PVR Limited through counsel Arshdeep Singh Cheema.

The dispute revolved around memorandum of understanding between the parties, which was terminated.

In its petition before the High Court, PVR sought directions for quashing criminal complaint dated November 15, 2017, filed by Elan before the Court of Gurugram Judicial Magistrate First Class. Directions were also sought for quashing impugned order dated November 17, 2017, passed by the court pursuant to which the directions were issued to Sushant Lok-I police station in Gurgaon to register an FIR against the petitioner for cheating and other offences under Sections 120-B, 406 and 420 of the IPC.

During the pendency of the petition, the matter was referred to the High Courts Mediation and Conciliation Centre.

As per report received by the High Court from the centre, all disputes between the parties have been settled. The settlement agreement, too, was attached with the report placed before the Bench.

Taking up the matter, Justice Madaan asserted that the dispute between the parties had been resolved amicably and apparently voluntarily without any threat or coercion.

Allowing the petition, Justice Madaan added that the criminal complaint and order issuing directions to the police station to register FIR against the petitioner for offences under Sections 120-B, 406 and 420 of the IPC, besides ancillary proceedings arising out of it, were ordered to be quashed.amansharma@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, March 26

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered status quo on the operation of the Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict, which upheld the constitutional validity of the law providing 10 per cent reservation to Jat and five other communities in Haryana, till further orders.

Senior advocate K Sultan Singh, appearing for petitioner Satvir Singh Saini and others, who had opposed the Haryana Backward Classes Act 2016, informed the apex court that the Backward Class Commission will submit its report on the percentage of quota by March 31, following which the Haryana government can implement the order, and sought a stay or status quo.

A bench of justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul said it will hear the matter and status quo shall be maintained till further orders.

"List next week, at the request of counsel for the respondent(s). Status quo, obtaining as on today, shall be maintained, in the meantime," the bench said.

The Haryana Assembly had unanimously passed The Haryana Backward Classes (reservation in services and admission in educational institutions) Bill-2016 on March 29, 2016.

The government notified the Act in its official gazette on May 12, 2016. The new Act provided reservation to Jat and five other communities, including Jat Sikh, Bishnoi and Tyagi, under a newly carved out backward class (C) category.

As per the Act, these communities would be entitled to get 10 per cent reservation in government services and admission in educational institutions.

However, on May 26, 2016, a division bench of the high court had stayed the reservation to these communities after hearing a public interest litigation challenging the constitutional validity of schedule-III (block-C) of The Haryana Backward Classes (reservation in services and admission in educational institutions) Act 2016.

The PIL had sought directions to set aside the bill for being against the law laid down by the apex court in Indira Sawhney case.

According to the petition, with the passing of new bill, the reservation has reached around 70 per cent, but according to the law laid down by apex court, the quota limit could not exceed beyond 50 per cent.

The high court had on September 1, 2017, upheld the constitutional validity of the Act.

In February 2016, the state had seen violent protests by the Jat community demanding quota in jobs and educational institutions which virtually brought Haryana to a halt. The agitation had left many dead and several grievously injured. - PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 26

As mercury shoots up, the legal battle between Delhi and Haryana for water is back in the news. The Supreme Court today fixed April 2 as the date for hearing a petition of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) seeking a direction to Haryana to release 450 cusec of water per day meant for the Wazirabad reservoir in Delhi.

Haryana had been supplying 120 cusecs less, the DJB alleged. The DJB accused Haryana of reducing by one-third the supply of water to the Wazirabad reservoir, leading to a serious water crisis in the national capital.

Haryana had been violating the 1996 top court order regarding supply of water, it alleged. The DJBs petition was mentioned by advocate Sumeet Pushkarna before a three-Judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, which agreed to hear it on April 2.

Haryana had been supplying only 330 cusecs of water per day to Delhi instead of 450 cusecs per day agreed upon between the two sides. While Delhis population had increased phenomenally over the years, there had not been a commensurate rise in water supply, the DJB submitted.

Due to the drop in water level of the Yamuna, water treatment plants had either stopped functioning or were running below capacity, the DJB said.

It accused Haryana of releasing polluted water which could not be treated. As a result, the DJB had been rationing water supply, causing water shortage in large parts of Delhi, it submitted.The DJB said the situation was likely to get worse with the onset of summer and rising demand for drinking water.

Delhi is in the midst of an acute water crisis owing to stopping of supply by Haryana in the Yamuna, which is meant for drinking purposes. Haryana is defying the directions of this court to supply drinking water to the Wazirabad reservoir and is taking undue advantage of being an upper riparian state, read the DJB plea.

It has converted the river leading to Delhi into a dry river having virtually no water at Delhi and resultantly, stoppage of supply meant for drinking water for treatment at the Wazirabad reservoir. The coming summer in Delhi is going to see a huge water crisis, it submitted.

The petitioner urged the Supreme Court to issue a direction to Haryana to keep the Wazirabad barrage full at all times and have a daily monitoring of water quantity and quality at the barrage by an independent agency.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, March 25

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes farmers, who feed the countrymen, have the first right on the exchequer and taking care of the farmers income is the governments dharma.

He said this on the second day of the third Agri Summit organised by the Haryana Government here on Sunday.

Governor Prof Kaptan Singh Solanki, who was the chief guest, said the Haryana Government was aware of the contribution made by farmers to the development of the state, and assured them that it is committed to their well-being.

The Governor released an Agri Leader Booklet, containing success stories of various farmers who have increased their income by making new experiments in agriculture. A documentary was shown on the achievements of Haryana in the field of agriculture.

Solanki lauded the made by Haryana Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar in organising the summit for the third consecutive year. He gave away Krishi Ratan awards to outstanding farmers.

Jeet Ram of Kurukshetra district was awarded for record wheat production, Karnail Singh of Fatehabad district for paddy production, Rashid of Gurugram district for cotton production and Paramjit Singh of Karnal district for record sugarcane production.editorial@tribune.com

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, March 25

The Public Works Department is set to miss the March 31 deadline for completion of the western bypass. While sources say only 75 per cent of the work has been accomplished so far, the authorities concerned maintain the project will take another month to complete.

The department is blaming its counterparts for the delay. Sources held the delay by Shivpuri Committee of Ram Nagar in providing land and removal of encroachment responsible for missing the deadline.

The CM had directed the authorities concerned to beautify both the sides of the bypass with trees and lights, install crash barriers and construct retaining wall along the Western Yamuna Canal for the safety of the commuters. The work is yet to be completed.

Admitting the delay, Yogesh Mehra, XEN, PWD, says, The Irrigation Department has changed the size of the Western Yamuna Canal to accommodate the high flow of expected water at the eleventh hour, due to which we hadto change the drawing of the retaining walls near Kachwa junction.

The Irrigation Department has requested the PWD to delay the installation of crash barriers along the Western Yamuna Canal due to desilting work. The railway was yet to finalise work on railway underpass, which was to be constructed by the end of February.

The XEN says the Irrigation Department has assured to complete work by the end of April and the PWD will also complete the project by April 30. Sanjeev Kumar, XEN, Irrigation, could not be contacted despite several attempts.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had laid the foundation stone of the 6.5-km long and 10-metre wide western bypass on February 8, 2916. The bypass is being built at a cost of Rs 57.09 crore and will connect Kaithal road and NH-44 near Uchana village to ease the traffic congestion.

The work started in July, 2016. The project grabbed headlines earlier as the authorities had started the work without clearance from the Regional Empowered Committee of Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change for cutting trees.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 26

Health and Family Welfare Minister Vipin Parmar on Monday informed the state Assembly that 2,000 paramedical employees would be recruited soon and the government would open 10 mobile units to facilitate the patients.

Replying to discussion cut motion on health, he said that 200 ayurvedic doctors would also be appointed soon and the work on preparation of health cards is in full swing. Against the target of 2.50 lakh cards, 30,000 cards had been prepared so far, he added.

Parmar said that 330 medicines were being provided free of cost through government health institutions and the budget for health had been enhanced by 5.55 per cent. Chief Ministers relief fund had been set up with corpus Rs 10 crore.

The government came under fire from Congress members for poor state of health services during discussion on cut motions. Initiating the discussion, CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri said that steps in the health sector failed to find any mention in the budget.

He asked the CM why work had not been started on Bilaspur AIIMS project and Hamirpur medical college and demanded immediate action against doctors deployed in border areas and involved in private practices.

Agnihotri also asked the government to come clean on establishing a medical university in the state and status of satellite centre to be set up at Una besides improving facilities at IGMC and Tanda medical college and hospital.

Joining the issue, Congress MLA from Kasumpti, Anirudh Singh said medicine shops should be run by government and alleged that these shops were being sublet. He also urged the government to take effective steps to stop doctors and nurses from putting extra burden on patients by asking for things that are not necessary for treatment.

Kullu MLA Sunder Singh drew the attention of the house towards pathetic health services in Kullu district and said that there was no gynecologist in the regional hospital. He said that things have not changed even after death of a pregnant woman and her infant child in Kullu hospital on March 20 last and urged the government to fill 13 vacant posts of doctors in Kullu.

Chamba MLA Asha Kumari said there were rumours that the government was planning to demolish heritage hospital building in Chamba and sought assurance from the health minister that heritage buildings would not be demolished. She also stressed that the work on construction of building be completed as scheduled and pleaded for rationalization of staff, recruitment of doctors and paramedical staff.

Congress MLA from Harshwardhan Chauhan urged the state government to identify land for Nahan medical college and said that the doctors drawing a salary of Rs 26,000 per month were unwilling to serve in tribal and remote areas.editorial@tribune.com

VK Singh to visit Iraq

Minister for State (External Affairs) Gen V K Singh will visit Iraq again to bring the bodies of 39 Indians, expected to reach Amritsar on March 27 or 28

The state government would make necessary arrangements to take the bodies of four Himachalis to their respective villages.

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 26

Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur informed the house that ex-gratia grant of Rs 4 lakhs had been announced for families of four Himachali youth abducted by ISIS from Mosul in Iraq in June 2015 (where they were working) and later killed.

Making a suo moto statement in the house, the Chief Minister said that the slain youth were identified as Aman Kumar, Sandeep Singh Rana and Inderjeet hailing from Kangra district and Hemraj from Mandi district.

He said that out of 40 Indians, 39 were killed while one managed to escape. The Indian government was in constant touch with their Iraqi counterpart and later it came to light that a large number of bodies were buried under a mountain in Badush city. The news was later confirmed by Dip Radiation Radar.

Ministers for State (External Affairs) Gen V K Singh visited Bagdad to take stock of the situation and DNA of the family members of the victims were sent for matching. Singh would again visit Iraq to bring the bodies of 39 Indians, expected to reach Amritsar on March 27 or 28 and the state government would make necessary arrangements to take the bodies of four Himachalis to their respective villages. He expressed his condolences with the bereaved family members.

Thakur also appraised the house that all out efforts are being made to rescue the three Himachali youth, namely Sushil Kumar, Pankaj Kumar and Ajay Kumar all from Kangra district, who have been abducted by pirates along with the ship in Nigeria.

He said that Raghuvir Singh, father of Sushil Kumar, had informed that he received a satellite call on March 12 from his son that he along with two other Himachali youth had been kidnapped. It was also brought to our notice that on March 24 that the pirates demanded ransom to be paid by March 26. He said that the state government had talked to External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and requested her to make all out efforts for release of abducted youth.

Congress legislator Asha Kumari said that while the lone person who managed to escape had said that all 39 have been killed but Sushama Swaraj maintained that she was in contact with them and urged the government to make serious efforts for the release of three abducted Himachalis..

The Chief Minister said that Sushma Swaraj had said that she is in contact with the Iraq government, the DNA samples were sent for matching which is a tedious process. It is only after matching of DNA that it was confirmed that they are no more. The bodies were recovered and they were being brought back, he added.editorial@tribune.com

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, March 25

New medical colleges being opened at Hamirpur, Chamba, Mandi and Sirmaur districts of Himachal are taking a toll on zonal and other civil hospitals in the state.

At the district, the lowest level in villages, there are health sub-centres. These sub-centres are run by female health workers, who are assisted by part-time Asha workers. The role of health sub-centres is to carry out door-to-door immunisation and other health campaigns.

The sub-centres come under Primary Health Centres (PHCs), which as per norms, have sanctioned posts of one or two doctors. The PHCs have about six beds for providing healthcare to residents at the tehsil level.

PHCs further come under Community Health Centres (CHCs) which as per norms have strength of seven employees. The CHCs are administered by Block Medical Officer. As per norms, a CHC should have a gynaecologist and a paediatrician. The norms were chalked out with the idea that deliveries would take place in CHCs.

However, the sources here said none of the CHCs in Kangra district had any gynaecologist. Interestingly, while all the equipment is purchased in CHCs for institutional deliveries, there are no doctors to work there.

After the CHC, there are subdivisional hospitals that are functioning at almost all the subdivisions in the district. Due to persistent demands of politicians, the number of bed strength in the subdivisional hospitals has gone up to 200 at places. However, sources here said there were very few specialists available to work in these hospitals.

They added that at present, there was just one gynaecologist in Nurpur subdivisional hospital. All other subdivisional hospitals dont have specialists for institutional deliveries. Ultrasound machines had been purchased for several of the subdivisional hospitals, but these were lying sealed as no doctor was available to operate them.

The biggest hospital at the district level is the zonal hospital. In Kangra district, the zonal hospital is located at Dharamsala.

The Dharamsala Zonal hospital amply illustrates the impact of new medical college being opened in the state.

Dismal scenarioeditorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

UNA, MARCH 25

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday charged that public funds were misutilised during the previous Congress regime in Haroli Assembly segment and huge buildings constructed from the Union government funds were now lying abandoned. This, he said, was done when the state was facing a resource crunch and the funds could have been put to better use.

Thakur, who was addressing a public meeting in Pandoga village of the segment, said he had been informed that a number of buildings, including labour hostels and common facility centres constructed in Haroli, have never been utilised. This, the Chief Minister said, was sheer wastage of public funds. He ordered that an ESI hospital, which was still without its own building, will now function from the vacant labour hostel building in Bathari industrial area.

The public meeting was organised in front of the industrial area in Pandoga village sanctioned during the Congress regime at a cost of Rs 120 crores. Pointing towards the barren leveled hillocks, the Chief Minister said the area was once covered with trees and vegetation. Stating that the industrial area was developed at the cost of environment, he said such unnecessary activities would not be allowed to continue in this government.

The Chief Minister charged that during the last six months in office, the Congress government announced schemes and institutions not for the sake of development but to seek votes. He said five days before the election code of conduct came into force, the Chief Minister inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of scores of schemes in one go by putting up their plaques on a large wall in Shimla.

Thakur said in the second Cabinet meeting during the previous Congress government, a decision was taken to purchase new official cars for ministers each unit costing Rs 30 lakh to Rs 35 lakh. He said despite demands from his ministers not a single new vehicle had been purchased by his government.

The Chief Minister announced a sum of Rs 3 crores for strengthening 30-km road network in Haroli segment, a sum of Rs 7 crores for the Beet area irrigation scheme, 25 new tube wells for irrigation and drinking water, besides a sum of Rs 5.2 crores for constructing class room buildings in 11 schools of the segment.

The Chief Minister earlier hoisted the national flag on a 143-feet high mast in the Una Municipal Park, making the flag as the tallest in the state. The funds for the Monument Flag have been sponsored by the Indian Oil Corporation.

He also inaugurated bridges in Chatara and Pandoga villages and laid the foundation stone of another bridge over Padehal khad before inaugurating a girls hostel building at Dr BR Ambedkar Polytechnic in Ambota village besides laying the foundation stone for the strengthening of the Mubarikpur-Bharwain road. Rural Development minister Virender Kanwar, state BJP president Satpal Satti, Chintpurni MLA Balbir Chaudhary, Gagret MLA Rajesh Thakur and Haroli BJP leader Ram Kumar Sharma accompanied the Chief Minister.editorial@tribune.com

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 26

Employees and officers who joined government service after May 15, 2003, will continue to get pension under the new Contributory Pension Scheme and the old scheme will not be revived, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur told the Assembly during Question Hour on Monday.

Replying to a question of Romesh Chand Dhawala (BJP), he said almost all states had adopted the new pension policy as the old scheme entailed a huge financial burden but the government would consider constituting a committee for solving the problems of employees.

In a supplementary question, Dhawala said those who retired at the age of 58 get pension benefits at 60 while Thakur said 60 per cent of the pension benefits would be given after one month of retirement while 40 per cent come as pension. He said officers and employees could withdraw 25 per cent of the pension for wedding of children or other needs after 10 years of service.

He said a number of employees covered under the new pension scheme had met him but the ground reality was that almost all state governments had opted for the new scheme.

The lone CPM member Rakesh Singha also pleaded for reviving the old pension scheme and said social security was important and when the government could give pension to MLAs, why not to employees also.

In another question of Parmajeet Singh (BJP), Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Virender Kanwar said the government was considering opening of a block development office in every Assembly constituency.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 26

The upkeep of the teeth and mouth of pregnant women and newborn babies is very important.

This was stated by District Health Officer Dr Surinder Mal on the occasion of the concluding day of the World Oral Health Week at Kapurthala while addressing ANMs and ASHA workers. Civil Surgeon Dr Ramesh Kumari Banga was also present on the occasion.

Dr Mal said pregnant women were usually not aware about the upkeep of their teeth but the truth was that if their teeth were not healthy, then the mother as well as the child in the womb also got affected.

He said the teeth of the new born baby has neo-natal teeth and the family as well as relatives harbour many superstitions regarding the same. They said in case of neonatal teeth, rather than contacting quacks, they should talk to doctors so that proper treatment could be carried out.

He said pregnant women should be encouraged for routine checkups. On the instructions of the Civil Surgeon Dr Harpreet Singh Kahlon, World Oral Health Week was also observed from March 20 to 26 as per which people were made aware about the right treatment for the diseases of the teeth.

Teeth expert Dr Moninder Kaur said pregnant women should get themselves checked with dentists after they get pregnant. She said the first and second quarters of pregnancy were safe for the treatment of the teeth of pregnant women. They said pregnant women should brush their teeth twice a day and any treatment of teeth be taken only after due consultation from a dental expert.editorial@tribune.com

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 25

Aadhaar card  which has been made mandatory for every citizen of the country  is not considered a valid proof of identity by state departments.

As per the Central government guidelines, all bank accounts, mobile connections, LPG connections and ration cards have to be linked with Aadhaar card as it was introduced as the most authentic identity proof.

But Jammu and Kashmir, which enjoys a special status, does not accept Aadhaar as a proof of identity in its government departments.

Whether it is the Revenue Department, transport offices or any other state department, which directly deal with public matters, do not accept Aadhaar card as an identity or address proof.

I had to register my vehicle at the Regional Transport Office, Jammu, for which I had to submit my identity proof. But the department refused to accept my Aadhaar card as my address proof, saying that it requires the ration card or passport as proof of residence, said Sunil Gupta, a Central government employee.

I would like to ask the state government what was the hue and cry over linking bank accounts and SIM cards with Aadhaar cards? Why does the state government refuse to accept Aadhaar as valid proof of identity? Gupta asked.

The state government departments do not have any answer as to why they do not accept Aadhaar as identity proof.

The authorities claim that 90 per cent of the population of Jammu and Kashmir have got their Aadhaar cards, but it has no use for the people accept for opening bank accounts, getting a SIM card or LPG cylinder.

The state government has not included the Aadhaar card in its list of identity proof and government officials do not accept it. Officials say that Aadhaar has not been listed as an identity proof.rchopra@tribunemail.com

Pulwama, March 26

One personnel of the Indian Army was killed and nine others injured in an accident here in Awantipora area of Pulwama district on Monday.

The injured have been rushed to hospital.

Further details are awaited. ANIeditorial@tribune.com

Vikram Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 25

Though the government as well as the Horticulture Department have repeatedly given assurance to fruit and vegetable vendors that controlled atmosphere storage facility will be started at different district mandis of the state, nothing has been done in this regard so far.

Fruit vendors at the Narwal mandi, Jammu, have been requesting the department to start such a facility, so that they can export apples, but their demand has not been met.

In summer, fruits shrink due to high temperature and their quality gets weaker, thus inviting low prices. If fruits like apple and apricot are preserved under controlled atmosphere, we can fetch good prices, said Rajinder Gupta, a supplier at the Narwal fruit mandi.

The state has a great diversity in the geo-ecological conditions, which suits the cultivation of almost all kinds of tropical and sub-tropical fruits.

Some of the important varieties of apples grown in Kashmir valley are ambri, delicious, American teral, maharaji, piazratbali, kesari and royal misri, while nearly 500 varieties of mango, each with a peculiar taste and flavour, are found in the Jammu region, which is supplied to Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

We had two plots at the Narwal mandi, which were suitable for establishing the controlled atmosphere storage facility and we approached the Horticulture Department many times in this regard, but to no avail, said Rajesh Gupta, president, Vegetable and Fruit Mandi Association, Narwal.

He also said since the project involved finances up to Rs 10-15 crore, the department was offered to take up its establishment in public-private partnerships (PPP), but without any success.

Denying the claim, SK Fotedar, Deputy Director, Planning and Marketing, Horticulture Department, said there was a dearth of land in the area, as many shops needed to be accommodated in the Narwal mandi.

The controlled atmosphere storage is impossible in the present scenario, said the Deputy Director. He, however, maintained that nearly 250-300 kanals under the Forest Department occupation were lying vacant adjacent to the mandi and if that land was acquired, the storage system could be established there.editorial@tribune.com

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 25

A local militant of the Lashkar-e-Toiba was killed and a woman was injured in a brief pre-dawn gunfight in central Kashmirs Budgam district, the police said.

The gunfight broke out at Aarizal in Beerwah, around 45 km from Srinagar, when joint teams of the Budgam police, 53 Rashtriya Rifles Battalion and the CRPF launched an anti-militancy operation after an input about the presence of two militants.

During search, terrorists tried to flee and came out of a house and fired indiscriminately on security forces. In retaliation, one terrorist was neutralised, a police spokesman said. One militant possibly managed to escape.

The slain militant was later identified by the police as Shafat Hussain Wani of Wagoora in Baramulla. He was affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Toiba since April 2017.

The police said arms and ammunition, mobile phones and Rs 30,000 were recovered from the encounter site.

In the shootout, a woman identified as Humeera Maqbool (18) of Arizal was also injured. The police said she was injured in the thigh when the militants tried to escape, firing indiscriminately.

The injured woman was evacuated to hospital by the police for medical treatment and her condition is reported to be stable.

Soon after the gunfight, mobile internet was suspended in Budgam and north Kashmirs Baramulla districts. The slain militant Wani was buried at his native village in Wagoora amid pro-freedom slogans.

Since Wani left his home in May last year, his mother did not turn off the light of her room in the hope that he might come to meet her, a resident of area said.

This month 18 militants, including Jaish-e-Mohammeds Pakistani operational chief, have been killed in various gunfights. The security forces also lost five of its men in one of the fiercest encounters in the frontier district of Kupwara a few days ago.

18 ultras killed this month

This month, 18 militants, including Jaish-e-Mohammeds Pakistani operational chief, have been killed in various gunfights in the Valley. The security forces also lost five of its men in one of the fiercest encounters in the frontier district of Kupwara a few days ago.editorial@tribune.com

Shyam Sood

Rajouri, March 26

Despite governments attempt to crush their 39-day struggle for district status by using force on Saturday, Nowshera residents on Monday observed a complete shutdown and decided to continue their struggle.

As the financial year ends in March, every effort by the district administration to open the government offices has been foiled by the protesters so far.

Residents alleged that the district administration on the directions of the state government had resorted to force on Saturday to crush the agitation. More than 30 persons, including Rajouri Deputy Commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudhary and a Station House Officer, were injured in the clashes.

Official sources claimed that the DC had requested the protesters to allow the functioning of the government offices and the protesters had sought two hours to decide.

Instead they prepared themselves for a clash with the police and had collected stones and glass bottles, said a senior official on condition of anonymity. President, Joint Action Committee (JAC), Subhash Kapoor and other member of the committee alleged that the police first blocked the road to stop a peaceful rally and then used force against the protesters. As the police action against protesters was condemned in the Jammu province, PDP MLC Surinder Choudhary was rushed to Nowshera by the party higher-ups on Sunday to resolve the issue. The MLC has promised us that the government take a favourable decision. His proposal was, however, rejected by the people as they have lost faith in the politicians and have decided to continue their peaceful struggle, said Kapoor. Meanwhile, the family of Jaswinder Singh, 15, who reportedly lost one eye when he was hit by a teargas shell lobbed by the police during clashes on Saturday, refused to accept the compensation of Rs 1 lakh provided by the Rajouri DC on Monday.

The JAC has demanded Rs 10 lakh as compensation and a government job for a member of Jaswinders family. He is currently under treatment at PGI in Chandigarh.editorial@tribune.com

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 25

After Tehreek-e-Hurriyat chief Mohammad Ashraf Sehrais youngest son Junaid Ashraf Khan went missing, the separatist leader has decided not to appeal to his son to come back.

Junaid had gone missing on Friday and his photograph appeared on social media holding an AK rifle, with a message claiming that he had joined militant group Hizbul Mujahideen. After the surfacing of the picture, Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid urged Sehrai to appeal to his son and other local militants to shun gun.

Abba (Sehrai) told us he will not appeal to his son to come back, Junaids brother-in-law, Younis Ahmad quoted Sehrai as having said. Abba said he (Junaid) has made his choice and he himself (Sehrai) will continue his fight politically, Younis said.

The family, which had lodged a complaint with the Sadder police station, now said it would not pursue it.

The only thing we know is that Junaids picture with gun surfaced on the social media. We were also called by the police, but we have decided not to pursue the complaint filed with the police. We have stopped looking for him, Younis said.

Junaids taking up arms is the first case of a son of a top-notch separatist leader turning to militancy.

Pertinently, Sehrai recently replaced Syed Ali Geelani as the head of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat.

Originally hailing from the frontier Kupwara district, the Sehrai family migrated to Srinagar in the 1990s. The Sehrai family was among the well-off and educated families of Kupwara. It had to migrate in the 1990s, another family member said.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, central Kashmir, Vidhi Kumar Birdi said the investigation in the case was going on. We are still investigating whether Junaid has joined militancy or not, he said.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 26

Moderate separatist leader and former Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat has urged India and Pakistan to see reason, shun confrontation and address the Kashmir issue.

He also urged the Kashmiri separatist leadership to rise above their narrow confines and self-interest to serve humanity at large.

Bhat, who also heads the Muslim Conference, was addressing a gathering of people in his native Botengoo village in north Kashmir.

Addressing the gathering with reference to verses from the Quran, Bhat said Muslims should never ever worship false gods.

Raise your heads high and never bow to desires that run counter to your taller size. You have been chosen, be cautioned to lead people to a destination, he said with reference to the separatist leadership of Kashmir.

Resolve the Kashmir issue with a view to promoting togetherness. Let us behave as human beings with heads and hearts and leave fighting to beasts, Bhat added.editorial@tribune.com

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 26

Expressing concern over youth joining militancy in Kashmir, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Monday urged the security agencies to make more efforts to bring them back from the fold of militancy.

The Home Secretary, who arrived on a two-day visit to the Valley on Monday, chaired a high-level security meeting in Srinagar to review the security situation in Kashmir. He is accompanied by top officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Gauba asked the security agencies to deal sternly with people who might try to derail the forthcoming tourism season, top sources said. He was told that there was no significant presence of the Islamic State, but a close watch was being maintained by the security agencies in the Valley, they said.

Sources privy to the meeting said senior security forces officers briefed the Home Secretary about a whole range of issues, including local recruitment, infiltration, radicalisation, law and order situation, amnesty to stone throwers, NIA crackdown and collateral damage during gunfights.

He was also briefed in detail about the last weeks Kupwara operation in which five security personnel and five militants were killed, sources said.

In anti-militancy operations, casualties to forces should be avoided, the Home Secretary was quoted as having said during the meeting. During the meeting, there was a threadbare discussion on the Kupwara operation and Gauba wanted to know if lack of infrastructure was reason for infiltration, sources said.

The Home Secretary asked the security agencies to coordinate with the Army to ensure zero infiltration.

The Union Government wants the infiltration by the militants to a bare minimum to ensure peace in the Valley.

The Home Secretary expressed concern over local youth joining militancy.

Last year, 126 youth had joined militancy. This year, two highly educated youth have taken up arms.

The security officers, while briefing the Home Secretary, said radicalisation, social media and easy access to jihadi material were the major reasons for locals to join militancy, sources said.

The Home Secretary stressed that more efforts should be made to bring local youth back from militancy. There should be more contact on the ground with youth and security forces must reach out to people to stop militant recruitment, he told the officers.

The Home Secretary stressed that no collateral damage should take place during the encounters. Approach humanly and follow SOPs (standard operating procedures) during the encounters to avoid collateral damage, the Home Secretary was quoted as having said during the meeting.

On the NIA crackdown, almost all officers were of the opinion that it had shown impact on the ground. The meeting also discussed arrangements for the Amarnath yatra, sources said. The Home Secretary also reviewed the Prime Ministers Development Package at another meeting in Srinagar.editorial@tribune.com

Anantnag, March 26

Militants attacked an Army patrol in Shopian district of south Kashmir on Monday.

There were no reports of any injuries to anyone in the attack.

As per reports, militants opened fire on a patrol party of 34 Rashtriya Rifles in Kachdoora village of Shopian district. The attack took place about noon, a senior police official said, adding that no one was injured in the firing.

He said the Army men also fired a few shots in retaliation, following which the militants fled the area. The area was soon cordoned off and extensive searches were carried out to trace the militants. But they had managed to flee by then, the official added.

Attempt to rob bank in Kulgam

An attempt to rob a branch of Jammu and Kashmir Bank Limited was on Monday foiled by alert security personnel in south Kashmirs Kulgam district, the police said. According to reports, masked armed men tried to storm a branch of Jammu and Kashmir Bank Limited in Bugam village in Kulgam district. The attempt was foiled by alert security men on duty at the bank, a senior police official from the area said.

He said the armed men fled the scene after being challenged by the security men. A search operation was soon launched to try and nab the robbers but they had by then fled the area, the official said.

Bank robberies have escalated in south Kashmir - considered the hotbed of militancy - since the Central government announced demonetisation of old currency notes in November 2016. More than 13 such robberies have been carried out so far in the region.  OCeditorial@tribune.com

The sowing of doubts is the easiest business in the geo-strategic world today. Kashmir, unfortunately, is becoming part of this great game being played by vested interests. And worse, they are succeeding in their designs. Delhi is lost in its jingoistic and denial mode, unable to understand what it is losing in the endgame.

A number of motives have sprung up after the new Tehreek-e-Hurriyat chief Ashraf Sehrais son Junaid Khan, an MBA student, joined militancy. A new brand has been created and the dazzle of this would consume those welcoming it. It will only increase violence. And, bloodshed never helps any one.

Others have connected it to the bigger ambitions of Junaids father who, it is being claimed, is leading by example  sending his son to the line of fire and not shielding his children like others in the whos who in the separatist camp. This, if true, is also a sign of a frightening backdrop.

The divisions within the separatist camp have had their consequences. Their apparent unity is just for show, nothing more than that. In one way, this has snatched the rhetorical claims that separatists were shy of seeing their sons in the physical frontline of jihad, which they had been exhorting others to join. The neighbourhood phenomenon seems to have been adopted now. In the case of Junaid, it is a mystery.

The help of the police was sought in tracing the missing Junaid, and Sehrai is saying that he will not call back his son from the militant ranks. It embodies a dilemma of a father who is a known separatist. He cannot ask his son to come back home. And, if his son has joined as per the plan, again his ideology and the forces that have been backing him chain Sehrai.

The rhetoric of paying tributes to militants has its consequences. Sehrai is optionless because he has no other choice but to read it loudly that his son joining militancy is consistent with the values, norms and goals of the movement.

Pakistan would use Junaid as the new brand to promote militancy in Kashmir to lay pressure on other separatists to follow suit to give individual and collective legitimacy to the freedom struggle that they had been peddling for the past so many years.

Now, they cannot afford, and Pakistan will not allow them, to carve out different silos for their children.

Islamabad is very clever. It will use it as a strategic tool to give a fillip to militancy in Kashmir, its original motive. More dangerous is the high moral ground that it would take before its own people and the world that Kashmiris of all hues  children of commoners and elite, and policemen and separatists are joining militancy. The real intention of Pakistan behind this moral pedestal is known, but it has got something to highlight.

New Delhi should decipher this big game, though there is nothing new except that a new brand ambassador has been chosen. It must find out the real reason for Junaid joining militancy. That Junaids missing report has been lodged with the police is a fact. The police are capable of finding out the truth. Once that is known with evidence, it should be revealed. But any premature commentary in any manner would help the forces of destabilisation that are already active in the Valley.

Kashmirs stars are moving into an ominous alignment, pointing to a toxic discourse on nationalism versus anti-nationalism based on religious identities.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Amarjot Kaur

With layered nonchalance, lyricist-author Swanand Kirkire shares some potent anecdotes that have left an impression on both his writings and personality. His recently released book, titled Aap Kamai, has been doing well ever since its launch at Jaipur Literary Festival, but Kirkire isnt rejoicing in complacency. He has pulled up his socks, and with hammer and tongs, he is steadily pitching his story with a few directors.

With films on his mind, he is also writing the lyrics for songs to be featured in a film starring Kajol and Ajay Devgn, called Illa, Rana Daggubati-starrer Haathi Mere Saathi and Raju Hiranis next. For books, he has no patience, at this time. It takes too long to write a book and I am an impatient man, he singles out a flaw with an honest reply. In Chandigarh to perform at Soul Stage, an event by Kommune, in Elante, Swanand brings out the Jack of many trades in him.

Music, lyrics & drama

Born and brought up in Indore, to a family of musicians, Swanand had a congenital bond with music even though theatre caught his fancy. At the age of 15, Swanand had already performed with several local theatre groups and was convinced that hed like to study theatre in NSD, Delhi, soon after he heard of the institutes good reputation. I got through NSD in 1993 after a couple of attempts and remained there till 1996. There, I did a design and direction diploma and was spotted by director Manju Singh, who had come to watch a play we were enacting on Bhagat Singh. She was to make a television serial on the revolutionary and I left for Mumbai to work with her in 1998, he says.

In Mumbai, Swanand met director Sudhir Mishra with whom he directed Calcutta Mail (as an assistant director), wrote dialogues for Chameli, and penned the lyrics for Baawra Mann in Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. Subsequently, I started getting offers for writing lyrics for movies like Parineeta and all. Then there was no looking back, he says. While Swanand believes that digital and online exposure has made a cutting edge improvement in bringing up young talent, he remembers the days of struggle the old times brought along. Even to get access to camera, we had to go to Mumbai. There was no platform to be spotted. I like how internet has liberated people; the whole idea of this communication system, in economic and social aspect, is to grow by sharing. Thats called dissemination of power and that is quite democratic when it comes to opportunities available, he says.

My idea, my right

A committee member of Film Writers Association (FWA), Swanand is elated about the amendment that Javed Akhtar brought to the copyright law. We have all had to go through our ideas and scripts being stolen, I have been through it too; but we dont want the young people to go through it. Writers can get their script registered with FWA for a nominal amount and we guard their ideas and fight for their intellectual rights, he says. Though, theoretically, the law is in place, it may take some more time for it to be practiced, he adds.

Song and story

With overbearing exposure to visual mediums, spoken word has lost its sheen and so has the tradition of storytelling. I feel Kommune helps one reconnect with this tradition and lets people imagine things as the story is told to them, shares Swanand while talking about his connection with an artist-network company Kommune. He signs off with one of his most stirring songs: O Ri Churaiya, a song that introduced the female foeticide episode in the 2012 edition of Satyamev Jayate and has since been associated with several woman rights activist movements. I saw the documentary before writing this song and was shaken, stirred, and jolted. Of all the songs I have written, I pray this one is forgotten and never sung again, he signs off.

amarjot@tribunemail.comROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Comedienne and actress Kathy Griffin, who posed with a decapitated and fake head resembling US President Donald Trump for a photoshoot last year, is set to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner on April 28. She may have her first face-to-face moment with Trump since the controversy.

Griffins career was left in a shambles since she did the photoshoot.

She has tweeted she would be attending the correspondents dinner event as a guest of the Washington Blade and Los Angeles Blade, an LGBT news outlet. The annual dinner has been held since 1920 and traditionally is at least visited by the current president. Trump did not attend the gala in 2017 and may not this year too.

Griffin had apologised publicly when major backlash to her photo began last May, issuing a video in which she admitted, I crossed the line. But she later told an Australian TV interviewer that I am no longer sorry. The whole outrage was B.S.  IANSharinder@tribunemail.com

Tribune news Service

New Delhi, March 26

The Congress-BJP duel over data leaks has escalated with AICC president Rahul Gandhi on Monday describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi the big boss who likes to spy on Indians and the BJP calling him technologically illiterate.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, alleging breach of privacy by the Modi government, asked why the PMs personal application  NaMo  asked for 25 personal data points, if not for the purpose of spying on peoples private lives. The Congress also alleged that while an official government application asked for only 12 personal feature points, the NaMo application asked for many more.

Rahul Gandhi tweeted: Modi misusing PM position to build personal database with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo app promoted by the Government. If as PM he wants to use tech to communicate with India, no problem. But use the official PMO APP for it. This data belongs to India, not Modi.

Moments later, Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani questioned Gandhis IQ, comparing him with Chhota Bheem, a cartoon character.

Even Chhota Bheem knows that commonly asked permission on apps dont tantamount to snooping Now that were talking tech, would you care to answer @RahulGandhiji why Congress sends data to Singapore servers which can be accessed by any Tom, Dick and Analytica? she asked.

It is obvious that a narrative-less Congress is worried over the direct communication between the PM and people, claimed BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, adding it was time Rahul Gandhi grew up.

Countering BJPs accusations that it was the Congress that had indulged in data leak which was why it had offloaded its official application from Google Play Store, Singhvi explained: The Congress does not indulge in data breach. That is BJPs domain. While NaMo application has 50 lakh downloads, our application had only 15,000. It was brought down as it was not found to be viable, Singhvi said.

Asking why the PMs application needed phone numbers and emails of NCC cadets, he recalled past instances when debit card/credit card data had been compromised.

Pointing out that all smart apps had provisions like Google analytics, the BJP maintained: Analysis is not equivalent to spying or snooping. Those who are technologically ignorant are trying to say that, Patra said, citing the examples of media apps and the content access they all provide to their users.sanjiv@tribunemail.com

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 25

In an important move, the Made in India Arjun Mark-2 tank project is set to see the light of the day.

Chairman of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Dr S Christopher in an interview to The Tribune said, We have had a meeting with the Vice-Chief of the Indian Army where it was agreed on accepting Mark-2. Modalities are being worked out. Once done, the acceptance of necessity (AON) for 118 will be revived, he added.

The AON is decided by the Defence Acquisition Council headed by the Defence Minister. A total of 93 modifications have been done on the first version of Arjun  124 were inducted  in 2010-2011.

On being asked if the Army was okay with the weight of the tank, the DRDO boss said: The weight (the tank is almost 68 tonnes) has been accepted; that is a major change. Most modern European tanks are of the same weight, and tank-transporters (specialised trucks) for Arjun are available.

The DRDO has promised to set up a system to maintain the Arjun Mark-2 within India. It will be an annual maintenance contract with the Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) as a possible agency, Dr Christopher said. On the trials, he said, These have done 4,000 kms of run, the upgrades will be tested.

On artillery guns, Dr Christopher said the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun Systems (ATAGS), of which the Army has agreed to accept 40 pieces to start with, will get a more powerful engine to enable rapid movement. The guns designed by DRDO have been made by two private companies under the transfer of technology.

The DRDO is keen to get a slice of the 1,580 towed guns the Army is looking to buy. Both companies (Tata Power SED and Bharat Forge) are gearing up produce more. We need an order for 200-300 guns to tie up logistics, he said.

Talking about the next version of the Tejas, called Mark1-A, Dr Christopher said: The design other than the AESA radar and the jammer pod is complete.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is looking to import the AESA radar even as DRDO made a radar that will be tested next month. The IAF is looking at 83 Mark1-A, with 59 improvements over the existing Tejas.

The Indian Air Force has projected a need for 324 fighter jets over 15 years and has officially indicated that it needs the Tejas Mark 2 (medium combat aircraft). It will carry a more powerful engine and weigh almost 20 per cent heavier than Tejas.editorial@tribune.com

Mumbai, March 26

As the most famous resident of their village continued his indefinite strike in Delhi, people in Anna Hazares Ralegan Siddhi on Monday replicated actor Dharmendras protest atop a water tank in iconic film Sholay to support the social activists demands.

A group of residents of the village, located in the Parner tehsil of Ahmednagar district, climbed atop the water tank and raised slogans demanding that the government should accept Hazares demands, which include the appointment of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayukta in states.

Some protesters were carrying the national Tricolour and they threatened to jump off the tank if their demands were not accepted, an aide of the activist said.

Hazare began his indefinite strike in Delhi on March 23. Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan on Monday met him at the venue to discuss his demands.

Hazares 2011 agitation in Delhi had led to the passing of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, but the Centre is yet to appoint a Lokpal.  PTIharinder@tribunemail.com

Beijing, March 26

China on Monday asserted that Doklam belongs to it and India should have learnt lessons from the standoff last year, after Indias envoy blamed China for the face-off, saying it happened because Beijing tried to alter the status quo in the disputed area.

Reacting to Indias Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawales remarks that were published on Saturday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, Donglong (Doklam) belongs to China because we have historical conventions. Chinas activities there are within our sovereign rights. There is no such thing as changing status quo.

Last year thanks to our concerted efforts and wisdom we properly resolved this issue. We hope the Indian side could learn some lessons from this and stick to the historical conventions and work with China to ensure the atmosphere in the border areas is conducive for the development of bilateral ties, she said.

The standoff over Chinas attempt to build a road close to Indias narrow Chicken Neck area connecting North Eastern states ended in August last year after Chinese troops stopped the road construction at Doklam in Sikkim Section, though Beijing never officially acknowledged it. The area of the standoff is also claimed by Bhutan.

The Indias envoy in an interview to Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post had blamed China for the standoff in Doklam saying it happened because Beijing tried to alter the status quo.

He had said any change of status quo along the India-China border might lead to another Doklam-like crisis.

He said though no change has taken place in the standoff site at Doklam after it was resolved last year, the PLA may be reinforcing its troops well behind the sensitive area.

Asked about Bambawales comments that the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control should be demarcated and delineated, Hua said, Chinas position is clear and consistent. The east, middle and western side are yet to be officially demarcated. China and India are exploring ways to resolve this territorial dispute through negotiations so that we can arrive at mutually acceptable solution, she said.  PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Mumbai, March 26

At least 2,000 Dalit activists led by Bahujan Bharipa Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar defied a ban to hold a morcha in south Mumbai on Monday demanding the arrest of Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide for his alleged role in the Bhima-Koregaon violence on New Years Day this year.

Ambedkar and several other Dalit leaders called for an Elgar Morcha between Byculla in south central Mumbai and Azad Maidan in south Mumbai. The Maharashtra government on Sunday denied permission for the march on the grounds that it would disrupt traffic.

However, the rally at Azad Maidan was allowed by the authorities. Members of Dalit organisations came out on the streets causing traffic jams in south Mumbai, the police said. So far no one was arrested, though a few youths were booked for unruly behaviour.

Addressing the protesters, Ambedkar demanded that the government arrest Bhide in eight days. The government is not arresting Bhide because of his links with PM Narendra Modi, he said.

The Dalits received the support of Sambhaji Brigade, an organisation of the Maratha youth. Shrimant Kokate, a leader of the Sambhaji Brigade, demanded that CM Devendra Fadnavis should be held responsible for Bhide roaming free despite being named in several FIRs for the attacks on Dalits on New Years Day.

The Bhima-Koregaon violence broke out over Dalits observing the 200th anniversary of the Ango-Maratha war where the army of Peshwas was defeated by soldiers of the East India Company. Bhide is said to have opposed the celebrations and allegedly instigated villagers to attack those attending the event.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Bhubaneswar, March 26

Four women Maoists have been killed during an exchange of fire with security personnel in Narayanpatna area of Odishas Koraput district, the police said on Monday.

Acting on a tip off, the District Voluntary Force (DVF) and Special Operations Group (SOG) personnel launched a joint combing operation last night in the forest areas of Narayanpatna, Director General of Police R P Sharma said.

As soon as the left-wing extremists saw security personnel approaching them, they opened fire. When the security forces retaliated, a fierce gun battle ensued between the two sides, leading to the death of four women cadres, Sharma explained.

It appeared that 10 to 12 rebels of the Andhra-Odisha Special Zonal Committee of CPI (Maoist) were present at the site during the encounter, he said.

The bodies of three women cadres were recovered right after the encounter last night while another body was found in the forest this morning, Sharma said, adding that four rifles, kit bags, land mine and some ammunition besides some naxal literature were recovered from the site.

A massive search operation has been launched in the area following the gun battle and efforts are on to establish the identity of the slain rebels, suspected to be the area committee members of the banned outfit, the DGP asserted.

Describing the Koraput operation as a major success, the DGP said yesterdays encounter comes two days after another Maoist cadre was gunned down by security personnel in Malkangiri district. PTIsanjiv@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, March 25

Rejecting the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the National Medical Commission Bill, the Indian Medical Association, the largest body of private doctors in India, on Sunday called for an indefinite strike from April 2.

More than 25,000 doctors at a mahapanchayat here on Sunday opposed the recommendations and the Bill.

The NMC Bill proposes to allow practitioners of alternative medicines  homoeopathy and ayurveda  to practice modern medicine after a bridge course. It also proposes that the National Licentiate Examination (NLE) be compulsory for any MBBS doctor.

The panel recommended that the bridge course not be mandatory and to integrate the NLE with the final-year MBBS exam.  PTIamansharma@tribunemail.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 26

The traumatic wait for mortal remains of 39 Indians killed in Iraq to be flown back continues for the families and loved ones. This will take at least another week.

Some relatives and families of the men from Punjab on Monday met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Delhi. This was the first meeting with the minister since she informed Parliament last week that the men abducted in June 2014 by Islamic State are no longer missing, but declared dead.

The meeting in Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan lasted for more than an hour with Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh and BJP MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa present as well.

Parminder, who lost his brother Kamaljit Singh, brother-in-law Kulwinder and cousin Gurdeep, told The Tribune, "We got assurance that the bodies will be brought back within a week's time. The minister said she is talking to the Prime Minister about possible compensation for the families."

"As of now affected families in Punjab are provided Rs 20,000 monthly compensation by the state government. Options are being mulled to provide job to spouses or one family member and school education of children of the men who were working as construction workers when they were taken hostage and killed in Mosul," Parminder said.

Families expressed their anguish that they had not been informed of death confirmation personally, while Swaraj explained to them that Parliament was in session and so in keeping with parliamentary tradition she could not inform them prior to the official announcement.

Swaraj informed that on Tuesday she would speak to Chief Ministers of all four states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar to which these men belonged to work out arrangements and modalities of compensation.

"Some families are very poor and we want them to get some compensation. But for us it is about getting the bodies home so we can perform last rites and find a closure," said Raman from Himachal whose 31-year-old unmarried brother Aman Kumar was among the dead.

Meanwhile, India has sent across second DNA sample for forensic examination of Raju Yadav of Patna whose identity is yet to be certified by humanitarian assistance group, Martyrs Foundation, working with the International Red Crescent and Iraqi government's Department of Mass Graves.

Earlier, samples were collected from Raju's relatives as he did not have parents and were only a 70 per cent match. The identity is confirmed by Martyrs Foundation only after a 98 per cent match.

"Last week, we sent samples of Raju Yadav's Brother who lives in Siwan, We hope the results will be announced soon," V K Singh told The Tribune.

Singh is waiting for final documentation clearance before he flies to Baghdad with a special aircraft, likely an Indian Air Force carrier, to retrieve the mortal remains and fly them back to Amritsar, Kolkata and Patna.amansharma@tribunemail.com

Bhind (MP), March 26

A television journalist who had complained about threats to his life after he carried out a sting operation on illicit sand mining was on Monday mowed down by a truck, officials said.

Sandeep Sharma, who worked for a local news channel, had told the district administration he feared he could be killed by the sand mafia, his nephew, Vikas Purohit, said in a complaint to the police.

Read: Bihar journalist killed as SUV hits bike; family alleges murder



The 35-year-old journalist was talking on his phone by the side of Ater Road in front of a police station when the truck, used to ferry sand, ran over him, the officials said.

Purohit, in his complaint to the City Kotwali police, alleged that Sharma had been facing a threat to his life because of the recent sting operation he had carried out on the sand mafia.

#WATCH:Chilling CCTV footage of moment when Journalist Sandeep Sharma was run over by a truck in Bhind. He had been reporting on the sand mafia and had earlier complained to Police about threat to his life. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/LZxNuTLyap  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

"Sandeep had petitioned the Madhya Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP), Inspector General (IG), Superintendent of Police (SP) and the Human Rights Commission stating that he feared for his life and had demanded security," Purohit said.

In his report to the top officials, Sharma had said because of the sting operation against the sand mafia and the Sub Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), the officer was transferred, Purohit claimed.

Sharma was to have recorded his statement against the SDPO and was being threatened by unidentified people, Purohit added.

Bhind SP Prashant Khare said Sharma's application to the authorities was being examined and the incident probed.

The driver of the truck fled the scene after the accident, the police said.

"We have formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the entire incident. A case under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) has been registered," Khare said. - PTIharinder@tribunemail.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 26

Having declared instant triple talaq unconstitutional seven months ago, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre on four PILs seeking to declare invalid the practices of polygamy and nikah-halala followed by Muslims in India.

A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra accepted the petitions filed by Sameena Begum and three others, including BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, which termed these practices appalling and violative of fundamental rights.

The Bench agreed to consider the PILs after several senior counsel representing the petitioners pointed out that in the August 2017 verdict, a five-judge Constitution Bench which declared instant triple talaq invalid by a majority of 3:2 had kept the issues of polygamy and nikah-halala open. Keeping in view the importance of the issue, the Bench directed that the matter be placed before the CJI for setting up of a Constitution Bench to dwell upon the issues which may arise. Additionally, it ordered that a copy of the petitions be served on the Central agency so that it can appraise the AGs office.

It also allowed the Muslim Women Resistance Committee, Kolkata, to file an application to become a party.

Sameena (40), who hails from South Delhi, said she was a victim of polygamy herself and was moved by the plight of thousands of Muslim women suffering due to the draconian practices of polygamy and nikah-halala.

She stated that her first husband gave her triple talaq when she complained against the torture meted out to her. Her second husband, already a married man, gave her triple talaq over the phone while she was pregnant.

There are separate sets of personal laws in India for each religion governing marriage, divorce, succession, adoption and maintenance. The Hindu law has substantially changed since the 1950s; activists complain that Muslim law has hardly been reformed.

Muslim Personal Law allows polygamy as a Muslim man can have four wives. In case a Muslim man agrees to marry a woman he has divorced, the woman has to undergo the process of nikah-halala  marry another man, get the marriage consummated and then obtain a divorce from him to be able to marry the man who had divorced her. Many women term it an abhorrent practice.sanjiv@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, March 25

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi after allegations surfaced that data from his official app was being shared without users consent, a charge the BJP trashed.

Gandhi also accused the media of burying the story.

His attack on the PM was based on a report in which a French vigilante hacker has purportedly alleged that data was stolen from his official app  NaMo App  without the consent of the users.

Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am Indias Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies, Gandhi said on Twitter. In the tweet, he also attached a story titled, Data theft allegations reaches PM Modis doorstep, French vigilante hackers stunning revelation.

The BJP reacted on Twitter, saying it did not expect any better from the Congress chief. It also said the data is used only for analytics using third party service, similar to Google Analytics.

Official sources also maintained the app does not ask for blanket permissions when it is launched. They said the app is unique in nature, which unlike most apps, gives access to users in guest mode without even any permission or data. The permissions required are all contextual and cause-specific, they pointed out. We also take this opportunity to encourage Rahul Gandhi to download NaMo App to keep himself apprised of the good things happening in India, the BJP4India said in a tweet.

Rahul Gandhi is no match for Narendra Modi. But seeing his fright about the Namo App, is very amusing. When his bots tried to trend #DeleteNamoApp day before yesterday, the popularity and downloads of Namo App only increased, it said.

The Congress and the BJP have indulged in a slinging match over data theft and the use of services of Cambridge Analytica, accused of harvesting data from Facebook.  PTIharinder@tribunemail.com

Lahore, March 26

Eighty-seven years after Bhagat Singh was hanged for the murder of a British police officer, Pakistan on Monday for the first time displayed some records of the legendary freedom fighters case file, including his execution certificate.

Singh, 23, was hanged by British rulers on March 23, 1931, in Lahore after being tried under charges for hatching a conspiracy against the colonial government. The case was filed against Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru for allegedly killing British police officer John P Saunders.

The Punjab Archives Department could not display the whole record of the case file of Singh as it was not reportedly fully prepared. On Monday we exhibited some record of the case file of Bhagat Singh (at the tomb of Anarkali, Lahore). We will display more record, probably all files, related to this case on Tuesday, an official of the department said.

The record which was put on display included request of Bhagat Singh for providing order of the court dated August 27, 1930, petition of Bhagat Singh dated May 31, 1929, for interview of his father, petition of Sardar Kishan Singh, father of Bhagat Singh, against the death sentence of his son and the certificate/execution of death of Bhagat Singh in Lahore district jail by the superintendent of jail dated March 23, 1931.

It also included a petition of Bhagat Singh for allowing him daily newspapers and books. Some other record related to manifesto of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha Lahore by BC Vohra, several clippings of the daily VIRBHARAT and etc.

We will display more clippings of newspapers and other archives related to Indian independence movement on Tuesday, the official said.

One document about the execution of death sentence of Bhagat Singh says: I (superintendent of the jail) hereby certify that the sentence of death passed on Bhagat Singh has been duly executed and that the said Bhagat Singh was accordingly hanged by neck till he was dead at Lahore Jail on 9 pm Monday the 23rd day of March 1931. The body was not taken down until life was ascertained by a medical officer to be extinct; and that no accident, error or other misadventure occurred.

Revolutionary Singh significantly did not end each application with the customary yours truly or obediently. Instead he chose the words Yours etc. etc. showing his resilience in the face of tyranny.

In a letter to the district magistrate, Delhi, on April 25, 1929, for allowing him newspapers and books, Bhagat Singh wrote: I will be obliged of you if you kindly allow me the use of daily newspapers and books. Yours Etc. The case files also contain documents showing how the British India police and agencies had busted the team of Bhagat Singh comprising around 24 to 25 members from different parts of India and established their links with the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army and the Naujawan Bharat Sabha.

Bhagat Singhs father Sardar Kishan Singh filed a petition in court on July 29, 1930, against the death sentence of his son and his comrades  Rajguru and Sukhdev.

He pleaded the court that no reliance should be placed on the evidence of alleged eyewitnesses when Bhagat Singh was brought from Delhi to Lahore during the course of investigation in the murder case of Saunders.

The decision to display the case record of Bhagat Singh and others was taken at a recent meeting of the Punjab governments top bureaucrats headed by chief secretary Zahid Saeed.  PTIgspannu7@gmail.com

Lahore, March 26

Eighty-seven years after Bhagat Singh was hanged for the murder of a British police officer, Pakistan on Monday for the first time displayed some records of the legendary freedom fighters case file including his execution certificate.

Bhagat Singh, 23, was hanged by British rulers on March 23, 1931 in Lahore, after being tried under charges for hatching a conspiracy against the colonial government. The case was filed against Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru for allegedly killing British police officer John P Saunders.

The Punjab Archives Department could not display the whole record of the case file of Singh as it was not reportedly fully prepared.

Today we exhibited some record of the case file of Bhagat Singh (at the tomb of Anarkali, Lahore). We will display more record, probably all files, related to this case tomorrow, an official of the department told PTI.

The record which was put on display included request of Bhagat Singh for providing order of court dated August 27, 1930, petition of Bhagat Singh dated May 31, 1929 for interview of his father, petition of Sardar Kishan Singh, father of Bhagat Singh, against the death sentence of his son and the certificate/execution of death of Bhagat Singh in Lahore district jail by the superintendent of jail dated March 23, 1931.

It also included a petition of Bhagat Singh for allowing him daily newspapers and books.

Some other records related to manifesto of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha Lahore by BC Vohra, several clippings of the daily VIRBHARAT and etc.

We will display more clippings of newspapers and other archives related to Indian Independence movement tomorrow, the official said.

One document about the execution of death sentence of Bhagat Singh says: I (superintendent of the jail) hereby certify that the sentence of death passed on Bhagat Singh has been duly executed and that the said Bhagat Singh was accordingly hanged by neck till he was dead at Lahore Jail on 9 pm Monday the 23rd day of March 1931. The body was not taken down until life was ascertained by a medical officer to be extinct; and that no accident, error or other misadventure occurred.

The revolutionary significantly did not end each application with the customary yours truly or obediently. Instead he chose the words Yours etc. etc. showing his resilience in the face of tyranny.

In a letter to the district magistrate Delhi on April 25, 1929, for allowing him newspapers and books, Bhagat Singh wrote: I will be obliged of you if you kindly allow me the use of daily newspapers and books. Yours Etc.

The case files also contain documents showing how the British India police and agencies had busted the team of Bhagat Singh comprising around 24 to 25 members from different parts of India and established their links with the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army and the Naujawan Bharat Sabha.

Bhagat Singhs father Sardar Kishan Singh filed a petition in court on July 29, 1930 against the death sentence of his son and his comrades  Rajguru and Sukhdev.

He pleaded the court that no reliance should be placed on the evidence of alleged eyewitnesses when Bhagat Singh was brought from Delhi to Lahore during the course of investigation in the murder case of Saunders.

Bhagat Singh was not taken to the central jail or the Borstal Institution where the prosecution witnesses could have no opportunity to see him before the formal identification parade held by the magistrate at the Cantonment police station.

The distance between the Lahore Cantonment police station and the central jail is only few miles. Bhagat Singh could very easily have been brought to the central jail, and identification parade could have been held there.

At the Cantonment police station the witnesses were procured by the investigation staff and the magistrate who had to hold the identification parade was also sent by the investigation staff.

There could be no other object of the police to go out of the way and to arrange the identification parade at the Cantonment police station but to give an opportunity to see Bhagat Singh in the face identification parade. This identification parade was of no value.

The decision to display the case record of Bhagat Singh and others has been taken at a recent meeting of the Punjab Government top bureaucrats headed by chief secretary Zahid Saeed.

The meeting decided that Bhagat Singh was the Independence movement hero of both India and Pakistan. The people of the country have the right to know about his and his comrades great struggle to get freedom from the British Raj, the official said.  PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, March 26

Citing unremunerative crop prices, a group of 91 farmers from Maharashtras Buldhana district have sought permission for euthanasia (medically induced process to end life of pain, suffering). Sources said they had submitted a petition to the Governor and the local SDM in this regard some days ago with 91 signatures.

The petition said the district authorities had delayed payment for land acquisition from farmers for constructing a highway. The farmers, it said, were unable to feed their families owing to lack of funds and, hence, wanted to commit suicide.

Government officials said they would look into complaints that farmers were not receiving adequate compensation for land acquired for public projects. After a farmer committed suicide outside Mantralaya, the state governments secretariat in Mumbai, district officials have been asked to ensure timely disbursement of compensation.

Farmers groups say cotton, soyabean and sunflower crops, the main produce in Buldhana district, have suffered badly for various reasons in the past one year. While the government has announced enhanced compensation for the cotton crop destroyed in a bollworm attack, little has so far been announced for the loss of other crops, admit officials.#Squid Game 'Squid Game' exposes social realities, much like 'Parasite' The popularity of the new Netflix Korean series, "Squid Game," can be attributed in large part to its exposure of social and capitalist realities, critics said Thursday. In that...

#BTS BTS returns home after visit to U.N., New York K-pop superstars BTS returned home Friday after a weeklong trip to New York as special presidential envoys for future generations and culture, their label said. During the week,...editorial@tribune.com

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 25

All eyes will be on Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan when the House reassembles on Tuesday to witness three no-confidence motion notices from different political parties.

For days, the TDP and YSR Congress Party MPs have been giving notices to Lok Sabha Secretary General to move no-confidence motions against the BJP-led NDA government. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge is an addition to the list.

Will the Speaker allow these notices on Tuesday or will she again cite lack of order in the House to defer them  is the question on everyones mind.

The Tribune asked three former Lok Sabha Secretary Generals whether a no-confidence motion could be held up indefinitely due to disorder in the House. Reactions were mixed.

PDT Achary, Secretary General of the 14th and 15th Lok Sabhas, said the Speaker had a duty to mention a notice of no-confidence motion to the House soon as she received the same and to seek leave of the House to admit the motion. The House would then discuss the motion within 10 days of its moving.

Convention is that in case of a notice of no-confidence motion, all other business of the House is held over along with all Government policy decisions until such a motion is disposed, Achary said.

He cited Article 75 of the Constitution as the source of the no-confidence motion mentioning, This Article says the council of ministers will be collectively responsible to the House. Expressing lack of confidence in the council of ministers is the constitutional right of MPs, Achary said.

Further, Rule 378 of LS procedures gives the Speaker power (including of naming and suspending MPs) to restore order in Lok Sabha with Achary saying the Speaker can exercise her powers. Subhash Kashyap, Secretary General of the eighth Lok Sabha, admitted that parliamentary convention has been to place a no-confidence motion before the House soon as it is received and ask for 50 MPs to stand up in order to admit it.

There can, however, be a technical problem of counting MPs if there is disruption in the House. We cant blame one person for it. MPs have to be in a mood to listen...but the convention has been to take up the motion in the House, Kashyap said.

Another former LS Secretary General GC Malhotra, however, firmly defended the Speaker on deferring the notices due to lack of order. For any business, order is essential, and for a serious business like no-confidence motion it is absolutely essential. Leaders of parties are responsible for the prevailing stalemate followed by the government and the Speaker. If a certain party has given a notice for no-confidence motion how can MPs of the same party be in the well? Doesnt this mean the notice is a farce? he asked.

LS sources meanwhile said the motions were unlikely to be taken up Tuesday also as no resolution is in sight for the ongoing imbroglio.

Speaker duty-bound, cant disallow: Experts

A no-confidence motion is admitted only with the permission of the House after 50 MPs stand in favour. Speaker is, therefore, duty bound to seek that permission as she has no power to disallow this motion. PDT Achary, Former Secy-Gen, Lok Sabha

Parliamentary convention has been to place a no-confidence motion before the House soon as it is received and ask for 50 MPs to stand up to admit it. Speaker has to place the motion before Lok Sabha. Subhash Kashyap, Former Secy-Gen, Lok Sabhaeditorial@tribune.com

Smita Sharma

Amid the ongoing internal purge in Saudi Arabia under 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, the kingdom is opening up. At least that is the message the kingdoms envoys have for the world.

Saud Al Sati, the Ambassador to India, is aware of the challenges related to blue-collared workers in the kingdom and reports of severe abuse. But he insists Indians are welcome in Saudi, with their numbers growing manifold. From 12 lakh in 2006 to 32 lakh today, and growing. One out of 10 Saudis is an Indian. They are good at their jobs, law abiding, culturally accepted and used to our ways of life, says the envoy. He stresses that India and Saudi Arabia today have strong effective cooperation on labour issues and creation of an integrated online database will provide verifiable information about Indian workers in Saudi, including their whereabouts. But misleading brokers need to be cracked down upon, he points out.

When it comes to womens rights, Saudi has hardly been a benchmark for the world. So when women were finally given the green signal to drive starting June this year, it made for international headlines. However, the Ambassador insists reforms have been underway for some years now. Women are playing a greater role in government institutions and the private sector. We appointed the first woman deputy minister of the ministry of labour. Thirty members in the Shura council (representative assembly) and two to three VCs of universities are women. There are more female students than males in colleges.

The Ambassador rolls out some statistics. That of the 200,000 Saudi students overseas receiving government scholarships, women account for nearly 30 per cent. The India-Saudi joint commission that met in February also agreed to create a forum for young and women entrepreneurs from both countries to interact with and learn from each others experiences. Every year lakhs of Indian Muslims visit the kingdom, the custodian of the two holy mosques, for religious pilgrimage. As Saudi seeks to diversify its economy and reduce dependence on oil, transport, rail connectivity and tourism are the focus. A 400-km rail network connecting Mecca to Medina and a new airport in Jeddah will soon be inaugurated and tourist visas introduced April onwards. With 60 per cent of the kingdoms population today below the age of 30, education is a key component of Prince Salmans Vision 2030. And education, tourism, energy, IT, automobiles, heath, pharmaceuticals are sectors where Saudi Arabia wants to welcome greater Indian investments. The Saudi oil minister will be in Delhi to attend the 16th International Energy Forum on April 10-11 and important announcements are in the offing, says the envoy.

Zimbabwe woos

Not just Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe too is wooing Indian investors. Zimbabwean Vice President Chiwenga wants collaboration with India in areas of minerals, lithium, chrome, coking coal, gold and iron and diamonds. Interacting with the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry last week, Dr Chiwenga said Zimbabwe wants to offer public-private-partnership opportunities to Indian businessmen.editorial@tribune.com

Vikramdeep Johal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 25

About 9,000 km from the heat and dust of Ludhianas Aliwal village is Aliwal North, a town located along the Orange river in South Africas East Cape province. The former is known for a decisive battle fought on January 28, 1846, as part of the First Anglo-Sikh War; the latters main attractions are its hot springs, recommended for people afflicted with rheumatism and chest ailments. The two places seem to have nothing in common except their name. The similarity, however, is no coincidence.

It was Sir Harry Smith (1787-1860) who led the British troops to an emphatic victory in the Battle of Aliwal despite being heavily outnumbered by the Sikh forces, which were commanded by aristocrat-warrior Ranjodh Singh Majithia. British military historian John Fortescue called it the battle without a mistake.

Queen Victoria bestowed the title of baronet of Aliwal on the Sutlej on Smith, while the British Parliament acknowledged his achievement with a vote of thanks. He also distinguished himself in the Battle of Sabraon (Ferozepur) on February 10, 1846. A year later, Smith was sent to South Africa as the Governor of Cape Colony, with the rank of Lt General. In 1849, he founded a town, calling it Aliwal North to commemorate his epic win over the Sikhs (it continues to be the official name). Eager to stamp his authority on the locals, he rechristened Mossel Bay, a harbour town in Western Cape Province, as Aliwal South, but the new name never caught on and was soon discarded. Two other South African towns, Harrismith and Ladysmith, were named after Harry Smith and his Spanish wife Juana Maria de los Dolores de Leon Smith.

Sir Harry Smith was a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, including the Battle of Waterloo. The skirmish at Baddowal saw the Sikhs deal a blow to the British forces, but he redeemed himself at Aliwal, says Gurinder Singh Mann, director of the Sikh Museum Initiative, a UK-based heritage preservation organisation. Mann, architect of the multimedia project Anglo-Sikh Wars: Battles, Treaties and Relics, is currently visiting battle sites across Punjab.

The desi Aliwal has two memorials  the Flame of Memory built by the British a few years after the bloody face-off, and the other raised by sarpanch Pargat Singh Dhillon in 2015 with the help of then Dakha MLA Manpreet Ayali, the SGPC, local residents and NRIs. However, its South African connection is little known. When informed about it, Pargat said, Its a pleasant surprise. This gives us another reason to promote Aliwal on a big scale. We want to put this historical place on the national or international tourist map, but need help from the authorities and elected representatives.

Shoal steeped in history

South Africa has a popular spot of marine tourism called Aliwal Shoal, a rocky reef near Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province that offers scuba diving and cageless shark diving. Its named after SS Aliwal, a three-mast ship that set sail from England to Natal in September 1849 under the command of Captain James Anderson and nearly collided with the shoal. He duly alerted fellow captains about a very large and dangerous rock, with heavy breakers. No prizes for guessing how the ship got its name.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 26

Leader of the Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Monday accused Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh of not being able to curb corruption, the drug menace and various mafias in the state, even as the discussion on the Governors Address resumed in the Vidhan Sabha.

Calling the CM a non-starter and raising questions about his health, Khaira said the Congress government had not been able to eradicate the ills plaguing the state.

Acknowledging that a probe had been initiated against Gurinder Singh, a contractor allegedly involved in the Rs 1,000-crore irrigation scam, and Surinder Singh Pehalwan, a key accused in the Rs 1,200-crore scam in the Housing Department, Khaira said on the floor of the House that no effort had been made to widen the scope of the investigation in these corruption cases.

On the Jagdish Bhola drug racket, he said: Only a thorough investigation can establish whether (Bikram Singh) Majithia is involved or not. I demand a CBI probe to prove the allegations in the drug case against me. Instead of a witch-hunt, the political class should spare a thought for the states future.

Hitting out at former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Khaira said, In the annals of history, the Akali CM will not be described as a statesman. The Congress and the Akalis have only been indulging in a blame game.

Earlier, Majithia, while speaking on the Governors Address, said the Congress government had surrendered on the vital issues of staking claim to Punjabi-speaking areas and Chandigarh as the state capital.

He took a dig at the government by showing news reports of Budh Singh, a farmer from Dera Baba Nanak, whose pictures had appeared in publicity material for the crop loan waiver scheme. Against the promised loan waiver of Rs 90,000 crore, the government has been able to give just Rs 329 crore, he said, flashing a copy of the Congress poll manifesto.

AAP leader in league with Cong: Majithia

Addressing the media outside the House, Bikram Singh Majithia said Leader of the Opposition Sukhpal Khaira and the Congress had a quid pro quo arrangement. He said inputs were given by Khaira to the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission that is probing incidents of sacrilege. He claimed that the report was being prepared to corner the Akalis. He alleged that the treasury benches had tried to disrupt his speech on the Governors Address. They are trying to muzzle the voice of the Opposition by imposing an Emergency-like situation, the Akali leader said.editorial@tribune.com

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 26

Five years after a girl accused her father of rape, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted him of the charge. The Bench held that the father would reprimand the girl after seeing her in the company of boys and that appears to be the reason for the complaint. The Bench stated that the trial court failed to appreciate the evidence in its totality or with sensitivity.

In custody throughout the trial, the appellant was convicted and sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment, along with Rs 5,000 fine, by an Amritsar court under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC. The FIR was registered in June 2013 at Rambagh police station.

In rape cases, the prosecutrixs statement, if found convincing, is adequate to convict an accused.

The girl had alleged that she was raped in her house around 6 am on June 8, 2013. At the time of the occurrence, her siblings were away to school; her mother is mentally unstable.

The complainants sister was cited as a prosecution witness, but was given up by the prosecution. She was later examined as a defence witness.

Justice Anita Chaudhry said the Bench was required to examine whether the prosecutrixs statement was convincing and could be relied upon.

She said it was vacation time and schools were closed at the time the offence was alleged to have been committed. So, it was highly improbable that the incident could occur in those days, the judge observed.

Referring to the medical evidence, Justice Chaudhary said there was no fresh assault. The plea taken by the accused that his daughter was out of his control is true. False allegations had been levelled by the daughter and her statement should not have been accepted as the gospel truth, Justice Chaudhary asserted.

The trial court erred by accepting the prosecutrixs statement at face value. It should have sought corroboration from other evidence, the judge said.

The prosecution had been unable to prove its case. Resultantly, the appeal is accepted. The judgment and the order of conviction are set aside. The appellant is in custody. He be released forthwith, if his custody is not required in any other case, Justice Chaudhry concluded.editorial@tribune.com

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 25

Only 11.6 per cent of the states total revenue receipts (Rs 8,588.73 crore) is what is available with the government in the coming fiscal to be spent on development works.

This is because a whopping 88.36 per cent of the revenue will be used just to pay salaries, pensions, interest payment on loan and power subsidy.

Of Rs 73,811.86 crore, the government hopes to earn in 2018-19, Rs 65,223.13 crore will be consumed by these four committed liabilities alone. And if the repayment of debt, excluding ways and means advances, is also taken into account, the state will have no money from its revenue to spare for development. The Finance Department has calculated the repayment of debt at Rs 8,609.99 crore.

A look at the Budget proposal reveals a rather grim economic outlook. Though the efforts made by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal to shun populism by imposing new taxes need to be lauded, these are not enough, considering the states ever depleting fiscal health.

Manpreet is targeting an increase of Rs 5,573.93 crore in the states own tax revenue and an increase of Rs 5,152.62 crore in the states non-tax revenues, but what he cannot wish away is the states mounting debt and the large chunk of resources that is going into its repayment.

From Rs 1,95,977.73 crore this fiscal, the states debt is expected to rise to Rs 2,11,522.68 crore by March, 2019. This would mean that a total of Rs 24,870.08 crore (Rs 16,260 crore for payment of interest and Rs 8,609 crore for repayment of debt) will go in for debt servicing alone. The state can raise loans worth Rs 19,423.64 crore this year. This money to be raised, plus another Rs 5,446 crore from the states own kitty, will be used for debt repayment.

If unproductive borrowings in the past have pushed the state into a debt trap, the government needs to focus on creating capital assets from new loans. Interestingly, this debt does not Rs 19,357 crore, raised by the states public sector undertakings, for which guarantees have been given by the state government.

Budget pro-farmer, progressive: Ministers

Chandigarh: Brahm Mohindra, Health and Family Welfare Minister, praised the Punjab Government for giving priority to the health sector by earmarking Rs 4,015 crore for the upgrade of healthcare services in the state. He said a substantial 13 per cent hike in the health budget truly manifested the government's resolve to provide quality and affordable health services to the citizens of Punjab. He appreciated Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal for presenting a progressive Budget. In a press release, Forests and Wildlife Preservation and SC/BC Welfare Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot termed the Budget pro-farmer and development-oriented. Calling the budget realistic, Dharamsot said the Congress government was well aware of the needs of the weaker sections. He said the government, in a step towards the welfare of SC/BCs and minorities, had kept reserved an amount of Rs 1,235 crore for this year which would be utilised for education and social welfare schemes. TNS

Bir Devinder lauds FMs rationale

Chandigarh: The Budget seems to be cautiously moderate in view of the huge deficit, yet the budgetary allocations are rationally innovative, if we read it objectively, said Bir Devinder Singh. In a press release, he said those who criticised the Budget must realise their own extravagant and irrational spending on unplanned ventures during the previous regime led by SAD. "The Budget has rightly focused on the education sector by giving the much-needed booster dose to Punjabi University and Punjab University," he said, adding that Manpreet and his team had painstakingly worked out arithmetic of budgetary provisions, having objectivity in mind to fund new initiatives. TNSeditorial@tribune.com

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 26

The Vidhan Sabha here on Monday passed a resolution seeking the NDA governments intervention to legally pursue the case in which a Supreme Court verdict had diluted provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The resolution was moved by Speaker Rana KP Singh.

The treasury benches caused an uproar during Zero Hour when Congress MLA Sushil Rinku sought the Houses attention to discuss the issue. As soon as the matter was raised, Congress MLAs blamed the Centre for not properly defending the case in the apex court.

Technical Education Minister Charanjit Channi told the Assembly that diluting the provisions would lead to great miscarriage of justice. It will lead to a sense of insecurity among Dalits. We demand that a review petition should be filed by the Centre against the verdict, he said.

Channi did not sit down despite repeated announcements by the Speaker, forcing the latter to intervene to end the pandemonium.

Akalis MLAs twice stormed the Well of the House before staging a walkout over the governments failure to fulfil its poll promises. AAP MLAs, too, staged a walkout over the governments lapses on various counts.

Kanwar Sandhu (AAP) moved a privilege notice against Finance Minister Manpreet Badal for misleading the House on his question about payment to sugarcane growers. While the minister stated that arrears amounting to Rs 46 crore had been released to the growers on Monday, Sandhu said these dues were of the previous year. The pending dues till date were Rs 300 crore. Seven of the nine state co-operative sugar mills owe about Rs 230.45 crore.

At the beginning of Zero Hour, Leader of the Opposition Sukhpal Khaira raised the issue of excessive use of force against protesting teachers in Ludhiana on Sunday.

Akali leaders Parminder Singh Dhindsa and Gurpartap Wadala sought action against Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for leaking details of the Budget. Manpreet defended Sidhu on the issue.

War of words over riot victimseditorial@tribune.com

Chandigarh, March 26

The Congress government will try to run the ill-conceived Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in Amritsar as hefty sums of money have already gone into the project, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said on Monday.

Replying to a call-attention notice, Manpreet informed the Assembly that a group of ministers would now suggest ways to bring the project back on track. The project had failed to take off and about 150 buses are lying unused.

It was a half-baked and ill-conceived project conceptualised by the previous government. Barring a few exceptions, BRTS projects have failed in most cities of the country. However, now as a lot of money has been spent on it, a group of ministers will go into the issue and we will try to run the project. At this stage, we are not going into the argument whether the project was good or bad, Manpreet said.

Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said over Rs 400 crore had been spent on the project. If we get Rs 30-crore running cost for this project, we will run it and make it world class, he added.

Manpreet and Sidhu were replying to a call-attention notice by Congress MLA Sunil Dutti, former Mayor of Amritsar.

In its present shape, the project leads to traffic jams. Many accidents have also occurred, bus stands have been built in the middle of the roads, causing inconvenience. The government should take a call whether the project has to be run or scrapped, Dutti said.

The Amritsar BRTS is jointly funded by the Centre and Punjab on equal-sharing basis and the total cost of the project is around Rs 495 crore. In December 2016, partial operations of the BRTS were started and presently only nine buses are plying, the Assembly was informed.  PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 25

A section of the state Congress leaders is upset at the appointment of Raman Bahl as the chairman of the reconstituted Punjab Subordinate Service Selection Board.

Gurdaspur MLA Barindermeet Singh Pahra, whose candidature for the 2017 Assembly elections had reportedly been opposed by Bahl initially, is learnt to have tendered his resignation to PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar.

Pahra did not respond to calls, while Jakhar said he was not aware of any such development. Sources in the party said the MLA had raised an objection before the Chief Minister on Saturday. In party circles, it is being said that Bahl was rewarded for helping the PPCC chief win the Gurdaspur parliamentary byelection.

A senior Congress leader said, There is resentment among party leaders from Gurdaspur over not being consulted ahead of Bahls appointment. Leaders who opposed the candidature of party candidates during the Assembly elections are being rewarded with plum posts.

Pahra is the grandson of former Akali MLA late Kartar Singh Pahra. In 2009, the Pahras had quit the Akali Dal and joined the Congress after the police booked the family in several cases, allegedly at the behest of Akali leader Gurbachan Singh Babbehali.

Pahra had been preferred over Bahl, son of ex-minister Khushal Bahl, for the party ticket from the Gurdaspur Assembly seat last year. Bahl had unsuccessfully contested the 2012 elections on the Congress ticket. Those who had withdrawn from the contest have to be accommodated, another senior party leader said.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 25

The SGPC has again asked the Centre to waive the GST on items purchased for langar at gurdwaras, majorly the Golden Temple.

SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal has written a letter to GST council chairperson and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, urging him to review the imposition of GST on langar items.

Since July, we have been paying GST on langar purchase. We are facing extra burden on a service which is offered free of cost. I request the Finance Minister to announce total immunity from paying any kind of tax on items that are meant to prepare langar in gurdwaras, he said.

Khaira claims credit

Chandigarh: Leader of Oppostion Sukhpal Khaira on Sunday claimed that he had major role in getting the state GST waiver for Darbar Sahib. In a statement, he said although he didnt want to indulge in credit race, he wouldnt allow the Congress to take fake credit. Khaira released the minutes of the Assembly, claiming that the resolution was passed on the demand raised by him. TNSeditorial@tribune.com

Sumeer Singh

Tribune News Service

Maur, March 25

More than 100 patients visiting the Civil Hospital, Maur, are forced to return without being examined or treated on a daily basis, the reason being that the institute is running without doctors. This is despite the fact that the hospital is equipped with all modern medical facilities.

The three-storey government hospital building established under the Public Health System Corporation (PHSC) in 2002 is spread across an area of around 2.5 acres and houses over 12 speciality units  including that for tuberculosis, ayurveda, OT (operation theatre), emergency, OPD, eye unit, dental unit, labour room, maternity ward, laboratory, X-ray unit, surgical ward  which have been non-operational for over one-and-a-half year now.

All these units (35 rooms, including all wards) are fully air-conditioned but there is not even a single doctor to sit inside. With a majority of the patients returning from the registration desk itself, the paramedical staff, including seven staff nurses and six pharmacists, do not have much to do except examining and prescribing medicines to patients with seasonal fever or cough.

As per PHSC norms, there are seven sanctioned posts of core medical staff (doctors) for the hospital, including SMO, medicine, surgeon, gynaecologist, paediatrician, dental surgeon and MO (MBBS).

A doctor who was posted at the hospital a few years ago said apart from the Health Departments lack of seriousness towards appointing doctors at the hospital, doctors, too, do not want to be posted at Maur as department guidelines stipulate that doctors appointed in urban health centres cannot practice MD or MS.

The Senior Medical Officer of the hospital has the additional charge of CHC, Bhagta, and CHC, Nathana, who visit the Civil Hospital, Maur once or twice a month.

When contacted, Anjali Bhawra, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, said, I am in the middle of a meeting and we will see what we can do about the Maur Civil Hospital.

Civil Surgeon Hari Narayan Singh said, We have written to the state Health Department authorities more than 10 times to appoint doctors at the Maur hospital but nothing concrete has been done.

Health Minister Brahm Mohindra said, I will look into it and if there are no doctors at Maur hospital, then will make appointments on a priority basis.

Patients face inconvenience

A population of over 70,000 from 30 villages is dependent on the government hospital at Maur but in the absence of doctors, patients are forced to visit hospitals at Mansa or Talwandi Sabo. While deliveries of pregnant women are conducted by nurses, in the absence of a gynaecologist, cases requiring C-section deliveries are referred to the Civil Hospital, Bathinda, which is 45 km from Maur.sanjiv@tribunemail.com

TRUE the Englishman:-"No form of government is so greatly in need of criticism and co-operation as a bureaucratic government and no government is so apparently resentful of the one and so neglectful of the other." Truly a most unkind cut, as the Leader describes it, if we could feel sure that the writer was not thinking only of Anglo-Indian criticism and Anglo-Indian co-operation. Thus limited, the dictum loses all its meaning and all its force, because it only amounts to the old cry that the privileged position of the journal and its constituents shall be maintained. It is also ungrateful, because the authorities in India are still unduly deferential to the opinion and the wishes of the party of privilege, though it must be acknowledged that they are now less deferential than they used to be.harinder@tribunemail.com

WE deeply regret to learn by wire of a heart-rending tragedy, attended with heavy loss life, which took place at the Golden Temple, Amritsar, on the morning of Tuesday, the 26th instant. "This morning," wires our correspondent, "two balconies of a bunga close to the Akal Bunga, filled with people witnessing Holi, gave way under pressure of the weight, burying a large number of persons. About 40 were killed on the spot and 100 injured. Mr. Burton, Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Rozdon, Health Officer, and the police arrived on the scene. The bodies were made over to the relatives The injured were removed to hospitals, several dying on the way. It was a pathetic and heart-rending scene. Several families have been wiped off." The Holi in the Darbar Sahib is played in front of the Akal Bunga and the Darshni Deorki of the Golden Temple and has always been a scene of merriment to those who witness it from a safe distance from the surrounding buildings as man after man is dipped in huge cauldrons of red colour.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 26

The state Assembly on Monday passed a Bill proposing a 100 per cent hike in the allowances and salaries of sitting MLAs and former MLAs.

In January 2014, the Congress government under former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna had hiked the salaries and allowances of MLAs. An MLA was receiving around Rs 1.57 lakh per month, while the salaries of the Speaker and a minister were higher than that of an MLA.

Now with the latest hike, an MLA will receive a monthly salary of Rs 30,000 along with several other allowances, which too will increase. The Bill has proposed a hike in allowances (for Vidhan Sabha area) from Rs 60,000 to Rs 1.40 lakh and in other allowances from Rs 3,000 to Rs 12,000.

On the other hand, the salaries and allowances of the ministers will be double, according to the latest hike approved by the House. Similarly, the salaries and allowances of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker would increase two fold as recommended in the Bill, which will now go to the Governor for his assent.laxmi@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 25

Chief of the Army Staff General Bipin Rawat along with Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat visited Veer Chandra Singh Garhwal Government Institute of Medical Science and Research, Srinagar Garhwal, at Pauri district of Uttarakhand today.

The two spent time visiting various sections of the medical college and held a meeting with the management. The visit of the Army Chief to Veer Chandra Singh Garhwal Government Institute of Medical Science and Research holds significance as Army is preparing to take it over. The Army will develop it on the lines of Armed Forces Medical College, Pune.

Since its inception some years ago, Srinagar Medical College has been facing manpower shortage. The hospital was set up to cater to the needs of patients from hill areas, who were forced to head to Dehradun or other cities in search of specialised treatment for serious ailments. But the medical college has failed to provide tertiary care to patients hailing from hill areas of the state.laxmi@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 25

Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said modernisation of Indian Army was under way. She credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the modernisation programme.

The Defence Minister was here on Sunday to honour students of the state, who have been selected in Indian Military Academy and National Defence Academy in the recent years.

When you join the forces after competition of training at your respective academies, you will be proud to join a modernised Indian Army, Sitharaman said addressing the gathering of successful students.

She also asserted that the Army was fully prepared to deal with any situation.

The minister recalled her visit to the Uttarakhand region during childhood days, pointing that the region was then known for Char Dham yatra. But today Uttarakhand is also known as Veer Bhumi as a large number of youth from the state join defence forces these days, she said.

The minister also praised Col Ajay Kothiyal, Director, National Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, for his efforts towards motivating the state youth to join the armed forces.

Nirmala Sitharaman also handed over a cheque of Rs 50,000 each to the successful student of Uttarakhand, who have been selected in Indian Military Academy and National Defence Academy from 2014 to 2018. A total of 140 selected students were felicitated by the minister. She also honoured family members of Victoria Cross awardee Late Gabbar Singh Negi, Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali and other defence forces martyrs.

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said it was a matter of honour that Prime Minister had reposed faith in a daughter of the country by making Nirmala Sitharaman as defence minister of the country.

Chief of Army Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, Uttarakhand Higher Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat and Mussoorie BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi were among the prominent persons present on the occasion.editorial@tribune.com

Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 26

Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly was adjourned sine die on Monday by the Speaker Prem Chand Aggarwal. During the six-day session the states annual budget (2018-2019) totalling Rs 45,585 crore was passed.

In all 17 bills were passed, including the Uttarakhand Appropriation Bill (2018), Freedom to Religion Bill (2018) that stipulates punishment up to five years (max) for forced conversions and Cow Progeny improvement of stock Bill (2018).

During the session that began on March 20 at Bhararisain (Gairsain), a total of 1081 questions were received and the ministers replied to a 361 questions. Out of a total of 1,081 questions 56 were starred, 291 unstarred and eight were short notice questions. During the six-day session, the house ran for 26 hours and 17 minutes.

Uttarakhand Parliamentary Affairs Minister said the session that concluded on Monday was the longest at Bhararisain, We have reiterated our commitment in the budget to build a mini secretariat for Gairsain. We plan to develop Gairsain as a tourist destination, said Pant.

He said the session was held in an amenable atmosphere. He also accused the opposition of failing to come prepared in the House, They did not come up with suggestions during the discussion on the budget but so were more interested in creating disturbance during the session, he said.

On the other hand, Leader of the Opposition Indira Hridayesh lashed out at the government for trying to browbeat the opposition into submission. They did not pay heed to our demands and tried to curb the voice of the opposition because they have brute majority in the house. But we managed to raise important issues in the house, said Indira Hridayesh.

Earlier in the morning, the opposition marched inside the house carrying placards demanding the appointment of Lokayukta in the state. Later, the opposition then demanded that the Speaker allow them to hold discussion under rule 310. This was not allowed by the Speaker, which incensed the opposition who then stormed inside the well of the house forcing the Speaker to adjourn the house. The House then met in the afternoon when the pending business, including the bills were, cleared.rajivbhatia82@gmail.com

Moscow, March 26

Thirty-seven people were killed in a fire at a shopping centre in Kemerovo, an industrial city in western Siberia, Russian news agency TASS reported, citing investigators.

"At this time, we can confirm the deaths of 37 people in the fire at the Kemerovo shopping centre, Russia's Investigative Committee said, according to TASS. - AFPlaxmi@tribune.com

Tokyo, March 25

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his ratings in a slump amid a suspected cronyism scandal and cover-up, apologised again on Sunday for causing anxiety and loss of confidence in his government.

Protesters urged Abe to resign, as riot police kept tight security outside the venue of his ruling partys annual convention, at which the premier stressed his intention to revise Japans pacifist post-war, US-drafted Constitution.

Abe faces his biggest political crisis since taking office in December 2012 as suspicions swirl about a sale of state-owned land at a huge discount to a nationalist school operator with ties to his wife.

This problem has shaken the peoples confidence in the administration, Abe told the convention. As head of the government, I keenly feel my responsibility and would like to deeply apologise to the people.

He pledged a thorough clarification of the facts and the prevention of a recurrence by pulling the government together, but offered no sign of stepping down.

Abe has denied that he or his wife intervened in the sale or that he sought to alter documents related to the deal. His close ally, Finance Minister Taro Aso, has also denied involvement in the alterations made by ministry officials.

Public opinion polls last weekend showed support for Abes cabinet sinking as low as 31 percent, with majorities saying he bears some responsibility for the affair.

The sliding support rates could dash Abes hopes of winning a third three-year term as ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader in a party vote in September, victory in which would set him on track to become Japans longest ruling premier.

Were protesting to defeat Abes government through our voices and the anger of the people, said Fumiko Katsuragi, 69, who was among hundreds of protesters gathered in a Tokyo park where cherry blossoms were in full bloom.

Some held banners that read Go to jail Abe and No constitutional revision or war, while right-wingers gathered nearby amid police security.

Also at the party convention, the LDP adopted a proposal to revise the pacifist constitution in line with a plan floated by Abe last year to explicitly refer to the Self-Defense Forces, as Japans military is known.

Abe proposed last May that the first two clauses of Article 9, which renounces the right to wage war and bans maintenance of a standing military, be unchanged but that a reference to the SDF be added to clarify its ambiguous status.

Despite its literal ban on a standing army, successive governments have interpreted the charter to allow a military exclusively to defence.

Abe wants to make that stance clear in the constitution itself, but says the change will not alter Japans security policies. Critics worry the revision would open the way to a bigger role for the military overseas.  Reuterseditorial@tribune.com

London, March 25

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in nine major British and US newspapers on Sunday to apologise for a huge data privacy scandal.

We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we cant we dont deserve it, he said. Zuckerberg explained there was a quiz developed by a university researcher that leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014. This was a breach of trust, and Im sorry we didnt do more at the time. Were now taking steps to make sure this doesnt happen again, he said.

The ad reflects public statements Zuckerberg made last week after the row prompted investigations in Europe and the US, and sent Facebooks share price plunging.  AFPlaxmi@tribune.com

Barcelona/Berlin, March 25

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was detained on Sunday in Germany four months after he went into self-imposed exile from Spain, where he faces up to 25 years in prison for organising an illegal referendum on secession last year.

Puigdemont had entered Germany from Denmark after leaving Finland on Friday when it appeared police would arrest him there and begin an extradition process requested by Spain.

The detention threatens to worsen the Catalan crisis which flared last year when the region made a symbolic declaration of independence, prompting Madrid to take direct rule.

German police said they had arrested Puigdemont in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain.

In a statement, police said Puigdemont was detained near a section of the A7 highway which cuts through the state from the city of Flensburg near the Danish border.

The police did not say exactly where Puigdemont was being held but the Spanish press said he was at a police station in the nearby town of Schuby.

German magazine Focus said Spanish intelligence informed the BKA federal police that Puigdemont was on his way from Finland to Germany. It gave no source for its report.

It is not clear if Puigdemont will be immediately extradited from Germany. Puigdemont had made clear his preference to fight the extradition process from Belgium.

The former Catalan regional president was at the time of his detention heading to Belgium, according to Puigdemonts spokesman Joan Maria Pique.

The president was going to Belgium to put himself, as always, at the disposal of Belgian justice, Pique told Reuters. Spains Supreme Court ruled on Friday that 25 Catalan leaders would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state.

Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena also sent five separatist leaders to pre-trial jail. Their detention sparked protests across Catalonia.

On Saturday the speaker of the Catalan parliament in Barcelona called for an alliance against Madrid, describing the spate of legal actions as an attack on the heart of democracy.  Reuters

Spain vs Separatistsuttara@tribuneindia.com

LONDON/WASHINGTON, March 26

The United States said on Monday it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe punishing the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that they have blamed on Moscow.

It was the strongest action that US President Donald Trump had taken against Russia since coming to office. He has come under criticism from Democrats and from members of his own Republican party for failing to be tough enough on Russia over allegations of Russian meddling in the US electoral system including the 2016 presidential campaign.

Besides the United States, 14 European Union countries also expelled Russian diplomats, European Council President Donald Tusk said. Ukraine and Canada also took action, and in total Monday's announcements affected more than 100 Russian diplomats - the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tweeted that, "Today's extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever and will help defend our shared security."

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the coordinated measures "clearly demonstrate that we all stand shoulder to shoulder in sending the strongest signal to Russia that it cannot continue to flout international law".

Russia's Foreign Ministry called the actions a "provocative gesture" and promised to respond. The Kremlin spokesman said the West's response was a "mistake" and that Russian President Vladimir Putin would make a final decision about Russia's response.

Moscow has denied being behind the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a public bench in a shopping centre, and remain critically ill in hospital.

The staff expelled by the United States included 12 intelligence officers from Russia's mission to United Nations headquarters in New York. Trump also ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle.

"To the Russian government we say: when you attack our friends, you will face serious consequences," a senior US administration official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The individuals concerned and their families have been given a week to leave the United States, according to one of the officials briefing reporters.

Trump, who before he took office in January last year promised warmer ties with Putin, last week congratulated the Russian leader on his re-election, drawing criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. Trump said the two leaders had made tentative plans to meet in the not too distant future.

The last time that the United States expelled so many Russian spies was when the Reagan administration ordered 55 Soviet diplomats out of the country in 1986, said Angela Stent, director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University.

This US solidarity with Britain and other European allies after the Skripal poisoning is unprecedented in the post-Soviet era and highlights the continuing downward spiral of Russia's relations with the West, she said.

EU leaders said last week that evidence of Russian involvement in the Salisbury attack presented by British Prime Minister Theresa May was a solid basis for further action.

Germany and France made good on those threats by announcing expulsions and in a coordinated move, a string of other EU states also ordered expulsions, along with Canada and Ukraine.

Skripal's poisoning, alleged to have employed the Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent Novichok, is the first known offensive use of a nerve toxin in Europe since World War Two.

"In solidarity with our British partners, we have today notified the Russian authorities of our decision to expel four Russian personnel with diplomatic status from French territory within one week," said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian.

Response will be symmetrical

Tusk said further measures could be taken in the coming weeks and months.

Russia said it would respond in kind.

"The response will be symmetrical. We will work on it in the coming days and will respond to every country in turn," the RIA news agency cited an unnamed Foreign Ministry source as saying.

The Kremlin has accused Britain of whipping up an anti-Russia campaign and has sought to cast doubt on the British analysis that Moscow was responsible. Russia has already ordered 23 British diplomats out of the country after Britain expelled 23 diplomats.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested that the EU's expression of support for Britain was misguided given that it would be leaving the bloc next year.

"Britain is leaving the European family. No one cancelled Brexit, and the divorce process is in full swing," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook. "Therefore a country which is leaving the European Union is exploiting the solidarity factor and is foisting on those countries that remain a worsening of relations with Russia."

A British court has said Skripal and his daughter may have suffered brain damage, while a policeman who went to help them has also indicated that he has suffered lasting damage to his health.

British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson hailed the support for Britain during a visit on Monday to Estonia. Britain has troops there as part of a NATO mission to deter any Russian aggression following its seizure of Ukraine's Crimea in 2014.

"The world's patience is rather wearing thin with President Putin and his actions," Williamson said.

"Their aim is to divide, and what we are seeing is the world uniting behind the British stanceand that in itself is a great victory and sends an exceptionally powerful message to the Kremlin and President Putin."



The following are the international responses:



BRITAIN: Expelled 23 Russians alleged to have worked as spies under diplomatic cover. Promised to freeze any Russian state assets that "may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents".

UNITED STATES: Expelling 60 Russians, including 12 intelligence officers from Russia's mission to UN headquarters in New York. Closing Russian consulate in Seattle.

CANADA: Expelling four Russians alleged to have worked as spies or interfered in Canadian affairs under diplomatic cover. Denying three applications for Russian diplomatic staff.

UKRAINE: Expelling 13 Russian diplomats

FRANCE: Expelling four diplomats

GERMANY: Expelling four diplomats

POLAND: Expelling four diplomats

LITHUANIA: Expelling three diplomats

CZECH REPUBLIC: Expelling three diplomats

ITALY: Expelling two diplomats

NETHERLANDS: Expelling two diplomats

DENMARK: Expelling two diplomats

SWEDEN: Expelling one diplomat

LATVIA: Expelling one diplomat

ESTONIA: Expelling one diplomat

FINLAND: Expelling one diplomat

ROMANIA: Expelling one diplomat

CROATIA: Expelling one diplomat



 Reuterslaxmi@tribune.com

LONDON: Six cities in the UK will take part in the first-ever 'National Samosa Week' where participants will make, sell and consume the popular snack to raise money for charity. The event, to be organised from April 9 to 13, is the brainchild of Leicester-based Romail Gulzar, who believes that the popularity of the snack can become a means to unite different communities in the UK. PTI

1st non-stop Australia-UK flight lands in 17 hrs

LONDON: The first non-stop scheduled flight from Australia to Britain landed in London on Sunday after a 17 hour, five minute journey across 14,875 km from Perth. The flight will be the world's second-longest after Qatar Airways' route from Doha to Auckland, which spans 14,529 km. IANSROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Riyadh, March 26

Saudi air defences shot down seven ballistic missiles fired by Yemens Houthi militia on Sunday, with debris killing a man in what was the first death in the capital during the Saudi-led coalitions three-year military campaign in Yemen.

Saudi forces destroyed three missiles over northeastern Riyadh shortly before midnight, as well as others fired at the southern cities of Najran, Jizan and Khamis Mushait, the coalition said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

Debris from the missiles fell on a home in Riyadh, killing an Egyptian resident and wounding two other Egyptians, said coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki.

In al-Malqa neighbourhood, emergency personnel gathered near a crater in the ground and inspected shattered glass in nearby homes.

The US, which provides support to the coalition, said, in a State Department statement, it condemned the missile attacks and backed the right of Saudi Arabia to defend itself against such threats.

The attack marked the third time in five months that missiles have flown over Riyadh, as the Houthis step up efforts to demonstrate they can reach the Saudi capital,.

The Houthi-run SABA news agency reported the groups missile force had targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a Burkan H2 missile. The group also fired other types of missiles at airports in Jizan, Najran and Abha.  ReutersROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

London/Washington, March 26

The United States said on Monday it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe in taking action against the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that they have blamed on Moscow.

It was the toughest action that US President Donald Trump had taken against Russia since coming to office.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tweeted that "Today's extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever and will help defend our shared security."

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the coordinated measures "clearly demonstrate that we all stand shoulder to shoulder in sending the strongest signal to Russia that it cannot continue to flout international law".

Russia's Foreign Ministry called the actions a "provocative gesture" and promised to respond. Moscow has denied being behind the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4.

The staff expelled by the United States included 12 intelligence officers from Russia's mission to United Nations headquarters in New York. Trump also ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle.

"To the Russian government we say: when you attack our friends, you will face serious consequences," a senior US administration official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

EU leaders last week said evidence of Russian involvement in the attack presented by British Prime Minister Theresa May was a solid basis for further action.

Germany and France made good on those threats by announcing expulsions and in a coordinated move, other states across the EU followed suit, along with Canada and Ukraine.

Skripal's poisoning, alleged to have employed the Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent Novichok, is the first known offensive use of a nerve toxin in Europe since World War Two.

"In solidarity with our British partners, we have today notified the Russian authorities of our decision to expel four Russian personnel with diplomatic status from French territory within one week," said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian.

European Council President Donald Tusk said 14 EU countries in all were expelling Russian diplomats and warned that further measures could be taken in the coming weeks and months. Russia said it would respond in kind.  Reuters

Moscow vows responseThe elections of members of the Mejlis of the sixth convocation finished in Turkmenistan. The best citizens of the country, enjoying their compatriots great respect and trust, contested the seats in the national parliament. The competitive elections were based on the principles of democracy and transparency, as each seat in the Mejlis was contested by several candidates.

According to the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda in Turkmenistan, 91.69 percent of the total number of voters cast their ballots in the parliamentary elections by 19:00 Ashgabat time. Over 16,000 people voted at polling stations abroad.

 TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021The seventy-fifth pavilion of Moscows Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy (VDNH) was the central venue of celebration of the International Day of Nowruz. All day long, national expositions demonstrated handicrafts, samples of national costumes, tools and jewellery. At the same time, the main treat of the day was given a special place. The outdoor festival Cult of Pilaf saw the cooks treating the guests of the festival to about one ton of delicious pilaf.

The guests of the festival were exposed to different household items and national cultures at VDNHs largest exhibition pavilion. The Turkmen diaspora of the Russian capital took active part in the spring holiday, with the organizational support of the Embassy of Turkmenistan in Russia. Turkmenistans pavilion was quite distinctive in the multi-colored kaleidoscope of national colors. It provided a complete picture of national crafts and traditional styles in national clothes, offering every visitor a wide selection of souvenirs in memory of Turkmenistan.

Moscow has been for many years the largest platform for Nowruz celebration. The spring holiday has long stepped over the borders of national entities and turned into the largest international festival that celebrates the arrival of spring and renewal in nature. More than 300 million people around the world celebrate Nowruz. The UN General Assembly declared it an international day, and UNESCO included this spring celebration in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

 TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021| By Patricia Fanning

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) transported five busloads of students, staff, faculty members, and their friends and families to advocate against gun violence at the #MarchForOurLives in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2018.

View a photo gallery on Facebook or a photo gallery on Flickr and see a video below.

Many appeared in support of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School graduate Allison Cowett, a third-year student at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP). She has rallied fellow pharmacy students and faculty members to show solidarity for the 17 people killed at the Parkland, Fla., high school on Feb. 14. They brought the banner from a #WhiteCoatsAgainstGunViolence event held Feb. 28 at the UMSOP. Their message: Gun Violence is a Public Health Issue.

UMB President Jay A. Perman, MD, with UM School of Pharmacy student Allison Cowett

On March 24, a group of students from the University of Maryland School of Medicine wore their white coats to participate in the #MarchForOurLives and carried a sign: Future Pediatricians Marching for Patients.

UMB President Jay A. Perman, MD, greeted Cowett and gave the UMB marchers a sendoff as 176 people gathered at the Pearl Street Garage in preparation for a day of action in the nations capital. The group included UMSOP professors Linda Simoni-Wastila, BSPharm, MSPH, PhD, and Nicole Brandt, PharmD, MBA, BCPP, CGP, FASCP, and their 15-year-old daughters. Later, Perman joined his son and daughter in downtown Baltimore as they participated in the citys march.

The multigenerational aspects of the advocacy were apparent. Michael Reisch, PhD, MSW, MA, the Daniel Thursz Distinguished Professor of Social Justice at the University of Maryland School of Social Work (SSW), noted that the national protest was being led by high school students who have been impacted by gun violence. He said young people are the "organizers, the motivators and the inspiration" for people of all ages.

SSW Assistant Dean of Instructional Design and Technology Clark Shah-Nelson, MA, was accompanied by his wife, Seema, and their sons, Rishi, 10, and Amaal, 8, who together climbed on a bus to represent students as young as elementary school age.

UMB Campus Life Services provided the transportation, and the departure took place without a hitch with the help of UMB Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Patty Alvarez, PhD; Campus Life Operations Executive Director William Bill Crockett, MS, RCRSP; Student Development and Leadership Director Cyndi Rice; Postdoctoral Fellow TaShara Bailey, PhD; and Senior Program Specialist in the Office of Academic Affairs Meghan Bruce-Bojo, MSW.

At UMB, Perman sent an open letter to the university on Feb. 19 proposing an economic incentive for gun control and welcoming ideas on how we might focus our research and teaching here at UMB to take up this fight against gun violence.Special Envoy Amb. Mohamed Abdi Affey address delegates at the Nairobi Action Plan Summit  UNHCR/Enos Teche

NAIROBI, Kenya

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I wish to congratulate you on the progress that has been made in the implementation of the IGAD Declaration for Somali Refugees and the Reintegration of Returnees in Somalia  or as it has come to be known, the Nairobi Declaration.

Forced displacement is one of the most pressing and compelling challenges that the world is facing today. Some 66 million people are currently uprooted by conflict, violence and persecution worldwide, including some 26 million refugees and asylum-seekers  a number unmatched since the immediate aftermath of the Cold War in the 1990s. Another 40 million people are internally displaced. The scale and pace of todays forced displacement crises, and the extensive human suffering that they bring, are directly linked to weaknesses in the ability to prevent, mitigate and resolve conflicts, and failures in international cooperation.

Of the 18 million refugees falling under UNHCRs responsibility worldwide, one third are in Africa. Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda together host more than 3 million refugees. Their generosity, and that of other host countries in keeping their borders open to those fleeing war and persecution, and offering them protection and support, often for years on end, is a global example, to be deeply commended.

But without adequate support and the promise of solutions, the impact of protracted exile on refugees, and host communities is stark. For all too many, life as a refugee has for decades been one of desperation and basic survival, dependent on aid and unable to contribute to rebuilding their own lives or to participate in the social and economic life of the communities around them.

Distinguished delegates,

The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, and its Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework marked a ground breaking step forward in changing this tragic narrative  emphasising the important contribution that refugees can make to the communities and societies hosting them, with the right policies, and concrete forms of international burden and responsibility sharing that encompass, but move beyond humanitarian aid. Situating support to refugees and host communities within broader national development plans, underpinned by strong international support, is a critical dimension.

IGAD member states were among the first to start to translate these commitments into action, through the Special Summit on Somali Refugees held on 25 March 2017. In adopting the Nairobi Declaration and Plan of Action, the governments of this region demonstrated a decisive collective commitment to strengthening protection and pursuing solutions for Somali refugees, many of whom have spent decades in exile. The plan of action encompasses focused action on creating conditions for voluntary return in Somalia; delivering durable solutions, whilst maintaining protection and asylum space; promoting the self-reliance and inclusion of refugees in countries of asylum; and strengthening sub-regional co-operation  with all these elements underpinned by international co-operation and responsibility-sharing. The roadmap and results framework to realize these commitments were elaborated in detail at both the regional and national levels by technical teams working together with UNHCR.

The Declaration and Plan of Action have provided the engine for translating the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework annexed to the New York Declaration into action. It is now being applied in Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda, with the active participation of Sudan and South Sudan, and with strong support from UNHCR, the European Union, the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank. Under the auspices of IGAD, this groundbreaking initiative is a strong statement of regional resolve to provide protection and deliver durable solutions for 844,000 Somali refugees as well as over two million internally displaced people inside Somalia.

The Declaration and Plan of Action are already driving important changes in the lives of refugees and the communities hosting them. IGAD member states have already taken a number of steps in this regard, including through important policy changes in favour of refugee inclusion and self-reliance. For example, Djibouti and Ethiopia have formulated new policies and passed legislation giving more rights to refugees and facilitating access to education, the labour market and the issuance of civil documentation  as I saw myself during missions there last year. In Kenya and Uganda, as well as in other IGAD member states, the needs of refugees are increasingly being included in national development plans. Across the sub- region, taking the good practice lead of Uganda, a clear policy shift is emerging, moving away from refugee management regimes based on encampment to out of camp models.

In Somalia, for the first time, a National Forum on Durable Solutions for Refugee Returnees and Internally Displaced People was convened in August 2017. The Forum brought together central and regional government officials and decision makers and resulted in a draft National Policy to support the implementation of the Nairobi Declaration. Furthermore, Somalia has elaborated a comprehensive National Action Plan for returnees  an important model for the role countries of origin should play in addressing a protracted refugee situation.

The regional thematic meeting hosted by Djibouti and IGAD in December 2017 on inclusion of refugees and responsibility sharing marked another important step forward. This first thematic meeting, on refugee education, resulted in a Declaration and Action Plan to advance access to quality education for refugees and host communities.

The Declaration also emphasised the importance of seeking solutions inside Somalia. Since 2014, UNHCR has supported the voluntary return of more than 114,000 Somali refugees from Djibouti, Kenya, Yemen and other countries of asylum, despite continuing challenges linked to conflict, drought and lack of essential services. These efforts will continue and must be supported if refugees are to retain the promise of a future that will allow them to rebuild their lives.

All these advances are part of a regional effort that is shaping up to be an important success story  and must be encouraged and supported by the international community. UNHCR will continue to be fully engaged, in particular through the involvement of our Special Envoy on the Somali Refugee Situation.

Distinguished Delegates,

Over the last two days UNHCR has been facilitating, together with Member States, the most recent round of consultations in Geneva on the proposal on the forthcoming Global Compact for Refugees. The Compact, based on existing refugee law standards, and experience gained through operational engagement in comprehensive responses, will seek to address long-standing gaps in the international response to refugee crises.

It will seek to underpin the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework with series of concrete measures and mechanisms for more predictable and equitable responsibility-sharing among member states  as well as to clarify and develop the roles of a much broader range of entities - including local authorities, international organizations within and beyond the United Nations system; development actors and international financial institutions; regional organizations; civil society, including faith-based organizations; academics and other experts; the private sector; media; and refugees themselves. Indeed, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development commitment to leave no one behind is at the centre of the Global Compact for Refugees and it also speaks with resonance to the African Unions Agenda 2063.

Distinguished delegates,

The Nairobi Declaration and Plan of Action underline the same goals and objectives, and translates these into the specific context in the East and Horn of Africa. Indeed, the lessons learned in the regional application of the comprehensive response to the Somali refugee situation have made a significant contribution towards the elaboration of the Programme of Action set out in the current draft of the Global Compact for Refugees  in particular, by demonstrating the value of regional approaches, to a challenge which by its very nature stretches across borders. For the first time, IGAD member states are meeting, at a senior policy making and technical level, to routinely discuss issues related to refugee management and solutions, and to translate policy decisions into action.

Distinguished delegates,

The challenge ahead is to ensure that international co-operation for comprehensive refugee responses materializes. There are already good examples of increased involvement and contributions from development actors. Development partners have scaled up their investments in refugee-hosting communities as part of comprehensive responses, and these efforts are to be commended. I have also called for additional resettlement opportunities, as a tool of international protection and international responsibility sharing  including for an additional 40,000 places for refugees located in 15 priority countries along the Central Mediterranean route, such as Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan. This request received a good response, as resettlement countries continue to make pledges, but more needs to be done in this regard.

Distinguished Delegates,

The Nairobi Declaration and Plan of Action are clear and ground-breaking - a powerful response to the duration and intensity of the suffering of the Somali people and a call to action by states in the region and beyond. They mark a new energy and determination to help Somali refugees and internally displaced people rebuild their lives, and restore a vision of a future.

I am very grateful to IGAD for organising this important event, and thank you all for your active engagement. I firmly believe, that by working together, at the global, national and local levels, we can bring about a real shift in the way that the world responds to the plight of the Somali people.

Thank you.Agartala, Mar 26 (UNI) While appreciating the speech of Governor in maiden session of 12th Tripura assembly last week visioning the development plan of BJP-IPFT government in Tripura for next five years, leader of the opposition Manik Sarkar today urged the chief minister to stop atrocities on CPI(M) leaders and workers.

Sarkar said the vision, which has been projected in the Governors speech was quite impressive but the internal law and order situation of the state was deteriorating after announcement of the election result on March 3 last.

Hundreds of our party offices were ransacked, burnt down and destroyed by BJP supporters. A large number of party workers were assaulted, houses and family members were attacked and many are still in the hospitals. A few hundred of CPI(M) workers could not stay at home following continuous threat and intimidation, which has fade the visionary speech of the Governor, Sarkar stated in the house.(March 23, 2018) -- In an email sent today to UTSA faculty and staff, President Taylor Eighmy announced new town hall meetings for the UTSA community to learn more about the UTSA Presidential Initiatives. Additionally, Eighmy provided updates on the presidential, strategic, tactical and operational initiatives underway to support the universitys strategic vision.

Upcoming Town Halls



Next week, the UTSA community will have more opportunities to learn about the progress of Presidential Initiatives. Open to all students, faculty and staff, these sessions will kick off with updates from the task force chairs, followed by open dialogue and questions. Light refreshments will be served.

Strategic Enrollment Initiative

Monday, March 26 | 3  4:30 p.m. | Student Union Retama Auditorium (SU 2.02.02) | Main Campus

Finance and Budget Modeling Initiative

Tuesday, March 27 | 1:30  3 p.m. | Student Union Retama Auditorium, (SU 2.02.02) | Main Campus

Wednesday, March 28 | 3  4:30 p.m. | Frio Street Building (FS 1.512) | Downtown Campus

Student Success Task Force

On February 27 and 28, the Student Success Task Force hosted four sessions of Leading Change, a workshop facilitated by consultants from EAB. More than 70 staff, faculty and administrators participated in the workshops. While on campus, the consultants met with key personnel who oversee various technology systems to better understand how UTSA might enhance its real-time data access. The aim is to help UTSA administrators make data-informed daily decisions in support of student success efforts. EAB shared their recommendations with the Department Chairs Council on March 21.

Strategic Enrollment Task Force

The Strategic Enrollment Planning Task Force is currently developing action plans for initial strategies that were identified during the situational analysis and diagnostic by UTSAs consultant Ruffalo Noel-Levitz. Recent task force meetings focused on action planning for ASAP improvements, university-wide recruitment coordination, strategic course management, prospect and inquiry management, and scholarship/fellowship management. Action planning will continue through May as the task force works toward meeting the objective of producing the first university-wide comprehensive strategic enrollment plan.

Finance and Budget Modeling Task Force

The Finance and Budget Modeling Task Force continues to collect feedback to inform the selection of a new university budget model. The new model will be used in parallel with the existing budget model in FY 2019 as a transition year, with full implementation in FY 2020. On March 22, consultants from Huron met with the UTSAs senior leadership team and deans to gather input on the various budget models under consideration. More stakeholder meetings with deans and other administrators will be taking place over the next three months to inform decisions.

Strategic Communications Task Force

The Strategic Communications Task Force met on March 9 to kick off its project with a review of the results and analysis of the perceptual survey research conducted by Stamats, a leading higher education integrated marketing firm. The task forces discussion focused on the development of and evidence for UTSAs brand promise, brand pillars and brand character. To explore the activation of this brand positioning, the task force reviewed and provided input on brand and advertising concepts. The groups next meeting will include discussions about strategic brand messaging, the evolution of the look and feel of the brand campaign, and campus activation.

Weighted Student Credit Hour Optimization Committee

The Weighted Student Credit Hour (WSCH) Optimization Committee presented its Phase 1 report to the Senior Leadership Team on March 5. The report is currently under review to determine next steps for Phase 2 implementation.

SACSCOC 2020  Racing to Reaccreditation

UTSA SACSCOC 2020 team members have reviewed the revised SACSCOC Principles of Accreditation and reassessed the action items identified in the fall. Team members will be addressing all outstanding action items over the next few weeks and months based on these revised requirements. Recommendations may include policy revisions, process clarifications or changes in practices. The date for the SACSCOC onsite peer review has been set for March 16-19, 2020.

National Security Collaboration Center

Partnerships for the National Security Collaboration Center have advanced through securing of letters of intent and commitment from government partners, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the US Secret Service (USSS). Formalized industry partnerships include Noblis, LGS Innovations, Raytheon and LokiLabs, all of which have provided letters of intent for co-location within the NSCC. UTSA continues to build NSCC partnership momentum through the hosting of government agencies in March and April, including the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity (IARAP) and the US Cyber Command.

Dreamers Center

The search for a full-time Dreamers Center Program Manager is in progress. Courtney Balderas-Jacob, assistant director for international student services, is serving as the Centers interim program manager. Located in the Student Union (SU 2.01.04), the Center is actively providing education, advocacy and awareness of Dreamers and Dreamer-related issues to the campus community. At the end of February, UT System Chancellor William McRaven published a letter to students after the Supreme Court declined to take up the DACA case, which included a link to UTSAs Dreamers Center website as an additional resource for students system-wide.

Behavior Intervention Team

Finalist interviews for the Behavior Intervention Specialist position will take place next week. The BIT team recommended the full-time positionwhich will report to Lieutenant Tom Calucci in the UTSA Police Departmentto support a team of volunteers from across campus employing a self-developed case management system. Procurement of new software to help the BIT team with case management is in the works. The software will allow for cross-campus collaboration and dissemination of information pertinent to faculty, staff and student behaviors.



Sexual Violence Prevention and Support Task Force



Jessica Muniz is UTSAs new Director and Prevention Coordinator in the Title IX Services department, and will oversee the resources needed to address sexual misconduct prevention and victim advocacy. A search is underway for the second position in the Title IX department, a Confidential Advocate. Both positions were created at the recommendation of the Sexual Violence Prevention Support Task Force. Reporting to Institutional Compliance & Risk Services, the Title IX Services department is located on the fifth floor of the North Paseo Building.Japanese Speaker to Discuss Trumps America on World Stage at UW

Toshihiro Nakayama

A well-known Japanese professor, author and columnist will discuss How Japan is Adapting to Trumps America on the World Stage Wednesday, March 28, at the University of Wyoming.

Toshihiro Nakayama will present his free public talk on U.S.-Japan relations from 1-2 p.m. in the Wyoming Union Ballroom, followed by a question-and-answer session. A reception follows.

His talk is supported by the Domestic and Foreign Expert Dispatch Project, the Office of Global Communications and Japans Prime Ministers Office, and hosted by the UW Global Engagement Office.

Nakayama is a professor of American politics and foreign policy at the Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. He also is an adjunct fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs and previously served as a special correspondent for The Washington Post at the Far Eastern Bureau (1993-94); special assistant at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations in New York (1996-98); senior research fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (2004-06); and a China National Advanced Payment System visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution (2005-06).

He received his M.A. (1993) and Ph.D. (2001) degrees, both from Aoyama Gakuin University in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. He has written two books and numerous articles on American politics, foreign policy and international relations. Nakayama appears regularly on Japanese media outlets and writes a monthly column for Japan News. He received the Nakasone Yasuhiro Award (Incentive Award) in 2014.

For more information, call Shawn Bunning, UW Global Engagement Office project coordinator, at (307) 766-3019 or email shawnb@uwyo.edu.UW Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning Launches New Programs

UW Associate Lecturer Rachel Watsons general microbiology class participates in an active-learning exercise that promotes collaborative work among students and instructors. UWs Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning recently launched new initiatives to encourage and reward the scholarship of teaching and learning. (UW Photo)

The University of Wyomings Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning (ECTL) has launched new initiatives and funding opportunities focused on the scholarship of teaching and learning.

The new programming aims to improve the effectiveness of teaching, therefore boosting learning outcomes.

We really want to promote and reward good practice in teaching thats scholarly research-based, says ECTL Instructional Designer Janel Seeley.

UWs new strategic plan, Breaking Through: 2017-2022, includes goals for incentivizing revision and development of courses and curricula that include technology-enhanced learning, online delivery and high-impact teaching practices. It also prioritizes embracing informed and innovative approaches to assessment and improvement of student learning. These goals inspired ECTLs two new initiatives.

Faculty and graduate assistants can apply, and the programs encourage designing, implementing, analyzing and disseminating research that assesses teaching and the resulting impact on student learning.

First, the annual John P. Ellbogen Summer Institute will focus on Developing Research through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning May 21-23 and will kick off a multiphased, two-year project. Interested participants were encouraged to apply by March 26 in teams of two to three from the same or different departments, and enrollment will be capped at 20.

They will apply as partners who want to look at a big question in their field or overall concepts in teaching and learning, Seeley says. For example, they can look at broad questions like what motivates students or whether a particular teaching methodology is effective across disciplines. Theyll design the project together and work as a team as they go through the process.

In addition, past and current members of the UW Science Initiative Learning Actively Mentoring Program will work in teams on similar teaching and learning projects.

The second major program is Designing and Implementing Research through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: A Partnership with UW and Tashkent State University of Economics (Uzbekistan). This international learning community, bringing together UW and Tashkent faculty members, begins this spring and will continue through spring 2020.

The inspiration for the virtual learning community came when Seeley did faculty development work on active learning at Tashkent. About 15 UW faculty members will partner with 30 Tashkent faculty members in the same or similar disciplines to look at big questions in their fields, such as concepts students get stuck on or particular teaching techniques.

They will be in contact through email and Zoom, Seeley says. Theyll work together on designing a project that theyll both implement at their universities, and compare their findings and then write a paper or a presentation. Part of the partnership on teaching and learning is disseminating your information.

Participants who complete either program will receive a $1,000 stipend.

By spring 2020, Seeley hopes to host a symposium at UW where all the various participants can share their work and outcomes. ECTL also is involving students in the process.

Were really hoping to make this an ongoing thing and really make this a campus that not only promotes research in disciplines but also promotes research on scholarly teaching, Seeley says.

About the Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning

The mission of the ECTL is to promote, support and evaluate the active pursuit of teaching and learning excellence for UWs teaching community through a broad range of research-based programs, services and resources. ECTL supports instructors on and off campus by:

-- Highlighting best-practice pedagogies.

-- Encouraging innovative and transformative teaching.

-- Supporting the development of sustained reflective practice.

-- Fostering university-wide dialogue and collaboration among colleagues.

In service of that mission, ECTL creates a broad array of programs that include workshops and seminars for new and experienced faculty and graduate students, learning communities, book discussions and grant-supported projects. ECTL consults with individuals and provides classroom evaluations. The website provides a vast collection of teaching tips and resources. ECTL welcomes suggestions for programs, and is pleased to collaborate with university departments and to support teaching and learning events.

All services and programs are free to the universitys instructional community, both in and outside of Laramie, including faculty, lecturers, graduate teaching assistants, postdoctoral fellows and anyone else involved in teaching at the university.

To learn more, visit www.uwyo.edu/ctl.U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States, including 12 people identified as Russian intelligence officers, in response to Russias alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. The announcement came while several European nations also announced the massive expulsion of Russian diplomats, prompting Moscow to say it would consider similar steps.

By Stefan J. Bos

The White House confirms that President Donald Trump has given 60 Russians and their families seven days to leave the United States. Among them are a dozen alleged Russian intelligence officers stationed at the United Nations in New York.

Monday's expulsion order, announced by administration officials, also closes the Russian consulate in Seattle and resembled Cold War rhetoric.

The expulsions are the most robust action taken against the Kremlin by President Trump, who has faced criticism for not being firm enough with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump's action is in response to Russias alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England, earlier this month.

On March 15, the Trump administration also imposed sanctions on a series of Russian organizations and individuals for alleged interference in last year's presidential election and other malicious cyber attacks, its most significant action against Moscow until Monday.

Nerve-gas attack

Those sanctions came as the United States joined Britain, France, and Germany in denouncing Russia for its apparent role in the nerve-gas attack on former spy Skripal calling it a clear violation of international law.

Trump already warned last week that the U.S. would take action if Britain believed Russia was involved in the attack. "It sounds to me like it would be Russia, based on all the evidence they have," the president told reporters outside the White House. "It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact." Trump added: "As soon as we get the facts straight if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be."

Several European Union nations also plan to expel Russian diplomats. Germany and Poland already announced Monday they would each expel four diplomats, while the Netherlands said two Russian diplomats are no longer welcome in the country.

Ukraine, which seeks closer ties with the EU, announced the expulsion of 13 Russian officials. The measures are in support of Britain where last week 23 Russian diplomats were forced to leave. Moscow condemned the action and expelled a similar number of British diplomats.

Separately Russia's EU neighbors, including Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland summoned Russian ambassadors to their foreign ministries on Monday, while Polish authorities reportedly detained an alleged Russian spy.

Amid the diplomatic wrangling, it has become clear that Russian-Western tensions have now risen to levels not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union nearly three decades ago.Hello, and welcome to my periodic dig through the samples pile. Im pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of the better bottles that have crossed my doorstep recently.

This week included a pretty Sauvignon Blanc from Spottswoode in Napa which was refreshingly free of the oak signature that plagues some Napa Sauvignon Blancs. This one is crisp and fruity and pretty much what you want from a Sauvignon Blanc.

Speaking of crisp, its hard to get more crisp than Greco di Tufo, which usually has a searing crisp minerality to it, provided it was picked at the right time, and this weeks bottle from Feudi di San Gregorio doesnt disappoint. Just add oysters!

Moving into reds, its been a while since I got samples from Cooper Mountain Vineyards, a biodynamic producer in Oregon that has been marching to their own beat from their very first vintage. This week I tasted their Life Pinot Noir, a blend from different vineyard sites, and it reminded me just how earth-driven most of their wines are.

Spottswoode also had a red in the mix this week  their (relatively) less expensive Lyndenhurst Cabernet which offered surprisingly lean and muscular fruit, that may need a little time to come round, but will be very pretty when the tannins mellow a bit.

Its not all that uncommon for samples to arrive out of nowhere, but most are domestic. This week I pulled a couple of French wines out of the pile that I know nothing about other than theyre pretty tasty, and excellent values. The Chateau Lamothe Castera Bordeaux is classically styled for those who want a more savory aspect to Cabernet, and the Domaine Chateaumar Cotes-du-Rhone offers stony dark fruit with a lot of nice minerality. Both are around $15 and worth seeking out.

Finally, Ive got three wines this week from a tiny producer based in Point Reyes Station in western Marin County called Absentee Winery. Essentially a one man operation, Avi Deixler makes a tiny quantity of wines in the natural philosophy/genre  his back labels read Ingredients: grapes  and somewhat unusually, are mostly unspecified red blends of one sort or another, as are these three wines this week. Theyre distinctive and despite ones (doubtless ironic) name flaws, cleanly done.

Enjoy.

2016 Spottswoode Sauvignon Blanc, California

Pale gold in the glass, this wine smells of sweet gooseberries and passionfruit. In the mouth, passionfruit and gooseberry flavors have a nice edge to them thanks to excellent acidity. A touch of herbal bitterness sneaks into the finish, along with a note of cut grass. Tasty. 14.2% alcohol. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $35. click to buy.

2015 Feudi di San Gregorio Greco di Tufo, Campania, Italy

Light gold in the glass, this wine smells of crushed seashells and lemon pith. In the mouth, tart and angular flavors of citrus pith and unripe stone fruit are mouthwateringly tangy and faintly salty. Wet chalkboard minerality lingers for a long time in the finish. 12.5% alcohol. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $20. click to buy.

2016 Cooper Mountain Vineyards Life Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon

Medium to dark garnet in color, this wine smells of wet leaves, doused campfire, and a touch of meatiness. In the mouth, wet leaves, raspberry and earth flavors swirl under a gauzy film of tannins, and leave savory green herb, earth, and forest floor flavors lingering through the finish. This is a wine that tastes like Autumn. 13.9% alcohol. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $25. click to buy.

2014 Spottswoode Lyndenhurst Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California

Very dark garnet in color, this wine smells of cherry, tobacco leaf and cola. In the mouth, cherry and cola flavors have a deeply earthy aspect to them with hints of herbs and tobacco that linger in the finish. Suede-like tannins grip the palate firmly and suggest perhaps a couple of years of aging would do this wine some good. Excellent acidity and length. 14.1% alcohol. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $83. click to buy.

2015 Chateau Lamothe Castera Cuvee Margaux Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux, France

Dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of wet earth and cherry and leather. In the mouth, bright cherry and earth are clasped in a fist of fine-grained tannins. The fruit is cool and ripe on the tongue thanks to excellent acidity, and notes of cocoa powder lingers in the finish with savory notes of herbs and stone. For those who enjoy leaner Cabernet, this wont disappoint. Contains 15% Merlot. 13% alcohol. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $15. click to buy.

2015 Domaine de Chateaumar Cuvee Vincent Cotes-du-Rhone, Rhone Valley, France

Medium to dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of meaty blueberry and blackberry bramble. In the mouth, wonderfully stony notes of dark cherry and blackberry have a savory, iodine edge to them and a nice wet pavement minerality. Perhaps not overly complex, but tasty for what it is. Excellent acidity. 13% alcohol. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $16. click to buy.

2016 Absentee Winery NMWD Red Blend, California

Dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of blackberry and raspberry and the grapey signature of carbonic maceration. In the mouth, earthy, stony flavors of blackberry and blueberry have a nice fine-grained tannic backbone and a SweetTart tangy finish. 14.5% alcohol. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $39

2016 Absentee Winery FLAWS Red Blend, California

Dark garnet in color, this wine smells of slightly smoky black cherry and boysenberry fruit. In the mouth, muscular, stony tannins surround the black cherry and blackberry fruit and excellent acidity leaves a stony wet chalkboard minerality lingering in the finish along with the cottonmouth texture of the tannins. 14.5% alcohol. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $49. click to buy.

2016 Absentee Winery Quest Marin Red Blend, California

Dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of blackberry and blueberry fruit. In the mouth, tangy blackberry and blueberry flavors have a SweetTart juiciness to them, thanks to excellent acidity. Wet chalkboard minerality and fine grained tannins round out the package. 14.5% alcohol. Score: around 9. Cost: $59Chinese travellers have been flocking to Nha Trang

Le Kim Nhut, director of Nha Trang Tre Tourist, and chair of the Nha Trang Tourism Promotion Forum, confirmed that travel firms have had to cancel many tours recently because of the lack of hotel rooms.

Tran Thanh Hung told reporters that he needed 3-4-star hotel rooms in Nha Trang city for a group of 40 travelers from Thua Thien-Hue province, but there were no vacancies. The group of travellers will come to Nha Trang in two months. After seeking help from friends and hotel receptionists, I managed to find a newly built 2-star hotel, he said.

Though the hotel is far from beaches, we have to pay the room rate of VND1 million ($45.4) per room, which is approximately the rate of 3-4 star hotel room, he complained. Nhut said most 3-star and more luxury hotels have been booked for inbound tours and need to reserve rooms for travelers from China and Russia.

The travel firms which arrange tours for Chinese and Russian travelers make reservations and pay some money in advance, he explained. Some hotels only have 50 rooms, but accept reservations for 60-70 rooms. As a result there are no more rooms for domestic travelers, he said. Domestic travelers only know at the last minute if they can book a room. In most cases, they can book only luxury rooms or pay high room rates.

Even hotels under two stars are fully occupied because the very high number of Chinese travelers, he said. A hotel receptionist said travel firms buy hotel rooms in bulk many months or one year in advance.

Le Van Son, CEO of 4-star Liberty Nha Trang, said Chinese travellers account for 60 percent of total guests, so the occupancy rate at hotels is always high. However, the hotel room rate has decreased significantly. The room rate at 5-star hotels, for example, plunged by 50 percent from $220 per room per night in 2013 to $110 in 2017.

Son expressed concern about the loss of travelers from Europe, Australia and North America. The number of Chinese travellers is so high, while tourists from traditional markets such as Europe, Australia and North America are on the sharp decrease, he said.

If we cannot find reasonable solutions, we will lose the markets completely. The same thing is happening in Danang. Deputy CEO of Vitours Le Tan Thanh Tung said in high season many hotels dont receive bookings because the rooms are fully occupied for Chinese and Korean travelers.EU's High representative for foreign affairs and security policy Federica Mogherini spoke to the press as she arrived on the first day of a summit of European Union (EU) leaders at the EU headquarters in Brussels, on Mar 22, 2018. (Photo: AFP/John Thys)

EU leaders summoned envoy Markus Ederer back to Brussels for consultations as international pressure builds on Moscow over the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the British city of Salisbury.

At a summit on Friday, the bloc unanimously backed Britain's assessment that the Kremlin was to blame for the incident - the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War 2.

In a brief statement on Sunday, Mogherini's office said she had held "consultations with the Head of European Union Delegation in the Russian Federation".

No further details were given beyond saying Ederer would "continue institutional consultations in the coming days".

A number of European countries are expected to take further steps to punish Moscow on Monday, with the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Denmark and Ireland considering expelling Russian diplomats.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday that further coordinated actions were "necessary" to respond to the attack, while French officials have said Paris too was ready to act.

Britain and Russia have expelled 23 of each other's diplomats in tit-for-tat exchanges, while Moscow has also shut down the operations of the British Council cultural organisation in its territory.

Moscow denies any involvement in the attack on the Skripals and has accused Britain of orchestrating a campaign against it.

On Saturday the BBC reported that Skripal had written to Russian President Vladimir Putin several years ago asking for a pardon for selling secrets to British intelligence.

Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter are both in a coma after being poisoned with a nerve agent - identified as the Soviet-made "Novichok" by the British government - on Mar 4.As the Earth Hour enters its 10th year in Vietnam, over 2,000 young people gathered on March 24 at the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Culture House to celebrate the milestone.

On March 24, around 2,000 volunteer students and local citizens participated in the Earth Hour 2018 event in Ho Chi Minh City The event celebrates the 10th anniversary of Earth Hour in Vietnam since 2009 The Earth Hour 2018 campaign themed Go more Green - Connect to Earth calls on individuals and organisations to save energy The campain was kicked off on March 11 with several activities like bicycle rides and a flashmob performance The main event calls for lights to be switched off at 8.30pm for one hour around the world Young Vietnamese artist Isaac serves as the ambassador of the Earth Hour 2018 programme Volunteer students celebrating the Earth Hour 2018 campaign in Ho Chi Minh City By Thanh VanRegularly, the multinational business magazine published prestigious ranked lists, including Fortune 500, 40 under 40, 100 Best Companies to Work For, and Worlds Most Admired Companies - a ranking of the most respected companies in business

Honeywell has been selected as one of the Worlds Most Admired Companies for 12th consecutive year, and the second year in a row they rank first in the electronics industry.

To conduct this survey, 680 highest-revenue companies are selected from 1,500 candidates (1,000 largest US companies ranked by revenue, and non-US companies in Fortunes Global 500 database with revenues from $10 billion).

Honeywell is a Fortune 100 software-industrial company

From that pool of 680, the list by each industry is compiled from the votes of 3,900 executives, directors, and securities analysts on nine criteria. Honeywell received first place rankings in reputation attributes for people management, use of corporate assets, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment, and quality of products/services. The company ranked second place in innovation, social responsibility, and global competitiveness.

Accordingly, the firm is considered the most admired companies in three sectors, including home electronics, sensing & internet of things (SIoT) and electronic materials.

Notably, Honeywell is a leading brand in offering unsurpassed quality and a broadened range of electronic products and accessories that can complement any home and place of business. Initiated with a "damper flapper  an ingenious predecessor to the modern thermostat since 1886, the companys portfolio now range from heating/cooling and air quality products, to safety & security and other enery-efficient devices.

Recently, Honeywell has officially introduced the Air Touch range of air purifiers to Vietnam market. Built on a well-tested and proven technology platform, Air Touch is designed to address the ever-growing problem of air pollution inside Vietnamese homes and offices.

Honeywells patented multi-layered filtration: Pre-filter, HEPA Filter that removes over 99 per cent PM2.5 and microscopic allergens, and the patented HiSiv filter (imported from US) that maintains maximum absorption efficiency of formaldehyde even in high humidity environments.

Regarding SIoT, with a broad product line of over 50,000 products, Honeywells SIoT, part of Safety and Productivity Products strategic business group, is a leading global supplier of standard and custom-engineered packaged products and switches, gas sensors, electronic sensors, barcode scan-engines and test & measurement sensors.

Entering Vietnam since 2017, Honeywells SIoT aims to become the top sensor/ switches supplier in Vietnam. The company has strong foundation for their ambition, as they possess a product portfolio to meet the requirements of emerging industries in Vietnam, including healthcare/medical, industrial automation, and transportation.

Honeywell named as leader in Electronic Materials

Honeywells Electronic Materials is a leading supplier to the worldwide electronics industry, providing critical materials that enhance the performance and productivity of manufacturing processes. The unit manufactures and supplies the semiconductor industry with electronic chemicals, electronic polymers, targets coil sets and metals, advanced packaging, and thermocouples. As part of Honeywell, the Electronic Materials unit share in the strength, resources and best practices of one of the worlds leading corporations.

Ranking first in electronics among Most Admired Companies, Honeywell has reaffirmed their position as an innovative corporation with technologies that help everything from aircraft, cars, homes and buildings, manufacturing plants, supply chains, and workers become more connected to make our world smarter, safer, and more sustainable.Manulife Vietnam's representative receives the certificate at Vietnam Best Places to Work 2018

The indicators cover competitive compensation and benefits, career opportunities, work-life balance, and corporate reputation, among others.

Manulifes three core valuesWe work as one; We question and innovate; We own our own futurehas confirmed that we are a staff-centric working environment, promoting the culture of empowerment, cooperation, and differentiation. We not only support individuals to unleash their potential, but also create work-life balance. That is why Manulife is increasingly preferred by employees," said Paul George Nguyen, general director of Manulife Vietnam.

Manulife Vietnams board of directors always encourages staff to participate in internal and international training programmes to improve their soft skills.

Employees are encouraged to promote their potential, to step out of their comfort zone, and to seize career opportunities in Vietnam and in the global corporation.

In addition, advancement opportunities and the outstanding benefit scheme have made a great contribution to maintaining an attractive working environment, attracting Vietnamese and foreigner talents, while 'Manulife Care' helps employees in work-out programmes and improve their work-life balance to increase working effectiveness.

Providing a professional working environment and high-benefits, Manulife Vietnam has attracted a lot of talents in the finance and insurance industry. It is also the insurance company that owns the largest international actuary team in the insurance market.Vietnam's finance and banking sector saw a substantial recovery showcased in past achievements and ambitious targets in for 2018

Nguyen Duc Vinh, CEO of VPBank, asserted that the bank's shareholders approved the plan to reach VND10.8 trilllion ($474.12 million) in pre-tax profit by the end of 2018.

Previously in 2017, the bank's pre-tax profit hit VND8.13 trillion ($356.9 million), which was 65 per cent higher than the same category in 2016 and equivalent to 120 per cent of the latest adjusted expected profit in June 2017, posting the highest profitability score in the bank's history since 2012.

Over the same time period in 2017, the bank managed to raise its charter capital from VND9.181 trillion ($403.04 million) to VND15.706 trillion ($689.49 million).

Vo Tan Hoang Van, CEO of SCB, noted that in 2018, the bank targets a profitability growth of 36.85 per cent, equivalent to VND224 billion ($9.83 million). Expected total assets increased by 9.69 per cent, commensurate with VND487.043 trillion ($21.38 billion).

Additionally, the bank planned to raise its charter capital to VND16.6 trillion ($728.74 million) by the end of 2018 and to VND18 trillion ($790.2 million) by the end of 2019.

Van further added that the bank secured large service charges and sales revenue from stock tradingVND871 billion ($38.23 million) and VND626 billion ($27.48 million), respectivelyover the course of 2017, which in turn allowed SCB to efficiently resolve bad debts

Over the last five years, the Vietnamese finance and banking sector saw a substantial overall "healthy" recovery, which previously earned regconition from global rating organisations, including Moody's, offering positive support to the country's economic growth in the next five years.

Nguyen Le Quoc Anh, CEO of Techcombank, disclosed the bank's business plan for 2018, stating that the bank expected to achieve 20 per cent growth in sales revenue and VND10 trillion ($439 million) in pre-tax profit, which would be equivalent to a 24 per cent growth against 2017.

The bank also aims to achieve VND315.184 trillion in total assets, an increase of 17 per cent against 2016, 40 per cent growth in capital mobilisation; 18 per cent growth in credit; as well as maintaining the ratio of bad debts under 2 per cent.

In 2017, Techcombank gained a pre-tax profit of over VND8 trillion, which was 200 per cent of the previous year's pre-tax profit figure and 400 per cent of the same category in 2015.

Nirukt Sapru, CEO in the ASEAN and South Asia regions of Standard Chartered Bank, highlighted that in comparison to the last five years, the Vietnamese finance and banking sector witnessed a substantial overall "healthy" recovery, which previously earned recognition from global rating organisations, including Moody's, offering positive support to the country's economic growth in the next five years.POSCO under the steely glare of tax evasion scrutiny

A Vietnam Customs report shows that in July 2016, POSCO imported steel plates from China using the HS code 72254090, enjoying a 0 per cent import tax rate for two whole shipments.

However, after post-clearance checks, Haiphongs Customs Department announced in May 2017s Decision No.1871/QD-HQHP that these steel products would have had to apply HS code 72249000 which means a safeguard tariff of 23.3 per cent to block Chinese products.

According to Haiphongs Customs Department, POSCO sold these two shipments to VSC-POSCO Steel Corporation (also known as Thep Viet-Han), where these steel plates were cut to make steel billets for rolling steel construction.

VSC-POSCO is a joint venture between the state-run Vietnam Steel Corporation, POSCO, and locally-invested firm Hascom.

POSCO-VNPC and VSC-POSCO, both invested by POSCO, raised suspicions about tax avoidance, although POSCO Vietnam Holdings maintains that the firms are two completely separate legal entities.

In 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Trade made a decision to impose import tariffs on steel billets and steel bars to protect domestic production. Specifically, steel billets have incurred a tax duty of 23.3 per cent since March 22, 2017. The tariff will be adjusted down to 7.3 per cent in March 2019, and to 0 percent on March 22, 2020.

POSCO Vietnam Holdings said that how VSC-POSCO uses steel products is not the responsibility of companies under the POSCO Vietnam Holdings umbrella.

Almost one year after Haiphongs Customs Departments decision, the two sides have yet to find common ground and await a final decision. A document issued by Vietnam Customs in January has not given direction to the case, saying only that if there is reason for doubt and signs of tax evasion during post-clearance checks, they shall have to file dossiers on the cases and submit to the Ministry of Industry and Trades Trade Remedies Authority for investigation.Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay never fails to attract tourists thanks to its stunning natural beauty and temperate climate. During the hottest days of the year, it's best to embark on a cruise sailing among countless spectacular rock formations rising above the clear water to Lan Ha Bay, kayaking through caves to hidden lagoons and swimming from white, sandy beaches. The Ha Long Carnival 2018, under the theme "Ha Long  Heritage, Wonder  Friendly Destination" will kick off on April 28 with music, art performances and fireworks shows. And for all those reasons, Ha Long Bay should absolutely be put on your go-to list this summer.

Sapa

The north mountainous district of Sapa

Sapa has long been a favorite among locals during the summer thanks to its cool mountain weather. For those who want to get away from the extreme summer heat, its a great experience to conquer Fansipan, dubbed the Roof of Indochina at a height of 3,134 metres (10,312 feet). You will also be surprised by the beautiful terraced rice fields stretching across the valley into the horizon. Sapas 'love market' at the weekend is another fun experience for tourists.

Danang city

The central city of Danang's My Khe beach

Danang is another promising destination for your summer vacation, with no shortage of accommodation such as the Four Points Sheraton. The Danang International Firework Festival 2018, themed Legends of the Bridge, will also ignite from April 30 to June 30. With participation from eight countries, the show will definitely bring that wow factor to your holiday.

Hoi An ancient town

The ancient town of Hoi An

Unlike Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, peace and tranquility are often the first and lasting impressions you will find in Hoi An. Taking a stroll past ancient yellow houses and immersing yourself on the beaches is the best way to escape the extreme heat of summer. Summer is the best time of the year to enjoy the beaches in Hoi An. And thanks to the introduction of hotels and resorts such as Silk Sense Hoi An River Resort, La Siesta Hoi An Resort & Spa and Pearl River Hoi An Hotel & Spa, Hoi An has become a budget-friendly destination for many travelers.

Da Lat

Da Lat - Sapa of the south

If you want to refresh yourself with cool weather and romantic scenery, Da Lat is undoubtedly the perfect choice. Known as the Sapa of the south, Da Lats weather is mild, cool and fresh all year round. It's best to take a a jeep to the top of Langbiang Mountain to enjoy the sunset, visit the flower fields lying in the narrow valley and enjoy coffee sip while people-watching near the central market.Seven students at the prestigious Bogazici University in Istanbul have been detained over protests against Turkey's military campaign in Istanbul. (Photo: AFP/OZzan Kose)

Police stormed a students' dormitory and a house at Bogazici University around dawn Sunday and detained three students - two men and one woman, lawyer Inayet Aksu told AFP.

With the latest detentions, the number of students being held by the police rose to seven, he added.

Erdogan on Saturday had slammed anti-war students at Bogazici University as "terrorists" as tensions rose on the campus over divided views of Turkey's cross-border military campaign in Syria.

A group of students this week opened a stand handing out sweets or Turkish delight they had dubbed "Afrin delight" in memory of the fallen soldiers in the army's almost two-month operation to capture the city from a Syrian Kurdish militia force.

In a show of protest, another group of students unfurled anti-war banners.

Aksu told AFP the detentions began on Thursday, based on the video recordings.

"An (anti-war) expression could disturb certain quarters but it cannot be considered a crime under the Turkish penal code," he said.

In his blistering attack, Erdogan labelled the anti-war students as "communists" and "terrorists" and the other group as "believers".

"While this youth was distributing sweets there, that communist, traitor youths dared to storm their stand," Erdogan said to his Justice and Development Party (AKP) at a provincial congress in Samsun on the Black Sea.

Erdogan said an investigation was being launched and vowed to identify the anti-war students.

'DANGEROUS ENDEAVOUR'

Ankara in January launched an offensive in the enclave of Afrin in Syria to root out the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Turkey brands a terrorist group.

On Mar 18, Turkish forces and their rebel allies took full control of Afrin, with the YPG largely withdrawing without a fight.

In Turkey, police have detained over 500 people for social media posts and protests speaking out against the military offensive in Syria.

The crackdown -- which has also targeted the national medical association - has raised alarm bells over the state of freedom of expression under Erdogan who has blasted opponents of the Syria campaign as "traitors."

Kati Piri, the European Parliament's Turkey rapporteur, took on Twitter to protest Erdogan's latest salvo targeting anti-war students.

"Anti-war protesters labelled 'terrorists' by President Erdogan. Critical thinking dangerous endeavour in 'new Turkey'", she wrote.Uber drivers to be transferred to Grab on April 8

This morning, all Uber drivers received a notification that after Uber officially stops its operations in Southeast Asia and Vietnam, they will become partners of Grab. Accordingly, drivers who want to work for Grab will have to register to join Grab and then their accounts will be automatically transferred to Grab.

The Uber app will remain available until April 8.

Following the deal, Grab will take over Ubers operations and assets in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Responding to concerns that the merger will sharply increase the fleet of Grab, causing fierce competition between Grab drivers, a representative of Grab stated that after the merger, Grab hopes to inherit Ubers customer base, bringing more opportunities for drivers to increase their incomes.

Besides, Grab will try to make sure the transfer will not impact the operation of its partners.

Regarding the fares, Grab stated that the fares of GrabCar and GrabBike will depend on the length of the routes.

Regarding customers, Uber will transition its services over to the Grab platform by April 8, 2018, so all requests after that date should be made from the Grab app. However, customers can still use the Uber app in more than 80 countries around the world.Grab merges with Uber in Southeast Asia

Grab today announced that it has acquired Ubers Southeast Asian operations. Grab will integrate Ubers ridesharing and food delivery business in the region into its existing multi-modal transportation and fintech platform.

Following the deal, Grab will take over Ubers operations and assets in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. As part of the acquisition, Uber will take a 27.5 per cent stake in Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grabs board.

The deal marks a new era of growth for Grab. In terms of food delivery, Grab will rapidly expand its existing GrabFood businesses in Indonesia and Thailand to two more countriesSingapore and Malaysiafollowing the integration of the Uber Eats business. GrabFood will be available across all major Southeast Asian countries within the first half of 2018.

Regarding transportation, Grab will grow its core transport offering to include more localised transport services and new mobility solutions, in partnership with other transport providers and carmakers.

In terms of payments and financial services, Grab will continue to enhance and expand its suite of offerings under Grab Financial, including mobile payments, micro-financing, insurance, and other financial services for millions of underserved and unbanked consumers, micro-entrepreneurs, and small businesses in the region. GrabPay, as a mobile walletm will be available across all major Southeast Asian countries by the end of the year.

Todays acquisition marks the beginning of a new era. The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region. Together with Uber, we are now in an even better position to fulfil our promise to serve our customers.

Anthony Tan, Group CEO and Co-founder of Grab, said, Todays acquisition marks the beginning of a new era. The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region. Together with Uber, we are now in an even better position to fulfil our promise to serve our customers. Their trust in us as a transport brand allows us to look towards the next step as a company: improving peoples lives through food, payments, and financial services.

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, said, This deal is a testament to Ubers exceptional growth across Southeast Asia over the last five years. It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology to create the best customer experience on the planet."

To minimise disruption, Grab and Uber are working together to promptly transfer Uber drivers and riders, Uber Eats customers, merchant partners, and delivery partners to the Grab platform.

The Uber app will continue to operate for two more weeks to ensure stability for Uber drivers. Uber Eats will run until the end of May, after which Uber delivery and restaurant partners will move to the GrabFood platform.Keir Starmer, pictured in 2017, was to say in a speech that Labour hopes to get enough cross-party backing to reject the "take it or leave it" Brexit approach on offer. (Photo: AFP/Daniel Leal-Olivas)

The party's Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer was to say in a speech that Labour hopes to get enough cross-party backing to reject the "take it or leave it" approach on offer, in which a parliamentary vote against the final agreement is interpreted as a decision to back a "no deal" Brexit.

Prime Minister Theresa May is running a minority Conservative government that relies on a Northern Ireland party for a slender majority.

"Labour will ensure that an amendment is tabled to the EU Withdrawal Bill," Starmer was to say, according to released extracts of his speech.

"Should the prime minister's deal be defeated, it must be for parliament to say what happens next, not the executive.

"Labour's preference in that scenario is clear: the government should go back to the negotiating table and work towards securing a deal that works for Britain.

"This would provide a safety valve in the Brexit process."

This week marks a year to go until Britain leaves the European Union.

On Friday, EU leaders without Britain approved guidelines for the next phase of Brexit talks on the future relationship including trade, and approved a deal for a 21-month transition period.

The transition deal agreed last week by negotiators effectively maintains Britain's ties with the EU until December 2020, although it will have no voting rights, to allow time for a deal on future relations.

Meanwhile Tony Blair, Britain's Labour prime minister from 1997 to 2007, warned that May would try to fudge the details of the final Brexit plan for as long as possible, as he stepped up his call for a second referendum on whether Britain should stay in the EU. The UK voted in 2016 to leave the bloc.

Blair was also set to give a speech on Monday where he was to say that the Conservatives "are in mortal danger of putting a proposition to parliament which will not pass", calling the approach "deeply, dangerously irresponsible".

The final deal will either mean divergence from Europe, damaging the economy, or alignment with Europe, infuriating Brexit supporters, he was to claim.

Blair also plans to say that the "sensible strategic course" if the Conservatives wanted to survive in office was to "share the responsibility".

"Resolve the dilemma before March 2019. Put the proposition to parliament," he says, according to released excerpts of his speech.

"If it succeeds, then no one can say we voted in parliament in ignorance. Even better, let the MPs have a free vote.

"Then let the people make the final judgement."Kachay Global Development lauded the agricultural park as an ideal investment destination

The decision came after the firm conducted a survey to look for investment opportunities in the hi-tech agricultural park. The firm will develop food processing plants, and R&D area as well as a human resources training area in the food processing industry park.

Speaking at the working session with leaders of the Thanh Hoa Peoples Committee, Samuel Karp, chairman of the Board of Directors of Kachay Global, stated that the agricultural park is an ideal investment destination.

Along with the food industry project covering an area of 200 hectares, the firm plans to invest in additional 800ha area to build a hospital,tourism centre, apartments, as well as to lure secondary investors.

Standing Deputy Chairman of the Thanh Hoa Peoples Committee Nguyen Duc Quyen stated that the firm will complete the site clearance to hand over the ground to the investor soon. Additionally, the province wants the investor to pay in advance for site clearance, which will be then deducted from the land rentals.The condotel development Grand World Phu Quoc. - Photo condotelvietnam.com

The condotel market is forecast to keep booming in 2018. But the rapid development has left many concerned about oversupply.

Supply exceeding demand?

According to data from the Viet Nam Real Estate Association (VNREA), in 2017 condotels became the brightest star in the resort real estate sector. The investment in condotel projects has accounted for more than half of total inflows into the real estate market. The supply of condotel products hit 22,837 units across developments throughout the country. Successful transactions account for 65-70 per cent of the volume offered.

The above numbers show the excitement focused on this segment of the real estate as well as the potential for investors. This year, it is forecast that there will be 29,000-33,000 condotel units available for sale.

Stephen Wyatt, CEO of global real estate services firm JLL Viet Nam, said the development of this type of resort condominium is in direct proportion to the accommodation needs of tourists. As tourists demand grows, this type of asset has a positive future.

The Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism reported that international visitors to Viet Nam in 2017 reached nearly 13 million, a sharp increase of 29.1 per cent over the previous year. The most attractive tourist destinations include HCM City, Ha Noi, Da Nang, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc.

In addition, according to the Law on Tourism 2017 approved by the National Assembly, the Government expects the tourism industry to develop into a key economic sector in the future. Supporting policies and investment incentives will create momentum for resort real estate.

In addition, Viet Nams hosting of regional and international conferences also contributes to the development of tourism. For example, hosting APEC 2017 in Da Nang City led the city to perfect its tourism infrastructure as well as attract the attention of visitors and investors from around the world.

With this foundation, 2018 is expected to be another exciting year for resort real estate as investors simultaneously introduce their projects to capture the wave of development of Viet Nams tourism industry, Wyatt said to baotintuc.vn.

As for the question of whether condotel developments have crossed the threshold into oversupply, Wyatt said the answer was uncertain and depends on the overall future of the tourism industry. And at the moment, tourism was a promising sector thanks to the Governments commitments to playing a supportive role.

It is necessary to focus on quality, business strategy and commitment to profitability in order to adapt to the growing market and increasingly tight legal framework of this market, Wyatt suggested.

Need a plan

According to Wyatt, there are three main reasons this type of vacation apartment attracts investors.

First, resort condominiums hit the investment market within the last three years, so the competitiveness of this sector is still low compared to other markets such as apartments, townhouses, villas and land plots. In addition, this type of real estate is attractive to investors because developers typically promise that investors will receive a certain amount of profits.

Second, like other types of real estate for sale, this type of product offers a rapid return on investment.

Third, the 2017 Tourism Law identifying tourism as a key economic sector in the future will create momentum for the development of resort real estate.

However, many management agencies and experts say the condotel boom demands strategy and planning.

Nguyen Tran Nam, chairman of VNREA, emphasised that it was necessary to have a soft, flexible plan for condotel development and investment.

The planning should be based on demand and must be designed to create demand. Some localities report they have experienced dramatic increases in tourism after a condotel is built. Quy Nhon City in the central coast province of Binh Dinh is one example, Nam said.Nguyen Van Quang, chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee, spoke to VIRs Huu Phuc about how investment in prioritised segments will be a boost to realise the provinces goals.

What are your expectations for the Vinh Long investment promotion conference, which will be held on March 27?

Titled Vinh Long  Taking the initiative in promoting co-operation for sustainable development, the Vinh Long investment promotion conference is the largest event of its kind to be organised in the province. Jointly held by the Vinh Long Peoples Committee, ministries, and central agencies, the conference will draw the participation of more than 750 delegates, including some from the government, ministries, central agencies, neighbouring localities, diplomatic missions, and international organisations in Vietnam, as well as a large number of entrepreneurs, investors, and major domestic and foreign corporations. Especially, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will also attend and make a speech at the event.

The conference is aimed to highlight investment opportunities in the province, focusing on the vast potential and incentives it offers, while it looks to gather investors and representatives from international organisations to meet and speak directly with provincial leaders. The event is also meant to provide investors with relevant information and a list of projects in need of investment.

On this occasion, provincial leaders will grant investment decisions and investment registration certificates for investments in some large-scale projects. The conference will witness the signing of memoranda of understanding between stakeholders for large projects which are expected to help foster local socio-economic development.

Notably, the event will also see the signing of a co-operation agreement between four southern provinces  Vinh Long, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, and Tien Giang  on implementing the eastern coastal sub-regional linkage project. The linkage puts a focus on farm produce consumption, investment promotion, the sharing and management of natural resources, infrastructure development, and human resource development.

The conference is expected to help lure investment to exploit the potential and advantages of the province, thus contributing to boosting local socio-economic development and implementing the objectives defined in the resolution issued by the 10th Congress of the Vinh Long Party Committee for the 2015-2020 period.

Vinh Long aims to do its utmost to create the most favourable conditions for businesses and investors

The leadership of Vinh Long province has a meeting with investors from the Netherlands

Which local advantages could draw investors attention?

Located in the heart of the Mekong Delta, Vinh Long stands out from its neighbours in the region with its distinct potential and advantages in terms of geographic location and natural conditions.

Endowed with a relatively temperate climate and fertile soil, Vinh Long has the prerequisites for expanding agricultural production, which focuses on the growing of rice and fruits, as well as aquaculture and livestock farming.

Vinh Long has a total of nearly 60,000 hectares set aside for rice production, which meets the high standards of quality, food safety, and hygiene required for export, domestic consumption, and processing. Also, Vinh Long is the second-largest fruit-growing hub in the Mekong Delta and the fourth-largest in Vietnam with over 54,000ha, including over 7,000ha of pomelo farms in the township of Binh Minh as well as 8,000ha of king orange groves in the districts of Tam Binh, Tra On, and Vung Liem. In addition, Vinh Long is ranked as the countrys largest sweet potato farming area with an annual planting area of 10,000-12,000ha.

Vinh Long is home to two industrial parks (IP) covering a combined 386ha. Some 71 per cent of the area is currently rented by enterprises for investment. The province is calling for investment in three other IPs which have been approved by the government, namely the 350ha Dong Binh IP in the township of Binh Minh, the 200ha An Dinh IP in Mang Thit district, and the 400ha Binh Tan IP in Binh Tan district. Additionally, the planning for several local industrial and handicraft clusters has been approved to welcome investors.

Vinh Long is also suited for developing tourism with typical products such as ecotourism and homestay services, spiritual tourism, and tours of historical relics, handicraft villages, and tourist resorts.

In addition, the province also has a population of more than one million people, with over 60 per cent being of working age. Thus, Vinh Long is capable of providing a source of qualified workers for enterprises.

Apart from its strong agricultural sector, Vinh Long also wants to develop tourism, Photo: Le Hoang Vu

What sectors does Vinh Long give priority to in calling for investment?

Vinh Long gives priority to calling for investment in the sectors of high-tech agriculture, preservation, the distribution and processing of farm produce, the construction and maintenance of infrastructure in industrial parks and clusters, culture and tourism, transport infrastructure, resorts, urban infrastructure, housing, and shopping centres.

Vinh Long always supports and stands side by side with businesses and investors at home and abroad.

What support does Vinh Long pledge to provide to investors?

Investors are likely to take advantage of local advantages, support mechanisms, and investment incentives which the province provides to investment projects.

Vinh Long pledges to create a favourable and transparent investment climate aimed toward increasing support for investors. Furthermore, investors are aided in handling legal procedures related to their investment and updated with relevant information on projects in need of investment, as well as relevant data as required, within the extent permitted by law.

Vinh Long aims to maximise its efforts to create the most favourable conditions for businesses and investors to achieve sustainable growth while inclining toward building an encouraging investment environment to lure resources for developing the province into a reliable and attractive destination for enterprises and investors.Cars go by the scene Monday near where a pedestrian was stuck by an Uber vehicle in autonomous mode late Sunday night in Tempe, Ariz. The vehicle was in autonomous mode with an operator behind the wheel when a woman walking outside of a crosswalk was hit.Marine City residents are seeking answers about police procedures after a man allegedly fired shots at a vehicle on Robertson Street on March 14 and was not arrested immediately following the incident.

Rhea Dibble said a man fired several shots at the back of her Jeep as her mother drove away. Police responded to her 911 call and took a report. She said officers made contact with the alleged suspect, but did not to arrest him immediately out of concern for escalating the situation.

I was really disappointed they didnt treat it as the emergency situation it was, Dibble said.

The man reportedly turned himself in without incident the next day and is facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon, felony firearms violation and domestic violence second offense.

Dibbles Facebook post describing the incident sparked a heated discussion about the police departments handling of the case. The delay left some Marine City residents concerned about whether the police did enough to protect the community.

We care more about the police departments handling of the issue than the person and crime, itself, said Marine City resident Mike Hilferink, who spoke about the matter at the March 15 city commission meeting.

Hilferink said the home where the incident occurred is fewer than 1,000 feet from the campus of Marine City Middle School and Riverview East and Marine City high schools. He added that Robertson Street is a popular route for children who walk to school.

Susan Mabry also spoke at the March 15 meeting, calling for transparency from the Marine City Police Department.

I dont know that I know the whole story, but I need to know the whole story, Mabry said. We need to know that protocol was followed and everyone was protected as they stated we were.

Officials were unable to address specific questions about the incident, as the investigation is still ongoing, but Commissioner Lisa Hendrick thanked the residents for coming to the meeting to share their views on the situation.

I have spoken with (Marine City Police Chief Jim Heaslip) about the situation we had, City Manager Elaine Leven said. With it being an open case right now, it isnt something were at liberty to discuss, but I am taking it very seriously and doing my due diligence.

Heaslip could not be reached for comment.

Colleen Kowalewski is a staff writer for The Voice. She can be contacted at 586-273-6197 or ckowalewski@21st-centurymedia.com.A 15-year-old Anchor Bay High School student could face charges related to a non-credible threat made against the Fair Haven school on Friday.

Students were dismissed from the school on County Line Road after their third-hour classes at 10:30 a.m. Friday following an anonymous report stating a group of kids was overheard saying something about shooting up a class, police said. The tip was submitted to the states OK2SAY program, which allows students to confidentially report tips on potential harm or criminal activities directed at students, school employees and schools.

As is the case with all threats, this is taken very seriously, Principal Joe McDonald said in a letter sent to parents Friday morning.

St. Clair County Sheriff Tim Donnellon said Deputy Larry Fajardo, a full-time school resource officer, was able to develop leads and a suspect with the information relayed to police. Police began searching for a male student believed to be involved.

Information from the FBI allowed detectives from the St. Clair County Sheriffs Office to locate the individual who left the tip, a 14-year-old New Baltimore boy who attends Anchor Bay High School. After questioning, he gave deputies information about a 15-year-old student who he believed made the threat.

Police located the 15-year-old New Baltimore boy, who also attends Anchor Bay High School, in the parking lot of a Chesterfield Township movie theater. The boy, who was with his father, was interviewed and released after police determined there was no credible threat.

Further investigation led detectives to have the 15-year-old brought to the sheriffs office in Port Huron for additional questioning. He was later released to the care of his mother, police said.

I want to remind all students and their parents that making any kind of threat of violence is a very serious matter, Donnellon said. Making threats like this is no joking matter  no prank.

We, as law enforcement agencies, have to take these threats at face value. I encourage all parents to talk to their children and make sure they understand the potential consequences they face if they make threats like this.

The St. Clair County Prosecutors Office will determine what, if any, charges the teen will face.

A rumor regarding a gun being found inside of the school was also determined to be false, the sheriff noted.

Classes at the high school resumed Monday.

Student safety will remain our top priority, McDonald said in a letter sent to parents Sunday.

The Chesterfield Township, New Baltimore and Clay Township police departments also assisted in the investigation.

Students, officials react to threat

The reported threat came a little more than a week after a group of Anchor Bay High School students took part in a national school walkout to promote safety in schools following the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which claimed the lives of 17 people.

Students Kya Brogdon, Gavin Cannon and Megan Ziembowicz, who organized the walkout at Anchor Bay High School, said Friday mornings events left them feeling shocked, scared and in disbelief.

When the announcement came on, I was instantly filled with fear, Brogdon said. My first thought was of my sister sitting in the sophomore hallway. I was shaking and I could tell that my peers were just as scared.

No one should have to experience that fear in their own school. This is why we need change.

Sitting in my seat hearing that announcement, my heart dropped, Cannon added. I immediately started worrying about if my brother and friends are OK. Thankfully, nothing had happened, but the feat that something could have will never leave my mind.

The March 14 student-led walkout, which was supported by school administrators, aimed to show support for those affected by gun violence in schools, promote safety in all schools, and to prevent tragedies like the school shooting in Florida from happening in the future.

I am in absolute disbeliefits a whole different level when your own schools safety is threatened, Ziembowicz said. It becomes real and very raw. Time seems to stop. And I cant even begin to imagine the fear in students when there are shots fired down the hall for real.

Ziembowicz and Cannon were already planning to take part in the March for Our Lives event in Detroit Saturday. The student-led march, organized by a coalition of metro Detroit high school students, aimed to deliver the message that gun violence must stop in this nation and that governing action on gun laws must be taken, the events Facebook page states.

Sitting in AP Literature class, I was more determined than ever to march for not only others lives, but now my own and my classmates. I am now more passionate than ever and I will never stop fighting for school safety.

The trio commended the high school principal for his efforts to address the situation on Friday.

As a district, we hope Anchor Bay continues to keep students safe and respond as they did today, Ziembowicz said on Friday. We commend Principal McDonald on his handling of the situation and we hope the school administration continues to update us with information as it becomes available.

McDonald urged parents to speak to their children about the importance of not making threatening or inappropriate statements.

Maintaining a safe and orderly environment is always our first priority, he said. Making inappropriate comments or posts, even if the child is joking, are taken very serious by the school district and law enforcement.

Anchor Bay High School enrolls roughly 1,900 students, with many coming from Chesterfield Township and New Baltimore in northern Macomb County.

Tips can be submitted to OK2SAY by calling 855-565-2729, texting 652729 (OK2SAY) and emailing ok2say@mi.gov. Potential threats can also be reported online at michigan.gov/ok2say or through the OK2SAY mobile app.

Ziembowicz plans to continue sharing information about her and her classmates efforts to promote safety in schools on Twitter at twitter.com/meggypooz.

Katelyn Larese is local news editor of The Voice. She can be contacted at 586-273-6196 or katelyn.larese@voicenews.com.Andrew David Johnson died unexpectedly on Thursday, September 16, 2021, at the age of 23. A Celebration of Life will be held at 11:00 AM on Thursday, September 23, 2021, at Calvary Lutheran Church in Alexandria. Visitation will be held from 4-7 PM on Wednesday, September 22, 2021, at the AndFuneral Announcements A daily list of current funeral annoucements as heard on KXRA 1490 AM/100.3 FM

News Updates The daily news, sports, and events delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria.



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Breaking News The big news. Sent only as it happens.Eastern Ghouta was sheltering  400 000 moderate rebels. This is what the press and Western governments asserted.

However, the military operation of the Syrian forces undertaken with the support of Russian military units, in the context of the cessation of hostilities with the Syrian Rebels (Resolution 2401), produces a completely different result.

As of Saturday 24 March, 94 % of the territory is freed and it seems hardly probable that huge throngs of persons will emerge from the ruins. Thus the

stats are as follows:

 105 000 Syrians faithful to the Syrian Arab Republic have been liberated from the yoke of the jihadists;

 another 7 000 persons, probably foreign jihadists and their families have been evacuated under escorted to Idleb. Around 1,500 were hoplites.

This produces, on Saturday 24 March, a total 113 000 persons. This is a figure far smaller than the 400 000, which is the figure that the NATO member states gave to the UN Security Council.

Not one of them presented themselves as a moderate rebel; nor has anyone requested protection from Russia.

Freed Syrians testify that that the jihadists had enslaved boys that were able to build fortifications and dig tunnels. They also denounced the atrocious living conditions that they had been submitted to.

The jihadists had been trained and received instructions from regular soldiers from Britain and France. These were not arrested; they were evacuated separately in a humanitarian convoy organized for them by the UN.

The same type of observation was made in Aleppo in December 2016.

Syria never imploded in civil war. Instead it was made to explode. This was through an attack emanating from outside Syria; an attack that had been planned and sponsored by the West [1].Regina King directs an episode of Scandal. Photo: Ron Tom/ABC

From Los Angeles to New York City and Miami to Vancouver, there are 75 broadcast pilots in various stages of production right now, all vying for primetime slots for the next TV season. Their fates will be known in May when the networks present their new schedules to Madison Avenue advertisers.

But, for now, there are some discernible gains for women in the TV industry. Vulture compiled data on the number of women and people of color who have directed TV pilots for the past five years. This year, 19 women are directing 24 out of 75 pilots across the five broadcast networks; by comparison, last year, women directed six of 70 pilots. Of the 19 female directors this year, three are black and three are Latina, as compared to 2017, when all six women who directed pilots were white. Between 2013 and 2016, women directed 42 pilots out of 348  three were black and the rest were white.

Related Stories Regina King on Finally Directing Her First TV Pilot

Another notable detail among those 19 women  nine have never directed a pilot before: Uta Briesewitz, Regina King, Rosemary Rodriguez, Zetna Fuentes, Sanaa Hamri, Kate Dennis, Julie Plec, Lake Bell, and Kat Coiro. (Three others  Victoria Mahoney, Charlotte Sieling, and Rachel Lee Goldenberg  have directed cable pilots, but are now directing their first broadcast pilots.) While many of these women already have careers directing or producing in the industry, getting the opportunity to do a TV pilot can be an important step to gaining legitimacy and authority. It allows you to set the visual template for a show, which requires more trust from the network, the studio, the creator, and other producers.

As you can see from the following graph, there is no consistent trend upward from year to year. And while 2018 shows considerable progress, as Regina King told Vulture in an interview, theres a lot more room for improvement. Obviously, those numbers show that there is a change, says King, who is directing the pilot for The Finest, a drama for ABC. I think the most important thing at this point is to not allow it to be an anomaly the beginning and an actual change are two totally different things.

Photo: Vulture

Icons by Noun Project; Male icon by Vaibhav Radhakrishnan, Female icon by Wilson JosephPhoto: xxxtentacion/Youtube

Over the past two years, the late rapper XXXTentacion (real name Jahseh Onfroy) had experienced a tumultuous but relatively rapid rise to success, punctuated by serious legal issues and disturbing acts of violence. He signed a record deal rumored to be worth a whopping $6 million despite a video that surfaced showing XXX hitting a fan in the head with a microphone at the Rolling Loud Festival in Mountain View, California. At the time of his murder in June 2018, he was also awaiting trial for a 2016 domestic-abuse case, in which he was charged with aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness tampering. Taking in the full scope of these events is difficult and overwhelming, so weve compiled a timeline to try to make sense of the situation.

Pre-2014

19982011: XXXTentacion grew up in Pompano Beach and Lauderhill in South Florida. He lived with his mother, who he said had it hard, and sometimes with his grandmother. My mom was just in situations where she couldnt take care of me, he said in an interview on the No Jumper podcast. From a very young age, he got involved in violent situations. Ive been fighting since I was a kid, he said. When he was 6, he tried to stab a man who was messing with his mother. He was also expelled from his first middle school for fighting.

In his early teenage years, he developed a passion for music. He was drawn to nu-metal and hard rock as well as rap, and tried to teach himself how to play the guitar and the piano. In middle school, he said his aunt and mother tried to encourage this interest by signing him up for chorus, but he eventually got kicked out of the program for punching a classmate.



20122014: XXXTentacion attends high school at Piper High School in Sunrise, Florida, before dropping out in the tenth grade. Around this time, he says, he recorded and released a song, but there is no record of it online.

Sometime in 20132014, XXXTtentacion spends around nine months to a year in a juvenile-detention center for a gun possession charge. During this time he meets fellow rapper Ski Mask the Slump God. After being released, the two go on to collaborate on several projects.

201415

March 2014: XXXTentacion uploads his first song to SoundCloud. The track is called Vice City.

February 3, 2015: He releases another EP called Heartbreak Hotel on SoundCloud.

Late 2014: XXXTentacion independently releases two EPs called The Fall and Ice House online. He later deletes them from SoundCloud.

April 20, 2015: XXXTentacion and Ski Mask the Slump God release a joint EP called Members Only Vol. 1

October 23, 2015: XXXTentacion and Ski Mask release another EP, Members Only Vol. 2

November 16, 2015: XXXTentacion is charged for committing home invasion, robbery, and aggravated battery, according to court documents.

December 31, 2015: Look at Me, XXXTentacions first big single, appears on SoundCloud.

2016

January 29: Look at Me gets an official release as a digital download. While its SoundCloud numbers continue to grow, the single doesnt enter the Billboard charts for another ten-and-a-half months.

April 24: XXXTentacion does his first long-form interview on the hip-hop podcast No Jumper (which Jon Caramanica of the New York Times has described as The Paris Review for the face-tattoo set). He discusses his troubled past and time in juvenile detention. He includes a very graphic story about beating up a cellmate, whom he refers to as a faggot, describing every violent act in gruesome detail. After mentioning that he wiped the mans blood on his face, Adam22, (full name Adam Grandmaison), the BMX rider and hip-hop podcast host, contributes an equally disturbing response  Warpaint. Thats tight, he says.

Mid-May: According to a testimony obtained by Pitchfork in September of this year, XXXTentacion and his (former) girlfriend (and alleged domestic-abuse victim) first met.

Late May: The first instance of domestic violence allegedly takes place. According to his ex-girlfriends testimony, XXXTentacion threatened to penetrate her vagina with a barbecue cleaner or a barbecue fork.

July: XXXTentacion and his then-girlfriend move to Orlando.

Mid-July (approximately): The second incident of alleged domestic violence occurs. XXXTentation allegedly kicked, punched, tackled, and stomped on his ex-girlfriend, because he heard her singing another artists song, the testimony in Pitchfork states. He also threatened to cut out, her tongue, the victim said.

August 9: XXXTentacion is arrested for his 2015 robbery and assault charges. He is held at Broward Regional Detention Center in Fort Lauderdale.

September 16: XXXTentacion agrees to house arrest, and is released from jail. Soon after, he allegedly assaults his ex-girlfriend again after she confesses to sleeping with another man. According to her testimony, he put a knife to her throat, strangled her a little bit, and threatened to hit her with a glass bottle.

Late September: XXXTentacion and his then-girlfriend move to Sweetwater, Florida. XXXTentacion is accused of strangling her on two occasions around this time, the testimony in Pitchfork states.

Early October: XXXTentactions ex-girlfriend finds out that she is pregnant with his child.

October 68: Over the course of two days, several instances of domestic violence allegedly take place. According to XXXTentacions ex-girlfriends testimony, he threatened to kill her and her unborn child before elbowing, punching, and kicking her. When she asked other residents of the pairs apartment to take her to the hospital, XXXTentacion refused to let her leave. She recalls him saying that she needed to wait until her face (which was severely beaten) had healed. XXXTentacion and his housemates then drive her to another apartment, where they leave her in a bedroom and confiscate her phone. She is trapped there for two days until, on October 8, she manages to escape and contact the police.

October 8: XXXTencacion is arrested in Miami-Dade County, and charged with aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness tampering. He pleads not guilty, but is detained by Broward County for violating his house arrest agreement. A trial for the domestic-abuse charges is set for May 1 (this trial later gets pushed back to October 5, and then December 11).

2017

January 1: Adam22 announces that he is managing XXXTentacion. xxx is out in a couple weeks and im managing him, he tweets. Over the next few months, while XXXTentacion is in jail, Adam22 uses his own Twitter account to update fans on XXXTentacions status and well-being.

January 17: A$AP Rocky shares his support for XXXTentacion on Instagram live. Free my n***a X, I cant wait til you come home, he says.

January 28: Drake previews KMT at a show in Amsterdam. Fans compare it to Look at Me on social media. Pigeons and Planes posts a snippet of the two songs side by side.

Preview of Drake's new song vs. XXXTENTACION's "Look At Me" pic.twitter.com/Z4rhcwIw1b  Pigeons & Planes (@PigsAndPlans) January 29, 2017

February 1: Danny Brown quotes lyrics from XXXTentacion and Ski Mask the Slump Gods RIP Roach on Twitter.

Cocaine for my breakfast, hold that pistol ambidextrous  Danny Brown (@xdannyxbrownx) February 1, 2017

February 14: Look at Me enters the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 95.

February 18: In an interview with DJ Semtex aired on OVO Sound radio, Drake denies copying Look at Me. The other day, I dropped this song with Giggs and Im seeing all this shit on my IG under some random picture of people being like, Fuck you, you took this kids flow or whatever. Im like, Whats happening to me right now? So Im trying to read and figure out who theyre talking about.

March 26: XXXTentacion pleads no contest to the charges of armed home-invasion robbery and battery, and is released from jail on probation.

March 29: In an interview on Miamis 103.5 The Beat, XXXTentacion accuses Drake of stealing his flow. He is not a man. I think hes a bitch, thats a bitch move, he tells the interviewer.

April 7: XXXTentacion hosts a surprise show in Miami, which turns into a riot. Police intervene, shut down the show, and escort XXXTentacion out of the building.

April 22: Look at Me peaks at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100.

May 12: XXXTentacion releases a song called Looking for a Star, which is produced by Diplo.

May 17: XXXTentacion releases his debut mixtape, Revenge, via Empire Distribution. It consists of eight songs which he had previously released on SoundCloud, and doesnt garner much press coverage on its own. Reviews by XXL, VIBE, and Revolt, present it as a collection of highlights rather than a new body of work. It peaks at No. 44 on the Billboard 200.

June 7: XXXTentacion is knocked out onstage at a show in San Diego. In the brawl that ensues, someone gets stabbed. Fans blame rapper Rob Stone for the incident.

June 13: XXXTentacion appears on XXLs 2017 Freshman Class cover as the 10th Spot winner  the only spot on the list that is fan-selected. According to XXL, His fans blew up our voting page, pushing him to the top slot by thousands of votes. In light of his domestic-violence charges, the decision to feature him on the list is met with significant resistance from XXL readers and other music publications.

June 14: XXXTentacion punches a fan at a show in Salt Lake City.

June 26: XXXTentacion and Ski Mask the Slump God release their Members Only Vol. 3 EP.

Early August: Look at Me is certified platinum. In a now-deleted Instagram post, XXXTentacion posts a picture of the RIAA certification with a caption saying: say what you want, but you will always be forced to accept that Im out here living my own life.

August 25: 17, XXXTentacions first album is released via Empire Distribution. It debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. One blog, DJ Booth (which is part of the Complex Network), refuses to review the album and posts an official statement, saying, We felt we could no longer stand on the sidelines, watching raps ugly embrace of sexual assault. Meaghan Garvey writes about the album for Pitchfork, and gives it a mixed review, attempting to articulate its merits and understand XXXTentacions fan base, while also acknowledging his troubling personal history. The reasons it is difficult to listen to can overshadow the need to listen to it, she says.

Kendrick Lamar cosigns the album on Twitter. Listen to this album if you feel anything, he writes. Raw thoughts.

https://t.co/ovjuQN8weO listen to this album if you feel anything. raw thoughts. https://t.co/ovjuQN8weO  Kendrick Lamar (@kendricklamar) August 26, 2017

September 2: XXXTencacions free show in Tampa gets canceled due to an overcrowding risk (2,000 people showed up to a 750 capacity venue, XXL reported). The crowd riots and chases XXXTentacions car. Police intervene.

September 8: Pitchfork releases excerpts from XXXTentacions ex-girlfriends testimony.

September 17: The Look at Me video is released. It includes a shot of XXXTentacion hanging from a noose.

September 28: XXXTentations October 5 domestic-abuse trial gets postponed.

October 5: A new trial date is set for December 11.

October 19: XXXTentacion signs a deal with Caroline, a subsidiary of Capitol Records, Billboard reports. One source says that the deal is worth $6 million.

October 20: XXXTentacion announces, via Instagram story, that he will donate over a 100 thousand dollars to domestic-violence-prevention programs.

October 21: During a his performance at the Rolling Loud festival in the Bay Area, XXXTentacion gets into another fight with a fan. A video of the incident shows XXXTentacion hitting the crowd member in the head with his microphone. In a video released on Twitter later that night, XXXTentacion argues that he was punched first and acted in self-defense.

October 26: XXXTentacion posts a message on his Instagram story stating that he is no longer signed to Capitol Records. Terminating my deal with capitol records, he writes in one message, followed by another saying If you can match my alleged previous contract, and add free international travel & free international stay I would be happy to be in business with you, I am currently a free agent, well, I always was. Soon after, a rep from XXXTentacions camp denies the claim, saying that XXXTentacion is signed to Caroline/Capitol Music Group.

October 27: In another Instagram story, XXXTentacion says that he will not be making or releasing any music. I am tired of being mentally abused for trying to help people, Im tired of the hate, Im done, he writes.

October 29: XXXTentacion says, via Instagram story, that he will return to music if Ski Mask The Slump God agrees to be his friend again. Tell Ski Mask to be my friend again and I will make music. Tell him to be my friend again, he said in the (now deleted) post. A couple days later, in a video, responded, I will always love that alien-looking n***a named XXX, but I have to distance myself because nobody would see me as an individual, and On top of that, that n***a crazy as hell. Then, he wrote on an Instagram story: This is a person who has before threaten[ed] my family, told me I was supposed to be sacrificed on some crazy shit,

November 2: XXXTentacion posts a snippet of a new song on Instagram, with a caption reading: said I was going to stop making music but I dont consider this music.

November 26: XXXTentacion announces that he plans to host an anti-rape event at this years Art Basel in Miami.

December 1: XXXtentacion and his lawyers submit a document, allegedly signed by his ex-girlfriend, to the DAs office in hopes of getting his domestic-assault case dropped. Accoring to TMZ, the document states that XXXtentacions accuser is refusing to cooperate with prosecutors and wants to drop the case.

December 15: XXXTentacion is jailed ahead of his abuse trial, with seven new charges added, including different degrees of witness tampering and witness harassment. According to TMZ, prosecutors believe the rapper coerced his ex-girlfriend into signing the previously submitted documents that claimed she wanted the charges dropped. His bail is denied. He now reportedly faces decades in prison, at minimum, if convicted.

December 20: TMZ reports that XXXTentacion will be released from jail and serve house arrest for two months ahead of his trial. His attorney David Bogenschutz told the site that the judge will allow the rapper to visit a local recording studio to fulfill his contractual obligations during this time.

January 10: According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, several anonymous sources with knowledge of XXXTentacions signing to Capitol Records in October, suggested that many staffers at the label opposed the deal. However, two of the Times sources said that in a staff meeting, Capitol president Steve Barnett told executives that Onfroys surging popularity would help the company have a bigger market share in hip-hop and acknowledged the controversy around the artist, encouraging those with concerns to voice them.

March 16: XXXtentacion releases his second studio album, ?, via his label Bad Vibes Forever. The album is distributed by Caroline Distribution, which is part of Capitol Records. It debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, selling the equivalent of 131,000 units in its first week.

March 21: XXXtentacion is released from house arrest, so that he can go on tour, TMZ reports. According to the article, XXXs legal team argued that he would need touring income to stay afloat, because his earnings from record sales werent sufficient.

March 25: XXXTentacions sophomore album, ?, debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, giving SoundCloud rap its first No. 1 album.

March 26: Sad, one of the two singles from ?, reaches No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming XXXtentacions first top-ten song.

May 10: Spotify removes XXXTentacions music from its playlists in accordance with a new Hate Content and Hateful Conduct policy. His reps issue a statement listing other artists accused of abuse, asking if they will also be penalized.

June 1: Spotify scraps its hate content policy following complaints from industry insiders. XXXTentacions music is reinstated on its playlists.

June 5: XXXTentacion is the subject of an extensive profile in the Miami New Times detailing his alleged abuse, including interviews with his accuser. In it, XXXTentacion dismisses feminism, saying Women may see or feel that theyre belittled, but youre only belittled if you want to be belittled. He uses Hillary Clinton as an example: She ran [for president] and she wasnt killed for it. That says everything. He says that, in the post-#MeToo era, allegations can go off hearsay and women are almost more powerful than men.

June 18: XXXTentacion, 20, is reported dead following an alleged drive-by shooting outside of a motorcycle shop in Deerfield Beach, Florida. He was awaiting trial at the time of the shooting.

This post has been updated throughout.Barry Chapter One: Make Your Mark Season 1 Episode 1 Editors Rating 5 stars * * * * * Previous Next  Photo: John P. Johnson/HBO

Watching the pilot of HBOs wonderful new black comedy Barry, I found my brain wandering back to the Hellraiser horror franchise and its poster demon, the nail-faced cenobite known as Pinhead. A longtime object of personal fascination, Pinhead remains shrouded in mystery, though the second installment reveals that he reports on his various hellraisings to a deity known as Leviathan. That he has a boss raises the question of whether hellraising is an eternal calling, or merely a job into which hes been locked. Does he relish raising hell? He occasionally appears to take pleasure in taking lives, though far more frequently, hes got a stale look of disconnect on his pointy face. He raises the hell, yes. But in another, more abstract respect, is the hell not raising him?

No Hellraiser film has fully reckoned with the existential weight of Pinheads lot in life, but Barry comes close.

Bill Hader spends most of this superb series opener with that same numbed expression, the dull gaze of a man resigned to the fact that hes going to spend the rest of his life doing something that no longer stimulates him. Like Pinhead, Haders mild-mannered Barry is in the business of murder, flying all over the country for assassination assignations. In Chapter One: Make Your Mark, Barry explains how he got into the hit-man industry  home from Afghanistan, feeling placeless and probably wrestling with some PTSD, he accepted an offer from a family friend with connections  but hes recently been having trouble explaining to himself why he stays in it.

The most obvious reasons are that hes very good at what he does, that his alternate career options are severely limited, and that hes used to this way of living. For a lot of people, thats plenty. But Barry is not most people; in time, what must have initially been a comfortable stasis has soured into an uncomfortable one. The show joins Barry in a depressive funk, carrying out hits in a narcotized fugue state of indifference. Hes looking for a purpose, something he can do that provides him with fulfillment and a sense of meaning in his life. He wants to feel alive instead of surrounding himself with death. He wants emotion, he wants a connection, he wants truth. What he gets is an acting class, and if youre willing to buy into it, thats a pretty damn good facsimile.

Acting classes are a business, as the curt demand for payment up front in cash from teacher Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) reminds us, and what theyre selling is the idea that acting is hard. Acting is hard, but its to the massive fiscal benefit of acting teachers that impressionable students believe that to be true. Acting classes wouldnt exist if acting was easy, so teachers have to preach a heady gospel. The craft of a thespian isnt about showing up on time or knowing your lines or even taking direction, never mind that these are the skills getting small-time actors rehired. Performing is about living with intention, about accessing the innermost parts of yourself and bending them to your control, et cetera. Acting teachers hawk the fantasy of acting as a portal to honest self-awareness, and Barry arrives as the perfect customer.

Director-star Hader (who also co-created and co-writes the show with Seinfeld alum Alec Berg) generates most of the laughs in this first episode by juxtaposing the excitement of killer-for-hire work with the drudgery of being the traveling auto-parts salesman Barry claims to be. After shooting a guy in the head, Barry is rudely awakened on the plane home by morning rays after some dingus pulls open the shade. His hotel sucks, his rental car sucks, his apartment sucks. Acting can provide Barry with respite from more superficial annoyances in addition to the gnawing hole at the center of himself. He stumbles into Cousineaus acting class while tailing a target, and it offers an answer to all of his problems. It sure feels like destiny calling when a cute classmate later tells him, There are always a million reasons not to do something, Barry. But if you want it, go for it.

Thats the second of two moments so arresting they border on the heavy-handed (the lone false step in an otherwise exemplary introduction), the first being a POV shot from Barrys vantage point of a stern-faced Cousineau asking, Who are you? Placed in a larger symbolic context, that question triggers the midlife crisis percolating in Barrys soul and guides him to the answer he presents in the episodes final line. (Im an actor, a waitress tells him. So am I, he responds.) Hes found something new to be.

If making the professional pivot was that simple, however, there would be no show. Crime is a tricky line of work to escape, and there will undoubtedly be more Chechen mobsters to replace the ones Barry blew away. Pinhead had to learn the hard way that theres no exit out of hell, and Barry has remanded himself to the most inescapable hell that there is: the Los Angeles theater scene.

Bullet Points

 For such a downbeat, existentially ponderous half-hour, Barrys pilot is still screamingly funny when it wants to be. The Chechen gangsters paying Barrys fee could have stumbled into Los Angeles from a much goofier comedy; when one insists on playing footage of the others wife with another man, he snaps, He already gets it! Why show footage? You are just impressed with yourself for planting lipstick camera!

 Wearing that henley shirt makes Bill Hader look not like Dexter Morgan, but like a guy dressed up as Dexter Morgan for a costume party, further underlining his out-of-place feelings in his own field of expertise.

 There is perhaps no type of person in the world easier to make fun of than community-theater actors (see: Waiting for Guffman), but to his credit, Hader doesnt go for the low-hanging fruit. A classmates rendition of Gary Oldmans monologue from True Romance is bad, yet no worse than anything youd find in an actual acting class. The closest the episode comes to anything nasty or mean-spirited is the line, Do you think Meryl Streep and Kaley Cuoco became stars because theyre the best? No! Its because they wanted it the most. Even that, though, is good enough to get a pass.

 Stephen Root, precisely the kind of character actor whose name could one day be a punch line on this very show, does fine work as Barrys partner/manager Fuches. In the hopes of keeping their hustle alive by suggesting a less time-intensive hobby, he delivers the episodes best line: Hitler painted! John Wayne Gacy painted. Its a good, solid hobby.Isle of Dogs. Photo: Fox Searchlight

Post-screening Q&As rarely make the news, but the Isle of Dogs teams recent appearance at SXSW contained a rare moment of unplanned virality. As Wes Anderson explained the intricacies of stop-motion animation, Bill Murray found the experience so enthralling he slowly fell asleep:

Hes not alone. Narcolepsy is one of the main symptoms of snout fever, the fictional disease at the center of Isle of Dogs  other symptoms include aggression, loss of appetite, and insomnia  and its effects dont seem to be limited to fictional canines. Im a primary source: I attended a 6 p.m. screening of the film a few weeks ago, and though I dont have many bones to pick with the story of these plucky pups, I still had trouble keeping my head upright. Around the time our heroes started debating what to do with the brave human boy whod crash-landed into their midst, I fell into a full-on slumber. (When I woke up they were riding in airborne gondolas, a fact I only mention so someone can tell me exactly how long I was out.)

I am a congenital movie-sleeper, and I wouldnt dare suggest that my falling asleep in a film is any indication of its quality. (In college I fell asleep in some of the most exciting works 20th-century cinema had to offer, including Zardoz, Come Drink With Me, and even The Wild Bunch. Its a strange disease.) Except, in this case, I didnt seem to be the only one. Multiple other Vulture staffers reported that they, too, had fallen asleep in Isle of Dogs. Those who didnt fall asleep reported that, while they had kept their eyes open, their friend, or maybe their friends friend, could not. And while it remains true that you can find someone saying any dang thing on social media, Twitter this weekend was, if not awash with, then at least full of at least four people talking about falling asleep in the film.

Yes, hello. I fell asleep during ISLE OF DOGS. Decent snooze. That is all.  lex (@alexisgreer) March 24, 2018

I finished midterm week and I was so excited I decided to go watch isle of dogs to celebrate but I was so tired I fell asleep 5 min into the movie, Ive never been more mad with myself  Alex Hernandez (@alhernandezart) March 25, 2018

I feel deep shame from the fact that I fell asleep while watching isle of dogs.  Joey Grillo (@JosephGrillo) March 26, 2018

Cant believe the guy sat next to me at the preview of Isle of Dogs fell asleep half way through the film  Grace (@GraceEAtkinson) March 26, 2018

(Though maybe its just three, since I like to imagine the last two people were sitting next to each other.)

Scientifically, roughly one-third of Isle of Dogs viewers have reported falling asleep in the movie. Anecdotally, this film seems to be inspiring an isle of yawns.

Unlike other movies with somnifacient reputations, Isle of Dogs is not especially long  only 101 minutes!  nor is it especially slow. The plot moves at a decent clip, and there are plenty of fights, chases, and robot dogs that jump off of miniature helicopters. This isnt, like, Solaris. So, why is this movie of all movies putting viewers to sleep? (Not like that.) I can think of three factors:

1. The Wes Anderson Thing

If theres a word that describes Andersons directorial tone, its deadpan. If there are two words that describe Andersons directorial tone, they are deadpan and understated. People do not shout in Wes Andersons films; instead, they say something mildly clever while barely moving any of their facial muscles. You dont burst out into guffaws so much as say to yourself, Ha, thats funny. (There are rare exceptions, the ear-piercing smash-cut in Moonrise Kingdom being a personal favorite.) His soundtracks, too, tend to lean toward muted acoustic pop. To quote my favorite contemporary poet, its quiet.

2. The Visuals

As my colleague Kyle Buchanan put it in 2014, over the course of his filmography Wes Andersons characters have slowly lost the freedom of movement. Thats especially true in the directors animated films, where their actions are meticulously composed to remove any traces of randomness or disorder. Characters in Isle of Dogs seem to only move in straight lines, perfectly parallel or perfectly perpendicular. The sense that youre watching a childrens picture book is enhanced by the movies sky, which is not blue but a dull, blank white. Depending on who you ask, the overall visual effect is either flat and boring, or incredibly soothing. Either way, youre nodding off.

3. The Language

Ill leave it to Justin Chang and Angie J. Han to explain the representational issues in Andersons decision to present the bulk of the Japanese language in the film untranslated. But suffice it to say, having the vast majority of the films human characters speak in whats essentially unintelligible dialogue for most viewers does not make it easier to stay awake. Although in this case, subtitles might not have helped: Ive always found it easier to fall fully asleep in foreign-language films, since there are no audio hooks for my ears to latch onto once I start to close my eyes. Keeping them open in any of the scenes back in Megasaki was arf-ully hard.

I dont think you can pin the blame entirely on one of these factors, but add them all up and, as the movies heroes might say, staying awake through the whole thing is pretty ruff. Tell me  did you fall asleep in Isle of Dogs?Photo: Darryn King

On Sunday night, as a cluster of eager New Yorkers exited an elevator and entered Madame Tussauds in Times Square, they were greeted by more than a dozen Paul Giamattis.

There was Paul Giamatti in a tux, Paul Giamatti in leather, Paul Giamatti in a shimmering blue dress. Three Paul Giamattis peered down from an upstairs balcony. There were Paul Giammatis of different shapes and, apparently, genders, all wearing the same somewhat bemused Giamattiesque expression. Every pair of Giamatti eyes appeared to follow you around the room. Beholding them was like a strange dream, or some sort of Giamatti genome-splicing experiment gone fascinatingly wrong.

In reality, the figures were Paul Giammatis from the shoulders up only. Just for the evening, Madame Tussauds had repurposed (improved) a rooms worth of its inanimate residents  among them, wax figures of Daniel Craig, Patrick Stewart, Morgan Freeman, Sofia Vergara and Anne Hathaway  by crudely affixing Paul Giamatti masks over their faces. Partygoers milled about, posing with the Pauls, asking questions like, Will you get a photo of me with the P. Diddy Paul?

The crowd had gathered at the kitschy palace of dead-eyed celebrity doppelgangers for the Gallery of Giamatti, a screening of the new episode of (the Giamatti-starring) Billions, and an all-round celebration of the puppy-eyed, chipmunk-cheeked character actor. There were rice balls, crab cakes, and an open bar, manned by a mystified bartender. The event was the museums acknowledgment of a lately intensifying campaign to have the Sideways and Cinderella Man star immortalized in Tussauds celebrated wax and fiberglass. #WaxPaulNow is the official hashtag for the campaign; if its Change.org petition receives 500,000 signatures, the museum has promised, Giamatti will get waxed. (At the time of writing, the petition has garnered more than 1,800 signatures.)

Photo: Darryn King

The campaign is the brainchild and passion project of three friends, Rebecca Shaw, Val Bodurtha and Sophie Mann, graduating seniors at Yale, the University of Chicago, and Scripps College, respectively, who visited Tussauds last July and were aghast by the absence of a Giamatti figure. They hatched the idea immediately afterwards, Shaw told Vulture via email, over an intensive Red Lobster meal. For too long, we as Americans have sat back and ignored the flagrant oversight that is the dearth of wax statues of Paul Giamatti at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, reads the mission statement on their website. What Times Square is to New York, Paul is to the institution of acting itself. No longer shall we remain silent.

Before long, Get Paul His Wax flyers appeared in New York and beyond, and the movement saw a growing presence online. This March, the campaign made it to national television. There is perhaps no man more deserving of enwaxification than Mister Giamatti, said Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, as the house band provided a patriotic underscore of John Browns Body, a man known as an actors actor, a devoted craftsman, and of course, as the guy who was good in that thing you really liked.

The attendees on Sunday night appeared to agree with the sentiment. Paul Giamatti is amazing, said Janet Robinson, who had been snapping a selfie of herself with the Alicia Keys-Giamatti figure. She found out about the event on Facebook and ventured out from Long Island. That man. Hes a national treasure. Hes such a great character actor. He looks like he taught my English class in high school. He does! Hes just such an everyman.

Ronnie Wright, a photographer from the upper west side, has always been impressed with Giamattis performances. Especially that thing he did, The Planet of the Apes? Fantastic. I think he did a great job.

In a rousing address not long into the party, Shaw, Bodurtha, and Mann underlined the symbolic value of a Paul Giamatti wax statue. This is a movement for the underdog, said Bodurtha. A fight for anyone who has ever been underestimated  Because who here, at one point or another, has not been overlooked for something they deserve? Or watched a loved one experience the same? In those moments, are we not all wax statue-less Paul Giamattis?

Photo: Darryn King

At the end of the speech, the crowd erupted in a chant: Wax Paul now! Wax Paul now! When the screening of the Billions season premiere kicked off, the three campaigners had taken their place in the front row, and cheered when Giamattis name appeared in the opening credits. I honestly think if Madame Tussauds had a Paul Giamatti statue the reaction would be, That guy!  Shaw told me later as the festivities wound down.  Hes great! 

Getting the statue would be a huge victory for the appreciation of the underappreciated, Bodurtha said, asked why the three of them were pouring their energies into this cause of all causes. Its standing for something other than glamour and wannabe fame. Paul has substance. And he has humility. Hed never ask for this for himself. I mean, she said, motioning at the surrounding Giamattis, he never asked for this for himself. It would be super-duper weird if he did.Silicon Valley Grow Fast or Die Slow Season 5 Episode 1 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * *  Previous Next  Photo: HBO

Unlucky start-up company Pied Piper returns to HBO for the fifth season of Silicon Valley minus one of its primary investors. Actor T.J. Miller, who played Erlich Bachman, left the show at the end of last season to pursue ventures like The Emoji Movie. Though Erlich is physically gone  I assume hes still holed up in the opium den where Gavin left him  he is certainly not forgotten, at least not by Jian Yang, who plans to become Erlich 2.0 by somehow getting Erlich declared legally dead. Your guess is as good as mine as to how this will play out.

This year, director and co-creator Mike Judge has said well see how Pied Piper deals with growth and success. The growth part is the addition of 15 new programmers, a task that will consume much of this episode. But first, our beloved Pied Piper CEO Richard Hendricks has to find some place to put them: Grow Fast or Die Slow opens with Richard and his crew walking into an office space that, I kid you not, looked exactly like the Palo Alto headquarters of my current job.

Im being trolled! I thought as Richards right-hand man Jared marveled at the intuitive kitchen layout. (Intuitive my ass! I still dont know how to turn on the fancy, new-age faucet.) Its hard to believe your pathological inability to make a decision has finally paid off, says Gilfoyle, our resident Satanist and crank. Dinesh, our resident brown person and Gilfoyles frenemy, agrees. Alas, this isnt the new office.

Richard takes them to a small, ridiculously bright room with no windows and dangerously exposed electrical outlets. This was probably a mainframe room 30 years ago. They were filled with machinery far less powerful than your average cell phone, surrounded by white walls and lighting that even Stanley Kubrick would have found extreme. I should know: 31 years ago, I started my programming career in a room just like this. It was so bright in that room that it turned my skin color from Terrence Howard to Taylor Swift. So when the camera cut to a similarly affected Dinesh, I almost peed myself laughing.

As Richard trips over an outlet, Jared pulls him aside and politely asks him what the hell hes doing. Richard fears that hell screw up the finances by extravagantly spending on creature comforts like Action Jack Barker did during his short reign at Pied Piper. Or even worse, by blowing all the profits on swag like former Three Comma Club member Russ Hanneman did in The Lady. Jared responds to Richards explanation by having a claustrophobia-induced panic attack while the other guys leave the room in protest. Richard relents and buys space in the nicer office.

A month later, Pied Piper is still short 12 programmers. This is due to Gilfoyle and Dineshs rejection of 63 applicants. The three programmers that make the cut are a scary-looking but effective lot that Dinesh refers to as our stallions. An angry Richard says he shielded them from the worst of the list, which included an annoying guy with a pizza-app idea, alt-right guy, and closeted alt-right guy. Dont worry, Republicans! Alt-right Guy will be reconsidered later. Pizza Guy will be back too.

We have to work with these guys while youre out doing CEO stuff! Gilfoyle says of his harsh screening tactics. Funny he should mention CEO stuff, as Richard is attending the Innovation Hall of Fame ceremony that evening. This years inductee is Richards mortal enemy, two-time Hooli CEO Gavin Belson. Wait, lets take a quick detour to summarize how Gavin earned his second CEO tenure. Cue the squiggly flashback visual effect!

Last season, Gavin got canned at Hooli, entered into a temporary partnership with Pied Piper, then went off to find himself in a Buddhist temple in Tibet. Before he left, he gave Richard the patent he needed to create the newest iteration of the Pied Piper algorithm, henceforth known as Pied Piper: The Next Generation. While in Tibet, Gavin was joined by Erlich, who told him that thenHooli CEO Action Jack Barkers missteps had gotten him kidnapped by the Chinese factory workers who made phones for Hooli. Gavin left his Buddhist quest and saved Action Jack in exchange for his old job.

And now, Gavin is being honored for being an innovator. His speech is full of the patented Gavin bullshit that Matt Ross is so good at reciting. The ideal version of myself was the man I already was, he tells the audience, which translates to vindictive, petty Gavin is way, way better than enlightened Buddha-lovin Gavin. Richard crosses paths with original-recipe Gavin at the Hall of Fame reception, where Gavin informs him that hes hired all 63 of the programmers that Gilfoyle and Dinesh panned. I did it just to see that look on your face, Gavin tells him before walking off.

One of the candidates Richard rejected is also at the reception. Its Duncan, the pizza-app guy. Unfortunately, Duncan tells Richard that his Sliceline app is about to take off, so he doesnt want to be considered for Pied Piper anymore. Slicelines entire premise is absurd: Like Priceline does with travel arrangements, it finds you the best price for a pizza and the quickest means of delivery. I suppose this could work if Duncan got William Shatner as his spokesperson, though a better choice might be Pizza the Hutt from Spaceballs. Like Richard, I think Sliceline is an exceptionally dumb idea, but what do I know? Once, I interviewed at a start-up, and when they told me what their software did, I said, Thats the dumbest thing Ive ever heard. You guys wont last two months! You may have heard of this place. Its called Twitter.

But I digress. Sliceline manages to get $8 million in funding, which Duncan casually reveals while Richard is trying to convince the CEO of Optimoji to let him acquire her failing company. She has 30 programmers, and Richard only needs 12, but shes a stickler for keeping her crew intact. The deal is almost set before Duncan and his big mouth shows up. Optimoji decides to go with Duncan, leaving Richard high and dry.

Meanwhile, Gavin has own staffing problems. The 63 coders he usurped from Richard are only interested in doing the decentralized internet protocol that PP:TNG represents. They all agree that the Hooli Box will become obsolete once Richard succeeds. Gavin curses everyone out before rehiring a blast from the past: Patrice, the outspoken board member Gavin fired in The Uptick is back. And she apparently hasnt learned her lesson about giving Gavin upsetting fact checks. When a board member suggests that Gavin pivot from the Hooli Box to a new, sexier product, Gavin reminds everyone of the previous Hooli products he used as pivot points. But they were all failures, says Patrice, sealing her employment doom yet again.

There is a bright spot for Gavin in this episode: Presales of Hooli upgrade product Box 2: Electric Boxaloo have gone through the roof, proving that PP:TNG might not be the threat to Hoolis business model that Richard thinks it will be. That is, if Richard can get the programmers he needs to build his platform.

Of course, Richard gets his new employees, and how he does it proves that hes learned some things from his tour of his Gavin-like dark side last season. After cursing out Duncan at the Sliceline office, and telling all his employees to have sex with themselves, Richard discovers that Slicelines business model is mathematically unsound. They order $10 pizzas from Dominos, rebox them in a $4 box, and sell them on the app for $9. Sliceline is losing $5 per pizza. So, Richard orders enough pizzas to bankrupt them, which allows him to take over Sliceline and its acquisition Optimoji. This gives him 50 programmers. Richard pulls this off while in the presence of both Duncan and Kyra, the Optimoji CEO  a dickish move to be sure, but Im giving him a pass on this one. It is badass!

Speaking of badasses, Professional Badass Laurie Bream makes a brief appearance here to approve Richards dastardly acquisition. This woman got pregnant just to prove she could do so without missing a day of work, Monica tells Richard. Laurie goes one better: She shows up to sign Richards papers just hours after she has given birth by induced labor. Richard should just let her whip Gavins ass. But I guess the series would end a lot quicker.

By the way, Richards tough act is short-lived. When faced with having to address his new gaggle of employees, he nervously pukes up his lunch. Looks like the old Richard Hendricks is back. Im back too, for my fifth go-round as your humble recapper. Readers, place your bets. I say Richard becomes head of Hooli by the end of this season.Photo: Robert Viglasky/Netflix

Up until now, the most scandalous talking point to emerge from The Crowns reign on Netflix mightve been the steamy, literal smoke-filled courtship between Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong in the middle of the second season. That was until earlier this month, when a narrative emerged around equal pay on the hugely popular series, one of Hollywoods numerous pay gap problems in 2018 alone. It was revealed that Claire Foy, who portrayed the bona fide leading role of Queen Elizabeth II, was paid less than Matt Smith, who took on the supporting role of Prince Philip. If youre just getting caught up in this royal scandal, heres the complete guide to what you need to know, in chronological order.

March 13

During what was expected to be a standard, technical-centric panel discussion at the INTV Conference in Jerusalem, Israel, one of The Crowns producers let it slip that Foy was paid less than Smith for both of their seasons of work on the series. The reasoning at the time, producer Suzanne Mackie reckoned, was because Smith had amassed international stardom status with his leading role on Doctor Who, while Foy was yet to be a prominent figure outside the United Kingdom. (If you look at Foys acting credits before The Crown, her biggest American television exposure was Anne Boleyn in the Wolf Hall miniseries.) Going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen, Mackie said. The pay gap revelation soon got picked up by culture publications across the world, becoming trending news by the days end. The shows typically active Twitter account has remained silent since the day before the panel.

March 18

A Care2 petition about The Crown begins to receive significant media attention, with nearly 30,000 supporters urging both Smith and Netflix to donate the difference in the actors paychecks to the Times Up Legal Defense Fund. You know gender pay gaps are a problem when even the Queen isnt paid fairly, the petition quips before taking a serious tone: Women in all industries are facing a struggle for pay equality. Legal experts soon begin weighing in on Foys predicament, with some claiming she has enough grounds to sue Netflix. Social media becomes divided over the merits of the petitions cause.

This is dumb. Matt Smith did nothing wrong and owes nobody his salary. Why not pressure the producers to retroactively pay Claire Foy what he got? https://t.co/CfjPaXGF6F  Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) March 19, 2018

I was more familiar with her than him, because of Wolf Halland she is not a minor star in England. Part of the reason he had Dr. Who is that the creators only cast men in that role. But it's a complicated situation.  Emily Nussbaum (@emilynussbaum) March 19, 2018

I agree. Claire Foy should force her manager, if she hasn't fired them already, to go back and renegotiate.  Margaret Wallace (@MargaretWallace) March 19, 2018

March 19

Without directly naming the pay gap controversy, Philippa Lowthorpe, who directed a few episodes of The Crowns second season, participated in a panel at the Advertising Week Europe conference in London, where she pointedly called out gender inequality behind-the-scenes in Hollywood. The culture of a male-heavy film industry is not healthy, and it leads to imbalances of power and abuses of power, she said.

March 20

Left Bank, the production company behind The Crown that directly handles budgets and salaries, releases a statement as a means of apologizing to Foy and Smith, who have found themselves at the center of a media storm this week through no fault of their own. The company, trying to deflect any blame from Smith and taking full responsibility, also stressed how none of the shows actors are aware of anyone elses salaries, and as such cannot be held personally responsible for the pay of their colleagues.

March 22

Peter White, who moderated the INTV panel that broke the pay disparity news, published an article in Deadline about the story behind his royal scoop. He praised Mackie for her willingness to speak openly about the gap, whom he first met the day before in a hotel bar with other conference attendees. We discussed the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns in the context of the British film and television industry and she impressed me with her considered take on how to achieve equality across the business, he wrote. He also alluded to the fact that Paul Bettany, who was set to play Prince Philip in seasons three and four of The Crown, potentially dropped out not because of scheduling conflicts, but rather because of payment disputes.

March 23

Jared Harris, who portrayed King George VI in the series, becomes the first Crown cast member to speak about the pay gap. He is not kind. I think its an embarrassment for Left Bank Pictures, Harris told Digital Spy, urging the production company to retroactively pay Foy what Smith earned. I understand they made an apology but, you know, an apology and a check would be more welcome  send her a pay check and, in retrospect, bring her pay up to parity.

March 24

The Queen speaks! In an interview with EW, Foy strategically avoids discussing the industry intricacies behind why she was paid less than Smith. Instead, she admits she wasnt surprised by how the pay gap became and remained headline news throughout the month. Im surprised because Im at the center of it, and anything that Im at the center of like that is very very odd, and feels very very out of ordinary, she explained. But Im not [surprised about the interest in the story] in the sense that it was a female-led drama. Im not surprised that people saw [the story] and went, Oh, thats a bit odd. But I know that Matt feels the same that I do, that its odd to find yourself at the center [of a story] that you didnt particularly ask for.The Walking Dead Do Not Send Us Astray Season 8 Episode 13 Editors Rating 3 stars * * *  Previous Next  Photo: Gene Page/AMC/AMC Film Holdings LLC.

If you hoped for some resolution to the Negan/Jadis road trip in this episode, you must be new to the show, because thats exactly the kind of story thread The Walking Dead loves to dangle unresolved for a couple weeks. Instead, we finally witness the much-discussed assault on Hilltop, which looks like a win for the good guys until a surprise epilogue scores big, bloody points for the Saviors. We also see Morgan get haunted by the worlds most annoying ghost and are reminded why no one in their right mind should feel safe around anyone under the age of 15.

Simon makes good on his promise of a new day for the Saviors, but shifts the plan of attack from infection to conclusion. Thats a smart (and manipulative) bit of storytelling sleight of hand on the part of the shows writers, since now were not thinking about that zombie-gore bath that the Saviors gave their weapons. Maggie Rhee, the Widow introduces herself to Simon by walkie, and the good guy Savior, Alden, tries to broker peace: Too nice a night to spend it dying slow, dont you think? Strong line, dude, but Simon responds in Trumpian fashion  he prefers Saviors who dont get captured.

And so, its on. Without Negan, the Saviors arent exactly battlefield tacticians: When they hit a school-bus blockade, theyre at a loss once the Hilltop headlights are shot out and the whole place goes dark, and theyre very confused when the lights come back on. Give them points for pulling a Katniss and resorting to archery, but otherwise, they dont have much of a plan at all. Simons crew is also lucky that Rick throws away a lot of perfectly good weapons these days. He appears in a blaze of semi-automatic glory, empties one clip, then tosses the rifle aside and goes back to his axe. Are they that low on bullets, or is he just really lousy at packing before combat? (Note how Ricks go-to weapon this season is the axe instead of his Colt Python. As his beef with Negan has become personal and intimate, so has his preferred method of killing.)

Rick and Maggie chase the remaining Saviors straight out of the front gates, and with more than half the episode left, you know theres another shoe thats waiting to drop. That brings us to Tara, who never should have been hit by an arrow in the first place. Dwight was following Simon all over the Hilltop yard in the darkness, so why didnt he take out Simon when he had a chance, thus proving his ultimate allegiance to the Hilltop cause? Instead, he ends up skewering Tara in what looks like a mercy wound  just a scratch  to keep Simon from ambushing her. Tara and Daryl have a lively debate over Dwights motivations. Tara says, Hey, people change, look at me, I was with the Governor and so was your brother. (Damn!) Daryl counters that perhaps she forgot that Daryl killed her girlfriend. (DAMN!)

Aside from a handful of deaths and some minor annoyances  like that A-hole who gives Siddiq a hard time for no good reason, and Gregorys continued existence  Hilltop is in pretty decent post-battle shape. Maggie hears well-earned praise from her sergeant-at-arms and a Hilltop rando for her leadership. But things in this world are fine until they arent, and that switch flips quickly. Carols old flame, Tobin, handled her real talk about their brief dalliance rather well  she also told Henry that hell die if he fights, like this is Scared Straight: Apocalypse Edition  but what Tobin handles less well is his wound. As soon as he started looking pale, the lightbulb clicked on for me: Theres zombie guts on them Savior blades, people! Apparently their bullets, too, which seems like a stretch, but doesnt even rate on the implausibility scale for this show.

What does rate as absurd, however, is the utterly ridiculous stealth of the walking class. Upstairs in the mansion, necks are being devoured while groans and moans fill the air, yet no one sleeping on floors in close proximity even stirs. The piece de resistance is the gimpy rando who thanked Maggie earlier. After he turns, he tumbles down the stairs without anyone waking up. If thats the low point of the zombie sleeper-cell scene, the best moment comes when Jesus and Michonne team up for a HOF-level kill: He pins a walker to the wall with a kick, she finishes with a sword through the head. Later, Carol has one last tender moment with Tobin as he growls and tries to eat her face before hes put down like a rabid dog. Ah, what could have been.

While walker mayhem breaks out, Henrys got a gun and demands to know who killed his brother. Why doesnt he believe Morgans story that Gavin pulled the trigger? Who knows. But the kid should be a cautionary tale for any parent in this world, as children seem to exist on TWD for two reasons: to make bad decisions that put everyone in jeopardy, and to die. To no ones surprise, Henrys gangsta moment ends badly, as Jared the asshole tackles the young sociopath and leads most of his fellow Savior captives to freedom. (In a perfect grace note, Gregory pauses to see the kid prone on the ground and in danger of being devoured, winces, then runs like the lowlife hes always been.)

So why does the ghost of Gavin keep yelling, You know what it is! You were supposed to! at Morgan? My guess is that Morgan was supposed to be the one who killed Gavin. Now he knows that the madness in his head has infected young Henry, like zombie guts in an open wound. Rick eventually helps them figure out why their people seemingly turned for no reason, and Taras left wondering if shes next. (This should be more proof that Dwight is on their side: Not only did he barely wound Tara, but his arrows were presumably clean.)

The episodes title, Do Not Send Us Astray, comes from a prayer for the dead, and perhaps a warning for the living not to follow the departed to the grave. But Maggie and Rick are struggling to temper their need for vengeance with the greater good. By sunup, Henry is missing, and if anyone had a lick of sense, theyd lock those gates tight. Good Savior Al and a few compatriots pledge their allegiance to the Widow Rhee (which I think Maggie should start using regularly because it lends a certain air of mystery and intimidation than one really needs when developing a personal brand in the apocalypse). Morgans ghost is still screaming. More graves are dug. The only one that matters, though  to Rick, to Maggie, and to us  is Negans.Garry Shandling and Judd Apatow. Photo: HBO

Its a show about people trying to get love, and shit gets in the way.

Thats how the late Garry Shandling described his groundbreaking sitcom The Larry Sanders Show, an inside-showbiz series about the office culture surrounding a talk show. But the line also sums up the life of Garry Shandling as described by his friend, collaborator, and showbiz pupil Judd Apatow in his two-part documentary The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, premiering Monday night on HBO.

Apatows long (four-and-a-half hour!) tribute to the TV pioneer is the best, most focused thing hes done since Freaks and Geeks. Zen Diaries is an intimate documentary about the man and his work, drawn from an extraordinary array of personal material, including home movies of Shandlings childhood and adolescence in Arizona, photographs from every phase of his life, lengthy scenes and behind-the-scenes clips from The Larry Sanders Show and Its Garry Shandlings Show, and excerpts from the handwritten diaries he kept from the late 1970s until his death in 2016. The diary entries have a personality all their own. As pictured in tight closeups, one or two phrases at a time, theyre art objects in themselves, as if somebody recorded a lifetimes worth of muttered comments into bathroom mirrors and transcribed them in cursive.

Shandling, for those less familiar with his work, was part of a wave of 1970s, Los Angeles-based comics who made stand-up more lifelike and less shticky. He created Showtimes Its Garry Shandlings Show (another all-time great) and Larry Sanders, which has been credited with inspiring dozens of other sitcoms, including both versions of The Office. He was the first person to be named permanent guest host of The Tonight Show, then one of the most prestigious gigs in television. His C.V. is impressive enough, but where The Zen Diaries really excels is in its understanding of his psychology.

Shandling was born in Chicago and raised in Tucson, Arizona, where his family moved because his older brother Barry had cystic fibrosis, and his parents thought the dry, warm climate would be better for him. Barrys death at just 10 years old is the Rosebud of this production, if not of Shandlings life. His personal trajectory feels like a response to that formative tragedy, in particular Shandlings laid back yet painfully confessional form of stand-up comedy. His family wasnt repressed, necessarily  not in the stereotypical 1950s way  but like a lot of Americans, they had trouble talking about their feelings. There was tremendous pressure to just keep pain to yourself and soldier on so as not to be a bother to anyone. Its clear that once Shandling got older, entered therapy, and became interested in Eastern religion (meditation in particular), he started to realize how unhealthy this was, and built his style of comedy as a cathartic, liberating response. I had no one that I recall putting a hand on my shoulder and saying, This is death. Its okay to grieve, Shandling wrote in his diaries.

We see the seeds of this philosophy in his teenage fascination with ham radio operation. He had radio buddies in countries all over the world, and became very close to a Japanese boy who ultimately came to Tucson as an exchange student. This tendency to want to reach out across a void of space and seek closeness also seems related to the loss of Shandlings only brother, and its to Apatows credit that he trusts us to get this without hammering the point home too hard.

Every step into showbiz was an attempt to conquer his fears. Shandling initially set out to be an engineer, and was a good science student, but he was enamored with comedy and used to record himself doing stand-up routines (some of which we get to hear), and after a while he asked himself, per his diary, What if I take that ability and apply it to something I like? The subtext of mentorship  of successful people passing on their knowledge to the young and unconnected  is established in an early account of a 19-year-old Shandling driving several hours to see George Carlin perform in Phoenix, handing him several pages of material hed written for him, and asking for notes. Carlin told him to come back the following night and gave him an honest assessment: Youre green, but theres some good stuff here, and you should keep at it. Here, as elsewhere in the documentary, the productions staggering archival reach pays off: Apatow shows us Shandlings original typewritten pages, and then, by way of old black-and-white photos, superimposes them on a tabletop in the green room of the Phoenix club where Carlin performed.

At every step, Shandlings career is marked by intellectual restlessness and a work ethic that sometimes shades into masochism or arrogance. He never wanted to be the most famous or highest paid, though he certainly wasnt averse to a big paycheck or top billing. He wanted to be seen as being different from everyone else, more special, fresher, more daring. Thats what led him to study physical performance to become a good stand-up comic, as opposed to a writer who just happened to work in clubs, too. Its what led Shandling to study acting, so that he could express himself in a different way, and learn about his own psychology by playing other people. Its what led him to give up The Tonight Show gig when it became clear that he couldnt do that and Its Garry Shandlings Show at the same time and do both jobs to the best of his ability. (The sitcom won out over the hosting gig because he was in control of the sitcom and could do whatever he wanted; plus, the Tonight Show job was repetitious.)

The Zen Diaries series goes into some detail about Shandlings 1998 financial mismanagement lawsuit against his former manager and producer, Brad Grey (who was not interviewed before his death last May, although he shows up in archival footage and pictures). Theres also a lot of material in the second episode about how difficult and dark Shandling could be, and how insecure and petty. (The low point is when he fired his girlfriend and Larry Sanders Show co-star Linda Doucett shortly after they broke up; she sued him for wrongful termination and won a settlement.) But for the most part, this is an affectionate portrait, not a muckraking expose. Between the interviews (which include Apatow), the archival footage, and the diaries, it has a keener sense of its subjects psychology than most productions of this type. Parts are so shockingly intimate that it feels as if we shouldnt be seeing them, as when Doucett tells Apatow that their relationship ended because she wanted to be a mother and he didnt want to have kids, a fear that friends attributed to the trauma of losing his brother. Doucett seems philosophical about the whole thing now, crying during her interview with Apatow and then adding, We started off mocking the industry, and then we fell prey to it.

Is there too much of a good thing here? Maybe. There are emperors, generals, and Nobel-prizewinner scientists who dont get four-and-a-half hours on HBO, and its possible that we didnt need a detailed segment about Shandlings voice-over work on the 2006 animated film Over the Hedge (even though it ends up being a testament to his work ethic; he extensively rewrote his own dialogue and took the role of a turtle very seriously). Although Shandling completists will love the segment on the digressive, quasi-documentary DVD supplements he created for the Larry Sanders Show box set, others may wonder if it wouldnt just be better to tell people how they can order them. (Though its a treat to see him carve up Ricky Gervais, who shows up for a hero-worshippy interview unprepared and oozing arrogance.)

Still, anybody who was inspired and moved by Shandlings work wont complain about being able to luxuriate in this exhaustive account. Even the slack portions are intriguing because of the access Apatow has to the records of Shandlings time on Earth. There are photos of him as a kid with huge glasses and awkwardly fitting shirts, play-acting at being a stand-up comic or calling people on his ham radio. There are snapshots of him curled up in a hammock in fetal position on a beach while taking a sabbatical from show business, and outtakes of him directing episodes of both of his sitcoms (including one where he castigates himself in a torrent of profanity and the audience thinks hes just doing a bit). There are sections of letters Shandling wrote to his mother, who smothered him because she used to have two boys and lost one, where you see him balancing the desire for privacy against the obligation to honor the woman who brought him into the world.

Best of all, there are the diaries, a record of a man who never got so complacent in his success that he forgot what was important. There is no goal, Shandling wrote 40 years ago. This is it. This is life. The growing is life.Timeless Hollywoodland Season 2 Episode 3 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * *  Previous Next  Photo: Paul Drinkwater/NBC

Man, does it suck to be Lucy right now. Imagine coming off one of your best episodes  not just a fun one, but one in which you shined in ways you never had before, including zzzexxxually  only to find out that the dude of your dreams just remet the love of his life  WHO WAS DEAD. I would say you just cant make this stuff up, except were already talking about a sci-fi dramedy about time travel.

I have to give Timeless tons of credit for bringing back Wyatts corpse-bride Jessica, and for when and how they did it. (Also, tons of credit to any fan who called this because I surely never could have.) Given how this season has streamlined the shows myriad plot detours, I just didnt consider how all that first-season backstory is now ripe for the picking, ready to be harvested by the writers room and served up for some fresh surprises. Lets jump in our Lifeboats, time-travel back to the start of the episode, and get to recapping!

We are in old-school Hollywood (in case the CGId Hollywoodland sign didnt give it away) where a Rittenhouse sleeper agent gets installed by his sqauare-jawed pop. (If youre a white, male, 50-something, workaday actor in real-life Hollywood who used to make your bread and butter playing Republican lawmakers on 24 or whatever, I bet you now earn you keep playing Rittenhouse dudes.) Make us proud, son, he tells his progeny before beaming off in the Mothership. Is his kid going to become a famous Tinseltown icon? My money was on him growing up to be Adventures of Superman star George Reeves, but only because of that Hollywoodland Ben Affleck movie.

Cut to 1941, and that Rittenhouse Sleeper Agent is now a big-time, hotshot producer. He cutely informs some hack director on the lot that television is the future when suddenly, his future is standing right in front of him. Rittenhouse Dad returns! He tells his son that Rittenhouse found Nicholas Keynes and that hes more brilliant than we could have hoped for  which, come on, I still say thats debatable. He also says Keynes has mapped out Rittenhouses game plan, thus proving my point from last week that it is a map, Keynes.

The Scooby Gang finds out where the Motherships gone, but just like last week when Rittenhouse traveled to the Darlington 500, theyre stumped as to why thats on the itinerary. So its back to Flynn, where he and Lucy and Agent Christopher recite their whole will-they, wont-they schtick about springing Flynn from the clink. Flynn trolls Lucy by hilariously yell-asking her, Do you have any ability to do this on your own? then rejects Christophers offer to provide more in-prison amenities by growling, I dont want any damn Netflix subscription.

Flynn finally points them to the right studio, and heres where Hollywoodland swept me off my oh-so-charmed feet. Granted, its not difficult to make charismatic TV out of Hollywoods Golden Age, but what I really liked was how the shows light-footed sense of humor meshed with the historical milieu. Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus were made for witty banter, wacky hijinks, and quick one-liners, like Bogart and Bacall and  Langston Hughes! Rufus comes through with that hilarious Hail Mary (because who knows what writers look like?) just as theyre about to be kicked off the lot, and claiming hes the famous wordsmith gains the Scooby Gang access to studio president Marty Balaban. There, Rufus pitches Hamilton, plus a movie about the ways of white folks and another idea about a Rittenhouse-esque group of time-traveling baddies, which Balaban rejects because secret cabala conspiracy stories are overdone. Meanwhile, Lucy jumps in to clarify Rufuss chronologically inaccurate claim that she and Wyatt are the next Bogart and Bacall (whose first movie wouldnt come out until 1944) by declaring that theyre more like the next Fairbanks and Pickford. Its yet another example of how Hollywoodland regales viewers with entertaining historical tidbits.

To wit: Things really get underway when the Scooby Gang finds out that RKO 281 (code name for Citizen Kane) has been stolen. For all they know, this means that William Randolph Hearst could be Rittenhouse: Thanks to her encyclopedic knowledge of basically everything that ever happened, Lucy reveals that Hearst was furious at Orson Welles for making Citizen Kane and wanted to kibosh the movie. So Hearst has gotta be behind the theft of the Citizen Kane reels, which means our heroes need to crash a party at his mansion, which means they need more glamorous clothes, which means Wyatt has to pick a lock on a costume storage room, which I just find funny. One week hes assassinating sleeper agents, and the next hes committing petty theft because he really needs some dapper duds!

After they arrive at the party, Wyatt and Lucy split from Rufus, whos off on a tangent with Hollywoods greatest multi-hyphenate, screen siren/inventor Hedy Lamarr. (Earlier, Rufus asked expositional questions about Lamarr, found out from Lucy that she basically invited Wi-Fi, and gave voice a large chunk of the American public by asking, How did I not know this?) Rufus tries to keep his Langston Hughes cover going by reciting the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song (LOL!) as an example of his latest poetry, but Lamarr doesnt buy it. Rufus soon reports back to Lucy and Wyatt with a blunt, Hey guys, guess what? Hedy knows Im not Langston Hughes. But she still trusts hes a friend of Orson Welles, so they go off together to spy on the Rittenhouse sleeper agent while trading nerdy knowhow about acoustics and whatnot, leaving Lucy to keep the gangs cover going with a song.

(I apologize that its taken me this many words to get to Lucys performance, especially since its one of the highlights of the episode. Consider it evidence that Hollywoodland is like a swanky cocktail party I never wanted to end.)

So Lucy is forced into singing You Made Me Love You (I Didnt Want to Do It) and OH. MY. GOD. I cant say my knowledge of movie scenes in which people entertain showbiz crowds by singing in front of a piano is as encyclopedic as Lucys knowledge of everything thats ever happened, but this was the best one since Postcards From the Edge. Actually, even better, because Meryl and Shirley didnt do their crooning while staring into the eyes of a hottie-boombalottie like Wyatt. (Speaking of Streeping it up, first of all, Lucys gown is positively Katharine GrahaminThe Postesque.) Either way, what a wonderful showcase for Abigail Spencer this scene is!

Oftentimes, so many plot gears need churning and so much historical background needs explaining on Timeless that theres little opportunity to spend downtime with these characters. You know, like the way Lyatts two previous attempts at a kiss this season were interrupted by their fellow do-gooders. But not this time! Because  cue the Celion Dion song, throw in a little bomp-chicka-bow-wowwwww  LUCY AND WYATT FINALLY DOOOOOOO IT! The moment isnt without its cheese, all silent looks and whatnot, but I feel so  whoops, never mind, here comes Rufus with the post-coitus interruptus. Oh yeah, I was looking for both of you, he mumbles in that nerdy endearing way Malcolm Barrett has practically copyrighted at this point. Well, here you are.

And here we go with the rest of our do-gooders to-do list: Its time to thwart the Citizen Kane handoff so that Rittenhouse doesnt get to spew unedited propaganda in Hearsts newspapers. (Seems kinda low-stakes to me, much like last weeks threat to the auto industry, but sure, whatevs.) Whiz, bang, a brief shoot-out ensues, mission accomplished.

Meanwhile, back in the bunker, the gist is that a doctor told Jiya shes actually healthier now than she was before the Lifeboat effed her up. Id like to think I detected a glimmer in Masons eye when he heard this news  as if the gears are turning inside his head and hell somehow figure out a way to save Jiyas life, despite the fact that he bluntly told Agent Christopher that Jiyas a goner.

No longer a goner is Flynn, who breaks outta prison with help from the Scooby Gang, only to walk into the bunker and hilariously deadpan, To think I escaped prison for this. Wyatt isnt thrilled that Flynn is now considered a member of their team, but dont worry Wyatt, your new girlfriend Lucy is here to tend to your manly anger! But boom goes the dynamite as Wyatt gets a text and walks off in a distracted rush. The alarms sound and everyone thinks somebody broke into the bunker, but it turns out Wyatt has busted out. To go see Jessica  who texted him? Or someone else tell him where to find her? Also, did it look to you like Jessica recognized Wyatt when he hugged her? Does she even know that she was once dead? I have so many questions!The McThornmor neighborhood is on its way to joining the National Register of Historic Places.



It's located in Huntsville on the corner of Holmes Avenue and Woodall Lane.

Lynda Romero lives in McThornmor, and she told WAAY 31 she didn't expect her neighborhood to be in the running for the national recognition.

"I didn't realize that we would qualify for anything like that," Romero said.

Romero and her husband were newlyweds when they moved to the neighborhood in 1963.

They lived right across the street from a member of the now famous Von Braun space team.

"They lived across the street from us, and it was very interesting to hear what all they had to go through to get here in Alabama," Romero said.

German rocket developer Werhner Von Braun's team of scientists moved into the McThornmor neighborhood in the 1950s.

Councilman Bill Kling told WAAY that because Von Braun and his team developed the Saturn Five launch vehicle in Huntsville the neighborhood they lived in should be on the National Register of Historic Places.

George Allen told WAAY 31 he has never considered the possibility of his neighborhood making it onto the register.

"This was a small little sleepy town," Allen said.

Allen moved into the McThornmor neighborhood in 1957, and he said he's blown away by the Rocket City's transformation from sleepy town to space city.

"None of us ever thought we'd be looking at a metropolitan of 300,000 or more," Allen said.

If the McThornmor neighborhood makes it onto the register, residents told WAAY 31 they should know no later than Spring 2019.For the fifth straight year, Huntsville, Alabamas hosting the Association of the United States Army Global Force Symposium. And a major announcement might break from the event.

This years theme: modernizing and equipping Americas Army for today and tomorrow. Secretary of the Army Dr. Mark Dsper will be the keynote speaker.



Secretary of the Army Dr. Mark Esper visiting Redstone Arsenal's Army Materiel Command Secretary of the Army Dr. Mark Esper visiting Redstone Arsenal's Army Materiel Command

On the job only since November, Secretary Esper has already visited Huntsville once this year.

It's my pleasure to come visit Huntsville Redstone Arsenal on my first couple of months on the job as Secretary of the Army, Dr. Esper said while on the Arsenal in January. Esper said he was spending his first days as Secretary visiting some of the places most critical to the Army.

At this years symposium, many Army insiders are expecting the Secretary to announce more details about an Army Futures Command.

So, part of that is how do we look at a different organizational arrangement?, Esper explained. How do we improve the processes, reduce the paperwork? How do we find the right people to lead it?

Back in January, WAAY 31 asked Dr. Esper about the Futures Command.

It's a different way of modernizing the force, he told us. We have an acquisition system right now in place that's been there for many years. It does a good job. But, we're trying to think how do we optimize that system so that we're able to deliver to soldiers the equipment and the weapons and systems they need when they need it.

WAAY 31 also asked, but Esper wouldnt say, where a futures command might be headquartered.

Wherever it calls home, Secretary Esper insisted an Army Futures Command won't take away from Redstone's Army Materiel Command.

"AMC is AMC, Esper told WAAY 31. It's critical to what the Army does. And wherever it (Futures Command) goes, what we're trying to do is find out what are the impacts on all the Army. But, AMC has a critical mission. That's not going to change. AMC is vital to what we do. They have a great leader in General Perna. And again, it's a great team of folks on the ground."

A task force was due to give Secretary Esper a recommendation for the Army Futures Command at the first of this month.

The Army's kept tight-lipped about any cities in the running.

Under Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy says there won't be hundreds of people working at the Futures Command, just enough to fill a couple floors in an office building.(CNN) -- A doctored animation of Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez ripping the US Constitution in two went viral on social media after Gab, a "free speech social network," posted it on Twitter.

The tweet gathered 1,500 retweets and 2,900 likes and only after a few hours did Gab specify the fake animation was "obviously a parody/satire."

The original animation is from a Teen Vogue story released March 23 featuring Gonzalez and other teen activists, as Allure & Teen Vogue communications director Jaime Ellyn Marsanico confirmed to CNN. It shows Gonzalez ripping a target poster, not the Constitution.

Teen Vogue chief content officer, Phillip Picardi, also set the record straight on Twitter:

"The fact that we even have to clarify this is proof of how democracy continues to be fractured by people who manipulate and fabricate the truth," Picardi said.

Gab, which has gained popularity with ultra-conservative users who wanted an alternative to Twitter, uses an image of a frog in its logo. The social network's creator, Andrew Torba, denies it is a reference to Pepe the Frog -- a cartoon that has been appropriated as a mascot of the alt-right -- saying it's a biblical reference to a plague of frogs.

The most popular debunk was from Donald Moynihan, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who said: "Just a sample of what NRA supporters are doing to teenagers who survived a massacre (real picture on the right)":

However, this series of debunks did not stop the fake image from going viral, crossing platforms, websites and blogs.

For example, actor Adam Baldwin, who has a verified account on Twitter, tweeted the doctored animation to his 270,000 followers. The tweet was still online at the time of writing.

Over the past few weeks, Gonzalez has become the face of the #NeverAgain movement that flooded Washington, D.C. and other American cities over the weekend for the March for Our Lives rally.

Her iconic speech in Washington, which included a prolonged moment of silence, is the latest in a series of appearances that made the 18-year-old a popular household name since a gunman killed 17 people on February 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

But her gun-control activism also attracted a smear campaign and personal attacks from conservative figures and far-right fringes.

A smear campaign

The fake animation also found new life on 4chan "politically incorrect" board (abbreviated as /pol/), as part of a campaign aimed at discrediting Gonzalez.

CNN found several posts questioning Gonzalez' real nationality, spreading conspiracy theories claiming she's an illegal immigrant and hurling anti-Semitic insults at her and her father.

Gonzalez was born in the United States. Her father sought refuge from Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba by moving to New York in 1968.

Other posts alluded to a doxing effort to leak pictures of Gonzalez on the platform.

But it's not only 4chan users who concentrated their attacks on the teen's Cuban origin. Conservative commentators and politicians pointed the finger to Gonzalez' olive-colored jacket that she wore during the speech on Saturday which had a Cuban flag sewn in it.

A meme with Gonzalez on stage and the Cuban flag on the forefront appeared on the verified Facebook page of Congressman Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).

The post read: "This is how you look when you claim Cuban heritage yet don't speak Spanish and ignore the fact that your ancestors fled the island when the dictatorship turned Cuba into a prison camp, after removing all weapons from its citizens; hence their right to self defense."

Several people weighed in the comment section defending Gonzalez from the attack.

In response to Brandon J. Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting who criticized the meme for "mocking a school shooting survivor for her ethnic identity," King's team said:

"Pointing out the irony of someone wearing the flag of a communist country while simultaneously calling for gun control isn't 'picking' on anyone. It's calling attention to the truth, but we understand that lefties find that offensive."

CNN has reached out to King's team for comment.

Similar memes were posted on Reddit's pro-Trump page r/The_Donald and shared on social media by other conservative figures, such as Andrew Wilkow.

Jesse Hughes, frontman of Eagles of Death Metal, also shared the photoshopped image of Gonzalez on Instagram, calling her "the Awful Face of Treason," according to the Guardian. His band was on stage during the Paris Bataclan terrorist attack in November 2015. Hughes later deleted the post.

Earlier in March, Leslie Gibson, who was running for Maine's House of Representatives, quit his race after he called Gonzalez a "skinhead lesbian."

UPDATE: This story has been updated to correctly describe Gab's logo.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.The Turnbull government will expel two Russian officials from Australia, joining more than a dozen British allies in a global response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter.

The nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Britain has deepened the rift between the Russian government and western powers, with the Trump administration on Monday night announcing the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and intelligence officers.

The United States expelled 48 officials from the Russian embassy in Washington and 12 from Russia's permanent mission to the United Nations in New York, and ordered the closure of the consulate in Seattle. Canada and many European Union countries have joined the action.

British Prime Minister Theresa May responds to the alleged Russian attack. Credit:AP

Britain had already ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats in response to the March attack after Prime Minister Theresa May's government determined it was carried out by Moscow. President Vladimir Putin in turn ordered 23 British diplomats expelled from Russian soil.Labor will take to the next election a pledge to repeal any cut to the company tax rate for Australia's biggest businesses, but could retain the relief already in place for small firms at a cost of nearly $30 billion.

As the Coalition edges towards a deal with Senate crossbench to gradually lower the tax rate from 30 cents in the dollar to 25 for all companies by 2027, attention has shifted to Labors response should it win the next federal election, due by mid-next year.

The Coalition passed tax relief for companies with a turnover of less than $50 million in 2017, but needs nine of 11 crossbenchers to legislate the $35.6 billion cost of lowering the rate for all companies above that threshold.

Sources say Labor will "seek to repeal the company tax legislation" - expected to pass the Senate as soon as Tuesday - and "settle on a final position on what passed the Parliament last year".We might wrap up the blog right there.

Most of the day has focused on tax cuts as the government rushes to get the package through the Senate by Wednesday. As of today, there have been no concrete developments out of the negotiations, at least that we know about.

See you in the morning when we pick up where we left off.

Until then, you can find me on Facebook and Twitter. Alex Ellinghausen is also on Twitter.

And you can send any hot tips or feedback to fergus.hunter@fairfaxmedia.com.au.He said he was initially concerned he was being "precious", but became mainly concerned with the apparent failure to consider the City of Subiaco's planning guidelines. "In the context of the building that it replaces, I'm happy with that. The only thing that I'm not happy with is the pylon sign," he said. "In the development assessment panel meeting minutes... there's this statement that says 'the proposal includes the refurbishment of an existing pylon sign that does not include any change to the height or scale of this existing sign'," he said. "That's blatantly not the case. "But the dimensions listed below directly contradicted that statement.

"So the sign has been built according to the plan's dimensions, but it was contradictory to the statement that there'd be no change to the scale or height. "The application has contradictory information. The actual sign itself, the scale of the 'M', might be consistent with some of the other signs they use but the height of the sign is completely out of proportion to any other McDonald's signs that I've seen in Perth. "Initially I thought it was maybe us being a bit precious... it's not world peace or anything like that but clearly there's nearly 650 people who think it's important and we shouldn't let McDonald's get away with having a lend of local residents." A McDonald's spokesperson said the sign was one of its standard sizes. "The new sign is fully compliant with our development application, which was subject to public appraisal and approved by the council and [the development assessment panel]," they said.

"The sign is one of our standard sizes, which can be seen in McDonald's restaurants around the country." However a petition started by Mr MacQuillan protesting the sign's dimensions has already attracted 637 signatures over the course of the month. Locals turned out to a protest last Friday with some creative signs. Credit:Patrick MacQuillan "These dimensions are more in keeping with a freeway petrol station or a Las Vegas casino, not a tiny residential suburb with a primary school," Mr MacQuillan wrote, when lobbying for locals to sign. And residents were quick to join in.

"This sign is outrageously tall and well outside council guidelines. It is far higher than the signage it replaced and dominates the streetscape. It sets an unpleasant precedent for our quiet, suburban neighbourhood," a local wrote. "I'm tired of town planning being considered optional by large corporations [and] developers. Maintain the amenity of our suburbs," another said. In its development application proposal to the Development Assessment Panel, McDonald's was able to argue its case in relation to the location of the restaurant. The assessment panel characterised the site as an "other regional road", with "no discernible streetscape character... the development is considered to suitably respond to its context and represents an improvement to its surrounds." McDonalds said its signs would continue to be an appropriate scale and design for the neighbourhood, and would be appropriate for the restaurant's proper functional use.

In the development application, it was determined: "The signs are not considered to result in a loss of significant views or be out-of-character with the architectural style of the rest of the development; the signs proposed are a substantial consolidation of the number of signs that exist on the subject site currently; and the signs are not considered to pose any reasonable threat to public safety." However, despite successfully arguing the location for the sign was appropriate, Jolimont residents have since taken issue with its close proximity to the local primary school. The McDonald's sign as seen from Jolimont Primary School's oval. Credit:Patrick MacQuillan "I've got two kids in primary school," Mr MacQuillan said.Tokyo: Japanese media reports said a special North Korean train arrived in Beijing under unusually heavy security on Monday, suggesting a senior delegation might have been aboard.

A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said she was not aware of the situation and had no further comment. North Korea's state-run media had no reports of a delegation travelling to China.

A military honour guard is seen marching away after a convoy of vehicles enter the the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse where top North Korean leaders have been known to stay on previous trips to Beijing, China. Credit:AP

Japanese television network NTV and public broadcaster NHK reported the arrival of the train and said the heavy security in the city suggested a senior official was aboard.

The reports sparked speculation that leader Kim Jong-un might have been aboard the train. Kim is expected to have a summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April and with US President Donald Trump by May.London: Australia wants to start negotiating a trade deal with the UK on 'day one' of Brexit next year and has it ready to put into effect on January 1, 2021, Trade Minister Steve Ciobo said.

British Trade Secretary Liam Fox supports this ambition, he added.

In a speech at Bloomberg's London HQ on Monday, Ciobo sang the praises of free trade - in what may be interpreted as a swipe at US President Donald Trumps recent push for new tariffs.

Mr Ciobo encouraged the UK to choose free trade over protectionism as it shapes its trade policy outside the European Union.Overdue Book? April Amnesty at McCracken Library

Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Mar. 26, 2018 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 26, 2018 | 10:03 AM | PADUCAH, KY

The McCracken County Public Library is waiving late fines throughout the month of April.



The library is offering a one month amnesty period, which will coincide with many area schools spring breaks as well as National Library Week. According to a press release from the library, the decision to host the amnesty period builds on the librarys previous fine forgiveness event, which lasted for two weeks in April of 2017, and restored borrowing privileges to about 300 patrons. The event prompted the return of library materials that had been overdue for more than thirty years.



The library is encouraging its patrons to return all late materials during this period and have their fines waived regardless of how long the materials have been overdue.



Fees for materials not returned will not be waived. For more information, visit the librarys website at www.mclib.net or call 270-442-2510.By National Weather Service Mar. 23, 2018 | 10:00 PM | PADUCAH, KY

The National Weather Service in Paducah has issued a special weather statement about a full week of rain that could cause some isolated flooding to recur.A broad, slow moving cold front, stretching from Texas to the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes, is expected to push through the region from the middle of the afternoon on Tuesday through the noon hour on Wednesday.Along the cold front, locally heavy rainfall is forecast to fall across parts of the Quad State region. Although widespread overland flooding is not expected to occur, a few poorly drained and low lying areas may see sharp rises in water levels of smaller creeks, streams, and ditches.Rainfall amounts between one-and-a-half to two inches will be possible generally west of Interstate 57 in southwest Illinois to Interstate 55 in southeast Missouri, then from Bardwell and Benton Kentucky south to the Tennessee border.The time period of greatest impact due to the heavy rain will be Tuesday night, initially impacting southeast Missouri and southwest Illinois, By Wednesday, the focus of any heavy rainfall will be across southern sections of the Purchase area of western Kentucky to the Land Between the Lakes.

On the Net:Lawmakers Rethink Future of Private Prisons

Advertisement

By The Associated Press

Mar. 25, 2018 | FRANKFORT, KY

By The Associated Press Mar. 25, 2018 | 07:42 AM | FRANKFORT, KY

Lawmakers in Kentucky are rethinking the states recent return to private prisons at a time when Republican Gov. Matt Bevins administration warns the state is about a year away from running out of space to hold inmates.



Kentucky closed its last private prison in 2013 after years of problems, including allegations of sexual abuse and a prison riot in 2004. The decision was made easier by criminal justice reforms that caused the states prison population to dip below 20,000.



But in November, with a prison population topping more than 24,600, state officials reluctantly signed a contract with Tennessee-based CoreCivic to house about 800 inmates at the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville, Kentucky. Justice Secretary John Tilley called it a short-term solution. A better fix, he said, would be to update the states criminal code to lock up fewer people convicted of nonviolent crimes. He warned the states prison system would likely run out of space by May of next year without changes.



Acting House Speaker David Osborne told reporters this week there is no possibility lawmakers would change the states criminal code. Instead, the House approved a budget that would give the state permission to open up to two other private prisons, if needed.



But the state Senate removed that permission. Instead, theyd like to see more inmates housed at county jails because its cheaper. The state pays just under $58 per day to house an inmate in a private prison, but just $31.34 per day to hold an inmate in a local jail.



Local jails are overcrowded, too, at a combined 119 percent of capacity. But at least six counties have opened or plan to open new jails or expansions of existing jails in the next few years. Last April, state officials said they expected the additions to increase capacity by more than 1,700 beds.



Utilizing private prisons dramatically increases the cost, said Republican Sen. Chris McDaniel, chairman of the Senates budget committee. We need to utilize all the slots available to us first.



It was one of multiple issues state lawmakers were discussing Friday as negotiations began between House and Senate leaders over how to spend more than $70 billion of state and federal tax dollars over the next two years. Lawmakers hope to come up with an agreement on the state spending plan by early next week. If they dont, they could lose their ability to override any vetoes from the governor.



Brad Boyd, president of the Kentucky Jailers Association, said space at county jails is tight but the state had several options to alleviate that problem. He noted the state has 495 empty beds at various restrictive custody centers, which house low-level inmates that often work in the community. Boyd said jails can only house inmates classified as low-risk. The state has about 2,900 inmates that have not been classified yet and are ineligible for the restrictive custody centers.



(The Senate) may be correct that there are enough beds, acting House Speaker David Osborne told reporters earlier this week. If theyve got information that shows that the correction system can in fact handle that, then I think its something that we would look at.



Boyd says one solution to the overcrowding problem is to increase how much the state pays local jails to house inmates as an incentive for them to build more capacity. The Kentucky Jailers Association asked for a $1 increase per inmate this year, which would be about $4 million.



Im just simply not for privatization. Incarcerating individuals is not something you should be privatizing, period, Boyd said.By: Paige Cline The hills are still green for the most part, but a little[Read More]WiGBits Headline News Would you like to receive our WiGBits? Signup today!

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Digital Issue Would you like to receive our Digital Issue? Signup today!Tax Break Further Skews Wisconsins Tax System Against People of Color

EWG Applauds Rep. Pallone for Oversight of Imported Cosmetics

The Muslim Ban: A Family Separation Policy

NRDC: Canada Pledges to Pursue Strong Clean Car Standards

PFAS Amendments to House Defense Bill Would Monitor Contamination and Speed Cleanup

Top EPA Official, Who Oversaw Rollback of Key Climate Change and Pollution Control Initiatives, Quits

Rep. Jimmy Gomez Knows How Important Health Insurance Is

Senate Bill Would Set Nation on Course for 50 Percent Renewable Energy or More by 2035

Under Udall Proposal, Wind and Solar Would Be Dominant US Energy Source in 15 YearsResearch collaboration to embrace resilience of deaf youth in SA

Wits University partners with the University of Manchester for an innovative research collaboration to embrace the resilience of deaf youth in SA.

A research project by the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Manchester (UK) will use community based film methods to explore issues of vulnerability and resilience that deaf youth face in South Africa.

Deaf children and youth face discrimination and exclusion from society. They are not given adequate opportunities for acquiring language, building meaningful relationships, receiving specialised healthcare and receiving equal education. All this vastly decreases their life-chances and infringes their human rights. A multi-disciplinary international collaboration, supported by the UKs Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Medical Research Council and the Global Challenges Research Fund, brings visual anthropology, social research and deaf studies together to enlighten and positively shift social attitudes towards deaf children and youth.

The University of Manchesters Social Research with Deaf people group (SORD) and the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology (GCVA) in partnership with the Centre for Deaf Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand (CFDS), will over the next eighteen months, explore how to research and represent deaf life worlds through a sensorial and phenomenological approach to film/filmmaking.

The first work package, Inspiring Futures, begins in March 2018 and aims to enhance positive self-esteem in deaf youth and alter societys attitudes to what is possible for deaf children in South Africa. The second, Keeping Safe, will focus on addressing issues of vulnerability and risk that deaf children face. The work has been planned and will be delivered in close partnership with NGOs HI HOPES and THRIVE and is endorsed by the Department of Health, South Africa. In all aspects, parents of deaf children, Deaf and hearing people will collaborate to achieve this ambitious programme.

Resilience is about bouncing back in the face of adversity. Deaf young people face very particular challenges in achieving their potential and becoming full citizens. As visual people, they also have unique resources on which to draw. Through the use of community based film methods, this project tunes in to those latent strengths as visual learners with the capacity to develop new resiliencies given the right opportunities. The work is pioneering, says Professors Alys Young and Andrew Irving, University of Manchester.

We are thrilled to be launching this multi-disciplinary research collaboration in the year that the Wits Centre for Deaf Studies celebrates its 20th anniversary, says Professor Claudine Storbeck, Director for the Centre of Deaf Studies, University of the Witwatersrand.Whither the Constitution?

Yasmin Carrim tells graduating students they must be equally apprehensive and excited about entering the legal profession.

It gives me great pleasure to address you on this very auspicious occasion. At the outset let me congratulate the graduating students on their wonderful achievements.

On Wednesday this week we celebrated Human Rights Day, which provided me with an appropriate occasion to reflect on matters of our democracy and Bill of Rights.

As you all know our Bill of Rights is unique and many other countries now seek to emulate it. Our Bill of Rights was one the first in the world to recognise the transformative rights to education, health, housing and land.

The core values found in the Bill of Rights are equality, dignity, transparency and accountability.

Since 1994, we have adopted an array of laws to promote equality, redistribution and inclusive growth. The Competition Act is one such piece of legislation through which we strive to create equal access to the economy. Like our Bill of Rights it is also quite unique.

Today in South Africa we enjoy freedoms that have become the envy of other nations. We have a vibrant free press, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and State programmes to promote housing, health and education. South Africa is the largest welfare state on the continent, with approximately 17 million recipients of social grants, free housing for some 3 million families, free compulsory education and access to healthcare for the poor.

However the last decade has not been easy for us. Over this period we have witnessed what can only be called a perversion of our Constitutional vision. I do not want to traverse the many incidents that have ignited the nations anger.

But it would be instructive to highlight some key observations.

The most significant development we have seen since 2009 has been the weakening of our law enforcement agencies, their lack of independence and non-compliance with their Constitutional mandates. Equally compromised have been members of Parliament in the exercise of their oversight functions. Thirdly we have seen government that has generally conducted itself with impunity and arrogance, without due regard to the needs of citizens. The fourth has been the large scale theft and utilisation of state resources for the benefit of a few politically connected individuals. The fifth has been the distortion and plundering of the public broadcaster.

The strategy of law-fare (warfare using the law) has been utilised by corrupt public officials to further their own ambitions at every turn. Sadly members of the legal profession have been  and continue to be  complicit in this conduct.

The private sector and trade union leaders have also been implicated in this meltdown.

On the economic front, things ground to a halt in South Africa, with growth figures just slightly below 1%, youth unemployment on the increase, incoherent economic policy and the widening of the inequality gap.

On the positive side we have taken confidence in the fact that political parties have utilised constitutional mechanisms to resolve their disputes. Ordinary folk have seen and come to understand the workings of the Constitutional Court and the other high courts. We have also witnessed an active civil society movement holding power to account through a variety of initiatives including litigation and mass demonstrations. Our investigative journalists have excelled themselves with exposing the abuse of state resources. We have observed the bravery of public officers such as the previous Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and a number of whistle blowers who have risked their lives for the sake of preserving our Constitutional order.

However the events of the last 5 years in particular have raised a number of debates about our Constitutional framework. One of these pertains to the wide powers enjoyed by the President in the appointment of key public officials. The other pertains to the weaknesses of the PR system in that members of Parliament, which include the President, are not elected directly so citizens do not enjoy the power of recall. These are complex matters of electoral reform and cannot be addressed without considering the benefits that a PR system brings.

There are also debates about amendments to the Bill of Rights, s25 of the Constitution being topical at the moment.

A related and often neglected issue is the allocation of powers between national and province in relation to health, education, housing and water management. This allocation causes difficulties of developing, maintaining and monitoring consistent standards across the country in both public and private hospitals. A similar difficulty exists in education and housing. The problems in water management have also come to light with the recent crisis in the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape. Black small scale farmers have been badly affected by the drought in those provinces and are falling between the cracks of national and provincial competencies.

In pondering these issues, I decided to conduct what economists like to call a thought experiment with rather extreme assumptions (as many economists like to do). We have a Bill of Rights. In competition law that would be called the factual world. What would South Africa, as a democracy, look like without a Bill of Rights? In competition law this would be called the counter-factual world. One could run this thought experiment for each of the rights contained in the Bill of Rights and ask what would our world look like without the right to education, the right to health, the right to land and so forth? Because we have not enjoyed a pre-constitutional democratic order in South Africa (having only the oppressive Apartheid era to compare ourselves with) we cannot evaluate our counter-factual by reference to our own history. However we could postulate the world of the counter-factual by looking at other countries who have been able to set their countries on the path to economic recovery and social justice without a Bill o Rights such as ours.

The essential question we ask in this exercise is whether we would still be able to transform our country without a Bill of Rights such as ours?

The answer to that is obviously yes - provided we had purposeful and progressive leadership. A country could be transformed without the enabling power of a Bill of Rights if its leaders through policies and programmes set it on that path. There are many countries in the world who have done just that.

Conversely, our country, no matter how beautiful its laws, will not achieve the Constitutional vision of a transformed and just society if its leaders keep dragging it back  either deliberately or through negligence  into inequality.

The late Chief Justice Ismail Mohamed, described the Constitution as a bridge from the past to the future.

The Constitution, as a bridge to the future, enables any government in South Africa today - at a national, provincial or local level - to embark on programmes which could on the one hand redress the injustices of the past and on the other reduce the inequality of the present. Nothing stops them except themselves.

This is not to say we must not have the debates or not amend the Bill of Rights for the benefit and protection of its enabling power. To do otherwise would be inconsistent with the precepts of the very Constitution itself. However it will behove us to engage in principled  not populist - debates about the issues, to first unpack the contents of the current provisions and to identify carefully the underlying causes of state failure.

Just like in medicine, if we get the diagnosis wrong, the prescribed medication will not cure the problem.

Let me pause for a moment and remind myself that you graduating students must be equally apprehensive and excited about entering the legal profession. The study of law can be interesting and sometimes inspiring. The practice of law is a lot more interesting and always exciting.

But the path to finding your own comfort zone as a professional will not come without a degree of elbow grease, burning the midnight oil and tolerating grumpy bosses.

Which brings to mind one very grumpy boss that I encountered along the way.

Namely the late CJ Ismail Mohamed himself. During the course of one hearing at the Concourt he was so disgruntled with the arguments being made by an eminent SC that he interrupted the poor chap before he had even finished his opening sentence. The advocate struggled through the next hour trying to get in a word edgewise  every time he opened his mouth to say Justice he was interrupted again. And so it went with Justice Mohamed putting up opposing propositions at different times. At the end of the hour Justice Mohamed fell quiet and then said Well what do you say - have you got any other submissions to make? The advocate replied No Justice, except to congratulate you for presenting a well-argued case for both sides.

Lawyers - after dentists  are the most parodied professionals in the world. So you are likely to become the butt of many jokes. You might not know this but in reality there is only one lawyers joke  the others are all true stories.

But to demonstrate the truth of this statement let me provide you with some real evidence. One witness in the bread cartel case was found to have lied under oath in our proceedings. We decided to make an example of him and sent a young lawyer to report the crime to the Sunnyside police station. What is the crime you wish to report? asked the officer in charge Perjury Officer was the answer. The officer wrote it down slowly asking for help in the spelling. Ok he said and what weapon was used in the commission of this crime? Without missing a heartbeat our chap replied with hands out His tongue?

As I said the practice of law is a lot more interesting.

In ending I would like to say congratulations again to all of you today. Congratulations to your parents and loved ones too. Good luck to you all.

About Yasmin Carrim

Yasmin Carrim is a full time member of the Competition Tribunal of SA, that adjudicates on matters involving anti-competitive conduct and its effects.

An attorney by profession, Carrim holds qualifications in science, law and commerce and has worked as an activist, a lawyer, a teacher and a business leader.

Renowned for the diversity of her skills and her broad experience, Carrim has previously served on the National Consumer Tribunal of South Africa and has more recently as an Acting Judge in the North Gauteng High Court.

Carrim has held several positions in the corporate environment whilst maintaining her involvement in human rights activities and civil society.

She served as the Group Executive responsible for Regulatory Affairs at MTN South Africa and as a Councillor on the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa. She was a director at the law firm Cheadle Thompson and Haysom and a founding trustee of the Womens Legal Centre. She also served as a researcher to Justice Catherine ORegan at the Constitutional Court during its founding years.

At the same time, Carrim has maintained her involvement in human rights and development issues through her involvement in non-governmental organisations. She serves on the boards of the Soul City Institute for Health andDevelopment Communication and the Open Society Foundation SA.

She has also co-edited a handbook on telecommunications regulation in South Africa.A Marxist approach appropriate for the climate crisis and the 21st Century

The "Climate Crisis" highlights the importance of advancing a deep and just transition that decarbonises society.

Climate change is the most serious challenge the human species faces. Despite numerous warnings  scientific studies, UN declarations, books, movies, progressive media reporting  global leadership has failed humanity.

But how do humans survive the climate crisis?

The climate crisis should be treated as an emergency, demanding transformative politics that gets to the root causes through democratic systemic reforms. These would include remaking how people produce, consume, finance and organise social life.

A civilisation constantly undermining the conditions that sustain life has to be transformed urgently.

Despite the science and global consensus on the climate crisis, humans have continued emitting and intensively using fossil fuels. As a result the world is recording the hottest years on the planet. A heated planet, as a result of human action, unhinges all certainties and places everything in jeopardy. It challenges fixation with growth economics, catch up development and every conception of modern progress.

Most fundamentally, it prompts the question, has globalised capitalism lost its progressiveness? Is todays fossil fuel driven, hi-tech, scientific, financialised and post-Fordist industrial world leading humanity down a path of destruction?

A new book Ive edited, The Climate Crisis- South African and Global Democratic Eco-Socialist Alternatives, draws from the analysis, concepts and systemic alternatives emerging at the frontiers of climate justice politics. This includes alternatives championed by global social movements such as La Via Campesina, the largest peasant movement in the world, progressive Southern intellectuals and movements within Bolivia, Ecuador and Africa.

Challenging Marxism to meet the challenge

As in previous volumes in the Democratic Marxism series, this one brings together contributions that are thinking with  and learning from  grassroots movements. Many of the contributors are engaged activist scholars, grassroots activists and movement leaders.

This volume also places Marxism in dialogue with contemporary anti-capitalism in a way that draws on its ideological and movement potentials. Marxism in the 20th century as a ruling ideology, mostly as Marxism-Leninism, has pursued policies that have been ruinous to the environment. These have included championing growth at all costs, monopoly one party state control and catch-up industrialisation with capitalist countries.

In this volume nature is placed at the centre of how Marxism understands capitalism, history and alternatives. It confronts the intersections of climate change, patriarchy and racism inherent to capitalism. Marxism is challenged to think and act democratically in the 21st century. Its tested as an intellectual resource to serve as the basis for a new future.

This is different from socialisms in the 20th century. These where authoritarian (controlled by elites), anti-nature and undermined the power of workers, peasants and progressive social forces. This volume affirms the renewal of socialism in the 21st century in dialogue with Marxism, ecological thought and democratic alternatives emerging from below.

A heating planet

In 1988, NASA scientist James Hansen drew attention to the heating of the earths temperature, otherwise known as climate change. Yet over the past two decades the US refused to adopt the Kyoto Protocol. This didnt go far enough but nevertheless locked in common but differentiated responsibilities for industrial countries to cut emissions. Instead, Washington has worked systematically to scuttle the Kyoto Protocol.

In 2006, Hansen cautioned that the world has a decade to change the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions or face irreversible changes which would bring disastrous consequences.

Since this plea was made, another decade has been lost including through the ineffectual Paris Climate Agreement championed by the US President Barack Obama but undermined by incumbent Donald Trump. Today geologists and climate scientists are talking about a dangerous new world: the Anthropocene. Its a world in which humans have changed planetary conditions including climate, breaking a 11 700 year pattern of relatively stable climate known as the Holocene.

The realities of climate driven world

For many the climate crisis is a complex scientific problem. At one level it is. And is very different from daily or seasonal variability in weather. The science of climate change has confirmed, with the measurement of greenhouse gases that human induced climate change is happening.

In 2015, the halfway mark towards catastrophic climate change was broken. This was confirmed by the World Meteorological Organisation which broadcast to the world that planetary temperatures have reached a 1 degree Celsius increase higher than the period prior to the industrial revolution.

The world is moving rapidly closer to a 2C increase in planetary temperature. With this shift, extreme weather events such as droughts, heatwaves, drier conditions enabling fires and floods are becoming more commonplace. Sea levels are also rising, placing many low-lying communities, populous coastal cities and island states in jeopardy.

Climate change on this scale is not expected to unfold in a linear way. Instead, it potentially can happen abruptly or through feedback loops further accelerating runaway climate change. Examples of this include methane release from the Arctic ice sheet, carbon saturation in the oceans and the destruction of rain forests which all feed into the climate change crisis. As the world fails to address the climate crisis, it becomes more complex and more costly.

In response, the Climate Crisis highlights the importance of advancing a deep and just transition that decarbonises society and provides a new basis for organising society to endure climate shocks.

New systems have to be developed through democratic systemic reforms. These would include the rights of nature, degrowth, climate jobs, socially owned renewable energy, a substantive basic income grant, integrated public transport, food sovereignty, solidarity economy and commons approaches to land, water and the cyber sphere.

Vishwas Satgar, Associate Professor, Department of International Relations, University of the Witwatersrand. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Recreating our ancestral past

Wits  in the champions league of archaeology  hosted the first African Conference on Experimental Archaeology.

Bill Schindler gave a demonstration of experimental archaeology when he screened an episode of National Geographics The Great Human Race at the Wits Club as part of the first African Conference on Experimental Archaeology (ACE).

About 60 delegates from around the world watched as Schindler, dressed in skins, darted a boar in the Caucasus Mountains with an atlatl and ate its fat to keep warm  what he described as an attempt to recreate our ancestral past, namely the Ice Age 40 000 years ago.

Schindler co-starred in the TV series with survival expert Cat Bigney but he is the public face of experimental archaeology in more ways than one. Associate Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at Washington College in Maryland in the US, he is also chairman of EXARC, an organisation representing about 300 members from 40 countries who are involved in archaeological open-air museums, experimental archaeology, ancient technology or interpretation (such as museum education).

EXARC organised ACE together with Dr Silje Evjenth Bentsen, a Claude Leon Foundation Fellow at Wits.

Schindler says the response from other academics to the TV series has been very positive because it reached people. Although one ACE delegate questioned the choice to feature Bigney in a dress, albeit it of skin; another delegate, Sarah Paris, a PhD student from Cambridge University, said she welcomed such popularising of experimental archaeology.

In his keynote address, Professor Innocent Pikirayi of the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Pretoria, defined experimental archaeology as attempts to generate and test hypotheses, usually by replicating or approximating the feasibility of ancient cultures performing various tasks.

His own on-going experiments are about documenting water resources at the architectural site of Great Zimbabwe, to work out how it might have shaped the function of the medieval city. The research involves women carrying water uphill in traditional clay pots but has been affected by unexpected heavy rains which has hindered access.

Pikirayi said that experimenting with prehistoric buildings (architecture) is common at sites such as Stonehenge in the UK but almost unheard of in Africa.

Dr Molapo Qhobela, CEO of the National Research Foundation, spoke of the importance of experimental archaeology in SA today. Can there be any other place, or any other time in our human history where testing the validity of assumptions about ancient humanity can be more important?

It is widely accepted that there can be no single past that is knowable and acceptable to all. Taking snapshots of the past through different lenses can give many different interpretations. When these snapshots are taken out of their original contexts and put into glass museum cases by experts with a particular world view, for instance, audiences are intentionally or unintentionally lead down a particular path of interpretation.

The other keynote speaker, Lyn Wadley, an A-rated scientist and Honorary Professor of Archaeology at Wits, spoke of the pigeon feast she experienced with two of her post-doctoral fellows, Dr Aurore Val and Dr Paloma de la Pena.

They had found a disproportionate number of pigeons and dove bones, particularly in the early layers of the archaeological site of Sibudu Cave, 40km north of Durban. Val had conducted an experiment to determine: were the bones present because the birds had roosted and died there, or did they exist for anthropogenic reasons, that is, had people eaten them?

She accessed 16 pigeons which they gutted. Keeping the feathers on some of the birds, they wrapped those in strelitzia leaves and roasted among coals. The others were grilled. All were eaten with their fingers to emulate how they might have been eaten.

We didnt really enjoy the ones with the feathers very much, said Wadley to much amusement from the delegates, and so we compromised a bit, she said, pointing to a picture of Val adding olive oil and rosemary to those being grilled.

Yes, we ate all 16 of them, she said. It took two days. They tasted really disgusting exclaimed Val, but they proved from perforations left on the soft bones from tearing them apart, and from tooth marks, that people living at Sibudu during the Middle Stone Age had eaten the birds. The experiment was published in the Journal of Human Evolution in 2016, with Val as the first author.

Co-organiser Bentsen said she had initiated ACE because people at international conferences often spoke of the need for it. Senior lecturer Dr Christine Sievers, pointed out that archaeology at Wits ranked 38th in the world in the 2018 QS university subject rankings. Its a hub, said Bentsen. You really feel like you are working in the champions league when you work at Wits.

ACE was sponsored by the French Institute of SA (IFAS-Recherche); the Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST); BRUKER; the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences at Wits; with support from the NRF-SARChi Chair of Modern Origins, Professor Christopher Henshilwood.Fairfield Police issued a warning on Sunday night after residents reported that hawks swooped down and attacked the backs of their heads.

Police said a resident on Old Mill Road told police that she was attacked by a hawk in her backyard last Monday.

Fairfield Police said the State of Connecticut Wildlife Division of DEEP (Department of Energy and Environmental Protection) and The United States Department of Agriculture (Wildlife Division) are looking into the areas of Old Mill Road, Sycamore Lane, and Henry Street to remove the hawk or hawks.

Police said the hawk attacks involve a hawk flying undetected behind a person and then attacking the person's head.

Police are urging resident to use caution and exercise awareness when walking on the aforementioned roads.

To report hawk sightings, contact Animal Control at 203-254-4857. To report a hawk attack, contact the Fairfield Police Department at 203-254-4800.The Virginia Zoo welcomed a new baby bongo on Friday!

The 50-pound male calf is mom Betty's sixth offspring and just the second for father, Bob.

The baby will join Betty, Bob, two adult female bongos and another calf, Joy (born December 25) in the bongo exhibit in the Africa  Okavango Delta area of the zoo.

Zookeepers have chosen four possible names for the new calf  Blarney, Bugs, Buster and Baxter, and you get to help choose the name!MILFORD  Two employees at Springbrook in Milford are facing felony charges after they allegedly took videos of residents without their knowledge, according to New York State Police.

Twenty-year-old Sharon McDowall and 22-year-old Julianne Carbone, both of Oneonta, are each charged with felony first-degree endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person and felony second-degree unlawful surveillance.

State police say they were contacted by Springbrook, an organization that provides services to disabled children and adults, regarding a complaint of inappropriate behavior. Investigators say McDowall and Carbone allegedly took inappropriate Snapchat videos of residents without their knowledge, and they continued doing it over a period of time.

McDowall was arrested March 19, arraigned and then sent to the Oneida County Jail on $5,000 cash bail or $10,000 bond.

Carbone was arrested March 20 and issued an appearance ticket for Oneonta court on March 27.Seth Fiegerman

(CNN Money) -- The U.S. government is officially investigating Facebook.

The Federal Trade Commission confirmed in a statement Monday that it is currently investigating Facebook data practices as the company faces new scrutiny from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

"The FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook," said Tom Pahl, acting director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices."

Facebook stock fell as much as 5% in early trading Monday, pushing the share price below $150 for the first time since July. The stock fell 14% last week as the scandal unfolded.

News broke earlier this month that Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to President Donald Trump's campaign, reportedly accessed information from about 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge.

CNN reported last week that the FTC was sending a letter to Facebook with questions about how the social media company allowed the data to wind up in the hands of Trump campaign consultants.

Related: What you need to know about Facebook's data debacle

"We remain strongly committed to protecting people's information," Rob Sherman, Facebook's deputy chief privacy officer, said in a statement provided to CNN. "We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have."

Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have sounded alarms about the data debacle and called for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify. In an interview with CNN last week, Zuckerberg left the door open to testifying.

Separately on Monday, a bipartisan group of 37 state attorneys general sent a letter to Zuckerberg asking for details about Facebook's user privacy safeguards.

The FTC previously settled a complaint against Facebook in 2011 for falling short of privacy promises to its users. Among other issues, the FTC found Facebook allowed third-party applications to access more user data than they needed to operate.

As part of the settlement, Facebook was told to get the "express consent" of users "before sharing their information beyond their privacy settings." The FTC is reportedly looking into whether Facebook violated the settlement.

Sen. Ed Markey, a Democrat representing Massachusetts, tweeted Monday that the FTC is "investigating whether Facebook violated a binding agreement," which could result in "millions in penalties."

"The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers," Pahl said in the statement Monday. "Companies who have settled previous FTC actions must also comply with FTC order provisions imposing privacy and data security requirements."

-- CNN's Dylan Byers contributed to this report.

(The-CNN-Wire &  2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.)CARROLL COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) Kendra Wilson, 28, is charged with one count of animal cruelty. Wilson is still allowed to care for her other horses but the woman who reported it hopes that changes.

News 18 first talked to Tiffany Gibbs in early February when she reported Wilson's alleged cruelty.



"I couldn't even imagine one of these guys looking like that," said Gibbs.

She was talking about her own horses. She owns three horses, so she knows what they need to survive. She said that's why she was shocked to see Wilson's horses in such poor condition.

"They had no hay, no grain, no water, they were tied to trees in the front yard," said Gibbs.

Gibbs was hoping the Carroll County Sheriff's Office would take Kendra Wilson's animals but court documents show that isn't the case.

"So, the only one she is being charged for is the one that died?" she asked as she read the court documents.

Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby said because of due process, Wilson gets to keep her animals for the time being. The Indiana Board of Animal Health gave her a strict care plan. Leazenby said they're making sure she follows it but Gibbs wishes they could do more.

"She's not learning anything," said Gibbs. "You know, they're just putting the horses at risk further by allowing them to stay on that property or allowing her to have any part in their care."

Testing showed the dead horse's bone marrow fat was 0.29 percent. The normal range is 63-99 percent.

"How long would it take to emaciate a horse that badly?" asked Gibbs.

We didn't get the chance to get that answer because Wilson declined to comment Monday.

Wilson told deputies the horse died because it had its leg caught in the fence and couldn't get up.

But the officer reported no sign of injuries on the horse's legs other than the tissue tearing from the chains, according to the documents.

Wilson's initial hearing is May 10.

If she is convicted or pleads guilty, it would be up to the court whether she gets to care for horses again.White House Counsel discusses parameters of job during W&M Law School visit

White House Counsel: Don McGahn attended the United States Naval Academy, then received a B.A. in history and computer applications from the University of Notre Dame in 1991. He obtained his J.D. from Widener University School of Law in 1994 and a Master of Laws from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2002. Photo by David F. Morrill

White House Counsel: Don McGahn talked to first-year constitutional law students at W&M Law School March 23. Photo by David F. Morrill Photo - of - Hide Caption

White House Counsel Don McGahn visited William & Mary Law School on Friday, March 23, to give a talk to first-year constitutional law students.

With the Law Schools largest lecture hall filled to capacity, McGahn spent an hour discussing the duties of White House Counsel, how the office is structured, and basically who does what. He also answered questions from students.

Describing his work and that of his predecessors, McGahn said he is not the presidents personal lawyer. Rather, he represents the portraits on the wall as an institutional voice for the office of the presidency. He hoped his talk inspires students to seek out similar work after law school.

McGahn attended the United States Naval Academy, then received a B.A. in history and computer applications from the University of Notre Dame in 1991. He obtained his J.D. from Widener University School of Law in 1994 and a Master of Laws from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2002.

With law degrees in hand, McGahn worked in campaign finance law at the Washington, D.C., office of Patton Boggs. From 1999 to 2008, he was chief counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

After serving as commissioner of the United States Federal Election Commission from 2008 to 2013, McGahn returned to Patton Boggs and then moved to Jones Day in 2014. He has served in the White House since Jan. 20, 2017.



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26 March 2018

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President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan today attended a ceremony to celebrate the completion of construction at the United Arab Emirates' first nuclear power reactor.

Celebrations mark Barakah unit 1 completion (Image: Cheong Wa Dae)

Initial construction of the South Korean-designed APR-1400 pressurised water reactor, built for Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) by a consortium led by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco), was completed last year. Today's ceremony, held at the reactor site, marked the official completion of the construction phase. The focus for Barakah 1 now shifts to completing the preparations for operation needed to receive an operating licence from the UAE's nuclear regulator, the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR).

According to the UAE's official WAM news agency, both leaders highlighted the importance of the milestone. "This is a historic moment in our nation's development as we celebrate the construction completion of Unit 1 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant," bin Zayed said. "The UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Programme will play a strategic role in the growth of our nation by enhancing our energy security, diversifying our economy, and creating employment opportunities for our people, thereby helping secure the future of generations to come."

Enec chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, said the completion of construction at Barakah meant the UAE had joined an "elite group of countries" to have built such a facility. "This milestone is a testament to the vision and commitment of the UAE's leadership and the strength of ENEC's partnership with our prime contractor and joint venture partner, KEPCO. Now, our focus is on the transition to the safe start-up of Unit 1 nuclear operations," he said.

Barakah represents the first exports for Korea's APR-1400, a third-generation, 1400 MWe pressurised water reactor with an operating life of 60 years. The first APR-1400, Shin Kori unit 3, entered commercial operation in Korea in 2016. The design of the Barakah plant has been adapted to suit the UAE's unique climate conditions and requirements of the FANR.

Four APR-1400s are under construction at the site, in the Dhafrah region of Abu Dhabi, 53 kilometres south-west of the city of Ruwais. The first phase of pre-operational tests - including cold hydrostatic testing, structural integrity testing, integrated leak rate testing, and pre-operational hot functional testing - have already been completed at Barakah 1. The next phases of pre-operational tests require fuel to be loaded in the reactor and can only begin after the plant's operator, Nawah Energy Company, receives an operating licence.

Unit 2 is now more than 92% complete, with unit 3 more than 81% complete and unit 4 more than 67% complete. All four units are scheduled for completion by 2020. According to Enec, the construction of the project as a whole was 87% complete as of the end of February. When operational, the four Barakah units will provide up to a quarter of the UAE's electricity needs.

International view

Ahead of the opening ceremony President Moon commented that the success of the Barakah nuclear power plant could be said to be the joint success of South Korea and the UAE. Speaking at a summit ahead of the Barakah ceremony, he said the UAE has agreed to cooperate with Korea in its efforts to win orders for nuclear power plant construction projects in Saudi Arabia. However, South Korea's own domestic energy policy aims to stop construction of new nuclear power reactors and not extend the operation of existing units beyond their original design life.

Agneta Rising, Director General of World Nuclear Association, said today's ceremony was an important step towards start-up of the first reactor at Barakah. "The UAE will soon benefit from the reliable supply of clean electricity that Barakah will produce," she said. The UAE's policy of reducing electricity generation from fossil fuels by developing a mix of clean energy technologies that includes a substantial contribution from nuclear energy is one that should be embraced worldwide, including in South Korea. Using nuclear energy will help ensure the swiftest and most cost-effective transition to a clean, secure and reliable energy future," she added.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topicsIAEA sees safety commitment at Fortum's Loviisa plant

26 March 2018

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The operator of the Loviisa nuclear power plant in Finland has demonstrated a strong commitment to safety, an expert team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has concluded. However, the mission made recommendations to Fortum to reinforce some safety measures.

Loviisa units 1 and 2 (Image: Fortum)

An Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) on 22 March completed an 18-day mission to the plant, which comprises two operating 531 MWe pressurised water reactors. The 16-member team consisted of experts from Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, Ukraine, the UK and the USA, as well as IAEA officials.

OSART missions aim to improve operational safety by objectively assessing safety performance using the IAEA's Safety Standards and proposing recommendations for improvement where appropriate.

The review at Loviisa covered the areas of leadership and management for safety; training and qualification; operations; maintenance; technical support; operating experience; radiation protection; chemistry; emergency preparedness and response; accident management; human, technology and organisational interactions; and long-term operation.

The team said it identified a number of good practices at the Loviisa plant that will be shared with the nuclear industry globally. These include that the plant has developed the capability to automatically calculate leak rate tests of containment, as well as establishing a process to test and improve modifications and updates early. The team said Fortum has also adopted a key system to effectively control access to various rooms in the Loviisa plant.

The team made several proposals to improve operational safety at Loviisa, including that plant management should improve communications of their expectations and consistently reinforce their implementation in the field. The plant should also improve maintenance activities and procedures to ensure safe and reliable performance of systems and equipment. The team also recommended Fortum improve the use of human performance tools to minimise human error.

"The team observed that the plant has made proactive safety improvements in recent years, such as major automation modifications and updates for safety systems," said mission team leader Fuming Jiang of the IAEA. "Staff at the plant are open and transparent, and very receptive to proposals to further improve operational safety in the plant."

Loviisa plant manager Satu Katajala said, "We consider international peer reviews to be an important element in improving nuclear safety. Exchanging best practices and learning from other plants is highly valuable for all of us in the nuclear industry. The results and development areas of this OSART review will be included in the continuous improvement of the Loviisa power plant operations."

The OSART team provided a draft of its report to Loviisa plant management and will submit the final report to the Finnish government within three months.

Loviisa plant management said it would address the areas identified for improvement and requested the IAEA schedule a follow-up mission in about 18 months' time.

Loviisa unit 1 was commissioned in 1977 and unit 2 in 1981. The Finnish government issued operating licence extensions in July 2007, enabling the units to operate until 2027 and 2030, respectively. A condition of those licence extensions was that Fortum perform periodic safety assessments every 10 years.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topicsNext Game: at Central Washington 3/30/2018 | 3 p.m.

Game 1: Western Oregon def. San Francisco State, 8-1

Game 2: No. 3 Chico State def. Western Oregon, 2-0

Coming back after playing the late game on Saturday, the Western Oregon University softball team defeated San Francisco State, 8-1, before falling to No. 3-ranked Chico State, 2-0, to close out action at the Tournament of Champions.Western Oregon (15-14, 3-4 GNAC) closed out the three-day tournament with a 2-3 record. The Wolves will return to GNAC competition this week with road doubleheaders at Central Washington (March 30) and at Saint Martin's (March 31).The Wolves broke open a tight contest with a 5-run 4th inning en route to an 8-1 win in the early action on Sunday at the Tournament of Champions.Western Oregon tallied single runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings before batting all nine positions in the decisive 4th frame. Zoe Clark opened the 4th with a triple to left while Cheyanne Rimer drove Clark home with a double to start the onslaught.Before the Gators could escape the inning, Tyler Creach, Ryanne Huffman and Jenna Kelly continued the attack with RBI hits with Kelly driving home a pair of runs with a 2-out single.Pitching with the sizable advantage, Lizzet Dominguez allowed four hits in a complete game performance in the circle. Dominguez (8-4) walked four with the lone score an unearned variation scored by SFSU in the 5th. Dominguez forced the Gators into a ground out double play in both the 6th and 7th innings.Huffman drove in WOU's final run with a triple in the 6th to plate Ayanna Arceneaux.Shut out for just the third time this season, Western Oregon fell to No. 3-ranked Chico State, 2-0, in the Tournament of Champions finale on Sunday.The Wildcats scraped together single scores in the 3rd and 5th innings while starter Haley Gilham scattered five hits for the win.Gilham faced just two batters over the minimum through five innings before getting into trouble in the bottom of the 6th.Western Oregon threatened to not only end the shutout run but to take the lead in the inning as the Wolves loaded the bases by way of singles by Sydney Bowers and Ayanna Arceneaux and a walk drawn by Mariah Deleon. The effort proved fruitless, however, as Chico State avoided damage by persuading a grounder back to the pitcher.The Wolves returned in the 7th to once again load the bases, this time via an error, a single by Cheyanne Rimer and a walk by Bowers, but Gilham closed out the contest with her eighth strikeout.Chico State finished with a 7-to-6 edge in total hits while both teams committed a single error.The scandal surrounding Facebooks relationship with Cambridge Analytica, the election data company previously associated with former Trump campaign Chairman Steve Bannon, dominates the media in the US and Britain.

The serious privacy concerns involved in the harvesting of the personal information of some 50 million Facebook users were underscored by Britains Channel 4 News. An undercover investigation filmed Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix boasting of dirty tricks operations to ensnare politicians and subvert elections.

But while the disclosures are being used to bolster hysterical claims of Russian meddling, a closer examination reveals that the real and far more fundamental threat to democratic rights involves psy-ops programmes run by elements of the British and US deep state.

Cambridge Analyticas parent company is British-based SCL. Formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories, it is a private behavioural research and strategic communication company, founded in 1993 by Nigel Oakes. The son of Major John Waddington Oakes and a former boyfriend of Lady Helen Windsor, Oakes was formerly employed by Margaret Thatchers favourite advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, before establishing SCL.

As with Oakes, SCLs board members include scions of the British ruling class, from former military officers and defence contractors to major Conservative Party donors.

Lord Ivar Mountbatten, third cousin to Queen Elizabeth, is on the board, while CEO Roger Gabb is a millionaire wine merchant, a former British special forces officer and major contributor to the Tory Party. SCL President Sir Geoffrey Pattie was a defence undersecretary in the Thatcher government. SCL chairman is the venture capitalist Julian Wheatland, also chairman of Oxfordshire Conservatives Association. Former Conservative Party Treasurer Jonathan Marland, trade envoy under Prime Minister David Cameron, is a shareholder.

Others associated, past or present, with SCL include property billionaire and Tory Party donor Vincent Tchenguiz; Sir James Allen Mitchell, privy counsellor since 1985; Rear Admiral John Tolhurst, a former assistant director of naval warfare in the Ministry of Defence and aide de camp to the Queen; and Gavin McNicoll, creator of the Eden Intelligence firm, which has run projects for the British government.

SCL boasts of providing data, analytics and strategy to governments and military organizations worldwide, notably the British Ministry of Defence, the US State Department and NATO. It states that it has carried out behavioural change programs in more than 60 countries. One of its first contracts in 1999 was promoting Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid. It has worked to influence elections in Afghanistan, Latvia, Ukraine, Nigeria and Kenya among others.

Cambridge Analytica was launched in 2012 by SCL to extend its operations to the US. In partnership with hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, this included the Republican primaries for the 2016 election, where it worked to support Ted Cruz and then Donald Trump.

There is nothing new in this. Similar activities were known of, facilitated and endorsed by the political and military establishment in Britain and the US for years.

According to Liam OHare at Bella Caledonia, SCL went public in 2005 at the DSEI conference, a global arms fair in London, promoting itself as the first private company to provide psychological warfare services to the British military:

Its hard sell was a demonstration of how the UK government could use a sophisticated media campaign of mass deception to fool the British people into thinking an accident at a chemical plant had occurred and threatened central London.

Such a sales pitch is even more chilling given the recent events in Salisbury, where the alleged attempted assassination of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yuliavictims of a still unidentified nerve agentis being used by the government to stage provocations against Russia.

A Freedom of Information request from August 2016 showed the MoD took out a 40,000 contract with SCL for the provision of external training in 2010/11 and 150,000 for the procurement of target audience analysis in 2014/15.

In addition, SCL also carries a secret clearance as a list X contractor for the MOD. A List X site is a commercial site on British soil that is approved to hold UK government information marked as confidential and above. Essentially, SCL got the green light to hold British government secrets on its premises.

Revelations of the British militarys connections with SCL forced Prime Minister Theresa May to declare in Parliament Wednesday, As far as Im aware the government has no current contracts with Cambridge Analytica or with the SCL Group.

A spokesperson admitted that the government had held three previous contracts with SCL Group, but said these had now ended.

According to the Guardian, in 2014 MoD officials worked with SCL Group on Project Duco to analyse how people would interact with certain government messaging.

The project was carried out by the MoDs Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), which is focused on maximising the impact of science and technology for the defence and security of the UK.

Project Duco was part of the governments human and social influence work, and SCL was paid 150,000. It assessed how Target Audience Analysis (TAA) could contribute to the governments strategic communications.

The Guardian has been in the forefront of the campaign over Russian fake news in the UK. But it was forced to acknowledge that SCLs work on Project Duco and its list X ranking is likely to raise concerns that government officials were aware of Cambridge Analytica and SCLs operations, and intended to use them to promote government messages.

In other words, Cambridge Analytica and SCL were not acting as proxies for the Russian state but rather for significant sections of the US/UK military and intelligence apparatus. A link to the heavily redacted report on Project Duco is here. Note that intellectual copyright is held by the governments science and technology laboratory at Porton Down, just eight miles from Salisbury.

Nafeez Ahmed at INSURGE intelligence elaborated on the connections between SCL, the British foreign office and other elements of the UK political and financial establishment. These are so close that last year the Foreign Office executive agency, Wilton Park, invited SCL Group subsidiary, SCL Elections, to speak about how the use of data in the 2016 Presidential election could be applied in the British governments diplomatic and foreign policy agenda.

The SCL Group executives were Mark Turnbull, managing director of SCL Elections, and David Wilkinson, then lead data scientist, who addressed the FCO in February 2017 on the subject of examining the application of data in the recent US Presidential election.

The meeting was attended and opened by Jonathan Allenthen the FCOs Acting Director General for Defence and Intelligence. Allen is now Theresa Mays Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

OHare explains that the TAA evolved during the battle for hearts and minds in Afghanistan.

A SCL whistle-blower has charged that techniques used by the SCL Group has traced TAA back to the methods used by the US and UK militaries in Iraq. IR.net reports the whistle-blower stating that some of this technology was actually owned by the UK Ministry of Defence and/or the US Military, and now they dont want people to know that it was their weapon thats currently in the wild, being used privately to manipulate elections worldwide.

SCL received 548,000 for delivering training to NATO that included providing an eight-week course for its staff. This was subsequently passed on to Georgian, Ukrainian and Moldovan government officials.

Turnbull is also head of Cambridge Analytica Political Global. He was previously employed for 18 years at Bell Pottinger where, OHare reports, he headed up the Pentagon funded PR drive in occupied Iraq which included the production of fake al-Qaeda videos.

The US State Department has a contract for $500,000 with SLC to provide research and analytical support in connection with our mission to counter terrorist propaganda and disinformation overseas.

An offshoot, SCL Defense, received $775,000 to support NATO operations in Eastern Europe targeting Russia.

OHare reports, The company delivered a three-month course in Riga which taught advanced counter-propaganda techniques designed to help member states assess and counter Russias propaganda in Eastern Europe.

The NATO website said the revolutionary training would help Ukrainians better defend themselves against the Russian threat.

SCL has also had contracts with the Pentagon for psy-ops in Iran and Yemen.

Whatever the exact beginnings of the TAA programme, the real news story being buried by the official media is that the covert operations and subversion techniques deployed in US and British imperialisms neo-colonial adventures are now being used on their domestic populations.The WSWS is posting a series of reports this week from the March 24 demonstrations against school violence. This report is from Chicago, Illinois.

Over 80,000 students and supporters descended upon Union Park in Chicago on Saturday to participate in the nationally coordinated March for Our Lives demonstrations against mass violence in the United States. It was one of the largest protests by young people and students in the city since the anti-war protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Under the heavy control of the Democratic Party, the demonstration was officially touted as a gun reform rally. Almost every speaker during the event put forth the same formulaic solution to the endless wave of school shootings: gun control and voting.

Against the attempts by the Democratic Party to subdue and control the growing anger and radicalization of young people, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) spoke with students and youth who expressed their outrage against the entire political framework of the capitalist politics, including the Republicans and the Democrats.

There was a strong response to the chant initiated by IYSSE members: No more wars, no more violence!

IYSSE members lead chants of "No more war, no more violence!"

Percy, a high school student who considers himself a socialist, said: I think violence is inherently profitable for the American government. Violence is itself an extension of capitalism and is profitable to the top 1 percent. Disseminating weapons, which is the function of the NRA [National Rifle Association], contributes to violence overseas and domestically. It sows discord and class warfare and struggle, which does not have to exist. It goes to the root of capitalism.

The function of both the parties is to follow the money, Percy added. The idea that we need gradual reform is not an idea that can exist with the significant need for immediate and drastic reforms. The Democrats and Republicans are not listening to the constituents. The power of the people is eventually the power that will need to replace government structures that are not working. Workers of the world, unite!

Christine

Im here to protest gun violence and school shootings, said Christine, a high school student at the rally. This government is corrupt, and we need to make a change. For our future and our future generations. And we are the future. Inequality and violence go hand in hand. If we dont have equality, then we wont have change, and we wont have a better future. Its crazy how people wake up in this country and fear walking down the street. Teenagers need to be more involved, and thats why we are all here.

Sharmaine, an English undergraduate student at UIC, came out to support the high school protests. She spoke about the connection between mass violence and US militarism: I think the government spends more money on military power and violence abroad and does nothing to invest in the population. None of our needs are prioritized. I think it goes to the nature of capitalism, which isnt working for most of us.

I feel unnoticed, you know what I mean? Our opinions and lives dont matter, commented high school student Cameron on the mass violence affecting youth. I think instead of killing people in the Middle East, we should fix the problems we have in America. No kid should go to school in fear of being shot. Thats just wrong. Its not right. We should focus on the battle in America. The politicians are only worried about whats happening out there [in the Middle East] because of money. The rich want to stay rich. Thats how it is.

This is too strong of an issue and its been ignored for too long, said Monica, who works in health care. We have to start with the basics, and that is the lives of our people. Its not just the school shootings; its suicides, its kids getting in trouble, its all those things put together. Corruption, greed, poverty are some of the worst things we have. It just has to change.

Cameron

Monica said her husband has multiple sclerosis, and that they and their two children live paycheck to paycheck because of huge medical bills. And of course Im not alone. Whether its health issues, a child that needs rehab, a job loss, any of those things can set someone on the path to ruin very quickly, and there arent the safety nets out there that there used to be.

Asked about social inequality in relation to social problems, she said: Of course it plays a big role! We all hear about it, those of us who are aware and watch, how much inequality is growing all around the world.

Parents, children and teachers are the future of our society. You cant muck with that, and theyre mucking with it way too much, so now is the time that everyone should come out here and protest. This is the start. Its very important.

When asked if she had followed the strike of West Virginia teachers, Monica replied: Oh absolutely! And thank God they finally got some crumbs over there, and what kind of struggle did they have to do to get them. I just hope that power will eventually go back to the hands of the people. Somehow people have to find their voice.

Dave, a public school teacher, and Sarah attended the march with their family. Dave said: I dont think that I should have to carry a gun in my classroom. I think that the fact that this keeps happening shows that there is a profound lack of will in our country to address this. Like my sign says, this isnt the 18th century, this is the 21st century. The fact that I have to carry a trauma kit in my classroom is wrong. When money trumps lives, thats wrong, and thats why Im here. If we dont say something, then who will? If not now, when?

A World Socialist Web Site reporter spoke about how the issues of escalating violence are bound up with inequality and the shifts in the ruling class toward militarism and war. The West Virginia teachers strike was mentioned to illustrate the mass opposition to inequality that exists in the working class.

Dave said: The teachers only make $35,000 per year! It is impossible to live on that.

Sarah added: And they buy all the supplies for their students, too. They take everything from education.

Dave continued: The next time I hear anyone say, Well, we cant have class warfare, well, class warfare has existed for a long time, weve just been on the losing side. The fact that Jeff Bezos can walk around making $97 billion dollars while people that work for Amazon are making minimum wage is just wrong.

Sarah said: Im so mad that J.B. Pritzker has won the vote for governor [in the Democratic Party primaries]. Another billionaire, just sucking up money! Its not right. Hes not going to give us what we need.

Shannon, a school social worker, said: Since the Parkland shooting, we have had a lot of blackout drills and practices. As someone who works at a school and cares a lot about kids mental health, I want to make sure that this does not happen at any other school. There is enough money for mental health, its just not being spent the right way.

Olivia, a high school student, brought signs to the march depicting text messages that students sent during school shootings.

She expressed hostility to the ruling class after discussing inequality and how it causes violence in society. I feel that they need to replace them with someone who really listens to what we are saying and wants to make a change, she said. I dont like nationalism. I dont like the idea of America First, because I dont think America should be first in everything.

Nelson, a high school student, said: In retrospect, what hit me was that after I heard about the Parkland shooting, I wasnt really surprised. This kind of thing happens so often across America. I was disgusted, but it did not surprise me.

Republicans and Democrats alike are responsible for this, he continued. I despise nationalism. Its probably one of the main reasons why we have war.

In addition to the teachers, students and parents in attendance, many physicians attended the rally in their coats and ID badges, carrying signs about the impact of gun violence.

Marian spoke with the WSWS: Im a family medicine physician at UIC. On a daily basis I work with a lot of underserved populations, and on a daily basis I see the effects of gun violence with my patients. These range from PTSD, to depression, to problems with family instability that come along with high rates of injury and death.

I have patients who are afraid to walk outside because theyre afraid theyll get shot.

Coming from somewhat more privileged background, I dont think I realized the effects of it, but I have children who tell me they cant play outside because they might get shot. This is our reality. There needs to be much greater awareness, and we need to effect change.

Its interesting youre asking about the gun violence in relationship to the wars.  Im Iraqi. I left before the Gulf War really devastated the country, but I know many people in Iraq still. It is striking how similar some of the experiences my patients have here are to those that live in refugee camps, based on stories I have heard. I have not been back, but from what I know it is similar. Its quite amazing to think we live in a country where people should feel safe and protected  but they dont and theyre not. Its very interesting to think of this in relationship to the destruction and chaos thats been created in the wars.The presidential elections in Egypt starting today are a farce. They are held at gunpoint and serve only to give the Western-backed military dictator General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his counterrevolutionary terror regime a pseudo-democratic cover.

Voters are being told to choose between only two candidates: al-Sisi and Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a stooge of his regime. Even before the elections, the regime forced out or arrested one candidate at a time, including Mohammed Anwar al-Sadat, a nephew of former President Anwar al-Sadat, former Prime Minister and Air Force General Ahmed Shafik, and lawyer and activist Khaled Ali. Others arrested and sometimes taken to unknown locations were other military candidates, such as Colonel Ahmed Konsowa and Sami Anan, the former chief of staff of the Egyptian army.

The only remaining candidate, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, leader of the liberal al-Ghad party, has been sent into the race by the regime and is an ardent supporter of his opponent. Prior to announcing his candidacy, Moussa had openly supported al-Sisis campaign, and even after that, a picture of the dictator remained on the cover of his Facebook page for an extended period.

For the elections, the Sisi regime has been mobilizing tens of thousands of heavily armed troops and security forces across the country to stifle any protest. Presenting the security plan for the three election days until Wednesday, Egypts Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar threatened last week: Security forces will deal firmly and decisively with any attempts to disrupt the elections or target vital state institutions.

The Secretary General of Amnesty International in Germany, Markus N. Beeko, commented that the difficult human rights situation in Egypt has worsened in the weeks leading up to the  presidential election. The regime is systematically against political opponents. Opposition politicians and activists as well as civil society organizations are threatened and their employees are subjected to arbitrary arrests, abductions and violence by security forces.

It is no coincidence that the Supreme Administrative Court in Egypt overturned a previous ruling against the long-term dictator Hosni Mubarak, ousted in February 2011, and his Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Interior Minister Habib El-Adly, on the eve of the elections. Seven years ago, in May 2011, an Egyptian court sentenced the three for having cut off electronic communicationsincluding the Internet, cell phones, and landlinesduring the mass revolutionary protests. The court, however, now states that these measures were taken in accordance with the law and the Constitution in order to preserve national security.

The full legal justification of the Mubarak regimes repressive measures symbolizes the counterrevolutionary development in Egypt under al-Sisi. Since the bloody military coup on July 3, 2013, against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, the new Western-backed military ruler has completely rehabilitated the old regime and its henchmen and has been oppressing the Egyptian masses with even more brutal methods.

Shortly after the coup, according to Human Rights Watch, the worst case of unlawful mass killings in Egypts modern history occurred. Army and police stormed two protest camps of coup opponents and killed more than 1,000 people. Since then, the regime has incarcerated at least 60,000 political prisoners and condemned more than a thousand to death. In the last year alone at least 112 executions took place. The freedom of the press is no longer even on paper. In mid-January, the state of emergency was extended once again.

This brutal repression goes hand in hand with more and more severe attacks on the working class. In 2016, the Egyptian regime took out a new loan from the IMF and pledged to carry out further profound economic structural adjustments. To reduce government spending, subsidies have been cut, including for gas, water and bread, and workers extremely low wages. The consequences are poverty and despair. About 40 percent of the nearly 100 million Egyptians are forced to live on less than $2 a day.

The imperialist powers and international finance capital support the regime, but fear the outbreak of new mass protests. It was only last year that the German government passed a law on security cooperation with Egypt in order to increase internal security in both states. Since then, the German authorities have been working closely with the Egyptian security and intelligence services and regularly holding joint workshops and meetings.

The US, still the main sponsor of the Egyptian military, intensified its cooperation with the al-Sisi regime before the elections. Just last week, an Egyptian business delegation traveled to the US for high-level talks. Everyone here praised Egypts economic reform programme and recognised the effort needed to make such difficult and bold decisions, American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo President Tarek Tawfik told reporters in Washington.

The Egyptian delegation reportedly held more than 90 consultations with members of the United States Congress and representatives of international financial institutions. Merza Hassan, responsible director for the Arab world at the World Bank, described the new Egyptian reform program as a model for other countries.

A recent analysis by BMI Research on the elections in Egypt makes clear why ruling-class officials in the US and Europe are supporting al-Sisis election farce. His re-election bodes well for further progress on Egypts reform drive and for business sentiment, BMI Research states, and the country will be an economic outperformer in the Middle East region in 2018.

In another comment the Financial Times warns the regime not to provoke a new revolutionary mass uprising like it did seven years ago. The elections show that the army-backed government has drawn only one lesson from recent history: that public disaffection can boil over with dangerous consequences if left uncontrolled. Yet, Egypts past bears another lesson that is as important: that too much control eventually destabilises.

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The freeing of Hosni Mubarak and the lessons of the Egyptian Revolution

[25 March 2017]An estimated 800,000 people descended on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC for the national March for Our Lives rally on Saturday. The turnout for the DC march, the largest of 800 demonstrations throughout the US and internationally, exceeded organizers expectations of half a million demonstrators. Some media outlets are saying that the rally was the largest in the history of the American capital. (See, Hundreds of thousands of students march against mass violence in America )

Credit: March for Our Lives Facebook page

High school students and other youth who attended the rally had far more on their minds than gun control and the midterm electionsthe issues promoted by the media and the Democratic Party. Many sought to connect the epidemic of mass shootings in American schools to broader issues, from the promotion of militarism and war, to poverty and social inequality.

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) conducted a successful and well-received campaign at the rally. IYSSE campaigners interviewed students and distributed thousands of copies of the recent statement, "The social and political roots of mass shootings in America.

IYSSE campaigners at the march in Washington, DC

Many of those attending the rally are entering into political life for the first time and are searching for a political perspective. Opposition to war emerged as a dominant theme, although it found little expression in the official speeches and slogans.

Soriah, a high school student, said, I think that being at war for so long has really taken a toll on citizens. We see a growing rate of police brutality as the police are becoming more militaristic with all of their assaults and killings. I think it has a lot to do with people not taking gun control seriously, and now it has expanded into a much bigger issue.

Soriah connected the growing movement of high school students to the calls for strike action among teachers, in opposition to the starving of funds for public education. Weve seen teachers striking, I know West Virginia teachers went on strike, Oklahomas teachers are striking next week. Its just become a big problem. Teachers arent paid enough, the schools arent funded enough. We give so much money to our military to do god-knows-what overseas. Money really just needs to stay here, especially for our schools.

Jackie, a charter school teacher from Washington, DC, came to the march with fellow teachers Danielle and Yolanda. Jackie addressed the social roots of gun violence: No one stopped the Parkland shooter, no one checked on him along the way; he didnt have anyone checking on him even though there were so many signs.

Instead of giving him tools to cope with his anger, you see he turned to a weapon as the way to solve his problems. What do they see? They see violence in video games, on television, they are desensitized to the fact that a gun will take someones life forever.

Left to right Jackie, Danielle, Yolanda

When asked about the constant attacks on education and how teachers often bear the burden of coping with youth affected by the social crisis, Jackie said: They want to give me a gun to disarm violent students, but you dont give me the financial means to even live in the city where I work. Im supposed to carry a gun and have responsibility for that as a part of my job? On top of calling parents when students are absent or being a childs nurse when they become sick. Were not even given the funding to have a nurse in our building certain days of the week, and for only certain hours of the day.

When asked what she thought about the West Virginia teachers strike earlier this month, as well as the need to unite workers across the country and internationally against attacks on social spending, Jackie said, We need to understand what brings us together more than what divides us. There are teachers in rural areas and urban areas and we all want the same things. We want to be equipped to teach our students.

Deb is a therapist from Colorado who came to DC for the demonstration. Theyre taking more money from health care coverage. Its BS. They can give all these tax cuts to wealthy people, but people who need the money the most, they take from, including food stamps. How much money are they giving the military? Just Trumps military parade could fund so much.

This is not just about guns. Its about quality of life. Access to mental health treatment. Help for those who need it. The majority of school shootings and stabbings occur from students with prior mental health issues.

Kiresten (left) and Emily

Kiresten, 20, and Emily, 21, are young workers from Virginia Beach. Kiresten works in sales, and Emily is a machine operator.

Kiresten said, I dont think its just about guns. I think there are other issues we need to talk about like mental health.  I dont agree with a lot of these wars. I don't agree with going into a country because you want territory. Everything that society does, seeing the wars and everybody getting bombed, thats a big issue. If thats how our own president is handling things, [people think] maybe thats how I'll handle it too.

I don't agree with the rich doing whatever they want and getting away with it. If I dont pay a parking ticket, Ill go to jail. I feel like if they had more jobs, more outreach programs, especially for kids when theyre younger they have recreational centers if they did more of that, it would help kids actually look forward to something. There should be more money going into jobs. Our priorities are just not straight.

Rocco is a high school student from Washington, DC: There are many changes that are needed in this country right now. I have grown up knowing that I have been at war for most of my life. Our future generation should not be growing up accustomed to warfare. If we really want to achieve world peace, our immediate solutions should not be going to war and taking the lives of others.

When asked what he thought about the Democratic Party, Rocco said: The Democrats are just as power-hungry as the Republicans. I think socialism is a better way of living in society. I think it is the ideal way of living. I would be in favor of youth and workers standing up against the current system, and changes need to happen now before things get worse in our political climate. Being at this event makes me more hopeful for the future, and it makes me more excited and motivated to make that change for our future generations.Amid protests over the police murder of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, California, on March 18, Black Lives Matter (BLM) and other activist groups in the city have sought to direct anger away from the citys first African-American police chief, Daniel Hahn, while promoting illusions in his capacity to reform the police department.

The murder of the 24-year-old Clark, who was African-American, in his grandparents backyard by two Sacramento police officers sparked angry protests starting Thursday morning and lasting well into the early hours of Saturday in Californias capital city. Protesters occupied City Hall, blocked highway traffic and confronted riot police in response to one of the most egregious instances of police violence in recent years.

On Wednesday the Sacramento Police Department released body-camera and helicopter video directly contradicting the statements of the officers, identified as Terrence Mercadel and Jared Robinet.

The video shows that the officers never identified themselves as police, immediately yelling, Show me your hands! and chasing the startled Clark into his grandparents backyard, at which point one of the officers shouted, Gun! before the two fired 20 bullets into Clark. He was unarmed and holding a cell phone at the time of his death.

Mercadel and Robinet continued pointing their guns at Clarks corpse for six minutes until backup arrived, at which point they handcuffed his lifeless body, briefly performed CPR and pronounced him dead. At one point, one of the officers arriving to provide backup can be heard telling the others to mute their microphones, presumably to allow them to get their story straight before making their statements about the incident.

The response of BLM and similar groups over the week since Clarks killing has been to try to contain and divert the protests by blaming his murder on systemic racism in the Sacramento Police Department while expressing full confidence in Police Chief Hahn.

I think [Hahns] intentions and his heart are in a good place. The system is corrupt so one man being in a position that is seemingly a position of power cannot effectively bring change if the system doesnt want to change, Sonia Lewis, a BLM member and relative of Stephon Clark, told the Sacramento Bee .

Another local police reform activist, Berry Accius, commented: The bigger picture is really that Chief Hahn is not even really the source of our frustration.  Its the system. If anything, we are trying to help make his job easier because we know that its bigger than Chief Hahn.

This is entirely in keeping with the racialist perspective of Black Lives Matter and other groups mired in the dead-end of identity politics, which present police violence in the United States as a function of systemic racism and white supremacy.

Operating as appendages of the Democratic Party, these organizations advocate cosmetic reforms, including the hiring of more minority police officers and police chiefs, the use of police body cameras and the creation of police accountability boards to provide a veneer of oversight over the activities of the police and new positions for minority politicians and local activists.

After the killing of a mentally ill African-American man, Joseph Mann, in 2016, the Sacramento City Council passed a police reform package that included a video release policy, training for dealing with mentally ill suspects, greater access to non-lethal weapons and a new use-of-force policy which would allegedly reduce the number of fatal police encounters.

Hahn, who is originally from Sacramento, was hired last year as police chief to implement the reforms following a careful vetting process to ensure that the head of the department was seen as credible by citys African-American residents.

The killing of Clark further demonstrates the complete bankruptcy of the perspective promoted by groups such as BLM. The two officers who shot Clark were wearing body cameras at the time of the murder but still made no effort to deescalate the situation before shooting him 20 times. Mercadel, one of the officers who killed Clark, is also African-American.

Meanwhile, Hahn has responded to Clarks shooting with a combination of perfunctory promises to investigate and hold the officers responsible if they violated procedure on the one hand, and on the other attempting to delegitimize the protests over the killing by presenting them as menacing toward police officers.

In comments Saturday evening Hahn said: Just think about every officer that is working on that line  every officer who is sitting at home watching the news, watching the anger toward officers they dont even know  then sitting in roll call tomorrow knowing they have to serve the community. So their nerves are high. They are wondering what could come on the next call or around the next corner.  And my obligation as chief is both to the community and to the officers. I have to ensure that I do everything I can to  provide an atmosphere for our officers that isnt violent toward them.

In reality, the problem of police violence is not fundamentally a function of racism, but of the role of police as the enforcers of the interests of the ruling capitalist class and their domination over a society marked by historic and ever-growing levels of social inequality. This is true regardless of an individual police officers skin color or place of birth.

In fact, while African Americans are represented disproportionately among those killed by police, the largest share of victims are white. What the overwhelming majority of victims share in common is that they are members of the working class.

The promotion of representatives of various, ultimately arbitrary racial categories to participate in suppressing the working class therefore does nothing to alleviate the problem of police violence in America. As their response to the murder of Stephon Clark illustrates, groups like BLM have no answer to the epidemic of police killings, which will require the united struggle of the working class of all races against capitalism and for the socialist reorganization of society.The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) condemns the German authorities arrest of Carlos Puigdemont and demands his immediate release. The former regional president of Catalonia was arrested Sunday morning by German federal police officers on an autobahn in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and detained in a facility in the town of Neumunster.

The arrest of Puigdemont by the German authorities is an arbitrary judicial act characteristic of an authoritarian regime. The German government and judiciary are serving as enforcers for the Madrid regime, which launched a brutal crackdown on the Catalan independence movement.

Puigdemont has committed no crime, but is being pursued for purely political reasons. The Spanish Supreme Court accused him on Friday, together with 12 other high-ranking Catalan politicians, of rebellion. The charge stems from their having carried out a referendum on Catalan independence, a promise they campaigned on during the previous election. To date, 25 Catalan politicians each face up to 30 years in prison.

Puigdemonts arrest recalls a grim episode from the past. This is not the first time German authorities have arrested a Catalan prime minister. In August 1940, in France, the Gestapo arrested Lluis Companys, who had fought against Hitlers ally Franco during the civil war. They extradited him to Madrid, where he was tortured, sentenced to death and executed.

The fact that Puigdemont is a political prisoner who also faces serious consequences is beyond question. A comment in the Suddeutsche Zeitung entitled Germany has its first political prisoner, acknowledged that Madrid is attempting to decimate a democratic mass movement with prisons and fines. It is obvious that the Spanish judiciarys hardline stance is aimed at destroying the social and economic existence of the Catalan activists.

Only ten days after being sworn in, the German government is giving its full support to this anti-democratic policy with the arrest of Puigdemont. It is inconceivable that the Catalan politicians arrest could have occurred without authorisation at the highest political level. Last October, when the Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy cracked down with brutal violence on the Catalan independence referendum, the German government fully endorsed Madrids actions.

As Focus magazine reported, the Spanish intelligence service had Puigdemont under surveillance at all times. They informed Germanys Federal Criminal Bureau, which is under the direct control of the Interior Ministry. Puigdemont, who had attended a conference in Finland and driven through Sweden and Denmark by car on his way back to Belgium, was arrested by the federal police shortly after crossing the German border.

Germanys grand coalition backs the Spanish government because it is in full agreement with its goal of suppressing all social and political opposition. The strengthening of the police, expansion of the intelligence services and the transformation of Europe into a heavily-armed fortress form a substantial portion of the coalition agreement reached between Germanys Social Democrats and conservative parties.

This strengthening of the repressive state apparatus is directed not only against movements like the Catalan separatists, who notwithstanding their conflicts with Madrid advance a thoroughly bourgeois programme. Their main target is the working class. Puigdemonts arrest takes place in the context of growing social conflicts and class struggles throughout Europe and the United States.

Two weeks ago, 45,000 people in Barcelona demonstrated for Catalan independence, and on Sunday evening, 55,000 took to the streets to protest Puigdemonts arrest. In France, railway workers and public servants are striking against President Emmanuel Macrons labour market reforms. In Germany, following strikes in the industrial sector, tens of thousands of public sector workers are now participating in warning strikes. In the United States, the largest student demonstrations since the Vietnam war took place over the weekend. Under conditions of a developing trade war with the United States, the growing war danger and the military build-up connected with this, these conflicts will intensify.

This is why the German government is giving its full backing to Mariano Rajoys Popular Party (PP) government, whose origins lie in the Franco dictatorship that ruled Spain from 1936 to 1975. As in the past, far-right governments throughout Europe are working to erect police states based on terror to brutally suppress all forms of opposition.

Rajoy, whose minority government faced pressure from all sides, sent thousands of police officers from the hated Guardia Civil to Catalonia to launch a crackdown against voters in last Octobers referendum. After the separatists won new elections imposed by Madrid, Rajoy ordered one potential candidate after another arrested so as to prevent the election of a new regional president.

This repression enjoys the full support of Berlin, because the ruling class wants to suppress all social and political opposition to its reactionary policies. Puigdemonts arrest is directly connected with the enforcement of police state measures in Germany and across Europe.

The SGP reiterates its demand for the immediate release of Carles Puigdemont and calls upon workers, young people and serious intellectuals to bravely resist the establishment of an authoritarian regime.Despite mass opposition from their members, the Combined Rail Unions, headed by the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU), have imposed another regressive enterprise agreement (EA) covering more than 9,000 train workers in Sydney and across the Australian state of New South Wales.

The deal, drawn up in backroom negotiations between the unions and rail management, acting on behalf of the state Liberal-National government, will intensify the assault on jobs, wages and conditions and accelerate moves toward privatisation.

Voting figures released on Saturday by the RTBU indicate strong opposition to the agreement. According to the union, of the 6,525 Sydney Trains staff who cast a ballot, just 52.8 percent voted yes. Of the 1,379 NSW Trains employees who voted, only 50.8 percent ratified the deal.

According to union figures, more than 3,000 workers across the state may have boycotted the ballot. The result shows that any claims by the unions, or rail management, that they have secured a mandate for the cost-cutting measures contained in the agreement, are a sham.

Before the postal voting concluded on March 23, workers expressed concerns to WSWS reporters over the transparency of the ballot. Assuming that the figures announced by the unions are accurate, the unions could only secure a razor-thin margin through a months-long campaign to suppress opposition among rail workers.

The unions did everything they could to prevent a January 29 rail strike, overwhelmingly endorsed by workers. The RTBU organised a sham text message ballot, based on a one-page summary of an EA offer, in a bid to shut-down the strike just two days before it was scheduled to proceed.

After workers rejected the union ballot, the Fair Work Commission intervened, banning the stoppage and all industrial action for six weeks. The RTBU enforced the ban, declaring it would always abide by the rulings of the pro-business industrial tribunal.

Amid criticism of the deal, the RTBU then shut down comments on its official Facebook page, and refused to call any mass meetings, in a desperate attempt to prevent any discussion among rail workers. At the same time, the unions continued to hold closed-door negotiations with government and management representatives, about which workers were told nothing.

Throughout March, the unions sought to bulldoze workers into ratifying the deal. The RTBU, fearful of the intense hostility to its sordid manoeuvres, cynically claimed it was not advocating a yes or no vote.

Yet RTBU NSW secretary Alex Claassens previously had said the union was very close on all the conditions to formally recommending the deal. The union played a central role in drafting the sellout, and its officials attended management-organised depot meetings throughout February, aimed at pressuring workers to accept it.

The RTBU issued membership bulletins warning that a no vote would result in the continuation of an effective wage freeze imposed since the expiry of the previous agreement last year.

Other Combined Rail Unions officials explicitly backed the agreement. Dave McKinley, NSW secretary of the Electrical Trades Union, issued a statement on March 8 declaring the deal was outstanding and the best outcome that could be obtained.

Claassens, speaking to the media on Saturday after the result was announced, stated: Weve been able to improve on a lot of our working conditions, which is what we always said was the issue.

These claims are a lie. The new agreement provides for endless pro-business restructuring, widespread sackings and the further erosion of working conditions.

A 3 percent annual pay rise, touted by the unions as a victory, is well below real increases to the cost of living. At the same time, the state government said the 0.5 percent increase over its 2.5 percent public sector wage cap, would be paid for through productivity savings, including job cuts.

The deal provides for a crackdown on sick leave, and expanded disciplinary measures, including, in some cases, forcing workers onto leave without pay. It mandates the creation of a single Rail Operations Centre, meaning the closure of existing facilities, and further retrenchments.

The agreement facilitates the use and expansion of contract and casual labour throughout the NSW train network. It also allows for forced redundancies.

The agreement signals that management intends to work closely with the unions to enforce sweeping cost-cutting. It includes clauses facilitating changes to the terms of virtually every aspect of the agreement, in union-management arbitration, supposedly to be followed by ballots of workers.

The entire agreement is predicated on a further onslaught against the jobs and conditions of rail workers, which will exacerbate the already dire situation they face, including enforced overtime, unrelenting shifts and chronic understaffing.

The deal will facilitate protracted moves by successive state Labor and Liberal-National governments toward privatisation. These are being accelerated by the introduction of a privately-owned and publicly-subsidised Sydney Metro network, that supposedly will operate alongside the state-owned train system, beginning in 2019. Significantly, the new network will feature driverless trains.

The unions are well aware that the pro-business agenda outlined in the agreement will provoke major struggles among rail workers and other public transport staff. Claassens acknowledged this on Saturday, stating: The fact that it only just scraped across the line means that the workforce is still very unhappy with everything thats gone on.

The RTBU and its affiliates will respond to any movement among workers with intimidation, victimisations and bullying. The union issued a statement on Saturday that contemptuously told workers: As the agreement has been voted up, all industrial action needs to now stop now. Workers had worn union badges and paraphernalia opposing the government cuts.

The critical issue facing rail workers is to draw the political lessons of the experiences through which they have passed. Every union-brokered agreement has resulted in stepped-up cuts, mass sackings and the erosion of conditions, including the 2008, 2011, and 2014 deals.

The record makes clear that workers entering into struggle confront the necessity of a rebellion against the trade unions, which function as an industrial police force of management, the ruling capitalist class and the government of the day, whether Labor or Liberal-National.

Workers need to prepare in advance for the struggles that will erupt as the EA is implemented. New organisations, including independent rank-and-file committees, are required to launch a fightback against the union-endorsed cuts in the enterprise agreement. Such committees would be tasked with breaking the isolation imposed by the unions, including by coordinating joint industrial and political action among rail workers around the country, and with other public transport workers in struggle against privatisation and endless cost-cutting.

Above all, what is required is a new political perspective, which rejects the subordination of transport, and every social right, to the profit dictates of a tiny corporate and financial elite. That means the fight for a workers government that would implement socialist policies, including placing transport, along with the banks and corporations, under public ownership and democratic workers control.

We urge workers looking for the means to fight the unions sell-out to contact the Socialist Equality Party.Here's a look at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

Facts: The organization's charter states that the signing parties will "seek to promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area," and will "unite their efforts for collective defense and for the preservation of peace and security."

April 4, 1949 - Established when 12 nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty in a ceremony in Washington, DC.

2014-present - The current secretary general is Jens Stoltenberg, former prime minister of Norway.

March 15, 2018 - The secretary general's 2017 annual report is published.

READ: How NATO is funded and who pays what.

29 Member Countries:

Albania (2009)

Belgium (1949)

Bulgaria (2004)

Canada (1949)

Croatia (2009)

Czech Republic (1999)

Denmark (1949)

Estonia (2004)

France (1949)

Germany (1955, as West Germany)

Greece (1952)

Hungary (1999)

Iceland (1949)

Italy (1949)

Latvia (2004)

Lithuania (2004)

Luxembourg (1949)

Montenegro (2017)

Netherlands (1949)

Norway (1949)

Poland (1999)

Portugal (1949)

Romania (2004)

Slovakia (2004)

Slovenia (2004)

Spain (1982)

Turkey (1952)

United Kingdom (1949)

United States (1949)

Timeline (selected): April 4, 1949 - The 12 nations of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States sign the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, DC.

July 25, 1950 - First meeting of NATO Council Deputies in London. US Ambassador Charles M. Spofford is elected permanent chairman.

December 19, 1950 - General Dwight Eisenhower is appointed the first supreme allied commander.

April 2, 1951 - Allied Command in Europe becomes operational with Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Roquencourt, near Paris.

March 12, 1952 - Lord Ismay is named the first secretary general of NATO and appointed vice chairman of the North Atlantic Council.

April 10, 1952 - Allied Command Atlantic (ACLANT) becomes operational, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia.

April 16, 1952 - NATO establishes its provisional headquarters in Paris at the Palais de Chaillot.

April 28, 1952 - First meeting of the North Atlantic Council in permanent session in Paris.

May 6, 1952 - West Germany joins NATO.

May 14, 1955 - The Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries form the Warsaw Pact in response to West Germany joining NATO.

July 26, 1956 - Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal. France and Great Britain use troops to intervene, against the wishes of the United States, causing a rift in NATO.

August 13, 1961 - The Berlin Wall is erected.

October 22-23, 1963 - NATO and the United States demonstrate the size and speed of emergency forces with 14,500 US troops flown into West Germany for maneuvers.

March 10, 1966 - France formally announces intentions to withdraw from the military structure of NATO, accusing the United States of having too much influence in the organization.

March 31, 1967 - Opening ceremony of new NATO headquarters in Casteau, near Mons, Belgium.

August 14, 1974 - Greece, angered at NATO's response to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, withdraws from the military arm of NATO.

October 20, 1980 - Greece rejoins the NATO military structure.

May 30, 1982 - Spain joins NATO.

November 9, 1989 - The Berlin Wall comes down.

October 3, 1990 - Germany is reunified after 45 years. With German reunification, East Germany leaves the Warsaw Pact and is incorporated into NATO.

February 11, 1991 - The Warsaw Pact is dissolved.

December 13, 1991 - For the first time, the Soviet Union takes part in meetings at NATO as part of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC).

December 21, 1991 - Eleven of the republics of the former Soviet Union create a new Commonwealth of Independent States.

December 25, 1991 - The Soviet Union is officially disbanded with the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president and supreme commander-in-chief of Soviet Forces.

February 28, 1994 - NATO forces shoot down four Bosnian Serb planes violating the UN-imposed no-fly zone. It is NATO's first military engagement in almost 50 years of history.

November 21, 1995 - After the Dayton Peace Accords, the war in Bosnia Herzegovina ends.

December 20, 1995 - The United Nations turns over military operations command to NATO's Implementation Force (IFOR).

January 13, 1996 - Russian troops deployed to support IFOR in Bosnia.

May 22, 1997 - NATO and the Russian Federation sign a security and cooperation pact, the "Founding Act" which establishes a NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council (PJC).

March 24, 1999 - NATO launches air strikes against Yugoslavia to end Serbian aggression in the Kosovo region.

April 4, 1999 - 50th anniversary of the founding of NATO, celebrated in various countries throughout the year.

August 22, 2001 - Operation Essential Harvest, the disarming of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, begins.

September 12, 2001 - For the first time, NATO invokes Article V, the Washington Treaty, its mutual defense clause, in support of the United States after the terrorist attacks.

May 14, 2002 - The last meeting of the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council

May 28, 2002 - NATO and Russia form the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), which makes Russia an associate member of the organization. The NRC replaces the Permanent Joint Council (PJC) that was established in 1997 by the NATO-Russia Founding Act.

November 21-22, 2002 - During the Prague Summit, NATO invites seven former Eastern Bloc countries, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, to discuss entry into the organization.

December 4, 2002 - Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz speaks before NATO in Brussels and requests that member nations contribute forces to a potential campaign in Iraq.

January 22, 2003 - France and Germany block discussion on war preparations submitted by the United States. The US proposal included provisions for Turkey's defense, the use of NATO equipment, and NATO's postwar role in Iraq.

January 23, 2003 - Secretary General Lord Robertson announces his intention to step down in December.

February 10, 2003 - France, Germany and Belgium block a US request that NATO provide Patriot missiles, Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, and other equipment to Turkey. The United States had made the request anticipating that Iraq will retaliate against Turkey in the event of war. Turkey invokes article IV of the NATO charter, which requires the organization as a whole to discuss security threats to any member nation.

February 11, 2003 - A meeting to discuss the standoff over Turkey's defense preparations ends after 20 minutes with no resolution.

February 16, 2003 - NATO comes up with three defensive plans for Turkey, in the event of a US war with Iraq:

- Deployment of NATO Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft;

- NATO support for the deployment of theatre missile defences for Turkey;

- NATO support for possible deployment of Allied chemical and biological defenses. (from NATO website)

February 19, 2003 - NATO deploys defensive assistance to Turkey in the form of missiles, chemical and biological defense mechanisms, and aircraft, in the event war with Iraq presses forward.

January 5, 2004 - Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the Netherlands becomes the new secretary general.

March 29, 2004 - NATO is expanded from 19 to 26 members when the seven nations Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, join in an accession ceremony in Washington, DC. All are former communist states in Eastern Europe.

April 2, 2004 - First meeting of the NATO-Russian Council with 27 members.

August 10, 2004 - NATO Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) begin patrolling Greek airspace prior to the Olympic and Paralympic games. NATO's presence at the Olympics is nicknamed Distinguished Games and includes AWACS and the Multinational Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Task Force (MN CBRN TF).

September 14, 2006 - Ukraine announces that it is shelving its aspirations to join NATO, due to opposition by the Ukrainian public and Russia.

April 2-4, 2008 - NATO leaders hold a summit in Bucharest, Romania. Croatia and Albania are invited to join the alliance.

June 17, 2008 - French President Nicolas Sarkozy announces France will soon rejoin NATO's military command, 40 years after it left.

April 3-4, 2009 - The 23rd NATO summit also marks NATO's 60th anniversary. Events are held in Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany. During the summit, France rejoins NATO's military command.

August 1, 2009 - Former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen takes office as the 12th secretary general of NATO.

November 19, 2010 - NATO adopts the Strategic Concept "Active Engagement, Modern Defence" for the next 10 years.

March 24, 2011 - NATO takes command of enforcing a no-fly zone imposed on Libya by the United Nations.

March 29, 2011 - The Council of Europe rules NATO, among others, responsible for the 63 deaths from among 72 African immigrants left adrift for two weeks while attempting to reach European shores from Libya in March 2011.

May 19, 2012 - Demonstrators take to the streets of Chicago prior to the start of the NATO summit. Anti-NATO protests near Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home focus on the cost of the summit to the city and city budget cuts to mental healthcare.

May 20-21, 2012 - The 25th Summit is held in Chicago. During the summit, NATO accepts President Barack Obama's timetable to end the war in Afghanistan by 2014.

March 5, 2014 - In regards to the crisis in Ukraine, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announces that NATO has decided to "put the entire range of NATO-Russia cooperation under review" to send "a clear message Russia's actions have consequences."

October 1, 2014 - Jens Stoltenberg becomes secretary general.

December 2, 2015 - NATO extends an official invitation to Montenegro to join the alliance.

February 11, 2016 - Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announces that NATO is deploying ships to the Aegean Sea to try to deter smugglers from trafficking migrants from Turkey to Greece.

June 5, 2017 - Montenegro officially becomes a member of NATO.Here's a look at genocide, the attempted or intentional destruction of a national, racial, religious, or ethnic group, whether in wartime or peace.

Facts: The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the United Nations after World War II.

Article 2 of the Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group:

(a) Killing its members;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Timeline (selected events):

1932-1933 - Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union inflict a famine upon the Ukraine after people rebel against the imposed system of land management known as "collectivization," which seizes privately owned farmlands and puts people to work in collectives. An estimated 25,000-33,000 people die every day. There are an estimated six million to 10 million deaths.

December 1937-January 1938 - The Japanese Imperial Army marches into Nanking, China and kills an estimated 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers. Tens of thousands are raped before they are murdered.

1938-1945 - Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, deems the Jewish population racially inferior and a threat, and kills an estimated six million Jews in Germany, Poland, the Soviet Union and other areas around Europe during World War II.

1944 - The term "genocide" is coined by lawyer Raphael Lemkin.

December 9, 1948 - The United Nations adopts the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.

January 12, 1951 - The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide enters into force. It is eventually ratified by 142 nations.

1975-1979 - Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot's attempt to turn Cambodia into a Communist peasant farming society leads to the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, forced labor and executions.

1988 - The Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein attacks civilians who have remained in "prohibited" areas. The attacks include the use of mustard gas and nerve agents and result in the death of an estimated 100,000 Iraqi Kurds.

1992-1995 - Yugoslavia, led by President Slobodan Milosevic, attacks Bosnia after it declares its independence. Approximately 100,000 people -- the majority of whom are Muslims, or Bosniaks, -- are killed in the conflict. There are mass executions of "battle-age" men and mass rape of women.

1994 - In Rwanda, an estimated 800,000 civilians, mostly from the Tutsi ethnic group, are killed over a period of three months.

July 17, 1998 - The Rome Statute, to establish a permanent international criminal court, is adopted.

1998 - The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda establishes the precedent that rape during warfare is a crime of genocide. In Rwanda, HIV-infected men had participated in the mass rape of Tutsi women.

1998 - The first genocide conviction occurs at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Jean Paul Akayesu, the Hutu mayor of the town, Taba, is convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity.

July 1, 2002 - The International Criminal Court opens at The Hague, Netherlands, as the first permanent war crimes tribunal, with jurisdiction to try perpetrators of genocide. Previously, the UN Security Council created ad hoc tribunals to try those responsible for genocide in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda.

2003-present - In the Darfur region of Sudan an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 people are killed.

July 2004 - The US House of Representatives and the Senate pass resolutions declaring the crisis in Darfur to be genocide.

2008 - Fugitive Radovan Karadzic, former Bosnian Serb leader, is arrested. He is charged with genocide in connection with the Srebrenica massacre of 1995.

March 4, 2009 - The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

December 10, 2010 - The Genocide Archive of Rwanda opens at the Kigali Genocide Memorial grounds in the country's capital.

August 2014 - ISIS fighters attack the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, home of a religious minority group called the Yazidis. A Yazidi lawmaker says that 500 men have been killed, 70 children have died of thirst and women are being sold into slavery.

January 2016 - According to a 2016 United Nations report, ISIS is believed to be holding 3,500 people as slaves, most of which are women and children from the Yazidi community and other minority groups.

March 17, 2016 - Secretary of State John Kerry announces that the United States has determined that ISIS' action against the Yazidis and other minority groups in Iraq and Syria constitutes genocide.

March 24, 2016 - Radovan Karadzic is found guilty of 10 of the 11 charges against him, including one count of genocide. He is sentenced to 40 years in prison.

March 12, 2018 - Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee speaks before the UN's Human Rights Council regarding the killing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. "I am becoming more convinced that the crimes committed following 9 October 2016 and 25 August 2017 bear the hallmarks of genocide and call in the strongest terms for accountability."WASHINGTON (AP)  The Trump administration expelled 60 Russian diplomats on Monday and ordered Russias consulate in Seattle to close, as the United States and European nations sought to jointly punish Moscow for its alleged role in poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

Senior Trump administration officials said all 60 Russians were spies working in the U.S. under diplomatic cover, including a dozen at Russias mission to the United Nations. The officials said the administration was taking the action to send a message to Russias leaders about the unacceptably high number of Russian intelligence operatives in the U.S

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the U.S, said the officials. They werent authorized to be identified by name and requested anonymity. They added that the Seattle consulate is a counter-intelligence concern because of its proximity to a U.S. Navy base.

The move was one of the most significant actions President Donald Trumps administration has taken to date to push back on Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin by phone for his re-election but didnt raise the spy case, renewing questions about whether the U.S. president is too soft on the Kremlin.

The U.S. actions came as more than a dozen nations, including those in Russias neighborhood, were expected to announce similar steps to reduce Russias diplomatic presence in their countries or other actions to punish Moscow. Poland summoned Russias ambassador for talks, and its foreign ministry was among several in Europe planning news conferences later Monday.

Last week, EU chief Donald Tusk predicted that member states would introduce measures against Moscow over its suspected role in the spy poisoning case.

Britain has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being undeclared intelligence agents, which led Russia to expel the same number of British diplomats. The European Union has already recalled its ambassador to Russia.

Britain has accused Moscow of perpetrating the attack. The U.S., France and Germany have agreed its highly likely thats the case.

TRADEMARK AND COPYRIGHT 2018 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.Roaring off the deck of a 40,000-ton amphibious assault ship, F-35B fighter jets piloted by US Marines soar over the Pacific Ocean near the Japanese island of Okinawa.

It's a show of force by the US military, which is demonstrating its newest -- and most expensive -- weaponry a week before it begins annual war games with South Korea.

The drills, which usually provoke fury from North Korea, will go ahead this year despite heightened sensitivity as diplomats try to organize a summit between the two Koreas, as well as an historic meeting between US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un.

The fifth-generation F-35B Lightning II jets -- warplanes equipped with stealth technology to avoid radar and detection -- have just started their first maritime deployment on board the USS Wasp, a warship sometimes dubbed a baby aircraft carrier that will take part in the joint exercises starting April 1.

The jets are seen as a major advantage for the United States in any contingencies involving North Korea as they are undetectable by Pyongyang's radar although US government data released in January raised questions as to whether they were ready for combat.

The F-35B is one of three variants of the F-35 aircraft and the only one with the ability to land vertically like a helicopter. It can also takeoff in a much shorter space than other fighter jets, which is why it can operate off the Wasp, a warship only half the size of the 100,000-ton aircraft carriers in the US fleet.

"It really is an historic deployment, bringing this capability of the F-35 and the USS Wasp together to create the most significant increase in our capability the Navy and Marine Corps team has seen in our lifetime," Rear Adm. Brad Cooper told CNN on board the Wasp.

Deficiencies?

With a projected price tag of a trillion dollars over the lifetime of the program, the F-35 fleet is the most expensive weapons system in history.

In a detailed report published in January by the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), which reports to the Pentagon, experts found that as of October 2017, there were 263 high-priority performance deficiencies with the fleet.

Problems listed included flaws with the pilots' night vision and delays in the supply of replacement parts.

The report concludes that the operational sustainability of the F-35 fleet is "below service expectations" and the unresolved issues "would not be acceptable in combat situations."

Weapons acquisition expert Dan Grazier from the US nonprofit organization, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), says that any claims of the F-35's combat readiness are "provably false."

"They are just expensive prototypes," says Grazier, who last week published an analysis of the Pentagon data on the F-35. "They haven't even started the rigorous combat readiness testing which is a really important part of the program."

However, Adm. Cooper insists those issues have been resolved.

"These F-35s are combat ready. If we needed to use them in combat today, they're ready to go," he said.

"These deficiencies for these aircraft that we have deployed out here have all been resolved, they're full on and they're ready to execute combat missions if called upon."

F-35B pilot Capt. Robert Reddy, speaking in the hangar of the USS Wasp, said the new stealth is fighter is "very well thought out."

"It's a multi-role fighter. So its ability to fight air to air, air to ground and electronic warfare. It's really quite special. All in one aircraft, all piloted by one person."

The F-35 stealth fighters have been sold around the world to countries including the UK, Japan, and Israel.

South Korea has also ordered 40 F-35A stealth fighters, a move which has angered North Korea according to an article on state news agency KCNA published Sunday, which called it a "perilous move against the rare atmosphere of reconciliation."

Drills

The Wasp, equipped with F-35Bs, will take part in the military drills with South Korea, which will go ahead with the same "scope and scale" as previous years', Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, told CNN earlier this month.

But the two countries have made concessions towards the recent flurry of diplomacy, including delaying the drills until after the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Paralympics in South Korea and shortening their duration.

The Foal Eagle and Key Resolve drills would begin on April 1 for four weeks, both countries said last week. Last year, Foal Eagle began on March 1 and continued until the end of April, lasting a total of two months.

The diplomatic developments of this year are a dramatic turnaround from the tense rhetoric and frequent North Korean missile launches which characterized 2017.

And although pursuing the path of diplomacy is the current course of action, out at sea, the US naval commanders are still preparing for any eventuality in case things don't go as planned.

"For our enemies, these new capabilities simply make us more lethal," Cooper says. "And we have the ability to bring a greater deal of lethality to the fight and ultimately win in combat."The United States and South Korea have agreed to settle their differences on trade.

The South Korean government said Monday that the two countries had struck a deal on a new version of the free trade agreement that has linked the two economies for the past six years.

South Korea has also secured a partial exemption from President Donald Trump's new steel tariffs.

Trump had been hugely critical of the existing trade deal between the two countries, slamming it as "horrible" and threatening to yank the United States out of it altogether. That raised fears of a damaging dispute that could drive a wedge between the United States and one of its closest allies in Asia. South Korea is the United States' sixth-biggest trading partner.

But after starting talks in January to renegotiate the deal, which is known as Korus, the two sides have now reached agreement on the key points, according to top officials from both countries.

Despite Trump's threats, South Korea appears to have emerged from the talks "unscathed," said Krystal Tan, an Asia economist at research firm Capital Economics.

"The concessions that Korea has agreed to will have a very small impact on its economy," she wrote in a note to clients.

Related: US and South Korea go head-to-head on trade

Under the revised deal, US automakers will get greater access to the South Korean market. Far more cars are shipped from South Korea to the United States than in the other direction, making up a big chunk of the $23 billion annual trade deficit between the two countries.

"On the whole, this is a good result," said Troy Stangarone, a senior director at the Korea Economic Institute of America, a Washington-based think tank.

Winning concessions for American automakers was crucial for the United States, he said, while South Korea will be pleased that it didn't have to give ground on opening up its agricultural industry to US imports.

Last year, the United States imported nearly $16 billion worth of South Korean passenger cars but sent only $1.5 billion worth in the other direction, according to US government figures.

Related: The world is on the brink of a trade war

South Korea's Trade Ministry said Monday it will double to 50,000 the quota for vehicles that meet US safety rules that can be imported into the country. Beyond that threshold, cars shipped from the US will have to comply with South Korean auto-safety regulations.

US automakers have previously complained that having to comply with the South Korean rules puts them at disadvantage.

The adjustments "will make little practical difference, at least in the short term," said Tan of Capital Economics, noting that "no US automaker sold more than 11,000 vehicles in Korea last year."

Still, agreeing on changes to the trade deal "takes a potentially divisive issue off of the table" as the United States and South Korea prepare for talks with North Korea's leadership over its nuclear weapons program, Stangarone said.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox News on Sunday that the United States had reached "a very productive understanding" with South Korea on the trade deal, but didn't provide further details.

The new agreement was announced at the same time as details on South Korea's partial exemption from Trump's controversial tariffs on steel and aluminum. The country is one of the biggest suppliers of steel to the United States.

Related: What happens when the world's two biggest economies turn on each other?

Under the arrangement, 70% of the average amount of steel that South Korea exports to the United States each year will be permanently exempt from the new 25% tariff, South Korean officials said.

Several other US allies -- including Canada, Mexico and the European Union -- have been granted temporary exclusions.

South Korean stocks responded positively to the news. The benchmark Kospi index closed up 0.8% on Monday, and shares in Posco, the country's biggest steelmaker, gained 2%.

-- CNN's Sol Han and Yoonjung Seo contributed to this report.The United States, European Union countries, Canada and Ukraine expelled more than 100 Russian diplomats on Monday in response to Russia's alleged use of a nerve agent to poison a former Russian spy living in the United Kingdom.

President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats the US identified as intelligence agents and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, the most forceful action Trump has taken against Russia to date. Of those being expelled, 48 of the alleged intelligence agents work at the Russian embassy in Washington and 12 are posted at the United Nations in New York, senior administration officials said.

Russia and the United Kingdom have been embroiled in a bitter diplomatic fight since Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter, 33-year-old Yulia Skripal, were poisoned in the English cathedral city of Salisbury on March 4.

British Prime Minister Theresa May called the broad move "the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history."

"We have no disagreement with the Russian people who have achieved so much through their country's great history. But President Putin's regime is carrying out acts of aggression against our shared values," she said Monday. "The United Kingdom will stand shoulder to shoulder with the EU and NATO to face down these threats."

During a debate in the UK parliament on national security and Russia, May gave new details on the Skripal case.

"While Public Health England have made clear that the risk to public health is low and this remains the case, we assess that more than 130 people in Salisbury could have been potentially exposed to this nerve agent," she said, adding that more than 50 people were assessed in hospital.

"Sergei and Yulia Skripal remain critically ill in hospital. Sadly, late last week doctors indicated their condition is unlikely to change in the near future and they may never recover fully. This shows the utterly barbaric nature of this act and the dangers that hundreds of innocent citizens in Salisbury could have faced."

Trump takes action

Trump took the action after the US joined the United Kingdom in accusing Russia of attempting earlier this month to murder a former Russian double agent and his daughter using a nerve agent in the town of Salisbury, England. The action comes just 11 days after the Trump administration leveled the first sanctions against Russia for its interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

"The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

"Today's actions make the United States safer by reducing Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten America's national security. With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences," she said. "The United States stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian government's behavior."

Sanders also added that the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle was tied to the consulate's "proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing." A senior administration official declined to say whether the US believes Russian agents were spying on US submarine bases.

The consulate closure and the expulsion of dozens of diplomats came on the heels of the UK's expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats. Fourteen European Union member states, Canada and Ukraine also moved on Monday to expel Russian diplomats.

Global response

Ukraine expelled 13 Russian diplomats over the incident. Canada, Germany, France and Poland each expelled four Russian diplomats. Italy, Estonia, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Romania and Finland also expelled between one and three diplomats each.

"Additional measures, including further expulsions ... are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks," European Council President Donald Tusk said Monday, speaking in Bulgaria.

He said the European Council agreed with the UK "that it is highly likely the Russian Federation is responsible" for the poisoning.

"We remain critical of the actions of the Russian government," Tusk added.

Senior Trump administration officials said the actions were being taken not only as a direct response to that attack, but also to rebuke Russia's "steady drumbeat of destabilizing actions."

The actions came less than a week after Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on his reelection. Trump did not raise the nerve agent attack during the call, and senior administration officials said the two leaders have not spoken since.

But a senior administration official said the United States' retaliatory action was "absolutely" Trump's decision, saying it was "something he was involved in from the beginning and that he personally made after several meetings with his team last week."

The expulsion still leaves dozens of Russian intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover in the US. A senior administration official said the US estimates more than 100 Russian intelligence officers are currently in the US.

Russia said earlier on Monday it planned to retaliate against the US if its diplomats were expelled, with a Kremlin spokesman saying "the principle of reciprocity will be enforced" before the US announced its plans to expel Russians.

The move comes about 15 months after the Obama administration expelled 35 Russian diplomats in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.It's the biggest collective expulsion of alleged Russian intelligence officers in history, according to British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Diplomats are being kicked out of more than 20 countries -- including 17 European Union states, the United States and Canada -- in a coordinated effort that represents a significant diplomatic victory for the UK, which blames Russia in the March 4 poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, England.

The UK has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats. Moscow retaliated by sending the same number of UK diplomats back, and by shuttering British cultural institutions in the country.

Here's what each country is doing:

European Union nations

Croatia: Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said Croatia will expel one diplomat.

Czech Republic: The Czech Republic will expel three diplomats, Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Foreign Minister Martin Stropnicky announced at a press conference. The Czech Foreign Ministry tweeted that it declared the diplomats "personae non gratae."

Denmark: The Foreign Ministry announced two diplomats would be expelled. "We stand shoulder to shoulder with Britain and clearly say no to Russia at a time when Russia is also in threatening and seeking to undermine Western values and the rule-based international order in other areas," Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said.

Estonia: The Estonia Foreign Ministry told CNN one Russian diplomat, a defense attach-, will be expelled.

Finland: Finland will expel one diplomat, its Foreign Ministry said.

France: French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced the expulsion of four diplomats, who must leave the country within a week. He said that the decision followed the European Council's conclusions that the attack "posed a serious threat to our collective security" and that France was acting "in solidarity with our British partners."

Germany: The German Foreign Ministry said Monday it would expel four diplomats. "In close coordination within the European Union and with NATO allies, the Federal Government has decided to ask four Russian diplomats to leave Germany within seven days. The request was sent to the Russian Embassy today," the ministry said in a statement.

Hungary: The Foreign Ministry said Hungary would expel one diplomat over "what has been discussed at the European Council meeting," adding that the diplomat was "also conducting intelligence activities."

Ireland: One Russian diplomat has been expelled, Ireland's minister for foreign affairs and trade, Simon Coveney, said in a statement Tuesday.

Italy: The Italian Foreign Ministry said it will expel two diplomats from the Russian Embassy in Rome "as a sign of solidarity with the United Kingdom and in coordination with the European partners and NATO."

Latvia: The Foreign Ministry told CNN it would expel one diplomat and one private citizen who runs the office of a Russian company in the capital, Riga.

Lithuania: Foreign Affairs Minister Linas Linkevicius said on Twitter the country would expel three diplomats "in solidarity with the UK over #SalisburyAttack." Lithuania would also sanction an additional 21 individuals and ban 23 more from entering the country.

Netherlands: Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced the expulsion of two diplomats, saying the use of chemical weapons was unacceptable.

Poland: Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would expel four diplomats and said the attack showed how "a similar immediate threat to the territory and citizens of EU and NATO member states can happen anywhere."

Romania: Romania's Foreign Ministry said on Twitter that one diplomat would be expelled.

Spain: The Foreign Ministry said Spain will expel two diplomats. "From the outset, we have considered the nerve agent attack in Salisbury to be an extremely serious development that represents a significant threat to our collective security and to international law," the ministry said on Twitter.

Sweden: The Foreign Ministry told CNN it will expel one diplomat.

Non-EU countries

Albania: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNN it will expel two Russian diplomats. In a statement, the ministry said called each diplomat a "persona non grata" and said the pair's activities were "not compliant to their diplomatic status."

Australia: The government released a statement that it will expel two Russian diplomats "for actions inconsistent with their status, pursuant to the Vienna Conventions." The two diplomats must leave Australia within seven days, according to the statement.

Canada: Ottawa said it was expelling four Russian diplomats alleged to be intelligence officers "or individuals who have used their diplomatic status to undermine Canada's security or interfere in our democracy." Additionally it was refusing three applications by Moscow for additional diplomatic staff. "The nerve agent attack represents a clear threat to the rules-based international order and to the rules that were established by the international community to ensure chemical weapons would never again destroy human lives," Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said.

Macedonia: The Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would be expelling one Russian diplomat in response to the Skripal case.

Moldova: The Foreign Ministry told CNN on Tuesday that it will expel three Russian diplomats and that they must leave the country within seven days.

Norway: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNN it would expel one Russian diplomat in response to the attack. "The use of a nerve agent in Salisbury is a very serious matter," Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide said in a statement. "Such an incident must have consequences."

Ukraine: President Petro Poroshenko said Ukraine, which has experienced years of hostility from Russia, including the annexation of Crimea, would expel 13 diplomats. "Russia has again reconfirmed its disdainful attitude to the sovereignty of independent states and the value of human life," Poroshenko said.

United States: The White House said it was expelling 60 Russian diplomats identified as intelligence agents and also announced the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle. It represents the most forceful action that President Donald Trump has taken against Russia to date. Of those being expelled, 48 of the alleged intelligence agents work at the Russian Embassy in Washington and 12 are posted at the United Nations in New York, senior administration officials said.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asserted Sunday Congress could give President Donald Trump "line-item veto" power -- something the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional. Fox News host Chris Wallace was forced to explain to him that Congress could not overrule the Supreme Court without amending the Constitution.

"Democrats demanded a massive increase in non-military spending," Mnuchin told Chris Wallace in an interview on Fox News Sunday. Mnuchin suggested that line-item veto power would give the President the ability to thwart Democratic demands in future spending bills.

The Supreme Court ruled the line-item veto unconstitutional in 1998, saying it gave the President the power to unilaterally change or repeal parts of legislation passed by Congress.

"It doesn't need to be reality, and I'm not going to comment on what the President will do, but as you heard him say, he's not planning on doing this again. I think they should give the President a line-item veto," Mnuchin said Sunday.

Wallace responded by noting that line-item veto power has "been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court."

Mnuchin responded: "Congress could pass a rule, OK, that allows them to do it."

Wallace, in turn, explained that would require a constitutional amendment, to which Mnuchin said: "There's different ways of doing this."

Trump had urged lawmakers to grant him line-item veto power when he signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill that Congress sent to him just hours earlier.

"To prevent the omnibus situation from ever happening again, I'm calling on Congress to give me a line-item veto for all government spending bills," he said, expressing unhappiness with the massive bill and the haste with which it was passed. Trump added that he agreed to sign the bill to deliver a boost in defense spending.LOUISVILLE, Miss. (WTVA) - A shooting in Louisville leaves a teenage boy dead.

Winston County Coroner Scott Gregory said Tylan "Ty" Glenn, 17, died after being shot multiple times by a handgun.

The shooting happened around 9:00 p.m. Saturday night near Mt. Moriah Circle.

Gregory says Glenn was a passenger in a car driven by the suspected shooter's girlfriend.

Chief L. M. Claiborne identifies the shooter as Isaiah Riggins. He is wanted on a charge of murder.

Jordan Miller is wanted for accessory after the fact to murder.

There was a baby in the backseat of the car at the time of the shooting.

Gregory said Glenn's body was sent to the state crime lab for an autopsy.

Glenn was a student at Louisville High School and grief counselor are at the school today to meet with students.JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  Mississippi House members on Sunday threatened to torpedo next year's $6 billion budget for the state-federal Medicaid health insurance program, unless senators agree to rule changes.

Representatives sent the 2019 budget back for more talks with the Senate, demanding that the Senate agree on a rules bill before the House approves the budget.

Among other things, House members have been seeking another opportunity for the state's hospitals to bid on part of the Medicaid program's managed care business. The Senate is resisting that demand after the Medicaid agency rejected a bid from a hospital group last summer.

If the House and Senate can't agree on provisions in what's known as the Medicaid technical amendments bill, all the existing rules would end June 30. That would give Gov. Phil Bryant full control of the program, subject to federal approvals.

Rep. Becky Currie, a Brookhaven Republican, warned that was exactly what was about to happen.

"We're tired, we're ready to go home, but I'm not tired enough to give up my authority on the Medicaid tech bill," Currie told House members. "Do not fund Medicaid until we get a tech bill. It is vital. Hear me."

The move came as the House passed many of the bills needed to fund Mississippi's $6.1 billion state budget for the year beginning July 1. A summary distributed to House members shows that K-12 education, community colleges and universities would get basically the same amount of money as in the current year. Getting boosts would be the Department of Human Services, the Department of Child Protection Services, the Department of Rehabilitation Services, the state medical examiner's office and the state prison system.

Total projected state spending would increase $22 million, less than one-half percent, above the $6.07 billion the state is spending this year. Talks continue on some bills, including K-12, community college and university funding, but it's unclear if any more total money could be allotted to those agencies.

One in four Mississippians are insured under Medicaid, including people in nursing homes, disabled adults, pregnant women and young children. The technical amendments bill, Senate Bill 2836 , has been subject to heavy lobbying by hospitals, managed care insurers and other interests. It governs things like reimbursement rates to physicians and other health care providers and whether nursing homes will have to negotiate for payment rates with managed care companies.

Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves hasn't even officially named negotiators, although a conference report must be filed by Monday night. Rep. Jason White, a West Republican, said he's been talking to Senate Medicaid Committee Chairman Brice Wiggins, a Pascagoula Republican. West said it if was up to him and Wiggins, they could work something out.

"However, Chairman Wiggins isn't calling the shot on the Senate end and I think the jury's out on exactly what his boss wants down there," West said of Reeves.

Laura Hipp, a spokeswoman for the Republican lieutenant governor, said senators are not trying to kill the technical amendment bill.

West said senators want to let managed care insurers negotiate for lower payment rates, unlike the House, which wants to maintain at least some rates set in law. House members also want to remove limits on physician visits and prescriptions by Medicaid beneficiaries.TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) - High School Juniors and Seniors will have a chance to win some free money for college.

Monday on Second Cup, Dean LeBoeuf joined Malcolm Hornsby to discuss the 18th Annual Freedom Scholarship Essay Contest.

Brooks, LeBoeuf, Bennett, Foster & Gwartney Law Firm encourage juniors and seniors in Leon, Wakulla, Jefferson and Gadsden Counties to apply.

Essays must be received by mail or hand-delivery by 5 p.m. on April 13th, 2018.

The essay needs to be typewritten and between 500-1000 words with the subject being: The Bill of Rights  what it means to me as an American.

The firm's office is located at 909 E Park Ave Tallahassee, FL, 32301.

This is the 18th year of awarding this scholarship.DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (WTXL) - Florida police say a 44-year-old man shot and killed his wife, her sister and himself, leaving four children behind.

It happened in Delray Beach Sunday morning.

Police said Julien Rosemberg, 44, shot the two women inside with a semiautomatic handgun and then walked out to the back yard and used the same weapon on himself.

None of the four children were hurt.Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-11 02:37:31|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIJING, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika exchanged congratulatory messages on the successful launch of Alcomsat-1 in the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China's southwestern province of Sichuan early Monday.

In his message, Xi pointed out that the project of Alcomsat-1, Algeria's first communications satellite, is an important manifestation of the China-Algeria comprehensive strategic partnership, which starts a precedent in aerospace cooperation between China and Arab countries and will play an important role in promoting Algeria's economic development, improvement of its people's livelihood and social progress.

The year of 2018 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Algeria, Xi said, adding that Beijing is willing to work with Algeria to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, promote the in-depth development of the comprehensive strategic partnership so as to benefit the two countries and two peoples.

For his part, Bouteflika said in his message that the successful launch of Alcomsat-1 is a remarkable achievement in aerospace cooperation between Algeria and China, which reflects the deep traditional friendship between the two sides.

Algeria is willing to work with China to jointly promote cooperation in various fields to achieve more results, he added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-25 04:56:56|Editor: Zhou Xin

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People protest against the ratification of the Istanbul Convention in Zagreb, Croatia, on March 24, 2018. Thousands of people gathered in Zagreb to protest the ratification of the Council of Europe convention on preventing and combating violence against woman and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) on Saturday. The Croatian government on Thursday adopted the Council of Europe convention against gender-based violence and sent it to the parliament for ratification, state agency HINA reported. (Xinhua/Matija Habljak)

ZAGREB, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Croatians protested on Saturday against the ratification of the Istanbul Convention that Croatian government adopted on March 22, Croatian state TV reported.

The protesters claim that the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) is promoting the so-called "gender ideology" and that it affects basic traditional and cultural legal aspects of Croatian society.

Although the government has adopted the convention with an interpretive statement that it is in line with the Croatian constitution and does not contain or support "gender ideology", the protesters believe that it doesn't have any legal significance.

They argue that the convention would bring "gender ideology" (gender as a social construct is separate from sex) into education system, that the state would have the legal obligation to finance NGOs that in their view have nothing to do with protection of women and that GREVIO committee (the independent expert body responsible for monitoring the implementation of the convention) would be authorized to interfere in Croatia's policies.

The protest started in front of the ruling party headquarters and finished at the biggest square in the center of the capital Zagreb. The organizers claim that the protest drew 70,000 people while police estimated just a few thousands.

The protesters asked members of Croatian parliament not to ratify the convention.

It was one of the biggest rallies of Croatian conservative in years, despite the fact that the conservative party Croatian Democratic Union is in power.

The parliament is expected to vote on the ratification of Istanbul Convention in the following weeks.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 00:54:31|Editor: Liangyu

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XIONGAN, Hebei, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The first innovation and starts-up center of Xiongan New Area was opened on Sunday in north China's Hebei Province.

The center is designed to support projects related to new energy, information engineering, new materials, and environmental protection.

Eleven companies have signed up with the center, focusing on developing artificial intelligence, internet security, virtual reality, new retailing, and online education.

Xiongan New Area, established in April 2017, is a new economic zone about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing. It is the third new area of national significance after the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and the Shanghai Pudong New Area.

China aims to build it as a low-carbon, intelligent, livable and globally influential city where people and nature exist in harmony.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 04:10:01|Editor: Mengjie

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Participants practise Chinese landscape painting during a workshop at Herakleidon Museum in central Athens,Greece, March 24, 2018. Armed with Chinese brushes, ink and rice paper, a group of Greek women of various ages and professions sharing the love for art and eagerness to learn more about Chinese culture joined a workshop on Chinese landscape painting hosted at an Athens museum this March. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

by Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Armed with Chinese brushes, ink and rice paper, a group of Greek women of various ages and professions sharing the love for art and eagerness to learn more about Chinese culture joined a workshop on Chinese landscape painting hosted at an Athens museum this March.

Loukia Konstantinou, a Greek artist who has studied Chinese language and culture for several years, took the 15 participants on a journey during three courses held at Herakleidon museum opposite the Athens Acropolis.

She provided an understanding of the materials, basic techniques and philosophy behind the painting of breathtaking scenery following the footsteps of great Chinese artists.

The main target of the art workshop was to open a window to Chinese culture and build bridges of communication with Chinese people, Konstantinou told Xinhua.

"Chinese landscape painting is closely linked to philosophy, the way of thinking and life style of Chinese people since antiquity," she said.

Studying thoroughly copies of works of Chinese artists Lu Yanshao (1909-1993) and Zhang Weiping (1955-) after learning the basic brushstrokes, by the end of the seminar participants gradually created their own works on the Chinese absorbent paper.

"Starting with traditional painters we searched how this form of art can be developed today through our perspective and our hands," Konstantinou said. In recent years the Greek artist has applied the techniques of Chinese traditional landscape painting in her works, when painting landscapes from Greece.

Konstantinou accepted the museum's proposal to organize this workshop to showcase that one has only to gain by getting acquainted with different cultures.

"Given our admiration for Chinese civilization and willingness to build bridges through art, there was no better opportunity than this; finding a museum which is open to the new and vivid interest by participants," she noted.

Herakleidon Museum is a privately-funded and non-profit organization, which has been bringing art, education, and culture to the Greek public since 2004.

In recent months it has organized a long series of similar workshops aimed to introduce adults and minors to various forms of Chinese art.

Following the success of the Chinese painting workshop which has aroused the strong interest of many Greeks, a new round of lessons will be held this May, according to the museum. Many of the participants in the first workshop intended to return to class.

Linguist Patty Papanikolaou had not grabbed a brush since high school, but always admired Chinese art and after the seminar she is eager to learn more about Chinese painting, she told Xinhua.

"I really wanted to get a hand on experience on what it is like and the brush strokes and all that, because it all seems so philosophical, so minimal and different... I relay enjoyed it. I feel like I came closer to understanding more about it," she said.

Biochemist Polyxeni Samanidou is also fascinated with Chinese art and has been painting porcelain for years. She followed the Chinese landscape workshop with great enthusiasm.

"I find this form of art charming. It is so relaxing. I do not know how to put it in words," she told Xinhua.

Author Mary Metaxa Paxinou, who has translated two books on Chinese astrology and Lao Tzu in Greek, was also one of the participants.

"I have always been admiring Chinese culture... travelled a lot and I came in touch with the culture. The culture is the philosophy as well, it is the way of being and the way we share our thoughts," she said.OTTAWA, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Canada is to deploy peacekeeping troops in Mali by August, Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said in an interview on CTV's Question Period aired on Sunday.

"We're looking at it right now this summer, we're aiming for August. The goal is to actually have the rotation in place, around that time," Sajjan said.

He said Canadian Chief of the Defence Staff Jonathan Vance is currently doing more detailed planning and analysis to know specifically what will be needed.

Last week, the Canadian government announced its intention to send peacekeeping troops and an aviation task force to the UN mission in Mali for a year-long deployment.

According to the United Nations, there have been 162 multinational peacekeeper fatalities since the mission began in 2013.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 07:50:27|Editor: Zhou Xin

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RIYADH, March 26 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and two others wounded in a ballistic missile attack late Sunday over the capital of Riyadh fired from Yemen by Houthis militias, Saudi civil defense said.

The spokesman of Riyadh civil defense said in a statement that the missile's shrapnel that fell on a residential house in Riyadh led to the death of one person and injury of two others. They are all from Egypt.

Saudi state television said Yemen's Houthis fired two missiles toward Saudi late Sunday and Saudi air defense succeeded in intercepting one over Riyadh, and another over Jazan in the Saudi border with Yemen.

Several loud explosions have been heard by local citizens in Riyadh.

This is not the first time that Houthis fired missiles toward Riyadh.

In November last year, the Saudi air defense shot down a ballistic missile fired by Houthis at Riyadh international airport.

In December, the Houthis fired a ballistic missile toward the Saudi royal palace in Riyadh.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia led a military coalition of Arab forces, backed by the United States, to intervene in Yemen's conflict to back the government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition has launched thousands of airstrikes on the Houthis, in attempts to roll back rebel gains and reinstate Hadi in the capital Sanaa.

Houthis have launched hundreds of ballistic missiles toward Saudi cities, with most of them intercepted by Saudi air defense forces.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 09:34:39|Editor: Chengcheng

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Visitors look at exhibits during the "Treasures of Ancient Egypt" exhibition at Romanian National Library in Bucharest, capital of Romania, March 25, 2018. The exhibition which brings over 300 pieces of authentic and replica artifacts of Ancient Egypt together is held here from March 21 to June 21. (Xinhua/Gabriel Petrescu)BANGKOK, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The direct flight from Thailand's Bangkok to Mae Hong Son, the mountainous province on the northwestern border of the country, is now open, the Department of Airports under the Ministry of Transport announced on Sunday.

The flight from Bangkok's Don Mueang Airport to Mae Hong Son airport and back to Don Mueang will be operated by Nok Air every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by ATR72.

The carrier along with Thai government launched the first direct flight on Sunday.

The Department of Airports said the direct flights may help to add some 20,000 visitors to the northern province per year as the province welcomed some 800,000 visitors last year.

Mae Hong Son province, also named "the city of three mists," is surrounded by high mountains with cold temperature and covered with mist all three seasons.

The province is rich in its natural beauty - mountains, forests, flowers leading it to be one of the must-see places in Thailand.

Before the direct flight, Mae Hong Son had only air connections with Chiang Mai.VIENTIANE, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Laos continues to cooperate with neighboring countries for sustainable railway connectivity in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) while pursuing its dream to transform the country from landlocked to land-linked, local daily Vientiane Times reported Monday.

Lao director general of the Planning and Cooperation Department under the Ministry of Public Works and Transport Sengdarith Kattignasack made the comments last Thursday during the GMS Association Board of Directors General Meeting in Lao capital Vientiane.

He added that the Lao government's policy is to transform the country into a transit transport service provider within the region through land links.

First is the under-construction railway from the China-Laos border to Vientiane which is over 400 km. The railway is now some 30 percent complete and has a construction deadline of December, 2021.

The existing 3.5 km Lao-Thai railway in Vientiane will be lengthened by 7.5 km in Phase 2 of this project.

The Vientiane-Thakhaek-Mugia-Tan Up-Vung Ang Railway Project, which will be 555 km long extending to central Vietnam, and a spur line of the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link, has undergone a feasibility study financed by a grant from South Korea.

The planned Savannakhet-Laobao railway, running to the Vietnamese border over a distance of 220km, is now in the feasibility study stage.

Also in the pipeline is the Vientiane-Pakxe-Veunkham-Lao Cambodia border railway, for which the Lao Department of Railways is working intensively to seek financing for a feasibility study.

"Laos was looking forward to the completion of these railways, as they would be a strong driver of socio-economic development, turning the country into a land bridge in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region and complementing China's Belt and Road initiative," Sengdarith said.CANBERRA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The head of Australia's business watchdog has called for large companies who break the law to face harsher penalties.

An Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report released on Monday revealed that the average fine for companies engaging in uncompetitive behavior in Australia was 25.4 million Australian dollars (19.6 million U.S. dollars).

Comparatively, the report found that the average fine in similar developed nations was 320.4 million AUD (247 million U.S. dollars); more than 12 times the average in Australia.

Rod Sims, chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, said that Australia's system of fines was clearly failing.

"We see continuing breaches of the act by companies that have been caught before," Sims told the Guardian Australia on Monday.

"We see that there is really no effect on share prices.

The OECD report compared Australia's system to Germany, South Korea, Japan, the United States, Britain, and the European Union.

It found that those countries calculated penalties based on the size of the company while Australia "does not follow a structured methodology."

Under Australian law, companies can be fined up to 10 percent of their total turnover but Sims said the maximum penalty had never been enforced.

He said that the ACCC would pursue penalties in the hundreds of millions of dollars, closer to those imposed internationally.

"It's up to the courts to set penalties but we have a role in our submissions to the court and we need to change what we do," Sims said.

"We'll have to be a little less likely to settle cases unless we get appropriate penalties."GENEVA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Unilateral moves by the United States to repeatedly impose steep tariffs on imports jeopardizes the global trading system, warned trade experts and officials.

"The existing multilateral system provides effective trade remedy measures and dispute settlement mechanisms. WTO (World Trade Organization) members should solve their trade problems and disputes within a multilateral framework," Liang Guoyong, an economic officer at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), told Xinhua.

Liang said that a recourse to unilateral measures will threaten the authority and effectiveness of the multilateral trading system, which in the long run is disruptive for the stability and growth of the world economy.

Despite widespread dissent from business groups and trading partners around the world, U.S. President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China, following a recent tariff plan on steel and aluminum imports and January's tariffs levied on imported solar panels and washing machines, which have been chided as an act of protectionism.

In the name of safeguarding national security and protecting domestic jobs, Washington's arbitrary move has unleashed heavy criticism.

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said that "unilateral" announcements like those tend to spark counter measures. "Actions taken outside these collective processes greatly increase the risk of escalation in a confrontation that will have no winners, and which could quickly lead to a less stable trading system," he said.

Azevedo encouraged members to continue working through the WTO to explore potential solutions.

WTO members have expressed concern about the U.S. decision to levy high tariffs during a recent meeting in Geneva. Trade representatives from more than 40 members, including 28 from the European Union, on Friday took the floor to warn against the tariffs.

They said U.S. tariffs would have repercussions on the commercial interests of traders and on the predictability and stability of the rules-based multilateral trading system.

"As shown repeatedly in the past, we need global solutions to global problems," said Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

History has proven that unilateral safeguard measures do more harm than good. According to a study by the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), the Obama administration's decision to levy safeguard tariffs on Chinese tires in 2009 saved few jobs at a high cost.

PIIE's analysis shows that the move temporarily saved no more than 1,200 jobs, but American buyers of car and truck ties had to pay a hefty price for this exercise of trade protectionism, at a cost of 900,000 U.S. dollars per job.

Arancha Gonzalez, head of the Geneva-based International Trade Center (ITC), witnessed the imposition and effects of steel safeguard tariffs during the Gorge W. Bush administration in 2002.

"There was a net loss of 200,000 jobs in the U.S. because of those measures," said Gonzalez.

The Bush administration had to withdraw the steel tariffs after they were successfully challenged at the WTO by a number of countries. Analysts said that the Trump administration's tariffs could face a similar challenge at the WTO and the United States is likely to lose the case.

While the United States has announced a suspension of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from some countries, the ITC head warned that as governments focus on seeking "bilateral exemptions," there is a risk of diminishing their collective ability to deal with the real problem, which is overcapacity.

Gonzalez said that negotiated exemptions from the proposed tariffs represent another step in the direction that "we are moving from a trading system based on rules to one based on deals."

Problems such as overcapacity can't be easily solved bilaterally but would be most effectively addressed at the multilateral level, she added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 12:46:11|Editor: Liangyu

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RIO DE JANEIRO, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The construction of a new port in Sao Luis, capital of northeastern Brazil's Maranhao state, gives both local officials and Chinese companies something to cheer about.

A ceremony held last week has laid the cornerstone of the construction of the port, which is expected to boost trade between Brazil and China. The celebration gathered officials and representatives of the companies in charge of the project: China Communications Construction Corporation (CCCC) and Brazilian groups WPR and Lyon Capital.

To spur agribusiness, the project is expected to inject new life into Sao Luis, one of Brazil's busiest industrial transport hubs.

Take Herun Group, a company that stores and transports agricultural goods, for example. Operating in Brazil since 2003, Herun joined the project in its early stages. Once the port is completed, the company will buy grains directly from producers and ship products to China.

According to Yu Songbo, president of Herun Group, the company has four cargo ships at the ready, capable of carrying up to 180,000 tons of grain, Sao Luis Port's maximum capacity.

"When the Port of Sao Luis is completed, there will be a new bridge between Brazil and China. Our 180,000-ton ships will greatly reduce the cost of transportation, which will lead to higher profits for Brazilian farmers and cost reductions for Chinese consumers," Yu said.

Even though the company has no headquarters in Brazil as yet, it has already traded some three million tons of soybeans every year.

China has been Brazil's largest trade partner since 2009. Soybeans are one of the main products Brazil exports to China.

Last year, China imported nearly 51 million tons of grains, 33.3 percent more than that of 2016. That figure is expected to surpass 100 million tons in 2018.

Other Latin American countries are also major grain producers. Brazil could serve as a shipping point for them as well.

"The Herun Group has been analyzing logistical issues and agribusiness in Brazil for several years," Yu told Xinhua.

"Since 2003, we have been strengthening exchange with local farmers and Brazilian agricultural companies, and in the process we discovered that Brazilian companies have great development potential, but (it) need new markets. So we hope to mature our contacts and ensure there is an increase in profits in the most effective way for everyone," Yu said.

Founded in 1979, the Herun Group operates in the grain and oil processing industries, as well as logistics with a focus on grains, including the management of grains at port and shipping to foreign markets. In 2017, the group ranked 113th among China's 500 largest private companies.

Participating in the Sao Luis Port project with CCCC marks Herun's first time to cooperate with a Chinese state-owned company. They believe in the prospects after the port is established.

"Today in Brazil, we buy soybeans from traditional traders like ADM and Bunge. But we are planning for the future and seeking to establish a company in Brazil. In the process, we could also build an industrial park in the country and buy agricultural products directly from Brazilians," Yu said.

The 800 million Real (241 million U.S. dollar) project, representing the most important Brazilian port near the Panama Canal when completed, calls for six berths, four of which are already in the first phase.

The port is expected to be operational in four years, with an annual capacity of handling 10 million tons, of which, seven million in grain.

Maranhao Governor Flavio Dino said the state has great potential in agriculture, beyond soybean, corn and cotton.

Nowadays, most agricultural products from Brazil are transported by highway to ports in southeastern and southern parts of the country. They will then be loaded on ships that travel along the eastern and northern coasts of South America until they reach the Panama Canal. The trip usually takes more than 10 days.

Several Chinese industry giants are already operating in Brazil, such as China's state-owned COFCO International, which deals in agricultural negotiation and processing.

Large private Chinese companies have also set their sights on Brazil. Dakang Agriculture Group is one of them. In 2016, it acquired a local agricultural business in the west-central state of Mato Grosso for more than 200 million U.S. dollars.

The construction of the Brazilian port is the first step to bolstering infrastructure in Latin America and promoting trade between the two regions, according to the Herun Group.

"Latin America has rich coastal resources, excellent water conditions and fewer natural disasters, which is conducive to the development of oil products and logistics industries," Yu said.

"It is an excellent choice for the development of Herun Group's oil and grain logistics and processing industry. Brazil and its neighboring countries Argentina and Uruguay are as important as Chile and Peru among others," Yu said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 13:01:13|Editor: Chengcheng

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SEOUL, March 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korea has been exempted from the U.S. heavy tariffs on steel imports in a deal to revise their six-year-old free trade agreement (FTA), Seoul's trade minister said Monday.

"(South) Korea became the very first country to wrap up negotiations (to be exempted from the U.S. tariffs on steel imports) and eliminated the uncertainty of local steelmakers about exports to the United States," Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong told a press briefing.

Under the agreement, South Korea will continue to be exempted from the U.S. duty of 25 percent on steel imports even after the temporary deferment ends on May 1.

The U.S. Department of Commerce recommended to U.S. President Donald Trump imposing a 53 percent tariff on steel products imported from some countries, including South Korea.

Washington granted a deferment to a number of countries, including South Korea which had negotiated with the U.S. side on the new tariffs and the bilateral free trade pact that took effect in 2012.

In return for the exemption, South Korea allowed the United States to set an import ceiling on South Korean steel products at 2.68 million tons per year, or 70 percent of South Korea's average steel exports to the United States for three years through 2017.

The import quota is equivalent to 74 percent of last year's South Korean steel exports to the United States. South Korea is the third-largest steel exporter to the United States.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 13:11:16|Editor: Chengcheng

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Members of the emergency ministry fire service try to put out the fire at the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping mall in Kemerovo, Russia, on March 25, 2018. At least 37 people were killed in a fire in a shopping mall in south central Russia's Kemerovo city on Sunday, while many others are missing, TASS news agency reported, citing a source with firefighters. (Xinhua/Sputnik)

MOSCOW, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Up to 48 lives have been claimed due to a deadly blaze in a shopping mall in the south central Russian city of Kemerovo on Sunday, Russian news agency Sputnik reported, citing a representative of the crisis center set up to deal with the emergency.

Dense smoke is interfering with work on the site of the fire, the local Emergencies Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

According to the statement, specialists involved in the emergency response explained that the work at the scene is complicated by dense smoke, severe gas contamination, high temperatures, as well as unstable structures.

Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said that the first stage of search and rescue operations in the shopping center "Winter Cherry" will be completed by 18:00 local time (1100 GMT).

The number of injured stands at 45, while 64 people remain missing, including 41 children. Around 120 people were evacuated from the building, of which more than 1,000 square meters were consumed by the deadly fire, according to Sputnik.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry had previously planned to send more rescuers to the scene, Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov was quoted as saying by the website of the ministry.

It still remains unclear what caused the fire at the shopping mall.NAY PYI TAW, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar will hold the presidential election on Wednesday to fill the presidency vacancy left by U Htin Kyaw who resigned from the post last week, the Union Parliament announced Monday.

It was announced by Speaker of the Parliament U Mahn Win Khaing Than, parliament sources said.

The presidential election will be contested among three vice presidents, namely Vice Presidents U Myint Swe, U Henry Van Thio and U Win Myint. U Win Myint was elected as vice president last week from the House of Representatives (Lower House).

U Win Myint from the National League for Democracy (NLD) was the former speaker of the House of Representatives who also resigned from the post last week to pave the way for the election.

Meanwhile, a day following the resignation of U Win Myint as speaker of the House of Representatives, his deputy U T Khun Myat was elected as the new speaker of the House of Representative.

The current parliament and government began their terms of five years from February and April 2016 respectively under the leadership of the ruling NLD which won the absolute majority of the parliamentary seats in the general election in November 2015.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 13:36:21|Editor: Liangyu

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CHANGCHUN, March 26 (Xinhua) -- FAW Group has moved to new headquarters in northeast China's Jilin Province, the group announced Monday.

The new HQ, close to the previous one, consists of 14 buildings, including offices, labs, and convention and logistics centers.

A total of 3,500 staff in 22 departments and new institutes such as the new-energy R&D institute have moved to the new location.

With the ambition of making the Hongqi (Red Flag) subsidiary into a world-class car brand, its first electric car will be released this year, with another 14 electric models before 2025.

The new models will be equipped with level 3 automated driving in 2019, level 4 in 2020 and level 5 in 2025. Hongqi has set sales targets of 100,000 units in 2020, 300,000 in 2025 and 500,000 in 2035.

Hongqi made its debut as a parade limousine at Tian'anmen Square during China's 10th National Day celebration in 1959. Since then, the Hongqi has long been prominent in parades at national celebrations.

Established in 1953 in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun, FAW was the first carmaker in China. In addition to Hongqi, it has other brands including Jiefang and Besturn. It also has joint ventures with carmakers such as Volkswagen and Toyota.



Staffs work along the production line in an electronic manufacture factory in the industrial park of Beihai city, southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Oct. 19, 2015. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

GENEVA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Unilateral moves by the United States to repeatedly impose steep tariffs on imports jeopardizes the global trading system, warned trade experts and officials.

"The existing multilateral system provides effective trade remedy measures and dispute settlement mechanisms. WTO (World Trade Organization) members should solve their trade problems and disputes within a multilateral framework," Liang Guoyong, an economic officer at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), told Xinhua.

Liang said that a recourse to unilateral measures will threaten the authority and effectiveness of the multilateral trading system, which in the long run is disruptive for the stability and growth of the world economy.

Despite widespread dissent from business groups and trading partners around the world, U.S. President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China, following a recent tariff plan on steel and aluminum imports and January's tariffs levied on imported solar panels and washing machines, which have been chided as an act of protectionism.

U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from the press before departing the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)

In the name of safeguarding national security and protecting domestic jobs, Washington's arbitrary move has unleashed heavy criticism.

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said that "unilateral" announcements like those tend to spark counter measures. "Actions taken outside these collective processes greatly increase the risk of escalation in a confrontation that will have no winners, and which could quickly lead to a less stable trading system," he said.

Azevedo encouraged members to continue working through the WTO to explore potential solutions.

WTO members have expressed concern about the U.S. decision to levy high tariffs during a recent meeting in Geneva. Trade representatives from more than 40 members, including 28 from the European Union, on Friday took the floor to warn against the tariffs.

They said U.S. tariffs would have repercussions on the commercial interests of traders and on the predictability and stability of the rules-based multilateral trading system.

"As shown repeatedly in the past, we need global solutions to global problems," said Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

History has proven that unilateral safeguard measures do more harm than good. According to a study by the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), the Obama administration's decision to levy safeguard tariffs on Chinese tires in 2009 saved few jobs at a high cost.

PIIE's analysis shows that the move temporarily saved no more than 1,200 jobs, but American buyers of car and truck ties had to pay a hefty price for this exercise of trade protectionism, at a cost of 900,000 U.S. dollars per job.

A trader works at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, the United States, March 22, 2018. U.S. stocks ended lower on Thursday, with the Dow plunging over 700 points, after the U.S. President Donald Trump announced to impose tariff on imported products from China. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Arancha Gonzalez, head of the Geneva-based International Trade Center (ITC), witnessed the imposition and effects of steel safeguard tariffs during the Gorge W. Bush administration in 2002.

"There was a net loss of 200,000 jobs in the U.S. because of those measures," said Gonzalez.

The Bush administration had to withdraw the steel tariffs after they were successfully challenged at the WTO by a number of countries. Analysts said that the Trump administration's tariffs could face a similar challenge at the WTO and the United States is likely to lose the case.

While the United States has announced a suspension of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from some countries, the ITC head warned that as governments focus on seeking "bilateral exemptions," there is a risk of diminishing their collective ability to deal with the real problem, which is overcapacity.

Gonzalez said that negotiated exemptions from the proposed tariffs represent another step in the direction that "we are moving from a trading system based on rules to one based on deals."

Problems such as overcapacity can't be easily solved bilaterally but would be most effectively addressed at the multilateral level, she added.WASHINGTON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Former Beatles member Paul McCartney joined thousands of people Saturday in the March for Our Lives in New York against gun violence, close to the site where John Lennon, one of McCartney's fellow Beatles, was killed 37 years ago.

Wearing a shirt that said, "We can end gun violence," McCartney told local media that he came to the march "just to support the people."

"One of my best friends was killed in gun violence right around here," he said, "so it's important to me."

On Dec. 8, 1980, a man opened fire on Lennon and killed him when Lennon was walking in Manhattan with his wife, Yoko Ono.

George and Amal Clooney, Jimmy Fallon, Miley Cyrus among other celebrities also joined the rallies held in different U.S. cities.

The March for Our Lives was a student-led demonstration in honor of the 17 students and faculty members killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida and to rally people to say enough to gun violence.

Over 800 events were scheduled around the world Saturday, the organizers said, including the anchor one in Washington.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 14:11:25|Editor: Chengcheng

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by Raimundo Urrechaga

HAVANA, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Cuba has lagged behind many Latin American countries in access to the Internet due to technological limitations, U.S. sanctions that restrict its connectivity and lack of financial resources to develop the proper infrastructure.

The situation is changing rapidly. Last year over 4 million Cubans out of a total population of 11 million used the Internet.

Havana is promoting a nationwide plan to equip homes, universities, medical institutions and local government offices with Internet access, and has multiplied the number of public Wi-Fi spots.

The Cuban government is footing the bill for these projects to ensure access is equitable, affordable and widespread.

New initiatives are underway at several state institutions to encourage safe use of the Internet, promote knowledge and culture, and make the lives of Cubans easier.

The Ministry of Public Health, for example, is in the process of computerizing patients' medical records and other administrative areas.

"To achieve that we have to plan and develop the technological infrastructure and the training of human resources. That is what we are doing in this first stage of this process," said Deputy Minister of Public Health Marcia Cobas.

Today, all Cuban health professionals have access to Infomed, one of the most visited sites in the country. The web portal hosts 669 medical sites and receives around 12 million visits a year by Cuban medical personnel on the island and abroad.

A new network called "Cuba Coopera," designed especially for the more than 49,000 Cuban medical professionals working in 63 countries, aims to provide information about the island and direct contact with their family members.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry opened a site called "Cuba Educa," which provides educational content for students, teachers and parents.

Official figures show that more than 10,600 educational institutions, about 150,000 teachers and 2 million students now have access to computer labs.

Linked to "Cuba Educa" is another site where students can consult and query teachers about different subjects.

"Cuban educational professionals answer the students' questions live and in a quick manner. Through this new technology we are expanding the educational spectrum in the country," said Rolando Forneiro, Cuban deputy minister of education.

E-commerce is also benefiting from the latest technological development. State-run company Artex operates the websites "Soy Cubano" and "Mall Cubano," which make various products available for purchase internationally.

Cuba's state recording company Egrem has developed a mobile application in which users pay a 1-U.S.-dollar fee to download as many as 80 songs by contemporary Cuban artists.

The Culture Ministry now wants to expand online ticket purchase services for cultural shows, concerts and performances at theaters around the nation.

"We must have a contemporary vision of these hi-tech issues ..." said Fernando Rojas, the deputy minister of culture, "especially for young people who are eager to have quick and easy access to our cultural content."Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 14:16:27|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced Monday that it has started an anti-dumping investigation into imported phenol from the United States, European Union, Republic of Korea, Japan and Thailand.

The ministry received an application for an inquiry from domestic producers, who accuse foreign manufacturers of dumping phenol on the Chinese market at prices below their fair value, according to an official statement.

The investigation should be concluded by March 26 next year, but, in special circumstances, may be extended to September 26, 2019, according to the statement.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 14:26:28|Editor: Chengcheng

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KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, March 26 (Xinhua) -- At least eight militants have been killed as government forces targeted Taliban hideouts in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz and neighboring Takhar provinces, army spokesman in the northern region Ghulam Hazrat Karimi said Monday.

The security forces' aircrafts, according to the official, attacked Taliban hideouts in Dasht-e-Archi district of Kunduz province late Sunday night killing three insurgents including Taliban group commander Mullah Zulfiqar and injuring six others.

In similar operations, the government forces also targeted Taliban hideouts in Yangi Qala and Chaab districts of Takhar province on Sunday night killing five militants and wounding a few others, the official added.

Taliban militants are yet to make comment on the situation.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 14:31:29|Editor: Chengcheng

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SEOUL, March 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korea earned an exemption from the U.S. heavy tariffs on steel imports in a deal to revise their six-year-old free trade agreement (FTA), Seoul's trade minister said Monday.

Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong told a press briefing that the U.S. side agreed to exempt South Korea from imposing new tariffs on steel imports, saying it removed uncertainty of local steelmakers about exports to the United States.

Under the agreement, South Korea will continue to be exempted from the U.S. duty of 25 percent on steel imports even after the temporary deferment ends on May 1.

The U.S. Department of Commerce recommended to U.S. President Donald Trump imposing a 53 percent tariff on steel products imported from 12 countries, including South Korea.

While negotiations were underway, Washington granted a temporary deferment to seven countries, including South Korea, on steel import restrictions. Seoul had negotiated with the U.S. side on the new tariffs and the bilateral free trade pact that took effect in 2012.

In return for the exemption, Seoul accepted the U.S. call to set an import ceiling on South Korean steel products at 2.68 million tons per year, or 70 percent of South Korea's average steel exports to the United States for three years through 2017.

The import quota is equivalent to 74 percent of last year's South Korean steel exports to the United States. Seoul is the third-largest steel exporter to Washington.

By linking the negotiations on steel import duties to the renegotiation on South Korea-U.S. FTA, the two allies have "in principle" reached an agreement to the revised free trade deal except some technical issues.

To avoid the heavy steel import duties, South Korea allowed U.S. automakers a greater access to its domestic market by easing environmental, safety regulations and extending the U.S. tariffs on South Korean pickup truck imports.

Under the current FTA, the United States is required to remove a 25 percent import tariff on South Korean pickup trucks by 2021. The modified deal will extend the tariff by 20 years to 2041.

Under the modified FTA, South Korea will allow each U.S. carmaker to export up to 50,000 vehicles per year meeting the U.S. safety regulations, though not meeting the South Korean regulations. It was up from 25,000 vehicles under the current deal.

South Korea also agreed to set its regulations on fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions according to global trend and U.S. standards.

The South Korean trade minister said the U.S. side focused on the auto sector as car and auto parts accounted for 74 percent of South Korea's surplus in trade with the United States in 2017.

Though Seoul accepted Washington's call for greater access to the local automobile market, South Korea made no concession in the agriculture sector, the minister said.

He noted that although up to 50,000 U.S. cars meeting the U.S. safety regulations will be imported under the fresh deal, major U.S. automakers exported fewer than 10,000 vehicles to South Korea last year.

Seoul and Washington began renegotiations on their free trade pact from January as U.S. President Donald Trump called it a "horrible" deal.

Three rounds of negotiations to revise the South Korea-U.S. FTA had been held for the past three months.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 15:31:36|Editor: Yurou

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A man casts his ballot at a polling station in Cairo, Egypt, on March 26, 2018. Voting of Egypt's presidential election began on Monday. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

CAIRO, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Voting of Egypt's presidential election began on Monday, with an expected easy win for incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Polls opened at 9 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on the first of three days of voting.

Sisi casted his vote in Cairo, state TV reported.

Egypt has over 59 million eligible voters out of the country's 104 million population. A week ago, the country wrapped up the voting process of Egyptian expatriates in 124 countries across the world.

There are some 13,706 polling stations at schools nationwide, with about 18,000 judges overseeing the voting process that is also monitored by at least 53 local organizations and nine international ones, besides more than 680 foreign reporters.

Sisi's sole rival in the presidential race is little known politician Moussa Mostafa Moussa, Chairman of liberal Ghad Party, after a couple of possible strong challengers have either withdrawn or disqualified for violations.

The election result will be announced on April 2, according to the National Election Authority.Source:Xinhua| 2018-03-26 15:46:00|Editor: Mengjie

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Couples take part in a collective wedding ceremony in a style of the Han ethic group at a park in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, March 25, 2018. A total of 37 couples attended the wedding on Sunday. (Xinhua/Zhang Duan)Ethiopians experience the newly inaugurated railway at the Lebu station in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, Oct. 5, 2016, during a trial operation. (Xinhua/Li Baishun)

DIRE DAWA, Ethiopia, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Over two months into its commercial operation, the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway has brought much cheer and optimism to Ethiopian passengers.

Alemu Mersha, a young businessman traveling from Addis Ababa to Ethiopia's second largest city Dire Dawa, is one of the passengers aboard the train on Sunday, which he said is an "advantageous way to do business."

The 756-km railway, which officially commenced its commercial operations for both passenger and freight services between the two countries in January, connects landlocked Ethiopia to its neighboring Red Sea nation of Djibouti.

According to Mersha, the business is not as usual since the railway commenced its operations, both in terms of its affordability and time efficiency.

"There were times that I had to travel via airplane from Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa and vice versa whenever I had tasks at hand to accomplish within a short period of time," said Mersha, complaining about the huge amount of money spent on the journeys.

The Ethiopia-Djibouti railway currently charges less than 25 U.S. dollars for a two-way passenger service from Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa, while an airplane service costs at least 130 U.S. dollars.

Alemayehu Leyew, another passenger who is experiencing his first rail travel to Djibouti with his wife for recreation purpose, said the rail travel is much more comfortable than he previously thought.

"This is my first time to use a rail service for transportation," he said. "It feels great and it's also comfortable."

Leyew also urged to scale up the railway to connect other parts of the East African country.

"We need to scale up the rail transportation service into every corners of the country so as to speed up our country's modernization process," Leyew said.

With a designed hourly speed of 120 kilometers, the railway was constructed by two Chinese firms with a total investment of 4 billion U.S. dollars. (Xinhua/Sun Ruibo)

Saliya Mehamed, an Ethiopian captain at the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway transportation service, told Xinhua on Sunday that the feedback from the passengers is "very positive so far."

"Our customers are very happy and the number of customers is increasing very much," she said.

The railway, contracted by two Chinese companies China Railway Group (CREC) and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), is currently managed by a consortium of Chinese companies for a period of six years.

Wang Tao, Human Resource Department Head at the Ethiopia-Djibouti Standard Gauge Rail Transport share-company, told Xinhua that enabling local professionals to take over the railway transportation system is underway.

According to Wang, the railway service will be completely managed by locals within the coming few years as the knowledge transfer procedure is effectively underway.

Ethiopian professionals who are taking part in the knowledge transfer also said both theoretical and practical trainings are helping them become the pioneer rail transportation professionals in the East African country's recent history.

"We are so glad to take this opportunity because it's a new system for us," said Saliya Mehamed, who envisaged to become a rail captain in the near future.

Ethiopia has also recently commended the electrified railway's freight services, which has the capacity of transporting 106 containers in a single route.

According to the share-company, the railway has transported over 2,000 containers of commodities from the port to central Ethiopia during its first two months of operations.

According to Tilahun Kassa, director of Ethiopia-Djibouti Standard Gauge Rail Transport company, the linkage between the Djibouti port and Ethiopia's Modjo dry port has shown early achievements and is expected to further expand Ethiopia's export and international trading.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 16:31:44|Editor: Jiaxin

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NANNING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese border police in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region said Monday that they had seized 500 pieces of mink fur smuggled from Vietnam.

Five boxes of fur were found last week during a border police patrol in Fangchenggang City, according to the city's public security bureau.

The police noticed that several people were transporting suspicious goods under a bridge and approached them to inquire. The suspects then fled.

The mink fur weighs more than 280 kilograms, with the largest piece measuring 50 cm long and 5 cm wide and weighing about 400 grams.

Mink fur, a valuable material for high-end garments, is usually imported with high duties, which has led to smuggling.ULAN BATOR, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has planned to start a vaccination campaign here in May to prevent an outbreak of the deadly foot-and-mouth disease among high-risk animals.

There are about 16,000 heads of livestock in the capital of Mongolia. The vaccines to immunize these animals will be sent from Russia, the head of the Ulan Bator City Veterinary Clinic M. Adilbish said Monday.

Mongolian quarantine officials are using lemonic acid to disinfect all vehicles that come from the infected areas to the capital city.

Currently, a martial law has been declared in 23 soums (administrative subdivisions) in eight provinces to control the spread of the foot-and-mouth disease.

The foot-and-mouth disease is a viral infectious disease that spreads between cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs. The main symptoms of sick animals are increased body temperature, blisters and ulceration in the mucous membranes and hoofs in the mouth.

The foot-and-mouth disease is rarely transmitted to humans, but humans may also be infected if exposed to the virus.

Mongolian quarantine officials have had over 3,300 animals slaughtered since the beginning of this year in the country to contain the spread of the disease.WELLINGTON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has determined that all cattle on properties infected with the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis will be culled starting on Monday.

"The depopulation of entire herds on all 28 Infected Properties (IPs) in New Zealand is a critical measure to control the spread of the disease and we will be working closely with those farmers to plan how this will happen," MPI's response director Geoff Gwyn said in a statement.

"This will be a big job and won't happen overnight, but we'll be meeting with the affected farmers in the coming days to discuss the operation, develop the plans and talk through compensation," Gwyn said.

All IP farmers will be compensated for their verifiable losses. MPI continues to build its compensation team to make sure farmers are compensated as quickly as possible. Once farms are de-populated and cleaned, these farmers can start re-building a disease-free herd from scratch, he said.

"We understand this has been an incredibly difficult time for farmers while they wait for critical decisions to be made about managing and controlling this disease," Gwyn added.

"We are able to take this decision now because we are confident Mycoplasma bovis is not well established in New Zealand," he said, adding the disease is not widespread, but is limited to a network of farms connected by animal movements.

The MPI depopulated seven farms in December last year.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 17:26:59|Editor: ZD

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GUANGZHOU, March 26 (Xinhua) -- As Liu Ming leaves his apartment, he is always careful to check all his belongings: ID card, keys, money, phone, pills, shopping bag...

Liu lives in fear of forgetting something when he goes out because he lives on the eighth floor and, without an elevator, climbing the stairs again is like climbing a mountain for the 68-year-old.

Liu, who lives in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, has worn out his knees by climbing the stairs every day and he even has to pay extra money when parcels are delivered.

"It's annoying and tiresome," Liu said. "Installing an elevator in our building has been one of my preoccupations for years."

In the middle of January, Liu's dream, which he shares with so many of his neighbors, began to come true as Guangzhou's lift installation project reached his building.

Back in 2016, Guangzhou issued a string of rules and regulations concerning adding elevators to existing buildings. About 1,000 old buildings have had lifts installed since, according to the city's land resources and planning commission.

Most of them are old buildings like Liu's that were built in 1980s when reform and opening up had just begun. To save on costs, most buildings with fewer than nine floors were built without elevators.

Deng Kanqiang, deputy director of Guangzhou urban renewal bureau, said that these renovations of old neighborhoods can substantially improve quality of life.

"The work is demanding and the government has to solve numerous disputes over the rights and interests of residents," Deng said.

Some districts in Guangzhou have opened "lift offices" specially to deal with the problems of elevator installations.

In the Caihong Street, Liwan District, one office has dealt with the problems of about 6,000 people, holding over 200 consultation and mediation meetings since last May.

Elevator installations require the agreement of two thirds of the owners of any building.

"Opposition comes mainly from residents on lower floors and mostly concerns safety, fees and noise," said Wei Tingsheng, a volunteer at the lift office.

"Besides, old buildings have no space for an elevator so they have to be installed outside the buildings, which can cause problems with natural light in the apartments," he added. "However, we have gained experience in dealing with people's problems and concerns, and become better at helping residents reach agreement in their negotiations."

With the help of Wei, residents in Liu's building held several rounds of negotiations before reaching a consensus.

The whole installation costs around 700,000 yuan (110,000 U.S. dollars) with a government subsidy covering 100,000 yuan. Residents on the first and second floors are exempt from paying fees, while those from the third to the ninth floors share the construction cost -- 20,000 yuan to about 50,000 per household -- based on the floor they live on. The higher the floor, the more to pay.

Residents on the top seven floors also pay 60,000 yuan in compensation to each household on the first and second floors for causing inconvenience to them.

Besides Guangzhou, more than 20 cities including Beijing, Hangzhou, Xiamen and Chengdu are also installing elevators in old buildings.

Beijing is expected to set up more than 400 elevators in old neighborhoods this year, with plans for 1,000 more by 2020.

The policy has brought new business opportunities. In Beijing this year alone, elevator installation could create more than 100 million yuan of market value.

"Putting lifts in old buildings is a burgeoning business of our company and, in the past two years, business has been very good," said Cao Juhui of Hitachi Elevators.

Lian Yuming, president of Beijing International Institute for Urban Development, said that the elevator program is an aspect of people-centered development.

"Only when a city cares for its citizens can it become a better place to live," he said.MOGADISHU, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) has condemned Sunday's deadly car bombing in central Mogadishu in which at least five people were killed, saying increased terror attacks will not derail efforts to stabilize the Horn of Africa nation.

UNSOM in a statement posted on its Twitter on Sunday night also extended condolences to families of victims of latest attack by violent extremists in Somalia.

"Terrorism will never diminish resilience of Somali people," said the UN mission.

The incident occurred when a car exploded at a key checkpoint in Mogadishu, killing five people and injuring four others.

The blast happened barely a week after a deadly attack at Wehliye Hotel in the city center claimed over 14 lives. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.PHNOM PENH, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has achieved remarkable success in combating HIV/AIDS in the last decade, a senior health official said Monday.

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

In a presentation during the Health Ministry's annual congress, Ly Penhsun, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and Social Transmitted Diseases Control, said about 538 people became newly infected with HIV in 2017, sharply down from estimated 2,562 in 2008.

"The prevalence rate of HIV infections had decreased to 0.6 percent in 2017 from 0.9 percent in 2008 and 1.6 percent in 1998," he said.

He said AIDS killed around 2,227 people last year, down from 3,806 a decade ago.

According to Penhsun, as of last year, some 68,678 people are living with HIV/AIDS, and 85 percent of them have received antiretroviral drugs.

In Cambodia, the first HIV infections were detected and diagnosed in 1991 and the first AIDS case was found in 1993.MAIMANA, Afghanistan, March 26 (Xinhua) -- At least five militants have been killed and nine others injured as a clash erupted between security forces and Taliban militants in Pashtun Kot district of northern Afghanistan's Faryab province, provincial police spokesman Abdul Karim Yurush said Monday.

The security forces, according to the official, launched major offensive against militants' hideouts in Kata Qala locality of Pashtun Kot district late Sunday night and so far, five insurgents have been killed and nine others sustained injuries.

Without commenting on possible casualties of security personnel the official asserted that the operations would last until the area is free of insurgents.

Taliban militants who are active in parts of the restive Faryab province haven't commented.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 18:42:16|Editor: Jiaxin

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GENEVA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government's latest tariff plan on imports from China contradicts its commitments that such a decision be based only on the findings by the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s Dispute Settlement Body, said Zhang Xiangchen, Chinese ambassador to the WTO, on Monday during a meeting in Geneva.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 18:47:17|Editor: pengying

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JERUSALEM, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Construction in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank grew sharply over the past year, as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration lifted a settlement freeze, according to a report released Monday.

Peace Now, an Israeli-based settlement watchdog, said in its annual report that a total of 2,783 new housing units began construction in 2017, around 17 percent higher than the annual average number since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in 2009.

Some 78 percent - or 2,168 housing units - of the new construction was in settlements in isolated areas, regions that are likely to be evicted in any two-state agreement.

At least 282 of the housing units were built without Israeli permits in illegal outposts, said the watchdog group.

Under international law, all settlements are illegal. Outposts are settlements that are illegal also under Israeli law because they were constructed without permits from the Israeli authorities.

In 1996, the Netanyahu government initiated a practice of turning a blind eye to the outposts. Following domestic and international pressure, the practice was stopped in 2005, when by that time over 100 outposts had been founded, the report showed.

However, in 2011, Israeli government declared a new policy to legalize the outposts, which continues until today. "Since then, 11 outposts have been fully legalized and another 35 have started the process of legalization," the report read.

Over the past year, three new outposts were established, namely Neve Achi north of Ramallah city, Kedem Arava south of Jericho, and Shabtai's Farm south of Dahariya.

"The steady pace of construction and building deep in the West Bank attest to Prime Minister Netanyahu's steadfast abetting of the settlement enterprise," Peace Now said in a statement. "It is also apparent that the new U.S. presidency in 2017 had no marginal deterrent effect on these Israeli unilateral moves, which continue to inflict severe damage on Palestinians' way of life and on prospects for a two-state solution."

The figures were released amidst growing mistrust between the Palestinian National Authority and the Trump administration. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently slammed the United States as a biased broker in the wake of Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on December 6 last year.

Tensions were looming ahead of May 1, the scheduled date for the relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and has kept its control over the territories despite international criticism.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 19:02:19|Editor: Jiaxin

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TAIYUAN, March 26 (Xinhua) -- A court in north China's Shanxi Province Monday sentenced two former police officers to life imprisonment for protecting a gang of tomb raiders and gambling and drug dealing activities.

Jing Yimin, former deputy head of Wenxi County public security bureau, and Li Anji, of the bureau's crime investigation team, were found by the Intermediate People's Court of Yuncheng City to have shielded the tomb raiders from 2010 to 2016.

Li Xiaodong, another former police officer, received a jail term of 16 years as an accessory.

Jing instructed other two officers to skip some tomb sites on their patrols, the court found. They were also found to have colluded with gang members in making statements following the gang's arrest.

Members of the gang were convicted of 16 crimes on Feb. 10. One received a suspended death penalty and another four were sentenced to life in prison.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 19:07:20|Editor: Mengjie

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Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng (R), also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, meets with World Bank Chief Executive Officer Kristalina Georgieva in Beijing, capital of China, March 26, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng on Monday met with World Bank Chief Executive Officer Kristalina Georgieva, calling for closer cooperation between the two sides.

Han spoke highly of World Bank support for China in poverty reduction, environmental protection and innovation.

He called on both sides to cooperate more on rural revitalization, ecological advancement and the Belt and Road Initiative.

China attaches great importance to improving its business environment and is doing the best in this area, said Han.

Georgieva, who is here to attend China Development Forum 2018, praised China's achievements since reform and opening up began four decades ago.

She expressed appreciation for China's contribution to the World Bank and the global poverty reduction, voicing willingness for cooperation in the Belt and Road Initiative and business environment improvement.TOKYO, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The father of a young Vietnamese girl who was allegedly murdered said Monday that he hoped justice would be served and that it had been a very long year for him and his family.

Le Anh Hao, 35, made the remarks at a press briefing on the first anniversary of the discovery of his daughter's body.

He laid flowers at the site where his daughter's body was found in Abiko, east of Tokyo.

At the site where the body of Le Thi Nhat Linh, 9, was found, Hao said it had been "really a long year" for the family.

He also said he hoped that justice will be served in the upcoming murder trial.

Yasumasa Shibuya, 46, has been indicted for the murder of Le Thi Nhat Linh and on other charges.

The trial will begin at the Chiba District Court on June 4.

Shibuya was the head of the parents' association at the girl's elementary school at the time of the murder.

Hao, as quoted by local media, said that more than 1.1 million signatures have been collected seeking capital punishment for Shibuya from around Japan, Vietnam and other places.

Hao, a resident of Matsudo in Chiba Prefecture, met with the Matsudo Mayor Kenji Hongoya prior to visiting the crime scene.

Hongoya said that it was the responsibility of adults to take care of children and as adults could not protect Linh he was very sorry.

Hao will continue to live in Matsudo and raise Linh's 4-year-old brother in the city, the mayor also said.PARIS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- French transport facility manufacturer Alstom on Monday announced a business deal worth 330 million euros (407.81 million U.S. dollars) to supply 54 Coradia Stream inter-city trains to Italy.

Alstom's new four contracts is part of the framework agreement signed in 2016 with Italian state-run railway operator Trenitalia to provide 54 trains destined for the regions of Abruzzo, Liguria, Marche and Veneto.

With an Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) and maximum speed of 160 km/h, Alstom's Coradia Stream trains are the latest generation of trains designed for regional and intercity lines which transport 300 passengers and offer easy accessibility, it said in statement.

The trains also called "Pop" will be manufactured by the French group in Italy. (1 euro = 1.235 U.S. dollars)Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 19:32:29|Editor: Jiaxin

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BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's special envoy State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay a working visit to Russia on Tuesday and Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday.by Ahmed Shafiq

CAIRO, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Voters flocked Monday to polling stations across Egypt to choose a new president for the next four years, with an expected easy win for incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.

Polls opened at 9 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on the first of three days of voting.

Since early hours of the morning, voters lined up in front of ballot stations that were heavily guarded by army and police personnel.

According to state TV, Sisi cast his vote in Cairo.

Sisi's sole rival in the presidential race is little-known politician Moussa Mostafa Moussa, Chairman of liberal Ghad Party, after a couple of possible strong challengers have either withdrawn or disqualified for violations.

The election result will be announced on April 2, according to the National Election Authority.

The majority of voters, mostly old men and women, revealed they have or will vote for President Sisi for the "achievements he made" in his first term as president.

Outside the polling stations, voters celebrated as they danced and waved national flags amid a joyful atmosphere.

"I have already voted for Sisi because I believe he really deserves to be the president of Egypt," Mohga Haikal, a woman in her fifties, told Xinhua outside a ballot station in Cairo's upscale Maadi district.

The lady, who was joined by her friends, urged the Egyptians to participate in the elections, no matter who they might choose.

"Taking part in the elections is a national duty that will help us build a better Egypt," she said.

Egypt has over 59 million eligible voters out of the country's 104 million population. A week ago, the country wrapped up the voting process of Egyptian expatriates in 124 countries across the world.

There are some 13,706 polling stations held at schools nationwide, with about 18,000 judges overseeing the voting process that is also monitored by at least 53 local organizations and nine international ones, besides more than 680 foreign reporters.

At Hadayek al-Maadi polling station in Maadi district, the voting process went smooth as dozens of voters cast their ballots during the very first minutes of the initial elections day.

"The turnout is really promising and everything is going smooth," Judge Yossif Jamal, head of Hadayek al-Maadi polling station, told Xinhua.

He stressed that the army and police have tightened security measures around polling stations to ensure a safe atmosphere for voters, expecting that more voters will approach the station later in the day.

On Sunday, the Egyptian army announced the deployment of troopers to secure polling stations across the country, while Interior Ministry said it has provided hotlines to receive the inquiries of voters about addresses of polling stations and resolve any other issues they may face during the voting process.

Hours before the election kicked off, the police announced the killing of six terrorists during a raid in Beheira province north of the capital Cairo.

The interior ministry said the terrorist cell was involved in Saturday's car bomb attack in the nearby coastal province of Alexandria that killed two policemen and wounded at least four others.

Terror activities in Egypt have killed hundreds of security men and civilians since the military toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently outlawed Brotherhood group.

"I came here today to vote against terrorism...voting for Sisi means voting against terrorism," Ahmed Saleh, a lawyer, told Xinhua.

Saleh said he voted for Sisi because he exerted great efforts in fighting terrorism which killed hundreds of Egyptians over the past few years.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 19:52:36|Editor: Jiaxin

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BRUSSELS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission opened on Monday a safeguard investigation on imports of a number of steel products into the European Union, in response to recent United States metal tariffs plans.

China's Ministry of Commerce said immediately after the Commission's the safeguard investigation opening that while necessary response from the EU side to the U.S. tariffs is understandable, adopting global safeguards is not the right choice.

Wang Hejun, head of the ministry's Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau, said the safeguard will further aggravate the chaos and panic of international trade caused by U.S. measures and cause a more serious and damaging impact on the normal international trade order.

The EU investigation concerns products of all origin, said the Commission in a statement, adding that the procedure can result in imposition of import tariffs or quotas that would shield EU producers from "excessive imports" if necessary.

The Commission said imports of certain steel products have been increasing, and may be even stronger now that the access to the U.S. market has been limited and steel products from other parts of the world previously destined to the U.S. may be redirected to Europe.

The investigation covering 27 steel product categories will in principle be concluded within nine months, said the Commission's statement, adding that should provisional measures prove necessary, they can be adopted at short notice. The Commission continues to further examine the market situation and is prepared to react as appropriate.

The Commission said investigation procedure follows strictly multilateral rules in trade defence tools recognised by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Wang, the Chinese official, said that EU, as an important member of the WTO and an important force in the global trade system, should strengthen cooperation with all its members and jointly oppose trade protectionism.

Wang said that the EU should not take actions that impair the global trade order, and that China is willing to strengthen communication and cooperation with all parties, including the EU, to jointly deal with the chaos caused by the U.S. measures on the global steel and aluminum trade.

China will seriously assess the impact of the U.S. and EU measures on China, and will take corresponding measures when necessary, to firmly safeguard the interests of Chinese companies, Wang added.DAMASCUS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The rebels in the Douma district of Damascus' Eastern Ghouta area are ready to lay down weapons and withdraw from their main stronghold in Douma district, state news agency SANA reported on Monday.

SANA spelled no further details yet about the news, but the Islam Army, the major rebel group in Douma, said on Monday that the news of its fighters leaving Douma is not accurate, adding that negotiations with the Russian side are ongoing.

In a statement, the Islam Army denied reaching an agreement to lay down weapons and leave Douma, saying the negotiations with the Russians are ongoing without reaching a final deal yet.

Douma is the last remaining area in Eastern Ghouta that has yet to be included in a deal akin to what happened in other towns in that sprawling countryside of Damascus, where the army captured 90 percent of its areas amid ongoing evacuation of rebels and their families from that area under a deal mediated by Russia.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 19:57:40|Editor: Jiaxin

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GUANGZHOU, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) was put to use on Sunday in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province.

The CSNS is the nation's first research facility providing the most intense pulsed neutron beams for scientific research.

Spallation neutron source can accelerate protons before smashing them into a target to produce neutrons. The neutrons are then sent to numerous instruments that are used by researchers to study materials.

The neutrons act as a "super microscope" to probe the structure of the microscopic world, similar to x-rays.

"But neutrons have special properties that x-rays do not possess. For example, neutrons bear no charge, but with magnetic vectors the neutrons have a high ability to penetrate through matter," said Chen Hesheng, director of the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the CSNS project manager.

Over the years, neutron scattering has made a contribution to many areas of physics, chemistry, biology, materials science and materials engineering, where applications range from consumer products to photovoltaic materials and drug delivery.

Yet building spallation neutron sources can be technically complex and expensive and previously there were only three in operation, in the United States, the UK and Japan.

Construction of the CSNS project in China started in 2011 under the direction of IHEP, with a budget of 2.3 billion yuan (364 million U.S. dollars).

"The CSNS is open to both domestic users and international users. The CSNS will provide the neutron scattering community with unprecedented research opportunities," Chen said.Supporters of incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi wave flags outside a polling station during Egypt's presidential election in Cairo, Egypt, March 26, 2018. Voting of Egypt's presidential election began on Monday, with an expected easy win for incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. (Xinhua/Meng Tao)

by Ahmed Shafiq

CAIRO, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Voters flocked Monday to polling stations across Egypt to choose a new president for the next four years, with an expected easy win for incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.

Polls opened at 9 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on the first of three days of voting.

Since early hours of the morning, voters lined up in front of ballot stations that were heavily guarded by army and police personnel.

According to state TV, Sisi cast his vote in Cairo.

Incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) casts his ballot for Egypt's presidential election at a polling station in Cairo, Egypt, on March 26, 2018. Voting of Egypt's presidential election began on Monday, with an expected easy win for incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. (Xinhua/MENA)

Sisi's sole rival in the presidential race is little-known politician Moussa Mostafa Moussa, Chairman of liberal Ghad Party, after a couple of possible strong challengers have either withdrawn or disqualified for violations.

The election result will be announced on April 2, according to the National Election Authority.

The majority of voters, mostly old men and women, revealed they have or will vote for President Sisi for the "achievements he made" in his first term as president.

Outside the polling stations, voters celebrated as they danced and waved national flags amid a joyful atmosphere.

"I have already voted for Sisi because I believe he really deserves to be the president of Egypt," Mohga Haikal, a woman in her fifties, told Xinhua outside a ballot station in Cairo's upscale Maadi district.

The lady, who was joined by her friends, urged the Egyptians to participate in the elections, no matter who they might choose.

"Taking part in the elections is a national duty that will help us build a better Egypt," she said.

People wait in queue to cast ballots for Egypt's presidential election at a polling station in Cairo, Egypt, on March 26, 2018. Voting of Egypt's presidential election began on Monday, with an expected easy win for incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

Egypt has over 59 million eligible voters out of the country's 104 million population. A week ago, the country wrapped up the voting process of Egyptian expatriates in 124 countries across the world.

There are some 13,706 polling stations held at schools nationwide, with about 18,000 judges overseeing the voting process that is also monitored by at least 53 local organizations and nine international ones, besides more than 680 foreign reporters.

At Hadayek al-Maadi polling station in Maadi district, the voting process went smooth as dozens of voters cast their ballots during the very first minutes of the initial elections day.

"The turnout is really promising and everything is going smooth," Judge Yossif Jamal, head of Hadayek al-Maadi polling station, told Xinhua.

He stressed that the army and police have tightened security measures around polling stations to ensure a safe atmosphere for voters, expecting that more voters will approach the station later in the day.

On Sunday, the Egyptian army announced the deployment of troopers to secure polling stations across the country, while Interior Ministry said it has provided hotlines to receive the inquiries of voters about addresses of polling stations and resolve any other issues they may face during the voting process.

Hours before the election kicked off, the police announced the killing of six terrorists during a raid in Beheira province north of the capital Cairo.

The interior ministry said the terrorist cell was involved in Saturday's car bomb attack in the nearby coastal province of Alexandria that killed two policemen and wounded at least four others.

Terror activities in Egypt have killed hundreds of security men and civilians since the military toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently outlawed Brotherhood group.

"I came here today to vote against terrorism...voting for Sisi means voting against terrorism," Ahmed Saleh, a lawyer, told Xinhua.

Saleh said he voted for Sisi because he exerted great efforts in fighting terrorism which killed hundreds of Egyptians over the past few years.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 20:17:43|Editor: Mengjie

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GENEVA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government's latest tariff plan on imports from China contradicts its commitments that such a decision be based only on the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), said Zhang Xiangchen, Chinese ambassador to the WTO, on Monday during a meeting here.

Zhang said what the United States had done in contradiction with its commitments made at WTO more than a decade ago, and that the United States had "explicitly, officially, repeatedly and unconditionally confirmed" that it would base a "Section 301" decision only on adopted DSB findings.

"Section 301" is a measure under the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 that allows the president to take all appropriate action, including retaliation, if an investigation finds foreign trade practices burden or restrict U.S. commerce or are unreasonable or discriminatory.

"According to the WTO rulings and the U.S. commitment, the U.S. shall by no means determine unilaterally based on a 301 investigation that other members have violated the WTO rules," Zhang said during a meeting of WTO's Council on Trade in Goods.

Last Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China and restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States.

The memorandum is based on a Section 301 investigation, launched by the Trump administration in August 2017, into alleged Chinese intellectual property and technology transfer practices.

Related:

Chinese vice premier urges U.S. to maintain stability of bilateral trade

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu He had a phone conversation with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Saturday morning, urging concerted efforts to maintain the stability of China-U.S. trade ties.

During their conversation, Mnuchin briefed the Chinese side on the latest development of Section 301 investigation report released by the U.S. side. Full story

Commentary: Chinese economy resilient enough to cope with trade war

BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- History tells that trade wars are a losing game. No one benefits, and everyone ends up a bit bruised.

Despite the risk of triggering a trade war, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum that could result in heavy tariffs on up to 60-billion-U.S.-dollar imports from China as well as restrictions on Chinese investments. Full story

China to take all necessary countermeasures against possible trade war: Chinese ambassador to U.S.

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Xinhua) -- China opposes trade protectionism and will fight against any possible trade war, said Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai in a TV interview with U.S. Bloomberg on Friday.

Cui said the Chinese side is clearly against any unilateral protectionist moves and a trade war, which "would hurt everybody, including the United States itself, and that would certainly hurt the daily life of the American middle-class people, the American companies and the financial market." Full story

China will fight to the end in any trade war: Foreign Ministry

BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday reaffirmed its position on recent U.S. trade moves, saying that China will fight to the end in any trade war.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 20:17:43|Editor: pengying

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JERUSALEM, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Bronze coins, the last remnants of a four-year Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire were found near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, sources from the Hebrew University said Monday.

These bronze coins were discovered by Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar during renewed excavations at the Ophel, located below the Temple Mount's southern wall.

These 1.5-centimeter bronze coins were left behind by Jewish residents who hid in a large cave for four years from the Roman siege of Jerusalem, up until the destruction of the Second Temple and the city of Jerusalem, said the Hebrew University archaeologist.

While several of the coins date to the early years of the revolt, the great majority are from its final year, otherwise known as, "Year Four" (69-70 CE), said Mazar.

Significantly, during the final year, the Hebrew inscription on the coins was changed from "For the Freedom of Zion" to "For the Redemption of Zion," a shift which reflects the change of the rebels during this period of horror and famine, said Mazar.

In addition to Hebrew inscriptions, the coins were decorated with Jewish symbols, such as the four biblical plant species: palm, myrtle, citron and willow, and a picture of the goblet that was used in the Temple service.

Many broken pottery vessels, including jars and cooking pots, were also found in the cave, said the sources.

According to Mazar, it is remarkable that this cave was never discovered by subsequent residents of Jerusalem nor used again after the Second Temple period. In this way, the cave acts as a veritable time capsule of life in Jerusalem under the siege and during the four-year revolt against the Roman Empire.

These findings all date back to the time of the rebellion and were found in the Ophel Cave directly above a Hasmonean Period layer that was situated at the base of the cave.

The coins were well preserved, probably because they were in use for a short time, noted Mazar.

A similar number of "Year Four" coins were found near Robinson's Arch, near the Western Wall, by Professor Benjamin Mazar, Eilat Mazar's grandfather, said the sources. He conducted the Temple Mount excavations right after Israel's Six Day War, on behalf of Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 20:22:45|Editor: pengying

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JERUSALEM, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife and son were questioned by the police on Monday over corruption investigation that also involves the country's largest telecom company.

A police spokesperson confirmed that Netanyahu was questioned at the official Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem. His questioning lasted about four hours.

In the same time, his wife, Sara Netanyahu, was separately questioned at the offices of Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit in Lod, outside Tel Aviv, and their son, Yair Netanyahu, was questioned at the office of the Israel Securities Authorities.

An earlier statement said that Shaul Elovitch, the control-holder of Bezeq telecom and a major suspect in the affair, was also questioned.

The Netanyahus are suspected of being involved in a bribery case, dubbed "case 4,000," in which Elovitch's Bezeq received regulatory and financial benefits from the Communication Ministry, during Netanyahu's term as the communication minister. In exchange, Netanyahu received positive coverage in Walla, a news site controlled by Elovitch.

It was Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu's second questioning in the "case 4000" and the first time Yair Netanyahu was questioned.

The questioning was the first time the suspects were confronted with information provided by Nir Hefetz, Netanyahu's former media adviser and until recently one of his closest associate, who turned a state witness against him last month.

Netanyahu and his associates have been entangled in at least four corruption investigations over the past months.

The long-time leader denies any wrongdoing and maintains that the investigations are part of a witch-hunt perpetrated by the media and "the left."KIGALI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- African economies should learn from China's rapid rise in the areas of education, science and technology in order to harness the continent's efforts in achieving scientific advances and technological progress, a South African scientist said Monday.

"China has invested heavily in education, science and technology and the results are amazing. China is emerging as a new global science and technology powerhouse," said Neil Turok, founder of African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), remarks at the opening of the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) global gathering 2018 in Kigali, capital city of Rwanda.

"Africa should draw inspiration from the development milestones of China in order to be one of the major contributors to world science," said Turok, who is also the director of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada.

He also called on African economies to focus, prioritize and promote science and technology ideas to solve social-economic challenges.

Rwanda hosts the global science meeting from March 26 to 28. It has brought together about 1,600 participants including global scientists, researchers, students, policy makers and government officials among others to highlight the contributions of Africa's scientists and innovators to the global scientific community.

The NEF meeting will have at least 50 percent of the participants under 42 years, while women will be at least 40 percent, according to organizers.

Launched in 2013, NEF is an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in partnership with Robert Bosch Stiftung, a Germany charitable institution, which serves as a platform to connect science, society and policy in Africa and the rest of the world.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 20:37:48|Editor: Jiaxin

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BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday launched a new website to boost its military modernization.

"The ultimate goal of the website is to contribute to the country's drive of building a strong army," said Zhang Youxia, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Zhang said the platform is an information, innovation and service platform that would help help China to create a strong army, and aid service personnel.File photo shows engineers debug a neutron instrument for the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 1, 2017. A neutron beam was successfully obtained at the CSNS for the first time on Aug. 28, 2017.

GUANGZHOU, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) was put to use on Sunday in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province.

The CSNS is the nation's first research facility providing the most intense pulsed neutron beams for scientific research.

Spallation neutron source can accelerate protons before smashing them into a target to produce neutrons. The neutrons are then sent to numerous instruments that are used by researchers to study materials.

Photo taken on Sept. 1, 2017 shows the circular accelerator for the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province.

The neutrons act as a "super microscope" to probe the structure of the microscopic world, similar to x-rays.

"But neutrons have special properties that x-rays do not possess. For example, neutrons bear no charge, but with magnetic vectors the neutrons have a high ability to penetrate through matter," said Chen Hesheng, director of the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the CSNS project manager.

File photo shows engineers work at the control room of circular accelerator for the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 1, 2017.

Over the years, neutron scattering has made a contribution to many areas of physics, chemistry, biology, materials science and materials engineering, where applications range from consumer products to photovoltaic materials and drug delivery.

Yet building spallation neutron sources can be technically complex and expensive and previously there were only three in operation, in the United States, the UK and Japan.

Construction of the CSNS project in China started in 2011 under the direction of IHEP, with a budget of 2.3 billion yuan (364 million U.S. dollars).

"The CSNS is open to both domestic users and international users. The CSNS will provide the neutron scattering community with unprecedented research opportunities," Chen said.

File photo shows an engineer debugs a neutron instrument for the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 1, 2017.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 20:42:49|Editor: Jiaxin

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SHENZHEN, March 26 (Xinhua) -- In a mangrove nature reserve on the coast in Shenzhen, one of China's most modern and vibrant megacities, about 100,000 migratory birds are enjoying their last moments of leisure before departing for their long flight to Australia.

The birds, including egrets, gulls and geese, bask in the sun on the beach or hover over the sea, surrounded by 300 hectares of swamp in downtown Shenzhen, a city previously best known for its massed ranks of technology companies.

The number of bird species recorded in Shenzhen has grown from 280 in 2000 to 366 last year, according to the city birding association. The trend is the direct result of conservation and protection of the birds during the past 20 years.

On the frontline of reform and opening up, waters around Shenzhen were severely polluted as manufacturing grew in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Uncontrolled discharge of liquid and solid waste into the sea depleted fish and shrimp stocks, and ruined vegetation of the reserve. Numbers of migratory birds dwindled.

The reserve's location, at the heart of the commercial zone, also caught the predatory eyes of real estate developers.

"If the reserve had been fallen victim to commercial developers, we would have had nothing to save for future generations," said Li Ming of the the city forestry department.

Shenzhen has contained its chaotic urban sprawl by drawing red lines and improving environmental protection, Li said.

During the past 20 years, the city has restored over 200,000 square meters of lakes and planted nearly 40,000 square meters of mangroves. A group of Shenzhen police protect the birds that stay in Shenzhen from October to March each year.

Since 1990, the police contingent has planted about 300,000 mangroves trees, more than 90 percent of which survived. They have also rescued more than 1,800 birds, many of which were injured in storms and gales brought by typhoons.

In 2017 alone, the team rescued more than 200 migratory birds and have deterred illegal fishing, according to Liu Changlong with the border police.

"We are friends of the birds. Sometimes you can see tired little birds getting a free ride on the roof of our cruiser," Liu said.

Shenzhen's residents also enjoy the company of the birds, with more people joining birdwatching groups every year.

"Some cities have their iconic parks, for example Central Park in New York and the Olympic Park in Beijing. We're working to make the mangrove reserve ours," Li said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 20:52:50|Editor: Jiaxin

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GUANGZHOU, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists are taking a close look at cockroaches to explore their potential in medical treatment.

The research is led by Li Sheng, director of the Institute of Insect Science and Technology at South China Normal University in Guangzhou City.

Based on previous studies on the German cockroach by foreign researchers, Li's team has been focusing on the genetic code of the American cockroach.

According to Li, a cockroach has as many as 522 taste receptors, 329 of which have evolved into bitter receptors that respond to poisonous foods.

"They eat almost everything. They can do self-detoxification if they eat the wrong food," Li explained. "Even if it is beheaded, its body can still move for five or six days. If you cut its legs or antennae off, they will recover in just a few days and look almost the same as before."

He suggested that the factor in the body of cockroaches that helps them heal wounds and regenerate tissue might also be effective in repairing wounds to the human body.

The team's research paper, "The genomic and functional landscapes of developmental plasticity in the American cockroach," was published online in Nature Communications on March 21.

Cockroaches are an ingredient in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Extracts of active ingredients from cockroaches have also been used in modern Chinese clinics for more than 30 years, mainly to treat diseases such as gastric and oral ulcers, according to Li.

Li said his team's research suggests possibilities for wider medical use of the American cockroach.

"The extracts could even be used to make beauty masks and treat hair loss in the future," He said.MOSCOW, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Two Russian Su-35s fighter jets for the first time landed in an airfield on Iturup (called as Etorofu by Japan), one of the four Pacific islands claimed by both Russia and Japan, during a training flight, the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.

The jets took off from Khabarovsk Territory in Russia's Far East, flew more than 2,000 km and returned to their home base after completing the training flight, the ministry said in a statement.

The exercises were conducted to improve flight training and pilots' skills in protecting air borders, it said.

They also involved servicemen of the motor rifle division which flew over a number of Kuril islands in helicopters and destroyed "a subversive-reconnaissance group of a conventional enemy" upon landing.

Su-35s is an improved version of Su-35 which is single-seat, twin engines, highly-maneuverable multipurpose aircraft and was first commissioned by the Russian Air Force in 2009.

Russia and Japan are involved in a territorial row over Iturup, which Japan calls Etorofu, and other three islands off Japan's northern prefecture of Hokkaido. The four islands that are under Russia's control are called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.

The decades-old territorial dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a post-World War II peace treaty and hindered diplomatic and trade relations between them.

Last month, Russia said it planned to station combat jets and civil aircraft on Iturup island, which incurred protests from Japan.

Russia and Japan have agreed on joint economic activities on the four islands, but nothing substantial has been achieved.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 20:52:50|Editor: Jiaxin

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ZAGREB, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Croatian State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures rejected on Monday all appeals against the selection of a Chinese consortium to build Peljesac bridge, state television reported.

After more than two months of analyzing their allegations, the state commission rejected appeals from Austrian construction firm Strabag, as well as from the consortium of Italian Astaldi and Turkish IC Ictas, both bidders for the construction of Peljesac bridge, one of the most important infrastructure projects in Croatia.

The Croatian state-owned motorway operator Hrvatske Ceste (Croatian Roads) awarded the project to the third bidder, a consortium led by China Road and Bridge Corporation in January.

The Commission decided that the consortium led by China Road and Bridge Corporation is fulfilling all technical conditions for the project and that the price claims in the appeal are not accurate.

The Austrian firm, the statement says, has compared individual items in the budget that cannot be representative of the whole project.

The Austrian firm and Italian-Turkish consortium were complaining about the price the Chinese consortium has offered for such a big project. Chinese offer was the lowest, 2.08 billion kuna (about 340 million U.S. dollars). Austrian company's offer was 2.62 billion kuna (about 432 million U.S. dollars) while Italian-Turkish consortium offered 2.55 billion kuna (about 426 million U.S. dollars). The estimated cost of this bridge by Croatia was 1.8 billion kuna (about 300 million U.S. dollars).

They also claimed the Chinese company "received state aid" for entering the EU market, thus making them face "unfair competition".

Speaking at a press briefing in late January, Chinese Ambassador to Croatia Hu Zhaoming pointed out that the appeals against Chinese consortium were "groundless".

"I believe that the price by the Croatian side was endorsed by relevant agencies, including the European ones. If 2.08 billion kuna is a dumping price, what about 1.8 billion kuna," said Hu.

He reiterated that the Peljesac bridge project was opened for international bidding and that the Chinese consortium did not hide its identity.

The appeal rejection has removed the obstacle for the bridge construction. Daily newspaper "Vecernji list" reported that the contract with the Chinese consortium would be signed in 10 days.

The Peljesac bridge, 55-meter high and 2.4 km-long with four lanes, will connect the southernmost part of Croatia around Dubrovnik with the rest of the mainland. With the bridge, Croatia will have a direct link between the two territories, bypassing the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Neum corridor, a strip of the Adriatic coastline which is a part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is currently the only land-based communication route between Dubrovnik and the rest of Croatian mainland.Photo taken on March 25 shows a bank outlet in Accra, capital of Ghana. A digital transaction boom in Ghana is predicted to take more customers away from brick and mortar banks. (Xinhua/Zhao Shuting)

by Justice Lee Adoboe

ACCRA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Kafui Adzah can be called a tech-savvy entrepreneur in Ghana. She left her banking employment in 2012 to establish a cuisine business selling local dishes, including the popular "Wakye," boiled rice and beans served with chilly sauce.

What makes her business in Accra stand out is all her food is served by orders done through a mobile phone app and she receives money through Mobile Money and other apps.

The 33-year-old cooked food vendor told Xinhua she now hardly receives physical cash.

"I use Mobile Money and I receive my sales on it."

Adzah is not alone in this electronic cash transaction boom that is catching on in Ghana, with experts suggesting it would become a dominant factor in business transactions in the country in the years to come.

Mobile money services provided by telecom companies are helping improve deposit mobilization by the banking sector while removing major bottlenecks to financial intermediation.

Ghana's central bank reported that the value of the country's mobile transactions almost doubled last year to reach 155.8 billion cedis.

One of the mobile telecoms companies MTN reported that it had paid 71 million Ghana cedis or 16.01 million U.S. dollars as interest on deposits to Mobile Money account holders in 2017.

There is a growing convergence between Mobile Money services and commercial banks where bank accounts are getting linked to mobile money accounts for easy access.

Electronic transactions in Ghana come either through Mobile Money services or direct bank transfers through apps that link bank accounts with mobile phones.

Many of those who use electronic cash transactions said it is more convenient, swift and safe as it cuts down on time spent in banking halls, while protecting users against theft by pick-pockets and robbers.

"It is so convenient and secure; I don't carry cash home after work. And the buyer doesn't have to worry about carrying cash. Even my bank account, I monitor it electronically," Adzah said.

"Mobile money allows me to pay for services from any location, which hitherto, I would have had to go to the offices of the service providers to pay for. A typical example is the DSTV (a pay-per-view TV station) subscription," Emmanuel Dennis Dzorkpe, a contractor in Takoradi, said.

He added: "Then I have ready and easy access to my funds, unlike in the past when you would have to queue at banking halls to check on the status of your account or put up with faulty ATM machines trying to withdraw money."

In response to the trend, major commercial banks in Ghana are reportedly investing heavily in electronic banking platforms that enable customers to do transaction or manage their accounts through a mobile phone app.

This development, experts argue, will put a stop to the physical branch expansion drive that banks do at the moment in order to expand their service base.

"Within five years, most commercial banks would stop the brick and mortar expansion drive as digital transactions would become more effective tools for reaching clients," Arnold Parker, Managing Director of AFB, a non-bank financial service company, told Xinhua.

Parker said people with daily eight-hour jobs were beginning to realize that electronic banking was the way forward, prompting the banks to invest heavily in digital infrastructure.

Moreover, the micro-finance service operator said the digital financing would catalyze economic growth as projects do not get stalled.

"One of the things that worry us most is when we see uncompleted houses and projects. A lot of people try to buy land and it takes them forever to develop that. So once you have people beginning to have access to financing, what then happens is that their personal projects begin to be done with speed," he said.

"So that means that there is demand in the economy: people are buying cement, more blocks, employing masons, employing carpenters."

Parker explained that the integration of Ghana's financial market into the global financial market would also become a faster reality through electronic transactions.

Kofi Yamoah, Managing Director of Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), believed technology is going to play a major part, whether in banking or other services, in the near future.

"So we all need to draw attention to it so that we don't necessarily think that if you want to expand as a financial institution, you must have 1,000 brick and mortar braches. You can still reach your customers by other means."

SECURITY PREWARNING

Yet like other countries that have seen an electronic transations boom, there have been rising concerns in Ghana over the safety of digital transactions.

On Wednesday, Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison assured their resolve to protect the system as the banking sector has witnessed global cyber-attacks that resulted in disruptions to some critical financial services and destroyed financial assets and savings.

"The digitization of banking operations has engineered innovative financial products and expanded the scope of financial services alongside improved payments and settlement systems. These notwithstanding, the growth of technology-driven electronic payments are also associated with cyber-related risks such as insecure card data systems and identity theft."by Abu Hanifah

JAKARTA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government planned to further enhance its tourism service sector by developing nomadic tourism, which would be coupled with digital tourism.

The plan to develop simple and fast moving tourism was outlined in the recent annual national workshop meeting of Indonesian tourism stakeholders held in Bali.

To address the aim, Indonesia needs to provide simpler and quicker transport vehicles to ensure foreign travelers to reach the destinations quickly without hassle.

"Foreign wanderers do not want complicated procedures to travel from one to another point in an archipelago country like Indonesia. They like simple access. There has to be more addition of simple vehicles like seaplanes, helicopters and speedboats," Nomadic Tourism program planner of the Indonesian Tourism Ministry Waizly Darwin said in the workshop.

He added that besides the vehicles, related tourism institutions should also provide proper accommodations suited with the fast-moving foreign travelers in the destinations.

Darwin said the accommodations should be highly-memorable, leaving good impression for the travelers that would eventually make them come back again in the future.

Among the accommodations considered fit for the travelers in nomadic tourism were camping ground, caravans and home pods, he added.

"Foreign travelers like good surprises. We have to be able to develop new sensations for them. With myriads of traditional attractions, Indonesia has great potential in this tourism genre," Darwin said.

He added that Indonesia has projected 4 destinations to accommodate nomadic tourism, including Labuan Bajo and Mandalika in eastern region, Lake Toba in North Sumatra province and Borobudur Temple in Central Java province.

Adding Indonesia's high potentialities to receive nomadic travelers, Darwin said that Bali's Canggu, Ubud and Denpasar have ranked among ten most recommended places on earth by nomadiclist.com, a website that reviews places for nomadic tour.

According to him, the world's nomadic travelers were estimated to reach 39.7 million, divided into subgroups of digital nomads, millennial nomads and luxurious nomads.

Indonesian Tourism Minister Arief Yahya predicted that nomadic tourism trend would surge in the future along with rapid digital technology and social media development.

"Departed as a temporary solution for budget travelers, nomadic tourism has been developed into a highly potential tourism business. It deserves a permanent solution for our tourism sector. All we need is to improve the accessibility and accommodation for them," he said in the event held late last week.

Indonesia is now taking more efforts to develop its tourism which has been set as a leading sector in its economy. New destinations are built across the country, expected to par with Bali in attracting foreign tourists.

The nation has set the target to welcome 17 and 20 million foreign tourists this year and next year respectively after recording an increasing number of their arrivals in recent years.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 21:17:58|Editor: pengying

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By Fuad Rajeh

SANAA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- A fourth year of the conflict and the world's largest humanitarian crisis has begun in Yemen, while the international community continues to walk in a vicious circle of failure to address real obstacles to peace in the country.

Around 22.2 million out of a population of 27 million are in need of immediate humanitarian or protection assistance, with 11.3 million being in acute need. Basic services have largely deteriorated after most of the country's infrastructures have been damaged by ground shelling and Saudi-led airstrikes during the past three years.

The lack of trust among the local factions and the ambitions and agendas of the Saudi-led coalition stand on top of the obstacles to peace in Yemen, observers said.

The objectives of the Saudi-led coalition have swerved, observers said, adding that some member states of the coalition now have agendas undermining the government they are backing.

The insistence of the Houthis on keeping the political gains they have achieved and continuing the war adds to challenges before the peace as well, they said.

Nabil Albukiri, a researcher in international strategies, said the solution is in the hands of the Yemenis after regional and foreign players have made the situation more complicated.

"All Yemeni factions should make concessions starting with the withdrawal of the Houthis from the capital Sanaa and then forming independent military and security forces. The Yemeni factions should understand that they have failed to achieve military victories and all they have succeeded in is massive destruction of the nation," Albukiri said.

Theoretically, the internationally recognized government has driven the Houthi forces out of around 85% of the Yemeni land but practically it is controlling small parts of the liberated regions.

The coalition is running the largest parts of the liberated regions, including the temporary capital Aden, not successfully but through backing proxy forces that have been undermining the performance of the government.

Yaseen Al-Tamimi, a political writer and analyst, said there are scary trends to implement political agendas threatening the geopolitics of the country.

"Some factions that have been playing major roles in the war and politics such as the General People's Congress Party have become marginalized and so is the government which is being unable to act independently from its exile in Riyadh," he said.

The Houthi group killed former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, leader of the General People's Congress Party, in December and has since been trying to control his fans and all his party's assets.

"Regional and international players should find new and better ways to bridge the gap between the local factions, and those deeply involved in the war should not put their special interests ahead of the interest of the Yemeni people," Al-Tamimi said.

A new UN envoy for Yemen has assumed his job backed by international efforts to encourage the Yemeni factions to engage in incredible political process in order to end the conflict and the humanitarian crisis. Martin Griffiths said he will work hard to facilitate an inclusive political process based on the Gulf Initiative and its implementation mechanism, the outcomes of the national dialogue conference and UN resolution 2216.

Conditions set by each party to the conflict including insistence of the government that any solution must be based on the Gulf Initiative, the outcomes of the national dialogue conference and the UN resolution 2216 almost make peace impossible.

But it seems the lack of trust in the UN is one of the obstacles to establishing peace in the country as well.

Spokesperson for the Houthi group, also known as Ansarullah, Mohammed Abdulasalam said on Twitter: "there are no signs the international community is serious about finding a political solution to the conflict in Yemen. Some will take moves 'referring to EU efforts' to make the UN appear serving peace in Yemen though the UN has been dedicated itself to legitimizing and justifying the aggression on Yemen."

In this context, Hussain Albukhaiti, a political analyst, said the UN is not neutral in Yemen.

"Saudi Arabia is refusing a comprehensive ceasefire. This country began the war on us. But the UN does not point to Saudi Arabia as a party in the conflict and the international community continues to describe what this country is doing in Yemen as an intervention to restore the legitimacy of the Yemeni government, not a war."

"Hence, peace in Yemen requires a dialogue between Yemeni factions, and a dialogue between Yemenis and Saudi Arabia," Albukhaiti added.

He said foreign players are using the humanitarian crisis to achieve military gains instead of addressing the main reason for it which is the blockade.

The Saudi-led coalition imposed a blockade on all Yemeni sea, land and air ports as part of its military intervention in 2015.

The blockade has deepened the suffering of the Yemeni people after it has restricted all imports into a country that used to import 90% of its food needs and almost 100% of its medical supplies.

The UN says 45% of the country's medical facilities are currently functional. The rest has been partially and completely damaged in the fighting.

As a result, 16.4 million people lack access to adequate healthcare and 16 million lack access to clean water and sanitation.

Meanwhile, Rights Radar, an independent NGO, said in its report titled a three years of war and deadly blockade, that 27,000 people including 15,500 civilians have been killed and 58,000 including 35,000 civilians injured since the conflict escalated following the Saudi-led military intervention in March 2015.

About 2,980 people including 1,377 civilians have been maimed, 3.2 million internally displaced, 650,000 fled outside Yemen, and 750 forcibly disappeared, mostly politicians, activists and reporters, it said.

More than 26,000 houses and 6,800 public institutions have been partially and completely damaged, it said, while adding that 1,000 reporters have been forced to flee their homes to safe places inside Yemen or to flee to other countries.

Fuad Alsalahi, a political sociology professor at Sanaa University, said an end to the conflict in Yemen is being linked to the Saudi-Iranian conflict and the Russian and U.S. presence in Syria.

"Local factions have been acting as proxies and that is a huge problem as foreign players don't care about the tragedies and humanitarian losses here," Alsalahi said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 21:22:59|Editor: pengying

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CAIRO, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Egypt has strongly condemned on Monday the ballistic missile attacks carried out by Yemeni Houthi militants that targeted several cities in Saudi Arabia.

In a statement, Egypt's Foreign Ministry asserted Egypt's support to the Saudi government and people in face of "such hostile act which aims at destabilizing the kingdom's security and stability."

Yemeni Houthi rebels fired several long-range ballistic missiles toward four Saudi international airports on Sunday midnight, leaving an Egyptian citizen dead in the capital Riyadh.

Saudi state TV reported that the kingdom's air defense intercepted Houthi ballistic missiles on Sunday over the capital of Riyadh.

Meanwhile, Egypt stressed firm stance in support of the sovereignty and stability of the Arab countries against any terrorist or sabotage attacks.

Such acts would increase the steadfastness of the Arab coalition countries to restore legitimacy in Yemen and further intensify efforts against terrorism in the region, the statement read.

This is not the first time that Houthis fired missiles toward Riyadh as Saudi air defense systems shot down ballistic missiles targeting several vital sites in the Gulf country, including airports and a royal palace.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia led a military coalition of Arab forces, backed by the United States, to intervene in Yemen's conflict to back the government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi against the Houthis who are supported by Iran.WASHINGTON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and intelligence officials, and the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle in response to the poisoning of an Russian ex-spy in Britain earlier this month.

The Russian officials were asked to leave the United States within seven days, senior U.S. officials said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.WINDHOEK, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) migration advisor in the department of social affairs, Peter Mudungwe, said Monday that standalone migration policies have limited impact and are not sustainable.

Mudungwe told the two-day workshop on Africa's migration policy framework that opened in Namibia's capital Windhoek that migration policies should be integrated into broader national development frameworks for sustainability and far-reaching impact.

Themed Workshop on Creating Awareness of the Migration Policy Framework for Africa and Plan of Action 2018-2030, the workshop marks the beginning of the African Union Commission's efforts toward capacity building in the area of migration governance.

The AU adopted the revised migration policy framework in January 2018 during the 30th Summit. The framework has a 12-year plan of action that runs from 2018 until 2030.

Mudungwe said the Commission revised the 2006 migration policy framework for Africa in line with the complex and ever-changing migration terrain on the continent.

In recent years, Mudungwe added, migration has been characterized by feminization and an increase in the number of youth as well as an upsurge in irregular migratory flows that include human trafficking and smuggling.

"Despite the numerous migration challenges facing the continent, the Commission is mindful that if managed coherently, nations and regions can reap the benefits of the linkages between migration and development," Mudungwe said.

According to Mudungwe, the starting point was the formulation of the communication strategy that focuses on creating awareness and increasing knowledge of the policy framework among relevant actors.

The second point, he explained, would be the conducting of a continent-wide assessment of the capacity building and training needs of local government authorities on migration governance.

Namibia's home affairs deputy minister Maureen Hinda told the workshop that migration has multiple stakeholders and facets of safety and security, defence, labor, justice, and international relations, to name a few.

"It is indeed a cross-cutting issue thus we all need to engage to be on par, to ensure smooth mobility of our citizenry within Africa," Hinda said.

Hinda also said considering the increase in human trafficking, drug trafficking, smuggling of counterfeit goods, money laundering, tax evasion it is crucial to have comparable and compatible systems in place, to address the issues.

"We, as member states are thus required to come up with robust policies guided by the AU migration frameworks to adequately address this situation," he said.

Countries, Hinda said, need to work together to improve population registers and verification systems to make migration a smooth process while respecting human rights of those who chose and those who were to migrate.

The two-day workshop that opened in Windhoek Monday is being attended by officials from the African Union Commission department of social affairs, southern African region countries' government officials and United Nations representatives.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 21:33:04|Editor: Jiaxin

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BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday defended its policy on banning the imports of solid waste after a U.S. official expressed concerns that the ban could cause a fundamental disruption in global supply chains for scrap materials.

"The concerns are neither reasonable nor have any legal basis," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a daily press briefing in response to a U.S. representative's remark at the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Council for Trade in Goods last Friday.

According to reports, at the meeting the U.S. official said that China's import restrictions on recycled commodities had caused a fundamental disruption in the global supply chains for scrap materials,directing them away from productive reuse and towards disposal.

"It's very hypocritical of the U.S. to say China is breaching its WTO duty," Hua said. She pointed out that if the United States thought it legitimate to restrict exports of high-tech and high-value-added products, then China's ban on foreign waste imports should not be illegal.

"Restricting and banning the imports of solid waste is an important measure China has taken to implement the new development concept, improve environmental quality and safeguard people's health," Hua said.

Hua said that according to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, every country has the right to ban the entry of foreign hazardous waste and other sorts of waste.

"We hope that the U.S. can reduce and manage hazardous waste and other waste of its own and take up more duties and obligations." Hua said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 21:38:05|Editor: Jiaxin

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NEW DELHI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- China and India pledged on Monday to further enhance their trade and economic cooperation so as to build a new international economic order and safeguard the interests of developing countries.

Addressing the 11th meeting of China-India Joint Group on Economic Relations, Trade, Science and Technology, Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said the trade volume between China and India reached a record high of 84.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, up 20.3 percent from the previous year.

China has remained as India's largest trading partner, he added. Bilateral investment has also seen a steady increase, the minister said. The accumulated investment in India by Chinese enterprises amounted to over 8 billion U.S. dollars while India's investment in China rose an average of 18.5 percent annually over the past three years.

"Both countries have closely cooperated and supported each other in the multilateral trading system and regional economic cooperation, and contributed greatly to the joint building of a new international economic order and safeguarding of the interests of developing countries," Zhong said.

The Chinese minister put forward a seven-point proposal to further develop the China-India trade and economic cooperation.

First, connecting development strategies. China is willing to join hands with India in dovetailing the Belt and Road Initiative with India's 15-year Vision Plan, "Make in India" and Digital India programs.

Second, welcoming India's participation in the China International Import Expo (CIIE) to be held in November in Shanghai. China hopes India could increase its exports to China by taking part in the CIIE.

Third, enhancing bilateral trade and investment. China proposes establishing a trade facilitation joint working group and upgrading the joint working group on industrial parks to investment cooperation.

Fourth, strengthening communication in trade remedies. China is expected to hold the 4th meeting of trade remedy cooperation mechanism as soon as possible and mulls specific measures to properly settle trade disputes.

Fifth, improving the business environment for Chinese products. China hopes the Indian authorities to earnestly protest the rights and safety of Chinese enterprises as well as its properties and staff.

Sixth, conducting cooperation on human resources. China is willing to expand cooperation in the development of human resources.

Seventh, boosting multilateral and regional economic cooperation. China is ready to jointly send a positive signal together with India in safeguarding and supporting the multilateral trading system. China also hopes for an early signing of the high-quality and mutually beneficial Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu expressed willingness to jointly implement the consensus reached by leaders of both countries, and connect the development strategies of both sides and share the development experiences.

He said India will learn from China's experiences in setting up special economic zones and push forward the cooperation in industrial park projects.

India welcomes Chinese businesses to increase investment and boost their market share in India, said the Indian minister.

Prabhu said India supports the multilateral trading system and wishes to strengthen communication and coordination with China within the frameworks such as the World Trade Organization and RCEP, in a bid to maintain and boost the development of regional and global trade.

Earlier, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry jointly made promotions on the upcoming CIIE.

During Zhong's tour in India, businesses of both countries signed 101 trade agreements, with a total contract value of 2.368 billion U.S. dollars.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 21:38:05|Editor: pengying

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KUWAIT CITY, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait firmly condemned Monday the missile attacks on Saudi Arabia by the Houthi militias in Yemen, the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported.

An official source at the Foreign Ministry of Kuwait said that Kuwait followed with full condemnation the news about missile attacks on Saudi Arabia which terrorized innocent people.

The source reiterated Kuwait's total denunciation of these attacks which showed the Houthis' rejection to peace and the will of the international community to put an end to the conflict in Yemen.

The source urged the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to take immediate action to stop such attacks.

The source affirmed that these actions would not undermine the determination of the brotherly people in Saudi Arabia in maintaining its security and stability, reiterating Kuwait's solidarity with the kingdom and support to all the measures taken to retain its security and stability.

Multiple missiles were fired at various locations in Saudi on Sunday night. Three were fired towards Saudi capital Riyadh, two towards Jazan, one towards the city of Khamis Mushayt and one at Najran, Saudi state news channel reported.

One person was killed and two others wounded in a ballistic missile attack over the capital of Riyadh, Saudi Civil Defense said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 21:38:05|Editor: pengying

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RAMALLAH, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki urged Monday the European Union to take an active role in finding an international multilateral mechanism to sponsor the peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Malki spoke at a joint press conference with his visiting German counterpart Heiko Maas after his meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Ramallah headquarters.

He reiterated the Palestinian position that the U.S. administration "is not an acceptable mediator between us and Israel," after its recent decision recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Malki highlighted that Palestine is committed to the two-state solution and all the UN and international legitimacy resolutions, and that the Palestinians call for "an international peace conference to form an international multilateral group committed to the international legitimacy to overlook the peace process between us and Israel."

For his part, Maas stressed the importance of finding ways to promote the peace process with suitable follow-up mechanism, and that his country backs the two-state solution to put an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

"On the international level, we are aware of the responsibility and that there must be progress in the peace process and we believe that it is very difficult to have this progress without the U.S. administration," said Maas.

He added "we hope that the doors are not shut, and we need dialogue between both sides to enhance the situation in the region."

On Dec. 6, 2017, almost one year after Trump took office, he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and ordered the U.S. State Department to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.

As a result, the Palestinians disqualified the United States from being the sole sponsor of the peace negotiations with Israel and called for a multilateral peace mechanism.

On Feb. 20, Abbas presented a peace initiative in a speech before the UN Security Council, proposing to hold an international peace conference in mid-2018 to jumpstart final status negotiation based on a two-state solution and international legitimacy resolutions.NAIROBI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Monday that his government will allocate more resources to the police modernization program to give the force the ability to neutralize all forms of threats to the safety and security of Kenyans.

Kenyatta said the modernization of the police force has helped Kenya make tremendous gains in the fight against terrorism, vowing to launch aggressive modernization of the police force to maintain the gains in the fight against all forms of criminal activities.

"These investments have eased the response to emergencies and improved police efficiency and effectiveness. We also remain seized with the task of improving police welfare," he said during the passing out parade of 3,984 Administration Police officers in Nairobi.

The Kenyan leader said the modernization of the force has included the provision of sufficient vehicles, modern weapons, armored vehicles for special operations and revamping of the police air wing for air support services.

He said the modernization program has given sufficient momentum to the fight against crime and the funding for it would be increased to maintain the gains.

He said the multi-agency approach to fighting organized crime has enabled the security forces to make tremendous gains in the war against terrorism.

Kenyatta said the multi-agency approach needs to be supported by a whole-country approach.

"I urge the public to play its role. We must adopt a whole of country approach in the fight against terrorism and all forms of crime to protect our motherland," he said.

The president called on the new police officers to be patriotic and to courageously take up their duty which often requires them to endure danger and hardship to protect their compatriots.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 21:43:06|Editor: Jiaxin

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BERLIN, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Daimler and its Chinese partner BYD Auto have launched a new "Denza 500" battery electric vehicle, the German luxury car maker told press on Monday.

Engineered and produced in and for China, the Denza 500 is described as offering Chinese customers a comprehensive upgrade through a refreshed exterior design and extended electric range.

The Denza model combines Daimler's vehicle architecture expertise and advanced safety engineering with BYD's leading skills in battery technology. Through continuous investment in Denza product development, Daimler is dedicated to contributing to the further development of electric mobility in China.

Upgraded connectivity services in the new vehicle include charging solutions and the Denza smartphone application. Via the Denza application, WeChat account, or car navigation system, Denza owners can locate over 112,000 charging stations across the country.

Further, a new battery and additional weight reductions allow increased energy efficiency, providing an extended range of around 500 km. The new Denza 500 was tested in a wide range of harsh conditions, including severe winter testing at temperatures of as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius.

In 2017, Denza achieved its best sales performance to date, with retail sales volume increasing by 85 percent year-on-year, outpacing the industry average, largely due to the strong customer reception of the Denza 400 model. The brand also expanded its reach through selected Mercedes-Benz dealer partners, which now offer sales and after-sales service for Denza vehicles.

Established in 2011, Denza Auto was the first Sino-German joint venture dedicated to battery electric vehicles.

Denza is one of the key pillars of Daimler's corporate strategy in China, contributing to its New Energy Vehicle (NEV) offensive as a home-grown brand. According to a recent McKinsey study, China is already the world's largest market for NEVs and recorded more than 600,000 newly-registered electric cars in 2017 alone (up 72 percent compared to 2016).

Speaking to Xinhua on Monday, a spokesperson for Daimler reaffirmed the growing significance of the Chinese e-mobility market in the company's global strategy. "The Chinese market is the biggest market for cars in the world and still growing. So we need our capacities in China to deliver our products to Chinese costumers."PARIS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- France will expel four Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England earlier this month, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said on Monday.

In a statement to the press, Mr. Le Drian stressed that this decision was made "following the conclusions of the European Council of March 22 and 23."

The EU meeting considered the attack of Salisbury constitutes a serious threat to EU's collective security and international law.

"We have notified today to the Russian authorities our decision to expel four Russian personnel from the French territory under diplomatic status, within a week," concluded the French minister.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 21:53:08|Editor: pengying

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ISTANBUL, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday reaffirmed his country's goal of becoming a full member of the European Union, saying Ankara remains committed to the accession process.

"Becoming a reliable member of the European Union continues to be Turkey's strategic goal," the president told reporters in Istanbul prior to his departure for Bulgaria's Varna for a summit with EU leaders.

Erdogan said that Turkey would ask EU leaders to lift all political and artificial obstacles to its membership and revive the accession talks.

Hours before Erdogan's departure, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz reportedly called for suspension of Turkey's membership negotiations, citing "systematic violation of human rights and basic democratic values" in Turkey.

Turkey-EU relations have been strained over the years by what the bloc calls extensive crackdown by Ankara under a state of emergency imposed after a failed coup in 2016. Turkey's ties with some EU countries were hurt as well.

"We will remind EU leaders that Turkey does not have any tolerance of double standards in its relations with the bloc," said Erdogan.

Ankara wants Brussels to be more constructive in handling bilateral issues including talks over visa liberalization for Turks and funding of over 3.5 million Syrian refugees being sheltered by Ankara.

The EU is set to grant Ankara a second tranche of three billion euros under a deal seeking to curb the flow of migrants to Europe via Turkey. Erdogan said, however, that the union has not yet totally paid the first amount of the fund as promised under the deal signed in March 2016.

The Turkish president is also expected to discuss the latest developments in Turkey's operation against Kurdish militia in Syria's Afrin region with EU leaders, another source of friction between the two sides.

The Turkish military on Saturday announced "full control" of the Afrin region after starting the offensive on Jan. 20, and Erdogan has threatened to move on eastward against other towns in northern Syria.NAIROBI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Air France on Monday said it had joined the Kenya Airways-KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) joint venture after the Kenyan authorities gave the deal a regulatory approval.

Anne Rigail, the Executive Vice President of Customer Division at Air France, told journalists in Nairobi that with the new agreement, air passengers will benefit from a streamlined travel experience between Europe and East Africa.

"Air France, KLM and Kenya Airways' customers will be able to reserve flights operated on a code share basis by one of the three airlines between Paris-Nairobi and Amsterdam-Nairobi," Rigail said.

KLM and Kenya Airways have been in a joint venture partnership since 1995.

Rigail noted that as a result of the agreement, Air France will operate three weekly flights between Paris, Charles de Gaulle airport and Nairobi's main airport while Kenya Airways will offer five flights per week in the same route.

She noted that the deal will result in 24 daily flights between Nairobi and the European cities of Paris and Amsterdam.

Kenya Airways CEO Sebastian Mikosz said Air France is a natural partner for the already existing KLM-Kenya Airways joint venture.

Mikosz said the formation of joint ventures among airlines is the best way to remain competitive in the airline industry.

He noted that the three airlines have agreed to share revenues and expenses in routes between Nairobi, Amsterdam and Paris.

Kenya airways said that the pact will enhance Nairobi's status as a regional aviation hub due to increased customer traffic from Europe.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 21:58:09|Editor: Lifang

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Delagates pose for group photos during the closing ceremony of the Post Flood Recovery Project, in Kathmandu, Nepal, March 26, 2018. In Nepal's Terai region, 31,800 families severely affected by one of the worst floods hitting the region in August 2017 are able to recover from the disaster and smile again with the help of Chinese aid, local authorities said here on Monday. The swift recovery of the flood victims has been made possible by the Post-Flood Recovery Program, under the framework of the China South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund. (Xinhua/Sunil Sharma)

KATHMANDU, March 26 (Xinhua) -- In Nepal's Terai region, 31,800 families severely affected by one of the worst floods hitting the region in August 2017 are able to recover from the disaster and smile again with the help of Chinese aid, local authorities said here on Monday.

The swift recovery of the flood victims has been made possible by the Post-Flood Recovery Program, under the framework of the China South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund.

The three-month long project was implemented by the United Nations Development Program Nepal in coordination with Nepal's Post Flood Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Project under the auspices of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA).

"The aid from China has reached the needy and marginalized communities of the Terai region," Dr. Suman Karna, Project Chief at the Post Flood Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Project at the NRA, said.

"It has not only put smiles back on their faces, but has also given them the confidence to get back on their feet and earn a livelihood," he said during the formal closing of the three-month long project.

As Terai is a poverty and unemployment stricken region, it requires special attention, Karna said. China's disaster relief experience could be valuable for Nepal, which is also vulnerable to natural disasters, he added.

Karna's statement was echoed by the mayors and deputy mayors of Dhanusha and Rajbiraj, two districts that border India which were hard-hit by the floods.

"The relief packages were distributed in such a way that even disabled people were not left behind and there were no duplications nor any mismanagement. But we need to have long-term solutions," Sadhana Jha, Deputy Mayor of the Rajbiraj Municipality, said.

The Chinese aid came in response to the extensive damage and displacement caused by the floods in the country's southern region. A post-flood assessment conducted by the Nepali government found that 1.7 million people had been affected by the disaster, with 134 killed in the 18 worst-hit districts.

The project supported 31,800 households in seven districts spanning Sunsari, Saptari, Sarlahi, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Rautahat and Parsa located in Provinces 1 and 2.

For her part, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong said that as a good neighbor, the Chinese people could feel the suffering of the Nepali people, who experienced the heaviest rainfall and floods recorded in 60 years.

"In November, we offered 4 million U.S. dollars to help the Nepali people in the flood-affected Terai region to help them recover from the disaster. The assistance has reached more than 31,800 households and I am glad that the non-food items provided by the Chinese government could bring warmth to the families," ambassador Yu said.

The ambassador further said that China will continue to provide assistance and support to Nepal within its capacity and make contributions to Nepal's post-disaster reconstruction and social and economic development.

Under the support from China, the victims were provided with non-food items like shawls, blankets, cooking utensils, insecticide-treated bed nets, clean cooking stoves, water filters and hygiene kits.

Valerie Julliand, UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal, said: "This project was much-needed, targeted and timely, which contributed to the health and well being of the flood victims."

She also stressed the need for effective disaster risk management and for building long-term resilience.

On the occasion of the closing of the three-month long project, the visiting UN Resident Coordinator in China, Nicholas Rossellini, praised the trilateral cooperation between China, Nepal and the United Nations.

"Post-disaster conditions need immense partnership within the country and with international partners, as well as political will, technical assistance, financial support and innovative approaches," Rosellini said.

In many ways this project has demonstrated these vital facets, he said.(File photo)Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan looks on ahead of a meeting at the EU Parliament in Brussels, Belgium October 5, 2015. (Reuters photo)

ISTANBUL, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday reaffirmed his country's goal of becoming a full member of the European Union, saying Ankara remains committed to the accession process.

"Becoming a reliable member of the European Union continues to be Turkey's strategic goal," the president told reporters in Istanbul prior to his departure for Bulgaria's Varna for a summit with EU leaders.

Erdogan said that Turkey would ask EU leaders to lift all political and artificial obstacles to its membership and revive the accession talks.

Hours before Erdogan's departure, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz reportedly called for suspension of Turkey's membership negotiations, citing "systematic violation of human rights and basic democratic values" in Turkey.

Turkey-EU relations have been strained over the years by what the bloc calls extensive crackdown by Ankara under a state of emergency imposed after a failed coup in 2016. Turkey's ties with some EU countries were hurt as well.

"We will remind EU leaders that Turkey does not have any tolerance of double standards in its relations with the bloc," said Erdogan.

Ankara wants Brussels to be more constructive in handling bilateral issues including talks over visa liberalization for Turks and funding of over 3.5 million Syrian refugees being sheltered by Ankara.

The EU is set to grant Ankara a second tranche of three billion euros under a deal seeking to curb the flow of migrants to Europe via Turkey. Erdogan said, however, that the union has not yet totally paid the first amount of the fund as promised under the deal signed in March 2016.

The Turkish president is also expected to discuss the latest developments in Turkey's operation against Kurdish militia in Syria's Afrin region with EU leaders, another source of friction between the two sides.

The Turkish military on Saturday announced "full control" of the Afrin region after starting the offensive on Jan. 20, and Erdogan has threatened to move on eastward against other towns in northern Syria.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 22:03:09|Editor: Yurou

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Photo taken on March 26, 2018 shows the gate of Embassy of Russia in Washington D.C., the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and intelligence officials, and the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle in response to the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in Britain earlier this month. (Xinhua/Yang Chenglin)

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and intelligence officials, and the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle in response to the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in Britain earlier this month.

The Russian officials were asked to leave the United States within seven days, senior U.S. officials said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The United States takes this action with NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia's use of military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom," said the officials.

Sergei Skripal, 66, a former Russian intelligence officer, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury earlier this month.

They remain in critical condition after exposure to a nerve agent, which, according to the British authorities, could have originated from Russia.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the incident and insisted on participating in direct investigation into the case.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 22:08:11|Editor: Lifang

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Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi (R) meets with Mampho Mokhele, Lesotho's minister of police and public security, in Beijing, capital of China, March 26, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- China and Lesotho agreed to strengthen cooperation on law-enforcement and security, as public security ministers from the two countries met in Beijing Monday.

"The two countries' law enforcement departments should step up pragmatic cooperation in chasing fugitives and illicit money, and law-enforcement capability building," said Chinese State Councilor Zhao Kezhi, who is also minister of public security.

He also called for more efforts to ensure the security of citizens and organizations in each other's countries.

"China always treats Lesotho as a sincere friend for common development," Zhao said, pledging to strengthen all-round cooperation with Lesotho and uphold justice while pursuing shared interests.

Mampho Mokhele, Lesotho's minister of police and public security, agreed to beef up cooperation with China in law-enforcement and security.COPENHAGEN, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Danish ferry operator Scandlines has been sold to a British consortium First State Investments and Hermes Investment Management for 1.7 billion euros (2.11 billion U.S. dollars), the company announced on Monday.

3i Group, the current owner of Scandlines, now owns 35 percent of the company, while First State Investment and Hermes Investment Management own 50.1 percent and 14.9 percent respectively.

The three shareholders want to support Scandlines' continued growth, including further investment in green technology, and have said in a statement they will continue to support management in delivering good customer service, safe operation and further optimizing green initiatives.

"I have been very pleased with the cooperation with 3i to transform the company and develop its growth potential. I am looking forward to working with the new owners. Scandlines is a great company with dedicated employees; we will all benefit from this long-term investment," said Scandlines CEO Soren Poulsgaard Jensen.

Headquartered in Copenhagen, Scandlines operates two short ferry routes between Denmark and Germany with more than 42,000 departures annually.SOFIA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- A total of 6.23 kg of heroin have been seized at Danube Bridge checkpoint near the Bulgarian town of Vidin, which borders Romania, officials said here on Monday.

The illicit drug, split into 12 packages, was found in the cavities behind the rear seat of a car attempting to leave Bulgaria, the interior ministry said in a statement.

The driver and his companion, both Bulgarians, were arrested, the statement said.

Bulgaria, a key transit route for drugs smuggled from Asia to Europe, seized 602.6 kg of heroin at its borders in 2017.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 22:18:13|Editor: Jiaxin

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BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe met with the visiting Thai Chief of Defense Forces Tarnchaiyan Srisuwan on Monday, as the two sides pledged to improve bilateral military cooperation.

Wei said the Chinese military was willing to keep strategic exchanges, strengthen pragmatic cooperation with its Thai counterpart to boost the development of bilateral military relations.

China will make greater contributions to world peace and development, Wei said.

For his part, Tarnchaiyan said the Thai side was ready to deepen cooperation with China in joint training, exercise and personnel training, as well as the fields of equipment, technology and multilateral security.Russia protests diplomats expulsion, vows to retaliate Source: Xinhua 2018-03-26 22:23:13 MOSCOW, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that Russia "strongly protests" diplomats expulsion by the United States and 14 European countries, vowing to retaliate. Editor: pengyingby Farid Behbud

KABUL, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Millions of students around Afghanistan are gearing up for the new academic year in the conflict-hit country. Despite some improvements, many Afghans believe there's still a long way to go before the nation's education system being on a par with global standards.

Currently around 9.5 million students, 40 percent of which being female, attend over 15,000 schools throughout the country, which is unprecedented in the history of Afghanistan.

This is also undoubtedly a significant achievement in a short period of time, a decade-and-a-half, according to Afghanistan's Ministry of Education.

However, many Afghan students, parents and scholars believe that the country's education system still faces some significant challenges including raising the standards of education.

"Quantitatively speaking, we have made some progress in education but we must not ignore the fact that the education system is facing some serious and crippling challenges such as a low quality education service, outdated curriculum, and insufficient schooling infrastructure," Zaker Hussain Ershad, political science professor at Ibne Sina, a private university in Kabul, told Xinhua recently.

"Insecurity and corruption are also among the major challenges and problems facing the Afghan education system," Ershad said.

"Therefore, urgent, feasible and lasting solutions must be found for each of these challenges," he said.

On Saturday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rang the bell of a local school in central Kabul to inaugurate the new academic year.

The Afghan president said that the Afghan school system had seen significant progress but more efforts were needed to improve the quality of education in the poverty-stricken country.

"There has been significant progress in terms of quantity in Afghan education in recent years, but the government firmly hopes to develop all ways and means to boost education, and improve the quality of the education system in Afghanistan," Ghani said.

Insecurity is one of the most pressing and striking matters. Thousands of students, particularly females in rural areas, have not been able to attend school due to the security threat posed by various insurgent groups such as the Taliban.

Corruption and embezzlement is also an obstacle to the provision of decent education in Afghanistan and millions of dollars have been misused or wasted in the past 17 years.

"Previous officials in the education ministry embezzled millions of dollars from the international community, which is called grand corruption," Iqbal Heidari, who teaches economics at Bamyan University, told Xinhua.

The quality of education generally is not comparable to global standards, with another challenge being that people with experience and knowledge are not willing to be teachers due to low payment.

In Afghanistan the payment for educators is very low, which means there is not enough financial incentive for educated and experienced teachers to work in schools or universities.

The curricula taught in schools and universities is also believed by those with knowledge of the matter to not be suitable to the students' development.

"The current curriculum does not meet the needs of our country and it has been developed without considering the skills students need to learn and develop," Ahmad Zia Bahraini, who teaches computer science at Kabul University, said.

"Thus, they must be redeveloped according the needs of the country," he said.

A shortage of learning materials, particularly textbooks, and a lack of buildings are other key challenges, especially in rural areas.

Children in these areas are not able to receive equal education and often study in tents and use mosques as classrooms.

More than 50 percent of Afghan schools do not have a building. Some schools' classes are oversubscribed to the point that more than 60 students have to attend a single class.

"Some government schools are too crowded. There should not be more than 20 students in a class but sometimes 60 students attend one class with just a few chairs and desks," Shafiqullah Anawri, a high school student, told Xinhua.

"The government has published enough textbooks in recent years but there is a problem in the distribution process and the transporting of textbooks, especially to restive districts and far mountainous areas," he said.

President Ghani on Saturday also urged religious scholars to encourage parents to enroll their children in local schools as more than 3.5 million school-aged children have no access to education due to poverty, conflicts and insurgency.

Receiving an education that will help graduates secure work is yet another issue that the government here must traverse in improving the overall system, experts and students noted.

"Education experts and officials must ensure that children develop both basic and complex skills through education," said Anawri, adding that thousands of graduates face difficulties finding good jobs after they graduate from high schools and universities.

"I really welcome President Ghani's comments on education system reforms, as he said that the government will improve the school systems by allocating existing budgets and systematically aiming to make a real difference in the lives of children across Afghanistan," he added.BERLIN, March 26 (Xinhua) -- German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) has praised a recent announcement by the Afghan government to enter peace talks with the radical Islamist Taliban group on Monday.

Von der Leyen expressed hope that there would be "much more progress in crucial political negotiations" with the Taliban who were "ready to renounce violence and respect the constitution". She made the comments during a visit to German troops stationed at the Mazar-i-Sharif base in the north of Afghanistan.

Since the Taliban were deposed from government by a U.S.-led military coalition in 2001, most provinces in Afghanistan have experienced a near-permanent state of war which has left at least 31,000 civilians dead, according to official estimates.

Von der Leyen further urged the acting government of President Aschraf Ghani to press ahead with promised political reforms. She expressed confidence that modernizing efforts in the Afghan national army, assisted by an overseas deployment of around 1,000 German troops, was finally bearing fruit.

"Step by step we are making progress," Von der Leyen said, referring to the successful build-up of the country's air force and special forces, as well as an initiative by Ghani to lower the average age of senior Afghan officers.WASHINGTON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- A report has shown that worsening land degradation caused by human activities, reaching "critical levels" in may parts of the world, is undermining the well-being of two fifths of humanity, driving species extinctions and intensifying climate change.

The land degradation might be a major contributor to mass human migration and increased conflict, according to the report released on Monday by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

The three-year report made by over 100 experts from 45 countries says the dangers of land degradation has costed the equivalent of about 10 percent of the world's annual gross product in 2010.

OVERCROPPING

Rapid expansion and unsustainable management of croplands and grazing lands is the most extensive global direct driver of land degradation, causing significant loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services including food security, water purification, the provision of energy and other contributions of nature essential to people.

"With negative impacts on the well-being of at least 3.2 billion people, the degradation of the Earth's land surface through human activities is pushing the planet towards a sixth mass species extinction," said Robert Scholes at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, a co-chair of the assessment.

"Wetlands have been particularly hard hit," said Luca Montanarella with European Soil Bureau, a co-author. "We have seen losses of 87 percent in wetland areas since the start of the modern era, with 54 percent lost since 1900."

According to the report, the world's first comprehensive evidence-based assessment of land degradation and restoration, land degradation has happened in many ways: land abandonment, declining populations of wild species, loss of soil and soil health, rangelands and fresh water, as well as deforestation.

Underlying drivers of land degradation, says the report, are the high-consumption lifestyles in the most developed economies, combined with rising consumption in developing and emerging economies.

By 2014, more than 1.5 billion hectares of natural ecosystems had been converted to croplands. Less than 25 percent of the Earth's land surface has escaped substantial impacts of human activity. The IPBES experts estimated this will have fallen to less than 10 percent by 2050.

The report says increasing demand for food and biofuels will likely lead to continued increase in nutrient and chemical inputs and a shift towards industrialized livestock production systems, with pesticide and fertilizer use expected to double by 2050.

WORSENING CLIMATE CHANGE

Also, the IPBES report finds that land degradation is a major contributor to climate change, with deforestation alone contributing about 10 percent of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.

Another major driver of the changing climate has been the release of carbon previously stored in the soil, with land degradation between 2000 and 2009 responsible for annual global emissions of up to 4.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

"In just over three decades from now, an estimated 4 billion people will live in drylands," said Scholes, "By then it is likely that land degradation, together with the closely related problems of climate change, will have forced 50 million to 700 million people to migrate," which will cause more social instability in dry areas.

"By 2050, the combination of land degradation and climate change is predicted to reduce global crop yields by an average of 10 percent, and by up to 50 percent in some regions," said Montanarella.

In the future, most degradation will occur in Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia -- the areas with the most land still remaining that is suitable for agriculture, according to Montanarella.

"The assessment of land degradation and restoration by IPBES is a wake-up call for us all. It shows the alarming scale of transformation that humankind has imposed on the land and the changing nature of the forces driving land degradation," said Monique Barbut, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.JUBA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Fresh fighting has erupted in several parts of South Sudan as the warring factions prepare for the third round of peace talks in Ethiopia.

Fighting has been reported in the northeastern states of Latjor, Fasoda and in the southern region of Kajo-Keji in Yei River State despite a recently signed ceasefire.

The South Sudanese army and the main rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO), have accused each other of starting the latest fighting.

Lul Ruai Koang, spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), told Xinhua on Monday that SPLA-IO rebels loyal to the country's former deputy president Riek Machar on Sunday launched multiple attacks on government-held areas in three parts of South Sudan.

"Yesterday (Sunday) the rebels attacked our defensive positions in Nasir in Latjor state. They also attacked our base in Sokare in Kajo-Keji. On the same day, they attacked our positions in Shiluk Kingdom where they overpowered our forces there and captured the base," Koang said.

"This is great concern to us that the rebels are not committed to the cessation of hostilities agreement," Koang added.

Lam Paul Gabriel, SPLA-IO deputy military spokesperson, denied the government accusations, alleging that Juba has engaged in a drive to capture opposition-controlled areas before the start of the upcoming high-level revitalization forum.

"This aggression on our forces is planned by the government of South Sudan. Let's not play this blame games because the truth is the government doesn't want peace," Gabriel told Xinhua.

"We request CTSAMM (Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism) to come and investigate so that they come out with clear details about the fighting and tell who started it," he added.

The South Sudanese government and several rebel groups late last year signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA), but the truce was broken the same day it came into effect on Dec. 24.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African regional bloc that brokered the pact, has urged the warring parties to respect the ceasefire deal and report violations to CTSAMM.

South Sudan has been embroiled in civil war since December and the conflict, now its fifth year, has taken a devastating toll on the people, creating one of the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world.

A peace deal signed in August 2015 between the rival leaders under UN pressure led to the establishment of a transitional unity government in April, but was shattered by renewed fighting in July 2016.

The parties to the agreement are preparing to meet for the third round of peace talks on a date yet to been announced by IGAD.BERLIN, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Germany announced Monday that it will expel four Russian diplomats over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain.

According to a statement by the German Foreign Ministry, the German government has decided in close consultation within EU and NATO allies to ask four Russian diplomats to leave Germany within seven days.

"Russia has so far failed to respond adequately to the British call to help clarify the case," according to the statement, saying that the expulsion of four Russian diplomats is a strong signal of solidarity with Britain.

"The attack in Salisbury shook us all in the EU. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, a chemical warfare agent was used in the middle of Europe," said Germen Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

But Maas said the door for dialogue with Russia remains open.

Sergei Skripal, 66, a former Russian intelligence officer, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury earlier this month.

They remain in critical condition after exposure to a nerve agent, which, according to the British authorities, could have originated from Russia.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the incident and insisted on participating in direct investigation into the case.DHAKA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh on Monday marked their 48th Independence and National Day.

The day is a national holiday in Bangladesh, and is celebrated with parades, and paying of respect at Jatiyo Smriti Soudho, the national memorial at Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka.

At Monday dawn, on behalf of the nation, President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid tribute to martyrs of the Liberation War at the National Memorial in Savar.

The celebration of the Independence Day began with a 31-gun salute at dawn by a smartly turned-out contingent drawn from the Bangladeshi Army, Navy and Air Force while the bugles played the last post.

Wearing the red and green of the Bangladeshi flag, people of all ages and all walks of life also thronged the national memorial to pay respect to war heroes.

On March 26 every year, Bangladesh commemorates the country's declaration of independence on late hours of March 25, 1971 and the beginning of the fight by Bengalis in erstwhile East Pakistan for freedom in 1971.MADRID, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Spanish police on Monday confirmed the arrest in eastern Spain of a Ukrainian who is allegedly thought to have been the brains behind the theft of around one billion U.S. dollars from banks around the world over a one-year period.

The arrest took place after a three-year investigation during which Spain's National Police collaborated with Europol and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as well as police in Belarus.

As well as the man arrested in Alicante, 15 other suspects have been arrested in the United Kingdom, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.

The man, described by police as a "computer genius", also had a Russian passport and had lived with his wife in Alicante since 2014 without drawing attention to himself.

The gang's method of "remote" bank robbery was via a massive number of e-mails, each of which included a file containing malware designed by the suspect to attack the banks.

The police explained in a press conference that the malware sent to the banks infected the banks' systems, allowing the criminals access to the programs operating the automatic teller machines (ATM machines) from which a member of the gang would then withdraw large amounts of cash.

Another way the organization was able to steal money was by using access to banking systems to modify the amount of money in the accounts and then to make transfers elsewhere.LUANDA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Jose Filomeno dos Santos, the son of former long term Angolan president, has been indicted and prevented from leaving the country, Luanda's Deputy Attorney General Luis Benza Zanga announced Monday in Luanda.

At stake is an investigation into an alleged irregular transfer in September last year of 500 million U.S. dollars from the central bank to a British bank.

The banking operation was considered suspicious by the British National Anti-Crime Agency which initiated the investigation.

The operation was made weeks before former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos left power.

The British authorities have already expressed the availability to return the referred amount to Angola.

Jose Filomeno dos Santos, also former CEO of the the country's sovereign wealth fund, was dismissed from the position in January by the President of the Republic, Joao Lourenco.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-26 23:23:28|Editor: Lifang

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Chinese Vice Premier Liu He holds a symposium with representatives from international organizations and scholars attending the China Development Forum (CDF) 2018 in Beijing, capital of China, March 25, 2018. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu He has called for rationality and joint efforts by China and the United States to safeguard the stability of China-U.S. trade relations.

He made the remarks at two symposia on March 24 and 25, with over 20 representatives from international organizations, entrepreneurs and scholars who were in Beijing to attend the China Development Forum 2018.

Liu said China would continue its reform and opening-up, support economic globalization, and promote the building of "a community of shared future for humanity."

Liu said the recent U.S. release of a Section 301 investigation report ran counter to global trade rules, and was detrimental to the interests of China, the United States and the whole world.

"China is ready and has the strength to safeguard its national interests," he said.

Many participants at the symposia consider the releasing of the Section 301 investigation report as politicizing a trade issue, posing a threat to the global multilateral trading system.

They believe the trade war is not the correct solution to the trade imbalance between China and the United States, and that the U.S. government should squarely face the deep structural reasons for its trade deficit, instead of blaming economic globalization and major trading partners.

They also suggested that China should take the lead in the multilateral trading system, create a favorable business environment for foreign enterprises in China through further reform and opening-up, and promote and lead economic globalization.

The participants include former director-general of the World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy, Nobel Laureate in Economics Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate in Economics Joseph Stiglitz and Nobel Laureate in Economics James Heckman.ATHENS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Greek leaders on Monday expressed condolences over the victims of the blaze at the shopping mall at Kemerovo in Russia which caused at least 56 casualties on Sunday.

Through the Greek embassy to Moscow, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos conveyed his deep condolences to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the victims and wishes for the swift recovery of the injured.

The Greek Foreign Ministry also expressed the Greek government's sorrow over the tragedy in a tweet.

"We are deeply saddened by news on deadly blaze in Kemerovo, Russia. Our thoughts go out to the victims' families and all those affected. We extend our sincere condolences to the Russian government and people and wish speedy recovery to all injured," read the comment posted on social media.GENEVA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Crime in Switzerland fell by 6.1 percent last year, with a marked decrease in burglaries and crimes committed by non-Swiss residents, but with more cyber crime and violence against police reported, the Federal Statistical Office said Monday.

Some 429,000 crimes were reported in Switzerland in 2107, a drop of 170,000 compared to 2012, the government report said.

Despite the overall downward trend in crimes, there were more criminal offenses of violence and threats to police last year.

The increase could be related a more restrictive policing policy, according to the Conference of Cantonal Police Directors.

Cyber crime also increased. There were nine percent more cases of unauthorized data collection and four percent more cases of fraudulent misuse of an IT system.

Burglaries, representing more than two-thirds of all criminal offenses in Switzerland, were down six percent over the previous year.

The number of crimes committed in Switzerland has been declining over the last five years, said the report.

Theft, not including stolen cars, dropped by 15 percent and fraud by 16 percent.

The report also found that the number of crimes committed by foreigners without a residence permit in Switzerland fell by around five percent.

A large majority of crimes -- 79 percent -- were committed by people with permanent residency, including both Swiss and foreign nationals.

In a statement, the Conference of Cantonal Police Directors described the report's findings as "extremely positive".

It noted that such a reduction in crime was particularly remarkable "in light of the demanding and increasingly complex security situation" that Switzerland faces.MINSK, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has sent a message to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to extend condolences over a deadly fire in south central Russia's Kemerovo city, the presidential press service said Monday.

"It is with deep pain and sorrow that Belarus has learned the news about the fire in the shopping mall in Kemerovo which claimed the lives of many people, including children," Lukashenko said in the message.

"We express sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to the injured," he added.

A total of 64 people have been confirmed dead in a major fire that broke out at a shopping mall in Kemerovo city in southwestern Siberia one day ago, the Russian Investigative Committee said Monday.

Russian Minister of Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov said he expected 64 to be "the final figure of deaths".

However, the exact number of the missing is still unknown. Previous reports said 64 people were missing, including 41 children.MOSCOW, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that Russia "strongly protests" diplomats expulsion by the United States and 14 European countries over an ex-spy case, vowing to retaliate.

"We consider this step as unfriendly and not corresponding to the goal and wish to establish the causes and search for the perpetrators of the (ex-spy poisoning) incident on March 4," the ministry said in a statement.

It said the British authorities took a "prejudiced, biased and hypocritical stance." It denied Russia's involvement in the incident.

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and intelligence officials, and the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle in response to the ex-spy poisoning case, senior U.S. officials said Monday.

On the same day, European Council President Donald Tusk announced that a total of 14 member states of the European Union have also decided to expel Russian diplomats.

They accused Moscow of launching a chemical attack against a Russian ex-spy in Britain earlier this month.

Sergei Skripal, 66, a former Russian intelligence officer, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping center in Salisbury on March 4.

They remain in critical condition after exposure to a nerve agent, which, according to the British authorities, could have originated from Russia.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the incident and insisted on participating in direct investigation into the case.

"Britain's allies also have no objective and exhaustive data, but they blindly follow the principle of Euro-Atlantic unity at the expense of common sense, standards of civilized interstate dialogue and international law principles," the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow regrets the moves of the Western countries and will analyze the situation and propose response measures to President Vladimir Putin to make a final decision.

On March 14, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced a series of measures against Russia following the poisoning incident, including the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats.

In retaliation, Moscow expelled an equal number of British diplomats and closed a British consular mission.NAIROBI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Low investment by African governments is to blame for inefficiency in providing services to the people, a World Bank official said on Monday.

Khama Rogo, the World Bank's Lead Health Sector Specialist and Head Health in Africa Initiative, said total health spending per capita in the countries is less than five percent of the Gross Domestic Product in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"The governments must reduce inefficiencies by embracing smart financing and smart procurement in order to attain the Universal Health Cover (UHC)," Rogo said during a conference on accelerating the business of universal health care in Nairobi.

He said the countries stand a better chance of leaping to better economic growth if they invest in health care.

"You need to build on your strength while learning from others like China, Thailand, Cuba and Mexico that have made great progress in achieving UHC by injecting subsides from the budget," he added.

The World Bank official said it is unfortunate that public health spending as a share of total health spending in Africa is low at 22 percent, compared to 36 percent for Low and Middle Income Countries and 57 percent for upper middle income countries.

Rogo said that with proper investment in the sector, the countries stand to create additional jobs and reduce mortality by 11 percent.

Rogo observed that Kenya is capable of attaining the UHC due to the political will but the country must embrace innovation and entrepreneurship through public private partnership.

He said financing health sector requires stronger and systemic public financial management and transparency.

"Consider mixed revenue streams by combining both public and private while at the same time prioritize domestic resource mobilization," he added.

Miriam Were, the Chancellor of Moi University in Kenya, attributed lack of Community Health Extension Workers as a major barrier for the establishment of Community Health Services.

Were said extension workers are the key health cadre in supervising and supporting community level health workforce that has to be in place in all parts of the country.

"Kenya is capable of achieving UHC through community health services by 2022 once it embarks in disease prevention and health promotion in reducing disease burden thus reducing cost in the health sector," Were added.

Kenyan Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki reiterated that the government will continue focusing on improving scope and quality of health services.

"This is essential in ensuring we have a productive population that will contribute positively to the growth of Kenya's economy," Kariuki added.

She said plans are underway to decongest the leading referral hospital Kenyatta National Hospital by ensuring that all public hospitals get enough and relevant equipment to handle all manner of ailments.KIGALI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Scientists attending the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) global gathering 2018 in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Monday said science and technology have to be at the driving seat for Africa to achieve accelerated social and economic development.

They made the remarks while speaking at the opening of NEF conference, held from March 26 to 28. The conference focuses on highlighting the contributions of Africa's scientists and innovators to the global scientific community.

"Africa should not stand idle in the wake of global technological advances. Science and technology has the potential to build vibrant social and economic growth on the continent," said Thierry Zomahoun, president and chief executive of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS).

He said Africa should not only be consumers of global technology, but also inventors and managers of technologies.

African governments should focus more on investing in science, technology and research coupled with required infrastructure such as road network, research and technology incubation centers as well as electricity rollout among others for technological innovation to thrive, said Zomahoun, who is also the chairperson of NEF.

African countries should increase their efforts in improving measures towards scientific advances and technological progress, to spur economic growth and social change, according to Johannes Fruehauf, president and executive director of U.S. based biotechnology facility LabCentral.

Advancement in technology will help Africa to break down the barriers to social and economic change, said Lucy Quist, president of African Institute for Mathematical Sciences' Ghana branch.

The most serious challenges hindering the development of science and technology in Africa include inadequate infrastructure and lack of strong political will to promote science and technology, she said.

Adequate math and science proficiency is a prerequisite for a nation to attain high-income status and the gains in health and well-being go along with it, said Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda.

Launched in 2013, NEF is an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in partnership with Robert Bosch Stiftung, a German charitable institution, which serves as a platform to connect science, society and policy in Africa and the rest of the world.HELSINKI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Finnish President Sauli Niinisto underlined on Monday the need to continue dialogues with Russia.

Niinisto talked to the media following an announcement by the Finnish government that one Russian diplomat will be expelled from Finland.

The Finnish president said resources should be now focused on mending the rift between East and West that appears to have widened.

Niinisto said Finland had considered the matter "from many aspects". Asked by a reporter whether Finland was now "between hard rock and the hot place", the president said that description is fairly apt.

Niinisto said the diplomat to be asked to leave had not been named yet as of Monday afternoon.

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila told a separate press conference on Monday that the decision was not easy for Finland.

Sipila said the Finnish practice is usually not making public the expulsions of diplomats.

Sipila said a longer European process would have been better on dealing with the response, but it was not possible now.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that Russia "strongly protests" diplomats expulsion by the United States and 14 European countries over an ex-spy case, vowing to retaliate.

"We consider this step as unfriendly and not corresponding to the goal and wish to establish the causes and search for the perpetrators of the (ex-spy poisoning) incident on March 4," the ministry said in a statement.

It said the British authorities took a "prejudiced, biased and hypocritical stance". It denied Russia's involvement in the incident.ADDIS ABABA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Council of Ministers on Monday warned actions against South Sudanese parties that violate a recently signed Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA).

The latest call was made during the 61th Extra-Ordinary Session of IGAD council of ministers, which was held in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

The meeting mainly focused on South Sudan's peace process as well as other regional issues, according to the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Fresh fighting has erupted in several parts of South Sudan as the warring factions prepare for the third round of peace talks in Ethiopia.

The South Sudanese army and the main rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO), have accused each other of starting the latest fighting.

Ethiopian State Minister of Foreign Affairs Hirut Zemene called on all parties to the peace process to further commit themselves to ending the suffering of the South Sudanese people.

IGAD Special Envoy Ismail Wais, who made a report on the developments in South Sudan since the second phase of the High Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF), urged all parties to to continue to adhere to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement and make necessary compromises and seize what he called "this historic opportunity to bring peace to South Sudan."

The East African block's council of ministers decided to hold the upcoming Revitalization Forum on April 26, according to the ministry.

The second phase of the Revitalization Forum, which was held in February in Addis Ababa, was suspended for an undetermined period to give warring sides more time to reach conclusive agreement.

The conflict in South Sudan started as a dispute between President Salva Kiir and his ex-deputy Riek Machar but has since morphed to one involving several sides, which complicated the international communities' efforts to restore peace to the world's youngest nation.BERLIN, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The start of a court trial of eight members of the notorious German motorcycle club Osmanen Germania was accompanied by a heavy precautionary police presence on Monday.

Eight members of the group, aged between 19 and 46, are accused by state prosecutors in Baden-Wuerttemberg of serious bodily harm, attempted murder, attempted manslaughter, blackmail, drug-related crimes, pimping, and illegal weapons possession.

According to the Interior Ministry of North-Rhine Westphalia, the group recruits Germans and people of Turkish origin and is estimated to count 500 members in total.

Earlier, German special forces shot and killed Hamit P., the group's former global president, during a widely-publicized raid of his Wuppertal apartment.

State prosecutors subsequently explained that police had encountered resistance when they were trying to deliver an arrest warrant for Hamit P. They have launched an independent enquiry into the incident.

Internal police reports describe the former gang leader as armed and dangerous, leading to the inclusion of special forces in his attempted arrest. Amongst others, Hamit P. was believed to have been involved in the suspected attempted murder for which the eight other bikers face trial on Monday.File photo taken on Dec. 7, 2016 shows people attending a rally calling for "more jobs and better wages" which was promised by Donald J. Trump during his campaign, in Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

CHICAGO, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government's latest plan to impose huge tariffs on imports from China is like palliative that does not solve the problem in the long run, said a U.S. scholar on economics and trade.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China and restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States.

Khairy Tourk, a professor with the Stuart School of Business of the Illinois Institute of Technology, said the Trump administration's decision to restrict Chinese investment would be restrictions for new jobs created in the United States.

"President Trump is calling for creating more jobs here, but now the action would work against his policy. So this is really negatively developed." Tourk told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Tourk believes the main issue is not tariff but the natural technology transfer, "many people here claim China is stealing American technology so they want to put restrictions on Chinese investment, that is definitely wrong."

On the other hand, Tourk said the U.S. government believes that tariff is a useful tool to bring balance in the United States and China trade relationship, but it is not the main cause, "We in the U.S are not saving enough, so we have to import resources and products achieving from overseas; this is the truth."

Tourk holds that policy makers here are lack of long term vision. "The best way to improve the American economy is to increase productivity, but this takes a lot of time, so it is easy for politicians to take some palliative (actions), but it does not heal the real cause of the problem."A Yemeni boy lies in the hospital after he was injured by air strikes in Yemen on March 7, 2018. (Reuters photo)

SANAA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- A fourth year of the conflict and the world's largest humanitarian crisis has begun in Yemen, while the international community continues to walk in a vicious circle of failure to address real obstacles to peace in the country.

Around 22.2 million out of a population of 27 million are in need of immediate humanitarian or protection assistance, with 11.3 million being in acute need. Basic services have largely deteriorated after most of the country's infrastructures have been damaged by ground shelling and Saudi-led airstrikes during the past three years.

The lack of trust among the local factions and the ambitions and agendas of the Saudi-led coalition stand on top of the obstacles to peace in Yemen, observers said.

The objectives of the Saudi-led coalition have swerved, observers said, adding that some member states of the coalition now have agendas undermining the government they are backing.

The insistence of the Houthis on keeping the political gains they have achieved and continuing the war adds to challenges before the peace as well, they said.

Nabil Albukiri, a researcher in international strategies, said the solution is in the hands of the Yemenis after regional and foreign players have made the situation more complicated.

"All Yemeni factions should make concessions starting with the withdrawal of the Houthis from the capital Sanaa and then forming independent military and security forces. The Yemeni factions should understand that they have failed to achieve military victories and all they have succeeded in is massive destruction of the nation," Albukiri said.

Theoretically, the internationally recognized government has driven the Houthi forces out of around 85% of the Yemeni land but practically it is controlling small parts of the liberated regions.

The coalition is running the largest parts of the liberated regions, including the temporary capital Aden, not successfully but through backing proxy forces that have been undermining the performance of the government.

Yaseen Al-Tamimi, a political writer and analyst, said there are scary trends to implement political agendas threatening the geopolitics of the country.

"Some factions that have been playing major roles in the war and politics such as the General People's Congress Party have become marginalized and so is the government which is being unable to act independently from its exile in Riyadh," he said.

The Houthi group killed former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, leader of the General People's Congress Party, in December and has since been trying to control his fans and all his party's assets.

"Regional and international players should find new and better ways to bridge the gap between the local factions, and those deeply involved in the war should not put their special interests ahead of the interest of the Yemeni people," Al-Tamimi said.

A new UN envoy for Yemen has assumed his job backed by international efforts to encourage the Yemeni factions to engage in incredible political process in order to end the conflict and the humanitarian crisis. Martin Griffiths said he will work hard to facilitate an inclusive political process based on the Gulf Initiative and its implementation mechanism, the outcomes of the national dialogue conference and UN resolution 2216.

Conditions set by each party to the conflict including insistence of the government that any solution must be based on the Gulf Initiative, the outcomes of the national dialogue conference and the UN resolution 2216 almost make peace impossible.

But it seems the lack of trust in the UN is one of the obstacles to establishing peace in the country as well.

Spokesperson for the Houthi group, also known as Ansarullah, Mohammed Abdulasalam said on Twitter: "there are no signs the international community is serious about finding a political solution to the conflict in Yemen. Some will take moves 'referring to EU efforts' to make the UN appear serving peace in Yemen though the UN has been dedicated itself to legitimizing and justifying the aggression on Yemen."

In this context, Hussain Albukhaiti, a political analyst, said the UN is not neutral in Yemen.

"Saudi Arabia is refusing a comprehensive ceasefire. This country began the war on us. But the UN does not point to Saudi Arabia as a party in the conflict and the international community continues to describe what this country is doing in Yemen as an intervention to restore the legitimacy of the Yemeni government, not a war."

"Hence, peace in Yemen requires a dialogue between Yemeni factions, and a dialogue between Yemenis and Saudi Arabia," Albukhaiti added.

He said foreign players are using the humanitarian crisis to achieve military gains instead of addressing the main reason for it which is the blockade.

The Saudi-led coalition imposed a blockade on all Yemeni sea, land and air ports as part of its military intervention in 2015.

The blockade has deepened the suffering of the Yemeni people after it has restricted all imports into a country that used to import 90% of its food needs and almost 100% of its medical supplies.

The UN says 45% of the country's medical facilities are currently functional. The rest has been partially and completely damaged in the fighting.

As a result, 16.4 million people lack access to adequate healthcare and 16 million lack access to clean water and sanitation.

Meanwhile, Rights Radar, an independent NGO, said in its report titled a three years of war and deadly blockade, that 27,000 people including 15,500 civilians have been killed and 58,000 including 35,000 civilians injured since the conflict escalated following the Saudi-led military intervention in March 2015.

About 2,980 people including 1,377 civilians have been maimed, 3.2 million internally displaced, 650,000 fled outside Yemen, and 750 forcibly disappeared, mostly politicians, activists and reporters, it said.

More than 26,000 houses and 6,800 public institutions have been partially and completely damaged, it said, while adding that 1,000 reporters have been forced to flee their homes to safe places inside Yemen or to flee to other countries.

Fuad Alsalahi, a political sociology professor at Sanaa University, said an end to the conflict in Yemen is being linked to the Saudi-Iranian conflict and the Russian and U.S. presence in Syria.

"Local factions have been acting as proxies and that is a huge problem as foreign players don't care about the tragedies and humanitarian losses here," Alsalahi said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-27 00:28:42|Editor: yan

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GENEVA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Six WTO members, including the European Union (EU) and China, on Monday expressed their concern over the safeguard measures imposed by the United States against imported solar cells and residential washers in the form of higher tariffs.

The U.S. administration decided in January to impose tariffs of up to 50 percent on imported washers for the next three years, and up to 30 percent on solar cells and modules for the next four years.

China initiated Monday's discussion during a meeting at WTO by saying that the measures were inconsistent with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and also the WTO Agreement on Safeguards.

It asked the U.S. to explain how it conducted its investigation before coming to decide on these safeguard measures.

China's standpoint is echoed by the EU, which noted that the U.S. had not used this measure in almost 15 years.

The EU urged the U.S. to "refrain from taking any other broad trade restrictive actions and to resort to more proportionate trade defense measures that cause less collateral damage".

Switzerland, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Singapore also expressed concern on the same occasion.OTTAWA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland Monday announced to expel four Russian diplomats working in Canadal and reject three applications for additional diplomats over the alleged nerve agent attack on an ex-spy in Salisbury, Britain.

"The four have been identified as intelligence officers or individuals who have used their diplomatic status to undermine Canada's security or interfere in our democracy," Freeland said in an announcement.

The four Russian diplomats are working at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Ottawa or the consulate in Montreal.

She said the move is in solidarity with the United Kingdom over the alleged nerve agent attack in Salisbury on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

"The nerve agent attack in Salisbury, on the soil of Canada's close partner and ally, is a despicable, heinous and reckless act, potentially endangering the lives of hundreds," Freeland said.

"This is part of a wider pattern of unacceptable behaviour by Russia," added the minister.

The Canada's move comes as the United States and several EU nations took diplomatic actions against Russia.ROME, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Former Italian prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi was on Monday indicted along with four more defendants in the so-called Ruby Ter witness-tampering case, ANSA news agency reported.

Charges include corruption of judicial proceedings and false testimony, according to ANSA.

The octogenarian center-right Forza Italia (FI) party leader is to go on trial beginning May 9 along with four women who were reportedly guests at alleged "bunga bunga" orgies at his home in Arcore near Milan while he was still serving as prime minister.

Berlusconi is currently on trial in a separate strand of the Ruby Ter case, in which he is accused of bribing several showgirls with millions of euros to testify in his favor when he was on the stand for paying Moroccan dancer Karima El Mahroug -- also known as "Ruby" -- for sex while she was still underage. That trial ended in an acquittal.

Separately, in 2013, Berlusconi was found guilty of tax fraud at his Mediaset media empire and sentenced to four years in prison. However, three years were suspended thanks to an amnesty and he served the remainder doing community service in a retirement home.

Also that year, Berlusconi was expelled from parliament based on an anti-corruption law first introduced by his own government, which says that people with convictions of more than two years in prison can't be in office.

The media mogul has applied to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights to have his expulsion from Italy's parliament voided. That case is still pending.VILNIUS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania's Transport Ministry has set an ambitious objective to put an end to fatalities caused by car accidents to zero by 2050, Edita Baniene, head of the ministry's communication department, said on Monday.

According to the long-term safe traffic strategy, Lithuania initially aims to achieve the target set by the EU -- a two-fold reduction of road deaths by 2030 and eliminate these cases entirely by 2050.

"The strategy is built on a few basic principles such as common responsibility of traffic participants as regards traffic safety, safer roads and streets, safer vehicles and more effective help upon the occurrence of traffic incidents," Baniene was quoted as saying by local media.

According to Baniene, 40 million euros (50 million U.S. dollars) will be invested in traffic safety by 2020, with nearly 20 million euros to be invested annually in the subsequent years of the strategy implementation.

"We have calculations that one euro invested in traffic safety, returns as 10 euros benefit to the state and its people," Baniene said.

According to research conducted by the ministry, around 90 percent of road accidents occur due to the fault of the traffic participants themselves. Around 65 percent of all drivers exceed the speed limits, 45 percent of drivers talk on mobile phones without a hands-free device, and around two to three percent drive under the influence of alcohol.

Forty-three percent of pedestrians do not use or improperly use light reflectors, and 45 percent of passengers do not wear seatbelts when riding in the backseat of a car. The transport ministry strategy involves various solutions for such issues.

Among the targets set by the ministry, the number of speed limit infractions must be reduced by 20 percent by 2030, the number of people talking on mobile phones and not wearing safety belts in the back of a car should be lowered by 40 percent, and not using or improperly using reflectors by 25 percent.KHARTOUM, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Sudan opens the third annual international mining business forum and exhibition on Monday with participation of 20 foreign countries and 100 local and international companies.

Sudan's Presidential Assistant Abdul Rahman Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi vowed to provide a suitable climate for foreign investment in the minerals sector in his addressing.

He reiterated that Sudan encourages investment in its minerals field.

"We encourage establishment of smart partnerships with giant companies for better exploitation of our resources with provision of suitable environment for the investors," said Al-Mahdi.

Sudan's Minerals Minister Hashim Ali Salim said the forum is convened amid wide participation of foreign countries, local and international companies and regional and international organizations concerned with the mining sector.

"Sudan has made firm steps towards developing this important sector to become a major boost for Sudan's economy," noted Salim.

The forum, held on March 26-28, tends to encourage exchanges among participating international companies and inform them of Sudan's investment act.

Around 461 companies are operating in the minerals field in Sudan, where the mining sector represents 40 percent of Sudan's minerals exports.

In 2017, Sudan's gold production reached 100 tons worth about 400 million U.S. dollars, enabling Sudan to rank second among Africa's gold producing and exporting countries, according to Sudan's Minerals Ministry.

Statistics show that around 1 million Sudanese citizens work in the traditional mining sector, which produces 90 percent of the country's gold.TRIPOLI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Spokesman of the Libyan UN-backed government on Monday denied reports that the government had offered a deal to the eastern-based army, led by General Khalifa Haftar, to share power.

"We will repeat what we have presented that no deal or offer has been made with any party in this regard. This is not true and we deny it," spokesman Mohamed Al-Sallak told a press conference in the capital Tripoli.

"The Prime Minister welcomes all initiatives that would resolve the crisis within dialogue among all Libyan parties," Al-Sallak said.

The spokesman's remarks came a day after the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported that the Prime Minister Fayez Serraj had made an offer to army commander Khalifa Haftar to share power and end the military escalation between the two parties.

According to the newspaper, the offer was rejected by Haftar.

Libya remains politically divided between authorities in the east and the west, despite a UN-sponsored political agreement signed by the Libyan parties.KIEV, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine will expel 13 Russian diplomats due to the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Britain, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Monday.

"In a spirit of solidarity with our British partners and transatlantic allies, as well as in coordination with EU countries, we decided to expel 13 of the remaining few Russian diplomats from the Ukrainian territory," Poroshenko said in a statement on its website.

While commenting on Ukraine's gesture, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it will be followed by a mirror response from Russia.

Former spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, are in a critical condition in hospital after being allegedly exposed to a nerve agent earlier this month.

Britain claims they were exposed to a nerve agent and holds Russia responsible. The Russian government has denied any involvement in the incident.

Following the incident, Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats.VIENNA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Austria will not follow the lead of other 14 European Union (EU) member states in expelling Russian diplomats, two leading officials said on Monday.

In a joint statement provided to the Austria Press Agency, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Foreign Affairs Minister Karin Kneissl said the government is "well-agreed" on its decision not to take any measures itself.

Austria is a neutral country that "sees itself as a bridge-builder between east and west," they added, and wishes to "keep communication channels to Russia open."

Despite this, they said they are in support of the decision by the European Union to recall its ambassador from Moscow, and that the union stands behind the victims of the poisoning.

European Council President Donald Tusk announced Monday in Varna, Bulgaria, that 14 European Union (EU) member states had decided to expel Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that Russia "strongly protests" diplomats expulsion by the United States and 14 European countries over an ex-spy case, vowing to retaliate.

"We consider this step as unfriendly and not corresponding to the goal and wish to establish the causes and search for the perpetrators of the (ex-spy poisoning) incident on March 4," the ministry said in a statement.

It said the British authorities took a "prejudiced, biased and hypocritical stance." It denied Russia's involvement in the incident.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-27 02:14:09|Editor: Lifang

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with foreign delegates attending the China Development Forum (CDF) 2018 in Beijing, capital of China, March 26, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to promote its reform and opening up drive, and improve investment environment for foreign companies, Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday.

Li made the remarks when meeting with a group of chief executives of Fortune 500 companies and renowned scholars, who had participated the China Development Forum (CDF) from Saturday to Monday in Beijing.

Li said China's commitment to further reform and opening up accords with its own interest, and is conducive to maintaining free trade and the healthy development of globalization.

China will open its door wider to the outside world, and is willing to learn the advanced technology and management experience from foreign countries, promote cooperation in production, knowledge, technology and service, and optimize its business environment for foreign companies, he said.

Talking about trade relations between China and the United States, which are mutually beneficial in nature, Li said the current trade volume between the two countries is achieved thanks to market demand and business rules.

"There is no winner in a trade war," the premier said, calling for a rational and earnest attitude when addressing the problem of China-U.S. trade imbalance.

Li urged the international community to jointly safeguard the multilateral trading system with free trade as its corner stone, and clearly oppose protectionism and unilateralism.

Responding to questions related to the "Made in China 2025" action plan, Li said domestic and foreign companies will be treated equally, and foreign companies will not be forced to have their technologies transferred into China.

China will strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, he added.

The CDF, organized by the Development Research Center of the State Council, is a high-level meeting that gathers leaders from international institutions, academia and companies worldwide.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-27 02:19:12|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- China has started to channel more energy into improving the benefits of skilled workers, as the world's second largest economy is counting on a bigger high-quality workforce to help facilitate its transition.

A guideline has been issued by central authorities to boost the incomes and social status of skilled workers.

Businesses will be encouraged to provide more incentives to technical personnel, including a greater say in corporate operation, higher salaries and stock options. Governments will grant skilled labor honorary titles and favorable treatment in areas such as housing and children's education.

China hopes the policies will motivate workers to sharpen their skills and make innovations, and attract more talented young people choose blue-collar jobs.

"It is the first time that China has put such great emphasis on the issue," said Tang Tao, vice minister of human resources and social security, at a press conference Monday.

Skilled workers have long been undervalued, which results in a huge demand-supply gap in the labor market.

China has an employed population of 776 million, of which only 20 percent are skilled labor and a mere six percent are highly-skilled.

"Both ratios are very low...and there has been a serious shortage for skilled workers." Tang said.

Policy makers have decided to tackle the problem as the country's shift to high-quality development will boost demand for skilled labor, such as the "Made in China 2025" strategy that calls for more qualified industrial workers to push the manufacturing sector up the value chain.

The Communist Party of China has announced that the country will build an educated, skilled and innovative workforce, foster respect for model workers, and promote quality workmanship.

Tang said the government would closely track the implementation of the guideline and expects the new policy will achieve sound results.

China will support highly-skilled workers to participate in national research programs and strengthen the protection of their intellectual property rights and technological innovations, according to the guideline.

Blue-collar workers will also be granted higher political status as more of them will be able to enter Party committees, legislatures and political advisory bodies.KIGALI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Governments of Rwanda and Nigeria Monday signed an airspace agreement allowing Rwanda's national carrier RwandAir to fly in Nigeria's air space.

The agreement was signed in Rwandan capital Kigali by Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye, Rwanda's state minister for transport and Nigerian state minister in charge of aviation Hadi Abubakar Sirika.

The agreement provides for cooperation in training and sharing of aviation expertise between Rwanda and Nigeria's aviation sectors.

The deal would enhance connectivity between the two countries and boost trade, said Uwihanganye after signing the agreement.

He said the agreement is reciprocal with interconnectivity between the two countries expected to facilitate the private sectors of both countries to tap into economic and social benefits.

The signing and opening more routes by RwandAir will continue to provide Rwanda's private sector with enormous opportunities in an economically vibrant and large market, he said.

"Air transport has capacity to connect people, markets and cultures. Therefore this particular agreement is great step towards connecting the people of Nigeria with Rwanda," said Sirika.

RwandAir currently flies to Lagos with plans to start flights to Abuja in May 2018, according to officials.HELSINKI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Finnish President Sauli Niinisto underlined on Monday the need to continue dialogues with Russia.

Niinisto talked to the media following an announcement by the Finnish government that one Russian diplomat will be expelled.

The Finnish president said resources should be now focused on mending the rift between East and West that appears to have widened.

Niinisto said Finland had considered the matter "from many aspects".

With its 1,300 kilometers land border with Russia, Finland faces a difficult situation when maintaining balance between the EU commitments and pragmatic relations with Russia, analysts have believed.

Asked by a reporter whether Finland was now "between hard rock and the hot place", the president answered that "anyway it was not very tight in there".

Niinisto said the diplomat to be asked to leave had not been named yet as of Monday afternoon.

While Finland joined the group of EU member countries that chose to expel Russian diplomats, the message in Helsinki was that Finland had hoped for an all-EU decision that would have made a wider selection of measures possible.

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila explained at length in a seperate press conference on Monday that the decision was not easy for Finland.

He said Finland had worked hard along with Sweden pushing for an EU wide solution that would have included a wider selection of measures. "But this was now not possible," he said.

Sipila said a longer European process would have been better. Sipila added that it is rare in Finnish practice to make public the expulsion of diplomats.

Apart from Finland, 19 other European countries had also announced that they would expel Russian diplomats, including Albania, Norway, Sweden, Hungary and Ukraine.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that Russia "strongly protests" diplomats expulsion by the United States, Canada and European countries over an ex-spy case, vowing to retaliate.

"We consider this step as unfriendly and not corresponding to the goal and wish to establish the causes and search for the perpetrators of the (ex-spy poisoning) incident on March 4," the ministry said in a statement.

It said the British authorities took a "prejudiced, biased and hypocritical stance". It denied Russia's involvement in the incident.ARUSHA, Tanzania, March 26 (Xinhua) -- An outbreak of African swine fever has hit southern Tanzania's region of Ruvuma as over 900 pigs have been killed by the disease, authorities said Monday.

Bilaly Mwegeni, Agricultural, and Fisheries officer in the region said that Songea municipality is the highly affected area. Songea Municipality is the Ruvuma Region headquarters, located 1,053 km from Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

Mwegeni said that from Jan. 31 to March 14 this year, over 900 pigs have died due to the disease, which is caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV). The virus causes a hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates in pigs.

"This figure is based on the reported death cases at our department, but I am sure that there are many unreported cases," the official said.

According to the official, the affected wards in the municipality include Ndilima, Litembo, Lizaboni, Msamala, Matarawe, and Ruhuwiko.

He said that a ban on the sale of pig products in the region has been enforced and will remain effective until the African swine fever is under control.LUSAKA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government has resolved to sponsor a resolution on elimination of cholera at the forthcoming World Health Assembly to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, a senior government official said on Monday.

The 71st World Health Assembly from May 21 to May 26 will be attended by delegates from all 194 World Health Organization (WHO) member states.

The resolution has been created to draw global attention to the elimination of cholera and stop people from dying from the water-borne disease, according to Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya.

The Zambian minister, in remarks delivered at an African Center for Disease Control (CDC) board meeting in Ethiopia, said it was unacceptable that a preventable and treatable disease such as cholera had continued to claim millions of lives worldwide, according to a statement released by his office.

Zambia has been battling a cholera outbreak since October last year, with over 4,000 cases recorded and over 80 deaths.

But the Zambian minister said the country was on the verge of containing the current cholera outbreak.

Meanwhile, the Zambian minister urged African Union (AU) member states to invest in national public health institutes in order to increase disease surveillance and intelligence.VALLETTA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Maltese President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca on Monday reiterated Malta's support for Albania's accession to the European Union (EU), and the country's technical assistance offer.

The words came when Albanian President Ilir Meta arrived in Malta for a state visit on Monday.

At a joint press conference, Coleiro Preca said she was looking forward to continued cooperation with Albania.

"It is essential for us to continue developing deep-rooted and mutually beneficial collaborations and partnerships, to ensure shared prosperity for our young people, and our nations," said Coleiro Preca.

The two presidents discussed a number of business sectors during their meeting, including financial services, digital gaming, healthcare, education and training, transhipment and logistics, tourism and hospitality and teach teaching of English as a foreign language, the Office of the President said.

Albania's potential accession to the European Union was also discussed. Coleiro Preca expressing her satisfaction at "the progress that Albania is making in conforming with the regulations of the European Union, hence moving it closer to membership within our European Family of nations".

Meta and Coleiro Preca also touched upon the subject of migration and discussed the need for united international efforts to address migration at its source in a "respectful and dignified way in the context of the upcoming global compacts".Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-27 02:49:21|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN Secretariat has received the U.S. decision to expel 12 diplomats of the Russian mission to the world body, said a UN spokesman on Monday.

"I can confirm that the United States mission to the United Nations informed the Secretariat of its decision to take action under Section 13 (b) of the UN-U.S. Headquarters Agreement with respect to certain members of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations. This action may require those members to leave the country (of the United States)," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"Given the sensitivity of the matter, which is ongoing, we will not comment further at this stage other than to confirm that the secretary-general will closely follow this matter and engage, as appropriate, with the governments concerned," Haq told a daily press briefing.

He refused to answer any questions that would involve any detail of the matter, including whether the United Nations has been given the names of the 12 diplomats to be expelled.

Washington has announced the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats, including 12 from the Russian UN mission in New York, as well as the closure of the Russian Consulate-General in Seattle.

The U.S. action is said to show solidarity with its ally Britain, which claims that Moscow is responsible for the poisoning of a former Russian spy on March 4 in Britain with a military-grade nerve agent. Russia has denied involvement in the case.

Britain has announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats after the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Julia in the southern English city of Salisbury.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Monday that her country has begun the process of "expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission to the United Nations who have abused their privilege of residence in the United States."

"After a review, we have determined that the 12 intelligence operatives engaged in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security. Our actions are consistent with the United Nations Headquarters Agreement," said Haley in a press statement.

Section 13 (b) of the 1947 UN-U.S. agreement on the UN Headquarters in New York reads: "In case of abuse of such privileges of residence by any such person in activities in the United States outside his official capacity, it is understood that the privileges referred to in Section 11 shall not be construed to grant him exemption from the laws and regulations of the United States regarding the continued residence of aliens."

"No proceedings shall be instituted under such laws or regulations to require any such person to leave the United States except with the prior approval of the Secretary of State of the United States. Such approval shall be given only after consultation with the appropriate Member in the case of a representative of a Member (or a member of his family) or with the Secretary-General or the principal executive officer of the appropriate specialized agency in the case of any other person referred to in Section 11," it reads.A Russian Sukhoi Su-35 bomber lands at the Russian Hmeimim military base in Latakia province, in the northwest of Syria on May 4, 2016. (AFP PHOTO)

MOSCOW, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Two Russian Su-35s fighter jets for the first time landed in an airfield on Iturup (called as Etorofu by Japan), one of the four Pacific islands claimed by both Russia and Japan, during a training flight, the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.

The jets took off from Khabarovsk Territory in Russia's Far East, flew more than 2,000 km and returned to their home base after completing the training flight, the ministry said in a statement.

The exercises were conducted to improve flight training and pilots' skills in protecting air borders, it said.

They also involved servicemen of the motor rifle division which flew over a number of Kuril islands in helicopters and destroyed "a subversive-reconnaissance group of a conventional enemy" upon landing.

Su-35s is an improved version of Su-35 which is single-seat, twin engines, highly-maneuverable multipurpose aircraft and was first commissioned by the Russian Air Force in 2009.

Russia and Japan are involved in a territorial row over Iturup, which Japan calls Etorofu, and other three islands off Japan's northern prefecture of Hokkaido. The four islands that are under Russia's control are called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.

The decades-old territorial dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a post-World War II peace treaty and hindered diplomatic and trade relations between them.

Last month, Russia said it planned to station combat jets and civil aircraft on Iturup island, which incurred protests from Japan.

Russia and Japan have agreed on joint economic activities on the four islands, but nothing substantial has been achieved.YEREVAN, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Armenian Ministry of Economic Development & Investments said here on Monday that Minister Suren Karayan had met with representatives of Chinese company "New Idea" who are keen on producing mineral water in the former Soviet republic.

During the meeting, the Chinese business delegation expressed confidence in the business venture because of the high quality of mineral water in Armenia.

The Chinese company's initiative will also have a social impact on the people close to the forthcoming mineral water plant, according to a statement released by the Armenian Ministry of Economic Development & Investments.

Minister Suren Karayan has informed New Idea, of the government agency's willingness and readiness to assist the Chinese investors with all instruments at hand, the statement said.



File Photo: Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia (Front) addresses a Security Council emergency meeting regarding accusations of the use of a nerve agent in the United Kingdom at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on March 14, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN Secretariat has received the U.S. decision to expel 12 diplomats of the Russian mission to the world body, said a UN spokesman on Monday.

"I can confirm that the United States mission to the United Nations informed the Secretariat of its decision to take action under Section 13 (b) of the UN-U.S. Headquarters Agreement with respect to certain members of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations. This action may require those members to leave the country (of the United States)," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"Given the sensitivity of the matter, which is ongoing, we will not comment further at this stage other than to confirm that the secretary-general will closely follow this matter and engage, as appropriate, with the governments concerned," Haq told a daily press briefing.

He refused to answer any questions that would involve any detail of the matter, including whether the United Nations has been given the names of the 12 diplomats to be expelled.

Washington has announced the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats, including 12 from the Russian UN mission in New York, as well as the closure of the Russian Consulate-General in Seattle.

The U.S. action is said to show solidarity with its ally Britain, which claims that Moscow is responsible for the poisoning of a former Russian spy on March 4 in Britain with a military-grade nerve agent. Russia has denied involvement in the case.

Britain has announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats after the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Julia in the southern English city of Salisbury.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (Front) addresses a Security Council emergency meeting regarding accusations of the use of a nerve agent in the United Kingdom at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on March 14, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Monday that her country has begun the process of "expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission to the United Nations who have abused their privilege of residence in the United States."

"After a review, we have determined that the 12 intelligence operatives engaged in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security. Our actions are consistent with the United Nations Headquarters Agreement," said Haley in a press statement.

Section 13 (b) of the 1947 UN-U.S. agreement on the UN Headquarters in New York reads: "In case of abuse of such privileges of residence by any such person in activities in the United States outside his official capacity, it is understood that the privileges referred to in Section 11 shall not be construed to grant him exemption from the laws and regulations of the United States regarding the continued residence of aliens."

Photo taken on March 26, 2018 shows the Russian national flag at Embassy of Russia in Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Yang Chenglin)

"No proceedings shall be instituted under such laws or regulations to require any such person to leave the United States except with the prior approval of the Secretary of State of the United States. Such approval shall be given only after consultation with the appropriate Member in the case of a representative of a Member (or a member of his family) or with the Secretary-General or the principal executive officer of the appropriate specialized agency in the case of any other person referred to in Section 11," it reads.WLS-TV(WASHINGTON) -- He served two combat tours in Afghanistan.



He then developed a drug habit his family blames on PTSD and he went to prison for selling cocaine.



Now, U.S. Army veteran Miguel Perez Jr. has been deported to Mexico, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a decision Sen. Tammy Duckworth says "is based more on hate than logic."



It marks the end of a five-year fight for former Army Pfc. Perez, 38, who his family says mistakenly believed his military service made him a U.S. citizen by default.



Perez was flown from Gary, Ind., to Brownsville, Texas, Friday where he was escorted across the U.S.-Mexico border and handed over to Mexican authorities, an ICE statement said.



A native of Mexico, Perez came to the U.S. legally when he was eight-years-old and grew up in Chicago. He served two tours of duty in Afghanistan before being discharged with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to ABC station WLS-TV in Chicago.



After being discharged from the Army, Perez pleaded guilty to selling cocaine and served about seven years in prison.



Perezs mother, Esperanza Medina, told ABC News her son never formally filed for citizenship because he misunderstood the rules governing the process. As a result, Perez was placed into removal proceedings by ICE in 2012 while serving his prison sentence.



Perezs lawyer and family attribute his conviction to a period when Perez was self-medicating for pain related to his time in the service, they said.



Perez's attorney, Christopher Bergin, added that Perez "was blown out of his Jeep in Kandahar," and that he suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the blast. Perez told The Chicago Tribune last month that grenade and roadside bomb explosions during his tours led him to lose much of his hearing and suffer headaches.



After returning home from Afghanistan, Perez told the Tribune he longed for the adrenaline rush from combat and eventually turned to cocaine. He ultimately opted for an early discharge from the Army after failing a drug test, he told the Tribune.



Sara Walker, who works at Perez's family's church, Lincoln United Methodist Church in Chicago, told ABC News that Perez told her he turned to drugs for relief. Lincoln United Methodist Church helped connect Perez's family to Bergin, who is handling the case pro bono.



"He told me that when he made that mistake he was drinking and doing drugs 24/7," Walker said.



ICE officials say the agency respects the service and sacrifice of those in military service and is very deliberate in its review of cases involving U.S. military veterans.



Perezs story became a cause celebre, with Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D.-Ill., fighting on his behalf. Upon news of the deportation, Duckworth released a statement Saturday saying, This case is a tragic example of what can happen when national immigration policies are based more in hate than on logic and ICE doesnt feel accountable to anyone. At the very least, Miguel should have been able to exhaust all of his legal options before being rushed out of the country under a shroud of secrecy."



"I am appalled that Secretary Nielsen did not respond to my personal appeal asking merely that she review Miguel's case and decide for herself whether deporting this brave combat Veteran was a good use of DHS limited resources. I will be looking into additional oversight options in the near future to protect this from happening to any other combat Veteran," Duckworth said.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.BUJUMBURA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Delegates from Burundi, Tanzania and UNHCR on Monday started a three-day meeting in the Burundian capital Bujumbura to seek ways of boosting the repatriation of Burundian refugees living in Tanzania.

"We are glad that the repatriation process is going on well, but the figures need to be boosted," said Therence Ntahiraja, assistant to the Burundian interior minister at the launch of the tripartite meeting.

Some 20,700 Burundian refugees were voluntarily repatriated from Tanzania since the last tripartite meeting in August 2017, said Ntahiraja. "This figure is higher than our expectations," he said.

During the past two years, over 200,000 Burundian refugees in Tanzania came back home, said Ntahiraja.

Over 30,000 other Burundian refugees who registered last year for the voluntary repatriation need to be repatriated, said Harrison Wingia Mseke, the head of the Tanzanian delegation and director of the refugee department of the Tanzanian home affairs ministry.Houthi performers dance during a rally to mark the 3rd anniversary of the Saudi-led intervention in the Yemeni conflict in Sanaa, Yemen March 26, 2018. (Reuters photo)

SANAA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of thousands of Yemeni Shiite Houthi rebel supporters held a mass rally at the heart of the capital Sanaa on Monday to mark the third anniversary of the Saudi-led intervention in the Yemeni civil war.

The rally is a show of force hours after the rebel group fired a barrage of long-range ballistic missiles toward the Saudi capital Riyadh.

On the stage of the Alsabeen Square, tens of Houthis dressing in Yemeni traditional robes and ceremonial curved daggers, called Jambiya, and wielding guns and rifles, performed a popular dance for the crowds, as powerful speakers blasted out war song and enthusiastic poems.

The crowds, carried the country's national flags and held portraits of the rebel chief Abdul-Malik a-Houthi, chanted the famous Houthi slogan "Death to U.S., Death to Israel."

Head of the Houthi political council Saleh al-Sammad delivered a speech to the crowds, vowing "to step up missile attacks on Saudi Arabia unless it stops war on the country."

"We will witness more successful advance of our Rocketry Forces' capabilities," he said.

"If they (Saudi-led coalition) want peace, we are with peace, as we have told them before," he said, adding "if air strikes continue, we will have the right to defend ourselves by all available means."

On Sunday midnight, the Houthi rebels fired several long-range ballistic missiles toward four Saudi international airports.

The missiles targeted King Khaled International Airport north of the Saudi capital Riyadh, Abha International Airport in the Saudi southwestern province of Asir, the International Airport of the southern Saudi province of Jizan, and the regional airport of the Saudi southeastern province of Najran.

"The move came in response to an order from leader of the revolution, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi," the Houthi group said in a statement carried by the group-controlled Saba news agency.

Saudi Arabia said its air defense forces shot down three missiles over the capital Riyadh shortly before Sunday midnight. It said an Egyptian resident was killed and two other Egyptians were wounded when debris fell on a house in Riyadh.

The Sunday midnight attacks were the latest in a series of attacks claimed by the Yemeni Houthi group against the Saudi airports.

The Houthi rebels have seized much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa, since late 2014, and forced the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

On March 26, 2015, Saudi Arabia led a military coalition of Arab forces, backed by the United States, to intervene in Yemen's conflict to back the government of exiled President Hadi.

The coalition has launched thousands of airstrikes on the Iran-aligned Shiite Houthis, in attempts to roll back rebel gains and reinstate Hadi in the capital Sanaa.

Houthis have launched hundreds of ballistic missiles toward Saudi cities, with most of them intercepted by Saudi air defense forces.

The war has so far killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and pushed the Arab country to the brink of mass famine.BRATISLAVA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Ministry summoned the Russian Ambassador to Slovakia to seek explanations over the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Britain, ministry spokesperson Peter Susko announced on Monday.

Slovakia condemned the attack and has embraced the European Council resolution dated from March 22, in which European Union member states declared their support for Britain in the case.

"The development of the situation, as well as Russia's responses to the call addressed to it by the EU member states -- including Slovakia -- will determine the further steps that we're prepared to entertain in this matter," Susko said.

The United Kingdom has already expelled Russian diplomats from its borders, and another 14 EU member states decided to follow suit, including Germany and France. In response, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from America and the closure of the Russian consular office in Seattle.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that Russia "strongly protests" diplomats expulsion by the United States and 14 European countries over an ex-spy case, vowing to retaliate. It said the British authorities took a "prejudiced, biased and hypocritical stance." It denied Russia's involvement in the incident.

On March 4, former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in a shopping center in the southern England city of Salisbury. They remain in a critical condition.

Britain claims they were exposed to a nerve agent and holds Russia responsible. The Russian government has denied any involvement in the incident. Moscow insists on direct participation in the investigation into the poisoning.

"Russia firmly insists on a comprehensive investigation of what has happened in Salisbury. We are ready to take a most active part in it," Vladimir Yermakov, head of the Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control at the Russian Foreign Ministry, said at a briefing for foreign diplomats.TRIPOLI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Libya security destroyed a large identity fraud network, the Libyan news agency reported on Monday.

Osama Dresi, head of the Civil Status Investigation Department of the Libyan eastern city of Benghazi, confirmed that the department received information about individuals selling counterfeited identity documents.

Dresi said that some individuals were arrested inside a house with dozens of fraud identity and birth certification documents.

He also said that the arrested individuals confessed of identity fraud with the help of officials in the civil authority and the passport department.

Libyan security from time to time arrests individuals involved in similar fraud activities. However, the network shattered on Monday in Benghazi is the largest in Libya.ALGIERS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Algeria on Monday condemned the missile attack from Yemeni territory on Sunday overnight on populated areas in the Saudi's capital city of Riyadh.

"Algeria strongly condemns the missile attack fired Sunday overnight from Yemeni territory on populated areas in Saudi Arabia, including the capital city Riyadh, causing victims among civilians," said a statement of the foreign ministry.

The North African country expressed its "extreme concern" over "this dangerous escalation," and reaffirmed solidarity with and support for "the brotherly Saudi Arabia in its struggle against any attempt aiming at undermining its security and stability."

Algeria also urges for "immediate cessation of such hostile acts that could aggravate the situation and lead to escalation in the region," and calls for "disputing parties in Yemen to return to the path of dialogue and reconciliation to reach political settlement for the crisis in this country."

Saudi Arabia's media reported that one person was killed after seven missiles were fired from Yemen by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on Sunday overnight.

The missiles were all intercepted and destroyed, the sources noted, adding that fragments from the intercepted missiles killed an Egyptian national there.

Saudi Arabia has been leading a military coalition in Yemen for three years to chase away Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who took power after forcing out the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi.HELSINKI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Former Finnish foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja has taken distance from the Finnish decision to join other European countries in deciding to expel a Russian diplomat.

"In a country ruled by law, decisions should be based on sufficient proof and not on suspicions," Tuomoja wrote in a social media entry on Monday evening.

He noted that "based on the information I have, I would not have taken this decision." He said he hoped the government has more information.

Tuomioja wrote that Finnish President Sauli Niinisto was right in underlining that in the present situation continued dialogue with Russia is even more important.

Tuomioja is now a social democratic Member of Parliament. He served as the country's foreign minister 2000-2002 and 2011-2015.

In an analysis of the decision on Monday, Suvi Turtiainen, European affairs correspondent with the national broadcaster Yle, noted that the decision was difficult for Finland but was "the only possible option".

"A different decision would have thrown Finland, in the eyes of the rest of Europe, to the 'gray zone' between the East and the West," he said.RABAT, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) strongly condemned on Monday the launching of ballistic missiles by Yemen's Houthi militias against four Saudi cities, including the capital Riyadh.

ISESCO deemed in a statement the attack as a "terrorist act and a crime against humanity, with the aim of causing severe damage to populated civilian areas."

It reaffirmed support to Saudi Arabia in the face of "this terrorism and those backing it," calling upon ISESCO member states to condemn it and take a "firm stand towards those who provide these terrorist terrorist militias with missiles, material support and military expertise."Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-27 05:39:47|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations is stepping up its efforts to address the needs of people affected by weeks of ongoing hostilities in Afrin district in northwest Syria, a UN spokesman said Monday.

The ongoing fighting has resulted in death and injury, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and further displacement, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at a daily briefing.

A UN/Syrian Arab Red Crescent inter-agency convoy to Tal Refaat on Sunday delivered food, nutrition, health and core relief items for 50,000 people in need who have fled Afrin district in recent weeks, he said, adding that the team also carried out a needs assessment in Tal Refaat and surrounding areas.

An estimated 183,570 men, women and children are estimated to be have been displaced. The massive influx of displaced people is putting a strain on host communities, which are already overwhelmed, Haq added.

Meanwhile, nearly 55,000 civilians from Eastern Ghouta are currently being hosted in seven collective shelters in Rural Damascus. "This is a displaced population that has endured months with limited access to food, medical care or other essential items," said the spokesman.

"While humanitarians are bravely doing all they can to respond to the needs of people who have been displaced, they also need access to people still trapped inside Eastern Ghouta, in Duma in particular, where fighting and besiegement continue," he said.

In this regard, "the UN calls on all parties to fully respect international humanitarian and human rights law, to guarantee the protection of all civilians in Eastern Ghouta and to ensure immediate humanitarian access to those in need," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-27 05:54:49|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Photo taken on March 26, 2018 shows a general view of the General Assembly commemorative meeting for the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the transatlantic Slave Trade at the UN headquarters in New York. Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres on Monday urged General Assembly to remain "forever vigilant" in combating forced labor. He made the remarks at the General Assembly commemorative meeting for the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the transatlantic Slave Trade. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres on Monday urged General Assembly to remain 'forever vigilant' in combating forced labor.

Guterres made the remarks at the General Assembly commemorative meeting for the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the transatlantic Slave Trade.

Lasting for over 400 years, the abominable buying and selling of human beings, the largest forced movement of people in history, was "inhumane and shameful", Guterres said.

Eleven years ago, the UN General Assembly established the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade to acknowledge the horrific trafficking in human lives.

On this Day we must also recognize the role played by many of our countries, including my own, Portugal, in robbing millions of people of their homes, families, dignity and lives and profiting from their misery, the UN chief said.

The UN's Remember Slavery Programme and UNESCO's Slave Route Project are among the initiatives that, through education and outreach, contribute to more inclusive societies, Guterres said.

"This observance was established not only to acknowledge a dreadful chapter in human history, but also to shine a spotlight on the dangers of racism and prejudice today," he said.

Although the transatlantic slave trade was abolished in the 1800s, it continues to affect social, cultural and political interaction among people and countries, Guterres said in his remarks on the special day.

This tragic mass human suffering must be recounted to younger generations through education that offers an accurate reflection of historical accounts, including the many acts of bravery and resistance carried out by slaves, he said.

It is equally important to highlight the enormous contributions of people of African descent across the world, the UN chief said.

Guterres mentioned among others, the contributions of Martin Luther King, Jr. to human and civil rights are of such global renown and eternal value that they need no description.

He suggested people to see an exhibition currently on display in UN visitor's lobby, which highlights the work of contemporary architects of African descent in different parts of the world.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-27 05:59:49|Editor: yan

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CHICAGO, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) agricultural commodities closed lower on Monday with soybean futures experiencing ups and downs in a choppy session.

The most active corn contract for May delivery fell 3.25 cents, or 0.86 percent to settle at 3.74 dollars per bushel. May wheat delivery lost 6 cents, or 1.30 percent to close at 4.5425 dollars per bushel. May soybeans were down 2.75 cents, or 0.27 percent to settle at 10.255 dollars per bushel.

CBOT brokers reported that funds sold 6,000 contracts of corn and 3,600 contracts of wheat, while buying 2,500 contracts of soybeans. Funds were early buyers of soybeans but turned sellers at midday.

U.S. President Donald Trump has recently threatened to impose tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China, in a latest unilateral move that could draw retaliation from China, leading to fears that U.S. soybeans could be targeted.

But U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox News on Sunday that American officials were simultaneously having negotiations with their Chinese counterparts in an effort to reach an agreement. His remarks gave some tentative relief to the market and prompted an early rally during the morning session.

However, soybean prices reversed the uptrend at midday amid concerns that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will probably increase its forecast for acreage in this week's prospective plantings report, and further declined into negative territory.

CBOT corn and wheat also posted losses on Monday.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-27 06:29:54|Editor: yan

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DAMASCUS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- A total of six people were set free on Monday night from the rebels' captivity in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta, state news agency SANA reported.

The state news agency revealed the names of the newly-released people from the town of Arbeen in Eastern Ghouta, as part of a deal reached recently for the rebels' evacuation from areas in the central part of Eastern Ghouta.

The deal also demands the rebels to set free people they have previously kidnapped.

The abductees were brought in ambulances to the government-controlled Panorama on the outskirts of Arbeen.

SANA added that work is ongoing for the release of more people.

This is the second batch of kidnapped people to be released, just two days after eight people were released from the rebels' custody in Arbeen.

Meanwhile, SANA said the third batch of rebels is preparing to leave Eastern Ghouta through Arbeen toward rebel-held areas in northern Syria after thousands have evacuated over the past two days.WAKEFIELD, Mich. - After an incredible surge of strength combined with Sisu, Irene (Maki) Keski, 96, a life-long resident of Wakefield, passed away peacefully on Friday afternoon, March 23, 2018.

Irene was born on Aug. 16, 1921, the eighth child of twelve born at home to Sylvester and Maija Liisa (Nisula) Maki. At the age of 11 when her mother passed away after a battle with cancer, Irene assumed many maternal and domestic chores. As payment for doing those chores, her father gave her a dime three times each week so she could see the new movie at the theater in the Community Building. None of her friends had money for a ticket, so Irene walked alone from her home in Castile. She graduated from Wakefield High School in 1939, and then traveled to Waukegan, Illinois to seek employment. She worked at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago.

On April 4, 1942, Irene and Wayne Keski (who had also relocated to Waukegan) were married at the St. Mark's Lutheran church parsonage in Waukegan. They set out for Wakefield on their honeymoon, deciding while they were there, to remain in Wakefield permanently. Irene and Wayne therefore enjoyed a 61-year-long honeymoon until Wayne's passing on February 17, 2003.

Irene was a life-long member of All Saints Lutheran Church, the Wakefield Senior Citizens Club and the VFW Auxiliary.

In 1964, Irene went to work as a nurse aid at the Gogebic Medical Care Facility until 1976, when she underwent brain surgery and was not allowed to return to work. Irene had many interests throughout her life such as arts and crafts, ceramics, playing board games and card games. She learned to knit through an instructional book in her early married life, going on to knit probably thousands of items. In earlier years, she liked to attend weekly quilting sessions at the church. Irene was an avid reader, too, and she also liked to solve crossword puzzles. Many at GMCF will remember seeing her knitting!

In addition to her parents, Irene was predeceased by all her siblings, Laura Jarvenpaa (1984), Arne (1934), Vienna Bennett (2012), Sam (1994), Hilda Bidwell (1993), Toivo (1919), Arvo (1979), Reino (1983), Martha (1929), Sulo (1972) and Nels (1998).

Irene is survived by her three children, Marilyn (Ray, deceased) Lock, Judy (Bob) Salmela, and John Keski; six grandchildren, Wendy (Dave) Guinn, Ray Lock, Jr., Kristin Miller, Erin (fiance Jim Linn), Cassandra (fiance Jim Rickon) and Matt Keski. She is also survived by eight great-grandchildren, and six great-great-grandchildren, two sisters-in-law, Helvia (Sam) Maki and Laura (Henry) Keski, a brother-in-law, Len (Edie) Keski of Battle Creek. Many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews also survive.

The family sincerely offers their deepest gratitude to the staff at GMCF for the loving care shown to our mother during her three and a half-year residency. We appreciate everything you did for her.

Cremation has taken place. Pastor Bill Jacobson will officiate at a memorial service at All Saints Lutheran Church on Wednesday, March 28, 2018 at 11 a.m. Visitation will be on Wednesday morning from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the church. Spring burial will take place next to Wayne.

The Frick-Zielinski Funeral Home in Bessemer is entrusted with funeral arrangements. For more information and to express condolences, please visit rangefuneralservices.com.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund will be established with donations being forwarded to All Saints Lutheran Church.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 - NASA has awarded a small business set-aside contract to Metis Flight Research Associates LLC of Albuquerque, New Mexico, for support of aerospace systems modeling and simulation facilities at the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

Technical Services for Aerospace Modeling and Simulation III (SimLabs III) is a hybrid contract that includes a cost-plus-fixed-fee core for contract management and technical services contract line items, and an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity provision for technical service contract line items. The maximum potential value of the contract is approximately $62.8 million, and the period of performance begins April 23 with a 45-day phase-in period, followed by a one-year base period and four one-year options.

Services provided under this contract include: systems engineering; software development and systems administration; aerospace engineering and applications programming; graphics programming; simulator hardware and mechanical systems engineering and operations; safety and mission assurance; configuration management; outreach and subject matter expert recruitment; and related contract management functions.News

Washington, DC - On March 4, Russia used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to murder a British citizen and his daughter in Salisbury. This attack on our Ally the United Kingdom put countless innocent lives at risk and resulted in serious injury to three people, including a police officer. In response to this outrageous violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and breach of international law, today the United States will expel 48 Russian officials serving at Russias bilateral mission to the United States.

We will also require the Russian government to close its Consulate General in Seattle by April 2, 2018. We take these actions to demonstrate our unbreakable solidarity with the United Kingdom, and to impose serious consequences on Russia for its continued violations of international norms. 

Separately, we have begun the process of expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission to the United Nations who have abused their privilege of residence in the United States.

The United States calls on Russia to accept responsibility for its actions and to demonstrate to the world that it is capable of living up to its international commitments and responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security.News

Los Angeles, California - Using project-based learning, creativity and 3D-printed rocket kits, the students who make up the Rocket Project at UCLA have become science and engineering ambassadors.

The UCLA undergraduates have recently started to share their love of science, engineering and rockets to inspire schoolchildren through visits to Los Angeles-area schools. Their first two outreach events were held at Scott Avenue Elementary School and Marina Del Rey Middle School, where they worked to show students that engineering and problem-solving is exciting by teaching them some basic principles of flight and aerodynamics using model rockets, which are 3-D printed at the UCLA Lux Lab.

Members of the Rocket Project, which has about 120 members from various majors across campus, also test their skills each year at the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition, during which each team must launch and successfully recover a rocket payload to either 10,000 or 25,000 ft. The team recently test launched their Odyssey 1 rocket in a remote part of the Mojave Desert achieving a measured altitude of 12,550 feet, the highest altitude ever for an entirely student-built liquid rocket, according to the team.Latest News

Cambridge, Massachusetts - On Nov. 11, 2014, a global network of telescopes picked up signals from 300 million light years away that were created by a tidal disruption flare, an explosion of electromagnetic energy that occurs when a black hole rips apart a passing star. Since this discovery, astronomers have trained other telescopes on this very rare event to learn more about how black holes devour matter and regulate the growth of galaxies.

Scientists from MIT and Johns Hopkins University have now detected radio signals from the event that match very closely with X-ray emissions produced from the same flare 13 days earlier. They believe these radio echoes, which are more than 90 percent similar to the events X-ray emissions, are more than a passing coincidence. Instead, they appear to be evidence of a giant jet of highly energetic particles streaming out from the black hole as stellar material is falling in.

Dheeraj Pasham, a postdoc in MITs Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, says the highly similar patterns suggest that the power of the jet shooting out from the black hole is somehow controlled by the rate at which the black hole is feeding on the obliterated star.

This is telling us the black hole feeding rate is controlling the strength of the jet it produces, Pasham says. A well-fed black hole produces a strong jet, while a malnourished black hole produces a weak jet or no jet at all. This is the first time weve seen a jet thats controlled by a feeding supermassive black hole.

Pasham says scientists have suspected that black hole jets are powered by their accretion rate, but they have never been able to observe this relationship from a single event.

You can do this only with these special events where the black hole is just sitting there doing nothing, and then suddenly along comes a star, giving it a lot of fuel to power itself, Pasham says. Thats the perfect opportunity to study such things from scratch, essentially.

Pasham and his collaborator, Sjoert van Velzen of Johns Hopkins University, report their results in a paper published this week in the Astrophysical Journal.

Up for debate

Based on theoretical models of black hole evolution, combined with observations of distant galaxies, scientists have a general understanding for what transpires during a tidal disruption event: As a star passes close to a black hole, the black holes gravitational pull generates tidal forces on the star, similar to the way in which the moon stirs up tides on Earth.

However, a black holes gravitational forces are so immense that they can disrupt the star, stretching and flattening it like a pancake and eventually shredding the star to pieces. In the aftermath, a shower of stellar debris rains down and gets caught up in an accretion disk  a swirl of cosmic material that eventually funnels into and feeds the black hole.

This entire process generates colossal bursts of energy across the electromagnetic spectrum. Scientists have observed these bursts in the optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray bands, and also occasionally in the radio end of the spectrum. The source of the X-ray emissions is thought to be ultrahot material in the innermost regions of the accretion disk, which is just about to fall into the black hole. Optical and ultraviolet emissions likely arise from material further out in the disk, which will eventually be pulled into the black hole.

However, what gives rise to radio emissions during a tidal disruption flare has been up for debate.

We know that the radio waves are coming from really energetic electrons that are moving in a magnetic field  that is a well-established process, Pasham says. The debate has been, where are these really energetic electrons coming from?

Some scientists propose that, in the moments after the stellar explosion, a shockwave propagates outward and energizes the plasma particles in the surrounding medium, in a process that in turn emits radio waves. In such a scenario, the pattern of emitted radio waves would look radically different from the pattern of X-rays produced from infalling stellar debris.

What we found basically challenges this paradigm, Pasham says.

A shifting pattern

Pasham and van Velzen looked through data recorded from a tidal disruption flare discovered in 2014 by the global telescope network ASASSN (All-sky Automated Survey for Supernovae). Soon after the initial discovery, multiple electromagnetic telescopes focused on the event, which astronomers coined ASASSN-14li. Pasham and van Velzen perused radio data from three telescopes of the event over 180 days.

The researchers looked through the compiled radio data and discovered a clear resemblance to patterns they had previously observed in X-ray data from the same event. When they fit the radio data over the X-ray data, and shifted the two around to compare their similarities, they found the datasets were most similar, with a 90 percent resemblance, when shifted by 13 days. That is, the same fluctuations in the X-ray spectrum appeared 13 days later in the radio band.

The only way that coupling can happen is if there is a physical process that is somehow connecting the X-ray-producing accretion flow with the radio-producing region, Pasham says.

From this same data, Pasham and van Velzen calculated the size of the X-ray-emitting region to be about 25 times the size of the sun, while the radio-emitting region was about 400,000 times the solar radius.

Its not a coincidence that this is happening, Pasham says. Clearly theres a causal connection between this small region producing X-rays, and this big region producing radio waves.

The team proposes that the radio waves were produced by a jet of high-energy particles that began to stream out from the black hole shortly after the black hole began absorbing material from the exploded star. Because the region of the jet where these radio waves first formed was incredibly dense (tightly packed with electrons), a majority of the radio waves were immediately absorbed by other electrons.

It was only when electrons traveled downstream of the jet that the radio waves could escape  producing the signal that the researchers eventually detected. Thus, they say, the strength of the jet must be controlled by the accretion rate, or the speed at which the black hole is consuming X-ray-emitting stellar debris.

Ultimately, the results may help scientists better characterize the physics of jet behavior  an essential ingredient in modeling the evolution of galaxies. Its thought that galaxies grow by producing new stars, a process that requires very cold temperatures. When a black hole emits a jet of particles, it essentially heats up the surrounding galaxy, putting a temporary stop on stellar production. Pasham says the teams new insights into jet production and black hole accretion may help to simplify models of galaxy evolution.

If the rate at which the black hole is feeding is proportional to the rate at which its pumping out energy, and if that really works for every black hole, its a simple prescription you can use in simulations of galaxy evolution, Pasham says. So this is hinting toward some bigger picture.Bhopal: In a bid to publicly shame and chastise rapists, the Bhopal police paraded four men, accused of gangraping a 20-year-old girl, in busy city streets on Sunday.

The victim, a college student, had registered a complaint with the Maharana Pratap (MP) Nagar Police Station on Sunday morning.

One of the accused persons  21-year-old Shailendra Dangi, victim's senior in her college  called her to a restaurant in the MP Nagar locality on Saturday. The duo met up as planned and had a fight over an issue. He then snatched her cell phone and took her to his friend Sonu Dangi's (21) room near Apsara cinema, said the police.

In the room, Sonu along with two more friends  Dhiraj Rajput (26) and Chiman Rajput (25)  were already present.

She was then raped by Shailendra and Dhiraj, while Sonu and Chiman helped them. Afterwards they let her go, but threatened to kill her and her family and warned not to disclose the incident to anyone.

Of late, police in Madhya Pradesh have taken to parading habitual eve-teasers or those accused of sexual offences through streets, as a measure of deterrence after the government came under fire for increase in crime against women.

All were booked for gang-rape as they were supposed to have acted with a common intention, additional superintendent of police Vikas Kumar Sahwal said. IPC sections 376 (rape), 376 (d) (gang-rape) and 365 (kidnapping) were pressed against them.

The accused have confessed to the crime, DIG Choudhary said, adding that further probe is on.

When asked why police is parading the accused through the streets, Bhopal Inspector General of Police Jaideep Kumar said it has boosted women's confidence, and they are now coming forward to lodge complaints in such cases.

The parading has instilled a fear in offenders, he said.PATNA: Denying all rumours of flight, Arijit Shashwat  son of Union Minister Ashwini Choubey  accused of inciting communal violence at Nathnagar in Bhagalpur district, has moved an anticipatory bail application.

If the police comes to arrest me I will do what they ask. I am moving an anticipatory bail application, said Shashwat.

When asked about surrendering before the court, Shashwat said, Why should I surrender? The Court issues warrant but the court also gives shelter. Once you go to the court, you will do only what it decides for you.

Mein nyayalay ki sharan mein hun. Bhaagte woh hain, khojna unko padta hai jo kahin gayab ho gaye hon, mein samaaj ke beech mein hun (I am at the mercy of judiciary. Need to look out for someone arises when they flee. I am right here), he added.

A clash broke out on Saturday between two groups over an alleged procession with songs and slogans. The riots erupted when a group of people reportedly objected to loud music during the procession. The two groups even pelted stones at each other. An FIR was subsequently filed against Shashwat who was leading BJP, RSS and Bajrang Dal workers' procession for allegedly inciting people with communal comments.



Meanwhile, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said the arrest warrant issued against Ashwini Choubey`s son by the state government is a mere show-off.

Yadav taking to his twitter handle said, Arjit Chaube against whom an arrest warrant has been issued, has carried out another procession where he can be seen armed with a sword.

"Arjit Chaube son of Union Min Ashwini Chaube is Wanted in a case. Nitish govt have issued arrest warrant on him for inciting riots in Bhagalpur but today he took out another procession on the occasion of Ram Navami armed with a sword accompanied by BJP MLAs," read a tweet.

Ashwini Choubey, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, refuted all charges, saying his son did not do anything wrong."I am proud that he is my son. I am proud that my son did not do anything wrong, he was raising slogans in tribute of Bharat Mata, the people from Bharatiya Navvarsh Jagran Samiti and Bhagalpur took out a procession for Hindu New Year. No one was hurt during the procession," said Choubey.

With agency inputsAurangabad: Section 144 has been imposed in Aurangabad after clashes broke out between two communities on the occasion of Ram Navami. As per reports, clashes occurred when stones were thrown at a group taking out a march to celebrate Ram Navami in Nawadih area on Sunday.

Many are said to have been injured in the incident. In the ensuing violence, shops were burnt and properties damaged at Ramesh Chowk by agitating mob. Internet services have been suspended in the city as a result of the violence.

Aurangabad DM Rahul Ranjan Mahiwal has said that the situation was under control. He has also said that the procession was authorised and was passing through pre-determined route, as per media reports. Patna zonal IG Nayyar Hasnain Khan too has said that district armed police personnel were deployed in the area and the situation was under control.

Reports of violence have also been reported from other parts of Bihar like Gaya and Siwan. In Gaya, stones were reportedly pelted on a Ram Navami procession under Kothi police station area on Sunday, which led to clashes between two communities.

In Siwan too, 'communal' clashes are said to have taken place when a group of people stopped a Ram Navami procession at Nizampur village on Saturday night.

The state home department and state police's special branch had earlier urged people not to share objectionable posts on social media on the occasion of Ram Navami. They had also taken out advertisements in newspapers asking people not to raise slogans which would hurt religious sentiments.Kolkata/Bihar: Violence broke out in West Bengal and Bihar on the occasion of Ram Navami on Sunday. One person was killed and five police personnel were injured during a clash between two groups over a Ram Navami procession in Purulia in Bengal.

While the Purulia SP Joy Biswas confirmed that one person was killed in the clash, the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma said five police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police-rank officer, were injured after violence erupted between two groups in the Arsha police station area.

Massive clashes also broke out in the Raniganj area of Bardhaman West district. Two police officers were seriously injured when two groups attacked each other during a rally. One of the Ram Navami processions allegedly tried to enter an area, where members of the minority community lived in large numbers, a senior police officer said on the condition of anonymity, as per PTI.

The members of the two communities got into a fight even as the police tried to intervene, he said, adding that a temple in the vicinity was also attacked during the clashes.

"Asansol-Durgapur Deputy Commissioner of Police Arindam Dutta Chowdhury was injured in the incident. He lost a hand when the agitators hurled a bomb at him. He has been admitted to a private hospital," the officer said. Officer in-charge (OC) Pramit Ganguly also received head injuries in the violence, he added.

On the other hand, a case was on Monday registered against BJP West Bengal mahila morcha president Locket Chatterjee for allegedly participating in an 'armed' Ram Navami procession in Birbhum district on Sunday, police said. "A case has been lodged against Locket Chatterjee, which also includes non-bailable sections for participating in a rally with arms," Birbhum Superintendent of Police (SP) N Sudheer Kumar said.

An FIR has been also been lodged against BJP state president Dilip Ghosh under non-bailable sections, West Midnapore district Superintendent of Police Alok Rajoria said.

Ghosh had purportedly been seen participating in a Ram Naami rally with a sword and a mace at Kharagpur in West Midnapore district on Sunday, PTI reported.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that she had directed the DGP to instruct all the SPs to take strong action in this regard and not to spare anyone, whoever he or she was. "The law will take its own course. I will not tolerate this," she said at a public meeting at Pailan and added that if the police failed to take action, steps would be taken against them. Banerjee also called those, who allegedly carried swords and other weapons in Ram Navami processions, "hooligans".

The BJP and the TMC had organised processions to celebrate Ram Navami in various parts of the state on Sunday.

On the other hand, violence was reported from Bihar too. Section 144 has been imposed in Aurangabad after clashes broke out between two communities. As per reports, clashes occurred when stones were thrown at a group taking out a march to celebrate Ram Navami on Sunday. Many are said to have been injured in the incident.

In the ensuing violence, shops were burnt and properties damaged at Ramesh Chowk by agitating mob. Reports of violence have also been reported from other parts of Bihar like Gaya and Siwan.

(With PTI inputs)Mumbai: Tiger Shroff has emerged as an action hero in the current generation of Bollywood stars, but the actor said he did not choose "Student of the Year 2" to break any stereotypes.

Much before Tiger made his acting debut in 2014 with "Heropanti", he was often seen doing daredevil stunts off-screen.

After featuring in a string of films such as "Baaghi", "A Flying Jatt" and "Munna Michael", the 28-year-old actor has cemented his position as an action star.

In his next "Baaghi 2", he will yet again be seen doing power-packed stunts.

However, in "SOTY 2", Tiger will move away from his macho image and transform into a naive student. The film, sequel to the hit 2012 Karan Johar directorial, will be helmed by Punit Malhotra.

"I am trying something else with 'Student of the Year 2'. That's a complete contrast from 'Baaghi 2'. I am getting bullied and beaten up. Here, it is the opposite," Tiger said in a media interaction here.

The actor said the decision to do the film - even as its rest of the cast is yet to be finalised - was not taken with the intention of breaking away from the action hero stereotype.

"I don't have much action in the film ('Student of the Year 2'). I didn't choose it to break the stereotype. It was an honour to work with Dharma Productions," he said.

"It is Karan Johar's baby franchise, his priced possession and he is passing it on to me, so there's an expectation. I take huge pride in taking the legacy forward of 'Student of the Year'," he added.

Tiger said the film will give him a platform to showcase a different side to his acting chops.

"For me, it's great as an actor to explore different facets. I've never played a regular, normal lover boy. It's like a musical.

"If I get bullied there, the audience will be surprised. Suddenly after 'Baaghi 2', here I am getting bullied. So for me, that's scoring marks," he added.

"Baaghi 2" is scheduled to be released this Friday.Mumbai: Axis Bank's failure to honour a bank guarantee due to legal tangles does not amount to a default, and the third largest private sector lender's ratings will not be affected, global ratings agency Fitch said on Monday.

"Axis Bank's failure to honour a guarantee it issued is not a default and thus, does not affect the bank's long-term rating," it said in a note.

The agency has a 'BBB-' rating with a stable outlook on the Shikha Sharma-led bank.

Fitch said the bank decided not to honour the guarantee because it believed doing so would have "contravened a court order related to a separate legal case."

The agency said its bank rating criteria does not view a bank as having failed if it has defaulted as a result of "legal restrictions" on servicing obligations while it remains solvent and liquid.

It also took note of a communication to exchanges, wherein the bank had affirmed to honour all commitments.

Fitch said the issue has arisen because of a legal battle between the now-bankrupt telecom company Aircel and the department of telecommunication (DoT).

The agency said the Axis Bank has informed it that the guarantee was issued to Bharti Airtel, which had an agreement to trade spectrum held by Aircel but the bankruptcy filing led to the DoT calling on the bank to cover the amount guaranteed.

"However, an earlier order from the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal prevented Axis Bank from doing so, and thus, revoking the payment under the bank guarantee was the only way the bank could avoid being in contempt of court," the agency said.

It added that the bank does not have any other exposure to Aircel and a bulk of its Rs 9,200-crore outstanding non-funded exposure to the telecom sector, including this, is almost entirely to well-rated borrowers.

It can be noted that following the Axis Bank's failure to honour the said guarantee, the DoT had ordered that bank guarantees from the lender should not be taken, calling it as a serious breach of trust and contract with the government.

The Axis Bank scrip was trading flat at Rs 501 a piece at 1326 hrs on the BSE, as against 0.30 percent gains on the benchmark.New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has directed social media sites Facebook, Google and YouTube to take down a video blog which allegedly disparages the 'atta' made and marketed by Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved.

The interim order was given by Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw who directed the three social media platforms to restrict access to the links and contents of the blog.

The court also issued notices asking them to disclose the identity of the persons in whose name the blog and the urls leading to it, were registered. It listed the matter for further hearing on May 15.

The direction came on a plea by Patanjali seeking taking down of a Tamil-language video blog which allegedly disparaged the atta made by them as well as that of ITC's 'Aashirvaad' brand.

The video had termed as rubber the atta made by the two brands, Patanjali told the court in its plea.

Appearing for Patanjali, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar told the court that ITC has already obtained an interim stay order against the blog from a Bengaluru court.

He said his client had notified the three social media platforms about the disparaging video blog and its contents and asked them to block it. But as they did nothing, Patanjali filed the instant plea, he said.New Delhi: The drivers employed by the online aggregator Ola blocked the Delhi-Gurugram highway and clashed with police on Monday, angered by the murder of one of their associates, reported news agency ANI.

Ola drivers clash with Police, block Delhi-Gurugram highway against the murder of a driver yesterday (earlier visuals) pic.twitter.com/FgNSZAMG50  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

According to Hindi daily Dainik Jagran report, the deceased, a resident of Noida, was disappeared from Friday. The body of the Ola driver, who his relatives believe was murdered during a car loot attempt, was discovered in Delhi's Alipur area, the report said.

Ola and Uber's drivers recently called a strike in Mumbai, inconveniencing commuters in India's most populous city. They protested against inadequate remuneration, as well as the companies' practice of giving first preference to company-owned cabs, as opposed to driver-owned taxis. Cab drivers in Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad also joined the protest.

In Mumbai, a driver who decided to run his taxi despite the strike had his vehicle's windshield broken by an MNS leader.New Delhi: Banks will not remain closed for five consecutive days starting from Thursday, a union leader said on Monday.

"The banks will work on March 31 (Saturday) and there is no continuous holidays as per messages in the social media," D Thomas Franco Rajendra Dev, General Secretary of the All India Bank Officers Confederation told news Agency IANS.

He said banks will be closed on Thursday and Friday owing to Mahaveer Jayanthi and Good Friday.

Saturday will remain open since it is the fifth Saturday of the month. Banks are only closed on second and fourth Saturdays.

On April 2, the banks will remain shut for annual closing of accounts.

Here are the important dates to remember for this week and the upcoming week

Date: 29 March 2018

Day: Thursday

Holiday on Account of: Mahavir Jayanti

Date: 30 March 2018

Day: Friday

Holiday on Account of: Good Friday

Date: 30 March 2018

Day: Friday

Holiday on Account of: Hazrat Ali's Birthday

Date: 02 April 2018

Day: Sunday

Holiday on Account of: Annual Closing of Bank Accounts

With Agency InputsLondon: Actor Rosamund Pike said she wanted to play Mary Poppins in the franchise reboot and also reached out to director Rob Marshall to show her interest.

The 39-year-old actor said she thought writing to the filmmaker to let him know she was interested in playing the magical nanny in "Mary Poppins Returns" would help her land the role, which later went to Emily Blunt.

"(I wrote to him) 'Just so you know, I would really love to be Mary Poppins'. It's worth putting your hat in the ring for things sometimes," Pike told Total Film magazine.

The actor will be next seen playing a German terrorist in Jose Padilha's "Entebbe". She said she wishes to work with the directors who are passionate about their work.

"I really want to know the director has to make the film. It's not just a job. I felt that very strongly with Jose for 'Entebbe'. You want to know, does this person have a strong take? Is it in their blood?"

Pike added working on "Hostiles" was "traumatic" traumatic experience for her.

The actor, who played a mother who lost her family in a violent attack in the film, said, "I've had to live in a very, very dark place for a while. It was really traumatic.

"It felt very real. When I re-watch that, I feel it was something I lived, rather than something I acted in," she said.Washington: The US' expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats is not intended at sending any message to a country like India which has an equally strong relationship with both Moscow and Washington, senior Trump administration officials said on Monday.

In a decision reminiscent of the Cold War era, the US expelled 60 Russian diplomats, describing them as "intelligence officers" and ordered closure of the country's consulate in Seattle over the use of nerve agent allegedly by Moscow against a former Russian spy in the UK.

A dozen of these expelled diplomats are based at Russia's Permanent Mission to the UN.

"This is a response to the attack in Salisbury, but it's also a part of a broader set of actions that the Russians have taken for quite some time internationally: a steady drumbeat of destabilising and aggressive actions," a senior official said on the condition of anonymity.

"We are not intending to send any particular message to a country like India. We have a close and effective partnership with India. This is about a specific set of actions that are coming from Moscow and our message is intended for the leaders of the Russian Federation," the official said.

He was responding to a question on the impact of the latest decision of the Trump administration could have on countries like India, which has a strong relationship with both the US and Russia.

The expulsion of Russian "intelligence officials" and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle will help curtail Russia's increasingly aggressive intelligence activities that is seen every day in the US. With these expulsions, Russia's intelligence collection capability in the US will be significantly minimised, the official said.

"The Russian government used the diplomatic establishment as intelligence platforms, from which they collect information and conduct the destabilising activities in the US and around the world. They hide behind the veneer of diplomatic immunity and actively engage in intelligence operations that undermine the country which they are hosted, the democracies they seek to minimise," the official said.

There are currently more than 100 Russian intelligence officers in the US. With the expulsion of 60, about 40 would still be left, he acknowledged. The Trump administration declined to give details of the designation of those expelled.

Before the decision, the US informed the Russian Embassy in Washington. There has not been any call between President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in this regard. The two leaders spoke over phone last week.

The officials said these actions are not designated towards any particular or individual effort of collection by the Russian government.

This is a holistic look at the Russian government's collection capabilities in the US and the consulate in Seattle is just a particular location that has been designated.

"This is not in any way a relative to any particular activity against any base or installation. We assess that the Russian consulate in Seattle to be a part of this broader problem of an unacceptably high number of Russian intelligence operatives in the US.

"The decision sends a very clear signal, particularly since on the west coast the Russians will now have a degraded capability with regards to spying on our citizens," the official said, adding that the US is prepared to take additional steps if necessary.

Declining to speculate on the Russian response, he said the US reserves the right to respond further to any Russian retaliation against "entirely justified" action by the US.

The US supports the British decision not to provide samples of the nerve agent to Russia.

"Sharing samples with Russia would not provide further clarification on the origin of the agent used in the attack," the official added.After alleging that the NaMo app sends user data - without permission - to a firm in the United States, a French Twitter user has hinted that the Congress app may too be leaking information to a firm in Singapore.

Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) on Monday tweeted that when one applies for membership of the party through the official Congress app on Google PlayStore, personal data are send encoded through a HTTP request to the party's membership page online. The anonymous hacker then claims that the personal data has no encryption which makes decoding it relatively simple.

The IP address of https://t.co/t1pidQUmtq is 52.77.237.47. This server is located in Singapore. As you are an #Indian political party, having your server in #India is probably a good idea. pic.twitter.com/tbspCtOPfB  Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 26, 2018

The most damning of his allegations though is that the IP address of the Congress' membership page points to a server located in Singapore.

(Also read: Did Congress just delete its official app on PlayStore?)

While many Twitter users slammed Congress after the latest expose by Alderson, there were also several who pointed out that having servers in another country was not conclusive proof that data was being leaked. Nonetheless, the hacker - whose profile calls him/her a French security researcher - has called for better encryption of online data of people at large. His appeal comes at a time when several netizens accused him of having a political vendetta.

In fact, after his allegations that NaMo app sends user data to companies in the US, Alderson had clarified he had no political agenda in putting his investigations in public domain. At the time, he had also said he would look into the Congress' official app.

At the time of publishing this report, Congress had issued no reaction.NEW DELHI: The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) has said all of its Lok Sabha MPs would tender their resignations on the last day of the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament. The party has also appealed to state political rival Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to join it in the mass resignation.

"Our Lok Sabha MPs would submit their resignations on the last day of the ongoing budget session, even if the schedule is advanced," said the YSRCP, reported news agency ANI.

"We have asked the TDP MPs to do the same, to send a strong signal to the nation about the Special Category Status," the statement added. YSR Congess has 7 seats in the Lok Sabha, while the TDP has 11.

Both the YSRCP and TDP, which are rivals in Andhra Pradesh politics, have found themselves on the same side of the special category demand, which Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said is not possible because such a provision has been removed from the 15th Finance Commission.'

The special category status would help state governments receive more funds from the Centre. It had been a poll promise of the TDP-BJP combine in 2014. However, things had come to head as part of the Parliamentary proceedings to pass Budget 2018. The Centre had not given Andhra Pradesh special category status.

This had caused a widening rift between the BJP and TDP, both at the Centre and in the Andhra Pradesh government. In a bid to press its demand, the TDP had announced that its ministers in the Union Cabinet - there were two - would resign.

Just days later, the TDP quit the ruling NDA coalition. However, the TDP's exit does not put any strain on the stability of the BJP-led government.

The present state of Andhra Pradesh had been opposed to the bifurcation of the undivided state and the creation of a separate state of Telangana. Leaders from the region had sought special status from the Centre, citing decades of investments surrounding the capital Hyderabad, and the need to ramp up infrastructure investments across the newly-formed state.Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has called an all-party meeting to discuss the demand for special status. The meeting is set to take place at the Andhra Pradesh Assembly at 11 am, news agency ANI reported.

The ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the opposition YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) have found themselves on the same side of the demand for special status to Andhra Pradesh. The meeting could help the opposing parties coordinate their actions on the issue. The Assembly may be expected to unanimously pass a resolution formally making the demand to the Centre. It should be noted that while such resolutions are powerful tools for state governments, they are not binding on the Centre.

The call for the all-party meet comes hours after the YSRCP announced that all of its MPs would resign their seats in the Lok Sabha at the end of the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament. The YSRCP also urged the Andhra Pradesh's ruling TDP to also quit the Lok Sabha. YSRCP has 7 seats in the Lok Sabha and the TDP has 11.

Naidu's TDP has had a fraught year in its relationship with the BJP and its coalition, the NDA, over the 2014 poll promise of granting special category status for Andhra Pradesh. The move was meant to ensure that the state would gain access to additional fund allocations from the Centre.

However, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the Centre is unable special category status to Andhra Pradesh, since the category itself has been done away with under the 15th Finance Commission. He had however promised to make the same amount of Central money available to Andhra Pradesh.

This statement had pushed the TDP to pull out of the Union Cabinet and, a week later, withdraw from the ruling BJP-led NDA. The BJP's ministers in the TDP-led Andhra Pradesh government had quit their posts in reciprocation. The move did not destabilise the NDA government.

Both the TDP and YSRCP have found themselves on the same side of the issue. The TDP had earlier said that it would support the YSRCP-sponsored no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government in the Lok Sabha. However, the motion is yet to be tabled in the House.New Delhi: China on Monday promised to address the issue of its massive trade surplus with India and work towards a more balanced trade relationship, while urging greater focus on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations at a time of increasing protectionist trends globally.

This was stated in an Indian Commerce Ministry release following the 11th meeting here of the India-China Joint Group on Economic Relations, Trade, Science and Technology co-chaired by Indian Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu and his Chinese counterpart Zhong Shan.

"Chinese Minister Zhong Shan welcomed Indian investment in China and promised to address the trade deficit between the two countries.

"The Minister highlighted the important issues discussed in the meeting like two-way trade relations, preparation of an action plan, greater focus on Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and e-dialogue," the statement said.

India's trade deficit with China has been growing in recent years and stood at over $51 billion in 2016-17.

According to the statement, Prabhu exhorted his Chinese counterpart for greater market access for Indian agricultural products like rapeseed, soyabean, basmati and non-basmati rice, fruits, vegetables and sugar.

"Another commodity which could be exported from India to China is high quality pharmaceutical products. Export of India's I' and IT Enabled Services (ITES) to China and cooperation in the sectors of tourism and healthcare needs to be focussed on," it said.

The statement cited Prabhu as saying said that the joint group between India and China "is the oldest and the most important dialogue mechanism between the two countries."

"Addressing India's trade imbalance with China is the most important issue to be taken up by the group."

The India-China Joint Economic Group meeting and China's call on RCEP comes in the backdrop of growing protectionism with the US President Donald Trump slapping import tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium earlier this month, unfolding the prospect of an all-out global trade war,

The mega free trade agreement -- RCEP -- is currently being negotiated between Asean member states -- Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- and Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

The RCEP negotiations include trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property, competition, dispute settlement, e-commerce and small and medium enterprises, among others.

NEW DELHI: Hours after a French hacker's Twitter account pointed at a massive security breach on INC official App, the Congress party removed its app from Google Play Store.

On Monday morning, the French hacker - Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) tweeted, When you apply for membership in the official @INCIndia #android #app, your personal data are send encoded through a HTTP request to http:// membership.inc.in.

The Twitter handle added that the encryption for the app which collects membership data is encoded through HTTP (unsecured) and not HTTPS (secured), adding that it's easier to decode the personal data "encoded with base 64".

When you apply for membership in the official @INCIndia #android #app, your personal data are send encoded through a HTTP request to https://t.co/t1pidQUmtq. pic.twitter.com/6RH0ORYrQd  Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 26, 2018

Later, Alderson tweeted, Did @INCIndia removed their #android #app from the PlayStore just before my tweet?

Immediately after, BJP's IT cell chief Amit Malviya attacked Congress, Rahul Gandhi gave a call to #DeleteNaMoApp, but Congress deleted its own App from the App store after they were called out. What is the Congress party hiding?

Entering damage control mode, Divya Spandana, Congress' Social Media and Digital Communications head, said, Clarification: We dont drive membership through the app, its done through our website http:// www.inc.in Servers for these are based in Mumbai. As you may have noticed, the link on the app is broken.

To this, Malviya tweeted:

INC membership website no longer available. Message you will get We are incorporating minor changes to the website. Please visit us again in a while to access the INC membership process... What is the Congress party trying to hide? https://t.co/siVExc6T68  Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) March 26, 2018

A day ago, the same hacker had claimed that official Narendra Modi app or NaMo App downloaded over five million times on Android alone, sent user data to an American firm without user's consent.

The allegations sparked a furore on social media, with both BJP and Congress launching into tirades against each other.NEW DELHI: In a fresh tweet, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi once again targetted the issue of data breach on Narendra Modi (NaMo) app.

Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS. Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians. Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP, wrote Gandhi on Twitter.

Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS. Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians. Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP.#DeleteNaMoApp  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 26, 2018

On Sunday, the Congress chief had once again attacked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the alleged data breach on NaMo app and the mainstream media's silence on the entire issue.

Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies.

PS. Thanks mainstream media, you're doing a great job of burying this critical story, as always, he tweeted.

Rahul's tweets are in reference to recent data breach allegations by French hacker Elliot Alderson on his twitter handle @fs0c131y.

The hacker claimed that the Narendra Modi Android app compromises user's personal and device information by sending it to a third-party domain in.wzrkt.com allegedly belonging to an American firm.

Reacting to the allegations, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head Amit Malviya hit back at Gandhi and accusing him of sharing users' data from his party's official App with Singapore firm. Taking to his Twitter handle, Malviya shared a picture of the disclaimer of the site and targeted the Congress party for being upfront to accept that they will share the data with a third party.

Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of Indias oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore. pic.twitter.com/ceCTkod17D  Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) March 26, 2018

Targeting the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chief Sonia Gandhi, Malviya further accused the Congress party of following 'all power no accountability' dictum.NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday sent former media baron Peter Mukerjea to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody till March 31 in the alleged INX Media bribery case.

Earlier today, Peter Mukerjea was brought to the Delhi's Patiala House Court. The CBI who is probing the money laundering case had sought five days custody for Peter Mukerjea - former co-director of INX Media Ltd.

Peter and his wife Indrani Mukerjea - who is already in jail in connection with the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora - are co-accused in the money INX Media corruption case along with Karti Chidambaram, son of former union minister P Chidambaram.

Karti allegedly received Rs 3.5 crore from the Mumbai-based INX Media, now known as 9X Media, for helping it get Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance in 2007 when it was run by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.

The FIR does not mention Chidambaram senior, though it said he cleared the FIPB approval for Rs 4.62 crore FDI in the firm at an FIPB meeting on May 18, 2007.Mumbai: A group of 91 farmers from Buldhana district in Maharashtra's Amravati have sought permission for Euthanasia - the practice of intentionally ending life - as they claim the state government has not provided remunerative prices for their crops.

In a letter submitted to the Governor and Sub-Divisional Magistrate, the farmers have sought permission to die as they are yet to receive an adequate price for their produce. To compound their woes, the farmers also say that they have not even received adequate compensation for their land purchased by the state government to build a highway. They say they have no option left barring Euthanasia as they are unable to feed their families and the helplessness is fast turning into despair.

While Supreme Court recently did recognise living will by terminally-ill patients for passive euthanasia, the farmers'request will, quite obviously, be turned down. Social activitists though say the larger picture seeks attention. That the farmers are seeking permission to die shows their helplessness at the hands of government agencies. And the farmers of Buldhana district are hardly alone.

Earlier this month, over 30,000 farmers from across Maharashtra had marched over 180 kilometres to Mumbai to stage a protest demanding unconditional waiver of loans as well as electricity bills; implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations, including an announcement of minimum support price for agriculture produce, and a pension scheme for farmers. The Devendra Fadnavis government eventually agreed to the demands.

(With inputs from ANI)NEW DELHI: Days after BJP's loss in Uttar Pradesh byelections, BSP chief Mayawati on Monday launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said although the Prime Minister spoke about Dalit icon BR Ambedkar in Mann Ki Baat programme, his mindset is stark opposite to that of Baba Saheb.

"In 4.5 years of governance, BJP has only done drama, especially towards Dalits. Modi Ji spoke of BR Ambedkar in Mann Ki Baat but his mindset is stark opposite of what Baba Saheb stood for. That is the reason BJP RSS was kept out of power in the past decades," Mayawati said.

On Sunday, PM Modi in his 42nd edition of Mann Ki Baat programme had spoken on Ambedkar who dreamt of making India as an industrial powerhouse.

"It was Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar who dreamt of vibrant cities with top infrastructure. (We're) Working on India's economic growth and fulfilling Dr. Ambedkar's dreams. For people like us, who belong to the poor and backward sections of society, Dr. Ambedkar is our inspiration," he had said.

The BSP supremo went on hitting out at PM Modi and said, "They chant Ambedkar's name but oppress those belonging to the category. It's evident from the fact when Bhim Rao Ambedkar (BSP) was made to lose when BJP introduced an extra seat. BSP-SP didn't come together to fulfill selfish needs but to stand against BJP's misrule," she said.Top headlines on Monday morning:

1. Chinese military helicopter violates Indian airspace in Uttarakhand

Breaching airspace norms, a Chinese military helicopter on Monday infiltrated the Line of Actual Control and was seen hovering over Barahoti region of Uttarakhands Chamoli district. Read more



2. How the world reacted to Australian ball-tampering scandal

Australia captain Steve Smith confessed on Saturday that the teams leadership group had hatched a plan to alter the condition of the ball during the third day of the third Test against South Africa. Read more



3. Ball-tampering: 'Wow ICC wow, different people different rules,' says angry Harbhajan

"No ban for Bancroft with all the evidences whereas 6 of us were banned for excessive appealing in South Africa 2001 without any evidence and Remember Sydney 2008?" Harbhajan tweeted. Read more



4. Watch: Four rapists paraded on streets by police, thrashed by women onlookers

In a bid to publicly shame and chastise rapists, the Bhopal police paraded four men, accused of gangraping a 20-year-old girl, in busy city streets on Sunday. Read more



5. Bhagalpur riots: BJP minister's son Arijit Shashwat resurfaces, denies reports of fleeing

Shashwat, accused of inciting communal violence at Nathnagar in Bhagalpur district, has moved an anticipatory bail application. Read more

6. Salman Khan unveils brand new poster of Race 3 - See pic

The makers of the film had unveiled the first look posters of each of the characters in the film recently. Read more



7. Mahesh Babu's Bharat Ane Nenu (The Song Of Bharat) out

Watch Lyrical Song videoCongress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia has called for a CBI inquiry into the alleged murder of a journalist who was investigating possible links between the sand mafia and police in Madhya Pradesh's Bhind. Police have already announced a special investigative team (SIT) to investigate the incident.

The 35-year-old investigative journalist, Sandeep Sharma, was on a two-wheeler and was run over by a sand-dumper truck on Monday morning, sparking allegations that he had been bumped off by the sand mafia. A video clip of the incident went viral on social media.

"He was killed in broad daylight. Nothing less than a CBI inquiry should be done," said Scindia, the Lok Sabha MP for Madhya Pradesh's Guna constituency. "Media is the fourth pillar of democracy, and it is being crushed under BJP's rule," he said.

Scindia has shown indications that he could be priming himself to challenge the BJP's Shivraj Singh Chouhan for the post of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister in the Assembly elections later this year. As his party's possible Chief Ministerial face, the Congress leader will be looking to unseat Chouhan, who is presently in his third consecutive term as CM.

#WATCH:Chilling CCTV footage of moment when Journalist Sandeep Sharma was run over by a truck in Bhind. He had been reporting on the sand mafia and had earlier complained to Police about threat to his life. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/LZxNuTLyap  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

A video clip of Sharma's death has raised questions that he may have been murdered. Adding to speculations of foul play is the fact that the journalist had previously complained to the police of threats to his life. He had at the time said the threats were because of the investigations he was carrying out for his reportage. Now, an SIT has been formed to look into the tragic incident.

Local media reports say the incident took place close to a police station, and that cops reached the spot almost immediately. They said the area had been cordoned off. Sharma had been rushed to the hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.New Delhi: The BJP on Monday described Rahul Gandhi's accusation of "data theft" against Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "a classic case of technological illiteracy".

In a tweet, the Congress chief has dubbed PM Modi "the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians" and has alleged that his "NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks users' location via GPS".

At a press conference, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra lashed out at him, saying such kind of technological illiteracy has rarely been seen in Indian politics. Taking a dig, he said that Rahul would tweet tomorrow that PM Modi and BJP are connected to electronic voting machines through the NaMo app and they have been winning election after election because they have hacked it.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi is technologically illiterate. He does not know that data analysis is not equivalent to spying. This new age is the age of information which Rahul ji will not understand: Sambit Patra, BJP pic.twitter.com/LgWKwb5XdI  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

It was the Congress app, Patra alleged, that was "stealing" people's data and as soon as the BJP exposed it, the Opposition party took it down from Google's play store, making it "Congress-mukt". He further alleged that the Congress was stealing data of 20 crore Indian Facebook users with the help of Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm embroiled in charges of harvesting people's social media profile illegally, but was caught, leaving Rahul rattled.

The private firm was allegedly using data theft, sleaze and honey trap to influence the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Patra claimed, PTI reported. He cited user information sought by various media apps to claim that these permissions are demanded by smart apps for analytics and it does not amount to snooping. The new age is the age of information and PM Modi has been maintaining communication with the masses and BJP leaders through his app, which the Congress does not want, Patra said, claiming that the country had suffered ten years of "communication-less" governance during the UPA rule.

On the other hand, Union Minister Smriti Irani mocked the Congress chief, on Monday saying that even 'Chhota Bheem', a cartoon character, knows that commonly asked permission on Apps does not "tantamount to snooping".

Rahul had attacked PM Modi on Sunday too over allegations of data sharing from his official app without users' consent. His attack on the PM was based on a media report in which a French vigilante hacker alleged that data was stolen from his official NaMo app without the consent of the users.

(With PTI inputs)New Delhi: Uttarakhand MLAs have got a big reason to cheer as Uttarakhand Assembly has passed the bill proposing 100 percent hike in salaries of MLAs, reported news agency ANI.

With the passage of the new bill, wages and allowances of MLAs and former MLAs will be increased in the hill state. Sources claim that salary allowances can increase up to one lakh rupees. On Saturday, the government had introduced an amendment bill in the house.

The Trivendra Singh Rawat government in Uttarakhand on Saturday has introduced an amendment bill in the house, with respect to increase wages and allowances of MLAs and former MLAs.

According to media reports, the salary of the MLA is likely to be increased from 10 thousand to between 25 to 30 thousand while Assembly allowance has been recommended to increase the number of 60 thousand to one lakh forty thousand and the allowance of Rs 3 thousand is recommended to be increased to 12 thousand.

In order to increase the allowances of the legislators, an Adhoc Committee was formed. The report of the committee was placed in the house three days ago. After this, the cabinet meeting also approved the increase in salaries.

MLAs allowances

In Uttarakhand, the MLAs were already well paid and they are going to be even richer. In January 2014, the Vijay Bahuguna government increased the salary allowances of the legislators. On the basis of this, about Rs 1,57,000 wages are transferred in the accounts of the legislators per month, while the salary of Speaker and Ministers is more than that. Now, the Trivendra Singh Rawat government is going to increase salaries and allowances.

Crorepatis MLA

According to the Association for Democratic Reform, in this assembly of Uttarakhand, 51 legislators are crorepatis out of a total 69.

Facilities for legislators

The MLAs also have facilities for three lakh coupons (rail and air) in a year. With the medical facility equivalent to class one officer, he and his family also have two mobiles, one telephone, 2,000 letterhead and 1,000 envelopes free and 8-8 lakhs loan facility for the construction of the house and the purchase of vehicles.

Uttarakhand MLA and minister salary

MLA: The salary of the MLA to be increased from 10 thousand to between 25 to 30 thousand. Assembly allowance has been recommended to increase the number of 60 thousand to one lakh forty thousand. The allowance of Rs 3 thousand is recommended to be increased to 12 thousand.

Ministers: It is recommended to increase the salary allowances of Ministers more than two times. Speaker, deputy speaker assembly speaker, and vice-president have recommended to raise monthly salary from 54 thousand to more than one lakh.New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said that it was concerned with the purity and sanctity of the electoral process as it asking how people barred, upon conviction in criminal cases, from contesting election or holding public office, can be allowed to float a political party or be its office bearer.

An unimpressed bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said this as it was told about the Central government's stand that a person who upon his conviction in a criminal case is barred from contesting election can't be stopped from floating a political party or becoming its office bearer.

In the last hearing of the matter on February 12, the top court had asked that if a convicted person can't contest election, then how can he be at the helms of the affairs of a political party and select candidates to contest elections.

Posting the matter on May 3 for final hearing, the bench asked all the parties to the case to file their written notes of submission by next date of hearing.

The Central government has told the top court in its response that the office bearer of a political party was not a "representative" and there was no "connectivity and nexus" between a person barred from contesting election to parliament or the state assembly upon conviction and prohibiting such a person from forming or becoming a member of any political party.

To buttress its stand, it referred to the 255th report of the Law Commission, the Goswami Committee and the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, contending that in none of these reports there is a suggestion to bar a person from being an office bearer of a political party on grounds of his antecedents.

Pointing to the situation in the legislatures including Parliament, senior counsel Vikas Singh said that 40 per cent of country's lawmakers have criminal antecedents.

Appearing for one of the petitioners, advocate Gopal Shankarnarayan said that Section b 41 of the Representation of People Act too says the same thing which the petitioners are asking for.

Section 41 holds that a person who has been disqualified from being a member of either House of Parliament or the State legislature or from voting at election, can't become an election agent during the period of disqualification.

Shankarnarayan expressed "surprise" that the Election Commission, which is empowered with the superintendence and conduct of elections, can't derecognise a political party.New Delhi: Search engine Google on Monday celebrated 45th anniversary of Chipko Movement with a Doodle. Todays Doodle, illustrated by Svabhu Kohli and Viplov Singh, remembers the modern movement and those involved.

The doodle portrays a colorful design where a group of women are standing around a tree, representing their fight against deforestation which was the main objective of Chipko Movement.

The word Chipko means 'to stick' or 'to hug' and the name of the movement has been derived from these words. The success of this nonviolent, grassroots resistance was felt around the globe, serving as the inspiration for future environmental movements. The Chipko Andolan also stands out as an eco-feminist movement. Women formed the nucleus of the movement, as the group most directly affected by the lack of firewood and drinking water caused by deforestation.

The original Chipko movement dates back to the 18th century, when a group of 363 people from 84 different villages, led by Amrita Devi, laid down their lives to protect a group of khejri trees that were to be cut down at the order of the maharaja, or king, of Jodhpur. After this event, the maharaja decreed that the trees were to be left standing. The original movement was called "angalwaltha", the Garhwali word for "embrace," as the protesters protected the trees by surrounding them and linking hands, physically preventing the loggers from touching the plants.SRINAGAR: Terrorists on Monday attacked the Army cavalcade of a Commanding Officer of 34 Rashtriya Rifles in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian.

The area has, meanwhile, been cordoned off.

Earlier this month, four people, including a terrorist, were killed in Shopian district after a mobile vehicle check post was attacked.

According to reports, a joint mobile vehicle check post (MVCP) near Pohan was attacked when the security forces signalled a car to stop in Shopian, but it did not.

The Army men were fired upon and they retaliated, in which a terrorist was killed, a senior army official had said.BENGALURU: Karnataka Congress' screening meeting is currently underway at Bengaluru. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other Congress leaders are attending the meeting.

The meeting, being held ahead of Karnataka assembly polls which is expected to be held in May, will take into account the performance of Congress candidates and decide on party tickets.

According to reports, several sitting MLAs may not be given tickets and fresh faces would be roped in.

Earlier this month, the party held a brainstorming session, screening applications of prospective candidates for election. Party high command examined over 1,500 applications received for 224 assembly constituencies.

Monday's meeting is a follow-up of the previous session, which will discuss the status of sitting MLAs and the chances of winning a seat.

With tough opposition from BJP, Congress is stressing on winnability of candidates.

Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government has accepted the recommendation to recognise the Lingayat as a separate religion, a move seen as aimed towards denting BJP's vote bank.Tiptur: Taking on the Congress on Monday, BJP president Amit Shah maintained that the Siddaramaiah government's move to accord separate religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats was aimed at preventing BS Yeddyurappa from becoming chief minister.

The state Cabinet had recently decided to recommend to the Centre to accord religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats in a move seen as an attempt to chip away at the BJP's strong Lingayat voter base.

"This Siddaramaiah government has brought this proposal, not because it has love for Lingayats, but to prevent Yeddyurappa from becoming CM," Shah said addressing a Coconut Growers Convention.

"I want to tell Karnataka people that if BJP wins a majority, we will make Yeddyurappa CM," he added. Yeddyurappa is considered a Lingayat strongman.

Shah said that the proposal, which was rejected by the then Manmohan Singh government at the Centre in 2013, was only aimed at creating confusion among people.

He, however, believed that the people of the state would not be enticed by Siddaramaiah's 'divide-and-rule politics'. Congress president Rahul Gandhi should first point fingers at Siddaramaiah for dividing people before accusing BJP of it, Shah added.

"The Congress ship is sinking and to save it, the Congress is making its last efforts, and what it is doing? It is making efforts to divide people. The Congress Chief Minister is playing divide-and-rule politics of the British," he further said.

Shah criticised the Siddaramiah government for not bringing in the proposal earlier. "The Siddaramaiah government has proposed to accord religion and minority status to Lingayats, but why did it not do it earlier? Because that time, there was no need for gaining votes," the BJP president said.

He is on a two-day tour of election-bound Karnataka. Shah began his two-day tour by seeking the blessings of Sri Shivakumara Swami of Siddhaganga Mutt in Tumakuru, a revered seer of the Lingayat community. He also held a massive roadshow in Shivamogga, where he launched the state BJP's 'Karunadu Jagruti Yatre' a rally to 'awaken the electorate' of Karnataka against the 'misrule' of the Siddaramaiah government.

Looking forward to being in Central Karnataka for two days, where I will attend a wide range of programmes and interact with people of Tumakuru, Shivamogga, Davanagere and Chitradurga districts. pic.twitter.com/4sl1qDvNTJ  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 25, 2018

Today I had the good fortune to seek blessings from the 'Walking God' Sri Sri Sri Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddhaganga Mutt, Tumakuru. His tireless work even at his advanced age is inspiring. His life is a living lesson and guiding light for all of us. pic.twitter.com/QVDYOSgpAE  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 26, 2018

Addressed a huge gathering of Areca nut growers in Shivamogga (Karnataka). In the last five years the way Siddaramaiah government had been working, it has fully stopped the development in the state of Karnataka. pic.twitter.com/B2MD0Y4uXX  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 26, 2018

With this sea of humanity on the streets of Shivamogga, the Congress central leadership and CM Siddaramaiah can itself feel the Tsunami of BJP in Karnataka. The countdown of the corrupt Siddaramaiah government has begun. pic.twitter.com/QfD6mCDyar  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 26, 2018

Few more pictures from the roadshow in Shivamogga, Karnataka. pic.twitter.com/STNlbgut4u  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 26, 2018

At the same time, the BJP chief launched a scathing attack on the Siddaramaiah government for failing to prevent farmers' suicides. "In five years of Siddaramaiah's rule, as many as 3,781 farmers committed suicides. I want to ask the government, who is responsible for these suicides?" he asked.

"If you vote Yeddyurappa to become CM, I assure you farmers' suicides will come to a halt," Shah said. At a meeting in Shivamogga, the home district of Yeddyurappa, he said all development works in Karnataka under the Siddaramaiah government had come to a standstill.

Shah urged the people to ask the Siddaramaiah government where the grants given by the Centre had vanished. He said the Modi government has introduced 112 central schemes, but their benefits were not reaching people.

(With PTI inputs)BENGALURU: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Monday met Shivakumara Swami, head of Siddaganga Mutt in Karnataka's Tumkur as part of his two-day Karnataka tour.

#WATCH: BJP President Amit Shah met Shivakumara Swami of Siddaganga Mutt in Karnataka's Tumkur pic.twitter.com/jEn8rscZ9c  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

Following the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government's decision to accord minority religion status to Lingayats, Shah plans to visit several mutts of Lingayat and Dalit communities.

Shah will now visit the Madara Chennaiah mutt on Tuesday, which has been traditionally associated with Dalits. Later, he's expected to visit the Bekkinkal, Sirgere and Muruga mutts among others during his visit to the state's central region.

He'll also address farmers' and traders' meetings, take out a road show and attend party events in the poll-bound state.

Karnataka assembly elections are expected to be held in few weeks.

On March 23, days after accepting recommendation to recognise the Lingayat as a separate religion, the Karnataka government gave the community minority status.

The demand for a separate religion tag to Veerashaiva/ Lingayat faiths has surfaced from the numerically strong and politically-influential community, amidst resentment from within over projecting the two communities as the same.

The Congress government's decision is aimed at making a dent in BJP's vote bank which has declared BS Yeddyurappa its chief ministerial candidate.

The BJP is making an all-out effort to unseat the Congress in Karnataka. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has also been frequenting the state and has visited holy places linked to different religions and castes.Police in Madhya Pradesh have arrested the man who was allegedly driving the truck that ran over and killed a journalist in Bhind. The journalist, Sandeep Sharma, had been investigating the alleged nexus between the sand mafia and the police, and questions had been raised about the manner of his death.

The driver has been identified as Ranvir Singh, and police have said he does not possess a licence to drive heavy vehicles.

The state police had announced that a Special Investigative Team (SIT) was being set up to investigate Sharma's death.

The 35-year-old investigative journalist, Sandeep Sharma, was on a two-wheeler and was run over by a sand-dumper truck, sparking allegations that he had been bumped off by the sand mafia. A video clip of the incident went viral on social media.

The whole incident had been captured on a security camera in the vicinity. The video clip from the security footage was shared on social media, and led to doubts that he may have been murdered. Adding to speculations of foul play is the fact that the journalist had previously complained to the police of threats to his life. He had at the time said the threats were because of the investigations he was carrying out for his reportage. Now, an SIT has been formed to look into the tragic incident.

Local media reports say the incident took place close to a police station, and that cops reached the spot almost immediately. They said the area had been cordoned off. Sharma had been rushed to the hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.

The issue had also attracted criticism from Congress leader Jytoiraditya Scindia, who demanded a CBI inquiry into Sharma's death.New Delhi: Stock market opened in flat note on Monday on weak Asian cues.

At 9:17 am the BSE Sensex was trading 31.43 points or 0.10 percent up at 32,627.97 while the NSE Nifty was trading up 7.60 points or 0.08 percent at 10,005.65.

Selling pressure on IT, Teck and oil & gas stocks, too, weighed on market sentiment. The 30-share index slipped 60.10 points, or 0.18 percent, to 32,536.44. The benchmark had lost 539.64 points in the previous two sessions.Major laggards were Hero MotoCorp, Wipro, ITC, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Dr Reddy's, Kotak Bank, HDFC and Bajaj Auto, falling by up to 2 percent.

Asian markets extended last week`s worldwide plunge as investors fret that Donald Trump`s controversial tariffs on $60 billion of Chinese goods will spark a trade war that would hammer the global economy. In early trade Hong Kong was down 0.3 percent, Tokyo went into the break 0.4 percent lower and Shanghai sank more than one percent. Singapore fell 0.5 percent and Sydney gave up 0.6 percent while Wellington was one percent off.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.87 percent or 170.43 points at 20,439.43 in early trade, while the broader Topix index edged down 0.70 percent, or 11.62 points, at 1,653.30.New Delhi: A viewer was at the receiving end of Anushka Sharma's wrath when he passed a lewd remark while the actress was shooting for Sui Dhaaga with Varun Dhawan in Ghaziabad on Monday.

According to reports, people thronged the venue where Anushka and Varun were shooting in Ghaziabad that made it difficult for them to continue the shoot. Anushka was reportedly striking a pose on top of a bus when a comment from a bystander angered her.

Meanwhile, this is for the first time Varun and Anushka have teamed up for a project. The actors recently wrapped up the first schedule of the film in Bhopal. Recently, Varun and Anushka shot for an emotional scene at the bus top in Bhopal and the pictures from the location got leaked online.

Recently, Varun and Anushka shoot for an intense sequence from the film at a bus stop in Bhopal. While Varun was dressed in an off-white shirt and pyjamas, Anushka was seen in a blue saree and looked nowhere close to her glam avatar.

In the film, Anushka will be seen essaying the role of a woman who earns her living by embroidering clothes while Varun plays a tailor.

'Sui Dhaaga' is based on the stories of self-reliance and high spirits of the two central characters rooted in an earthy town of India. The love story is helmed by Sharat Katariya and is slated to hit the screens on September 28Mumbai: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan says that no matter how much others celebrate his contribution to Indian cinema, it will remain a "closed chapter" for him. However, he feels that "tearing oneself away from the celebrity is a task" and he doesn't believe in it.

Filled with gratitude after his meetings with fans who stand outside his home Jalsa here every Sunday to get a glimpse of him, Big B posted his thoughts on his blog.

"What brings them here each Sunday is a mystery and a cause for mistaken identity... Surely they must mistake for another... surely... But no they come ...standing and waiting for hours before, just so they can wave at me and hope for a reciprocal gesture... That is all... Mostly the operation is valid and over within those minor minutes... and then back to the grind.

"Tearing oneself away from the formalities of celebrity is a task... I do not believe in it and never shall... others may wish to contribute and celebrate the tenure and so called 'contribution' to cinema from me. But that shall never happen. It shall remain a closed chapter ... not to be opened ever."

Big B was touched with a visit by a differently challenged young boy.

"I asked him to be brought in, he was without speech and mobility but a determined poise of one that had refused to give up. It was joy to witness the joy on his face. I asked him what he needed, he tugged at his shirt... clothes. I gave him a bundle of my own.

"He extended his delicate hand, rough and strong, because that is what he uses to move about, and I arranged fro him to be dropped home. My people did so and reported he was homeless and lived on the pavement out side a high rise in the suburbs," said the actor, adding that it is important for people to count their blessings.New Delhi: Tech giant Microsoft will host 'AI for All' summit in Bengaluru on March 28 to showcase use cases of artificial intelligence across sectors.

The event will feature discussions around the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), and how this can be used to amplify human ingenuity, a Microsoft India spokesperson told PTI.

"This is our first summit of its kind in the country. While we had an AI event last year for developers, this one is for a broader audience," the spokesperson added.

Participation is expected from industry representatives spanning across verticals like healthcare, auto and IT and IT-enabled services, among others.

The event will be addressed by global and Indian Microsoft executives, including Peggy Johnson (Executive Vice President, Business Development), Anant Maheshwari (President, Microsoft India) and Anil Bhansali, Managing Director at Microsoft India (R&D).

Besides, representatives from Microsoft's partners and customers will also speak at the event, showcasing use cases of AI across various areas.

The event will also showcase how AI can augment people's capability to be more productive and the potential of AI in India for both businesses and society at large.

There will also be a Design Thinking workshop around AI, the spokesperson said.New Delhi: Goa is the most preferred destination for people to spend their Easter weekend in India, indicates a report.

This year, Easter is on April 1.

Fare aggregator and travel metasearch engine KAYAK compared last year's data with this year's searches for the Easter weekend.

There has been an almost 200 per cent increase in travel searches for the upcoming Easter weekend compared to last year, with much of this trend driven by beach destination Goa, read a statement.

The coastal state has seen a massive increase of 1,655 per cent this year in travel searches, which has seen it jump up seven places to become the overall top destination for Indians this Easter, followed by Bangkok.

This year's third-most popular destination, Hong Kong is another city experiencing a significant rise in Easter travel searches, with an increase of 1,349 per cent.

Singapore is also gaining traction for those looking at international travel.

Destinations like Toronto, San Francisco and New York all feature in the top 10 destinations for the upcoming holiday weekend, indicating that Indians are not afraid to spend for long-haul flights.

Noting a price drop in certain destinations, the report said Melbourne, Goa, Sydney and Male are some of the destinations seeing drops, ranging around a decrease of 20 per cent.

Abhijit Mishra, Director, India and Middle East of KAYAK said: "We all know how much love Indians have for beach getaways, and this year is no exception. Perhaps more surprising are the amount of holidaymakers using the Easter holidays as a chance to travel great distances, with San Francisco, Toronto and New York all amongst the top-searched Easter destinations this year."Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government will re-introduce the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Bill (UPCOCB) in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.

The proposed legislation on the lines of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) seeks to curb organised crime and deal strictly with those trying to foment terror or dislodge the government forcibly or through violent means.

The bill also seeks to act sternly against those using explosives or firearms or any other violent means or damaging life and property or involved in an anti-national or destructive activity.

The bill had hit a roadblock in the Legislative Council on March 13, 2018, where the Opposition is in the majority. The bill was passed by the Legislative Assembly on December 21, 2017, and was sent to the Upper House where it was turned down on March 13 and was returned to the Assembly the next day.

In the Upper House, the ruling BJP is in minority unlike in the 403-member state Assembly, where it won 325 seats (along with allies). In the 100-member Council, the BJP has just 13 members.

The Samajwadi Party has 61 members, the BSP nine, Congress two, RLD one and other parties 12. Two seats are vacant.

Earlier, in December 2017, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had said that the proposed UPCOCA bill would help check crime and had sought cooperation from the Opposition parties for its passage.

Speaking on an adjournment notice on law and order in the Legislative Assembly, he had said that the bill would be a remedy for crime in the state.

Reiterating that there would be no laxity on the issue of security, corruption and law and order, Yogi had added that crime in the state was at its lowest and the people's mandate in the country was its example.

He had referred to the recent National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report and had lashed out at the state of affairs under the previous government when as many as 31 riots took place in one year and no FIRs were filed.

(With PTI inputs)Fundraisers

A virtual event to support the league's mission of addressing food insecurity in the community. Get moving at least 1.5 miles per day for the entire month of October, in doing so you will travel virtually roughly the distance across Sangamon county.45 miles just not enough for you? For intense runners and walkers, we challenge you to go out and back through the corn, over the Sangamon river, and past the Capitol for 90 miles of challenge.REGISTER BY SEPTEMBER 22ND TO RECEIVE SWAG!Asansol: Massive clashes broke out in Asansol's Raniganj during Ram Navami celebrations. Deputy Commissioner of Police is reported to have sustained injuries in his forearm as miscreants hurled bombs at him and other police officials.

Several groups had taken out procession in Raniganj to celebrate the birth of Lord Rama. As per reports, the procession while passing in front of a mosque, began sloganeering. On being confronted by the police, they started pelting stones at them. Soon after, the mob also hurled crude bombs in which a senior police officer was injured. He was rushed to a hospital in Asansol. Later, he was shifted to a private hospital in Durgapur.

Five other police officers are also said to have been seriously injured, along with some locals in the violence. Mobs are also said to have torched several houses and shops. Meanwhile, a huge contingent of police force and RAF has been deployed in the area.

On the other hand, one person was killed and five police personnel were injured during a clash between two groups over a Ram Navami procession in Purulia in West Bengal. The incident took place on Sunday.

While the Purulia SP Joy Biswas confirmed that one person was killed in the clash, the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma said five police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police-rank officer, were injured after violence that erupted between two groups over the Ram Navami procession in the Arsha police station area, as per PTI.

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Opposition BJP had organised processions to celebrate Ram Navami in various parts of the state.

(With Agency inputs)At least 37 people were killed when a fire ripped through a busy shopping centre in an industrial city in western Siberia, with scores more reported missing, including children.

Images on Russian television showed thick black smoke pouring out of the Winter Cherry shopping centre in the city of Kemerovo, which also houses a sauna, a bowling alley and a multiplex cinema and was packed with people on Sunday afternoon.

"At this time, we can confirm the deaths of 37 people in the fire at the Kemerovo shopping centre", Russia`s Investigative Committee said, according to TASS news agency.

Investigators had initially reported five people dead including a child and another 30 people injured and taken to hospital.

As the new death toll was announced, a source in the local rescue services said 69 people including 40 children were reported missing, the RIA Novosti agency reported, while the Investigative Committee said it was "verifying information that 35 people could be missing".

The preliminary findings of the inquiry said the fire started around 1100 GMT in one of the cinema halls and destroyed more than 1,000 square metres of the centre, news agencies reported.

"The roof collapsed in two theatres in the cinema," the Investigative Committee said.

Around 120 people had been evacuated from the burning centre, rescuers said.

"This shopping centre on several floors was packed with people mid-day Sunday. No one knows exactly how many people there were inside when the fire broke out," Alexandre Eremeyev, an official with the local Russian emergency services ministry, said in a statement.

"Where to look for people? How many are there? That has greatly complicated the work of the firefighters," he said, adding that the thick smoke was also hindering their task.

Some 300 firefighters and rescue personnel were rushed to the scene and the fire was brought under control around 1730 GMT, local emergency officials said.

Russia`s minister of emergency services, Vladimir Putchkov has gone to Kemerovo, RIA Novosti said.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz offered his sympathies.

"My condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the terrible fire in the shopping mall in Kemerovo. It is tragic that so many children are dead or missing. I wish a speedy recovery to those injured," he said on Twitter.

It was the deadliest blaze in Russia in recent years.

A shopping mall fire in March 2015 killed 11 people in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan some 800 kilometres (500 miles) east of Moscow.

In April 2013, a fire ravaged a psychiatric hospital in the Moscow region, killing 38 people, most of them patients who were engulfed by flames as they slept behind barred windows.

Just months later, in September 2013, 37 people were killed when a fire swept through a psychiatric hospital in the village of Luka in northwest Russia.

In 2009, 156 were killed in a nightclub fire in the city of Perm, 1,200 kilometres east of Moscow in one of the deadliest accidents in Russia`s modern history.Beijing: China on Monday lashed out at US "economic intimidation" following President Donald Trump`s announcement of new import tariffs, but said it was open to negotiations to resolve trade frictions.

The two countries have traded threats and heated rhetoric in recent days, ratcheting up fears that the world`s two biggest economies are heading towards a damaging trade war.

Trump said last Thursday that the United States would impose new tariffs on some $60 billion of Chinese imports over the "theft" of intellectual property, rattling global financial markets.

Vice President Mike Pence boasted that the measures mean that the "era of economic surrender is over".

Asked about the remarks, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a press briefing on Monday that "it would have been more appropriate to say that it`s time to stop the US`s economic intimidation and hegemony".

Beijing has not stood idle. On Friday, it unveiled a list of $3 billion worth of US goods, including pork, fruits and wine, that could be targeted with tariffs in retaliation for steel and aluminium tariffs -- if negotiations fail.

"We also have the confidence and the capacity to safeguard our legitimate and legal interests, whatever the circumstances," Hua said. "Now the ball is in the US court."

While the two sides have traded barbs in public, US and Chinese officials have begun behind-the-scenes negotiations to improve American access to the Asian country`s huge market, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"We keep saying that the Chinese side is willing to negotiate with the US to properly manage divergences, on the basis of mutual respect and equal mutual benefits," Hua said when asked about the report.

"Our door is always wide open to dialogue and consultation."Transgendered people across the world struggle to have official recognition of the gender they identify with instead of the one they were born with, and have met with success in some countries. But a man in Argentina has caused controversy by officially changing his gender so he can take advantage of benefits the government offers to women.

Argentinian newspaper Informate Salta, based in the Salta Province in the northern part of the country, reported that a 60-year-old government worker, Sergio Lazarovich, recently changed her gender from 'male' to 'female'. The reason: she wanted to retire five years early and retain her pension.

In Argentina, women retire at the age of 60. Men have to wait five years longer to retire with the same benefits. Lazarovich's case came to public light after her relative outed her as someone who only changed gender to retire early, and said Lazarovich did not identify as a woman.

Laws in Argentina allow any individual to change their official gender to reflect the one they identify with. It is among the few countries in the world to allow such a change without the need to produce proof that the individual is undergoing therapy or is under medication. Solely on the basis of legality, Lazarovich may not have broken any laws.

The relative who made the revelation said they had chosen to come out with the information as they felt Lazarovich was cheating the pension system. They also said Lazarovich had felt it was unfair that men had to work five years more than women to be eligible for the pensions. The relative said Lazarovich had planned this for three years with the advice of lawyers.

When confronted by media outlets, Lazarovich said the decision to change gender was personal. "The motivations are mine, and I do not have to explain anything to anyone," she was quoted as saying by the El Tribuno newspaper.

Officials in Salta reportedly said Lazarovich has not yet applied for the state pension, and confirmed that she would be eligible for it. They said government lawyers would decide on the legitimacy of Lazarovich's claim once it is filed.The Donald Trump administration has imposed sanctions against seven Pakistani firms citing that the firms pose a 'significant risk' to the United States due to being involved in nuclear trade. The decision to impose sanctions could come as a massive jolt to Pakistan - a country which has been eyeing a place in the exclusive Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Dawn newspaper reported on Monday that in a list prepared by US Bureau of Industry and Security, seven Pakistani firms have been identified as potential threats because they are either involved or are likely to be involved in nuclear activities which compromise US' national security. The seven firms are part of a larger list of 23 firms from the world over including 15 from South Sudan.

Security experts believe that the decision to impose sanctions may have a detrimental impact on Pakistan's ambitions of joining NSG because the country's image has taken a hit. While the global community has largely always been concerned about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, the country has maintained that its civilian and military nuclear installations are absolutely secure. It has also attempted to advance its case for NSG membership by saying that its a responsible country.Moscow: The Russian foreign ministry on Monday vowed to retaliate against the expulsions of its diplomats by the US and Canada, as well as 14 European Union countries and Ukraine over the poisoning of a former spy in Britain.

"We express a decisive protest over the decision taken by a number of EU and NATO countries to expel Russian diplomats," the ministry said in a statement, calling the moves a "provocative gesture."

Moscow vowed that this "unfriendly step by this group of countries will not pass without trace and we will respond to it."

Russia said the move went against the interests of identifying those guilty for the attack in the English city of Salisbury on ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who are both unconscious in hospital after being poisoned by a nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union.

It accused the countries who took part in expulsions of "pandering to the British authorities" and "not bothering to look into the circumstances of what happened," saying this was part of a confrontational dynamic aimed at "escalating the situation."

Moscow said the British authorities have issued "groundless accusations" against Russia and taken "a prejudiced, biased and hypocritical position."

It complained that it had received no information on the "attempted assassination of Russian citizens."Washington: In a decision reminiscent of the Cold War era, the US on Monday expelled 60 Russian diplomats, describing them as "intelligence officers" and ordered the closure of the country's consulate in Seattle over the use of nerve agent allegedly by Moscow against a former Russian spy in the UK.

A dozen of these expelled diplomats are based at Russia's Permanent Mission to the UN.

"Today President Donald J Trump ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian intelligence officers from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing," the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, said.

All Russian diplomats, connected to the country's intelligence agencies, and their families have been given seven days' time to leave the country.

The White House said this is in retaliation to the use of nerve agent against former spy Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom, which blames Russia for the attack.

Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, both remain critically ill in hospital in Britain.

Moscow has denied these allegations. The United Kingdom has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats.

The United States takes this action in conjunction with its NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilising activities around the world, Sanders said.

"Today's actions make the United States safer by reducing Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten America's national security. With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences," she said.

She said the US stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian government's behaviour.

There are 100 Russian intelligence officials based in the US. This is the first step, a senior Trump administration official told reporters during a conference call.

The US reserves the right to expel more, the official added.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said that the United States has begun the process of expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission to the United Nations who have abused their privilege of residence in the United States.

"After a review, we have determined that the 12 intelligence operatives engaged in espionage activities that are adverse to? our national security. Our actions are consistent with the United Nations Headquarters Agreement," she said.

Haley said Trump's decision shows that Russia's actions have consequences.

"Beyond Russia's destabilising behaviour across the world, such as its participation in the atrocities in Syria and its illegal actions in Ukraine, it has now used a chemical weapon within the borders of one of our closest allies," she said.

"Here in New York, Russia uses the UN as a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders. Today, the United States and many of our friends are sending a clear message that we will not stand for Russia's misconduct," Haley said.

The strong US move comes after the UK alleged that on March 4, Russia used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to murder a British citizen and his daughter in Salisbury.

"This attack on our Ally the United Kingdom put countless innocent lives at risk and resulted in serious injury to three people, including a police officer," the State Department Spokesperson, Heather Nauert, said.

In response to this outrageous violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and breach of international law, today the US will expel 48 Russian officials serving at Russia's bilateral mission to the United States, she said.

"We will also require the Russian government to close its Consulate General in Seattle by April 2, 2018. We take these actions to demonstrate our unbreakable solidarity with the UK, and to impose serious consequences on Russia for its continued violations of international norms," Nauert said.

The US calls on Russia to accept responsibility for its actions and to demonstrate to the world that it is capable of living up to its international commitments and responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security, she said.

The US move was followed by 14 European Union member states who expelled a number of Russian diplomats in a coordinated response.

Germany, France and Poland have said they will each expel four Russia diplomats, the Czech Republic and Lithuania three, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands two, and Latvia one.

Colonel Skripal was convicted of treason in 2006 and jailed for 13 years for selling secrets to MI6, which had recruited him in the 1990s. The senior intelligence officer with Russian military intelligence GRU, was pardoned in a spy swap in 2010 and settled in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

The US move revives memories of the Cold War (from 1950s to early 1990s) when the two super powers - the United States and the Soviet Union - were engaged in a competition for increasing their sphere of influence and often targeted each other with such expulsions.The Donald Trump administration is considering unprecedented political penalties on Pakistan, a leading American magazine has reported. The penalties mentioned in the report range from visa bans, sanctions and a permanent end to military aid. The report on the Trump White House's thought process comes just a week after the US President replaced moderate voices in his foreign policy apparatus with hawkish figures.

A report in Foreign Policy magazine said the Trump White House and Pentagon view Pakistan as harbouring terrorists who are waging war against the US-backed government in Afghanistan. "The options under consideration include revoking Pakistan's status as a major non-NATO ally, permanently cutting off the US military aid that was suspended two months ago, and even imposing visa bans or other sanctions on individuals in the Pakistani government deemed responsible for providing support to the militants," read the report.

The increasing number of hardliners in Trump policy engine seem to be gaining the upper hand, maintaining that years of aid and accommodation have produced little in return. In the last 10 days, Trump fired moderates Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser HR McMaster and replaced them with hawks - Mike Pompeo and John Bolton.

The visa bans that are now being discussed would be aimed at individual members of the Pakistani government, military, or ISI intelligence service who may be behind the support to terrorists like the Taliban and Haqqani Network to continue operating from Pakistani soil.

"Pakistan is at risk of miscalculating the level of frustration both in Washington and other foreign governments," said a senior State Department official. "In the past, Pakistan has sought to take the minimum action required to placate U.S. concerns without fundamentally altering their policy and strategy," Foreign Policy quoted the official as having said.

The hardening of the line on Pakistan comes just a month after the US led efforts to put Pakistan on a terrorism-financing watchlist, overcoming the opposition from Pakistan allies China and Saudi Arabia.

"The alliance with Pakistan no longer makes sense for the United States because it undercuts US policy in Afghanistan as well as its effort to build a strategic relationship with India against China," former Pakistani ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani told Foreign Policy magazine.

"It doesn't make sense for Pakistan either," added Haqqani, a long-time critic of the Pakistani military establishment and its policies.Tokyo [Japan]: Former US President Barack Obama on Sunday reiterated that he wanted to create "a million young Barack Obamas" to take on the baton of "human progress", in what was seen as an effort to develop the "next generation." He underscored that his nonprofit the Obama Foundation could create a "platform for young and upcoming coming leaders" to exchange information with each other about projects they were working on, The Guardian reported.

"If I could do that effectively, then - you know - I would create a hundred or a thousand or a million young Barack Obamas or Michelle Obamas. Or, the next group of people who could take that baton in that relay race that is human progress," Obama told a non-profit conference in Tokyo.

The former US President also praised the potential of the students participating in the "March for Our Lives" rally, adding that the change was needed to stop gun violence in the country.

"This was all because of the courage and effort of a handful of 15- and 16-year-olds, who took the responsibility that so often adults had failed to take in trying to find a solution to this problem, and I think that`s a testimony to what happens when young people are given opportunities, and I think all institutions have to think about how do we tap into that creativity and that energy and that drive," Obama stated.

Thousands of people, primarily students flooded the Pennsylvania Avenue in the American capital for the "March for Our Lives" on March 24 to support tougher gun controls, in the wake of last month`s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) High School in Parkland, Florida, which claimed 17 lives.Many Hollywood celebrities also lent their support to the students and had participated in the movement.

On Twitter, Obama and his wife Michelle wrote in support of the anti-gun violence rally on March 24.

"Michelle and I are so inspired by all the young people who made today`s marches happen. Keep at it. You`re leading us forward. Nothing can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change." Donald Trump has yet to comment personally on the marches, although the White House praised the demonstrators for exercising their right to free speech," Obama wrote on the micro-blogging site.

Commenting on the denuclearisation negotiation with North Korea, Obama said that it would be "difficult" because "the country`s isolation meant other countries had little leverage over it."

"North Korea is an example of a country that is so far out of the international norms and so disconnected with the rest of the world. It is a huge threat," he added.Obama was on a week-long four-nation trip in the past week, where he first visited Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and then Japan, before returning back to the US on Sunday.

The former US President has taken a cautious approach about criticising his successor Donald Trump, although he has made an exception for issues such as the travel ban on Muslim-majority countries and Trump`s heavily criticised remarks equating neo-Nazis with the protesters opposing them in Charlottesville in Virginia.Since small hours of March 25, Russian militants and regular army units have attacked Ukrainian positions 44 times. One Ukrainian serviceman deceased, counter-terrorism operation HQ reported.

In Donetsk region, the enemy used mortars to shell Shyrokyne, Optyne and Lebedynske; 92 mm mines and tank shells hit the emplacements near Pisky. Mortar attacks were reported in Talakivka. Militants used RPGs to launch attacks on Avdiivka, Bohdanivka, Novotroitske, Vodyane and Butivka coal mine. The iillegal armed units fired large-caliber machineguns to attack Verkhnyotoretske and Pavlopol. A hostile IFV opened fire in Hnutove; small arms fire was observed near Butivka coal mine, Kamyanka, Mariinka and Krasnohorivka.

In Luhansk region, the enemy opened fire twice - in Novhorodske and Troitske.

Related video:ABSTRACT

Sexually transmitted infections remain a public health problem almost all around the world. Women of childbearing age frequently have vulvovaginitis. The aim of this work is to evaluate the prevalence of the main germs responsible for vaginal infections in pregnant women who have had their vaginal swabs taken at Be hospital. We conducted a retrospective study between May 2008 and December 2013, on 126 pregnant women in whom a vaginal swab was performed. We vaginally sampled 126 pregnant women, of whom 90 or 71.43% had vaginal infections. Candida albicans was the most frequently isolated species (47.97%) followed by Gardnerella vaginalis (38.21%). The most affected age group was between 25 and 30 years old. Candida albicans were respectively resistant to miconazole, clotrimazole and econazole. Our study showed that pregnant women are highly exposed to vaginal infections with a predominance of Candida albicans and Gardnerella vaginalis. This shows that it is necessary to do at least one culture of vaginal swabs during pregnancy for each woman.

Subject Areas:

Microbiology

Keywords:

Vaginal Infection, Bacterial Vaginosis, Vaginitis Infectious, Pregnancy, Togo

1. Introduction

The vaginal flora of healthy women is made up of a wide variety of anaerobic and aerobic bacteria. The most represented species is the kind Lactobacillus (Doderlein Bacillus) [1] . Lactobacilli are involved in maintaining the natural balance of the vaginal flora, and thus protect this flora. This role is especially important during pregnancy, because of vaginal abnormalities such as bacterial vaginosis and vaginitis infectious [2] . These abnormalities have been described as mechanisms responsible for premature births and perinatal complications [3] .

We talk about bacterial vaginosis when the normal balance of bacteria in the vagina is disrupted and replaced by a proliferation of pathogenic bacteria. Lactobacilli are replaced by anaerobic microorganisms such as Gardnerella vaginalis and Mycoplasma hominis [4] [5] . Bacterial vaginosis is known to be a significant risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes [5] .

Infectious vaginitis is defined as an infection related to a pathogen; it is also an abnormal manifestation of a bacterium, a parasite or a fungus that usually occurs in minute quantities. These are infections with Gardnerella [4] , Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Trichomonas vaginalis [6] [7] [8] but also fungal infections. The fungi responsible for vaginitis are mainly caused by yeasts of the genus Candida; in this case we are talking about vaginal candidiasis.

We have superficial or local candidiasis and deep or visceral candidiasis. Superficial candidiasis comes when we have the passage of yeasts from the commensal state to the pathological state; deep candidiasis is defined by the involvement of at least one deep organ.

In Togo, a similar study was conducted in Sokode in the central region in 2011 [9] .

The main objective of our study was to determine the prevalence of vaginal infections in pregnant women in a secondary hospital in Lome.

2. Material and Methods

This is a retrospective descriptive study carried out from the registers of the gynecological services and the registers of the microbiology laboratory of the Be hospital. It covers a period of 5 years from May 2008 to December 2013. This hospital includes the services of gynecology-obstetrics, pediatrics, general medicine, ophthalmology, stomatology, radiology, social service, and laboratory of biology, service of maintenance, hygiene and vaccination. The inclusion criteria are all registrations of pregnant women who came to the laboratory during the study period and the non-inclusion criteria are all incomplete registrations during the same period. 126 pregnant women were selected for this study.

To perform the vaginal samples, the patient goes to the laboratory without personal hygiene, suspend any antibiotic 48 hours rather, as well as sex 24 hours instead.

In the laboratory, the sample is made with three swabs; a swab is used to take the sample from the endocervix and two other swabs are used to take the sample from the vagina. One of the vaginal swabs is used to make fresh condition for looking for clues-cells, Trichomonas vaginalis, red and white blood cells, and yeasts.

Gram stain is made from the other vaginal swab and the endocard swab. The Gram stain makes it possible to look for Gram diplococci on the one hand intracellular and extracellular (gonococcal) negatives, and intracellular and extracellular Gram-variable coccobacilli (Gardnerella vaginalis), Gram-negative intracellular and extracellular Gram-negative bacilli (Mobiluncus spp.), gram-positive bacilli of varying length (Bacillus Doderlein), Gram-positive, Corynebacterium-type bacilli, other bacteria (Gram-negative bacilli and Gram-positive cocci), and the presence of yeast and mycelial pseudo-filaments [10] .

Smears were classified and interpreted according to the Nugent score [11] as shown in Table 1 and Table 2 respectively [12] .

Seeding is systematic on Thayer Martin (TM) agar and Sabouraud chloramphenicol agar. Gram directs the choice of bromo-cresol-purple agar (BCP), nalidixic acid agar and Eosine Methylene Blue agar (EMB).

The media were incubated for 24 hours at 37C and under CO 2 for Thayer-Martin agar. On each medium, suspicious colonies were identified and their identification was carried out according to the classic bacteriological characters (catalase, appearance of colonies with a color shift of the media, metallic reflection) and by biochemical characters using mini-galleries (Kligler-Hajna, Simmons citrate, mannitol/mobility and urea/indole). The antibiotic susceptibility of the different strains isolated was determined by the standard antibiogram antimicrobial diffusion method on agar medium, according tothe recommendations of the antibiogram committee of the French Society of Microbiology [13] [14] .

Table 1. Nugents scoring of vaginal swabs (number based on average of 10 fields).

Statistical analyzes.

The statistical software SPSS version 22 for Windows and MedCal 13 were used for data processing and comparison of proportions. Chi-square was used and the statistical threshold was set at P < 0.05.

3. Result

The retrospective analysis of the data identified a total of 126 pregnant women, who performed their consultation at the Department of Gynecology at Be Hospital and their vaginal swabs in the microbiology laboratory of the same hospital.

The age group was 12 to 41 years old with an average age of 28.10 years. Their age distribution is shown in Table 3.

We recorded 62 women (49.21%) with scanty leucorrhoea (Table 4). Of the women recruited, 90 (71.42%) had an infection (Figure 1). Candida albicans was the most isolated with 47.97% followed by Gardnerella vaginalis (47.97%); Trichomonas vaginalis was poorly recovered (4.06%) (Table 5). The distribution of isolated organisms by age is shown in Table 6. Candida albicans is isolated in 6.5% of women aged 35 to 40, followed by Gardnerella vaginalis 4% and Trichomonas vaginalis 2%. The 25 to 30 age group has the highest rate of isolation germ and is respectively 16%, 14%, 4% and 1% for Candida albicans, Gardnerella vaginalis, Mobiluncus spp. and Trichomonas vaginalis.

Strains of Candida albicans were 100% resistant to the following antifungals: miconazol, clotrimazol and econazol.

Table 3. Distribution of pregnant women by age.

Table 4. Classification of leucorrhoea abundance.

Table 5. Distribution of microorganisms found.

Table 6. Distribution of microorganisms by age group.

Figure 1. Prevalence of vaginal infection.

4. Discussion

In this study conducted between May 2008 and December 2013, we recorded 126 vaginal specimens in the Be hospital, in pregnant women who met the criteria for inclusion and non-inclusion. Nadembega found 118 cases [15] , which is in agreement with our data; however, other studies were performed with a larger sample size [9] [16] [17] [18] [19] . A large sample size would reflect the true proportions of the population conditions.

The age of the study population varies between 12 and 41 years, an average of 28.10 years; this is an average close to that obtained in a similar study conducted by Tchelougou in the central region of Togo in 2011 [9] .

The most exposed age group is between 20 and 35 years old; it is the age of procreation and during which the sexual activity is intense; this would explain this high rate. This is the most represented age group. Unlike us, Benchellal in 2011 found an age range of 25 to 53 years in Morocco [20] while Anane found 20 to 39 years in 2010 in Tunisia [21] which is close to our results.

Leucorrhoea is often abundant among women in our study in the maritime region of Togo; this result is similar to that of Tchelougou (45.37%) in the central region of the country [9] ; we noticed a significant difference depending on the character scanty (6.95%) and very abundant (45.37%). This difference can be explained by the social and cultural diversities and behaviors of populations [22] [23] [24] [25] that could affect their physiology.

The percentage of vaginal contamination observed in the study population is 71.42%. These results confirm those obtained by Tchelougou [9] in 2011 in Sokode (73.18%).

Gardnerella vaginalis and Candida albicans account for most laboratory-identified germs (86.18%) during the study period; this result is similar to that of Tchelougou [9] in 2011 which is 86.08%.

There is a high prevalence of Candida albicans (47.97%) among pregnant women compared to the works of Tchelougou in 2011 in Sokode [9] . Candida albicans can increase premature delivery rates and decrease neonatal birth weight [18] , hence the need to follow women during pregnancy.

According to Benchellal, the risk factors involved in the occurrence of vulvovaginal candidiasis are: pregnancy, poor hygiene habits and frequent intimate toilet [20] . In fact, there is a marshy area, so that the water used by the population of Be could be wet; This could also explain the high rate of vaginal infection in the area.

We found that Mobiluncusspp had a rate of 4.88%; this result is not similar to that found by Tchelougou in 2011 [9] . Candida spp. represented 4.88%; this result is similar to that of Cravello [26] in 2001, which reports that in mycotic vulvovaginitis, Candida albicans occupies 9 out of 10 cases, compared to 1 out of 10 cases for Candida spp. Trichomonas intestinalis (4.06%) has a similar rate to that found in 2011 by Tchelougou (3.66%) in the central region [9] , unlike us Nadembega did not find Trichomonas intestinalis [15] .

In this study, we noted that Candida albicans was resistant to miconazol, clotrimazol and econazol. This resistance could be explained by the use of unknown products for intimate toilets. This resistance is at the origin of the therapeutic failure. Nadembega gets results different from ours [15] .

5. Conclusion

From the analysis of the retrospective study carried out between May 2008 and December 2013, it appears that the rate of vaginal infection is 71.42%; Candida albicans and Gardnerella vaginalis were the most isolated respectively with a frequency of 47.97% and 38.21%. The most exposed age group was 20 to 35 years old. All strains of Candida albicans isolated are resistant to Miconazol, Clotrimazol and Econazol. These preliminary results provide information on the prevalence of vaginal infections and on the susceptibility profile of isolated Candida albicans strains. However, it would be desirable to continue the studies over a much larger period and on a larger sample size for a better appreciation of the frequency of isolated organisms.

Cite this paper

Dakey, K.A., Alfa, T., Bossa, Y.A., Amevo, K., Kpotsra, A. and Ameyapoh, Y. (2018) Vaginal Infections in Pregnant Women at the Be Hospital in Lome (Togo) from 2008 to 2013. Open Access Library Journal, 5: e4441. https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1104441

ReferencesThe Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine condemns the detention of Crimean Tatar activist and blogger Nariman Memedinov in occupied Crimea. This was reported by the press service of the ministry.

"The Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine draws attention of the international community, in particular the relevant institutions of the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe, to the systematic violation of human rights in the Crimea and calls to take appropriate measures to prevent such actions on the part of the aggressor state," the message says.

On March 22, FSB officers searched the house of Crimean Tatar blogger Nariman Memedinov in the village of Kholmovka in the Bakhchysarai district. Relatives of Nariman said that the search was conducted in a rather crude form. Not only Memedinovs' house was surrounded, but the whole street. After this, the law enforcers took Nariman to Simferopol.

As it was reported earlier, on March 23, Kyiv district court of Simferopol, controlled by the Kremlin, arrested Memedeminov for two months.

Related video:Once a resort town, Shyrokyne, is now one of the hottest points of the war in Ukraine

Shyrokyne town which was once a resort on the Sea of Azov became one of the hottest points of conflict in Ukraine. Radio Liberty journalist Andriy Dubchak visited the place that has become a militarized ghost town.

The beach of Shyrokyne, with razor wire strung between dragons teeth (concrete pyramids designed to stop a military beach landing). Off the beach, naval mines lurk under the waves.

An Orthodox Christian icon bounces in the cabin of a Hummer as Ukrainian soldiers speed toward Shyrokyne.

An Orthodox cross with the words save and preserve on the outskirts of Shyrokyne.

Branches sliced off trees by shrapnel.

Most of Shyrokyne now lies in ruins. The village became a major flashpoint in 2015 after Russia-backed separatists operating near Shyrokyne allegedly launched a salvo of Grad rockets into nearby Mariupol, killing 30 civilians.

A file photo of a Grad multiple-rocket launcher. The city of Mariupol lies around 15 kilometers from Shyrokyne, well within range of Grad rocket attacks.

A major offensive was launched by Ukrainian forces in 2015 to retake the town from separatists and prevent further attacks. It has been held by Ukrainian forces ever since, though fighting has flared up regularly.

A file photo of coastline near Shyrokyne photographed in 2013, a few months before war broke out. After Russia annexed Crimea in early 2014, Ukraines southern coast became a fiercely contested military objective. Analysts said there was a possibility Russia-backed separatists would try to open up a land bridge running from southern Russia, down Ukraines coast, to Crimea.

Ukrainian soldiers inside an abandoned beach house.

A fridge painted with the word STOP lying in rubble inside Shyrokyne.

Ukrainian soldiers look out over the deserted beach of Shyrokyne.

The tail of a mortar, deeply embedded in rain-soaked ground.

Photographer Andriy Dubchak holds a shard of shrapnel in the center of Shyrokyne.

Related video:The nations Road fund is going to allocate some $381.7 million to these operations.

The Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman is confident that Ukrainian roads will be restored within a period of 3-5 years, the government web portal informed on Sunday, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

I assumed the responsibility for the conditions of our roads in 2016. The amount of funding has significantly risen. We are going to restore Ukrainian roads within three-five years. We have already enhanced the contractors responsibility by creating mobile verification teams. Those who do flawed construction work now have to correct their mistakes at their own expense. Also, we are going to introduce quality guarantees within 5-10 years, the head of the Ukrainian government said.

The Prime Minister added that considerably more attention is going to be paid to local roads.

Within five years, we are going to improve over 50% of Ukrainian roads. Local roads will be built from scratch. The nations Road fund is going to allocate some $381.7 million to these operations. The construction of roads within merged communities, cities and towns is a lot larger in volume now.

As reported earlier, on 22 March, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a bill regulating concession road construction in the country into law. Prior to that, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Kistion said that Ukraine intends to increase road repairs by 50% in 2018 against 2017, to 3,000 km.

Related video:In an interview with Elina Beketova for her 112 International Insight show, the German Ambassador to Ukraine Ernst Reichel told of a possible Bundeswehr involvement in the peacekeeping mission in Donbas, of expectations of Ukrainian reforms, of the importance of Minsk agreements in order to achieve peace in the east of Ukraine.

- Mr. Ambassador, welcome to our show on 112-Ukraine!

- The first question concerns the election in Russia and the annexed Crimea. The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has stated that Kyiv would not recognize the Russian presidential election in the peninsula and would introduce sanctions on its organizers. Is Germany ready to join the non-recognition of this voting in Crime and the introduction of sanctions? (On 19 March, the European Union did not recognize the election results in the Russia-occupied Crimea and call on an investigation of violations reported by numerous observers).

- The Federal Republic of Germany has never recognized the annexation of Crimea. Any actions Russia may undertake there would be in violation of international law. The Russian presidential election is also a violation of international law.

- Let us talk about the new German government. We know that the new coalition agreement mentions Ukraine and the support of its territorial integrity. What does it mean for our country  a certain victory or just a formality?

- No, it is not a formality. This is a promise that the federal government gives to its voters in Germany, as well as to Ukraine itself. Such active position of Germany is here to stay, even though there is nothing new about that. This is because Germany has taken this stance ever since the beginning of the Crimea annexation, the start of the military conflict in the east of Ukraine, and we are going to continue acting in this direction. I would like to remind that there are probably no other leaders like our federal chancellor Merkel and the president of France Hollande, and now Macron, who would make such an active effort in order to solve the military conflict in the east of Ukraine. The coalition agreement you brought up says just that  Germany is going to continue contributing to solving the military conflict in the east of Ukraine.

- But there are, perhaps, certain expectations of Ukraine? Presumably, it is not just for Ukraine, but rather for the reforms that are anticipated to happen in Ukraine?

- Of course, and it is not just the Western countries that are expecting these reforms. It is also in the interests of the Ukrainian state, Ukrainian citizens, who are waiting for these reforms. These reforms are what makes Ukraine different from Russia. What I mean is The Maidan and the policy that ensued as the result of it, have produced a great difference between Russia and Ukraine. This is why it is extremely important for Ukraine to continue these reforms, which are in line with European democratic values, and for Ukraine to curb any attempts to avoid these reforms. Here is an example  the introduction of e-declarations for anti-corruption activists. This obligation to submit electronic declarations is becoming effective on 1 April. Last Friday, the Venice commission published its judgment on this policy and said that it contradicts the social values based on democracy and human rights. Today is 19 March, and if a possibility of amending this law does not arise, it would seem necessary to, at least, postpone the deadline, when activists are required to submit these declarations, in order to bring the Ukrainian legislature in accordance with values of democracy and human rights.

- On the anniversary of Minsk 2.0, the German Foreign Ministry said that very little had been done in terms of the execution of the Minsk agreements. What needs to be done in order to get things moving?

- Of course, we, just like Ukraine and its citizens, are rather frustrated because of the fact that the fighting is still going on along the delimitation line, people are still dying, both soldiers and civilians. First of all, genuine ceasefire needs to be achieved, heavy arms need to be disengaged. We are ready to take the responsibility, to take diplomatic measures, to make efforts in order to facilitate this. We have already said that there might be changes after the Russian presidential election, and we are going to keep an eye on that. However, I would like to repeat that when we talk about diplomatic measures, it means that we need to talk with Russia since it is obvious that this conflict cannot be solved without Russia. Diplomatic efforts mean engaging in a dialogue.

- Do you think that Russia could make certain concessions after the presidential election?

- I think the Minsk agreements have been in place for quite a while now. After certain events, we often thought that maybe now something would change in politics, in Russias approach. However, we, diplomats, should not give up, we need to remain optimistic in the hope that it is still possible to achieve something. This is why we still expect a reaction that would show that something in Russias approach to the Minsk agreements is changing. Nonetheless, let me add that it would be a great mistake to lose temper and to say that the agreements are not functioning. Because if that is the case, we would be left without a format of negotiation, without a foundation we could use as a base for something. Then we would go back to 2014, to an unregulated conflict. I do not think there is anybody in Ukraine who would be willing to go back to the 2014 situation.

- Let us get back to the coalition agreement during the formation of the German government. It specifically states that the United Nations peacekeeping mission should be responsible for maintaining peace in the region. Could Germany become part of it? Is the Bundeswehr involvement possible?

- First of all, we need to agree on what it should look like, how it should function. Because as of right now, there are very different opinions on the tasks this mission would need to execute and what its format should be. And, accordingly, in regards to the possible participation of the Bundeswehr, we need to wait for the outcome of the negotiations that are currently underway. Perhaps, you have noticed the fact that the two parties have a different understanding regarding which country could take part in such mission.

- In this regard, is Germany among those countries who cannot participate or those who may get involved?

- You are trying to get me to estimate the outcome of these negotiations, while I, unfortunately, am not able to answer that. You probably realize that the German policy towards the possible Bundeswehr involvement is going to be determined according to the conditions of the missions operation.

- Is it possible that the sanctions on Russia are lifted if it agrees to a peacekeeping mission throughout the Donbas region.

- This would not be consistent with the federal government of Germany as of right now, as we do not see the interconnection between the execution of the Minsk agreements and the lifting of sanctions off Russia. That is the interconnection international community sees in this. The position of the federal government is such that does not exclude the possibility of discussions regarding the lifting of sanctions. It is normal in a democratic state. Nonetheless, the position of the federal government is as I have described above.

- In an interview a year ago, you spoke about the election in Donbas. Particularly, you stressed the fact that everything would depend on the circumstances, which need to be made appropriate for the election to take place. What has changed over this year? Or is it still impossible to hold an election in Donbas?

- I am still of the same position I described then. However, in regards to your question  no, there are no such changes that would enable elections to be held in Donbas.

- Will they become possible, once all the security issues and all other points of the Minsk agreements are executed?

- Certain prerequisites must be in place in order to hold free elections according to the OSCE standards. This means that many conditions must be met, I have said this in interviews.

- The infamous case of Skripals poisoning. Is Germany going to join the investigation?

- So far, nobody, I mean the UK government, has sought our participation in the investigation. Nonetheless, you know that the federal government supports the United Kingdom in this matter and we consider it a very serious case, which puts the health and well-being of not just these two individuals in jeopardy. The use of chemical weapons and nerve agents on a foreign soil is a very serious matter within the framework of international law.

- Should the United Kingdom request it, would Germany join the investigation?

- Possibly, but no such request has been received yet.

- Mr Ambassador, thank you for the interview. See you again on 112-Ukraine!

- Thank you very much.The latest polls show that Tymoshenko would win the presidential race, against this backdrop, Bloc of Petro Poroshenko is predisposing National Front to consolidate

Read the original text at 112.ua.

If we believe the public opinion polls (we should not absolutize the figures, but rather look at the trends they show), Yulia Tymoshenko would now win the presidential race gaining almost 25% of the votes in the first round. Oleh Lyashko is in second place  15.5% and Anatoly Hrytsenko would get 12.5%. The incumbent president of Ukraine would gain the support of only about 10% of voters. This is what the results of a study conducted by a respected Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. Compared with the results of the autumn of 2017, the head of state lost almost half of the support, while the popularity of Tymoshenko is growing. However, more than one-third of Ukrainians have not decided on their choice, which means that presidential candidates have room for maneuver.

Although it looks like "Fatherland" is already anticipating the victory of Tymoshenko. Our own sources in the faction say that the positive dynamics of Yuliya Tymoshenko would continue. The "Fatherland" supposes that the incumbent president might run for the presidency in 2019. "Poroshenko has now become a second-tier candidate, and Lyashko is likely to come to the second round," our interlocutor noted, recognizing that the ratings could be influenced by the percent of those undecided voters.

Our source in "Fatherland" adds that the coalition is continuing negotiations on holding early parliamentary elections in order to maintain its situation in the parliament and strengthen its position with the new head of state (if he is an opposition candidate).

"We know for sure that negotiations on the distribution of districts in early elections and cooperation between the coalition factions continue, although it is not clear why they are going to implement their plans taking into account the current ratings," our interlocutor notes.

In turn, our sources in the "National Front" faction note that the negotiations on integration and cooperation with the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko (BPP) continue, but so far they have not reached any result.

"They continue to predispose us to the consolidation; in fact, they use threats, blackmail, hinting that in case of our persistence we might lose our positions in power. They (BPP, - Ed.) say we our rating is 1.5% and, accordingly, we have no chances at the elections in terms of our self-participation," our interlocutor claims.

He also doubted the possibility of the "National Front" rebranding. But the prospects of the coalition parties are very vague. "One of the initiators of the early Verkhovna Rada elections said that soon we (BPP and "National Front"  Ed.) would fight for some 1%. Of course, he exaggerates the situation, but so far the trends are depressing," our source adds.

The presidential nomination of former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is still unlikely (even considering a large number of those who have not decided).

And how about the rival friends in the coalition? A group of bloggers who sympathize with the president assured that the difference between the rating of the current head of state and Yulia Tymoshenko "is only a few percents, and the elections would be held in a year, everything could change." However, it should be noted that in the last six months the popularity of both the president and his political force demonstrates a negative dynamics. According to 112.ua sources from the coalition factions assure that some influential parliamentarians from BPP continue to convince their "Number One" to consent to early parliamentary elections in order to maintain the positions in the parliament. And early elections might strengthen their positions during the bidding if the new head of state becomes an oppositionist.

However, as noted by the deputies interviewed by us, they need a quality administrative resource to achieve the result, "this point is problematic, although our work is underway."

Despite the ratings, "Number One" candidate remained determined to his second term.

"For today the probability of his second term is 60%, and the final decision will be made in May or June," our sources in coalition factions say.

They plan to persuade the voters with the continuation of friendship with the West and the implementation of the Euro-Atlantic integration course. The visa-free status is already forgotten, so the thesis "Joining NATO in 10 years" was launched. One of these days, Poroshenko said that "in the next 10 years Ukraine will join NATO," economic growth will be achieved, which would ensure raising wages, increasing welfare, and the roads repairing.

In addition, Bankova expects for more effective work on the part of the Prosecutor General and plans to rotate the districts heads and some regional administrations heads. However, an important condition for the realization of all these plans is support from the West, including the financial one. By the way, lately, the country has some problems with it. Yes, Prime Minister Groysman, who was previously considered to be an obedient performer, is gradually increasing his weight in political bidding.

A decisive year before the elections, in which the candidates would try to persuade the undecided electorate to their side, is ahead.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or 112.International and its owners.Open source

The 'Connection' memorial site is now accessible for common citizens in Eindhoven, the Netherlands to honor the memory of the MH17 disaster victims; families and friends of the deceased, as well as local officials, joined the opening ceremony. Ukraine's Embassy in this country tweeted this on Monday.

'Unveiling of the Connection memorial in Eindhoven. The tragedy of MH 17 united us! We will always remember and do everything to bring those responsible to justice!', reads the message.

The memorial was opened under the initiative of Walk-for-298 foundation.

It is known, Boeing 777 of Malaysian Airlines, which was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down by the missile from the Russian-made anti-aircraft missile launcher. The tragedy took place in the sky over Donetsk region on July 17, 2014. None of those 298 people aboard survived.

Related video:Open source

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini held consultations with Markus Ederer, the recalled head of the EU Delegation in Russia.

According to the European External Action Service, the diplomat 'arrived in Brussels after having been recalled for consultations as requested by the European Council on Friday'.

The consultations will continue in the following several days; there's no word about the discussed topics so far.

As is known, the UK charged the Russian government with using a chemical weapon to poison ex-agent of Russian intelligence Sergei Skripal and his daugther Yulia. The high-profile case turned into a true diplomatic scandal, as the two countries expelled each other's diplomats.

Twenty EU member countries may begin sending off Russian diplomats on Monday, too.

More news from Ukraine at 112.internationalThe United States, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Estonia, Finland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Denmark, Lithuania and Latvia have already announced their intentions to expel Russian diplomats

To the Russian government we say: when you attack our friends, you will face serious consequences, a senior U.S. administration official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Moscow has denied responsibility for the attack and has retaliated against Britains expulsion of 23 Russians by ordering out the same number of Britons.

The Kremlin said ahead of the U.S. announcement that it would respond in kind.

As it was reported earlier, ex-colonel of Russias Main Intelligence Agency, Sergey Skripal and his daughter, poisoned in the center of Salisbury town in the evening of March 4, are still struggling for life in the intensive care unit of the local hospital. The British special services suppose that Skripals were poisoned by his ex-colleague Andrey Lugovoy, who acted on orders from Moscow.

British Prime Minister Theresa May decided to expel 23 Russian diplomats due to the incident in Salisbury. Russian diplomats had a week to leave Great Britain. Besides, the law enforcers will tighten control at the customs and check of private planes for the same reason. In return, Russia said it would expel 23 British diplomats as a reaction to Britains actions.

Related video:According to him, the next step will be a price increase for Moscow for international crimes, including the extension of the sanctions

Ukraine made a decision to expel 13 Russian diplomats due to the poisoning of Sergey Skripal, the former GRU agent in the UK. Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine reported this on Facebook.

'In the response to the cynical chemical attack in Salisbury (Great Britain) Ukraine in solidarity with our British partners and transatlantic allies and in the coordination with the EU countries made a decision to expel 13 Russian diplomats of the few of those left from the Ukrainian territory as it is known that our diplomatic relations with Russia de-facto frozen', Poroshenko reported.

According to him, Russia confirmed once more its neglect not only to the sovereignty of the independent states but to the value of human life. Ukraine feels it every day in occupied Crimea and Donbas as the president emphasized.

'Because of this, it is as important as ever to not be limited to the symbolic gestures. The next step will be a price increase for Moscow for international crimes, including the extension of the targeted, financial and economic sanctions', the president noted.

He added that the general response to Kremlin should be strong and tough in the future to 'prevent new human tragedies and provision of the respect to the international law norms'.

Earlier, the First Vice Speaker of Parliament, representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the Tripartite Contact Group Iryna Gerashchenko claimed that Ukraine does not expel Russian diplomats following the example of Europe, as this will mean the automatic expulsion of Ukrainian consuls from the Russian Federation, whose presence in the country is extremely important for Ukrainian political prisoners.

British Prime Minister Theresa May decided to expel 23 Russian diplomats due to the incident in Salisbury. Russian diplomats had a week to leave Great Britain. Besides, the law enforcers will tighten control at the customs and check of private planes for the same reason. In return, Russia said it would expel 23 British diplomats as a reaction to Britains actions. Russian Foreign Ministry informed in its announcement.

Theresa May, British Prime Minister, stated that Russia was highly likely to be involved in Skripals case. Later, Britain had officially confirmed the use of Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury. Due to this, British representative accused Russia of violating of UN Charter and Chemical Weapons Convention at the UN Security Council session.

Ex-colonel of Russias Main Intelligence Agency, Sergey Skripal and his daughter, poisoned in the center of Salisbury town in the evening of March 4, are still struggling for life in the intensive care unit of the local hospital. The British special services suppose that Skripals was poisoned by his ex-colleague Andrey Lugovoy, who acted on orders from Moscow.Open source

The Deputy Prime Minister for the European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze has said that Ukraine would narrow a delay in the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union in 2018, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

"I think that we will significantly narrow a gap in our implementation. However, judging by how the events are unfolding, I cannot say I am particularly optimistic about the notion that we are going to fully implement all the measures we did not introduce in 2016-2017 and those we need to introduce in 2018, she said at a press briefing dedicated to the real challenges for implementing the association agreement and the progress in the introduction of the action plan for 2018 held in Kyiv on Monday.

According to the deputy prime minister, Ukraine faces many tasks for 2018, including those that were not implemented between 2016 and 2017 in accordance with the Association Agreement.

She said that among the key tasks of Ukraine for the current year is the construction of a control system for food; development of high-tech exports; promotion in the field of transport; relaxation of formal procedures for trade in goods and transit in the customs sphere; protection of intellectual property.

Also, the deputy prime minister hopes to sign a number of "roadmaps" for the implementation of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement's provisions in various areas.Two men attacked an officer at his post near the Embassy of Poland in Kyiv with fists on March 25 as the press service of the National Police in Kyiv reported.

'Around 22:55 police received a report that the unknown beaten up the officer of the National Guard who performed security service of the diplomatic establishment. It was established that the verbal conflict arose between the officer and the attackers and the fight took place. Preliminary, the attackers were drunk', the message said.

The police added that the police detained 27-year old man, the citizen of other state who is suspected of the mentioned crime. His accomplice is still searched. A man refused to provide any explanation due to Article 63 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

Due to the incident, the criminal proceeding was opened under the threat or violence toward the worker of the law enforcement body. At the moment, police establish all circumstances of the crime.1,633 of them were intentional murders

Open source

5,180 murders were committed in Ukraine, which is a thousand less than in 2016 as to Ukraines General Prosecutors Office information, Ukrainski Novyny reported.

Those were the crimes, which are set in Ukraines Criminal Code articles on intentional homicide, intense emotional excitement murder, intentional homicide of a child by a mother, murders as a result of an excessive self-defense or excessive measures to detain a criminal.

1,633 of them were intentional murders.

6,051 murders were committed in Ukraine in 2016.

Related video:Mariana Betsa, Ukraines Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, said that 13 Russian diplomats to be expelled from the state are officers of Russian special services

Ukraines Internal Ministry stated that Russian diplomats, who are to be expelled, are the representative of Russian special services. Mariana Betsa, Ukraines Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, said on air of 112 Ukraine.

Being solidary with our British partners, transatlantic partners, European allies we along with the relevant authorities made a decision to expel from Ukraine 13 Russian diplomats out of those few who stayed, from Kyiv and from Russian Consulate General in Ukraine. We got all the evidence, these 13 diplomats are Russian special services officers. Anytime soon they will be expelled from Ukraine. Russian Charge dAffairs in Ukraine is just about to receive a relevant note on the expulsion of these diplomats, who will be declared personae non grata, she said.

This is just the beginning of that policy towards Russia, which will lead it to the further isolation due to its negligence of the international law, violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity of another state. No doubt, anti-Russian sanctions should be intensified and all the partners understand, Betsa added.

Earlier, Ukraines President Petro Poroshenko stated that Ukraine made a decision to expel 13 Russian diplomats due to ex-GRU officer Skripal poisoning in Britain.

As we reported earlier, the ex-officer of the Russian armed forces Sergei Skripal was poisoned in the British city of Salisbury on March 4. Later, Prime Minister Theresa Mey stated that responsibility lies on Russia, and the investigation confirmed the use of the nerve gas, produced in Russia.



The UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats from the country as part of a response to the Salisbury incident. Later, the European Union decided to withdraw its ambassador from Russia for consultations. The Russian Foreign Ministry considers May's accusations regarding "the case of Skripal" a provocation.

Related video:The MP was arrested for two months on March 23

The consideration of the appeal of Nadia Savchenko by the court will take place not earlier than on March 28. The advocates of the MP claimed this as 112 Ukraine reported.

It is planned to file the appeal today. At the moment, the advocates came to Savchenko in the remand center. Vera Savchenko, the sister of the MP is also there as she waits for the date with Nadia.

As we reported Shevchenkivsky Court of Kyiv decided on the preventive measures for Savchenko, which is custody for two months until May 20, 2018, without a right for a bail. Besides, the Court decided that the detention on March 22 was illegal.

The same day the MP went on the hunger strike. She also emphasized that she is not going to escape from Ukraine.

On March 22, the Ukrainian parliament lifted the immunity of Nadiya Savchenko. She was detained right after this in the building of the Verkhovna Rada.

Later Ukraine's Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko signed the notice of suspicion of Savchenko under charges with preparing a terrorist act and the attempt of coup d'etat.

On March 15, Lutsenko claimed during his speech at the parliament that Savchenko personally planned, recruited and ordered how to hold the terrorist attack in the Verkhovna Rada, destroying two lodges, governmental and post, by the combat grenades, bringing down the dome of the Verkhovna Rada by the mortar launchers and killing the survived with the assault rifles.

Also, it was reported that non-affiliated MP Nadia Savchenko and Volodymyr Ruban, the Head of 'Officer Corps' planned to attack the cortege of the President of Ukraine with the large caliber sniper rifle.

In her turn, Savchenko claimed that she planned only a political provocation.Petro Poroshenko formed a delegation for the negotiations concerning the relevant agreement with Sri Lanka

Ukraine is to reach an agreement with Sri Lanka on mutual cooperation and protection of investments. This is stated in the Presidents decree on March 26.

Petro Poroshenko formed a delegation for the negotiations concerning the relevant agreement with Sri Lanka.

Oleksyi Perevezentsev, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, headed the delegation.

The decree provides the instruction for the delegation.

Earlier, Ukraine and Qatar signed an Agreement on mutual protection of investments and elimination of dual taxation.

Ukraine news on 112.internationalIt was claimed that Oleksiy Sizonovych along with another man formed a group with allegedly decided to carry out explosions and terrorist acts on Ukrainian and Russian territory

61-year-old Oleksiy Sizonovych from Krasnodon in the Luhansk oblast was tortured before ending up sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in Russia, as Human Rights in Ukraine reports.

This case stands out due to Sizonovych's age and the fact that he was first seized by Russian militants from the so-called Luhansk peoples republic. He has no complaints about the prison but told about horrible tortures he undertook when kept in Rostov on the Don in Russia. He says that he was beaten unconscious twice, and that they applied other forms of torture, including electric shocks.

Sizonovych is believed to had formed a group which supposedly decided to carry out explosions and terrorist acts on Ukrainian and Russian territory. Sizonovych was found guilty of preparing a terrorist act and unlawful possession, purchase, etc. of explosive devices or substances. He was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

"The prosecution, which demanded 12 years, did not explain how Sizonovych was supposed to get the explosives to Russia, although a trail was asserted as leading from Kyiv to the Luhansk oblast in Ukraine," the message says.

Diana Ivanova, Ukraines consul in Novosybirsk has told Radio Svoboda that she was finally allowed to see Sizonovych at the end of March, nine months after his trial and sentence for allegedly planning acts of terrorism.

The fact that Sizonovych was tortured makes it clear why he confessed. He also said that the "lawyer" who was appointed by the investigators did not in any way represent his interests.

Related video:This decision of Ukraine's Supreme Court in this case is imposable and is to be completed in all similar cases

The Cassation Administrative Court of the Supreme Court denied ID cards refusal of Ukrainian citizens due to their religious beliefs. Ukrainski Novyny reported referring to the Court's press office.

Today, the Supreme Court consisting of the panel of judges of the Cassation Administrative Court dismissed the claim, the message says.

The Supreme Court treated the suit as an exemplary case. Therefore, the Supreme Courts decision is important and to be applied to the similar cases.

Earlier, the Supreme Court of Ukraine opened a criminal proceeding on this exemplary case as it had received a relevant impression of Zhytomyr District Court  whether it is legal to refuse to get an ID card. Nataliya Dehtyar from Zhytomyr region filed a suit on November 30, 2017.

She asked to obligate Ukraines Migration Service to make her not an ID card, but a document in the form of a passport. The reason she appealed to the court is that due to her religious beliefs she does not want her Ukrainian passport to be a card with a non-contact electronic media which comprises her personal data. The suitor stated that the Ukrainian passport can be made in the form of an ID card and in the form of a book. Therefore, she believes, that the passport in the form of a card is an option, not an obligation of the citizen. The Migration Service does not have a right to obligate the citizens to have ID cards solely.

As it is known, the Cabinet of Ministers banned the Ukrainian passport in the form of a book on March 21.

Related video:Thoughtless actions of Kremlin are behind the U.S. severe reaction to Skripal's case

Voice of America

Russian diplomats expulsion from the USA and other states is a reaction on a thoughtless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter on the territory of Britain as to Jon Huntsman, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, said in the interview for Kommersant.

He stressed that Great Britain is U.S. close ally. That is why Washington could not leave such actions beyond attention.

We convey a message  if you treat our friends and allies like that, the response reaction is inevitable, the Ambassador stated.

Earlier, the USA, Canada and 15 EU member states informed about their decision to expel Russian diplomats. Ukraine joined the sanctions and expelled 13 Russian diplomats from the country.

Related video:A meditation and sharing support group focused on the practice of Buddhist teachings and the 12 steps of recovery while integrating the Dharma and the basic goodness of meditation.

The Heart of Recovery is a meditation and sharing support group with the purpose of bringing together the practice of meditation, the Shambhala and Buddhist teachings, and the Twelve Steps of Recovery with the goal of integrating the basic sanity of the Dharma and the basic goodness of meditation with our commitment to abstinence. We welcome all those who wish to share in these common interests.

The Heart of Recovery is a meditation and sharing support group with the purpose of bringing together the practice of meditation, the Shambhala and Buddhist teachings, and the Twelve Steps of Recovery with the goal of integrating the basic sanity of the Dharma and the basic goodness of meditation with our commitment to abstinence. We welcome all those who wish to share in these common interests.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!)Affordable dining tables, coffee tables and benches made from rescued New Mexico woods plus jewelry and mezuzahs from found branches, made by Hershel Mutka Weiss. Runs through 4/9.

Opening Reception and Sale

Affordable dining tables, coffee tables and benches made from rescued New Mexico woods plus jewelry and mezuzahs from found branches. Made by long time Albuquerque Furnituremaker Hershel Mutka Weiss.

The tables and benches are made from land being cleared to create firebreaks near Weed, New Mexico. Planks sawn three inches thick were the starting point for this new furniture.

The work is a departure for Weiss, who is known for his finely crafted work. The tables are made with simple and direct joinery and retain their natural edges and in some cases the bark as well. Weiss also experimented with bark inlay in several pieces, creating a combination of rustic and refined.

Also shown in this exhibit Weiss's first in six years are his first attempts at jewelry, made from found branches, as well as the Jewish ritual objects known as mezuzahs, carved from found branches as well.Located in the Washington, D.C. area, Chris Gillis primarily reports on regulatory and legislative topics that impact cross-border trade. He joined American Shipper in 1994, shortly after graduating from Mount St. Marys College in Emmitsburg, Md., with a degree in international business and economics.The United States and South Korea have agreed in principle to a set of amendments on the six-year-old deal, South Koreas trade minister said Monday.



The U.S. and South Korea have reached an agreement in principle on amendments to be made to the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong announced Monday.

The amendments will provide no further opening of agricultural markets and no changes to already lifted tariffs, Kim said.

The U.S. has sought to accomplish several objectives since the negotiations started in July, including a reduction of its bilateral trade deficit, improvement in the automobile trade balance, and greater market access for U.S. exports.

Kim also clarified that the U.S. is exempting South Korea from Section 232 steel tariffs in exchange for a yearly quota of 2.68 million tons, about 70 percent of the annual average South Korean steel exports to the U.S. between 2015 and 2017.

The White House also announced on Thursday that tariffs on aluminum and steel from South Korea and several other countries would be suspended until May 1, pending discussions on satisfactory long-term alternative means to address the threatened impairment to U.S. national security.

More information wasnt immediately available. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didnt respond to a request for comment.YEREVAN, JULY 11, ARMENPRESS. Armenpress presents the latest article of Harut Sassounian, publisher and editor of The California Courier.

A stunning investigation by Bulgarian reporter Dilyana Gaytandzhieva revealed that Azerbaijans state-run Silk Way Airlines has shipped under diplomatic cover 350 planeloads of heavy weapons and ammunition to terrorist groups around the world in the last three years! Azerbaijan asked the Foreign Ministries of various countries to issue a diplomatic exemption for these flights, allowing civilian planes to carry weapons which would normally be prohibited by the International Air Transport Association.

The reporters information is based on a large number of emails sent to her by an anonymous source: The leaked files include correspondence between the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Azerbaijan to Bulgaria with attached documents for weapons deals and diplomatic clearance for overflight and/or landing in Bulgaria and many other European countries, in addition to Syria, Iraq, the United States, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, and Israel, to name a few.

According to documents obtained by Gaytandzhieva, Silk Way Airlines offered diplomatic flights to private companies and arms manufacturers from the US, the Balkans, and Israel, as well as to the militaries of Saudi Arabia, UAE, and US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), and the military forces of Germany and Denmark in Afghanistan and of Sweden in Iraq. Diplomatic flights are exempt of checks, air bills, and taxes, meaning that Silk Way airplanes freely transported hundreds of tons of weapons to different locations around the world without regulation.

The leaked documents also reveal that American weapons manufacturers had shipped over $1 billion of weapons through Silk Way Airlines. These were non-US standard weapons which means that they were not intended for use by U.S. forces. When Silk Way Airlines did not have enough available planes, Azerbaijans Air Force jets would transport the military shipments, Gaytandzhieva reported.

According to the U.S. federal contracts registry, in December 2014, the U.S. Special Operations Command signed a $26.7 million contract with the American company Purple Shovel. Bulgaria was listed as the country of origin for the shipped weapons and Azerbaijans Defense Ministry as the consignee. Another US company, Orbital ATK, received a contract for $250 million of non-US standard weapons.

Amazingly, the daring Bulgarian reporter went to Aleppo, Syria, in December of last year where she found and filmed 9 underground warehouses full of heavy weapons with Bulgaria as their country of origin. They were used by Al Nusra Front (Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria designated as a terrorist organization by the UN).

Gaytandzhieva discovered that just in April and May of 2017, Azerbaijans Air Force jets transported 282 tons of grenades on 10 diplomatic flights.

Another major purchaser of non-US standard weapons is Saudi Arabia which cannot use these weapons for its own defense as they are not compatible with its arsenal of western weapons. In 2016 and 2017, there were 23 diplomatic flights carrying weapons from Bulgaria, Serbia and Azerbaijan to Jeddah and Riyadh. These weapons were transported to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through Silk Way Airlines and ended up in the hands of militants in Syria and Yemen that Saudi Arabia officially admits supporting, according to Gaytandzhieva.

On April 28 and May 12 of this year, Silk Way Airlines carried out two diplomatic flights from Baku to Burgas-Jeddah-Brazzaville (Republic of Congo). The military cargo on board both flights was paid for by Saudi Arabia. The aircraft was loaded with mortars and anti-tank grenades. These very same weapons were discovered by the Iraqi army a month ago in an Islamic State warehouse in Mosul. It is not surprising that Islamic State terrorists have displayed these weapons in their propaganda videos, according to Gaytandzhieva.

The same situation existed with the shipment of Coyote machine guns which appeared on propaganda videos posted online by militant groups in Syria. These weapons were transported on a diplomatic flight via Turkey and Saudi Arabia a few months earlier. There are many other examples of such shipments that ended up in the hands of terrorists, including some shipments sponsored by United Arab Emirates.

In February and March 2017, Saudi Arabia received 350 tons of weapons on Silk Way Airlines diplomatic flights originating from Baku. The cargo included 27,350 pieces of 128-mm rockets and 10,000 pieces of 122 mm. Grad rockets.

Some of these shipments were paid in cash which may account for the huge amount of wealth accumulated by Pres. Aliyev and his family.

Just as concerning are the shipments of large quantities (around 200 tons) of white phosphorus which could be deadly. Ironically, Azerbaijan, which possesses white phosphorus, accuses Armenia of using it in the Artsakh conflict.

This is not just another article which should be read and forgotten! The US Congress and European governments should hold hearings and investigate these huge shipments of weapons, most of which are destined for terrorists in the Middle East and elsewhere, the article reads.YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, ARMENPRESS. The statements made before and after the meeting of Armenian and Russian Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin show that the Armenian-Russian relations are at a rather high level, political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan told Armenpress.

The talk concerns the economic, military cooperation and issues of forming a policy in the region in general. I think yesterdays meeting is one of the best proofs of that close relationship, he said, adding that the statements of the heads of the two countries give optimistic moods.

Commenting on the Presidents discussion over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, the political scientist said that issue could not be missed from the meeting agenda. According to him, this is the major issue in South Caucasus.

This issue concerns not only Armenia, Artsakh and Azerbaijan, but also the regional security in general. It somehow affects also the ongoing regional developments. The stability in South Caucasus enables Russia to feel more confident in its actions in the Middle East and act with a safer back there, he said.

Melik-Shahnazaryan added that the discussions didnt focus on solutions, rather, at the moment its necessary to ensure calm situation and predictability of stability.

The discussions, most probably, were focused on this direction so that situation in the border will be calm and this dangerous situation will be somehow overcome, he added.

Within the frames of the working visit to Russia, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan met with President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on August 23. The Presidents discussed a number of issues, including the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement.



YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. 105,6 billion drams has been accumulated in Armenias pension funds as of November 30, 2017, deputy finance minister Karen Tamazyan told ARMENPRESS, presenting information about the accumulative funds, profitability and the initiation of the mandatory component.

Mentioning that complete data for 2017 isnt yet summarized, the official presented information as of November 31. The funds began to be accumulated since 2014. The accumulative profitability comprised 44%. This means that 10,000 drams which was invested in 2014 has grown to 14,400 drams presently. Profitability in 2017 comprised nearly 13%. These figures prove that the money of the citizens has increased twice. For example, the citizen has given 25 thousand drams, the government added another 25 thousand, and in case of 44% profitability it grew by nearly 22 thousand drams. 25 thousand drams given in 2014 has become 75 thousand drams today. In my opinion, this system is fully justified in term of reforms, he said.

Does this mean that the dynamics is considered to be positive?

We consider the dynamics to be more than positive. The nearly 3,5 years of operation of this system is quite satisfactory. No shocks occurred due to the reasonable management of our assets.

How many participants are there until now, how many are from the public sector and how many are from the private sector?

We carry out registration according to active and passive participants. For the abovementioned period, the number of active participants was 188,000, and this figure is growing. The number of passive participants in 300,000. Passive means when the person is registered, however, for example isnt employed currently, and doesnt make payments. From the 188,000 participants 65 thousand are from the public sector, and the remaining are from the private sector.

The official said that 70% of the accumulated funds are invested in drams, which means that the money is in Armenia. There is a restriction under the law that 60% of the money should be invested in drams, he said.

Speaking about the asset management, the deputy minister said they have two managers  Amundi ACBA Asset Management and C Kvadrat Ampega Asset Management Armenia. Both are European, theyve registered their branches in Armenia. These managers are rather famous in Europe, they are rather reliable, he said.

As the mandatory component of the accumulative pension system will come into force from 2018, the deputy minister mentioned that the process will remain the same, while the number of participants will grow.

People born after 1974, January 1 will automatically be included in the system, he said.

Asked how many people will be added to the system, the ministry official said the number is estimated at 70-80 thousand people (Active).

The full interview is available in Armenian.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, ARMENPRESS. Although over 30% growth of trade turnover volumes with China is impressive for Armenias commercial attache to China, the active works will continue this year as well.

Hrant Abajyan, commercial attache of Armenia to China, gave an interview to ARMENPRESS, presenting the works done so far and the future activities.

-Mr. Abajyan, China is one of Armenias key economic partners and targeted markets. What steps were taken in 2017 aimed at strengthening the Armenian-Chinese economic ties, attracting Chinese investments, as well as increasing our export volumes to China?

-Undoubtedly today China is one of Armenias key commercial partners. Last year different events were held both in the Chinese capital of Beijing and in other cities and provinces aimed at developing and deepening the Armenian-Chinese economic ties, meetings were held with different public and private companies which we introduced on Armenias economic situation, investment field and attractions. Substantive discussions were held on developing the commercial relations at various directions. We tried to provide the Chinese businessmen with comprehensive and accurate information on the economic-political situation in Armenia and the region, taking into account that sometimes the Chinese businessmen are not informed about the country, or have inaccurate, distorted information from different sources on our country and the region which can hinder the development of commercial and investment relations.

In addition to this, separate meetings, discussions and exchange of experience were held with the Chinese companies aimed at launching mutually beneficial cooperation in different spheres of Armenias economy. Thanks to this last year more than 30% growth in the Armenian-Chinese trade turnover was recorded. This is an impressive figure, but we will not be satisfied with this. The efforts of the ministry of economic development and investments and in particular the trade representation are aimed at constantly increasing this figure. In 2018 we will also take active steps to attract investments from China to Armenia and finding entry opportunities for Armenian goods to this targeted market.

-Last year the cooperation office opened in China with your and the Armenian Ambassadors presence. To what extent the Armenian business is presented there and how are you going to engage the Armenian exporters to use this platform?

-Yes, as we said for many times, on November 17, Armenias cooperation office opened in Qingtao, China by the proposals and financing of the One Belt One Road innovative cooperation center which enables the businessmen to open the branches of their enterprises, present and sell their products. During the past weeks I have initiated meetings with representatives of different Armenian companies in Yerevan, discussed the opportunities and obstacles to enter the Chinese market. During the meetings with Armenian companies, operating in wine and alcoholic drinks production, agricultural canned food and chocolate production, we have tried to present in-detail the opportunities provided by the cooperation office.

The Armenian businessmen are highly interested in the Chinese market, but the risks on entering that market are also high, and due to this the Armenian businessmen still are cautious on using the existing opportunities.

Taking into account this, we, cooperating with the Chinese and Armenian public and private circles, constantly try to do everything to make the Chinese market more accessible and understandable for the Armenian business. As for Armenias cooperation office, I want to state that there is also an interest from the Armenian companies in this regard, and we hope the representations of Armenian companies will open in Qingtao as a result of working discussions in the near future, and thanks to this platform their products will be presented at the Chinese market.

-Recently, there are numerous talks on the Chinese market as a targeted tourism market. Are steps being taken to increase the number of Chinese tourists to Armenia?

-Today the Chinese market is the most important tourism market not only for Armenia, but also for the whole world. In this regard last year we tried to disseminate comprehensive information on Armenias tourism attractions and features. Here as well among the key problems is the presence of inaccurate and distorted information among the Chinese people. Works are being done at respective Chinese online information platforms aimed at spreading information on Armenia, as well as videos depicting Armenias tourism attractions. Its worth mentioning that the videos made by the ministry of economic development and investments, the State Tourism Committee and the Development Foundation of Armenia were translated in Chinese for the Chinese audience. These activities will also continue this year. Moreover, this year we have launched with the Tourism Development Fund of Armenia a more targeted work with tour-operators actively operating in the Armenian and Chinese tourism markets. We will try to boost the number of Chinese tourists visiting Armenia. Armenias participation in a number of exhibitions on tourism and export fields is also expected.

Armenia-Chine trade turnover comprised 604 million 486.6 thousand USD in 2017 which increased by 33.3% compared to 2016. China is 2nd in Armenias foreign trade turnover structure.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, ARMENPRESS. Ruben Safrastyan, expert on Turkish studies, director of the Oriental Institute, doesnt rule out that Azerbaijan can intensify the military operations on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border by gaining the trust of its people and strengthening the aggressive rhetoric before the elections, reports Armenpress.

We must not lose our vigilance as we are a neighbor to a country which openly announces that it is ready to launch an aggression against Armenia and Artsakh. Vigilance is always vital for us, he said.

Ruben Safrastyan said Azerbaijan with all possible measures blows the mediation mission of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs. I dont think that at the moment Azerbaijan has a wish to withdraw from the Minsk Groups negotiation process, I suppose after April it will try to take some advantage in the negotiation process, Ruben Safrastyan said, adding that the situation in Azerbaijan can become tense also in connection with the events in Syria. Pressures are getting stronger in Azerbaijan, and this worries Aliyev, he said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on holding snap presidential elections on April 11, 2018.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. Armenian writer Vardges Petrosyans Years Lived and Not Lived is again at the top of Yerevan Bestseller project  an ARMENPRESS exclusive bringing the top ten weekly bestselling books of the Armenian capital.

The book includes two stories, the eponymous novel and a 1970 story collection titled Why Flowers Die Early.

Armenian writer Mark Arens Where Wild Roses Bloom is ranked 2nd this week.

The story is about an Armenophobic Turkish former serviceman who finds out that his parents were Armenians. He spends his remaining life searching the graves of his parents, without knowing that it was a misunderstanding.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by American writer Richard Bach is third in the list. It is a fable in novella form about a seagull who is trying to learn about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection. It was first published in 1970.

Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray comes next in the weekly bestselling list. Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist who is impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty; he believes that Dorian's beauty is responsible for the new mode in his art as a painter. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life.

Armenian writer Edgar Kostandyans Ordinary Country is ranked next.

Journey to the East is a short novel by German author Hermann Hesse. The novel is 6th in this weeks list. Journey to the East is written from the point of view of a man (in the book called "H. H.") who becomes a member of "The League", a timeless religious sect whose members include famous fictional and real character.

A branch of the group goes on a pilgrimage to "the East" in search of the "ultimate Truth". The narrator speaks of traveling through both time and space, across geography imaginary and real.

Three Comrades by German author Erich Maria Remarque is 7th this week. It is written in first person by the main character Robert Lohkamp, whose somewhat disillusioned outlook on life is due to his horrifying experiences in the trenches of the First World War's French-German front. He shares these experiences with Otto Koster and Gottfried Lenz, his two comrades with whom he runs an auto-repair shop in late 1920s Berlin. Remarque wrote the novel in exile.

Armenian writer Mark Arens Ville-Evrard is ranked 8th. A story evolving around Komitas, Edmund Forster, the psychologist who inspired Adolf Hitler that the latter was unique, guided by which the Nazi leader decided to conquer the world, resulting in millions of victims. It was Forster who saved Soghomon Tehlirian, who gunned down Talat Pasha, one of the organizers of the Armenian Genocide, from capital punishment. The refuge of Komitas, who survived the Armenian Genocide, was Ville-Evrard mental hospital in France.

The Alchemist by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho comes next. Originally written in Portuguese, it became an international bestseller translated into some 70 languages as of 2016. An allegorical novel, The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.

Armenian writer Narine Abgaryans Three Apples Fell from the Sky concludes this weeks top 10.

By Angela Hambardzumyan

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. The fact of the large scale massacres of Armenians in 1988 committed by Azerbaijani authorities in Sumgait, Azerbaijan must be shifted to the international legislative arena, sociologist Aharon Adibekyan, director of the Sociometer Sociological Center said at a press conference.

Armenia must shift the fact of the Sumgait Pogroms to the international legislative arena in order for it to be evaluated as genocide organized against Armenians in the end of the 20th century. It will also have a preventive nature for such countries, and Armenia will receive moral compensation, Adibekyan said.

According to him, the Azeri state sanctioned massacres of Armenians in Sumgait were directed against the Karabakh Movement.

The Sumgait pogrom was Azerbaijans response to the Karabakh struggle, an attempt to intimidate Armenians, Adibekyan said.

He mentioned that this resulted in 400,000 people emigrating from Azerbaijan. Nearly 200,000 from them moved to Armenia, he said.

Soviet troops were brought into Sumgait at the next day of the pogroms, and according to official data nearly 300 soldiers were wounded. Imagine the scale of the pogroms if a division suffered that many wounded, he said.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 26, ARMENPRESS. A record number of people attended the exhibition dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Ivan (Hovhannes) Aivazovsky which was held in the National Gallery of Armenia from September 14 to February 15.

The exhibition, titled Hovhannes Aivazovsky: Creation, was attended by 56.000 visitors.

52 paintings, 26 graphical, one decorative-applied and 20 documentary works were displayed at the exhibition. Chaos: Creation of the World was also displayed.

Arman Tsaturyan, director of the National Gallery of Armenia, gave an interview to ARMENPRESS talking about the exhibition.

-Mr. Tsaturyan, many people say that the Creation exhibition was exclusive. In your opinion, what was the reason of its exclusivity?

-Have you heard about any exhibition in Armenia which had 56.000 visitors? This speaks about the exhibition being as unprecedented. We managed to do what for half a century any of the museums in our country didnt. I dont know whether it will be possible to repeat or exceed our record, but we definitely showed that it is possible to hold a good, beautiful and profitable exhibition with minimal investments. The exhibition is already over, but believe me, if it continued, the flow of people would not stop. For me and the people who participated in holding this exhibition, its a great excitement: success is that promotes people and leads to both professional and financial satisfaction.

By this exhibition we showed that the cultural field has changed. Its good from the one hand, and bad from the other, since always much is expected from the winner.

-Who among the visitors were prevailing?

-Everything on us is differentiated. For already three years the Gallery sells tickets online, and we know how many students, pensioners and school children visited us. Last time we have checked the data two months ago. The number of school children reaches 18.000. I am confident their number will increase within the course of time.

-A large number of art-lovers visited the Gallery to see the Chaos: Creation of the World renowned painting from the collection of the Mekhitarist Congregation in Venice. How do you characterize this mysterious work of art?

-As people live a mysterious life, their works do the same. The concept of the exhibition was as follows: Chaos: Creation of the World and Noah goes down from Ararat. The second birth of the world began from Ararat. The exhibition was such as well. I would state that the Chaos: Creation of the World is a virtuous work. Aivazovsky is an author of more than 6000 paintings, but not all of them are masterpieces. Our exhibition displayed wonderful works, and the Chaos: Creation of the World was one of them, a masterpiece that enriched the exhibition.

-Once you said that the success of the exhibition was also linked with the use of latest PR technologies. Will you talk about this in more detail?

-It is very important that all components of the exhibition are at a high level, starting from visualization that are ensured by respective devices, up to the color scheme of walls. While organizing an exhibition everything is important, such as the hall light, shadow and sound. When you reach the good level of all of these, its already success. Of course, the exhibitions advertisement was also well thought and was implemented correctly. The video clip of the exhibition received two awards by the Adobe company.

In the future we plan to organize the exhibition of paintings by Pablo Picasso. For this purpose we are holding talks with our foreign partners so that the best paintings in their collection will be displayed at our Gallery.

I want to inform that the art-lovers can online acquire the copies of the best paintings presented in the Gallerys collection which are on high-quality. In the near future we also plan to open a cafe named after French-Armenian famous painter Carzou in the Gallerys foyer which will be a favorite place for all art-lovers.

Interview by Angela Hambardzumyan

English  translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 26, ARMENPRESS. Scholars have positive expectations from presidential candidate Armen Sarkissian in the cultural life, president of the Union of Writers Edward Militonyan and president of the Union of Painters Karen Aghamyan told a press conference.

I find Armen Sarkissians meetings with scholars, conversations and getting to know their issues to be a correct approach. He is willing to get acquainted with the situation. These meetings are also a chance to present his approaches. He has experience in working with different international organizations. And, I think it will be useful for Armenia, Edward Militonyan said.

Speaking about the current problems of the sphere, Militonyan mentioned the little publication that modern literature gets.

Armen Sarkissian is capable of leading and clarifying a number of issues. His experience and skills will be useful for Armenia. I hope that the problems will be fixed in the future. New changes, new governance principles and new people are expected, Karen Aghamyan said.

Earlier in January Armen Sarkissian, Armenias Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was offered by incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, who also serves as President of the countrys ruling Republican Party, to be the partys candidate for the upcoming presidential elections. Sarkissian initially requested a brief period of time for pondering the offer, and in the meanwhile held various meetings with political parties, civil society representatives, Diaspora structures and others, and subsequently agreed to be nominated. Few days later the HHK officially nominated Sarkissians candidacy for the presidential election.

The 2018 presidential elections of Armenia will take place March 2. Under the amended Constitution, the 4th President of Armenia will be elected by Members of Parliament.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The ministry of culture of Armenia said that a governmental funeral commission will be formed on the occasion of the passing of renowned film director Albert Mkrtchyan.

Film director and scriptwriter Albert Mkrtchyan, the younger brother of acclaimed actor Mher Mkrtchyan, passed away on February 28, just one day after turning 81 years old.

The Mher Mkrtchyan Artistic Theater told ARMENPRESS that the filmmaker was battling a long time disease.

Albert Mkrtchyan was born in 1937 in Leninakan, present day Gyumri.

He graduated the Moscow Cinematography Institute in 1971. From 1960 to 1966 he was the director of the Armenian TV studio, and in 1971 director of the HayFilm Studio.

He served as artistic director of the Gyumri Drama Theater from 1999, and from 2000 as artistic director of the Yerevan Mher Mkrtchyan Artistic Theater.

Mkrtchyan delivered lectures in the State Pedagogical University of Yerevan and the Theater and Cinema Institute.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 6, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Diaspora minister Hranush Hakobyan on March 6 received Mayor of Lyon Georges Kepenekian, reports Armenpress.

During the meeting the minister and the Mayor discussed issues relating to the Armenian community of Lyon.

The meeting was also attended by delegation members of the Lyon Mayor.

At the meeting the Diaspora minister said she is very happy for Georges Kepenekians visit to Armenia.

Lyon is a unique city for our ministry as many Armenians live there, nearly 150.000 Armenians live in Rhone-Alpes, and nearly 50.000 of them live in Lyon. I want to express my deepest gratitude to the Lyon authorities, as well as the former Mayor for the conditions created for preserving the language of the Armenian minority, culture and religion. I am very happy that Armenians in France are proud citizens, but they also remain committed to their language and roots. Our compatriots in Lyon feel very well and continue engaging in culture, education, business and contributing to these fields, Hranush Hakobyan said.

The Mayor of Lyon thanked the minister for the reception and said the history of relations between Armenia and the Diaspora is a center-oriented history.

Over the past 30 years the history forced to resist several difficult situations, war, starvation, earthquake, collapse of the previous system, and eventually building a new state and creating in these difficult conditions. We know that the Diaspora has always tried to participate in these processes. We have survived all this history together, but today the fact that the Mayor of Lyon is of Armenian origin, but bears two cultures on his heart, is a new sign. By this visit we want to open a new page in our mutual relations, create a new book within the frames of our cooperation, Georges Kepenekian said.

According to him, the two-day discussions already open new doors for cooperation.

The delegation of the Lyon Mayor arrived in Yerevan on an official visit on March 3-8.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 7, ARMENPRESS. A commission has been created to deal with the solution of the problems which were caused after the Jerusalem Municipalitys decision on charging real estate taxes from church-owned properties and the new bill on the properties. Representatives of Christian spiritual institutions will also work with the commission, Archimandrite Koryun Baghdasaryan, chancellor of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem told ARMENPRESS.

Please tell us at what phase are the latest developments, what resolution did the problem get?

In the end of February the three spiritual leaders who hold custody decided to open the doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, because the day before the office of the Israeli Prime Minister released a statement. It concerned the municipalitys decision on charging taxes from churches and monasteries, and the bill which has been introduced in the Knesset, according to which if any church-owned property would be given for lease the government would be entitled to expropriate this property by paying compensation to the church. According to the statement from the Prime Ministers office, these two  the decision and the bill  have been suspended. The Prime Minister set up a commission including municipality, finance ministry, internal and foreign affairs ministry officials. In addition, representatives from all Christian spiritual institutions should participate in negotiations to reach a common decision.

Obviously this issue didnt surface all of a sudden. Overall how long has the issue related to the church-owned lands existed in Jerusalem?

We can say that the bill regarding the properties in Jerusalem has been undergoing the preparation phase for already a year. The reason is the following: Since 2010 the Greek Patriarchate had signed contracts with a company recognized by the state. This company , which had rented a church-owned property for 99 years, had refused from this right at some phase and was ready to sell its right of rent to a third party. Factually, the Greek Patriarch had agreed since 2010 that this third party can be any individual company. And since then the right of rent of many properties were transferred to the ownership of individual organizations. This is the reason that this bill was introduced.

This was the reason, but what is the general policy towards church-owned properties?

The rights of church-owned properties belong to the church, this is clearly recorded. These properties serve as income source for the implementation of the churchs mission, the churchs maintenance. There were cases when the states church-owned properties were declared green zones or a public park. When a green zone is declared for a church-owned property, the church cannot do anything there. The state cant do anything also without the agreement of the given church. Such cases exist, definitely this causes great harm to the church, because today it is impossible to realize any program or project concerning these properties. And as we know, the more projects the more revenues will be ensured for church institutions. And in case of income, the mission can be carried out more effectively.

The Municipality explained its decision by saying that the budget has a gap and they cant collect sufficient resources. How would you comment this argument?

Churches and monasteries have been exempt from paying taxes for many centuries. We will never agree for taxes to be introduced against churches and monasteries. This cant be considered as means for the municipality to fill the gap in the budget. They must find another way. The Mayor had addressed the finance minister, and only when he got a rejection he took this step. In any case, when they say debt, we dont consider it a debt because for many centuries we have been exempt from taxes, such kind of a debt is unacceptable for us. All those church-owned properties which are on lease pay taxes. We oppose defining taxes for churches and monasteries, while outside of this the Christian institutions pay taxes for all profit-generating properties.

How does the US Presidents statement on acknowledging Jerusalem to be Israels capital and the developments related to the bill and the municipality decision impact tourism flow?

Certainly a decrease of tourism numbers is noticed since the US Presidents statement as well as closing the doors of the church. Because violence took place after the US Presidents statement, the conflict seemingly awakened, many cancelled their visits. The same after closing the door of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, when a pilgrim is coming to the Holy Land the first destination is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. And if the pilgrim thinks that when he arrives to Jerusalem he wont see the main holy site, he will think about cancelling the trip.

If I am not mistaken, representatives of the Armenian community are mostly involved in the service sector  trade, rendering services. I believe that the drop in visits is also making economic impact on locals, including the Armenian community.

Yes, you are correct, Armenians are mostly [involved] in the service sector. The decrease of the number of visitors of the city certainly impacts the residents, including Armenians. But the locals are seemingly used to the fact that a long-term calm situation doesnt happen here. Some kind of incidents or actions happen all the time, which negatively impacts the service sector, and the situation is restored after some time. 3000 Armenians live in the Armenian district of Jerusalem alone. Overall 8000 Armenians live in the Holy Land, I mean both Israel and sections of Palestine. All our projects and initiatives are implemented through a united committee where all unions are represented. There is an active collaboration.

Interview by Anna Gziryan

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Fishermen have discovered a strange fish-monster on the shores of Queensland, Australia. The creature weighed 150kg and was 2 meters in length, ABC reported.

Ive seen many kinds of fish of various sizes, but Ive never seen anything like this, Riley Lindholm, the man who discovered it, said.

A spokesperson for Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol (QBFP) said it had consulted with experts at the Queensland Museum to identify the species of fish, ABC reports.

Although, the "condition of the fish made a definitive identification difficult", it appeared to be a Queensland groper, the QBFP said.

"How the fish came to be washed up on the beach and its cause of death also could not be determined," the spokesperson said.

"The Queensland groper is a no-take species  in Queensland, catching and possessing this fish is prohibited.

"If accidentally caught, protected species should not be removed from the water  they should be immediately and carefully returned to the water."

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Kay Mouradian, author of My Mothers Voice, a book and an eponymous film on the Armenian Genocide, has presented the story behind creating the work to American student and academic circles.

Kay Mouradian mother survived the Armenian Genocide when she was 14. Mouradian always listened her mother speak about the story of her survival, however she seemingly didnt perceive the details of the horrors until she began writing the book.

Daily Bruin touched upon the book and film of Mouradian in an article, mentioning that the work is focused on the life story of the authors mother during the Armenian Genocide.

Mouradian said the idea for the book first came from her mother, who was suffering from severe dementia. As her condition got worse, she told Mouradian to write a book about her life and the Armenian genocide. However, Mouradian was teaching throughout Los Angeles and had plans to go to Beijing to teach overseas at the time.

But her plans changed  Mouradian never went to Beijing and ended up writing the novel instead. Mouradian said she wanted to help the Armenian genocide retain its place in history, and as a former teacher, she wanted to give other educators a more accessible way of understanding the genocide.

I thought to myself, How do I make it easy for teachers to get a grasp of what happened in 1915 to make their job easier and to get their interest involved? Mouradian said.

During three trips to Turkey and two to Syria, she searched for her mothers rescuers, whose descendants remembered her mother decades after the end of the genocide.

Mouradian is also in the process of making a documentary film on the novel, which will make it easier for students to understand the Armenian Genocide.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 12, ARMENPRESS. Comedy legend, actor Ken Dodd died at the age of 90 two days after his wedding, BBC reports.

The Liverpool legend had recently been released from hospital after six weeks of treatment for a chest infection.

On Friday, he had married Anne Jones, his partner of 40 years, at their house, the same one he grew up in, in the Liverpool suburb of Knotty Ash.

Sir Ken was famous for his very long stand-up shows - with which he was touring until last year - along with his Diddy Men and the tickling stick.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. The Los Angeles Central Library will host two simultaneous art exhibits that explore the concept of generational trauma associated with the Armenian Genocide, Los Angeles Times reports.

The main exhibit, "Nonlinear Histories," is co-curated by Ara and Anahid Oshagan as well as Isin Onol and features the works of seven artists who examine their generational ties to the Armenian Genocide by reimagining inherited artifacts.

The exhibition will run from March 17 through May 6.

The collections are inspired by the theory of "postmemory" by literature scholar and author Marianne Hirsch, which refers primarily to how the children of Holocaust survivors cope with inherited trauma.

The second exhibit, "Prosperity, Loss, and Survival: A Photographic Journey from the Dildilian Family Archive," opens March 24 and is co-curated by Armen Marsoobian. It is an organized family archive of memoirs and photographs, which were created before and survived through the Armenian Genocide.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. Google said on Wednesday it will ban advertisements for cryptocurrencies and related content starting in June, Reuters reports.

Under the new policy, the company will ban ads for unregulated or speculative financial products like binary options, cryptocurrency and financial spread betting among others.

"Improving the ads experience across the web, whether that's removing harmful ads or intrusive ads, will continue to be a top priority for us," Scott Spencer, director of sustainable ads, said.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 16, ARMENPRESS. The exclusive project of ARMENPRESS entitled Yerevan Bestseller brings the top ten bestselling books of Yerevan every week.

Mark Arens Where Wild Roses Bloom again tops the bestselling list of the week.

The story describes the inner world of an Armenophobic Turkish former serviceman, when he, already an old man, suddenly hears a lullaby song that reminds him of his mother and later finds out that the song is in Armenian: realizing his parents were Armenians. He spends his remaining life searching the graves of his parents, without knowing that it was a misunderstanding.

Ville-Evrard, another novel again by Mark Aren, is ranked second. A story evolving around Komitas, Edmund Forster, the psychologist who inspired Adolf Hitler that the latter was unique, guided by which the Nazi leader decided to conquer the world, resulting in millions of victims. It was Forster who saved Soghomon Tehlirian, who gunned down Talat Pasha, one of the organizers of the Armenian Genocide, from capital punishment. The refuge of Komitas, who survived the Armenian Genocide, was Ville-Evrard mental hospital in France.

Edgar Harutyunyans Unfound Chamomiles this week is ranked 3rd. This is the second book of the author. Unfound Chamomiles is about human relationship, love, friendship and betrayal.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by American writer Richard Bach is 4th in the list. It is a fable in novella form about a seagull who is trying to learn about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection. It was first published in 1970.

Edgar Harutyunyans another book Art of Devotion or Ode to Rose is ranked 5th in this weeks list.

Collected Stories of Guy de Maupassant this week is 6th. It includes the authors best works. Guy de Maupassant is an author of numerous stories, novels depicting Frances daily life. His numerous works have been translated and published in Armenian.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is next. The short story, written in 1958 and first published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1960.

Armenian writer Edgar Kostandyans Ordinary Country captures the 8th position this week.

The Alchemist by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho is 9th. Originally written in Portuguese, it became an international bestseller translated into some 70 languages as of 2016. An allegorical novel, The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.

The Red-Haired Woman by Turkish novelist and Nobel Prize laureate Orhan Pamuk concludes this weeks list. The Red-Haired Woman is the story of a well-digger and his apprentice looking for water on barren land. It is also a novel of ideas in the tradition.

The following bookstores took part in a survey for the bestseller project: Bookinist (53-74-13), Hay Girk (54-07-06) and Zangak (23 26 49).

Yerevan Bestseller project presented by Angela Hambardzumyan

English translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan





YEREVAN, MARCH 20, ARMENPRESS. US President Donald Trump did not congratulate Vladimir Putin on being re-elected to serve another term in office as president of Russia.

A White House spokesperson said Putins victory in the election was no surprise for Washington, and there was no planned phone call with the Kremlin, BBC reported. The White House said the US intends to further cooperate with Russia in directions where it is possible.

We will continue developing our relations with Russia, but we will force it to pay if it threatens our interests, White House spokesperson Hogan Headley said.

We arent surprised by the election results, the spokesperson said.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 20, ARMENPRESS. The UN member states celebrate March 20 as the International Day of Happiness, reports Armenpress.

The UN General Assembly declared March 20 as a Happiness Day in 2012.

The UN calls on member states to celebrate this day through respective educational-information programs since search for happiness is the persons main goal.

Representatives of the UN 193 member states unanimously voted in favor of the decision to declare March 20 as International Day of Happiness.

Governments of many countries, while determining their peoples welfare, started to consider factors, such as happiness as only economic figures do not provide an objective picture.

Its worth mentioning that one of the streets of Alapars village in Armenias Kotayk province is called Happiness Street.

English  translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 20, ARMENPRESS. The Turkish operation in Syria code-named Olive Branch is an act of disrespect towards the territorial integrity of sovereign state of Syria, since the Turkish troops freely invaded the Syrian territories and carries out military operations under the pretext of fight against terrorism, ARMENPRESS reports turkologist, Dean of YSU Faculty of Oriental Studies Ruben Melkonyan said during a press conference on March 20.

Erdogans steps have domestic and external components. The external component is, naturally, increasing Turkeys influence in the region and the reinforcement of its position as a key regional power. Turkey tries to show that in this region issues should be solved not by the countries located thousands of kms away, such as the USA, but the regional countries and first of all Turkey, Ruben Melkonyan said.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogans steps ahead of the elections of 2019 also include propaganda goals.

I think Erdogans steps also contain a very important domestic component, since Turkey approaches a very important electoral stage that will grant Erdogan unlimited powers as the president of the country under the already established constitutional basis. Its true, Erdogan had succeeded in a number of spheres in terms of improving the social situation of the country and neutralizing his political opponents, but he had a very important shortcoming  he had not passed through a war and his reputation lacked the military component. With this operation Erdogan also solves this issue. Apart from all these, Erdogan continues the Ottoman traditions, he conquers new territories. I am convinced this will be one of the key points of his pre-electoral campaign. It will be noted that Erdogan is the first president who manages to bring back, at least de facto, some of the parts of the Ottoman territories, Melkonyan said.

Referring to the geography of Turkeys military operations, the turkologist noted that Turkey will not be limited only with Syrias Afrin. The Turkish president has announced that the his army will invade also Gamishli, which is Armenian populated.

Gamishli is an Armenian-populated area and here we will see the encounter of Turkish troops and the Armenian Diaspora, and naturally Turkey will not be engaged in humanitarian acts here, but it will do what it usually does, Melkonyan said, adding that it will be naive to think that Turkey will withdraw its troops from the mentioned territories later. Those territories will remain under de-facto influence of Turkey, he said.

Ruben Melkonyan added that starting from last year Erdogan often speaks about historical problems. He announces that the Lausanne Treaty was not a foreign policy achievement for them and sooner or later they will reconsider it. I think Erdogan carries out steps that will destroy the boundaries drawn by Lausanne. The Turkish president refers to a document that existed before Lausanne by which Mosul, Nakhichevan and some other territories belonged to Turkey, the turkologist said, adding that not far in the future Mosul will become the target of the Turkish troops.

English  translator/editor: Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS. 50 Georgian nationals have been deported from Germany on March 21 for violating visa regime regulations, Imedi TV said.

According to the report German authorities plan to deport another group of Georgian citizens next month.

15 Georgians were deported last week from Austria.

Earlier in February, North Rhine-Westphalia, a state in Germany, demanded to suspend the visa waiver regime between the EU and Georgia.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS. RT Business Development, a subsidiary of the Russian state corporation Rostec, and New Dimension Fund Variable Capital Investment, a fund owned by Armenian businessman Ruben Vardanyan, philanthropist, cofounder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, have acquired shares of Ntechlab, a Russian enterprise designing facial recognition systems, the company told Vedomosti newspapers.

Rostec said its subsidiary acquired 12,5% of the company.

New Dimension Fund Variable Capital Investment bought 25% of the enterprise. The worth of the deal hasnt been disclosed.

NtechLab is a Russian company established in 2015. It operates in the field of artificial intelligence.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS. Dogan holding, the largest media group of Turkey, will from now on operate at the behest of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Dogan Holding was sold to Demiroren Holding, a Turkish congolomerate with a chairman happening to be Erdogans friend  Erdogan Demiroren.

Turkish newspaper Cumhurriyet reported the news stressing that from now on the one man, one voice principle will function in the country, taking into account that the Turkish president is silencing his critics.

The deal was made for 890 million USD. Dogan Holding include the widely distributed newspapers Hurriyet, Posta, Kanal D TV, CNN Turk, Dogan news agency and others.

Many have expressed concern over this deal in terms of media freedom, because this move is shifting a significant part of popular media outlets under governmental control.

Dogan Holding is amongst the biggest conglomerates in Turkey operating in the energy, media, industry, trade, insurance and tourism industries.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS. Chaired by Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan, the Anticorruption Council met on March 22 at the Government.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Government of Armenia, the meeting first reviewed the findings of a survey, implemented by Transparency International Anticorruption Center NGO and referred to as Assessment of Corruption Risks in the Field of Granting Subsoil Management Rights. According to the speaker, the main problems include the clarification of geological, environmental impact assessment procedures, inadequate information on the use of subsoil in the decision-making process, etc. The report also featured recommendations developed within the framework of the survey, improvement of impact expertise processes, mining transparency and accountability mechanisms, etc. During the exchange of views that followed, the Council members voiced their comments and observations on the findings of the aforementioned survey and proposed specific solutions.

The Prime Minister instructed the Minister of Energy infrastructures and Natural Resources of the Republic of Armenia to involve, if necessary, representatives of other agencies in the discussions of those questions raised at the meeting and submit proposals.

The draft Roadmap for Disclosure of Real Owners of Metal Ore Mining Companies was next introduced at the meeting. The roadmap has been developed under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Note that Armenia has been a candidate country for EITI membership since March, 2017.

The roadmap envisages the following activities to be carried out in 2018-2019: shaping a legal and institutional framework for disclosure of real owners of extracting entities, data collection and verification, establishing a public registry of real owners, capacity building and awareness raising measures.

Prime Minister Karapetyan instructed the Chief of Government Staff to submit within three days the draft roadmap of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative for discussion at the Cabinet sitting, as well as present the composition of the working group, which shall be headed by the Deputy Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources and consist of civil society and business sector representatives.



English translator/editor: Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, MARCH 23, ARMENPRESS. The high-level meeting dedicated to the preparation of the La Francophonie Economic Forum, which will be held in Armenia on October 10 on the sidelines of the 17 summit of the International Organization of La Francophonie, took place in Paris.

The meeting was attended by Armenias foreign minister, chairman of the Francophonie ministerial committee Edward Nalbandian, Henry Rabary Njaka, minister of foreign affairs of Madagascar, which holds the presidency in the International Organization of La Francophonie, Secretary General of La Francophonie Michaelle Jean and Pierre Gattaz, chair of the Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF), the Armenian foreign ministry told Armenpress.

Introducing Armenias initiative to hold the Economic Forum, FM Nalbandian said the main goal is to create a permanent network of Francophonie businessmen. The minister said this networks mission will be establishing and developing institutional, professional ties between the entrepreneurs, businessmen of La Francophonie space and the organizations uniting them, promoting favorable conditions for entrepreneurship, boosting mutual investments aimed at the economic development of the Francophonie states. Edward Nalbandian added that the formation of the networks digital platform is also expected as a framework for beneficial exchange and positive experience.

Nalbandian highlighted the topics to be discussed at the Forum which are the followings: ensuring sustainable development for implementation of infrastructure programs, improvement of energy, including renewable energy, communication and transportation routes, water resources management, increase of efficiency of agriculture and food industry, promoting the mutual partnership in digital and high technologies, entrepreneur activity of women and youth and professional education.

The foreign minister said heads of international and regional economic structures, renowned businessmen from the Francophonie world will be invited to attend the Forum. He also informed that the Economic Forum is expected to be held in Armenias Tsakhkadzor resort town.

The meeting participants approved Armenias initiative to organize this Forum and the proposals linked with it and expressed readiness to assist in the organizational works.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 23, ARMENPRESS. US President Donald Trump held a phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on March 22, the White House said.

President Donald J. Trump spoke today with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to reaffirm the importance of strong relations between the United States and Turkey, as NATO Allies and strategic partners, and to exchange views on regional developments. The two leaders committed to continue efforts to intensify cooperation on shared strategic challenges and to address the concerns of both countries that affect the bilateral relations, the White House said.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 23, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan held a meeting today with the delegation of Sergey Romashov  member of the board of directors of VIS, a Russian corporation.

Infrastructure development projects in Armenia have been discussed at the meeting. The sides particularly addressed the possibility of involving the Russian corporation in the construction of the Sisian-Kajaran section of the North-South Highway, as well as dam construction projects.

The sides agreed to sign a protocol for creating a task force and committee to discuss further steps.

Karapetyan stressed that the government is attaching importance to realizing infrastructure programs and is willing to closely cooperate with the Russian corporation, adding that it can be a good public sector  private sector cooperation example.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz condemned Turkeys military operations in Syria and urged the EU to stop that countrys accession talks, Sputnik News reports.

The talks on membership between the European Union and Turkey should be ended taking into account the systematic violations of human rights and essential democratic values, and because the Copenhagen Criteria [rules defining if the state is ready to join the European Union] are not implemented anymore, Kurz said in an interview to the Welt magazine.

But the Austrian Chancellor added that Turkey still remains the EUs key strategic partner with which the cooperation should continue within the policy of good neighborliness.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS. Armenias President Serzh Sargsyan extended condolences to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the deadly fire in Kemerovo, which claimed the lives of dozens of people, including children, the Presidents Office said.

President Sargsyan expresses sincere and deepest condolences to the Russian president and the brotherly people of Russia, and asked to convey words of support to the families of the victims and wished speedy recovery to the injured.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS. The delegation led by Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Ara Babloyan participates in the 138th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union from March 24 to 28 in Geneva, the Parliament told Armenpress.

On the sidelines of the Assembly, Speaker Babloyan met with IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong. The meeting was held by the initiative of the IPU Secretary General. Issues relating to the process of the Unions works, the ways to increase their efficiency and the reforms proposed by the changes of the IPU Charter were discussed. Speaker Babloyan proposed to discuss the possibility of holding events within the frames of the IPU activity in Armenia.

The Armenian parliamentarians participated in the works of different commissions, in particular, Women Parliamentarians Forum, the sessions of the standing committees on human rights, and peace and international security.

The Armenian delegation includes MPs Samvel Nikoyan, Shushan Sardaryan, Lena Nazaryan, Shake Isayan, Karen Avagyan and chief of staff-general secretary of the Parliament Ara Saghatelyan.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS. Konstantin Zatulin, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots of the Russian parliament, doesnt take Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs statement that Yerevan and Zangezur are Azerbaijani lands seriously.

At a press conference in the Armenian parliament, the Russian MP addressed the Azeri presidents statement by stressing that by making a similar statement Ilham Aliyev weakened his positions in the international arena.

This statement was most likely done for the domestic audience, taking into account the upcoming elections in that country, Zatulin said, adding that from a historic and political perspective Aliyevs statement was rather unserious. It is simply odd how someone can treat such statements seriously, Zatulin said.

Konstantin Zatulin also recalled an interesting episode from the negotiations when Nagorno Karabakh was directly participating in the talks. When Nagorno Karabakh was participating in the negotiations process, my good friend Arkadi Ghukasyan was representing Nagorno Karabakh in the talks, the then-minister of foreign affairs. One day after heated discussions over the negotiations table in Rome the Azerbaijan delegate tried to somehow ease the tension, he approached Arkadi Ghukasyan, who looked concerned, and asked what the problem was. Arkadi Ghukasyan answered that on the way to the Coliseum he was the map of the Roman Empire, where he noticed that on the territories which theyve always considered to be theirs it was written Greater Azerbaijan. This was in the evening, while in the morning of the following day all members of the Azerbaijani delegation came to the negotiations angry, because they went to see how Greater Azerbaijan is written on the map of the Roman Empire but actually found out that it was written Greater Armenia [Mets Hayk] everywhere. So, I cant link the Azerbaijani presidents statement with none other than lack of history education, he said.

The Russian MP urged to not treat such statements seriously.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS. Newly appointed Ambassador of Italy to Armenia Vincenzo Del Monaco on March 26 presented the copy of his credentials to foreign minister Edward Nalbandian, the foreign ministry told Armenpress.

The Armenian FM congratulated the Ambassador on his appointment and wished success in his diplomatic mission, expressing hope that his activity will give new impetus to the Armenian-Italian relations with centuries-old history which have been marked with manifestations of mutual friendship and good traditions.

The Ambassador thanked for the warm reception and wishes and assured that he will invest the maximum efforts to further deepen the bilateral friendly mutual partnership aimed at recording new achievements.

Minister Nalbandian and Ambassador Del Monaco discussed issues relating to organizing high-level mutual visits, intensifying the inter-parliamentary contacts, holding regular consultations between the foreign ministries, expanding the legal framework. They also touched upon the further development and strengthening of the scientific-educational and cultural cooperation.

FM Nalbandian and the Italian Ambassador stated that over the past years the Armenian-Italian commercial ties recorded a positive development dynamics and added that thanks to joint efforts it is possible to completely utilize the existing potential.

Importance was attached to the signing of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement which can contribute to the development and strengthening of the bilateral economic relations.

During the meeting Minister Nalbandian presented the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries aimed at peacefully settling the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS. Vice Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Eduard Sharmazanov on March 26 had a meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to Armenia George Saganelidze, the Parliament told Armenpress.

Welcoming the guest, the Vice Speaker attached importance to the traditional friendship of the brotherly peoples and highlighted the need to further develop and expand the Armenian-Georgian ties at all possible directions. In this context Sharmazanov emphasized the necessity to boost the ties between the Armenian and Georgian Parliaments not only at the parliamentary friendship groups, but also the committees level.

The Vice Speaker also touched upon the regional security issues. As for the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, he said Armenias leadership supports the peaceful negotiated settlement of the conflict. Meanwhile, Bakus stance on this issue is different, Sharmazanov said commenting on the Azerbaijani presidents constant militaristic and anti-Armenian statements.

The Georgian Ambassador thanked for the warm reception and stated that Georgia attaches importance to the expansion of cooperation with Armenia in all directions, especially at the parliamentary diplomacy platform. Talking about regional issues, the Ambassador reaffirmed their balanced position on the peaceful settlement of the NK conflict. He highly valued the existing warm, friendly relations between the two countries, adding that both sides must do everything to further develop and strengthen these ties.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Armenias Parliament Ara Babloyan sent letters of condolences to chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin and Federation Councils chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko, the Armenian Parliament told Armenpress.

With a deep sorrow we were informed about dozens of human losses caused by the fire that broke out in Kemerovos shopping mall.

Please accept our sincere condolences on this tragedy. We mourn together with the relatives of the victims. We wish speedy recovery to the injured, reads the Speakers condolence letter.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 26, ARMENPRESS. French President Emmanuel macron has sent a congratulatory message to newly elected President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from Sarkissians Office, the French President expresses readiness in his message to work with Armen Sarkissian to further strengthen Armenian French privileged relations based on historical ties.

The Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement recently signed between Armenia and the EU, in the negotiations of which France had an important role, gives new impetus which I hope will result in growth of investments and trade and economic relations between our two states, Macron said in his letter.

Referring to the summit of Francophonie to be held in Yerevan on October 11-12, Emmanuel Macron said that the summit gives an opportunity to deepen relations between Armenia and France. The French President added that he will be glad to visit Armenia to participate in Francophonie summit.

In the end, I would like to assure that France, as an OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair country, is fully committed to finding a negotiated and stable solution to Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Macron concluded.

English translator/editor: Tigran SirekanyanDENVERVibrant, the Denver-based social enterprise shopping site for body-safe adult toys with proceeds funding Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, announced the hiring of Heather Bond as part of the companys marketing team.

We are extremely excited to have Heather join Vibrant as we continue to grow the product lines we offer as well as expand our customer base, said Angela Well, CEO and founder of Vibrant. Heathers significant experience both in marketing as well as in the pleasure product space are a great fit as we work to help open the conversation about sexual health and pleasure and fulfill our mission of generating proceeds to fund Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.

Bond, who brings more than 20 years of marketing and advertising experience, as well as several years in the pleasure products industry, will be responsible for driving Vibrants online marketing channels with a specific focus on customer acquisition, conversion and retention.

In addition to website management, Bond will be responsible for social media, consumer promotions and pop-up events like the recent Orgasm Day workshop, which featured Dr. Laura Deitsch, known to many as Dr. Shameless, who led an Orgasm Workshop followed by BedPost Confessions, Colorados premiere event-series around sexuality and storytelling.

I have always had a passion for pleasure products, as well as marketing and advertising. I met Vibrant while working for an adult products company and fell in love with their mission and the team, shared Bond. I am also a huge supporter of Planned Parenthood and providing accurate sexual health and wellness information to the public. Not to mention, selling some of the best body-safe products the industry has to offer.

For more, visit BeVibrant.com.LIMASSOL, CyprusTrafficStars has debuted a new advertising format through its advertising platformthe Mobile Postitial.

This ad spot has been introduced to provide publishers and advertisers even more ways to comply with Googles Better Ads Standards.

Were happy to provide pioneering forms of advertising for our advertisers and publishers and even more variety in our ever-growing inventory, said TrafficStars Managing Director Peter Rabenseifner. Were committed to helping publishers maintain their revenues while providing positive experiences to their users  as well as providing sustainable alternatives to our advertisers. At TrafficStars, we believe this is another step in the direction towards a cleaner and more user-friendly future in the advertising industry.

The first website to make Postitial ads available for advertisers through the TrafficStars platform is partner website xHamster. The new mobile ad spot is a 300x250 banner ad which is shown between two pages of content; after a user watches a video on the mobile version of xHamster and then clicks to navigate to another page.

The ad can be immediately dismissed by users, aligning it with Googles better advertising standards by providing a non-intrusive and user-friendly experience. With 15 million daily impressions, initial tests are showing extremely positive results with high click through and conversion rates.

TrafficStars Mobile Postitial ads are already available to all publishers and advertisers. For more details about Postitial Ads with TrafficStars, publishers and advertisers can contact their assigned account managers or email [email protected].Bake Off: Creme de la Creme star Cherish Finden has been appointed creative development chef at luxury chocolatier Godiva.

She will lead menu development for the firms upcoming UK cafes  expanding on its site inside Harrods, London.

Renowned internationally for her pastry skills, Finden has made a number of appearances on UK television, including Hestons Great British Food on Channel 4 and BBCs MasterChef, among others.

Godivas chocolatiers will work with Finden to create new menus with a focus on luxury signature dishes and unique dining experiences.

Originally from Singapore, she honed her skills at the six-star Raffles Hotel. Since then, she has won more than 25 medals and awards from international culinary competitions, has been executive pastry chef at the Langham Hotel in London, and created a Windsor Castle-shaped cake for The Queens 90th birthday.

Ive always found it fascinating to work with chocolate and see how I can transform it into a beautiful piece of art, commented Finden regarding the move.

Godiva currently owns and operates more than 800 artisan and modern retail boutique stores in over 100 countries.

The UK launch, due later this year, will see Godivas cafes expand fully into the UK for the first time.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 ideals.Mental health dominated the first meeting of the House Select Committee on School Safety, with speakers warning legislators about a shortage of student mental health services.Legislators began looking for ways to improve school safety after the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and House speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, formed the House Select Committee on School Safety.Moore told the committee Wednesday, March 21.The first committee meeting featured a flurry of presentations from the Task Force for Safer Schools, the Center for Safer Schools, the N.C. School Psychology Association, and the State Bureau of Investigation.Elliott Smith, special agent in charge with the SBI, highlighted school violence data from the Department of Public Instruction. While possession of a weapon or firearm have decreased over the years, the number of bomb threats dramatically increased - from 69 in the 2015-16 school year to 89 in 2016-17. A majority of those bomb threats are made by students.Smith said eight incidences of school violence - ranging from bomb threats to possessions of a firearm - have happened since Feb. 28.Other speakers focused on a proactive - as opposed to a reactive - approach to school safety. Jim Deni , a professor and school psychology trainer at Appalachian State University, likened identifying mental health issues to academic challenges.Deni asked.Deni said one in five children suffer from some kind of mental health disorder or substance abuse problem. Deni, a past president of the North Carolina School Psychology Association, said 75 percent of those children won't receive treatment within the current mental health system.The NCSPA recommends every school have 1:700 school-psychologist-to-student ratio. North Carolina public schools have a ratio of 1:2,100. That's a big problem, Deni said.Greta Metcalf, who chairs the Mental Health Committee of the Task force for Safer Schools, said about 55 percent of children live in poverty and experience a higher rate of emotional, mental, and trauma related issues.The stigma around mental health prevents many children from seeking help, Metcalf said, adding that having school support services integrated on campus could help students feel more comfortable talking to a therapist.Speakers also touted the anonymous tip line app, SPK UP NC , which allows students to notify officials about a range of concerns, including bullying, threats of violence, and substance abuse. Students suffering from suicidal thoughts can also call a hotline through the app.SPK UP NC, which started in 2015, is still only in the pilot stage in 42 schools across five counties. To date, the app has been downloaded 2,991 times. For the program to leave the pilot stage and expand, it would need additional funding.High school presenters Sarah Wallace Strickland and Riley Barnes gave a students' perspective on school safety. They called for giving students a voice and praised the SPK UP NC app.Barnes said.Gov. Roy Cooper chose Damon Circosta, executive director of the A.J. Fletcher Foundation - which provides grants for charitable causes and is a major funder of the left-leaning N.C. Justice Center - as the ninth and final member of the Bipartisan State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement.The board, which met for the first time Wednesday morning, announced Circosta's selection on its Twitter feed.After a contentious morning meeting featuring several deadlocked votes, the board's four Republicans and four Democrats forwarded to Cooper the nominations of Circosta and former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Burley Mitchell. By law, the ninth member must not be registered with the Republican or Democratic parties and the nominees must be sent to the governor by unanimous vote.Republicans on the board had attempted to push back the vote for a week to allow more time to vet candidates and to allow other members of the public to offer themselves for consideration.Democrat Joshua Malcolm, a former member of the State Board of Elections, was having none of it. Malcolm said he understood the desire to have more time, but the board needed to get to work immediately.Former legislative counsel Gerry Cohen, who worked in the General Assembly for more than three decades, was odd man out. Cohen, who registered as a Democrat in 1971, said several people asked him to seek the open board slot. He re-registered as an unaffiliated voter earlier this week.Democrats initially recommended Circosta and Cohen. Republicans voted against the joint ticket, saying they didn't have enough time to consider both candidates, though they would support Cohen. Republicans then nominated Mitchell, a longtime Democrat who's currently unaffiliated.Board chairman Andy Penry refused to allow a vote on only one candidate, but when board attorney Josh Lawson said the law was silent about voting on one candidate at a time, the board split 4-4 again, with Democrats opposing Mitchell.After a break, the board returned and jointly approved Circosta and Mitchell.On Twitter, Cohen said he was pleased to receive the support of all eight board members, just not at the same time. He also said he was "deeply deeply disheartened" not to be a finalist.he said, suggesting Cooper would have picked Circosta under any scenario.The board still may not survive very long. Cooper last week filed a lawsuit trying to invalidate the law creating the board. Meantime, in a press release N.C. Republican Party Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse hinted that the General Assembly may place a constitutional amendment on this year's ballot restoring an eight-member board split evenly among members nominated by Republicans and Democrats.On Friday, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe was fired by the Department of Justice, just two days shy of his retirement, thus preventing him from receiving his pension. The media, naturally, jumped to the conclusion that it was a political hit - but the facts don't support that contention. According to Attorney General Jeff Sessions:This is perfectly legitimate. The OPR is non-partisan and appoints career bureaucrats. The Office of the Inspector General is run by Michael Horowitz, who isn't exactly a Trump darling: "Isn't the IG an Obama guy?" Trump tweeted just a few weeks ago. McCabe was ousted because he apparently leaked information to the media.That information, according to The New York Times, concerned Hillary Clinton: apparently McCabe had leaked that the FBI wanted to investigate the Clinton Foundation's financial dealings, and that the DOJ wanted to stop them. Here's that report:Suspicion regarding McCabe's connections to the Clintons wasn't unwarranted either, given his wife's cozy relationship with the Clinton team in Virginia. Even FBI director Jim Comey's chief of staff, Jim Rybicki, wanted McCabe to recuse himself, as did anti-Trump FBI agents Lisa Page and Peter Strzok.All of this could have been relatively apolitical. After all, McCabe isn't clean here. But instead, President Trump immediately suggested corruption in the Mueller investigation, and one of his lawyers suggested that Trump should fire Mueller.But what in the world does this have to do with the Mueller investigation? The answer: nothing, so far as we know. The working theory in the Trump White House seems to be that a group of nefarious political actors got together in March 2016 and launched an investigation into Trump-Russia collusion in order to "get" him - and then didn't leak that information for the entirety of the election, even as Comey first exonerated, then damned, then exonerated Hillary again, perhaps costing her the election. There is simply no logical connection between McCabe's firing on the basis of the OPR report and the Mueller investigation. That investigation may come up with nothing - I think it probably will. But the president just made a non-political issue look like a political hit, and gave McCabe the grounds to claim that he's been dismissed as part of an act of political revenge bordering on obstruction. That isn't smart.Trump should sit back and relax. Mueller doesn't seem to have much of anything, and if Trump is innocent, he'll have no shortage of defenders. But leaping to use every brick as a club against Mueller looks more desperate than strategic or innocent.A scandal in the Czech Republic: a six-year-old pupil has drawn a picture of a black person!

26. 3. 2018

cas cteni 1 minuta

"Will Czech schools now also disseminate the muslim ideology?"





A class of six-year-old first formers in the northern Czech city of Chomutov was asked by their teacher to make a drawing of one of their friends. This has provoked a fierce scandal in the Czech Republic.



The problem was that one of her pupils had drawn a picture of a black person, an Asian person and a white person. The Czech disinformation website Aeronet has used this picture as an "argument" for its article warning against "dangerous indoctrination of young Czech pupils by multiculturalism". The website had been sent the picture by the uncle of the six-year-old author of the drawing. A class of six-year-old first formers in the northern Czech city of Chomutov was asked by their teacher to make a drawing of one of their friends. This has provoked a fierce scandal in the Czech Republic.The problem was that one of her pupils had drawn a picture of a black person, an Asian person and a white person. The Czech disinformation website Aeronet has used this picture as an "argument" for its article warning against "dangerous indoctrination of young Czech pupils by multiculturalism". The website had been sent the picture by the uncle of the six-year-old author of the drawing.







The article has produced a wave of vile hate speech directed against non-whites and against "the scourge of multiculturalism". The Chomutov teacher has received a deluge of fiercely racist hate mail. The head teacher Vlasta Markova has now alerted the police to these hate crimes, which are however normally not prosecuted in the Czech Republic.



In its article warning against multiculturalism, Aeronet said, mendaciously: "A teacher has asked her first-formers to draw multicultural pictures!! This is indoctrination of the most vulnerable small children in our society! It advances at a mad tempo in the Czech Republic!"



The uncle of the young author of the "evil multicultural drawing", a person named Vlastimil, had complained about the multicultural picture: "My nephew has drawn a 42-year old black person, an 18 year-old white person and a 7-year old Asian person. I do not like this: it is multicultural education. Will Czech schools now also disseminate the muslim ideology?"



This is not the first attack of the Czech public directed at school teachers who are being accused of multiculturalism.



In November 2017, a school in the Czech northern city of Teplice became the subject of another deluge of racial abuse when it published a picture of its first-formers in the local newspaper because the class was multicultural. People demanded that the six-year-old pupils "should be gassed". No one has been prosecuted.





Source in Czech HERE











0While it sure is a sight to behold, there's much more to this magazine than meets the eye. I met Steve and Tanya, the duo at the top of the Singapore counterculture scene best known for curating Kult, the top local alternative art magazine and galley, and learned more about EYEYAH!

Their new initiative aims to leverage their global network of 1000 plus artists to produce engaging multimedia content, events, and social campaigns to "inspire children, changing perceptions and provoking new points of view".

Their flagship creation, EYEYAH! Magazine, was launched this January. The first issue brings together interactive artwork, launches a social campaign for kids to contribute their own pieces, and comes with six visceral stickers. It kicks off with the below invitation where the authors rightly proclaim the magazine to be the "Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Wild Wild Web" and overall does a kickass job of teaching kids about the Internet.

Though they just launched the first issue in January, selected pages are already being distributed to local schools in a black and white zine format, spicing up education about the Internet in participating local schools. While the magazine and curriculum are currently only available in Singapore, there are plans for a global launch later this year (which I am helping their team with). For now, you can check out their website to learn more about the magazines, prints, and tees they have to offer.St Petersburg's Internet Research Agency  AKA "The Troll Factory"  is in the news since Robert Mueller indicted 13 of its employees, but it first came to public attention in 2013, when investigative reporters working for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta revealed that the agency was working to manipulate Russian public opinion in favor of Putin and the Kremlin and against opposition politicians by flooding Russian online discussions with thousands of "patriotic" posts made under a welter of pseudonyms.

The story of Novaya Gazeta's scoop  and the followup revelations in Russia's precarious independent press  is quite a tale, where bravery, smarts, and dogged determination uncovers a plot by a seemingly impregnable state to shore up its power.





It started with a whistleblower, Natalya Lvova, who posted the story of her employment at the Troll Factory to the Russian social media platform VK. Reading the post prompted reporters to pose as job applicants at the Troll Factory, going undercover to document its operations in detail.

In addition to revealing the workings of the Factory  how assignments were given out and evaluated  the reporters also revealed the targets of the Factory: rubbishing opposition politicians, whipping up patriotic sentiment around the Moscow G20, attacking America and its media, and attacking critics of the Kremlin who posted to message boards. As the Factory grew in stature and importance, it moved into new digs, and hired staff who could post in English and German, and the Factory started to target American media with outrage posts about mass shootings, Obamacare, NSA mass surveillance and police shootings and violence.

They also stepped up their propaganda wars in Russia, trying to spin the 2015 assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov as a false-flag operation, using a sock-puppet army to advance the theory that Nemtsov engineered his own shooting.

These ongoing revelations came thanks to other journalists who followed the original investigators' lead, getting jobs in the swelling ranks of the Troll Factory to document its growth. Other journalists worked with whistleblowers who left the Troll Factory disenchanted after soul-deadening work.

Piece by piece, the Troll Factory came into focus. Its ownership was traced back to Putin crony Yevgeny Prigozhin; this, coupled with the Factory's frequent contracts to directly promote the Kremlin and its policies made it clear that it functioned as a government contractor, or possibly even an arm of the Russian state.

It also became clear that for all the Factory's foreign adventures, its bread and butter is shaping Russian public opinion and neutralizing opposition voices. The Russian style of misinformation is "firehoses of falsehood"  as I wrote about Christopher Paul's work on Russian propaganda: "having huge numbers of channels at your disposal: fake and real social media accounts, tactical leaks to journalists, state media channels like RT, which are able to convey narrative at higher volume than the counternarrative, which becomes compelling just by dint of being everywhere ('quantity does indeed have a quality all its own')."

In October 2017, Russian investigators did the data-analysis that outed the Factory's most prolific, high-value astroturf accounts, providing the crucial starting point for efforts that have since identified the clusters of Russian propaganda bots on social media.

Russia's independent press operates under constant threat of state intervention  anything from lawsuits to arrests to disappearances. The Russian journalists who documented this critical weapon of the Russian autocratic state are owed a debt of thanks by Russians and westerners alike, for helping us understand how powerful, corrupt states are shaping public opinion to preserve their privilege.



The story of the Russian "troll factory" is a story of real journalists exposing falsehoods. Russian journalists broke the story of the "troll factory," and revealed its early workings. They first identified its ownership, and published its most important accounts. They provided the strongest proof that the Kremlin's own "journalists" are nothing of the sort, but are, in their own eyes, engaged in an information war against the West. This is a vital point. The trolls and pseudo-journalists who waged a propaganda campaign against the United States were Russians, but so were the journalists who exposed them. The events of 2014-17 were not a question of Russians against Americans, or Russia against America: they were a story of Russian government outlets, and a "troll factory" whose owner had strong links to the government, attacking government critics both inside the country, and outside. It is thanks to Russian journalists that we know so much of what went on.

The Russians Who Exposed Russia's Trolls [Ben Nimmo and Aric Toler/AtlanticCouncil's Digital Forensic Research Lab]

(via Global Investigative Journalism Network)"Defendants plainly intended to prevent American voters from hearing Plaintiff [Clifford] speak about Mr. Trump," the suit says.

Stormy Daniels has amended her lawsuit against Donald Trump to say Trump attorney Michael Cohen defamed her, and also says the non-disclosure agreement she signed violates campaign finance law.

Her amended lawsuit, filed today in Los Angeles, says Trump's longtime attorney Michael Cohen defamed her by portraying her as a liar.

NBC News:



Stormy Daniels filed an amended lawsuit Monday that alleges Donald Trump's personal lawyer defamed her and violated campaign finance law by brokering a "hush agreement" just before the 2016 election.



The new filing in federal court in Los Angeles comes less than 24 hours after a television interview in which Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she had unprotected sex with Trump in 2006 and was later threatened for telling her story.

Clifford filed suit in state court earlier this month, arguing that the $130,000 hush agreement brokered by Cohen was invalid because Trump never signed it. Cohen, joined by Trump, then had the case moved to federal court with an eye toward pushing it into private arbitration. The amended complaint alleges that Trump and Cohen "aggressively sought to silence Ms. Clifford as part of an effort to avoid her telling the truth, thus helping to ensure he won the Presidential Election." It goes on to say, "the Hush Agreement was entered with the illegal aim, design, and purpose of circumventing federal campaign finance law."

No comment from Cohen on the story, which is similar to the legal argument put forth in a separate Federal Election Commission complaint filed earlier by a watchdog group.

[image: REUTERS]News / National

by Staff reporter

Irked by a story published in TellZim News last week exposing a clandestine plot to oust all the sitting MDC-T Masvingo urban councillors through imposition of new candidates, the district chairperson Murangamwa Chanyau and provincial administrator Peter Chigaba stormed the newspaper's offices and threw a fit of rage, accusing the paper of peddling a Zanu-PF agenda.Chigaba and Chanyau took turns to fire expletives while demanding to see who had written the story headlined 'MDC-T Masvingo plots coup on sitting councillors'.The duo drove an Isuzu truck which was emblazoned with party colours and logo into TellZim News' premises, with a visibly drunk Chanyau, without bothering to provide the slightest sliver of proof, claiming that the newspaper is being bribed by Zanu-PF to fight MDC-T.The two went into overdrive accusing the paper of doing the bidding for former MDC-T legislator for Masvingo Urban, Tongai Matutu while disparaging his rival Takanayi Mureyi. Much of their theatrics at the offices was captured on video."Munoda change here imi? Change yacho inouya sei kana muchinyora muchidai. Muri kutengwa neZanu-PF imi. (Do you want change in this country? How can change be possible when you write stories like this? You are being bribed by Zanu to write this trash) We expect Herald kuti idaro kwete imi (We expect Herald to write such negative stories, and not you)," charged Chigaba.In his tirade, Chanyau, who was the most vocal, accused all in the newsroom of receiving bribes from Matutu whom he claimed was buying beer for them."Manje Matutu wenyu haatongi even (Hubert) Fidze wacho. Matutu is not MDC (Matutu and Fidze will never represent the party)," charged Chanyau.Fidze is the current City of Masvingo mayor and councillor for Ward 6, but his position, as well as those held by four other sitting MDC-T councillors, has been earmarked for somebody else who is favoured by a faction of new comers."Munotadza kunyora about Zanu-PF; hamuna kudzidza mose imi. Manje MDC ichangotonga chero mukainyora zvakashata (You are writing bad about us instead of Zanu-PF. You are not educated at all  we are going to rule this country)," said Chanyau seething with anger.TellZim News editor Passmore Kuzipa managed to douse the fire by telling the duo that the paper did not pander to the whims of any political party; whether MDC or Zanu-PF, but was guided by the journalism principles of non-partisanship, balance, fairness among many others.Kuzipa, who is also the Masvingo provincial chairman for the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said the media must not have sacred cows."We have people who want to be politicians and journalists at the same time; such people must go to journalism school first before they cause chaos in newsrooms. We do not have sacred cows but we are guided by journalism ethics of non-partisan reporting, balance, fair and accurate among many others. We pardon these overzealous politicians but we encourage them to go to school so that they may have an appreciation of how the media operate," said Kuzipa.News / National

by Staff reporter

Police in Beitbridge have launched a manhunt for three men who allegedly robbed four people of a vehicle, $3 035 and R20 000 early on Thursday morning.The trio is reportedly armed with two pistols.The suspects first pounced on Ishmael Chinyana (43) who was using his black Honda Fit as a pirate taxi, around 2:30 AM.The suspects hired Chinyana from Kalahari Nightclub intending to go to White Lodge along the Bulawayo-Beitbridge Road.Along the way they produced a firearm and abducted him.They drove to a bushy area in Makakavule village, where they tied Chinyana to a tree using their shoe laces."They drove in Chinyana's vehicle to Total Service station, where they approached one fuel attended and two illegal money changers," said a soured close to the case. "They pretended to be potential clients seeking to exchange bond notes for South African rand. Soon after agreeing on an exchange rate the accused persons produced two pistols and demanded cash."They then took away $3 035 in bond notes and R26 000 from the three men and drove away along the Bulawayo road".The official said the value of the vehicle, with registration numbers AEO9811 was yet to be ascertained, adding that a manhunt was on for the trio.According to the source, Chinyana later managed to untie himself and went on to report the robbery at Makakavule Police Station.The trio of Edmore Ndou (fuel attended) and Patrick Nyemudzai (39) and Nhamo Charamba (46) both money changers, made a report at the main police station.Matabeleland South acting police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Loveness Mangena said the matter was still under investigation.News / National

by Ndou Paul

The Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) leader retired brigadier general Agrippa Mutambara has said ZANU PF is abusing the army ahead of the looming election.Addressing MDC Alliance supporters in Mashonaland Central yesterday Mutambara said the army is being used to intimidate opposition supporters in rural areas and the army officials in Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) should be removed."ZANU PF is abusing the military, being a military man myself l know the role of the army, but Mnangagwa is using the army to protect his selfish gains and intimidating villagers especially in rural areas.We are aware that at ZEC they are soldiers who were deployed to rig the election, but we are saying enough is enough," said Mutambara.MDC Alliance spokesperson Professor Welshman Ncube emphasised the need to remove soldiers from ZEC and stop intimidation.As MDC we are saying to Mnangagwa remove soldiers from ZEC and stop intimidating our rural people, said Ncube while addressing thousands of Mashonaland Central supporters.Meanwhile, Mutambara urged people to make use of technology in exposing ZANU PF shenanigans."We should make use of technology whenever you see ZANU PF acting barbaric record the incident and post on internet for the whole word to see, it is high time we end ZANU Pf dominance in Mashonaland Central."News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Coalition of Democrats leader Elton Mangoma has revealed that the CODE held its Governing Council (GC) meeting on Saturday where members were appraised of various developments in the colaition and member parties."GC was informed that ZAPU and PDZ, both members of CODE had merged and the former President of PDZ, B Nyagomo had become the Vice President of ZAPU. Ms. B Nyagomo attended the GC as a representative of ZAPU.ZimFirst advised GC that they had suspended their President Maxwell Shumba and reconfirmed their commitment to CODE," he said."A CODE delegation led by Dr. Makoni met with SADC Election Advisory Council and with the EU Election Observer team. The issues discussed were around the forthcoming elections. CODE painted the current and expected political and electoral environment and reforms that should be implemented so as to achieve a Free, Fair and Credible Election. These included: Violence (physical and physcological) and largely state sponsored The non-independence and militarisation of ZEC, thereby rendering it not capable of conducting a free, fair and credible election. It is CODE's position that SADC, AU and the UN should be actively involved in the managing of the forthcoming election."He said that oppressive legislation, POSA and AIPPA be abolished.Equal access to State Media Involvement in the procurement and distribution of ballot papers and Indelible ink."Long term and short term observation by any member of the United NationsPrinted voters roll for voter inspection and distribution of voters roll to all candidates and other interested parties," he said."The Sunday Mail of 18 March reported that the president of ZANU PF had called other political parties for a meeting. All the CODE parties confirmed that they had not received such an invitation. This assertion is mere politicking by Mnangagwa.CODE parties are ready for a genuine national dialogue aimed at resolving the current problems."Mangoma said CODE noted that the candidate selection for Harare had gone on well and will be completing the exercise soon."CODE continues to be open to efforts to form a Grant Coalition. CODE noted the recent visit by one of the facilitators of the meeting held in RSA and endorsed the setting up of the Secretaries General team to work on the framework of the Grant Coalition," he said.News / National

by Staff reporter

The Shona, who have a rich language in terms of its idioms, proverbs and other wise sayings have one which says Rina manyanga hariputirwi (literally translated: That which has horns can not be covered). Intrinsically it means the truth will come out some time, whatever amount of time it may take.I believe the real cause of the acrimony between Zimbabwean music star - and legend too - Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi and his former publicist Shephered Mutamba will one day come out.Unfortunately, this may only happen after both persons or either of them disappears from the picture.However, it must be something really big, seeing that Mutamba has decided to pen another book with a few new additions but basically regurgitating what he said in the first edition.While Mutamba is entitled to his own opinion and surely freedom of expression, it appears to have been overdone in Tuku Backstage Second Edition.Why Mutamba chooses to draw a tomahawk against his former master after he had left Tuku's employ, only shows it is a product of excessive bitterness.The book ultimately remains a way of getting back at his former employer. We may agree that books are written for different purposes, some as eulogies while others critique their subject matter, but the way Mutamba does it in Tuku Backstage belongs to another world.Mutamba precisely rides roughshod over his ex-boss, leaving the book for those who would want to see what he has come up with this time around.For Mutamba, an accomplished journalist and for long, one of Mtukudzi's closest personalities, there does not seem to exist a boundary between what should and should not be thrown in for public consumption.Although the writer claims that the book is an exploration of the life of one of Zimbabwe's most successful musicians, it appears he went overboard and becomes largely insensitive.The book has a number of additional chapters from the first edition published in 2015.By being a celebrity, Tuku - as he is affectionately known in music circles - Mutamba feels that he apparently automatically cedes his privacy, implying that even his private life becomes something of public interest.Perhaps what Mutamba has done is very unusual in this book. Most biographies end up mollycoddling the subject of their writing to the extent that they end up as PR puff pieces.Objective pieces, those that turn out to be realistic would be in the mould of Mutamba's book. However, there are certain aspects that leave a certain type of reader seething with anger.Academic and writer David Mungoshi, who penned the foreword to Tuku Backstage seems to have no problems with the book. He writes; "Tuku Backstage, Shepherd Mutamba's biography of Oliver Mtukudzi, may come over as somewhat voyeuristic to some. Mutamba is often accused of publishing privileged information in the book."Some readers even argue that, by divulging Mtukudzi's closely-guarded secrets and moral deficiencies, Mutamba betrayed his close association and the confidence of his one-time employer. Such readers do not want any sordid detail spoken about beyond certain cloistered circles . . ."Despite the feathers that may be ruffled, I commend Mutamba's book for fact, insight, depth and breadth of research. The book is very easily part of the social annals of our time and its impact is as engaging as it is electrifying." (p6)Mungoshi - the author of The Fading Sun and Live Like an Artist - in fact appears contend with Mutamba's biography.Given some moment to reflect, including pictures of a lifeless Sam Mtukudzi will no doubt appear insensitive on the part of the writer - who enjoyed proximity not only to Tuku but also the son. Mutamba himself showers the young Sam with praise in sections of the book, not only for his artistic creativity but also his character."If you met Sam and did not like him, instantly, there was something wrong with you. He was a loveable young man and very debonair." (p34)True, Mutamba made use of privileged information which he has spilled into the public domain.There is no doubt that the book has strong evidence of research. Having worked for Tuku all those years, Mutamba undoubtedly had access to the musician's private life.Tuku's former publicist appears to accept that Tuku is a talented artiste, a trait that has given him international stardom but nonetheless also goes on to say the musician - like any other human being - also had flaws.The musician himself is quoted admitting to this. "I'm human, I cry. It's not a weakness to cry but an expression of emotion that I feel at that particular time when I momentarily get into my own space. You cry because you're saddened by something or because you're overjoyed. Because my music also speaks to me, I sometimes cry onstage when the music touches my heart." (p13)Mutamba, in a chapter titled Blind Spots argues that human frailties are normal."Celebrities are immune to blind spots, but will not easily acknowledge their deficiencies or weaknesses for fear of undoing past glory. But they are human with disabilities that work against them, where their actions are disgraceful and their view of life is out of sync with reality. Yet they frequently and conveniently conceal moral and ethical failure in the cocoons of private life and depict themselves as infallible angels"It is inherent in humans to hold back our faults. Even in the church, worshippers will not confess easily when they transgress, invariably for the fear of negative public perception that could be built around those who admit their shameful acts." (p83)One interesting aspect of Tuku's character is that he is unassuming. The writer acknowledges that he shared a ride with the musician in the boot of a Peugeot 404 en route to Mushandirapamwe, Highfield in Harare for a show."In the baggage compartment with me was Tuku. I was bewildered to see him because ETs were for common people not the A-List celebrities. I thought men like Tuku should have been using the more fashionable Dutsun (sic) 120 Y or Renault 5 taxis like Rixi or-PFumo Mini Cabs even Creamline and A1. It was to transpire later that the ET was actually Tuku's means of transport that particular time." (p16)I doubt very much if humility can be mistaken for a negative trait. If anything, it is actually positive and it becomes unfair to criticise Tuku for using public transport to travel for a show.In the second edition, one of Mutamba's inclusions is Chapter 15 titled Politics. The writer traces Tuku's music from the pre-independence era to the present day, also putting to the fore the metamorphosis this has gone through over the years, from being critical of the minority Smith regime to associations with persons assumed to have been working closely with former president Robert Mugabe.Zimbabwe has gone through military-aided political transition in November 2017, with long-serving despot Mugabe resigning on November 24 as an impeachment process was set in motion by Parliament.While interactions between Tuku and Mugabe's close associates in the Generation 40 (G40) are the major subject of the chapter, it appears a bit farfetched and unfair to conclude outright that the musician had admiration for Mugabe's dispensation.Somehow, politicians themselves would want to associate themselves with those they think will pull numbers for them and this could be the reason why some of the most active politicians then found themselves visiting the superstar.Writes Mutamba; "To my knowledge, Tuku associated with Mugabe and his wife Grace, from about the year 2010, when he started receiving special gifts from State House; then he suddenly stopped all political criticism, completely."I realised too, that the president's high profile men became regular guests at Tuku's special functions . . . In March 2010, Tuku received US five thousand dollars from the president and his wife Grace, for his son's (Sam's) funeral expenses." (p147)I feel this is another point where Mutamba misses it altogether. His ex-boss is a celebrity who has a large following locally and internationally. Any leader would want to associate with the brand and capitalise on the opportunity to lure as many supporters as possible.Perhaps what readers can not take away from Mutamba is that he is a good writer. The major thrust of his writing is what startles many a reader.News / National

by Staff reporter

The country's two major political parties, Zanu-PF and the MDC-T - which both find themselves fielding new presidential faces in this year's harmonised elections - are ramping up their preparations for the impending polls.This comes as a leading political analyst, Ibbo Mandaza, has predicted a victory for new opposition leader Nelson Chamisa in the elections - as long as the polls are free and fair.However, respected University of Zimbabwe political science professor, Eldred Masunungure, begged to differ and said empirical evidence pointed to a comfortable Zanu-PF victory in the polls.For the first time in two decades, the forthcoming elections will not feature ousted former president Robert Mugabe and the popular late MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai - who lost his valiant battle with colon cancer in February this year.Mugabe's 37-year, iron-fisted rule was dramatically ended by the intervention of the military in the country's governance last November, paving the way for the installation of his long-time aide Emmerson Mnangagwa as his successor both in government and in Zanu-PF.Zanu-PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo told the Daily News yesterday that the former liberation movement was going to its grassroots structures to mobilise its members ahead of the polls.He also said that this officially marked the kicking off of the party's election preparations, which included an audit of its structures, and after which it would embark on the selection of parliamentary candidates.The party's national chairperson, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri - who also leads its elections directorate - said her team would be concluding its election manifesto soon."We are seized with the manifesto and it won't be too long now before we conclude it," she said.On the other hand, Chamisa has hit the campaign trail with relish, which is seeing him holding two rallies every weekend.On Saturday, he told a well-attended party rally in Murewa that the MDC Alliance would also soon unveil its election manifesto.More than 107 political parties have registered with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to participate in the forthcoming elections, with the presidential plebiscite seen as a two-way tussle between Chamisa and Mnangagwa.However, Chamisa's ascendancy to the leadership of the MDC has not been without its fair share of drama.Long-serving MDC vice president, Thokozani Khupe - who was fired from the party alongside two other senior officials last Friday, has since notified Zec that she will in fact be the MDC's presidential candidate in the elections.The firing of Khupe, national spokesperson Obert Gutu and organising secretary Abednigo Bhebhe also followed the surprising resignation of chairperson Lovemore Moyo over the leadership rumpus.And yesterday, Gutu took to micro blogging site Twitter to announce that the splinter group led by Khupe would field candidates nationally in both parliamentary and council elections, apart from having her as the party's presidential candidate."The genuine, lawful, rightful and legitimate MDC-T led by acting president Hon Dr Thokozani Khupe will be fielding candidates in both parliamentary and local authority seats throughout the length and breadth of Zimbabwe," Gutu said - even as critics derisively referred to the splinter group as MDC-ThokoZanu on social media.Chamisa has been receiving widespread support among the MDC's supporters, apart from also receiving a ringing endorsement from the MDC Alliance which has said he will be its sole presidential candidate.Apart from the MDC, the alliance includes Tendai Biti's People's Democratic Party (PDP), Welshman Ncube's MDC, Jacob Ngarivhume's Transform Zimbabwe, Zanu Ndonga headed by Denford Masiyarira, and the Multi-Racial Christian Democrats which is led by Mathias Guchutu.Meanwhile, Mandaza has predicted a Chamisa victory in the elections as long as the polls are held in a free, fair and credible manner."Zanu-PF is wounded and it's unlikely to win a free and fair election. The new kid on the block is Chamisa who has captured the imagination of youths, and I see nothing stopping him," he said.But Masunungure saw things differently."We are dealing with unknown factors. Both Mnangagwa and Chamisa have not really been tested as presidential candidates. Their abilities to attract voters are not known."We might have new players, but fundamentally, the playing field has remained the same because they are still operating with their parties."I agree with those saying Zanu-PF is winning the contest comfortably, although not as resoundingly as in 2013. I would also like to warn that the talk that youths will vote Chamisa is mistaken because the demographics have been gravitating towards Zanu-PF."So what Chamisa needs is to reverse that trend rather than focus on the lie that the youths seen at his rallies will automatically translate into votes. On the balance, I would say the scales are tipped towards Zanu-PF," Masunungure told the Daily News.News / National

by Staff reporter

Ex-Zipra members have resolved to continue piling pressure on the government to return immovable properties that were seized at the height of the armed dissident crackdown in the 1980s.The ex-fighters also claim they lost over 4 000 cattle during the period. Zipra Veterans' Trust chairperson Buster Willy Magwizi yesterday said members of the trust would meet in Bulawayo on Saturday to craft new strategies on how to reclaim their properties.Magwizi said since Zanu PF had now regained full control of government, the party could no longer blame anyone for any further delays. "At independence in 1980, all the Zipra ex-combatants contributed Z$50 each towards the purchase of properties which were registered under Nitram Investment Holdings," Magwizi said. "Some of those properties include Castle Arms Motel in Bulawayo, Nest Egg building in Bulawayo, Ascot Farm in Solusi, Wood Glen Farm in Nyamandlovu and Hawton Farm in Gweru at which former (Midlands) governor Cephas Msipa reportedly resettled people from Sogwala," Magwizi said.He said ex-Zipra veterans would hold an annual general meeting at Castle Arms Motel in Bulawayo on Saturday to discuss strategies on how to pressurise the Zanu PF government to return their properties."We are inviting all ex-Zipra members from across the country and abroad to attend."After Zanu PF resoundingly won the election, we have a chance to push it to return our properties with their title deeds."We purchased these properties for the purposes of helping all ex-Zipra veterans and their families, but all those efforts were thwarted when the properties were taken."Magwizi said Zipra also lost some properties in Harare which included Nijo Farm, Salisbury Motel and several others."When our farms were taken, we lost 4 000 cattle which were there and if we had had these cattle for the past 30 years, they would have been close to 200 000 now and our members would not be suffering as they are now."Most of these cattle were taken from Ascot Farm. They also took our tractors, chickens and pigs," Magwizi said."The livelihoods of the ex-combatants would have improved if the properties had remained in their hands. But it's sad that some undeserving people are benefiting from those properties," he said.Last year ex-Zipra combatants appealed to President Robert Mugabe and former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to facilitate the return of their properties, but to no avail.Magwizi said they suspected some of the properties had already been sold privately."We are again appealing to Mugabe to intervene and guarantee the return of our properties. These properties can benefit even our great-grandchildren if returned. We have a complete list of these properties and even the people who took them," he said.News / National

by Staff reporter

A new era has dawned for Zimbabwe and the country is determined to create an open, free and transparent economy.This was the message relayed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa when he addressed more than 1600 delegates attending the 2018 edition of the Africa CEO Forum underway in Abidjan.The most influential annual forum for public-private dialogue on the continent, the Africa CEO Forum has opened in Cote d'Ivoire with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, the host President Mr Alassane Ouattara and the President of the Africa CEO Forum Mr Amir Ben Yahmed delivering their speeches.Addressing business leaders, bankers and global investors from 120 countries, President Mnangagwa says his administration recognises the crucial role that FDI and private investment will play in the country's economic re-emergence."Zimbabwe's attendance here resonates with our current quest to engage and re-engage with the family of nations following years of isolation due to the illegal economic sanctions imposed on us. This platform provides me and my delegation with an opportunity to network with key decision makers from a broad spectrum of business, industry and commerce, from Africa and beyond guided by our mantra that Zimbabwe is now open for business," said Mnangagwa.President Mnangagwa said his administration seeks to build a new, open and prosperous Zimbabwe by working together with the international community.Said President Mnangagwa: "My administration's top priority is the resuscitation and revival of the economy and re-engagement of the international community."News / National

by Bloomberg

Zimbabwe, home to the world's second-largest reserves of platinum group metals, will ensure there's clarity over mining policy as the southern African nation seeks to attract investment, according to Mines Minister Winston Chitando.The government is courting mining companies to participate in the industry and help boost the ailing economy after President Emmerson Mnangagwa replaced former long-time ruler Robert Mugabe in November. Zimbabwe has sizable deposits of gold, chrome, lithium, coal and iron ore, in addition to platinum and diamonds."Zimbabwe is under-explored," Chitando said at a conference in Johannesburg on Monday. There is now a fortnightly meeting between the Chamber of Mines and the minister to make sure "things are made easier to grow the business," he said.Changes to the country's mining laws are primarily administrative and should be passed by the end of May, the minister told reporters. Zimbabwe will be announcing specific developmental policies during the next few weeks, he said.Platinum producers including Anglo American Platinum Ltd. and Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. slowed production as Zimbabwe's economy grew more troubled and access to foreign currency dried up. Both companies were also forced to cede part of shareholdings to the government.Ownership RulesCompanies mining platinum and diamonds are subject to 51 percent government ownership and this policy isn't expected to change, Chitando said. Nonetheless, specific state offices will be set up for certain minerals, such as lithium, in order to better serve mining companies, he said. Zimbabwe is also in talks to raise funding to collect more geological data.The country estimates that there's been as much as $6 billion of new mining investments since Mnangagwa took office, Chitando said. There were only three exploration licenses before he toppled Mugabe and that figure has risen to more than 30 with the number expected to rise above 100 in the next three months, he said.The discovery of the giant Marange diamond field in the east of the country in 2006 lead to an initial rush of artisanal miners, followed by groups led by closely-held Chinese and South African companies. A decade after the Marange diamonds were found, Zimbabwe ordered all diamond-mining companies to end operations, leave behind equipment and vacate their premises after the government didn't renew their licenses.Now the ministry is working closely to make sure artisanal mining grows and "works within the confines of all the laws," Chitando said.News / National

by Staff reporter

A Chitungwiza Municipality worker has been brought before a Chitungwiza magistrate facing allegations of stealing three water meters worth $150.Represented by her defence counsel Phillip Hamunakwadi of Hamunakwadi and Muzvaba Law Chambers, Patricia Kufa who is employed as a Clerk under Water department, pleaded not guilty to theft charges before magistrate Blessing Murwisi.During the trial the defence counsel put the blame on the witnesses citing that their state case was a fabrication against the accused.In this matter, Chitungwiza Municipality is being represented by Bigboy Mamwidze who is the Risk and Loss Control Officer.The State led by Tendai Katonha, told the court that in March last year, Chitungwiza Municipality received a donation of 4500 Water meters from Zimfund donors and they were kept in Chitungwiza Municipality's central stores where the accused works.The State alleges that during the period extending from September last year to January this year the accused person stole three water meters and sold them to Taurai Zigomo at a value of $15 each.It was heard in court that police detectives received information that the accused was selling donated water meters.Investigations were conducted and the accused person was arrested.Prosecuting, Katonha told magistrate Murwisi that three water meters which were sold to Zigomo were recovered after he had installed them to three different people.The defence counsel actually put the blame to the witnesses who stammered when testifying before the court and gave different versions of the story.Chitungwiza Municipality representative Maramwidze testified in court saying his duties included investigation of crime on behalf of Chitungwiza Municipality."I know the accused not only in connection with this case but as a fellow employee."Sometime in March last year, Chitungwiza Municipality received 3600 by 15mm domestic water meters and 900 by 20mm commercial water meters from Zimfund."She is the one who was keeping storeroom keys."I got to know of this matter after a tip off from a person and then I lodged a complaint with the police leading to her arrest."The matter will be back in court on March 29 for trial continuation.News / National

by Staff reporter

Zimbabwe's government has announced that it has awarded and signed the contract for the supply of the fingerprint biometric identity solution with an American company, Ipsidy.The de-duplication hardware and software solution to be supplied by Ipsidy will include an Automated Fingerprint Identification System ("AFIS") which will be used in Zimbabwe's upcoming 2018 general elections.Ipsidy was selected following an international tender to provide de-duplication, adjudication, and voter roll publication services. The contract was awarded and signed by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).Ipsidy says its solution is an integrated IDSearch/IMS Biometric Voter Registry solution powered by its AFIS technology and workflow management capabilities.The solution will now be used in Zimbabwe to produce the required voter rolls from its national biometric voter database that was apparently established during 2017. It will provide automated voter roll publication conforming to Zimbabwe and international election standards.The integrity of the voter roll will be underpinned by the accuracy of the Ipsidy de-duplication algorithms and the adjudication processes.Part of this post was originally published by iAfrikan . Check out their excellent coverage and follow them.Opinion / Columnist

Q: What role have you played in the formation of the National Patriotic Front, the new opposition party led by Retired Brigadier-General Ambrose Mutinhiri? Are you a member? Is the former first lady a member?A: I've had quite a number of groups coming here (Blue Roof) and seeking my views. I had Mai (Joice) Mujuru earlier on introduced by Father (Fidelis) Mukonori. She came to discuss the past and then she made reference to the fact that all that was happening against her during her time with us when she was vice-president was meant to create a place for Mnangagwa, and she knew that is was coming to this, now that he is at the top. I said to her, well, if you stand for that which is right, proper, legal and constitutional, go out, find some of our young men and young women who stand for it, enrol them, there is nothing wrong about it. When she left here, she was stoned in Glen Norah and Glen View. She sustained a bruised cheek after being hit with a stone. That's very bad.Q: Who else has come to see you?A: I've also had the likes of (Walter) Mzembi and (Makhosini) Hlongwane and they came and I think they had come through the (government) system and they had informed the system that they were coming to discuss with me. They thought what should happen is an internal dialogue. I said fine, what internal dialogue?' They said, well, internal dialogue with the President, with ED. I said just that?' They said, well, yes'.Q: Tell us about Mutinhiri's visit.A: Then I also had Ambrose Mutinhiri who said he thinks the solution is establishing a new party. I said on what principle?' He said first, to correct what has happened'. I said fine. To put paid to all falsehoods and hypocrisies that have emerged, people saying they are correcting the wrong that is surrounding the legacy of the president and at the same time they are taking action to do down that president. That evil contradiction must go. If we are supporting the president, let us say so in word and deed and not pretend to be doing so in order to cover our illicit activities against the president.Q: Are you saying Mutinhiri came just to consult?A: Yes, to consult, and I said fine, if you're along those lines as you describe them I'll support you.Q: Is it correct to say you're a member of the National Patriotic Front?A: No.Q: If Mutinhiri and others get to launch the party and invite you to be a guest at the function, would you attend the event?A: I would have to think twice before I can go because there may be others who may come and perhaps (in that case) I think I better not go.Q: Is the former first lady a member of the National Patriotic Party?A: No, she's not.Q: In that connection, we also want to know this: a statement issued by Jealousy Mawarire indicated that the idea of the formation of the party emerged in the middle of the November coup. There is also the insinuation that the people who have formed the new party were consulting you in the middle of the coup. Is that true?A: In the middle of the coup? No.Q: At what point, during the coup, did you get to know as commander-in-chief that the military was in the streets and yet you had not deployed it?A: I went for a graduation (ceremony) and the boys (intelligence) came and surrounded me and said we (the Central Intelligence Organisation) are being beaten up. I said ah all is well, I've gone to the university and I haven't seen anything. All the cars had been removed from the road and it was absolutely quiet. That's when the boys (CIO) told me, that everything was being taken away from them. And that they had been beaten up.Q: So the CIO were being intimidated even before the coup?A: Yes, before. To clear the way.Q: On that Monday when General Chiwenga made a statement, what did you think about it? Did you take it as seriously as the public did?A: I thought at least Chiwenga would have informed me that they (the military) were having such and such a problem.Q: So you thought Chiwenga would inform you?A: Yes, to inform me what dissatisfaction they had. And at that point I said, well, we're prepared to discuss.Q: You thought on that Monday Chiwenga would have discussed matters with you, and then on Tuesday you went to cabinet and tanks were already moving and the public was taking pictures and posting them on social media. Were you briefed by your security apparatus what exactly was happening at that point?A: They said that the tanks are moving to another destination, to Manicaland somewhere.Q: The then South African president Jacob Zuma told the world, as the situation unfolded, that I have spoken to president Mugabe, he is fine but is restricted'. Those were Zuma's words. At that point, did you ask for help from president Zuma?A: No.Q: When the South African delegation, comprising ministers, came to Harare, did you have an opportunity to meet them separately?A: No. We met them together with the commanders.Q: South Africa is a neighbouring country and you were under siege. Why didn't you seek help from president Zuma?A: They (South Africans) had spoken to the commanders and they had promised that they wouldn't stage a coup.Q: But did any regional leaders show concern about the coup that was unfolding? What was the attitude of the regional leaders, were they saying you should solve the matter internally or were they willing to come in? Do you feel betrayed by your regional peers?A: In a sense, yes. But when you look at their conditions, except for South Africa, they haven't got the capacity to intervene, but South Africa could have done much more. It did not have to send an army, but just to engage. You see this group that came here, the (South African) ministers, they gave a false impression that all was okay (and that) they had spoken not just to us but also to the soldiers. If they had spoken to the soldiers, and then gave out that there was no need for intervention because they had been assured by both sides, then the other countries just sat on their laurels and they said ah well South Africa says there's no need (to intervene).Q: You read a televised statement and most people assumed you would tender your resignation that night. It's now called the "Asante sana" statement. You did not resign at that stage. Was there an intention to resign at that point?A: No.Q: Were you toppled through a military coup?A: Yes. What you didn't know, Father (Fidelis) Mukonori knelt on his knees, and moved on his knees towards me, begging me to resign.Q: Did Mukonori say who had sent him?A: No, he was just intervening.Q: How many people were killed during the coup?Q: In the aftermath of what has happened and in view of your complaints, how do you think the situation can be corrected?A: It is quite clear. Those who have created it have the responsibility to reverse it. If they don't want to reverse it, it means they want the situation to continue, which I think is the case. They would want us perhaps to get to the national election when the environment is still very congested with fear, some people still hiding, displaced. But I don't see the environment of campaigning being favourable to everybody.Q: In that case, do you think the nation is ready for elections?A: No. We are not.Q: Do you feel betrayed by Mnangagwa whom you worked with for over 50 years?A: Oh yes it's a great betrayal. Worse than that of Brutus (Shakespearean character in the play Julius Caesar.Q: But you're the one who had appointed him vice-president.A: Yes, sure.Q: People will ask why you appointed him if you didn't trust him.A: Some developments occur after a person has been put in place. You know, even in our culture, when someone who's ordinary is made a chief, and once he gets into position ah ah, many people start quarrelling he's taking out cattle, he's taking our wives'. Then you begin to wonder: but this is the man who was very honest and whom the people chose to be their chief. So those things happen. People get the taste of power and the taste of power then destroys an individual. You think that you now have some glory that you never had before.Q: When you say Mnangagwa rose to power unconstitutionally, what exactly are you referring to?A: He was not elected. It's quite clear. There has not been any election and we don't like it that way.Q: When it comes to elections, you and your government were repeatedly accused of stealing elections.A: As for stealing elections, no. The losers, the opposition, will never ever accept the defeat. It doesn't matter, in Africa it's now accepted that when the opposition loses, it never accepts defeat. It's not like Europe, no. We must always find some reason. Ah, we were cheated here, ah. It's like that, right throughout.Q: But people say the MDC actually won the 2008 election and that Morgan Tsvangirai had won outright but was cheated by you.A: The 2008 election? Yes, yes, he won. We didn't dispute that. He won but the constitution says if you are contestants who are more than two, you must win by 50 plus one.Q: Are you saying the opposition's claim that Tsvangirai garnered much more than the required 50 plus one is untrue?A: Ah no. Ah no. It was 47% to 43%. We admit we had been defeated.Q: There was a story which revealed that after the first round of the 2008 presidential election when you had been outpolled by Tsvangirai you actually said you were ready to retire. In fact, your former intelligence minister Didymus Mutasa told journalists that you had conceded defeat but were blocked by the military from stepping down. How true is this?A: Ah no. Ah no. Mutasa is lying. We all in the party (Zanu-PF) said there's got to be a repeat in accordance with the constitution.Q: If Tsvangirai had won 50 plus one, would you have conceded defeat?A: Of course.Q: But a lot of opposition supporters were killed in the run-off.A: In the run-off? No. In the run-off Tsvangirai withdrew.Q: Tsvangirai said he withdrew because terrible violence was unleashed on his supporters, people were killed.A: No, he knew we would be better. Do you know why we lost 2008 (the first round)? Again, a disease amongst us: bhora musango. The likes of (General) Mujuru were fed up with me, they said I was preventing them from benefitting from companies, so they said let's get rid of Mugabe'. Our supporters were told ah, you don't have to vote for the president.Q: Which brings us to General Solomon Mujuru's death. People think it had something to do with Zanu-PF succession issues.A: It was just a case of someone dying. He just died. And what is fortunate for the party is that it happened away, on his farm.Q: So you think his death was an accident?A: Some say some Israeli (business associates) who had issues with him.Q: Oxford researcher Miles Tendi says General Mujuru was killed by military intelligence.A: No. Ah, he was a terrible guy. Very selfish. And a smoker. A smoker, I think this is what killed him. In Geneva (Switzerland), we burnt down a hotel and it was Mujuru again. Well, we managed to avoid trial, but it was his smoking that almost got us killed in a hotel. He was a careless smoker. An investigation established that the fire started in his room. But we denied it and said no no.Q: Thousands of people were killed during Gukurahundi. You have come out and said it was a moment of madness. How did the atrocities come about and what can the nation do to move forward?A: But that one, if we are to tell the truth, it's the Ndebeles and Zapu and Zipra who should bear the blame. We had that election, in 1980, the first one, and we won, we had 57 seats and Zapu had 20. (Joshua) Nkomo actually wept dearly. They had operated in Angolaremember they had gone to Angolathey said let's do in Zimbabwe what the MPLA has done; if we lose we will have Zero Hour. And they lost. So what happened? There was a ship of arms received by (the then Tanzanian president Julius) Nyerere in Dar es Salaam port, it came on Tazara (Tanzania-Zambia Railway). Because KK (the then Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda) preferred Nkomo to me, so KK passed on the arms, from the Soviet Union, to Zapu. But now after independence! So at Hwange Dumiso (Zipra intelligence supremo Dabengwa) had made arrangements underground to hide the arms. When the second shipment came, Nyerere then called me and said Robert, what's this?' This is a second ship. Then he said ask KK'. I asked Kaunda, you know Kaunda is a very soft man. He said ah, my brother, if I wronged you I did so because the arms addressed to Zapu were always going to Zapu from the Soviet Union. I said but KK, we are now independent'. He said yes I'm sorry and I won't do it again'. But the ship came and it was received by Dumiso and once again the arms were hidden in Hwange. Zipra had pledged 12 000 war veterans to join the integrated army. They left out some of their experts and in their place, because they had promised 12 000, they put mujibhas (wartime runners) to fill in those places in the army. The mujibhas were trained and they started putting on uniforms and they started earning as trained soldiers. Nothing was happening to the well-trained ones who had been left out. And they saw the mujibhas take their place for a long time and they said ah no we can't continue like this'. So some amongst them came to us, came to ED and reported that this is the arrangements we had, we put mujibhas in our place and we were left out. (They said) we had arms, we hid arms here and there in Hwange'. So ED and (CIO director David) Stannard went and discovered these guns. That's why Dumiso was arrested, that's why he went to prison, that is why Dumiso and ED will never work together. So Dumiso was arrested. But they had already given a few weapons to some individuals who now said ah is this what has happened, we have been discovered'. They started shooting in Matabeleland South and then we said okay we had a Fifth Brigade trained by North Koreans. So we said, fine, face them, you go into Matabeleland South.Q: Did you give the Fifth Brigade carte blanche to kill people?A: Ah no, of course you never give. You know soldiers will always be soldiers, the violence will always happen.Q: But do you regret the situation, with the benefit of hindsight?A: Naturally the innocent people, yes. But what I don't accept is that we are totally to blame. Ah ah.Q: Do you think the state has an obligation to those who lost their families and suffered loss during Gukurahundi? Does the state have an obligation to them?A: The innocent ones. Even if they lost their lives during (Rhodesian prime minister Ian) Smith's time, we have an obligation, yes.Q: What can be done to prevent such atrocities from recurring?A: We have long said let them (the victims) be known. We asked Sekeramayi to organise so that those who have been affected, those whose lives and children have beenwe get to know. But that has not been done.Q: But you commissioned an official inquiry into Gukurahundi. Why was the report never made public? The Chihambakwe Commission report. It was never published and people out there say it's because it had evidence that atrocities were committed. Secondly, Mnangagwa says he was not to blame for Gukurahundi because he was not prime minister, he was not the minister of defence, and that he was not carrying a gun. He's basically saying it's your issue, not my issue.A: Ah, but you know he was the minister of intelligence, he's the one with Stannard, the two of them, who led that and who even led Gukurahundi. I know one of the vehicles, Dabengwa's vehicle, which they blasted, they said he's carrying arms.Q: You were not to blame for Gukurahundi?A: Ah but yes, of course, they got instructions from us. But we can't now say the fault is with so and so and so. The fault is with the government and those it employed.Q: Do you feel that victims and their families should be compensated?A: Getting victims is a process which must be done thoroughly because many would come and claim.Q: Do you acknowledge that 20 000 people were killed during Gukurahundi?A: Ah no. I doubt the number. I doubt the number definitely, because it (the Fifth Brigade) was now pursuing just individuals who had guns. But it could be, because you do get some people with guns just being reckless, and we are seeing it now.Reckless, they get to a place and they say what are you people saying and they start shooting there.Q: People say you brought the military into politics and what has happened to you is a logical culmination of that. What is your view on this?A: Ah, we never said they should come into politics. We always said the gun should be led by politics. They've come into politics now.Q: If you saw the military meddling in politics, why didn't you take decisive action to thwart them? Did you see the coup coming?A: No I never saw it. With the education we had given them. This was the work of two people, of General Chiwenga and ED. And they've actually forced other people into it.Q: People expected you to go and console Tsvangirai's family upon his passing but you did not.A: Well, we have not been moving. But we wrote a letter of condolence. I worked with Tsvangirai, he was prime minister then.We were good friends and even as he was in hospital we gave him some money for his cure. We mentioned it in the letter.Q: The state media says you want to receive your pension in cash through CBZ Bank. Do you have an account there and is that the correct position?A: I want to correct one thing: that we demanded it to be in dollars. CBZ is our banker and when Dr (Mariyawanda) Nzuwah (the then head of the Civil Service Commission) came and we did the benefits according to the constitution, he said do you prefer your package in cash or we can deposit it into your account?' We said in cash. We didn't demand. We would never demand.Q: Some people are saying you should be like Zuma who has expressed support for his successor President Cyril Ramaphosa. In other words, they say you must support Mnangagwa.A: I said, well, if she (Grace) agrees, I can get another six (wives) and have seven like Zuma. Then I have my Indian friends in Dubai, they can come and be my Guptas. Laughs. But in truth, I can be like Zuma if ED is like Ramaphosa. Laughs. And he (ED) can't be like Ramaphosa as things are now. I suppose by reverse he can because Ramaphosa was elected and we saw the election. And we saw it was quite tight with Mama Zuma, the lead was only 200 (votes). But what was our lead? Laughs.Q: Do you have 21 farms? This would be hypocritical for a man who always spoke about one man one farm'.A: Where are the farms? I don't have them. I got a farm in Norton, Highfield Farm. I bought it, it's sandy but it has one virtue, it's close to the dam. But during a season like this one, you get nothing because it's just water flowing on it. I built Alpha Omega dairy (in Mazowe), that is all.Q: So you don't have other farms?A: That is all I have. The others belong to my children and relatives. She (Grace) has, naturally, some land around the children's home, but as for me that is all I have.Q: You have been accused of failing to take action against corrupt ministers and government officials during your time in office.A: But you know, proving corruption is a difficult process. You've got to try people, and to find them guilty is not very easy. It's not just ministers, even in the private sector, it's rife.Q: Lastly, why did you prefer to stay long in power?A: I always listened to the people. The people still wanted me. And one other thing is I also looked at my circumstances. Nkomo is no more, (Simon) Muzenda, (Joseph) Msika, they are all gone. If I go, who would keep the party intact?Opinion / Columnist

Zimbabweans in their broad totality have moved on from the Robert Mugabe era and are forging ahead with the vision of the leader of the new political dispensation, President Mnangagwa, who has committed himself to holding free, fair and credible elections, over and above turning around the country's economy in particular, and the nation's fortunes in general.However, last Friday well-meaning and progressive thinking Zimbabweans were taken aback when the United States of America Senate Committee on Foreign Relations announced a raft of demands, premised on their perception of the Mugabe era, as a precursor to the removal of sanctions under the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA).For the avoidance of doubt, ZIDERA was passed by the United States Congress in 2001 to impose economic sanctions on Zimbabwe reportedly to provide for a transition to democracy and promote economic recovery. But over the years ZIDERA has proved to be a smokescreen behind which the US has hidden its shenanigans to obliterate Zanu-PF from Zimbabwe's political landscape.So brazenly clear is the fact that the US demands are a replica of those announced by the MDC Alliance last week and one does not need to be a soothsayer to see that America has become a willing tool of MDC Alliance. Suffice to say, a day before the announcement of the US demands, MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa announced the same, point to point.So, it becomes clear that the demands are a rehearsed product of the visit on December 13 last year of Chamisa and his delegation to the United States.The US demands should be treated as ransom and make a mockery of Zimbabwe's entire re-engagement process with the international community. The demands must be condemned with the contempt they deserve.No one needs not be reminded that at the dawn of the new dispensation led by President Mnangagwa, Zimbabweans celebrated in a much broader spectrum than the MDC-T leadership, which, it has become evident, wanted to be rewarded with ministerial posts. Zimbabweans in their broad totality went into a frenzy of celebrations, regardless of political affiliation, religion, colour or creed.Progressive thinking Zimbabweans now believe in a new country premised on fixing the banking sector, revival of industries, the revival of the transport network, national food security, etc, and not the demands of one political party.The US has proved that it is not genuinely seeking re-engagement with Zimbabwe, but wants to push the MDC Alliance into power, by arm-twisting the Zanu-PF Government.There is an outright dearth of goodwill and a serious tilt towards the MDC Alliance and that exposes the US as engaging Zimbabwe in very bad faith and with a preconceived outcome.When all is said, the US should unconditionally remove its sanctions regime and deal with the new political dispensation from a neutral position.President Mnangagwa has shown his readiness to engage on all fronts with an open mind. We expect the same of those who want to deal with Zimbabwe  mutual respect.If anything, Zimbabwe is ready to move forward with unity of purpose, instead of being distracted with the burden of undeserved sanctions imposed by the US.Let the US give Zimbabweans a chance to sort their problems without outside interference. For our part, let us begin to speak with one voice. We have a shared destiny, and America doesn't share in our people's daily struggles.Opinion / Columnist

I had a nice surprise this morning from Nelson "Wamba Dia Wamba" Chamisa when he called to wish me a happy birthday. We joked about the seminal promise he made in my backyard of Murewa where he talked about building us an airport if he wins the next election.Zimbabweans spent the whole weekend on social media discussing this issue and many other related aspects of our infrastructural needs triggered by this airport promise and some may say the bullet train.I have now called these above and beyond promises, Wambologies. What ZANU-PF supporters are missing is that Chamisa is disrupting the everyday conversations that we have by planting his futuristic ideas.They are not accidental in my view, they are being deliberately placed in his overall engagement with his supporters and citizens at rallies to stimulate debate and to talk about the MDC Alliance and indeed Nelson Chamisa the presidential candidate.These big ideas are getting us to talk not just about the them, but also about the immediate ones like the need for tarred roads, schools, clinics, universities, clean running water etcetera. They are broadening the scope of understanding and articulating our everyday needs as seen in the many social media debates and discussions over the weekend.Throughout the day yesterday, Zimbabweans were talking to each other about their needs and what they consider to be important to their communities.There are Zimbabweans like Dr Praise Matemavi, a transplant surgeon in Michigan in the US whose dream of coming back home has been delayed because Zimbabwe has no transplant surgery units.She represents Zimbabweans who dared to dream big but had their dreams deferred by limited thinking within our health delivery system management.The idea of an airport in rural Murewa planted at an election rally energized and allowed us to imagine the possibilities that lie ahead, it also gave us the peg to unmask our limitations which are a product of failed politics.Chamisa is quite aware that the youth vote is King in this election, so he has deliberately focused his electoral messaging around their own dreams which are divorced from farming implements.The perpetual and profound political influence he is having in our daily lives and on our national discourse is bold and healthy in a democracy. Whether he wins the election or not, he has dared us to think beyond the ordinary and to imagine the possibilities that lie ahead.The hallmark of leadership is to dare, to be visionary and to tell your followers about what lies beyond their limited scope. The Martin Luther King telescopic type of vision. Leaders must transcend the limited boundaries set by average thinkers and turn their flock into believers.Lee Kuan Yew transformed Singapore from being a third world backwater into a first world country in one generation. He pushed pragmatic long-term social and economic measures which saw Singapore being no different to New York.Singapore's Gross Domestic Product was at the same level with Ghana when the two countries became independent and yet the difference today is remarkable and vast. Lee Kuan Yew would have been ridiculed if he had said that his country would be where it is today. Nelson Chamisa is not talking about where Zimbabwe would be in December.He is setting an agenda for the future like what all leaders should do, they should lead and lay foundations for future generations to follow when they are gone. The promises that Chamisa makes today might be realized when he is gone, similarly to how Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech culminated in Barack Obama's election in 2008, forty years after King's death.Martin Luther King was one year younger than Nelson Chamisa when he was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee in the United States. Yet he remains one of the most revolutionary thinkers of our time.The idea that Nelson Chamisa is too young to lead a national party or rule a country is self defeating and is a reflection of our years of broken rule under Robert Mugabe.Students of history will help us understand that almost all heroes of African liberation struggles were in their twenties when they made the most profound impact on their nations.Chamisa is actually much older than many of the liberation luminaries both home and abroad.Robert Mugabe was 36 when he was in ZAPU, Patrice Lumumba was 35 when he was killed in the Congo, Thomas Sankara was 37 when he was assassinated after revolutionizing and leading Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. Josiah Tongogara was in his 30s when he took control of ZANLA and led them to victory on the eve of his death.So it is the content of one's politics that matters not their age. Age is not necessarily a prerequisite for wisdom.What Nelson Chamisa has managed to do is to provide a platform for the representation of diverse views which are not necessarily limited to government dishing out maize and fertilizers, but a telescopic view for the citizen to imagine a world around them where they can guarantee their own food security.His vision is not necessarily a matter of feeling and emotions which are devoid of rational thinking, he has managed to create unconstrained debate about where Zimbabwe should have been and provide a blue print of his own vision of where he can take us if he wins the election.This debate should therefor be fought on policies which can be audited. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said that Zimbabwe is Open for Business. He will also be required to show what it is his government has done to back up this declaratory and promissory statement.The culture of patronage has seen the placement of thoroughly incompetent people through nepotistic corruption by the line cabinet ministers. The President has called for zero tolerance of corruption and yet many of his ministers are still demanding bribes, kickbacks and all manner of illegal payments from prospective investors.This will kill the fervent energy and excitement which was created by the demise of the veteran dictator, Robert Mugabe. The current President is trying to allow his ministers to do their jobs by not overtly interfering with their work, however these ministers save for a few have gone back to their old ways.This will undo the little progress that has been creating a sense of change. Change is not an event but it requires commitment to the cause. We have been victims of people who go into politics to amass wealth and not to serve the citizen.Incompetence and corruption are fast becoming the key drivers and sources of the disillusionment setting in and strangling the President's pronounced vision of an efficient Zimbabwe, where your success is hinged solely on your hard work and honest and not on who you know.How can we be open for business when local entrepreneurs are being hindered by corrupt ministers and their surrogates whose sole aim is to engage in crude accumulation of wealth and hiring of incompetent company board directors chosen on the basis of nepotistic considerations.The corruption tradition of nominating friends, lovers, family members, business partners and surrogates to parastatal boards has been with us for decades but it was accentuated in the last ten years and it hasn't changed with the replacement of the former President.It is important for President Mnangagwa to know that although he needs to allow the ministers in his cabinet to freely administer their portfolios, their failure will be legitimately tied to his office regardless of the election result.He who appoints is responsible for the commissions and omissions of his team. The continuation of graft in government and its parastatals will bring the same pressures that came to define Mugabe's last days to the new government.The practice of a new minister appointing new board members to the parastatals under their watch has seen unqualified people naturally bringing down companies funded by the taxpayers.When ministers are moved around to new portfolios, the same surrogates appear on the boards of the parastatals under their purvey.Faced with this level of rot and the promise of a futuristic future, it is anyone's guess how the unemployed youth will decide to cast their all important vote. The future is pronounced now not tomorrow.We shouldn't be constrained by today's failures to think and dream big for tomorrow.Hopewell Chin'ono is an award winning Zimbabwean journalist and documentary filmmaker. He is a CNN African journalist of the year and Harvard University Nieman Fellow. His next film, State of Mind looking at mental illness in Zimbabwe is coming out in March. He can be contacted on hopewell2@post.harvard.edu or on twitter @daddyhopeOpinion / Columnist

The local Daily News reports that Mandaza has predicted a Chamisa victory in the elections as long as the polls are held in a free, fair and credible manner.In 2008, Zanu PF showed the world the full extend of its capacity to rig elections. The party forced ZEC to recount the March vote and after six weeks of cooking up the figures; Tsvangirai's 73%, by Mugabe's own inadvertent admission, was whittled down to 47%. Enough to force the run-off!During the run-off Zanu PF unleashed its party militia and war veterans assisted and directed by the Army, Police and CIO onto the defenceless civilians, like wolves in penned sheep. The civilians were harassed, beaten, raped and over 500 were murdered; they were being punished for having rejected Mugabe and Zanu PF in the first vote."What was accomplished by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!" Mugabe barked, encouraging his thugs in their barbaric work.Mugabe overturned his 27% or so defeat in the March vote into a massive 84% landslide victory.The 2008 elections have become a bench mark in that one could honestly say that Zanu PF was unbeatable which is why SADC leaders proposed a raft of democratic reforms which the GNU was tasked to implemented to stop the repeat of the 2008 elections. When the SADC leaders realised that not even one reform had been implemented during the GNU the advised that the elections must be postponed."In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed  the SADC summit. I went there," Dr Ibbo Mandaza explained to Violet Gonda"I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws."And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told; I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj; they were told if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done'."It is easy to see why SADC leaders were so cocksure taking part in the elections with no reforms was a futile exercise; if you can blatant cheat the count turning 73% into 47% and use violence to boast 27% to 84% you are unbeatable.MDC leaders did not listen to SADC leaders' advice and contested the flawed 2013 elections. Zanu PF, as SADC leaders had rightly predicted, rigged the elections.It is therefore disconcerting that he should be the one talking of MDC winning this year's elections!"Zanu PF is wounded and it's unlikely to win a free and fair election. The new kid on the block is Chamisa who has captured the imagination of youths, and I see nothing stopping him," said Dr Mandaza.Zanu PF has been unelectable for decades. Indeed, many people would argue that President Mnangagwa's takeover, with all the baggage of the military coup, has made Zanu PF more electable that it was in 2008 and 2013, for example. And yet the party went on to win regardless but only because the elections were not free and fair.Dr Mandaza tell us Chamisa will win the elections IF elections are free is as meaningless as telling punter the horse will win the race if it is alive. Of course what the punter would want to know, is the horse alive. What the nation is dying to know is whether there is any hope of the elections being free, fair and credible particularly give Zanu PF's well documented past of rigging elections?Opinion / Interviews

NOW aged 90, Abraham "BroNnkie" Dumezweni Nkiwane still has that fire in his belly that saw him fighting for the independence of two African states, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Nkiwane was also the first man to be trusted by Southern African nationalists, the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo and Dr Kenneth Kaunda to smuggle arms of war from the then Tanganyika (Tanzania) via Zambia, then Northern Rhodesia to Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe to ignite the fire of the armed struggle.Our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda (MS) last week traced Nkiwane for an interview and the veteran nationalist and guerilla spoke about all the stages of the country' liberation struggle. Below are excerpts of the interview:MS: Baba Nkiwane, when were you born and from which part of the country?Nkiwane: I was born on 6 January 1928 in Ntabazinduna. My father was Siqhotho and my mother Sarah Mpofu. In Ntabazinduna there were two schools worth of note at that time, Ingwenya Mission established by the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and David Livingstone. My village was almost at the centre of the two schools. I went to David Livingstone where I was impressed by one of the teachers there, Mr Manoa Chirwa who played an important role in my education by influencing my father to continue sending me to school. During those days people did not take education seriously.In 1935 I started my Sub A at David and remained there until I had gone up to Standard 4. In 1942 I then enrolled at Tegwani (now Thekwane) Methodist Mission attending up to 1943. The next thing to do was to study for teacher training but because I was still a juvenile, under 16 years of age I could not proceed to train as a teacher. At that time my father had moved from Ntabazinduna Reserve and bought a piece of land under the African Purchasing Scheme in Lupanda under Lupane District.MS: So the developments meant you stopped going to school?Nkiwane: Yes. I was at Tegwani for two years and there was no school to do secondary education in the country. Actually pupils in my category had to find secondary school places in South Africa. Since my parents were not in the picture about this development I had to go home and spend the whole year in Lupane. To me Lupane was very strange, unlike Ntabazinduna, Lupane had tall hard wood timber trees, funny wild animals like hyenas, I had not seen before, lions and elephants that moved in large numbers. The rivers had crocodiles, very unsafe to draw water from. To me this was not only strange but frightening as well. However, eventually I went back to school, but to Kilnerton Institute, a Methodist Mission near what is now called Polokwane in South Africa and that was in 1947. That is where I passed the University Junior Certificate (UJC). However, because of financial problems I could not continue to the Matric stage and had to return home to teach. I was now more qualified than most of the teachers as locally they had done what was called the Lower Teacher Certificate, which meant they could teach lower grades, but I could teach the upper primary classes.MS: Where did you teach and how were the conditions then?Nkiwane: When I came back home I thought I was educated well enough more than many people. I was deployed to teach in some schools that fell under the Tegwani Circuit of the Methodist schools and in what is now called Bulilima District of Matabeleland South. I taught at Tjehanga. Some of us were soon to clash with the church authorities when we opposed school concerts, which were used to raise money for the schools and were supported and influenced by Reverend Percy Ibbotson and others. The following year and on the eve of the schools opening we were invited to attend a teachers' meeting for our circuit and the issue of some teachers opposing the concerts were high on the agenda and that is when myself, Cephas Malikongwa and Alfred Mkandawire were told to resign and that is how I left teaching. After job hunting I found employment at Bulawayo Omnibus Company as a fleet clerk. Malikongwa got a job soon after that as a teacher at Luveve while Mkandawire joined Bantu Mirror as a journalist.MS: How was the national political situation at that time. May you please take us through that period?Nkiwane: There wasn't much, but as Africans we had started coalescing around a platform which attracted intellectuals during those days. There was Gama Sigma Club, a voluntary organisation that attracted young African intellectuals. Its meetings were held at Stanley Hall in Makokoba. It held its meetings every Wednesday afternoons.MS: Who were the active members at that time and what were you discussing?Nkiwane: There were people like Tennyson Hlabangana,, Mazibisa, Mr Rubatika, a friend of mine from Hope Fountain Mission, Dzviti, W Makubalo, Male and so on. Later on came degree holders like the late former Chief Justice of Zimbabwe, Enoch Dumbutshena and Stanlake Samkange.So the Stanley Hall became a centre for many activities of all sorts, cultural, educational, political and trade unionism with the likes of Grey Mabhalane Bango and Mr Ngazimbi joining in the fray.MS: How did you co-exist considering your different ethnic backgrounds?Nkiwane: During those days to us it did not matter where you came from. One would speak his language and others would make an effort to learn.We understood each other very well, one speaking his own language and the other doing the same (mutual intelligibility in Linguistics). People only started seeing tribal lines in each other in the 1960s, not at that time in the 50s. You can see that we were serious about discussing pertinent issues at that time compared to the current youth, a majority of whom find pleasure in going for beer binges at the expense of important issues that affect their communities. The meetings were usually chaired by a welfare officer from the council. Sometimes specialists in different fields were invited to come down and deliver a lecture. We also competed in reciting plays from William Shakespeare and we will even have a cast to act. We derived pleasure in acting, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, in fact almost all the Shakespeare plays. We even did a Russian one, What Man Lives By.We also did Alan Paton's Cry The Beloved Country. We took those plays around and when we took Cry The Beloved Country to the centres we had visited before we attracted a lot of blacks, this observation to me might have been the beginning of my political awakening. Inspectors of schools who in the past had organised venues for us suddenly stopped doing so when they realised the influence the plays had on the people.MS: Bit by bit you were turning political.Nkiwane: To an extent, yes. It was during that time that we started communicating with the City Youth League formed in Salisbury (Harare) led by James Chikerema, George Nyandoro and Mushonga. They then asked us to provide a leader from our group. They insisted that the person to lead should come from Bulawayo and so we looked around us and gave them Samkange who had graduated with a degree in History and English, but he was turned down by Chiki (Chikerema) on the grounds that there was nothing new in him since they came from the same area. We then proposed the name of Dumbutshena, a holder of Laws Degree and again Chikerema said there was no difference with Samkange as he also came from Zvimba. The City Youth League members said they wanted someone from Bulawayo and its surroundings. We were in a fix. It was at that time that somebody mentioned that we should consider a chief welfare officer from the Rhodesia Railways, Joshua Nkomo (late Vice-President). The core of us then asked about his educational background and when we were told that he had attended Tsholotsho Government School, there was a burst of laughter.MS: Why?Nkiwane: We could not imagine ourselves being led by somebody who had done courses like carpentry and building. Tsholotsho taught mainly practical courses and within our group some even said "udaka boy" for this. Let us be serious gentlemen. However, after some discussions it was agreed that let us try this Nkomo chap, so he was invited to participate in a debating competition, we were testing him. He debated against our member Dumbutshena and we were shocked at the level of understanding of issues this Nkomo fellow exhibited and I can say he won our hearts. When we set eyes on him, we saw a handsome man and at that time Nkomo was slim and he won us. We then forwarded his name to Chikerema and he was accepted. That is how Nkomo came into politics, he was invited by others and never sought a position.MS: So you mean to say before that you guys had never heard of Nkomo?Nkiwane: We did not know him and the same applies to former President Mugabe who was a teacher just on the outskirts of Bulwayo at Hope Fountain.(L to R): David Sheckter, Aaron Judah, and Daniel Stern, who were the original founders of Cannmart, walk with Sean Dollinger, President and CEO of Namaste Technologies Inc, in the new Cannmart facility being built. (Maria Gagliardi, Owner/Photographer, marypics.com)

If one company has its way, Canadians will soon be able to order marijuana as simply as they order delivery from UberEats.

Based in Vancouver, B.C. and founded by a Winnipegger and Montrealer, Namaste Technologies Inc. is one of the largest e-commerce platforms for vaporizers and cannabis smoking accessories in the world, with 24 websites in 20 different countries.

But Kory Zelickson and Sean Dollinger arent satisfied with just accessories. They say they will become the worlds largest online one-stop shop for everything a medical (and in some markets, recreational) cannabis user needs. They are being hailed as the Amazon of pot, and this March, their master plan really started to take shape.

On March 16, 2018, their subsidiary Cannmart, a medical marijuana distribution company, received its medical marijuana production license (ACMPR) from Health Canada, allowing it to place initial orders for cannabis from other licensed producers and take the first steps towards being approved for a sales license. Once Cannmart is approved for a sales license, the founders of its parent company has big plans.

What we needed to be able to do to sell cannabis online in Canada is become a licensed producer, but we were the only ones to apply for a sales only license. Even though well be a licensed producer and we could grow, we dont want to grow  we want to have the ability to sell everyone elses product, says Sean Dollinger, president and CEO of Namaste Technologies Inc.

On the recreational side, Canadas upcoming legislation does not allow importation of different strains of cannabis from other countries, but on the medical side, licensed producers can import, leaving the door open for Namaste to offer different varieties from around the world. To that end, the company already signed deals with medical cannabis producers in Israel, Columbia and Jamaica.

How cool is it if youre at a party and you can say, Hey man, I just got this Pablo Lime strain from Jamaica?' says Dollinger.

Story continues

The power isnt in the pot, its in the platform

Being able to offer potentially limitless varieties of pot to Canadian patients is in the realm of possibility because Namaste isnt a place, its a platform.

Its a technological middle man, partnering with and giving exposure to other licensed producers. Since theyre strictly a platform  bringing the product from producer directly to the customer  there are zero overhead costs. Namaste Technologies can import cannabis at a much cheaper rate than brick-and-mortar dispensaries, growers or wholesale warehouses.

But access to international strains is only the beginning for potential customers.

Namaste is also behind an app called NamasteMD. Available for Android or iPhone, the application allows Canadians seeking medical treatment with marijuana to apply for and be assessed for a medical marijuana license right from their smartphone. It also provides Namaste Technologies with a ready-made customer base to buy the cannabis they sell.

All the Canadian patient and potential customer has to do is create an account, choose from a number of common ailments treated by cannabis that they may have and answer questions related to their discomfort and how they believe marijuana could help them. Once thats done, the user will be able to book a FaceTime appointment with a doctor or nurse practitioner who will then assess them and hopefully approve them for a medical marijuana license, while Namaste covers the costs.

The way we look at it is if youre making an effort to connect with a doctor, youre already consuming your cannabis in whatever way youre going to consume it, so why shouldnt we get it to you in a legal way  a controlled way  where a lot of people dont know, Do I need a sativa? Do I need an indica? What dose do I need? All of the sudden, you have a doctor helping you with that, so were trying to make it an amazing customer experience. Not just, heres cannabis,' says Dollinger.

But Dollinger says that the truly amazing customer experience will come when each of Namaste Technologies individual subsidiaries come together on a single platform  creating the Amazon-like one-stop shop he and Namastes shareholders envision.

Our idea is you could be shopping on NamasteVapes.ca, not even thinking of buying cannabis from us, and a pop-up appears saying, Hey, do you need a medical license? Immediately, like Uber connects customers to service providers, we connect you instantly to a nurse practitioner or doctor who will get you your license within four minutes for free, says Dollinger. We then throw you on Cannmart.ca where you can complete your transaction for cannabis from any licensed producer across Canada.

Namaste Technologies whole goal is to make the cannabis customer experience so seamless and easy that the differences between buying for medical use or buying for recreational use become immaterial. Dollinger believes the companys platform and many subsidiaries make the differences on the business side immaterial as well.

Waitis this legal?

With the granting of their marijuana production license, the short answer to that question in Canada is yes. But when it comes to Namaste Technologies approach to the impending recreational legalization and whether they plan to enter the recreational market, the answer is a bit more nuanced. There are different rules for each province around recreational sales.

In Ontario, only the government is allowed to sell recreational, so obviously the only way we can compete with them is by selling in the medical space. But in Manitoba theyre allowing recreational from private business, so in Manitoba well do both, says Dollinger.

But Namaste isnt just in Canada and thanks to their well-established vaporizer business they arent just selling cannabis. With an online presence in 20 different countries, majority market share in Europe and Australia, operations in the U.K. and Germany as well as Canada, and new supply channels into emerging markets like Brazil, Mexico and Chile, Namaste Technologies is well positioned to dominate even in countries where cannabis is not yet legal.

The regulations arent as tight around vaporizers and a vaporizer customer has a direct correlation with a cannabis customer. For example, in the U.K. where cannabis is illegal right now, vaporizers are not illegal and were the largest sellers in the U.K. by a mile with 300 new customers every day, says Dollinger.

While cannabis companies cant even participate in the U.K. market, were presently building our database of 300 vaporizer customers a day, so that when cannabis goes legal in the U.K. well be able to use our technology and our virtual clinic to instantly convert customers into patients and give us the lead in the space.

Namaste follows that strategy in countries all around the world, especially in emerging markets. The next place to get licensed for marijuana production and sale is in Australia where they already have 300,000 vaporizer customers and plans to implement the same marijuana sales strategy currently being used in Canada.

So far Namastes online platform strategy is paying off. The company has over 500,000 customers globally, going from $2 million in revenue two and a half years ago to having a run rate of $30 million in revenue in 2018, which is a growth rate of 1,500 per cent over the last two years that Namaste is expecting to double for the next five years.

In each country around the world, we will have to figure out the framework that will legally allow us to participate in the cannabis side of things in each market, says Dollinger.

But unlike other licensed producers, for Namaste Technologies legal status doesnt matter. Whether a country has legalized medicinal use, recreational use or cannabis is totally illegal, Namaste has a way to participate in the market.

Were hoping recreational cannabis becomes legal in more countries, but were so confident in our technology on the medical side of things that we dont really care, says Dollinger.

Were going to have so many customers by the end of this year thanks to NamasteMD making the medical side so easy that if governments push back on the recreational side against us, so be it. We will participate in the medical framework, which basically still allows us to sell across Canada and wherever else medicinal marijuana is legal.

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At the moment, the world has more than enough oil to meet its needs. In fact, it has too much, which is why OPEC is holding back some of its production to drain off a portion of the excess crude sitting in storage depots around the world. Furthermore, according to an estimate from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the oil market will remain well supplied through at least 2020 even though demand should continue expanding at a brisk pace.

It's a different story post-2020, where there's a growing concern that the oil industry might not be able to keep up with continued demand growth because it's not reinvesting enough money into longer-term projects. That could result in a big shortfall in supplies, potentially fueling a significant spike in oil prices in the coming years.

The worst year ever

In its latest market report, the IEA pointed out that the oil industry only discovered 4 billion barrels of new oil resources last year. While that might sound like plenty, it fell well short of the 36 billion barrels consumed by the global economy last year. It was also a record low for the industry and followed up a similarly poor showing in 2016 when the industry found the fewest barrels in 70 years. Driving the dearth of discoveries is the fact that oil producers have significantly cut exploration spending in recent years.

Oil field worker with a laptop at sunset.

Analysts are crunching the numbers and don't like what they see ahead. Image source: Getty Images.

While low oil prices played a major role in the discovery drop, a string of drilling expensive dry holes caused several explorers to abandon their efforts in recent years. One of the most notable failures was Royal Dutch Shell's (NYSE: RDS-A)(NYSE: RDS-B) big flop in the Arctic waters off Alaska. The big oil giant spent upwards of $7 billion to acquire leases and drill an exploration well only to come up dry. U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) also had big ambitions in the Alaskan Arctic, but they never got off the ground. Those failed exploration efforts were among many by ConocoPhillips in recent years, which also drilled a string of dry holes all across the Atlantic. The company decided to abandon its deepwater exploration efforts a few years ago.

Story continues

An even bigger problem in the near term

The decline in discoveries in recent years could hurt the industry down the road. However, the more pressing issue is that oil companies have spent less money developing previous finds to meet medium-term global needs. The IEA noted that investment spending barely budged last year and will only be 6% higher this year. That level remains well below the peak before oil prices plunged a few years ago, and it's a concern because producers aren't spending very much of it on long-term projects that will boost supplies after 2020. That's leading the IEA to warn that the market might struggle to meet growing demand in the future.

Offshore oil and rig platform in sunrise on frozen sea.

Image source: Getty Images.

While the steep decline in the price of oil has driven the spending reduction, another issue is where oil companies have allocated capital. Instead off spending money on major long-term projects, companies like ConocoPhillips shifted the bulk of their investments into drilling shale wells in the U.S., which unleash a quick gusher of oil that they need to continually replace with new wells. While the exceptional returns on these wells enable companies to produce more oil for less money, they can't maintain that strategy forever, because they are rapidly depleting the inventory of prolific shale locations, which leads the IEA to believe that output from this resource will probably peak within a few years. The industry therefore needs to invest in more longer-term projects such as developing deepwater discoveries or new oil sands facilities because these assets deliver a steadier production rate.

The issue is that only a handful of oil giants are currently pursuing these long-term projects. ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and Hess (NYSE: HES), for example, sanctioned the first phase of their offshore discovery in Guyana last year. The $3.2 billion project should produce 120,000 barrels per day when it comes online in 2020. Exxon and Hess have two more phases in development, which could ultimately produce 500,000 barrels per day. That development is part of ExxonMobil's big push to add 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day of new production by 2025. While that will help, it's just a drop in the bucket for an industry that will need to produce more than 100 million barrels each day in the coming years.

Meanwhile, other projects take much longer to develop. For example, Canadian oil giant Suncor Energy (NYSE: SU) recently applied to build a new oil sands facility in the country. The 160,000-barrel-per-day Lewis project would cost CA$6.2 billion ($4.7 billion). However, Suncor Energy probably won't even break ground on construction until 2024 and wouldn't produce a drop of oil from it until 2027. That long lead time on large-scale projects is one of the reasons the IEA remains concerned about whether the industry can provide enough crude to meet demand in the early part of the next decade if shale output begins tapering off as anticipated.

Keep a close eye on this issue

While the world remains awash in oil right now, that might not be the case a few years from now. If oil demand grows as much as anticipated, there might not be enough fuel in the shale growth tank to both offset the decline of legacy wells and meet this growing need for crude. Oil companies therefore must start work now on longer-term projects that will come online around the time shale could run out of gas. If they wait too long, the world could find itself short of the fuel it needs, which could potentially cause another super-spike in crude prices. That's why investors with an eye toward the future should watch industry investment levels -- it could have significant future ramifications.

More From The Motley Fool

Matthew DiLallo owns shares of ConocoPhillips. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.'It was my dearest dream': Congolese teen reunited with mother after 14 years apart

Naomie Bisimwa never forgot her mother's face, even though she was just a toddler when they were torn apart by a Congolese war 14 years ago.

At Toronto's Pearson airport earlier this month, mother and daughter finally locked eyes before a long, tearful embrace.

"I was very happy to see my mom again. It was my dearest dream," said Naomie, now 16, speaking in French.

The teen doesn't remember the night in 2004 when her home in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, was ravaged by fire and gunfire that killed her father and forced her mother to flee with her three older siblings.

"You start to go, you don't know if you have the children behind you. If you see behind you, they gonna kill you," said Maria Musenga, 40. She couldn't find Naomie, then just a toddler.

"No food, no clothes, no water, nothing. You need to save yourself."

"I think she [was] dead."

Musenga took sanctuary in a church that night, then relocated to neighbouring Uganda with the three other children. In 2009, Karin Gordon of Hospitality House in Winnipeg heard of the family's struggles through Musenga's brother, who had come as a refugee to Canada years before. The family was living in poverty in Uganda, without any belongings of their own.

Gordon privately applied to sponsor Musenga and her children to come to Canada.

During the immigration application process, Musenga learned from other refugees that Naomie was alive, and living with another family.

She put her daughter's name on her immigration application under the one-year window, but had no other information about the child.

"She actually wound up meeting somebody from her home village, who told her that the child had not been killed, had been taken away by a mutual neighbour to Kinshasa, which is about 500 or 600 kilometres to the north, and Maria had fled south," said Gordon of Hospitality House.

Musenga and her three other children arrived in Winnipeg from Uganda in 2013. Naomie remained in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Tough life in Africa

"It was not good. Her life was bad in Africa. Very bad," said Musenga.

Musenga tracked down the contact information of the family that her daughter was with through another refugee in Winnipeg, and the two began to regularly speak on the phone. Musenga sent money to the families housing her daughter, but says Naomie rarely received it.

When she spoke to her mother on the phone, she had no privacy, she said.

"They were a little bit mean. I was like a handmaiden for them," said Naomie.

She said she was passed from home to home, family to family, working as a servant: cleaning, washing dishes and preparing food and meals.

Then, Naomie got sick with tuberculosis requiring her to be hospitalized. Following that, she suffered a stroke-like injury that paralyzed her arm, and partially her leg, and affected her vision on her left side.

Again, she went to the hospital, but says she didn't get followup care for the paralysis.

"I just wanted to see my mom again," she said of that time, as tears rolled down her face.

She needed further medical attention, but her journey to Canada was held up because the government needed proof of her identity.

According to Gordon, it took two years of bureaucracy with Canada's immigration agency and to find a doctor who would do the genetic test to prove she was Musenga's daughter.

Watch Gordon explain the long process:

Despite knowing about all the health challenges Naomie faced, Musenga wasn't expecting to see her daughter in a wheelchair when she exited the plane in Toronto.

"I was feeling heavy in my heart ... I think too much about her. It's OK, because she's still alive," said Musenga.

Recovery ahead

Naomie said when she saw her mother for the first time in Toronto, "I had a lot of emotions. I wanted to be able to go run and kiss my mom, but there was no way, I couldn't run, because I was paralyzed."

It had been five painful years from the time Musenga applied for the reunification. Naomie will now need medical attention, rehabilitation and education. She hopes to become a doctor one day.

Since arriving in Winnipeg, Naomie has not left the house and spends her time with the siblings she lost long ago.

"They need to be with her to show her love; forget Africa," said Musenga.

"We told her to sit and not to do anything, we're going to do everything for you," she added.

Musenga still owes $1,800 out of the $9,000 travel loan she got from the Canadian government for her family to come to Canada. She works long hours as a housekeeper at a hotel to provide for her family; they live in a small Manitoba Housing townhouse.

"I need to work hard to prepare for a future for Naomie and the other children," she said. But she is hopeful that Canadians might also help them.

She also knows her problems are not unique. Many other refugee families have suffered and have been torn apart; Gordon says her agency has about 200 families who have been waiting since 2011 to immigrate to Canada under private sponsorship. To the people waiting to come to Canada, Musenga says "be patient."

"[Naomie's] process took five years  now I'm happy. I thank Canada and all people here," she said.

"This is my country now."

Watch Naomie share the importance of reuniting with her mom:The little houses on the Nuxalk Nation reserve near Bella Coola are nearly complete. The solar panels are in place, the drywall is being installed and the scaled-down appliances are on the way.

At 338 square feet each, the five homes sit somewhere on the scale between "tiny" and "cosy," but Jalissa Moody hopes they'll make a big difference in the lives of a handful of men living on the edge of homelessness.

The 28-year-old was raised on the reserve and works for the First Nation as its asset management assistant, which means she's in charge of taking in housing applications from band members.

"I saw that there were a lot of single men that were applying," Moody told CBC News.

But she didn't have anything suitable to offer them.

"I could see the wide range of housing issues that we have in our Nation. I realized that our housing stock didn't quite meet all of those needs, that we needed to be more inclusive," she said.

Nestled amongst the mountains on a picturesque inlet at the end of Highway 20, the Nuxalk reserve is home to about 1,000 people.

That includes about two dozen single men who don't have permanent homes.

"It's not like they're living out on the street, but they are couch-surfing," Moody said.

She pitched the idea of tiny homes to Nuxalk chief and council in 2016, and they enthusiastically endorsed the funding for a pilot project.

But Moody wasn't just thinking of housing when she started drawing up plans. She also wanted to reduce her community's reliance on diesel generators, which are used for months every year.

"I really, really wanted to have an alternative energy source. I'm kind of a little bit of a hippy  I grew up that way," Moody said.

The houses, built by skilled workers from the community, all have solar panels mounted on their roofs, angled south to catch the sunlight.

Inside, they each have a galley kitchen with an apartment-sized range and fridge, a small bathroom with a standup shower, and an enclosed bedroom. And overlooking it all is a pinewood ceiling.

Story continues

"It was a really small space to try and get that ceiling in, so it was a learning curve for our apprentices and our guys to install that. But they did it and it looks beautiful," Moody said.

She hopes the houses will be ready for tenants sometime in the next month.

Staff at the Nuxalk's health and wellness program are currently sifting through their files to identify the men who are in the most need. The new residents will all sign tenancy agreements and pay rent to the Nation.

Moody's dream is that secure housing will be a stepping stone for these men.

"I hope that the tenants will be much happier and be able to move forward in their lives, and then I hope it'll be a first and maybe in the future we can propose to build more," she said.Canadians continue to be fooled by website that mimics government agency

More than a year after CBC Toronto wrote about a website that has Canadians sharing personal information, passports and credit card information, thinking they're on a federal government site, clients continue to be duped by the company.

Passport Online provides what it calls application services, to help Canadians fill out a form that's available for free from the government. It's the equivalent of sitting with someone and telling them details to fill in the federal government passport application.

It is the top result on Google when searching with a variety of terms, including "renew Canadian passport online."

More than a dozen people have contacted CBC News since this story was first published in February 2017. Their stories are similar.

They shared concerns over giving personal details to a private company, sending their passports to a non-government agency, identity theft, the cost of the service and the fight for refunds.

While looking for passport renewal, they clicked on the site with a blue and white screen and Canadian flag in the corner that had them filling out personal questions and sharing credit card information for an amount comparable to passport renewal, well before any of them realize they were not on a Canadian government website.

Federal government response

Ahmed Hussen, minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, told CBC News this is a concern.

"We, of course, care and [are] on guard every single day for the integrity of our citizenship system. We don't want anything to take away from that."

He added the government has a 1-800 number for complaints.

"From time to time we do find individuals who commit immigration fraud, citizenship fraud, to try to take advantage of people," Hussen said.

"We will work...very closely with our security agencies, law enforcement officials, to tackle any citizenship or immigration fraud that we come across."

Company insider

Story continues

Now a former employee of Passport Online is sounding the alarm about the company.

Admitting having preyed on Canadians who overpay for the service, the former employee shared warnings about Passport Online and Pardons and Waivers of Canada, which have the same owner.

The businesses operate at 515 Consumers Rd., Toronto. Employees there fill out applications for Canadian passports or applications for convicted criminals seeking pardons or waivers so they can travel to the United States despite their record.

The companies charge hundreds and thousands of dollars per application.

CBC News is not identifying the former employee who fears reprisal from the companies.

The employee described the day in February 2017 when CBC Toronto visited for an interview that ultimately was declined.

"A crew came to the office but they locked all employees inside and would not let us leave even for a bathroom break for fear we would talk."

The companies are owned by Jesse Breslin.

On the day CBC News was there, the employee said the owner's sister Stephanie Breslin told staff they were not to leave.

Industry Canada's business listings cites a Michael Kennedy as the administrative services representative for Pardons and Waivers of Canada at the same Toronto address. The employee said he is "made up. He doesn't exist." (Passport Online is not listed on the Industry Canada website.)

The employee alleged being "trained to lie, manipulate and 'qualify' people as to how much money they make and price accordingly."

Credit card bills

In emails to CBC News, more than a dozen Canadians claimed that that their credit card bills were in the hundreds of dollars after they shared information with Passport Online.

All of those people said they thought they were dealing with a federal government website.

Alec Purves, 71, said, "It had the red flag and the little emblem like Canada Passport. That shouldn't be."

When the Hamilton man got his credit card statement, the fee was twice what it would have been for a passport application.

Lynne Unger, 55, who works in finance technology in British Columbia said she's computer savvy and she still didn't realize the website isn't associated with the Canadian government.

"It was right after I filled the credit card information the disclaimer showed up," she said.

She, like all others who wrote, attempted to get their money back from the company but was told they wouldn't be refunded.

Only those who repeatedly called the 1-888 number on the website and filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau received partial or full refunds.

Eventually Unger got a refund and filled out the official government passport forms to renew her travel document "No problemo."

Official complaints

The Central Ontario BBB, which handles complaints for the Greater Toronto Area, says there are 72 complaints about Passport Online and 26 about Pardons and Waivers of Canada.

Emma Borski, BBB communications coordinator, wrote "our first complaints into Passport Online were submitted in June 2016. To date, we are still receiving new complaints on the business."

Complaints ranged from refund issues to sales practices and service.

She added, there are also online reviews on the BBB site, which differ from complaints, and those are predominantly negative.

The former employee said the company would accept clients knowing they did not meet government eligibility for a passport, pardon or waiver. Employees were trained to get more money through "an 'eligibility consultation' to people we know are not eligible and will never be eligible."

Especially in the case of pardons and waivers, the employee said the company preyed on desperation.

"It could be anything from a sweet old lady worried about a shoplifting charge from 20 years ago to a hardened criminal that's their job to be a criminal and make money off of other people's suffering. Or someone who made a mistake in the past and can't really move forward.

"But they're pumped with all these hopes and dreams that we're going to help them," the employee said.

The charges ranged up to $3,500 and the clients are told it can take years to complete, though "a pardon application can take 30 minutes to an hour to complete once we have the necessary documentation."

Ottawa policy analyst Chantelle Ladner found herself fighting for a refund from Passport Online after her mother completed the online application.

"The application itself looked and felt like a government of Canada application to me," Ladner said.

Passport Online charged "over $200 for a 'cut and paste' into a government form so they're not really providing a service," she said.

Laws, regulations and policies can be changed to prevent a private service mimicking a government website and to protect consumers, Ladner suggested. "If this is brought up enough hopefully one of these can happen," she said.

The former employee hoped sharing a warning might save someone grief someday.

"Maybe this will help me clear my conscience a little because I have shed many tears over this and truly feel terrible."

CBC News made renewed attempts for an interview with Jesse Breslin this week, but the requests continue to go unanswered.By Andrew Osborn and Christian Lowe MOSCOW (Reuters) - Investigators looking into a fire that killed at least 64 people at a busy shopping mall in Siberia said on Monday a security guard had turned off the public address system and exits had been illegally blocked. The fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the break-up of the Soviet Union, swept through the upper floors of the "Winter Cherry" shopping center in the city of Kemerovo, where a cinema complex and children's play area were located, on Sunday afternoon. Dozens of children were feared to be among the dead. Vladimir Putin, re-elected last weekend, expressed "deep condolences", the Kremlin said. But the president has yet to speak publicly about the tragedy, which has stirred anger in Kemerovo, a coal-producing region about 3,600 km (2,200 miles) east of Moscow. Russia's Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, said it was trying to bring in the mall's owner for questioning and wanted to detain a security guard who turned off the public address system after learning of the blaze. "Serious violations (of the law) took place when the mall was being built and when it was functioning. The fire exits were blocked," Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the committee, said in a statement. Four people have already been detained, including two employees of the firm that services the mall's fire alarm. Emergency services said they had extinguished the fire, but later said it had reignited in places, and that rescuers were struggling to recover bodies because the building's top floor had collapsed. It was unclear if any people were still unaccounted for. Health Minister Veronika Skortsova said from the scene that 13 people were in hospital, including an 11-year-old boy in a serious condition. Russian media said the boy had leapt from a window and that both his parents had been killed. Many of the victims will only be able to be identified via DNA testing, officials said. An unofficial list of those missing circulating on Russian media included more than 20 children, some as young as five. Mobile phone messages sent from one of those on the list, 13-year-old Maria Moroz, and published by Russian media, said: "We are burning. I love you all. This is perhaps farewell." ANGER Alexander Lillevyali told online newspaper Meduza that he and his wife Olga had lost all three of their daughters, two aged 11 and one five, in the blaze. He was cited as saying he had dropped the girls off at the cinema and that one of them had phoned later to say the auditorium was filling with smoke and that they couldn't get out because the doors were locked. He described how he had led rescuers up the stairs, but that they had been ordered to go elsewhere and that rescuers, citing regulations, had refused to give him a respiratory mask. "My daughters were left to burn because of their bloody rules," Lillevyali told Meduza. Anna Kuznetsova, Russia's children's rights commissioner, said the fire had been caused by incompetence and that similar shopping centers across Russia should be urgently checked. Pro-Kremlin politicians called for anyone found guilty of negligence or worse to be harshly punished. Witnesses told Russian media the fire alarm and sprinklers had failed to function. Video footage showed a group of people in a smoke-filled staircase trying to smash a fire exit door, which was jammed. The cause of the blaze remains unclear. The Interfax news agency cited an unnamed local official source as saying the main theory being looked at was that the fire had been caused by an electrical short circuit. However, it quoted Vladimir Chernov, the region's deputy governor, as saying on Sunday that the blaze may have started when a teenager set fire to the rubber foam on a trampoline in a play area using a lighter. Other officials were quoted as saying the blaze may have been started by candles used in a children's celebration. State TV said the mall opened in 2013. Official documents showed it last underwent a fire safety check in 2016. The Kremlin rejected criticism from some journalists that state TV had been slow to publicize the fire. Mourners left flowers near the scene of the blaze - thought to be the deadliest since 2009 when 156 people were killed in the city of Perm when an indoor pyrotechnics display at a nightclub went wrong. (Additional reporting by Maria Kiselyova, Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber and Polina Nikolskaya; Editing by Andrew Heavens and John Stonestreet)FILE PHOTO: A picture illustration shows a Facebook logo reflected in a person's eye, in Zenica FILE PHOTO: A picture illustration shows a Facebook logo reflected in a person's eye, in Zenica, March 13, 2015. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

By David Ingram and Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO/LONDON (Reuters) - Opinion polls published on Sunday in the United States and Germany indicated that a majority of the public were losing trust in Facebook over privacy, as the firm ran advertisements in British and U.S. newspapers apologising to users.

Fewer than half of Americans trust Facebook to obey U.S. privacy laws, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday, while a survey published by Bild am Sonntag, Germanys largest-selling Sunday paper, found 60 percent of Germans fear that Facebook and other social networks are having a negative impact on democracy.

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg apologised for "a breach of trust" in advertisements placed in papers including the Observer in Britain and the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.

"We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't, we don't deserve it," said the advertisement, which appeared in plain text on a white background with a tiny Facebook logo.

The world's largest social media network is coming under growing government scrutiny in Europe and the United States, and is trying to repair its reputation among users, advertisers, lawmakers and investors.

This follows allegations that the British consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly gained access to users' information to build profiles of American voters that were later used to help elect U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview on NBCs Meet the Press" on Sunday that Facebook had not been "fully forthcoming" over how Cambridge Analytica had used Facebook data.

Warner repeated calls for Zuckerberg to testify in person before U.S. lawmakers, saying Facebook and other internet companies had been reluctant to confront the dark underbelly of social media and how it can be manipulated.

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"BREACH OF TRUST"

Zuckerberg acknowledged that an app built by a university researcher had "leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014".

"This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time," Zuckerberg said, reiterating an apology first made last week in U.S. television interviews.

Facebook shares tumbled 14 percent last week, while the hashtag #DeleteFacebook gained traction online.

The Reuters/Ipsos online poll found that 41 percent of Americans trust Facebook to obey laws that protect their personal information, compared with 66 percent who said they trust Amazon.com Inc, 62 percent who trust Alphabet Inc's Google, 60 percent for Microsoft Corp.

The poll was conducted from Wednesday through Friday and had 2,237 responses. (https://reut.rs/2G9hvrv)

The German poll published by Bild was conducted by Kantar EMNID, a unit of global advertising holding company WPP, using representative polling methods, the firm said. Overall, only 33 percent found social media had a positive effect on democracy, against 60 percent who believed the opposite.

It is too early to say if distrust will cause people to step back from Facebook, eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson said in an interview. Customers of banks or other industries do not necessarily quit after losing faith, she said.

"It's psychologically harder to let go of a platform like Facebook that's become pretty well ingrained into people's lives," she said.

Data supplied to Reuters by the Israeli firm SimilarWeb, which measures global online audiences, indicated that Facebook usage in major markets and worldwide remained steady over the past week.

"Desktop, mobile and app usage has remained steady and well within the expected range," said Gitit Greenberg, SimilarWeb's director of market insights. "It is important to separate frustration from actual tangible impacts to Facebook usage."

(Additional reporting by William James in London, Dustin Volz in Washington D.C. and Chris Kahn in New Editing by Kevin Liffey)By Dan Williams LOD, Israel (Reuters) - An Israeli woman faced off in court on Sunday with a Palestinian who had confessed to stabbing her, in a case that suggested the swirl of political and personal motives that can drive such attacks. Malek Saada, a 20-year-old from the occupied West Bank, was working illegally as a baker in Lod, a mixed Jewish-Arab town south of Tel Aviv, when, a year ago, he ambushed Revital Danino outside her home, moderately wounding her before fleeing. Captured by Israeli police, court papers showed, Saada confessed to the attack and said he had "purified himself" in advance at a mosque and targeted Danino because she was wearing religious Jewish garb. "(The attack) was definitely nationalistic in nature," Saada's lawyer, Alaa Tellawi, told Reuters, reiterating what he described as his client's position from the outset. Testifying at the opening of Saada's trial, Danino, a 45-year-old school principal, raised another possible factor in the attack: drink. "When he was close to me, he had a smell of alcohol, but his behavior was very decisive," she told the three judges, as Saada sat slumped in the dock, watching impassively. Officials on both sides have said a wave of Palestinian street attacks that began in 2015 stemmed from a volatile combination of political tensions in the conflict with Israel and personal problems suffered by some of the assailants. "He had murder in his eyes," Danino said, short of breath, her face flushed. "I curled up by instinct, and felt his knife slipping from my neck and further down, to where I was stabbed." "I elbowed him and apparently it was then that he dropped the knife and ran away," she added, holding up a sweater, perforated between the shoulders, that she said she had been wearing on the evening of the attack. Saada did not address the court. Tellawi said his client did not dispute the events described in the indictment, but the lawyer also suggested that while Saada had a political motive, personal emotions linked to his conservative Muslim background also came into play. "This is a young man who, while in Lod, drank alcohol, behavior that his father learned about. When he asked his father to arrange for him to marry the woman he loved, his father refused," Tellawi told Reuters. "That led my client to wake up one day and say, 'I've had it with this life,' and to find a Jew to attack." Tellawi said his client had "thrown away" the knife after stabbing Danino once - a possible suggestion that Saada had second thoughts about killing her. The court adjourned until April 26. Tellawi said his client wanted to consider how to respond to the main charge filed against him - attempted murder during a terrorist act. Wrapping up her testimony, Danino turned to the defendant and said her survival showed that "my God is strong, my faith is stronger than the power of your hand". (Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and David Evans)An Alberta Liberal MLA is calling for an investigation following a string of departures from the Calgary medical examiner's office.

"Clearly there are problems in the chief medical examiner's office in Calgary. This is costing us in terms of quality of investigations and deaths. It's also costing us financially," Liberal MLA David Swann said Sunday.

"There needs to be somebody going to that office and interview all the staff and find out what's going on. What is the problem here when 80 per cent of these specialists are leaving?"

Ina Lucila, a spokesperson for Alberta Justice, confirmed in a statement to CBC that four of Calgary's five medical examiners have resigned. Two are scheduled to leave this spring, one in summer and one in late summer or early fall.

Replacements have been found for three of the four departing physicians, and the department said it has arrangements in place to bring in temporary doctors and Edmonton-based medical examiners to help with the transition. Five of the province's medical examiners are in Calgary, and five in Edmonton.

Offices are 'fully taxed' with opioid crisis

Swann said both offices are "fully taxed" due to the number of deaths in the province, particularly deaths relating to opioids.

"This means that families of loved ones who have died from an opiate or drug overdose or unknown causes are having to wait over a year to find out information. That's not acceptable," Swann said.

"It's anybody's guess what's going on there ... it's up to the justice minister to find out."

As of 2017, there were 50 forensic pathologists practicing across Canada. Swann said the specialists are in very short supply across Canada as the role requires at least an extra five years of training on top of a medical degree.

In December 2016, Dr. Elizabeth Brooks-Lim was named Alberta's chief medical examiner after serving in the position for just five months following the departure of the previous medical examiner Dr. Jeffery Gofton.

Story continues

Gofton quit in 2016 after less than 18 months on the job.

Gofton had replaced Dr. Anny Sauvageau, who sued Alberta Justice for wrongful dismissal, alleging her contract was not renewed after she stood up to political interference at work.

In 2011, all of Calgary's medical examiners resigned. Two cited taxing workloads; the other stepped down after an investigation into errors in his autopsy reports.

The medical examiners perform an average of 4,000 post-mortem examinations each year, and investigate nearly 20,000 deaths, according to the office's website.

- MORE CALGARY NEWS | Body discovered in northeast Calgary community of Marlborough Park

- MORE CALGARY NEWS | Five Calgary city councillors talk about their real namesThis article originally appeared on The Conversation.

President Donald Trump is set to become the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader after accepting Kim Jong Uns invitation for direct nuclear talks.

This will put Trumps ability as a self-professed deal-maker to the test. Although the North has agreed to refrain from any nuclear explosive and ballistic missile tests leading up to and during the talks, any larger agreement on a nuclear freeze or roll back will require patient diplomacy.

Trending: Who Are Stormy Daniels' Ex-Husbands, Michael Mosny and Pat Myne?

Trump Kim Jong Un

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque, KCNA/Handout

Ive worked on issues related to nuclear diplomacy and nonproliferation at the State Department and Department of Defense, and in academia. In my view, it is clear that the United States will have to make significant concessions to achieve a comprehensive permanent agreement.

Negotiations at this high a level present an opportunity, but it will be challenging. We can gain important insights from past negotiations.

Negotiating with North Korea

North Koreas Kim Jong Ilthe current leaders late fatherand Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, have frequently been characterized as crazy, irrational and unpredictable. But both negotiated with the United States and other parties. During the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, they did what rational actors do  tried to get the best deal they could that satisfied North Koreas interests.

Some analysts argue that Pyongyang didnt honor the agreements that were achieved in those negotiations. This is only partially true. What happened is more complicated than many critics of diplomacy often admit.

In 1994, President Bill Clintons administration negotiated what was dubbed the Agreed Framework. In return for freezing operation of its nuclear reactor and plutonium reprocessing plant at Yongbyong, North Korea would get two more proliferation-resistant light water nuclear power reactors, the removal of sanctions and a commitment to eventually normalize relations between the two countries. While the reactors were being built, a U.S.-led consortium would provide North Korea with shipments of heavy fuel oil to address its power needs.

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But Congress was slow to remove sanctions on Pyongyang, as they had agreed to do. Movement on construction of the light water reactors was hampered by a number of factors, which infuriated North Korea.

The deal fell apart when the Bush administration took over and accused North Korea of clandestinely developing a uranium enrichment program or another route to the material necessary for a nuclear weapon.

While a uranium enrichment program did indeed signal that North Korea might still be pursuing a nuclear weapons option, it was not technically a violation of the Agreed Framework. Had the Bush administration addressed the uranium enrichment issue separately, I believe it might have saved the agreement and frozen the Norths nuclear program.

Instead, the entire deal collapsed in 2002. North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty the following year and continued to develop its weapons, testing its first in 2006. As a former senior George W. Bush official told me in 2007, the ABC policyanything but Clintonwas the initial major motivator for abandoning engagement as a policy with North Korea.

Kim Jong-Un

Getty

Negotiations today

Much like with the Iran nuclear deal, American hard-liners argue that the only acceptable outcome with North Korea is complete nuclear disarmament with little offered in return. In my view, however, the U.S. will have to make concessions to curb Pyongyangs nuclear program, as it did before.

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With Iran, the Bush administration adhered to the hard-liner approach for much of the 2000s, and was unable to reach a deal. By contrast, the North Koreans have even more leverage than Iranians, who did not have nuclear weapons, but only aspirations. North Korea already has at least two dozen nuclear weapons acquired despite being the target of international sanctions since the early 2000s. That is why I believe a hard-line approach would likely not be successful.

The North has apparently agreed to refrain from missile and nuclear tests during talks. But the U.S. must be careful not to let other provocative actions, not directly related to the specific issues under negotiation, derail negotiations.

North Korea has tried the patience of negotiators before. For example, after the conclusion of the Agreed Framework, North Korea flight-tested a Taepodong-1 missile in 1998. Adding to the provocative nature of that move, the missile flew over Japan, angering the U.S. Congress and prompting Japan to cut off food aid. But North Koreas test was technically not a violation of the Agreed Framework.

Eleven years later, during the Bush administration, the North launched a satellite, which was likely a test of ICBM capability than an actual attempt at putting a satellite into orbit. The launch was condemned by the United Nations, which subsequently promised sanctions as punishmentprompting North Korea to leave the talks for good. While it is true that the launch violated U.N. resolutions, missile tests were not part of the ongoing Six Party Talks on denuclearization.

Trump as lead negotiator

Trump engaging directly with Kim Jong Un may be both an opportunity and a liability. Trump has no experience with delicate negotiations. He is not averse to taking bold positions (as a candidate, he welcomed direct talks with Kim Jong Un, suggesting they eat hamburgers over discussions). He has also backtracked on agreements when they are negatively viewed by Republicans or when media coverage makes it appear as if hes giving in.

Experienced negotiators could help. Veteran diplomat Robert Gallucci, former Defense Secretary William Perry and Ambassador Christopher Hill were instrumental in previous nuclear talks. But the Trump administration has appointed few top-level East Asia experts. Trumps special representative for North Korea is leaving government and his nominee for ambassador to Seoul recently withdrew.

Whatever the makeup of the negotiating team, the United States will have to adjust its expectations and be creative in dealing with a country with a more advanced nuclear weapons and missile program than the North Korea of 1994. The past indicates that negotiating with North Korea is not an impossible or fruitless endeavor. However, at this point, a complete rollback of Pyongyangs nuclear weapons and program is highly unlikely.

Only one state, South Africa, has ever given up its nuclear weapons. But that does not mean the U.S. shouldnt try or that a summit that does not yield such a sweeping agreement is a failure. After all, the Agreed Framework took one year of talks and the Iran nuclear deal took almost two years to negotiate.

This article is an updated version of an article originally published on August 15, 2017.

Jeffrey Fields, Associate Professor of the Practice of International Relations, University of Southern CaliforniaDornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

The Conversation

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekISTANBUL (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey had begun operations in Iraq's Sinjar region, an area where it has threatened a military incursion, two days after sources said Kurdish PKK militants would withdraw from the area. "We said we would go into Sinjar. Now operations have begun there. The fight is internal and external," Erdogan told a crowd in the Black Sea province of Trabzon, without elaborating on what operations he was referring to. Iraq's Joint Operations Command denied that any foreign forces had crossed the border into Iraq. "The operations command confirmed that the situation in Nineveh, Sinjar and the border areas was under the control of Iraqi security forces and there is no reason for troops to cross the Iraqi border into those areas," it said in a statement. Sources in Sinjar said there was no unusual military activity in the area on Sunday. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state for decades. President Tayyip Erdogan said last week they were creating a new base in Sinjar, and that Turkish forces would attack if necessary. Sources in northern Iraq said on Friday the PKK would withdraw from Sinjar, where it gained a foothold in 2014 after coming to the aid of the Yazidi minority community, who were under attack by Islamic State militants. The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, has for decades been based in Iraq's Qandil mountain range, near the border with Iran. Turkish troops and their rebel allies swept into northwest Syria's Afrin town this month, the culmination of an eight-week campaign to drive Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters from the region. Turkey sees the YPG as terrorists and an extension of the outlawed PKK. Erdogan has vowed to extend the military operation along the Syrian border and on Sunday said the Turkish-led forces would take control of the town of Tel Rifaat. Many civilians and YPG have gathered in and around Tel Rifaat after Turkey seized control of Afrin. It is a Kurdish-controlled enclave, cut off from a larger expanse of Kurdish territory in the northeast of Syria. The United Nations said last week that around 75,000 people had been displaced to Tel Rifaat and surrounding areas from Afrin, and more were expected to come. (Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington in Beirut and Raya Jalabi in Baghdad.; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Kevin Liffey)Floridas Greenway Fire merged with a second wildfire in Collier County on Monday, March 26, after the fire had burned through thousands of acres over the weekend.

The fire had burned through more than 7,000 acres and was at 25 percent contained Monday morning before it merged with the 116th Avenue Fire, according to the Greater Naples Fire Rescue District.

A windshift pushed the fire into Collier-Seminole State Park, and firefighters were defending buildings in Seminole Indian Reservation Village, according to the Florida Forest Service. Winds also were expected to push the fire back into an area that was previously burned. Roads also were closed because of low visibility due to the smoke and flames near the roadway.

The fire has been burning since last Wednesday and was ignited by lighting, a news report said.

The Collier County Sheriffs Office released video of its helicopter assisting with fighting the fire over the weekend. Credit: Collier County Sheriffs Office via StoryfulBy Philip Pullella and Yimou Lee VATICAN CITY/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Five blocks from the Vatican, on the bustling, tourist-packed street leading to St. Peter's Basilica, a Taiwanese flag flutters from the window of a third story suite of offices that house Taipei's embassy to the Holy See. These days, the staff inside are anxious. They know that one night they may have to lower that flag - red and blue with a white sun - for the last time. As the Vatican and China move closer to a historic deal on the appointment of bishops, which would signal a warming of once-frigid relations, diplomats and scholars say Taiwan could lose the most from the deal.. Under the deal, the Vatican will have a say in negotiations for the appointment of future bishops in China, whose Catholics are divided between an "underground" Church loyal to the pope and a government-backed Church. Even a partial resolution of the issue could open the way for eventual diplomatic relations between Beijing and the Vatican. That would give the Church a legal framework to look after all of China's estimated 12 million Catholics. It would also leave Taiwan in the diplomatic lurch. The Vatican is one of only 20 states that still recognize Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China. Beijing insists that if countries want relations with it they must break ties with Taiwan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said last month that China had always been sincere in its efforts to improve China-Vatican relations. A senior Vatican official said however that the accord on bishops "is not a political one," suggesting that it does not include any formal link to diplomatic relations and that the Vatican will not be the next country to switch relations to China from Taiwan. Catholic leaders in Taipei are also hopeful. "They (the Vatican and Beijing) won't build diplomatic ties. You need to share common values with each other in order to establish diplomatic ties," Archbishop John Hung of Taipei told Reuters in an interview in Taipei. "The values the Vatican holds are different from those of the Chinese Communist Party. Building ties with the Vatican requires values including freedom and democracy." Hung said the Church in Taiwan is "sleeping well at night". But for how long? LESSER CHILDREN? Some experts say diplomatic ties between Beijing and the Vatican are inevitable, even if probably not right around the corner. "The Church does not have preference among its children and it's clear that the Vatican does not want to do anything to displease Catholics on Taiwan" said Agostino Giovagnoli, a history professor at Milan's Sacred Heart Catholic University and the author of two books on Catholicism in China. "But strategically the Catholics on the mainland are more important because the future of evangelization of China and all Asia passes through China. It is key for the Catholic Church," he told Reuters. While Taiwan's embassy to the Vatican proudly flies the flag from its window, hosts cultural events and publishes a newsletter, the Vatican's counterpart in Taipei is a study in low-key diplomacy. It is located in a quiet residential neighborhood in the city's Daan distinct. The only clue of its function is the papal stem of crossed keys and a tiara, or crown. That symbol is not widely known to the general public. The Vatican's last diplomat on the mainland was expelled in 1951 and the Holy See mission settled in Taiwan, to where Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government fled in 1949 after its defeat by the communist armies of Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Since the 1970s, following the United Nations vote to recognize the PRC as the sole legal China, the Vatican has not appointed a nuncio, or ambassador, to Taiwan. It has kept the status of the mission at the lower level of "charge d'affaires ad interim" since. Diplomats say the Vatican's low profile in Taiwan for four decades has been aimed at placating Beijing, which still sees Taiwan and its sacred territory. DIPLOMATIC SHOCKWAVES In 1999, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, then Secretary of State under Pope John Paul, sent shockwaves through Taiwan's diplomatic corps. He said the Vatican was ready to move its embassy from Taipei to China "not tomorrow, but tonight if the Chinese authorities allow it". In Vatican directories and diplomatic lists, the ambassador from Taiwan, currently Matthew Shieh-Ming Lee, is listed under "China," not "Republic of China," which is Taiwan's official name now, and was China's official name before 1949. The ambiguity is not accidental, diplomats say. By keeping the listing vague and generic, the Vatican has avoided further irritating Beijing as it has tried to seek an agreement about Catholics on the mainland. It also would make it easier for the Vatican to move its embassy to Beijing eventually while claiming that it is not really abandoning Taiwan, where it would likely leave an "apostolic" representation to the local Church. "It is very interesting that both sides are putting the question of diplomatic relations at the very end of the road, on the horizon," Giovagnoli, the history professor, said. He said that because China's diplomatic and economic strength has grown enormously over the past few decades, it no longer craves the Vatican's diplomatic recognition as it did in the past, making a gradual political rapprochement after a deal on bishops is signed more likely than quick recognition. "Diplomatic recognition is no longer a quid-pro-quo for a deal on the naming of bishops as it once was," Giovagnoli said. Those who will likely feel most hurt if the Vatican eventually does realign its political relations with Taiwan are the island's 300,000 Catholics. While they make up less than 2 percent of the island's population, they are disproportionately influential. Taiwan Vice President Chen Chien-jen is a devout Catholic and visited the Vatican in 2016 for the canonization of Mother Teresa. The Fu Jen Catholic University is considered highly prestigious. The Taiwan Catholic Regional Seminary trains priests from many parts of Asia, including China. (Writing by Philip Pullella; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Giles Elgood)We dont want war. We will not call for a military war with Israel. Whoever has [weapons]  go ahead and do it. I say this out in the open. If you have weapons, go ahead. Im with you, and I will help you. Anyone who has weapons can go ahead. I dont have weapons. I want the peaceful political path to reach a settlement. I see that there are only a few supporters of peace here. All the others are into war. The Americans are always telling us that we must stop paying salaries to the families of the martyrs and the prisoners. We categorically reject this demand. Under no circumstances will we allow the families of the martyrs, the wounded, and the prisoners to be harmed. These are our children, our families. We are proud of them, and we will pay them before we pay the living.1

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

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..Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs..25 March '18..Thes Fact Checkers column, Does the Palestinian Authority pay $350 million a year to terrorists and their families? (March 14, 2018), was less successful at fact-checking than at whitewashing the official Palestinian Authority policy of promoting and incentivizing terror by rewarding terrorists.Glenn Kesslers article represents some of the major problems with the attitude of Western media toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It verifies that the Palestinian Authority pays huge sums to perpetrators of terrorist acts and their families and confirms that the PA operates two organizations dedicated to this purpose. It also affirms that the salaries are malignly promised in advance to the terrorists and grow as the violence perpetrated causes greater damage.Yet it fails in its unmandated moral exploration and judgment of what constitutes terror. Appallingly, it excuses payments to civilian attackers for intentional violence against innocents to promote political and religious goals. After 9/11, ISIS massacres, and Palestinian murders of Jews, Kessler shamefully resorts to the sloppy and evil excuse: this brings us back to the cliche that one mans terrorist is another persons freedom fighter.As Ambassador Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, noted: Kessler enters the swamp of moral relativism, which in the current context means that no one is in a position to judge even the most heinous terror attacks, and this leads to terror with impunity and the world becomes more dangerous as international standards are not upheld.This attitude ignores the context. The terrorists are paid in accordance with Palestinian Authority law that defines them as the fighting sector of Palestinian society. There are two PA Institutions established by law to provide for the prisoners and martyrs, which are allocated $350 million in the official PA budget for 2017. In addition, Palestinian leaders regularly honor terrorists, erect memorials to commemorate them, and PA curricula and media praise them. This reflects the Palestinian narrative that regards the ongoing struggle against Zionism as an imperative for any Palestinian until victory. This is the logic behind the terror payments that is ignored, but should not be,Secondly, this attitude also ignores the Palestinian Authority commitment to the Oslo Accords, according to which the PA is supposed to fight terror and incitement to terror.Third, those who adopt this attitude are ready to tolerate violence. The PA promotes acts of stone throwing, stabbing, and vehicular attacks that go far beyond civil disobedience. If the PA insists that the Prisoners Commission and Martyrs Institution only provide benefits for freedom fighters, then it must also acknowledge that they are in an open state of war against the Israel civilian population.Fourth, this attitude relies heavily on biased NGOs without mentioning their the demonization of Israel. In an attempt to justify mentioning their information to justify the pay-to-slay policy, Kessler cites the Palestinians claim that prison payments are an effort to rebalance a deeply unfair system under occupation.In fact, this is not the real justification Palestinians use to defend their policy of salaries to terrorists. The PA sees terrorists as warriors and heroes sent on their mission by the Palestinian authorities, as noted, for example, on the Prisoners Commission website and suicide martyr posters. This is why the PA leadership, including Mahmoud Abbas himself, insists that they will keep paying terrorists under any circumstances. On January 14, 2018, Abbas addressed the PLO Central Council, saying:Fifth, the Fact Checker has apparently redacted the information provided to him by the PA. Some of the information from the PA detailed how the PA spends its money on the terrorists. Most, but not all, is defined as salaries, and the rest are other benefits to the terrorists (health insurance, legal services, education fees, etc.) that add to their salaries. The salaries themselves amount to more than 70 percent of the total budget allocated to the terrorists over the years.In the end, just one fact matters: The PA proudly and by its own law pays a very considerable amount of money every year to promote terror by rewarding terrorists who are either incarcerated in Israeli jails or died in the context of their terror activity. There is a sliding scale of payments: The more harm the perpetrators wreak in their terror acts, the higher are their salaries and benefits.While trying to impugn Prime Minister Netanyahus correct assertion that the total 2017 funding of the Prisoner and Martyr Program is $350 million, Kessler misses the purpose of these entities.The Fact Checkersjudgment misses the main point: the PA terror payments policy incentivizes terror that has claimed thousands of lives, including those of Americans. Providing any justification or rationalization for this is outrageous, immoral, illegal, and unacceptable. Ending this moral obfuscation may pave the road to peace. Ignoring it will eternalize the current impasse and encourage more terror.* * *NoteUpdates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

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..Austrailian..24 March '18..The moment is right for fresh thinking in order to dispatch the old and stale Palestinian-Israeli conflict.With Arabs focused on other issues  the Iranian nuclear weapon build-up, civil wars in Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, Turkey going rogue, the Islamist surge, and the water drought  hoary anti-Zionist taboos have lost much of their pungency. A prosperous and strong Israel has lost hope in decades' worth of "peace process." The cowboy in the White House likes breaking with precedent. And the global Left's turn toward antisemitism, exemplified by Jeremy Corbyn of the British Labour Party, adds further reason for urgency; when it eventually holds power, the implications for Israel will be dire.Conventional wisdom holds that the Arab-Israeli conflict will end only when the Palestinians' grievances are sufficiently satisfied so that they accept the Jewish state of Israel. This paradigm has reigned almost unchallenged since the Oslo Accords of September 1993; yet, that 25-year period has also made clear that Palestinians in overwhelming numbers (I estimate 80 percent based on scholarship and polling data going back a century) seek not peaceful co-existence with Israel but the brutal elimination of the "Zionist entity." With such attitudes, it comes as no surprise that every round of much-hyped negotiations has eventually failed.I shall propose an entirely different approach to resolve the conflict, a reversion to the strategy of deterrence and victory associated with Zionism's great strategist, Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880-1940): Israel should aim not to please its enemies but to defeat them. Counterintuitively, I shall show why Palestinians need precisely such an Israel Victory to slough off their current oppression, extremism, and violence, and to become a successful people.Artificial Intelligence

Cornell Researchers Use AI to Understand Students' Math Struggles

Cornell University researchers are working on software that will help math teachers understand what their students were thinking that led them to finding incorrect answers.

Erik Andersen, assistant professor of computer science at Cornell, said that teachers spend a lot of time grading math homework because grading is more complicated than just marking an answer as right or wrong.

"What the teachers are spending a lot of time doing is assigning partial credit and working individually to figure out what students are doing wrong," Andersen said in a prepared statement. "We envision a future in which educators spend less time trying to reconstruct what their students are thinking and more time working directly with their students."

To help teachers get through their grading and understand where students need more help, Andersen and his team have been building an algorithm that reverse engineers the way students arrived at their answers.

They began with a dataset of addition and subtraction problems solved  or not  by about 300 students and tried to infer what the students had done right or wrong.

"This was technically challenging, and the solution interesting," said Andersen in a news release. "We worked to come up with an efficient data structure and algorithm that would help the system sort through an enormous space of possible things students could be thinking. We found that 13 percent of these students made clear systematic procedural mistakes, and the researchers' algorithm learned to replicate 53 percent of these mistakes in a way that seemed accurate. The key is that we are not giving the right answer to the computer  we are asking the computer to infer what the student might be doing wrong. This tool can actually show a teacher what the student is misunderstanding, and it can demonstrate procedural misconceptions to an educator as successfully as a human expert."

Eventually the researchers hope to develop a program that will be able to offer teachers reports on learning outcomes to improve instruction and differentiation. For now, the tool only works with addition and subtraction problems, but the team plans to expand to algebra and more complicated equations eventually.

For more information, go to cs.cornell.edu.Co-sponsored by the eminent Professor Richard Dawkins (author of the God Delusion), this headline was audaciously splashed across the sides of around 800 London buses, back in 2009.

Cringe as we might, and reel from the acute pain of offense. Notwithstanding the advertising campaign supported by Atheists from all over the UK, was borne of genuine concern. From their perspective, (ie no God) people should not suffer anxiety, when they fail to act morally (guilt is bad). After all, no punishment will await us, when we exit this life. Just the deafening sound of silence, so they say.

Here We Encounter the Unholy Union of Science and Atheism

Surprisingly, modern science was not conceived in the womb of Atheism, but in that of the Christian faith. Kepler, Newton, Galileo & company were all believers in the Christian God. When they measured the natural world and space, they saw mathematical regularity, which in turn lead to the laws of nature (gravity and alike). For them the mathematical description of the world pointed to a divine mind, who ordered it thus, and was contingent upon God.

Today, we have the complete reverse. Dawkins and his fellow Atheists insist that belief in God is thoroughly unscientific. He contends that when we know the mechanism, then the childish notion of a god, in completely unnecessary.

After watching the famous Dawkins vs Lennox debate. Has Science Buried God? (Thrice, I know I need to get out more). I was impressed by Dawkins sincerity, he genuinely believes that removing God from our world, is doing humanity a great service. He earnestly reasons that wed all be happier and better off without the Christian God.

Does the Mechanism Remove the Need For God, or Does It Evince His Existence?

On the one hand, as Lennox so clearly contends, knowing the mechanism of how something works, (in Dawkins case Natural Selection) doesnt prove there is no God, but rather shows us there is a divine mind behind the mechanism and design that we see all around us.

While on the other hand, Dawkins attributes the origin of the species (ie the diverse range of life forms on the planet, but not life itself) to Natural Selection. He contends that Natural Selection is a blind, mechanical and automatic force, which creates the illusion of design.

But when it comes to the origin of life itself, he and his peers have no answers. They cant explain how matter (atoms and molecules) became living cells, which can reproduce, generate energy and perform hundreds of other diverse functions.

We are left empty handed for an explanation, when it comes to explain, how life came from non-life (atoms), how everything came from nothing, how from the chaos of disorder, we find order, in a finely tuned universe. And whence came the infinitely complex genetic coding of DNA, which causes cells to repair and to diversify into various organs. There is an embarrassing silence from the scientific community on these questions, so I guess they want us to believe that by faith these stupendous marvels occurred by some process that we dont understand yet, but we can be sure they arent the result of the activity of an omnipotent God (pardon my sarcasm).

An Amoral Universe Removes Justice and Hope

The evangelical fervor with which Dawkins promoted his case for Evolution was touching. Hes affection for Natural Selection (the mechanism which removes God from the origin of life) was palpable.

But his joy quickly turned to confusion, when Lennox exposed a fatal flaw in his Atheist belief system, which doesnt address the existential issue of injustice and human suffering. Suffering and injustice are real. Just because they lie outside the limits of sciences ability to measure, doesnt prove that they dont exist.

Human history is littered with carnage of unspeakable suffering and injustice. In the last century alone, 6 million innocent Jews slaughtered, 2 million Cambodians murdered at the hands of tyrants. Child slavery, child sexual abuse, murder, starvation and torture, to name but a few of our present-day iniquities. What of these?

Dawkins reply to these veritable horrors was and I quote So What. Cold comfort for a mother, whose son was killed in a street fight or a father whose daughter was gang raped. So What is screamingly inadequate, in fact its pathetic.

This is a Moral Universe

God said to Cain Your brothers blood cries out to me, from the ground. Showing theres a transcendent aspect to Sin, it is tantamount to an assault on the throne of God. Sin and injustice are not petty as Dawkins believes, they matter to us and supremely to God.

Thats why he sacrificed his Son to deal with it. Anything less than a Holy (moral) God is unbecoming of the creator of this limitless cosmos, of life in all its glorious array. If God were not Holy, then hes reduced to a type grand architect, or engineering genius, but also a monster, because hed be incapable of dealing with the injustice of sin.

Vic Matthews, has three degrees B.Optom, B.Arts & B. Christian Studies. He is a kiteboard tragic, who now works as a Christian Copywriter. He can be found at http://trustworthycopywriter.com/writing-services/christian-copywriter/

Vic Matthews' previous articles may be viewed http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/vic-matthews.htmlDrew Estate has announced its 2018 Barn Smoker Schedule. This year, the events return to Florida, Connecticut, Kentucky, and Louisiana; but there also will be a new venue added  Strasburg, Pennsylvania.

The Barn Smoker concept is an event unique to Drew Estate. It allows the consumer to go on-site to learn about how tobacco is grown and processed by the people who do the work. This will include tours of the barns, listening to people involved firsthand in the process, and tasting tobaccos.

Below is the schedule of the events. Tickets can be purchased by clicking on the link. All event times run 10am to 5pm.

The Cigar Coop Prime Time Show will be in Orlando, Florida at Corona Cigar Company interviewing the host of the Florida Barn Smoker, Jeff Borysiewicz on May 17, 2018.MONDAY, March 26, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- E-cigarettes did not help people quit smoking, a small study found, but the researchers said more studies are needed to determine if the devices could play some role in smoking cessation.

The investigation included more than 1,300 adult smokers who had been hospitalized and said they intended to quit smoking after being discharged from the hospital.

They received either usual care -- support services and recommendations on medications to help them quit smoking -- or an intervention that gave them their choice of medications to help them quit smoking and automated phone calls providing advice and encouragement.

Both groups were told they could use e-cigarettes if they wanted and more than one-quarter of them used the electronic devices in the three months after leaving the hospital. E-cigarette use was higher in the usual care group than in the intervention group.

Nearly 70 percent of study participants who used e-cigarettes said they did so to help them quit smoking, and frequency of use ranged from about once a week to once a day.

After six months, patients who used e-cigarettes were less likely to have quit smoking than those who didn't use the devices, according to the study.

But the researchers noted that the study doesn't prove definitively that e-cigarettes don't help people quit smoking.

"Study participants who used e-cigarettes generally used them infrequently and not every day, a pattern that may not be an effective way to use them for quitting smoking," said study leader Dr. Nancy Rigotti. She directs the Tobacco Research and Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

"It does not prove that e-cigarettes could not be of benefit if a smoker switches completely from tobacco cigarettes and uses them [e-cigarettes] regularly, in the same way that FDA-approved nicotine replacement products are intended to be used," Rigotti said in a hospital news release.

"These results indicate the urgent need for randomized, controlled trials to investigate whether e-cigarettes can help smokers to quit, which have been difficult to do in the U.S. because of regulatory challenges," she said.

"In the meantime, I would tell smokers who want to quit or cut down to use one of the FDA-approved smoking cessation medications, which are known to be safe and effective, as a first choice," Rigotti said.

"If they do choose to try e-cigarettes, they should switch completely from tobacco cigarettes and use e-cigarettes daily, something the American Cancer Society has recently recommended," Rigotti added.

The findings were published March 26 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

More information

The American Cancer Society offers a guide to quitting smoking.MONDAY, March 26, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Teen boys in the United States are less likely than girls to be vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) because many doctors don't recommend the shots to boys' parents, researchers say.

HPV is a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical, vulvar, vaginal, penile, anal, mouth and throat cancers. The HPV vaccine is recommended as a routine childhood vaccination.

"It is clear that physicians need to give a strong recommendation to both parents of boys and girls," said study author Dr. Anna Beavis, a gynecologic oncologist fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

"They also need to remind parents of the importance of getting all doses, which makes the vaccine the most effective in preventing HPV," she added.

It's recommended that all children between ages 11 and 12 be vaccinated. The HPV vaccine can be given as three doses if started after the child's 15th birthday, or just two doses if started before, Beavis said.

For the new study, researchers analyzed data from a 2015 national immunization survey of U.S. parents of teens ages 13 to 17.

One in five parents of teen boys said they did not intend to have their son vaccinated against HPV mainly because their doctor did not recommend it. That was true for just one in 10 parents of teen girls.

The findings were presented Sunday at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology's annual meeting, in New Orleans.

The survey also revealed parents' lack of knowledge about the HPV vaccine.

"In general, the most common reason parents do not vaccinate both boys and girls was a misperception that the HPV vaccine is not necessary," Beavis said in a society news release. This was reported by 20 percent of parents of girls and 1 in 10 parents of boys.

The study also found that parents of girls were more likely than parents of boys to be concerned about the vaccine's safety or side effects, and to think the vaccine wasn't necessary because their child was not sexually active.

Clearly, there's a need for doctors to educate parents on the necessity and safety of the vaccine, Beavis said.

"Unfortunately, HPV vaccination rates in the U.S. continue to lag behind those of other Westernized nations," she said. The most recent data from 2016 "shows that only 65 percent of girls had initiated the HPV vaccination compared to 56 percent of boys."

Those rates could be improved if doctors strongly recommended to parents that their children get the HPV vaccine, Beavis said.

Research presented at meetings is usually considered preliminary until peer-reviewed for publication in a medical journal.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on HPV vaccination.Share this: Twitter

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Nairobi, March 26, 2018The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Ethiopian authorities to release five journalists. Security forces yesterday arrested Eskinder Nega, Temesghen Desalegn, Zone 9 bloggers Befekadu Hailu and Mahlet Fantahun, and Zelalem Workagegnehu, who were gathered at Temesghens house in Addis Ababa, according to reports and a statement by the Swiss-based Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia. All five have previously been imprisoned for their journalism, according to CPJ research.

Authorities have not publicly disclosed any charges against the journalists. Under the state of emergency Ethiopia declared in February, permission is needed to host large gatherings and authorities can carry out arrests without warrant, according to a report by the state-owned Ethiopian News Agency.

We call on Ethiopian authorities to disclose what crime they accuse these journalists of committing or release them at once, said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal in New York. Ethiopia must not use the state of emergency as a pretext to muzzle critical journalists, particularly those who already have suffered unimaginably during previous imprisonments.

The detentions came amid a wider round of arrests in Ethiopia in recent days, according to reports by the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia and the Addis Standard.Share this: Twitter

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New York, March 26, 2018 -Yemeni authorities should investigate an attack on a media foundations offices and the abduction of at least seven people from the building, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Armed attackers on March 23 broke into the media foundations Aden offices, where the daily Akhbar al-youm and the weekly al-Shomou are printed, and abducted at least seven people, according to the foundations director Saif al-Haderi and news reports.

According to reports, the abductees are in an unknown location. CPJ is withholding their names for security reasons.

Journalists in Yemen would appear to be at risk everywhere  on the street, in their homes and their places of work, said CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney. The authorities must do everything to find those who have been kidnapped and return them safely to their families.

The Interior Ministry did not respond to CPJs message sent through its website asking if the ministry was investigating the abductions and the raid.

Al-Haderi told CPJ that unidentified gunmen on March 23 also took money, cameras, and other recording equipment from the foundations office. The director said that gunmen looted his house the same day.

The media foundation and its papers, which focus on Yemeni news, are close to the countrys internationally recognized government and Vice President Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, Yemeni Journalists Syndicate co-chair Nabeel Alosaidi previously told CPJ.

Previously, unknown attackers on March 1 raided the al-Shomou Foundations offices and set fire to the Akhbar al-Youm and Al-Shomou printing presses, CPJ documented at the time.

Violations against journalists are widespread throughout Yemen, with at least 15 journalists killed since civil war erupted in the country in 2014.Share this: Twitter

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Beirut, March 26, 2018The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Kurdistan Regional Government to investigate immediately attacks against local journalists covering regional protests.

Kurdish security forces have assaulted at least seven journalists and detained at least two while they were reporting on anti-austerity protests that began yesterday in Kurdistan, according to the local press freedom group Metro Center for Journalists Rights and Advocacy and Ragaz Kamal, co-founder of the local Iraqi human rights organization 17Shubat for Human Rights.

The authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan say repeatedly that they support a free press. The latest examples of thuggish behavior by some of their security forces tell a different story, said CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney from New York. The Kurdistan Regional Government must bring those responsible for assaulting reporters to justice and return all seized journalistic equipment and materials.

The Kurdistan Regional Governments Media and Information Department did not reply immediately to CPJs request for comment.

During protests today in the city of Erbil, Kurdish security forces assaulted and detained Araz Azziz and Muhalib Khorshawe, a reporter and cameraperson for Payam TV, according to Kamal and Payam TV, which is funded by the opposition Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG). Authorities released Azziz and Khorshawe without charges, Kamal told CPJ.

Azziz and Khorshawes equipment was also seized by security forces at the time of their detention, according to a statement from their employer.

In the same protests, security forces slapped and kicked Hana Chomani, a reporter for the independent news website Dwarozh, while he was filming, according to Kamal and a video that Chomani posted on his Twitter account. According to these sources, the security forces also threatened to imprison the journalist for six months and seized his camera and SIM card.

Yesterday, security forces in Erbil assaulted a four-person television crew from Nalia Radio and Television (NRT), according to the video footage NRT posted on its official Facebook account and the local press freedom group Metro Center for Journalists Rights and Advocacy.

NRT deputy newsroom manager Soran Rashid told CPJ that one of the channels reporters, Herish Qadir, was hit by a rubber bullet in his left leg while he was interviewing protesters. Plainclothes police then beat Rashid and Qadir with their hands and feet, and insulted Qadir and another NRT reporter, Renas Ali.

Plainclothes police in Erbil also beat up the two NRT camera operators, Mohammed Idriss and Amanj Sami, and seized their cameras. Idriss right hand was broken in the shuffle. Rashid, Qadir, Idriss and Sami all went to a city hospital for treatment, according to Rashid. Police have not returned their cameras, Rashid told CPJ.

In Duhok, located approximately 95 miles west of Erbil, Rashid said that security forces yesterday prevented NRT reporter Samad Rekany from covering local anti-austerity protests.

According to news reports, the Kurdistan Regional Government is experiencing financial difficulties due to strained relations with Baghdad and plummeting oil prices. These conditions prompted authorities to make budget cuts and slash civil servants pay setting off regional protests.The twelfth edition of Earth Hour was observed across the world on 24 March 2018 to take a global call on climate change. To mark this day, cities worldwide turned their lights off for one hour from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm local time.

Give Up to Give Back Initiative

On the occasion of Earth Hour, World Wide Fund (WWF)-India made strong pitch for Give Up to Give Back. This initiative aims to inspire organisations, institutions and individuals to make choice to curb some habits, practices and lifestyles that burden our lives and environment. It includes taking steps like giving up giving up fossil fuels, single-use plastics, giving up lonely car rides for your employees, give up e-waste.

Earth Hour

Earth Hour is peoples movement inspiring individuals to take stand against climate change. It is organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) with an aim to enable harmonious existence of human and wildlife. It aims at encouraging people to turn off their non-essential equipments to promote conservation and sustainable energy. Its goal is to raise awareness for sustainable energy use and create a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle. The first Earth Hour was held on March 31, 2007 in Sydney, Australia. Now it has become worlds largest grassroots movement for the environment, inspiring millions of people to take action for our planet and nature.The first-ever International Print Biennale, an International Exhibition of Graphic Prints was held in New Delhi. It was organised by Lalit Kala Akademi.

Key Facts

The event comprised displaying of total 200 original prints are created by Indian and international artists of impeccable competence. An exhibition Eminent Printmakers of India showcasing master Indian printmakers was also held on sidelines of it. The international participants from USA, UK, Sri Lanka, Italy, Mexico, China, Israel, Sweden, Lithuania, Poland, Argentina, Greece, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Mauritius also had participated in the event. Total 988 entries at the national level were received of which 127 were chosen for display.

Lalit Kala Akademi

It is also called as National Academy of Art. It is Indias national academy of fine arts. It is autonomous organisation It was established in 1954 to promote and propagate understanding of Indian art, in and outside the country. It provides scholarships and fellow program and sponsors and organises exhibitions in India and overseas. It publishes bilingual journal. It is funded by Ministry of Culture. Its headquartered are at Ravindra Bhawan, New Delhi.Sri Lanka: Tamil Nadu Fishermen Chased Away; Fishing Nets Snapped by Sri Lankan Navy

More than 2000 Tamil Nadu fishermen were chased away by the Sri Lankan navy for entering in their territorial waters on Sunday. The Sri Lankan navy snapped the fishing nets of 30 boats. Rameswaram Fishermen Association President S Emerit said that the fishermen had ventured into the sea in 565 boats on Saturday and were fishing off Katchatheevu when the Sri Lankan naval personnel came to the spot and chased them away. He demanded center to take action and take steps in this regard.



Detention of Indian fishermen by Lankan authorities is frequent, as they often cross the International Maritime Boundary Line for fishing in its waters. On March 3, over 2,500 fishermen from Rameswaram were allegedly chased away by the Lankan Navy while they were fishing near Katchatheevu. Sri Lanka has long fumed over poaching and illegal fishing by Indian fishermen that it says deplete the catches of its own fishermen.



Katchatheevu is an uninhabited islet in the Palk Strait that was formed due to a volcanic eruption in the 14th century. The 285-acre land, strategically important for fishing activities, was owned by the Raja of Ramnad (Ramanathapuram) and later became part of the Madras Presidency after the delimitation of Gulf of Mannar and Palk Strait during British rule between the then governments of Madras and Ceylon. In 1921, both Sri Lanka and India claimed this piece of land for fishing and the dispute remained unsettled.Sri Lanka: State Fisheries Minister orders investigation into fire in the hi-tech fishing trawler on its maiden sail

March 26,2018 | Source: Colombo Page

State Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Dilip Wedaarachchi instructed officials to conduct a proper investigation into the fire that broke out in one of the two 60-foot long multi-day fishing trawler, which were handed over to the fishermen under the state assistance program, on its maiden voyage.



The Director General of the Department of Fisheries was informed in writing to investigate the fire immediately and submit a report to the Minister. The vessel "Janith Putha 2", had left the Dickowita fishery harbor on the 21st March and it was reported that the vessel caught fire shortly after it left the shore about 51 kilometers off Hikkaduwa.



The six fishermen in the burning vessel have been rescued by the fishermen in the other boat "Janith Putha 1" given under the government assistance program. Accordingly, State Minister Wedaarachchi instructed officials to conduct an investigation to identify the cause of the fire and submit a report to him immediately. The first 60-foot long multi-day vessel built at a cost of Rs. 60 million by the state-owned leading vessel builder Ceynor Foundation was launched in April last year. The new vessels have cold room facilities as well as expanded storage facilities to keep the fish fresh and equipped with several latest technological features to reduce post-harvest losses.Abdullah Hasan al-Zaher turns 22 today - his 7th birthday spent in prison, and his 4th birthday spent on death row after he was arrested in 2012 because of his participation in a peaceful protest. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) and the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) call on the government of Saudi Arabia to immediately release Abdullah, drop all charges against him, and institute a moratorium on the use of the death penalty with a view towards abolition.





Abdullah al-Zaher was only 15 years old when he was arrested by Saudi police on 3 March 2012 for his participation in a peaceful protest. Saudi authorities did not present a warrant. During his arrest, Saudi police shot at Abdullah before beating him in the street with their weapons. He was eventually taken to the General Directorate of Investigation in Dammam, where Saudi authorities held him incommunicado and solitary detention for 3 months. During his detention, Saudi police tortured Abdullah by beating him all over his body with an iron wire. They then forced him to sign a confession without allowing him to read it.





Authorities held Abdullah in pre-trial detention for nearly 2 years during which time authorities severely restricted his access to his lawyer. He was eventually brought before a judge prior to his trial, but only so that the court could provide him with the list of charges against him. Abdullah's lawyer was not present at the time. Throughout Abdullah's trial, his lawyer was unable to access the evidence against him. On 21 October 2014, Saudi Arabia's Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) sentenced Abdullah to death. He was 18 at the time of his sentencing, and is currently at risk of being executed at any time, although Saudi Arabia is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Article 37 of which calls on State Parties to ensure that "No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" and also that no child shall be sentenced to capital punishment.





"Abdullah al-Zaher was just a child when he was arrested and tortured into confessing to crimes he did not commit. Saudi Arabia is ignoring its obligations under the CRC to refrain from using torture or capital punishment against children - solely to punish a minor for reportedly participating in a peaceful protest," says Husain Abdulla, Executive Director of ADHRB. "This birthday marks yet another year Abdullah has been unlawfully detained and at risk of imminent execution. The international community must step up and hold Saudi Arabia accountable to its international treaty commitments and call for Abdullah al-Zaher's immediate release."





Abdullah must not be allowed to spend another year in prison awaiting an unjust death sentence. ADHRB and ESOHR call on Saudi Arabia to immediately release him and to drop all charges against him, we further call on Saudi Arabia to respect and uphold its international obligations, including those outlined I the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to institute a moratorium on capital punishment with a view towards its abolition.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar WildeNew study explains why men will live as long as women by 2032. (Photo: Pixabay)

A new study has revealed by 2032, men will live as long as women, the Daily Mail reported.

Within the next 15 years, life expectancy will be the same for both sexes. Now, women who marry at 30, can enjoy a marriage for almost 58 years and six months, the report revealed.

The primary reason for this is because of smoking. The levels of smoking between the sexes contribute to 100,000 deaths a year in the UK. Data reveals men are quitting the habit much quicker than women.

This will be the first time that men will achieve parity with women since records began in 1841," Professor Les Mayhew, a statistics expert at Cass Business School, who conducted the research for the report Inequalities Matter, told the Daily Mail.

In the report, Baroness Greengross, chief executive of the International Longevity Centre UK said: "This is excellent news, but choose your partner wisely because you will be together for a very long time."

Adding, "There is no law of nature that says women must outlive men and this shows what happens when men look after themselves."

However, people cannot rely solely on the improvements made in public health to gain extra years, the study warns. Instead, they need to make better health choices and lifestyle changes.JOHANNESBURG: South Africa has detected an outbreak of avian flu in seabirds, citing the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain that infected the countrys poultry industry last year.

Last years outbreak resulted in poultry farmers culling millions of birds and prompted neighbouring countries including Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana to ban poultry imports from South Africa.

In the latest outbreak of H5N8 bird flu, seabird species including African penguins and Cape gannets have been affected across the countrys coastline, South Africas Department of Environmental Affairs said.

The department has stopped all research activities involving the handling of seabirds and warned the public to exercise caution when approaching seabirds in an effort to contain the outbreak.

This strain of bird flu has not been found to affect people, as was confirmed through testing of people in contact with infected chickens in South Africa in 2017. However, bird flu viruses can, in rare cases, cause infections in humans, the department said.

The H5N8 strain has been detected in several countries in Europe, Africa and Asia over the past two years, with its spread aided by wild bird migrations. Highly pathogenic among fowl, it poses little risk to human health.A fascinating new study has found putting exercise on hold can worsen your symptoms of depression in just three days, the Daily Mail reported.

Researchers reviewed six studies that looked into the impact of stopping physical activity in people with the mental health condition. They found symptoms like low mood showed up almost immediately.

"It is important that people understand the potential impact on their mental well-being when they suddenly cease regular exercise," study author Professor Bernhard Baune, from the University of Adelaide, told the Daily Mail.

Researchers have found that exercise increases endorphins, which helps boost your mood and help you relax.

According to the report, to maintain health and prevent depression, you need:

* 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week

* Or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise

The study also found no exercise affected women more than men.Indians and Pakistanis should have accepted by now that, irrespective of who is to blame, the two countries will not enjoy a cordial cooperative relationship in the foreseeable future. That being so, a page should be taken from the Sino-Indian book to minimise scope for friction and highlight only areas where positive action benefits either party, or both. At Chinas urging, India agreed to freeze the border dispute and develop other ties so that trade could expand. Similarly, it is in Indias interest to set aside contentious issues like Jammu and Kashmir and respond sympathetically to human situations concerning ordinary Pakistanis. The simple four-point protocol that the two foreign secretaries signed on September 14, 1974 to take note of the sentiments and devotion of the various communities in the two countries for the historic and sacred shrines in the other  so that 20 parties of pilgrims could cross the border every year  demonstrated far-sighted wisdom. Sikhs visit Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak who also first preached there, for Gurupurab. Pakistanis go to Ajmer for the annual Urs (death anniversary) ceremony of the Persian-born Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, whom many non-Muslims also revere as the Protector of the Poor. Its extremely unfortunate, therefore, that New Delhis reported refusal to grant visas prevented 503 Pakistani pilgrims (out of 3,000 who wanted to go) from participating in this months 10-day celebrations at Ajmer Sharif. Such action rankles with ordinary people and creates ill will and hostility at the popular  as distinct from the military, bureaucratic or political  level which India should court most assiduously.

Some reports suggest the refusal was a tit-for-tat response to what is described as the elite Islamabad Clubs rejection of Indias high commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisarias membership application. The club has since sought to explain that the application is still pending because Pakistans interior ministry must issue a no-objection certificate. If so, it means that Pakistanis dont know the gentlemanly codes on which such institutions are run in England, where they originated. At least two august London clubs, the Athenaeum and The Travellers, invite the accredited representatives of certain countries to become honorary members. Kolkatas Calcutta and Bengal Clubs do the same with some consuls-general. All four clubs are mature enough to understand that if the government has given what is called agrement in diplomatic parlance to a certain individual, he and his country must be above suspicion. If the Islamabad Club doesnt know this, Mr Bisaria would be justified in reconsidering his wish to join it. It isnt Indias job to teach Pakistan English etiquette or natural politeness. Its Indias duty as a responsible neighbour which abides by certain values and seeks stability in the region to ensure that political differences dont spill over to poison other areas of contact. This means not over-reacting to provocations like the club controversy, complaints about diplomats being ill-treated, the Pakistani high commissioners recall to Islamabad, and what amounts to the refusal by Pakistans commerce minister, Pervaiz Malik, to participate in the informal World Trade Organisation meeting that the Indian government hosted in New Delhi.

Lee Kuan Yew once explained to Rajiv Gandhi how Indonesias President Suharto, being similarly placed as leader of the regions biggest country, had earned the confidence of smaller neighbours. The first of the five points of the doctrine that Inder Kumar Gujral famously propounded as external affairs minister stipulated that with neighbours like Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, India does not ask for reciprocity, but gives and accommodates what it can in good faith and trust. He might have included Pakistan for, although much bigger than the other five, it sees itself as a small and vulnerable victim. India cant shrink to order, Manmohan Singh once told a foreign journalist in Singapore, but it can, like Indonesia, try to remove suspicions that might be inherent in the disparity in size. Narendra Modi began well by inviting Nawaz Sharif, along with the leaders of other South Asian countries, to his swearing-in ceremony in May 2014. But it may have been a bit over the top when, 19 months later, carried away by his own exuberance as he was returning from a day-long trip to Afghanistan after a two-day visit to Russia, he landed unexpectedly at Lahore airport to hug Mr Sharif before being whisked off by helicopter to the latters birthday party at his Raiwind residence in the citys outskirts. A mature leader who looks beyond showmanship to substantive results knows where to draw the line. Playing to the gallery may be good politics. It is poor statesmanship. The goodwill generated by Mr Modis earlier invitation may be eroded if all his actions are written off as empty and expensive public relations gimmicks.

There have been other hitches over pilgrims. Only in February, 173 Hindus bound for the Katas Raj temple complex in West Punjab were forced to withdraw their visa applications because although the Pakistani authorities were willing to receive them, the external affairs ministry failed to issue the necessary clearance. Earlier, Indian Sikhs missed the opportunity of taking part in the death anniversaries of Guru Arjan Dev and Maharaja Ranjit Singh even though Pakistan had offered to send a special train for them. Indias negative action is sometimes linked to a specific outrage, like alleged Pakistani harassment of Kulbushan Jadhavs wife and mother. Sometimes it is retaliation for unprovoked firing across the Line of Control in Kashmir. Sometimes it is a protest against Islamabads abetment of terrorists. This absence of consistency means relations will always be hostage to the whim of the moment. Even a settlement in Kashmir may not change that if Pakistan remains unresponsive and recalcitrant. But India should not give up trying.The House of Representatives has passed a right to try bill, after a previous failure earlier in the month. The bill now heads to the Senate, which passed its own right to try bill last year. The push for federal right to try legislation points to a larger trend towards more treatment choices for patients with serious conditions.

Right to try legislation allows terminally ill patients to have access to experimental medication as a form of treatment. Under the FDAs expanded access program, patients with serious conditions can already access experimental drug treatments. With right to try, however, the experimental treatment needs to have passed Phase 1 FDA trials only, which is the earliest testing stage. It does not require final FDA approval. Under right to try, patients can choose treatments that otherwise would not be available. However, since experimental treatments are still in the early testing stages, it is risky for patients. On the other hand, if all goes well, patients can live longer. This has vital implications for patients who have exhausted all available treatment options.

The right to try movement started in 2014, when the Goldwater Institute drafted a policy for which state legislation would be based on. That year, Colorado became the first state to pass right to try. Since the passage of right to try in Texas in 2015, the Institute has put forward several real-life testimonies of patients who have benefited from the new law.

From a physicians perspective, Dr. Ebrahim Delpassands story has been instructive. Dr. Delpassand is a nuclear medicine physician in Texas, who since the passage of the states right to try bill, has successfully treated, with experimental medication, more than 100 patients (as of 2017) that were terminally-diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer.

Mark Angelo suffers from pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer. Mark would travel to Switzerland every three months to receive an investigational therapy, which the FDA had not approved for the United States. When this treatment became available in Texas under right to try, Mark was able to continue his treatment in Houston. Since December 2016, Marks condition has improved enough for him to only be required a six-month rather than a three-month follow-up to his treatment.

Last year, Pennsylvania became the 38th state to pass right to try legislation and the 6th state to do so in 2017. Last month, the Wisconsin state assembly passed a right to try bill that when signed by Governor Walker, will make Wisconsin the 39th state to pass such legislation. Legislation is also under consideration in Nebraska, Alaska, and Rhode Island.

Since states are passing their own laws, why the need for federal legislation? The main concern is that there arent enough drug manufacturers participating in right to try or expanded access programs. Under the FDAs expanded access program, there is no clear guidance as to what happens with an experimental drug when an adverse event is reported. Specifically, what happens with the experimental drug if something bad happens to a patient after being treated with it and it is subsequently reported? Will the FDA require the manufacturer to stop the clinical trial of the drug in question or deny the drugs approval because of the adverse event?

Advocates of right to try claim that this ambiguity is keeping drug manufacturers from participating in experimental drug treatment programs, which prevents patients from accessing potentially life-saving treatments. The House version prevents experimental drug treatments from being delayed or withdrawn from the FDA approval process, unless it is determined that the clinical outcome points to a safety concern in the drug.

Terminal illness raises the stakes when considering the speedy approval of a drug but the merits of doing so remain the same. Right to try expands the number of options available to terminally ill patients. The House and Senate must now reconcile their versions of right to try before it heads to the Presidents desk for a signature. If the bill is passed and signed into law, it would be the pinnacle of the right to try movement.

Isai Chavez is a contributor to Economics 21.

Interested in real economic insights? Want to stay ahead of the competition? Each weekday morning, E21 delivers a short email that includes E21 exclusive commentaries and the latest market news and updates from Washington. Sign up for the E21 Morning Ebrief.Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman was recently warmly welcomed at the White House. President Donald Trump called Saudi Arabia a great friend of the United States, and predicted ties between the two countries will grow.

Mr. Trump praised Saudi Arabias investments in the U.S., including its purchases of arms and military equipment which has contributed to the creation of 40,000 American jobs.

A readout by the White House of the meeting between the two leaders said they discussed joint efforts to finalize new commercial deals that would support more than 120,000 American jobs and contribute to the success of Saudi Arabias economic reform agenda.

That agenda includes a plan to wean Saudi Arabia off its long-time dependence on oil and to diversify by developing non-oil sectors. Toward that end, during his visit to the United States, Crown Prince Salman is meeting with business leaders to investigate opportunities in half a dozen U.S. cities.

Crown Prince Salman is attempting reform in Saudi Arabias social and cultural arena as well: under his direction, the ban on women driving has been lifted; women will be allowed to open their own businesses without the consent of their husband or a male relative; the powers of the religious police have been curtailed; and movie theaters will be opened again.

In addition, Crown Prince Salman says he is determined to promote a moderate form of Islam in an effort to defeat Islamist extremism. Under his leadership, the Kingdom is revamping its educational curriculum to ensure that extremist ideology is removed.

The White House noted that in the meeting between the two men, ISIS, Iran and Yemen were also discussed: The Crown Prince thanked the President for American leadership in defeating ISIS and countering Irans destructive actions across the Middle East. The two talked about the threat to the region posed by the Houthis, aided by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. And they spoke of the need for additional steps to address the humanitarian situation in Yemen, as well as for a political resolution to the conflict.

We work closely with our Saudi partners to counter the threatening behavior of dangerous actors in the region, Acting Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Heather Nauert noted, adding, We look forward to further strengthening the U.S.-Saudi relationship and advancing our common security and economic priorities.Following a Mach 26 meeting, the top officials of Iranian governments executive, legislative and judiciary branches have stressed that the need for national cohesion and attending to the nations financial problems should be on top of their agenda.

This was the first joint meeting between President Hasan Rouhani, Majles Speaker Ali Larijani and Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani in the new Iranian year that started March 21.

Iranian agencies quoted Rouhani as saying at the end of the meeting, which was held at his office in Tehran, that the three officials concurred on the need for cohesion.

They have always expressed a desire to bring about unity among state officials, but recurrent differences between Rouhani and Amoli Larijani over political and religious matters have hindered such a cohesion.

According to Rouhani, the three officials have emphasized the need to solve the nations financial problems, adding that his administration considers job creation and anti-poverty measures on top of its agenda in the new year.

Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) quoted Rouhani as saying that the three officials agreed on supporting domestic products, a motto chosen for the year by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, through promoting the quality of domestic products and cracking down on smuggling of goods.

Similar mottos and slogans were offered at the beginning of previous years and officials vowed to work hard to realize often far-fetched economic objectives, but in the absence of proper delivery, the promises added to the extent of expectations and frustration on the part of the people.

US-based economist Bahman Dadkhah said in an interview with Radio Farda that supporting domestic products requires respect for peoples freedom to choose, and creating a competitive production market, however, it is always likely that smugglers linked to the government import goods from countries such as China with their petrodollars.

Another economist, Ahmad Alavi told Radio Farda that domestic production cannot be boosted with slogans. Governments in Iran have always promised progress through their slogans but hardly stood by their promises, he said.

The joint meeting by the heads of the three powers took place two months after major protests that shook Iran in December 2017 and January 2018.

During the past year, unpaid workers and teachers also staged many protests, walk outs and strikes. Citizens who lost their savings in bankrupt financial institutions also continued to demand redress from the government almost every day in major cities.

The most widespread demonstrations started in late December in protest to financial problems, but they soon turned into political demonstrations against state officials including Khamenei.

Violent suppression of demonstrations left at least 25 dead, while three of those arrested committed suicide in jail according to prison officials. However, human rights watchdogs dismissed claims about suicide and have said that the number of those killed in the streets was higher.

Rouhani said in early March that his administration was not the only target of the protests, adding that the government has heard the protesters message, but others have attempted to jam their voice.

He was probably referring to Khamenei and other hardliners who said foreigners were behind the unrest.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli warned earlier that the dissatisfaction leading to the protests in the winter has not been addressed, and that it could reignite easily.

Khamenei in his New Year speech in Mashad described the protests as a bitter event.

Elsewhere in the speech, he evaluated the Islamic Republics track record in the areas of economy and civil liberties in the past four decades as acceptable.

Meanwhile, former ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently published several of his letters to Khamenei and in one of them reminded him that No trace of civil liberties has remained in the country after four decades of rule by Islamic Republic.The U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security imposed the sanctions on the Pakistani companies on March 22 by placing them on its "Entity List."

The bureau said in a report that the Pakistani companies had been "determined by the U.S. government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States."

Companies placed on the entity list will not suffer asset freezes but will need special licenses to do business in the United States.

A total of 23 companies were added to the list last week, including 15 entities from South Sudan and one from Singapore.

Pakistan has a poor record on nuclear proliferation.

A U.N. nuclear watchdog said in 2008 that the network of Abdul Qadeer Khan, known as the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, smuggled nuclear weaponization blueprints to Iran, Libya, and North Korea and was active in 12 countries.

Based on reporting by Reuters and DawnBaku, Azerbaijan, March 26

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 97 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said March 26.

Armenias armed forces were using large-caliber machine guns.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.Details added (first version posted on 13:47)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26

Trend:

A military operation of the Azerbaijani army could lead to complete defeat of the Armenian armed forces and result in an inevitable tragedy for the Armenian people, Deputy Defense Minister of Azerbaijan, Lieutenant General Karim Valiyev said.

He was commenting on the latest interview of Chief of General Staff of the Armenian armed forces Movses Hakobyan.

The deputy minister said that making such irresponsible statements, the leadership of the Armenian armed forces continues to deceive the Armenian people, who have lost faith in the future.

Everyone knows that in one of his speeches, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, in order to justify his failure, admitted that during the April battles they fought with weapons and equipment produced in the 1980s, Valiyev noted.

Therefore, the opinion expressed by Hakobyan that allegedly, the Azerbaijani army may suffer serious losses, as well as bravado with new weapons, while during the past two years Armenia bought only two or three artillery pieces and one missile system, looks absurd, he added.

Valiyev said that even the leading countries of the world, possessing a strong economy and financial capabilities, are not able to fully rearm their armies in a short time.

Therefore, such statements made by the Armenian leadership, which exists thanks to handouts and loans, are simply ridiculous, he added.

Hakopyan, in his interview, talked about the combat readiness of the Armenian army, the situation on the frontline, the prospects for the start of military operations, including that they can allegedly reflect the onslaught of the Azerbaijani army. The chief of General Staff of the Armenian armed forces connects this with the seven-year program of army modernization, which they intend to implement, the Azerbaijani official said.

However, even conversations about the implementation of such programs in Armenia, where there is complete disunity in the society, the economy is destroyed, where the tragic demographic situation reigns and the army lacks discipline, looks fantastic, Valiyev emphasized.

The deputy minister added that if the military leadership of Armenia used to tell fairytales to its people about the invincibility of the Ohanyan line, now they are talking about the invincibility of the Sargsyan line.

In fact, the April battles showed that it is possible to resolve this conflict, and nothing will break the determination of the Azerbaijani people to liberate their lands. Azerbaijan is simply a supporter of the conflicts solution on the basis of norms and principles of international law, and believes in this possibility. However, if the issue is not resolved peacefully, then Azerbaijan will certainly use the right to ensure its territorial integrity by any means. Then the military operation, which the Azerbaijani army will start, will lead to the complete defeat of the Armenian Armed Forces and will result in the inevitable tragedy of the Armenian people, the Azerbaijani official added.

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, March 26

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter of condolences to President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

"I was deeply saddened by the news of heavy casualties caused by a fire at a shopping mall in Kemerovo. I extend my deepest condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who died and wish the injured the swiftest possible recovery," said President Aliyev.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26

Trend:

Agriculture cannot develop without serious state support not only in Azerbaijan, but also in all other countries, Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev said addressing a republican conference on development of cotton-growing in Barda District.

We know that even the leading states, which have made great strides in the development of agriculture, allocate serious subsidies to agriculture; state support is provided, and in many cases, protectionist measures are taken. Each country tries to protect its market. Naturally, we also render very serious state support to the development of agriculture in Azerbaijan, the president said.

The head of state said that in recent years, Azerbaijan has achieved very great success in the development of agriculture, in particular, in issues related to food security.

Our main task has been related to food security issues in recent years, because in Soviet times cotton, grapes, fruits, vegetables were grown in Azerbaijan, but the main food products were supplied from other republics. Therefore, we have, first of all, worked and invested in order to meet domestic needs with local products. I think we have made very significant progress in addressing food security issues, President Aliyev noted.Details added (first version posted on 15:48)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26

Trend:

Today, Azerbaijan is a leading country in the world in terms of development pace of cotton-growing, Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev said.

He made the remarks addressing a republican conference on development of cotton-growing in Barda District on March 26.

The head of state spoke about the great benefits of cotton-growing for the countrys economy.

He noted that cotton-growing primarily means employment, it brings currency to the country, develops the non-oil sector, non-oil industry. It gives momentum to local production, creates jobs not only in the districts involved in cotton-growing, but also in other districts, added the head of state.

Today, Azerbaijan is a leading country in the world in terms of development pace of cotton-growing. I do not believe that there is a second country in the world that could increase cotton harvest by more than six times within two years. We have achieved this through targeted measures, the president noted.

I would like to once again say that if the state support was not provided to cotton-growing, we would not have achieved this: 35,000 tons would have been harvested in 2015, and perhaps 20,000 tons would have been harvested this year and maybe not. Thus, cotton-growing would have completely disappeared. We did not allow this. We have saved, restored, and will revive cotton-growing. We will hear information about the work done, and also we will talk about the forthcoming work at todays conference. I should note that our main task will be the productivity increase in the following years, because the experience of past years shows that there is a lot of progress, the head of state said.

In 2016, about 90,000 tons of cotton were harvested, and 207,000 tons  in the previous year. Despite the fact that the crop was harvested in big volumes, the productivity per hectare is not at the proper level. It is at a very good level  more than 26 quintals  in Barda District. However, the productivity is very small in some districts, he noted.

The reasons for this are analyzed and should be analyzed in order to prevent the shortcomings in the future, and to reach even higher productivity, President Aliyev added.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26

By Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

The embassy of the USA in Azerbaijan jointly with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan finalized the restoration of the historic Gumbezli Hamam, an important piece of Azerbaijans history, which dates to the early 19th century, located in Guba.

The project, which we were involved in, jointly with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan, is very important on a number of different levels, including the expansion of the tourism potential of the Guba city, increasing the economic prosperity in this part of the country, as well as, strengthening of cooperation between the United States and Azerbaijan, said the Ambassador of the USA to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta.

He added that Azerbaijan and the US work together to create common principles and efforts to move forward and improve bilateral friendship.

I hope this project will illustrate our willingness to cooperate in difficult times, paying respect to each others culture and people, said the ambassador.

Touching upon his impression of Azerbaijan before finalizing his work in the country, Cekuta stressed that he considers the expansion of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the USA as the greatest achievement during his mission in Azerbaijan since 2015.

The ambassador added that he witnessed a great model of tolerant society in Azerbaijan.

"In this country that is majority Muslim, majority Shia there is such a respect for other religions, such respect for different ethnic groups and the determination to carry it forward. That example is crucial in todays world," said the ambassador.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26

Trend:

On March 26-30, 2018, Dr. Amra-Sabic-El-Rayess, internationally renowned Columbia University Professor specializing in Practice in Education Policy and Social Analysis will deliver public lectures and workshops at ADA University, Baku Engineering University, Khazar University, and Baku State University, said the message from the US embassy in Baku.

She will also meet with Ministry of Education staff to discuss education policy in Azerbaijan. The main attendees of the professor lectures on research in education, evidence based policy making in education, challenges of educational development in the country, and quantitative methods of research in education will be PhD students, instructors and university board members.

Dr. Amra-Sabic-El-Rayess is an Associate Professor of Practice in Education Policy and Social Analysis at Columbia University. She has taught, researched, and published on a range of issues in education, including questions of social mobility, exclusion, elite formation, corruption, education leadership and organization, transitional justice, and teacher quality.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26

By Ilkin Shafiyev  Trend:

The new partnership strategy of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with Azerbaijan will promote inclusive development in the country, Head of the ADB Azerbaijan Office Nariman Mannapbekov said in an interview with Trend and Azernews.

The strategy will be designed for 2019-2023. It is planned to be coordinated fully with strategic road maps that are being implemented in Azerbaijan. The previous five-year partnership strategy between ADB and Azerbaijan was approved in 2014.

"This year we are completing the program, implemented since 2014. It covers the spheres of transport, energy and water supply, urban infrastructure and services. According to preliminary estimates, we can say that we have done a great job, nevertheless, we still have something to strive for. The volume of our credit and other operations has grown. We began to cooperate in new areas, such as the railway sector, electricity distribution and education," Mannapbekov added.

ADB was founded in 1966 and 67 states are its members. The banks headquarters is located in Manila, Philippines.

Azerbaijan became an ADB member in 1999. The country's share in the bank's capital is 0.5 percent.

Subscribers of Trend News Agency can read this and other exclusive materials before they are published in open access.

More information on Trends news products can be found here.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26

Trend:

Azerbaijan has made significant progress in addressing food security issues, President Ilham Aliyev said.

He made the remarks addressing a republican conference on development of cotton-growing in Barda District on March 26.

"In the main areas that determine food security, today Azerbaijan either fully provides itself or is very close to this target. Azerbaijan provides itself with meat by almost 100 percent. Production of milk stands at approximately 80-85 percent. Production of chicken meat will reach 100 percent and big export potential will be created in the next year or two. As for production of eggs, currently, we not only provide ourselves, but also export. In other words, these are priority areas, President Aliyev noted.

Touching upon industrial crops, the president said they were left unheeded, adding there were a number of reasons for this.

"One of the reasons was related to the belief that farmers themselves know what to plant and grow. This sphere was not given much state support. As for private companies that were engaged in cotton-growing, they did not exert the necessary effort, did not pay proper attention to cotton production, did not invest the proper amounts, and cotton-growing was gradually destroyed in Azerbaijan, the president noted.

It is enough to look at the statistical indexes: 2015 was the most aggrieving year in the history of cotton-growing. Cotton was planted only on 18,000 hectares and only 35,000 tons of cotton were harvested, the head of state added.

We have been seriously engaged in this issue since late 2015. As I noted, meetings were held in 2016-2017. The State Program on the development of cotton-growing was adopted in 2017, and we began to systematically deal with these issues and today we can talk about excellent indicators. Cotton harvest increased from 35,000 to 207,000 tons within two years. In other words, we were able to increase the cotton-picking by six times, and this is not the limit. Today we will talk about the future work to boost the cotton-growing, the president said.

The head of state noted that Azerbaijan purchased almost 500 cotton harvesters through the state support.

Speaking about tractors produced in Azerbaijan, as well as foreign machinery, trailers, the president said that recently, he got acquainted with a part of them in Barda District.

Big funds are allocated for these purposes. The supply of fertilizers improves. It can be noted that the Azerbaijani state undertook this field as well  fertilizers are provided with 70-percent benefits. Despite the success achieved in this field, we must work even more seriously. The quality of fertilizers should be even better, and much attention is also attached to this area, President Aliyev added.

The head of state emphasized that major projects in the field of land reclamation have been implemented in recent years. Tens of thousands of hectares of land were covered by land reclamation measures, he said.

Meanwhile, very big amounts of money were used for this sphere and other complex measures were taken in Barda and other districts. A centralized management system was created for the development of cotton-growing. The presidential administration, local executive authorities, companies, farmers, workers have achieved good results. The figures reached within two years are the best indicators, President Aliyev added.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26

By Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

A delegation of the European Union, headed by Vice-President of the European Commission, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, will visit Uzbekistan on March 26, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan said in a message.

The head of the EU foreign policy department will take part in a high-level international conference titled "Peace process, security cooperation and regional connectivity", as well as in a ministerial meeting in the Central Asia-European Union format.

The EU delegation will also meet with President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

An Iranian minister has called for increasing the volume of investment in agriculture in the current fiscal year, which has been named by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the year of support for Iranian products.

It is necessary to increase the volume of investment and support for the output of the agriculture sector in 'the year of support for the Iranian products', IRNA news agency quoted Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati as saying on Monday.

The minister further added that the value of the annual output of the agriculture sector in the current situation stands at $70 billion.

Speaking about the countrys fisheries capacity, he said Irans capacity for producing shrimps over the last year (started March 20, 2017) reached 32,000 tons.

According to the official, the country produced as much as 1.6 million tons of sugar over the last fiscal year.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that his countrys ties with neighbors are important.

Briefing reporters about a meeting held earlier on Monday morning with Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli-e Larijani and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, he said Irans ties with regional countries in the fields of economy, diplomacy and security are important, IRIB news agency reported.

Saying he will visit three regional countries in near future, the president expressed hope that Tehran will strengthen its ties with the neighboring countries following the visits.

Hassan Rouhani further expressed hope that his visits would contribute to resolving the regional issues and protecting stability in the region.

Rouhani is slated to begin his regional tour to Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan on March 27.

Parviz Esmaeili, the deputy for communications and information at the presidents office, has said that Hassan Rouhani will leave Tehran for the Turkmen capital Ashgabat on Tuesday.

On Wednesday afternoon, the president will depart for Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.A miner died last night during underground works in Shukruti mine in the village of Chiatura - a city in the western Georgian region of Imereti, Agenda reported.

The mining accident claimed the life of 45-year-old Zaza Abramishvili at around 3 am.

Georgian American Alloys, the company responsible for the mine, said in a statement that part of the ceiling had collapsed and killed Abramishvili.

Deputy Head of Professional Unions Tamaz Dolaberidze claimed the place where the ceiling fell down in the mine was hazardous.

Dolaberidze believes the administration of the mine should not be sending miners to work at places without appropriate safety conditions.

An investigation of the case is underway.The European Commission pressed Facebook (FB.O) on Monday over whether EU citizens data were among those improperly harvested by a British political consultancy, after the US regulator said it was investigating the firms privacy practices, Reuters reported.

That piled yet more pressure on a firm that has lost more than $100 billion in market value in the last 10 days.

Facebook shares fell more than 5 percent on Monday after the US consumer protection regulator made public its investigation of how the social network allowed data of 50 million users to get into the hands of Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook executives have apologized after reports emerged that Cambridge Analytica had used personal data to target US voters.

Have any data of EU citizens been affected by the recent scandal? EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova wrote in a letter to Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, seen by Reuters. If this is the case, how do you intend to inform the authorities and users about it?

Jourova said that statements by Facebook executives had not alleviated her concerns.

This is particularly disappointing given our efforts to build a relationship based on trust with you and your colleagues ... this trust is now diminished.

Jourova asked Sandberg whether she was certain that a similar situation could not be repeated today and if she thought stricter rules were needed for platforms like those that exist for traditional media.

Germanys justice minister called for stricter rules for Facebook after meeting with company executives on Monday who said around 1 percent of 300,000 users of a personality quiz whose results were later fed into Cambridge Analyticas voter-targeting algorithms were in Europe.

Jourova said she wanted a reply to her letter within two weeks.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal emerged only a few months before a landmark EU data protection law comes into force under which companies found to be in breach could be fined up to 4 percent of global turnover.

Any eventual sanctions for Facebook will fall under the current privacy regulations, and so would be much lower.

Britains data watchdog is taking the lead in investigating Facebook and Cambridge Analytica from the European side, and Jourova said she expected the social network to cooperate fully with European data protection authorities.On Sunday evening, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani arrived in Moscow for a short work visit. Al Jazeera News reported.

On Monday he is to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the wars in Syria and Yemen and the situation in Palestine.

The work visit comes amid a massive evacuation of civilians and fighters from Eastern Ghouta near the Syrian capital Damascus after Russia negotiated with rebel groups to leave the area for opposition-controlled Idlib province.

According to Dmitry Frolovsky, a Moscow-based analyst, Putin and Sheikh Tamim will discuss Russia's position on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Qatari support for the opposition, and the possible participation of Qatar in post-conflict reconstruction of Syria.

"There is going to be division of Syria and obviously the most powerful parties in Syria will be Russia and the United States. Qatar for various reasons will try to maintain stable contacts with both of the parties," Frolovsky said.

In late January, a Russian-sponsored peace conference in Sochi failed to bring together the Syrian regime and opposition for talks. Shortly after, forces loyal to Assad backed by Russian air support launched an operation against rebel-held Eastern Ghouta.

According to Frolovsky, after the regime takes full control of the Damascus suburbs another military operation against rebel-held Idlib province is likely.

he Sheikh Tamim's visit was preceded by phone calls between Putin and Abu Dhabi Prince Mohammed bin Zayed in early March and Saudi King Salman in February. In October last year the Saudi king paid a three-day visit to Moscow.

"It's not only the [Gulf] crisis that boosted the relations [with Gulf countries] but also the general Russian presence in the region which has been augmenting since Putin took part in the Syrian crisis," Frolovsky said.

Russia has assumed a neutral stance on the Gulf crisis but it did offer to help Qatar with food shipments last year, he added.

A delegation of Qatari ministers of finance, foreign relations, energy, and culture, along with a number of other officials, accompanied Sheikh Tamim.

On the sidelines of official meetings, Qatar Petroleum and state-controlled Russian oil company Rosneft are expected to discuss possible contracts, and Qatar Airways will also sign a cooperation agreement with Rosaviatsia, Russia's federal air transport agency.

Five days before his visit to Moscow, Sheikh Tamim met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Qatar where they discussed the possible export of Qatari liquified gas to Ukraine.

Since the fallout with Moscow over the annexation of Crimea and the war in the Donbass region, Kiev has been trying to decrease its dependence on Russian oil and gas imports.

Sheikh Tamim's next foreign trip is expected to be in April to the United States where he will meet US President Donald Trump.Voting began across Egypt on Monday in a presidential election expected to deliver a sweeping victory to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Al Arabiya reported.

Some 60 million voters in the Arab world's most populous country (100 mln) have from 9:00 am (0700 GMT) Monday until Wednesday to choose between Sisi and his challenger, Moussa Mostafa Moussa.

Egyptian television showed footage of Sisi appearing in a polling station in Heliopolis to vote.

In this election, Sisi competes with Moussa Mustafa Moussa, head of Al Ghad party, who submitted his candidacy papers at the last hour before closure.

Security and medical services were organized in front of the headquarters of the committees, and army and police forces were deployed to secure voters and facilitate voting.

The Ministry of Local Development announced that round-the-clock reports would be prepared to identify participation rates in the elections.

The Egyptian government has completed all necessary procedures and arrangements to organize the insurance work for the elections and provide a safe environment during the voting process.

The armed forces are participating in securing the electoral process with all its components including field armies, military zones, and the armed forces leadership, as well as all concerned bodies of the State.

The Egyptian army announced the deployment of its forces in the provinces to secure the electoral process in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior.

The election comes two days after the terrorist bombing that targeted the director of security in Alexandria, which killed two policemen and injured seven others.

The elections for Egyptian expatriates were held on March 23-25.Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, France, Denmark, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, France, Italy and the US have decided to expel Russian diplomats amid Skripal's case, Sputnik reports.

"Fourteen out of 28 EU member-states have decided to expel diplomats from the Russian Federation as a measure of solidarity with London on the Skripal case," European Council President Donald Tusk said.

So far the following countries have announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats,

Poland  4

Lithuania  3

Latvia  1

The Netherlands  2

Ukraine  13

France  4

Denmark  2

The Czech Republic  3

Estonia  1

Germany  4

Italy  2

The US  60

Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said "We have to do the utmost to show solidarity with our allies," and to come up with "coordinated measures" as well as national measures.

"Today, Poland decided to declare four Russian diplomats persona non-grata," Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said.

According to the Russian Embassies in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, the Ambassadors to these countries have been summoned earlier to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the respective nations.

Czech PM: 'Unreported Spies' to be Expelled

The Czech Prime Minister says not Russian diplomats, but "unreported spies" will be expelled from the Czech Republic over the Skripal case.

"The use of a term diplomat' [in the light of the issue of expulsion] is wrong. In fact, these are people who are called unreported spies.' It seems that there are more of them in the Czech Republic than in any other country in Europe Moreover, the Russian side has scandalously accused us, saying this Novichok poison is allegedly being manufactured here. This is a blatant lie," Andrej Babis wrote on his Facebook page.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova characterized the expulsion of Russian diplomats from EU countries as the loyal lip service to the UK and accused London of imposing on Europeans a deterioration in relations with Russia.

"Now the parade of sovereignties will start, the-loyal lip service of political support by EU countries for London," wrote the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova on her Facebook page.

She noted that "everything that will happen now in the public-diplomatic sphere (reviews, expulsions, etc.) will be explained by the EU as 'solidarity' with London, as the EU's foreign policy requires."

"When London leaves the EU, amid its Brexit process, it will not be bound by the framework of a general line in foreign policy. It will be able to start a game for approaching or removal. But the countries remaining in the European Union will be bound by the mutual guarantee of anti-Russian solidarity, the has already been imposed by the British," she said.The United States Congress has dramatically increased its budget for the Israeli missile defense programs to by $148 million to include Iron Dome and Arrow 3 development, The Jerusalem Post reported.

"I am pleased and excited to announce that the US Congress has approved a record sum for Israel's missile defense program: $705 million in 2018! Israels Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced Monday.

According to Israels defense ministry, the increase of funding was requested for production of the Iron Dome, Davids Sling and Arrow-3 missile defense systems.



Together, the systems provide Israel with a protective umbrella able to counter threats posed by both short and mid-range missiles used by Gaza terror groups and Hezbollah as well as the threat posed by more sophisticated long-range Iranian ballistic missiles.

The increase in the budget will also be used for further trials of all systems as Israel and the US continue to develop additional capabilities for them against future aerial threats.



I thank our great friend the United States, which has invested $6.5 billion to defend the skies of the State of Israel. We are grateful for the assistance and uncompromising commitment of the administration and Congress to Israel's security. Tomorrow in Jerusalem I will meet with a delegation of congressmen headed by Israel's friend Nancy Pelosi, and will thank them personally, Liberman continued.A suicide car bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint near Somalias parliament and interior ministry in the capital Mogadishu on Sunday, and the citys ambulance service said three people had been killed, Reuters reported.

Nur Mohamed, a Mogadishu police officer, told Reuters the bomb had gone off at the heavily guarded Sayidka checkpoint.

Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Amin ambulances, the citys sole rescue service, said three people had been killed, excluding the bomber, and one injured.

A Reuters photographer at the scene saw ruined cars and three-wheeled scooters overturned by the force of the blast.

The al Qaeda-linked militant group al Shabaab claimed responsibility. Al Shabaab frequently carries out bombings and other attacks in Mogadishu in a campaign to topple Somalias Western-backed federal government.

We are behind the attack at the checkpoint from where the presidents palace, parliament house and the interior ministry of the apostate government are guarded, said Abdiasis Abu Musab, the groups spokesman for military operations.

He said 13 government soldiers had been killed, without offering any evidence. The group usually claims a higher death toll from its attacks than that of the government.

At least 14 people were killed on Thursday when al Shabaab set off a bomb outside a busy Mogadishu hotel.Canada is to deploy peacekeeping troops in Mali by August, Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said in an interview on CTV's Question Period aired on Sunday, Xinhua reported.

"We're looking at it right now this summer, we're aiming for August. The goal is to actually have the rotation in place, around that time," Sajjan said.

He said Canadian Chief of the Defence Staff Jonathan Vance is currently doing more detailed planning and analysis to know specifically what will be needed.

Last week, the Canadian government announced its intention to send peacekeeping troops and an aviation task force to the UN mission in Mali for a year-long deployment.

According to the United Nations, there have been 162 multinational peacekeeper fatalities since the mission began in 2013.Russian President Vladimir Putin noted progress in Russian-Qatari relations as well as positive prospects for mutual trade at a meeting with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Monday, according Sputnik.

"Our trade increased last year. However, [the figure] in absolute terms does not reflect our capacities, but the trend is very good. Investment cooperation is developing We met almost two years ago, but relations between our countries are constantly developing, we are in regular contact. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries," Putin said.

Trade between the two countries amounted to $73 million in 2017 compared to $59 million in the previous year, according to the Russian Federal Customs Service (FCS).

The Emir also stressed that bilateral relations had "noticeably strengthened" over the last few years. He touched upon the countries cultural cooperation, adding that he had visited the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow within the framework of the cross-cultural year between Russia and Qatar.

He agreed with Putin that the countries should build on their "solid ties" and "mutual trust" to further strengthen bilateral relations in all areas and make sure that the state of relations "meets our ambitions."

The Emir also positively assessed Russias contribution to settling international issues.

"We are counting on our Russian friends  Russia plays a considerable role with regard to the issues of the Arab world, its historical ties with Arab countries, including the role it plays while assisting some countries of the region to settle their problems," he said, expressing his intention to cover the relevant topics during the talks.

Since September 2015, Russia has been engaged in a military operation against terrorist groups in Syria at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Moscow, alongside Tehran and Ankara, is also a guarantor of the ceasefire regime in the conflict-hit country and a participant of the Astana process on the Syrian crisis settlement.Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to pay a state visit to China in conjunction with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Qingdao, TASS with reference to the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Monday.

The ministry recalled that Chinese presidents special envoy and Foreign Minister Wang Yi would pay a working visit to Russia on March 27-28. "On March 28, he will have talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov," the ministry said. "The talks will focus on the key political event in bilateral relations this year, that is, the Russian presidents state visit to China, which is expected to take place in conjunction with the SCO meeting in Qingdao."

The two top diplomats will also exchange views on the current state and prospects for Russian-Chinese strategic partnership and synchronize the schedule of upcoming bilateral top-level and high-level bilateral contacts. "The two ministers will discuss issues related to bilateral cooperation in international affairs and the most pressing regional issues, including the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the Syrian settlement and the situation in Afghanistan," the Russian Foreign Ministry noted.Sergei Mavrodi, the founder of the MMM financial pyramid that cheated millions of Russians out of their savings in the 1990s, has died in a Moscow hospital, a source in medical circles told TASS on Monday.

"He was taken to the 67th city clinical hospital as an unidentified person. He is now being taken to the forensic morgue No. 5," the source said.

The Ritual funeral service has said it will render assistance to Mavrodis family for his burial.

"The Ritual state funeral service is helping and assisting the family of Sergei Mavrodi with his burial," the companys spokesman said in response to an inquiry from TASS.

As media outlets reported earlier, Mavrodi, the founder of the MMM fraudulent scheme in the 1990s, died in a Moscow hospital. According to media reports, Mavrodi was hospitalized from his apartment in Komsomolsky Avenue in central Moscow where he lived.

Meanwhile, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported that Mavrodi was taken to the hospital from a bus stop in Polikarpova Street in north Moscow. Mavrodi complained of weakness and pain in the heart and a passer-by called an ambulance for him. A heart attack is the preliminary cause of his death.

He was taken to the Moscow city hospital No. 67 where he died.

The MMM company, which existed from 1989 to 1994 in Russia, was recognized as one of the biggest financial pyramid schemes.

Mavrodi, who had been fleeing from prosecution, was arrested in Moscow with a forged passport in January 2003. In April 2007, the court found him guilty of cheating millions of Russians of their savings and sentenced him to 4.5 years in jail for fraud.Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has addressed the expulsion of Russian diplomats from some EU states, the US and Canada, saying the final decision on Moscow's response to the move would be taken by country's President Vladimir Putin, Sputnik reported.

"We have to analyze the situation which is happening in connection with the voiced decisions on the expulsion of our diplomats by a number of countries. The main analysis will be conducted in our diplomatic department. After that, the president will receive the reports and proposals on the countermeasures to be submitted. The final decision will be made by the head of the Russian state," said Peskov.

The spokesman has expressed regret over the move, reiterating Russia's position over the Skripal case: he once again repeated that Moscow had not been connected with the poisoning.

"Of course, as before, we will be guided by the principle of reciprocity," he stated.

Peskov noted that similar situations have already happened in the history of international relations.

"It's not a mass issue, it's about the fallibility of these decisions. We are convinced of their fallibility. Because from our point of view, the reference to the so-called business of Skripal carries no weight," Peskov said.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 26

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

A representative of intelligence services of the Netherlands has been detained in Turkey, the Turkish media reports citing sources in the National Intelligence Organization of Turkey (MIT).

Reportedly, the detained Dutch intelligence officer previously visited Afghanistan.

Earlier, the detainee also took part in the organization of a number of protest rallies in Turkey, directed against the Operation Olive Branch in Syrias Afrin.

On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin. They liberated Afrin from PYD/YPG terrorists on March 18.

--

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizogluBaku, Azerbaijan, March 26

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey is a guarantor of security of the European Unions borders, said Mahir Unal, spokesman and deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Turkish media reported March 26.

Unal noted that currently Turkey is simultaneously fighting several terrorist organizations.

Despite that Ankara has fulfilled all the requirements of the EU, the European Union has not kept its promise and has not paid three billion euros for the needs of Syrian refugees, he said.

Meanwhile, the EU has not abolished the visa regime for Turkish citizens, Unal added.

An association agreement between the EU and Turkey was signed in 1963. Ankara filed an application for membership in the EU in 1987, but accession negotiations were launched in 2005.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizogluBaku, Azerbaijan, March 26

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

During the previous week, 24 terrorists were killed as part of anti-terrorist operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the eastern provinces of Turkey, the Turkish Interior Ministry said in a message March 26.

The message says that 300 kilograms of explosives were also seized during the operations.

Operations against the PKK terrorist organization will be continued, according to the message.

The conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which demands the creation of an independent Kurdish state, has continued for more than 30 years and has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

The UN and the European Union list the PKK as a terrorist organization.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizogluChild protection councils against child abuse will be set up in all of Turkeys 81 provinces, Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya has said.

We are extremely sensitive and have zero tolerance when it comes to children. We will set up protection councils for children in every province as part of new National Strategy Document and Action Plan on Childrens Rights 2018-2023, Kaya told daily Milliyet.

Kaya said they will announce the details of the new plan in due course, which was prepared within the scope of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

We will have separate plans and solutions for every citys child protection councils based on their specific problems. For example, if we find out that a citys main problem is underage marriages, then the council in that city will mainly focus on fixing this specific situation, she added.

Kaya also said they are planning to create social risk mapping, starting from Turkeys most disadvantaged regions and the Family Social Support Program (ASDEP) will play an important role in this.

As part of our project ASDEP social workers go and visit families to monitor their needs. They check whether there are elderly people who need help, women who are exposed to violence, or children who are not going to school. This way we assess the problems and come up with solutions, Kaya added.

According to the ministrys figures, ASDEP social workers visited 300,000 families in the last quarter of 2017.

Raising awareness about child abuse

Regarding preventive measures against child abuse, Kaya said they are mainly focused on training personnel from all educational institutions, as well as families and children, regarding the issue.

Kaya said they aim to reach 2 million families in the training program over the course of 2018.

We aim at raising awareness in education personnel, families and children about the issue. Our objective is to prevent all kind of abuse cases in the first place, Kaya added.

Kaya said they have zero tolerance towards violence against women and are working in cooperation with the Justice Ministry and the Interior Ministry, she said.

From now on, the Family and Social Policies Ministry will be notified about restraining orders and we will be able to intervene to protect our women who have restraining orders, she added.

The ministrys aim is to focus more on preventive measures than punitive measures for both child abuse cases and violence against women cases.

Sexual abuse and pedophilia have recently dominated headlines in Turkey, following a series of prominent cases reported in the media, including the rape of a four-and-a-half-year-old girl in the southern province of Adana in February.

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials have responded to the outrage by calling for legal changes stipulating harsher punishments for child abusers.

Main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has also called for the heaviest punishments for child abuse cases.Baku, Azerbaijan, March. 26

Trend:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed condolences to President Vladimir Putin in connection with numerous victims in a fire in a shopping center in Kemerovo, Turkish media reports March 26.

"On behalf of the Turkish people and on my own behalf, I express my condolences to the people and authorities of Russia, wish patience to the families of those who died," Erdogan's message reads.Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 26

Trend:

Turkey has condemned Monday the ballistic missile attacks that struck various cities of Saudi Arabia.

We have learned with concern that 7 missile attacks have been carried out from Yemen at various cities of Saudi Arabia on the night of 25 March. We condemn these attacks.

It is consoling that interception and destruction of the said missiles by the Saudi Arabian air defense systems prevented further loss of life and property, Turkish Foreign Ministry's statement reads.Israel has told the US that its steel and aluminum exports total just $25 million, but US import tariffs could harm 60 small companies.

Israel is pressing the US administration for an exemption from the high customs duties on aluminum and steel products announced by US President Donald Trump.

Sources inform "Globes" that the Ministry of Economy and Industry Foreign Trade Administration asked the International Trade Administration in the US Department of Commerce to exempt Israel from the restrictions on exports of steel to the US market.

Israel's official reason for the request is that its metal exports to the US are marginal, totaling $25 million a year, and pose no threat to the US economy. At the same time, the requests states that limiting aluminum and steel exports from Israel to the US and setting high customs duties will affect dozens of small and medium-sized companies operating throughout Israel.

The reform announced by Trump in recent weeks is designed to protect US industry mainly against massive metal imports from China. He signed orders imposing 25% customs duties on steel and 10% customs duties on aluminum. Trump explained that his measures were a "response to a security threat" posed by large-scale metal exports leading to the closing down of enterprises in the US.

The restrictions became effective temporarily late last week, and are due to take permanent effect in early May. Under Trump's orders, six countries - Canada, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Argentina, and Australia, plus the European Union - will be exempted from the restrictions, at least in the coming weeks.Brent and WTI crude oil futures dipped on Monday as concerns of a looming trade dispute between the United States and China weighed on global markets, Reuters reports.

In Asia, Shanghai crude oil futures debuted strongly, both in terms of volume and prices, with front-month contracts soaring as much as 6 percent ISCc1 as investors bought into the worlds newest financial oil trading instrument.

Looming over oil markets, however, was the possibility of a full-blown trade war between the United States and China battered Asian shares CSI300 .N225 on Monday. The falls came after U.S. President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China.

This weighed on crude oil futures as well. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $65.49 a barrel at 0543 GMT, down 39 cents, or 0.6 percent, from their previous close.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $70.18 per barrel, down 27 cents, or 0.4 percent.

Crude was also weighed by a rise in the number of U.S. rigs drilling for oil to a three-year high of 804, implying further rises in production C-OUT-T-EIA, which has already jumped by a quarter since mid-2016 to 10.4 million barrels per day (bpd).The US is ready to make new steps if Russia will respond to the expulsion of its diplomats, Sputnik reports.

The US has decided to expel 60 Russian diplomats within the Skripal poisoning case.

"We expel 48 employees of diplomatic missions and 12 employees of the UN mission," the statement says.

At the same time, the White House said that it was ready to hold talks with Russia if the latter "changes its behavior."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.KYODO NEWS - Mar 26, 2018 - 22:05 | Urgent, All

Shikoku Electric Power Co. will not seek to extend the operation of an aging nuclear reactor in western Japan, judging that the required safety investments will not pay off due to declining electricity demand in the region, sources close to the matter said Monday.

The No. 2 unit at the Ikata plant in Ehime Prefecture will be the ninth reactor that nuclear plant operators in Japan have decided to scrap following the 2011 nuclear crisis, excluding those at the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi complex. Japan currently has around 40 commercial reactors.

The board of Shikoku Electric Power, based in Kagawa Prefecture, plans to endorse the decision at its extraordinary meeting Tuesday, leaving the utility with only one reactor to operate.

Following the introduction of new safety requirements in the wake of the Fukushima crisis, plant operators nationwide need to decide whether to scrap aging reactors or spend huge sums on upgrading them to secure state permission to operate them for another 20 years beyond the current 40 year-operational limit.

The Ikata complex, the sole nuclear power plant owned by Shikoku Electric Power, had three reactors in operation before the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The company has already decided to scrap the No. 1 unit and related work started in September last year.

Regarding the No. 2 reactor, the utility believes safety investments of at least 100 billion yen ($951 million) will be required for an extension to be granted and profitable operation of the unit is unlikely due to its relatively small electricity output of 566,000 kilowatts.

The No. 2 reactor started commercial operation in 1982, about five years after the No. 1 unit began operating.

The No. 3 reactor passed the post-Fukushima state screening process and resumed operation in August 2016, but a court injunction halting its operation was granted in December 2017 when it was offline for regular checks.

The No. 3 reactor cannot be restarted until the end of September based on the order issued by the Hiroshima High Court, which has pointed to the potential impact of eruptions on Mt. Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, about 130 kilometers from the plant.KYODO NEWS - Mar 26, 2018 - 15:49 | All, Japan

The father of a slain 9-year-old Vietnamese girl told reporters Monday, the first anniversary of the discovery of her body, that he hopes similar incidents will never happen again.

Le Anh Hao, the 35-year-old father of Le Thi Nhat Linh, visited the site where her body was found a year ago in Abiko, east of Tokyo, and laid flowers in front of Linh's photo. She was allegedly murdered by a neighbor.

Hao, a resident of Matsudo in Chiba Prefecture, also said it was "really a long year" for the family and expressed hope that justice will be served in the upcoming trial.

The trial under the lay judge system for Yasumasa Shibuya, 46, who has been indicted on murder and other charges, will begin at the Chiba District Court on June 4. Shibuya was the head of the parents' association at the girl's elementary school at the time of the murder.

According to the indictment, Linh went missing on March 24, 2017, on her way to school and was found dead near a drainage ditch in the Chiba city of Abiko two days later. Shibuya was arrested the following month on suspicion of abandoning her body.

Hao said more than 1.1 million signatures seeking capital punishment for Shibuya have been collected in Japan, Vietnam and elsewhere.

Prior to visiting the crime scene, Hao met with Matsudo Mayor Kenji Hongoya at his home. The mayor told reporters that adults were responsible for not being able to protect Linh and he was very sorry.

Hao told the mayor he will continue to live in Matsudo and raise Linh's 4-year-old brother in the city, according to Hongoya.KYODO NEWS - Mar 26, 2018 - 09:57 | Arts, All

With the continued cool temperatures pushing back the peak of cherry blossoms in Washington to early April, the opening ceremony of the National Cherry Blossom Festival was held Sunday with the attendance of Japan's new ambassador, Shinsuke Sugiyama.

"As the ambassador appointed by my government, I very much would like to send my best regards to you all here, the people in D.C.," Sugiyama, a former vice foreign minister, said in an address at a Washington theater, with his wife Yoko standing beside him.

U.S. first lady Melania Trump, who serves as honorary chairwoman of the festival, said in a statement that cherry blossoms in the capital "serve as a reminder of the new spring season, and of the long and treasured friendship between the United States of America and Japan."

The annual festival commemorates the 1912 gift of about 3,000 nursery cherry trees by Tokyo to Washington to enhance bilateral friendship. Cherry blooms along the Potomac River captivate visitors every spring.

At the ceremony, Fukuoka Prefecture high school students performed calligraphy on erected screens of paper, while Japanese musicians Akiko Yano and Takanori Nishikawa, whose stage name is T.M. Revolution, gave performances.

A series of Japan-related events such as Japanese art exhibitions, kite flying, fireworks and a downtown parade are scheduled for the festival, which is to run through April 15.

The peak for cherry blossoms is forecast for April 8-12, according to the National Park Service.Two-thirds of India's adult population received first dose of COVID

NITI Aayog's Member, Health, Dr V K Paul said that India has successfully administered one dose to 66 per cent of the adult population, and almost a quarter have received the both doses.Telecommunications

FCC chief floats new supply chain rules for telecom

Leveraging a multibillion federal subsidy, the nation's communications chief is looking to new rules that would bar foreign telecommunications equipment suppliers who are deemed a threat to national security.

At the Federal Communications Commission's next public meeting on April 17, Chairman Ajit Pai plans to propose rules that would curb billions in federal subsidies to U.S. telecommunications companies who use certain foreign manufacturers.

The proposed rules would bar money from the commission's $8.5 billion Universal Service Fund from going to U.S. telecommunications providers that buy equipment from companies that "pose a national security threat" to U.S. networks.

"Hidden 'back doors' to our networks in routers, switches -- and virtually any other type of telecommunications equipment -- can provide an avenue for hostile governments to inject viruses, launch denial-of-service attacks, steal data, and more," Pai said in a March 26 statement introducing the proposed rules. "Although the FCC alone can't safeguard the integrity of our communications supply chain, we must and will play our part in a government- and industry-wide effort to protect the security of our networks."

The proposed rules would apply only to future spending on gear, senior FCC officials explained in a conference call with reporters on March 26, but they might apply to upgrades to that equipment.

The FCC's Universal Service Fund was created in the mid-1990s to help get telecommunications services to underserved or underprivileged areas where such coverage could be scarce.

The FCC will seek public comment for 60 days on how the commission could define a threat to the network, how it might enforce the rules and how funds could be recovered if enforcement actions were taken.

Although Pai's proposed rules don't single out specific companies such as Chinese telecom gear makers Huawei and ZTE or Russia-based Kaspersky, FCC officials said companies from both countries have caused concern among U.S. lawmakers who fear they could install "backdoors" that allow illicit access to network switches, routers and other equipment.

The Defense Department barred Huawei and ZTE telecommunications equipment and services, or any other telecommunications equipment connected to the Chinese or Russian government from its networks, and the federal government has barred Kaspersky software. FCC officials said the market share of those firms in civilian telecommunications infrastructure, "is not zero."

The measure is about preventing those companies from expanding that small market share any further, they said.

The officials said the proposed rules are in part a response to a December 2017 letter to Pai from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and other lawmakers voicing concern about a U.S. carrier deploying Huawei consumer products.

Pai teed up the new policy in a March 20 reply to the lawmakers promising "proactive steps to help ensure the integrity of the communications supply chain" in the near future.

A key U.S. telecommunications industry association has already voiced support for Pai's proposed rules.

"We strongly support efforts by the government to address concerns regarding certain communications equipment providers deemed to pose a heightened security risk," said Cinnamon Rogers, spokeswoman for the Telecommunications Industry Association in a March 26 statement.

"The FCC has a key role to play in these efforts, and we appreciate Chairman Pai's recognition that addressing security concerns requires work across the federal government in partnership with the ICT industry," she said.

Pai will call for a vote on this proposal at the commission's April 17 meeting.(Adds details)

By Hamid Ould Ahmed

ORAN, Algeria, March 25 (Reuters) - Algeria plans to offer tax incentives in a planned new energy law to attract more investment and is in discussion with foreign energy firms including BP and Anadarko to exploit its shale gas reserves, officials said on Sunday.

OPEC member Algeria is a key gas supplier to Europe, but growing domestic consumption has been hitting energy exports, the main source of the state budget.

In a bid to reverse the fall, the energy ministry has started drafting amendments to the energy law, promising more incentives for foreign investors.

"We will remove all obstacles, wage a battle against bureaucracy and change tax procedures," Energy Minister Mustapha Guitouni told a gas and gas conference in the western city of Oran.

"The amendment is required by our energy security," he said. "The current system must change. We will intensify consultations with our partners."

The law has been in the works for years and is seen as key to attracting more investment but no draft or details have been presented yet.

In the latest bidding round in 2014, Algeria awarded only four of 31 blocks on offer after a disappointing auction in 2011 as foreign firms balked at the terms.

Algeria was already preparing to exploit shale gas to boost output after failed attempts in the past years due to protests by residents of affected areas over fears of pollution.

"Evaluation studies on shale gas potential are going on. This will take 5 to 10 years," he said, without providing further details.

Arezki Hocini, the head of the National Agency for the Valorization of Hydrocarbon Resources (Almaty), said Algeria had already started discussions with oil majors including BP and Anadarko to help evaluate and exploit shale gas.

"We hope these discussions will lead to talks over possible contracts," he told reporters, without providing details.

While seeking to attract foreign investors state-run oil and gas company Sonatrach is also trying to expand abroad, mainly in the Middle East, Guitouni said.

Story continues

"Egypt is interested in working with us," he said, without elaborating.

Sonatrach earlier this year signed an agreement with Iraqi companies to form joint ventures for gas projects.

Sonatrach had already started operations in Peru and neighbouring Libya, Niger and Mali.

Algeria has been talking for years about opening up the energy sector but some in the political elite have resisted this.

(Editing by Ulf Laessing and David Evans)Much of the past weeks rage at Facebook appears to hinge on the idea that wrongly obtained user data was used to influence the 2016 U.S. election  specifically, in favor of President Donald Trump. After all, dire warnings about mass data gathering have circulated for at least a decade. The public seemed to take little notice until the technology appeared to send politics haywire by using what a whistleblower described as an arsenal of weapons to influence voters.

But a series of reports suggest that, however real Facebooks abuse of its users trust, Cambridge Analytica itself was hardly the master manipulator that it claimed to be. In a New York Times report from more than a year ago, Cambridge Analytica executives admitted that the psychographics techniques it promoted, supposedly able to profile voters deepest emotions, were not used in the Trump campaign. More recently, a political tech executive told the trade publication AdExchanger that the technology CA actually used was fairly standard, and that Facebook or about any commercial [data management platform] can do that better even if their employees want you to lose.

So, while psychographics has proven effective in influencing buying behavior in experiments, its still unclear whether or how the approach would work in an election. One political micro-targetting expert interviewed by The Verge questioned whether knowing a voters mindset based on Facebook likes could really have a dramatic influence amid the overwhelming wave of data going into peoples head during a political campaign.

Get Data Sheet, Fortunes technology newsletter.

And when Cambridge Analytica made its most ambitious claims, it sometimes fell on its face. According to a new Mother Jones report, the company told the Ted Cruz campaign that a powerful software tool named Ripon could help it target voters, but that tool didnt exist. It also told the Ben Carson campaign that it was adept in TV advertising, but turned out to be inept. Carson staffers reportedly thought it was possible the company was a sham. Even Trump wasnt a lock for the firm, which onetime Trump campaign chair (and now indicted money launderer) Paul Manafort once described, according to Mother Jones, as just full of shit, right?

The disconnect between Cambridge Analyticas image and its abilities has been repeatedly pinned on now-suspended CEO Alexander Nix. One former colleague described Nix to Mother Jones as an opportunist, whose sales pitch often amounted to Can I sell this to you and work out the details afterward? In 2016, the opportunity Nix saw was in Republican politics, where a dearth of political-tech players left an opening. His tendency to oversell may have also proven his undoing when a documentary crew taped him suggesting his company could deploy entrapment tactics to smear clients opponents.

It seems fitting, then, that Facebook has been the focus of anger after the discovery of its flawed data policies. But the fact that Cambridge Analytica was little more than a digital marketing firm with a posh British accent shouldnt defuse anxiety about the impacts of digital profiling. YouTube has been shown, for instance, to algorithmically push viewers towards extreme content, and online propaganda has been tied to a rise in tribalism. Whether or not that dynamic can be steered to the benefit of a particular candidate, the risk to democracy itself is obvious.Billionaire techie Elon Musk says he had this selfie taken while he was deep in the hole with my boring machine. (Elon Musk via Instagram)

What do you do for an encore after youve sold 20,000 flamethrowers? If youre billionaire Elon Musk, you sell rocks.

But not just any rocks. These are rocks carved out by Musks tunneling venture, the Boring Company, and shaped for construction purposes. Two people could build the outer walls of a small house in a day or so, Musk said.

Musk launched his latest merchandising campaign tonight in a series of tweets  and as usual, answered questions from his avid fans:

New Boring Company merch coming soon. Lifesize LEGO-like interlocking bricks made from tunneling rock that you can use to create sculptures & buildings. Rated for California seismic loads, so super strong, but bored in the middle, like an aircraft wing spar, so not heavy.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2018

First kit set will be ancient Egypt  pyramids, Sphinx, temple of Horus, etc  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2018

Guaranteed to be Flamethrower-proof!  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2018

Hey @elonmusk any way to turn this into affordable housing etc. in the areas of future drilling locations? Little to no transportation costs if contractors come to the drill sites to pick up material by the pound. https://t.co/Ni1QkLYUho  Leon (@LeonsArcade) March 26, 2018

Yeah, the boring bricks are interlocking with a precise surface finish, so two people could build the outer walls of a small house in a day or so  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2018

Wow. Is it biodegradable? Whats its impact factor on the environment?  Need More Wildlife (@DianaKFletcher) March 26, 2018

Uhh, its literally made of rock  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2018

Plan to ship worldwide?  Eniko Safrany-Hetei (@safranye) March 26, 2018

Yes  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2018

No word yet on pricing or availability  but if history is any guide, you can expect ordering information to show up on the Boring Companys website.

Story continues

The Boring Company has already referred to the brickmaking operation in its online FAQ, although the website makes it sound as if the bricks would be made from dirt rather than rock:

In typical tunneling projects, excavated dirt is shipped offsite to disposal locations. This process is costly, time-consuming, noisy, and can be environmentally hazardous. The Boring Company is investigating technologies that will recycle the earth into useful bricks to be used to build structures. This is not a new concept, as buildings have been constructed from earth for thousands of years including, according to recent evidence, the Pyramids. These bricks can potentially be used as a portion of the tunnel lining itself, which is typically built from concrete. Since concrete production accounts for 4.5 percent of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions, earth bricks would reduce both environmental impact and tunneling costs.

Whether its rocks or dirt, we assume that the raw material will be coming from the Boring Companys tunneling operation in the Los Angeles.

Or maybe Musk is looking ahead to the stuff thatll be coming up from tunnels in Maryland or Illinois. (At last report, Musks company is vying with one other finalist to build an express route from downtown Chicago to OHare International Airport.)

Its not yet clear whether Musks bricks will be as economical as other building materials, either to make or to use in construction. But a couple of things are clear: First, Musk is definitely looking to merchandising as a means of support for the Boring Company. And theres plenty of muck to merchandise.

No real surface is perfect, but it did pull about 250,000 lbs of muck rail cars out of a tunnel pic.twitter.com/wlKbLwd0f7  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 22, 2018

Second, Musk has enough fans to guarantee that a good number of the bricks will be sold, even if they end up as glorified pet rocks rather than the stuff that pyramids are made of. Januarys flamethrower sale already demonstrated that much.

And speaking of the Boring Company flamethrower (or should we say, not a flamethrower), Musk told a Twitter follower tonight that the first deliveries would probably be made in May.

Theres not yet any sign that Musk is joking, either about the flamethrowers or the rocks, but the acid test of Musks seriousness (or should we say, not seriousness) is likely to come on April Fools Day.

More from GeekWire:Earnings Estimates Moving Higher for Vanda (VNDA): Time to Buy? Vanda (VNDA) shares have started gaining and might continue moving higher in the near term, as indicated by solid earnings estimate revisions.

GlaxoSmithKline plc GSK has withdrawn from the race to buy Pfizers PFE Consumer Healthcare segment.

Last October, Pfizer had said that it was exploring strategic alternatives for its Consumer Healthcare segment including a partial or a full separation through a spin-off, sale or other transaction. A decision regarding the same is expected to be made this year and it may ultimately opt to retain the business

Glaxos chief executive officer, Emma Walmsley said that management is interested in deals that will improve the companys returns and not compromise on its priorities for capital allocation.

Pfizer is having a tough time finding a buyer for its Consumer Healthcare segment, Last week, British company Reckitt Benckiser Group also pulled out of the discussion with Pfizer to buy the latters Consumer Health segment. After, Reckitt Benckiser backed out, Glaxo was seen as the frontrunner to buy Pfizers unit.

Shares of Glaxo were up around 3.5% on Friday in response to this positive news. Glaxos stock has risen 7.3% this year so far, against a decline of 4.6% for the industry.

In a separate press release, Pfizer announced that its shingles vaccine, Shingrix has gained regulatory approval in Japan and EU. Please note that Shingrix was approved in the United States and Canada in October last year. Also, Shingrix enjoys preferential recommendation from the US Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Last year, the ACIP recommended thepreferentialuse of Shingrix for prevention of shinglesover Mercks MRK Zostavax.

In yet another release, Glaxo announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of Europe has granted a positive opinion, recommending approval of Juluca,a two-drug regimen(dolutegravir and rilpivirine), once-daily, single pill for HIV.Juluca becomes the first two-drug pill to be approved in Europe. A final decision from the European Commission in the EU is expected toward the end of the second quarter.

Story continues

Juluca was approved in the United States in November last year. Juluca has been developed by Glaxo and Pfizers HIV-focused company, ViiV Healthcare, in partnership with Johnson & Johnson JNJ.

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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.Hold the trade war talk: The EU and China know they must cut excessive surpluses with the US

The current trade disputes are caused by policy errors from the European Union and China  assisted by decades-old American negligence.

Europe and China will have to allow America's belated trade adjustment.

The decline of global trade imbalances will strengthen the world economy.

The United States wants to negotiate trade issues with the European Union and China despite the fact that they ignored, for more than a year, Washington D.C. constant warnings about unacceptably large surpluses on their American trades.

In doing so, China and a Germany -led EU have put themselves in an economically and politically untenable position. These two economic systems represent more than one-third of the global economy and 60 percent of demand and output in the industrialized world.

With their estimated trade surplus on goods and services of $713.6 billion at the end of last year, the Europeans and the Chinese live grandly off the deficits they cause in the rest of the world. They are exerting a powerful drag on global economic growth and, by virtue of their excessively high trade imbalances , they operate as a hugely destabilizing factor for the world economy .

I doubt that present EU leaders would want to place their post-modern community in that kind of a position. Insensitive economic policies are not exactly what they need in a world where they want to shine as heirs to the Enlightenment, "leitkultur" (leading culture) and civilizing missions.

With their customs union, the Europeans also have to think about the destruction they are causing to trade flows outside their tariff walls.

China's major policy blunder

China deserves greater understanding as a country emerging from two centuries of economic and political hardships, and still looking for an effective path of development.

In its quest for jobs and incomes, China had set itself up, since the late 1970s, as a global manufacturing workshop on the basis of an inexpensive and widely available labor force.

Story continues

That phase of development is over, but manufacturing still remains one of the key segments of China's economic activity. The Chinese estimates indicate, for example, that about 40 percent of the country's exports to the United States are now generated by American joint-venture production facilities operating in China.

That is probably one of the reasons why a group of large U.S. retailers appealed to the White House last week to avoid trade tensions with China.

Beijing is apparently trying to wean its economy off exports while seeking a larger output in service sector industries and greater consumption spending from its rapidly increasing middle class. Some progress has been achieved, but all that still looks like a work in progress, and probably one of the reasons why Beijing's pledge of a "win-win cooperation" rings hollow when it comes to foreign trade. China's trade relations with the U.S. are a case in point.

Indeed, it is surprising to see that China's astute leaders have allowed themselves to be maneuvered into a totally unsustainable negotiating position with a $375 billion surplus on their American trade transactions.

They even managed to embarrass Donald Trump with an 8 percent increase of China's trade surplus with the U.S. during last year. Particularly galling is the fact that this came after an apparently successful and convivial meeting last April in Florida with China's Xi Jinping , where trade issues were discussed in detail.

At any rate, the Chinese will most likely agree to the process of a fast and substantial reduction of their bilateral surplus with the U.S. in some combination of rising American exports to China and declining Chinese exports to the U.S.

The US will force Germany's policy change

A similar trade adjustment mechanism should be set up to deal with a $151.4 billion trade deficit the U.S. ran with the EU in 2017.

As a practical matter, however, Germany should be the focus of America's trade policy toward Europe. At the moment, Germany is running a trade surplus well in excess of $300 billion, or about 8 percent of its GDP, which accounts for nearly 70 percent of the euro zone's total.

In the case of the U.S., Germany's trade surplus  $64 billion in 2017  represents 42 percent of America's total trade deficit with the EU.

The U.S. and the world community have every right to insist that Germany must change its economic policy to reduce its huge trade surplus. Washington should also introduce a numerical target to force a rapid decline of its bilateral trade deficit with Germany. That deficit is large enough, and structurally grounded, to warrant a quick action to plug trade leakages that are undermining American growth dynamics.

Predictably, the Europeans are kicking and screaming. They complained last Friday that they don't want to negotiate with a "gun to their head"  a reference to suspended U.S. trade tariffs on steel and aluminum.

There were also the usual invocations of trans-Atlantic unity, solidarity, Western values and a Western world order. None of that is threatened by "clear agreements, good friends" ("clara pacta boni amici" in Latin). The U.S. just has to stop being taken for a ride in the name of Western leadership.

Back to China: The U.S. should not pick unnecessary fights on intellectual property . Technology transfers to China were not an extortion; they were part of the cost-benefit analysis of American firms investing in local joint-venture facilities. The Chinese just pushed through an open door.

But that can be easily stopped by prohibiting technology transfers as part of American joint ventures in China. In addition to that, the U.S. can prohibit imports of Chinese products incorporating illegally obtained and unlicensed American technology.

Linking the U.S.-China trade and investment relations with geopolitical issues should also be avoided. These are vastly different problems that should be considered on their own merits.

Surely, weaponizing trade is a tempting shot when you want to throw the proverbial kitchen sink at the country (China) designated as a "strategic competitor" and a "revisionist power" challenging the Pax Americana  the American world order. But think where all that leads, and what is the ultimate objective.

A military confrontation of nuclear-armed states is not a simple skirmish. The MAD (mutually assured destruction) doctrine has been established ever since the 1950s when the Soviet Union acquired nuclear and thermonuclear weapons and their intercontinental delivery vehicles. That is still the case. The wisdom of putting trade in there is not obvious when you have to figure out what to do about potential adversaries with nuclear-armed submarines along America's Atlantic and Pacific shorelines, undetectable hypersonic weapons , etc.

A patient search for an acceptable state of affairs with China should not be an obstacle to building a highly competitive U.S. economy, and maintaining a forceful defense of American national interests.

Investment strategy

At the beginning of this year, the EU and China were running their trade surpluses with the U.S. at respective annual rates of 8 percent and 15 percent above their 2017 levels.

Unless something is done quickly, these numbers indicate the possibility of another year of an embarrassing defeat for Trump's most vocal pledge to stop, and reverse, leakages of American domestic demand in the form of wealth and technology transfers to U.S. trade competitors.

That is an issue where the Republican Party should strongly support their man in the White House  if they want to see more of the fiscal and monetary stimulus benefiting American jobs and incomes.

And hold the trade war rhetoric. The Europeans and the Chinese know that they have maneuvered themselves into an untenable position with their excessive trade surpluses. They are angry and screaming because they know that they have to yield.

Washington should push on with its drive for fair and reciprocal trade. We should all hope to see a principled determination to stop the people undermining the stability of the world economy by ignoring the long-standing and widely accepted rules of an orderly trade adjustment.

Commentary by Michael Ivanovitch, an independent analyst focusing on world economy, geopolitics and investment strategy. He served as a senior economist at the OECD in Paris, international economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and taught economics at Columbia Business School.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.





More From CNBC

U.S. West Texas Intermediate and international-benchmark Brent Crude Oil futures are trading sharply lower early Monday, reversing earlier gains as investors express concerns over a potential trade dispute between the U.S. and China.

At 0724 GMT, May WTI crude oil futures are trading $65.54, down $0.35 or -0.53%. June Brent crude oil is at $69.59, down $0.22 or -0.32%. Earlier in the session, WTI crude hit a new high for the year at $66.55. Brent posted a similar move hitting $70.30.

Daily May WTI Crude Oil

Traders are primarily reacting to the possibility of a trade war between the U.S. and China after President Donald Trump last Thursday signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China.

Also encouraging investors to book profits after last weeks over 5-percent rally was the news of another rise in the number of U.S. rigs drilling for oil. According to Baker Hughes, the number of U.S. rigs drilling for oil hit a three-year high of 804. This implies further rises in production, which have already jumped by a quarter since mid-2016 to 10.4 million barrels per day (bpd).

Prices rose earlier in the session on speculation that the OPEC-led production cuts would be extended beyond the December 2018 deadline. The market is also being supported by concerns that the United States may re-introduce sanctions against Iran. This could disrupt supplies in the region.

Daily June Brent Crude

Forecast

Volatility is likely to remain elevated today as traders try to determine which news event to follow. Im leaning toward the downside today since a retaliation of the recent tariffs against China and Europe could take place at any time. This could set off another sell-off in the stock markets which should then affect demand for risky assets like crude oil.

Losses could be limited because next on tap is likely to be the re-introduction of sanctions against Iran.

Talk of any extension of the OPEC-led production cuts should not have too much of an effect on prices since discussions over the matter are not likely to take place until much later in the year.

Story continues

A technical closing price reversal top today on the daily chart could lead to the start of a 2 to 3 day correction.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

More From FXEMPIRE:A seagull flies in front of an oil platform in the Bouri Oilfield some 70 nautical miles north of the coast of Libya, October 5, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi/Files

By Ayenat Mersie

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil futures slipped on Monday as investors cashed in some profits from last week's rally but concerns about Saudi-Iran tensions kept losses in check.

Brent crude futures (LCOc1) slipped 33 cents, or 0.5 percent, to settle at $70.12 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures (CLc1) also lost half a percent, or 33 cents, to end at $65.55.

Last week, Brent gained 6.4 percent and WTI rose 5.7 percent, the strongest weekly gains since July.

"I don't see anything extraordinarily bearish in the market today. I think some folks here are just ... happy to take profits," said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York.

Although crude and product futures slipped on Monday, most share prices for energy companies, especially refiners, were up, Yawger said. The S&P Energy Index (.SPNY) was up more than 1 percent.

Global stocks came off six-week lows on reports that the United States and China would begin trade talks, easing fears of a trade war. Analysts had been concerned that a trade war could hurt oil demand.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China.

"The (oil) market is pulling back after pushing strongly high last week. I think the $70 level in Brent, $67 for WTI ... start to trigger worries of increased U.S. production levels," said Gene McGillian, manager of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

The number of active U.S. oil rigs rose to a three-year high of 804 last week, implying further rises in future production. (C-OUT-T-EIA)

"With U.S. crude production likely to be close to 10.5 million barrels per day by now and NGL (natural gas liquids) output also increasing strongly, there is a clear chance that year-on-year supply growth in the U.S. could at least temporarily hit 2 million bpd over the summer months," JBC analysts wrote.

The market found support from rising Middle East tensions.

Story continues

Saudi air defences shot down ballistic missiles fired by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militia on Sunday, some of which targeted Saudi capital Riyadh.

In Asia, Shanghai crude oil futures made a strong debut in terms of volume as investors and commodity merchants bought into the world's newest financial oil trading instrument.

Hedge funds and other money managers raised their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions in the week to March 20 after two weeks of cutting bullish bets, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's steelmakers rose on Monday, with market heavyweight Posco leading the overall sector after the United States agreed to exempt South Korea from its new steel tariffs.

Washington will impose a quota on steel imports instead, while South Korea in return will improve access for U.S. automakers under the bilateral free trade deal known as KORUS.

Shares in sector heavyweight Posco added 2.0 percent, while Dongbu Steel gained 6.9 percent. Husteel shares rose 3.4 percent, while Seah Steel and Seah Besteel gained 2 percent and 4.9 percent respectively.

The sub-index for iron, steel and metal (.KS34) rose 1.7 percent, edging back from earlier gains, ahead of a 0.8 percent gain in the broader market (.KS11).

Auto shares were mixed, with Hyundai Motor 1.3 percent weaker and Kia Motors up 0.5 percent.

Under KORUS revisions, U.S. automakers will be able to bring into South Korea 50,000 vehicles per automaker per year that meet U.S. safety standards, not necessarily Korean standards, up from 25,000 vehicles previously.

South Korea and the United States earlier this month held a third round of negotiations on revising their trade pact. Reducing South Korean non-tariff barriers to U.S. automotive exports has been a priority for the Trump administration.

Trump late on Thursday issued a proclamation that South Korea, Argentina, Australia, Brazil and the European Union would get temporary exemptions from steel and aluminum tariffs, along with Canada and Mexico's earlier exemptions. The exemptions run until May 1 as discussions continue.

(Reporting by Dahee Kim and Hyunjoo Jin; editing by Richard Pullin)Ariana Grande performs "Be Alright" during the "March for Our Lives" rally in support of gun control, Saturday, March 24, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Paul McCartney, Common, Miley Cyrus, Amy Schumer and other stars played supporting roles at nationwide gun-reform rallies dominated by teenage survivors' emotional speeches.

Still, the protests were deeply personal for some of the celebrities involved.

Jennifer Hudson, who performed "The Times They Are A Changin'" to cap Saturday's March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., alluded to the shooting deaths of her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew in 2008.

"We've all lost somebody. ... We've all got a purpose. And we want what? We want change," she said, encouraging the vast crowd to join her in song.

McCartney said his decision to take part in the New York City rally was prompted by the 1980 Manhattan shooting death of John Lennon, his former Beatles bandmate.

"One of my best friends was killed in gun violence, right 'round here, so it's important to me," he told CNN.

Asked what he hoped could be accomplished by the event, McCartney opened his jacket to show the slogan emblazoned on his black T-shirt: "We can end gun violence."

Hudson, appearing tearful as she concluded her appearance, was backed by members of a Washington choir and survivors of the Feb. 14 Parkland, Florida, high school shooting. Students from the school led rallies attended by hundreds of thousands of people in the nation's capital and other U.S. cities.

Celebrities attending the Washington event included power couples George and Amal Clooney and Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg, who helped fund the protests with a combined $1 million donation. Also attending were Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, Glenn Close, Cher, Jimmy Fallon and Dennis Rodman.

Common, Cyrus, Andra Day, Vic Mensa, Demi Lovato, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Platt and Ariana Grande performed in Washington, and Rita Ora took the stage in Los Angeles.

"This song is dedicated to Stephon Clark, Decynthia Clements and all the unarmed black men and women killed by police weapons," Mensa said before performing "Now We Could Be Free."

Story continues

Grande encountered another iteration of violence when her 2017 Manchester, England, concert was bombed, killing 22 people and injuring scores of others.

Schumer, the actress-comedian and cousin of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, spoke to Parkland survivors attending the Los Angeles rally, telling them the violence they endured has to stop.

___

Lynn Elber can be reached at lelber@ap.org and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lynnelber.A 3D-printed logo for Twitter is seen in this picture illustration on January 26, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Files

By Tommy Wilkes and Fanny Potkin

LONDON (Reuters) - Twitter Inc will start banning cryptocurrency advertising from Tuesday, joining Facebook and Google in a clampdown that seeks to avoid giving publicity to potential fraud or large investor losses.

The prohibition will cover advertising of initial coin offerings (ICOs) - crowdfunding used to raise cash by creating new coins - as well as token sales, the San Francisco-based firm told Reuters on Monday.

The new policy, which will be rolled out over the next 30 days, will also ban ads by cryptocurrency exchanges and cryptocurrency wallet services, unless they are public companies listed on certain major stock markets.

For Japan, these will be limited to crypto exchanges regulated by its national financial regulator, Twitter said.

The firm had said this month it was taking measures to prevent crypto-related accounts from "engaging with others in a deceptive manner", but faced calls to go further after bans from Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google.

Facebook has restricted crypto-related adverts, while Google announced a ban that comes into force in June.

The price of bitcoin, already 4 percent in the red on Monday, fell further after the Twitter announcement. It traded at $7,920 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange at 1740 GMT, down more than 6 percent on the day.

REGULATORS' WARNINGS

Regulators have stepped up warnings that bitcoin and other virtual currencies are highly speculative and that some could be fraudulent, and that investors should be prepared to lose everything.

But last week the G20 group of rich nations failed to reach a consensus on how to supervise them.

Adverts for virtual coins or ways to trade them have appeared everywhere from London's transport network to Japanese television as demand for them has soared.

"With the increasing number of ICOs coming to market, it is an impossible task for anyone, much less platforms like Twitter or Facebook, to keep on top of which ICOs and cryptocurrencies are genuine versus frauds," said Zennon Kapron, director of the financial consultancy Kapronasia.

Story continues

"Although certainly ICO advertising must have been a significant source of revenue for Twitter, the repercussions of fraudulent activities just weren't worth the risk."

Bitcoin has lost more than half its value from a December peak of almost $20,000 as fears of a regulatory clampdown spooked investors. News of the Facebook and Google bans also knocked the price.

Ethereum and Ripple's XRP, the second- and third-biggest digital currencies by market capitalisation, have tumbled this year too.

While critics call cryptocurrencies a Ponzi scheme that will end in tears for most investors, supporters say the coins are backed by powerful new technology that can replace traditional fiat currencies and upend the existing banking system.

(Reporting by Tommy Wilkes and Fanny Potkin; Editing by Kevin Liffey and John Stonestreet)FILE PHOTO: A section of the BP Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) oil platform is seen in the North Sea, around 100 miles east of Aberdeen in Scotland February 24, 2014. REUTERS/Andy Buchanan/File Photo

By Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters) - The UK North Sea is set to resume a two-decade decline in oil production next year, snapping a brief period of growth since 2015, consultancy Bernstein said in a report on Monday.

Production in the North Sea, home to the Brent global crude benchmark, peaked in 1999 at 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd) and had steadily slipped until 2014, when it hit around 800,000 bpd. In the past four years, output has stabilised or even recovered.

The halt to the decline stemmed from the start-up of several new fields such as the BP-operated (BP.L) Quad 204 west of the Shetland Islands and Enquest's (ENQ.L) Kraken field east of them.

The revival was due also to improved output from existing fields as operators slowed the natural decline of reservoirs by accelerating drilling around wells, a process known as infill drilling, and ran platforms better, Bernstein said.

(GRAPHIC: UK North Sea oil production - https://reut.rs/2Gokzn0)

Decline rates improved from around 18 percent in 2012 to 8 percent in 2016 and 5 percent in 2017, the report said. Output from fields naturally decreases as they age and their resources dwindle.

"The stability and even growth from 2015 to 2018 will prove temporary in nature for this 1 million bpd basin," the report said.

Production from the UK North Sea, considered the world's first deepwater oil basin, is expected to grow by 4 percent, or roughly 40,000 bpd, in 2018 before declining from 2019 to 2021.

Infill drilling sharply accelerated following a drop in rig rates in the wake of the 2014 oil price downturn. In 2016, 54 wells were completed, more than double the number in 2012.

At the same time, the production efficiency of wells and platforms increased to 73 percent in 2016 from 60 percent in 2012, accounting for a 200,000-bpd gain in output over the period, according to Bernstein.

The decline in output has had a profound impact on North Sea producers.

Nimble, often privately owned companies such as Siccar Point, Neptune and Chrysaor that specialise in extending the life of ageing fields are gradually replacing large producers such as Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and BP, which were among the first to develop the basin but see less opportunity there today.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso)Many of his memories of the war are painful. But he believes he got through it with what the Japanese call gaman, the ability to accept and bear the seemingly unbearable.



Thats a Japanese trait, Yamamoto said.



Even the bad memories are memories I cherish now, he said. Its done and over with, and Im richer for the experience.

In recent years many stories and documentaries about the interment of American of Japanese descent by the order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during World War II have been produced. A parallel, but much less well-known history is that of Nisei (children born to Japanese immigrants) who had been sent to Japan before the war started to receive Japanese schooling and were subsequently stranded there. The subject came up when the Weaver and I were in San Francisco, having lunch with Mary McDonald (DJ Cousin Mary) and her husband, Ken Mazawa. Mary mentioned that she and her son had made a documentary about the subject. After our trip Mary graciously sent me a copy of it. It was fascinating and sobering to watch these survivors (some of whom are now deceased) describe their experiences; how the war tore families apart and affected them, each in their own way. One of the subjects, Iwao Peter Sano, had been conscripted into military service and while he was in training in Manchuria the war ended. He was then taken prisoner by the Soviets, sent to Siberia and forced into slave labor foryears. He published a book about his experiences, 1,000 Days in Siberia . Another one of the interviewees, Mary Kimoto Tomita, has published, a book of letters sent to and from her during the war. The best on-line article about the subject I found was on the Discover Nikkei website , which has an interview with Mary and gives an excellent summary of the documentary.I also came across an on-line interview with with another survivor, Albert Takeshi Yamamoto, who lives not more than a dozen miles from my house! His story, while unique, shares many aspects of those who were featured in the documentary. It ends with these thoughts:Pakistani police have arrested 12 people for allegedly ordering a man to rape a girl in revenge for the rape of his sister.

A police officer in the eastern city of Pir Mahal, in Punjab Province, said the 12 people arrested included members of a village council, or jirga.

Rehmat Ali said that following the rape of a girl, the family of the alleged rapist, Wasim Saeed, sought pardon from the girl's family.

He said both families agreed to settle their dispute with the so-called revenge rape of the suspected rapist's sister.

The unlawful actions, called "wani" in Urdu, are still practiced in parts of rural Pakistan, where village councils often settle disputes.

Village councils have been condemned for a series of controversial rulings in the past, including ordering so-called "honor" killings.

Based on reporting by AP and DawnU.S. and Tajik officials have opened a new training center in Dushanbe aimed at preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The U.S. Embassy's charge daffaires, Kevin Covert, inaugurated the center on March 20 along with the president of the Tajik Academy of Sciences, Farhod Rahimi.

The United States has funded the $370,000 facility as part of Washington's Export Control and Border Security program.

The training areas for security personnel include a simulated port of entry with inspection booths, as well as vehicle and pedestrian gates.

The personnel at the facility will receive training in detecting nuclear and nonnuclear material and other forms of contraband.Atlanta still hobbled by ransomware attack

Four days after the announcement of a ransomware attack on Atlanta's city network on March 22, officials are still struggling to bring citizen-facing websites and internal application back online.

In a March 23 announcement, the city provided an update on efforts to resolve the ransomware cyberattack and outlined precautionary measures employees and customers should take while the city restores service.

Because the attack seems to have affected applications residents use to pay bills or do business with the city, officials initially advised employees and those who do business with the city to check their bank accounts to ensure their financial data had not been compromised.

On Monday, the city reiterated that that warning in a tweet. "At this time, there is no evidence to show that customer or employee data has been compromised. However, customers and employees are encouraged to take precautionary measures to monitor and protect their personal information."

Agencies across the city have been affected, according to a press statement. Among the departmental functions still suspended are:

Human resources. No New employment applications are being accepted

ATL311. Although the ATL311 website has been disabled, residents can access 311 services over the phone.

Procurement. Contracts will continue to be processed as the department works on gaining access to internal systems to issue purchase orders.

Municipal court. Currently, the court cannot process ticket payments (online or in person) or validate warrants originated from the court.

Corrections. The department is processing inmates manually.

Parks and Recreation. Permits and event applications are being reviewed manually

Airport. Free public Wi-Fi has been disabled at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport out of an abundance of caution.

In an interview with WSB-TV Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Bottoms said the city is making progress, but the issue is not resolved. More details have not been forthcoming.

Some have criticized the city's reticence. Andy Green, a lecturer of information and security at Kennesaw State University, told Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA that the city's silence is concerning. "We don't know if they're actively fighting the infection, we don't know whether they're into recovery mode," Green said.

The ransomware message demanded a bitcoin payment of approximately $51,000 to unlock all affected systems, the equivalent of $6,800 per computer to unlock individual machines.INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Moving IT security from human to machine speed

Cybersecurity is a top priority for federal agencies. Since taking office, President Donald Trump has proposed a cyber funding increase of 4 percent across the government, including significant hikes for the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. There are even larger cyber funding spikes at key agencies, with a 23 percent jump at the Energy Department, a 33 percent jump at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a 16 percent hike at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

IT analyst firm Gartner, too, has reported government CIOs will increase spending on cybersecurity. Its survey showed that CIOs at defense and intelligence agencies see artificial intelligence as a crucial technology investment -- more so than their counterparts in other industries. This highlights the need for AI investment at the government level, as well as an improved approach to defense and intelligence through technology.

We must move IT security from human to machine speed. Cyber criminals have certainly done so with automated tools and tactics. Much has been said about the AI arms race between the U.S., China and Russia, and to keep government secure, agencies must embrace AI and machine learning-powered cybersecurity measures.

For the purposes of this article, AI refers to the broader concept of machines being able to carry out tasks in a way that we would consider smart, and machine learning as a current application of AI based around the idea that we should really just be able to give machines access to data and let them learn for themselves, as defined in this Forbes column.

The data challenges with federal cybersecurity

Federal agencies house reams of sensitive and classified data, making them a high-value target for cyber criminals. But major threats to the security of this data include the lack of visibility IT managers have into their networks and users behaviors coupled with the amount of time it takes them to find threat actors using valid credentials inside their IT infrastructure.

That doesn't even account for the threats that originate on the inside. The number of people at the federal level who have access to top-secret information has increased from hundreds of thousands to almost a million across thousands of private companies and public agencies. Government agencies estimate there is one insider threat for every 6,000 to 8,000 employees because it is too difficult to monitor each individual and their behavior online.

Meanwhile, malicious and negligent insider attacks continue to catch organizations unprepared, according a study by Mimecast. In fact, 43 percent of businesses need a month or longer to detect employees accessing unauthorized files, according to a Ponemon Institute study.

The location of sensitive and regulated data, who has access to it and what their behaviors are -- from the outside or from within -- are big blind spots that continue to make government agencies vulnerable to external and insider threats.

Additionally, the staggering talent shortages plaguing cybersecurity as a whole leave fed security teams understaffed, overtaxed and struggling to enact the right strategy to properly address cybersecurity. In August 2016, the Government Accountability Office reported that federal chief information security officers faced significant challenges in recruiting and retaining personnel with high-demand skills.

Where humans fall short

When it comes to protecting sensitive data, its important to keep sight of the ways big data, advanced behavioral analytics and machine learning can help, from detecting and responding to threats, to proactively fighting them. Machine learning enables organizations to apply mathematical models to make sense of copious amounts of data and to automatically take action based on those insights. Machine learning-based behavioral analytics and anomaly detection applied to cybersecurity data can vastly improve and automate the way organizations monitor for unusual behavior, detect threats and handle incident response.

The Chelsea Manning case is a perfect example of how machine learning could have helped prevent a government employee from releasing classified information to the public. As a U.S. Army private and intelligence analyst, Manning released top secret information to WikiLeaks because she wanted to spark a domestic debate on the role of military and foreign policy. After the breach, President Barack Obama signed an executive order creating the National Insider Threat Task Force, which impacted nearly every federal department and required federal employees to monitor each other for suspicious activity. While monitoring for suspicious behavior can be effective, it is more efficient when that human effort is supplemented by a machine.Press release 2018-03-26

Global market launch for ArcAroma and oliveCEPT initiated in Chile

Arc Aroma's oliveCEPT will take the first step onto global market place in April. This will be initiated by the launch of the product concept in Chile. As a first step the platform will be validated together with the producer AGRO Maria Isabel Ltda. in a production line during the coming olive oil season.

- Chile is a strategic country and has been selected as an entry point for the South American market, this as the import duties and tariffs are very competitive compared to other countries in the region. We are now preparing the shipment of the first oliveCEPT to Chile. The system will be in operation in April, says Johan Mollerstrom, CEO at ArcAroma.

The industrial results will be fully evaluated towards the end of the olive oil season. ArcAroma expects positive results also from Chile, this together with results from previous trials and third-party validation will boost the sales also in the Mediterranean market and the Northern hemisphere later this year.

The strategy of ArcAroma is to act globally and to be an active partner in the industrial EVOO-production. This applies to both the Northern as well as to the Southern hemispheres. Fall and wintertime is the harvesting season of olive oil on the northern hemisphere and harvest on the southern hemisphere is initiated in the summer. Being active on both hemispheres cuts the time to market significantly.

For more information, please contact:

Johan Mollerstrom, CEO

(+46) 768 - 86 81 78

johan.mollerstrom@arcaromapure.se

This information is such information that Arc Aroma Pure AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set above, at March 26, 2018 at 08:30 CET.bb wrote:

I would agree with your analysis. The only consideration is around the international candidate job market, which I would encourage you to research with the current students and recent albums. If you are an international applicant. Many things in DC revolve around the government and hiring international candidates to do US government contract is not a very popular step at the moment. This job options for internationals a more limited in Georgetown.



Posted from my mobile device

I am a US citizen, so that wont be much of an issue.FREE Profile Evaluation directly from Dr. Shel Watts, a Harvard and Oxford graduate with Harvard admissions experience and over 25 years of work with MBA applicants. Fill out the profile evaluation form on our homepage at Interested in learning if we think you can be successful as an MBA applicant to a top business school? Feel free to sign up for adirectly from Dr. Shel Watts, a Harvard and Oxford graduate with Harvard admissions experience and over 25 years of work with MBA applicants. Fill out the profile evaluation form on our homepage at http://www.mbaadmit.com or send your resume to info@mbaadmit.com

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Stanford: Re-apply After Rejection?

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FREE informative Newsletter , which provides useful tips, insider information and guidance for applying to top MBA programs. Sign up on the right hand side of our homepage at We welcome you to sign up for our, which provides useful tips, insider information and guidance for applying to top MBA programs. Sign up on the right hand side of our homepage at http://www.mbaadmit.com

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Some of you may have already received disappointing news following your interview with Stanford. It is very disappointing to make it as far as the interview with Stanford and then fail to gain admission. But, the good news is that you got so far in the admissions process! Landing the interview is an achievement. If you have your heart set on Stanford, it can be worth trying again.This year, for example, one of our Stanford reapplicants went from rejection-following-interview last year to admissions with a $140,000+ scholarship from Stanford! Success as a reapplicant is possible.If you intend to reapply, it is important that you first determine what areas of your profile are soft spots that need to be strengthened. It could be that the major factor in your rejection was your performance in the admissions interview. If that is the case, in the time you have before reapplying, you should put yourself in environments that make you speak up in a collaborative setting or practice your speaking skills through other activities such as participating in Toastmasters.You should also review your prior Stanford application carefully, or secure a formal Ding Analysis, to determine in which areas you should improve. At times, your essays could have been more refined. Perhaps the essay content was off entirely, failing to convey how much impact you have brought through your past achievements (professional, academic, extracurricular) and how you can bring the same sort of impact to Stanford. Perhaps you did not come across as entrepreneurial or as someone who loves innovation. Maybe the admissions committee did not see your short-term or long-term goals as achievable. Perhaps your extracurricular activities should be strengthened. Whatever the shortcomings, once you identify the shortcomings, you should use the time you have before reapplying to improve in those areas.It is very hard to gain admission to Stanford GSB because its class sizes are so small and its bar for demonstrated academic success and leadership achievement is so high. But, if you have good fundamental credentials, it can be worth trying again.Best wishes,Email: info@mbaadmit.com _________________As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQNew York, Mar 25 (JEN): The United Nations this evening turned off the lights at its iconic Headquarters in New York as well as at other facilities around the world in observance of Earth Hour  a global event highlighting the need for climate action and sustainable energy consumption.

In a video message, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged people around the world to join him in turning out the lights and turning up the pressure for a healthy planet.

Climate change is moving much faster than we are. Its alarming impacts are upon us; resources and ecosystems across the world are under assault. Earth Hour is an opportunity to show our resolve to change, he said.

Protecting the environment is preserving life itself, stressed the UN chief.

Organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Earth Hour encourages individuals, companies, organizations and Governments throughout the world to switch off their lights for one hour at 8:30 p.m. local time.

This year, Earth Hour is stressing the link between climate change and biodiversity loss, as thousands of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction as a result of increasing temperatures.

First launched in 2007 in Australia, Earth Hour has been commemorated every year since, mobilizing hundreds of millions of individuals to participate and growing to become one of the worlds largest grassroots movement for the environment and climate action.

UN Photo/Evan SchneiderBarcelona, Mar 26 (IBNS): Protests broke out in Catalonia region of Spain after former separatist leader, Carles Puigdemont, was detained in Germany on Sunday.

Puigdemont is wanted in Spain for sedition and rebellion, media reports said.

A European warrant for the arrest of the leader was reissued on Friday after he tweeted that Spain was an undemocratic country and an embarrassment for Europe, in the aftermath of detention of five Catalan separatist leaders.

Acting on the warrant, police had detained him on Sunday.

He was detained while crossing from Denmark on his way to Belgium, where he has been living in self-imposed exile since Catalonia's parliament unilaterally declared independence from Spain in October, BBC reported.

According to media reports, protesters were seen holding Catalonia flags and banners in their hands.

As per CNN report, footage posted on social media shows crowds meeting with police wearing helmets, but the protests appeared to be peaceful.

Catalonia regional police arrested nine people in Barcelona.

The Mossos d'Esquadra - the Catalonia police - said that the nine detainees were taken into custody for the crime of attacking authority during the protest, in which 98 people were reported injured, 90 of them in the regional capital, Barcelona, and eight elsewhere in Catalonia, according to local emergency services, Spanish news agency EFE reported.

Speaking on the arrest, a spokesperson for the Kiel city criminal police, Uwe Keller, told EFE that Puigdemont was picked up at 11:19 am (local time) on a road that connects Germany and Denmark and local media reported that he had been transferred to a prison in the northern town of Neumunster.

Judicial sources confirmed to EFE that Germany now has up to 90 days to decide whether to extradite Puigdemont to Spain, a move he has opposed stating he would not get a fair trial there.

He is likely to be produced before a German judge on Monday.

Image: Screengrab from YouTubeIslamabad, Mar 26 (IBNS): Pakistan on Monday condemned the suicide blast in Afghanistan which killed three people on Sunday.

The blast, which hit a mosque in Herat region of Afghanistan, left at least left nine others injured.

"Pakistan strongly condemns the heinous and reprehensible Suicide attack that targeted innocent worshippers at a Mosque in Herat, today," Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

"We are grieved at the loss of precious and innocent lives in this brutal act of terrorism. Such sacrilegious acts that target places of worships including mosques are highly condemnable," it said.

"We express our heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the bereaved families and pray for the speedy recovery of the injured," the Ministry said.

The blast reportedly occurred at around 1 pm on Sunday.

Public Health Director Dr. Abdul Hakim Tamana told Afghanistan's Pajhwok Afghan News three bodies and nine injured people had been evacuated to the civil hospital from the blast site.

He told the news agency two suicide bombers wanted to enter the mosque but they were identified by the mosque guards who put resistance.

While one detonated his explosives, the other person was shot dead by the guard.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack.This was not just an enthusiastic speech to engage the Iranian dissidents in the crowd, but evidence of Boltons long-held belief that the Iranian Regime needs to be replaced by a democratic government.

Now it is clear that Bolton has no intention of hoping and praying that something happens; he is actively involved in the solution.

Bolton was recently named by Trump as the new National Security Adviser for the US, the latest high-level appointee who greatly opposes the Iranian Regime, and in this new position, Bolton is expected to encourage Trump to pull out of the nuclear deal and re-instate sanctions against Iran.

Bolton has long voiced his opposition to terrorist groups, particularly those that are sponsored or supported by the Iranian Regime, i.e. Hezbollah, ISIS, and al-Qaeda, and is expected to help the US cut off funding for these terrorist groups.

As such, his appointment has been welcomed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike across the Middle East and within the US.

So, now many are asking themselves, will Boltons promise come true? Will Iran be free by 2019?

The answer is yes, hopefully. Right now, we have the perfect storm of nationwide dissent among the Iranian people, strong real Iran experts with firm positions against the Iranian regime in the highest levels of the US government, and growing knowledge that the Iranian Regime will never reform. If we can capitalise on this, the Iranian people will be able to rise up and remove the mullahs from power.

Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, the former general manager of Al-Arabiya television, wrote on Asharq Al-Awsat that we shouldnt expect an all-out war against Iran by the US. Instead, we should expect the US to increase its pressure on the Iranian Regime through new and re-imposed sanctions, pressure on other Middle Eastern countries to oppose Iran, and efforts to Iranian infiltration from other nation states, i.e. Iraq

This is causing concern for the Regime, who has spoken out against Boltons appointment and is now realising that its insignificant concessions have not improved their standing.

Al-Rashed wrote: For those of us in the Middle East, and despite chaos and destruction, toppling the Iranian regime in a well-ordered way is an ideal solution to end the era of chaos that was started by Khomeini in 1979. He, the extremist Islamic groups and other regional regimes collaborating with them led the region to a series of crises, wars and a state of terror that have lasted for 40 years and made the entire world live in fear.In that piece, we explained that the Regime had two methods of discrediting the MEK; disinformation agents who were individual associated with the Regime who would travel/live abroad to talk about policy surrounding the MEK and Iranian Regime, and disinformation websites, which contained a whole host of lies about the MEK, including trying to frame them for the murders of Americans in Iraq.

There is another piece to the puzzle though and that is fellow travellers.

Iran Lobby

Fellow travellers are people who support the policies of a foreign government (i.e.Iran) but have no formal relationship with it. In the US, these fellow travellers are known as the Iran Lobby and their job is to promote the Regime and discreet the MEK.

Clare Lopez, a former CIA officer and Iran policy expert, said: [Evidence] suggests that the Iran Lobby in America is coordinated in Iran at various government levels and within establishment circles both governmental and industrial.

There are many groups and organisations that form the Iran Lobby, including, but not limited to:

 Centre for a New American Society

 Campaign for a New American Policy on Iran

 American Foreign Policy Project

 Council on American Islamic Relations

 National Iranian-American Council (NIAC)

Lets focus on the biggest of those groups: the NIAC.

The NIAC

Trita Parsi, an Iranian raised in Sweden, formed the NIAC in 2002 to promote the Iranian Regimes agenda, sway US policy in favour of the mullahs, and disparage Iranian opposition groups, like the MEK.

In 2009, Parsi and the NIAC filed a defamation lawsuit against Iranian activist Seid Hassan Daioleslam after he described Parsi as a key player in the lobby enterprise of Tehrans ayatollahs in the United States.

Daioleslams legal team requested information about Parsis meetings and emails with Iranian Regime officials, in order to prove that Daioleslams statement was true and therefore not defamatory.

However, desperate to avoid having the truth revealed, Parsi and the NIAC failed to provide information about over 4,000 calendar appointments and other data from computers and a shared server.

Some 1,000 calendar entries, including meetings with Iranian officials at the United Nations, were deleted and the other information lost after Parsis laptop was stolen in Norway because the data had not been backed up.

A lot of this data was later found by Daioleslams defence team during a forensic assessment, which led to the lawsuit being dismissed in September 2012 and Parsi and the NIAC being ordered to pay nearly $200,000 for filing a frivolous lawsuit.

The NIACs attacks on the MEK

The NIAC has its own disinformation campaigns against the MEK, which range from repeating baseless claims against the MEK to any media outlet that will still feature the NIAC to running a full-on secret conspiracy website to distributing anti-MEK press releases.

Why? Because the NIAC is dedicated to ending US support for the MEK, even listing it as their third highest priority.

It is clear that the NIAC wants to discredit the MEK and that the US should view any information from the NIAC as fake news.The Iranian Regime has greatly exacerbated the ongoing crises in at least three countries Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, but the real number is likely much higher.

Saudi Arabia is most concerned about Yemen, as the Houthis terrorists that Iran is supporting there have been firing Iranian-made ballistic missiles at the Kingdom. This is in response to the Saudi-led Arab coalition to support the internally recognised Yemeni Government.

Prince Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the US, told CNN: Heres what [is] happening in Yemen: [Iran is trying to create] another Hezbollah in Yemen, which will not just threaten our security and Yemeni security, but also regional security. Weve been focusing on the weapon of mass destruction, the WMD. What we should really be focusing on is the MD, the mass destruction that Iran is committing in the region.

In response to this meeting between Trump and Prince Mohammad, the Iran Lobby in the US  in particular the National Iranian American Council  have been attempting to paint Saudi Arabia as bloodthirsty, warmongering, and a state sponsor of terrorism.

In case that sounds familiar, these are things more appropriately applied to the Iranian Regime. Iran is on the US State Departments list of state sponsors of terrorism  as they have been for many years  but Saudi Arabia has moved to identify terrorist cells and work against them.

Still Trita Parsi of the NIAC attacks Prince Mohammad for warning about Iranian extremism and accuses Saudi Arabia of wanting to go to war with Iran, using American troops. This war is something that no one else has even mentioned and most of the US-Saudi talks have been about peace in the Middle East.

This is a well-used tactic by the Iran Lobby; stoke fears and then blame someone else.

Michael Tomlinson wrote on Iran Lobby: In Parsis worldview, the Iranian regimes sponsorship of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah is not to blame. Nor has been the arming of Shiite militias in Iraq or Houthi rebels in Yemen. Neither can blame be laid at the launching pads of dozens of ballistic missiles fired off by the Iranians, nor their leaders threats to blast its enemies out of existence.

It should be noted that the Iranian Regime is likely seeking to destabilise the Middle East in these ways to distract from their domestic crises. As the Regime is plagued by constant infighting, the Iranian people have taken to the streets to demand regime change. If the politicians around the world want to truly get rid of the Iranian Regime, they must support the Iranian peoples protest.Pharmacy warehouse manager in 2012-2015 stole medicines worth UAH 3 million.

Kyiv local prosecutor's office No. 10 is suspecting seven employees of the National Children's Specialized Hospital "Okhmatdyt" of embezzlement.

The group has been stealing children's medicines in significant amounts.

According to the press service of the prosecutor's office in Kyiv, a manager of the pharmacy warehouse in 2012-2015 stole medicines worth UAH 3 million.

Read alsoLaw enforcers blast fiscal officials for extorting UAH 70 mln for VAT refundAt the same time, another six senior nurses who, being financially responsible employees and entitled to obtain, store and control drugs, stole medicines worth about UAH 5 million.

Pre-trial investigation is underway, the prosecutor's office said.LASD Anticipates Hiring 160 New Positions to Improve Jail Healthcare

Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell plans to seek funding for more than 160 new deputies and support personnel to improve medical and mental healthcare for jail inmates, according to a letter posted on the countys website Tuesday.

McDonnell said his department will need to ramp up hiring to deal with the increased demand for medical appointments as the countys health agency moves toward a patient-centered model that is proactive and preventative.

Correctional Health Services, the agency within the Department of Health Services that took over responsibility for jail healthcare in 2015, is working aggressively to hire more personnel. That means the sheriffs department will need many more deputies to move inmates to and from appointments securely, the sheriff said.

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He said it also made sense to hire dedicated medical transport teams for off-site emergency medical runs. Last year, CHS made nearly 6,000 such trips, which typically require two deputies to be pulled off regular duty.

The sheriffs custody division oversees more than 17,000 inmates in seven county jail facilities.

It is vital to improve the level of medical and mental health care for the inmates in county jails, McDonnell wrote in The letter, signed on his behalf by Assistant Sheriff Jill Serrano.

McDonnell cited the California prison system as a cautionary tale, noting that in 2006, a federal judge found that the state failed to provide a constitutional level of care to prisoners and appointed a receiver to manage the system.

The (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) budget for prisoner medical care has grown exponentially to meet the receivers court-ordered demands, McDonnells letter stated.

Many inmates are very ill when they are booked into the county system and need to be assessed quickly to ensure proper care. More than 20 percent suffer from mental illness.

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Evaluations are made at the front of an inmates cell because there are not enough deputies to escort inmates to a clinical setting, according to McDonnell, who added that CHS is hoping to discontinue that practice.

The letter was sent as an update on the status of a reorganization of personnel under a new Access to Care Bureau. The department is reviewing the numbers and plans to formally request the new positions as part of the 2018-19 budget process and as current vacant positions are filled.

The board asked for an update on the overall financial status of the sheriffs department last June. A report from the CEO and Auditor-Controller has been postponed three times this year and is now set for April 3.Public Adjuster Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Embezzling from Fire Victims

An Orange County public adjuster was sentenced to 10 years in state prison today for pocketing more than $1.2 million from fire victims insurance payouts, the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office announced.

Jose Villa (dob 3/8/56) of San Clemente pleaded no contest to eight felony counts of diverting construction funds exceeding $2,350, Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Stodel of the White Collar Crime Division said. Villa also admitted to sentencing enhancement allegations of excessive taking of property and aggravated white collar crime.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor immediately sentenced Villa to prison. The judge also imposed a $10,000 fine and ordered restitution to the victims in the amount of $1,213,227.23.

According to Stodel, Villa was a licensed public adjuster who owned and operated Statewide Claims Advisors Inc. in Irvine. The victims in this case were the owners of a commercial building in Whittier and the owner of a residential rental property in Los Angeles. The victims had hired Villa to serve as their public adjuster after their properties were damaged in fires in 2013.

The prosecutor said Villa deposited the victims insurance reimbursement checks into his business checking account, ostensibly so he could handle demolition and construction at the victims properties in the months following the fires. However, he kept most of the insurance money instead of using it for the victims benefit, Stodel said.

The District Attorneys Office filed charges on Oct. 4, 2017.

Case BA461496 was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Departments Commercial Crime Bureau and the California Department of Insurance.

As part of the negotiated plea agreement, a seven-year prison sentence that Villa is serving for another insurance fraud case will run concurrently to the 10-year term imposed in this case. In the earlier case, MA069231, Villa was convicted in May 2017 of two felony counts each of grand theft by embezzlement and forgery for taking insurance proceeds from other fire victims.

As a result of Villas conduct, the California Department of Insurance revoked Villas license to serve as a public adjuster and permanently barred him from applying for or holding any license it issues.

ADVERTISEMENTVerdict in `Blurred Lines Case Upheld by Appeals Court

A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld a Los Angeles jurys finding that the Pharrell Williams/Robin Thicke smash hit Blurred Lines infringed on the copyright of Marvin Gayes Got to Give It Up.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena largely affirmed the $5.3 million verdict that determined that Thicke and Williams lifted key elements of Gayes 1977 disco hit. The panel cleared rapper T.I., who lends a rap segment to the hit, and Interscope Records, which issued the single.

Musical compositions are not confined to a narrow range of expression, Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. wrote in the opinion, concluding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Thickes motion for a new trial.

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Thickes attorney, Howard King, indicated that there would be a further appeal.

We stand by the fact that these are two entirely different songs, King said. The thorough and well-reasoned dissenting judges opinion is compelling and enhances the prospects for success in a further review by the Court of Appeals.

In her dissent, Judge Jacqueline Nguyen wrote that Blurred Lines and Gayes song differed in melody, harmony, and rhythm, finding that the judges refusal to allow the jury to compare the two sound recordings improperly allowed the defendants to copyright a musical style.

Following a seven-day trial and two days of deliberation, a federal civil jury in 2015 found that Williams, Thicke and Clifford T.I. Harris Jr.s song Blurred Lines  the worlds best-selling single of 2013  infringed the Gaye familys copyright.

The jury awarded Gayes heirs a $7.4 million verdict, later trimmed by the judge to $5.3 million plus half of ongoing Blurred Lines royalties.

Attorneys for Thicke and Williams argued in their appeal that the trial was a cascade of legal errors warranting a reversal by the appellate court. Jurors never heard the actual recording of Got to Give It Up because laws at the time of its release allowed for only the sheet music composition, not the sound recording, to be copyrighted.

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U.S. District Judge John Kronstadt ruled that jurors could consider only recreations of the work based on the lead sheet deposited with the U.S. Copyright Office. As a result, dueling musicologists offered hours of opinions as to the whether the musical notation made for songs that were alike or not.Malaysias government has proposed new laws aimed at banning fake, or false, news.

Punishments for those breaking the laws include a 10-year jail sentence and large fines.

Some people have called the proposed laws an attempt to severely limit criticism of the government before the general election.

Prime Minister Najib Razak is currently facing questions about billions of dollars missing from a state investment fund.

Human rights activists are concerned the new laws could be used to make reports on government wrongdoing and critical opinions illegal.

The general election is required to be held by August. But observers expect it to be held in the next few weeks.

The anti-fake news bills call for punishing those who create, offer, spread, print or publish false news or publications containing false news. Those found guilty could face a 10-year prison sentence, a fine of more than $128,000 or both.

The bill defines fake news as "any news, information, data and reports which is, or are, wholly or partly false whether in the form of features, visuals or audio recordings or in any other form capable of suggesting words or ideas."

The law, as it is written, extends to foreigners outside Malaysia as long as Malaysia or its citizens are affected.

Opposition lawmaker Ong Kian Ming reacted to the proposed laws on Twitter. He wrote, This is an attack on the press and an attempt to instill fear among the (people).

Government officials have said the law is needed to protect the public harmony and national security. They have accused the opposition coalition of using fake news as a weapon to win votes.

The officials also warned that any news about the Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, state fund that is not approved by the government is false.

The government fund plans long-term investments for the country. The United States and several other countries are investigating claims of corruption and illegal money exchanges at 1MDB.

Prime Minister Najib created the fund to support economic development. It has gathered billions of dollars in debt instead.

The U.S. Justice Department says people connected to Najib stole at least $4.5 billion from 1MDB. The department is working to seize $1.7 billion taken from the fund to buy assets in the United States. The move could be the largest U.S. asset seizure.

Najib denies any wrongdoing. He has dismissed critics in his government and restricted the media since news of the corruption appeared three years ago.

Support for Najib's ruling coalition has greatly decreased in the last two elections. It lost the popular vote for the first time to the opposition in 2013.

Experts expect Najib to win a third term. This is because of disagreements within the opposition, changes to voting areas and strong support for the government among rural ethnic Malays.

Critics said the anti-false news bill will add to a list of restrictive laws. This includes a sedition law, a press and publications act, and an official secrets act and a security act. All of these laws have been used to violate freedom of expression and damage media freedom, critics add.

A coalition of human rights and other organizations have expressed concern that the government was pushing the legislation through too quickly. They say the government did not ask for public opinion or release details about the law ahead of time for public examination.

The Associated Press first reported this story. Pete Musto adapted it for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. How does your countrys government react to critical voices and opposition? How do you think that reaction should change? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

fake - adj. not true or real

fund - n. an amount of money that is used for a special purpose

data - n. facts or information used usually to calculate, analyze, or plan something

features - n. a special story or section in a newspaper or magazine

visuals - n. something you look at (such as a picture, chart, or film) that is used to make something more appealing or easier to understand

audio - n. of or relating to the sound that is heard on a recording or broadcast

capable - adj. able to do something : having the qualities or abilities that are needed to do something

harmony - n. a pleasing combination or arrangement of different things

assets - n. something that is owned by a person, company, etc.  usually plural

sedition - n. the crime of saying, writing, or doing something that encourages people to disobey their governmentBenjamin Vidmar lives and works in one of the most northern towns in the world.

He is trying to grow food for the town of about 2,000 people. But that is difficult when temperatures are often below freezing and it stays dark for months in the winter.

Vidmar keeps a greenhouse where he grows vegetables during the short summer when there is 24 hours of sunlight each day.

During the winter, temperatures drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius. But Vidmar still grows what he calls microgreens and raises small birds called quail.

He is the only person who grows any food in the town of Longyearbyen.

The town is only 1,000 kilometers from the North Pole in the Svalbard Archipelago. It once was known for coal mining.

Vidmar spoke to the Thomson Reuters Foundation recently. He said growing food may seem like a mission impossible but it is necessary.

How can people live here?

Vidmar says he hopes to set an example for other towns in the area.

He said, We are so dependent on imports. Everything is by boat and plane.

This makes the town vulnerable, he said. For example, when a volcano burst on Iceland in 2010, flights were suspended. As a result, stores in Longyearbyen were empty for a while.

And, Vidmar says, the cost of imported food and its quality is often disappointing.

So, Vidmar has started a company called Polar Permaculture to produce enough food for the town and to process all its natural waste.

The company has received support from the government.

Last year, the business made enough money to meet its debts after only two years in operation.

The local produce is served in many places in Longyearbyen including its main restaurant.

Vidmar is an American from Cleveland, Ohio. He was working as a cook on a cruise ship when he first arrived in Svalbard in 2007. He says one of his first thoughts on seeing the place was, how can people live here?

One year later, he moved to the island and started working at restaurants and drinking places in Longyearbyen.

He decided to grow his own food after he could not find fresh produce.

Making Longyearbyen sustainable

At first he tried growing plants in water instead of soil, a method called hydroponics. But he found he needed to use fertilizer which was not available on the island. So he got permission from officials to bring worms from Florida.

The worms break down organic material that can be used to grow plants.

He said his next project might involve making a biodigester, a device that creates energy from organic material. That way, he could use his greenhouse all year.

Vidmar works with students at the local school to teach them about farming and sustainability.

Teacher Lisa Dymbe Djonne said the students now ask about how the island is supplied.

She told Reuters, They question the transportation of food from the mainland to here and how expensive that is.

She said the students planned to talk to government leaders about the costs of importing food and the possibility of growing it.

Vidmar sees the barriers to agriculture as the reason to produce the freshest food possible.

Were on a missionto make this town very sustainable, because if we can do it here, then whats everybody elses excuse?

Im Mario Ritter.

Mario Ritter adapted this Reuters story for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

sustainable adj. to use resources without using them up completely

vulnerable adj. open to damage or loss

organic adj. related to or taken from living things

produce n. fruits and vegetables

chef n. a professional cook who usually is in charge of a kitchen

cruise n. a trip on a boat for pleasure

distraction n. something that makes it difficult to pay attention or work on something

interview n. asking someone questions to find out something

figure out v. to understand something

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.Two musicians from Germany are using robotic equipment to add sounds to their performances.

The two-man band performs with a robot that can play several musical instruments at the same time. The robot can sound like a guitar, keyboard, drum or other percussion instrument.

When performing, members of the band provide many of the sounds, but others are controlled by a computer. Once connected to wires and set up, instruments such as a xylophone, drum or cymbal can play on their own.

Another instrument was created from a long, self-turning wooden stick that sits on top of a microphone stand. The stick contains long strings. They are tied on each end. The strings are connected to a small wooden ball. As the stick turns, the ball hits a block on the floor, creating a sound.

The two-man band, called Joasihno, recently performed at the South by Southwest Conference and Music Festival in Austin, Texas. They describe their electronic sound as psychedelic machine music.

Actually, we call it a psychedelic robot orchestra, said Cico Beck, one of the creators of the group. "Its a combination of acoustic instruments, but also very trashy robot instruments," he added.

The computer can react to changes to voltage signals, so the robots are controlled by an electrical current, Beck explained.

The groups other member, Nico Siereg, says playing in an experimental band with robots is not the same as playing in a traditional one. "Its a little bit different because you also have in mind that there are machines playing around you, so theres no reaction from them," he said.

But Siereg said that in some ways, the robots actually help him improve his performance. Since the self-playing instruments are programmed, he sometimes feels freer to center on what he is playing, and at times to even improvise.

The musician says he can imagine similar technology having a greater influence on many different kinds of music in the future. "Technology is like a very important tool that even, very often, its also a very important part of inspiration," he said. But he also expressed hope that "real music won't die."

In addition to performing recently in Texas, Joashihno has been busy putting on shows in Europe and in Canada. The band hopes its high-tech music experiment will keep reaching new people and pleasing the ears of its fans.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Elizabeth Lee reported this story for VOA News. Bryan Lynn adapted it for Learning English. George Grow 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

percussion  n. musical instruments that you play by hitting or shaking

string  n. a thin rope used for tying things

psychedelic  adj. suggesting the effects of psychedelic drugs by having bright colors or creating strange sounds.

orchestra  n. large group of musicians who play different instruments together

acoustic  adj. musical instrument not having its sound changed by electrical devices

trashy adj. very low in quality

voltage  n. the force of a current that is measured in volts

improvise  v. to speak or perform without preparation

inspiration  n. make someone feel that they want to do something and can do itYoung people from around the United States gathered in Pasadena, California recently to talk about businesses they created.

The businesses are completely virtual. Their products and services are not real. And only virtual money is exchanged.

One thousand three hundred students attended the conference, which was organized by Virtual Enterprises International.

The New York City-based group says it helps high school students learn modern business skills, including problem solving, communication and technology. The group says it is influenced by the European tradition of apprenticeships in which students learn from people already working in a business or trade.

The Pasadena event seemed like a trade show with many virtual businesses offering products such as communications technology or food.

Students from Miguel Contreras Business and Tourism School in Los Angeles tried to get customers for their business, Big City Tours.

Teacher Darrell Iki helped the students create the company, which exists only in their classroom and online.

Their business is special, they say, because it provides virtual tours to different parts of Los Angeles. Customers can learn about the citys ethnic heritage, see high-end fashion or visit stores.

Students from Century High School in Santa Ana, California were trying to sell a translation device for use by travelers.

Iki says the experience is just like a real business. Students start with a business plan. They are named to leadership positions and learn to work together, having a common goal in a potentially successful business.

Nick Chapman is president and national program director for Virtual Enterprises International. He says students quickly realize that operating a business is a lot of work.

Theyre running meetings, theyre networking, theyre meeting with professionals, theyre working with mentors, all of the things that are really going to set them apart when they get into college and then move on into their careers.

Chapman says 13,000 students go through Virtual Enterprises Internationals program each year.

Miguel Santin, a student from Century High School, said he now understands the pressure of running a company. He works in a virtual company called Taste of the World. He has overseen employment and digital media for the virtual company.

You really need to be hands on with your employees and make sure you guys have strong communication. Otherwise the company just wont prosper as much as you would expect.

Taste of the World is designed as a subscription service. It sends treats to customers through the mail.

Teacher Alan Gerston helped set up the business. You sign up for three months, six months, a year, and you receive a snack box with trinkets and information about the company every single month throughout your subscription time, he said.

However, no real money is exchanged.

You would pay within our virtual economy, Gerston said, using virtual money in a web-based simulated bank system.

All the kids in the program have bank accountsso when they buy something, we give them a receipt, he said.

Stephen Jarvis is with the Elizabeth Learning Center in Cudahy, California. He told VOA there is a lot to learn.

He added, It isnt just selling something. Its all the things that go on behind the scenes  creating documents, figuring out if youre making money or losing money.

Catalina Garcia will start college later this year. She received financial assistance and hopes to become a doctor. She is a student entrepreneur with the Big City Tours project.

Its helped me a lot because when I was trying to get the scholarship, I went to the interviews, and being in this company has helped me really prepare my presentation skills and be able to talk to other people.

Garcia said the skills she has gained in a virtual company have helped no matter what she does in the future.

Im Alice Bryant.

Mike OSullivan reported this story for VOANews.com. Mario Ritter adapted his report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

virtual  adj. not real or physical

apprenticeship  n. an agreement in which a person learns about a job from someone experienced in the trade

customers  n. anyone who pays for or uses goods or services

online  adj. of or involving computers or computer programs

tour  n. a trip through different areas, often following a plan

fashion  adj. related to clothing and products people wear

potentially  adv. possibly

mentor  n. a more experienced person who teaches or gives advice a less experienced one

prosper  v. to become successful, to do well

trinkets  n. small goods that are not especially valuable

simulated  adj. looking, feeling or behaving like something real, but that is not real

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.The United States has expelled 60 Russian diplomats to answer the poisoning of a Russian spy and his daughter in Britain this month.

The U.S. action was announced Monday. Numerous European nations also ordered expulsions.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed the order. She said in a statement that, in taking the actions, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences.

Officials from the U.S., Britain and other nations have accused the Russian government of ordering the attack.

On March 4, 66-year-old former Russian military intelligence official Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious at a shopping center in Salisbury. The two were taken to the hospital where they remain in serious condition.

Sergei Skripal lived in Britain and is a British citizen. His daughter was visiting from Moscow.

Britain said it found evidence the Skripals were poisoned with a nerve gas Russia developed in the 1980s.

Earlier this month, Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats after British Prime Minister Theresa May called the attack an unlawful use of force by Russia. Russia has denied involvement in the attack.

U.S. officials said the 60 Russians expelled were intelligence officers working in America under diplomatic cover. Several reportedly worked for Russias United Nations offices.

The U.S. also ordered the closure of Russias diplomatic operation in Seattle, Washington. Sanders said that action was taken because the operation is near a U.S. Navy submarine base and the U.S. aerospace company Boeing.

Todays actions make the United States safer by reducing Russias ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten Americas national security, Sanders said.

European Council President Donald Tusk said at least 14 European Union nations were expelling Russian diplomats. An EU official told the Associated Press more than 30 Russians were ordered expelled from EU nations.

Ukraines President Petro Poroshenko also ordered expulsions of 13 Russians. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said they would expel diplomats as well. And Canada said it was expelling four Russians and denying permission to three others seeking to enter the country.

Almost all the countries said publicly the expelled Russian diplomats were believed to be operating as spies.

The U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, said in a statement the action by the U.S. and many of its allies sends a clear message that we will not stand for Russias misconduct.

Russias ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, condemned the U.S. move. In comments carried Monday by Russian news agencies, Antonov said Russia would decide on an adequate response for the U.S. action. He added that the U.S. is ruining what is left of Russian-U.S. ties.

In Moscow, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said officials were considering how to react to nations ordering the expulsions.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Caty Weaver 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

shopping center  n. an area of building filled with stores

aerospace  n. an industry that deals with travel in and above the Earth's atmosphere and with the production of vehicles used in such travel

covert  adj. done in a secret way

consequences  n. something that happens as a result of a certain action or set of conditions

misconduct  n. wrong behavior

adequate  adj. enough for some need or requirementSasol Ltd. is a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of liquid fuels, chemicals, and low-carbon electricity. It operates through following segments: Mining, Exploration and Production International, Energy, Base Chemicals, Performance Chemicals, and Group Functions. The Mining segment secures coal feedstock for the Southern African value chain, mainly for gasification, but also to generate electricity and steam. The Exploration and Production International segment develops and manages oil and gas exploration and production in Mozambique, South Africa, Canada, and Gabon. The Base Chemicals segment involves the marketing of commodity chemicals based on the group's upstream Fischer-Tropsch, ethylene, propylene and ammonia value chains. The Performance Chemicals segment markets commodity and differentiated performance chemicals. The Energy segment sells and markets liquid fuels, pipeline gas, and electricity. The Group Functions segment includes the head office and centralised treasury operations. The company was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Read MoreKapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation produces and sells a range of containerboards, corrugated products, and specialty paper products in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Paper and Packaging, and Distribution. The Paper and Packaging segment offers containerboards consisting of linerboard and corrugated medium to manufacture corrugated containers for packaging products; and corrugated products. It also offers specialty paper products, including kraft paper, such as multiwall paper used to produce bags for agricultural products, pet food, baking products, cement and chemicals; specialty products comprising shingle wraps, end caps, roll wraps, and dunnage bags; and lightweight paper. In addition, this segment provides saturating kraft paper under the Durasorb trade name for use in construction, electronics manufacturing, and furniture manufacturing industries; and unbleached folding carton board under the Kraftpak trade name to integrated and independent converters in the folding carton industry. The Distribution segment distributes corrugated and other specialty packaging products consisting of stretch films, void fills, carton sealing tapes, and other specialty tapes. KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois.

Read More American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

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MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security.



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 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research.Acacia Mining plc, together with its subsidiaries, mines, processes, and sells gold in Africa. The company has three gold mines in north-west Tanzania, including Bulyanhulu, Buzwagi, and North Mara; and a portfolio of exploration projects at various stages of development in Tanzania, Kenya, Burkina Faso, and Mali. It also produces co-products, such as copper and silver. The company was formerly known as African Barrick Gold plc and changed its name to Acacia Mining plc in November 2014. The company was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Acacia Mining plc is a subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corporation.

Read MoreAviva plc provides various insurance, retirement, and savings products in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, France, Italy, Poland, and internationally. The company offers life insurance, long-term health and accident insurance, savings, pension, and annuity products, as well as pension fund business and lifetime mortgage products. It also provides insurance cover to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses for risks associated with motor vehicles and medical expenses, as well as property and liability, such as employers' and professional indemnity liabilities, and medical expenses. In addition, the company offers personal and commercial lines insurance products; long-term insurance and savings products, primarily for individuals. Further, it provides investment management services for institutional pension fund mandates; and manages various retail investment products, including investment funds, unit trusts, open-ended investment companies, and individual savings accounts for third-party financial institutions, pension funds, public sector organizations, investment professionals, and private investors. Additionally, the company offers asset management and protection insurance products. Aviva plc markets its products through a network of insurance brokers, as well as MyAviva platform. The company was formerly known as CGNU plc and changed its name to Aviva plc in July 2002. Aviva plc was founded in 1696 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreGlaxoSmithKline Plc is a healthcare company, which engages in the research, development, and manufacture of pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines, and consumer healthcare products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceuticals; Pharmaceuticals R&D; Vaccines and Consumer Healthcare. The Pharmaceuticals segment focuses on developing medicines in respiratory and infectious diseases, oncology, and immuno-inflammation. The Pharmaceuticals R&D segment focuses on science related to the immune system, the use of human genetics and advanced technologies, and is driven by the multiplier effect of Science x Technology x Culture. The Vaccines segment produces pediatric and adult vaccines to prevent a range of infectious diseases including, hepatitis A and B, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella, polio, typhoid, influenza, and bacterial meningitis. The Consumer Healthcare segment develops and markets brands in the oral health, pain relief, respiratory, nutrition and gastro intestinal, and skin health categories. The company was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Middlesex, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreOrmat Technologies, Inc. operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of geothermal and recovered energy power business. It operates through the following segments: Electricity, Product and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment focuses in the sale of electricity from the company's power plants pursuant to PPAs. The Product segment involves in the manufacture, including design and development, of turbines and power units for the supply of electrical energy and in the associated construction of power plants utilizing the power units manufactured by the company to supply energy from geothermal fields and other alternative energy sources. The Energy Storage segment consists of battery energy storage systems as a service and management of curtailable customer loads under contracts with U.S. retail energy providers and directly with large commercial and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, NV.

Read MoreThe Xiaomi Mi A1 smartphone is getting strong reviews for offering a stock Android experience, decent performance and design, and a relatively affordable price tag. The $220 phone is the first Android One device from Chinese company Xiaomi, and it packs a full HD display, a Snapdragon 625 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage.

The only catch is that the GSM phone has limited support for US wireless networks.

Now it looks like Xiaomi may be working on a follow-up.

An unannounced Xiaomi phone showed up at the website for Chinese wireless regulatory agency TENAA last week. It appears to feature an 18:9 (2:1) aspect ratio display, a rear fingerprint sensor, dual rear cameras (and a small camera bump), and dual SIM support.

Its expected to feature a 6 inch display, a 2,910 mAh battery, and a USB Type-C port.

Other specs arent available yet, but the phone is expected to be sold in two versions. A Xiaomi MI 6X model will come with Xiaomis custom user interface for Android, and the Xiaomi Mi A2 model will be an Android One edition phone with near-stock Android software.

via Android Central and Phone Radar

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Two casinos are currently applying to set up smoking lounges inside their gambling rooms, according to a statement recently released by the Health Bureau (SSM).

Up until March 21, only two casinos  the Ponte16 casino and the MGM Grand casino  had applied for smoking lounges. In total, these two applications propose 12 smoking lounges, and are still in progress.

SSM said it has learnt about a number of other casinos preparing to apply for smoking lounges.

The bureau says that it will carry out the approval process strictly and according to the law. Moreover, it emphasized that building a Smoking Free Macau requires a joint effort from all people in Macau. SSM also urges all casino managers to comply with the provisions of the citys tobacco control law, and further urges them, in case they do come across illegal smokers, to immediately deter them in order to protect the rights of non-smokers who are sharing the same place.

The bureau also called on all residents to participate in the tobacco control act and to report illegal smoking cases.

SSM pledges that it will follow up each report, and will draft inspection enforcement strategies in order to increase opportunities for prosecution.

SSM reaffirms that any smoking lounges without the governments approval are prohibited, and that no-smoking signs must be displayed, otherwise the responsible parties will be fined between MOP20,000 and MOP200,000 if found guilty.Portuguese artist Raquel Gralheiro is set to exhibit her artworks created for a local audience, symbolizing the Chinese zodiac and its relationship with humanity.

The exhibition My Chinese Zodiac, which opens today, features a total of 12 acrylics on canvas and 12 mixed media boxes of the 12 Chinese zodiac, along with an artwork that features all the zodiac signs on one painting.

To the Chinese community, the zodiac is culturally significant, as it is believed to determine an individuals different personality traits, as represented by each animal.

Speaking to the Times, the Portuguese artist shared that the invitation to exhibit her works was the result of collaboration with Albergue SCM president Carlos Marreiros.

It took a total of 14 months to work on the upcoming exhibition, which is filled with an ambience of Ancient Chinese style and modern art.

It was always my dream to go to Portuguese-speaking countries and cities. Since I was young, I have always wanted to go to Macau, said Gralheiro.

Macau is close to my heart so I really had to find a way to showcase my artworks in Macau, she said.

The artist has exhibited her works in Portuguese-speaking countries including Brazil, Spain, Mozambique and Cape Verde.

The artists paintings  mostly acrylic on canvas  depict the relationship between humans and animals; an interest that started some five years ago.

The artist expressed the similarities between the colors and shapes she used in the works with Macaus common paintings and vibe.

My paintings are an expression of myself. It was really a surprise that my works, and the vibe that Macau has, have so many similarities [] because my works are also so oriental, she explained.

In her works, the artists also integrated the activities conducted in Macau such as gambling, portraying them in the use of golden foils to represent casino chips.

Gralheiro hoped that Macau could serve as a platform for her to also introduce her works to mainland cities including Shenzhen and Shanghai.

Questioned on the process involved in creating her paintings, the artist expressed that she has developed an interest in Chinese culture, its numerology and zodiac signs, and the significance of these zodiac signs to Chinese people.

Meanwhile, Gralheiro expressed wishes that there could be more platforms for female artists to showcase their artworks in different galleries across the globe.

She has noticed that in most exhibitions she has gone to, only a few pieces by female artists are exhibited.

In contemporary art, there are a lot of good women artists but they have no space to show their artworks because the world is ruled by men, she argued.

I like going to art fairs and galleries in different cities but I [have] noticed that most artists there were men and [there were only a few] women artists, the artist added.

The exhibition My Chinese Zodiac will run until May 13 at the A2 Gallery of Albergue SCM.Writing Macau, a talk featuring three authors that have depicted Macau or related topics in their works, be they a newspaper column, a romance or poem, was held last week.

Jenny Lao-Phillips, Marco Lobo and Rui Rocha were the three guests of a panel included in the Macau Literary Festival, Script Road, which addressed questions regarding Macaus identity and the differences that arise in the authors relationships with the territory.

Commenting on the challenges and advantages involved with writing about Macau, Lao- Phillips said, I like the fact that people are very close and I always say to my friends [that] Macau is a very good place to find stories. [] Macau is a very good place to start writing.

Lao-Phillips mentioned her column Made in Macao, published every fortnight by Macau Daily Times, where she addresses aspects of local culture as well as traditions and tales that pass verbally from one generation to another.

She noted that in most of the stories she addresses, shes not really sure if they are true or not, and sometimes there are different versions to explain a same event. This convergence or divergence of facts and/or interpretations stems from part of the beauty of doing work that comes directly from [the] Macau people.

Beside her column, Lao-Phillips  Macau-born Chinese with Spanish roots  has also published a book of poetry as well as another work about The Legend of The Chinese Zodiac.

Fellow guest Marco Lobo comes from a background comprising Macau, Hong Kong, East Timor and Portugal, among others. He noted that one of the biggest challenges for him, as a writer of historical fiction, [is trying] to create some logic on the story and on the characters. Sometimes when we confront the historical archives, they dont make much sense.

He noted that most of the time there are historical gaps and missing information, and that on other occasions, stories are told in a very exaggerated way.

We need to research well and put some dose of reality into that, he said, noting that characters need to operate with profound logic, lest readers find the story ridiculous and lose interest.

Another project he is considering is a novelization of the history of the Lobo family, an influential family in Macau and Hong Kong with a significant legacy and enduring presence in local business. However, he added, it wont be easy, you know. Families have many secrets and independently of what you write, there is also someone that gets annoyed with that.

Rui Rocha, born in Portugual with a Macanese mother, has a long-standing relationship with Macau, which has grown over the decades since he moved to Macau and started work.

By his own admission, one needs time to understand Macau, as the reality is not obvious at first glance. Relations need to be studied and built with time and constant observation is required, a method that he said he used to understand Macau better.

Uncertainty over festivals future

THE SEVENTH edition Macau Literary Festival ended yesterday amidst doubts over the continuation of the event. This years event was marred by the controversial last minute cancelation of the presence of three authors, among them Jung Chang, author of a Mao biography. Festival director Ricardo Pinto told TDM yesterday that next year the festival could go ahead in a smaller version and only with private sponsors. Another possibility is not to do it at all and there is also the possibility of keeping the government sponsorship. That support would be welcome if certain rules, related with autonomy and the possibility of making the next edition without these incidents, occur Pinto said.The government awarded a MOP1.15 million contract to study the arrangement of traffic lights to a company owned by the chief executives cousin, online media Macau Concealers revealed on the weekend.

The two-day project was commissioned to study the flow of traffic in order to optimize traffic light arrangement at congested junctions. Cameras were set up around town last month to collect the traffic data that would later be analyzed.

Macau Concealers reported that the cameras were not marked with the logo of any government bureau. Instead, they belonged to the company, City Planning and Engineering Consultants, which is owned by Chui Sai Ons cousin, lawmaker Chui Sai Peng.

At least 40 government projects have been outsourced to the company since 2003. Last year it was awarded seven projects worth an estimated MOP23 million.

In 2016, the chief executive was accused by activists of harboring a conflict of interest over a controversial RMB100 million donation from the Macau Foundation to the mainlands Jinan University.

The controversy centered on Chui Sai Ons double role as the president of the Council of Trustees of the Macau Foundation and his time serving as Vice Chairman of Jinan University Council. The Commission Against Corruption quickly dismissed allegations of a conflict of interest.An integrated command system developed by Tsinghua University for the management of public emergencies will help advance Macaus overall emergency capability, according to Chief Executive, Chui Sai On. Chui made the comments last week in Beijing during a meeting with the Chairperson of the University Council of Tsinghua University, Chen Xu, and with representatives from the Universitys Institute for Public Safety Research. Chui added that he hoped the visit to Tsinghua University would help foster cooperation between the command system development team and Macaus public departments responsible for emergency management, so as to enhance the process of the systems launch.

48-hour automatic weather broadcast under test

The Macau Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG) is adding a new function, an automatic weather forecast, to its official website. The 48-hour Automatic Weather Forecast feature, which is still a system under testing, is present on the SMGs official website. The forecast system provides hourly forecasts of temperature and relative humidity at the station in Taipa Grande for the forthcoming 48 hours. It will be updated once every three hours. The forecast system refers to several global numerical weather predictions.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterated his apology yesterday for a cronyism scandal as opposition lawmakers warned it would hamper his ambitions of changing the countrys pacifist constitution.

Public anger over the revelation that Finance Ministry officials doctored documents relating to the discounted sale of public land to a school operator with connections to Abes wife sent his poll numbers plummeting a week ago. Speaking at his ruling Liberal Democratic Partys annual convention, Abe vowed to ensure such actions would not be allowed to happen again.

Ultimate responsibility for the administration lies with me, he said, pledging to carry out his responsibility to rebuild the system. Despite the setback, he told lawmakers the time was right to tackle a proposed change to the constitution and put an end to the argument that Japans Self-Defense Forces are unconstitutional.

While Abe has said he wants cross-party agreement on constitutional revision, which requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament before it can go to a national referendum, his plans met with criticism from potential allies yesterday.

The Moritomo problem must be calmed down before we can change the constitution, Toranosuke Katayama, joint leader of the opposition Japan Innovation Party, told national broadcaster NHK. Speaking on the same program, Toshio Ogawa, of the separate opposition Democratic Party, said talk of changing the charter looked like an attempt to change the subject from the scandal.

Until a few weeks ago, Abe looked certain to sail through the September LDP leadership vote, which would give him a shot at becoming the countrys longest-serving prime minister.

A Kyodo poll conducted March 17-18 found former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba was the most popular candidate to become party leader in September, with 25.4 percent of respondents picking him. Second was Shinjiro Koizumi, son of a popular former prime minister, with Abe in third place.

Ishibas criticism of Abe after the convention was muted  he told reporters progress was too slow on changing the constitution, but emphasized the need for party unity when asked whether he planned to run against the premier in September.

While the public are looking at the government and ruling party with harsh eyes, we must avoid doing things that cause confusion within the party, Ishiba said. He hinted that he would consider his candidacy once public anger subsided.

Finance Minister Taro Aso, who is Abes deputy, also is under pressure to resign as he heads the ministry at the heart of the scandal.

Nobuhisa Sagawa, who stepped down as the nations tax chief earlier this month amid questions over his involvement in the deal, is set to testify in parliament on Tuesday. Any blame he places on Abe or Aso for the controversy could worsen their current predicament. Emi Nobuhiro, Isabel Reynolds, BloombergMacaus visitor arrivals exceeded 3 million this February, the highest figure since August 2014, predominantly due to the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays, the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) said on Friday.

DSECs latest data indicated that visitor arrivals reached 3,070,937 in February, up by 12 percent month-to-month and up by 23.1 percent year-on- year.

Overnight visitors (1,396,068) and same-day visitors (1,674,869) went up by 13.3 percent and 32.6 percent respectively year-on-year. The average length of stay of overnight visitors held stable year-on-

year at 2.2 days, while that of same-day visitors rose by 0.1 days to 0.3 days.

Visitors from the Chinese mainland surged to 2,286,989 in February, up by 37.3 percent year- on-year. Of this number, those travelling under the Individual Visit Scheme soared by 57.9 percent to 1,403,954, setting a new single-month record since the implementation of the scheme in July 2003.

Visitors from the Chinese mainland came primarily from Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shanghai. Visitors from Hong Kong (501,753) inched up by 0.1 percent year-on-year, while those from Taiwan (79,670) dropped by 8.4 percent.

Visitors from South Korea (71,633) dropped by 13.4 percent. Meanwhile, visitors from the United States, Canada and Britain registered increases, whereas those from Australia decreased.Uber Technologies Inc. has reached an agreement to sell its Southeast Asian ride- hailing business to rival Grab and could announce the deal as early as today morning in Singapore, people familiar with the matter said.

The agreement  which includes all of Ubers operations in Southeast Asia as well as Uber Eats in the region  gives Uber a stake of between 25 percent and 30 percent in the new combined business, the people said, asking not to be identified ahead of an official announcement. The deal, which Bloomberg outlined earlier this month, marks Ubers operational exit from yet another major market and hands a victory to Grab as it battles local competitor Go-Jek.

SoftBank Group Corp., a major backer of Grabs and Ubers as well as Chinas Didi Chuxing, has pushed consolidation to improve the profitability of a global ride-hailing business that bleeds billions of dollars a year. New entrants and the strength of second-place regional players such as Lyft Inc. in the U.S. has complicated those efforts. Representatives for Grab and Uber declined to comment.

The deal represents another major retreat from international markets for Uber. Travis Kalanick, Ubers former chief executive officer, sold Ubers business in China in 2016 in return for a 17.5 percent stake in Chinese ride-hailing leader Didi Chuxing. Then Uber agreed to sell its Russian business to Yandex  just before Dara Khosrowshahi took over as chief executive.

Khosrowshahi has been pushing to clean up the companys financials in preparations for an initial public offering next year. Pulling out of markets like Southeast Asia would boost profits at a company that has burned through USD10.7 billion since its founding nine years ago. Khosrowshahi signaled during a trip through Asia last month that he is committed to key markets such as Japan and India.

Grab, which has more than 86 million mobile app downloads, currently offers services in more than 190 cities across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. Eric Newcomer, Yoolim Lee, Bloomberg10 hours ago

Stocks rise on Wall Street, erasing most weekly losses

Stocks on Wall Street were broadly higher in afternoon trading Thursday, erasing weekly losses for most of the major indexes. The rally extends the gains from a day before, when the Federal Reserve signaled it may begin easing its extraordinary support measures for the economy later this year. The S&P 500 index was up 1.5% as of 2:13 p.m.

Read ArticleThe Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, produces, distributes, and markets gas in Hong Kong and Mainland China. It is involved in the provision of liquefied natural gas, methanol, and coal and other chemicals; conversion and utilization of biomass, and industrial and agricultural waste; and operation of natural gas refilling stations, piped city-gas projects, upstream and midstream developments, water and wastewater treatment projects, energy exploration and utilization ventures, and aviation fuel facilities. The company supplies town gas to approximately 1.9 million customers. It also provides network connectivity, and data center and cloud computing services; and engages in the software development, solution implementation, and systems integration activities. In addition, the company offers consultancy and engineering contractor services, including utilities installation, infrastructure construction, and civil and building services engineering for public and private projects; and designs and manufactures gas meters and metering systems. Further, it is involved in water supply and wastewater treatment serving 2.4 million customers. Additionally, the company manufactures polyethylene piping and fittings; and engages in the customers center, cafA, restaurant, retail sale, automatic meter reading system development, laboratory testing, payment gateway and related, project management, landfill gas project, financing, logistics, oil, research and development, property development, and securities investment activities. The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited was founded in 1862 and is headquartered in North Point, Hong Kong.

Read MoreJ Sainsbury plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the food, general merchandise and clothing retailing, and financial services activities in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It operates through three segments: Retail A- Food, Retail A- General Merchandise and Clothing, and Financial Services. The company operates various store formats, including convenience stores and supermarkets. It is also involved in online grocery and general merchandise operations. As of March 6, 2021, the company operated 598 supermarkets, 813 convenience stores, 737 Argos stores, and 306 collection points, as well as 3 Habitat stores. In addition, the company offers financial services, such as credit cards, and travel money and personal loans, as well as home, car, pet, travel, and life insurance products. J Sainsbury plc was founded in 1869 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

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Despite the threat of a global health crisis in antibiotic resistance, worldwide use of antibiotics in humans soared 39 percent between 2000 and 2015, fueled by dramatic increases in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study, which analyzed human antibiotic consumption in 76 countries, is the most comprehensive assessment of global trends to date.

Researchers from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), Princeton University, ETH Zurich and the University of Antwerp conducted the study, which found that antibiotic consumption rates increased worldwide from 11.3 to 15.7 defined daily doses (DDDs) per 1,000 inhabitants per day between 2000 and 2015. DDDs are a statistical and standardized measure of drug consumption and represent the assumed average maintenance dose per day for a drug used for its main indication in adults.

Antibiotic resistance is a global health problem; when it emerges in one place, it quickly spreads to other parts of the world. The study underscores the need for consistent global surveillance of antibiotic resistance and policies to curtail unnecessary antibiotic use.

Loss of effective antibiotics is driven in large part by antibiotic consumption, most of which is inappropriate and does nothing to improve health. However, while reducing antibiotic use is critical, increasing access to antibiotics in lower-income countries is also necessary, as these countries suffer from the highest rates of illness and death caused by infectious disease, the study researchers pointed out.

"Finding workable solutions is essential, and we now have key data needed to inform those solutions," said CDDEP researcher and study co-author Eili Klein. "Now, more than ever, we need effective interventions, including stewardship, public education, and curbing overuse of last-resort antibiotics."

Major findings from the PNAS study are as follows:

Total global use of antibiotics in humans was estimated to be 35 billion DDDs in 2015, a 65 percent increase from 2000, while the consumption rate increased 39 percent, from 11.3 to 15.7 DDDs per 1,000 inhabitants per day.

Antibiotic use in LMICs increased 114 percent in total and 77 percent per 1,000 inhabitants per day between 2000 and 2015 (some of total use increase was due to population growth). Some LMICs had rates of consumption that surpassed those of high-income countries. However, many LMICs still have considerably lower per capita consumption rates than high-income countries, due to access issues such as the high cost of drugs and patent protections.

The consumption rate of broad-spectrum penicillins, the most commonly consumed class of antibiotics, increased 36 percent between 2000 and 2015 globally. The greatest increase was in LMICs, where the rate of antibiotic consumption increased 56 percent, compared to 15 percent in high-income countries.

Consumption of new and last-resort antibiotic classes, such as linezolid, carbapenems, and colistin, increased significantly in nearly all countries. The United States remained one of the largest consumers of glycylcyclines (tigecycline) and oxazolidinones (linezolid), although use of these newer drugs in other countries use has surpassed that of the US in recent years.

Consumption increases in LMICs were driven largely by economic growtha pattern not seen in high-income countries.

Despite the rising rates of antibiotic use worldwide, the results suggest that reducing antibiotic consumption is possible. Consumption in high-income countries actually fell slightly over the study period. In addition, the considerable variation in per capita use across high-income countries suggests that there are lessons to be learned.

CDDEP Director and study co-author Ramanan Laxminarayan noted that more than a year has passed since the United Nations General Assembly recognized the global threat of antibiotic resistance, yet little action has been taken since then.

"We must act decisively and we must act now, in a comprehensive manner, to preserve antibiotic effectiveness," Laxminarayan said. "That includes solutions that reduce consumption, such as vaccines or infrastructure improvements, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. New drugs can do little to solve the resistance problem if these drugs are then used inappropriately, once they are introduced."

Explore further New study highlights the impacts of a global strategy to reduce antibiotic consumption in food animal production

More information: Eili Y. Klein el al., "Global increase and geographic convergence in antibiotic consumption between 2000 and 2015," PNAS (2018). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Eili Y. Klein el al., "Global increase and geographic convergence in antibiotic consumption between 2000 and 2015,"(2018). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1717295115

Provided by The Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy(HealthDay)Teen boys in the United States are less likely than girls to be vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) because many doctors don't recommend the shots to boys' parents, researchers say.

HPV is a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical, vulvar, vaginal, penile, anal, mouth and throat cancers. The HPV vaccine is recommended as a routine childhood vaccination.

"It is clear that physicians need to give a strong recommendation to both parents of boys and girls," said study author Dr. Anna Beavis, a gynecologic oncologist fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

"They also need to remind parents of the importance of getting all doses, which makes the vaccine the most effective in preventing HPV," she added.

It's recommended that all children between ages 11 and 12 be vaccinated. The HPV vaccine can be given as three doses if started after the child's 15th birthday, or just two doses if started before, Beavis said.

For the new study, researchers analyzed data from a 2015 national immunization survey of U.S. parents of teens ages 13 to 17.

One in five parents of teen boys said they did not intend to have their son vaccinated against HPV mainly because their doctor did not recommend it. That was true for just one in 10 parents of teen girls.

The findings were presented Sunday at the Society of Gynecologic Oncology's annual meeting, in New Orleans.

The survey also revealed parents' lack of knowledge about the HPV vaccine.

"In general, the most common reason parents do not vaccinate both boys and girls was a misperception that the HPV vaccine is not necessary," Beavis said in a society news release. This was reported by 20 percent of parents of girls and 1 in 10 parents of boys.

The study also found that parents of girls were more likely than parents of boys to be concerned about the vaccine's safety or side effects, and to think the vaccine wasn't necessary because their child was not sexually active.

Clearly, there's a need for doctors to educate parents on the necessity and safety of the vaccine, Beavis said.

"Unfortunately, HPV vaccination rates in the U.S. continue to lag behind those of other Westernized nations," she said. The most recent data from 2016 "shows that only 65 percent of girls had initiated the HPV vaccination compared to 56 percent of boys."

Those rates could be improved if doctors strongly recommended to parents that their children get the HPV vaccine, Beavis said.

Research presented at meetings is usually considered preliminary until peer-reviewed for publication in a medical journal.

Explore further More U.S. teens getting vaccinated against HPV

More information: The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on HPV vaccination

Copyright  2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.The value of foodbanks goes well beyond the food they provide, offering social contact and a safe place where users find care, dignity and respect, according to new research released today by the University of Glasgow.

Conducted by the University's GoWell Programme, the research examined the scale of food bank use in 15 communities in Glasgow, each of which lie within the 15% most deprived in Scotland.

It found that those affected by welfare reforms were more likely to use a foodbank. It also showed that young single men and those with mental health problems were also more likely to use a foodbank.

But while foodbanks cannot solve the problem of food insecurity, they offer valuable social support and could be an example to other organisations of how to treat people in difficult circumstances with dignity, care and respect.

The research, conducted by Professor Ade Kearns and researchers Mary Anne MacLeod and Louise Lawson, was in two parts  a household survey and follow up in-depth interviews.

The survey results are published in a research paper called Understanding the prevalence and drivers of foodbank use: evidence from deprived communities in Glasgow and published in the journal Social Policy & Society.

Professor Kearns said: "Our research shows that foodbanks are a course of last resort for many people and cannot be relied on to tackle the scale of food insecurity in our poorest communities.

"However, in debates about the future of foodbanks, it is important to recognise their value to users beyond the food itself, so that the ability to offer contact and support to often isolated individuals with complex needs is extended rather than reduced as food aid is reformed".

The household survey was conducted in 15 deprived communities in Glasgow. It has produced the first estimate of the prevalence of foodbank use anywhere in the UK.

It found that 4.2% or 1-in-25 households in these poorer communities had used a foodbank in the past year.

However, it also found that a further 3.8% of households were categorised as "non-accessorsthose who said they 'had not wanted to use a food bank' or 'had not been able to use or access a food bank (without a referral)'. Only 15% of those who reported having difficulty paying for food also reported having used a food bank.

The survey analysis also revealed some of the main drivers of foodbank use:-

Financial factors were important, not least the impacts of UK Government welfare reforms since 2010.

The more welfare reforms people were affected by, the more likely they were to use a foodbank.

The likelihood of being a foodbank user were higher for those out of work and who were long-term sick or disabled.

The link between foodbank use and poor health was further emphasised by the high rate of foodbank use among those with a mental health problems, of whom 10% were users and a further 6 % were "non-accessors".

Foodbank use was highest among single adults with no family or friends to fall back on in times of need.

The second part of the research involved follow-up, in-depth interviews with foodbank users. The outcome of these interviews mirrored the survey, showing not only a link between foodbank use and poverty but also foodbank use and social isolation.

Professor Kearns said: "We found that people appreciate the role of the foodbank in helping them through an acute financial crisis. But we also found that users of foodbanks also valued the social contact and support offered by foodbank staff and volunteers, sometimes in a cafe atmosphere. Some people became regular users of foodbanks for this reason, as much as for the food.

"And we found that there was huge praise and appreciation for the dignity, respect and care users were treated with when they went to a foodbank for help. Many people felt they did not get this from other agencies dealing with things like benefits or employment issues. Many commented that this positive treatment at a foodbank gave them back some of their humanity when often they felt ashamed and guilty at having to access this help in the first place."

The qualitative research is published as Food and Beyond: Exploring the Foodbank Experience and is available at: www.gowellonline.com.

Explore further Foodbank users report benefit delays, adverse life eventsCredit: CC0 Public Domain

In a recent paper published in the journal Pain, Saint Louis University researchers describe their success in an animal model in turning off the excruciating pain that often accompanies a colorectal cancer drug.

Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and physiology at SLU, studies pain pathways, the series of interactions between molecular-level components that lead to pain in the body.

One type of pain she examines is chemotherapy induced neuropathic pain (CINP), a debilitating side effect of chemotherapy that can appear as tingling or numbness in the hands and feet, shooting or burning pain in the limbs, or can feel like hot or cold temperature extremes. In addition to causing patients suffering, CINP is often a limiting factor when it comes to treatment.

"Thanks to the increased efficacy of cancer treatment, there are nearly 14 million cancer survivors in the United States," Salvemini said. "Many of these survivors suffer from long-term side effects of CINP, for which there are no proven strategies for prevention or treatment.

"This is a huge unmet medical need."

In her current paper, Salvemini studied the platinum-based chemotherapy drug oxaliplatin which is widely used to treat colorectal cancer. Over 60 percent of patients who received oxaliplatin develop CINP, and it can last for years after treatment.

The research team found that the pain pathway associated with this drug was driven by increased expression of an enzyme, adenosine kinase, in astrocytes (a type of central nervous system cell) and decreased adenosine signaling at a key receptor, A3AR. By supplementing this signaling with A3AR agonists, the researchers were able to block the development of CINP without interfering with the anticancer properties of platinum based drugs.

These findings advance researchers' understanding of pain pathways and provide new information about how drugs may be able to treat chemotherapy pain. Perhaps most encouraging, existing A3AR agonists currently are being studied in advanced clinical trials as novel anticancer agents. This paper makes a strong case for evaluating those drugs for use together with oxaliplatin to limit CINP while treating cancer.

Explore further Jet lag drug may aid cancer patients

More information: Carrie Wahlman et al, Chemotherapy-induced pain is promoted by enhanced spinal adenosine kinase levels through astrocyte-dependent mechanisms, PAIN (2018). Journal information: Pain Carrie Wahlman et al, Chemotherapy-induced pain is promoted by enhanced spinal adenosine kinase levels through astrocyte-dependent mechanisms,(2018). DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001177Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Structured music lessons significantly enhance children's cognitive abilitiesincluding language-based reasoning, short-term memory, planning and inhibitionwhich lead to improved academic performance. Published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, the research is the first large-scale, longitudinal study to be adapted into the regular school curriculum. Visual arts lessons were also found to significantly improve children's visual and spatial memory.

Music education has been decimated in schools around the globe, due to competition with academic subjects and an increasing lack of funding. These days, the opportunity to learn an instrument is seen as more of a luxury than a necessary part of education.

"Despite indications that music has beneficial effects on cognition, music is disappearing from general education curricula," says Dr Artur Jaschke, from VU University of Amsterdam, who led the study with Dr Henkjan Honing and Dr Erik Scherder. "This inspired us to initiate a long-term study on the possible effects of music education on cognitive skills that may underlie academic achievement."

The researchers conducted the study with 147 children across multiple Dutch schools, using a structured musical method developed by the Ministry of Research and Education in the Netherlands together with an expert centre for arts education. All schools followed the regular primary school curriculum, with some providing supplementary music or visual arts classes. In these, the children were given both theoretical and practical lessons.

After 2.5 years, the children's academic performance was assessed, as well as various cognitive skills including planning, inhibition and memory skills.

The researchers found that children who received music lessons had significant cognitive improvements compared to all other children in the study. Visual arts classes also showed a benefit: children in these classes had significantly improved visual and spatial short-term memory compared to students who had not received any supplementary lessons.

"Children who received music lessons showed improved language-based reasoning and the ability to plan, organize and complete tasks, as well as improved academic achievement," says Dr Jaschke. "This suggests that the cognitive skills developed during music lessons can influence children's cognitive abilities in completely unrelated subjects, leading to overall improved academic performance.

The researchers hope their work will contribute to highlighting the importance of the music and arts in human culture and cognitive development.

"Both music and arts classes are supposed to be applied throughout all Dutch primary schools by the year 2020," says Dr Jaschke. "But considering our results, we hope that this study will support political developments to reintegrate music and arts education into schools around the world."

Explore further Music lessons enhance the quality of school life

More information: Artur C. Jaschke et al, Longitudinal Analysis of Music Education on Executive Functions in Primary School Children, Frontiers in Neuroscience (2018). Journal information: Frontiers in Neuroscience Artur C. Jaschke et al, Longitudinal Analysis of Music Education on Executive Functions in Primary School Children,(2018). DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00103Boston - The time babies spend in the womb is far from idle. The brain is changing more rapidly during this time than at any other time in development. It is an active time for the fetus to grow and explore, and of course connect to its mother. And new evidence from in-utero fetal brain scans shows, for the first time, that this connection directly affects brain development: A mother's stress during pregnancy changes neural connectivity in the brain of her unborn child.

"It has long been thought that the stress of a mother during her pregnancy may imprint on the brain of her developing child," says Moriah Thomason of Wayne State University who is presenting this new work at the 25th meeting for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society in Boston today. "Despite the clear importance of this time frame, we presently possess very little understanding of how functional macroscale neural networks build during this precious time in human life, or the relevance of this to future human health and development."

This prenatal work is part of a growing body of research to better understand how the human brain develops across its lifespan, from fetus to old age. "We are interested in how a human brain constructs over time to become the adult brain," says Nim Tottenham of Columbia University, whose work focuses on identifying sensitive periods of brain development from childhood into adolescence. She is chairing a session on new findings in brain development at the CNS meeting: "The talks aim to bridge across the very long brain development that gives rise to mature functioning."

Seeing the changing fetal brain

Research in newborns and older children to understand prenatal influences has been confounded by the postnatal environment, Thomason explains. But recent advancements in fetal imaging allowed her and her team to gain insight into a critical time period in brain development never previously accessible.

Using fetal resting-state fMRI, they examined functional connectivity in 47 human fetuses scanned between the 30th and 37th week of gestation. The researchers recruited the participating mothers from a low-resource and high-stress urban setting, with many reporting high-levels of depression, anxiety, worry, and stress.

They found that mothers reporting high stress had fetuses with a reduced efficiency in how their neural functional systems are organized. It is the first time, imaging has shown a direct influence of maternal stress on fetal brain development, independent of influences of the postnatal environment.

"The major thrill is that we have demonstrated what has long been theorized, but not yet observed in a human, which is that the stress of a mother during her pregnancy is reflected in connectional properties of her child's developing brain," Thomason says. The data suggest that the brain does not develop in a sequence from simplest systems (e.g., vision, motor) to more complex high-order systems, but perhaps instead first develops the areas that will be most critical in bridging across systems.

The researchers found that the cerebellum played a central role in the observed effects, suggesting it may be especially vulnerable to the effects of prenatal or early life stress. The cerebellum has the highest density of glucocorticoid receptors, which are involved in stress responses, than any other place in the brain. Thomason and her team plan to further investigate this as a possible mechanism for the stress responses they observed.

Although conducting in-utero brain scans are challenging - first and foremost because of the always wriggling babies - working with expectant mothers is quite rewarding, Thomason says. "A lot of our moms are interested in being part of this research, not because of concerns they have in their pregnancy," she says, "but because they appreciate the heightened vulnerability of budding human life, and this is an opportunity to help other women that may not have the same fortune in their circumstances."

Making connections into adulthood

Cognitive neuroscientists are especially interested in understanding sensitive periods of time when the environment has the largest influence on future brain functions. To identify such times, Tottenham of Columbia University has honed in on connections between the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the amygdala.

"A majority of developmental change during childhood and adolescence are the changes in connections," she explains. "We have largely focused on the connections between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex because of the very large changes we have observed there across childhood and adolescence and their central role in emotional behaviors."

Studying awake children as young as 4-years old, Tottenham and colleagues identified developmental periods when the nature of the communication between the amygdala and the PFC operates differently than in an adult. The connections develop very slowly over childhood, with a dramatic shift toward the end of childhood when the transition to adolescence brings about more adult-like characteristics. Looking at coincidental environmental events in childhood, the researchers also found data to suggest that amygdala-medial PFC connections are highly impressionable to external forces.

"The human brain is designed to learn from the environment. This is thanks to the long period of infancy, childhood, and adolescence that humans enjoy," Tottenham says. "What has amazed me most about the developing brain is that it is not simply an immature version of the adult brain but instead is designed to collaborate with the expected caregiving ecology."

Indeed, says Thomason: "We must consider the developing brain in context, thinking about the role of the environment in shaping the brain. It is a topic that inspires us to promote healthy brain growth, to ask what it is that we do for children in the lifestyles, opportunities, and learning conditions we create for them."

More information: Thomason and Tottenham will be presenting in the symposium "Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience: Brain Construction from the Fetus through Old Age at the CNS annual meeting in Boston. More than 1,500 scientists are attending the meeting from March 24-27, 2018. Thomason and Tottenham will be presenting in the symposium "Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience: Brain Construction from the Fetus through Old Age at the CNS annual meeting in Boston. More than 1,500 scientists are attending the meeting from March 24-27, 2018. www.cogneurosociety.org/mycns/  symposium_sessions#7Scientists at the University of Southern California are spearheading an international effort to develop a 3-D model of the pancreatic beta cell in just five years. Credit: Yekaterina Kadyshevskaya, Bridge Institute at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience

USC researchers have launched a massive scientific effort to construct a detailed, virtual 3-D model of the pancreatic beta cell and its componentsa global project that aims to one day curb the worldwide rise of diabetes.

Diabetes cases have more than tripled worldwide since 1980, from an estimated 100 million to more than 400 million people, according to the World Health Organization. More than 30 million Americans have the disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.

In a commentary in the journal Cell, co-authors representing the new Pancreatic Beta Cell Consortium at USC have announced what they described as a "call to arms" inviting scientists worldwide to join the cause and help model the cell at an atomic scale and whole-cell scale. The consortium ambitiously aims to complete the project in five years.

Raymond Stevens, a USC chemist and structural biologist who is the lead author on the paper and a founder of the consortium, said he believes that completion of the whole-cell model is critical for developing the next therapies for diabetes.

"We are converging to solve a difficult problem to solve a structure at multiple scales, from the individual atoms, to the small molecules, to the macromolecule, to the cell," Stevens said.

The effort calls upon an array of experts in biology, chemistry, computational biology (modeling), engineering, mathematics and imaging. The group also includes artists and filmmakers. Stevens said he believes the nonscientists may provide a unique and useful perspective on interpretation of their research.

The launch point for this convergent scientific effort, the Bridge Institute at USC Michelson Center, is fitting. The center comprises engineers and scientists from three schools at USC - the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the Keck School of Medicine of USC. They are working together to develop new treatments, diagnostics and devices to solve the greatest challenges of the 21st century, such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

Collaborators in the consortium are from top-ranked institutions including Caltech, the University of California, San Francisco, The Scripps Research Institute and the iHuman Institute at ShanghaiTech University. They are working together to develop new treatments, diagnostics and devices to solve diabetes, one of the greatest challenges of the modern era.

The Bridge Institute at USC Michelson Center also has expanded its projects to draw from the perspectives and skills of artists and filmmakers at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Anyone can participate

The effort has been described as "crowd-sourced science." Like the Human Genome Project, the beta cell project is open source, meaning the consortium is establishing an open data bank to which anyone can deposit research and data about the pancreatic beta cell. Multiple sets of data will be integrated to form the multiscale model of the cell and all of its components, from the tiniestindividual atomsto the largestthe nucleus. For quality control, consortium scientists will curate and vet all contributions.

"This is the ultimate modeling problem," said co-author Andrej Sali, a scientist and bioengineer at the University of California, San Francisco who, as a modeler, integrates data.

"The cell is a very big system. It's not like gas and it's not like a crystal, but it maximizes complexity somewhere in between these two extremes," Sali said. "It's also hierarchical: atoms, molecules, complexes, organelles and cells. It will have to be solved by an integrative approach that relies on multiple sources of information."

Why not model some other cell?

The pancreatic beta cell was a leading candidate for what may be the first comprehensive whole-cell model in the world for a few reasons. First, it has been studied extensively, which means several data sets, images and other resources already exist. Second, the beta cell is a simple machine: input (glucose) equals output (insulin).

"This cell type has such huge medical implications," said Frank Alber, a co-author of the paper and USC professor of molecular and computational biology. "You want to use a predictive, whole-cell model in drug design, and you want to see what effects that drug would have, not only on a protein pathway within the cell, but on the whole cell."

Co-author Kate White is the director for the consortium, which so far involves an estimated 50 scientists, many from USC, and others from across California, the United States and China. In initial meetings, the consortium has been discussing the mysterious "black boxes"the unknown information about the cell.

"One of those black boxes is: What are all the components of the cell? We know this to some degree, but we don't know all of them," White said. "We also need to understand which components of the cell are talking to which, how long those conversations last and how much variability there is from cell to cell."

The cell as a city

The challenge of understanding the pancreatic beta cell could be compared to getting to know an unfamiliar city. In a collaboration with the World Building Media lab at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and working with professors Alex McDowell and Todd Richmond, the consortium is trying to use world-building tools, similar to what was used to craft the film "Minority Report," and portray the cell as a world.

"We are starting to understand who the citizens are, what the infrastructure looks like and how the governing hierarchy operates," said co-author Kyle McClary, a chemistry PhD candidate at the Dornsife College. "We are trying to distill the cell's fundamental properties into abstract representations that are more approachable."

Co-author Jitin Singla, a PhD candidate in computational biology and bioinformatics at the Dornsife College, believes that the project will shed new light on understanding life itself.

"Efforts to understand the cell in its entirety are important for me to understand how we perceive life at its microscopic scale," Singla said. "The further we move forward in this project, the more it excites me as it unfolds new dimensions, knowledge and intricacies of the cell and how all of this comes together to make one 'living' cell."

Stevens said a comprehensive model of the beta cell would have implications far beyond the pancreatic beta cell.

"We hope our project lays the foundation for people to be able to model neurons, stem cells and other types of cells," he said.

Explore further Unique pancreatic stem cells have potential to regenerate beta cells, respond to glucose

More information: Jitin Singla et al, Opportunities and Challenges in Building a Spatiotemporal Multi-scale Model of the Human Pancreatic  Cell, Cell (2018). Journal information: Cell Jitin Singla et al, Opportunities and Challenges in Building a Spatiotemporal Multi-scale Model of the Human Pancreatic  Cell,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.03.014In the United States, one infant is born every 15 minutes with withdrawal symptoms after being exposed to opioids before birth, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.

From 2004 to 2014, the rate of U.S. infants diagnosed with opioid withdrawal symptoms, known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), increased 433 percent, from 1.5 to 8.0 per 1,000 hospital births.

However, the increase was even more stark in state Medicaid programsrising from 2.8 to 14.4 per 1,000 hospital births. Medicaid, a public health insurance program, covered more than 80 percent of NAS births nationwide in 2014.

The study, "Incidence and Costs of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome among Infants with Medicaid: 2004-2014," was a collaborative effort among researchers at Vanderbilt, Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and several other institutions. This is the latest in a series of studies exploring the health and financial impacts of NAS and opioid use during pregnancy.

For Medicaid-covered infants, the healthcare costs associated with caring for NAS totaled $462 million in 2014 alone, researchers found. While other studies have shown a high incidence of NAS among Medicaid-enrolled infants, this is the first to quantify the incidence difference between Medicaid and privately insured infants over time.

"NAS resulted in approximately $2 billion in excess Medicaid costs in the 10-year period we studied. State Medicaid programs could improve infant and maternal health and save money by investing in prevention and treatment for low-income women with opioid use disorders," said Tyler Winkelman, MD, MSc, lead author of the study, a clinician-investigator at Hennepin Healthcare, and an assistant professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota.

Neonatal abstinence syndrome has been linked to use of both illicit opioids such as heroin and legal opioids like Vicodin. Many infants exposed to opioids during pregnancy will experience withdrawal symptoms shortly after birth. Infants experiencing opioid withdrawal are irritable, can have feeding and breathing problems, and are more likely to be born with low birthweight.

For the study, the authors looked at 2004-2014 hospital birth data from the National Inpatient Sample, a nationally representative sample of hospital discharges in the United States developed by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The sample included 9.1 million hospital birth records. Of those, 35,629 infants had a diagnosis of NAS.

Infants with NAS enrolled in Medicaid were significantly more likely than infants without NAS enrolled in Medicaid to be male and reside in poor, rural counties. They were also more likely to be transferred to another hospital for care and have longer hospital stays, the study noted. The authors concluded that the continued growing incidence of NAS, particularly among infants covered by Medicaid, presents an opportunity to implement policies that improve opioid use disorder treatment for women before, during and after pregnancy.

Additionally, they state that Medicaid programs could promote standardization of clinical protocols to reduce hospital costs and improve outcomes for infants with NAS.

"The rise of infants experiencing drug withdrawal in our nation's hospitals is evidence that the opioid crisis continues to affect our most vulnerable populationspregnant women and infants," said Stephen Patrick, MD, MPH, MS, senior author of the study and assistant professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy in the Division of Neonatology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. "As Congress considers legislation to address the growing opioid crisis, pregnant women and infants must be a priority for targeted, well-funded public health interventions."

Explore further Study reveals abnormalities in infants born in withdrawal after opioid exposure in uteroARCHIVED - Former Catalan president arrested at last in Germany



Carles Puigdemont left Spain in October last year to avoid being detained

After five months in self-proclaimed exile in Belgium, Carles Puigdemont, the former president of the regional government in Catalunya, was arrested on Sunday in northern Germany after entering the country by car from Denmark.

The arrest took place at 11.19 on Sunday morning at a petrol station on the A7 motorway near the towns of Schuby and Jagel after an operation in which the German and Spanish police forces collaborated to intercept Sr Puigdemont as he travelled back to Belgium from Helsinki in Finland. The German judiciary now has a maximum of 60 days in which to decide whether or not he will be extradited to Spain, where the former president is under investigation on possible charges of sedition, rebellion against the State and misuse of public funds.

It was Carles Puigdemonts decision to travel to and from Helsinki by car which led to his arrest, as there exists a close legal collaboration between Spain and Germany and similar offences to the ones for which he is under investigation exist in the German penal code: this makes it more likely that he will indeed be extradited than had he been detained in, for example, Denmark or Finland.

It should be remembered that the reason for Sr Puigdemont becoming a fugitive is his involvement in the process by which an outlawed referendum on the issue of independence from Spain was held, at least partially, on 1st October last year, and in the subsequent developments which led to a unilateral declaration of independence being made in the Catalan parliament 26 days later. On the same day the national government officially dissolved the regional parliament in Catalunya and imposed direct rule, a situation which still prevails following the failure of the separatist parties to form a new government since obtaining a narrow parliamentary majority at the election held on 21st December.

Reaction in Catalunya to the latest news has been swift, and on Sunday thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona to demand freedom for political prisoners and show support for the man whom they maintain is their president in exile.

Follow Murcia Today on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest news, events and information in the Murcia region: https://www.facebook.com/MurciaToday/The ANC has resolved that the SABC needs rebranding and a turnaround strategy.

This is according to the ANCs 54th National Conference report.

The SABC should primarily focus on cultural identity and development as a repository of our heritage and identity, said the ANC.

It added that the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting will allow the SABC to introduce multichannel programming.

Multichannel programming will allow the SABC to host a TV channel which will broadcast parliamentary news and other local content.

The channel should be interactive to enable public participation in the unfolding discourse on various topical issues, said the ANC.

Community TV channels could also be on the SABCs platform, and channels serving communities in all local languages.

Language used in the public media, especially the SABC, should be accessible.

Digital migration

The ANC said South Africas migration to digital broadcasting remains a priority and should be completed by June 2019.

The success of this initiative will depend on the availability of new content that appeals to the broader South African viewership, and the uptake of STBs and integrated digital television sets.

The government will subsidise STBs for the poorest households in the country, as these decoder-like boxes will be necessary to receive new digital TV signals on many existing TVs.

The completion of this programme will also enable the freeing of the critical radio frequency spectrum needed for the rollout of broadband, it said.

Now read: SABC to investigate claims that Guptas acquired archive footageThe SA Post Office had a bad week last week.

Its website was down for several days, emails to postoffice.co.za email addresses bounced, and its domain fee was not paid.

When its emails and site came back online, we asked the Post Office for feedback on what went wrong  but it failed to reply to questions.

Calling the Post Offices national call centre and head office provide futile, as numbers either just rang or did not work.

This critical failure to deliver even basic online services comes after Post Office CEO Mark Barnes said ecommerce is a potential revenue stream for the organisation.

As it stands, however, South African companies are steering well clear of the Post Office.

We dont use them

MyBroadband spoke to several of South Africas top ecommerce players about their interactions with the Post Office, and all stated they did not use the organisation.

Raru stated that it does not use the SA Post Office, and it does not plan to in the future.

Makro provided similar feedback, stating that it does not use the Post Office.

For Takealot, the need for a reliable delivery service saw it acquire Mr Delivery in 2013.

Takealot, Superbalist, and Mr D Food do not use the SA Post Office  instead relying on this in-house logistics network.

Local online PC retailer Wootware is another company on the list of we dont use the Post Office.

We dont currently make use of the Post Office for any of our operations. We use door-to-door couriers exclusively, said Wootware.

Why this is the case

Wootware said that while the Post Office offers costs savings in certain instances, these are often outweighed by the negatives  accountability, service, and delivery times.

Is there a chance for the Post Office to attract local ecommerce players, though, as Barnes indicated?

In order to attract customers, they first need to focus on their staff and internal processes, said Wootware.

Running lean and profitably should also be a focus, since this will allow them to offer a better overall service and improve their relationship with creditors, customers, and staff.

Previously, there have been stories about staff not being paid on time, said Wootware.

If the staff feel valued, are trained appropriately, and motivated by good examples set by management, then theyll treat the customers better.

Wootware said many people still rely on the Post Office, and it would be advantageous for all involved for the SA Post Office to make improvements to restore greater levels of trust in its services.The ANC has released a report on its 54th National Conference.

It contains an overview of the recent ANC conference and the resolutions which were adopted at it.

The ANC can unequivocally and proudly say that we emerged from this conference invigorated and renewed to continue serving the people of South Africa, states the report.

The document covers multiple sectors of the economy, including the ICT sector, and details the ruling partys plans going forward.

ICT sector

The proposals put forward for the ICT market, however, are nothing short of vague and lofty.

While positive in theory, there are no detailed plans and the proposals contain lines like the price of data must be reduced and huge investments are needed to roll out broadband and prepare for the Internet of Things.

Four of the resolutions for the ICT sector in the ANC conference report, along with reasons why their words are essentially empty, are listed below.

Cost and coverage

The high cost for South Africans of communication needs to be addressed through policy and regulatory systems. In addition there is a need to increase the rollout of broadband infrastructure especially in rural areas.

Mobile operators Vodacom and MTN have stated unequivocally that if they are given more radio spectrum they can provide data services at faster speeds and for lower prices.

They have also stated that more spectrum will allow them to greatly improve coverage  including in rural areas.

But instead of assisting operators, the ANC government has locked down spectrum for years and failed to complete the digital TV migration process  meaning operators are left with their hands tied.

Another example of the ANCs poor attitude towards broadband is shown in the recent spat between the Eastern Cape government and SITA  the states technology coordinator.

The Eastern Cape is fighting to have fibre rolled out in the provide after asking SITA for over a year for assistance with the broadband project.

The ANC has had plenty of opportunities to lower the price of data and expand broadband coverage.

The Post Office

The ANC must ensure the implementation of the resolutions to support the Post Office, including that Government business must be availed to the Post Office through intergovernmental framework to maximize the use and value of the Post Office infrastructure to achieve its developmental mandate.

The Post Office cannot keep its website online and pay its domain fees on time, and private companies refuse to even consider using it.

MyBroadband has also received dozens of complaints from readers about how they have been waiting for packages for months, with attempts to contact the Post Office for assistance proving futile.

If the ANC government gives work to the Post Office, it will not end well.

Wi-Fi in every school

The ANC must further encourage efforts by Government and the private sector to deploy broadband infrastructure and services and also ensure accessibility of free Wi-Fi as part of the development of economic inclusion. Free Wi-Fi must also be provided in rural areas as well as metros and in all public schools, clinics, libraries, etc.

Earlier this month, a 5-year-old Grade R pupil at a public school in Bizana in the Eastern Cape died when she fell into a pit toilet.

It later emerged that the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative, which was aimed at addressing poor conditions at public schools, had reportedly been stopped due to maladministration and delays.

Out of 259 schools that were supposed to be provided with sanitation in the 2016/17 year, only nine have, said the DA on the matter.

If the government cannot ensure all public schools have safe toilets, how is it going to install Wi-Fi at every school, library, and clinic?

South African content

Interventions must include strategies to ensure that SA content and websites become favourites countrywide.

I am not sure what this even means.

Will the ANC government assist local websites financially, force redirects to local websites at an ISP level, or does it plan to nationalise Facebook?Uber Technologies Inc. has reached an agreement to sell its Southeast Asian ride-hailing business to rival Grab and could announce the deal as early as Monday morning in Singapore, people familiar with the matter said.

The agreement  which includes all of Ubers operations in Southeast Asia as well as Uber Eats in the region  gives the U.S. company a stake of between 25 percent and 30 percent in the new combined business, the people said, asking not to be identified ahead of an official announcement. The deal, which Bloomberg outlined earlier this month, marks Ubers operational exit from yet another major market and hands a victory to Grab as it battles local competitor Go-Jek.

SoftBank Group Corp., a major backer of Grabs and Ubers as well as Chinas Didi Chuxing, has pushed consolidation to improve the profitability of a global ride-hailing business that bleeds billions of dollars a year. New entrants and the strength of second-place regional players such as Lyft Inc. in the U.S. have complicated those efforts.

Representatives for Grab and Uber declined to comment.

The deal represents another major retreat from international markets for Uber. Travis Kalanick, its former chief executive officer, sold Ubers business in China in 2016 in return for a 17.5 percent stake in Chinese ride-hailing leader Didi Chuxing. Then the ride-hailing giant agreed to sell its Russian business to Yandex  just before Dara Khosrowshahi took over as chief executive.

Khosrowshahi has been pushing to clean up the companys financials in preparation for an initial public offering next year. Pulling out of markets like Southeast Asia would boost profits at a company that has burned through $10.7 billion since its founding nine years ago. Khosrowshahi signaled during a trip through Asia last month that he is committed to key markets such as Japan and India.

For Grab co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan, the truce would bring to an end a bruising battle for leadership in a Southeast Asian ride-hailing market forecast to reach $20.1 billion by 2025. The companies have been locked in a struggle for control of as many cities as possible across Southeast Asia, home to 620 million people.

Grab, which started out as a taxi-hailing app in Kuala Lumpur in 2012, became the regions dominant ride-hailing service in past years with $4 billion raised from investors. It was most recently valued at $6 billion, according to CB Insights. Grab, which has more than 86 million mobile app downloads, currently offers services in more than 190 cities across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.Armenia Deputy PM: It's rather difficult to say when Amulsar gold mine will be opened

Armenia FM at UN General Assembly: We call on increasing pressure on Azerbaijan

Armenia PM orders to ensure enforcement of order for COVID-19 vaccination or PCR test starting October 1

Schoolchildren and parents get into massive brawl on Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border

Deputy PM: No corridor issue being discussed, any passage through Armenia's sovereign territory will imply transit

Armenia FM meets with Finnish counterpart

Armenia Deputy PM: Pashinyan-Erdogan meeting is not planned

Turkey's Erdogan: We are receiving positive messages from Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan

Armenia 1st President hosts Kyrgyzstan's ex-president

Armenia FM meets with Council of Europe Secretary General

Armenia PM sends congratulatory message to Catholicos Patriarch of Armenian Catholic Church

Armenia Emergency Situations Ministry: Iranians didn't participate in putting out fire near park

Armenian lawyer: I won't force my employees to get PCR test for COVID-19 and will protect their rights in court

Armenia PM sacks Public Council Secretariat chief

Armenian man charged under organizing of illegal migration in Russia shows up to Armenia police station

France FM to meet with US counterpart

Armenia justice minister introduces newly appointed head of Penitentiary Service

Digest: US Congress demands Armenian POWs release in Baku, more on COVID-19 vaccination in Armenia

Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani Prosecutors General meet in Kazakhstan

Russia ambassador to Armenia underscores continued development of multipolar cooperation bridges

Armenia peacekeepers in Kosovo mark Independence Day anniversary

US Under Secretary of State: We look forward to progress, including via OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair mechanism

Azerbaijan FM declares country's willingness to normalize relations with Armenia

US, Russia start talks over sustainable development at level of business

Mirziyoyev: Uzbekistan-Armenia cooperation will continue to consistently develop

Tehran says Georgia border guards' conduct against Iran citizens is unacceptable

Karabakh emergency service: Remains of another fallen soldier found

Iranian president invites Turkish counterpart to Iran for official visit

Dollar continues dropping in Armenia

21st Catholicos Patriarch of Catholic Armenians elected

Biden plans to attend G20 summit in Rome

4 new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh

Baku fires at Iranian helicopter

Armenia Ombudsman assesses observation of Russian State Duma elections

Armenia health minister: There is differentiated attitude towards COVID-19 vaccines

EU envoy reaffirms their continued assistance to democratic reforms in Armenia

Biden's advisor and Erdogan's spokesperson discuss situation in Caucasus after 44-day war

Poland to install 250 American Abrams tanks in east of country

Armenia parliament opposition faction leader: Azerbaijan, Turkey have no desire to build their policy on logic of peace

Turkey sends several thousand more troops to Syria

EU urges Iranian foreign minister to resume talks on Tehran's nuclear dossier

Syrian citizen arrested in absentia for murder of Russian military pilot in Syria

Criminal case filed for writing insulting comment under Armenia PM's photo on Facebook

Chronicles of Aurora to leave Yerevans Matenadaran for first time to be displayed at San Lazzaro Island in Venice

Armavir Province grape growers protesting outside Armenia government building

Health minister talks about getting 3rd dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Armenia

Georgia PM to Armenia counterpart: Existing challenges make cooperation between our countries more significant

Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan FMs to meet in Tehran

Armenia State Revenue Committee chief meets with US embassy drug enforcement program new director

Armenia, Nicaragua FMs highlight interest to deepen cooperation within international platforms

La Francophonie Secretary General: I reaffirm readiness to support Armenia initiatives

Armenia, France FMs meet in New York, discuss prospects for settlement of Karabakh conflict

Armenia Syunik Province governors wanted son turns himself in, is taken to prison

939 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

US welcomes China decision to stop building coal-burning power plants abroad

US Congress demands release of all Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan

FMs discuss rich agenda of Armenia-Greece relations

Serbia to open diplomatic mission in Armenia

Tiger kills shepherd in India right before the eyes of other shepherds

Newspaper: Whose interests Armenia current government serves?

Newspaper: Ex-Presidents Kocharyan, Sargsyan were invited to Armenia Independence Day anniversary event

Armenia FM to Austrian counterpart: Armenian heritage of Artsakh urgently needs to be in international community's focus

Armenia opposition MP: No protection of public interests mentioned in administrative-territorial division law

Analyst: Presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan know the price for new and possible escalation

Embassy of Iran in Armenia on situation regarding Iranian truck drivers detained in Azerbaijan

Armenian and Slovenian FMs discuss pressing regional and international issues

Armenia Parliament Speaker receives congratulatory messages from Iranian and Indian counterparts

His Holiness Karekin II receives Samvel Karapetyan and participants of Armenian Business Forum 2021

Armenia MOD chairs consultation devoted to army's preparations for winter

Driver dies in gorge after driving off Armenias Kapan-Kajaran road

Armenia FM meets with Polish counterpart

Armenia ruling party MP on reason why military parade was not held on Independence Day

Armenia and Lithuania FMs meet in New York

Criminal found at Armenia's border crossing point, was wanted by Greek law-enforcement authorities for 1 year

Armenia Supreme Judicial Council members receive Swedish National Courts Administration delegation

Level of Armenia's Lake Sevan drops 1 cm in period between September 13 and 19

Azerbaijan FM demands that counterparts of VUAM "exert pressure on Armenia"

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs planning to resume talks with Azerbaijani and Armenian FMs

Digest: Blinken, Cavusoglu discuss Karabakh, Russia peacekeepers remove Artsakh flag from monastery

Analyst: It's fundamentally important for Russia to maintain role of mediator between Yerevan and BakuYEREVAN.  Whether or not there are Armenians among the casualties in Sundays fire that occurred at a shopping mall in Kemerovo, Russia, is being ascertained.

Tigran Balayan, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia, on Monday told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

According to the latest information, 53 people were killed in the fire.

It is one of the four largest fires that occurred in Russia over the past 100 years.

The fire had broken out on the lastfourthfloor of the shopping mall.

Its surface area was 1,500 square meters.YEREVAN.  According to the information by armembrus [the embassy of Armenia in Moscow], there are Armenians among the victims of Sundays fire that occurred at a shopping mall in Kemerovo, Russia.

Tigran Balayan, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia, on Monday informed the aforementioned noting that additional information will be provided.

According to the latest information, 53 people were killed in the fire.

It is one of the four largest fires that have occurred in Russia over the past 100 years.

The fire had broken out on the lastfourthfloor of the shopping mall.

Its surface area was 1,500 square meters.The Egyptian parliament's Arab affairs committee condemned Turkeys military action in Syria and Iraq and compared it to the Armenian Genocide.

This is a new mass extermination war and it reminds us of Turkey's massacre of the Armenian people during the first World War, the lawmakers said in a statement.

The committee deplored that both Russia and the United States are turning a blind eye to Erodgan's war crimes and its racial cleansing operations against the Kurds in Syria and Iraq, Ahram Online reported.

The committee's statement argued that "it is clear that dictator Erdogan's internal failures have forced him to mount military adventures against Turkey's neighbours in a way that poses a threat to international peace and stability in the Middle East."

The statement urged the Arab League, Arab leaders and Arab peoples to take a united stand against aggressive Turkish policies in the Arab world.YEREVAN.- Expansion of cooperation with Armenia is important for Georgia, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to the RA George Saganelidze said on Monday, during the meeting with Armenian National Assembly Deputy Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov in Yerevan Georgy Saganelidze.

Welcoming the Ambassador, Eduard Sharmazanov highlighted the traditional friendship of the brotherly peoples, considering necessary the further development and enlargement of the Armenian-Georgian relations in all directions. In that context the NA Deputy Speaker also distinguished the activation of the relations between the parliaments of Armenia and Georgia not only at the level of the parliamentary friendship groups, but also the committees.

Eduard Sharmazanov touched upon the regional security problems.

The sides also discussed the steps taken on cultural cooperation, the development of tourism and making recognizable to each other the spiritual-historical values.

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to the RA has thanked the RA NA Deputy Speaker for the warm reception and has underlined that in the relations with Armenia Georgia emphasizes the enlargement of cooperation in all directions, especially on the parliamentary diplomacy platform. Talking about the regional problems, George Saganelidze reaffirmed their balanced position in the peaceful settlement of the NK problem. The Ambassador documented with satisfaction the warm, friendly relations existing between the two countries, underscoring that the sides should do their best for further deepening and strengthening them.YEREVAN.- Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received on Monday newly appointed Ambassador of Ireland to Armenia Michael Forbes (residence in Sofia) on the occasion of handing over the copies of his credentials, the press service of MFA Armenia reported.

Congratulating Michael Forbes on his appointment, Foreign Minister Nalbandian expressed hope that the newly appointed ambassador will contribute to the deepening and strengthening of the Armenian-Irish relations.

Expressing gratitude for the reception and congratulations, Ambassador Forbes assured that that he will spare no efforts to give new impetus to Armenian-Irish relations.

During the meeting, Edward Nalbandian and Michael Forbes discussed issues of bilateral agenda, touched upon measures necessary for activating political dialogue and developing trade and economic relations and emphasized the importance of fostering inter-parliamentary relations.

The sides noted that the signing of EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) can create new opportunities for both Armenia-EU relations and Armenia-Ireland bilateral relations.

Minister Nalbandian presented the joint efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries aimed at peaceful settlement of Karabakh conflict.

The US will expel 48 Russian officials serving at Russias bilateral mission to the United States, as well as 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission to the United Nations, State Department Spokesperson, Heather Nauert said at a special briefing on Monday.

"On March 4, Russia used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to murder a British citizen and his daughter in Salisbury. This attack on our Ally the United Kingdom put countless innocent lives at risk and resulted in serious injury to three people, including a police officer.

In response to this outrageous violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and breach of international law, today the United States will expel 48 Russian officials serving at Russias bilateral mission to the United States. We will also require the Russian government to close its Consulate General in Seattle by April 2, 2018. We take these actions to demonstrate our unbreakable solidarity with the United Kingdom, and to impose serious consequences on Russia for its continued violations of international norms. 

Separately, we have begun the process of expelling 12 intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission to the United Nations who have abused their privilege of residence in the United States.

The United States calls on Russia to accept responsibility for its actions and to demonstrate to the world that it is capable of living up to its international commitments and responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security," she noted.In a bid to help news organisations thrive in the digital age, Google has committed $300 million over the next three years as part of the Google News Initiative (GNI).

The GNI will help media outlets evolve new business models while adopting innovative technologies.

According to Google, business models for journalism continue to change drastically and the rapid evolution of technology is challenging all institutions, including the news industry, to keep pace.

"Over the next three years, we're committing $300 million toward meeting these goals. We're also deepening our commitment to building products that address the news industry's most urgent needs," Philipp Schindler, Chief Business Officer at Google, said in a blog post..

The GNI is focused on three objectives: Elevate and strengthen quality journalism, evolve business models to drive sustainable growth and empower news organisations through technological innovation.

Google has earlier worked closely with the news industry to address key challenges.

"We worked with the industry to launch the open-source 'Accelerated Mobile Pages Project' to improve the mobile web and 'YouTube Player' for Publishers to simplify video distribution and reduce costs," Schindler said.

"We also introduced 'Flexible Sampling' to help with discovery of news content on Google; 'Google News Lab' to provide newsrooms with trainings and editorial partnerships, and the 'Digital News Initiative' to drive innovation in the European news industry," he added.

Over the past few years, Google has worked with publishers to elevate accurate, quality content and stem the flow of misinformation and disinformation.

"We're launching the 'Disinfo Lab' alongside the 'First Draft' to combat mis- and disinformation during elections and breaking news moments," Google said.

Google is also teaming up with the Poynter Institute, Stanford University, and the Local Media Association to launch "MediaWise", a project designed to improve digital information literacy for young consumers.

Google is currently working with news organisations around the world to develop and deploy technology that improves newsroom efficiency, creates enriching storytelling experiences, and protects journalists from cyber attacks around the world.

"For example, we are using our natural language processing API to help 'Hearst Newspapers' sort, label and categorise more than 3,000 articles every day," Google said.

Google has also worked with the South China Morning Post to use "Google Earth Studio" to create immersive VR experiences that show the evolution of Hong Kong throughout history.

"Finally, we're also launching 'Outline', an open-source tool from Jigsaw that lets news organisations provide journalists more secure access to the internet," Google announced.

"Outline" makes it easy for news organisations to set up their own VPN on a private server.

In 2017, Google paid $12.6 billion to partners and drove 10 billion clicks a month to publishers' websites for free.

Read more news:

Google to let users shop through Search, Assistant

Ecobee Switch+ : A voice enabled light switchShabaab Reports Over 30 Somali Forces Killed in Operations in Past 5 Days in Mogadishu, Including 2 with VBIEDsHome | News | General | Obasanjo endorses AnchorLoEIS

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has endorsed Anchor Insurance Loss of Employment Insurance Scheme (AnchorLoEIS).

Obasanjo gave the endorsement when the companys management paid him a courtesy visit at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

In a statement, Head, Brand & Corporate Communications of Anchor Insurance, Mr. Jamiu Osoba said, While introducing the members of the delegation, the General Manager, Retail and Micro Insurance, Mr. Uzoma Ofurum introduced the product to the former President.

Olusegun Obasanjo

Seeking to know the benefits of the product, the former President was informed that is a product developed to cushion the effect of the sudden loss of employment with the payment of salary income to policy holder for 24 months after loss of job. The former president thereafter endorsed AnchorLoEIS. He said he will be in the fore front of the products promotion and advised all Nigerians and indeed the employed to take this insurance policy and enjoy its benefits as a protection in the event of a job loss.

In a related development, Anchor Insurance said it has partnered with the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library on its Wildlife Park (WLP) Adopt An Animal programme by adopting a Lion tagged Anchor Lion in the Wildlife. With this partnership, the company has created the opportunity to contribute to the conservation of local animal species and encourage their reproduction and preservation of wildlife which in its stead will further encourage local tourism.

Obasanjo announced to the delegation the plan to insure the animals in the Wildlife Park against the third party liabilities as it is essential to protect the visitors to the park from any unanticipated eventualities.

Obasanjo said, Just in case somebody puts his hand in a lions cage or a lion breaks out. It is very important to have insurance despite all the barricades and cages we have in the park.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General

Loading...Home | News | General | Herders/farmers crisis: Northern govs meet Miyetti Allah

Northern States Governors Forum, NSGF, has met with the national leadership and state chapters of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association as part of efforts to find lasting solutions to the continued clashes between herders and farmers across the federation.

The meeting, which held in Sokoto, had in attendance NSGF chairman and Borno Governor, Kashim Shettima; host governor, Aminu Tambuwal, and their counterparts from Kano, Abdullahi Ganduje, and Kaduna, Nasir el-Rufai. El-Rufai joined the meeting after it started.

Cult clash

Though no formal communique was issued at the end of the meeting, reports indicate that the gathering discussed genesis of the crisis, efforts to contain it and how to entrench permanent solution.

In his opening remarks, Shettima said the 19 northern states were worried by the rising cases of insecurity involving herders and farmers, and expressed optimism that their intervention will help in finding lasting solution to the conflicts.

He said they were intervening in order to complement efforts of the Federal Government, adding that they hoped to adopt local conflict resolution mechanism to bring back trust and understanding among all the people of the region.

Shettima said: We have seen enough crisis in the North-East with Boko Haram. We cannot afford to let any other conflict linger without a solution.

We hope to hear from all sides and finally come up with a workable plan that will restore confidence and entrench lasting peace in our region.

Revealing the position of MACBAN, a source at the meeting said: The leadership of Miyetti Allah, led by National President, Muhammed Kirowa, told the meeting that the approach to conflict resolution adopted by political leaders in some states is not helpful in finding lasting peace.

In his views, political leaders, especially governors, should approach issues of peace in neutral perspective, not as biased party. He said their members have lived in many of these conflict-prone communities for centuries without conflict, but wondered why the situation is getting out of hand now, the source added.

Reports indicate that even though no resolution was reached at the Sokoto meeting, a new round of discussion will be scheduled to take place in Abuja, Jos, Makurdi and Kaduna in the coming weeks and months.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General

Loading...ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GTDC  The Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) hosted its inaugural Organizing Meeting and Vendor Workshop in Singapore on March 14th. Technology distribution leaders and vendor partners convened to gain a clearer picture of the latest APAC trends while taking advantage of networking opportunities with peers and analysts. GTDC members drive more than $150 billion in annual product and services business across the globe.



Participating distribution leaders in the GTDC APAC event in Singapore included:

Compuage Infocom Westcon-Comstor Digital China Supertron Innovix SYNNEX Australia Ingram Micro Arrow ECS Tech Data SiS

This meeting gave us a great opportunity to further promote the importance of distribution at the center of the overall supply chain, commented GTDC CEO Tim Curran, who presented details on the industry today as well as in regard to emerging developments. Vendor partners from diverse industry sectors learned about deeper ways to partner while being able to share new service requirements relevant to all participants. In the end, its about channels and end customers  ensuring they all receive the best possible services relative to what technology is ultimately meant to do: solve problems, improve efficiencies and support better productivity.

Among the event highlights: Oxford Economics Oliver Salmon, lead economist, covered the global and Asian economic outlook in 2018; an executive panel centered on common misunderstandings and pain points specific to distributor-vendor partnerships; and breakout sessions hosted by Quadmark, the GTDCs industry education partner, focused on executive-level distribution training and the omnichannel opportunity in India and Southeast Asia.

We saw great enthusiasm about the GTDC establishing a presence in the Asia-Pacific region, commented Peter van den Berg, GTDC general manager of Europe and APAC, who participated and helped lead the meeting. Its amazing to see how far distribution has come since the days of pick, pack and ship. While these fundamentals are still critical, the movement to provide increasingly dynamic services is now rapidly progressing to keep pace with all the innovation worldwide. Distributors are a key force in this era of dramatic transformation, and our APAC event attested to this global reality.

About the GTDC

The Global Technology Distribution Council is the industry consortium representing the worlds leading tech distributors. GTDC members drive more than $150 billion in annual worldwide sales of products, services and solutions through diverse business channels. GTDC conferences support the development and expansion of strategic supply-chain partnerships that continually address the fast-changing marketplace needs of vendors, end customers and distributors. GTDC members include AB S.A, ABC Data, Almo Corporation, Arrow Electronics, Compuage Infocom Ltd., Computer Gross Italia, D&H Distributing, ELKO, Exclusive Networks, Ingram Micro, Intcomex, Logicom, SiS Technologies, SYNNEX, Tarsus, Tech Data, TIM AG and Westcon-Comstor.WISeKey's PKI technology in high demand by companies to facilitate compliance with the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy laws

In high demand following the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook user data scandal

ZUG, GENEVA, Switzerland - March 26, 2018 - WISeKey International Holding Ltd (WISeKey) (SIX:WIHN), a leading Swiss cybersecurity and IoT solutions company, announced today that its suite of QuoVadis products and services is used by organizations to facilitate their compliance with the new European General Data Protection Regulation (Directive 95/46/EC), known as GDPR (approved by the European Parliament in April 2016; will take effect on May 25, 2018), the primary law regulating how companies protect EU citizens' personal data.

GDPR mandates a set of standards for any company that markets goods or services and handle EU citizens' personal data to better safeguard the processing and movement of the data gathered. It requires that personal data is processed in a manner that ensures its security, while the rationale and the purpose for collection is transparent and the consent of the subject is obtained in advance. Companies are required to protect data against unauthorized or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organizational measures. Since any company that markets goods or services to EU residents, regardless of its location, is subject to the regulation, the GDPR is expected to have a global impact on data protection requirements. Penalties for noncompliance include stiff fines of up to 20 Million Euros per breach.

WISeKey's PKI provides technology solutions that can alleviate the compliance efforts and reduce risks for penalties. The WISeKey QuoVadis product can help organizations to protect sensitive personal data while in transit and at rest; this is achieved thanks to encryption solutions enabled by trusted digital certificates. Users can encrypt their personal data and control who can access to it. SSL certificates assure end users that their personal data is gathered and processed by identified and genuine service providers, while communication is encrypted.

It is critical to ensure that personal data is managed for legitimate purposes and with user consent. The recent Cambridge Analytica-Facebook user data scandal, is just one example on how personal data can be captured, exploited and misused. Managing consent appropriately is a challenge for many organizations, and WISeKey QuoVadis solutions for electronic signature can provide a mechanism to process these consents in a way which is both legally binding and convenient, by reducing the need to manage paper documents.

"As an accredited issuer of TSP certificates to individuals and companies, WISeKey has been subject to multiple audits in which data privacy policies and procedures as well as underlying systems for collecting and storing of the data, have been assessed and reported on. The GDPR brings changes to disclosure and systems have been enhanced to meet all additional safety requirements," explains Carlos Moreira, Chief Executive Officer and founder of WISeKey. "Customers can benefit from our experience and technology to reduce compliance implementation efforts and mitigate risks."

About WISeKey:

WISeKey (SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems with a patented process. WISeKey's Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust ("RoT") provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com .

To receive WISeKey's latest news, subscribe to our Newsletter or visit the WISeKey Investors Corner.

Press and investor contacts:

WISeKey International Holding Ltd

Company Contact: Carlos Moreira

Chairman & CEO

Tel: +41 22 594 3000

info@wisekey.com WISeKey Investor Relations (US)

Contact: Lena Cati

The Equity Group Inc.

Tel: +1 212 836-9611

lcati@equityny.com

Disclaimer:

This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does 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 WISeKey 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 WISeKey.Home | News | General | 60-yr-old man who fled after dumping lovers corpse nabbed

Says she was alive but unconscious when I brought her home

By Esther Onyegbula

The Ilemba Hausa Division of the Lagos State Police Command has arrested fleeing Stephen Uwa, who allegedly dumped the corpse of his lover, a single mother of five, at her apartment in Imuda, Ajagbandi area of Lagos, last Thursday.

However, Uwa told the police that when he brought the woman home, she was alive but unconscious.

Police

Vanguard gathered that the deceased, Joy Vincent, aged 45, had been going out with the suspect for long, without any of her five children and relatives knowing where her lover lives.

Tension set in last Thursday after one of her children returned from school to meet his mothers lifeless body on the couch, in their one room apartment located on Oshja Arigba Street.

Stephen, declared wanted by the Police, was arrested two days later.

Her sons cry

When Vanguard visited the deceaseds home, her eldest son, Christian, said:  I wasnt at home when it happened. But Ikye (his younger brother) said Stephen (suspect) drove here, in the company of a man and two other women.

He met one of our neighbours and requested that they call Ikye, whose school is located on the next street, to bring the key to our apartment.

When Iyke came, Steven told him that our mother was sick and sent him to call my aunt, Esther, who lives at Alafia Street, which is about five minutes walk from our house. But when my brother and aunt arrived, Steven was nowhere around.

But he had laid my mothers body on the bed and covered her with a wrapper, as if she was sleeping. I still cant believe my mother is gone because she was hale and hearty as at Wednesday.

On her part, Esther Okereke, the deceaseds younger sister, said she became suspicious when she saw her sister motionless on the bed.

Her words: When I realised that she was stone cold, I raised alarm and reported the matter to the Police. When we checked my late sisters hand bag, we found a mixture for stomach pain.

She never complained of stomach ache before. What she usually complained of was leg pains because she was huge.

The suspect

The suspect, Stephen Uwa, confessed to have brought his lover home on the said day, disclosing that she visited him last Sunday, but complained of stomach ache on Thursday morning.

He said: At the time I took her home, she was uncon-scious but alive.

Vanguard learned that the remains of Joy Vincent had been deposited at the Badagry General Hospital mortuary.

Confirming the incident, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Chike Oti, stated that the 60-year-old suspect and the two women, who assisted him to take his lover home, have been arrested.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General

Loading...Sergey Mavrodi, the founder of MMM, a Russian company that ran one of the worlds largest Ponzi scheme, is dead.

According to a report by Moskovsky Komsomolets, the founder of the MMM series of financial pyramid schemes, Mavrodi, died in Moscow at the age of 62.

Mavrodi was taken to a city hospital from a bus stop overnight Monday, March 26, after he felt weakness and pain in the chest area.

The emergency team has failed to save his life. He died this morning, the report said.

Sergei Mavrodi created the company MMM in 1992. It quickly gained popularity and became the largest financial pyramid in the history of Russia.

The income of the members who joined it was paid out of the contributions of new arrivals, and when the flow of customers ceased to grow, non-payments began.

According to various estimates, the number of victims of MMM has reached 10-15 million people.

In 1994, Mavrodi became a member of the Russian parliament. Then he announced that he was giving up his privileges: salaries and cars. Mavrodi stressed that he became a deputy only for the sake of immunity.

Two years later, before the presidential elections in 1996, he was stripped of his mandate.

In 2007, Mavrodi was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for defrauding 10,000 investors out of 110 million rubles ($4.3 million). All this time, he left during the preliminary detention while the investigation was conducted.

Mavrodi claimed he is not the beneficiary of the donations and he is not used to flamboyant lifestyle.

His true charges of which he was later convicted of is tax fraud though he claimed that MMM scheme is not a business, but a mutual donation programme of which there is no law against such.Dublin, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "A Risk Rather than an Opportunity San Francisco Bay Area Regulatory Report." report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The report on the Bay Area details how city and county regulation of e-cigarettes and vaping in San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and Fremont applies on top of California's statewide rules.



The San Francisco Bay Area is the second- largest urban area in California and the fifth largest in the US, with a population of around 7.5m.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary



2. Regulatory landscape in the San Francisco Bay Area



3. San Jose city and Santa Clara county



4. San Francisco (county: San Francisco)



5. Oakland (county: Alameda)



6. Fremont (county: Alameda)



7. Alameda County (Oakland and Fremont)



8. Other flavour bans in the Bay Area

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/t22txg/san_francisco_bay?w=12



Home | News | General | PDP to Lai: APC has been rejected by Nigerians

By Dirisu Yakubu

ABUJA- The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has fired a shot at Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed for urging the electoral commission to withdraw the partys registration certificate.

John Odigie Oyegun and Prince Uche Secondus

The party image maker, Kola Ologbondiyan in a statement on Sunday said the ruling party has been rejected by Nigerians who are only waiting for 2019 to oust the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Our attention has been drawn to a press statement by the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, wherein he demanded that the certificate of registration issued to the PDP by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be withdrawn because the PDP lost in an election and according to him, does not know how to function as an opposition party.

It is clear now that the APC and its federal government have come to their wits end. All they need to do now is to sit by and watch Nigerians collectively return the PDP to powers and by so doing restore the nation to the path of unity, national cohesion and economic prosperity come 2019.

We want to alert all Nigerians of a clandestine plot by the APC-led federal government to strangulate the main opposition party and plot the way for the self-succession plan of their candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari.

Our party has been following all the schemes and shenanigans of the APC as 2019 general elections draw nearer.

The main plank of the plot is to ensure that President Buhari runs as a sole candidate in 2019. To achieve this grand plan, they must work to exterminate all known and perceived political opposition platforms in our country.

Is it not strange that a party who, in its almost five years of existence, cannot constitute a Board of Trustees (BoT) in line with the provisions of its own constitution will be asking INEC to withdraw the certificate of a party whose all organs are intact and effectively functioning?

Is it not also laughable that a party, who cannot hold even a non-elective convention, will be calling for the withdrawal of PDPs certificate?

It is imperative to tell Alhaji Lai Mohammed and his cohorts in the APC that any masquerade that dances first will eventually have to watch the dance steps of others from the stand, the statement read.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General

Loading...COSTA MESA, Calif., March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Red8, the industry expert in architecting todays modern infrastructure, today announced that CRN  , a brand of The Channel Company, has named Red8 to its 2018 Tech Elite 250 list. This annual list honors an exclusive group of North American IT solution providers that have earned the highest number of advanced technical certifications from leading technology suppliers, scaled to their company size.



Red8 is focused on engineering excellence as our customers rely on us to solve their toughest technical challenges, said Frank Wiacek, president of Red8. We are honored to have been named to the list of tech elite solution providers. It is a testament to the success and commitment of our talented team.

To compile the annual list, The Channel Companys research group and CRN editors work together to identify the most customer-beneficial technical certifications in the North American IT channel. Companies who have obtained these elite designations which enable solution providers to deliver premium products, services and customer supportare then selected from a pool of online applicants.

Being named to CRNs Tech Elite 250 list is no small feat, said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. These companies have distinguished themselves with multiple, top-level IT certifications, specializations and partner program designations from the industrys most prestigious technology providers. Their pursuit of deep expertise and broader skill sets in a wide range of technologies and IT practices demonstrates an impressive commitment to elevating their businessesand to providing the best possible customer experience.

Coverage of the Tech Elite 250 will be featured in the April issue of CRN, and online at www.crn.com/techelite250.

Tweet This:

@TheChannelCo names @Red8IT to @CRN 2018 Tech Elite 250 list #CRNTechElite250 www.crn.com/techelite250

About Red8

Red8, a division of Insight Investments, LLC, is an IT solutions provider dedicated to solving critical technology challenges through modern infrastructure solutions. Recognized for its engineering excellence and consulting leadership, Red8 is a trusted partner to many of the nations largest corporations. Delivering flexible and scalable cloud, cybersecurity, connectivity and data center solutions. Digital transformation starts here. Visit: www.red8.com and follow @Red8IT.

About the Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com

The Channel Company, LLC. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Red8 Media Contact:

Christy Kemp

303-898-3390

ckemp@dahliapr.comHome | News | General | Women remain disadvantaged in electoral processes, governance- INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday, said that women remained disadvantaged in electoral processes and governance in spite of its commitment to inclusive democracy.

Dr Adekunle Ogunmola, INEC National Commissioner (Ondo, Ogun and Lagos States), disclosed this at the Capacity Building Workshop for Gender Desk Officers (GDOs) of the commission in Lagos.

The workshop, powered by the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECEC) is tagged BRIDGE Training on Gender and Elections.

The BRIDGE-Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections, had INEC GDOs across the 36 states of the federation and FCT in attendance in the five- day-long training.

According to Ogunmola, as a responsive election management body, INEC is committed to fostering inclusive democracy.

Ogunmola said INEC accomplished the task by ensuring a level playing field for all stakeholders in the electoral processes, irrespective of sex, creed or tribe.

Despite efforts made so far in encouraging the participation of all, women are still disadvantaged on several ways.

This is so much that issues of gender remained an important consideration as we discharged our electoral management functions.

Paving way for an inclusive electoral process requires diligent commitment and dedication to gender-responsive principles and standards of operations.

As a commission, we are resolved to sustain incremental improvement of womens level of participation in the electoral process through strategic intervention.

Through the entire electoral cycle, the commission has undertaken adequate reforms in its policy and operational guidelines to address factors that inhibit womens effective participation, he said.

Ogunmola, also the Chairman, Outreach and Partnership Committee (OPC) of INEC said the workshop was to equip the commissions Gender Desk Officer the capacity to carry out gender mainstreaming in the electoral process.

According to him, the BRIDGE module narrows the training focus to sensitise electoral administrators about the importance of womens empowerment and entry points for gender mainstreaming in the electoral process.

The commissions commitment to building an inclusive democracy where equality and equity are guaranteed cannot be over emphasised.

In giving effect to this commitment, INEC Gender Policy with its implementation framework was introduced in 2014 to effectively mainstream gender concerns in the policies, processes, plans and operations of the commission, he said.

He said that other area of focus in the workshop was ensuring global standards, principles and management techniques fundamental to good electoral practice, especially from a gender perspective.

Ogunmola said that since 2015 general elections, the commission had engaged with several stakeholders to explore new says of strengthening the participation of women in the electoral process.

The commissioner urged the GDOs to pay attention to gender equality issues in the discharge of their duties.

He said the training would not only deepen the knowledge of GDOs for them to understand mainstreaming in the electoral processes, but also its implication on the credibility of democratic elections.

Earlier, Mr Dominique Weerts, ECES Project Director, said the centre was the implementing partner of component 1 for the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) programme.

Global statistics for gender parity indicates that in 2015, out of 188 countries, Nigeria was 152 position in human development index in Gender inequality and 118 position out of 192 countries in 2017.

Despite the fact that the women demography makes up the largest voters population, women in Nigeria constitute only 5.8 per cent of the political space, Weert said.

The director, who noted that there was low participation of women in Nigerias electoral processes and government said that the 35 per cent affirmative action for women inclusion in governance remained a target.

He said that since 2010, ECES had implemented 70 projects in support of democracy and electoral processes in 35 countries, mainly funded by the EU and its member states.

Weerts, also a Senior Expert in Governance, ECES Headquarters, said that the centre was one of the most important implementers of EU funded electoral assistance activities.

The project director also said ECES was supporting INEC to strengthen the commissions capacity in delivering inclusive, free and fair election during 2019 general elections.

Speaking to Newsmen , Mrs Blessing Obidegwu, Deputy Director, Gender Division, INEC said that nations where women participated in electoral processes and governance tended to develop more.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General

Loading...Home | News | General | Electricity restoration: Ado residents express gratitude to AEDC

Residents of Ado, Karu Local Government Area, Nasarawa State, have expressed gratitude to Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) over the restoration of electricity, which had kept the community in darkness for over one month.

According to some of the residents, who spoke on Monday we now have big relieve from the pains of the whole situation.

The power outage was caused by a faulty transformer, which was later fixed for the community by the AEDC officials.

Speaking, Mr Peter Akada lauded both Ado branch office of the AEDC and the companys officials from Abuja Headquarters for their prompt intervention in the matter.

I am very grateful to AEDC staff for their quick response to our plight.

This is because it was difficult for me in particular as a welder to operate my business, knowing how much it cost to buy diesel to operate my generator anytime we dont have light.

Mrs Ikwo Afaha, another resident, said she would sleep well at night because of the power restoration.

I can now sleep well at night; I was always disturbed by the heat to the extent that I have to keep my doors open at night to sleep comfortably.

I really appreciate Ado community leaders and I think AEDC officials deserve commendation too for their quick response to our challenge.

These are the types of people we want in governance, Afaha said.

In his commendation, Mr Christopher Ugwuoke, Ado Community Chairman, said he was relieved from the burden of distress calls from the residents over the power situation.

As the community chairman, to be frank with you, when the issue started I could not sleep, I was disturbed until now that the transformer has been fixed.

I am grateful to the AEDC for their cooperation,  he said. (NAN)

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General

Loading...Home | News | General | Union wants Ajokuta Steel Company unbundled, given to different firms

The Iron and Steel Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ISSAN) on Monday urged the Federal Government to unbundle the Ajokuta Steel Company to ensure its effective operation and viability.

Mr Itopa Bello, the President of ISSAN, made the call in an interview with Newsmen in Lagos.

Ajaokuta-Steel-Company

Bellos call is coming on the heels of the plan by the federal government to concession of the steel company.

He said that if the steel company was unbundled into different companies it would ensure efficiency and competitiveness.

Ajaokuta has many product entities that have the capacities to stand on their own. It should not be given to a single investor.

The autonomous entities in the project should be unbundled and given to different serious investors and there will be competition among operators and they will function well, Bello said.

He said that Ajaokuta steel company was an integrated plant with 43 units, adding that 40 of them had been completed and working effectively.

The remaining three which are the primary and prominent units of the steel company have not been completed and they are not working, he said.

Bello said that the functioning 40 units should be unbundled because the company had the ability to start and finish a production without requiring input from outside.

He also said that TPE, the Russian firm that completed the 40 units should be allowed to finish the whole project since it had the knowledge of the production activities of the company.

He stressed the need for the completion of the remaining components, adding that the company had the capacity to produce the materials required for constructing all the rail-lines across the country.

With bluom the steel company can produce rods for the telecommunication industry and other sectors of the economy.

It is an integrated steel company that has the ability to start and finish a product without sending it to be done elsewhere, he said.

The union leader said that the company was capable to generate 15,000 direct jobs and 500,000 indirect ones.

It was recalled that Nigeria recovered ownership of the company and the National Iron Ore Mining Company Limited, Itakpe, from an Indian firm, following the resolution in her favour, of a 10-year old legal dispute.

The government however signed a peace accord with the Indian firm, Global Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (GINL), as part of the resolution of the legal tussle.

The House of Representative Committee on Privatisation, chaired by Ahmed Yerima, on March 1, organised a public hearing on the planned privatisation and concessioning of the steel company.

Meanwhile, the house has given indication that it is opposed to the plan by the federal government to privatise and concession the steel company.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General

Loading...Home | News | General | SystemicLogic enable businesses to realise their strategic intent

By Onome Amawhe

What will the world of financial innovation look like in the future? If anyone knows, its probably Audrey Mothupi, driver of SystemicLogic, a leading global consulting and technology company at the cutting edge of innovation and emergent business strategy. Financial innovation has been described as the act of creating and popularizing new financial instruments, technologies, institutions and markets. In recent years, theres been a rapidly growing trend toward offering an innovative financial service referred to as Fintech, a segment of the technology start-up scene that is disrupting sectors such as mobile payments, money transfers, loans, fundraising and even asset management. Without doubt, technology has changed how financial markets and institution function. And the prospect of this disruptive change looms large in the minds of executives like Audrey Mothupi who is on the cusp of a major wave of transformation driven by technological innovation in financial services a wave that will fundamentally change how securities and payments are cleared and settled and the incumbent organizations whose monopoly on these processes has not been challenged until now. Mothupi is a big name executive on the South Africa financial scene. Prior to her current job, she had served as the head of inclusive banking at the Standard Bank Group, Africas largest banking institution, where she migrated 3.5 million standard bank customers onto a consolidated SAP platform.

AUdrey Mothupi, CEO, SystemicLogic Group

What are the gaps you feel are addressed by what SystemicLogic has to offer?

With big business constantly exploring the possibilities of staying relevant in todays fast-paced and ever evolving world, theres one thing that we can be sure of and that is that the only constant is change. This constant state of change means that businesses have two choices: either evolve or become obsolete. To evolve, we find that businesses want to build their innovation capability but lack the tools and experience to identify and remove barriers that will enable such. It requires changes, education and communication that the business needs to be ready for. By partnering with the strategy and innovation teams, SystemicLogic helps develop an accelerated ability that engages employees through technology, tests new ideas and get them to market quickly with a product prototyping approach using Lean and Agile principles. We believe that if you are able to start thinking like a start-up, any sized business can unleash their true potential and achieve its vision.

You just had a successful AFF Disrupt conference in Lagos which had over 500 participants. What were the takeaways from this years meeting?

We invited start-up entrepreneurs to showcase their talent, solutions and prototypes to a diverse audience at Disrupt 2017. This enabled us to tap into an ecosystem of unharnessed, raw technological talent, and we were hugely impressed by the calibre of start-ups that definitely made the vision of AFFs conference a reality.

It has become paramount for businesses to build a practical framework that places innovation at the core of their strategy, culture and customer experience, or risk becoming extinct. Every businesses mantra should be Innovate or Die!

What is the difference between financial innovation and innovative finance?

Financial innovation is about the design, creation and commercialisation of technology that creates financial instruments, services, institutions and markets of the future. Whereas Innovative finance is really about using the tools of finance, whether traditional or technological that enable financial inclusion and education to bring about social change.

What are some of the urgent challenges that financial innovation and technology disruption can address?

I believe one of the challenges we are facing today is about closing the gap not only between the end product and consumer, but also between big businesses and start-ups. Harnessing the power of innovation to build trust and accessibility, the technologies available through start-ups and entrepreneurs can really help business es empower the unbanked and drive financial inclusion, faster than ever before.

What impact can digital transformation have on products and industries?

Digital transformation has disrupted businesses and society profoundly, having a huge impact on the workforce, the environment and the end consumer. Specifically focusing on the financial industry, weve seen many opportunities where digital transformation disrupts existing business models creating more affordable and accessible financial solutions and products.

It sounds like if you invest in technology, then finance takes care of itself. Poverty solved. Are you a techno-optimist?

How could I not be? Technology allows us to do things that were not possible yesterday so, it is a reason for optimism. But we also need partnerships, cooperation and new models of operating that allow us to make the changes we want to see in our world.

Recently, we have seen many countries begin to develop viable FinTech ecosystems, what do you feel are the key challenges that Africa will be facing in developing the continent into a FinTech hub?

I believe that one of the key challenges facing the development of FinTech hubs on the African continent is the potential collapse of the traditional finance institution. As I mentioned earlier, either evolve of become obsolete. And while FinTechs offer innovative and agile business models, they come with new risks, but also opportunity to change the face of the financial industry forever.

How much FinTech development is required for Africa to position itself as a regional hub, and how much can Africa leverage the develop-ments elsewhere?

In order to create a regional hub, we need to collaborate across borders and establish a FinTech ecosystem that is country-agnostic. By trading across border we are better equipped to pool funds, visit one another, work with multinational companies and engage our governments to help spread digital transformation. We also need to make sure Africa is represented on the global stage by participating in global FinTech events and learning from experiences overseas.

The technology start-up scene has changed dramatically in Africa in the last few years. What are the key elements that supported this evolution and what improvements can be made to further increase this sectors contribution to GDP and job creation?

The appeal of Africas growing entrepreneurial start-up industry has continued to drive interest with international investors. The opportunity to create revenue by reaching a market of 1.2 billion people seemingly outweighs potential stereotypical risks, which have driven this technical transformation. As a result, we are in the midst of a technological boom where rapid modernisation and the growing start-up scene would not have been possible without local and international investors, who believed and continue to believe in the potential and growth of Africa.

What do you feel are the key components of the wider ecosystem that are required to support FinTech entrepreneurs and venture capital investors?

Africa is experiencing exciting and promising technology developments that support the wider ecosystems for FinTech entrepreneurs and venture capital investors. As a result, investors are not averse to funding the entrepreneurial start up industry, which is supported by an article on the Disrupt Africa portal, where they mention that start-ups in Africa raised an estimated $129 million in 2016, and this figure is growing year by year. Additionally, we are noticing that government involvement and support is key to the growth and development of FinTech entrepreneurs and venture capital investors. Governments can provide taxbreaks to investors, skills development for entrepreneurs and see value in investing in infrastructure that will allow economic growth.

What are some of the technologies and trends that threaten existing businesses and business models, and what sort of opportunities do they offer?

Technologies and trends present both treats and opportunities to business. Looking specifically at the FinTech space, we are constantly researching block chain technology, mobile (apps, payments etc.), social networking, cloud technologies, augmented and virtual reality, wearable technology and gesture-based computing, as well as big data, social TV, 3D printing and gamification. With all this technology, cybercriminals are discovering new and creative ways to intercept this digital world, and take control. Businesses need to be aware and counteract this through compliance and security measures that ensure they do not damage consumer confidence. There is also a fear that technology will eventually be the downfall of humanity. As it stands, technology, automation and the improvement of internal business processes, we are noticing a reduction the size of the workforce.

But the growth in digital innovation is presenting new ways to use and engage technology, information and collaboration to change the overall customer experience, alter how businesses operate and move into the future. Some exciting opportunities that will become available are: the introduction of the mobile workforce  made possible as a result of Wi-Fi and data technologies, cloud storage and file sharing, ensuring seamless interaction and communication regardless of the destination; the mobile banking industry has opened doors to empower the unbanked and drive financial inclusion; and opportunities for collaboration between big businesses, and small agile start-ups.

How are these digital opportunities different from prior IT innovations?

Unfortunately, IT is an older term and is associated with both positive and negative connotations. Generally speaking, IT within business is synonymous with the IT department  where you go for hardware or software issues. Digital is a buzzword that has been introduced, like IT 2.0. This innovation can also be found in marketing, customer service or Human Capital. Digital innovation has the ability to remove borders, create new markets, engage different stakeholders and open up new avenues for collaboration. In essence, digital innovation is a subset of IT innovation.

How do you make sense of the digital opportunities and threats?

The rapid adoption of digital technologies within financial services is fuelling a market-driven transformation. Those who lead this technological drive have an appreciation and understanding of disruptive digital innovations that enhance their efficiency, boost business productivity and deliver security that ensures consumer confidence. Others will find their businesses are left behind. We must be willing to face uncomfortable facts, embrace our diversity and learn in order to pivot our business into the future.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Trump orders expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats  Senior Official

Russian diplomats, including 48 employees of the Russian Embassy and 12 people who have been assigned to the UN in New York, a senior administrations official told reporters on Monday.

The total number today that were talking about is 60. That includes 48 members of the Russian embassy

in New York  and 12 at the UN, the official said.

NAN reports that the EU on Thursday recalled its ambassador from Moscow for consultations over the nerve gas

attack against a former spy in Britain, reinforcing a united stand with Prime Minister Theresa May against Russia.

After the EU firmly sided with May in the escalating conflict reminiscent of the Cold War and said it was

highly likely Russia is responsible for the attack on Sergei Skripal.

May won the backing of 27 other EU leaders at a summit Thursday and the bloc called the attack a grave challenge

to our shared security.

Russia strongly denies responsibility and has slammed Britains investigation.

Britain argues the attack is part of a pattern of behavior by an increasingly assertive Russia whose

muscle-flexing, cyber-meddling and law-breaking on foreign soil pose a threat to the international rule of law.

Britain and Russia have expelled 23 of each others diplomats in a dispute showing no sign of easing.

Russias ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, accused the UK Thursday of having a bad record of violating

international law and misleading the international community.

History shows that British statements must be verified, he told reporters in London, demanding full transparency

of the investigation and full cooperation with Russia and the Organisation for the Prohibition of

Chemical Weapons. (Sputnik/NAN)

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Loading...Home | News | General | Nigeria: On the front line of climate change and conflict

The Nigeria Watch Project at the University of Ibadan reported that in 2017 more than 8600 people were killed in Nigeria from civil strife, criminal acts, resource-related conflicts, and other violent incidents. While this number is down substantially from the more than 20,000 deaths at the height of the Boko Haram conflict in 2014, the level is more than twice as high than in the five years before 2010.

This increase in violence is tied to a large degree to land use, natural resource development, and disruptions in traditional lifestyles. Where climate degradation and conflict were once seen primarily as a Niger Delta issue related to oil development, conflict has now become endemic in the North East with Boko Haram and in the North Central region between herders and farmers. While these various conflicts have diverse causes, climate change is a factor in all of them. Climate change is causing increasing temperatures leading to encroaching desertification, rising sea levels leading to coastal degradation, variability in weather patterns to stresses in the agricultural and livestock sector resulting in volatile food prices, and more frequent and violent storms.

Climate change is a gradual and complex process, and the outbreak of violence is related to many factors beyond environment, but to quote the Norwegian researcher Halvard Buhring:

. take the notion of climate change as a threat multiplier seriously and investigate the conditions under which climatic changes may accentuate the threat to societal stability and peace, and the mechanisms through which a destabilizing effect might materialize.

Nigeria is not alone in facing this challenge. For example, climate change affecting land use and herding occur in places as diverse as Bhutan in the Himalayas to Algeria in North Africa. In sub-Sahara Africa, climate change impacts traditional herding in Kenya, Namibia, and Uganda among others. Explaining why his children would not follow in his footsteps, one Algerian herder said: Its not like it was before. There isnt rain. A statement that rings equally true in Northern Nigeria.

Research from institutions as diverse as University of Texas, Cambridge University, and Peace Research Institute in Oslo Norway demonstrate the links between climate change and conflict. This has led to serious consideration of ways to reduce these risks, which is increasingly discussed in international forums. In almost all the research, Africa is shown to be particularly vulnerable to conflict augmented climate change.

Policy makers in Nigeria need to understand how climate change acts as a threat multiplier and to address this on a policy and operational manner. Maintaining stable livelihoods is a primary objective of any government, and changing climate is increasingly a determinant in this.

Consider migration, as national resources are degraded and depleted by climate related factors, stable livelihoods are undermined leading to migration. While public attention has focused on herders or youth attempting to make the crossing to Europe, the far more numerous migration is from rural to urban areas. Rural dwellers are increasingly unable to support themselves and are forced to seek economic refuge in cities, which are often already overwhelmed in providing public services and employment.

Considering environmental degradation, Lake Chad is a stark warning of what can happen. In the last thirty years the rainy season in Northern Nigeria has decreased by 30 days and the Sahara has advanced southward by 1-10 km a year. Lake Chad once the largest fresh water lake in the country has now shrunk by at least two thirds. Indeed, in Nigeria what remains of Lake Chad is basically swamps and wetlands. The Lakes disappearance along with the tripling of the Basins population since the 1980s has led to massive food insecurity for more than 2 million people in Northern Nigeria and widespread extreme poverty. This poverty, economic fragility, drought and environmental degradation has provided a fertile ground for non-state armed groups such as Boko Haram to contest state authority across the region.

In the international climate negotiations, the response to these climate impacts is referred to as adaptation. The Paris Climate Accord, signed by 174 countries, recognizes that climate change is happening and that adaptation measures are urgently needed. Nigeria has signed and ratified this accord, and submitted to the UN its first national climate strategy, a large part of which addresses adaptation. Indeed, Nigeria has worked diligently to be a strong partner in the Paris Accord.

Lake Chad is never going to be the lake it once was, yet even in its reduced state it provides livelihood to two million and food security to thirteen million people. The World Bank working with Nigeria and the other affected countries has developed a comprehensive plan to improve the lives of the people who depend on the lake. The plan looks at improving management of the remaining fisheries and agricultural production, better land and water rights, better logistics, renewable energy, improved education and health of the people. The plan does NOT try to refill the lake, instead it takes what exists and works to improve the lives on the people who now, and in the future, will depend on it.

This adaptation approach needs to be applied to other climate challenges. The current crisis over the migrations of the herders needs to take into account that farmers too are suffering from climate change. Variability of rainfall in the Plateau States has increased by 20% putting pressure on famers lifestyles. Given the inexorable, albeit not fully predicable, increased aridity and desertification; the stress on both herders and farmers will only get worse in the future.

For adaptation to be successful, greater public discussion about active involvement across all stakeholders is urgently needed. Climate change is with us, and the stress on Nigeria will only increase. To be successful, adaptation measures requires well developed, long-term plans that address the complexities of the issue, including the reduction of violence. These plans will take years and much money to implement, and require the long-term commitment of the government.

It is encouraging to see the Governor of Kebbi State speaking out on this. Public dialogue needs to expand to all levels of government and citizens and lead to actions. Far too many Nigerians live on the very edge of economic survival and are the ones must vulnerable to climate impacts and susceptible to the allure of violence. Nigeria needs to move forward quickly and decisively on addressing climate change in very tangible ways.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Breaking: President Buhari hosts family of late Martin Luther King Jnr in Aso Rock (photos)

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday, March 26, received members of the Martin Luther King Junior at the Council Chambers of the State House, Aso Rock, Abuja with some members of his government including Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

Though details of the visit were still sketchy at the time of this report, it was learnt that the family visited Aso Rock for the conferment of a title.

President Muhammadu Buhari, SSAP Hon Abike Dabire Erewa, Dr Mrs Naomi Barbara King, Mr Baba Onabanjo, Amb Erika Bennett and other members of African-American Human Activist Late Martin Luther Jnr during the conferment of The First Black History Month National Black Excellence and Exceptional African Leadership Award 2018 at the Council Chambers in Abuja, a general caption of some of the photographs by Femi Adesina, the presidential spokesperson, said.

President Buhari with the family of late Martin Luther King Jnr in Aso Rock. Credit: Sunday Aghaeze

NAIJ.com earlier reported that President Muhammadu Buhari, in furtherance of his anti-corruption war, signed an agreement with Switzerland that will see to the return of stolen assets hidden in the country to Nigeria.

This was contained in a statement issued by Femi Adesina, the special adviser to the president on media and publicity on Monday, March 26.

President Buhari honoured. Credit: Sunday Aghaeze

"Following the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), President Muhammadu Buhari Monday signed two instruments namely:

"The Instrument of Ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Government of the Republic of Singapore for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and Capital Gains.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

"The other was the Instrument of Ratification of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) among the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the Swiss Federal Council and the International Development Association on the Return, Monitoring and Management of Illegally-Acquired Assets Confiscated by Switzerland and to be Restituted to the Federal Republic of Nigeria," the presidency statement said.

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 | Secondus, Atiku, Sambo, Lamido, others set stage for PDP campaign ahead of 2019 elections

- Former vice president Atiku Abubakar and other prominent leaders of PDP have set a stage for 2019 electioneering campaign

- The national chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus, had earlier apologised to Nigerians on behalf of the party

- He claimed that the APC-led government had borrowed N11 trillion within three years while the PDP-led government borrowed only N6 trillion in 16 years

Prominent leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have set stage for the 2019 electioneering campaign.

Daily Trust reports that they are the PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus; former vice presidents Atiku Abubakar and Alhaji Namadi Sambo; former governor of Jigawa state, Sule Lamido and former governor of Kaduna state, Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

READ ALSO: PDP reacts to TY Danjuma's call for self defence

NAIJ.com gathered that others are former deputy Senate president, Ibrahim Mantu; former governor of Niger state, Babangida Aliyu, ex-governor of Kaduna state, Ramalan Yero; PDP ex-acting national chairman, Bello Haliru Mohammed; BoT chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin; PDP ex-deputy national chairman, Chief Bode George and many more.

The campaign stage was set at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, with the theme: "Nation Building: Resetting the Agenda."

Secondus, who spoke on the campaign strategies of the PDP also knocked the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for 'failing in critical sectors of national life.'

He claimed that the APC-led government had borrowed N11 trillion within three years while the PDP-led government borrowed only N6 trillion in 16 years.

"Not even during the fratricidal civil war has this country been so divided along ethnic and religious fault lines. Today, the scorecard of the ruling party on all scores, is embarrassingly abysmal.

"Three years down the line and about 12 months to the next general elections, what is the state of our country? All gains have been clearly eroded through an acute lack of the understanding of the intricacies of governing a complex state like Nigeria."

"It has quickly become apparent that propaganda and unrealistic promises that helped the current ruling party to power could not and cannot deliver the much needed dividends of democracy.

"On corruption, I need not go into details except draw your attention to the latest Transparency International Report that shows that the corruption index under the watch of the so called anti-corruption government has worsened.

"Today there is often swift action occasioned by extensive media trials when it comes to investigating opposition leaders all in a desperate move to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

"On security, Boko Haram has not only remained alive despite several political claims of decimating it but is even now spreading under a new name and nomenclature called herdsmen, that have been tormenting, maiming and killing hundreds of Nigerian children, women and men across the country with the government of the day offering feeble responses.

"Everyday our media is awash with the staggering number of wanton killings raising questions about the value of human life in Nigeria. It is an endless stream of bloodletting directly or indirectly fueled by incompetent leadership.

"Only recently the federal government tried to arm twist state governors to take from the common purse, the sum of $1billion dollars about N365b for the tackling of Boko Haram they claimed they defeated two years ago.

"This government has through incoherent and inconsistent policies and actions, dragged us into an unnecessary recession and it is patting itself on the back for getting us out of where we ought not to have been in the first place. The hardship currently faced by Nigerians is unprecedented.

"Our currency has been recklessly devalued from N199 in 2015 to nearly N500 a dollar before it came down to about N365 only due to an increase in oil prices and not any significant thing done by this government.

"Fuel prices rose from N97 to N145 yet the nation experiences unabated scarcity with its attendant long queues and suffering by the Nigerian citizens.

"From friends and members of this government, we learnt that while in 16 years PDP government was able to borrow N6trillion and had some projects commissioned for it, in just less than three years, APC regime has borrowed N11trillion and has not commissioned a single project," Secondus said.

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Secondus, however, apologised to Nigerians over the errors made by the PDP while in government and promised the party would do better if given another mandate in 2019.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apologised to Nigerians for the mistakes it made while governing Nigeria.

Uche Secondus, national chairman of the party, said this on Monday, March 26, at a public discourse on contemporary politics and governance in Nigeria, organized by the PDP in Abuja.

Jonathan replies to Buhari's allegations | on NAIJ.com TV

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Just in: President Buhari signs important agreements with Singapore, Switzerland

President Muhammadu Buhari in furtherance of his anti-corruption war signed an agreement with Switzerland that will see to the return of stolen assets hidden in the country to Nigeria.

This was contained in a statement issued by Femi Adesina, the special adviser to the president on media and publicity on Monday, March 26.

READ ALSO: Ekweremadu tackles APC again over allegation of corruption

The president also signed another agreement with Singapore for the avoidance of double taxation.

This is expected to boost Nigerias trade with Singapore.

Read statement below:

Following the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), President Muhammadu Buhari Monday signed two instruments namely:

The Instrument of Ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Government of the Republic of Singapore for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and Capital Gains.

The other was the Instrument of Ratification of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) among the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the Swiss Federal Council and the International Development Association on the Return, Monitoring and Management of Illegally-Acquired Assets Confiscated by Switzerland and to be Restituted to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

With the execution of these instruments, Nigerias trade relations with Singapore and income therefrom are expected to rise, while the return of illegal assets will not only boost the administrations anti-corruption drive, but also provide additional funds for critical infrastructure.

Meanwhile, The executive chairman of the Centre for Anti-corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Debo Adeniran, asked Nigerians to be very vigilant in the coming days as politicians come to them for their votes.

He however argued that even though President Buhari may not be the best, as claimed by some people, he had done enough within the last three years to warrant him being called a champion, especially in the area of the war against corruption.

Who is Nigeria's greatest president ever? - on NAIJ.com TV

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Man remanded for attempting to rape sleeping woman

Ikeja  An Ikeja Magistrates Court on Monday remanded an unemployed man, Yusuf Olatunji, 28, for allegedly attempting to rape a 65-year-old woman in her sleep.

rape

Olatunji, whose address was not provided, is facing a charge of attempted rape.

The Police Prosecutor, Insp. Rachael Williams, said that Olatunji committed the offence on March 21 at 11.30 p.m. at No. 23 Bode St., Iyalode, Agege, near Lagos.

The accused attempted to commit felony to wit: rape a 65-year-old woman by removing her pant with intent to have carnal knowledge of her while she was asleep.

The complainant was fast asleep in a kiosk when the accused came from nowhere and attempted to rape her.

The complainant raised alarm and with the help of passers-by, the accused was arrested and brought to the police station, the prosecutor told court.

Olatunji, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The offence contravenes Section 262 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

Section 262 prescribes 14 years imprisonment for offenders.

The Chief Magistrate, Mrs O. I. Raji, granted Olatunji bail in the sum of N100, 000 with two sureties in like sum.

She said that the sureties should be gainfully employed with evidence of two years tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

Raji said that the accused should, however, remain in Kirikiri Prisons, pending when the bail conditions would be met.

The matter was adjourned until April 2. (NAN)

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Loading...STOW, Ohio, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AtNetPlus announced today that CRN  , a brand of The Channel Company, has named AtNetPlus to its 2018 Tech Elite 250 list. This annual list honors an exclusive group of North American IT solution providers that have earned the highest number of advanced technical certifications from leading technology suppliers, scaled to their company size.

To compile the annual list, The Channel Companys research group and CRN editors work together to identify the most customer-beneficial technical certifications in the North American IT channel. Companies who have obtained these elite designations which enable solution providers to deliver premium products, services and customer supportare then selected from a pool of online applicants.

AtNetPlus continues to be dedicated to training and certifications to offer our clients the best solutions for their businesses. We ensure our team has up-to-date skill sets to provide the best service for our clients. AtNetPlus CEO, Jay Mellon, stated, It is through our dedicated team that we once again placed on the Tech Elite 250 list. Not only is it an honor to receive this designation but its important as a company to bring our clients the best solutions and skill sets to serve their businesses. AtNetPlus is proud to again be recognized as part of the Tech Elite 250.

Being named to CRNs Tech Elite 250 list is no small feat, said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. These companies have distinguished themselves with multiple, top-level IT certifications, specializations and partner program designations from the industrys most prestigious technology providers. Their pursuit of deep expertise and broader skill sets in a wide range of technologies and IT practices demonstrates an impressive commitment to elevating their businessesand to providing the best possible customer experience.

Coverage of the Tech Elite 250 will be featured in the April issue of CRN, and online at www.crn.com/techelite250.

About AtNetPlus, Inc.

AtNetPlus helps small and medium businesses take control of their technology. We work with clients to provide fully managed IT services, web development, online backups, managed security, VoIP phone systems, and hosting solutions for their business. We offer peace of mind through 24 x 7 network and website monitoring; keeping businesses connected, secure, and working - all at a predictable cost.

For more information, visit www.AtNetPlus.com.

About the Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com

The Channel Company, LLC. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.



Home | News | General | Man, 63, 3 others in prison over alleged rape of 10-year-old

Kaduna  A Chief Magistrates Court in Kaduna, on Monday, ordered a 63-year-old man and three others, charged who allegedly raped a neigbours 10-year-old daughter be remanded in prison cutody, pending legal advice from the Office of the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).



The accused, Michael Idoko, 63, Sunday Ogbada, 57, Augustine Dominic, 23 and Udeh Augustine 25, all residents of Ungwan Teke Kakuri in Kaduna were arraigned on a two-count charge of conspiracy and defilement.

The Magistrate, Ibrahim Emmanuel, gave the order, following an application by the Prosecutor, Asp. Chidi Oke,for the court to remand them after they were arriangned.

The magistrate adjourned the case until May 5, when the case would come up for mention

Earlier, Oke, had told the court that the accuseds neighbour, one Mrs Abigail Naallah reported the matter at the Kakuri Police Headquarters on Feb. 19.

The prosecutor, said that the complainant who returned from church, was told by some people that the accused had ,olested her 10-year-old daughter.

He alleged that when the complainant asked the 10-year-old, she revealed to her that the accused had ,molested her on different occasions.

According to the prosecutor, the accused persons confessed to the crime during police investigation.

Oke said the offence contravened Section 59 and 250 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law of 2017. (NAN)

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Loading...Home | News | General | Nigerian youths in diaspora disenchanted that their leaders do not care about them

Lagos  Mr Adetunji Omotola, a member of the board of trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), South Africa chapter, has urged the partys leadership to involve Nigerians in the diaspora particularly youths in the 2019 polls.

National President, National Youth Council of Nigeria, Mr. Mohammed GARBA Gamji addressing a peaceful gathering of youths who came to welcome President Muhammadu Buhari and remind the Federal Government of youth employment challenges in the country at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida 14/03/2017

Omotola said on telephone from Johannesburg, South Africa, on Monday that the youths and women had a lot to contribute to the fortunes of the party come 2019 elections.

These group of people  youths, women and the elderly in the diaspora  have the resources, numbers and technical skills that can be harnessed towards the 2019 elections.

The party leadership should be advised that there is a constituency that cannot be ignored the youth, women, the elderly most importantly in the diaspora, he said.

Omotola, who is contesting the House of Representatives seat in one of the Southwest states, however, noted that the PDP would need to do a lot of work and prayers to harmonize its structures in 12 months before going to the polls.

As a candidate for the election, my message is changing the narrative and doing more with less.

 Membership of a political party is the only way that one can be elected to serve in a democracy and that special position requires experience, dedication, integrity, patience, tolerance, vision to bring about prosperity to millions of Nigerians.

 It involves sacrifice, trust and bonds of friendship in order to bring dividends of democracy and transformation to the lives of millions of people, he said.

Omotola, also the Founder of the Guild of Nigerian Professionals in South Africa, said Nigerians in the Diaspora especially the youth, were disenchanted that their leaders do not care about them.

He added: In fact, some of the fall-outs from these frustrations are migration issues, insecurity, crime and the use of narcotics, restiveness.

Omotola said Nigerians in the Diaspora had the connections and the experience that could be deployed to assist the country in reforming and restructuring its political system and the economy.

 Let us now work together to build a strong political party like the Conservative Party, the Democratic Party, the African National Congress, Cha Cha Mapinduzi, ZANU-PF so that we can build a new nation that our founding fathers will be proud of. (NAN)

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Loading...Home | News | General | Aisha Buhari accepts appointment as UNAIDS Special Ambassador-UNAIDS Director

Abuja  The Wife of Mr President, Aisha Buhari, has accepted the appointment as new UNAIDS Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Promotion of Treatment for Children living with HIV in Nigeria.

Aisha-Buhari

Mr Michel Sidibe, UNAIDS Executive Director, made this known in a statement issued by the Joint UN Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) on Monday in Abuja.

On March 17, UNAIDS appointed Buhari as UNAIDS Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Promotion of Treatment for Children living with HIV in Nigeria.

I am privileged to announce Aisha Buharis acceptance of the appointment as UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Nigeria.

The trust and respect that she commands in the country will help us to quicken the pace of stopping new HIV infections among children as well as ensuring treatment for all children living with HIV, Sidibe said.

Sidibe, noted that the appointment of Ms Buhari will reinforce recent efforts of Nigerian government to scale up the response to HIV in the country.

The Director explained that during her one-year tenure, she would advocate for increased access to antenatal care services and HIV testing for all pregnant women and their linkage to adequate treatment and care.

She would also advocate for an increase in domestic resources for the HIV response at the federal and state levels.

The statement also quoted Buhari as saying that It is with a great sense of responsibility and humility that I accept the honour to serve as a UNAIDS Special Ambassador.

I am looking forward to using my voice to help ensure that no child is born with HIV in Nigeria by 2020, she said.

Mrs Pauline Tallen, Board Chairperson, National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), said the agency was delighted that Buhari had accepted to serve as UNAIDS Special Ambassador.

She added that the goal of eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Nigeria was a laudable one, stressing that it must be achieved.

The statement said a formal ceremony to commemorate Ms Buharis acceptance of her appointment would take place in April during the visit of Mr Sidibe to Abuja. (NAN)

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Loading...Home | News | General | Show promoters in Nigeria cant afford me-Winning Jah

By Iyabo Aina

International trending reggae star, Kingsley Eno Osagie, popularly known by artistic name Winning Jah, and one of the 2018 awardee of the most prestigious Africa Grammy, Obaland Royal Award for Best Africa Reggae artiste and Best Philanthropist in Edo state and Diaspora, has disclosed why most fans will not witness his recent concert in the state.

Winning Jah

During a chat with Vanguard reporters, Mr Big man crooner, disclosed certain obstacles why Nigerian main show organizers couldnt afford him.

He said : Getting me booked is not a childs play, sometimes , when event organizers couldnt pay your bills, they will suggest a cheaper or not established musicians that has 1 hour or lesser to perform with a play back CD alongside a Dj. Organizers have to respect our concert principles, a part payment of 95,000 euro must be in our account before our usual departure, like weve always done in the past, a copy of the locations insurance must be sent to us, with an updated revision of the stage by a specialized engineer, we also like to know the media on roaster, recently, lots of impromptu bookings from Nigeria without a proper structure, Winning Jah doesnt perform in clubs, if the space doesnt permit, I also asked them to contact reggae artists like Ras kimono , King Wadada or Majek, If possible Jah Tea and Black wonder, those artistes might accept minimum of 35,000 dollars, I repeat our procedures to perform is too robust for Ikeja Kitchens.

Sometimes when you dont have a means of buying a pair of shoes, you could claim to be a Celestial Church member, just like when you can not afford a bottle of cold beer, it becomes bitter, thats whats up at the moment. he concluded.

Winning Jah and his international reggae band are now ready to emerge in Africa Inside Me Tour by June 2018, sponsored my Amnesty International (Pinerolo). He will be playing live on stage in Zimbabwe, Gambia, Burkina faso and other Africa countries. His upcoming 2018, 15 tracks album Message will be performed during Africa Inside Me Tour, before the official release date.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Election Sequence: Accord, NASS, INEC know fate April 25

The Federal High Court, Abuja, has fixed April 25 to deliver judgment in a suit filed by the Accord Party seeking an order of court, restraining the National Assembly from acting on the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had on March 13, refused to sign the bill into law, which sparked arguments as to whether or not, the National Assembly would use its powers to override the presidents decision.

INEC

Justice Ahmed Mohammed fixed the date after listening to arguments of both the plaintiff and the defendants.

Mr Joseph Daudu, (SAN), counsel to the National Assembly, the first defendant, in his preliminary objection argued that the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the matter on the grounds that its jurisdiction was not properly invoked.

According to him, the court can only have jurisdiction over the matter if the bill has become an act.

No matter how it is construed, the Electoral Act Amendment Bill as at the day the originating summons was filed, up till date, is a bill, it becomes an act upon the happenings of two eventualities.

Where a president, acting under provisions of Section 58(4) assents to the bill, it then becomes an Act of the National Assembly.

Where he refuses to assent, under Section 58(5), the bill is returned to the National Assembly for use of their powers of to override.

At that point, it remains a bill because there is no guarantee that they will muster the required two thirds majority to veto it.

Daudu argued that it was only where the National Assembly successfully used its power to over ride the Presidents veto and transform the bill to an act that the jurisdiction of the court over it would be ignited.

He further argued that there was no certificate of registration before the court to show that the Accord Party was indeed a political party as it was claiming to be.

Arguing for the second defendant, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN) aligned himself with the submission of Mr Wole Olanipekun, (SAN), counsel to the Accord Party.

Mr Femi Falana, counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the third defendant, however, argued that the Accord Party was a political party duly registered by INEC.

He submitted that the party contested in the last election in the country and won seats in the parliament.

On his part, counsel to the Accord Party, Mr Wole Olanipekun, (SAN) maintained that legislative powers began when a bill was introduced in parliament and ended when it was transmitted to the president.

He said the court had the jurisdiction to hear the matter and urged the court to dismiss Daudus preliminary objection and grant the reliefs his client sought.

Justice Mohammed adjourned the matter until April 25, to deliver judgment.

The plaintiff, Accord Party, had approached the court with a motion seeking an order restraining the National Assembly from taking action or actions on the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

The plaintiff is claiming, against the defendants, a declaration that INEC is the only body constitutionally vested with the powers to organise elections to the offices of the President and Vice President of Nigeria.

It also has powers to organise elections to the offices of governor and deputy governor of a state, membership of the senate, the House of Representatives and the House of Assembly of each state including fixing or assigning dates for the said elections and the sequence of same.

A declaration that the legislative powers vested in the National Assembly by the constitution do not empower or imbue it with the right, liberty or authority to pass or purport to pass any bill into Law.

This is with regards to a bill which attempts to interfere with or undermine the independence of INEC as guaranteed by the content, spirit and tenor of the constitution.

A declaration that the legislative powers vested in the National Assembly by the Constitution do not empower or imbue it with the right, liberty or authority to control or dictate to INEC the way and manner it should organise, undertake and supervise elections.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Prelate wants politicians to learn from fall of Mugabe, others

Dr Samuel Kanu-Uche, the Prelate of the Methodist Church has advised politicians in the country to behave themselves and learn from the fall of Robbert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and other sit-tight leaders.

Zimbabwes President Robert Mugabe delivers a speech during a graduation ceremony at the Zimbabwe Open University in Harare, where he presides as the Chancellor on November 17 2017. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe attended a university graduation ceremony today, making a defiant first public appearance since the military takeover that appeared to signal the end of his 37-year reign. / AFP PHOTO / 

Kanu-Uche also advised politicians who think they could rig themselves into elected positions to know that Nigerians were now wiser.

The prelate gave the advice at a news conference on Monday after what he called an Apostolic Tour of the Churchs Arch Dioceses in the FCT, as well as Minna and Lokoja.

Our leaders should learn from the fall of Sadam Hussein, Gadaffi , Idi Amin and Robbert Mugabe.

Our politicians are not learning. They should not think they are powerful. Power belongs to God. If they think they are powerful, God has a way of dealing with them, he said.

He decried a situation where some elected politicians earn as much as N13.5 million as monthly allowance, while the masses were suffering.

On security, Kanu-Uche noted that it remain a challenge, especially the recurring herdsmen/farmers clashes in a number of states.

The people you call herdsmen now were not the ones we knew when we were younger in the 60s.

Herdsmen live in our villages, they used their staff and control thousands of cattle and we relate well with them, there was no shooting, but now they use gun.

I understand that the guns are issued to them by politicians, he said and called on the president to fish out those arming the herdsmen and make face the law.

He urged Nigerians to embrace one and another and live in peace irrespective of religious and political leanings.

God did not make a mistake in bringing us together.

We want a united country, where there is peace, harmony, justice, equity and rule of law.

We do not want a religious country. We should co-habit and co-exist in love.

The prelate commended President Muhammadu Buhari for not abandoning projects initiated by the past administration.

I commend the government in power for not abandoning any projects initiated by the former government.

You know the Jonathan government initiated the railway project and this government has continued with that.

It is being magnanimous in victory. Roads are being constructed massively and simultaneously, Kanu-Uche added. (NAN)

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Loading...Home | News | General | NSCDC uncovers shrine in Kwara, arrest 2 suspects

- NSCDC has uncovered a shrine in Kwara state and arrested two fraud suspects

- The shrine is used by some suspected fraudsters to dupe residents of the state

- Adeyinka Ayinla, who is the NSCDC commandant in the state, said the suspects had confessed that they were using the shrine for criminal activities

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps ( NSCDC ), Kwara command on Monday, March 26, said it had uncovered a shrine used by some suspected fraudsters to dupe residents of the state.

NAIJ.com gathered that the Commandant of NSCDC in the state, Adeyinka Ayinla, made the disclosure in an interview with in Ilorin on Monday, March 26.

READ ALSO: President Buhari to attend APC NEC meeting on Tuesday

Ayinla, who led newsmen to the shrine located at Aleyo village, near Afon in Asa local government area of the state, said two suspects had been arrested in connection with the case.

The commandant said that the suspects had confessed that they were using the shrine for criminal activities.

He said the arrest of the suspects followed complaint received from a contractor, Mumini Abdul Rahman, that he was defrauded by them.

Ayinla quoted Abdul Rahman as saying that the suspects collected N5.5 million in tranches and another 1,500 dollars from him (Abdul Rahman) with the assurance of turning him (Abdul Rahma) to a billionaire.

He said the suspects also collected the money to facilitate more contracts for Abdul Rahman through occultic means.

The commandant said the suspects were in the custody of the command, adding that they would be charged to court as soon as the command concludes investigations.

Ayinla, therefore, advised residents of the state to be wary of individuals who hid under the guise of religion to perpetrate crime. NAN

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that residents of Ilobu town in Osun state were shocked as men from the Osun state police command stormed the town and uncovered a ritualist den with some shallow graves.

It was reported that the ritualist den which is located inside a big house at Molete area of the town was on Friday, February 16, discovered by a team of policemen led by the commissioner in the state, Fimihan Adeoye.

Police parade gang leader of Badoo Cult group in Lagos - on NAIJ.com TV

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Only the truth can make you progress - Bill Gates tells Nigerian leaders again, says investments in youths not good enough

- Bill Gates wants Nigerian leaders to gear up by telling themselves the truth

- Gates laments the investment in the country's younger people

- He says he wanted to provoke a debate and he achieved that with his earlier comments when he visited Nigeria

Days after visiting Nigeria, the worlds second richest man, Bill Gates, has spoken exclusively with the Cable News Network (CNN) lamenting that the federal governments investment in the younger people was not good enough.

Gates, who owns a foundation with his wife, Melinda, specifically mentioned areas where the Nigerian government has not measured up to include health and education.

READ ALSO: Breaking: President Buhari hosts family of late Martin Luther King Jnr in Aso Rock

As a partner in Nigeria, I am saying the current plan is inadequate. Nigeria has all these young people and the current quality and quantity of investment in these young generations; in health and education just isnt good enough. So, I was very direct.

If they can get health and education right, they will be an engine of growth not just for themselves but for all of Africa, he told the CNN.

The current quality and quantity of investment in this young generation in health and education just isn't good enough. So I was very direct, Gates reportedly added saying he wanted to spark action and debate and had really done that.

Gates also tweeted late Monday, March 26, that he was excited to be in Nigeria.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that Bill Gates, on Thursday, March 22, said that Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth, with the fourth worst maternal mortality rate in the world.

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Gates stated this at the expanded National Economic Council alongside the chairman of the Dangote Foundation, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and presided over by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

NAIJ.com also earlier reported that during his address when he visited Nigeria, Bill Gates spoke comprehensively on the country's economy and offered pragmatic suggestions on how to move the country forward.

He unequivocally tasked the Nigerian government to focus on investments in human capital development, specifically mentioning health and education.

He said: Nigeria has unmatched economic potential, but what becomes of that potential depends on the choices you make as Nigerias leaders.

The most important choice you can make is to maximize your greatest resource, the Nigerian people. Nigeria will thrive when every Nigerian is able to thrive.

If you invest in their health, education, and opportunitiesthe 'human capital' we are talking about todaythen they will lay the foundation for sustained prosperity. If you dont, however, then it is very important to recognize that there will be a sharp limit on how much the country can grow.

Jonathan replies to Buhari's allegations | NAIJ.com TV

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Frozen $15.5m: I am not aware Patience Jonathan was Bayelsas perm sec- Ex-presidents aide Dudafa

- Waripamo-Owei Dudafa says he is not aware Patience Jonathan was once appointed permanent secretary in Bayelsa state while she was first lady

- Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Skye Bank, Dudafa and four other companies are joined as defendants in the frozen $15.5 million suit

- Continuation of the trial is adjourned till March 27

An aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Waripamo-Owei Dudafa, on Monday, March 26, told a Federal High Court in Lagos that he was not aware of the appointment of the former first lady, Patience, as a permanent secretary in Bayelsa.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Dudafa made the assertion under cross examination in a suit filed by Mrs Jonathan, seeking to vacate a no debit order placed on her account containing 15.5 million dollars (N5.5 billion) domiciled with Skye Bank.

The report said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Skye Bank, Dudafa and four other companies are joined as defendants in the suit.

The companies are Pluto Property and Investment Company Ltd, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Ltd, Transocean Property and Investment Company Ltd and Globus Integrated Service Ltd.

READ ALSO: President Buhari hosts family of late Martin Luther King Jnr in Aso Rock

According to the report, at the resumed trial, the witness moved into the box and was reminded of his oath, while counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo, continued his cross-examination.

Oyedepo asked the witness if he was aware that Patience Jonathan was a permanent secretary in the employ of the Bayelsa state government, and in response, Dudafa said he was not aware as it was not part of his schedule to know.

Oyedepo: Are you aware that the plaintiffs appointment was confirmed on June 23, 2012.

Dudadfa: I dont know.

When Oyedepo asked the witness if he will be surprised to know that the account which held the funds in issue was opened when Mrs Jonathan was a serving permanent secretary in the employ of the Bayelsa state government, the witness again replied: I dont know when the account was opened.

The report said meanwhile, Oyedepo asked the witness: If you see the letter of appointment and the confirmation letter, will you know? But the counsel to the plaintiff, Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN), raised an objection on the grounds that the witness was not the maker of the documents or was he aware of its content.

It was learnt that the counsel to the third and fourth defendants, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), agreed with the submissions of Adedipe.

When Oyedepo argued that Ozekhome could not align with the submissions of Adedipe, Justice Mohammed Idris held that the witness had denied knowledge of the appointment and that the documents had not yet been tendered before the court.

Besides, the court held that cross-examination was not limited to questions raised in the examination-in-chief and that the line of questioning was allowed to the extent of showing the witness the documents.

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In continuation of his cross-examination, Oyedepo asked the witness if he deposed to his witness statement on oath on behalf of the plaintiff to which he replied: I deposed as a witness.

Oyedepo posed the question again, insisting that Dudafa had yet to answer same, and the witness retorted: I will not be cajoled, I am under oath.

Oyedepo then said: Read paragraph two of the plaintiffs statement on oath; did you not state that it was on behalf of the plaintiff?

Witness: It is on behalf of the plaintiff.

Justice Idris adjourned continuation of trial until March 27.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Monday, December 4, adjourned hearing of Patience Jonathan's suit seeking to unfreeze her accounts till January 19, 2018.

Jonathan replies to Buhari's allegations | NAIJ.com TV

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Man finds big snake in his toilet bowl at night, see photos of how he killed the dangerous animal

Nothing else beats more than being under the shelter of the Almighty and to remain grateful for his immense love and guidance.

A young man identified as Luke Erukakpome on Facebook, has taken to social media to reveal how he found a big cobra in his toilet bowl at night. Erukakpome disclosed that he found the snake around 7:34 pm in his home.

The man added that it took the help of the local security watch guards (vigilante), to kill the dangerous animal. He said it took them about two hours before a gun was used to kill the snake.

READ ALSO: Lady shares raunchy messages a married church pastor allegedly sent to her (photos)

He shared the post on Monday, March 26, with the caption: God's Miracles never end and they are marvelous in our eyes. God saved me from a dangerous horrible looking cobra yesterday night in my toilet seat (WC) here in Abraka, Delta state. It was around 7.34 pm when wanted to use the toilet (pee) I decided to use my touch light to view the sink before action, I saw a black stuff below the water in the toilet seat and I was trying to identify what it could be because I used the toilet some hours ago. Lo and behold it was a horrible looking cobra. I called the care taker of the hostel where I live, he came and confirmed it. The snake is so big that we couldn't devise another good means to kill it than the use of gun. For more than 2 hours the snake was there until we called the attention of the vigilante group and finally it was killed with the aid of a gun. Please always make sure you look very well before using your toilet. I couldn't believe how it entered but verification say it came from the toilet pit.

See post below:

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Thank God!

Should a 'homeless' man move into a house built by his wife? (Nigerian Street Interview)|Naij.com TV - on NAIJ.com TV.

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...MONTREAL, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sama Resources Inc. (Sama or the Company) (TSXV:SME) is pleased to report that SRG Graphite Inc. (SRG (TSXV:SRG) announced today the remaining assay results from the drilling program conducted on the SRGs cobalt-nickel-scandium Gogota project in Guinea, West Africa. With these latest assay results, SRG is now in a position to produce a maiden resource estimate. Sama holds a control position in SRG of 24,658,267 shares representing 40.09% of the issued and outstanding shares of SRG and is considered an insider for reporting purposes

To complete the resource estimate, SRG has engaged Montreal-based Met-Chem, a division of DRA Americas Inc. (Met-Chem/DRA). The Gogota cobalt-nickel-scandium occurrence has a prospective surface outline of 1.96 km2 and is approximately 5km away from SRGs Lola graphite deposit. The study will commence immediately with completion of the National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate expected in H1 2018.

Press release highlights:

25m @ 0.21% cobalt, 1.37% nickel and 32gr/ton scandium

23m @ 0.18% cobalt, 1.27% nickel and 39gr/ton scandium

SRG hires Met-Chem/DRA for the completion of a 43-101 compliant resource estimate for the Gogota Project

Of the 51 vertical drill holes carried out over the Gogota Deposit in 2012-2013, 31 were drilled over a 200-meter by 400-meter grid and 20 were drilled over a 200-meter by 200-meter grid. The first phase of samples from 31 drill holes representing 800 samples were sent for analysis in 2013 and returned significant cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), and scandium (Sc) results, among others. These results were reported again by SRG on January 23, 2018. The second phase of 20 drill holes representing 425 samples were recently sent for analysis. The combined mineralized intervals for all boreholes are presented in Table 1. A compilation map can be seen in Figure 1.

Table 1: Combined Mineralized Interval Highlights (True Widths)

HOLE-ID From Length Co Ni Scandium Fe MgO SiO2 Al2O3 m m % % gr/t % % % % GG24-400800 15.50 5.50 0.18 0.75 37.28 45.90 0.26 9.92 12.29 GG24-600800 9.00 16.00 0.17 1.39 26.88 51.80 0.43 3.94 4.66 GG24-800400 2.00 18.20 0.19 1.43 45.06 52.19 0.38 3.33 4.99 GG24-800600 3.70 13.50 0.22 1.27 29.18 51.32 0.48 8.29 3.29 GG24-800800 4.00 20.80 0.15 1.41 29.62 53.42 0.60 4.51 4.05 GG25-200200 5.00 14.50 0.13 1.30 33.11 51.24 0.42 7.83 3.11 GG25-200400 6.00 10.00 0.13 1.19 30.00 48.02 0.33 13.22 2.74 GG25-200600 8.00 3.00 0.17 1.28 35.30 52.03 0.62 3.01 5.15 GG25-200800 11.00 19.00 0.17 1.29 27.90 53.40 0.53 2.95 3.49 GG25-400200 4.00 14.50 0.18 1.52 31.73 53.29 0.30 6.38 3.49 GG25-400400 12.50 20.00 0.17 1.53 24.77 49.87 0.37 5.47 5.56 GG25-400600 7.00 16.00 0.16 1.36 29.88 50.14 0.76 4.30 6.73 GG25-400800 8.00 17.80 0.16 1.25 24.50 50.90 0.69 4.04 5.67 GG25-600400 0.00 7.50 0.13 1.08 20.91 40.14 0.63 9.86 14.09 GG25-600600 3.80 14.40 0.13 1.52 25.23 44.64 1.30 7.45 10.35 GG25-600800 6.00 22.00 0.17 1.46 32.62 44.39 1.14 6.94 10.91 GG34-400200 1.50 6.90 0.13 1.58 40.30 44.14 2.73 9.75 8.21 GG34-400400 3.00 1.50 0.11 0.90 33.84 27.56 3.00 38.39 7.28 GG34-600200 1.50 17.90 0.20 1.38 26.91 47.19 1.08 6.02 7.77 GG34-600400 3.00 22.00 0.17 1.51 28.61 48.59 0.69 4.47 7.00 GG34-600600 7.00 25.00 0.21 1.37 32.41 47.73 1.60 5.97 6.20 GG34-600800 1.00 8.50 0.18 1.28 34.71 44.66 0.49 6.26 11.74 GG34-800200 2.10 12.00 0.24 1.16 32.63 48.08 0.49 5.11 10.11 GG34-800400 15.00 3.00 0.17 1.53 37.50 48.63 1.12 9.61 6.33 GG34-800600 6.00 23.00 0.18 1.27 39.14 51.63 0.40 3.63 4.89 GG34-800800 5.50 12.50 0.16 1.42 31.20 50.25 1.18 6.81 5.97 GG35-200200 14.00 16.00 0.16 1.33 23.13 49.83 0.34 8.75 3.43 GG35-200600 10.50 10.00 0.22 1.51 26.50 46.95 1.04 7.94 6.22 GG35-200800 2.60 16.40 0.21 1.26 28.42 48.62 0.84 3.93 7.64 GG35-400200 0.00 14.10 0.17 1.39 23.95 48.09 0.61 4.86 8.53 GG35-400400 0.90 4.40 0.21 1.27 31.49 50.04 0.84 6.62 6.42 GG35-400600 4.00 2.50 0.14 1.16 30.00 42.41 0.92 13.51 10.98 GG35-400800 3.00 8.00 0.18 1.19 36.25 49.11 0.80 5.71 8.77 GG35-600200 1.50 12.50 0.15 1.33 29.62 40.82 1.47 11.44 12.14 GG35-600400 1.60 1.60 0.27 0.51 13.75 31.37 0.29 7.15 25.89 GG35-600600 7.00 15.50 0.14 1.80 22.09 41.77 4.72 13.43 6.12 GG35-600800 2.00 16.40 0.13 1.65 29.46 49.25 0.75 8.21 5.24 GG44-600200 1.50 1.50 0.12 0.58 20.00 32.64 0.21 18.54 19.08 GG44-800200 8.50 14.00 0.21 1.45 36.43 49.57 0.45 5.61 5.98 GG44-800400 8.00 7.50 0.18 0.69 38.26 42.53 1.70 13.26 10.46 GG45-200200 4.50 1.60 0.22 1.28 26.25 44.55 1.21 9.93 9.39 GG45-200400 1.50 24.50 0.16 1.37 26.47 50.99 0.68 4.73 5.28 GG45-400200 2.30 7.40 0.15 0.95 38.91 41.86 0.58 12.44 13.18

*Measurements begin at surface. Mineralized intervals defined using 0.10% cobalt cut-off grades.

Fe: Iron, MgO: Magnesium oxide, g/t: grams per tonne

Figure 1: Image of boreholes and results

Core logging and sampling were performed at the SRGs facility in the village of Gogota. Sample preparation was performed by Veritas Laboratory in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire. Pulp samples were delivered to Activation Laboratories Ltd., Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. All samples were assayed for cobalt, nickel and all major oxides using peroxide fusion XRF. Scandium was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry.

About Met-Chem/DRA

The Met-Chem division of DRA Americas was originally established in 1969 as a consulting engineering company, headquartered in Montreal, and provides a wide range of technical and engineering services. Met-Chem is well recognized for its capabilities in mining, geology and mineral processing and has a talented team of engineering, technical and project management personnel with experience in North America, Latin America, Europe, West Africa and India. DRA is a multidisciplinary global engineering group that originated in South Africa and delivers mining, mineral processing, energy, water treatment and infrastructure services from concept to commissioning, as well as comprehensive operations and maintenance services for the mineral resources, water, agriculture and energy sectors. DRA has offices in Africa, Australia, Canada, China, India and the United States.

About Sama Resources Inc.

Sama is a Canadian-based mineral exploration and development company with projects in West Africa. On October 23, 2017, Sama announced that it had entered into a binding term sheet in view of forming a strategic partnership with HPX TechCo Inc., for the development of its Cote dIvoire Nickel-Copper and Cobalt project in Cote dIvoire, West-Africa. For more information about Sama, please visit Samas website at http://www.samaresources.com.

The technical information in this release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Marc-Antoine Audet, PhD Geo., P.Geo, Lead Geologist, SRG and a 'qualified person' as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

SAMA RESOURCES INC./RESSOURCES SAMA INC.

Dr. Marc-Antoine Audet, President and CEO

Tel: (514) 726-4158

OR

Mr. Matt Johnston, Corporate Development Advisor

Tel: (604) 443-3835

Toll Free: 1 (877) 792-6688, Ext. 5

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All information contained herein that is not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. Generally, such forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as in a position, prospective, expected, will, continue, demonstrate, potential, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would" or "might". 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: (i) volatile stock price; (ii) the general global markets and economic conditions; (iii) the possibility of write-downs and impairments; (iv) the risk associated with exploration, development and operations of mineral deposits; (v) the risk associated with establishing title to mineral properties and assets; (vi) fluctuations in commodity prices and other risks and factors described or referred to in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the MD&A of the Company and which is available at www.sedar.com, all of which should be reviewed in conjunction with the information found in this news release.

Forward-looking information is based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made, including but not limited to, continued exploration activities and no material adverse change in mineral prices. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information has been provided for the purpose of assisting investors in understanding the Company's business, operations and exploration plans and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is given as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update such forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.Home | News | General | There is no alternative to Buhari - APC chieftain blasts northern elders

- Okey Chemberline Adiaso said northern leaders cannot decide President Buharis 2019 faith

- The Abia politicians said there was no alternative to Buhari at the moment

- He said he shared the presidents vision

Prince Okey Chemberline Adiaso who is a gubernatorial aspirant in Abia state on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that northern elders cannot determine the success of President Muhammadu Buhari in the polls.

Daily Trust reports that the APC chieftain made this comment in his Obichukwu village in Isiala Ngwa South local government area of Abia state after declaring intention to contest the 2019 governorship.

READ ALSO: President Buhari signs agreement with Singapore, Switzerland

He said the opinion of the elders does not represent the opinion of the entire north.

Adiaso said the opinion was coming from those on the opposition who knew the president has achieved a lot.

The APC candidate said he shared the same vision as President Buhari which he believes would help him in his political aspiration.

NAIJ.com had reported that Northern groups and elders vowed not to re-elect any northern politicians that failed to develop the region ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The groups headed by Professor Ango Abdullahi met in Kaduna on Saturday, March 24.

In a communique issued after the meeting, they expressed disappointment in the performance of politicians from the north.

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They warned that they will continue to defend the interest of the region in the country.

The groups condemned the spate of killings in the region and urged the government to bring perpetrators of the evil to book.

What must President Buhari do to regain the trust of Nigerians? - on NAIJ.com TV

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Police commissioner confirms death of 5 farmers in Benue by suspected herdsmen

- 5 farmers were killed by suspected herdsmen in Benue

- The state commissioner of police confirmed the attack

- He said thousands have been displaced because of the attack

Fatai Owoseni who is the commissioner of police in Benue state has confirmed the death of five farmers in Benue suspected to have been killed by herdsmen.

The Nation reports that the state commissioner of police in Benue state confirmed the attack on Monday, March 26.

READ ALSO: Northern elders cannot determine Buhari's 2019 victoy

He confirmed that the killings took place in Agatu, Guma and Makurdi local government areas of the state.

He also said three persons were killed in Olegobiudu, Agatu local government area on the night of Sunday, March 25.

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Owoseni also claimed that thousands were displaced because of the attack

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue said security agencies did not take proactive measures to protect the state against its aggressors after several complaints of planned attacks reported to them.

Ortom made this known on Wednesday, January 10, in Makurdi at a stakeholders meeting to discuss the security situation in the state.

He had said: I saw the attacks coming and we wrote several letters of complaint to the police and complained to the presidency, yet nothing happened.

We called for the arrest of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN) but nobody responded; we have facts that can be used against them."

Are Nigerian Policemen the worst in the world? - on NAIJ.com TV

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | APC chieftain to be turbaned as Dujima Adamawa 1 in Yola

- Alhaji Musa Halilu Ahmed, popularly known as Musa Yola is being honoured in his home state

- The chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is to be conferred as Dujuma Adamawa

- The ceremony will be conducted by the Lamido Adamawa, Alhaji Muhammadu Barindo Aliyu Musdafa

A chieftain of the APC in Adamawa state, Alhaji Musa Halilu Ahmed, widely known as Musa Yola will on Saturday, March 31 be conferred as Dujuma Adamawa, by His Royal Highness, Lamido Adamawa, Alhaji Muhammadu Barindo Aliyu Musdafa.

The turbaning ceremony which will hold at the palace of the Lamido in Yola, the Adamawa state capital, will be attended by traditional rulers, political and business leaders across Nigeria.

APC chieftain, Musa Yola to be turbaned as Dujima Adamawa 1 on Saturday, March 31

READ ALSO: Adamawa lawmakers pass vote of confidence on APC national chairman

Born on May 13, 1976 in Gembu (Mambila Plateau) of the then Gongola state, Alhaji Musa, is the son of late Alhaji Halilu Ahmadu Chiroma, who was the Ardo Malabu, a prominent traditional title from the old Borno Empire.

He is a mega-successful entrepreneur who serves as chairman and sits on the board of multifarious companies with interests in construction, real estate, energy, agriculture, technology, supply chain management and venture capital.

Aside from business, Alhaji Musa has veered into the political arena, successfully building a steadily expanding political network in all regions of Nigeria. From 2003 to present, he has been involved in various stages of the evolution, growth and survival of several political parties.

These include the All Nigerians Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), and the All Progressives Congress (APC). The most notable amongst his numerous political achievements was his service as a national delegate for the APC national convention. He took responsibility for organizing all delegates from Kaduna state, which later became Buharis block vote win at the Presidential primaries in Lagos

Despite contributing heavily to the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2015 presidential election, Alhaji Musa chose to return to his thriving business empire in the private sector and deeds which has supported thousands of youth and families across the country.

Meanwhile, a chieftain of the APC, Chief Sam Nkire, has advised leaders of the party who are at loggerheads again not to resort to washing the partys dirty linen in public.

Chief Nkire, who gave the advice recently in Abuja, urged the partys leaders, to perish the idea of taking issues to the press. According to him, this can only make our opponents giggle at our misfortune.

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EXCLUSIVE: Be patient with President Buhari, Femi Adesina tells Nigerians on NAIJ.com TV

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | I wont go back to Dapchi School  Student

Why we stoned gov resident

YOBEA year two senior student of the Government Girls Science Technical College, Dapchi, has said she will not return to the school, even after Boko Haram returned nearly all 110 students kidnapped from the school.

Dapchi girls

Rakiya Adamu, SS2, who was among the lucky few that escaped on February 19, when dozens of her friends and schoolmates were kidnapped, said: I will not go back to Dapchi again.

Although Rakiya had a lucky escape when the terrorists struck, she shared her horrific experience in the current edition of The Interview magazine.

We were in school waiting for the Magrib prayer when we started hearing gunshots. We started running with our teachers, looking for where to hide. We ran and ran and jumped the fence. We became tired and ran into a nearby village where we asked for help, she said.

Rakiya described how the terrorists arrived and entrapped them, saying they wore army uniforms and were begging us to come. They said, Come to us, we will help you!

The MD/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview, Mr. Azu Ishiekwene, described the story as one that would prick the conscience, even if one had eaten the head of a tortoise.

In a series of interviews conducted before and after the girls were released, the magazine spoke with parents, including the chairman of the parents of the abducted girls, Malam Bashir Manzo; the Dapchi youth leader, security men, and residents of the town, especially those living close to the school.

Manzo, chairman of the abducted girls parents, said he knew something bad was going to happen on February 19:

I felt somehow throughout the day. I knew something bad was going to happen to me. But I prayed to God to protect me from evil and other bad things, he said.

As it turned out, her daughter, Fatima, was abducted as she went to fetch water to break her fast that evening.

Another parent, AbdullahiKawi, and father of kidnapped JSS2 student, Aisha, said the most traumatic part of the kidnap saga was the misinformation given the parents by Yobe State governor, Ibrahim Gaidam.

The father of five  one boy and four girls  said: People like me stoned the governors convoy because he lied to us when he knew how terrible we were feeling. Ill never regret stoning him.

After the return of the girls, the parents have been divided on whether or not they would return their children to the school, despite assurances by the government that the school was now safe.

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Loading...Home | News | General | NIMASA seeks implementation of national maritime policy

By Gbenga Oke

DIRECTOR-GENERAL of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has called for the implementation of a National Maritime Policy in Nigeria.

Dakuku Peterside

He also said implementing the policy will serve as a catalyst for the actualisation of the objectives of Africas Integrated Maritime Strategy, AIMS, come 2050.

In a statement by Isichei Osamgbi, Head, Corporate Communications of NIMASA, Peterside while declaring open the meeting of Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Implementation of Africas Integrated Maritime Strategy, AIMS 2050, held in Lagos, said that a maritime policy for Nigeria will provide a platform for the implementation of the framework for the protection and sustainable exploitation of Africas Maritime Domain, AMD.

Peterside who was represented at the meeting by the Agencys Executive Director, Operations, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin urged the committee to take cognisance of the current maritime security architecture in Nigeria that had been structured in line with international best standards and practices.

According to him, To realise the dream of a blue economy, strategies must be put in place while security and capacity building amongst other initiatives must play a key role to unlocking the opportunities that abound in the blue economy.

When you talk about security issues, you talk about the actual and the perceived and in the real sense of business, perception matters a lot. The Gulf of Guinea is being perceived as not being quite safe because of few attempts we have in the GoG, but I can assure you that the Nigerian Navy and NIMASA are working hand in hand to secure the Gulf of Guinea, he stated.

He also applauded the Committee for involving Shipowners in the AIMS 2050 implementation process, noting that the blue economy cannot be realised without them as they are the major assets owners.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Nigeria, Swiss govt sign MoU on return of illegally acquired assets

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJAPRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, Monday, signed Instrument of Ratification of Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, among Federal Government, Swiss Federal Council and International Development Association on the return, monitoring and management of illegally-acquired sssets confiscated by Switzerland, to be restituted to Nigeria.

The Federal Executive Council, FEC, had recently given approval to the President to sign two instruments, which would help to foster trade relationship between Nigeria and Singapore in respect of taxation as well as the recovery of illegally acquired assets that had been confiscated by the Swiss government.

A statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina, said the instrument would help in the anti corruption war in the country.

The statement read: Following the approval of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, President Muhammadu Buhari, Monday (yesterday), signed two instruments, namely: The Instrument of Ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Government of the Republic of Singapore for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and Capital Gains.

The other was the Instrument of Ratification of the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, among the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the Swiss Federal Council and International Development Association on the Return, Monitoring and Management of Illegally-Acquired Assets Confiscated by Switzerland and to be Restituted to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

With the execution of these instruments, Nigerias trade relations with Singapore and income therefrom are expected to rise, while the return of illegal assets will not only boost the administrations anti-corruption drive, but also provide additional funds for critical infrastructure.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Your investment in health, education not good enough, Bill Gates slams FG again

CO-chairman of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, has berated the Federal Governments investments in young people, especially in areas of health and education, saying it is not good enough.

Bill Gate

He said this in an interview with Cable News Network, CNN.

Gates, who is the worlds second richest man, reiterated the comments he made when he spoke at the expanded National Economic Council meeting in Abuja, last Thursday.

At the meeting, which was presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Gates had said the execution priorities of the economic recovery and growth plan does not reflect the true needs of Nigerians.

He said: The Nigerian governments economic recovery and growth plan identify investing in our people as one of three strategic objectives. But the execution priorities dont fully reflect peoples needs, prioritising physical capital over human capital.

People without roads, ports, and factories cant flourish and roads, ports and factories without skilled workers to build and manage them cant sustain an economy, he added.

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state, at the meeting, had defended the federal government, saying Gates comment was incorrect.

But, in the chat with CNN, the billionaire businessman defended his criticism of the government.

He said: As a partner in Nigeria, I am saying the current plan is inadequate. Nigeria has all these young people and the current quality and quantity of investment in these young generations; in health and education just isnt good enough. So, I was very direct.

If they can get health and education right, they will be an engine of growth not just for themselves but for all of Africa.

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Loading...Gettysburg, PA, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OPEN MINDS has announced the final faculty and agenda for the highly anticipated 2018 OPEN MINDS Strategy & Innovation Institute, taking place on June 4-7, 2018 at the Sheraton Hotel (French Quarter) in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Michael Griffin, Chief Executive Officer, Daughters of Charity will kick-off the Institute with an opening keynote presentation, Sustainability In A Competitive Market: The Daughters of Charity Services Story. Charles Gross, Ph.D., Vice President, Behavioral Health, Anthem, Inc., will present the keynote of the second day of the Institute with his morning presentation titled, Going Beyond Innovation  Developing Partnerships With Health Plans. Chief Executive Officer, OPEN MINDS, Monica E. Oss will close day two of the Institute with her plenary address, Incorporating Innovation Into Everyday Operations: A New Strategy For Sustainability.

Sessions planned throughout the two-day Institute include:

How To Develop A New Service Line: Building A Diversification Strategy & Conducting A Feasibility Analysis

Data Sharing & Security: Challenges & Best Practices

Fundraising In A Competitive, Social Media-Driven Environment: Strategies For Non-Profit Executives

Innovation In Addiction Treatment: The New Community-Based, Tech-Enabled Models

Population Cost Management: Using Data To Improve Care

How To Develop A Case Rate: A Guide To Bundled Payments

Integrating Digital Apps Into Your Service Lines

Digital Healthcare In A Subscription-Based Economy

Can Telehealth Be Sustainable For Specialty Provider Organizations? A Town Hall Discussion On Reimbursement, Regulation, & The Next Generation Of Telepsychiatry

New Contract Development: Marketing to Payers & Other Stakeholders

The Return On Investment Of Health Homes & Medical Homes

How To Manage A Community-Based Workforce

Data Creators Vs. Data Consumers: Facilitating Data Driven Decision Making In Behavioral Health

Challenges In Making Mergers & Acquisitions Work

Innovative Community-Based Care Models For Consumers With Complex Conditions

The final list of guest speakers announced for The 2018 OPEN MINDS Strategy & Innovation Institute, include thought leading executives from influential organizations across the country, including:

Brown, Alyssa, J.D., Deputy Director, Planning Administration, Office of Health Care Financing, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Carr, Ken, Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

Castillo Sumi, Eleanor, Ph.D., BCBA-D, Vice President of Research and Program Development, Uplift Family Services

Cline, Kristin, MS, LPC, CAADC, Clinical Lead Specialist, NHS

Copeland, Chris, Chief Operating Officer, The Institute for Community Living (ICL)

Cummins, Brent, MA, LPC, CADC, ATE, GCE, Director of Adult Addiction Treatment & Recovery Support, Chestnut Health Systems

DeLisle, Stacee, LPC, Clinical Director, The Center for Mental Health

Duck, Paul, Vice President, Strategy & Development, Beacon Health Options

Hamilton, Kristi, MBA, CPPM, Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

Hecht, David, Senior Vice President of Finance, RHA Health Sciences

Herrmann, Teri, MA, Chief Executive Officer, SPARC Services and Programs

Johnson Hughes, Danita, Ph.D., President & CEO, Edgewater Health

Jarjour, Michael, President & Chief Executive Officer, ODH, Inc.

Keen, Eric, General Partner, Council Capital

Keelan, Tristan, Marketing Strategist, TenEleven Group

King-Shaw, Ruben, Jr., Chairman, President, & Chief Executive Officer, MedicFP

Kumpf, Kevin, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, ACS, DDTT Clinical Director, NHS

Landry, Todd, Chief Executive Officer, Lena Pope Home, Inc.

Malik, Samir, EVP and General Manager  Genoa Telepsychiatry, Genoa Healthcare

Morrow, Katie, VP Account Management, Streamline Healthcare Solutions

Naughton-Travers, Joseph P., EdM, Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

Oss, Monica E., Chief Executive Officer & Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

Pettinelli, Matt, Founder/CEO, CapGrow Partners

Riehl, Nicholas C., J.D., MBA, VP of Corporate Development and General Counsel, ncgCARE

Schramski, Tom, Founder, VERTESS

Snyder, Timothy, Jr., Executive Vice President, OPEN MINDS

Vilgorin, Boris, Healthcare Strategy Officer, NYU McSilver Institute

Wallis, Jim, Corporate Director of Business Development & Public Affairs, Chestnut Health Systems

Wawrzynek, David, MS, MBA, Chief Financial Officer, Spectrum Human Services

Weinstein, Naomi, VP, Innovation, The Institute for Community Living (ICL)

Wesloh, Janelle, LADC, MBA, Vice President of Clinical Excellence, Innovation and Recovery Management, Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Wexler, Nancy, DBH, MPH, Director, Innovation and Collaborative Care, Banner University Health Plans

Wood, William G., M.D., Former National Medical Director, Medical Management, Behavioral Health, Government Business Division, Formerly with Anthem, Inc.

In addition to the Institute sessions, this strategy-focused week will feature an intensive one-day summit on the shifting intellectual/developmental disabilities market, The I/DD Executive Leadership Summit, as well as two executive seminars and two roundtable discussions:

The 2018 OPEN MINDS Strategy & Innovation Institute is the only health and human service event focused on the emerging innovations disrupting the market  and the strategic science behind making them work in todays value-based environment. The faculty and guest speakers for the event will consist of executives who have demonstrated experience making innovations an asset in developing next generation business models and sustainable strategies. For four days, 400+ executives and 30 innovative exhibitors will gather in New Orleans to discuss the innovations and business models the field needs to succeed in todays disrupted industry.

Registration is filling up quickly. For the complete list of Institute attendees check out The 2018 OPEN MINDS Strategy & Innovation Institute. Early registration is recommended, as seating will become limited closer to the event. Online registration is available online at: https://strategy.openminds.com/register/.

For additional questions and inquiries, please contact Sarah Threnhauser, Executive Vice President, OPEN MINDS at 717-334-1329 or sthrenhauser@openminds.com.

ABOUT OPEN MINDS

OPEN MINDS is a national market intelligence and strategic advisory firm focused on the sectors of the health and human service field serving consumers with chronic conditions and complex support needs. Founded in 1987 and based in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the 175+ associates provide market insights and innovative management solutions designed to improve operational and strategic performance. Learn more at www.openminds.com.Home | News | General | Shippers, port operators seek presidential assent to NTC bill

By Samson Echenim

SHIPPERS and dry port operators have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the National Transport Commission, NTC, bill, which was passed by the Senate March 15, 2018.

In separate chats with Vanguard, the President, Shippers Association, Lagos, Rev Jonathan Nicol and Secretary of Bonded Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria, Omolajomo Haruna lauded the passage of the bill by the National Assembly and said the presence of a regulator in the transport sector would be a catalyst for the sector to unleash its potential and become a huge employer of labour.

According to Nicol: The bill will immensely regulate excesses of stakeholders in the shipping subsector, especially at attaining equitable port and transport charges.

We hope the implementation will enhance the ease of doing business in Nigeria as a whole. It is therefore, important for the executive to give priority to signing the bill into law.

For Haruna, who is General Manager, Duncan Bonded Terminal, Tin Can Port, the NTC will see to the success of the several dry ports being championed by the Nigerias Shippers Council across the country, by ensuring that seaport terminals do not become a holding bay for containers and other cargoes.

He said: As containers continue to dwell in seaports for more time than normal, congestion of the seaports and traffic gridlocks in Apapa have become inevitable and we have all seen the menace of it. The other side of it is that only five out of about 20 bonded terminals are now functional and working at only three per cent capacity utilisation. It is a pity that most of them are owing banks and had sacked 95 per cent of their staff, instead of employing.

If the NTC bill is signed into law, it will provoke the multi-modal system of transportation in Nigeria. A lot will be happening to see that the transport sector investors do well and create employment. Transport and shipping cost will also go down, as we begin to see a tangible regulator activate competitive markets in the shipping subsector.

The current version of the bill was sponsored by Senator Andy Uba and was read for the second time on the floor of the Senate on October 7, 2015 after which the Senate referred the bill to the Joint Senate Committee on Land Transport, Marine Transport and Aviation Transport chaired by Senator Gbenga Ashafa, representing Lagos East Senatorial District.

Commenting on the passage of the bill by the Senate, Ashafa said: The NTC bill when signed into law is capable of setting the transport sector on the path of positive development. With this bill, we would successfully create a multi-modal transport sector economic and safety oversight regulator for the transport sector. This is very good for business as it brings standard and structure to the transport sector while also increasing the revenue of government.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Buhari signs agreement with countries on return of illegally acquired assets

Following the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), President Muhammadu Buhari Monday signed two instruments namely:

The Instrument of Ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Government of the Republic of Singapore for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and Capital Gains.

The other was the Instrument of Ratification of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) among the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the Swiss Federal Council and the International Development Association on the Return, Monitoring and Management of Illegally-Acquired Assets Confiscated by Switzerland and to be Restituted to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

With the execution of these instruments, Nigerias trade relations with Singapore and income therefrom are expected to rise, while the return of illegal assets will not only boost the administrations anti-corruption drive, but also provide additional funds for critical infrastructure.

The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina disclosed this in Abuja on Monday.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Ambode urged to probe govt officials retreats

By Oboh Agbonkhese

Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos State has been urged to investigate retreats by the lawmakers and local governments officials, because if the state government is desirous of successfully mobilising Lagosians behind its tax drive for development, transparency and accountability must replace secrecy where the revenue and expenditure profiles of the state are concerned.

Ambode

This was the position of Activists United Against Graft and Anti-Peoples Policies, AUGAPOL, at a briefing in Lagos, with its National Coordinator, Mr. Mark Adebayo, declaring that if the governor failed to address the issue in seven days, we will resort to both legal and mass advocacy actions to resolve it.

Mr. Adebayo said: We wish to call the attention of Governor Akinwumi Ambode to the negative vibes sent out by the whole budget and other policy retreats by the states House of Assembly members and local government officials.

We find it economically, socially, morally and politically unacceptable for the state governments institutions to be holding retreats after retreats in the same hotel every time outside the state.

The Akinwumi Ambode administration has recorded excellent feats, so it behoves the government to be circumspect on how the states resources and tax payers money is being managed.

In a statement by Adebayo and Mr. Toyin Raheem, Chairman, Coalition Against Corruption and Bad Governance, CACOBAG, the activists said: Retreats for government officials are desirable in achieving good and effective governance, but is condemnable and a great injustice when it is at the expense of the tax-paying hospitality businesses and the tourism potentials of Lagos State, as the state governments institutions refuse to patronise them under non-transparent circumstances.

The group also commiserated with the Dapchi students and their parents, noting that from recent developments, action and inaction by the Federal Government, although the Jonathan administration can be described as a failure, the present government at the centre is a worse failure.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Imo faces threat from indiscriminate boreholesNSE

By Chidi Nkwopara

OWERRIImo State Branch of Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, has warned that uncontrolled drilling of boreholes is seriously threatening the land surface.

The NSE State chairman, Engr. Emeka Ugoanyanwu, raised the alarm at a conference organised in Owerri by the NSE.

There are over 2,000 boreholes in Owerri municipality and with the way people are sinking boreholes uncontrollably all over the state, the land surface is seriously threatened, Ugoanyanwu said.

While saying that much of the water used in the state is acidic and not good for human consumption, the Imo NSE boss also appealed to the state government to, as a matter of urgency, restore public water facilities and adopt nature-based solutions to restore the damaged ecosystem.

Ugoanyanwu similarly warned that due to congestion, most boreholes in the municipality were sited close to soak-away pits, thereby making such water unfit for human consumption.

The Imo NSE boss equally expressed worry that government was developing urban areas without provision for public water supply.

Speaking also, Professor Ngozi Okereke of the Department of Agriculture and Bio-Resources Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, FUTO, opined that the rise in population was among the causes of water scarcity in most urban areas.

The ground water is contaminated due to influx of debris in the rivers and fresh water is decreasing. We must go back to nature, to balance the ecosystem. Everybody should be ready to face the consequence, if we continue like this, Okereke said.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Fake Emir Of Kano Jailed For 36 Months (Photo)

A man impersonating the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II has been jailed by a court in Kano State.

A Kano Senior Magistrates Court on Monday sentenced a 20-year-old student, Sultan Bello to 36 months imprisonment for impersonating the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II.

Fake Emir, Sultan Bello

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the convict who resides at Jaoji New Court Road Quarters, Kano, is being tried on a three-count charge of impersonation, cheating and defamation of character.

The convict had pleaded guilty to the charges and begged for leniency.

The Senior Magistrate, Hassan Ahmad, sentenced the convict to one year imprisonment or pay a fine of N30, 000 for impersonation.

Ahmad also sentenced the convict to another year imprisonment or pay a fine of N30,000 for cheating, and 12 more months in prison with option to pay a fine of N30,000 for defamation of character.

The Judge also ordered the convict to make arrangement with the six nominal complainants on how he would pay them back the sum of N1.85 million he dubiously collected from them.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp. Haziel Ledapwa, had told the court that the accused committed the offences on Feb. 27.

He said that the convict operated an Instagram page and dubiously posted himself as the Emir of Kano.

Bello also demanded N1.4 million from one Barka Sani, N150,000 from Sadiq Saflan, N50,000 from Sadiq Sani, N50,000 from Aisha Ahmad, N50,000 from Surajo Zakari and N150,000 from Yahaya, totalling N1.85 million.

Ledapwa said that the convict collected the money on the pretext that a Hausa film actress, Zubaida Muazu, had composed a song for him as the Emir of Kano.

He requested the complainants to pay the said amount into the actress First Bank account number 3049986447.

The prosecutor said that the offences contravene Sections 132, 322 and 392 of the penal code.

-NAN

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Loading...Home | News | General | Sweet Jesus ice cream shops face boycott, Christians say its blasphemous

Toronto-based ice cream chain Sweet Jesus is facing boycotts as they expand into the United States of America. The Christian community is asking her members not to patronise the blasphemous brand.

The chain, founded in 2015 by Andrew Richmond and Amin Todai, has 20 locations, mainly clustered in the Greater Toronto Area, and is known for its decadent frozen desserts. It has recently expanded into the U.S. and plans more locations south of the border, which has raised the ire of Christians.



Choosing the name of our Lord for a brand of soft-serve ice cream is totally offensive and revolting, reads one petition on CitizenGo.org, an activist group that describes itself as being in favour of life, family, and liberty.

This is anything but a mere mistake, the petition, signed by almost 10,000 people, reads. Both in their promotional materials and menu selection, it is plain to see that Richmond and Todai have every intention of mocking Christ and Christianity.

If anything could qualify as hate speech, this is it.

Another petition on Change.org says if a chain were to use a name invoking figures from other religions, it wouldnt be permitted.

We are calling on not just Christians, but anyone who is against religious discrimination to take a stand against this brand until the name is changed so as not to be offensive  and until such time as it does not discriminate against any religion, that petition reads.

Those against the chain are calling for an apology, and a name change.

But in a statement to CBC News, the owners say they arent planning on doing the latter.

We are conscious of the fact that, to some, our name can be off-putting, Richmond said. That fact is something we struggle with, because we sincerely do not wish to give offence or show disrespect in any way toward anyones personal beliefs.

After a lot of thought, we have decided that we will not make a change, the statement continues

Sweet Jesus is an honest reflection of our experiences and that of our customers and how they react when they try our product. In our experience, the majority of people understand that were not trying to make a statement about religion.

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Loading...Sergey Mavrodi , the founder of the popular pyramid scheme, MMM, was earlier reported to have died of heart attack on Monday, March 26, 2018 at a Russian hospital. He died at the age of 62.Segey Mavrodi was reported to have died after he felt weakness and pain in the chest area.

According to a compilation by The Pulse, h ere are a few things you need to know about him:



1. Mavrodi was born on August 11, 1955, in Russian capital, Moscow , and was diagnosed with bilateral heart defect in his childhood.

2. He was first arrested in 1983 for illegal economic activity and was detained for 10 days.

3. In 1989, he launched  with his brother Vyacheslav Mavrodi , and a woman Olga Melnikova . The name of the company was taken from the first letters of the three founders surnames. The Russian company perpetrated one of the worlds largest Ponzi schemes of all time, in the 1990s with different estimates from 5 to 10 million people losing their savings.

4. Sergey Mavrodi launched the MMM Ponzi scheme for the first time in February 1994, promising annual returns of up to 3,000%. On August 4, 1994, he was arrested on tax evasion charges, unrelated to the MMM scheme.

5. To escape prosecution, Mavrodi contested for and won a by-election to replace Andrey Aizderdzis in the State Duma, and with it immunity from prosecution. In October 1995, the Duma cancelled Mavrodis right to immunity as a deputy.

6. Sergey Mavrodi tried to run for Russias presidency, but his bid was rejected after officials ruled that most of the signatures he submitted had been forged.

7. He was placed on an international wanted list in 1998 when he was believed to be on the run from the tax evasion charges and was eventually arrested in Moscow in 2003.

8. In 2007, a Moscow court found Mavrodi guilty of defrauding 10,000 investors of $4.3 million, and sentenced him to four and a half years in a penal colony and also fined him $390. Since he had already spent over four years in custody, he was released less than a month later on May 22, 2007.

9. In 2008, Mavrodi published a book titled Temptation . In May of the same year, bailiffs arrested his rights to the book. 7,000 copies of the book were published.

10. A feature film titled The PyraMMMid , based on the story of the same name by Mavrodi, was released in Russia on April 7, 2011.Home | News | General | Pope thanks Italy police for protecting him from crazy terrorists

The Italian police does splendid work in protecting the Vatican from crazy terrorists, Pope Francis said Monday.

These people sacrifice themselves to protect the pope, to protect the people, to make sure some crazy guy does not do something, a massacre, and ruins many families, Francis said.

His unscripted remarks came at the end of an audience with Italian police officers who act as the popes security detail on Vatican and Italian grounds.

I am grateful for your vigilant presence and for the assistance you give during religious and public events in St Peters Basilica and around the Vatican, he added.

In its propaganda, the Islamic State terrorist group has often singled out the Vatican and Rome as a key target, and security services are on especially high alert ahead of Easter.

Rome police said heavy goods vehicles, public demonstrations and weapons and explosives will be banned in central Rome from Thursday to Easter Monday, April 2.

It also said that a terrorist alert, triggered by an anonymous letter to the Italian embassy in Tunis warning that a Tunisian man was planning an attack on Rome, had passed.

The man, Atef Mathlouthi, told RAI Italian state television from Tunisia that he is not a terrorist, and according to Rome police, he does not at the moment pose a real and present danger. (dpa/NAN)

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General

Loading...CHALK RIVER, Ontario, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), Canadas premier nuclear science and technology organization, announced today that it will present two screenings of Emmy award-winning director David Schumachers new documentary The New Fire in the national capital region next month. Filmed across four continents over the course of 22 months, The New Fire follows a group of young engineers and entrepreneurs who are developing advanced nuclear technology while working to overcome longstanding societal perceptions about nuclear energy and the role it will play in combatting global climate change.



The film will make its Ottawa premiere at Library and Archives Canada on Thursday, April 26, featuring a panel discussion with Mr. Schumacher and CNLs President and CEO, Mark Lesinski. CNL is also showing the film in its host community, Deep River, on Wednesday, April 25.

CNL is proud to welcome Mr. Schumacher and to help make this movie available to a Canadian audience, because it challenges peoples underlying beliefs about nuclear science and technology, commented Mark Lesinski. Unfortunately, there are historical misconceptions about nuclear energy that are pervasive in society, and have eroded peoples trust in a form of energy that is critical in the fight against climate change. It is our hope that viewers watch this movie with an open mind, and can appreciate why the young entrepreneurs featured in this film are pursuing next-generation nuclear technology to tackle these global challenges.

An independent film, The New Fire introduces audiences to young nuclear engineers from two nuclear start-up companies, Transatomic and Oklo, who are developing nuclear reactors that they hope will provide clean and safe solutions to the worlds future energy needs. Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie are students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that founded Transatomic to design an advanced reactor that is safer, cleaner and cheaper than todays reactors. In Silicon Valley, Oklo founders Caroline Cochran and Jacob DeWitte are developing a micro reactor for off-grid and other special applications where, today, diesel is the only option. Both teams are supported by nuclear advocates from all over the globe.

The New Fire also follows activist Eric Meyer at the COP 21 Paris Climate Conference as he uses his own special talents to educate Parisians. Also in Paris, renowned climate scientist James Hansen makes the case for nuclear with a team of his colleagues. Hansen travels on to China, where hes organized an unprecedented and controversial meeting between U.S. and Chinese climate and nuclear experts. Back in the United States, Bill Gates puts his entrepreneurial and philanthropic muscle behind TerraPower, a company he co-founded to bring affordable clean energy to developing countries.

Provocative and startlingly positive, The New Fire focuses on how the generation that faces the most severe impacts of climate change is fighting back with ingenuity and hope.

This isnt a film about politics, or about how much damage weve already done, or pointing fingers at who is to blame. This is a film about a path forward, to show audiences that there is a technological solution  one that may surprise them, commented Mr. Schumacher in promoting the film. I want audiences to come away from The New Fire with a new perspective about a technology they may have dismissed until now. And new sense of mission to try and save our planet before its too late.

Tickets are available free of charge via CNLs website at www.cnl.ca/thenewfire for both the Ottawa and Deep River screenings.

Ottawa Screening  The New Fire Date: Thursday, April 26, 2018 Location: Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street Schedule: 5:30 pm: Panel discussion featuring director, David Schumacher 6:30 pm: The New Fire screening





Deep River Screening  The New Fire Date: Wednesday, April 25, 2018 Location: Childs Auditorium, Mackenzie Community School, 2 Brockhouse Way Schedule: 6:30 pm: The New Fire screening 8:00 pm: Panel discussion featuring director, David Schumacher

For more information on The New Fire, including alternate screening dates and locations, please visit www.newfiremovie.com. More information on CNL can be found at www.cnl.ca.



About CNL

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is a world leader in nuclear science and technology offering unique capabilities and solutions across a wide range of industries. Actively involved with industry-driven research and development in nuclear, transportation, clean technology, energy, defence, security and life sciences, we provide solutions to keep these sectors competitive internationally.

With ongoing investments in new facilities and a focused mandate, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is well positioned for the future. A new performance standard reinforced with a strong safety culture underscores every activity.

For more information on the complete range of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories services, please visit www.cnl.ca or contact communications@cnl.ca.

Contact:

Philip Kompass

Section Head, Corporate Communications

CNL, 1-866-886-2325Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi forces intercepted seven Yemeni rebel missiles on Sunday, including over the capital Riyadh, in a deadly escalation on the eve of the third anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition's intervention in Yemen.

One Egyptian was killed and two of his countrymen were wounded by falling shrapnel in Riyadh, authorities said, with residents reporting loud explosions and bright flashes in the sky shortly before midnight.

The Iran-aligned Huthi rebels fired three missiles at Riyadh and four others at the southern cities of Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran, with the coalition saying they all targeted populated areas.

"This aggressive and hostile action by the Iran-backed Huthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities," coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said.

"The firing of multiple ballistic missiles towards cities is a serious development."

The Huthi-run Al-Masira television channel claimed the rebels had targeted Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport as well as other airstrips in the south of the kingdom.

The strikes come after the US defence secretary last week urged Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to Washington to pursue "urgent efforts" to end Yemen's wrenching conflict.

The Huthi rebels have fired dozens of missiles into Saudi Arabia since last year, all of which Saudi forces claim to have intercepted, underscoring their capacity to strike deep within the kingdom amid a stalemated war in Yemen.

The latest attack could further escalate the coalition's military campaign.

A major attack targeting Riyadh international airport on November 4 triggered the tightening of a longstanding Saudi-led blockade of Yemen -- already on the verge of famine.

Another strike on December 19 targeted Riyadh's Yamamah palace, the official residence of King Salman.

- Humanitarian crisis -

Saudi Arabia has accused its arch foe Iran of supplying the missile to the rebels, a charge Tehran strongly denied.

Story continues

The Huthis expelled pro-government forces from the capital in September 2014 and went on to seize swathes of the impoverished Arabian peninsula country.

This prompted a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia to intervene in Yemen on March 26, 2015, to help the government push back the Shiite rebels.

Since then, around 10,000 people have been killed and 53,000 wounded in Yemen, triggering what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Huthi rebel chief Abdelmalik al-Huthi on Sunday said his fighters were ready to make more "sacrifices" against the Saudi-led coalition, in an address marking the war's third anniversary.

The Huthis plan a huge rally in Sanaa on Monday to mark the anniversary.

The UN says living conditions in the war-scarred country have reached catastrophic levels and that 8.4 million people face imminent famine.

The UN urgently needs $350 million for humanitarian projects in Yemen, a senior agency official said on Sunday, insisting it was mere "peanuts" compared with the cost of the country's war.

Saudi Arabia and its allies -- aided by billions of dollars worth of military equipment from the US and Britain -- could stand guilty of war crimes, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Numerous rounds of UN-sponsored peace talks have failed to stem the bloodshed in Yemen.Go in! Stop ytppl 2k18!

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sh^t now we have to change it.

They knowwww!

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people here use 'yt' interchangeably for white and youtube, it gets confusing

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same :o

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I would take the time to read his entire review which is briefly discussed in the IndieWire article



#IsleOfDogs: Thank you @JustinCChang for devoting far more attention than most critics will to many of the willfully tone-deaf ways Wes Anderson appropriates and marginalizes Japanese culture and people in his so-called homage. It is ugly, indeed. https://t.co/GtbWVg40YF  jen yamato (@jenyamato) March 22, 2018

I learned a lot about this from following Emily Yoshida on twitter. I thought Justin Chang's piece/review gave a lot of important and eye opening points.I would take the time to read his entire review which is briefly discussed in the IndieWire article

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Their assumed passivity is further underscored by the singularly unfortunate character of Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig), an American foreign-exchange student who becomes the angry, heroic voice of Megasaki's pro-dog resistance. At one point, she even smacks down a scientist voiced by Yoko Ono. (Yoko Ono!).



nnnnnnnnnnnn



nnnnnnnnnnnn

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Mte, Detox. I've HAD IT! Officially!

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Some troll commented on I think Chang's twitter, that his article was yellow journalism.



No research is needed, he lives it, I live it, this AAPI life brings some shit.

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I thought this movie was Japanese. I realise the director and majority of the voice actors are white, but I just assumed that was Hollywood being Hollywood.

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Not surprised

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And he always manages to make any PoC feel like Gwen Stefani's Harujuku girls. It's not even a stretch for him to make Japanese people play second fiddle to dogs in a movie set in Japan lol.



Edited at 2018-03-26 07:34 pm (UTC)

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Why set it in Japan at all? Gross, Wes.

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I dont know anything about this movie but I just assumed its because there is an island of wild bunnies or cats (or both? on separate islands, of course).

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Idk about the bunnies but they're not taking care of the cats on cat island at all its so sad

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Why not? Seriously, what's offensive about it?

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That movie looks weird as fuck

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Mte

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literally my thought process as i was reading this post lmao

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lol

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lol forreal, I'm surprised the articles don't mention Darjeeling Limited at all.

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lmao

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Lol mte

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lmao right?

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I side eyed the hell out of this trailer when it played before Coco and I'm quite surprised so many people here were commenting how excited they were to see it. Like the quips in the trailer how the boy only speaks Japanese or pretty much just grunts in the trailer while the dogs speak English. It looks like it'd be a damn mess.

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mte i was shocked when i saw people here talk about how excited they were. it seems so obviously fucked up.

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same, besides the fact that it just looks, you know, bad

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Yup. I've felt super wonky about this film ever since I saw a trailer. Commented about it here and got the 'Well, they're dogs so speaking English is totes okay' reply that completely ignores any of the context.

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wes anderson ain't shit and we been knew his scrawny yt racist since the darjeeling limited

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The Life Aquatic too - the one POC character (Seu Jorge) has no spoken lines and basically sings/performs the entire movie.

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Your statement isnt entirely accurate but Im not going to argue about racism in Wes Anderson movies.

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the trailer had all I needed to know about this movie tbh

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I mean it's wes anderson

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If We wasn't enough reason to avoid this movie, the garbage line up of Cranston, Tilda, Scarlett, etc solidified it.

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Hell, even Kubo didn't do that re: the actual lead.

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I think it's strange they all have American accents. Makes no sense. I mean maybe if one dog was American or something but all of them??



Edited at 2018-03-26 04:15 pm (UTC)

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Apparently there's a line at the beginning of the movie or something that says "the dogs have been translated to English" it's weird

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I assume the dogs are the voice of the film.

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Yeah. Dogs apparently born and bred in Japan, all with English names (??) and who speak English while the Japanese human characters speak Japanese. I mean, I could possibly get down with it if the voice actors for the dogs at least had some Japanese diversity but that doesn't seem to be the case at all.

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LinkExpresses Concerns Regarding Crius Underperformance and Poor Capital Allocation Decisions under Current Leadership



Announces Nomination of Lalit Aggarwal, Anu Dhir, Ali Hedayat and James C. Pappas at Upcoming 2018 Annual Meeting

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

HOUSTON, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- JCP Investment Management, LLC (together with its affiliates, JCP), a significant unitholder of Crius Energy Trust (Crius or the Trust) (TSX:KWH.UN), today issued a letter to the unitholders of Crius. In the letter, JCP expressed its concerns regarding the Trusts underperformance and the poor capital allocation decisions under the current leadership team and informed unitholders that it intends to nominate four highly-qualified candidates, Lalit Aggarwal, Anu Dhir, Ali Hedayat and James C. Pappas, for election to the Board of Directors of the Trusts administrator at the Trusts upcoming 2018 Annual General Meeting. The full text of the letter follows:

March 26, 2018

Dear Fellow Crius Unitholders,

JCP Investment Management, LLC (together with its affiliates, JCP, we or us) is a significant unitholder of Crius Energy Trust (Crius or the Trust) with ownership of 1,173,200 units, making us one of the Trusts top 5 largest unitholders.

We believe Crius units are significantly undervalued and do not reflect the true earnings power of the Trusts 1.4 million customers. We have repeatedly attempted to privately reach an amicable resolution with Crius to address our concerns. Despite our sincere efforts to engage constructively with the Trust, we have been disappointed by the lack of urgency exhibited by the Board of Directors of the Trusts administrator, Crius Energy Administrator Inc. (the Board), to adequately address the issues we have identified, including poor unitholder returns, poor capital allocation decisions and USD$100 million in debt being added to the balance sheet. Accordingly, we were left with little choice but to propose a competing slate of director candidates for election to the Board at the Trusts upcoming 2018 Annual General Meeting.

Abysmal Unitholder Returns

Crius went public at CAD$10.00 in November 2012 and today, nearly five and a half years later, the units are trading at CAD$7.35.1

If you had invested in Crius at the time of its IPO at CAD$10.00 per unit, excluding dividends you would have experienced a negative 26% return as of March 23, 2018.2 When including dividends reinvested in the units, over that same time period your return would still have been only 5.2% compounded.

Meanwhile, over the same time period, the S&P/TSX Composite Index appreciated by 26%, yielding a return of approximately 7.5% compounded including reinvested dividends.

We believe unitholder returns since the IPO have been abysmal. If elected, implementing a strategic plan to create meaningful value for all unitholders will be our nominees top priority.

Poor Capital Allocation

The Trust has an extremely poor track record of managing cash flow and cash levels. In February 2014, barely a year after going public, the Trust cut its dividend by 30% (and did not increase it again until 2016). The unit price dropped to CAD$2.26, and investors in the IPO at CAD$10.00 roughly a year earlier experienced a nearly 80% loss in value of their units.

We believe that if the Board and management team had worked diligently together to develop a proper financial model which took into account operational headwinds and established an appropriate dividend from the start and had ample cash reserves for a rainy day, this would never have happened.

Now in 2018, after a questionable acquisition of U.S. Gas & Electric, Inc. (USG&E) in 2017, the Board has added USD$100 million in debt to the Trusts balance sheet and has announced that it will stop increasing distributions and is comfortable nearly doubling the amount of debt to 2x leverage.

Lack of USG&E Acquisition Synergies

In May 2017, the Trust announced the acquisition of USG&E for USD$172.5 million, the largest transaction in the Trusts history, which closed in July 2017.

In connection with the acquisition, Crius implied that the Trust would achieve a synergy run-rate of USD$100 million Adjusted EBITDA.3 However, based on the Trusts recent release on March 8th, it does not appear that the Trust will achieve such a run-rate in the near term, if it will ever be realized at all. This leads us to believe that the Board and management team either were wrong about the potential synergies or did not understand the business being acquired. We believe the apparent lack of planning and execution is unacceptable.

As indicated in the table below, the number of outstanding units increased by approximately 42% in order to complete the acquisition of USG&E. Assuming all things being equal, it would take a proportionate increase in EBITDA to make the acquisition accretive. Clearly, this has not been the case.

(USD$ in Millions) 2016 2017 Revenue 743 875 Gross Profits 159 184 Margin 21 % 21 % G&A 76 102 Increase in G&A - 34 % Adjusted EBITDA 61 65 Increase in EBITDA - 7 % Shares Outstanding 40 57 Increase in Shares - 42 % Source: Sedar.com

We believe it is essential for companies to make capital allocation decisions by analyzing the cost of the investment relative to what the projected returns will be on a distributable cash flow per unit basis. Based on the USG&E acquisition and the expenditures on solar described below, we are concerned that the Board does not have the appropriate processes in place to make prudent capital allocation decisions and hold management accountable.

With respect to solar, Crius has continuously spent cash to try and make its solar investment work. In 2017 alone, solar was a negative USD$4.6 million in Adjusted EBITDA.

Too Much Debt - USD$100 million

Related to our views about the poor returns and capital allocation decisions, we believe that unitholders would be better served if the Trust used its cash flow to de-lever the business while focusing on existing operations and cost savings.

In 2016, the Trust had no debt. Now, the Trust has nearly USD$100 million of debt and has stopped increasing the distributions to unitholders. Essentially, the Board and management team have increased the risk of our investment and decreased the overall return.

While in many other operating businesses 2x debt to EBITDA may be manageable, we do not believe it is prudent for the Trust due to the nature of Crius business.

We are concerned that the incumbent leadership team has created a situation where, due to the new debt load, the Trust could have cash flow issuesagain. We fear that the current leverage of the Trust will become unsustainable and Crius should focus on paying down its debt.

Our Highly-Qualified Director Nominees

We believe that the status quo has proven untenable, which is why we intend to formally nominate four independent, highly-qualified candidates, Lalit Aggarwal, Anu Dhir, Ali Hedayat and James C. Pappas, for election at the upcoming 2018 Annual General Meeting. We believe these individuals possess the financial, operational and strategic acumen the Board urgently needs to enhance unitholder value. Our nominees are:

Lalit Aggarwal is President of Manor Park Holdings, a diversified business with operations in real estate, asset management, diagnostic healthcare and power generation. Previously, Mr. Aggarwal invested for H.I.G. European Capital Partners, Soros Fund Management, and Goldman Sachs. He is a past fellow of the C.D. Howe Institute and a former Director of Bridgepoint Health. Mr. Aggarwal holds degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania. He is a current Director of the SickKids Foundation and the Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM).

Anu Dhir is a co-founder and executive of ZinQ Mining and is also the managing director of Miniqs Limited, a private group primarily interested in developing resource projects. Prior to these roles, Ms. Dhir served as Vice President, Corporate Development and Company Secretary at Katanga Mining Limited. Ms. Dhir is a non-executive director of Golden Star Resources Limited, Taseko Mines Limited and Trillium Health Partners. Ms. Dhir holds a BA from the University of Toronto and a law degree (Juris Doctor) from Quinnipiac University. She is currently enrolled in the General Management Program (GMP) at Harvard Business School and expects to complete her studies by April 2018. Her qualifications to serve on the Board include over 18 years of experience in the resource sector with publicly listed companies with an emphasis on corporate governance and corporate development in North America, Europe, Africa and Latin American markets.

Ali Hedayat is the founder and Managing Director of Maryana Capital in Toronto, Canada. He previously cofounded Edoma Capital in London, was a Partner at Indus Capital in London, and worked for the Goldman Sachs Group in New York and London as a Managing Director and Co-head of Americas Principal Strategies. Mr. Hedayat currently serves as a director for Restaurant Brands International Inc. and US Geothermal Inc., and has previously served as a director for companies in the cable, pharmaceutical and media industries. Mr. Hedayat holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree, with honours, earning a double major in Finance and Economics from McGill University. His qualifications to serve on the Board include over 20 years of investment banking experience with an emphasis in power, utilities, and distressed debt and equity in European, North American and Latin American markets.

James C. Pappas is the Managing Member of JCP Investment Management, LLC, an investment firm. He previously worked for Goldman Sachs, a multinational investment banking and securities firm, in its Investment Banking / Leveraged Finance Division, where he advised private equity groups and corporations on appropriate leveraged buyout, recapitalization and refinancing alternatives. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Mr. Pappas worked at Banc of America Securities, the investment banking arm of Bank of America, where he focused on Consumer and Retail Investment Banking, providing advice on a wide range of transactions including mergers and acquisitions, financings, restructurings and buy-side engagements. Mr. Pappas currently serves as a director of three public companies, including Jamba, Inc. (a leading restaurant retailer of better-for-you specialty beverage and food offerings), Tandy Leather Factory, Inc. (a retailer and wholesale distributor of a broad line of leather and related products) and U.S. Geothermal Inc. (a leading geothermal power company). He previously served as a director of former public companies The Pantry, Inc. and Morgans Foods, Inc. We believe Mr. Pappas financial expertise and significant public company board experience will make him a valuable addition to the Board.

We believe that unitholders will benefit from the fresh perspectives that Messrs. Aggarwal, Hedayat and Pappas and Ms. Dhir will bring to the boardroom and we look forward to providing unitholders with an alternative to the status quo at the upcoming 2018 Annual General Meeting.

Sincerely,

James C. Pappas

Managing Member

JCP Investment Management, LLC

About JCP Investment Management:

JCP Investment Management, LLC is an investment firm headquartered in Houston, TX that engages in value-based investing across the capital structure. JCP follows an opportunistic approach to investing across different equity, credit and distressed securities largely in North America.

Investor Contact:

James C. Pappas

JCP Investment Management, LLC

(713) 333-5540

Disclaimers



JCP has not sought or obtained consent from any third party to the use herein of previously published information. Any such information should not be viewed as indicating the support of such third party for the views expressed herein.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters addressed in these materials are forward-looking statements that involve certain risks and uncertainties. You should be aware that actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. JCP does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information.

Information in Support of Public Broadcast Solicitation

JCP is relying on the exemption under section 9.2(4) of National Instrument 51-102  Continuous Disclosure Obligations to make this public broadcast solicitation. The following information is provided in accordance with securities laws applicable to public broadcast solicitations.

This solicitation is being made by JCP, and not by or on behalf of the management of Crius Energy Administrator Inc. and Crius Energy Trust (collectively, Crius). The registered address of Crius is Suite 3400, One First Canadian Place, P.O. Box 130, Toronto, Ontario, M5X 1A4. The mailing address of Crius is 535 Connecticut Avenue, 6th Floor, Norwalk, CT, 06854.

JCP has filed an information circular containing the information required by Form 51-102F5  Information Circular in respect of its proposed nominees (the JCP Nominees), which is available under Crius profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Proxies for the Crius 2018 unitholders' meeting (the Meeting) may be solicited by mail, telephone, email or other electronic means as well as by newspaper or other media advertising, and in person by managers, directors, officers and employees of JCP, who will not be specifically remunerated therefor. In addition, JCP may solicit proxies in reliance upon the public broadcast exemption to the solicitation requirements under applicable Canadian securities laws, conveyed by way of public broadcast, including through press releases, speeches or publications, and by any other manner permitted under applicable Canadian laws.

JCP has entered into an agreement with Saratoga Proxy Consulting LLC (Saratoga) pursuant to which Saratoga has agreed that it will act as JCPs proxy agent should JCP commence a formal solicitation of forms of proxy. Pursuant to this agreement, Saratoga will receive a fee not to exceed US$72,500 (a portion of which being a success fee), plus an additional fee of US$4.00 for each call to or from Unitholders. All costs incurred for the solicitation will be borne by JCP.

JCP is not requesting that Crius unitholders submit a proxy at this time. Once JCP has commenced a formal solicitation of proxies, a registered holder of units of Crius that gives a proxy may revoke it: (a) by completing and signing a valid proxy bearing a later date and returning it in accordance with the instructions contained in the form of proxy to be provided by JCP, or as otherwise provided in the final proxy circular, once made available to unitholders; (b) by depositing an instrument in writing executed by the unitholder or by the unitholder's attorney authorized in writing, as the case may be: (i) at the registered office of Crius at any time up to and including the last business day preceding the day the Meeting or any adjournment or postponement of the Meeting is to be held, or (ii) with the chairman of the Meeting prior to its commencement on the day of the Meeting or any adjournment or postponement of the Meeting; or (c) in any other manner permitted by law. A non-registered holder of units of Crius will be entitled to revoke a form of proxy or voting instruction form given to an intermediary at any time by written notice to the intermediary in accordance with the instructions given to the non-registered holder by its intermediary.

To the knowledge of JCP, neither JCP nor any of its managers, directors or officers, or any associates or affiliates of the foregoing, nor any of the JCP Nominees, or their respective associates or affiliates, has: (i) any material interest, direct or indirect, in any transaction since the beginning of Crius' most recently completed financial year or in any proposed transaction that has materially affected or would materially affect Crius or any of its subsidiaries; or (ii) any material interest, direct or indirect, by way of beneficial ownership of securities or otherwise, in any matter currently known to be acted upon at the Meeting, other than the election of directors of Crius Energy Administrator Inc.

1 Closing price as of March 23, 2018.

2 Calculated from November 13, 2012 to March 23, 2018.

3 See press release issued by Crius on May 30, 2017.When Ian Buruma arrived in Tokyo in 1975, Japan was little more than an idea in his mind, a fantasy of a distant land. A sensitive misfit in the world of his upper middleclass youth, what he longed for wasnt so much the exotic as the raw, unfiltered humanity he had experienced in Japanese theater performances and films, witnessed in Amsterdam and Paris. One particular theater troupe, directed by a poet of runaways, outsiders, and eccentrics, was especially alluring, more than a little frightening, and completely unforgettable. If Tokyo was anything like his plays, Buruma knew that he had to join the circus as soon as possible.Tokyo was an astonishment. Buruma found a feverish and surreal metropolis where nothing was understatedneon lights, crimson lanterns, Japanese pop, advertising jingles, and cabarets. He encountered a city in the midst of an economic boom where everything seemed new, aside from the isolated temple or shrine that had survived the firestorms and earthquakes that had levelled the city during the past century. History remained in fragments: the shapes of wounded World War II veterans in white kimonos, murky old bars that Mishima had cruised in, and the narrow alleys where street girls had once flitted. Burumas Tokyo, though, was a city engaged in a radical transformation. And through his adventures in the world of avant garde theater, his encounters with carnival acts, fashion photographers, and moments on-set with Akira Kurosawa, Buruma underwent a radical transformation of his own. For an outsider, unattached to the cultural burdens placed on the Japanese, this was a place to be truly free.Most people who read the news would tell you that 2017 is one of the worst years in recent memory. We're facing a series of deeply troubling, even existential problems: fascism, terrorism, environmental collapse, racial and economic inequality, and more.Yet this narrative misses something important: by almost every meaningful measure, the modern world is better than it ever has been. In the United States, disease, crime, discrimination, and most forms of pollution are in long-term decline, while longevity and education keep rising and economic indicators are better than in any past generation. Worldwide, malnutrition and extreme poverty are at historic lows, and the risk of dying by war or violence is the lowest in human history.It's not a coincidence that we're confused--our perspectives on the world are blurred by the rise of social media, the machinations of politicians, and our own biases. Meanwhile, political reforms like the Clean Air Act and technological innovations like the hybridization of wheat have saved huge numbers of lives. In that optimistic spirit, Easterbrook offers specific policy reforms to address climate change, inequality, and other problems, and reminds us that there is real hope in conquering such challenges. In an age of discord and fear-mongering, It's Better Than It Looks will profoundly change your perspective on who we are, where we're headed, and what we're capable of.An extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born with one foot on the other side. Unsettling, heartwrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities.Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled baby and a source of deep concern to her family. Her parents, Saul and Saachi, successfully prayed her into existence, but as she grows into a volatile and splintered child, it becomes clear that something went terribly awry. When Ada comes of age and moves to America for college, the group of selves within her grows in power and agency. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these altersnow protective, now hedonisticmove into control, Adas life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction.Humans are tribal. We need to belong to groups. In many parts of the world, the group identities that matter most  the ones that people will kill and die for  are ethnic, religious, sectarian, or clan-based. But because America tends to see the world in terms of nation-states engaged in great ideological battles  Capitalism vs. Communism, Democracy vs. Authoritarianism, the Free World vs. the Axis of Evil  we are often spectacularly blind to the power of tribal politics. Time and again this blindness has undermined American foreign policy.Just as Washingtons foreign policy establishment has been blind to the power of tribal politics outside the country, so too have American political elites been oblivious to the group identities that matter most to ordinary Americans  and that are tearing the United States apart. As the stunning rise of Donald Trump laid bare, identity politics have seized both the American left and right in an especially dangerous, racially inflected way. In America today, every group feels threatened: whites and blacks, Latinos and Asians, men and women, liberals and conservatives, and so on. There is a pervasive sense of collective persecution and discrimination. On the left, this has given rise to increasingly radical and exclusionary rhetoric of privilege and cultural appropriation. On the right, it has fueled a disturbing rise in xenophobia and white nationalism.Eat the Apple is a daring, twisted, and darkly hilarious story of American youth and masculinity in an age of continuous war. Matt Young joined the Marine Corps at age eighteen after a drunken night culminating in wrapping his car around a fire hydrant. The teenage wasteland he fled followed him to the training bases charged with making him a Marine. Matt survived the training and then not one, not two, but three deployments to Iraq, where the testosterone, danger, and stakes for him and his fellow grunts were dialed up a dozen decibels.With its kaleidoscopic array of literary forms, from interior dialogues to infographics to prose passages that read like poetry, Young's narrative powerfully mirrors the multifaceted nature of his experience. Visceral, ironic, self-lacerating, and ultimately redemptive, Young's story drops us unarmed into Marine Corps culture and lays bare the absurdism of 21st-century war, the manned-up vulnerability of those on the front lines, and the true, if often misguided, motivations that drove a young man to a life at war.Sources: 1DOT Inspector General Auditing Oversight of FIU Bridge Project

The FIU pedestrian bridge that collapsed March 15 was funded in part through DOT's Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) discretionary grant program, which awards grants to fund infrastructure improvement projects.

A March 22 memo signed by Calvin L. Scovel III, inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation, announced his office is conducting an audit of DOT's oversight of the project to construct the pedestrian bridge at Florida International University. That bridge collapsed March 15 onto a busy road below, killing six people.

The FIU pedestrian bridge was funded in part through DOT's Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) discretionary grant program, which awards grants to fund infrastructure improvement projects.

Elaine Chao, secretary of Transportation, asked Scovel's office to initiate an audit to evaluate whether the project complied with federal requirements and specifications, and the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., also asked the office to review the implementation and oversight roles of all parties on the project. Scovel's memo says, "Accordingly, the objective of our audit will be to assess whether the Florida International University pedestrian bridge met Federal and DOT requirements for the TIGER application, approval, and grant agreement processes. In addition to this audit, we will continue to identify and undertake future areas of work related to this matter as needed."Endangered black-faced spoonbill numbers dwindle again as wetland habitats in Hong Kong and Shenzhen degrade

Degradation of wetland habitats in the ecologically sensitive Deep Bay area between Hong Kong and Shenzhen led to another decline in black-faced spoonbill numbers this wintering season, a conservation group said on Sunday.

Continuous development and reclamation works in the area and the decline of freshwater fish farming in both the northwestern New Territories and Shenzhen have shrunk the area of mudflats and fish ponds where the endangered migratory waterbirds roost and feed.



According to the 2018 International Black-faced Spoonbill Census, a total of 3,941 spoonbills were recorded between January 19 and 21, roughly similar to last years count.

Of this figure, 350 were recorded in Deep Bay, 25 birds  or 6.7 per cent  fewer than the 375 recorded last year, said the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, one of the census participating organisations.

In 2010 there were more than 460 black-faced spoonbills, but that number has continued to drop and drop to this years 350. Thats more than a hundred fewer birds, research manager Yu Yat-tung said.

Yu identified the shrinking food supply of fish and shrimp as a result of constant habitat degradation and damage as a possible catalyst for the steady decline in numbers.

Reclamation works in Shenzhen and habitat destruction from unauthorised land-use changes and landfilling in the northwest New Territories were cited as factors in reducing the size of mudflats in Deep Bay over the years.

Sedimentation due the proximity to the Pearl River estuary as well as the rapid growth of mangroves have also shrunk natural feeding grounds for the waterbird.

The society said the figures indicated the birds were increasingly relying on artificial wetlands such as fish ponds, though the sustainability of these habitats was not as high as for natural ones such as mudflats. But fewer fish farms in the area also mean fewer artificial wetlands for them to feed in.

Story continues

The situation will change the foraging patterns of the black-faced spoonbill and affect the stability of their numbers, Yu added. Conservation of natural mudflats is urgent.

Yu also pointed to a more recent phenomenon behind the decline: a rise in illegal animal traps around fish ponds suspected to be laid by fish farmers to drive the birds away.

At least six cases involving 15 illegal traps were reported to the group over the last two years. Birds have been found with their beaks snapped off by snares.

Yu appealed to fish farmers to use safer and legal methods to drive the birds away.

Mai Po Inner Deep Bay, off Yuen Long, is an internationally recognised and vital wetland site under the 1995 Ramsar Convention. It is a wintering site for a tenth of the worlds black-faced spoonbills.

From about October to March, spoonbills fly south from their breeding grounds in the Korean Peninsula to the warmer tropics. Deep Bay is located at the mid-point of this East Asian-Australasian Flyway.

About 1,800 spoonbills were recorded in the fish ponds and salt pans of Taiwans Chiayi and Tainan counties. In mainland China, primarily in the fish ponds in Fujian province, the number doubled to 270.

This article Endangered black-faced spoonbill numbers dwindle again as wetland habitats in Hong Kong and Shenzhen degrade first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.Phuket, Thailand  24 March, 2018: Lights were switched off all around the world in support of protecting the planet and #connect2Earth campaign of Earth Hour, a worldwide movement organized by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa joined forces again and participated in this campaign by switching off lights at the resort for an hour at 8:30 p.m. local time.Gas hydrates are nicknamed "burning ice" because of the trapped methane. Credit: Science Party SO174

Gas hydrates are considered a potential source of energy. Over the past 10 years, the Submarine Gas Hydrate Deposits (SUGAR) project has significantly expanded the basic knowledge of gas hydrates and resulted in the development of new technologies for gas hydrate exploration, production and associated environmental monitoring. Now, the project is concluding with a final conference at the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - German Research Center for Geosciences.

Until the end of the 20th century, gas hydrates were considered a rare curiosity. The ice-like compounds of water molecules, including methane and other gases, were found in gas pipelines. It was not until the 1990s that German and international scientists found that the continental slopes on all ocean margins contain large deposits of gas hydrates. Scientists have since considered whether the methane from hydrates could be used as an energy resource.

Germany's coasts border seas where water depths are too shallow for the formation of gas hydrates. If gas hydrates were to gain economic importance, Germany could only participate in the market as a technology supplier. Therefore, starting in 2008, the Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Ministry of Research have been funding the joint academic-industry SUGAR project. "The SUGAR consortium has achieved a great deal during this time. It has significantly expanded knowledge of gas hydrates in the seafloor and developed technologies that are now in demand worldwide," says project coordinator Dr. Matthias Haeckel from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel.

The demand for these technologies is highest in Asian countries. Both Japan and China completed successful test production of methane from submarine hydrate deposits last year. India, South Korea and Taiwan are also very interested in starting their own field tests. Companies from Germany participating in the SUGAR project have been able to develop technologies for environmental monitoring in recent years. These include special echosounders that can detect methane gas bubbles seeping unintentionally out of the seafloor, and sensors that can measure methane concentrations in the water column.

Graphic showing the gas hydrate structure. At high pressure and low temperatures, water molecules form cages around gases. Credit: Jens Greinert / GEOMAR

"Even the question of where gas hydrates actually occur and in what quantities, we are able to answer more precisely now than at the beginning of SUGAR. There were major leaps in knowledge in this area, among other things, thanks to better computer simulations of processes in the seafloor and high-resolution imaging of the seabed down to a depth of 500 meters," explains Prof. Dr. Klaus Wallmann from GEOMAR, who served as coordinator during the first two phases of the project until mid-2014.

Another example of technology developed within SUGAR is the Large Reservoir Simulator (LARS) at the GFZ. It is a 425-liter steel tank equipped with sensors. In this tank, gas hydrates are formed in sediments under simulated conditions. "With LARS, we can test various methods for the extraction of methane from natural gas hydrate deposits on a technical scale," says Dr. Judith Schicks, head of the working group 'gas hydrate research' at the GFZ.

Basic research also benefits from such experimental facilities. Even after the end of the SUGAR project, gas hydrates are still interesting for scientists in Germany and worldwide. "Among other things, we want to find out whether they can cause landslides and tsunamis if they are destabilized as a result of ocean warming," explains Dr. Haeckel.

In addressing these issues, basic science has benefited from the insights and developments of the SUGAR project. "Better modelling of the seafloor or high-pressure test units for investigating gas hydrate dynamics in sediments will give new insights into the risk of landslides. Mobile drilling technology, developed within SUGAR, allows for cost-efficient recovery of necessary natural gas hydrate samples while retaining ambient pressure," explains Dr. Haeckel.

Explore further Stable gas hydrates can trigger landslidesResearchers and students from the University of Houston are working with fourth- and fifth-grade boys to promote interest in STEM. Credit: University of Houston

Both the medium and the message are STEMencouraging fourth and fifth-grade African-American and Latino boys to embrace the cool factor of science, technology, engineering and mathematics through hands-on engineering activities with their fathers and other mentors from the University of Houston.

African-American and Latino students are less likely than their white and Asian counterparts to complete a four-year degree in a STEM field, at a time when demand for workers with those skills is growing. A group of researchers from the University of Houston will use a three-year, $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to expand a project intended to spur interest in the field among younger students.

Program co-founder Jerrod Henderson said he decided to target boys because other programs were available for girls. That was a few years ago, when he was at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Flash forward two years, and Henderson and project co-founder Ricky Greer were both at UH. Henderson, who serves as principal investigator for the NSF grant, is instructional assistant professor in the Cullen College of Engineering and director of PROMES, or Program for Mastery of Engineering Studies. Greer is a graduate student in the UH College of Education.

They launched the project, known as St. Elmo Brady Academy - St. Elmo Brady was the first African-American man to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry - at Hartsfield Elementary School and the UH Charter School.

Henderson said elementary school students are the perfect age to plant the STEM seed.

"By then students have an idea of whether or not they like math and science," he said. "We want to change that decision, to say math and science are cool, and there are people who look like you who do math and science."

Undergraduate engineering students, along with those from teachHouston, a UH program to train students to teach math and science, meet with the younger students twice a week. Fathers or other male family members join the group for an engineering project on Saturday mornings. Engineering students serve as mentors for boys whose relatives can't attend.

"It is a platform for family development and family learning, as well as exposure to STEM," Greer said.

In addition to Henderson and Greer, faculty involved with the project include Mariam Manuel, co-principal investigator on the NSF grant and a science master teacher with teachHOUSTON, and Virginia Snodgrass Rangel, assistant professor in the College of Education.

Snodgrass Rangel will evaluate the student-mentor relationship, seeking to determine if having a mentor, especially one who is African-American or Latino, can change younger students' ideas about a future in science, engineering or another technical field.

She also will measure the impact on the mentors themselves. Engineering programs nationally struggle to retain students, and she is curious to see if the opportunity to work with younger students can change that.

Participating students' standardized test scores in science and math will be tracked and compared with those of students at schools that did not participate in the program.

UH students enrolled in teachHouston, a program based in the UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics to train high school math and science teachers, will get hands on experience with engineering-focused projects, Manuel said.

"This helps us really emphasize the 'e' in STEM," she said. "Our students, even if they are teaching math or science, will really benefit from experiencing teaching the engineering design cycle."

Data to determine how well the program works won't be known for several years, but Snodgrass Rangel is hopeful.

"We focus a lot on getting women into STEM, which is extremely valuable," she said. "We don't have the same focus on boys of color. Most programs offer academic support. I think the potential of this emphasis on mentors is really powerful."

Explore further Enrichment program boosts STEM for black students but leaves Latinos behindKumamoto University researchers found that using MCM-41 as a drug delivery system for malaria treatment produced a highly efficient treatment in animals. Clinical trials are planned in the near future. Credit: Shinya Hayami

Drug delivery systems (DDSs) control the dosage and timing of drugs. Numerous DDS studies have been conducted, but most have focused on treatments for cancer. New research from Kumamoto University uses a DDS to treat malaria.

The existing treatment for malaria is taken orally and has three main problems: (1) most antimalarial drugs are broken down in the stomach, (2) the drugs have strong side effects, and (3) the medicine stays in the body for only a short time. These issues have resulted in malaria treatments that were not particularly effective.

MCM-41 is a porous silica material with a pore size of two to 30 nm. It can incorporate drugs into its pores, which makes it a useful material for DDS applications. A research group headed by Prof. Shinya Hayami from Kumamoto University, Japan, believed that MCM-41 could be used as a DDS for antimalarial drugs. To test their theory, they created a new DDS by combining the antimalarial drugs artesunate and quinine with MCT-41 and performed in vitro and in vivo experiments. They found:

The release time of the antimalarial medicine became very long, one week or longer, an improvement from the standard medication time. Compared to ingesting artesunate or quinine, the new DDS increased treatment efficiency by 20 and 240 times respectively in animal experiments. (As defined in this study, the therapeutic efficiency is 50 percent of the effective dose (ED50), and is used as an index of drug strength. The smaller the value of ED50, the greater the action of the drug. In other words, if an effect is obtained with a small amount of a drug, the treatment efficiency is high.) MCM-41 itself is non-toxic and inactive. A DDS using MCM-41 is expected to have very weak side effects.

"Using this DDS for antimalarial drugs has introduced a new possibility for highly efficient malaria treatment for the first time," said Professor Shinya Hayami. "We expect that it will be put to practical use in areas where malaria treatment is still necessary. Now, we are planning to develop clinical trials for antimalarial drugs as well as new DDSs for other drugs like anti-HIV medications."

Explore further Multidrug resistant genetic factors in malaria parasites

More information: Saliu Alao Amolegbe et al, Mesoporous silica nanocarriers encapsulated antimalarials with high therapeutic performance, Scientific Reports (2018). Journal information: Scientific Reports Saliu Alao Amolegbe et al, Mesoporous silica nanocarriers encapsulated antimalarials with high therapeutic performance,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-21351-8On the left, a polymer with an elongated backbone (red-yellow). The long side chains (grey) of the molecular building blocks form a scaffold that stabilizes the elongation. On the right, a polymer with a bent backbone. Credit: Dominic Raithel

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are used in smartphones and televisions to facilitate the high-contrast display of colours. Conjugated polymers are also often employed as organic semiconductors in such diodes. Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have found out how the spatial structure of these polymers can be used to control the colours of the OLEDs and help to increase the brightness of monitors. They have now presented this previously unknown mechanism in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Polymers with a backbone: spatial structures determine the colour of light

Polymers that are well-suited for use in organic light-emitting diodes play a central role in the new research findings. Thanks to the chain formed by connecting molecular building blocks, they possess a backbone. If the polymers are then exposed to a laser beam, they absorb the light and store it as excitation energy. This energy spreads along the backbone. Shortly after that, it is released by emission of light.

Up to now it had been assumed that the colour of the emitted light depends on how far the excitation energy spreads along the polymers: supposedly, the more bent the polymers were, the smaller the distance over which the energy spread. However, the scientists in Bayreuth have now refuted this assumption. The polymers they studied have backbones that are chemically identical and bent to different degrees, but the excitation energy always spreads over the same distance. Bent polymers emit green or blue light, while elongated polymers radiate yellow or red light. "When these polymers come to be used in organic light-emitting diodes, their various spatial structures can be utilized to precisely control the colour of the light emit from the OLEDs," explained physicist Dominic Raithel (M.Sc.), lead author of the article that has now been published in PNAS.

The researchers in Bayreuth also found out that the elongated polymers possess a scaffold formed by its side chains, which stabilizes the elongated structure. "This results in a special advantage for light-emitting diodes: when elongated polymers are layered on top of one another, the scaffolds provide stability. Optical emission is not thereby weakened", said Raithel, who recently completed his dissertation in the University of Bayreuth's DFG-funded research training group "Photophysics of Synthetic and Biological Multichromophoric Systems". In this context, natural and synthetic organic materials are studied in close interdisciplinary cooperation. For example, experimental physicists Prof. Dr. Anna Kohler and Prof. Dr. Jurgen Kohler along with Prof. Dr. Mukundan Thelakkat, expert in functional polymers, were involved in the new experiments.

A transatlantic interplay of theory and experiment

The comparative experimental investigations of polymers made use of different types of spectroscopy methods. "A decisive factor was single-molecule spectroscopy at very low temperatures, for which Bayreuth provided us with its high-performance infrastructure. Using this method, we were able to determine the colour of the emitted light and finally the extension of excitation energy over the chain-like polymers," explained Dr. Richard Hildner, who coordinated the research at the University of Bayreuth.

The scientists in Bayreuth worked together closely with a research group at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Dr. Lena Simine and Prof. Dr. Peter J. Rossky carried out extensive calculations on the impact of polymer structures on the colour of the emitted light. Linking experimental and theoretical methods led to insights into the spatial structures of individual polymer chains which would have been impossible using traditional imaging techniques.

Explore further Custom sequences for polymers using visible light

More information: Dominic Raithel et al. Direct observation of backbone planarization via side-chain alignment in single bulky-substituted polythiophenes, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Dominic Raithel et al. Direct observation of backbone planarization via side-chain alignment in single bulky-substituted polythiophenes,(2018). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1719303115This lake in Berkeley, California was one source of the toluene-producing enzyme (phenylacetate decarboxylase) discovered in the JBEI study. Credit: Chickmarkley

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a new enzyme that will enable microbial production of a renewable alternative to petroleum-based toluene, a widely used octane booster in gasoline that has a global market of 29 million tons per year.

Results from a study led by Harry Beller , Berkeley Lab senior scientist and scientific lead at JBEI, were published Monday in the journal Nature Chemical Biology. The other lead co-authors are Andria Rodrigues and Kamrun Zargar of JBEI.

A major focus of research at JBEI, and in the broader community of biofuel researchers, is the production of industrially and commercially relevant fuels and chemicals from renewable resources, such as lignocellulosic biomass, rather than from petroleum. The enzyme discovered in this study will enable the first-time microbial production of bio-based toluene, and in fact, the first microbial production of any aromatic hydrocarbon biofuel.

The enzyme discovery resulted from the intensive study of two very different microbial communities that produced toluene. One community contained microbes from lake sediment, and the other from sewage sludge. Since microbes in the environment are a reservoir of enzymes that catalyze an extraordinarily diverse set of chemical reactions, it's not unusual for scientists working in biotechnology to source enzymes from nature.

Beller was motivated to investigate bio-based toluene after reading literature reports from the 1980s that revealed microbial toluene biosynthesis in anoxic lake sediments. Despite a number of reports of bacterial toluene production since that time, the identity of the enzyme catalyzing this biochemically challenging reaction has been a mystery for decades.

The toluene-synthesizing enzyme discovered in this study, phenylacetate decarboxylase, belongs to a family of enzymes known as glycyl radical enzymes (GREs). Scientists only began to recognize GREs in the 1980s, and phenylacetate decarboxylase is just the eighth known GRE reaction type to have been discovered and characterized since then. However, metagenomic evidence presented in the JBEI study and others points to the fact that many more GREs exist in nature that have yet to be characterized.

The radical nature of GREs allows them to catalyze chemically challenging reactions, such as anaerobic decarboxylation of phenylacetate to generate toluene. Beyond their potential biotechnological applications, a number of known GREs are relevant to human health and occur within the human gut microbiome.

The process of enzyme discovery for this project was both challenging and unconventional. The researchers first started working with a bacterial species reported to make toluene, but when those reports appeared to be irreproducible, the scientists turned to the environment for toluene-producing cultures - specifically to municipal sewage and anoxic lake sediment.

"All enzyme discovery projects are challenging. But moving from discovery in a single bacterial species, to discovery in a complex microbial community from sewage sludge or lake sediments, was more difficult by orders of magnitude," says Beller. "This study became a needle-in-a-haystack search for the toluene-producing enzyme in a candidate pool of hundreds of thousands of enzymes."

In fact, metagenome analyses revealed that these microbial communities each contained more than 300,000 genes - the equivalent of more than 50 bacterial genomes. Another challenge was that the anaerobic microbial communities and many of their enzymes were sensitive to oxygen, forcing the scientists to manipulate cultures and enzymes under strictly anaerobic conditions.

The discovery process combined protein purification techniques used by biochemists for decades, such as fast protein liquid chromatography, with modern metagenomic, metaproteomic, and associated bioinformatic analyses, some of which were carried out in collaboration with the Joint Genome Institute, a DOE Office of Science User Facility. An important component of the discovery process was to validate the researchers' predictions of the toluene biosynthesis enzyme with experiments using highly controlled assays involving purified proteins.

An intriguing question arising from this research is: why would a bacterium produce toluene? The researchers don't have the definitive answer but present two hypotheses in the paper. One possibility is that the bacterium is producing toluene as a toxin to outcompete other microbes in its environment. Another hypothesis is that the phenylacetate decarboxylase (toluene-producing) reaction provides a strategy for the bacterium to regulate its internal pH in a somewhat acidic, fermentative environment.

Beller and his colleagues believe that their study results have implications for fundamental and applied science. From a biochemical perspective, the study expands the known catalytic range of GREs, and from a biotechnological perspective, it will enable first-time biochemical synthesis of an aromatic fuel hydrocarbon from renewable resources.

"We have so much to learn about the extraordinary metabolic diversity of bacteria," Beller said. "Through eons of evolution, nature has devised enzymes that can catalyze difficult chemical reactions, and as we discover these, we can harness them for biotechnology."

Explore further To find new biofuel enzymes, it can take a microbial village

More information: "Discovery of enzymes for toluene synthesis from anoxic microbial communities," Nature Chemical Biology (2018). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-018-0017-4 Journal information: Nature Chemical Biology "Discovery of enzymes for toluene synthesis from anoxic microbial communities,"(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41589-018-0017-4

Summary

Mexicos northern borderlands have become notorious for their lawlessness. At times it can seem that organized crime groups have as much control as the federal government. Last year was actually Mexicos most murderous year on record. The drug trade is the easy and obvious explanation for this phenomenon, and it isnt wrong  but it is incomplete. Mexican governments have always had a difficult time ruling over the outer reaches of their domain. The Spanish Empire, which also had the capital of its Viceroyalty of New Spain in Mexico City, had similar issues. The Aztec Empire (also based in Mexico City, though it called it Tenochtitlan) would have encountered the same problem if it had gotten much larger. The common thread here isnt narcotics; its geography. The region around Mexico City is the heartland of Mexico, but its also disconnected from the farthest reaches of the country by distance, mountain ranges and plateaus. This Deep Dive will take a closer look at the features of Mexicos geography that make its borderlands and peninsulas so difficult to control from the center. Well also look at Mexicos history, which is rife with periods that promoted the localization of security and independent-minded regional security forces. And well discuss the northern border region and its relationship to the U.S., specifically what it would take for the U.S. to intervene militarily to secure the border and quell the violence.

Geography Then and Now Mexico City, the seat of Mexicos government, has a very basic problem: It has a lot of territory to govern and many physical obstacles between itself and much of that territory. Mexico is one of only two places in the world (the other is off the coast of Peru and Ecuador) that resides on or near the junctions of four tectonic plates  the Pacific, Cocos, Caribbean and North American plates. This makes the country a hub for seismic activity, the cause of Mexicos many mountain ranges and plateaus. The mountainous topography separates the country into regions with unique physical environments. In some areas this hindered the development of population centers, and it has defined the culture as well as which economic activities are viable. Narrow coastal plains and basins run along either side of the country. To the extreme northwest and southeast are the Baja California and Yucatan peninsulas, respectively. Just a short distance inland, three mountain ranges flank the mainland  the Sierra Madre Occidental in the west, the Sierra Madre Oriental in the east, and the Sierra Madre del Sur in the south. Between the western and eastern mountain ranges is the massive Mexican plateau.

(click to enlarge)

Geographically, the Mexican plateau is a single feature; geopolitically, theres a clear division between the northern and southern plateau regions. The Chihuahaun Desert dominates the northern plateau. It does not easily support large-scale vegetation, wildlife or human populations. The southern plateau, on the other hand, sits at an altitude 3,000 feet (900 meters), which gives it a much more habitable climate, and its valleys to the south are among the most habitable in the country. Temperatures in the southern plateau and valley average 40-80 degrees Fahrenheit (about 4-27 degrees Celsius) year-round and rarely reach extreme levels. Annual rainfall is typically about 28 inches (71 centimeters), well above the roughly 15 inches needed to maintain agricultural practices, and arable land makes food production possible.



(click to enlarge)

Put these factors together and it makes sense why the valley south of the southern plateau region is the heart of Mexican civilization  the center of the Aztec empire and still the geopolitical heartland of the country today. The coast could support a large population, but any capital there would have found itself even more disconnected than Mexico City is from the rest of the country. The southern plateau isnt perfect, but it is the best chance a civilization has to expand and project power to all corners of modern-day Mexico. In fact, a glance at the pre-Columbian empires  mostly the Aztec but also the Mayan  provides a blueprint for understanding how Mexicos mountain systems still impede power projection today. Both civilizations reached their limits in large part because of the difficulties that came with regularly traversing mountain ranges. For the Aztec, administrative systems were put in place to reflect this. The Aztecs capital was Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City. As their empire expanded, direct control over their new holdings did not. In some areas they allowed local officials to govern and demanded tribute in return.



(click to enlarge)

Nearly 500 years have elapsed since the Aztec Empire fell, but the situation isnt all that different for Mexico today. Technology has reduced geographys impact, but rarely does innovation overcome geography entirely. The mountains and long distances that afflicted the ancient empires of the land are still making it hard for the government in the valleys off the southern plateau to have a strong presence in Mexicos peninsulas, coastal regions and northernmost states.

The Monumental Task of Unification Mexicos topography poses the same challenges to internal security that it does to central governance. Historically, Mexico City could not easily move large numbers of troops over vast distances and treacherous terrain, so it has had no choice but to rely on local forces to augment the national security forces. The Mexican states, in turn, have been conditioned to be self-reliant on security. From time to time, the isolation of some areas and subsequent feeling of alienation has engendered the creation of armed rebel groups hoping to secede from or even overthrow the national government. Combined, these trends have led to a strong belief in homegrown security and skepticism of the national government. This strongly influences the way the state and non-state actors respond to lapses in security in modern Mexico. Where geography and estrangement once fostered rebellion and independence movements, today those factors help explain the rapid growth of organized crime groups and the vigilante groups that have popped up to stop them. The reliance on local forces to augment central government forces dates back to Mexicos colonial period, though initially it had less to do with the regions terrain or vastness. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, Spain was engaged in multiple wars across Europe. The Spanish crown needed its troops for battles in the near abroad, and so once Mexico was considered conquered, Spain redirected military resources to its European endeavors. Much of the day-to-day security responsibilities were put in the hands of the colonists and local authorities. Mayors and business elites often funded irregular militias to help enforce security in the countryside and city centers. Over time, Spain sent more regular troops over to Mexico, but mostly it tried arming and training locals to enforce security. By the early 19th century, near the start of Mexicos war for independence, there were approximately 40,000 security forces in Mexico, only 6,000 of which were professional soldiers. The rest were from local militias. When Mexicos independence movement took shape, it drew most of its fighting force from those local militias. Once Spain was driven out, however, Mexico still faced the monumental task of unification. Many states were reluctant to answer to a central authority immediately after ridding themselves of Spanish rule. As a colony, economic activities had been poorly integrated  the states focus had been on shipping goods to Spain, not to each other. And the states had their own longstanding militias, whose members often had a strong affinity for their local authorities. As a result, the newly formed Mexican government spent much of the 1830s and 1840s confronting secessionist movements. The central government was ill-equipped to deal with so many threats at once. Many state and local governments refused to pay more taxes and support a national army, preferring instead to maintain their own forces for defense. Large-scale rebellions erupted in Zacatecas and Tabasco, while republics temporarily formed in the territories of Texas, Yucatan and Rio Grande. (Texas eventually joined the United States, Yucatan returned to Mexico, and Rio Grande split the difference  part went to Texas, the rest became the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.) Not coincidentally, all the areas where republics formed are far from the southern plateau region, and mountain ranges or deserts separate them from Mexicos core. Later in the 19th century and into the 20th century, other political shifts reinforced the idea that local security forces must have a prominent role. When the French tried to re-establish a monarch in Mexico in 1861, some Mexican elites endorsed the effort. Much of the country didnt. France sent its military to impose its will. Local forces had to be commandeered to fight the French national troops. During the French intervention, the ousted Mexican government still strove to function in parallel to the French and was never fully quashed. Then in 1910 came the Mexican Revolution, when the idea of local force development was even more vital to the revolutions success. The longstanding government of President Porfirio Diaz used patronage to build close ties with local leadership and used the military to crush dissent. Though this approach succeeded in bringing economic growth and the most stable government structure the country had seen up to that point, it was unsustainable. Many segments of society lacked input or representation in government, and eventually they fought back. The revolution gave a voice to the miners and farmers and factory workers who had been voiceless under the elitist government. When it came time to write a new constitution in 1917, more power was given to the local authorities. The new constitution provided a framework for security and conflict resolution under the guidance of local community leaders.

Modern Mexico A century later, the most vexing areas for the Mexican central government are those in the northern part of the country because of their proximity to the United States. The U.S.-Mexico border stretches almost 2,000 miles (3,100 kilometers), long enough for distinct sections to develop. A 2011 Foreign Policy Research Institute report provides a geopolitical breakdown of the border and surrounding region into three parts. First, there is Baja California, which consists of Mexicos Baja California and Baja California Sur states (bordering California). Then there is the central band of the border referred to as the Sierra Madre, which includes Sonora and Chihuahua states (bordering Arizona, New Mexico and west Texas). The northern sections of Durango and Sinaloa are essentially part of this border section, though they dont actually border the United States. Finally, theres the Rio Grande Basin, which sits just south of Texas and includes Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas as well as the northern parts of Durango, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi (which, again, arent on the border but are so connected to the border states that they may as well be).



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Economically, some of these states are as connected, if not more connected, to their neighbors to the north than they are to the people in the southern plateau who govern their lives. These are realities that Mexico can live with, but the violence and insecurity of the northern states are a different story. Mexico City cannot let the situation deteriorate to the point that it loses the ability to exert authority, or even worse, that the U.S. feels compelled to intervene. Baja California is strategically valuable for Mexico as a natural land buffer along the Pacific coast. Much of the peninsula, and its population, is closer to California than it is to Mexico City. As a result, the peninsula boasts strong cross-border ties with the U.S., and American companies have been influential in the regions development. On the Atlantic coast, the Rio Grande Basin provides its own strategic value given its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico. Its local businesses are closely tied to the Texas economy, which is as important, if not more so, to the local livelihood as Mexico City. The Sierra Madre region in the center is one of the most difficult regions for Mexico to control. It includes mountainous terrain on either side, with the vast Chihuahuan Desert in between. This was one of the least populated areas during the colonial and early independence times. Because of the terrain, ties with Mexico City are meager, and it is difficult to sustain population centers. These conditions bred a strong feeling of distance from Mexicos central government. Once upon a time, clashes with indigenous groups like the Comanche were frequent, and a distinct rancher and cowboy culture took root, which contrasted sharply with the cosmopolitan, aristocratic society of the capital. Mexicos wars have also had a large impact on the people of this area. During the war for independence, Spain severed Mexico Citys supply lines to the north, and Sonora state suffered as a result. Inhabitants of the area were also the most affected among Mexicans by the exchange of territory at the end of the Mexican-American War.

Conclusion Mexicos government today faces the same challenges in projecting power as those that came before it. Its ability to influence the outer reaches of the country dwindle with each mile and mountaintop, same as ever. The difference today is that the actors filling the power void arent concerned with self-governance; theyre organized crime groups fighting for turf, and vigilante groups fighting for peace. After so many instances in which local populations benefited from taking matters into their own hands, there is a sense of local entitlement to self-governance. The result has been widespread violence, the deterioration of local institutions and a central government looking more and more to the military to re-establish law and order. As the violence creeps toward and exceeds historic levels and uncertainty grows about the governments ability to control it, the U.S. is paying close attention to the potential for spillover. Its not unheard of that the U.S. would react to security threats emanating from across the border: Instability during Mexicos revolution provoked a U.S. military intervention in 1916, when the U.S. Army sent a Punitive Expedition force to capture Pancho Villa. But if thats what it takes for the United States to intervene, we are a long way from intervention. At the time of its revolution, Mexicos central government was extremely weak, and multiple border incursions had resulted in the killing of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. Before Washington got involved, it pursued other measures such as putting more troops on the border, declaring martial law along the Texas border and setting up blockades to prevent arms shipments from reaching Mexico. Today, its focus is on building a Wall.Credit: Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University

Last weekend, the New York Times revealed that data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica misused data from as many as 50 million Facebook profiles to aid messaging tied to the Trump campaign in the 2016 presidential election.

The Federal Trade Commission has since opened an investigation into Facebook, but the entire incident has left social media users concerned about their own privacy online and how their information is being used.

We spoke with assistant professor David Choffneswhose research includes designing solutions to internet security and privacyto see what social media users should learn from this, and what steps they can take to keep themselves safe online.

The Cambridge Analytica case has revealed the extent to which Facebook collects and sells user data. What does this mean for the average social media user?

At this point, if you've already given Facebook information, then the horse is out of the barn and you're not going to get it back in. One of the problems with the design of the programming interface these Facebook apps use is that sometimes your own settings don't protect you. By default, when someone installs a Facebook app, it can access not only your data but all your friends' data.

It also means you've given data away not only to Facebook but probably to even more subtle sources. If you wanted to be able to share your photos from iPhoto, for example, so that you can post those photos directly to Facebook, that means that iPhoto got access to data about you, including things like employment history. Hopefully the Cambridge Analytica story can help people realize the extent to which their information is being used, and that they need to limit what is known about them online moving forward.

What are some practical steps that users can take to protect themselves?

There's a spectrum of what people can do to protect themselves. You can take it to the extreme and delete your Facebook profile and all other social media. There are a lot of people saying that's what people should do in response, but I don't think that's entirely practical. Facebook and some other platforms like Twitter are actually essential for the things we do, and at some point it's really the main way that people access vital information.

Instead, the first thing you can do is de-authorize those apps you don't need. If you participated in a personality survey like the one that Cambridge Analytica used, you probably want to turn that off and revoke access. Facebook has a settings interface that allows you to lock down information being shared and restrict apps installed by your friends that can see your own information. That's a concrete thing you can do to at least limit the data collection going forward.

Another thing to be aware of is that if you're still in Facebook and you didn't explicitly log out of the site, then anytime you visit a website that has a Facebook 'like' button, your browser is actually communicating with Facebook to let it know that you and your specific profile, not just an anonymous person, is visiting that website. So, these privacy protections that you've set within the Facebook interface only protect you within Facebook, but it doesn't mean they're not still collecting data about you as you go elsewhere on the web.

It's important for people to realize that just trying to improve privacy in one place on the internet is generally not going to protect you from things like profile-based targeting.

Should these precautions be taken on all social media platforms, not just Facebook?

Absolutely. Everybody is focusing on Facebook right now because it's been in the news, but the way every social media platform makes money is by selling your data. It's important to be aware that most apps you use have some type of tracking software built in. Some of it can be controlled by restricting the data you make available to social network platforms, but only to the extent that the platforms have privacy settings limiting how they can share that data.

The general recommendation, though, is this: when you decide to install and use an app, think twice about whether you need the app. And, if you do use the app, think twice about the information that you provide to it. You should assume that any information you provide may be shared with other parties. Think of your online privacy like you think of any other hygiene  if you don't brush your teeth, they'll fall out. If you don't take practices to protect your privacy, your data is going to get out there.

Explore further Firefox maker Mozilla to stop Facebook advertising because of data scandalGermany's justice minister, Katarina Barley, said Facebook should face "stricter" oversight after data leak

Germany's justice minister on Monday said Facebook should face "stricter" oversight and be more transparent with its users, as the tech giant struggles to contain the fallout from a huge data privacy scandal.

Speaking after a meeting with European Facebook executives in Berlin, Justice Minister Katarina Barley said the firm's assurances that it had already cracked down on the misuse of personal data were "not enough".

"In future we will clearly have to monitor companies like Facebook more strictly and punish data protection violations severely and quickly," she told reporters.

Facebook was plunged into crisis when a whistleblower revealed that a British consultancy linked to US President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign harvested the data of some 50 million Facebook users without their consent.

The revelation reignited longstanding European concerns that the social media giant was not doing enough to protect the privacy of its users.

The issue is particularly sensitive in Germany, a nation still haunted by the surveillance carried out by the Nazis and the communist-era Stasi secret police.

Barley said Facebook should be more transparent with its users, who should be informed in "clear, precise and simple language" how their personal data will be used, and given the chance to opt out if they object.

She also welcomed new European Union regulations that will take effect in May and will force social media firms to better protect users' online privacyor face huge fines.

The British firm at the centre of the controversy, Cambridge Analytica, has been accused of exploiting the hijacked data to create detailed psychological profiles to target potential Trump voters.

The data was obtained via a personality quiz app that was downloaded by some 270,000 people, but also scooped up details about their Facebook friends without their knowledgeas was possible under Facebook's rules at the time.

Barley said Facebook was still working to determine exactly how many German users were affected by the data breach.

Around one percent of the people who downloaded the quiz were from Europe, the Facebook executives told Barley.

Facebook has faced growing scrutiny in Germany in recent years.

The country's competition watchdog in December slammed the company for using its dominant position to "limitlessly" harvest user data from outside websites and apps, which is then used to create "hyper-targeted" ads.

Germany also has one of the world's toughest laws against online hate speech, which gives firms like Facebook 24 hours to remove posts that violate German legislation or risk fines of up to 50 million euros ($62 million).

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has apologised for the Cambridge Analytica data breach, which he said had betrayed the trust of the website's more than two billion users.

"We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again," he said in an ad taken out in US and UK newspapers at the weekend.

Explore further US FTC probing Facebook data scandal: media

 2018 AFPThe paradisiac Boldro beach, Fernando de Noronha archipelago, Northeast Brazil. Credit: Luciano Barros-Neto

While people tend to describe tropical oceanic islands as 'paradises on Earth' and associate them with calm beaches, transparent warm waters and marvellous landscapes, archipelagos are often the product of a fierce natural forcevolcanoes which erupt at the bottom of the sea.

Because of their origin, these islands have never been connected to the mainland, thereby it is extremely difficult for species to cross the ocean and populate them.

One such speciesthe South American guppy (Poecilia vivipara) - is a small freshwater fish which looks nowhere equipped to cross the distance between the mainland and the Fernando de Noronha oceanic archipelago in Northeast Brazil.

Nevertheless, the research team of Ph.D. student Waldir M. Berbel-Filho and his professor Dr. Sergio Lima from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte recorded the species from a local mangrove on the island. The question that immediately sprang to the minds of the scientists was: 'Where did the guppies come from and how did they get to Fernando de Noronha?'

To answer these questions, the scientists sequenced a gene of the guppies' DNA to analyze potential signatures of the island colonization left in the fish DNA. As a result, they concluded that the isolated population was in fact closely related to the fish inhabiting the closest continental drainages.

A male of the guppy, Poecilia vivipara, sampled in Fernando de Noronha archipelago. Credit: Sergio Lima

However, this evidence was not enough to explain how the species turned up on the island in the first place. Was it natural colonization, or rather human introduction?

The most likely scenario, according to the team, leads back to about 60 years ago when the American military had their WWII bases positioned at both Fernando de Noronha and Natalthe closest continental city. Indeed, the soldiers suggested to bring guppies to the island in an attempt to control mosquito population (in this region, guppies are commonly placed in water reservoirs to eat mosquito larvae).

On the other hand, natural dispersion cannot be completely excluded. The biologists remind that, apart for their exuberant colours and shapes, the guppies are well known for their capacity to resist to a wide range of environmental conditions. It could be that a set of circumstances occurring together, such as a favourable sea current, physiological adaptation and a bit of luck, might have brought the guppies to the archipelago.

A male of the guppy, Poecilia vivipara, sampled in Sergipe, Brazil. Credit: Marcelo Brito

"Regardless of their means of transportation," argue the authors, "this guppy population represents a valuable lesson on how small populations manage to colonize and thrive in isolated environments."

"Despite being visited by thousands of people every year, some of the most intriguing secrets of tropical islands may still be hidden in the DNA of their inhabitants," they conclude. "These 'paradises on Earth' are capable of simultaneously filling our hearts with beauty and our mindswith knowledge."

Explore further Research group suggests using guppies to control mosquitoes be abandoned

More information: Waldir Miron Berbel-Filho et al, Poecilia vivipara Bloch & Schneider, 1801 (Cyprinodontiformes, Poeciliidae), a guppy in an oceanic archipelago: from where did it come?, ZooKeys (2018). Journal information: ZooKeys Waldir Miron Berbel-Filho et al, Poecilia vivipara Bloch & Schneider, 1801 (Cyprinodontiformes, Poeciliidae), a guppy in an oceanic archipelago: from where did it come?,(2018). DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.746.20960We tend to think of heroes in terms of a psychological profile: brave, altruistic, strong.

But a new study suggests that for at least one kind of heroism, it takes a village to save a life.

Through in-depth interviews, researchers examined what motivated some members of the majority Hutu population in Rwanda to risk their own safety to save persecuted ethnic Tutsi during the genocidal violence of 1994. The violence claimed up to 1 million lives, eliminating much of the Tutsi population.

"We started this study thinking we would identify the individual characteristics that motivated rescuers, because that's what most previous research had pointed to," said Hollie Nyseth Brehm, co-author of the study and assistant professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.

"But we realized very quickly that most people who rescued weren't doing this alone. It was a form of collective action. The social dynamics and situational context were key factors in determining whether someone decided to rescue."

In fact, the results of the study made clear that not all the Hutu who saved Tutsi were heroes, Brehm said. The researchers interviewed six Hutu who killed or performed other violence against some Tutsi, but also saved others.

"Some of them killed a Tutsi they didn't know, but saved someone they knew," Brehm said.

"People's behavior is complex. You can't always put them into these neat categories of 'good' or 'bad.' Psychological theories fall short when trying to explain why some people who rescued also killed other people. That's why it is important to understand the social situation, as we do in this study."

Brehm conducted the study with Nicole Fox, assistant professor of sociology at California State University, Sacramento. Their results appear online in the journal Social Forces and will appear in a future print edition.

For this study, the researchers conducted one- to two-hour interviews with 35 Hutu who had reported saving at least one Tutu from violence. Six of the people the researchers chose were defendants in court for committing genocidal crimes, but had also reported rescuing potential victims. The rescues took a variety of forms, but many involved hiding Tutsi in their homes from armed militias.

They supplemented their interviews with data from a survey of 273 rescuers done by other researchers.

In their analysis of the interviews, the researchers identified three major factors associated with collective action that could help explain why the rescuers did what they did to save Tutsi: biographical availability, socialization and situational context.

Biographical availability involves the influence of people's life circumstances in shaping their ability to rescue. The study found that most people who rescued were significantly older than the general population. As elders, they had influence over their families and may not have been expected to take part in militias committing genocide, which were dominated by the young.

Rescuers also tended to have higher socioeconomic status than most Rwandans, which often meant they had homes where they could hide persecuted Tutsi.

Socializationespecially family history and religious viewsalso played a key role in the decisions of people to rescue.

"The family history finding surprised us. That emerged from the data and was not something we had expected," Brehm said.

Twenty of the 35 people interviewed mentioned that their parents or grandparents had rescued Tutsi during previous periods of violence in the country. One man said he derived strength to act because of "what my parents had done in previous years."

Religion was another key factor. In the survey of rescuers, only three of the 273 respondents adhered to no religion. Most were Catholics (52 percent) and 40 percent were Protestants.

In the interviews, 57 percent mentioned faith being connected to their decisions to rescue.

One example of how religion played a role in decisions to rescue involved Seventh Day Adventists, who made up about 20 percent of the survey respondents. "They spoke about how their religious practices, such as abstinence from alcohol, created a social divide between them and those who participated in the violence," Brehm said.

The third factor involved in motivating rescuers was situational context. One important context was their social ties, specifically with Tutsi seeking help. One-third of survey respondents said they participated in rescue efforts because the people they were rescuing were friends or neighbors.

In the interviews, the numbers were even more striking: 32 of 35 people rescued people they knew.

"Often, we found that people who rescued had people show up at their doors and they had to decide whether to help," Brehm said.

Another key situational context was the community setting, including levels of violence and active militias. Some people were able to hide Tutsi because militias thought their villages had been fully "cleansed" of Tutsi. Other Hutu rescuers (often those who also committed violence) had close ties to militia members, so they were not suspected of hiding Tutsi.

Brehm noted that the rescuers interviewed for this study were not randomly chosen. She and Fox found the participants in a variety of ways, but there is no way to tell if they are representative of all rescuers in the country.

Brehm said psychological traits undoubtedly played at least some role in people's decisions to risk their lives to rescue. But the good news from this study is that heroism is within reach of most people, given the right circumstances.

"These results suggest than nearly anyone can engage in heroic deeds. You may not need a certain personality type, as long as you have the right network of friends and family and a support system that can help you."

More information: Nicole Fox et al. "I Decided to Save Them": Factors That Shaped Participation in Rescue Efforts during Genocide in Rwanda, Social Forces (2018). Nicole Fox et al. "I Decided to Save Them": Factors That Shaped Participation in Rescue Efforts during Genocide in Rwanda,(2018). DOI: 10.1093/sf/soy018Permafrost underlies much of this tundra landscape in Alaska, as well as similar areas in the circumpolar North. Permafrost contains substantial stores of carbon that are vulnerable to release as climate warms. Credit: Christina Schadel

Controlling greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades could substantially reduce the consequences of carbon releases from thawing permafrost during the next 300 years, according to a new paper published this week in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.

Conversely, climate policy that results in little or no effort to control greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide would likely result in a substantial release of carbon from the permafrost region by 2300, the study found.

A. David McGuire, U.S. Geological Survey senior scientist and climate system modeling expert with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Arctic Biology, is lead author of the paper. Several other UAF researchers, along with scientists from about two dozen other research institutions worldwide, contributed to the study.

Scientists estimate that the soils of the Earth's circumpolar North contain about twice the amount of carbon as is in the atmosphere. Much of that carbon is frozen organic matter locked within permafrost. As global temperatures rise and permafrost thaws, the previously frozen organic material begins to decay and releases greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide. The release of that carbon can, in turn, cause additional warming and the release of more carbon, something scientists call a positive feedback loop.

Even without immediate controls on greenhouse gases now, the bulk of the permafrost carbon release would not occur until after the year 2100. Study authors note that this could cause society to grow complacent and accept less aggressive efforts to control greenhouse gases. Waiting too long to institute controls could mean the controls come too late to prevent substantive loss of carbon from permafrost soils.

"Society can do something about this, at least that's what the state-of-the-art models are saying," McGuire said.

The degree to which climate change could influence carbon dynamics in the northern permafrost region has important implications for policy decisions. However, most climate system models have not done a good job of showing the relationship between permafrost and soil carbon dynamics. Because of that, they haven't allowed an accurate assessment of the effects of climate change on carbon in the region.

In the new study, McGuire and his colleagues used simulations to study changes in permafrost and carbon storage in the northern permafrost region from 2010 to 2299 using two climate change scenarios: One with low carbon dioxide emissions and one with high carbon dioxide emissions. Permafrost expert Dmitry Nicolsky of the UAF Geophysical Institute provided simulation data on changes in the extent of permafrost in the northern hemisphere and the predicted thaw depth under the two scenarios.

The low emission scenario would require carbon emissions by global human society to decrease by 75 percent during this century. In that scenario, the study showed the loss 3 million to 5 million square kilometers of permafrost and changes in soil carbon ranging from a 66-petagram loss to a 70-petagram gain. One petagram equals one trillion kilograms or 2.2 trillion pounds.

In the high emission scenario, or essentially no change in current trends of fossil fuel use, permafrost losses were between 6 million and 16 million square kilometers, while soil carbon losses varied from 74 to 652 petagrams and occur mostly after 2100. This represents a loss of 20 to 63 percent of the carbon now stored in northern permafrost.

The findings suggest that effective new greenhouse gas controls could help lessen the effects of climate change on the release of carbon from soils of the northern permafrost region and therefore decrease the potential for a positive feedback of permafrost carbon release on climate warming.

"If such controls aren't adopted, it will lead to major changes for ecosystems and infrastructure," Nicolsky said.

Explore further Thawing permafrost produces more methane than expected

More information: A. David McGuire et al, Dependence of the evolution of carbon dynamics in the northern permafrost region on the trajectory of climate change, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences A. David McGuire et al, Dependence of the evolution of carbon dynamics in the northern permafrost region on the trajectory of climate change,(2018). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1719903115Credit: University of Stirling

Children from low-income families risk being failed by schools  because of the belief their parents lack ambition for them, a University of Stirling academic has claimed.

Aspirations are widely used in education and policy circles as levers for closing the attainment gap between children and young people of high and low socioeconomic backgrounds.

However, Dr Morag Treanor, senior lecturer in Sociology, challenged the so-called 'poverty of aspiration' myth, claiming it transferred responsibility for aspirations and achievement from governments and schools, to parents and children.

In a study, Can we put the 'poverty of aspiration' myth to bed now?, she analysed 3,500 responses from the Growing up in Scotland longitudinal study, which is tracking the lives of thousands of children and their families from birth through to the teenage years and beyond.

She found that all parents want the best for their children but lower-income parents are less likely to know what is possible or how to achieve it. They are also less likely to know how to support their children's education.

She called on policy-makers to promote policies which open up knowledge of the whole range of opportunities available to parents and children in poverty, including routes into higher education.

"Each of us is a creation of our past and present experiences as well as our acquired skills, knowledge and education," she said. "Those of us with no experience of sailing in the Mediterranean do not aspire to yacht ownership on the Cote d'Azur.

"That does not make us deficient in aspiration; rather, we aspire to what we have experience of, what we know we can influence, and what we believe we can achieve.

"While the poverty of aspiration myth is allowed to perpetuate and even gain in momentum, it will continue to distract from the ways in which children living in poverty are failed by the education system."

The study analysed parents' responses to questions on the aspirations they hold for their children.

It found significant difference in the types of aspirations parents hold for their children, according to their experience of poverty.

Those with an experience of living in any type of poverty were 1.6 times more likely to want their children to start a training course or undertake an apprenticeship and they were half as likely as parents with no experience of poverty to want their children to stay on at school beyond the age of 16.

Dr Treanor argued that while parents' aspirations can differ according to their experience of poverty, they are still 'high' aspirations, and are based on parents' own knowledge, understanding and experience.

The study also looked at parents' confidence in their ability to influence their children's schooling.

For every type of poverty, parents are between 1.4 and 1.8 times less likely to believe that they can positively influence their child's achievement at school, compared to parents with no experience of poverty.

Dr Treanor said this corresponded to existing research which shows while poorer parents have aspirations for their children, they are less confident in their ability to assist them.

Explore further New research reveals why children move into poverty

More information: Can we put the poverty of aspirations myth to bed now? Can we put the poverty of aspirations myth to bed now? dspace.stir.ac.uk/handle/1893/26654Credit: CC0 Public Domain

As society faces the challenge of limiting warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius, new research finds an apparent contradiction: Achieving that goal doesn't necessarily require cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero, as called for in the Paris Agreement. But under certain conditions, even zero emissions might not be enough.

The Paris Agreement, a global effort to respond to the threats of human-caused climate change, stipulates that warming be limited to between 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F). It also stipulates that countries achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the second half of this century. But the relationship between the twois the emissions goal sufficient or even necessary to meet the temperature goal?has not been well understood.

In a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, scientists used a computer model to analyze a variety of possible future scenarios to better understand how emissions reductions and temperature targets are connected. The study, published March 26, was led by Katsumasa Tanaka at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Japan and co-authored by Brian O'Neill at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research.

"What we found is that the two goals do not always go hand in hand," Tanaka said. "If we meet temperature targets without first overshooting them, we don't have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero. But if we do reduce emissions to zero, we still might not meet the temperature targets if we don't reduce emissions quickly enough."

The team also found that whether temperatures overshoot the target temporarily has a critical impact on the scale of emissions reductions needed.

"If we overshoot the temperature target, we do have to reduce emissions to zero. But that won't be enough," Tanaka said. "We'll have to go further and make emissions significantly negative to bring temperatures back down to the target by the end of the century."

The research was supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (2-1702) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency in Japan and by the U.S. National Science Foundation, NCAR's sponsor.

Drafted in 2015, the Paris Agreement has been ratified by more than 170 countries. President Donald Trump announced last year the intention to withdraw the United States from the agreement.

Modeling the problem from both sides

For the study, the researchers used a simplified integrated assessment model that takes into account the physical connections between greenhouse gases and global mean temperature in the climate as well as the economic costs of emissions reductions.

"We investigated the consistency between the Paris targets in two ways. First we asked, what happens if you just meet the temperature target in a least-cost way? What would emissions look like?" said O'Neill, an NCAR senior scientist. "Then we said, let's just meet the emissions goal and see what kind of temperatures you get."

The team generated 10 different scenarios. They found that Earth's warming could be stabilized at 1.5 or 2 degrees Cwithout overshooting the goalby drastically cutting emissions in the short term. For example, total greenhouse gas emissions would need to be slashed by about 80 percent by 2033 to hit the 1.5-degree target or by about two-thirds by 2060 to meet the 2-degree target. In both these cases, emissions could then flatten out without ever falling to zero.

Due to the difficulty of making such steep cuts, the scientists also looked at scenarios in which the temperature was allowed to temporarily overshoot the targets, returning to 1.5 or 2 degrees by the end of the century. In the 1.5-degree overshoot scenario, emissions fall to zero by 2070 and then stay negative for the rest of the century. (Negative emissions require activities that draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.) For the 2-degree temporary overshoot scenario, emissions fall to zero in 2085 and also become negative, but for a shorter period of time.

On the flip side, the scientists also looked at scenarios where they set the emissions levels instead of the temperature. In those cases, they analyzed what would happen if emissions were reduced to zero around mid-century (2060) or at the end of the century (2100). In the first case, the global temperature peaked around the 2-degree target and then declined. But in the second case, the temperature rose above 2 degrees around 2043 and stayed there for a century or more.

"The timing of when emissions are reduced really matters," O'Neill said. "We could meet the goal set out in the Paris Agreement of reducing emissions to zero in the second half of the century and still wildly miss the temperature targets in the same agreement if we wait to take action."

The new study is part of a growing body of research that seeks to better understand and define what it will take to comply with the Paris Agreement. For example, another recent studyled by Tom Wigley, a climate scientist at the University of Adelaide who holds an honorary appointment at NCARalso looks at the quantity and timing of emissions cuts needed to stabilize global temperature rise at 1.5 or 2 degrees above preindustrial levels. This work focuses in particular on implications for emissions of carbon dioxide, the main component of the broader greenhouse gas emissions category that makes up the Paris emissions target.

O'Neill and Tanaka believe their work might be useful as countries begin to report the progress they've made reducing their emissions and adjust their goals. These periods of reporting and readjusting, known as global stocktakes, are formalized as part of the Paris Agreement and occur every five years.

"Our study and others may help provide countries with a clearer understanding of what work needs to be done to meet the goals laid out in the agreement. We believe that the Paris Agreement needs this level of scientific interpretation," Tanaka said.

Explore further Paris Climate Agreement targets challenged

More information: The Paris Agreement zero-emissions goal is not always consistent with the 1.5 C and 2 C temperature targets, Nature Climate Change (2018). Journal information: Nature Climate Change The Paris Agreement zero-emissions goal is not always consistent with the 1.5 C and 2 C temperature targets,(2018). nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0097-xWith Stern's new method the gender gap became much smaller (Symbolic photograph). Credit: Colourbox

Many school pupils fail at physics because they misunderstand the fundamental concepts. A new teaching method can change this  ETH researchers have now proven its effect. It particularly helps intelligent girls to learn more effectively.

What is the difference between mass and weight? How is force defined in physics? Very few school pupils can properly explain fundamental physics concepts, not even the most intelligent. The problem is not with the pupils, says Elsbeth Stern, Professor of Empirical Learning and Instruction Research at ETH Zurich: "Our research shows that when good students don't understand physics, it's mostly due to the teaching methods."

A study conducted by the research team led by Sarah I Hofer and Elsbeth Stern has now shown that even small changes to the lessons can have a big effect. The results have been published in the Journal of Educational Psychology.

Targeted failure

The method is based on getting the pupils to grapple with their prior knowledge. This is particularly important in physics, says Stern: "In almost no other subject do intuition and reality lie so far apart as in physics. Our everyday experiences do not help." Understanding physics concepts requires a huge mental effort from pupils. Learning formulas by heart isn't enough: "Plenty of school pupils know the formula 'force equals mass times acceleration', but they have a false understanding of the concepts of force, mass and acceleration." Only those who recognise these misconceptions are ready to understand physics.

The teaching unit developed at ETH Zurich's STEM learning centre begins with these misconceptions. For example, it lets the pupils fail in a specific way: they receive a task that they cannot solve with their existing knowledge. Only after they have attempted it does the teacher explain the underlying concept. Or they let the students work out the principles for themselves using different examples before they are given the formula.

Successful in-school test

Stern and her group have now shown that the method works in regular school lessons as well as in the laboratory. In an experiment, the researchers demonstrated that pupils performed better in physics when they were taught using the method developed at the STEM centre. They not only improved their conceptual understanding; they also became better at calculations.

Stern and her group found the biggest difference in performance in particularly intelligent girls  with the new method, they significantly caught up the boys. The gender gap did not disappear entirely, but it became much smaller.

For the experiment, the team worked with experienced physics teachers to develop a teaching unit with 18 lessons about Newtonian mechanics. Four secondary school teachers then spent a day being trained in the new method before teaching parallel classes with the conventional method and with the new method. The effectiveness was measured with three tests, one before the teaching unit, one just after it was completed and one three months later.

Rethinking physics teaching

The results are very positive, but this is only the beginning, says Stern: "I am sure that we can further increase the effects of the teaching unit." She next wants to fine-tune the method with the teachers involved in the experiment. She also hopes that the study will help people rethink their approach: "We will now turn even more confidently to those physics teachers who still primarily teach the subject using calculation exercises. That approach does not work."

Explore further Grouping students into ability-based sets holds back less able pupils

More information: Sarah I. Hofer et al. Enhancing physics learning with cognitively activating instruction: A quasi-experimental classroom intervention study., Journal of Educational Psychology (2018). Journal information: Journal of Educational Psychology Sarah I. Hofer et al. Enhancing physics learning with cognitively activating instruction: A quasi-experimental classroom intervention study.,(2018). DOI: 10.1037/edu0000266Credit: Science of The Total Environment (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.191

A team of researchers from the University of Antwerp has found evidence of heavy metal ingestion by wild birds causing changes in their personalities. In their paper published in Science of The Total Environment, the group describes the multiple ways they studied bird behavior near a site known for emitting cadmium and lead, and what they found.

Ingestion of heavy metals by humans can lead to a wide variety of physical and mental disorders, which caused the researchers to wonder what happens to birds that do the same. To find out, they set up and carried out a series of experiments meant to measure changes in personality in wild birds exposed to toxic metals.

The experiments all involved birds living near the Umicore facility, near Antwerpit is a smelting and metal refinery center notorious for emitting lead and cadmium into the area around it. For their experiments, the team chose to focus on great tits, a popular songbirdspecifically on five populations living at different distances from the metal refinery. To begin the study, the team captured 250 of the birds from the chosen sites and brought them back to their labs for study. The researchers observed them and recorded behavioral traits. They report that those birds captured closest to the metal refinery were the least active, and were also less curious. They report also that those closest to the smelting plant had the highest levels of the metals in their eggs and feathers.

In the second phase of the experiments, all of the captured birds were tagged and returned to the places where they had been captured. The team then monitored the behavior of all the birds in their natural environment and also when artificial factors were introduced, such as stuffed birds in nests to serve as an intruder, or recorded birdsong to mimic a competitor.

The team reports that the males became more aggressive towards the decoys the closer they lived to the smelting plant. In a similar vein, the females became more protective of their nestsbehaviors that are uncommon in birds not exposed to metal toxins.

The researchers suggest that some of the changes in behavior they witnessed could prove deadly for the birds, making them easier for predators to capture.

Explore further Study shows urban birds with darker feathers may be better at removing metal toxins

More information: Andrea S. Grunst et al. Variation in personality traits across a metal pollution gradient in a free-living songbird, Science of The Total Environment (2018). Andrea S. Grunst et al. Variation in personality traits across a metal pollution gradient in a free-living songbird,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.191 Abstract

Anthropogenic contaminants could alter traits central to animal behavioral types, or personalities, including aggressiveness, boldness and activity level. Lead and other toxic metals are persistent inorganic pollutants that affect organisms worldwide. Metal exposure can alter behavior by affecting neurology, endocrinology, and health. However, the direction and magnitude of the behavioral effects of metal exposure remain equivocal. Moreover, the degree to which metal exposure simultaneously affects suites of correlated behavioral traits (behavioral syndromes) that are controlled by common mechanisms remains unclear, with most studies focusing on single behaviors. Using a model species for personality variation, the great tit (Parus major), we explored differences in multiple behavioral traits across a pollution gradient where levels of metals, especially lead and cadmium, are elevated close to a smelter. We employed the novel environment exploration test, a proxy for variation in personality type, and also measured territorial aggressiveness and nest defense behavior. At polluted sites birds of both sexes displayed slower exploration behavior, which could reflect impaired neurological or physiological function. Territorial aggression and nest defense behavior were individually consistent, but did not vary with proximity to the smelter, suggesting that metal exposure does not concurrently affect exploration and aggression. Rather, exploration behavior appears more sensitive to metal pollution. Effects of metal pollution on exploration behavior, a key animal personality trait, could have critical effects on fitness. Journal information: Science of the Total Environment

 2018 Phys.orgThe Lake Thunderbird reservoir in Norman, Oklahoma. Credit: University of Oklahoma

A University of Oklahoma research study, led by Professor Xiangming Xiao, reveals the divergent trends of open surface water bodies in the contiguous United States from 1984 to 2016, specifically, a decreasing trend in the water-poor states and an increasing trend in the water-rich states. Surface water resources are critical for public water supply, industry, agriculture, biodiversity and ecosystem services.

"The data, information and knowledge on long-term trends of surface water bodies across the CONUS at high spatial resolution are valuable for planning and management of surface water resources, however, they are not widely available yet," said Xiao, professor of ecology and remote sensing in the Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, OU College of Arts and Sciences.

Xiao and his team analyzed approximately 370,000 Landsat images and generated annual surface water body frequency maps for 1984 to 2016 at 30-m spatial resolution. Zhenhua Zhou, first author on the study and one of Xiao's graduate students, says, "Google's Earth Engine cloud computing platform, freely available Landsat image data, together with the novel and robust mapping algorithms derived from years of remote sensing studies in the past allowed OU researchers to carry out the continental-scale image data analysis."

The spatial-temporal dynamics and trends of year-long water bodies in the CONUS during 1984 to 2016 were quantified by states and watersheds. During that period, 10 water-poor states in the southwest and northwest United States had statistically significant decreasing trends in surface water area, but 20 water-rich states in the southeast United States and the northern Great Plains had statistically significant increasing trends. Climate was the primary driving factor for such diverse trends in year-long surface water area since 1984.

"According to climate predictions, annual precipitation is likely to decrease in the Southwest but increase in the eastern United States during the 21st century, therefore, the observed diverse trends of surface water body areas since 1984 could continue to occur in the future," said Xiao.

OU researchers combined the surface water area data with the land water storage data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment during 2002 to 2016 to investigate the data dynamics in severe drought and pluvial years. The detailed analyses in California and the Southern Great Plains (Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas) clearly highlight a large withdrawal of groundwater in those drought years and slow post-drought recovery of surface water area, groundwater and land water storage over years.

A paper on this study by Xiao and his team, "Divergent Trends of Open Surface Water Body Area in the Contiguous United States During 1984 to 2016," has been published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Explore further Scientists unveil new satellite-based global drought severity index

More information: Zhenhua Zou el al., "Divergent trends of open-surface water body area in the contiguous United States from 1984 to 2016," PNAS (2018). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Zhenhua Zou el al., "Divergent trends of open-surface water body area in the contiguous United States from 1984 to 2016,"(2018). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1719275115The March PRL cover showcases the research. Credit: Physical Review Letters

Researchers from Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), the national research institute for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands, have studied how solar wind particles are accelerated and heated. In particular, they discovered how coherent structures in the solar wind, where the magnetic fields and electrical currents are enhanced, affect the energy transfer responsible for heating. The results were published in Physical Review Letters on 19 March 2018.

The sun emits a constant stream of charged particles, which form the so-called solar wind. At some distance from the sun, the solar wind is hotter than expected, which means some process is still heating the particles even after they leave the solar atmosphere. One of the outstanding questions in space physics is where and how this heating takes place. The longstanding hypothesis is that the sun causes turbulence in the emitted solar wind. That turbulence stirs the solar wind, and thus further accelerates and heats the particles.

In many turbulent flows, large-scale motions (big whirls) affect small-scale motions (little whirls). That means there is an energy transfer between motions on different scales. This is also the case in the turbulent solar wind. However, in solar wind, the way in which the energy transfer happens, turns out to be surprising. The researchers found that the energy transfer is very inhomogeneous: it happens only in specific locations. In fact, 80 percent of the energy transfer happens in about 50 percent of the space.

In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, CWI researcher Enrico Camporeale, together with colleagues from Italy and France, addresses why this is the case. They found that certain structures in the solar wind, where the magnetic field and the electrical currents are enhanced, are responsible for the inhomogeneity. These structures naturally emerge in all turbulent low density plasma's, of which solar wind is an example. They are typically in the form of elongated sheets where the magnetic field and the electrical currents are higher than elsewhere.

The work leads to a better understanding of the plasma turbulence in solar winds. A deep understanding of this phenomenon is necessary to develop better forecasts of harmful solar events, such as energetic solar wind particles that can damage satellites and electrical power grids.

To reach their conclusion, the team used high-resolution simulations, run at the Italian supercomputer center CINECAB. By using an innovative space-filter technique, they have been able to calculate the amount of energy transfer from large to small scales in different regions of the simulation, and to quantify the importance of coherent structures.

Explore further Cluster measures turbulence in Earth's magnetic environment

More information: E. Camporeale et al. Coherent Structures and Spectral Energy Transfer in Turbulent Plasma: A Space-Filter Approach, Physical Review Letters (2018). Journal information: Physical Review Letters E. Camporeale et al. Coherent Structures and Spectral Energy Transfer in Turbulent Plasma: A Space-Filter Approach,(2018). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.125101Types of cyber attacks

Spain and Europol on Monday announced the arrest of a Ukrainian man dubbed the mastermind of a gang behind hundreds of cyberattacks that have netted around a billion euros from banks.

The man, detained in the eastern coastal city of Alicante, carried out attacks using malware such as "Carbanak" and "Cobalt," according to Europol, which hailed cooperation with Spanish financial police as well as the FBI, Romanian, Belarusian and Taiwanese authorities and private cyber security firms.

From 2013, when it launched the Anunak malware programme, the gang attacked banks, e-payment systems and financial institutions in more than 40 countries, resulting "in cumulative losses of over EUR 1 billion for the financial industry," Europol said.

"The Cobalt malware alone allowed criminals to steal up to EUR 10 million per heist," the pan-European police body added.

Criminals sent phishing mails to bank employees with attachments purported to come from legitimate firms.

Once the malicious software had been downloaded it would allow the criminals to control infected computers remotely and gain access to the internal banking network as well as servers controlling ATM cashpoints from where "money mules" would collect the cash.

Some profits from the heists were laundered via cryptocurrencies, using prepaid cards linked to cryptocurrency wallets, investigators said.

The Spanish interior ministry named the suspect only as Denis K and said three accomplices "managed to gain access to practically all of Russia's banks and make withdrawals from ATMs in Madrid for half a million euros."

Wim Mijs, chief executive officer of the European Banking Federation, which helped with the investigation, said it "clearly goes beyond raising awareness on cybersecurity and demonstrates the value of our partnership with the cybercrime specialists at Europol.

"Public-private cooperation is essential when it comes to effectively fighting digital cross-border crimes like the one that we are seeing here with the Carbanak gang."

Steven Wilson, head of Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), lauded "a significant success" against a top level cybercriminal organisation in an operation which "illustrates that cybercriminals can no longer hide behind perceived international anonymity."

Explore further Police arrest dozens of suspects in cybercrime investigation

 2018 AFPCell division is the basis of all life. Even the smallest errors in this complex process can lead to grave diseases like cancer. Certain proteins have to be switched on or off at specific times for proper cell division. Biophysicists and medical biochemists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have described the underlying mechanism of this process. They report how different signaling pathways in the cell change the structures of proteins, thereby driving the cell division cycle in the right direction at the right time. The researchers present their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The cell cycle is an extremely complex and precisely defined process. "The parent cell has to double its existing components and then divide into daughter cells. In order to do this, numerous genes have to be switched on and off at very specific times," says biophysicist Professor Jochen Balbach from MLU. The cell cycle is sub-divided into phases. These are controlled by what are known as inhibitor proteins, also called CDK inhibitors. Like a red traffic light, these proteins block transition to the next phase until the cell gives the relevant start signal. The signal to start the next phase of the cell cycle comes from a special enzyme group, the kinases. "Previously, we only knew that the kinases passed on the signal by adding a phosphate group onto the CDK inhibitors. There was no knowledge, however, of which kinases do this, or the underlying molecular mechanism," says Balbach.

Together with the working group led by Professor Mechthild Hatzfeld from the Pathobiochemistry Section of the Medical Faculty of MLU, the researchers have now described this signaling pathway for the first time. They combined high-resolution magnetic resonance spectroscopy data with methods from cell biology. This meant that the researchers were able to explain the mechanism first in test tubes and then directly in cells. The researchers found that the kinases change the structure of the inhibitor proteins by unfolding them. This process disables the original function of the inhibitor proteins and releases a further blocked kinase that gives the signal for the cell cycle to continue. This local unfolding also triggers the degradation of the inhibitor in the cell, determining the direction in which the progression occurs. The researchers from Halle assume that this mechanism preserved by evolution is the basis of many cellular signal pathways.

Explore further Plant cells survive but stop dividing upon DNA damage

More information: Amit Kumar et al, Phosphorylation-induced unfolding regulates p19INK4dduring the human cell cycle, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Amit Kumar et al, Phosphorylation-induced unfolding regulates p19INK4dduring the human cell cycle,(2018). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1719774115

Provided by Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-WittenbergSingapore-based Grab is taking over the ride-sharing and food delivery operations of Uber in Southeast Asia

Uber sold its Southeast Asian business to rival Grab on Monday, ending a bruising battle between the ride-hailing behemoths and marking the US firm's latest retreat from international markets.

Singapore-based Grab is taking over the ride-sharing and food delivery operations of Uber in the region, with the California-headquartered company to receive a 27.5 percent stake in the business in return.

The sale is Uber's latest withdrawal from a market where it had faced tough competition, as new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi seeks to stem huge losses and move past a series of scandals.

After a fierce battle, Uber sold its China operations to rival Didi Chuxing in 2016 in return for a stake, and last year the US firm merged in Russia with the taxi-hailing app of internet giant Yandex.

The deal with Grabwhich operates in eight Southeast Asian countriesis similar to the one struck with Didi, and ends a fight for market share in a region that is home to some 650 million people and an increasingly affluent middle class.

"Today's acquisition marks the beginning of a new era," said Grab chief executive Anthony Tan. "The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region."

Khosrowshahi, who is joining Grab's board as part of the agreement, said: "This deal is a testament to Uber's exceptional growth across Southeast Asia over the last five years. It will help us double down on our plans for growth."

The value of the deal, which Grab said was the largest ever acquisition by a Southeast Asian internet company, was not disclosed.

Grab has long been the dominant force in ride-hailing in Southeast Asia and speculation mounted that a deal with Uber was on the cards after Japanese financial titan Softbank invested huge sums in the US firm.

Softbank is also a major investor in Grab, and is known for pushing for consolidation in the global ride-hailing industry, which has been losing billions of dollars a year due to turf wars.

'Fewer choices for commuters'

As part of Monday's deal, Grab is combining Uber's food delivery service in the region with its own and plans to expand it to more countries.

While both sides said the move would benefit customers, analysts raised concerns a lack of competition could push up prices.

"Industry consolidation will mean fewer choices for commuters and fares are likely to trend higher over time as the remaining players seek to improve their profitability longer term," Corrine Png, a transport analyst from Singapore-based research firm Crucial Perspective, told AFP.

Grab, launched in 2012, has poured money into expanding its regional fleet and now operates in 195 cities in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.

As well as linking customers up with private cars, it has services offering motorbike taxis in some countries, regular taxis and carpooling, as well as food and package delivery.

Before the acquisition, Uber operated in 64 cities in eight Southeast Asian countries.

Competition between ride-hailing apps has been heating up in Southeast Asia, with the market forecast to grow more than five times to $13.1 billion by 2025, according to a 2016 report by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek.

Uber is the largest firm of its kind with a presence in more than 600 cities, but it has been rocked by scandals and is facing fierce competition from rivals in Asia and Europe.

Chief executive Travis Kalanick was ousted in June last year after missteps including allegations of executive misconduct, a toxic workplace atmosphere and potentially unethical competitive practices.

New boss Khosrowshahi has vowed to turn the company around as Uber gears up for a 2019 public share offering.

But he has a fight on his handsUber's losses in 2017 grew to $4.5 billion from the $2.8 billion the company lost a year earlier.

Explore further Uber selling Southeast Asia operations to Grab: report

 2018 AFPCredit: Sanford Underground Research Facility; photographer Matthew Kapust

If equal amounts of matter and antimatter had formed in the Big Bang more than 13 billion years ago, one would have annihilated the other upon meeting, and today's universe would be full of energy but no matter to form stars, planets and life. Yet matter exists now. That fact suggests something is wrong with Standard Model equations describing symmetry between subatomic particles and their antiparticles. In a study published in Physical Review Letters, collaborators of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, an experiment led by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have shown they can shield a sensitive, scalable 44-kilogram germanium detector array from background radioactivity.

This accomplishment is critical to developing and proposing a much larger future experimentwith approximately a ton of detectorsto study the nature of neutrinos. These electrically neutral particles interact only weakly with matter, making their detection exceedingly difficult.

"The excess of matter over antimatter is one of the most compelling mysteries in science," said John Wilkerson of ORNL and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Wilkerson leads the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, which involves 129 researchers from 27 institutions and 6 nations. "Our experiment seeks to observe a phenomenon called 'neutrinoless double-beta decay' in atomic nuclei. The observation would demonstrate that neutrinos are their own antiparticles and have profound implications for our understanding of the universe. In addition, these measurements could provide a better understanding of neutrino mass."

In a 2015 report of the U.S. Nuclear Science Advisory Committee to the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, a U.S.-led ton-scale experiment to detect neutrinoless double-beta decay was deemed a top priority of the nuclear physics community. Nearly a dozen experiments have sought neutrinoless double-beta decay, and as many future experiments have been proposed. One of their keys to success depends on avoiding background that could mimic the signal of neutrinoless double-beta decay.

That was the key accomplishment of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR. Its implementation was completed in South Dakota in September 2016, nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. Siting the experiment under nearly a mile of rock was the first of many steps collaborators took to reduce interference from background. Other steps included a cryostat made of the world's purest copper and a complex six-layer shield to eliminate interference from cosmic rays, radon, dust, fingerprints and naturally occurring radioactive isotopes.

"If you're going to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay, it's critical to know that radioactive background is not going to overwhelm the signal you seek," said ORNL's David Radford, a lead scientist in the experiment.

There are many ways for an atomic nucleus to fall apart. A common decay mode happens when a neutron inside the nucleus emits an electron (called a "beta") and an antineutrino to become a proton. In two-neutrino double-beta decay, two neutrons decay simultaneously to produce two protons, two electrons and two antineutrinos. This process has been observed. The MAJORANA Collaboration seeks evidence for a similar decay process that has never been observed, in which no neutrinos are emitted.

Conservation of the number of leptonssubatomic particles such as electrons, muons or neutrinos that do not take part in strong interactionswas written into the Standard Model of Physics. "There is no really good reason for this, just the observation that it appears that's the case," said Radford. "But if lepton number is not conserved, when added to processes that we think happened during the very early universe, that could help explain why there is more matter than antimatter."

Credit: Sanford Underground Research Facility; photographer Matthew Kapust

Many theorists believe that the lepton number is not conserved, that the neutrino and the antineutrinowhich were assumed to have opposite lepton numbersare really the same particle spinning in different ways. Italian physicist Ettore Majorana introduced that concept in 1937, predicting the existence of particles that are their own antiparticles.

The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR uses germanium crystals as both the source of double-beta decay and the means to detect it. Germanium-76 (Ge-76) decays to become selenium-76, which has a smaller mass. When germanium decays, mass gets converted to energy that is carried away by the electrons and the antineutrinos. "If all that energy goes to the electrons, then none is left for neutrinos," Radford said. "That's a clear identifier that we found the event we're looking for."

The scientists distinguish two-neutrino versus neutrinoless decay modes by their energy signatures. "It's a common misconception that our experiments detect neutrinos," said Jason Detwiler of the University of Washington, who is a co-spokesperson for the MAJORANA Collaboration. "It's almost comical to say it, but we are searching for the absence of neutrinos. In the neutrinoless decay, the released energy is always a particular value. In the two-neutrino version, the released energy varies but is always smaller than for neutrinoless double-beta decay."

The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR has shown that the neutrinoless double-beta decay half-life of Ge-76 is at least 1025 years15 orders of magnitude longer than the age of the universe. So it's impossible to wait for a single germanium nucleus to decay. "We get around the impossibility of watching one nucleus for a long time by instead watching on the order of 1026 nuclei for a shorter amount of time," explained co-spokesperson Vincente Guiseppe of the University of South Carolina.

Chances of spotting a neutrinoless double-beta decay in Ge-76 are rareno more than 1 for every 100,000 two-neutrino double-beta decays, Guiseppe said. Using detectors containing large amounts of germanium atoms increases the probability of spotting the rare decays. Between June 2015 and March 2017, the scientists observed no events with the energy profile of neutrinoless decay, the process that has not yet been observed (this was expected given the small number of germanium nuclei in the detector). However, they were encouraged to see many events with the energy profile of two-neutrino decays, verifying the detector could spot the decay process that has been observed.

The MAJORANA Collaboration's results coincide with new results from a competing experiment in Italy called GERDA (for GERmanium Detector Array), which takes a complementary approach to studying the same phenomenon. "The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR and GERDA together have the lowest background of any neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment," said Radford.

The DEMONSTRATOR was designed to lay the groundwork for a ton-scale experiment by demonstrating that backgrounds can be low enough to justify building a larger detector. Just as bigger telescopes collect more light and enable viewing of fainter objects, increasing the mass of germanium allows for a greater probability of observing the rare decay. With 30 times more germanium than the current experiment, the planned one-ton experiment would be able to spot the neutrinoless double-beta decay of just one germanium nucleus per year.

The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is planned to continue to take data for two or three years. Meanwhile, a merger with GERDA is in the works to develop a possible one-ton detector called LEGEND, planned to be built in stages at an as-yet-to-be-determined site.

LEGEND 200, the LEGEND demonstrator and step towards a possible future ton-scale experiment, will be a combination of GERDA, MAJORANA and new detectors. Scientists hope to start on the first stage of LEGEND 200 by 2021. A ton-scale experiment, LEGEND 1000, would be the next stage, if approved. "This merger leverages public investments in the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR and GERDA by combining the best technologies of each," said LEGEND Collaboration co-spokesperson (and long-time MAJORANA spokesperson up until last year) Steve Elliott of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The title of the Physical Review Letters paper is "Search for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay in 76Ge with the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR."

Explore further CUORE experiment constrains neutrino properties

More information: C. E. Aalseth et al, Search for Neutrinoless Double-  Decay in Ge76 with the Majorana Demonstrator, Physical Review Letters (2018). Journal information: Physical Review Letters C. E. Aalseth et al, Search for Neutrinoless Double-  Decay in Ge76 with the Majorana Demonstrator,(2018). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.132502Vampire bats captured for the study were tagged and released back into the wild after the researchers collected hair and blood samples and recorded age, sex and reproductive state. Credit: Brock Fenton

The availability of livestock as a food source for vampire bats influences their immune response and infection by bacterial pathogens, according to a new paper in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Because cattle ranching is common in areas where the bats live, the findings have implications for human as well as animal health.

The study explores how the availability of livestock as a food source influences bat immunity, infection risk and reproduction, from microscopic to landscape scales. It was led by University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology doctoral student Daniel Becker and co-authored by an international team of researchers, including Odum School faculty Sonia Altizer and Daniel Streicker. The paper is part of a special theme issue, edited by Becker, Altizer and colleagues, about the complex ways that human-provided food alters infectious diseases in wildlife.

"In this study we examined several ways that food provided by people would affect infection in vampire bats," said Becker, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at Montana State University. "If we want to understand how supplemental feeding or land use changes affect disease risk, it's important to quantify different processes like population size, immunity and feeding behavior."

Whether intentionalas with backyard bird feedersor inadvertentas when agriculture moves into areas where wildlife liveaccess to human-provided sources of food can affect both wildlife and public health.

In some cases, easy access to plentiful food means wildlife benefit from improved nutrition and reduced stress, allowing them to better fight off infection. In other cases, infection rates can rise, such as when supplemental food increases wildlife reproduction rates; the resulting larger population sizes can help some diseases to spread. Easily accessible food sources can also bring together animal species that would not otherwise interact, allowing pathogens to cross over from one species to anotherincluding to humans.

Earlier work on this topic by Becker and UGA ecologist Richard Hall used computer simulation models to show that pathogen spread depended strongly on how supplemental feeding influenced host immunity. In the new research, Becker and his co-authors explored this idea in a real-world animal system. They conducted a four-year field study of vampire bat colonies in Peru and Belize at sites ranging from relatively undisturbed forest, with little animal prey for vampire bats, to high-intensity cattle ranching that provided ample vampire bat food.

They looked at whether immune response differed because of the availability of livestock as a food source, and whether these changes predicted infection risk by two kinds of bacteria common in bats, Bartonella and hemoplasmas.

Becker and his colleagues collected hair and blood samples from hundreds of bats and recorded each bat's age, sex and reproductive state, tagging each one with a unique identifier before releasing it back into the wild.

Stable isotope analysis of the bat hair samples showed that bats in all areas fed on livestockeven in heavily forested habitat where a few subsistence farmers might be raising just a pig or some chickens, Becker said. "They're going to seek them out because it's just such an easy food source," he said.

But livestock abundance was associated with significant differences in bat reproduction, immunity and rates of infection.

Areas with more livestock had more reproductive bats and more male bats. Previous studies have shown that more male bats are born when maternal condition is goodwhich might be expected where there is plenty of food availableand because male bats from other areas may immigrate to such locations.

"The vampire bats in low- and high-livestock habitats have very different immune profiles," said Becker. "Vampire bats in the high-livestock sites really showed immune data skewed toward innate immunity, but vampire bats in low-livestock areas are investing more in adaptive immune response."

Innate immunity consists of cells that are always ready to fight infection. Adaptive immunity is activated when pathogens breach innate immune defenses.

Bats from areas with more livestock also had lower rates of pathogen infection, especially in the case of Bartonella, which is likely transmitted by insects like bat flies or fleas.

"You might not expect transmission of an insect-transmitted pathogen to be affected by provisioning, because it's not really clear how having more food would influence bat-fly-bat contact," said Becker. "So in that case, if bats are better able to clear infection, this could explain why bats in livestock-dense areas have lower infection risk."

Because hemoplasmas are thought to be directly transmitted from bat to bat, denser coloniesa result of increased immigration and reproduction in areas with more livestockcould raise contact rates enough to partially overcome bats' enhanced innate immunity, he said.

The results of the study have implications for animal and human health. Because adaptive immunity can play a greater role than innate immunity in fighting viruses, bats in high-livestock areas might be more susceptible to viruses like rabies and influenza that can be transmitted to domesticated animals and humans. And activities that bring bats into proximity with livestock and people increase the risk of cross-species transmission of pathogens.

Becker said that it was important to note that his team's data suggests that there's a difference between subsistence farming and large-scale cattle ranching.

"We're definitely not trying to suggest that people in these regions should get rid of all their chickens, or small numbers of other livestock," he said. "It's when you start clearing vast tracts of forest that's probably a big driver of what's going on here, because then you're depleting the bats' natural food and replacing it with this new food source, and that's having all these individual and population level consequences for the bats."

Explore further Culling vampire bats is for suckers, says study

More information: Daniel J. Becker et al, Livestock abundance predicts vampire bat demography, immune profiles and bacterial infection risk, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2018). Journal information: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Daniel J. Becker et al, Livestock abundance predicts vampire bat demography, immune profiles and bacterial infection risk,(2018). DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0089Wildebeests sense cues from their individual members to help guide their collective movement. Credit: Lacey Hughey

Forty million miles of major roads crisscross the Earth's continentsenough to circle the planet 1,600 times. For humans, these thoroughfares are a boon, enabling them to move with ease from place to place. But for migrating animals who are also hemmed in by dams, rivers, shipping lanes, urban development and agriculture, they create another barrier.

As human development and activities continue to expand, scientists have grown increasingly concerned about such migrators, especially those that trek long distances. These animal travelers cover hundreds to thousands of kilometers annually, yet very little is known about how their movements are faring across the globe.

To expand the scientific knowledge base, a team of UC Santa Barbara scientists set out to estimate the vulnerability and extinction risk of migratory birds, mammals and fishes from different regions and ecosystems around the world. They did so using the existing literature and information from two large databases: the Living Planet Index and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. The group's analysis now appears in a special edition of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B titled "Collective Movement Ecology."

"As expected, we found that the vulnerability of migratory animals varied depending on the regional, environmental, behavioral and taxonomic context of the species," explained lead author Molly Hardesty-Moore, a graduate student in UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology. "Our results offer both an opportunity and a roadmap for mounting strategic interventions if we want to preserve this ecologically and economically important phenomenon."

The researchers examined more than 6,000 migratory species by taxonomic group (birds, mammals and fishes) and by environmental system (terrestrial, marine or freshwater). They also determined whether a group's movement exhibited collective behaviorthink schools of fish, flocks of geese flying in formation, even herds of wildebeests, all of whom sense cues from their individual members to help guide their collective movement.

The team's analysis revealed that while migratory birds are relatively abundant, their numbers are decreasing disproportionately to nonmigratory birds. Take the Arctic tern, the longest-distance migrator, which annually travels 50,000 miles. It is listed as "least concern" by the IUCN because of its large range and abundance of individuals, yet its overall population has been declining for a number of decades. According to Hardesty-Moore, this presents an opportunity for conservation through the implementation of preventive efforts to slow population decline before the species nears extinction.

The converse was found to be true for migratory mammals, whose population size is increasing compared to their nonmigratory counterparts. Nonetheless, IUCN lists them as "more endangered."

"The relative increase of migratory mammals compared to nonmigratory mammals underscores the success of previous conservation efforts," Hardesty-Moore said. "Still, migratory mammals have an overall high extinction risk because they face so many barriersroads and development, hunting and poachingso more work still needs to be done."

For example, until recently, the Tibetan antelope was "endangered," but it has rebounded because of rigorous conservation efforts. While their numbers remain fairly low and their ranges are restricted, conservation efforts have been able to increase their populations. "I think that's good news," Hardesty-Moore said. "It shines some light on conservation successes."

The scientists also found that migratory freshwater fishes are at greater risk than their marine brethren, which makes sense considering that the avenues of travel available to freshwater species are much more restricted. Dams are a major problem for some of these migratorsthere are at least 37,600 hydropower dams in rivers globally, with hundreds more in progress. For example, more than 400 dams limit the migration capability of Chinook salmon in the Columbia River basin. As a result, the species is "highly endangered." Marine migrants, on the other hand, are better able to maneuver around barriers or to skirt fishing pressures.

"Our research showed that conservation efforts for migratory species work in certain circumstances, but we also identified regions and groups of animals in trouble," Hardesty-Moore explained. "We were able to pinpoint some of those and highlight areas of interest to conservation biologists. If we want to preserve this fascinating, ecologically meaningful part of life, we will need to find a way to coexist with these species, especially because of increasing human development around the globe."

Explore further When it comes to the threat of extinction, size matters

More information: Molly Hardesty-Moore et al. Migration in the Anthropocene: how collective navigation, environmental system and taxonomy shape the vulnerability of migratory species, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2018). Journal information: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Molly Hardesty-Moore et al. Migration in the Anthropocene: how collective navigation, environmental system and taxonomy shape the vulnerability of migratory species,(2018). DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0017A view of a forest fire in Bogota underscores the dangers posed by land degradation

Scientists warned Monday that land degradation imperils the health and well-being of billions of people, threatening food and water supplies while fuelling conflict, mass migration and disease spread.

But all is not lost, said the mammoth report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Humanity can still turn the tide of destruction, but governments, the private sector, international bodies, and individuals all have a role to play.

Restoration

The benefits of restoring decayed land are about ten times the cost, the report said.

Measures envisaged by the IPBES report included reflooding drained wetlands, replacing lost trees, and halting pollution at its sourcewhether from mines, agriculture, or factories.

In urban areas, it moots the replanting of native species, developing parks, rehabilitating soil sealed under asphalt, treating and reusing wastewater, and restoring river channels.

Farming

As a main usurper of natural land, the farming sector must take the lead.

Even simple changes can make a big difference, said Bob Scholes of the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, a co-author of the first comprehensive assessment of land health.

Ploughing, for example, leaves the soil vulnerable to erosion, and releases carbon locked up in it as planet-warming carbon dioxide.

"How frequently you plough, and for instance whether you plough straight up and down the hill slope or on the contour makes a huge difference to how much soil you lose," Scholes told AFP.

For IPBES chairman Robert Watson, part of the answer lies in "precision agriculture."

"We have to learn how to appropriately use fertilizers, pesticides and water ... give the crops exactly what they need" and no more.

Labelling

The IPBES report advocates a dramatic shift in consumer mentality.

Most consumers live far from the ecosystems that produce their food, resulting in "a growing lack of awareness and understanding of the implication" of their purchasing choices, it said.

To correct this, merchants must know where products come from and under what conditions they were produced, and inform consumers accordingly.

Causes and consequences of land decay, according to a report released by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

"Labelling of food products is very important," Luca Montanarella of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, another report author, told AFP.

"If you know from the label on your food product that it's coming from a certain area (where) that production system is having a very large impact on the land, a very negative one, well you might choose to buy something else."

This might mean, of course, that the product costs more.

"So it means that you must make choices as a consumer to what is best not only for you but for the planet," said Montanarella.

Incentives

The IPBES recommends replacing "perverse incentives" that promote land degradation, with positive ones that reward sustainable land management.

One example is subsidised fertilizers.

"If it costs the farmer very little to oversupply of course he'll oversupply," said Scholes. This leads to more runoff into rivers.

Agricultural subsidies, too, lead farmers to overproduce at the expense of Nature, said the team.

Policy

The report says governments must take Nature into account in policies across sectorsnot only agriculture and the environment, but also the economy, energy, and infrastructure.

The issue must also be taken up in the global debate on human development and climate change.

"Land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change are three different faces of the same central challenge: the increasingly dangerous impacts of our choices on the health of our natural environment," said Watson.

The IPBES, which alerted last week that biodiversity was declining in all world regions, warns that on current trends, the world will fail to meet the 2020 "Aichi Biodiversity Targets" on halting species loss.

Also threatened are the UN's 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, with targets for food and water security, and better human health.

Land degradation furthermore imperils the Paris Agreement on limiting climate change, the report warned.

As land deteriorates, it releases planet-warming carbon into the atmosphere, while forest destruction causes the loss of CO2-absorbing trees.

The next meeting of the IPBES will take place in France in 2019, the same year that the countrybirthplace of the global climate agreementwill host the G7 club of rich countries.

At that meeting, the IPBES will follow up its regional species reports with a global one that it hopes will spur and consolidate global action.

Explore further Scientists to publish first-ever land health report

 2018 AFPNews

Microsoft Previews Serial Console Recovery Tool for Azure Virtual Machines

Microsoft on Monday announced a preview of a new Serial Console command-line tool for recovering Linux and Windows virtual machines (VMs) running on Azure infrastructure.

The Serial Console tool is used to access Azure VMs that are stuck, which can happen because of operating system misconfigurations, such as having incorrect file systems table (fstab) syntax or incorrect firewall rules. Alternatively, network changes could have been made that locked out the Remote Desktop Protocol port, precluding access.

Linux users accessing VMs on-premises were used to having direct access to VMs in such situations, and Microsoft wanted to provide a similar experience when using Azure VMs, according to a video chat between Corey Sanders, corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure Compute, and Hariharan Jayaraman, principal program manager on the Azure Linux Team.

The Serial Console tool was a "highly requested" feature, according to Sanders. It's bidirectional and uses the same log-in and password as Secure Shell (SSH) for Linux users. They can directly fix a problem with an Azure VM without having to separately dig through log files, since the console shows the VM's boot diagnostics log. The recovery tool apparently is named after the COM1 serial port of a VM, according to Microsoft's documentation.

"It's like having a keyboard plugged into the server in our datacenter but in the comfort of your office or home," Sanders explained regarding the Serial Console tool in an announcement.

While it's a command-line tool, the Serial Console preview can only be accessed right now through the Azure Portal. Users of Serial Console need to have VM Contributor or higher management status to use this tool.

The Serial Console tool is already configured for many Linux distros supported on Azure VMs. Those distros include CentOS, CoreOS, Oracle Linux, Red Hat, SUSE and Ubuntu, according to Microsoft's documentation.

The Serial Console preview tool also works with Windows-based Azure VMs. It requires a "few additional steps" to enable Serial Console for Windows, as described in Microsoft's documentation.

On the Windows side, Serial Console connects with the VM using the Special Administration Console (SAC), a command-line tool that's been present in the server operating system since Windows Server 2003, according to Jayaraman in a video talk with Scott Hanselman of Microsoft's Web Platform Team. Microsoft has roadmap plans to make the Serial Console tool also available through the Azure Command Line Interface tool, according to the talk. SAC is just available through Windows Server, and is enabled by default for "newer Windows Server images," according to the documentation.Embraer SA engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of aircraft and its parts for commercial, defense, and executive aviation sectors. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Aviation, Defense and Security, Executive Jet Business, Service & Support and Others. The Commercial Aviation segment is involved in the development, production, and sale of commercial jets; and the provision of support services to regional aviation and aircraft leasing. The Defense and Security segment engages in research, development, production, modification, and support for defense and security aircrafts, as well as other integrated products and solutions including satellites and information and communication systems. The Executive Jet Business segment deals with the development, manufacture, and sale of executive jets. The Service & Support segment provides after-service solutions and support to its customers through a comprehensive portfolio of innovative and competitive solutions to ensure operational efficiency of products manufactured by Embraer and by other aircraft manufacturers, extending the useful life of commercial, executive and defense aircraft. The Others segment refers to

Read MoreThe Williams Cos., Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company, which explores, produces, transports, sells and processes natural gas and petroleum products. It operates through the following segments: Transmission and Gulf of Mexico; Northeast G&P; and West. The Transmission and Gulf of Mexico segment comprises of interstate natural gas pipelines, Transco and Northwest Pipeline, as well as natural gas gathering and processing and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region. The Northeast G&P segment includes midstream gathering, processing, and fractionation businesses in the Marcellus Shale region primarily in Pennsylvania and New York, and the Utica Shale region of eastern Ohio. The West segment consists of gas gathering, processing, and treating operations in the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado and Wyoming, the Barnett Shale region of north-central Texas, the Eagle Ford Shale region of south Texas, the Haynesville Shale region of northwest Louisiana, and the Mid-Continent region which includes the Anadarko, Arkoma, and Permian basins. The company was founded by David Williams and Miller Williams in 1908 and is headquartered in Tulsa,

Read More" " Moai statues at Ahu Tongariki on Easter Island, Chile. Olaf Protze/LightRocket/Getty Images

For more than 800 years, a series of mesmerizing statues have towered over Rapa Nui, a remote, 15-mile-wide (24-kilometer-wide) island in the southeast Pacific Ocean. The 40-foot-tall (12-meter-tall) statues, known as the moai, may have survived nearly a millennium, but the effects of climate change now threaten to topple the island's mysterious ancient history.

The nearly 1,000 moai, erected between the 10th and 16th centuries on Rapa Nui (also named Easter Island by an 18th-century Dutch explorer), are being battered by rising sea levels, high-energy waves and increased erosion, as detailed on March 15, 2018, in The New York Times. Ancient human remains are buried beneath many of the works, which appear as giant faces gazing over land and sea.

"Some of the moai have been knocked over in the past  including by tsunamis  and they have been restored. So not every site is in pristine condition," says Adam Markham, deputy director of climate and energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The difference now is that the danger is even greater. The rate of change is faster than ever."

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Island Vulnerability

The volcanic island, now part of Chile, is the most isolated inhabited landmass in the world, located some 2,200 miles (3,540 kilometers) from Chile's mainland and 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) east of Tahiti. Part of Rapa Nui's vulnerability lies in the fact that it is an island and many of the moai and the ahu, or platforms, on which they stand, are perched around its edges. As Markham points out, all of the world's islands have been made vulnerable to erosion with rising ocean levels. Some climate models predict that increased melting of the world's ice sheets could cause oceans to rise by 5 or 6 feet (1.5 or 1.8 meters) by the year 2100. Higher sea levels mean shores face flooding and inundation by crashing waves.

On Rapa Nui, signs of damage from the incoming waves is already apparent. On the island's southern coast, blocks of a 10-foot-high (305-centimeters-high) stone wall at a site called Ura Uranga Te Mahina, toppled over last year, according to a report in the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute. Ovahe Beach, at the island's northern coast, used to be covered in pink sand, says the report, but waves have carried away most of the sand, leaving behind rocks. A nearby burial site has been left exposed and vulnerable to erosion. Conservationists are testing a newly built sea wall at one part of the island to see if it can offer protection, according to The New York Times, but it's not certain that walls can hold off the ocean's onslaught.

Further inland, a site called Orongo, which encircles a volcanic crater, also stands vulnerable to storms and erosion. It was here in the 1600s, where members of the "Birdman" cult would stage an annual competition. Young men would scale down the crater's edge, enter the ocean and swim to a nearby island. Once on the island they would collect eggs laid by the sooty tern and swim them back home. The first to bring an egg back to the start was the winner and his clan would rule the island the following year. Hieroglyphics at the crater site tell the tale of the annual competition, and now landslides and erosion triggered by storms threaten these stoned-carved images.

As Markham points out, increasing frequency of intense storms is another hallmark of climate change. "As you get more and more of these events," he says, "damage builds upon past damage."

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Is Relocation an Option?

Moving the hieroglyphics and some of the most vulnerable moai into protected enclosures might help ensure their survival. But relocating the statues could not only harm the works, it would also disregard their role at many of the sites as burial markers for remains of the island's ancestors. The 1995 recognition of Rapa Nui National Park as a UNESCO World Heritage Site acknowledges the importance of the statues' preservation where they now stand.

"It's the same problem that anyone would have when thinking about moving generations of history buried within a cemetery," Markham says. "A lot of very hard choices will have to be made but I would doubt that much moving of artifacts will take place on Easter Island."

This isn't the first time the island has faced ecological destruction. In fact, some have pointed to Easter Island's history as a cautionary environmental lesson. Pollen grains found in the island's sediments suggest it was covered in palm forest when it was first settled around 1200. By the time a Dutch settler came upon the island's shores in the 1700s, he described the land as being of "singular poverty and barrenness." What had happened to the island's trees?

An "ecocide" theory popularized by U.S. biologist Jared Diamond in his 2005 book, "Collapse  How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed," suggests the island's human population may have overexploited the land by cutting down most of its forests.The depletion of forests would have left soil vulnerable to erosion, making it difficult to plant crops.

That account, however, is still up for debate. Subsequent research has suggested that other factors, including the introduction of the Polynesian rat and shifts in climate, could have contributed to the island's deforestation. "There's a lot of ongoing argument about the island's history and what were the driving factors of its deforestation," says Markham. "But in general, there are hundreds of other places around the world where we can demonstrate that overusing resources and not caring for the landscape can lead to huge problems."

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The Tourism Factor

Today the island is mostly covered in meadow and home to a year-round population of about 5,700 people. The island's economy is totally dependent on tourism, and last year it was visited by some 100,000 people who spent more than $70 million at local businesses. Economics are one part of what's at stake should the island's artifacts be destroyed by climate change. Perhaps even more profound, is the vulnerability of a historic legacy that's vital not only to the people of Easter Island, but also to the world.

"Easter Island matters to the local people who live there but it is also a place of global heritage," Markham says. "The island carries an ability to connect with people's sense that it is important for all of humankind."

Now That's Strange The Tukuturi moai on Easter Island is different from all the others, and nobody really knows why. It is much smaller and is kneeling with its hands on its legs. It has buttocks and the remains of a beard, which none of the others seem to have, and lacks the elongated features of the other moai statues.4 Things to Look Out For When Renting a Cheap Room in Singapore

Rent in Singapore is not cheap, but if you look hard enough and are willing to live far away from the city centre, you can find some decently-priced rooms in the under-$800 range.

Sure, youll have to share the apartment or HDB flat with a bunch of flatmates and possibly the landlord, but if its going to save you a couple hundred bucks a month, its worth it.

But before you sign that lease on the cheapest room you managed to find, know that theres usually a reason if the landlord is willing to let you have it for cheap. And some of the rules landlords impose on their tenants border on the psychotic.

So beware of the following if a room for rent seems suspiciously cheap.

Are you allowed to use the kitchen?

If youre renting a cheap room to save money, then you surely wont be too pleased to move in only to find out that youre not allowed to use the kitchen and are thus forced spend good money eating out at every meal.

Sure, hawker food is cheap, but try eating it at every meal and see what happens to your health.

So always ask the landlord if you will be allowed to use the kitchen whenever you want.

If the landlord will be living with you in the same HDB unit, and especially if its with his entire family, theres a good chance you wont be allowed to use the kitchen. Opt instead for a unit thats being rented out in its entirety to a bunch of tenants.

What are the house rules?

Another problem with living with the landlord is that he might want to impose house rules that will make your life miserable.

For instance, a friend of mine used to rent a room in an HDB flat in which he was not allowed to use the common areas. The family with whom he was living expected him to lock himself in his room the moment he arrived at home so they wouldnt be reminded of his existence.

It is also really common for tenants who live with their landlords to be banned from having visitors over. The above friend wasnt even allowed to have his girlfriend step into the flat.

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So always clarify house rules before you move in. And once again, if the rules seem too restrictive, opt to live in a share-flat where the landlord is not present.

Is the landlord renting the room out illegally?

There are many onerous restrictions on renting out property in Singapore. So dont be surprised to find that many landlords are actually renting their rooms out illegally.

For instance, HDB flat owners are usually not allowed to rent out the entire flat in the first five years of owning it.

Private landlords are not allowed to rent out rooms or units for periods of less than 3 months, while HDB landlords need to rent their property out on leases of at least 6 months.

That means that all those listings on Airbnb are technically illegal, and some semester-long exchange students are renting their rooms under illegal contracts too.

Of course, the landlord isnt going to tell you hes renting out his property to you illegally. But just be aware that you risk finding yourself suddenly homeless if the authorities find out.

What are you expected to maintain on your own?

Some landlords try to heap on their tenants as much responsibility as possible for the maintenance of the property. So check exactly what youre expected to repair at your own cost.

For instance, if youre renting a room in a shared apartment or HDB flat, youll want to check if you will be responsible for maintaining your own air conditioning unit.

If thats the case, dont forget to have the unit inspected before you move in, and consider limiting your use of the machine, as these things arent cheap to fix.

Have you ever rented a room in Singapore? Share your experiences in the comments!

The post 4 Things to Look Out For When Renting a Cheap Room in Singapore appeared first on the MoneySmart blog.

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Its safe to say that youre spoilt for choice when it comes to renting a condo in Singapore.

You could opt for a mass-market development in the suburbs thats close to nature. Maybe you prefer a boutique property thats right in the heart of the city. Perhaps you have a generous housing allowance that lets you live it up in a prime district luxury property.

Marina One Residences

But before all that happens  before you identify your dream condo  here are some essentials to be mindful of.

State Your Intent

After having viewed a number of condos, youll probably have narrowed your options to a few choice units. It sounds obvious, but the apartment you can see yourself living in is the one you should go for.

Time to draft a Letter of Intent (LOI), then. There are numerous templates online, or your agent might have a copy on hand. This formal letter announces your interest in the property.

Whats included in the LOI? Chiefly, the monthly rental amount, amount of security deposit (see next point), tenancy start date, and term of lease. In Singapore, standard leases are 12 or 24 months. The minimum lease is six months; anything less than that is illegal.

Other conditions include things like utility charges, aircon servicing and maintenance, legal and stamp duty costs, provision of furnishing and appliances, and ownership of pets.

If youre an expat, its best that your LOI includes a Diplomatic Clause. This condition allows you to terminate the lease after 12 months, provided you give two months notice. It protects you in the event that you have to relocate.

If the landlord agrees to these terms and conditions and puts his/her name on the dotted line, you can take it as an official sign of acceptance.

All In Good Faith

Japan has a custom of key money  a mandatory, nonrefundable payment to landlords that can sometimes amount to six months rent or more.

Thankfully that practice doesnt exist in Singapore. Whats customary here is the good faith deposit  typically a months rent for a 12-month lease and two months rent for a 24-month lease.

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The good faith deposit is either taken as an advance on your rent, or it becomes part of the security deposit once the Tenancy Agreement (TA) is signed. Youll get your security deposit back when your lease expires.

There are two key things to be aware of here. One, if there is a clause regarding the deduction of your deposit to pay for damages sustained during your tenancy.

Two, practice due diligence. Before transferring the deposit, check to see if your landlord is indeed the owner of the property. You can do so on the IRAS website.

For safety reasons, its also best to make a direct, traceable (i.e. electronic or cheque) transfer to the landlord/owner, rather than through a proxy (e.g. the landlords agent).

Make A List, Then Check It Twice

The TA should include an appendix listing all the furniture and fittings in the property, as well as the condition theyre in.

Do note that youre liable for any damages caused to items in this inventory. To avoid potential disputes with your landlord, document everything. Before moving in, take detailed pictures of each room/space in the apartment, as well as the items on the inventory. Make sure that the items are actually there. Then have your landlord sign off on the images.

Its tedious work, but youll be glad you did it.

Who Pays What

Agents commissions are not set in stone. However, some general rules apply, depending on the rental amount and lease term.

If the rent is less than $3,500 per month on a 12-month lease, your agent will receive half a months rent from you while the landlord will pay the other half to his/her agent.

The figures double if the rent is less than $3,500 per month on a 24-month lease, i.e. both agents receive a months rent each in commission.

If the property costs more than $3,500 per month and youre signing a 12-month lease, your agent will collect half a months rent from you. The landlord will pay the same amount to his/her agent. If you dont have an agent, i.e. you contacted the landlords agent directly, then he/she pockets the entire commission.

If youre signing a 24-month lease for a condo that costs more than $3,500 per month, good news: you dont have to fork out anything. The landlord is the one that has to stump up the cash. If you dont have an agent, the landlords agent keeps the commission. If you do, the agents typically split the commission 50-50.

The End

If you had chosen the option to renew the lease upon expiration in your LOI, then go ahead and exercise that right. However, you may have to give your landlord two or three months advance notice if you wish to do so.

The rent, of course, is subject to prevailing market rates, and the landlord reserves the right to change it.

Ready to take the plunge? Search for Singapore condos to rent here

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Singapore charges two men for illegal Airbnb letsThe logo of JSW is seen on the company's headquarters in Mumbai, February 11, 2016. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/Files

By Vishal Sridhar

(Reuters) - India's JSW Steel Ltd said on Monday it would spend $500 million to build out its U.S. operations in Texas, amid heightened global trade tensions following U.S President Donald Trump's decision to pursue steep import tariffs.

The company has signed an agreement with the Texas governor's office, under which the governor has approved a grant worth $3.4 million to the company's unit, the steelmaker said in a statement. Click https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/corpfiling/AttachLive/5749d649-df4b-4a38-9081-8931ca2edfab.pdf.

The unit, JSW USA, sells high-quality carbon plates to the energy, petrochemicals, defence and other heavy equipment industries.

The company will use $150 million of the funds to improve and modernize its plant in Baytown, Texas, while the rest will fund a new facility, it said.

"The Texas plant has been struggling for a long time," said Motilal Oswal Securities analyst Sanjay Jain.

"Basically the company is going to do some backward integration, which is a good idea considering that U.S. is surplus in steel scraps, and imports are higher considering the recent tariffs. So that makes the case for investment."

The unit produced 59,623 net tonnes of steel plates at a capacity utilization of 24 percent and 15,109 net tonnes of steel pipes at an 11 percent utilization, in the quarter ended Dec. 31.

"Access to natural gas at extremely economical prices and the abundant availability of scrap steel in Texas make conditions very conducive for manufacturing through the Electric Arc Furnace Route," said Parth Jindal, director of JSW USA and son of JSW group Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal.

The investment will be made in phases and the capex plan is expected to completed by March 2020.

Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump pressed ahead with import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent for aluminum, raising the prospect of a global trade war.

Story continues

Six trade partners, including Canada, Mexico and the European Union were later excluded from the higher import duties until May 1.

Trade Minister Suresh Prabhu said last week the country would bilaterally discuss import curbs on steel with the United States.

(Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Sayantani Ghosh and Amrutha Gayathri)Financial services have to be more accessible, affordable, and convenient for the unbanked

Cash is the undisputed king in Cambodiaat least for now. The growth of cashless transactions through mobile payments will soon change the countrys financial landscape.

High mobile phone usage and connectivity, as well as low banking penetration rate, make the mobile payment market profitable in this developing Southeast Asian country.

An Open Institute survey revealed that 96% of Cambodians aged 15 to 65 own a mobile phone, with over 10 million total units used.

Cambodias 173% mobile connectivity is also the highest in Southeast Asia. It beats the regional average (133%) and even outranks Singapore (142%), according to We Are Socials Digital in 2017 report.

With only 5% of the population having a bank account (per 2016 KPMG study), a huge gap needs to be filled. Financial services have to be more accessible, affordable, and convenient for unbanked Cambodians.

This presents a promising opportunity for the mobile payments industry.

Photo credit: Propelrr

In the Open Institute survey, seven in every 10 Cambodians find value in the financial services provided by mobile payments companies. Only 30% said they had never used any mobile payment system. Most mobile payment transactions are money transfers (85% for sending money; 74% for receiving money) and bill payments (15%).

Fintech startups can learn a thing or two from how mobile payment services in Cambodia respond to market demands. What best practices can businesses pick up and emulate?

Also read: Outpost, Geeks In Cambodia join forces to sponsor local startup

1. Tailor products and services to local culture

Everything starts with a deep understanding of your target markettheir motivations, needs, behaviors, and cultureand then develop your products and services based on that knowledge.

A notable case example is that of Wing, a major player in the Cambodian mobile payment industry. For several months prior to its launch in 2009, the company did market research and product development, examining the nuances of Khmer culture and needs of the unbanked.

Story continues

The homegrown mobile payments company in Cambodia defined its unique product features for easier access to its services. Non-customers can use its mobile payment system to receive funds from customers. This is helpful in rural areas with little to no access to mobile technology. Also, its services work with most Cambodian mobile network operators, which differs from operator-based mobile banking products.

2. Evolve fast with changing market demands

To stay relevant, a business has to constantly meet consumer needs. Tech innovations such as mobile app development enable mobile payments companies to reach people on the go. For example, a smartphone user in Cambodia can use a mobile app to conveniently send money, pay bills, top up phone credits, and access other financial services.

Beyond just providing consumers the technology to make their lives easier, mobile payment service providers in Cambodia are continuously innovating their apps to address the specific needs of their target market.

Just a year after its launch in 2016, Wing updated its mobile app to improve its user experience. The company, for instance, added an Online Mastercard feature to eliminate the need for a physical credit card to shop and pay online. To date, the mobile payment app has over 200,000 mobile users.

Photo credit: Propelrr

While Wing Money in Cambodia has always been first in the many fintech related features using mobile app, providing the most complete plethora of products available to the Cambodian market, a lot of payment apps are popping up.

ABA Banks E-Cash mobile payment service is also worth noting. This mobile app feature allows convenient money transfer to Cambodians who have no bank accounts. Recipients can withdraw cash from an ATM without using a card. They just need to enter their phone number and the security code generated from the senders transaction.

Pi Pay, a cashless payment app in Cambodia, features a simple, fun, and trendy mobile app design, with custom emoticons and an interesting colour choice of pink. This is apparently to entice young and techie Cambodians. The app also has built-in video chat messaging that appeal to millennial consumers.

Like other mobile payment apps, the SmartLuy mobile app provides money transfer services. But it distinguishes itself by focusing on its mobile money or e-wallet service. Smart Axiata, the company behind it, positions the app as a cheap and convenient digital payment alternative to cash and credit card payments and over-the-counter bank transactions.

3. Develop synergies with banks

Mobile payments in Cambodia are an alternative to the services of traditional financial institutions. But that does not mean these two seemingly worlds-apart services should always compete against each other. In fact, these entities can work together to improve their offerings.

A RiskFrontier Consulting report notes that mobile payment companies can benefit from partnering with banks to tap their technical know-how, initial customer acquisition (through a banks existing clients), and investment capital.

PayGo, also a Cambodian mobile payment company, collaborated with ABA Bank, one of the countrys top private financial institutions. This partnership resulted in creating a virtual credit card that makes online payments faster for its customers.

For its part, Pi Pay teamed up with CIMB Bank in Malaysia and Wirecard, a global payment tech provider in Germany, to provide secure and efficient mobile payment services. CIMB Bank manages all things related to client deposit and merchant payment, while Wirecard helps ensure online payment processing security.

When it started, Wing gained from the brand recognition and client network of its founding parent, Australias ANZ Bank. Today, the Cambodian mobile payment services provider has partnered with various banks in countries where Cambodian migrant workers are based. Last year, it closed deals with South Koreas Kookmin Bank and Thailands Kasikornbank to facilitate quick money transfer between these countries and Cambodia. This marks the companys foray into the overseas money remittance market.

According to Wing CEO, Jojo Malolos, There are many other features of the mobile payments app that are equally useful with the new released online Mastercard. Transfer from a bank account to a Wing account marries the banked to the unbanked, and the ability of the unbanked to withdraw and deposit money in their branches. Aside from that, huge discounts on restaurants, hotels, airfares, bus trips are now made available to them ever conveniently, be it a dream trip or a special dinner. Access to once-in-a-lifetime luxury and comfort is also made inclusive.

Also read: Beyond banking, here are 4 ways fintech innovations are influencing industries today

4. Raise brand awareness through consumer education

It is not enough that your mobile payment services are goodpeople have to know and be convinced that youre offering something useful to them. In Cambodia, mobile payments companies have created TV and radio ads that highlight the advantages of availing their services compared to paying with cash: low cost, ease of use, convenience, safety, and security.

To build customer trust, Wing has tapped into local microfinance institutions (MFIs) as its network of sales agents. It also recruited small businesses such as pharmacies, supermarkets, and foreign exchange outlets as agents. These networks have established relationships with potential customers, and they are perceived as peers or experts in using mobile payments. Because of that, people go to them for advice, making it easier to trust in the mobile payment system.

Final notes

Cambodia may be no match against mobile payment market giants in Asia such as China and India. But its definitely alive and kicking. From product development to innovation and marketing, the mobile payments industry has been able to show the Cambodian market the benefits of going cashless via mobile versus traditional payment methods.

The key ingredient to the companys success is its deep-dive understanding of the Cambodian

customers motivation to use its products and services. The entire value chain creation is solid.

The entry of newer players (such as True Money, SmartLuy, and Asia Wei Luy) has intensified the competition in the Cambodian mobile payments market. This brings a new, exciting challenge to other companies: how will they further differentiate themselves and offer consumers something unique and valuable? Lets see how this development will shape the future of mobile payment industry in Cambodia.

Come to think of it, Cambodians are now more empowered than probably some of the other Asian neighboring countries. In fact, as early as February 2017, street hawkers and vendors as well as tuktuk drivers were already able to receive payments using QR Codes through the Pay with Wing feature of the mobile app. In the Philippines, such QR Code payment capability was only released just recently. Cambodia is surprisingly ahead of the Philippines.

Go figure.

-

Editors note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Featured Image: 123RF

The post 4 things fintech startups can learn from the mobile payments boom in Cambodia appeared first on e27.(PHOTOS: Reuters)

More than 500 Uber employees in Singapore have been placed on paid leave in the wake of the companys South-East Asian operations being acquired by rival ride-hailing firm Grab.

According to sources within Uber, the companys Guoco Tower headquarters was cleared out on Monday (26 March) and employees there were apparently told to vacate the premises by 4pm.

Yahoo News Singapore understands that 50 employees will be redeployed to the Uber office at Mapletree Anson. The remaining staff were placed on paid leave for the next three months as Grab finds new roles for them.

During a phone interview, Grabs regional head of people operations Ong Chin Yin denied earlier reports and social media posts that hundreds of employees had been retrenched.

There are no layoffs as of today. We are committed to try to find a suitable role for over five hundred Uber people at Grab, and we just need to take time to meet up with them and review them over the course of the next few weeks, said Ong, who added that no contractors were laid off.

Asked if there was any guarantee that no Uber employees would be laid off at the end of the three-month period, Ong said she could not foretell whether everyone will accept (the offers made) and whether theres a right fit for both sides for everyone.

We are committed to meet every single person, and we are committed to try our very best to find the right role for them, she added.

Ong noted that not every one of the 500-odd employees would be on paid leave for the full three months, and that the process of meeting them would begin as soon as possible.

The people who can find roles earlier, they actually can start work earlier, she said.

Responding to social media posts regarding Uber employees who had allegedly been given two hours to leave the office, Ong added, That really wasnt our call. Their access was also cut very early this morning, and I understand how terrible it can be for some of them.

Story continues

Related stories:

Competition Commission of Singapore not yet notified of Grab-Uber merger: reports

Uber selling Southeast Asian business to regional rival GrabA tent covers the park bench where former Russian intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found after they were poisoned, in Salisbury, Britain. March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

By Andrius Sytas and David Mardiste

VILNIUS/TALLINN (Reuters) - European Union governments were set to make good on a threat to punish Russia for a nerve agent attack in Britain they blame on Moscow, with Baltic governments expected to expel Russian envoys on Monday, diplomats said.

Moscow has denied it is behind the attack earlier this month on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, the first known offensive use of a nerve toxin in Europe since World War Two, and has accused the bloc of a campaign against it.

But EU leaders last week said evidence of Russian involvement presented by British Prime Minister Theresa May was a solid basis for further action and the bloc's top diplomat held consultations with the EU's recalled Moscow envoy on Sunday.

One senior EU diplomat told Reuters about a dozen countries are expected to expel Russian diplomats on Monday over the attack in Salisbury, England, including the Baltic nations who were once part of the Soviet bloc and who typically take the toughest line on Russia.

Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a public bench in the English city on March 4 and a British court has since said they may have suffered brain damage by the attack which British authorities said was carried out by a Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent.

Lithuania and Latvia both summoned Russia's ambassadors on Monday, their foreign ministries said, without giving more details, while the Estonian government plans a separate news conference later in the day on the issue.

Russian news agencies reported that Russia's ambassadors to Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were summoned to the foreign ministries of those countries on Monday.

While EU governments initially hesitated in condemning Russia, the bloc's biggest energy provider, they have rallied round Britain in recent days in a show of support for London despite its decision to leave the European Union.

Story continues

British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson hailed that support on Monday during a visit to Estonia, where Britain has troops as part of a NATO mission to deter Russia following its seizure of Ukraine's Crimea in 2014.

"The fact that right across the NATO alliance, right across the European Union, nations have stood up in support of the United Kingdom ... I actually think that is the very best response that we could have," Williamson said.

Asked about the expected diplomatic expulsions, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said the decisions were "obviously a matter" for individual EU governments.

Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite said she would consider expelling Russian diplomats accused of working as spies in Lithuania.

A Lithuanian intelligence service report published on Monday said a third of Russia's diplomats in Lithuania were spies working under diplomatic protection.

"This way we will say, we know you're here, we know who you are, we know what you do, and that is why we are expelling you," Grybauskaite said on Friday.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, David Mardiste in Tallinn, Gederts Gelzis in Riga, Maria Kiselyova in Moscow, Liz Piper in London; Editing by Richard Balmforth)China Eastern flight from Shanghai to New York forced to land in Alaska after passenger is taken ill on board

A plane from Shanghai bound for New York was forced to dump 30 tonnes of fuel in mid-air and land in Alaska after a passenger was taken ill on board.

The China Eastern Airlines plane MU587 that took off on Friday evening was around eight hours into its scheduled 15-hour flight, when its crew made an emergency landing at Anchorage airport.

The emergency landing was made after a 60-year-old woman started suffering breathing difficulties and cramps before passing out.

The crew immediately arranged to move the woman from economy class to business class.

Hong Kong-bound flight diverted as urgent medical situation arises on board

But the situation had not improved after help from a doctor on board, according to a statement by the airline issued via Facebook.

The crew decided to dump 30 tonnes of fuel before landing in Alaska, while the sick passenger, who was accompanied by her daughter and her grandchild, was transported to hospital immediately.

Two hours after the landing, the flight, which was carrying 294 passengers, resumed its journey to New York.

It is unknown what exactly the woman was suffering from but Thepaper.cn reported that the womans daughter had said that her mothers physical condition was weak.

However, some social media users criticised the airline for dumping fuel in mid air.

One commentator on WeChat reacted to a statement by the company by saying fuel-dumping pollutes the environment.

United Airlines flight diverted because it accidentally had a dog on-board

The airline responded to the comment by saying that: Fuel dumped mid-air is ejected in the form of gas and therefore destruction to the environment is comparatively minimal. Saving someones life is the priority.

According to the company, planes are designed to be significantly lighter when landing than when taking off and the fuel-dumping was conducted according to international flight safety standards.

The flight involved was reported to be weighing 282 tonnes at the time it needed to make an emergency landing, exceeding the maximum weight designed for landing which was 251 tonnes.

This article China Eastern flight from Shanghai to New York forced to land in Alaska after passenger is taken ill on board first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.The Malaysian government Monday proposed a "fake news" law which would carry a maximum 10-year jail term, including for articles published abroad, sparking fears of a crackdown on dissent as elections loom. Governments in several countries, emboldened by US President Donald Trump's fulminations against "fake news", are considering such legislation. But rights groups warn that authoritarian regimes are likely to use such laws to silence opposing voices. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has already been targeting critics in politics and the media who have attacked him over allegations that huge sums were looted from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing. The proposed law, introduced in parliament Monday, fuelled fears the government is seeking to intensify a clampdown before a general election, which must be called by August but is widely expected sooner. Opposition MP Charles Santiago said the bill was "a powerful weapon for the government to silence dissent in the country". "It is timed for the elections and to silence discussions on 1MDB," he told AFP. The bill, which described fake news as a "global concern", includes a maximum 10 years in jail or fine of up to 500,000 ringgit ($130,000) for anyone guilty of creating or disseminating what authorities deem to be fake news. It said anyone -- including foreigners -- who breaks the law outside the country by publishing fake news can face punishment in Malaysia, as long as what is published concerns Malaysia or a Malaysian citizen. Fahmi Fadzil, spokesman for the opposition People's Justice Party, said it suggested the government was seeking to target foreign media, which have led the coverage of 1MDB. Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director for Human Rights Watch, accused the Malaysian government of employing "Trump-style scare tactics to grant itself powers to arbitrarily determine what people can say about Malaysia in the world". Amnesty International said the bill was "nothing but a blatant attempt to shield the government from peaceful criticism". It was no coincidence that it had been tabled with general elections just around the corner, said Amnesty's regional director James Gomez in a statement. - Taking aim at fake news - Malaysia's traditional pro-government media have reported on the 1MDB controversy only occasionally and in a muted and largely uncritical fashion. Despite the concerns, cabinet minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar insisted the law "will not be abused", adding: "It is not aimed at silencing critics." The bill must be approved by a majority in the 222-seat lower house and also in the upper house, and this is likely as both chambers are controlled by the ruling coalition. It needs to go through several readings in parliament before it passes. Malaysia is ranked 144th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index. The government has the power to revoke newspapers' printing permits and regularly attacks critical media, particularly online news sites that have gained a following by reporting on official malfeasance and corruption. Other countries in Southeast Asia have also been taking aim at what they claim is fake news. Philippine lawmakers are mulling an anti-fake news bill introduced last year by a supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has done battle with media outlets critical of his deadly drug war. The proposed legislation reserves its harshest penalties, up to $382,500 and imprisonment of up to 20 years, for mass media organisations that refuse to take down fake news items. In tightly-controlled Singapore, a parliamentary committee has been holding hearings this month as it examines potential measures to combat false online information, including legislation.Seow Lam Seng (in white), 63, being escorted by the police to the State Courts on Monday (26 March). (PHOTO: Suhaile Md / Yahoo News Singapore)

On an October afternoon in 1980, Seow Lam Seng and Lee Ah Fatt were stopped by two police officers along Tanjong Katong Road.

The spot check turned deadly when Seow was found to be carrying a pistol and Lee drew his own gun on the officers. In response, one of the policemen drew his service revolver and fired on Lee  who continued to struggle with the officers despite being shot.

Amid the commotion, Seow fled the scene. Lee later died of his injuries.

For 38 years the Singapore Police Force regularly reviewed the case in hopes of tracing Seows whereabouts. Finally, on 22 March, he was arrested in Penang, Malaysia, with the assistance of the Royal Malaysia Police.

The 63-year-old Malaysian was extradited to Singapore two days later and was charged in the State Courts on Monday (26 March) with one count under the Arms Offences Act for unlawfully carrying a pistol. If convicted, Seow could face life imprisonment.

According to court documents, the incident took place at around 2.30pm on 3 October 1980 at a staircase next to the Sin Po Po Bar.

The arrest and extradition of the suspect after 38 years on the run would not be possible without the strong support from the Royal Malaysia Police, our closest crime-fighting partner, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Investigations and Intelligence) Tan Chye Hee in a news release on Sunday.Setho Oi Lin, also known as Setho Irene, is currently out on $300,000 bail and will begin serving her sentence on 7 May. (PHOTO: Suhaile Md / Yahoo News Singapore)

The woman who orchestrated a $37.5 million country club membership scam over a period of 10 years was sentenced to 12 years jail at the State Courts on Monday (26 March).

Setho Oi Lin, also known as Setho Irene, showed a flagrant and methodical disregard for the law said deputy presiding judge Jennifer Marie in passing the sentence.

The 71-year-old had pleaded guilty to 60 counts of cheating on 4 December 2017. Another 3,121 similar charges were taken into consideration for her sentencing.

Court documents showed that from 2004 to 2014, the former senior executive of Keppel Clubs membership department duped 1,341 people into buying fake memberships worth a total of $37.5 million. Setho received at least $11 million for herself in the process.

She capitalised on her other role as personal assistant to the clubs general manager to issue membership cards. She also logged her victims names into the clubs database to grant them access to the clubs facilities.

The prosecution initially sought a jail term of 15 years but reduced the request to 12 to 13 years after reaching a settlement with Setho, who agreed to pay the club $3.65 million in restitution.

Defence counsels Philip Fong and Lynn Wong asked for a seven-year jail term citing their clients age and health issues, such as hypertension and severe spinal problems. They also submitted medical reports showing that Setho had no chance of surviving the next 10 years.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Hon Yi assured the court on Monday that Setho would be given due assistance by the prison medical officer. Hon Yi also cited a Straits Times article in March last year that reported on how prisons here are adapting to the needs of a growing number of elderly prisoners.

Judge Marie later said that she was satisfied that the prisons department would minimise harm done to the aged Setho.

Setho arrived at court in a wheelchair, and had to be assisted into the witness stand. She sat unmoving with her head bowed throughout the proceedings.

Story continues

She had worked at Keppel Club for nearly 48 years, starting as a clerk in 1966. She rose through the ranks to become a senior executive as well as a personal assistant to the general manager.

Setho chose to embark on a life of crime in her 50s, at a place where she had worked for more than four decades, said the judge. Due recognition was given to her work but she still imposed a decade-long massive fraud.

She had also enlisted the help of her colleague Nah Hak Chuah and club member Ivy Cheo Soh Chin, both 67, in carrying out her scam. The duo were jailed three years and four-and-a-half years, respectively, on 10 January.

It was a massive fraudulent scheme that exploited both personal and professional relationships, said the judge.

Judge Marie added that old age cannot set a ceiling to escape punishment.

While it is unfortunate that (Setho) will spend her twilight years in prison the message from this court must be clear and unequivocal.

Setho will begin her jail term on 7 May and has been granted bail of $300,000. Her lawyers requested the deferment to allow her to attend her medical appointments and to strengthen her muscles so that her time in prison would be more bearable.

More Singapore stories:

Malaysian fugitive nabbed after 38 years on the run charged with firearm possession

No more free parking for teachers at national schools in SingaporeA secondary school in Singapore. (Photo: Screengrab/Google Maps)

Starting from 1 August, teachers at primary schools, secondary schools and junior colleges in Singapore will no longer be able to park their cars or motorcycles for free, media reports stated on Monday (26 March).

Unsheltered parking for cars will cost $75 per month during term time, and $15 a month during holiday months, according to The Straits Times. This amounts to a total of $720 per annum, TODAYonline said. Sheltered parking will cost slightly more.

Teachers who ride motorcycles to school will have be to pay $13 a month during school months and $2 a month in the holidays, amounting to $123 a year, the reports said, adding again that sheltered parking would cost more.

The new charges came after a 2015 Auditor-Generals review of free parking at schools, as part of a wider look at financial lapses by government agencies. Back then, the Auditor-General noted that the practice of offering free parking was tantamount to providing hidden subsidies, which led to the Ministry of Education looking into the matter.

Related stories:

Singapore car park rates up $0.10 to $0.20, season parking up $15 to $25

Does The New Parking.Sg App Save You More Money Than Traditional Parking Coupons?FILE PHOTO - A combination photo shows a Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) handout of Kim Jong Un released on May 10, 2016, and Donald Trump posing for a photo in New York City, U.S., May 17, 2016. REUTERS/KCNA handout via Reuters/File Photo & REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea said on Monday its policy of seeking better ties with the South was enjoying broad international support, and called on the United States to halt its sanctions and pressure.

Ri Jong Hyok, director of North Korea's National Reunification Institute and deputy head of its Supreme People's Assembly, said that his country sought to build a "just and peaceful new world, free from aggression and war".

Nothing could block the goal of inter-Korean dialogue and reunification, he told the general assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva. North Korea's efforts to improve bilateral ties with South Korea now enjoyed a "broad spectrum of support" internationally, he said.

"Now is the high time to put an end to the U.S. anachronistic anti-DPRK hostile policy and its futile moves of sanctions and pressure," Ri said, referring to his country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

North Korea's consistent position was to resolve all issues through dialogue and negotiation, he said.

"The United States should properly understand our position and come out in a manner of sincere and serious attitude for positively contributing to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula," Ri added.

U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in May after South Korean officials relayed a message from Pyongyang that the North Korean leader wished to speak to Trump about denuclearisation.

The detente with the North began in January with the announcement that Pyongyang would send athletes to compete in the Winter Olympics held in the South, as part in a unified Korean team. It came after a year in which Pyongyang staged several missile launches and its biggest-ever nuclear test, in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

South Korea said on Saturday that North Korea had agreed to hold high-level talks with South Korea on March 29 at the border truce village of Panmunjom to prepare for a summit of their leaders planned for April.

Ri, who held bilateral meetings with parliamentary delegations from Syria and Mongolia in Geneva, made no reference in his six-minute speech to either upcoming summit.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Tom Miles and Peter Graff)Manila has recalled the labour attache of its consulate in Hong Kong  one of the most important positions in a city where there are more than 190,000 Filipino domestic workers  a year before he completes his term, in a move that is sparking outrage in the community.

This is believed to be the first recall of an official from the Philippine consulate in the past 20 years. No justification was provided in the official memo, but members of the community are suggesting that the decision might be related to Jalilo Dela Torre being an outspoken voice against human traffickers and unscrupulous employment agencies.

Dela Torre has vowed to continue this fight.

Whatever the outcome is, I will continue to fight human traffickers and rogue agencies wherever I am, he told the Post.

The official was taken by surprise on Friday after receiving the memo telling him he had been recalled to the home office in the Philippines and that the order was effective immediately.

Typically, after a recall order has been issued, an official has 60 days to leave the post. But Dela Torre said he might depart in the coming two weeks and was not told about his next assignment.

It is unclear whether his replacement has been chosen. The current assistant labour attache in Hong Kong will take over the position temporarily.

It might take some time until they choose someone permanent, Dela Torre said.

Another consulate official said that, as of Sunday evening, he had not been informed about Dela Torres replacement.

We dont know if this is a final decision or if they will reconsider it. They cant leave this post vacant because this is a very important position, the official noted.

The term of a labour attache is three years. Dela Torre served two and was supposed to stay in Hong Kong until March next year.

Story continues

He has been fighting for our rights and defending us. We demand for him to be allowed to stay until he finishes his term next year.

Leo Selomenio, Global Alliance Hong Kong

I hope they reconsider the decision, the consular official said. We support and we are happy with his work. We think he should continue and complete his term.

The community here are not too happy with this [Manilas decision], and they already expressed it, the same source said.

Leo Selomenio, chairwoman of Global Alliance Hong Kong, a group that promotes Philippine culture in Hong Kong, said she strongly opposed the move by Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes administration.

[Dela Torres] exit is not good for us, the domestic worker said.

He has been fighting for our rights and defending us. We demand for him to be allowed to stay until he finishes his term next year. There are many projects in line, and he should continue them. We cannot accept this, she noted.

Selomenio said the community did not know the reason behind the unexpected decision.

But people believe that one of the reasons has to do with human trafficking, she added. He has been very outspoken. And we also know that the recruitment agencies that charge excessive placement fees are not happy. They probably complained with the government in the Philippines. Maybe there was some pressure there.

Dela Torre has been vocal against unscrupulous employment agencies that overcharge and deceive domestic workers. He has exposed cases of Filipino helpers in Hong Kong who end up being trafficked to other destinations, such as Russia and Turkey.

The official posted on social media on Sunday: A human trafficker in Turkey has just taken credit for my recall. Either this proves that they are involved somehow, or they are taking advantage of the situation to advance their own predatory human trafficking operations. Cheap shot.

Several members of the community took to the streets in Hong Kong on Sunday against Manilas decision. There have also been dozens of messages posted on social media in support of Dela Torre.

Selomenio called the recall an injustice for the labour attache, adding: He deserves a good exit, a dignifying one.

Dela Torre said he would like to continue his work in Hong Kong.

My main projects have to do with combating human trafficking and reforming the accreditation system for agencies, he explained. These are the two main things I am worried about. I dont know if my successor is going to be worried or interested in picking up and continuing these projects.

Dela Torre has a special relationship with the city, as it was in Hong Kong that he began his career in 1998 as an assistant labour attache. He was then moved to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Philippines and Australia. The diplomat returned to Hong Kong in 2016.

My strength has always been to be close to the community and develop projects with them, he said. I hope I will be allowed to continue to do so.

This article Philippines recalls Hong Kong labour attache, known for his strong anti-human trafficking views, sparking outrage first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.

More from South China Morning Post:Only when the police questioned him in January did Rrahman Qosja discover he had been the victim of identity theft -- some of Albania's publicly owned coastline had been sold in his name. "This is a mafia, more dangerous than a mafia," said the shocked septuagenarian, a farmer from Sterbeg, a hillside village some seven kilometres (4.5 miles) from the Adriatic coast. And Qosja was not alone in his misfortune -- in total, 180 ordinary people like him were caught up. They were all supposedly co-owners of the land -- part of an army military base at Rreth-Greth -- and had "sold" it to a businessman, according to prosecutor Artan Madani in the western town of Kavaja, who is leading the probe. Although spectacular in scale, the case is far from unique. Similar variations of the audacious fraud have become common in Albania, one of Europe's poorest countries. "It seems to follow the same pattern" in each case, the police's anti-financial crime chief Lutfi Minxhozi told AFP. With the help of corrupt property notaries, officials and local politicians, crooks, money launderers or shady promoters create false property certificates on behalf of individuals who are totally unaware. They then "buy" the plots of land, which are actually the property of the state, and resell them at a higher price or construct villas, buildings and hotels on them. - A gravedigger with 220 hectares - A top judiciary official, who asked not to be named, told AFP about the case of a gravedigger in the southern coastal city of Vlora. He had no inkling that he was supposedly the "owner" of 220 hectares (540 acres) of military land in the Karaburun peninsula. In early March, the authorities decided to examine more than 30,000 property titles on 200 square kilometres (77 square miles) of coastline, according to the urban planning administration. Thirty-five land registry agents have already been sacked. By mid-March, all sales had been suspended along 450 km of the coast, from Shengjin in the north to Saranda down in the south. - Land, buildings, accounts seized - Other moves to clamp down on property fraud already got under way at the start of the year. In February, a dozen beach bars and restaurants were pulled down near Golem in the north. Bank accounts, villas, land and hotels are increasingly being seized. Albania is plagued by corruption, the looting of public property and an anarchic land registry system. Its coastline has been disfigured by concrete, environmental degradation is ignored, while money laundering and trafficking, especially of drugs, is rife. In Qosja's case, the police probe revealed that his personal documents and signature had been misused by a local official when Qosja went to register land acquired by his family in the 1990s, Madani said. Prosecutors in the case, which concerns 10 hectares, are investigating 23 people, including officials and local politicians. - Assassinated judge "It is white-collar organised crime, which falls under corruption and money laundering via property," said Fabian Zhilla, of the Canadian Institute of Technology who specialises in the subject of organised crime. It is a "mafia style" crime "if one looks at the nature of its organisation and the land concerned", said Minxhozi, of the police's anti-financial crime squad. In 2011, a judge Skerdilajt Konomi was assassinated in Vlora. Investigators believe he paid the ultimate price for refusing to sign fake property deeds for land near the western port city of Durres, a legal source from the prosecutors' office for serious crime said. Stretching to the south of Durres, kilometres of concrete buildings, often empty, blight the coast. "Every official involved will be held criminally responsible, regardless of their hierarchic level," Madani said. - EU-required reforms - Albania has instigated judiciary reform in a bid to clamp down on corruption and links to organised crime as part of Brussels' demands for entry into the European Union. A candidate since 2014, Albania hopes to begin accession talks this year. Justice Minister Etilda Gjonaj has pledged that the reforms will enable authorities to "identify judges and prosecutors involved in illegal operations". The task may be challenging since many fraudulent operations have already been "laundered", for instance through municipal councillors or mayors buying votes in exchange for issuing backdated property certificates or building permits, a notorious practice in Albania, according to journalist and analyst Aleksander Cipa. However, on March 16 arrest warrants were issued for 24 people in the northern town of Lezha, including the mayor and his deputy. With an eye on developing its tourism, the stakes for Albania are also economic. In 2009, the French holiday company Club Med gave up plans for building a village resort on the Ionian coast due to a land ownership dispute.Syrian forces of President Bashar al Assad are seen around buses carry civilian and rebels outside Harasta in eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria March 23, 2018. REUTERS/ Omar Sanadiki

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Defence Ministry said more than 105,000 people have left Syria's Eastern Ghouta rebel enclave, including another 700 on Saturday since government forces began an assault to retake it a month ago, RIA news agency reported, citing the military.

RIA referred to evacuations taking place during "humanitarian pauses". Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main ally in the conflict, ordered daily five-hour ceasefires and the creation of a "humanitarian corridor" to allow civilians to leave Eastern Ghouta.

In the event, the offensive - among the fiercest of the seven-year civil war - was largely carried out in defiance of international pleas to halt and honour a truce, and about 90 percent of eastern Ghouta is back under government control.

(Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Editing by Mark Heinrich)Sierra Leone's High Court on Monday lifted an order that had halted the country's presidential runoff, although the electoral commission has requested a brief postponement after losing valuable time to prepare the vote. The High Court removed an injunction it imposed on Saturday to halt preparations for the poll due to an electoral fraud complaint filed by a lawyer linked to the ruling All Peoples' Congress (APC). Lawyers for the National Electoral Commission (NEC) said in their filing Monday the order had already thrown the election into "chaos". The commission requested an alternative date for the election of March 31, but it is not yet clear whether this will be granted. The APC further alleged on Sunday that the electoral commission was working with a different voter registration list to calculate results than the one officially published. More than 250 people and dozens of lawyers crammed into the courtroom on Monday, while outside TV cameras awaited the results, closely guarded by police. Opposition leader Julius Maada Bio, from the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), took 43.3 percent of votes in the first round, while Samura Kamara of the incumbent APC took 42.7 percent. Sierra Leone emerged from a brutal civil war in 2002 and has remained largely peaceful since then. However, flare-ups occur around election time, and memories of a conflict in which more than 50,000 died remain potent. The APC's first-round loss fuelled allegations by the opposition that it was seeking to derail the final outcome through the courts. "The motivation behind the APC injunction is very clear: they do not want a runoff presidential election to proceed because they know the verdict of the overwhelming majority of Sierra Leonean electorate will not be in their favour," Bio told a press conference on Sunday. A group of civil society organisations said Saturday the court decision was "frustrating and depressing", as the March 7 vote had been declared credible by national and international observers. President Ernest Bau Koroma is stepping down after a maximum two terms. Bio has said the president will bring Sierra Leone "to the brink of chaos" if he fails to leave as scheduled at the end of his mandate. Some candidates and supporters have used ethnic slurs at campaign rallies, and the police and international observers have raised concerns over such rhetoric in recent weeks. The APC broadly relies on the Temne and Limba people in its northern strongholds, while the SLPP is more popular in the south with the Mende ethnic group.Also, Averspace inks deal with Frasers Property and Narendra Modi finds himself in hot water over official app

Grab has officially announced that Uber will receive a 27.5 per cent stake in Grab; Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grabs board.

It also said that Grabs food delivery service GrabFood will expand to Singapore and Malaysia, then the rest of Southeast Asia, by the first half of 2018. Ubers service will operate in Southeast Asia for two more weeks.

The deal marks a significant victory for Grab in Southeast Asia and points to Ubers desire to shore up its finances ahead of an IPO.

Averspace ties up with Frasers Property Singapore to digitalise commercial leasing  [Press Release]

Averspace, a Singapore startup that is digitalising the rental contract process, announced today it has inked a deal with Frasers Property Singapore to begin bringing the commercial leasing process online.

Frasers Property Singapore owns 12 malls, so presumably the first step would be to help get shops to sign their property leases using Averspace.

The deal is using Averspaces B2B product called Real Estate Doc, which allows companies to build their own contracts and streamline the payment process.

It has always been our main focus to simplify real estate transactions for the incumbents of the industry, in Singapore and in the Asia Pacific region and it is a pleasure to be working with strong, forward-looking partners, said Averspace CEO Ivan Lim.

Malaysia and Singapore are simultaneously pursuing laws to tackle fake news within their borders  a move that has stirred controversy in both countries, according to the Bangkok Post.

In Malaysia, the timing of the bill  and harsh punishment of up to 10 years in jail  have sparked criticisms that Prime Minister Najib is seeking to squash dissent ahead of the countrys general elections in the coming months.

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In Singapore last week, a heated public hearing had tech giants like Facebook, Twitter and Google expressing concerns about the governments proposed fake news bill whilst Home Affairs minister K. Shanmugam pushed back on the companys ability to contain the spread of falsehoods.

Alibaba is trying to build a logistics network in Thailand  [South China Morning Post]

Following its essential takeover of Lazada, Alibaba is hoping to continue its rapid expansion into Southeast Asia with a logistics network in Thailand, according to the South China Morning Post.

The e-commerce giant is currently in talks with the government to set up a logistics hub in Chachoengsao, a province to the west of Bangkok.

The plan is not just to make the hub a center in Thailand, but to use it to serve e-commerce in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

This move follows a similar path it pursued in Malaysia, using the country to create a regional e-commerce logistics hub .

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come under fire after revelations that his official mobile app was sending personal data to a third party without users consent, according to Reuters.

In a tweet, the governing Bharatiya Janata Party denied allegations from the opposition party, but then appeared to admit the data was being delivered to a third-party analytics company. According to Reuters, a security researcher discovered the data was being sent to a company in the US.

This news could not come at a worse time as the world is coming to grips with the reality that Facebook allowed the personal data of 50 million users be mined by a political campaign company named Cambridge Analytica.



Copyright: pboonrit / 123RF Stock Photo

The post Todays top tech news, March 26: Grab buys Uber, Malaysia/Singapore pursue fake news bills appeared first on e27.Embattled Japanese conglomerate Toshiba said Monday it was still waiting for regulators to approve the key sale of its chip unit, a delay that could stymie plans to complete the deal this month. The firm agreed in September to sell its memory chip business to a consortium led by US investor Bain Capital, which was seen as crucial to keeping it afloat after multi-billion-dollar losses. Under the deal, Toshiba had expected to meet all the sale conditions by March 23 and complete by March 30. "However, the satisfaction of certain conditions relating to antitrust approvals in required jurisdictions have not yet been confirmed," Toshiba said in a statement Monday. "Although the timing of the closing has not been determined, Toshiba intends to close the transaction as soon as possible," the statement continued. Toshiba spokeswoman Midori Hara told AFP "for now it's only China's anti-trust law" that is holding up the sale. "We don't know the timeline for the approval, but we are still seeking to complete the deal on March 30." The Bain-led group acquiring the memory chip business includes US tech giants Apple and Dell, as well as South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix. Toshiba has struggled after the disastrous acquisition of US nuclear energy firm Westinghouse, which racked up billions of dollars in losses before being placed under bankruptcy protection. In order to survive and avoid delisting, the cash-strapped group decided to sell its chip business -- the crown jewel in a vast range of businesses ranging from home appliances to nuclear reactors. With the chip deal and the sale of Westinghouse, Toshiba said in February it would swing into the black for the full fiscal year.People depart the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations in the Manhattan borough of New York City People depart the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar

By Michael Holden and Roberta Rampton

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe in punishing the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that they have blamed on Moscow.

It was the strongest action that U.S. President Donald Trump had taken against Russia since coming to office. He has been criticized by Democrats and members of his own Republican Party for failing to be tough enough on Russia over U.S. allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. electoral system including the 2016 presidential campaign.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, welcoming the show of solidarity, said 18 countries had announced plans to expel Russian officials. Those included 14 European Union countries. In total, 100 Russian diplomats were being removed, the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Twitter that Monday's "extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever and will help defend our shared security."

May said the coordinated measures sent the "strongest signal to Russia that it cannot continue to flout international law."

Britain had evidence Russia has investigated ways of distributing nerve agents for assassinations, May told parliament.

Russia's Foreign Ministry called the expulsions a "provocative gesture." The Kremlin spokesman said the West was making a "mistake" and that President Vladimir Putin would make a final decision about Russia's response.

Moscow has denied being behind the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the southern English city of Salisbury. Skripal, 66, and Yulia Skripal, 33, were found unconscious on a public bench in a shopping centre on March 4 and remain critically ill in hospital.

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"We assess that more than 130 people in Salisbury could have been potentially exposed to this nerve agent," May said.

Monday's wave of expulsions followed EU leaders saying last week that evidence presented by May of Russian involvement in the attack was a solid basis for further action.

The staff expelled by Washington includes 12 people identified by the United States as intelligence officers from Russia's mission to the United Nations headquarters in New York. They were involved in activities outside their official capacity and an abuse of their privileges of residence, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said.

Russian U.N. ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called it "a very unfortunate, very unfriendly move."

Trump also ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle because of its proximity to a U.S. submarine base and planemaker and defence contractor Boeing Co <BA.N>, a senior U.S. official said. Seattle was a hub of Russian cyber espionage, both political and commercial, according to two U.S. intelligence officials.

The administration officials said "well over 100 intelligence officers" operated in the United States, and Washington's action cuts 60 of them.

ONE WEEK TO LEAVE

The envoys and their families have been given a week to leave the United States, according to one U.S. official.

Trump, who before he took office in January last year promised warmer ties with Putin, last week congratulated the Russian leader on his re-election, drawing criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. Trump said the two leaders had made tentative plans to meet in the "not too distant future."

He did not bring up the poisoning attack in his phone call with Putin.

Trump himself was silent on Monday on Twitter, where he often comments about his policy decisions. But the White House later said it would like to have a "cooperative relationship" with Russia.

"The president wants to work with the Russians but their actions sometimes don't allow that to happen," White House spokesman Raj Shah told a news briefing. "The poisoning in the U.K. that has kind of led to today's announcement was a very brazen action. It was a reckless action."

U.S. lawmakers largely welcomed Trump's move on Monday.

Washington had already imposed sanctions on Russian citizens and firms for U.S. election meddling and cyber attacks but put off targeting oligarchs and government officials close to Putin.

"Punishing diplomats is not a direct threat to Putin's power or money. Further, our previous efforts to kick out diplomats has done little to change Kremlin behaviour," said former CIA officer John Sipher, who served in Moscow and ran the agency's Russia operations.

U.S. officials said the scale of the expulsions was based not only on the expansion of Russian espionage in the United States, but also on its increasing focus on critical infrastructure targets such as electrical grids, financial networks, transportation and healthcare.

Trump has been criticized in the United States for doing too little to punish Russia for the election meddling and other actions, and U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether Trumps campaign colluded with the Russians, something he denies. Moscow denies interference in the campaign.

Skripal's poisoning, which Britain said employed the Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent Novichok, is the first known offensive use of a nerve toxin in Europe since World War Two.

The Foreign Ministry said "powerful forces" in the United States and Britain were behind the attack, RIA Novosti agency reported.

European Council President Donald Tusk said further measures could be taken in the coming weeks and months. Russia said it would respond in kind.

"The response will be symmetrical. We will work on it in the coming days and will respond to every country in turn," the RIA news agency cited an unnamed Foreign Ministry source as saying.

The Kremlin has accused Britain of whipping up an anti-Russia campaign and has sought to cast doubt on the British analysis that Moscow was responsible. Russia has already ordered 23 British diplomats out of the country after Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats.

(Reporting by Michael Holden and Elizabeth Piper in London, John Irish in Paris, Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber, Vladimir Soldatkin and Christian Lowe in Moscow, Alissa de Carbonnel in Bulgaria, David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Johan Sennero in Stockholm, David Mardiste in Tallinn; Roberta Rampton, John Walcott, Warren Strobel, Patricia Zengerle, Matt Spetalnick and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Writing by Guy Falconbridge and Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Frances Kerry; and Grant McCool)The EU on Monday said it failed to reach any "concrete solutions or compromises" with Turkey in talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeking to repair their tattered relations. Erdogan held a working dinner with European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker in Bulgaria with a litany of issues clouding their discussions. These include EU alarm at Erdogan's crackdown on perceived opponents following a coup attempt in 2016, the arrest of journalists, Turkey's military operations against Kurds in northern Syria and squabbling over Ankara's deal to halt the flow of refugees into Europe. This has all whipped up an increasingly acrimonious war of words and made Turkey's prospects of joining the EU -- an objective that Erdogan insisted earlier on Monday that Turkey still pursues -- appear even more remote. But despite hopes for a breakthrough at the summit in the Black Sea resort of Varna, Tusk said they made little tangible headway. "In terms of concrete solutions, we did not reach a concrete compromise today but I still hope it will be possible in the future," Tusk told a joint news conference. Tusk said improved relations would depend on progress on issues including the rule of law and press freedom as well as Syria. But Erdogan struck a more optimistic tone, telling reporters: "We hope that we have left a very difficult period behind in Turkey-EU relations." However he added: "We don't want rambling or unfair criticisms on sensitive issues like the fight against terror. We expect strong support." - 'Mixed feelings' - Juncker said the summit was one of "mixed feelings but not mixed messages", adding: "It was a good meeting because as this is the normal principle between big democracies, we were able to talk in all frankness and openness." Temperatures rose further last week after EU leaders condemned Turkey's "illegal actions" towards Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. Ankara hit back at the "unacceptable comments" and said the EU had lost its objectivity on Cyprus, which is divided between the Greek-majority internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus and the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north. The statement on Thursday by the 28 EU members meeting in Brussels condemned Turkey over Ankara's arrest of two Greek soldiers and its promise to prevent the Greek Cypriot government from exploring for oil and gas. "For as long as the EU does not take a fair attitude, it will not have any contribution to the solution of the Cyprus issue," Erdogan said. And Juncker raised the issue of the Greek soldiers during the press conference, saying they had confidence in the Turkish side "to solve that in the best way". Ankara and Brussels had in March 2016 agreed a controversial deal to stop the flow of migrants, in what was seen as a landmark in cooperation and which Turkey hoped would yield visa free travel to Europe. So far this incentive has not been realised and Erdogan stressed the issue during the talks. Last month Turkey said it had fulfilled the 72 criteria for visa-free travel and Erdogan told reporters that the necessary paperwork had been sent to the European Commission. Erdogan said he told the EU leaders that it was "necessary to complete their work at once" on the issue. - Looser partnership? - Brussels has repeatedly criticised the post-coup crackdown, which has seen nearly 160,000 people detained, including dozens of journalists. Turkey, for its part, has accused Brussels of failing to show solidarity after the coup and appears set on forging a strong partnership with President Vladimir Putin's Russia. But Juncker stressed that the EU showed its support for Erdogan merely hours after the attempted putsch began. In contrast to Erdogan's brisk evening meeting with the EU leadership, Putin -- whose relations with the West have nosedived further following the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain -- is expected to make a full two-day visit to Turkey next week. Ankara has agreed to buy air defence systems from Russia and Moscow will also build Turkey's first nuclear power station. Next month the EU will release its latest progress report, which is "bound to illustrate a substantial regression" in Turkey, Marc Pierini, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe and a former EU ambassador to Turkey, said in a study. During a visit by Erdogan to Paris earlier this year, French President Emmanuel Macron said Ankara should settle instead for a looser "partnership" with the EU and suggested no more progress was possible in accession talks. Juncker insisted that he was not in favour of stopping negotiations with Turkey but urged Ankara to improve relations with member states like Cyprus and Greece. burs-raz/stu/gdBy Aradhana Aravindan and Heather Somerville SINGAPORE/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian business to bigger regional rival Grab, the ride-hailing firms said on Monday, marking the U.S. company's second retreat from an Asian market. The industry's first big consolidation in Southeast Asia, home to about 640 million people, puts pressure on Indonesia's Go-Jek, which is backed by Alphabet Inc's Google and China's Tencent Holdings Ltd <0700.HK>. A shake-up in Asia's fiercely competitive ride-hailing industry became likely earlier this year when Japan-based SoftBank Group Corp's <9984.T> Vision Fund made a multi-billion dollar investment in Uber. SoftBank owns stakes in most major global ride services companies, and executives have indicated they favored consolidation. SoftBank already had investments in Grab and India's Ola, and Vision Fund Chief Executive Rajeev Misra had urged Uber to focus less on Asia and more on profitable markets such as Latin America, a person familiar with the matter said. Grab President Ming Maa told Reuters that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son was "highly supportive" of the deal, which he called "a very independent decision by both" Grab and Uber. Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in Singapore-based Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab's board. Grab was last valued at $6 billion after a financing round in July. "It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology," Khosrowshahi said in a statement. The Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) said it has the mandate to review whether any mergers will result in a "substantial lessening of competition" and take any action to intervene in the deal, but it has yet to receive notice from the companies. The deal will help bolster Grab's meal-delivery service, which will merge with Uber Eats, compete with Go-Jek. Go-Jek has become a dominant player and powerful rival in Indonesia, the region's biggest economy, and it has rapidly expanded beyond ride hailing to digital payments, food delivery and on-demand cleaning and massage. Ride-hailing companies throughout Asia have relied heavily on discounts and promotions, driving down profit margins and increasing pressure for consolidation. Uber, which is preparing for a potential initial public offering in 2019, lost $4.5 billion last year and is facing fierce competition at home in the United States and across Asia, as well as a regulatory crackdown in Europe. Uber invested $700 million in its Southeast Asia business. Uber previously sold operations in China and Russia to local rivals under former CEO Travis Kalanick. The deal with Grab is the first operations sale by Khosrowshahi, who started in September. MORE CONSOLIDATION But Uber's CEO does not want to make these mergers a pattern, and said he has no plans to do another sale in which it consolidates its operations in exchange for a minority stake in a rival. "It is fair to ask whether consolidation is now the strategy of the day, given this is the third deal of its kind ... The answer is no," Khosrowshahi said in a note to employees that was shared with Reuters. "One of the potential dangers of our global strategy is that we take on too many battles across too many fronts and with too many competitors." SoftBank is also an investor in India's Ola, another competitive and costly market where rivals have heavily subsidized rides in an effort to gain market share. But a source familiar with Uber's strategy said the company was going to step up its battle with Ola in India, where Uber has close to 60 percent of the market, by some estimates, but is losing money. SoftBank's Misra sees opportunities for mergers and joint ventures between SoftBank-backed ride-hailing companies, particularly for collaborating on research and development, but the investor would never get actively involved with management decisions, the person familiar with the matter said. Uber includes the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America among its core markets  regions where it has more than 50 percent market share and is profitable or sees a path to profitability. (Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore and Heather Somerville in San Francisco; writing by Miyoung Kim; editing by Peter Henderson, Stephen Coates and Lisa Shumaker)Corporate VC happens to be just one of the tools to achieve corporate innovation goals; by itself, it usually ends up not creating enough value because the subject matter of corporate innovation itself is quite complex

Everybody wants to be a billionaire, but 99 per cent of people are not willing or capable to do what it takes, says Ben Lim, Venture Partner at Malaysia-based angel startup accelerator-cum-angel-investor-network Nexea.

Since Grabs entry into the coveted Unicorn startup club sometime in 2016, no other Malaysian-born companies have made it to the list. There are quite a factors contributing to a companys elevation to the coveted club, and the size of a companys targeted market is all the more important factor. Given the small size of Malaysia, companies targeting only the local market are unlikely to be a unicorn.

But does this mean Malaysian firms stand no chance to become a unicorn?

To get a clear picture of the current startup and investment scene, e27 sat with Ben Lim and Noomi Fessler  venture partners at Nexea which has accelerated and funded more than 30 startups in Southeast Asia.

Below are the edited excerpts:

While VC firms are on the rise in Malaysia, startups are still relying more on equity crowdfunding platforms (ECFs). Why do you think this trend exists? Is it because startups dont really trust VCs?

Lim: Nexea has actually backed a few startups as a lead investor including ParkIt, which has raised money on PitchIn. We see equity crowdfunding (ECF) platforms as being complementary, more than being an alternative. If a startup solely wants to raise money, ECF is a good option to do that.

VCs and angel investors tend to bring in more strategic value in knowledge, experience and networks in comparison. They actively support the company, for example, through mentorship and introductions. However, VCs must invest according to growth and exit opportunities, which most businesses cannot meet.

Also Read: Uber officially sells Southeast Asia assets to Grab, including food delivery service

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Retail investors are not bound by that, thus they can invest in both scalable startups and more traditional businesses  which we see a lot on ECF platforms.

From my conversations with several angels in Malaysia, I have learnt that services-based startups are getting more attention than product startups. Why so? Do you see the trend to reverse in the near future?

Lim: If we define product startups as such that have a physical product to manufacture and sell, it is a more traditional business model  with heavy investments in assets and workforce required to grow. The startup capital for that is much higher, making their take-off harder.

Also, manufacturing plays an important role in physical products, and that gives Chinese players stronger cost and market size advantages.

Nexea's Venture Partner Ben Lim

Nexeas Venture Partner Ben Lim

At Nexea, we focus on investing into highly-scalable startups. Platforms/marketplaces and SaaS companies are the most common. Those startups dont necessarily invent new products or technologies. They leverage on existing technologies and build a new business model around it.

We do not see a strong reversal trend coming up, as Malaysias economy is moving towards services, and most of the recently emerging unicorns globally tend to be service-based anyway.

It is only natural because their cost-to-scale is much lower.

Despite having a huge mobile internet population, Malaysia is trailing other markets in the region in terms of the growth of tech startups? What could be the reasons for this relatively slow growth?

Lim: Many startups that we see in Malaysia are not precisely targeting the entire mobile population in the country. For example, we have a market where users prefer many different languages. This makes Malaysia a tougher home ground to conquer.

Supply and demand plays a role too. In Singapore, for example, there is a huge number of VCs with a limited number of good startups  and this leads to more startups being funded.

There is a similar effect in Indonesia as well, because the market size of Indonesia attracts a huge number of foreign VCs.

Over time, we should see this level out across the region as VCs establish themselves deeper into each country.

Fessler: That being said, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) is doing a great job in bringing more VCs into the country. This means more money per round for great startups and a higher chance of getting funding for the rest. The government is looking to implement RM20 million (US$5.12 million) tax incentives for corporates, who invest in VCs, so we expect to see more startups being funded in the near future.

Where is the startup ecosystem in Malaysia heading for? What sort of startups have the potential to become unicorns like Grab? Do new-age technologies like AI, IoT and blockchain hold any potential in the country?

Lim: To become a unicorn, a key requirement is that the market being challenged is big enough. We see SaaS companies and marketplace business models having better market opportunities as they can scale cross-border quicker.

Exclusive: Malaysian ECF platform Ata Plus working on Crowdfund of Funds, closed Secondary Exchange

I am not too excited to say that we currently get a small number of startup funding applications, who leverage narrow-AI, IoT and even blockchain technology to solve real-world problems.

What is Nexea? How is this accelerator-cum-fund different from other early-stage funds in Malaysia and Southeast Asia? What is your average ticket size? What is the investment philosophy?

Fessler: Nexeas first investments were done by individual angel investors. Thats where our roots are in angel investing. Today, we are a startup fund and accelerator, but we are still backed by over 20 highly experienced investors and mentors. Several of our startups wouldnt be where they are today if it wasnt for the mentorship and connections provided by our angel partners. We are very thankful to have them and work on providing them with more good co-investment opportunities in the future.

Nexea's Venture Partner Noomi Fessler

Nexeas Venture Partner Noomi Fessler

As to your question to our ticket size: We fund anywhere between RM50,000 (US$12,800) and RM1 million (US$260,000). What works well for Nexea is to fund startups via our accelerator programme and to continue to back the successes afterwards.

For us, the accelerator is all about providing the maximum support for the six months, to help to validate the business, and to make our startups investable. We are currently running our third accelerator batch  with the current one in partnership with Sunway iLabs. In both previous rounds, we funded some founders right after the accelerator.

Thats really our goal for the programme. Without follow-on funding, startups cant scale  and then whats the point of an accelerator programme?

To date you have backed over a two dozen startups. How many more are you planning to fund? Any new deals in the pipeline?

Fessler: Weve invested in 30-plus companies to date. At the moment, we are working closely with our new accelerator startups. For those that succeed in validating their business model, we are happy to back those companies with more investments.

Apart from that, we are evaluating approximately 50 startups every month, and the deal flow is constantly increasing. Theres no lack of deals. But what really matters to us is that we invest in companies that can scale fast and where we can add value to grow the business faster.

Thats where we have become more selective, compared to our earlier days. Since last year, we focused on highly scalable tech startups. Thats really where our expertise is, and where most mentors are experienced with and are able to help most. To support scalable startups, we have also partnered with Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure to provide huge value for them.

Does any startup of your portfolio have the potential to be a unicorn?

Fessler: A majority of the startups we invest in have the right fundamentals to be one. The key is a big enough market size and the right business model  or a business thats able to expand globally, or at least, regionally.

Given the small size of the market, do you encourage your startups to explore large Asian markets like India and China?

Lim: The market size in China is attractive, but the competitive landscape is such that, lets be frank, most smaller foreign companies dont stand a chance. The list of companies that got burnt in those markets is long and includes cash rich, huge MNCs from around the world.

We usually encourage startups to stay in their home country before going for the rest of Southeast Asia. The home country serves as a ground to test and validate the business. Southeast Asia is an attractive region to play in, and still relatively untouched, for example, compared to China. However, thats just our general observation. The expansion strategy must, of course, fit the startup and business model.

From your experience of incubating and investing in several startups, what are the greatest strengths of Malaysian entrepreneurs, compared to their counterparts in other Asian markets?

Fessler: Malaysias diversity is an advantage. From day one, entrepreneurs can learn to address different markets in the same country. Regional expansion can be done with less friction.

Some founders leverage on this opportunity even more and bring on board team members from diverse backgrounds. Such teams tend to do better over time. The team would have more experience to pull upon when solving unique problems. They also understand a broader range of different types of customers.

Lim: And second, as Malaysia is catching up with developed markets, we are able to understand both types of markets  developing and developed. This gives us a natural advantage in operating in both environments when expanding. Foreign companies from developed markets have had issues setting foot in developing countries precisely because it is hard for them to understand the differences in the maturity of the market.

What is lacking in entrepreneurs in Malaysia? Is the fear of failure more rampant among startups?

Lim: Globally, theres not enough awareness among founders on how likely a startup is going to fail. The startup industry is an exciting space to be in  disrupting, fast pace, and with endless opportunities. That is exactly why many people are attracted to it.

Everybody wants to be a billionaire, but 99 per cent of people are not willing or capable to do what it takes. It requires extremely hard work and persistence, but also natural resourcefulness and entrepreneurial talent. It also requires a good understanding of business fundamentals  many founders lack that but are not willing to continue to learn every single day.

Where is the Malaysian startup ecosystem heading for? What does the future hold for it?

Lim: The quality of the average startup has improved tremendously over the past years. Business plans are becoming more solid. More founders are coming out of their previous job or company, and they are starting to tackle very specific problems in a market they understand well. And there are huge opportunities for entrepreneurs in Malaysia.

Also Read: Malaysia partners with global ecosystem partners to boost tech ambitions

Malaysia offers different cultural test markets, low costs of operations, a strategic geographical position, and a growing market. Its relatively easy to start a business, and the government has been very supportive in pushing both startups and investors to grow. Its really the perfect place in Southeast Asia to start a business, and we expect a lot more startups to emerge from our ecosystem.

How is the angel investment ecosystem growing in Malaysia?

Fessler: Until today, many deals are done privately, and it is hard to get accurate figures. The Malaysian Business Angel Network (MBAN) has 200 registered members, but there is a much larger number of non-registered angels. However, we see a strong trend of investors registering with associations like MBAN, or joining companies like Nexea.

It just offers a lot of advantages. Joining us means getting a much larger deal flow, and spreading the risk through co-investments. Many investors join us to learn, too, and they become very sophisticated in evaluating startups and adding value to them. We provide a process for that.

We also have angel investors approaching us that are company owners or part of a family fund to learn about startup investments.

How is the corporate VC industry shaping up in the country? Do you look to partner with private companies to launch CVCs?

Lim: Corporate VCs and accelerators happen to be just some of the tools to achieve corporate innovation goals. By themselves, they usually end up not creating enough value because the subject matter of corporate innovation itself is quite complex.

In corporates, we have what we call natural antibodies to innovation where their natural KPIs will always conflict with innovation goals. Therefore, there needs to be a strong methodical approach to foster the right environments for innovation to thrive within the corporate space. Innovative structures can be created to grow new revenue streams, to attract and retain entrepreneurial talent, and even to attain an innovation culture.

Corporates are already approaching Nexea to talk about ways to get their hands on next-generation businesses  or even to find ways to innovate internally.

The post Why Malaysias Nexea believes corporate VCs themselves are not creating enough value appeared first on e27.The wife of a Taiwanese democracy activist jailed in China travelled to the country on Monday after being granted permission to visit him in prison for the first time, in a case that has strained cross-strait relations. NGO worker Lee Ming-cheh was sentenced to five years in prison in November on charges of subverting state power by a court in central Hunan province, as activists face increased pressure from authorities under Chinese President Xi Jinping. Taipei has called Lee's jailing "unacceptable" and a serious blow to relations, while his wife Lee Ching-yu has said his trial was a "political show". She told reporters prior to her departure Monday that she intends to pass on "messages from the free world" during her planned visit to see him in prison on Tuesday. Her flight landed in Changsha Huanghua International Airport in Hunan province at 11:57 am (03:57 GMT), according to the airport. Lee did not answer phone calls and messages from AFP. Her husband was arrested in March 2017 during a trip to the mainland and held incommunicado for months. Chinese authorities cancelled Lee Ching-yu's mainland travel permit last April as she searched for her missing husband and later only granted her single-entry visas to attend the trial and sentencing. But in January she was barred from boarding a flight to visit Lee in Hunan's Chishan prison. - Sharing 'Taiwan's democratic experiences' - During his trial, Lee admitted the charges, stating that he had written and distributed online articles that criticised China's ruling Communist Party and promoted democracy. He had shared "Taiwan's democratic experiences" with his Chinese friends online for many years and often mailed books to them, according to the Taiwan Association for Human Rights. "While it is positive that Ms. Lee will be given access to her husband in prison, Lee Ming-cheh should never have been imprisoned in the first place," said Maya Wang, China researcher for Human Rights Watch. "Lee should be immediately released," Wang said. Amnesty International and Taiwanese rights groups have also vowed to continue pushing for Lee's release. Hunan's Chishan prison did not answer calls from AFP on Monday.One of the highlights of Stormy Daniels appearance on 60 Minutes on Sunday night was a new account of the comic disaster of a business meeting she alleges she had with Donald Trump in the summer of 2007. Trump had told her he had news about casting her on Celebrity Apprentice, but when she arrived at his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, he had other plans. Heres how she described it to Anderson Cooper:

Stormy Daniels: I remember arriving, and he was watching Shark Week. He made me sit and watch an entire documentary about shark attacks. Anderson Cooper: It wasnt at that point a business meeting, it was just watching Shark Week. Daniels: Yeah.

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After the shark documentary, Trump allegedly made a pass at Daniels, which she rejected. But just what Shark Week content was so compelling that it made Donald TrumpDonald Trump!delay (attempted) gratification until the credits rolled? The answer comes in the full transcript of Daniels In Touch interview, which has an even funnier account of Trumps shark obsession:

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The strangest thing about that nightthis was the best thing ever. You could see the television from the little dining room table and he was watching Shark Week and he was watching a special about the USS something and it sank and it was like the worst shark attack in history. He is obsessed with sharks. Terrified of sharks. He was like, I donate to all these charities and I would never donate to any charity that helps sharks. I hope all the sharks die. He was like riveted. He was like obsessed. Its so strange, I know.

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While the initial coverage focused on Trumps strange fear that his meager charitable donations might somehow end up benefiting sharks, theres also enough information to identify the exact shark documentary Donald Trump made Stormy Daniels watch before he tried and failed to seduce her. Heres part of the TV listings grid for Sunday, July 29, 2007, as published in the Los Angeles Times. Slates crack investigative team has highlighted an entry of particular interest:

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Thats right, from 9 to 11 p.m. that Sunday, the Discovery Channel kicked off Shark Week with the premiere of a documentary called Ocean of Fear: Worst Shark Attack Ever (VCR+ code 715368). The film told the story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the ship whose fate Robert Shaw so memorably recounted in Jaws:

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That has to be the show Daniels is describing. Written and directed by Richard Bedser, Ocean of Fear: Worst Shark Attack Ever used a mix of re-enactments and interviews and, for Jaws-related reasons, was narrated by Richard Dreyfus. You can get a taste of it in this promo from Discovery U.K.:

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Ocean of Fear: Worst Shark Attack Ever also aired on Friday, Aug. 3, and Saturday, Aug. 4, but Daniels has consistently said she met with Trump in July, and the 29th was the only evening that month in which Trump would have had the opportunity to ignore her in favor of sharks eating sailors. While it might be understandable to channel surf to Ocean of Fear: Worst Shark Attack Ever instead of 20 Expensive Celebrity Weddings on E! or Beethovens 4th on the Disney Channel, Trumps TV-watching decisions become a little more difficult to understand when the other option is Talk to the adult film star you invited to your bungalow in hopes of seducing.

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If youd like to check out the television program that our president allegedly couldnt tear his eyes away from, you can buy it on YouTube or Blu-ray. Whether you want to re-enact the scandalous, sexy, alleged events of July 29, 2007, with your significant other by pointedly ignoring him or her while silently watching the entire documentary, perform A/B testing with a second TV and a copy of Daniels The Witches of Breastwick, or just try to think and act more like Donald Trump in your day-to-day life, one thing is certain: Our country would be less of a laughingstock if wed elected a dead shark.In the past few weeks, the Stormy Daniels story has started to feel a bit like the little scandal that could. But if you were hoping for a TV event that would do serious damage to Donald Trumps presidency, Daniels 60 Minutes interview was a letdown. The episode was not damning of Trump in any new ways (which is different than saying it was not damning). Still, it was a showcase for Daniels and her credibility. The porn star will probably not be bringing down the president, but she will continue to be a pain in the very backside she once allegedly spanked.

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According to Daniels, in 2006, the then 27-year-old adult film star had sex with Trump, who was 60 and host of the Apprentice at the time. In the waning days of the 2016 election, as Trump was mired in the Access Hollywood scandal, his lawyer Michael Cohen had Daniels sign a nondisclosure agreement about the affair and paid her $130,000. She is now contesting and ignoring that NDA, which Trump failed to sign. What began as a ho-hum dog bites man tale for this crazy White HouseDonald Trump did it with a porn starhas gotten tangled up with possible campaign finance violations, threats, and intimidation.

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Told in detail in a highly anticipated 60 Minutes sit-down with Anderson Cooper, Daniels version of events had the ring of truth, and the laughter too. In relating her first encounter with Trump, Daniels laughed about how much he talked about himself, as if she still couldnt believe it: And hes likeHave you seen my new magazine?  she told Cooper. But the story about how she disarmed himfirst asking does that normally work for you? and then suggesting she spank him with a magazine with his face on the coverrevealed her to be astute and feisty. She took the measure of this ridiculous person and teased him in exactly such a way that he warmed to her. He gave up the pompous pose and became, briefly, human, asking Daniels about herself. Daniels didnt go easy on Trump relaying this anecdotehe seems ridiculous to her at first; he compliments her by saying shes like his daughter but she doesnt vilify him either. Under the buffoonish veneer was a slightly less buffoonish guy.

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This was Daniels mode throughout, not going harder on Trump than was necessary. From the opening moments she insisted she was not a part of #MeToo, that their sex was consensual, that she was not a victim, and that to say otherwise was to undermine real victims. She then proceeded to outline a bad sexual encounter, all tied up with ideas of what women owe to men. Daniels didnt want to have sex with Trump. She wasnt attracted to him. But when she came out of the bathroom of his hotel room to see him, in her words, perched on the bed, she told Cooper, I realized exactly what Id gotten myself into. And I was like, Ugh, here we go. [Laugh.] And I just felt like maybe[Laugh.] it was sort ofI had it coming for making a bad decision for going to someones room alone. And I just heard the voice in my head, Well, you put yourself in a bad situation and bad things happen, so you deserve this.  Daniels certainty that, in this situation, the only thing to do was just go ahead and have sex with this creepy old guy was kind of heartbreaking. She is also extremely unself-pitying. All I could think was: Cat Person!

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Throughout the interview, Daniels seemed remarkably self-possessed and clear-headed but nonpartisan. She says that during and after their first encounter, Trump floated the idea of casting her on Celebrity Apprentice. Cooper asked Daniels if she thought he was serious or just trying to keep her interested in him. Both, she replied, like a woman who has no problem understanding that people can have multiple motivations. She even acknowledged her own various reasons for being on 60 Minutes: to tell the truth, to not be called a liar, because she has nothing left to lose, and, yes, because she hasnt made nearly enough money off this thing. As she said, we all know $130,000, the original settlement amount, was a lowball offer. Daniels co-opted Trumps authenticity game.

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Because the bar on Trumps misdeeds is so very high, anything lower can seem like an exculpation. And we learned very little Sunday night that we did not already know about the president. He is attracted to women who remind him of his daughter, he is a blowhard and a bully, he surrounds himself with blowhards and bullies, he watches Shark Week. If anyone was hurt by this interview, its Trumps goonish lawyer Michael Cohen, who emerged as a perfect fall guy. Cohen is the heavy and bully who dealt with Daniels on Trumps behalf. If the Trump campaign is in violation of campaign finance reform laws, it seems that will fall mostly on Cohen. Daniels told Cooper that she believes Cohen threatened to make her life miserable. She also claims that someone having to do with the Trump outfit threatened her while she was with her infant daughter with the B-mafia movie line, It would be a shame if anything happened to her mother. (Through his lawyer, Cohen denies he had anything to do with that.)

In the end, 60 Minutes was worse for Cohen than Trump. But mostly it was good for Stormy Daniels, a compelling, charismatic adversary for our compelling, charismatic president.

Like Trump, she pitches herself as a straight-talker. Unlike Trump, shes a lucid one.So many Donald Trump lawyers in the news! Whats the deal? What do they all do? Lets run it down.

 John Dowd. Dowd has been a prominent white-collar defense attorney for decades. He was Trumps lead personal lawyer for Russia and Mueller issues, but he quit last week.

 Jay Sekulow and friends. An experienced appellate litigator who has argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court on behalf of conservative causes, Sekulow is also a known hustler whose side gigs include radio hosting and running nonprofit organizations that pay him and his family members huge salaries. He represents Trump on Russia and Mueller matters as well. It seems his main role is as a spokesman and media surrogate, though the Daily Beast and Politico have reported that four attorneys whove been involved in Sekulows activist work are helping him on the Trump case, which could suggest more substantive contributions, though only one of the four appears to have a background in criminal work.

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 Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing. White-collar defense attorneys and former federal prosecutors who are married and own a firm together. Sekulow announced March 19 that diGenova had been hired to become part of Trumps Mueller defense team, perhaps because POTUS saw him on Fox News claiming that the entire Russia investigation is a frame-up, and Toensing was reportedly set to come on board as well. But this weekend Sekulow backtracked, explaining that diGenova and Toensing would not be able to work on the Russia case because of the potential conflicts of interest created by their firms past work representing other Mueller witnesses. CNN adds, for what its worth, that its sources say the President  was not convinced [diGenova and Toensing] are right for the legal jobs and that diGenova was hired to engage with the media, so its not clear how much nuts-and-bolts work they would have actually ended up doing anyway.

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 Ty Cobb. Cobb is also a veteran white-collar defense lawyer whos working exclusively on the Mueller case. Hes employed by the White House, though, rather than Trump personally, which means his professional obligation is to defend the legal prerogatives of the executive branch rather than to worry about Trumps potential criminal liability as an individual. (Recall that the Mueller investigation concerns a number of events that took place before Trump was inaugurated.) Cobb also appears to be handling the responses of other White House staffers to Muellers inquiries.

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 Don McGahn. Hes the head of the White House Counsels Office, so his orientation is the same as Cobbs, but he doesnt work exclusively on Mueller issues because hes also responsible for jobs like reviewing legislation and overseeing the nomination of judges. McGahn reportedly talked Trump out of firing Mueller in June.

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 Marc Kasowitz. Kasowitz was Trumps lead lawyer on Mueller matters but was demoted after being caught calling a random (male) stranger a bitch in a threatening late-night email. He still represents Trump in the suit brought by Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos, who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her and then sued for defamation when Trump said that she (and the rest of his accusers) were fabricating their stories. There have been reports that Kasowitz is in line to resume his role in the Mueller case now that Dowd is gone; as Ian Millhiser notes, though, Kasowitzs career has largely involved corporate financial litigation, not criminal defense.

 Michael Cohen. The longtime top legal figure at the Trump Organization, Cohen has been in the news recently for his role in litigation involving Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, who say they had sexual affairs with Trump while he was married to Melania Trump. Daniels said on 60 Minutes Sunday that she was threatened physically in 2011 by an individual who told her not to make her alleged affair with Trump public; she and her new lawyer also say that she felt intimidated by Cohen into signing recent statements recanting her past claims to the affair. (Cohen denies ever threatening Daniels or employing anyone to do so.) A similar accusation has been made by McDougal, a former Playboy model who says Cohen collaborated with her former lawyer to convince her to sign a nondisclosure agreement under false pretenses.

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 Jill Martin. A Trump Organization lawyer whose name appears on paperwork related to the Daniels case, which is noteworthy because Cohen has claimed that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford.

Donald Trump is surrounded by an impressive number of attorneys whose jobs consist largely of defending him from the consequences of reckless personal and professional activities that date back more than a decade. He nonetheless regularly still behaves in ways that put him at further legal risk. His attempt to hire diGenova on the basis of bombastic Fox News appearances, and his apparent endorsement of Cohens aggressive legal response to Stormy Daniels, suggest moreover that Trump wants his lawyers to be reckless too. Its a strategy that has, frankly, worked fine for him so farhe is, after all, the president. Some recent reports say this attitude is making it hard for him to find a top-flight replacement for Dowd; Trump currently doesnt appear to have a qualified white-collar-crime attorney working for him in a regular capacity despite being the main subject of the highest-profile criminal investigation in the world. Whether this cavalier approach will ever precipitate a comeuppance is, really, the big question not just of Trumps legal position but of his entire life.Congress is not going to pass universal background checks, an assault weapons ban, or any other gun control legislation opposed by the National Rifle Association this year. If thats how those participating in, or supportive of, the various gun control marches across the country this past weekend measure their success, they will be disappointed. But if they view the marches as a marker in the long and arduous process of inverting gun politics toward increasing regulation, then they might be onto something.

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One of several reasons that Congress wont pass any further, polarizing gun control legislation later this year is that Congress is just about done legislating until the midterms. Last weeks omnibus spending bill was seen as lawmakers last opportunity to enact their top priorities. The next 7 months will be consumed with the following, in order: posturing for primary elections, August recess, posturing for the general election, and October recess.

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It would be easy to mock organizers of the March for Our Lives for scheduling their rally one day after Congress had finished legislating for the year. Whether it was intentional or not, though, the timing did affect what made it into the bill. The omnibus included the Fix NICS Act, a piece of modest legislation aimed at shoring up the federal instant background check database, as well a bill from Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch offering federal money to improve school safety. Some language was added alongside the Dickey Amendment noting that nothing bars the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from studying gun violence.

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It is probably not a coincidence that these items made it into law just as Republican communications teams in Washington began brainstorming their statements ahead of the march and before members had to return home to face their constituents over the next two weeks.

Keeping our children safe is a top priority of the Presidents, which is why he urged Congress to pass the Fix NICS and STOP School Violence Acts, and signed them into law, White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said in a White House statement on Saturday. Walters also noted that the Department of Justice, at the presidents urging, had issued a rule on Friday to ban bump stocks.

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To the marchers on Saturday, these measures amount to little more than legislative face-saving. The NRA supported Fix NICS as well as administrative action on bump stocks, and likely still feels comfortable in its ability to pressure the CDC away from ambitious projects researching gun violence.

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The most significant accomplishment of the recent anti-gun activism hasnt been additional regulationits been the successful blocking of additional deregulation. When House leaders chose to put Fix NICS into the omnibus, but not legislation that would require states to honor concealed-carry licenses in other states, which leaders had previously demanded be lumped together, they essentially conceded defeat on the NRAs top legislative priority. And if the NRA isnt getting it done in this Congress, its probably not getting it done in any Congress for the foreseeable future.

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But what would it take for Congress to pass legislation that the NRA actively opposes?

Last month, after President Trump backed away from his all-too-brief flirtation with gun control legislation following a couple of meetings with the NRA, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters that he wasnt surprised. Murphy said he believes it will likely take an election where they pay a price for their fealty to the gun lobby before NRA-inclined legislators oppose the groups priorities.

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The March for Our Lives is a step toward creating such an election. The surge in gun-related activism is something that students, many of whom will be of voting age for the first time this fall, will hold as a formative political experience that catalyzes them into both voting and urging their friends to vote. And many of the key pickup opportunities for Democrats this fall will be in suburban districts, where voters are already turning against the GOP. Those voters are less likely to be NRA members and more inclined to be angry that Congress hasnt done more to reduce gun violence. Suburban parents could be especially important, if they blame lawmakers for not protecting children following the latest massacre in a classroom.

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With seven months until Election Day, that scenario is still a far-off hypothetical. But if Republicans wake up on Wednesday, Nov. 7, and have data showing that their inability to consider universal background checks cost them seatsand possibly even the House majoritythen you might see some action.

If Democrats do take the House and can pass a background checks bill, enough vulnerable Republican senators up for re-election in 2020 might join Democrats to provide 60 votes in the Senate.

The Republican response to previous bursts of gun control activism has always been prove it. Gun control activists never have. Is this the year?According to the Anti-Defamation League, anti-Semitic incidents in the United States jumped 57 percent between 2016 and 2017. While much of the increase occurred at educational institutionswhite supremacist organizations have been increasingly active on college campusesbigoted ideas and opinions seem increasingly widespread, and even welcomed by the most powerful person on the planet. In his new book, (((Semitism))): Being Jewish in the Age of Trump, Jonathan Weisman looks at the history of anti-Semitism in America, and the ways in which todays environment is both similar to and different than previous times.

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I recently spoke by phone with Weisman, who is the deputy Washington editor for the New York Times and who was once subjected to serious, sustained anti-Semitic harassment online. During the course of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed American Jewish life during the rise of fascism, false equivalences between left-wing and right-wing anti-Semitism, and how anti-Muslim bigotry has become a shield for anti-Semites.

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Isaac Chotiner: To what degree do you think this current wave of anti-Semitism is a result of Trumps election?

Jonathan Weisman: I think that the way the Trump campaign conducted itself and the way Trump personally conducted himself had this impact of unleashing, of taking the guardrails down, and allowing people to express themselves in ways that had been previously considered unacceptable. When you see video of Trump rallies, where people are just screaming at journalists, chanting Lock her up, all these things; this is a manifestation of an acceptable rage that was unacceptable, really, before that campaign.

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I think that the current brand of white nationalism is an odd mix of internet-savvy and hipness with some very ancient notions of hate.

Whats unique about this wave of anti-Semitism in terms of American history?

I think that the current brand of white nationalism is an odd mix of internet-savvy and hipness with some very ancient notions of hate. White nationalists depiction of Jews is such a throwback to what I learned about when I was in Sunday school. Its exactly how the Nazis depicted Jews. Theyre both these rapacious moneybags and left-wing radicals. Theyre sniveling weaklings and all-powerful puppet masters. These are not new images and theyve always been contradictory. What the alt-right has now is the organizational skill on the internet. Theyre really good at using the internet to get their word across and to have young people just stumble into it.

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It reminds me of the jokes that the Jews were the only people accused of being the secret power behind both communism and capitalism.

Right. Exactly.

What other periods in American history in hindsight were the most concerning in terms of anti-Semitism?

I think that the most obvious parallel to right now is the 1930s. There was rising nationalism and bigotry, not just in Nazi Germany but all over the place, and in the United States as well. There was the sense of intolerance, of fear of the other. In that case, the refugees that American people just would not accept were obviously Jewish refugees. The impact was much more direct. When you read the rhetoric out of the 1930s about Jewish refugees, its almost exactly parallel to what you hear about Syrian refugees or Yemeni refugees [today]. The Jewish response in the 1930s was similarly disjointed and diffident.

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What do you mean by that?

There was a conference in Geneva where all these Jewish organizations, like the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, had gathered to try to figure out how to confront the rise of Nazism, and they just ended up fighting with each other. The American Jewish Committee wanted a more diplomatic, back-room way of trying to confront Nazism and bringing Jewish refugees to the United States than the American Jewish Congress, which was more representative of recent Eastern European arrivals, who wanted a louder, brasher approach. They just fought each other.

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Then theres the great silent majority of Jews who just didnt want to speak up, didnt want to bring attention to themselves. They feared that with such prominent Americans as Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh actually spouting anti-Semitic rhetoric, why would they want to court what was happening to German Jews happening in America? I feel like we have a similar situation in which the most prominent Jews just dont want to make waves. Whats frustrating to me is there is a fear that speaking up against bigotry is somehow taking political sides. I do not believe that speaking up against white nationalism and hatred is a Republican or a Democratic thing.

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But it has become a political thing, because one political party sees a sympathy or the lack of a willingness to condemn white nationalists to be important to its political base and its political future.

I think that there are certainly Republicans who look out at those chanting mobs at Trump rallies and say, Well those are our voters. What that spawns is kind of this whataboutism. You see it from the Republican Jewish Coalition. They always say, Hey, well, what about Louis Farrakhan, or what about the anti-Semitism of the left? I feel like we actually have to be able to draw distinctions here, and there is a distinction here between the anti-Semitism of a Louis Farrakhan whose power peaked, if he ever had much power, in 1995 with the Million Man March, and the anti-Semitism of a movement that is global in scope right now in white nationalism. Louis Farrakhan doesnt have 100,000 people marching in Budapest or actually securing a nomination for a major party in France. Its not the same, and the fact is, OK, it might be uncomfortable for Republicans to speak out, but that doesnt absolve them of the need to speak out.

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The reluctance to speaking out might be aided by the fact that it seems like if you dislike Muslims, a lot of very conservative Jews will be willing to give you a pass for anti-Semitism. I saw a touching photo of Ben Shapiro and Steve King together the other day.

That worries me as well. I absolutely understand what youre saying. The anti-Semitism of the left that Republicans love to point out is born of anti-Zionism. The anti-Zionism has spilled into anti-Semitism. My God, if youre chanting death to the Jews in the streets of Paris or London, you cant say that thats not anti-Semitism. But the alt-right kind of likes Israel. The alt-right sees Israel as an ethnic homeland, just like what they want in the United States. They want the United States to be a white homeland and the Jews here can all go to their ethnic homeland in Israel. They kind of like Israel because Israel kills Muslims.

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Anti-Semitism in Europe has come from the left-wing as well as the right-wing, and from Muslim communities. Is that something youre worried about here in the same way?

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Right now, the one thing that unites the Republicans and Democrats is their fealty to Israel. I have not seen a lot of movement from, like, college campuses to mainstream American politics. At this point, it doesnt look like thats happening, but of course it could happen. I mean, if you watch, certainly if you see the organizer, one of the co-organizers of the Womens March at a Farrakhan rally, where he is just spouting the must gutter anti-Semitism, it does strike me as disturbing.

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Maybe you could say I was sheltered or blind, but I really did think that anti-Semitism was kind of something in the past.

But the effort by a lot of Republican Jews, like Ari Fleischer, to draw equivalence here and to say, well there are black Democrats who are somehow aligned with Farrakhan. I actually went out to try to find out if indeed there were all these members of Congress who were aligned with Farrakhan. The connections were so tangential, we couldnt even write a story. I mean theres one, Danny Davis in the South Side of Chicago. I dont see a lot of bleeding of that kind of anti-Semitism born of pro-Palestinian sentiment or anti-Israel sentiment into the body politic of the United States.

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I have a stepdaughter who is very Jewish-identified, who was bat mitzvahed and is very anti-Israel and pro-BDS, and I do feel like Jewish leaders risk losing an entire generation of young Jews right now because of the close identity of Judaism with Israel itself. Frankly if we want to save Judaism in the United States, it would behoove us to disconnect it from Israel or at least loosen the bonds of Israel and make Judaism more about Jewish religion and less about affinity for a Jewish state.

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You talk in the book about having resisted the idea that anti-Semitism here was a serious problem until recently. What changed other than the obvious?

Maybe you could say I was sheltered or blind, but I really did think that anti-Semitism was kind of something in the past. Racism and Islamophobia and obviously anti-immigrant feelings were very strong and were gathering strength, but I thought that anti-Semitism just wasnt something to worry about. So when it was suddenly very publicly unleashed on me, it took me aback. I really wasnt watching.

I think its taken a lot of Jews aback. This is one of the points I make because the alt-right and the white nationalist movement in the United States really began gelling at the end of the George W. Bush era. It was born of frustration with the Iraq war, Republican interventionism, and then it got caught up in the collapse of the financial system, and people were looking at Jews, the Jewish cheerleaders of the Iraq war, the Jewish architects of the Iraq war in the Bush administration, falling for the whole notion that Wall Street is run by Jews.

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All that was in 2008. We didnt really take much notice of it until 2016, which tells me that people were just not watching.

Do you still believe that things like racism and Islamophobia are the biggest threats?

I still believe that and thats how I concluded the book. Of all the things that are besetting our society right now, anti-Semitism is certainly not the worst, and racism and the brutality thats being visited upon immigrants and Muslim Americansits just a lot worse. Jews can point to headstones that have been overturned and swastikas on their synagogues, but Muslims are being killed. What I am thinking is that the rise of anti-Semitism should be a wake-up call for American Jews to get involved in the defense of minorities and the effort to really combat bigotry before it spreads worse.

I quote Ralph McGill, the old editor of the Atlanta Constitution. He said, and I wish I could quote it directly right now, that if you think that the unleashing of hatred on the negro will be confined to the negro, then you have another thing coming. The fact is that once the wolves of hate are unleashed, they are unleashed on everyone.Republicans have struggled mightily at the ballot box since Donald Trump took office. They lost a U.S. Senate seat in dark-red Alabama last December and a House seat in heavily conservative western Pennsylvania earlier this month. In those races, the usual rhetoric about abortion and immigration did little to buoy Republican candidates, and even a recent tax cut failed to rally GOP voters. So, to reverse that trend, Republicans are turning back the clock to 2016.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee on Monday unveiled a new ad campaign that focuses onwho else?Hillary Clinton. The ads hope to use the former presidential candidate as a weapon against 10 Senate Democrats up for re-election in states that went for Trump two years ago. The ads, which the NRSC says will run on Facebook for two weeks, highlight a pair of remarks Clinton made about Trump voters that she felt compelled to later walk back: her basket of deplorables comments last year and similar ones she made this month about Trump appealing to voters by looking backwards.

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Shes called you deplorable,  the ads declare. Now shes called you backwards.  The state-specific spots then go for the kill by reminding viewers that their home-state senator backed Clinton over Trump in 2016.

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Even after 25 years and two failed presidential campaigns, Clinton remains a bete noire of the conservative establishment. Trump makes frequent, near-compulsive mention of her on his Twitter account. House Republicans have done all they can to keep alive her past scandals, both real and imagined. And conservative media rarely misses the chance to make Clinton a foil for the president.

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This marks the first time this cycle that the NSRC has featured Clinton in one of its ads, and the attack echoes one made by Josh Hawley just last week in Missouri as part of his bid to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill there. The ads could help test how much potency the Clinton name still has with voters, two years after her name was last on the ballot. At the very least, it makes for an uncomfortable wedge issue for Democrats in red states, who may risk alienating some of their own voters as they try to distance themselves from Clinton.

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To see how awkward this dance can be, just watch McCaskills appearance on MSNBC last week. Asked if Clintons comments were helpful to her, McCaskill said, No, probably not and then defended Missourians who voted for Trump. For those of us that are in states that Trump won, we would really appreciate if she would be more careful and show respect to every American voter and not just the ones who voted for her, McCaskill said.

Clinton has somehow become even more unpopular since the campaign ended, giving Republicans hope that reminding Trump-inclined voters just how much they hate her will close the enthusiasm gap with Democrats, who have found special-election success, at least in part, by harnessing the anti-Trump resistance. It wasnt that long ago, mind you, that nearly half of Trump supporters said their primary motivation was not putting Trump in the White House but instead keeping Clinton out of it.

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At the same time, Trumps approval rating has ticked back up into the 40sstill dismal, yes, but up from the historic lows of his first year in officewhile the Democratic lead in the generic congressional ballot has been eroding lately. A new Fox News poll, taken during the first half of last week and released Sunday, found Democrats up just 5 percentage points on Republicans, 46 percent to 41 percent. Thats quite the drop from the 15-point cushion they had in the same survey back in October.

While the phrase Fox News found doesnt necessarily instill confidence on its own, the conservative cable networks pollsters are well-respected in their field, and their latest findings line up with the major polling averages, which have a generic Democrat up between 5 and 6 points on a generic Republican. Thats about as small as the gap has been at any point this year and less than half what it was at the start of it. Making matters worse for Democrats is that partisan gerrymandering, geographical quirks, and the advantages of incumbency tilt the House playing field in the GOPs favor considerably. By some estimates, theyll need to win by somewhere in the neighborhood of 58 percentage points nationally to flip the House.

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The odds are even longer in the Senate, where Democrats need to gain two seats to take control of the upper chamber. That seems easy enough until you remember there are only nine GOP seats up in November, four of which look about as safe as they can get. Campaign handicappers currently believe that, at best, there are only three places Democrats have a legitimate chance to pick up a seat: Arizona, Nevada, and Tennessee. But thats only half of the equation; Democrats also need to protect the 26 seats they have that are up in the midterm, as many as seven of which are expected to be competitive. If Republicans can use Clinton to pick off a vulnerable Democrat or three in states Trump won, they could put control of the Senate safely out of reach.

Put another way, then, Democrats could significantly outperform Republicans on Election Day and yet still fall short of what they are hoping to accomplish in November. Now that is something Hillary Clinton can tell them all about.On Saturday, teenagers across the country came out in force to demand gun control to protect them from gun violence. Led by the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, high-schoolers bearing angry signs warning legislators of their impending right to vote rejected the claims from the right that they were not old enough to have their own informed opinions or that they were being used by adult activists.

The next day, one group of Wisconsin high-schoolers gave further proof of the teens dedication to the cause with a planned 50-mile spring break march to the hometown of Paul Ryan.

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More than 40 students from across the state set off on what is planned to be a four-day march from Madison to Janesville, according to their website. It is directed at Paul Ryan for his lead role in blocking and burying any chance of gun reform again and again, the group says on its website. We are ready to keep the pressure on our nations top leaders until gun reform is a priority for Republicans and Democrats.

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PROTECT KIDS NOT GUNS

Mile 7 and feeling empowered. #50More #MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/oMFKreBJln  50 Miles More (@50milesmore) March 25, 2018

The website cites the 54-mile civil rights march from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama, in 1965 as their inspiration. Students at Shorewood High School near Milwaukee organized the event, according to the Washington Post. They are calling for a ban on military-style assault weapons and bump stocks, a four-day waiting period for firearm purchases, universal background checks, and an increase in the age to buy a gun from 18 to 21.

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According to the Post, the chanting, sign-holding group has grown since it started, and teenagers and other young people reached out to the group on social media to find out how to join. On Sunday, they walked 17 miles in near-freezing weather, posting about a different victim of gun violence at each mile. They were accompanied by parents and occasionally law enforcement, according to the Post. On Sunday night, they slept on a high school gym floor.

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Doing some stretching before we hit the road again! A bit sore but feeling excited about more marching today! #50More pic.twitter.com/s8WvFMH00z  50 Miles More (@50milesmore) March 26, 2018

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First day lunch break in Fitchburg, WI. If your looking for a way to support our marchers, donate from the link in our bio! #50More #MarchForOurLives #MarchtoPaulsHouse pic.twitter.com/ByhKTuz433  50 Miles More (@50milesmore) March 25, 2018

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Ryan has not spoken publicly about the topic since the demonstrations, but in February, about a week after the Parkland shooting, he told reporters that we shouldnt be banning guns for law-abiding citizens and that Congress should instead ensure that people who should not get guns dont get them. He called the idea to arm teachersa widely unpopular one among Sundays demonstratorsa good one that should remain a matter of local legislation, and he praised a bill that would reinforce background checks but loosen laws around concealed-carry permits.

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Elements of that bill were ultimately wrapped into Congress giant spending bill, which passed Wednesday. The bipartisan Fix NICS billa meager step compared with the broad national debate demonstrators were calling for, but a step all the sameincentivizes background check reporting and provides additional funds for school safety. In a section that pleased Democrats, the bill lifted restrictions placed on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blocking the agency from conducting research on gun violence. The NRA-favored measure that would have allowed for concealed-carry reciprocity was booted from the package.

The Wisconsin students, for their part, are demanding more from their representatives. We commit to taking the fight to Congress, the White House, state legislatures, and the ballot box, the group says on its website. We will demand reform. And if our leaders fail to deliver, there will be a reckoning on Election Day all across the country.Over the weekend, former senator and current nuisance Rick Santorum went on CNN and made an interesting suggestion about what kids ought to be doing instead of protesting gun violence.

How about kids, instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations where there is a violent shooter and you can actually respond to that? he said.

Well, how about it? Would CPR classes help in this situation? What could kids do to try to deal with situations where there is a violent shooter?

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Many medical professionals immediately tweeted the answer to these questions (they are no and nothing), but I think its worth explaining why this wouldnt help in further detail. The main misconception stems from how we pictureor how we fail to picturewhat results from shooting a gun at a human being. The media shows crying survivors and single-file lines of children being evacuated from active shooter scenes, but since the Vietnam War, unfiltered images of mass carnage have been out of style. This seems civilized but actually dissociates us from the reality of these nightmares, to ignore how completely military-style weapons maim the human body. Recently, the idea that this kind of censorship is ultimately harmful has gained credence, as my colleague Jamelle Bouie wrote after Parkland.

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Unlike normal injuries, gunshot woundsparticularly those from assault weaponsunleash exceptionally brutal havoc, making battered organs like the liver look like an overripe melon smashed by a sledgehammer, as radiologist Heather Sher wrote for the Atlantic. The damage is so extensive that most of the kids in Sandy Hook, for example, didnt even make it to the hospital. But because we dont confront this reality, many people continue to harbor false notions about the chances of surviving a gunshot and what trauma physicians can do to save victim.

But when a body is riddled with bullets, organs are obliterated. Lungs collapse. And when someone approaches death from a gunshot wound, it is usually because a bullet has pulverized a wall of the heart or ripped a major blood vessel apart, leading to massive internal or external bleeding.

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CPR, when it works at all, does so by artificially squeezing the heart. Chest compressions force blood to circulate when the heart has stopped beating. But when little or no blood remains in the circulatory system, as in massive hemorrhage caused by penetrating trauma, CPR (in the absence of rapid blood transfusion) just makes the situation worse. The more the heart is compressed, the more any remaining blood spills out from the vessels into spaces where it cant be used. Perhaps Santorum did not realize that when he suggested that kids start performing chest compressions on their dying classmates, but he was essentially advocating that they help finish the job. Every trauma expert I have ever worked with has always said the same thing: There is no role for external chest compressions in cardiac arrest caused by hemorrhagic shock. CPR often worsens things.

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How do first responders and physicians save lives from traumatic hemorrhage? The answer is we attempt to find and then control the bleeding. Tourniquets are back in fashion for extremity wounds in the field. But mainly, our trauma guidelines focus on the chest and abdomen. As experts emphasize, the only relevant questions are where is the bleeding? and which cavity to expose first. So the only way that these kids could help prolong the lives of their shot classmates would be to start advanced trauma life support, like open-heart surgery and the placement of chest tubes.

Even considering how difficult passing sensible gun legislation has proven to be in the present political climate, Id still prefer another attempt at that over trying to train high schoolers to perform as trauma surgeons during a crisis. Long odds are better than impossible ones.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views and opinions of Brigham and Womens Hospital.This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy.

On March 17, the Observer of London and the New York Times broke the story of Cambridge Analyticas use of private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission. The more information that comes out about Cambridge Analytica, the more suspect the companys methods appear. But those methods appear to have gone far beyond suspect and all the way to illegal when it comes to the laws governing the financing of our elections. That is why Common Cause on Monday filed complaints with the Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission alleging violations of U.S. campaign finance law that the companys own lawyer warned it about.

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The New York Times reported, based on documents reviewed and former employees interviewed, that Cambridge Analytica was effectively a shell, and any contracts for U.S. election work won by Cambridge Analytica were serviced by a London-based firm called SCL Group. These documents and former employees made clear that such work was overseen by Alexander Nix, a British citizen who was the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica (suspended last week) and also a director at SCL Group. Most of SCL Groups employees and contractors were Canadian, like the now-famous whistleblower Christopher Wylie, or European.

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U.S. federal campaign finance law prohibits any foreign national from directly or indirectly making a contribution, donation, expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication in connection with any U.S. election.

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For decades, the FEC has interpreted the directly or indirectly language in this statutory ban broadly to include participation by foreign nationals in decisions involving election-related activities. Specifically, FEC regulation provides that a foreign national shall not directly or indirectly participate in the decision-making process of any political committee with regard to the committees election-related activities, such as decisions concerning the making of expenditures or disbursements in connection with U.S. elections.

Back in the early 1980s, the FEC issued advisory opinions permitting two corporations formed in Delaware, but wholly owned by foreign national individuals and corporations, to establish political committeeson the basis of a representation by the corporations that those who would exercise decision-making authority for the PACs activities would not be foreign nationals.

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And in 1989, the FEC codified these advisory opinions into its regulations to clarify that foreign nationals may not participate in the election-related activities of others, including decisions regarding contributions or expenditures by political committees, corporations, labor organizations or other persons.

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In 2002, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act expanded the statutory foreign national ban in several ways and left intact the FECs long-standing interpretation that the ban prohibits foreign nationals from participating in decision-making regarding contributions and expenditures.

And in 2004, the FEC told a member of Congress via an advisory opinion that his foreign national fiancee was prohibited from participating in the congressmans decisions regarding his campaign activities and that his fiancee must also refrain from managing or participating in the decisions of the congressmans political committees. Cambridge Analytica and its executives knew all of thisthey knew that their foreign national staff could not participate in decision-making regarding political expenditures by the U.S. clientsbecause their lawyer explained it all to them in a 2014 memo. In the memo, obtained and published last week by NBC News, Cambridge Analyticas lawyer, Laurence Levy, made clear that Alexander Nix would have to be recused from substantive management of any clients engaged in U.S. election activities. Levy further advised Cambridge Analytica to ensure that only U.S. citizens are making decisions about U.S. election activity, managing the work and decision making functions, relative to campaign messaging and expenditures, and doing the final analysis and conveyance data to U.S. clients.

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Reporting by NBC News and other outlets over the past week make it clear that Cambridge Analytica ignored its lawyers advice. Former Canadian employee Christopher Wylie told NBC News that many foreign nationals worked on the campaigns in 2014, and many were embedded in the campaigns around the U.S. It was not just me, he said. Like 20 other people were. We had Canadians, British, Eastern Europeans, Lithuanians, Germans, Romanians, Greeks. We werent just working on messaging. We were instructing campaigns on which messages go where and to who. A second former senior Cambridge Analytica staffer corroborated Wylies statement.

Similarly, the Washington Post reported that two former Cambridge Analytica workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear that they may have violated U.S. law in their campaign work, said concerns about the legality of Cambridge Analyticas work in the United States were a regular subject of employee conversations at the company, especially after the 2014 vote. And Cambridge Analyticas employment of foreign nationals to work for U.S. political committees seemingly continued through the 2016 U.S. elections.

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The Washington Post also previewed a likely defense argument from the Cruz and Trump campaigns: that the foreign nationals were managed by U.S. nationals. But this wouldnt prevent violations. Cambridge Analyticas own lawyer concluded his legal memo with the admonition: Remember, it is the ability to influence the expenditure of campaign dollars, at the federal, state or local level that is prohibited. A foreign national need not be the final decision-maker in order to violate the ban on participating in the decision-making.

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Legal liability isnt limited to the foreign nationals who worked on U.S. campaigns. As Common Cause explains in its DOJ complaint, U.S. nationals running Cambridge Analytica and its political committee clients may have aided and abetted foreign nationals in violating U.S. laws and may be liable for conspiracy or attempted conspiracy to violate U.S. lawsall of which are crimes under U.S. law.

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As a federal court stated in a 2011 decision upholding the foreign national prohibition statute and regulationa decision affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court: It is fundamental to the definition of our national political community that foreign citizens do not have a constitutional right to participate in, and thus may be excluded from, activities of democratic self-government.

Common Cause is committed to holding Cambridge Analytica accountable for its violation of U.S. law. So weve filed complaints alleging that foreign national staff of Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group illegally participated in the decision-making of U.S. political committees regarding expenditures for political advertising, research, data analytics, polling, focus groups, message development, and more. Now its time for the DOJ and the FEC to do their jobs and investigate.

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The violations seem fairly clear-cut; the reporting by news outlets has been thorough, and the job of investigators should be aided by it. But if these alleged violations are verified, then the penalties must be sufficient to ensure these laws are not routinely violated by scofflaws who would see small fines as simply the cost of doing business. The integrity of our elections is at stake.

More from Just Security:

Its Not a Filter Bubble. Its a Filter Shroud.

Mr. Zuckerberg, Heres How You Should Be Regulated

Civilian Casualties: We Need Better EstimatesNot Just Better NumbersOn the same day that the state of Illinois sued Facebook over its alleged misuse of data that allowed Cambridge Analytica to download information on more than 50 million users, Facebook confirmed that it had been collecting and storing call logs and text message metadata for millions of Android users.

Last week, one user who downloaded his data to learn what Facebook knew about him in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal found that the company had a record of the date, time, duration, and recipient of calls he had made from the past few years. On Saturday, the tech news site Ars Technica published an account of several othersall Android userswho found similar records.

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In response, Facebook published a post Sunday denying that it ever logged call or text history without a users permission. But it did acknowledge that it was collecting and storing these logs, attributing it to an opt-in feature for those using Messenger or Facebook Lite on an Android device. This helps you find and stay connected with the people you care about, and provides you with a better experience across Facebook, the company said in the post. People have to expressly agree to use this feature.

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We introduced this feature for Android users a couple of years ago. Contact importers are fairly common among social apps and services as a way to more easily find the people you want to connect with.

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Ars Technica refuted their claim that everyone knowingly opted in. Instead, Ars Technicas Sean Gallagher claimed, that opt-in was the default setting and users were not separately alerted to it. Nor did Facebook ever say publicly that it was collecting that information. Facebook says that the company keeps the data secure and does not sell it to third parties, Gallagher wrote. But the post doesnt address why it would be necessary to retain not just the numbers of contacts from phone calls and SMS messages, but the date, time, and length of those calls for years.

On Monday, in response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the Federal Trade Commission announced it was launching a probe into Facebooks privacy practices.Is Slovakia still in the bosom of corruption?

Official statistics show less corruption cases are being solved.

Residential complex Bonaparte, built by a company of controversial tycoon Ladislav Basternak, has become a symbol of corruption in Slovakia. (Source: TASR)

Corruption remains a long-standing problem for Slovakia. The latest case of a probable connection of governmental officials to the Italian mafia, revealed by journalist Jan Kuciak, who was brutally murdered with his fiancee in February 2018, shows how far corruption scandals can go.

The development indicates that corruption in Slovakia is approaching the so-called state capture level. It ceases to be an isolated problem and leads to a wide abuse of power, according to ethics watchdogs from the Fair-Play Alliance.

Public institutions are subject to abuse to suppress competition of interest groups, to ensure government contracts for them, the smoothness of follow-up controls and legal impunity for actors, Peter Kunder of Fair-Play Alliance told The Slovak Spectator.

Read also:

Read also: Anti-corruption laws are toothless Read more

In recent years, the government has adopted several anti-corruption measures, including whistleblower protection and anti-shell laws.

Experts, however, say these measures do not work properly in practice. The fight against corruption in Slovakia stagnates, said Gabriel Sipos, head of ethics watchdog Transparency International Slovensko (TIS).

The activities of state institutions over the past period confirm the stagnation and the embarrassing approach of the country to the fight, Sipos told The Slovak Spectator.

Attractive EU funds

Similar to the pre-1989 regime, the problem of corruption is still being pursued at all levels of public administration. Today, the drawing of EU funds is especially tempting.

Based on the report of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), interest groups have designed the logistical process of drawing EU funds in a very detailed way. Interest groups have regional spheres of influence and search for suitable candidates for individual calls, says Tomas Stremy from the Faculty of Law at the Comenius University in Bratislava.

They also provide everything necessary for the preparation of overvalued projects and its approval by affiliated persons to the relevant governing bodies, Stremy told The Slovak Spectator.

Death of a journalist

Kuciaks investigation into the allocation of EU funds in agriculture is likely the reason why the investigative journalist of the Aktuality.sk website and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, were shot dead in their house in Velka Maca (Trnava Region) in February 2018. In his latest article, published after his death by several Slovak and foreign newspapers, Kuciak wrote about Italian organised groups doing business in agriculture in eastern Slovakia with people close to Prime Minister Robert Fico and his government.

After the murder and revelations, civic society began to protest For a Decent Slovakia around the country and abroad with demands that PM Fico and Interior Minister Robert Kalinak step down from their posts.

In addition to strong social pressure, Vasil Spirko, the prosecutor of the Special Prosecutors Office, decided to blow the whistle on Kalinak and top police officials due to improper charges against him after his supervision of the B.A. Haus case, related to the infamous Basternak scandal of 2016.

These actions led first to Kalinaks resignation from the ministerial and deputy prime minister chairs and later to Ficos resignation from the PMs chair.

Falling statistics

While the pressure to tackle corruption is strong, the official numbers of solved corruption cases in Slovakia has decreased over time. The latest statistics from the special prosecutors reporting on the activities of the Special Prosecutors Office in 2016 show that only 113 perpetrators were subject to prosecution for corruption in 2016, compared to 173 in 2015, and 209 in 2014.

26. Mar 2018 at 6:30 | Peter AdamovskyAnti-corruption laws are toothless

Anti-corruption measures did not have a strong influence.

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In speeches about tackling corruption, authorities have often highlighted the positive results of the law on the protection of whistleblowers and the anti-shell law, approved during the ruling Robert Ficos governments.

Ethics watchdogs, however, believe that in practice the anti-corruption measures adopted in the last two years do not have such a strong influence.

They only deal with isolated problems and not always vigorously, Peter Kunder of the ethics watchdog Fair-Play Alliance told The Slovak Spectator.

The government even ignored some important measures, including the latest EU rules in the fight against money laundering, Kunder said, which should have been transposed in summer 2017.

Read also:

Read also: Is Slovakia still in the bosom of corruption? Read more

Reporting tool

The first valid measure, the Act on Certain Measures Related to the Reporting of Anti-social Activities, targets the protection of people who decide to blow the whistle on their employers or colleagues who do not conduct business in an ethical way.

The law, first approved in 2015, is now subject to an amendment establishing a special authority to help educate and protect whistleblowers and control property admissions. The amendment is currently in inter-departmental comments, Peter Kovarik, head of the Corruption Prevention Department of the Governments Office, confirmed for the public-service broadcaster RTVS.

Tomas Stremy from the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in Bratislava assesses the existing wording of the act as beneficial. However, the regulation itself does not address the question of social education and the courage of people.

26. Mar 2018 at 6:30 | Peter AdamovskyKiska did not attend commemorative concert due to presence of fascists

President Andrej Kiska refused to participate in the concert commemorating the Candle Manifestation as extremists of the LSNS party were invited; the Slovak Bishops Conference argued they invited MPs of all parties.

L-R: Founder of the Nenapadni Hrdinovia /Low-key Heroes project Frantisek Neupauer, ex-president of Federal German Republic Joachim Gauck, and Slovak president Andrej Kiska attending the How WE Treat Our Freedom conference, March 25, Bratislava. (Source: SITA)

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The commemorative concert marking the 30th anniversary of the Candle Manifestation in Bratislava, taking place on March 25 in the Reduta building of the Slovak Philharmonic and organised by the Slovak Bishops Conference (KBS) was not attended by Slovak President Andrej Kiska.

He refused to take part in the event  where he was originally slated to hold an address  because the KBS also invited representatives of the far-right Peoples Party  Our Slovakia (LSNS) to the event, its chairman and MP Marian Kotleba, and another MP, Milan Uhrik, the Sme daily wrote.

Presidents reasons for absence

The president deemed the invitation of fascists to a commemorative concert an exceptionally unfortunate way to commemorate the 30th anniversary of this important event, as his spokesperson Roman Krpelan informed.

The commemoration of the Candle Manifestation is a celebration of freedom, democracy and peoples courage, Krpelan added, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

The LSNS responded by stating that Kiska likes to talk about tolerance but he himself is not capable of tolerating somebody even in the case of commemorative events.

Slovak Bishops strike back

The Church is not a political organisation; when it invites public officials to participate in events, it does not do politics, the KBS told TASR in response to President Andrej Kiskas decision.

We usually invite representatives of all parties that have been elected to parliament, KBS spokesman Martin Kramara said, as quoted by TASR, adding that the KBS invited the president to speak and the legislators to listen. The message of this event is to highlight the value of hard-won freedom and clearly condemn all dictatorial regimes, such as communism, fascism and nationalism.

Read also:

Read also: Candle Manifestation 1988: We went into it like innocent children Read more

For his part, Kiska held tribute to the Candle Manifestation on March 25, through an address at the conference called How We Treat Our Freedom, and then by visiting the monument commemorating the Candle Manifestation in Bratislava, together with former president of the Federative Republic of Germany, Joachim Gauck, according to Sme. Kiska will bestow an order on Gauck on March 26.

What was the Candle Manifestation about

Slovakia commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Candle Manifestation, one of the crucial public display of revolt against the communist regime in former Czechoslovakia, on March 25, the SITA newswire wrote. The peaceful meeting of believers calling for civil and religious freedoms ended with a harsh police action, including beating, water cannons and arrests.

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Read also: ORF reporter: I was surprised by how many Slovaks had such courage Read more

26. Mar 2018 at 13:23 | Compiled by Spectator staffVW needs 500 people, including non-EU foreigners

The Slovak Volkswagen plant needs to hire new staffers, and plans to look for some of them in Serbia and the Ukraine.

The autimotive industry is one of main pillars of the Slovak economy. (Source: Courtesy of VW SK)

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Bratislava-based German carmaker Volkswagen plans to hire people from Serbia and the Ukraine in 2018, as it needs to fill more than 500 vacancies by the end of the year.

It is very difficult to find experts and therefore we are considering employing people from Serbia and the Ukraine in a very limited number, Eric Reuting, a member of Volkswagen Slovakia's Board of Directors for human resources, told the Sme daily. Hiring Slovaks remains our priority, though.

New jobs are being offered in production  especially in assembley, in the car-body shop and in the paint-shop. The hiring is connected with the new SUV models  the Porsche Cayenne and the Volkswagen Touareg, the daily wrote on March 22. The plant also plans to launch the production of the new Audi Q8.

Thus, VW Slovakia could exceed the threshold of 14,000 employees and become the biggest employer in the country, beating even the state-owned railway, Zeleznice SR, and the Slovak Post.

Currently, the carmaker is offering about 13,700 jobs, of which around 30 are taken by Serbs  who have the status of Slovaks living abroad  and around 500 taken by workers borrowed from the Hungarian Audi plant.

Hiring made simpler

For now, employers have to register vacancies with the Central Office of Labour, Family and Social Affairs and publish them for 30 days. Only then, can businesses hire people from outside the European Union.

This process will be simplified, however, from the beginning of May. The Volkswagen plant in Devinska Nova Ves (borough of Bratislava) planned to hire foreigners last year, and the simplification of procedure  which will concern only selected jobs in districts with an employment rate lower than five percent  will play into its hands.

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Read also: Government accelerates hiring from abroad Read more

The VW workers are expected to be accommodated directly in Devinska Nova Ves but the reactions of locals are not expected to be as emotional as in Sered where inhabitants gathered to protest against the construction of worker's quarters, Sme wrote.

Other Slovak carmakers, the Korean plant of Kia in Zilina-Teplicka, and the PSA Group plant in Trnava-Voderady employ non-EU foreigners, too. About 800 Serbs currently work for PSA, mostly as Slovaks living abroad. Kia has tentatively hired a few Bulgarians  who are EU citizens, however, and so employing them is simpler, Sme wrote.

26. Mar 2018 at 13:36 | Compiled by Spectator staffKrasna Horka will look as it did at the turn of the 19th and 20th century

The castle burned in 2012; the reconstruction has already lasted for six years.

More information about travelling in Slovakia

Please see our Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide

The Slovak National Museum (SNM) wants to reconstruct the Krasna Horka castle, which was devastated by fire in 2012 and return it to the look it had at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The work has already taken six years and the date when it will reopen for visitors remains unknown.

Based on the available archival materials and hundreds of historical photographs we arrived at the conclusion that the castle should be restored to the form it took at the threshold of the 19th and 20th centuries when its adaptation into the museum was completed, said Julius Barczi, director of the SNM - Museum in Betliar, as cited by the TASR newswire.

This will mean that elements that were removed during the last reconstruction in the 1970s will return to the castle.

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Read also: Krasna Horka is roofed, expected to open in 2017-2018 Read more

The reconstruction of Krasna Horka is one of the most extensive ones to take place in Slovakia.

The current project team has encountered a number of problems, whose solution is a prerequisite for another procedure, said Barczi. These are the tracing of the water piping and power lines and fire protection of the castle and its surroundings among others.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/sRmQLJAwOYA

Artifacts from the castle collections harmed by the fire are gradually being renovated. To date, 180 items have been already professionally treated and more than 50 other items are undergoing the restoration process.

Money from the public collection will serve for the completion of the restoration of the wall paintings in the castle chapel.

26. Mar 2018 at 23:49 | Compiled by Spectator staffEx-Most-Hid MP did business with Vadala

Igor Sidor wanted to develop tourism in Croatia with Vadala.

An international investigative team is continuing the work of the murdered journalist Jan Kuciak. The Aktuality.sk website, the Sme, Dennik N, Novy Cas, and Hospodarske Noviny dailies, the Postoj website, the Aliancia Fair-play watchdog, the Trend weekly, TV broadcasters Markiza and JOJ, the Czech Radio, Swiss Blick, Polish Onet and German Die Welt continue. The story on Igor Sidor was brought forth by Trend.

The Italian businessman Antonino Vadala who has links to the Calabria-based Ndrangheta gang, has further contacts with ruling parties than previously recognised. Two years ago, Vadala, along with Igor Sidor the former parliamentary deputy for the Most-Hid party, launched a company in Croatia. They were both operating within the Hvar Sport Resort company by March 2017. Today, Sidor is the sole owner.

The Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism, which cooperated with Kuciak on his last article about the links between Ndrangheta and businessmen active in eastern Slovakia, provided Trend with documents from Croatian registers.

Sidor is today the chairman of a regional political association Sport do Kosic. He has so far claimed that he had nothing in common with Vadala except for one contact when Vadala was interested in the acquisition of his office building.

Read also:

Read also: MP of Smer party has power-plants near Italian-run farmstead Read more

When asked about his business with Vadala, Sidor claimed that they launched the company in 2016 with the plan for a new project into which each should have invested money. But this plan allegedly failed because Vadala did not deliver any money.

The company to date has no turnover nor any business activities in Croatia or Slovakia, said Sidor, as cited by the Sme daily.

The Hvar Sport Resort company should originally have been engaged in tourism, related services and water transport. Its business activities were to include the uploading and unloading of goods and warehouses.

Sidor owns a tourist resort of the same name on Hvar island but according to him, Vadala has nothing in to do with this enterprise.

26. Mar 2018 at 23:36 | Compiled by Spectator staffCzech journalist: Opened murder cases must be concluded

Czech journalist Pavla Holcova believes that journalists are most powerful when they collaborate with each other with the support of civil society.

One month after the murder of her Slovak colleague, Jan Kuciak, and his fiancee, Czech journalist Pavla Holcova gave an interview for the Newsroom show of the public-service news TV, CT24. It was broadcast on March 25, and she agreed to it only under the condition her face will not be seen, as she had to change her appearance due to security reasons, and remains under police protection.

Apart from being asked to change my appearance, so that I could not be recognised at first sight, we also took other technical measures aimed at better securing my whereabouts and general safety, Holcova described the measures..

The murder as a standard

After the murder of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova, she mostly fears that the murdering of journalists will become a standard, and that society will cease to be as sensitive as it is now, or was after last years violent death of Maltese journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia: Society will get numb, will stop feeling, and such a murder will not be considered shocking, especially as a journalist was murdered because of his work.

When asked how her perception of fear has changed, Holcova answered that she had to reevaluate what is safe, and what is not.

I stopped relying on myself being able to evaluate it well, as we within this case did not reach the phase of talking to people, which is considered the most dangerous by journalists. We did collect publicly available information, analyse it and compare it and from that, we tried to put together a kind of mosaic of what has been going on, how strong the connection between Italian mafia and the strongest Slovak party was, she explained.

When preparing for approaching the respondents they wrote about, they planned to then increase security measures but this is not the case anymore.

The need to go on

Holcova described her feelings after the death of Jan Kuciak as a kind of coming to terms with that situation  that I cannot change this anymore, and things must go on. It is necessary to finish what we started with Jan.

For me, he is still a relatively alive person, although it is not true anymore, Holcova said, as cited by the Sme daily. But the way we worked together, or exchanged news, the facts we found out, the enthusiasm or frustration  I suddenly have nobody to share it with. What is the hardest part for me now is that I cannot call him.

Currently, she is a member of two teams that continue to work on cases they investigated with Jan Kuciak. One group focuses more on Slovakia while the other includes several foreign journalists investigating the cases abroad.

The other group is by our mother organization Organized Crime and Corruption Project which views what is happening in Slovakia from the outside while considering what its context is in Europe, and the rest of the world, especially Italy, she added.

Concluding pending cases

To keep the memory of Jan Kuciak alive, the pending case should be investigated and concluded, according to Holcova.

In the beginning, when we started to work on this case, everyone told us there is no mafia in Slovakia or in the Czech Republic, the Czech journalist recalls. We were sure the case is much bigger and needs to be explored more, and the circumstances must be clarified.I think on one hand, we need to approach young journalists who may have crazy ideas at first sight much more openly and draw them more into the journalistic community. On the other hand, I think cases need to be perceived more in an international context, as organized crime does not respect borders.

Holcova considers verbal attacks on journalists by politicians to be risky as well, both in Slovakia and Czechia. Politicians who do not speak with respect about journalists and their work subliminally announce journalists and their work are of lower value, she thinks.

I dont think the verbal attacks should be dealt with by journalists themselves; I rather hope there will be more and more people in civil society who stand up for journalists, show they dont want politicians who insult reporters, and tell others that the task of a journalist is not to chase down politicians, but to give people enough information, based on which they canould decide and decide rightly.

Journalistss cooperation

It's splendid, according to Holcova, that after this tragedy, journalists came to understand that all cases will have a bigger impact if they collaborate on them, if they give up exclusivity and share information.

I think it's shown how crucial it is to share the information, so that it is not the matter of a single person, the journalist opined, as quoted by the TASR newswire. Thus, there's less of a risk that when you interview someone who may be close to organised crime, they get the feeling they can stop the story by killing you, as nobody else has the info. You will be a much smaller target if you tell them two of your colleagues also have the info, as well as your chief editor. Then they cannot do anything about that story.

The power of the journalist community is summarised in Holcovas words as: you cannot kill the story, and if you remove one (journalist), five more will take his place. This is the most important message which must be spread around the world, she sums up. There are few things worse than an angry team of journalists.

The shows host noted in the beginning that an international investigative team of journalists called All for Jan continues the work of Jan Kuciak. Originally, it had six members, but now, there are a total 35 of them, including 20 foreign ones, in a special and guarded newsroom. So far, it has published more than 30 stories.

26. Mar 2018 at 18:04 | By TASRSlovakia will not expel Russian diplomats

The country is the only one among its Visegrad Group neighbours not to join the international initiative supporting the UK after the Salisbury attack.

Slovakia is not among the EU countries who have decided to show solidarity with the UK by expelling Russian diplomats as a reaction to the attack on former Russian agent Sergey Skripal in Salisbury.

Countries who will expel Russians USA (60), UK (23), Ukraine (13), Canada (4) ,Germany, Poland, France (4), Czechia, Lithuania (3), Italy, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands (2), Romania, Croatia, Hungary, Estonia (1)

All Slovakia's partners from the Visegrad Group (Czechia, Poland, Hungary) are among the countries who have joined the initiative. The Slovak diplomatic service has not yet said whether Slovakia would join too.

"The Slovak Republic unambiguously condemned the attack with the chemical weapon in Salisbury, UK, acknowledged the conclusions of the European Council on March 22, 2018, and reserved the right to take further steps in connection with this case," Slovakia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Peter Susko, told the Sme daily.

The Slovak government has also requested to see the Russian Ambassador to Slovakia.

"The further development of the situation and Russia's response to the calls the EU states, including Slovakia, have made, will influence the further steps we are ready to consider regarding this issue," Susko told Sme, but failed to give a clear answer about the possible expulsion of Russian diplomats from the country.

Skripal and his daughter were attacked on March 4, using the Novichok nerve gas that was developed in the former USSR. Both victims are still in critical condition.

26. Mar 2018 at 23:18 | Compiled by Spectator staffCircumstances indicate that Kuciaks and Kusnirovas deaths were a contract killing

At present, police are examining several scenarios.

The circumstances that have been identified so far suggest that the assassinations in Velka Maca were a contract murder. A prosecutor from the Special Prosecutors Office informed the media about this on Monday, March 26. Based on the investigation so far, journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova were murdered on February 21 with a 9mm caliber pistol.

The female victim was shot in the head from the front, the other victim was shot twice in the heart also from the front, said the prosecutor, whose identity the media were asked not to reveal due to safety reasons. In his words, there was no evidence of a fight and most likely, nothing was stolen.

Two empty cartridges were found at the crime scene as well as unused bullets.

The movement of the probable perpetrator has been documented, along with other facts that we cannot present for now, the prosecutor said.

At present, the police are examining several scenarios, each with equal seriousness. So far, investigators have interrogated some 200 persons.

On the basis of the offer of the payment of a financial reward for information leading to the identification of the perpetrator and the motive, the prosecution and the police have received several dozen notifications from citizens, the prosecutor said, adding that not all of them were serious but all are being investigated with the same intensity.

Read also:

Read also: General Prosecutor: No progress in murder investigation Read more

The Special Prosecutors Office pointed out that the Slovak law enforcement authorities are cooperating with foreign investigators on this case, Italians as well as Europol.

The investigative team consists of 10 investigators and more than 50 operative agents, as well as an analytical group of six analysts and the foreign cooperation group.

Its one of the biggest investigative teams put together with an eye towards investigating a murder in recent years, said the prosecutor.

Restraint is important in providing information about this case.

It is in this way that the main purpose of criminal proceedings is achieved, that is finding and punishing the perpetrators, he said.

The double murder

Investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova were shot dead in their family house by a currently unknown culprit or culprits. It is assumed that Kuciaks work uncovering the operation of the Italian mafia in eastern Slovakia and its possible connection to top politicians might have been behind the murder.

26. Mar 2018 at 23:11 | Compiled by Spectator staffCF Industries Holdings, Inc. engages in the manufacture and distribution of nitrogen fertilizer. The firm owns and operates nitrogen plants and serves agricultural and industrial customers through its distribution system. It operates through following segments: Ammonia, Granular Urea, UAN, AN, and Other. The Ammonia segment produces anhydrous ammonia, which is company's most concentrated nitrogen fertilizer product as it contains 82% nitrogen. The Granular Urea segment produces granular urea, which contains 46% nitrogen. The UAN segment produces urea ammonium nitrate solution, which is a liquid fertilizer product with a nitrogen content from 28% to 32%, is produced by combining urea and ammonium nitrate. The AN segment produces ammonium nitrate, which is a nitrogen-based product with a nitrogen content between 29% and 35%. The Other segment includes diesel exhaust fluid, nitric acid, urea liquor and aqua ammonia. The company was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Deerfield, IL.

Read More"The magnitude of the losses is significant: the Cobalt malware alone allowed criminals to steal up to EUR 10 million per heist," Europol said.

"This global operation is a significant success for international police cooperation against a top-level cybercriminal organisation. The arrest of the key figure in this crime group illustrates that cybercriminals can no longer hide behind perceived international anonymity," said Steven Wilson, Head of Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3).

"This is another example where the close cooperation between law enforcement agencies on a worldwide scale and trusted private sector partners is having a major impact on top-level cyber criminality."

Spanish Police has arrested the alleged leader of an organised Russian cybercrime gang behind the Carbanak and Cobalt malware attacks, which stole over a billion euros from banks worldwide since 2013.In a coordinated operation with law enforcement agencies across the globe, including the FBI and Europol, Police detained the suspected leader of Carbanak hacking group in Alicante, Spain.Carbanak hacking group started its activities almost five years ago by launching a series of malware attack campaigns such as Anunak and Carbanak to compromise banks and ATM networks, from which they swiped millions of credit card details from US-based retailers.According to the Europol, the group later developed a sophisticated heist-ready banking malware known as Cobalt, based on the Cobalt Strike penetration testing software, which was in use until 2016.In order to compromise bank networks, the group sent malicious spear-phishing emails to hundreds of employees at different banks, which if opened, infected computers with Carbanak malware, allowing hackers to transfer money from the banks to fake accounts or ATMs monitored by criminals.According to the authorities, the criminal profits were also laundered via cryptocurrencies, through prepaid cards linked to the cryptocurrency wallets, which were used to buy goods such as luxury cars and houses.In early 2017, the gang of financially-motivated cybercriminals was found abusing various Google services to issue command and control (C&C) communications for monitoring and controlling the machines of its victims.In separate news, Ukraine Police announced today the arrest of another member of Cobalt group in Kiev, for developing malware and selling personal data from citizens worldwide.The suspect was working with Cobalt group since 2016 and also involved in cyber-espionage activities. He allegedly sold a variety of malicious software in underground markets that allows anyone to access and control victims' computers remotely.The factory is the result of cooperation between Mazda and local automaker Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco), according to which the latter will produce Mazda cars for local sales and exports to regional markets.

Located in Chu Lai Open Economic Zone in Quang Nam Province, the factory is Mazdas biggest and most modern in Southeast Asia capable of producing cars of Japan-made quality, according to Thaco chairman Tran Ba Duong.

Duong was among four superrich Vietnamese included in the latest Forbes list of the worlds dollar billionaires.

The Thaco-Mazda factory in Quang Nam can produce 100,000 cars a year upon completion, at a cost of VND12 trillion (US$526.8 million).

The entire factory is integrated with the latest Industry 4.0 technologies available in Southeast Asia, making it fully automated and digitally controllable, Duong said.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended the factorys opening ceremony on Sunday, which saw the launch of its first phase capable of manufacturing 50,000 cars yearly.

The premiere also launched a maritime trade route between Japan and Chu Lai the same day, and later oversaw the first shipment of car parts from Hiroshima to supply the Thaco-Mazda factory.

Tran Ba Duong, chairman of Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco). Photo: Tuoi Tre

According to Hiroshi Inoue, managing executive officer at Mazda, Vietnam is the companys 10th largest market worldwide in total auto sales.

Mazdas investment of technology and production concepts in a Thaco-run factory would build a strong foundation for the local auto industry to make its own breakthroughs, he said.

Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, president of the Vietnam Institute of Economics (VIE), told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the Thaco-Mazda cooperation would be a game changer in the local auto market in the years to come.

The Thaco-Mazda factorys approach is to introduce more luxury cars for the Vietnamese market while increasing the localization ratio, Thien asserted.

Thaco has already inked deals to sell 1,000 buses produced at its newly-opened factory to Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines in 2018.

The company also plans to export $10 million worth of car parts and accessories to regional markets by the end of the year.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Vietnams seafood could hopefully have the yellow card, a kind of warning the European Commission gives to countries involved in illegal fishing, withdrawn somewhere in May, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said after a working visit to the European Union.

The EC imposed the warning on Vietnam on October 23, 2017 due to the Southeast Asian countrys failure to meet requirements on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing prevention.

Demonstrating Vietnams efforts to follow recommendations to have the yellow card lifted was high on Minister Cuongs agenda during his March 21-24 visit to the EU and Belgium.

After returning from his trip, Cuong told Vietnamese reporters on Sunday that he had pushed for the warning withdrawal for Vietnamese seafood during a meeting with European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella in Belgium.

In May, six months after the yellow card comes into effect, the EU will conduct a review of Vietnams recent efforts on tracing the origin of its seafood catches, improving the legal framework for fishing and fighting illegal fishing, according to the minister.

Given the concerted efforts and resolve of the entire nation to settle the issue, Cuong said Vietnam is confident that the warning will be canceled following the May inspection.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The number of illegal fishing cases in foreign waters has lowered significantly, with almost no Vietnamese fishermen found hunting for seafood without permission around islands in the Pacific, the minister elaborated.

Some illegal fishing cases remain unsolved as they took place in the overlapping waters between Vietnam and Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia, he admitted.

Cuong added that Vietnam has also fortified the task of tracing seafood origin as recommended by the EU.

In October 2017, the EC explained that Vietnam was slapped with the yellow card as the country was not doing enough to fight illegal fishing.

Vietnam lacks both an effective sanctioning system to deter IUU fishing activities, and adequate actions to address illegal fishing conducted by Vietnamese vessels in foreign waters.

The country has an inadequate system of control over fish that are processed locally before being exported to international markets, including the EU.

File photo of two Vietnamese offshore fishing boats. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Vietnam was therefore given six months to fix all of those issues before the EU considers whether to revoke the decision, or hand the country an even more serious warning, the red card.

If significant progress is made, the yellow card will be replaced with a green card, representing legal export status, whereas a red card means that Vietnam will be banned from exporting its seafood to the EU.Firefighters are usually the unsung heroes in emergency situations and the deadly apartment blaze that claimed 13 lives in Ho Chi Minh City last week was no exception.

When pillars of black smoke were belching from the basement of the Carina Plaza apartment complex in District 8, dozens of firefighters risked their lives to save others trapped inside the apartment buildings by the flames that broke out before dawn on Friday.

Risking lives for others

As a Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporter rushed to the scene, two young firemen were helping a woman and a child, who was crying in fear, get out of the building.

Shortly after handing the two victims to their coworkers, the two firefighters collapsed to the soaked ground due to smoke inhalation.

It was 2:30 am, about an hour into the blaze that eventually killed 13 and injured 91 others, making it the most catastrophic fire in Ho Chi Minh City since 2002.

The Carina Plaza is seen on fire in Ho Chi Minh on March 23, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The Ho Chi Minh City fire department said it had dispatched more than 200 firefighters and 34 fire trucks from eight different units to the scene on Vo Van Kiet Street.

The first responders had to put out the fire and race against the clock to rescue some 1,000 victims at the same time.

While some firefighters defied the toxic smoke and burning heat to splash water onto the flames, others entered the building to seek victims and took them out safe and sound.

Two firemen were about to leave the exit on the ground floor when the ceiling suddenly gave way, pushing both of them to the ground. However, only minutes later, they rushed back to the fire again to continue their duty.

The firefighters took turns to bring victims, some of whom were barely able to walk and others had their entire bodies blackened by smoke, out of the building, while their fellows were busily climbing up the ladders to access people trapped inside the upper floors.

Tenants who were saved or managed to escape from the inferno themselves would besiege any firefighters within their reach, asking them to check this room on that floor for their family members who remained unaccounted for.

No single request was turned down and the firefighters kept on rushing into the flames, risking their own lives to save others.

Firefighters calm panic victims after taking them to the ground safely. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Its our duty

The deadly fire occurred in a basement located between the two apartment blocks A and B, sending toxic smoke to as high as the 14th floors due to fire doors on all floors being left wide open.

The fire doors were supposed to stay closed all the time, and could only be opened from the inside in case of emergency to prevent smoke from spreading to all compartments of a multiple-story building.

This, complete with the inactivated fire alarm and sprinkler systems, only worsened the severity of the basement fire that should not have caused damage to the upper floors of the apartment buildings.

It was the bravery of the firefighters that helped prevent the death toll from rising.

Two firefighters take a rest after the fire is put out. Photo: VietNamNet

Chau Thanh Quang, head of the firefighting unit of District 8, said his team members were present at the scene only ten minutes after being notified of the fire.

The first thing we saw at the scene was large plumes of smoke coming from the upper floors of the building, and the exploding sound followed by the cries and shouts of the trapped tenants, Quang told online newspaper VietNamNet.

Quang added he managed to reach the 12th floor with a ladder and continued climbing the stairs to the 14th floor to save people.

I gathered them into one place and told them how to find the exit and maintain oxygen levels, before taking them safely to the ground, he recalled.

I rescued more than 20 people, including one expectant mother and some children.

Quang said firefighters will always rush into flames without any hesitation because it is our duty and nothing is better than saving lives.

Firefighters help people to leave the building. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Pham Thanh Duong, another member of the District 8 fire unit, said he was tasked with entering the building after the fire in the basement was put out to rescue the trapped victims.

Everybody was in panic and I had to calm them down, he told Dan Tri (Intellectual) news website.

Duong and three of his team members managed to bring nearly 30 tenants to the ground safe and sound, and had to immediately return to the building, knocking every door to ensure no one was left behind.

Firefighters take a rest after the fire is put out. Photo: VietNamNet

A fireman with his hand burned after the fire. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Firefighters are seen at the scene. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Not all heroes wear capes Besides the brave firefighters, one security guard of the Carina Plaza also sacrificed his life to save as many tenants as possible when the fire broke out. Tran Van An, who was on duty at Block A on the tragic night, came and knocked on the door of every apartment in the building to alert them to the fire, when firefighters were already at the scene. As he had to run from floor to floor on foot, An was exhausted and died of smoke inhalation when he reached the fifth floor, having helped many to escape for their own lives. Two other guards, Le Gia An, 21, and Nguyen Thanh Sang, 22, who were on duty at Block B, which was not directly affected by the fire, also rushed to Block A to assist the rescue efforts. They both survived the fire and were on Sunday commended by the local youth association for their efforts. The young men said they want to dedicate this honor to An, who risked his life for others.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!SAN FRANCISCO/LONDON -- Opinion polls published on Sunday in the United States and Germany indicated that a majority of the public were losing trust in Facebook over privacy, as the firm ran advertisements in British and U.S. newspapers apologizing to users.

Fewer than half of Americans trust Facebook to obey U.S. privacy laws, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday, while a survey published by Bild am Sonntag, Germanys largest-selling Sunday paper, found 60 percent of Germans fear that Facebook and other social networks are having a negative impact on democracy.

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg apologized for a breach of trust in advertisements placed in papers including the Observer in Britain and the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.

We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we cant, we dont deserve it, said the advertisement, which appeared in plain text on a white background with a tiny Facebook logo.

The worlds largest social media network is coming under growing government scrutiny in Europe and the United States, and is trying to repair its reputation among users, advertisers, lawmakers and investors.

This follows allegations that the British consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly gained access to users information to build profiles of American voters that were later used to help elect U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview on NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday that Facebook had not been fully forthcoming over how Cambridge Analytica had used Facebook data.

Warner repeated calls for Zuckerberg to testify in person before U.S. lawmakers, saying Facebook and other internet companies had been reluctant to confront the dark underbelly of social media and how it can be manipulated.

'Breach of trust'

Zuckerberg acknowledged that an app built by a university researcher had leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014.

This was a breach of trust, and Im sorry we didnt do more at the time, Zuckerberg said, reiterating an apology first made last week in U.S. television interviews.

Facebook shares tumbled 14 percent last week, while the hashtag #DeleteFacebook gained traction online.

The Reuters/Ipsos online poll found that 41 percent of Americans trust Facebook to obey laws that protect their personal information, compared with 66 percent who said they trust Amazon.com Inc, 62 percent who trust Alphabet Incs Google, 60 percent for Microsoft Corp.

The poll was conducted from Wednesday through Friday and had 2,237 responses.

The German poll published by Bild was conducted by Kantar EMNID, a unit of global advertising holding company WPP, using representative polling methods, the firm said. Overall, only 33 percent found social media had a positive effect on democracy, against 60 percent who believed the opposite.

It is too early to say if distrust will cause people to step back from Facebook, eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson said in an interview. Customers of banks or other industries do not necessarily quit after losing faith, she said.

Its psychologically harder to let go of a platform like Facebook thats become pretty well ingrained into peoples lives, she said.

Data supplied to Reuters by the Israeli firm SimilarWeb, which measures global online audiences, indicated that Facebook usage in major markets and worldwide remained steady over the past week.

Desktop, mobile and app usage has remained steady and well within the expected range, said Gitit Greenberg, SimilarWebs director of market insights. It is important to separate frustration from actual tangible impacts to Facebook usage.A fire broke out at a six-story karaoke shop in Vietnam on Sunday, burning down the fourth and fifth floors of the facility.

The Kingdom karaoke bar, located in Ha Tinh Province, was on fire at around 5:40 am.

About 200 firefighting and police officers were dispatched to the venue to extinguish the inferno.

As of 11:00 am the same day, the flames were put out, but the fourth and fifth floors of the six-story building had been completely burned down.

There people were rescued from the fire.

He was immediately brought to the hospital, where doctors were able to reattach the finger.A firefighting police officer had his finger severed while cutting a wall open.

According to Nguyen Van Loc, deputy chief of the firefighting unit under the provincial Department of Police, there were too many rooms on the two floors, making it difficult for officers to put out the blaze.

Competent agencies are working to find out the cause of the fire.

Firefighting police officers attempt to put out the blaze. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Local residents gather at the scene of the fire. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Smoke still lingered on the two floors after the flames were extinguished. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The fourth and fifth floors of the building were burned down. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The fourth and fifth floors of the building were burned down. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The fourth and fifth floors of the building were burned down. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!The developer of an apartment complex in Ho Chi Minh City, where 13 people were killed and nearly 100 injured in a fire last week, has offered financial assistance to the victims and affected residents, and promised to deal with the consequences within 30 days.

The Hung Thanh Construction - Trading - Service - Production Company, which developed the Carina Plaza apartment complex in District 8, announced the support in a document on Sunday evening.

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh arrived at the venue and talked with local residents on the morning of the same day.

The fire broke out at Block A of the three-block apartment complex early on Friday morning, killing 13 people and injuring nearly 100 others.

The blaze started in the parking basement of the 21-story building, with its smoke and heat reaching as high as the 14th floor.

Most residents were sleeping at the time and were unalarmed as neither the fire alarm nor the water sprinkler system, put into use in 2009, was activated.

Eleven of the deceased victims died of smoke inhalation, while the other two fatally fell during their escape from the building.

Affected residents have been temporarily relocated to Block B and C, and an apartment building opposite the Carina Plaza. Some others decided to find a hotel or go to their relatives houses.

Hung Thanh Company has promised to deal with the consequences in Block A within 30 days, starting from March 26.

Motorbikes kept in the parking basement were burned down after the fire. Photo: Tuoi Tre

However, competent authorities will need to carry out a safety evaluation before residents can move back into their homes.

The firm will also provide VND100 million (US$4,400) for each deceased victim and pay all medical bills for the wounded.

The total financial support for the dead and injured victims is worth over VND1.8 billion ($79,200).

Each affected household is also provided with VND300,000 ($13) every day until they are able to return home.

The developer will work with managers of the apartment buildings regarding the damaged vehicles, which were kept in the parking basement, for further assistance.

According to Bui Quang Nghiem, a member of the Ho Chi Minh Bar Association, authorities are still investigating the cause of the inferno so it is still early to hold anyone accountable.

The failure of the alarm system should be blamed on the agency that supplied the devices and operates them, Nghiem stated.

Those who violate regulations on fire safety shall be fined VND30 million ($1,316) to VND50 million ($2,193), Ky Quan, a local lawyer, said, adding that they could also be criminally charged and face jail terms of up to 12 years if any serious consequence arises.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Blackish water has appeared over the past few days on a five-kilometer stretch of a beach in Da Nang, raising pollution concerns.

Thick yellow foam and a foul smell were also reported by locals, who have been afraid to go into the water for fear of catching diseases.

The affected body of water is located along Nguyen Tat Thanh Street, spanning Da Nangs Thanh Khe and Lien Chieu Districts.

There are 28 sewer openings located along this stretch of beach, which receives the largest daily volume of treated wastewater in Vietnam, according to Mai Ma, director of a local sewage treatment company.

Mas company runs a sewage treatment plant that collects both rainwater and household wastewater from local rivers for treatment before discharging treated water into the ocean.

At times, heavy rains can cause the plants systems to become overloaded, leading to untreated sewage leaking into the ocean, the director explained.

However, as it has not rained in Da Nang in the past few days, this has been ruled out as a possible cause for the recently spotted blackish sea water.

A spokesperson from the environment watchdog of Da Nang told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday evening that officials had collected water samples from the affected area for lab tests to determine what had caused the water to turn blackish.

The administration of Da Nang has earmarked multiple investments for upgrading the capacity of local sewage treatment plants, as well as asking upstream factories to treat their own wastewater before discharging it into rivers.

Blackish water is seen on a stretch of beach in Da Nang City in central Vietnam. Clip: Tuoi Tre

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Half of all the cows given by an administration in north-central Vietnam to a lower-level body to boost local breeding activities have been butchered by its officials and their relatives, who received most of the animals.

On Sunday, the Peoples Committee in Trieu Do Commune, Trieu Phong District, Quang Tri Province, confirmed that five out of ten to-be-bred male cows assigned by the provincial government had been slaughtered.

The committee had divided the cows amongst villagers, and its officials and their relatives, with the former receiving two, and the latter eight, in late 2017.

Included in the second group are a civil servant of the commune, an elder brother of the committees vice-chairman, an elder brother of the communes chief police officer, and a brother-in-law of the secretary from the Party Committee at the place.

The cows were part of Quang Tri Provinces efforts to develop its home-based husbandry.

Only those who are cattle-breeding people and promise to directly take care of the cows for at least 48 months are eligible for keeping them.

Nguyen Xuan Truong, chairman of the Trieu Do Peoples Committee, explained that the vice-chairman distributed the cows in such a fashion since they arrived in the commune at the end of 2017, allowing the officials no time for preparation.

The above relatives were deemed eligible for breeding the cows, he added.

But heads of some of the local villages said that they had not been notified of keeping the cows.

The reason for the slaughter is being probed, the chairman said.

The total cost for each cow is VND18 million (US$789), of which VND14 million ($614) was allocated by the government and the rest contributed by local citizens.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!A woman in Vietnam has been fined VND50 million (US$2,193) after carrying out an abortion that purportedly led to the death of a neighbor.

The Peoples Committee in Quy Chau District, Nghe An Province, has imposed the penalty upon Dinh Thi Thanh, 52, for conducting the medical procedure without a proper license.

Thanh performed the abortion on 30-year-old V.T.K., who lived in the same neighborhood and was three months pregnant, at the formers home on March 12.

The woman refused to perform the operation at first, but later agreed as K.s family insisted that she help them.

The family also promised to pay Thanh VND1.7 million ($75) and not to file a lawsuit if anything bad happened.

The abortion started at 8:00 am, during which Thanh placed a urinary catheter in K.s cervix and told her to have a drink made from sauropus androgynus, a type of leaf vegetable.

Two days later, K. became exhausted, nauseous, had difficulty breathing, and lost feelings in half of her body.

She was admitted to a medical center in Quy Chau District on March 15 in an unconscious state.

The patient was then transferred to a local general hospital for further treatment but eventually could not make it.

During a working session with competent agencies, Thanh admitted she had carried out abortions on herself and several other people.

She was also aware that conducting such abortions is against the law.

The Quy Chau administration stated that Thanh only finished grade seven and did not have any medical degree or certificate for medical practice.

The Nghe An Department of Health is working with authorities in Quy Chau District to determine the exact cause of K.s death.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Great to hear Barry DuBois is returning to The Living Room this Friday.

DuBois has been undergoing chemotherapy treatment which has described as brutal following his emotional statement to viewers in October.

Also returning is Dr. Chris Brown back from duties in South Africa -and a new set is revealed.

Chris may have only just arrived home from the African jungle, but that does not stop him from jet-setting to Bali on a mission to find his inner-balance. Experiencing everything from pokes and prods from a traditional Balinese healer to mud wrestling with the locals, Chris takes a thorough look at the wellness holiday trend taking Indonesia by storm.

Back doing what he loves best, Barry helps renovate the kitchen of grandmother Geraldine, Australias oldest DIY fanatic, who conducted her own renos 50 years ago but wants to freshen things up for the homes new owners: her son Adam and his wife Eloise.

It would not be a Good Friday episode without a little chocolate, so Miguel heads off to meet chocolatier maestro Michelle Morgan, who runs him through the entire process from bean to block, before Miguel tries his hand at making some delicious brownies.

Friday, 30 March at 7.30pm on TEN.While March for Our Lives attracts stunning crowds in the US, Dateline reporter Dean Cornish meets a new generation of millennial mayors who are snatching the political torch at the local level.

In Stockton, California, Dateline gets access to a rising star of the Democratic party: 27 year old mayor Michael Tubbs. The youngest mayor in the citys history and its first African-American mayor, hes been endorsed by Barack Obama and his campaign funded by Oprah.

I think millennials are innovative, forward-thinking, pretty progressive and generally, even if we disagree about how, we want to see the world be a better place, explains Tubbs.

On the other side of America in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Dateline meets another young mayor  millennial Alex Morse.

Elected when he was just 22 years old, he replaced a 67 year old incumbent and political veteran at city hall. Hes now been mayor for six years.

Were seeing a revolution of sorts, young people flipping districts and running for office  and this whole idea of waiting your turn has sort of been thrown by the wayside, explains Morse.

In Stockton and Holyoke, Dateline follows each mayors radical attempts to overhaul their cities.

Tubbs is trying to rescue his city from poverty and violence with a controversial idea  paying criminals to turn their backs on crime.

His cousin was murdered while he was interning at the White House and his father is currently serving a life sentence for kidnapping, robbery and drug possession.

Its personal for me because I lived there; I knew what it was like to go to sleep listening to gun shots, for example or not being allowed outside to play because it wasnt safe, says Tubbs.

In Holyoke, Dateline follows Mayor Morses attempt to save a city hit hard by the financial crisis  by making it the hub of the medical marijuana industry.

But not everyone is happy with these young mayors and their initiatives.

In Holyoke the city council is pushing back  former council president Kevin Jourdain says the town is becoming a mecca for marijuana and questions the mayors experience.

In Stockton, community activists are pushing to recall Mayor Michael Tubbs. Will it cut his grand plans for the city short?

While the young leaders bring new energy and optimism, does the generation often criticised for narcissism and a crappy work ethic have the chops to really change America?

Tuesday 27 March at 9.30pm on SBS.Swiss vocalist Lys Assia, best known as the First Lady of Eurovision has died, aged 94.

Assia won the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest in Lugano, in her native Switzerland, in 1956. She performed the two Swiss entries in that first contest, the winner being the second one, titled Refrain.

During her long and successful career, she performed for Queen Elizabeth II, the Egyptian King Faruk and Eva Peron. She was also involved with many charitable events all over the world. Born Rosa Mina Scharer in 1924 in Rupperswil, in the North of Switzerland, the artist who we would get to know as Lys Assia started her career as a dancer, but soon turned to singing, achieving her biggest hit in 1950 with O Mein Papa.

She returned to the contest again in 1957, placing eighth of ten acts, and in 1958, when she placed second. There were other attempts to return but she did not win local Swiss finals.

She remained a loyal supporter of the contest, being a guest of honour in many occasions, like in Gothenburg in 1985 when Eurovision was celebrating its 30th edition.

In Stockholm, just days before the city hosted the 2016 contest, she took part in a special meet and greet event for fans and press, where she shared her memories in a variety of languages -she was fluent in at least six- and took pictures with every single person who asked.

Very sad news: Lys Assia, first winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, passed away. We will miss her. https://t.co/X270MtvCkH  Jon Ola Sand (@jonolasand) March 24, 2018

Source: Eurovision, WiwibloggsA letter written by Jewish groups has accused Jeremy Corbyn of not being able to change his thinking on Israel. Corbyn's far left thinking influences his attitude towards Jews and he is so entrenched in those views that there is no way back for him.

The letter directly attacks Anti-Semitic elements in the Labour party. The letter will be delivered to the Labour party, whether they be MP's or grassroots members.

Jewish groups are also angry with Mr Corbyn for admiring a mural by artist Mear One. The mural depicts Jewish businessmen ruling the world through finance.

Mear One when the mural was displayed back in 2012 admitted his mural would cause offence.

Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn is to meet Jewish groups to build bridges between the Labour party and the Jewish Community.

Mr Corbyn: For Palestine

It is on record that Mr Corbyn has a fondness for Palestinian self-determination and has attended many rallies over the years supporting the right of the Palestinian people to have a state of their own.

Unfortunately, some have pointed to his words about Hamas being his friends as evidence he supports terrorism.

Whatever you think of Mr Corbyn the Palestinians do have a right to self-determination.

Anti-Zionsim does not equal Anti-Semitism!

In the letter mentioned in this article, Mr Corbyn is considered a figurehead for Anti-Semites.

While there are certainly grounds for that, not every Anti-Zionist is against the Jews. Jews it has to be said have suffered terribly through the years because of pogroms and the holocaust. It seems many Jews and non-Jewish supporters of Israel, however, think the country can do no wrong. It also seems Israel supporters turn a blind eye when it comes to the suffering of Palestinians perpetrated by Israel.

Israel's government today has some decidedly nasty individuals in its cabinet like Avigdor Lieberman. Mr Lieberman has said some very some disturbing things about the Palestinians in the past. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also been accused of extreme nationalism bordering on Fascism. If Israel today is behaving like an apartheid state and acts out of all proportion when dealing with Palestinians you can still support Israel but condemn it surely.

Every time Israel is attacked for its actions up comes the Holocaust. The thing is though, Zionism itself has been accused of fascistic-like doctrines and it is easy to see why. The policies of Israel today are driven by Zionism in how Israel acts towards the Palestinians. It matters not what party rules Israel Labour or Likud the policies are the same. The illegal settlement of the West Bank, the barrier wall, the blockading of Gaza and the killing of thousands of Palestinians since 1948 all bear this out. The latest policy not helping Israeli-Palestinians relationships is Trump moving Israel's capital to Jerusalem (probably this May). Of course, Israelis have died too in the conflict but not in the numbers Palestinians have.

Many Zionist Christians support Israel because they see the Jews as still being God's chosen. As a Christian myself but of the non-Zionist variety I politely disagree with them. They need to remember Jesus was for everyone not just Jews as we go into this Easter weekend.In what is shaping up to be the biggest gun control protest of the 21st century, hundreds of rallies for stricter gun control laws have been held across the United States. The March For Our Lives has attracted some famous faces, which has upped its media exposure, so this could bring about some real legislative change. The movement was created after the deadly school shooting that took place in Florida back in February.

School shootings had become something of a regular occurrence in America. They were taking place more or less every week and it had come to be seen as the norm.

The US government werent facing any flak for it and they were getting away with having gun laws that were far too loose, because they kept justifying mass shootings as being the price of freedom. But then the students who survived the Parkland school shooting decided that wasnt on and started the #NeverAgain movement and organised the March For Our Lives protests in order to bring on the necessary change.

Some of the survivors of the Sandy Hook shooting  the elementary school massacre in which 27 people were killed back in 2012  turned out at the March For Our Lives rallies to protest the gun laws in America that have allowed for all of these mass shootings to take place.

Matthew Soto, the brother of one of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, said at one of the rallies, America, I am pleading with you to realise this is not okay.

The power of silence

Emma Gonzalez, one of the students who survived the Florida school shooting, was met with chants of Emma, Emma, Emma when she took the podium at one of the nationwide marches.

Speaking at the Washington DC rally, Gonzalez gave the March For Our Lives protests one of their most emotionally charged and poignant moments when she listed the 17 people who were killed by the gunman at her high school, before falling totally silent.

After a few minutes of complete silence, an alarm went off and Gonzalez turned it off and announced that six minutes and twenty seconds had passed  the exact amount of time that the mass shooting incident at her school lasted for.

11-year-old Naomi Wadler also elicited a strong audience response at the March For Our Lives as she took to the podium to acknowledge and represent the African-American girls whose stories dont make the front page.

Wadler worries that African-American girls in the media become simply statistics and dont get remembered for the vibrant, beautiful girls who are full of potential that they are. Wadlers message has been inspiring the nation, and has become one of the most publicised moments from the March For Our Lives protests. This is great, because it shows that her message is starting to work already. Shes an African-American girl on the front page!

Martin Luther Kings granddaughter echoed his iconic I have a dream... speech

Yolanda Renee King, the nine-year-old granddaughter of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr., also appeared at the rally to speak, and she too has a dream. Her grandfather made massive strides in the fight for desegregation and an end to racism in the 1950s and 1960s and he was a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement before he was assassinated. One of the most memorable and iconic moments from MLKs activist career was his I have a dream... speech.

The younger female King has a dream, too. She announced, I have a dream that enough is enough. She told the crowd that they needed to spread the word all across the nation, which was met with roaring applause.

She said, That this should be a gun-free world  period. This is a nine-year-old child and shes making more sense than the elected officials in Congress who make the laws and run the country. This is madness.Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures as he delivers a speech during the 121st founding anniversary of the Philippine Army (PA) at Taguig city, Metro Manila, Philippines March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

Thomson Reuters

MANILA (Reuters) - Some rights groups may have become "unwitting tools" of drug lords in the Philippines to undermine the president, his spokesman said on Monday, a statement that Human Rights Watch said was "shameful" and risked provoking violence.

Rights groups have denounced President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs in which thousands of people have been killed, either by police or by shadowy, unidentified gunmen.

Duterte, who says he must be tough to protect the people from the scourge of drugs, has criticized rights groups saying they were "trivializing" his campaign and unjustly blaming the authorities for bloodshed.

Drug lords have suffered huge financial losses since the campaign was unleashed 20 months ago and drug syndicates were trying to destabilize the government, the president's spokesman, Harry Roque, said in a statement.

"We therefore do not discount the possibility that some human rights groups have become unwitting tools of drug lords to hinder the strides made," Roque said, without naming any rights group.

Roque said attacks on the president's war on drugs had been "vicious and non-stop", echoing comments by Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano last week after he defended the policy at a U.N. human rights council meeting in Geneva.

Roque did not offer any evidence to support the suggestion that rights groups were being used by drug lords.

The anti-narcotics campaign has raised international alarm and drawn criticism from some U.N. representatives, including High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, who suggested recently that Duterte needed to see a psychiatrist.

Police say they have killed more than 4,200 drug suspects who were violently resisting arrest since the launch of the crackdown, which Duterte has vowed to pursue until he steps down in June 2022.

Several thousand more people have been killed by unidentified gunmen. Police suspect many were victims of gang wars though activists believe vigilantes supporting the government campaign were responsible for many of the killings.

Story continues

Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, criticized Roque's statement, and the earlier comment from Cayetano, as "shockingly dangerous and shameful".

"Are they trying to have death squads target human rights activists?" Adams asked in a statement.

"Cayetano and Roque provide no evidence. They should withdraw their comments immediately."

Presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said the Human Rights Watch's call for Cayetano and Roque to withdraw their statements was "misplaced".

Duterte said on March 14 the Philippines would pull out of the International Criminal Court more than a month after court prosecutors opened a preliminary inquiry into his drug war.

Panelo said Duterte felt the ICC had become "a tool of oppression, a tool of harassment".

(Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Robert Birsel)

See Also:FILE PHOTO: Jakarta's Christian governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (L), popularly known as Ahok, speaks to his lawyers after his sentencing during the guilty verdict in his blasphemy trial in Jakarta on May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Bay Ismoyo/Pool/File Photo

Thomson Reuters

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the Christian ex-governor of Jakarta to review his conviction for insulting Islam, a court spokesman said on Monday, so the politician will serve out his two-year sentence.

A lower court jailed Basuki Tjahaja Purnama for blasphemy last May after a doctored and incorrectly subtitled video spread on social media that appeared to show him insulting the Koran.

At the time, Purnama, who is popularly known as Ahok, was popular and looked set for re-election to govern the capital of a country with the largest Muslim population in the world. But Islamists led mass rallies calling for him to be unseated and hardline groups urged voters to elect a Muslim rival instead.

Purnama lost the election, was jailed and filed for a judicial review of his case last month.

"All the reasons for the appeal put forward by Ahok's team were rejected by the judge," said court spokesman Suhadi. He did not explain the court's reasoning further.

The person who doctored the video was imprisoned for 18 months late last year when a court found him guilty of violating information technology laws and Purnama's lawyers tried to use this to argue his conviction was flawed.

Indonesia is a secular state with a Muslim majority and several religious minorities but the case of Purnama, who is ethnic Chinese, and the rise of hardline Muslim groups casts doubt on the country's reputation for tolerance and diversity.

(Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

See Also:* New (KOSDAQ: 160550.KQ - news) clothing boss Jill McDonald makes mark

* Jill Stanton named womenswear and kidswear director

* Wes Taylor named menswear director

* Queralt Ferrer, Belinda Earl step down (Adds detail, McDonald quotes, shares)

LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - British retailer Marks & Spencer said on Monday it was shaking-up its clothing and home leadership team, with Queralt Ferrer, its womenswear and lingerie design director, and Belinda Earl, its style director, both stepping down from their roles.

The moves follow the appointment in October of Jill McDonald, the former boss of bikes to car parts chain Halfords, as its clothing and home managing director.

Reporting to Chief Executive Steve Rowe, McDonald has been tasked with delivering the sustained sales and profit growth that has eluded Britain's biggest clothing retailer for a decade.

She (Munich: SOQ.MU - news) has decided to merge the retailer's womenswear and kidswear teams "in a move to attract more families to M&S", appointing Jill Stanton to the new role of womenswear and kidswear director.

Stanton, formerly of Next (Frankfurt: 779551 - news) , Dewhirst, Nike (Sao Paolo: NIKE34.SA - news) and most recently Old Navy, will start in July.

M&S also named Wes Taylor, Burton's managing director for 11 years, as its new menswear director, starting in May.

"Were crystal clear on the challenge. We must become more relevant to more people offering the right products at the right prices to appeal to our core customers and attract new ones," said McDonald.

Ferrer, design director since 2015, is moving to Amsterdam to be with her family, while Earl, style director since 2012, is stepping down from her commercial role but will continue to work in an advisory capacity.

M&S also said Michael Kerr, currently menswear and kidswear director, was leaving the retailer after 35 years.

It said Laura Charles has been promoted to the new position of lingerie director, while home director Neil Harrison will also take on responsibility for beauty.

Story continues

M&S re-set its strategy in November, two months after retail veteran Archie Norman joined as chairman.

The firm said it would speed up store closures, accelerate the relocation and downsizing of other stores, and reposition its food offering.

Last week M&S replaced food boss Andy Adcock with Steinhoff UK executive Stuart Machin.

This year it has also detailed changes to its technology function, clothing and home logistics and food marketing.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in M&S, which have fallen 19 percent over the past year, were little changed at 1445 GMT. (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Sarah Young and Mark Potter)SKOPJE, March 26 (Reuters) - Macedonia said on Monday it would expel a Russian diplomat from the country over the poisoning in Britain of a Russian former double agent that the British government has blamed on Moscow.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that the decision was taken in consultation with "our allies and partners, the EU and NATO", and in solidarity with Britain.

Macedonian membership of NATO and the EU is being blocked by Greece because of a decades-long dispute over the former Yugoslav republic's name.

After the announcement, the Russian embassy in Macedonia tweeted: "This exceptionally unfriendly step that has no justification has no precedent in Russian-Macedonian relations. The full responsibility for the consequences lies entirely with the Macedonian side." (Reporting by Kole Casule; Writing by Ivana Sekularac Editing by Catherine Evans)By Antonio De la Jara

SANTIAGO, March 26 (Reuters) - Workers at Antofagasta PLC (Other OTC: ANFGF - news) 's Los Pelambres copper mine in Chile (Stuttgart: 704599.SG - news) reached agreement on a new labor contract, defusing the risk of a strike, the union said on Monday.

Workers in the mine's largest union had last week rejected an offer for a new labor contract, triggering a period of government mediation and raising the spectre of the first-ever strike at a mine owned by Chilean miner Antofagasta.

The new contract, agreed upon by 82 percent of union members, includes a signing bonus of $30,500 per worker, and an average salary increase of 3 percent.

"After six months of negotiations, we've reached a satisfactory deal. All of the conditions and benefits we obtained are above market-average," said Sergio Munoz, president of Los Pelambres' largest union of workers.

Antofagasta did not immediate reply to requests for comment.

Los Pelambres, which recently received environmental approval for a $1.1 billion infrastructure upgrade plan, produced 356,300 tons of copper last year.

Chile is the world's top copper producer. (Reporting by Antonio De la Jara, writing by Dave Sherwood Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)The criminal organisation hacked into over 100 financial institutions in 40 countries

A cybercrime mastermind who remotely instructed ATMs across Europe to dispense cash to waiting gang members has been arrested.

The criminal organisation hacked into over 100 financial institutions in 40 countries and caused cumulative losses of more than 1bn (872m).

After infecting the financial institutions' computer networks through spear phishing attacks against their employees, the group arranged for thousands of ATMs across Europe to dispense cash to waiting money mules.

It also used the e-payment network to directly transfer money out of the victim organisations and into criminal accounts.

In some cases, the criminals modified databases with account information to show certain bank accounts with inflated balances - with money mules again being used to collect this cash.

The leader of the organised crime group, whose has been identified as Ukrainian and is known only as Denis K, was arrested in Alicante by the Spanish national police after an international investigation coordinated by Europol.

The range of countries affected by the malware. Pic: Europol

Alongside the mastermind, the hackers who had written the two strains of malware in the attacks - known as Carbanak and Cobalt - as well as the mule networks and the money launderers, were also arrested.

The Ukrainian cyber police have released an image of a man whom they identify as being part of the international hacking group.

In a statement, the agency said that it believes it has identified all of the members of the group and they are believed to be in the territory of the Russian Federation.

A picture of a 'Cobalt' group member released by the Ukrainian cyber police

Wim Mijs, chief executive of the European Banking Federation, said: "This is the first time that the EBF has actively cooperated with Europol on a specific investigation.

"It clearly goes beyond raising awareness on cybersecurity and demonstrates the value of our partnership with the cybercrime specialists at Europol.

"Public-private cooperation is essential when it comes to effectively fighting digital cross border crimes like the one that we are seeing here with the Carbanak gang."

Story continues

After taking the money, the cybercrime group converted the cash into cryptocurrencies, according to Europol.

The cryptocurrency was used to purchase assets including properties and vehicles in Spain.

Steven Wilson, the head of Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), said: "This global operation is a significant success for international police cooperation against a top level cybercriminal organisation.

"The arrest of the key figure in this crime group illustrates that cybercriminals can no longer hide behind perceived international anonymity.

"This is another example where the close cooperation between law enforcement agencies on a worldwide scale and trusted private sector partners is having a major impact on top level cybercriminality."FILE PHOTO: Skyscrapers stand at sunset in the city of London's financial district in London, Britain February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo

By Emma Rumney

LONDON (Reuters) - The prospect of quitting the EU has hurt sentiment in Britain's finance industry for longer than the global financial crisis that plunged economies into recession and destroyed some of the world's biggest banks, a survey found on Monday.

The quarterly poll of 81 finance firms by business lobby CBI and accountancy PwC found optimism dropped to levels not seen since the 2007-9 crisis and that the declines have been more sustained.

This was despite firms reporting growing business volumes and increased employment in the quarter to March, and that they planned to grow headcount further in the next three months.

"Financial services firms have performed well over the last three months, with business volumes and employment on the up and beating expectations," said Rain Newton-Smith, CBI chief economist.

"But there is no escaping the rather large elephant in the room," he added, referring to Brexit.

While a transition period agreed between London and the European Union had bought firms more time, the government still has to protect the sector's world-leading status when Britain exists the bloc, Newton-Smith said.

London's access to EU markets when the transition period ends in 2020 is still uncertain and EU officials have rejected calls for a deal that maintains the terms finance firms enjoy today.

The survey's measure of optimism among the firms was -17 percent in January-March, up from -22 percent in the three months to December 2017 which was the lowest since the -34 percent seen in March 2009. The index fell to -59 at its worst during the financial crisis.

The number is calculated by measuring the difference in percentage points between firms that reported increased optimism and those that reported it decreased.

It was the eighth quarter of falling optimism in the last nine quarters and marked two straight years of negative sentiment - longer than what was seen over 2007-9, when gloom in the industry lasted for seven consecutive quarters.

Story continues

PwC's head of financial services Andrew Kail said as well as Brexit, firms were grappling with high levels of competition, changing consumer behaviours, rapid technological change, new regulation, and trying to manage costs.

"... Collectively, it is denting confidence about the future," he said.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria should press Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday on its claim for compensation for the descendants of Bulgarians who fled Turkey 100 years ago, its president said.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov will meet Erdogan ahead of a European Union-Turkey summit in Bulgaria later on Monday but has not said if he will raise the historic grievance.

The summit is being held on what Bulgaria marks as Thrace Day, remembering the more than 250,000 Bulgarians who fled their homes in Eastern Thrace after the Second Balkan War in 1913 when the Ottoman Empire reclaimed some territories lost in 1912-1913 in the First Balkan War.

Thousands of Thracian Bulgarians were killed and organisations representing refugees' descendants say Turkey owes them around $10 billion for properties their ancestors left behind. There are between 800,000 and 1 million descendants of the refugees from 1913.

President Rumen Radev said Bulgaria should not miss the opportunity to press Erdogan.

"I expect Bulgaria not to remain in the role of a host. I hope that the prime minister will raise the issue of Turkey's non-interference in our internal affairs... and also the compensation of the Thracian refugees," he said.

The Socialist party (BSP), Bulgaria's largest opposition party, also called on Borissov to raise the issue, saying: "Bulgaria's role as a mediator between Europe and Turkey must not be at the expense of its national interest."

Bulgaria says Turkey recognised its claims in a friendship treaty signed in 1925.

During a previous meeting with Borissov, Erdogan said that measures would be taken "if it is proven that our country has to pay out compensations over the properties of the Thracian refugees."

(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)By Shu Zhang and Ryan Woo

BEIJING (Reuters) - Guo Shuqing, head of China's new regulator for the banking and insurance sectors, has been appointed the Communist Party chief and deputy governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), official publication Financial News reported on Monday.

As PBOC party chief, Guo will exert the widest influence at one of the world's most powerful central banks, which unlike its peers in some countries is not fully independent. Its decision-making is broadly subject to the political influence of the Communist Party and the government.

Sources had told Reuters on Sunday that an announcement on Guo's appointments was imminent.

Having the same person serve as both the PBOC's party chief and a deputy governor is unusual in China and has surprised economists and financial markets.

As PBOC's party chief, Guo outranks new PBOC Governor Yi Gang politically, but as a vice governor he is one step below him.

For 15 years, Zhou Xiaochuan, Yi's mentor, had served as both PBOC's governor and party chief. Guo himself is both chairman and party head of the newly established China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).

Both men will support Liu He, China's new vice premier and a key economic adviser and trusted ally to President Xi Jinping, to push the central government's development and reform agenda.

"Liu He is actually the one who outlined the big theme in terms of economic and financial policies. Both Guo and Yi will be implementing this economic policy outline," said Betty Wang, senior China economist at ANZ in Hong Kong.

Guo's unique role will allow him to coordinate policymaking and implementation between PBOC and CBIRC, and help advance Beijing's financial reforms, sources said.

As PBOC's party boss, he will ensure the central bank is aligned with the Communist Party's agenda, which puts the party at the core of China's economic leadership, sources said.

Story continues

Guo is a full member of the Communist Party's Central Committee, the largest of the party's elite ruling bodies, while Yi is an alternative member.

However, Yi is still expected to be in charge of the PBOC's day-to-day operations, sources said.

Yi, a U.S.-educated economist, 21-year central bank veteran and previously Zhou's right-hand man, will be able to ensure the consistency of monetary policy, sources said.

Simultaneously holding the positions of party boss and deputy ministerial head is not without precedent in China. Zhang Yesui is currently party chief of the foreign affairs ministry and a vice foreign minister at the same time.

But the economy and the party have become more intertwined since a party congress in October when President Xi Jinping consolidated his grip on power. Party control is deemed necessary to help push reforms through a massive bureaucracy and into action on the ground.

SUPER-REGULATOR

The top-level arrangement of Guo and Yi's positions is expected to improve inter-agency coordination in China's monetary and financial policymaking process, and close regulatory loopholes as authorities work to contain systemic financial risks, sources said.

China's regulators are trying to rein in risks from an increasingly complex financial system and a rapid build-up in debt without jolting markets or hurting economic growth.

The new leadership team is also facing pressure to follow through on China's long-standing pledge to further open its financial sector to foreign investors as the U.S. steps up pressure on China for what it calls unfair trade practices.

President Xi has made it clear that financial security is key to China's national security, and control of financial risks is a top government priority.

Economists and regulators say the previous regulatory regime was too fragmented to curb such risks, especially shadow banking and excessive financial leverage.

Speculation that Beijing was considering creating a super financial regulator had been rife since the Chinese stock market crash of 2015, blamed in part on poor inter-agency coordination.

Last year, China created the Financial Stability and Development Committee (FSDC) under the State Council, giving it a higher political ranking than the various government ministries already involved in financial oversight.

The committee has its office installed at the central bank and has the authority to supervise and question financial regulators and local governments.

REGULATORY WINDSTORM

Guo has developed a reputation for being willing to take tough and aggressive action, and his appointment at the central bank comes after China earlier this month revealed its biggest government structural overhaul in years.

Guo only returned to Beijing last year to helm the banking watchdog, which has since merged with the insurance regulator.

As head of China's previous banking regulator he started what was dubbed a "regulatory windstorm", implementing a flurry of new measures to tackle the sector's most complex problems.

During his 17 months as chief stock market regulator from 2011 to 2013, Guo drew up 80 new policies, fought widespread insider trading, advocated reform of the initial public offering system, promoted the delisting of loss-making firms, and boosted the participation of foreign investors.

Guo was once a PBOC deputy governor in the early 2000s, overlapping with Zhou. Guo also previously served as China's top foreign exchange regulator.

(Reporting By Shu Zhang and Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Elias Glenn and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill)By Douglas Busvine

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Anyone tempted to #DeleteFacebook after the personal data of millions of users fell into the hands of a political consultancy is still likely to be monitored by the social network, which tracks nearly 30 percent of global website traffic.

And Google <GOOGL.O>, in various guises, shadows 64 percent of all web-browsing worldwide, a recent study https://www.ghostery.com/lp/study of 200,000 German users by Cliqz, using its anti-tracking product Ghostery, said.

Neither Facebook nor Google responded to emails asking whether they viewed the Cliqz research as representative.

A larger study https://webtransparency.cs.princeton.edu/webcensus of web trackers by researchers at Princeton University in 2016 produced similar results, with Google Analytics and other Google trackers taking the top five places, followed by Facebook <FB.O>.

Cliqz, majority owned by German publisher Hubert Burda Media and backed by Mozilla, creator of the Firefox browser, is one of several startups that promises to protect personal data.

"We prevent companies like this from spying on you," chief executive Marc Al-Hames told Reuters.

From private browsers like Cliqz to anti-trackers and ad blockers, such firms seek to shield users from intrusion. Mainstream providers in Europe are also trying to differentiate themselves by stressing privacy.

"Every time there is a scandal like this at the U.S. companies it boosts our business," Ralph Dommermuth, founder and CEO of Germany's United Internet <UTDI.DE>, told Reuters. The company offers encrypted email services, hosted in Germany under its strict privacy laws, and does not sell users' data.

United Internet and others recently formed a 'Login Alliance' offering a single, secure way for their 50 million users to give consent in compliance with new European Union privacy rules that enter into force in May.

That contrasts with rampant use in the past of Facebook Login by companies to tap personal data.

Story continues

VOLCANIC ERUPTION

Privacy advocates have warned for years that Facebook's terms of use left it open to data harvesting.

Psychologist Aleksandr Kogan collected data on 50 million Facebook by creating a personality quiz taken by a few hundred thousand people. In consenting to its terms, they let the app collect information on their Facebook 'friends' - without their knowledge or consent.

The U.S. academic passed that data to Cambridge Analytica, which applied data science and psychographic profiling to back Donald Trump's election campaign - violating Facebook's rules.

"It's the volcano that was going to erupt at some point - we just didn't know when," Ben Williams, director of communications and operations at Germany-based Adblock Plus, said.

AdBlock Plus has 100 million users seeking protection from ads such as auto-play videos. It is not a privacy product as such, although users can tweak settings to increase protection.

Most people do not mind normal search advertising, but object to intrusive third-party ads, Williams said.

LOSS OF FACEBOOK

The Facebook leak shows that the data should never have been collected, Cliqz's Al-Hames said:

"We should all be outraged but nobody should be surprised. Everybody who has data will eventually lose that data."

Cliqz has an icon that shows how many private data points trackers are trying to access when you visit a site.

Its anti-tracking feature substitutes private data with random information to throw them off your trail, while there is also an anti-phishing feature to thwart data theft.

Cliqz does store browsing history at the 'edge' - on desktops and smartphones  and uses this to personalize search.

Without giving direct access, it also lets firms use that information to target adverts using its MyOffrz https://myoffrz.com/en product in a way that complies with the new EU privacy rules.

"We can deliver a targeted ad - but it doesn't mean that there is information about you on our servers," Al-Hames said.

Cliqz has around half a million active users, while Ghostery, the browser extension that monitors which web servers are being called from a given page, has around 7 million users.

(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Alexander Smith)Donald Trump expels 60 Russian diplomats in response to Salisbury spy poisoning

Dozens of Russia diplomats have been expelled by the US and Britains allies in Europe in a co-ordinated response to the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal.

Boris Johnson hailed the moved as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever and said it proved Moscow could no longer act with impunity.

Donald Trump kicked off the extraordinary day of action by announcing the United States is to kick out 60 Russian envoys. Soon after, 17 EU countries confirmed they had expelled an additional 30 officials.

Moscow has denied any responsibility for the Salisbury incident on March 4, following accusations from Theresa May in Parliament. Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, remain in critical condition after they were exposed to a military grade nerve agent.

The US expulsion follows the UKs decision to expel 23 Russians, prompting Moscow to retaliate by ordering out the same number. A source told Russian news agency RIA that the Kremlin will carry out a similar tit-for-tat response, adding: We will work on it in the coming days and will respond to every country in turn.

France, Germany and Poland have each expelled four, while Lithuania and the Czech Republic expelled 3 and the Netherlands, Denmark and Italy expelled two. Sweden, Romania, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary and Latvia all expelled one diplomat each and Ukraine, a non-EU country, has expelled 13.

A tent covers the park bench where former Russian intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found after they were poisoned, in Salisbury (Reuters)

Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevicius specified that his government had expelled Russian intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover.

It comes after EU leaders agreed last week that there was no plausible alternative explanation for the Salisbury incident than Russian responsibility.

The expulsions were welcomed by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who said on Twitter: Todays extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever & will help defend our shared security. Russia cannot break international rules with impunity.

Story continues

Todays extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever & will help defend our shared security. Russia cannot break international rules with impunity  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 26, 2018

European Council president Donald Tusk confirmed that 14 EU states were expelling Russian diplomats in the wake of the nerve agent attack.

Writing on Twitter Mr Tusk said: Today 14 EU Member States decided to expel Russian diplomats as direct follow-up to #EUCO discussion last week on #SalisburyAttack.

Additional measures including further expulsions are not excluded in coming days, weeks.

Today 14 EU Member States decided to expel Russian diplomats as direct follow-up to #EUCO discussion last week on #SalisburyAttack. Additional measures including further expulsions are not excluded in coming days, weeks.  Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) March 26, 2018

Czech Foreign Minister, Martin Stropnicky, said he had given Russian diplomats and their families five days to leave the country. The Netherlands have given the two diplomats theyre expelling two weeks to leave the country.

Latvian foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics said: Coordinated action by the European Union member states and United Sates to regarding #SalisburyAttack shows strong transatlantic cooperation to fight hybrid-warfare and to strengthen our common resilience.

While the EUs ambassador to Russia, who was recalled from Moscow as part of sanctions, arrived in Brussels and had his first meeting about the situation with EU high representative yesterday.

The US has also ordered the Seattle consulate to be shuttered in response to the UK spy case.

The US has condemned Russia following the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal

A statement from the White House Press Secretary said: Today President Donald J. Trump ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian intelligence officers from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing.

The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom.

Senior Trump administration officials said the expelled Russians include 12 spies who the US believes are working under diplomatic cover at Russias mission to the United Nations.

MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO

Officials added that the actions are being taken to send a message about the unacceptably high number of Russian spies in the US and to respond to the attack in the UK.

The statement adds: With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners me clear to Russia that its actions have consequences. The United States stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian governments behaviour.

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the US.Jewish leader have launched a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn (Rex)

Jeremy Corbyn is facing accusations that he sided with anti-Semites again and again, in an extraordinary attack on his leadership.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council sent a scathing open letter to the Labour leader after he said he was sincerely sorry for the pain caused by pockets of anti-Semitism within Labour.

And on Monday, Jonathan Goldstein, the chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, increased the pressure and accused Mr Corbyn of being the figurehead for an anti-Semitic political culture based upon an obsessive hatred of Israel.

What reignited row?

Mr Corbyn had been faced with pressure over the weekend after it emerged he posted a Facebook comment in 2012, offering a show of support for the painter of a mural at the centre of an anti-Semitism row whose controversial street art was about to be painted over.

Very powerful letter by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Jewish Leadership Council on Labour anti-Semitism row. pic.twitter.com/RF83xuORyZ  Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) March 25, 2018

I asked the Leaders Office for an explanation about this Facebook post first thing this morning. Im still waiting for a response. pic.twitter.com/DL8ynBtES4  Luciana Berger (@lucianaberger) March 23, 2018

He later said he sincerely regretted not looking properly at the deeply disturbing and anti-Semitic picture before telling Mear One he was in good company among artists who had work removed.

His later apology made no reference of his own remarks that triggered the latest controversy.

Enough is enough

Jewish leaders have now taken aim at Mr Corbyn personally, saying he is repeatedly found alongside people with blatantly anti-Semitic views but claims never to hear or read them.

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MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO

The organisations plan to protest outside Parliament before delivering an open letter to a meeting of Labour MPs and peers at which concerns about anti-Semitism are expected to be raised  although Mr Corbyn will not attend.

In their letter they said: Today, leaders of British Jewry tell Jeremy Corbyn that enough is enough.

They said there was a repeated institutional failure to properly address Jewish concerns and to tackle anti-Semitism.

They stated: We conclude that he cannot seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities.

The British Jewish leaders statement said: When Jews complain about an obviously anti-Semitic mural in Tower Hamlets, Corbyn of course supports the artist.

Hezbollah commits terrorist atrocities against Jews, but Corbyn calls them his friends and attends pro-Hezbollah rallies in London. Exactly the same goes for Hamas.

They added: Again and again, Jeremy Corbyn has sided with anti-Semites rather than Jews.

The Labour leader apologised for pockets of anti-Semitism in Labour (Rex)

At best, this derives from the far lefts obsessive hatred of Zionism, Zionists and Israel.

At worst, it suggests a conspiratorial worldview in which mainstream Jewish communities are believed to be a hostile entity, a class enemy.

The statement said Jews faced fundamental anti-Semitic slurs in Labour meetings or online forums on a daily basis and rightly or wrongly, those who push this offensive material regard Jeremy Corbyn as their figurehead.

He was the only person with the standing to demand that all of this stops.

Join us tomorrow. Join in solidarity. Join us. pic.twitter.com/9sFRc1jXvV  JewishLabourMovement (@JewishLabour) March 25, 2018

On Monday, Mr Goldstein told the Today programme on BBC:

The reality is that there are no safe spaces online or in meetings for Jewish people within the labour party. Wherever we go we are told that we act on the instructions of Israel, that ISIS is a fake front for Israel and that zionists are the new nazis.

This is the first time in my lifetime that the jewish community has felt the need to campaign against the leader of a major political party. And rightly or wrongly Jeremy Corbyn is now the figurehead for an anti-Semitic political culture. Based upon obsessive hatred of Israel, conspiracy theories and fake news. And that is doing great harm, not just to the Labour Party but to Britain in a wider sense.

What has Corbyn said

While the Labour leader did not make any reference to the criticism aimed at him personally in his statement, he acknowledged that Labour must demonstrate a total commitment to excising pockets of anti-Semitism that exist in and around our party.

The Labour leader said he would meet representatives from the Jewish community over the coming days.

Mr Corbyn said: Labour is an anti-racist party and I utterly condemn anti-Semitism, which is why as leader of the Labour Party I want to be clear that I will not tolerate any form of anti-Semitism that exists in and around our movement. We must stamp this out from our party and movement.

We recognise that anti-Semitism has occurred in pockets within the Labour Party, causing pain and hurt to our Jewish community in the Labour Party and the rest of the country.

I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused.

Labour MPs shame

Labour MPs Ian Austin and Wes Streeting said they were ashamed of the way the partys relationship with the Jewish community had deteriorated.

Former Cabinet minister Yvette Cooper said Mr Corbyn should apologise for his own actions.

She told Channel 4 News: I think that it would be right for Jeremy to give a full apology for the comments that he made.

I ask every Labour MP and member to read this statement and reflect upon it. Many of us have warned of the crisis of confidence in the Labour Party among Britains Jewish community. What will change? What action will be taken? Enough is enough. https://t.co/BraHKUPn4T  Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) March 25, 2018

A truly terrible day when @BoardofDeputies & @JLC_uk feel the need to write such a letter. No one in @UKLabour should try & minimise or downplay this. I will be showing my solidarity in Parliament Square tomorrow. https://t.co/ynDw8GWhAY  Liz Kendall (@leicesterliz) March 25, 2018

I am ashamed that the leadership of one of Britains communities is so appalled at the state of our party that it has come to this.

Ill be in Parliament Square tomorrow to say #EnoughIsEnough and to demand this is finally sorted out https://t.co/FBWlTMG8ji  Ian Austin (@IanAustinMP) March 25, 2018BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebel factions are blaming each other for opening the way to their defeat near Damascus, underlining splits that plagued the armed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad since its earliest days.

The rivalry between the factions of eastern Ghouta - Failaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam - had led to the effective partition of the enclave since 2016 and fuelled bouts of deadly violence that played to the government's advantage.

Their rivalry has at some points mirrored tensions between their regional sponsors: Saudi Arabia, which has backed Jaish al-Islam, and Qatar, which supported Failaq al-Rahman.

With the help of Russian air strikes, the army has waged one of the most ferocious offensives of the war to recapture eastern Ghouta, killing more than 1,600 people since Feb. 18 according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Still, in media comments late on Sunday, the groups laid blame on each other for speeding up the government's advances.

The Jaish al-Islam military spokesman, in an interview with al-Hadath TV, said Failaq al-Rahman had rejected a proposal to mount a shared defence of Ghouta and accused it of cutting water supplies needed to fill defensive trenches.

"These trenches dried up which sped up the regime's advances," said Hamza Birqdar, the spokesman.

The Failaq al-Rahman spokesman told the same TV station that Jaish al-Islam had staged a weak defence of the enclave, which advancing government forces split into three separate pockets.

"Failaq al-Rahman was stabbed in the back ... via the frontlines that Jaish al-Islam was supposed to be at," said Wael Olwan, Failaq al-Rahman's Istanbul-based spokesman.

A Syrian official said the "conflict between the terrorist groups" in eastern Ghouta was one of the factors that had helped the military "achieve what it has achieved in a short space of time".

It echoes a pattern at other key moments in the seven-year-long war: rebels blamed each other as government forces and Iran-backed Shi'ite militias thrust into opposition parts of eastern Aleppo, won back by Assad in 2016.

Story continues

Thousands of Failaq al-Rahman fighters, accompanied by their families, are leaving their zone of eastern Ghouta in a negotiated withdrawal to insurgent territory in northern Syria.

Jaish al-Islam says it is holding out in its part of the enclave in the eastern Ghouta town of Douma. Assad's Russian allies said on Monday that Jaish al-Islam fighters were also ready to lay down their arms and leave, which the group denied.

Rebels who have left eastern Ghouta so far have gone to Idlib, an insurgent-held region at the Turkish border. Idlib has also been blighted by fighting between the dominant faction - fighters formerly affiliated to al Qaeda - and other rebels.

The fragmented state of the anti-Assad armed opposition has been seen as one of its critical weaknesses since the start of the conflict, which the UK-based Observatory says has killed half a million people since 2011.

Russian and Iranian military backing for Assad has also far outstripped support that had been offered to rebel groups from foreign states including Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

In addition to their foothold in the northwest, anti-Assad rebels still hold a chunk of territory at the frontier with Jordan and Israel, and small enclaves near Damascus, Homs and Hama.

(Reporting by Tom Perry and Ellen Francis; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Peter Graff)Famed Venezuelan orchestra Jose Abreu, who founded the renown El Sistema, a project that brought thousands of Venezuelan children out of poverty through music, died at the age of 79 on Saturday.

Abreu's death was announced by Venezuelan newspaper El Universal, where he is known in his home country as "El Maestro," who left behind an exceptional legacy.

Described by many as a charismatic and humble leader who put his life work into what he called a "human development" project, Abreu created El Sistema, or The System, in 1975 with just 11 people in a garage. From the very first rehearsal, he knew the weight it would carry.

Trending: Japan's 'Slowest Rollercoaster' Derails And Stops Midride, Passengers Didn't Even Notice

"I told those first 11 members of the orchestra that we were creating the beginning of a network that would eventually turn Venezuela into a musical power by rescuing children from low-income families," said in an interview with The Guardian back in 2012.

The program currently includes more than 900,000 children and is taught by 10,000 teachers in Venezuela.

It transformed how musical education was brought to Venezuela's poor youth that has since won international acclaim and become a model program for several other countries.

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"We know that the efforts we put into it are not enough, given the size of the challenge ahead. But this is our dream. And we will keep fighting for it, every day," Abreu said in the interview.

Abreu was born in the Venezuela city of Valera on May 7, 1939 where music ran in his blood. He began studying music at the age of 9 and from there boosted a career which included an economist and also a stint in politics as a member of parliament.

Through his teachings, he inspired musicians for the next generation and beyond.

Most popular: Fake Photo of Emma Gonzalez Slammed as Bid to Discredit March For Our Lives

Story continues

Upon Abreu's passing, one of his most beloved students, Gustavo Dudamel, a Venezuelan conductor who is currently the Los Angeles Philharmonic director, paid a tribute to his teacher with a picture that said, "with devoted love and eternal gratitude to my mentor and father of El Sistema."

Venezuelan Education Minister Elias Jaua hailed the famed Maestro on his Twitter: "Thanks to Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu for his beautiful legacy for the boys, girls and young people of Venezuela."

The Venezuelan people that you so loved today are crying for you Maestro, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said in a statement reported by the Washington Post. We are comforted by knowing that your legacy will remain alive in the hands and voices of the children of the youth orchestras. Maduro also said there would be three national mourning days for Venezuela for Abreu's passing.





This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekVILNIUS (Reuters) - Lithuania said on Monday it would expel three Russian diplomats in response to a nerve agent attack in England which the British government has blamed on Moscow.

Lithuania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would also ban a further 44 people from entering the country after the attack in Salisbury on March 4. Russia has denied involvement in the attack.

Several other countries have also expelled Russian diplomats.

"By expelling persons who engaged in activities incompatible with their diplomatic status, the countries are expressing their solidarity with the United Kingdom and seeking to take action against Russia's spy networks in Europe," the ministry said in a statement.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas; Editing by Simon Johnson and Gareth Jones)CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians began voting on Monday in an election set to give President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former armed forces commander, a second four-year term. Polls will be open for three days.

Sisi first came to power after ousting Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in 2013, two years after the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled several veteran Arab leaders including Egypt's Hosni Mubarak.

Here is a timeline of events surrounding Egypt's 2011 uprising and the years that have followed:

2011

Jan - Protests erupt across Egypt against President Hosni Mubarak, demanding accountability and democracy. Security forces kill hundreds of people in clashes that follow, and the military mobilises amid unrest.

Feb - Mubarak steps down after 18 days of protests and violence, and the military takes control.

2012

Nov 2011 to Jan 2012 - Islamists win parliamentary elections called by Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The Muslim Brotherhood forms the largest bloc.

June - Egypt's first free presidential election, in which 13 candidates compete, goes to a run-off between Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi and former prime minister and air force commander Ahmed Shafik.

Mursi wins with nearly 52 percent of the vote.

Nov - Mursi retires top military commanders and appoints General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as minister of defence and military commander-in-chief.

Dec - Mursi pushes through a new constitution in a controversial referendum that leads to clashes between Islamists and their opponents.

2013

June - Wide protests break out against Mursi's presidency, demanding his removal and complaining of poverty and instability.

July - The military, led by Sisi, overthrows Mursi, who is arrested alongside other Brotherhood leaders.

Aug - Hundreds of Mursi supporters shot dead by security forces in two Cairo protest camps in what human rights groups call the worst massacre in Egypt's modern history.

2014

July - Sisi elected president with almost 97 percent of the vote on promises of stability and improving a struggling economy.

Story continues

Nov - Militants in Sinai pledge loyalty to Islamic State, effectively setting up an Egyptian branch of the violent jihadist group based in Iraq and Syria.

2015

June - A bomb attack blamed on Islamist militants kills Egypt's chief prosecutor in Cairo. Attacks by militants in the coming years increasingly target civilians, including Christians, as well as security forces.

2016

Nov - Egypt secures a $12 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund and devalues its currency, leaving most Egyptians worse off in austerity measures aimed at improving the economy in the long term.

2017

March - Mubarak is freed after six years of detention and cleared of charges including corruption and the killing of protesters in 2011.

Nov - Islamist militants kill more than 300 people at a mosque in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt's deadliest such attack.

2018

March - Sisi seeks second term in election where he stands against only one candidate after all serious challengers are forced to halt campaigns or withdraw, citing intimidation.

(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein, John Davison; editing by David Stamp)The Russian ambassadors to Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have been summoned to the foreign ministries of those countries, according to Russian media.

The RIA news agency cited a spokesman for the Russian embassy to Poland, and a representative of the embassy in Lithuania. TASS referred to unnamed diplomatic sources. The agencies did not give a reason for the summoning.

All four countries are members of the EU. The bloc recently recalled its ambassador to Moscow for consultations in the wake of the Sergei Skripal poisoning, after EU leaders said there was no plausible alternative explanation for the use of novichok nerve agent in Salisbury other than its deployment by the Russian government.

Along with Ireland and France, the four were thought to be considering the expulsion of Russian diplomats.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the attack earlier this month, which also left a police officer seriously ill and forced a number of other bystanders to seek treatment.

Last week in a joint statement, the European Council said it agrees with the UK governments assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation is responsible.

Member states will coordinate on the consequences to be drawn in the light of the answers provided by the Russian authorities. The European Union will remain closely focused on this issue and its implications, it added.

Theresa Mays spokesman said on Monday morning that other countries actions towards Russia following the attack were a matter for them, but welcomed the support shown at last weeks summit.

The UK has expelled a number of Russian diplomats. A plane carrying more than 20 diplomats and their families left Stansted last week after Ms May said they were undeclared intelligence officers.

Additional reporting by agenciesZAGREB, Croatia (AP)  Thousands of Croatia's far-right supporters are marching in downtown Zagreb to protest an international convention they say indirectly legalizes gay marriages and gives rights to transgender people.

The protesters are singing patriotic songs and chanting slogans against Croatia's center-right government for approving the so-called Istanbul convention that was adopted by the European Council in 2011 but still hasn't been ratified by Croatia's parliament.

Croatia's conservative opposition and the Catholic Church  the organizers of Saturday's protest  say they are for combating violence against women and domestic violence, which is the main point of the convention, but are against its alleged introduction of "a third gender" into society.

Since joining the European Union in 2013, Croatia has been drifting toward the conservative far-right.

See Also:Facebook has come under fresh pressure after the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced an investigation into the social network.

The company's stock was down by as much as 6% in Monday trading after the latest development following the disclosure that the data of 50 million users fell into the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

Shares briefly dipped below $150 for the first time since July 2017.

That left the company's market value more than $100bn lower than ten days ago, when reports began to surface about Cambridge Analytica's use of data in Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign.

However, the shares later fought back to end the session slightly higher, amid a wider Wall Street rally.

The FTC's bureau of consumer protection said, in a statement by its acting director Tom Pahl, that it "takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook".

"Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices," Mr Pahl said.

The regulator said that past settlements by companies that had faced FTC action included orders imposing privacy and data security requirements.

Reports had previously surfaced last week that it was investigating Facebook, but the watchdog had not confirmed this until now.

In the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office has also launched an inquiry.

Both Cambridge Analytica and Facebook deny any wrongdoing.

Facebook also faces rising discontent from advertisers and users, with US car parts retailer Pep Boys on Monday suspending all advertising on the social network, following a similar move from internet company Mozilla last week.

Last week, UK advertisers' body ISBA said it had a "constructive and challenging" meeting with the tech giant after it raised concerns over the disclosure.

ISBA said it welcomed the steps Facebook had taken to address these concerns.

Story continues

Over the weekend, Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said he expected there were other companies alongside Cambridge Analytica which may have abused their access to large amounts of the social network's data.

Facebook said it was investigating "every single app that had access to large amounts of data" belonging to its users.

A poll on Sunday by Reuters found that fewer than half of Americans trusted it to obey privacy laws.In February 2018, after almost seven years of conflict in Syria, government forces launched an offensive against opposition-held areas to the east of the capital city, Damascus.

Storyful has documented the impact of the fighting on the region and its citizens over a number of years. Using satellite imagery, open source tools, and content from eyewitnesses, media activists, and official sources, the destruction caused by both government and opposition forces becomes clear. Credit: Storyful News via StoryfulRussian President Vladimir Putin is trying to divide Britain from its allies, according to Britain's defence secretary.

Gavin Williamson, who is in Tallinn, Estonia, said the world's patience was wearing thin with Mr Putin and his actions - just hours before the US, Canada and the EU announced a coordinated mass expulsion of Russian diplomats.

He said the world was united behind the British in a "powerful message to the Kremlin".

The Russian government hit back, saying Britain's accusations over the nerve agent attack on a former spy in Salisbury "border on banditry".

Moscow said it would retaliate to the worldwide expulsions in kind in due course.

"The response will be symmetrical. We will work on it in the coming days and will respond to every country in turn," a source told Russian news agency RIA.

Mr Williamson said the universal backing for Britain was in "itself a defeat for President Putin".

"The world's patience is rather wearing thin with President Putin and his actions, and the fact that right across the NATO alliance, right across the European Union, nations have stood up in support of the United Kingdom... I actually think that is the very best response that we could have," he said.

"Their (the Kremlin's) intention, their aim is to divide and what we are seeing is the world uniting behind the British stance and that in itself is a great victory and sends an exceptionally powerful message to the Kremlin and President Putin."

:: 'Russia's novichok programme exists, I worked on it'

Mr Williamson arrived in the Estonian capital on Sunday for a two-day visit to see British troops who are based there as part of a NATO mission in the Baltic states to deter Russian aggression.

He addressed the troops with his Estonian counterpart, Juri Luik, who said Estonia was prepared to stand by the UK just as the UK had stood by his country.

Poland's counterintelligence agency, ABW, revealed on Monday it detained a Polish official on Friday called Marek W, over suspicions he collaborated with Russian intelligence services, sending them information about investments integral to Poland.

Story continues

Mr Williamson has been vociferous in speaking about Russian involvement in the attack on double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on 4 March.

Earlier this month he said Russia should "go away and shut up" when asked how the Kremlin should respond to 23 of its diplomats, thought to be spies, being expelled from the UK over the poisoning.

He said: "What we will do is we will look at how Russia responds to what we have done. It is absolutely atrocious and outrageous what Russia did in Salisbury. We have responded to that.

"Frankly, Russia should go away and should shut up."

He accused Russia of "ripping up the international rulebook" to subvert other countries as it continues to increase military expenditure despite its flailing economy.

The police officer who was also in hospital with the Skripals after being affected by the nerve agent was discharged on Sunday.

On the same day the EU's diplomatic chief, Federica Mogherini, held crisis talks with the bloc's Moscow ambassador, Markus Ederer, after he was recalled to Brussels over the Skripals' poisoning.

Before the weekend the EU's 27 leaders unanimously backed the UK's assessment that the Kremlin was to blame for the Wiltshire attack.

Last week, chemical weapons inspectors arrived in Salisbury to inspect the scene where the Skripals were found slumped on a bench, as well as all the places they had recently visited.

The inspectors were given permission by a London court for blood samples to be taken from the Russian father and daughter so they could confirm the conclusion which the Porton Down military research laboratory came to; that a Soviet-era nerve agent called novichok was used.Copper and gold exploration company SolGold announced on Monday that its Alpala drilling programme has discovered strongly mineralised extensions.

With 11 of the 12 drilling rigs engaged in the programme at the Alpala cluster on the Ecuadorian Cascabel project, infill drilling within the high grade core is predicted to significantly increase the high grade resource tonnage.

SolGold holds an interest in the site through its 85% interest in Cascabel tenement owner Exploraciones Novomining S.A.

Nick Mather, chief executive of SolGold, said: "Rapid developments in block-cave mining efficiencies would further enhance the economic outlook for Alpala. We note, encouraging improvements in Capex, Opex and value for Newcrest's Wafi-Golpu block cave project in PNG, which augers well for the upcoming assessment of the Alpala Project."

Elsewhere on the Cascabel project, drilling at the Aguinaga prospect with the single onsite rig not engaged at Alpala has intersected a quartz diorite intrusion containing porphyry-style veins, visible chalcopyrite and trace molybdenite and bornite mineralisation from 295.3m depth.

SolGold said in a statement that the intersection indicates a significant width to the mineralising system.

The quartz-diorite intrusion is thought to represent the same intrusion that hosts the mineralisation discovered on the surface, which returned open-ended rock-saw channel sample results of 9.0m at 1.01% Cu, and 0.79 g/t Au.

"The early intersection of strong porphyry style veining and strong visible copper sulphide mineralisation confirms Aguinaga as an important second resource target at Cascabel. The diagnostic relationship between magnetic, geochemical, resistivity and chargeability data suggests that Aguinaga may represent a significant copper gold porphyry system with the potential to deliver a step-change to the magnitude and value of the Cascabel project," said Mather.

As of 0859 GMT, SolGold PLCs shares were up by 1.04% at 22.33p.Kerry Williams, chief operating officer of consumer credit reporting agency Experian , disposed of more than 55,000 ordinary shares in the Dublin-based firm on Monday, collecting a total of $913,099.15 in the process.

Williams, a member of Experian's board since July 2014, sold 55,857 of her shares in the group on the London Stock Exchange with a price tag of $22.57 attached to each one.

Earlier in March, Experian announced its intention to acquire fintech group ClearScore for a total of 275m as part of a move to capitalise on the start-up's success in matching members lured-in by its free membership model before being matched with financial products providers that pay it a fee.

Less than a week after the ClearScore announcement, San Diego City attorney Mara Elliott filed a lawsuit against the consumer credit giant, saying that the company had suffered a massive data breach, affecting more than a quarter of a million people in San Diego alone, and millions more worldwide, but hade never told its customers about it.

Elliott's lawsuit seeks civil monetary penalties under California's Unfair Competition Law, as well as a court order compelling the firm to formally notify consumers whose personal information was stolen and to pay costs for identity protection services for those people.

As of 1620 GMT, shares had lost 1.95% to 1,510.50p.

Top Director Buys

Horizon Discovery Group (HZD)

Director name: Milner ,Jonathan

Amount purchased: 304,000 @ 161.70p

Value: 491,568.00



Getech Group (GTC)

Director name: Stephens,Peter

Amount purchased: 250,000 @ 26.50p

Value: 66,250.00



Hollywood Bowl Group (BOWL)

Director name: Schofield,Ivan

Amount purchased: 18,400 @ 197.50p

Value: 36,340.00



Ms International (MSI)

Director name: O'Connell,Michael

Amount purchased: 15,381 @ 190.00p

Value: 29,223.90



Tp Icap (TCAP)

Director name: Perkin ,Roger

Amount purchased: 5,000 @ 462.68p

Value: 23,133.80



Hollywood Bowl Group (BOWL)

Director name: Schofield,Ivan

Amount purchased: 6,600 @ 197.50p

Value: 13,035.00



Soco International (SIA)

Director name: Watts,Mike J

Amount purchased: 9,206 @ 93.80p

Value: 8,635.23



Soco International (SIA)

Director name: Brown,Jann M

Amount purchased: 9,206 @ 93.80p

Value: 8,635.23



Centrica (CNA)

Director name: Pusey,Stephen

Amount purchased: 1,720 @ 136.10p

Value: 2,340.92



Menhaden Capital (MHN)

Director name: Pearce,Howard

Amount purchased: 3,000 @ 69.75p

Value: 2,092.50



Centrica (CNA)

Director name: Valle,Margherita D.

Amount purchased: 1,456 @ 136.10p

Value: 1,981.62



Vectura Group (VEC)

Director name: Derodra,Andrew

Amount purchased: 209 @ 72.00p

Value: 150.48



Tesco (TSCO)

Director name: Lewis,Dave

Amount purchased: 68 @ 201.79p

Value: 137.22



Tesco (TSCO)

Director name: Stewart,Alan

Amount purchased: 68 @ 201.79p

Value: 137.22





Top Director Sells

Experian (EXPN)

Director name: Williams,Kerry

Amount sold: 55,857 @ $22.57

Value: $913,099.15



Derwent London (DLN)

Director name: Burns,John David

Amount sold: 1,124 @ 3,027.00p

Value: 34,023.48



Derwent London (DLN)

Director name: Silver,Simon P

Amount sold: 964 @ 3,027.00p

Value: 29,180.28



Derwent London (DLN)

Director name: Wisniewski,Damian

Amount sold: 716 @ 3,027.00p

Value: 21,673.32



Derwent London (DLN)

Director name: Williams,Paul M.

Amount sold: 716 @ 3,027.00p

Value: 21,673.32



Ms International (MSI)

Director name: O'Connell,Michael

Amount sold: 10,670 @ 189.60p

Value: 20,230.32



Derwent London (DLN)

Director name: Silverman,David

Amount sold: 337 @ 3,027.00p

Value: 10,200.99



Derwent London (DLN)

Director name: George,Nigel Q

Amount sold: 337 @ 3,027.00p

Value: 10,200.99



Pets At Home Group (PETS)

Director name: Stonier,Louise

Amount sold: 4,077 @ 169.03p

Value: 6,891.15



Pets At Home Group (PETS)

Director name: Stonier,Louise

Amount sold: 2,013 @ 168.72p

Value: 3,396.33



Damille Investments Ii Ltd (DIL2)

Director name: Prosser,Richard John Stobart

Amount sold: 355 @ 93.59p

Value: 332.26



Uber has agreed to sell its south-east Asia operations to local rival Grab for an undisclosed sum as it continues to retreat from the region.

Singapore-based Grab currently operates in the largest 195 cities of south-east Asia and has approximately 5m daily users. Its app for smartphone already has 90m downloads

The transport company announced on Monday that it would be be buying Uber, with the combination of businesses, Grab will become the first mobile online-to-offline platform in South East Asia and one of the main competitors in the food delivery business, it said in a statement.

The countries included in the operation are: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malasia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Although the price of the deal wasnt made public, both companies agreed that Uber will keep 27.5% of Grabs shares and that Ubers chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi will be a member of Grabs board.

Even so, the move means another retreat from Asian operations for Uber since it already sold its China business to local company Didi Chuxing in 2016.

Uber's Khosrowshahi said the deal would "help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology".

Regarding the withdrawal of another sector of their international operations he said: "One of the potential dangers of our global strategy is that we take on too many battles across too many fronts and with too many competitors.Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is set to face a German judge on Monday after his arrest on Sunday.

Puigdemont was also facing his possible extradition to Spain after a new European arrest warrant was issued by the central government in Madrid on Friday.

The Spanish Supreme Court reactivated the arrest warrant on Friday, while the former Catalan president was in Finland.

Puigdemont was arrested in Germany on 25 March as he was travelling from Finland to Belgium, where he was granted political asylum back in October and where he has been residing since then.

His arrest on Sunday triggered protests in Spain's region of Catalonia, which resulted in the arrest of nine people by the Mossos dEsquadra with another 100 people being injured.

On Monday, the German judge will confirm his identity with the court then set to decide whether he is to remain in custody for later extradition to Spain. The court has 60 days to decide whether to proceed with the euro-warrant.

Under German law, rebellion is not deemed a crime, but Puigdemont was also facing a possible sentence for "high treason" against the state and the constitutional order which could result in a 25-year prison sentence.Goldman Sachs has been downgraded to 'sell' by Berenberg as the German bank indicated its belief that the investment banking behemoth's stock is now overvalued and that it could face structural headwinds in 2017.

With Goldman having shot up 38% versus the S&P 500 since Donald Trump's victory in the US election last November, Berenberg lowered its recommendation from 'hold', but increased its 12-month target price to $190.00 from $140.00.

Banking stocks in the US have rocketed since Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the election, pushing the three main US indices to record highs. Investors were spurred on by Trump's promises to cut regulations for businesses and boost the US economy.

However, Berenberg believes that all the good news has already been priced in for one of Wall Street's most powerful banks.

"When we initiated on the US banks last July we flagged selling into significant strength in share prices," analyst James Chappell said.

"While we did not anticipate US bank share prices to be as strong as they have been over the past few months, we do think the moment to sell has come."

The bank reiterated its belief that Goldman is still the premier investment bank, but "structural headwinds" will become too great over the next 12 months.

"We believe GS is the leading investment bank due to its risk focus and ability to adapt. However, we do not believe it can fight the structural headwinds we see in the sector that will cause revenues to continue to fall by 4-5% pa."According to sources close to the White House, the President has debated doing away with the chief of staff role altogether, instead opting to absorb the responsibilities of the job by having aides report directly to him rather than somebody in a gatekeeper position.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said: "I see him as the hub with a number of spokes coming out, and candidly, and I'm not advocating for General Kelly to leave. I think he should stay. But if he were to go, I don't think there is one person who is the chosen one to step in and fill that role."

The move could see President Trump running the West Wing in a similar manner to how he ran his business empire in the past, or adopting staffing structures similar to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter.

Steve Bannon, Trumps former chief strategist, said: "I've actually argued that if General Kelly at any time does decide to leave - (or) the president decides its time for him to move on - I dont believe there will be another chief of staff, I think there will be five or six direct reports like there was in Trump Tower."

The topic, which NBC News initially reported on, now appears to have been tabled by the President.

The news comes after another chaotic period in Trumps tenure as president, with a slew of high profile departures from the administration over the past few weeks.

So far in March, Rex Tillerson was dismissed as Secretary of State, economic advisor Gary Cohn left his post after tendering his resignation and Trump announced the replacement of his national security advisor HR McMaster via twitter.

Communications director Hope Hicks and attorney John Dowd have also featured amongst the latest to exit the administration.Cost, efficiency, results and success. A majority of investors lose money with trading (high frequency trading), according to recent studies by regulators such as the CNMV. Only a few win. What if the operations of the best could be followed? The Internet allows access to the collective intelligence of a community of users, where expert investors usually coexist, or are better informed, with other newcomer investors.

Social trading - which is defined as the operation of imitation or copying from the operations of a community on the Internet - is an investment discipline that seeks to reproduce that model and make the profits of the best investors available to any investor. Short-term. One of its great advantages is that it reduces the learning curve of the most novice investors, whose rate of 'mortality' (losses) in short-term operations is very high if they invest at their own risk and without advice.

One of the variants of social trading is the imitation of the best traders wallets. This can only be done with guarantees within an online community that allows sharing the composition of purchases and sales of shares publicly. But the best way to replicate a portfolio is to do it automatically and copy it directly.

A good example is the social network for eToro traders, which has more than five million users around the world and allows access to specialized users in almost any asset, track their operations history, performance and copy their movements. The 'online' platform has a unique function of duplicating the wallets of another user, which makes it possible to become both a leader of a group of users or 'follower' of another with a little more than a click.

A study by Yaniv Altshuler and Alex Pentland, researchers at Medialab at MIT, has found the benefits of aspiring to the "wisdom of the crowd" when it comes to trading on the stock market. "An efficient community of social trading can balance the complex mix of followers of 'tendencies' and 'viscerality' that governs the behavior of the masses." In the social network eToro, for example, the allocation of investments can be diversified among different traders, eliminating the higher volatility of the most aggressive users and offsetting the risk with other more conservative ones.

*Cryptocurrencies can fluctuate widely in prices and are therefore not appropriate for all investors. Trading cryptocurrencies is not supervised by any EU regulatory framework. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Trading history presented is less than 5 years and may not suffice as basis for investment decision. Your capital is at risk.The White House Diplomatic Room was opened up Friday afternoon at the request of the president to make remarks about the signing of the omnibus budget bill. President Trump addressed the fact that the Congress and Senate wrote a bill and passed it without the benefit of anybody reading the massive document, just to get it done. He regrettably signed the omnibus budget bill out of a sense of duty to keep America safe and to lessen our national security. He stated the fact that for the last eight years defense has been deeply cut, leaving our military in a weak state.

Strengthening military

Facing opposition from Democrats and some Republicans to create a stronger military in order to keep America safe, he felt signing the omnibus budget bill was necessary to help complete his military end goals. The bill has provided an increase in defense spending, $655 billion, which will be used for a well deserved major pay increase for the troops and funding for much-needed military equipment. The President revealed the way funding will be spent:

$23.8 billion to procure 34 Navy ships;

$10.2 billion for 90 F-35 aircraft;

$2.9 billion for 15 KC-46 tanker aircraft;

$1.8 billion for 24 FA-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft fighter jets;

$1.7 billion for 10 P-8;

$1.1 billion for 56 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters;

$1.1 billion for the upgrade of 85 Abrams tanks, and

A large portion will be used to upgrade to our nuclear systems.

Secretary of Defense Mattis, noted that this was the largest military budget in history and thanked the American people and Congress for providing the funds.

President Trump continued his remarks by stating that $1.6 billion, which he called short-term funding, was given for the border wall and homeland security. Although he initially stated he wanted $25 billion in the omnibus budget bill for the wall and border security. He said that work would begin immediately on repairing existing walls and fences.

Some of the funding would go to hiring more immigration judges at the district and federal levels of the court system.

Congress not listening

At this point, Secretary of Homeland Security Nielsen spoke on how the funding is providing a 10 percent increase which will help upgrade aviation security. Secretary Nielsen expressed a disappointment that Congress did not listen to what was told them by DHS and the hard-working people on the front lines.

But assured all that they would continue to work with Congress to increase security for all Americans.

Never again

President Trump went on to talk about our tremendous opium problem. The bill allows for $6 billion to be spent on addiction programs and research on pain medicines that are not addictive. He repeated his great disappointment with the writing of this bill and told Congress he will never sign another one like it. (White House report).scheana marie and Robby Hayes have been spending time together since the "Vanderpump Rules" star split from her former boyfriend, Robert Parks-Valletta, in August of last year. However, they haven't yet confirmed that they are dating. Instead, they continue to fuel the rumors by flirting with one another online and recently told fans they were enjoying a Date Night in Los Angeles.

On March 21, the Daily Mail shared a report with readers in which it was revealed that the two reality stars looked quite cozy with one another during their latest outing and even commemorated the evening with a sweet kiss from Hayes to Scheana Marie.

"Date night," she declared in a social media clip.

As the Daily Mail revealed, Scheana and Hayes have both denied that they are an official couple in the past but when it comes to the "Vanderpump Rules" star's latest social media post, she now seems to be hinting at the opposite. As for Hayes, he's stayed silent on his own social media pages, choosing to share mainly solo shots of himself.

Scheana Marie has been single for seven months

On the currently airing sixth season of "Vanderpump Rules," Scheana has been seen gushing over her now-ex-boyfriend Robert Parks-Valletta and claiming they are in love with one another. However, while she told the cameras that she and the actor were on the hunt for a new home and naming their first child, he seemed to be on a completely different page and told Jax Taylor that he wasn't ready to say "I love you" to Scheana after several months of dating.

When Scheana first began dating Robert Parks-Valletta, she was still technically married to Mike Shay. That said, her previous marriage didn't stop her from discussing a potential second marriage with Parks-Valletta, and at one point, she suggested they would be able to get married last July. Unfortunately, their relationship ended just weeks later.

Scheana Marie gushed over Robby Hayes on Instagram weeks ago

As her romance with Parks-Valletta neared its end on the Bravo reality series, Scheana was caught complimenting Hayes on his Instagram page. After the "Bachelor in Paradise" star posed for a photo while wearing a white T-shirt, Scheana shared a comment to him in which she labeled him "handsome." She then posted a photo of the two of them on her page and included a heart emoji.

To see more of Scheana Marie and her love life, tune in to new episodes of "Vanderpump Rules" season six on Monday nights at 9 p.m. on Bravo TV.Since the start of the new year, the drama surrounding the alleged affair between Donald Trump and adult film star Stormy Daniels has dominated the headlines. Following her much-anticipated interview on "60 minutes," Daniels revealed new details that quickly created a buzz on social media.

Not long after the magazine story was killed, Stormy Daniels says she was threatened by a man who approached her in Las Vegas. A guy walked up on me and said to me, leave Trump alone. Forget the story. pic.twitter.com/JMskKQiYCi  60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 25, 2018

Stormy on "60 Minutes"

It all started back in January when the Wall Street Journal broke the news on the alleged affair between Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels that reportedly took place back in 2006, just months after his marriage to Melania Trump.

The report also points to a "hush money" paid to Daniels by Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, of $130,000. The White House has not addressed the issue often, with the president having remained silent as of press time. Daniels' lawyer and Cohen's lawyer have debated the issue on cable news, leading to the "60 Minutes" interview on March 25 broadcasted on CBS.

He was like, wow, you are special. You remind me of my daughter. --Stormy Daniels says of her conversation with Mr. Trump the night they met. pic.twitter.com/Mj52gSoDbH  60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 25, 2018

Sitting down with Anderson Cooper on "60 Minutes," Stormy Daniels opened up about her reported sexual relationship with Donald Trump.

Daniels, then 27, explained that she had unprotected sex with Trump on the night they met, when he was 60 years old, confirming that it was consensual. "He was like, wow, you are special. You remind me of my daughter," Trump alleged told the adult film star on the night they met. Daniels noted that she was not physically attracted to the former host of "The Apprentice," but felt obligated to take part in the affair because she went up to his room alone.

Stormy Daniels says she and Mr. Trump had unprotected, consensual sex in his hotel suite the night they met. She says they only had sex one time. She was 27; he was 60.  60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 25, 2018

When asked about another time she was alone with Trump, Daniels spoke about how she got out of an attempt of sex by Trump.

"He made me sit and watch an entire documentary on shark week. He came and sat next to me and touched my hair, and put his hand on my leg and referenced back (to the previous sexual encounter) about how great it was," Daniels told Anderson Cooper on "60 Minutes," before explaining how she changed the subject and quickly left. Daniels then cited back to an incident with a man in a parking lot who threatened her to keep quiet. "I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter, she said, claiming the man told her to "forget the story," noting he added, "Thats a beautiful little girl. Itd be a shame if something happened to her mom."

Mr. Trumps attorney says the $130K he paid was not a campaign contribution, but Trevor Potter, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, disagrees. pic.twitter.com/Qxigc4R1l2  60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 25, 2018

Twitter responds

With Stormy Daniels speaking out about her relationship with Donald Trump, critics of the president decided to voice their opinion on social media.

"Gross--Nothing could be so vomit inducing than s*x with Trump. Family values!" one tweet read.

Watching 60 Minutes and Donald Trump is a john who paid #StormyDaniels for sex without a condom. This dude is an embarrassment to the office of the #POTUS Of course he will say it is a lie but that's what he does #StormyDanielsDay  Jazz Johnson (@JazzJohnson10) March 25, 2018

Who says that? And, how is that something to make me feel wanted as a woman? In my entire life I would never ever wanted to be compared to someone's daughter. Incest much?  Christine Richard (@ChristineR825) March 25, 2018

How many times does he tell women that they remind him of his daughter??? Sick!  Arturo Roman (@ArturoR60726789) March 25, 2018

"Who says that?

And, how is that something to make me feel wanted as a woman? In my entire life I would never ever wanted to be compared to someone's daughter. Inc*st much?" one Twitter user added. "How many times does he tell women that they remind him of his daughter??? Sick!" another tweet added. "Watching 60 Minutes and Donald Trump is a john who paid Stormy Daniels for sex without a condom. This dude is an embarrassment to the office of the #POTUS Of course he will say it is a lie but that's what he does," a tweet noted.

Nothing #StormyDaniels will say in that interview will flip his hardcore base. Stop focusing on shit that doesn't matter and focus on stuff that will take him down  Ryan (@TheOhioReview) March 25, 2018

No matter what you think of #StormyDaniels, you cant deny she comes across as very credible in this interview. #StormySunday #StormyDanielsDay #60Minutes  VeryVexingIndeed (@MyPoorNerves__) March 25, 2018

I wonder if he told all the women he slept with that they remind him of his daughter?  HypocrisyWatch (@Hypocrisywatch1) March 25, 2018

"Seeing as how he's always talking to & about his daughter very inappropriately & touches her in a way that fathers DON'T .. no one should be surprised," a follow-up tweet read. "I wonder if he told all the women he slept with that they remind him of his daughter?" a social media user wondered.The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors approved tuition and fees for the 2018-19 academic year.

The board approved a 2.9 percent increase in tuition and mandatory fees for resident undergraduate students for the third consecutive year, which remains the smallest percentage increases at Virginia Tech since 2001-02.

Tuition and mandatory fees for nonresident undergraduate students will also increase 2.9 percent.

Tuition and mandatory fees for Virginia undergraduate students will increase $390, to $13,620 annually, and out-of-state students will pay an additional $894, totaling $31,908 annually.

Room and board charges will increase by 2.8 percent, or $244 per year, to a total of $8,934 annually.

Since 2007, Virginia Tech has assessed differential fees in specific academic programs. These program-specific fees offset higher instructional costs, ensure continued academic program quality, maintain advanced technology, and expand enrollment opportunities in these high-demand programs.

For 2018-19, the university will implement new fees for incoming students in engineering ($2,000 per year), architecture and design ($1,500 per year), building construction ($1,500 per year), business ($75 per credit hour), and agriculture ($750 per year). These fees will apply only to incoming students in these disciplines. Returning students will not experience an increase in their existing program-specific fees.

To offset increases and to support low- and middle-income families who seek a Virginia Tech education, the university will allocate approximately $4.1 million in additional resources  the largest one-year increase in university history  toward financial aid programs next year, raising the total institutional support to more than $51 million for 2018-19.

The demand for a Virginia Tech degree is greater than it has ever been, but we are committed to keeping costs down and providing an affordable, high-quality education for Virginia residents, said Virginia Tech President Tim Sands. Even though we face rising costs, and as we strive to improve our academic quality and implement new, innovative programs, our commitment to make Virginia Tech accessible to all will not change.

Tuition and fees is the primary source of the universitys Educational and General Program (E&G) budget. In the current fiscal year, for example, tuition and fees from both in-state and out-of-state students accounted for $503.6 million (or 72 percent) of the $702.8 million total E&G budget. The state provided $161.7 million (or 23 percent) toward the E&G budget, and an additional $37.5 million (or 5 percent) came from other sources.

Virginia Techs Funds for the Future program protects low- and middle-income students from increases in tuition and fees and provides 100 percent protection for returning students with a family income below $75,000. Returning students with a family income of less than $100,000 are eligible for partial protection from future tuition increases.

The universitys Presidential Scholarship Program will once again provide full four-year scholarships to 85 incoming Virginia students next year, growing the total enrollment in the program to more than 300 students.

Including university-funded support, Virginia Tech undergraduates received approximately $112 million in grant aid and scholarship support last fiscal year.

Virginia Tech will continue to discount undergraduate tuition by 10 percent during the summer session and winter session courses to help students complete degrees at an accelerated pace during nontraditional times.

When adding tuition and mandatory fees with average room and board, the total cost in 2018-19 for a Virginia undergraduate student living on campus will be $22,554 and for a nonresident living on campus will be $40,842.

Next year, tuition and fees for resident graduate students will rise by $438 to $15,510 and for nonresidents by $819 to $29,629.

The total annual cost to Virginia and Maryland veterinary students will be $24,772, an increase of $575, and nonresidents will pay $53,305, an increase of $1,309.

The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, currently an independent entity, approved its 2018-19 tuition and fee amounts at its February board meeting. The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors has ratified those amounts for use by the university upon the planned integration of the medical school as Virginia Techs ninth college as of July 1, 2018.The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine will host the 23rd Annual Meeting for the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE).

The meeting, set for June 7-11, 2019, is expected to draw about 500 basic science and clinical educators from across the globe to Roanoke, Virginia.

As the Virginia Tech Carilion partnership continues to thrive, we are growing our reputation as a destination for science and education professional development opportunities, said Cynda Johnson, founding dean of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. Thanks to all in the community who helped us put together a strong proposal to bring hundreds of medical educators to our small, but growing, city.

IAMSE is a nonprofit professional development society for health professions education. The organization seeks to promote excellence and innovation in teaching, student assessment, program evaluation, instructional technology, human simulation, and learner-centered education.

IAMSE currently represents more than 1,000 medical scientist educators, both basic scientists and physicians, in almost 50 countries. The organization offers programming to advance health sciences education as well as an online peer-reviewed journal.

Richard Vari, senior dean for academic affairs at the VTC School of Medicine, is serving as president of the IAMSE in 2018 and 2019. The school put in a bid to host the conference in 2020, but IAMSE asked if the school could host a year earlier instead.

The event organizers saw the school successfully hosted a large conference a few years ago, the 2015 Collaboration Across Borders conference, which attracted nearly 700 health-care professionals from across North America to Roanoke and felt confident we could accommodate this annual meeting, Vari said. I look forward to bringing my peers to the place Ive called home for the last decade and give them greater exposure to the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and our key partners.

The medical school worked with the City of Roanoke, The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center as the conference host site, other hotels for lodging, and the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport to put together the proposal.

The IAMSEs 2018 Annual Meeting will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 9-12.Vermilion Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of petroleum and natural gas in North America, Europe, and Australia. It owns 81% working interest in 642,300 net acres of developed land and 87% working interest in 376,700 net acres of undeveloped land, and 613 net producing natural gas wells and 3,034 net producing oil wells in Canada; and 96% working interest in 248,900 net acres of developed land and 91% working interest in 222,100 net acres of undeveloped land in the Aquitaine and Paris Basins, and 325 net producing oil wells and 3.0 net producing gas wells in France. The company also owns 49% working interest in 930,000 net acres of land and 51 net producing natural gas wells in the Netherlands; and 36,900 net developed acres and 965,900 net undeveloped acres of land, and 61 net producing oil wells and 8 net producing natural gas wells in Germany. In addition, it owns offshore Corrib natural gas field located to the northwest coast of Ireland; and 100% working interest in the Wandoo offshore oil field and related production assets that covers 59,600 acres located on Western Australia's northwest shelf. Further, the company holds 138,000 net acres of land in the Powder River basin, and 136.6 net producing oil wells in the United States; and 951,200 net acres of land in Hungary, 244,900 net acres of land in Slovakia, and 2.4 million net acres of land in Croatia. Vermilion Energy Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Read MoreActing opportunities grow

Around that time, Hollywood productions began casting Native American actors in Native roles: Will Sampson in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and The Outlaw Josey Wales, Chief Dan George in Little Big Man and Eddie Little Sky in A Man Called Horse. Our numbers began to grow only in the late '60s and '70s, Studi says. Now we have so many capable people who would like to get in the business of show business.

Whats needed for that barrier to come down once and for all is to have Native Americans in positions of power in studios. The only way I can see it happening is to get some of us in there to where we can make some decisions, Studi says. The Indian boarding schools back in the day were run by churches and governments and staffed by non-Natives. As time went on, Native Americans began to staff those organizations, and things changed. And tribal governments have been taken over by real Native Americans over the years, and things have changed for the better. Otherwise, it remains stacked against us.

Studi laughs at the suggestion that he needs to become a superstar, get rich and bankroll his own movie studio. But he agrees that kind of power leads to distribution, which is how movies get to the masses. Otherwise, Native American filmmakers and actors will continue to produce independent films and reach loyal but small audiences. We need distribution  venues to put the film into. We as Native Americans don't have the infrastructure to do that, he says.

Studi took to acting late  his first film role was in a Nebraska TV production. His first big movie was as the toughest Pawnee in the 1990 hit starring Kevin Costner, Dances With Wolves. His most memorable early role was as Magua, the intense Huron warrior in The Last of the Mohicans, the 1992 movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis. He has a long acting resume, including Eytukan, the chief of the Omaticaya clan on the planet Pandora in the blockbuster Avatar.

The Academy Awards come calling

And in March, Studi took on a new role: presenter at the 90th Academy Awards ceremony. While the academy doesn't track its presenters, many reports list Studi as the first American Indian presenter in the show's history. He was asked to introduce the tribute to military veterans with a montage of Hollywood war movies, and he gave a shout-out to Native American veterans in Cherokee at the end.

I think that it was high time that veterans were honored, as well as it was high time the academy had a Native as a presenter, he said. "When we got the invitation to present, I was, like, Oh, wow. It was kind of unbelievable at first.

At the beginning, I was asked to give a sound editing award with Laura Dern. But within a few days, the academy called again and came up with the idea of a tribute to the military. That was probably the result of the talk about [the hashtag] #OscarsSoWhite a few years ago. Organizations like the academy always risk becoming dogmatic in their thinking.

Studi says some people suggested he give the entire tribute in Cherokee, but he didnt think that would work. So I simply added the shout-out at the end, and it got a lot of response.

It was a nice bit of justice, years after his childhood playing cowboys and Indians, to be able to embrace his Native American heritage to Hollywood in front of a worldwide broadcast audience.There are literally millions of older people who are quaking in their boots, afraid that they dont have enough money, says Annamarie Pluhar, the founder of Sharing Housing, an educational organization, and the author of Sharing Housing: A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates.

A cottage industry has sprung up in the last few years to help this demographic find roommates. Companies such as Roommates4Boomers, Silvernest and Lets Share Housing pair renters with homeowners. Silvernest, a Denver-based company, says that 33,000 people have used its nationwide service, which charges users $30.

Utter the word roommate and most people think of college or being in their early 20s, a transient life stage when throwing a good house party was far more important than the quality of ones dining set. Move into a shared home after 50, and the challenges can be daunting. A homeowner may feel possessive of certain belongings or protective of long-held routines, while a renter may feel adrift and powerless.

Sharing housing is not the American dream, says Michele Fiasca, the founder of Lets Share Housing, a roommate search service in Portland, Ore.

Living with another person takes compromise and communication, behaviors that can be hard to practice when you barely know the person in the bedroom down the hall. When Knox began moving her belongings into Khas Tucson house, the two women encountered their first potential conflict: They each had a beloved coffee table, but space for only one.

Kha, as the homeowner, had the power to reject Knoxs table, but such a decision could have consequences. I thought I could win this argument  its my house, its my coffee table, she says. But if I win this argument, I can probably look at my coffee table at an assisted living place.

And so Knox got her table, and Kha got her home.

But the process of negotiation never ends. Knox and Kha go out to dinner once a month to discuss issues that are not working, like how to share the living room when the television is on. On the whole, they get along well; so much so that they now give talks on shared housing.

Not all arrangements run so smoothly. Susan Clark, who lives outside Kansas City, Kan., has been renting a room in her home to various housemates for years, charging between $500 and $700 a month. While some renters made pleasant housemates, others proved difficult. She evicted one man for nonpayment of rent, then took him to housing court. It was a little scary, she says. Others were simply inconsiderate.

They dont realize the value of the house. They dont care if it gets dirty, says Clark, 59, who no longer works because of a disability, and found her current housemate through Senior Homeshares, a nationwide housemate platform in Boulder, Colo. It is kind of frustrating.

To avoid conflicts, home sharing advocates advise people to draw up a housemate agreement, addressing issues such as cleanliness, guests, rent and use of space. A trial period also helps, giving both parties a chance to bow out.

But when the arrangement works, it can be transformative. For Knox, living rent-free has given her a life unencumbered by debt. And for Kha, companionship has allowed her to continue to live at home. Kha recently celebrated a birthday with friends, including Knox. At the party, she asked Knox if she felt like family. Knox didnt hesitate. Absolutely, she said.Household and cleaning products are in an arms race to bring the wonderful smells of the outdoors into your home. Your floors can smell like pine, your laundry like a summer rainstorm. Even trash bags can smell like a field of lavender or a spring breeze.

But those smells could be coming at a cost to your health, especially for the young, elderly, chronically ill or those already suffering from asthma and other respiratory issues.

According to a new study from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), 98 percent of 1,136 adults polled said they are exposed to fragranced products once a week from their own use. Nearly 35 percent said they suffer from some sort of health effect from those products, ranging from headaches to asthma attacks to skin rashes.

The University of Melbournes Anne Steinemann, who wrote the NCBI study, told the Washington Post that most people dont realize they are being affected by fragranced products until its too late.

All fragranced products I tested, she said, emitted chemicals classified as hazardous air pollutants.

The problem has gotten so bad, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created an indoor air quality guide with a section that breaks down what to do when you are working with certain household products indoors.

The guide says air within homes and other buildings can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air in even the largest and most industrialized cities. Other research shows that people spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors  so for many people, the risks to health may be greater due to exposure to air pollution indoors than outdoors.

Cleaning and household products arent the sole reason for the problem, but they are part of the problem, and may become a bigger part.

Labels can add to the confusion. Although unscented and fragrance free sound the same, they mean two different things. According to the EPA, unscented means the product may contain chemicals that neutralize or mask odors of other ingredients. Fragrance free means the product contains no masking materials or scents. The agency's website includes a page showing which products meet its Safer Choice standard, so if certain smells bother you, you can tell which products the EPA designates as fragrance free.

Labels also can be incomplete. The Post notes that, except in California and New York, cleaning products are not required to carry ingredient lists  though some manufacturers, such as SC Johnson and Clorox, are starting to list ingredients on product labels voluntarily.

But be careful if the word fragrance or perfume appears on a list of ingredients. Thats letting you know that chemicals are added to create that lemon-fresh smell.

So does all of this mean you need to sacrifice your health for a clean house? Not at all, but if you really want your house to smell like a spring breeze  without the headache that can go with it  just open a window.Wine Walk showcases downtown businesses

Those who went downtown in Aberdeen Wednesday had the opportunity for both wine and entertainment.Dear J.T. & Dale: I want to switch careers, but nobody will hire me. What can I do?  Ronni

J.T.: When I hear nobody will hire me from clients and dig a little deeper, I usually find an attitude toward careers that amounts to I deserve it just because I want it.

DALE: So youre saying such people are waiting for the new career to find them? That they arent starting a search, but waiting for a rescue?

J.T.: Yes. What anyone wanting to change careers needs to understand is that it requires planning and effort. Getting an employer to hire you when you dont have the exact experience required isnt easy. The burden is on you to show enough value in other ways that teaching you is worth it. Its up to you to figure out what employers value most about what you offer, and then market that to them.

DALE: It makes sense that hiring managers are skeptical. After all, why does someone want to change careers? He or she is bored, tired, miserable  all variations on unhappy. Which leads us to an important principle: NO ONE HIRES UNHAPPY. So you, Ronni, need to do the work of redefining your move as a positive. You didnt give us details on your current career, so lets pick an example. I recently met a young man who switched from managing a health club to running a real estate office. Say thats your goal. Youd need to author a career story that would make sense to the people you want to help you. It might go like this: I love working with people and helping them succeed. And after years in the gym, Im ready to get out and play a new role in helping people. From there, you explain your interest in real estate; then, to J.T.s point, you sell your unique value: I have established relationships with hundreds of people in the community who know and trust me, and I have learned how to motivate people.

If you do so, an outsider can see how the transition makes sense.

J.T.: So you have a story; however, its tough to tell a convincing story in an online application. When people are screening dozens or hundreds of applicants, theyre usually looking for an exact fit. Thats why the successful career changers I know have used networking. They get to know people in the industry they want to work in and have meaningful dialogues to earn their trust and respect. Only then can they ask these networking connections to make introductions, and have the chance to tell the story that makes sense of their new career.

Dear J.T. & Dale: My new boss is very authoritarian, and she changed my job responsibilities from what I was told Id be doing. Should I quit?  Joshua

J.T.: I would never suggest that you quit a job without having a new one, as its much harder to get a job when you are unemployed. Even though the situation isnt your fault, other potential hiring managers will question why you didnt stick it out, and will wonder if youre telling the truth. Instead of quitting, I would have an honest conversation with your boss about why the role has changed, and express your disappointment in not doing what you were hired to do. See if shell give you a reasonable date as to when the role will revert back. If she says she cant, then I would start looking for a new job.

DALE: J.T. has it right: You dont quit; you leave for a better job. And that better job might be right where you are. Its an important career skill to learn how to read a boss and to maneuver successfully into roles that will be of most value to you. Many new bosses feel they have to exercise authority, like the teacher during the first week of class needing to prove how tough she is. So, instead of confronting the boss with your complaints, figure out her goals and priorities. You need to sell your desired role as a solution to her problems, not yours.

Jeanine J.T. Tanner ODonnell is a professional development specialist and the founder of the consulting firm jtodonnell. Dale Dauten resolves employment and other business disputes as a mediator with AgreementHouse.com. Please visit them at jtanddale.com, where you can send questions via email, or write to them in care of King Features Syndicate, 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803. (c) 2018 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Supporters of New Mexicos mock trial competition for high school students say theyre puzzled over why Gov. Susana Martinez vetoed funding for the program in next years budget.

And the future of the 40-year-old competition is now in doubt, they say.

Martinez vetoed a $100,000 appropriation for the program when she acted on the $6.3 billion state budget earlier this month.

In a message to legislators, she wrote that funding for this purpose is generally provided to the Attorney General.

But the Attorney Generals Office didnt receive any money for the program elsewhere in the budget, supporters said.

Instead, the University of New Mexico agreed to serve as the fiscal agent to receive state funding for next years competition. Supporters said they believed the UNM School of Law would be a good fit for handling the money.

State Sen. Steven Neville, R-Aztec, said the program has changed fiscal agents a few times over the years, and the Attorney Generals Office has handled it some years.

In any case, he said, the program is deserving of the money. It helps students build skills in public speaking, analyzing arguments and thinking on their feet, he and other supporters said.

Those kinds of things are good for kids to learn, Neville said, no matter what your vocation is.

A spokeswoman for Martinez wouldnt elaborate on the reason for the veto.

The nonprofit Center for Civic Values, which runs the competition, says other funding will be necessary to keep the event going.

We dont have enough money right now, said Lynda Latta, an Albuquerque lawyer who serves as chairwoman of the centers board.  We have to come up with grants or something, or we will not have a competition next year.

This is the second consecutive year without state funding, and Latta said the organization cannot absorb two years without the funding. The competition didnt receive state money amid New Mexicos budget crisis last year.

The center is seeking donations on its website, civicvalues.org.

This years final competition was held March 16-17. Twenty-seven teams competed, and eight advanced to the finals.

Finalists included teams from Albuquerque Academy, Volcano Vista High School, Pojoaque High School, Albuquerque High School and Atrisco Heritage Academy.

A team from Albuquerque Academy won and will advance to the national competition. New Mexico teams won the national competition in 2012 and 2013.

James Hallinan, a spokesman for Attorney General Hector Balderas, said the attorney general supports Mock Trial and is grateful to the many volunteers and students who participate in the program.Jennie Gonzales is relying on her deep religious faith to carry her through after her 12-year-old daughter was hit and killed Thursday as she and a friend crossed Louisiana.

Eliza Justine Almuina, a sixth-grade student at Cleveland Middle School, walked from school to the grocery store that evening to buy snacks with her close friend Hailie Estrada before an after-hours school carnival. As the girls used a crosswalk at Natalie NE on their way back, Eliza was hit by an SUV. She died hours later in a local hospital.

Police have called Elizas death a tragic accident, and the 76-year-old driver of the SUV has not been charged. An APD spokesman said the driver didnt see the girls as they crossed the street around 5 p.m. after another car stopped to let them by.

Family, classmates, teachers and church members gathered at Stardust Skies Park on Sunday for a candlelight vigil and balloon release in Elizas memory.

Elizas friends, some wearing matching memorial T-shirts, clutched candles as they stood in the center of the crowd and shared memories. They remembered putting on makeup in the school bathroom, forging parent signatures and dancing and taking pictures at school.

Through tears, the girls remembered Eliza as a funny, charming kid with a contagious smile who handed out compliments and was always the brightest light in the room.

She has too many friends, I couldnt keep count, Gonzales told the crowd of around 200 people.

Gonzales said God was the reason she was still standing, and she said she was overwhelmed by the turnout for the vigil.

I know that was all God right there to show the love and the support that we need to stand strong, she said. That was all God.

Attendees brought with them white and pink balloons, some decorated with handwritten messages, We all miss you Eliza and Rest in peace baby girl. And as the event wrapped up, the crowd shouted We love you Eliza before releasing the balloons.

A GoFundMe to help cover funeral arrangements had surpassed its $8,000 goal by Sunday night thanks to contributions by more than 200 people.



A group of interdisciplinary students from the University of New Mexico traveled to Nepal this past December, where they learned to pronounce Siddharthanagar and focused on awareness initiatives as part of the Himalayan Study Abroad Program.

Offered by the Nepal Study Center and the department of economics, the mission of this study abroad program was to build a citizen science initiative, in particular, to develop and implement the Danda Ecological Monitoring Program (DEMP) developed by a series of students in previous economics courses under the centers Sustainable Development Action Lab concept.

Students learned about air pollution, water pollution, weather, river flow dynamics, biodiversity and waste management around the city of Siddharthanagar.

The UNM group met with the mayor of Siddharthanagar and expressed interest to help link the Nepal citizen science program with similar conservation initiatives in New Mexico.

The students also participated in a seminar abroad event with the local students presenting their work.

The group then went on a hill circle tour to observe and experience various sustainable development activities and cultures. They also participated in a community service project that distributed reusable menstruation kits to women in a rural school, grades 10 through 12, and carried out a survey to help identify womens health needs.

DEMP will provide continued community engaged research opportunities for other UNM undergraduate and graduate students in Nepal.

Students from the recent study abroad program also will participate in an undergraduate panel aat the Southwestern Society of Economists annual meeting to present their research and share their experiences.

The study abroad program was co-led by professor Alok Bohara and Michael Benjamin Goodwin, a graduate student in the economics department.

For daily diary and the programmatic details, visit the Lumbini Sustainability website at foxc01.wixsite.com/yogdan/projects.The Daniels Fund has awarded $110,000 in new money for Boundless Opportunity Scholarships available throughout the state, including at UNM and its satellite campuses, NMSU, ENMU, CNM, Santa Fe Community College, NMMI, Northern New Mexico Community College, San Juan College and University of the Southwest.

These scholarships are designed for students who are motivated to create a better life for themselves and their families, and who demonstrate financial need, Daniels Fund officials said in a news release.

(They) give a boost to non-traditional students who are seeking to better their lives with a college education, certificate program, or training program for a high-demand career, said Linda Childears, president and CEO of the Daniels Fund, in a statement.

The targets of the financial aid include adults entering or returning to college, GED recipients, veterans entering or returning to college, former foster care youth, former juvenile justice youth, individuals pursuing paramedic training and individuals pursuing Early Childhood Education certification. Check with the individual schools for specific programs that are eligible.

A full list of schools and the populations they award can be found at DanielsFund.org/Boundless.

Money for these boundless scholarships is awarded for two-year cycles, so scholarships are also available at additional schools that received funding in 2017.

The name of the program came from a quote by founder Bill Daniels who once stated, America remains the greatest nation on earth, where boundless opportunities still exist for each and every one of us, according to a news release.

Since 2003, the Daniels Fund has awarded a total of $17.4 million in Boundless Opportunity Scholarships to nearly 5,900 non-traditional students through colleges and training providers in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

The Daniels Fund was established by cable television pioneer Bill Daniels. It is a private charitable foundation dedicated to making life better for the people of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming through its grants and scholarship programs, and ethics initiative.

Daniels Fund awards $110,000 for scholarships to non-traditional students in New MexicoA student in New Mexico State Universitys Biology Department recently published a paper in Condor  Ornithological Applications, an international scientific journal, about the population ecology of Coopers hawks in urban Albuquerque.

Brian Millsap is a Ph.D. candidate who, since 1978, has worked for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

After three years as the national raptor coordinator for the USFWS, the position he still holds today, Millsap decided he wanted to apply his professional knowledge to obtaining his Ph.D., and has been working with NMSUs Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecologys professor Gary Roemer since 2013.

Focusing on New Mexicos largest urban location, Albuquerque, Millsap and Roemer have been studying the ecology of a relatively new and expanding population of Coopers hawks.

Urban wildlife populations can be sources or sinks, either reproducing and surviving so well that excess individuals  leave to settle in the surrounding natural areas, or doing so poorly that they need constant immigration from outside , Millsap said. Our research has focused on the relationship between the urban Albuquerque Coopers hawk population and the surrounding natural populations in forests along the Rio Grande, and in the nearby conifer woodlands in the Sandia and Manzano mountains.

Millsap has been engaged in this research since 2011, as a USFWS employee and a graduate student with NMSU. The publication details the results of his research from 2011-15 in a 28-square-mile area in northeast Albuquerque, where he monitored the fate of 320 Coopers hawk nests.

The study shows that another bird that colonized urban Albuquerque in the 1980s, the white-winged dove, is an important part of the puzzle, Millsap said. Because of the proliferation of white-winged doves, the city-dwelling hawks have an abundant year-round food source, he said. This turns out to be extremely important, because it allows urban hawks to spend winters in Albuquerque, near their eventual breeding sites. Prey is less common outside the city in winter, and hawks from these areas leave their breeding areas in the fall and migrate south.

Because the urban hawks do not leave, they have an advantage by settling on nesting territories before the migrants return, without having to compete with them. Urban hawks fill nesting slots in town first; those not able to settle in town move into the countryside.

Millsaps research thus far has shown that the urban Coopers hawks are displacing their rural counterparts at nests.

Millsaps article can be found at: http://americanornithologypubs.org/doi/full/10.1650/CONDOR-17-124.1.

We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com.Almost 300 years after her death, the Matriarch of Colonial Pajarito, as she is known, is finally getting the recognition her family says she deserves.

Josefa Baca, a prolific sheep rancher who played a critical role in the founding of Pajarito, a village south of Albuquerque, is now memorialized on a road-side marker erected Sunday with support from the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Committee, the Hubbell House Alliance and Bernalillo County.

She started this whole area called Pajarito and had a huge influence, said Beverly Duran, co-founder of the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative.

According to the marker, Baca was a descendant of Spanish colonists who arrived in the 1600s. She acquired the Sitio de San Ysidro de Pajarito and founded a ranch with nearly 1,000 sheep, horses, cattle and goats before her death in 1746 around age 61.

She was a very strong, strong woman, who had lots and lots of sheep, said Flora Sanchez, a former chair of the Hubbell House Alliance, and one of Bacas descendants. She managed beautifully.

Sanchez said that Baca never married, but she had six children.

Among her descendants is Juliana Gutierrez y Chaves Hubbell, who with her husband, James Lawrence Hubbell, established an extensive ranch that supported a mercantile and post office.

Duran and two other women launched the historic women marker initiative in 2005 after realizing that of the 500 roadside markers spread across the state, not one was dedicated solely to a woman. The group is working to erect 100 signs recognizing the contributions women have made to New Mexicos history.

Baca is the latest woman to be honored. Gutierrez y Chavez Hubbells own marker is close by.

Both markers are located close to the Gutierrez-Hubbell House, home to a museum and functioning farm which hosts workshops and festivities. It is located on Isleta south of Rio Bravo on the historic Camino Real.

The initiative ensures that womens diverse histories will be remembered and told, and will inspire and provide a guide for future generations, according to a news release announcing the new marker. The stories of these women are carved onto official scenic historic markers that are placed along the states roadways and highways in the locations where these inspiring women lived.A top fundraiser for President Donald Trump received millions of dollars from a political adviser to the United Arab Emirates last April, just weeks before he began handing out a series of large political donations to U.S. lawmakers considering legislation targeting Qatar, the UAEs chief rival in the Persian Gulf, an Associated Press investigation has found.

George Nader, an adviser to the UAE who is now a witness in the U.S. special counsel investigation into foreign meddling in American politics, wired $2.5 million to the Trump fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, through a company in Canada, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. They said Nader paid the money to Broidy to bankroll an effort to persuade the U.S. to take a hard line against Qatar, a long-time American ally but now a bitter adversary of the UAE.

A month after he received the money, Broidy sponsored a conference on Qatars alleged ties to Islamic extremism. During the event, Republican Congressman Ed Royce of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced he was introducing legislation that would brand Qatar as a terrorist-supporting state.

In July 2017, two months after Royce introduced the bill, Broidy gave the California congressman $5,400 in campaign gifts  the maximum allowed by law. The donations were part of just under $600,000 that Broidy has given to GOP members of Congress and Republican political committees since he began the push for the legislation fingering Qatar, according to an AP analysis of campaign finance disclosure records.

Broidy said in a statement to AP that he has been outspoken for years about militant groups, including Hamas.

Ive both raised money for, and contributed my own money to, efforts by think tanks to bring the facts into the open, since Qatar is spreading millions of dollars around Washington to whitewash its image as a terror-sponsoring state, he said. Ive also spoken to like-minded members of Congress, like Royce, about how to make sure Qatars lobbying money does not blind lawmakers to the facts about its record in supporting terrorist groups.

While Washington is awash with political donations from all manner of interest groups and individuals, there are strict restrictions on foreign donations for political activity. Agents of foreign governments are also required to register before lobbying so that there is a public record of foreign influence.

Cory Fritz, a spokesman for Royce, said that his boss had long criticized the destabilizing role of extremist elements in Qatar. He pointed to comments to that effect going back to 2014. Any attempts to influence these longstanding views would have been unsuccessful, he said.

In October, Broidy also raised the issue of Qatar at the White House in meetings with Trump and senior aides.

The details of Broidys advocacy on U.S. legislation have not been previously reported. The AP found no evidence that Broidy used Naders funds for the campaign donations or broke any laws. At the time of the advocacy work, his company, Circinus, did not have business with the UAE, but was awarded a more than $200 million contract in January.

The sanctions bill was approved by Royces committee in late 2017. It remains alive in the House of Representatives, awaiting a review by the House Financial Services Committee.

__MEETINGS PROBED

The backstory of the legislative push is emerging amid continuing concerns about efforts by foreign governments or their proxies to influence American politics. While reports about possible Russian links to Trumps campaign and his presidential administration have been making headlines since 2016, questions are now arising about efforts during the Trump era to influence U.S. policy in the Middle East.

The U.S. has long been friendly with Saudi Arabia and the UAE as well as Qatar, which is home to a massive American air base that the U.S. has used in its fight against the Islamic State. But as political rifts in the Gulf have widened, the Saudis and Emiratis have sought to undercut American ties with Qatar.

Qatar and UAE have also exchanged allegations of politically motivated hacks. Scores of Broidys emails and documents have leaked to news organizations, drawing attention to his relationship with Nader. Broidy has alleged that the hack was done by Qatari agents and has reported the breach to the FBI.

Its no surprise that Qatar would see me as an obstacle and come after me in the way it has, he said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Qatari embassy, Jassim Mansour Jabr Al Thani, denied the charges, calling them diversionary tactics. Representatives of the UAE did not respond to requests for comment.

The timeline of the influx of cash wired by Nader, an adviser to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the de facto leader of the UAE, may provide grist for U.S. special counsel Robert Muellers legal team as it probes the activities of Trump and his associates during the 2016 campaign and beyond. However, it is not clear that Mueller has expanded his investigation in that direction.

Muellers investigators are looking into two meetings close to Trumps inauguration attended by Nader and bin Zayed. The pair joined a meeting at New Yorks Trump Tower in December 2016 that included presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon, who was Trumps chief strategist at the time. A month later, Nader and bin Zayed were a world away on the Seychelles island chain in the Indian Ocean, meeting with Erik Prince, the founder of the security company Blackwater, and the Kremlin-connected head of a large Russian sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev.

Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, agreed to cooperate with Muellers team after investigators stopped him at Dulles International Airport, according to a person familiar with his case.

That person and others who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity said they could not be identified because of the sensitivity of the issues surrounding the Mueller investigation.

A lawyer for Nader declined to comment for this story.

__POLICY PUSH

Broidy and Nader first met at Trumps presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Both men have checkered legal histories. Nader was convicted in a Czech Republic court in 2003 of multiple counts of sexually abusing minors. Broidy, a businessmen and prolific Republican fundraiser, was sidelined for a few years after he pleaded guilty to bribery in a case stemming from an investment scheme involving New York states employee pension fund.

Broidy later re-emerged as a player in GOP politics. During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he raised money for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz. After Cruz bowed out of the race, Broidy signed on to help Trump during the 2016 election and beyond, co-hosting fundraisers across the country.

The meeting between Broidy and Nader at the dawn of Trumps presidency soon led the two to work together in an effort to shift U.S. policies on the Middle East.

On April 2, 2017, Nader asked Broidy to invoice his Dubai-based company for $2.5 million, according to someone familiar with the transaction who spoke on condition of anonymity.

On the same day, Broidy attached an invoice for that amount from Xiemen Investments Limited, a Canadian company directed by a friend. The money was forwarded to his own account in Los Angeles from the Canadian account, the person said. It was marked for consulting, marketing and advisory services, but was actually intended to fund Broidys Washington advocacy regarding Qatar, two people familiar with the transaction said. The financial transaction and the White House meetings were first reported by The New York Times.

It was on May 23, 2017, when Royce, a 13-term Congressman, appeared at a conference on Qatars ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and announced that he was introducing the sanctions bill that would name Qatar a state sponsor of terrorism.

The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank that hosted the conference, said Broidy had approached it about organizing the event. Broidy bankrolled that conference and contributed to the financing of a second conference hosted on a similar theme in October by another think tank, the Hudson Institute.

Both organizations said Broidy said that no money from foreign governments was involved. FDD says it does not accept money from foreign governments and Hudson only accepts money from Democratic countries allied with the U.S.

As is our funding policy, we asked if his funding was connected to any foreign governments or if he had business contracts in the Gulf. He assured us that he did not, FDD said in a statement.

Broidy donated millions of his own money to efforts to fight Qatar, in addition to the $2.5 million from Nader, according to someone close to him, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss Broidys private finances.

Broidys behind-the-scenes efforts unfolded as animosity was growing between the UAE and Qatar. These tensions came to a head when the UAE and Saudi Arabia launched an embargo with travel and trade restrictions against Qatar less than two weeks after Royce introduced the sanctions legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Weeks later, Trump himself waded into the fracas, accusing Qatar of funding extremism in tweets on June 6.

Royce and a staff member met with Broidy at Washingtons Capitol Hill Club to discuss the bill, according to someone who was at the meeting. An associate, who Broidy paid for some of the work, also had frequent contact with congressional staff.

__STRONG LANGUAGE

Broidys effort to cultivate allies in Congress extended beyond Royce.

Broidy has personally given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans over the past decade or more. But he gave nothing during the 2012 and 2014 election cycles and just $13,500 during the 2016 cycle. Things changed after Trumps election as Broidy ramped up his advocacy on Middle East policy. Broidy has given nearly $600,000 to GOP candidates and causes since the beginning of last year when he began his advocacy push more than in the previous 14 years combined.

Campaign finance records going back two decades show Broidy had not given any money to Royce  until he gave the lawmaker a pair of $2,700 donations on July 31, 2017.

By then, the sanctions bill was on a fast track.

The original draft considered by the Foreign Affairs Committee contained language singling out Qatar as a supporter of Hamas, a Palestinian organization that has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.

Hamas has received significant financial and military support from Qatar, the draft bill states.

Soon Qatar was lobbying hard to have that language excised. Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, declared in a statement to the committee that Qatar does not fund Hamas.

According to two people familiar with the committee deliberations, both Republican and Democratic staff members reached a consensus that because of the tensions in the Gulf, the language would look like the lawmakers were taking sides. They agreed to take it out of the bill.

Qatari officials and lobbyists thought the matter had been settled, according to one lobbyist and a committee staffer. But just before the bill was to be put up for debate ahead of the committees vote, Royce ordered the language on Qatar not only reinstated, but strengthened, they say. The bill was approved by the committee in November with the stronger language on Qatar intact.

A Royce aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, denied that Royce had ever considered removing the Qatar language.

In January, Royce announced that he would not seek re-election, saying that he wanted to focus on his committee in the last year of his chairmanship rather than a political campaign.

In the same month, Broidys company signed the hefty contract with the UAE government for gathering intelligence, according to someone familiar with the work.

___

Associated Press writers Chad Day and Richard Lardner contributed to this report

___

Follow Desmond Butler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/desmondbutler , Tom LoBianco at https://twitter.com/tomlobianco and Brad Klapper at https://twitter.com/bklapperAP

___

Have a tip? Contact the authors securely at https://www.ap.org/tipsFARMINGTON  The brother of a suspect shot dead by a Farmington police officer is suing the New Mexico Department of Public Safety and the city of Farmington for denying a public records request for information from the incident.

Complaints filed by plaintiff Felix Anchondo were filed in San Juan County District Court and Santa Fe District Court on March 1, according to court records.

Anchondo is the brother of Frankie L. Anchondo, who was shot and killed by Officer Brandt Warman during a pursuit and attempted traffic stop on Riverstone Road on Dec. 20.

Warman alleges the suspect exited his vehicle and approached Warman with an object that later was identified as an electronic cigarette, according to New Mexico State Police.

State Police are conducting an investigation into the shooting.

The complaint asks the city of Farmington to produce all records sought by the plaintiff in his requests, along with awarding damages, costs and reasonable attorneys fees to the plaintiff.

The complaint filed against the city of Farmington by Felix states the plaintiff on Jan. 9 through attorneys made a written request for public records, including any existing audio and video recordings or/and transcripts of audio recordings, any reports written by any Farmington Police Department officer present at the scene and copies of any complaints filed against Warman and any Internal Affairs reports.

The Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) request was denied the next day by city attorney Jennifer Breakell. The plaintiff was directed to the San Juan County Dispatch Center for copies of certain reports, according to a copy of the letter.

Breakells letter states the records will be released when the investigation is complete and a decision about whether to charge Warman has been made.

Footage of Warmans dashboard camera was released on Jan. 16 and starts when the officer observed Frankies passenger, Alicia Jackson, hanging outside the window of the passenger-side door screaming for help.

Warman was at the intersection of McCormick School Road and East Broadway Avenue around 6:20 p.m. on Dec. 20 when he observed Jackson and Frankies pickup truck traveling on East Broadway Avenue.

Warman followed the pickup truck onto the Bloomfield Highway and watched the truck turn north on Riverstone Road, where the officer attempted a traffic stop and the shooting occurred.

Shawna Reeves, a spokeswoman for the city, said in an email the city stands by the denial of records request as the case is under investigation.

Currently the New Mexico State Police have not concluded their investigation, Reeves said. Additionally, the District Attorneys Office has not reviewed the investigation.

Reeves said the city of Farmington plans on filing a response to the complaint and will vigorously defend itself against the lawsuit.

New Mexico State Police did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit and investigation.

Joseph Kennedy, one of Felix Anchondos attorneys, said the Farmington Police Department is just delaying the release of the records, and the department has provided a prejudiced and wrong narrative of the footage from the dashboard camera.

An attorney for Felix Anchondo was able to view a copy of the dashboard camera footage before a copy was received by the plaintiff on Jan. 18.

Kennedy said he has questions about Warmans actions on the night of the shooting. He said Frankie was shot once in the back, and he believes Frankie might have been running away from the officer when he was shot.

State Police have not disclosed how many of the five gunshots fired by Warman struck the suspect.

Once all the public records are collected, Kennedy said the attorneys and plaintiffs will meet and discuss possibly pursuing a lawsuit regarding the shooting.

The fatal shooting was the first of two in recent months involving the Farmington Police Department.

Farmington police Officer Alfonso Sifuentes shot and killed aggravated battery suspect Andrew Rossi early on March 6 after SWAT officers entered the room Rossi was in at the Motel 6 at 1600 Bloomfield Blvd. in Farmington.

Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said in a video statement Rossi charged at Sifuentes with a knife and tried to stab the officer after Rossi fell from the ceiling, where he was hiding.

Joshua Kellogg covers crime, courts and social issues for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4627 or via email at jkellogg@daily-times.com.



2018 The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.)

Visit The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.) at www.daily-times.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

_____CANON CITY, Colo.  Authorities are looking for an inmate who escaped from a prison in southern Colorado.

The Colorado Department of Corrections says Robert Roberts was discovered missing from the Skyline Correctional Center on Sunday.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for forgery in Fremont County and was set to be released in July.LISBON, Portugal  Police in Spain have captured a cybercrime gang made up of Ukrainians and Russians that allegedly stole more than 1 billion euros ($1.24 billion) from financial institutions worldwide in a five-year spree, authorities said Monday.

The gangs alleged mastermind, identified as a Ukrainian and named only as Denis K., was arrested in the coastal city of Alicante, 350 kilometers (220 miles) southeast of Madrid, according to statements issued by Spanish police and European Union law enforcement agency Europol.

Three suspected accomplices, said to be Russian and Ukrainian, were also arrested, Spanish authorities said. In Ukraine, police said that an unidentified 30-year-old man linked to the gang was cooperating with authorities.

The hackers  whose activities have long been tracked by security researchers  used malware to target more than 100 financial institutions worldwide, sometimes stealing up to 10 million euros in each heist. Almost all of Russias banks were targeted, and about 50 of them lost money in the electronic robberies, authorities said.

The gang used well-worn techniques such as booby trapped emails to break into banks and compromise the networks controlling ATMs, effectively turning the machines into free cash dispensers.

Ross Rustici, a senior director at Boston-based digital security firm Cybereason, said the gang stood out from others because of the amount of care and planning it put into operations.

Theyre unusual in how slow and methodical they are and how organized they are, Rustici said. Other groups use similar techniques in isolation, but nobody before them had strung all those things together on such a scale, he said.

Authorities said that the gang converted its illicit gains into bitcoins and used the cryptocurrency to purchase big ticket items, including houses and vehicles, in Spain.

Rustici said it seemed likely the gang members botched their effort to launder their ill-gotten gains.

Thats usually what happens with these who are very good on the network side, they make mistakes on the money side, he said. You cant buy a nice villa on the Mediterranean with cryptocurrency. Or at least not yet.

___

Satter reported from London.As questions mounted last year about whether Facebook had been exploited to tilt the U.S. presidential election, Mark Zuckerbergs to-do list landed him on a fishing trawler off Alabamas Gulf coast.

But the chatter surrounding the CEOs arrival in port was that it signaled something bigger than just the start of a 30-state personal tour: his designs on a job even more powerful than leading the social network that links 2.2 billion people worldwide.

It was one of the last things I asked him, thinking it would put a smile on his face  and it did, said Dominick Ficarino, who owns a shrimp business in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, and hosted a dockside lunch for Zuckerberg that Sunday afternoon.

I asked him if he was interested in running for president of the United States. And his answer to me was: Can I answer you with a question? If you were me, would you?'

Thirteen months later, Zuckerberg no longer has the luxury of mulling a hypothetical next act. Instead, he is grappling with a crisis that has enveloped the company synonymous with his face and name. It does not help that the most glaring reminder of Facebooks flaws is the unabated uproar over the American presidency itself.

The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to do, Zuckerberg wrote in January, laying out the personal challenge that he sets for himself each year.

In 2017, the billionaire challenged himself to travel to every state hed never visited. This year, long after critics began demanding an overhaul, Zuckerberg said his personal goal is to fix the platform that he has engineered to build community  but that is increasingly blamed for warping it.

Yet things continue to get worse. Scrutiny of Facebook has intensified following reports that it failed to prevent the data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica from amassing personal information about millions of users  possibly used to aid Donald Trumps campaign  and that the social network has been collecting Android users phone call and text message histories without notice. That adds to criticism that Facebook manipulates its users and has allowed Russian bots to divide Americans by spreading false information.

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission announced it was investigating Facebook for its privacy practices.

Throughout the mounting crisis, Zuckerbergs response has been a study in contradictions. He crisscrossed the country, even as his company back home came under increasing fire. He preaches transparency, but flinches at questioning and craves privacy. He is undeniably brilliant, but stubborn in his reluctance to acknowledge the extent of Facebooks problems.

Even his critics say he is uniquely capable of righting the ship. But at 33, is he prepared to do all it will take?

If he fails to do it, it may take a while but eventually people are going to rebel, said Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor and adviser who has become one of the companys most pointed critics.

I thought Facebook was a force for good in the world for a really long time, McNamee said. I think its really hard to make that case today.

___

Days after Trumps election, Zuckerberg was pressed on the possibility that foreign agents had used his social network to divide voters.

The idea that fake news on Facebook  influenced the election in any way, I think, is a pretty crazy idea, the CEO told the audience at a California technology conference.

I think all of us were shocked to learn how wrong he was, said David Kirkpatrick, the author of a 2010 book about Facebook who questioned Zuckerberg that day. You can certainly say that he was culpable, in that he was naive and inattentive to what was happening in his system. But I dont think he was lying.

Zuckerberg walked back the remark soon after, continuing a years-long routine of self-correction. But errors that reflect his stubbornness, those who know him say, are tempered by an eagerness to learn from mistakes and a deep sense of reflection.

Donald Graham, the former chairman of the Washington Post Co., recalled that when he met Zuckerberg in 2005, outsiders still werent sure what to make of Facebook.

I would ask him a question and he would pause long enough  15 seconds, 20 seconds  that I would think Did I insult him? Did he not hear me?' said Graham, who went on to serve on the companys board from 2008 to 2015.

Since I am from Washington, Im not used to people thinking before they are answering a question.  But Mark, then as now, was thinking about the right answer.

Zuckerbergs boyish appearance, even today, is a reminder of just how young he was when he created what would become the worlds biggest social network, back in his dorm room at Harvard.

I didnt know anything about building a company or global internet service, he wrote in January. Over the years Ive made almost every mistake you can imagine.

Naomi Gleit, Facebooks longest-serving employee after the CEO, said Zuckerberg  who declined an interview request from The Associated Press  has been talking about making the world a better place since he was 21. But his view of that world and his place in it seemed almost like a gravity, a burden of responsibility, she said.

That seriousness coincides with a sense of certainty.

Gleit recalled Zuckerbergs steadfast attachment to a Facebook message service similar to email, even as more people began using phones to send text messages. But co-workers eventually swayed the CEO, who she described as a learn-it-all. That change-of-mind informed Facebooks 2014 purchase of the WhatsApp messaging service for $19 billion.

I think he would even say now that he was initially wrong, Gleit said.

With Zuckerberg, its experiment, learn, experiment, learn, said LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who has known him since 2004. Hoffman said that is evident in Zuckerbergs enthusiasm for software, which can be overwritten to fix problems. That facility, he said, makes Zuckerberg the equal of executives with far more experience.

But in the process of learning, Zuckerbergs inexperience has sometimes played out in public view.

___

In 2010, Zuckerberg announced on Oprah Winfreys television show that he would donate $100 million to schools in Newark, New Jersey.

Critics labeled it an attempt to polish his image, just as the biopic The Social Network was being released. Still, there was little questioning his generosity. The problem was that Zuckerberg  who knew little about education  made the gift with few specifics outlining how it should be spent.

He was just a very young, naive, inexperienced guy who was brilliant at technology and computers and the internet, but just really didnt know much about how the world worked, said Dale Russakoff, author of The Prize, a book chronicling how the money went to high-priced consultants, with minimal effort by leaders to build community support.

By the end of the process, Zuckerberg had developed a clearer understanding of how to get things done. He and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, have since chartered their own foundation and structured it to take on mammoth goals, like a $3 billion investment to cure, prevent or manage all diseases. He has pledged to donate 99 percent of his Facebook stock to philanthropy.

Zucks maturation has occurred in front of the public, said Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that Is Connecting the World. But he also still lives with the consequences of the decisions he made when he was less mature.

At Facebook, Zuckerberg has grown increasingly bold in using huge sums of money to pursue corporate goals, which includes purchasing competitors  or companies that could grow into competitors.

Facebooks $1 billion purchase of Instagram in 2012  then unprofitable and little-known  came as a shock to Wall Street. Two years later came the multibillion-dollar deal to buy WhatsApp, a company that remains unprofitable but has given Facebook a prime portal into developing countries and other regions outside the U.S.

In 2014, soon after Facebook bought a virtual reality firm called Oculus, Zuckerberg found himself being grilled in a lawsuit brought by a competitor who accused an Oculus executive of stealing trade secrets. Under questioning, he talked about the pressure he exerted to make the Oculus deal happen, and his vision of growing it so fast that we can get every developer and studio in the world building just for Oculus before any big competitor exists.

Last year, in a bid to free up his fortune for philanthropy, Zuckerberg pushed board members to restructure Facebooks stock, allowing him to sell off part of his stake while maintaining control. That prompted a suit by a group of shareholders who argued that the move would benefit only Zuckerberg while diluting the value of other investors stakes. Days before Zuckerberg was scheduled to testify as part of the suit, the company dropped the plan.

The gambit hints at the complexity of being Zuckerberg, who advocates for transparency and the interests of the community but whose individual interests dont always align.

The paradox is self-inflicted, the trade-off for creating a venture premised on users willingness to share details of their lives. That requires Zuckerberg, who has 105 million Facebook friends, to reveal far more about himself than would be expected of any other CEO, whether its photos of him and Chan baking sweets for the Jewish holiday of Purim or dressing their daughters for the Chinese New Year.

Yet he fiercely guards his privacy.

When calls went out last year for Zuckerberg to testify before a Senate committee, the company sent its lawyer. And when he and Chan bought 700 acres on the Hawaiian island of Kauai last year, they quietly filed lawsuits against hundreds of Hawaiians  withdrawn after protests  that would have cut off locals access to the land by negating their interest in small ancestral tracts within the estates boundaries.

Intellectually, he believes in transparency, Kirkpatrick said. But emotionally, its very difficult for him.

____

Facebook works hard to present Zuckerberg as someone deeply interested in the ordinary people whose lives are at the heart of its business.

Stops on last years U.S. tour, never announced, were set up by facilitators who revealed details to only a select few. But many of the visits were covered by the media and documented in professional-quality photos on Zuckerbergs Facebook page soon after hed departed.

Ostensibly, the idea was for Zuckerberg to learn. But in their brief interactions, many people were just as interested in finding a way to connect with him.

In Hazard, Kentucky, educator Paul Green became custodian of the small towns biggest secret. A staffer from Zuckerbergs foundation, peppering Green with questions about the regions educational cooperative, finally admitted it was because the CEO himself wanted to visit. Greens reward for keeping it quiet was seeing the wide-eyed grins when Zuckerberg pulled up and greeted local high schoolers studying robotics and programming.

Walking through science demonstrations, Zuckerberg spent more time trading tech tales with the teenagers than quizzing the teachers.

He just lit up with those kids, Green said. The way he talked with them about some of the things he did when he was in school and his passion for technology, it really was cool.

When Zuckerberg toured an oil rig near Williston, North Dakota, last July, from the minute he got out of the car to the minute he got back in the car, he was nothing but questions, said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, which arranged the visit.

I had Bakken shale, limestone, dolomite, and he was able to hold them in his hand, along with a bottle of crude oil. And I remember him asking, How do you get that oil out of that rock?' geologist Kathleen Neset said.

In Dayton, Ohio, Zuckerberg met with officials, caregivers and families battling drug addiction. Lori Erion, the founder of the group Families of Addicts, said she told him what it was like to learn her daughter, April, had shot up heroin in their own home.

It seemed to get him really emotional, Erion said, recalling how Zuckerberg stood up suddenly and told the group he needed a few minutes to steady himself. When he returned, he asked what makes an addict stay clean and how families got their loved ones into treatment.

We didnt ever talk about Facebook at all, Erion said, which is really interesting because Facebook is really the main way of us getting information out. He really was just like a regular person.

___

As Zuckerberg connected with Americans face-to-face, controversy over Facebook continued to spiral.

Shortly before the election, McNamee sent a letter to Zuckerberg and Facebooks chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, warning that Facebook was being manipulated in ways its creators never intended. It wasnt just about the U.S. election: A consulting firm had collected data on people interested in the Black Lives Matter movement and sold it to police departments, and critics had detected a well-organized, clandestine campaign supporting Brexit.

All this pointed to a deep problem with Facebook  that it was simply not equipped or not willing to prevent the misuse of its platform.

McNamee said he has been disappointed in the incremental changes announced since.

Facebook has adopted this libertarian philosophy that says we are not responsible for anything downstream, we are allowed to disrupt media, we are allowed to addict our users and we are not responsible for any of the consequences of any of that,' he said.

Zuckerberg could change that. But McNamee said it is not enough to hire thousands of workers to weed through fake and abusive posts if those posts keep getting through. And tweaking Facebooks newsfeed so users see more posts from families and friends does not address his certainty that the algorithms underlying Facebook make it dangerously addictive.

You cannot cure addiction by doing more of the thing that got you addicted in the first place, which is what Zuck recommends, McNamee wrote in an email.

Critics say Facebook continues to ignore the possibility of the social network being used for dark purposes, but Zuckerbergs supporters counter that he is unfairly blamed for problems he could not have foreseen.

Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder, credits Zuckerberg with leading Facebook through a shift in mindset, making changes that will nudge users into a more positive virtual environment  without completely shutting out inflammatory content.

Facebook basically is saying we enable people based on the way they behave. Thats a very democratic argument. If people want to live in filter bubbles, who are we to say Dont live in filter bubbles, even though we dont want them to? Hoffman said.

But Kirkpatrick argued that Zuckerbergs and Sandbergs surety that Facebook has a positive impact on society has blinded them to parallel realities. The company cant be fixed, Kirkpatrick said, until Zuckerberg comes to terms with existential threats to the way the social network does business  its potential to negatively affect democracy and the way it hooks in users.

Theres no question in my mind that Mark Zuckerberg is an ethical and responsible human being who wants to do the right thing, he said. However, I do not think he has yet grasped the gravity with which his service is being perceived to be a socially harmful force all around the world. And I also dont think he realizes the extent to which that really is true.

McNamee, recalling Zuckerberg as a 22-year-old visionary, said the CEO must be willing to rethink long-held assumptions. But that does not mean he has to abandon building his global community.

Youve won, McNamee said he would tell Zuckerberg if asked again for his counsel.

Youve achieved more than your wildest dreams. Youre a billionaire. Now you have a chance to be a hero.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

Deputies say the 16-year-old boy who was shot last week during a road rage incident in the South Valley has died after spending several days in the hospital.

Felicia Maggard, a spokeswoman for the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office, said Efrain Arzate Jr. was taken off life support Sunday.

Arzates family members requested privacy Monday. They said that while BCSO had originally reported he was 15, he had turned 16 in mid-January.

Maggard said the case is now being investigated as a homicide.

Arzate, a sophomore at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School, was riding in the back seat of a Dodge Challenger on March 20 when Maggard said he was shot and critically injured.

She said around 10 p.m. deputies were called to Gun Club and Kirk SW, west of Coors, for reports of someone who had been shot. When they arrived they found Arzate in the back seat.

He was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Detectives responded to the scene and determined the shooting was the result of a road rage incident, Maggard wrote in an email.

However, BCSO has not released any details about the road rage or the circumstances that led up the shooting or where it occurred.

No arrests have been made in the case and investigators have not identified any suspects.

The period in which Arzate was fatally wounded saw an unusually high number of killings and his death raises the toll to six deaths in six days in Bernalillo County.

Between March 16 and March 21, the Albuquerque Police Department investigated five homicides within the city limits. Arzates death is the only one investigated by BCSO.

Over the weekend, Arzates friends and relatives organized a carwash and set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for his family, praying for a miracle that he would make it.

And teenagers took to social media to ask for prayers, share memories of their friend and classmate and send their condolences to his loved ones.

In a phone interview with the Journal, Arzates girlfriend, who is 15, said she is having a hard time accepting that he is gone and keeps expecting to hear from him.

She described Arzate, also known as Peri, as a jokester who loved making up nicknames for his friends and giving everyone a hard time. She said he was very close to his brother, who was his elder by two years, and his cousin.

Arzate was the second juvenile who died tragically in the past week.

Two days after he was shot, on the other side of the city a 12-year-old girl was struck by an SUV while crossing the street in front of her middle school.

Eliza Justine Almuina died at the hospital several hours after she was hit. No one has been charged in her death.

Tips

Deputies ask anyone with information about the case to contact detectives at 505-967-5615.



New Mexico is one of seven states in which Amazon is not collecting local sales taxes, even though the retail giant agreed last year to pay taxes to the state, according to a report released Monday.

Thats because New Mexico has tax laws that prevent local collections, said the report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-partisan research group.

And that presents yet another reason why New Mexico needs tax reform, said Sen. John Arthur Smith, a Deming Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. I think local governments have a legitimate claim, quite frankly, Smith said.

In Albuquerque, the citys finance department estimates it lost out on $5 or $6 million in tax revenue on Amazon purchases in 2016.

This loophole is not only negatively impacting the city of Albuquerque, but also our local small businesses, Mayor Tim Keller said in a written statement. Its time to level the playing field.

Amazon agreed last year to start paying New Mexico gross receipts taxes  essentially a sales tax  although it is unclear exactly how much because tax filings are confidential. The chief economist for the state Legislative Finance Committee earlier this year estimated the amount at between $10 million and $30 million.

Other states that are either not collecting any local sales tax or are charging Amazon a lower tax rate than local retailers are Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi and Pennsylvania, the report said.

This collection gap is harming local governments ability to fund vital programs, and it is contributing to an unlevel playing field for local businesses because millions of shoppers are able to pay less tax if they choose to buy products from out-of-state companies over the Internet rather than at local stores, the report said.

New Mexico is among the states that bases its tax on the location of the seller, rather than the buyer, said Richard Anklam, executive director of the New Mexico Tax Research Institute. Seattle-based Amazon does not have a physical presence here.

Other online retailers, such as Target and Walmart, have had to tax online purchases because they operate stores within New Mexico.

Theres another loophole in Amazons tax payments nationwide. With the exception of Washington state, the company does not collect taxes on the millions of independent merchants, or marketplace sellers, who sell their products through the Amazon website.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling expected in June could help clarify tax collections on out-of-state retailers.

Anklam said the state could change its laws and charge taxes based on the buyers location, although such revisions are complicated and there is no perfect solution, he said.

Smith said he is sympathetic with local governments and wants policy makers to keep working on tax reform. A reform effort by Republican Rep. Jason Harper during the past two legislative sessions failed to win enough support, partly because its impact was unclear, Smith said.

Still, were running into issues that beg for tax reform, whether we have oil and gas revenues or not, he said. Im sympathetic with the local governments on this one.FORT CARSON, Colo.  A wildfire that destroyed at least two homes in southern Colorado was sparked by an Army aviation training exercise that used live ammunition, the military said Monday.

The fire started on Fort Carson amid dry, windy weather on March 16 and spread to private land, charring 5 square miles (13 square kilometers) before it was contained. It prompted evacuations of residents and livestock, but no injuries were reported.

The National Weather Service had issued a fire warning that day because of the conditions.

The Army was mitigating risk and altering training before the blaze and would continue to do so when fire danger is high, the posts commander, Maj. Gen. Randy A. George, said in a written statement. He said Fort Carsons regulations, as well as orders for training missions, outline steps to reduce the chances of flames.

The statement did not give details or explain why Fort Carson waited 10 days to acknowledge that the exercise used live ammunition. A post spokeswoman didnt immediately respond to an email seeking clarification.

Some residents who live near Fort Carson criticized commanders for conducting the exercise despite the fire danger.

The Army is supposed to protect the American public, but it for sure doesnt feel like were being protected, said Samuel Saling, whose home was one of about 250 evacuated during the blaze.

They should have all hands on deck, considering how many troops are stationed there that are trained to deal with this type of situation, he told the Colorado Springs Gazette.

The post commander said the Army needs to balance its training needs with the safety of its neighbors. Fort Carson previously said the March 16 training exercise was preparing soldiers for deployment.

The Army said residents could submit claims for reimbursement for property damage to Fort Carson.

The fire also ignited old tires that were fashioned into a fence on private land. Burning tires can release hazardous smoke, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was awaiting the results of tests on the tire debris to see if it needed to be taken to a hazardous waste dump.SIERRA VISTA, Ariz.  Two southern Arizona teens are facing charges after police say they posted an Instagram photo of themselves holding a rifle at school.

Sierra Vista police say officers came to the campus of Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona on Monday following reports of the photo.

Police say the rifle ended up being an inert, non-firing replica.

The juveniles are facing disorderly conduct charges.

No other arrests were made.Annup Sonii, the host of Sony TVs hit crime genre show- Crime Patrol quits the show after eight years of successful association as its proactive host. The news has been confirmed by the sources from the channel network. The news has also been confirmed by Sonii himself to the media.

Annup Sonii had gained immense popularity with this show for his unique style and quirks he added to his performance as the host. However, the actor has also been associated with many other long running shows across various GEC like Balika Vadhu, Viruddh and various acclaimed movies including Gangaajal, Fiza, Godmother, etc. According to Sonis response to the media, he wanted to take a break from hosting and is now looking forward to acting in serials and films again.

The news has come as a shock to many of his fans and show viewers. This has been more shocking as just early this month; Star Bharat had pulled the plug on its long running crime genre show, Savdhaan India, which was on the similar lines as that of Crime Patrol i.e. thriller and crime based program.

Crime Patrol has been famous for its representation of the story narratives of various crimes committed in the society and presented precautionary signs to the viewers.Apps Discover a premium mobile ad network company has now announced an exclusive partnership with Chinese search engine giant Baidu, the agenda for this partnership is to provide Chinese traffic to Indian advertisers. This alliance enables the Indian companies to promote their business even in China.

Apps Discover and Baidu's business alliance will create burgeoning business opportunities for both the companies in Chinese ad space. After the coalition, the company is now the only Indian ad-tech company that will look after Baidu's ad sales in India.

This partnership with Apps Discover Technologies will aid Indian advertisers to gain more traffic and target active mobile and internet users in China. Mr Ashish Bahukhandi Founder & CEO Apps Discover said, "It's an honour to partner with one of the biggest search engine and Baidu will not only serve our advertiser with the largest internet user population but will become an exponential growth factor for their business."

Last year the company expanded its presence in Indonesia which has been a profitable decision as it has helped the brands in establishing new business relationships with other international brands.Vivel, ITCs leading personal care brand and one of Indias most trusted brands collaborated with the professional feminist organization, Azad Foundation to launch Parvaz  A Feminist Leadership Programme to help transform communities. The mission is to equip young women with comprehensive training to become community leaders and catalysts for local change.

The year-long training combines four phases of residential training and on-ground interphase work with Azad outreach and mobilization teams. The training enables an understanding of womens rights and entitlements, enhances soft skills like communication, personality, self and behaviour, provides conceptual clarity on non-traditional livelihoods, related social issues and supports them to opt for non-traditional livelihoods.

29 young women have enrolled for the programme in Delhi in 2018. After the training, they will take a lead on various right-based projects in their communities. As a result of an outreach by these empowered women, we hope to reach 29000 women directly in Delhi with information and support with access to government social schemes, non-traditional livelihoods with dignity. The leaders are also provided with guidance to implement their own community project based on specific needs of their community.

Rooted in its core brand philosophy- Ab Samjhauta Nahin, Vivel, continues to empower and educate women to challenge stereotypes and help enable self-action. It firmly believes that no one should have to compromise on their dignity or be discriminated against. Vivel actively stands in support of equality and believes that for a more equal life, awareness and education is the first step to empowerment.

Ms. Meenu Vadera, Trustee & Executive Director, Azad Foundation commented, Azad is a professional feminist organization working across social and religious divides to enable resource-poor women to empower themselves by engaging in viable non-traditional livelihoods. We are committed to breaking patriarchal boundaries and structures so that the women can exercise control over their lives and live with dignity. We are elated to partner with ITC Vivel to impact more resource-poor women directly and support them to opt for non-traditional livelihoods.

Mr. Sameer Satpathy, Chief Executive, Personal Care Products Business, ITC Limited added, Vivel with its brand philosophy Ab Samjhauta Nahin enables purpose and a deep rooted conviction to empower women at the grassroots. We are happy to partner with Azad Foundation in this journey to help facilitate self-action and access to information through various direct outreach efforts.

The video announcing the partnership introduces some of the women currently enrolled in the programme. The film is a unique re-interpretation of Subhadra Kumaari Chauhans famous poem 'Khoob Ladi Mardaani' and celebrates the extraordinary lives of every Indian woman.The Aiken City Council meets Monday night with a hefty agenda to tackle.

City Council first meets at 5 p.m. for a work session and then at 7 p.m. for a regularly scheduled meeting.

City Council meets at the Municipal Building, 214 Park Ave. S.W.

March 26 work session agenda The full March 26 Aiken City Council work session packet.

The first thing City Council will hear Monday is a presentation from Willdan Financial Services regarding a water and sewer rate study.

According to a letter written by Finance Director Kim Abney, the City's water and sewer fund, with the exception of water revenue, is on track to meet projections this year.

Next year, though, the letter continues, is a "different story."

City Council will begin a fiscal year 2018-19 budget overview after the water and sewer presentation.

At 7 p.m., City Council will reassemble in Council Chambers. There are more than 20 formal items on the agenda as of Sunday night.

One of the first things to be heard is the second reading of an ordinance designating Hotel Aiken  the downtown landmark along Richland Avenue  to the Aiken Historic Register.

City Council approved the first reading of the ordinance March 12.

The Design Review Board, a group tasked with preserving the City's historic areas, recommended the hotel be added to the register because of the hotel's influence and presence throughout City history.

On Feb. 13, the Planning Commission also recommended adding Hotel Aiken to the register.

City Council, in connection to the potential designation, has decided to view the hotel as a contributing structure: a building that "contributes to the character of an Historic Site or Historic District," according to City Council documents.

Aiken City Council agenda The agenda and related documents for the March 26 7 p.m. Aiken City Council meeting.

City Council will also discuss an ordinance regarding the tethering of dogs and the confining of pets inside a vehicle during extreme weather conditions  hot or cold, specifically, City Council documents state.

The potential "animals in motor vehicles" amendment is being considered so "more definable criteria" is available and actionable to responding public safety officers, according to City Council documents.

The potential changes are the result of a "recently performed" review of the City code "regarding cruelty to animals," according to a draft ordinance included in the meeting packet.

City Council will also discuss a resolution that would renew and revise the City's agreement with the Aiken Community Playhouse for use of the AECOM Performing Arts Center.

It is being recommended that the next agreement last five years, according to a City Council document.

City Council will discuss the sale of property in Crosland Park, as well.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.CAIRO  A wave of rumors captivated Egyptians on March 26 as presidential elections began as scheduled in a race between incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and challenger Moussa Mostafa Moussa, the president of El Ghad Party.

On March 20, the Egyptian Cabinets Information and Decision Support Center denied seven rumors that have been circulating, raising controversy in the media and confusing citizens. The most prominent rumor is that commodity prices will surge in May during Ramadan. The rumor also claims the government intends to stop subsidizing commodities for citizens whose monthly salaries exceed 2,500 Egyptian pounds ($143) by withdrawing their food-ration cards.

There are rumors claiming that Moussa had submitted a report to the National Elections Authority charging that Sisis campaign had breached a restriction on campaigning just before the elections, since Egyptians abroad voted March 16-18. In an official statement, Moussa denounced the rumors as attempts by enemies of the nation to drive a wedge between the two candidates.

There are also rumors that Moussa isn't seriously running for election, but joined the race at the last minute to give the appearance of competition in the hopes of boosting the election's credibility and increasing voter turnout. Moussa denied the rumor, but he has admitted as much in the past. He is a longtime Sisi supporter.

Sameer Abdul Azeem, Moussa's legal counsel, told Al-Monitor, These rumors affect candidates' popularity. The rumor about Moussas support of his rival, Sisi, is a lie that affects the turnout rate. Such rumors lead to voter apathy and make citizens think that the election is but a farce, that there is no real competition and that their votes have no value."

He added, We submitted a complaint to the prosecutor general and we also addressed the Ministry of Interiors Documentation and Information Administration to trace the online pages that fueled these rumors on social media."

The Ministry of Education denied a rumor that all schools would be closed during the elections. The ministry clarified that only students  not teachers  would be excused, and only at the schools being used for elections.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Population denied a rumor about a shortage of baby formula, or a surge in the price of subsidized baby formula.

The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Small Industries rebutted the rumor that Russian authorities were imposing a comprehensive ban on Egyptian potato imports because brown rot was detected. The ban, the ministry said, concerns only two out of 476 shipments.

For its part, the Ministry of Social Solidarity denied allegations potentially damaging to Sisi that the government plans to deny unmarried daughters their rights to their deceased fathers' pensions. The ministry said any insurance rights established under the current social security laws will remain untouched under the new insurance and pension draft law.

Abdul Azeem said rumors anticipating a surge in prices during Ramadan also aim to undermine Sisi's popularity. This rumor might be aimed to influence large voting blocs to vote for Moussa instead.

The National Center for Social and Criminological Research recently conducted a study on the dimensions of citizenship, political participation and citizens demands for the next president. The respondents' answers showed that the most important demands are controlling prices (89.7%), followed by ensuring security and stability (66.4%), improving services such as education and health (47.6%), fighting terrorism (43.7%) and achieving social justice (39.5%). The survey was conducted in 14 Egyptian governorates from Feb. 13 to March 1.

Propagating rumors about the disappearance of commodities, rising food prices and depriving citizens of their food-ration cards is [to be] expected from the Muslim Brotherhood sleeping cells. These [cells are] masters of the art of remote manipulation in Egypt through their social media networks, Mohamed Seweid, an adviser to the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade, told Al-Monitor. In addition to posing a danger to the government or the presidential elections, such rumors greatly undermine the credibility of the parties behind them. The reality is completely different from what's being propagated.

Seweid said 80 million citizens hold food-ration cards and receive 250 million loaves of subsidized bread each morning. How can citizens who receive their food-ration rights with governmental subsidies each day believe the rumor that they have been deprived of their food-ration cards? he asked.

Seweid said ration cards and food subsidies will continue at the same prices. He further noted that the Ministry of Supply has a stock of critical commodities sufficient for the populace for at least four months.

According to the research center's survey, Sisi was the preferred candidate in the election among 72.6% of the voters surveyed. Moussa had the support of 16%, and 11.4% of those surveyed were undecided or back neither candidate.

Despite an election boycott led by some public figures in Egypt, as well as the wave of rumors, the latest governmental survey in Egypt said 76.7% of those surveyed will definitely take part in the elections, with 16.6% of voters unsure whether they will vote and 6.8% saying they won't participate.Egyptian exports to Turkey jumped by 38.5% in 2017 compared to 2016, despite the political clash that has pitted the two countries against each other over the past few years.

According to the latest report released by the Egyptian Commercial Representation Office in Istanbul, Egypts exports to Turkey edged up by 38.5% to stand at $1.99 billion in 2017, compared to $1.44 billion a year earlier. Egypts imports from Turkey, meanwhile, declined by 13.7% to reach $2.36 billion in 2017, compared to $2.73 billion in 2016, the same report stated. It also highlighted that foreign trade balance increased from 53% in 2016 to 85% in 2017.

In a March 11 statement, the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry said that Egypts trade deficit with Turkey fell 72% to reach $360 million in 2017, thanks to a boost in the exports of chemicals, textiles and plastics.

Export growth to the Turkish market last year is due to a boost in Egyptian shipments of chemicals by 89%, textiles and ready-made garments by 23%, and plastics and rubber by 31%  which together make up around 80% of total Egyptian exports to Turkey, head of the Egyptian Commercial Service Ahmed Antar said, according to the ministrys statement.

The increase in Egyptian exports to Turkey is the product of a change in the countrys monetary policies and a focus on pushing up exports through leveling the quality of the Egyptian product, Bassant Fahmy, an economist and a member of the Egyptian parliamentary Economic Affairs Committee, told Al-Monitor.

Fahmy said that since 2016, the Egyptian government has been stepping up efforts in order to kick-start the national economy by increasing exports, lowering unemployment rates and decreasing the budget deficit. In 2016, the Egyptian government started an ambitious economic reform program after obtaining a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Egypts growing exports to Turkey is also a pointer that the government does not mix politics with economy, Fahmy noted. She said that Egypts political disagreements with Turkey have never affected the two countries economic ties. This proves that Egypt is open to all investors and committed to create an investment-friendly environment in the country, she added.

In February, Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil met in Cairo with a delegation of Turkish businessmen, headed by the president of the Union of Chambers of Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, Rifat Hisarciklioglu, to get acquainted with their problems in Egypt and find ways to solve them.

During the meeting, Kabil promised to uproot all hurdles facing Turkish investors in Egypt, while Hisarciklioglu expressed the Turkish investors desire to invest in Egypt in the coming period. Turkish businessmen seek to pump new investments worth $1 billion into Egypt in 2018 and in the first half of 2019, media reports noted.

Hisarciklioglu had attended the joint Egyptian-Turkish Business Forum held in Cairo in January 2016.

Egypts strategy in dealing with Turkish investors and businesspeople is excellent. Politics should never affect economies. On the contrary, politics should be used to boost any countrys economy, Ahmed Koura, an economist and the former head of Al Watany Bank of Egypt, told Al-Monitor.

Koura said that the government should provide Turkish investors in Egypt with more incentives to increase their ventures and expand their businesses. In any free economy, investors are always welcomed and are encouraged to pursue their businesses regardless of any political disagreements, Koura added.

Egyptian-Turkish relations deteriorated after former President Mohammed Morsi was ousted in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. Shortly after Morsis ouster, Egypt announced that it downgraded its diplomatic ties with Turkey and expelled the Turkish ambassador.

In return, Turkey announced the Egyptian ambassador persona non grata and also downgraded diplomatic ties with Egypt.

Egyptian and Turkish officials have expressed intention to normalize ties several times since 2016. However, relations between the two countries continue to be tense.The appointment of John Bolton as President Donald Trumps national security adviser has stirred many reactions in Tehran, not only because of the former UN ambassadors hawkish policies on the Middle East, but also his links to an Iranian opposition group responsible for thousands of deaths.

Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council, said March 25, It is a matter of shame for a country that is apparently a superpower that a national intelligence official took money from a terrorist cult that has a history of murdering 17,000 civilians. Shamkhanis reference is to the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq organization, more commonly known as the MEK, which waged a bloody campaign against the Islamic Republic shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Another notorious act in the group's history was to side with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War.

Bolton has been a MEK supporter. A video from eight months ago shows him telling a crowd of MEK supporters in Paris that before 2019, they will be celebrating in Tehran. The MEK, which was on the State Departments terrorist list until being removed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton under the Barack Obama administration, often pays speaking fees to former American officials to attend their rallies. With little domestic support, they have cultivated media savvy allies in the United States and Europe who share their aggressive positions against Tehran.

Iranian officials are well-aware what Boltons appointment means for them. Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, the spokesman for parliaments National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said on March 25 that Boltons appointment signals that regime change is the current US policy for Iran.

Before Boltons appointment, US Secretary of State [Rex Tillerson] was replaced, Hosseini said. Tillerson, as someone who supported the nuclear deal, was removed and someone has come [on board] who is opposed to the nuclear deal. This appointment shows that Trump has the goal of regime change for Iran and that Americans have a hostile posture toward Iran. Hosseini also added that the United States, in pursuit of its goal of overthrowing the Islamic Republic, will use the MEK, which Iranian officials often refer to as the hypocrites, a religiously charged epithet in Iran.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said that in line with Israeli and Saudi policies, the United States will increase pressure on Iran and that Tehran must therefore look to strengthen ties with Russia and China.

Russia and China are two important and influential permanent members of the UN Security Council, and strengthening these ties will neutralize or lessen American pressure [on Iran], Boroujerdi said. He added that a decision to push the countrys foreign policy toward being more Eastern than Western oriented would be made by the Supreme National Security Council, not necessarily the Foreign Ministry.

Iranian media was also rife with speculation as to what Boltons appointment means domestically. With newspapers closed for the New Year holidays, many websites republished posts from Twitter and Telegram. Much of the commentary suggested that there will be a renewed emphasis on pushing Iran back on both its nuclear and missiles programs.The March 21 decision by Israels military to publicly acknowledge its destruction of a plutonium reactor in Syria in 2007 should have sparked a celebration of national pride. Instead, it set off turmoil, which included competing versions of events and accusations surrounding Operation Out of the Box (the code name for the bombing of the reactor). Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo said that it was a resounding intelligence fiasco, and that if it wasnt for a small group of Mossad agents who brought the golden intel (the Israel Defense Forces term for significant/decisive information), no one would have known about the reactor. The former head of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Yadlin, contradicted this, saying military intelligence had found signs of a nuclear reactor in Syria as early as 2006. He said Syrian President Bashar al-Assads strategy to pursue an ambitious, secretive nuclear project came as a surprise, but that the people responsible for uncovering this strategic surprise, those who prevented a strategic disaster and spearheaded an impressive strategic success, were members of the Israeli intelligence community.

As far as is known, Yadlin is the only person who played a major role in the destruction of not one but two military-grade nuclear reactors. Back in 1981, he was one of two Israeli F-16 pilots who destroyed Iraqi President Saddam Husseins nuclear reactor, as ordered by then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. In 2007, he was head of the Intelligence Division when Israel was stunned to discover that Assad had constructed a plutonium reactor in the middle of the Syrian desert and that it was about to be hooked up to the Euphrates River and become operational. Criticism of Israeli intelligence focuses on the idea that it took Israel far too long to locate the reactor. Military intelligence first identified Syrias nuclear activity only in late 2005.

Syria is a major strategic target for Israeli intelligence. It was assumed for years that Israel knew about every ant crawling across the Syrian desert. A significant part of Israels intelligence resources and infrastructures were invested in Syria for years, but particularly during the time that the reactor was built. Back then, Assad was still a stable leader who controlled a powerful, well-trained army with numerous armored divisions and thousands of long-range missiles and rockets threatening Israel. How was it possible for Assad to construct a huge nuclear reactor right under our noses, and yet we only found out about it at the last minute? a former senior Israeli intelligence official pondered to Al-Monitor, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The question ignores the fact that military intelligences tech specialists had collected intelligence about Syrias nuclear activity as early as 2005. The information began dribbling in like the pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle, but the picture gradually became clear. The leaders of military intelligence were increasingly convinced that Assad was building a nuclear reactor. The feud between the Mossad and Military Intelligence may have to do with the fact that initially, the Mossad disagreed with military intelligences 2006 assessment that Assad was pursuing a nuclear option and reduced the probability of the assessment that this was really happening.

Ultimately, it was Mossad agents who engaged in the operation that led to the golden intel confirming the suspicions of military intelligence regarding the nuclear reactor. According to a report by the New Yorker magazine, the Mossad hacked the computer of Ibrahim Othman in Vienna and found detailed images of the reactor (Israel never took responsibility for this operation). Then Mossad chief Meir Dagan could not believe that this evidence was actually found and cast the whole effort in doubt. There are no bears and no reactors, Dagan then told his colleague Yadlin (playing on a popular Israeli expression no bears and no wood). When the bears turned out to be a reactor, Dagan had a change of heart and pushed for the more aggressive approach advocated by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who ordered that the reactor be destroyed as quickly as possible.

Feuds between military intelligence and the Mossad over who takes credit for what are nothing new in Israel. The difference is that the current feud spilled out of the security establishment and turned into mudslinging between two former prime ministers, Olmert and Ehud Barak. Olmert, who recently completed a prison sentence, released his autobiography this week. In it, he accuses Barak, who served as his defense minister in 2007, with trying to put off the attack on the nuclear reactor for as long as possible for purely political considerations. According to Olmerts version of events, Barak believed that he would soon replace Olmert as prime minister. He therefore preferred to see the nuclear reactor destroyed on his watch so that he could garner all the credit for it. In the end, Olmert was able to win the support of his Cabinet and bring his defense minister in line. The Syrian reactor was destroyed in September 2007. Baraks version of events is the exact opposite. He claims that it was only because of his insistence that the army was able to hone its plans and preparations and that, as a result, the attack on the reactor, when it finally occurred, was much more efficient. Regardless of what actually happened, the two men attacked each other over the weekend, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a grand old time watching from the sidelines.

It is doubtful whether this argument between military intelligence and the Mossad will ever be resolved. It is part of a larger question of worldview. The Mossad stuck to its position that the Syrian reactor should have been discovered at an earlier stage, while military intelligence points rightfully to the bottom line and the results. Military Intelligence insists that in the two years preceding the bombing of the reactor, it accumulated evidence, suspicions and indications that caused it to insist that Assad really was pursuing a nuclear reactor, and that it was this insistence that finally forced the Mossad to launch the operation that produced the evidence that clinched the deal. According to military intelligence, all of this happened within a timespan that allowed the political leadership to consider the options while the military prepared a successful operation without any pressure. Military Intelligence contends that this was the bottom line. It is not always possible to know everything everywhere. Given the final results, the activities conducted by Israeli intelligence were exemplary.

Why did the authorities only allow the fact that Israel destroyed the Syrian reactor to be released now? It all begins with the space of denial, a term coined by military intelligence at the time. It was intended to allow Assad to hold back on responding to the reactors destruction and avoid launching a comprehensive war against Israel. Since the construction of the reactor was kept completely secret in Syria, with only the leaders most intimate circle even knowing about it, Olmert assumed that if Israel didnt admit to the attack and maintained absolute radio silence, Assad could climb down from his high horse without having to defend his honor with a military attack on Israel. That is exactly what happened. Officially, Israel maintained its silence, even ignoring international reports, and Assad showed restraint.

A decade has passed since then. Assad is not the same Assad, Syria is not the same Syria, and everybody knows who blew up the reactor. The military censor allowed some of the details to be published for two reasons. The first was growing pressure by the Israeli media, including appeals to the Supreme Court against the military censor. The second was the release of Olmerts autobiography. Chief military censor Brig. Gen. Ariella Ben Avraham realized that it was only a matter of time before the courts ordered her to allow publication of the story. Israels military censor is only authorized to prevent publication of information if it poses a real threat to state security or puts lives at risk. Meanwhile, Olmert was applying considerable pressure to allow his book to be published, with information about the bombing of the reactor. In the end, the chief military censor accepted the situation and the ban on publication was lifted. Thats when everybody started to squabble.The Trump administration staged a warm welcome for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the Saudis are pleased by the presidents choice for his third national security adviser, John Bolton. But behind the warm words and photo ops, there were few substantive accomplishments, and criticism of the prince and the kingdom outside the administration is growing.

Trump, while hosting the prince March 20, held up posters showing prospective US arms sales to the kingdom. The president spoke of how rich the Saudis are but complained that they werent spending enough on American weapons, implicitly admitting that the $110 billion arms sale he trumpeted in May 2017 in Riyadh was oversold. The prince looked uncomfortable as the president said Saudi purchases since the summit had been peanuts and as the president held up the boards to show the deals he wanted.

The Saudis are buying more munitions from the United States for the air war in Yemen, but Mohammed's biggest weapons deal so far is a $7 billion one to buy 48 Eurofighter Typhoons from the United Kingdom. Typhoons are built by a consortium of British and European companies.

The Saudis do have a huge defense budget. The International Institute for Strategic Studies annual report on military issues for 2017 says Saudi Arabia had the third-largest defense budget in the world behind only the United States and China. With their defense budget of almost $77 billion, the Saudis are by far the highest per capita military spenders in the world. But the return on the investment is a war in Yemen, an expensive quagmire with no end in sight.

The Saudis are very bullish on Bolton. The media has hailed his calls for well ordered regime change in Tehran and his promise at an opposition rally a year ago that he will celebrate with them in Tehran by 2019. The Saudi press is encouraging the Trump war cabinet to take on Iran, Turkey and Qatar to evict them from Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

The crown prince has been dogged by negative publicity since his tour of the United States was announced. The New York Times did a damaging expose of the detention of 300 prominent Saudis in November, which allegedly included the use of torture and led to at least one death. There followed unflattering portraits of his relationship with his mother and his wife. The relationship between the prince and Trump son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner has led to intense media scrutiny. It must be very unsettling to see that much of the press reporting is sourced to unnamed people in the royal palace and family. More revelations are likely.

On the Hill, Trump was able to block congressional action against the war in Yemen, but the Saudis face a strong bloc of opposition to the war and arms sales. More attention to the war will only bolster criticism of the Saudi role. Recently, Amnesty International documented three dozen airstrikes by the Saudis and their allies that may qualify as war crimes. Leading American newspapers have called on the crown prince to stop the war.

The Saudi requests for looser restrictions on their plans to acquire nuclear power reactors were undermined by the crown princes public promise to seek nuclear weapons if Iran tries to do so if the nuclear deal collapses. Since Bolton and Trump seem determined to undo the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), that promise looks all too likely.

Israel has been more critical of any loosening in the nuclear power requirements for Saudi Arabia in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lobbied against any deal for the Saudis, according to press reports. The Saudis' lobbying campaign will face formidable opposition if the Israelis are determined to block a deal. The pretense that the Saudi and Israeli governments are collaborating discretely against Iran will also be exposed.

The Saudi position has been that the JCPOA should be toughened with sanctions to stop Iranian meddling in the region and their missile program but that the pact not be scrapped. As the target of 100 Houthi missile attacks abetted with Iranian expertise, Saudi Arabia has every reason to lobby for controls on Tehran. The missile attacks are another important reason for the war to be ended before one hits a populated area and prompts an Iranian-Saudi crisis. The Houthis launched a barrage of seven missiles March 25, their biggest attack to date.

The crown prince is traveling to the Northeast, the West Coast and Texas to sell his reform package, Vision 2030, to potential investors. Its a wise move to diversify the Saudis' connections beyond the Trump administration. It harkens back to a similar cross-country trip by Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz in 1943, 75 years ago, that began the special relationship between America and the kingdom.More than 10,000 people have died in the Yemen war which has now entered its fourth year.

The war in Yemen has entered its fourth year. The campaign by the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi rebels has seen more than 16,633 air raids launched across the country since March 26, 2015.

The attacks have devastated Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Middle East.

My parents and all three sisters were killed by an air strike in our neighbourhood. I dont know if the world is aware of what is going on here, said Abu Bakr, a 17-year-old in Yemens coastal city of Hodeidah.

I miss them too much. They are always on my mind. This area has turned bleak without them.

A third of air raids have targeted non-military sites, with at least 1,491 air raids targeting residential areas.

More than 10,000 people have been killed. With at least 1,600 schools damaged or destroyed in the attacks, more than four million Yemeni children have been unable to attend school.

Most of the bombings in al-Hodeidah have targeted innocent civilians. Most of the victims are women and children, said Manal Qaed Alwesabi, a Yemeni journalist from Hodeida who documented Abu Bakrs story.

People were sure that if the bombings targeted and destroyed a populated area like this, no person or city will be exempt. Nothing was left untouched, not even the narrow alleyways that even cars cannot get through.

There are similar stories of indiscriminate bombings from within Yemens capital Sanaa.

All of us fear the raids and shelling, said 15-year-old Akram who was woken up and rocked by a large explosion on September 18, 2015.

His neighbours house was hit, killing 10 members of the family.

If the Saudis want to defeat the Houthis in Sanaa like they say, they should target the military. They dont have to bomb civilian houses or destroy our infrastructure. There is no excuse to bomb civilians, said Sanaa-based Yemeni journalist Ahmad Algohbary.

Children are scared of the bombing and the sound of the jets. Its difficult for them to study with the sound of Saudi jets hovering above the capital.

According to the UN, Yemen could become the worst humanitarian disaster in half a century.

As many as 76 percent of the population is in need of humanitarian aid.

As the war stretches on, Abu Bakr continues to live at his familys house.

It is very difficult to continue living in the area where all the members of my family were killed. But I dont have any other alternative. People think I am lucky because I am alive. But I feel very lonely without my family.

Yemens Skies of Terror is an immersive film by Contrast VR  Al Jazeeras immersive media studio  providing a rare glimpse of life inside war-torn Yemen. Filmed by journalists Manal Qaed Alwesabi and Ahmad Al Gohbari equipped with 360-degree cameras, the documentary shows the toll the war is taking on those who live in a constant state of fear.

Mobile users click here to view the documentary.Dire living conditions in Nigerias capital for thousands who escaped the armed groups violence in the northeast.

Abuja, Nigeria  Its a few minutes past 9am and Sunana Ibrahim Warigas daily struggle is just beginning. Wariga, a stocky 56-year old, is one of thousands who call Durumi camp in the capital home.

He escaped the deadly Boko Haram rebellion in his home state of Borno more than three years ago.

I used to be a farmer in Chinene village. They attacked my village and seized all my harvest. What they could not carry they burned, the husband of two wives told Al Jazeera, as children in school uniforms played nearby.

They burned 200 bags of beans that I harvested. We had to run for our lives. I had everything I wanted in life. I was paying the university fees of two of my children. Now, I cant feed myself let alone feed them, Wariga, a father of 10, said as he waited patiently for anyone to offer him a day job.

The eight-year campaign of violence by Boko Haram, which roughly translates to Western education is forbidden, has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced about 2.6 million others.

Miserable

Despite the governments military offensive against the armed group, which wants to establish a strict interpretation of Islamic law, Boko Haram has continued to carry out deadly attacks in northern Nigeria.

Many displaced by the violence have fled not just to other parts of Africas most populous country but also to neighbouring states. In Abuja, there are more than 10,000 people who escaped the countrys dangerous northeast to the city, according to a spokesman for IDPs.

There are 3,000 people in this camp alone. People have been here for five years. There is no food, no water, no healthcare and schools for the children. Life here is very tough, it is miserable, Idriss Ibrahim Halilu, a spokesman and coordinator for the Durumi IDP camp, told Al Jazeera.

Most of the children in Durumi IDP camp do not attend school [Hamza Mohamed/Al Jazeera]

Most internally displaced people try their luck in Abuja doing manual labour, but only a fortunate few find jobs to make ends meet. Others depend on handouts from good Samaritans.

Next to a dusty playground on the edge of the camp, a mother sits on a small piece of stone as the morning sun beats down on her face, palms on her cheeks.

Zaynab Umoru, 32, heard there is a charity organisation coming to provide food. It is almost midday but there is no sign of any such activity.

I got here four hours ago and so far no one is here. For two days, we have not cooked any food at home. Life is unbearable here, the mother of seven told Al Jazeera.

Umoru, like Wariga, moved to Abuja from Borno state. Shes been living in the camp for four years.

They came to our village at 5am in the morning and start firing. They gunned down any men they saw. We dressed our sons and husbands in women clothes before we escaped, Umoru said in a soft voice.





Better to die with dignity?

The internally displaced here say they feel abandoned by their government as basic essentials are not being provided.

But the Nigerian government says it is doing all in its power to meet their humanitarian needs, not just in the capital, but across the country.

IDPs issues have always been and will always be a priority for our government, Bitrus Samuel, the National Emergency Management Agencys head in Abuja, told Al Jazeera.

Since the beginning of the insurgency, the government has been providing for the humanitarian needs of IDPs in all designated camps: Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states, including the FCT [federal capital territory], despite the fact that it is not an officially designated IDP camp.

The agency has worked with NGOs and faith-based organisations in providing job-training skills to sustain their livelihoods and make them self-sufficient and independent, Samuel added.

The displaced here want to return to their homes, but the armed group continues to wage its violent campaign.

Last month, Boko Haram kidnapped 110 girls from a boarding school in Dapchi in Yobe state, in Nigerias northeast. Nearly all were later released with the armed group warning them to never return to school.

For many of IDPs in Abuja, the danger is too great for them to consider returning to their villages. But for Wariga, it is an option he is seriously considering.

Yes, Boko Haram might kill me if I go back, but is it not better to die with dignity than to live this life? he asked, pointing at the squalid shacks that thousands call home in the camp.

Follow Hamza Mohamed on Twitter: @Hamza_AfricaPrior to the Iranian Revolutions success in 1979, Iran was one of the few Muslim states that had good relations with Israel. In fact, the monarchy led by the deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi unfortunately contributed to paving the way for the Camp David agreement between Egypt and Israel. This was not easy for most Iranians, who saw the Palestinian cause as their cause.

So when the revolution toppled the old regime, among the first orders of business was to raise the Palestinian flag over the first Palestinian embassy. The revolution and its leaders always considered the Palestinian cause as their own. Therefore, and from the beginning, they did not bargain with this principle, even if it meant enduring pressure, sieges and wars. For the Islamic Republic of Iran, the pain, security and freedom of the Palestinian people and Arab countries is the pain, security and freedom of Iran.

Some have tried to turn the Arab world into a battlefield for settling scores and expanding interests. But the Islamic Republic of Iran believes that the security and stability of the Middle East is a crucial part of Irans security and stability  especially the security and prosperity of its neighbouring Arab countries, which is a priority for all.

Iran has always advocated for laying the foundations of joint security agreements based on dialogue, shared values and confidence-building measures as a first step out of the dark tunnel that is wearing everyone down. Iran has repeatedly extended its hand to everyone in order to preserve neighbourly ties and shared security concerns and interests. This is our responsibility to our people and future generations. The minimal base that we have now could evaporate, and we should build on it to reach an end to this current situation, which has lasted for too long.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is recommending a re-engineering of the region in a way that aims to achieve the common interests of all of the countries in the region, regardless of differences and disputes.

The external forces that have impact in this region have always favoured war. They repeat cycles of war, and never give peace a chance. They backed Saddam Husseins regime in its invasion of Iran and Kuwait, and later launched a war to overthrow him. They supported al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, and later launched campaigns to push them out. Then they supported various versions of the same groups in Syria, destroying the country and preparing to occupy it under the guise of fighting extremist groups. Israel waged wars on Lebanon, illegally occupies Palestine and repeatedly violates Syrian airspace. There is also the three-year-old war in Yemen, and massacres using Western weapons. With all the aforementioned and whats to come, how has our region benefited, and how did all of this reflect on the world?

It can be said that the policies of the last half-century have brought the world to what can be described as a crisis. The world today seems like its facing a dead end. International relations have become impervious to their historical and scientific foundations. And this region is gradually becoming a place that lacks minimal security and is plagued by all kinds of ethnic, national, sectarian, religious and tribal conflicts.

Security has become a scarce commodity between peoples that share a lot and differ on very little in this vast, single home. Arabs, Turks, Kurds, Persians and other peoples of the region have a shared history and culture, similar vocabulary and nearly identical customs and traditions.

So why do we ignore our commonalities and instead allow the logic of confrontation to lead? It can only lead to more widows of war, more hatred and a renewal of the wars of pre-Islamic times. We dont need a modern-day Dahis and Ghabra War (a pre-Islamic tribal war that lasted for decades, sparked by a horse race), nor a Basus War (another pre-Islamic tribal war that lasted for decades, sparked by the killing of a camel). If we dont want to repeat our history, we must see eye to eye and agree to resolve our differences on the table, not on the battlefield.

We are not suggesting we ignore our differences and disputes, but that we dont let them ruin our relations. The Islamic Republic of Iran is recommending a re-engineering of the region in a way that aims to achieve the common interests of all of the countries in the region, regardless of differences and disputes. In fact, those differences and disputes must be respected.

This re-engineering is based on containment, and it can prevent bigger parties from bullying the less-effective parties, allowing smaller states in the region to participate and have their interests safeguarded.

As for our Arab neighbours, with whom we share land or sea borders, our mutual security is based on common standards enshrined in United Nations charters, such as sovereignty, refraining from the threat or use of force, peaceful conflict resolution, respect for borders and territorial integrity, non-interference in internal affairs of other states, as well as the right to self-determination within each state.

Mutual security also requires serious measures to build confidence, such as notifications before starting military exercises, transparency in military procedures, reduction in military spending and reciprocal military visits.

We can begin by taking easier steps, such as encouraging tourism and investments between our countries, and joint projects for nuclear safety, fighting pollution and crisis management.

Once again, Iran extends its hand to its neighbours. This is not a manoeuver; it is a strategic choice. Iran truly believes that what brings us together is much greater than the differences that are based on uncertainty and fleeting interests that may not be a priority in the future. But if we wait, and if we dont act to make peace with each other, the next generations may not have enough to look each other in the eye and say enough is enough!

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.The US and Saudi Arabia established full diplomatic relations back in 1940, with the formal acceptance of the first American envoy to Saudi Arabia. The relations between the two countries were consolidated further in 1943 when the kingdoms founder, King Abdulaziz al Saud, sent two of his sons, Faisal and Khalid  both of them future kings  to the United States, following an official invitation by Franklin D Roosevelt. The trip was a success  The former American president met the princes in the White House, and they both returned home in awe of the American nation. Since then, the two countries have maintained a baseline of economic and security cooperation that has kept ties between them strong.

But in 2001, the 9/11 terror attacks -15 out of 19 attackers were Saudi nationals  turned the public opinion in the US against the kingdom and put a strain on relations. Later, in the last years of the Obama administration, the rift between the two countries grew further, as result of Saudi Arabias refusal to engage with Iran and the Obama administrations cautions to the kingdom about the civilian toll of the war in Yemen.

Mohamed bin Salman, known in the West as MBS, the young crown prince and de-facto king, who is currently touring the US, has been trying to hit the reset button in relations since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, hoping that the haze of his liberal-esque policies and state-wide economic visions will help wash away the allegations about his countrys involvement in the 9/11 terror attacks.

So far, bin Salman seems to have won over the president. During his first trip to Riyadh, the Saudis gave Donald Trump more than he asked for; business deals and arms sales corroborated to nearly half a trillion dollars, and the pitfalls of the last eight years of US-Saudi relations were blamed on Obamas administration. In terms of the larger region, bin Salman seems to have succeeded in presenting Iran as the bearer of the blame for the situations in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Palestine.

In Riyadh, Trump found a city that is reminiscent of his golden apartments and endless lines of yes-men. No other country would have spent as lavishly as the kingdom to guarantee that the president feels welcomed, and hears nothing but praise about himself and his administration. The scene was severely schizophrenic as it doesnt seem natural that a president who has instituted a Muslim ban would be welcomed with such hospitality.

Prior to bin Salmans meeting with Trump in Washington last week, Adel al-Jubier, Saudi Arabias minister of foreign affairs stated that relations with the US are at an all-time high, and anticipated a number of agreements to be signed on this trip in the fields of investment, trade, technology and education. During their White House meeting, Mr Trump very happily held up poster boards of current and future Saudi investments and deals remarking, three billion, $533m, $525m  thats peanuts for you, and the room erupted in laughter.

However, beyond these ambitious plans and regularly voiced pleasantries, it remains unclear as to what the future of the relationship between the two countries will look like.

One of the main challenges is the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), a bill passed  almost unanimously  by the Congress in 2016, which limited immunity given to sovereign states for their participation in international acts of terror. Following the passing of the law, over 850 families of victims and 1,500 injured Americans filed a lawsuit seeking retribution from the Saudis for the role they believe the kingdom played in the 9/11 attacks.

This poses a serious challenge to the nations bilateral relations.

Recently, it has been reported that the ambitious prince hopes to offer five percent of the two-trillion-dollar state-owned oil giant, Aramco, to the international market, as part of his 2030 economic vision. Trump jumped on this opportunity tweeting Would very much appreciate Saudi Arabia doing their IPO of Aramco with the New York Stock Exchange. Important to the United States!

However, the future of this plan looks uncertain, as Aramcos lawyers warn about litigation risks associated with JASTA. As both sides, Saudi and American, continue to avoid the elephant in the room, there is a good chance that their ambitious policies will be severely restricted.

Also, despite Trumps apparent support for the crown prince, Washington is not yet completely convinced by bin Salmans reformist credentials. One camp in the American capital believes that the 2030 vision and liberal-looking policies of the bin Salman may alter the perceptions of the American public about the kingdom, allowing the relations between the two countries to prosper once again. But others remain sceptical, believing the crown princes reform promises to be hasty  They argue that with bulging crises on the northern, southern, and eastern borders of the country, and an unpredictable domestic environment, bin Salman will not succeed in bringing substantial change and reform to the country. They even fear that bin Salmans aggressive policies may cause the US to lose an important ally in the Middle East in the long term.

Bin Salmans ongoing visit to the US is another sign that we are witnessing the beginning of a new chapter in the relations between Riyadh and Washington. Trump and bin Salman seem to still be in their honeymoon phase, filled with hopes and promises. But as the US courts proceed in their justice-seeking efforts for 9/11 victims, sobering moments will likely to ensue, challenging both nations limits of compromise.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.Victims celebrate court ruling for Hissene Habre, who is convicted of human rights abuses against thousands.

An appeals court in Senegal upheld the life sentence of Hissene Habre, former Chad president, on war crimes charges.

The court also ruled on Thursday that millions of dollars of compensation awarded to more than 4,000 victims would be managed by a trust fund.

The trial against Habre began in July 2015, though victims and survivors have been pursuing the case against their former leader for 16 years.

The victims leaving the court has smiles on their faces, said Al Jazeeras Colin Baker, reporting from Dakar.

Habre is the first former head of state to be convicted for human rights abuses in the court of another nation.

The court dropped the rape conviction against Habre because the charge was introduced during the trial, said head appeal judge Ougadeye Wafi.

However, the judge said he believed the accounts of a witness who said she was raped by Habre.

Images of torture under the former Chad dictators rule [Al Jazeera]

I have been fighting for this day since I walked out of prison more than 26 years ago. Today I am finally at peace. I hope that all the dictators in Africa take notice  no one is above the law! said Souleymane Guengueng, who began collecting accounts of survivors not long after being freed in 1990 from prison, and founded the Association of Victims of Crimes of the Regime of Hissene Habre.

Clement Abaifouta, the president of the association and a former prisoner who was forced to bury dead inmates, said this was the beginning of something new.

Today is a great and a famous day for all victims. I am dreaming of now building a new society without the violence, a new society with democracy and with respect for human beings, he said.

Over 90 witnesses testified in the trial.

The Extraordinary African Chambers was created by the African Union and Senegal to try Habre for crimes committed during his presidency from 1982 to 1990.

A 1992 Chadian Truth Commission accused Habres government of systematic torture, saying 40,000 people died during his rule.

Habre was first indicted by a Senegalese judge in 2000, but legal twists and turns over a decade saw the case go to Belgium and then finally back to Senegal after unwavering pursuit by the survivors.

Future war crimes cases

While it took decades for Habres case to come together, the methods used in trying the former president may be used in other trials going forward.

Some say that future war crime tribunals targeting Syrian officials could be next.

There was no precedent in Senegal of taking up these kind of cases beforehand, Stephen Rapp, a lawyer with The Hague Institute for Global Justice, told Al Jazeera. We have laws in Europe that allow cases to be brought if there is an impact of the crimes in Europe. And we have a massive impact of the crimes in Syria in Europe.

Just have to look at the refugees, of the 11 million people displaced in Syria, Rapp said.

Habres case contained powerful documentation, including files of his own political police, documents in his handwriting and testimonies from those who received his orders.

There is a similar trove of evidence relating to Syria available.

A special team set up by the UN to prepare prosecutions of war crimes committed in Syria was established earlier this year, though a commission of inquiry has been collecting evidence since 2011. That commission has amassed around 7,000 interviews and witness statements so far.

While Syria is not a member of the Rome Statute, and efforts to refer the conflict to the ICC have been vetoed by Russia and China in the past, justice may instead run by way of European courts.

I think the lesson here is that with solid documentation, with the dedication of victims, with the support of international organisations and some supportive states, you can achieve justice even in places even where people think its impossible, Rapp said.

Additional reporting by Jenna BelhumeurFrom college dropout to head of Catalonias regional government, former journalist eyes independence.

Standing inside the grand hall of the Palau de la Generalitat, the Catalan regional governments headquarters in the Spanish city of Barcelona, in early 2016, a 54-year-old bespectacled former journalist addressed a crowd of politicians and citizens.

Carles Puigdemont had just been inaugurated the Catalan president. Hanging around his neck was the gold medal of the government to symbolise his role as the 130th leader of the region.

With pro-independence flags fluttering inside and outside the hall, he declared, We have come from far, but we are not tired. We are full of hope.

Impossible is just an opinion.

Catalonia referendum: Latest updates

As two senior Spanish government officials from Madrid looked on, Puigdemont was defiant, vowing to consolidate support among the Catalans in his uphill effort to establish an independent republic.

We are pretty confident about the future of Catalonia within the European Union. It is a yes-yes situation, he said in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeeras John Hendren recently.

On October 1, 2017, millions of Catalans voted in a referendum, with the large majority of voters supporting independence. That same day, violence unfolded as the government in Madrid tried to stop the vote from happening.

In the weeks following the referendum, Puigdemont inched closer to his goal for his homeland, becoming the unlikely leader of a movement that started in a tiny town in the Catalan province of Girona.

Almost four weeks after the referendum, Catalonia officially declared independence, with the Spanish government in Madrid immediately triggering Article 155, which allows the national government to take direct control of Catalonia.

A day later, the Spanish government dismissed Puigdemont and his cabinet, calling for new regional elections on December 21.

Puigdemont and a handful of other Catalan ministers then left Barcelona for Belgium, where they remain.

Spain has issued an international arrest warrant for the Catalan leaders.

Puigdemont was the driving force behind Catalonia declaring independence on October 27. But who is the now sacked Catalan leader?

Catalonia referendum: Who are the Catalans?

He was born on December 29, 1962, in the Catalan region. At 16, he started working as a reporter for the local newspaper Diari de Girona.

At the University of Girona, Puigdemont studied Catalan philosophy. But he dropped out of university to become a full-time journalist.

After working for years for the now-defunct newspaper El Punt, he became its editor-in-chief in 1988. He wrote for the journal, Presencia and also founded the English-language magazine, Catalonia Today.

In 2006, Puigdemont left journalism to join a Catalan electoral alliance, which later turned into a pro-independence movement. Because of his background in communication, he also helped establish the Catalan News Agency, a digital native mouthpiece for the Catalan movement.

In 2011, he was elected mayor of Girona, the capital of the province of the same name. He was the first politician in 32 years to break the Socialist Party of Catalonias dominance in the city.





Puigdemont further burnished his political credentials among Catalans by becoming chairman of the Association of Municipalities for Independence and being elected a member of the regional parliament.

On January 10, 2016, he was elected president of Catalonia. He is the first Catalan president to not declare an oath of loyalty to the Spanish constitution and the current king, Felipe VI.

Amid criticism from the central government in Madrid for his role in the referendum, Puigdemont managed to push for the vote in the Catalan parliament. The voting was declared unconstitutional by the countrys courts.

However, Puigdemont and his supporters were defiant as he pushed for the regions second referendum on independence in three years. Of those that cast their ballots, a majority voted in favour of independence, leading to a political crisis in Spain.

On October 27, Catalonias future once again caused turmoil after the region declared independence from Spain.

Several hours after the declaration, Puigdemont was fired, and his regional government dissolved. The future of Puigdemont and the Catalan independence project is now uncertain.

The day after the declaration, the Spanish prime minister dissolved the Catalan Parliament and called for new regional elections on 21 December 2017.

On 30 October Puigdemont and other members of the Catalan government were charged with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds, charges that carry a maximum sentence of 30 years.

On the same day, Puigdemont and five other Catalan ministers fled to Belgium, having left Catalonia right after the charges were laid.

Puigdemont claimed he had gone to the capital of Europe to speak from a position of freedom and safety. He said that he wouldnt return to Spain unless he was guaranteed a fair trial.

On 7 December 2017, about 45,000 Catalan protesters descended on Brussels in support of the exiled president. The protests took place outside EU institutions aiming to put pressure on EU institutions to support the regions cause.

While remaining in self-exile, Puigdemont contested the regional elections on 21 December and was re-elected to Parliament. In the election, Catalan secessionists retained a slim majority in the Catalan Parliament.

After the election, Puigdemont called for new unconditional talks with the Spanish government and proposed to meet Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy outside Spain, but the latter rejected the offer.

On 25 March 2018, while travelling from Finland to Brussels by car, Puigdemont was detained by German police on the border with Denmark.

The German officers were acting on a European arrest warrant that had been issued against him by the Spanish Supreme Court.Groups raise alarm as security forces open fire on protesting students after government crackdown on Islamic school.

Security forces killed at least 28 people in rare protests in the Eritrean capital, an opposition group has claimed, raising concerns from human rights groups and activists.

The violence witnessed in demonstrations in Asmara on Tuesday also prompted a safety warning from the US embassy in Eritrea, which confirmed receiving reports of gunfire and advised people to stay away from areas where protests were taking place.

The opposition Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization wrote on its Facebook page on Wednesday: This uprising has left 28 martyrs and 100 wounded  we call on the international community and human rights organisations to bring those involved to justice.

Activists told Al Jazeera that the protests began on Tuesday after the government ordered an Islamic school to ban the headscarf and halt religious education.

The violence centred on the predominantly-Muslim neighbourhood of Akriya, where the Diaa Islamic School of Asmara of 3,000 students is located.

Displays of public protests are rare in Eritrea, a country often criticised for human rights abuses.

President Isaias Afwerki has been in power since 1993.

Hundreds of students reportedly joined the protests, and the crowds continued to grow later.

The US embassy has not confirmed the deaths.

Black hawk dawn moment

The government attempted to confiscate Al Diaa Islamic School, an institution established in the late 1960s, Meron Estefanos, an activist based in Sweden, told Al Jazeera.

The current unrest was triggered by the governments arrest of Haj Mussa who was the honourary president of the Al Diaa school.

She claimed that security forces beat students, who retaliated by throwing stones.

{articleGUID}

Soon, the rallies spread to the streets of central Asmara where the security forces used brute force to quell the protests, she said.

This moment is the true meaning of a bottled up feelings and years worth of oppression that is now surfacing. I believe the people of Eritrea have tolerated so many things for so long and now it is time to express and stand up for their rights.

But Yemane G Meskel, Eritreas minister of information, dismissed the reports of casualties.

Small demonstration by one school in Asmara dispersed without [casualties] hardly breaking news, he tweeted.

Eritrea, which borders Ethiopia, Sudan and Djibouti, often features towards the very end of indices on freedom of expression, close to countries such as North Korea.

I think its a draconian measure, yet again in controlling the Eritrean public and squeezing out any public space and any freedom of expression, Selam Kidane, a London-based activist, told Al Jazeera.

Asmara is a peaceful city, but this has been described as a black hawk dawn moment  nursery school children were being chased through the streets.

She said that young people have taken matters into their own hands because Eritrea is a country ruled by fear.

People are taking enormous risk and its a courageous step to take, Kidane said.

Bound to happen

In June this year, Sheila B Keetharuth, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, said citizens suffer arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, enforced disappearances, and a national service system that amounts to enslavement.

Tuesdays protests have opened a big door, Saleh Gadi Johar, a California-based author and activist, told Al Jazeera.

{articleGUID}

They [people] snapped. Even if its quelled for a time, it will rise again. I expect others are inspired. All denominations of Eritreans  particularly the young -have joined.

Johar, who also edits awate.com, a dissident website, said he believes the Eritrean government would arrest anybody it didnt like.

The warning from the US embassy, he said, was not a sign of a major political development.

I dont expect anything from US and West when Eritreans are suffering. Its politics as usual.

Being an Eritrean, I dont wish any bloodshed of violence for my country  people have gone through a lot. I wish for a peaceful transition to calm. But if that doesnt come, then such appeal should be expected. Its sad its happened, but it was bound to happen.

Follow Anealla on Twitter: @aneallaEthiopian security forces have re-arrested a number of recently freed politicians and journalists as they gathered for a social event outside the capital with family and friends, a lawyer said on Monday.

Amha Mekonnen has represented a number of the detainees. The lawyer told the Associated Press news agency the arrests Sunday afternoon occurred because they were accused of displaying a prohibited national flag.

I also understand they were accused of gathering en masse in violation of the state of emergency rule.

Among those arrested are journalists Eskinder Nega and Temesgen Desalegn, politician Andualem Aragie and prominent blogger Befekadu Hailu.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

State of emergency

Under Ethiopias latest state of emergency declared earlier this year, people are prohibited from such gatherings without authorities prior knowledge. A proclamation regarding the use of the Ethiopian flag prohibits the display of the flag without the emblem at its centre and those contravening the law could be sentenced to up to a year and a half in prison.

In a surprise move early this year, Ethiopias Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced that members of political parties and other individuals would be released from prison in an effort to open up the political space for all after months of the worst anti-government protests in a quarter-century.

Several dozen journalists, politicians, activists and others arrested under a previous state of emergency were freed. Since then, however, the prime minister announced his plans to resign, and Ethiopia introduced a state of emergency for the second time in two years.

A new prime minister is expected to be installed by the ruling coalition in the coming days.

Ethiopia is one of Africas most prominent economies, Africas second-most populous country and a key security ally of the West but is often accused by rights groups and opposition groups of stifling dissent and arresting opposition party members, journalists, activists and bloggers.Japans first lady, Akie Abe, once known mainly for embracing progressive causes that put her at odds with her conservative spouse, is now in the hot seat as doubts revive about a murky land sale to a nationalist school to which she had ties.

Opposition parties are demanding she testify in parliament about her ties to Moritomo Gakuen, the nationalist school operator whose deeply discounted purchase of state-owned land is at the heart of a suspected cronyism scandal and possible cover-up that has sliced Prime Minister Shinzo Abes support ratings.

The finance ministry admitted on March 12 that it had altered documents about the deal, including removing references to Akie Abe.

Her husband has denied he or his wife intervened in the sale or that he ordered a cover-up.

Paradoxical views

Akie Abe, 55, has made waves since her husband returned to office in 2012 for a second term with activities that include taking part in an LGBT rights parade, opposing nuclear power, and visiting protesters against a planned US military facility on Okinawa  all positions that resonate with liberals.

She also runs a tiny organic restaurant and has spoken in favour of legalising cannabis for medical use.

Her views won her the nickname domestic opposition.

Akie Abe has also, however, at times publicly aligned more closely with her husbands conservative views.

She has visited Tokyos Yasukuni Shrine for war dead, seen by China and South Korea as a symbol of Japans past militarism because it also honours World War II leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal.

Abe visited Yasukuni once in December 2013 but has since stayed away.

Those who know Abe see nothing surprising in her holding seemingly paradoxical views. She doesnt act based on theory or logic, but from the heart, said non-profit president Toyonaga.

No comment

Since the Moritomo scandal burst onto the political scene this month, she has not commented directly on the matter.

Akie Abe has been criticised for her seeming clueless about the situation in which she finds herself.

On the evening of March 9  the day media reported police were investigating as a possible suicide the death of a finance official at the local bureau handling the land deal  Akie Abe attended a party hosted by a Japanese celebrity, according to a photo posted on the celebritys Instagram account, local media reported. The photo does not now appear on that Instagram feed.

Also on March 9, she posted on Facebook photos of herself smiling at an International Womens Day art fair the previous day. Some comments posted in response called her thoughtless and a murderer, while other expressed support.

Some critics have suggested she should lay low now.

Many people are fascinated by Mrs Akies free-style life that doesnt fit the mould of previous first ladies, reporter Makiko Takita, a woman, wrote in the conservative Sankei newspaper.

But now the administration is in a tight spot and her inappropriate words and actions are  pulling the rug out from under it, Takita added. This is overstepping the bounds towards the prime ministers wife, but wouldnt it be a good idea to restrain your activities?

The prime minister is opposed to her testifying, but 62 percent of respondents to a Nikkei business daily poll published on Monday said she should answer questions in parliament. The survey showed Abes support sank to 42 percent while those opposed to his cabinet jumped to 49 percent.

Until the scandal broke last year, Akie Abe was set to become honorary principal of an elementary school that Moritomo Gakuen planned to open in western Japan on the discounted land.

She also visited a kindergarten run by Moritomo whose curriculum had echoes of prewar nationalist education centred on the emperor.The report, which puts the number of Palestinians at 6.8 million, does not include Jerusalem residents.

More Arabs than Jews inhabit Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, according to an official from Israels military-run civil administration.

Speaking before the Knessets Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee on Monday, Colonel Haim Mendez told legislators that five million Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip while another 1.8 million Arabs live inside Israel.

This puts the tally of Palestinians at about 6.8 million, in contrast to 6.5 million Jewish citizens of Israel.

Citing figures from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Mendes said the number of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza does not include residents of East Jerusalem, who fall under Israeli jurisdiction.

The Palestinian CBS has three million listed as residents of Judea and Samaria today. We estimate that there are actually 2.5 to 2.7 million Palestinians, because dead people are still registered, and because of emigration to countries around the world. For example, a Palestinian born in Brazil, who lived there his whole life, can still register and receive a Palestinian passport, Mendes said.

The presentation set off fierce debate about the authenticity of the numbers reported given their Palestinian provenance.

Avi Dichter, Israels foreign affairs and defence committee chairman, expressed surprise at the numbers presented and asked that these be verified.

This is a totally new figure, which is very significant and surprising  If its accurate, its surprising and disconcerting, he said.

If its not accurate, then we want to know the accurate figure, of course.

Moti Yogev, a Knesset member of the far right Jewish Home party, dismissed the report as inaccurate, reflecting the scepticism other parliamentarians had shown vis-a-vis the study.

Unfortunately, COGAT [the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories] is not fulfilling its responsibility to count and know how many Palestinians are in Judea and Samaria, or at least in Area C which is under its authority, he said.

Yogev, who heads the subcommittee for Judea and Samaria, said the numbers did not add up since there are ten times more births than deaths reported, a life expectancy he says doesnt exist anywhere in the world.

Ahmed Tibi, an Arab member of Israels knesset, said on Twitter the numbers did not surprise him, adding that whoever destroys the two-state vision must decide: either one democratic state with equal rights or an apartheid state.

National narrative

Demography has long been the site of a battle between the two people as it could affect the outcome of peace negotiations and alter the national narrative of both parties.

Proponents of Zionism have argued that a one-state solution with an Arab majority could jeopardise the very nature of its Jewish polity.

Amir Peretz, former defence minister and leader of the centre-left Zionist Union party, said only an independent Palestinian state could guarantee a Jewish, democratic state.

Whether there are two or three million Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, its clear that at this rate Israel will not remain a Jewish state, and we are moving towards a one-state solution, he said.

Only separating into two states will ensure security and economic growth in a democratic state with a Jewish majority.

Ayman Odeh, Arab member of the parliament, echoed Peretzs sentiment on Twitter.

 [] the crossroads where we presently find ourselves is clear: either two states based on 1967, or one state that is an apartheid state, or one democratic state in which everyone has the right to vote, he said.

There is no other option, and at least this simple truth has to be stated clearly.

Representative Ofer Shelah of the centrist Yesh Atid party said Israel must part ways with the Palestinians to save the Zionist vision of a Jewish society.

If we dont separate from the Palestinians, Israel will not be able to be Jewish, if we annex Judea and Samaria, or democratic if we continue ruling over them without rights We must separate or endanger the Zionist vision.Catalonias ex-President Carles Puigdemonts will remain in German custody as protesters rally for jailed leaders.

A German court has ordered former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont to remain in prison pending a decision on an extradition request from Spain.

Puigdemont was arrested after he crossed from Denmark into Germany on his way to Belgium where he fled after the Spanish national government imposed direct rule over Catalonia after Catalonias leaders declared independence on October 27, 2017.

Spain issued a European arrest warrant for the former leader on Friday. Spanish prosecutors have sought to charge Puigdemont with sedition and rebellion.

Puigdemont appeared calm and tranquil at his hearing, Georg-Friedrich Guentge, prosecutor from the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, said on Monday.

A tracking device was reportedly placed in Puigdemonts car by Spanish investigators.

He was on his way back from a trip to Helsinki, Finland, when German authorities detained him, presumably with the help of the geolocation information.

Wave of protests

After the European arrest warrant was issued on Friday, a wave of protests erupted in the region.

Roughly 55,000 people took to the streets in central Barcelona, according to estimates from Spanish news agency Efe.

Smaller demonstrations were held in several other cities across Catalonia.

The protesters in Barcelona marched between the central offices of the European Commission and the German consulate, venting their anger over the arrest.

Thousands of protesters also responded to the Committees for the Defence of the Republic and other groups calls and gathered in front of the Spanish governments Catalonia delegation, where clashes with police ensued.

At least 89 people were injured in clashes and four arrests were made.

Tensions in Catalonia remain high and its separatist leaders abandoned plans to name a new president after the arrest on Friday of the latest candidate, Jordi Turull, sparked protests in Barcelona.

Puigdemonts Belgian lawyer thinks his client will be released soon under conditions. He would then be able to fight the extradition request for freedom.

The president of the Catalan independence movement ANC made an urgent appeal to the European Union, and in particular to Germany, not to extradite Puigdemont to Madrid. Supporters of the separatist leader have announced more demonstrations.

Puigdemont will remain in the Neumunster prison in the countrys north until German authorities decide on his extradition.US, Canada, Australia, 18 EU states, and seven non-EU states have announced the expulsion of 123 Russian diplomats.

Twenty-five European countries, Australia, Canada and the US have announced that they will be expelling 123 Russian diplomats over the coming week.

Days later Russia responded in kind, expelling an equal number of diplomats from those countries, except Belgium, Hungary, Georgia and Montenegro. It also announced that the UK diplomatic mission to Moscow will have to cut staff by another 50 diplomats.

Last week, the UK expelled 23 Russian officials. In addition, Bulgaria and Luxemburg recalled their ambassadors from Moscow for consultations.

NATO also expelled seven diplomats from Russias mission to the alliance.

Earlier in March, UKs Prime Minister Theresa May accused Russia of being behind the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

The two were found unconscious on a bench near a shopping centre in the English town of Salisbury on March 4.

The UK government has claimed that a Russian-made nerve agent was used to poison the two. Russia has denied the accusations and last week expelled 23 UK diplomats.

In response, on Friday, heads of European Union countries held a special meeting to decide on measures they can take in support of the UK, which is currently in the process of leaving the union. NATO allies  US and Canada  also decided to take action in solidarity with London.

Here is a breakdown of the number of Russian diplomats each country has vouched to expel.

European Union member states:

France  4

Poland  4

Germany  4

Lithuania  3

Czech Republic  3

Denmark  2

Italy  2

Spain  2

Netherlands  2

Estonia  1

Latvia  1

Sweden  1

Belgium  1

Finland  1

Romania  1

Croatia  1

Hungary  1

Ireland  1

Total: 35

Non-EU European states:

Ukraine  13

Moldova  3

Albania  2

Norway  1

Macedonia  1

Georgia  1

Montenegro  1

Total: 22

Other countries:

US  60

Canada  4

Australia  2

Total: 66

NATO:

NATO  7CENTCOM calls reports suggesting that Washington is getting out the two bases false and without merit.

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) has denied reports that its forces were leaving the Incirlik base in Turkey and the Al Udeid base in Qatar.

In a statement on its Twitter page on Sunday, CENTCOM said: The US is not leaving Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, nor is the US leaving Al Udeid AB, Qatar. These reports are false and without merit.

The US Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT) also tweeted that such reports had zero credibility.

These unhelpful reports feed mistrust and division among regional partners at a time when we need to work together to address shared security concerns, it said.

The US is not leaving Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, nor is the US leaving Al Udeid AB, Qatar. These reports are false and without merit.  U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 25, 2018

A report by an Israeli website suggested on March 22 that the US was in the process of leaving both bases.

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US authorities have said at various times that multiple recent tensions between Washington and Ankara do not affect the US armys operations in Turkey.

Earlier in March, Johnny Michael, the spokesperson for the US European Command (EUCOM), denied speculative reports that the US military reduced its operations at Incirlik base, adding that all military activities continued normally.

A day before Michaels remarks, a Wall Street Journal report suggested that the US sharply reduced combat operations at the airbase and was considering permanent cutbacks there.

Relations between Ankara and Washington have been tense due to the US support for Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) fighters in northern Syria and Turkeys recent military operation against the same fighters in the northwestern Syrian region of Afrin.

US military base in Qatar

Last December, the former commander of the US Fifth Fleet John W Miller said that the US needs the Al Udeid airbase in order to combat terrorism in the region, and that leaving it would be viewed by political adversaries as a victory.

Walking away from Al Udeid airbase, rather than continuing to work with Qatar to align policies would set a terrible example throughout the region, would make combat, logistic and intelligence gathering operations more challenging, Miller said.

In February, the Defense One website quoted a US spokesperson for Al Udeid who said that the airbase will undergo projects regarding infrastructure development throughout the military establishment.

There are currently more than 9,000 US soldiers, most of them from the Air Force, and 100 military aircrafts on Al Udeid, which lies about 30km west of Doha.

It is is the main air operations centre for the US Central Command, with cargo aircrafts, strategic bombers, and aircraft refuelers.Eastern Ghouta refugees: We left our history, our memories

Syrian government forces have regained control of nearly all of Eastern Ghouta. The area had been the last rebel stronghold close to the capital Damascus.Egyptians will head to the polls on Monday in a presidential election analysts have called a sham.

Millions of voters in Egypt will begin to head to the polls on Monday, in a three-day presidential election that political analysts say already has a determined outcome.

There are 60 million eligible voters.

The National Election Authority has cleared President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Moussa Mustafa Moussa of Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) Party to run.

Despite the absence of polling, Sisi is expected to win after eliminating any real political opposition.

In 2014, when Sisi first ran for president, less than half of the eligible voters cast their ballot, with the former military commander receiving 96.9 percent of the votes.

Critics called it a sham election, however.

This year, the economy has emerged as one of the top concerns in the minds of Egyptian voters.

Al Jazeera spoke to some voters in Egypt and asked them to weigh in on the electoral process.

We need jobs

We just want young people to find jobs. I am on my way looking for work right now.

There is a lack of medicine

Asked whether the government should subsidise the campaign of candidates running for president, one voter said:

No, it is better if we use it for other things like water, electricity, health and medicine. Its unfair that people are dying due to the lack of medicine.

Sisi has no real challenger

It seems to me that Sisi has no real challenger. He eliminated everyone running against him. Honestly, I am not participating in the election. I dont want to vote. Either way, we know who is going to win, so there is no need for anyone to vote.

Sisi is trying to develop infrastructure

I will be voting for el-Sisi.

The government needs to focus on road infrastructure planning, hospitals and education. There isnt a lot of income now, but it is because the president is trying to develop the infrastructure.

I wont vote

Im not participating in the election. I would not vote for anyone because no one has an election programme.

Does anyone have an election programme? Maybe there is something I dont know about. El-Sisi doesnt have a programme, neither does Moussa Mustafa Moussa, so I wont vote.

I will vote for Sisi

Without a doubt, I will be voting for Sisi. Even if he doesnt have any election programme, I will vote for him.

This time, I dont really know



Look, I voted for Sisi the last time. This time, I dont really know. I wont vote for the one I dont know for sure, so maybe Ill vote for Sisi and just hope hell do good things for us.

Hes done some great achievements and everyone has seen them, but maybe the rise in prices is upsetting some people. But, God willing, life will be better.

This is Sisis moment

At this stage, this is Sisis moment. I will vote for Sisi, because in these tough times, when everyone is fighting you, internally and externally, you need him. Hes a genius.Egypt election: A look at Sisis unfulfilled promises

Al Jazeera takes a look at some of the promises Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has struggled to keep during his time as Egypts president.Turkish leader says intelligence chief will meet an Iraqi official over presence of Kurdish fighters in Sinjar region.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his countrys intelligence chief is set to meet an Iraqi official to discuss an Iraqi military operation in the northern Sinjar region, where Ankara says Kurdish fighters have established a base.

Erdogan said on Monday that he was told by the Turkish intelligence that Iraqs central government were involved with a military operation in Sinjar, a region situated on the Turkish-Iraqi border.

He affirmed the reports that Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) members, seen by Ankara as terrorists, were withdrawing from Sinjar and Iraqi troops were being deployed to the region.

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We hope that the Iraqi central government will carry out this operation in Sinjar properly, Erdogan said, adding that Turkey will do what is necessary if the Iraqi governments operation failed.

He added that Ankara was following the developments on the field regarding the operation in question.

Erdogan announced that Turkeys intelligence chief is to meet an Iraqi official, who is scheduled to arrive in Turkey on Monday, over the Sinjar issue.

The presidents statement came during a news conference held in the face of his visit to the Bulgarian city of Varna to attend the EU-Turkey summit.

PKK announces withdrawal

A PKK-linked group, quoted by the Kurdish Iraqi media, last week announced the withdrawal of the PKK fighters from Sinjar, saying that the Yazidi minority there did not face a security threat any more.

The announcement follows Turkeys ultimatum that it will carry out a military operation against the PKK fighters if they do not withdraw from Sinjar.

The PKK says it entered Sinjar in 2014 to help defend the Yazidi people against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

The armed group has waged a decades-long armed fight against the Turkish state that has killed tens of thousands of people.Poland, Lithuania and Latvia recall ambassadors from Moscow as the EU is expected to expel more Russian diplomats.

Moscow, Russia  Fourteen European Union countries have taken a decision to expel Russian diplomats, Donald Tusk, President of the European Council said on Monday. The decision was made last Friday during a meeting of EU leaders.

Earlier on Monday, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania withdrew their ambassadors from Moscow, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing unknown reasons for the move.

Brussels already recalled Markus Ederer, head of the European Union Delegation in Russia, for consultations. The move came days after London expelled 23 Russian diplomats and Moscow responded with the same measure.

Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian presidency, told Russian media that Russia has not received any official notification from the US regarding the expulsion of Russian diplomats and that Moscow is ready to respond in kind.

Of course, in any such case [of expulsions], it is clear that the principle of reciprocity will be employed, he said.

Tensions in UK-Russian relations escalated after UK Prime Minister Theresa May accused Russia of poisoning former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve agent.

On March 4, Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench near a shopping centre in the town of Salisbury, 120km southwest of London. They are both still in a critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital.

Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer accused of spying for the UK. He was imprisoned in 2006 and later exchanged for Russian citizens accused of espionage in the US.

On March 19, representatives of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) collected samples and their results are expected to be released in a week.

According to Russian analyst and journalist Konstantin Eggert, if the results of the OPCW investigation show a Russian link, the diplomatic crisis would worsen.

Moscow will now try to divide the EU into two camps  the radical pro-British camp and those who they would think followed the EU because of the demands for solidarity rather than out of conviction, Eggert said.

In his opinion, the UK will also gradually escalate its measures against Russia.

It is quite conceivable to me that quite soon there will be a British version of the Magnitsky Law and it seems that the desire to clamp down on Russian wealth in the UK is the most serious of all others over the last 15-17 years, he said.

Russian state media denials

On the eve of the latest expulsions of Russian diplomats, Russian state media dedicated much time to appearances of officials and coverage of the Skripal case, claiming that Russia has been falsely accused of poisoning Skripal.

What Britain is doing right now is black PR on an international scale, said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zaharova on state TV channel Rossiya 1.

She said that Britain is rushing in its investigation and sending illiterate responses to inquiries of the Russian embassy in London. She also questioned the validity of the OPCW investigation.

Earlier the same day, Peskov told Russian state channel NTV that Britains behaviour is bordering on banditry in international relations. What is behind this? Either internal problems in Britain or problems between Britain and its allies, or something else.

Meanwhile, state TV channel Rossiya 24 aired an extensive report on the Skripal case claiming that May is lying because the nerve gas agent Novichok does not exist.

The same day, a popular on Rossiya 1 late-night talk show with Vladimir Solovyev, a media personality thought to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, featured an interview with a Russia chemical weapons specialist who alleged that the US has also developed a substance like the one believed to have poisoned Skripal and his daughter.

According to Mark Galeotti, senior research fellow at the Institute of International Relations in Prague, the targeting of Skripal was meant to send a signal to the West.

Presumably, if they decided to target Skripal [], they had two options  one, do it subtly, and two, do it demonstratively and they clearly made a choice, Galeotti told Al Jazeera.

In his opinion, Russia will continue to employ similar provocative tactics with the West.

[These tactics] keep Russia bubbling up in the news and in the attention of the West, he said.

Putins aim is to force the West into recognising Russia as a big power.A list of nations that will expel Russian diplomats and alleged agents over the poisoning attack of a former spy.

The following are diplomatic measures announced against Russia by the United States, Canada, several EU countries, and Ukraine in response to the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal with a military-grade nerve agent in the English town of Salisbury.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the attack.

Britain  Expelled 23 Russians alleged to have worked as spies under diplomatic cover. Promised to freeze any Russian state assets that may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents.

United States  Expelling 60 Russians, including 12 intelligence officers from Russias mission to UN headquarters in New York. Closing Russian consulate in Seattle.

Canada  Expelling four Russians alleged to have worked as spies or interfered in Canadian affairs under diplomatic cover. Denying three applications for Russian diplomatic staff.

France  Expelling four diplomats

Germany  Expelling four diplomats

Poland  Expelling four diplomats

Italy  Expelling two diplomats

Lithuania  Expelling three diplomats

Czech Republic  Expelling three diplomats

Netherlands  Expelling two diplomats

Denmark  Expelling two diplomats

Latvia  Expelling one diplomat

Estonia  Expelling one diplomat

Finland  Expelling one diplomat

Sweden  Expelling one diplomat

Ukraine  Expelling 13 Russian diplomats

Romania  Expelling one diplomat

Croatia  Expelling one diplomat

Russian response:

Russia has expelled 23 British diplomats and closed the British consulate in St Petersburg and the British Council cultural body.

Russia said on Monday it will respond to all the unfriendly moves, but didnt immediately say how.

RIA Novosti news agency quoted an unnamed foreign ministry source as saying: The response will be symmetrical. We will work on it in the coming days and will respond to every country in turn.Trump orders expulsion of dozens of Russian officials, as EU announces 17 member states will ask diplomats to leave.

Moscow, Russia  US President Donald Trump has ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians as the diplomatic dispute between Russia and the UK intensifies over a spy poisoning case.

Up to 17 EU countries have also announced that they will expel 34 Russian diplomats.

The US  backing its closest ally  said on Monday it was closing the Russian consulate in Seattle in response to the attempted assassination of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Both are critically ill in a UK hospital after being poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent in the southern English city of Salisbury last month.

The United States takes this action  in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world  in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilising activities around the world, the White House said in a statement.

Sarah Sanders, White House press secretary, said the US and its allies want to send a message to Russia that actions have consequences.

Many of the Russians expelled were intelligence officials.

Russias ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, responded by saying the US decision was wrongful, RIA news agency reported.

What the United States of America do today is they are destroying the little that is left from the Russian-American relations, he said.

The Russian embassy in the US asked Twitter followers to vote which US consulates they would close in Russia, if they could decide.

Besides the embassy in Moscow, the US has three consulates in the country.

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Maria Zaharova, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, told state TV channel Rossia1 that Russia will respond in kind to every country involved in the expulsions. She also accused the US and the UK of setting up the attack against Skripal.

Boris Johnson, Britains foreign secretary, said the coordinated move was the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever.

He called it an extraordinary international response by our allies and showed that Russia cannot break international rules with impunity.

Todays extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever & will help defend our shared security. Russia cannot break international rules with impunity  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 26, 2018

Meanwhile, 17 EU member states have decided to impose various diplomatic measures against Russia.

These include France, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Sweden, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Romania, Croatia and Ireland; in total they are expelling 34 Russian diplomats.

In addition, non-EU countries Norway, Albania, Macedonia, and Ukraine have announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats.

Earlier on Monday, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania withdrew their ambassadors from Moscow and on Friday, the EU recalled the head of its permanent delegation to Russia, Markus Ederer, for consultations.

Canada said on Monday it was expelling four Russian diplomats and denying accreditation for three more in response to a despicable, heinous and reckless nerve agent attack earlier this month in Britain.

The four have been identified as intelligence officers or individuals who have used their diplomatic status to undermine Canadas security or interfere in our democracy, Chrystia Freeland, Canadas foreign minister, said in a statement.

Early on Tuesday, Australia also announced it will be expelling two Russian diplomats.





Britain accuses Russia of using the nerve agent Novichok in the Salisbury attack. Last week, the UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats and their families.

Moscow denies the nerve agent claims and retaliated by forcing the same number of British embassy staff to leave Russia.

On March 4, Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench near a shopping centre in the town of Salisbury, 120km southwest of London.

They are both still in a critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital.

Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer accused of spying for the UK, who was imprisoned in 2006 and later exchanged for Russian citizens accused of espionage in the US.

On March 19, representatives of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) collected samples and their results are expected to be released in a week.

Potentially worsening relations

According to Russian analyst and journalist Konstantin Eggert, if the results of the OPCW investigation show a Russian link, the diplomatic crisis would worsen.

Moscow will now try to divide the EU into two camps  the radical pro-British camp and those who they would think followed the EU because of the demands for solidarity rather than out of conviction, Eggert said.

In his opinion, the UK will also gradually escalate its measures against Russia.

It is quite conceivable to me that quite soon there will be a British version of the Magnitsky Law and it seems that the desire to clamp down on Russian wealth in the UK is the most serious of all others over the last 15-17 years, he said.Experts say appointments of Iran hardliners in Trumps cabinet signal to Tehran that the 2015 pact may be doomed.

Shortly before the US presidential election in 2016, Mike Pompeo, a member of Congress known for his hard line on foreign policy, was asked on Fox News what he thought of the Iran nuclear deal under the Obama administration.

Pompeo said then-Republican candidate Donald Trump was right in calling it a disaster.

What America ought to do, and with a new president, ought to talk to the Iranians and explain to them, those agreements are off, Pompeo said.

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Weeks before that, John Bolton, another foreign policy hawk, sounded the same ominous message when he spoke to a right-wing group in California, about the spread of radical Islam and its threat to the West.

Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, reserved his most disdain on Irans religious leaders, and then tore into the 2015 nuclear deal calling it the worst act of appeasement in American history.

The government in Tehran is left with an essentially unimpeded path towards nuclear weapons, he said, ignoring multiple findings by UN nuclear inspectors that contradict his claim.

Without offering evidence, Bolton told the crowd that Iranian nuclear weapons could be delivered through ballistic missiles, or smuggled by terrorists into the US, and detonated at a time most suitable to them.

More than a year after making those pronouncements, Pompeo and Bolton are now at the forefront of US foreign policy and national security, as Trumps secretary of state and national security adviser following the abrupt removal of their predecessors.

The two appointments, made at a time when the US president is threatening to withdraw from the deal, send a clear signal to Tehran that the nuclear agreement may be doomed, Iran experts said.

On Sunday, Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, an Iran parliament spokesman, said that by picking Pompeo and Bolton, Trump proves that the final US purpose is overthrowing the Islamic Republic [of Iran].

Recent protests in Iran were blamed on the countrys faltering economy [Al Jazeera]

Deal on life support

Describing the mood in Iran, Amir Havasi, a Tehran-based journalist and analyst, said, Theres consensus that the deal will go under, come May.

Irans most senior officials have yet to weigh in on the news, Havasi noted. But the possibility that Tehran would be open to a dialogue with the US now seems even more unlikely, he added.

If anything, the political establishment would be in a potential damage control situation, Havasi told Al Jazeera, referring to Irans response if the deal collapses.





The signs are everywhere, he said, pointing to efforts to look for alternatives to the US dollar for trade and the banning of imports using the greenbacks.

He also said that senior Iranian economists have expressed skepticism about what Europe can do if Trump refuses to waive sanctions next time.

Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, a Middle East security expert at Londons Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said the deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is on life support.

The likelihood that a waiver on the US sanctions will not be renewed on May 12 has increased quite a lot, Tabrizi told Al Jazeera.

She said that right after Tillerson was removed in favour of Pompeo, European diplomats turned from being optimistic in finding a solution to Trumps demands, to preparing for contingency plans to defend their interests in the deal.

So imagine now, she said referring to Boltons impending arrival at the White House.

Under the deal signed in Vienna, Iran scaled back its uranium enrichment programme and promised not to pursue nuclear weapons. In exchange, international sanctions were lifted, allowing it to sell its oil and gas worldwide. However, secondary US sanctions remain.

The sanctions waiver and certification on Irans compliance, issued by the US every few months, were meant to allay American apprehension over the deal, while easing concerns among foreign businesses who want to invest in Iran.

Trumps threat

But since Trump came to office, he has taken several steps to block the deal. In October, he refused to certify that Iran is living up to the accord. He also targeted several Iranian businesses and individuals with new sanctions.

Then on January 12, Trump announced he is waiving the US sanctions for the last time. He said, if his demands are not met within 120 days, the US will withdraw from the deal. The deadline is on May 12, although he hinted that the US could cut loose before that date.





Iran said it should not be punished for abiding by the deal, and should first see its economic benefits before it would be willing to talk about other issues.

Contrary to Trumps claim, it insisted that Tehran will never pursue nuclear weapons despite the expiration of some provisions under the pact.

Iranian officials also rejected Trumps additional demands for more inspections of its military sites and an end to its ballistic missile programme.

Mohammad Hashemi, a political expert and journalist in Tehran, said Iran has the right to reject more US demands because it has legitimate concerns over its defence.

He said Iran has not benefited from the existing deal, because of fear of US sanctions by foreign investors, and the foot-dragging of banks on Irans re-entry into the global financial network.

So, why should Tehran agree to come to the table and discuss new issues?

In recent months, the country was faced with protests partly blamed on the economy. Its currency has also lost more value against the US dollar and unemployment remains in double digits.

Bomb Iran

Within the Trump cabinet, Pompeo has served as the presidents cheerleader against the Iran deal.

Days before his appointment as Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director was announced, Pompeo already made his objective clear on social media, I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the worlds largest state sponsor of terrorism.





At the CIA, he backed the presidents decision to decertify the deal, defying then US Secretary of State Rex Tillersons recommendation, according to Foreign Policy. He also repeatedly cast doubt on the deal, while trying to link Iran to al-Qaeda.

He compared Iran to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), failing to mention that Iran-backed forces fought against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

As an outside adviser during Trumps first year in office, Bolton sounded no different from Pompeo. In October, he praised Trumps decision not to certify the Iran deal, telling Fox News the president signalled pretty clearly, that he expects to get out of it in due course.

My preference is, and I have said it all along, that we are just going to abrogate and get out of it.

In 2017, Bolton renewed his call for regime change in the country of 80 million people by 2019. On Sunday, Israels Haaretz newspaper reported that he had also tried to convince Israel to bomb Iran when he was US ambassador to the UN during George W Bushs administration.

As a former state department official under Bush, Bolton had been blamed for pushing defective intelligence that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

As Trumps adviser, Bolton has not been shy in advocating for regime change in Iran [File: AP]

Iran is not looking for war

In Washington, DC, critics raised alarms on Friday over Boltons appointment coming just days after Pompeos transfer from the CIA to the US Department of State.

Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator, said Bolton never met a war he didnt like. The National Iranian American Council said Trump may have just effectively declared war on Iran.

The New York Times reported that even Trumps defence secretary, James Mattis, and chief of staff, John Kelly are no fans of Bolton.

Meanwhile, in Tehran, officials are trying to mask their frustrations with the hope that Europe can still help save the Iran deal, observers said.

I still believe that both Europe and Iran will still try to find a solution to guarantee the survival of the agreement, even in case the US decides to withdraw, Tabrizi, RUSIs expert on Iran, said.





I dont think that they will just let it collapse by itself, she said.

Whatever the outcome, Iranian officials have said they are ready for any scenarios, according to Hashemi, the Iranian political analyst.

He pointed to the remarks of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who, during Irans new year, called on the country to support Iranian products over imported goods, and cut its dependence on oil revenues.

Hashemi said Khameneis remarks echoed his call for a resistance economy when the country was buckling down under previous international sanctions.

Fateme Karimkham, a correspondent of Tehran-based Iranian Students News Agency, said despite the latest developments in Washington, DC, Iran wants to prove that they are the adults in the room by sticking to the deal.

There is no other choice. No one in the Middle East is looking for another war, she said.

I do not believe Iran would be the first one who steps forward to another battle.Israel to provide details on plan to deport African refugees

The Israeli government has until Monday to provide further details of its controversial plan to expel thousands of African refugees  mostly Eritrean and Sudanese  to a third African country.Attacks against the leader of the opposition Labour Party began last week over a Facebook comment he made six years ago.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has apologised for the hurt caused by his party towards the Jewish community in Britain.

The statement comes after two Israel lobby groups, the Jewish Leadership Council and Board of Deputies of British Jews, called for a demonstration on Sunday against alleged anti-Semitism within the Labour Party, for which they hold Corbyn to account.

Attacks against Corbyns leadership sparked last week when Labour lawmaker Luciana Berger dug up a Facebook comment made by Corbyn six years ago.

Berger tweeted a screenshot of Corbyn criticising the removal of a mural in East London.

I asked the Leaders Office for an explanation about this Facebook post first thing this morning. Im still waiting for a response. pic.twitter.com/DL8ynBtES4  Luciana Berger (@lucianaberger) March 23, 2018

Berger is reportedly a parliamentary chairperson of the Jewish Labour Movement, a group that lobbies for Israel and has links with the Israeli embassy.





Regarding the mural, Corbyn apologised in a statement on Monday for not having studied the content of the mural more closely before wrongly questioning its removal in 2012.

The idea of Jewish bankers and capitalists exploiting the workers of the world is an old anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. This was long ago, and rightly, described as the socialism of fools.

Corbyn called for an urgent meeting to discuss the issues.

I recognise that anti-Semitism has surfaced within the Labour Party, and has too often been dismissed as simply a matter of a few bad apples, Corbyn wrote.

Playing party politics

However, the Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) said it was appalled by the actions and statements of the Board of Deputies, and praised Corbyns commitment to anti-racism.

It further accused the Board of Deputies of playing party politics ahead of local elections in May.

The Board of Deputies and those supporting them must be aware that this is an attempt to influence local elections and has nothing to do with the real and necessary task of challenging racism and anti-semitism at all levels of political life, JVL wrote in a statement.

They accused the group of remaining silent on anti-Semitism in right-wing politics.Reports suggest the stay-at-home leader of the reclusive state may have clandestinely journeyed to Beijing by train.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may be on a secret visit to China in what would be his first known overseas trip since taking power in 2011, news reports said.

Bloomberg cited three unnamed sources as saying on Monday that Kim was in China, but they gave no other details. They requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Japans Kyodo news agency, also citing unidentified sources, reported on Sunday that a special train that might have carried the North Korean leader passed through the Chinese border city of Dandong.

Footage from Japans Nippon News Network showed what an announcer described as a green train carriage with yellow horizontal lines, part of a 21-car convoy, similar to the kind that Kims late father, Kim Jong-il, rode when he visited Beijing in 2011.

The rail journey between Dandong and Beijing covers more than 1,100km and takes at least 14 hours by ordinary service.

Two sources in northeastern China also told Reuters news agency that a North Korean visitor had crossed into Dandong by train.





Kyodo, citing sources close to the matter, said the visit was intended to improve ties between Beijing and Pyongyang, which have been frayed by North Koreas pursuit of nuclear weapons and Chinas backing of tough sanctions at the UN Security Council.

Monitoring the situation

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive and isolated North Korea. But Kim is due to hold meetings separately with Chinas rivals, South Korea and the United States.

Asked at a daily briefing about the reports, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday she was unaware of the situation.

South Korea gave no details about a possible trip either.

The government is closely communicating with relevant countries and monitoring the situation, South Koreas presidential Blue House said in a statement via a messaging app.

On Chinese social media, some residents of Dandong said there had been high security around the train station and rumours abound that Kim was passing through.

Police tightened security along Beijings main east-west thoroughfare, Changan Avenue, mid-afternoon on Monday, closing off the entrances to some of the buildings that face the road.

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Police also cleared out all tourists from Tiananmen Square around the same time, which normally only happens when important meetings are happening in the Great Hall of the People, where top Chinese leaders often meet visiting heads of state.

There was a large security presence outside the Great Hall on Monday evening.

A source with ties to the Chinese military told Reuters it was not possible to rule out the possibility that Kim was visiting Beijing, but cautioned this was not confirmed.

Visits to China by Kim Jong-il were only confirmed by both China and North Korea once he had left the country.

The younger Kim, who was educated in Switzerland, is not known to have travelled outside the country since assuming power in late 2011 after his fathers death.Forbidden from speaking his own language, historian Kyaw Hla Maung tattooed Brahmi script on his arm to hide from army.

Mrauk U, Myanmar  For years in Myanmar, if Kyaw Hla Maung, a historian, were to roll up his sleeves and bare his arms he might have been arrested. His arms are tattooed with an unusual a script with vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines and clusters of dots, the ancient Brahmi language of the Rakhine or Arakanese people from Myanmars Rakhine State.

I had to wear shirts with long sleeves, he said. Even if it was a hot day I still wore a long shirt so I wouldnt get caught.

The Rakhine people, one of the 135 officially recognised ethnic minority groups that live in Myanmar, were forbidden from speaking their language or studying their history from 1962 under a forced assimilation policy. However, since 2015 some schools have allowed the teaching of mother-tongue languages as a second language.

So, Kyaw Hla Maung chose not to record his teachings on paper but instead tattooed the consonants and vowels of one of the ancient Brahmi script on his skin.

Last year, Rakhine State made headlines around the world because of a military crackdown, which forced more than 600,000 Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh. The Rakhine consider the Rohingya outsiders from Bangladesh, and in some cases, have participated in the violence against them.

What is less known is that the Rakhine people also have a history of being oppressed  by the Burmese military, which enforced a rule of Burmanisation or forcing the culture of the Burmese people on the countrys various ethnic groups, many of whom have been at war with the central government since Myanmars independence from the British.

Policy of Burmanisation

Kyaw Hla Maung wants to revive the teaching of the states history and study of the Rakhine language.

The 64-year-old believes that learning about the history of different ethnic and religious groups in the state is important to rebuilding peace, especially with the Rohingya.

Kyaw Hla Maung believes that learning about the history of different ethnic and religious groups in the state is important to rebuild peace, especially with the Rohingya [Libby Hogan/Al Jazeera]

Kyaw Hla Maung, 64, looks more like a rock star than a historian. Dressed in a navy fitted top and flared pants, he now works as a tour guide trainer in Mrauk U, the ancient seat of the Rakhine kingdom.

While the Rakhine language is now openly used and widely spoken, teachers usually volunteer to teach language classes after hours in schools. Government schools and colleges still only allow the Burmese language to be taught.





Under the military rule, a policy of Burmanisation resulted in the adoption of Burmese as the official language and schools across the country were forced to implement it. Ethnic language teaching was banned in public schools for four decades.

Kyaw Hla Maung said he was taught Rakhine language and history by his father, grandfather and local historian, Oo Tha Htun, whom he proudly calls his grand master.

I did my learning deep in the forest because if soldiers or police came, there was lots of problems for us, he said.

In the jungle, not far from the ruins of Mrauk U, they taught him how to read stone inscriptions telling the history of the different periods of Rakhine history  Dhanyawadi, Vesali, Le Mro and Mrauk U  as well as traditional songs such as Buddha pujarniya, about previous reigning kings.

The lessons came to an abrupt halt when Oo Tha Htun was arrested in 1990 and later died in prison in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine. Kyaw Hla Maung believes his teacher was arrested for a speech he made about Rakhine oppression under the Burmese government.

Brahmi script

After Oo Tha Htuns death, Kyaw Hla Maung, afraid of forgetting his grandfathers teachings, tattooed the Brahmi script on his arms.

The script is key to reading the stone inscriptions around the Mrauk U archaeological zone as it was used by the first of the four dynastic eras of Rakhine State, the Dhanyawadi dynasty, around the mid 4th-century.

The Mrauk U kingdom was known as the golden age of Rakhine. It was a thriving multi-ethnic and multi-faith court that ruled over Rakhine from the 14th to the 18th century. The capital, Mrauk U, was once an important trading hub frequented by Portuguese, Dutch, Armenian, Arab and Persian traders.

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From across the sea, the influence of Bengal also resulted in a distinct Muslim influence in Buddhist architecture, and Mrauk U rulers minted coins in both Arabic and Arakanese.

The people of Rakhine enjoyed prosperity up until the late 18th century when the Mrauk U empire was annexed by the Burmese Konbaung Dynasty, and many Rakhine people were taken prisoner.

The British arrived in Burma in the 19th century, bringing with them tens of thousands of migrant labourers from Bengal to work in paddy fields, creating tension with the local population in the Rakhine state. Historians, however, say the Rohingyas history goes as far back as the eighth century.

Mrauk U has remained a relatively peaceful city compared with the rest of Rakhine State with majority Buddhists co-existing with people from other faiths and ethnicities.

Apart from the Rakhine and Rohingya, Mro, Chin, Dynet and Thet ethnic minorities have lived in Rakhine State for centuries.

In todays Myanmar, Rakhine State is one of the poorest regions in the country, riven by ethnic tensions and several conflicts, including one by the Arakan Army, a Rakhine armed group at war with the military for self-determination of the multi-ethnic Arakanese population.

Genocide

Local Rakhine communities and politicians continue to be excluded from the planning and execution of large-scale investment projects such as the gargantuan oil and gas project at Kyawkpyuh. Arakan Watch, a campaign group, has objected, claiming that the profits are going to the central government rather than local communities.

The Mrauk U kingdom was known as the golden age of Rakhine [Libby Hogan/Al Jazeera]

Some in the Rohingya community, who are denied citizenship and barred from accessing healthcare and education, took up arms following years of persecution at the hands of the army.

Burmese security forces, in response to attacks by Rohingya fighters in August, have killed at least 6,700 Rohingya and set fire to entire villages. Doctors have also treated injuries consistent with violent attacks, recording several incidents of rape of Rohingya women and girls as they fled to Bangladesh.

Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the UN human rights chief, said the persecution of the Rohingya may amount to genocide.





Myanmars government, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has so far ignored widespread international calls for an impartial and independent investigation.

Kyaw Hla Maung is sad to see his state mired in such a brutal conflict.

I do accept the Rohingya as human beings who deserve to live peacefully in Myanmar because they have been living together with Myanmar nationalities peacefully for a long time, he said.

I am sorry to see this [violence against the Rohingya]this is the doing of the Burma security forces, who wont let peace return in Rakhine State, he said, noting the army continues to suppress Rakhine residents as well.

Most recently, on January 16, soldiers fired on a protest held in Mrauk U to mark the end of the Rakhine kingdom in 1784, killing seven demonstrators.

Kyaw Hla Maung believes that recent bloody attack is an assault on Rakhine culture and history. He says that the Rakhine ethnic people cant speak freely about their culture, history and issues that Rakhine people face.

We need to rediscover our history, he said.

He has just finished drafting a book merging his familys oral traditions with studies of stone inscriptions. His hope is that he can at least start a conversation within his community about uncovering local history and acknowledging the plural interpretations that exist among different minority groups.

It [local history] is not forgotten, its not lost, but actually it is hidden, because the government hides it.The UN and AFP news agency have launched a new award to recognise journalists who their lives to cover human rights abuses in Mexico, one of the most dangerous countries to be a reporter.

The Breach-Valdez award will pay tribute to former journalists Miroslava Breach and Javier Valdez who were murdered last year.

Valdez, highly acclaimed and award-winning journalist, was shot in broad daylight outside the offices of the newspaper he cofounded, Riodoce, in the northwestern Mexican capital of Sinaloa state, Culiacan.

In late 2017, investigative journalist Breach was killed in broad daylight before dropping off her son to school. She focused on covering the links between organised crime and politcians for the Mexican newspaper, La Jornada.

Since 2000, more than 100 journalists have been murdered in Mexico, which was considered the most dangerous place to be a journalist in 2017  ahead of Iraq and Syria  with 14 deaths, according to the International Press Institute.

The Breach-Valdez award recognises those defending human rights and aims to provide visibility to those fighting against impunity and the systemic violence which is exercised against journalists, said Giancarlo Summa, director at the UNs ONU-DH.

Summa also encouraged authorities to put an end to impunity and create protective mechanisms for journalists.

In 2017, according to the rights group, Articulo 19, there were 507 attacks on journalists in Mexico.

About 48 percent of those attacks involved government officials and eight percent are carried out by criminal organisations, Articulo 19 found.

The representative for the office of the High Commission for the ONU-DH, Jan Jarab, said it will continue to work for the improved freedom of expression for journalists and work on reducing threats and impunity.

Mexican journalist Jose Reveles said that attacks on journalists are not being stopped, and that, specifically, they arent being investigated, theyre not being punished and theyre only increasing in a really worrying manner.

A society which kills journalists is not acceptable; attacking the press also means attacking democracy, said Sergio Rodriguez Blanco, coordinator of journalism in the Ibero-American University.

The annual prize is also supported by UNESCO, the Ibero-American University, the Press and Democracy Programme (PRENDE) and the French Embassy in Mexico.

It will be presented on May 3 in Mexico City, which also marks the World Press Freedom Day. The winning journalist will be invited to France to discuss free speech, and will provide an investigative scholarship in journalism at the Ibero-American University.Pakistan urged to avert disastrous water crisis

Millions are already feeling the effects of water shortages because of what critics say is poor planning and uncontrolled urbanisation.Qatar Airways is set to buy a 25 percent share in Russias Vnukovo International Airport, one of the four major airports which serves the capital, Moscow.

Akbar al-Baker, the national carriers chief executive, made the announcement on Monday, according to a report by Russias news agency Interfax.

The deal  the financial details of which were not yet disclosed  comes as Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is on a short work visit to Moscow.

A spokesperson for Qatar Airways told Reuters news agency on Monday that a memorandum of understanding to buy the minority stake had been signed, with the deal expected to be finalised in eight weeks.

The Vnukovo Airport, which is located southwest of Moscow, is the third-busiest airport in the country by passenger traffic.

Earlier this month, al-Baker said Qatar Airways will report a very large loss in the current fiscal year because of a regional political dispute that has slapped restrictions on the airline.

Qatars national carrier lost access to 18 cities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, and Bahrain when those countries imposed a blockade on the country last June, accusing Qatar of supporting terrorism. Qatar denies the charges.

In other developments on Monday, Qatars emir met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The wars in Yemen and Syria and the situation in Palestine were expected to be on the agenda of the bilateral meeting.

On the sidelines of Sheikh Tamims visit, Qatar Airways also sealed a five-year partnership with Cosmoscow, Russias only international contemporary art fair.In response China has called the US arrogant on Monday.

The United States has cast the only no vote in the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva rejecting a China-led resolution  its second-ever in nearly 12 years  that calls for mutually beneficial cooperation.

I think the comments by this US official in Geneva you mention were extremely unreasonable, and also reflects the consistent ignorance and haughtiness of the US side, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing.

Disagreement

The US has said the resolution sought to glorify Chinese President Xi Jinpings win-win agenda and that Chinese officials were clear about their intent to glorify their head of state by inserting his thoughts into the international human rights lexicon.

Australia, Britain, Japan and Switzerland were among those abstaining.

The spat adds to tensions between Beijing and Washington which are locked in a trade dispute after US President Donald Trump announced plans for tariffs on up to $60bn in Chinese goods.

But Hua said many countries expressed at the meeting that the Chinese resolution reflected the common wishes of the international community and helped raise the ability of developing nations to speak for themselves on human rights issues.At least 16 missing after blaze kills 64, including nine children, at Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping centre in Kemerovo.

At least 64 people, including nine children, have been confirmed dead in fire at a shopping centre in the city of Kemerovo in Siberia, according to Russian emergency services cited by local media.

The death toll was expected to rise as the rescue operation continued on Monday at the Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) shopping centre, just hours after the fire engulfed the four-storey building, Russias Tass news agency reported.

Two out of three cinema halls caved in from the fourth to the third floor of the building, Vladlen Aksyonov, Russian deputy emergencies minister, told Tass.

A representative of the emergency operation headquarters told Tass that 10 out of 44 injured people were being treated in a hospital. Others received medical attention at the scene.

At least 16 people were still missing. They could be located in the cinema halls that caved in, emergency service personnel told Tass.

The fire was brought under control, and a criminal investigation into the cause of the incident is under way, Tass reported.

No fire alarm

The Ekho Mosvky radio station on Monday quoted witnesses who said the fire alarm did not go off and that the shopping centres staff did not organise the evacuation.

Anna Zarechneva who was on the top floor where the fire started, watching a film with her husband and son, said they only found out about the fire when a man ran into the theatre shouting.

We didnt hear the fire alarm, they even didnt turn on the light during the show, she said. That movie could have been the last for us, Ive only just realised that.

Alexander Lillevyali lost three daughters, 11-year-old twins and a five-year-old, who were in a cinema hall on the top floor watching a cartoon.

Lillevyali told the Meduza news website that one of his daughters called him, saying that they could smell the smoke but could not get out because the door was locked.

I was shouting into the phone, telling her to get out but there was nothing I could do  the fire was in front of me, he said.

The prosecutor generals office on Monday ordered all shopping centres in Russia to be checked for fire safety features.

The fire erupted at Winter Cherry mall on Sunday [Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations via AP]

Kommersant, a Russian publication, reported that, according to the preliminary probe, a child could have started the fire, as an area on the top floor near a playroom and a cinema was identified as the epicentre of the blaze.

The fire quickly spread to the buildings plastic cladding and several hours later the roof collapsed, Kommersant reported.

Al Jazeeras Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said the incident was seen as a national disaster.

The Kremlin has been kept up to speed with how things have been developing, he said. Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitri Peskov says that President [Vladimir] Putin has dispatched Vladimir Puchkov, the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, to the site of the tragedy.

Various units of the ministry, like robotics, drones and other equipment, were being mobilised from Moscow and also from the city of Krasnoyarsk, he said.

According to Tass, the shopping mall, with an overall area of 23,000sq metres, opened in 2013.

It has a car park for 250 cars, shops, a bowling alley, a childrens centre, a cinema, food courts and a petting zoo, the agency said.Tashkent holds peace summit on Afghanistan

The two-day conference in Uzbekistan is part of efforts to encourage the Afghan government and the Taliban to engage in peace talks.The relationship between the US president and the PA has been nothing less than a roller coaster ride, analysts say.

Washington, DC  The relationship between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the administration of US President Donald Trump has climbed, dropped, rocketed and nosedived, all within the span of a single year.

Now on an uneasy plateau, the two sides are barely on speaking terms, due in large part to the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital and Washingtons plans to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the Holy City, reversing policy dating back to President Harry Trumans administration.

The roller coaster ride began after Trump became the unlikely winner of the 2016 US presidential election.

Palestinians feared that they were being shunned by his administration when it emerged that the billionaire tycoons leading peace process advisers were staunch Israel supporters with various ties to settlement groups.

But these early concerns of isolation were dispelled by phone calls exchanged and meetings held between Trump and PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

At that time, the PA viewed Trumps lack of political experience and minimal grasp of foreign policy as an opportunity to breathe new life into the peace process, moribund since Barack Obamas last years in office.

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Trumps bombastic speeches and vows to solve the decades-old conflict, coupled with his initial reluctance to move the US embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, also boosted Palestinian hopes that his non-conformist ways might actually yield some tangible results.

When we received a phone call [in March 2017] from President Trump, that phone call ended speculations about the [lack of] contacts [between the PA and the US administration], said

Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestine Liberation Organizations (PLO) delegation to the US.

To our absolute surprise, Trump told Abbas that he is committed to a vision of peace  that he has been watching this conflict since he was a child and that he thinks that its senseless and it must end, Zomlot recalled.

He said, I am going to intervene, I want to be a fair arbitrator.'

The Palestinians voiced optimism that the new president, known for straying from the orthodox methods of past US leaders, may be able to deliver what he called the ultimate deal, as the PA sought to present itself as a vital security bulwark against Hamas and even the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, which has little-to-no foothold in the Palestinian territories.

Palestinians recognise that the US sees the PA primarily through a security prism, so PA officials have always stressed the quality of their security cooperation with Israel, as well as the importance to regional stability of a moderate PA leadership, said Nathan Thrall, author of The Only Language They Understand, a new book on the conflict.

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Just as Israel cites the prospect of a Hamas takeover of the West Bank to justify continuing to occupy the territory, the PA cites the same prospect to continue receiving external support from the US and others, Thrall said.

Cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians in security terms in enshrined in the 1993 Oslo accords. Today, the PA employees more than 65,000 security personnel in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and in 2014, security accounted for a third of its budget.

According to Majid Faraj, head of the Palestinian intelligence service, Palestinian forces thwarted 200 attacks against Israel between October 2015 and January 2016 alone, adding credence to criticism that the PA acts as a sub-contractor for Israels occupation of Palestinian territory.

Vague language

From the outset, the US administration was vague about its plan to mediate between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

In February 2017, Trump said he can live with either a one-state or two-state solution to the conflict. Im very happy with the one that both parties like, Trump said, as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

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The PA looked for a silver lining in the little assurances Trump provided, as public disillusionment in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip ran high, with as many as 70 percent of Palestinians saying they wanted Abbas to resign.

The leadership was happy to hear [Trumps] vague language about starting a process as that goes also in harmony with the two-decade-long approach of the PA, said Alaa Tartir, programme director of Al Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network. Engaging in a process offers them much-needed legitimacy and implies that they are a player in that process.

Trumps support for the two-state solution, which has long been the hallmark of US peacemaking in the region, was murky at best, but some observers said the PA had very little choice but to play ball.

They couldnt afford not to engage and be positive because they didnt have any other cards to play. They had placed all their eggs in the American basket, said Omar Baddar, deputy director of the Washington-based Arab American Institute.

They played the negotiating game hoping they would get rewarded eventually with US pressure to end the Israeli occupation, Baddar told Al Jazeera.

It was worth taking a chance before they turned back on any American-led peace process under the Trump administration and I think they finally reached that conclusion.

Back-stabbing move

This came in the lead-up to the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital on December 6, a move rejected by much of the international community. The decision was a death knell to the two-state solution, which Palestinian leaders had been exploring (and later supporting) since the 1970s.

Without mincing his words, Zomlot, the PLOs envoy to Washington, said the move, coupled with Trumps announcement that the US embassy would be moved to Jerusalem, amounted to back-stabbing.

For more than two decades, successive presidents deferred any such decision on Jerusalem, instead designating it a final status issue that should be negotiated between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Moving the US embassy was a promise Trump made during his election campaign, but many candidates before him had made the same vow, only to quietly backtrack once in office.

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Zomlot acknowledged that the administrations lack of a clear-cut commitment to the two-state solution made the Palestinian leadership doubtful throughout, but they chose to give the new president a chance.

Despite all our concerns, we saw this administration as an opportunity, he said. We were saying give it a month, give it two, give it three  down the line we will be able to convince this administration that there is no other option but a two-state solution on the 1967 borders.

The Palestinian response to the Jerusalem announcement was swift: Abbas refused to invite Vice President Mike Pence to Ramallah during his four-day visit to the region, as the PA made it clear it will no longer accept the US as a sole broker.

Jerusalem is and will forever be the capital of the Palestinian state, Abbas declared during a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul in December. We do not accept any role of the United States in the political process from now on, because it is completely biased towards Israel.

As the PA explored alternative strategies that focused on a multilateral approach to ending the conflict, Abbas took the battle to the UN, where the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to reject Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital. He also addressed the Security Council, calling for a Middle East peace conference that, as an alternative to US-led talks, would recognise Palestine as a fully-fledged, UN member state.

Trumps retaliation to what he labelled the PAs disrespect included threats to cut aid until the leadership returned to negotiations. Washington had already withheld $65m  a sum that could possibly rise to $290m  in coffers slated for the UN agency that provides Palestinian refugees with basic services.

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Meanwhile, the PA is planning to join several international organisations  a move it had previously deferred to give the Obama administrations diplomacy a chance. But the leadership has not ceased its security cooperation with Israel, or dissolved the authority, and remains committed to negotiations and a two-state solution that eschews violence as a means to ending Israels occupation.

At this point, I think the only option they have left is to internationalise this issue  to seek mediation through the UN and to go through international institutions like the [International Court of Justice] or others, Baddar said. Its very possible that [security cooperation] is the last thing that the PA is holding on to as a means of leverage on the Americans and the Israelis.With tensions high between Turkey and EU, observers are pessimistic questions raised at the meeting will be answered.

As European Union and Turkey leaders are set to meet in the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna on Monday, there is little hope for reviving dormant relations, analysts have said.

The summit, hosted by Bulgarian prime minister and chairman of the EU, Boyko Borissov, will bring together European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council President Donald Tusk and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The leaders will discuss a wide range of issues, including Turkey-EU relations, economics, trade, security and foreign policy.

Turkey will ask the EU to lift all obstacles to its membership, and remains committed to the accession process, Erdogan said on Monday before the summit.

He said he would also discuss what Turkey sees as the failure of the bloc to keep its promises on Syrian refugees.

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Turkey also expects updates from the EU on the customs union agreement, visa liberalisation, and acceleration of financial assistance to Syria, as well as concrete steps with regards to combating what Ankara calls terrorism.

But ongoing tensions in recent weeks have left observers pessimistic that questions raised at the summit will be answered.

The two sides may make a joint noncommittal statement where they will seek cooperation and ensure dialogue is maintained, but there wont be anything further, Alexander Clarkson, a lecturer in European Studies at Kings College London, told Al Jazeera.

Too much effort has gone into establishing this summit for it to be cancelled, but tensions on both sides are too great for there to be real progress, explained Clarkson, in reference to differences between the two sides on issues including gas exploration off the coast of Cyprus and Ankaras military operations in Syria.

The Merkozy approach

While the summit may ultimately succeed in maintaining dialogue between the two sides, there is little hope that the process of Turkeys accession to the EU can be resumed to its 2005 state.

Turkeys Justice and Development Party (AK Party) had enacted major reforms between 2002 and 2007, which were rewarded by the EU starting membership talks in 2005.

But hopes for inclusion into the EU fizzled soon after Merkel and then French President Nicolas Sarkozy came to power, who, according to Turkish analyst Galip Dalay, rejected the prospect of Turkeys EU membership from an identity-centric perspective, as he wrote in the German Marshall Fund on February 15.

Relations have since taken on a Merkozy approach, which has offered Ankara a special partnership with the EU instead of a full one. This newer formula aims to keep Turkey anchored in Europe for the sake of pragmatic considerations, explained Dalay.

While Ankara has rejected this idea from the start, the Merkozy approach has continued to gain traction in Europe, as EU leaders criticise Turkeys democracy and Europe becomes increasingly inward-looking.

Turkeys territorial influence-building in the Balkans and Mediterranean, its approach in Syria, and with its direct conflict with Cyprus and Greece, Turkeys approach seems incompatible with the EUs, said Clarkson.

The most both sides can hope for at this time is an association of partnership, he added.

Simon Waldman, a researcher in Middle Eastern Studies at Kings College London, agrees. Not only does he think that there is no longer space for Turkey as a member in the EU, but that the few spheres of common ground between Ankara and Brussels are now shrinking.

If you were to think of the main enemies for Europe and Turkey, you will realise that they are completely different from each other. For Europe, its Russia and ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS). For Turkey, its the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party) and the Gulen Movement.

Even when it comes to economics, trade between Turkey and the EU has stagnated for several years and thats why Turkey has been looking for alternative partners in China, the Middle East and Russia, he added.

Translation: The biggest lie coming from Europe is We are opposed to Turkeys EU accession, but we want to improve our neighbourly relations. We know the intention of spreading this lie, particularly by Kurz.

Avrupada uretilmis en buyuk yalan, Turkiyenin AB uyeligine karsyz ama komsuluk iliskilerimizi gelistirmek istiyoruz cumlesidir. Basta Kurz olmak uzere bu yalan yayanlarn niyetini biliyoruz.  Omer Celik (@omerrcelik) March 26, 2018

A riddled path

In addition to this altered approach to EU-Turkey relations, several recent crises have left a riddled path for any progress in relations to take place.

Speaking to reporters on February 23, Borissov said the Varna meeting will be a heavy experience  loaded with expectations and tensions.

Borissovs comments came after the latest Turkey-EU crisis that erupted in mid-February when Ankara sent warships to prevent a drillship, contracted by the Greek-Cypriot administration, from reaching a gas exploration well located southeast of Cyprus.

Turkey had also arrested two Greek soldiers on March 2 for entering a military zone in the northern Turkish province of Edirne. They are waiting for their case to be heard.

On Thursday, the European Council condemned Turkeys illegal actions towards Greece and Cyprus in a blistering denunciation and underlined its full solidarity with Cyprus and Greece.

The statement by the 28 EU member states meeting in Brussels also called on Turkey to respect the sovereign rights of Cyprus to explore and exploit its natural resources, in accordance with the EU and international law.

Ankara, on the other hand, does not recognise the exclusive economic zone the Greek-Cypriot administration unilaterally declared in the region, saying that Turkish Cypriots have a stake in the islands resources.

Such wordings solely based on the Greek Cypriot and Greek claims are unacceptable and create an opportunity for some other countries to hide behind them as well, the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement last week, adding that the EU cannot be an honest broker in the Cyprus dispute.

Turkeys EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik said on Twitter on the European Councils conclusions: When solidarity takes over legality and equity, then no one can talk about legitimacy. Solidarity is meaningful only when it is legitimate.

Turkey-Germany spat

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirims recent visit to Berlin for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel reflects an effort by Ankara to overcome a year of highly strained ties. But the remnants of this crisis still remain.

The Ankara-Berlin spat erupted last year, after German local authorities stopped Turkish ministers speaking at meetings of supporters of Erdogan before Turkeys constitutional vote to expand presidential powers.

Ankara responded by telling Berlin that it must learn to behave if it wants to maintain relations.

In August, Erdogan caused consternation in Berlin by urging ethnic Turks in Germany to vote against both parties in Merkels governing coalition. Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel responded by condemning Erdogans comments as an unprecedented act of interference in Germanys sovereignty.

Analysts estimate that about 1.2 million people of Turkish origin will have the right to vote in the September elections.

Terrorism law

While Turkey and the EU continue to cooperate against ISIL, the terrorism question has remained a divisive issue between the two sides.

Turkeys current Anti-Terrorism Law has been used to detain thousands of people, including EU citizens, since the failed coup attempt in July 2016 and the reigniting of Ankaras war with the separatist PKK.

As part of the migration deal agreed on between Ankara and the EU in March 2016, the EU offered Turks the option of visa-free travel to Europe, provided Turkey met 72 criteria.

Among the criteria is the EUs demand that Turkey excludes acts in its current Anti-Terrorism Law that fall under freedom of speech in Europe.

Ankara has refused to change its law in line with the EUs demand, however, saying that complying with the EUs demand would weaken its hand against terrorism.

According to Waldman, the more realistic view of Turkey-EU relations is a diverging one. He says that, with the EU and Turkey on two, different strategic paths, there is little in common for a strong partnership to develop.Justice Haddon-Cave invokes Islamic theology in condemnation of Ahmed Hassan, who carried out September tube bombing.

A British judge has invoked Islamic theology in the sentencing of a teenager convicted of carrying out an attack on a tube train in central London.

Ahmed Hassan was sentenced to a minimum of 34 years in prison on Friday for the attack at Parsons Green station in September last year.

The explosive device he made failed to detonate completely and killed no one but left at least 30 people injured.

At the trial, Justice Charles Haddon-Cave said the 18-year-old sympathiser of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group had committed hiraba (terrorism) and caused corruption in the land.

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Both terms are used in Islamic law to describe acts of rebellion and are often used by theologians in the modern context to refer to terrorism.

You will have plenty of time to study the Quran in prison in the years to come, Justice Haddon-Cave said in his closing remarks at Hassans trial.

He added: The Quran and Islam forbid anything extreme, including extremism in religion. Islam forbids breaking the law of the land where one is living or is a guest. Islam forbids terrorism.

The Quran and the Sunna provide that the crime of perpetrating terror to cause corruption in the land is one of the most severe crimes in Islam  so it is in the law of the United Kingdom.

Hassan arrived in the UK as a 16-year-old refugee from Iraq just three years earlier.

At the time, he claimed to have been an orphan who had been kidnapped by ISIL.One killed in Houthi missile attack on Riyadh, the first death due to projectiles fired to the city by Yemeni rebels.

Saudi Arabia has announced its forces had intercepted a number of ballistic missiles fired by Houthi rebels towards several locations in the kingdom.

A spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition said in a statement that Saudi air defence intercepted seven missiles, three of which were headed towards Riyadh.

Colonel Turki al-Maliki also said that an Egyptian resident was killed as a result of shrapnel  the first death in Riyadh since the countrys military campaign was launched three years ago in Yemen  while several others were injured.

Al Masirah, a TV network run by the Houthis, reported that the rebels fired other missiles at airports in the southern Saudi cities of Abha, Jizan and Najran.

Muhammad al-Bukhaiti, a spokesman for the Houthis, told Al Jazeera that the attack was in response to the bombing of Yemeni cities, and siege of the Yemeni people.

Houthis reporting they fired ballistic missiles at Riyadh's King Khalid international airport, Abha airport in Asir and Jizan airport in Jizan province. Footage of the attack on Riyadh: pic.twitter.com/bOdBda0Rme  Faisal |  (@faisaledroos) March 25, 2018

Earlier on Sunday, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Yemens Houthi rebels, vowed to use long-range weaponry and recruit more fighters in the conflict with his northern neighbour.

In the fourth year of the war, we will use more developed and more diverse missile systems which will overcome all American and non-American air defence systems to target Saudi Arabia, al-Houthi said in a lengthy televised speech.

Well use our Badr [short-range ballistic missiles] and Burkan missiles, long-range drones which have excellent military capabilities. We will activate military institutions in an unprecedented way and open up more opportunities to recruit the children and men of our people to fight.

Conflict spills across the border

Sundays attack highlights how the war in Yemen is increasingly spilling across the border since the Saudi-led coalition began its military intervention on March 26, 2015.

Alarmed that a Shia group with ties to Iran had taken over parts of their southern neighbour, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Arab states intervened to restore the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and threatened to conquer the last government stronghold of Aden.

Since then, the Saudis have carried out more than 16,000 air raids, resulting in mass civilian casualties with weddings, hospitals and funerals targeted.

The Houthis continue to hold most of the north, with more than 18 million civilians living in rebel-held territory.

Nabeel Khoury, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Councils Rafik Hariri Center, said Sundays attack was a warning that the Houthis should not be underestimated.

The Houthis are firing at Riyadh to show they are still capable militarily, and that they are not to be taken for granted.

But its not a good sign considering [Saudi Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman was in Washington, DC, meeting US President Donald Trump. The two may have discussed a diplomatic push to end the war, but it seems the opposite is the case.

The Saudis continue to see Iran when they look at Yemen. Which is wrong. If the Saudis are serious about ending this war they will have to look at Yemen with ways in which to end this conflict.Police probe launched after a reporter, who was investigating illegal sand mining mafia, is killed in Madhya Pradesh.

An investigative journalist in a central Indian district has been crushed by a truck, police say, drawing attention to the issue of safety of journalists.

Sandeep Sharma, 35, who had been reporting about illegal sand-mining mafia in the state of Madhya Pradesh, was hit and killed by a truck on a road in Bhind district on Monday morning.

He succumbed to injuries at a local hospital.

We are probing the case, Shailendra Singh Khushwaha, deputy inspector at Bhind police station, told Al Jazeera. The driver of the truck has been held. The truck is also in our possession.

Sharma had earlier sought police protection because he feared for his life, local media reports say, quoting a letter from him.

Sharma had alleged the involvement of police officials in the sand-mining mafia operations.

He had conducted two sting journalistic reports about sand mafia for a regional TV station, News World.

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Khushwaha told Al Jazeera that Sharma was not provided police protection.

In the CCTV footage of the scene, Sharma on a motorbike is run over by a truck that takes a sudden swerve and then races away from the spot.

Sathyanarayan Sharma, president of the Press Club of Bhind, described Sharma as a brave journalist who was facing threats from a police officer whom he had exposed a few months ago, according to a Times of India report.

Sand mining has been declared illegal in most parts of India.

Although Indian authorities have refused to accept the existence of illegal operations, a Reuters news agency report last year had chronicled the flourishing industry and the threats faced by those seeking to blow the lid off this booming business.

But it is not just the apathy of the police and the administration, rather there is very little support or protection offered by the news organisations they work for, said NK Singh, member of the Editors Guild and former editor of the Hindustan Times in Bhopal, capital of Madhya Pradesh.

I find that any journalist living in Indias smaller towns face problems regarding their own safety as well as that of their family while discharging their duty, he told Al Jazeera.

If powerful people decide to target them they become a sitting duck. Often these investigative journalists are derided as blackmailers in small towns.

This is not the first time that sand mafia has killed a journalist in Madhya Pradesh. In last few years, they have killed at least half a dozen policemen, officials and journalists in this one state alone.

No murders solved

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), not a single journalists murder in India has been solved over the past decade.

The watchdog ranks India 13th in its Global Impunity Index, a list highlighting countries where the murders of journalists are least likely to be punished.





Sharmas death in Bhind comes just months after the murder of Gauri Lankesh, a newspaper editor and vocal critic of Indias ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the southern city of Bengaluru.

Lankeshs killing had sparked mass protest across many cities in India.

Earlier this month, Indian police arrested a member of a hardline Hindu group for her murder.

Sharmas death on Monday brings the number of journalists killed in India in relation to their work to 44 since 1992.

The state government of Madhya Pradesh has promised to bring the guilty to account.

Security of journalists is our priority and strict action will be taken against the culprit, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the states chief minister said on Monday.

Madhya Pradesh is also battling an extraordinary public scandal, known as the Vyapam scam.

Over 40 deaths linked to an exam-cheating scandal in Madhya Pradesh that involved bribes worth millions of dollars has rocked the state since 2013.America doesn't have a gun violence epidemic. Democrat cities do.

Guns and gun crime are the new climate change: those who know nothing about the subject are suddenly "experts." I call this faux expertise Albert Gore-itis, and I discuss it at length in my upcoming first book, 10 Warning Signs Your Child is Becoming a Democrat.

College pottery majors and donkey cheese-eating, Che Guevera T-shirt-wearing trust fund babies fancy themselves firearms gurus (FYI, donkey cheese is the world's most expensive). That doesn't really bother me as much as the lying-by-withholding that the DMIC (Democrat Media Industrial Complex) and Redcoat gun-grabbing organizations (funded by millionaires and billionaires, such as former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg) engage in when discussing guns and gun crime. Democrat policies kill America does not have a gun crime epidemic. There are, however, epidemics in many locales and cities. Who do you think runs the vast majority of those cities? NRA-funded Republicans? No. Lobbyists for firearm manufacturers? No. The vast majority of those cities have been run by Democrats for decades upon decades. Here are the top 20 cities with the highest gun murder rates in the U.S. per capita. Of these, every city except the last one, Tulsa, has a Democrat majority in the mayoralty and City Council or Board of Aldermen. Here are the non-fatal shootings top 20 per capita. Notice the overlap of several cities; the cities on the non-fatal list absent on the murder list are also Democrat-run cities, except for the last one, Jacksonville. Here's a sampling of five longtime Democrat empires (all days are consecutive and uninterrupted). All appear in the top 20 lists: 1. St. Louis: only Democrat mayors; 90% Democrat City Council; 15,000 days. 2. Baltimore: only Democrat mayors and only Democrat City Council; 18,000 days. 3. Philadelphia: only Democrat mayors; 90% Democrat City Council; 20,000 days. 4. Detroit: only Democrat mayors; 90% Democrat City Council; 22,000 days. 5. Chicago: only Democrat mayors; 90% Democrat City Council; 30,000 days. The Democrats have ruled Chicago for longer than Stalin ruled the USSR, the Castros in Cuba, and the Kims in North Korea, and for longer than slavery was legal in the U.S. Exhausted yet? There's more. These are America's top 10 most violent cities, according to FBI data. Violent crimes include homicides, gun violence, gangs, pedophilia, and robberies. Every city is majority Democrat-controlled. Several of the cities on the FBI's list also appear on the aforementioned murder and non-fatal shootings lists. Because the FBI's ranking is per capita, several cities such as Chicago and Newark (only Democrat mayors; 90% City Council; 23,000 days) are absent. Still with me? St. Louis, Baltimore, Detroit, and New Orleans crack the top 50 for most dangerous cities on the planet. New Orleans has elected only Democrat mayors for the last 55,000 consecutive days; the United States as a nation has existed for 88,000 days. New Orleans's city council is, in theory, nonpartisan; I'll let you conclude how nonpartisan it is. As a side note on Chicago: A report last year estimated that 60% of guns recovered in Chicago came from out of state, with 20% traced back to Indiana and others from Wisconsin. Though difficult to determine from where exactly, in each state, the guns originated, I believe it's reasonable to speculate that they came not from rural areas, but from the big cities, such as Indianapolis and Milwaukee (run, of course, by...drum roll...Democrats). What, you thought Wisconsin and Indiana were red states? Red states are dead; only blue and pur-blue exist. Stats don't lie; Democrats do Democrats sell local gun crime epidemics as national gun crime epidemics. And listen: their sales pitch is effective. I rarely hear Republicans, conservatives, or even the NRA effectively combat this pitch. Data is mixed, depending on the study, but since the '90s, gun violence and homicides nationally have declined. But not in Democrat-controlled cities. Also, Democrats always pad the stat sheet by mixing in gun-related deaths from suicide and suspects shot and killed by police officers. The old saying "stats don't lie; statisticians do" can be used in any ideological context. But when it comes to the DMIC, Democrats and Redcoat gun-grabbers, one of two things is at work: They're unaware that the epidemics are largely isolated in Democrat city monopolies, thereby making them dangerously ignorant. They are aware, thereby making them...well, just dangerous, just like the cities they rule over. When it comes to the creme de la creme of cities with gun crime, Democrats control 95%  yes, 95%  of the top 20. As one moves into the top 50 and 100 cities, the percentage dips, but not by much. Our rights are under fire Helping the Democrats' cause is the fact that they are now overtly and in-your-face exploiting our youths as Redcoat gun control propaganda props. The Democrats have pitted us against children and created creepy kid activists. How do we win a battle challenging kids? Answer: We don't, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it all the time. The Democrats are always on offense. It's not enough for us to match their intensity; we must exceed it. Republicans and conservatives usually underestimate the Democrats and fail to understand their tactics. The way Republicans and conservatives win this narrative war is by talking about the entire story, and one is not telling the entire story without hammering home over and over again the indisputable failures of Democrat gun and crime policies. While statements such as "we're not Sweden" and "those countries don't have a Second Amendment" are correct, they render the message incomplete. Winning this narrative war will not be easy, but it can be done. Chances are that those of you reading this don't live in a city with mass gun crime. Remove the data from municipal Democrat quasi-monarchies, and our gun crime rate is lower than Heaven's. If we could just convince Democrats and Tessio Republicans to self-deport, I suspect that our crime rates would significantly decrease in an evening or two. One can only dream. Rich Logis is host of The Rich Logis Show, at TheRichLogisShow.com, and author of the upcoming book 10 Warning Signs Your Child is Becoming a Democrat. He can be found on Twitter at @RichLogis.Speaking of the new $1.3 trillion, 2,232-page omnibus spending bill that Congress hastily crafted, no elected official had read, and that Donald Trump grudgingly signed into law, Fox News' Greg Gutfeld said on The Five, with surprising nonchalance, I dont understand why people are angry over this. I mean, how could you not see this coming? Donald Trump is not a libertarian. Hes not small government. With a somber smirk, he proclaims, small government is dead. Sadly, as a conservative, it is dead.

To a certain degree, hes correct. We should have seen this moment coming.

Donald Trump notwithstanding, neither Republicans nor Democrats have even feigned fiscal conservatism in the last few years. In recent memory, though, Republicans did tout fiscal conservatism as a fundamental principle in shaping policy, but that charade ended in 2014 when they lost the ability to claim that bloated government spending was solely the fault of the Democrats in Congress and the White House.

Since 2009, excessive federal spending has been the battle cry of conservatives everywhere, amplified early-on by the upstart Tea Party. Barack Obama and the then-Democrat Congress had issued the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act, which carried tentative taxpayer price tags of $787 billion and ~$900 billion, respectively. Disaffected taxpayers who, and whose children and grandchildren, were destined to foot the bill were assured by Republican candidates that majorities in both chambers of Congress would restore fiscal sanity in Washington. Bills would then be carefully crafted, and actually perused before passage.

All of that was reasonable enough for Americans to demand. In fact, its disheartening to consider that this is how little we actually ask of the stewards of our wealth in Washington. Imagine handing ~25% of your annual income to a financial advisor to be invested, only for you to not only be unaware of how its being spent, but for that advisor to take on massive amounts of new debt in your name without telling you how, precisely, that money will be spent.

In the real world, that advisor would be arrested and subject to prosecution. In Washington, its often argued, particularly by the left, that anything short of that arrangement is greed and bitterness on the part of the taxpaying investor.

But immediately after conservative voters delivered a majority in both the House and the Senate in 2014, John Boehner and Congressional Republicans crafted and quickly passed a $1.1 trillion spending package in a lame duck session, which Barack Obama happily signed. Weve done this in a bipartisan fashion, Boehner assured disaffected Republicans, and, frankly, its a good bill.

Democrats had no qualms with such excessive spending theyd been driving for years, so they simply went about their business, proceeding headlong into more peculiar identity politics and inventing new social grievances for their base to be enraged about, like men who think theyre women being able to use ladies toilets. Republicans, on the other hand, simply dropped the notion of fiscal conservatism as a prominent line item in the platform, continuing to harp about Obamacare and immigration, which were still winning issues with constituents.

So, perhaps if youve been paying attention, you shouldnt be surprised by this new spending bill. But that doesnt change the fact that you should you be outraged at a 2,223-page, $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that even Trump, to his credit, had the honesty to admit that no one had read before voting upon.

And if you are not outraged by that, but you spent 2010 barking about the fiscal irresponsibility of Obamacare that was similarly passed, then you can be nothing short of a hypocrite.

But then theres the bigger question. Is small government really dead? If the answer to that question is yes, then Gutfelds blase disappointment doesnt capture the deep despair to be felt in the realization. Because if small government is dead, then the very idea of America is truly dead. What exists after its death is something else entirely.

In perhaps my favorite single paragraph of Mark Steyns essential After America: Get Ready for Armageddon, he writes*:

Conservatives often talk about small government, which, in a sense, is framing the argument in leftist terms. Theyre for Big Government  and, when youre arguing for the small alternative, its easy to sound pinched and mean and grudging. But small government gives you big freedoms  and Big Government leaves you with very little freedom. The opposite of Big Government is not small government, but Big Liberty. The bailout and the stimulus and the budget and the trillion-dollar deficits are not merely massive transfers from the most dynamic and productive sector to the least dynamic and productive. When governments annex a huge chunk of the economy, they also annex a huge chuck of individual liberty.

At its core, that is what massive government spending does. It turns a nation of individual savers and spenders into a nation of serfs, beholden to a government which holds a collective debt that must be paid in order to continue a collective existence.

Government is simply not a good steward of our wealth, as has been proven time and time again, if our $20+ trillion debt doesnt signify that enough. And our wealth, along with the opportunities to freely attain, preserve, or lose it, is among the most fundamental cruxes of liberty.

This is not a new notion, by any stretch of the imagination. Our wealth is our property, and to it, we have a God-given right. That right should is to be protected by a just government, not infringed and usurped to finance the desired whims of others, be they government bureaucrats or envious grumblers demanding free housing, college, or education.

Small government principles aid in preserving this individual right to property. Big government, which seems to be the preferred panacea for both Republicans and Democrats these days, aids in destroying that right. And if that right continues to be thus degraded, all that the American idea once was is surely dying.

There should be no surprise in Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi cheering the new spending bill as a victory for big government Democrats. And again, there should be no surprise in this bill being presented and passed with Republican majorities, despite their having run wholeheartedly against such things not so long ago.

The biggest surprise, for me, is Donald Trump. He gave verbal opposition to it before signing it, and even open criticism after signing it. He seemed honest in doing both of those things, even if the only reason for that is his belief that it wasnt a good deal.

Right now, despite my occasional differences with him, Donald Trump may indeed be a small government conservatives best spokesman in Washington. But given that, as Greg Gutfeld says, Donald Trump is not small government and never has been, that provides little substance to the thin gruel that we small government conservatives are being offered by Washington right now.

*Steyn, Mark. After America: Get Ready for Armageddon. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2011. pp. 346

William Sullivan blogs at Political Palaver and can be followed on Twitter.Former President Obama wanted a world without nuclear weapons, and the 2015 nuclear weapons agreement with Iran had the intention of rolling back the Iranian nuclear program and setting up a stringent compliance program. But however well intentioned Obama's policies were, they haven't stopped Iran from continuing to make aggressive moves that violate the spirit of the agreement and taking advantage of concessions that have rendered Ayatollah Khamenei , the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Quds Force more dangerous than ever.

The United States and the other powers who signed the infamous "Iran deal" are in a major bind.

These Iranian entities now have a "Shia crescent," fortified with Iranian generals, Shia militias, and Hezb'allah enforcing the new Middle East. The architect and face of Tehran's Middle East ambitions and newfound global clout is General Qassem Soleimani, whom U.S. officials credit with thousands of American soldiers deaths. It's uncertain if General Soleimani controls Iran's cyber-attacks on the west, but the U.S. Justice Department in late March charged: "nine Iranians and an Iranian company for attempting to hack into hundreds of universities worldwide, dozens of companies, and parts of the U.S. government, on behalf of Tehran's government." The Justice Department described the attacks as "one of the largest state-sponsored hacks ever prosecuted."

Here's what decades of Iranian aggression, Western appeasement, and believing that Iran will integrate into the world community has wrought. Iran went all in to save Assad against democracy-seeking rebels in Syria, and according to Foreign Affairs:

Roughly 400,000 people have been killed, 5.5 million have fled Syria, and 6 million are internally displaced. The UN estimates 13 million Syrians need humanitarian assistance.

The Iran nuclear deal was supposed to curb these hegemonic behaviors and lead to economic integration. Instead, an Iranian airline under U.S. sanctions violated the nuclear agreement by "ferrying weapons and fighters into Syria repeatedly and bought U.S.-made jet engines and parts through Turkish front companies, investigators said in a mid-February recent government filing."

And Syria is only getting worse. Intelligence has surfaced that U.S. officials are now monitoring regional reports that, with Iranian assistance:

North Korea has neared completion of the construction of an underground military base located near Qardaha in Syria, the hometown of President Assad, that could be used for advanced weaponry and nuclear-related work.

Moreover, Syrian news outlet Zaman Al Wasi has reported that "according to satellite images and a military source the underground facility has been under construction since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in March 2011." The U.S. State Department has monitored and condemned North Korea for providing Assad with chemical weapons while knowing that Iran is the main supporter, along with its proxy, Hezb'allah, of the Syrian regime.

Geopolitical realism leads one to infer that the recent Trump-Netanyahu meeting wasn't about working toward Israeli-Palestinian peace or a solution to Syria; instead, it was "how to show a common front versus Iran." These are only some of the issues with Iran that have made President Trump want to completely change or scrap the 2015 nuclear deal entirely. Israel and the U.S. are also attempting to come up with a cogent, proportional response to Iran's recent threats against Israel, Tel Aviv, and Netanyahu along with Iran's lethal ballistic missile program.

The bone-chilling scenario is where Israel backs up its "never again" slogan over the Holocaust and decides to use nuclear weaponry as a first strike option against Iran. Never again means never again, and "the epicenter of genocidal Jew-hatred" begins in Iran.

It was the West, led by the Obama administration, that erupted these troubles through cutting off crippling sanctions for engagement at all costs  from knowing and allowing Osama bin Laden, his family, and his close associates safe haven and passage in and out of Iran to "the Obama administration hobbling a covert initiative (by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency) that tracked Hezb'allah's web of criminal activities, allowing millions of dollars to fall into the hands of Iran-backed militias," according to a Politico report.

Further, an effort by former President Obama to bury Iran-sanctioned Hezb'allah activities was born of the desire for a historic presidential legacy that a nuclear deal with Iran would produce. The former administration also paid Iran $1.7 billion to release five Americans held by Iran, and the regime was allowed to do this without any repercussions. Even worse, according to The Washington Times, the U.S. government discovered that the money ended up, "with Hezbollah, and the Quds Force, which has an extensive history of state-sponsored terrorism, and Houthi rebels in Yemen fighting the Saudi monarchy and government."

Energy is where Western officials have some of their greatest concerns. The U.S., Britain, France, and Germany are working to amend the Iran deal over worries that Iran's recalcitrant actions will drive up oil prices. Trump nominating hawkish Iran skeptic John Bolton as his new national security adviser doesn't bode well for lower energy prices. Nor does Iran's "elaborate oil sanction-skirting scheme" alleviate fears that Iran is using its oil and natural gas reserves as a weapon the way Russia weaponized state-run oil company Rosneft. Bloomberg did an extensive story on Iran skirting oil sanctions here.

Returning to Hezb'allah, Iran, and Israel, Hezb'allah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah in a televised address in late February warned Israel about its claim to an oil and gas field off the southern coast of Lebanon called Block 9. Nasrallah said, "Hezbollah could disable Israel's offshore oil installations within hours." With oil and natural gas being the backbone of world and Middle Eastern economies, this type of inflammatory rhetoric has caused Israel to warn Lebanon, Iran, Hezb'allah and international oil and gas companies from participating in any activity that doesn't recognize Israel's maritime rights and territorial waters. Hezb'allah activists in Lebanon are now fanning the flames over these disputed oil and gas sites that could cause another war to break out between Hezb'allah and Israel and spike oil and gas prices to levels not seen since 2014, when $100-a-barrel oil was the norm.

But whom do you believe about Iran's actions since before and after the nuclear deal? On one side is Vali Nasr, dean of advanced international studies at John Hopkins University, who writes:

Iran's willingness to engage with the US over its nuclear program showed it is driven by hardheaded calculations of national interest, not a desire to spread its Islamic Revolution abroad.

Then there is Mohammed al-Sulami, a Saudi columnist who has a Ph.D. in Iranian studies. He disagrees with Dean Nasr: "exporting Iran's revolution is a pleasant euphemism for regional chaos."

What we know is that among the battlefields of Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and parts of Saudi Arabia, along with Hezb'allah's influence in the global drug trade and illicit weaponry sales, Iran is the central figure.

Unless confronted, Iran will eventually split apart the Middle East. Iran could be welcomed into the world community and flourish immediately with its young, literate, and highly educated population. Instead, it chooses authoritarian rule cloaked in religion  all in the name of stability that does nothing to loosen its iron-fisted governance.

Iran will never change until its Islamic regime is put on the dustbin of history. Here's sincerely hoping it doesn't come to total war among the U.S., NATO, Iran, Israel, Middle Eastern Sunni nations, and all parties interested in the outcome.

Image: Adam Jones via Flickr.Stop Diminishing the Men

There is a "gender crisis" in America today, and it has nothing to do with the alleged 63 varieties of genders espoused by leftists. Nor does it have to do with women's marches. Quite simply it deals with the "expendable male," where, "in the space of just a few decades[,] American women have managed to demote men from respected providers and protectors to being unnecessary, irrelevant, and expendable " (Venker & Schlafly, The Flipside of Feminism). It is apparent by attitudes from well known women  e.g., Pamela Paul, who authored Are Fathers Necessary and wrote, "The bad news for Dad is that despite common perception, there's nothing objectively essential about his contribution." Then there is actress Jennifer Aniston, who once stated, "Women are realizing they don't have to settle with a man just to have a child."

Naomi Schaefer Riley at the Washington Post writes that "while our culture often celebrates the single life as empowering, this empowerment rarely trickles down to children. We can cheer the mother who dragged her son away from rioting in Baltimore after Freddie Gray was killed, and we can find it sweet that the former star of '16 & Pregnant' is taking her young son on 'dinner dates' to teach him how to treat women, but there is something sad about the fact that these boys do not have a father to offer these lessons in a more effective way." It is commonplace in the college composition classroom to read where single mothers assert that they do not need men since their own single mothers told them never to depend on anyone else. "Don't need men since they are childish and immature" is a frequent refrain. Christina Hoff Sommers in her 2013 booklet Freedom Feminism asserts that "the current women's lobby thinks of men as a rival camp. Not only are men denigrated, but their problems are ignored or explained away. There is, for example, an alarming and growing gender gap in education that shows male students falling far behind female students." Men and women complement each other. We are not on separate teams competing for one trophy. Our fates are inextricably tied  if one is in trouble, so is the other. There has been a decided decline of male attendance in college. In 2015, Forbes highlighted "The Disappearing College Male." For every four women graduating from four year colleges, there are only three men. If males graduated from college in the same proportion as women, there would be about 14 percent more college graduates each year  over two million more over a decade. An under-discussed issue is: why aren't men going and graduating from college as much as women? The phenomenon of the disappearing male began in earnest in the 1970s and 1980s, and the post-1990 decline has been more modest (indeed, the gender balance seems to have been relatively stable since the late 1990s). While the decline in the male role on campuses is notable among all racial groups, it is especially startling amongst blacks, where women graduates outnumber men nearly two to one. In percentage terms, however, the decline among Hispanics is even more pronounced. The writer attributes the "decline in the traditional two parent family, and, associated with that, the sharp decline among males of their traditional adult roles in society: providing income for their spouses and children. This is particularly true among racial minorities." While "the black family survived the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws and lynching, [they] could not survive the Great Society." Thus, "[m]ales in particular have been neutered by the Entitlement Society and the Welfare State." The decline in the primary male economic function of being a provider and working is huge, and ''as the centrality of work among males declined, so, apparently, has their ardor to go to college  why bother? Why do well in high school? Viewed increasingly negatively by society, men have engaged in increasingly violent, anti-social behavior, manifested in more of them rioting, taking drugs, and ending up in prison. Society urges women to study the STEM disciplines, but not men." Accentuating the absence of fathers is regularly reflected in popular culture. This June 2016 advertisement, titled "Raymond  The Complete Man Saluting Single Mothers This Father's Day," shows a dark-skinned Indian boy and his mother. The boy gives his mother a mug that says "World's Best Dad." Filled with pathos and savvy marketing techniques, this ad will surely be appealing. But a much more serious message is being sent. Surely, it could be a situation where the father died. But more than likely, it is not depicting such a situation. Statistics now indicate that among whites and Hispanics, the single parenthood rate is 45%, whereas 72% of black children are being raised in fatherless homes. There has been a sea change in the American family structure, as indicated by this 2015 Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends. In Australia, there is a Single Parent Australia Newsletter for single moms. Consequently and "unfortunately, Dad's role in society has been undermined long before he becomes a man. Feminists have been rejecting masculinity for years  and putting pressure on America's institutions to do the same. Indeed, they have waged a full scale assault on the American male" (Venker 146). In 2013 Kaye Hymowitz wrote "Boy Trouble." Her main findings: [T]he nuclear-family meltdown of the past half-century has been particularly toxic to boys' well-being.

[B]oys in fatherless homes are still getting into more trouble compared with their sisters and male peers with married parents.

Girls and boys have a better chance at thriving when their own father lives with them and their mother throughout their childhood  and for boys, this is especially the case.

There are basic differences between the sexes with boys more physically active and restless than girls. Boys take longer to mature.

Single-mother households tend to be located in poor urban areas and even the most conscientious mother cannot always protect a boy from a culture in which gangs have replaced fathers, the threat of violence looms, and schools are filled with apathetic or hostile males.

A community's dominant family structure [is] the strongest predictor of mobility  bigger than race or education levels. Recently, I had a class of mostly single mothers analyze Hymowitz's piece. After they had considered her points, I asked the following: if single moms keep reiterating that men are unnecessary, how will this affect their own young sons' perceptions of themselves? You could hear a pin drop. They had never considered the consequences of this on their own sons. Yet Hymowitz makes this poignant point when she writes "that boys growing up where fathers  and men more generally  appear superfluous confront an existential problem: Where do I fit in? Who needs me, anyway? Boys see that men have become extras in the lives of many families and communities, and it can't help but depress their aspirations." This does not bode well. Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com. Image: trialsanderrors via Flickr.Beware the digital tree of knowledge

Along with Genesis  "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die"  there was Greek mythology and Pandora's box. In both cases, female characters were seen to defy the warnings and subsequently let loose all sorts of dire consequences for humanity in general. A few thousand years later, our current obsessively narcissistic society is mesmerized by the charms of the internet and electronic social media. Like a school of fish attracted by shinny things with hidden hooks, people swarm toward the latest digital offering in hopes of satisfying a gnawing desire for some sort of social fulfillment and knowledge, albeit with minimal mental effort. The bait looks tasty...a digitized apple hanging on network tree-equivalent promises of instant knowledge...just a few key clicks to establish your identity, and then enter and control your digital domain. Unlike the warning given in Genesis, this twentieth-century version of temptation came without a warning label, although one computer manufacturer did give a hint via its iconic trademark. The domain is out to control you.

Recent revelations of the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Silicon Valley masters of the digital world have revealed their hidden digital hooks. What is right or wrong, true or false, important or not is surreptitiously defined by the digital masters. What answer you get from the internet has been ranked in a viewing order determined by algorithms obedient to the valley masters. Generations of progressive indoctrination via government-funded public schools may not have provided their students with the tools to identify such distinctions on their own. A smartphone is now their instant mental equivalent to the abilities of much earlier generations taught the three Rs and independent thought. Those generations garner the disdain of our ruling-class elitists, who deem them "deplorables." The phenomenon discussed in Charles Mackay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds has been given an electronic efficiency via crowdsourcing. Manias need be no longer limited to overpriced tulips. Instant crowds are deliverable via the internet. The terrors of Greek democracy are now only a few key clicks away...mobs a la carte...wisdom to be determined. Massing mobs on malls is the current vogue. Social media websites have taken the identities of the innocent and naive sign-ups and sold them to the highest bidder. Such digital soul-baring cannot be taken back. It is a one-sided deal with the digital devil. The moving finger clicks on the internet, and not a word of piety or sorrow can erase a digital bit or byte of it (apologies to Omar Khayyam). In a digital form of poetic justice, masses of the offended are now threatening to bite the hand or finger of the social media platform they had embraced and terminate their online affairs. The Pandora's box of the digital world has been opened, and the digitized Devil behind the "tree of knowledge" temptation revealed. What further dire consequences await us? Whatever they might be, they will be delivered via the internet...now connected to everything. Charles G. Battig, M.S., M.D. is a Heartland Institute policy expert on environment and contributor to American Thinker. His website is www.climateis.com.Media Hogg-tied by a child demogogue

The profane egomaniac whom the left-media are worshiping at the moment, David Hogg, is the poster boy for the ungracious monsters who characterize a portion of Generation Z, those youngsters born from the mid-1990s to mid-2000s. This is the generation that has been the most seriously indoctrinated with leftist ideology rather than actual education. Given that fact, it follows that they are the least knowledgeable about the Constitution, let alone the rest of American history: the Revolutionary War, the Founding, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. They do not remember 9/11; they know only its aftermath. They have no memory of what life was like before that day of infamy. An awareness of terrorism is a sad fact of their lives  if not personally, then on the nightly news from around the world. At the same time, we are all instructed to respect Islam and are condemned if we utter the truth that terrorism is an Islamic problem. Young people today are taught to hate Jews and Israel but to love and venerate Muslims. They are taught to hate men, especially white men, and to revere a host of new gender identifications. Like the majority of teachers and professors who have indoctrinated Hogg's generation, Hogg feels justified maligning anyone who disagrees with him. The kid is such a jerk, such a despicable role model, and yet the left media cannot get enough of him.

Who among the Baby Boom generation ever gave a thought to suicide bombers or terrorist plots? Cold War-era air raid drills and earthquake protocols were the only orders of the day. Hogg is a depressing example of what too many of his generation's parents have engendered. This young man is arrogant, rude, profane, and disrespectful to anyone who takes issue with his anti-gun, anti-NRA point of view. It is of no concern to him that if the armed guard on site had entered the building in which kids were being shot, he might have saved lives. The deputies who arrived within minutes never entered the building, either. They were either cowards or ordered to stand down  probably both. No toxic masculinity on display that day. Sheriff Scott Israel is the Andrew McCabe of Broward County: a political animal interested only in protecting his job. That he is still in office is a travesty. Consider Superintendent Robert Runcie and the ridiculous-on-its-face PROMISE Program, an Obama-prescribed policy responsible for those seventeen deaths. But David Hogg, a mindless tool if there ever was one, blames only the NRA, the pre-eminent gun safety organization in the country. Despite all this, CNN, MSNBC, and PBS have put him up front as a voice of reason to which the rest of us should pay attention. Meanwhile, contributions to the NRA have spiked. Hogg is the best public relations voice for the NRA to come along in years. But he knows nothing about the Constitution, the Second Amendment, or why the latter is so crucial to the American idea. The kid is like an adolescent Obama: all hat, no cattle. He is full of bluster and fake rage, a self-promoter on steroids. Given his new celebrity, he probably has armed security everywhere he goes to shout at the rest of us about gun control. If it is true that his dad is ex-FBI, you can be sure he grew up with guns in his home and a father trained in the safe use of firearms. Where are his parents now? Is there no adult in his life who will tell him to stop shrieking like a benighted banshee? Apparently not. Most parents would and should be horrified by a child who is so publicly full of himself, so ungracious, so crude. But he is the person the left loves at the moment. It explains why leftists love Stormy Daniels so much. They have no standards. Hogg is the Adam Schiff of faux outrage. At his core, he is just another shameless self-promoter. Most parents of a certain age would be paralyzed with humiliation by a child such as David Hogg. Our culture needs to be fixed. David Hogg is the poster boy for everything wrong with the leftist indoctrination that has characterized parenting and education for the last forty-plus years.Trump's new memorandum says transgender individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are barred from military service "except under certain limited circumstances."

President Trump is saying transsexuals can serve in the military only under limited circumstances, and journalists, politicians, and others are having a collective cow, whining about how prejudiced he is.

Here is a description of people with gender dysphoria:

People with gender dysphoria may often experience significant distress and/or problems functioning associated with this conflict between the way they feel and think of themselves (referred to as experienced or expressed gender) and their physical or assigned gender.

There are hundreds of reasons people are denied getting in the military:

a. Personality, conduct, or behavior disorders as evidenced by frequent encounters with law enforcement agencies, antisocial attitudes or behavior, which, while not sufficient cause for administrative rejection, are tangible evidence of impaired capacity to adapt to military service. b. Personality, conduct, or behavior disorders where it is evident by history, interview, or psychological testing that the degree of immaturity, instability, personality inadequacy, impulsiveness, or dependency will seriously interfere with adjustment in the Army as demonstrated by repeated inability to maintain reasonable adjustment in school, with employers and fellow workers, and with other social groups. c. Other behavior disorders including but not limited to conditions such as authenticated evidence of functional enuresis or encopresis, sleepwalking, or eating disorders that are habitual or persistent occurring beyond age 12, or stammering of such a degree that the individual is normally unable to express himself or herself clearly or to repeat commands. d. Specific academic skills defects, chronic history of academic skills or perceptual defects, secondary to organic or functional mental disorders that interfere with work or school after age 12. Current use of medication to improve or maintain academic skills. e. Suicide, history of attempted or suicidal behavior.

Maybe journalists and politicians who are ripping into Trump should read the following one before they rip Trump:

PSYCHOSEXUAL CONDITIONS The causes for rejection for appointment, enlistment, and induction are transsexualism, exhibitionism, transvestitism, voyeurism, and other paraphilias.

From above, suicidal behavior is cause for denial into the military, and the suicide rate of transgender people is almost ten times higher than the rest of the population:

Suicide attempts are alarmingly common among transgender individuals; 41% try to kill themselves at some point in their lives, compared with 4.6% of the general public. The numbers come from a study by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Williams Institute.

Transsexuals make up only around three tenths of a percent of the population, yet by definition, they have distress and a high suicide rate. Is it wise or necessary to subject them to the obvious stress of the military?

It is absolutely disgusting and astonishing how one-sided the reporting is. The media were collective cheerleaders for President Obama, no matter what he did, and they trash Trump, no matter what he does.

Obama was president for eight years and had complete control of Congress in 2009 and 2010, yet he passed no immigration laws. Instead, he unilaterally, dictatorially, and unconstitutionally implemented his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), ignored existing immigration laws, and allowed sanctuary cities and states, and the media and Democrats blame Trump for not fixing DACA and immigration yet.

Obama and the Democrats essentially did nothing to make schools safer in eight years, didn't even ban bump stocks, and any shooting is blamed on the NRA and the Republicans, even though I believe that no mass shootings were by NRA members.

For 230 years, we had freedom of choice on health care, and life expectancy was increasing rapidly, and Obama and the Democrats chose to destroy the existing system and take away choice. As a result, private competition has been reduced substantially, and costs have skyrocketed. Yet the media and Democrats say it is Trump's and the Republicans' fault.

For as long as anyone can remember, boys and girls sensibly used restrooms and locker rooms to match their body parts until Obama decided he knew better and threatened to cut off funds if students who were not actual members of the opposite sex felt as if they were members of the opposite sex yet couldn't use facilities of their choice. Obama and supporters of this policy cared little about other students' rights. Trump sensibly reversed this decision, and he was called prejudiced.

And for almost 240 years, the military functioned well without transsexuals until Obama came along. President Trump reversed this decision, and the reporting made it look as if he was absolutely ignorant and irrational.

Since there are hundreds of afflictions and diseases that prevent people from joining the military, why are the protests focused on transsexuals, who are described as distressed and who already have high suicide rates? It makes no sense from any point of view.Washington Post attempts to blur terrorism

In "Austin revives a question: What is terrorism?" (3/24/18), the probing response would be: revives a question by whom? The Washington Post and its agenda-driven news reportage? The article starts with the following: "The string of bombings in Austin revived an ongoing debate over how the government investigates and prosecutes terrorism, revealing a split between the way many Americans think about terrorism and the way the U.S. law defines it." This begs for the response: how do Americans think and by what metrics or studies does the Post make such a claim? All of this is absent from the article apart from a few anecdotal quotes that reflect a sample size nowhere near the number necessary to make any sort of educated claim.

The Post then states that "law enforcement officials also found themselves dealing with a familiar question: Why don't they call this terrorism?" But this quote is not attributed to any law enforcement official. Surely, if it were so "familiar," the Post could have found someone to attribute it to. The article states, "Law enforcement officials have repeatedly said that the Austin bomber terrorized the community." They also "made clear that they have not found indicators that he was inspired by any foreign terrorist group" or any hate group, for that matter. Yes, there is a difference between "being terrorized" and "terrorism," which raises the question: what is the point of the article? And then we learn. The Post continues, "[I]n an era when a disturbed person with a weapon can kill randomly in public, the legal distinctions between terrorism, hate crime and a killing rampage can seem less meaningful." The Post then quotes a Professor Lankford  a so-called expert on mass killers  who talks about how "a lot of people talk about a double standard being used." Did a college professor really state a professorial view by using the evidence of "a lot of people" with no study backing it up? The professor then brings up the following: "if this guy's Muslim you're going to call him a terrorist, and if he's not, you're going to use some other label." Of course, all cases of Islamic mass murders in America and Europe have included the murderer shouting "Allahu akbar"  an Islamist war cry. We keep getting closer to the point of the article: "Lankford said that whatever mass killers' particular motivations might be, they tend to share certain psychological traits that may be more important than their agendas. Such traits include a sense of victimization, a pattern of seeking negative attention, and being suicidal or not caring whether they live." Voila! The Post is aiming to blur all types of killing. It is clearly an attempt to defend Islamic terrorism in presenting that all mass murder is basically the same. The Post leaves the truth of the situation to the end, when most readers have already quit the article, with a quote from Brian Levin, head of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino. Levin states, "If all violence is labeled terrorism, then the definition fails as well." That seems to be the goal of the Washington Post with the printing of this article.Social giant Facebook started up an initiative back in January that prioritizes local news sources for users who seek their news on the platform, and now the company is ready to begin using that same initiative on a worldwide scale. The news feed changes should now be active for all Facebook users worldwide as of this writing. The idea is that users will see news from their own city first, which means that they will get to see whats happening in their own communities, and get a local spin on news thats more widespread, such as international relations and news from the tech world.

Alongside the announcement that international audiences will start seeing local news first, Facebook also said that it will make a small change to what it considers local to users by bringing in content from nearby cities if its deemed to be from a relevant local publication. Essentially, if a user in a certain city is geographically close by and is more likely to look at that publication than others, it will be promoted on their news feed despite not being from the same city. A good example of this is regional news publications on Facebook, such as Bay News 9, which covers the entire Tampa Bay area of Florida, including Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Ruskin, Tampa, and more. Under the old system, users in Clearwater who may now see promoted stories from Bay News 9 first may have seen a city-level publication, even a small one or one with content not entirely relevant to the news search at hand. As another example, under this new system, readers in London, England can now see articles from The Manchester Evening News promoted higher in their news feed or search results, if theyre deemed more relevant than comparable content from local publications in London or offer content that those publications do not.

Facebook has been hard at work to optimize itself for use as a central news platform, an effort that has been harried by a battle with fake news that has raged on even before the 2016 United States Presidential Election, during which the term was popularized. It only makes sense that local news would not only be more relevant to individual users, but also that users will have a harder time running across any fake news that manages to get onto the platform if theyre presented with local news on a priority basis, since recognized local news outlets almost never publish misleading or overly provocative content for a local audience.U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has admitted that he is concerned over the possible threat of espionage from Chinese telecommunications companies including Huawei, adding that he is planning to do something about the matter in order to help keep the countrys telecom networks secure. Pai cited the espionage concerns in a letter sent to legislators on March 20, though he did not mention when the FCC plans to investigate the matter. He also announced the agency does not use devices built by Huawei or ZTE and said Huaweis ambitions to strike a retail partnership with a major communications company in the United States wont alter this state of affairs.

AT&T recently withdrew from a deal with Huawei in a botched agreement that would have allowed the wireless carrier to become the first telecom firm in the country to offer Huawei devices in its stores. AT&T was expected to carry Huaweis flagship Mate 10 series starting this quarter, according to industry sources. Xiaomi was also said to be in talks with both Verizon and AT&T over potential retail partnerships, whereas Verizon recently dropped its plans to carry Huawei-built devices due to political pressure from U.S. regulators, according to previous reports.

Pais acknowledgment of security concerns regarding Chinese original equipment manufacturers came after the U.S. Congress reportedly asked the FCC to investigate Huaweis plans to enter the stateside smartphone market, though the scope of the investigation the FCC was being asked to conduct remains unclear. The growing pressure on major wireless carriers in the country to refrain from striking any retail deals with telecom firms from China should mark the end to Huaweis immediate ambitions to expand its footprint in the worlds largest market for premium mobile devices. Huaweis phones are still available for purchase in the U.S. through online retail storefronts like eBay and Amazon.Going online and having any contact with mainstream news in the last handful of days made it almost impossible to miss Facebooks still-unraveling data privacy scandal involving a New York City-based digital insights and political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. The magnitude of the public outcry and the amount of media attention given to the ordeal has been significant even in the context of the scope of the incident which is said to have seen Cambridge Analytica harvest data of some 50 million Facebook users while informing less than one-percent of them of that activity several years back, then leveraging that information to fight an information war during the 2016 presidential election in the United States, an accusation made by a whistleblower that the firm repeatedly denied. With Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally breaking silence on the matter, whats essentially the act one of this controversial story is coming to an end, with many questions remaining.

What really happened?

Before delving into the matter, its worth pointing out that the story broken by the Observer and The New York Times a week ago was originally reported in late 2015 by The Guardian in largely the same manner, with the original expose lacking some details but still describing the bulk of the issue. In the summer of 2014, Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan  whom some media is repeatedly labeling as Soviet-born despite the fact hes been living in the U.S. since age seven after emigrating from whats now Moldova  developed an online personality quiz which users were able to access via their Facebook profiles. Over 270,000 users were paid between $3 and $4 each to participate, Mr. Kogan said in an interview with BBC Radio 4 during which he proclaimed hes being used as a scapegoat for what transpired by both Cambridge Analytica and Facebook.

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Users who took the personality test whose results were meant to be used for academic purposes had some of their data harvested by the app but so did all of their Facebook friends, with the extent of the activity reportedly encompassing some 50 million people despite the fact that only a fraction of them technically agreed to it. The data ended up being provided to Cambridge Analytica and Mr. Kogan claims he didnt profit from the activity. According to the account of one Christopher Wylie, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica, the company used the improperly obtained information to build a software tool for predicting voter behavior and influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in the U.S. Mr. Kogan also claims the data itself hasnt been particularly accurate and any conclusions regarding ones political preferences drawn from it were as likely to be false as they were to be correct.

Facebook said it asked Cambridge Analytica to delete the data in 2015 after it changed its term of use to prevent third-party apps from harvesting vast amounts of information in such a manner and banned the quiz app but later learned the company hasnt complied with the request. Facebook also said Mr. Kogan violated its terms of use by sharing collected data with another party, i.e. the analytics firm at the center of the controversy. Cambridge Analytica denied using the data as part of its involvement in the 2016 presidential election and claimed it had deleted it, whereas the Times later reported that isnt entirely true, citing one insider who suggested significant portions of the controversially obtained information were still on the companys servers. The matter is presently being investigated by authorities in the U.S. and Europe. Cambridge Analytica also agreed to a forensic computer audit of its servers to confirm it deleted the data, with the probe itself being set to be conducted by an unnamed independent entity hired by Facebook.

How responsible is Facebook?

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The manner in which Mr. Kogans personality quiz collected the data wasnt against Facebooks 2014 terms of use which were revised a year later to specifically prevent such activities, which is also the main reason why the social media giant strongly disagrees with headlines referring to the incident as a data breach, having previously noted such wording implies some kind of hacking took place. Mr. Zuckerberg said that hes responsible for what happens on Facebook at the end of the day but noted the firms previous efforts effectively prevented such incidents from happening post-2014. Facebook was recently hit with a lawsuit seeking class-action status that alleges the company still failed to protect the privacy of its users and is hence guilty by omission. Some of the companys comments on the matter suggest it was aware of the data harvesting conducted by Mr. Kogans app and Cambridge Analyticas involvement in the incident even if it may not have had knowledge of how the data ended up being used.

On that note, theres still a question of whether the harvested data was leveraged to support the Trump campaigns digital push in late 2016, which the implicated actors and federal filings suggest it didnt. Instead, the relevant paper trail and various statements indicate Cambridge Analytica only did swing state polling, online fundraising, and TV and Internet ad placement on behalf of the Trump campaign. The psychographic personality profiling the political consulting firm was touting as its flagship offering and which is believed to have relied on the improperly harvested data was refused by the campaign, with some insiders recently stating the technology doesnt even work.

Whats next for Facebook?

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In a Facebook post published Wednesday, Mr. Zuckerberg said the most important steps to combating such misuse from happening again were already taken with its terms of service revision over three years ago, having also vowed to have the company investigate every app which had access to vast amounts of data prior to the move. Should more similar misuses be identified, the developers responsible for them will be banned from using Facebook and the firm will notify affected users, the CEO promised, adding how that also includes people whose privacy was violated by Mr. Kogans app.

Facebook is also planning to additionally restrict third-party access to user data and is planning to implement automated mechanisms aimed at combating misuse. As part of that push, apps which users havent launched in three months will have their data access rights revoked, whereas no app will be able to harvest anything outside of ones name, profile photo, and email address via a traditional Facebook Connect login such as the one used by Mr. Kogans quiz and numerous other apps like Uber, Disqus, and a wide variety of browser and mobile games. Facebook will also launch a new tool allowing users to quickly inspect which apps have access to their data and revoke it if necessary, having pledged the service will launch next month and be highlighted at the top of the News Feed. The company is presently running full-page newspaper ads apologizing for the ordeal in the U.S. which have been met with a mixed response from the general public.

Facebook is now facing major criticism across the board, with backlash coming from its users, politicians, regulatory agencies, and various other actors. Some industry watchers are predicting the company is under a high risk of being hit with heavy-handed regulations in the near future, with such a turn of events having the potential to impact the rest of the tech industry relying on data harvesting, including giants like Google. Calls for a federal intervention already started; in a statement provided to AndroidHeadlines, the Internet Innovation Alliance repeated its support of the idea of an Internet Bill of Rights meant to promote one standard of privacy and one set of rules that apply to all companies in the internet ecosystem, thus relating the issue to the still-ongoing debate on net neutrality. The key need in any [such] legislation is to treat all participants in the internet ecosystem equally with the goal of protecting consumers on all fronts, privacy included, IIA said.

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Jedidiah Yueh, data technologist and founder of secure data management firm Delphix  which also works with Facebook  said Mr. Zuckerbergs statement about restricting data access to developers is wrong and doesnt accurately reflect Facebooks approach to development. Combining effective data distribution and protection mechanisms is the only way to move forward and its too late for restriction-versus-access strategies, Mr. Yueh believes. Data lockdown stifles innovation and as Facebook is now struggling to control its own creation, added regulations are inevitable as more similar breaches come to light, according to Mr. Yueh. You dont become a Facebook by restricting data access to developers, the industry veteran concluded in a statement provided to AndroidHeadlines, thus emphasizing his point about a strategy focused on both data protection and distribution being the only viable approach to future development.

Trust is the lifeblood of Facebooks business; if it loses that, it will lose more than its stock price in the long run, according to Lynnette Luna, GlobalData Principal Technology Analyst. The Menlo Park, California-based Internet juggernaut appears to agree with that sentiment, with Mr. Zuckerbergs response to the situation being issued as part of a personal post on Facebook which plays on the human aspect, noting that the company is still just a sum of individuals and concluding that we also made mistakes. The move itself is far from unprecedented, with Mr. Zuckerberg often opting for similar damage control methods. The 33-year-old started adopting a more apologetic rhetoric in early 2017 following the initial controversy caused by numerous reports about the role Facebook played in foreign misinformation campaigns aimed at meddling with the last U.S. presidential election and the backlash prompted by his initial response to the allegations, which was to assert that the very notion of Russian or other agents being capable of using Facebook to influence the stateside democratic process is pretty crazy.

Facebook is also presently enduring an advertiser boycott including the likes of Mozilla, Sonos, Commerzbank, and even some major marketing agencies such as M&C Saatchi. The majority of the firms that pulled ads from Facebook said theyd consider returning if Facebook addresses the issues in an adequate manner, with Mozilla already suggesting it doesnt believe the changes promised by Mr. Zuckerberg are enough. The scope of the boycott still isnt believed to be large enough to significantly impact Facebooks bottom line, especially as its average ad prices spiked following the companys decision to purge the News Feed from posts created by pages, thus leaving less space for promoted posts to appear on its landing page. As that development was widely interpreted as a sign that not enough advertisers are able to have their paid promotional messages seen which prompted them to increase their bids, the current movement halting some companies participation in Facebooks auction-based ad platform may have little to no impact on the firms annual finances.

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Overall, while the controversy undoubtedly took a toll on Facebook and erased tens of billions of dollars of its market capitalization over the course of this week, its effects still arent significant in the context of the companys long-term prospects, according to many industry watchers. The firms stock that is now widely reported as crumbling is presently trading at Facebooks value from last July, with the development hence only being seen as an interim setback for the social media giant. In the end, what will likely happen is some investors confident in Facebooks sustainability will use the development as an opportunity to buy its shares on the cheap and return the firm on the path of growth as more follow their lead in the coming weeks.The Huawei P20 and P20 Pro will be announced tomorrow in Paris, and the P20 retail packaging just leaked, with some real-life images of the device (this seems to be a prototype, though). You will be able to find quite a few images in the gallery down below, and as you can see, the model number were looking at here is the EML-L29, and this is a Midnight Blue color variant of the device. The phones packaging also confirms that the P20 will ship with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of native storage.

The phones packaging also mentions a dual-camera setup, while next to the P20s box lies a retail packaging of the Huawei 360 Panoramic VR Camera. Now, if you take a look at the phone itself, you will see the exact same device that leaked a number of times thus far. The Huawei P20 will sport a display notch, which, truth be said, is no that big, but its still there. The phones display will sport rounded corners, while the phone will utilize on-screen buttons. All the physical keys will be located on the right-hand side of the Huawei P20, while the phone itself will be made out of metal and glass, just like the P20 Pro. A front-facing fingerprint scanner will also be a part of this package, as it is clearly noticeable in the provided images down below. The Huawei P20 will sport two vertically-aligned cameras on the back, on top of which Leicas lenses will be included, while the companys branding will be present on the back of the device as well.

The Huawei P20s SIM card tray will be placed on the left, if these images are to be believed, and the phones rear-facing cameras will protrude a bit. The provided images claim that the phone will be fueled by the Kirin 970 64-bit octa-core SoC, and that it will sport a display with a resolution of 2244 x 1080. Android 8.1 Oreo is also mention in the provided images, and so is Huaweis Emotion UI (EMUI) 8.1 skin. The Huawei P20 Pro will be similar-looking to the P20, but rumors and leaks claim that it will sport three cameras on its back.Qualcomms ten-man board of directors was re-elected on Friday, having faced no opposition after Broadcoms attempted coup was stopped by President Trump earlier this month. The San Diego, California-based company confirmed the outcome of the vote but hasnt provided more details on the matter, with Reuters previously reporting the preliminary results showed some directors received less than 50-percent of all possible votes. Qualcomm Chief Executive Officer Steve Mollenkopf is said to be one such board member, with the results themselves showing uncharacteristically weak investor support for an opposition-less re-election. The development is understood to be a reflection of the failed Broadcom merger many stakeholders have been pushing for, having reportedly arrived on the verge of being able to replace six of the companys board members with Broadcoms own nominees who were prepared to vote to sell the company.

While Qualcomm ended up resisting the hostile takeover attempt, many industry analysts believe it wouldnt have been able to do so without the intervention from the White House, with the episode hence suggesting the chipmaker is still weak to unsolicited bids. Going forward, the company may attempt a major share buyback initiative in order to strengthen its ability to endure advances from unwanted suitors, with such a move also previously being presented as a plan B for creating additional near-term shareholder value in case the NXP Semiconductors bid isnt able to be completed.

Qualcomms attempted tie-up with the Dutch semiconductor firm has been in the making for nearly a year and a half now and is still being blocked by China, with Beijing supposedly pushing for more protections for its own vendors before approving it. The Far Eastern countrys largest tech company is also understood to have had a stake in the Qualcomm-Broadcom race, with some industry watchers and one of U.S. Treasury Departments own panels claiming Huawei would have an opportunity to seize global leadership in 5G and a number of other segments if the merger was completed. According to those accounts, Broadcom was likely to cut Qualcomms R&D funding following a hypothetical consolidation, which would allow Huawei and other rivals to catch up to the chipmaker with their own technologies.The Galaxy Note 9 is likely to have a 3,850mAh battery and an in-screen fingerprint reader, industry insider known only by their Twitter and Weibo handle Ice Universe said earlier this month. The claim comes shortly after reports suggesting Samsung still hasnt given up on the idea of commercializing an under-display fingerprint sensor in 2018 emerged, with the companys display manufacturing arm supposedly presenting the firm with three or four options for doing so. While Samsung traditionally finalizes the design of its Galaxy Note models at least five months prior to their commercialization, the company opted for a longer development period this year in an effort to address the possibility of equipping the phablet with such a new technology despite many technical barriers to doing so, insiders claimed last week. The move still isnt likely to affect the commercial availability of the phablet which is widely expected to debut in August before going on sale by late summer.

Should the Galaxy Note 9 end up featuring a 3,850mAh battery, it would ship with the largest cell ever included into a member of the S Pen-equipped series; the Galaxy Note 8 had a 3,300mAh battery and even the discontinued Galaxy Note 7 whose battery proved to be too large for its body shipped with a 3,500mAh unit. Support for Samsungs Adaptive Fast Charging technology is likely to be part of the package but its presently unclear whether the Snapdragon models of the device sold in the United States, Canada, and China will be compatible with Qualcomms Quick Charge 3.0 which all of Samsungs flagships lacked so far. Even the latest Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus only allow for Quick Charge 2.0 due to what are understood to be licensing issues related to the royalties Qualcomm is demanding.

Not much is known about the next addition to the Galaxy Note lineup, though Samsungs mobile chief recently suggested the phablet may end up debuting alongside Bixby 2.0, a significantly upgraded version of the companys artificial intelligence assistant. A base of 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage space boasted by the Galaxy Note 8 should be retained by its successor, whereas AR Emoji may also be part of the package given how aggressively Samsung is promoting the feature in the context of the Galaxy S9 series and the fact that the tech behind the solution is relatively easy to implement into any conventional smartphone, Android or otherwise.Some owners of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus are reporting call dropping issues, with others also complaining about what they perceive is a generally poor quality of calls enabled by Samsungs latest Android flagships. Dozens of such users recently took to XDA Developers forums and other online communities to highlight the matter, with the majority of them revealing theyre using the international variants of the two devices powered by Samsungs own Exynos 9810 system-on-chip. A small number of other people complaining about dropping calls or having sound quality issues said theyre using the unlocked Snapdragon variants of the two devices, with not a single case involving a U.S. carrier-branded version of the handset being recorded to date.

Original complaints began emerging last week, several days after the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus started retailing on a global level, though the number of users claiming to be affected by such problems is still counted in the dozens, suggesting the issue isnt widespread. Samsung hasnt responded to the matter in a global capacity, with only the Spanish unit of the firm thanking one of the users who complained about call reception and stating its technical team is now in the process of looking into the matter. That communication dates back to last Thursday and no update on the situation has been provided so far. Several affected owners who attempted to troubleshoot the phenomenon claim their findings indicate the two devices are dropping calls due to weak signals. The reports themselves appear to span numerous markets even if the number of problematic units remains low relative to the expected sale volume of the new Android flagship lineup, with users complaining about call quality and dropping issues coming from the United States, Spain, United Kingdom, Australia, and other countries.

Originally commercialized ten days ago, the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus are expected to be the best-selling Android smartphones of the year, thus being one of the mobile industrys most high-profile 2018 releases. While Samsung is predicting the duo will outsell the Galaxy S8 lineup, its pre-order performance is understood to have been weaker, as suggested by the fact that the Seoul-based tech giant hasnt shared any pre-release performance figures of the Galaxy S9 series.Brutal dog vs boar fight in Vietnam sparks national outrage and calls for law change 23 March 2018

Welfare groups, the media and the public express shock after footage emerges of barbaric animal cruelty video filmed in the capital, Hanoi.

Footage showing a pack of hunting dogs mauling and killing a single boar as part of a club event has shocked Vietnam and prompted a widespread backlash.

Users of Facebook have condemned the footage which has been seen by millions on the social media platform since being filmed on 18 March in the suburbs of the capital, Hanoi.

The press too have been swift to demand action with every major newspaper in the country, including VNExpress and Tuoi Tre covering the outrage, while major news networks such as Vietnam Television (VTV) have also aired coverage of the event which was organised by a hunting dog club.





Yet despite the fury their cruel actions have caused, the event organisers remain defiant.

One youth involved in the event told media:

We will continue doing it because it isnt illegal  well just not put it on social networks.

But the bold claims of those taking part are in stark contrast to the authorities who have vowed to crack down.

Animals Asias Animal Welfare Officer, Nguyen Tam Thanh, who has been a vocal commentator opposing the cruel event, said:

The behaviour seen in the videos is utterly barbaric and the Vietnamese public have made it abundantly clear that they will not tolerate this in their society. And while its very welcome news that the authorities are willing to act, the lack of a law specifically targeting animal abuse and cruelty of this kind makes it difficult for the punishment to match the crime.

The charges potentially being levelled at the organisers include organising an event without a license, damaging private property, organising a violent activity in public or keeping dogs without the required rabies vaccinations.

While Vietnam passed its first animal welfare legislation in 2016 in the form of the Animal Health Law, there is presently no provision for punishment for those who carry out cruelty to animals.

Animals Asias Vietnam Director Tuan Bendixsen said:

This case makes it very clear that current regulations lag far behind the expectations of the public. As weve seen, the vast majority are completely horrified by these actions but right now there are no legal consequences for those who intentionally cause cruelty to animals.



This case needs to be a wake up call to the authority that the country is desperately in need of stricter animal welfare legislation which specifically outlaws the deliberate causing of pain and suffering to animals. The current law needs to be clarified, expanded and punishments have to be put in place.

Animal welfare has become an increasingly important topic of public debate in Vietnam over recent years. After Animals Asia highlighted a cruel spring festival in which a pig was chopped in half, public condemnation and calls for action resulted in numerous cruel festivals being banned.

A similar event in Indonesia came to light last year after an investigation by Animals Asias partner Scorpion Foundation. A campaign followed and resulted in an announcement from the Indonesian authorities that all such events would be banned.Aspen Middle School students organized a march and protest on March 14 that culminated at Paepcke Park. Aspen High School students will join the national movement on April 20 to coincide with the date of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.We are in the process of reengineering the way we practice law and the way we run our firm, and Colmans appointment is an important part of this process, said Ian Robertson, the firms national managing partner.

Holding Redlich is striving for real efficiency and innovation, Colman said, which requires the introduction of improved technology and systems in everything that the firm does.

This is the only way we will be able to continue to meet the needs of our clients now and into the future, Kenna said.

The new leader said that he has his work cut out for him.

This will be difficult and challenging, we know that. But the key thing is that theres a great willingness and eagerness within our firm to innovate which is pretty exciting, Kenna said.Ayres, who brings with him more than 20 years experience, is a specialist in dispute resolution, insolvency, and restructuring. He comes to the firm as it expects restructuring professionals to have a hectic year.

Restructuring professionals are set for a busy 2018, with the economy presenting a combination of challenging economic conditions for some companies and greenshoots growth for others. The recent commencement of safe-harbour provisions as a result of amendments to the Corporations Act in 2017 will also start to gain traction, HopgoodGanim said.

Leiths commencement at HopgoodGanim comes at a time when the firm has seen an increase in restructuring activity, general economic activity and changes and challenges in the WA economy, it said.

Ayres said he expects the firm to significantly grow, especially in litigation, insolvency, and reconstruction. His appointment expands the firms partner numbers to eight in Perth and 43 across Australia.

In January, HopgoodGanim added four lawyers in Brisbane, including special counsel Alana Paterson.An American legal directory and lawyer matching service has picked Lindsay Lohan to be their spokesperson.

The Hollywood actress, who has been on the wrong side of the law on numerous occasions, now features prominently on Lawyer.com.

When Lawyer.com first reached out to me, I was confused and a little scared because I thought I was in trouble, she said. But when they asked me to be their spokesperson, I was intrigued. After meeting with the team, I realised Lawyer.com is just about helping people. From getting a DUI  lets not pretend like I didnt get one, or two, or three, or some others.Well, this is precisely what the aficionados over at TFL Car have recently done, but at least they had a serious reason for it, namely racing a lifted Jeep Wrangler . No, we're not talking about a drag race, as we're referring to an efficiency battle instead.To be more precise, the Trackhawk, which came in factory stock form, battled a Wrangler that had been gifted with the usual offroading goodies, such as the said lift kit and 35-inch tires.The two Jeeps were driven on a 254-mile course as part of a trip from Boulder, Colorado to Moab, Utah, so most of the driving was done on highways, while on-the-road inclines were also on the menu.Now that Jeep has come up with the 707 hp Trackhawk , certain people who are not exactly up to date with the automotive phenomenon, have shown concern regarding the efficiency of the thing.Well, perhaps to their surprise, lifted Wranglers, which have been around for much longer, deliver the same kind of efficiency. To be more precise, the Hellcat-ized Grand Cherokee achieved 16.44 mph, sitting pretty close to its 17 mpg EPA highway rating, while the high(er)-riding Wrangler got 16.98 mpg - of course, the Wrangler, with its naturally aspirated 3.6-liter V6, has around 2.5 times less power than the GC Trackhwak.It's worth mentioning that the figures above are approximate, since the method used to measure the efficiency involved the good old refueling vs. covered distance method.As for the giggles delivering along the tip, the winner wasn't too difficult to determine.We can say with some certainty that its sold out, a company spokesperson told Autocar . What that means is, McLaren Automotive will cash in at least 90 million pounds sterling. Thats because the Senna GTR retails at 1.2 million as standard, and heaven only knows how much the MSO treatment adds to the price.Adding to the intrigue, the Senna GTR presented at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show isnt even the finished product. Its a concept that previews the real deal, which will be hand-assembled in Woking by McLaren Special Operations starting from 2019.The track-only version will have more power, more grip and more downforce than the Senna. Speaking of the road-going model , McLaren announced that production is limited to 500 vehicles, each costing 750,000 including taxes. Stop me if youve heard this one before, but the 800-horsepower Senna is sold out too.Notice the go-faster bits and bobs adorning the body shell, including the XXL-sized rear wing and stupendous aerodynamic diffuser? Working as one, these pieces help the GTR produce 1,000 kilograms (approximately 2,205 pounds) of downforce. The air going around, through the vents, and the air pushing down on the vehicle enables the Senna GTR to post the quickest McLaren circuit lap times outside Formula 1.Were you expecting anything else from the most extreme McLaren ever conceived? After all, Honda-powered McLaren was a nothing less than a running joke in Formula 1. The Renault hybrid power unit in the MCL33 isnt up to the job either.As a successor to the Le Mans-winning F1 GTR from the 1990s, the Senna GTR ticks all the right boxes, and then some. But the best is yet to come, with McLaren set to unveil the three-seat BP23 Hyper-GT by the end of 2018. The descendant of the road-going F1 will be capable of exceeding 243 mph (391 km/h) on full song.ECU

Unlike the Dodge Demon vs. Tesla Model S P100D and the McLaren 720S vs. Kawasaki H2 straight-line battles we brought you earlier today, the brawl we have here took place at the drag strip, with this keeping things on the safe side and allowing the said machines to benefit from the prepped surface of the track.The GT3 we have here has been gifted with anremap, which means that its naturally aspirated 3.8-liter flat-six (this is a 991.1 incarnation of the model) now delivers around 500 hp.As the Competition Package incarnation of the BMW M6 that fights the Zuffenhausen machine, this comes in factory stock form, which means it packs 600 hp. Number fans have no reason to worry, as the video showcasing the race involves all the figures one might need.The driver of the M car was eager to get off the line as quickly as possible, hence the small burnout before the race. Unlike the Porshe wielder, though, the guy behind the wheel of the M6 didn't use the Launch Control feature of the car, perpahs considering that this might not offer the optimal start in the custom grip conditions.Nevertheless, the M6 Competition Package ended up jumping the start, hence the red light shown at the track.Even so, we have to keep in mind that the ET (Elapsed Time) numbers shown at the end of the run don't take the said aspect into account, as the timing doesn't start until the car takes off. As such, you can easily notice how close the Porsche 911 GT3 and the BMW M6 Competition Package were.EV

kW

Since Tesla is the unofficial leader of the electric vehicle segment, it's natural to compare yourself to it if you want your ambitions to be taken seriously. At the same time, though, until your product gets on the market and proves to be everything you said it would, this puts the benchmarker in a very advantageous position, so it's understandable why Porsche tries to play down Tesla's importance.But if there's one thing Elon Musk's company has right now and Porsche doesn't - you know, apart from three differentmodels on the market - is a fully-functional charging network that covers the entirety of the North American continent and most of Western and Central Europe.Porsche, on the other hand, is one of the brands that formed Ionity, an enterprise that looks to have 400 fast-charging (350-fast) stations running by the end of next year throughout Europe, with many more to follow. The first of these sites are coming together as we speak, just in time to provide their high output to the new generation of EVs that will actually be able to take advantage of it.Tesla is notoriously offering free access to all of its Model S and Model X models bought until the start of 2017, and to anyone who got one of these two vehicles since through the company's referral program. It's just the Model 3 owners that have to pay for the electrons they pour into their cars' batteries, but even then it's a very low price (depending on the region).Porsche, on the other hand, says it will charge its clients from day one - or at least it plans to. Lutz Meschke, deputy chairman of Porsche's executive board, told Gearbrain : Yes we try to do this [bill from day one] of course. We can invest in the beginning, but after two or three years you have to be profitable with the new services, of course.We think both Porsche and Tesla are right. The American company was a pioneer, so it needed the free Supercharger lure to convince buyers to adopt EVs more quickly. Porsche, on the other hand, will join a more mature market where EVs aren't yet commonplace, but they're not the point-your-finger-when-you-see-one oddballs of a decade ago either.Besides, charging stations are meant to be used for long-distance traveling. Day-to-day commutes should be covered by home charging, especially since the maximum range of EVs has grown considerably in later years. And Porsche knows free charging isn't the kind of incentive to steal its wealthy clients away, so making the charging stations profitable should be a winning strategy on the long term, allowing the company to spread out its network more quickly.The last time we mentioned the Avensis was in February 2017 , when a possible Avensis Touring prototype was spotted undergoing testing. We're not even sure that it was the real deal because Toyota officials have pretty much confirmed its demise.We are looking at that segment of the market and asking ourselves some questions, Toyotas European boss, Johan van Zyl, recently told Autocar . Were very satisfied with the performance of Avensis now - the product is doing fine for us. But were asking if the next step should be another D-segment saloon [sedan] or something else.A spokesman for the company said they are "monitoring the D-segment as it declines and suffers from heavy discounting." Last year, the mid-sized model managed only 25,319 across Europe, down 28% over 2016. That's about 1/7 of what the Volkswagen Passat achieved.Avensis sales topped in 2004 when 142,535 units were sold in Europe. So the car used to be pretty big, but it's not anymore.The model is made at the Burnaston factory in Britain, a market where the Avensis sold only 3473 units last year. Of course, you'd need heavy discounting to sell such an old car, as the current 3rd-gen was introduced back in 2009. It received its first facelift in 2012 and the second one in 2015.Toyota isn't the only company giving up on sedans. Volkswagen recently announced the new Jetta wouldn't be coming over. Meanwhile, America is slowly giving up on cheap hatchbacks, like the Ford Fiesta.The publication mentioned above says that Toyota is considering a smaller Auris sedan in the Avensis' place. But won't that overlap with the Corolla?Triesenburg Auto Corporation (TAC) is now the exclusive distributor of JAC Motors passenger and commercial vehicles in the Philippines. The brand was recently launched locally together with its latest product line comprising of sedans, sport utility vehicles (SUV), and multi-purpose vehicles (MPV).

The complete line of JAC vehicles was revealed during an official launch of the brand and showroom held last March 21, 2018 in JAC Alabang, located at Commerce Avenue, Filinvest Westgate Center, Alabang, Muntinlupa City. The theme of the launch event was Forget Normal, where in the brand wanted its buyers to change the way they look at JAC cars.

We are honored to partner with JAC Motors as the exclusive distributor of its innovated vehicles with cutting-edge design and technology. TAC has become a part of a significant change, a transformation which would set a new trend in the car industry and the competition, said Mr. Valentino de Leon, president of TAC.

For those interested in checking out JAC Motors Philippines lineup, both passenger and commercial vehicles are now displayed at the JAC Motors showrooms in Alabang and in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. A new dealership will soon be opening another dealership in Pasong Tamo, Makati.

TAC is operating under the Lica Auto Group, the largest multi-brand group of automotive retail and service companies in the Philippines. It holds top awards in sales, service and customer ratings on automotive dealership operations of some of the worlds leading car brands in the country.Image: WAI

Women in Aviation International wrapped up their 29th annual conference last week, in Reno, Nevada, with more than 3,200 in attendance during the three-day event. Highlights included the distribution of more than $695,000 in scholarships to 142 WAI members, providing funds for both academic studies and flight training. The conference also featured Girls in Aviation Day, hosting more than 200 local girls, including Girl Scouts, to introduce them to possible aviation careers. These girls represent the next generation of women who will work in the aviation and aerospace industry, said Peggy Chabrian, WAI president. For some girls, Girls in Aviation Day is their first exposure to aviation and airplanes.

Other aviation events were held to honor Womens History Month, including the 8th annual Women of Aviation Worldwide Week, which provided a first flight in a small aircraft to more than 12,000 girls around the world. The Fly It Forward initiative aims to close the startling occupational gender gap in the air and space industry, says WAWW. 108 years after womens official debut in the industry, the most iconic occupation, airline pilot, remains overwhelmingly male-dominated. Globally, less than 3 percent of commercial pilots are women. NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt also recognized the contributions of women to aviation safety in a blog post at the safety boards website. Next years WAI conference will be held March 14-16, 2019, in Long Beach, California.Neematic was founded by three enthusiasts with an ambitious goal to build a brand new vehicle production company in their home country of Lithuania. Each of the founders has a unique competence. Linas, who is an architect by training, has been at electric motoring for the past 7 years. When he met Domas, a race engineer for Audi Sport TT cup and Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain, they quickly hit it off.

Ideas about perfect distribution of weight and motor positioning started to come up, as did the first concepts of the bike. They were joined by Justinas, a biz dev trained at the National University of Singapore. He was in charge of business development at Invest Lithuania, a governmental agency for attracting foreign investment, and took an additional challenge of growing Neematic upon himself.

Neematic team (left to right). Co-founders: Linas, Justinas, Domas; biz dev associate: Lukas

Startup meets designer

The guys at Neematic are ready with the product prototype and eager to start the promotion. They are on the lookout for a digital design partner whod handle the branding, the website and other aspects of their digital presence. Luckily for Siarhei, he gets a Site of the Day award for Rollpark, and generates some buzz in Lithuania because of that. Justinas reaches out.

Strategy. How to promote a 9,000 bike

Siarhei and Justinas meet at a cafe on one of the central streets of Vilnius and chat about the vision behind Neematic. They quickly establish a handful of points that would define the design strategy and guide the decision making.

Because of the initial low volume production, the price for the bike may end up pretty steep. Which brings Neematic into premium segment. Which, in turn, significantly raises the bar for the quality of companys presentation.

Company branding has to be revisited. New visual identity should be designed from scratch.



Imagery is very important for creating a feeling of excitement and exhilaration. We have to double down on videos and photography; commission a professional rendering or a studio photo of the bike.

Because the product is new to market without a significant track-record, our best hope for establishing a customer base is early adopters. Which in our case means MTB enthusiasts, who care about:

Technical specifications. Range, top speed, weight distribution, etc.



Components. Big name components can build credibility for the whole set up.



Engineering. Ideas behind the setup.



Real-life footage. Seeing the bike in action.

Besides MTB enthusiasts we would also want to appeal to future investors. Introducing the team, their credentials, and the timeline of product development could be a first step in establishing trust.

There are two key objectives we want to meet with the site:

Creating an email database of interested riders through offering free test-drives.



Collecting monetary pre-orders.

With the strategic guiding points on his hands, Siarhei kicks the projects off. First stop is the branding.

Visual identity. As exciting as the bike itself

Famous designers often say that a logo is just an empty vessel, and its up to the company to feel it with meaning by providing amazing user experience, products and services. Siarhei set out to make this vessel tailored specifically for the needs of the company, and capture the essence of the existing brand in a new logo.

Make it feel as exciting as riding the bike itself.

Make it feel professional to appeal to MTB community.

Make it feel premium to meet the inevitably high price tag of the product.

Make it feel connected to the product, by sharing the same visual design features and semantics.

After a couple of iterations, Siarhei comes up with a new logo that does just that. It features rigid custom typography, that mimics the robust nature of the bike. The wordmark is coupled a unique symbol, which merges three different meanings into a single mark.

Bolt. Speed and electricity.

N letter. Neematic brand name.

Triangle. A base-form for Neematic frame design.

Neematic logo

Logo layout combos

The idea behind Neematic symbol

Both Neematic and Siarhei are extremely satisfied with the result. While Siarhei continues the work on the website, Neematic team swiftly applies new branding to all of their offline materials: the trade show booth, business cards, pitch decks, and company swag.

Imagery. Studio photography

To make the website feel premium professional-grade imagery is a must. Siarhei interviews a couple of 3D modellers and render professionals to get the estimations for the work, but eventually decides to move away from 3D visualisation to studio photography and work with Edgaras, a professional photographer, with a studio in the renowned artistic district of Uzupis.

Behind the scenes of Neematic photoshoot. Edgaras Marozas studio

Wireframing. Time to nail the pitch

In parallel with the branding and the photoshoot, Siarhei is working on the wireframes for the new site. Its imperative to establish the general structure of the page before moving into the visual polish. Wireframing stage allows to focus on the message the site is trying to get across and align the priorities. In essence, a website like that is a sort of an interactive pitch deck, and you have to approach it the same way. Think of the audience thats going to be on the other side of the screen, think about their priorities and try to cater to them the best way you can.

Neematic wireframe

The wireframe is ready. It looks ugly as sin, but thats precisely the point. While your mind is not preoccupied with aesthetics you can focus on structure and content, and be sure that your business objectives are met. Every section you see here serves a purpose. It either describes a specific detail of the product, creates an emotional connection through visual, builds trust through transparency, or calls to action.

Visual. Connecting the dots

When putting mock-ups together Siarhei is thinking of the bike as a centerpiece for the whole site. Everything else is secondary. The design tries not to interfere with an outstanding shape of the vehicle, all it does is supporting and emphasizing what already is an amazingly beautiful product. The uncompromising black background is used to elevate this premium and professional feel. Punchy headlines, and on point descriptive texts are put together with the precision that mimics the build quality of the bike itself. All the elements are there to serve a purpose. To inform and to communicate. Communicate both the feeling and the value.

Explaining the battery, its power, charging time and peak range. All the specs that are important for the potential buyers

Explaining the electric motor and the specific MTB-centric features, like twist throttle and pedal assist modes

Focusing on the beautiful frame design that also delivers perfect weight distribution

As Neematic bike uses big name components, its an important piece of information for building credibility among MTB community

Development

Sites like this dont need a lot of back-end effort. Neematic.com doesnt even use a CMS. Its plain HTML and CSS, which usually are considered an easy job to do. But not in this case. To make the actual site as impactful as the mock-ups, several requirements have to be met:

Pixel-perfect translation of PSDs to HTML. Even the slightest deviation will damage the premium, solid built feel that is imperative to the project.

Buttery smooth custom-made transitions of the slides that describe the components. The idea is that the frame of the bike will move around with the scroll and zoom into the component in question.

The rest of the animations should be buttery smooth too.

Quick loading time.

Responsive behavior.

Siarhei looks no further than Daumantas, a developer hes been working with for a while now. He is the guy behind the aforementioned Rollpark and his attentiveness to design detail and animation skills are second to none. Not surprisingly, Dau nails the job of implementing Siarheis design. The resulting website is clearly Awwwards-worthy.

Results

Its been a long and exciting journey for all the parties involved. But it was well worth it. Siarhei and Dau got a second Site of the Day award and are immensely proud about that. Neematic, in turn, has managed to collect the required number of pre-orders within a week after the website launch and cleared itself a path for the next round of investment. With the new website, Neematic now looks more mature and professional, which helps with attracting all sorts of partners: from brand ambassadors to advisers and sponsors.

Company Info

Siarhei is an independent designer based in Vilnius, one of Europes finest capitals. He works remotely with clients from all over world, including places like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, London and Melbourne. Over the course of his career, hes helped many businesses and entrepreneurs bring their products to the whole new level of quality and refinement.

Follow Siarheis design activities on Facebook at http://fb.com/siarhei.designChina is offering to buy more American semiconductors in an attempt to reduce its trade surplus with the U.S., CNBC reported Monday. China is also reportedly working on regulations to ease rules so foreign firms can buy into its security firms.

Why it matters: This is a sign that Trump's anti-China tariff threats, meant to counter the country's intellectual property practices and reduce the U.S. trade deficit, could be making some progress, even if the latter is a monumental task.Cook County of Illinois is suing Facebook and Cambridge Analytica for running afoul of a state fraud law. The lawsuit alleges that Cambridge Analytica deceived millions of Illinois Facebook users whose information was collected inappropriately, and that Facebook did not protect users' privacy.

"Facebook is not a social media company; it is the largest data mining operation in existence, the complaint says. "Facebook...continues to conduct a wide array of human subject research experiments."

Why it matters: This is the first instance of a lawsuit brought by a government at the local and state level over the data collection scandal. The Federal Trade Commission also confirmed Monday that it is investigating Facebook's data protection practices. Cook County is seeking civil penalties and fines up to $50,000 per violation  aka per Facebook user in the county.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told French and German foreign ministers who visited Jerusalem today that he predicts "with high probability" that President Trump is going to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal on May 12th and urged the Europeans to agree to significant changes in the deal, Senior Israeli officials who attended the meetings told me.

Why it matters: The European powers  Germany, France and the U.K.  have been engaged in intense negotiations with the U.S. in an attempt to reach a formula that would save the Iran deal. The Europeans believe the chances of finding a formula which will satisfy Trump are very slim.

Netanyahu said changes will be needed to three parts of the deal to keep the U.S. from killing it:

Sanctions on the Iranian ballistic missile program Inspections of suspicious sites in Iran A removal of the the "Sunset clause" which would start to lift limitations on the Iranian nuclear program in nine years

According to the Israeli officials Netanyahu told the European foreign ministers:

"We can debate whether it (U.S. withdrawal from the deal) is a good thing or a bad thing, but it is just the reality. Then you Europeans will have to choose between the small economy of Iran and the huge economy of the U.S."

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Netanyahu that the current deal is better than no deal. The Israeli officials said Netanyahu replied: "The Munich agreement from 1938 was also a deal. I also want to remind you what happened to the nuclear deal with North Korea."

French foreign minister Jean Yves Le Drian briefed Netanyahu on his recent visit to Tehran, saying he came back deeply disappointed and frustrated with the difficult position the Iranians presented regarding the European demands on the Iranian missile program and the Iranian activity in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, the Israeli officials said.

Update: White House spokesman Raj Shah was asked about this story during the daily press briefing and said, "The president thinks it is one of the worst agreements the United States has ever made internationally. If changes aren't made, the president is prepared to potentially withdraw from the agreement"Coal, oil and natural gas would plummet within the next couple of decades in a new report Royal Dutch Shell released Monday, envisioning a future where world leaders cut greenhouse gas emissions as laid out in the 2015 Paris climate deal.

Why it matters: This is a company sketching a potential future where its primary products precipitously drop in use. Thats like McDonalds imagining a future without beef hamburgers. Meanwhile, Shell is one of the most aggressive global hydrocarbon producers addressing climate change by investing in other energy technologies.

Expand chart Adapted from a Shell report; Chart: Axios Visuals

The gritty details: The report is not a forecast for what Shell thinks will happen. Its a possible future if greenhouse gas emissions are cut dramatically through aggressive and coordinated government policies to produce a net zero emissions from energy use by 2070. Thats a herculean if statement given the lack of movement on this issue. This latest scenario is the most ambitious compared to two others Shell issued in 2013.

Highlights of this hypothetical future:

Governments adopt carbon taxes just under $50 per ton by 2030 that reach $200 by 2070.

Global coal demand has already peaked, oil demand peaks around 2025 and natural gas peaks around 2035.

Solar becomes the dominant energy source around 2055.

The shift to renewable energy is affordable, being well within historical spending on the new energy system as a share of global GDP.

Flashback:

Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden told me earlier this month that oil demand could peak

Shell announced

Yes, but: Shell is still not moving aggressively enough for some shareholders. Activist investors are likely to push a resolution at its upcoming spring investors meeting calling on the company to be more aggressive with its strategy, The Financial Times reported Monday.

Related: Inside Exxons climate strategyAfter weeks of rumors, ride-hailing company Grab has announced it's acquiring Uber's Southeast Asian business, including its UberEats operations. In exchange, Uber will receive a 27.5% stake in Grab reflecting the companies' respective market shares.

Why it matters: This is Uber's latest move to shed operations in regions where it's not the leader (and frankly has no chance of becoming) and is losing a lot of money. It's done the same in China and Russia. This is also not surprising given new-CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's plans to take the company public in the next year or two.

More: Neither companies is disclosing the value of Uber's stake, but Axios is told that it's safely north of $2 billion and likely more. Moreover, Khosrowshahi is joining Grab's board of directors as part of the deal.

Now, all eyes will be on India, another large market where Uber wants to compete. According to a source familiar with its business, Uber has at least half of the market in the country, so it's not likely to retreat.

Grab advantage: The deal likely boosts Grab's ability to compete with Go-Jek, another ride-hailing company in the region, backed by KKR and Alphabet.

Go deeper: Khosrowshahi's recent comments at the Goldman Sachs' tech conference, just a day after Uber released its financials for 2017.The ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) and its junior coalition partner, Dashnaktsutyun, said on Monday that they are not worried about opposition plans to stage street demonstrations against President Serzh Sarkisians apparent plans to extend his rule.

Sarkisian is widely expected to become prime minister and thus remain Armenias most powerful man after serving out his final presidential term on April 9. Various opposition groups, notably Nikol Pashinians Civil Contract party, have pledged to rally supporters next month in a bid to scuttle his perceived plans.

Pashinian indicated last week that the focal point of his and his allies campaign will be the period between April 9 and April 17, the anticipated date of the new prime ministers election by the Armenian parliament. He claimed that Sarkisian will be particularly vulnerable to popular pressure during that time because he will have no formal control over the government, the military and security agencies.

I dont take that seriously, Vahram Baghdasarian, the leader of the HHKs parliamentary faction, said, commenting on Pashinians statement. Power is not a box which they can pick up. You need grounds to take power.

We have had many cases where the president of the republic was abroad or on vacation, Baghdasarian told reporters. He was substituted for during those times.

Dashnaktsutyuns Aghvan Vartanian also dismissed Pashinians plans. During that period [from April 9-17] power wont be lying on the street, he said. Every state body will be performing their functions.

Pashinians Civil Contract is one of the three opposition parties making up the Yelk alliance which finished third in last years parliamentary elections. While also opposing Sarkisians continued rule, the two other Yelk parties have refused to back his plans. They say that anti-Sarkisian protests are unlikely to attract big crowds.

Also campaigning against Sarkisians reproduction is the For the Armenian State coalition of more radical opposition groups and activists, including Raffi Hovannisians Zharangutyun party. The grouping pulled a small crowd for its most recent rally held in Yerevan on Friday. It hopes to team up with Civil Contract.

I can understand when extraparliamentary forces try to use the street, said the HHKs Baghdasarian. Its just a bit unclear to me why there are parliamentary forces willing to leave the parliament and opt for street protests.

I think that there are no grounds [for doing that,] but as I said, its up to a political force to choose its method of political struggle, added the pro-government lawmaker.Russia has supplied Armenia with more weapons and other military equipment in response to the April 2016 fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, a senior Russian lawmaker said during a visit to Yerevan on Monday.

We do realize that after the 2016 escalation, which was initiated by one of the parties, Armenian public opinion showed serious discontent with Russia regarding arms supplies to Azerbaijan on the part of Russia, Konstantin Zatulin told reporters. We very much regret that Azerbaijan found no use for them other than violating the ceasefire agreement on the [Karabakh] Line of Contact reached in 1994 with our help.

We have drawn conclusions regarding the breach of the military balance in the region and provided Armenia with state-of-the-art defense equipment which we had a chance to see at the [September 2016] military parade organized on the occasion of [Armenias] Republic Day, said the deputy chairman of a Russian State Duma committee on relations with former Soviet republics.

Despite its military alliance with Armenia, Russia signed an estimated $5 billion worth of defense contracts with Azerbaijan in 2009-2011. Many in Armenia feel that the resulting deliveries of hundreds of Russian tanks, artillery systems and combat helicopters to Baku encouraged the latter to launch the April 2016 offensive in Karabakh.

The four-day hostilities, which Moscow helped to halt, left at least 180 soldiers from both warring sides dead.It was the worst escalation of the Karabakh conflict since 1994.

Visiting Yerevan earlier this month, another senior Russian lawmaker, Konstantin Kosachev, indicated that Moscow will scale down its future arms dealings with Baku. Of course, we are reacting to what occurred in April 2016, said Kosachev, who chairs the foreign relations committee of the Federation Council, the Russian upper house of parliament.

The fresh Russian arms supplies to Armenia mentioned by Zatulin stem, in part, from a $200 million Russian loan allocated in June 2015. The Armenian military has used that money for buying, among other things, Smerch multiple-launch rocket system, thermobaric and anti-tank rocket systems and shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.

At its September 2016 parade in Yerevan, the military also demonstrated medium-range Buk air-defense systems and, more importantly, Iskander tactical missiles. Armenia most probably received the precision-guided missiles shortly before or after the four-day war in Karabakh.

In October 2017, the Armenian government announced that Moscow will provide it with a further $100 million loan that will be spent on the purchase of more Russian weapons at internal Russian prices set well below international market-based levels. Deputy Defense Minister Artak Zakarian said in December that the Armenian side has already finalized three defense contracts with Russian arms manufacturers as part of the loan agreement.

Zatulin, who is known for his pro-Armenian views on the Karabakh conflict, on Monday also denounced Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs recent pledge to return Azerbaijanis to Yerevan and other parts of Armenia which he called historic Azerbaijani lands. Its just not clear how anyone can take such a statement seriously, added the veteran lawmaker.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also criticized Aliyevs remarks last month. Nevertheless, the Azerbaijani leader repeated his claims last week.By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijani designer surprised fashion lovers in Lebanon. Famous for timeless designs, Rufat Ismayil presented his new collection "Obsession" within Beirut Fashion Week, Trend Life reported.

His collection was presented by famous national model Gunay Musayeva, who lives in Turkey.

Edgy and feminine mix together perfectly in this collection. Unique outfits mesmerized fashion lovers. Fashion collection was highly appreciated by foreign media.

Moreover, Rufat Ismayil was recognized as the best Turkish designer by Turkish Association of Fashion Designers.

Rufat presented his unique and imaginative collections in Italy, Iran, Turkey, UAE and other countries.

His men's clothing collection was shown at Pitti Uomo 2015, the most important International event for menswear and men accessories collections.

The world's leading fashion publications, including Vogue magazine (Italy) wrote about fashion collection created by the Azerbaijani designer.

Beirut Fashion Week is one of the biggest international events not only in Lebanon rather in the Arab countries.

This year the fashion show brought together representatives from 27 countries.

Recently fashion events in the Arab countries are so popular, as Arab capitals have hosted several fashion shows in one way or another, but Beirut Fashion Week has its high standards and glamorise specially with the Lebanese designers, Beirut Fashion Week an official extension of fashion weeks that are held in many Western capitals and recognized after New York, London, Milan and Paris.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Laman Ismayilova

An exhibition of world-known national artist Margarita Karimova-Sokolova opened in Altes Pfandhaus Cultural Center in Cologne, Germany.

The event was organized as part of Kunstbrucke internazionale project, Trend Life reported.

Entitled "Secrets of Zoroastrianism", exhibition featured ten polyptych paintings by national artist.

Polyptych is a few pictures connected by a common idea (theme), and also by the unity of the color and compositional structure.

Polyptychs typically display one "central" or "main" panel that is usually the largest of the attachments, while the other panels are called "side" panels, or "wings".

The event was attended by well-known art figures, including Doctor of Arts, a specialist in contemporary art, Professor George Kroeger and the legendary Cologne graphic artist Hans Jurgen Kul.

The exhibition was organized by gallery owner Ildirim Sultanov.

The vernissage featured wonderful music, luxurious defile, a buffet table.

Azerbaijani artist said that the theme of the exhibition aroused after the writing of the triptych "Mosaic of the Silk Road". The exhibition featured ancient symbols which survive today.

Azerbaijan is a country of ancient culture and traditions. It is known that the majority of the population living on this territory were fire worshipers and professed Zoroastrianism.

Zoroastrianism was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster in ancient Iran approximately 3,500 years ago and revolves around the worship of fire.

It's traces can be found in Baku, Shamakha, Nakhchivan, Mingechaur, Talysh-Mugan areas.The Absheron Peninsula and Baku were centers of Zoroastrianism in ancient times.

Today the religion, culture and traditions of Zoroastrianism remains highly respected in Azerbaijan.

Rooted in Zoroastrianism - the oldest of all monotheist religions - Novruz Bayram has been celebrated since ancient times.

Margarita Kerimova-Sokolova was born in Baku. Her great-grandfather was a famous Russian artist Ivan Ivanovich Sokolov. She studied at the art and graphic faculty of the Kuban University and the Academy of Arts. Repina (St. Petersburg). The artist taught at the Art Studio in Baku.

Margarita is a Member of Azerbaijan Union of Artists and the USSR (since 1969). She is also a member of UNESCO International Federation of Artists, member of the International Art Fund of the Russian Academy of Arts, Vice-President of the International Foundation for Aesthetic Development, member of the International Association of Artists.

Since 1965, Margarita Kerimova-Sokolova has participated in exhibitions of Soviet and Azerbaijani artists in various cities of the USSR, Algeria, Germany, USA, France, Cuba, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria.

In 1994-1995, she lived and worked in the USA (Philadelphia, New York, Chicago). Since 1995 she lives in the city of Cologne (Germany). Her exhibitions were held with great success in many countries.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

One of the main problems of authors writing on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the misuse of the terminology and there are different groups who misuse the terminology on the conflict, Javid Valiyev, Head of Foreign Policy Analysis department, Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Azerbaijan, said in his article published in Modern Diplomacy.

Some authors in purpose misuse the terminologies like the former US ambassador to Armenia John Evans did. John Evans presented Nagorno-Karabakh as a legal entity and Bako Saahakyan as its legal representative, wrote Valiyev.

He went on to add that others unintentionally interpret the terms by describing Bako Sahakyan as a leader of Nagorno-Karabakh.

While the authors approach in the article is rather different, one can assume that the use of the Nagorno-Karabakh leader in the headline is an unintentional misuse of the word. The headlines are very important since they dictate number of people reading the story, when social media could massively spread it out, the article reads.

Valiyev wrote that firstly, Bako Sahakyan, was born in Khankendi, then the central city of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) of Azerbaijan.

In 1988, before becoming the activist of the separatist movement of Nagorno-Karabakh, Bako Sahakyan held different positions in NKAO. In 1990, he joined Nagorno-Karabakh separatist military movement against Azerbaijan. Sahakyan started his career as a responsible person for smuggling arms for Nagorno-Karabakh separatists from abroad, but he was called back due to embezzlement of some money. As a leader of separatists, he is known for buying ordinary peoples loyalty through cash money, said the article.

The author notes that secondly, Bako Sahakyan cannot be recognized as the legitimate representative of Nagorno-Karabakh, since Azerbaijanis living there were deported from their homelands in between 1988-1994.

Until today, more than 780.000 Azerbaijanis have been deported from the Nagorno-Karabakh region as a result of the Armenia-backed military operations internationally recognized as occupation by the UN Security Council resolutions and resolutions from other international organizations. Because of the occupation, the members of Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh remains internationally displaced persons in different regions of Azerbaijan. Thus, the Nagorno-Karabakh region is not consisted of Armenians only, the Azerbaijani population used to live there before they were forcefully left from their homelands.

Bako Sahakyan is a representative of illegal entity that occupied the sovereign states territories, Valiyev said, adding that Nagorno-Karabakh is an internationally-recognized part of Azerbaijan.

The issue is not that no country in the world recognizes separatist regime in Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state; it is merely enough to glance at the map of Azerbaijan on the UN official page. The official website of the US State Department also displays Nagorno-Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. And yet, despite the fact that the UN and also the United States recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan, the US State Department still provided the visa for Bako Sahakyan. By issuing a visa for the separatist leader, the U.S. government indirectly supports the illegal activity of separatists, which killed thousands of people and caused the mass deportation of the civilian population from their homelands, said the article.

To sum up, the author wrote that whether intentionally or unintentionally, misusing the terminology of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict serves the legalization of the illegal entity on the territory of the sovereign state, which is totally unacceptable.

Officials and experts should be careful in choosing the terminology. Because, separatism is not just a problem for Eurasian geography, but as we have seen in the case of Catalonia, for the whole world, said the article.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of Yeni Dashkand-Umudalilar highway in Barda after renovation.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Azerbaijan Highway State Agency Saleh Mammadov informed President Ilham Aliyev of the technical indicators of the road, which links 17 settlements with a total population of 15,000 people. The 25km-long road is 6 meters in width.

The head of state cut the ribbon symbolizing the official opening of the highway.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Laman Ismayilova

Earth Hour 2018 took place in Baku on March 24 as the city joined hundreds of cities around the world which switched off their lights for one hour as a demonstration of concern for our planet.

As the official national coordinator for Earth Hour 2018 in Azerbaijan, IDEA Public Association, the Public Association of Javan Youth Movement and WWF Azerbaijan Branch encouraged everyone to take action on climate change.

The participants of the action, meeting in Baku Boulevard watched the process of switching-off of the lights for one hour on the facades of the largest buildings in the central part of Baku.

Participants took part in the symbolic action of countdown candles the inscription "60+". They also cycled in response to Earth Hour 2018.

During this Earth Hour the participants enjoyed performance of well-known dance groups, flashmobs, various contests and other surprises.

Earth Hour is a global environmental movement that mobilizes hundreds of millions of people to make a difference for the planet. Its core vision is to create environmental impact by utilizing the power of the crowd.

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. This event saw 2.2 million homes and businesses turn their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change that year. Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating in 2008.

Some 187 countries and territories took part in 2017.

The campaign led to a number of concrete results related to the environment, including the increase of global education in social networks and the active participation of people in protecting the environment.

More than 300 young people in Azerbaijan celebrated its 10th anniversary last year.

As the official national coordinator for Earth Hour 2018 in Azerbaijan, IDEA Public Association expresses its gratitude to Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Heydar Aliyev Center, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism , Baku City Executive Power, Government House, Hilton Baku, JW Marriott Absheron, Bulvar, Intourist, Park Bulvar Shopping Center, Icherisheher State Historical and Architectural Reserve, Azerbaijan State Oil Company, the Administration of the Seaside Boulevard, Baku Olympic Stadium, Baku Crystall Hall, the National Gymnastics Arena, ASAN Service Centers in all regions, ADA University and the Flame Towers for participating in the campaign.

Given the seriousness of the threat of climate change, the importance of combating it for humanity, IDEA Public Association urges everyone to contribute to the solution of this problem, save energy and avoid waste.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Kamila Aliyeva

Uzbekistan plans to increase electricity supplies to Afghanistan.

This was announced by Deputy Chairman of the Board of Uzbekenergo JSC Shukhrat Sheraliyev on March 24 at a press center of the international conference on Afghanistan.

In order to increase the supply, Uzbekenergo began to build a new transmission line (power line) Surhan-Puli-Khumri.

Uzbekistan and Afghanistan signed an agreement on the construction of a 500 kV transmission line JSC in December 2017. The document was signed during the visit of the President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani to Uzbekistan.

Sheraliyev said that Uzbekistan has already started construction work on the territory of the country. In June 2018, construction work will be launched on the territory of Afghanistan.

The new line with a length of 260 kilometer will significantly increase the supply of electricity from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan, Chairman of the Board of Uzbekenergo Ulugbek Mustafoyev said earlier.

In the long term, this line will increase electricity supplies by almost 70 percent with the subsequent access to Pakistan. That is, a new market opens for us, Mustafoyev said.

At the same time, he recalled that in 2002 the volume of supplies amounted to only 62 million kWh. In turn, the capacity of the new transmission line is estimated at 1,000 MW, which will allow exporting 24 million kWh per day, about 6 billion kWh per year.

According to our calculations, the payback period of the project is 15 years, the implementation period - three years, the head of Uzbekenergo said.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2020. The estimated cost of the project is $150 million, of which $32 million will be directed from the Uzbek side.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Kamila Aliyeva

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to provide Tajikistan with about $160 million in 2018 for a number of projects, including the one on reducing risks from natural disasters, Tajik media outlets reported.

The debt burden of Tajikistan served as an excuse for some international financial institutions to return to financing Tajikistan on a non-reimbursable basis.

Earlier, ADB's permanent representative in Dushanbe Pradeep Srivastava said that this year the bank will allocate funds for Tajikistan only on a grant basis.

The latest data show that Tajikistan will most likely not receive loans, but has the right to get financing exclusively in grants. This is only expectation. We will have official information over the next two weeks, he said.

The ADB official explained that Tajikistan's debt obligations are unsustainable, and the country's category is likely to change.

As of the end of 2017, Tajikistan's external debt amounted to about $2.9 billion and reached 40.3 percent of GDP.

Tajikistan joined ADB in 1998. Tajikistan received ADB assistance only on a non-reimbursable basis in 2008-2015. ADB operations in Tajikistan focus on improved infrastructure, investment climate reforms, and improved food security.

ADBs ongoing portfolio in Tajikistan in 2017 included 13 projects and one program amounting to $759 million, financed from 17 grants ($643 million) and four loans ($116 million).

Apart from energy and transport, ADB financing also focused on public sector management (6.7%); agriculture, natural resources, and rural development (6.6%); education (4.2%); and finance (2.5%). There were also 7 technical assistance grants totaling $13 million.

The Asian Development Bank was founded in 1966. The mission of the bank is to reduce poverty in the Asia-Pacific region (APR) through inclusive economic and environmentally sustainable growth, as well as regional integration. The head office of ADB is located in the capital of the Philippines - the city of Manila. The bank's shareholders are 67 countries, 48 of which are located in the Asia-Pacific region.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) has denied reports that its forces were leaving the Incirlik base in Turkey and the Al Udeid base in Qatar, Al Jazeera reported.

In a statement on its Twitter page on Sunday, CENTCOM said: "The US is not leaving Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, nor is the US leaving Al Udeid AB, Qatar. These reports are false and without merit."

The US Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT) also tweeted that such reports had "zero credibility".

"These unhelpful reports feed mistrust and division among regional partners at a time when we need to work together to address shared security concerns," it said.

A report by an Israeli website suggested on March 22 that the US was in the process of leaving both bases.

US authorities have said at various times that multiple recent tensions between Washington and Ankara do not affect the US army's operations in Turkey.

Earlier in March, Johnny Michael, the spokesperson for the US European Command (EUCOM), denied "speculative" reports that the US military reduced its operations at Incirlik base, adding that all military activities continued normally.

A day before Michael's remarks, a Wall Street Journal report suggested that the US "sharply reduced" combat operations at the airbase and was considering permanent cutbacks there.

Last December, the former commander of the US Fifth Fleet John W Miller said that the US needs the Al Udeid airbase in order to combat terrorism in the region, and that leaving it would be "viewed by political adversaries as a victory".

"Walking away from Al Udeid airbase, rather than continuing to work with Qatar to align policies would set a terrible example throughout the region, would make combat, logistic and intelligence gathering operations more challenging," Miller said.

In February, the Defense One website quoted a US spokesperson for Al Udeid who said that the airbase will undergo projects regarding infrastructure development throughout the military establishment.

There are currently more than 9,000 US soldiers, most of them from the Air Force, and 100 military aircrafts on Al Udeid, which lies about 30km west of Doha.

It is is the main air operations centre for the US Central Command, with cargo aircrafts, strategic bombers, and aircraft refuelers.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Rashid Shirinov

Tourism in Azerbaijan is one of the fastest developing industries. In recent times tourism has become a very important element in the formation of the image of countries abroad.



Since 2011, when tourism was declared the sphere of the year in Azerbaijan, many millions of tourists visited the county, attracted by the rich historical heritage and beautiful nature of the Land of Fire.

Although tourism is a relatively young direction for Azerbaijan, its high development rate is visible to the naked eye, Nahid Bagirov, chairman of Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AzTA), has told Trend.

He noted that the active development of tourism in Azerbaijan began in 2006, and the successes achieved over the past years speak for themselves.

2016 can be considered a turning point in this regard. Even foreign specialists note that no country in the world had such a sharp rise in the influx of tourists as Azerbaijan had in 2016, Bagirov said.

He added that the influx of tourists from Arab countries increased tens of times in that year.

If earlier most of the tourist flow was for business travel, now more and more tourists come to Azerbaijan exclusively for recreation, Bagirov also said.

Touching upon the ongoing development of tourism in the country, he noted that the sector is on the right track.

Even if today we are moving forward at a slow pace, the development is continuing, and we protect the tourism sector from possible risks. We are moving forward intelligently, taking into account all world problems, practices of our neighbors, and experience of the whole world tourism, the chairman of AzTA said.

Bagirov noted that one of the main reasons for Azerbaijans tourism growth is the infrastructure created in the country on the instruction of President Ilham Aliyev.

The decision of the head of state to simplify the visa regime, which explains the high growth of the tourist flow to Azerbaijan in 2016, became historic. It became a kind of start for increasing the tourist flow, he mentioned.

Bagirov added that Azerbaijan has already developed relations with the Arab countries since 2012, and AzTA office was opened in the Persian Gulf countries.

Moreover, the popularity of Azerbaijan increased due to such events as the Eurovision Song Contest, 1st European Games, Islamic Solidarity Games, as well as various forums, he said.

Today, tourism in Azerbaijan is one of the most promising economic sectors. In 2016, there was an 11.7 percent growth in the number of tourists compared to 2015, and the figure hit 2,242,783 people.

The number of tourists from Arab countries increased significantly in that year. Thus, there were twice more tourists from Jordan, 3.2 times more from Kuwait, 5.5 times  from Qatar, 10 times  Saudi Arabia and Oman, 22 times  from UAE, and 30 times more tourists came from Iran compared to 2015. The growing interest to Azerbaijan has several reasons, such as short distance to Azerbaijan, opening of more direct flights, beautiful nature of the country, halal foods in restaurants, etc.

The number of foreign nationals who arrived in Azerbaijan last year increased by 449,215 people or 20 percent compared to 2016, hitting the figure of 2,691,998 people.

As for the tourism infrastructure, today Azerbaijan can accommodate about 40,000 tourists in its 575 hotels, which include a series of luxury ones  Excelsior, Hilton, Four Seasons, Fairmont, JW Marriott  as well as several budget hotels for cost-conscious travelers. Moreover, some 25 hostels and 92 apartments for tourists operate in Baku.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzIMCS.A. (the Company) will hold its annual general meeting of shareholders (the AGM) on Monday 26 April 2018

at its registered office at Registered office: 16, rue Erasme L-1468 Luxembourg

R.C.S. Luxembourg B 157843



Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company (the "AGM") to be held on 26 April 2018 at 10.00 a.m. CET at the registered office of the Company with agenda as follows:



1. Presentation and approval of the management report of the board of directors of the Company (the "Board of Directors") (the "Report of the Board"), the independent auditor's report on the annual accounts of the Company prepared in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (the "Auditor's Report"), the individual annual accounts of the Company for the financial year ending 31 December 2017 (the "Annual Accounts"), the consolidated financial statements of the Company's group prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards for the financial year ending 31 December 2017 (the "Consolidated Financial Statements") and presentation and report by the Board of Directors of the salary, fees and advantages paid to the executive directors.



2. Review and approval of the Annual Accounts of the Company for the financial year ending 31 December 2017.



3. Review and approval of the Consolidated Financial Statements of the Company's group for the financial year ending 31 December 2017.



4. Allocation of the profit for the financial year ending 31 December 2017.



5. To acknowledge that the approved audit firm (cabinet de revision agree) of the Company appointed on 25 April 2017, namely H.R.T. Revision S.A., a public limited liability company (societe anonyme) with registered office at 163, rue du Kiem, L - 8030 Strassen, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, registered with the Luxembourg Register of Commerce and Companies under number B 51238 ("HRT Revision") has merged into BDO Audit, a public limited liability company (societe anonyme) with registered office at 1, rue Jean Piret, L-2350 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, registered with the Luxembourg Register of Commerce and Companies under number B 147570 ("BDO Audit"); the latter continuing the activities of HRT Revision.



6. To consider, approve and ratify the signature of an engagement letter with BDO Audit dated 3 January 2018, formalising the relationship between BDO Audit as the approved audit firm (cabinet de revision agree) of the Company and the Companys group, including for auditing the financial statements of the Company for the financial year ending on 31 December 2017.



7. Discharge to the members of the Board of Directors.



8. Confirmation of the mandates of the current members of the Board of Directors.



9. Miscellaneous.



The AGM is formally convened 30 days before the meeting date by (i) the publication of the convening notice in a Luxembourg nationwide newspaper and on the Luxembourg Official Gazette (Memorial C, Recueil des Societes et Associations) and (ii) the dissemination of the convening notice on a EU-wide basis through appropriate media in accordance with the applicable Luxembourg legal provisions such as the Luxembourg law of 24 May 2011 on shareholders' rights in listed companies, the Luxembourg law of 10 August 1915 on commercial companies, the Luxembourg law of 11 January 2008 on transparency requirements and the Luxembourg law of 9 May 2006 on market abuse.

The convening notice shall be made available on the Company's website, from the date of the publication above-mentioned to the date of the AGM (included), at the following address http://www.imcagro.com.ua.







1 Confirmation of attendance and record date



The AGM is properly convened 30 days before the meeting date by (i) the publication of the notice in a Luxembourg nationwide newspaper and the Recueil Electronique des Societes et Associations and (ii) the dissemination of the notice on a EU-wide basis through appropriate media in accordance with the applicable Luxembourg legal provisions.



Each shareholder wishing to exercise its rights to attend and vote at the AGM should send to the Company a form to confirm its participation to the AGM (the "Form of Participation"), no later than Thursday 12 April 2018, 18.00 CET.



The rights to vote at the AGM are determined in accordance with and at the record date (the "Record Date"), which is set on Thursday 12 April 2018, at 24.00 (midnight) CET. Only shareholders who confirmed their participation to the Company on due time will be authorized to participate and vote at the AGM (the "Authorized Shareholder(s)").



The Form of Participation can be downloaded from the Companys website at www.imcagro.com.ua and shall be returned in original by the shareholder to the Company at the Notice Address (as defined hereafter) and following the instructions provided herein.



In addition to the Form of Participation, each shareholder who holds its shares in the Company through the facilities of the Polish National Deposit of Securities (the "KDPW") or Clearstream Banking S.A. (as the case may be) shall request an original depositary certificate (the "Shareholder's Certificate") from the broker or custodian bank who is a participant of the KDPW or Clearstream Banking S.A. (as the case may be) and who maintains the securities account for such shareholder evidencing its amount of shares held at the Record Date.



A shareholder intending to participate to the AGM (in person, by correspondence, or by use of a proxy) shall provide the Company with a Shareholder's Certificate issued at the Record Date.



The Shareholder's Certificate shall be delivered in English. In the contrary, the shareholder shall provide at its own expense and within the same deadlines as the ones applicable to the delivery of the Shareholder's Certificate, a certified true translation by an officially agreed translator.



The Shareholder's Certificate should be issued by the shareholders broker or custodian bank at such time as to enable the shareholder to deliver the Shareholder's Certificate (original or copy) to the Company no later than on Thursday 19 April 2018, 18.00 CET. In case of translation of the Shareholder's Certificate, the shareholder shall ensure the certified true translation (original or copy) is delivered to the Company together with the Shareholder's Certificate and no later than Thursday 19 April 2018, 18.00 CET.



To receive information on formal requirements of, and documents to be submitted to the broker or the custodian bank for the purpose of the issuance of Shareholders' Certificates, all shareholders are advised to contact their brokers or custodian banks.



Each shareholder shall deliver the original Shareholder's Certificate either (i) in person, (ii) by hand-delivery or, (iii) by mail (ordinary or registered), at the address for notices to the Company as provided in item 6 ("Notices and further questions to the Company") (the "Notice Address"), no later than Tuesday 24 April 2018, 18.00 CET. A copy of the Shareholder's Certificate may also be delivered by e-mail to Christian.tailleur@lu.totalserve.eu, but no later than Thursday 19 April 2018, 18.00 CET.



Only Authorized Shareholders who were holders of the Company's shares at the Record Date will be allowed to attend and vote to the AGM subject to (i) the confirmation of their participation to the Company (through the form of participation available on the Company's website at www.imcagro.com.ua), no later than Thursday 12 April 2018, 18.00 CET and (ii) the delivery to the Company of the original Shareholder's Certificate, within the forms and delays prescribed herein.



2 Participation in the AGM



 Any Authorized Shareholder who holds one or more shares of the Company at the Record Date is entitled to attend and vote at the AGM, if it fulfilled all formalities to confirm its participation within the applicable forms and delays. One share entitles to one vote on each resolution to be voted. Each Authorized Shareholder may participate:



1) In person (in the case of a natural person) or by means of its duly authorized representatives (in the case of a legal person).



2) By correspondence, using the proxy voting form (the "Proxy Voting Form and Instructions") as available on the Company's website (www.imcagro.com.ua). Only voting instructions expressed by the use of the provided Proxy Voting Form and Instructions (duly filled) are considered as valid and recorded.



The Proxy Voting Form and Instructions shall be delivered by the Shareholder to the Company, either (i) by hand-delivery (with acknowledgement of receipt), (ii) by a registered mail, or (iii) by special courier, to the Notice Address.



In any case, the Company shall receive the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions in original, together with a certified true copy of the international valid ID card, passport or other official document in English evidencing the Shareholder's identity and the original of the Shareholder's Certificate (if not delivered before) no later than Tuesday 24 April 2018, at 18.00 CET or it will not be recorded as valid.



3) By proxy (both in the case of a natural person or a legal person) through the appointment of a natural or legal person (the "Proxy Holder") to attend and vote at the AGM in the Authorized Shareholder's name and upon written instructions of the Authorized Shareholder. The Proxy Holder may not be a shareholder.



The Proxy Holder must be designated in writing (the "Proxy") and the Proxy must be delivered in original by mail (ordinary or registered) to the Notice Address.



In any case, the Company must receive the Proxy before Tuesday 24 April 2018, at 18.00 CET, or it will not be recorded as a valid Proxy and the Proxy Holder will not be authorized to attend and vote at the AGM on behalf of the Authorized Shareholder.



The Proxy Holder is entitled to act in the Authorized Shareholder's name and exercise the same rights the Authorized Shareholder benefits (please refer to item 3 "Rights of the Shareholder").



The Proxy Holder is only entitled to vote at the relevant general meeting for which the proxy is provided (or such subsequent meeting having the same agenda) and an Authorized Shareholder can only appoint one proxy to represent it.



Each Authorized Shareholder may act as a Proxy Holder for another Authorized Shareholder taking into account potential conflicts of interests and the obligation to act following written instructions of the proxy provider given in the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions (except the case where the Authorized Shareholder gave proxy to its Proxy Holder under the "Option A" of the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions).



 What documents should a participant bring at the AGM?



(i) A natural person is required to bring at the AGM an international valid ID card, passport or other official document in English confirming his/her identity;



(ii) A legal person is required to bring:

a) an extract in English from its respective trade register; and/or

b) other documents in English evidencing the right of a natural person to represent the Authorized Shareholder at the AGM (e.g., an unbroken chain of powers of attorney), and

c) an international valid ID card, passport or other official document in English confirming the identity of the Authorized Shareholder's representative.



(iii) A Proxy Holder appointed by an Authorized Shareholder is required to bring:

a) an ID card, passport or other official document in English confirming the identity of the Proxy Holder;

b) the Proxy in English (or a copy); and

c) the duly filled Proxy Voting Form and Instructions, signed by the Authorized Shareholder and any other written instructions given by the Authorized Shareholder to its Proxy Holder if the case may be (e.g., question to ask during the AGM).



Please note that in all cases the Proxy to represent an Authorized Shareholder at the AGM can only be provided directly by the Authorized Shareholder himself (and not by a proxy of the Shareholder).



In case of any doubts relating to the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions or the Proxy presented by a Proxy Holder to participate in the AGM and admission thereto, the decision of the chairman of the AGM will be decisive regarding the admission of the considered Proxy Holder to attend and vote at the AGM.



For the convenience of its Authorized Shareholders, the Company proposes to appoint any lawyer (avocat) or attorney at law (avocat a la Cour) of NautaDutilh Avocats Luxembourg S.a r.l., each individually and with full power of substitution, as proxy for the Authorized Shareholders (the "Proposed Shareholders' Proxy") to attend the AGM and vote in accordance with the voting instructions of the Authorized Shareholder as provided in the duly filled Proxy Voting Form and Instructions, signed by the relevant Authorized Shareholder.



Please note, however, it is permitted to nominate a proxy other than the Proposed Shareholders' Proxy. One person may represent more than one Authorized Shareholder.



If the designated Proxy Holder is the Proposed Shareholders' Proxy, the following steps will be applicable:



1) Download and complete the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions available on the Companys website at (www.imcagro.com.ua) and indicate the Proposed Shareholders' Proxy as proxy;



2) Duly fill and sign the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions and the voting instructions herein (please be aware that voting instructions must be specifically provided for each resolution if the chosen proxy is the Proposed Shareholders' Proxy, otherwise the Proposed Shareholders' Proxy will abstain from voting for each resolution where no voting instructions were properly provided);



3) Attach thereto all documents specified in the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions (i.e., the original Shareholders' Certificate, if not already deposited with the Company, evidencing the rights of the Authorized Shareholder at the Record Date); and



4) Send the duly completed Proxy Voting Form and Instructions together with all required documents to the Company, no later than Tuesday 24 April 2018, 18.00 CET, within the forms and delays required for the participation by proxy as indicated in the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions.



 Important information:



(i) In any case, the original Proxy Voting Form and Instructions shall be delivered by the shareholder to the Company together with the original Shareholder's Certificate (if not yet delivered) and all required documents before Tuesday 24 April 2018, 18.00 CET, or the voting instructions will not be recorded as valid.



(ii) The Proxy Voting Form and Instructions together with all required documents must be duly completed and signed to be recorded as valid voting instructions.



(iii) Only an Authorized Shareholder who provided the Company with its Shareholder's Certificate within the forms and delays required and who have not collected such Shareholder's Certificate before the AGM date, may appoint a proxy designated by the Company. In all other cases, the Proxy given by the shareholder will be or becomes ineffective.



(iv) If, for any item on the agenda of the AGM (the "Agenda") requiring a vote, the voting instruction is not properly completed in the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions (except the case where the Authorized Shareholder gave proxy to its Proxy Holder under the "Option A" of the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions), the Proposed Shareholders' Proxy will abstain from voting.



(v) Voting through a Proposed Shareholders' Proxy is an option proposed by the Company for the sake of convenience. Naturally, each Authorized Shareholder may attend the AGM and vote its shares in person or through its own proxy.



(vi) The name, address and other information on the Authorized Shareholder shall be consistent in all documents. Admission to the AGM of persons other than those representing the Authorized Shareholders shall be decided solely by the Chairman of the AGM.



 How to revoke the Proxy granted to a Proxy Holder?



Each Authorized Shareholder may revoke a Proxy given to the Proxy Holder by sending a document expressly revoking the granted Proxy to the Company within the forms and delays indicated below.



The Proxy Holder must be revoked in writing (the "Revocation") and the Revocation must be delivered in original and in English by mail (ordinary or registered) to the Notice Address. Such Revocation will be effective and the Proxy will be revoked if it is delivered to the Company not later than Tuesday 24 April 2018, 18.00 CET. The Revocation needs to comply with the formalities of the original Proxy.



Each Authorized Shareholder may revoke the granted Proxy at the AGM itself.



3 Rights of the Authorized Shareholder



 The right to table draft resolutions and/or add items to the agenda



Any Authorized Shareholder acting solely or with other Authorized Shareholders, together holding at least 5% of the share capital, may:



(i) add items to the Agenda; and

(ii) table draft resolutions regarding items of or to be added to the Agenda.



Such request (the "Request") must be made in writing in English and contain a justification regarding the proposal.



The Request must be delivered by latest Wednesday 4 April 2018 (i) by mail (ordinary or registered) to the Notice Address, or (ii) by e-mail to Christian.tailleur@lu.totalserve.eu and indicate an address (postal or electronic) where the Company may send the acknowledgement of receipt of the Request.



The Company will then add the proposed items to the Agenda and publish an amended version of the Agenda.



 The right to ask questions



Each Authorized Shareholder, acting in person or through its Proxy Holder, may ask questions regarding one or several items of the Agenda, during the AGM. If acting through its Proxy Holder, the Authorized Shareholder must give written instructions to the Proxy Holder for the questions to raise, or at least, a general right to ask all questions (regarding one or several items of the Agenda) the Proxy Holder may deem appropriate.



The Company will then answer to the questions raised, on a best-effort basis during the question and answers session of the AGM, on an individual or global basis (if the question was raised several times).



The Company will however not have to answer the question if the answer can be found in the Q&A section of the Company's website, at the following address: www.imcagro.com.ua.



4 Language of documents



All documents relating to the AGM (including the Shareholders' Certificate) must be delivered to the Company in English. If any document has been prepared in any other language, the Authorized Shareholder must translate such document into English prior to the AGM and provide the Company with the translation together with the translated document, within the forms and delays as applicable to the translated document itself.



5 Language of AGM



The AGM will be conducted in English. Please note that the English language version of all resolutions is binding as the resolutions will be adopted in English.







6 Notices and further questions to the Company



Shareholders should address all notices and queries with respect to the AGM to the following Notice Address:



IMC S.A.

16, rue Erasme

L-1468 Luxembourg

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg



Or by email to the following e-mail address: Christian.tailleur@lu.totalserve.eu.



On all related correspondence (e.g., such as the object of the mail or the e-mail), kindly indicate the following notice: 2018 Annual General Meeting IMC S.A.



Please note that the Company's website is at the following address: www.imcagro.com.ua

In 1989 Russian president Boris Yeltsin's wide-eyed trip to a Clear Lake grocery store led to the downfall of communism.

It was Sept. 16, 1989, and Yeltsin, then newly-elected to the new Soviet parliament and the Supreme Soviet, had just visited Johnson Space Center.

RELATED: The true story of when Dennis Hopper came to Houston and nearly killed himself

At JSC, Yeltsin visited mission control and a mock-up of a space station. According to Houston Chronicle reporter Stefanie Asin, it wasn't all the screens, dials, and wonder at NASA that blew up his skirt, it was the unscheduled trip inside a nearby Randall's location.

Yeltsin, then 58, "roamed the aisles of Randall's nodding his head in amazement," wrote Asin. He told his fellow Russians in his entourage that if their people, who often must wait in line for most goods, saw the conditions of U.S. supermarkets, "there would be a revolution."

Shoppers and employees stopped him to shake his hand and say hello. In 1989, not everyone was carrying a smart phone in their pocket so Yeltsin "selfies" weren't a thing yet.

Yeltsin asked customers about what they were buying and how much it cost, later asking the store manager if one needed a special education to manage a store. In the Chronicle photos, you can see him marveling at the produce section, the fresh fish market, and the checkout counter. He looked especially excited about frozen pudding pops.

RELATED: What did Houston look like in 1987?

"Even the Politburo doesn't have this choice. Not even Mr. Gorbachev," he said. When he was told through his interpreter that there were thousands of items in the store for sale he didn't believe it. He had even thought that the store was staged, a show for him. Little did he know there countless stores just like it all over the country, some with even more things than the Randall's he visited.

The fact that stores like these were on nearly every street corner in America amazed him. They even offered him free cheese samples.

By contrast, this is what a Russian grocery store looked like at the same time.

According to Asin, Yeltsin didn't leave empty-handed, as he was given a small bag of goodies to enjoy on the rest of his trip.

About a year after the Russian leader left office, a Yeltsin biographer later wrote that on the plane ride to Yeltsin's next destination, Miami, he was despondent. He couldn't stop thinking about the plentiful food at the grocery store and what his countrymen had to subsist on in Russia.

RELATED: When Fidel Castro came to Houston to eat barbecue and schmooze with locals

In Yeltsin's own autobiography, he wrote about the experience at Randall's, which shattered his view of communism, according to pundits. Two years later, he left the Communist Party and began making reforms to turn the economic tide in Russia.

Maybe you can blame those frozen Jell-O Pudding pops he's seen marveling in those Chronicle photos.

"When I saw those shelves crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons and goods of every possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with despair for the Soviet people," Yeltsin wrote. "That such a potentially super-rich country as ours has been brought to a state of such poverty! It is terrible to think of it."

The leader himself stepped down on the last day of 1999 after years of trying to bring a new system to Russia. The cronyism in place only managed to stifle Yeltsin's dream for his country. Corruption and perceived incompetence plague his final years in office. Leaving the Kremlin voluntarily is said to have kept him from criminal prosecution.

His successor was Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took over as acting president. Putin had been an aide to Yeltsin in the years previous.

Yeltsin died in 2007 at the age of 76.

The Randall's he visited, just off El Dorado Boulevard and Highway 3, is now a Food Town location.A Galveston-based health clinic chain may have infected patients with the hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus and HIV because of potential breaches in the cleaning and sterilization of dental instruments, officials said Friday.

The Galveston County Health District said that it is working with the Department of State Health Services to investigate the risk of disease transmission related to sterilization procedures at the Coastal Health & Wellness clinics located in Texas City and Galveston.

The investigation was triggered by a recent accreditation site review conducted on Feb. 12 and 13. The investigation found that a Coastal Health & Wellness clinic in Texas City demonstrated poor sterilization procedures, including not adequately documenting the sterilizing of dental instruments. The review also found dirty areas where dental instruments were passing through.

At a press conference in Galveston, Dr. Philip Keiser from the Galveston County Local Health Authority said he anticipated that roughly 9,500 patients would need to be tested.

"To date our investigation has not found that anyone was infected as a result of the dental procedures at Coastal Health Wellness," Keiser said. "However, after consulting with the Texas Department of State Health Services as well as several other federal agencies, we have concluded that there is sufficient concern to ask all patients who received dental services at Coastal Health & Wellness between March 15, 2015 and February 12, 2018 be tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV."

Keiser said the health district requested Coastal Health & Wellness to suspend all procedures using sterilized instruments, and that the clinics have complied. He added that the district has mandated that the clinics implement certain changes, but declined to elaborate until the final investigation report is released.

Representatives from Coastal Health & Wellness were expected to attend the press conference on Friday. Keiser did not offer an explanation for their absence.

"I'm surprised they're not here, we expected them to be here," Keiser said.

In a statement Friday night Dr. Milton Howard, the chairman of Coastal Health & Wellness' governing board, and Mary McClure, the executive director, said that the company's leadership is "committed to improving our processes to ensure quality patient care. The infection control concerns have been addressed and we have made great strides in honing infection control practices."

Keiser acknowledged that the findings of the investigation were "very scary" but emphasized that no one has been found to have been infected so far.

"We looked at records of people that were known to have hepatitis C and HIV and hepatitis B through Health Department records, because these are reportable diseases," Keiser said.

"By using that we were able to eliminate and find no risk of hepatitis B and find no risk for HIV. We are concerned about hepatitis C and that's all I can tell you at this point."

Coastal Health & Wellness treats people without regard to ability to pay. The clinic chain receives funding from Galveston County as well as the federal government, though it has a separate governing board and administrative structure.

Health officials will also be directly notifying patients who meet the criteria for testing; however, anyone who has a question related to their status can contact the GCHD Investigation Hotline at (409) 938-2397. Patients who have not undergone invasive medical or dental procedures requiring sterilization of equipment, such as blood draws, are not at risk and do not require testing.

Testing services will begin on Monday at the Galveston County Health District Public Health Office, 9850 Emmett F Lowry Expressway, Entrance B, Texas City and continue through Friday, April 13. Appointments can be made by going online at www.gchd.org or by calling the hotline number.

Test results will be available roughly three to seven days after blood tests are done. Anyone with any positive tests will be referred for evaluation and treatment.

Nick Powell covers Galveston County for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and send him tips at nick.powell@chron.comBridge City's Jason Ballard is one of the minds behind America's first city-approved 3-D printed homes.

ICON, a construction technologies company co-founded by Ballard, Alex Le Roux and Evan Loomis in 2017, unveiled its 350-square-foot concrete home earlier this month at Austin's South by Southwest (SXSW) conference.

The home's concrete walls, floors, roof and porch were created in around 47 hours using a Vulcan 3-D printer, a mobile printer Ballard called "revolutionary and paradigm-shifting technology."

He predicts in the near future that 3-D printed homes can be constructed in less than 24 hours. The price tag is around $4,000, he said.

"We think this has potential whether you want a 300-square-feet house in El Salvador or a 2,000-square-feet house in San Francisco," Ballard, 35, said.

ICON is partnering with the non-profit New Story to build a community of 3-D printed homes in El Salvador by 2019, he said.

"Usually the poorest of the poor are the last people to get advanced material and they're the people who need it the most," Ballard said.

Vulcan's technology allows builders to construct durable homes faster and with less waste, he said.

Ballard said his work with ICON and TreeHouse, an eco-friendly home upgrade company he founded, is largely inspired by his upbringing near the Piney Woods.

Ballard, who graduated from Bridge City High School in 2001, spoke fondly of the nearby Big Thicket, saying it is one of the most biodiverse regions in America.

He said growing up near such beauty and some of the nation's largest oil refineries gave him conflicting views of the area's "amazing natural landscape and the desecration of that landscape."

As an adult, Ballard said he's learned that gas guzzling SUVs and private jets aren't necessarily the problem.

"The big problem is buildings," he said.

"We can't rip our homes apart every time a storm hits Southeast Texas," Ballard said. "I would be shocked if anybody remaining in Southeast Texas had any confidence in two-by-fours and drywall after Harvey," he said.

The concrete poured by Vulcan was put "through a whole battery of tests," Ballard said, and is more resilient than traditional construction materials.

He said he felt confident the prototype home in Austin could withstand a tornado.

Ballard lives in Austin with his family and is using the newly-printed building as an office. It is outfitted with a living room, bedroom and bathroom. He said future models will include kitchens.

"I didn't want the world to have to choose between having an affordable home or having a home that is beautiful, resilient, healthy and sustainable," Ballard said of his work.

Phoebe.Suy@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/PhoebeSuyDover, Mass.-based pain management physician Fathallah Mashali, MD, was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay more than $8.7 million for defrauding Medicare, insurancenewsnet.com reports.

Here are seven insights.

1. Dr. Mashali was accused of falsely billing Medicare from approximately October 2010 through March 2013 for medical services he didn't provide. In March 2017, he pleaded guilty to 44 counts of healthcare fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering.

2. Dr. Mashali documented that he conducted extensive physical exams, claiming each visit lasted at least 25 minutes, but often saw his patients for less than five minutes.

3. Dr. Mashali didn't perform any physical examinations and or adequately address patients' medical status or history during the short encounters, yet he overprescribed powerful narcotics that resulted in fatal overdoses for some patients.

"At one point, Dr. Mashali was one of the highest-volume prescribers of oxycodone in Massachusetts, second only to a leading Boston hospital," said U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling.

4. Dr. Mashali billed Medicare and private insurers for drug test results from invalid urine samples that had been stored up to three months, not refrigerated, in a sunlit space. He instructed lab technicians to move the unrefrigerated urine out of sight during inspections and test samples in ways that violated Medicare billing rules.

When the federal government began investigating Dr. Mashali's billing practices and requested 40 patient medical files for an audit, Dr. Mashali caused his staff to engage in falsification of patient records, including faking and backdating patients' urine drug test results.

5. Dr. Mashali overbooked appointments and sometimes arrived to work up to four hours after his first scheduled appointment, causing overcrowding that would prevent meaningful assessment of each patient.

6. Dr. Mashali spent the money obtained from illegal Medicare billing on his residence in Dover, Mass., which was adorned with a squash court and movie theater, as well as a Florida condominium.

7. "This sentence ensures that Dr. Mashali will never again treat  or mistreat  patients in order to line his own pockets at the expense of patient care," Mr. Lelling said.Nationwide manufacturing issues have shrunk the supply of liquid forms of morphine, fentanyl and Dilaudid, which are injected to control acute pain after surgery, VC Star reports.

Here are seven insights.

1. The drugs, delivered by IV and syringe, may be used in colonoscopies or injected in joints after some orthopedic operations.

2. The Ventura, Calif.-based T Surgery Center hasn't run out of morphine, which it sometimes uses after orthopedic procedures, but Administrator Chris Behm said the shortage has affected supplies.

3. Ms. Behm said distributors price gouge when administrators seek supplies outside of normal distribution channels.

4. Hospitals are also struggling to obtain vials, IV bags and syringes, according to Shalini Shah, MD, chairman of the California Society of Anesthesiologists' pain medication committee and director of pain services for the UC Irvine health system in Orange.

5. With those supplies on back order and a shortage of injectable opioids, hospitals are using different opioid forms, different drugs altogether, or nerve blocks to control pain.

6. Pfizer placed a hold on syringes prefilled with opioids, and it's unclear when it will be lifted.

7. Several groups  including the American Society of Anesthesiologists  wrote to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials in February, asking them to reduce opioid production regulatory limits. The cause of the drugs and supplies shortage isn't entirely clear, according to Dr. Shah.Lewiston-based Central Maine Healthcare unveiled plans March 22 to open an outpatient health center on the site of a former Best Buy store, according to a Maine Public report.

The health center, to be called the Topsham Care Center, is a mix between a hospital and an urgent care clinic and the "first-of-its-kind" in the state. The model aims to provide high quality services at a lower cost, according to Central Maine Healthcare officials.

The 44,000-square-foot facility will hold nearly 30 exam rooms and 16 infusion chairs for cancer patients, in addition to imaging services, mental health counseling and rotating specialty services that may include orthopedics and cardiology.

The Topsham Care Center will partner with academic institutions, including Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital. Central Maine Healthcare is also partnering with Shields Health Care Group in Quincy, Mass., to offer MRIs, ultrasounds and other imaging services. Scarborough, Maine-based New England Cancer Specialists will deliver infusion treatments.

"This is an entirely self-supporting medical universe," said Jeff Brickman, CEO of Central Maine Healthcare. "We can provide easily accessible care where people work, live, pray and play, so it's much more convenient. And we do it in a way that's unencumbered by the traditional hospital cost structure."

The Topsham Care Center is scheduled to open in June 2018, and is expected to create 100 new jobs.Despite recent buzz about blockchain's potential to improve healthcare, a recent survey by SERMO found almost half of physicians aren't aware of the technology.

Industry and government stakeholders have supported efforts to use blockchain, a permanent and shared ledger of online transactions or exchanges, to streamline healthcare operations. Unlike a traditional database that is centrally located and maintained by one party, a blockchain record is shared among a network of users.

In January, the National Institute of Standards and Technology suggested blockchain may support healthcare record-keeping processes by centralizing patient data across the care continuum. Audit and consulting firm Deloitte released a report in 2017 on blockchain's potential to improve data interoperability, supply chain operations and revenue cycle management in hospitals.

Still, some industry experts have accused blockchain developers of promoting a technology that's yet to identify a successful use case. When asked to select the most overhyped IT trends  those unlikely to make a "tangible, positive" impact on healthcare within the next two years  48 percent of hospital CIOs cited blockchain, according to a recent Impact Advisors survey.

To assess healthcare providers' attitudes toward the technology, SERMO, a global social network for physicians, asked 3,700 of its members: "Is blockchain technology ready to enter the healthcare world?"

However, rather than providing an answer, 49 percent of U.S. respondents and 47 percent of respondents worldwide reported they were "not aware of this technology."

Of the 1,653 U.S. physicians who were familiar with the technology, 19 percent indicated blockchain was ready to enter healthcare, compared to 25 percent of physicians worldwide. Thirty-two percent of U.S. physicians and 28 percent of worldwide physicians said blockchain was not ready to enter healthcare.Americans worry more about healthcare than any other issue, according to a new Gallup survey.

The poll was conducted March 1 to March 8 among 1,041 adults via phone. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were represented. It asked respondents to rate how much they worry about various policy topics as either "a great deal," "a fair amount" or "only a little/not at all."

The survey found 55 percent of respondents worried a great amount about "the availability and affordability of healthcare," while 23 percent worried about it a fair amount and another 23 percent only worried about it a little, if at all.

Crime and violence, federal spending and the availability of guns each concerned 51 percent of Americans a great deal.The Arkansas psychologist wanted for leaving Little Rock-based Arkansas State Hospital with a psychiatric patient March 20 is still on the run.

Court documents reveal police questioned the psychologist, 41-year-old Michelle Messer, about contraband found on 46-year-old Cory Chapin, the missing patient, the day of their unauthorized departure from the facility, according to court documents cited by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Ms. Messer on March 20 spoke to Perry Wyse, police chief of the State Hospital Police Department, about a cellphone and vaping machine found in Mr. Chapin's possession. She denied any knowledge of the contraband. The police chief told Ms. Messer to avoid any contact with Mr. Chapin and wait in her office until her supervisor got to work, according to an affidavit from Mr. Wyse.

Instead, Ms. Messer went to the unit where Mr. Chapin was being held and escorted him out of the hospital through a back door, according to the court documents. Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Ms. Messer March 21. She is wanted on a misdemeanor charge of aiding in an unauthorized departure.

Mr. Chapin became a patient at Arkansas State Hospital's forensic unit in December 2015 after a court acquitted him of numerous charges  including kidnapping and theft  by reason of mental illness.

The relationship between Mr. Chapin and Ms. Messer is not clear. The affidavit said Mr. Chapin's unauthorized release from the hospital poses a "great concern for the community safety and the safety of Michelle Messer," according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

More articles on legal and regulatory issues:

Tribal court returns baby taken from parents at Florida hospital

Arkansas police hunting for psychologist who left hospital with psych patient

Former Allina VP pleads guilty to embezzling over $417kThe 2018 U.S. News Healthiest Communities Honor Roll recognizes 36 communities ranging from Allegany County, N.Y., to Winneshiek County, Iowa.

The honor roll is a component of U.S. News & World Report's inaugural healthiest communities rankings, a project conducted in collaboration with Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna's charitable foundation. The project scores nearly 3,000 counties on approximately 80 indicators across 10 categories: population health, equity, education, economy, housing, food and nutrition, environment, public safety, community vitality and infrastructure. Researchers then identified the top 500 healthiest communities.

As part of the project, each county was placed into a peer groups based on urban-rural status and economic performance, according to U.S. News & World Report. The groups are urban, high-performing rankings; urban, up-and-coming rankings; rural, high-performing rankings; and rural, up-and-coming rankings.

The honor roll comprises the top-performing communities within each peer group in these specific geographic divisions: East North Central, East South Central, Middle Atlantic, Mountain, New England, Pacific, South Atlantic, West North Central and West South Central.

The communities named to the honor roll "best serve their residents in the face of often complex health-related challenges," according to U.S. News & World Report. Populations in honor roll communities range from 2,000 people to nearly 1 million. According to U.S. News & World Report, the honor roll communities together have an average life expectancy of 81 years and health insurance coverage exceeding 90 percent.

Here are the 36 honor roll communities.

Allegany County, N.Y. Bennington County, Vt. Leelanau County, Mich. Big Stone County, Minn. Lexington, Va. Carson County, Texas Livingston County, N.Y. Carver County, Minn. Marshall County, Ky. Collin County, Texas Mono County, Calif. Dolores County, Colo. Montgomery County, Va. Door County, Wis. Morris County, N.J. Douglas County, Colo. Nantucket County, Mass. Dukes County, Mass. Orleans County, Vt. Essex County, N.Y. Pickett County, Tenn. Falls Church, Va. Real County, Texas Hamilton County, Ind. Routt County, Colo. Island County, Wash. San Mateo County, Calif. Jefferson County, Wash. Sibley County, Minn. Kerr County, Texas Washington County, Tenn. Keweenaw County, Mich. Williamson County, Tenn. King George County, Va. Winneshiek County, Iowa Latah County, Idaho

Read more about each community here.

More articles on rankings and ratings:

US News ranks 'Best Medical Schools 2019'

Indeed: 4 best US healthcare jobs for base salary, growth

20 most overweight American citiesHere are five things to know about Karen Parkhill, Medtronic's CFO.

1. Ms. Parkhill joined Medtronic in 2016. As an executive vice president and CFO, Ms. Parkhill is responsible for leading the company's global finance organization.

2. Prior to joining Medtronic, Ms. Parkhill served as CFO and vice chairman at Comerica. At Comerica, Ms. Parkhill was also a member of the company's management executive committee and board of directors.

3. Ms. Parkhill previously served as CFO of JP Morgan Chase's commercial banking business. She first joined the company in the investment bank business where she held various positions.

4. She is a member of the International Women's Forum. Additionally, Ms. Parkhill serves as a national trustee from the Boys and Girls Club of America and as a member of Dallas-based Methodist Health System's board of directors.

5. Ms. Parkhill earned her MBA degree from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.The International Association of HealthCare welcomes Horace Mitchell, MD, to its ranks.

Here are five highlights.

1. The Leading Physicians of the World will feature Dr. Mitchell in its upcoming issue.

2. Dr. Mitchell serves as neurosurgery department chief at of The NeuroMedical Center Clinic in Baton Rouge, La. He also treats patients at The Spine Hospital of Louisiana in Baton Rouge.

3. He specializes in complex cervical and lumbar spine, scoliosis, cranial surgery, carpal tunnel and ulnar nerve.

4. Dr. Mitchell is a fellow of the American Association of Neurological Surgery and the North American Spine Society.

5. He completed his neurosurgery residency at St. Louis University Health Sciences Center.Northern Ireland outsourcing giant Mount Charles is planning to open a new restaurant in part of one of Belfast's most famous bars, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal.

The company has lodged a planning application for a change of use from bar to restaurant for part of The Apartment in Donegall Square West.

It's understood Mount Charles would operate on the ground floor, with The Apartment continuing to run as a bar and separate restaurant upstairs.

The company is thought to have reached an agreement with the building landlord, a company connected with the McLean family of bookmakers.

Mount Charles already operates five cafes under its Fed & Watered brand, including one in Exeter Airport, as well as restaurant George's of the Market at St George's Market in Belfast.

A spokeswoman for Mount Charles said the "fresh and exciting concept" would open in the summer.

The Apartment is run by Co Londonderry brothers Seamus and Henry Downey, as tenants of the owners.

It was one of a number of Belfast licensed properties which they bought over in 2013 following the administration of former operators, Botanic Inns.

The Downeys were not available for comment.

Colin Neill, chief executive of licensed trade organisation Hospitality Ulster, said operating an additional restaurant on the premises was a logical move.

"Food has become an increasingly important part of the overall offer of the hospitality industry so people are looking at how to deliver that in a cost-effective way," he said.

"In this case, a ground floor restaurant would attract people into The Apartment's offer as well."

And he said a Mount Charles restaurant need not detract from another eatery upstairs.

"You could have a more complex food offer or a bigger variety in one of them," he said.

"Something like this is good news for both businesses and shows how the pub trade is being innovative and delivering better experiences for their customers."

Last week, Mr Neill said that the trade was facing rising costs including a 1.5% hike in rates and around 3% in water bills.

"The hospitality sector is working for NI and continues to grow despite the lack of decision-making due to the collapse of the Assembly," he said.The most probing interviews: Doug Beattie, Upper Bann UUP MLA, on the tragic death of his baby grandson, serving in Afghanistan and relationship with his father.

Q. You're 52 and married to homemaker Margaret (52), with whom you have son Luke (27), a former soldier turned factory worker, and daughter Leigh (30), a homemaker. You also have two grandsons, Tristan (10) and Bradley (six). How did you meet Margaret?

A. We were introduced in December 1985 and started dating after I came back from a tour of Cyprus. We got married on August 8, 1987, and honeymooned in Lake Garda, Italy.

Q. You have three older sisters, Edwina, Tanya and Donna, who are homemakers, and two brothers, Robert (55) (ex-military) and Stephen (54) (still serving). Your dad, William (although he was always called Bob), was a career soldier. Tell us about him.

A. We didn't have the greatest relationship. He never had the ability to tell me that he loved me, never once said well done for me making it in the military. I never got the sense that he was proud of me until five years ago, when he was dying from cancer. He could no longer talk, so he wrote something down in a small black notebook and handed it to me. It read: 'I'm incredibly proud of you, son." I found that very moving.

Q. Tell us about your mum, Evelyn, who died in her 40s.

A. She got lung cancer when I was 13. I vividly remember the day she passed away in my father's arms. I'll never forget the look on his face. He was deeply depressed at losing her.

He took to drinking and would wake me up to sit with him until the early hours because he was lonely, then I had to get up and walk three miles to school. That became routine. I don't blame my father, but it was tough for me as a child.

Q. You believe in God but don't go to church. Do you have a strong faith?

A. I have issues with organised religion. I lay in a half-dug grave in Afghanistan for five days. At a time like that, I connect to God at my level. But my spiritual side is competing against things that have happened, such as the death of my grandson.

Q. September 11, 2006, is the date you first killed an enemy in a combat situation. Does it still haunt you?

A. It does. I can picture his face right now. He had a weapon, he was firing at me, I was in a war and I killed him. I went on to kill many others and I'm not proud of that. The problem comes when you leave the battlefield - the rationale for what you did is not the same. But you can't have hindsight on the battlefield.

Q. Does any incident particularly stand out?

A. Holding a six-year-old in my arms and watching her die. I was the one who had that child handed to me in northern Helmand 10 years ago. I was looking at her beautiful face, her brown hair, her ruby lips and I was watching the life ebb out of her. Her name was Shabia. She'd been hit by shrapnel.

Q. Tell us about the best day of your life.

A. The birth of my daughter because it created my family.

Q. And what do you consider the worst day of your life?

A. My youngest grandson Cameron Tindale's death. Having my daughter recount - even though he'd been dead for some time - how she tried to resuscitate him was harrowing. It's never going to go away. The pain I feel is also for what my daughter and her husband are suffering.

Q. The last time we spoke you were waiting for the coroner's office to report back about Cameron, who was only 15-months old. What happened? How are Leigh and your son-in-law, Mark, doing now?

A. The Coroner's Court said there were opportunities missed in dealing with what was affecting Cameron, but we've never got a diagnosis, so we don't know what killed him. That's difficult. There's no closure. We had his birthday last month. He would've been three.

The whole thing was incredibly traumatic... to see this healthy boy from the night before lying on the floor dead and having to stay on the floor until the police forensics team came.

Q. You've previously admitted to feeling guilty over being elected on the same day Cameron was buried. How have you coped with that?

A. There's a feeling of absolute shame that I could be progressing in life while my grandson's life is ending. Leigh and Mark were living in England, and I told them they'd have a better life here. I feel guilty that their family unit is not what it should be now.

Q. You're a proud military man, but how do you defend soldiers responsible for killing innocent victims of the Troubles?

A. Any soldier who has deliberately killed an innocent civilian should face the law. There's another context to this - the pressures that soldiers are under and sometimes they do make mistakes.

Q. Are you surprised that Tim Collins, the compatriot and commanding officer you stood beside 15 years ago when he delivered that legendary eve-of-battle speech in Iraq, hasn't gone into politics like you?

A. I exposed the skeletons in my cupboard in my books, so everything about me was out there and people could see it and make their mind up and decide. Therefore there was nothing to surprise people when I became a politician.

I'm not sure Tim has exposed that side of himself. He was a fantastic soldier and he would be a terrific politician. He has the ability to talk at the highest level and the ability to engage at the lowest level.

Q. You recently called Alliance Party leader Naomi Long the "Mother Theresa of Twitter". Why?

A. It just rolled off the tongue. I thought that it was quite funny. I really like Naomi. We've had our spats, but we're both grown-up politicians.

Q. You retweeted the controversial cartoon about the Kingsmill massacre by Brian John Spencer in the wake of the row over former Sinn Fein MP Barry McElduff's infamous video. A mistake?

A. No. I posted that without comment because it's supposed to be viewed without comment.

I still stand by it. I wouldn't have taken it down but a friend asked me and I did it for him. No Kingsmill family member has ever complained to me about it.

Q. Have you been trolled on social media?

A. I've been called a war criminal, baby killer and murderer.

Q. Tell us something readers might be surprised to learn about you.

A. I shot my friend in the face, on the side of the mouth, when I was 15. I was messing about with my father's personal protection weapon.

Q. You were born in barracks in Hampshire, in 1965, and grew up in Gibraltar, Germany and Colchester before moving to Portadown aged 10, where you still live. Can you say it was a happy childhood?

A. I was affected by my mother's death and the IRA murder of an uncle (Samuel Johnston). I have a sense that I had a happy childhood, but I've no memory of it. There was a degree of travelling around a lot and making friends then losing friends.

When I was eight my friend Ronald Roe was hit by a speeding car in Colchester. I remember him spinning around in the air before he hit the deck. My mother was first on the scene to give him first aid. Thankfully, he lived.

Q. You went to various primary schools, including Hart Memorial in Portadown, and attended Clounagh Junior High and Portadown Technical College. You joined the Royal Irish Rangers when you were 16, served for 28 years and rose to rank of regimental sergeant major. You served in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2005, you became captain. You also got the military cross for your time in Afghanistan. Tell us about your Army career.

A. I never wanted to be in the military. I feel like I was accidentally forced into it. In 1982, I went to the Junior Soldiers Battalion in Taunton, Somerset, aged 16. Then I went to Berlin, guarded [notorious Nazi] Rudolf Hess [former deputy to Hitler and, for 21 years until he died, sole inmate of Spandau Prison]. Then I went to Dover and from there I went to guard the cruise missiles at Greenham Common.

I ended up in Canterbury in 2000 and became regimental sergeant major. Then my unit was deployed to Kuwait for the invasion of Iraq. I left regular service in February 2009, but I ended up going back to Afghanistan as an Army reservist captain. I'm still in the Army Reserves.

Q. Do you ever feel lucky you got out alive?

A. I do, but there's a degree of shame that you carry with you because of that. I'm in good order, but others were left with mental and physical injuries. I have survivor's guilt.

Q. You joined Craigavon Council in 2014 and became an MLA in 2016. Mike Nesbitt talked you into politics. How did you feel about his shock resignation as leader?

A Mike left too early. He was going in the right direction. He was under extreme pressure, but he deserved better. I think he probably made the decision to leave before the election if it didn't go the way he wanted. He is a visionary and I think people would have warmed to what he was trying to do - reach out.

Q. What about his successor, Robin Swann?

A. There's a public perception that Robin is just hardline and moving the party to the Right. Not so. He has some ingrained views, but he's willing to reach out. I'm a supporter of same-sex marriage and Robin isn't, but he respects my views.

Q. You've written three books - An Ordinary Soldier [a bestseller], Task Force Helmand and Reaper. Is that how you like to relax outside politics?

A. If I leave politics, writing is what I'll do, but I have very little downtime.

Q. Which politician from another party do you most admire?

A. Daniel McCrossan, my opposite number in the SDLP.

Q. Who was your biggest inspiration growing up?

A. My eldest brother, Rab, who was held in high esteem in the Army. He was the guy I wanted to be.

Q. And what about a nickname? Do you have one?

A. I was called Big Bird when I first joined the military. After that, Gunny.

Q. Can you tell us who your best Catholic friend is?

A. Charles Bennett, a Northern Ireland civilian I met in Afghanistan.

Q. What's your favourite place in the whole world?

A. Mostar in Bosnia. It's one of the most beautiful places.

Q. What's your favourite place in Northern Ireland?

A. Lusty Beg in Fermanagh.

Q. If there was one thing you could change about yourself, what would it be?

A. That I never had to go to war, never had to take a life and that I had lived a life away from violence.Glenarm salmon has become a hit at LEntente in Paris

It's quite possibly the best salmon the French have ever tasted - and it's from Northern Ireland.

An up-and-coming restaurant in Paris is fishing in fresh waters by offering its discerning customers a little je ne sais quoi on the food front.

L'Entente, le British Brasserie, serves delicacies including Welsh rarebit and shepherd's pie, but it's the Glenarm organic smoked salmon that's really caught the critics' attention.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph during a busy Sunday serving, the establishment's owner Oliver Woodhead (40), who's been in the French capital for 20 years, praised the Northern Irish produce.

"Some of my customers have told me it's the best salmon they've ever had in their lives," he said. "It's very smoky. We hand cut it here ourselves. We serve it just with lemon and nothing else - except bread and butter of course - and it goes down a treat.

"We do it as an entree and as a main course and we do it with our scrambled eggs for Saturday and Sunday brunch and people love that."

He added: "All of our ingredients are French apart from salmon which is from Northern Ireland and the cheese, which is British."

The Co Antrim salmon recently received one of the highest accolades from the French edition of fashion magazine Vogue.

"Vogue Paris, the fashion Instagram account, posted our Eggs Benedict two months ago to a total of 3.8 million people," said Oliver, who is originally from London.

"It's the first time they've really ever done food and we had 12,000 likes within a day and a half.

"In English they said: 'For a perfect brunch go to L'Entente' and our brunches are very busy now."

L'Entente, which threw open its door almost 16 weeks ago, has been praised by French restaurant critics for its excellent food and innovative menu.

And it can already boast a host of prominent clients including the former president Francois Hollande and the iconic fashion designers Marc Jacobs and Karl Lagerfield.

Mr Woodhead said that unlike most other eateries in the country, which are shut on Sunday and Monday, L'Entente is open all day, every day, reflecting its Britishness.

"I'm going against the trend in Paris by being open in the afternoons and Saturday and Sunday nights," he said. "We are not just Anglo-Saxon in some of our dishes we're also British in our spirit and in the decoration."

Glenarm organic smoked salmon for starters will set you back 16 (14), while a brunch comprising the tasty Northern Irish salmon and scrambled eggs costs 21 (18).

Oliver added: "I'd tasted the salmon and liked it very much which is why I decided to work with Glenarm Organic Salmon Ltd when I opened the restaurant last November."A Belfast teenager has told of how he came under attack by a gang with bats and hammers while walking home on Saturday evening.

14-year-old Robert Holmes was left in hospital with a fractured skull after being attacked while making his way home on Saturday evening.

At around 7pm he was making his way home from a supermarket when he was approached by a group of up to 30 people in North Queen Street, with six of them attacking him with bats and hammers.

Following the attack Robert was rushed to hospital and treated for a number of injuries including a fractured skull and bruising and bleeding on the brain.

He was kept in hospital for two nights before being discharged on Monday.

Speaking on the BBC Radio Ulster's 'Evening Extra' programme Robert told of how he came under attack by the gang.

"There was a crowd from the other side came out of New Lodge and were throwing bottles and bricks and shouting come on over," he said.

"Six of them ran across the road towards us and my two mates ran. I have a sore leg so didn't run.

"They hit me across the head with a bat and I fell to the ground and they all jumped all over the top of me."

Robert's mum Lisa said she was concerned the attack would have long-term effects.

"He's only 14 and I can't believe in this day and age anybody could do this," she said.

"He's only a child himself, it's not even the physical damage, it's emotional too.

"He's already had a few panic attacks and is never going to forget this."

North Belfast DUP MLA William Humphrey has appealed for cooperation with the PSNI following the attack.

Mr Humphrey visited the home of Robert Holmes on Monday afternoon before meeting with PSNI Chief Inspector Kelly Moore at Tennent Street Police Station, along with Pastor Brian Madden and Aldermen Guy Spence and Brian Kingston.

"Young Robert Holmes was subjected to a depraved and utterly vicious sectarian assault on Saturday evening," Mr Humphrey said.

Robert required hospital treatment for severe injuries including a fractured skull, bruising and bleeding on the brain and required stitches to head wounds. This brutal attack could have resulted in fatal injuries and it will have made a deep impact on him. It is a relief that he has been able to come home after two nights in hospital," he said.

"I call on all elected representatives to be unequivocal in condemning this sectarian attack and to join me in calling for clear co-operation with the Police investigation to bring those responsible to justice for their depraved actions.

"There is deep anger that such a serious attack on an individual by a cowardly crowd could occur."

Mr Humphrey said the PSNI were increasing patrols in the area and urged "all people of influence" to do what they can to "prevent such trouble from occurring".

Anyone who can help to bring those responsible to justice should contact the PSNI on 101 or can leave information anonymously on the Crimestoppers line 0800 555 111, he said.The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Hillsborough Castle in 2016

The cost to the public of entertaining royal visitors and heads of state at Hillsborough Castle has doubled in the last four years.

Expenditure by the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) on VVIPs has been on a steep upward curve since 2013-14.

The castle has been a royal residence and the home of the Northern Ireland Secretary since the 1970s.

However, in 2014 the running of the castle was transferred from the NIO to Historic Royal Palaces (HRP). The move was aimed at developing the castle as a major visitor attraction.

But it now means the NIO must pay a charge to HRP for hospitality costs when a VVIP visitor is at the castle.

This cost was 7,709 in the financial year 2014/15, but just 561 the year before. It rose steadily to 9,246 in 2015/16 and then jumped to 16,173 in 2016/17.

The spend for the most recent financial year, 2017/18, has been estimated so far at 14,521.

The figures were revealed by the NIO in response to a Parliamentary Question from Labour MP Peter Dowd.

Mr Dowd told the Belfast Telegraph he had been alerted to the rise during the discussion of the annual Supply and Appropriation Bill, in which Parliament votes on how to share out money to each department.

In response to the question, Shailesh Vara, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Northern Ireland, said the sudden increase was down to hospitality costs following the new contractual arrangement between the NIO and HRP which took over the running of Hillsborough Castle in 2014.

Mr Vara also said that from 2015/16, the total includes contracted transport expenditure that in previous years was provided in-house.

Royal visits to Northern Ireland in 2017 included Prince Harry's first trip here in September and also the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall in May and Prince William in October.

Princess Anne and also the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited Northern Ireland in June 2016.

Previously, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited in 2014, during which Her Majesty made history by shaking the hand of former Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

Some of the other VVIPs to visit Northern Ireland in recent years include then US President Barack Obama in 2013.

Mr Dowd, who is Labour's Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, questioned the increased costs.

"Once again we have further evidence of the fallacy of this Conservative Government's short term thinking and double standards when it comes to the public purse," he said.

"Ministers claimed that handing the management of Hillsborough Castle to Historical Royal Palaces would save the Treasury money, yet the Northern Ireland Office is now spending an increasing amount of its budget on hospitality in a building the Government owns. Despite a time of austerity, this Government has found millions for the DUP and now thousands for VIPs."

John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, also questioned the rise.

"Taxpayers in Northern Ireland will be angered that these costs have more than doubled over the last few years," he said.

"This money could have been better spent on improving public services."

A spokesperson for the NIO said in response: "Since 2014/15, the running of Hillsborough Castle has been the responsibility of Historic Royal Palaces.

"As part of these arrangements, the Northern Ireland Office pays an agreed charge to HRP to cover the costs of VVIP visits.

"These charges are not room hire fees, but cover staff, catering and similar costs."

The spokesperson added: "Prior to 2014/15 all such costs were included in the NIO budget as part of the overall running costs of Hillsborough Castle.

"As the costs were not separately identified as relating to VVIP visits, it was not possible to include them in the response."

Recent royal visits

2018: Duchess of Wessex in January

2017: Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall in May, Prince Harry in September, Prince William in October

2016: Princess Anne in April, Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in May, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh in June, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in June, Duke of Wessex in October, Duke of York in October

2015: Prince Edward in February, Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall in June

2014: Prince Andrew in March, Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited in June, during which Her Majesty made history by shaking the hand of former Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness

2013: Prince Andrew in January

2012: Queen and Duke of Edinburgh in June

2011: Prince William and Kate Middleton in MarchA 14-year-old boy was left in hospital with a fractured skull after being badly beaten in a sectarian attack in Belfast in a weekend of disorder.

Trouble flared in pockets in the north and west of the city on Saturday night with police coming under attack, property damaged and in one incident traffic lights set on fire and the riot squad deployed.

Police were also set upon by a mob as they tried to arrest a teenager, leaving one officer with injuries.

Robert Holmes was making his way home from a supermarket with friends at around 7pm on Saturday when he was approached by a group of up to 30 people in North Queen Street.

His family said he was beaten with bats and hammers by around seven of the group while the baying crowd watched on.

The boy was only able to limp off to his brother's house after a family friend intervened.

His brother said he came through the door before collapsing over a table and then began convulsing.

"There was blood everywhere - it was shocking," his brother Curtis said.

He was taken to hospital where last night he remained recuperating with a fractured skull, bruising on the brain and with stitches in his head.

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He had also suffered hearing loss and the full extent of his injuries will likely not become clear until the swelling subsidies.

Doctors described his condition as not life-threatening.

"He was very lucky," continued his brother. "He tried to stand up in hospital and was so dizzy he fell over."

Police are treating the attack as sectarian.

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"We're from Tiger's Bay and they were all from the New Lodge," his brother added.

"My brother is very lucky but only when the family friend actually went toward this gang did they stop and let him go."

Later, as police responded to trouble in the New Lodge, they came under attack with one of their cars damaged.

Police believe the two incidents are linked.

DUP MLA William Humphrey (left), said he would be meeting with police today to raise the issue and the recent spate of anti-social behaviour in the area.

"I'd wish young Robert a speedy recovery first and foremost," he said.

"Yorkgate and the area around it is a facility for the entire community, and those using it should feel safe.

"I condemn any attack on police. They were there to ensure law and order was maintained and it is appalling people attack them in these circumstances.

"I would urge anyone with information to contact the police and also urge parents to know where their children are and what they are up to."

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Meanwhile in west Belfast, youths set fire to traffic lights and threw masonry at police and their vehicles during a riot on the Stewartstown Road. Later when police attempted to arrest a teenager they were set upon by a mob who tried to free the youth.

One officer received cuts and bruising to his face.

The 17-year-old male remained in police custody last night for questioning on suspicion of riotous behaviour, attempted criminal damage and assaulting police.

Sinn Fein councillor Stephen Magennis branded the behaviour a disgrace saying young children and others well into their teens were involved. He said: "This has been going on nightly since St Patrick's Day and needs brought under control."

Police are investigating and appealed to children to stay clear of trouble and for their parents to talk to them about the consequences of getting a criminal record.Mark Dobson with his mum Jo-Anne after they returned home following the operation

Now home safely after donating a kidney to her son Mark, former MLA Jo-Anne Dobson has thanked thousands of well-wishers for their support after her "roller coaster of emotion".

The smiling mother and son posted a picture on social media yesterday as they begin the slow process of recovery.

Mrs Dobson said she was "absolutely overwhelmed" by the kind messages after the operation on Tuesday.

Devoted Northern Ireland fan Mark missed out on attending Saturday's 2-1 victory over South Korea at Windsor Park, but his patience was rewarded with a new away shirt.

Speaking on Saturday, Mark said: "I was gutted I wasn't able to make it to Windsor Park but I watched the match on my laptop while looking down from the Transplant Unit on Floor 11, Belfast City Hospital!"

Earlier in the week, Northern Ireland international Niall McGinn voiced his best wishes to Mark in a video message.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster on Friday, Mark spoke of the emotional moment he was reunited with his mum after surgery.

"My mum came in and gave me a big hug and I just started crying because I knew we'd got through the transplant," he said.

"My surgeon Tim Brown said the transplant couldn't have been more perfect.

"We'd like to thank him, that's two times he's really saved my life."

On doctor's orders, Mark will need to take things easy for the next three months with regular hospital appointments.

"It will be 12 weeks before we get our life back but it'll be worth it," he added.

Mrs Dobson said she felt honoured she was a positive match for Mark as a kidney donor.

"There is that uncertainty that not everyone who goes forward to be a live donor is capable. It's a lot of very rigorous tests, almost like a full MoT on your body," she said.

"For me personally I was praying, not that I would get through surgery, but that I would be able to do it.

"I honestly do feel it's an honour and feel very privileged to have been able to do it for my son."

She continued: "It's just those experiences, it's a roller coaster of emotion, from going into theatre, crying and hugging Mark before they wheel me down and knowing he'd be following me a few hours after.

"It's life-changing, but very surreal with the mixture of emotions. The most powerful, between Mark and I, is very strong anyway.

"If that can be reinforced any more it was, there's definitely no feeling like it to be able to give your son life a second time."

With her son facing kidney problems since he was a baby, and previously going through a failed transplant, both are now committed lifelong campaigners for organ donation.

"It's important to remember every single one of us has it within us to be a life saver, whether it's telling your family your wishes or being a live donor," Mrs Dobson said.

"I can now speak with even greater authority of what it's like. It's like giving birth all over again - it's a wonderful, wonderful feeling."The scene at yesterdays crash on the Nutts Corner Road in Antrim

A man has died and a woman was left fighting for her life in hospital after the car they were travelling in crashed near the village of Crumlin.

The horrific incident happened early on Sunday morning near Belfast International Airport.

Ambulance crews rushed to the scene close to the Co Antrim village, but the man's life could not be saved.

The 21-year-old female driver of the car was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital, where she received emergency treatment for her injuries.

Last night the woman - who comes from the Crumlin area - remained in a critical condition in the Belfast hospital.

The man who died was aged 22 and was a passenger in the black Peugeot 207 which crashed on the Nutts Corner Road just before 7.20am.

Police said he came from the Belfast area, but have not yet released details of his identity or of the injured driver.

A green tarpaulin could be seen covering the car.

Antrim and Newtownabbey councillor Paul Michael described the fatal crash as a tragedy.

"My thoughts and sympathies go out to the family of the man who died, and to the young woman who's now in hospital.

"I hope she makes a complete and speedy recovery," he said.

Mr Michael admitted that the Nutts Corner Road and roundabout have worried local representatives on Newtownabbey and Antrim Council for some time.

"There have been accidents in the past, and lorries have even overturned there," he said.

"But nothing as tragic as this has happened there before.

He said that councillors had recently met the Department for Infrastructure to pass on their concerns about the road.

The PSNI's Inspector Pete Duncan requested any other drivers who were on the Nutts Corner Road when the crash happened to come forward.

"I am appealing to anyone who was travelling on the Nutts Corner Road around this time, or drivers who have a dash cam fitted to their vehicle to check their footage, and to contact police in Antrim on the non emergency number 101," the officer said.Victims of IRA violence have joined together to write an open letter to the Mayor of New York, urging him to apologise for honouring Gerry Adams.

Bill de Blasio caused outrage after he renamed this year's St Patrick's Day in celebration of the former Sinn Fein leader.

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The Democrat also praised Mr Adams's "goal of a united Ireland", claiming it made "so much sense".

Relatives of people killed by the IRA have now written to the mayor, accusing him of having "callous disregard" for their feelings. They have demanded a public apology, a face-to-face meeting and for Mr Adams's award to be withdrawn.

The letter has been signed by six people - from the two main communities - who lost loved ones in the Troubles.

They include Ann McCabe, the widow of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, who was shot dead by the IRA in Co Limerick in 1996, and Michelle Williamson, whose parents George and Gillian died in the 1993 Shankill bomb.

The letter states that victims have been "deeply hurt, offended and bewildered" by Mr de Blasio's actions.

They tell the mayor: "We are astounded at your level of naivety and callous disregard for the tens of thousands of innocent victims/survivors of PIRA's murderous terrorist campaign which spanned over four decades."

Mr Adams, who has always denied being a member of the IRA, received the honour at a St Patrick's Day breakfast event in New York on March 17 attended by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

The proclamation read: "I, Bill de Blasio, Mayor of the City of New York, do hereby proclaim March 17, 2018 in the city of New York as 'Gerry Adams Day'."

However, the move angered many victims of IRA terrorism.

The letter adds: "The man you have lauded was the president of the provisional republican movement; he is effectively 'commander in chief' of an organisation which brought misery to lives from across the community, across the island of Ireland and beyond.

"Have you any understanding of the impact your actions have had upon those of us whose lives were devastated by the Provisional IRA's murderous actions?

"Remember, this is the organisation which Mr Adams has provided 'political' cover for, whose members he has carried coffins and the organisation for which lead intelligence sources state Mr Adams was himself a member holding key leadership roles."

Mrs McCabe said she signed the letter because she is disgusted by Mr de Blasio's actions.

"I think it's disgraceful that this man (Mr Adams) has been honoured by the Mayor of New York - I feel very strongly about this," she added.

In 2006, Mrs McCabe confronted Mr Adams at a New York fundraiser, asking him to condemn her husband's killing. Unhappy with his reply, she walked out.

She added: "This is a man who refused to condemn the people who murdered my lovely husband. A Gerry Adams Day - how disgusting is that?

"I think he (Mr de Blasio) needs to explain himself, but I don't expect to receive an explanation.

"Did he actually look at Adams's past?

"But then some Americans are very blinded to Adams's past."

Other signatories of the letter include David Kelly, the son of Irish soldier Pte Patrick Kelly, who was killed in the Don Tidey kidnap incident in Leitrim in 1983, and Maura Babington, the widow of James Babington, who was killed off the Antrim Road in Belfast in 1989.

The final two are Pam Morrison, whose three brothers Ronnie, Cecil and Jimmy Graham were killed in separate incidents in south Fermanagh, and Shelley Gilfillan, whose brother Kenneth Smyth and uncle Lexie Cummings were both killed.

Mr de Blasio has not responded to repeated requests for comment.

But Kenny Donaldson, spokesman for the Innocent Victims United group, said he has questions to answer.

"He should remember the ruthless organisation which the Provisional Movement was - they murdered almost 2,000 people, and maimed tens of thousands of others through physical and mental scars," he said.Oisin Quigley, whose father Colm took his own life seven years ago

A Londonderry teenager whose father took his own life says mental health awareness must be taught in schools to help reduce Northern Ireland's high suicide rate.

Oisin Quigley's father Colm was 39 when he passed away seven years ago, leaving the then 12-year-old and his four siblings heartbroken.

Oisin, now 19 and a student at Preston University, says his father had been battling depression for some time.

"I remember a really bad six-month period before my dad died," he recalled.

"My mother and father had been separated for about a year. My dad had come through a really rough time where he tried to take his own life. My uncle found him and got him to the hospital in time. That was on my sister's birthday.

"I remember he was going to therapy and was living with his mother, and I would see him several times a week. I remember going to see him and there being a sort of absence and sadness that was constantly on him.

"I remember there was an advertisement for mental health on the television. It shows a man laughing and joking with his friends and when they leave it shows him taking off a happy face mask and placing it on the bathroom sink. He said that was exactly how he felt.

"He would very rarely have talked about it.

"Generally when we were around he was happy, but we did feel a difference."

Oisin said the day he discovered his father had died is seared into his memory forever.

"I had just come back from my friend's house. It was a Sunday. I had went home and had gone to my bedroom to do my homework. I had heard a bit of a commotion downstairs and my mother crying. She called me down. When I went into the living room she said 'your daddy's dead'.

"I remember just pushing her away as she was trying to hug me. I couldn't comprehend it. I remember the day in black and white. I don't remember the colours. I remember thinking that I owed my Dad 10 and that I wouldn't have to pay it back. I think it was a weird thing I thought to try and make sense of it all. I was only 12."

Northern Ireland has the highest rate of suicide in the UK.

In 2016, 297 people here took their own lives, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Oisin said the stigma surrounding mental health must be overcome.

"I'm by no means an authority on the issue of mental health," he added.

"I read recently that in Northern Ireland 300 people die by suicide every year. That is horrifying.

"We rationalise it in our heads wrong, I think. Unless you're terribly, terribly depressed, nobody goes and gets help.

"You are almost shamed or embarrassed, you don't want to talk about mental health," he said.

"There are cures out there. We need to work as a community to spread awareness of these cures, to break the stigma 'mental' illnesses are surrounded by, and to show people that there's no more shame in depression than there is in the common cold.

"I know there is help out there. But it shouldn't be that we realise we are depressed when we are too far gone. We should be taught to recognise the symptoms very early on, the same way as a cold."

Oisin believes mental health awareness should be taught in every school in Northern Ireland.

"I think that mental health awareness should be taught at school, in a dedicated class," he said. "Young people should really be given time to understand these things.

"When people aren't educated on this issue then things happen the way they happened to my dad, and the way they happen to other 300 people who die by suicide here.

"I would like to see the Departments of Health and Education join forces and do something. Once the public and private sectors get on board and start to normalise this serious problem I think that's how we'll cut down on this killer."

If you or anyone close to you is affected by the issues in this article, please contact the Samaritans free on 116123 or Lifeline on 080 8808 8000.Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop John McAreavey as Bishop of Dromore amid concerns around his handling of a clerical child abuse scandal.

Dr McAreavey announced his decision to step down earlier this month, amid mounting pressure around his handling of paedophile priest Fr Malachy Finnegan.

At the time of his resignation Bishop McAreavey wrote to parishioners saying the decision to resign had been made "with a heavy heart".

Bishop Philip Boyce, the bishop emeritus of Raphoe, has been appointed as the Apostolic Administrator of Dromore - a position that puts him temporarily in charge of the diocese.

Allegations against Fr Finnegan came to light following a BBC Spotlight programme broadcast in February, which also looked at the response of the church.

Bishop McAreavey had known about allegations of child abuse against the disgraced cleric as far back as the mid-1990s, and conducted Fr Finnegan's funeral in 2002.

Responding to his resignation Archbishop Eamon Martin, the head of the Catholic church in Ireland, said: "During this Holy Week my prayers are with the people, religious and clergy of Dromore and in particular with those who have been abused, and with all who are suffering because of abuse.

"I wish to acknowledge Bishop McAreaveys nineteen years of service as a bishop. As president of the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference, I thank him for his generous contribution in a wide variety of roles as a member of the Bishops Conference during that time.

As the bishops stated following their Spring 2018 general meeting earlier this month, the Church can never become complacent concerning the safeguarding of children. The Church is committed to both the review process of dioceses undertaken by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church and to cooperation with any inquiry required by statutory bodies.

My prayers also go to Bishop Philip Boyce as he begins his service as Apostolic Administrator of Dromore."

Prior to his resignation the parents of children in some primary schools in Co Down met with Bishop McAreavey, expressing their wish they did not want him taking part in Confirmation ceremonies.

Since the original BBC Spotlight documentary was broadcast a number of Fr Finnegan victims have come forward with accounts of abuse suffered.

Last week Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy said that while a pupil in the 1970s Fr Finnegan had physically abused him and attempted to sexually groom him.The aim of the new law is to help people make decisions about their relationships

A new scheme to curb domestic violence will allow potential victims to ask the PSNI about their partner's history.

Modelled on 'Clare's Law' in England and Wales, the Department of Justice initiative encourages those afraid that their partner has a record of domestic violence or abuse to get answers from police.

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It's hoped this will allow them to make an informed decision about their relationship.

At present, the PSNI responds to an incident of domestic abuse every 18 minutes, with many more unreported.

Reports of domestic abuse have been rising steadily since 2004/05. Last year nearly 30,000 domestic abuse incidents were reported, with nearly half recorded as crimes.

The PSNI's Public Protection Branch will administer the scheme in partnership with other bodies.

Detective Superintendent Ryan Henderson commented: "Previously, it would have been difficult for someone entering a new relationship to find out or be aware if their new partner had any prior convictions for violence or domestic abuse.

"We know that domestic abuse is a frightening crime which can affect anyone often leaving them feeling isolated and alone.

"However, we know that many incidents of domestic abuse still go unreported.

"Anyone suffering from domestic abuse is encouraged to contact their local police on the non-emergency 101 or in an emergency always call 999."

Concerned third parties who know those involved can also make inquiries as part of the Domestic Violence and Abuse Disclosure Scheme (DVADS).

Department of Justice Permanent Secretary Nick Perry said the move would offer the same protection as is available in the rest of the UK.

"Violence or abuse in the home, in whatever form it takes, is wrong. It should never be tolerated; it should never be ignored; and it should never, ever be something a person should have to deal with alone," he said.

"The Domestic Violence and Abuse Disclosure Scheme is aimed at helping to keep people safe. It will empower men and women to take informed decisions about an existing relationship.

"It will help prevent abuse and violence in the home by providing a safe and confidential channel offering support and guidance. Ultimately, this scheme will help to create a safe community where we respect the law and each other.

"I would encourage anyone to look for the signs of domestic violence and abuse, and to apply to the scheme if they are worried about the abusive history of their partner, or someone else's."

In addition to a 'right to ask', police will have a 'power to tell' where they can act on information that comes their way by other means.

Both processes are to be safeguarded by decision-making processes and are expected to take between 42 and 45 days.

Police will disclose the information with potential victims or those best placed to protect them or take direct action if the risk is immediate.

The information presented will typically be general, indicating risk to a person, rather than specifying the detail of any previous offence.

Clare's Law was introduced in England and Wales in 2014 after 36-year-old Clare Wood was strangled and set on fire by her ex-boyfriend George Appleton in 2009 in Salford.

Her father campaigned for the law, saying his daughter would still be alive if she had known about Appleton's violent record.

For further information about the scheme visit nidirect.gov.uk/ see-the-signsSinn Fein has rejected the DUP's plan for a shadow Assembly to sit at Stormont giving MLAs scrutiny powers while devolution is suspended.

Arlene Foster indicated on Saturday that her party would be working to develop the idea with Secretary of State Karen Bradley.

But Mary Lou McDonald said a shadow Assembly would represent a retreat from power-sharing. Addressing an event in London examining a united Ireland, the Sinn Fein president said: "The way forward in the north is through real and genuine power-sharing, the delivery of citizens' rights and equal partnership government.

"Any proposed shadow Assembly would mark a retreat from power-sharing and the leadership needed to restore the Good Friday Agreement framework. It would be an unacceptable step backwards, lacking credibility.

"The onus is now on the two governments to act and through their joint stewardship to remove the obstacles to restoring the political institutions."

Ms McDonald called on London and Dublin to immediately convene the British-Irish intergovernmental conference to "find a way to implement outstanding agreements and to fully respect the rights of citizens to marriage equality, to language rights and the funding of legacy inquests".

She continued: "Direct rule is not an option. It was a failure in the past and would be so again.

"It's time to face the real challenge to deliver citizens' rights and to re-establish the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement."

But addressing the DUP's spring conference in Ballymena, Mrs Foster said the prospects of a return to devolution in the near future "don't look promising".

She said: "Ministerial decisions being made by the Secretary of State is in no way our preferred outcome, but it is far better than no decisions being taken at all.

"We will continue to work closely with Karen Bradley as she makes good on her commitment to do whatever is necessary to fulfil her majesty's Government's responsibilities to the people of Northern Ireland, including working with her on ways for the Assembly that the people elected last year to have an input."

Mrs Foster said her party was committed to devolution.

"We want to see power in the hands of locally elected and locally accountable ministers.

"But in the absence of devolution, the DUP is finding other ways to deliver for Northern Ireland," she added.

The DUP leader pointed to the additional funds her party secured for Northern Ireland in its confidence and supply deal with the Conservative government.

She accused Sinn Fein of offering little in comparison.

"Whether it's health or education or jobs or infrastructure, the DUP is prioritising what is important to people of all persuasions in Northern Ireland," she said.

"What are Sinn Fein delivering for our people?

"The answer is short and simple - absolutely nothing. Sorry, that isn't entirely fair.

"Sinn Fein are at least trying to deliver.

"They are trying to deliver division and dysfunction. But we are not going to allow them to hold Northern Ireland to ransom any longer."

The DUP leader said that her party needed more than ideology in order to advance its agenda.

"I truly believe that if we are to achieve our overarching aim of preserving the Union then we have to concentrate on our ideas, and not our ideology, and focus on defying our opponents by making Northern Ireland work for everyone," she said.

"Having secured a historic election victory, we cannot fall into the trap of complacency."We who are the innocent victims of Provisional IRA terrorism and who come from across the community, nationalist, unionist, Protestant and Roman Catholic, from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, are deeply hurt, offended and bewildered by the actions of you, Mayor de Blasio, who this year felt it appropriate to rename St Patricks Day Gerry Adams Day.

We are astounded at your level of naivety and callous disregard for the tens of thousands of innocent victims/survivors of PIRAs murderous terrorist campaign which spanned over four decades.

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The man you have lauded was the president of the provisional republican movement; he is effectively commander in chief of an organisation which brought misery to lives from across the community, across the island of Ireland and beyond.

Have you any understanding of the impact your actions have had upon those of us whose lives were devastated by the Provisional IRAs murderous actions?

Remember, this is the organisation which Mr Adams has provided political cover for, whose members he has carried coffins, and the organisation for which lead intelligence sources state Mr Adams was himself a member holding key leadership roles.

How would you and the citizens of your city respond to that?

Did the events of 9/11 not bring any sense of perspective to you and others about the evils of terrorism and the brutal aftermath and devastation caused?

You were extremely public with your recent actions concerning Gerry Adams, why now are you unprepared to be equally as public with your defence of these actions?

Saint Patrick was a man of God who came to Ireland to provide Christian witness, his life had worth and meaning  to suggest that Gerry Adams could somehow step into St Patricks shoes is an insult beyond words.

Mayor de Blasio, please understand that Gerry Adams was one of the principal policymakers within the republican movement which brought death and destruction, not only to the people of the island of Ireland, but also Great Britain, mainland Europe, and their terror was then exported to Colombia, Palestine, Spain and many other nations  the Provisional IRA are the genesis for so much violence across our world.

Elements within your nation provided political backing and justification for that campaign of terrorism, your nation made available armaments to sustain that campaign and your citizens provided financial backing through supporting organisations such as Noraid, etc.

Instead of lauding the republican movements terror campaign we would call upon the US State to account for its past actions in these matters.

Terrorism is terrorism is terrorism; you cant call it that on your home soil and then justify or excuse it when its carried out on others soil.

A public apology is needed from you and a withdrawal of your comments last week; we also request an urgent meeting with you to more fully discuss these matters.

Yours, The innocent victims of PIRA TerrorismDavid Davis said his government would defend the Good Friday Agreement "at all costs" as he gave a live TV interview with a sick bucket beside him.

Having reportedly vomited just before he went on the Andrew Marr Show yesterday, the Brexit Secretary was also seen with a glass of water and a box of tissues just in case of further bouts of illness.

Despite being unwell with food poisoning, Mr Davis, got through a discussion that focused on the border after Brexit.

Tom Newton Dunn, The Sun's political editor, hailed the minister's "extreme heroics".

On the show, Mr Davis said it was "incredibly probable" that the UK would reach a final deal with the EU, but said "you can never stop making arrangements" if a deal is not reached.

He likened the issue to having insurance, saying: "You don't expect your house to burn down, it's less than a one in 100,000 chance, but you have house insurance anyway."

The EU withdrawal deal includes a fallback option of Northern Ireland effectively continuing to remain in the customs union, but Mr Davis said either the UK-EU trade deal or new technology could prevent that.

When challenged that there were no other borders of that kind in the world, Mr Davis said: "We have got a whole load of new technology now."

He added: "There are ways to do this, you can't just say 'we haven't done it anywhere else', we haven't attempted to do it anywhere else."

He added: "We will not allow a return to the borders of the past, we will preserve - at all costs - the Belfast Agreement."

"There is a risk in trying to focus just on the downsides because the real likely outcome - the overwhelmingly likely outcome - is option A," Mr Davis said. "Option A is that we get a free-trade agreement, we get a customs agreement, all of those make the Northern Ireland issue much, much easier to solve."A former Boyzone star has told a court of his life with his crazy ex-girlfriend before she allegedly murdered her French nanny.

Mark Walton, who created the Irish boy band in 1993, flew in from Los Angeles to give evidence at the Old Bailey trial of fashion designer Sabrina Kouider.

The 35-year-old mother and her partner Ouissem Medouni, 40, are accused of murdering au pair Sophie Lionnet and throwing her body on a bonfire at their home in Wimbledon, south west London.

The couple had allegedly tortured the shy 21-year-old into confessing to being in league with Mr Walton.

A witness, who cannot be identified, described how she screamed and splashed in the bath as Kouider demanded she told the truth two days before her body was found.

Mr Walton said the first he knew of Miss Lionnet was when murder squad detectives contacted him in September last year.

He said Kouider had been abusive and exhibited a manipulative and controlling nature with a calculating streak.

He had previously described her as a really gentle, sweet, loving person who could become quite scary in seconds.

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He told jurors: Sabrina shared some stories from her past.

I guess knowing that, I felt it brought us closer together at times, but it was turbulent, probably the most turbulent relationship I had ever been in.

She would go from softly spoken French accent then she would flip, get very angry, very loud and just not care where we were.

She would just go crazy over something trivial.

The wealthy music mogul supported her financially through the highs and lows of his successful career.

After leaving Boyzone, he found success with Fifth Avenue and more recently as a judge on Vietnam Pop Idol.

The softly-spoken Irishman said he met Kouider in a NatWest bank in Notting Hill in 2011 and hit it off straight away.

He said: I was in love. She was my life then so

He gave her thousands of pounds a month, paid for nannies and even covered 12,800 in rent after she had left him, the court heard.

Kouider fired her nannies, accusing them of stealing or being attracted to her friendly boyfriend, the court heard.

The musician said they lived together for two years in Queensway, London, before she disappeared and they split up.

On Kouiders outlandish accusations of a conspiracy between Mr Walton and the victim, prosecutor Richard Horwell QC said: Have you ever been party to a plot to drug the people in the Wimbledon flat and whilst unconscious sexually abuse the occupants?

Mr Walton said: Absolutely not.

Orlando Pownall QC, for Medouni, said: You must have asked yourself many times where did it go wrong?

While they were together, Kouider would fly into a rage, even shouting in Oxford Street the Boyzones broken  hes got no money as they shopped together, the court was told.

In 2012, police had been called a number of times over various accusations, including that he had photos of another woman on his phone, jurors heard.

Her complaints ranged for mistreating a cat, walking into the house with muddy shoes and stopping her from seeing friends.

After Mr Walton stopped paying her rent in 2014, she took out a non-molestation order claiming harassment, the court heard.

She also rang his mother in Dublin, contacted his business partners and created a fake Facebook page accusing him of being a paedophile, he said.

Mr Walton told jurors: I was broken, emotionally broken but I loved her.

Icah Peart QC, for Kouider, suggested Mr Walton was a very wealthy man, even being described as a billionaire in one media report.

Mr Walton denied he was that rich, but added: Im doing okay.

The court has heard there is no truth in any of the accusations against him.

Kouider and Medouni have admitted perverting the course of justice but deny murder.The memorial service for the 61 victims of the Tuskar Rock air crash 50 years ago

Northern Ireland TV presenter Sarah Travers has paid tribute to her late uncle, who died in the Tuskar Rock air tragedy 50 years ago.

Still remembered as Ireland's worst domestic air tragedy, 61 people lost their lives on March 24, 1968, when the Aer Lingus flight 712 mysteriously crashed into the sea off the Wexford Coast minutes after leaving Cork Airport.

At Rosslare harbour on Saturday, 90 relatives boarded the Irish naval vessel LE Eithne to lead a flotilla of ships to the crash site near Tuskar Rock. Sharing the experience on social media, Ms Travers said: "Extremely moving memorial service today to remember those who perished 50 years ago today in the Tuskar Rock air disaster; 61 people lost their lives in the Aer Lingus crash off the Wexford coast including my mum's brother, Rory Delaney.

"He was just 22 when he died. His body, along with so many, never found."

She added: "Mum and her twin brother Michael finally got to visit the crash site today thanks to the Irish Navy and the kind people of Rosslare. Rest in peace Rory."

During the service, relatives cast wreaths into the water at 12.15pm to mark the time of the crash. There were no survivors and only 14 bodies were ever recovered from the crash site.

The only warning air traffic controllers received prior to the incident was a brief, garbled message from the flight crew that the plane was at 12,000ft and was spinning and descending rapidly.

Jerome McCormack lost his brother Niall in the tragedy. He said he remains convinced there has been a cover-up about the true cause of the tragedy.

"I need information and not commemoration," he said. "I am not saying that in a snide way at all, I applaud the people in Rosslare and Cork, and I thank them for everything they have done."

Mr McCormack said he believes a wayward missile brought down the Vickers Viscount aircraft. French and Australian experts ruled this out in a 2002 report along with the possibility of a collision with another aircraft.

They concluded the crash may have been caused by structural failure, corrosion, metal fatigue, 'flutter' or even a bird strike.

Eleanor Laffan, who lost her mother and a sister in the tragedy, told broadcaster RTE aboard the Irish Navy vessel on Saturday that it changed her life forever.

"It never went away. There's not a day goes by I don't think of my mum or my sister, they never left me. What I'd love to know today is what happened, to give us closure," she said.A Ukrainian national has been charged with murder after a 21-year-old man was stabbed to death at an east London shopping centre.

Vladyslav Yakymchuck, 22, of no fixed abode, was arrested on Saturday and charged on Sunday night following the incident at the Stratford Centre on March 21.

While formal identification is yet to take place, detectives believe the victim is Beniamin Pieknyi, from Milton Keynes. His next of kin have been informed.

Yakymchuck has been also been charged with three counts of robbery, one count of theft and one count of possession of a bladed article.

Scotland Yard said he had been remanded in custody ahead of an appearance at Thames Magistrates Court on a future date.Ireland has one of the lowest forest coverage levels in Europe (Anna Gowthorpe/PA)

Irish missionaries are spearheading a bid to plant a million trees as part of the re-greening of one of Africas most parched regions.

The Republic has been invited by the United Nations to take a leadership role in helping deliver the Great Green Wall and combat desertification in a massive swathe of land south of the Sahara known as the Sahel.

The Laudato Tree Project, run by the Society of African Missions (SMA), hopes to create a lasting legacy from the Popes visit to Ireland this August.

Irish President Michael D Higgins is expected to deliver a major speech on the issue of desertification and the countrys response in Dublin on Monday.

Expand Close Don Mullan, spokesman for the Society of African Missions, which runs The Laudato Tree Project (PA) Press Association Images / Facebook

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Don Mullan, a spokesman for the Society of African Missions (SMA), said: As the emerald island, Africas Great Green Wall gives Ireland an opportunity to establish a new beginning and demonstrate a new commitment to achieving promises made during the Paris Accord.

Africas green wall, when completed, will span 13 countries. It will measure 8,000km long (4,970 miles) and 15km wide (nine miles).

The UNs proposal would also involve schools, parishes and community groups in planting trees in Ireland, increasing biodiversity and contributing to atmospheric improvement.

Mr Mullan added: We will be asking the Government to consider matching every tree we plant in Ireland with 5-10 along the Great Green Wall.

The project takes its name from a 2015 papal encyclical by Pope Francis, Laudato Si, on caring for the environment, and is intended to be a visible expression of the encyclicals intervention.

The Pontiff is visiting Ireland this summer as part of the World Meeting of Families in Dublin.

Mr Mullan said: We are hoping that this will become a legacy project for the World Meeting of Families with the hope that the groups coming will bring the idea of the Laudato Tree Project back to their respective countries with the intention of increasing biodiversity at home while championing the cause of Africas Great Green Wall.

We are hoping this might become a world movement in support of Africa.

The executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Monique Barbut, will meet the President and members of the Government this week.

Mr Mullan added: The UN have put forward a major proposal to Ireland in terms of taking a leadership role in Europe and the international stage in helping progress, develop and accomplish the Great Green Wall.

He said: Unlike the wall proposed along the US-Mexican border, this is a wall the whole world can believe in.

It is about combating global warming and helping to provide food, jobs and a future for the millions of people who live in a region that is on the frontline of climate change.

Ireland has one of the lowest forest coverage levels in Europe and Mr Mullan said that needed to be increased to promote biodiversity and as a statement of intent that Ireland is serious about meeting its greenhouse targets and delivering on commitments made during the Paris Accord.

He and his colleagues are pressing for Government support as a way of redressing perceived shortcomings surrounding green energy use.

A range of views have been expressed about whether Ireland is on track to meet its 2020 renewable energy targets.

Irish government chief whip Joe McHugh is to co-ordinate a high-level ministerial meeting this week in Dublin with those behind the plan.

He said: This is a hugely ambitious project and when you think about it, its exactly the type of global response thats needed to tackle climate change.

Ive seen the impact on rural communities in Africa and at the heart of it its about protecting life and preserving livelihoods and communities in some of the hardest hit parts of the planet.

Its time to open our hearts and minds to big ideas like this.Protesters have held a rally in Edinburgh to show their support for a former member of Catalonias regional government facing extradition to Spain.

Clara Ponsati, the ex-Catalan education minister, is expected to hand herself in to police in Scotland later this week.

Her lawyer has said she will oppose the political prosecution after a European arrest warrant was issued for her.

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A Spanish judge issued arrest warrants on Friday for Ms Ponsati and other fugitive politicians including Catalonias ex-leader Carles Puigdemont, now detained by German police.

Around 60 people congregated outside the Consulate of Spain in Edinburgh on Monday to demonstrate against the arrest warrant for Ms Ponsati and criticise the actions of the Spanish Government.

Speaking during the rally, David Aguirre said: I think that the moment that Europe has people in prison only because of their ideas, its a moment where everybody  no matter what are your beliefs  should be protesting against that.

The 32-year-old, from Barcelona and living in Edinburgh, called for all of the arrest warrants to be dropped.

Pat Lee, 54, co-convener of Solidarity, said the protesters were demanding that the democratic rights of the Catalonian people should be observed.

He said: The Catalonia government in exile was democratically elected. It is Europes shame that they are not standing up for the democracy that they claim to represent.

What the Spanish Government are now doing is dictatorial. This is an affront to justice, its an affront to democracy and it should stop.

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Ewan Hunter, 43, from Linlithgow, said: The people of Scotland are entirely behind her (Ms Ponsati), in fact every democrat round the world should be behind her. Its simply an affront to the concept of democracy.

Ms Ponsati returned to Scotland earlier this month, having been in Belgium since fleeing Spain with Mr Puigdemont and three other former cabinet members following an unsuccessful bid to declare independence from Spain in October.

She posted on social media she had resumed working at the University of St Andrews in Fife.

Her lawyer Aamer Anwar said he will oppose her extradition to Spain under the arrest warrant.

Mr Anwar said following discussions with Police Scotland and the Crown Office, arrangements would be made for Ms Ponsati to voluntarily attend a police station this week then appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Bail would be applied for and a full hearing on the extradition request is expected to follow several weeks later.

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Whatsapp Demonstrators outside the Spanish Consulate in Edinburgh protest against the extradition (Jane Barlow/PA)

In a statement, Mr Anwar said: I am instructed to oppose the extradition on the basis that this is a political prosecution of Clara and a systematic attempt to criminalise the desire for independence by more than two million voters in Catalonia.

She faces charges of rebellion with violence against the unity of the Spanish nation, but along with other politicians she promoted a peaceful referendum to express a democratic desire for independence from Spain. This offence is punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment.

We will submit there are there are no guarantees of due process in Spain, of a right to a fair trial in a country where most members of the Catalan Government are already in prison or in exile.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has written to the Spanish Ambassador in London requesting a meeting on the issue as a matter of urgency.

His letter states: It is deeply disappointing that as part of this pursuit of pro-Catalan independence politicians a former minister, who is a respected academic in Scotland, now faces charges of rebellion  a charge which is not recognised in Scots law.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the Scottish Government supports the right of the people of Catalonia to determine their own future and that we strongly oppose the Spanish Governments decision to seek the arrest and imprisonment of independence supporting politicians.

Professor Sally Mapstone, the principal and vice chancellor of St Andrews University, said staff there were deeply concerned by what was happening.A youth jail manager has criticised the BBC, claiming he is on the verge of bankruptcy after being sacked when allegations of abuse at a scandal-hit G4S-run youth jail surfaced in a Bafta-winning Panorama programme.

Matthew Cunningham spoke out after being cleared of any wrong-doing following a two-month trial.

The 37-year-old was one of four men charged with misconduct in a public office after being accused of threatening and assaulting children at the Medway Secure Training Centre in Rochester, Kent, in 2015.

Footage secretly filmed by undercover reporter Robert Padmore, who managed to get a job at the centre, was broadcast on the Panorama programme and prompted a police investigation.

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But the trial of team leaders Mr Cunningham, Anthony Dance, 28, Gareth Evans, 27, and duty operations manager Christopher Lomax, 36, collapsed after the jury failed to reach verdicts on two counts and found the defendants not guilty on all other charges.

The verdicts were returned at Maidstone Crown Court on March 9, but the news could not be published until Monday afternoon when reporting restrictions were overturned and prosecutors confirmed there would not be a re-trial.

The jury were unable to reach a verdict on accusations Mr Cunningham, of Gillingham, Kent, assaulted and threatened trainees between February 1 and December 30, 2015 so Judge Jeremy Carey entered a formal verdict of not guilty.

I liked my job, I had been there eight years and I did nothing wrong Medway manager Matthew Cunningham

Speaking to the Press Association, married father Mr Cunningham said: The show was broadcast and the next day I was fired without any notice, and arrested the day after that.

Ive not been able to get a job, Im on the verge of bankruptcy. Ive had depression and anxiety since.

I liked my job, I had been there eight years and I did nothing wrong.

He accused the BBC of shocking editing and claimed the programme lacked facts or context.

He said he is considering legal action and accused G4S of treating him unfairly but wants to move on with his life.

Mr Padmore told the trial he saw staff assault teenagers and use unnecessary force to restrain them during his 39 shifts as a training centre assistant at the youth jail.

He was arrested in December on his return to the UK from Australia after the CPS applied for a warrant because it was feared he would not voluntarily comply with a witness summons to attend the trial and give evidence.

But when he did attend and gave a fulsome apology, he was not pursued for contempt of court, a Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman said.

Some of the alleged incidents were not filmed and were based on testimony from trainees  the term used to describe children at the youth jail.

Barristers defending the four argued other incidents did not constitute serious misconduct.

Mr Dance, of Hailsham, East Sussex, was acquitted of misreporting an incident at the centre in official paperwork and the jury was unable to reach a verdict on allegations that he assaulted and threatened inmates between October 1 and December 30, 2015 so a formal not guilty verdict was entered.

Mr Evans, of Rochester, was cleared of assaulting and threatening two inmates on October 22, 2015.

Duty operations manager Mr Lomax, of Chatham, Kent, was acquitted of assaulting and threatening a trainee on October 22 and November 5, 2015.

Judge Carey said it was important to emphasise the 30-minute Panorama programme was not relied on by the prosecution as evidence, adding: It was a very difficult and sensitive case.

Awarding commendations to the police officers in the case, he added the allegations were investigated thoroughly to the highest standard.

A BBC spokeswoman stood by the allegations made in the programme, adding: There is a serious case review underway, prompted by our investigation, looking at the lessons to be learned. That would not have happened without BBC Panoramas investigation and our undercover reporters work and we remain committed to investigative journalism.

In January 2016 it emerged seven members of staff were suspended amid the allegations and four were sacked.

Paul Cook, the companys managing director of childrens services, apologised and said he was appalled by the Panorama footage. The director of the youth centre, Ralph Marchant, quit over the scandal.

In May that year, the Government announced it would take over the running of the facility.

By September, eight staff were charged including Mr Dance, Mr Lomax, Mr Cunningham and Mr Evans.

Two others were cleared last year after it was found there was insufficient evidence against them and another case was thrown out in 2016.

The facility, now run by HM Prison and Probation Service, can accommodate around 70 children aged 12 to 17 who have been remanded in custody while awaiting trial or have been given a custodial sentence on conviction.

G4S  which held the contract to run Medway Secure Training Centre from 1998 to 2016  has been contacted for comment.The French police officer who swapped himself for a female supermarket employee being held hostage had already received a lifetime of accolades by the time he walked unarmed into the store under attack by an extremist gunman.

Known for his courage and sangfroid in life, Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame has been hailed as a national hero after his death from wounds sustained in Friday's incident.

After agreeing to the hostage swap, Mr Beltrame surrendered his weapon, but kept his mobile phone on, allowing authorities outside the Super U store in the southern French town of Trebes to hear what was happening inside.

Thanks to his quick thinking, special police units heard gunshots inside the supermarket and stormed the building immediately, killing the attacker.

Yesterday, a special church service was held to honour the heroic police officer and three other people killed in the gun attack.

The bishop of the nearby medieval city of Carcassonne, Alain Planet, led the memorial Mass at the Saint-Etienne-de-Trebes church in the town of Trebes.

Residents have been laying flowers in front of the Trebes supermarket where the attacker seized hostages on Friday.

"Beyond his job, he gave his life for someone else, for a stranger," Mr Beltrame's brother, Cedric, told RTL radio in France.

"He was well aware he had almost no chance. He was very aware of what he was doing... if we don't describe him as a hero, I don't know what you need to do to be a hero."

President Emmanuel Macron, who has ordered a national memorial for Mr Beltrame, said: "Arnaud Beltrame died in the service of the nation to which he had already given so much.

"In giving his life to end the deadly plan of a jihadi terrorist, he fell as a hero."

The hostage whose life he saved, an employee named Julie, was in a "catastrophic state", her manager said.

A highly experienced police officer, Mr Beltrame responded to Friday's attack in Trebes, a 15-minute drive from the gendarme unit he had led since last August.

He joined France's elite police special forces in 2003 and served in Iraq in 2005.

A former member of the presidential guard, he earned one of France's highest honours, the Order of Merit, in 2012.

In December, Mr Beltrame organised a counter-terrorism training session for just such a hostage situation, which was also centred on a supermarket.

At the time, he armed his officers with paintball guns, according to the Depeche du Midi newspaper.

"We want to be as close to real conditions as possible," he said then.

In addition to the four people killed by the gunman on Friday, 15 others were injured.

Investigators searched the home of the attacker, Moroccan-born Redouane Lakdim (25) and found what a judicial official said were notes "that alluded to the Islamic State and appeared like a last testament".

They also recovered a computer and a phone.

Inside the supermarket itself, investigators found three homemade explosive devices, a handgun and a hunting knife, the official added.

The weapons suggested an intent to do further damage.

Across the Atlantic, US President Donald Trump tweeted, "We are with you @EmmanuelMacron!" and he condemned "the violent actions of the attacker and anyone who would provide him support".

French police and soldiers have been a prime target of attacks by jihadi extremists, with 10 killed in recent years, including Mr Beltrame. Dozens of others have been wounded.

Mr Beltrame's mother told RTL radio that, for her son, "to defend the homeland" was "his reason to live".

"He would have said to me, 'I'm doing my job, Mom, nothing more'," she said.The scene after a car bomb explosion near the parliament building in Mogadishu (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

A car bomb exploded near Somalias parliament in the capital, Mogadishu, killing at least four people along with the driver, and injuring several others.

A huge cloud of smoke could be seen billowing over the area dotted with security checkpoints erected along a road leading to the presidential palace, whose main gate is just 200 yards from the blast site.

The checkpoint is also close to the interior ministry.

The car bomb was detonated at a checkpoint after soldiers intercepted and stopped a suspicious vehicle, senior police Captain Mohamed Hussein told The Associated Press.

The dead included two soldiers, he said, while many of the nearly 10 people wounded are rickshaw drivers.

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Extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility, saying it killed 13 presidential guards. However, the group often exaggerates its claims of the number of casualties.

A few hours earlier, another car bomb outside the capital killed one person plus the driver, police said.

Officer Mohamed Abdi told the AP that the explosion occurred after soldiers arrived at the scene to inspect the suspicious car which had become stuck on a sandy road in the Sinka Dheer area.

The car bombings come three days after at least 14 people were killed and 10 others wounded in a car bomb blast near the Weheliye hotel on the busy Makka Almukarramah road.

Mogadishu is often a target of attacks by the Somalia-based al-Shabab, the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa.

A truck bombing in October killed 512 people in the countrys deadliest-ever attack. Only a few attacks since 9/11 have killed more people.

The Horn of Africa nation continues to struggle to counter the Islamic extremist group.

Concerns have been high over plans to hand over the countrys security to Somalias own forces as a 21,000-strong African Union force begins a withdrawal that is expected to be complete in 2020.

The US military, which has stepped up efforts against al-Shabab in the past year with dozens of drone strikes, has said Somali forces are not yet ready.A Russian flag flies outside the Embassy of the Russian Federation to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario (AP)

The United States and more than a dozen European nations have kicked out Russian diplomats, with the Russian consulate in Seattle ordered closed, as the West punished Moscows alleged role in the poisoning of an ex-spy in the UK.

Warning of an unacceptably high number of Russian spies in the US, the Trump administration said 60 diplomats would be expelled  all said to be Russian intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover.

The group includes a dozen posted to Russias mission to the United Nations who were engaged in aggressive collection of intelligence on American soil, officials said.

Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, remain in a critical condition after they were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury on March 4.

The move is one of the most significant actions Donald Trumps administration has taken to date to punish Moscow and Russian president Vladimir Putin, especially over its intelligence activities.

The last time they spoke, less than a week ago, Mr Trump congratulated Mr Putin for his re-election but did not raise the March 4 spy poisoning, Russias alleged election-meddling in the US or its own tainted voting process, prompting dismayed critiques even from Mr Trumps fellow Republicans.

Today 14 EU Member States decided to expel Russian diplomats as direct follow-up to #EUCO discussion last week on #SalisburyAttack. Additional measures including further expulsions are not excluded in coming days, weeks.  Charles Michel (@eucopresident) March 26, 2018

This is the largest expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in United States history, said US ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman.

The American penalties were echoed by announcements in European capitals across the continent, including those in Russias backyard. All told, 18 countries are ousting more than 100 Russian spies, in addition to 23 already kicked out by the UK.

The list included at least 16 European Union nations, with more likely to follow. Germany, Poland and France each planned to remove four, the Czech Republic three and Italy two. Ukraine, a non-EU country with its own conflicts with Moscow, is expelling 13 Russians, President Petro Poroshenko said. All three Baltic states said they would kick diplomats out. Canada, too, said it was taking action, kicking out four and denying three who have applied to enter the country.

Almost all of the countries said publicly that the Russian diplomats they were expelling were actually spies.

The expulsions led to a chorus of condemnation for the Kremlin  for the poisoning, Russian spying and other Western grievances. Polands foreign minister Jacek Czaputowicz called it the right response to the unfriendly, aggressive actions of Russia.

In the Czech Republic, where Russian officials have claimed the poison may have originated, Prime Minister Andrej Babis dismissed that allegation as an utter lie.

US administration ordered the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle @GK_Seattle. What US Consulate General would you close in @Russia, if it was up to you to decide  Russian Embassy in USA  (@RusEmbUSA) March 26, 2018

Russias embassy in Washington responded to the decisions on Twitter by hinting at retaliation, asking its followers to vote on which US consulate should be closed: St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok.

Russias Consulate General in Seattle must close by April 2. The facility is a particular counter-intelligence concern to the US because of its proximity to a US Navy base, senior US officials said.

US ambassador Nikki Haley, Mr Trumps envoy to the UN, said: The United States and many of our friends are sending a clear message that we will not stand for Russias misconduct.The first song from the choir last Wednesday at the "Service of Celebration and Thanksgiving" for IRA-murderer-turned-Garda-agent Sean O'Callaghan, was 'Soldiers of '22' - an impassioned tribute to the losers in the Irish civil war.

It was written in 1962, not long before his death, by Brian O'Higgins, a veteran of the Easter Rising and civil war, a devout Catholic, and an utterly uncompromising republican propagandist who despised the Free State and its "partition and usurping parliament".

Full of the rousing, near-blasphemous, rhetoric that sanctifies murder in the name of Irish republicanism by eulogising the killers and ignoring their victims, like most rebel songs it longs for the next generation to follow in its violent footsteps.

'They were true to our right, they fought the fight,/And they rest in the peace of God./Lift up your hearts, O, brave young men,/And march in the ways they trod!'

With support from Sean's family and friends, the writer Douglas Murray and I were the organisers of Sean's service, which in his will he had asked should be in his neighbouring church, the beautiful 18th-century St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square.

It was with some trepidation that we explained to Sam Wells, the Anglican vicar, why we wanted the 'Soldiers of '22'.

The idea, we explained, was to have a service that told the whole unvarnished truth about Sean, the idealistic Kerry lad who went north to fight in what he thought was an anti-imperialist war of resistance against British occupiers, murdered for a cause he came to despise, and atoned by spending the rest of his life doing everything he could to damage violent Irish republicanism and, later, gang culture and Islamism.

In the words of the last song of the service, Leonard Cohen's 'Anthem', he had faced what he was involved in and realised: 'I can't run no more/With that lawless crowd/While the killers in high places/Say their prayers out loud/But they've summoned, they've summoned up/A thundercloud/And they're going to hear from me.'

As indeed they certainly did.

The Vicar got the point immediately, as did Andrew Earis, Director of Music, and both met that and other challenges brilliantly and with relish.

The hymns included 'Amazing Grace' ('how sweet the sound,/that saved a wretch; like me!/I once was lost, but now am found,/was blind, but now I see') and 'He who would valiant be' ('I'll fear not what men say/I'll labour night and day/to be a pilgrim').

Sean was much-loved and everyone we asked to speak or give a reading accepted immediately.

The Marquess of Salisbury, whom I had put in touch with Sean in the mid-1990s when he was in jail for crimes he did not need to confess to, and who became a close friend, spoke of a remarkable man who was an Irish patriot and also a good, tough, not uncritical, friend of the United Kingdom.

David Trimble read a passage from the New Testament in which Jesus told the apostles that they would be "hated by all because of my name", which, of course, was a reference to Sean's decision to become an informer, knowing he would be reviled for it in his own country.

They were just two of several speakers who addressed about 300 people, including Arlene Foster, Colonel Tim Collins, Home Office Minister Ben Wallace and a representative of the Irish state, along with ex-RUC and UDR friends, fellow members of AA, and admirers and innumerable friends of all ages, several nationalities and religions and a vast range of occupations. Sean lived all his adult life with deep remorse for murdering Greenfinch Eva Martin and Inspector Peter Flanagan, who were prayed for at the service.

"Make of Sean's life an example that draws out the best in our own lives, and inspires us to seek truth and integrity," prayed the Vicar.

"At his memorial service every word spoken and sung was affectingly poignant," he wrote later.

Various leaders were gathered "to respect a man who had the courage, dignity and humility to change his mind".

Before the joyous bells, Leonard Cohen's words sang again with a powerful metaphor: 'Ring the bells that still can ring/Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack, a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)/That's how the light gets in.'Since the BBC Spotlight documentary on the late paedophile priest, Fr Malachy Finegan, was broadcast in February, a number of people have stepped forward to detail their traumatic experiences at his hands.

The most prominent so far has been Conor Murphy, one time IRA prisoner, Sinn Fein MLA for Newry and Armagh, and a man who, until Michelle O'Neill's unexpected ascension to the iron throne, was widely tipped to be Martin McGuinness's successor as party leader at Stormont.

He's revealed that he came under the attentions of Fr Finegan when he was a pupil at St Colman's College in Newry in the late 1970s, when the priest burst into the classroom to break up a "ruckus".

"He singled me out," Murphy revealed. "He dragged me out by the hair, by the crown of your head, dragged me along the corridor, up two flights of stairs into his room and then he beat me with a stick on the hands and about the body."

Many who went to schools run by Catholic religious orders have similar memories of physical punishments that went far beyond acceptable discipline. How those nuns and priests dared call themselves Christians is an unfathomable enigma.

Murphy, who believes that Fr Finegan also tried to groom him for sexual abuse, has now called, rightly, for a full investigation into the late priest's activities. The former MP should be commended for speaking out. Whilst Murphy readily admits that other boys in the school suffered far more greatly than he did, and that his experience "pales into insignificance" beside those who were sexually abused, everyone who was a victim of this monster priest deserves sympathy and support.

That doesn't mean, however, that questions cannot be asked about Conor Murphy's attitude to other victims of violence and abuse. One of which is why he still won't meet with the mother of Paul Quinn more than 10 years after her son was beaten to death by the IRA.

After being lured to a farm in Co Monaghan, 21-year-old Quinn was set upon by up to a dozen men who beat him for half an hour with iron and nail-studded bars, breaking every major bone in his body, in punishment for having a "run in" with the son of a local IRA bigwig.

He was taken to hospital, but it was too late to save him. Doctors reportedly told his mother, Breege, that "they left nothing for us to fix".

She's asked repeatedly for a meeting with Sinn Fein, including Conor Murphy, who was Paul's MP at the time of his murder in 2007, but all requests have been refused. Murphy says that he spoke to the IRA and is satisfied, despite all the evidence, that they did not commit this murder. As recently as last year, Breege said of Murphy: "He has serious questions to answer, but he is getting away with saying nothing."

Conor Murphy's beating at the hands of Fr Finegan happened four decades ago, and he still remembers it vividly. That's how trauma works. It ingrains itself into one's psyche. But should his own experience of brutality at the hands of Fr Finegan not make Conor Murphy more compassionate towards those who have endured a similar ordeal, or, in Paul Quinn's case, immeasurably worse?

The SF man's supporters will call it a cheap shot to even ask such a question, insisting that Murphy should be treated in the terrible and still unfolding history of Fr Finegan's repulsive sadism as an ordinary victim rather than a senior political representative; but that category of victims also includes Paul Quinn, and others who were targeted for violent reprisal by the IRA, and having suffered violence oneself shouldn't grant anyone a free pass from a moral duty to help their families find closure.

One can only hope that Conor Murphy's revelations about what happened to him will finally force republicans to realise, after years of denial, the parallels between the Catholic church and their own organisation when it comes to the handling of abuse allegations.

Both the church and the IRA treated victims in exactly the same way. Both cared more about protecting the institution than punishing perpetrators. Both preferred to operate under a shadowy cloak of secrecy, in which terrified victims were sworn to silence.

When matters reached a point where the abuse going on in the ranks could no longer be ignored, the response from the church and the IRA alike was invariably to shuffle deviants off to new jurisdictions, where they continued their abuse.

The IRA man who raped Co Louth man Paudie McGahon when he was only 17 years old was sent to a safe house in Dublin, where, an internal republican investigation subsequently found, he raped another 12 year old boy, as well as two more teenagers in Derry. Nothing was done because he was well connected in west Belfast. If the church is guilty of covering up for physical and sexual abusers such as Fr Finegan, and it manifestly is, then so is the republican movement.

Conor Murphy now says that he's angry because no one stopped Fr Finegan, despite his activities being well known. He must surely see the irony in his own words. When Brendan Curran, a former Irish Army-trained sniper who was jailed in 1973 for the attempted murder of a British soldier, stepped down from Newry and Mourne District Council in 2015, two years after leaving Sinn Fein amid claims that he'd been subjected to "isolation and bullying", he used his resignation speech to reveal that he had personally raised the issue of one particular abusive cleric with republican leaders.

"This priest is dead now," Curran revealed, "but he was in every school in the Newry area for years and abused children in every one of them. People have been coming forward I raised it with the republican movement 10 years ago and was told to drop it."

The party responded to the bombshell in its usual emotionless way, insisting that "Sinn Fein has no knowledge whatsoever of the claims being made by Mr Curran." In light of subsequent developments, that assertion looks dubious, to say the very least.

Conor Murphy has opened up now about his experiences in order, as he put it, "to encourage others (to come forward) and to say that we believe those who say they were sexually abused".

After what happened to Paudie McGahon and Mairia Cahill when they dared to reveal their experiences of abuse at the hands of the IRA and its kangaroo courts, Irish republicans have a long way to go before they can expect to be taken seriously on this issue.The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme has launched in Northern Ireland, and not a day too soon. While it won't be a magic wand to wipe out domestic violence, it will do one key thing - give people information about serial perpetrators.

Over the last 40 years, Women's Aid has supported woman after woman whose lives have been destroyed by the same abusive men. Abusers who move from one woman to another with impunity - they are well known to police, social services and support services like us, yet they have never been convicted of a crime. Once their current victim gathers the strength to leave the relationship, they simply move on in search of the next victim.

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This scheme, commonly known as Clare's Law, will allow people to ask police if their partner has a history of domestic violence. Not just whether they have a criminal conviction, but also whether the PSNI has any intelligence about them being a domestic violence perpetrator in the past.

The value of such a disclosure cannot be underestimated. Domestic violence is all about power and control, and one way perpetrators control their victims is to convince them that the abuse is all in their head. For victims, having official confirmation from the PSNI that their partner has a history of domestic abuse may give them the proof they need to know they're being abused and to leave.

When the Department of Justice consulted on the scheme in 2016, I was tasked with asking women in our services what they thought about the idea. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Women told us that a disclosure may be the "wake-up call" that victims need to leave.

One woman told me: "My family had concerns but I was in so deep by that stage I wouldn't listen to them. Maybe if the police showed me evidence that he'd done this before it would have been different."

The scheme doesn't come without risks though. It will require the PSNI to work with experts like Women's Aid, Men's Advisory Project and the 24 Hour Domestic & Sexual Violence Helpline to ensure that support is in place for victims who ask for a disclosure. It's not enough to know about your partner's history, you also have to know how to leave safely. Two women per week are killed by a partner or former partner in the UK, and the most dangerous time is when they try to leave.

And not all abusers will have a history of violence - every abuser has to start somewhere. So it is crucial that anyone contacting police are signposted to support services as soon as they ask for a disclosure.

Our bottom line is this - whether or not you get a positive disclosure, trust your gut. If you think something isn't right, it probably isn't. And if that's the case, you have nothing to lose by picking up the phone and calling the free, confidential helpline on 0808 802 1414 to talk through your concerns. What you have to gain is much more significant - a life free from abuse, which is something we all deserve.

Louise Kennedy is Regional Policy and Information Co-ordinator with Women's Aid Federation NISuspected Malaysian militant Nik Muhamad Zaini Nik Hassan is led to the Johor Bahru court complex by a counter-terrorism officer after he was arrested on suspicion of planning to attack a house of worship, March 26, 2018.

Malaysian authorities filed charges Monday against two suspected Islamic State (IS) members, alleging they were planning to launch attacks on non-Muslim places of worship and other targets, including police stations.

Another suspected militant was charged in the southern state of Johor with possession of pro-IS videos in his mobile phone and tablet, officials said.

The three were part of a six-member terrorist cell arrested by Malaysian counter-terror officials in three separate raids since the end of February in the state, Malaysias Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement on Saturday.

Authorities did not name the places of worship in the charge sheet.

We cannot reveal the names of their targets, but I can confirm they were targeting a few police personnel and officers from Johor, Fuzi told reporters.

A suspected Filipino bomb maker with alleged ties to Furuji Indama, a leader of the pro-IS militant group Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines, also was arrested in the eastern state of Sabah this month, Fuzi said. Officials did not release the suspects name.

Abu Sayyaf militants are known for beheading hostages unless ransom payments are made. Last year, they beheaded a German captive in February and two Vietnamese sailors in July.

Charge sheet details

Officials alleged that Nik Muhamad Zaini Nik Hassan, 37, who works as a technician, and security guard Ismadi Md Nor (alias Ismail), 30, planned to launch an attack on a building in Johor Bahru, the capital of Johor.

If found guilty, the duo could face imprisonment of not more than seven years.

The third accused, Mohammad Zaki Ibrahim, 49, also a security guard, was charged with possessing video clips of IS activities in his mobile and tablet. He also faces a seven-year prison term, if found guilty.

The three men were not represented by a lawyer and, according to court officials, no pleas were recorded on Monday. They had planned to escape to an unnamed neighboring country upon successfully executing their planned attacks, Fuzi said.

The poorly secured seas separating Malaysia from the southern Philippines are a haven for pirates and terrorists, officials said. The two Southeast Asian nations began joint air patrols with Indonesia in October 2017 to bolster their trilateral maritime efforts aimed at ridding their shared borders of threats from IS extremists.

Fuzi said the terror cell allegedly planned on attacking police stations after Sundays national Police Day celebrations.

A source close to the investigation told BenarNews it was not the first time Malaysian authorities knew about plans of militants to attack and kill police personnel.

The Johor cell is considered dangerous as it has links to groups based in southern Thailand, the source also said.

Muslim-majority Malaysias top IS recruiter Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, who was killed in a drone attack last year in Syria, had called for IS members in Malaysia to launch attacks in the country against police personnel.

Plan to turn Borneo into haven for extremists

Fuzi told reporters on Saturday that the Filipino bomb maker had been planning to attack targets in Sabah in a bid to transform the Malaysian part of Borneo into a safe haven for the IS terrorists.

The suspect has links with Dr. Mahmud Ahmad, a Malaysian citizen who joined IS in the southern Philippines, Fuzi said. The suspect is also wanted by the Philippine authorities for his alleged involvement in series of attempted murders and kidnap-for-ransom activities.

Abu Sayyaf members, backed by Southeast Asian and other foreign militant fighters, joined forces last year to take over the southern Philippine city of Marawi, engaging Philippine security forces in five months of vicious gunbattles that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly militants.

The arrests bring to 389 the number of detained terrorism suspects as Malaysian authorities stepped up efforts to disrupt militancy during the past four years, according to a BenarNews tally confirmed by Fuzi on Sunday.

Malaysia, home to about 32 million people, including 19.5 million Muslims, is one of the most-developed economies in Southeast Asia. It has foiled at least nine IS-related bomb plots since 2013, according to officials.

Those foiled plots included one that targeted the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur in August 2017, police said. But in June 2016, IS-linked militants carried out a grenade attack at a nightclub in Puchong, near the capital Kuala Lumpur, injuring eight people.

Prime Minister Najib Razak on Sunday paid tribute to Malaysian police for keeping the country safe.

Up until today, I am grateful that none of Malaysian were killed in the country over an IS attack, Najib said in a speech. This is because of the effective police action.Tatsuo Fukuda (in suit), Japans parliamentary vice minister of defense, and Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana wave from one of three Beechcraft TC-90 patrol planes donated by Tokyo during a turnover ceremony in the southern Philippine province of Cavite, March 26, 2018.

Chinas continued expansion in the South China Sea remains a top security challenge for the Philippines, despite a marked improvement in bilateral ties, Manilas defense chief said Monday.

Beijing had no territorial rights in Scarborough Shoal, a triangular-shaped chain of reefs and rocks that falls within the Philippines exclusive economic zone, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a speech at a naval base south of Manila.

We must admit that much is still to be done to boost the countrys military capability and equipment in order to meet a number of persistent maritime security challenges, Lorenzana said at the turnover ceremony of three TC-90 patrol aircraft donated by Japan.

These challenges range from territorial disputes with China and other Southeast Asian nations over the ownership of resource-rich islands in the West Philippines Sea, to piracy, movement of armed insurgents in the Sulu Sea and other transnational crimes, he said, using the Philippine name for the South China Sea.

Lorenzana made the statement three days after Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano met Chinas new vice president, Wang Qishan, in Beijing when the Chinese official was quoted by the state broadcaster CCTV as saying that Beijing saw Manila as a good neighbor.

We should comprehensively implement the consensus of our two countries presidents, step up communication between our senior officials, deepen our pragmatic cooperation, deal with our disagreements appropriately to enhance our friendship, CCTV quoted Wang as saying.

China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea, including areas that reach the shores of its smaller neighbors. Parts of the sea region, through which about U.S. $5 trillion (261 trillion pesos) in trade passes annually, is claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.

In June 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines over China, saying there was no legal basis for Beijing to claim historical rights in the sea region.

The ruling was hailed internationally, but angered China, which responded by aggressively expanding and militarizing structures it had built in the region, despite earlier agreements to halt all construction activities.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who assumed power the same month as the ruling, made it a point to appease Beijing. He has since undertaken state visits to China and hosted Chinese leaders in Manilas presidential palace.

Lorenzana said the three Beechcraft King Air TC-90 aircraft could help the countrys maritime air surveillance and reconnaissance capability.

These aircraft will definitely boost the PNs (Philippine Navys) capability in providing humanitarian assistance and conducting disaster-relief operations, Lorenzana said.

He thanked Japans Ministry of Defense for amending its Self-Defense Force Act to allow the donations of excess military equipment to its partners.

He said the planes were to be placed on lease to Manila, but the defense departments of both countries later agreed to make the deal into grants in November.

Two weeks ago, the Philippines obtained its first of six sophisticated military-grade drones valued at $13.6 million (710 million pesos) from United States, as the two nations stepped up joint efforts to combat pro-Islamic State militants who are active in the southern Philippines.

The Scan Eagle UAS, which can stay in the air for more than 20 hours and have a maximum flight height of 10,000 feet, will provide surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to the local air forces intelligence wing, officials said.

Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this report.Children coming home from school in the northern Philippine city of Dagupan glance at a dead suspected drug pusher, one of the thousands of fatalities in President Rodrigo Dutertes war on drugs, October 2016.

Rights groups are being used by unnamed drug lords to destabilize the government, President Rodrigo Dutertes spokesman said Monday, days after the International Criminal Court said it would push ahead with a preliminary probe into thousands of killings under his anti-drugs war.

Criticisms of Dutertes government by rights groups have been vicious and non-stop, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.

We therefore do not discount the possibility that some human rights groups have become unwitting tools of drug lords to hinder the strides made by the administration, Roque said in a statement.

He said Dutertes anti-drugs war had led to the disruption of the multibillion-dollar industry, the arrest of tens of thousands of drug personalities and the closure of big clandestine drug laboratories.

To continue to do and thrive in the drug business, these drug lords can easily use their drug money to fund destabilization efforts against the government, he said.

Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, described Roques statement as shockingly dangerous and shameful.

Are they trying to have death squads target human rights activists? Adams said in a statement emailed to BenarNews.

Roque did not specify the names of drug lords or provide evidence to back his allegations about rights groups. Roque also did not return phone calls from BenarNews.

But Duterte was successful in vilifying a senator, Leila de Lima, the countrys former rights commissioner whom he had accused of protecting detained drug lords by allegedly allowing them to continue their business behind bars in exchange for millions in money that she had supposedly used to fund her successful senate campaign.

De Lima, the most vocal of Dutertes critics, has been in jail waiting for trial for more than a year. The justice department, however, has dismissed criminal charges against a self-confessed drug lord who had implicated the senator.

Psychiatric evaluation

Roques statement came just days after The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) said it would carry on with its preliminary examination into allegations of drug deaths under Dutertes war on drugs.

After initially welcoming the ICC probe, Duterte suddenly backtracked and claimed that the ICC had already prejudged him. He subsequently notified the body that his government was pulling out of the Rome Statute, an international treaty that created the court.

His aides also said that unnamed Duterte critics had weaponized human rights to undermine the government. They have yet to name these critics.

The ICC said it regretted the move, but noted that any withdrawal would only take effect a year a government has notified the United Nations.

Dutertes government has been antagonistic with international rights groups in recent weeks.

Early this month, the Department of Justice confirmed that it had included U.N. special rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz on a list of 600 people whom it wanted to categorize as terrorists. In response, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said Duterte needed to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation.

Rights groups say that since Duterte became president in June 2016, more than 12,000 people have died in the war on narcotics, including three teenagers whose deaths last year spurred widespread protests.

Amid the protests, Duterte temporarily pulled the police from the lead role in the drug war, only to reinstate them because, he said, their participation was necessary.

Government figures through February 2018 show that 4,043 people have died in encounters with police under Dutertes reign, according to a tally by BenarNews. Rights groups have, however, blame thousands of other unaccounted deaths on pro-government vigilantes.

Felipe Villamor contributed to this report from Manila.Natuzzis China JV official

China

Italian premium leather furniture manufacturer, Natuzzi, officially signed the joint venture agreement with Kuka on March 22.

The joint venture agreement is aimed at expanding the Natuzzis retail network in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. As previously reported by ILM, Natuzzi and Kuka will own a 49% and a 51% stake, respectively, in the joint venture, which will see the distribution of Natuzzi Italia and Natuzzi Editions branded products through a network of single-brand directly operated stores and franchised operated stores in the Chinese territory, as well as through online stores. Under the agreement, the wholly-owned Chinese subsidiary, Natuzzi Trading (Shanghai) becomes a joint venture.

Jason Furniture (Kuka) is one of the largest upholstery furniture manufacturers and retailers in China, with three major manufacturing bases in the country and more than 3,000 mono-brand stores in China and overseas.At least 76 people have died in Indian Kashmir since Jan. 1 in skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani troops or gun battles involving militants, making the first quarter of 2018 bloodier than the same period last year, according to government figures.

Along the Line of Control (LoC), the de-facto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, at least 13 security personnel and 15 civilians have been killed during frequent battles involving troops from the two countries.

Separately, at least 27 militants have been killed in gunfights in the region along with 15 security personnel and six civilians, according to government officials.

By comparison, 47 people were killed in military skirmishes and battles with militants during the first quarter of 2017, according to the officials.

Since India and Pakistan are both nuclear powers, they cannot take the escalating situation at border for granted. Dialogue is the only way forward, Noor Baba, a Srinagar-based political analyst, told BenarNews.

Meanwhile, Pakistan claims at least 24 security personnel and three civilians have been killed on its soil during Indian army attacks since Jan. 1, according to media reports.

In that same time frame, the Kashmir region has witnessed at least 185 violations of the 2003 ceasefire between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since 1947.

The first quarter of 2017 saw only 41 violations, according to the Indian Express.

Fragile

A New Delhi-based defense analyst who is a retired general blamed Pakistan for violating the ceasefire agreement and called on India to take a hard-line stance.

The situation at the border is going from bad to worse. Pakistan is a habitual offender of the ceasefire and India must enhance costs and consequences to silence that country, retired Maj. Gen. G.D. Bakshi told BenarNews.

Noor said international terror groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda can take advantage of conditions created by the spike in violence in the insurgency-ravaged Himalayan region.

Such terror groups have the tendency to take advantage of the fragile situation and gain ground in the region. The authorities cannot afford to ignore issues of IS flag-raising during anti-India protests and recent claims of the group to carry out a few attacks in the region, Noor said.

Photos emerged of IS flags wrapping the bodies of at least two militants killed in Kashmir in 2017. In February, local police for the first time acknowledged a marginal presence of the terror group after it claimed an attack that killed a policeman.

But Ajai Sahni, a New Delhi-based security analyst, challenged Noors view, saying the group was not likely to grow stronger in the region.

IS is struggling to survive in Iraq and Syria. The terror group cannot afford to make inroads in Kashmir, Sahni, executive director of Institute of Conflict Management, told BenarNews.Report covering more than 3500 respondents across 8 Indian cities highlights importance of focused stigma-reduction programmes in mental health initiatives

How India Perceives Mental Health, a report published by The Live Love Laugh Foundation (TLLLF) to gauge the public perception of mental health across 8 Indian cities has revealed that 87% of respondents associate mental illness with severe disorders (like schizophrenia and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and their symptoms. Illustrating the poor understanding of the broad spectrum of mental illness, respondents were unlikely to associate mental illness with symptoms of more common mental disorders such as anxiety, when describing people with mental illness.

The survey also revealed high prevalence of stigma with 47% of people using the word retard to describe people with mental illness. Further, 60% of respondents believe that people with mental illness should have their own groups to avoid contaminating healthy people and 68% believe that they should not be given any responsibility.60% believe that mental illness is caused by a lack of self-discipline and willpower.

The study has revealed three broad segments of people based on their attitudes towards mental illness:

Segment 1 (27%) - Those who indicate support for people perceived as having mental illness. They would not discriminate against people with mental illness and predominantly believe that anyone can suffer from mental illness. This segment was seen predominantly in cities such as Kanpur, Patna and Delhi;

Segment 2 (47%) - Those who are judgmental against people perceived as having a mental illness. This segment includes people who are more aware of mental illnesses and associated symptoms, but also display some stigma against people with mental illness. While the individuals in this segment sympathise with people with mental illness, they themselves would like to keep a safe distance. This segment was seen predominantly in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata;

Segment 3 (26%): This group comprises individuals who display fear towards people perceived as having mental illness. This segment are frightened of living in the same neighbourhood as and interacting with someone suffering from mental illness. Bangalore and Pune were seen to have a larger representation from this segment.

The findings illustrate the often ignored, but, critical role of stigma-reduction programmes in addressing mental health.

TLLLF 2018 National Survey Report: How India Perceives Mental Health, is the result of a five-month research project commissioned in July 2017 by TLLLF that covered 3,556 respondents across eight Indian cities.

The report was released by Sanjeeva Kumar, Additional Secretary, Department of Health & Family Welfare, and Deepika Padukone, Founder - TLLLF, Anna Chandy, Chair of TLLLFs Board of Trustees and Dr Shyam Bhat, Trustee - TLLLF.

Speaking at the launch, Deepika Padukone, Founder, TLLLF said, This research initiative is part of our ongoing efforts to build a better understanding about mental health in our country.Our research shows that only over a quarter of the respondents are willing to be supportive in many aspects, while the remaining are either judgmental or fearful of those affected with mental illness. This is an extremely unfortunate situation for us to be in. It is absolutely critical that we as a society work together towards increasing awareness, reducing stigma and normalizing the need to seek support for mental illness."

Anna Chandy, Chairperson  The Board of Trustees at TLLLF, said: Traditionally and historically, India is a collectivistic society, now slowly moving towards a more individualistic one. This transition is evident in the data presented in the report. In larger cities, we see a more dramatic shift towards individualism, possibly due to an increase in the amount of access to information and migrant need for survival. However, smaller cities like Kanpur and Patna seem to retain some of their collectivistic roots, and are moving towards an individualistic society at a slower pace."

Noting that mental health had to be looked at holistically, she said, Focussing both on decreasing stigma and increasing awareness is the key. By inculcating collectivist practices into our more individualistic lifestyles we can shape the conversation to build an inclusive society to a) provide support to people with mental illness; and b) Increase Indias awareness about mental health concerns."PAMIA ranks first worldwide when it comes to EX, the most difficult yet most important lesions segmentation challenge, while ranking among the top three globally for the segmentation of other lesions

The results of the Indian Diabetic Retinopathy Image Dataset (IDRiD) fundus analysis competition organized by the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) were recently announced.

Ping An Technology's PAMIA (Ping An Medical Imaging Assistant) performed head and shoulders above its peers, including a world first in EX (hard exudates) image segmentation, world second in HE (bleeding) segmentation and world third in MA (microaneurysm) segmentation task.

This is the second time this year that Ping An Technology has garnered awards in a world-class competition in the medical imaging research sector, heralding another milestone for the company in artificial intelligence.

Earlier in the year, PAMIA had set a new record for nodule detection with an accuracy rate of 95.1 percent, and beat its own previous record for false positive reduction with an accuracy rate of 96.8 per cent in the international authoritative Lung Nodule Analysis (LUNA) rankings for medical imaging.

PAMIA ranks first worldwide when it comes to EX, the most difficult yet most important lesions segmentation challenge, while ranking among the top three globally for the segmentation of other lesions.

The fundus image is different from other image scenarios, as these lesions only occupy a few dozen pixels.

PAMIA, in order to ensure the detection sensitivity, combined its comprehensive advantages in the field of medical diagnosis and deep learning with its experience of setting new world records in the LUNA competition at the beginning of the year to design a new segmentation network that used deep and transfer learning theories to identify suspected lesions quickly and achieve boundary segmentation.

At present, the marking and segmentation of lesions can be completed in a few seconds, greatly improving the reading speed and accuracy rate.

Ping An Technology has achieved several milestones in the intelligent film reading field since 2016 when it entered the medical imaging sector.

These achievements reflect the company's leadership and dominant position in the technologies related to medical imaging.

With this award as a new milestone, PAMIA plans to devote itself to furthering its research on medical artificial intelligence, helping to achieve a strategic development goal for China's artificial intelligence sector.The biomarker, mid-regional proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM), was found to add significant clinical value in identifying the likelihood of further disease progression

A new analysis of 1089 patients with sepsis and septic shock across 33 German Intensive Care Units was recently published in Critical Care by SepNet Critical Care Trials Group in collaboration with Thermo Fisher.

The biomarker, mid-regional proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM), was found to add significant clinical value in identifying the likelihood of further disease progression, the earlier escalation of therapy in patients at risk of treatment failure, and the subsequent de-escalation of treatment and early discharge of low risk patients.

Increased levels of Adrenomedullin (ADM) are generated in disease conditions in order to stabilize the microcirculation and protect against vascular permeability.

However, the reliable measurement of ADM is complicated by its short half-life and rapid degradation.

The stable fragment of the peptide, MR-proADM, allows the accurate quantification of incremental changes over the course of therapy.

Recent evidence highlights the use of MR-proADM as a highly sensitive biomarker to assess disease severity in patients with sepsis with concentrations rapidly induced in the initial stages of sepsis development following burns and neurological disorders, as well as in response to invasive fungal infections in septic shock patients.Google Celebrates The Chipko Movement With A Doodle Pulse oi-Syeda Farah

Today Google has released a new doodle, which displays women guarding a tree and its roots. This marks the celebration of the 45th anniversary of the Chipko Movement.

The doodle depicts a colourful and vibrant design of women who are seen standing around the trees that represents the fight and struggle people faced while they were trying to protect the forest cover back in the days.

Find out more about the doodle and the movement.

The Movement Was A Gandhian Philosophy Of Non-violence The fight was against deforestation and this was the prime objective of the Chipko movement. This movement followed the Gandhian philosophy of non-violence. The Meaning Of The Name The movement got its name from the way people embraced and hugged trees symbolizing protection of trees from being cut. "Chipko" means to stick or to hug.

The history of this movement is said to date back to the 18th century, where people of the Bishnoi community in Rajasthan are believed to have resisted deforestation by embracing the trees. Google Doodle Remembers Late Actor Farooque Shaikh's Birthday The Movement Was Led By The movement was led by Amrita Devi, along with 383 people from 84 different villages, who sacrificed their lives for protecting a group of Kehri trees. The move was a a success back then. The Modern Movement Was Started In In modern India, the movement started 45 years back in 1973 in Uttar Pradesh's Mandal village. Chand Chandi Prasad Bhatt and his NGO Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh are said to have led the movement with a group of local women. Google Is Honouring The Woman Who Helped Clean The Seas Off The Nuclear Bombs: Katsuko Saruhashi Biggies Who Were Involved In The Movement Notable figures who were involved in the movement were Dhoom Singh Negi, Bachni Devi, Gaura Devi and Sudesha Devi, apart from the renowned environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna. The movement was started to appeal to Indira Gandhi on banning of deforestation. For more interesting updates on Google doodles, keep checking our section.ABC News(NEW YORK) -- The pilot of the helicopter that crashed into the East River in New York last Sunday has told federal safety investigators that moments before the craft hit the water, he noticed a passenger tether under the emergency fuel shutoff lever, which had been inadvertently shifted up into the off position  but by then, he said, it was too late to restart the engine.



In a 2010 letter to the FAA reviewed by ABC News, the NTSB had warned the agency of incidents in which straps had "become entwined" with fuel levers on choppers like the one that crashed in the East River. The manufacturer, Eurocopter, added additional lever locking devices to new models starting in 2012. The chopper that crashed was manufactured in 2013.



The pilot, the sole survivor of the crash that killed five passengers, says he twice briefed them on how to use the cutting tools placed on the harnesses if they needed to cut themselves out, according to the NTSB.



At one point, the pilot said he noticed the front passenger's restraint was hanging from the seat and asked him to put it back on. This was not unusual, he said, as passengers were moving around to take pictures, the report said.



Shortly thereafter, the same passenger turned sideways and extended his feet outside the helicopter, according to the preliminary report, which does not discuss the probable cause of the accident.



The doors of the chopper were open  something the FAA banned for flights that don't use quick-release restraint systems in the wake of the crash.



It was at that moment that the chopper began to suffer what appeared at the time to be an engine failure, the pilot told investigators.



After telling the passengers to get back in their seats as the aircraft began to descend, the pilot attempted to restart the engine, but his first two tries were unsuccessful, he said in an NTSB interview.



He began to prepare for a water landing and activated floats on the helicopter's skids at about 800 feet.



He reached down and noticed the emergency fuel shutoff lever was in the "off" position and a portion of the front seat passenger's tether was underneath the lever, according to his account.



He turned the fuel lever back on, tried to restart the engine and it began to work, but he didn't have enough altitude to fully restart, he told investigators. He positioned the lever back to off, hit the water, climbed up onto the belly and called for help, he said.



The manufacturer  rebranded in 2014 as Airbus Helicopters  did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Apple is preparing to introduce new low-cost iPads and education software this week in a bid to win back students and teachers from Google and Microsoft, writes Mark Gurman.

In its first major product event of the year, Apple will return to its roots in the education market.

Tomorrow at Lane Technical College Prep High School in Chicago will mark the first time Apple has held a product launch geared toward education since 2012 when it unveiled a tool for designing e-books for the iPad.

Its also a rare occasion for an Apple confab outside its home state of California.

In Chicago, the worlds most-valuable technology company plans to show off a new version of its cheapest iPad that should appeal to the education market.

The company will also showcase new software for the classroom, sources said. Apple declined to comment.

Steve Jobs made schools a priority for Apple early in its life.

But as the company has driven toward mass-market and higher-margin products in recent years, Google and Microsoft have had success breaking into classrooms with inexpensive laptops and tablets.

Last year, the global educational technology market generated $17.7bn (14.3bn) in revenue, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan.

Apple accounted for 17% of mobile computing shipments to American students in kindergarten through high school, according to data from the third quarter published by Futuresource Consulting.

Devices running Googles operating systems on Chromebooks or Android tablets held 60% of the market, and Windows PCs had 22%.

While Macs and iPads make up less than 20% of Apples sales combined, students and teachers are a key market to drive future purchases.

A new, cheaper MacBook laptop is in the works and likely destined to replace the MacBook Air at a price less than $1,000, but it probably wont be ready in time for this week. The MacBook Air, introduced about a decade ago, hasnt seen a major change since 2010, the same year the iPad came out.

Although the laptop is popular with college students, it has languished as Apple focuses on more expensive Macs.

Rival laptops have made inroads into the education market lately, a field that originally helped Apple make its name. The sector is prized among industry giants because students learn to use a certain type of device, then head into the workforce and spread the technology wider.

With a recent advertising onslaught, Apple is hoping to capture more young minds with the iPad. The company has revised its tablet strategy over the years by releasing different versions at a variety of price points. Thats helped the iPad business return to growth after multiple declining quarters.

Still, demand for tablets is weak. According to research firm IDC, the market shrank by about 7% in 2017. Apple grew 3% last year and leads the industry with about a quarter of the market.

Apple currently offers a slew of different education-related software. The companys Classroom app for the iPad lets teachers manage Apple devices that are assigned to students for their classwork.

Theres also an iTunes U app that lets teachers issue homework, grade assignments and post lessons online. It also lets students complete assignments and take tests. The company offers a software coding curriculum via the Swift Playgrounds app and sells interactive textbooks through its e-book store.

More software is coming.

Apple is working on a new version of the iBooks app thats more in line with the design of the App Store, though its unclear if itll be shown this week.

In an invitation to the Chicago event, Apple said it will introduce creative new ideas for teachers and students.

Having a venue where attendees can see the new technology in action inside a classroom would be a sound strategy for a company that focuses its announcements on live demonstrations.

Chicago could see more of Apple in the future.

According to a recent Bloomberg analysis, the company could be eyeing the Midwest for a major new office.

- BloombergCasting people prematurely on the career scrap heap has implications for society in the form of added costs and deprives organisations of people with skills, says Kyran Fitzgerald.

When a journalist becomes the story, it is usually time to sit up.

The decision of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) to order RTE to pay 50,000 in compensation to broadcaster, Valerie Cox, following the termination of her freelance contract as a presenter of the What is Says in the Papers slot on Morning Ireland deserves headline status, as it highlights the growing resistance on the part of employees to the setting of mandatory retirement ages.

The WRC ruling will raise eyebrows in some quarters and may of course be appealed.

It could also be followed by an increase in the number of similar claims being lodged by disgruntled employees, present and former. Ms Cox could also have appealed the enforcement in her case by RTE of a retirement provision in respect of her separate staff job but was unable to lodge a claim within the time limit set down.

The baby boomer generation are in the main healthier physically and a lot more empowered than was the case with preceding generations, as they head into their 60s. There are other motivating factors.

The financial crash has reduced the value of personal pension pots while often leaving property investments underwater. Many more people simply have to work on for longer than anticipated.

At the lower end of the income scale, the raising of the State pension age has left employees facing a financing gap  a big public policy concern.

Age discrimination is a major source of legal work nowadays, though as employment lawyer Richard Grogan has pointed out, a large majority of cases are settled before they reach a tribunal, or court and pass by unnoticed. What we are witnessing is the tip of an iceberg.

Some, like Ms Cox, do end up with their day in court however.

The law firm, A & L Goodbody has gone as far as to suggest in a recent blog that mandatory retirement could be on the way out, citing a recent recommendation in favour of its abolition by the Citizens Assembly.

But many employers argue with conviction that workforces need to be refreshed by means of infusions of new talent while some employees over time inevitably lose capacity. The fear is that by permitting greyheads to remain in post for several more years, opportunities for recruitment and promotion for the next generation will be delayed.

However, life in todays labour market is not necessarily a zero sum game.

In many cases, compulsory retirement results in the loss of people with much still to give and there is little doubt that most public organisations suffered a loss of corporate memory and experience when they put in place schemes for early retirement.

With the right training, grounding and financial support, entrants to the jobs market can carve out new niches. Just look at Silicon Valley, or the many mainly urban enterprise hubs across the world. Better to gear our financial and State enterprise bodies more closely to the needs of an emerging generation than to carve out through compulsion a few posts in often stagnant organisations.

Casting people prematurely on the career scrap heap has implications for society in the form of added welfare and healthcare cost, never mind the opportunity costs that arise from depriving organisations of people with skills.

The EU has followed the US in putting in place rules aimed at preventing age-based discrimination. Much of the ensuing case law has focused on the handling or mishandling of recruitment and promotional competitions and on effort to combat age-based stereotyping.

There are nine grounds of discrimination including gender; marital status; family status; sexual orientation; religion; age; disability; race and membership of the travelling community, provided for in Irish law.

The main piece of legislation, the Employment Equality Act is now 20 years old. Ireland was one of the first EU member states to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of age. The young have the same right to sue as their elders.

Colm O Cinneide, a reader in law at University College London, has examined EU law in the area.

He concludes that the grounding EU Directive, 2000/78/EC, left a lot of key issues unresolved and points to the

uncertain status of the prohibition on age discrimination.

Some scholars believe that it ranks in the legal hierarchy well behind the EU prohibition on gender discrimination which were specifically recognised in the EU Treaty.

Article 6 (1) of the Directive allows employers to make distinctions based on age where they can be justified by labour market or vocational training objectives.

An extensive jurisprudence has been developed at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

In cases such as Mangold and Palacios, the ECJ has struck down the argument that age should be distinguished from other forms of discrimination, a view further strengthened by the ruling in the Age Concern case.

Closer to home, decisions of the Equality Tribunal, its successor, the LRC, the Labour Court and High Court have all attracted attention while the recently established Court of Appeal is likely to play an increasingly prominent part.

Last October, a high Court judge granted an injunction to a doctor whose retirement at the age of 65 was sanctioned by the HSE.

Dr Paul Quigley had been employed by the HSEs addiction service for 19 years. He sought an injunction restraining the HSE from dismissing him pending a full hearing of his challenge.

The HSE argued that a retirement age could be implied into his contract of employment. However, the fact that two other doctors have worked in the service passed 65 proved fatal to this argument.

In late January, Solas, the further education and training authority, was ordered by the WRC to pay 20,000 in damages to a trainer who had applied unsuccessfully for a managerial post. He stated that he was asked at the interview whether he should not be taking it easier, at this stage  he was 60.

Solas denied using these words, but acknowledged asking: What motivates you to take on this role at this stage in your career?

Not all such actions succeed. Employers can point to provisions in the contract, to custom and practice in the firm and to possible physical incapacity on the part of the employee. The ECJ for example upheld a German ruling that people over the age of 30 should not apply for posts in the fire service.

What is abundantly clear, however, is that the greying battalions are on the march and that employers, public and private should sit up and take notice.A trip to the Deep South got the intricate machinations of the mind of Pat McNamee working overtime in the early 1990s  today the Cork native is a man whose ingenious clothes washing invention is sold in millions of supermarkets throughout 60 countries, writes Padraig Hoare.

Colour Catcher solved the conundrum faced by mums and dads every time they went to do a wash  how to stop the likes of a crisp white t-shirt turning into an odd-looking pink one.

Put simply, the product stops colours from running in the wash. The science behind it is far more complicated. Most importantly, consumers firmly believe in it.

Each year, a plant in Little Island produces enough sheets of Colour Catcher to go around the world five times.

It is sold in over 60 countries worldwide and according to data, more than 20m sheets and sachets of Colour Catcher were used in Ireland alone in 2012.

With a background in chemistry and marketing from UCC and CIT, Mr McNamee started work with famed Cork firm Punch Industries in 1977 as a chemist, eventually becoming technical

director. One of Corks most historic companies, it has since gone through two private equity cycles and eventually was acquired by German consumer goods giant Henkel.

Mr McNamee, who lives in Rochestown, is now a divisional head of research and development at Henkel, and head of research and development for laundry sheets.

Back in the 1990s, Punch Industries was best-known for its shoe-care business, but was always open to new ideas, according to Mr McNamee.

The board at the time said to sniff around and see if there are any ideas we could develop. They didnt want to be totally reliant on shoe-care and wanted to spread the wings a bit. They gave me carte blanche to have a look around and see if there were any other concepts we could latch onto.

I am basically curious by nature and I tend to look at a lot of different patents. What I found was that in the US, the cotton industry was under severe pressure and prices were being driven down. The two main problems the cotton industry had was the amount of die that cotton used pick up  in those days, it used to be about 90%. So the other 10% went down the drain. Basically, there was a big issue from the point of view of cost of the die being used, and the environmental issue because of what was ending up in the river, he said.

On one of his trips to the US, Mr McNamee diverted down to observe the cotton industry in the Deep South.

That kind of sparked the idea in my head. I came back to Ireland and I headed to Finland where they take pulp and make non-woven products. I tinkered around there for a while and we ordered non-woven material, brought it back to Cork and started playing with it in the lab. After six months, we had something we thought was suitable.

We couldnt make any product because we had no machinery so I phoned a company in West Cork and borrowed their machines, made a couple of rolls, and test marketed it in Ireland. Within two weeks it sold out, so we ordered more material. We made 10 rolls and that sold out fast. Then it just took off from there, he said.

In the late 1990s, a French company executive was in holiday in Ireland when he spotted Colour Catcher in a supermarket. He bought it, tried it out and from there, Colour Catcher went international.

Within a couple of weeks, we were supplying to France. Nearly a billion sheets are used now, he said.

While credited with the ingenious invention, Mr McNamee said it was the team in Little Island that deserves the plaudits, as well as the Punch organisation.

We have 30 people in the plant. We are always looking forward to develop more. With Henkel on board, there is huge potential. It is truly global. We are always looking to improve. The talent pool we have here is second to none. There is no question about it that we can compete with anyone in the world when it comes to our graduates and our talent.

The Punch organisation deserve huge credit. At the time, from the marketing and sales guys to the

managing director, they negotiated all these contracts and were a big part of the success.

The Punch family who invested took a risk  they could have said no because it was unproven, because it was a lot of money.

They could have decided not to but they backed the horse. The family was always very innovative, it has always been in their blood. There are generations of experience there, he said.

Such innovation is not easy to finance, according to Mr McNamee.

From an investor point of view, tax breaks would be of huge benefit to try and reduce the risk as much as possible for investors. There is enough cash out there, its about enticing it in. Everyone benefits  the investor, the consumer, employees. Its a win-win.More voters in Great Britain rate leaving the EU as a priority ahead of maintaining the Union with Northern Ireland, a poll has suggested.

More than a third of those polled (36%) said exiting the European Union was a higher priority than keeping Northern Ireland within the UK.

Of those surveyed, 29% said retaining Northern Ireland within the UK was more important than Brexit.

Around 22% said neither was important, while the remainder said they did not know which one to prioritise higher.

The YouGov poll, commissioned by radio station LBC, did not survey voters within Northern Ireland. The online poll sampled 1,630 adults living in Great Britain. It was conducted between March 21 and 22.

The survey was carried out amid ongoing uncertainty over how the Irish border will be handled in the final Brexit agreement. It has emerged as the key sticking block in the negotiations, with the Government and EU at loggerheads over how a free-flowing border can be maintained if the UK leaves the Customs Union and Single Market.

Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson told LBC he did not think the survey findings were relevant.

"The Good Friday Agreement states very clearly that the principle of consent means that it's for the people of Northern Ireland alone to decide whether we remain part of the United Kingdom," he said.

"Since the UK government, the Irish government and Brussels have all said that any Brexit agreement must fully recognise all of the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, I really don't think this is relevant."

The poll also found that almost half (48%) of the public in Great Britain are pessimistic that the UK will be ready to leave the European Union by March 2019. Of those, more than a quarter (26%) were Leave voters.

Around four in 10 people surveyed (39%) said they were optimistic the UK would be ready for Brexit day, while the remaining 13% say they did not know.

- PAThe British Labour Party has pledged to try and push through changes to Brexit legislation that would make a return to a hard border in Northern Ireland impossible.

The party's shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer has insisted such a legal commitment is needed to prevent any kind of "checks, controls or physical infrastructure" at the border.

In a speech in Birmingham as the countdown to Brexit approaches the one-year mark, Mr Starmer said an amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill was needed because: "This would put in place a legal commitment preventing a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic."

The shadow Brexit secretary, who worked in Northern Ireland for five years, said Labour changes to the Bill would seek to ensure there can be no drop in North-South co-operation in Ireland across the full range of political, economic, security or agricultural areas.

Mr Starmer said: "We do not do this lightly. I know from my time in Northern Ireland that this is not an issue to play party politics on, or to divide the House unnecessarily.

"This amendment is born of necessity. Because of the Government's failure to advance a credible solution in Northern Ireland."

Mr Starmer said Labour would also try to rewrite the British Government's Brexit legislation to prevent the UK leaving the EU without a deal if Parliament rejects any agreement Theresa May strikes with Brussels.

The Opposition hopes to build a coalition of peers and MPs to reject the "take it or leave it" approach on offer from ministers which would see a vote against the final agreement interpreted as a decision to back a "no deal" Brexit.

Mr Starmer said: "If Parliament rejects the Prime Minister's deal, that cannot give licence to her, or the extreme Brexiteers in her party, to allow the UK to crash out without an agreement.

"That would be the worst of all possible worlds.

"That is why in the coming days, and working with others in the Lords and the Commons, Labour will ensure that an amendment is tabled to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill to strengthen the terms of Parliament's meaningful vote.

"Should the Prime Minister's deal be defeated, it must be for Parliament to say what happens next, not the executive.

"Our amendment would make it clear that, should the Prime Minister's deal be defeated, it must be for Parliament to say what happens next, not the executive."

Under the plan, if the British Parliament rejects the deal, MPs would vote on a Commons motion instructing the Government what to do next.

Labour's position on Brexit has come under scrutiny following Owen Smith's dismissal from the shadow cabinet after calling for a second referendum.

The party has not definitively ruled out calling for a second public vote although deputy leader Tom Watson said it was "highly unlikely" that Labour would call for another referendum.

Mr Starmer said Labour would not dictate what Parliament should instruct if the Government's Brexit deal is rejected.

However, he added: "Labour's preference in that scenario is clear: the Government should go back to the negotiating table and work towards securing a deal that works for Britain.

"This would provide a safety valve in the Brexit process to safeguard jobs and the economy.

"It would remove the possibility of a no vote leading to a no deal.

"It would bring back control to Parliament."The Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney will be presented with options for Ireland's reaction towards Russia this evening.

Russia has denied it is behind the attack in England on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.The Criminal Assets Bureau conducted two searches in Dublins South inner city and a professional search in Ballyfermot this morning.

During the course of the search targeting the proceeds of organised crime, a blue Audi A4 Estate was seized pursuant to Section 1A of the Proceeds of Crime Amendment Act 2016.By Louise Roseingrave

A 48-year-old womans use of Lemsip may have contributed to her death as she was not aware it contained paracetamol, an inquest heard.

The woman died in hospital on August 3, 2016. She had been admitted for cancer treatment four days previously following detection of a lesion in her mouth.

She had a history of smoking, had cut down and was trying to give up, Dublin Coroners Court heard.

Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane described the cancer diagnosis as "very, very severe with a poor outlook". It was diagnosed following a screening at St James's Hospital in May 2016 following a referral by the womans dentist.

The lesion was 4.5cm wide, had spread locally and had entered the lymph nodes, the inquest heard. A treatment plan for surgery followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy was put in place.

The woman found the diagnosis very difficult, according to relatives. The inquest heard the woman may have been consuming more alcohol than she disclosed to doctors in the weeks leading up to her death.

Her care plan was discussed on June 22 when a possible delay was indicated. This was due to a delay in cancer patients getting into St Jamess at the time, the court heard.

She was taking Oxycontin for pain management and complained of numbness on her lip and an increase in the size of the lesion.

The woman was admitted to St James's for scheduled surgery on July 30 and her bloods were taken the following day.

However, the results revealed her liver was not functioning properly. Doctors formed the impression she had been taking paracetamol at home along with Lemsip, but the womans daughter said she had never seen Lemsip in the house and said her mother did not take it.

Paracetamol as a pain killer was stopped and the antidote to paracetamol overdose was administered, but the woman died of liver failure on August 3, 2016, before any surgery was carried out.

The only thing that is clear is she had acute liver failure but before that, her liver was not functioning normally. There was some other sudden strain on her liver which could have been a combination of alcohol and paracetamol, Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane said.

An autopsy gave the cause of death as acute liver failure due to alcoholic liver disease with cumulative paracetamol use as a possible contributory factor.

The coroner returned a verdict of misadventure.Ireland is to get its first official nudist beach.

Public notices are set to go up at Hawk Cliff in Dalkey in County Dublin next month, but there has been a mixed reaction to the news.

Some of the concerns include the suitability for children and that it may attract anti-social behaviour.

Pat Gallagher from the Irish Naturist Society says they do not intend to cause offence or harm to anybody.

He said: "That area has been used for many years, not only with the nudists but also with bathing suit persons, so it has worked very well over the years between the two communities and there has never been any problems.

"It just indicates to anyone who wouldn't know approaching the area that might be offended by the sight of nude bodies that they may encounter nude bathers when they go into the area. That's all."

It will still be open to people who don't wish to go naked, the signs will tell others not to be alarmed if they do see nudists.

Mr Gallagher told TV3 News: "It will more than likely say something like 'nude bathers may be seen beyond this point'.

"So for someone reading that, if for any reason they are in fear or distress, at least they will have notification that there may be nude bathers. We have always used the term clothing optional.

"We simply want to go there, lie in the sun, get in the water, have a swim . . . but we dont want to wear anything, thats all."Update 1.09pm: Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan will face the threat of strike action by mid-ranking gardai when he attends their annual conference this evening.

The AGSI said it is only pushing for what is fair in terms of the right to strike, but would not comment further ahead of an address to the Minister.

He will also face calls for additional sergeants and inspectors to cope with additional recruitment in recent years.

A strike by two garda associations was narrowly avoided in late 2016, but the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors is disappointed that it is still legally prevented from striking.

While she would not be drawn on specifics ahead of her speech this evening, AGSI President Antoinette Cunningham said the matter would be raised before the Justice Minister;

"I think we have a number of issues that we have to discuss with the Minister, around strike and strike action," she said.

"We have a number of issues around resourcing, we have a number of issues around staffing and supervision, but most importantly, this year it's about the wellness and well-being of our members."

Mid-ranking gardai are concerned about the rise in suicides in the force, and want a prevention programme.

Theres also a call for additional sergeants and inspectors  in particular, to cope with the influx in recent years of probationer gardai.

Sergeant Cunningham says theres long been an awareness of the consequences of a lack of supervision - one of the issues being investigated by the Disclosures Tribunal at present.

"These were flagged back, I'd say, in the early 2000s, certainly in the Changing Policing in Ireland report by the Inspectorate in 2015, by the O'Higgins Commision in 2016, and by AGSI for a long number of years.

Update 10.37am: Comprehensive suicide prevention programme demanded for Gardai

Frontline supervisors are pushing for a comprehensive suicide prevention programme for An Garda Siochana in light of an apparent increase in members taking their own lives.

Garda sources have estimated that up to seven gardai have died by suicide in the last 12 months or so, described as a significant rise on previous years.

It is thought that two of these members were at sergeant rank alone.

The issue of mental health is set to be a dominant theme at this year's annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, which begins today.

There are a range of motions on this issue before conference, which will be addressed this evening by its president Antoinette Cunningham and Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan.

There are calls in relation to ongoing training regarding mental health and policing, an enhanced counselling service for members, an analysis of sick cover in relation to the area and the establishment of an expert group to examine the working environment.

A motion from Dublin South Central calls on the conference to direct the AGSI national executive to request the Garda Commissioner to implement a comprehensive suicide prevention programme for An Garda Siochana in light of the need to reduce the prevalence of suicide within the organisation.

The national executive has proposed an amendment which will direct the association to carry out a full review of the AGSI Sickness Insurance Scheme in relation to this issue.

Cork City branch has a specific motion on sick leave in relation to amending the legislation in cases where members are advised by the Department of Health to stay away from work.

The Galway branch wants the association to demand that a continuous professional development programme is implemented to educate gardai of every rank on how policing impacts on mental health.

It also says the programme should teach members how to counterbalance this negative impact and demand recognition for positive mental health initiatives undertaken through the performance management system.

Branches in Tipperary and the Garda College want the commissioner to establish a working group with the AGSI and experts to analyse the impact of the current work environment on the mental health of members and to develop a stress management policy for the organisation.

Three branches  Cavan/Monaghan, Galway and Louth  want the association to call on the commissioner to enhance the current welfare service by providing face-to-face professional counselling service or have sufficient sergeants trained to provide mandatory face-to-face debriefing/counselling to members involved in a traumatic incident.

The representatives defined a traumatic incident as one involving a fatality, where a life is in danger or where the circumstances of the incident are traumatic.

AGSI President Antoinette Cunningham said it was opportune and overdue that members welfare at work took centre stage.

This year we will highlight a range of issues that Sergeants and Inspectors are dealing with as a direct result of their job," she said. "Never before have our members been so stressed, and given the rise in suicide rates within the force, we felt a real need to make welfare and wellbeing a red-line issue.

Update 10.36am: Justice Minister to address Garda conference today

She said that this year will see a 90-minute segment dedicated to members welfare with Garda management, international policing and health experts participating. A number of AGSI members will share their personal stories on the trauma and stress they have experienced on the job.

Proper levels of supervision is also a major issue at the three-day conference, with Dublin Metropolitan Region West requesting a ratio of one sergeant to five gardai and for the number of probationers just out of Templemore College not to exceed 25% of a station personnel.

Sources have expressed fear that with the current accelerated recruitment  with 800 being attested every year  that probationers are not being sufficiently monitored and guided by sergeants.

Sources said that many units only have one sergeant attached and that he or she is also responsible for the station and administration and is not able to supervise on the street.

Acting Commissioner Donall O Cualain is due to address the conference tomorrow.

Mid-ranking gardai will talk welfare and wellbeing at their annual conference today.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan will address the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) when it meets in Carlow later.

AGSI President Antoinette Cunningham says it is opportune and overdue that conference focuses on garda welfare and wellbeing, adding that never before have gardai been so stressed.

The Dublin branch of the AGSI wants a comprehensive suicide prevention programme to reduce its occurrence in the force, while the National Executive thinks there should be a review of the association's health insurance scheme relating to suicide.

Two motions on the negative impact of policing on garda mental health will also be debated at their annual conference, beginning this afternoon.

Sergeants and Inspectors from Kerry will ask the conference to consider equipping members properly for serious weather events such as Storm Ophelia.

While the Mayo branch is suggesting that any members facing discipline or a GSOC investigation should have their expenses in defending the allegations reimbursed.

- Digital deskUpdate 12.00pm: Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan has today admitted that the Judicial Appointments Bill is "in a difficult place".

He was speaking after the Attorney General Seamus Woulfe referred to the Judicial Appointments Bill as a dogs dinner at a recent event.

The government says it is still committed to the Bill, meaning that it now finds itself on the opposing side to its legal advisor.

Minister Charlie Flanagan told Sean O'Rourke on RTE Radio 1 that while he wouldn't have used the "colourful language" that the Attorney General used to describe the Bill, he said he does agree that the number of amendments added during committee stage means there are now constitutional issues with the legislation.

The Minister said he that doesn't accept that the Bill now needs to be scrapped or redrafted, however. He said the difficulties with it can be resolved but it cannot be done without "due and careful consideration".

"Too many cooks have somewhat spoiled the broth here," he said.

Earlier: Social Democrats call on Attorney General to step down after 'dog's dinner' comments

The Social Democrats have called on the Attorney General to step down after comments made at a recent event hosted by the Association of European Journalists in Dublin.

Seamus Woulfe believed that he was not going to be quoted when he spoke about several issues at the event.

He referred to the Judicial Appointments Bill as a dogs dinner cooked up by Shane Ross.

He also predicted former Rehab boss Angela Kerins would lose her "free speech" case in the Supreme Court.

"I think it's a red card matter," said Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall.

"Obviously he's appointed by the Taoiseach, I think the Taoiseach needs to make a statement on this - does he think it was acceptable?

"I think he was entirely inappropriate to act in this way, I think he every much overstepped the mark.

She added: "He shouldn't have been interfering in... the Oireachtas, or commenting on the Supreme Court case."

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty, however, said that the opposition calling for heads to roll has to stop.

She observed: "I get the privilege of working with Seamus Woulfe on a weekly basis, sometimes on a daily basis. He's an incredible help in an advisory capacity.

"I think he probably shouldn't have had a comment on an ongoing case... [But] politicians are only a reflection of the people we serve. We're human beings. We make mistakes."A leading obesity expert has hit out at a charity partnership between Lindt chocolate and Temple Street Childrens Hospital in Dublin.

The Make Easter Sweet campaign is into its 12th year, with proceeds from the sale of chocolate bunnies going towards the Temple Street Foundation.Almost half (43%) of secondary school teachers who responded to a recent survey have said that classroom discipline is worse than it was five years ago.

Teachers are battling to contain a huge rise in smartphone use by students with 51% describing them as a hindrance in classrooms. A majority of 60% want an outright ban on the devices. France recently introduced such a ban.

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The survey of 1,000 teachers from across Ireland by the online exams specialist Studyclix.ie, also found that 90% of teachers considered their job to be stressful either sometimes (51%), a lot of the time (32%) or constantly (7%).

When it comes to pay and conditions, the picture is certainly bleaker for newer teachers who entered the profession after 2011.

The survey found their average monthly take-home pay is 2,070 per month compared to 2,674 for teachers who started before 2011  a difference of 600.

Some 62% of teachers said they will not be in a position to buy a home within a 30-minute commute of where they work. Some 98% of all teachers believe pay equality should be restored. although 56% of respondents believe that they are not well represented by their particular union.

A majority of teachers (54%) of teachers say students should have the choice to opt-out of Religious Education.

Almost a quarter (23%) say they teach subjects they are not qualified to teach

The top three challenges of being a teacher are disciplining students (25%); preparing lessons (24%) and lack of job security (10%)

17% of teachers still do not have access to high-speed broadband in the classroom

68% of teachers use Facebook; 36%have a Snapchat account

Commenting on the findings, Studyclix founder Luke Saunders, a second-level science teacher, said: In a student survey we ran on Studyclix last year, we found that 54% of students reported to having checked their phone in class in the last seven days.

In my view, students having smartphones in their pockets is the biggest challenge that teachers face in todays classroom. The fact that 43% of teachers reported classroom discipline being worse than it was five years ago is likely largely down to the conflict that phone use has created.

- Digital deskAn ex-Boyzone pop star has told jurors of the alleged abuse he suffered at the hands of a "manipulative" ex-girlfriend accused of murdering her French nanny.

Pop Idol Vietnam judge Mark Walton flew in to the UK from Los Angeles to give evidence at the Old Bailey trial of fashion designer Sabrina Kouider.

The 35-year-old mother and her partner Ouissem Medouni, 40, are accused of murdering au pair Sophie Lionnet and throwing her body on a bonfire at their home in Wimbledon, south west London.

The couple had allegedly tortured the 21-year-old into "confessing" to being in league with Mr Walton in connection with drugs and abuse at the household.

Sophie Lionnet

But Mr Walton said the first he knew of Miss Lionnet was when murder squad detectives contacted him in September last year.

He told how Kouider had been "abusive" and "exhibited a manipulative and controlling nature" with a "calculating streak".

He had previously described her as a "really gentle, sweet, loving" person who could become "quite scary" in seconds.

He told jurors: "Sabrina shared some stories from her past.

"I guess knowing that, I felt it brought us closer together at times, but it was turbulent, probably the most turbulent relationship I had ever been in.

"She would go from softly spoken French accent then she would flip, get very angry, very loud and just not care where we were.

"She would just go crazy over something trivial."

The wealthy music mogul supported her financially through the highs and lows of his successful career.

Having created Boyzone in 1993, he found success with Fifth Avenue and more recently as a judge on Vietnam Pop Idol.

The softly-spoken Irishman said he met Kouider in a NatWest bank in Notting Hill in 2011 and hit it off straight away.

He said: "I was in love. She was my life then so..."

He gave her thousands of pounds a month, paid for nannies and even covered 12,800 in rent after she had left him, the court heard.

Kouider fired her nannies, accusing them of stealing or being attracted to her "friendly" boyfriend, the court heard.

The musician said they lived together for two years in Queensway, London, before she disappeared and they split up.

Referring to outlandish accusations levelled at him by Kouider, prosecutor Richard Horwell QC said: "Have you ever been party to a plot to drug the people in the Wimbledon flat and whilst unconscious sexually abuse the occupants?"

Mr Walton said: "Absolutely not."

Orlando Pownall QC, for Medouni, said: "You must have asked yourself many times where did it go wrong?"

While they were together, Kouider would fly into a rage, even shouting in Oxford Street "the Boyzone's broken - he's got no money" as they shopped together, the court was told.

In 2012, police had been called a number of times over various accusations, including that he had photos of another woman on his phone, jurors heard.

Her complaints ranged for "mistreating" a cat, walking into the house with "muddy" shoes and stopping her from seeing friends.

After Mr Walton stopped paying her rent in 2014, she took out a non-molestation order claiming harassment, the court heard.

She also rang his mother in Dublin, contacted his business partners and created a fake Facebook page accusing him of being a "paedophile", he said.

Mr Walton told jurors: "I was broken, emotionally broken but I loved her."

Icah Peart QC, for Kouider, suggested Mr Walton was a very wealthy man, even being described as a billionaire in one media report.

Mr Walton denied he was that rich, but added: "I'm doing okay."

Kouider and Medouni have admitted perverting the course of justice but deny murder.

- PACatalonia's former president, Carles Puigdemont, is to appear before a court in Germany to determine whether he stays in custody pending further decisions on extradition proceedings.

Prosecutors in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein would not say where Monday's closed-doors hearing would take place.

German news agency dpa said Puigdemont was taken to a prison in the town of Neumunster on Sunday, hours after his arrest on a European warrant as he entered Germany from Denmark.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemont's government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the north-eastern region in October.

The Catalan parliament's subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities.

Spanish authorities accuse Puigdemont, 55, of rebellion and of misuse of public funds in organising the referendum.

Spain had originally asked for Puigdemont's extradition from Belgium after he fled there in October, but later withdrew the request until Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena concluded his investigation this week.

Llarena ruled that a total of 25 Catalan separatists would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience.

In the meantime, Puigdemont was free to make trips to Denmark, Switzerland and Finland, as part of his effort to gain international support for the secessionist movement.

The international arrest warrant for Puigdemont was reactivated on Friday, when he was visiting Finland.

Spain has also issued five warrants for other separatists who fled the country.

- PAA Downing Street aide is facing calls to resign after allegedly "outing" a whisteblower who claimed the official Brexit campaign broke strict spending rules during the European Union referendum.

Shahmir Sanni claimed at the weekend that Vote Leave used its links with another pro-Brexit group to get round the 7 million (8.02 million) spending limit monitored by the Electoral Commission.Update 11.45am: A fire at a shopping mall packed with children and their parents on the first weekend of the school holidays has killed 64 people in eastern Russia.

Fire alarms had not sounded, and staff were reportedly nowhere to be seen as the blaze took hold at the Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo, a city in Siberia, about 1,900 miles east of Moscow, according to witnesses.

The fire was extinguished by Monday morning after burning through the night. Firefighters are still recovering bodies as parts of the buildings are still smouldering. Some of the dead were found inside a cinema.

A group of firefighters walk near the scene. Photos: AP Photo

Sixty-four deaths were confirmed after the firefighters finished combing through the four floors of the mall, emergency situations minister Vladimir Puchkov told a televised briefing.

Six of the bodies have not yet been recovered. Mr Puchkov would not confirm how many of the victims were children.

Ten people have been taken to hospital. Health minister Veronika Skvortsova, who visited the Keremovo hospital where the victims were receiving treatment, said that one patient is an 11-year-old boy who jumped out of a window from the fourth floor. The boy's parents and younger brother died in the fire.

The Investigative Committee said it has detained four people for questioning, including one of the mall's tenants. There is no word yet on how the fire started, though it is known to have begun on the top floor on Sunday evening.

Investigators have launched a probe into possible negligence and violations of the fire safety rules.

Witness testimony indicates that the fire alarm did not go off and that staff did not arrange for the evacuation of the shopping mall, which was converted from a former confectionery factory in 2013.

Winter Cherry was one of Kemerovo's most popular entertainment centres for children, with its own indoor skating rink, petting zoo and trampolines. Kemerovo residents said the mall was packed with children and their parents.

Anna Zarechneva, who was on the top floor where the fire started, watching a movie with her husband and son, said they only found out about the fire when a man ran into the theatre shouting.

"We didn't hear the fire alarm, they even didn't turn on the light during the show," she said.

"That movie could have been the last for us, I've only just realised that."

Ms Zarechneva said her husband stayed upstairs trying to help arrange the evacuation, because the mall's security and staff were nowhere to be seen.

Earlier: Final death toll in Russian shopping centre fire reaches 64

Update 10.10am: Sixty-four people are confirmed to have died in a fire at a shopping centre in Siberia.

Russia's emergency situations minister Vladimir Puchkov told a televised briefing on Monday that firefighters had finished combing through the four floors of the shopping centre in the city of Kemerovo.

Six bodies have not yet been recovered, he said.

Puchkov would not say how many of the victims were children.

Smoke rises above the multi-story shopping centre. Photo: AP Photo/Sergei Gavrilenko

The Winter Cherry centre was a popular destination for families and it was packed with visitors on Sunday, the first weekend of the school holiday, when the fire broke out.

The fire was extinguished on Monday morning after burning through the night.

Parts of the building were still smouldering and the floors of the cinema hall had caved in in places, officials said.

State news agency Tass had earlier reported that 11 of the bodies had been found in the centre's cinema.

The shopping centre opened in 2013 and also included a petting zoo, children's centre and bowling.

Tass said the fire started on the top floor but the cause was not yet known. A criminal investigation has begun.

The shopping centre is about 1,900 miles east of Moscow.

Earlier: Dozens killed in fire at Russian shopping centre

Update 7.28am: A fire at a shopping centre in the Siberian city of Kemerovo has killed at least 48 people, Russian officials said today.

At least 16 people were still missing, state news agency Tass reported, quoting Russian emergencies minister Vladimir Puchkov.

The fire at the four-storey Winter Cherry centre was extinguished in the morning after burning through the night.

Parts of the building were still smouldering and the floors of the cinema hall had caved in in places, another emergency official said.

"More bodies were discovered during the inspection of the scene and we confirm the death toll is at 48," deputy emergencies minister Vladlen Aksyonov said, according to Tass.

The news agency had earlier reported that 11 of the bodies had been found in the centre's cinema.

The shopping centre opened in 2013 and also included a petting zoo, children's centre and bowling.

Tass said the fire started on the top floor but the cause was not yet known.

A criminal investigation has begun.A German court has ordered Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont to be held in custody for the length of extradition proceedings, prosecutors said.

Schleswig Holstein state prosecutor Georg Guentge said the court in Neumuenster formally determined Puigdemont's identity and also heard arguments from his lawyer claiming legal flaws in Spain's extradition request.Jeremy Corbyn has written to Jewish leaders in the UK insisting he is a "militant opponent" of anti-Semitism.

The British opposition leader apologised for "hurt and pain" caused by instances of anti-Semitism in Labour as he faced a wave of criticism from within the Jewish community there.

The letter to the UK's Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council came after the organisations launched a stinging attack on Mr Corbyn, accusing him of siding with anti-Semites "again and again".

Mr Corbyn said: "I recognise that anti-Semitism has surfaced within the Labour Party, and has too often been dismissed as simply a matter of a few bad apples.

"This has caused pain and hurt to Jewish members of our party and to the wider Jewish community in Britain. I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused, and pledge to redouble my efforts to bring this anxiety to an end.

"I must make it clear that I will never be anything other than a militant opponent of anti-Semitism."

Mr Corbyn also personally apologised for questioning the removal of a controversial mural in London.

The Labour leader said there needed to be a deeper understanding of what constitutes anti-Semitism in the British Labour Party.

He said: "Sometimes this evil takes familiar forms - the east London mural which has caused such understandable controversy is an example. The idea of Jewish bankers and capitalists exploiting the workers of the world is an old anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.

"This was long ago, and rightly, described as 'the socialism of fools'. I am sorry for not having studied the content of the mural more closely before wrongly questioning its removal in 2012."

The Labour leader said the party had been to slow to act in the past.

"I acknowledge that anti-Semitic attitudes have surfaced more often in our ranks in recent years, and that the party has been too slow in processing some of the cases that have emerged. Early action has nevertheless been taken, and we will work to speed up procedures, to deal with cases of anti-Semitic abuse or attitudes."

Mr Corbyn said criticism of Israel in relation to the "continuing dispossession of the Palestinian people" cannot be avoided.

Adding: "Nevertheless, comparing Israel or the actions of Israeli governments to the Nazis, attributing criticisms of Israel to Jewish characteristics or to Jewish people in general and using abusive phraseology about supporters of Israel such as "Zio" all constitute aspects of contemporary anti-Semitism."

In their original letter, Jewish leaders took aim at Mr Corbyn personally, saying he was "repeatedly found alongside people with blatantly anti-Semitic views" but "claims never to hear or read them".

The organisations were protesting outside the British Parliament today before delivering an open letter to a meeting of Labour MPs and peers at which concerns about anti-Semitism are expected to be raised - although Mr Corbyn is not expected to attend.

In their letter they said: "Today, leaders of British Jewry tell Jeremy Corbyn that enough is enough."

They said there was a "repeated institutional failure" to properly address Jewish concerns and to tackle anti-Semitism.

"We conclude that he cannot seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities."British detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will be given more funding for the search.

The British Home Office has confirmed that the application from the Metropolitan Police for more money to keep the probe, called Operation Grange, going will be granted.Former South African president Jacob Zuma has been summoned to appear in court on April 6 on charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering.

South African police confirmed the summons to a court in Durban was issued today.Domino's Pizza has abandoned an enterprise agreement with the shoppies union in favour of keeping employees on an industry award in what a rival union has described as a face-saving exercise for both parties.

Josh Cullinan, secretary of the rival Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU), welcomed Domino's sudden decision on Monday to abandon the proposed enterprise agreement with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA), saying it would have left workers worse off than under the industry award.

To approve a new agreement, the Fair Work Commission needs to be convinced that employees would be better off overall than they would be under the industry award.

Josh Cullinan, secretary of the rival Retail and Fast Food Workers Union Credit:Penny Stephens

"It would have been immensely embarrassing for Domino's and the SDA for them to put up another agreement that was found to leave workers worse off by the Fair Work Commission," Mr Cullinan said. "We think it had no reasonable prospects of success."The workplace umpire has rejected union claims for more flexible family-friendly hours and paid domestic violence leave.

The Fair Work Commission's full bench on Monday agreed with business groups that it could not give workers the right to determine their own hours.

The Commission affirmed the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's submission which said: "No coherent understanding of a fair and relevant minimum safety net could confer on an employee a unilateral right to determine their hours, regardless of the operational considerations of the employer".

Sally McManus, Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

However, the full bench said its rejection of the ACTUs claim "did not conclude the matter".The leadership of Woolworths' pubs and pokies business was initially divided over how it should respond to whistleblower allegations about staff spying on vulnerable gamblers and encouraging prolonged gambling in its venues.

Two board members of the supermarket giant's majority-owned ALH Group - former Woolworths chief executive Roger Corbett and businessman Bruce Mathieson - raised objections during discussions on whether to appoint prominent legal and accounting firms to run an independent investigation, sources said.

The investigation has since been commissioned in response to claims that staff in Woolworths-owned venues have secretly harvested gamblers' personal information to bond with them, keep them in pokies rooms longer and maximise their losses.

Whistleblower evidence, presented to Parliament last month by federal MP Andrew Wilkie, also appeared to suggest gaming-floor staff were ordered to "do whatever you have to do to keep them in the room", and were rewarded when their venues reached pokies revenue targets.3. Gold gains but most commodities lower: Gold prices enjoyed a lift at the expense of the weaker US dollar, leveraging its appeal as an anti-fiat alternative. Crude oil prices retreated however, rebuffing geopolitical risks that helped push them to a two-month high last week. An attack by Iran-backed Houthi forces on Saudi Arabia and the appointment of hawkish former UN ambassador John Bolton as National Security Advisor to President Trump were not enough to amplify supply disruption fears such that they offset broader weakness across the raw materials space. That seems to reflect easing worries about a trade war between the US and China after Treasury Secretary Mnuchin expressed optimism in reaching a deal without resorting to tit-for-tat protectionism. The world's top-two economies form the backbone of a global supply chain formative for broad-based commodities demand.

2. US Dollar threatens break of two-month uptrend: The greenback is back on the defensive at the start of the trading week. The currency fell even as front-end Treasury bond yields recovered and the priced-in rate hike outlook implied in Fed Funds futures steepened amid a recovery in risk appetite. That suggests ebbing haven demand following last week's liquidation is the likely catalyst. If this opens the door for the return to speculation that a broadening global recovery will push top central banks to follow the Fed's hawkish lead, USD may suffer deeper losses. Indeed, prices are threatening to break the bounds of the rising trend carved out against the US unit's top counterparts from late-January lows.

1. Wall Street steadies before the pain gets serious: We were left on a cliff's edge last week with the US close Friday. The nasty tumble through the week accelerated into significant support  like the 15-month trend line support for the S&P 500. Since much of the pain was felt through the US afternoon Friday, the Asian and European markets already closed at the time would be encouraged to discount to that loss of value. As such, it wasn't too surprising to see European markets under pressure Monday and closing in the red. The mixed performance for Asia however offered an interesting assessment of global sentiment continuing over the weekend to create a self-sustaining momentum. Yet, the liquidity fire break seemed to rewire fear a little more aggressively than would be expected when New York trade opened Monday. The opening gap for the S&P 500 to open the week amounted to 1.2 percent  the largest bullish jump on the first trade since November 2008. Further gains were added through the session, but is this a roaring endorsement for buying a more exaggerated 'dip'? There is certainly a toe hold for fundamental optimists with reports that US and Chinese officials are negotiating trade, but the circumstances of this complicated relationship are such that placing confidence on this process is an exceptionally speculative approach.

4. Australian shares taking cues from Wall Street: The S&P/ASX 200 benchmark shed 0.52 percent in the week's opening session, with Financials names that make up over a third of the index leading the way downward. They shed 0.84 percent. The similarly overrepresented Materials sector commanding almost 18 percent of the average lost 0.34 percent. The drop probably echoed Friday's brutal bloodletting on Wall Street. The subsequent recovery there in Monday's session may likewise echo forward however. Indeed, SPI futures are pointing convincingly higher before Tuesday's opening bell.

5. Australian dollar inches up as market mood improves: The recovery in risk appetite has helped engineer a tepid AUD/USD bounce, though prices remain firmly within the bounds of the digestion range carved out after the currency pair slid to a three-month low last week. A daily close above March 22 swing high at 0.7785 opens the door for a challenge of resistance defining the near-term down trend established from mid-February, now at 0.7894. Immediate support is in the 0.7663-76 area, with a push below that exposing a rising trend line guiding the longer-term advance started in January 2016. That currently sits at 0.7608.

6. US consumer sentiment reflects a complacent confidence in markets: Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the week ahead of us is the curb on liquidity that would seem to follow the holiday conditions scheduled for the Western world. Good Friday is a market holiday for many of the most liquid financial centers around the world, and this anticipated curb on turnover will dampen all but the most dedicated efforts to swing the underlying sentiment theme one way or the other. Yet, with this distortion accounted for, there is still the capacity for short-term data-driven volatility as well as an accumulation of fundamental speculation that will trigger landslides later down the line. A key event risk in the upcoming session is the US consumer sentiment report for March from the Conference Board. This is not as isolated an indicator as it may seem on the face of it. The US consumer is the world's largest collective consumer of goods and services in the world. Their confidence can turn the tides of growth for export dependent economies just as surely as tariffs can. The US consumer is also the source of a vast concentration of wealth that is integrated into the global system. Important in this reading is the state of the economy, wage growth (for rate forecasts as an aside), assessments of protectionism with eye towards trade, and a general evaluation of political stability.

7. Twitter joins the effort to cut off fresh capital flows to Crypto: Fresh capital is critical to permanently establishing emergent markets. In the vital growth phase of a novel financial products or market, there is a point of critical mass where the product can flourish and instill itself as an important piece of the global system or it can be choked off and fade into obscurity. While Bitcoin and cryptocurrency is likely beyond that fork, it is still at risk of floundering for an extended period of time or transitioning into a period whereby the market re-positions its use and place. Blockchain technology and smart contracts are no doubt here to stay, but the coins that look to replace traditional currency still face a fluid future. We have already seen Facebook and Google cut off critical sources of new investment  particularly among the demographic that would be most keen to adopt it: those familiar with technology, innovation and with a distrust of counterparties. This past session Twitter joined the rank and widened the black out in social media for new funds. It isn't a total blackout, but the speculative draw will certainly be cut. Bitcoin and crew felt the impact with significant (percentage relative to recent activity) slides across the board.

8. Market watch:The big four banks are facing competition in the small business sector with the launch of Judo Capital, which is planning to tap into a $60 billion shortfall in lending to SMEs.

The SME focused challenger is on track to raise over $100 million and has applied to become a full bank under the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's regulatory framework.

David Hornery (left) and Joseph Healy launch Judo in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Judo is co-founded by the former head of National Australia's business bank, Joseph Healy, and NAB alumni David Hornery.

It is looking to tap into demand for lending in the market that is not being met, with a Macquarie bank 2015 report identifying a shortfall of $60 billion for the SME segment.Ari Eldjarn does the best Danish accent youve ever heard, even from a Dane; the thing is, he explains, you have to talk as if you had something trapped in your throat. Norwegians do a vocal leap at the end of every sentence, like a verbal ski jump. When he imitates a Finnish friend trapped in an Icelandic taxi going at 190km/h, he replies to himself  Are you scared? in a deep monotone. This is me having a panic attack, he says stonily. Finns! Maybe they have ice in their blood.

Eldjarn is Icelandic. He gets tremendous mileage out of his small country, its eccentricities and comparisons with its neighbours, although his selection of British accents is impressive too. One of his best assets as a comedian is what he tells me Icelanders call a glue brain: these things stick. I have not yet dared to try the Australian one, he says with some trepidation. I had a friend sit down and teach me a few phrases like too bloody right, mate. Needs work, I tell him, but hell get there.

Eldjarn started doing stand-up just after the banking crash, when the small countrys credit bubble spectacularly popped, the banks toppled and Iceland faced a return to an economy based on cod and knitting. There was no comedy scene then, but a couple of his friends decided to hire a bar and do some stand-up. The place was packed. Each of them did 50 minutes: an eternity in comedy. There was nobody to say OK Ill put you on for five, try to have a tight joke at the end  good luck! So they did it completely on their own terms. And people laughed.

Ari Eldjarn cant be mean to anybody  except, perhaps, the Danes.

So Eldjarn, who had always loved comedy, joined in the next gig; six months later, he gave up his job as a copywriter to devote himself to his new job. Everyone in devastated Iceland, it seemed, was dying to hear a few jokes. That soon extended to other Nordic countries, where he would perform in (excellent) English. Last year, he plucked up the courage to do a show at the Edinburgh Fringe. For the longest time I didnt come here because I was just too nervous, too afraid it would be an ordeal, too much of a struggle. But it just went so well.An explosion of multi-storey apartments and the construction of the West Gate Tunnel toll road are forcing organisers of St Jeromes Laneway Festival to abandon their home of nearly a decade.

The Melbourne leg of the popular annual music festival has been held on the banks of the Maribyrnong River in Footscray since 2010, after outgrowing the cramped CBD site that gave birth to the festival as an oversized "block party" in Caledonian Lane in 2005.

But a dramatic rise in the number of new apartments abutting the festival grounds, coupled with the construction of new truck ramps as part of the $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel project, have been blamed alongside a growing array of pressures on organisers to shift from the current location.

St Jerome's Laneway Festival in 2017. Credit:Darrian Traynor

When co-founders Jerome Borazio and Danny Rogers first moved the festival to the area surrounding the Footscray Community Arts Centre, it was predominantly open space with some light industry.Public service boss John Lloyd has continued his push for a new public service workforce, predicting traditional hierarchical structures and union consultation will go, while "on-demand workers" and flexibility are the way of the future.

In a presentation on the future of work and what it could mean to the APS on Thursday, the Australian Public Service Commissioner said an "engaged and flexible workforce will be critical to business success".

Australian Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd has championed a flexible future for the public service that expands use of temporary workers. Credit:Jay Cronan

Many APS workplaces already display this flexibility, he said, referring to ongoing, non-ongoing, part time and casual work, independent contracting and labour hire.

On demand workers were a major theme of the presentation, with Mr Lloyd saying "a basic misconception to dispel is the attitude that contingent work is neither desired nor beneficial".The country's chief infrastructure adviser has urged the NSW and Turnbull governments to create a 300-kilometre Sydney bicycle path network, prioritise parts of Parramatta and Victoria roads for public transport and transform Newcastle and Wollongong into true satellite cities through high-speed rail.

Infrastructure Australia says such projects are vital to cope with a national population increase of 11.8 million in the next three decades - or risk losing $15 billion through congestion by 2031.

"If you can imagine adding two more cities the size of Melbourne or Sydney to Australia by 2047, you'll appreciate the enormity of the challenge," said Infrastructure Australia chairwoman Julieanne Alroe.

An artists impression of Green Square. Credit:Stewart Hollenstein

The infrastructure auditor has designated Western Sydney as the country's highest priority area, with four of the nation's top six projects of "national significance" located in the booming corridor.A naked disoriented 16-year-old boy screamed for help as he was beaten earlier this year by NSW police officers whose conduct is now being investigated in a Sydney public hearing.

A screenshot from the video footage of the arrest of a 16-year-old boy in a Byron Bay laneway.

Video footage of some of the arrest of the teen, who later said he had taken the drug acid, was shown on Monday at the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) hearing in Sydney.

Counsel assisting the commissioner, Terence Rowles, said four officers responded to a call that the boy was acting inappropriately before they used OC spray, a Taser and physical force including batons to restrain him in a Byron Bay laneway in the early hours of January 11.

The LECC is investigating whether any officer involved in the apprehension, detention or treatment of the boy engaged in criminal conduct or in serious misconduct.Upper Brookfield  1.43

Ransome  1.29

Kholo  2.02

Pullenvale  2.06

Burbank  2.09

Brookfield  2.15

Karana Downs  2.17 The properties analysed were all-three bedrooms houses. In the future, NoiseNet hopes to include apartments in its noise ratings. Property valuer and analyst Suburbanite's Anna Porter said just because a property was in a 'loud' suburb didn't mean it wouldn't attract a premium price. "When youre going into suburbs that are impacted by noise, whether it be plane, train or main roads, there has to be a trade-off," she said. "So in a lot of the cases with these suburbs the trade-off is youre close to the CBD, youre close to employment, youre close to infrastructure, shops, schools, all of the things people look for with lifestyle."

"Its all about the trade-off. The bigger the noise impact, the bigger the trade-off has to be." The median house price in Seven Hill is almost $920,000 while Cannon Hill had a median price of $889,000 and Morningside $818,000. In comparison, Upper Brookfield, Burbank and Brookfield all had median house prices of more than $1 million as they were acreage properties. Ms Porter said Archerfield, which had a median price of $388,000, had a lower price because of several factors. "Archerfield, its not only noisy but has the visual impact of an airport being right on your doorstep and then youre in a flood zone."

Loading Mr Clough said noise had a significant effect on quality of life. Between impacting on your sleep, to ruining your enjoyment of your home, it is a serious issue, he said. The results show Pinkenba has high aircraft noise with significant zoning noise [industrial zones] and moderate traffic noise. Archerfield has the combination of zoning noise, high road noise and somewhat high aircraft noise. The Seven Hills rating is mainly driven by aircraft noise.

These [quieter] suburbs are all rural or incorporate large areas of bushland. They also are out of the way of major highways, rail lines and aircraft flight paths. "Although further out from the city, an extra 20-30 minute of commuting may not be such a bad deal if you are getting a few extra hours of deep sleep every night. Plus you could save hundreds of thousands in property prices." NoiseNet chief-executive Stuart Clough Mr Clough stressed it was important to assess the noise level at each individual property as it could vary within specific suburbs. NoiseNet offers a free property noise rating and reporting service as well as detailed paid reports."I vehemently reject this claim," she said. "These comments not only undermine the role of Chairman of Brisbane City Council, but are also defamatory as there is nothing to substantiate them." A debate broke out between several councillors and the chair at the March 20 meeting after Labor councillor Kara Cook told the chair she was finding it difficult to hear because councillor Julian Simmonds and councillor Vicki Howard were having a conversation. Cr Cook: I'm finding it increasingly difficult to hear what's being said here due to this conversation here. Cr Owen: Cr Cook, I can't hear a word that Cr Simmonds is saying and quite frankly, he's not saying anything. I can see his face and

Cr Johnston: Oh, hello. Cr Simmonds: Point of order Cr Owen: Excuse me, sit down. I'm speaking. Section 41. I've put up with a lot of nonsense tonight. Cr Simmonds was not saying anything. I could clearlydon't you argue with me, Cr Johnston. I could clearly see his face. He was just nodding and Cr Howard was whispering. It was not an audible conversation, not like some of them that have taken place in the opposition benches tonight. So, Cr Johnston, finish your general business, thank you. Cr Johnston: Point of order, Madam Chairman. Cr Owen: Point of order.

Cr Johnston: I move dissent in your ruling. Cr Owen: There being no seconder, dissent is not upheld. Finish your general business. Cr Johnston: Well Cr Kara Cook was on her feet and very clearly Cr Owen: Cr Johnston, finish your business. Cr Johnston: Very clearly

Cr Owen: Finish your general business. Cr Johnston: Thank you. Point of order, Madam Chairman. I rule dissent in your decision to not recognise Councillor Cr Owen: Cr Johnston, you can't rule anything. Continue your general business. Opposition Leader Peter Cumming wrote to the council's chief executive to formally complain about Cr Owen's conduct. Credit:Glenn Hunt Cr Cumming said in his letter it was in his opinion that Cr Owen abused her authority as chair in a purely partisan attempt to provide cover for her LNP colleague.

The verbal assault, which Cr Owen witnessed and ignored, included aggressive gesturing," he said. The minutes record Cr Cook describing the attack as bullying, harassment. Later, in the most flagrant breach of proper meeting procedure that I have witnessed in 24 years as a councillor, Cr Owen shut down general business while Cr Johnston was mid-speech and with three Labor councillors awaiting their turn to speak. "I have never witnessed such a ruthlessly biased ruling and want to place on the record the increasing level of frustration from opposition councillors to Cr Owens consistently biased rulings. When Fairfax Media approach the council for comment, a spokesman said the administration would not comment on any individual circumstances, but confirmed Mr Jensen reviewed all complaints he received.

Cr Cumming wrote to Mr Jensen on Friday, March 23, and on Monday evening he was yet to receive a response or acknowledgement from the chief executive. The minutes Cr Cook: Point of order. I find that conduct to be bullying, harassment Cr Owen: Excuse me, stop Cr Cook: Do not point your finger at me ever again.

Cr Owen: Enough. You don't rise on a point of order in this place until you are called. I was discussing the amount of time that was remaining with the clerks. I did not see what went on and I will not have councillorsdon't speak when I am speaking. Read the Meetings Local Law, section 51. The behaviour and the carry on is absolutely atrocious in this place. I should be able to confirm with the clerks how much time a councillor has got remaining in their speech in general business without the nonsense going on. Now I don't know what happened right then and there, but it ceases. I'm putting all councillors on notice. You are in this place. It is a place of political debate, but it is also a place of decorum. There are meetings local laws and when I give a ruling, I give a ruling. The same that happens in the State Parliament and the same that happens in the Federal Parliament. So start learning. When a ruling is given, just because you don't like it, it is not a reason to move dissent. Learn the rules. Cr Johnston, you have 30 seconds. Cr Johnston: Point of order, Madam Chairman. Cr Owen: Point of order, Councillor Johnston.A senior academic at Queenslands largest university has quit a day before the organisation could finalise its investigation into an allegation he sexually assaulted a fellow staff member.

The man was suspended on March 16 as the University of Queensland asked him to respond to a report into the matter, before resigning a week later.

The University of Queensland has investigated the allegation. Credit:Glenn Hunt.

The senior professor, understood to have been in a non-teaching role, was accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague during a work trip.

His resignation meant the university could not fire him or make a potential finding of serious misconduct or other serious consequences, the organisation said in a statement published to its website.A woman is fighting for life after being pulled free of her vehicle following a crash on the Gold Coast hinterland.

Paramedics said the woman was trapped when three cars collided on the Beaudesert-Beenleigh Road at Tamborine just before 12.30pm, closing the road.

The aftermath of a crash on the Beaudesert-Beenleigh Road at Tambourine.

The woman suffered significant leg and other injuries, while a male in his late teens suffered an ankle injury and stomach bruising, according to the Queensland Ambulance Service.

A QAS spokeswoman said the woman was able to be freed and a helicopter was on scene to transport her to hospital.For a time, the rebels held the advantage as Assad's forces retreated. A bloc including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar reinforced the rebels. A crazy-quilt of foreign fighters and forces arrived. And the US took sides against Assad. And then there was the climactic moment in October, 2011 when Obama called for his ouster: "He is imprisoning, torturing and slaughtering his own people," said the then US president. "We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. He has not led. For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside." But Obama dithered. It seemed his resolve was hardening 10 months later when he said that any use of chemical weapons by Assad was a "red line" that would "change my calculus". Assad casually crossed the red line, again and again. It was a brutal anti-climax for Syria's people and fatal for American credibility. President Barack Obama speaking about the militant threat in Syria and Iraq. Credit:AP

Now Obama is gone and Assad is on the cusp of triumph. In the midst of the ensuing chaos, the terrorist movement of Daesh, which asks us to call it Islamic State, staked out its "caliphate". The US entered the fight insofar as it needed to help destroy Daesh, but otherwise remained absent. When the US vacates a sphere of influence, it does not become a vacuum. Others move to fill it. Russia intervened decisively in Syria together with Iran. Assad was saved. "It's clear that Assad will remain as leader," says Middle East expert Anthony Bubalo, a non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute. "But the leader of what? What kind of Syria will he lead, and what parts of Syria will he control? Russia and Iran obviously have the most influence over Assad, but it's not 'command and control'." One thing is clear. The incredible shrinking America has scant influence and shattered credibility.

Illustration: Dionne Gain The US-sponsored groups in the war have been routed. America's most effective proxy fighters in the Syrian conflict, the Kurds, are now under open attack. By Turkey, supposedly another American ally. So one supposed US ally is killing another American-backed force. While Washington watches on uselessly. Trump's famous intervention? He flung a few fistfuls of missiles into the midst of the mayhem as a toddler throws toys from a pram, in a momentary squall of emotion. The missiles did nothing but confirm the delinquency of US strategy and the absence of American influence. Bubalo says that the American retreat is not just a consequence of Obama's dithering followed by Trump's aimlessness but is rather the continuation of a trend he dates from 1991.

The guided missile destroyer USS Porter launches a Tomahawk missile as the US blasted a Syrian air base with a barrage of cruise missiles. Credit:US Navy "That was thehighest point," he says ."When the US defeated the biggest army in the Middle East" in the first Iraq war. "It's been in decline since." He credits Bill Clinton's ineptitude and George W. Bush's overreach as establishing the trend, with Obama and Trump continuing the trajectory. In the Asia-Pacific, American retreat is much discussed and much apprehended but not as clear-cut. Obama told Chinese President Xi Jinping to stop grabbing the maritime territory of China's neighbours. Xi ignored him and did as he pleased. This convinced one American ally, the Philippines, that its US alliance was pointless. President Rodrigo Duterte has since given up the Philippines' resistance and thrown in his lot with China. As his top diplomat said in Sydney two weeks ago, there is no "enforcement mechanism" to prevent Chinese encroachments on the Philippines territory.Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has been accused of trading while insolvent for almost a year at his former Melbourne venues Maze and Maze Grill.

The flagship restaurants in Crown Casinos Metropol racked up debts within months of opening, despite the strident denials of Crown management and publicists representing the famously foul-mouthed chef.

Gordon Ramsay.

Ramsay, who built a global television empire by abusing hapless restaurateurs as he resurrected their financially stricken eateries, opened Maze in April 2010.

A six-year investigation by liquidator PCI Partners found "books and records revealed the company was insolvent from at least August 31, 2010," less than five months after the restaurants launched to much fanfare.That's it for us this morning. Just over 11 degrees in the city now, ahead of a top of 22.

Traffic is still heavy on the Princes Freeway, where a truck caught on fire earlier near Little River. The road has been reopened in Ascot Vale after a tram derailment overnight.

There's good service for those still left on the trains. Although there's no lift access at Flagstaff station until 2pm. If you need a lift, head to Melbourne Central or Flinders Street.

Melbourne Express will be back tomorrow morning from 6am. Be kind to yourselves.The embassy has released a statement and it's...wordy. Here it is, for you benefit:

"It is regrettable that by virtue of the notorious Anglo-Saxon and Euro-Atlantic solidarity the relatively small but substantial positive asset in our relationship, which we had managed to create by a joint effort during the last two years, was jeopardized. It is astonishing how easily the allies of Great Britain follow it blindly contrary to the norms of civilized bilateral dialogue and international relations, and against the common sense. The modern world is not in a stage when it is possible to dictate anything to anybody, regardless of the nostalgia for past grandeur in certain capitals.

Neither the Russian side, attempt on which citizens' life was made, nor other states possess impartial exhaustive information about the 'Skripal case'. The denial to investigate the circumstances of the case indicates the longing of Great Britain for a foregone conclusion the achievement of which can be hampered by an unbiased inquiry. It is categorically unacceptable to expose Russia as a threat to international peace as well as to attribute some kind of "recklessness and irresponsibility" to our foreign policy in a groundless and unsubstantiated way.

Nowadays it is more than ever important to provide the rule of international law with a maximum use of mechanisms in the area of disarmament that have been elaborated over decades and have proved to be successful. Unfortunately, all that we can see today is a step in the exact opposite direction. Such flagrant and primitive campaigns as the 'Skripal case' that are crudely orchestrated by London, could only trigger further erosion of international relations architecture on which peace and security in the whole world during the post-war period were rested."Riyadh: A rebel group in Yemen said it fired a volley of ballistic missiles toward cities in Saudi Arabia late on Sunday, including the capital, Riyadh, where at least one person was killed by shrapnel, according to a statement by the rebels and the official Saudi Press Agency.

The Saudi military said it had intercepted seven missiles, including three aimed at Riyadh, where red missile trails were visible in the night sky amid loud booms. The military's claim could not be independently confirmed. Videos shared on social media appeared to show a projectile - possibly a Patriot missile sent to intercept the incoming rebel fire - crashing to the ground shortly after it was launched.

Newly recruited Shiite fighters, known as Houthis, mobilise to fight pro-government forces, in Sanaa, Yemen. Credit:AP

The rebel group, known as the Houthis, has fired ballistic missiles into Saudi territory repeatedly over the past three years, during a war in Yemen that has pitted the rebels and their allies against Yemeni factions aligned with a Saudi-led military coalition. Saudi and US officials have accused Iran of supplying missiles and other weapons to the Houthis, a charge the government in Tehran has denied.Latest News Suncorp launches green home loan product Solar panels equal cashback in 'unique' play for refinancing market

This is why Sydney property prices are going up Its not all about the pandemic, interest rates and government stimulus: it goes far, far deeper than that

Australias leading banking association has confirmed that a new code of practice is in the pipeline with all members expected to sign up once the rules have attained ASIC approval.

Anna Bligh, CEO of the Australian Banking Association, confirmed yesterday that the new code has been completely rewritten to better meet community standards and industry scrutiny.

She also stressed that all retail banks will be required to sign up to the code of practice if they wish to maintain their ABA membership.

In the past it was up to each individual bank if they wanted to sign up however this new customer-focussed code will become compulsory for all ABA members with a retail presence, Bligh said.

This new code will be binding, forming part of relevant customer contracts, enforceable by law and will be monitored by an independent body, she continued. Australians expect their banks to operate in an ethical and appropriate way when they apply for a credit card, home, small business loan or other financial product.

Bligh explained that the change comes as Australias entire banking sector looks to find ways in which it can improve conduct and culture within the industry.

While there is much work still to be done, Australias banks are serious about genuine reform which addresses conduct and culture, with the Banking Code of Practice a cornerstone of these efforts, she said. The industry is committed to genuine reform which will rebuild trust with the Australian community, with the new code an important step in the right direction.

Currently awaiting approval from ASIC, the code will deliver changes across the board with plain English contracts for small business, no more unsolicited offers to increase credit card limits, greater transparency around fees and customers having an ability to cancel a card online, explained Bligh.

Banks that have signed up are required to include a statement in its contracts that the code applies, which in turn is a legally enforceable document. There will be a 12 month implementation period for the code once ASIC has given its approval

In addition, an independent body, the Banking Code Compliance Committee (BCCC) will monitor and oversee compliance with the code.

Related stories:Days after the SBI-led consortium of banks rejected both the bids for Essar Steel on technical grounds, Lakshmi Mittal-led ArcelorMittal has challenged the committee of creditors' decision at the Ahmedabad bench of the NCLT, the company said in a statement on Monday.

Last week, the committee of creditors' had rejected the bids by Numetal and ArcelorMittal for Essar Steel as they were found to be ineligible under the provisions of the amended Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

ArcelorMittal and Russian bank VTB Capital had earlier challenged the validity of each other's bids on the basis of their own interpretation of the newly introduced insolvency and bankruptcy law.

To remind you, VTB is the largest shareholder in NuMetal Ltd. The consortium also includes Russian engineering firm Tyazhpromexport (TPE), Indo International Trading and Aurora Enterprises, owned by a trust controlled by Rewant Ruia, from the estranged promoter family of Essar Steel. Rewant is the son of Ravi Ruia, vice-chairman of Essar Group.

The validity of ArcelorMittal's bid was also questioned as they held a stake in the steel manufacturer Uttam Galva, another loan-defaulter facing insolvency proceedings. The Mittals, who were co-promoters in the company, shed their stake at a discount to become eligible for the Essar bid.

The bankers had met on March 23 in Mumbai and had rejected ArcelorMittal's bid along with that of Numetal - the only two bidders for the crippled 10-million tonne Essar Steel assets at Hazira in Gujarat - citing technical issues.

These two bids were from the beginning questioned by the insolvency resolution professional (IRP) and others as the promoters of both these firms were defaulters in other firms - the Ruias in Essar Steel and the Mittals in Uttam Galva.

"We have already informed the stock exchanges that ArcelorMittal was declassified as a promoter of Uttam Galva. We have therefore today proposed a legal challenge to the decision of the resolution professional in the court in Ahmedabad," ArcelorMittal said in a statement.



"This legal challenge is also critical to ensure that we protect our rights in the process given the legal challenge by Numetal against the decision of the committee of creditors," the company added.

It can be noted that ArcelorMittal had a joint venture with Uttan Galwa, while Numetal is 25 per cent owned by Essar Steel's original promoter Ravai Ruia's son Rewant Ruia through a Mauritius based investment vehicle called Aurora Trusts.

Rejecting both the bids, the SBI-led consortium said under the provisions of Section 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), both the bids by the Mittal's and Numetal were ineligible.

The Section 29A debars promoters with direct or indirect links to the defaulted promoter of a bankrupt asset from bidding for the same through the insolvency process.

In the statement, ArcelorMittal said it continues to believe that it's February 12th bid was strong and competitive and that it was fully eligible and therefore should have been placed before the committee of creditors by the IRP.

"However, we received formal notification on March 23 that our bid was ineligible due to the technicality of still being a promoter of Uttam Galva on the stock exchange, even though we had sold our shareholding before submitting our offer," it said.

The 30-bankers consortium has allowed rebid till April 2, while the petition of Numetal, which has already challenged the rejection at the NCLT, will be taken up on March 27.

Under the insolvency resolution process, the case should be settled within a maximum 270 days, which ends on April 29 in the case of Essar Steel.

with PTI inputsIndia's largest steelmaker JSW Steel on Monday announced it would consider an investment of upto $500 million in phases to develop its steel manufacturing infrastructure in Baytown in Texas. JSW would be aided by a $3.4 million grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund as part of the memorandum signed with the Governor of Texas.

The investment would be made to undertake capability enhancement of its Plate & Pipe Mill unit located in the region. JSW, which has now rechristened its US operations as JSW USA, is already investing $150 million to augment the unit's capabilities. This capex programme is expected to be completed by March 2020. JSW USA intends to use rest of the investment, up to US $350 million, to set-up a new hot end facility to make their steel 'melt and manufacture' (subject to approvals). Around 500 new jobs are expected to be generated by this expansion.

It comes in the wake of US President Donald Trump hiking tariff on steel and aluminium industry to encourage the domestic industry.

"The Memorandum signed by Greg Abbott and JSW USA is part of our long-term strategy to enhance our US footprint. It reiterates our commitment to stay invested and grow in the US market," said Parth Jindal of JSW Group. "It also provides JSW USA with an opportunity to participate in USA's infrastructure development and job creation priorities. Access to natural gas at extremely economical prices and the abundant availability of scrap steel in Texas make conditions very conducive to manufacturing through the Electric Arc Furnace route."

JSW USA operates one of the widest steel plate and pipe mills in North America. Strategically located in Baytown, Texas, approximately 30 miles outside Houston, the unit services the needs of the energy, petrochemicals, defence and other heavy equipment industries in the USA who need high-quality carbon plate.

The company had bought the plant more than a decade ago as part of the acquisition of three companies in the US for $900 million (around Rs 3,690 crore) to get a foothold in the North American market. Known for its penchant for acquiring stressed assets and then turning them around, these were however, not one of JSW's better acquisitions.

While the three units were all loss-making in 2006-07, with net losses of $42 million against revenues of $510 million, JSW had expected to recover costs, including that of the acquisition, in four years.

Instead the company has had to write-off loans worth Rs 6,208.74 crore to the US holding company. In the first quarter of this fiscal, the US plate and pipe mill had an operating income of $5.1 million on revenues of $58.67 million, which suggest it is showing signs of recovery. However, JSW Steel (US) is still consistently making losses.Southeast Asia's largest acquisition deal was signed this weekend. Earlier this morning, Singapore-based Grab announced that that it has acquired Uber's Southeast Asia operations. This ends the nearly five-year-old journey of the US-based company in the region, which began in Singapore. Grab now plans to integrate the latter's ride-sharing and food delivery business (Uber Eats) in eight countries in the region - Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - into its existing multi-modal transportation and fintech platform.

In return, Uber will take a 27.5 per cent stake in the company and its CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, will join Grab's board, which has reportedly been valued at $6 billion. "This deal is a testament to Uber's exceptional growth across Southeast Asia over the last five years. It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology to create the best customer experience on the planet," said Khosrowshahi.



In an email sent out to Uber's staff announcing the deal, Khosrowshahi said that around 500 employees across the eight countries mentioned above will transition to Grab and acknowledged that "combining forces with Grab is the right thing to do for Uber for the long term". He went on to explain just what Uber stands to gain from this deal. "After investing $700 million in the region, we will hold a stake worth several billion dollars, and strategic ownership in what we believe will be the winner in an important global region," said the CEO. After all, it boasts a population of around 640 million, and counting.



This, incidentally, is the first major consolidation that the region has seen in this industry, and intensifies the pressure on rivals like Go-Jek in Indonesia, backed by both Google and China's Tencent Holdings Ltd. To minimise disruption, Grab and Uber are working together to promptly migrate Uber drivers and riders, Uber Eats customers, merchant partners and delivery partners to the Grab platform. The Uber app will continue to operate for two weeks to ensure stability for Uber drivers, while UberEats will run until the end of May, after which the US-based company's delivery and restaurant partners will move to the GrabFood platform.



With the combined business, Grab will extend its leadership as the most cost efficient Southeast Asian platform and drive towards becoming the leading online-to-offline (O2O) mobile platform in the region. "We are humbled that a company born in SEA has built one of the largest platforms that millions of consumers use daily and provides income opportunities to over 5 million people. Today's acquisition marks the beginning of a new era," said Anthony Tan, Group CEO and Co-founder, Grab.



This, of course is not the first time that Uber has withdrawn from a market in the face of bruising competition and mounting losses. In 2016, Uber had sold off its China business to a competitor and partner, Didi Chuxing, taking a stake in the latter. The following year, it agreed to merge its ride-hailing business in Russia with Yandex, a local search-engine leader that also runs a popular taxi-booking app.



Khosrowshahi's recent letter to the company's staff acknowledged as much. "It is fair to ask whether consolidation is now the strategy of the day, given this is the third deal of its kind, from China to Russia and now Southeast Asia. The answer is no," he penned, adding, "One of the potential dangers of our global strategy is that we take on too many battles across too many fronts and with too many competitors. This transaction now puts us in a position to compete with real focus and weight in the core markets where we operate, while giving us valuable and growing equity stakes in a number of big and important markets where we don't."



Given that India is one of the markets where the company is not making any money, despite accounting for over 10 per cent of Uber's trips globally, it's long been speculated that a similar exit story will play out at home in the near future. Especially, due to the SoftBank angle. The Japanese conglomerate, as a major investor in Uber as well as several of its rivals, seems to be encouraging consolidation to tackle potential conflicts of interest. It happened with China's Didi Chuxing and now with Grab, both part of SoftBank's portfolio. So a tie-up between SoftBank-backed Ola next does not seem far-fetched.



In fact, after SoftBank picked up a stake in Uber last December, it had announced that it wanted the company to focus on more profitable markets like the United States, Europe and Australia, not Asia. Obviously this is because the pressure to subsidise rides in the region was bleeding out the company, contributing substantially to Uber's $4.5 billion losses in 2017, reportedly 61 per cent jump year-on-year.



However, on his recent trip to India, Khosrowshahi had repeatedly told the media that he had no exit plans. "The Indian market is an incredibly important market a core market for us...I can't specifically disclose how much we invest in India but I can tell you it's a lot, and that investment is going to continue," he said last month in the capital.



"As a company we talked about being a $40 billion growth bookings run rate but we account for less than 1 per cent of the overall transportation industry. This is a $5 trillion industry that we are competing in and that is the ultimate size of the prize that we are aiming for. So if we weren't investing in these kinds of big markets with a big population [India and Latin America] that have a lot of growth ahead of them then we won't meet the target," he added.



Significantly, he had added that courtesy the discerning Indian consumers, be it in terms of price or quality of service, "India can, essentially, be a sort of laboratory for us for the next 6 billion consumers who are going to have exposure to our products." With Uber eyeing an initial public offering as early as next year, Khosrowshahi will have his hands full trying to strike a balance between short-term profitability and long-term growth potential.



With Reuters inputsAccording to reports, about 50 lakh-odd employees can go on a strike after the government's decision to not increase the salaries of Central government employees beyond the recommendations made by the 7th Pay Commission. Earlier this month, the government delivered a big blow to the employees when it disclosed to the Rajya Sabha that it had no plans to revise their pay scale.

"The minimum pay of Rs 18,000 [per month] and fitment factor of 2.57 are based on the specific recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission in the light of the relevant factors taken into account by it. Therefore, no change therein is at present under consideration," said Minister of State Finance, P Radhakrishnan in a written reply.

National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) chief Shiv Gopal Mishra, who led the pay hike negotiations on behalf of central government employees, reportedly expressed dissatisfaction over the government's decision. "The employees are agitated and there is a lot of disappointment. I can assure that the demand to raise the minimum pay has not been forfeited. If negotiations do not give us a solution, then an agitation would," he told Oneindia.

To remind you, ever since the 7th Pay Commission recommendations released, the central government employees have been demanding that the minimum pay be raised to Rs 26,000 instead of Rs 18,000 - based on a fitment factor of 3.68 times the basic pay of 6th pay commission - and the upper limit be raised to Rs 3.25 lakh a month. The unions had even threatened to go on an indefinite strike on July 11, 2016, but plans were cancelled after the government promised to look into the matter.

Then came news reports that the government was considering hiking the minimum wages with a fitment formula of 3 times the previous basic pay. This would increase the minimum basic pay to Rs 21,000. The recent developments signalling zero change is, hence, a huge disappointment for this group.

A pay hike over and above the pay commission's recommendations seems unlikely when one considers the news of higher-than-projected revenue deficits coming in from various states. Earlier this month, Maharashtra's State Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar had said that the move to pay the sanctioned arrears would put a burden of Rs 21,500 crore on the state exchequer. A week later, a senior Tamil Nadu state government official estimated that the same would cause the state's revenue deficit to spike by 15 per cent. Meanwhile, Tripura, where the Bhartiya Janta Party recently surged to power promising to implement the latest Pay Commission, is already facing a fiscal deficit of Rs 11,355 crore.

All this is significant because state expenditures contribute significantly to the country's consolidated fiscal deficit. Against this backdrop, the Modi government might find it difficult to top-up the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. Besides, earlier this month, the Cabinet approved a 2 per cent hike in the Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief for central government employees, which together will put additional burden of Rs 6,077.72 crore on the exchequer every year. The financial pressure is projected to cross Rs 7,090 crore during the 14-month period between January 2018 and February 2019. With general elections coming up next year, the Centre would hardly want to risk placing additional demands on its coffers.

Meanwhile, last week, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan announced the formation of a committee to propose revision in the pay structure and allowances of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats employees, noting that the 7th pay commission did not make recommendations about their salaries. The six-member panel will include Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anath Kumar, and will be headed by Murli Manohar Joshi, estimates committee chairperson.

(With PTI inputs)Even as India's two principal political parties engage in a slugfest over whose app is more anti-national in sharing data of citizens with foreign servers, the spotlight is clearly on the prime minister's app 'Narendra Modi' because it treads a thin line.

The big question is: Whose app is this anyways?

Narendra Modi-the citizen of India

Narendra Modi-the Prime Minister of India

Or, Narendra Modi-the leader of BJP

The App sends out conflicting signals. And answers to each one of those would raise more questions of propriety.

The copyright of the app is with 'Narendra Modi'.

The developer is 'Narendra Modi'

Yet, it claims to be the 'official App' of the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, whose owner should ideally be the Government of India or the Prime Minister's Office.

Also, if this is the Prime Minister's official app, should it also have 'BJP Connect' section which exhorts the user to visit BJP's official website and that of senior party leaders including LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and party president Amit Shah, their Twitter accounts, besides BJP chief ministers and their Twitter accounts.

This then raises 3 key questions:

If it's owned by citizen Narendra Modi, why does it claim to be the 'Prime Minister of India's' official app?

If it's the Prime Minister's official app, why is it owned by citizen Narendra Modi and not the government of India?

If it's the Prime Minister's official app, why does it exhort users to go to BJP leaders' homepages and Twitter accounts via 'BJP Connect'?

Meanwhile, the Narendra Modi App has quietly changed its privacy policy since the time the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scam broke. But failed to do it across the App. As a result, parts of the app continue to contradict the new policy.

Before the scam broke, until March 22, it said, "The information shall not be provided to third parties in any manner whatsoever without your consent".

The app now says, "The following information may be processed by third party services to offer you a better experience- 1) Name, Email, mobile number; 2) Device information, location, network carrier."

The app did not seek user consent (a global practice) while making this change to the privacy policy unilaterally. Yet, even as the privacy policy was changed, the developer didn't change the details across the app.

In the FAQs, the app still claims in the iOS version: "The data you provide on the app is strictly housed safely and not passed on to anyone else". Clearly, a remnant of the previous policy and not the new one.

Eventually, it's the ownership of the app that decides who's liable for the breach-if any-of the provisions of the Information Technology Act. India is yet to define its data protection policy, even though the Supreme Court has said every Indian has the right to privacy. While a committee headed by Justice BN Srikrishna is working on India's data protection framework, at present there's no guideline to specify leak of which data amounts to violation.

A 2011 notification on the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data) Rules specifically defines 'Personal Data' as: passwords; financial information such as bank accounts, credit or debit card details or other payment instrument details; physical, psychological or mental health conditions; sexual orientation; medical records and history; biometric information.

The frequent cases of data breach in the recent past should, ideally, push the government to expedite the formulation of a strong data protection policy.The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) new diktat to banks for initiating the bankruptcy proceedings against defaulters with loan outstanding of Rs 2,000 crore or more is expected to create more chaos at the already flooded National Company Law Tribunal. The NCLT is a quasi-judicial body that adjudicates all the cases related to Indian companies and also the bankruptcy cases.



There are already more than 600 bankruptcy cases where there is a time bound mechanism of 180 days (maximum 270 days) to restructure a case or approve liquidation of the company. The RBI's new diktat would add more than 1,000 cases by the end of this year.

Whereas there are currently close to a dozen benches, which hear company law matters and also the bankruptcy cases. This infrastructure is inadequate, says the bankers. "Our two cases have been resolved and we are awaiting the written orders from the NCLT," says a banker.

In fact, the Insolvency Resolution Professional (IRP), who manages the company in the interim, has to wait for many of the directions from the court. "There are instances when management or the promoters doesn't corporate. We have no recourse but to approach the NCLT," says a IRP.



The focus is already on 12 large cases where the resolution is yet to come. In fact, there are more challenges from the bidders, the bidders getting disqualified or amendments are made to make the law better. The final orders on many cases are yet to come.



Experts suggest that the government should increase the NCLT benches from current 11 to 20. There are times when cases are not getting listed for days. "It should be run like an institution or an organization otherwise it will become another DRTs ( Debt Recovery Tribunals) where cases piled up for years without any resolution."



There is another issue of the appellate tribunal NCLAT where the NCLT orders are challenged. The NCLAT has only one bench. The cases are rising by the day and the IRPs population has also increased to 1,727, but the cases are going to get jammed at the NCLT.

It is a given that when you go to an airport, you shell out more than your share for beverages, snacks and other items. In fact, we all know people who prefer to eat well before heading to the airport so as not to pay extra. But former Finance Minister P Chidambaram apparently had no idea that this is just usual business at an airport.

When the former union minister wanted to have a cup of tea, he was given 'hot water' and a 'tea bag' for Rs 135. A miffed Chidambaram then refused to pay and was 'horrified' at how exorbitant it was. He took to Twitter and said, "At Chennai Airport Coffee Day I asked for tea. Offered hot water and tea bag, price Rs 135. Horrified, I declined. Was I right or wrong?"

At Chennai Airport Coffee Day I asked for tea. Offered hot water and tea bag, price Rs 135. Horrified, I declined. Was I right or wrong? - P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) March 25, 2018

Chidambaram, perhaps, did not expect the reaction he received.

People were surprised at two things. First, how come Chidambaram did not know that airports charge exorbitant amounts for the smallest of things and second, was Rs 135 really too much for a person like Chidambaram?

In one of the reactions, Ajit Bhinder told Chidamabaram: "That's d rate for many years- inside or outside the AirPort- how come you don't know d rates?

That's d rate for many years- inside or out side the AirPort- how come you don't know d rates? Clearly You have never paid for your coffee or for that matter any thing- how would you know? - Col Ajit Bhinder (@ajitbhinder) March 25, 2018

Another Twitter user, Sachin Hanumante said: "This is the case at all Airport for years. Not just limited to Coffee. Judgement is relative to affordability. But thanks for highlighting."

Sir, why surprised now ? This is the case at all Airport for years. Not just limited to Coffee. Judgement is relative to affordability. But thanks for highlighting. We (family of 3) spend over '000 at airport out of no choice. Better late than never. Citizens will support. Thanks - Sachin Hanumante (@CA_SachinH) March 25, 2018

Some of the people were so angry at Chidambaram's tweet that they accused him of not being in touch with the reality. The response came after the former Finance Minister expressed his shock after he was told that many people do buy tea and coffee at such exorbitant price.

In a tweet, Chidambaram had said: "Coffee Rs 180. I asked who buys it? Answer was 'many'. Am I outdated?"

Coffee Rs 180. I asked who buys it? Answer was 'many'. Am I outdated? - P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) March 25, 2018

To this, a twitter user Shankar Sharan said: "Airport prices of tea and coffee have been atrociously high as long as I remember. Is this ignorance common to our rulers?"

Sir, it was same ten years ago. How come you never knew/noticed? Airport prices of tea and coffee have been atrociously high as long as I remember. Is this ignorance common to our rulers? - Shankar Sharan (@hesivh) March 26, 2018

People also hit out at Chidambaram for making it look like a case of unaffordable prices. Noted journalist R Jagannathan in a tweet said: "Karti has enough money if he can afford Singhvi as lawyer. Moreover, his daughter is going to inherit a fortune from Karti friends."ITEXPO Opens call for papers for January 2019 Event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Trumbull, CT  March 26, 2018  TMC today announced, the call for papers has opened for ITEXPO, held January 28-31, 2019 at the Greater Ft. Lauderdale/Broward Country Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. ITEXPO is the only event dedicated to exploring communications solutions for the enterprise mid market, resellers and service providers. ITEXPO is the annual meeting point where buyers of communications hardware and services can sit face-to-face with 100s of manufacturers and solutions providers in one place, for three incredibly productive days. Although all submission topics will be considered for ITEXPO, conference organizers will be most interested in proposals featuring a special focus on the following topics:

Artificial Intelligence and Automated Communications

Brand Reputation/Management

Business Process Automation

Business Continuity Planning and Management

Call Recording

Cloud Services

Communications APIs and Service Integration

Conferencing/Collaboration

Customer Engagement/Interaction

Customer Experience

Data Analytics and Business Intelligence

Digital Transformation

Government Solutions

Hosted and Cloud-based services

Fraud and Identity Management

IP Communications Development Trends

Mid-Market Business IP Communications

Mobility

Monetization Opportunities

Managed Services

MSP Trends and Solutions

Network and Cloud Management/Optimization

Open Source

Regulation

SDN / NFV

SD-WAN

Security

Service Provider/Carrier Trends and Solutions

SIP/SIP Trunking and Connectivity Solutions

Skype for Business

Social Business

Trends and the Future of Communications

VAR/Reseller Strategies

Video Conferencing/Telepresence

Wireless/Cellular Communications

WiFi/WLAN

WebRTC/Real Time Web Solutions

Over the years ITEXPO has become the leading event for buyers looking to invest in new solutions. Speakers will have the unique opportunity to share their insight on which trends and technologies will be shaping the future of the industry, said Rich Tehrani, TMC CEO and conference chairman. ITEXPO is a powerful forum dedicated to fostering communication, innovation and the development of new business partnerships. We are eager to see this years speaker submissions and look forward building next years program.

To submit a proposal, interested speakers should complete the online form by June 29, 2018 here: https://www.itexpo.com/east/call-for-papers.aspx. ITEXPO speakers must adhere 100% to TMCs no commercialism policy. If speakers cannot avoid commercialism, please do not submit a proposal.

Questions regarding speaking opportunities at ITEXPO should be sent to Dave Rodriguez at 203-852-6800 x146 or Erik Linask at 203-852-6800 x284.

For more information or to register for ITEXPO, contact events@tmcnet.com. For media inquiries, contact Jessica Seabrook. Companies interested in exhibiting, sponsorship or advertising packages for ITEXPO should contact TMC's Joe Fabiano at 203-852-6800 x132 or Maureen Gambino at 203-852-6800 x109.



For the latest ITEXPO news, updates and information follow the event on Twitter at @ITEXPO.

About TMC

Global buyers rely on TMCs content-driven marketplaces to make purchase decisions and navigate markets. This presents branding, thought leadership and lead generation opportunities for vendors/sellers.

TMCs Marketplaces:

Unique, turnkey Online Communities boost search results, establish market validation, elevate brands and thought leadership, while minimizing ad-blocking.

Custom Lead Programs uncover sales opportunities and build databases.

In-Person and Online Events boost brands, enhance thought leadership and generate leads.

Publications, Display Advertising and Newsletters bolster brand reputations.

Custom Content provides expertly ghost-crafted blogs, press releases, articles and marketing collateral to help with SEO, branding, and

overall marketing efforts.

overall marketing efforts. Comprehensive Event and Road Show Management Services help companies meet potential clients and generate leads face-to-face.



For more information about TMC and to learn how we can help you reach your marketing goals, please visit www.tmcnet.com.

Media and Analyst Contact:

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Marketing Director

TMC

203-852-6800 x 170

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Edited by Mandi NowitzMid-priced hotel chain Lemon Tree will open its Rs 1,038 crore initial public offer (IPO) today. The IPO launches in a holiday-truncated week (Thursday and Friday) marked by March derivatives expiry on Wednesday. Markets are likely to witness volatile sessions in view of derivatives expiry in three trading sessions this week.

On Sunday, the hospitality chain raised Rs 311 crore from anchor investors.

18 anchor investors have invested Rs 311.61 crore at a price of Rs 56 per scrip after allotment of 5,56,43,820 shares, the firm said.

SBI Magnum Balanced Fund, DB International Asia, HDFC Small Cap Fund, Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies Investment Trust Plc, BNP Paribas Arbitrage and Alpine Global Premier Properties Fund are among the anchor investors.

The price band for the initial public offer (IPO), which will close on March 28, has been fixed at Rs 54-56 per equity share.

At the upper end of the price band, the issue will raise Rs 1,038.68 crore.

The hotel chain, which is backed by buyout firm Warburg Pincus and Dutch pension fund APG, has fixed the IPO price band at Rs 54-Rs 56 per share. The issue will close on March 28.

The firm's public offer comprises sale of up to 185,479,400 equity shares by the existing shareholders, including Maplewood, Whispering Resorts, Palms International and RJ Corp.

According to the draft red herring prospectus, promoters hold 31.11 per cent stake and private equity investors and other non-promoter share holders hold 68.89 per cent stake in the firm.

"Our company expects listing of the equity shares will enhance our visibility and brand image and provide liquidity to our shareholders. Listing will also provide a public market for the equity shares in India," the company said in draft red herring prospectus (DRHP).

Lemon Tree, currently the leader in terms of controlling interest in owned and leased rooms has operations spread across the value chain and range from acquiring land to owning, leasing, developing, managing and marketing hotels.

The company has 45 hotels with 4,700 rooms in 28 cities. It has a portfolio of 19 owned-hotels, three owned-hotels are located on leased or licensed land, five leased hotels and 18 managed hotels, a company statement said.

Founded in 2002 by Patu Keswani, the company has hotels under three brands - Lemon Tree Premier, which is an upscale brand; Lemon Tree Resorts, a leisure segment brand; Lemon Tree Hotels, a midscale brand and the economy brand Red Fox Hotels.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, CLSA India, JP Morgan India and Yes Securities will manage the company's public issue. The equity shares are proposed to be listed on the BSE and the National Stock Exchange.26 Mar 2018, 2:06 PM

Uber exits SE Asia in latest retreat from global markets

Singapore-based company Grab is taking over the ride-sharing and food delivery operations of Uber in South East Asia with the California-based company to receive a 27.5 per cent stake in the business in return as reported by PTI. The sale is Uber's latest withdrawal from a market where it had faced fierce competition, as new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi seeks to stem huge losses and move past a series of scandals. The deal with Grab ends a years-long fight for market share in a region that is home to some 650 million people and an increasingly affluent middle class.

AirAsia to offer domestic flight tickets starting from Rs 850

AirAsia today announced fares as low as Rs 850 to domestic destinations and Rs 1,999 to international destinations, if tickets are booked from its website or mobile app between March 26 and April 1. The fares would be applicable for travel between October 1 to May 28, the airline said in a statement. "The promotional one way all-in fares start from Rs 850 and the discount applies to all bookings made through airasia.com and the AirAsia mobile application," it said. Tickets to international destinations such as Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Phuket and Melbourne can also be booked at as low as Rs 1,999, the statement said.

Mukesh Ambani's son all set to marry Shloka Mehta in Dec

The son of the richest man in the country proposed to diamantaire Russell Mehta's youngest daughter Shloka Mehta at a pre-engagement ceremony in Goa. The two families and close friends gathered at a plush five-star resort on Saturday for a 'get-to-know-each-other' before the formal engagement. The wedding of Akash Ambani, the scion of India's richest family, is on the cards for later this year. While the dates of either the wedding or engagement of Akash Ambani have not been finalised yet, the couple is likely to get formally engaged in June and the wedding is likely to be held in early December.

UIDAI to rollout face authentication feature for Aadhaar verification from July 1

To prevent frequent Aadhaar authentication failures, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is all set to rollout face authentication alongside iris or fingerprint scan for Aadhaar verification from July 1, 2018.

Challenging times ahead for Indian railways

Indian Railways is up for some tough times and difficult choices as the financial year comes to an end. Just a week is left for the current financial year to end. Its incremental income generation has turned negative as of February-end as reported by Daily News and Analysis. "The financial position of the Railways is very tight and efforts need to be intensified to achieve the earnings target as an amount of Rs 34,168 crore is yet to be achieved," as per a record of the recent meeting at the Railway Board where financial advisors of all Railway zones were directed to make extra efforts to reach closer to the targets.

Chidambaram brews debate on twitter

On Sunday, senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram took to twitter to share his experience at the Chennai airport.Chidambaram asked the Twitterati if he was right in declining a cup of tea priced at Rs 135 at the Chennai airport. In another tweet he was surprised to know that there are many who buy coffee at Rs 180. He followed it up with a question asking if he is outdated. The leader was trolled on twitter with twitterati bringing up the ongoing money laundering case against his son Karti Chidambaram and trolling him for his lack of knowledge over rising prices. The tweet has been trending on twitter

Rahul Gandhi accuses PM of leaking Narendra Modi app data

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused the Prime Minister of leaking Narendra Modi app data and giving it to American companies. In a tweet, Rahul Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister's official mobile app gives all data to companies in US. Gandhi was referring to a report in which a French security researcher said when you create a profile in the official @narendramodi #Android app, all your device info (OS, network type, Carrier) and personal data (email, photo, gender, name) is sent without your consent to a third-party domain called http://in.wzrkt.com.In a promo offer, Air Asia is fulfilling a lot of travel dreams. The airline is offering international tickets to destinations like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Phuket and Melbourne for as low as Rs 1,999. Not only international flyers, AirAsia is also offering domestic tickets for as low as Rs 850. Passengers must purchase tickets from the website or mobile app to avail these offers.

"The promotional one way all-in fares start from Rs 850 and the discount applies to all bookings made through airasia.com and the AirAsia mobile application," AirAsia said in a statement.

The booking period starts today, March 26 and would last till April 1. The promotional fare would be applicable for travel between October 1 and May 28, the airline mentioned in a statement.

However, although the domestic fares show up for as less as Rs 849, most of the cheap international flights on the list are shown as sold out.

AirAsia has services to domestic destinations such as Bengaluru, Ranchi, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Nagpur, Indore, Kochi, Hyderabad, Pune, Guwahati, Chennai and Kolkata, it said.

The promotional offers can be availed for these destinations, the statement added.

AirAsia had recently added new routes to its domestic network, including Nagpur and Indore. The airline had rolled out another promotional offer when it announced the new routes.

Not only that the airline also is planning to start overseas operations by January 2019. "Our strategy is that once we get to 20 planes (operating in domestic operations) we will start flying international. Mostly, it will be to South East Asian countries," Amar Abrol, Managing Director and CEO of AirAsia India told PTI.

Abrol said that the company would serve those markets which were already connected by the airliner's group entities - AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Indonesia, AirAsia Thailand. "We will be flying mostly to Malaysia, Indonesia and neighbouring SAARC countries as well. Bangladesh, Nepal and so on and so forth," he said.Unlike what news reports mentioned earlier, banks won't remain shut for 5 consecutive days starting March 29, a union leader clarified on Monday. "Banks will work on March 31 (Saturday) and there is no continuous holidays as per messages on social media," D Thomas Franco Rajendra Dev, General Secretary of All India Bank Officers Confederation told IANS. He also added that banks will, however, remain closed on Thursday and Friday due to Mahaveer Jayanthi and Good Friday.

March 31 is the fifth Saturday of the month and hence will be a working day, unlike every second and fourth Saturdays. Some banks are also planning to work full time on Saturday, while in some only corporate offices might stay open. ATMs are most likely to function smoothly, as maintenance of ATMs are outsourced to third parties.

However, April 2, Monday, would be a non-working day as banks will be shut for annual closing of accounts.

Reports and rumours on social media, also fuelled by WhatsApp forwards said that there would be a 5-day long holiday for banks that would impact day-to-day bank dealings. It also said that there would be a rush at ATMs before the extended weekend as well as currency crunch during those days as ATMs would not get refilled. The reports said that no other bank service would work either.

Earlier reports had further stated that some primary and government banking branches might remain open on March 31 but will not conduct any public dealings. It must be noted that it would indeed be advisable for customers who are planning other bank services to plan ahead of the holidays.

Reports also quoted a bank official who advised people to plan their transactions in advance for the upcoming weekend.It's been well over a month since Nirav Modi's fraudulent LoU scam was unearthed at the Punjab National Bank (PNB), but the troubles for PNB are showing no sign of abatement. The beleaguered public sector lender is now staring at a shady title of 'defaulter', a first for any bank in India.

The loan default in question is the Rs 1,000 crore amount for which Union Bank of India had given credit based on the letters of undertakings (LoUs) issued by Punjab National Bank. Union Bank of India's Rs 1,000 crore exposure to PNB LoUs is due in the next few days.

According to a report in The Economic Times, if the scam-hit PNB does not pay back the amount by March 31, state-run Union Bank will have to treat PNB as a defaulter in its books, provide for the loan, and even classify the amount as non-performing asset (NPA) if auditors insist.

Union Bank MD Rajkiran Rai told the newspaper, "For us, it's a genuine claim on PNB backed by documents. It is not a fraud in our books... We will take the auditor's view. However, we don't want to list PNB as a defaulter. We are expecting some intervention from either the government or RBI so that there is a resolution by March 31."

The classification on PNB as a 'defaulter' by another bank would be an unprecedented event which could force the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)to step in.

If this bizarre event does unfold, the LoUs maturing before March 31 are likely to be described as NPA.

Fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi weren't the only ones who got LoUs from fraud-hit Punjab National Bank. State-run PNB had issued a total 41,178 Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) since 2011. Out of these, as many as 1,590 were given to Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and their associates, the finance ministry has said.

In the aftermath of PNB scam, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to discontinue the practice of issuance of LoUs/ LoCs (letters of comfort) for trade credits. Both these instruments were a form of credit guarantee, often used by importers to fund their overseas purchases.

In a written reply to the House on March 20, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that PNB has apprised that 7,672 LoUs were issued with validity of 90 days, 20,078 LoUs were issued with validity of 180 days, 11,224 LoUs were issued with validity of 365 days, and 2,204 LoUs were issued with validity of more than 365 days.

The PNB officials - who fraudulently issued the LoUs - had bypassed the CBS (Core Banking Solutions) system and used the international messaging service SWIFT which was not integrated with CBS.Oppo launched the F7 today at an event in Mumbai. The device will be priced in the higher-end of mid-range devices. Similar to Vivo V9, that was launched last week, the Oppo F7 focuses on the selfie capabilities while giving the device a more modern avatar in the form of an iPhone X-like notch.

The device seems to be a part of next generation Android smartphones that have readily adopted the notch. The latest software update, Android P has also included a provision for developers to to test a variety of notch-types. The Oppo F7 feauture a broad notch that houses the USP of the smartphone, the front camera.

Oppo has plans to pursue the niche segment of selfie-enthusiasts in the country. The company actively claimed the title "selfie-expert". This year AI is the big addition to make the Oppo F7 a better selfie camera.

Staying true to its claim, Oppo spent most of the launch event describing new features with the front camera. The front camera is a 25 megapixel sensor with a Sony 576 HDR sensor. Sensor HDR combines the under exposed and over exposed picture to create a more detailed image.

Oppo has launched a new AI Beauty 2.0. Technology, that particularly focuses on enhancing images taken from the front camera. The company claims the phone detects 296 facial spots to map it and make changes to the face. Oppo is also offering beautification of the arm and neck region. The phone will also introduce multiple people beautification for group selfies.

After the selfie has been clicked, the AI recognizes editing habits of the user and starts automatically implementing them. For instance, if a person always slims their face by 30 per cent, the AI will automatically implement the same when the user clicks their picture.



The selfie camera also comes with a vivid mode to make the pictures look more vibrant. The phone will also get AR stickers to play around with the selfies. The beautification can also be used during video recording.

Coming to other specifications, the device features a 6.23-inch screen with a FullHD+ display. The notch helps the device achieve a tall aspect ratio of 19:9 and a screen to body ratio of 89.9 per cent. Given the lack of buttons on the front panel, the user will have to get used to gestures to navigate through apps.

The device is powered by a Helio P60 octa-core chipset which is assisted by Mali-G72MP3. The device gets 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage on the base variant and 128GB of storage in the higher variant. For the primary camera, Oppo is using a single lens with 16Megapixel resolution.

The device will be available for purchase from April 9 but the company will be conducting a special flash sale on April 2 which will give the buyer additional offers from Reliance Jio, ICICI bank and a onetime screen replacement from the company. The company will only be selling 10,000 units during this flash sale.

The 64GB variant is priced at Rs 21,990 and the 128GB variant is priced at Rs 26,990. Oppo will be launching the phone in two colours, namely, Solar Red and Moonlight Silver.Ireland's corporate watchdog intends to apply to the High Court to appoint inspectors to investigate Independent News & Media (INM), Ireland's largest newspaper group said on Saturday.

Ireland's Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) began an investigation into INM following a clash between the company's then chief executive and chairman in 2016 over the terms of a possible acquisition of Irish radio station Newstalk.

Newstalk's parent group Communicorp is owned by Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien, INM's largest shareholder with a stake of 29.9 percent.

INM, which owns Ireland's highest selling daily and Sunday newspapers, said discussions on the possible acquisition ended at a preliminary stage and it was never considered by the board.

Local media subsequently reported that then CEO Robert Pitt made a protected disclosure under whistleblower legislation about the circumstances surrounding the proposed bid, prompting the ODCE's investigation.

INM said it had been informed that the ODCE will make an application to the court on April 16 for the appointment of an investigator, adding that it was taking legal advice as to whether the court would have sufficient grounds to do so.

"The board and the company's management remain fully focused on the business and ensuring that the day-to-day operations are conducted as normal. However, the appointment, if made, could result in the company incurring material costs," INM said in a statement. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ieA new study of the Dublin property market shows that the number of house sales rose from 15,058 in 2016 to 17,491 last year, an increase of 16%. The total value of transactions for the year was also up, rising by 21% to 7.4 billion.

According to the research, which was carried out by MyHome.ie based on an analysis of the Property Price Register, the number of house sales rose in all but four of Dublins twenty-two postal code districts.



The figures show that Dublin 15 was the postal district with the largest number of sales during the year, 1,640, followed by Dublin 18 on 1,029 with Dublin 24 in third place on 939. The post codes which recorded the biggest increases were Dublin 17 up 88%, Dublin 24 up 71% and Dublin 13 up 55%.

At the other end of the scale, the four post codes which recorded falls were Dublin 20 (-47%), Dublin 4 (-28%), Dublin 9 (-16%) and Dublin 7 (-3%). The fall in Dublin 4, from 892 sales to 638 has been attributed to the sale of a large development in 2016, which artificially inflated the figures for 2016.

Most activity in Dublin 15 centred around Castleknock (432 sales) Clonsilla (198), Blanchardstown (145) and Ashtown (121). Overall sales were up 17% on 2016. In Dublin 18 where sales were up 25%, Leopardstown (244), Stepaside (197) and Sandyford (129) were the main focal points.

While sales in Dublin 17 increased by 88%, with 147 sales in total, it is second only to Dublin 10 for having the lowest number of sales. Dublin 24 recorded an increase of 71% to 939 with Tallaght leading the way with 580 sales. Dublin 13 recorded an increase of 55% to 741, with most activity centred on Balgriffin and Clongriffin.

Sales in County Dublin rose from 3,900 to 4,669, an increase of almost 20%. Swords in north county Dublin led the way on 575 sales, just pipping Dun Laoghaire on 572 with Lucan on 329. Keegan pointed out that sales and values were also rising considerably in the city.



Angela Keegan, Managing Director of MyHome.ie said the post codes recording the largest number of sales and the biggest increases were generally to be found along the M50. She said this highlighted the issue of urban sprawl and the need for an enhanced public transport network for the city.

MyHome.ie believe commuting times and urban sprawl go hand in hand and unless Dublin develops and increases the capacity of its public transport network this is a problem which is only going to intensify.

According to Keegan, "We can see the huge pressure which is already being exerted on the M50 and the Luas, following its recent extension. The new MetroLink isnt due to open until 2027 so anyone buying a new house in north or south county Dublin in the coming years will have to factor in lengthy commuting times."



She added, "Its interesting to see that sales rose by 37% in Dublin 1, 24% in Dublin 2 and 23% in Dublin 3. Dublin 2 (63%) and Dublin 1 (48%) also recorded the second and third highest increases in transaction values. This indicates that new multi-unit developments are beginning to come on stream close to the city centre and one would hope that this is a trend which will intensify given the chronic lack of housing we have in the city."

Source: www.businessworld.ieNew figures released today by Jobs.ie show that jobs vacancies in the hotel sector have increased by nearly 200% (196.5%) in the five-year period 2013-2017.

These figures were published just days after Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphries TD announced changes to Employment Permit Regulations which will make it easier for businesses in the hospitality sector to source workers from outside the EEA.

The hospitality sector is worth 7.2 billion to the Irish economy and supports an estimated 235,000 jobs. Jobs.ie analysed the increase in jobs vacancies in a number of key hotel rolesspecifically hotel chefs, bartenders, waiters, receptionists, porters, mixologists and concierges. Every role has experienced growth in the last five years, particularly since 2016.

The figures show that jobs vacancies for hotel chefs increased by 149% in the period 2013-2017. Although vacancies were down by 9% in 2017 compared to 2016, the number remains high.

Hotel bartending jobs vacancies rose by 85% in 2017 compared to 2016; mixologist jobs vacancies increased by 80% in the same period; and waiting jobs vacancies by 30%. Vacancies for hotel receptionists experienced similar strong growth, rising by 260% in the period 2013-2017 and by 44% from 2016 to 2017. Hotel porter jobs vacancies increased by 58% from 2016 to 2017, and concierge jobs vacancies by 80%.

Commenting on the figures, General Manager of Jobs.ie, Christopher Paye said, "Despite the challenges of the last two years, Irelands hotel sector has demonstrated remarkable resilience. 2016, the year of the Brexit vote, was a significant turning point, insofar as we saw hotel jobs vacancies actually increase rather than diminish. It seems counterintuitive. The Irish tourism sector has for decades been disproportionately reliant on the UK for revenue. Thankfully, in the last number of years, weve begun to diversify our target markets to attract more European, American and Asian tourists."

He added, "However, there is a mounting risk that demand for workers will outstrip supply, and this is already proving the case for chefs. With skills shortages left unaddressed, the growth of Irelands tourism industry will be short-lived. Hotels will need to think outside the box to attract talented workers from overseas and encourage more Irish professionals to consider a career in hospitality."

Source: www.businessworld.ieInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Monday proposed creating a "rainy day fund" for the euro zone to help cushion members of the currency union in future economic downturns.

In a speech in Berlin, Lagarde hailed a "sustained and broadly shared upswing" in the global economy.

"But there are other, forceful headwinds threatening," Lagarde added. "Think of the rise of populism and the short-sighted siren call of protectionism."

For the euro zone to prepare for the next economic downturn, she urged its members to develop a modernized capital markets union, an improved banking union and to move towards greater fiscal integration, starting with a central fiscal capacity.

Such a fiscal tool would reassure investors, Lagarde said.

Her proposed rainy day fund would see euro zone countries make contributions each year to build up assets in good times. They could then receive transfers during a downturn.

In extreme circumstances, countries could borrow from the fund and repay their loans with future contributions, she said.

Transfers from the fund should be conditional on members sticking to EU fiscal rules. Lagarde also recommended that countries pay a premium in good times based on the benefits they receive in bad times.

These twin steps would aim to avoid permanent transfers.

On a capital markets union, she called for enhanced regulation and upgraded oversight arrangements to handle a potential influx of financial services firms to continental Europe after Brexit.

"One of the consequences of Brexit is that many financial services will likely move to continental Europe in the months ahead," Lagarde said.

On a banking union, she welcomed signs of progress.

"Agreement on a schedule for common deposit insurance, together with a roadmap for reducing vulnerabilities in the banking sector, would be an even bigger move in the right direction," she added. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ieA ComfortDelGro Corp. taxi drives by the offices of Uber and Grab in Singapore on Monday. Photo: VCG

U.S. ride-hailing operator Uber Technologies Inc. has sold its local operations to Southeast Asian rival Grab, mirroring its earlier retreat from China two years ago.

Uber will sell its ride-share and food delivery businesses in the region for a 27.5% stake in Grab, the Singapore-based firm said in a statement Monday. The value of the deal has not been made public.

The agreement is expected to further secure Grab  which now operates in 195 cities across eight Southeast Asian countries  as the regions undisputed leader in the car-hailing business.

The deal represents another major retreat from international markets for Uber, following its withdrawal from China in 2016 and Russia in 2017. The California-based Uber sold its business in China in return for an approximate 20% stake in Chinese rival Didi Chuxing, ending years of intense competition that sparked a slew of price wars.

The latest deal with Grab means Uber is joining Didi and Japans SoftBank Group Corp. as one of Grabs largest investors.

Didi fully supports Grab's acquisition of Ubers Southeast Asian operations, and looks forward to continuing a long-term relationship with Grab as a strategic investor, a Didi representative told Caixin.

Market watchers said Ubers surrender in Southeast Asia  one of the worlds fastest-growing economies with over 600 million people  could be a boon to Didi, as it has been gearing up for an international expansion.

Didi acquired Brazilian peer 99 for an unpublished value in January, posing a direct challenge to Ubers business in the market.

The Chinese operator also holds stakes in Indias Ola, Estonias Taxify and Careem in the Middle East. Early last year, Didi invested $100 million in U.S.-based Lyft, Ubers main rival at home.

Contact reporter Mo Yelin (yelinmo@caixin.com)March 26, 2018  Ottawa, Canada - Global Affairs Canada

The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement:

The nerve agent attack in Salisbury, on the soil of Canadas close partner and ally, is a despicable, heinous and reckless act, potentially endangering the lives of hundreds.

Canada is today taking action against seven Russian personnel. We are expelling four members of Russias diplomatic staff, serving either at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Canada or the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Montreal. The four have been identified as intelligence officers or individuals who have used their diplomatic status to undermine Canadas security or interfere in our democracy. For similar reasons, three applications by the Russian government for additional diplomatic staff in Canada will now be denied. All of these steps have been taken pursuant to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

We are taking these measures in solidarity with the United Kingdom. These measures are not aimed at the Russian people, with whom Canadians have long and fruitful ties. Canada remains committed to dialogue and cooperation with Russia on issues where we face common challenges.

The nerve agent attack represents a clear threat to the rules-based international order and to the rules that were established by the international community to ensure chemical weapons would never again destroy human lives.

This is part of a wider pattern of unacceptable behaviour by Russia, including complicity with the Assad regime, the annexation of Crimea, Russian-led fighting in eastern Ukraine, support for civil strife in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other neighbouring countries, interference in elections, and disinformation campaigns.

Canada fervently supports the measures that the United Kingdom has taken so far and remains resolutely committed to acting in concert with its allies.

Contacts

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Global Affairs Canada

343-203-7700

media@international.gc.ca

Follow us on Twitter: @CanadaFP

Like us on Facebook: Canadas foreign policy - Global Affairs Canada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.Karnataka Public Service Commission has released an employment notification calling out for aspirants to apply for the posts of Assistant Engineer, Taluk Devt Officer, Drug Inspector, Principal, District Manager, Assistant District Manager, Assistant Director, Kannada Language Lecturer and Chemistry Lecturer. Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here. Selected candidates can earn up to INR 43200. The last date to apply for the government job is Apr 24, 2018.

UPSC Applications Open For Services In IES, ISS And Geology Departments

Karnataka Public Service Commission Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Post Assistant Engineer, Taluk Devt Officer, Drug Inspector, Principal, District Manager, Assistant District Manager, Assistant Director, Kannada Language Lecturer and Chemistry Lecturer Organisation Karnataka Public Service Commission Recruitment 2018 Educational Qualification BE for Assistant Engineer; MBA for Taluk Devt Officer; BPharm for Drug Inspector; any postgraduate for principal; MBA for District Manager and Assistant District Manager; BSc or BTech for Assistant Director; BEd for Principal, Kannada Language Lecturer and Chemistry Lecturer Salary Scale INR 43200 Job Location Bangalore Industry Engineering Experience Not required Application Start Date Mar 26, 2018 Application End Date Apr 24, 2018

Also Read: Odisha Public Service Commission Recruitment 2018 For Dental Surgeon

How To Apply For Karnataka Public Service Commission Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for Karnataka Public Service Commission Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1: Log on to the Karnataka Public Service Commission official website.

Step 2: Click on the Apply Online-Admission Ticket Download button on the home page.

Step 3: The list of vacancies for admission will be displayed on the screen.

Step 4: Click on the link to apply for Group A and B technical and non-technical posts.

Step 5: The instructions to apply will be displayed on the screen.

Step 6: Check the box against declaration to acknowledge that you have read the instructions.

Step 7: Click New Registration button.

Step 8: The application form will be displayed on the screen. Fill your particulars in the space provided.

Step 9: Scroll down and enter the captcha code.

Step 10: Click on the declaration to confirm that the details that you have entered are correct.

Step 11: Click Submit.Step 1

Log on to the VYAPAM official website.

Step 2

Under Group-2 SubGroup-4 AG1 &3 and other post recruitment test - 2018, click the link to apply.

Step 3

The instructions to apply will be displayed on the screen. Read them carefully and click on the checkbox to declare that you have read the instructions.

Step 4

Click Continue.

Step 5

Click on the link to register your profile.

Step 6

Answer the questions in the new page and follow the subsequent pages to complete the registration process.

Step 7

Come back to the application page and enter your credentials in the user login.

Step 8

Click submit and complete the application process.No To Big Concepts

Revise only the important formulas and theorems on the last day. If you've prepared any notes, revise from them because you'll understand better, how to solve all the derivations.

No To New Concepts

Starting a new concept just before the exam day will make you to overthink, which will ultimately lead to stress and panic. Always be positive and make yourself better in the concepts you've mastered.

No To Insufficient Sleep

After 1-2 years of extensive preparation, students end up doing some silly things on the last day such as not having sufficient sleep. One should have at least six hours of sleep for a fresh mind on the exam day.

Not To Junk Food

Taking junk food prior to exam day is one among the bizarre things. The street or junk food is not recommended for a healthy day. Try to restrict yourself at least on the last day because none of us doesn't know how it will cost you on the exam day.

No To Movie

This might be a hobby to many students to ease their stress on the last day. However, it is not advised, because many students have complained that a scene in the movie has stuck in their mind while taking the exam.

No To Last Minute Rush

Keep all the required items for the exam at one place such as admit card, ballpoint pen, pencil and others. On the exam day, you shouldn't give space for panic to these petty things.

No To Late Entry

In most situations, students won't be allowed to enter the examination hall during the grace time. So never get late on the exam day. Reach the exam centre at least one hour before the scheduled time.

JEE Main 2018: Important Topics In ChemistryOne of the most coveted professions, medical science is something that is the honor of only a handful of students. The main reason for this is the fact that MBBS is a course wherein students deal with the most precious commodity on earth, human life.

A small mistake on a doctor's part will lead to the loss of a human life. To ensure that such a thing does not happen, only the creamiest layer of the society makes their way to the MBBS courses.

Thus, pursing and completing an MBBS degree is a prestigious thing in itself and not all students are capable of achieving the same. Once a student has taken the stand of wanting to pursue a career in medicine, one of the biggest dilemmas in front of them is to choose whether they want to opt for a private college in their own nation or to go abroad to pursue the degree.

Students who want to pursue MBBS in a government college are not faced with this choice mainly because they cannot financially afford to go abroad and pursue the same. Thus, the main decision that one has to take is whether to pursue an MBBS course in a private college in India or one abroad.

This article explores the pros and cons of both and gives you a new perspective so that you will be able to make this life-changing decision in a more informed manner.

Pursuing MBBS Abroad

 Facilities And Infrastructure

Irrespective of which private institution you enroll yourself in, it is an undeniable fact that colleges abroad have much better infrastructure than those in India. That is because the western world is much more advanced and developed in terms of equipment.

These days the top-notch private hospitals in India do have the best of medical equipments. However, it will take ages for the same to penetrate into the education scene.

 Teacher To Student Ratio

The teacher to student ratio in the developed countries is much better than that in India. Thus, when students examine live patients, they have the support of their professors. This gives them the confidence to be able to make the correct decisions.

Also, if in the course of study one does make a couple of wrong decisions, the teachers will guide them towards the right path, avoiding fatality.

The presence of a greater number of faculty members also gives the students the liberty to get all their doubts cleared as and when they arise. This results in a much stronger foundation and ensures that the graduating doctors are able to clear their post-graduation entrance exams with relative ease.

 Availability Of Seats

In India, the number of postgraduate seats for medical personnel is much lesser than that of the graduate seats. Thus, there is immense competition with respect to securing a seat in a postgraduate course and one might not get to study the subject of their choice.

However, this is not the scene in the west. There is sufficient number of postgraduate seats and doctors are able to pursue their passions in their respective fields of study.

 Standard Of Living

Students who go abroad to pursue a graduation degree in medical science often end up taking jobs in developed countries and settle there. This leads to a better standard of living and much better future prospects, both personally and professionally.

Doctors make a lot more money in the west as compared to their counterparts who reside and practise this profession in India.

Pursuing MBBS In India

 Financial Perspective

Most graduate/postgraduate courses are about 2 to 4 years in length. However, MBBS is a five-and-a-half-year course. Due to the increase in the number of semesters, the cost of study also increases by leaps and bounds. In such a case, studying in India results in saving up a considerable amount of money.

Other than the actual cost of study, a lot of other factors also come to play here. Things like the generic cost of living, the cost of buying textbooks, etc., which cannot be ignored in the long run.

 Respect

India is a country where doctors are highly revered. Thus, a student who is pursuing a medical degree here has much higher respect than one who is doing their graduation degree in engineering or law. The level of social respect that a doctor has in this country is something that you will not find anywhere else.

Thus, if you dream of a life that has more than mere money, India is the place where you should pursue your MBBS.It seemed that the future of Daniel Alves is FluminenseBut the negotiations between the right-back and the Rio de Janeiro...Anhui Conch - March 2018

Anhui Conch has signed a contract worth CNY78.38m (US$12.38m) with its sister company, Conch Design, for the provision of engineering services to what the company describes as certain projects.

To continue reading this story and have 100% free access to the CemNet.com website, please Register for a subscription to International Cement Review or LoginAn inmate is challenging a lower court ruling that favored the prison guards' decision to deprive him of access to his Bible while in solitary confinement. Conraad Hoever and his lawyers filed the appeal that cited his First Amendment rights were violated.

Hoever was sent to solitary confinement at the Franklin Correctional Institution in Florida for at least 20 days in 2013 because he disrespected one of the prison guards. He asked for one of his three Bibles so that he could do his daily, devotionals but authorities at the correctional facility refused.

Later, the prison provided Hoever with a Spanish Bible only, which he could not understand. The prisoner then sued for compensatory damages, but the lower courts favored the actions of the prison guards. Hoever then filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case.

Three groups are helping Hoever on this appeal a The Rutherford Institute, Muslim Advocates and National Council of Jewish Women. These groups contend that the case isn't about Hoever's criminal conviction but about his religious freedom.

"During the 26 days that Hoever spent in solitary confinement, he was unable to exercise his right to practice his Christian faith by reading the Bible," the brief for the appeals court stated. "Even non-mandatory religious practices are protected from infringement by the First Amendment," the plaintiff's brief stated further. "Prisoners, particularly those who practice minority religions, are in danger of being cut off from engaging in many spiritual practices they need to sustain them through incarceration," it went on to say.

Hoever, a former teacher, is serving 15 years in prison following his conviction in March 2007. A 15-year-old student came forward and accused him of sexual assault. Two other students previously complained about Hoever for raising their shirts and touching them.

The family of the student also filed against the school board district because it failed to protect students from a predatory teacher, and they received a million dollars in settlement. Hoever, on the other hand, has also been registered as a sex offender.The courts in Dallas sentenced a pastor to 99 years in prison on Friday for the death of a toddler from starvation. Aracely Meza has been convicted of causing serious bodily injury to a child when she tried to exorcise him.

Documents from the courts showed that the parents of two-year-old Benjamin Aparicio a Liliana and Zenon Aparicio a sought the help of the Iglesia Internacional Jesus es el Rey pastor since they believed that demons possessed their son. The toddler was not given food for three weeks on orders from Meza.

Meza also separated the parents from their son, though they lived in the same house in the pastor's commune in Balch Springs. They were not allowed to hold their son as well, while his alleged exorcism continued.

No one from the church community attempted to speak up even as they noticed that the boy grow thin and weak. Meza would always remind members of her church that questioning her methods meant that they were working for the devil. The boy's parents also couldn't report to the police because they were Mexican illegal immigrants.

Jurors watched a video of Aparicio's final days, as taken by one of the church members who became the prosecutor's witness. On the day of his death, Meza even spanked the toddler over and over when he wouldn't sit or kneel properly on the kitchen floor.

Meza defended that God was telling her how to drive the demons out of the 2-year-old. She would, however, also deprive Aparicio of food as a form of punishment when he didn't say grace or use the bathroom properly. The defendant's lawyers stated she's a "prisoner of her faith."

Pediatrician Dr. Suzanne Daikil told the jurors that the boy was "severely emaciated." Prosecutors argued that Aparicio's death was about control and not religion or faith.

The boy's parents are also facing charges, but authorities have yet to arrest them. The police believe they went back to Mexico to bury their son's body and have not returned to the United States where charges await them.home US Performance of 'Christmas Spectacular' at Indiana high school did not violate constitution, court rules

An appeals court has ruled that the performance of a "Christmas Spectacular," which includes a mannequin Nativity scene, at a public high school in Indiana did not violate the U.S. Constitution

A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago has ruled that the Performing Arts Department at Concord High School in Elkhart will be able to continue performing a revised version of the annual winter holiday show.

"We are not prepared to say that a nativity scene in a school performance automatically constitutes an Establishment Clause violation," the judges wrote in the 26-page summary, as reported by Goshen News.

"Nevertheless, the nativity story is a core part of Christianity, and it would be silly to pretend otherwise. Many nativity scenes therefore run a serious risk of giving a reasonable viewer the impression of religion endorsement," they added.

The performance came under fire in 2015 when the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit alleging that the show had violated the First Amendment's prohibition on government establishment of religion.

Concord Community Schools offered to make some revisions, including the removal of scriptural references from the Nativity scene and adding songs from other religious holidays such as Hannukah and Kwanzaa.

After a district court ruled that the changes did not go far enough, the music department stripped the New Testament readings and replaced the live actors with mannequins for the Nativity portion of the show.

The FFRF complained that the revised version still violated the constitution, but U.S. District Court Judge Jon DeGuilio disagreed. In his September 2016 ruling, the judge ruled that the "Christmas Spectacular" a as it was performed in 2015 a did not violate the Constitution, but noted that the previous version, including the initial revised version, was in violation of the establishment clause.

The appellate court judges agreed with DeGuilio, noting that the revised version no longer stands out as the show's centerpiece and that "it has become just another visual complement for a single song."

They further stated that the show can be performed in its current state, saying the 2015 version "would not cause a reasonable observer to believe that Concord is signing off on a particular religious message."

"But ultimately, we agree with the district court that in 2015 Concord sincerely and primarily aimed to put on an entertaining and pedagogically useful winter concert. We thus find the 2015 iteration of the Spectacular constitutional no matter which lens we use for evaluation," the judges wrote.

The FFRF described the ruling as a "partial win," but noted that the organization is still considering whether to request the case to be heard before the entire Seventh Circuit.

Concord Community Schools Superintendent John Trout thanked the court for the decision, adding that the school can now begin preparing for this year's performance, where students are allowed display their musical talents.3 things we would never have realized about God if Jesus hadn't resurrected from the dead

There are so many things we wouldn't have realized and have come to know without the Lord Jesus Christ.

For starters, He came to show us who the Father is:

"Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves." (John 14:8-11)

Jesus is the perfect and exact representation of the Father. By Him we get to know who God is. We've been given the opportunity to know who God really is through Jesus' life -- His words, actions, behaviors, and attitudes.

Since Jesus perfectly showed who God really is with His life, we are also given an opportunity to see how great and awesome our God and Father is through His death and resurrection.

Here are a few things we would have never realized about God if Christ did not rise from the grave:

1) That God is very righteous

Isaiah 53:4-6 tells us that Christ suffered because He carried our sins and iniquities on the cross:

"Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

Christ's resurrection meant He really died for our sins. He paid the price for God's righteous wrath to be satisfied (see Romans 3:25, 8:4, 10:4).

2) That God wants all men to be saved

Christ died, but He lived again. His resurrection is the very basis for our hope: that we, through Him, will live with God forever:

"For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again." (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

"For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him." (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10)

"But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." (1 Corinthians 15:20-22)

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

3) That God has a purpose for us

After His death and resurrection, He gave us all a command that transcends all that we do as we live:

"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen." (Matthew 28:18-20)

Christ did not die and live again just so that we'd all be selfish, self-centered Christians who only think about being with God and forget everyone else. No, it's not like that.

Christ's resurrection assures us of forgiveness and eternal life with God. It should also give us the confidence to go preach the Gospel and make disciples wherever we are, in whatever field we may be.

This is the purpose that God has for us: that we'd glorify Him by spreading His love to everyone in the world, in obedience and gratitude to Him.'Boruto: Naruto Next Generations' Episode 52 release date, spoilers update: Sasuke returns to Konoha as Chunin examination nears

Many fans could not help but notice that Sasuke has been missing-in-action for the most parts of "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations." Per the latest synopsis for episode 52, however, the return of the Uchija will happen very soon as Sasuke seeks the Seventh Hokage's council regarding an imminent threat. Also, Sasuke is expected to play an interesting role in the upcoming Chunin examination, as he will serve as Boruto's trainer before the exams.

The Japanese magazine Weekly Shonen Jump has released a bunch of new information on the upcoming new episodes of "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations." The fans have already noticed that the spin-off anime series is getting close to the storyline of the first "Boruto" film. The episode 52 title confirms this, as it is revealed that Uchija Sasuke will return to Konoha. The supporting details are not yet available, however, but the title is more than enough to anticipate Sasuke's comeback.

"Boruto: Naruto Next Generations" episode 52 is titled "Sasuke's Shadow," which implies that the beloved character from the original "Naruto" series will be the next focus of the anime. It is rumored that Sasuke has a bad news to report to Naruto. After going out on a mission for quite some time, Sasuke seemed to learn about a growing threat that may arrive in Konoha one day. This will sound familiar for those who already watched the "Boruto" movie, as the film revealed that the threat is none other than the Otsutsuki descendants.

Episode 52 will also build on the premise of the much-awaited Chunin exam story arc of "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations," as Boruto will ask Sasuke to train him. Naruto's son will be interested about his father's closest rival, and he will ultimately decide to become Sasuke's student so that he can be more powerful than Naruto one day. The episode is also expected to show the relationship of Sasuke with Boruto, as the former sees the similarities and differences of Naruto and his son.

"Boruto: Naruto Next Generations" episode 52 will air in Japan on April 4.Christians of Qaraqosh celebrate first Palm Sunday since IS invasion

Christians in the devastated Iraqi town of Qaraqosh have celebated Palm Sunday for the first time since they were driven from the town by Islamic State in 2014.

Thousands of Christians processed through the town yesterday waving palm and olive branches, Open Doors reported.

According to 25-year-old teach Andraws: 'Today is the start of the week of Easter. And we are very excited about it. I'm glad that we can celebrate Palm Sunday again in our city. Thank God for that. Because three years ago, something like that would never happen when we were displaced.'

The procession ended with an open-air service in the square of Qaraqosh's St John's Church.

Andraws said: 'Please do not lose hope. Two-and-a-half years we were displaced and we almost lost hope to ever return here. But today, we are here again, because of Jesus; because we had hope in Him. As you can see the Christians have returned to Qaraqosh!'

He and his family moved back to Qaraqosh last spring having rebuilt their house, which had been completely destroyed by IS fights.

The town sits in the Nineveh Plain, formely the Christian heartland of the country. While some rebuilding has begun, tens of thousands remain displaced because their homes are in ruins or because they are afraid to return.

Iraq is number eight on the Open Doors World Watch List of places where it is most difficult to be a Christian.'Enough is enough': Jeremy Corbyn under growing pressure from Jewish groups and MPs over antisemitism

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, was coming under growing pressure this afternoon from Jewish groups who wrote an open letter declaring 'enough is enough' when it comes to antisemitism in the party under his leadership.

Corbyn has said that he is 'sincerely sorry' for the pain caused by what he acknowledged were 'pockets of antisemitism' in Labour, adding that he would be meeting representatives of the Jewish community to 'rebuild' confidence in his party.

However, the organisations behind the open letter  the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council  are planning a protest outside Parliament later today, and Corbyn is under pressure to meet his own Labour MPs this evening.

The shadow Commons Leader Valerie Vaz urged Corbyn to attend the weekly Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) meeting.

It had been said that Corbyn would not attend the weekly meeting, the last before the Commons takes an Easter break, but Vaz told BBC Radio 4's The Westminster Hour that he should turn up.

'I think if members of the PLP have concerns then obviously he should be encouraged to go along and address that,' she said.

Corbyn has been hit by allegations of antisemitism throughout his time as Labour leader, and the new open letter from the Jewish groups said that there has been a 'repeated institutional failure' to properly address antisemitism.

It accuses Corbyn of being unable to 'seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-left world view that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities'.

The organisations refer to Corbyn's apparently supportive message to the creator of an allegedly antisemitic mural in 2012 and his attendance at 'pro-Hezbollah rallies'.

The latest row was sparked when it emerged last week that Corbyn had posted a Facebook comment in 2012 stating that the graffiti artist Kalen Ockerman was 'in good company' over his resistance to the demolition of the supposed artwork.

Ockerman had written: 'Some of the older white Jewish folk in the local community had an issue with me portraying their beloved #Rothschild or #Warburg etc as the demons they are.'

The Jewish groups say the Labour leader has 'sided with anti-Semites' either because of 'the far left's obsessive hatred of Zionism' or 'a conspiratorial worldview in which mainstream Jewish communities are believed to be a hostile entity, a class enemy'.

The letter says that those who push antisemitic material view Corbyn as 'their figurehead' and that he is 'the only person with the standing to demand that all of this stops'.Heroic French policeman who died after taking place of hostage was devout Christian who married partner on deathbed

The French gendarme who took the place of a female cashier held hostage in a supermarket in France by a radical Islamist who had already killed three other people was a devout Catholic who married his partner on his deathbed.

Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame has been hailed as a sacrificial hero by senior church, police and political figures including Pope Francis, the French president Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump after he died following the attack in which he swapped himself for a hostage in the southern town of Trebes, near the medieval city of Carcassonne.

Now it has emerged that the 44-year-old, who returned to practising his Catholic faith in his 30s after a conversion experience, was to have a church wedding in three months, having already married in a civil ceremony. The priest who was meant to be the couple's celebrant reportedly rushed to his bedside and read him his last rites before he died. The priest, identified as Father Jean-Baptiste, also said he married the man to his wife before he died, according to The Sun.

Beltrame died on Saturday (March 24) from shot and stab wounds during the siege.

'A life that has been given cannot be lost,' said Bishop Alain Planet of Carcassonne and Narbonne at a memorial Mass in Trebes yesterday.

'It transcends misfortune to rally us in unity. It calls us to believe in life stronger than death.'

According to The Tablet, Bishop Planet said that people who compared him to Saint Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish Franciscan priest who volunteered to be executed in Auschwitz in place of a family man, 'have understood something of his act, even if the circumstances are different'.

In his Palm Sunday sermon, Archbishop Georges Pontier, president of the French bishops conference, compared Beltrame's act to 'the gesture of Jesus who gave his life for us'.

Macron praised the gendarme's 'exceptional courage and selflessness'.

A national memorial service is planned later in the week.

'He died a hero,' said Macron in a statement that noted Beltrame had served as a paratrooper in Iraq, head of a Republican Guard security company at the Elysee Palace and intelligence advisor at France's ecology ministry before taking command of the local gendarmerie in Carcassonne.

Meanwhile, Fr Jean-Baptiste recounted in a statement that, for almost two years, he had helped Beltrame and his wife prepare for their church wedding which was set for June 9.

The priest found him still alive but unconscious when he arrived at the hospital. 'I was able to give him the sacrament of the sick and the apostolic blessing at the hour of death,' he wrote. 'I think that only his Christian faith, animated by love, could have demanded of him this superhuman sacrifice.'

Beltrame regularly attended mass at the abbey, the priest said.

The gendarme's mother, speaking before her son died, told RTL radio he had constantly thought of serving his country and helping others. 'He was always like that...he would tell me "I'm just doing my job, Mum, that's all."'

Islamic State claimed that the attacker  Radouane Lakdim, 25, born in Morocco  was answering its call to target nations in the coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

Today, it emerged that Pope Francis sent a message of condolence to Bishop Planet, expressing his sadness over the attack, entrusting the victims to God's mercy and praying for the families of the victims.

'I particularly recognise the generous and heroic act of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame who gave his life out of a desire to protect people,' the Pope told the bishop.

'I condemn again such acts of indiscriminate violence which cause so much suffering.'Pakistan's 'brick kiln murder': 20 men acquitted of torturing and killing Christian couple

A Pakistani court has acquitted 20 men charged with torturing and burning alive a Christian young Pakistani couple in a brick kiln after they were falsely accused of blasphemy.

In a shocking case that caused international outrage in November 2014, Shahzad Masih, 26, and his 24-year-old wife who was five months pregnant, Shama Bibi, from the village of Kot Radhakishan in the Punjab province, were falsely accused by local Muslims of tearing pages out of a Quran while disposing of rubbish, when they were attacked by hundreds of local people.

The couple's eldest son Suleman, just six at the time, described in television interviews after the attack how he saw his mother and father twitching in the flames of the fire that slowly consumed them.

RadioFreeEurope quoted the prosecutor, Abdur Rauf, as saying that the court on Saturday acquitted 20 suspects.

An anti-terrorism court had previously, in November 2016, sentenced five men to death and given 10 others varying jail terms for playing a supportive role in the killings. Later that year, the court acquitted 93 other suspects in the case.

Pakistan has a notorious blasphemy law, written into Sections 295 and 298 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which provide for penalties ranging from a fine to death. The law is often misused by people seeking to target religious minorities, including Christians, Shi'as, Ahmadiyyas and Hindus, as there is no provision to punish a false accuser or a false witness. Some Muslims have been known falsely to accuse members of minority communities to settle personal scores.

Having tried to hide from the mob, the couple were eventually beaten ruthlessly and burned alive inside the brick kiln that they worked at, leaving behind their three young children, Suleman, Sonia and Poonam.

According to The Christian Post, Yousaf Gujjar, the owner of the brick kiln that the couple worked at as bonded labourers, is believed to have made up the blasphemy allegations because the couple owed him money that they could not pay.

But he was granted bail based on the claim that he was not at the brick kiln the day of the attack.

Only an estimated 1.6 per cent of Pakistan's 17 million people are Christian, both Catholic and Protestant. Around 97 per cent of the Pakistanis are Muslim, predominantly Sunni.Palm Sunday worship: 8 Bible verses about praise

On Sunday, Christians all over the world will celebrate the coming of Christ to Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. The only Gospel to mention palms is John, with the others mentioning branches and cloaks, but many churches will have children waving them and cheering as part of the service.

Palm Sunday's celebration is overshadowed by the thought of the coming Good Friday. But it still has its place in the story of our salvation, and we can join wholeheartedly in the rejoicing of the people at the coming of their king.

Here are eight Bible verses about praise.

1. He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes (Deuteronomy 10:21).

2. I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! (Deuternomy 32:3).

3. Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers! I, even I, will sing to the Lord; I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel, in song (Judges 5:3).

4. The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Saviour! (2 Samuel 22:47).

5. Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done (1 Chronicles 16:8).

6. I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High (Psalm 7:17).

7. The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the Lord will praise him  may your hearts live forever! (Psalm 22:26).

8. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God (Psalm 43:5).Salisbury under siege: What does it mean to be an Easter people?

This article has appeared on Via Media News and is reproduced with permission.

The last three weeks have been unsettling and at times disturbing that those of us who live and work in Salisbury. Sunday, March 4, 2018 changed the soil of this city. There was disbelief when reports first emerged of an assassination attempt on 66-year-old Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia. The Bishop of Salisbury called it a violation. No one could have anticipated that such a thing might happen here.

However, amidst the disbelief some commentators articulated a sense of deja vu. As investigators moved in to a small area of playing ground adjacent to a shopping centre we were reminded of scenes of the poisoning Alexander Litvinenko at a restaurant in London's Piccadilly, in 2006.

Understandably information and emerged slowly. The city became quite literally scene of extensive police and military investigation. Thankfully Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was one of the first on the scene, has been discharged but the Skripals remain in a critical condition in our local hospital.

This is a crisis of significant proportions for Salisbury but also nationally and internationally. What are we to make of it? What questions might shape a search for truth and the work peace and justice here and beyond? While events and information moves quickly I have a deep sense of the darkness of this terrifying situation that we now face globally. Slowing down and considering the evidence carefully is an imperative for each one of us. Commentators have been quick to make hasty judgments. People going about their work in Salisbury have also been ready to take refuge in slogans, blame and fear.

One of the most telling comments expressed in a supermarket queue from an older woman was this: 'I didn't come to live in Salisbury for this kind of mess and upheaval'. It was an understandable articulation of a desire to live peaceably without disruption and with a proper sense of security and belonging. Others have been more forthright about the necessity to control immigration and I have regretted the occasional comments about 'foreign workers'.

The most significant uneasiness lies in the quality and timeliness of information. We were told that there was nothing to be concerned about, only later to be informed by England's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies that around 500 people could have been affected in the time window. To her defence while she continued to insist that the risk was low this was not the message we 'heard'. Indeed the advice was to wash the clothing, and to put any items that normally be dry cleaned, in two plastic bags tied at the top and to store them safely. To add to this list we were asked that personal items such as phones, handbags and other electronic items were to be wiped clean with baby wipes.

This has all contributed to a deep sense of uneasiness and mistrust. One message at the beginning of the week and quite another at the end of the week. What was the risk? Are we still in danger? I know that this is had a devastating and significant effect on those who work in the public house and restaurant in question that Sunday. The ripples of nervousness continue to affect businesses and especially those near to the incident. Our local MP, John Glenn, has worked tirelessly to generate confidence in public safety but the threat and the fear remain. One person expressed this in this way  'I am not reassured because I do not know all the facts. What are the long term effects?'

This threat and fear is carried over into the national and international arena of political, social and economic life. The prime minister has told us that Russia was 'highly likely' to be responsible for not just an attack on the Skripals, but of an 'indiscriminate and reckless act against the United Kingdom'. We now know that the Skripals were poisoned by a chemical that is part of a group of nerve agents known as Novichok, which was developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s.

The United Kingdom has taken action against Russia and this has resulted in counteraction. There is a central question running through all of this that shapes our view of the trustworthiness of the world and its life: 'So what really happened, and who is telling the truth?' Do our political leaders take considered decisions based on facts rather than conjecture and political opportunism? In this uncertainty who are we to trust?

I reflect upon this as the Church begins Holy Week. In all of this experience, we might wonder afresh about what it means to be an Easter people? What difference does faith make especially in our experience of sadness, fear and pain? Any seasoned observer of human nature will know that it is hard to shift and change people's lives. In Salisbury we are reminded of the sheer fragility of life. Despite the refuge that we all take in easy or comfortable solutions or slogan there is little in life, which is certain, fixed, or secure. Faith must deal with what lies in our hearts and minds.

It is the task of the Church to open up our horizons and offer us an understanding of the world that captures imagination in both heart and mind. It is perhaps important for us to be honest about our resentments, our griefs, our hatreds and suspicions. Complacency and self-interest can so easily dominate the shape of the faith we live by.

In the Gospel accounts of the resurrection, there is both fear and joy. Following Jesus is not a protection from the difficulties and challenges that face us in life. Being an Easter people does not mean that any of us will not require a handkerchief to mop up our tears. All of us will know deep in our hearts what our lives, our world is like, and how much of a struggle it is. As human beings we have to deal with our fears and the reality of how little control we are able to exercise over circumstances and experiences.

It is into this condition of who we are and where we are that God can touch us with Easter life and hope. Easter peace is not the obliteration of our past or present, but the re-drawing of our lives into a new way of seeing. Faith can give us the opportunity for direction, redirection, meaning and depth.

As we live with complexity and uncertainty in Salisbury we have an opportunity to take this opportunity to work together in live for what is good. However partial limited our faith may be that always lies the possibility of transformation. We can be confident but we must safeguard against a triumphalism which does not listen carefully to human experience and its sensitivities. We can nurture faith that embraces doubt and in doing so can grows through openness and honesty.

Remember Salisbury in your prayers. Consider the longer view, the enduring truth that goodness is always stronger than evil. Love will conquer. Justice will prevail.

That will mean a change for us. It will also require a much stronger sense of the relational and our readiness to move on and beyond our internal dialogues and contestations to listen more carefully to human experience. We need space and time to share our story..

In the words of Desmond Tutu, a canon of Salisbury Cathedral (and gratitude to the bishop of Salisbury for sharing this with the city):

Goodness is stronger than evil;

Love is stronger than hate;

Light is stronger than darkness;

Life is stronger than death

Victory is ours through him who loves us.

Rev Canon Prof James Woodward is the director of Sarum College in Salisbury.Samsung Galaxy X release date, specs & features news: Foldable handset no longer expected this year

Smartphone competition is as fierce as ever with today's leading tech giants introducing innovations through their latest flagships. Last year, Apple launched a radical and sophisticated iPhone X. The company's closest rival, Samsung, however, still managed to get attention by announcing the arrival of the so-called Galaxy X, its first foldable handset. Back then, it was tipped for a 2018 release, but recent developments suggest we might have to wait a few more years to see the Samsung Galaxy X.

The Samsung Galaxy X would become the South Korean tech firm's biggest breakthrough in years, showing that the current smartphone design can be further enhanced to support a dual display panel.

Although, the technology to make this wonderful idea into a reality is not yet ready, according to Qualcomm's product manager for display technology, Salman Saeed. In an exclusive interview with Tech Radar, Saeed said that the Galaxy X may not make it to the 2018 release date that Samsung had first promised.

If anything, Saeed expects that the foldable Samsung Galaxy X, just like those prototype devices depicted in previous patent leaks, will take a few more years before it can be unveiled. Samsung envisions the Galaxy X to become a handset that can be folded without having a visible gap or seam that divides the two displays.

With this, the device would need a truly flexible display panel that can withstand frequent folding. Unfortunately, Saeed believes that the components available on this day to build such display architecture "are not flexible enough."

The Samsung Galaxy X will not be the first foldable handset in the market, as the ZTE Axom M already delivered a twin-display feature. Although, the Galaxy X aims to be a better option for a foldable device by having a seamless or gap-free screen view.

Samsung already gave the public a glimpse of this offering at a previous Consumer Electronics Show (CES) demo, which was followed by a series of leaked patent filings that seemed to suggest the final product's imminent launch. Still, there is no guarantee that the Samsung Galaxy X will see the light of day anytime soon.

Meanwhile, Samsung executive DJ Koh said at the CES 2018 that the Galaxy X plans are pushing through, although he admitted that it is still quite early to talk about its release date. With this, it looks like the current odds are not in favor of an earlier Samsung Galaxy X release date.Society is awash with hatred, but love is stronger

A strong contender for word of the year for 2018 is already 'hate'. Every day we hear about hate speech, hate groups and numerous slogans along the line of 'love trumps hate'.

In this regard I was intrigued by a proposal from the city of Hamilton in Canada to ban 'hate groups'. The trouble is how one defines a hate group. The way that the term is being used by some of the more powerful groups in our increasingly illiberal society means there is a danger it will act more as an instrument to promote hate rather than to prevent it.

The relationship between love and hate is very close. One of the observations I would make is the way so many people use 'love' as a badge that justifies their hatred. Go on an anti-hate march and feel the hate! Dare to question any of the current shibboleths in our culture and watch how the online mob expresses their hate for you, in the name of love.

We can learn from George Orwell, who in his prophetic novel 1984  in an analysis of which Freud would have been proud  wrote of the usefulness of group hate to those who wished to use it to protect and enhance their own power. Hate is powerful.

He spoke of the 'Two Minutes Hate' which was a collective event on behalf of Big Brother. In a brilliant passage Orwell describes how it was impossible to avoid joining in the ecstasy of hatred and fear, resulting in a desire to kill, torture and smash faces with a hammer. He saw this as a group thing that was at the same time an abstract emotion which could easily be switched from one object to another.

Orwell goes on to describe the Two Minutes Hate as an escape route for the citizens' suppressed anxiety and anger at their own wretched existence. The government is able to turn these subconscious feelings away from itself to the Other; the enemy  an enemy that may not even exist. The Two Minutes Hate becomes an annual week long hate festival. Love is hate. Hate is love.

We can see how this works out in our culture. There are so many examples. In recent weeks I have come across those who hate the Jews, because they are in their eyes, responsible for everything from the financial crash to the trouble in the Middle East.

In my own country, Scotland, it is all to easy for the Scottish Nationalists to hate 'Tories' for any and everything; and just as easy for Tories to hate the Nationalists for all the woes of society. We can hate immigrants, or hate those who hate immigrants. We can hate those of a different race, culture, skin colour, gender, sexual orientation, social class etc. Such hatred usually breeds hatred  in an ever-increasing spiral of hate. In today's society, the advent of social media makes it much easier to generate group hatred.

Freud had a good insight into the hate mob mentality. 'It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other people left over to receive the manifestations of their aggressiveness,' he said in Civilisation and its Discontents. 'We love EU' cry some who are keen to remain in the EU (as an aside, I am utterly perplexed by this almost cult-like devotion to a political institution) before then going on to hate those they label Brexiteers who are apparently responsible for everything from the increasing price of bread to the Russian poisoning. 'We love the UK,' say some of those who want to leave the EU, before going on to hate those they call Remoaners and blaming them for betraying the country or causing the country to be overrun by foreigners.

The complex debate about those who suffer from Gender Identity Disorder and whether we should teach children the Queer Theory doctrine that gender is just a social construct, is another example of how this works. I recently critiqued this theory and was met with a wave of abuse from those who say they are arguing for love. Clergymen signaled their virtue with meaningless pietistic waffle; the Scottish government said my language in disagreeing with their doctrine was 'unacceptable'; political parties made all the right noises about love; and so the hate mail began. The leaders had spoken. The mob now had permission to hate.

The trouble is that we can all try to appear good by saying we hate the bad things. But is it just a mask for a different kind of hatred?

It would appear that some 'Christian' groups are in danger of operating on this same Freudian principle. In the name of the love of God, we project fear and hatred of those we disagree with. We become afraid of homosexuals, trans people, Muslims, atheists  anyone who is not part of our group. If we profess to be Christians, followers of Christ, we must follow his radically different approach.

'But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you' (Luke 6:27).

'But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked' (Luke 6:35).

We are to love our enemies. The Bible makes it clear that this love is not just sentiment or fine words. It is not simply stating that we agree with them when we don't, or under the guise of appearing to be tolerant, adopting a laissez faire attitude, with a shrug of the shoulders. Loving our enemies means action. It is doing good to those who hate us; lending to those who would steal from us; speaking kindly to those who would abuse us. Instead of banning the 'haters' from the park, it is inviting them in for a picnic.

This is an impossibly high standard  so much so that the late Christopher Hitchens called it a stupid and evil doctrine. I think it is probably the most radical doctrine in the whole world  and the most difficult to put into practice. At least for me.

The only way that it can possibly be put into practice is with the power coming from the one who showed us what it really meant. 'But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us' (Romans 5:8). We are the followers of the Christ who died for his enemies and of the Father who makes his sun shine on the just and on the unjust. It is only the power of that love which can overcome the power of hate.

David Robertson is associate director of Solas CPC in Dundee and minister at St Peter's Free Church. Follow him on Twitter @TheWeeFleaWhat can we learn from a couple named Priscilla and Aquila?

Priscilla and Aquila, a couple Paul met during his missionary journeys, are a great example of how Christian couples should be.

Though the Bible does not list every single detail about their lives, we can very much learn lessons from them, things we can apply in our very own lives.

In this article we'll take a look at a few things every Christian couple should learn from this remarkable duo. Even single Christians can learn from them.

What Priscilla and Aquila teach us

1) Couples should approach God together

We first read of Aquila and Priscilla in Acts 18 as they meet the apostle Paul:

"After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them. So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked; for by occupation they were tentmakers." (Acts 18:1-3)

The Bible does not mention if this couple were already Christians prior to meeting Paul, but one thing we're sure of is that they drew closer to the Lord together, as a couple who spent much time listening to Paul.

"And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks ... And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." (Acts 18:4, 11)

This is something every Christian couple should learn and live by daily. A husband and a wife should come to the Lord together. They ought to urge one another to Christ-likeness.

2) Couples should serve the Lord together

Later in the same chapter, we read how Aquila and Priscilla joined Paul in serving the Lord.

"So Paul still remained a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him." (see Acts 18:18)

This is but the start of the many years that Aquila and Priscilla would spend serving the Lord together.

After a while a certain Apollos shows up, an eloquent man who is "mighty in the Scriptures," although all that he knew is the baptism of John the Baptist (see Acts 18:24-25). Aquila and Priscilla helped him understand who the Christ is:

"So [Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace; for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ." (see Acts 18:26-28)

3) Couples see each other as partners in the Lord's work

Aquila and Priscilla exhibited such unity, they were one in their secular job of tentmaking, one in their love for each other, and one in their service for the Lord Jesus Christ.

They were so united, they didn't have any problems with who was doing what in their ministry.

Author and Pastor Richard L. Strauss, in an article titled "Side by Side - The Story of Aquila and Priscilla," noted that based on the number of times Priscilla (or Prisca) is mentioned before Aquila, many believe that she was the more prominent among them. Her husband apparently had no problem with it.

Couples today ought to learn from Priscilla and Aquila.

We husbands should realize that there's nothing wrong with letting our wives take a prominent role in serving the Lord. Instead of suppressing our wives' desire to serve God, we should support them and encourage them to give their utmost to Christ.

Wives, on the other hand, must never think or feel that they're simply second-rate compared to their husbands. While wives ought to submit to their husbands, they must never let any discouragement or lack of support kill their desire to serve the Lord.Live like a Rockefeller  Corots Venise, vue du Quai des Esclavons

The French artists quasi-modernist view of the City of Canals  a memento painted for a friend  also brought back happy memories for David Rockefeller, explains Bianca Arrivabene, Deputy Chairman of Christies in Italy

In 1957, David Rockefeller purchased Venise, vue du Quai des Esclavons by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875) from the Wildenstein & Co. gallery in New York. David and his wife, Peggy, were hardly strangers to the 19th-century French painters work: seven years earlier they had acquired Corots Houses on the Quay, Honfleur (1830) from the same gallery. Moved by the paintings beauty, David immediately recognised its proportions were perfect for the space above his fireplace. Its size and shape, which was rather long and low, were precisely what we had been looking for to replace Cezannes Jas de Bouffan, which we had over our mantel in the library at Hudson Pines, he would later recall. We had bought the Cezanne seven years earlier but it did not... seem right for the spot. His hunch proved right, and Corots painting remained above the mantel at Hudson Pines for the rest of Davids life.

Peggy and David Rockefellers Hudson Pines home, with Corots Venise, vue du Quai des Esclavons hung above the fireplace

Painted in 1845, this view was made at the behest of a friend who had toured Rome, Naples and Venice on Corots advice. Upon his return, he commissioned a series of paintings as mementos from Corot, who readily obliged. In executing this piece, the artist worked from a smaller plein-air sketch from 1834, made on the second of three trips to Italy between 1825 and 1843. Corot probably achieved the slightly raised perspective by standing on the bridge between the Doges Palace and the Hotel Danieli, most likely first thing in the morning, given the angle of the light, says Bianca Arrivabene, Deputy Chairman of Christies in Italy. I think what initially attracted David to this work was its sense of modernism, Arrivabene continues, speaking from the study of her Venice apartment, just a stones throw from where Corot drew this scene. Its thick colours and muted palette anticipates the work of the Surrealists a century later. In it you can recognise de Chiricos empty piazzas, Dalis shadows and Magrittes blue skies, she adds. Unlike Corots earlier, more detailed versions of this scene  now in Russias Pushkin Museum and Californias Norton Simon Museum  which look back 100 years to the work of Canaletto, this painting looks forward.The mysterious Mezcala and the grandfather of chaos theory

Why did the abstract art of Mexicos ancient Mezcala civilisation so fascinate the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Ilya Prigogine? Christies Pre-Columbian Art specialist Fatma Turkkan-Wille admires his superb collection  offered in Paris on 9 April  and offers some theories of her own

From the mountainous region of Guerrero in modern-day Mexico, the Mezcala culture is famous for its prolific production of stone sculpture, which includes human figures, animal effigies and architectural models, dating from 300-100 BC. Little is known about this ancient civilisation, other than that it chose to bury its dead with these abstract, esoteric stone carvings, and that it was the only one of the Mesoamerican civilizations to have been so focused on architecture. In the above film, Christies Pre-Columbian Art specialist Fatma Turkkan-Wille looks at Mezcala stone carvings from The Prigogine Collection, including a selection of what appear to be facades of temples. There is a big question mark, she says. What did these structures mean to [the people inhabiting the Mezcala region]? And what did they mean to Ilya Prigogine? And where were they taking him on his scientific and spiritual quest?

A Nobel prize-winning chemist and physicist, Ilya Prigogine (1917-2003) was devoted to advancing mans understanding of the role that time played in physical sciences and biology. His theories have helped us to better comprehend subjects as diverse as traffic congestion, the multiplication of cancer cells and embryology. Hailed in some quarters as the grandfather of chaos theory, Prigogine has even been credited with influencing the works of Salvador Dali, who was inspired by the new approaches to physics that began to emerge in the 1970s. The two men met shortly before the artists death in 1989.

Prigogine felt that these ancient artists tried to capture mans constant questioning of eternity, reincarnation and passages to the other world

Prigogine had an all-encompassing view of science, philosophy and art, says Turkkan-Wille, who believes the carvings had a special philosophical resonance for the Russian-born scientist. He felt that these ancient artists tried to capture, through the mysterious little buildings, mans constant questioning of eternity, reincarnation and passages to the other world. Beginning in the 1960s, Prigogine and his wife Maryna spent 30 years acquiring these 91 Mezcala carvings, ranging in colour from dark, mottled green to milky white, and all carved between the 1st and 3rd centuries BC.

Remarkably, these sculptures were created without the use of metal tools. They simply used stone on stone, and they had a piece of twine with which they would saw away at the stone. And then they would continue polishing them with small pebbles and polishing stones, Turkkan-Wille explains. Hundreds of hours of labour were required to shape each model before it was interred at a burial.A Hispanic food retailer is buying Fiesta Mart in a $300 million deal that will infuse new capital into the Houston-based grocers fight to remain relevant in the increasingly competitive grocery landscape.

The Fiesta Mart acquisition would make the California-based Bodega Latina Corp and its Mexican parent company Chedraui, one of the largest Hispanic food retailers in the country. They are expected to acquire the 63 Lone Star State stores, including 32 in the Houston area, by the beginning of the second quarter.

RELATED: Old timey Houston grocery stores - Did you shop at any of these?

"The acquisition of Fiesta allows us to meaningfully expand into Texas via an established, well-known supermarket operator, said Carlos Smith, CEO of Bodega, which currently operates 59 El Super stores in the Southwest U.S. Through the combination of the strengths of our two organizations, we will be well positioned to significantly accelerate our vision of efficiently offering high quality products at the lowest possible prices.

Fiesta Mart, founded in Houston 46 years ago to cater to the Hispanic population, has struggled in recent years to maintain its customer base amid mounting competition from larger grocers eyeing the fast-growing consumer segment.

Although Fiesta Mart has revamped some stores to broaden its appeal, the grocer has been outgunned by well-capitalized giants H-E-B, Kroger and Walmart and newcomers such as Aldi, who have been aggressively courting Hispanic customers with competitive prices and a more international selection of produce, meats and canned foods.

Spanish-speaking shoppers are the most coveted market in the country, with Texas being the No. 1 market, said Burt Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a New York retail consulting firm.

Flickinger, whose firm has conducted competitive pricing analyses for major retailers in Texas for 25 years, said he expects Bodega CEO Carlos Smith to maintain the Fiesta Mart brand in Houston, but likely renovate and remodel stores to capture new customers by the busy holiday season. The new owner will likely use its broad procurement power to buy food products at lower prices and pass them on to consumers, Flickinger said.

Smith will also likely bring a more personal touch to Fiesta Mart, Flickinger said. The CEO is often found personally overseeing El Super stores regularly, and knows what customers of all backgrounds want in terms of meat cuts and seasonings, Flickinger said.

Fiesta Mart employs 8,000, with 4,500 of those based in Houston.

RELATED: You should never buy these items at a grocery store

What (Carlos Smith) will do is rebuild that great Fiesta heritage and make it better, Flickinger said.

This is the latest ownership change for Fiesta Mart over the past decade. In 2004, Fiesta Mart was acquired by Grocers Supply, a wholesale groceries distributor. In 2015, the grocer was acquired by Acon Investments, a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm.

Acons founding partner Ken Brotman said the Fiesta Mart sale will likely close in 30 to 45 days, pending regulatory approvals, but declined to give a statement with further comment.

After the deal closes, Bodega will have 122 stores across the southwest U.S. with revenues of approximately $3 billion. More than half of the nations Hispanic population live in the five states Bodega will have a footprint in: California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and now Texas.

Houston, with its growing Hispanic population and young families, represents a growth opportunity for Bodega. As more Californians move to Texas seeking lower cost of living, Bodega likely sees a future in Texas, said David Littwitz, a retail broker with Houston-based Littwitz Investments.

The Hispanic population in the Houston metro area is still growing, Littwitz said. This is fighting for every last inch of territory and last inch of market. Theyve done their research. They see Houston as a market to grow and make money.3 1 of 3 Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Nathan Lambrecht/MBI Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Texas manufacturers said the Trump Administration's steel tariffs will raise their costs, prompting higher prices for customers of fabricated metal products and creating uncertainty for the business this year, according to a Dallas Fed survey.

"Our business had a sudden, dramatic change in outlook due to the new steel tariffs," one primary metal manufacturer in Texas told the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. "We expect a wild, unpredictable ride as there are also large, negative and unintended consequences which will hurt us."Schlitterbahn Waterparks co-owner Jeffrey Wayne Henry was arrested Monday in connection with the 2016 decapitation death of a 10-year-old at the New Braunfels companys Kansas park.

Henry was jailed Monday in Cameron County on an arrest warrant out of Kansas, according to an online inmate listing. The charges listed on the Henrys inmate page include murder, 12 counts of aggravated battery and five counts of aggravated endangerment of a child.

Representatives for the Cameron County Sheriffs Office and Kansas Attorney Generals Office could not immediately be reached for comment regarding Henrys arrest.

We as a company and as a family will fight these allegations and have confidence that once the facts are presented it will be clear that what happened on the ride was an unforeseeable accident, Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio said in an email.

RELATED: Indictment: Waterslide in fatal accident was 'deadly weapon'

Henry, who co-owns Schlitterbahn with his two siblings, is the second Schlitterbahn executive to be arrested on charges in the August 2016 death of Caleb Thomas Schwab, who died while riding the 168-foot Verruckt slide at Schlitterbahns Kansas City park. The 10-year-old was decapitated when he hit a hoop that held protective netting on the rides second hill.

A Wyandotte County grand jury indicted Schlitterbahn and Tyler Austin Miles, former director of operations at Schlitterbahn, on one count of involuntary manslaughter, a dozen counts of aggravated battery, five counts of aggravated endangerment of a child and one count of interfering with law enforcement by concealing evidence. Miles, 29, was also charged with allegedly giving false information to a detective.

Miles pleaded not guilty Friday after turning himself in to the Wyandotte County Sheriffs Office in Kansas City.

A trove of corporate emails, memoranda, blueprints, video recordings, photographs and eyewitness statements given to the Kansas grand jury showed that Verruckts designers and operators knew the gargantuan water slide could cause severe bodily harm and even death but kept the ride open anyway, according to the March 23 indictment.

RELATED: This is what it looks like to ride the world's tallest water slide, the Verruckt

The indictment names Henry as the visionary and designer of the Verruckt slide and outlines a pattern of alleged behavior accusing the 62-year-old of ignoring warnings that the ride was unsafe for riders. The document also details alleged actions taken by the New Braunfels company and its employees to silence subordinates and cover up evidence of injuries to park visitors caused by the ride.

Schlitterbahn  which has parks in New Braunfels, Galveston, South Padre Island and Corpus Christi  has vehemently denied the accusations laid out in the 47-page indictment unsealed Friday.

The allegation that we operated, and failed to maintain, a ride that could foreseeably cause such a tragic accident is beyond the pale of speculation, Prosapio said in an emailed statement earlier Monday. Many of us, and our children and grandchildren, have ridden the ride with complete confidence as to its safety.

Prosapio blasted the grand jurys allegations that Schlitterbahn withheld information or altered evidence as completely false and said the company has worked closely with law enforcement since Caleb Schwabs Aug. 7, 2016 death.

Tom Bath and Tricia Bath, attorneys representing Miles, have decried the charges against their client.

Not only had Tyler ridden the slide numerous times, but, as the state is aware, he had scheduled his wife, to ride it on the day of the accident, the lawyers said in a statement provided by Schlitterbahn. These are not the actions of someone who believed the ride to be dangerous.

The allegation that Tyler knowingly obstructed the investigation is, likewise, false. From the moment of the accident, and continuing until the charges were filed, Tyler cooperated with law enforcement. He did not hide or destroy documents.

Henry first conceived of building the worlds tallest and fastest water slide on Nov. 13, 2012 in a spur-of-the-moment effort to catch the attention of the producers of the Travel Channels Xtreme Waterparks series, the indictment says.

To read the full version, see Tuesdays front page or click here to visit ExpressNews.comSen. Ted Cruz accused college campuses of censorship in a speech Sunday, echoing frustrations of some conservatives who call universities overtly liberal.

"Colleges are getting more and more into the business of censorship," he said. "We're going to silence speech we don't agree with -- that is nutty."

His remarks, made at a daylong conference on bipartisanship at Bellaire High School, broke with President Donald Trump's most recent statements on the topic.

Trump last week said threats to free speech on college campuses are "overblown" in an interview with Charlie Kirk of conservative group Turning Point USA.

"They get a lot of publicity, but you go to the real campuses and you go all over the country, you go out to the Middle West, you go out even to the coast in many cases, we have a tremendous support," he said. "I would say we have majority support. I think it's highly overblown. Highly overblown."

A recent Gallup poll somewhat reflects his statement. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that most college students say protecting free speech is "extremely important" and many overwhelmingly favor an open learning environment allowing for all types of speech.

"But respondents' commitment to open debate was inconsistent: Nearly half of students say they favor campus speech codes; nearly two-thirds do not believe the U.S. Constitution should protect hate speech; 73 percent support campus policies that restrict hate speech like racial slurs; and 60 percent say the same about those that discourage stereotypical costumes."

Free speech on college campuses has been a polarizing issue in recent years as right-leaning politicians have accused universities of stifling conservative voices. The topic is not new for Texas lawmakers: State senators and representatives introduced bills related to protecting expressive activities at public universities and colleges, but those efforts died in committee.

The Texas Senate's state affairs committee in January heard testimony on whether speech on college campuses was in danger. The hearing followed conflicts in the fall at Texas Southern University, where student protests preceded the cancellation of a conservative lawmaker's speech, and Texas State University, where a student newspaper column about race drew significant backlash.

Cruz said he was protested at a University of California at Berkeley Commencement. He talked then about intellectual diversity and the importance of passion for individual beliefs.

On Sunday, Cruz said college should encourage students to encounter ideas they disagree with, including incorrect ones.

"The Nazis, the Klan, they spread hateful, bigoted garbage, based on ignorance and stupidity," he said. "So why should we be afraid to confront them? Remember that. Truth is stronger than lies."

He also reflected on his own college days debating a liberal friend.

"I'd call him a communist," he said. "He'd call me a fascist ... and then we'd get a beer."

For more on the Bellaire weekend conference, read the full story here.

Lindsay Ellis writes about higher education for the Chronicle. You can follow her on Twitter and send her tips at lindsay.ellis@chron.com.To the editor:

As long as we are saying what we believe, I must quote William F. Buckley Jr. "Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other points of view, and are then shocked and offended when they discover there are other points of view!" I believe what Buckley said is true; maybe more today than it was when he first opined.

I also believe that the Republican Party is much more the party of family values than the Democrat Party. I'll just refresh Mr. Doherty's memory with a few names of leaders of his Democrat Party: LBJ, JFK, RFK & Slick Willy. Bill Clinton didn't get that nickname from the way he combed his hair. And lest we forget the incident at Chappaquiddick  Teddy boy's claim to fame.

So don't lecture us about the "sleaze" in the GOP, Mr. Doherty. There is plenty of sleaze to go around.

May Stephens

Conroe

Challenge accepted

To the editor:

So once again the sage of Conroe has missed the point of my last letter and chooses to call me vile and ignorant with no shame. Hmm, just like a liberal to attack the person rather than the issues facing our nation. The point if you can handle it, sir, is that, and I quote from my last letter: "gone are the days when we look for the good in people and judge them by facts rather than accusation and innuendo." Moreover, contrary to his comment there were no vile comments about our previous president in that letter. While I did not care for the previous president as a leader, I still respected the office. Never-the-less, I am still smarting from when he said, "You can keep your plan and doctor if you want to." Oh and then there is: "The average American will save $2,400 per year in insurance costs." And don't forget the classic: "America is going to lead from Behind." That last one is like letting the schoolyard bully beat you up because you think you are smarter than him. That mentality doesn't get people or countries anywhere but on the losing side of things. And while we are playing one-ups-man-ship, I have been on this planet three score and 10-plus years and remember when civics was a required class in high school, so don't preach to me about the privileges we give of our elected president and Congress. The ones who need to know and respect these things are far younger than we are. Sadly, many don't seem to have a clue as anarchy, socialism and entitlements seem to be the direction of favor everywhere, but flyover country.

I suggest that you reread my letter as there are other positive points about making America Great again. Are we a great nation? Yes, of course we are, but are we as great as were 20, 30 or 50 years ago? In my opinion, we are not. As a society we have generally lost our moral and spiritual compass. When presidents lie or get caught having sex in the Oval Office, it sends a cultural message of acceptability. When politicians and even criminals are not held accountable for their actions, it sends a cultural message of acceptability. When cities and states violate federal law and get away with it, it sends a cultural message that the rule of law does not matter. We certainly are not a perfect nation; name one on the Earth that is better than us. Anyone who has traveled extensively around the world understands that we are and have been a brighter ray of light and hope for promoting democracy, justice and freedom than any other country in history. Staying great requires constant work to keep stagnation at bay. We have been stagnating. Just look at our infrastructure, our educational system, our military, health care and veteran services. This is where American needs to be great again.

From our civic lessons, you must remember that the president actually has very little power. His role is primarily that of a facilitator and party leader to set a path of governance and encourage and work with congress to achieve those things. He has the right to veto bills from congress, but even then congress has a way to move forward. The minor powers of executive orders certainly is one of a presidents strongest tools when used legally. Unfortunately that has not always been the case, but as you must know The Supreme Court holds sway of that judgement when necessary. So to the point of your challenge. If you have not read what our president either through executive order or the support of Congress has accomplished, then you must not be getting the full and factual story from CNN, et. al.. On Dec. 21, 2017, The Washington Examiner published a list of 81 things that Trump accomplished in his first year in office. From my own perspective, here are just a few things that I will leave you with: 1) you may be retired so you won't see a larger paycheck, but you are likely to see a lower tax bill this year as most of us will. 2) Just look at the economy. Lowest unemployment rate in more than eight years. More job growth than the previous eight years. More companies bringing money and headquarters back to the states due to our now competitive tax rates. 3) Lowest rate of food stamp recipients since 2010. Need I really say more?

Arron Angle

The WoodlandsWest University resident Catherine L. Troisi, Ph.D., was presented with the 2018 Academic Public Health Practice Excellence Award by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) at the organization's annual meeting this month in Arlington, Va. Troisi is an associate professor in the Department of Management, Policy and Community Health at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health.

This annual honor recognizes graduate public health faculty members who advance and integrate the scholarship of practice-based service, teaching and research for public health. Troisi was nominated by George Delclos, M.D., a professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences at UTHealth School of Public Health. The honor comes with a $1,000 award, a plaque and recognition at the ASPPH Annual Meeting.

Criteria for the award include outstanding contributions in practice-based research; practice-based service; practice-based teaching; and academic-practice linkages including engagement of students in public health practice (e.g., community projects, internships, and practica). Nominees must be full-time faculty members from an ASPPH-member school, and the school must be accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).

"Having practiced public health at the Houston Health Department, I have a better understanding of the importance of exposing students to public health practice in the community and engaging the community in our research and I'm honored to have received this award," says Troisi.

In November 2017, Troisi was elected to the executive board of the American Public Health Association (APHA) for a four-year term. Previously, she served as chair of the APHA's Action Board, which helps coordinate the association's advocacy activities and improves participation in advocacy initiatives among the association's leadership bodies, and was co-chair of the APHA's Joint Policy Committee.

In letters supporting her nomination, some of Troisi's colleagues emphasized her career highlights including:

the development of a system for expanding the practice-based teaching network for students.

her work with the Houston Health Department.

co-development of a certificate program in public health for undergraduate students, eventually leading to a growing public health workforce in Texas.

her service on a legislatively mandated Texas-wide committee charged with improving public health practice.

her work with Houston's Homeless Coalition and the annual Homeless Count.

writing editorials in large city newspapers about public health issues such as HPV and Hepatitis B immunization.

her disaster preparedness volunteer work training students.

assisting those in need with enrollment in the Affordable Care Act.

In 2015, Troisi was named "Advocate of the Year" by APHA. Her advocacy efforts include testifying at a congressional hearing on the U.S. response to the Ebola epidemic, attending town halls, and meetings with her congressional delegation, to promote APHA's public health priorities. She also drafted opinion pieces published in the Houston Chronicle on the dangers of Ebola versus a potential pandemic flu, importance of vaccination in wake of a measles outbreak, funding for public health, climate change and gun violence.

Deanna Hoelscher, Ph.D., L.D., R.D., a professor and director of the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at the Austin campus of UTHealth School of Public Health, received the award in 2017 and Belinda Reininger, Dr.P.H., a professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences at the School of Public Health's campus in Brownsville, received the award in 2014/2015. A list of previous winners is available here.Friendswood police arrested an Abilene murder suspect last week, tracking the man to a home in Heritage Park then following him to an alleged drug deal in northeast Houston.

Kenneth Dean Pounds, 54, is one of two suspects in the killing of Garrett Daniel McMahan, who was 18 years old when he was found dead in his apartment on Oct. 8, 2004.Spring Branch ISD

Forty-nine Spring Branch ISD students enrolled in prekindergarten through 12th grade were honored as Character Without Question Award recipients during a recent public ceremony for the students and their families held at Northbrook High School.

This year's annual award presentation was conducted at the Feb. 26 Board of Trustees meeting. Youth of all ages were honored during a special event presentation that attracted many family members.Tired and short of breath, thinking he had the flu, John Reyes of Dickinson went to the doctor in November, only to find out he was suffering from heart failure.

The 37-year-old father of six now waits for a heart transplant at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. As he waits, he has the prayers of members of the Bay Area Harbour Playhouse, which provided his family with shelter for almost a week after the Reyeses were flooded out of their home by Hurricane Harvey.

The family repaid the theater during their stay by blocking flood water from coming in and stopping leaks in the roof.

After Reyes went to the doctor, his failure to respond to medications challenged physicians for several weeks until he was diagnosed in December with left ventricular noncompaction cardiomyopathy. It's a rare condition which, doctors said, is probably hereditary.

"We will have John's three biological children tested to see if they have inherited the same problem," said Reyes' wife, Alisha.

Those children include Nevaeh, 14, who is homeschooled; Nick, 12, a student at Dunbar Middle School; and Jaiden, 10, who attends Bay Colony Elementary School in Dickinson.

"We are a 'Brady Bunch' family," Alisha Reyes said. "We each had three kids when we got married."

John Reyes, who is 5 foot 9 inches tall and describes himself as a "a pretty physical guy," graduated from Pflugerville High School in 1997 before getting into construction and remodeling of homes, then computers and electronics.

He was the grocery manager at a Walmart in Austin, when he met Alisha, who was the store's pharmacy manager.

The couple married and moved their crew to Alisha's hometown of Andrews.

Last May, the Reyes family moved to Dickinson so that two of Alisha's biological children, Kolby, 16, and Kenzy, 13, could get treatment at Texas Children's Hospital for immunity disorders. Her elder daughter, Kaylie, 20, has since joined the family in Dickinson to help out following complications that began with Hurricane Harvey.

As the storm raged, the Reyes family was evacuated by boat from their home and found shelter at the theater, 3803 Texas 3 in Dickinson, where they lived for six days and nights.

"The theater's founding director, Bennie Nipper, says that the Reyes family saved her theater by building temporary barriers that kept out rain plus any possible looters," theater spokeswoman Ann Leeman said. "They mopped up water as it came in under the doors and placed canvas tarps over the leaking roof."

The Reyes family returned home to find that Harvey's wind and water had destroyed their truck, three automobiles, personal belongings and the first floor of the house.

John Reyes returned to his job at Cimarron Energy job in Katy, and and begun tackling repair work needed on his home.

Severe chest pains on Nov. 13 forced him to go to the emergency room at UTMB, his wife said.

A pre-heart transplant coordinator at the hospital said that a heart transplant would be needed soon to save his life.

Alisha Reyes described the couple's situation at UTMB as "here until transplant."

"The doctors say the wait, on average, is two to four weeks, but it could be tomorrow; it could be any hour," she said.

Leeman said, "People can help John by praying for him and his doctors and by donating to help with expenses associated with the heart transplant."

Donations are being accepted on a GoFundMe account (John Alisha Reyes) and also at the National Bank of Andrews (John Reyes Heart Fund) in Andrews.

Don Maines is a freelance writer who can be reached at donmaines@att.netConservative commentator Tomi Lahren caught some backlash Saturday after tweeting that the national March for Our Lives isn't "for" anything specific.

"Simply being anti-NRA is not a solution," Lahren tweeted. "March FOR something, not just against everything."The family of an inmate who died by suicide in a Texas lock-up after he was allegedly not given his medication for weeks at a time is suing the state prison system, claiming the Ferguson Unit customarily deprives prisoners of psychiatric drugs.

A number of red flags could have alerted medical staff to a problem well before Cornielus Lewis hanged himself inside his cell in 2016, the federal lawsuit contends. But instead, Lewis didn't take or wasn't given his medication on a regular basis, prompting him to lodge a complaint over the lack of drugs - one of 81 similar complaints filed by Ferguson prisoners over the course of a year, the lawsuit alleges.

"We're not talking about an instance where someone has missed their medicine once or twice," said Christine Stetson, the Beaumont lawyer who's handling the case. "We're not talking about an honest mistake. We're talking about repeated lengthy periods of time where the medical staff charged with proper delivery of medication just didn't do it."

READ MORE: Suicide attempts have more than doubled in Texas prisons

The suit, initially filed in February, targets the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, prison medical care provider University of Texas Medical Branch and a number of individual employees. In March, TDCJ and UTMB both filed motions to dismiss, but the suit is still ongoing.

Though UTMB declined to comment citing pending litigation, prison spokesman Jeremy Desel defended the system's medical care.

"While I cannot address this specific case because of pending litigation, the safety, security, health and overall well-being of offenders is of paramount importance to the TDCJ," Desel said. "Offenders in need of mental health treatment receive comprehensive care through the University of Texas Medical Branch and Texas Tech University Health Science Center."

The lawsuit comes amid a long-term uptick in suicide attempts in Texas prisons. Over a four-year period, the attempted suicide rate inside the state system doubled, a change that experts called "concerning" but TDCJ attributed to broader efforts to track mental health issues.

At the time of Lewis' death, the 21-year-old - who was serving three years for two robberies and a weapons charge - was housed at the same prison in Midway where a teacher alleged she was raped by an inmate late last year.

When Lewis arrived on the 2,100-prisoner unit sometime around June 2015, he was put on an antidepressant and an antipsychotic, though he allegedly wasn't given the drugs as prescribed for weeks at a time throughout the remainder of the summer. In some cases, he refused treatment, but in other cases medical records don't make clear what happened, according to court filings.

That August, he cut his finger with a razor, and the next day was given medication again, the suit alleges.

The following month, he was prescribed a different antidepressant. He was given the drug most of the time for a few months, but not at all for about two weeks in early December. On Dec. 12, he filed a complaint about not getting his meds, and a few days later started receiving the drugs again.

But on Dec. 19 - another day he allegedly didn't receive his medication - Lewis was treated for a laceration to his left forearm that the suit says may have been self-inflicted.

In March, the prison stopped his medication for "unknown reasons," the suit says. Medical staff saw him for self-mutilation in April, and he was involved in a use-of-force incident and a separate altercation with his cellmate in June. At that point, records show Lewis was found with X-shaped lacerations on his torso and arms.

Days later, he started medication again.

But then, from July 11 to July 31, he was only given medicine five times, the suit says.

On July 31, a guard found Lewis hanging from a bed sheet in his cell.

READ MORE: Texas prison teacher says inmate raped her at understaffed unit

Though the suit delves into the events surrounding Lewis' death, it also lobs broader claims about Ferguson's medical practices, noting the 81 grievances filed in a one-year period by inmates complaining they weren't given their medications.

"The custom and practice of the Ferguson Unit is to routinely deny inmates their needed medications," the suit claims. Just the "sheer volume" of times Lewis didn't get his medication showed a systemic problem with "policy or procedure," Stetson added.

Accordingly, in addition to asking for compensation for mental anguish and funeral costs, the claim also asks for injunctive relief, demanding that UTMB and TDCJ retool their procedures to make sure prisoners are given their medications as prescribed.

The suit doesn't ask for a specific dollar amount, but Stetson said the dead prisoner's family is also optimistic about the possibility of injunctive relief.

"Ultimately, they're going to tell their story to a jury and maybe help some other along the way," she said.

The lawsuit comes amid a long-term uptick in suicide attempts in Texas prisons. Over a four-year period, the attempted suicide rate inside the state system doubled, a change that experts called "concerning" but TDCJ attributed to broader efforts to track mental health issues.Texas top higher-education official is warning public universities against creating new campuses and expanding programs without adequate state support.

Noting that multiple universities are seeking to offer medical degrees  but not mentioning the University of Houston by name  Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes said the state would have to make some tough decisions moving forward.

Were expanding programs more quickly than resources from the state  suggest we should, he said last week. When we take a pie that is not growing very quickly and we slice it into smaller and smaller pieces, the differential impact is felt worse by smaller institutions.

Paredes spoke at a Texas Senate higher education committee hearing that addressed what authority state policymakers should have over the development of new higher-education locations and programs. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick charged lawmakers with creating a long-term statewide strategy for authorizing new locations and programs which includes a plan to ensure adequate support for expansion.

UH Chancellor and President Renu Khator has said that adding a medical school is a top goal. She said on Twitter that she was in Austin on Wednesday for a meeting with other chancellors and state senators, but that she did not testify.

UH spokesman Mike Rosen said Wednesday that the university was not worried that Paredes statement indicated a lack of support from the states higher education coordinating board, which must sign off on UHs proposal before it can move forward. The plan would also require appropriations from state lawmakers.

Were working hand in hand with state officials, Rosen said, adding that lawmakers had asked UH to evaluate the need for a medical school in the last legislative session.

That session proved a difficult one for Texas colleges and universities, whose administrators had to justify their spending to lawmakers. The University of Texas Systems decision to purchase hundreds of acres of land in southwest Houston without a stated goal drew fire from state senators. Chancellor William McRaven later called off the Houston expansion.

Also, Texas A&M University has developed programs outside of its traditional geographic region. In the fall, Texas A&M will begin offering bachelors degrees in fields including biomedical sciences and food systems industry management in McAllen.

Texas A&M also purchased a tract of land near the Texas Medical Center in the fall. Chancellor John Sharp said at the time that the UT deal was on his mind and notified two critics of UTs purchase  the UH system and state Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat  in advance.

McRaven was originally scheduled to testify Wednesday but had a schedule conflict, spokeswoman Karen Adler said.

Sen. Kel Seliger, a Republican from Amarillo and the committees chair, said the UT purchase was not directly addressed in Wednesdays hearing because that session was intended to be a broader policy discussion.

Paredes said that if universities expand their offerings or build new campuses without an increase of state support, student costs would likely increase.

His comments follow tuition increases from the UH and UT Systems this month. In each case, administrators attributed the hikes to lower state support per full-time student.

College presidents and chancellors on Wednesday told lawmakers about ways they were trying to make degrees more affordable.

University of Houston-Downtown President Juan Sanchez Munoz said his campus is offering a new nursing degree program with Houston Community College.

Munoz also put in a plug for more funding for the university, one of the largest in Houston.

The university has a very, very modest portion of the pie, he said. We have a greater appetite.The Fort Bend County Crime Stoppers has posted a list of the county's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and is seeking the public's help in locating the alleged criminals.

Callers who call in tips leading to the arrest of any of these perpetrators on the 10 Ten list may receive up to $800. Callers do not have to give their name to receive cash for tips.

The subjects on the Top 10 List for March include:

Ronald Edward White, 44, is wanted on a charge of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child. White is a white male, is 6-feet, 1-inch tall, weighs about 170 pounds and has brown hair and green eyes.

Alfredo Moncada, 53, is a Hispanic male, 5-feet, 8-inches tall and weighs 250 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. He is wanted for Indecency With a Child, Sexual Contact with two warrants.

Jose Francisco Garcia, 46, is a Hispanic male and is 5-feet, 5-inches tall, weighs 155 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes. He is wanted for Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon.

Ernesto Rodriguez, 27, is 5-feet, 7-inches tall, weighs about 150 pounds and has black hair. He is wanted for Assault of a Family Member and a previous conviction.

Tawanna Willlams, 31, is a black female, who faces an Arson charge.

Michael Quillen, 54, is a white male, 5-feet 7-inches tall and weighs about 175 pounds and is wanted on a charge of an Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon.

Keenan Christopher Rogers, 26, is a black male and is wanted for Aggravated Robbery.

Darion David Venable, 22, is a black male and is wanted for Theft, Firearm; Money Laundering and Possession of a Controlled Substance.

Jaylyn Jauan Bullock, 24, is wanted for Aggravated Robbery. He is 5-feet, 11 inches tall and weighs about 145 pounds.

Lemar Deshawn Arbuthnot, 22, is a black male, 6-feet tall and weighs about 175 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. He is wanted for Aggravated Assault Causes Serious Bodily Injury; Continuous Violence Against The Family; and Assault Family/Household Member Previous Conviction IAT.

Anyone who may know the location of any of these perpetrators is asked to call the Fort Bend County Crime Stoppers at (281) 342-TIPS (8477) and receive cash reward of $800.They could have stayed home to hang out with friends or binge watch Netflix. But about 200 politically inclined teens from across Houston on Sunday donned blazers and ties, power suits and heels, and headed to Bellaire High School.

In yet another example of young people demanding change and prodding status-quo adults to action, the Houston students organized a Day of Unity to try to answer the pressing question: In a political climate as polarized as this one, how can people respect and listen to each other  and actually work together?

Were the greatest stakeholders in our future, said event organizer Adam Hoffman, a 17-year-old senior from Robert M. Beren Academy, who like many attendees is looking forward to the day he can cast his first ballot.

Hoffman, an ardent Republican who has worked on Gov. Greg Abbotts gubernatorial campaign and Ted Cruzs presidential campaign in 2016, said he came up with the idea for the event after attending a pluralism conference last year and seeing the tense nationwide political discourse seep into his school.

Most recently, for example, Hoffman, who opposes gun control, said he decided not to participate in a national walkout to protest school shootings  a move that many of his classmates criticized.

Things are toxic  it just created tension and hostility between me and other students, he said.

He contacted the Texas High School Democrats and the Texas Junior State of America, and over several months, they planned Sundays conference together.

I thought it was a good idea, given how divided the nation is after the 2016 election, said Alex Kontoyiannis, a Bellaire High School junior who co-chairs the Texas chapter of the Texas High School Democrats. The adults cant find common ground.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Houston, attended, as did Mayor Sylvester Turner. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, also spoke, along with the chairs of Texas Democratic and Republican parties. Each offered bits of advice, and some took questions from the students. Over the rest of the day, students peeled off into breakout sessions with leaders of the Houston City Council, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups.

In a 45-minute speech, Cruz advised students to laugh, love, understand, tolerate, and reason.

He suggested trying to approach people across the aisle with a sense of humor and respect.

If youre going to try to persuade them, saying, Dude, youre an idiot, probably isnt going to work, he said.

Turner, meanwhile, urged students to focus on facts, rather than partisan arguments.

When the facts no longer matter, when the truth is no longer important, then we have all lost, he said. I hope you believe if people present facts, the truth, and you find them persuasive, you will have the courage and stand and say, yes, or the courage to say, no, but not just do it because of party affiliation.

Castro said one reason Washington has become so polarized is because of aggressively gerrymandered districts.

Things have become so polarized because theyve been built that way, he said.

Meg Kodali, a 16 year-old Bellaire sophomore in favor of stricter gun control laws, said she appreciated being able to hear conservatives views on that issue, and after hearing about how an armed bystander in Sutherland Springs had helped stop a massacre at the towns church, was reconsidering her views somewhat.

It was a good opportunity to come together and learn, she said.

Zoe Nanson, 17, a Carnegie Vanguard High School junior and a member of the Junior States of America, said she appreciated the chance for students to meet and interact with their elected officials.

Theres just kind of a lack of togetherness, a lack of cooperation in our elected officials, it seems like, especially when it comes to passing things like legislation, said Nanson, who took to the streets Saturday with thousands of other teens in the #MarchForOurLives rally in downtown Houston.

What this is doing, more than anything, is promoting unity  promoting people to understand and listen to the other side before making any judgments, she said. I definitely dont think its ideal for young people to have to be the people that are driving legislation forward in this country  It would be very, very nice if the people we elected to do that were doing a better job of getting that passed.The U.S. Department of Education has approved Texas' Every Student Succeeds Act plan, which documents goals and systems for improving academic performance, the agency announced Monday.

The approval comes nearly three months after the federal education agency requested changes to Texas' plan. Under the revised proposal, the Texas Education Agency used a higher standard of achievement for measuring academic success and set more ambitious targets for post-secondary readiness, among other changes.

"In Texas, we are committed to ensuring every child is prepared for success in college, a career or the military," Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath. "Our state plan reflects a commitment to reinforcing public education outcomes for more than 5 million schoolchildren while continuing to strengthen the economic future of Texas."

The Every Student Succeeds Act, passed in 2015, replaces some federal oversight established by No Child Left Behind, which Congress and then-president George W. Bush enacted in the early 2000s. Each state is required to submit a plan detailing targets for increasing student achievement under its accountability system, procedures for improving low-performing schools and goals for graduation and post-secondary readiness rates.

RELATED: Texas education officials finalize federal achievement plan

Texas' initial plan, submitted in September 2017, used the "approaches grade level" standard -- which means students are likely to succeed in the next grade level with targeted intervention -- for measuring academic achievement. Federal officials, however, requested Texas use the more advanced "meets grade level" standard, which means students will succeed with limited intervention. About 28 percent of Texas students hit the "approaches grade level" standard in 2016, but fell short of "meets grade level."

The initial plan also called for an increase in Texas students meeting definitions for career, college or military readiness. The original plan set goals of raising rates from 40 percent to 60 percent, but the revised plan sets a 70 percent target.

Texas' new "A-through-F" accountability system, established by state legislators in 2015 and tweaked in 2017, meets requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act. Districts will receive an annual letter grade starting this year, while campuses will get a letter grade in 2019. The grade will be determined by three factors: student achievement, school progress, and closing performance gaps.

The U.S. Department of Education has approved Every Student Succeeds Act plans from 34 states.Three-year-old Daniel Powers galloped his stick horse down the middle of the road. Eight-year-old Dakota Knight jump roped 26 times without stopping. And their parents werent worried about the usual hustle and bustle of 19th Street in the Heights.

Amazing, because normally theres cars out there, Knight said of playing in the road.

Families enjoyed the sunny weather and car-free street at this years kickoff Cigna Sunday Streets. In its fifth year, the city of Houston event shuts down streets to provide an opportunity for families to be active and support small businesses they may overlook from the confines of a vehicle.

The first event was in the Heights. It next will move to the Third Ward on Emancipation Avenue, near the new Emancipation Park, on April 22, and then it will be held May 20 on Westheimer Road in Montrose.

In the fall, Cigna Sunday Streets will stop at three new communities: Near North Side in October, Rice Village in November and Kingwood in December. Cigna has agreed to be the title sponsor for another three years.

Every Sunday Streets is different than every other one, said Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Cohen. Theyre unique to the communities theyre at.

Chelsea Longoria rode a bike as her two sons, Justin, 13, and Braden, 10, rollerbladed. She enjoys visiting the different neighborhoods and not worrying about traffic. Justin likes the food. At one of last years events, he recalled a mini pizza. He was enjoying a popsicle on Sunday.

We go to every single one, Longoria said.

Julie Caplinger and her husband Kim Macdonald gained a new perspective of Houston after attending Cigna Sunday Streets on Washington Avenue this past fall. They had just moved from Austin and, before attending the event, thought Houston was all about cars and didnt want pedestrians or cyclists.

Macdonald joined BikeHouston at last years event and gained a new appreciation for the city.

I just think they need to do more of it, he said. You see people relate to each other differently when theyre not in a huge SUV.

Melissa Powers, whose son was galloping down the street on a stick horse purchased at Big Blue Whale on 19th Street, agreed.

Its a nice way to see the city, she said. Its a cool way to interact with our neighbors and do some local shopping.

The event brings a new group of people to Jubilee, a boutique selling apparel, accessories and home decor. It has been on 19th Street in various locations for the past 22 years.

In turn, the store provided these new customers with a keg of Miller Lite and rock funk band Lords of Kool.

And for those too busy with the exercise portion of the event - Operation Get Fit was leading line dancing and strength training - Sunday Streets could entice them to return to 19th Street.

People might not be in a business today, said Alli Jarrett, owner of Harolds Restaurant, but theyre noticing a business.Leon Jacob, who was convicted Friday of two counts of solicitation of capital murder,faces the possibility of life in prison as jurors return to a Harris County courtroom to begin the punishment phase of his trial.

It will begin the final chapter of a trial that has fascinated Houstonians and led to international headlines because of the lengths investigators went to make the case, including photographing staged murder scenes and having an undercover Houston police officer masquerade as a contract killer.

Jacob, 40, hired the imposter hitman last March to kill Meghan Verikas along with Marion Mack McDaniel, the ex-husband of veterinarian Valerie Busick McDaniel. He was convicted for planning the double murder of his ex-girlfriend and the ex-husband of his new girlfriend.

Valerie McDaniel also was arrested in the scheme but killed herself days after being freed on bail.

Jacob for the past year has remained in jail without bail because state District Judge Jim Wallace ruled he was a danger to the community. When he was arrested in the plot, Jacob was free on bond on charges of domestic violence and stalking filed by Verikas when they broke up in February 2017.

Last week, Verikas gave emotional testimony that the break-up after their three-year relationship was a long time coming.

When prosecutors asked her why she allowed police to ziptie her hands and wrap duct tape around her head so her mouth would be covered then photograph her, she sobbed, Because somebody had been paid to kill me.

Jacob can be heard on hours of audiotape while negotiating with the hitman that he wanted Verikas to go away so those charges would go away.

Jacob faces the full range of punishment for a first-degree felony, from probation to life in prison. If sentenced to life, he would first be eligible for parole in 30 years.

Defense attorney George Parnham said he will call character witnesses, such as family and friends, to show that Jacob deserves probation.

Based on his background, hes a good candidate for probation, Parnham said Friday. Well go forward with witnesses who support our contention that the jury will probate this matter.

Prosecutors are expected to call a string of witnesses to prove Jacobs history of bad acts, including arrests for assaulting and threatening his ex-wife and other women he dated. He also is accused of stealing money from women.

And, according to court records, he lied constantly about being a transplant surgeon and even portrayed himself as surgeon when he met his ex-girlfriend while working in Pittsburgh. He apparently persuaded her to move to Houston, where his family lived, so he could work as a surgeon. He was never a licensed physician, and he testified he paid his bills with family money.

In August 2015, he was a contract worker for Methodist Hospital harvesting organs. He lost that job after mislabeling an organ destined for transplant and because of anger management problems.

It was at least the third hospital that had severed contacts with him. In 2009, the University of Texas Health Science Center canceled his contract for several reasons, including asking a chief resident to make out in a hall, lying while on morning rounds and telling a medical student about visits to prostitutes in Mexico, according to court filings by prosecutors.

Before that, a hospital in New York chose not to renew his contract in 2006 because colleagues complained he was a potential threat to patients.

The trial is set to continue Monday in Wallaces court.A fundraising director who quit and returned most of his salary after four days as an employee of ex-U.S. Congressman Steve Stockman characterized the work environment as horrific for Washington, D.C., interns, according to his testimony in the second week of the former Republican lawmakers fraud trial in a Houston federal court.

A crew of volunteer interns worked in a cramped office making as many as 2,000 fundraising calls all day  at a lobbying firm rather than the congressmans office  and had to hustle to find their own summer lodging, according to Sean McMahon, the short-lived fundraising director.

The situation with interns is horrific, McMahon wrote  before the interns began at the lobbying firm office  in an email entered as evidence in the case. Every single one of them believes they are having a normal Hill internship. This is not the case.

RELATED: Megadonor says he thought former U.S. Congressman Steve Stockman was trustworthy

One of Stockmans pet projects was establishing a building that could house and train young conservatives to work on Capitol Hill, but that money went to other purposes, according to several witnesses in the case against the former Clear Lake lawmaker. Stockman is on trial for 28 criminal counts related to what government prosecutors say was a massive scam, including allegations that he diverted $1.25 million in charitable donations for his own use.

Last week a major Midwestern GOP donor, Richard Uihlein, testified that he gave Stockman $350,000 to pay for rehabilitating Freedom House, the conservative interns center the congressman said he planned to create.

But witnesses have said Uihleins check got deposited and diverted to personal and political expenses, including a friends 30-day rehab treatment, the purchase of 500 pop-up advent books published by Stockmans brother and a secret surveillance operation against a perceived GOP opponent at the state capitol.

The detox program in Dickinson depleted $11,000 of the funds, according to testimony from Rebecca Shipley, the chief financial officer at Bay Area Recovery Center. The book project cost Stockman another $24,000 for what his brother John Jack Stockman testified were heirloom quality advent books published in China. The former congressman never received any of the 500 copies he pre-ordered, his brother testified. As far as he knew, they were still in his basement.

MORE: Stockman spent charity funds to collect dirt on political opponent, witness says

Another $50,000 went to fund two fruitless spy operations by political operatives conducted on fellow Republicans at the Texas capitol, witnesses said. Prosecutors allege that both men were paid with money that Stockman had earlier solicited as a donation for charitable projects.

The organizer of one operation, Ben Wetmore, told jurors his two employees did video surveillance and followed East Texas state representatvie James White, the perceived rival, who Stockman thought might challenge him for U.S. Congress in the GOP primary. Another amateur spy, Jonathan Clark, testified Stockman paid him to photograph Whites home from the street, take blurry shots of his car outside an Austin bar. But neither man turned up anything to use against White, according to testimony.

Among more than a dozen witnesses Monday was Stockmans former secretary on Capitol Hill, Kristine Nichols. She said before she started at his office the congressman said she had to take a mandatory ethics course. Everyone did.

Nichols testified she asked Stockman, who had been a friend before she was hired, whether he took the course, too.

He said he wasnt planning to go because then they might hold him to the rules, she said.Residents almost always end up adopting characteristics of the communities they live in, which is why it's more than fair to question the overall health of a neighborhood.

To explore how local health impacts a community's quality of life, researchers at U.S. News & World Report recently conducted a study of wellness across America.AUSTIN -- A $500 million expansion of a Baytown steel mill was announced Monday by Gov. Greg Abbott, a move that will add up to 500 new jobs at an average salary of $65,000.

In a conference call with reporters from India, where a week-long Texas trade-development mission is underway, Abbott said the expansion will benefit the oil and gas industry and related businesses statewide.

Abbott also said he is working with Indian firms to increase shipments from Texas to India of liquified natural gas, and open new markets for businesses in both countries of technology and machinery, among other products.

"India is the fastest-growing international economy," Abbott said., and increasing trade with the country "will be extremely profitable for Texas companies for decades to come."

Abbott and company officials said the expansion will allow the plant to begin sourcing raw steel from Texas and other states, instead of Brazil, Mexico and India.

JSW bought the then-bankrupt Baytown plant for about $810 million in October 2007, and is currently operating at about 30 per cent capacity, officials said. The plant currently employs about 350, they said.

"The $500 million investment from JSW Steel to expand its operations in Texas shows what we can achieve when we work to be better every single day," Abbott said. "Made in Texas is a powerful label, and I thank JSW for investing in our great state. We look forward to forging an even stronger partnership and continuing economic and job growth in the Lone Star State."

He said the Baytown expansion, expected to be made in phases, is contingent upon approval of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and will include a $3.4 million grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund, the state's deal-closing business incentive fund.

Abbott said the JSW investment will be used to expand the company's Plate & Pipe Mill unit.

Jindal said the deal "is part of our long term strategy to enhance our U.S. footprint" and "provides JSW USA an opportunity to participate in USA's infrastructure development and job creation priorities.

"Access to natural gas at extremely economical prices and the abundant availability of scrap steel in Texas make conditions very conducive for manufacturing through the Electric Arc Furnace route," he said. "JSW Steel (USA) Inc. wishes to create a world class fully integrated steel complex that will bring precision manufacturing of high quality steel plate and pipe to Texas, USA."

Company officials said the Baytown plant services the needs of the energy, petrochemicals, defense and other heavy equipment industries in United States that high quality carbon plate.

On Sunday, Abbott visited Mahindra & Mahindra Limited in Mumbai, India, to meet with Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra and have lunch with executives of Mahindra's subsidiary companies.

Abbott said he discussed with company officials how to strengthen the business ties between the prominent India-based company and Texas, where 20 percent of its sales are based. Mahindra North America's headquarters, as well as one of its assembly plants, are located in Houston.

Mahindra Group is a multinational conglomerate holding company with interests including aerospace, agribusiness, automotive, components, construction equipment, defense, energy, information technology, finance, logistics and real estate.

The firm's seven companies employ more than 240,000 people in at least 100 countries, including more than 30 facilities and 3,500 jobs in the United States. Mahindra Group has four companies with a Texas presence including Mahindra North America, the parent organization of Mahindra Group's U.S. Automotive and Farm Sector headquartered in Houston, which began selling tractors in the U.S. in 1994 and introduced a line of utility vehicles in 2015.

Abbott said he thanked Mahindra for the company's $1.5 million donation to the Houston community in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

"There is an important relationship between Texas and India," Abbott said, insisting that he expects the trip will lead to additional trade opportunities in a variety of business sectors.AUSTIN -- The more than 25-minute video confession that the Austin bomber recorded before he died won't likely be made public anytime soon, Austin police said.

"We have the tape, the 25- to 28-minute tape where he talks about a lot of things but as we continue this investigation we will look to see if we can identify a specific motive behind this," interim Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said at a briefing this weekend.

Asked about when the tape will be released to the public, Manley said that will be a discussion when the investigation has concluded.

"We have to finish out to ensure no one else was involved, because if there were, then that might be something that is needed for a potential prosecution," Manley said. "So that's a decision we're going to have to make at a later time."

Manley did not say when that might happen but said the investigation is far from over.

"There's a lot of work that still needs to be done and a lot of evidence that is still being processed and a lot of individuals that will still likely be interviewed as we work through this case," Manley said.

While the recording hasn't been released to the public, those who have seen it have relayed portions of if.

U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul, an Austin Republican, said that Mark Anthony Conditt called himself a psychopath on the recording and did not express any remorse for what he had done. McCaul said Conditt also questioned himself as to why he wasn't feeling remorse for what he had done.

"It's hard to imagine someone whose mind is so sick that they can commit bombings like this and feel no remorse," McCaul said.

The Austin American-Statesman quoted sources last week indicated that Conditt said on the tape: "I wish I were sorry but I am not."

Jeremy Wallace writes about state politics and government for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter at @JeremySWallace.A couple of weeks ago, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Ohio v American Express, an antitrust case involving the right standard of review for companies operating in two-sided markets. Critics of tech took their amicus filing in the case and quickly recycled it in the popular press, saying without a unitary standard of review for all types of markets, it would be impossible to rein in the giant tech companies. But that does a disservice to the real implications of the case.

The case involves the credit card industry, not the tech industry, but both markets have a similar structure. Credit card companies link banks, merchants and cardholders into payment networks, just as search engines link advertisers with information seekers, social media companies link groups of friends and online markets link buyers and sellers. The common feature is that a platform is providing a valuable mechanism linking otherwise independent actors. The companies have customers on both sides the market.

The antitrust case against American Express involved their rule preventing their merchants from steering customers away from American Express and toward other payment mechanisms that were less expensive for the merchant. The United States and 17 states alleged that this rule stifled competition among the four major card brands - Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. The District Court agreed, but the Second Circuit Appeals Court disagreed, and the case went to the Supreme Court for final judgment.

Despite tech critic complaints, the Second Circuit got the standard of review right. Amexs rule balances the interests of merchants and cardholders; it is a governance feature for both sides of the market. It maintains high merchant fees as a way to fund rewards programs that encourage buyers to sign up and use Amex cards, which in turn brings high spending customers to the merchants who accept Amex cards. As a result, the Court ruled, to make a prima facie showing of anticompetitive harm related to this Amex rule, a plaintiff would have to show that this rule had net harmful effects, taking account of the gains to cardholders.

Critics assert that this notion of a two-sided market is slippery and confused. With enough ingenuity, they say, every market can be categorized as two-sided, with the result that this tougher standard for antitrust action will apply everywhere.

Not every market can be categorized as two-sided

But this is just wrong. The notion of a two-sided market has been thoroughly explored since the classic article by Jean-Charles Rochet and Nobel Prize-winning economist Jean Tirole set out the basic notion in 2003. There are different technical tests for determining whether a market is two sided, but they all agree in particular cases.

A vertical chain from manufacturer to distributor to retail outlet is not a two-sided market. Companies in these chains buy goods from the higher level and sell them to the lower level. This is what Walmart does, and what Amazon does in its incarnation as a bookseller.

In contrast, an online market like eBay links two sides of the market, providing a service to customers on both sides. They do not buy from one side and sell to the other; rather, merchants using the eBay platform sell to buyers who are also on eBay.

Even though the concept is clear, its use in antitrust litigation might still be overbroad, allowing any conduct to escape scrutiny as long as it is somehow connected to a two-sided market.

But, the Second Circuit already dealt with this possibility of overbreadth



The key is that not every activity of a company that operates in a two-sided market is connected to balancing the interests of both sides of the market.

In an earlier case involving Visa and MasterCard, the Second Circuit showed how this distinction could be made. Even though these card networks operate in a two-sided market for cardholder transactions, the Court declared that the relevant market for the conduct at issue was not this two-sided market, but the one-sided market for network services. Visa and MasterCard had exclusionary rules that barred banks from issuing American Express or Discover cards. That rule served to limit competition from American Express and Discover, who would seek to sell their services to banks, except for the Visa exclusionary rule.

This rule did not serve to balance the interests of cardholders, banks and merchants in a two-sided market. It served only to advance Visa and MasterCards interests in preventing competition for the business of banks in issuing cards. So, the Second Circuit got it right, ruling that the relevant market in this case was the one-sided network services market.

In addition, the requirement to examine the effect of a practice on both sides of the market does not immunize antitrust defendants. Plaintiffs can satisfy the requirement by showing that a practice diminishes total output below competitive levels. In this case, however, Amexs anti-steering rule did not reduce the volume of charge activity. In fact, it was chosen precisely to maximize charge activity by making the Amex card attractive to cardholders.

The second concern of the critics is that a different standard for two-sided markets would make it more difficult to bring an antitrust case against large tech companies operating in these markets. But this puts the cart before the horse. It is reaches a guilty antitrust verdict first and then looks around for a standard of evidence that can produce this pre-ordained result.

The requirement to show harm on both sides of two-sided markets reflects economic realities. If some feature of tech company conduct is crucial for them to successfully link both sides of their markets, then a judge cannot tell whether such conduct is even prima facie anticompetitive without examining its results for those on the other side of the market.Vil Mirzayanov suspected Russia from the start. As soon as he read about the mysterious attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in the quaint English town of Salisbury, he assumed that Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were victims of a Russian assassination attempt with a nerve agent.

President Donald Trump was slower to draw the same conclusion. Three weeks after the attack, and 12 days after Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats, the White House expelled 60 Russian diplomats from Washington, New York, and Seattle, 12 of whom were identified as intelligence agents, the toughest action so far against the Kremlin by President Trump.

Interviewed last week at his home in Princeton, Mirzayanov, an 83-year-old chemist, has not discussed the attack with officials from Britains Scotland Yard or its external intelligence agency, MI-6, or with any American law enforcement or intelligence agency. That wasnt necessary, he said. After having seen countless lab animalsrats, mice, and dogsexposed to nerve agents during his 26-year career in Moscows chemical-weapons program, he told me, the tell-tale signs were familiar.

The weapon of choice in the Salisbury attack, as Britain has asserted, was a novichok (newcomer in Russian). Part of the fourth generation nerve agents that Moscow developed in the 1970s and 1980s, manufactured cheaply and designed to evade detection, Novichoks are eight to ten times more powerful than their chemical cousin, VX. Mirzayanov echoes British prime minister Theresa Mays conclusion that the Russians perpetrated the attack on the Skripals; Moscow denies it.

Dispersed in powder or gas form, Novichok attacks the nervous system. Muscles contract in spasms; pupils shrink to pinpoints, and victims cannot breathe, causing death by asphyxia. It is a terrible, painful way to die, Mirzayanov said. Even if the Skripals live, he added, they will never recover.

The Skripals were found on March 4 on a bench outside a local pub and pizza parlor. Both remain hospitalized, critically ill; at least 30 other people exposed to the agent were treated for symptoms. A British police officer who responded to the attack and was hospitalized was released last week, weakened and shaken.

A spokesman for the police called the investigation one of the largest and most complex in British counter-terrorism policing. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, investigators have collected over 750 pieces of evidence, interviewed hundreds of witnesses, and scoured 4,000 hours of closed-circuit television footage. On Thursday, officers in white protective clothing removed the bench where the Skripals were found, a potential crime exhibit in the case Britain is building for attempted murder.

Mirzayanov said that newly reelected Russian president Vladimir Putin must have authorized such a politically treacherous murder attempt, and that the sanctions imposed on Russia so far were unlikely to deter him from trying to assassinate other foes and critics or frighten them into silence. Britains expulsion of 23 diplomats, the largest such discharge since World War II, was a good first step, he said, but not nearly enough. To deter future attacks, Britain and its allies must freeze the assets of Putin and his wealthy cronies. Moscow, he warned, would not voluntarily abandon these weapons or its program to perfect them.

Novichoks are a source of pride, Mirzayanov said. Most of the other lethal chemicals now banned by the chemical weapons treatysarin, soman, VXwere German inventions. This new series of weapons was all ours.

Mirzayanov eventually soured on Russias secret chemical creation. In fact, the world might not know about this class of nerve agent were it not for his growing disgust for the program that employed him and his determination to expose Russian cheating on the then newly-signed Chemical Weapons Convention (1997) banning signatories from developing, producing, stockpiling, or using such agents as weapons. His decision to write a bookState Secrets, an Insiders Chronicle of the Russian Chemical Weapons Programdenouncing Russia for hiding the development of Novichoks was not easy, he recalled. A Muslim of Tartar origin, a persecuted minority, Mirzayanov spent most of his professional life at the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology near Moscow, rising to the post of director of technical counterintelligence. Weapons scientists were privileged, he told me. We were paid wellbetter than in open institutions, given free lunches, and twice the vacation time.

Mirzayanov came to believe that chemical weapons were a moral outrage and militarily an absolute anachronism. Russia, he wrote, was wasting vast resources on CW research, testing, and production for weapons of no military utility, useful only against civilians and other unprotected populations. As a specialist and a person who had put forth considerable effort to create this evil, I understood that I had no right to keep silent, he wrote. In October 1991 and in September 1992, he wrote articles in the Russian press reporting that, while then-president Mikhail Gorbachev was negotiating and signing treaties banning chemical weapons, Russia was still making and storing them.

Punishment was swift. Fired from his job and forced to sell sneakers and jeans on Moscow streets to feed his family, Mirzayanov was arrested and thrown first into Lefortovo and then Matrosskaya Tishina, two infamous prisons. Subjected to a classic Soviet show trial for treason, he managed to hand-copy 60 top-secret documents, which he published in an appendix to his book. Under intense Western pressure, Russian prosecutors closed the case against him in 1994. Last June, a court awarded him 33 million rubles in damages.

The world might still be in the dark about the Novichok program were it not for the conscience and courage of Dr. Vil Mirzayanov, Amy Smithson, an expert on weapons of mass destruction, wrote last week in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Mirzayanov, she wrote, had detailed the locations used for research, testing, and production of Novichok agents, identified the programs chief scientists, and revealed other features of the effort, such as the fact that the Soviet program was designed to be masked by the agrochemical industry to escape detection. The Red Army had approved three Novichok agents as weapons of war in 1989 and 1990.

Russias denials continue. Since the March 4 attack, the Russian foreign ministry and its representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Hague-based agency established to monitor and verify implementation of the chemical weapons ban, have insisted that no Russian chemical-weapons program called Novichok exists. This is at least semantically correct, because by some accounts the program is codenamed Foliant. Russian officials suggest that the nerve agent might have been produced in Great Britain Salisbury is near Porton Down, Britains chemical-defense facilityor in Sweden, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, or the U.S, which once had a robust chemical-weapons program. Russian spokesmen note that Moscow is ahead of the U.S. in meeting its commitment to destroy chemical-weapons stockpiles, as the 1997 treaty requires. According to the Bulletin, while Alexander Shulgin, Russias representative to the OPCW, has acknowledged that Russia once researched and tested binary nerve agents, unidentified foreign special services took Russian scientists abroad in the early 1990s to continue their research. Shulgin blamed the Novichok program on the U.K., the U.S., and Mirzayanov, the whistleblower.

Mirzayanov echoed Smithsons frustration with Russias denials of the program and the international communitys acceptance of what he called Moscows continuing lies. The chemical-weapons treaty, he complained, needs to be amended. The OPCW gives credibility to a sham in trying to convince people that we are safe from chemical attack. In fact, he said, the organization has simply required the destruction of tons of useless old weapons. The chemical-weapons convention, he said, does not require Russia and other producers to declare the Novichoks chemical precursors under its list of banned substances. Novichoks were designed to evade the treaty, he said.

Mirzayanovs book remains controversial among scientists and non-proliferation experts. Some worry that by publishing the Novichok familys basic chemical formulas, Mirzayanov may have enabled non-state actors to make such deadly agents. He dismisses the criticism, saying he was careful not to publish formulas for the nerve agent promoters, the catalysts that help bind the two non-lethal chemicals into a deadly brew. Promoters are the unique part of these weapons, he asserts.

Though the U.S. has supported Britain in blaming Russia for the Skripal attack, Mirzayanov worries that President Trumps unwillingness to criticize Putin personally will let Russia escape accountability for the assault and what he claims is its broader violation of the chemical-weapons convention. The nerve-agent attack on the Skripals is probably not unique, he warns. At the request of parliamentarian Yvette Cooper, Britain has reopened investigations of 14 other suspicious deaths.

America and the West must not miss this moment as we did before, Mirzayanov said. Such clear-cut forensic evidence may not come again. Russia must finally be held accountable for what too many have denied for too long. After almost two decades of warning about such chemical skullduggery, Mirzaynaovs alarm may finally be heard.

Photo: Coast-to-Coast/iStockThe Fundraising Regulator has announced that Gerald Oppenheim will replace Stephen Dunmore as its new chief executive in the summer.

Oppenheim has been with the Fundraising Regulator since its inception in 2016, and is currently the organisations head of policy and communications. He will replace Dunmore, the regulators first chief executive.

Prior to joining the Fundraising Regulator, Oppenheim had worked extensively in the charity sector, including nine years as director of policy at the National Lottery Charities Board and five years as director of policy and partnerships with the Big Lottery Fund.

Oppenheim is currently chair of the London Emergencies Trust and has also sat on the boards of Citizens Advice and BBC Charitable Appeals Advisory Committee.

The regulator has yet to respond to questions about who will fill Oppenheims vacant head of policy and communications role.

'Exhaustive recruitment process'

Speaking about Oppenheims appointment, Lord Michael Grade, chair of the Fundraising Regulator, said the recruitment process had been exhaustive.

Grade said: Following an exhaustive recruitment process, I am delighted that Gerald is going to be the Fundraising Regulators next CEO. Geralds appointment is a testament to his hard work and commitment to the Fundraising Regulator over the course of the last two years.

Stephen Dunmore has been a wonderful asset to the regulator and we wish him well in the future.

Oppenheim said he was delighted to have been appointed chief executive of the Fundraising Regulator.

It is an incredibly exciting time for the organisation, and I look forward to continuing the excellent work Stephen Dunmore has carried out over the last few years.

Oppenheim will officially start his new role on 1 July 2018, according to a spokesman for the regulator.

Dunmore to stand down in June

The Fundraising Regulator has announced that Stephen Dunmore will retire from his role with the Fundraising Regulator in June.

Dunmore was first appointed to the chief executive role of the new regulator in December 2015 on an interim-basis. Since that time he has overseen the regulator scale up its staff numbers, take over the Code of Fundraising Practice and the street and door-to-door fundraising handbooks from the Public Fundraising Association.

He also oversaw the launch of the Fundraising Regulator's fundraising levy in October 2016 as well as the design and implementation of the Fundraising Preference Service, which went live in July 2017.

In a statement, Dunmore said his time at the helm of the regulator had been both challenging and enjoyable.

My time at the Fundraising Regulator has been both challenging and enjoyable. I am proud to have overseen our creation and development as an organisation, as well as landmark moments such as the launch of the Fundraising Preference Service  work in which Gerald has played a significant role as well.

The regulators role is absolutely vital in ensuring transparent, ethical fundraising practice across the sector and I am confident that this will thrive under Geralds leadership.

Peter Lewis, chief executive of the Institute of Fundraising, said: "I would like to congratulate Gerald Oppenheim on his appointment as chief executive of the Fundraising Regulator. During this challenging time for the fundraising sector, we welcome the experience and continuity that Geralds appointment will bring.

"The Institute of Fundraising looks forward to continuing the strong relationship we have built with the excellent work of Stephen Dunmore and thank him for his leadership at the regulator.

Girguiding has appointed Amanda Medler as its first chief guide after restructuring the role last year.

The role had been vacant for a year after Valerie Le Vaillant stepped down due to health problems in March 2017.

As part of her chief guide role, Le Vaillant had been the charitys chair of trustees, but in November last year, the charity voted to create a separate role to be chair of the trustee board.

Now the charity has appointed Medler, who will be the charity's most senior volunteer and focus on managing the organisations senior members.

Medler, whose term as chief guide runs for five years, joined Girguiding when she was seven and has been a guide leader for the past thirty years, taking on roles such as chair of the charitys British Youth Council delegation and the charitys county commissioner in her local area.

Outside Girlguiding, Medler works as a senior consultant at Adapta Consulting and was previously a senior project manager at Citizens Advice.

Before moving into the charity sector, Medler worked in corporate IT for over 20 years.

She said: As chief guide I want to do my best to motivate all our amazing volunteers to continue to provide great guiding experiences for girls and to encourage other adults to volunteer and join us.

I would love to grow guiding so we can welcome every girl who is waiting to join us wherever she lives.

In my professional career, the transferrable teamwork and leadership skills Ive gained in Girlguiding have helped me to achieve more in the workplace. And sometimes, Girlguiding has helped me by being the place to escape to have fun.

Transformation

Medler's appointment comes at a time of "major transformation" for Girlguiding, which is overhauling all the badges and activities available to girls to ensure they have "all the skills and experiences they will need to thrive, succeed, make change and be happy in the modern world".

The full details of the new programme of badges and activities will be announced in the summer.President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf left office in January with a tremendous, if overdue, parting gift for the girls of Liberia. During her final hours in office, Africas first woman elected head of state signed an executive order abolishing female genital cutting, an ancient practice that is endured by more than half of Liberias girls.

The fight is not quite over. Lawmakers have a year to enshrine the ban into law, and it may be many years before the law is properly enforced. But it is a momentous step that seemed unthinkable just six years ago, when an explosive newspaper article propelled the issue onto the national agenda.

Back then, in 2012, female genital cutting was a taboo subject in Liberia. Though womens activists had done heroic work to kill the practice, Liberias political leaders, including President Sirleaf, avoided the topic. They feared enraging the powerful traditional societies that dominate politics in 10 of Liberias 16 tribes. The womens secret society known as Sandean ancient organization with its own traditions and religious beliefs, which predates Islam and Christianityclaims that cutting a girls genitals is essential for her passage to adulthood. The cutting takes place at the end of a six-month training called a Bush school, after which a girl is said to be ready for marriage (this practice generally takes place between ages 13 and 16, but girls as young as 3 have been initiated and cut). So powerful is the Sandes electoral power that it is widely believed the president herself was initiated (without FGC) in order to win votes in the 2011 election.

More ominously, it is the policy of the Sande and its male counterpart, the Poro, to kill anyone who speaks publicly about their rituals. Condemning FGC could mean more than just political suicide for Liberias leaders. The same rule dictated media coverage. A silent war was ravaging Liberias girls with barely a mention, as it had done for centuries. While one after another of Liberias neighbors banned the practice, the only state in West Africa headed by a woman dragged its feet.

ICYMI: Ecuadors hangover

That silence was blown up in spectacular fashion on International Womens Day in 2012, when Mae, one of Liberias most well known reporters published a story with New Narratives, the NGO Prue runs to support Liberian journalists, on A1 of Front Page Africa newspaper. Our piece told the story of a woman named Ma Sabah, who described her terror at the age of 13 when she was held down by five women and cut with a rusty blade. She was one of 25 girls to be cut that day. The youngest was only 3. Ma Sabah had endured lifelong health problems as a result, as well as a broken marriage. A Liberian doctor spoke to us about possible effects of cutting, such as infections, hemorrhages, and long-term impacts such as painful periods, difficulty in childbirth. Some have died.

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We took care with our story to not judge parents. We know the majority of parents who submit their daughters to FGC believe they are doing the best for them. We sought simply to convey the truth about the practice and encourage a broader debate. (We intentionally use the term cutting instead of mutilation. Though the act of cutting girls as young as 3 is abhorrent, the work of Anthony Kwame Appiah and others has shown that mutilation is a judgmental term that causes proponents to become defensive and resistant to information about FGCs harm.)

By choosing our story for the cover on International Womens Day, Rodney Sieh, Front Page Africas courageous publisher, was making a clear statement: Electing Africas first female president is not enough. Liberia must address the plague of rape, teen pregnancy, maternal death, violence, and discrimination that ravages the nations women. Front Page was playing the role good, independent media is supposed to play in a democracy, but which it rarely does in Africa due to corruption and the absence of effective business support from international donors.

When the paper hit newsstands, the backlash began. Traditional leaders called our offices and turned up at Maes house threatening to kill her and circumcise her 9-year-old daughter. The pair went into hiding. We begged the police to intervene, and begged every political leader who had been privately supportive of our story to publicly denounce threats to a journalist. At first, none did.

The debate that ensued shook the nation. On talk shows, in cafes, and on street corners, Liberians argued over Maes piece and whether we should have published it. Within a week an international coalition including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Amnesty International had joined us, pressing the government to protect Mae.

The traditional societies sway was strong. Among Liberians with indigenous heritage, mistrust of any ideas that are thought to have come from the West runs deep. Western values carry a stigma from their association with the hated Americo-Liberian elitethe descendants of formerly enslaved and freeborn Africans from America who colonized this land with US government support in 1821. Mae was accused of selling out [our] culture to the West.

The traditional societies have deep political and economic roots binding them to local communities. Our reporting showed that in tribal areas, those not initiated into the Sande are barred from local government of from owning land. If they do own land, it can be taken away. The traditional women who do the cutting, known as zoes, also derive their income from running the Bush schools. They have a deep financial interest in defending the practice.

As the weeks dragged on, Mae and her daughter moved from house to house, afraid to stay too long under one roof. Our New Narratives team kept publishing. Front Page published follow-up pieces by Mae, reporting that when girls are cut they usually drop out of school, undermining the governments efforts to keep girls in education. One of our radio reporters, Tetee Gebro, did a version for SKY FM.

Sadly for us, President Sirleaf gave a lecture at Columbia University later that year, and when asked about Mae, she accused her of writing the story in order to win asylum in the US. Tell me how we can have a group to protect people from irresponsible media reporting.Then we can be fair in protecting them, said Sirleaf.

Finally, at the end of the third week after the story was published, three brave government ministers came forward to publicly condemn FGCthe first Liberian politicians to do so. Then other women leaders came forward, and men. Mae eventually felt safe to come out of hiding. The government announced it had secretly negotiated a deal to suspend Sande activity.

Mae is fond of the saying, the pen is mightier than the sword, and she proved it to be true. No one thinks FGC ended in Liberia with one article, but what it did do was spark a vibrant national dialogue that boosted the work of anti-FGC campaigners.

In the years since that story, FGC has been a constant fixture in newspapers, on radio talk shows, and in Liberias politics. Once taboo, it is now on everyones lips, including, to our great joy, the girls themselves. In tribal areas, news of what happens in initiation ceremonies is reaching the girls, and theyre pushing back.

At this years International Womens Day celebration, Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee applauded Mae for advancing the cause of Liberias women. When I started as an activist, you could not say the word FGM in Liberia in a negative sense, Gbowee told a crowded stadium in Monrovia. Today, you can talk about it. For me, as a feminist and as a fighter, I have to remain optimistic that change is definitely going to happen.

Womens activists and politicians, including new Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor, have fought for a ban on FGC to be included in a domestic violence law that has been making its way through Parliament. Finally, at the 2015 Global Womens Conference, President Sirleaf promised to stop FGM before the end of her presidency. She fulfilled that commitment.

We echo the lament of Korto Williams, a leading womens activist, in an interview in the wake of Sirleafs executive order. We want to recognize the silent survivors of FGM over the last 12 years and those, who did advocacy on FGM, because just a stroke from the pen before today, could have stopped so many from being circumcised. Sadly, more girls will be cut before FGC ends in Liberia, but thanks to one newspaper article, that end will come sooner.

ICYMI: Seth Rich lawsuit against Fox News stands on unusual legal ground

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Mae Azango and Prue Clarke are the authors of this story. Mae Azango is a senior reporter with Front Page Africa and New Narratives and author of Voice of the Trumpetess, a memoir of her life during and after Liberias civil war. Maes piece on FGC appears in African Muckraking100 Years of Investigative Journalism in Africa, edited by Anya Schiffrin and George Lugalambi. Prue Clarke is founder and executive director of New Narratives and director of International Reporting at CUNYs Graduate School of Journalism.The New Jersey Forest Fire Service readily admits it cant see the forest for the trees.

Literally.

Even when fire spotters climb to the top of the 80-foot Bass River State Forest fire tower, their view is blocked on three sides by nearby pines that have grown to the towers height.

The tower oversees an area of about 50,000 residents  mostly to the east  in places like Little Egg Harbor Township, Tuckerton, Bass River and Eagleswood Township.

Thats why the state has a plan to clear-cut about 19 acres of white pine and other conifers that are causing the problem, said Forest Fire Service Chief Greg McLaughlin, as he showed a reporter and photographer the view from the tower.

There was a view to the horizon only to the west, allowing a spotter to see a plume of smoke rise out of the trees, and find it in contrast to the dark forest rather than gray clouds.

No. 1 is the eye in the sky, said McLaughlin, who said high tech-cameras and other equipment are being tested, but still cant replace an experienced human spotter.

But Bass Rivers governing body opposes the plan, as do some environmentalists and hikers.

Mayor Deborah Buzby Cope said the state should replace the aged tower, which is 10 years past its expected lifespan, with a taller one.

How long is (the current tower) going to last? Buzby Cope said.`If they are going to continue using the towers, I feel we should put a newer tower in there instead of just clearing out the trees.

The state looked into replacing the tower, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937, with a 120-foot structure. Some others in the state are 100 feet high or more. But the state got one quote saying it would cost about $500,000, officials have said.

New Jersey Forest Service Chief Todd Wyckoff said the state will put go out to bid for the cutting, which he expects to be done for the paper or chipped-wood trade. It shouldnt cost taxpayers anything, but it probably wont bring in much income either, he said.

Safety is a big priority, Buzby Cope said, and the area has seen some bad fires. That includes nine that have burned 30,100 acres since 1999, according to the state.

Nearby fires in 1936 and 1977 each killed several firefighters, who are honored with a memorial off East Greenbush Avenue near the tower.

McLaughlin said the structure could be considered old, but the state has maintained it and its 20 other fire towers well. They are painted regularly, stairs have been replaced and additional braces installed.

It has not been examined by a structural engineer to determine how long it can be safely used, he said. But fire spotters know it well and report any problems they see.

He expects the tower to continue being used for the next five to 10 years.

Wyckoff said the only trees to be cut are in plantations planted in the early 20th century with the intention of harvesting them. They would be replaced with native tree species that would not grow as tall.

A 4-acre cutting project was done about 20 years ago, and also generated controversy, he said.

The cutting plan still has to go before the Pinelands Commission for permits, where it will get a public hearing, said Wyckoff.

Some members of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance have contacted the group about their opposition, but the alliance hasnt opposed it, Executive Director Carleton Montgomery said.

If its necessary for the continued use of the tower, in our view the state should do it. But to the least possible extent, Montgomery said. These were trees mostly planted for future harvesting. They are not native plants.

There will be minimal effect on one trail, and none on the campground built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, according to DEP.

About 0.16 miles  or 4 percent  of the Orange CCC Trail would be affected, said DEP spokeswoman Caryn Shinke.

Environmental scientist Katie Jaeckel, of Sussex County, said people who know the forest use more than just marked trails for horseback riding, hiking and biking. Many of their favorite areas will be affected, she said.

She grew up near Bass River State Forest, visits regularly and also wants a new tower built.

What isnt at issue is the need for fire spotters.

They dont just detect fires, McLaughlin said. They also provide vital information to firefighters on the ground, like where the escape routes and safety zones are, and how the weather and wind are changing.

Do you see that plume of smoke out there? asked McLaughlin, pointing to the north from the top of the tower. Trees blocked a view of the horizon line and tops of faraway trees. So fire spotters had to pick up a diffuse smoke higher in the sky.

This reporter couldnt see it for a few minutes, then a light outline became visible. It was smoke from a state-run prescribed burn miles away.

A camera is not as good at differentiating that, said Wyckoff, explaining why cameras will never be as effective as a human being with a good 360-degree view from a fire tower.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.A former Melrose Place actress whose three-year prison term for a fatal 2010 auto crash sparked outrage from the victims family and prompted legal appeals must return to court for a second re-sentencing.

A New Jersey appeals court ordered the new sentencing Friday for Amy Locane, writing that the trial judges re-imposing of the same sentence last year didnt adhere to an earlier appellate ruling and didnt take into account the severity of the crime.

The trial judges legal analysis was not significantly different the second time he sentenced defendant than it was on the first, the three-judge panel wrote.

Locane, who acted in 13 episodes of the popular Fox series and also appeared in several movies, served about two-and-a-half years of a three-year sentence for the 2010 accident in Montgomery Township that killed 60-year-old Helene Seeman and seriously injured Seemans husband, Fred. She was released in 2015.

Locane was convicted of vehicular manslaughter, assault by auto and other offenses and faced a sentencing range of five to 10 years on the most serious count.

Prosecutors had sought a seven-year sentence.

Locanes defense contended the crash was an accident and that a third motorist, whose car the actress had bumped into at a traffic light in the minutes before the accident, distracted her by honking at her and chasing her after being rear-ended.

Though the indictment charging Locane didnt mention intoxication, a state expert testified her blood-alcohol level was likely about three times the legal limit and that she was driving roughly 53 mph in a 35 mph zone at the time of the crash.

After the initial 2013 sentencing, the appeals court in 2016 ordered a re-sentencing and instructed state Superior Court Judge Robert Reed to offer additional justification for his decision to downgrade one of the charges and impose concurrent rather than consecutive sentences.

In Fridays opinion, the appeals court noted that while the jury convicted Locane of the lesser offense of second-degree vehicular manslaughter  prosecutors had sought aggravated manslaughter, a first-degree crime  Reed then downgraded that to a third-degree offense and imposed the lightest sentence available in that range.

We fail to see on this record where the interest of justice demands a downgrade, the appeals court wrote. Accordingly, we vacate the downgrade.

Locanes attorney didnt immediately return a message seeking comment Friday.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Why You Cant Have One Without the Other

It is difficult to think of two legal concepts that have caused more confusion and headache for both courts and litigants than have contribution and subrogation. Firemans Fund Ins. Co. v. Maryland Cas. Co., 65 Cal. App. 4th 1279, 1291 (Cal. App. 1998).

When multiple insurers provide coverage for a single loss or accident, things can get confusing. Coinsurance can arise as a result of conscious risk-sharing or accidentally when two policies have overlapping coverage. Litigation involving who pays what, when, and in what order has become a cottage industry involving both subrogation and contribution. Understanding all the concepts and then applying them to the facts of a claim or loss is enough to make your head explode. And, that is where the duct tape comes in. If ones head is at risk of exploding, it is best to be proactive by wrapping it with duct tape.

Weve heard it all before. Subrogation 101 informs us that traditional subrogation is the substitution of one person for another with respect to a lawful right, claim, or security. The word subrogation is a late Middle English word which comes from the Latin: sub meaning in place of another, and rogare meaning to ask. Literally, it means one party asking in place of another. However, the term itself encompasses various types of loss transfer following a loss, and a working understanding of the confusing interplay between the terms subrogation, equitable contribution, and equitable subrogation is a prerequisite to graduating to Subrogation 102.

In the context of insurance, subrogation applies to all types of policies  personal and business, automobile, health, workers compensation, property and casualty, fidelity and surety, etc. The insurer pays a claim and then subrogates, in the name of the insured, against the party responsible for causing the loss. The purposes for subrogation are (1) it prevents a double recovery by the insured; (2) it holds the negligent party responsible even though insurance has made the insured whole; and (3) it helps to hold down insurance premiums by reducing the insureds loss history and/or experience modifier. For every wrong there is a remedy. Our system of civil law is premised on this simple maxim  wrongdoers must pay for the damages they cause. In the insurance world, this principle is usually applied through subrogation.

Subrogation is purely derivative. An insurer entitled to subrogation is in the same position as an assignee of the insureds claim and succeeds only to the rights of the insured. Equitable contribution, on the other hand, is the right to recover not from the party primarily liable for the loss, but from a co-obligor who shares such liability (e.g., a co-insurer) with the party seeking contribution. A right to contribution generally arises when several insurers are obligated to indemnify or defend the same loss or claim, and one insurer has paid more than its share of the loss or defended the action without any participation by the others  and it wants justice. Where multiple insurers cover the same insured and the same risk, each insurer has independent standing to assert a cause of action against its coinsurers for equitable contribution when it has defended or indemnified the common insured.

To add another layer of potential confusion, subrogation also applies outside of the world of insurance, and is applicable in the realm of mortgage lending. A person, who pays a mortgage when the original debtor fails to pay, can obtain all the rights under the doctrine of subrogation.

There are three types of subrogation:

Conventional or Contractual Subrogation: Based on the contract between the parties, such as subrogation language contained in an insurance policy; Equitable or Legal Subrogation: A product of equity, and is not dependent on any contract, assignment, or privity. It arises by operation of law out of fairness, where one person has been compelled to pay a debt which should have been paid by another. It requires no policy language or subrogation contract  its automatic. However, its also subject to certain equitable defenses, such as the Made Whole Doctrine, Common Fund Doctrine, etc. Statutory Subrogation: These are statutory subrogation and/or reimbursement rights established and granted by state or federal statutes. These include workers compensation, hospital liens, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Federal Employees Health Benefit Act, etc.

Subrogation involves putting a third person who has paid a debt (insurance company or subrogee) in the place of the creditor to whom it has been paid (insured or subrogor), so that it can seek to recover the debt (traditionally an insurance claim payment) from the debtor (third-party tortfeasor) who was responsible for causing the loss. The subrogee steps into the shoes of the subrogor and enforces all rights and claims the subrogor may have against the debtor. The subrogation claim is also subject to any defenses the debtor may have had against the subrogor.

Contribution, on the other hand, is an insurers right to be reimbursed partially or fully, after paying more than its share of a loss. Understanding the distinction between subrogation and contribution requires a healthy supply of duct tape. The difference is not merely a technical nuance. There is an important practical difference as well. For example, a waiver of subrogation can effectively prevent an insurer from seeking contribution. This seemingly confuses the notion that subrogation rights are a derivation of the insurers rights. The industrys conflation of contribution and subrogation also plays a significant role in the context of determining the order of coverage between primary and excess carriers. In fact, courts have said that, It is difficult to think of two legal concepts that have caused more confusion and headache for both courts and litigants than have contribution and subrogation. Firemans Fund Ins. Co. v. Maryland Cas. Co., 65 Cal. App.4th 1279, 1291 (Cal. App. 1998).

However, more duct tape is needed. To make matters even more confusing, subrogation also plays a role when multiple insurance policies cover the same loss, and one co-insurer seeks to make the other pay some or all the loss.

Contribution applies when two insurers share the same level of coverage (e.g., primary, umbrella, excess) for the same insured and they both apply to the same loss. Under such circumstances, principles of contribution will likely apply. If contribution applies, then:

The trend is to prorate the loss between carriers  this sometimes provides more recovery than a straight contractual claim; The courts are skeptical of other insurance clauses that try to convert the primary to an excess policy  it is less likely to be enforced; and The damages recoverable are the amount that the paying carrier overpaid.

Subrogation applies when there is any disparity in the level of risk or the insured. Under such circumstances, the paying carrier stands in the shoes of its insured for whom it paid the loss and pursues co-insurers by way of subrogation. If subrogation applies:

The paying carrier stands in the shoes of its insured on whose behalf it paid the loss; and The defending carrier may assert all claims against the carrier that it could against the insured.

If you are out of duct tape at this point, you may need to get another roll. In the context of multiple insurers covering the same loss, equitable subrogation may be available to shift the loss from one insurer who was secondarily liable to another primarily-liable insurer. The purpose of equitable subrogation is to prevent an economic windfall to a primarily-liable insurer who accepted premiums from an insured, but ultimately failed to pay a righteous claim under its policy.

This distinction between equitable contribution and equitable subrogation can be confusing, and as many insurance professionals have undoubtedly experienced some state statutes do not afford a great deal of time to have a productive back-and-forth between insurers to determine who is primarily liable. For example, Wisconsin has a Timely Payment Statute that requires insurers to promptly pay every insurance claim within 30 days of receiving notice of the loss. Wis. Stat.  628.46. The time frame to work through these issues is often short, and in many cases, prudence dictates that a claim be paid to avoid statutory penalties or, even worse, a bad-faith claim by the insured.

As a practical example, imagine a business owns a restaurant that is consumed by an accidental fire. Prior to the fire, there were two insurance policies providing coverage for the loss. One policy provides that it is to be primary in the event of a loss; however, despite the terms of its policy, the primary insurer fails to pay the claim. The second policy provides coverage only after all other policy limits are exhausted. The excess insurer, therefore, pays on the claim since no payment was ever made by the primary insurer. Now, the excess insurer has paid the entire loss while the primary insurer sits on its hands. This simply is unfair, as it would reward the primary insurer for not paying a valid claim. Equitable subrogation fills this void by permitting the excess insurer to recoup some, if not all, of its payments.

I

n the example above, equitable contribution may not be available. While the two insurers cover the same insured and insurable interest, they do not provide coverage for the same risk. The secondary insurers policy only provides coverage for damage in excess of the primary insurers limits.

Contrast the example above with the following. A general contractor has his own general liability insurance. The general contractor utilizes a subcontractor for a project, and the subcontractor agreement requires that the general contractor be named as an additional insured under the subcontractors policy. Both policies contain mutually repugnant other insurance clauses providing coverage only after all other polices are exhausted. After a viable claim arises from a defect in the project, the general contractors policy pays the claim in its entirety. The general contractors insurer may have a claim for equitable contribution against the subcontractors insurer because the subcontractor policy covers the same insured, same risk, and same insurable interest.

Simply stated, equitable subrogation focuses on the loss suffered by the insured. On the other hand, equitable contribution focuses on the risks insured against and permits an insurer to request contribution for a portion of the claim often on a pro-rata basis. Equitable contribution typically requires that two insurers have an identical insured, identical insurable interest, and identical risk. In Home Ins. Co. v. Cincinnati Ins. Co., 213 Ill. 2d 307, 323, 821 N.E.2d 269, 280 (2004), the Supreme Court of Illinois highlighted these differences and stated [t]he doctrine of equitable contribution is not applicable to primary/excess insurer issues. In so holding, the Court correctly stated that the terms contribution, indemnification, and subrogation are often used interchangeably; however, each of them is distinct. To have a viable claim of equitable contribution, the Court stated that concurrent policies must insure: (a) the same entities; (b) the same interests; and (c) the same risks.

Conversely, the Court noted that the requirements for a viable equitable subrogation are separate and distinct, and require:

The defendant carrier must be primarily liable to the insured for a loss under a policy of insurance; The plaintiff carrier must be secondarily liable to the insured for the same loss under its policy; and The plaintiff carrier must have discharged its liability to the insured and at the same time extinguished the liability of the defendant carrier.

Understanding the role and application of equitable subrogation and equitable contribution is important, as failure to assert the proper rights early may be fatal. For example, in Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exch. v. The Hanover Ins. Group., 16-CV-61742, 2018 WL 477277, at *7 (S.D. Fla. Jan. 19, 2018), the court held that the plaintiff-insurer waived its claim for equitable subrogation before litigation ever began. The court noted that under Florida law, an insurer is deemed to be a volunteer when settling a claim on behalf of an insured, unless the insurer reserves its right to deny liability and to seek reimbursement from other insurers. Consequently, when an insurer acts as a volunteer, it waives any claims for equitable subrogation against other insurers.

Gaining a comprehensive and working knowledge of the roles of equitable contribution and equitable subrogation is not a simple task. Adjusters, litigators, and courts alike use these terms interchangeably on a regular basis. Understanding the nuances and practical application of these terms, however, will reveal a road to recovery that was previously hidden.Large-scale projects long considered essential to easing Houstons flooding woes went to the top of the areas to-do list after Hurricane Harvey inundated large swaths of the nations fourth-largest city.

Seven months later, local officials are still looking for funding to undertake plans that include a new reservoir, deeper and wider bayous and a coastal barrier system  all of which have fallen victim to a lack of money or political will in the past.

Yet local leaders insist this time will be different, saying theyre committed to making the projects a reality, even as they wait to find out how much money they might get from the state and federal governments and whether local taxpayers will be willing to help out.

Theres been a whole lot of talk over the years, but now its time to get it done in the post-Harvey era, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a recent community meeting.

Member of FEMAs Urban Search and Rescue Nebraska Task Force One (NE-TF1) wades through waist high water removing survivors from a neighborhood impacted by flooding from Hurricane Harvey

Credit: FEMA News Photo

One thing thats giving Turner and others hope is that billions of federal dollars have been allocated to pay for flood mitigation projects. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has promised $1 billion for areas affected by Harvey, though Houston will be competing with other Texas communities for that funding. Congress in February provided $15 billion to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for flood-control projects nationwide, some of which could go to the Houston area.

Houston, which was founded on the banks of the Buffalo Bayou around the mid-1800s and rises barely above sea level, has long been susceptible to flooding. But recent growth has made the problem worse. The area has more pavement, which generates more stormwater runoff, and has lost wetlands that could soak up that runoff.

Big projects Houston-area officials are eying include building a third reservoir for the area, at a cost of about $500 million. They also want to complete the excavation and widening of six local bayous, a $1.3 billion project, part of which has proceeded in fits and starts for more than 20 years due to inconsistent funding. And they want to undertake a project known as the coastal spine, which was first proposed after Hurricane Ike in 2008. That $6 billion to $10 billion project  also called the Ike Dike  proposes barriers to protect the area from storm surge coming into Galveston Bay.

This will be very different than the last several decades when things were thought of but never actually executed, said Marvin Odum, Houstons Hurricane Harvey recovery czar.

Whichever projects are ultimately funded, they will likely take years to build.

Turner and other Houston-area officials have asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to use the states $11 billion rainy day fund to help front the cost of building the reservoir and other projects, with the state being repaid once federal dollars are awarded. But that message has fallen on deaf ears, said Stephen Costello, Houstons chief resilience officer.

However, Ciara Matthews, a spokeswoman for Abbotts office, said Saturday that through the governors work with Congress, a record amount of funding is now available to Houston to rebuild and restore the reservoirs and bayous, as well as building the coastal spine.

He has also made available a billion dollars in hazard mitigation funding for the city and county right now, Matthews said, referring to the money from FEMA for areas affected by Harvey.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the top elected official in the county where Houston is located, said hes not reassured by promises from state officials. He also noted that theyve pushed to cut property taxes, which Harris County uses to pay for its flood-control efforts.

When somebody at the state level tells you that theyre going to lower the property tax, what theyre telling you is, We are not going to build many flood-control projects, Emmett said.

Officials are also asking Harris County residents to approve a $1 billion to $2 billion bond proposal to help pay for some projects. That will be on the ballot sometime this year.

Texas A&M University at Galveston marine sciences professor Sam Brody cautioned that Houston and the rest of Texas cant engineer their way out of flooding issues by only relying on large-scale projects. Efforts such as buying out homes in flood prone areas and being mindful of future development must play a role in making the area more flood resilient, he said.

Houston remains the only major U.S. city without zoning, but it does have rules about building in the flood plain. The City Council is set to vote in the coming week on stricter rules. Harris County approved new restrictions late last year. Both Houston and Harris County are also pursuing a home buyout strategy.

There is no one silver bullet that is going to fix this problem, Brody said. Its a  multi-strategy issue that people need to recognize, he said.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Following is the transcript of a CNBC interview with Jean-Sebastien Jacques, CEO of Rio Tinto at the China Development Forum in Beijing. The interview was broadcast on CNBC's The Rundown on 26 March 2018.



All references must be sourced to a "CNBC Interview'.

Interviewed by CNBC's Martin Soong.

Martin Soong (MS): You must be probably relieved as the head of Rio Tinto, we've exemptions from U.S. the trump tariffs on steel and aluminium for Australia as well as obviously for Canada, where you've a lot of your business, I think the biggest shipper of aluminum into the U.S.

Jean-Sebastien Jacques: That's correct, we supplied around one third of the aluminum that's consumed in the U.S.

MS: So here's the thing, the exemptions are temporary, until I think May 1, depending on well let's talk things through

Jean-Sebastien Jacques: Not in the context of Canada, that's my understanding of it.

MS: Ah, but Australia?

Jean-Sebastien Jacques: But you know the truth of the matter, opposition has always been the same, which is to say it is an integrative supply chain between the U.S. and Canada andThe best from a U.S. consumer is to have access to low cost, low carbon aluminum and when look at the position of aluminum smelters in Canada, not even in the first quarter of the cost curve, we even

And on top of it, they are hydro based so, the quality of the supply of the aluminum to the U.S. is of high quality, so I am absolutely convinced that there will be common, sorry common sense will prevail at the end of the day.

MS: So that part of the supply chain is safe. What about Australia though?

Jean-Sebastien Jacques: Yeah, we don't supply lots of products from Australia to the U.S. So the primary concern we may have had was in relation to Canada and the U.S., and as you pointed out, there's exemption granted for Canada, so at this point are we concerned about? The answer is no, because we are working very closely with our customers, either in Canada or in the U.S.A. to make sure that the supply chain is as efficient as it can be, that's our priority.

MS: Quotas, doesn't worry you?

Jean-Sebastien Jacques: Today, as I said, there's exemption between Canada and the U.S.A so the work we're doing, our key priorities, we focus to develop better products, better supply chain to be more efficient. That's what we're focusing on.

MS: There's been rumbling that the Trump's administration may be considering tariff action on sectors, as in manufacturing right, err so we think EU, we think China obviously as well, so based on the amount of steel, of stuff like that they consumed, if that does come to pass, that must be a worry for a company like Rio.

Jean-Sebastien Jacques: Let me put it this way. If I step back in the mining business, we're in the mining business, the industry is driven by two factors. One is GDP, and the GDP today is going pretty well, across all geographies, and the other one is about trade. Eighty to 90 percent of our product is shifting from one country to another so, anything that relate to trade relation is of concern to us.

Now the truth of the matter is in context of China and the U.S., everybody knows, that trade is the best way to create wealth, the history shows it, and our belief is that both China and the U.S. are great trading nations. Maybe there are differences but I am sure common sense will prevail at the end of the day, so I am just hope that together, (they) will work out the issues, and in that context in the next 45 and 60 days that could be very important so let's watch it and let see what happens.

MS: So I think a lot of people would agree with you that the best case scenario would be if they can talk this through and come to some sort of negotiated settlement. What if they don't though?

Jean-Sebastien Jacques: You know I am always an optimist by nature right? Rio Tinto has been around for 145 years, we've seen some ups, we've seen some downs. We believe in trade, we believe in fair trade and let's see in what happen in the next 45 to 60 days.



Now in the meantime, what is important to us is to continue to do our business, which is really about creating world class asset, and creating world class supply chain, having strong relationship with our customers, providing the right products and services, that's what we are focusing on. I cannot control the prices, I cannot control the trade regulations, I have to deal with it, in the meantime, I am focusing on my customers, on my assets.

MS: Would it be fair to say the business you're in, the logistics, the supply chain, the value chain, is not as nimble or as flexible as a lot of other industries and that if a trade war actually erupts, puts you at a bit of a disadvantage?

Jean-Sebastien Jacques: Well you know, let's look at it we think the mining business, we've the best balance sheet, we have the best portfolio of assets, for example the iron ore asset we have in the Pilbara in Australia, or the aluminum smelters we're discussing about in Canada, so as long as we have the best assets, the best performance and the best balance sheet, then to be honest, our whole aim is to create value, superior value for shareholders in the short, medium and long term.

If I look at 2017, that was a good example of it, we delivered $9.7 billion of returns to our shareholders, including $5.2 billion dollars of dividend which is highest dividend in the 145 years history of this company, so we are very focused, we are very focused on our customers, we are clear on our commitment to deliver superior value to our shareholders in the short, medium and long term, and 40,000 people are focusing on it every day, every night.

MS: That's good to know, part of the exercise that you've just explained are offloading some of your coal assets as well. How much more to go on the coal side?

Jean-Sebastien Jacques: Let me step back and explain the decision on the coal business, this decision about the portfolio. Although we have the best balance sheet across the industry we have to make some choices, that's what strategy is about. We have decided to invest in iron ore, we have decided to invest in copper, we have decided to invest in bauxite and aluminum. So we know that coal assets, which are very good hence the valuation that we are able to extract for our shareholders, will not attract capital because we have a very disciplined capital allocation process across Rio Tinto, so as soon as you say and you acknowledge that the assets would not able to attract capital then the decision is very simple, you need to find a new home andand that's what we've been doing, and you saw the announcement we've made last week which is very good value for our shareholders, so that's what it's about, it's a strategy decision and nothing else.

END

Media Contact:

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Communications Manager, CNBC Asia Pacific

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About CNBC

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For more information, please visit www.cnbc.comFollowing is the transcript of a CNBC interview with distinguished fellow, Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S Trade Representative Michael Froman at the China Development Forum in Beijing. The interview was broadcast on CNBC's Squawk Box on 26 March 2018.

All references must be sourced to a "CNBC Interview'.

Interviewed by CNBC's Martin Soong.

Martin Soong (MS): You're a former USTR before Bob Lighthizer. Now we've got this trade war brewing, first salvo President Trump. Well actually we had, washing machines, we had solar panels, now we've got steel aluminum then $60 billion worth of IP related stuff. China finally fires back return salvo $3 billion, modest response so it doesn't look so bad. How concerned are you?

Michael Froman: Well, I think it's premature to call it a trade war per se because a lot will depend on how each side reacts to react to the other and nobody wants a trade war. There is no winning of a trade war, it's only a question of how much each side loses. But I think the Trump administration has made clear that business as usual, going through these dialogues that we've had in the past, or even relying on the WTO mechanisms are not sufficient. They haven't produced the kind of results that we'd like to see from China, in terms of reforming its economy and playing by global rules. And so this is their next step. This is their new approach.

MS: But are tariffs the answer, do you think?

Michael Froman: Well I think ultimately the answer is getting countries to agree on what appropriate policies are, and practices living by international obligations and resolving their issues that way. But we've tried that for a number of years with China being involved in the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade or the S&ED over the years and to be frank there's been a lot more rhetoric than action.

And so I think the Trump administration made this decision that they needed to get the attention of China, through tariffs, as a way of ultimately saying this relationship has to change.

MS: Ok, fair enough. But how much of this is just tactical President Trump, the 'Art of the Deal', kick him in the teeth first, to get their attention, then after that let's sit down and when we finally actually comes to a negotiated solution everybody seems reasonable and sane?

Michael Froman: Well, hopefully that's the way that this will play out. I don't think tariffs are the answer per se. I think there's a series of policies that the U.S. and other countries have concerns about with regard to China, and ultimately would like to see China change those policies and practices. And the administration has also laid out what they like to see, the trade deficit, the bilateral trade deficit come down by $100 billion in the short run. And that's a metric that they have put a lot of emphasis on. Whether or not that's something that can be achieved in the short run remains to be seen, since we know that trade deficit is a function of a lot of other macroeconomic factors. But certainly they want to get to a more balanced relationship and one that is based on a series of policies and practices that are not seen as taking advantage of the United States and other countries.

MS: Some experts I've just recently talked to think that, look, it's all about that. If the Trump administration can manage to hack $100 billion off that deficit with China, that's basically only one of midterms. Do you think so? Do you think that is the endgame? Does anybody know?

Michael Froman: I don't think anybody really knows. And I think well politics I'm sure play some role in this. I think we have to remember that unlike a lot of other area of policies, trade is an area that Donald Trump has had longstanding views. For 20 years, he's been critical of Republican and Democratic administrations alike for pursuing trade policies that he thought were not in the interest of the country. And he talked about this during the campaign and he's very much focused on delivering what he promised. Now we can disagree with some of the tactics and whether they'll have the desired effect.

But the concerns that he's raised about China and about the challenge that China's state capitalist system poses for the global trading system...

MS: Are legitimate.

Michael Froman: Are legitimate and are real. I think that's the sentiment that he's responding to, not simply the upcoming election but this longstanding view that China has played by a different set of rules and has achieved remarkable results. But oftentimes at the expense of other countries.

MS: Do you think it's kind of ironic now that there's tariff track. You know you've got both sides saying OK look we're going to file cases against you and you at the WTO. For China, it's like OK so look who needs the WTO now? For Trump, the president, what he said of the WTO, that's ironic as well.

Michael Froman: Well I think they have a somewhat different view of the WTO than previous administrations. I think they are also pursuing reform of the WTO, particularly the dispute settlement body and some of the issues they put on the table.

Again I think are legitimate, but I think that what that says is over the long run we want a stronger dispute settlement process, one that's quicker, that gets resolution more expeditiously, that has real teeth. We don't want to see it undermined. And I think that in the long run it's what's in the U.S. interests.

MS: Now this is a cheeky question, so I want to warn you about it ahead of time. Before Bob Lighthizer, it was Mike Froman right? If you actually had his ear, what kind of advice would you be giving him right now?

Michael Froman: Well again I think we may we may disagree over particular tactics or a particular priorities. But I think Lighthizer has a longstanding history in trade, he's worked in trade for more than 30 years, on Capitol Hill and in the administration of Reagan administration, and of course in the private sector as well as as a renowned trade lawyer. So he knows the issues. I think some of the advice I would give is that, it's very important for the U.S. to continue to show leadership in the global trading system. That's what the Trans-Pacific Partnership was all about, in terms of bringing other countries together, to define a higher standard set of rules for the global system, to provide an alternative model out there for our partners and our allies in the Asia Pacific region. And I would hope that over time the administration finds a way to reassert U.S. leadership and reassure our allies and partners in the region that the U.S. is a Pacific power, is here to stay and as a power that they can rely upon.

MS: Now TPP of course was your baby right, you literally delivered it right. Then, one of the first acts in January, after inauguration was to pull the U.S. out of it. Did you rip the phone off the wall?

Michael Froman: No, I take a long term view of it, and the fact that the TPP 11 the other 11 countries have decided to move forward with TPP without the United States, that there continues to be other countries that want to join TPP after those 11 have implemented it, I think shows that the rules that we negotiated there are very important for the global trading system, that other countries are moving ahead with or without the United States. We see the TPP 11, we see the Pacific Alliance deepening their integration in Latin America, we see the EU pursuing a very robust trade agenda. We see Africa pursuing free trade agreements across the continents. And so while the U.S. has stepped back from the global trading system and from global leadership, the rest of the world is in fact continuing to move ahead.

MS: Do you think the U.S, could is there any chance it could actually join back, let's say TPP, or the best of the rest as some people think of it during the Trump administration?

Michael Froman: Well the agreement is designed and the TPP 11 that move forward, with a framework designed to allow the U.S. to come back in, if and when it decides to do so. I don't have any great insights into whether the Trump administration would reconsider their position on this, but I think over time after NAFTA renegotiated after the TPP 11 is put in place, one could see a situation in which there's an effort to find some way to bring together countries across the Asia Pacific bilaterally, or plural-laterally to try and achieve an overall high standard set of rules.

MS: We were talking about Bob Lighthizer a couple of minutes ago and despite obviously having differences, or different views, at least for opinions you have great respect for him, for his history, for his track record and for service of course. Peter Navarro the head of the president's trade council, a guy who wrote a book 'Death by China', accompanied by a movie which showed a knife plunging into a bloody map of America, an academic with kind of wonky views. I don't think there's that much disagreement on that.

Here's the thing though. There's one school of thought that thinks look it's really not that bad because now that Bannon is out, who's left, you call them trade hawks, hardliners or whatever China hawks etc. but at least there are adults in the room, and they're sane. Are they?

Michael Froman: Well, I think commentators are always looking for stories about who's up and who's down at administration. I think when it comes to trade, in this administration there's really one person that matters and that's the president, because he has his own views and whether it's the pro-trade, pro-international engagement caucus, or the more nativist protectionist caucus that happens to be talking to them at the time, ultimately it's the president who is making these decisions and he's made very clear his perspective he's had it for a long time. And I think that's the person one has to watch on this.

MS: Then, what is the end goal? What is his game then, is it ahead of midterms he just wants to bite somebody and get his pound of flesh? Or is the whole thing about, you know, the fight for the future of digital supremacy whether it's the U.S. or China on top?

Michael Froman: Well I think he's been pretty clear that part of what he thinks makes America great is to pursue a different trade policy than we have in the past, one that is more focused on America first, America's interests instead of being the one who maintains the health and welfare of the global trading system. Pursuing our narrow national interests and let others pay the costs of maintaining the multilateral system. Defending manufacturing in the U.S, that's something that the Obama administration did as well, we certainly pursued policies to promote more economic activity in the U.S., more activity by American workers and farmers and ranchers, raising labor standards environmental standards around the world. Those are the sort of things that we did and he will have to pursue his own approach to this. But I think his goal is to drive more economic activity to the United States and do so in part by addressing what he thinks is the major problem which is the trade deficit.

Economists will tell us that that's not necessarily the right metric. That has a lot more to do with savings and investment, rates differential growth rates than it does around trade policy. But this administration is very much focused on bilateral trade deficits, as the measure as to whether an economic relationship with a country is working or not.

END

Media Contact:

Mike Cheong

Communications Manager, CNBC Asia Pacific

D: +65 6326 1123

M: +65 9852 8630

Mike.Cheong@nbcuni.com

About CNBC

CNBC is the leading global broadcaster of live business and financial news and information, reporting directly from the world's major financial markets via three regional TV networks in Asia, EMEA and the US. CNBC.com is the preeminent financial news source on the web featuring video, real-time market analysis and dynamic financial tools. CNBC serves the world's most powerful audience of CEOs, senior executives, the financial services industry and private investors and is available in more than 409 million homes worldwide. CNBC is a division of NBCUniversal.

For more information, please visit www.cnbc.comFollowing is the transcript of a CNBC interview with Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman & CEO of The Blackstone Group at the China Development Forum in Beijing. The interview was broadcast on CNBC's The Rundown on 26 March 2018.



All references must be sourced to a "CNBC Interview'.

Interviewed by CNBC's Martin Soong.

Martin Soong (MS): We have to start with this whole trade war thing, which what looks to be building towards a trade war. It's been in the news cycle for a couple of days now, and here in China I think it's probably the only thing people are talking about. Your thoughts? I mean we haven't really, i mean things between the U.S. and China, the most important bilateral voices of the world haven't been this bad in a while?

Stephen Schwarzman: Well, there's obviously a number of actions that the U.S. has taken recently, whether it's steel or aluminum or the 301, issues on intellectual property or I think to come will be certain investment issues.

These issues really stem from certain types of imbalances between countries, in particular, the situation with the U.S. and China where China's tariffs vis-a-vis the U.S.. So if you were U.S. company shipping something into China on average would be about three times as much as the other way around. And so this type of structural problem is something that I believe both countries believe needs to be addressed. And I think you have to look at what's going on within the context of that very significant imbalance.

MS: Ok, but is raising tariff barriers even higher the way to do this though?

Stephen Schwarzman: Well I think there needs to be a negotiated arrangement between the two countries and I think it's important to note that most of the types of things that are being discussed from the U.S. side, can be delayed in terms of their implementation and hopefully will be. Because I think there's a need for the two countries to basically normalize their relationships. And you can't do three to one difference. And so I anticipate that rational people will be able to come to a really good solution which would be good for both countries.

MS: So what you're talking about is this window we've got, a timeframe from the time that the lists actually start coming out of the products right? For companies to basically weigh and maybe complain, likely complain, but also for the two sides China and the U.S. to sit down and actually talk. What you're saying is you're confident that both sides are going to be able to come to a negotiated solution. But specifically over what? What is the endgame? Is it to hack a 100 billion dollar off the trade imbalance or something else?

Stephen Schwarzman: I think that there's a need to have a long term solution where companies from each country can compete on much more of a level playing field. There's actually not a lot of justification for a completely unleveled playing field. And hopefully the mechanisms between the governments will allow that to be modified.

MS: So something more strategic and also longer term. Here at the CDF this year 2018, I mean this whole sense on the part of the American business that it is still not easy to get in or to do business with China. Have things ratcheted up even further? Do you get the sense that the fear is it could be even harder now not just with what the president is doing but also with what Xi Jinping is thinking and trying to do?

Stephen Schwarzman: Well, geez I don't really understand your track. I don't think you can link all of these things. There's just a variety of market opening types of things that should be happening because most countries in the world have that. It promotes more activity rather than less activity. And so you know there are a variety of things that the two countries have talked about for many many years. Whether it's standards regulations, ease of customs, different types of things that should be modernized or normalized. There are certain global standards that could be adopted by China. So it makes life easier for outsiders to deal with China and wouldn't negatively affect China. So there's lots of room to do things. And hopefully that the leaders are multi-level because this isn't about two leaders in any way. It's about systems that need to come into much more balance.

MS: You're seen a doyen, or at least one of the doyens of American businessmen who has a stake in China and in China's future. It's also understood that you, some people have described you, as sort of President Trump's China whisperer. I'm sure you've read some of the stories right. Based on your relationship with the president, what you know, and possibly even the recent conversations you've had with him, can you take us into his mind right now? What is he thinking with regards to U.S. China?

Stephen Schwarzman: If I knew completely I wouldn't share it on global television.

MS: I was hoping you would.

Stephen Schwarzman: I realize you do, but that's not what I do. I think he's been pretty consistent in terms of just wanting to have, you know, sort of what I guess he would call fair trade, which is having the same burdens or similar burdens on each country. So the most competitive company wins, not the most competitive system in terms of friction wins. And I think that's really pretty much what it is. I don't think it's more complex than that.

And so what he's doing is sort of consistent with that. And so the solutions are pretty predictable. So I think that's really what he wants. He calls it fair trade. So what's the definition of that, it's that the barriers between countries are just pretty much in line

MS: Equal or even.

Stephen Schwarzman: Yeah, sort of as close to even as you can get. Nothing ever gets completely even. But that's what he is trying to achieve. And if one side doesn't do well under that system, may pretend the U.S. isn't competitive enough you know vis-a-vis China then so be it. It doesn't matter.

MS: Given your stature as sort of the doyen of American businesses or businessmen with a stake in China and its future. An increasingly nervous China is what we have today. If you could speak directly to them, to try and calm some of these fears what would you tell them?

Stephen Schwarzman: Well I'm trying to do that. Obviously, I haven't succeeded since you're asking me the question. But you know I think there's an opportunity to accelerate the effort of both countries to find an equitable solution. The idea of ever increasing tariffs and, you know, sort of tensions is not an appropriate solution. That's just like you know creating more friction. And I think that's pretty much good for nobody. It's not good for resolution.

I think it's time to sort of take this apart and just say OK what does it take to have a good relationship between the countries. I think it's important not to overreact. I'm sure China will of course react to some of this and that's appropriate. But overreaction leading to overreaction is really not a good idea and I think if I could be so bold that the Chinese are sufficiently measured and thoughtful that I don't anticipate that will be what results.

MS: I think a lot of people are hoping you're right there. Tell me since 2012 when Xi Jinping became the head of the party, the Communist Party here in China, I guess that sort of ramp up ascent. For Blackstone itself, has it made it easier or harder in the past say six years or so?

Stephen Schwarzman: Well for Blackstone it's pretty much of a neutral in the sense that you know China goes on. And China is a difficult force to stop. It's pretty amazing place with a remarkably energetic people who are very creative and clever and very focused on becoming successful. And so I always like coming here because getting another shot of that is very invigorating. But I think President Xi has done a terrific job of you know sort of strategically planning where the country is going, reducing corruption and reaffirming sort of a positive view within the country. My experience is very thoughtful and organized and has an excellent cadre of people around him, all of whom are quite experienced.

That's one of the wonderful things about the Chinese system, which people outside of China don't have as much experience with that to be a senior person in China, you have to have had a lot of achievement, a lot of experience, a lot of dealing with difficult situations. So it's a very experienced wise group of people, who make it to the top in China. Not every country in the world has that kind of training grounds and meritocracy that goes with it.

MS: If we could talk a little bit more specifically about opportunities here in China for folks like Blackstone, I think turnaround specialist, I think private equity, in China under Xi Jinping, SOEs, these dinosaurs that really needs sorting out right. With Xi Jinping very recently expressing a movement to continue backing state owned enterprises does that mean less opportunity for PEs including Blackstone?

Stephen Schwarzman: I don't know that that would be the logical outcome in a country that grows you know in the six percent plus annual zone. There are always opportunities for almost everyone in the system, if you do a good job. China has always been a mixed economy at least since 1980 you know with the exceptionally vibrant private sector that's growing really much faster than six percent.

MS: You're not concerned it's getting more statist though? Under Xi Jinping? And private sector could get crowdedout?

Stephen Schwarzman: I think it's always been statist and it's mixed. And my own view is that a little more emphasis towards the statist side will not compromise the rapidly growing private side of the economy.

And the key with the state-owned enterprises I think is to make them as productive and efficient as possible. And if that's sort of the outcome of more focus on state owned enterprises that's good. You know it's not going to be slowing down the creativity in the private side of China

MS: Outside capital, outside expertise, wouldn't that including Blackstone, wouldn't it potentially expedite this process?

Stephen Schwarzman: Always does. You know whenever you have open economies, whenever you bring in knowledge and expertise of different types and you accelerate growth, you create more jobs. That tends to be an excellent outcome for almost any economy.

MS: Very quickly Mr. Schwarzman I mean you are also very in a sense personally invested in China and its future and I mean literally with your scholarship program. Tell us a little bit more about that and how that's going.?

Stephen Schwarzman: Yeah I was actually at Tsinghua University and Schwarzman College this morning at eight in the morning. A lot of students still sleeping. I must say it's a Saturday when this interview is going on regardless of what you see it. The program itself has been amazingly successful. We know we've had some enormous interest from the rest of the world because it's a unique entry, if you will, into China has a master's degree where you can have the experience of traveling around China having a mentor from the distinguished people in society. You can work in either a not for profit or profit company. You can have great academics, you can travel around the country, with what we call deep dives to see different places, and the student body which is relatively small like the Rhodes scholarship.

This year we're going to have about 142 people

MS: Do you want to keep it small or smaller?

Stephen Schwarzman: Well we're going to keep it pretty small, you get over 4,000 applications so our acceptance rate is somewhere around three and a half percent which is about the most exclusive in the world and we get 97 percent of the people who get offered a Schwarzman scholarship accept. So in terms of universities global programs, this one stands alone with the Rhodes, and the Rhodes has been around for over 110 years. And it's really an endorsement of China. The fascination of the of the world in China and what we have in the Schwarzman Scholars program it's 40 percent this year American, 40 percent rest of world and 20 percent China. The reason why China is not bigger is that there are Chinese everywhere, you know around the college you get to see a lot of them. But it's been amazingly successful more than my own ambition.

END

Media Contact:

Mike Cheong

Communications Manager, CNBC Asia Pacific

D: +65 6326 1123

M: +65 9852 8630

Mike.Cheong@nbcuni.com

About CNBC

CNBC is the leading global broadcaster of live business and financial news and information, reporting directly from the world's major financial markets via three regional TV networks in Asia, EMEA and the US. CNBC.com is the preeminent financial news source on the web featuring video, real-time market analysis and dynamic financial tools. CNBC serves the world's most powerful audience of CEOs, senior executives, the financial services industry and private investors and is available in more than 409 million homes worldwide. CNBC is a division of NBCUniversal.

For more information, please visit www.cnbc.comFollowing is the transcript of a CNBC interview with Chairman and CEO, The Cohen Group and former U.S. Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, at the China Development Forum in Beijing. The interview was broadcast on CNBC's Street Signs on 26 March 2018.

All references must be sourced to a "CNBC Interview'.

Interviewed by CNBC's Martin Soong.

Martin Soong (MS): We have to start off on the tariffs right. The president has fired literally the first shot, return salvo from the Chinese  measured, modest, so far so good. But you know this is something that everybody is talking about here at the CDF and worried about and that is that this could spin out of control and become a full blown trade war. How concerned are you?

William Cohen: Well it could be a trade war. I think the president believes or says that trade wars are good and that we can win it.

MS: Do you believe that?

William Cohen: I don't. I don't know of any economist who really believes that. On the other hand it may be a tactical move on his part to say 'I'm going to impose these tariffs' in order to get the Chinese attention, because the system is a little out of balance, quite a bit out of balance as a matter of fact, in terms of what they have imposed, in terms of restrictions on our investments here, the whole issue of transfer of technology and so the president raises a good issue saying we have to level the playing field.

I don't think tariff is the way to do it, but maybe it sets an agenda forward to say 'OK how do we do it, what do we do to rectify or get the greater transparency, openness and market accessibility for our firms as you have to our country'.

Otherwise we're going to get into this reciprocity on an individual basis, and if that's the case you can see that each country will start to step up the barriers to it. So I think it was important that the president raised the issue and do so but I think ultimately it's not a good way to proceed. And I think we'll find a better way to proceed.

MS: I think a lot of people share that hope as well. You know a lot of smart people including Marty Feldstein over at Harvard have this theory that they've been trying to make sense of this confusion, 232 steel tariffs and now you're talking tech war, what is going on here. And the theory is this, simply that the real end game is as you've suggested this all transfer technology thing, sensitive technology as well right, but there are no ways under existing norms to address that. Not even apparently at the WTO, not legally, they're not set up to do that specifically right. So therefore the only way to sort of get to them or get them to the table on tech transfer is, hit them on steel, which has been an issue for years now. Does that make sense to you? Do you think that's plausible?

William Cohen: It is a plausible analysis or rationale for how do we get to this issue of tech transfer or hacking, cyber hacking. I raised this issue three or four years ago here in China saying, you may recall that the United States there was a PLA was involved in hacking directly into the Pentagon and other major defense industries in the country. I had a conversation at that time with a high ranking official here saying look we've got to have some rules of the road. At some level we understand you can't control everything, but when you have an organized effort to hack into and attack our cyber bases, it can lead your countermeasure on our part, an offensive measure on our part, we don't want that to happen, so are there any rules of the road? It never materialized. We had Mr. Snowden surface at that time. So they said you're talking to us what about Mr. Snowden? So that put it off to the side. This may be a way to put it back on the agenda because it should apply to China, it should apply to Russia and it should apply to any other country saying, we don't want to have this escalate into a real cyber conflict because you can do as much damage as you could with a weapon of mass destruction, that would be a weapon of mass disruption when the consequence is equally grave.

MS: OK so you've talked to senior Chinese officials about this very issue. Not so long ago during the Obama administration, President Obama then actually raised the issue directly with Xi Jinping showed him hard evidence  look this is it, you can't walk away from this. Since then apparently this whole issue has died down and there's been fewer or less of these types of cyber attacks. From what you know, the people that you're still in touch with including in intelligence, does that jive? Has this thing died down or slowed down?

William Cohen: Well it seemed to have shifted somewhat to the Russians, namely the Russians targeting our election system, that's firing electronic bullets into the heart of the United States. And so the focus has really moved on to Russia rather than to China. Are there hackers in China that engage in this? In all probability. But we're talking about government sponsored hacking and cyber theft and so that ties into the issue of protection of intellectual property, that you cannot expect the American people to tax themselves to create invest billions of dollars into high technology and then have to transfer in order to do business. And so it's going to be a reciprocal basis there in terms of Chinese companies who want to come into the United States we're going to have to say, same basis as we come into your state. So I think the element of reciprocity is, if it's fair and can be a basis for reconciling our differences.

MS: Let's get to the bread and butter, war or defense if we could. And back in your day it was known as the Quadrennial Defense Review right. These days they call it the National Defense Strategy I think and the latest one that was out, sort of went back in time a little bit talking about great power rivalries et cetera, focusing on revisionist countries like Russia as well as China. Did that get you off guard? What do you think of that, this whole turn back in time almost?

William Cohen: I think in terms of China we have to recognize that China is a great power  economic power, it is becoming a military power. And so I don't have a problem saying that China is a competitor. We have competitors, our closest allies are competitors  the Brits, the French, the Germans and others. So being a competitor is fine with me. You can be a friendly competitor or you can be a much more combative competitor. What I would disagree with is labeling China an enemy. I don't believe that to be the case. China is a fierce competitor. They have a country of 1.3 billion people; they've got a leader who has unrestricted power as such for some time to come for as long as he wants, who has a vision of where he wants to take his country, it's going to have very little difference of opinion on how he gets there. So I see China as a major competitor to the United States.

MS: But not an enemy?

William Cohen: Not an enemy, no. And I think frankly we have to work together. This notion of having you know a zero sum game, it's OK to say America first, China says China first. Every country says they're first. But you can't have it a zero sum game so that if I win you lose and vice versa.

So what we have to do is find a way, the Chinese love to say win-win. So let's find a way in which we all want the best for our people. We have people who are hurting in the United States, China has people who are very poor in the inner parts of the country. So how does China raise them up to a level of economic sustenance and how do we make sure that we don't ignore the people who've been put out of work and bring them into this new century and with a way to survive.

So that takes negotiation, that takes understanding each other's interest, where those interests are compatible on a parallel line and where they conflict. And then when there is conflict, how do we deconflict. So that's basically what diplomacy is all about. But simply pounding our chests, or China pounding its chest, saying you know we're number one now we've been through this, the Chinese have studied the Thucydides's Trap  Graham Allison was just downstairs with me, who wrote the book on the Thucydides's Trap, and the studies have shown out of 16 cases of examining where you have an existing power the United States and a rising power, 12 ended in conflict. So can we learn from history? Here's how these wars took place and why they took place. Is there a way to avoid that? So we have to continue to do that.

MS: Let's talk about pretty clear enemies now  North Korea. A year ago here in Beijing at CDF you were warning that North Korea's probably the world's number one risk right now. Do you still believe that to be true? Is it even more true today?

William Cohen: I think it's still true today. I was pleased to see there was some kind of a breakthrough at least on the rhetorical side, where the president has agreed to meet with Kim Jong un and I frankly am skeptical about that.

MS: Skeptical that it will happen?

William Cohen: I'm skeptical number one, if it'll happen. But number two, what will happen when it happens. And yet I've said I'm open, I'm open to be persuaded this is real. In my own experience in dealing with the North Koreans, there's never been any discussion that they will denuclearize, get rid of their nuclear weapons. I don't believe that they're committed to doing that now. I think what they're saying is we're willing to sit down with this great power, the United States, and we'll talk about how we'd achieve this goal. We want to guarantee our security, we want to make sure that we don't in any way compromise our security, but we're willing to talk about it.

I have found they talked about it in the past but they've never complied with the agreements that they said they were going to comply with. So I'm skeptical that they would really get rid of all their nuclear weapons. Is it possible? It's possible. But I'm from Maine, I'm from Missouri and in Missouri the motto is show me and I'm saying show me that you're willing to do this. So we'll see. Again the president has done something that they have wanted for a long time. And that's to have the president of United States meet with him one on one.

MS: Indeed unprecedented. I mean that's the huge carrot for them right. Issue is though just a couple of days ago we had a very big stick coming in the Trump administration, John Bolton and we I think all remember where what his positions are like on North Korea a preemptive strike among other things. How concerned are you that somebody like Mr. Bolton, Ambassador Bolton is in the NSA chair now and how much of a mitigating factor do you think Jim Mattis could be who you're very familiar with?

William Cohen: I don't think anyone knows at this point. I think there's reason for concern in terms of Mr. Bolton, in terms of his positions because he is much more aggressive in terms of the use of force. The president himself has said he wants, not wants but he's prepared to rain fire and fury on North Korea. That means risking the potential of hundreds of thousands of lives in South Korea as well as those in North Korea. So I think we have to be careful with our language that the rhetoric doesn't get really ahead of the policy. And I think Jim Mattis, Secretary Mattis, whom I know very well, has been a force saying let's look for the diplomatic solution. Let's not talk about war here, war is the last thing we want to talk about. So let's focus on how do we resolve this diplomatically.

MS: Because he's a soldier.

William Cohen: He's a soldier, has been on the field. He carried the bodies, he's close with the families who have lost their sons and daughters and husbands and wives. So I mean there's a reason that the president likes to call them Mad Dog Mattis, I call him Braveheart Mattis and the reason he was called Mad Dog was because he was on the front lines, he wasn't in the rear of the tent and he was out in the front line with a soldier. So he knows about war and he's cautioned the use of military force. It's there when you need it. He said I'll be your best friend or your worst enemy. And we like to be best friends. So he's been a, I think, a restraining force within the talk, the rhetorical talk.

And again it's hard to separate out the president will make a statement then reverse, which the reversals are good, because it's almost consistent with the book that he wrote called 'The Art of the Deal' where he stakes out an extreme position and negotiates back from that toward the middle rather than starting in the middle going down. So it may be that's his way of achieving what he wants. And if so that's fine. The danger is when you're dealing with someone who is unknown and potentially as volatile as Kim Jong un and you're talking about the possibility of firing a preemptive strike, any moves that we make that might normally be seen as reasonable, might be seen as threatening and a prelude to a preemptive strike. And that in turn could set off his own action. So we have to be careful what we say and what we do.

END

Media Contact:

Mike Cheong

Communications Manager, CNBC Asia Pacific

D: +65 6326 1123

M: +65 9852 8630

Mike.Cheong@nbcuni.com

About CNBC

CNBC is the leading global broadcaster of live business and financial news and information, reporting directly from the world's major financial markets via three regional TV networks in Asia, EMEA and the US. CNBC.com is the preeminent financial news source on the web featuring video, real-time market analysis and dynamic financial tools. CNBC serves the world's most powerful audience of CEOs, senior executives, the financial services industry and private investors and is available in more than 409 million homes worldwide. CNBC is a division of NBCUniversal.

For more information, please visit www.cnbc.comAdult film actress Stormy Daniels told CBS' "60 Minutes" she feared for her safety when she signed a strict nondisclosure agreement about her alleged sexual encounter with President Donald Trump's lawyer on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, said her fear stemmed from an exchange she had in 2011, when she was confronted in a parking lot in Las Vegas by a man who told her not to discuss the 2006 encounter.

"Leave Trump alone. Forget the story," Daniels said the man told her, before turning to focus on Daniels' infant daughter in the back seat. According to Daniels, the man said to her, "That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom."

In the CBS interview that aired Sunday, she said that exchange was still on her mind five years later when Trump became the unlikely Republican nominee for president. Through spokespeople, Trump denies that he had an affair with Daniels.

"Suddenly people are reaching out to me again, offering me money. Large amounts of money" to tell about her relationship with Trump, Daniels told "60 Minutes" correspondent Anderson Cooper.

"Was I tempted? Yes  I struggle with it. And then I get the call," she said. Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, was offering to pay Daniels $130,000 to sign a strict, broad nondisclosure agreement with Trump, she continued.

Read more: Why special counsel Robert Mueller could care about the Stormy Daniels saga

"The story [of the alleged affair] was coming out again. I was concerned for my family and their safety," Daniels told Cooper. "I didn't even negotiate, I just quickly said yes to this very, you know, strict contract  and what most people will agree with me extremely low number."

Daniels' heavily promoted "60 Minutes" interview is unlikely to alter the course of the scandal already brewing over whether the contract with Daniels, signed just 11 days before the presidential election, constituted an illegal campaign donation to the Trump campaign. On CBS, Daniels also reiterated many of the details of an interview she gave In Touch magazine in 2011 but was only published in February.There are good reasons to be skeptical about a bilateral meeting that's supposed to take place between the U.S. and North Korea, Cohen said.

U.S. President Donald Trump made the surprise decision earlier this month to accept an invitation to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by May, although specific details of that meeting have yet to be announced.

Cohen, who led the Defense Department under the Bill Clinton White House, maintained that he had reservations about the North Korea talks based on his personal experience.

"In my own experience in dealing with the North Koreans, there's never been a discussion that they will denuclearize ... I don't believe that they're committed to doing that now," Cohen, currently the chairman and CEO of consultancy The Cohen Group, said Sunday at the China Development Forum in Beijing.

While North Korea appeared willing to sit down with the U.S. to talk, according to Cohen, it was worth noting that the hermit nation had also never complied with prior agreements.

"I'm skeptical that they would really get rid of all their nuclear weapons," he said.

Cohen last year warned that North Korea was the "most dangerous issue" facing the world, a claim he said was still true today.

Other analysts and experts have cautioned that it was important to manage expectations around the meeting. Following the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" policy on North Korea, the agreement to meet with Kim could potentially erode the effectiveness of sanctions, some indicated.

Another factor in the mix has been Trump's pick to replace H.R. McMaster as national security advisor: John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton, who is regarded as a foreign policy super-hawk, had previously argued for preemptive strikes against North Korea.

Although it's too early to tell how Bolton will influence policy, Cohen highlighted that rhetoric was an important consideration going forward.

"I think there's reason for concern, in terms of Mr. Bolton, in terms of his positions, because he is much more aggressive in terms of the use of force ... So I think we have to be careful of our language, that the rhetoric doesn't get ahead of the policy," Cohen said.

 CNBC's Nyshka Chandran contributed to this report.Pathribal fake encounter is perhaps the best example to illustrate the kind of impunity that is enjoyed by the army in disturbed areas of the country. It also shows the perils of employing a force meant to deal with external security threats against citizens of their own country. Despite heaps of evidence against certain members of the armed forces, and a CBI investigation clearly declaring the army to be guilty, the laws defined by Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Army Act, and Army Rules are such that they allow the army to walk away scot-free. Following is a timeline of the events that transpired in wake of the Chittisinghpora massacre.

20th March, 2000: 36 Sikh men shot dead in Chattisinghpora village, Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir, hours before then US President Bill Clintons visit to India.

23rd-24th March, 2000: Five men abducted by police and personnel of 7RR from villages in Anantnag district.

25th March, 2000: Farooq Khan, the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Anantnag, announced in a press conference in the presence of then Home Minister LK Advani that five foreign militants responsible for Chattisinghpora massacre had been killed in a joint operation carried out by 7RR and the Special Operations Group (SOG) of J&K Police. On the same day, a villager from Pathribal sees the bodies of the men killed in the encounter and recognises one of them as Jumma Khan, one of the abducted men.

3rd April, 2000: Around two thousand villagers take out a peaceful procession demanding justice for the victims of Pathribal fake encounter and return of the victims bodies to their families. On reaching Brakpora, they are openly fired at and eight civilians are killed.

6th-7th April, 2000: Bodies of the Pathribal victims are exhumed. Although they have been burnt beyond recognition, the families were able to recognise the men from certain marks and peculiarities. Blood samples from the bodies were also taken for establishing their identities through DNA analysis, but these samples were fudged twice.

14th February, 2003: Investigations into Pathribal fake encounter are handed to CBI.

9th May, 2006: CBI concludes investigation and files a chargesheet against 5 personnel of 7RR, while accepting that others were also involved. DNA analysis done under CBI proved that the five men were the ones who were abducted from their homes before the fake encounter. CBI also found other facts challenging the armys claim that the encounter was genuine, such as the fact that while the bodies of the victims were burnt beyond recognition, their hideout place was not.

1st May, 2012: The army approached Supreme Court after years of failing to cooperate with the investigation. The Supreme Court passed a ruling saying that no court can take cognizance of any crimes committed by the army while it is on official duty without seeking prior sanction from the government. This had implications for all future investigations against the army as even in cases where it could not be said that the army was acting on official duties, such as in the case of Pathribal, no action could be taken without governments sanction. Further, the Supreme Court gave the army the option of deciding between a court martial and criminal court for proceeding with the Pathribal case. The army chose the former.

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20th January, 2014: The army closed the matter after the Summary of Evidence stage stating that there is no evidence against the accused. The case never reached the stage of a court martial, which directly flouted the Supreme Courts order to carry out the trial by court martial.

30th January, 2014: Relative of one of the deceased seeks a copy of the Summary of Evidence from the army.

28th May, 2014:The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Srinagar dismisses the application seeking the Summary of Evidence.

April 2016: Families of Pathribal victims file petition in J&K High Court challenging armys decision to close the case. They sought the courts intervention for the guilty army officials to be tried under normal criminal procedures. The petitioners also contended the armys decision to re-investigate the encounter when CBI investigations had already established the nature of the incident.

27th April, 2016: J&K High Court dismissed the petition saying the army had the option to close the case on grounds of no evidence as the Supreme Court had allowed them to carry out the trial by a court martial, failing to note that the proceedings never reached that stage.

27th July, 2016: The families now approached the Supreme Court as all other avenues of justice had been closed. They filed a petition highlighting all the problematic aspects of the various investigations and proceedings. The petition also poses the question that if AFSPA and other army rules allow for the right of a citizen to a fair and impartial investigation to be violated, then are those army acts constitutional?

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August, 2017: The Supreme Court admitted the plea and issued notices to the Central government, J&K government, the army, and CBI, giving them six weeks to respond to to the petition.

The matter has not come up for hearing in the apex court since then. Next date given is 8th May, 2018.

Courtesy: News ClickLeading economist Larry Summers questioned the wisdom of President Donald Trump's new steel tariffs, saying Saturday that the policy has the potential to damage the U.S. economy.

Speaking with CNBC at the China Development Forum in Beijing, Summers said the tariffs, ordered earlier this month, are positioned to hurt more workers within the U.S.'s borders than they could help.

The move slaps a 25 percent levy on steel and 10 percent charge on aluminum. White House officials have said the tariffs are an essential matter of domestic and economic security, but Summers said that 40 times as many people work in steel-using industries as work in steel-producing industries.

"I don't see that the steel tariffs are a prudent bit of public policy," he said, calling it "a bit of a 'Stop, or I'll shoot myself in the foot' kind of strategy."

All told, he said, the "risks to the American economy from the steel tariffs are far greater than the risks from the absence of the steel tariffs."

One argument for the tariffs is that they could put a trading partner into a bad enough position that it would relent to U.S. demands before harm was done to the American economy. At least regarding China, Summers deemed that unlikely.

"I don't know what damage they'll do China, I just think that they'll do damage to the American economy even before China retaliates," he said.In a deal first reported by CNBC in February, Uber has agreed to sell its business in Southeast Asia to Singapore-based regional rival Grab, the companies said in a statement on Monday.

The deal will see Grab merging Uber's ride-hailing and food delivery businesses with its own operations. Meanwhile, the San Francisco-based company will acquire a 27.5 percent stake in Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join the firm's board.

Grab said it will expand its food delivery business GrabFood  that's already available in Indonesia and Thailand  to Singapore and Malaysia after merging with Uber Eats.

Uber's app will run for two weeks to give existing drivers time to move onto the Grab platform, while the Uber Eats app will continue till end of May.

Monday's announcement will be the third time that Uber has either sold or merged one of its businesses outside the U.S. Uber previously sold its China business to ride-hailing rival Didi Chuxing and merged its operations in Russia and neighboring countries with local tech company Yandex.

In emails to Uber employees, Khosrowshahi said Uber was not on a consolidation path.

"It is fair to ask whether consolidation is now the strategy of the day, given this is the third deal of its kind, from China to Russia and now Southeast Asia. The answer is no," he wrote.

"One of the potential dangers of our global strategy is that we take on too many battles across too many fronts and with too many competitors," Khosrowshahi added. "

He explained in the email that the deal with Grab puts Uber in "a position to compete with real focus and weight in the core markets where we operate, while giving us valuable and growing equity stakes in a number of big and important markets where we don't."

Khosrowshahi wrote that around 500 Uber employees in Southeast Asia would move over to Grab. An Uber spokesperson said some staff would remain part of Uber's Asia Pacific operations and that there would not be any lay-offs as part of the deal.

Earlier this year, SoftBank completed its long-awaited investment agreement with Uber, making the Japanese tech giant the firm's largest shareholder. That led some to wonder if there would be consolidation in the Asian ride-hailing industry since SoftBank also has investments in Grab, Didi Chuxing and India's Ola.

Since taking over from co-founder Travis Kalanick in August, Khosrowshahi has focused on cleaning up Uber's battered reputation and instilling financial discipline to push toward profitability.

The firm's loss surged 61 percent in 2017 to $4.5 billion, though its loss in the fourth quarter narrowed from the prior period. Last November, Khosrowshahi said Uber had plans to try and go public by 2019 and that "the numbers support" the move.

Grab provides transportation, food delivery, mobile payments and financial services and operates in 195 cities across Southeast Asia. The company claimed to have 95 percent market share in taxi ride-hailing when it announced plans to raise more than $2.5 billion from SoftBank and other investors in 2017.

 CNBC's Alex Sherman and Reuters contributed to this report.The United States and South Korea agreed to revise a trade pact sharply criticized by U.S. President Donald Trump, Seoul said on Monday, with U.S. automakers winning improved market access and Korean steelmakers hit with quotas but avoiding hefty tariffs.

The planned changes in the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) were seen as limited, leaving South Korea's key passenger car exports untouched and helping soothe fears that Trump's tough approach could start a spiraling global trade war.

In April, Trump told Reuters he would either renegotiate or terminate what he called a "horrible" trade deal that has doubled the U.S. goods trade deficit with South Korea since 2012.

Asian shares steadied on Monday, stemming last week's hefty losses after Trump's action on steel and aluminum, and his plans to slap tariffs on up to $60 billion in Chinese goods.

The agreement means South Korea will be forced to cut its steel exports to the U.S. by 30 percent of past three years' average, in exchange for becoming the first U.S. ally to receive an indefinite exemption on steel tariffs imposed by Trump.

"We had heated discussions," South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said at a media briefing in Seoul. "The latest agreement removed two uncertainties," he said, referring to steel tariff exemptions and KORUS renegotiation.

Last week, Trump temporarily excluded six trade partners, including Canada, Mexico and the European Union from higher U.S. import duties on steel and aluminum which came into effect on Friday.

South Korea has received a quota of about 2.68 million tonnes of steel exports, or 70 percent of the annual average Korean steel exports to the United States between 2015-2017, which will be exempt from the new tariffs, the ministry said in a statement.

South Korea is not allowed to export steel products exceeding that quota to the U.S. market, a ministry official said.

"This leaves a bad precedent of exchanging steel tariffs - which is a breach of international trade law - for a legitimate free trade agreement, in negotiations," said Wonmog Choi, professor of law at Ewha Womans University.President Donald Trump's White House has "legitimate" concerns underlying its controversial actions against China and the World Trade Organization, according to a former trade official.

In fact, Beijing's economic policies are undeniably a problem, according to Michael Froman, who served as U.S. Trade Representative during much of Barack Obama's second term in the White House.

"We can disagree with some of [Trump's] tactics, but the concerns he's raised abut China, and about the challenge that China's state capitalist system poses to the global trading system are legitimate and real," Froman told CNBC Saturday at the annual China Development Forum.

Many have concluded Washington's announcement of tariffs on up to $60 billion in Chinese imports is a political move aimed at shoring up Trump's voter base ahead of midterm elections. Yet while politics certainly influenced the tariffs, it's not necessarily the main factor, Froman said.

"The longstanding view that China has played by a different set of rules and has achieved remarkable results often at the expense of other countries" is the sentiment driving Trump, said Froman, who is currently a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Regarding the WTO, the Trump administration has blocked the appointment of new judges at the organization, accusing it of bias against the U.S.

"Some of the issues they put on the table are legitimate," Froman stated. "What that says is, over the long run, we want a stronger dispute settlement process, one that's quicker, gets resolutions more expeditiously [and] has real teeth."Rising health-care cost are squeezing the U.S. economy for trillions of dollars, Aetna Chairman and CEO Mark Bertolini told CNBC on Monday.

"Warren Buffett said health care is a 'tapeworm' on the U.S. economy. It's true," said Bertolini, whose health insurance company produced more than $63 billion in 2016 revenue and serves an estimated 44.6 million people.

"Fifty percent of the American population has a chronic disease. They drive 86 percent of our cost," Bertolini told "Squawk Box." "So, $3.2 trillion, 86 percent of that is what  $2.6 trillion [or] $2.7 trillion?" he said.

Berkshire Hathaway's Buffett told CNBC last month that health-care spending is a "tapeworm on the economic system." His venture with Amazon's Jeff Bezos and J.P. Morgan's Jamie Dimon, announced in late January, is designed to cut health costs and improve services for the three companies' U.S. employees.

Earlier this month, shareholders approved 's $69 billion buyout of Aetna as health-care companies, including insurers, are searching for ways to lower costs.

Aetna's deal with CVS, pending regulatory approval, could help communities with poorer health, Bertolini said. "If we can get into the community and we can make the investments there, it's cheaper," he said. "We can win by just keeping people away from an emergency room visit."

A person's ZIP code has a 60 percent impact on their life expectancy, he added.

So to inform consumers about the commitment to healthy living in their areas, the health-care giant's charitable and philanthropic arm, the Aetna Foundation, partnered with U.S. News & World Report to rank the healthiest communities in America.

Their first-ever rankings, announced Monday, evaluated nearly 3,000 communities nationwide across 10 categories, including education, population health and economic conditions.

The top five healthiest communities all scored above the national average in at least nine of the 10 categories evaluated, U.S. News said. Falls Church, Virginia, is No. 1, ranking in the top three communities nationally for education, economy and public safety.Bitcoin fell roughly 7 percent Monday to below $8,000 following weeks of regulatory uncertainty and advertising crackdowns by tech companies.

The cryptocurrency was trading near $7,886 as of 3:04 p.m. ET, more than $600 lower than a day earlier, according to data from Coinbase. It's down more than 42 percent year to date after starting this year above $13,000.

Twitter announced Monday it would ban advertising for cryptocurrencies, following similar bans by Google and Facebook to crack down on fraud in initial coin offerings.

"Today's news on Twitter's ban is likely a significant contributor to the steep sell-off," said Timothy Tam, co-founder of crypto-market intelligence platform CoinFi. "As new retail investors enter cryptocurrency, a large portion of them are trading on raw emotion."

Bitcoin's one-day performance

Source: CoinBase

Bitcoin prices fell earlier this year after news of similar announcements.

The digital currency dropped 12 percent in late January after Facebook, the world's second-largest online ad provider, said it would ban all ads that promote cryptocurrencies to prevent the spread of what it called "financial products and services frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices."Boeing's venture capital arm invested outside the U.S. for the first time when it contributed to the latest funding round for Australian satellite company Myriota, the start-up announced Monday.

The $15 million round was led by Australian venture capital firms Blue Sky and Main Sequence, with Boeing HorizonX Ventures, Singapore-based Singtel Innov8 and Right Click Capital joining the fundraising.

Myriota is developing small low-cost, low-power transmitters that connect directly to satellites in orbit. The technology is described in a statement by Boeing HorizonX Vice President Steve Nordlund as a "solution that simultaneously connects hundreds of millions" of devices to satellites.

The company has its roots in a $12 million University of South Australia project begun in 2011, known as the Australian Space Research Program.

"We identified a gap in the market and that was a need for Internet of Things connectivity," David Haley, Myriota's chief technology officer, told CNBC.

Myriota was then founded in 2015  its team of 11 including key inventors from that research project  and the start-up expects to add at least another 20 staff in the next two years. Early discussions with Boeing's VC arm and Signtel Innov8 began last year. Haley said "it was immediately apparent" that "they got it."

"Myriota's technology influences how we think about space-based communications and connectivity in remote locations," Nordlund said.

The start-up launched a first iteration of the technology aboard a maritime-tracking nanosatellite from Canadian ExactEarth, which also led Myriota's seed funding round in 2015. Haley said that allowed for "a number of experiments to stress test the technology," from which Myriota concluded its technology would be capable of supporting hundreds of millions of devices.

"The key benefit to our technology is that it works direct to orbit," Haley said. "We don't require an aggregator, like a base station, to collect the data and connect all these devices."

Early results from Myriota's testing with agricultural applications have shown strong potential. According to Haley, Australian farmers used the technology to monitor the levels of water tanks or even track individual cattle.

"The response has been amazing," Haley said. "If something goes wrong on the farm, or something's failed with a pump, the farmers have been alerted quickly  rather than waiting until the next time they visited the equipment. It's a simple application that's saving them so much pain."The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose slightly to 2.852 percent at 4:10 p.m. ET, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond floated higher to 3.084 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

U.S. government debt yields traded slightly higher on Monday as fears of a growing trade war appeared to relax.

Equity markets rallied while bond prices fell Monday after The Financial Times reported China offered to buy more semiconductors from the U.S. to help cut its trade surplus with the U.S., hoping to avert a larger trade dispute.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that the U.S. and Beijing are working to improve U.S. access to China's markets, a key geography for many of the world's largest companies.

The positive news on trade comes just days after President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum last week that would inflict tariffs on Chinese imports  of up to $60 billion. China retaliated, with their own set of levies, drawing up a list of 128 U.S. products that could be possible retaliation targets.

The Treasury Department auctioned $30 billion in two-year notes at a high yield of 2.31 percent. The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was 2.91. Indirect bidders, which include major central banks, were awarded 44.5 percent. Direct bidders, which includes domestic money managers, bought 14.1 percent.

The Treasury is set to sell even more debt this week as the government raises more money to finance a sharp increase in spending. President Donald Trump signed a $1.3 trillion budget Friday in addition to a $1.5 trillion tax cut passed in December.Calm co-founders Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew Source: Calm

Meditation start-up Calm was so successful during a chaotic and stressful 2017 that Apple recognized it as the app of the year. "Well done, Calm," Apple said in December. Now the San Francisco-based company, which to date has only raised $1.5 million in seed financing, is being rewarded by investors. Insight Venture Partners is leading a funding round that values Calm at about $250 million, according to sources familiar with the matter. The total funding will exceed $25 million, said the sources, who asked not to be named because the deal hasn't closed and won't be announced for a few weeks. Founded in 2012 by Michael Acton Smith, who previously created video game company Mind Candy, and serial entrepreneur Alex Tew, Calm more than tripled its sales last year and was generating $40 million in annual revenue by the end of 2017, Acton Smith told CNBC in a December interview. That number has since jumped to $60 million, sources said. Representatives from Calm and New York-based Insight declined to comment for this story. The Calm app is free but the company charges $60 a year for subscriptions to the full library of meditation, music and sleep content. The paid offering includes audio programs like "7 days of sleep" and "21 days of calm" that guide users through daily 10- to 15-minute sessions for relieving stress and anxiety.

Acton Smith said in December that growth in 2017 was tied to everything from concerns around Syria and North Korea to the avocado crisis, with prices hitting record highs. Perhaps no single event was as important as the U.S. presidential election in November 2016, which Acton said was "one of the triggers" for growth last year. "Donald Trump is not to everyone's taste and he makes some people angry and frustrated," Acton Smith said in the interview. "Learning to be more mindful and relaxing and calming people has proved to be particularly popular this year." While Calm isn't confirming details of the fundraising, the company put out a filing earlier this month indicating that it was raising $8 million. That was just a preliminary filing and the full round is much larger. Insight is known for making later-stage bets, a sign of how quickly Calm has grown. As of three months ago, Calm had about 20 employees running what Acton Smith described as a very profitable digital business with grand ambitions to expand well beyond guided meditation and become a giant consumer brand. Physical world products like books, clothing, a Calm Hotel and perhaps a Calm Island someday are all part of the vision. He called Calm the "Nike of the mind." The company already has a $30 sleep mist, "which users can spray on their pillow to aid sleep, while listening to a bedtime story specifically designed to accompany it," according to a press release from July. Acton Smith also published a book called "Calm" in 2016. However, not all investors share Acton Smith's excitement for taking the brand out of the strictly digital realm. One venture capitalist, who asked not to be named, said he passed on investing in Calm because of the company's hopes to get into ancillary businesses like candles and books. That investor and one other who looked at the company both described Calm as a small team that's "minting money."

Calm has dealt with reticent investors in the past, so skepticism is nothing new. Acton Smith told CNBC in December that when the company was trying to raise money in its early days, investors balked because they said "meditation was too niche" and that "it was going to be a fad." Now there are multiple venture-backed players in the market, including Headspace, which raised close to $37 million last year and had a valuation at the beginning of 2017 of an estimated $250 million, according to Forbes. Simple Habit, a Y Combinator-backed company, raised $2.5 million from firms including NEA and Foundation Capital and angel investors like Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston. The space is getting more crowded by the day, with apps like Buddhify, Insight Timer and Digipill gaining traction. Calm is currently ranked 50th among top grossing apps on iOS (one spot behind Dropbox), according to App Annie, while Headspace is ranked 116 and Simple Habit is at 386. Calm provides audio meditations, sleep stories and relaxing music that can be accessed early in the morning, during a work break, while traveling or before bed. Jason Calacanis, one of Calm's seed investors along with Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg and Bebo co-founder Michael Birch, wrote in a LinkedIn post in 2014 that he put money in because "I believed this was a project that VCs wouldn't fund  at least not today" and "venture capitalists are scared of making a bet on something that's so far left of center." His case for backing Calm, in addition to the team, branding and early metrics, was that "mindful meditation is going to be as big  probably bigger  than Yoga."

'Strange if people don't mediate'A sign put up by a protestor at the offices of Cambridge Analytica in central London, England.

A government watchdog group accused embattled political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica on Monday of violating U.S. elections law by having foreign nationals perform restricted work that included helping the Trump presidential campaign.

In complaints filed with the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission, Common Cause said numerous foreign national employees of Cambridge Analytica and its parent firm SCL Group did significant work participating in the decisions, including how to spend money, made by U.S. campaigns during the 2014 and 2016 election cycles. Foreign nationals are barred by law from participating directly or indirectly in such decisions, Common Cause noted.

"The companies, staffed almost entirely by foreign nationals, did more than $5 million worth of work for the presidential campaigns of both Donald Trump and [Texas Republican senator] as well as millions of dollars more for other campaigns and Super PACs [political action committees] including the John Bolton Super PAC and Make America Number 1," Common Cause said in a statement.

Trump last week appointed Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as his new national security advisor to replace H.R. McMaster.

Cambridge Analytica has been under fire since March 17, when The New York Times published a story saying that starting in 2014, the London-based firm harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission. It said cited former Cambridge employees, associates and documents and said it was one of the largest data leaks in the social network's history. The Observer published a similar expose.

Read more: Facebook stock slides after FTC launches probe of data scandal

In addition to alleging campaign finance law violations, Common Cause in its DOJ complaint says that some U.S. nationals working with Cambridge Analytica and its clients  including the Trump campaign and the John Bolton's Super PAC  "may have aided and abetted foreign national offenses against the U.S., conspired to commit offenses against the U.S., and/or attempted to conspire to commit offenses against the U.S. in violation of the U.S. criminal code."

"We are a nation of laws and our campaign finance laws must be enforced by the FEC and the Justice Department in order to safeguard the integrity of our elections from foreign interference," said Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn.

"These companies and individuals ignored the law, enriched themselves performing millions of dollars of prohibited work for candidates and committees, and then boasted about the effectiveness of their activities in swaying U.S. elections."

Common Cause said there is reason to believe that federal election laws were broken by Alexander Nix, the suspended CEO of Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group, as well as SCL co-founder Nigel Oakes, acting Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Tayler and Christopher Wylie, the former firm employee who was a key source for the Times story.

Cambridge Analytica had no immediate comment on the complaints.

The Justice Department also had no immediate comment.

A Federal Election Commission spokesman, when asked about the complaint, in an emailed statement said, "A provision of federal campaign finance law requires that any Commission action on an enforcement matter be kept strictly confidential until the case is resolved."

Common Cause cited the Times article from earlier this month that detailed a warning in 2014 issued to Cambridge Analytica by its American legal advisor, Laurence Levy. Levy told the firm its arrangement to have SCL handle its campaign contracts could violate U.S law unless Nix recused himself from "substantive management" of clients involving U.S. elections, and had American citizens handle the bulk of the work.

Common Cause accuses the firms of brushing aside that warning.

"It defies belief that even after their own attorney warned them that they would be violating the prohibition on performing certain election-related activities in U.S. elections that they did so anyway," said Paul S. Ryan, Common Cause vice president for policy and litigation.

"A full investigation must be conducted, and if Cambridge Analytica and its staff did in fact repeatedly violate our laws, then there must be punishment levied sufficient to deter similar lawbreaking in future."2-day South Asia conference begins

A two-day regional conference on South Asia Amidst a New World Order kicked off in Kathmandu on Sunday. Chairman of Federal Socialist Party, Nepal Upendra Yadav inaugurated the conference jointly organized by the Central for South Asian Studies and Konrad Adenauer -Stiftung.Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday China and the United States should maintain negotiations and he reiterated pledges to ease access for American businesses, as China scrambles to avert a trade war.

Li told a conference that included global chief executives that China would treat foreign and domestic firms equally, would not force foreign firms to transfer technology and would strengthen intellectual property rights, repeating promises that have failed to placate Washington.

The United States asked China in a letter last week to cut a tariff on U.S. autos, buy more U.S.-made semiconductors and give U.S. firms greater access to the Chinese financial sector, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing unidentified sources.

Alarm over a possible trade war between the world's two largest economies has chilled financial markets as investors anticipated dire consequences should trade barriers go up due to President Donald Trump's bid to cut the U.S. deficit with China.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer listed steps they want China to take in a letter to Liu He, a newly appointed vice premier who oversees China's economy, the Journal said, quoting sources with knowledge of the matter.

The newspaper reported that Mnuchin was considering a visit to Beijing to pursue negotiations.

Despite a steady stream of fierce rhetoric from Chinese state media lambasting the United States for being a "bully" and warning of retaliation, Chinese and U.S. officials are busy negotiating behind the scenes.

"With regard to trade imbalances, China and the United States should adopt a pragmatic and rational attitude, promote balancing through expansion of trade, and stick to negotiations to resolve differences and friction," Li told the conference in Beijing, state radio reported.

China has offered to buy more U.S. semiconductors by diverting some purchases from South Korea and Taiwan, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the negotiations. China imported $2.6 billion of semiconductors from the United States last year.

Chinese officials are also working to finalize rules by May  instead of the end of June - to allow foreign financial groups to take majority stakes in Chinese securities firms, the Financial Times said.

"I anticipate that for political reason it would be logical for China to respond, because countries do," Blackstone Group Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman told Reuters on Monday on the sidelines of the Beijing conference at which Li spoke, the China Development Forum.

"That's why I view this more as a skirmish, and I think the interests of both countries are served by resolving some of these matters."

Fears of a trade war mounted this month after Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, and then on Thursday specifically targeted China by announcing plans for tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese goods.

On Friday, China responded to the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum by declaring plans to levy additional duties on up to $3 billion of U.S. imports. The list of targeted goods contained no mention of soybeans or aircraft, China's two biggest U.S. import items.

China could also inflict pain on U.S. multinationals that rely on China for a substantial  and growing  portion of their total revenues, said Alex Wolf, senior emerging markets economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments.

"This could put U.S. companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Starbucks, GM, Nike, etc in the firing line," Wolf said in a note.

China can increase the regulatory burden on U.S companies through new inspections and rules; ban travel; stop providing export licenses of key intermediate goods; raise the tax burden on U.S. multinationals in China; or block U.S. companies from the government procurement market, he said.In recent weeks, CNBC's Jim Cramer has noticed a new group becoming "hated" on Wall Street: the natural gas cohort.

"Not long ago, everybody was touting this stuff as the cleaner, safer bridge fuel to a clean energy future," the "Mad Money" host said on Monday. "But lately, there's been a major backlash against nat gas from state and local regulators, ... and their negative attitude appears to have spread to investors."

And when he dug deeper, Cramer realized that the weakness went beyond natural gas as a commodity. Shares of natural gas producers, transporters, storage providers, exporters and even utilities that use natural gas to produce electricity have also fallen under pressure from sellers, he said.

"If you have any exposure to this stuff, you know what? That should scare you," Cramer warned. "Because if a brutal winter can't deliver a sustained natural gas rally, can anything?"

Unlike crude oil prices, which have continued their recovery after bottoming in early 2016, natural gas prices have stalled out, down over 15 percent in the last 12 months.

Cramer argued that this year's colder-than-expected winter should have reignited the natural gas group. But after surging in January, natural gas prices tanked, sinking nearly 30 percent from their late-January highs.

The "Mad Money" host pointed to state regulators as the first source of weakness. Since natural gas eclipsed coal to become the United States' leading energy source, state regulators have targeted the natural gas industry, blocking new plants and pushing renewable sources of energy.

California regulators have been particularly aggressive in phasing out gas-fueled facilities because of the state's goal to get 50 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030, Cramer said, referencing a recent Wall Street Journal report on the issue.

And while the issue hasn't yet come to a head in major natural-gas-producing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, Cramer cited it as a worrisome trend.

"I think the newfound hatred for all fossil fuels is getting to be a real concern," he said. "It calls into question one of the most powerful components of the bull thesis, that natural gas was going to keep taking share within the power generation market."

"If that thesis changes to, 'Natural gas is going to stay at about a third of the power generation space and may even lose ground to renewables,' well, let me tell you it's going to be a lot harder to feel good about this group," he continued.

Natural gas producers could also be at fault, the "Mad Money" host said. Natural gas production has skyrocketed in the United States and abroad, causing a glut.

But glut or not, the Energy Information Administration expects U.S. production to rise to 81.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in 2018 from 73.6 billion cubic feet per day in 2017.

"Put it all together and you can understand why whole swaths of this market have become uninvestable," Cramer said. "The natural gas producers are stuck in a house of pain  Chesapeake, Southwestern, Devon Energy, Range Resources, their stocks have been obliterated."

Cramer said that even the group's best performers  Anadarko and Cabot Oil & Gas  and oil and gas giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron haven't been spared from the pain.

The one potential silver lining was in the liquefied natural gas space, where companies like Cheniere Energy and Tellurian are paving the way for shipping the commodity overseas in liquid form.

"Bottom line? I think the new hate on natural gas is here to stay," Cramer concluded. "Don't try to bet on this group. Don't speculate on it. It's just too risky in a world where everyone loves renewable energy and the younger generation absolutely despises fossil fuels, including the younger generation of portfolio managers. I know it's tough to take losses, ... but these stocks may not come back."The U.S. wants to negotiate trade issues with the European Union and China despite the fact that they ignored, for more than a year, Washington's constant warnings about unacceptably large surpluses on their American trades.

In doing so, China and a Germany-led EU have put themselves in an economically and politically untenable position. These two economic systems represent more than one-third of the global economy and 60 percent of demand and output in the industrialized world.

With their estimated trade surplus on goods and services of $713.6 billion at the end of last year, the Europeans and the Chinese live grandly off the deficits they cause in the rest of the world. They are exerting a powerful drag on global economic growth and, by virtue of their excessively high trade imbalances, they operate as a hugely destabilizing factor for the world economy.

I doubt that present EU leaders would want to place their post-modern community in that kind of a position. Insensitive economic policies are not exactly what they need in a world where they want to shine as heirs to the Enlightenment, "leitkultur" (leading culture) and civilizing missions.

With their customs union, the Europeans also have to think about the destruction they are causing to trade flows outside their tariff walls.(From L) French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May talk as they attend an European Union leaders summit, on June 22, 2017, at the European Council in Brussels.

Several Western countries expelled Russian diplomats in a mark of solidarity with Britain over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter.

The EU member states have agreed to take punitive measures against Russia for the nerve-agent attack on the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. Both have been in critical condition in hospital since being found unconscious in southwest England at the start of the month.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump ordered 60 Russians from the U.S. on Monday. The move follows hot on the heels of the U.K.'s decision to expel Russian diplomats after the country determined the Kremlin was responsible for the poisonings. In a tit-for-tat move, Moscow will also expel at least 60 staff from U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia.

A total of 14 EU member states decided to expel their Russian diplomats Monday, according to European Council President Donald Tusk, including the likes of Germany, France and Poland. Ukraine also expelled 13 Russian diplomats, announcing the move at the same time as the EU nations.

Ahead of the joint announcement, Britain said it would welcome the public support from the EU. A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Friday that the bloc's forthcoming response would be "very positive.""We are mortgaging the future of kids and grandkids at record rates. That is irresponsible. It is unethical. It is immoral. It must stop," he told " Closing Bell ."

"Fiscal policy is spinning out of control again in Washington, D.C.," said Walker, who was head of the GAO under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush .

The spending spree coming out of the nation's capital has to stop, former Government Accountability Office head David Walker told CNBC on Monday.

The legislation, which funds the government through the end of September, significantly boosts military spending. It also increases funding for border security, infrastructure and efforts to fight the opioid epidemic.

"We've seen the debt ceiling limit go up $1 trillion in the last year. We're facing trillion-dollar annual deficits starting in '19, and we can see on the horizon that the federal budget may end up spending $1 trillion on interest alone in the not-too-distant future. And what do you get for interest? Nothing," said Walker, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor of Connecticut.

He's particularly concerned about the 70 percent of the budget that's on "autopilot"  so-called mandatory spending programs like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.

"We have made no meaningful progress on diffusing that ticking time bomb," Walker said. "That's what we have to get to if we want to restore fiscal sanity."

It's a different story on the Republican tax plan, which he thinks will create additional economic growth and job opportunities.

That additional growth will produce some revenues, he said.

"But let's understand this ... our fiscal gap is too great to close it with growth alone."

 CNBC's Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report.The threat of a trade war between the U.S. and China grew more pronounced last week and there could be a winner from the fallout if tensions escalate, says one strategist.

"One of the bigger beneficiaries of that would be Germany  Germany and Europe broadly," Gina Sanchez, CEO of Chantico Global, told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Friday. "European trade with China has been on the rise for the past 10 years."

China is the European Union's second-largest export market, according to the European Commission. Exports to China rose at an annual average rate of around 4 percent from 2012 to 2016, while the value of total trade between the EU and China rose 98 percent.

Germany's DAX was swept up in a global market sell-off last week as the possibility of a trade war between the world's largest and second-largest economies grew. President Donald Trump made concrete plans on Thursday to slam around $60 billion worth of China-made goods with tariffs. China responded by announcing tariffs on roughly $3 billion worth of U.S. imports.

The DAX closed Friday with a weekly loss of 4 percent, cementing its position in correction territory, having dropped 12 percent from a 52-week high set on Jan. 23. France's CAC 40 and the FTSE 100 in London ended the week down more than 3 percent.

Other global markets in a correction include the STOXX Europe 600, the FTSE 100, and the Spain IBEX 35. Japan's Nikkei is one of the hardest hit after dropping more than 14 percent from its January highs.

"The Nikkei is suffering from the fact that everyone is rushing into the yen as a safe haven currency, and so it will make that challenging," said Sanchez.

Bill Baruch, president of Blue Line Futures, sees a rebound in the DAX and Nikkei in their short-term technicals.

"There's a lot of support just below the market," Baruch told "Trading Nation" on Friday.

Baruch sees a level of support around the 11,600 to 11,650 mark on the DAX, and 20,400 level on the Nikkei. The DAX and the Nikkei are roughly 2 percent above those levels. He also says recent sell-offs in the two put their relative strength index closer to oversold territory.

"Look at it as a win-win situation  you either buy momentum after Friday or you're buying lower [this] week," he said. "The market is going to recover off some of these big support levels."

European markets lost earlier gains heading into the close in Monday's session. Germany's DAX was down 0.5 percent. The Nikkei saw one of the better bounces on global markets, closing the session with gains of 0.72 percent, after hitting a six-month low earlier in the day.Companies are set to become even more profitable this year as they benefit from a lower corporate tax rate, according to Goldman Sachs' chief U.S. equity strategist.

In a note to clients sent Friday, David Kostin said he expects the 's return on equity to rise to 17.6 percent for 2018, its highest since 2007. Return on equity, often abbreviated as "ROE," is a measure of profitability that is calculated by dividing net income by shareholders' equity. It is also expressed as a percentage. Last year, the S&P 500's ROE expanded by 180 basis points to 16.3 percent.

"The reduction in the corporate tax rate alone will boost ROE by roughly 70 [basis points], outweighing margin pressures from rising labor, commodity, and borrow costs," Kostin wrote. He also said the consumer discretionary and telecommunication sectors will benefit the most from tax reform "given their previously high effective tax rates."

President Donald Trump signed a bill in late December that slashed the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. Investors had been anticipating a lower rate heading into 2018 and thus pushed stocks to record levels last year.

Stocks, however, have been under pressure lately amid concerns that a trade war could be brewing between the U.S. and China, something that could raise costs for U.S. companies and hurt profits. Last week, the major U.S. stock averages posted their biggest weekly drop since January 2016.

But Kostin said investors should not worry too much about this. "Despite market anxiety about trade conflict, S&P 500 profitability remains very healthy," he said.

The lower corporate tax rate and the expected rise in return on equity led Kostin to rebalance the Goldman ROE Growth basket, which is made up of 50 S&P 500 stocks the investment bank expects to have the fastest ROE growth over the next year.

Kostin said the basket has 30 new additions, including Metlife, MGM Resorts and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Goldman sees Metlife's ROE growing by 43 percent over the next 12 months, while MGM and Bristol-Myers should increase by 37 and 13 percent, respectively.The Athens exchange. NurPhoto | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Greek banks could soon bring new problems to Europe, as regulators test how sound they are after eight years of economic turmoil. The four biggest lenders in Greece  Eurobank, Alpha Bank, Piraeus and National Bank of Greece  are being stress tested ahead of the other European banks. This is because the country is set to end its third bailout program in August and both markets and creditors want reassurances that the Greek financial system can stand on its own two feet. "There are a lot of fears in the markets that regulators will see a negative surprise for at least one or two banks," Jonas Floriani, director at investment banking firm AXIA Ventures Group, told CNBC over the phone. The four banks have come a long way since 2015, when they were last tested. Since then, they raised nearly 15 billion euros ($18.55 billion) in new capital. However, if a problem is found in at least one of them, the other three lenders will also suffer given that they are all exposed to the same economy. If one had a problem, there would be reputational repercussions for the entire system, making it harder for them to borrow money from other banks. "I'd like to believe the regulator will be reasonable, but it's a banking system that needs to be fixed," Floriani added, regarding the high level of bad loans in the banks' balance sheets.

At close to 50 percent, Greece has the highest ratio of non-performing loans in the euro area. And this is a huge problem. Daniele Nouy Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB

Greek banks have the highest NPL (non-performing loans) ratio across the euro zone at 47 percent, according to the most recent figures from the European Commission. This is a much higher percentage than Italy's, which stood at 12 percent. Daniele Nouy, the chair of the European Central Bank's supervisory board, said earlier this month that although the banks are in a much stronger position, there's still a "huge problem" with bad loans. But every one of the four banks has prepared a plan to reduce the level of bad loans in their balance sheets. This concrete commitment to address the level of bad debt is making some analysts positive ahead of the stress tests. Konstantinos Manolopoulos, director of research at the Investment Bank of Greece, told CNBC that it is hard to predict the outcome of the stress tests, but acknowledged the fact that the capital position of these banks is much stronger. He noted that the baseline scenario for tests in 2015  which projected an economic contraction of 2.3 percent for that year  was more dramatic than the 1.3 percent contraction used in the most conservative scenario in the current tests. This shows that the banks are in a better position three years on, he said.

Emmaniel Dunand | AFP | Getty ImagesOfficials from South Korea and North Korea meet to discuss the North's participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

A high-ranking North Korean official appeared to have arrived by train in Beijing, Japanese media reported, though speculation that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is currently visiting the Chinese capital has not been confirmed.

Kyodo, citing sources close to the matter, said the visit of the official was intended to improve ties between Beijing and Pyongyang that have been frayed by North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and China's backing of tough sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations Security Council.

Reuters was unable to immediately confirm that a top North Korean official had arrived by train.

Beijing has traditionally been North Korea's closest ally, but Kim is due to hold summit meetings separately with rivals South Korea and the United States.

Asked earlier at a daily news briefing about reports of an important North Korean visitor arriving at the Chinese border city of Dandong, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was unaware of the situation.

Nobody answered the phone at the North Korean embassy in Beijing on Monday.

"We are closely monitoring the situation and trying to gather further information through various channels, South Korea's presidential Blue House said in a statement via a messaging app.

Kyodo, citing sources, reported that on Sunday, a special train that might have carried the official passed through the Chinese border city of Dandong.

Police tightened security along Beijings main east-west thoroughfare, Changan Avenue, mid-afternoon Monday, closing off the entrances to some of the buildings which face the road.

Police also cleared out all tourists from Tiananmen Square around the same time, which normally only happens when important meetings are happening in the Great Hall of the People, where top Chinese leaders often meet visiting heads of state.

On Monday evening, the Beijing railway bureau warned on its microblog, without giving a reason, of multiple train delays of up to two hours in the Beijing region.

A source with ties to the Chinese military told Reuters that it was not possible to rule out the possibility that Kim was visiting Beijing, but cautioned this was not confirmed.

A diplomatic source told Reuters that there was heavy security around the Diaoyutai State Guest House, where some high level foreign visitors stay during visits to the city.

Visits to China by Kims late father, Kim Jong Il, were only confirmed by both China and North Korea once he had left the country.

Kim Jong Il traveled by private train during his rare visits to China or Russia under tight security. Diplomats and other sources have said Kim Jong Il avoided flying for overseas trips due to security concerns.

The younger Kim, who was educated in Switzerland, is not known to have any fear of flying and state media have shown pictures of him aboard a plane. However, he is not known to have traveled outside the country since assuming power in late 2011 after his father's death.Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's former prime minister, speaks with colleagues during a parliamentary session inside the Senate

Italy's two populist parties have shown they can find common ground in the first test of a possible political alliance, but experts believe a coalition government formed of Lega (League) and the Five Star Movement (M5S) would ultimately have a "short shelf life." The two parties' leaders managed to come together Friday to reach a deal to elect the speakers of both the upper (the Senate) and lower houses (the Chamber of Deputies) of parliament. Luigi Di Maio, the anti-establishment M5S party leader, put forward Roberto Fico to be elected as speaker of the lower house. And in return for its support for Fico, the center-right coalition led by Lega (the biggest party in the alliance), former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and Fratelli d'Italia (and the smaller Noi con L'Italia) got their choice of Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati - a member of Forza Italia and confidante of Berlusconi - elected as Senate speaker. Italy held a general election on March 4 but no one party or coalition gained enough of the vote to govern alone. M5S was the single largest party, with 32 percent of the vote, but the center-right coalition got 37 percent, meaning that a period of intense negotiation is due to start to see if a coalition government can be formed. The election shocked Europe as M5S and Lega, which both ran on an anti-establishment, populist message, performed well while the former ruling Democratic Party did badly.

M5S and center-right coalition?

While political analysts saw the deal over the election of speakers (which could have been a more fraught and drawn-out process) as "audacious" and as a sign of potential cooperation for a coalition, they didn't expect the "entente" to last long.

"Is the agreement between M5S and NL (Lega, which was formerly known as Lega Nord) a prelude to a government coalition between these two forces, or even a broader coalition center-right-M5S?" J.P. Morgan economist Marco Protopapa asked. "In our view, the latter remains unlikely given the evident hostility towards Berlusconi of a large part of M5S MPs (and arguably an even larger part of M5S electors)," he said in a note Monday. "Perhaps, it could become a viable option only in the  very unlikely  case that Berlusconi were to take a step back from the leadership of Forza Italia (as, allegedly, asked by Salvini)," he said.

Protopapa said that while J.P. Morgan recognized that "the relationship between the senior leaders of M5S and Lega has been fairly cooperative, with declarations of mutual appreciation" there were constraining factors that could prevent a "populist coalition" of Lega and M5S. "However, we note that (i) Salvini is pretty much acting as the leader of the whole center-right, and (ii) the significant constraints we discussed remain intact," he said, listing the sticking points as M5S' dominance versus Lega, some hostility across the respective electorates and ideological differences, among other risk factors. "In our view, a non-mainstream government M5S-NL could hardly be a proper political government," he added. Rather, if anything, it would be a temporary solution to make sure the country goes to a new election at the earliest possible date after the summer, he believed.

More noise to comeCall to protect Chisapanigadhi for conservation of birds

Chisapanigadhi that lies between Siraichuli and Upperdanggadhi in the hilly part of the district is not a common place. Anyone visiting this place is mesmerized by the sighting of rare birds, some of them seen never before.While the changing dynamic of Trump's national security team presents a challenge to Mattis, it doesn't look like the retired Marine general will leave the administration any time soon.

Bolton's fiery approach to foreign policy, which has also included calls for a pre-emptive strike on Iran, presents a dramatic contrast to Mattis' style, which is seen as more deliberate and diplomatic.

Bolton will be the third national security advisor to serve Trump, following the departures of three-star Army generals Michael Flynn and H.R. McMaster.

Since joining the Trump administration after a four-decade-long military career, Secretary of Defense James Mattis will face one of his toughest challenges yet: John Bolton. Bolton, a former United Nations ambassador under President George W. Bush, will take over as President Donald Trump's national security advisor in two weeks. When he arrives at the White House on April 9, Bolton will have less than two months to help coordinate an unprecedented meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. And Bolton's appointment came just weeks after he published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal titled "The Legal Case for Striking North Korea First." Bolton's fiery approach to foreign policy, which has also included calls for a pre-emptive strike on Iran, presents a dramatic contrast to Mattis' style, which is seen as more deliberate and diplomatic. Mattis, a retired Marine general, often collaborated on policy issues with Rex Tillerson, who had also favored a more diplomatic approach to foreign policy, before Trump fired him as secretary of State.

Mattis also told colleagues that he thinks it would be hard to work with Bolton, The New York Times reported last week, citing sources. Now Mattis finds himself isolated as Trump's national security and foreign policy team becomes increasingly hawkish with the addition of Bolton and CIA Director Mike Pompeo being designated Tillerson's replacement at the State Department. Representatives for Bolton, the White House military office and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Trump's third national security advisor

Bolton will be the third national security advisor to serve Trump, following the departures of three-star Army generals Michael Flynn and H.R. McMaster. Trump has said he fired Flynn for lying to the FBI and Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with foreign officials, while the president was reportedly frustrated with McMaster's detailed reports on national security matters. Bolton will be responsible for advising Trump on a wide spectrum of issues, from the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State to China's aggressive actions in the South China Sea to North Korea's growing nuclear threat. The post, which does not require Senate confirmation, comes with a staff of several hundred specialists from the Pentagon, State Department and U.S. intelligence agencies. A key part of Bolton's portfolio will be supplying guidance for the potential summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un, which would be the first time a sitting U.S. president meets face-to-face with a North Korean leader. Yet one month before Trump's on-the-spot acceptance to meet with Kim, Bolton made a case for making pre-emptive strikes against the North in his Wall Street Journal op-ed. "Given the gaps in U.S. intelligence about North Korea, we should not wait until the very last minute. That would risk striking after the North has deliverable nuclear weapons, a much more dangerous situation," Bolton wrote.

The diplomacy question

Stances like this one have made the incoming national security advisor a target of criticism in foreign-policy and national-security circles. "If you take his advice and attack North Korea, and if you take his advice and change the regime in Iran, I mean, my goodness, if you thought Iraq was bad, this is like 10 times that," retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a senior defense fellow for Defense Priorities, told CNBC in regards to Bolton's op-eds. "Bolton doesn't even talk about diplomacy. For him, it's either abject surrender on the opposition or it's war, and there doesn't seem to be any room for negotiation," said Davis, who also wrote an opinion piece on Bolton's appointment for CNBC.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un guides a target-striking contest of the special operation forces of the Korean People's Army to occupy islands in Pyongyang on Aug. 25, 2017. KCNA | Reuters

His tough talk on North Korea isn't anything new. In 2003, on the eve of six-nation talks over Pyongyang's nuclear program, Bolton called then-North Korean leader Kim Jong II a "tyrannical dictator." The North responded by calling Bolton "human scum." The invitation from the North for talks comes after the reclusive state spent much of 2017 perfecting its missile arsenal. Under third-generation leader Kim Jong Un, the North conducted its most powerful nuclear test, launched its first-ever intercontinental ballistic missile and threatened to send missiles into the waters near the U.S. territory of Guam. What's more, the acceleration and frequency of testing show not only Kim's nuclear ambitions but also that the nation has developed an arsenal.

What it means for Mattis

Bolton's appointment came nine days after Trump announced via Twitter that Pompeo would replace Tillerson. "I suspect that [Mattis has] been really drained by this shuffle, and I don't know if he is going to get along with Pompeo the way he did with Tillerson," Davis said. Yet, Davis noted that while the appointments of Pompeo and Bolton will be a challenge for Mattis, it is unlikely that he will leave the administration anytime soon. "Even if he wanted to leave, I think his sense of duty would say well I'm going to stick around for another 6 months, 9 months, a year," Davis said. And while it is unclear what Tillerson's exit means for other top Cabinet officials, the retired four-star general in charge of the Pentagon undoubtedly lost an ally.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis (L) pours then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R) a glass of water before a Senate Foreign Relations hearing in Washington, October 30, 2017. Samuel Corum | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The venerated Marine commander forged a close alliance with the former Exxon Mobil CEO largely due to their diplomatic approach to national security matters. Mattis and Tillerson successfully bridged what has historically been a contentious relationship between the Pentagon and State. The two often coordinated their positions and presented a unified policy front to the White House. On Jan. 19, Mattis unveiled the National Defense Strategy at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. During his speech, Mattis emphasized the importance of partnering with Tillerson to craft the administration's national security road map. "It starts with me having breakfast every week with Secretary of State Tillerson," Mattis said in January. "We talk two, three times a day, sometimes. We settle all of our issues between he and I, and then we walk together into the White House meetings. That way, State and Defense are together." Those days have come to an end.

WATCH: Bolton will advocate hardline policiesAside from fleecing American companies with high import tariffs, China is stealing U.S. technology through unfair requirements to do business in the world's second-largest economy, Trump economic advisor Kevin Hassett told CNBC on Monday.

Hassett, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, was explaining the nuances behind last week's announcement by President Donald Trump to levy up to $60 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports. The Trump administration argues that China's trade practices involve stealing American companies' intellectual property.

The office of the U.S. Trade Representative accuses China of using "joint venture requirements, foreign investment restrictions, and administrative review and licensing processes to force or pressure technology transfers from American companies."

Hassett used a hypothetical example to make the point. "[If companies] were selling their coffee in China, then China would say, 'Sure you have access to our market, but we have to set up a joint venture with a Chinese partner.' So then every $100 in sales, ... it's $50 to us and $50 to the partner."

The USTR went through all the joint venture deals and other measures that result in intellectual property theft and added up the sales that didn't happen to pinpoint the amount of tariffs that should be assessed against China, Hassett said.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Monday that Beijing would not force foreign firms to transfer technology and would strengthen intellectual property rights. While reiterating pledges to ease access for U.S. businesses, he also said China and America should maintain negotiations.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told "Fox News Sunday" he's optimistic a trade agreement will eventually be negotiated with China.

On Friday, China responded to Trump's tariffs with a proposed target list of 128 U.S. products that had an import value of $3 billion last year.

Unlike the separate import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum announced by Trump on March 1, "everybody is unified" behind the punitive Chinese measures, said Hassett, formerly an economist at the American Enterprise Institute and senior economist at the Federal Reserve.

"The president has been clear that he wants to set a marker down with some big asks at the beginning. He doesn't want to dribble them out. And then he wants his negotiators to fix the trade problems," Hassett said on "Squawk Box."

Hassett also pointed out the steel and aluminum tariffs were billed initially as across-the-board measures but were tempered by exemptions for Canada and Mexico, with the promise of more to come for U.S. allies in what the White House considers good standing.

"It's all designed to move us toward negotiations to make the world a better place," said Hassett. "If we had reciprocal tariffs worldwide, think about it, there would be a massive reduction in tariffs around the world down to the U.S. level. And that reduction would increase global output, profits and investment and sentiment."

Prior to his White House appointment, Hassett was a consultant to the Treasury Department and an advisor to Republican presidential campaigns, including Mitt Romney's unsuccessful 2012 run.Lowe's announced Monday that CEO Robert Niblock will retire from the home improvement retailer as soon as the company finds a successor.

Its shares jumped more than 6 percent in early trading following the announcement.

"After a 25-year career at Lowe's, including 13 years as chairman and CEO, I am confident that it is the right time to transition the company to its next generation of leadership," the 54-year-old Niblock said in a statement.

Lowe's has increasingly lagged behind its biggest rival, Home Depot. In the most recent quarter, same-store sales climbed a little more than 4 percent at Lowe's, while Home Depot reported an increase of 7.5 percent.

In January, activist investor D.E. Shaw & Co. built a stake in Lowe's, saying the firm was concerned about the retailer's performance relative to competitors.

The North Carolina-based retailer has since appointed new board members following talks with Shaw.

"We are optimistic that the company will attract a new, top notch talent to run the chain and that the whole of LOW will benefit from a 'fresh set of eyes' within its senior ranks," Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Brian Nagel said.

Lowe's shares have fallen about 10 percent so far this year.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is optimistic a trade agreement will be negotiated with China.

Mnuchin was asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether announced tariffs on the Asian country will be implemented.

"We are going to proceed with our tariffs. We are working on that. We're also working on investment restrictions, but we're simultaneously having negotiations with the Chinese to see if we can reach an agreement," Mnuchin said. "We're having very productive conversations with them. I'm cautiously hopeful we'll reach an agreement, but if not we are proceeding with these tariffs. We are not putting them on hold unless we have an acceptable agreement that the president signs off on."

The dropped 724 points Thursday after Trump signed an executive memorandum that would impose tariffs on up to $60 billion in Chinese imports. The sell-off continued Friday as the index fell 425 more points.

Mnuchin said China must lower its tariffs on American goods and stop forced-technology transfer for U.S. companies entering its market.

"This is a president that absolutely believes in free trade but wants free and fair trade," he said. "The trade deficit has to be addressed that they need to open up their markets to our companies and that's fair and free reciprocal trade."MySpace co-founders Chris DeWolfe (left) and Tom Anderson (right) pose for photos in the Myspace headquarters in 2007.

Myspace co-founder Tom Anderson, or "Myspace Tom" as he is best known, is taking full advantage of his early retirement. Anderson enjoys travel, photography, burning man  and trolling Facebook.

Anderson bashed Facebook on Monday by re-tweeting a cartoon by the online digital publication Futurism. The image features Anderson looking saintly as Star Wars Jedi-Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, and piles onto the #DeleteFacebook movement.

@MyspaceTom tweet

@Futurism tweet

"Help us, @myspacetom. You're our only hope. #DeleteFacebook," Futurism wrote in a tweet.

While Futurism was almost certainly joking, disillusioned Facebook users would be wise to remember what happened to Myspace's user data after Anderson exited the social media game in 2009.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought Myspace and its parent company, Intermix, in 2009 for $580 million. Just a few years later, Murdoch sold the obsolete platform to media company Viant for $35 million. Myspace changed hands one last time in 2011, when Time purchased Viant's assets for an undisclosed amount.

At the time of the acquisition, Viant boasted it could provide marketers access to data on 1.2 billion users that, when combined with Time's subscriber database,"creates a first party dataset that rivals industry leaders Facebook and Google."

Time Chairman and CEO Joe Ripp was hardly shy about his intentions for the data, describing the acquisition as a "game changing" way to "deliver advertisers' messages targeted to optimal audiences across all types of devices."

"Marketers are selecting media partners that have either data-driven capabilities or premium content," Ripp said in a statement. "We will be able to deliver both in a single platform, and will stand apart from those that offer just one or the other."

Myspace may well be obsolete, but Time is still using data collected from users, before most even knew what data was.When Amazon agreed last year to begin collecting sales tax in New Mexico, state officials celebrated what they said could be tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue.

But they aren't cheering in Albuquerque City Hall. A year after that announcement, New Mexico's largest city hasn't seen a dime from Amazon. That's because the online shopping giant's deal applied only to the 5.125 percent statewide tax, not to the 2.375 percent tax tacked on by the City of Albuquerque.

''The loser in that arrangement is cities,'' Mayor Tim Keller said. ''Cities are really being left to themselves.''

Thanks in part to a series of deals with state governments in recent years, Amazon is collecting sales tax in every state that has one. But those deals don't always extend to taxes assessed by local governments. The company still isn't collecting sales taxes in dozens of cities, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, according to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank.

Carl Davis, the report's author, said local governments were missing out on millions in tax revenue when other income streams are also under strain. And local retailers, many already struggling to compete with online retailers, are effectively forced to charge more for their products than online sellers that aren't required to collect local taxes.

''It's just a direct price advantage that shows up on customers' receipts,'' Mr. Davis said. ''You never want to end up in the situation where the companies you're offering better deals to are the ones that don't even have roots in your community.''

More from The New York Times:

Apple goes to Hollywood. Will its story have a happy ending?

Uber to sell its Southeast Asia business to Grab, a regional rival

Timeline: Facebook and Google under regulators' glare

Amazon says it collects taxes in every jurisdiction where it is required to do so, and Mr. Davis's report found that the company does collect local taxes in most states. But a hodgepodge of state laws govern tax collection, meaning there isn't a simple solution for municipalities that are now left out.

For example, sales tax rules based on the location of the seller may be impossible to enforce if the company has no physical presence in that jurisdiction. And smaller online retailers can escape collecting sales taxes in more places than Amazon does -- even when they use Amazon to sell their products.

Amazon is facing increasing scrutiny over its tax policies. Despite being one of the largest retailers in the country by revenue, Amazon pays relatively little in federal income tax, largely because of its low profit margins. Until several years ago, Amazon also collected little in state sales taxes, and in most states still does not collect taxes on goods sold on its platform by third parties. (Amazon collects taxes on such third-party sales in Washington State, and agreed this month to begin doing so in Pennsylvania.) The company has also faced criticism for requesting tax incentives from state and local governments to lure Amazon facilities, including its planned second headquarters.

Mr. Davis, however, said his findings were less the fault of Amazon than of state tax systems that don't require, and in some cases don't allow, online retailers to collect local taxes. He said states rushed to strike deals with Amazon without always ensuring that local governments would benefit as well.

''It's just been overshadowed by the state issue,'' Mr. Davis said. ''It's smaller dollars at play, but for these communities, it's dollars that matter.''

Amazon sometimes collects taxes where other online retailers do not. In Chicago, for example, Amazon collects local taxes because it has warehouses and other facilities in Illinois; online retailers that don't have a physical presence in the state generally don't have to collect taxes there.

Usually it is states -- not cities or counties -- that decide who has to collect local sales taxes. In most states, taxes are based on the location of the buyer, and retailers are required to collect local sales taxes alongside state taxes. But in some states, including New Mexico, taxes are based on the location of the seller, meaning there is no mechanism for collecting taxes from sellers that don't have a physical presence in the area. Other states have other legal quirks that affect local tax collections.

Those loopholes have existed for years, but their significance has grown greatly with the rise of online retail, said Scott Peterson, vice president of government relations as Avalara, a company that helps retailers calculate and collect sales taxes.

''This huge hole that exists in the sales tax structure has been known for a long time,'' Mr. Peterson said. ''Their laws have not kept up.''

A pending Supreme Court case, South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc., could change the legal landscape, but not necessarily simplify it. Depending on the outcome, the case could pave the way for states to require companies to collect sales taxes even if they don't have a location in the state. But local governments in Pennsylvania, New Mexico and other states still wouldn't be able to collect taxes without help from their legislatures.

Local government officials in many parts of the country say the rise of tax-free online shopping has had a big impact on their budgets. Albuquerque, for example, relies on the sales tax -- or what is known in New Mexico as a gross receipts tax -- for nearly two-thirds of its general fund revenue, which totaled about $500 million last year. The city's finance department estimates that it lost out on $5 million in tax revenue on Amazon purchases in 2016, although calculations are difficult because of a lack of available data. Lost revenue from other online retailers adds millions of dollars more.

Mr. Keller, the mayor, said Amazon benefited from city services, such as the roads used by delivery trucks carrying its packages and the police officers who makes sure packages aren't stolen. But unlike local retailers, the company doesn't chip in.

''This is the fundamental way we fund American society, and thanks to technology they found a way to opt out of that,'' Mr. Keller said. ''They're getting a free ride.''

For businesses, the practical effect of that free ride is probably small, at least outside of a handful of high-tax jurisdictions. Local sales taxes add just 1 or 2 percent to prices in most cities, not enough to sway most shoppers' decisions. But retailers said the tax was a matter of fairness: Why should local businesses be at a disadvantage, however small, against a much larger, out-of-town rival?

''The 2 percent doesn't drive someone from my place to Amazon, but it doesn't help,'' said Richard de Wyngaert, owner of Head House Books, an independent bookstore in Philadelphia. ''I just feel that if not all businesses, why any business? If we don't all pay taxes, why should any of us? To me, it's ludicrous. There is a social contract with your citizens.''

Candelora Versace, who with her husband runs a custom jewelry shop in Santa Fe, N.M., said that her customers frequently buy gemstones online, then come into the store to have them put into settings. She said that she doubted they were explicitly trying to avoid paying Santa Fe's roughly 3 percent sales, but that regardless of their intent, the effect on the community was the same.

''The roads don't pay themselves. The schools don't fund themselves,'' Ms. Versace said. ''When they don't want to pay the tax, it cheats us. It cheats those of us who live here and have businesses here.''North Korea said on Monday its policy of seeking better ties with the South was enjoying broad international support, and called on the United States to halt its sanctions and pressure.

Ri Jong Hyok, director of North Korea's National Reunification Institute and deputy head of its Supreme People's Assembly, said that his country sought to build a "just and peaceful new world, free from aggression and war."

Nothing could block the goal of inter-Korean dialogue and reunification, he told the general assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva. North Korea's efforts to improve bilateral ties with South Korea now enjoyed a "broad spectrum of support" internationally, he said.

"Now is the high time to put an end to the U.S. anachronistic anti-DPRK hostile policy and its futile moves of sanctions and pressure," Ri said, referring to his country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

North Korea's consistent position was to resolve all issues through dialogue and negotiation, he said.

"The United States should properly understand our position and come out in a manner of sincere and serious attitude for positively contributing to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula," Ri added.

U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in May after South Korean officials relayed a message from Pyongyang that the North Korean leader wished to speak to Trump about denuclearization.

The detente with the North began in January with the announcement that Pyongyang would send athletes to compete in the Winter Olympics held in the South, as part in a unified Korean team. It came after a year in which Pyongyang staged several missile launches and its biggest-ever nuclear test, in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

South Korea said on Saturday that North Korea had agreed to hold high-level talks with South Korea on March 29 at the border truce village of Panmunjom to prepare for a summit of their leaders planned for April.

Ri, who held bilateral meetings with parliamentary delegations from Syria and Mongolia in Geneva, made no reference in his six-minute speech to either upcoming summit.British digital-only lender OakNorth is looking to expand to one of the biggest markets for financial technology (fintech).

OakNorth, a start-up bank based in London, recorded a pre-tax profit of 10.6 million ($15 million) in 2017 and is considered to be the first U.K. digital-orientated bank to reach such a milestone.

Rishi Khosla, chief executive and co-founder of OakNorth, told CNBC that the firm will eventually grow its reach to China.

"It's a hyper-competitive market, there's immense amounts of capital flushing around it," Khosla said at a fintech conference in London last week.

"It is going to be a market that we will go into. It's just a question of when and how rather than if."

China is home to some of the most valuable fintech companies in the world, including established giants like Alibaba-owned Ant Financial, ZhongAn, Qudian and Lufax.

Ant Financial, the most valuable fintech company in the world with a market capitalization of $60 billion, raised an eye-watering $4.5 billion in 2016. That same year, online lender Lufax raised $1.2 billion from investors, in a deal which reportedly lifted its market value to $18.5 billion. Both companies are targeting an initial public offering (IPO) this year.

However, there was a slight decline in venture capital flows into Chinese fintech start-ups last year. The total value of deals fell from $10 billion in 2016 to $2.8 billion in 2017, according to research by consultancy Accenture.

Nevertheless, foreign lenders looking to access the Chinese market could get a boost from the country's new central bank chief. Yi Gang, who was made governor of the People's Bank of China earlier this month, said Sunday that the country will open its financial sector up to international firms and give them equal treatment to domestic companies.The filing by Remington Arms Company and its parent, Remington Outdoors, was disclosed late Sunday night on the website of the United States Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Details of the filing were not immediately available, but in a note to investors on Friday, the company reported negative operating cash flow as of March 25 of $7.4 million. Remington Outdoors, which also owns gun manufacturers including Marlin and Bushmaster, says sales in 2017 were just over $600 million, down more than 30 percent from 2016. Like other gun manufacturers, Remington saw sharp sales declines following the 2016 presidential election, as customers apparently saw less urgency to stockpile firearms under President Donald Trump . Adding to Remington's problems are heavy debt, as well as product liability concerns involving its signature product, the Model 700 bolt-action rifle , which CNBC first investigated in 2010.

While Remington maintains that the guns are safe, the company has agreed to replace the triggers on millions of guns in a class action settlement. The company has refused to say whether the bankruptcy filing  which it first signaled last month  will affect the settlement.



Remington said in February that the bankruptcy would be pre-packaged under an agreement with its lenders. It is not immediately clear when the company hopes to emerge from bankruptcy.



Remington is owned by private equity giant Cerberus, which began buying up gun companies a decade ago. Soon after CNBC's first investigation in 2010, Cerberus dropped plans for an initial public offering of what was then known as the Freedom Group.



After the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Cerberus announced plans to exit the gun business, but could not find a buyer. Cerberus eventually let its institutional investors cash out of Freedom Group, which remained on Cerberus' books, eventually renamed Remington Outdoors.Republican Rep. Ryan Costello will retire rather than face a difficult re-election in a newly redrawn Pennsylvania district.

The congressman's decision, announced Sunday, deals a blow to the GOP as it tries to keep control of the House. Even before Costello's move, the party faced a challenge in holding the seat after a new congressional map set by the state's Supreme Court made his 6th District more Democratic. Hillary Clinton would have won the new district by about 9 percentage points in 2016.

Retirements typically make elections harder for the incumbent party to win. Nonpartisan election analysis sites say Costello's decision favors Democrats: Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball are changing their ratings for the seat to "likely" Democratic from "toss-up."

Kondik tweet

Wasserman tweet

Democrats aim to win 24 Republican-held House seats in November to take a majority in the chamber. Pennsylvania could prove crucial to those hopes because two other GOP congressmen from the state are retiring. After Pennsylvania's top court threw out a Republican-drawn district map earlier this year, Democrats will try to compete for five or more GOP-held seats in the midterm elections.

Costello, 41, has represented the suburban Philadelphia district since 2015. In explaining his decision on MSNBC on Sunday night, Costello said the political environment made it difficult for him to criticize President Donald Trump's behavior that he opposed without facing backlash within his party. Opposition to Trump and his policies has largely driven a consistent edge for Democrats in surveys that ask whether voters prefer a generic Republican or generic Democrat.

Kasie DC tweet

Costello also cited the new congressional map as a factor in his retirement.

The local Democrats and the left has become more engaged and, candidly, more angry by the week as President Trump says things and does things which, many Republicans, myself amongst them, from time to time do disagree with. And so, that coupled with the fact that every single time that I speak out and voice my disagreement with what the president might do or might say, only then has my pro-Trump Republicans not too pleased with me either. And so, the combination of what I've had to deal with just in terms of having a young family, what the state Supreme Court did which I think was obscene, along with the political environment, has me  led me to the decision that was best for my loved ones, those who love me the most, those who I love the most, that at this moment in time running for re-election is not the prudent course of action. And I say that after a lot of deliberation. It's been a very tough decision for me to make, but I think I'm making the right decision.

In a statement, the head of House Republicans' campaign arm called Costello's retirement a "great loss for both his colleagues and constituents." The congressman's "leadership will be sorely missed," said Rep. Steve Stivers, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

He expressed optimism about the GOP's ability to hold the seat.

"We will work tirelessly to ensure this seat remains in Republican hands," Stivers said.

House Democrats' campaign arm cast the retirement as much more dire for Republicans. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Evan Lukaske said Costello's move "should set off alarm bells for vulnerable House Republicans."

Costello likely would have faced Democrat Chrissy Houlahan, a businesswoman who served in the Air Force Reserve. She is considered a top recruit for Democrats as the minority party tries to flip Republican districts.

Costello filed for re-election last week as he made his decision about whether to retire. It is unclear whether he will pull his name from the May 15 primary election ballot.

If he does, the GOP will have only one candidate running for the nomination: attorney Greg McCauley.Quotations sought for RTGS system installation

Nepal has formally started laying the groundwork to settle large-value and urgent interbank payments within several minutes.Russia is asking users on President Donald Trump's favorite social media platform for ideas on how to retaliate against the U.S. for expelling 60 diplomats on Monday.

"What US Consulate General would you close" in Russia "if it was up to you to decide," asked the official Twitter handle for Russia's embassy in the U.S.

The query appeared to be a direct challenge to the Trump administration's decision to oust 60 Russian diplomatic officers  and close Russia's consulate in Seattle  over the alleged assassination attempt of an ex-spy in London.

Included in the tweet was an interactive poll asking users to select whether they would shutter the U.S. consulates in Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg or St. Petersburg.

Russia in USA tweet: US administration ordered the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle @GK_Seattle. What US Consulate General would you close in @Russia, if it was up to you to decide

By 1 p.m. EST, the poll had accumulated more than 11,600 votes, with the St. Petersburg consulate getting a 45 percent plurality of the total.

In addition to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, the three consulates offer services for American citizens who live in Russia or plan to visit it. They also provide nonimmigrant visas to foreigners traveling to the U.S.

Trump on Monday ordered 48 Washington-based Russian diplomats and 12 at the United Nations to leave the country. The decision came as a show of solidarity with Britain, which blamed Russia for the attempted assassination carried out using a rare nerve agent. Russia denies its involvement.

The Trump administration's move coincided with penalties against Russia from more than a dozen European nations on Monday.

"The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement following the order.

Last week, Trump sent his own Russia-related tweets, defending a congratulatory phone call with President Vladimir Putin after he won a March 18 landslide re-election that some watchdog groups and dissidents have called illegitimate.

Having a strong relationship with Russia, Trump said, "is a good thing, not a bad thing."

Trump tweetSaudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman's goal to diversify Saudi Arabia's oil-based economy and transform the kingdom into a tech and logistics hub could ultimately be an opportunity for American enterprise.

Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince is widely expected to drum up investment capital during the New York City leg of his U.S. visit, and he appears to be starting with an old investment partner.

The Saudi press agency on Monday tweeted a photo of Mohammed bin Salman and Masayoshi Son, the CEO and chairman of Japanese tech investment giant Softbank. Prince Mohammed and Masayoshi are "looking for a number of investment opportunities," according to the tweet, which was hashtagged #CrownPrinceinNYC.

Tweet

The Saudi Press Agency did not immediately return a request for confirmation that the meeting took place on Monday.

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is one of the primary investors in Softbank's roughly $100 billion Vision Fund, which is focused on funding technology ventures, including Uber and Indian e-commerce site Flipkart.

Softbank intends to invest as much as $25 billion in the kingdom in the next few years, Bloomberg reported in November. Much of that money will go towards a new tech-focused city called NEOM announced by Prince Mohammed during an investment summit last fall, according to Bloomberg.

Fresh from visits to Washington and Boston, Prince Mohammed is now in New York City, where he will attend a CEO Summit on Tuesday. The day's agenda includes a panel on Saudi Arabia's so-called "giga-projects" like NEOM.

The 32-year-old crown prince is spearheading Saudi Arabia's economic transformation, which aims to diversify the kingdom's oil-dependent economy.In its rationale for the closure, the White House specifically cited the Seattle consulate's proximity to the Kitsap-Bangor submarine base and facilities belonging to major defense contractor Boeing .

Senior administration officials who declined to be named said the president ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later confirmed the move to kick out dozens of Russian officers, as well as the closure of the Seattle consulate.

Trump ordered the closure of the consulate as part of a broader move against Russian diplomats and intelligence officials Monday.

Less than 30 miles from the Russian consulate in Seattle, which was closed by President Donald Trump on Monday , is what is believed to be the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the United States.

When asked whether the U.S. had observed Russian spying on the crucial naval base, officials gave mixed signals.

"These actions are not designated towards any particular or individual effort of collection by the Russian government," one senior official said. "This is a holistic look at the Russian government's collection capabilities in the U.S. and the consulate in Seattle is just a particular location that has been designated."

Another official said that the Seattle consulate serves a role in Russia's intelligence collection in the U.S. but would not elaborate on any specific activities.

"We assess the Russian consulate in Seattle to be part of this broader problem of an unacceptably high number of Russian intelligence operatives in the United States," the official said.

"We think it sends a very clear signal, particularly since on the West Coast the Russians will have a degraded capability with regards to spying on our citizens," the official said.

Experts believe the base is home to the biggest concentration of nuclear weapons in the U.S., if not the world.

"In general, there will be two to three submarines in port with 200-300 weapons," Lisbeth Gronlund, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told CNBC. "There is also a storage center for nuclear weapons at the Bangor base that may hold several hundred additional warheads."

The Pentagon and U.S. Navy did not respond immediately to CNBC's request for comment.

In addition to its storage of strategic nuclear weapons, Kitsap-Bangor also serves as the homeport for more than half of the Navy's ballistic submarines  another significant interest to the Russian government. These stealthy Ohio-class submarines are undetectable launch pads for intercontinental missiles.

What's more, the number of submarines and other vessels berthed at Kitsap-Bangor makes the installation the third-largest fleet concentration in the United States.Shares of Longfin, which have spiked astronomically on ties to blockchain technology, fell Monday after a tweet from noted short-selling firm Citron Research.

Longfin (Ticker: LFIN) shares closed 16.6 percent lower at $59.28 a share. The tiny, little-known stock surged more than 1,200 percent over two trading days in mid-December after the financial technology company said it is purchasing a firm focused on blockchain, the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

"If you are fortunate enough to get a borrow, indeed $LFIN is a pure stock scheme," Andrew Left's Citron Research said in a Monday morning tweet. "@sec_enforcement should not be far behind. Filings and press releases are riddled with inaccuracies and fraud."

Tweet

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment.

"Citron is known as a short seller," Lijie Zhu, managing director at Longfin's investor relations firm Dragon Gate Investment Partners. "He has no evidence. There is no content for his report and we see no fraud as a third party investor relations firm."

Longfin CEO Venkat Meenavalli was not available for comment as he was traveling in Asia, Zhu said. She added the company is also in the middle of preparing its annual 10-K filing.

On Dec. 18, the day Longfin hit its record high of $142.82, Meenavalli said on CNBC's "Fast Money" that the several billion-dollar "market cap is not justified" and "is not a reality."

He added that while Longfin is profitable, the blockchain company it was acquiring, Ziddu, "doesn't have any revenue right now."

Longfin agreed to buy the microlending company from a private Singapore firm called Meridian Enterprises for 2.5 million shares of the company. A filing showed Meridian is 95-percent-owned by Meenavalli.Chands party extorts Bardiya business people

The Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) is extorting the businesspersons in Bardiya district.Spotify, the world's biggest selling music streaming service, expects revenue to grow 20 percent to 30 percent this year as currency swings slow the pace from 2017 and it gears up for one of Europe's most anticipated stock listings.

The Swedish company said it expected 2018 revenue of 4.9 billion to 5.3 billion euros ($6.1 billion to $6.8 billion), which would mark a slowdown from the 39 percent growth recorded in 2017.

For the first quarter, the company forecast revenue of 1.10 billion to 1.15 billion euros, up 22 percent to 27 percent, respectively.

Shares of Spotify Technology are set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on April 3 in an unusual direct listing without traditional underwriters.

The company was valued around $20 billion based on private stock transactions among existing investors and employees in February, according to its filing.

Loss-making Spotify, which is prioritizing rapid growth over profits, said it expected to have signed up between 73 and 76 million paying subscribers this month, roughly twice as many as closest rival Apple has disclosed. For the full year, it is aiming for 92-96 million premium users, it said.

It expects total monthly active users in March to number 168 million to 171 million, including those who use the service for free in return for watching advertisements, up from 157 million at the end of last year.

Operating losses should narrow during 2018 to between 230 million and 330 million euros, the company said, including 35 million to 40 million euros in costs associated with its stock market listing. In 2017, Spotify reported charges on debt financing drove up operating losses to 378 million euros.

The 2018 sales forecast compares with the Stockholm-based company's long-term target for revenue to grow between 25 and 35 percent, which it spelled out for investors earlier in March.

Gross margins for the first quarter are expected to rise to around 23 percent to 24 percent from 21 percent for last year as a whole, and possibly reach 23 percent to 25 percent in 2018 overall. That remains well off its long-term target of 30 percent to 35 percent.St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman says he will propose changes to the city's investment policy to keep city funds from being invested in gun manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers.

Kriseman announced the proposed divestment at the March For Our Lives gathering in St. Petersburg on Saturday, one of hundreds of such events nationwide sparked by the Feb. 14 shootings at a South Florida high school that left 17 people dead.

The shooting has intensified scrutiny on investments in gun companies. Proposals to divest gun holdings are pending in Massachusetts and Connecticut, according to Pensions & Investments.



More from Tampa Bay Business Journal:

Big Lakeland warehouse deal could drive even more interest in industrial real estate

Q&A with the Florida Bar president on sexism, equality in the legal profession

China steps up effort to avert US trade war

"The city of St. Petersburg directly controls $700 million in investments and some of that money finds its way to gun manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. I've decided no more. Never again. Not one more dollar," Kriseman said.

The investment money Kriseman was referring to does not include pension funds, which are controlled by separate boards, a spokesman said.

One fund over which the city has control is the Weeki Wachee Fund, which includes revenue received from the sale of city property in Weeki Wachee Springs. That fund currently holds investments in a pawn and gun brokerage, the spokesman said. If the amended investment policy is approved by the City Council, those funds no longer would be invested in that brokerage.

It was not immediately known how much money the city has invested in companies that make or sell guns.

Kriseman said he would like to establish policies that eliminate high-capacity magazines and armor-piercing bullets, and ban assault style weapons and bump stocks, but state law prohibits local governments in Florida from passing gun regulations. Elected officials who attempt to pass such laws can be removed from office, fined and sued, Kriseman said.

"We may not be able to get common-sense gun laws passed, but we can at least hit them where it hurts, in their pockets," Kriseman said.

The Florida Retirement System Pension Plan held stock in four companies that manufacture guns or bullets as of Dec. 31. The Florida Education Association, a statewide federation of teacher and education workers' labor unions, has called on the retirement system to divest its holdings in the weapons companies. The retirement system, which is overseen by the Florida State Board of Administration, said it is acting in the best financial interest of the state retirees whose pensions rely on returns on its investments.Global markets sold off last week after investors became concerned that the tit-for-tat rhetoric from Beijing and Washington may lead to an all-out trade war between the world's two economic powerhouses.

On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed in correction, down 11.6 percent from its 52-week high. The sell-off continued into Asia on Monday morning when most major index declined.

Analysts said that risk aversion in the market will likely stay until things start to calm down between the U.S. and China.

On Saturday, some of the world's top economists and business leaders at the China Development Forum in Beijing warned about the risks of a trade war between the two economic powerhouses.

So for this week's Trader Poll, we're asking you: How are you viewing the stock market this Easter?As part of the new $1.3 trillion federal spending bill, Congress authorized a $350 million "fix" to fund a popular student loan forgiveness plan that many financial experts say is failing. If you thought or were told you didn't qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program because you were not enrolled in a qualifying repayment plan  typically an income-driven plan  the Department of Education might still let you erase your loans. Congress has allocated the DOE $350 million to offer forgiveness to student loan borrowers who meet all requirements for PSLF except that they were enrolled in graduated or extended repayment plans, which are ineligible for relief.

Many student loan borrowers thought they were paying their way toward student loan forgiveness, only to learn they are not eligible for one technical reason or another. Emily Rose Bennett | The New York Times

To qualify, you'll still need to have a loan from the Direct program, have had made all of your payments in full and on time, and have worked 10 years in a public service job with a qualifying employer. Additionally, the forgiveness plan will be given out on a "first-come, first-served" basis, until the money runs out. Considering that there are potentially many newly-eligible debtors, this "first-come, first-served" fund may not last long at all. That means you'll want to get your application in as soon as possible, said Mark Kantrowitz, a student loan expert. "You don't want to be playing a game of musical chairs and be the one left out," he said. You can start applying in around 60 days.

The PSLF, established by President George W. Bush in 2007, allows student loan borrowers who pursue government or non-profit public service jobs to wipe out their remaining debt after 10 years of on-time payments. In 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimated that one in four American workers could be eligible for forgiveness. But last year, the agency reported that a range of student loan industry practices "delay, defer or deny access" to that consumer protection.Elon Musk is fairly active on social media. The billionaire tech titan tweets often and posts on Instagram fairly regularly too.

But there's one social media platform of which he is not a fan: Facebook.

Friday, Musk deleted his company Facebook pages for both SpaceX and Tesla.

Then, on Saturday, in response to a story from enthusiast site Tesla Motor Club reporting the news, Musk said deleting the pages was not an effort to make a public comment about Facebook, nor was it any response to a dare.

Instead, he says he deleted the pages for Tesla because he does not like the social media behemoth. "Gives me the willies," he tweeted.

It's not a political statement and I didn't do this because someone dared me to do it. Just don't like Facebook. Gives me the willies. Sorry.

Though both Tesla and SpaceX had public company pages on Facebook before Friday, neither company paid for advertisement on the platform, Musk says.

We've never advertised with FB. None of my companies buy advertising or pay famous people to fake endorse. Product lives or dies on its own merits.

Further, Musk expressed distrust of the way Facebook handles consumer data.

In response to a story published by technology website Ars Technica Saturday claiming Facebook scraped call and text message data from some Android phones, Musk tweeted a single word: "Shocker."

Shocker

The story from Ars Technica reported that the social media behemoth "surreptitiously" sometimes stores names, phone numbers and the length of calls made or received by "exploiting the way an older Android API handled permissions." Ars Technica said Android users may have "inadvertently" given permission for Facebook access to call and message logs in older versions of Facebook's mobile app.

New Zealand man Dylan McKay, who tweeted about finding his call history with his "partner's mum" when he downloaded an archive of what Facebook knew about him, was included in the Ars Technica story.

Downloaded my facebook data as a ZIP file

In response to reports that Facebook sometimes stores call and text metadata, the social media behemoth posted a "Fact Check" blog post Sunday.

Facebook says it only saves and stores call and text metadata if given permission. The feature is "opt-in," Facebook says.

"This feature does not collect the content of your calls or text messages. Your information is securely stored and we do not sell this information to third parties. You are always in control of the information you share with Facebook," the blog post from Facebook says.

Musk's remarks about Facebook come at a time when CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg are already playing defense against a tidal wave of criticism in the wake of the Cambridge Analytics data scandal.

Monday, the social media behemoth's stock price plunged after the Federal Trade Commission announced it is investigating the company's data practices.

See also:Today, Tesla officially announced the Tesla START program, a 12-week training program aimed at providing students with the technical skills they need to join the ranks of the electric car manufacturer. Students chosen for the program earn a wage from Tesla while attending classes (the company wouldn't comment on how much), and those who earn grades of 80 percent or higher are guaranteed a job at a Tesla service center after graduation. "We're working with some of the best automotive education programs in the country to educate students on electric vehicle technology and our unique approach to customer service to prepare them for a career at Tesla," a company spokesperson told CNBC Make It. "Students graduate with a full-time job, certification and the skills necessary to succeed in the growing electric vehicle industry."

Two Tesla START students. Courtesy of TeslaHere's something that can destroy your savings in a relatively short period of time: a lawsuit.

Investors will take great pains to protect themselves from market volatility or to save a few dollars in taxes, but shielding their wealth from legal judgments is often an afterthought.

"Clients don't think about it at all or they think about the risk being so small," said Michael McGrath, vice president with EP Wealth Advisors in Valencia, California.

"When your net worth goes up, that's when the conversation has to happen," he said. "Your auto policy might have $300,000 in liability coverage if you're in a horrible crash.

"If you get sued, that's a problem."

A survey from Chubb found that 10 percent of respondents were forced to cough up at least $100,000 in legal judgments. Only 1 in 10 of those polled had excess liability coverage.

The property-casualty insurer polled 200 individuals and families with at least $1 million in investable assets.

Here's how to protect your assets from being taken to the cleaners.President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, senior U.S. administration officials said.

The shutdown of the consulate in Seattle is due to its proximity to a U.S. submarine base as well as defense giant Boeing's operations there.

"The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world," said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The order includes 12 intelligence officers from Russia's mission to the United Nations who were using their roles as "covers" to conduct covert operations, U.S. officials said. The 60 Russian nationals were given seven days to leave the United States. In a tit for tat move, Moscow is likely to expel a similar number of staff from U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed Trump's order:

Today President Donald J. Trump ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian intelligence officers from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing. The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world. Today's actions make the United States safer by reducing Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten America's national security. With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences. The United States stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian government's behavior.

The announcement comes on the heels of a nerve agent attack earlier this month on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent who worked for the U.K.'s secret service, and his daughter, Yulia.

"This was a reckless attempt by the [Russian] government to murder a British citizen and his daughter on British soil with a military-grade nerve agent. It cannot go unanswered," a senior administration official said.

"To the Russian government we say, when you attack our friends, you will face serious consequences," the official added.

Moscow has denied any involvement and says Britain is orchestrating an anti-Russia campaign.

On Monday, a total of 14 EU member states said they would expel Russian diplomats, according to European Council President Donald Tusk, including Germany, France and Poland. Ukraine also expelled 13 Russian diplomats, announcing the move in conjunction with EU nations.Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and US President Donald Trump talking during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg.

President Donald Trump is considering the expulsion of some Russian diplomats in the United States in solidarity with Britain over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday.

The move may be contingent on how European capitals respond to the nerve agent attack, the source said.

An announcement of the U.S. decision could be made as early as Monday, the source said.

European Union member states agreed on Friday to take additional punitive measures against Russia for the nerve-agent attack on the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who have been critical in hospital since they were found unconscious on March 4 on a bench in the city of Salisbury.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said the United States is considering how to respond but would not provide details.

"The United States stands firmly with the United Kingdom in condemning Russia's outrageous action. The President is always considering options to hold Russia accountable in response to its malign activities. We have no announcements at this time," he said.

Moscow has denied responsibility for the attack and has retaliated against Britain's move to expel 23 Russians by ordering out the same number of Britons.

The United States joined with Britain in blaming Russia for the attack.

Trump has sought to improve ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and last week in a phone call with Putin congratulated him his disputed re-election victory.U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin talks to reporters in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House May 31, 2017 in Washington, DC.

A White House spokesman says the president still has confidence in embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin.

Three administration officials told The Associated Press Sunday that Trump is planning to oust the embattled secretary amid an extraordinary rebellion at the agency and damaging government investigations into his alleged spending abuses. The three officials demanded anonymity to discuss a sensitive personnel matter.

But Hogan Gidley is dismissing reports of Shulkin's imminent dismissal. He's telling Fox News Channel, "we hear these types of rumors every day."

Gidley says, "At this point in time, though, he does have confidence in Dr. Shulkin."

But he says the president "wants to put the right people in the right place at the right time, and that could change."Country will adopt a balanced foreign policy: PM

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that Nepal's foreign policy based on a policy of friendship will remain balanced.Top Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro on Monday indicated hope for success in U.S. efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"It looks like we might get a really good deal on NAFTA," Navarro told CNBC's "Squawk Alley."

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump excluded Canada and Mexico from import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum until May 1.

After that, the White House plans to reassess those exemptions, applying pressure in hopes of a quick resolution of talks to update the 24-year-old trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.

On the Trump administration's separate move last week to levy tariffs of up to $60 billion against China for allegedly stealing American technology intellectual property, Navarro said the move was warranted.

"China has engaged for a very long time in the theft of our intellectual property as well as practices like forced technology transfer," said Navarro, author of several books anti-China books including "Death by China."

However, he said, "We're hopeful there that the Chinese will work with us to basically address some of these practices."Twitter announced Monday it will ban advertising for cryptocurrencies, joining advertising giants Google and Facebook in a wider crackdown that aims to protect investors from fraud.

"We are committed to ensuring the safety of the Twitter community. As such, we have added a new policy for Twitter Ads relating to cryptocurrency," a Twitter spokesperson told CNBC Monday. "Under this new policy, the advertisement of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and token sales will be prohibited globally."

Possibilities of a ban were reported last week. Bitcoin prices fell near the $7,000 level following that news, then recovered $700 in less than three hours the same day.

Twitter's announcement Monday echoes other tech giants' policy changes.

Google, the world's largest online ad provider, announced an update to its financial services policy earlier in March that will restrict advertising for "cryptocurrencies and related content" starting in June.Walmart's Jet.com has named Tesco veteran Simon Belsham as president of the e-commerce company, effective immediately, the company said Monday.



Belsham will be responsible for expanding the company's online grocery business, Walmart e-commerce CEO Marc Lore said in a memo to employees.

Belsham spent seven years at Tesco, one of Britain's top grocery retailers, and worked at U.K.-based Ocado, helping the online supermarket company expand its nonfood business.

He succeeds Liza Landsman, who announced plans recently to leave Jet.com and join a venture capital firm.

"There are so many ways technology can change retail and be a force for good in our lives," Belsham said in a statement about his new position. "In my view, there is no business better positioned to take advantage of the opportunity ahead than the combination of Walmart and Jet."

Belsham joins Jet.com at a time when Walmart is ramping up its online grocery business in the face of competition from Amazon-owned Whole Foods, Kroger and Target.

In its most recent quarter, Walmart's e-commerce growth cooled significantly, disappointing investors and analysts about Jet.com's performance. Walmart acquired the company in 2016.

Lore has said Jet.com aims to target consumers in urban markets who might not frequent Walmart stores. Late last year it launched its own private-label brand, Uniquely J, in a bid to win more of those shoppers' dollars and boost profit margins.

"With Jet Grocery being an integral part of the strategy, Simon brings incredible experience in scaling grocery delivery and his unique background in converging technology and retail to create amazing experiences for customers," Lore said in the memo.

Current Jet.com execs Andrew Gasper, David Echegoyen and Jack Hanlon will report to Belsham, Lore said.[The stream is slated to start at 2 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]

White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah is scheduled to brief reporters on Monday, a day after "60 Minutes" aired an interview with adult-film actress and director Stormy Daniels in which she described her alleged relationship with Donald Trump.

It also follows a move to kick out dozens of Russian officers from the U.S.

The Trump administration joined more than a dozen European nations' actions against Russia on Monday morning by expelling 60 diplomats and closing the Russian consulate in Seattle. The U.S. and Britain blamed Russia for the attempted assassination of a former spy, who was poisoned with a rare nerve agent in March.

The retaliation against Russia followed President Donald Trump's statements on Twitter last week, when he argued, "Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing."

Trump tweet 1

Trump tweet 2

After imposing new tariffs on imports of Chinese goods last week, China promptly responded with trade restrictions of its own. The reciprocal trade barriers exacerbated the growing fears of a global trade war, particularly between China and the U.S.

On Monday, however, representatives from both countries expressed a desire to repair the strained trading relationship and avoid more punitive tariffs.

The press briefing will also be the first since Trump announced former UN ambassador John Bolton as a replacement for outgoing national security advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. Bolton, whose hawkish military views are well documented, will officially join the administration April 9.Still, Trump seems to think he has a good case to pull the US out of the Iran deal on May 12 . It would surely rattle relations with Tehran  and have the unintentional side effect of making it harder to broker peace with Pyongyang.

Trump says Iran is violating the "spirit" of the deal because it continues to test missiles. That potentially goes against a United Nations Security Council resolution  which is separate from the Iran agreement  that says Iran can't test missiles that could carry nuclear weapons. But experts have told me testing missiles is different from the limited scope of the nuclear deal, which just focused on limiting Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Still, the Iran deal sounded good to most lawmakers and officials in the Obama era, considering Tehran agreed to it just two or three months before acquiring a nuclear bomb.

The Obama administration finalized the Iran deal, despite staunch congressional opposition . It's also worth noting that Congress's role in certifying any deal with North Korea could scare off Pyongyang, as Kim can't trust whatever agreement he strikes with Trump will survive the Hill.

But first, here's what the Iran nuclear deal actually is: A group of countries  the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, Germany, and the European Union  agreed in 2015 to lift sanctions imposed on Tehran's nuclear program, giving it greater access to the global economy.

It's worth briefly stepping back to remember why Trump is angry at Iran in the first place.

Kim is very likely to pay close attention to Trump's Iran deal decision in May. "The North Koreans are going to watch intensely," Troy Stangarone, an expert at the Korea Economic Institute, told me.

And if Trump decides to pull out of the accord, "it would have an impact on any potential deal with North Korea," according to Rose, who is now at the Brookings Institution think tank. But it's unclear how much of an impact, since "the prospects of the North Koreans giving up their nuclear weapons are very, very slim," Rose said.

So if Pyongyang won't disarm, what will Trump and Kim discuss?

DiMaggio, who leads unofficial dialogues with North Koreans, told me Pyongyang is "ready to turn their attention to economic development. This is a proposition we should be testing with the North Koreans to see if they're really serious about it."

In practice, that means Trump could offer aid to North Korea, like helping to build up the country's energy infrastructure or investment in its lagging private sector, experts told me.

The US and North Korea have discussed this before. In September 2005, North Korea formally agreed to abandon "all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs" in exchange for energy assistance from countries, including the US, in the so-called Six Party Talks. Those talks broke down in 2009, and the difference now is North Korea's weapons are much more powerful today  which means Kim has even less incentive to give them up.

Still, in exchange for financial help, experts told me Trump could ask North Korea to keep its weapons but allow international inspectors to ensure they're not improving their programs in any way. That could be a potential win-win for Kim: He gets more money, and he gets to keep his threatening program as menacing as it is now.

But it's also likely Kim will test Trump's willingness to remove US troops from South Korea. After all, Trump has repeatedly claimed he'll bring service members home unless Seoul somehow flows more money into America. "We have a very big trade deficit with [South Korea], and we protect them," he told a crowd in Missouri last week. "We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers on the border between North and South Korea. Let's see what happens."

Stangarone told me that Kim would be foolish if he didn't ask for US troop removal, and "we'd be foolish if we accepted." Here's why: One of North Korea's top goals is to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington. Should the US bring troops back stateside, it would be harder for the US to defend South Korea against North Korean military threats. That would put a massive strain on the alliance.

The problem is it's unclear what Trump will and will not do at the possible summit. Throughout his presidency, he has shown again and again how little he cares about the details of international relations. Remember: This is the same guy who firmly believed Mexico would pay for a border wall. Also, Chinese President Xi Jinping convinced Trump that Beijing doesn't have total influence over Pyongyang after only 10 minutes of conversation.

Newell Highsmith, who has negotiated nuclear deals with Iran and North Korea over multiple administrations, told me that nuclear discussions are among the most complex conversations between countries. And since Trump and Kim may meet before lower-level staff can lay any serious groundwork, Highsmith says Trump and Kim could discuss multiple topics, though leaders usually meet each other to finalize a few items.

That means Trump will likely be underprepared and overwhelmed in talks with Kim. Experts told me Kim may have other motives for the meeting instead of a nuclear talk: obtaining prestige by sitting down with a US president, or even simply trying to get a better feel for who Trump is. North Korea doesn't have to trust Trump to chat with him.

"North Korea has been able to bring the US to the negotiating table," Rose told me. "There's a political-military strategy behind what North Korea is doing."

As of now, it's unclear whether Trump has a similar plan.Distribution of land compensation starts

The government has started distributing compensation for land that is being acquired to widen the 1.1-km road connecting the integrated check post (ICP) and Sirsiya Dry Port in Birgunj.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IBM is jumping into the digital assistant market with its own voice-activated Watson Assistant, an artificial intelligence-based system that takes a different approach than other players in the market by targeting businesses. Unlike Alexa, Google Assistant, Cortana and Siri, Watson Assistant, which was announced last week, is a white-labeled service that  from the user perspective  runs in the background on the IBM Cloud.

There is no Watson Assistant wake-word, such as OK, Google Hey Siri, or Alexa. Nor are there plans for a Watson-branded device to be sold in stores.

Thats because IBM is selling Watson Assistant directly to businesses rather than consumers, said Bret Greenstein, IBM vice president of Watson IoT. We are coming at this from a market point of view that is more friendly to enterprise clients, he said.

The thinking is that IBM Watson can provide the A.I. assistant technology on top of which a company can put its own brand voice, customizing its features for specific uses and deploying it in a variety of connected devices.

From a consumer perspective, conversations will be with a business  be it a retailer, car company or any other type of organization  rather than Watson.

First and foremost, we tailor to the clients brand, so even though everything will be powered by Watson, you wont be talking to Watson, you will be talking to your BMW or whichever companies embed this  you will be talking to them, Greenstein said.

How does Watson Assistant work?

IBM already sells conversational A.I. products as part of the Watson portfolio; Watson Assistant combines some of the companys existing technologies. This includes Watson Conversation, a framework for building chatbots and applications that require natural language processing thats being rebranded as Watson Assistant, and Watson Virtual Agent, which will be retired.

IBM, in its announcement, offered a rundown for developers of the new features within Watson Assistant. (Early access to the service is now available via IBMs beta program.)

In addition to providing a framework that allows developers to create their own Watson Assistant skills, IBM has already built three vertical-specific skills  for industrial, automotive and hospitality uses  businesses can apply branding to.

A cognitive profile can then be built around a user and used to make proactive recommendations based on past behavior and preferences, said Greenstein. For example, a Watson-based car assistant might suggest a coffee break after three hours of driving and then suggest a nearby cafe.

Raul Castanon-Martinez, a senior analyst at 451 Research, said that targeting industry verticals allows IBM to communicate the benefits of the Watson Assistant to customers more effectively.

A key challenge for IBM is market education; helping organizations understand the use cases in which A.I. assistants can be relevant for cost reduction, customer service improvement, workflow automation, etc., he said.

[IBMs] approach, which focuses on narrowly-defined verticals and use cases, is a smart move that can help them address this challenge.

Brandon Purcell, a senior analyst at Forrester, said that for automotive firms Watson Assistant makes perfect sense  auto makers like BMW are definitely looking to empower drivers with voice assistants and do not want to be held captive by Amazon or Apple.

Hospitality, however, will be a tougher sell, he said, as many large hotels have already begun equipping rooms with Apple and Amazon devices.

Watson Assistant in use

Other potential customers for Watson Assistant include connected device manufacturer Harman, a subsidiary of Samsung that has created a digital cockpit system fitted into a Maserati GranCabrio, and Royal Bank of Scotland, which will use the A.I. assistant in contact center calls.

IBM A driver interacts with Watson Assistant in a digital cockpit from automotive electronics firm HARMAN.

Greenstein also pointed to a deployment at Munich Airport, where Watson Assistant is embedded into a Softbank Pepper robot that answers questions and provides guidance for travelers, such as where gates are located and why a flight might be delayed.

They are not speaking to Watson, they are talking to Munich Airport and they are getting help as they travel, he said. That makes Watson very different from the consumer assistants who insist on their own brand.

However, there could be drawbacks to IBMs approach. Services are generally harder to sell than products, said Jon Arnold, of J Arnold & Associates, so without a physical endpoint, IBM doesn't really have a strong play directly with end customers.

He said adoption of Watson Assistant will largely depend on how willing and/or able businesses or enterprises are in rolling this out. With offerings like Echo, the value proposition is intuitive  it's your' Echo, and you use it as you see fit, and if you're a fan of the Amazon brand, you'll probably want to use it right away. IBM doesn't have that kind of end user affinity, so driving adoption is really in the hands of the economic buyers.

Data privacy is a focus

Another way IBM hopes to differentiate Watson from other A.I. assistants is by emphasizing data privacy.

Greenstein said Watson Assistant offer greater control over how customer data is used. IBMs business model is that clients own their own data, he said. It is our objective to help our clients get value from that data to learn more about their users, but it is entirely their data, so we dont monetize or own that data. Data privacy is essential.

In practice, this means Watson Assistant users can choose whether or not their data is used to train Watsons machine learning models, the principle being that the more data fed into Watson, the smarter it becomes. IBM claims to be the only provider that allows this choice. So when you train your model, you can own and protect the insights you have generated, the company said online.

While data privacy is a key issue for businesses and consumers, restricted access to data has its downsides, too.

Data will determine who wins and loses in the virtual assistant race, said Purcell. Alexa and Siri already have enormous user bases, meaning they are continually getting better at understanding the spoken word. IBM does not have the same magnitude of training data to hone its speech recognition skills.

He argued that the privacy selling point could also be a significant drawback, in that it will impede Watson Assistant from learning at the rate of its competitors.

There are also questions as to what degree IBMs focus on data privacy will slow Watson Assistants uptake. Arnold said that security seems to be a real strong suit for IBM, but that may not yet be a big selling point or adoption driver.

It certainly will be for enterprises and businesses in order to protect their data, but probably not as much for end users, Arnold said, though he noted that attitudes may be shifting, particularly in the wake of the recent privacy controversy involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.

Multiple voice assistants can co-exist

With Watson Assistant, IBM is joining a raft of more established smart assistant platforms. Greenstein said that various consumer A.I. assistants already on the market, and individual companies creating their own branded tools, we are going to have many assistants in our lives.

So while Alexa, Siri and others may have greater awareness among the public, Watson Assistant will have a place too, albeit less visibly.

Greenstein said that a car owner may still want to talk to a consumer-facing [voice assistant] in their car, but the full car experience and the car ownership and relationship should be with the brands that are selling the car to you.

He added that while some people may doubt there is room for multiple A.I. assistants, I also think we couldnt afford to have just one.

IBM Leveraging A.I. and the Internet of Things, Watson Assistant can set hotel room temperature, offer dining recommendations, turn on lights and close blinds.

Castanon-Martinez said that the market for AI assistants is still emerging and there are not that many assistants currently available. While the number is likely to grow, in many cases, they will be embedded within the user interface, and will not have a distinctive personality like Siri, Alexa or Cortana.

There still remains the question of interoperability between the various assistants. Greenstein said that will depend on consumer demand.

I believe they will [integrate], he said. There is still a lot to do, because most of those companies dont really want to open up in that way. But from a consumer point of view, they are going to expect this in the same way that we have mobile apps from multiple companies on our phones. Some of those companies compete with each other, but the apps are available because the consumers demand.When Microsoft released its gang of patches last Thursday, one patch was remarkably absent: We didnt get a preview of next months Windows 7 Monthly Rollup. Windows 8.1, Server 2012 and Server 2012R2 all got previews, but not Win7 (or Server 2008R2).

I hypothesized at the time that Microsoft didnt release a new Win7 April Monthly Rollup preview because they were still trying to fix the bugs they introduced in this months Monthly Rollup for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2, KB 4088875, and the download-and-manually-install Security-only patch for March, KB 4088878.

Microsoft now acknowledges all of these bugs in Marchs Win7 Patch Tuesday release:

After you install this update, SMB servers may leak memory.

A Stop error occurs if this update is applied to a 32-Bit (x86) machine with the Physical Address Extension (PAE) mode disabled.

A Stop error occurs on computers that don't support Streaming Single Instructions Multiple Data (SIMD) Extensions 2 (SSE2).

A new Ethernet virtual Network Interface Card (vNIC) that has default settings may replace the previously existing vNIC, causing network issues after you apply this update. Any custom settings on the previous vNIC persist in the registry but are unused.

IP address settings are lost after you apply this update.

All of those bugs were new in the March Monthly Rollup, except the memory leak, which first appeared in January. Were getting nowhere fast.

As usual, the Preview Monthly Rollup contains only non-security patches that are expected to be re-released in next months Monthly Rollup. (Of course, I never recommend that you install Previews.)

With the new, delayed preview of Aprils Win7 Monthly Rollup, you might expect that at least some of those bugs would be fixed. Not so. Theyre all still around, per the official write-up.

Microsoft is working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

Sooner or later.

A patch for IE bug

In addition to the Friday night Monthly Rollup preview that doesnt fix the major bugs, Microsoft rolled out a patch for a bug introduced in IE by its Patch Tuesday patch. Another patch of a botched patch. The article for the original Patch Tuesday patch, KB 4089187, has been modified to state:

After you install this update, security settings in some organizations that are running Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 may prevent Internet Explorer 11 from starting because of an invalid SHA1 certificate. To resolve this issue, use one of the following methods: Whitelist the SHA1 certificate to allow Internet Explorer 11 to start. Install Cumulative update for Internet Explorer: March 23, 2018.

If youre a bit rusty on manually whitelisting an SHA1 certificate, you can run the patch released on Friday night, KB 4089187. Note that this is only for IE 11 running on Windows 7 (and Server 2008R2).

I think of it as Mother Microsofts way of telling you that you really shouldnt be using IE. Excuse my snark.

Poster Cavalary on AskWoody notes:

[It] seems like there are no new fixes in 4096040 (the Friday night patch), and Id say that if you can start IE with 4089187 (the Patch Tuesday patch) or dont use it and dont care whether you can start it, youre fine without installing 4096040.

Gunter Born on Borns Tech and Windows World says:

The following CVEs have undergone a major revision increment (with KB 4096040): * CVE-2018-0889 * CVE-2018-0932 * CVE-2018-0891 * CVE-2018-0935 * CVE-2018-0927 * CVE-2018-0942 * CVE-2018-0929

Of course, youve been following along here and know that were still at MS-DEFCON 2, which means you didnt install the original buggy patches, anyway. Right?

By the by  for those of you who are manually installing the cumulative updates for Windows 10 1709, 1703, or 1607, theres now an explicit warning in the associated KB articles:

Important When installing both the SSU (KB4088825) and the LCU updates from the Microsoft Update Catalog, install the SSU before installing the LCU.

Which is an obtuse way of saying that if youre going to install the Cumulative Update manually, you better get the Servicing Stack Update installed first.

MrBrian speculates that the root problem addressed in the Servicing Stack Update is the race condition on installation that Susan Bradley talked about last week.

The Servicing Stack updates for 1703 and 1607 were part of last Thursdays blast. The Servicing Stack update for 1709, KB 4090914, was released on March 5, and the KB article was updated on March 23  but I dont see any record of the patch itself being re-issued.

It seems that your Patch scorecard now needs its own scorecard.

Thx, @MrBrian, @Cavalary

Join us for patch noodling  Tuesday, Thursday, Friday or otherwise  on the AskWoody Lounge.Jewish groups protest against hostile Corbyn

The Labour leader belatedly apologises for pockets of racism in his Party  FT

Corbyns regret does not go far enough  Matthew dAncona, The Guardian

Antisemitism complaint lodged against him  The Sun

Why can he not see this hatred even when it is right in front of him?  Karen Pollock, The Times

Labour plans to use aid budget to promote socialism globally  Daily Mail

Racist slur targeted at anti-extremism tsar by member of Corbyn-linked Muslim group  The Times

Watson: Mosley is my friend and I wont give back his money  Daily Mail

The Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, two of the most senior Jewish groups in Britain, will on Monday take the unprecedented step of holding a protest against Mr Corbyn in Parliament Square. They will tell Mr Corbyn that enough is enough and hand him a letter in which they accuse him of siding with anti-Semites time and time againThe Jewish Leadership Council said it was the first demonstration by Jewish leaders against the leader of a mainstream political party since at least the Second World War. Their letter says that Mr Corbyn issues empty statements about opposing anti-Semitism, but does nothing to understand or address it. We conclude that he cannot seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-Left world-view that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communitiesIn a meeting on Monday evening, Labour MPs will confront the Labour leadership about Mr Corbyns handling of anti-Semitism. Mr Corbyn had been expected to attend but Labour MPs were left furious on Sunday when it emerged that he would not be going.  Daily Telegraph

>Today: MPsETC: The Board of Deputies of British Jews letter that calls out Corbyn over anti-semitism. Full text.

>Yesterday: WATCH: Watson  Jeremy says he didnt see the mural

If we dont get a deal, we wont pay up, Davis tells Marr

Britain could refuse to pay the 40billion Brexit divorce bill if the UK does not get a trade deal, David Davis today said. The Brexit Secretary hailed the good progress which has been made in negotiations with Brussels. But he said that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and the UK could take its financial offer off the table if a free trade deal is not thrashed out. The Cabinet minister was suffering from a bad bout of food poisoning  and kept a sick bucket by his side during the interview. Asked directly on the BBCs Andrew Marr show if the UK could take back the money offer, Mr Davis said Britain could if we dont get the free trade deal.  Daily Mail

120 million investment fund for the North East  FT

Starmer joins passport protectionism panic  Daily Mail

Stick to open, global competition  The Sun Says

Row over Galileo project  Daily Express

Opinion

>Today: Andrew Green on Comment: The Government has lost its way on immigration  and the Home Secretary shows no interest in reducing it

>Yesterday:

Gove and Johnson reject Vote Leave allegations

Boris Johnson and Michael Gove defended the official Brexit campaign they led, insisting that the decision to leave the EU had been won fair and square. Mr Johnson described claims by Mr Sanni, a former campaign volunteer, as utterly ludicrous. Vote Leave won fair and square  and legally, Mr Johnson said. Mr Gove said that the decision to leave the EU had come after a free and fair vote. I respect the motives and understand the feelings of those who voted to remain in the EU, the environment secretary said. But 17.4 million opted to leave in a free and fair vote and the result must be respected. Its our job now to work to overcome division. Other cabinet ministers were more circumspect, saying that it would be up to the Electoral Commission whether the rules had been broken. It is investigating.  The Times

Editorials

The deck was stacked for Remain, not Leave  The Sun Says

These absurd claims are a distraction from the job at hand  Daily Telegraph Leader

>Yesterday:

98 MPs back an inquiry into long-term funding for the NHS

Theresa May is under pressure to launch an inquiry into the NHS and social care crisis. Almost 100 MPs have written to the Prime Minister urging her to set up a Parliamentary Commission on the long-term funding. This would establish whether to raise taxes and, specifically, if there should be a ring-fenced levy for health and social care. Yesterday Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt said tax increases were the only way to provide extra cash for such services.  Daily Mail

>Today: ToryDiary: We cannot tax our way to prosperity  or better public services

>Yesterday: WATCH: Hunt backs 10-year NHS budgets  It takes seven years to train a doctor, you needto plan for that

Grayling pledges 100 million to fill potholes

The cost of Scottish potholes is revealed  The Scotsman

Congestion charge increased Londons pollution levels  The Times

Gove keeps lights on during Earth Hour  The Sun

The Countryside Alliance offers to help the Labour Party  The Times

Equality watchdog threatens firms with court if they miss deadline to declare gender pay gap

Councils have called for more cash to sort out the roads as the Government announced an extra 100million will be spent on filling in potholes. Following the damage caused by Storm Emma, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling announced the cash would help repair almost two million potholes and protect roads from further bad weather. He said: People rely on good roads to get to work and to see friends or family. We have seen an unusually prolonged spell of freezing weather which has caused damage to our local roadsAlthough the extra cash was welcomed, one motoring campaigner described it as raindrop in the ocean. And councils said the extra funding amounted to just over 1 per cent of the 9.3 billion they needed to sort out a 14-year backlog of potholes.  Daily Mail

The head of Britains equality watchdog has warned companies that they could be pursued through the courts if they fail to report their gender pay gap. Issuing a stark warning to the 5,000 companies that have yet to provide data on the difference between the amount they pay male and female employees, Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said those that failed to make the deadline on 4 April cant row back and would be named and shamed. For the first time this year, all companies and public bodies with more than 250 employees are legally obliged to publish their gender pay gap, their bonus pay gap and to reveal the proportion of men and women in each quartile of their business. Let me be very very clear: failing to report is breaking the law, Hilsenrath said. We have the powers to enforce against companies who are in breach of these regulations. We take this enormously seriously. We have been very clear that we will be coming after 100% of companies that do not comply. Around 3,700 companies have revealed their gender pay gap on the Government Equalities website, but with only 10 days before the cut-off around 5,300 are yet to do so.  The Guardian

Staff are horrified to learn what managers earn  change now to save capitalism  Patrick Jenkins, FT

Pierce: Might female MPs bring down the Speaker?

Poulter cleared of false and scurrilous harassment claims  Daily Mail

Protests in Cataliona after Puigdemont arrested under European Warrant in Germany

The threat this time is not from Tory MPs, many of whom were appalled by his decision to break his pledge to quit and have long been trying to oust him amid claims of his political correctness and bias, particularly against Brexit. In the bitterest of ironies for Mr Bercow  who secured his elevation to Speaker by promising to improve working conditions for female MPs  it is now coming from the Labour sisterhood. Despite introducing a Commons creche and more family-friendly hours, Mr Bercows popularity has plunged among the 119 Labour and 67 Tory women MPs since allegations emerged earlier this month on Newsnight, the flagship BBC2 current affairs programme, that he bullied a senior Commons clerk, Kate Emms. The bullying, which Bercow emphatically denies, was allegedly so sustained and intense that Ms Emms, who started to work for him in May 2010, survived for less than a year before quitting. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and now works as a Parliamentary adviser to the Leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom.  Andrew Pierce, Daily Mail

The former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is to appear in court following his arrest in Germany, which triggered a wave of protests in Catalonia where thousands of separatists confronted police. Puigdemont, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Brussels since October, was travelling in a car on the way from Finland to Belgium on Sunday when he was detained, having visited Finnish lawmakers in Helsinki. German police arrested him after he crossed the border from Denmark, under a European arrest warrant reactivated on Friday by Spain, where he is wanted on charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds. Puigdemont will be brought before a German judge on Monday to confirm his identity. The court will then decide if he is to remain in custody pending extradition proceedings. The news sparked protests in Catalonia that turned violent, with three arrests and at least 52 people injured in Barcelona.  The Guardian

Madrid has completely the wrong approach  The Times Leader

Daniels claims her daughter was threatened over affair with Trump

Williamson visits British troops in Estonia  Daily Mail

GCHQ and the NSA co-operate against cyber threat  Daily Mail

New museums present a positive spin on the gulag  Daily Mail

Deadly fire in Siberian shopping mall  The Guardian

News in Brief

Plaid want a national airline for Wales  WalesOnline

British newspaper editor jailed for killing wife in Dubai  HuffingtonPost

What is driving the revolt in Italy?  Unherd

1975s guide to EU referendum success  Andrew Marr, New Statesman

Swinson wants a Sturgeon statue  PoliticsHome

A porn star who claims to have had an affair with Donald Trump agreed not to disclose the story after she was frightened into silence following threats to herself and her family, she said in an interview aired last night. Stormy Daniels told the 60 Minutes news programme that she was first warned when a man approached her and threatened her infant daughter in 2011, five years after the alleged affair. A guy walked up on me and said to me, Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,  Ms Daniels claimed. And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, Thats a beautiful little girl. Itd be a shame if something happened to her mom. And then he was gone. She did not go to the police because she was too afraid, she said.  The TimesParliament Square can have seen few stranger outpourings of emotion than the demonstration on Monday evening where many hundreds of Jewish members of the Labour Party told Jeremy Corbyn enough is enough, and called on him to take decisive action against anti-semitism.

For Corbyn to have angered and distressed so many loyal, decent, well-behaved members of his own party looked like a disaster for him.

They expressed the mourning and sense of betrayal of people who cannot believe what has happened to the party in which they put their faith. They are patient, but for Corbyn can find no more patience, though even in their anguish they continue to demonstrate their faith in the power of peaceful protest and argument.

The sun was sinking behind the Supreme Court at the end of a perfect afternoon, and many from beyond Labours ranks had come to show solidarity.

Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, was there, and told ConHome: I feel very sad about it. Its very sad that in 2018 the Jewish community must come to Parliament Square to protest against anti-semitism in a major political party.

Jonathan Arkush, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told the crowd that the last two years have felt like a daily assault on our Jewish community.

He welcomed the many Labour MPs who had come to support the demonstration, including Wes Streeting, Luciana Berger, Louise Ellman, John Mann, Chuka Umunna, Joan Ryan, Ian Austin, Ruth Smeeth, Mike Gapes, Stella Creasy, Chris Leslie, Margaret Hodge and Liz Kendall.

Arkush said: Time and time again Jeremy Corbyn and those close to him have failed to back meaningful action against anti-semitism.

Two years on, after a limp inquiry lacking any credibility, Ken Livingstone had not been expelled from the party  an observation which drew cries of Shame!

Enough is enough, Arkush went on. Its not good enough. He had never known such anger in our community against a mainstream political party.

Finally, finally, Jeremy, Arkush pleaded, take some responsibility.

Where is he? a demonstrator shouted. Corbyn was across the road in the House of Commons, about two hundred yards from where the demonstration was taking place.

It seemed a craven evasion of responsibility that he had not found the time to cross the road and assure these devout Labour supporters that he was on their side.

John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw, addressed the crowd, and asked: What on earth is going wrong with our party when this kind of event even has to be considered?

Wes Streeting, MP for Ilford, said anti-semitism was a stain on the conscience of the Labour Party and a gross betrayal of everything the Labour Party has ever stood for.

Red buses drove past, from which tourists, distracted from such masterpieces as the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, took pictures of the curious gathering.

We do not need any more mealy-mouthed statements from the Leader of the Labour Party, Streeting said.

Sid Rutstein was a Liberal Democrat councillor until losing his seat in 2011. I was going to go to the pictures this afternoon, he told ConHome, but instead he was attending the demonstration in order to show support and solidarity.

Im a member of the Board of Deputies  I represent Luton Synagogue. A friend of ours was involved in a film and a book following the Chakrabarti report on anti-semitism in the Labour Party.

It was called Whitewashed, and what it demonstrates is that there was information given to the Chakrabarti inquiry that was not included in the report.

Daniel Finkelstein, a Conservative peer and journalist, said of the event: This is so depressing this is necessary.

Corbyns admission that anti-semitism has happened within pockets within the Labour Party had prompted a home-made banner which read Corbyn is the pocket.

A small pro-Corbyn counter-demonstration, carrying banners bearing such messages as Jews for Jez, had gathered in the corner of the square under Churchills statue.

You should be ashamed of yourselves, someone in the main demonstration shouted, and began a chant of Shame on you.

But the small counter-demonstration faded into insignificance once the main event was under way. What depths of alienation from the Corbyn leadership were here laid bare.

One may ask what the Labour MPs who consider him unfit to be Prime Minister will do next, but must also wonder why Corbyn wants to carry on.Sir Kevan Collins is the Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation

It is such a shame that John Bald chooses to attack the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) because on many levels were doing something he should welcome. When Michael Gove launched the EEF in 2011, he did it to take politics out of the classroom. The then Coalition government wanted to make sure that the education of young people was no longer subject to current ideology or opinion, but was instead underpinned by the best available evidence.

The EEF would give teachers a better idea of what works for their pupils through robust, independent, cumulative evidence-gathering of the highest standard. But what convinced the former education secretary  and all of his successors  to back the endeavour was the promise to evaluate approaches and programmes that aim to improve the academic results of poorer pupils in schools, and then to support their scale up.

Seven years on, the EEF has funded over 160 trials of different teaching and learning strategies. Crucially, they are all evaluated to the highest standard by independent researchers. Among our findings is strong confirmation, for example, of the importance of systematic phonics to early reading, and evidence that catch-up strategies are no substitute for getting teaching right first time round for all pupils. Just this week, the Government announced a major expansion in morning clubs for children, partly as a result of an EEF evaluation showing that school breakfasts can be effective (and indeed cost-effective) in improving childrens attainment.

For too long, classrooms had been largely evidence-free zones, susceptible to fads or fakes, reliant solely on qualitative research with little hard quantitative data measured through rigorous trials available to support school leaders. Fast forward to 2018, and there is a huge appetite for high-quality evidence in the teaching profession  our resources are used by up to two-thirds of all schools (according to the National Audit Office) and over 10,000 schools have signed up to take part in trials of the programmes we fund. Its clear that the vast majority of teachers want to do the best for all their pupils. They actively want to understand what the evidence says and to make good use of it in their everyday classroom practice.

So, let me take head-on Johns concerns about what the EEF reports about setting or streaming pupils, often referred to as ability grouping. The EEF Toolkit  authored by leading academics at Durham University  summarises the best available international evidence. This finds that setting or streaming tends to benefit high-attaining pupils, but it also cautions that this can be to the detriment of lower-attaining learners who are disproportionately drawn from poorer backgrounds.

We know the evidence base is not as strong as we would like it to be and  as the EEF Toolkit reports  that there are certain types of setting or streaming strategies that have been found to be more effective than others. Some studies have shown that reducing the size of the lowest-attaining groups and assigning high-performing teachers to these groups can be effective, as can providing additional, targeted catch up support. We are not only interested in what the evidence says but, importantly, in what schools which currently set or stream pupils can do to mitigate the potential harm for poorer pupils.

Thats the context for the first trial the EEF has funded on best practice in grouping students  which will be evaluated not by the researchers mentioned by John, but by an independent team from the National Foundation for Educational Research.

We have taken a similar approach with teaching assistants, where previous research had suggested they had no positive impact (and could potentially be putting back the learning of the poorest pupils). Yet 5 billion of public money is being spent on teaching assistants by schools each year. We drilled down to find ways to use them effectively and a number of the trials we funded have shown promise in improving pupils attainment, particularly for the disadvantaged. This, it strikes me, is a very real benefit of practical research in schools: finding how to create the maximum impact within existing resources.

We also know how important it is to support high-attaining disadvantaged pupils. Weve called for them to continue receiving pupil premium funding to ensure they have the opportunity to attain the best possible results. Were also supportive of the Governments Future Talent Fund, announced in the Social Mobility Action Plan, to help high-attaining pupils to reach their potential. We want to see more effective strategies to stretch such bright pupils.

The EEFs view is that the decisions schools make should be based on robust evidence and good value for money alongside teachers own professional judgement and knowledge of their schools context. Supplementing expertise and experience with the best available evidence can only be a good thing.

And while the evidence on setting and streaming is not conclusive, it shows a clear pattern: it tends to be good for high-attaining pupils but bad for low-attaining pupils. And if teachers and school leaders know this, they are in a better position to choose a system that works for all their pupils.Elected representatives look on as forest officer is attacked

A forest officer at Area Forest Office in Katari, Udayapur, was assaulted in front of federal and provincial lawmakers and representatives of Katari Municipality on Saturday.The Board of Deputies of British Jews letter that calls out Corbyn over anti-semitism. Full text.

Dear Friends,

For more than the last two years, the Jewish community has been exposed to a constant drip-feed of antisemitism coming from Labour members.

The Board of Deputies has continually condemned individual incidents and the weak, pathetic and slow response from the Labour Party, which has failed victims and emboldened perpetrators.

After a week of near-daily antisemitic incidents, the revelation that Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn personally defended an antisemitic mural has compounded matters. Its time we say, Enough is enough!

Tomorrow, the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council will be presenting an open letter with our concerns to the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) Chair John Cryer, in advance of the PLP meeting at 6pm. We know we have many friends in the Labour Party and we want to support them in speaking out as well.

Please join us on Parliament Green by 5:30pm, on Monday 26 March, to make our collective voice heard.

Please share this message as widely as you can. Help us to get a strong showing from the Jewish community and all those who oppose antisemitism.

I hope to see as many of you as possible tomorrow.

Lets tell Jeremy Corbyn, Enough is enough!

Jonathan Arkush

President

Here is a link to the original.Five years ago, the TaxPayers Alliance reported that in the last year, five times more Labour people were appointed to public bodies than Tories.

Since then, the figures have varied, and some Conservative members or supporters have been selected to fill important posts.

Nonetheless, it remains the case that, since it took office in 2010, our Party has punched beneath its weight when it comes to public appointments. One of the reasons seems to be that Tories simply dont apply in the same number as Labour supporters.

To help remedy this, every week we put up links to some of the main public appointments vacancies, so that qualified Conservatives might be aware of the opportunities presented.

         

Social Mobility Commission  Chair

This is an exciting opportunity to fundamentally shape the social mobility agenda. The Chair leads the Social Mobility Commission, shaping its direction and priorities, and ensuring that it fulfils its remit, as set out in legislation. You will: utilise the knowledge and experience of the other Commissioners, actively engaging them with the business of the Commission; oversee major research reports and publications, including the Commissions Annual Report, which is laid before parliament; build effective working relationships with a range of stakeholders, including Ministers, senior government officials and experts in the field (including engaging Ministers in the Commissions priorities and, potentially, being asked to advise Ministers on particular issues); be an advocate for the social mobility agenda, holding to account and challenging key institutions; and be the public spokesperson for the Commission, regularly speaking at events and to the media.

Time: Approx days per month.

Remuneration: Reasonable expenses.

Closes: 30 March

         

UK Atomic Energy Authority  Chair

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) is one of the worlds leading research organisations supporting the development of fusion energy. Its primary mission is to lead the commercial development of fusion power and related technology and position the UK as a leader in sustainable nuclear energy. Fusion research is managed at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) UKAEA has 1180 staff and agency supplied workers, including world-leading scientists and engineers, fostering close links with international partners, industry and academic institutions; it also supports the development of the Culham Science Centre and Harwell science, innovation, technology and business campus. It is a Non-Departmental Public Body sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Time: 25 days per annum.

Remuneration: 25,000 per annum.

Closes: 04 April

         

Office of Gas and Electicity Markets  Chair

The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) is a non-ministerial government department and an independent National Regulatory Authority, recognised by EU Directives. Its principal objective when carrying out our functions is to protect the interests of existing and future electricity and gas consumers. It does this in a variety of ways including: promoting value for money; promoting security of supply and sustainability, for present and future generations of consumers, domestic and industrial users; the supervision and development of markets and competition; and regulation and the delivery of government schemes.

Time: The post-holder will work 3-3.5 days per week (negotiable).

Remuneration: The Chair will receive a part-time pay at the rate of 160-170,000 per annum.

Closes: 04 April

         

HS2 Ltd  Chair

The Chair of the HS2 Ltd Board will be responsible for shaping, challenging and directing the strategy for HS2 Ltd in delivering the requirement, and ensure that the Board, the executive and the organisation operate effectively and responsibly. He/she will lead the Board in holding the executive to account for the effective and efficient delivery of the programme, for building the organisation, and for the overall performance of HS2 Ltd, including: ensuring the Company has robust risk management, internal controls and assurance processes; ensuring efficient and effective use of staff and other resources

Time: 3 days per week.

Remuneration: 230-250,000 per annum.

Closes: 06 April

         

NHS Counter-Fraud Authority  Chair

On 1 November 2017 the NHSCFA, a new special health authority, took over responsibility for tackling fraud and corruption in the NHS in England. The NHSCFA replaced NHS Protect and has been created as a standalone body to provide the independence required to counter fraud and protect resources intended for patient care. The DHSCAFU has overall responsibility for the scope, strategy and direction of all counter fraud activity across the health service. It is also the DHSC sponsor for the NHSCFA. Aligned with the DHSC Health Group Counter Fraud strategy, the NHSCFA acts as the principal lead for the NHS and wider health group in counter fraud intelligence work.

Time: 2-3 days per month.

Remuneration: 230-250,000 per annum.

Closes: 11 April

         

Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research  Chair

The Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research (OSCHR) was established in order to: bring alignment on the MRC, NIHR and other government funders of health research in Scotland & Wales; bring about effective cross-working arrangements whilst maintaining some clarity of the funding landscape; eliminate unnecessary duplication; bring about increased capacity and capability for translational research; and drive stronger partnerships with industry & medical research charity funders. Since 2007, the OSCHR Board has demonstrated a powerful capacity to work across government through collaboration, addressing many of the issues required to ensure a comprehensive health research environment and leading to improved health outcomes and economic growth.

Time: Up to 20 days per annum.

Remuneration: 7,000 per annum.

Closes: 20 AprilAs Paul wrote last week, Theresa May had a tough job on her hands getting the United States and various European countries to join the UKs action against Russia. The mix of ideological sympathies, political and cultural ties, cynical relativism, and the plain brute force of gas supplies, which the Kremlin habitually uses to bolster its position, stood in her way.

However, she has succeeded in securing action nonetheless. After the UKs decision to expel 23 diplomats, believed to be intelligence officers, 18 other countries are following suit. They range from the Anglosphere, (the US and Canada) across the EU (France, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Estonia, Croatia, Finland, Latvia, Romania, and Sweden) into the Balkans (Albania) and Eastern Europe (Ukraine).

In addition to the 23 Russian agents sent home by the UK, this make a further 109 expelled by our various allies, including 60 from the US alone.

The news was hailed by the Foreign Secretary as an extraordinary international response by our allies, amounting to the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever. Thats a success on the part of the Government, as well as a reminder that the hype about Britains supposed isolation post-Brexit is much exaggerated. Just as we remain true to our friends and allies, they remain true to us  particularly when an event like the attack on Salisbury reminds everyone of the presence of common values and a common threat.Jeremy Hunt knows more about NHS than most civil servants will ever forget. He is the longest-serving Health Secretary since Social Security was hived off the department he now heads. He reversed the hands-off stance of his predecessor, Andrew Lansley, and has been a hands-on Secretary of State  creating a programme of Ofsted-Style ratings and special measures into the NHS, and intervening from the centre to help turn hospitals round. He has avoided an NHS winter crisis repeatedly leading the TV news, and thus creating a sense of destabilisation for the Government. He saw public satisfaction with the service rise on his watch.

A combination of his experience and the loss of Theresa Mays majority has left him in an authoritative position  strong enough to refuse to move from the Department. When he speaks on his subject, Downing Street has to listen. And he is increasingly speaking his mind, the sum of which is that the service needs a ten year commitment to higher spending. He backs a ringfenced tax to fund it. Others are pushing at the same door. Nick Boles wants to call such a tax National Health Insurance. Nick Macpherson, the former Permanent Secretary at the Treasury is on board. David Willetts wants new property and inheritance tax measures. They will all remember Gordon Browns 2002 increase in National Insurance Contributions to help fund the NHS  a gambit which, in political terms, paid off.

Hunt has a point. The costs of the service, driven by the needs of an ageing population, rise ahead of spending. Social care needs fixing, local authorities are restive and the Tory manifesto plan fell apart. Those public satisfaction ratings dropped last year. Furthermore, its not just the usual suspects pressing for higher spending; Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg want some of that fabled 350 million stumped up. This site recognises that taxation will always be necessary to help pay for public services  one would leave the real world behind to suggest otherwise  and that some taxes must rise from time to time. Thats why we recently ran a series on what Tories should tax  arguing that there may be a trade-off between higher council tax bands and lower taxes on incomes.

However, the Health Secretary is not alone. Gavin Williamson wants more money for the defence budget: the Government now believes Russia to be the main security threat. Mark Wallace wrote recently on ConservativeHome about the chain reaction, across much of the public sector, to the partial lifting of the pay cap for NHS staff. Local authorities want the Treasury to cut them more slack now that the pressure on borrowing is easing. So does nearly everyone else. School funding may not have made the same national splash during the election as social care, but Tory MPs and candidates felt the heat from parents over a slowdown in the rate of increase. Like sorrows, spending pressures come not single spies, but in battalions.

As we say, some taxes must rise at some times. But a combination of good news on the deficit, exhaustion with George Osbornes long-term economic plan, the exigencies of Brexit and fear of Jeremy Corbyn are taking the Conservative Party into strange country. Britain cannot simply tax itself to prosperity. If some taxes must rise, others must fall  and the general direction should be down: the tax burden is already set to rise to its highest level in 40 years. And unless one is a sunny side up supply sider, convinced that one can just cut taxes and let borrowing soar, it follows that the Government will have no option but to turn to the other side of the fiscal coin: public spending control.

With next years spending review already looming into view, Philip Hammond kept his options open in his Spring Statement  or, as he put it, opted for a balanced approach. Improvements in the public finances will fund paying off debt and higher public spending and some tax cuts. It would have been odd had he said otherwise. What will be crucial will be the mix. The problem is obvious: how is spending to be scaled back when demands for more of it are soaring? Thoughtful Ministers ponder another grand bargain  this time over health, with those further spending increases coming only on condition of further service reform, with NHS staff free to innovate more, faster hospital throughputs, and housing villages with quality care for ageing people.

But it will take more than incremental reform to get and keep the books balanced. Nor could ending overseas aid provide funds on the scale required, since it consumes 13 billion out of the best part of a 800 billion total. Roughly a third public spending is committed to health and pensions but, after the social care imbroglio, the Government will be very cautious indeed about grey welfare. One senior Minister believes that the path to progress lies through a zero-based spending review. Not what usually passes for one, but a real root-and-branch exercise which probes each service and asks whether the state must supply it.

That sounds a very long way from Theresa Mays pre-election stress on the good that government can do, and rather more like what is some ways a reaction to it  FREER, which Rebecca Coulson wrote about this site last week, and which stresses a small state, lower taxes and individual freedom. But it aint necessarily so. Between the individual and the state lies civil society: that network of families, clubs, charities and voluntary groups that is a Tory article of faith. David Camerons Big Society was a particular imagining of it. A Canada-type zero-based review was part of its founding content. We shall be returning to the matter this week.Strategic service providers don't just sell technology, they use information technology to solve problems for their customers. That means the installation and break-fix skills that solution providers traditionally offered just don't cut it anymore.

"You have to have the technology chops to solve the customers' problems," said Bay Young, president and chief operating officer at vCORE Technology Partners, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based solution provider and MSP, in an interview with CRN. "Our value to our customers is that we have that enterprise-class skills set. If you can't bring that technical expertise to the customer, you'll become irrelevant."

Businesses and organizations today are looking for solution providers with deep skills in the technology IT products they sell to ensure they derive the maximum business value from those technologies.

That's why training and certifications are so critical. As solution providers evolve into strategic service providers, they must continuously maintain and raise their skill sets to meet their clients' demands. Training and certifications are also crucial for ensuring that solution providers' engineers and technical sales specialists are up to date on vendors' rapidly evolving IT product portfolios.

CRN's annual Tech Elite 250 list honors an exclusive group of North American IT solution providers that have earned the highest number of advanced technical certifications from leading IT vendors.

vCORE, for example, has developed expertise around five core areas: converged/hyper-converged infrastructure, network engineering, cloud computing, security, and data storage and protection. That expertise is supported by high levels of certification from many of the solution provider's IT suppliers including Dell EMC, Cisco, VMware, F5 Networks, Palo Alto Networks and others.

vCORE's Young says the initial training and certification is critical for developing the skills and expertise around vendors' IT portfolios that customers expect from their strategic service providers today. And ongoing training and certification is critical for making sure those skills stay sharp as IT rapidly evolves.

Groupware Technology, a Campbell, Calif.-based solution provider, makes a point of having the highest level of training and certification with every one of its vendors that it deems strategic to its business. Among Groupware Technology's several dozen IT vendor partners the company maintains top certifications with Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel and Microsoft, among others.

CEO Mike Thompson acknowledges that can be costly, both for the training and testing itself, as well as the opportunity cost of taking high-salaried engineers and technical sales people away from customers.

"It is a big commitment for [Groupware] to maintain certification levels," Thompson said, noting that he even has a team that's assigned the job of tracking and managing the company's certifications.

But Thompson says maintaining high-level certifications with strategic vendors has benefits beyond being able to field a highly skilled workforce. It signifies Groupware Technology's commitment to those vendors, creating a bond that provides Groupware with access to more vendor resources  and faster access for problem resolution.

Thompson specifically points to Groupware's ability to obtain demonstration products from vendors for use within its proof-of-concept labs and early access to new products that provide Groupware engineers with hands-on expertise.

"It's time to market, it's speed and it's success rate," he said of the benefits that high-level certifications bring. "It's an investment, from our perspective."

This year 101 of the companies on the Tech Elite 250, just over 40 percent, did not appear on last year's list. The 2018 Tech Elite 250 account for more than 25,000 technical positions in North America. And over 23 percent of the solution providers making this year's list had annual revenue greater than $100 million.

For information on purchasing the complete list with all collected firmographic data, contact Laurie Condon on the East Coast (lcondon@thechannelcompany.com) or Nora Uriarte on the West Coast (nuriarte@thechannelcompany.com).Farmers prefer buying rice to planting spring paddy

The production of spring paddy has dropped sharply in Palpa district due to labour shortages, shrinking irrigation facilities with water sources drying up and increasing migration to urban areas.The European Union has not ruled out breaking up internet giant Google in an attempt to regulate how e-commerce sites and search engines favor their own services and rank search results.

The European Union (EU), according to antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, has harbored "grave concerns" with Google's internet dominance, Britains Telegraph newspaper reported on Sunday. As such, the EU is toying with the idea of breaking Google into smaller entities to protect competition.

Vestager said that dismantling the internet giant could prove to be one of the only viable options that could prevent Google from becoming too large to challenge.

[Related: Google's Billion-Dollar Cloud Business Takes On AWS, Azure With AI, Machine Learning]

I think it's important to keep that question open and on the agenda, Vestager said. We are not there yet, but it is important to keep an awakened eye  We have proven [Google's] dominance in search, and we have found they have misused this dominance to promote themselves and diminish competitors.

Google's platform dominates internet search in the EU, accounting for 92 percent of the entire search industry, according to Gizmodo.

The EU is currently working on new regulations that are geared toward keeping e-commerce sites, app stores, and search engines more transparent with how search results are ranked and why some listings are de-listed.

Right now, Google running up against EU rules on its commercial practices with smaller businesses that rely on Google's services. The EU handed down a record-breaking fine equivalent to about $2.97 billion to Google in June 2017 after the EU accused the internet giant of favoring its own shopping service over others. Google, for its part, is appealing against the claim.

The EU has said it expects more cases to follow as the company's dominance could be viewed as hurtful to competing companies.To enjoy our website, you'll need to enable JavaScript in your web browser. Please click here to learn how.This year will be a big year for Royal Caribbean Cruises with Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises introducing new ships. The new ships in turn are the primary drivers generating itinerary changes throughout the fleets, according to Chris Allen, vice president, deployment and itinerary planning, Royal Caribbean Cruises.

Celebrity will be introducing the new Celebrity Edge this fall, sailing seven-day cruises from Port Everglades for the winter season, and Royal Caribbean will introduce the Symphony of the Seas with a summer Mediterranean season.

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have already announced a large percentage of their deployment over the next two years and by March or April are expecting to have most if not all of their itineraries open for sale through April 2020.

One big story is the variety of Oasis-class homeports and ports of call, Allen said. The Symphony enters service this spring and will sail seven-day cruises from Barcelona and Civitavecchia, before moving to Miami for year-round alternating seven-day Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises.

In 2019, when the Oasis goes to the Mediterranean for the summer, the Harmony will move from Port Everglades to Port Canaveral. In addition, the Allure; which is in Miami for the 2018-2019 winter, goes back to Port Everglades; and the Oasis goes to Miami in the fall.

Another headliner for 2019 will be the Ovation going to Alaska from Australia via Hawaii to Vancouver before homeporting in Seattle, where she is replacing the Explorer of the Seas.

Sailing alongside the Radiance, hardware-wise I think we will have the most interesting ships in Alaska, Allen noted. It will also be the first time we have two Quantum-class ships in North America with the Anthem of the Seas on the East Coast.

While the cruise fleet is growing, many ports are expanding too and new ports have come online, according to Allen, who said it was important to partner with destinations to develop them for the long term, making sure the brands have great destinations to call at.

We develop itineraries for each brand reflecting their strategic vision; the itineraries must fit what the brands represent and must appeal to the sourcing markets, he explained.

We look at guest feedback, the attractiveness of destinations, trends, what is popular, what is not, marketability, and then balance that vs. the cost side, fuel and port costs.

The beauty of our industry is that compared to hotels, we can move ships and maximize the appeal of the ships and their profitability.

This formula works and has not changed at the macro level although the input is constantly changing, such as fuel costs and regulations.

He said that itinerary planning is a big puzzle that the company is always trying to optimize. We have a small team here that works very hard. The deployments we have are some of the most important decisions we make as a company, it impacts everything we do  it is imperative that we get things right. We have some very smart and dedicated people on our team, but we rely on the collective knowledge and partnering across the company, with the brands, but also all the other areas and with all the destinations, tour operators, ports and governments around the world. It really takes a collective effort to put the puzzle together.

xcerpt from Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Spring 2018The Turkish government has expanded its cruise ship call incentive program, targeting ships carrying over 100 passengers calling on the country's ports in 2018 and 2019, according to Global Ports Holding, which operates three ports in Turkey: Kusadasi, Bodrum and Antalya.

Incentive Program:As of Saturday, Atlanta officials and federal partners were still working around the clock to resolve the ransomware attack on city computers that occurred around 5 a.m. on Thursday, March 22, and encrypted some financial and person data.

As @Cityofatlanta officials & federal partners continue working around the clock to resolve issues related to the ransomware cyber attack launched against the City, solid waste & other DPW operations are not impacted.  ATLPublicWorks (@ATLPublicWorks) March 24, 2018

On Thursday, the official investigation included the FBI, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Cisco cybersecurity officials and Microsoft to determine what information has been accessed and how to resolve the situation.

A city employee sent WXIA a screenshot of the ransom demand, which included a pay-per-computer option of $6,800 or an option to pay $51,000 to unlock the entire system.

CBS 46 reported that the ransom demand and instruction said:

Send .8 bitcoins for each computer or 6 bitcoins for all of the computers. (That's the equivalent of around $51,000.)

After the .8 bitcoin is sent, leave a comment on their website with the provided host name.

Theyll then reply to the comment with a decryption software. When you run that, all of the encrypted files will be recovered.

On Friday, March 23, city employees were handed a printed notice as they walked through the front doors. They were told not to turn on their computers until the issue was resolved. Officials were still unsure who was behind the attack.

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms advised city employees and customers to monitor their personal information, although there was no evidence to show customer or employee data was compromised. Mayor Bottoms clarified what services had not been impacted and were still available to residents and which ones had been impacted.

For example, the Department of Public Works' ATL311 website was disabled; its up and running now, but is currently experiencing technical difficulties that may prevent you from submitting a new request to ATL311. As for human resources, applications for new employment had been suspended; the Department of Corrections was manually processing inmates; and public Wi-Fi via the Department of Aviation had been disabled out of an abundance of caution. In other words, even if people were not from Atlanta, they could have felt the sting of the attack, as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was noted as being the worlds busiest airport.

Mayor Bottoms will not say if Atlanta intends to pay the ransom demand, saying, We will be looking for guidance from, specifically, our federal partners on how to best navigate the best course of action.

During a press conference, Bottoms said, What we want to make sure of is that we arent putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. She then turned the press conference over to Richard Cox, the City of Atlanta's chief operations officer; the poor dude is brand new to serving as Atlantas COO. He confirmed the existence of the ransom demand but would not reveal the contents.

SamSam ransomware used in Atlanta attack

WXIA reported that SamSam ransomware was used to target Atlanta. As was reported by CSOs Steve Ragan, the group behind SamSam is believed to have made almost $850,000 since December 2017. In Atlantas case, Ragan wrote, The city has RDP exposed to the public, as well as VPN gateways, FTP servers, and IIS installations. Most of them have SMBv1 enabled, making the task of spreading the ransomware easier.

Hopefully Atlanta will address all the issues that must be resolved to avoid becoming like the Colorado Department of Transportation, which was hit with ransomware twice in a little more than a week. Let's hope it is also faster than Davidson County, North Carolina, which needed a month to get its computer network fully operational after getting hit with a ransomware attack.Lawmakers condemn EUs election observation report

Lawmakers from various political parties expressed their concern over Final Report on the House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly Elections issued recently by the European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission (EOM) to Nepal in a meeting of the House of Representatives on Monday.As the end of the month approaches, Connecticut Christians are getting ready for Easter. But just how much of the state will be celebrating?

In 2014, the Pew Research Center conducted an in-depth study into the religious breakdown of the United States based on telephone calls with 35,000 Americans from all 50 states.HARTFORD  State residents younger than 21 may soon be banned from buying tobacco, e-cigarettes or vapor products under a law under consideration by the General Assembly.

The legislative Public Health Committee approved the change with significant bipartisan support Monday. The bill will likely move to the Senate for a vote in the coming months.

The proposed law, which raises the legal age for purchase of the products from 18, would take effect Oct. 1. A grandfather clause would allow people who turned 18 before that date to continue to buy the products.

Legislators pointed to the change as critical to passing the bill out of committee. Raising the age to 21 has been proposed many times in the past, but always failed.

The health implications of tobacco smoking in any form is incredibly deleterious to the health of the state, said Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, a co-chairman of committee. We hope we are going to be keeping people from having this lifelong health problem.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4,900 Connecticut residents will die from smoking-related causes this year. Experts predict more than 1,000 children will become new daily smokers under the current law.

California, New Jersey, Oregon, Hawaii and Maine have raised the legal age to purchase tobacco to 21. Nearly 300 municipalities, including New York City, Chicago and Boston, also made the change.

Rep. Prasad Srinivasan, R-Glastonbury, a doctor and one of three committee members to vote against the bill, said he did so because he opposed the grandfather clause continuing to allow some 18-year-olds to smoke.

Lawmakers are also wrestling with how to regulate what Steinberg termed the new frontier of smoking: vaping. A bill passed by the committee would require e-cigarettes and vapes be purchased in a direct, face-to-face interaction with a retailer, not online.

Buying vapes from a retailer face-to-face  as is required for cigarettes  would emphasize that these (vapor) products are not perfectly safe, said Steinberg.

But at least eight Republicans opposed the measure.

If you are someone who is 21 and you want a replacement part (for an e-cigarette or vape), I think you should be able purchase it online, said Sen. Heather Somers, R-Hartford, chairwoman of the committee. She favored raising the age to buy tobacco, but voted against taking vape sales off the web.

In the bill, we didnt segregate out vaping with non-nicotine versus nicotine products, she added. Some of the products dont contain nicotine.

Connecticut collected $323 million, or 2 percent of the General Fund, in revenue from tobacco sales taxes in 2017, according to the state comptrollers office. Revenue from tobacco taxes have stayed at about that level since 2012.

Advocates for changing tobacco laws say healthcare costs far outweigh those revenues.

Our states annual health care costs directly caused by smoking are $2.03 billion and Medicaid costs are $520.8 million, said Lisa Kimmel, director of Wellness and Health Education for Yale University, who spoke to the committee last week on behalf of the American Heart Association. Smoking-caused productivity loses in Connecticut are $1.25 billion annually.HARTFORD  Saying a full dose of Washington partisanship has now entered Connecticut politics, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy lashed out at Republicans on Monday after they announced that the GOP caucus would vote unanimously against state Supreme Court Justice Andrew J. McDonalds nomination for chief justice.

Malloy criticized Republican Senate Leader Len Fasano of North Haven, noting that the GOP declaration came just days after promises from many of the 18 Senate Republicans, only three of whom are lawyers, that they were hitting the law books and closely studying McDonalds legal cases and decisions.

They did their homework? Malloy said. What are the odds of that? It appears it was always going to be a partisan vote.

Speaking to reporters in a hastily called Capitol news conference, a clearly frustrated Malloy charged that a degree of personal animus toward him, combined with a streak of homophobia in the Republican caucuses in the General Assembly, led to the rejection. It now seems unlikely that McDonald will become the first openly gay chief justice of a state Supreme Court in the United States.

Fasano refuted the governors attack and instead laid the blame on the liberal direction McDonald could take the court if he were to be named the chief justice.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the nomination Tuesday. Republicans hold an 18-17 advantage since Democrat Gayle Slossberg, of Milford, recused herself because of personal differences with McDonald.

As far as I know, they are all Nos,  Fasano said of the GOP. Theres nothing personal about this. This is not about politics. Its about policy.

Democrats were outraged by the move. Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, of New Haven, and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, of Norwalk, said the national Republican strategy of partisanship, exemplified in the U.S. Senates refusal to even consider the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland during President Barack Obamas last year in office, has arrived in Connecticut.

There can now be no question that Connecticut Republicans are no different than Washington Republicans and are in lockstep with Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, the two Democrats said in a joint statement. Their apparent inability to muster even a single vote in the Senate for Justice McDonald is appalling. Connecticut Republicans are setting a terrible precedent and are now condemning future judicial nominations to the type of partisan politics that has infected Washington.

Fasano said the process was open and fair. He communicated with each member of his caucus over the weekend, he said.

Nobody knew what the caucus votes were on a cumulative basis except me, Fasano said. I think that we went way out of our way to keep it as open as possible for people to make their own decisions. As far as this being a caucus position, this never happened.

There were a variety of reasons for various negative votes, Fasano said, some dating back to when McDonald was co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee between 2002 and 2010.

The persona of the court, I would argue from my perspective, is usually driven by their leader, said Fasano, a former Yale football player who likens the role of chief justice to the captain of a team. Hes still a Supreme Court justice.

Fasano suggested that another justice on the high bench, Justice Richard A. Robinson, might be an acceptable alternative.

Malloy said he has regularly nominated judges with whom he has disagreed.

The rule that I have applied to myself will apparently no longer be the same on the court, Malloy said. His staff said he would not be holding back any pending judicial nominations with Republican connections.

McDonald, 52, is a longtime friend and confidant of Malloys. He was the city attorney during Malloys tenure as Stamford mayor, and ended an eight-year stint in the state Senate to become Malloys legal counsel when he became governor in 2011. Malloy nominated him to the Supreme Court in 2013.

As McDonalds nomination floundered  his nomination passed the House by a single vote earlier this month  Malloy tried to sweeten the pot for Republicans. He offered a spot on the Supreme Court to a former Republican senator who is now a Superior Court judge, Andrew Roraback of Goshen, if McDonald were confirmed.

It was an effort to calm the waters, Malloy said.

The governor said he had no plans to withdraw McDonalds nomination. He hopes that Republicans would be held accountable by voters during the fall elections. He also said he held out hope that some Republicans might change their votes overnight.

Andrew deserves a vote by the legislature, he said.BRIDGEPORT  The state Supreme Court has a message for political operatives, not just in Connecticuts largest city but statewide, who get too closely involved in the absentee ballot process: Dont.

Nearly two months after upholding Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis ruling to order a rare second Democratic primary do-over in the 133rd City Council District, the justices Monday released their detailed 26-page decision.

That document clarified guidelines for handling absentee ballots  votes cast by mail  and concluded rules were broken and things got sloppy last year in a competitive primary contest between the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committees chosen candidates and a pair of self-proclaimed outsiders.

Residents of the city of Bridgeport are entitled to honest elections and I hope this decision leads to that, said lawyer Peter Finch, the son of former Mayor Bill Finch, who argued in support of Judge Bellis ruling before the Supreme Court for council candidates Bob Keeley and Anne Pappas Phillips.

But the ramifications of the courts decision beyond the immediate 133rd District race were unclear. Gabe Rosenberg, spokesman for Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, said that offices attorneys were still pouring over the legal document.

Its a helpful clarification of the rules surrounding absentee ballots, Rosenberg said.

Collecting ballots

John Bohannon, a lawyer for the city, complained the (absentee ballot) law should be plain on its face so that people can follow it. Bohannon said the Supreme Court dug deep to rationalize its interpretation of the law.

Absentee ballots are meant for individuals unable for health or religious reasons or because they are away to make it to the polls. But campaigns can be won or lost through elaborate absentee ballot operations to supplement in-person votes cast at the polls.

The justices detailed decision made it clear that they believe a court should be very cautious before exercising its power to vacate the results of an election and that Bellis in Bridgeport had good reasons to do so in the 133rd District.

Among those reasons: Longtime Democratic Town Chairman Mario Testa, recently elected to another two year term, and his preferred council candidate, Michael DeFilippo, who bartends at Testas restaurant, got too personally involved in the collection of absentee ballots in the 133rd District battle.

That has proven a costly mistake. Bridgeports Democratic Town Committee has spent $12,367 on legal bills defending itself in the ongoing primary mess. And the city racked up $43,786 on legal fees in the case, records show.

DeFilippo and running-mate Councilwoman Jeanette Herron have been competing with fellow Democrats Keeley and Pappas Phillips for two council seats representing the North End. The quartets first primary last September concluded with DeFilippo in first place, and Herron squeaking out a second place win over Keeley after an absentee ballot appeared during a recount.

Subsequently Bellis ordered a new primary for Nov. 14. Keeley and Pappas Phillips again lost and complained of voting irregularities.

2nd do-over

It later came out in court before Bellis that Testa requested a police officer to pick up absentee ballots. That officer  Paul Nikola  then spent Nov. 13 and 14 driving around Bridgeport to addresses supplied by DeFilippo, picking up, in some cases, multiple ballots from a single person and, in one case, retrieving one from a mailbox.

So Bellis ordered the second primary do-over that landed before the Supreme Court. That primary is scheduled for April 10.

The Supreme Courts decision concluded it is an absentee voter himself or herself, and not a third party, who must appoint or select a designee ... to return his or her absentee ballot on the voters behalf. That designee could be a cop, a family member or caregiver, but not a designee ordered up by Testa and DeFilippo.

The justices also took a deep dive into state political history, going back to 1974, and concluded that partisan individuals are required to distance themselves from absentee voters when those voters are in the process of ... returning (ballots) to the town clerk for submission.

Bohannon on Monday countered that state statutes do not require the absentee voter be the one to arrange for a police officer pickup, and there is nothing in statute preventing candidates or campaigns from obtaining that police assistance.

The Supreme Court also outlined its support for Bellis concerns about 12 absentee ballots retrieved from the City Hall mail room with no post marks. According to the justices decision, the mail room supervisor claimed he had brought the ballots straight from the post office to City Hall.

This was shown, however, to be untrue, wrote the justices Monday. Instead, they said, the supervisor made three stops to pick up mail at the citys fire, emergency operations and health departments, leaving the mail bin unattended in an unlocked car.

Bellis, the justices wrote, correctly concluded that the evidence established a lack of security with respect to the absentee ballots and increased the likelihood that the ballots lacking postmarks originated from somewhere other than the post office.

The U.S. Postal Service recently issued a statement reversing a decades-old practice of allowing city of Bridgeport employees to pick up mail including absentee ballots from the local post office.

Following a hearing Monday afternoon, Judge Bellis directed the postal service to deliver absentee ballots to the citys town clerk office.

Herron said that neither she nor DeFilippo have relied on absentee ballots: Each and every election, 133rd voters came out. they spoke out twice. We won on the machines twice, she said.You cant say Connecticut Republicans arent consistent in their attacks on the voluntary public-funding program for political candidates, including governor and the General Assembly.

We have better uses for that $30 million than giving it to political races, the loudest of them say in legislative debates and the campaign trail. Its the taxpayers money.

Whoa Nelly, get off that high horse and smell the vestigial corruption, the cronyism, the federal grand juries. Its abandoned property, mostly bank accounts of dead taxpayers with no relatives, that fuels the Citizens Election Program. The dead are finally and irrevocably spared the relief and responsibilities of being taxpayers, and listening to politicians.

Coincidentally, if not hilariously, no one has benefited from the CEP more than state Republicans, who have gone from a down-trodden, veto-vulnerable minority, to near parity in the House at 80-71, and that pesky flat-footed 18-18 tie in the Senate.

In 2006, the year after the reforms, Democrats had a 99-52 majority in the House and a 24-12 edge in the Senate.

Democrats have gone from virtually controlling the flow of lobbyist contributions to a near-endangered species, while Republicans, with an even playing field, have made big gains.

Sure, there is currently a national whiplash thats cracking because of the swampy Trumpsters, but Democrats can in no way think the GOP ascent has been beaten back in Connecticut.

Why, even John Why Should I Resign If Ive Done Nothing Wrong? Rowland is back on the cusp of freedom from his latest post-graduate federal institutionalization.

I miss the former Republican governor every day. I recall fondly his ethereal, tormented presence in the Capitol, circa 2004, when he drifted through the halls like Mrs. Tyrone in Long Days Journey into Night.

Instead of remarking on his once pretty hands, Rowland, whose pay-to-play lifestyle was several months away from leading to guilty pleas in federal court and his first prison stint, recited a mantra of a fair and transparent process as he crept inexorably toward impeachment He resigned in the summer of 2004 after his hand-picked chief justice, William Sullivan of Waterbury, presided over a court hearing that led to an order that he testify before the House Committee of Inquiry.

In 2005, Rowlands successor, Gov. M. Jodi Rell, dragged Republicans kicking and screaming to approve the election reforms that led to the CEP, which provides up to $6.5 million for gubernatorial candidates who can raise $250,000 in small qualifying contributions. All of a sudden, lobbyists who for decades had to continually cough up campaign cash, didnt felt like they were being held up every two or four years.

Dannel P. Malloy was the first gubernatorial candidate to benefit from the CEP. By the time of his 2014 re-election, his campaign had learned to game it by supplementing a late-campaign million bucks from a Democratic State Central Committee account that was supposed to be for its federal candidates.

Rowland is in a halfway house and due for release May 27, in time for the gala Memorial Day weekend.

As a reporter who benefited greatly from Rowlands corruption, I welcome him back for a third try.

And this might all be easier if the more-starboard factions of legislative Republicans somehow end public financing.

Then there are spoilsports such as Mike Brandi, executive director and chief counsel for the State Elections Enforcement Commission, which busted Malloys bunch for a $325,000 settlement on the outside financing.

In testimony on an annual GOP bill that would end public financing, Brandi reminded members of the Government Administration & Elections Committee of the bad-old days.

We know what came before the CEP, he said. The alternative to clean elections financing is the old way of doing business, with ever-increasing contributions limits  stripping power from electors and returning it to wealthy contributors who can buy access.

I was watching that great court trial in New York City that went on for weeks, having snared Gov. Andrew Cuomos former capo, Joe Percoco, who was recently found guilty of three bribery-related felonies in the first of two massive corruption trials. It involved about $300,000 from Peter Braith Kelly of Canterbury, who allegedly provided Percocos wife with a low-show job funded by the same company that has the new natural-gas power plant in Oxford. The jury was deadlocked on Kelly, who has not returned a call for comment.

So if state lawmakers want to kill the national model of public financing under the guise of saving taxpayers money, Im in support. Its about jobs ... for journalists.Long-term returns

The European Union Election Observation Missions (EUEOMs) final report on Nepals provincial and federal elections has stirred up a storm in Kathmandu.The Resurgent Cyber Threat From Iran

Experts are sounding the alarm about new cyber activity from Iran, as hackers become more emboldened and skilled at carrying out surveillance operations and other attacks outside the countrys borders.

In recent years, Iran-linked hacker groups have showed signs of growing sophistication, expanding their cyber tool kits and stepping up operations against new international targets, including in the Middle East and the United States.

Irans growing ambitions, coupled with the geopolitical climate, have given some warning of the future threat. Theyre good enough that theyre able to break into a lot of organizations, said Charles Carmakal, vice president at Mandiant, a FireEye subsidiary that provides cyber incident response to government and private organizations across the globe.

Theres definitely a lot of fear by the intelligence agencies and lots of security companies about what Iran is going to do."

Cybersecurity professionals have detected Iranian hackers breaking into networks of defense contractors, aviation firms, oil and gas companies, technology companies and telecommunications providers.

In February, cybersecurity firm Symantec revealed that the Iran-based hacking group dubbed Chafer had expanded spy operations to new targets across numerous sectors in Israel, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and successfully compromised a major telecommunications provider in the Middle East.

The group also began using several new hacking tools over the past year, including leveraging the EternalBlue exploit reportedly stolen from the National Security Agency by another hacker group.

While Symantec has no definitive evidence linking Chafer to the Iranian government, Vikram Thakur, the firms security response technical director, said the groups targets, which include companies in the aviation sector, suggest a government motivation because the information would be more valuable in the public versus private sector.

What weve noticed of the overall picture that the quantity of attacks that are originating from that geography are much, much higher than seven or eight years ago, Thakur said. In the coming years, wed expect Chafer as well as other cyber actors originating from Iran to continue increasing their volumes of attack as well as their list of victims.

In many cases, Iran-linked cyber activity is limited to intelligence operations. But some groups have also shown signs of destructive capabilities. Last September, FireEye identified a new Iranian hacking group thats been dubbed Advanced Persistent Threat 33, or APT 33, that had been quietly conducting spying operations since at least 2013 against organizations in the US, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. The group has a particular eye toward the military, commercial aviation and energy sectors.

FireEye found evidence that APT 33 is capable of carrying out destructive attacks, linking it to a destructive wiper malware that can delete files.

Iran has a long history of malicious activity in cyberspace. US officials suspected Iran in the 2012 cyber assault against Saudi Arabian oil giant Saudi Aramco, in which hackers used destructive malware called Shamoon to wipe computer networks of data and replace the files with an image of a burning US flag.

A new variant of the malware resurfaced in late 2016, infiltrating other Saudi Arabian computer systems. FireEye traced the 2016 activity back to Iran, though did not attribute it to a specific threat group.

The US Justice Department earlier that year indicted seven Iranians believed to have been working at the behest of Tehrans government for conducting distributed denial of service attacks on US financial institutions between 2011 and 2013, as tensions ran high over sanctions on Irans nuclear program.

Much of the attention in Washington has lately focused on the cyber threat from Russia, following Moscows interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Iran is still widely viewed by officials and cybersecurity professionals as inferior to China and Russia in terms of its capabilities. Still, experts say Irans hackers have notably grown more professional in a matter of years. Iran-linked hacking groups have increased the scale of their attacks and gotten better at hiding their tracks, in part by using virtual private networks to carry out operations so they cannot be traced back to Iran.

They got better over the years, said Carmakal. When I think about the real impact to our safety and the impact to our business operations, Im actually more concerned about Iran.

FireEye tracks other hacking groups it links to the Iranian government, including APT 34, which the firm says has conducted reconnaissance operations largely targeting critical infrastructure organizations in the Middle East since at least 2014. FireEye has attributed some of Chafers activity to APT 34.

The firm has also identified Iranian hacking group APT 35, which Ben Read, senior manager of cyber espionage analysis, described as one of the most active groups in 2017 of all nation-state actors tracked by FireEye.

Theyve shown a consistent interest in US companies, said Read.

US officials have warned of mounting threats from Iran and other nation-states in the cyber realm.

We will see Chinese, Iranian and North Korean cyber actors continue to build off past successes to improve the scope and scale of their cyber capabilities, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the US Senate Armed Services Committee.

Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, also warned lawmakers that Iran and North Korea can launch disruptive cyber-attacks and use cyberspace as a means to asymmetrically respond to perceived challenges in political, military, or economic domains despite being less capable than other threat actors.

Some speculate Iran could increase malign cyber activity against the United States if tensions run high between Washington and Tehran.

A report released by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in January observed that destructive Iranian cyber operations against the US had decreased since the early negotiations of the Iran nuclear deal. They noted, however, that the US should expect Tehran to target economic, civilian, and government networks in the event of renewed hostilities.

President Trump has threatened to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, though he declined to topple the 2015 agreement in January by waiving key sanctions on Tehran.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Iran related to its ballistic missile activity and crackdown on dissidents, for which Iran promised to retaliate.

I think they are a significant threat to organisations in the US, particularly those in the national security area, Read said.

What is really going to change how much of a threat they are is the overall geopolitical situation.

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Police: Somerset DA Jeff Thomas showed up uninvited, raped Windber woman

Somerset DA Jeff Thomas was arrested Wednesday night and charged with sexual assault following an incident in a Windber Borough home Sept. 18, police said.When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, there were expectations that the countrys military profile would increase sharply. The government went out of its way to valourise the soldiers and wrap the tricolour around itself.

But as a recent report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of the ministry of defence has revealed, when it came to putting out money to fund Indias military, the government seems less than patriotic.

The clearest signal comes from the numbers. Defence budgets used to average roughly two per cent of the GDP, but in the last two years, that figure has come down to 1.56 and 1.49 respectively

Obsolete equipment

The committee, which is headed by a senior BJP MP, Maj Gen (retd) BC Khanduri, came to the conclusion that 68 per cent of the Army equipment was obsolete. Just 24 per cent was of the current category and 8 per cent state of the art.

Army vice-chief Lt Gen Sarath Chand explained to the committee that allocation of insufficient funds to meet liabilities of routine maintenance, making up deficiencies, emergency procurements will definitely have a negative effect. This shall also affect the serviceability of the equipment we are holding besides leading to legal issues of not making payments on time. One area directly affected is the security of military facilities that has become so important after the attacks on Uri, Nagrota and Sunjuwan.

You would be mislead if you went just by the fact that the allocation for defence is a massive Rs 2,79,305crore in the coming financial year, along with an additional Rs 1,08,853crore for pensions. This is because we have one of the largest militaries in the world and a great deal of the money is spent on pay and allowances of the personnel and maintaining the existing equipment and infrastructure.

The real story comes from the fact that where the three Services projected Rs 1,72, 203 for capital expenditure for the purchase of new equipment, they were only allotted Rs 93, 982crore. This is not even sufficient to meet the committed liabilities, viz the payment installments for the equipment already purchased, estimated to be of the order of Rs 1,10,043crore. In other words, leave alone new equipment, the services are not even in a position to meet the payment obligations of the equipment on order.

Only Rs 3,600 cr allotted

The one area that the Army has been desperately trying to make up is that of immediate stocks of ammunition and spares to fight a 40-day war, which could see 10 days of intense fighting. The government permitted the Army to acquire the materials and contracts worth Rs 2,246crore and further agreements worth Rs 9,980crore have been negotiated. To make up for the shortfall the Army would require Rs 6,380crore, but they have been allotted only Rs 3,600crore. This means that the country cannot fight even a short war at present.

At the larger level another pernicious consequence of our dysfunctional defence system is that it is dependent on imports to sustain itself. The latest report of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows that India has been the largest importer of major arms in the world in the 2013-2017 period; it accounted for 12 per cent of the global total and its imports increased 24 per cent between 2008-2012 to 2013-2017.

No country can become a significant military power unless it designs, develops and manufactures its own weapons. The reason is that the equipment is often tailored to the specific requirement of the manufacturer, and buying it off the shelf makes its sub-optimal in another setting.

Remarkably all this is despite the fact that the current operational directive to the armed forces from its defence minister is that they must be prepared for a collusive threat from China and Pakistan. To go by the Parliamentary Committee report, the three Services are clearly unprepared for a conflict with Pakistan, leave alone China.

Reforms required

The solutions to the problems that our armed forces face are obvious to everyone. First and foremost, they require deep reform in their higher management to ensure that the ministry of defence and the higher headquarters of the three Services work as one team.

To deal with the problems of defence organisation and policy, the political heads, viz the ministers and the Cabinet Committee on security require two streams of advice  from the uniformed personnel and from the civil service.

Unfortunately, while expert military advice is available, all they get from the non-expert civilian bureaucracy is red tape. Unable to come up with expertise, the civilians instead take recourse to procedural obstacles to establish their supremacy over the three Services. This has made the procurement policy non-functional, leaving all three Services behind in their modernisation plans by at least a decade and a half.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

Also read: How JNU administration launched a targeted attack on anti-sexual harassment watchdogWithin a week of Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai having taken over as chairman of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, replacing veteran separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani, his youngest son, Junaid Ashraf Sehrai, has joined militant ranks.

Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai (left) with Syed Shah Geelani (right).

A 28-year-old postgraduate from Kashmir University, Junaid, didn't step into his father's shoes. While Sehrai took the baton of soft separatism, five days later, his son chose to walk the deadly path.

The question that everyone seems to be asking is if Mohammad Ashraf stands for resistance through soft separatism, why his son chose to be an armed rebel at a time when government forces have intensified the offensive to neutralise militants.

For a B-school pass out, who understands the fall-outs of picking up the gun must not have been easy, given that security forces killed 213 militants in 2017 alone.

Didn't Junaid find the pro-freedom leadership in general, and his father in particular, capable of resolving the Kashmir dispute?

Much like what happens in mainstream politics, where the scions of Abdullah and Mufti families prefer to join dynastic professions, why didn't this young man follow his father?

Well, Junaid joined Hizbul at a time when Geelani quit the chairmanship of the key constituent of Hurriyat Conference.

A news report by Asia Times suggests that Geelani resigned in the wake of threats from Islamic State (IS) supporters.

The IS fears have emerged at a time when Zakir Musa, a Kashmir militant who claims to be al-Qaeda operative, has threatened to behead Hurriyat leaders and hang their heads at the historic Lal Chowk.Geelani's successor has, however, taken a dangerous stand on the suspected global terror threat in Kashmir. While refuting possible threat from the likes of IS and Al Qaeda, Sehrai hailed Zakir Musa as the "light of my eyes".

But then, from Musa to Junaid, a section of youth, don't find Hurriyat inspiring.

A conglomerate of separatist parties, the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), was formed in 1993 as a "united political front for the right to self determination of Kashmiris".

What started as a united front, has proved to be story of more fissures than feats. Within 10 years of its genesis, the Hurriyat formally split into two in 2003.

While moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq bagged Hurriyat (M), hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani constituted his own Hurriyat (G).

Ten years after the first split, the twin Hurriyat groups split further. In 2014, Shabir Shah and Nayeem Khan, both presently lodged in Tihar jail, launched their own version of separatism - Hurriyat (JK).

Muhammad Yasin Malik, on the other hand, after a ceasefire, continued separatism through JKLF.

But during the 2016 unrest, which erupted in the wake of the killing of Hizb commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the two oldest factions of Hurriyat and JKLF constituted a new political product - the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL). But all the constituents of JRL continue of retain their separate identifies.

Amid this chaos in individual, ideological and institutional goals in separatist camps, 25 years have passed but Hurriyat is yet to achieve anything.

The blame for this equally lies on New Delhi's doors because it has made soft separatism look like a failed ideology that has no achievements to its credit in resolving the Kashmir dispute.

If the Centre was indeed serious about ending armed insurgency, it should have engaged with all moderate versions of separatist sentiments and engage with them for result-oriented dialogue aimed at sustainable peace.

Contrary to this, it is feared Kashmir is going the Syrian way.

In October 2017, soon after his appointment, the Centre-appointed interlocutor for Kashmir and former chief of the Intelligence Bureau, Dineshwar Sharma, said if radicalisation in the Valley picks up, the situation will be similar to Syria.

In fact, New Delhi's hard stand on Kashmir is actually contributing to strengthen the Syrian fears.

Since soft separatism has failed, the youth feel naturally inclined to pick up guns or stones, because violent unrest, it seems, is the only thing which draws New Delhi's attention to Kashmir. The unrests of 2010 and 2016 prove just that.

In 2010, after street protests left around 120 dead, the then UPA government appointed three interlocutors to find ways and means to resolve Kashmir but subsequently put their recommendations in cold storage.

The same holds true for 2016. One of worst humanitarian crises, which unfolded, during the longest agitation that year prompted home minister, Rajnath Singh, to visit Kashmir at least thrice, followed by the appointment of Sharma as the new interlocutor.

While street protests have come down, the uneasy calm that pervades the air in Kashmir is no less than a lull that precedes deadly storms. The reduction in the number of youth holding street protests is silently getting replaced by a culture of picking up arms.

And while Hurriyat struggles for existence, youth like Junaid are ready to die.

Also read: Can vice-president Venkaiah Naidu rise above RSS politics?Far from weakening the new-found bonhomie between former adversaries - Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) - the defeat of the duo at the hands of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the recently concluded Rajya Sabha poll has further strengthened their bond in Uttar Pradesh.

Mayawati's clear-cut declaration on these lines has become a cause for discomfort at the highest levels in the BJP, where it was widely felt that the defeat would end up in breaking the SP-BSP alliance, which caused a humiliating defeat for BJP on two seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha by-polls in the state.

Evidently, the BJP is yet to get over the shock of that defeat on the Gorakhpur seat that remained the political bastion of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his guru Mahant Awaidyanath for nearly three decades, and the Phulpur seat that was vacated by UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. Notwithstanding BJP's effort to assuage hurt caused by the twin losses by the victory on one Rajya Sabha seat, it is undeniable that the two elections are incomparable. After all, Lok Sabha polls remain a direct election, while Rajya Sabha poll being an indirect election, depend a lot on manipulative politics as well as the use of money power.

To that extent, BJP's victory over the alliance, that was joined in by the Congress too for the Rajya Sabha poll, became some kind of a face-saver for the ruling dispensation which moved heaven and earth to achieve its goal. BJP's idea behind ensuring the victory on this lone RS seat at all costs was to prove that the SP-BSP alliance was weak. And this shouldn't come as a surprise because any continuation of the alliance could upset the saffron brigade's calculations for the 2019 general elections, which will determine the political destiny of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This desperation remained visible in the BJP rank and file not only all through the RS poll process over the recent past, but more in the aftermath of its victory. Yogi Adityanath was the first to issue a statement, "Samajwadi Party le to sakti hai lekin de nahi sakti." (Samajwadi Party is capable of taking benefits from others but does not believe in returning favours.)

The chief minister's obvious reference was to BSP's support to SP nominees in both Gorakhpur and Phulpur, where the party was not in the fray. Yogi was visibly trying to spread the word that SP had played smart on BSP; and while SP chief Akhilesh Yadav managed to get BSP's support in the two LS by-polls, it did not reciprocate in the RS poll. The same sentiment was echoed by other senior BJP leaders including deputy chief minister Maurya, who also left no stone unturned to affect a divide between the alliance partners by provoking Mayawati.

Yogi Adityanath went a step further the following day by attempting to re-ignite the dying embers between SP and BSP, which remained at loggerheads for 23 long years. Way back in 1995, Akhilesh Yadav's father and then state chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had engineered a physical attack on Mayawati and her party MLAs, soon after she withdrew support to their coalition government led by Mulayam. The incident, which became infamous as the "2nd June Guest House case", left so much bad blood between the two parties that their leaders did not see eye to eye for years together.

Since SP and BSP made a lethal combination in a deeply caste divided UP's social milieu, it suited BJP to go to the extent of propping up Mayawati as chief minister with its support. And the BJP leadership did that three times. Though, the BJP-BSP marriage of convenience did not last long, it surely gave Mayawati a prominent place in state politics over which she eventually managed to establish her rule entirely on her own in 2007.

Finally, it was her bete noire Samajwadi Party which humbled her party in 2012.

Meanwhile, BJP went about building up its politics of Hindu polarisation. This finally paid off reinforcing Narendra Modi's magic spell that he cast over the state in 2014 when BJP swept 73 out of UP's 80 Lok Sabha seats.

Again, BJP romped home with a record 324 seats in the 403-member Assembly in 2017.

The virtual rout of both SP and BSP compelled the old rivals to sink their bitter differences. Perhaps there was no better option for either of them to take on a seemingly invincible BJP.

The by-polls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur became an ideal ground for testing the waters for such an alliance that brought Yadavs and the larger chunk of OBCs hand in hand with Dalits. Akhilesh Yadav mustered up courage to initiate a dialogue with Mayawati who responded by assuring her party's full support to the SP nominees in both constituencies. What apparently made it simpler for her to let bygones be bygones was the fact that Mulayam, with whom she bore some kind of personal enmity, was not in the SP's scheme of things anymore. It was an Akhilesh run party now and she bore no grudge against him. Akhilesh also made a mature move by visiting Mayawati at her residence and seeking her blessings.

The softening of her 23-year-old antipathy did wonders not only in the form of victory in Gorakhpur and Phulpur but even later after the defeat of the alliance in the Rajya Sabha. Even as speculation was rife that Mayawati would start blaming Akhilesh for her candidate's defeat in the Rajya Sabha poll, the BSP supremo made it loud and clear that the defeat results would not impact the SP-BSP relations.

At a especially convened press conference, she said, "BJP is playing cheap politics by trying to link Akhilesh Yadav with the guest house incident as he had not even entered politics at that time," she said. And while giving him a clean chit, she decided to train her guns at the BJP leadership by pointing out, "If BJP was really so much concerned about that incident, then they also need to remember that the same IPS officer who headed the Lucknow police at that time, has been made the state DGP by this very BJP government now."

She went on to ask, "Does it mean that BJP now intends to get me killed so that the Dalit movement could be crushed?" She, however, offered a word of caution to Akhilesh by telling him that he should not have relied on the pledged support by indepenedent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh, better known as Raja Bhaiya. She indicated that Raja Bhaiya ditched Akhilesh and actually supported BJP in the Rajya Sabha poll.

BJP's attempt at "divide and rule" seems to have failed so far. It was amply clear now that petty issues will not be allowed to come in the way of the alliance, that is expected to become larger with Congress, Rashtriya Lok Dal and other smaller political outfits getting together to give BJP a run for its money in 2019.

Also read: How BJP becoming largest party in Rajya Sabha will impact national polityA journalist was run over by a dumper in Madhya Pradesh's Bhind district on Monday. The scribe, 35-year-old Sandeep Sharma, had been reporting on illegal sand mining in the area and had recently filed a complaint citing a threat to his life, after he conducted a sting operation against a police officer. The video, aired on the news channel Sharma worked with, showed the policeman hand in glove with the sand mafia.

The Times of India quoted Bhinds press club president Sathyanarayan Sharma as saying that Sandeeps death was highly suspicious: He was a brave journalist and had filed stories against mining mafias. He was facing threat from a police officer whom he had exposed a few months ago and had submitted a complaint to the SP citing threat to his life. Fact that the dumper was empty also gives rise to suspicion, the president said. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has ordered a probe into the incident.

#WATCH:Chilling CCTV footage of moment when Journalist Sandeep Sharma was run over by a truck in Bhind. He had been reporting on the sand mafia and had earlier complained to Police about threat to his life. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/LZxNuTLyap  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

While the police will probe Sandeep Sharmas death, it brings under spotlight two key issues  the illegal sand mining flourishing in Madhya Pradesh, and the vulnerability of journalists in the country.

Sand mining in Madhya Pradesh

Unauthorised mining is rampant in Madhya Pradesh  between 2013-14 and 2016-17, cases of illegal mining of major minerals went up by 106.4 per cent, according to data released by the ministry of mines.

The Opposition, too, has been taking the government to task over the issue of sand mining, with Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Ajay Singh, alleging that the ruling BJPs leaders were giving protection to the sand mafia, and that even chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhans relatives were involved in it.

Truth is finally out in the open!BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan & Gujarat see highest illegal mining in India -A rise of 106.4%, 52.8% & 33.6% respectively.???? ??????? ?? ???,???? ??????? ?? ?????!https://t.co/lFAjDpndgl  Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) March 21, 2018

With sand perennially in demand due to the ever-expanding construction sector, unauthorised mining in the states rivers is common, and allegations have long been made that the practice has flourished because of collusion  from local officials to higher-ups in the government, everyone is a stakeholder in the offence.

As an earlier DailyO article notes: Reports of what are called the sand mafia thrashing government officials are routine. Even during the so-called ban months, (brief ban by government), sand was being mined using machines all along the Narmada in full public view.

The practice causes losses in revenue to the government, but even more worrying is its impact on the environment. It destroys a rivers ecology, forces rivers to change course and causes depletion of groundwater.

In November 2017, the government came up with a new way to regulate the sector, allowing anyone to mine sand by availing an online permission form and showing it to village sarpanches. However, allegations of lack of political will in controlling the menace persist.

Journalists at risk

It has not yet been proven if Sandeep Sharma was indeed killed by the sand mafia. However, the case brings back memories of a 2015 incident, in which a 40-year-old journalist in Madhya Pradesh was set ablaze by three people involved in illegal mining.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, 142 attacks against journalists for grievous hurt were registered nationwide from 2015 to 2017.

According to a 2015 report, India was among the three most dangerous countries for media personnel. According to the not-for-profit Committee to Protect Journalists, the death rate of journalists in India was lower only to war-torn Iraq and Syria. Most of the victims were working in smaller towns, and had been exposing corruption by local politicians and strongmen.

A 2016 report by the same body says that India features in the list of 13 high-impunity countries, where an overwhelmingly large proportion of such murders have remained unsolved. A 2017 report by Reporters Without Borders places India on the 136th position on a list of 180 countries in on a press freedom index.

Another high-risk group is that of RTI activists, with 69 killed and hundreds attacked since the Right to Information Act was passed in 2005, according to a report published in The Indian Express by Christophe Jaffrelott and Basim U Nissa. The report states that many of these activists were journalists.

India lacks adequate legal protection for journalists, with Maharashtra being the only state in the country with a dedicated law to protect scribes. The Maharashtra Media Persons and Media Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act, 2017, states that all attacks on "mediapersons and media houses in the state would be treated as cognisable and non-bailable offences, and any person committing, abetting, instigating or provoking any violent act against mediapersons or media houses shall be punished with up to three years in jail or a fine of Rs.50,000 or both."

However, attempts to formulate a similar law on the national stage have been stymied by arguments that the Indian Penal Code has sufficient provisions to deal with attacks on journalists.

The Press Council of India too is not a very powerful body, with its recommendations not considered binding on any authority.

Attacks on journalists are basically attacks on personnel in the line of duty  people working to expose corruption and rot in the system being done away with by that very system. A journalist silenced is a way to muzzle voices against those in power, and abusing that power. No democracy can thrive unless it has a free, fair and fearless press.

That cannot happen unless the law empowers those seeking to work for the powerless.

Also read: Modi's India is facing an acute jobs crisis. And no one is talking about itNepali Congress concerned over EU's election report

Major opposition Nepali Congress' ongoing central working committee meeting has discussed the election observation report prepared by the EU delegation.On the morning of March 20, I switched on my television only to find distressing shots of hundreds of students sitting on rail tracks demanding jobs from the government.

The students forced to resort to this extreme form of protest after a meeting with railways minister Piyush Goyal resulted in zero progress. It was not out of choice that these students decided to inconvenience commuters for close to three hours that morning, it was sheer desperation.

This week nearly 3,500 youths from across Maharashtra tried to march to the Vidhan Sabha in order to meet chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. They were stopped midway but due to the public pressure, Fadnavis was forced to meet them. Among the protesters were many youths from the rural belts who were demanding that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act be implemented effectively across the state.

In February, job-seekers from across Maharashtra protested against the government for not conducting the Maharashtra Public Service Commission exams for the past two years and for not filling almost 45,000 vacant posts. This is just a glimpse of the real and bigger picture. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) says about 31 million jobless Indians are currently looking for work.

It is a crisis that is becoming more severe with each passing day. The figures are worrying to say the least. The unemployment rate by the end of January stood at 6.1 per cent, the highest in the last 15 months. What's worse is that the rate is growing steadily in rural areas. The unemployment rate in rural India stands at 5.65 per cent up from 4.11 in March 2017. In Maharashtra, the unemployment rate has reached 3.7 per cent.

As I travel across rural Maharashtra, I see the reason why more and more youngsters are turning away from agriculture and seeking jobs. The droughts, debts and lack of support from government have convinced a large section of youths that agriculture no longer is a "stable means of livelihood".

The plight of the 35,000-plus farmers who marched demanding a loan waiver among other things is being witnessed by the youngsters in their homes and many are unwilling to face the same hardships. First, it is the weather that plays havoc on their hard work. Even if they manage to fight the weather gods and get a good crop, there is a lackadaisical procurement policy of the government that plays havoc. Hundreds of tur dal and chana dal cultivators, who have had a bumper crop haven't managed to sell their crop because the government hasn't got its act together.

So a section of rural youth is looking for the jobs promised by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government, and coming back with the same question - Where are the jobs?

I read a report in a national daily recently that said 129 engineers, 23 lawyers, a chartered accountant and 393 postgraduates were among 12,453 applicants who were interviewed for 18 peon posts in the Rajasthan secretariat. Imagine the number who must have applied. This is alarming.

When the BJP government came into power in 2014, they emphasised that employment generation would be one of its biggest missions promising to create over 250 million jobs over a period of 10 years. The promise was to create 2.5 crore jobs every year. But the reality couldn't be further from truth. Only 4.16 lakh jobs have been created in 2017. Also, 1.55 lakh and 2.31 lakh jobs were created in the years 2015 and 2016, respectively. The rift between the desired job creation rate and the unemployment rate is ever increasing. This raises serious questions over the future of the youth, which looks bleak.

Enough has been written on how demonetisation ruined our small and medium enterprises and put hundreds out of jobs. My concern is that the current government seems to be ignoring what is staring them in the face.

It is not just the 31 million who are jobless, but come May and a fresh batch of graduates will join the job market. And optimistic estimates say only 6,00,000 jobs will be created in 2018. Only. Now just imagine what awaits the rest.

Also read: Why Opposition has no chance in beating Modi in 2019Since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, all constitutional posts come as rewards for sycophancy towards the Sangh Parivar. The President, vice-president, and governors in India enjoy palatial homes, offices, elaborate entourage with little accountability to the people as they operate on the fringes of the Indian Constitution.

The constitutional offices have lost their credibility over the years and have become institutions through which the Centre maintains its hegemony over states. In a smart political move, the BJP had nominated former Union minister Venkaiah Naidu for the vice-president's post. Naidu belonged to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP's ideological mentor. His election to the high office ensured that for the first time since independence, all four constitutional posts are being held by lawmakers from the Sangh.

After the appointment of Uttar Pradesh born Ram Nath Kovind as President, the BJP also had regional balance in mind. The RSS has long been trying to expand its ideological footprint across south India, and it intended to expand its reach through appointing a vice-president from Andhra Pradesh. These are instances where the constitutional positions have been misused for political needs of parties.

In 2016, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, declared: "Now the time has come when we have to tell the new generation to chant 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'. It should be real, spontaneous and part of all-round development of the youth." Bhagwat, while demanding chanting of "Bharat Mata Ki Jai", also stated that this was necessitated as some forces were telling the youth not to say raise the slogan hailing "Bharat Mata".

Naidu assumed office on August 11, 2017, and after one month he was invited to deliver an address at the Indian School of Business (ISB) Leadership Summit in Mohali wherein he stressed upon the fact that "we also call our country Bharat Mata or Mother India", emphasising women empowerment and giving them equal opportunities. He asked students to be proud of their heritage and said: "From Puranas, we find that the education minister was Goddess Saraswati, defence minister was Durga Devi and finance minister was Laxmi Devi."

He also said that "Ram Rajya" is still hailed as the greatest period of Indian history because of the ideal governance it delivered.

Later, he also took a not-so-veiled dig at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi by saying, "Dynasty and democracy can't go together. Dynasty is nasty but tasty to some people."

In October 2017, the vice-president said that Lord Rama was an embodiment of Indian culture and that we must all work for Ram Rajya. He claimed that Lord Rama is our identity and we must let the younger generation learn about Ram, Rama Rajya, and direct them towards a "fair path".

Speaking on a day when the GST Council was meeting in Delhi, the vice-president said that people must understand that any transformation, any reformation faces "some initial hiccups, some teething troubles, but at the end of the day, Prime minister Narendra Modi's mantra of reform, perform and transform has a meaning and GST is India's most revolutionary tax reform ever." The constitutional post holder didn't shy away from openly praising the prime minister.

Advancing the RSS agenda of Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan, at an event in Telangana, Naidu said, "no element is more powerful" than the Hindi language to unify Indians and Hindi has played a historic role in the development of India's unity, integrity and linguistic goodwill. The remarks came during the 16th annual convocation of the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha in Hyderabad.

Naidu took only about three months to disqualify the rebel JD(U) MPs Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar, who stood staunchly against Modi government, on a JD(U) petition. Traditionally, such cases would keep pending for years together. However, Naidu altered it. The disqualification plea was filed before him on September 2, the vice-president's order came on December 4.

During the same time, a mayor in Uttar Pradesh ruled that singing of the national song, "Vande Mataram", before local body meetings was not a necessity, and vice-president was quick to respond by asking "Vande Mataram means salute to the mother. What is the problem with it, if you don't salute your mother, who would you salute, Afzal Guru?"

It is important to note that he asked this question while releasing a book on late VHP leader Ashok Singhal in New Delhi. He further emphasised that Hinduism was "our culture, our tradition" and some people were trying to give narrow meaning to it and attacking patriotism, and nationalism.

In January 2018, speaking at an event to mark Uttar Pradesh Diwas in Lucknow, he said that the name of Lord Ram should not be related to any particular religion and he should be seen as an ideal person. Hinduism is not a religion but a lifestyle and that is why India is named Hindustan. He further said that Ram Rajya is governance minus fear, corruption and discrimination, and everyone should rise above caste, religion and politics, and unite to make it a reality.

The RSS' false consciousness about Vedic science and its hatred towards western science is in the news almost daily.

At a time Goa chief minister, Manohar Parrikar, is battling pancreatic cancer in USA, our vice-president called upon all medical professionals and researchers to come up with path-breaking advances for exploring Ayurveda for alternative solutions to prevent and treat cancer in his address at the Graduation Ceremony of Tata Memorial Centre.

The BJP in-charge of Tripura Sunil Deodhar, clarified that in Tripur there are lots of Christians and Muslims, there are also some Hindus who consume beef and there shouldn't be a ban on consuming beef. But the vice-president again had a problem with beef festivals. He questioned the rationale behind holding a "beef festival" saying one could eat beef if one wanted, but there was no need to organise a festival for it. But it must be noted that the BJP candidate for Malappuram Lok Sabha by-poll, Sreeprakash, promised quality beef if elected.

The latest hint proving that Naidu is still in his RSS boots came when he compared Bihar government's initiative of "Sharab Bandi" (liquor ban) with Indira Gandhi-led Congress government's "Nasbandi" (forced vasectomy). He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of Bihar Diwas in Patna.

A holder of a constitutional post should ideally be a person who is above the lure of active politics. With the change of government at Centre we have got individuals whose qualification is not excellence in their disciplines but their proximity to ideology of the ruling dispensation. The Opposition has failed on insisting on a candidate who could help steer the country away from divisiveness and hate towards the pluralism and diversity that Indian society rests on. Citizens expected the NDA to uphold the dignity of the office by choosing a non-political impartial candidate. The previous NDA government did set an example by nominating APJ Abdul Kalam. I believed that they could set an example again. Sadly, I was wrong.

Also read: Why Delhi HC quashing disqualification of AAP MLAs is a big win for usNCI Building Systems, Inc. designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets metal products for the nonresidential construction industry in North America. It operates in four segments: Engineered Building Systems, Metal Components, Insulated Metal Panels, and Metal Coil Coating. The Engineered Building Systems segment offers engineered structural members and panels; and self-storage building systems under the Metallic, Mid-West Steel, A & S, All American, Mesco, Star, Ceco, Robertson, Garco, Heritage, and SteelBuilding.com brands to builders, general contractors, developers, and end users directly, as well as through private label companies. The Metal Components segment provides metal roof and wall systems, metal partitions, metal trims, doors, and other related accessories for use in new construction, and repair and retrofit applications; roll-up doors; and interior and exterior walk doors under the MBCI, American Building Components, Eco-ficient, Metal Depots, and Doors and Buildings Components brands to manufacturers, contractors, subcontractors, distributors, lumberyards, cooperative buying groups, and other customers. The Insulated Metal Panels segment offers insulated metal panels for architectural, commercial, industrial, and cold storage end-market applications under the Metl-Span and CENTRIA brands. The Metal Coil Coating segment engages in cleaning, treating, and painting flat-rolled metals in coil form, as well as in slitting and/or embossing the metal, before the metal is fabricated for use by industrial users. It also cleans, treats, and coats heavy and light gauge metal coils for use in construction products, heating and air conditioning systems, water heaters, lighting fixtures, ceiling grids, office furniture, appliances, and other products; and provides toll coating and painted metal package services under the Metal Coaters and Metal Prep brands. NCI Building Systems, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Read MoreRoyal Dutch Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company worldwide. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, Oil Products, Chemicals segments. It explores for and extracts crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; markets and transports oil and gas; produces gas-to-liquids fuels and other products; and operates upstream and midstream infrastructure necessary to deliver gas to market. The company also markets and trades natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil, electricity, carbon-emission rights; and markets and sells LNG as a fuel for heavy-duty vehicles and marine vessels. In addition, it trades in and refines crude oil and other feed stocks, such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, aviation fuel, marine fuel, biofuel, lubricants, bitumen, and sulphur; produces and sells petrochemicals for industrial use; and manages oil sands activities. Further, the company produces base chemicals comprising ethylene, propylene, and aromatics, as well as intermediate chemicals, such as styrene monomer, propylene oxide, solvents, detergent alcohols, ethylene oxide, and ethylene glycol. Royal Dutch Shell plc was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Read MoreResolute Forest Products Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates in the forest products industry in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Market Pulp, Tissue, Wood Products, and Paper. The Market Pulp segment offers virgin and recycled bleached kraft pulp, which is used to make a range of consumer products, including tissue, packaging, specialty paper products, diapers, and other absorbent products. The Tissue segment provides various tissue products, such as recycled and virgin paper products for the away-from-home and retail markets; and sells parent rolls. The Wood Products segment produces construction-grade and spruce-pine-fir lumber products, wood chips, bed frame components, finger joints, and furring strips for pulp and paper mills, as well as I-joists for the construction industry. The Paper segment offers newsprint to newspaper publishers, as well as to commercial printers for a range of uses comprising inserts and flyers. This segment also provides various uncoated mechanical papers, including supercalendered and white papers, as well as uncoated freesheet papers to commercial printers, direct mailers, publishers, catalogers, and retailers. Its specialty papers are used in books, retail inserts, direct mail, coupons, magazines, catalogs, bags, and other commercial printing applications. This segment sells specialty papers to commercial printers, direct mailers, publishers, catalogers, and retailers. The company also produces electricity at six cogeneration facilities and seven hydroelectric dams. Resolute Forest Products Inc. is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

Read MoreNepali man killed in India after dispute

A Nepali youth was killed with a sharp weapon in bordering Indian town of Jogbani on Monday.Salzgitter AG, together with its subsidiaries, engages in steel and technology businesses worldwide. It operates through five segments: Strip Steel, Plate/Section Steel, Mannesmann, Trading, and Technology. The Strip Steel segment manufactures branded and special steels, such as hot-rolled strip steel and steel sheets, sections, tailored blanks, and components for the construction industry. The Plate/Section Steel segment produces various high-grade heavy plates for engineering, shipbuilding, and mechanical engineering, as well as trades in scrap. The Mannesmann segment is involved in the manufacture of line pipes, HFI-welded tubes, precision and stainless-steel tubes, and spiral-welded and longitudinal-welded large-diameter pipes; and seamless and welded tubes for the energy, automotive, and mechanical engineering sectors. The Trading segment operates a European sales network, as well as trading companies and agencies worldwide. The Technology segment engages in the provision of machinery and plants for the filling and packaging of beverages, as well as special machinery engineering for shoe manufacturing and elastomer production. The company also provides IT, facility management, logistics, automotive engineering, and research and development services, as well as supplies raw materials. Salzgitter AG was founded in 1858 and is headquartered in Salzgitter, Germany.

Read MoreKinder Morgan Management, LLC is a limited partner in Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P (KMP), and manages and controls its business and affairs pursuant to a delegation of control agreement. Kinder Morgan G.P., Inc., of which Kinder Morgan, Inc. indirectly owns all of the outstanding common equity, is the general partner of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (KMP). Kinder Morgan G.P., Inc., pursuant to a delegation of control agreement among the Company, Kinder Morgan G.P., Inc. and KMP, has delegated to the Company, to the fullest extent permitted under Delaware law and KMP's limited partnership agreement, all of its rights and powers to manage and control the business and affairs of KMP, subject to the general partner's right to approve specified actions.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. 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Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.PageGroup plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides recruitment consultancy and other ancillary services in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and the Americas. The company offers executive search services under the Page Executive brand; recruitment services for qualified professional on permanent, temporary, and contract or interim basis under the Michael Page brand; recruitment services to organizations requiring permanent employees and temporary or contract staff at technical and administrative support, professional clerical, and junior management levels under the Page Personnel brand; and flexible recruitment outsourcing services under the Page Outsourcing brand. It also provides assessment, consulting, and talent services under the Page Assessment, Page Consulting, and Page Talent supplementary brands. The company was formerly known as Michael Page International plc and changed its name to PageGroup plc in June 2016. PageGroup plc was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Addlestone, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreOnline test: Chinese language proficiency

An online test of Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK)Chinese Language Proficiency Testwas launched on Saturday to cater to the growing number of students opting for higher education in China every year. The test has been administered in the conventional written form until now.Andeavor, through its subsidiaries, operates as an independent petroleum refining, logistics, and marketing company in the United States. The company operates in three segments: Marketing, Logistics, and Refining. The Marketing segment sells gasoline and diesel fuel through retail, branded, and unbranded channels. This segment operates a network of 3,255 retail stations under the ARCO, Shell, Mobil, and SUPERAMERICA brands. The Logistics segment gathers and transports crude oil by pipelines, as well as by trucks. It operates approximately 13 million barrels of crude oil, feedstock, blendstock, refined product, and asphalt storage tanks. The Refining segment buys and refines crude oil and other feed stocks into transportation fuels, such as gasoline and gasoline blend stocks, jet fuel, and diesel fuel, as well as other products, including heavy fuel oils, liquefied petroleum gas, petroleum coke, calcined coke, and asphalt. It also sells refined products in the bulk market principally to independent unbranded distributors, other refining and marketing companies, utilities, railroads, airlines, and marine and industrial end-users in the western United States. This segment owns and operates 10 petroleum refineries with a combined crude oil capacity of approximately 1,157 thousand barrels per day. The company was formerly known as Tesoro Corporation and changed its name to Andeavor in August 2017. Andeavor was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

Read MoreHornbeck Offshore Services, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides marine transportation, subsea installation, and accommodation support services to exploration and production, oilfield service, offshore construction, and the United States military customers. It operates offshore supply vessels (OSVs), multi-purpose support vessels (MPSVs), and a shore-based facility to provide logistics support and specialty services to the offshore oil and gas exploration and production industry, primarily Gulf of Mexico in the U.S., Latin America, and internationally. Its fleet of U.S.-flagged OSVs and MPSVs support deep-well, deepwater, and ultra-deepwater activities of the offshore oil and gas industry, such as oil and gas exploration, field development, production, construction, installation, well-stimulation, and other enhanced oil recovery, as well as inspection, repair, and maintenance services. The company also provides vessel management services, including crewing, daily operational management, and maintenance activities for other vessels owners. As of December 31, 2018, it owned and operated 66 OSVs and 8 MPSVs. Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Covington, Louisiana.

Read MorePM criticises EU poll mission for its report

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Sunday came down heavily on the European Union Election Observation Mission over its controversial report on the federal and provincial elections held in November-December last year saying that the EUEOM had undermined Nepals sovereignty and an overwhelming voter participation.JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company. It provides financial and investment banking services. The firm offers a range of investment banking products and services in all capital markets, including advising on corporate strategy and structure, capital raising in equity and debt markets, risk management, market making in cash securities and derivative instruments, and brokerage and research. It operates through the following segments: Consumer and Community Banking, Corporate and Investment Bank, Commercial Banking, and Asset and Wealth Management. The Consumer and Community Banking segment serves consumers and businesses through personal service at bank branches and through automated teller machine, online, mobile, and telephone banking. The Corporate and Investment Bank segment offers a suite of investment banking, market-making, prime brokerage, and treasury and securities products and services to a global client base of corporations, investors, financial institutions, government and municipal entities. The Commercial Banking segment delivers services to U.S. and its multinational clients, including corporations, municipalities, financial institutions, and non profit

Read MoreMandalay Resources Corporation, a natural resource company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, extraction, processing, and reclamation of various mineral properties. It explores for gold, silver, and antimony deposits. The company holds a 100% interest in the Costerfield gold-antimony mine covering an area of 7,540.78 hectares (ha) located in Central Victoria, Australia; and the Bjorkdal gold mine that comprises 9 mining concessions and 19 exploration permits located in Vasterbotten County in northern Sweden. It also holds a 100% interest in the Cerro Bayo silver-gold mine covering 29,495 ha of exploitation concessions and 45 hectares of exploration concessions located in the Cerro Bayo district, southern Chile. In addition, the company holds a 100% interest in the Challacollo silver-gold project, which includes 98 mining exploitation concessions covering an area of 20,378 ha located to the southeast of the port city of Iquique, Chile. Mandalay Resources Corporation was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreSept 2019 deadline set for Bhairahawa airport

The long-running multi-billion project to expand Bhairahawa airport into an international airport is expected to be completed by September 2019, officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) said, issuing yet another deadline for the completion of the national pride scheme.Throi, Basnet picked for Nai intl awards

The Nai Publications has announced the recipients of the Nai International Award for the year 2074 BS.UML condemns EU Election Observation Mission report

The ruling CPN-UML has said that the report issued by European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission (EOM) on 22 March along with its reference to the full report on observations of the Elections of the House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies of Nepal as 'blatant violation of the political independence of Nepal' which is protected by the Charter of the UN and other international laws, including customary international laws.Woman dies in tiger attack in Makwanpur

A woman died in an attack by a tiger in Ramauli Pratappur in Manahari rural municipality-7 of Makwanpur on Monday.1. Yes. Several other districts factor them in. It would provide a more complete picture.

2. Yes. Theyre not as accurate, but they can be useful in spotting a trend in infections.

3. No. The district is keeping tabs on those numbers, so the public doesnt need to.

4. No. As long as the public health district is aware of those stats, thats all that matters.

5. Unsure. The district isnt obligated to include them, but it might be helpful.

Vote

View ResultsNew Delhi: Former Governor of Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan on Friday said the country should enable its workforce to move out of agriculture into industry and services, as income in the latter sectors is much higher.

He said the society has always found ways to adapt to changing times even when there have been fears of machines replacing humans.

"We have to try and give people the ability to move out of agriculture into industry and services, where income is much higher. We need to figure out ways to do this," Rajan said here.

"What jobs will humans be able to do in 10-15 years that are immune from threat? Jobs that require high intelligence and creativity; jobs that require human empathy and jobs where human working for us bolster our status in some way," he added.

The former RBI Governor in his address outlining the vision for India at #FUTURE Global Digital Summit organised by the Kerala government also expressed fears that Artificial Intelligence would take up jobs - both high skilled and unskilled.

He said that the country needs to embrace technology and become a leader in the digital transformation taking place around the globe.

Rajan also said that India needs to create good jobs because the job statics are not very good in the country.

"We can clearly do well and we should do more, not just for people who are going to enter the labour force, but for the people who are already in it," he said.

The Professor, Finance at University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, said India has fewer jobs to lose. "Many don't have the cushy jobs, which are threatened. But that is an opportunity. Change is happening and the change will threaten job. We need to make people capable of adapting."

The #FUTURE Global Digital Summit, where hundreds of delegates, entrepreneurs, startup founders and CEOs took part in panel discussions, aimed at paving the way for the digital transformation of Kerala, where internet penetration is highest in the country.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan while inaugurating the two-day event on Thursday vowed to embrace digital technology as a means of bridging the gap between the rich and the poor.Hyderabad: Privatisation of public sector banks is not the answer to address the current problems in the sector, according to some industry figures, who say PSBs need empowered Boards with freedom to operate efficiently in an environment free from political interference.

Former Chief Financial Officer of Infosys Ltd, V Balakrishnan noted that the Global Trust Bank was a private bank when it failed, amid a debate on the functioning of PSBs and whether there is a case for privatising them.

"Also, in a country where the unbanked population is still high, you need public sector banks to both increase the reach as well as meet social objectives," he told PTI.

Balakrishnan said India's savings rate also is very high and PSBs provide the required safety net and comfort for savers.

The Banks Bureau Board, he said, should be made really effective in selecting the CEO, their compensation, their performance evaluation and also appointment of independent board members.

"The banks should be completely freed from political interference," Balakrishnan stressed.

"At the end of the day, it is the proper institutional mechanism along with strict regulatory mechanism and regulatory oversight that will determine the success of PSU banks."

But another former CFO of Infosys, T V Mohandas Pai, concurred with the view of former NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya, who has made a strong case for privatisation of PSBs with the exception of SBI.

"Yes, I agree (with Panagariya).. They (PSBs) need their freedom to operate. Right now the problem is the owner who does not let them work efficiently," Pai said.

Meanwhile, a retired Chairman and MD of a large PSB suggested empowering Boards of PSBs, allowing it to choose leadership and also recruit good human resource to significantly improve the functioning of the sector.

He said in a fast-changing world, PSBs need to internalise a lot of technologies and they need to have an agile and nimble structure.

"You have to really empower the Boards because they sit with banks with greater time frequency. They should be given the freedom to decide on the leadership and also the strategy," said this former top Banker on condition of anonymity.

Different banks are at different stages of risk management, and the Finance Ministry's "cookie-cutter" approach that "every bank is like this" does not really address the issues, he said.

What is needed is empowerment of the boards and bringing in right practices, risk management processes, monitoring and right mitigation measures, he noted.

"Board should decided leadership (Chairman, Executive Director)...how to recruit, who are the people who should be there. They need to decide, instead of the Ministry giving you directions all the time; again for the Ministry, it's not humanly possible. They (Finance Ministry) will always try to have a cookie-cutter approach", he added.

"Today, the Finance Ministry conducts 45-minute interview in order to determine who should lead the bank for the next three years.. Somebody will speak very well and that person may be only talk and no execution. You can never make out (in a short interview)," the former official said.Mr Prabhu said that trade imbalance with China is the most important issue to be taken up by the group.

New Delhi: India on Monday asked China to give it greater market access for export of services, agricultural and pharmaceutical products to bridge the high trade deficit.

Minister of commerce industry Suresh Prabhu and visiting Chinese minister of Commerce Zhong Shan, co-chaired the 11th meeting of India-China Joint Group on Economic Relations, Trade, Science and Technology here.

Mr Prabhu said that trade imbalance with China is the most important issue to be taken up by the group. He exhorted his Chinese counterpart for greater market access for agricultural products including rapeseed, soyabean, basmati and non-basmati rice, fruits, vegetables and sugar.

The minister said that another commodity which could be exported from India to China is the high quality pharmaceutical products. He said that export of Indias IT and ITeS to China and co-operation in the sectors of tourism and healthcare needs to be focused on.

Chinese minister Mr Shan welcomed Indian investment in China and promised to address the trade deficit between the two countries, said a statement by commerce ministry. Mr Shan said that candid and effective discussions with India on trade relations can serve as the propeller for the growth not only between the two countries but in the entire region.

Both the sides deliberated upon ways to boost two-way trade, preparation

of an action plan, greater focus on Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and e-dialogue.Hyderabad: While the European Union has strict norms on ink used for packing of food to prevent health hazard, India, in comparison, has norms that are voluntary.

With the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) initiating talks to implement stricter norms, Siegwerk, which produces ink for the flexible packing industry, on Monday, urged regulators to include toluene-based ink in the list of banned substances.

The company, which has shunned Toluene-based inks from its portfolio, hopes that the chemical  a health risk  should be included among the list of banned

substances.

Siegwerk India CEO Ashish Pradhan said, Over the past decade, the EU has strengthened its norms on food packaging after scandals emerged that toluene-based ink used in packaged foods migrate past to contaminate the food. Although India already a standard in place on packaged foods, its voluntary.

Even a country like Sri Lanka has made a stand against such ink. However, about 90 per cent of the market in India is still using toluene-based inks," he added.

When asked about possible substitutes and its impact, Mr Pradhan said, There are alternatives already available that are on par in cost or slightly on the higher side.

Companies in the EU have switched to alternatives. There would hardly need to upgrade their machineries as non-toluene-based inks can be used in the same machines.

Mr Pradhan, however, admitted that by switching to non-toluene based ink, the company will lose out on nearly 85 per cent of the market.The study was done on more than a lakh newborns of healthy women with full-term pregnancies without complications aged between 20 and 35.

Chennai: Caesarean babies are at a higher risk of health complications, reveals a study published in journal Birth. Caesarean babies were found to have a higher chance of developing respiratory infections, metabolic disorders, obesity, diabetes and eczema.

The study was done on more than a lakh newborns of healthy women with full-term pregnancies without complications aged between 20 and 35.

The outcomes stated that children born through medical interventions such as caesarean sections had a three times higher risk of various health problems.

Children from instrumental birth could develop hypothermia following birth up to five years of age and metabolic disorders, while obesity and diabetes could affect them later in the life.

With an increase in higher caesarean section rates these days, medicos stress on long-term outcomes of medical interventions. The number of caesarean sections for delivery has increased manifold in last few years to ease the delivery process, but the adverse effects last throughout the life not only for the mother, but also the child. Pregnancy and delivery is a natural process and medical interventions change the naturality of the process, said obstetrician Dr A. Shanti.

Medicos blame sedentary lifestyle for an increased rate of caesarean sections, which could later cause health problems such as jaundice, eczema and respiratory problems.

We see more women coming with moving head and cephalopelvic disproportion, which is mostly due to sedentary lifestyle, and does not end in normal labour. To end the complications associated, medicos opt for caesarean sections, says Dr Mala Raj, consultant gynecologist, Firm Hospitals.

The short-term outcomes of a medical intervention for delivery process that could harm the child are known, but medicos often neglect the long-term outcomes. The high rate of caesarean births also increases the need to research more on the risk of developing health problems over long-term period, adds Dr Mala.Chennai: In a shocking incident that exposes the lax security in Chennai banks, unknown persons drilled holes on Sunday night through a wall of the Indian Overseas Bank in the city and looted gold and cash worth Rs 1 crore.

According to police sources, the bank employees had opened the shutter of the bank situated on Arcot Road in Virugambakkam on Monday morning.

When they opened the doors of the bank, the employees experienced a burning smell. When they rushed to the cash safe and locker room, they found the lockers had been welded open, the source added.

After experiencing the smell, we rushed to the cash safe only to find scattered cash and boxes. Jewel lockers were also damaged. Then we alerted our manager and police, the employees said.

Meanwhile, the police had found that Shabir Lal Sandh, a security guard in his mid-20s, had gone missing. Shabir had been working as a security guard at the bank for past 5 years. He has been missing since Sunday evening. He is a Nepali, a police source revealed.

According to bank employees and customers, the burglars took away nearly 100 sovereigns of gold and Rs 32 lakh in cash. Locker number 259 and 654 of the branch was completely looted, while others are untouched, IOB branch manager Saroja confirmed.

A senior police official said that the there is no connection between the first and second floors. The burglars might have carried an LPG cooking gas cylinder and a welding hydrogen gas cylinder.

As the security guard had been living in the bank, he is probably the only person who could know every nook and corner of the bank. The heist might not have happened without the help of well-acquainted persons. As the handling of welding devices requires experience, one or more people might have conspired to carry out the bank job, sources added.

Immediately after the news of bank theft broke out, city police commissioner A.K. Viswanathan visited the spot and conducted preliminary investigations.

We have collected major clues in the case and we are confident that we will nab the perpetrators. The burglars had entered the bank by drilling a hole in the wall, Viswanathan said.

Meanwhile, local residents who are keeping their valuables in the bank's lockers gathered in front of the bank and created tension at the spot. We are keeping our jewels at banks to safeguard them from burglars. If the banks start being careless, where will we go, an angry customer rued.Bhopal: A journalist of a national news channel, whose sting operation had led to exposure of the nexus between sand mafia and police in Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, was mowed down by a dumper on Monday in suspicious circumstances.

The 35-year-old journalist, Sandeep Sharma, was hit by an empty dumper from behind when he was riding a bike in Bhind at 8.55 am, killing him on the spot.

The footage of CCTV installed in the area clearly showed that the dumper suddenly turned towards left, appearing as if the driver lost control of the vehicle, after negotiating a curve a few meters bef-ore the spot of the mishap and hit the deceaseds bike from behind.

The CCTV footage has gone viral in social media. The dumper was seized, but the driver of the vehicle has fled, local police told this newspaper.

A special investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to probe the incident. The police probe will cover all angels, Bhind district superintendent of police Prashant Khare told reporters.

The slain journalist had done a sting operation exposing nexus between the local police officer and sand mafia, which was aired in his news channel, leading to transfer of the police officer a few months back.

Prima facie it appears to be an accident from the CCTV footage. However, the SIT constituted to probe the incident will unearth the truth, IG (intelligence) Makrand Deoskar said.

According to him, the deceased journalist had in November last year sought police protection citing threat to his life.Bhopal: The city police on Sunday arrested four men for allegedly raping a 20-year-old college student.

The accused, caught after she lodged the complaint on Sunday morning, were paraded through busy streets by the police.

While the alleged incident took place on Saturday evening, the woman lodged a complaint with the Maharana Pratap (MP) Nagar Police Station on Sunday morning, and all four accused were arrested within an hour, Deputy Inspector General of Police Dharmendra Choudhary said.

The accused were paraded through busy streets, and some women among the onlookers were seen thrashing them.

Of late, police in Madhya Pradesh have taken to parading habitual eve-teasers or those accused of sexual offences through streets, as a measure of deterrence after the government came under fire for the increase in crime against women.

The DIG said that Shailendra Dangi (21), who is the victim's senior in her college, called her to a restaurant in the MP Nagar locality on Saturday.

According to her complaint, after she met him, they had a fight over some issue. Shailendra snatched her cell phone and took her to his friend Sonu Dangi's room near Apsara cinema, she told police.

Sonu Dangi (21), Dhiraj Rajput (26) and Chiman Rajput (25) were already present in the room, according to the complaint.

Shailendra and Dhiraj threatened to kill her and her family, and raped her, while Sonu and Chiman helped the duo, she told police.

Afterwards, they let her go, but warned not to disclose the incident to anyone, she said.

All were booked for gangrape as they were supposed to have acted with a common intention, additional superintendent of police Vikas Kumar Sahwal said. IPC sections 376 (rape), 376 (d) (gang-rape) and 365 (kidnapping) were pressed against them.

The accused confessed to the crime, DIG Choudhary said, adding that further probe is on.

When asked why police is parading the accused through the streets, Bhopal Inspector General of Police Jaideep Kumar said it has boosted women's confidence, and they are now coming forward to lodge complaints in such cases.

The parading has instilled a fear in offenders, he said.New Delhi: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China in June, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday asserted that India is "ready for any unforeseen situation" in Doklam, where the two countries were locked in a standoff situation for 73 days in 2017.

The Defence Minister added that India will "maintain" its territorial integrity.

Speaking to reporters in Dehradun, Sitharaman said, "We are alert and ready for any unforeseen situation in Doklam... we are constantly working on the modernisation of our forces and will maintain our territorial integrity."

Defence Minister Sitharaman's comments comes within a week of India's ambassador to China, Gautam Bambawale, saying in an interview to Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, that any attempt by China to change the status quo along the Indian border may lead to another Doklam-like standoff and that the best way to prevent such incidents is through candid and frank talks.

"No, I can tell you that in Doklam area, which we call close proximity or sometimes the face off site, the area where there was close confrontation or close proximity between Indian and Chinese military troops, there is no change taking place today," said Gautam Bambawale.

Earlier in March, the Defence Minister told the Rajya Sabha that China had undertaken "construction of some infrastructure, including sentry posts, trenches and helipads" close to the face-off point in Doklam.

Also Read: China building helipads, other infra in Doklam: Nirmala Sitharaman

Sitharaman's reply came in response to a question on whether satellite images have revealed that China has constructed seven helipads in Doklam besides deploying tanks and missiles in the area.

"Post disengagement from the face-off in 2017, troops of both sides have redeployed themselves away from their respective positions at the face-off site. The strength of both sides have been reduced," she said, replying to a question on the issue in Rajya Sabha.

Speaking about whether India has taken up the matter with China, Sitharaman said issues relating to the border are regularly taken up with the Chinese side through diplomatic channels and at Border Personnel Meetings, flag meetings and meetings of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, to be held in Qingdao, on June 9 and 10 and is also likely to hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.The girls brother, also demanded that killers of her sister get nothing short of a death sentence. (Photo: File | Representational)

Guwahati: The Assam Police on Monday arrested 21-year-old Zakir Hussain, the prime accused in the rape and murder of a class V student at Batardaba in central Assams Nagaon district.

The incident has rocked the state with people across the state demanding the toughest punishments, like death sentence, for the accused. Inside the legislative Assembly too, the lawmakers are pressing the government for adopting new laws to deal with convicted rapists even more firmly. The girls brother, also demanded that killers of her sister get nothing short of a death sentence.

A history-sheeter, Zakir, was tracked down on Sunday evening at Itapara locality in Nagaon town, about 40 km from his home at Lalung Gaon in Batadraba, when he tried to call one of his friends.

The signal from Zakirs mobile phone was soon picked up and traced to his friends place at nearby Raha. The friend was immediately picked up, who gave away the location of Zakirs hiding place.

Zakir made a last ditch attempt to escape as he sprinted out from the house of his relative at Itapara but was nabbed. Police have also picked up his father, Abdur Rezak, mother and brother.

Police said that Zakir has confessed to committing the crime. According to sources, Zakir allegedly raped the girl at her home in front of two minor boys who stood guard outside the house. The other members of her family were out on work. The trio was leaving the place after committing the crime when the girl threatened to tell it all to her brother and then Zakir returned with kerosene, poured it over the girl and set her on fire.

The girl was shifted to Nagaon civil hospital where doctors found that she had received 90 per cent burnt injuries and needed to be taken to Guwahati. She died on her way to Guwahati Medical College Hospital on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, police said that they are doing everything to put up a strong case against the accused. The victim has named all the three accused in her dying declaration and this piece of evidence is very strong. Police are taking all measures to ensure that they get the highest quantum of punishment in the court of law, Nagaon district police superintendent Shankar Raimedhi said.

The two minors have already been arrested on the evening of the crime and they too have named Zakir.

Local people are now saying that Zakirs family is a known trouble maker in the area and he along with his father had attempted to molest a girl long back. Zakirs brother was also lynched by people for allegedly raping a girl some years back.

Police records also show that Zakir was in jail in 2014 in connection with a burglary case.An FIR was also registered against Union Minister Ashwini Choubey's son Arijit Shashwat for allegedly inciting communal clash. (Photo: ANI)

Patna: Union Minister Ashwini Choubey's son Arijit Shashwat on Monday said he will move an anticipatory bail application against the arrest warrant issued against him on the charges of inciting a communal violence in Bihar's Bhagalpur.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Shashwat said that he will co-operate with the police when they will visit him.

"If the police come to arrest me I will do what they ask. I am moving an anticipatory bail application," he said.

He, however, refused to surrender and said that he has complete faith in Indian judiciary.

"Why should I surrender? The court has issued a warrant but the court also gives shelter. Once you go to the court, one will do what the court decides I have complete faith in the Indian judiciary. I am not an absconder, I am at my home," Shashwat said.

Bihar police said earlier on Sunday issued arrest warrant against Shashwat for the communal clashes that broke out in Bhagalpur, on March 17.

The incident took place during a procession that was carried out by workers from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), RSS and Bajrang Dal, and was led by Choubey's son Arijit Shashwat.

An FIR was also registered against Shashwat for allegedly inciting communal clash.

However, Shashwat earlier said the FIR was not filed for inciting the violence but under Loudspeakers Act.

"It's nowhere written in the FIR that I incited riots. It is written that I am being booked under Loudspeakers Act and that I didn't have permissions for the procession. Also, that people's sentiments might be hurt because we were raising slogans of Jai Shri Ram and Vande Mataram," he said.Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Union minister of state for finance and shipping Pon Radhakrishnan flag off the air service between Salem and Chennai in Salem on Sunday. (Photo: DC)

CHENNAI/SALEM: Salem airport, lying idle for seven years, saw a flurry of activity on Sunday when the first flight from Chennai arrived at the airport in Kamalapuram, about 15 km north-west of Salem.

Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and his Cabinet colleagues were among the passengers in the first direct flight that took off from Chennai to Salem on Sunday.

The Chief Minister and Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan flagged off the first service, by private carrier Trujet, operated by Hyderabad-based Turbo Megha Airways, between the two cities, at a function held in Salem.

This direct flight service was launched under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) of Centres UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagarik) scheme.

The flight, with a seating capacity of 72, will leave Chennai at 9.50 am and land at Salem airport at 10.40 am. The ATR 72-600 aircraft takes off from Salem at 11 am to reach Chennai at 11.50 am. The tickets are priced at Rs 1,499 per person.

Air service is very important as it will facilitate the establishment of new industries which in turn lead to job creation and economic development, Mr Palaniswami said. According to him, the Centre agreed to consider TNs demand for air services at Thanjavur and Neyveli under UDAN.

Salem and the towns around it will develop because of the flight service. Industries in Namakkal, Rasipuram and Erode areas will grow because of this, Mr. Palaniswami, who hails from Salem, said.

Mr Radhakrishnan, Civil Aviation secretary R.N. Choubay and others participated in the inaugural function at Salem airport, which has been unused after the Kingfisher airlines stopped its service in 2011.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Radhakrishnan, said similar facilities would be launched in four cities in the State. The Central governments efforts had revived the flight service between Chennai and Salem. Plans are on to introduce a flight in the night too. Following Salem, direct flights from Chennai to Thanjavur and Hosur are being planned, he said.

Participated and given special address at Chennai- Salem under #UDAN RCS Air connectivity. Highlighted our Honble PMs vision on RCS Air connectivity. @sureshpprabhu @MoCA_GoI, Mr. Radhakrishnan later tweeted.

Officials have renovated the terminal building at Salem, installed lights on the runway and other operational areas. They have also installed baggage scanner machines and posted a bomb-squad, fire and rescue services personnel on the airport premises. Recently, Trujet launched flights to Vijayawada from Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh after putting Hyderabad and Chennai from Kadapa on its map.

Kadapa airport director P Sivaprasad formally launched the services.

Todays launch was the first in the state under UDAN scheme, Mr Palaniswami said and recalled the sops offered by the State government under the UDAN scheme, including a proposal to provide a 20 per cent viability gap funding. He said the State government would take steps to expand the Kamalapuram Airport and already the land acquisition process is underway across Tamil Nadu for expansion of airports.

The CM also announced that a green corridor between Salem and Chennai would soon commence at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore, which would help reduce the travel time from the present six to three hours.D Roopa is currently the Inspector General of Police (Home Guard and Civil Defence, Bengaluru). (Photo: ANI)

Bengaluru: D Roopa, the Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who uncovered the alleged special privileges enjoyed by VK Sasikala in a Bengaluru jail, has refused to accept the "Namma Bengaluru Award" because it comes with a high cash reward.

According to the news agency ANI, D Roopa has written to the Namma Bengaluru Foundation, a non-profit organisation, that her conscience does not permit her to accept the reward.

Roopa is currently the Inspector General of Police (Home Guard and Civil Defence, Bengaluru).

"Every government servant is expected to maintain neutrality and equidistance from all quasi-political bodies and associations that have even the bare minimum political overtone. Only then a public servant can maintain a clean and fair image in the eyes of the public," Roopa said in her letter.

"It becomes all the more relevant now in the view of the ensuing elections," she adds, referring the Karnataka Assembly elections due this year.

Roopa was shortlisted along with seven officials for "Government Official of the Year" by the organisation, which is reportedly funded by a leader of the opposition BJP.

The Namma Bengaluru Foundation is funded by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a BJP member of the Rajya Sabha. This is the ninth edition of the awards.

In 2017, as Deputy Inspector General, Prisons, D Roopa exposed VIP treatment to influential prisoners including Sasikala, a close aide of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa who took over as AIADMK chief after her death.

Sasikala, who is serving a four-year prison term for corruption, was allegedly given a cot, mattress and pillow, besides a flat-screen TV in her cell and special meals.

Also Read: Siddaramaiah defends self, says didn't ask for 'cot, pillow' for Sasikala

D Roopa, in a report, suggested that Sasikala paid Rs 2 crore for these luxuries. The state's Congress government has been attacked by the BJP after it was reported that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah intervened to help Sasikala.Journalist Sandeep Sharma was probing a possible nexus between police and sand mafia. (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

Bhind: A 35-year-old investigative journalist with a national news channel Sandeep Sharma, who was probing illegal sand mining in Madhya Pradesh's Bhind district was fatally run over by a truck on Monday.

Sandeep Sharma was probing a possible nexus between police and sand mafia.

In a chilling CCTV footage, journalist Sandeep Sharma can be seen riding a motorcycle, when he was hit from behind by a speeding truck. The driver is believed to be absconding.

According to reports, the accident took place near a police station and the cops immediately reached the spot and rushed him to a hospital.

The 35-year-old was declared brought dead.

The journalist had earlier filed a police complaint about threat to his life due to a sting operation he conducted.

The sting operation that the scribe conducted showed a police officer taking bribe from the mafia.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia sought a CBI probe into the death of journalist Sandeep Sharma. Scindia said, "He was killed in broad daylight. Nothing less than a CBI inquiry should be done. Media is the fourth pillar of democracy and that is being crushed under BJP's rule."

Reacting to the unnatural death of journalist Sandeep Sharma, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, "Security of journalists is our priority and strict action will be taken against the culprit."

#WATCH:Chilling CCTV footage of moment when Journalist Sandeep Sharma was run over by a truck in Bhind. He had been reporting on the sand mafia and had earlier complained to Police about threat to his life. #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/LZxNuTLyap  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

(With inputs from ANI)Kochi: The controversies in connection with a series of land deals in Ernakulam-Angmalay Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church is all set to be resolved amicably, says Cardinal George Alencherry, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church on Sunday. In his message to the faithful on the occasion of Palm Sunday in Kochi Cardinal Alencherry, at the centre of the controversial land deals, said the official statement released by him and auxiliary bishops is the truth connected with the land deals. No one should be worried over other news appearing in this regard, he said.

All issues will be resolved through the collective efforts of the bishops, priests and members of the laity, he said. Thanking everybody for their prayers, the Cardinal said the days ahead are days of peace. Reminding the faithful that the whip of God is poised against all of us the Cardinal stressed the need for purification of the individuals, households and the church. All of us, including you and me are impure on various accounts, he said, and added that power and money are the sources of the impurity.

A Palm Sunday procession with donkeys being taken out at Rajagiri Christ The King Church, Sreemoolanagaram near Kochi in remembrance of the way in which Jesus Christ was paraded on the day. (Photo: DC)

A meeting of the Presbyteral Council meeting held on Saturday has ironed most differences that existed amongst the priests on the land deals even as representative bodies of the laity supporting and opposing the Cardinal remained divided. The land deal has rocked the Syro-Malabar Church for the past few months with a section of the priests and laity openly accusing the Cardinal with lack of transparency in the transactions connected with the sale of land belonging to Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese resulting to huge financial losses for the archdiocese.Congress President Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of misusing the PM's post to build personal database with intel on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by the government. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Hours after being accused by the ruling BJP of sharing user data, Congress on Monday took down both its App and the party membership website.

The Congress app is no longer available on Google Playstore. Those clicking on to its membership site are greeted by with the message reading: "We are incorporating minor changes to the website. Please visit us again in a while to access the INC Membership process."

In-charge of BJP's national Information and Technology, Amit Malviya was among the first to react to the Congress pulling down its App.

Rahul Gandhi gave a call to #DeleteNaMoApp, but Congress deleted its own App from the App store after they were called out. What is the Congress party hiding? pic.twitter.com/nAJTDAMmoc  Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) March 26, 2018

Malviya further added, "All of you who complained about the surge in anti-BJP and anti-government messages and fake news in recent days on social media, now know who was behind it - an insidious Cambridge Analytica hired by a desperate Congress!"

In earlier tweets on Monday, the BJP IT head had raised "privacy and consent conflicts" in the Congress party's own App.

Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of Indias oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore. pic.twitter.com/ceCTkod17D  Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) March 26, 2018

The Congress has been targeting the BJP over the Narendra Modi app of the Prime Minister amid reports that it sent user data to a US-based company without consent. The allegation surfaced alongside a massive scandal over the alleged misuse of personal data of Facebook users by the disgraced research group Cambridge Analytica to help political parties.

Read: Cong leaks info to Rahul friends, says BJP amid row over NaMo app data-sharing

On Monday morning too, Congress President Rahul Gandhi continued his attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP with another Tweet, posted with the hashtag #DeleteNaMoApp.

Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS.



Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians.



Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP.#DeleteNaMoApp  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 26, 2018

The Congress President further accused Narendra Modi of misusing the Prime Ministerial post to build personal database with intel on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by the government.On Monday even as arguments by Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Enforcement Directorate remained inconclusive, the Bench extended the protection till April 2. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court, which had restrained the Enforcement Directorate from arresting Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union minister P Chidambaram in connection with the INX Media case, on March 15 extended the protection granted to him till April 2.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, while extending the protection of stay of arrest granted by the Delhi High Court had transferred to the apex court all the petitions filed by Karti Chidambaram challenging the powers of the ED to arrest him under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act even without registering an FIR.

On Monday even as arguments by Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Enforcement Directorate remained inconclusive, the Bench extended the protection till April 2. The Bench is examining whether the High Courts can grant anticipatory bail to an accused under the PMLA in a writ petition.

Making his preliminary submissions, Mehta for the ED argued that the registration of ECIR (Economic Case Information Report) is itself based on a cognisable offence and the ED has the power to arrest, search, seize and attach properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Also Read: 'Vanakam', I'm back: Karti after given bail in INX Media, Aircel-Maxis case

He said Bombay, Punjab and Haryana and Delhi High Courts have interpreted Sections 19 and 45 of PMLA on power of arrest differently and hence the apex court should adjudicate the issue. The ASG said that if the power of arrest were taken away then it would be impossible for the ED to nab persons like Nirav Modi and others who had fled the country. This will become a legal device for persons to escape questioning by the ED.

He said the ED apprehended that more number of persons like Nirav Modi, who are facing money laundering cases will make an attempt to get relief by approaching the High Court seeking stay of arrest.

It said over 1,000 such cases are pending across the country being probed by ED and all these cases will be affected if Kartis anticipatory bail was not cancelled.

Karti is accused of having received Rs 10 lakhs in kickbacks in 2007 to clear foreign investment worth Rs 305 crore for INX Media, which was owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea, at a time when his father P Chidambaram was finance minister in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.

The ED prayed for quashing the High Court order. Arguments will continue on April 2.Hyderabad: There are no takers for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporationss solar project. In a bid to promote solar energy and save power charges, the corporation had decided to install roof-top grid-connected power generation plants on its properties.

The corporation, in September 2016, had conducted a survey to identify suitable properties to set up roof-top solar panels. It had hired two consultants for the said purpose where they had identified 42 properties from a total of 942, in February 2017. The corporation officials claimed the installation of solar panels would save a monthly expense of Rs 52.5 lakhs.

However, a year has passed, but the project still remains on paper. Officials claim that the executing agencies had been shying away from the project since the GHMC had asked them to install the solar panels for free and that they would only pay them later.

According to GHMC officials, the corporation has been consuming 1 lakh units per month, where the cost per unit was marked at Rs 7. The corporation expects to supplement nearly 47% of its total energy consumption through solar power, where the unit cost would be reduced to Rs 3.

The corporation has two options, to either go for the Capex model, where the corporation has bear 15 to 20 per cent of the total cost of the project, prior to its execution or the Resco model, a renewable energy service company that would provide the necessary capital for installing and operating the roof-top solar system in exchange for a power purchasing agreement with GHMC.

However, India has currently installed only 15 per cent of the total roof-top solar projects under the RESCO model. This is mainly because renewable energy service companies face the same key barriers as the consumers  that is, little access to affordable loans despite strong products and proven business models.

In both models the corporation has to enter into an agreement for a period of at least 25 years. Citing financial implications and the size of the project, the empanelled agency has opted for the Capex model, while GHMC can only afford the RESCO model.When queried on the subject, a senior GHMC official said that the roof-top solar project would take some more time as the empanelled agency was not interested in the RESCO model. He said that due to the project viability and the financial aspects of the project, the corporation could not go ahead with the project.

If the building was to be renovated or if it collapsed in 25 years, the Capex model would not be viable, as the empanelled agency would charge for the replacement of the solar panels. The corporation would have to bear a huge financial burden, hence the Capex model has been ruled out, he said. He said that the corporation was now planning to approach the Telangana State Renewable Energy Development Corporation (TSREDCO), where the unit cost was fixed at Rs 4.80.

The official further said that even though the minimum requirement to accept the RESCO model was 100 kilowatts (KW) per building, the corporation has decided to convince it to reduce it 40 KW. He said that the cost per KW was Rs 65,000 and it will be Rs 49,000 after getting a 30 per cent subsidy from the centre.

He said that two private agencies, M/s. TUV South Asia Pvt Limited and M/s. Energy and Resources Institute had already done the survey and had identified 42 buildings that would be suitable for the setting up solar panels. He said that if everything went well the project could take at least six months to take off.As many as 21 forest department staff and 33 government staff including police and revenue department staff had been summoned by the commission.

Chennai: The Kurangani forest fire toll rose to 21 on Monday, after a Chennai based victim Bhargavi (23) passed away due to infections at a corporate hospital in Chennai. The victim suffered 73 per cent burns and was on the ventilator for more than a week, informed sources said.

The prime accused Peter Van Geit, of Chennai Trekking Club, a Belgian national settled in India, is still missing from the police radar.

Meanwhile, the one man commission constituted by the state government to probe Kurangani fire tragedy intensified its investigation with local foresters and the public in Theni. The state officials also opened a dedicated office at Bodi municipality, where the public and the local villagers can share the information related to the Kurangani incident.

According to forest department sources, revenue secretary Atulya Mishra, who is also the special officer probing the Kurangani tragedy, had so far heard 73 people in connection with the accident.

As many as 21 forest department staff and 33 government staff including police and revenue department staff had been summoned by the commission. The special officer has also registered the submissions from 16 members of public and will be conducting inquiry with the survivors of the Kurangani fire accident.

The families who have lost their dear ones in the fire accident are also to be heard.New Delhi: Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on Monday moved the Supreme Court on seeking a review of its verdict, which held that an arrest of accused is not mandatory under the provisions of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.

Earlier a three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud agreed to go into the correctness of the order passed by Gujarat High court granting anticipatory bail to certain industrialists accused of grabbing forest lands belonging to STs.

Indirectly the court by issuing notice has agreed to consider in the first week of May whether the apex court judgment is correct or not.

Senior counsel Dushyant Dave appearing for the appellant Arjun Shankarbhai Rathod, argued that the high Court while granting anticipatory bail to Balubhai Ravibhai Ahir and others had relied on the March 20 judgment and held that the complaints against the accused are malafide. Counsel said there is a debate on this disturbing issue and if others relied on the apex court judgment, the accused under the SC/ST Act would be released on bail.

Meanwhile, the court refused to stay the anticipatory bail granted by the Gujarat High Court to two builders accused of land grabbing and atrocities against tribals, following the top courts verdict laying down safeguards.Social platforms such as WhatsApp are a handy tool for leaking question papers and forwarding answers to students in the examination hall.

Hyderabad: Despite stern warnings from the Telangana government about exam malpractices - including a jail term for erring students and teachers - cheating continues in SSC public examinations in Telangana.

Social platforms such as WhatsApp are a handy tool for leaking question papers and forwarding answers to students in the examination hall. More than 25 cases of malpractice, including two related to question paper leaks, have been booked so far in the state. Lawyers and educationists are of the view that the unhealthy competition between private schools, particularly corporate schools, is causing much of these malpractices.

The Hyderabad High Court that recently heard a PIL seeking to curb mass copying and malpractices in SSC and Inter Public Examinations, observed that mass copying will damage educational standards. It also said that parents must change their attitude of wanting their wards to secure more marks by any means.

While directing the state governments of AP and Telangana to install closed-circuit cameras in examination centres in both states, the High Court observed that parents are pressuring children to secure high marks without caring about improving the childrens knowledge, and this has resulted in mass copying. Private schools and colleges are also exploiting the aspirations of people by encouraging mass copying so students get high marks.

Following the directions of the High Court the School Education Department of Telangana installed closed circuit cameras in around 500 of 2,500 exam centres in the state.

The SSC public examinations commenced in the state on March 15. The Telangana police registered cases against 16 teachers, including four government school teachers, for leaking class 10 question papers on WhatsApp groups one hour before the exam in Adilabad district. Parents and relatives accessed the answers and then brazenly went to examination centres and handed over the chits with the answers written on them to the students.

On March 23, police raided a private school in Narnoor in Adilabad district where mass copying was allegedly going on. R. Sarotham Reddy, president of the Progressive Recognised Teachers Union, pointed out that teachers are not the only culprits; parents are encouraging cheating so that their children get high marks. Schools are also complicit as district collectors require 100 per cent pass results in government schools.Moreover, the state government has told HMWSSB not to draw water from Himay-athsagar and Osmansagar in a view of recharging of borewells in surrounding areas. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: There will be a severe drinking water crisis from April to July this year in the twin cities and surrounding areas, if the water boards assessment is to be believed. Water levels in reservoirs are low as the monsoon last year was not very robust.

Moreover, the state government has told HMWSSB not to draw water from Himay-athsagar and Osmansagar in a view of recharging of borewells in surrounding areas. The water board is planning to get water from private water sources such as borewells to meet drinking water needs.

Poor rains in July-October last year saw water levels in Nagarjuna Sagar  the main source of water for HMWSSB  reduce considerably, pro-mpting HMWSSB officials to warn of a severe water crisis this summer. Borewells that supplement the water supply are also likely to go dry.

Should there be power breakdowns, water supply services will be further dislocated in Hyderabad which is predominantly dependent on the pumping system. Water is pumped from the Krishna, Manjeera and Godavari rivers so power supply is crucial to keep the pumps going.

As water levels sink in reservoirs, water is drawn from dead storage, which is likely to contain high turbidity, algae and other impurities and would require special treatment, including addition of chemicals such as activated carbon.Even before the two national parties could start their poll campaign, former CM and JD(S) state president H.D. Kumaraswamy had hit the road. Ten years out of power, he feels that the forthcoming election would be decisive for the future of regional parties in Karnataka.

Despite predictions by poll pundits that the JD(S) will not be able to capture power on its own, Mr Kumaraswamy feels his party will achieve the magical number of 113, needed to form the government. In an interview with Deccan Chronicle, he says his partys campaign this time would be a mix of traditional methods supported by a high tech propaganda blitz through the digital media. Excerpts from the interview:

How crucial is this election for your party?

Being out of power for ten years, the election is an acid test for me. It is difficult for any regional party to survive without power for a long time. This time, we have to come to power.

There have been many incidents in the party, leaders have migrated, looking for greener pastures. They feel the party will not come to power. There is an inevitability for us to rise above the two national parties- Congress and BJP. However, it is not confined to JD(S) alone. It is inevitable for the people of Karnataka to get out of the clutches of the national parties. Both have drifted from the track in governance. That is a positive point for us.

How are you preparing for the polls?

Before the national parties could do it, JD(S) announced the first list of its candidates and they are already at work. Even before the two parties could finalise poll strategies, I hit the road and have been touring the entire state. In the Congress and BJP, candidates are not sure about their seats, they are still lobbying for tickets.

During the previous two elections, I had committed some mistakes. After a thorough introspection and discussion with our national president Mr Deve Gowda, I have managed to correct these mistakes. Earlier, people used to gather wherever I went, but this mobilisation did not convert into votes. This time, I can see that they are turning into votes. Besides, I have got people in every constituency, who can capitalize on these crowds and convert them into votes for themselves.

Though you claim to be secular, why has the Congress intensified its attack on you?

This is basic Congress culture. It wants to have a patent for being secular and tries to impose it wherever it is strong. However, wherever it is weak, it seeks the help of smaller or regional parties.

Take Karnataka itself. When it fell short of numbers in BBMP, Congress leaders came to us for support. Even during the Assembly by-elections in Nanjangud and Gundlupet, KPCC president Dr Parameshwar and Mr Dinesh Gundurao came to me, pleading not to field candidates and help them win the election.

What does Mr Rahul Gandhi know about Karnataka to call us the B-team of BJP? His entire party is the B-team of Janata Parivar.

Mr Siddaramaiah calls JD(S) leaders opportunists. Let him come out with the truth about visiting Mr LK Advani's house to join the BJP, when Mr Kharge was made opposition leader. Mr Siddaramaiah was always an opportunist, he took the help of everyone and later put them down.

These arrogant statements will prove counterproductive for the Congress not only in Karnataka, but in the entire country.

You said if you cough standing next to BJP, the Congress will be wiped out...

I was just warning them about their plight, if I join hands with BJP again. When I had formed the government with the help of BJP(in 2006), Congress leaders used to say that they did not have a future for the next 20 years. Now, they are passing all kind of comments against our party and trying to break us by spreading rumours that we will not come back to power.

One of our leader, who quit (Zameer Ahmed) says that I have been pestering him to rejoin the party. I am not desperate. The Congress is desperate to have leaders from other parties to regain whatever they have lost. If they continue to behave like this in Karnataka, the BJP's dream of making the country Congress Mukt, will come true. This is just a warning to them.

There are rumours about several of your family members contesting the polls?

I have always maintained that only two from our family will contest. However, party workers want some more from our family to contest, citing local reasons. In Bengaluru Rural district, I have a dream of converting Ramanagara-Chennapattana into twin towns for better development, so I have to win both seats. Since it is difficult to resolve differences among party workers in Chennapatna, party workers want either Mrs Anitha or me to contest from there. There is also a proposal that I should contest from both constituencies. I have left the decision to people of Ramanagara.

Though you claim to be a farmers party, you are adopting modern technology. How important is it to you?

Our agenda is not only protect farmers, but also be a catalyst for development. When it comes to branding, this is a necessity of the changing times, so we are using Social Media and other tools to reach out to people in real time. Mr Deve Gowda still follows the traditional way of campaigning, so our method would be a mix of modern techniques and traditional experience.

After all this, if voters deliver a fractured mandate like they did in 2004, what will be your stand?

I don't believe in this theory at all. I am confident of touching the magical figure of 113 and even more. We know the pulse of people on the ground, we are not making absurd claims.Chennai: The BJP has taken strong exception to Makkal Needhi Maiam founder-president Kamal Haasan for his support to the agitation against Sterlite copper plant in Tuticorin and wondered if he is aware of the problems of workers in the film industry.

BJP state unit president Tamilisai Soundararajan, who chose to target the actor-politician on a new issue, asked are you aware of the fact that labourers and technicians of the film industry, who created you, are suffering without jobs due to the ongoing strike by the Tamil Film Producers Council? Are you with them?

Dr Tamilisai took to her official Twitter handle to take on Haasan who had said, Media and Tamilians are obliged to participate in the Sterlite protests. I am with the people of Tuticorin. If the protesting team calls me, I will come.

BJP chief further said that Kamal should focus on resolving the problems faced by the film industry first before voicing his concern for other issues.

A large number of people had gathered near the Chidambaram Nagar bus stand in Tuticorin on Saturday, protesting against the expansion plans of the copper smelter plant in the district and demanding the closure of the plant.

Meanwhile, on the launch of Chennai-Salem flight services under the Central governments UDAN scheme on Sunday, Dr Tamilisai said the service would benefit the people including the poor to commute between the two cities faster at an affordable price. The UDAN scheme, she said is a boon for the people and even the industries. I am delighted to take part in the inaugural flight and also the function, she tweeted.Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam has become the most sought-after alliance partner in Telangana for the 2019 elections after it snapped ties with the BJP. Both the ruling TRS and the main opposition party, the Congress, are keen to have a pre-poll tie-up with the TD.

These parties feel that the TD still enjoys up to seven per cent of the traditional vote bank in Telangana State and this will play a decisive role on who will capture the power in the state in 2019.

While the Congress is learnt to be ready to offer a Lok Sabha seat and 15 Assembly seats to the TD in 2019, the TRS is reportedly in favour of offering a Lok Sabha and 12 Assembly seats.

Even after bifurcation of state and the TD being projected as a Andhra party during the 2014 elections, it won one Lok Sabha and 15 Assembly seats in TS in alliance with the BJP.

However, the TDs lone Lok Sabha member from Malkajgiri Ch. Malla Reddy and 12 MLAs defe-cted to the TRS, while TD MLA Revanth Reddy defected to the Congress. With the defection, the Telugu Desam is now left with only two MLAs, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah (Sathupally) and R. Krishnaiah (LB Nagar).

The TDs alliance partner BJP won one Lok Sabha seat from Secunde-rabad (Bandaru Dattat-reya) and five MLA seats, all from GHMC limits (Amberpet, Musheera-bad, Uppal, Khairatabad and Goshamal).

With the TD moving away from the BJP in protest against the NDA governments refusal to accord special category status to AP recently, the impact is being felt on Telangana too.

TD national president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has kept the alliance options in Telangana open and during the meeting held with Telangana TD leaders in Hyderabad last month.

In fact, T-TD leader Mothkupalli Narsimhulu has already proposed either the merge T-TD in the TRS or striking a pre-poll alliance, which created flutter in party circles.

MLA A.Revanth Reddy has been pitching for Congress-TDP alliance.

Congress sources said, The proposal of Congress-TD alliance has already been discussed with Congress president Rahul Gandhi. It is under his active consideration.Hyderabad: After the French security researcher exposed the data breach by the Narendra Modi app, the ethical hacker exposed personal data misuse by the Congress party. He alleged that the WithINC app was sending user details to Singapore.

After 11 hours of digging into the INC app, he revealed, When you apply for membership in the official@INCIndia#android# app, your personal data are sent encoded through an HTTP request to membership.inc.in.

And the news on deletion of the app broke when he again tweeted, Did @INCIndia remove their #android#app from the play store just before my tweet. The Congress party denied the charges, but said it has been decided to remove the application from the Play Store since people were being misled by a French vigilante alleging that the app insecurely transmitted user data.

A tweet from its official Congress handle said, The WithINC app is a membership app & has not been in use for over 5 months since we moved membership to inc.in from 16th Nov 2017. The URL (membership.inc.in) quoted by the media is the defunct URL from the app. The actual membership URL can be seen below. The handle attached the official INC page.Hyderabad: In a significant development, the TRS has decided to withdraw its protests on the reservations issue in the Lok Sabha so as to deny an excuse to the BJP government to get the House adjourned sine die. The ruling party in the state wants to allow the no-confidence motions against the Narendra Modi government to be taken up.

The decision was taken at a TRS parliamentary party meeting chaired Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday. The Telangana Rastra Samiti (TRS) will also participate in the debate on the no-confidence motion, if it comes up in the House. The party would, however, take a decision whether to vote in favour of the no-confidence motion later.

The protests by TRS and AIADMK members in the Lok Sabha forced Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan refuse the admission of no-trust motions moved by the YSRC and the Telugu Desam citing lack of order. Some political parties have accused the TRS of helping out the central government by stalling the proceedings.

TRS MP K. Kavitha, however, said that her party supports the demand for the special category status for AP.

Despite the support, she said some AP leaders are blaming her party and asked them not to speak in a manner that insults the people of Telangana and the Telangana agitation.

Speaking to media persons after the meeting, TRS parliamentary party leader K. Keshava Rao rejected accusations of the TRS obstructing the no-confidence motion. It is also not true that it is due to the TRS that the House is being adjourned every day as AIADMK members are also protesting on the Cauvery water issue.

Though the party members will not protest in the well of the House from Tuesday, Mr Keshava Rao sought add that there is no question of his party going back on their demand on the reservations issue.

Explaining further, party MP G. Vinod Kumar said his party demands one nation, one act on reservation as some states have a quota of more than 50 per cent while some dont.New Delhi: Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee, who has been positioning herself as the leader of an anti-BJP national alliance, arrived in Delhi on Monday for a three-day visit during which she will meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and leaders of other Opposition parties.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi might walk in during her meeting with Mrs Gandhi. Ms Banerjee is also scheduled to meet Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, a potential leader of a united Opposition.

Ms Banerjee who has, since demonetisation, reached to leaders of various regional parties, is also likely to meet rebel Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav and Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. She may also call on leaders of the Telugu Desam Party and Shiv Sena.

This would be the West Bengal chief ministers first visit to the capital since she made clear her ambitions of leading an Opposition alliance of parties to take on the Modi-led BJP in the 2019 general elections. While Ms Banerjee has no issue in aligning with the Congress, or even the Left, she has indicated that it would be difficult for her to work under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi as she is politically more experienced.

On the other hand, Ms Banerjee shares a very good rapport with former Congress chief Mrs Gandhi. Trinamul sources maintained that discussions have already taken place for a possible meeting between Mrs Gandhi and Ms Banerjee, and that she is unlikely to meet the Congress president.

Congress sources, however, said that Mr Gandhi might just walk in and join the discussions.

The Trinamul chief has floated the idea of a Third Front and has spoken to numerous leaders like Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao.The 61-year-old limo driver converted a mobile home into a ramp and modified it to launch from a vertical angle so he wouldn't fall back to the ground on public land. (Photo: Facebook)

He finally went up  just like the self-taught rocket scientist always pledged he would. He came back down in one piece, too - a little dinged up and his steam-powered vessel a little cracked up.

Still, mission accomplished for a guy more daredevil than engineer, who drew more comparisons to the cartoon character Wile E. Coyote from his critics than he did to iconic stunt man Evel Knievel.

"Mad" Mike Hughes, the rocket man who believes the Earth is flat, propelled himself about 1,875 feet into the air Saturday before a hard landing in the Mojave Desert. He told The Associated Press that outside of an aching back he's fine after the launch near Amboy, California.

"Relieved," he said after being checked out by paramedics. "I'm tired of people saying I chickened out and didn't build a rocket. I'm tired of that stuff. I manned up and did it."

The launch in the desert town  about 200 miles (321.85 kilometers) east of Los Angeles  was originally scheduled in November. It was scrubbed several times due to logistical issues with the Bureau of Land Management and mechanical problems that kept popping up.

The 61-year-old limo driver converted a mobile home into a ramp and modified it to launch from a vertical angle so he wouldn't fall back to the ground on public land. For months he's been working on overhauling his rocket in his garage.

It looked like Saturday might be another in a string of cancellations, given that the wind was blowing and his rocket was losing steam. Ideally, they wanted it at 350psi for maximum thrust, but it was dropping to 340.

"I told Mike we could try to keep charging it up and get it hotter," said Waldo Stakes, who's been helping Hughes with his endeavor. "He said, 'No.'"

Sometime after 3 p.m. PDT, and without a countdown, Hughes' rocket soared into the sky. Hughes reached a speed that Stakes estimated to be around 350mph before pulling his parachute. Hughes was dropping too fast, though, and he had to deploy a second one. He landed with a thud and the rocket's nose broke in two places like it was designed to do.

"This thing wants to kill you 10 different ways," said Hughes, who had an altimeter in his cockpit to measure his altitude. "This thing will kill you in a heartbeat.

"Am I glad I did it? Yeah. I guess. I'll feel it in the morning. I won't be able to get out of bed. At least I can go home and have dinner and see my cats tonight." He got permission to launch on the land owned by Albert Okura, who bought Amboy in 2005 for $435,000. Okura was in attendance and said the event lasted about three to four minutes. The rocket landed about 1,500 feet from the launch ramp, Stakes said.

"Mike branded us as 'Rocket Town,'" Okura said. "It was amazing."

This has been quite an undertaking for Hughes, who lives in Apple Valley, California. He's seen a flurry of reaction to his plans, with detractors labeling him a crackpot for planning the launch in a homemade contraption and his belief that the world is flat.

Some naysayers have posted things like "He'll be fine" with a picture of Wile E. Coyote strapped to a rocket.

"I hope he doesn't blow something up," retired NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger said as Hughes' plans captured widespread attention. Linenger orbited the globe more than 2,000 times during four months in 1997. "Rocketry, as our private space companies found out, isn't as easy as it looks." Hughes often sparred with his critics on social media leading up to the launch, through Facebook comments and a 12-minute video addressed to his doubters. He's always maintained that his mission isn't to prove the Earth is flat. "Do I believe the Earth is shaped like a Frisbee? I believe it is," he said. "Do I know for sure? No. That's why I want to go up in space."

That's his project for down the road. He wants to build a "Rockoon," a rocket that is carried into the atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon, then separated from the balloon and lit. This rocket would take Hughes about 68 miles up.

He has a documentary crew following him around to record his ambition, with a planned release in August. This was actually the second time he's constructed and launched a rocket. He said he jumped on a private property in Winkelman, Arizona, on Jan. 30, 2014, and travelled 1,374 feet. He collapsed after that landing and needed three days to recover.

But there wasn't any footage of him climbing into the craft, leading some to question whether he even took off.

This one was going to be shown online through Noize TV.

"My story really is incredible," Hughes said. "It's got a bunch of story lines  the garage-built thing. I'm an older guy. It's out in the middle of nowhere, plus the Flat Earth. The problem is it brings out all the nuts also, people questioning everything. It's the downside of all this."

His future plans are simple: Fill out the paperwork to run for governor.

"This is no joke," Hughes said. "I want to do it."

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.The European Commission is in the process of drafting a new regulation aimed at regulating e-commerce sites, app stores and search engines to be more transparent in how they rank search results and why they delist some services.

The European Union holds grave suspicions about the dominance of internet giant Google and has not ruled out breaking it up, according to a warning by the EUs antitrust chief, Britains Telegraph reported on Sunday.

European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager reckons the threat to split Google into smaller companies must be kept open, the newspaper said.

Google currently faces new EU rules on its commercial practices with smaller businesses that use its services.

Late last year, Vestager said more cases against Google were likely in the future, after the European Commission slapped a record 2.4 billion euro ($2.97 billion) fine on the worlds most popular internet search engine and told the firm to stop favoring its shopping service.

The European Commission is in the process of drafting a new regulation aimed at regulating e-commerce sites, app stores and search engines to be more transparent in how they rank search results and why they delist some services.

The antitrust chiefs office was not immediately available for comment on the Telegraph report.

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.The Federal Trade Commission confirmed news reports from last week that it had opened an inquiry over the harvesting of Facebook.

A US consumer protection agency said it has opened an investigation into Facebook's privacy practices, in another blow to the social network struggling to deal with a growing crisis on the misuse of its member data.

The Federal Trade Commission confirmed news reports from last week that it had opened an inquiry over the harvesting of Facebook data on tens of millions users of the social network by the British consulting group Cambridge Analytica.

While the FTC normally refuses to comment on its probes, it took the unusual step of confirming a "non-public investigation" into Facebook over whether it mishandled private data or violated a 2011 agreement which settled an earlier probe.

"The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers," said acting consumer protection chief Tom Pahl.

"Foremost among these tools is an enforcement action against companies that fail to honour their privacy promises, including to comply with Privacy Shield (the US-EU privacy accord), or that engage in unfair acts that cause substantial injury to consumers in violation of the FTC Act."

Pahl added that companies who have settled previous FTC actions "must also comply with FTC order provisions imposing privacy and data security requirements."

Facebook signed a consent decree with the consumer agency in 2011 settling charges that it deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then allowing it to be shared and made public.

Pahl said the agency "takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook."

Facebook shares skidded more some three per cent after the announcement, having lost some 14 per cent last week over a crisis which has wiped out some $90 billion in market value.

Raid in London

The world's biggest social network is also facing calls on both sides of the Atlantic for more information on how its user data was leaked.

A public apology by Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has failed to quell outrage over the hijacking of personal data.

Separately, Facebook disputed reports that it had been logging call and text data surreptitiously from its users.

A Facebook statement said call and text history logging "is part of an opt-in feature" for those using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android.

"This helps you find and stay connected with the people you care about, and provides you with a better experience across Facebook," the statement said while pointing to ways users can turn off the feature.

British authorities meanwhile said they were assessing data seized in a raid on the London offices of Cambridge Analytica as part of their investigation.

About 18 enforcement agents from the Information Commissioner's Office participated in the raid late Friday after getting a court order.

"This is one part of a larger investigation by the ICO into the use of personal data and analytics by political campaigns, parties, social media companies and other commercial actors," the agency said.

Cambridge Analytica, which worked on US President Donald Trump's election campaign, has been accused of illegally mining tens of millions of users' Facebook data and using it to target potential voters.

Facebook took out full-page ads in nine major British and US newspapers on Sunday to apologise to users.

"We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't we don't deserve it," Zuckerberg said in the ads.

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.The US has said that Russia needs to change behaviour for better relations. (Photo: File)

Washington: US President Donald Trump has authorized the expulsion of 60 alleged Russian spies from the United States in response to a nerve agent attack on an ex-spy in the English city of Salisbury.

European Union President Donald Tusk also said that 14 countries from the EU were also expelling Russian diplomats.

Senior US administration officials said that 48 "known intelligence officers" at the Russian consulate in Seattle and 12 more at the Russian mission to the UN have seven days to leave the country.

Ukraine has decided to expel 13 Russian diplomats according to President Petro Porochenko. France and Germany have announced the expulsion of four Russian diplomats each.

The foreign ministers of Lithuania and Poland on Monday said they would expel Russia diplomats in solidarity with Britain over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in the English city of Salisbury.

The Lithuanian foreign minister said his country will expel three diplomats, while his Polish counterpart said 4 diplomats will be getting expelled.

The US has said that Russia needs to change behaviour for better relations.The Ministry of Defence has conveyed to the Dubai-based former president through his counsel that providing him security is not its job, the Dawn newspaper reported. (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: The Pakistan government has rejected former dictator Pervez Musharraf's request for security on returning to the country to face a special court trying him on treason charges, according to a media report.

The Ministry of Defence has conveyed to the Dubai-based former president through his counsel that providing him security is not its job, the Dawn newspaper reported.

In a letter written to Musharraf's counsel Akhtar Shah, the ministry said "provision of security in the subject case does not fall under the purview of Ministry of Defence", according to the report.

The 74-year-old retired Army general has been living in Dubai since 2017, when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on the pretext of medical treatment.

He was indicted in March, 2014 on treason charges for imposing emergency in 2007 in the country which led to the confinement of a number of superior court judges in their houses and sacking of over 100 judges.

He has been declared "proclaimed offender" by courts in the treason and the Benazir Bhutto assassination cases.

Also Read: Pak renews Musharraf's passport fearing he may not return for treason case

He is the first general to face trial for treason in Pakistan's history and if convicted, he could be given life imprisonment or the death penalty.

An application was moved on behalf of Musharraf on March 13 that the former president be provided security by the Ministry of Defence on his return to Pakistan.

"His team contends that he faces serious security threats," it said.

However, responding to a similar application, the Interior Ministry had earlier assured Musharraf of security and also sought his travel plan and details of stay in Pakistan. The details have not been shared with the Interior Ministry so far, the report said.

"We are still working on the details and will make the decision public once there is something final," All Pakistan Muslim League leader Muhammad Amjad, a close aide to Musharraf, was quoted as saying by Dawn.

On March 16, the special court hearing the treason case against Musharraf authorised the government to suspend his passport as well as his computerised national identity card.

The court had also directed the Interior Ministry to approach the Interpol for the arrest of the former president.

On March 21, he convened a meeting of his aides in Dubai to decide the future course of action but the meeting remained inconclusive.

The Islamabad High Court had in February, ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate Musharraf over charges of accumulating assets beyond his known means of income.Beijing: China on Monday asserted that Dokalam belongs to it and India should have learnt lessons from the stand-off last year, after Indias envoy blamed China for the face-off, saying it happened because Beijing tried to alter the status quo in the disputed area.

Reacting to Indias Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawales remarks that were published on Saturday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, Donglong (Dokalam) belongs to China because we have historical conventions. Chinas activities there are within our sovereign rights. There is no such thing as changing status quo, she said at a media briefing.

Last year thanks to our concerted efforts and our wisdom we properly resolved this issue. We hope the Indian side could learn some lessons from this and stick to the historical conventions and work with China to ensure the atmosphere in the border areas is conducive for the development of bilateral ties, she said.

The 73-day standoff over Chinas attempt to build a road close to Indias narrow Chicken Neck area connecting North Eastern states ended in August last year after Chinese troops stopped the road construction at Dokalam in Sikkim Section, though Beijing never officially acknowledged it. The area of the stand-off is also claimed by Bhutan.

Indias envoy in an interview to Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post had blamed China for the stand-off in Dokalam saying it happened because Beijing tried to alter the status quo which it should not have.

He had said that any change of status quo along the India-China border may lead to another Dokalam-like crisis.

He said that though no change has taken place in the standoff site at Dokalam after it was resolved last year, the PLA may be reinforcing its troops well behind the sensitive area. Asked about Bambawales comments that the 3,488-km long Line of Actual Control should be demarcated and delineated, Hua said, Chinas position is clear and consistent. The east, middle and western side is yet to be officially demarcated.

China is committed to resolving the disputes through negotiations. China and India are exploring ways to resolve this dispute, she said.PROVO  Like many college students, Jonny Peay, of Orem, was elated when his acceptance letter to Utah State University landed in his mailbox.

"I felt so happy," Peay said.

For Peay, 22, getting into USU was an intricate process of meetings, interviewing and then spending a day on campus to see if he fit with the campus and if the campus fit for him.

Peay is unique and full of faith and hope. He loves people and he enjoys serving them, according to his mother, Lisa Sage Peay.

In some parts of the United States and certainly the world, Peay wouldn't be allowed in college, in fact, he wouldn't exist. The son of Mark and Lisa Peay, he was born with Down syndrome.

Among all the things Lisa Peay was told her son wouldn't be able to do is read, write, speak, grow in knowledge, retain it, and much more.

"Every single expert, they all told me he was on the very low end of the learning scale," she said. "I ignored them."

Through long days and years of the Peays fighting the system and helping their son, the reward paid off. Jonny Peay can read, speak and write, not only in English but also in Tongan.

His skin may be Caucasian, but his soul and heart is with his Tongan brothers and sisters.

As a young Mormon boy, Peay met lots of Tongan friends that invited him to go to church with them. When he was baptized at age 9, he was invited to attend the Tongan LDS ward in Orem.

Lisa Peay said there was a sense of camaraderie and acceptance with him that endeared the family to worship with their Polynesian friends.

As he has progressed in his faith, Peay has taken on responsibilities like any other normal Mormon male. He even served a two-year service mission with the community food bank, and worked once a week with the full-time missionaries proselyting and teaching. He is currently an assistant Scoutmaster, and is also an assistant to the Elder's Quorum presidency in his ward.

Lisa Peay said her son expects to be treated just like other kids and she had to step up to a school principal to make sure it happened.

"I had to fight the principal to suspend him," she said. "You don't moon the gym class and not get suspended."

For Peay to have gone through high school and receive a diploma instead of a certificate of completion like other special needs kids is remarkable.

He is currently attending part-time classes at Utah Valley University where he is a member of the "Act Risk No More" acting troupe. He is carrying a 3.94 GPA.

When he is not at school, one of Peay's favorite pastimes is doing CrossFit training, an intensified exercise program. His favorite exercises are weight training that has helped build his arm and leg muscles.

He loves walking his goldendoodle dog named Charlie, he raises 12 chickens, likes the zombies in Michael Jackson's "Thriller," acting and theater, and he wants to raise people's awareness of the possibilities for those with Down syndrome.

"He has a great love for people with disorders," his mother said. "He completely forgives and keeps on walking. He has been bullied and shamed. He knows what that is, but he forgives."

March 21 was World Down Syndrome Day. Jonny Peay hopes people will see what can happen if they love and help each other. He is an example.

This fall, Jonny will move on as a full-time student to USU. It is the fulfillment of one of Lisa and Mark Peay's dreams for their son.

It will be the first time Peay will be on his own, living in a dormitory with a roommate and going to classes every day on campus. He will be responsible for himself.

When he completes the two-year program, Peay says he wants to work in the music business.

"I want to work with my cousin in San Diego," he said. "He is a professional DJ."

Before that he will be going through extensive counseling and training in the Aggies Elevated program.

"He will learn about career determination, being a self-advocate, and do remedial English," said Lisa Peay. "The first semester is critical. He may learn he wants another career."

For Peay, he wants to learn, make friends and serve his community.

"I want to be a good example to my brothers and sisters," he said. "I want to tell them to keep going, don't quit, and have faith.SALT LAKE CITY  Nearly 1 of every 5 Utah women have been victims of intimate partner violence, according to newly released results from a phone questionnaire of about 10,000 Utahns.

In addition to 18.1 percent of women, 10 percent of Utah men reported having been subjected to violence by their significant other, according to the 2016 data collected by the state using what is called a Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System questionnaire. The Utah Department of Health released its findings Tuesday.

Fourteen percent of all respondents combined said they had suffered intimate partner violence.

But of those who have been victimized, slightly less than 15 percent of respondents said they sought outside help, said Deanna Ferrell, a violence and injury epidemiologist for the Utah Department of Health.

Ferrell said that particular finding is "a call for us to get the word out there about the resources that are available" for victims.

The most common reasons people listed for not looking for outside help included: believing that the abuse wouldn't continue; worrying their significant other would find out the behavior had been reported; dreading they could lose custody of their children; fearing negative financial repercussions; and not wanting to be helped in the first place.

Ferrell said victims of partner violence also fear being stigmatized.

"They're scared to reach out and get help, so it's more likely to keep occurring," she told the Deseret News. "There aren't those social norms to talk about it and seek help when you are experiencing those things."

Demographic groups more likely than average to report having experienced intimate partner violence included those ages 35 to 49 (18.3 percent); those who live in households earning $25,000 or less per year (21.7 percent); those who have ever been divorced (34.2 percent); those who have ever separated from their spouse (44.3 percent); those who were unemployed (27.3 percent); those who are bisexual (32.6 percent); and those or who have a disability (24.5 percent).

Among respondents who were victims, 26.1 percent of those ages 18 to 34 reported they had experienced intimate partner violence specifically in the past year, while just 10.1 percent of those ages 35 to 49 and 3.9 percent of those 50 and older reported the same.

Ferrell said the data is "a tool for us to focus our prevention efforts" and presents "an opportunity to work with those who are at higher risk and get them resources that they need."

"So for us that means  making sure that safety houses are accessible in areas that are low income," she said, citing one example.

Still, as with any survey asking about intimate partner violence, there is a legitimate possibility of respondents underreporting it, Ferrell said.

She noted that national data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published last year indicated around 3 in 10 Americans report having been the victim of intimate partner violence. However, that figure also includes psychological and sexual forms of violence, while the state's results do not, she said.

The Utah survey only sought respondents who were at least 18 years old.

Respondents were asked whether they had ever been subjected to a "push, hit, slap, kick, (or) choke" by their significant other, or whether that person had ever "physically hurt you in any other way." They were asked beforehand if they were in a safe place to answer the question.

The survey results depict a strong correlation between whether a person had experienced a traumatic childhood and whether they had ever suffered intimate partner violence, Ferrell said.

She said among those who reported being subjected to violence by their significant other, 49.8 percent of them reported enduring at least four of what are known as "adverse childhood experiences."

By contrast, just 13.3 percent of victims had no such experiences, which were defined in the survey as growing up with physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, having intimate partner violence in their home, drug abuse occurring where they lived, having an incarcerated member of their household, or "liv(ing) with anyone who was depressed, mentally ill or suicidal."

The correlation between childhood adversity and victimization in adulthood is far from surprising, said Dr. Bill Cosgrove, a pediatrician who is past president of the Utah chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and still speaks on behalf of that organization at the Utah Legislature.

"If you are, as a child, traumatized, you start to see the world as a dangerous, traumatic place and therefore everything that happens to you  as another threat," Cosgrove told the Deseret News. "They see everything as a threat, so real threats don't stand out."

Another reason a person with a traumatic childhood is at greater risk, he said, is that "they feel less loved as children, so they are constantly looking for affection as adults, so they tend to put themselves in more dangerous positions."

Cosgrove, who also serves on the Salt Lake County Board of Health, added that "one of the worst things that can happen to a child is witnessing violence in the family, even if they're not the victim."

Victims of intimate partner violence were more likely to report certain negative health indicators, with 13.3 percent saying they smoked every day compared to just 3.9 percent of nonvictims saying they did the same. Additionally, 19.7 percent of victims said they engaged in binge drinking, compared to just 10.9 percent of nonvictims.

Intimate partner violence "was also correlated with  missing more days of work, difficulty doing errands alone, and difficulty concentrating or remembering," the Department of Health said in a release.

Ferrell said that for each negative health factor correlated with intimate partner violence victimization, it's impossible "to say which one came first," but hypothesized that "sometimes these may be coping mechanisms."

Anyone who is a victim of intimate partner violence or other forms of domestic or family violence, or knows someone who is, can call the Utah Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-897-LINK (5465), which operates 24 hours per day.SALT LAKE CITY  Elizabeth Smart has heard every comment and been asked just about every question imaginable in the 15 years since she was rescued from her kidnappers.

The Salt Lake City native  who was taken from her home on June 5, 2002, and found alive on March 12, 2003, after nine months of physical and sexual abuse  travels the country working as an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse and missing persons and speaks regularly about her experience. She leaves time for Q-and-A sessions at the end of many of her speeches, which has served as a forum for comments and questions that run the gamut.

Yes, there are plenty of the insensitive ones  You should have run faster. You should have screamed louder. How did you not get pregnant during your captivity? You were raped so many times. Was there any moment that you were just like, OK, Im being raped, and enjoyed it?  but Smart said in a recent interview with the Deseret News that in her years of experience, such nitty-gritty, detailed questions arent the most frequently asked.

Its generally the broader questions like, Have you forgiven your captors? Have you moved on? How have you moved on? What therapies were helpful for you? and How do you deal with the attention? Smart explained.

But the most common question of all, according to Smart: Where does your hope and resilience come from?

That question served as the catalyst for Smarts most recent book, Where Theres Hope: Healing, Moving Forward and Never Giving Up (St. Martins Press, 288 pages), which will hit shelves Tuesday, March 27.

In the book, Smart shares insights from her own experiences as well as lessons gleaned through more than a dozen interviews with people she said she admires  a list that is as varied as both of her parents; Ann Romney, author and wife of former presidential nominee Mitt Romney; human trafficking survivor Norma Bastidas; fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg; paraplegic and three-time Olympic medalist Mike Schlappi; Catholic Archbishop John C. Wester; Mariatu Kamara, UNICEF special representative, author and survivor of the civil war in Sierra Leone, and more.

At the end of the day, every single one of us has a story, and in my book, I tried to address as many stories as I could, Smart said. I really tried to go out and talk to people from different backgrounds who have experienced different things so maybe (if) someone who reads this doesnt feel a connection with me or anything I say, thats OK because maybe they felt a connection to someone else.

With the release of her new book, Smart spoke with the Deseret News to discuss what it means to have hope, how she maintains it and the lessons she learned from writing her book.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Deseret News: Hope is obviously needed when you have big and challenging things going on in your life, but what do you think the role of hope is in day-to-day, normal, mundane life, and how do you maintain hope in the everyday?

Elizabeth Smart: When it is day-to-day, mundane life  but I dont really feel like life is really all that mundane with a 3-year-old and an 11-month-old, so my life tends to be full of fireworks all the time  but I think hope is what gets you through the mundane. Its that belief in a better future, a belief in the positive in life and the good that will come. I think thats what it is for me, so when I was kidnapped it was that belief that my family would still love me, that theyd still accept me, that they still wanted me back, and thats what I held onto and thats how I survived my kidnapping.

Now, my children, theyre my hope. My family is my hope. I see (a) change coming about in our society thats a big hope for me.  I am hearing more and more survivors coming forward and sharing their stories, saying This is not OK, and Im not going to let this define me and Im not going to let this hold me back from being who I want to be.

DN: You mention several instances in your book of times when people have said or asked insensitive things. When people continue to say insensitive things to you, what do you do in those situations and what do you do to make sure those situations dont bring you down?

ES: Obviously I cant control what anybody else says to me. Usually when those insensitive things are said, I just have to realize that theyre coming from a place of ignorance. Obviously they havent experienced what Ive experienced. Clearly they probably dont know anybody else whos experienced what Ive experienced, so they have no idea what theyre talking about. 

I used to, whenever an article would come out about me that would come to my attention, I would read all of the comments afterward and so much of the time, there was a lot of negativity, and that used to really hurt my feelings a lot and Id feel really bad and I wouldnt understand. Why are people so nasty? Why would people say things when they dont even know? I didnt ask for this article to be written. This is just someone elses perspective.  Its sad that  and Im probably not the only person who feels this way  but you could read 100 nice comments and then you read one rude comment, and that one rude comment is the one you remember.

I remember talking to my older brother about it and he was like, First of all, dont read the comments. Thats a waste of time to begin with. And second of all, he said, Think of the people who are writing those comments. Who has the time to just sit and be nasty? Thats their sole purpose is tearing other people down. Would you want to talk to them? Would you want to see them? Would you want to know them anyway? That thought has always kind of stayed with me.

But to your face, thats not always easy to avoid, so I do my best to try to stand up for myself and for other survivors, and I remind myself that once again this is probably coming from a place of ignorance  this is probably not intentionally trying to be rude, and if I can answer this, I have a supportive family to go back to. Ive got a good support network. I have a wonderful life, and if I can answer this, then hopefully they wont go to the next survivor and ask the same insensitive question that maybe will tear down another survivor. I do my best to try to answer it.

DN: When did you realize you had forgiven your captors and how did it feel once you realized you had?

ES: First of all, I think forgiveness is probably one of the greatest forms of self-love there is because you dont do forgiveness for anybody else. My captors will never care if I forgive them.  It will not make a day of difference to them at all, but it will make a huge difference to me. If I stay angry from holding onto this in my life, it would be eating away at me. It would mean I wouldnt be 100 percent mother to my children; I wouldnt be 100 percent wife to my husband; I wouldnt be able to work for survivors 100 percent because there would always be this percentage of me inside holding onto this anger and this bitterness, and frankly  I love myself too much to do that to myself.

I think my moms advice when I came home that these people had stolen nine months of my life and the best punishment I could ever give them is to move forward and to be happy. I think that was given to me at a very poignant time that kind of set me on that course of forgiveness, to move on with my life. I dont think I connected moving on with my life to forgiveness at that point. I think it was just years and years to realize that forgiveness is not like kiss and make up, which I feel like, at least for me (when I was growing up), I feel like that was my understanding and knowledge that forgiveness is always for the other person. 

It is such a big topic and I think there is kind of, at least from my perspective, a misunderstanding of what forgiveness is. I can say I have forgiven my captors. That being said, I never want to see them again. Im not OK with they did to me. Thats not right. I would not allow that to happen to me again. I would not allow that to happen to anyone else (and) although it has happened, Ive moved on with my life and I dont carry it around inside me and allow it to eat away at me every day. Ive accepted that its happened and, because I love myself, I have moved on. 

Maybe thats just my definition.  Not every person who hurts someone else will be sorry, and if youre waiting for that (apology) before you can say its all right and look magnanimous and forgiving, then that day may never come, and then youll just be carrying anger around with you forever.

DN: In your introduction to the book, you write about how after you returned home you began to realize that you were given a second chance at your life. As youve been going about your advocacy work, there are obviously stories that you hear of people who werent given that second chance and ultimately didnt get the chance to come home. How have you dealt with questions that have crossed your mind of why you were given that second chance and why other people dont get that chance? How do you deal with those feelings?

ES: Absolutely, that thought has crossed my mind.  I think probably one of the most common statistics parents hear when their children are kidnapped is that if theyre not found within the first 48 hours that theyre most likely dead.  Yes, that may be true, but because of my story, that makes me think that we shouldnt give up after the first 48 hours. We shouldnt just forget about them or think its a lost cause, so when I meet parents and families and friends who are still searching for their lost child, I dont think anyone should ever give up until their child or loved one is found. It is so hard. It is so hard to see these parents, these families, these loved ones, these friends who are still searching and knowing that theyre happy for you but knowing at the same time that they wish you were their child or their friend who came back. Its hard. Its hard, and that honestly, that feeling makes me feel like I cant stop doing what Im doing. I cant stop talking. I cant just give up and sink into the shadows, even though sometimes that may be very tempting, because there are still children who are missing. There are still people who are missing.

DN: You mentioned in the book that sometimes you have to take your young children along for interviews and juggle your schedule. I know youre really busy with all the things that youre doing, so how do you maintain that work/life balance in your life?

ES: That is an excellent question. Im not quite sure. When Im out speaking and working, I am there. But when Im at home, Im at home and Im with my children.  But (finding the balance) is a struggle. I have two children and I came from a family of six kids and I look at my mom and think, "How on earth did you do that?" I have two and I feel like I dont know what Im doing half the time.  Im open to pointers if anyone has them.

DN: You asked your interview subjects several questions that Id like to ask you. You asked Mariatu (Kamara, UNICEF special representative, author and survivor of the civil war in Sierra Leone) in your interview with her what it is that she hopes for her daughter. What is it you want and hope for your children?

ES: I will feel like a success if I raise my children to be kind and happy people. But obviously theres lots of things I would like for them. I naturally never want them to be hurt, but I hate to say thats probably unrealistic. But I want them to be educated, and not just educated in school but I want them to be educated in life and experiences. I want them to have a well-rounded outlook on life. I want them to know that there is danger out there but that they dont need to live in fear, they just need to be prepared. And, you know, I want them to be happy.

DN: Where do you turn for peace?

ES: Usually my husband is a pretty good rock, a pretty good sounding board.  He definitely brings a center of gravity into my life.

When I feel anxious and like stressed out, I turn to the things that have served me well over the years. I enjoy running. I am not a fast runner, but I like going outside and just enjoying being outside with my dogs or taking them out for a run. Music has been a big part of my life and that has always (been) soothing, or at least my mind is so much on what Im trying to play that maybe my worries are a little bit less significant in that moment. 

Certainly, being a religious person, my faith has been a big source of peace and comfort, knowing that God knows everything. He understands everything and knows whats in my heart, so whatever Im worried about or whatever I feel like I didnt do well enough or came up short on something, he knows exactly where Im at and then I just have to trust in him.

DN: You end the book by asking readers to consider two questions about their experiences: What did you learn, and was it worth it? So, what did you learn from writing the book, and was it worth writing in the end?

ES: Yes. I feel like I did learn so much  (and gain) so much perspective. Listening to these other people sharing their stories, and talking about what theyve experienced, and how they look at the world and how they dealt with it, sometimes it just blows me away.

Its probably been the hardest project Ive ever done in my life and its probably been the most work-intensive project Ive ever done in my life, but its probably the project that I am the most proud of. Im more proud of this second book than I am even of my first book. Honestly, this means more to me. So yes, it absolutely was worth it. It was very difficult, but its very much been worth it as well.

If you go 

What: Elizabeth Smart "Where There's Hope" book signing

When: Friday, March 30, 6-8 p.m.

Where: Deseret Book, 45 W. South Temple

Web: www.facebook.com/events

Also 

What: Elizabeth Smart presentation and "Where There's Hope" book signing

When: Wednesday, April 4, 5:30 p.m.

Where: Joseph Smith Building Auditorium, Brigham Young University

Note: Presentation is open to the public, with a ticketed signing to follow. Tickets can obtained when purchasing the book at the BYU Store.SALT LAKE CITY  Some 1,200 refugees were resettled in Utah in fiscal year 2016, the vast majority of whom started the next chapter of their lives in Salt Lake County.

Under the Trump administration's restrictions on the entry of refugees from majority-Muslim countries and others it deems pose a risk to national security, numbers of resettlements have dropped precipitously in Utah and the United States thus far in fiscal 2018, according to an Associated Press analysis of U.S. State Department data.

"For refugees waiting for resettlement and family re-reunification, this misguided policy shift has kept families apart and is a significant hit on the most vulnerable people in the world. Keeping loved ones separated in this way certainly adds to the agony refugees find themselves, to no fault of their own, having to endure," said Patrick Poulin, executive director of International Rescue Committee's Salt Lake City office. It is one of two refugee resettlement agencies in Utah.

Aden Batar, immigration and refugee resettlement director for Catholic Community Services of Utah, said resettlement workers have no answers for families who are anxious to reunify with family members who have undergone rigorous vetting and linger in refugee camps.

"We had a system that was working for more than 40 years. The system was not built overnight. It was infrastructure that was built over the years and it was working fine. The vetting process was working well," he said.

In 2016, which Batar describes as "the last healthy year" of refugee resettlement, some 85,000 refugees entered the United States.

That year, Catholic Community Services of Utah resettled 632 refugees, 412 the following year and 94 to date for FY2018, he said.

In Utah, the International Rescue Committee has resettled 120 refugees thus far this fiscal year, Poulin said. This is a 58 percent reduction in arrivals compared to the same period a year ago.

The committee's Salt Lake office hopes to resettle 300 refugees by September, about half of its usual number of new arrivals, Poulin said.

Among Somalis alone, resettlements in Utah have dropped from nearly 200 in fiscal 2016 to eight in FY2018, according to the Associated Press analysis.

There have been no resettlements of refugees from Iraq, Syria, Central African Republic, Burundi and Sudan in fiscal 2018, the data shows.

Among refugees from Myanmar (formerly Burma), a steady stream of resettlements over the past decade dropped to a handful in FY2018, according to AP. Typically these have been some of the largest groups resettled in Utah.

Under limits put in place by the Trump administration, Batar questions whether the 45,000 cap for resettlement this year will be realized.

"The administration this year said 45,000. They need to admit 45,000, even though that number is really low.  They're using all kind of tactics to delay and to stop and not allow people to come in. Even though people have already gone through the new vetting process, we're still not seeing the number move fast enough," Batar said.

Meanwhile, growing numbers of people are being displaced worldwide, he said.

"The situation is really dire. The numbers are not declining. The number of worldwide refugees continues to rise and if the U.S. is not taking them, I don't know what other countries are going to do, especially when those countries that are hosting the refugee camps, more than 80 percent of them are in Third World countries," said Batar, the first Somali refugee resettled to Utah in the 1990s.

Many refugee resettlement agencies across the country have prepared to shutter or pare back their operations as a result of the reduction of refugees allowed to enter the United States, according to a Reuters report published in February.

Neither of Utah's resettlement agencies is at risk of closure because of ongoing case management of refugees, advocacy efforts and programs that help refugees obtain citizenship, develop work skills and live healthy lifestyles, Poulin and Batar confirmed.

However, Catholic Community Services has had to cut a dozen employees in the past year due to the plunging numbers of refugees admitted for resettlement, Batar said.

One of the greatest frustrations is that the curbs on refugee resettlement have been established on baseless fears, he said. By and large, refugees are contributors. They value education, many serve in the armed forces and they in every way consider themselves Americans.

Some 50,000 refugees have been resettled in Utah since the end of the Vietnam War, according to the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

Utah is a welcoming state and volunteers still reach out to help because they believe in resettlement, Batar said. "As Utahns, we want refugees to come to our state."

Poulin said he remains hopeful.

International Rescue Committee's Salt Lake office resettled 45 new refugee arrivals in February, the largest number for a month in more than a year. Volunteer applications surged 200 percent in response to the first refugee travel ban in 2017.

While the resettlement numbers may be down, "the hope in humanity carried by these resilient individuals and the hope maintained by those of us receiving and welcoming these refugees remains as strong as ever, Poulin said.

Batar urged Utahns to reach out to their congressional representatives to demand that the administration meet established caps on entry and eventually lift them.

"Only the Congress can pressure the administration to allow refugees to come in," he said.BYU assistant professor Casey Griffiths laughed as he recalled walking away from talking with former Community of Christ apostle Andrew Bolton at an interfaith dialogue in Nauvoo last September, wondering if they were still friends.

That was never in question, Bolton chimed in with a smile, sitting across the table from Griffiths in a religious faculty library at Brigham Young University on March 21.

Its wonderful to know you can have disagreements on theological questions and have a wonderful and beautiful friendship, said Griffiths, who teaches in the Church History Department. I love the time that we spend together and I always learn a ton by listening to our friends of the Community of Christ.

Bolton, his wife, Jewell, and current apostle Lachlan Mackay were among officials from the Community of Christ hosted by BYU last week for an interfaith dialogue. This is the fourth meeting of its kind, Bolton said, with this dialogue focusing on sacraments and ordinances.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Community of Christ share almost 15 years of common heritage, from 1830 when the church was organized to the death of Joseph Smith Jr. in 1844. Interfaith dialogue is important to both faiths, which continue to work together and learn from their shared history.

Bolton, who served as an apostle for the Community of Christ from 2007 to 2016, said enrichment and new insights to his faith are two of the things he hopes to gain at interfaith dialogues with BYU. He said there are treasures to discover, like a deeper understanding of commons beliefs.

Bob Millet (former dean of religious education at BYU) introduced me to the concept of Infinite Atonement from the Book of Mormon," Bolton said. "I never understood that before so thats been a huge blessing."

The Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that changed its name in 2001, has 250,000 members worldwide. Bolton, who was baptized in Wales over 40 years ago, said India and Haiti currently have the highest concentrations of Community of Christ members around the world and more people speak French than English in church on a Sunday morning.

In the U.S., nearly one-third of members reside in the Kansas City area near the church's headquarters in Independence, Missouri, according to Mackay. As part of the Council of Twelve Apostles of the Community of Christ, Mackay oversees the Northeast USA Mission Field and serves as the historic sites director and church history lead.

About 10 percent of Community of Christ members will be called to priesthood office during their lifetime, Mackay said. The leadership organization is similar to that of the LDS Church: a pastor serves over a congregation, mission centers are similar to stakes, and apostles have responsibility over a specific geographical area of mission centers. A world conference, similar to a general conference, is held every three years.

Bolton said he admires the LDS returned missionaries who come home with international experience, as well as the resources and size of the church. Community of Christ leads mission trips too, but for shorter amounts of time.

My dad often quoted, Walk together, talk together, all ye peoples of the earth. And then, and only then, will ye have peace, and thats exactly whats happening, Jewell Bolton said of the Community of Christs missionary efforts.

While there are many common threads, Bolton also talked about two distinct differences between the Community of Christ and LDS faith  ordination of women beginning in 1984 and same-sex marriage in the U.S. in 2013  that reflect their belief in the worth of persons and the soul as non-gender, he said.

I think Community of Christ is more nimble, smaller, so we can make change much faster, Bolton said. But there are mistakes to avoid. And there are things weve done well that (the LDS Church) can do better.

Bolton talked about the idea of theocratic democracy, in which God leads and the people choose, and that Gods word is "conceptual" rather than "plenary" or absolute. He described the Community of Christ as a people with a prophet but were also called to be a prophetic people. We have a responsibility to discern what God may be saying.

Though it may be difficult to discern Gods will in the world we live in today, Mackay said he often thinks back to the culture of Joseph Smiths time.

Then, it was the industrial revolution that was causing all this upheaval. Today its the technology revolution, he said. It feels like its spinning out of control (but) my faith keeps me sane. The idea that I may be able to work with others to make life just a little better is deeply meaningful to me.

Griffiths said those who believe in Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Restoration, like both the Community of Christ and LDS faiths, are able to "see the world through a lens where everyone is a son or daughter of God (with) intrinsic value."

Its nice to meet wonderful people like these and realize there is so much good in the world in our faith tradition and in other faith traditions," Griffiths said. "The good people of the world should ban together and help each other and do everything they can to lift everyone around them.

Bolton and Mackay were among guests from the Community of Christ who met with Elder J. Devn Cornish, a General Authority Seventy from the LDS Church, on Temple Square on March 23 as part of their visit to BYU. In September, BYU professors plan to go to Independence for a dialogue with the Community of Christ about Zion.Michael Vartan Does Not Want Jennifer Garner Back

Hollywood star Michael Vartan is known for his role as Michael Vaughn on the ABC television action drama Alias and also known for his role on the TNT medical drama Hawthorne. He dated one of Hollywoods best actresses Jennifer Garner from August 2003 to mid-2004. They were then shooting for television action drama Alias.





They broke up soon after and Michael married Lauren Skaar in 2011 and separated in 2014. Garner married actor Ben Affleck in 2005 and divorced him in 2017. Now that the two are single again, we thought the two might pair up again and give their relationship a thought. However, its a no from Vartan.





He said, "Oh my God. I don't think so. If it didn't work once, there's a reason it didn't work. Everyone's getting single. It's crazy. Everyone's realising that is so much easier to be single. I love relationships. When they work, when they're great, they're great and when they're not, they're not".





For latest movie reviews, ratings and trailers, download the Desimartini App.





Source: dailynews.newsAtharvaa To Get Three Looks For Boomerang!

In his much-awaited action entertainer film Boomerang, actor Atharvaa will be playing an ambitious youngster who fights for a social cause. He will be seen in three different looks, which involve a major prosthetic makeover. The films director Kannan also shared that the make-up session was held in February.





Times of India quoted Kannan as saying, Atharvaa has three looks in the film and each of them is very important for the script. Weve roped in award-winning makeup technicians Preetisheel Singh and Mark Troy DSouza to chisel the three looks. Further, it is being said that both the make-up artists spent over 12 hours to finalise the actors looks. Moreover, the actor is excited as he has tried prosthetic makeup for the first time.





Also, the makers have finalis

ed the whole cast of the movie, and they took around 30 days to complete this daunting task. Moreover, the shoot of a song with Brinda master in Theni and Aruppukottai has been completed. Our best wishes are with the Boomerang team!





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Source: deccanchronicle.comTelegram has appealed to the European Human Rights Court (EHRC) over a fine of RUB 800,000 fine ($13,984) issued to the secure messaging firm by a Russian court.

Russia passed legislation in 2016 that requires messaging services to grant the authorities the ability to decrypt messages. The fine has been imposed since Telegram has refused to provide its encryption keys to the Federal Security Service (FSB  Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti), and Russias Supreme Court last week rejected an appeal by Telegram.

Telegram faces a ban on its service in Russia  one of its largest markets  and possibly a second fine if it does not submit to the authorities. The company is arguing to the EHRC that article 10 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights guarantees the right to freely disseminate information without the interference of authorities and regardless of state borders, and that the fine is an infringement of this.

Damir Gainutdinov, a member of Telegrams legal representation, noted that this will be one of the EHRCs first cases covering electronic surveillance. He said: We hope that, from our filing, the court will begin to formulate European standards in this area.

Telegrams commitment to privacy has seen it run afoul of governments and private companies alike, with Apple imposing a temporary ban on the app last month due to illegal content, specifically child pornography. Last year, the government of Indonesia threatened a similar ban over illicit content related to radical religious and terrorist propaganda.

However, there is evidently a market for Telegrams services  it has generated $850 million in the pre-sale stage of an initial coin offering for the continued development and operation of its offering, and it is also working on blockchain technology.BSNL to invest Rs4,300 crore on network expansion

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) plans to expand its network at an investment of Rs4,300 in 2018-19 and another Rs5,000-6,000 crore on government telecom projects.

Anupam Shrivastava , chairman and managing director told PTI the government projects would be Bharat Net, network for spectrum, the comprehensive telecom development plan for north east and boosting optic fibre connectivity to Andamans.

Remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh will be connected and bandwidth will be provided to Lakshadweep islands, he said. BSNL is being used as one of the vehicles to invest in large connectivity projects where private players are not foraying and the company does that work on behalf of the government, said he. Around 12,000 mobile towers will be installed for 3G services and 10,000 for 4G services, he said.

"Government is investing in large connectivity projects, where private players are not going. BSNL is being used as one of the vehicles to execute those projects and we do that work on behalf of government," he said.

Shrivastava said that the telecom corporation will look to install 12,000 mobile towers for 3G services and 10,000 for 4G services. This will have a provision for 100 per cent expansion mapped to BSNL's 4G services roll out and spectrum allocation.

As per the latest report by telecom regulator, BSNL had 9.40 per cent share of mobile services market as on January 31 and had added 3.96 lakh customers during that month. MBI MR MR

According to a recent Trai report owned 9.40 percent share of mobile services market 31 January BSNL. The public sector company added 3.96 lakh customers in January.Uber to exit Southeast Asia, after quitting from China, Russia

Embattled ride-hailing giant Uber, which has already backed out of China and Russia, is now all set to exit from the Southeast Asian market by selling its operations to a Singapore-based rival.

The move is believed to be part of a strategy by Japanese telecom group SoftBank Group Corp, which has a significant 15-per cent stake in Uber (besides major investments in Grab as well as Ola in India), and Chinas Didi, one of the largest ride-sharing operators, to gradually capture the global market. The move is believed to be part of a strategy by Japanese telecom group SoftBank Group Corp, which has a significant 15-per cent stake in Uber (besides major investments in Grab as well as Ola in India), and Chinas Didi, one of the largest ride-sharing operators, to gradually capture the global market.

Grab and Uber are expected to come out with an announcement anytime now on the latters exit from Southeast Asia, a combined market of nearly 650 million consumers, virtually surrendering its share of the market to Grab.

With services in nearly 200 cities across Southeast Asia, Grab has about 90 million mobile app downloads and is growing rapidly in the region.

According to sources, Uber has virtually written off Southeast Asia and its new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, appears to have dropped it as a major market for the company. Khosrowshahi has publicly said that his focus is on India and Japan.

But analysts say that he should be worried about these two markets as well, and even the rest of Asia. Uber might ultimately find itself out of the continent, succumbing to the likes of Didi, Grab and Ola. The Indian company has already ventured into Australia and with SoftBanks solid banking, could look at expanding to other Asian markets.

In fact, SoftBank Group has urged Uber to focus on the US, Latin America and Europe, reflecting its strategy of allowing the other Asian companies to consolidate their strengths in the region.

Of course, Uber has given up control of some of the markets in exchange for a stake in the new ventures. This would possibly help Uber in its planned IPO next year.India alert on the situation in Doklam: Sitharaman

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that the country was alert and ready for any eventualities that may arise in Doklam along the Sikkim border, where Indian and Chinese forces were locked in a bitter standoff for over two months last year.

Sitharaman asserted that India was ready for any unforeseen situation in Doklam and will maintain its territorial integrity.

The Indian defence ministers comments came a day after Indias ambassador to China dismissed reports that the Chinese military was stepping up infrastructure build-up in the Doklam area.

There are lot of narratives which are doing the rounds, but as defence minister, I can assure you that the country is prepared for any kind of eventuality on all borders. We are taking steps for modernisation of the forces, Sitharaman said in Dehradun.

She was addressing the press in Uttarakhands capital Dehradun, at a function to felicitate students who cleared the entrance examinations of National Defence Academy (NDA) and Combined Defence Service (CDS) for Indian Military Academy. A total of 140 such students were given a cheque of Rs50,000 each.

There is no reason to worry about China because our armed forces are also undergoing modernisation, which will be visible in the coming days. Moreover, we are very well prepared and we are fully alert as well when it comes to any activity on the borders. We will maintain our territorial integrity, Sitharaman said.

Earlier, last month, Army chief General Bipin Rawat had also echoed similar sentiments and assured that there is nothing to worry about the Doklam standoff.

A lot of questions have been raised in the past few days about the preparedness of the armed forces and I must say that there is no lack in that aspect. Apart from this, the government has given complete power to the vice chiefs of all three services to purchase weapons and equipment as they see fit, the defence minister said.

On being asked about the unified commands like those in USA, the defence minister said, We are working on getting unified commands in India and we already have one existing in Andaman and Nicobar.

Her comments come a day after Indias envoy to China Gautam Bambawale confirmed Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the neighbouring country to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in June during which there will definitely be a bilateral meeting between Modi and President Xi Jinping.

The SCO, a China-dominated security grouping, is increasingly seen as a counterweight to NATO. The SCO summit is due to be held in the Chinese city of Qingdao from June 9-10.

Responding to the recent debates on lack of funds for modernisation and strengthening of the armed forces, the minister said the government has given the defence forces a free hand in exercising emergency powers to purchase whatever ammunition is required to strengthen the preparedness.

As the defence minister, I want to assure the young cadets that our government is committed to modernise the defence forces. You should be proud to be now part of a world-class force, Sitharaman said.Aadhaar controversy continues to rage

Aadhaar continues to be the foundation  the literal translation of the Hindi word  for many of the controversies surrounding the BJP-led, NDA government, in Delhi

A report in ZDNet, a leading international business technology website, has revealed a new data leak hitting Aadhaar, Indias national ID database, which affects potentially every Indian citizen subscribed to it. A report in ZDNet, a leading international business technology website, has revealed a new data leak hitting Aadhaar, Indias national ID database, which affects potentially every Indian citizen subscribed to it.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which manages Aadhaar, the worlds largest biometric ID system, denied there had been any breach in its database. Aadhaar remains safe and secure, asserted the UIDAI. Even if the claim purported in the story were taken as true, it would raise security concerns on database of that utility company and has nothing to do with the security of UIDAIs Aadhaar database.

UIDAI, which described the ZDNet claim as totally baseless, false and irresponsible, is also planning to take legal action against ZDNet for carrying the report.

According to UIDAI, mere availability of Aadhaar number with a third person will not be a security threat to the Aadhaar holder or will not lead to financial / other fraud, as for any transaction, a successful authentication through fingerprint, Iris or OTP of the Aadhaar holder is required.

Meanwhile, union minister Alphons Kannanthanam, who has been under flak for his controversial statements of late, continued to wade into the Aadhaar controversy.

The minister, referring to the Aadhaar controversy, had said in Thiruvananthapuram, We have no problems in putting our fingerprints and whole body naked in front of a white man. When I was filling the application form for the US visa, I had to fill 10 pages of data, including where my grandfather was born, where I had travelled to in the last 10 years and for what purpose.

According to him, when the government of India asks for the name and address, then there is a massive revolution in the country saying it is an intrusion into the privacy of the individual.

While critics slammed him for his remarks, the minister reiterated his sentiment.Zipping in a jiffy  even though you're standing in the bullet train

When this writer took his first bullet train journey in Tokyo recently, he was thoroughly disappointed. The train was packed and he had to go standing all the way, hardly being able to watch the zipping scenario outside.

Of course, he had to shell out a hefty sum to take another shorter  and less crowded  route to enjoy a seat in the bullet train. Back in India, it was difficult to convince many that bullet trains also have standing passengers.

Thousands of passengers in Mumbai at least will soon realise that standing can be the norm even in bullet trains. The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC), which is implementing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, has confirmed that it was willing to allow standees in bullet trains in Mumbai.

If the people are ready then we will allow standees inside the bullet train, said Achal Khare, managing director of NHSRC. So if a passenger at Surat wants to catch a train to Mumbai, he/she does not have to worry about seats not being available  standing for at the most for two hours between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, a distance of a little more than 500 km.

While the countrys maiden bullet train project, expected to be operational in just four years, will connect the two major hubs of the neighbouring states, a lot more passengers are expected to use it on the Greater Mumbai route. The bullet trains will travel at speeds of over 300km per hour.

Instead of travelling in overcrowded trains for an hour or two, they can now zip by in the supertrains  fully air-conditioned  and reach their destinations within the metropolis in a few minutes.

Theoretically, the 10-car trains, with a capacity of 750 passengers, would now be able to carry a total of 1,500 passengers including those standing during the journey.

Passengers travelling between Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and Thane or Virar will have to shell out just Rs500 or Rs250 respectively for the journey, which will take a few minutes, instead of about an hour or two at present. The best thing is that these rates are cheaper than what many would shell out for an Ola, Uber or kaali-peeli today.China-US steel dispute may boost India's farm goods trade

Amidst increasing pressure on India to open up its market for heavily subsidised US farm products by the Trump administration, India is looking to neighbouring China for boosting its sagging farm products trade.

Ahead of meeting between commerce minister Suresh Prabhu and his Chinese counterpart Zhong Shan in New Delhi this week, Indian and Chinese companies on Saturday signed 101 commercial deals worth nearly $2.37 billion.

The growing trade dispute with the US is also forcing China to improve its commercial ties with India, which is one positive outcome for India. Prabhu and Zhong are likely to discuss the recent US trade moves, which have targeted both India and China.

The commercial deals are expected to provide much-needed stimulus to trade in black tea, castor oil, peppermint oil, coco fibre, green coffee bean and other products.

US exports billions of dollars worth of farm products, such as corn, soybeans, pork and other commodities to China. US agricultural exports to China stood at $19.6 billion last year, with soybean shipments accounting for $12.4 billion.

Chinese companies are looking at India at a time when the Trump administration has imposed countervailing duties on $60 billion worth of imports from China to the US.

Beijing is now looking at plans for reciprocal tariffs on $3 billion of imports from the US to China, including farm products.

While representatives of 30 Chinese companies are currently on a visit to India, all of these may not find a lucrative market in India.

Also, with a huge negative trade balance of around $51.75 billion, India cannot open its market to Chinese goods indiscriminately. While India-China trade grew to $84.44 billion last year, Indias trade deficit with that country rose to $51.75 billion, up 8.5 per cent from the previous year.

Welcoming his Chinese counterpart Zhong Shan at the 11th meeting of India-China Joint Group on Economic Relations, Trade, Science and Technology at New Delhi today, Prabhu said the joint group between India and China is the oldest and the most important dialogue mechanism between the two countries.

Stating that addressing Indias trade imbalance with China is the most important issue to be taken up by the group, the minister exhorted his Chinese counterpart for greater market access for agricultural products like rapeseed, soyabean, basmati and non-basmati rice, fruits, vegetables and sugar.

Another commodity which could be exported from India to China is the high quality pharmaceutical products. Export of Indias IT and IT enabled services (ITES) to China and cooperation in the sectors of tourism and healthcare needs to be focused on.

Chinese minister Zhong Shan welcomed Indian investment in China and promised to address the trade deficit between the two countries. The minister highlighted the important issues discussed in the meeting like two-way trade relations, preparation of an action plan, greater focus on Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and e-dialogue.

Shan said that candid and effective discussions with India on trade relations can serve as the propeller for the growth not only between the two countries but in the entire region.Cambridge Analytica misled MPs, public in UK, says former top employee

Cambridge Analytica (CA), the British political consulting firm, which is being probed for its role in the Donald Trump election campaign and the Leave-EU Campaign, misled the public and MPs in the UK, according to a former employee.

Britanny Kaiser, who quit as business development director of the company a fortnight ago, told The Guardian newspaper that the company did research for a leading Brexit campaign group and misled MPs and the public over the work it had done.

Kaiser, 30, told the newspaper that she felt she had lied by supporting her companys line that it had done no paid or unpaid work for Leave.EU. According to her, the work was part of an effort to secure formal business with the campaign group.

The Electoral Commission in the UK is probing the role of CA in the EU referendum campaign.

Facebook (FB) is also facing problems because of the CA scandal.

See: Mark Zuckerberg, the FB founder and CEO, who had publicly apologised on Saturday ( Mark Zuckerberg apologises for 'major breach of trust ) issued full-page ads in more than half a dozen British and American newspapers, apologising for a data breach. The papers included leading ones such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal (all of the US) and The Sunday Times, The Observer and The Mail on Sunday (from the UK).

We have a responsibility to protect your information, he told readers in the ad. If we can't, we don't deserve it. He said FB has stopped third-party apps from getting so much information and had started limiting the data that apps get when a person signs up.

Zuckerberg has admitted that FB erred in the CA cam, and assured users of the security measures being taken to protect data. This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again, he said in the ad.Study helps explain Greenland glaciers' varied vulnerability to melting

Using data from NASA missions observing Earth, researchers at the University of California, Irvine have created new maps of the bed topography beneath a score of glaciers in southeast Greenland, thereby gaining a much better understanding of why some are undergoing rapid retreat and others are relatively stable.

The undersides of glaciers in deeper valleys are exposed to warm, salty Atlantic water, while the others are perched on sills, protected from direct exposure to warmer ocean water, said Romain Millan, lead author of the study, available online in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters. We have been able to demonstrate unequivocally that glacier retreat in southeast Greenland is controlled by the topography of the bedrock under the ice and by ocean temperature.

Millan, a UCI graduate student researcher in Earth system science, and his colleagues analyzed 20 major outlet glaciers in southeast Greenland using high-resolution airborne gravity measurements and ice thickness data from NASAs Operation IceBridge mission; bathymetry information from NASAs Oceans Melting Greenland project; and results from the BedMachine version 3 computer model, developed at UCI.

They found glacial fjords hundreds of meters deeper than previously estimated; the full extent of the marine-based portions of the glaciers; deep troughs enabling Atlantic Ocean water to reach the glacier fronts and melt them from below; and few shallow sills that limit contact with this warmer water.

Its important to understand the physical processes controlling the retreat in order to improve projections of sea level rise from this region in a warming climate, Millan said. Until recently, we had little information on ocean temperature and water depth in these fjords to quantify these processes, so the interpretation of glacier evolution on a case-by-case basis was difficult.

Co-author Eric Rignot, UCI professor of Earth system science, added, Now that the picture is clear, the role of the ocean in glacier evolution is overwhelming.

Rignot, who has led dozens of research expeditions to Earths polar regions, said that southeast Greenland  with its fast-moving glaciers, deep fjords and harsh climate conditions  poses significant challenges to researchers.

Thanks to the newest NASA missions, such as Oceans Melting Greenland and Operation IceBridge, we have been able to make great advances in understanding the evolution of this very dynamic sector of Greenland and its impact on sea level rise now and in decades to come, he said.

The study was funded by NASAs Cryospheric Science Program.Privatise PSU banks to end scandals, curb NPAs: Arvind Panagariya

Privatisation of banks is perhaps the only way to averting the increasing number of financial sector scandals and mounting bad assets with public sector banks, a PTI report quoted former NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya as saying.

Panagariya, who is currently a professor of economics at Columbia University, says that there is no reason why the government should run banks. But has made an exception for State Bank of India (SBI), which is the main bank for government transactions.

Stating that the predominance of scandals and NPAs in PSBs is the one important reason for privatisation of PSBs, the economist called upon political parties serious of forming government in 2019 to include a proposal for bank privatisation in their manifesto.

"I firmly believe that privatisation of all PSBs except perhaps the State Bank of India should be on the election manifestos of all parties who wish to present themselves as serious candidates to form the government in 2019," he said in an interview to PTI.

Panagariya was referring to the recent banking frauds, including the nearly Rs13,000 crore scandal at Punjab National Bank (PNB) involving diamond trader Nirav Modi.

Besides, he said, efficiency and productivity at banks also demanded that the government relinquish its control of the large number of banks that controls bulk of the financial sector assets that has so far failed to provide the much-needed boost to productive investments.

Also, he said, despite substantial increase in deposits and credit state-run banks have failed to improve their market valuation.

Panagariya also noted that it is not always necessary that government should have full control over banks to achieve social objectives and sectoral lending targets. On the contrary, he said, private sector banks have performed better in delivering financial benefits to the targeted sections of society.

"The fact of the matter is that private sector banks have often performed better than public sector banks in delivering on their priority-sector-lending obligations," he pointed out.

Panagariya, a liberal in trade related policies, said that he would not hesitate to liberalise India's trade further rather than risk the United States under President Donald Trump closing its markets to Indian goods.

He, however, agreed with Nobel laureate Paul Krugman's recent comment that India story could end with mass unemployment, admitting that without any expansion of the manufacturing base the country cannot achieve economic transformation.

"I think manufacturing growth is essential for creating productive and well-paid jobs rather than escape mass unemployment," he said, adding that the economy is surely creating jobs.

"The problem we face is that it is creating very few jobs that fully exploit the potential of our workers," Panagariya insisted. Talking about overall economy, he said that India remains stable in macroeconomic terms.

"The GDP growth rate has been on the rising trend during the latest two quarters for which we have datait rose from 5.7 per cent during the first quarter of 2017-18 to 6.5 per cent in the second quarter and 7.2 per cent in the third quarter. I expect the upward trend to continue," Panagariya asserted.

On the prospects of the agrarian sector, Panagariya said he always favoured cash transfers to rural BPL households in times of crop failures via Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. "In the medium run, the government strategy of raising farmer incomes through marketing reforms and increased farm productivity are right on target," Panagariya said.Govt sets first-half FY19 borrowing target at Rs2,88,000 cr

The government plans to borrow Rs2,88,000 crore ($44.40 billion) in the first half of the 2018-19 financial year that begins in April, the finance ministry stated today.

This will be about 47.5 per cent of the gross targeted market borrowing for the 2018-19 financial year.

The union budget unveiled in February had set the governments gross market borrowing for the coming fiscal at Rs6,06,000 crore and net market borrowing at Rs4,62,000 crore.

The Government of India, in consultation with Reserve Bank of India, finalised its borrowing calendar for the first half of 2018-19. The government intends to use larger inflows from Small Savings Schemes to fund its fiscal deficit during the year. The government will borrow Rs1,00,000 crore from NSSF as against budgeted amount of Rs75,000 crore.

After making careful assessment of its financial needs for the first half, the governments gross G-Sec borrowing will be only Rs2,88,000 crore in H1 of 2018-19. This makes up only 47.5 per cent as against 60-65 per cent share in this period in previous years, a finance ministry release stated.

The government also plans to issue more Floating Rate Bonds (FRBs) and introduce CPI-linked bonds, both put together, to the extent of 10 per cent of issuances during the year.

The finance ministry has issued details of the governments borrowing programme, including T-bills, as part of detailed press releases on the ministrys and RBIs websites. The government will also be coming out with a separate switching calendar to allow investors to sell back their illiquid securities to the government, and also a calendar for Sovereign Gold Bonds issuance.

It may be noted that the government and the RBI are in the final stage of discussions for increasing FPI limits from 1 April 2018.ArcelorMittal bid queers the pitch for local bidders of Essar Steel

ArcelorMittals entry in the final bidding round for debt-laden Essar Steels assets has changed the scenario for auction sale of the countrys second-largest steel producer, with the worlds largest steel company now pitted against local steel producers in the last lap.

Arcelor Mittals entry in the final bidding round for Essar Steel follows the declassification of ArcelorMittal Netherlands BV as a promoter of bankrupt Uttam Galva Steels Ltd on Saturday. Arcelor Mittals entry in the final bidding round for Essar Steel follows the declassification of ArcelorMittal Netherlands BV as a promoter of bankrupt Uttam Galva Steels Ltd on Saturday.

Following the declassification, ArcelorMittal Netherlands BV, whose bid for Essar Steel was earlier rejected by the resolution professional under Section 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, has become eligible to re-bid for Essar Steel.

However, ArcelorMittals entry in the auction sale could further delay Essar Steels bankruptcy resolution as the resolution professionals have received differing advices from law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) and senior counsel Darius Khambata on the eligibility of the bids made by ArcelorMittal.

While CAM said ArcelorMittal must pay the dues of the lenders to Uttam Galva Steels and KSS Petron to become eligible for bidding, Khambata was of the opinion that it was not required as long as ArcelorMittal and L N Mittal sold stakes in Uttam Galva and KSS Petron, respectively, and was declassified as promoter.

Uttam Galva and KSS Petron owe banks Rs6,000 crore and have been referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for debt resolution.

ArcelorMittal held 29 per cent in Uttam Galva Steels and Mittal personally owned 33 per cent in KazStroyService of Kazakhstan, which, in turn, held 100 per cent in KSS Petron.

ArcelorMittal and Mittal sold shares in both the firms just before the deadline to submit bids for Essar Steel in February.

Reports quoting sources in the committee of creditors who attended the 21 March meeting said while lawyers were unanimous on Numetals ineligibility, the eligibility of ArcelorMittal India was tested on the companys and the promoters investments in Uttam Galva and KSS Petron.

On ArcelorMittals stake in Uttam Galva, both CAM and Khambata were of the view that positive control constituted control in terms of Section 29A(c) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

Positive control is the shareholders ability to push through or initiate certain actions. However, according to Khambata, if ArcelorMittal completes its declassification as a promoter of Uttam Galva, Section 29A(c) of the IBC will not apply. On March 24, ArcelorMittal was declassified as Uttam Galva Steels promoter by the stock exchanges.

However, in CAMs view, as ArcelorMittal Netherlands exercised positive control over Uttam Galva, merely selling the shareholding prior to submitting the resolution plan by ArcelorMittal India cannot undo the disqualification of the parent unless it pays its dues.

On KSS Petron, in CAMs view, negative control over an entity also constituted control for the purposes of testing under Section 29A(c) of the IBC. Negative control is the shareholders right to hold back a company from carrying out certain decisions.

Hence, according to CAM, KSS Petron was also a reason on account of which ArcelorMittal India was disqualified while according to Khambata, negative control did not constitute control and, accordingly, KSS Petron did not give grounds for disqualifying ArcelorMittal.

On account of differing views, CAM recommended to the resolution professional to take the opinion of Khambata and rely on his advice. The resolution professional stated that relying on Khambatas view, ArcelorMittal could not be said to be in control of KSS Petron and hence, KSS Petron was not a reason for disqualifying it.

Both CAM and Khambata advised against accepting rival bid by Numetal because a trust owned by Rewant Ruia, son of Ravi Ruia, a promoter of Essar Steel, owned 25 per cent in Numetal, making him a "connected person" under the IBC clause that prevents promoters of defaulting companies from bidding.

VTB group owns 40 per cent and Ruias 25 per cent of Numetal. VTB Bank of Russia is planning to buy out the Ruia trust shares before the end of March to become eligible to bid for Essar in the second round.

SSG Capital, Numetal, Arcelor-Mittal, Vedanta Resources, Tata Steel and Nippon are among the six entities that initially showed interest in acquiring the steel company owned by the Ruia family. The resolution professional, Satish Gupta, has set 2 April as the last date for giving binding bids for Essar Steel that owes over Rs49,000 crore to banks.

Banks led by State Bank of India, last week, voted in favour of inviting bids from six companies which had submitted expressions of interest (EoI) after the resolution professional declared that both the bids  from ArcelorMittal and Numetal  as ineligible.

Numetal moved the Ahmedabad bench of bankrupcy court stating that the structure of their bids be considered eligible for acquiring the distressed company under bankrupcy law.

The company has sought for an early hearing so that clarity emerges before the date of submission of binding bids, said a senior official. Last week, nearly 99 per cent of lenders by value of loan voted for a second round of bidding by inviting only those who gave expression of interest. This would make large companies like JSW Steel eligible to give binding bids.

Lenders say that SSG Capital may submit a bid in partnership with a strategic investor or a steel company. ET has reported that Tatas and Vedanta Resources may not be interested in bidding for Essar Steel. Prior to ArcelorMittals bid being rejected, Japans Nippon Steel has announced that it would partner with ArcelorMittal to acquire Essar Steel if their bid is selected. It is not yet clear if the two will partner for the second round of bidding.

Both the bids of ArcelorMittal and Numetal were rejected on technical grounds and a second round of bidding will enable them to rectify the structure of their proposal so that they are eligible, said the official quoted above.New innovations in cell-free biotechnology

A Northwestern University-led team has developed a new way to manufacture proteins outside of a cell that could have important implications in therapeutics and biomaterials.

The advance could make possible decentralized manufacturing and distribution processes for protein therapeutics that might, in the future, promote better access to costly drugs all over the world.

The team set out to improve the quality of manufactured proteins in vitro, or outside a cell, and found success across a number of fronts.

"We developed a bacterial cell-free protein synthesis system that is capable of high level expression of pure proteins containing multiple non-canonical amino acids," said Michael Jewett, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering. "This is important because it allows us to expand the range of genetically encoded chemistry incorporated into proteins in previously unattainable ways."

The team, which brought together researchers from Northwestern, Yale University, and the Illinois Institute of Technology, reported its work in the journal Nature Communications on 23 March.

Protein production plays a critical role in medicine, biotechnologies, and life sciences.

Recombinant protein production, for example, has transformed the lives of millions of people through the synthesis of biopharmaceuticals, like insulin, and industrial enzymes, like those used in laundry detergents.

Conventionally, protein production has been accomplished in living cells in large centralized manufacturing facilities.

"Alternatively, what cell-free protein synthesis does is take the cell, rip off the cell wall, and collect the guts of the cell. We then use this to make a protein without a living, intact organism," said Jewett, who is also co-director of Northwestern's Center of Synthetic Biology. "You can imagine I've taken a car and opened the hood and taken out the engine and put it over here in my driveway. Now I can use it to do something else."

Without the worry of trying to keep a cell alive, this process opens up many possibilities, including the synthesis of new classes of enzymes, therapeutics, materials, and chemicals with diverse chemistry.

A living cell may balk when asked to do something it hasn't seen in its evolutionary biology, not so for a cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) platform.

The problem up to this point, though, has been that efforts to use CFPS systems for expanding multiple non-canonical amino acids have been limited by competition with the natural machinery that terminates protein synthesis. As a result, manufacturing proteins harboring diverse chemistries with high purity and yields has presented a formidable challenge.

But Jewett and the team produced the highest yields of proteins with non-canonical amino acids ever reported for in vitro systems, suggesting that long-term commercial applications for CFPS might be realistic.

Jewett credited the breakthrough to two elements. The first was the idea of using a genomically recoded organism of Escherichia coli bacteria that lacked release factor 1.

"This is important because it provided us an open coding channel to incorporate new chemistry," he said. "Trying to develop a cell-free protein synthesis from that strain had never been done before."

The second element came courtesy of Jewett's student, Rey Martin, the lead author of the paper.

Jewett said when they first tried to use the strain, they failed to make enough protein.

"What my student Rey did in a very innovative strategy was find genes in the chromosome of that organism that we thought were negatively affecting our ability to produce protein," Jewett said. "He functionally inactivated them to enable higher cell-free protein synthesis yields."

Jewett said that Martin didn't stop there.

"Rey optimidsed the cell-free environment to enable multiple identical non-canonical amino acids to be incorporated," Jewett said. Where before researchers have used just one or a few instances, he said his team was able to incorporate up to 40, site specifically with no observable truncation products.

"What that means is we can really change fundamentally the properties of protein polymers in unique and new ways," Jewett said. "And you may ask, 'well, what are you going do with that?' From a research perspective, we haven't had this exact capability before so we haven't been able to even ask the question."

Jewett imagines applications not just with medicines but also biomaterials for drug delivery systems, medical materials such as surgical sutures, and functionalized biopolymers.

"What's special about this platform is that it's already being used in so many other project areas in the lab," Jewett said. "It has the potential to open up an entirely new area of materials chemistry research for biotechnology and, more broadly, could enable new paradigms of on-demand biomanufacturing of vaccines and therapeutics."Volvo looks to exceed its competition with its new compact luxury SUV.

Built on the Swedish brand's new compact modular platform, the new XC40 small SUV launches locally in April where it will compete against some stiff competition from the likes of the BMW X1, Audi Q3 and Range Rover Evoque.

The XC40 has been lobbed into the more expensive end of the market compared to its rivals with the point of entry into the range kicking off at $47,990 before on-road costs. However, Volvo does forgo a cheaper front-wheel drive variant like its competitors instead offering more higher-specified, all-wheel drive vehicle only.The price of the average three-bed semi in Louth rose by 1.3% to 202,500 in the last three months, according to a national survey carried out by Real Estate Alliance.

The REA Average House Price Survey concentrates on the actual sale price of Ireland's typical stock home, the three-bed semi, giving an up-to-date picture of the property market in towns and cities countrywide to the close of last week.

There is good demand in Dundalk, but the town has very low stock for second-hand homes, said Michael Gunne from REA Gunne Property in Dundalk, where the average price is now 180,000  a 9.1% annual rise.

According to Darina Collins from REA OBrien Collins in Drogheda, the market in the town is buoyant with good demand from first-time buyers and investors, with prices increasing by 2.3% to 225,000 in Q1  a 7.2% increase on March 2017.

The average semi-detached house nationally now costs 229,111, the Q1 REA Average House Price Survey has found  a rise of 1.5% on the Q4 2017 figure of 225,806.

Overall, the average house price across the country rose by 9.1% over the past 12 months  indicating that the market is steadying after the 11.3% overall rise in 2017.

The rate of increase in three-bed semi-detached home prices in Dublin slowed to just 0.5% in the first three months of the year.

After rising by 12.5% in 2017, the average price in the capital has increased by just 2,000 in the opening quarter and now stands at 440,000  exactly twice the Central Banks 220,000 mortgage deposit threshold.

The rate of increase in three-bed semi-detached home prices in Dublin has now slowed to 2% over the past six months, compared to an increase of 4.5% in the opening three months of 2017.

The Dublin market has become quite price sensitive, even though we are seeing healthy demand and good liquidity with plenty of mortgage lending, said REA spokesperson Barry McDonald,

What we may be seeing, after the rapid increases of recent years, are the Central Bank mortgage lending restrictions imposing an upper level on purchasing power for some buyers.

We are experiencing strong demand across the board, and homes are reaching sale agreed in just five weeks across the country  which is good news for both buyers and vendors."

The commuter counties continued their recent steady growth with a 1.4% increase in Q1, with the average house now selling for 235,900  a rise of 3,000 in the first three months of the year.

The countrys major cities outside Dublin recorded a combined Q1 rise of 2.1%, with an average three-bed semi costing 243,750.

The highest increases were seen in the rest of the countrys towns, which experienced a 2.9% rise in Q1 to an average of 150,050.

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Fitbit on Tuesday added a new smartwatch to its wearables line with a pricetag of US$199.95.

The Fitbit Versa, which will reach global retail outlets in next month, will be the lightest metal smartwatch in the U.S. market. It includes a new dashboard that simplifies the way health and fitness data is accessed on the device.

Versa mixes health and fitness programs, such as 24/7 heart rate tracking, onscreen workouts and automatic sleep-stage tracking, with smart features like quick replies on Android and on-device music.

Although the Versa's operating system is Fitbit's proprietary OS 2.0, the smartwatch can connect to an Android phone via an app.

That sets it apart from the Apple Watch, noted Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research.

"That's a good move when the Android Wear platform for smartwatches has some uncertainty surrounding it moving forward," he told TechNewsWorld.

It's been reported that Google intends to re-brand Android Wear as Wear OS. Although Google hasn't commented on the rumor, it's been suggested the company may want to distance Wear from Android, because Wear runs on more than Android devices.

Good Move

Versa's introduction appears to be a good move by Fitbit, especially given the tepid response by the market to its Ionic smartwatch last year.

"The Fitbit Versa seems to be a much better offering than the Fitbit Ionic and will likely help the company to enter further into the smartwatch market," said Stephanie Lawrence, a research analyst at ABI Research.

"Updating the offering is likely to be good for the company," she told TechNewsWorld.

"It helps them become more well known as a smartwatch provider, and to develop more devices in the future with different features and prices," Lawrence pointed out.

"I give it a thumbs-up," said Ramon T. Llamas, a senior research analyst with IDC.

Fitbit has been moving correctly and confidently in a direction where there's still a lot of growth potential by sticking to its DNA, he told TechNewsWorld.

"Fitbit is staying faithful to its DNA by focusing on health and fitness, and not trying to be a Swiss Army Knife of smartwatches that attempt to do everything," Llamas remarked.

Tough Row to Hoe

Avoiding the smartwatch label will work well for Fitbit, suggested Charles King,principal analyst at Pund-IT.

"Rather than pitching itself as a maker of smartwatches, Fitbit instead appears to be positioning the Versa as a platform for cost-effectively extending the capabilities and value of its fitness-tracking solutions for existing and potential customers," he told TechNewsWorld.

"That's a good move since it plays well to the company's strengths and its customers' interests," King said.

However, Fitbit will have a tough row to hoe in the smartwatch market, according to Carolina Milanesi, a principal analyst at Creative Strategies.

"I guess Fitbit is not ready to give up yet in trying to pursue the smartwatch market, which is solidly owned by Apple," she told TechNewsWorld.

"Fitbit seems to have learned from the Ionic's mistake. It has lowered the price point and made the design more appealing for women," Milanesi said.

"While the Versa might sell more than its predecessor," she continued, "I remain skeptical of Fitbit's long-term opportunity in this space, as Apple is investing more and more into health, not just fitness."

Fashion Statement

For $200, the Versa model is an improvement over the Blaze, Fitbit's previous entry at that price point, observed Ben Stanton, an analyst at Canalys.

"The Blaze was a flop due to a poor industrial design," he told TechNewsWorld.

"Smartwatches are not just fitness tools -- they are also fashion statements. So with Versa, bringing premium features -- like its aluminum chassis -- down to $200 is a positive move," Stanton explained.

"Of course, fashion is subjective -- but in my opinion, this is a big step in the right direction for Fitbit," he added.

Fitbit has pegged the Versa's battery life at four days.

"Fitbit sacrifices [user experience] to deliver incredible battery life," Stanton said.

"Its FitbitOS is an incredibly light platform, which doesn't require huge processing power," he noted.

"Its software also focuses on blacks and dark colors, which helps Fitbit get the most out of its built-in battery," Stanton continued. "The competition, namely Apple and Samsung, have more functional, heavy-duty operating systems -- but sacrifice a bit of battery life to get there."

Strong, Steady Growth

The global smartwatch market has been experiencing strong and steady growth, and its future looks bright, ABI's Lawrence noted. Shipments should reach 49 million by 2022, compared with 26 million in 2017.

"Growing numbers of consumer and enterprise users are looking to the devices for numerous reasons," she said, "particularly access to smartphone features from the wrist, as well as information -- such as calendar notifications, what work to be completing, and directions," she said.

However, even greater growth is expected for hybrid smartwatches -- products like the Fossil Q and Nokia Steel -- which have the look of an analog watch but some smartwatch functionality. Eighty million hybrids will be shipped in 2022, according to Juniper Research, compared with 14 million in 2017.

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.

Individuals, businesses and organizations in a record 188 countries and territories worldwide joined WWF's Earth Hour Saturday to spark unprecedented conversation and action on stopping the loss of nature, a day after 550 scientists warned of a "dangerous decline" in global biodiversity.

Close to 18,000 landmarks switched off their lights in solidarity as people across the globe generated more than 3.5 billion impressions of #EarthHour, #connect2earth and related hashtags to show their concern for the planet. The hashtags trended in 33 countries.

"Once again, the people have spoken through Earth Hour," said Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International. "The record participation in this year's Earth Hour, from skylines to timelines, is a powerful reminder that people want to connect to Earth. People are demanding commitment now on halting climate change and the loss of nature. The stakes are high and we need urgent action to protect the health of the planet for a safe future for us and all life on Earth."

From Colombia to Indonesia to Fiji, Earth Hour 2018 mobilized people to join efforts to protect forests and mangroves. In Romania, hundreds of people showed their commitment to safeguarding nature by writing symbolic letters to rivers, forests and wildlife. In Africa, 24 countries celebrated Earth Hour to highlight the most pressing conservation challenges they face such as access to renewable energy, freshwater resources and habitat degradation.

Earth Hour 2018 celebrations in Scotland WWF

This Earth Hour, for the first time, people across the globe also joined the conversation on connect2earth to share what nature means to them, in the places they live in and care about. The platform, created in partnership with the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention of Biological Diversity and supported by Germany's Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety with funding from the International Climate Initiative, aims to build mass awareness on the values of biodiversity and nature to our lives, health and well-being.

"The science is clear: the loss of nature is a global crisis. Wildlife has declined by close to 60 percent in just over 40 years. Our planet is at a crossroads and we cannot have a prosperous future on a depleted, degraded planet. Together as a global community we can turn things around. People must mobilize and join governments and companies toward stronger action on biodiversity and naturethe time to act is now," added Lambertini.

The impacts of accelerating biodiversity loss and climate change on the planet are profound, as are the consequences for humanity. As French President Emmanuel Macron stated in a special message for Earth Hour, "The time for denial is long past, we are losing our battle against climate change and the collapse of biodiversity. If this trend continues, our planet's ecosystems will collapse, along with the clean air, water, food and stable climate that they provide."

To drive further global awareness and action on nature and the environment, WWF has also joined forces with the World Organization of the Scout Movement this Earth Hour. The energy and voices of 50 million scouts worldwide send a resounding message to decision-makers worldwide that the time to act on nature, for nature is now.

WWF and Earth Hour teams around the world will continue to empower individuals, communities, businesses and governments to be a part of environmental action. In his video statement for Earth Hour, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated the need for people to work together to build a sustainable future for all. Strengthened by the support shown, teams will renew the charge to tackle issues such as sustainable lifestyles, deforestation, plastic pollution and ocean conservation across continents.

Earth Hour 2018 celebrations in Russia WWF

Earth Hour 2018: Facts and figures (based on initial estimates on March 25, 2018):

188 countries and territories focused on environmental action and issues such as protecting biodiversity, sustainable lifestyles, deforestation, plastics and stronger climate policy;

Lights out at around 17,900 landmarks including the Sydney Opera House (Sydney), Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (London), the Tokyo Sky Tree (Tokyo), the Empire State Building (New York), the Pyramids of Egypt (Cairo), Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (Abu Dhabi), Christ the Redeemer statue (Rio de Janeiro) and the Eiffel Tower (Paris);

3.5 billion + impressions of official campaign hashtags between January and March 2018. Related hashtags also trended in 33 countries;

Around 250 celebrities and influencers worldwide also raised their voice for the planet including Andy Murray, Jared Leto, Ellie Goulding, The Killers, Amitabh Bachchan, Li Bingbing, Park Seo-joon, Claudia Bahamon and Roger Milla;

Earth Hour partners include Zinkia Entertainment Ltd, creators of popular cartoon character Pocoyo, and crowdsourcing platform Userfarm.

Since 2007, Earth Hour has mobilized businesses, organizations, governments and hundreds of millions of individuals to act for a sustainable future. Earth Hour 2019 will take place on Saturday, March 30 at 8:30 p.m. local time.By Jake Johnson

Indigenous leaders, lawmakers, students and environmentalists took part in a massive day of action that stretched across Canada on Friday to protest the expansion of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline, a project Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he will "ensure" is completed.

Calling out the prime minister by name, demonstrators hoisted signs and banners proclaiming, "Climate leaders don't build pipelines."

In what was called a first in Canadian history, two sitting members of parliamentGreen Party leader Elizabeth May and New Democrat Kennedy Stewartwere arrested for demonstrating against the Trans Mountain pipeline outside of the gate of a Kinder Morgan construction site on Burnaby Mountain, where indigenous leaders staged a sit-in last weekend.

"This is because of Justin Trudeau's betrayal of British Columbia," Stewart said as he was led away by law enforcement. According to Vice, more than 100 pipeline protesters have been arrested this week alone as opposition to Kinder Morgan's project mounts.

"Kinder Morgan does not have consent for this project," said Anna Gerrard, an activist with Climate Justice Edmonton who participated in a sit-in at Kinder Morgan Canada's downtown Calgary office on Friday. "Second to this, our ability to proceed with a national climate strategy should not be negotiated around the construction of a massive fossil fuel project."

"We're standing in support of Indigenous autonomy," Gerrard added. "We believe that it's time for a new narrative in this country; one that is not dictated by Big Oil but instead supports life and the much-needed healing of the land and people."

Below is a glimpse of just some of the took place throughout Canada on Friday:

Reposted with permission from our media associate Common Dreams.

(Photo:  Peter Kenny)World Council of Churches General Secretary Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit addresses a press conference at the United Nations in Geneva on Dec. 12, 2016.

The World Council of Churches is in its 70th anniversary year, and the man at helm Olav Fykse Tveit believes humanity is in a time when the WCC's purpose and objectives "are relevant as never before."

It's going to be a big year for the WCC, that represent more than half a billion Christian from mainly, Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant churches in every corner of the planet.

Earlier this month, the Vatican and the WCC announced Pope Francis will travel to Geneva on June 21 to mark council's anniversary.

The WCC said the landmark visit is only the third by a pope, and the first time that such an occasion was dedicated to visiting the WCC, which is based in Geneva.

The council announced on March 26 that the latest issue of The Ecumenical Review, the WCC's quarterly journal is commemorating the anniversary by publishing an article, address, or book chapter by each of the WCC's seven general secretaries since 1948.

https://www.oikoumene.org/en/press-centre/news/ecumenical-review-marks-70th-anniversary-of-the-world-council-of-churches

"Each of the WCC's general secretaries was dealing with the issues of his time," writes editor Stephen Brown in the editorial that opens the issue that is titled, "Walking Together, Serving Justice and Peace."

WCC general secretary Tveit, a Norwegian Lutheran theologian, writes, "Through the entire 70year history of the WCC, there has been a commitment to work both for the unity of the church and for common service and witness for justice and peace in the world."

CONSTANT CURRENT CHALLENGES

He notes constant current challengers such as the many expressions of polarization, greater gaps between rich and poor, extremism and violence, and concern about the future of the planet Earth,

He also refers to the withdrawal of accountability for humanity's common home.

"We are living at a very dangerous time in human history.

"In January 2017, nuclear scientists moved the doomsday clock to twoandahalf minutes to midnight  they saw the world almost as close to a nuclear war as in 1953 when both the Soviet Union and the United States were testing hydrogen bombs in the earth's atmosphere."

This was due to tensions around the Korean Peninsula threatening to get out of control.

"Moreover, the denial of global warming and its consequences, and violence and war in the Middle East and other regions, are other factors darkening the horizon of the future of humankind," says Tveit.

In contrast to this bleak picture, Tveit, however says more and more people are waking up.

"They realize that this situation requires that they not remain silent bystanders, but instead express their hope for the life of God's creation through specific acts and actions turning the situation around," writes the WCC head.

He notes that this is not an easy task, nor is it a comfortable journey.

"This was a tough lesson we had to learn in the Program to Combat Racism. The struggle against racism also became a battle within and between the churches. The racial division of human beings created in the image of God also divided the church," he says.For George Garcia, academically challenging courses and participation in student government were more than just a path to college.

They also provided an escape.

Because while my home life was shifting so much, I felt a sense of stability at school and something to concentrate on, said Garcia, who was in the foster-care system from age 10, when he and his four siblings were removed from home, to when he became legally emancipated at age 18. While he cycled through 10 home placements in four years of high school, Garcia stayed at the same Los Angeles school and said being surrounded with academically ambitious classmates and teachers in college-prep courses challenged me to invest a lot of my time in something I could control.

Garcia ultimately was elected vice president of his class twice at Summit High School, graduated with honors in 2012, and became a foster-mentor with the Guardian Scholars program at the University of California, Riverside. Looking back, Garcia, now an administrative coordinator at U.C. Riversides National Foster Youth Institute, said his time in foster care deepened his own sense of resilience and academic determination.

Yet Garcias experience, while hopeful, is far from the norm for students with high potential in foster care, according to experts. Trauma, schooling instability, poverty: Any one of those challenges can make it harder for gifted children to be found and to show their strengths, and students in the foster-care system often have all of those disadvantages and then some.

We get these kids over and over who are so eager to learn, but they have so many challenges against them, so they dont look like they are achieving because they are struggling with all the trauma going on in their lives, said Kathleen Casper, the gifted-education director at Solid Rock Community School near Tampa Bay, Fla., and an active foster parent for temporary placements.

The number of children in the foster-care system has been quietly ticking up after years of decline, from about 397,000 in 2012 to more than 437,000 in 2016, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Administration on Children, Youth, and Families. Experts attribute the rise to a wide variety of factors, from poverty and housing instability after the 2008 recession to the opioid epidemic. There are no national numbers on how many foster students participate in gifted education or advanced coursework in high school, but a recent California study found that only 2 percent of students in foster care in that state were identified as eligible for gifted and talented education services, compared with 6 percent of low-socioeconomic students generally and 9 percent of the states total student population.

The Every Student Succeeds Act requires school districts to understand a lot more about both academically advanced students and those in foster care than they have in the past. Districts must now break out performance data, including academic achievement and graduation rates, for foster students, and they must show the percentage of those students performing at both proficient and advanced levels on state tests. Districts that better identify and support gifted students in the foster system could see better long-term achievement and school engagement for this group over time, experts say.

Keeping Track

The traditional process for identifying academically gifted students, including teacher referrals coupled with standardized assessments, may miss a quarter to half of gifted students, particularly those from low-income or other disadvantaged backgrounds, estimates research from the National Association for Gifted Children.

Common school assessments such as the Cognitive Abilities Test focus on verbal reasoning and spoken language, which also can be delayed in children who have experienced trauma, said Michael Postma, the executive director of the group Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted. The school would have to understand different characteristics of giftednessnot just the IQ piececreativity, leadership, critical thinking, he said. They might have missed schooling; youll need to look beyond achievement to fluidity, speed of growth. You really have to look for contextual clues for these kids.

Another obstacle, said James Webb, a gifted-education researcher and author, is that most school districts do not start [gifted] programs until 3rd grade, and by then, [a foster childs] idea of the world is pretty set, and they are less likely to be the teacher-pleaser kind of child who is more likely to be nominated by a teacher for the gifted program.

Last fall, for example, Casper, the gifted director at Solid Rock, temporarily took in a 6-year-old girl who had left her kindergarten after two months when she entered foster care. She was identified and referred for an evaluation based on her academic potential in her new school, but had not had the final paperwork signed when she was moved again, this time to live with a relative in another school district.

So this child has now had to go to three different kindergartens. She has to fit into a new classroom, learn a new curriculum, get into the process of being identified, and then start all over again, with no guarantee that this relative will follow up on it, or even see the value of gifted education, Casper said. Even if you advocate for this child in the period of time they are in your care, a lot of times the process takes so long that by the time the kids moved, nothing has been done.

Jonathan Plucker, a professor of education and talent development at Johns Hopkins Universitys Center for Talented Youth, found highly mobile gifted students can be more resilient than students on average would be to changes because they are more likely to be naturally curious and good problem-solvers. But if their academic environments vary significantly from one placement to another, that sends you very mixed messages about your value and talents, Plucker said.

Garcia recalled he was not tapped for gifted programs in middle schooland in fact cared little about his schoolwork when so much was going on outside of school. Instead of being identified for advanced programs through the school, he said that in high school, his friends convinced him to seek out more advanced coursework.

In Washington state, Treehouse, an advocacy group focused on getting foster students on a college-bound track, helps those transitioning into high school align their foster placements with their academic goals. Education specialists like Merissa Humes meet with students weekly to help them set goals, apply to colleges and for scholarships, and plan for life after both high school and the foster-care system.

Collectively, Treehouse and everyone in the community who supports the organization weave together the middle-class safety net youth in foster care need.

Judges and caseworkers generally decide placements by looking for a safe, stable home for a student, but the details of the students school situation may not be at the forefront, said Angela Griffin, the chief program officer for Treehouse.

We validate that, but its also important for them to have the academic support they need ... that they are able to complete courses, work in similar programs, Griffin said.

One high school senior, for example, was a straight-A student who was about to be moved to a school five districts away that did not have the Advanced Placement courses he was taking. Treehouse eventually helped arrange transportation for the student to remain at his current school, even though it meant a 90-minute bus ride to and from a relatives house each day. The student was willing to do it, and we were there to provide social and emotional support, until the student graduated, she said.

The support has dramatically improved foster students graduation rate in the state. The five-year graduation rate for foster students participating in Treehouse is 89 percent, 7 percent higher than the overall graduation rate statewide and 40 percentage points higher than the state graduation rate for foster students.

Sometimes, Griffin said, advocates also have to persuade schools to look differently at a student with mediocre grades or behavior problems. That happens quite a bit, because the trauma and instability they experience ... can sometimes mask the academic ability they have, she said.

Today, for example, Jordon Marshelle Barrett has earned mostly As in her junior and senior years at Kentridge High School in Kent, Wash. But her grades were in a tailspin in 10th grade at a prior school, when she left one foster placement and ended up being shuttled among seven shelters and group homes, losing months of class in the process. Finally, with help from a new foster family and from Humes, she transferred to the more academically rigorous Kentridge and retook her sophomore classes, but worried that the repeated grade would be a black mark on her college applications.

See Also On-Demand Webinar: Nurturing Academic Talent Among Foster Students All kinds of students can end up in foster care, but research suggests academically gifted students often go unnoticed and unsupported in the system. Learn how one program in Washington state is helping districts find and serve some of their most vulnerable but promising students.

Register now.

Humes helped Barrett get a meeting with her preferred college, the University of Washington, Tacoma, to explain her transcript and press her determination to study psychology and law, to eventually become a homicide detective.

Even though [Humes] was sick, she was texting me before the meeting: Ok, remember to tell them this and this ... Barrett said. Marissa took the time to really learn me and connect with me. ... Going through the shelters, you feel like you have nobody; its really lonely. ... Not only did Treehouse help me with material things  they helped me by giving me somebody I can talk to.

Response to Trauma

There has been very little study of gifted students in foster care, but researchers have looked at how intellectually advanced students respond to mobility, family instability, and trauma.

Jean Peterson, a Purdue University education professor emerita who for the past 25 years has tracked academic and emotional changes among gifted students who experienced trauma, found that intellectually advanced students who experienced abuse were at a higher risk of post-traumatic stress.

A former psychologist at the Childrens Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio, Webb agreed. Common traits of giftedness, such as questioning adults and showing heightened sensitivity, can turn negative in children who have unstable or abusive home lives, he said.

You have a class discussion, and the teacher says, Tell me about your family. The student thinks, Which family? Being in a foster system implies by definition that there is some family disruption. You can expect quite a reaction to thiswhich may or may not be verbalized, Webb said.

Garcia, the foster child who is now a college mentor for foster students, agreed, noting that few of his teachers or peers knew about his home situation, even though he changed placements 10 times in four years. I feel like theres a barrier in understanding, he said. You might have to talk in school about a lot of things you might not have really worked through, and it can be kind of retriggering, retraumatizing.

Both Peterson and Garcia said being in foster care can also heighten academic stress and the perfectionism that gifted students often struggle with. Garcia recalled staying up late to study for a test the next day in U.S. history. I passed out and woke up covered in hives from the stress, he said. I think stress management is one of the biggest challengesand self-care.

Better coordination among education systems, social services, and other child-welfare agencies could help, researchers and advocates say, but personal connections with even one or two adults in school who understand and encourage a students academic potential can greatly improve his achievement and success long term.

A lot of kids in the system dont have a sense of themselves as bright. Their intelligence might be put to simply survivinggetting groceries, taking care of younger siblings, said Peterson, a co-author of the 2018 book Counseling Gifted Students. Educators need to point out to them, You have not had the easiest life, but look at all youve done. As student activists across the country make news, theres another kind of student engagement that we shouldnt overlook: community engagement. Theres tremendous power in establishing partnerships between schools and local community organizations, especially with nonprofit or mission-driven organizations. These community partners gain enthusiastic volunteers, while students are able to engage in authentic educational experiences with the chance to affect their communities in positive ways.

But, as a teacher or school leader, you might be wondering where to start.

I can tell you from years of coordinating community-lot clean-ups and engaging in service projects with students of all ages at The Park School of Baltimore, where I serve as the civic-engagement director, that forging a successful partnership can require a fair amount of work. Between the busy schedules of educators and nonprofit staff, it can be difficult to find an effective balance that serves all parties involved. But its not impossible.

For a partnership to be a long-term success, community partners need to see how working with students furthers their mission. And educators need to see evidence that students are gaining skills that complement their curriculum, while also becoming more involved and engaged citizens of the community.

If youre looking to dive into a partnership with a local organization, here are a few tips to get you started.

Make sure your students are engaged in real work. Students can sense when a project is busywork. Even if it may seem obvious, you should discuss the value of the work and its connection to the mission of the organization with both your students and the community partner. For example, one of The Park School of Baltimores visual arts classes worked with a community association and nonprofit to develop play structures for a community green space that had previously been a series of vacant lots. The play structures designed and fabricated in the class had an authentic audience and real value to the community, making the experience richer for the students and truly useful for the organization and the community it serves.

For a partnership to be a long-term success, community partners need to see how working with students furthers their mission."

Complement the skills students are building in class. Think about how you connect the hands-on work with your curriculum. It wont always be a natural fit, but if theres an opportunity to fuse the two, it will help students understand the practical applicability of textbook lessons. The 8th grade students at my school participate in a year-long advocacy course where students research a social-justice issue they are passionate about and construct a thoughtful response. By engaging local experts and nonprofits to better understand what is already being done to address their chosen topic, students place their work into a real-world context and learn that their own efforts are part of a larger movement. Through our community partnerships, students have the opportunity to explore a wide range of issues, including food insecurity, environmental concerns, and public school infrastructure conditions.

Start small. Before diving into a long-term partnership, start with a project that is small and defined in scope. When we began our partnership with a Baltimore nonprofit that, among many other initiatives, transforms vacant lots into green spaces, we joined them on existing projects, lending volunteers to planting and other tasks. Only after our students engaged responsibly and effectively did our school gain the credibility for a recurring and sustained relationship. Now, our students are involved in projects from conception to construction. Small gains at the outset help to build a relationship and trust between the partner and the school.

Develop a shared vision. A shared vision will help partners work together toward mutual success. This vision should align with the community partners mission, but also take into account the students well-being and academic outcomes. When The Park Schools 1st graders visit with a nearby senior living community, students are able to build positive (and educational) relationships with residents by reading and listening to stories. At the same time, the school is able to support the homes mission by providing a meaningful activity for its residents.

Define leadership on both sides. In order to encourage effective communication and collaboration among partners, both parties should agree on who will own the relationship and who can communicate progress and challenges to improve the experience. With some partnerships, students can even take the lead to gain valuable leadership experience.

Acknowledge the role of your partners as educators. Community partners play an important and active role in the education of students. Acknowledge this role with both your partner and your students. While not teachers in the traditional sense, partners are also serving as educators and should be empowered to share their knowledge and expertise. Our 4th grade students, for example, have long supported a soup kitchen and food pantry in Southwest Baltimore. During visits, our organizational partners also serve as teachers, explaining the history of the neighborhood, the root causes of poverty there, and the importance of advocacy.

Manageable and sustained is better than one-time opportunities. Once youve determined the partnership is a good fit, establish a regular schedule. Students who have multiple opportunities to interact with an organization and a project over the course of a quarter, semester, or year can develop deeper relationships and understandings than those who have only a single experience.

There are no doubt countless mission-driven or nonprofit organizations in your area that would be eager to team up with your students: a senior living facility, an urban farm, or a homeless shelter, for example. The experiences produced through those collaborations will enrich your students learning and, at the same time, benefit your schools community.The March for Our Lives may have riveted the nation over the weekend, but the next few months will determine if the nationwide demonstrations translate into action on gun control for the movements student leaders.

Students who spearheaded Saturdays massive march in Washington and hundreds of other events around the country are looking to put their shoulders into the push for stricter gun laws, such as a ban on selling semi-automatic rifles similar to the AR-15 used in several school shootings. That political activism is taking a variety of formsbut likely wont get the same spotlight Saturdays events attracted, and could face increasing opposition as the months wear on.

And their work will enter the blocking-and-tackling phase of any successful political groundswell: turning people out to vote and electing lawmakers who will pursue the definitive policy changes they want.

A day after the march, one of the student leaders of the movement, David Hogg, shared how activists and constituents can discuss gun-control measures face-to-face with lawmakers:

Even before the weekends protests, catalyzed by the Feb. 14 killing of 17 students and educators at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Fla., gun-control advocates could already claim a small, but politically significant win in Florida. Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, approved a measure earlier this month raising the minimum age for purchasing any firearm, among other changes to state law. But that hasnt satisfied leaders of and participants in March For Our Lives.

Jamiah Harris, 16, a junior at Scotland County Early College in Scotland County, N.C., was one of the hundreds of students who came to Washington for the march through a joint effort by the NAACP Youth & College Division and MTV.

We face a lot of gun violence in Scotland County, he said at the event in Washington. When we do go back we are going to organize.  This march, as many people have said, is not going to change anything. Its only the start of the chain reaction.

He said he is starting a local student-led newspaper that will tackle issues of gun violence and safety to stop this from happening in our community.

This is just the beginning, he said.

Kid Gloves Are Off

However, the student activistsincluding the Parkland shooting survivorsare far past being treated delicately and with deference by their critics in the political arena.

The National Rifle Association, for example, the organization thats received the most aggressive criticism from many March for Our Lives leaders, posted a video Saturday featuring rapper Killer Mike and titled The March for Less Freedom. (The rapper later said it was wrong for the NRA to use the video in opposition to the march.)

In a less-strident statement as the march concluded, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, acknowledged the student-led activism but also said many disagreed with what he termed a call for a gun ban.

While protests are a legitimate way of making a point, in our system of government, making a change requires finding common ground with those who hold opposing views, Rubio said in a statement.

And on Sunday, former GOP Sen. Rick Santorum argued that instead of pushing for phony gun laws, students could learn CPR for when violence strikes schools. Santorums remarks were widely criticized, including by one of the leading student activists, Emma Gonzalez.

See Also: Full Coverage: Student-Led Civic Action Against Gun Violence

President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos did not publicly support or criticize the activists aims on the day of the march. The White House issued a statement supporting their exercise of their First Amendment rights, while the day before, DeVos highlighted the first meeting of the federal school safety commission, which she will lead this week.

Attacking the students, even though theyve become nationally recognized political actors, is very misguided, said Patrick McGuinn, a professor of political science and education at Drew University, in Madison, N.J. Such attacks are going to serve to further energize the students and student leaders, McGuinn said. I think its only going to further the sympathy for these students and their agenda.

Still, McGuinn said, student activists have to overcome the checkered track record of gun-control activists overall in recent years.

Its already one that resonates, McGuinn said of the activists message. The question is, will it be enough to overcome the inside-D.C. politics and the strength of the NRA?

What Counts as a Win

Congress could point to passage of the STOP School Violence Act, signed into law by Trump as part of the federal spending bill last week, as a sign that Capitol Hill is taking the issue seriously. (The funding bill also included measures intended to beef up existing background checks for gun purchases.)

And while congressional Democrats may push for new gun restrictions, Capitol Hill Republicans who control Congress wont be keen to alienate conservative voters who might stay home on Election Day if their GOP representatives signal support for new gun-control measures.

One potential boost for the March for Our Lives movement: upcoming midterm elections where voters might show serious dissatisfaction with Trump and Congress and provide a chance for activists to piggyback on broader political momentum. (A Monday analysis by the Cook Political Report showed 29 Republican House seats rated in the toss-up category or worse, meaning that the odds favored Democrats. To win control of the House, Democrats need to take 24 seats from Republicans without losing any seats. The Senate map for the Democrats to win control could be much tougher.)

In addition to congressional elections, there are 36 states holding gubernatorial elections this year. And according to a count by Ballotpedia, which provides information and resources on elections, 6,066 seats in state legislatures are also up for grabs. Republicans control 25 state legislatures, Democrats control 7, and 17 states have split control.

A Gallup poll conducted in early March found that 56 percent of those surveyed favored using school security systems and mental-health measures as the best ways to prevent school shootings, compared to 41 percent who favored new laws on the sale of guns and ammunition as the best method for preventing them.

The website for March for Our Lives includes a section where visitors can register to vote, and sign up to lead voter registration efforts. And March for Our Lives events around the country featured several opportunities for people to do the same.

If you want gun violence solutions, you have to show up at the polls to get them because Congress is not going to hand [them] to us, Tiffany Dena Loftin, the national director for the NAACP Youth and College division, said said on Friday the day before the Washington event. We have to show up at the polls this fall.

Reactions Beyond Florida

Florida isnt the only state that has taken action, or is talking about doing so, in the wake of the Parkland shooting.

On Monday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, signed into law a $100 million school safety plan. The newly adopted legislation requires the integration of trauma-informed care training for school staff, beefed-up school safety plans, more coordination with law enforcement, and mandatory reporting of threats of school violence for certain school staff. The measure doesnt change the states gun laws.

This bill provides important grant funding that will allow districts to invest in safety measures that will help protect against all threats, Walker said in a statement.

And earlier this month, Arizona GOP Gov. Doug Ducey released a school safety plan that would restrict access to firearms for those deemed a danger to themselves or others, and a new Center for School Safety that would operate a tip line to report threats of school violence, among other proposals. Ducey said the plan would include $2 million in funding for mental-health services, to go with $6 million in estimated federal aid. (Ducey doesnt identify the source of federal money.)

It remains to be seen if Florida remains the only state run by GOP lawmakers that enacts additional firearms restrictions.

Not all the students efforts will focus explicitly on policy and the ballot box.

Sariah Romeluz, a 9th grader at the DREAM charter school in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City who attended the Washington march, said she wanted to use the organizing skills on display Saturday to help address violence in her own neighborhood.

Gang violence is something thats really prevalent in East Harlem, she said, relating how her uncle was shot when she was 10. Ive been afraid to go outside in my own community.

Related Videos

I dont want my students to go to school in fear. If we all band together, we can make change. Those were just some of the sentiments captured by Education Weeks video team at the March for Our Lives in Washington. Watch their video interviews:2018-03-26

Maeci

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano: Italy firmly condemns the new launch of ballistic missiles on the territory of Saudi Arabia, including the capital Riyadh, by Houthi rebels in Yemen, which targeted civilian objectives and caused the death of one person and the injury of several people among defenceless Saudi citizens.

While expressing our Countrys full solidarity with Saudi Arabia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed that the provocative behaviour of Houthi rebels undermines the regions security and stability and worsens the seriously deteriorated political and military framework of the Yemeni crisis.

Minister Alfano added: The priority must be to cease hostilities, an essential prerequisite to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of the civilian population.

Italy is ready to give all our support the United Nations new Special Envoy, Martin Griffiths, in the strong hope that he might give a decisive impulse to negotiations to put an end to this conflict, concluded Minister Alfano.1. E-cigarettes hampered smoking cessation in study of smokers discharged from the hospital

More research is needed to determine if e-cigarettes help or hurt attempts to quit smoking in a broader patient population

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M17-2048

URLs go live when the embargo lifts

E-cigarette users were less likely than nonusers to abstain from tobacco at 6 months in a study of smokers who planned to quit after being discharged from the hospital. However, patients using e-cigarettes generally used them infrequently and not every day. This pattern of e-cigarette use may not be an effective way to use the products to quit smoking. However, this finding does not rule out a benefit of e-cigs if a smoker switches completely and uses e-cigarettes regularly, in the same way that FDA-approved nicotine replacement products are intended to be used. More research is needed to determine if e-cigarettes help or hurt attempts to quit smoking in the general population. Findings from a secondary analysis of a large randomized controlled trial are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

While the benefits and harms of e-cigarettes are still under investigation, the general scientific consensus is that cigarette smokers who completely switch to e-cigarettes are likely to reduce their tobacco-related health risks. It is believed that e-cigarettes can also be used to help smokers of conventional cigarettes quit, but their efficacy as a cessation tool is uncertain.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital studied 1,357 recently-hospitalized adult smokers who planned on quitting following discharge to determine whether e-cigarette use was associated with subsequent tobacco abstinence. Participants were asked about their e-cigarette use at 1 and 3 months after hospital discharge. After 6 months, the researchers used surveys and lab tests to determine who had quit smoking regular cigarettes. The researchers found that those who reported using an e-cigarette after discharge were less likely to be abstinent from tobacco at 6 months than smokers who did not use e-cigarettes. In a propensity score analysis, the negative association between e-cigarette use and cessation was large. However, the authors caution that the association must be interpreted in context. E-cigarettes were used intermittently and more often by smokers without easy, free access to evidence-based cessation aids.

Media contact: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Lauren Evans at laevans@acponline.org or Angela Collom at acollom@acponline.org. To interview with the lead author, Nancy Rigotti, MD, please contact Susan McGreevey at SMCGREEVEY@mgh.harvard.edu.

2. Medicare's condition-specific readmission measures are poor reflectors of hospital quality

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M17-1492

URLs go live when the embargo lifts

Medicare's condition-specific readmission measures may not provide an accurate picture of hospital quality. Researchers found sizable differences in hospital performance when they compared 30-day readmissions after hospitalizations for Medicare publicly reported conditions with those for unreported conditions and readmissions for non-Medicare patients. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Hospital excess readmission ratios (ERRs) for heart failure (HF), myocardial infarction (MI), and pneumonia among Medicare beneficiaries are used to assess hospital quality and determine reimbursement. It is not known whether readmission rates for these conditions reflect broader hospital-wide performance among all conditions and all payers. Likewise, whether the relationship between readmission rates for publicly reported and unreported conditions varies according to hospital characteristics has not been investigated.

Researchers from the Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center reviewed data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization's Nationwide Readmission Database for 2013 and 2014 for 2,101 hospitals to investigate whether 30-day readmission measures for publicly reported conditions (HF, MI, and pneumonia) among Medicare patients reflect hospital performance on readmissions more broadly in an all-payer national sample. They found that hospitals publicly reported ERRs differed widely from their ERRs for unreported conditions and patient groups. These discrepancies translated into substantial disparities in the numbers of hospitals that would be penalized or not penalized if different groups were used. More than half of all hospitals would have a change in penalty status if it were based on the Medicare unreported or non-Medicare groups. For 59 percent of hospitals, the ERR for Medicare reported hospitalizations was more similar to the ERR for the Medicare unreported group than that for the non-Medicare group, suggesting that Medicare publicly reported readmission metrics are poor reflections of how hospitals perform for non-Medicare patients in particular.

According to the researchers, these findings suggest that current public measures of hospital performance for 30-day readmission rates may give an incomplete and, in some cases, inaccurate picture of hospital quality.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Lauren Evans at laevans@acponline.org or Angela Collom at acollom@acponline.org. To interview lead author, Robert W. Yeh, MD, MSc, please contact Lindsey Diaz-McInnis at ldiaz2@bidmc.harvard.edu or 617-667-7372.

3. American College of Physicians issues ethical guidance for individuals participating in volunteer medical trips

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M17-3361

Editorial: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M18-0556

URLs go live when the embargo lifts

Physicians who participate in short-term global health experiences, such as volunteer medical trips, have ethical obligations to the individuals and communities they serve, the American College of Physicians (ACP) advises in a new position paper published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

ACP's position mostly addresses practicing physicians, but it also applies to other health care professionals and students, and should inform how institutions, organizations, and others structure short-term global health experiences. According to ACP President Jack Ende, MD, MACP, the primary goal of a short-term experience in global health is to improve the health and well-being of the individuals and communities where they occur.

ACP advises that to fulfill the primary ethical obligation of a short-term experience in global health to improve health and well-being, physicians should advocate for sustainable, mutual benefit; a fair and equitable distribution of resources; and partnerships that respect the individuals and communities served. The ethical principle of justice requires partnering with local leaders to ensure that the potential burdens participants can place on local communities abroad are minimized and preparing for limited material resources.

Individuals who participate in short-term global health experiences must be sensitive to and respectful of cultural differences. Pre-departure preparation should incorporate preparation for logistical and ethical aspects of a short-term experience in global health, including the potential for ethical challenges and moral distress.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF or an interview with an ACP spokesperson, please contact Steve Majewski, ACP Media Relations Manager, smajewski@acponline.org or 215-351-2514.

###

Also new in this issue:

Balancing Innovation and Safety When Integrating Digital Tools Into Healthcare

Andrew D. Auerbach, MD, MPH; Aaron Neinstein, MD, and Raman Khanna, MD

Ideas and Opinions

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M17-3108

Genomic Analysis to Avoid Misdiagnosis of Adults with Bilateral Renal Cysts

Ashima Gulati, MD; Kyongtae T. Bae, MD, PhD, MBA; Terry Watnick, MD

Brief Research Report

Abstract: http://annals.org/aim/article/doi/10.7326/M17-0644Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a new enzyme that will enable microbial production of a renewable alternative to petroleum-based toluene, a widely used octane booster in gasoline that has a global market of 29 million tons per year.

Results from a study led by Harry Beller , Berkeley Lab senior scientist and scientific lead at JBEI, were published Monday in the journal Nature Chemical Biology. The other lead co-authors are Andria Rodrigues and Kamrun Zargar of JBEI.

A major focus of research at JBEI, and in the broader community of biofuel researchers, is the production of industrially and commercially relevant fuels and chemicals from renewable resources, such as lignocellulosic biomass, rather than from petroleum. The enzyme discovered in this study will enable the first-time microbial production of bio-based toluene, and in fact, the first microbial production of any aromatic hydrocarbon biofuel.

The enzyme discovery resulted from the intensive study of two very different microbial communities that produced toluene. One community contained microbes from lake sediment, and the other from sewage sludge. Since microbes in the environment are a reservoir of enzymes that catalyze an extraordinarily diverse set of chemical reactions, it's not unusual for scientists working in biotechnology to source enzymes from nature.

Beller was motivated to investigate bio-based toluene after reading literature reports from the 1980s that revealed microbial toluene biosynthesis in anoxic lake sediments. Despite a number of reports of bacterial toluene production since that time, the identity of the enzyme catalyzing this biochemically challenging reaction has been a mystery for decades.

The toluene-synthesizing enzyme discovered in this study, phenylacetate decarboxylase, belongs to a family of enzymes known as glycyl radical enzymes (GREs). Scientists only began to recognize GREs in the 1980s, and phenylacetate decarboxylase is just the eighth known GRE reaction type to have been discovered and characterized since then. However, metagenomic evidence presented in the JBEI study and others points to the fact that many more GREs exist in nature that have yet to be characterized.

The radical nature of GREs allows them to catalyze chemically challenging reactions, such as anaerobic decarboxylation of phenylacetate to generate toluene. Beyond their potential biotechnological applications, a number of known GREs are relevant to human health and occur within the human gut microbiome.

The process of enzyme discovery for this project was both challenging and unconventional. The researchers first started working with a bacterial species reported to make toluene, but when those reports appeared to be irreproducible, the scientists turned to the environment for toluene-producing cultures - specifically to municipal sewage and anoxic lake sediment.

"All enzyme discovery projects are challenging. But moving from discovery in a single bacterial species, to discovery in a complex microbial community from sewage sludge or lake sediments, was more difficult by orders of magnitude," says Beller. "This study became a needle-in-a-haystack search for the toluene-producing enzyme in a candidate pool of hundreds of thousands of enzymes."

In fact, metagenome analyses revealed that these microbial communities each contained more than 300,000 genes - the equivalent of more than 50 bacterial genomes. Another challenge was that the anaerobic microbial communities and many of their enzymes were sensitive to oxygen, forcing the scientists to manipulate cultures and enzymes under strictly anaerobic conditions.

The discovery process combined protein purification techniques used by biochemists for decades, such as fast protein liquid chromatography, with modern metagenomic, metaproteomic, and associated bioinformatic analyses, some of which were carried out in collaboration with the Joint Genome Institute, a DOE Office of Science User Facility. An important component of the discovery process was to validate the researchers' predictions of the toluene biosynthesis enzyme with experiments using highly controlled assays involving purified proteins.

An intriguing question arising from this research is: why would a bacterium produce toluene? The researchers don't have the definitive answer but present two hypotheses in the paper. One possibility is that the bacterium is producing toluene as a toxin to outcompete other microbes in its environment. Another hypothesis is that the phenylacetate decarboxylase (toluene-producing) reaction provides a strategy for the bacterium to regulate its internal pH in a somewhat acidic, fermentative environment.

Beller and his colleagues believe that their study results have implications for fundamental and applied science. From a biochemical perspective, the study expands the known catalytic range of GREs, and from a biotechnological perspective, it will enable first-time biochemical synthesis of an aromatic fuel hydrocarbon from renewable resources.

"We have so much to learn about the extraordinary metabolic diversity of bacteria," Beller said. "Through eons of evolution, nature has devised enzymes that can catalyze difficult chemical reactions, and as we discover these, we can harness them for biotechnology."

###

JBEI is a DOE Bioenergy Research Center funded by DOE's Office of Science. The other co-authors of the paper, "Discovery of enzymes for toluene synthesis from anoxic microbial communities," are Yu-Wei Wu, Avneesh K. Saini, Renee M. Saville, Jose H. Pereira, Paul D. Adams, Susannah G. Tringe, Christopher J. Petzold, and Jay D. Keasling.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.There are two war veterans, both with penetrating traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by a gunshot. One of them tends to donate his own money to societal entities he believes in, and the other one punishes institutions that don't represent him. The answer for these behavioral differences rely on brain areas, that after being damaged during the Vietnam War are no longer working as they are supposed to. In order to elucidate these mechanisms, neuroscientists investigated altruistic behavior - actions that benefit others - in Vietnam veterans. The study was published in Brain.

For at least 150 years, we know that TBI can change several domains of behavior, impairing social behavior or memory, for instance, depending on which brain areas have been damaged. However, mapping the relation between brain areas and behavior can be tough, especially for complex behavior such as altruism. War veterans constitute a unique opportunity to reveal causal relationship between how specific brain areas are involved in social behavior.

This study - part of an initiative that investigates the brain of war veterans since the 1980's - included 94 war veterans with penetrating TBI (Figure 1) and 28 controls that also served in combat in Vietnam but had no history of brain injury. All participants had their brains examined with a Computed Tomography (CT), a non-invasive method that allows investigation of brain damage.

Also, veterans participated in an altruistic decision task in order to capture their intuitions of justice and morality. In this test, each participant was required to donate or punish 30 charitable organizations involved in salient societal issues, such as abortion and gun control. Each decision (either donate or punish) costed them $1, while avoiding them resulted into savings.

In the altruistic decision task, donate and punish are typically altruistic decisions: they involve giving away from their own money in order to benefit third parties. "This test is different than others because it allows us to go deep in their moral intent, since they donate or punish to what they believe is right or wrong", explains Ricardo de Oliveira-Souza, neurologist from D'Or Institute for Research and Education and author of the study.

Altruism in the brain

When linking participants' performance on the test to their brain lesions, scientists found out that those veterans who have made more decisions to punish showed bilateral lesions in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. On the other hand, less punishment was associated with lesions in the left temporo-insular and right perisylvian cortices (Figure 2).

However, decisions to donate to a given organization were associated with lesions in other areas of the brain (Figure 3). Increase in donations was linked to bilateral lesions in the dorsomedial parietal cortex, while decrease in donations was observed in the veterans who had suffered damage in posterior parts of the right hemisphere, including superior temporal sulcus and middle temporal gyrus.

"Our findings reveal that we have two distinct brain circuits that come into action under a moral situation: one of them punishes, the other one donates", highlights Oliveira-Souza.

Previous studies have pointed to the importance of these brain areas to determine the sense of morality and justice towards individuals or social groups. According to the authors, the present study reinforces the notion that altruistic decisions emerge from complex cognitive process that come into action during a moral decision, for instance if one is for or against civil rights.

"We hope that learning more about the brain mechanisms of altruistic behavior and its related social behaviors we can promote the positive social behaviors that families desire; particularly in patients under rehabilitation for different forms of neurodegenerative disorders or brain injury", says Jordan Grafman, from Brain Injury Research Program, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, USA.

In the future, the authors expect to evaluate younger people and women with the altruistic decision task in order to investigate whether there is any differences in the brain circuits of morality related to sex and age.

###Singapore, March 24, 2018 - For the first time, an Asian team of cancer researchers has won the prestigious American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Team Science Award, an award that honours researchers for their global impact on cancer research. This year's winning team is an international collaboration led by a Singapore team comprising Professors Patrick Tan (Team Leader), Bin Tean Teh, Steve Rozen and colleagues from Duke-NUS Medical School, National Cancer Centre Singapore, Genome Institute of Singapore, and collaborators from Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. Since inception, teams from the US have won the award eight times, and a team from the UK won in 2012.

The focus of the team's research is on cancers that are prominent in Asia but less studied in the West, because such cancers constitute a major global healthcare burden and an unmet medical need. Professor Tan said, "Our research programme was founded on a common realisation -- that in Asia, there existed several endemic, highly prevalent, and lethal cancers rarely seen in the West, and that many of these Asian cancers could be linked to specific exposures and environmental agents (e.g. bacteria, viruses, and toxins). We hypothesised that investigating Asian cancers would allow the study of interactions between the environment and cancer in a more direct way compared to Western cancers, and that such investigations could identify better ways to manage Asian cancer and also potentially shed light on Western cancers as well."

Driven by this vision, Professor Tan and colleagues partnered with key cancer scientists and clinicians in the region as part of an ambitious, long term research programme, to identify disrupted pathways in Asian cancers and new therapeutic targets. By dissecting the effects of carcinogenic exposure in these cancers, they also aimed to inform new methods of cancer prevention. Finally, they aimed to leverage their studies of Asian cancers to facilitate a better understanding of other cancers worldwide.

The AACR's decision to award the team for their research focus on Asian cancers is particularly timely and pertinent. Currently, Asia accounts for about 60% of the global population, contributing 44% of all cancer cases, and 51% of global cancer mortality. Moreover, global cancer burden is projected to increase dramatically in Asia. There is thus an urgent need to focus on developing improved treatment for cancer patients, and particularly for patients in Asia.

The team studied numerous cancers, including gastric cancer, Asian-prevalent lymphomas such as natural killer T-cell lymphomas, bile-duct cancers, and cancers associated with exposure to aristolochic acids. Prior to their work, little was known about these cancers. Their work helped to identify new genes and pathways, which if disrupted may represent new avenues for further therapies. For example, the team identified major genetic abnormalities in stomach cancers, a leading cause of global cancer death, and were able to translate these findings into clinical trials targeting these abnormalities. They also showed how parts of DNA affected by carcinogens can be used as screening tools to identify previously undetected carcinogen exposures.

Professor Patrick Casey, Senior Vice Dean of Research at Duke-NUS, noted that "Duke-NUS is cognisant of the importance of forging deep relationships among scientists and institutions, emphasising trust, goodwill and collaborative respect. We firmly support partnerships and have over 130 synergistic research alliances with numerous partners. One outstanding example is this award-winning collaboration between our cancer researchers and their regional counterparts."

Professor Teh added, "We strongly believed that by working as a team, we can make more meaningful and impactful progress compared to working individually."

The collaboration has led to multiple collaborative publications and discoveries in leading peer-reviewed journals, and contributed to the knowledge and understanding of Asian cancers. Their research has also informed government policies. For instance, research led by Professor Rozen on aristolochic acid (AA), a compound found in certain traditional herbal medicines, revealed a potential role for AA exposure in the development of liver cancer. This finding both increased public awareness of the risks of AA exposure and led regulatory agencies to announce stricter policies on use of AA-containing plants.

###

About AACR and the Team Science Award

The AACR Team Science Award is an internationally prestigious award that recognises an outstanding interdisciplinary research team for its innovative and meritorious science that has advanced our fundamental knowledge of cancer, or has applied existing knowledge to advance the detection, diagnosis, prevention or treatment of cancer. The award was established by the AACR and Eli Lilly and Company to acknowledge and catalyse the growing importance of interdisciplinary teams to the understanding of cancer and/or the translation of research discoveries into clinical cancer applications.

The AACR is the world's oldest and largest professional association related to cancer research, founded in 1907 with more than 34,000 members in over 90 countries (the AACR Annual Meeting regularly attracts about 20,000 attendees). The AACR Scientific awards (including the Team Science award) are one of the most prestigious awards in cancer research, honouring researchers for their global impact on cancer research. Previous AACR awardees have included Nobel Prize (Mario Capecchi, Harald zur Hauzen, Phillip Sharp) and Lasker Prize winners (Janet Rowley, James Allison, William Kaelin).

About the Team Members

There are eleven team members: six from Singapore, one from Japan, two from Thailand, and two from Taiwan. Professor Patrick Tan heads the Programme in Cancer and Stem Cell Biology at Duke-NUS Medical School, and is also Deputy Executive Director at the Biomedical Research Council for Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). Professor Bin Tean Teh is Deputy Director (Research) at National Cancer Centre Singapore and a professor at Duke-NUS Medical School. Both Professors Tan and Teh are also Senior Principle Investigators at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore. Professor Steve Rozen is an Associate Dean of Research Informatics and Director of the Centre for Computational Biology at Duke-NUS Medical School. Professors Tan, Teh and Rozen are long time collaborators, and in 2015, they won the 2015 Singapore President's Science Award for outstanding integrative and translational research in Asian cancer genomics.

The other Singaporean team members are Professor Soon Thye Lim (National Cancer Centre Singapore), Dr Choon Kiat Ong (National Cancer Centre Singapore) and Dr Chiea Chuen Khor (Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR). Their regional collaborators are Professor Tatsuhiro Shibata (National Cancer Center, Japan; University of Tokyo, Japan), Associate Professors Chawalit Pairojkul and Narong Khuntikeo (Khon Kaen University, Thailand), and Professors Jacob See-Tong Pang and Sen-Yong Hsieh (Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan).

About Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore

The Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) was established in 2005 as a strategic collaboration between the Duke University School of Medicine, North Carolina, USA, and the National University of Singapore (NUS). Duke-NUS offers a graduate-entry, four-year MD (Doctor of Medicine) training programme, anchored on an innovative model of self-directed learning. The School also offers MD/PhD and PhD programmes.

Duke-NUS has five Signature Research Programmes: Cancer and Stem Cell Biology, Neuroscience and Behavioural Disorders, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, and Health Services and Systems Research.

The collaboration between Duke-NUS and Singapore Health Services (SingHealth) has established an Academic Medical Centre to advance our joint pursuits in clinical care, research and education to transform medicine and improve lives.

For more information, please visit http://www.duke-nus.edu.sg.

About the National Cancer Centre Singapore

National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) provides a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach to cancer treatment and patient care. We treat almost 70 per cent of the public sector oncology cases, and they are benefiting from the sub-specialisation of our clinical oncologists. NCCS is also accredited by the US-based Joint Commission International for its quality patient care and safety. To deliver among the best in cancer treatment and care, our clinicians work closely with our scientists who conduct robust cutting-edge clinical and translational research programmes which are internationally recognised. NCCS strives to be a global leading cancer centre, and shares its expertise and knowledge by offering training to local and overseas medical professionals.

For more information on NCCS, please visit http://www.nccs.com.sg.

About Cancer Science Institute of Singapore

CSI Singapore is a state-of-the-art university research institute affiliated with, and hosted at the National University of Singapore. It was established in 2008, with a "Research Centre of Excellence" grant, one of only five in Singapore, by the National Research Foundation and the Ministry of Education. Professor Daniel G. Tenen, MD, a leader in the field of transcriptional regulation, haematopoiesis, and cancer, was named its founding director.

The institute is an anchor for research expertise in three broad programmes; Cancer Biology & Stem Cells, Experimental Therapeutics, and the RNA Biology Centre; these programmes form expansive platforms for CSI Singapore's focus on key cancer disease cancers in gastric, liver, lung and leukaemia which are endemic in Asian populations. CSI Singapore aims to position Singapore as a global-leader in the field of Biomedical Sciences. Its mission: to conduct a multifaceted and coordinated approach to cancer research, extending from basic cancer studies all the way to experimental therapeutics and in so doing improve cancer treatment.

For more information on CSI Singapore, please visit http://www.csi.nus.edu.sg/ws/

About Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)

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Tel: 65-6601 3272

Email: serene.ong@duke-nus.edu.sgA study published in Science last week relies on extremely bright X-ray beams from the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory to confirm the presence of naturally occurring water at least 410 kilometers below the Earths surface. This exciting discovery could change our understanding of how water circulates deep in the Earths mantle and how heat escapes from the lower regions of our planet.

Through use of the APS, a DOE Office of Science User Facility, the researchers identified a form of water known as Ice-VII, which was trapped within diamonds that crystallized deep in the Earths mantle. This is the first time Ice-VII has been discovered in a natural sample, making the compound a new mineral accepted by the International Mineralogical Association.

[T]hanks to the amazing technical capabilities of the APS, this team of researchers was able to pinpoint and study the exact area on the diamonds that trapped the water.  Stephen Streiffer, Argonne Associate Laboratory Director for Photon Sciences and Director of the APS

This study is just the latest in a long line of research projects at the APS that have shed light on the composition and makeup of the deep Earth, regions that humans cannot explore directly. Instead, scientists used high-powered X-ray beams to analyze inclusions in diamonds, which were formed in the deep Earth, so as to come to conclusions about what happened in those regions.

In other geological studies at the APS, researchers have used high-pressure chambers and lasers to put materials under extreme pressure and temperatures for study, literally recreating the conditions deep below the Earths surface to understand what happens there.

In this study, thanks to the amazing technical capabilities of the APS, this team of researchers was able to pinpoint and study the exact area on the diamonds that trapped the water, said Stephen Streiffer, Argonne Associate Laboratory Director for Photon Sciences and Director of the APS. That area was just a few microns wide. To put that in context, a human hair is about 75 microns wide.

This research, enabled by partners from the University of Chicago and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, among other institutions, is just the latest example of how the APS is a vital tool for researchers across scientific disciplines, he said.

In this case, researchers analyzed rough, uncut diamonds mined from regions in China and Africa. Using an optical microscope, mineralogists first identified inclusions, or impurities, which must have formed when the diamond crystallized. Most diamonds have inclusions caused by a sample of other elements or compounds that were trapped as the carbon fused into a diamond.

We are interested in those inclusions because they tell us about the chemical composition and conditions in the deep Earth when the diamond was formed, said Antonio Lanzirotti, a University of Chicago Research Associate Professor and a co-author on the study.

After many millions of years, diamonds are pushed up from the Earths mantle to the surface, where many are mined for jewelry and industrial purposes.

To positively identify the composition of the inclusions, mineralogists needed a stronger instrument. Thats where University of Chicagos GeoSoilEnviroCARSs (GSECARS) beamlines at the APS came in. GSECARS operates a suite of instruments at the APS dedicated to frontier research in the Earth sciences.

Oliver Tschauner, the lead author on the study and a mineralogist at University of Nevada in Las Vegas, worked with the GSECARS group to probe more than a dozen diamonds that he had identified with this inclusion.

Because of the pressure required for diamonds to form, the scientists know that these specimens formed between 410 and 660 kilometers below the Earths surface.

Thanks to the very high brightness of the APS X-rays, which are a billion times more intense than conventional X-ray sources, scientists can determine the molecular or atomic makeup the specimens that are only micrometers across.

When the focused beam of X-rays hits the molecules of the specimen, they scatter. Pictures or images taken of this scattering pattern are then analyzed, as each compound or molecule shows a unique pattern.

What the team identified in this study was surprising: water, in the form of ice.

The composition of the water is the same as the water that we drink and use every day, but in a cubic crystalline form, the result of the extremely high pressure of the diamond.

This form of water, Ice-VII, was created in the lab decades ago, but this study was the first to confirm that it also forms naturally.

This wasnt easy to find, said Vitali Prakapenka, a University of Chicago Research Professor and a co-author of the study, who said that the team used high-resolution diffraction techniques to get the right scans, or images, of the Ice-VII. People have been searching for this kind of inclusion for a long time.

The researchers said the significance of the study is profound because it shows that flowing water is present much deeper below the Earths surface than originally thought. Going forward, the results raise a number of important questions about how water is recycled in the Earth and how heat is circulated. Tschauner has said the discovery can help scientists create new, more accurate models of whats going on inside the Earth, specifically how and where heat is generated under the Earths crust. This may help scientists better understand one of the driving mechanisms for plate tectonics.

For now, the GSECARS team is wondering whether the mineral Ice-VII will be renamed, now that it is officially a mineral. This is not the first mineral to be identified thanks to research done at the APS beamlines managed by GSECARS: Bridgmanite, the Earths most abundant mineral and a high-density form of magnesium iron silicate, was researched extensively at the APS before it was named. Tschauner was a lead author on that study, too.

###

Other GSECARS team members who are co-authors of the Science journal article, Ice-VII inclusions in diamonds: Evidence for aqueous fluid in Earths deep mantle, are Eran Greenberg, Dongzhou Zhang and Matt Newville.

In addition to the University of Chicago and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, other institutions cited in the study include the California Institute of Technology, China University of Geosciences, the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

Data was also collected at Carnegie Institute of Washingtons High Pressure Collaborative Access Team at the APS and the Advanced Light Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

The research was funded, in part, by the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science (Office of Basic Energy Sciences) and the National Science Foundation.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit the Office of Science website.In a major study, biologists at Lund University in Sweden have studied the role of chance in whether a species survives or dies out locally. One possible consequence according to the researchers, is that although conservation initiatives can save endangered species, sometimes chance can override such efforts.

Species that differ considerably in their ecology rarely have problems living in close proximity as they do no compete for the same natural resources. When, however, two similar species live side by side and utilize the same food, habitat and other resources, this often leads to one of the species outcompeting the other, according to traditional ecological theory.

The role of chance as a contributing mechanism whether species dies out locally is not near as well investigated as is competition, and limited empirical data is available. The recent study is one of the most extensive to date, and is based on experiments and computer simulations combined with field studies.

The results show that chance has a certain significance, and that it is not possible in advance to say which of two co-existing species will die out locally.

The researchers have also studied a factor that counteracts the role of chance, known as negative frequency-dependence. . The mechanism can be described as an elastic band that is stretched out, but pulls back when a species becomes rare. This is because the few remaining individuals in the rare species gain some minority advantages, such as reduced competition or aggression from other individuals. The effect is that the rare species becomes more common again.

"Sometimes the elastic band doesn't work or pulls back too late. Then the species dies out locally", explains Erik Svensson, biologist at Lund University.

Conservation initiatives can sometimes help to save species and thereby maintain local biodiversity.

"Such efforts are definitely not futile. But the world is never totally predictable and our study shows that chance plays some role for whether a species survives locally or not. Perhaps we humans have less power than we think", he concludes.

###

About the study:

Erik Svensson collaborated with Hanna Bensch and Miguel Gomez, who both work at the Department of Biology in Lund, and with Anais Rivas Torres, from Vigo University in Spain.

They studied two closely related species of damselflies: the beautiful demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo) and the blue-banded demoiselle (C. splendens). These two ecologically similar species live side by side along the same streams in southern Sweden and large parts of Europe.BOULDER, Colo. -- As society faces the challenge of limiting warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius, new research finds an apparent contradiction: Achieving that goal doesn't necessarily require cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero, as called for in the Paris Agreement. But under certain conditions, even zero emissions might not be enough.

The Paris Agreement, a global effort to respond to the threats of human-caused climate change, stipulates that warming be limited to between 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F). It also stipulates that countries achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the second half of this century. But the relationship between the two -- is the emissions goal sufficient or even necessary to meet the temperature goal? -- has not been well understood.

In a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, scientists used a computer model to analyze a variety of possible future scenarios to better understand how emissions reductions and temperature targets are connected. The study, published March 26, was led by Katsumasa Tanaka at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Japan and co-authored by Brian O'Neill at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research.

"What we found is that the two goals do not always go hand in hand," Tanaka said. "If we meet temperature targets without first overshooting them, we don't have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero. But if we do reduce emissions to zero, we still might not meet the temperature targets if we don't reduce emissions quickly enough."

The team also found that whether temperatures overshoot the target temporarily has a critical impact on the scale of emissions reductions needed.

"If we overshoot the temperature target, we do have to reduce emissions to zero. But that won't be enough," Tanaka said. "We'll have to go further and make emissions significantly negative to bring temperatures back down to the target by the end of the century."

The research was supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (2-1702) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency in Japan and by the U.S. National Science Foundation, NCAR's sponsor.

Drafted in 2015, the Paris Agreement has been ratified by more than 170 countries. President Donald Trump announced last year the intention to withdraw the United States from the agreement.

Modeling the problem from both sides

For the study, the researchers used a simplified integrated assessment model that takes into account the physical connections between greenhouse gases and global mean temperature in the climate as well as the economic costs of emissions reductions.

"We investigated the consistency between the Paris targets in two ways. First we asked, what happens if you just meet the temperature target in a least-cost way? What would emissions look like?" said O'Neill, an NCAR senior scientist. "Then we said, let's just meet the emissions goal and see what kind of temperatures you get."

The team generated 10 different scenarios. They found that Earth's warming could be stabilized at 1.5 or 2 degrees C -- without overshooting the goal -- by drastically cutting emissions in the short term. For example, total greenhouse gas emissions would need to be slashed by about 80 percent by 2033 to hit the 1.5-degree target or by about two-thirds by 2060 to meet the 2-degree target. In both these cases, emissions could then flatten out without ever falling to zero.

Due to the difficulty of making such steep cuts, the scientists also looked at scenarios in which the temperature was allowed to temporarily overshoot the targets, returning to 1.5 or 2 degrees by the end of the century. In the 1.5-degree overshoot scenario, emissions fall to zero by 2070 and then stay negative for the rest of the century. (Negative emissions require activities that draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.) For the 2-degree temporary overshoot scenario, emissions fall to zero in 2085 and also become negative, but for a shorter period of time.

On the flip side, the scientists also looked at scenarios where they set the emissions levels instead of the temperature. In those cases, they analyzed what would happen if emissions were reduced to zero around mid-century (2060) or at the end of the century (2100). In the first case, the global temperature peaked around the 2-degree target and then declined. But in the second case, the temperature rose above 2 degrees around 2043 and stayed there for a century or more.

"The timing of when emissions are reduced really matters," O'Neill said. "We could meet the goal set out in the Paris Agreement of reducing emissions to zero in the second half of the century and still wildly miss the temperature targets in the same agreement if we wait to take action."

The new study is part of a growing body of research that seeks to better understand and define what it will take to comply with the Paris Agreement. For example, another recent study -- led by Tom Wigley, a climate scientist at the University of Adelaide who holds an honorary appointment at NCAR -- also looks at the quantity and timing of emissions cuts needed to stabilize global temperature rise at 1.5 or 2 degrees above preindustrial levels. This work focuses in particular on implications for emissions of carbon dioxide, the main component of the broader greenhouse gas emissions category that makes up the Paris emissions target.

O'Neill and Tanaka believe their work might be useful as countries begin to report the progress they've made reducing their emissions and adjust their goals. These periods of reporting and readjusting, known as global stocktakes, are formalized as part of the Paris Agreement and occur every five years.

"Our study and others may help provide countries with a clearer understanding of what work needs to be done to meet the goals laid out in the agreement. We believe that the Paris Agreement needs this level of scientific interpretation," Tanaka said.

###

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research under sponsorship by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

About the article:

Title: Paris Agreement zero emissions goal is not always consistent with 2C and 1.5C temperature targets

Authors: Katsumasa Tanaka, Brian C. O'Neill

AJournal: Nature Climate Change, DOI: 10.1038/s41558-018-0097-xIn 2018, NASA will intensify its focus on one of the most critical but remote parts of our changing planet with the launch of two new satellite missions and an array of airborne campaigns.

The space agency is launching these missions at a time when decades of observations from the ground, air and space have revealed signs of change in Earth's ice sheets, sea ice, glaciers, snow cover and permafrost. Collectively, scientists call these frozen regions of our planet the "cryosphere."

Ongoing changes with the cryosphere, while often occurring in remote regions, have impacts on people all around the world: sea level rise affects coastlines globally, more than a billion people rely on water from snowpack, and the diminishing sea ice that covers the Arctic Ocean plays a significant role in Earth's climate and weather patterns.

This spring, NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences are scheduled to launch the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission, twin satellites that will continue the original GRACE mission's legacy of tracking fluctuations in Earth's gravity field in order to detect changes in mass, including the mass of ice sheets and aquifers.

This fall, NASA will launch the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), which will use a highly advanced laser instrument to measure the changing elevation of ice around the world, providing a view of the height of Earth's ice with greater detail than previously possible.

Together the two missions will make critical, complementary measurements of Earth's glaciers and ice sheets. Both missions will also make other key observations: for instance, GRACE-FO will measure groundwater reserves and deep ocean currents; ICESat-2 will measure sea ice thickness and vegetation height.

This year will also see the continuation of two major cryosphere airborne and field campaigns: Operation IceBridge, which has provided a multi-dimensional view of Greenland, Antarctica and sea ice since 2009, and Oceans Melting Greenland, which is focused on the interaction between ocean waters and Greenland's glaciers that terminate in the ocean. Both campaigns began Greenland deployments in March.

Parts of Earth's cryosphere supply life-sustaining water to more than one billion people around the world, and NASA observations will help people manage that natural resource. NASA has used airborne science instruments such as the Airborne Snow Observatory and the SnowEx field campaign in the western United States seek to better understand and better measure how much water is held in snow cover, a critical fact for this region where one in six people rely on snowpack for water. NASA is also involved in an international effort called the High Mountain Asia Project, which seeks to understand how climate change is affecting glaciers in the Himalayas and water resources for more than 1 billion people in the region.

GRACE-FO and ICESat-2 will use radically different techniques to observe how the massive ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are changing over time and how much they are contributing to sea level rise. Long thought to be slow-moving and stable, certain regions of both ice sheets rapidly lost ice in recent decades, contributing to a recently detected acceleration in global sea level rise relative to 20th century rates. Based on computer simulations, global sea level could be anywhere from 1 to 4 feet higher by 2100 than in the first decade of this century.

GRACE-FO detects changes in Earth's gravity over time to reveal how the distribution of mass in the Earth system is changing. These observations provide crucial information about how large regions of ice are behaving, such as the accelerating loss of mass from West Antarctica and the slower gains in East Antarctica. ICESat-2's laser instrument can measure the rate of ice sheet elevation change over the course of a year to within two-tenths of an inch (0.4 centimeters), allowing scientists to see when and where ice is growing thicker as snow accumulates, or getting thinner from melting.

NASA's mission in researching our home planet is to use the vantage point of space to understand how Earth works as a system, and how the different components -- ocean, land, atmosphere, biosphere and cryosphere -- interact and affect one another. NASA's diverse airborne and ground research is also aiming to provide a more detailed view of not only the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica but also the other components of the cryosphere: sea ice, snow cover, permafrost and glaciers. Over decades, NASA and other researchers have pieced together a picture of how these different aspects of the Earth system interact. Decades of observation and analysis reveal significant trends of change.

Summertime sea ice in the Arctic Ocean now routinely covers about 40 percent less area than it did in the late 1970s, when continuous satellite observations began. This kind of significant change could increase the rate of warming already in progress, affect further sea ice loss in the Arctic, and alter shipping access to the Arctic Ocean. ICESat-2 will add to our understanding of Arctic sea ice by measuring sea ice thickness from space, providing scientists more complete information about the volume of sea ice in the Arctic and Southern oceans.

NASA research shows that permafrost -- permanently frozen ground in the Arctic that contains heat-trapping gases such as methane and carbon dioxide -- is thawing at faster rates now than scientists have observed before. Through airborne and field research on missions such as the Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) and the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), NASA scientists are trying to improve measurements of this trend in order to better predict its impact globally. Both CARVE and certain aspects of ABoVE are focused on improving measurements of how much carbon dioxide and methane is being released from Arctic soils.

###Peer review is vital to scientific publishing, yet is often not formally taught. In support of its global peer reviewer community of more than 74,000 researchers, PLOS created the PLOS Reviewer Center at http://reviewers.plos.org/.

"Reviewers are essential to the integrity and quality of the peer review process," says PLOS ONE Editor-in-Chief Joerg Heber. "They provide an important service to the academic community. It is essential that they feel guided when starting out and supported in this role throughout their careers."

The Reviewer Center is designed to support reviewers working on manuscripts submitted to PLOS journals, with information and resources freely available to anyone--those interested in learning more about how peer review works, those looking for instructional resources, and those reviewing for other journals and publishers. All content is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, meaning it is free and open for anyone to access, regardless of whether they review for PLOS.

PLOS believes that equipping researchers with more comprehensive guidance about peer review practices can have multiple benefits, including:

Clear and constructive reviews

Informed decision-making for editors managing the peer review process

Easy and efficient revision process for authors

"This new reviewer site directly addresses PLOS' mission to accelerate the dissemination of scientific results, and to do so in a responsible manner," says PLOS Executive Editor Veronique Kiermer. "We encourage scientists of all career stages to browse the resource and provide feedback while it's in final stages of content development."

The PLOS Reviewer Center provides detailed, journal-agnostic peer review guidance from experienced researchers, staff editors, editorial board members and other reviewers. As a supplement to journal-specific guidelines such as those available for PLOS ONE and other PLOS journals, resources on the site include how-to guides, tip sheets and checklists that cover all aspects of the peer review process, from accepting an invitation to review a manuscript to submitting the review. The site also serves those who are interested in learning more about topics related to peer review, such as publication ethics and tips for career development in the sciences.

Resources are offered in short, accessible formats that can be read on the go, and additional resources will be added to the site over time. Visit the PLOS Reviewer Center at http://reviewers.plos.org/.

###By Ritah Kemigisa.

Government has been asked to clean up the treasury and Bank of Uganda.

According to the chairman general of the National Organization of Trade Unions Usher Owere, this is the only way civil servants salaries will be enhanced as promised by the president earlier.

Owere alleges that the treasury which is headed by Keith Muhakanizi is mishandling the money meant for salary enhancement for civil servants, a claim the ministry have vehemently denied.

The minister of finance Matia Kasaija recently revealed that government was struggling to raise money for civil servants salary increment, calling for their patience or they share the little that can be raises at the moment.

Owere however says the treasury has enough money to cater for their demands but simply needs cleaning up.While people tend to describe tropical oceanic islands as 'paradises on Earth' and associate them with calm beaches, transparent warm waters and marvellous landscapes, archipelagos are often the product of a fierce natural force - volcanoes which erupt at the bottom of the sea.

Because of their origin, these islands have never been connected to the mainland, thereby it is extremely difficult for species to cross the ocean and populate them.

One such species - the South American guppy (Poecilia vivipara) - is a small freshwater fish which looks nowhere equipped to cross the distance between the mainland and the Fernando de Noronha oceanic archipelago in Northeast Brazil.

Nevertheless, the research team of PhD student Waldir M. Berbel-Filho and his professor Dr. Sergio Lima from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte recorded the species from a local mangrove on the island. The question that immediately sprang to the minds of the scientists was: 'Where did the guppies come from and how did they get to Fernando de Noronha?'

To answer these questions, the scientists sequenced a gene of the guppies' DNA to analyze potential signatures of the island colonization left in the fish DNA. As a result, they concluded that the isolated population was in fact closely related to the fish inhabiting the closest continental drainages.

However, this evidence was not enough to explain how the species turned up on the island in the first place. Was it natural colonization, or rather human introduction?

The most likely scenario, according to the team, leads back to about 60 years ago when the American military had their WWII bases positioned at both Fernando de Noronha and Natal - the closest continental city. Indeed, the soldiers suggested to bring guppies to the island in an attempt to control mosquito population (in this region, guppies are commonly placed in water reservoirs to eat mosquito larvae).

On the other hand, natural dispersion cannot be completely excluded. The biologists remind that, apart for their exuberant colours and shapes, the guppies are well known for their capacity to resist to a wide range of environmental conditions. It could be that a set of circumstances occurring together, such as a favourable sea current, physiological adaptation and a bit of luck, might have brought the guppies to the archipelago.

"Regardless of their means of transportation," argue the authors, "this guppy population represents a valuable lesson on how small populations manage to colonize and thrive in isolated environments."

"Despite being visited by thousands of people every year, some of the most intriguing secrets of tropical islands may still be hidden in the DNA of their inhabitants," they conclude. "These 'paradises on Earth' are capable of simultaneously filling our hearts with beauty and our minds - with knowledge."

###

Original source:

Berbel-Filho WM, Barros-Neto LF, Dias RM, Mendes LF, Figueiredo CAA, Torres RA, Lima SMQ (2018) Poecilia vivipara Bloch & Schneider, 1801 (Cyprinodontiformes, Poeciliidae), a guppy in an oceanic archipelago: from where did it come? ZooKeys 746: 91-104. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.746.20960Rice U. ecologists are checking to see if floods gave advantage to invasive ants

HOUSTON -- (March 26, 2018) -- Rice University ecologists are checking to see if Hurricane Harvey's unprecedented floods gave a competitive boost to fire ants and crazy ants, two of southeast Texas' least favorite uninvited guests.

Extreme weather events like Harvey are expected to become more likely as Earth's climate changes due to greenhouse gas emissions, and scientists don't understand how extreme weather will impact invasive pests, pollinators and other species that affect human well-being.

With support from the National Science Foundation's Rapid Response Research (RAPID) program, Rice ecologists Tom Miller, Sarah Bengston and Scott Solomon, along with their students, are evaluating whether Harvey increased opportunities for invasion by exotic ants.

"Hurricane Harvey was, among other things, a grand ecological experiment," said Miller, the principal investigator on the grant and the Godwin Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in Rice's Department of BioSciences. "It offers a unique opportunity to explore whether a single extreme-weather event can re-shuffle an entire community of organisms."

"We're conducting monthly pitfall sampling at 19 established sites in the Big Thicket, a national preserve near Beaumont," said Bengston, an ant expert, co-principal investigator on grant and Huxley Research Instructor of BioSciences. "Rice's team has been working at these same sites for three years, and we know fire ants and tawny crazy ants, which are each invasive species, had begun to penetrate the intact native ecosystems in the park before the hurricane. We now want to know whether Harvey accelerated this invasion process."

The RAPID funding will allow the team to document changes in ant communities and test whether changes in response to the hurricane are transient or represent new stable states.

Miller said the researchers also plan to assemble a functional trait database for the ant communities to test whether the Harvey floodwaters favored some types of ant species -- such as those with larger bodies or more-protected nests -- over others.

"There are dozens of native ant species in the preserve that provide valuable ecosystem services like decomposition and pest control," said Solomon, an ant expert, co-principal investigator on the grant and associate teaching professor of biosciences. "Fire ants and crazy ants, which are each native to South America, are noxious invasive pests that tend to overwhelm and drive out almost all native ant species. If the floods cleaned the slate by drowning all the native ant colonies in the area, our hypothesis is that this may provide a competitive advantage to invaders."

Solomon said research teams began making monthly visits to the Big Thicket test sites just a few weeks after Harvey and will continue collecting samples for one year.

"It was a cold winter, and there wasn't much ant activity," he said. "As temperatures warm up, we'll be interested to see which ants come back the soonest and in what numbers."

NSF's RAPID grants support research of natural disasters and unanticipated events for which time is a factor in gathering data.

###

VIDEO is available at:

https://youtu.be/DwMVTNveqTI

High-resolution IMAGES are available for download at:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solenopsis_invicta_-_fire_ant_worker.jpg

CAPTION: Fire ant (Photo by Alex Wild/University of Texas)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/03/0326_FIREANT-grp-lg-1zj9981.jpg

CAPTION: Rice University ecologists Michael Saucedo '17, Tom Miller and Sarah Bengston at Big Thicket National Preserve near Beaumont, Texas. The researchers are studying whether Hurricane Harvey's unprecedented floods gave a competitive boost to invasive fire ants and crazy ants. (Photo by Brandon Martin/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/03/0326_FIREANT-sbtm1-lg-1ybke2n.jpg

CAPTION: Rice University ecologists Sarah Bengston and Tom Miller examine ants at Big Thicket National Preserve near Beaumont, Texas. The researchers are studying whether Hurricane Harvey's unprecedented floods gave a competitive boost to invasive fire ants and crazy ants. (Photo by Brandon Martin/Rice University)

NSF Award No. 1811225

RAPID: Ant community responses to a 1,000-year flooding event

https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1811225

This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for happiest students by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.Research indicates it is not due to changes in the activity of individual neurons

The brain maintains its ability to generate local neural oscillations during sleep throughout the lifespan, according to a study of young and old mice published in JNeurosci. The research indicates that age-related disruptions in sleep and associated large-scale brain activity, are not due to changes in the activity of individual neurons.

Vladyslav Vyazovskiy and colleagues recorded neural activity from deep layers of the motor cortex of groups of mice at different stages of life: early adulthood (5 months), late adulthood (12 months) and old age (24 months). The old age mice in this study are estimated to correspond to an age of roughly 70-years in humans.

The researchers did not find any major differences in the cortical neural activity during sleep across the three age groups. All mice also showed similar effects of sleep deprivation on local sleep oscillations in the neocortex. These findings contrast with previous studies both in mice and humans showing that ageing is associated with a reduced capacity to generate deep sleep, and highlight the need to consider activity at the level of individual neurons, in addition to the whole-brain view, in order to fully understand the effects of ageing on sleep.

###

Article: Effects of ageing on cortical neural dynamics and local sleep homeostasis in mice

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2513-17.2018

Corresponding author: Vladyslav Vyazovskiy (University of Oxford, UK), vladyslav.vyazovskiy@dpag.ox.ac.uk

About JNeurosci

JNeurosci, the Society for Neuroscience's first journal, was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today, the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact, while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship.

About The Society for Neuroscience

The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 37,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.Engineers from Saarbrucken have developed a system of self-monitoring conveyor rollers that aim to help sorting offices and parcel services solve crucial logistics problems. Drive systems specialist Professor Matthias Nienhaus from Saarland University and his team of engineers have found a way of turning the motor inside every drive roller into a sensor. When the conveyor is running, the drive motors continuously generate data. Using this data -- and nothing more -- Nienhaus' technology is able to precisely control each of the conveyor rollers so that it can respond to changing operating conditions. The new technology can be used to provide a cost-effective means of speeding up parcel sorting operations and can deliver greater flexibility wherever conveyor systems are in use. The research engineers from Saarland University are in Hannover to look for industrial partners interested in developing the new technology into marketable products.

The team will be exhibiting a conveyor demonstrator made from these smart rollers at Hannover Messe from the 23rd to the 27th of April at the Saarland Research and Innovation Stand (Hall 2, Stand B46).

Online commerce is booming. Ever greater numbers of packages and parcels need to be shipped ever more quickly to their destinations. This poses huge challenges for parcel services. But speed is not the only thing that has to be optimized, the mountains of packages coming into a parcel sorting hub have to be transported, sorted and distributed in the smallest possible space without interruption and without error. In a parcel sorting centre there is neither time nor room for parcel pile-ups. And today's parcel sorting hubs have to deal with items whose size and weight can differ enormously, one second it's an exercise bike, the next second it's a book. Conventional flat-bed conveyor belt lines contain huge numbers of tightly packed rollers that are powered by a central drive system. The rollers all rotate in the same direction and at the same speed. 'If there's a large gap between two parcels, the gap stays constant as the parcels move down the line. There's no way to change or to define the distance between the parcels,' says Professor Matthias Nienhaus of Saarland University. Closing the gap by getting the rear parcel to catch up with the one in front has not been possible up until now. As a result, the time and space for conveying the parcels is not being used in an optimal way. And if one of the rollers fails, the whole belt can come to a standstill.

Nienhaus and his team of engineers have found a means of making roller conveyors much more flexible and responsive. In their roller conveyor system, each roller runs independently, sometimes running forwards, sometimes backwards, sometimes rotating a little faster, sometimes a little slower -- adjusting its operational state as needed at that specific moment. Unlike the conventional conveyor belts in use at present, each of the rollers in the Saarbrucken system knows just what it is supposed to be doing. 'The rollers in our system can detect gaps between the parcels being conveyed and, if they sense a gap, they can rotate faster to close the gap. Or, if parcels are beginning to pile up, the rollers will start to rotate more slowly. If a roller fails, the other rollers will register this fact and can compensate accordingly - so we have a system in which the rollers are effectively communicating with one another,' explains Nienhaus.

As the technology does not need any additional sensors, the cost of the new system is extremely attractive. The trick is to focus on the small electric motors inside the rollers. 'We record operational data at certain points within the drives. We then use this data to calculate the status of the rotor and to draw conclusions about how it might need to respond. One of the measurements involves determining how the strength of the motor's electromagnetic field is distributed. Inside the electric motor, permanent magnets rotate around coils. Allowing electric current to flow through these coils generates an electromagnetic field. By studying the measurement data, the researchers can see how this field changes as the motor rotates, giving them very precise information about the state of the drive.

'By evaluating this kind of data, we are in a position to control the motors in the rollers very efficiently', says Nienhaus. The drive systems specialists have developed novel procedures that make it easier to analyse the data and to computationally filter out unwanted artefacts. A patent application has been filed. 'In future, we'll be using the data for an even more advanced analysis of the drive's operational status,' explains Professor Nienhaus. By evaluating angular momentum data, it is possible to determine how heavy a parcel is or whether or not a parcel is actually above a particular roller. 'Our methods allow us to observe even the smallest changes in the motors,' says Nienhaus. If one of the rollers is no longer rotating because the bearing has worn or because of a short circuit, the magnetic field generated by the motor will change and this will be immediately registered by the system. The system knows which roller is affected and why. 'Because each roller has access to a network operating system, thousands of individual rollers can be linked together to form an integrated smart roller system. These rollers are essentially able to communicate with each other and can therefore respond flexibly whenever an unexpected condition arises,' explains drive specialist Nienhaus.

The Saarbrucken engineers will be bringing a small conveyor system to Hannover Messe in order to showcase their smart roller technology. The research team is looking for commercial and industrial partners with whom they can develop their system for concrete practical applications.

###

Background: Matthias Nienhaus and his team at Saarland University conduct research into intelligent drive systems in collaboration with researchers from Saarland University of Applied Sciences (htw saar) and industrial partners. Industrial project partners include Wellgo Geratetechnik GmbH (Nohfelden), HighTec EDV-Systeme GmbH (Saarbrucken) and Micronas GmbH (Freiburg). The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has funded the project "Rolle" to the tune of 4.2 million, of which 500,000 was allocated to Saarland University.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Matthias Nienhaus (Laboratory of Actuation Technology, Saarland University, Saarbrucken, Germany)

Tel.: +49-681-302-71681

Email: nienhaus@lat.uni-saarland.de

Stephan Kleen

Tel.: +49-681-302-71687

Email: kleen@lat.uni-saarland.de

Press photographs are available at http://www.uni-saarland.de/pressefotos and can be used free of charge. Please read and comply with the conditions of use.

German Version of the Press Release: https://www.uni-saarland.de/nc/aktuelles/artikel/nr/18806.html

The Saarland Research and Innovation Stand is organized by Saarland University's Contact Centre for Technology Transfer (KWT). KWT is the central point of contact for companies interested in exploring opportunities for cooperation and collaboration with researchers at Saarland University. http://www.uni-saarland.de/kwt(PHILADELPHIA) -- Skin melanoma, a particularly insidious cancer, accounts for the vast majority skin cancer deaths and is one of the most common cancers in people under 30. Treatment for advanced melanoma has seen success with targeted therapies - drugs that interfere with division and growth of cancer cells by targeting key molecules - especially when multiple drugs are used in combination. While the combination of targeted therapies improves patient outcomes, any remaining cancer cells can lead to drug resistance. Recently research published in Cancer Discovery showed that changing the schedules of drug administration can improve outcomes leading to more complete responses in mouse models of the disease.

"We are looking to optimize the combinations of targeted therapies and the scheduling of those therapies so we can improve tumor shrinkage and minimize potential toxicities for a patient," said Andrew Aplin, PhD, Associate Director for Basic Research and the Program Leader for Cancer Cell Biology and Signaling (CCBS) in the NCI-designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health.

Dr. Aplin and Jessica Teh, PhD, his senior postdoctoral researcher at Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University), examined the effects of a combination of two FDA-approved targeted agents on human melanomas grafted onto mice. While one drug, MEK inhibitor, is usually used in advanced-stage melanoma, the other drug, CDK4/6 inhibitor, palbociclib, is currently FDA-approved for treatment of Estrogen Receptor-positive breast cancer patients. While MEK inhibitors are part of treatment protocols for melanoma, palbociclib is entering clinical trials for use in melanoma populations.

When both drugs were given intermittently, tumor growth increased after a one-week drug holiday, and tumors became resistant to the therapy after about eight weeks. However, if one drug was provided continuously while the other given intermittently, the tumors shrank and remained small, no matter which drug was continuous.

Exploring that result further, the researchers noticed that with continuous MEK inhibition, tumors were consistently smaller, with some shrinking to undetectable levels. Whereas continuous CDK4/6 inhibition showed some toxicity not observed on the other schedules. Thus, a combination of MEK inhibitor given continuously with intermittent CDK4/6 inhibitor was the most effective schedule in mice.

After initially responding to the optimized drug schedule, some tumors showed resistance and began growing back despite the presence of the drugs. However, the researchers uncovered several mechanisms leading to tumor resistance, giving them insight into which drugs could combat the resistant cancer.

"The surprising part was that the mechanisms of resistance all funneled through one signaling pathway, ultimately, but the way that they start is frequently different," said Dr. Aplin. When that common pathway was blocked with a new drug, mTOR inhibitor, in addition to continuing the optimized therapies, resistance was effectively turned off, and the tumors resumed shrinking. Though it still has to be shown effective in humans with the disease, this paper provides a testable method of optimizing currently available drugs for melanoma treatment. Because these drugs have already passed FDA-safety tests, it could be available to patients on the order of a few years, rather than decades.

To that end, in collaboration with the University of Zurich and MD Anderson Cancer Center, the researchers tested melanoma tumor samples from human patients undergoing treatment with the same targeted therapies. The common pathway found in mouse models was also found in human tumors, suggesting that resistance could indeed be blocked in patients with the same drug as in mice.

Dr. Aplin credits support from the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center as well as external support from the Melanoma Research Alliance with launching this ambitions project. "They supported us at the start of this project and without this grant, we wouldn't have done this work," Aplin says.

"Dr. Aplin's major research advance is part of a larger effort by the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center to develop new strategies for treating melanoma. Research teams focused on both cutaneous and uveal melanoma are fast-tracking discoveries into the clinical setting, and bringing novel therapeutic options to patients in the Philadelphia region", said Karen Knudsen, Director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.

###

This study was supported by an Industrial Partnership Award from Melanoma Research Alliance and Pfizer, Inc, NIH/NCI R01s CA182635 and CA196278, Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation, Rochester, Melanoma Action Group/Outrun the Sun Melanoma Research Scholar Award, The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center shared resource facilities are supported by NCF Support Grant (P30 CA056036). The RPPA studies were performed at the Functional Proteomics Core Facility at MD Anderson Cancer Center, which is supported by NCF Cancer Center Support Grant (CA16672).

Article reference: JLF Teh, et al., "In vivo E2F reporting reveals efficacious schedules of MEK1/2-CDK4/6 targeting and mTOR-S6 resistance mechanisms," Cancer Discovery, DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-17-0699, 2018.

For Media Only, Contact: Edyta Zielinska, edyta.zielinska@jefferson.edu, 215-955-7359.Controlling greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades could substantially reduce the consequences of carbon releases from thawing permafrost during the next 300 years, according to a new paper published this week in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.

Conversely, climate policy that results in little or no effort to control greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide would likely result in a substantial release of carbon from the permafrost region by 2300, the study found.

A. David McGuire, U.S. Geological Survey senior scientist and climate system modeling expert with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Arctic Biology, is lead author of the paper. Several other UAF researchers, along with scientists from about two dozen other research institutions worldwide, contributed to the study.

Scientists estimate that the soils of the Earth's circumpolar North contain about twice the amount of carbon as is in the atmosphere. Much of that carbon is frozen organic matter locked within permafrost. As global temperatures rise and permafrost thaws, the previously frozen organic material begins to decay and releases greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide. The release of that carbon can, in turn, cause additional warming and the release of more carbon, something scientists call a positive feedback loop.

Even without immediate controls on greenhouse gases now, the bulk of the permafrost carbon release would not occur until after the year 2100. Study authors note that this could cause society to grow complacent and accept less aggressive efforts to control greenhouse gases. Waiting too long to institute controls could mean the controls come too late to prevent substantive loss of carbon from permafrost soils.

"Society can do something about this, at least that's what the state-of-the-art models are saying," McGuire said.

The degree to which climate change could influence carbon dynamics in the northern permafrost region has important implications for policy decisions. However, most climate system models have not done a good job of showing the relationship between permafrost and soil carbon dynamics. Because of that, they haven't allowed an accurate assessment of the effects of climate change on carbon in the region.

In the new study, McGuire and his colleagues used simulations to study changes in permafrost and carbon storage in the northern permafrost region from 2010 to 2299 using two climate change scenarios: One with low carbon dioxide emissions and one with high carbon dioxide emissions. Permafrost expert Dmitry Nicolsky of the UAF Geophysical Institute provided simulation data on changes in the extent of permafrost in the northern hemisphere and the predicted thaw depth under the two scenarios.

The low emission scenario would require carbon emissions by global human society to decrease by 75 percent during this century. In that scenario, the study showed the loss 3 million to 5 million square kilometers of permafrost and changes in soil carbon ranging from a 66-petagram loss to a 70-petagram gain. One petagram equals one trillion kilograms or 2.2 trillion pounds.

In the high emission scenario, or essentially no change in current trends of fossil fuel use, permafrost losses were between 6 million and 16 million square kilometers, while soil carbon losses varied from 74 to 652 petagrams and occur mostly after 2100. This represents a loss of 20 to 63 percent of the carbon now stored in northern permafrost.

The findings suggest that effective new greenhouse gas controls could help lessen the effects of climate change on the release of carbon from soils of the northern permafrost region and therefore decrease the potential for a positive feedback of permafrost carbon release on climate warming.

"If such controls aren't adopted, it will lead to major changes for ecosystems and infrastructure," Nicolsky said.

###

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: A. David McGuire, senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit, and professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Institute of Arctic Biology, at admcguire@alaska.edu or 907-474-6242. Dmitry Nicolsky, assistant professor at the UAF Geophysical Institute, at djnicolsky@alaska.edu or 907-474-7397.Forty million miles of major roads crisscross the Earth's continents -- enough to circle the planet 1,600 times. For humans, these thoroughfares are a boon, enabling them to move with ease from place to place. But for migrating animals who are also hemmed in by dams, rivers, shipping lanes, urban development and agriculture, they create another barrier.

As human development and activities continue to expand, scientists have grown increasingly concerned about such migrators, especially those that trek long distances. These animal travelers cover hundreds to thousands of kilometers annually, yet very little is known about how their movements are faring across the globe.

To expand the scientific knowledge base, a team of UC Santa Barbara scientists set out to estimate the vulnerability and extinction risk of migratory birds, mammals and fishes from different regions and ecosystems around the world. They did so using the existing literature and information from two large databases: the Living Planet Index and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. The group's analysis now appears in a special edition of Philosophical Transactions B titled "Collective Movement Ecology."

"As expected, we found that the vulnerability of migratory animals varied depending on the regional, environmental, behavioral and taxonomic context of the species," explained lead author Molly Hardesty-Moore, a graduate student in UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology. "Our results offer both an opportunity and a roadmap for mounting strategic interventions if we want to preserve this ecologically and economically important phenomenon."

The researchers examined more than 6,000 migratory species by taxonomic group (birds, mammals and fishes) and by environmental system (terrestrial, marine or freshwater). They also determined whether a group's movement exhibited collective behavior -- think schools of fish, flocks of geese flying in formation, even herds of wildebeests, all of whom sense cues from their individual members to help guide their collective movement.

The team's analysis revealed that while migratory birds are relatively abundant, their numbers are decreasing disproportionately to nonmigratory birds. Take the Arctic tern, the longest-distance migrator, which annually travels 50,000 miles. It is listed as "least concern" by the IUCN because of its large range and abundance of individuals, yet its overall population has been declining for a number of decades. According to Hardesty-Moore, this presents an opportunity for conservation through the implementation of preventive efforts to slow population decline before the species nears extinction.

The converse was found to be true for migratory mammals, whose population size is increasing compared to their nonmigratory counterparts. Nonetheless, IUCN lists them as "more endangered."

"The relative increase of migratory mammals compared to nonmigratory mammals underscores the success of previous conservation efforts," Hardesty-Moore said. "Still, migratory mammals have an overall high extinction risk because they face so many barriers -- roads and development, hunting and poaching -- so more work still needs to be done."

For example, until recently, the Tibetan antelope was "endangered," but it has rebounded because of rigorous conservation efforts. While their numbers remain fairly low and their ranges are restricted, conservation efforts have been able to increase their populations. "I think that's good news," Hardesty-Moore said. "It shines some light on conservation successes."

The scientists also found that migratory freshwater fishes are at greater risk than their marine brethren, which makes sense considering that the avenues of travel available to freshwater species are much more restricted. Dams are a major problem for some of these migrators -- there are at least 37,600 hydropower dams in rivers globally, with hundreds more in progress. For example, more than 400 dams limit the migration capability of Chinook salmon in the Columbia River basin. As a result, the species is "highly endangered." Marine migrants, on the other hand, are better able to maneuver around barriers or to skirt fishing pressures.

"Our research showed that conservation efforts for migratory species work in certain circumstances, but we also identified regions and groups of animals in trouble," Hardesty-Moore explained. "We were able to pinpoint some of those and highlight areas of interest to conservation biologists. If we want to preserve this fascinating, ecologically meaningful part of life, we will need to find a way to coexist with these species, especially because of increasing human development around the globe."

###Koalas are one of Australia's iconic animals, but they have been hard hit by an epidemic of Chlamydia infections contributing to a steep decline in numbers. Sick koalas brought to wildlife hospitals may be treated with antibiotics to clear up the chlamydia, but the antibiotics themselves can have severe side effects in the animals.

A new study led by Katherine Dahlhausen, a graduate student at the UC Davis Genome Center, published in the journal PeerJ, shows that those antibiotics may be changing the balance of gut microbes thought to allow koalas to digest eucalyptus leaves.

Koalas rely on specialized gut microbes to break down tannins and other toxic compounds that would otherwise make eucalyptus leaves indigestible. Infant koalas pick up these microbes from their mothers by eating a specialized type of feces called "pap."

Dahlhausen and colleagues studied the diversity of microbes in koalas treated or not treated with antibiotics at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, Queensland and the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, New South Wales. They did not find a difference in gut microbes between treated and untreated animals, but did find that koalas that were treated with antibiotics and survived had a more diverse microbe population than animals that died during treatment.

Health status was closely correlated with presence of bacteria related to Lonepinella koalarum, a microbe known to digest tannins.

There have been other studies showing that antibiotic treatment can disturb gut microbes in other species, Dahlhausen and colleagues noted in the paper. But this might be especially important in animals like koalas where gut microbes are essential to their survival.

The project highlights the possible need to restore a healthy balance of microbes in antibiotic treated koalas and for development of antibiotic-free treatments of koala chlamydia infections, such as as a koala chlamydia vaccine, under development by Peter Timms' lab at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Dahlhausen said.

###

Other authors on the paper are Alana Firl and Jonathan Eisen at the UC Davis Genome Center, Ladan Daroud at the UC Davis Department of Computer Science, and Adam Polkinghorne at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.

The work was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as part of their "Microbiology of the Built Environment" program as well as by an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.Scientists have found a way to stop the spread of rice blast, a fungus that destroys up to 30% of the world's rice crop each year.

An international team led by the University of Exeter showed that chemical genetic inhibition of a single protein in the fungus stops it spreading inside a rice leaf - leaving it trapped within a single plant cell.

The finding is a breakthrough in terms of understanding rice blast, a disease that is hugely important in terms of global food security.

However, the scientists caution that this is a "fundamental" discovery - not a cure that can yet be applied outside the laboratory.

The research revealed how the fungus can manipulate and then squeeze through natural channels (called plasmodesmata) that exist between plant cells.

"This is an exciting breakthrough because we have discovered how the fungus is able to move stealthily between rice cells, evading recognition by the plant immune system," said senior author Professor Nick Talbot FRS, of the University of Exeter.

"It is clearly able to suppress immune responses at pit fields (groups of plasmodesmata), and also regulate its own severe constriction to squeeze itself through such a narrow space.

"And all this is achieved by a single regulatory protein. It's a remarkable feat."

Rice blast threatens global food security, destroying enough rice each year to feed 60 million people.

It spreads within rice plants by invasive hyphae (branching filaments) which break through from cell to cell.

In their bid to understand this process, the researchers used chemical genetics to mutate a signalling protein to make it susceptible to a specific drug.

The protein, PMK1, is responsible for suppressing the rice's immunity and allowing the fungus to squeeze through pit fields - so, by inhibiting it, the researchers were able to trap the fungus within a cell.

This level of precision led the team to discover that just one enzyme, called a MAP kinase, was responsible for regulating the invasive growth of rice blast.

The research team hope this discovery will enable them to identify targets of this enzyme and thereby determine the molecular basis of this devastating disease.

The research was led by Dr Wasin Sakulkoo, who recently received his PhD from Exeter.

Dr Sakulkoo is a Halpin Scholar, a programme initiated by the generosity of Exeter alumni Les and Claire Halpin, which funds students from rice-growing regions of the world to study with Professor Talbot's research group.

Dr Sakulkoo is from Thailand, and has returned home to a new position in industry following graduation.

###

The project involved state-of-the-art live cell imaging procedures pioneered at Exeter by postdoctoral fellow Dr George Littlejohn, who is now a lecturer at Plymouth University, and electron microscopy specialists Christian Hacker and Ana Correia.

The research was also an international effort involving collaborators from Kansas State University, Dr Barbara Valent and Dr Ely Oliviera Garcia, and former Marie Curie Fellow Dr Miriam Oses-Ruiz.

The work was funded by the European Research Council (ERC).

Professor Talbot said: "International collaboration is central to our research and vital to keep us operating at the frontiers of understanding.

"Support from the ERC was pivotal to this project, as was the generous support of Claire Halpin, who has continued to support my research work and believe in the power of fundamental research and retraining to solve one of the world's most devastating diseases."

The paper, published in the journal Science, is entitled: "A single fungal MAP kinase controls plant cell-to-cell invasion by the rice blast fungus."Athens, Ga. - The availability of livestock as a food source for vampire bats influences their immune response and infection by bacterial pathogens, according to a new paper in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Because cattle ranching is common in areas where the bats live, the findings have implications for human as well as animal health.

The study explores how the availability of livestock as a food source influences bat immunity, infection risk and reproduction, from microscopic to landscape scales. It was led by University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology doctoral student Daniel Becker and co-authored by an international team of researchers, including Odum School faculty Sonia Altizer and Daniel Streicker. The paper is part of a special theme issue, edited by Becker, Altizer and colleagues, about the complex ways that human-provided food alters infectious diseases in wildlife.

"In this study we examined several ways that food provided by people would affect infection in vampire bats," said Becker, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at Montana State University. "If we want to understand how supplemental feeding or land use changes affect disease risk, it's important to quantify different processes like population size, immunity and feeding behavior."

Whether intentional--as with backyard bird feeders--or inadvertent--as when agriculture moves into areas where wildlife live--access to human-provided sources of food can affect both wildlife and public health.

In some cases, easy access to plentiful food means wildlife benefit from improved nutrition and reduced stress, allowing them to better fight off infection. In other cases, infection rates can rise, such as when supplemental food increases wildlife reproduction rates; the resulting larger population sizes can help some diseases to spread. Easily accessible food sources can also bring together animal species that would not otherwise interact, allowing pathogens to cross over from one species to another--including to humans.

Earlier work on this topic by Becker and UGA ecologist Richard Hall used computer simulation models to show that pathogen spread depended strongly on how supplemental feeding influenced host immunity. In the new research, Becker and his co-authors explored this idea in a real-world animal system. They conducted a four-year field study of vampire bat colonies in Peru and Belize at sites ranging from relatively undisturbed forest, with little animal prey for vampire bats, to high-intensity cattle ranching that provided ample vampire bat food.

They looked at whether immune response differed because of the availability of livestock as a food source, and whether these changes predicted infection risk by two kinds of bacteria common in bats, Bartonella and hemoplasmas.

Becker and his colleagues collected hair and blood samples from hundreds of bats and recorded each bat's age, sex and reproductive state, tagging each one with a unique identifier before releasing it back into the wild.

Stable isotope analysis of the bat hair samples showed that bats in all areas fed on livestock--even in heavily forested habitat where a few subsistence farmers might be raising just a pig or some chickens, Becker said. "They're going to seek them out because it's just such an easy food source," he said.

But livestock abundance was associated with significant differences in bat reproduction, immunity and rates of infection.

Areas with more livestock had more reproductive bats and more male bats. Previous studies have shown that more male bats are born when maternal condition is good--which might be expected where there is plenty of food available--and because male bats from other areas may immigrate to such locations.

"The vampire bats in low- and high-livestock habitats have very different immune profiles," said Becker. "Vampire bats in the high-livestock sites really showed immune data skewed toward innate immunity, but vampire bats in low-livestock areas are investing more in adaptive immune response."

Innate immunity consists of cells that are always ready to fight infection. Adaptive immunity is activated when pathogens breach innate immune defenses.

Bats from areas with more livestock also had lower rates of pathogen infection, especially in the case of Bartonella, which is likely transmitted by insects like bat flies or fleas.

"You might not expect transmission of an insect-transmitted pathogen to be affected by provisioning, because it's not really clear how having more food would influence bat-fly-bat contact," said Becker. "So in that case, if bats are better able to clear infection, this could explain why bats in livestock-dense areas have lower infection risk."

Because hemoplasmas are thought to be directly transmitted from bat to bat, denser colonies--a result of increased immigration and reproduction in areas with more livestock--could raise contact rates enough to partially overcome bats' enhanced innate immunity, he said.

The results of the study have implications for animal and human health. Because adaptive immunity can play a greater role than innate immunity in fighting viruses, bats in high-livestock areas might be more susceptible to viruses like rabies and influenza that can be transmitted to domesticated animals and humans. And activities that bring bats into proximity with livestock and people increase the risk of cross-species transmission of pathogens.

Becker said that it was important to note that his team's data suggests that there's a difference between subsistence farming and large-scale cattle ranching.

"We're definitely not trying to suggest that people in these regions should get rid of all their chickens, or small numbers of other livestock," he said. "It's when you start clearing vast tracts of forest that's probably a big driver of what's going on here, because then you're depleting the bats' natural food and replacing it with this new food source, and that's having all these individual and population level consequences for the bats."

###

Besides Becker, Altizer and Streicker, who is also on the faculty of the University of Glasgow, the study's other co-authors are Gabor Czirjak of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research; Dmitriy Volokhov and Vladimir Chizhikov of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Alexandra Bentz and Kristen Navara of the UGA department of poultry science; Jorge Carrera of the Universidad Nacional de Piura; Melinda Camus of the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine; Brock Fenton of the University of Western Ontario; Nancy Simmons of the American Museum of Natural History; Sergio Recuenco of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos; and Amy Gilbert of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services.

Support for the research was provided by the National Science Foundation, the ARCS Foundation, Sigma Xi, Animal Behavior Society, Bat Conservation International, American Society of Mammalogists, UGA Odum School of Ecology, UGA Graduate School, UGA Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute, UGA Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute, Explorer's Club, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, UGA Global Programs International Travel Award, American Museum of Natural History Taxonomic Mammalogy Fund, USDA National Rabies Management Program and a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and Royal Society.

Besides Becker, editors of the theme issue are Hall and Altizer of the University of Georgia, Kristian Forbes of the University of Helsinki and Raina Plowright of Montana State University.

Contact:

Daniel Becker

Sonia Altizer

706- 542-9251

saltizer@uga.edu

An image of a vampire bat is online at https://news.uga.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Desmodus-rotundus-_DSC8823.jpg

Cutline: Vampire bats captured for the study were tagged and released back into the wild after the researchers collected hair and blood samples and recorded age, sex and reproductive state. Photo: Brock Fenton, University of Western Ontario.

An image of the researchers at one of the field sites in the Peruvian Amazon is online at https://news.uga.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/IMG_3705.jpg

Cutline: Daniel Becker (fifth from right), co-author Jorge Carrera (fourth from right) and members of the field team pose with a local family of cattle owners who allowed the researchers to collect bats at their property in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo: Katherine Ineson.By Steven Ariong.

Over 8,000 pastoralists have returned to Kenya following the onset of the rainy season that has made grass grow.

The Turkana herdsmen are part of 70,000 who crossed into Uganda with 127,000 of their livestock in search for pasture and water two years ago.

Peter Logiro the Kaabong Resident District Commissioner says the Turkana pastoralists have now moved towards the Kenyan boarder.

While David Pedo Kotido RDC confirms that the Turkana pastoralists who have been grazing in the district have moved several kilometers away from Kotido to the Kenya side.

The Turkana are Kenyas second largest pastoral group and keep

crossing into Uganda in search of water and pasture.

Karamoja sub region is currently host to about 70,000 Turkana

pastoralists who entered the country with more than 100,000 heads of cattle following the persistent drought that hit northwest Kenya.A University of Oklahoma research study, led by Professor Xiangming Xiao, reveals the divergent trends of open surface water bodies in the contiguous United States from 1984 to 2016, specifically, a decreasing trend in the water-poor states and an increasing trend in the water-rich states. Surface water resources are critical for public water supply, industry, agriculture, biodiversity and ecosystem services.

"The data, information and knowledge on long-term trends of surface water bodies across the CONUS at high spatial resolution are valuable for planning and management of surface water resources, however, they are not widely available yet," said Xiao, professor of ecology and remote sensing in the Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, OU College of Arts and Sciences.

Xiao and his team analyzed approximately 370,000 Landsat images and generated annual surface water body frequency maps for 1984 to 2016 at 30-m spatial resolution. Zhenhua Zhou, first author on the study and one of Xiao's graduate students, says, "Google's Earth Engine cloud computing platform, freely available Landsat image data, together with the novel and robust mapping algorithms derived from years of remote sensing studies in the past allowed OU researchers to carry out the continental-scale image data analysis."

The spatial-temporal dynamics and trends of year-long water bodies in the CONUS during 1984 to 2016 were quantified by states and watersheds. During that period, 10 water-poor states in the southwest and northwest United States had statistically significant decreasing trends in surface water area, but 20 water-rich states in the southeast United States and the northern Great Plains had statistically significant increasing trends. Climate was the primary driving factor for such diverse trends in year-long surface water area since 1984.

"According to climate predictions, annual precipitation is likely to decrease in the Southwest but increase in the eastern United States during the 21st century, therefore, the observed diverse trends of surface water body areas since 1984 could continue to occur in the future," said Xiao.

OU researchers combined the surface water area data with the land water storage data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment during 2002 to 2016 to investigate the data dynamics in severe drought and pluvial years. The detailed analyses in California and the Southern Great Plains (Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas) clearly highlight a large withdrawal of groundwater in those drought years and slow post-drought recovery of surface water area, groundwater and land water storage over years.

A paper on this study by Xiao and his team, "Divergent Trends of Open Surface Water Body Area in the Contiguous United States During 1984 to 2016," has been published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. The manuscript, tracking number of 17-19275, can be found online in PNAS Latest Articles.

###

Funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation EPSCoR program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Geological Survey. For more information about this research, contact xiangming.xiao@ou.edu or visit http://www.eomf.ou.edu.Rare amphibians living on rocky plateaux in western India are in desperate need of greater protection as their habitats are being eroded by expansions in population, industry and tourism, new research has shown.

An international team of scientists studied 21 species living in the northern section of the Western Ghats Biodiversity Hotspot, designated one of the eight most important global hotspots and one of the three most threatened by population growth.

They examined amphibian distribution and their essential habitats on rocky plateaux at a range of altitudes and found several areas where habitats were being destroyed by human activity such as mining, wind turbine installation and tourism. The amphibians in the region are also at risk from the spread of diseases including the potentially lethal chytrid fungus.

As a result, some species were already considered endangered with one, the Amboli Toad (Xanthophryne tigerina), labelled critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List. Others are listed as data deficient as researchers don't yet have enough information to say if their populations are at risk.

For many of the species the research, led by the University of Plymouth and published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, represents the first statistically supported assessment of their habitat requirements.

It also calls for greater efforts to make people aware of the threats posed by development and industry, and for an increased focus on preserving the plateaux, their microhabitats and the species that live in them.

Christopher Thorpe, a Post Graduate Research Student in the University's School of Biological and Marine Sciences, said: "The rocky plateaux of the northern Western Ghats are a stressed habitat for amphibians, but those who live there have evolved to do so as it is a competition-free environment. They already face significant challenges but now the specific features they need to survive, such as large loose rocks and shallow pools created by monsoon rains, are being destroyed by human activity. Many of these highly important sites have low levels of statutory protection, greater efforts are needed to ensure these habitats - and the threatened species living within them - are protected for the future."

The Western Ghats is a chain of hills that runs north-south for around 1,600km along the southwestern coast of India, close to cities including Mumbai, Pune, Goa and Bangalore. Part has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site including one of the northern rocky plateaux.

This research focused on 14 sites within the area's northern section, which is considered geologically distinct and biologically isolated with many species endemic to the region and even to individual plateaux.

It showed that within the plateaux there were microhabitats such as rocks, pools, and woody plants which are all essential to the amphibians' chance of survival. However, in areas where these habitats had been eroded away, for example by the removal of rocks for development, some amphibians were less abundant. Some sites are being completely lost to open cast mining.

The researchers say that as the first statistically supported study looking at amphibian populations in the northern section of the Western Ghats, the work has added substantially to known microhabitat associations and shown that their preservation is clearly important for future conservation.

Dr Aparna Watve, from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Maharashtra, India, said: "Specialised ecosystems such as rocky plateaux are currently poorly understood and not accorded the same importance and protection as the forest habitats by the government. These ecosystems and their rich flora and faunal diversity are in danger of extinction and development practices, looking for short-term gains and neglecting the long-term effects of habitat destruction, are a real challenge to environmental conservation in India. There is a great need to understand the plateau ecology and ecosystem services to help plan local development without harming the biodiversity, and this paper provides valuable scientific evidence which will be useful for planning in-situ conservation and restoration of plateau biodiversity."

###University of Sheffield analysis considered the rapid switch from coal to natural gas generation in Britain in 2016, and found a meaningful carbon price was the additional factor that changed the market

Study shows Russia and the US could potentially convert 40-50 per cent of their coal generation to natural gas

Britain is on track to become the first major economy to transition away from coal after centuries of production and consumption

Britain's emissions dropped by six per cent in 2016 by switching from coal to natural gas a new study from the University of Sheffield has revealed.

The collaborative study by Dr Grant Wilson from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Energy 2050 at the University of Sheffield and Dr Iain Staffell from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, highlights the scale and speed of emissions reduction in Britain as a result of fuel switching from coal to natural gas through effective carbon pricing.

The switch analysed in the study was made possible by incentivising gas over coal through effective carbon pricing. A carbon price of 18 per tonne in 2016 was needed to incentivise the fuel switch.

The research found that if spare capacity already existed, then switching from coal to gas will be a quick win method of reducing emissions as it does not require several years to build the generation to impact reductions in emissions, unlike other options such as renewable and nuclear energy.

The necessity for spare capacity is one of the factors that the potential for other countries adopting this tactic was contingent upon. Other factors for success outside Britain include the security of supply chains, price, and also political interest.

The study found that Russia and the US could potentially convert 40-50 per cent of their coal generation to natural gas but China and India could only displace six-12 per cent due to the relative size of their natural gas generation. A high level assessment of the scale of decarbonisation if other countries were able to switch with existing generation assets was found to be in the region of one Gigatonne of CO 2 per annum, which is equal to three per cent of global emissions.

Dr Grant Wilson, from the University of Sheffield, said "This research suggests that fuel switching from coal to natural gas with existing generation is an area that warrants greater policy interest at a global level.

"Not least as it is likely to prove vastly cheaper to refrain from emitting a tonne of CO 2 now, rather than have to take it back out of the atmosphere in 50 years time.

"We believe that carbon pricing was the additional factor that tipped the scale in favour of switching from coal to natural gas - and without this - the market in Britain would still be generating electricity with coal to a greater degree."

A major benefit of switching from coal to gas is that the electrical system has decarbonised faster in the short term. Although, one risk of switching fuels is that natural gas may stay on the system for longer than necessary to be compatible with longer term decarbonising targets.

Dr Iain Staffell, from Imperial College London, said: "Switching from coal to gas is not a long-term solution, but it is an important step to start reducing emissions quickly and at minimal cost. This will give us time to build up the required renewable energy capacity to permanently cut global carbon emissions."

The study is published today (26 March 2018) in the journal Nature Energy.

###

For more information about Energy 2050 please visit: http://energy2050.ac.uk/

For further information please contact: Harry Clulow, Media and PR Apprentice, University of Sheffield, 0114 222 1047

Notes to editors The University of Sheffield

With almost 29,000 of the brightest students from over 140 countries, learning alongside over 1,200 of the best academics from across the globe, the University of Sheffield is one of the world's leading universities.

A member of the UK's prestigious Russell Group of leading research-led institutions, Sheffield offers world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines.

Unified by the power of discovery and understanding, staff and students at the university are committed to finding new ways to transform the world we live in.

Sheffield is the only university to feature in The Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For 2017 and was voted number one university in the UK for Student Satisfaction by Times Higher Education in 2014. In the last decade it has won four Queen's Anniversary Prizes in recognition of the outstanding contribution to the United Kingdom's intellectual, economic, cultural and social life.

Sheffield has six Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and its alumni go on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence all over the world, making significant contributions in their chosen fields.

Global research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, AstraZeneca, Glaxo SmithKline, Siemens and Airbus, as well as many UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations.

To read other news releases about the University of Sheffield, visit http://www.shef.ac.uk/newsOne of the key steps in developing new drugs is determining the atomic structure of its biologically active substances. This generally involves performing X-ray analyses of single crystal structures to determine the ingredient's detailed three-dimensional set-up. However, growing suitable single crystals is often a complex and time-consuming process.

Determining crystal structures more quickly and efficiently

A research group headed up by Bernhard Spingler, professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Zurich, has now modified a method that had previously been used exclusively for the crystallization of proteins, and successfully applied it to organic salts. The team was able to determine the crystal structures of several organic salts with significantly less time and effort. "As organic salts make up about 40 percent of all active pharmaceutical ingredients, this new method can greatly speed up the development of drugs," says Spingler.

Simplified screening of organic salts

The generation of solid salts of organic molecules is a key step in developing certain pharmaceutical ingredients. The positively and negatively charged particles that make up organic salts determine their properties, such as their solubility, crystal shape, ability to absorb water, melting point, and stability. The search for the ideal negatively charged anion to match the salt's positively charged cation has until now been a very resource-intensive process. Thanks to the semi-automatic combination of ion exchange screening and vapor diffusion for crystallization, this is not only done quicker and at lower costs. "We can now also determine the structures of the salt combinations directly after screening, since doing so only requires only very small amounts," adds crystallography expert Spingler.

Trainee achieves breakthrough

The breakthrough in developing the novel method was achieved by Philipp Nievergelt, a trainee who had spent 10 months in Bernhard Spingler's lab after graduating from Gymnasium. The successful junior researcher is listed as first author of the study and is now four semesters into his business chemistry studies at UZH. "The traineeship got me excited about lab work and encouraged me to continue doing research," explains Nievergelt.

###In the United States, one infant is born every 15 minutes with withdrawal symptoms after being exposed to opioids before birth, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.

From 2004 to 2014, the rate of U.S. infants diagnosed with opioid withdrawal symptoms, known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), increased 433 percent, from 1.5 to 8.0 per 1,000 hospital births.

However, the increase was even more stark in state Medicaid programs -- rising from 2.8 to 14.4 per 1,000 hospital births. Medicaid, a public health insurance program, covered more than 80 percent of NAS births nationwide in 2014.

The study, "Incidence and Costs of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome among Infants with Medicaid: 2004-2014," was a collaborative effort among researchers at Vanderbilt, Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and several other institutions. This is the latest in a series of studies exploring the health and financial impacts of NAS and opioid use during pregnancy.

For Medicaid-covered infants, the healthcare costs associated with caring for NAS totaled $462 million in 2014 alone, researchers found. While other studies have shown a high incidence of NAS among Medicaid-enrolled infants, this is the first to quantify the incidence difference between Medicaid and privately insured infants over time.

"NAS resulted in approximately $2 billion in excess Medicaid costs in the 10-year period we studied. State Medicaid programs could improve infant and maternal health and save money by investing in prevention and treatment for low-income women with opioid use disorders," said Tyler Winkelman, MD, MSc, lead author of the study, a clinician-investigator at Hennepin Healthcare, and an assistant professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota.

Neonatal abstinence syndrome has been linked to use of both illicit opioids such as heroin and legal opioids like Vicodin. Many infants exposed to opioids during pregnancy will experience withdrawal symptoms shortly after birth. Infants experiencing opioid withdrawal are irritable, can have feeding and breathing problems, and are more likely to be born with low birthweight.

For the study, the authors looked at 2004-2014 hospital birth data from the National Inpatient Sample, a nationally representative sample of hospital discharges in the United States developed by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The sample included 9.1 million hospital birth records. Of those, 35,629 infants had a diagnosis of NAS.

Infants with NAS enrolled in Medicaid were significantly more likely than infants without NAS enrolled in Medicaid to be male and reside in poor, rural counties. They were also more likely to be transferred to another hospital for care and have longer hospital stays, the study noted. The authors concluded that the continued growing incidence of NAS, particularly among infants covered by Medicaid, presents an opportunity to implement policies that improve opioid use disorder treatment for women before, during and after pregnancy.

Additionally, they state that Medicaid programs could promote standardization of clinical protocols to reduce hospital costs and improve outcomes for infants with NAS.

"The rise of infants experiencing drug withdrawal in our nation's hospitals is evidence that the opioid crisis continues to affect our most vulnerable populations -- pregnant women and infants," said Stephen Patrick, MD, MPH, MS, senior author of the study and assistant professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy in the Division of Neonatology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. "As Congress considers legislation to address the growing opioid crisis, pregnant women and infants must be a priority for targeted, well-funded public health interventions."

###

Contributing authors included: Nicole Villapiano, MD, MSc, from Cortland Regional Medical Center; Katy Kozhimannil, PhD, MPA, from University of Minnesota School of Public Health; and Matthew Davis, MD, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital, Chicago.

The study was supported by grant award K23DA038720 from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Drug Abuse.G-20 provides more uncertainty for cryptocurrency

Bitcoin traded fairly positively over the weekend, as it tracked around the $8500 level. Last week was relatively encouraging from both a fundamental and technical perspective, as some good news and a quick bounce from a worrying dip helped market sentiment recover somewhat. The big focus was on the G-20 meeting in Buenos Aires, where all eyes were on whether there was going to a united front on regulation. This did not come close to appearing, instead, it was shocking how ill-prepared or how disinterested that policymakers seemed to be. Reading between the lines there is probably a clearer explanation of why they punted to July and didnt take the chance to make a clear statement, and that could well be that there is simply a total lack of accord between nations. Some like Japan or Switzerland are very open to Cryptocurrency while others like China and France are much more concerned about the threat of criminality and of disrupting the status quo

Risk-off good news for Bitcoin?

As equity and FX markets around the world are roiled by concerns over Trump and his tariffs on China, Bitcoin has been quite resilient. The role of cryptocurrency outside of conventional finance, in theory, might make it an effective hedge against market crashes, but as of now it stills relies on fiat money flowing into it, so it is not as immune as some would like to think. In a report in Forbes, David Johnson, Latiums CEO believes that Gold seems the likely beneficiary from the risk off, but think regulatory clarity should also help Bitcoin as it continues its progress towards acceptance among funds and institutions,

Gold should continue to move up due to risk aversion from capital markets and diminishing global stimulus. Bitcoin should move up due to increased clarity from regulators as it moves into a more defined asset class.

The stakes are high for Bitcoin at current levels, but as the Binance CEO tweeted on Saturday, volumes are returning across the exchanges, which could indicate that fund appetite may be returning now that the spectre of mass regulation is still a few months a way at the very earliest.As the political situation heats up worldwide, the relationship between the United States and China appears to be heading for the worst levels we have seen in many years.

The ramifications of slowing growth in China would be particularly bad for the export-reliant Australian economy, while haven assets will likely get a boost, this line of thinking leads Barclays bank to post a short Australian Dollar/Japanese Yen position for this week.

Key Quotes

We recommend being short AUD/JPY (spot ref: 81.03), targeting 78 with a stop loss of 83.138 (18-month 50% retracement) after the well-capped rebound last week.

"Sino-US trade war concerns could weigh on a high-beta currency such as AUD, particularly given its late-cycle domestic dynamics and expected moderation in Australias terms of trade.

"On the other hand, JPY could benefit from safe-haven flows and domestic political scandals point to a risk of further JPY appreciation.Moving to Brussels for just a few weeks or months? Serviced, furnished apartments offer flexible short- to long-term leases, provide you with all the amenities, and spare you much of the moving hassle.

Its hard to truly feel at home when moving to a new country  especially if you dont speak the language. But even if youre only moving to Brussels for a few months, finding a comfortable house or apartment to rent is sure to be your main concern.

In this guide, Joel Vanmellaert of the specialist agency BBF Serviced Apartments discusses the benefits of serviced apartments for expats and explains how a specialist estate agency can help you find a furnished apartment in Brussels.

BBF Serviced Apartments BBF Serviced Apartments has offered serviced apartments for expats moving to Brussels since 1992. BBF provides flexible solutions for mid- and long-term expats moving to Belgium, with reduced rates for corporate and long-term bookings. Explore housing options

Hotels vs. serviced apartments in Brussels

If youre only moving to Belgium for a short period of time, you might consider staying in a hotel. For many expats, however, hotel life can be a lonely experience. This is where serviced apartments bridge the gap for short-stay or medium-term expats in Brussels.

Serviced apartments in Brussels offer a cozier environment and more privacy than a hotel. The majority of serviced apartments are fully furnished, so expats can move right in; some allow plenty of flexibility when it comes to rental terms.

Joel says that one of the main benefits of serviced properties is the lack of complexity involved. A suitable apartment should come already furnished with a ready-to-use kitchen; equipped with a range of amenities, such as cable television, high-speed Wi-Fi and security systems; and with services such as cleaning, tech support, and even concierge services.

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Using an agent to find furnished apartments in Brussels

Rather than dealing with property portals, you can employ a specialist estate agency to find a short-stay apartment. Indeed, many companies already work with relocation agents to ensure a smooth transition for their staff when arriving in Belgium.

Specialist agencies also offer a less stringent style of renting. Some agents let properties for as little as a month. Theyll let you extend your stay with a couple of weeks notice. Others will allow you to automatically renew your tenancy on a monthly basis if youre uncertain how long youll be staying, says Joel.

The companies listed below provide short- and medium-term furnished rental services in Brussels:

Check Expaticas listings for more serviced apartments in Brussels.

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Getting a serviced apartment in Brussels: the process

If you use an agent, you or your company will first inquire about properties in your chosen area. The agent will then send you a proposal with suggested apartments.

If one of these properties suits you, you may have to move quickly to sign a contract. These are often of a couple of hundred euros. Deposits are usually the sum of one months rent, plus a one-time payment in advance. This covers a final professional cleaning of the property when you move out.

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Renting serviced apartments in Brussels: key services

As part of your package, you should be offered a cleaning service either weekly or bi-weekly. You should also be fully covered for any maintenance issues that occur with the apartment. Any issues can be raised with your agent, who should send a handyman out as soon as possible.

High-speed internet is a given in these apartment blocks; you should also have access to cable television. Once youve moved in, your agent may provide you with an online login to manage details of your property, including your contracts and any requests for maintenance.

Tenant responsibilities for serviced apartments in Brussels

When renting in Brussels, youll need to insure your belongings, as these wont be covered by your landlords policy.

Renting a serviced apartment isnt quite like having your own flat. Your agent is unlikely to allow you to keep a pet, smoking will be prohibited indoors and there are likely to be limits on the hours that you can have gatherings in your apartment.

Moving to Brussels: how to feel at home

Moving to a new country can be a complicated time in your career, but it represents a great opportunity to expand your professional and personal horizons. One of the most helpful things to do is to try and create a familiar atmosphere in your new apartment.

Joel says: Try and make things as familiar as possible to remind you of home. While it might not make sense to bring your sofa or CD collection with you, travelling with important items that remind you of your family can make your new surroundings feel a little more like home.

When you move to a new country, your company will often pair you up with a sponsor who is based locally.

Sponsors are often experienced expats who have been in your shoes and will be able to understand your questions and help you get over the culture shock of moving to a new city, says Joel.

Finally, try your best to embrace your situation and make the most of the opportunities by joining the expat community in Brussels. This is especially helpful if you dont speak the language in your new country. Fellow expats may run groups or host regular meetups in the city where you can get together and chat about how youre adapting to your new country.A reduction in work hours, topped up by partial unemployment benefits, is not only a means of saving jobs but also of cutting the overall costs of unemployment payments, finds a study mandated by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

In 2009, Swiss industry was severely hit by the spillover effects of the subprime crisis raging through the United States. In the Swiss machine tools sector, revenues fell by an average of 70%.

It was dramatic. In 30 years working in this area, I had never seen such a sudden crash, remembers Rolf Muster, boss of the Schaublin Machines in the Bernese Jura region.

The economics minister at the time, Doris Leuthard, was under pressure to act. She quickly decided to ease the conditions for receiving partial unemployment benefits, lengthened the period of insurance cover from 12 to 18 months, then extended this to 24 months a year later.

Leuthard strongly encouraged businesses to use this instrument, remembers Daniel Lampart, first-secretary of the Swiss Trade Union Federation. Politicians showed a generous attitude and were willing to be flexible to combat the extent of the crisis, says Pierluigi Fedele, industry specialist at another trade union, Unia.

In 2009, over 90,000 employees were placed on partial unemployment in Switzerland  an unheard-of number. In the most industrialised parts of the country, the system was used on a huge scale: in cantons Jura and Neuchatel, over 10% of all active workers received benefits due to a reduction of their work hours.

Partial unemployment benefits  how it works During an economic crisis, when a business faces a downturn in demand, it can  as long as the staff concerned are in agreement  reduce working hours. In these cases, the employees will receive benefits from the state coming to 80% of the lost revenue. So, if the employer reduced the work-rate from 100% to 50%, the business would pay one-half of the salary, the unemployment insurance would pay 80% of the other half, and the employee would end up receiving 90% of his or her initial salary.

Is it effective?

Of course, such a system comes at a cost: some CHF1.1 billion ($1.16 billion) was paid out by the system of unemployment benefits in the year 2009 alone.

And until now, doubts have persisted as to how effective this anti-crisis tool really is. Some studies have criticized programs of reducing work hours for not preventing lay-offs, but rather delaying them until a later date. Another danger is that companies could apply for benefits claiming to save jobs that they would have kept in any case, even without aid.

A new analysis (French), however, undertaken by the federal technology institute Zurich (ETH) and mandated by SECO, serves to mitigate these fears. Between 2009 and 2015, the system of partial unemployment was consistently responsible for preventing layoffs in the country, and enabled some companies to save at least 10% of positions, say co-authors Daniel Kopp and Michael Siegenthaler.

As a direct consequence, they claim, the costs borne by the system of partial unemployment were largely offset by the savings made in the regular system of unemployment.

Holding on to know-how

Overall, the system of shorter work hours topped up by state benefits is supported by a large consensus of stakeholders: it is encouraged by all social partners and receives support from both sides of the political spectrum. Its hardly surprising that employers and union-leaders alike have welcomed the findings of the report.

This proves that we are dealing with an effective and well-targeted instrument, says Philippe Cordonier from Swissmem, an umbrella body representing machine, electrical, and metal industries in Switzerland. By enabling businesses to keep qualified workers on a reduced basis, we avoid losing valuable know-how, the risk being that qualified people could definitively leave their industry in case of layoffs, he says.

As the report authors underline, it is primarily small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have made most use of the instrument. Big groups are more inclined to take quick and brutal decisions when business starts to deteriorate, says UNIAs Fedele. The partial unemployment scheme is not adapted for this type of management.

But if the method was largely effective during the economic crisis of 2009-2010, it was less so during the shock that followed the ending by the Swiss National Bank of its longstanding ceiling of CHF1.20 to the euro in January 2015.

Pierluigi Fedele explains why: the system of partial unemployment is set up to tackle temporary drops in activity. However, during the euro crisis, firms did not necessarily have less work; rather, they found themselves in difficulty due to the big downturn in profit margins. Despite a certain flexibility on behalf of the authorities, the system was less used.

OECD-endorsed

More broadly, the system of partial unemployment benefits has been noticed and encouraged by voices beyond Switzerland: in 2009, for example, Pascal Lamy, the then-director of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), told the newspaper Le Temps that the system, widespread in Europe, was a key factor in protecting the continent in times of crisis  as opposed to the US, where such a system is not practiced.

Similarly, for some years the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has also been lauding the benefits of a system it sees as more effective than any other type of protectionist measure. As for the most recent Swiss report, it will surely be scrutinised closely by OECD management, who are keen to develop the system in other countries, says Daniel Lampart of the Trade Union Federation.

Translated from French by Domhnall OSullivan, swissinfo.chSwiss Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann on Sunday ended a two-day visit to the Cote dIvoire, looking at opportunities to strengthen scientific cooperation between the two countries.

Cote dIvoire is Switzerlands eighth most important trading partner in Africa and more than 30 Swiss companies are located in the West African country. Switzerland directly invested more than CHF300 million ($317 million) into the country in 2017.

Schneider-Ammann signed an agreement that will strengthen and financially secure future cooperation between a local research centre and Swiss universities, reported the Swiss News Agency on Monday.

The Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Cote dIvoire (CSRS) was established more than 60 years ago with the aim of boosting Swiss-African Research Cooperation. Schneider-Ammann visited the centre and said it was a model for international cooperation.

Reliance on exports

Schneider-Ammann also held various ministerial talks and was informed locally about several projects and priorities. The Swiss delegation also met local business representatives as well as the countrys chamber of commerce.

The African Development Bank is concerned about the inadequate infrastructure, youth unemployment as well as the regions exports dependency.

Switzerland is the third biggest investor in the country, particularly importing its cocoa beans.

Schneider-Ammann was accompanied by a group of Swiss parliamentarians, members of cantonal governments and business representatives. He had previously visited Nigeria. His delegations trip to Cote dIvoire concludes the Swiss state visit to Africa.Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is facing extradition proceedings in Germany after being held on a European Arrest Warrant issued by Spain over his role in his region's controversial independence drive.

Here are some key facts about the European Arrest Warrant.

 What is an EAW ? 

European arrest warrants were introduced in 2004 to replace lengthy extradition processes within the EU and to remove political interference, making it easier to return fugitives suspected of serious crimes.

They can be issued for crimes where the maximum penalty is at least one year in prison or where the fugitive has already been sentenced to at least four months in prison.

The judicial authority and police in the receiving country, in this case Germany, are sent the warrant and tasked with arresting and returning the suspect.

 How long does the process take? 

After arresting the suspect, the country has a maximum of 60 days to send the wanted person back, though in practice most people held under European arrest warrants are returned much more quickly.

In 2015, Germany took an average of 15 days to return suspects who agreed to be sent back and 42 days for those who fought extradition. German courts turned down only 12 percent of EAW cases.

 Can Germany reject it? 

There are a number of situations in which courts can refuse to extradite under an EAW  for example if the suspect has already been judged for the same offence, or is a minor or if the offence is covered by an amnesty.

A country can also refuse extradition if the suspected offence is not recognised under its own national law.

Rebellion was removed from the German penal code in 1969 or 1970, but German media have suggested the offence of high treason could apply instead.

Statistically most EAW applications are successful. In 2015 German courts turned down just 195 out of 1,610 cases  around 12 percent.

Across Europe, out of the 140,000 warrants issued between 2005 and 2014, 38 percent of suspects were found and nearly three-quarters of them were extradited, official EU figures show.

 What happened in Belgium? 

Puigdemont fled to Belgium in October to avoid charges in Spain, prompting Madrid to issue an initial EAW against him.

There was speculation the EAW would fail because the Spanish offence of rebellion does not exist in Belgian law. The Beglian judges could have extradited him to face other charges  including misuse of public funds  on condition he would not be charged with rebellion.

But Spanish prosecutors wanted to avoid this so they could charge him with rebellion, so they withdrew the EAW in December, before the Belgian court ruled on it.A group of UN rights experts has registered a complaint from Catalonia's former president Carles Puigdemont alleging that Spain has violated his rights, a UN spokeswoman confirmed Monday.

Puigdemont, who was set to appear in a German court following his arrest Sunday under a European warrant issued by Spain, filed a petition with the UN Human Rights Committee earlier this month.

His lawyer, British national Ben Emmerson who is himself a former UN rights expert, told reporters in Brussels on March 2 that he had filed a case with the committee.

He said the filing accused Madrid of violating Puigdemonts right to be freely elected and his rights to freedom of association and expression.

On Monday, UN rights office spokeswoman Julia Gronnevet confirmed the registration of the communication, but said she could not provide more details since the case was confidential.

She did say however that the next step in this process is that the State Party (Spain) has six months to respond.

The Geneva-based committee, made up of 18 independent experts, is tasked with monitoring countries compliance and implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Puigdemonts arrest on Sunday came five months after he went on the run as Spanish prosecutors sought to charge him with sedition and rebellion after a vote by the Catalan parliament to declare independence.

It marks the latest chapter in a secession saga that has bitterly divided Catalans and triggered Spains worst political crisis in decades.Portugal's government said Friday that a Portuguese citizen was one of the three people killed in a jihadist shooting spree in southwest France.

The death of a Portuguese citizen has been confirmed by French authorities to our consular services, Miguel Silva, a spokesman for the department concerned with Portuguese living abroad, told AFP.

He added that he was unable to give further details on the victim.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa expressed his condolences to the family and friends of the victim in a statement published late Friday on the presidency website.

French police Friday stormed a supermarket in the town of Trebes and shot dead a gunman after he had killed two people there and taken a policeman hostage.

A third person had been killed in an earlier shooting in the medieval town of Carcassonne.

The attack, by a man authorities say had claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group, came with France still on high alert following a string of jihadist assaults since 2015 that have claimed more than a total of 240 lives.Privacy Settings

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NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using.Austria said Monday that it would not follow a number of other EU countries in expelling Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, stressing its neutrality.

We stand behind the decision to recall the EU ambassador, but we will not take any national measures, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said in a joint statement.

Indeed, we want to keep the channels of communication to Russia open, they added. Austria is a neutral country and sees itself as a bridge-builder between East and West.

Fourteen European Union countries are to expel a total of 30 Russian diplomats in a coordinated international response to Moscow over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the English city of Salisbury, according to an AFP tally.

Germany, France and Poland led the way with four expulsions each and EU President Donald Tusk warned that more diplomats could be thrown out in the coming days.

Austria is a member of the European Union but is officially neutral and is not part of the NATO military alliance.

The right-wing Kurz visited Russia in late February and his coalition partners, the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), have a cooperation pact with President Vladimir Putins United Russia party.

Slovakia, while condemning the Skripal poisoning, also said it was not throwing out Russian diplomats at present but will summon the Russian ambassador without delay.

The development of the situation, as well as Russias response to the calls addressed to it by the EU countries  including Slovakia  will influence the next steps that we are prepared to consider in this case, the Slovakian foreign ministry said.Canada on Monday ordered the expulsion of four Russian diplomats and denied credentials for three others over the poisoning of a former spy in Britain.

We are taking these measures in solidarity with the United Kingdom, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said.

The nerve agent attack in Salisbury, on the soil of Canadas close partner and ally, is a despicable, heinous and reckless act, potentially endangering the lives of hundreds, she said.

The four diplomats serving at either Russias embassy in Ottawa or its consulate in Montreal have been identified as intelligence officers or individuals who have used their diplomatic status to undermine Canadas security or interfere in our democracy.

Applications by Russia to add three more diplomatic staff in this country were denied for similar reasons.

Sergei Skripal, a former Russian officer who sold secrets to Britain and moved there in a 2010 spy swap, remains in critical condition along with his daughter, Yulia, after they were found unconscious on a park bench in the sleepy English city of Salisbury on March 4.

Britain says a military-grade nerve agent was used to poison them.

Freeland called the nerve agent attack a clear threat to the rules-based international order and a breach of conventions against chemical weapons use.

She added it was part of a wider pattern of unacceptable behavior by Russia, including complicity with the Assad regime (in Syria), the annexation of Crimea, Russian-led fighting in eastern Ukraine, support for civil strife in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other neighboring countries, interference in elections, and disinformation campaigns.Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands said Monday they had ordered the expulsion of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former spy and his daughter in England, as EU nations step up the pressure on Moscow.

Denmark, the only Nordic country to be both a member of NATO and the EU, and the Netherlands said they were each expelling two diplomats, while Finland  a Russian grand duchy until 1917  said it was expelling one.

Sweden, also a Nordic EU member, had yet to announce any expulsions.

Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands were among 14 EU nations to announce the expulsion of Russian diplomats over the brazen nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4.

The United States has meanwhile decided to expel 60 Russian spies.

There is no doubt about our solidarity with Britain, Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen told reporters.

We agree with Britain that it is very likely that Russia is behind (the nerve agent attack). There are no other plausible explanations, he said, urging Russia to change course.

He did not disclose the identities nor the functions of the two diplomats to be expelled, but said they had one week to leave the country.

A statement from the office of Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said the attack poses a serious threat to the security of the whole of Europe.

Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Twitter the Russian envoys had two weeks to leave the Netherlands.French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday that the expulsion of Russian diplomats by EU states over the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain was a display of "European solidarity".

Our posture is, firstly, a posture of solidarity, but at the same time, it is a show of determined rejection of the use of any sort of chemical weapon, Le Drian said during a visit to Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

I believe that the expulsions which have been decided upon are the proof of strong European solidarity, he said, standing next to his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Malki.

London last week kicked out 23 Russian diplomats and urged allies to respond to the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Sixteen European Union countries, including France, responded on Monday by giving at least 30 Russian envoys notice to quit.

The United States ordered out 60 alleged Russian agents working under diplomatic cover.

Britain says the poison attack used a highly-potent nerve agent called Novichok, developed by the Soviet government towards the end of the Cold War.

Moscow denies it was responsible for the attack.Poland and Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania on Monday summoned the Russian ambassadors to their countries, as international pressure builds on Moscow over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England.

Latvia on Friday had said it would expel one or several Russian diplomats over the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, while fellow NATO and EU members Lithuania and Poland were also expected to follow suit.

The moves come after Britain, which blames Russia for the poisoning, expelled 23 Russian diplomats they said were spies and pressed EU allies to follow suit despite Moscows warning against confrontational steps.

The Russian Federations ambassador has been summoned to the Latvian foreign ministry today, and later there will be a public announcement, ministry deputy press secretary Vita Dobele told AFP.

In Poland, Russian ambassador Sergei Andreev was called to the foreign ministry in Warsaw, which has announced a press conference for 1300 GMT.

No comment. The information will be conveyed by the Polish foreign ministry, a smiling Andreev told reporters while leaving the ministry.

Pressed by journalists, he added that he was staying in Poland but said well see when asked about the fate of other Russian diplomats in Warsaw.

Lithuanian foreign ministry spokeswoman for her part told AFP: I can confirm Russian ambassador is summoned to the foreign ministry, but refused to elaborate.

No press briefing is planned in Vilnius, but diplomatic sources say the ambassador will be informed of the expulsion of several diplomats.

Fellow Baltic country Estonia refused to confirm or deny whether its Russian ambassador was summoned, but foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Belovas said the minister would give a press conference on the Salisbury attack later Monday.Ukraine is to expel 13 Russian diplomats as part of a coordinated effort by European nations and the US to punish Russia over an attack on a former Russian spy in England, President Petro Poroshenko announced Monday.

In response to a cynical chemical attack in Salisbury, Ukraine, in the spirit of solidarity with our British partners and transatlantic allies and in coordination with EU countries, decided to expel 13 Russian diplomats from the few that remain (in Kiev), Poroshenko posted on his Facebook page.

He said Ukraines diplomatic relations with Russia had been de facto frozen since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and began to support separatists in countrys east.

The next step is to increase the price that Moscow has to pay for its international crimes, including the strengthening of personal, financial and economic sanctions, Poroshenko added.

Kiev and the West accuse Russia of deploying troops and arms to the rebels in the east and fuelling the armed conflict that has claimed more than 10,000 lives.

Currently there is no Russian ambassador in Ukraine.

Kiev also replaced its own ambassador to Moscow with a temporary representative.

Sergei Skripal, a former Russian officer who sold secrets to Britain and moved there in a 2010 spy swap, remains in critical condition along with his daughter, Yulia, after they were found unconscious on a park bench in the sleepy English city of Salisbury on March 4.

Britain says a military-grade nerve agent was used to poison them.

osh/oc/txwAustralia joined the United States and other British allies in expelling two Russian diplomats Tuesday in response to a nerve agent attack on a double agent in England.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the pair were undeclared intelligence officers and had seven days to leave.

This decision reflects the shocking nature of the attack, the first offensive use of chemical weapons in Europe since World War II, involving a highly lethal substance in a populated area, endangering countless other members of the community, he said.

Turnbull said the decision followed advice from London that the substance used in the March 4 attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury was a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia.

He called it part of a pattern of reckless and deliberate conduct by the Russian state that constitutes a growing threat to international security.

Such an attack cannot be tolerated by any sovereign nation, he added.

We strongly support the call on Russia to disclose the full extent of its chemical weapons program in accordance with international law.

Canberras response followed Washington ordering 60 Russians out of the country.

Canada, Ukraine, Albania and most European Union states matched the move with smaller-scale expulsions, after Britain urged allies to respond to the poisoning.

Russia has denied it was behind the attempted assassination, which left Skripal and his daughter gravely ill in perhaps the first nerve agent attack in Europe since World War II.The EU's ambassador to Russia has returned to Moscow, EU sources said Friday, less than three weeks after he was recalled to Brussels for consultations over the nerve agent attack on a former spy in Britain.

European Union leaders summoned Markus Ederer back to Brussels on March 25 as part of diplomatic measures against Moscow, which they blamed for the assassination attempt on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English town of Salisbury.

Ederer went back to Moscow on Thursday following consultations with the EUs diplomatic service, EU source said.

EU leaders united in backing Londons assessment that Russia was to blame for the attack on March 4 and after conducting its own tests the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Thursday confirmed Britains findings about the substance used in the attack.

EU members, the United States, NATO and other nations expelled more than 150 Russian diplomats in a coordinated action against Moscow in support of Britain, and Russia retaliated with similar moves.Ukraine is to expel 13 Russian diplomats as part of a coordinated effort by European nations and the US to punish Russia over an attack on a former Russian spy in England, President Petro Poroshenko announced Monday.

In response to a cynical chemical attack in Salisbury, Ukraine, in the spirit of solidarity with our British partners and transatlantic allies and in coordination with EU countries, decided to expel 13 Russian diplomats from the few that remain (in Kiev), Poroshenko said in a statement.

He said Ukraines diplomatic relations with Russia had been de facto frozen since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and began to support separatists in countrys east.

Kiev and the West accuse Russia of deploying troops and arms to the rebels in eastern Ukraine and fuelling the armed conflict that has claimed more than 10,000 lives.

The diplomats to be expelled are Russian special service agents whose activities are not compatible with their diplomatic and consular status, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa told AFP.

Currently there is no Russian ambassador in Ukraine.

But after the expulsion, dozens of Russian diplomats will still work in the Russian embassy in Kiev and in its three consulates in Odessa, Kharkiv and Lviv, Betsa said.

Kiev also replaced its own ambassador to Moscow with a temporary representative.

The next step is to increase the price that Moscow has to pay for its international crimes, including the strengthening of personal, financial and economic sanctions, Poroshenko said.

Sergei Skripal, a former Russian officer who sold secrets to Britain and moved there in a 2010 spy swap, remains in critical condition along with his daughter, Yulia, after they were found unconscious on a park bench in the sleepy English city of Salisbury on March 4.

Britain says a military-grade nerve agent was used to poison them.

osh-dr/am/pvhThe United States and its European allies on Monday announced the expulsion of 114 Russian diplomats in a coordinated action against Moscow which they accuse of poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

Here is a list of the countries and the number of Russians expelled.

 US, Canada 

The United States expelled 60 alleged spies posted around the country and at the Russian mission to the United Nations.

It also closed the Russian consulate in Seattle over alleged spying at the nearby Kitsap submarine base and Boeing.

The retaliation against Moscow was taken in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

Canada ousted four diplomats, calling the nerve agent attack a despicable, heinous and reckless act.

 European Union 

Sixteen EU states have joined Britain in expelling Russian diplomats following a European Council decision last week to react to Moscow within a common framework.

Additional measures including further expulsions are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks, EU President Donald Tusk said.

Britain itself has already kicked out 23 Russian diplomats, with Moscow retaliating with a tit-for-tat move.

Croatia: One diplomat

Czech Republic: Three diplomats

Denmark: Two diplomats

Estonia: One diplomat

France: Four diplomats

Finland: One diplomat

Germany: Four diplomats

Hungary: One diplomat

Italy: Two diplomats

Latvia: One diplomat

Lithuania: Three diplomats

Netherlands: Two diplomats

Poland: Four diplomats

Romania: One diplomat

Spain: Two diplomats

Sweden: One diplomat

 Outside EU 

Albania: Two diplomats

Macedonia: One diplomat

Norway: One diplomat

Ukraine: 13 diplomats

President Petro Poroshenko called for even more action to be taken.

The next step is to increase the price that Moscow has to pay for its international crimes, including the strengthening of personal, financial and economic sanctions, he said.

Iceland announced it would not be sending any officials to football World Cup in Russia in protest at the poisoning in Britain.

burs/bpIreland's Smurfit Kappa, which makes cardboard and paper packaging, said Monday that it has rejected an improved 8.9-billion-euro ($11-billion) bid from US peer International Paper.

London-listed Smurfit, which had earlier this month snubbed an initial 8.6-billion-euro bid, said in a statement that the latest offer also failed to reflect its value, track record and prospects.

The improved cash-and-stock bid  pitched at 37.54 euros per share  was therefore inadequate, it added.

The board has unanimously rejected the revised proposal, Smurfit said in its statement.

The board is resolute in its belief that the best interests of the groups stakeholders are served by pursuing its future as an independent company, operating as the European and pan-American leader in paper-based packaging.

The revised proposal also fundamentally undervalues the group.

International Paper responded with a statement detailing the revised proposal.

The US giant added that the combination of two highly complementary businesses has compelling strategic and financial rationale.

The group remains willing to move quickly and cooperatively to engage with Smurfit Kappa with a view to achieving a recommended transaction.

Dublin-based Smurfit employs about 46,000 staff in 35 countries dotted around the world. The companys annual sales stood at about 8.6 billion euros in 2017.

International Paper is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, in the southeastern Unites States. It has a global workforce of 56,000 and annual revenues of around $21.7 billion.

pn-rfj/jhHere's a post from an associate who is writing a series about the growing opioid crisis and what to do about it.

Considering the Death Penalty to Solve our National Opioid Crisis

by Paul Brakke

Author of Fixing the Criminal Justice System, The Great National Divides, and Our Costly U.S. Prison System

Today America is suffering from a drug crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, affected millions more, and cost the economy many billions for the costs of interception, incarceration, medical treatment, and lost wages. The worst of the problem is due to opioids, including prescription pain killers, heroin, and synthetic derivatives of fentanyl.

The huge number of deaths due to drugs, as well as the high costs to the economy, certainly indicate the need to take action, including increased penalties. The President has even recently proposed the death penalty for dealing large quantities of drugs. Liberals are outraged by this proposal, but the President rightly points out that individual drug dealers are responsible for hundreds of overdose deaths, and we routinely demand the death penalty for mass homicides. The death penalty might well be a fit punishment, and possibly even a deterrent for future drug barons.

The High Cost of Drugs to Victims and the Economy

Before considering the remedies for drug addiction and the punishments for drug dealing, let's look at the stats showing the high costs for both drug victims and the economy. While liberals may propose just getting rid of the war on drugs and taxing drugs, they fail to look at the other side of the equation which involves holding the dealers complicit in the death of millions of victims of overdoses and addiction. They also ignore the high costs due to the many repercussions of drug use, including medical expenses, damages, and property losses from crimes committed by addicts to get money for drugs, and lost productivity.

So now let's consider these ravages to the economy.

- Over 50,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2015, over 33,000 from using opioids. Total drug overdoses soared to over 64,000 in 2016.[1] While opioids are legal when prescribed by a physician for a patient suffering from a serious illness or injury, the vast majority of victims have abused these drugs or obtained them illegally.[2]

- The opioid crisis costs the U.S. economy $504 billion, according to a report from the Council of Economic Advisers, an agency under the Executive Office of the President.[3] This includes the cost of treating overdoses, abuse, lost productivity, and costs incurred by the criminal justice system from the police, prosecutors, judges, and others involved in finding and arresting those involved in drugs, processing these cases and incarcerating those convicted.

Aside from the financial costs, other costs include the spread of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C, deaths from overdose, effects on unborn children, crime, unemployment, domestic abuse, divorce, and homelessness. [4]

- Heroin use is increasing, so that 600,000 people use it regularly.

- There is a relationship between age, sex and race. Nearly 40% of drug overdoses occur for those between the ages of 30 and 39. Because so many died young, in the past two years this has resulted tragically in the first decline in life expectancy in the U.S. Males and African Americans have higher rates of drug overdoses than others. [5]

- Data obtained from health agencies shows the ravages of the drug overdose epidemic, which is estimated to be even worse in 2017 than in 2016. Drug overdoses have become the leading cause of death among Americans under 50.[6]

- The opioid addiction crisis has become even more deadly as a result of an increase in illicitly manufactured fentanyl and similar drugs. Most of the time, fentanyl is sold on the street as heroin, or drug traffickers use it to make inexpensive counterfeit prescription opioids

- Because of the strength of fentanyl and its derivatives, the overdoses can be so severe, according to first responders, that giving victims multiple doses of naloxone, the anti-overdose medication sometimes called Narcan, doesn't work well anymore. Sometimes responders dose overdose victims with 12 to 14 or more hits of Narcan with no effect.[7]

- Currently, over 2 million Americans are at risk of dying from an overdose or addiction, since they are estimated to be dependent on opioids, including heroin. These Americans come from all walks of life. For instance, in Deerfield Township near Akron, Ohio, the Narcotics Anonymous meetings include lawyers, accountants, and young adults and teenagers from middle-class parents.[8]

In short, the drug crisis in America is very real, with millions of victims, including hundreds of thousands of deaths, and billions of dollars in costs. Those who are producing and selling these drugs are the main perpetrators of this crisis. Drug dealers are not just responsible for the victims of overdoses or addictions, and the huge illicit profits from drug sales, but the high criminal justice costs in dealing with these cases, depending on how high up you go on the drug sales chain.

What to Do About the High Costs to Victims and Society

So why shouldn't such drug manufacturers, distributors, and sellers be penalized accordingly, and the more serious offenders be subject to the death penalty? Many others researching and writing about the drug crisis haven't considered the problem in these terms, when they instead talk about drug addiction being a diseases, discussing rehabilitation efforts, or dismantling the drug war because it has been so ineffective. These researchers and writers haven't thought in terms of viewing the bigger sellers as killers and upping the penalties accordingly. They should.

To this end, in the next articles in this series on dealing with the opioid crisis I will assess the merits of increasing the penalties, including the death penalty, for the worst criminals in the drug trade. I want to consider how we can learn from other countries that have implemented the death penalty successfully - Singapore and China, both of which have been cited by the President - to consider using the death penalty here in the U.S. to reduce the opioid crisis. These two articles will make the case in favor of this use of the death penalty.Monday, March 26, 2018

Movements Return on 54 Year Cycle

Millions rallied around the nation (some globally) against gun violence against schools and citizens yesterday. Estimates of 800,000 mostly students in Washington DC March 24, 2018 compare favorably with the 1,000,000 mostly women on January 21, 2017. These enormous rallies come 54 and 55 years after the civil rights march of August 23, 1963, with a then record 300,000 crowd. Back then we had the great movements for civil rights, against the Vietnam War, followed by women's and environmental rights several years after the first two. Now we have Black Lives Matter, the Women's counter-inaugural protest, and the Parkland Students against school mass murders. Then a landslide election in 1964 brought in the Great Society reforms and programs, now a blue wave election in 2018, 54 years later, threatens to turn around congress 180 degrees in philosophy. Democrats needing 23 seats to regain the majority, may gain over a hundred seats if the recent Pennsylvania special election is indicative. It is remarkable that this repetition occurs at the same long cycle time with similar economic prosperity.

Advanced Empire Decay

Seventy Years of hollowing out the manufacturing sector to apply similar resources of capital, research, and people to military spending have weakened the US industrial economy largely replaced by the financial services economy. Profits from the financial services industry have increased to nine times their share of the US economy in the forty years since the seventies. Just as the New Deal momentum was in its last hurrah back then, now the Reagan conservative revolution is looking at its imminent demise. Then the American empire was at its peak under Kennedy while now the American empire will have trouble recovering from Trump. Ever since 1945 the memory of pre-empire Roosevelt America remained strong for many Americans until after the 1980 Reagan election. Now many Americans do not remember what America used to be. Prior to 1980 all Americans shared prosperity equally, with all classes doubling their income in those 35 post war years. Now Americans in the bottom 99% have remained without meaningful wage increases while the top 1% has seen their income more than quadruple. Thanks to the FOX News propaganda channel since 1996 and Rush Limbaugh since 1988, Americans have been uniquely misinformed about politics. Thus despite his documented record of 2000 lies in his first year in office, Trump continues the lying, repeated by FOX news and his 24 million Twitter followers and 16 million Facebook followers, to hold on to his 35% base while turning off everyone else. Polls show that 12% believe they are in the top 1% in income, while another 23% believe they will be in the top 1% someday. These deluded and aspiring groups supplement the actual 1% to make up the essence of the 35% Trump Republican base. The key Reagan deception was to sell America on his 25% tax cut plan that in fact gave a 60% tax cut to the top 1% while giving a mere 15% tax cut for the middle class. This same four to one ratio of benefits continues in the Trump tax "reform" plan. But thanks to the 2011 "occupy" movement, Americans now know they are being had. They also know that 24,000 would lose their health care under the Trump Republican proposals that failed last year. Nevertheless, 13,000 will lose their health care coverage due to the partial repeal slipped into the tax bill, with an estimated 10% increase in premiums due to that change.

Murder Rates Match Military Spending Rates

Steve Mills, who teaches medicine at the University of Minnesota, has shown that households that have a gun in the house are five times as likely to be shot to death as those in households without firearms. My own findings show that most of the seven largest economy nations correlate strongly between military spending and murder rates, with a near perfect correlation as high as 0.996 during the last twenty years of the Cold War. There is probably a lot of overlap between gun holding households and veterans. One friend of mine once read a book about mass murderers and told me that they all had military backgrounds, and there are few exceptions to that pattern today. Murder and crime rates are higher around military bases, and I learned at the 1999 hundredth anniversary Hague Peace Conference that Okinawa Japan women are often raped by US soldiers so much that the national government had to overrule the local government to keep the US base there. Japan is a very low military low crime country. In the fifties, the US learned how to train soldiers to kill, because over 70% of troops never fire their guns in combat in wars including World War Two, because humans are so naturally horrified about killing another human being. 78% of combat deaths in that war were due to artillery, a safely out of sight, out of mind, way to kill others.

Three Reasons Why Military and Murder are Related

There are three reasons why murder rates and military spending rates are so closely aligned. First is the military drain on the economy, which leads to more desperate and crime prone people. Second is the de-personalization of others that comes with dividing the world into friends and enemies. Among the usual 2% of us with deviant behavior, this makes it easier to commit a crime against others. If we can easily de-personalize our victims, we can then more easily commit crimes against them. Meetings between criminals and their victims in prison therapy are often very troubling to the criminal when they see for the first time the consequences of their actions first hand in the eyes of the victims. Third is the direct impact of training millions of people how to kill in wars. When you have such training it is easier to escalate a fist fight in a bar into a homicide. Just as in Shakespeare's play MacBeth, murder is easier and easier after the first very difficult murder decision.

Guns or the Military

Guns are the easier to see as the "cause" of the mass murder problem. Other nations have far fewer gun murders, and one comparison of murders between Canada and the US shows similar amounts of other categories of murders per capita, similar knifings, poisonings, and strangling's, and others, while showing a big drop in gun murders. Britain has reduced guns to the point that it has 60% less murders than would be suggested by its military rate. But that is true also for France, Virginia, and New England, a four-some that correlate 93%, but at 60% lower than for US, Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Japan. But this may be related to comparing 150 year old societies with 400 year old societies. Is it the guns or the level of maturation of the society that reduces crime rates? Crime rates in the US went down after the 1991 end of the Cold War to half their rates, just as military spending went down also in the nineties. Some would ascribe this to abortion being legal since 1973, 18 years before 1991, but that would not explain the similar drop in crime in Western Europe. German homicides have dropped 40% since 2000 while the US homicide rate has dropped only 20% thanks to the wars and military escalations.

For the additional "Crime and the Military" papers and graph on my academia.edu website:

https://www.academia.edu/4862977/CRIME_and_the_Military_1989-1999_3p._1999

Please cite this work as follows:

Reuschlein, Robert. (2018, March 26), "Gun Control Students March", Madison, WI: Real Economy Institute. Retrieved from: https://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/Gun-Control-Students-March,2018155580.aspx

Dr. Peace, Professor Robert Reuschlein, Real Economy Institute, Nobel Peace Prize Nominated Vetted 2016, Given Odds 2017, Possible Favorite in 2018 Nobel Peace Prize October 5th.



Contact: bobreuschlein@gmail.com, Info: www.realeconomy.comMonday, March 26, 2018

Who can resist Saturday morning cartoons? Come laugh and learn at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 21 at the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Associations (ICCFA) annual convention in Las Vegas, NV. At that time, Certified Thanatologist Gail Rubin will present Lessons on Grief and Mourning in Cartoons. Heres the ICCFA conference website.

Animated movies designed for children can also address the grief of adults. This presentation incorporates clips from popular cartoon films that illustrate and instruct about mourning losses. Youll learn ways to effectively use animated film clips in aftercare programs and to build up funeral home community relations. This session also provides a framework for understanding grief and coping strategies gleaned from thanatology, the study of death, dying and bereavement.

ADEC Presentation April 27

The following week, Gail will present a non-death-loss variation of Lessons on Grief and Mourning in Cartoons at the annual convention of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) in Pittsburgh, PA. This breakout session will take place on Friday, April 27 at 1:00 p.m. Heres the ADEC conference website.

Gail Rubin is a Certified Thanatologist (a death educator), a credential awarded by the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC). As the Doyenne of Death, she uses her writing and speaking skills to encourage the general public to plan ahead on end-of-life issues. She is the award-winning author of A GOOD GOODBYE: Funeral Planning for Those Who Dont Plan to Die,Hail and Farewell: Cremation Ceremonies, Templates and Tips, and Kicking the Bucket List: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die.

She pioneered the Death Cafe movement in the United States and is the event coordinator for the inaugural Before I Die Albuquerque festival. She is a member of the ICCFA, ADEC, the National Speakers Association New Mexico Chapter and Toastmasters International. Download a free planning form and 50-point Executors Checklist from her website, www.AGoodGoodbye.com.

Share this:In February, the Social Security Administrations inspector general wrote a report admitting that widows and widowers havent received as much money as they should from the federal program.

The inspector generals office estimated that 9,224 folks older than 70 were underpaid by $131.8 million, according to a random sample of 50 beneficiaries. Ongoing underpayments, the report said, may affect 1,899 more people over age 70 annually, to the tune of an estimated $9.8 million each year.

The reason for the underpayment is a bit complicated, so I asked Bill Meyer, CEO of Social Security Solutions in Leawood, Kansas, to walk me through it.

This is the kind of big financial decision thing that nobody younger than 60 generally knows anything about but that everyone 60 years and older suddenly needs to (and does) get obsessed with.

To understand the specific issue, you have to know three initial facts about Social Security. First, delaying the year you begin taking benefits increases your monthly Social Security payout. Second, husbands and wives generally are eligible to claim monthly spousal benefits as a fraction of the primary breadwinners payment.

Widows can also do this and, in fact, can begin receiving their payments earlier than other retirees  at 60 instead of 62. Third, you can claim your own Social Security benefit, or you can claim your spousal benefit, but never both.

Taking spousal benefits can come at a cost, especially if the deceased spouse was older and eligible for full benefits before the surviving widow.

Lets say a beloved husband dies, leaving behind his 60-year-old wife. The dearly departed was 66 and eligible for the full monthly benefit payment of $2,000. The widows lifetime earnings were significantly lower, making her eligible for $1,100 when she turns 66 in six years.

The widow has two options, neither of which is great considering shes losing her husbands income. She can either claim her spouses benefit six years early at 71.5 percent of $2,000 a month, or $1,430, for life. Or she can work another two years and retire at 62 with 75 percent of her full benefit at $825 a month and then switch over to her husbands full benefit of $2,000 a month when she turns 66.

Which is better?

Ill admit this all sounds quite a bit abstract without a spreadsheet to look at alongside the words, so lets be very concrete: The second strategy will make the widow $100,800 richer if she lives to age 89, when compared to the first strategy.

But knowing about the different options  and the long-term effect of one option versus the other  is the big problem here.

Embedded in Meyers recommendation is the idea of longevity. Specifically, the widows optimal strategy assumes she lives a pretty long time after her spouse dies. Were she to die as early as age 74, the two options break even. The longer she lives, the more it would be to her benefit to have chosen strategy two.

As Meyer points out, Social Security employees are supposed to provide information and scenario analysis, but they cannot generally make specific strategic recommendations.

The report notes that Social Security employees, in most cases, didnt point out the clear advantages of certain strategies to widows and widowers. In fact, fully 82 percent of the beneficiaries in the sample examined had done the wrong thing when it came to maximizing their benefits. Hopefully the inspector generals findings will spur changes in the way Social Security employees address this issue.

Vulnerable people were left significantly poorer simply because they didnt know or understand how to optimize their potential benefits.

For many of us, Social Security payments represent the biggest financial stability of our lives. You dont want to get this wrong in retirement years. The stakes are just too high. Dont assume Social Security employees will alert you to your optimum strategy. You have to self-educate and self-advocate. You may not ever be (I hope) a widow or widower, but there are myriad little things to know about how to maximize your Social Security benefits.

Some of this depends on making an educated guess about how long you can live, what your specific tax situation will be throughout your retirement years, and whether delaying payment will be to your advantage.

Social Security officials cant necessarily determine your specific scenario for you, and therefore their advice tends to be generic to the larger population, rather than specific to you.

It seems like a situation in which paying someone a bit of money to calculate your best strategy could be worth a lot of money in the long run.WASHINGTON - Russia and its nuclear power company, Rosatom, have inked deals this year to develop nuclear plants in Bangladesh, Argentina, Congo and Mongolia. China is working on projects in the United Kingdom and Pakistan. South Korea, Japan and France also are seeking to export nuclear power technology to developing nations hungry for energy.

The increasing activity around nuclear energy is adding to the pressure on the Trump administration and Energy Secretary Rick Perry as they try to revive a U.S. nuclear industry that has not built reactors with any regularity in decades and pursue their policy of American energy dominance. With demand for nuclear power rising in the developing world, U.S. rivals are competing for contracts that are not only expected to generate large returns, but also offer the chance to control what is expected to be a major source of energy as the global economy grows and governments clamp down on carbon emissions.

All eyes are now on Saudi Arabia, which is expected to spend more than $80 billion on 16 nuclear power plants over the next 25 years, part of a larger effort to diversify the kingdoms oil-dependent economy. When the Saudis last summer announced plans to begin construction on the first two plants, they sought bids from companies in South Korea, China, France, Russia and Japan  but excluded the United States.

That prompted intervention from Perry and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who managed to get the U.S. manufacturer Westinghouse into the mix. Earlier this month, Perry scrapped a trip to India so he could travel to London to meet with the Saudis and discuss the terms of a non-proliferation agreement required for countries using U.S. nuclear technology. On Tuesday, Perry met with President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House.

The civil nuclear business has been left by the wayside, Perry said in a Senate hearing Tuesday. Weve tried to reinvest in [nuclear energy] and say, we need to lead the world in this technology.

While nuclear energy has fallen out of favor in the United States, the country remains the worlds largest nuclear power producer, accounting for 30 percent of electricity generated by nuclear reactors around the world. By exporting nuclear technology, policy makers believe, the Trump administration would not only revive the moribund U.S. industry, which has built only one new reactor in past 20 years, but also provide the nation with a geopolitical advantage.

U.S. nuclear technology means an American presence on the ground, experts say, a presence that gives the U.S. government leverage over the countries that buy the technology and need U.S. consultants to operate their nuclear reactors.

The leading competitor to the United States is Russia, which has an experienced nuclear sector developed during the heyday of the former Soviet Union. In exchange for signing with Rosatom, countries can get Russian engineers and low-interest loans backed by the Russian government, said Ian Williams, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Theyre making a lot of inroads into a lot of developing countries, he said. Those contracts gives Russia huge influence in those countries, and like weve seen before, they like to use energy diplomacy.

China, meanwhile, is working on developing nuclear reactor technology through deals with foreign firms, including Westinghouse, the biggest U.S. maker of nuclear power plants and components. Analysts say Chinas effort to build nuclear power plants abroad is part of the governments One Belt, One Road, strategy, through which developing countries build infrastructure with Chinese contractors and Chinese financing, giving China increasing influence across Asia and Africa.

Competing with Russia and China would mean reviving a U.S. nuclear power industry that remains a shell of what it was in the 1970s. Following a partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in 1979, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not approve the construction of another reactor until 2012. And with the flood of cheap natural gas and vastly improved wind and solar energy technology, the outlook here for building massive 2,500 megawatt nuclear plants, which can now cost more than $20 billion to build, is bleak.

Westinghouse declared bankruptcy last year after construction on plants in Georgia and South Carolina went wildly over budget. Construction on the South Carolina plant was shut down by the state-owned public utility last year. But the Trump administration remains bullish on nuclear power, extending the terms of a federal loans to keep the Georgia project going and helping preserve a tax break for the development of next generation nuclear technology.

Trump is eager to make the United States a leader in a business that is expected to grow quickly in the decades ahead, as countries like China and India try to clean up air pollution by shifting away from coal and climate change regulation spreads around the globe, analysts said. In the United States, the focus is turning to smaller, mass-produced reactors that can be assembled on site and theoretically allow nuclear power plants to get built more quickly and cheaply than traditional projects.

Nuscale Power, whose largest investor is the Texas industrial giant Fluor, is testing a 50-megawatt reactor that is only 15-feet in diameter and requires no outside water or power supply, theoretically making it able to avoid meltdowns such as the one experienced by the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan following a tsunami in 2011. While the company hopes to one day build in the United States, it is focused on winning work in Saudi Arabia and other countries, where interest in a new generation of nuclear plants is growing.

Are we just going to cede internationally to China and Russia? said NuScale CEO John Hopkins. These modular plants are cheaper and theyre hopefully going to be a lot easier to build. If we can get there, no one else can offer that.

NuScale has submitted its design for review by the NRC, and is expected to receive a decision by late 2020, said Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the agency . The basic concepts make sense, he said,  but we as a regulator have to make sure.

But in seeking to expand U.S. nuclear technology abroad - something the Obama administration and former energy secretary Ernest Moniz also pushed - Trump and Perry are coming up against a mindset shaped during the Cold War. The concern remains that countries with nuclear power plants might want to one day use that radioactive material to make nuclear weapons, as Iran was believed to be attempting.

Perry is under pressure to get the Saudis to agree not to process their own nuclear fuel, but buy it from abroad, making it much harder to move from generating power to producing weapons.

But the Saudis, who see their rival Iran processing fuel for Iranian nuclear plants, have expressed little interest in such an agreement. As a result, said Williams of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Saudis might be willing to do business with Russia or China if they could pursue their own nuclear fuel program.

They have demonstrated a willingness to break with the U.S., Williams said of the Saudis. Theyre buying Russian air defense systems. That came out of nowhere.2 1 of 2 Edward A. Ornelas / San Antonio Express-News Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Edward A. Ornelas, Staff / San Antonio Express-News Show More Show Less



A 4-year-old boy in Converse was killed following an attack by his familys pet dog Sunday afternoon, officials said.

A Bexar County Sheriffs Office statement said the boy, identified later as Noah Trevino by the Bexar County Medical Examiner, was airlifted to an area hospital in serious life-threatening condition after being found with his neck in the jaws of the large, mixed-breed dog. The incident occurred in the backyard of Trevinos home on the 8900 block of Twincreek Farm.Significant statistics is a weekly series highlighting the numbers that make up San Antonio and South Texas.

287: District Attorney Nico LaHood lost support from 2014 to 2018 in 287 of the 353 Bexar County precincts where at least 50 people voted in the DA primary, according to an Express-News analysis of voting data. A combination of grassroots and social media mobilization and donations from billionaire George Soros' Texas Justice & Public Safety political action committee helped propel LaHood's rival Joe Gonzales to victory in this year's democratic primary.

11.6: The diabetic amputation rate in Bexar County in 2015 was 11.6 per 10,000 people, while the overall state rate was 8.9, according to hospital discharge data. Health experts are grappling with the issues that lead to loss of limbs for diabetics, especially in Bexar County where 1,500 residents each year have diabetes-related amputations.

12,000: Roughly 12,000 Texas children are in long-term foster care, according to a filing the state wrote to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Of them, 1,300 will age out of foster care each year without a permanent home. A new class-action lawsuit against the state that alleges abuse, too many moves and a lack of caseworker contact in foster care aims to reform the foster care system amid the execution of a plan to privatize foster care in certain parts of the state, including Bexar County.

$600,000: Aggressive fundraising has been underway at the San Antonio Symphony to cover its budget for the current season. The symphony is less than $600,000 from its goal and has already raised well over $6 million. The symphony, plagued by financial problems, briefly scrapped its season in January after a plan for the newly formed nonprofit Symphonic Music for San Antonio to take over collapsed.

For more statistics from the greater San Antonio area, visit S.A. Stats.

amillerbernd@express-news.net | @annieanywayWASHINGTON  Porn actress Stormy Daniels said she had sex with Donald Trump in 2006, recanting a statement denying the affair that Trumps personal lawyer issued under her name in January.

Daniels, in an interview with CBS 60 Minutes, said she signed the denial, after the Wall Street Journal reported shed been paid $130,000 a month before the 2016 election to remain silent, because she believed that Trumps lawyer, Michael Cohen, would make her life hell in many different ways.

She said she and her daughter were physically threatened by an unidentified man in Las Vegas in 2011 if she revealed the affair. Earlier that year, Cohen threatened to sue In Touch magazine if it published an interview with Daniels in which she detailed the relationship, according to 60 Minutes.

I was concerned for my family and their safety, she said.

Cohen and the White House declined to comment for the 60 Minutes broadcast.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, declined to answer questions about whether she had any text messages or videos documenting the relationship.

Daniels said she signed a nondisclosure agreement drawn up by Cohen in 2016 in part because she was afraid of physical harm, citing the 2011 threat.

A guy walked up on me and said to me, Leave Trump alone. Forget the story, she said. And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, Thats a beautiful little girl. Itd be a shame if something happened to her mom. And then he was gone.

In Touch published its 2011 interview with Daniels in January, including details of the alleged affair with Trump, after the Wall Street Journal revealed the $130,000 payment. Trump has denied the affair through his lawyers. The White House has declined to answer most questions about the alleged affair.

Cohen has said he paid Daniels out of his own pocket and wasnt reimbursed by the Trump Organization, the presidents company, or by his campaign. He has not said whether the president personally reimbursed him.

Daniels sued in California state court to be released from the nondisclosure agreement, in part because she says Trump never signed it. Cohen and the presidents lawyers have threatened to claim as much as $20 million in damages from Daniels for violating the agreement and have sought to have the suit moved to federal court.

Daniels has offered to return the $130,000, and the advocacy group Common Cause has sued Cohen and the president, claiming that the payment violated campaign finance law.

Daniels said that she met Trump in 2006 and agreed to have dinner in his hotel room, where the two later had sex.

In a separate interview last week on CNN, Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, said she had a 10-month affair with Trump that also began in 2006, the year Trumps wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron. McDougal said she was in love with Trump but broke off the relationship after feeling guilty because he was married.HARTFORD  Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen threw his support behind Democrat Ned Lamont for the states next governor Monday.

Ive known Ned for decades now, said Jepsen speaking to press at the Capitol. He is a man of integrity. Hes intelligent. He brings both public service and private sector experience to the table.

2018 marks Greenwich businessman Lamonts second run for governor. He fell to Governor fell to Dannel P. Malloy in the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

If elected, Lamont said Monday first on his list will be passing an honestly balanced budget where we stop borrowing from our future - that means education, that means transportation, that means a governor who gives people a sense of where this state is going over the next five years.

Jepsen, who rarely seeks a press spotlight, said he will campaign for Lamont and hopes other Democrats will as well. In a crowded field of candidates, he emphasized Lamonts preparedness as the primary reason for his endorsement.

I know Ned is ready to step up and make the decisions that need to made in this state even at the risk of sacrificing his own future political career, he said.

In 2006, Lamont defeated incumbent Joe Lieberman for the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat. Lieberman later beat him in the general election.

Self-financing his campaign, Lamont is chairman of media company Lamont Digital Systems and founded Campus Televideo, which sells video services to colleges.STAMFORD  After a weekend during which high school students across the country demonstrated against gun violence, state Rep. Caroline Simmons, D-Stamford, joined eighth-graders at Turn of River Middle School on Monday to get their thoughts on the subject.

Simmons sought student opinions on gun legislation, school safety and mental health as part of a Socratic Seminar, where students read articles on an issue and discuss both sides.

Students shared their thoughts, but also presented evidence to back their opinions. One student cited the success of gun restrictions in Australia to give weight to his stance of tightening local laws. Another rattled off the names of shooters who had been previously flagged to illustrate the need for closing loopholes in background checks. And there was one who peppered Simmons with questions about specific bills and cited a 2008 study by Congress to back his points on what he thinks gun legislation should be.

Im so inspired by the students and how thoughtful they are and how courageous they are, Simmons said. They brought forward a lot of creative ideas. I truly believe this generation will be able to end gun violence.

Simmons wanted to know what they thought could be done to decrease gun violence and improve school safety. Students suggested more lockdown drills and a larger security team. They also discussed the importance of safety versus comfort when it came to the idea of having more cameras for surveillance around the school.

The students generally agreed a total ban was not the way to reduce gun violence, but had a number of suggestions about legislation so guns dont fall into the wrong hands. They also discussed factors that contribute to someone committing a shooting.

The parents should let (kids) know the difference between reality and video games, Max Galarza said when asked if video games might contribute to gun violence. It should be the parents responsibility.

The students in the class are part of the AVID program  which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination  and is aimed at preparing first-generation college-bound students for higher learning. According to Bryan Avroch, who teaches the program, these Socratic Seminars are held four to five times a year to prepare students for similar discussions in college.

Avroch said leading up to the discussion, he assigns readings presenting both sides of an issue and encourages students to be open to all viewpoints.

I dont want them pigeonholed, he said. We are all very open-minded about this. Were not on one side or the other, which is awesome.

Avroch said in past seminars (which dont normally include guests like Simmons) students have discussed single-gender education, a junk-food tax and school uniforms. But this issue drew, perhaps, the most lively responses.

They did a great job, he said. They really brought in good evidence. With this topic, its more in their lives.by Kevin Fasulo | Sun, Mar 25th 11:02pm EDT

Isaiah Taylor logged 26 points, three assists, a rebound, three three-pointers and a steal during the 118-99 loss to the Rockets Sunday in Houston. Taylor connected on 10-of-17 shots from the field, 3-of-6 on three-pointers and 3-of-4 from the foul line.by Ryan Patti | Celtics Correspondent | Mon, Mar 26th 12:25am EDT

Josh Richardson mustered up 10 points on 4-for-9 shooting (0-for-2 from deep, 2-for-2 at the line), three boards, two assists and two steals in 40 minutes in Miami's 113-107 defeat versus Indiana.WOOSTER, Ohio  Low milk prices were definitely on the minds of dairy producers who gathered for the annual Wayne-Ashland Dairy Service Unit banquet March 22 at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.

Prices have been in a slump for the last three years, and the average all-milk price for 2018 is expected to be $15.75-$16.35, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Dianne Shoemaker, dairy production specialist with Ohio State University Extension, said dairy farmers, at current prices, are basically paying for the privilege of milking cows.

On the upside, the most efficient herds are still profitable, and producers who keep track of their numbers during this downturn will be the most likely to succeed as conditions improve.

Tracking production

Shoemaker helps oversee a program called the Farm Business Analysis Program, which helps producers track their cost of production, and net returns. Although people often speculate that the larger dairies are making more money, Shoemaker said the top 20 percent of producers in the study had herd sizes that ranged from 47 cows to 1,200 cows.

There is an opportunity to be successful in a wide range of herd sizes, she said.

Success is what dairy farmers want  and need  as they face one of the worst price slumps in anyones memory.

To me, this looks like one of the worst periods weve had in the 30 years that Ive worked with Extension, said Shoemaker.

Tom Wolf, whose family milks Ayrshires near Shreve, said he wasnt sure if this is the worst or not, but its definitely bad.

Its tough and its tougher for the younger person who is just starting, he said. The only good thing about it, is the price of grain is low, so it helps feed-wise to feed these cows that probably arent generating the income that youd like them to generate.

Emotional health

Tom Stocksdale, an ag lender with Farmers National Bank, said farmers are feeling down, but its good for them to spend an evening in support of each other, like they did at the banquet. He reminded farmers to look out for each other and to get help if someone is suffering mentally or emotionally.

In times like these, you can get easily depressed, so watch your neighbors, he said.

On the positive side, dairy farmers recognized another great year of production and youth involvement.

In his report on the Dairy Herd Improvement Cooperative, the organization which tests and records dairy production data, General Manager Brian Winters said last year DHI provided services to about 135,000 cows per month, and had a good year with pregnancy testing, averaging about 5,500 tests per month.

Most of the growth in pregnancy testing was actually in sheep and goats, he said, and the DHI also pregnancy tests beef cattle.

Winters said he also managed the Southeast DHI over the last year, which covers Florida and Georgia, and includes about 95 dairy herds and 75,000 dairy cows. He said the boards for the local DHI and the Southeast DHI are in discussion, over whether to continue a management contract, or whether the two organizations should merge.

State winners

Winters congratulated the Ayers family, of Ashland County, for finishing in the top 10 percent in the state for milk production, with 32,968 pounds of milk and 963 pounds of fat.

Paul Keener and his family, also of Ashland County, produced 31,683 pounds of milk, 1,247 pounds of fat, and 1,013 pounds of protein.

In Wayne County, Raygor Farms placed in the top 5 percent for protein, with 893 pounds of protein.

Ro-La-Sue Dairy, placed in the top 5 percent of milk production, at 24,443 pounds, with Brown Swiss.

And Farriss Dairy Farms placed in the top 5 percent of milk production with Holsteins, at 29,331 pounds.

In the two-county combined awards, Aaron Steiner recorded a low somatic cell count of 61,000, with his Jersey herd. And Brad Carter and Trent Neuenschwander recorded a somatic cell count of just 74,000, with their Holstein herd.

The combined high energy-corrected milk award went to Paul Keener, whose Holstein herd produced 34,256 pounds of energy-corrected milk.

The combined county most-improved energy-corrected milk went to Harmony Farms, whose Jersey herd improved by 2,384 pounds ECM.

Youth awards

Instead of naming a dairy princess, the group decided to open the contest to male participants and name two dairy ambassadors. The recipients were Ethan Stoll, 16, the son of Ralph and Lisa Stoll, of Marshallville; and Myla Walton, 9, the daughter of Richard and Sherry Bloomfield.

Outstanding youth recipients were David Miley and Sara Wolf, a member of 4-H and FFA, and dairy judging teams. Both received $250.

Scholarships were received by David Miley (1,000), Abby Schellin ($750), and Maryellen Bliss ($750).

The Herd Management Award went to the Winkler family and their farm located in Sterling. The farm is run by Jim and Joan Winkler, their sons Jeff and Jerrod, and daughter-in-law, Rebecca Winkler. They milk 368 Holsteins three times a day, with a rolling herd average of 27,657 pounds of milk, 1,087 pounds of fat, and 825 pounds of protein. Their farm will be the site of this years Twilight Dairy Tour in July.

County awards:

Ashland County:

 Harpster Enterprises led the way in energy-corrected milk, herds milked twice daily, with 35,490 pounds of ECM from a Holstein. They also led the county in protein, at 1,026 pounds, and fat, at 1,461 pounds.

 Paul Keener led in energy-corrected milk for herds milked three times daily, at 47,869 pounds with Holstein, and he led in fat, with 1,885 pounds. His Brown Swiss also had the high ECM, high protein and high fat.

 Ayers Farm was the protein leader for herds milked three times, Holstein, at 1,527 pounds.

 Low somatic cell count awards went to Matthew Zimmerman, who achieved a SCC of 98,000 on his 106-head Holstein herd; and Ayers Farm, whose 702 cows achieved a SCC of 110,000.

Wayne County:

 The top two Wayne County herds by SCC were Aaron Steiner, an 85-head Jersey herd with a SCC of 61,000; and Brad Carter and Trent Neuenschwander, a 115-head Holstein herd with a SCC of 74,000.

 The top Ayrshire herd for ECM was Spring-Run Farms, with an ECM of 18,640; top Brown Swiss was Gary Dotterer, ECM of 26,924; top Holstein two-times herd went to OSU-ATI, ECM of 28,996; top Holstein (3x) herd went to Ben-Alli Holsteins & Jerseys, ECM of 29,868; top Jersey went to Cantendo Acres-Grazeland, ECM of 23,848; and top mixed breed ECM went to Pine Tree Dairy Farm, ECM of 30,864.

 The top two ECM cows was a Holstein by Pine Tree Dairy Farm, at 48,907 ECM; and a cow by Harmony Farms, at 38,842 ECM.DAMASCUS, Ohio  In an industry with little good news right now, milk producers in Columbiana and Mahoning counties gathered March 23 to recognize the two counties top dairymen.

Eight farms rank among Ohios top herds on DHI test, earning DHI Elite awards for the top 5 percent of milk component production.

State leaders

Smith Vale Farm, ranked as the No. 4 Holstein herd in Ohio (energy corrected milk), earned Elite awards in all three components and was the top milk and protein herd in the two counties. The 135-head Smith herd averaged 32,232 pounds milk; 1,187 pounds fat; 992 pounds protein (33,496 ECM).

Cold Run Jerseys, David and Jim Herron, is the top Jersey herd in Ohio and led the two counties in butterfat production. The 249-head herd earned Elite awards in all components, and averaged 23,275 pounds milk; 1,285 pounds fat; and 880 pounds protein, for energy corrected milk production of 30,980 pounds.

Other Elite herds

Other local dairy farms earning DHI Elite production awards were:

Lowmiller Farms , which is ranked eighth in the states Holstein herds, 31,436 pounds milk; 1,172 pounds fat; 961 pounds protein;

, which is ranked eighth in the states Holstein herds, 31,436 pounds milk; 1,172 pounds fat; 961 pounds protein; Nature View Farms , Jay Herron, is ranked third in the states Jersey herd production, with herd averages of 21,438 pounds milk; 1,041 pounds fat and 801 pounds protein;

, Jay Herron, is ranked third in the states Jersey herd production, with herd averages of 21,438 pounds milk; 1,041 pounds fat and 801 pounds protein; Doug and Marty Dye , 30,138 pounds milk; 1,139 pounds fat and 902 pounds protein;

, 30,138 pounds milk; 1,139 pounds fat and 902 pounds protein; Showalter Farms , 29,434 pounds milk;

, 29,434 pounds milk; Leslie Farm , 1,194 pounds fat; and

, 1,194 pounds fat; and Herron Jersey Farm, 738 pounds protein. The farm, operated by Tim Herron, also received the two counties most improved herd award.

The Dyes also received the top quality herd award for a somatic cell count of 88,000.

Individual cow awards

In the Holstein breed, a cow owned by Whiteleather Farms produced 47,389 pounds ECM, which topped all cows in Ohio for milk production in 2017. In the Mixed herds, a cow at Martig Farms produced 38,791 pounds ECM, which was the third-highest production in the state last year.

A Jersey from the Cold Run herd produced 47,639 pounds ECM, and Leslie Farm had the top Milking Shorthorn, with ECM production of 20,440 pounds.

Bill Kornbau received two individual cow production awards. One of his Ayrshires produced 24,040 pounds energy corrected milk and one of his Brown Swiss produced 22,571 pounds ECM.

Randy Mattevi received the Guernsey top individual production award for a cow producing 21,368 pounds ECM.

Big data

Elton Lowmiller updated members on news from the state DHI Cooperative and the National Dairy Herd Information Association. The state co-op provides Dairy Herd Improvement herd testing and lab services, and also provides management for Southeast DHIA, that serves farmers in Florida and Georgia.

At the National DHIA annual meeting, March 6-8, in San Antonio, Texas, Lowmiller reported, delegates passed a resolution regarding data access and use.

The National DHIA delegate base felt it was important to reaffirm the data flow and access to the National Cooperator Database at the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding, but dairy herds want to know where and how data access and use are occurring.

The cooperator database will be asked to provide documentation on data access and use of DHI system data provided voluntarily by dairy herds.

Lowmiller said individual farms can opt out of any data access/use.

Scholarships

The Columbiana-Mahoning DHI board presented $500 scholarships to Jarod Herron and Kylie McLean and is currently accepting applications for the next round of scholarships.

In a board election, Steve Crist and Crist Martig were each re-elected to serve another term. Jim Herron serves as the current board president; Miranda Simon, vice president; Bret Lowmiller, secretary; and Steve Crist, treasurer.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.A pesticide that has been banned for more than ten years has been blamed for the death of a farm dog in the Scottish Highlands.

Traces of Aldicarb, a "highly toxic" substance according to the University of Hertfordshire, were discovered at the farm following a police search after the dog died earlier this month.

Just over a week ago, police urged the public to avoid farmland near Muir of Ord in the Highlands after the death of the dog thought to be caused by the banned pesticide.

Traces of the pesticide were detected in the vicinity of Faebait Farm, according to Police Scotland.

The police said it is not possible to establish if the pesticide was left in "a deliberate act".

Insp Mike Middlehurst said: "Due to the time since the original report the substance will now have degraded substantially into the soil, particularly given the recent weather conditions we have had.

"We are awaiting some tests back from our colleagues at Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture.

"I would still advise dog walkers to ensure that pets are kept on a short lead and under close control when walking in the area."

He added: "Any person who comes across any items that cause them concern should contact the police immediately - do not touch the items."

The University of Hertfordshire's Pesticide Properties DataBase states: "Aldicarb is an insecticide that is not approved for use in the EU. It is highly soluble and volatile.

"It is not persistent in soil but may be in in aqueous sustems. It is highly toxic to humans but has a low potential to bioaccumulate.

"It is a known endocrine disrupter, a neurotoxin and an inhibitor of acetyl cholinesterase. Aldicarb is highly toxic to birds and honeybees, and moderately toxic to most aquatic organisms and earthworms."A study to look at the feasibility of introducing DNA traceability as an additional measure to guarantee the authenticity of Scotch Beef PGI is being commissioned.

The study, by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), follows a period of engagement with different parts of the Scottish meat industry to gauge the level of industry support for the potential introduction of an official programme of DNA traceability system.

It is hoped the introduction of a DNA monitoring program would further strengthen the checks already in place to underpin the integrity of the Scotch Beef PGI brand.

The feasibility study, which is currently tendered, will consider the potential benefits that the introduction of a beef DNA traceability system could have on the Scotch Beef PGI brand.

It will also consider how a DNA traceability system could be implemented, including when and where the samples would be taken.

Scotch Beef was one of the first meat brands to benefit from the coveted European Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status, which is valued by customers all over the world.

Quality Meat Scotland has worked hard, alongside the Scottish red meat industry, to develop the Scotch Beef PGI brand which is now recognised throughout the world as an icon of quality, said Jim McLaren, Chairman of QMS.

Our marketing and communications activities over many years have ensured the Scotch Beef PGI brand is one of the most recognised of all food brands in Scotland and importantly our market research shows that there is now a high level of understanding from consumers of what the brand stands for.

Crucially, our industrys brand is underpinned by a world-leading, whole-of-life, whole-chain quality assurance programme  from farm to processor. Our beef producers in Scotland benefit from a price premium for their beef and it is vital this valuable reward for the work they do to deliver a quality product, is not undermined.A leading conservation charity has said the European Union is in a "state of denial" over the decline of farmland wildlife, such as birds.

BirdLife Europe, a charity dedicated to the conservation of birds, told The Guardian that EU ministers want to "keep subsidies flowing" and that it is "business as usual", despite evidence showing the decline of farmland birds.

It follows the release of a new report that shows bird populations across the French countryside falling by a third over the last decade and a half.

Researchers say the "number one problem" is the declining number of insects exacerbated by increasing pesticide use. The insects are a vital food source for many species of birds.

Birdlife Europe said it blames the "powerful farm lobby" for the EU's "state of denial" over the decline. It says the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) favours big farming which in turn causes environmental decline.

The UK government has also blamed the CAP for its "environmentally damaging and socially unjust" policies.

Farm subsidies take up 38% of the EU budget, and 80% of the subsidies go to just 20% of farmers, who tend to invest the money to make their farm bigger and more intensive.

'Inefficient'

Defra Secretary Michael Gove has previously said Brexit will mean the UK will leave the "inefficient" CAP, and instead emphasise environmentally-friendly farming practices.

Earlier this year, Mr Gove told the Oxford Farming Conference that the current subsidy system is "fundamentally flawed".

He said: "Paying landowners for the amount of agricultural land they have is unjust, inefficient and drives perverse outcomes. It gives the most from the public purse to those who have the most private wealth."

Mr Gove added that CAP perversely rewards farmers for sticking to methods of production that are resource-inefficient.

The Defra Secretary has pledged a 'green Brexit', where British farmers will be rewarded for planting wildlife habitats, woods, wildflower meadows and other environmental benefits.One of the Lake Districts most iconic farms is up for let for the first time in nearly 60 years.

The National Trusts High Tilberthwaite Farm is a traditional fell farm located north of Coniston at the head of the Tilberthwaite valley.

The farm consists of 575 hectares (1420 acres) of predominately fell land, a landlords flock of 479 Herdwick sheep, a Grade II listed farmhouse and a holiday cottage business.

The National Trust said it is a "great opportunity" for farmers who are passionate about both the heritage of upland farming in the Lake District, as well as helping a diverse range of natural habitats to flourish.

John Moffat, General Manager for the National Trust in the South Lakes said the current tenants leave behind them a "fine legacy" for the next generation of farmer.

This is the end of an era as our current tenants, whose family have farmed at High Tilberthwaite for over half a century, have decided to move on this autumn, Mr Moffat said.

"We want to find a new tenant who is as passionate as we are about exploring nature friendly farming measures" (Photo: National Trust)

We want to find a new tenant who is as passionate as we are about exploring nature friendly farming measures and conserving the heritage of the Herdwick breed, which is a huge part of the Lake Districts upland heritage.

'Inextricably linked'

The Trust's aim is to work in partnership with farmers in the Lake District to continue traditional fell farming techniques whilst finding ways to enhance natural habitats.

Jeremy Barlow, Assistant Director of Operations for the National Trust in the Lake District said: The future of farming and the environment are inextricably linked  they are reliant on each other to succeed. So, its not a case of supporting one at the expense of the other. We need both to thrive.

"We need the support of our farmers and want to help them in their businesses. Thats why we will work with them and explore how we make improvements together."

Herdwick sheep are an integral part of Lake District farm heritage. The National Trust has a landlords flock of over 21,000 mainly Herdwick sheep across the Lake District.

Will Cleasby, Farming Advisor for the National Trust in the Lake District said: "The current tenants at High Tilberthwaite have invested hugely in the development of the current Herdwick sheep flock.

"The National Trust is committed to the pivotal role of fell going, pure Herdwick sheep and their importance for World Heritage Status. It is our intention that the farm is maintained as a viable working unit and the Herdwick flock are integral to that."

Anyone interested in finding out more can log onto www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/farms-to-let or call 015394 35599.The National Sheep Association is launching a campaign next week to promote responsible dog ownership as cases of sheep worrying continue to rise at an alarming rate.

As sheep worrying cases continue to be publicised, the National Sheep Association (NSA) is asking dog owners, together with the farming community, to unite in spreading positive messages on enjoying the British countryside responsibly.

Thanks to an increasingly social media savvy population, horrific cases of sheep worrying by dogs continue to be well-documented online.

And with the potential to reach thousands, the NSA say it serves as a powerful tool in highlighting the damage attacks cause.

In March alone, two out-of-control dogs savaged twelve sheep on a Hertfordshire farm, one sheep died in Sussex due to severe bite injuries, two dogs attacked and seriously injured sheep, killing one newly-born lamb in Dorset, a dog attacked pregnant ewes in the Scottish Borders and a dog attacked and killed five sheep in Aberdeenshire.

Katie James, NSA Communications Support Officer, say sheep worrying by dogs is a "very serious problem" for farmers "which isnt going away."

Ms James said: The NSA continues to hear of a frustratingly high number of dog attacks on livestock.

We do not want to discourage dog owners from enjoying the beautiful landscapes in Britain, only to do so responsibly and consider the impact an attack can have on farmers business and livelihood as well as animal welfare.

Targeted campaign

With the clocks going forward marking the official start of British summertime, Sunday 25th March will mark the start of NSAs week-long, targeted campaign.

By spreading graphics, case studies and statistics, NSA is aiming to unite messages on promoting responsible dog ownership across Facebook and Twitter.

Ms James continues: With the long-awaited arrival of spring, farmers can see an increase in walkers on footpaths through and around fields.

And at a time when ewes are heavily pregnant or have young lambs at foot, the risk of dogs chasing livestock can also increase the risk of serious problems like ewes aborting or lambs becoming separated from their mothers.

With the power of social media, we are hoping this campaign can go some way to raise awareness of the problem and ultimately help to reduce the amount of sheep worrying cases we hear about at the NSA.Spanish people remain the strongest overseas buying force at UK second-hand machinery auctions, with one buyer purchasing 22 tractors in excess of 500,000.

Auctioneer Cheffins has released their Q1 review for the second-hand machinery trade this year, which is a combination of its on-site sales and those at the Cambridge sale ground.

Sales of second-hand machinery have topped 9.9 million at Cheffins Cambridge Machinery Sales and on-farm auctions in Q1 2018 as favourable exchange rates continue to draw overseas buyers and UK farmers look to cut costs.

Around 80 per cent of stock sold at the Cambridge Machinery Sales is destined to overseas, with buyers from around 30 different countries competing for the best kit.

The Spanish remain the strongest overseas buying force as their demand for tractors, particularly John Deeres, is tantamount to insatiable.

For example, in a recent auction one Spanish buyer purchased 22 tractors spending in excess of 500,000.

Closer to home, with a stronger dairy sector in Ireland than in England, the demand and prices paid for circa 100 horsepower tractors has increased as trade improves.

As prices for new machinery continues to rise and the future of UK farming remains uncertain, Cheffins have also seen growth in domestic purchasers turning to second-hand options as a cheaper and more viable alternative since the Brexit vote in June 2016.Benefits and pitfalls of clover overseeding examined on farm

'If it's not 20% clover, its not doing the job'Subhash Shinde, Sridevis make-up artist revealed a few details about the late actress. Sridevi passed away in Dubai on Saturday night after suffering from a cardiac arrest. The actress was in Dubai to attend the wedding of actor abd her nephew Mohit Marwah. A lesser-known fact about Sridevi is that she was a beautiful paintter. Talking about that, Shinde said, She had a great sense of colours and shades. There is an art of combining shades that complement the entire attire. She knew it right, I rather learnt it from her. She had a strong sense of aesthetics.Shinde added that the superstar was a perfectionist when it came to looking good. He said, The colour, ornaments, even the size of her bindi, she had an eye for detailing. I remember during Puli, she was supposed to wear heavy make-up. She never threw any tantrums, was always patient and cooperative with us even though the process would be time-consuming. I wont say she was a perfectionist, but the fact is that she exemplifies excellence, that comes with perfection. So yes, perfection is the word to define it.Subhash did her make-up at the Dubai wedding as well, he was present there with the actress. He revealed, I still cannot believe she is no more. I was there in Dubai with her for her make-up at Mohit Marwahs (her nephew) marriage. She was looking so pretty, happy and bright as ever. I came back two days ago, and on Saturday late night, the news started coming in (about her death). I am still in shock.He said that she was one of the rarest stars who had would treat her crew like a family, She was one of the icons with so much warmth and positivity. I started working with her after English Vinglish released (2012). She always treated, all of us, whether make-up artists, dress people, everyone like a family. We were one unit.Well, Sridevi was always the epitome of grace and elegance and when the news of her sudden demise spread, almost everyone was left numb and gutted. It still doesnt sink in that Bollywood has lost its original Hawa Hawai.Saif & Kareena Got So Angry

A user revealed, ''I was a big fan, but this changed things. I was 12 years old at that time me and my family along with cousins had gone for a vacation, we were sitting on Bombay airport when my dad saw Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan. It was late night so there was no crowd at all. Me and my 3 cousins all aged between 11 to 14 at that time ran towards them to shake hands.''

The Shocking Behaviour Of Katrina Kaif

''As soon as we reached there I wanted to shake hands with Kareena and Saif so I said hi and before anything I got small push from my cousin and my leg fell on his leg a bit and he angrily pushed me back and looked at me raising his eyes and said how dare you. He than saw my dad was standing right behind me so without telling anything more he and Kareena looked at us angrily and left.''(sic)

An anonymous user writes, ''Well I haven't met. Heard from my friend who is a flight attendant. On a domestic flight a flight attendant tried waking her. She called out thrice however Madame refused to open her eyes.''

Kajol Was Rude

''Then she tapped on Ms. Kaif 's elbow. Whoa ! Ms. Kaif shouted at her saying how dare she could touch her. "Do you know how expensive this skin is ?" Later the cabin manager had to calm her down. The manager explained the protocol system they have to follow. But she wasn't in any mood to listen.'' (sic)

Debapratim Ghosh told, ''I was new in Mumbai, and my family and I were taken to visit FilmCity in Goregaon, where a number of outdoor shooting scenes would be based those days. I was very excited to see the film Ishq (1997) shooting scenes about to commence.''

But Juhi Did The Opposite

''And to my further happiness, I saw the leading ladies of the movie- Juhi Chawla and Kajol seated a little distance away, apparently waiting for their shot and being given touches of make-up now and then.''

''One of the onlookers picked up courage to go and ask for their autographs. The poor fellow received an earful from Kajol for having the audacity to approach her! Crestfallen, he turned to Juhi Chawla who gracefully gave her autograph. In a matter of two minutes, I had witnessed a well-behaved and a rude actress in Bollywood.'' (sic)

Shabana Azmi Ignored Us

Harsh Jain posted, ''I (a Grade 10 student) had gone to the Crafts Museum along with four of my classmates for a school project. As we were roaming in the museum, one of us saw her, Shabana Azmi, right in front of us with one other person. All four of us went to greet her. As soon as we started to say something, she turned around and outright ignored us.''

Neha Dhupia's Negative Vibes

''We tried once more but did not even get a nod of the head. And this was on a rainy day when not a lot of people were there and only a couple of them had actually recognised her. She could have at least acknowledged our presence.'' (sic)

A Quora user wrote, ''This one time I met Neha Dhupia at a program where she was the MC. She would present well, no doubt, but she'd constantly show her frustrations when anyone spoke to her. by the later end of the event, the whole audience felt her negative vibes, and the organizers started apologizing for her behavior, swearing never to have her back.'' (sic)

Hema Malini Shouted At A Kid

Shaz posted on Quora, ''How can I forget Hema Malini' .Few years back ,we went to some resort in Chennai .There we saw Hema Malini. My cousin who was a kid ran and asked her one dumb question innocently .Where is Sunny Deol? She shouted at him and said Get out'. Cmon he was just a kid.'' (sic)

Katrina Kaif Again

Another anonymous user wrote about an ordeal involving Katrina, '' Some weeks back, I was at an upmarket hotel in Los Angeles with my extended family. I & some of my cousins were hanging out at the pool and the hotel's gym was right next to it. Through the glass wall, we saw Katrina Kaif working out inside. My 10-year-old cousin is a huge fan of hers for all the mass-y, masala movies he watches.''

But Varun & Parineeti Were So Polite

''He was very excited to go & meet her but we didn't want to disturb her or be rude. So we asked him to wait till she was done to approach her. After a couple of minutes, she was done with her workout. She was sitting, having juice & chatting to another white girl [May be she was her sister, I'm not sure].''''We finally couldn't hold back our cousin any longer, so he grabbed his phone & ran to her. He told her he was a huge fan, told her she looked very pretty, & asked if he could get a selfie with her. Her reply? She looked at him with dead eyes said, "Umm... No. Then banged her juice glass on the table, turned back to the girl sitting next to her, mumbled something inaudible with a disgusted expression & they walked away.''

''Who talks to a child like that? She could have politely declined or at least thanked him for the compliment. But the tone & expression with which she talked to my cousin was of utter disdain. I could literally see heartbreak on my cousin's face after she did that to him. Apparently, Varun Dhawan and Parineeti Chopra acted like the perfect messiahs at this point and spent some time with the kid.'' (sic)Shraddha Is The New Addition?

As per a leading daily, Shraddha Kapoor will also be starring in this film. Now isn't that some great news for all her fans who have been eagerly waiting for her to share screen space with a Khan?

What's Cooking?

The speculation about Shraddha doing Bharat started doing the rounds after the actress was spotted at Salman Khan's brother-in-law Atul Agnihotri's residence. Atul is one of the producers of Salman Khan's Bharat.

On The Other Hand,

There were reports that Ali Abbas Zafar recently met Priyanka Chopra in New York to discuss the project. Well, if PeeCee gives her nod too, then we will get to see her reuniting with Salman on screen after a gap of 10 years. The duo had last starred together in 'God Tussi Great Ho'.

Salman Khan In A New Avatar

Director Ali Abbas Zafar had earlier shared with a leading tabloid, "Bharat is a beautiful story seen through the eyes of Salman's character. Since it spans seven decades, we decided to feature five extremely different looks. Each avatar will reflect the character's transition; reflect on his life and times. We start shooting in June but prep kicks off on February 6."

Bharat Is Something Different

The filmmaker refusing to divulge further details had said, " It (Bharat) is a very different film from Tiger and Sultan. We are trying to do something new with it. It's too early to talk about it."

The Film Is An Official Adaption Of Korean Film, 'An Ode To My Father'

Speaking about the same and casting Salman in the film, producer Atul Agnihotri had shared, "It's a character that I thought would resonate with him. It's a huge responsibility making a film with Salman as there are big expectations that come with the job. I'm very conscious about Salman's fan base and what they want. And once again, I'm convinced that being a family film it's worthy of coming during the festive time. And anyway, an Eid release is always every producer's preferred choice."

Salman Advised Ali Abbas Zafar To Make A Hindi Remake

Ali had revealed, "That film came to me from Salman himself. He gave me the film and said he really likes it and asked me to watch it. I saw it and really liked it.(But) You can't make the film exactly how it is in the original. The socio-political scenario affects your story and the character. But I liked the basic crux of the film. Salman said after Tiger...you do this."Suriya is one of the most loved actors of Kollywood cinema for umpteen number of reasons. Apart from his phenomenal ability as an actor, he has won the hearts of the audiences as well as his colleagues with his kind-hearted nature.

Now, Suriya has come out with a big decision, which is indeed praise-worthy. According to the reports, Suriya has said that he will pay his assistants from his own pocket. This is a big step forward from the actor, since the producers are the ones who usually pay this amount and with this step, the producers will have lesser financial burden on them.

Reportedly, Suriya announced this decision at a recent producer's council meet, which was held in Chennai. According to the reports, upon the decision made by Suriya, popular actor Karthi, who is Suriya's younger brother, has also decided to pay his assistants by himself.

Well, Suriya should definitely be appreciated for this big stand and the much loved actor of Tamil cinema has once again shown the right way forward for the industry.

Meanwhile, Suriya is busy with the works of his upcoming film with Selvaraghvan, which has been titled as NGK. The first look poster of the movie was released recently and it had opened to a grand reception on social media.Our very own Farmer of the Year Robert Neill defended farmings honour in a battle against Top Gears Matt Le Blanc and Chris Harris last night (Sunday 25 March).

After packing a raucous Chevrolet V8 into a tractor body to create the Track-tor, the BBC 2 motoring duo rocked up on a farm to show Scottish Borders farmer Robert that their machine was farmings future workhorse.

Out to prove that their 500hp super-tractor could save a heap of time and mean farmers didnt have to get up so early in the morning, Le Blanc and Harris challenged Robert to a duel with a difference.

See also: Video: Clarkson fails at rounding up sheep on Grand Tour

Ignoring Roberts point that farming is about precision over speed and power, the duo raced to beat him in a hedging battle like no other.

With Le Blanc at the helm and co-pilot Harris manning the McConnell Multisaw, their Lamborghini orange beast snorted and wheelied its way along the hedge while Robert put on a hedging masterclass.

Declaring that there was no chance the pair had won this round, Robert hooked up a 10-furrow plough to his New Holland T7 to give them second pasting in a one-acre ploughing match.

Branding Roberts kit cumbersome, Team Top Gear broke out their motorsport-inspired, ultra-lightweight three-blader.

What a mess

Having earlier set a new record for the worlds fastest tractor top speed at 81mph, Le Blanc deployed the Track-tors breakneck speed to get the job done.

Watch the clip below of the Track-tor hitting 81mph on the Top Gear test track.

Belting out the words to We Plough the Fields and Scatter as their puny plough bounced and swung around behind them, Le Blanc decreed that you can forgive a little free-spirited fieldwork when victory comes this easily.

Seething at the hash they had made, Robert rightly reused to hand over his Farmer of the Year title to a star-struck Le Blanc, tell him: If you were hired here you would now be fired for making such a mess.

Le Blanc, who apparently owns four tractors and is a self-proclaimed enthusiast of agricultural machinery, brands them the bane of British motoring, holding up traffic and stirring up road rage.

In true Top Gear style, he vows to bring about an agricultural revolution by building a tractor that isnt slow.

So, if you needed another great reason to enter the Farmers Weekly Awards this year, it could be your ticket to starring on national TV alongside Joey from Friends, just like Robert.

You can watch Roberts full appearance in episode 5, series 25 of Top Gear on the BBC iPlayer.The National Sheep Association (NSA) has marked the start of British summertime with a week-long, targeted campaign to raise awareness of sheep worrying.

As sheep worrying cases continue to be publicised at an alarming rate, the NSA is asking dog owners, together with the farming community, to unite in spreading positive messages on enjoying the British countryside responsibly.

Thanks to an increasingly social-media-savvy population, horrific cases of sheep worrying by dogs continue to be well documented online. And with the potential to reach thousands, they serve as a powerful tool in highlighting the damage attacks cause.

See also: The law on shooting dogs  critical facts farmers must know

Only last week, a man was arrested after 13 sheep were killed when two dogs got into a field in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire.

Dont forget the clocks spring forward tonight marking the start of British summertime. Will this mean an increase in dog walkers enjoying lighter evenings?

Be a responsible dog owner  keep your dog on a lead whenever near livestock#Responsibledogowner#Takethelead pic.twitter.com/kWvMrYpiVy  National Sheep Assoc (@natsheep) March 24, 2018

Katie James, NSA communications support officer, said: Sheep worrying by dogs is a very serious problem for farmers which isnt going away, and the NSA continues to hear of a frustratingly high number of dog attacks on livestock.

We do not want to discourage dog owners from enjoying the beautiful landscapes in Britain, only to do so responsibly and consider the impact an attack can have on farmers business and livelihood as well as animal welfare.

By spreading graphics, case studies and statistics, the NSA is aiming to unite messages on promoting responsible dog ownership across Facebook and Twitter.

Lambing risks from dogs

Ms James continued: With the long-awaited arrival of spring, farmers can see an increase in walkers on footpaths through and around fields.

And at a time when ewes are heavily pregnant or have young lambs at foot, the risk of dogs chasing livestock can also increase the risk of serious problems like ewes aborting or lambs becoming separated from their mothers.

With the power of social media, we are hoping this campaign can go some way to raise awareness of the problem and ultimately help to reduce the amount of sheep worrying cases we hear about at the NSA.

The NSA is urging farmers, dog walkers and other interested parties to look out for social media posts @natsheep on Facebook and Twitter throughout the week and to share the postings.US spending bill 2018 prohibits to fund governments that recognize independence of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region - GeorgianJournalWhen you create a profile in the official @narendramodi #Android app, all your device info (OS, network type, Carrier ) and personal data (email, photo, gender, name, ) are send without your consent to a third-party domain called https://t.co/N3zA3QeNZO. pic.twitter.com/Vey3OP6hcf  Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) 23 March 2018

Phishing intended?

The researcher also claimed that the domain where the data has been sent is a phishing link, owned by a company called G-data. Phishing links are usually designed to steal the users' passwords, usernames, bank account details or fulfill other malicious motives, under the disguise of a trustworthy entity.

Alderson also wrote, "This domain is classified as a phishing link by the company G-Data. This website is hosted by @GoDaddy and the whois info are hidden." The researcher also questioned Modi on why he thought of sharing the personal data of your users without their consent to a third-party company.'

This domain is classified as a phishing link by the company G-Data. This website is hosted by @GoDaddy and the whois info are hidden. pic.twitter.com/dRUx0fuZ38  Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) 23 March 2018

Data privacy

This isn't the first time Alderson's has questioned data privacy of the users. He was also the first one to flag the digital payments company Paytm claiming the app asked users for the 'root access' to their devices which would have given the company completed access to a user's device.

He also claimed that Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus is allegedly sending clipboard data to the Chinese servers. The researcher claims that the file named badwords.txt in the OxygenOS beta may have helped the company to gain access to user data and direct it to a Chinese server without the consent of the users.

IT Minister will not do a press conference on the NaMo App on these allegations of Data Chori!



Will the media dare to question Modi ji on the functioning of his App? Will the brain behind this "Data Usurpation" be summoned?



What about the 15 Lakh NCC cadets & their privacy? https://t.co/unLi2Sj2AW  Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) 24 March 2018

The response

In response to Alderson's tweets, Congress party's chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala, asked, "IT Minister will not do a press conference on the NaMo App on these allegations of Data Chori! Will the media dare to question Modi ji on the functioning of his App? Will the brain behind this "Data Usurpation" be summoned? What about the 15 Lakh NCC cadets & their privacy?"Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S to be unveiled with two mysterious products News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Xiaomi Mi AI Speaker Mini edition and another unknown product could accompany the Mi Mix 2S.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S is all set to be unveiled tomorrow at an event to happen in Shanghai, China. We have already come across several rumors and leaks regarding the flagship smartphone from Xiaomi. Now, there is a confirmation from the company officials that the Mi Mix 2S will be accompanied by two other products and they have not revealed anything about these two products.

From the previous reports, we can expect one of these products to be the Xiaomi Mi AI Speaker Mini edition. This miniature smart speaker could be dubbed Little Love Student Mini Edition. The alleged images of this speaker had surfaced online a few days back giving us a glance at the look of its design. Notably, the design of the speaker resembles the Xiaomi Smart Rice Cooker. There appear to be four buttons at the top arranged on an interaction pad.

This smart speaker is said to be a hub for all the smart home products of Xiaomi. If this speaker is announced tomorrow with the Mi Mix 2S, then it will be the second smart speaker from the company given that the Mi AI Speaker was unveiled back in July 2016 with a six-microphone array. From the existing reports, the Mi AI Speaker Mini could be priced around 199 yuan (approx. Rs. 2,0000).

Besides the Little Love Student Mini Edition likely to be announced with the Mi Mix 2S, there is no information about other device and it remains to be a mysterious product. It looks like we need to wait for the launch event tomorrow to know more about this product.

Top 7 Xiaomi Redmi Y1 Tips & Tricks

The showstopper of the Xiaomi event tomorrow is the company's flagship Mi Mix 2S. The specifications of the smartphone are already out, thanks to the numerous leaks and rumors those have hit the web. The major highlights of the Mi Mix 2S are said to be the Snapdragon 845 SoC, 256GB of internal storage space in the high-end variant, AI support for the camera, AI Face Unlock similar to the Apple Face ID technology, support for Wireless Charging, and MIUI 9.5 out of the box.

Via

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Naidu provides high security to Pawan!

Actor-turned-Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan has been attacking Telugu Desam Party and its president N Chandrababu Naidu since his public meeting at Guntur on March 14. He has described Naidu as the most inefficient ruler and his son Lokesh as the corrupt person.

Yet, Naidu government on Monday extended a big favour to Pawan Kalyan. It has provided high security cover to the actor-politician. In all, four armed police security personnel would guard Pawan Kalyan in two shifts.

The decision was taken following a representation from Pawan to Director General of Police V Malakondaiah before the public meeting at Guntur in the wake of massive crowd turn out for his meetings. It was at the same meeting did Pawan came down heavily on Naidu.

In fact, Naidu government has no obligation to provide security to Pawan. For, he is not an elected representative yet and his party does not have any representation in either legislative assembly or the council and not even in the municipalities.

His only identify so far is that he is a popular actor and as such, he has his own private security to protect him.

Yet, the government provided security him. It is not known whether Naidu is trying to pamper Pawan again to prevent him from going towards the BJP and YSRCP.

Click Here for Latest Direct-to-OTT Releases (List Updates Daily)By Rob McGavin's estimation, it took about a decade to get his business off the ground.

Those seeds, pun intended, were planted while the Australian was in college. That's where he met Paul Riordan. They bonded over their farming backgrounds and aspired to produce olive oil right in their home country. The was just one problem.

"How long it takes from when you want to produce olive oil until you actually get it in hand," he says. "I'm talking five years by the time you grow the tree to a size that you can plant, find the land to plant it, irrigate it and then wait another three years to get some oil."

Related: How the Co-Founder of Noosa Went From Office Drone to $220 Million in Sales

The pair created a business plan in 1996 and then raised AU$15 million Australian dollars from friends and family.

"What slowed us down quite a bit were the trees we wanted to plant. The right varieties that would give us the best chance of success weren't in Australia, so we had to import them and get in through quarantine and customs," McGavin says. "We never thought it'd be this massive."

They planted the first trees in 1999 and produced the first oil in 2002. A processing plant that crushes the olives was built the next year. The pair started selling oil to other distributors, and in 2006, one of its customers, Cobram Estate, offered to sell the brand to McGavin and Riordan.

Cobram Estate has been called the best olive oil brand in Australia and is sold in more than 4,000 stores in the U.S., including in Albertsons, Safeway, HEB, Whole Foods, Sprouts, Wegmans and Osco locations.

Image credit: Cobram Estate



Entrepreneur.com spoke with McGavin about his personal reason for being in this business, the challenges of olive oil and how the company utilizes influencers.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What particularly interested you about olive oil?

A health angle. My mum died of breast cancer when she was 39, and I was 8. My dad got cancer at 48. [Paul and I] just thought that olive oil was a healthy product, there was a lot of increasing demand, we weren't producing any locally and it had a fairly questionable reputation that it was fairly adulterated.

Related: This Introverted Entrepreneur With an Oprah-Approved Brand Shares How to Rise Above Fear to Embrace Every Opportunity

It was a combination of those things that made Paul and me think that if we do our homework we can make this a good industry for Australia, ourselves and shareholders.

Were you always entrepreneurial from your youth?

I was very driven to do well, and I remember going to the bank and borrowing AU$30,000 [Australian dollars] when I was 19 or so to buy cattle. We lived in the middle of nowhere and were always working on the farm. Being on a farm is a great place for anyone to develop those entrepreneurial skills, because [we are] talking about do we sell our cattle, do we buy more, is this drought coming, are we making any money? I never seem to worry too much about risk. I always think long term, just make sure you don't go broke.

What are the biggest issues of working in the olive oil industry?

The major problem is that, unfortunately, olive oil is the most adulterated or most faked food ingredient in the world. With that comes a lot of challenges.

The way we [overcame this] was we focused on quality and called out why fresh extra virgin tastes better, smells better and is better for your health. We involved ourselves with an ethical movement to just do the right thing. We call out cheats. We know that once people taste it they just can't go back to the shitty stuff.

Image credit: Cobram Estate



Our philosophy is just make the right investments for five to 10 years. It doesn't matter how long it takes as long as you don't go broke or compromise quality. Deal with good people, produce a really high quality product and the rest will follow.

Related: All it Took Was One Taste, and Now This Former Designer Is Living a Booze Industry Dream

What is the biggest challenge in your industry and how were you able to overcome it?

The biggest challenge is educating consumers. If you don't know what you're doing, and you just buy on price or habit, you'll almost certainly get ripped off. You've got to know and trust the source.

If people know what I know and they have the money, there's no chance they wouldn't buy the highest quality extra virgin oil, because the science is very clear.

What marketing tactic has been the most effective for the brand?

Getting influencers, particularly in the area of health, to take the time to understand the difference and the science. We do that by taking them to our groves, showing them how we do it and they taste the oil.

When you look at just how much science is behind disease prevention and health in olive oil, it's so easy it sells itself. But it is hard to get the message out and we use influencers to do that. (Examples can be found here, here and here.)

What's the most unusual thing about working in the olive oil industry?

We're investing heavily in oil that won't come until 2022-23, but you have to plan that far ahead and a lot of capital goes out the door. It creates some pretty big barriers to entry and isn't for everyone. It's not cookie cutter. Every year, every patch and variety is different and you keep striving to do better.

Related:

Why This Entrepreneur Jumped Into Making Olive Oil, Despite Knowing It Would Take Years to Get off the Ground

Kristen Bell Teams Up With Actors to Create a Snack Bar Brand That Feeds Starving Children

How the Co-Founder of Noosa Went From Office Drone to $220 Million in Sales



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

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On the latest episode of the KBS 2TV drama "Shall We Live Together", Park Jae-hyeong (Yeo Hoe-hyun) and Choi Moon-sik (Kim Kwon) met.

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Moon-sik ran into Jae-hyeong while checking out the neighborhood that his mother Lee Mi-yeon (Jang Mi-hee) wanted to invest in. Previously, Jae-hyeong had threatened to beat up Moon-sik if they ever met on the streets.

Moon-sik bluffed that he learned martial arts, but he ran to his car when Jae-hyeong wanted a go.

Moon-sik wanted revenge on Jae-hyeong. The next day, he ordered his company to hire Jae-hyeong.Published on 2018/03/25 | Source

Lee Kwang-soo and Shin Dong-wook bickered over Jung Yu-mi on the latest episode of the tvN drama "Live".

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Yeom Sang-soo (Lee Kwang-soo) worried about HanJeong-oh (Jung Yu-mi) who was under inspection after accidently tasering someone. Choi Myeong-ho (Shin Dong-wook) drove her home and also worried about her.

HanJeong-oh apologized to Choi Myeong-ho who said, "Police are troublemakers. You need sleep". He brushed his fingers over her head.

Sang-soo commented, "That is touching. Jeong-oh is your junior and I don't think that's good manners". Myeong-ho scoffed at him and left after wishing Jeong-oh good luck at the inspection.Havre Police Department

Officers investigated a sex offense call Friday at 2:41 p.m.



Officers investigated a Friday 3:32 p.m. report of suspicious activity at Lincoln-McKinley School.



Michael Blake Butterfly of Harlem, 19, and Mari Ereaux of Hays, 20, were each arrested on a charge of minor in possession, after a caller reported at 5:28 a.m. Saturday from a First Street West

business that the people in the next room were arguing loudly.



Officers investigated a Saturday 2:18 p.m. complaint from Third Street.



Kyle Jay Rummel of Havre, 29, was arrested on a charge of criminal contempt in relation to a 24/7 Sobriety Program violation Saturday at 6:26 p.m.



A summons was issued to a 12-year-old on a charge of juvenile curfew violations after a Boulevard Avenue caller reported Saturday at 9:20 p.m. his son was missing.



Officers investigated a Sunday 12:08 a.m. report from a First Street business of an assault.



Kyle Kato Sheppard of Havre, 34, was arrested on charges of aggravated driving under the influence and careless driving after an officer investigated a vehicle crash on Second Street Sunday at 12:34 a.m.



James Oliver Kirby of Havre, 19, was arrested on charges of DUI, reckless driving and MIP after a 12th Avenue caller reported a possible vehicle crash Sunday at 2:18 a.m.



Levi James Hawley of Hays, 28, was arrested on a charge of partner or family member assault.



Jazmine Kiana Pewitt of Havre, 20, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and MIP after officers were called to a First Street West business on a 3:35 a.m. report of a possible disturbance.



Jacob James Bauer of Havre, 35, was arrested on a charge of violations of conditions of release after officers were called to 15th Avenue Sunday at 10:48 p.m. because some women needed assistance.



Officers investigated a complaint made at the police station Sunday at 2:50 p.m.

Hill County Sheriffs Office

Martina Marie James of Havre, 38, was arrested on a charge of theft after a U.S. Highway 2 West business caller reported a theft at 1:20 p.m. Friday.



Rachel Diane Hawley of Havre, 36, was arrested on a state District Court warrant after a Friday 6:33 p.m. transport from Rocky Boy Detention Center to Hill County Detention Center.



Deputies investigated a theft on Friday at 7:13 p.m. report from a Rudyard business of a theft that possibly happened last fall.



Deputies investigated a report of a stolen phone called in Friday at 10:45 p.m. from a U.S. Highway 2 West business.



Cody James Worman of Melrose, 26, was arrested on four Justice or City court warrants after he was served the warrants Saturday at 7:47 p.m. on U.S. Highway 2 West.



Skylar James Powell of Havre, 19, was arrested on charges of MIP and DUI during a vehicle stop on 14th Avenue Sunday at 1:05 a.m.

Havre Fire Department

Emergency medical personnel responded to five calls Friday, six calls Saturday and four calls Sunday.



Fire crews responded to two calls over the weekend Friday at 11:49 p.m. an alarm at Donaldson Hall at Montana State University-Northern malfunctioned and was reset. And fire crews and NorthWestern Energy checked out a report of a gas odor on the 300 Block of Ninth Street, but could detect no gas fumes.

Havre Animal Shelter

This morning the shelter held six medium-hair cats whose sex is listed as unknown, one medium-hair male cat, and one female and two male short-hair cats.



The shelter held this morning a male 4-year-old Australian shepherd-Labrador retriever cross, a 1-year-3-month-old female Australian shepherd, an 8-month-old female German shepherd, a 6-year-one-month-old female Labrador retriever and a 5-year-old female Australian shepherd.

Births

A girl was born Tuesday, March 20, 2018, to Bethany and Keith Jensen of Havre.



A girl was born Friday, March 23, 2018, to Shanelle and Bill Morsette of Havre.



A girl was born Saturday, March 24, 2018, to Bridgette and Andrew Long of Big Sandy.By MATTHEW BROWN

Associated Press

BILLINGS  An Idaho mining company sued Montana environmental regulators Friday for labeling the company and its president bad actors who should pay for cleanups at several polluted sites before pursuing two new mines beneath a wilderness area.

Attorneys for subsidiaries of Hecla Mining described the states allegation that the company is responsible for past and ongoing pollution from defunct mines as frivolous.

Hecla, based in Coeur dAlene, Idaho, claims to be the oldest precious metals mining company in the United States. It says it had no direct involvement in the polluted mines at issue.

Heclas president, Phillips S. Baker Jr., who also chairs the National Mining Association, was formerly the chief financial officer for Pegasus Mining Co. of Spokane, Washington.

Pegasus 1998 bankruptcy left state and federal agencies on the hook for pollution cleanups at its Montana mines, including the Zortman-Landusky gold mine on the edge of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. Ongoing cleanup work at the shuttered sites has cost an estimated $100 million to date. Bonds put up by Pegasus covered only a portion of the bill.

State officials first revealed to The Associated Press earlier this week that Hecla could be asked to reimburse taxpayers for more than $30 million in cleanup work. That claim is based on Montanas so-called bad actor law that blocks individuals and companies who dont reclaim or pay for the reclamation of old mines from starting new ones.

Baker said in a statement provided by Hecla that he would pursue every avenue to restore my reputation and my good name.

Attorneys for the three Hecla subsidiaries  Montanore Minerals Corp., Troy Mine Inc. and RC Resources  asked a Lincoln County district judge to reject the alleged violations. They said the states reading of the law erroneously equates Baker and Pegasus and assumes he had control over activities at the now-defunct mines that polluted surrounding waterways with contaminants including arsenic and cyanide.

Mr. Baker neither directed nor controlled mining operations at any of the Pegasus entities mines, wrote the subsidiaries attorney, William Mercer and Victoria Marquis. If Pegasus failed to perform (cleanup work) pursuant to its permit with the department, Pegasus is exclusively liable.

Mercer served as U.S. attorney for Montana under former President George W. Bush.

In response to the lawsuit, Montana Department of Environmental Quality Director Tom Liver said state officials said they stood by their decision to enforce the bad actor law and were prepared to defend it in state court.

A coalition of environmental groups that had urged Livers to take action against Hecla and Baker will seek to intervene in the case, said Aurora Janke, an attorney with the environmental law firm Earthjustice

Hanging in the balance in the case are two copper and silver mines proposed by Hecla in northwestern Montana that would employ about 300 workers each. The Montanore and Rock Creek mines would be constructed beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, an area of remote, glaciated peaks and valleys south of Troy.

Environmentalists say the two projects could harm imperiled species including grizzly bears and bull trout.

Hecla bought Montanore in 2016 for almost $30 million. Last May, a U.S. District judge ruled that federal officials violated laws meant to protect threatened species and their habitat in approving the mines development.

Leading Montana Republicans have pushed hard to develop Montanore and Rock Creek. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte in September penned a joint letter to the Trump administration urging it to speed up environmental reviews of the two mines.

Both lawmakers said Friday that they continue to support the projects.

Last year, Baker was among mining industry representatives who successfully lobbied the Trump administration to repeal an Obama-era mining pollution proposal. It would have required mining companies to prove upfront they have the financial wherewithal to clean up their pollution.

Baker wrote in a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt that there was no need for the rule because mining companies already provide enough financial assurances to cover cleanup costs.



Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/matthewbrownap/.Larry William Horinek, 60, passed away suddenly and went to meet his heavenly Father on March 20, 2018.

Larry was born on July 20, 1957, in Havre, Montana, to Richard and Ruth (Klemetson) Horinek. He grew up on the family farm north of Hingham and graduated from Hingham High School in 1975. Larry attended the Helena Vo-Tech, completing an ag diesel degree in 1977. Dec. 17, 1977, he married the love of his life, Alou Morrison, and they spent the next 40 years raising their family and enjoying the life they built together.

Larry was a member of the crew that built the Big Bud tractors in Havre and later managed Hingham Motors and the Farmers Union Cenex in Rudyard. He took great pride in his work and always strove to find ways to be successful at his endeavors there. Larry spent most of his life living in Hingham and was actively involved in his community. He spent many years as a Hingham town councilman, chief of the Hingham Volunteer Fire Department, and as a first responder/EMT.

Larrys greatest joy was sharing his love for Christ and was ever gaining knowledge about his faith. He served as an associate pastor and later senior pastor of the Hingham Foursquare Church for the past 24 years and spent nearly every Saturday evening studying scripture and contemplating the message he would deliver to those who would hear the next day.

Larry will be forever remembered by his wife, Alou; their children, Lewis, Dustin (Lisa), and Brianne (Erik) Martini; grandchildren, Zoey, Katelyn, Ryker, Jocelyn and Paige; his mother, Ruth; and brothers, Mike (Carol), Dan (Sherri), and Mark (Teri) and many nieces and nephews.

A funeral service in memory of Larry will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday, March 27, 2018, at the Hingham Foursquare Church (formerly the Hingham Lutheran church building) with burial at the Hingham Cemetery. A reception will follow. Memorial donations can be made to the Rudyard ambulance.

Condolences can be made to Larrys memorial page at http://www.asperfh.com.

Well done thou good and faithful servant!Local input is a hallmark of democracy. Good laws should and do bubble up from neighborhoods, country churches, and bar stools, just as bad ideas are often killed by the folks who have to live with the results.

Thats why, if youre running for public office, its a smart idea to say that youre in support of local decisions. Imagine the alternative: Im from the distant government and Im here to tell you how to live your life. You probably wouldnt win many votes.

But that alternative is precisely what our lone U.S. Congressman, Greg Gianforte, did last month, when he announced that hes introducing legislation to remove protections from a whole class of public land in Montana without holding a single local meeting in the affected areas.

Specifically, Gianforte is proposing to release nearly 700,000 acres of federal land in Montana designated as wilderness study areas (WSAs) to the agencies, the U.S. Forest Service and the BLM, that already manage the various properties. Gianfortes legislation is similar to that introduced by Montanas junior Sen., Steve Daines, but Gianfortes goes further, by including WSAs managed by the BLM as candidates to lose protection.

In Valley County, Gianfortes bill would release the Bitter Creek Wilderness Study Area, some 59,000 lonely acres just south of the Canadian line roughly between Opheim and Theony. Wilderness study areas generally, and Bitter Creek specifically, are particularly troublesome designations. They were designated way back in the 1970s as federal lands that exhibit some elements of wilderness: theyre generally unroaded, they offer pristine viewscapes and the opportunity to get away from modern contrivances such as powerlines and compressor stations. They exhibit most of the qualities that defined wilderness in the 1964 Wilderness Act (and as you read this, see if it characterizes Bitter Creek): A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.

WSA typically dont have the soaring peaks or big trees or clear trout water of designated wilderness areas, but they do have important benefits, such as wildlife security habitat, intact native range, and accessible contiguous public land. Most traditional uses, including grazing, hunting, hiking, camping, and fishing, are allowed on WSAs.

These WSAs have existed in a sort of administrative limbo for 40 years  not remarkable or remote or sacred enough to be elevated to full-fledged wilderness, but still cherished for their primitive nature. The study in their title is part of their problem, and Gianforte isnt wrong to address it. They havent been studied for years. Instead, they exist as a sort of thumb in the eye of folks who would like to open the land for the full range of multiple uses. And the study designation isnt satisfying for conservationists who would like to see the wilderness protection made permanent.

If youve ever hunted or hiked in Bitter Creek, you might have experienced some of the primitive nature that made it a wilderness candidate a generation ago. It hasnt changed much since then, which is sort of the point of wilderness areas. Bitter Creek contains some of the best mule deer habitat in the county, and its a favorite place for birdwatchers who appreciate the differences between chestnut-collared longspurs and McGowans longspurs, and who deeply care about the declining populations of our native grassland birds. Its designation makes it one of the few BLM properties that we know wont change over the next generation, which is a comfort as change increasingly defines land management in Valley County.

Bitter Creeks charms are subtle, like the gumbo hillside encrusted with fossilized clam shells that I found one day as I trailed a wide-racked mule deer buck miles inside the WSA boundary. I never got close enough to that buck to make a shot, but the hillside of shells, a relic of the Precambrian sea that once covered what is now northeastern Montana, remains one of my great finds in our area. The glaciers that ground down much of the plains north of the Milk River missed this particular knob. Finding those plate-sized shells was like looking through a window back 100 million years.

As a wilderness area, Bitter Creek is complicated and compromised. It is bisected by a half-dozen roads. Enforcement of off-road travel can be lax. And its designation makes it a target for derision. Recall the wind farm proposed for the ridge adjacent to the Bitter Creek WSA? The industrial energy project that was aimed at eroding local support for the WSA? The heavily-subsidized project that was finally scrapped when it was revealed that the development was really a front for a tax scam propagated by a wealthy Texas speculator?

But enough about Bitter Creek. I cherish it for its wildness and the chance it offers to discover unknown chunks of country. Many folks look at its designation as needless. Even the BLM concluded that it doesnt really exhibit enough wilderness qualities to support a wilderness area.

Should we lift the WSA designation from Bitter Creek? Maybe so. Lets have a discussion about it. But that discussion is precisely what Gianfortes bill denies us. There have been zero opportunities for local input into the decision. I see that the Valley County Commission has gone on record in support of removing the WSA designation, but when did the commission solicit their constituents views on the topic? As a public-land user and advocate, I never heard about a discussion, and neither did the two dozen other sportsmen I know who hunt Bitter Creek.

Local knowledge and wisdom is an undervalued commodity. Input from the folks who have to live with the decisions made by our politicians should be solicited at every turn, not only to broaden local support for laws, but to make them better and more livable.

If Gianforte continues to say that he values local input, then he needs to seek it out. If he doesnt, then he can accurately be described as another out-of-touch representative of the distant government telling us how to live our lives.



By Andrew McKean

Valley County Voices

Glasgow CourierAn international research consortium studying 520,000 individuals from around the world has identified 22 new genetic risk factors for stroke, thus tripling the number of gene regions known to affect stroke risk. A first step towards developing more personalized treatments, says co-author Christina Jern, Professor at Sahlgrenska Academy.

The results demonstrate shared genetic influences with multiple related vascular conditions, especially blood pressure, but also coronary artery disease, venous thromboembolism and others. Linking these results with extensive biological databases provides novel clues on stroke mechanisms and illustrates the potential of genetics to identify drug targets for stroke therapy.

The results of the largest genetic study on stroke thus far has been published in the journal Nature Genetics. The study was based on DNA samples of 520,000 European, North- and South American, Asian, African, and Australian participants of whom 67,000 had a stroke. These were derived from 29 large studies.

From the millions of genetic variants analyzed, 32 independent genomic regions were shown to be associated with stroke of which two thirds are novel.

The study was conducted by members of Megastroke, a large-scale international collaboration launched by the International Stroke Genetics Consortium, an international multi-disciplinary collaborative of experts in stroke genetics from around the world who have been working together for the past 10 years.

Researchers in 20 countries

Megastroke members include research groups from Germany, France, the UK, Japan, USA, Iceland, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Poland, Singapore, Australia, and Canada.

Because the extent to which individual variants modify stroke risk is very small, it required a large number of subjects to discover these variants. Our group has leveraged extensive datasets set up by numerous researchers over the past few years, said Martin Dichgans, Professor of Neurology and Director at the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research (ISD), University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich, and one of the leaders of the current study.

We cant overstate the importance of international collaboration across different ethnic origins when studying genetics of complex, common diseases like stroke. This large-scale collaboration across continents has been a game changer, says Stephanie Debette, Professor of Epidemiology and Neurologist at University of Bordeaux and Bordeaux University Hospital, leading a research team at INSERM Center U1219, and another leader of the study.

Global burden of stroke

Stroke is the most common cause of adult disability, the second most common cause of death, and a major cause of health care expenditures and loss of quality-adjusted life years. Each year, approximately 17 million people suffer from stroke worldwide, of which 25,000 affects people in Sweden. The cost due to stroke in Sweden is approximately 18 billions Swedish crowns every year.

Stroke can originate from alterations in various parts of the vasculature including large arteries, small arteries, the heart, and the venous system and the researchers found genetic risk factors implicated in each of these mechanisms. They showed that some genetic risk factors contribute to specific mechanisms and others to stroke susceptibility at large. They further found shared genetic influences between stroke caused by vessel occlusion (the most common cause of stroke) and stroke caused by rupture of a blood vessel (the most catastrophic cause of stroke), often thought to have opposite mechanisms.

When the researchers took a closer look on the genomic areas pinpointed in the study, they noticed that several of them overlap with genomic areas known to be implicated in related vascular conditions such as atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, venous thrombosis, or vascular risk factors, especially elevated blood pressure, and less so hyperlipidemia.

Precision medicine

The researchers further found that the genes they identified are enriched in drug targets for antithrombotic therapy, used to re-open occluded blood vessels in patients with acute stroke or to prevent vascular events including stroke.

The results from Megastroke provide evidence for several novel biological pathways involved in stroke that may lead to the discovery of novel drug targets, says Professor Christina Jern, Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, one of the co-authors of the study. Our research group has for many years studied the importance of hemostasis in ischemic stroke, and therefore finds the results of genetic overlap with thromboembolism and overrepresentation of variants in genes of importance for blood clotting very interesting, she says. In the long run, the results can be a first step towards developing more tailor-made treatments, in other words precision medicine, for this complex disease.

The cohort from the Gothenburg site, the Sahlgrenska Academy Study on Ischemic Stroke (SAHLSIS), PI Christina Jern, received financial support from multiple sources including the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Heart-Lung foundation, STROKE-Riksforbundet and ALF.

Title: Multiancestry genome-wide association study of 520,000 subjects identifies 32 loci associated with stroke and stroke subtypes

Contact: Christina Jern

Illustrations: Pictures of DNA sequences, brain etc (Matton images, Mostphotos) and portrait picture of Christina Jern (photo: Cecilia Hedstrom)

BY: MARGARETA GUSTAFSSON KUBISTA

University of Gothenburg, SwedenLIGHTNING PHOTOS: Hundreds march for school safety and gun control

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Hundreds of people of all ages marched from Hendersonville High School to the Historic Courthouse on Saturday morning as smalltown Hendersonville joined cities across the world in an extraordinary moment of protest in favor of protecting kids in schools and condemning gun violence.

Carrying signs that said "Protect Kids Not Guns," "Thoughts and Prayers Are Not Enough," "Pencils Not Pistols" and "Grab 'Em By the Midterms," the chain of protesters filled five or six blocks of Main Street as it slowly made its way eight blocks to the courthouse plaza.

Organizers and those who attended said they were stunned at the turnout in cool weather under overcast skies. There were not counterprotests and incidents along the route. Hendersonville police deployed a crossing guard at Church Street at Bearcat Bouleward and kept watch during the march.

"We're tired of going into our schools and just not feeling safe for fear of gun violence," said Liam Daniels, 16, of Tryon.

Daniels was with a dozen or more classmates from his school, the Outdoor Academy in Brevard, who had donned bright orange safety vests for the event.

"I'm here because it's our safety that's at risk because of their not having any gun regulations," said Mia Prausnite Weinbaum, an Outdoor Academy student from Atlanta.

Across the world, protesters carried signs, chanted and marched in solidarity with the young students from Parkland High School in South Florida spurred to activism by the slaughter of their classmates and teachers at their school on Valentines Day.

"I was impressed to see all the kids here because it's all about the next generation, isn't it?" said Ann Commito, who is from Frederick, Maryland, and was visiting friends here. "They're going to be voting soon. I think it's frankly amazing. This shows you how important this is to everybody. It's not a Democrat or Republican issue as much as it's a public safety issue."



THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY. RETURN TO THE LIGHTNING FOR MORE.The red carpet was rolled out at the Odeon Cinema in Charlestown for a screening for a very special cause.

There was huge excitement among the young attendees of the third annual LauraLynn Oscars, which saw the screening of eight short films made by families involved in the charity.

The black-tie event, hosted by Baz Ashmawy and 2fm's Tracy Clifford yesterday, aimed to foster whole-family engagement for a fun-filled day out.

Posed

The two presenters spent time meeting young fans and their relatives.

They also posed for selfies ahead of the invite-only screening at the northside cinema.

LauraLynn is the only dedicated children's hospice in Ireland. It provides clinical care, support and palliative services to children with life-limiting conditions. The hospice was set up by parents Jane and Brendan McKenna back in 2001 after their two daughters Laura (4) and Lynn (15) tragically died from life-limiting conditions, just 20 months apart from each other.

Although the charity receives some Government funding, a vast portion of its financial resources comes from members of the public, so it is constantly fundraising.

In 2011, LauraLynn House was opened by the McKennas as a dedicated, eight-bed children's palliative care unit.

However, the couple have now stepped down from the charity.

The hospice offers free support for children from birth to age 18 from anywhere in Ireland.Anthony Cassidy has written a letter of apology following a 35-minute attack on a woman in Carlow

The family of a woman who was raped and almost beaten to death by depraved Anthony Cassidy has rejected a handwritten apology from him.

"It means nothing," the daughter of the victim told the Herald.

Cassidy (34) violently attacked the woman during a 35-minute ordeal before leaving her to die in a secluded area of Carlow town.

He is due to be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to rape and serious assault on June 25, 2017.

Critical

His victim, a woman in her 50s, was in intensive care for almost two months after the attack and has been left with life-altering injuries.

Prior to a sentencing hearing last week, a handwritten letter of apology was handed to the victim's family on behalf of Cassidy.

However, this has been rejected by the woman's daughter, who believes Cassidy will continue to pose a serious risk to women when released from prison.

"[An apology] means nothing. We got a handwritten one the day before court. It means nothing.

"He talked about how if he could take back what he did, he wouldn't have done it and how he prays for her from the bottom of his heart. What good is that? 'Sorry mammy, you can't walk again but here's a piece of paper and he's sorry from the bottom of his heart'. It's no good," she told the Herald.

"You don't go and force yourself on a woman. It would have been bad enough if he had just beaten her.

"Sorry would have been to leave her alone and go about your business and pay for your prostitute," the victim's daughter added.

This was in reference to Cassidy's reply while being interviewed by gardai for the first time. "I wouldn't rape a woman, I'd pay for it in a brothel before I'd do that," he told officers.

Cassidy faces a minimum 12 years in prison on direction of the DPP, but his victim's family worries about his release.

"People need to know who he is and what he has done.

"For when he gets out, he'll still be a young man. He could move in next door to a family, and we don't want them going through what we have gone through, what mammy has gone through," her daughter said.

On Friday the Central Criminal Court heard how Cassidy, a father-of-one of Tinryland, Carlow, followed the victim before subjecting her to a violent assault.

CCTV images show him carrying the woman over his shoulders to the scene of the attack, before leaving her to die.

She was not discovered until 12 hours after the rape.

Giving evidence, Garda Sylvia Ryan said that the victim was discovered semi-naked and unconscious with visible injuries and bruising.

She was rushed to St Luke's General Hospital, Kilkenny, and was only discharged on October 24.

Forensic

Gda Ryan said CCTV footage was obtained from 35 different premises around Carlow town, and Cassidy was nominated as a suspect.

A warrant was obtained by officers and Cassidy's caravan at the rear of his mother's home was searched.

A number of items were seized for forensic examination, and the victim's DNA was recovered on a jacket belonging to Cassidy. His semen was found on the victim.

Cassidy has 29 previous convictions in Ireland, and a further five in the UK. The list includes a sexual offence for enlisting the services of a prostitute in April 2017.

He is due to be sentenced by Justice Patrick McCarthy on April 23.A brother of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch has been treated in a Dublin hospital after injuring himself during an alleged hit in Turkey over the weekend.

John Hutch Snr (65) suffered a suspected broken ankle in Kusadasi on Friday evening, after leaping from a balcony in an effort to flee.

Gardai are carrying out their own enquiries into the incident and have received reports from his relatives that he spotted two men in balaclavas at the front door of the apartment shortly before 7pm.

Jumped

Hutch's family members told gardai that he saw two men dressed in black through a peephole in the steel reinforced door of the property.

He then fled through the apartment and jumped over the balcony, according to relatives.

Hutch, who has previously survived an attempt on his life from a Kinahan hit team, returned to Dublin on Saturday before being admitted to the Mater Hospital.

He was treated over a number of hours for a suspected broken ankle, and was later discharged that night.

A source told the Herald gardai are still continuing their efforts to verify the veracity of the claims that two suspected hitmen arrived at the Turkish property to confront Hutch.

"He has been targeted by the Kinahan cartel before, and gardai are still trying to establish if two men armed with firearms were indeed present at the property at the time," the source said.

Gardai have been posted outside Hutch's family home in the north inner city over the last 18 months in order to prevent further attacks at the property.

Hutch is not believed to be directly involved in the feud but his life is under threat due to his family connections.

His nephews, Gary Hutch and Derek Coakley Hutch, have also been killed in murders linked to the feud, while his brother Eddie Hutch (58) was murdered in February 2016.

In September 2016, a two-man hit team attempted to murder John Hutch at his home off the North Circular Road.

A total of six shots were fired but he managed to escape serious injury after fleeing into his home when he was chased by a masked man.

Two gunmen linked to the Kinahan cartel are believed to have carried out the attempted hit - in front of their target's disabled daughter - at around 5.25pm.

It also emerged last week that gardai are probing if the Hutch/Kinahan feud has claimed up to 18 lives since the first murder in September 2015.

A senior garda stated that, while officially the number remains at 15, a further three killings are being looked at as having direct links to the bloody dispute.

The revelation was made at a hearing in which the ongoing feud was described as one of the deadliest in the history of the State.

It was also stated that the Kinahan cartel have an "almost limitless" pool of resources in terms of firearms and cash.

Murder

"The number of people who have lost their lives in the dispute both here and abroad is 15, but there are up to three other deaths which are being looked at as being part of the feud, but which have not yet been fully linked to the dispute," a senior source said.

A number of murder attempts have also been foiled by gardai in recent weeks, including a planned hit on John Hutch's son Jonathan.

Armed gardai from the Emergency Response Unit (ERU), backed up by local officers, swooped on a suspected hit team near Gorey, Co Wexford.

A number of firearms were recovered in the operation, which was led by the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB).The failings of the Catholic Church in Ireland have been put under the spotlight by the upcoming visit of Pope Francis, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said in his Palm Sunday homily.

The Archbishop did not specifically refer to the child abuse and cover-up scandals that rocked the Dublin archdiocese for decades.

However, he alluded to failures by "members and leadership" in the Church.

"When the Church becomes caught up in its own structures or in the ways of the world, it fails Jesus," Dr Martin told the congregation at Dublin's Pro Cathedral yesterday.

"The Church regains its soul not then by repeated words of regret and apology.

"These are just human words and sentiments. The Church truly apologises when it returns to the truth and love of Jesus.

"Renewal and reform in the Church are not just about structural changes.

"Structural changes will remain fruitless if they remain simply human words.

"Reform of the Church requires something more radical. It requires moving beyond human categories.

"It requires that we too seek to understand how the challenge of Jesus will always be one that rejects human power."

He said the pontiff's attendance at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin in August "inevitably has brought with it an examination of the failings of the Irish Church".

However, he said the purpose of the Pope's visit is to "strengthen and comfort families".

"He comes to challenge us all to be with those families that struggle and fail," he said.

"He comes to challenge those families that believe that success in an empty bourgeois lifestyle or a narrow piety of certainty, makes them somehow the better class of family.

Weakness

"Families are places where people struggle as they search to make the love and fidelity of spouses endure, despite their own human weakness.

"Families are places where children are loved, day and night, in good times and bad.

"Homelessness or domestic violence, infidelity, unemployment and lack of social support, or forced migration all degrade families.

"Families are places where in the face of such struggle they still bring light and warmth, even when all the odds are against them. Families are places where love is learned and where faith takes root.

"Wounded and struggling families are places where God's love still prevails.

"The ideal family is not the one of the fashion magazines, but the great families are the families to which each of us is deeply indebted."

His sermon at the start of Holy Week comes after Pope Francis last week confirmed he will make his first papal trip to Ireland in close to 40 years.

The 81-year-old Argentinian will preside at the closing ceremonies of the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, running from August 21 to 26.

He will take part in the Festival of Families at Croke Park on August 25, followed by an open-air Mass in the Phoenix Park the next day.

The Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference said it is "deeply honoured" that the pontiff has chosen to come to Dublin for the event.RTE presenter Kathryn Thomas has undergone a transformation of her own over the weekend - she has become a first-time mum to a baby girl.

The popular star gave birth to little Ellie McLoughlin on Friday morning at around 10am and Kathryn says she's smitten.

Sharing a picture of her new baby daughter's tiny feet, she said that her baby "couldn't wait any longer to meet us".

Perfect

"She is the most perfect thing I've ever seen. Mum and dad are totally and utterly in love," she said.

Kathryn, who's engaged to dad Padraig McLoughlin, was inundated with thousands of messages of congratulations after revealing her happy news.

She only finished filming the grand final of Operation Transformation a few weeks ago as she started her maternity leave, and was due roughly around this time.

The star managed to keep up her healthy regime during her pregnancy, doing regular pre-natal yoga classes and gentle workouts in the gym.

She also revealed how she recently renovated her Dublin 8 home to make sure that it was more family-friendly and included a nursery and more space for the baby.

Kathryn enlisted the services of an interior designer to help her figure out the best use of space in the home that she shares with Padraig.

"All my mum's friends had warned me that when kids arrive the washing machine is on 24/7, a tumble dryer is a must and you need triple the storage for all their clothes and paraphernalia," she said.

She added that her "nesting" instinct went into overdrive in recent weeks as she geared up to welcome the new arrival into her renovated home.

"I'm delighted with the outcome and I feel like we've an entirely new home and a fresh start for our next chapter as a family," she said.

"But I don't want to see another paint swatch for at least a decade."

Netflix

She joked last week how she hoped that the baby would be a late arrival so that she could "sit in bed in my new room for the next week" eating ice cream and binge-watching Netflix on the TV.

"It's probably the only chance I'll get for the next 18 years to have some time out for myself," she said.

The TV star has indicated that she'll take a good chunk of time out as she revels in the experience of first-time motherhood and is not expected to be back at RTE until next autumn at the earliest.Pleasant Grove residents are digging into their own pockets to help fund the new public safety facilities in their city. The donations are filling a gap between a bond and the amount needed to construct the buildings. Although much has been donated, another $500,000 is still needed, according to a letter written by Mayor Guy Fugal and sent to citizens this week.

In November 2016, residents voted in favor of a $9.5 million bond to fund new fire, police, courts and dispatch facilities. However, that amount would not fully cover the public safety needs of the city. An additional $2.5 million would be needed, according to findings from the public safety building committee.

At that time, several residents stepped forward with commitments to help fill that need, reads the letter written by Fugal. We are thrilled to announce as of March 1, weve received just under $2 million in cash donations.

The letter was sent out to let people know about the opportunity to donate and that there is still a need. If the full $500,000 is not received through donations, there are city reserve funds that can be used to make up the difference, according to Fugal. However, those funds could be used for other needs in the city.

We had known about a couple of the large donations for a while, Fugal said. Theyd seen the struggle we had getting the bond passed and how we had whittled down the buildings. Many of the donors want to be anonymous for now.

Fugal pointed out that if the buildings had been built two years ago, costs would have been less. Building costs have gone up since then, he said. There were two higher bond amounts that were voted down before the current one passed in 2016.

Ground broke in December and the new facilities are currently under construction. The fire station is scheduled to be finished by November. The police, courts and dispatch building should be finished by April 2019, according to Fugal.

Any donation over $100 will be recognized on a possible donor wall in the new facilities. Donations more than $5,000 will receive a special designation in the building, although the details have not been determined yet.

The Pleasant Grove Police Honorary Colonels are collecting the donations for the project. According to the Honorary Colonels website, This building will be a resource for our community for decades to come. We are looking for those that are willing to take ownership of this responsibility and contribute in any amount. Every bit helps, and your donations are being matched. To donate or for more information, go to www.pgcityhc.org/psb.html.Sometimes, for those of us who are constantly reading statistics and poll results, something that you didnt expect to see stands out  a number that makes you think the future will not be what you have been expecting.

My latest sighting of such a number was in a March 12 New York Times report on a poll of college students sponsored by the American Council on Education, the Charles Koch Foundation and the Stanton Foundation. It asked students about free speech on campus  whether it is allowed and whether it should be.

College and university campuses have been transformed over the past half-century from the zone of our society most tolerant of free speech to the zone least tolerant.

Astonishingly, most colleges and universities have speech codes and maintain bureaucracies charged with restricting speech on campus. One-tenth limit this freedom to tiny remote free speech zones.

The percentage of schools with restrictive speech codes has been declining, thanks largely to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, but speech restrictions are still the norm, not the exception. Their stated purpose is to prevent speech that is offensive, an inevitably subjective standard, especially to those thought to contribute to inclusion and diversity.

Majorities of students polled said they support both free speech and inclusion and diversity. When asked which is more important, 53 percent said inclusion and diversity, and only 46 percent said free speech.

What I found most striking  the numbers that stood out for me  was the difference between men and women. Among men, 61 percent favored free speech. But only 35 percent of women did so. Thats a result I certainly hadnt expected.

That percentage is of particular concern because women now make up the majority of college and university students. They appear to be a preponderance of the campus administrators who administer and enforce schools speech and sexual assault codes, at a time when administrators outnumber teachers in higher education.

Historically, speech restrictions have been opposed by disadvantaged groups  civil rights advocates, labor union organizers, left-wing radicals. Now, as the Times gingerly notes, those students who most value free speech are from groups historically or currently in positions of power. Historically, perhaps, but not currently. It is left-wing and liberal orthodoxies and policies of racial quotas and preferences that campus speech restrictors are attempting to shield from comments anyone deems offensive.

So the difference between male and female students may reflect different power positions, with those most at risk of proscription more favorable to free speech. It may also reflect differences between male and female temperaments on average.

Psychological studies over many years conclude that women tend to prize agreeableness and consensus, whereas men tend to seek out conflict and competition. One can easily imagine evolutionary explanations for this group difference, which, of course, is not apparent in every individual.

Female students willingness to subordinate free speech to political values is disturbing in a time when habits of mind and behavior developed on campus tend to leach out to the larger society.

That has been apparent in the behavior of Silicon Valley firms such as Google and Facebook, which have imposed campus-like standards in censoring material on YouTube and Facebook feeds. Their corps of recent graduates have often labeled anodyne conservative themes as hate speech while granting full access to such bigots as Louis Farrakhan.

This attitude was on display when Google fired engineer James Damore for circulating a memo arguing that the companys efforts to achieve gender equality were ineffective. Google executives Sundar Pichai and Susan Wojcicki inaccurately accused him of saying women are inferior. His real offense: saying things that were politically incorrect.

The liberal bias of Silicon Valley, like the left-wing tilt of the universities, is not in doubt. It is evident in the controversy over whether Donald Trumps 2016 campaign consultant Cambridge Analytica used Facebook data to influence voter attitudes.

Thats seen as illegitimate by many of the same people who hailed Barack Obamas similar use of Facebook data in the 2012 campaign as a brilliant, creative initiative. Obamas director of data integration and media analytics recently revealed that Facebook execs candidly admitted that they allowed (the Obama campaign) to do things they wouldnt have allowed someone else to do because they were on (Obamas) side.

Those who have welcomed womens greater opportunities and increasing achievements have assumed that a less male-dominated world would be more welcoming and free. The campus poll and Silicon Valley practices suggest that it may turn out to be at least a little more Orwellian.For Subscribers Promised investigation of abuse, misconduct, Heritage accusers still wait

A letter to families of Heritage Academy near Hagerstown in the summer of 2020 told of an investigation into abuse by former teachers.A high-level international conference on Afghanistan opened in Tashkent on March 26, even as Kabul is still recovering from an Islamic State (IS) led terror attack that killed 32 people in the capital on March 21. Just two days later, a car bomb in Helmand killed 14 innocents. The death toll increases in Afghanistan and, alas, occurs so often that it is often ignored in the global news cycles.

Tashkent will see all the major powers and the UN on board and India will be represented by the minister of state for external affairs, MJ Akbar. The conference opens against a backdrop of complex challenges that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has to deal with on the domestic front, including a deteriorating internal security situation. In the end of January, the local Taliban carried out a heinous terror attack in Kabul using an ambulance bomb that killed more than a hundred innocent victims. Clearly, the Afghan security forces are unable to cope with the twin challenge posed by the Taliban and now the IS cadres.

The Ghani-led National Unity Government (NUG) has morphed into a disunity government, given the irreconcilable differences over power-sharing between President Ghani and chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah. This political dissonance is at the core of the fractured governance that plagues Afghanistan and it is unlikely that the Tashkent deliberations will be able to redress this fatal internal flaw.

Concurrently, the Afghan quagmire has been rendered even more intractable by the defiant assertion of the Taliban and the violence they have unleashed over the last 15 years  ever since the US, in a very ill-advised decision, shifted its focus from the stabilisation and reconstruction of Afghanistan to Iraq on March 19, 2003.

In the last 15 years, US policy has wavered depending on the priority accorded by the White House to Afghanistan . This war has seen the US expending many lives and money, but the irony is that the Taliban is now more entrenched in large parts of the country than it was in 2003.

American President Trump has signalled a more robust Afghan policy that has indicted Pakistan for its perfidy in abetting terror but the US is going through major internal convulsions with top officials being summarily dismissed. Earlier in February, the US National Intelligence provided an assessment that is bleak : The National Unity Government probably will struggle to hold long-delayed parliamentary elections, currently scheduled for July 2018, and to prepare for a presidential election in 2019. It added that the Afghan security forces probably will maintain control of most major population centres with coalition force support, but the intensity and geographic scope of Taliban activities will put those centres under continued strain.

The Tashkent conference hopes to formalise the Ghani proposal to bring the Taliban into the peace process  an initiative that is fraught with many imponderables. At the time, New Delhi had cautiously welcomed this move and noted that India welcomed the Afghan governments call to armed groups to cease violence and join national peace and reconciliation process that would protect the rights of all Afghans, including the women, children and the minorities.

Whether the Taliban will be willing to lay down the gun and accept the Afghan constitution remains suspect if the spate of killings that have racked Kabul and beyond are any indicator. In recent days, there have been allegations made by the US that Moscow is providing arms to the Taliban  a charge vehemently denied by Russia  but this augurs poorly for any meaningful movement towards a violence-free Afghanistan.

India has provided more than US $ 3 billion in development aid to Afghanistan and remains committed to stay the course but the light at the end of the bloody Afghan tunnel is getting dimmer. One hopes that Afghanistan will not go down the path of Syria but the probability that this welcome Uzbek initiative will lead to that elusive consensus within Afghanistan and among its principal external interlocutors remains slim. The road ahead for Afghanistans reconstruction will be arduous and blood-soaked and Delhi must exhort the donor constituency to stay the course for the next decade and more.

C Uday Bhaskar is director, Society for Policy Studies, New Delhi

The views expressed are personalMadhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday announced extending all financial assistance to CRPF jawan Manoj Tomar (32) who has been carrying a part of his intestine in a polythene bag attached to his body following injuries suffered in a Maoist attack.

Tomar, who belongs to Morena district in Madhya Pradesh, was injured in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarhs Sukma district in March 2014. Manoj also suffered injuries in one of his eyes in the attack.

According to Tomar, he is being treated in a hospital at Raipur, but needs better treatment outside Chhattisgarh.

After the media highlighted his plight, Chouhan said the state government would arrange for his treatment at AIIMS, New Delhi. The CM said he could be treated at other hospitals too, if required.

Morena collector Bhaskar Lakshyakar said they had sent two proposals to the state government  one for providing financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh to Tomar and the other for his treatment at AIIMS, New Delhi at the state governments expenses. Now, the government had approved the proposal for his treatment.

We have informed Tomar about the state governments decision. He is happy with the decision, said Lakshyakar.A journalist working with a news channel, who reportedly exposed the nexus between police and the sand mining mafia in Chambal region, was run over by a dumper at Bhind in Madhya Pradesh on Monday morning.

Sandeep Sharma, 35, was on his way to the Press Club at Bhind on his bike when the dumper hit him from behind. He died on the spot. The dumper driver sped away after the incident.

Local journalists alleged it was a case of murder as Sharma had exposed the nexus between police and the mafia. They said he had been facing threat to his life for quite sometime now due to the exposes.

Sharma had submitted a letter to Bhind superintendent of police Prashant Khare in November last year, citing threat to his life from a sub-divisional officer of police and the mining mafia.

The journalist, who worked with News World channel, had apprehended that he would either be killed in a road accident or implicated under false charges.

Sharma had carried out a sting operation in July-August last year that was aired by his channel in October.

The SP had shifted some police officers and personnel after the sting was aired, but no disciplinary action was taken against them. Also, no security cover was provided to Sharma even after the threat perception, local journalists said.

He was an honest journalist. He exposed how police in the district are hand-in-glove with the mining mafia. First SP Anil Singh Kushwaha and then SP Prashant Khare took action against some police officers and personnel after the sting clip went viral on social media. After that, he started receiving death threats, said Satyanarayan Sharma, president of Bhind Press Club.

Sharma also said that CCTV footage accessed by police clearly showed the empty dumper following the victim for quite some time before hitting him and running over him.

Bhind SP Khare said, We are investigating the matter. The CCTV footages have been accessed. Police are also interrogating eye-witnesses. I cant say right now whether it was an accident or murder. This will be clear after investigation.Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan recently met a young boy with speech and mobility disability and helped him. The actor revealed details about the meeting at his house on his blog late Sunday night. Amitabh, who has just completed the Jodhpur schedule of Thugs of Hindostan, is currently in Mumbai.

During the regular Sunday meeting he holds for fans, Amitabh met a physically challenged young boy and was impressed with his determined poise.

Sharing details of the meeting, Amitabh wrote on his blog, Sundays are special .. and today was even more so ..I contributed towards a just cause .. a visitor at the gates in the evening among the crowds .. a differently challenged young boy .. I asked him to be brought in, he was without speech and mobility but a determined poise of one that had refused to give up. It was joy to witness the joy on his face. I asked him what he needed, he tugged at his shirt... clothes. I gave him a bundle of my own. He extended his delicate hand, rough and strong, because that is what he uses to move about, and I arranged fro him to be dropped home. My people did so and reported he was homeless and lived on the pavement out side a high rise in the suburbs, said the actor, adding that it is important for people to count their blessings.

Filled with gratitude after his meetings with fans who stand outside his home, Jalsa, in Mumbai every Sunday to get a glimpse of him, Big B posted his thoughts on his blog. What brings them here each Sunday is a mystery and a cause for mistaken identity... Surely they must mistake for another... surely... But no they come ...standing and waiting for hours before, just so they can wave at me and hope for a reciprocal gesture... That is all... Mostly the operation is valid and over within those minor minutes... and then back to the grind, he wrote.

Tearing oneself away from the formalities of celebrity is a task... I do not believe in it and never shall... others may wish to contribute and celebrate the tenure and so called contribution to cinema from me. But that shall never happen. It shall remain a closed chapter ... not to be opened ever, Amitabh further said in the blog.

Read the entire blog here

On the work front, Amitabh Bachchan is awaiting the release of Umesh Shuklas 102 Not Out that also stars Rishi Kapoor and is slated to hit theatres on May 4.

(With IANS inputs)

Follow @htshowbiz for moreBollywood actor Tiger Shroffs filmography mostly includes action films, but he has claimed signing up for Karan Johars Student of the Year 2 was no attempt to break any stereotypes.

I am trying something else with Student of the Year 2. Thats a complete contrast from Baaghi 2. I am getting bullied and beaten up. Here, it is the opposite, Tiger said.

Student of the Year 2: Karan Johar unveils first poster starring Tiger Shroff

Much before Tiger made his acting debut in 2014 with Heropanti, he was often seen doing daredevil stunts off-screen. After featuring in films such as Baaghi, A Flying Jatt and Munna Michael, the 28-year-old actor has cemented his position as an action star.

Tiger Shroff with filmmakers Rohit Shetty and Karan Johar. (IANS)

I dont have much action in the film (Student of the Year 2). I didnt choose it to break the stereotype. It was an honour to work with Dharma Productions. It is Karan Johars baby franchise, his priced possession and he is passing it on to me, so theres an expectation. I take huge pride in taking the legacy forward of Student of the Year, he added.

He was speaking at the launch of his exclusive workout format under his brand PROWL, in association with Cure.fit, a health and wellness startup. The workout, which comprises a unique mix of combat, dance, and functional fitness done to foot-tapping music, will be available for all members of cult.fit, the fitness vertical of Cure.fit.

Tiger Shroff on his new look for Baaghi 2: I was really nervous, opposed to the idea

In Baaghi 2, he will yet again be seen performing power-packed stunts. However, in SOTY 2, Tiger is likely to move away from his macho image and transform into a naive student. The film, a sequel to the hit 2012 Karan Johar directorial, will be helmed by Punit Malhotra.

Tiger Shroff, Disha Patani and director Ahmed Khan during a Baaghi 2 promotional programme in Mumbai. (IANS)

Tiger said Student of The Year 2 will give him a platform to showcase a different side. For me, its great as an actor to explore different facets. Ive never played a regular, normal lover boy. Its like a musical. If I get bullied there, the audience will be surprised. Suddenly after Baaghi 2, here I am getting bullied. So for me, thats scoring marks, he added.

Baaghi 2 is scheduled to be released this Friday.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreAlways around Salman Khan, and aware of his every little movement! Were not talking about any die-hard fan of the Bollywood star, but a man who can die for him  Salmans bodyguard Shera who has been the actors right-hand man for more than 20 years.

Jab tak zinda hoon, bhai ke saath rahunga (Ill accompany him till my last breath), says Shera, who fondly calls Salman bhai, much like most of the actors fans. I always tell people that they will never see me standing behind or next to bhai. I will be standing in front of him, looking out for any threat, he adds.

The strong bond that Shera and Salman share is no secret. The actor had even dedicated his 2011 film, Bodyguard, to him, something that Shera is eternally grateful about.

Over the years, Shera has become a celebrity in his own way, but for him, being popular is a secondary thing. Salmans safety is his priority, and he goes about shielding him from large crowds without any fear whatsoever. If there would be any fear, why would I take up this profession? says Shera.

And what about the female fans? How does he handle them? With love and respect. That is the only way to take of the ladies, he says with a smile.

Read: Sylvester Stallone wants to promote Race 3 but isnt sure who Salman Khan is

Shera also runs an agency  Tiger Security Services  that provides security to high-profile clients. It was recently honoured with the Best Security Agency in Asia award in Malaysia. He thanks Salman for all the support. Bhai has been family for so many years. He has seen me doing my business, and he is always there for me, he says.

Besides Salman, Sheras firm has provided security to international names such as Flash, Diana King, U2, Bryan Adams, Shaggy, Keanu Reeves, and Paris Hilton. Shera also provided security to Canadian pop star Justin Bieber during his Indian concert in May, 2017.

He recalls an incident while travelling with Bieber: We went to Gateway of India (in Mumbai) in the night, and to the slums the next day, the ones near Shivaji Nagar. Next time, I wanted to take him in a helicopter but he insisted on travelling in my car. He was using my car. He wanted to have coffee in a mall and he got down on Vashi road, to go to In orbit Mall. He went to Starbucks, and by the time he reached there, everything went haywire and people started gathering. Before panic could take over, I had to pull him back in the van and immediately book a room in a nearby hotel for his safety.

Read: Not Da-Bangg tour, internet is losing it as Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif sipped coffee from same mug. Watch video

Taking the responsibility of some of the most high-profile personalities in the world is not easy. Shera, therefore, has an elaborate system to recruit personnel in his company. I keep in mind the whole purpose behind security and the training I give to the personnel. I had gone to Germany and Poland to tie up with the companies for security system. It is all about providing better services. I travel around to keep comparing how their organisations work and how I can improve mine to bring forth the best, he says.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreBollywoods most romantic hero, Shah Rukh Khan had a sweet dinner date with his wife Gauri on Sunday. The actor and his interior designer wife enjoyed some alone time together, taking a break from their hectic lives.

Shah Rukh was on a holiday with son Abram in Switzerland a few days ago. Upon his return to Mumbai, he decided to give some well deserved treat to Gauri at Yauatcha restaurant in Bandra. Of course, the leading couple of Bollywood cannot really expect much of an alone time in public. The two were surrounded by several bodyguards at the restaurant.

The two were dressed casually and Shah Rukh was clicked talking to Gauri, by the paparazzi. Check out some pics and videos:

A post shared by Voompla (@voompla) on Mar 25, 2018 at 11:30pm PDT

A post shared by Monika Lang (@kiransrkfan) on Mar 26, 2018 at 4:07am PDT

A post shared by Monika Lang (@kiransrkfan) on Mar 26, 2018 at 4:06am PDT

Shah Rukh is currently working on his upcoming film Zero with Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma. Gauri, meanwhile, is busy with her interior designing store. She recently welcomed Kareena Kapoor at the store.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreSharing the second trailer of his stepbrother Ishaan Khatters debut film Beyond The Clouds, Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor has announced that acting is in their blood. A new trailer of acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidis India-set film Beyond The Clouds is out and

Beyond The Clouds marks the debut of Ishaan Khatter and Malavika Mohanan and the filmmakers claim the movie showcases that familial bonds are not bonded by blood but by love. Produced by Zee Studios and Namah Pictures, the film shows Ishaan and Malavika playing siblings Amir and Tara. Sharing the video, Shahid tweeted, Acting toh Khoon mein hai. Ise dekho. When did he grow up so much.

Acting toh Khoon mein hai. Ise dekho. When did he grow up so much. https://t.co/cnTY6arHgg  Shahid Kapoor (@shahidkapoor) March 26, 2018

Taking off from the first trailer where we saw Amir and Taras close bonding, the new video further throws light changing situations, and therefore equations between the two. It also depicts how human emotions are brought to the fore in crisis.

Human relationships, emotions and family form the base of every Majid Majidi film. With Beyond The Clouds, he has taken this belief up a notch showcasing family relationships not bonded by blood but by love. This trailer will give audiences a glimpse of these beautiful emotions through two very talented new faces. Zee Studios is proud to be presenting two exceptionally gifted actors, Ishaan and Malavika, to the Hindi film industry, under the direction of Majid Majidi, Sujay Kutty, Business Head, Zee Studios said in a statement.

Namah Pictures producer Shareen Mantri Kedia added the new trailer will take audiences into a beautiful world of relationships.

While co-producer Kishor Arora said the protagonists are going to take the industry by storm with their performance. Ishaans performance is completely uninhibited yet very nuanced. Malavika exudes grace despite the restrain she needed to have in her performance, he added.

With music by AR Rahman, cinematography by Anil Mehta and Hindi dialogues by Vishal Bhardwaj, Beyond The Clouds is set to release the world over and in India on April 20.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreCome April 1st and you may either be racking your brains for ideas to trick your friends, or rolling your eyes at the customary pranks your buddies pull on you. Because, how many more times can you expect them to cry of happiness when you drop in that text saying, Hey! I am getting married! on the WhatsApp group? And does your friend, pretending to be Amitabh Bachhan on the phone for the 7th year in a row, really think anyones buying it anymore? Time to go down a different route, isnt it?

Head over to the Bira 91 April Fools Fest, which brings together a host of festivities and adds a whole new dimension to the tradition. To be organised from March 31-April 1 at the NSIC Grounds in Okhla, New Delhi, it promises to lend an air of playfulness, sans any boring pranks, of course.

Heres a run-down of whats in store.

Season of cheer: 5 things to look forward to this Fools Day

1. Groove to some beats

If hip-hop is something you swear by, the fest is the place to be. Acclaimed rappers such as Divine Prabh Deep, and Raja Kumari will be belting out one hit after the other., Expect to also bear witness to the brilliance of DJ Ishani, one of the first female hip-hop DJs in India; MadStarBase, an international music collective representing US, UK, India, and Jamaica; DJ Uri, a renowned hip-hop artist; and DJ MoCity, a music entrepreneur. The cherry on the cake, however, is popular indie artiste Nucleya as the events Sunday headliner.

Season of cheer: 5 things to look forward to this Fools Day

2. Have a good laugh

What is April Fools Day if your jaws dont hurt from laughing? The comedy arena at the festival will ensure that you end up feeling just that. With stand-up comedians like Sumukhi Suresh, Aditi Mittal, Atul Khatri, Neeti Palta, and Aadar Malik gracing the stage, there will not be a moment of dullness. Sahil Shah, a founding member of East India Comedy, will also be performing at the event.

Season of cheer: 5 things to look forward to this Fools Day

3. Dig into a feast

With temperatures soaring, who can resist a tall glass of summer goodness? At the fest, take your pick from delectable concoctions such as Basil Blonde, an infusion of ginger honey syrup, basil leaves, and lime, or the Mai Mai, a mix of orgeat, lime, pineapples, oranges, salt, grenadine, both topped up with original Bira 91 flavours.

The festival will also offer gastronomic delights from the kitchens of Ammas Haus, Fat Lulus, and Big Fat Sandwich. You can drop by Eggjactly when you feel like an omelette, or dig into some smoked ribs at The Grumpy Old Man when you are too exhausted. And, when youve had your fill, you can wash everything down with some milk shake from Keventers. Wait. Theres moreice cream from Minus 30 and premium melt-in-the-mouth chocolate from All Things Chocolate. Dare to do even more? Treat yourself to some spicy food curated by Bira 91 itself!

Season of cheer: 5 things to look forward to this Fools Day

4. Get a unique theatre experience

Ever attended a theatre performance where you had to walk or move around, rather than sit? Well, thats immersive theatre for you. Dating back to the medieval times, this art form entails putting audiences in adapted environments for a more fulfilling experience. Head over to the fest, and you can catch such a performance by Crow, a theater collective from Mumbai.

Season of cheer: 5 things to look forward to this Fools Day

5. Unleash the shopaholic in you

Any festival is incomplete if you dont get to lay your hands on some exciting merchandise. At the Bira 91 fest, however, you can shop as much as you like, what with the company offering its branded glasses, mugs, T-shirts, and growlers for sale. You can also buy the newly launched Bira 91 Hot Sauce at the festival. Quick tip: start saving now!

With so many things to look forward to, the fest is something that you just cant afford to miss. Book your tickets here right away, and make your April Fools Day memorable.Uber sold its Southeast Asian business to rival Grab on Monday, ending a bruising battle between the ride-hailing behemoths and marking the US firms latest retreat from international markets.

Singapore-based Grab is taking over the ride-sharing and food delivery operations of Uber in the region, with the California-headquartered company to receive a 27.5% stake in the business in return.

The sale is Ubers latest withdrawal from a market where it had faced tough competition, as new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi seeks to stem huge losses and move past a series of scandals.

After a fierce battle, Uber sold its China operations to rival Didi Chuxing in 2016 in return for a stake, and last year the US firm merged in Russia with the taxi-hailing app of internet giant Yandex.

The deal with Grab  which operates in eight Southeast Asian countries  is similar to the one struck with Didi, and ends a fight for market share in a region that is home to some 650 million people and an increasingly affluent middle class.

Todays acquisition marks the beginning of a new era, said Grab chief executive Anthony Tan. The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region.

Khosrowshahi, who is joining Grabs board as part of the agreement, said: This deal is a testament to Ubers exceptional growth across Southeast Asia over the last five years. It will help us double down on our plans for growth.

The value of the deal, which Grab said was the largest ever acquisition by a Southeast Asian internet company, was not disclosed.

Grab has long been the dominant force in ride-hailing in Southeast Asia and speculation mounted that a deal with Uber was on the cards after Japanese financial titan Softbank invested huge sums in the US firm.

Softbank is also a major investor in Grab, and is known for pushing for consolidation in the global ride-hailing industry, which has been losing billions of dollars a year due to turf wars.

Fewer choices for commuters

As part of Mondays deal, Grab is combining Ubers food delivery service in the region with its own and plans to expand it to more countries.

While both sides said the move would benefit customers, analysts raised concerns a lack of competition could push up prices.

Industry consolidation will mean fewer choices for commuters and fares are likely to trend higher over time as the remaining players seek to improve their profitability longer term, Corrine Png, a transport analyst from Singapore-based research firm Crucial Perspective, told AFP.

Grab, launched in 2012, has poured money into expanding its regional fleet and now operates in 195 cities in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.

As well as linking customers up with private cars, it has services offering motorbike taxis in some countries, regular taxis and carpooling, as well as food and package delivery.

Before the acquisition, Uber operated in 64 cities in eight Southeast Asian countries.

Competition between ride-hailing apps has been heating up in Southeast Asia, with the market forecast to grow more than five times to $13.1 billion by 2025, according to a 2016 report by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek.

Uber is the largest firm of its kind with a presence in more than 600 cities, but it has been rocked by scandals and is facing fierce competition from rivals in Asia and Europe.

Chief executive Travis Kalanick was ousted in June last year after missteps including allegations of executive misconduct, a toxic workplace atmosphere and potentially unethical competitive practices.

New boss Khosrowshahi has vowed to turn the company around as Uber gears up for a 2019 public share offering.

But he has a fight on his hands  Ubers losses in 2017 grew to $4.5 billion from the $2.8 billion the company lost a year earlier.Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan is the new Taj Mahal.

From Apple Inc. to Google, when global CEOs want to showcase their commitment to the Indian market, they no longer look for photo-ops against the famous marble mausoleum of a long-dead emperors wife. Instead they take a selfie with Indias reigning movie king.

Dara Khosrowshahi did just that last month on his maiden trip to Asia as Uber Technologies Inc.s new chief executive officer.

This is the part where the the fancy CEO tries to look cool by posing with Bollywood superstar @iamsrk, the King Khan himself. Note to self: gotta work on my haircut ... pic.twitter.com/K8eliu0aa9  dara khosrowshahi (@dkhos) February 23, 2018

Tellingly, Khosrowshahi gave Singapore -- Ubers regional headquarters -- a miss on that visit, reinforcing speculation that the ride-hailing app would sell its Southeast Asian business to Grab. The deal was announced on Monday. Grab is taking over Ubers operations and assets in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In exchange, Uber gets a 27.5% stake in its closely held rival; Khosrowshahi will join Grabs board.

Since the negotiations earlier this month were said to be for a stake in the high teens or 20%, according to a Bloomberg News report, Uber appears to have done pretty well.

Still, the real victory unquestionably belongs to Masayoshi Sons SoftBank Group Corp., the single-biggest investor in both companies. As I wrote earlier this month, by engineering a retreat for the US company before any more bloodletting for market share, Son ensures that six-year-old Grab will emerge as an early champion in a winner-takes-all business.

A faster path to profit for Uber could also boost its valuation ahead of a planned IPO next year. But at what cost? Having already surrendered China to Didi Chuxing, beating a retreat from Southeast Asia is a precursor to perhaps losing India, the lone remaining jewel in Ubers once-flourishing Asian empire.

In India, once again, SoftBank is the largest investor in Ubers main rival, Ola. Competition between the two apps has become ridiculous. For all the PR gobbledygook on how happy Uber and Ola drivers are, the reality is that many who took out bank loans to acquire new cars are hurting badly. Theres a glut of ride-hailing cars; wages have collapsed. Banks are collecting on DUD, -- my moniker for distressed Uber debt -- by repossessing vehicles.

| Read: High margins vs driver incentives: The Ola, Uber business model

Ride-hailing drivers recently mobilized a strike using WhatsApp message groups. As they stayed home, Mumbais traffic was blissfully light for at least two days last week. Such is the extent of oversupply.

Son will be doing disgruntled drivers a favour by taking Uber out of the equation so that Ola can raise prices. Resistance will be futile. Ola is expanding in Australia, and for now SoftBank hasnt stopped it from encroaching into Ubers territory. Maybe that will be a bargaining chip in peace talks, whenever they ensue.

Just as the fall of Singapore was the beginning of the end of Britains sway in Asia, so will ceding the city make it very hard now for Uber to hold on to India, no matter whos in the selfies. Bloomberg Gadfly

(This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.)At the outset, heres a disclaimer. These lines havent been written to favour or oppose any politician, person or organisation. These are an expression of the emotions evoked in an average Indian based on what he saw on TV.

I felt tearful when I saw visuals of clothes and skeletal remains on TV on Tuesday evening. Thousands of kilometres away from the Indian mainland, these were what was left of those Indians who were working in the desolate desert to make a living. A twist of fate made sure that only their bones came back to their homeland.

For the last three years, a few questions have been bothering the national psyche. Were the 39 Indians missing from Mosul alive, or had the murderers from the Islamic State (IS) made them a victim in their quest for the blood of innocents? Harjit Masih, who returned from Mosul, claimed he, too, had been held hostage with them. That 39 people were shot in front of his eyes, but Masih escaped saying that he was a Muslim. His claim appeared to be flimsy. Do the killers from IS spare someone just on the basis of being a Muslim? This is unlikely. In fact, they have killed more Muslims than kafirs (non-believers). Religion has never been an obstacle to their extremist frenzy and will never be one, since they are themselves involved in irreligious acts.

Masihs claims sparked a debate in Parliament in which the Opposition asked why the government wasnt declaring that his compatriots were dead. I am not supporting with the State, but had we taken Masihs claims at face value without asking for evidence and God forbid, had one or two of the missing men returned, wouldnt it have made the government a laughing stock in the eyes of the world? It is a parliamentary tradition that whatever is spoken is spoken with great responsibility. Sushma Swaraj carried forward the tradition last week.

I dont want to get into the details of the ensuing outcry. The Opposition has its own compulsions, but General VK Singhs efforts deserve a mention here. Last July, Mosul was liberated from the killer grip of the IS. Soon after that VK Singh was given the responsibility of searching for the missing Indians.

I dont want to repeat newspaper reportage, but it is worth wondering how challenging and expensive the search mission was. In the absence of prior arrangements, one hears that General Singh had to sleep on the floor along with other soldiers one evening. If another minister of state for foreign affairs has been involved in a similar mission with so much implicit danger, its not public knowledge. Before this, in another arduous mission in Yemen, Singh had rescued 4,640 Indians and 960 people of other nationalities. Among those rescued were American, British, Russian and French nationals. These countries are often named to criticise governments in New Delhi. But this time, we proved to be their saviours. Will we get some respite from these perennial naysayers? Looking at the mood of our formidable politicians, it doesnt appear so.

It is a well-known fact that even before this, governments have been rescuing Indians from conflict zones, but this is perhaps the first time that so much effort has been made to look for the remains of Indians. Watching the footage available on TV, I was suddenly reminded of the Hollywood film The Water Diviner. In the film, Russell Crowe moves heaven and earth looking for his three sons who have disappeared. India also has a long history of such missions. Now that the last rites of these 39 Indians have been carried out, the question is: When will Indias retribution against Isis come?

All democratic governments in the world, including India, are grappling with this demonic organisation, but instead of the government, I would like to know the answer to this question from our society: Why dont we take a pledge that we wont let organisations such as Isis find their feet anywhere in the country? Whenever IS flags are waved in Kashmir or any other part of the country, I consider this a failure not of the government but of society. As many as 39 of its children met with an untimely end and their blood spilled in Iraqs sandy terrain. And at the end, a question for our parliamentarians: Honourable sirs, when will livelihood be made available to the common man? Until they they can earn a decent living in their own country, such heart-rending incidents will continue to take place.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief Hindustan

letters@hindustantimes.comThe sixth and the last day of the Uttarakhand assemblys budget session on Monday witnessed noisy scenes as Congress and the ruling BJP indulged in a blame game over long pending Lokayukta Bill. While Congress demanded a debate, the BJP accused it of playing politics over the proposed anti-graft law.

Soon after the House assembled for the day, state Congress chief Pritam Singh demanded a debate on the Lokayukta Bill under rule 310. Speaker Prem Chand Aggarawal, however, said he would permit a debate only under rule 58.

Singh, however, stuck to his demand Its (Lokayukta Bill) an issue of great public importance. We therefore demand that the Chair allow a debate under the rule 310, he said. Supporting his demand, Leader of Opposition Indira Hridayesh said, We will not let the Question Hour start until a debate on the proposed law is allowed under the rule 310.

Meanwhile, the Congress legislators holding placards, trooped to the well of the House raising slogans. Hridayesh said the BJP, in its vision document for development released ahead of the 2017 assembly polls, had clearly stated that the Lokayukta law would be enacted within 100 days of coming to power. Later, the assemblys select committee made its recommendations for the anti-graft law, after which it had been duly tabled in the assembly. The government therefore must allow a debate on the Lokayukta law under rule 310 and also make an announcement on the floor of the House that it would soon be enacted.

Cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat, meanwhile, rose from his chair and dubbed the Congress as a party of thieves. Hridayesh retorted by saying that the Congress was a party whose leaders made innumerable sacrifices during Indias Independence struggle. Let the government make a clarification on the floor of the House that it will enact the anti-graft law, she said. Hridayesh hit out at chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat saying that on one hand he keeps issuing statements about his governments zero tolerance for corruption and on the other fights shy of enacting the anti-graft law.

Rebutting the allegations, finance minister Prakash Pant accused the previous Congress government of keeping the Lokayukta Bill in abeyance. The BJP government had enacted the anti-graft law in 2011, in which it had been clearly stipulated that it would be enforced within the next 180 days, he said.

Pant alleged that the Congress government got the Lokayukta law amended, which had been duly ratified by the President of India. Harak Singh Rawat waded in and again dubbed the Congress as a party of thieves. Later, the (Congress) government put the anti-graft law on the abeyance, he alleged.

His statement added fuel to fire with the Opposition members constantly shouting slogans while sitting in the well. Meanwhile, marshals surrounded the irate opposition members. As the din continued the Speaker adjourned the House for 30 minutes at around 11am. This was extended by 20 minutes.

Earlier, the BJP members alleged that the Congress, when it was in power, failed to get the Lokayukta Bill enacted in the House.

When the House again met at around 12:30pm, the Opposition members again rushed into the well holding placards with pro-Lokayukta and anti-government slogans. However, House proceedings went on despite the Opposition members repeatedly raising slogans in favour of the anti-graft law.The state government is soon going to outsource the administration and operation of the district hospital in Tehri along with two nearby community health centres (CHCs) to private players.

This, the government said, is being done to rope in private players to strengthen medical facilities in the hills.

Yugal Kishore Pant, additional secretary (health), said, Under the project, the Tehri district hospital and two nearby CHCs will be completely outsourced.

The private players will be given the responsibility to run the hospitals. We have listed the facilities that are being sought from them, along with the kind of manpower required.

He said tenders for this have been floated and that the department was expecting a healthy response.

On Saturday, an orientation session was also held in New Delhi and a pre-bid meet is being organised in Dehradun on Thursday.

The project is part of the World Bank-financed project -- Uttarakhand Health System Development Project -- that aims to boost health infrastructure in the hill state.

The move comes at a time when the public health sector in the state is crippled with scarcity of doctors.

The NITI Aayog, in its latest report on the state of health care in the country, revealed that 60% posts of specialists in Uttarakhand were lying vacant.

Under the project, district hospitals will be strengthened through a cluster approach wherein two nearby CHCs will also be brought under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

The health department will hand over the building and all equipment at the district hospital to the private partner.

Besides this, the entire manpower will also be removed. The private player will bring in their specialists and run the hospital.

The private partner will also extend some services to the two nearby CHCs, besides running a mobile ambulance between the CHCs and the district hospital.

The existing staff at the district hospital will be shifted to other hospitals where there is a scarcity of health professionals, said Pant.

Health officials privy to the development said once the district hospital was handed over to the private player, the department will appoint a medical superintendent who will be tasked to monitor the day-to-day activities.

Only those private players, who were running at least a 100-bedded hospital elsewhere, will be eligible to participate in the tender, they said.

Meanwhile, the move has also drawn a positive response from the industry.

Virendra Kalra, co-chairperson of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Uttarakhand chapter, said, Its a welcome move. The state government is not in a position to take care of public health on its own. Private players need to be roped in.

The private sector should have the freedom to operate and ensure that the quality control are in place. The government must provide infrastructure and monitor activities of the hospital.A mother of seven, a science graduate, a property dealer and a man looking for a job  the profiles of Delhis contract killers are diverse. For as little as Rs 40,000, some of these dreaded murderers for hire can fire a gun or wield a knife.

At least 50 contract killing cases were solved by the Delhi police in 2017. Not all of the accused had previous criminal records  some were first-time offenders with dreams of becoming rich overnight. The solved cases have offered the police more insight into the people who kill for a living in the city, and has led them to realise that it is hard to find a pattern.

Delhi does have not an organised contract-killing gang such as the ones in Mumbai or other cities, but the number of murders here are more in comparison with other metros. Petty criminals are willing to pull the trigger for as little as Rs 40,000, said a senior crime branch officer, who asked not to be named.

In February last year, for example, four men who had taken the biggest murder contract in the Delhi police records were arrested. Sushil, Amit, Sunil, and Ramesh, known only by their first names, had allegedly received around Rs 4 crore  Rs 1 crore each  for the murder of Haryana-based gangster Sandeep Badsawania and his two aides by his rival Ram Karan.

It was a high-profile contract killing planned by the gangsters rival, said the officer.

Sushil worked at a rice mill, while the others masqueraded as property dealers. The four were involved in nine murders between 2016 and 2017. Police said a total of 40 people were involved in Badsawanias murder. Informers monitored his movements for months, private detectives helped dig call data records, and a driver drove over 400 kilometres to dispose of the body.

While his murder was a battle over turf, the reasons for contract killings in Delhi are myriad  from jealousy to failed marriage, property dispute to simple rage. But the most common motive, police said, is a relationship gone sour. One of the earliest contract killings recorded in Delhi was a result of a failed marriage  the murder of Defence Colony resident Vidya Jain in September 1973. Jains husband, eye surgeon Narendra Singh Jain, had paid his wifes killers Rs 25,000. He was convicted in 1977.

Last November, a woman hired Bareilly resident Abdul Munnar, 33, to murder her husband. Munnar, a trained sharpshooter shot his target in his leg after receiving just Rs 50,000 of the Rs 5 lakh he was promised.

Deputy commissioner of police (south) Romil Baaniya, who arrested Munnar, said the man was awaiting full payment of the contract money before killing the husband. People like Munnar are trained killers with a crime record. He has a record of taking murder contracts. He has been in prison more than 10-15 times and makes friends inside. They know the system well. In 2015, he was arrested for taking contract from a jailed IAS officer to murder a man, said an officer.

Not every hired hitman has a record like Munnar. One contract killer who grabbed the headlines last year was a jobless physiotherapy graduate who killed his target by injecting him with a poisonous drug. The physiotherapist Prem Kumar, who was paid ?5 lakh for the murder, told the police that he needed the money to fund his wedding. Kumar injected a lethal dose of two drugs to execute the murder in what was his first crime.

Last September, the police solved the murder of a milk vendor in east Delhis Kondli by arresting the mans wife and two contract killers, Pramod Kumar (24) and Vivek Kumar (21). According to their interrogation report, the two were labourers working at a shoe factory, who murdered the man for Rs 40,000. It was their first crime.

Retired IPS officer Prakash Singh, who served as the director general of police in Uttar Pradesh and Assam, said: Criminals taking money to commit crimes have increased over the years. This is a change in the values. Earlier, people worked hard to make money, there was no shortcut. Now because of everything around us, some do not mind taking a shortcut to become rich.

Former Delhi commissioner Ved Marwah said that though the phenomenon of professionals taking money to kill is spread across the world, first-timers taking money to kill shows the decline in social values. Contract killers are professionals and are everywhere in the world. But first-timers indulging in such crimes shows degeneration of social values. We have to strengthen the criminal justice system, raise the threshold of social behaviour and maintain higher standards.

A look at the antecedents of contract killers shows that most of them are from villages of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. On April 24 last year, police arrested eight contract killers while they were on their way to allegedly murder the owner of a hotelier in Noida. The men were property dealers and gym trainers from Baliawas village in Gurgaon and from some villages in Gautam Budh Nagar.

CASES IN WHICH MEN WERE HIRED TO KILL OCTOBER 6, 2017

Murder of 4 women and a security guard in Shahdaras Mansarovar Park Two contract killers Nitin and Deepak were paid Rs 2 lakh each. They had three cases of robbery and dacoity against them

Two contract killers Nitin and Deepak were paid Rs 2 lakh each. They had three cases of robbery and dacoity against them JUNE 17, 2017

Murder of underworld don Chhota Rajan Milkmans son Junaid Chaudhary was paid Rs 1.5 lakh to kill Rajan. However, he was arrested before the crime. Chaudhary had two cases of robbery

Milkmans son Junaid Chaudhary was paid Rs 1.5 lakh to kill Rajan. However, he was arrested before the crime. Chaudhary had two cases of robbery MAY 20, 2017

Murder of BSP leader Chaudhary Munawwar Hassan, his wife and 4 children Munnawars friend hired two men  Feroz and Zulfikar  for Rs 3 lakh each. The two were unemployed and had cases of robbery

Munnawars friend hired two men  Feroz and Zulfikar  for Rs 3 lakh each. The two were unemployed and had cases of robbery MAY 16, 2016

New Delhi Municipal Councils legal officer MM Khan shot dead outside his house Four Jamia Nagar residents  Israil, Saleem Khan, Amir Alvi, Anwar Owais  were paid Rs 3.5 lakh in total by a city-based hotelier

There are also some who take contracts to get rid of the vicious circle of court cases. On the list of most wanted men in Delhi is a 62-year-old woman, Basiran. The mother of seven, whose sons are jailed for crimes ranging from robbery, extortion, murder and snatching, took a contract of Rs 60,000 last September. The woman kept Rs 18,000 to pay for her jailed sons legal fees, and gave the rest to two unemployed men to stab the target, burn his face, and bury him in the jungles of south Delhi.On Friday, with the election process for 59 seats across 17 states completed, the complexion of the Rajya Sabha changed. The National Democratic Alliance now has a comfortable edge in the Upper House, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) having the highest number of members in the House. But the ruling alliance is still short of a legislative majority. The election process was marked by three features. One, 33 candidates in 10 states were elected unopposed  as per the legislative strength of the parties backing them in the assemblies. Two, out of the 26 seats for which polling took place, the BJP won 12 and the Congress won six. And finally, the contest was sharpest in a single seat in Uttar Pradesh. The Bahujan Samaj Party candidate was supported by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress. Coming soon after the SPs win in the bypolls, this was seen as a test for the opposition alliance. But the BJP was able to win not only its eight assured seats from the state, but also get this additional seat, primarily through defections and cross-voting. While the Opposition has blamed the BJP of misusing its State power, the partys morale has recovered somewhat with the win.

But the important question to ask, at a time when there remains an impasse in Parliament with no business being conducted, is not who won, but what is happening in the house of which they will now become a part. The architects of Indias constitution envisaged the Rajya Sabha as a council of elders, a House which would not be guided by immediate political passions and tactical political calculations. It was envisaged as the House which, because of its nature, while being representative of popular political aspirations, was not hostage to it. But unfortunately, there is a tendency in the Rajya Sabha to often replicate the features of the Lok Sabha. And so with members in the well and constant disruption, the House, too, has seen little business in this session. Chairman and Vice President, M Venkaiah Naidu, has emphasised to members the need for orderly conduct and even rebuked them, but to little effect. The post-recess budget session now threatens to be a complete washout. There is still a little over a week to go. Before new elected members are sworn in, the Rajya Sabha must rise beyond partisan politics and show the way to the directly elected representatives.

On Friday, with the election process for 59 seats across 17 states completed, the complexion of the Rajya Sabha changed. The National Democratic Alliance now has a comfortable edge in the upper house, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) having the highest number of members in the house. But the ruling alliance is still short of a legislative majority. The election process was marked by three features. One, 33 candidates in 10 states were elected unopposed  as per the legislative strength of the parties backing them in the state assemblies. Two, out of the 26 seats for which polling took place, the BJP won 12 and the Congress won six.

And finally, the contest was sharpest in a single seat in Uttar Pradesh. The Bahujan Samaj Party candidate was supported by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress. Coming soon after the SPs win in the by-polls, this was seen as a test for the Opposition alliance. But the BJP was able to win not only its eight assured seats from the state, but also get this additional seat, primarily through defections and cross-voting. While the Opposition has blamed the BJP of misusing its State power, the partys morale has recovered somewhat with the win.

But the important question to ask, at a time when there remains an impasse in Parliament with no business being conducted, is not who won, but what is happening in the House of which they will now become a part. The architects of Indias Constitution envisaged the Rajya Sabha as a council of elders, a House which would not be guided by immediate political passions and tactical political calculations. It was envisaged as the House which, because of its nature, while being representative of popular political aspirations, was not hostage to it. But unfortunately, there is a tendency in the Rajya Sabha to often replicate the features of the Lok Sabha.

And so with members in the well and constant disruption, the House, too, has seen little business in this session. Chairman and Vice-President, M Venkaiah Naidu, has emphasised to members the need for orderly conduct and even rebuked them, but to little effect. The post-recess budget session now threatens to be a complete washout. There is still a little over a week to go. Before new elected members are sworn in, the Rajya Sabha must rise beyond partisan politics and show the way to the directly elected representatives.Jules Verne, who died on March 24 in 1905, is the worlds second most translated author (thats less than Agatha Christie and more than William Shakespeare) and widely known as one of the fathers of science fiction. In a series of more than 50 books  read mostly in translation  known as voyages extraordinaires (extraordinary journeys), Verne created some of the most amazing stories of adventure and science that continue to inspire scientists and writers alike. So much so, that in 2008, an unmanned cargo resupply craft that was sent to the International Space Station was named the Jules Verne ATV, which carried two original manuscripts by Verne.

The cultural impact of the French writer, thanks to translations, goes much beyond a solely Francophone readership. In spite of the fact that early English translations of Vernes work were widely known to be shoddy and even to have omitted some of the best passages, his legacy in English has managed to endure. In a rush to get what were seen as lucrative books out to more readers, publishers lost much of the nuance and beauty of Vernes writing. It has since been found that different translated editions of the same book had widely different characters and sometimes even different plot-lines, leading one critic to lament that the English-speaking world has never had a fair chance to know the real Jules Verne. The importance of good and accurate translation becomes clear when it is noted that in English translations, Vernes work was seen as being somewhat casual in its technical accuracy and had been relegated to being childrens books; while in European circles, his work was celebrated for its scientific rigour and his ability to incorporate romance and drama into authentic facts and figures.

Great figures of literature, from Verne to Haruki Murakami, have been read and enjoyed across the world in translation. It is only in translation that many great works are made accessible to people in different regions of the world. Responsible and accurate translations make it possible to bring to life an exotic French adventure under the sea to an obscure village school in Tamil Nadu, inspiring perhaps, a child to become a marine biologist. The power of literature and imagination is multiplied manifold by the efforts of good translators. As important as writers are, translators must also be given their due as those who manage to make adventure and inspiration accessible to more and more people.Students said on Monday the Central Board of Secondary Educations Class 12 economics paper had some tricky questions but overall the paper was scoring and that they completed it on time.

Lucknow

Students in Lucknow found the economics paper based on concepts and one that required core knowledge of the subject.

They said the difficulty level of the paper was moderate and that it scoring in most of the sections. Questions carrying one mark were tricky and the long answer questions were direct, they added.

Mann Agarwal and Mann Awasthi of GD Goenka Public School said the paper was easy. We attempted all questions and did complete the paper in time, they added.

The questions were average except a few tricky ones. Doubtful over a one mark question otherwise a cent percent score is expected, Adhya Aren of the same school said.

Nikhil Vasishth of City International School also said the paper was average and that he was satisfied with his answers. According to Akhil, the paper was average and he was able to finish his paper well before time.

All those who were regular with the subject would have been able to solve the paper in a better way, Nikhil said.

As per teachers guidance, I managed to solve the paper and tried to give my 100%, Zaid said.

The paper was as it should be. For hard workers, it was a treat to eyes but few questions were tricky. It was not lengthy at all, Dhruv another student of CIS, said.

Sugandha Singh, an economics teacher at City International School, said the numerical questions related to the macro portion was tricky but manageable.

Bhopal

Students in Madhya Pradeshs capital said some questions were tricky but overall the paper was easy and they expect to score well.

Insa Ahmad of Kendriya Vidyalaya No 1 said she found the paper easy and short. I completed it before time, she added.

Some questions in the second section were tricky but overall the paper was easy. I am expecting a good score in the exam, Ankita Malviya, a Green Valley Public School student, said.

Bank Officers Public Higher Secondary Schools Harsh Sharma said a few questions were difficult and tricky and that it was a real test for students.

I am happy because I did a thorough study and answered all the questions, he added.

Allahabad

Rupa Chakravorty, a teacher of economics at Gangagurukulam School, said the paper was balanced and easier than expected. She said that her students were a bit relaxed because this year 20 marks were allocated to practical exam and 80 marks to the theory section for the first time.

The paper divided into two parts, including macro and micro economics, and was well prepared and in accordance to syllabus. The numerical part was not as tough as given in two pre-board exams (by the school). Questions on Reserve Bank, indifferent curve, market policy, etc were also easy to answer, Chakravorty added.

Alpona Dey, principal of the school and an economics teacher, said four questions of one marks each besides questions pertaining to aggregate demand, national income, market form, producer and consumer equilibrium carrying six marks each were easy and scoring.

Patna

Students and teachers in Bihars capital said the paper was easier than last years and that a few questions from the macro economics section were a bit difficult.

Niloo, a teacher at Notre Dame Academy, said that it was a balanced paper overall.

Dehradun

In Dehradun, students of Scholars Home School said the questions were simple and easy. So far, it was the easiest question paper. I hope to secure the best, Scholars Home Schools Akshi Chhetri said.

Chhetris schoolmate Sakshi said they were extremely happy to receive such a good paper.

Their principal, Chhaya Khanna, said the question paper was simple and that the students response was good.

The CBSE Class 12 board exams started on March 5 and will end on on April 12. This year, 11,86,306 students are appearing for the Class 12 exams conducted at 4,138 centres in India and 71 venues abroad.

(With inputs from Rajeev Mullick in Lucknow, Shruti Tomar in Bhopal, Kenneth John in Allahabad, Nandini in Patna and Nihi Sharma in Dehradun)Students in Madhya Pradeshs capital Bhopal, who appeared for the Class 12 economics examination of the Central Board of Secondary Education on Monday, said some questions were tricky but overall the paper was easy and they expect to score well.

Insa Ahmad of Kendriya Vidyalaya No 1 said she found the paper easy and short.

I completed it before time, she added.

Some questions in the second section were tricky but overall the paper was easy. I am expecting a good score in the exam, Ankita Malviya, a Green Valley Public School student, said.

Bank Officers Public Higher Secondary Schools Harsh Sharma said a few questions were difficult and tricky and that it was a real test for students.

I am happy because I did a thorough study and answered all the questions, he added.

The CBSE Class 12 board exams started on March 5 and will end on on April 12. This year, 11,86,306 students are appearing for the Class 12 exams conducted at 4,138 centres in India and 71 venues abroad.

(with inputs from Mujeeb Faruqui)Staring at failure in the board exams and in dire need of a high school or intermediate pass certificate, several examinees have made bizarre appeals to evaluators and have even tried to bribe them for lenient evaluation for a certification from the UP Board.

The appeals written in the answer scripts range from asking evaluators to consider the examinee as his or her own daughter to a love affair being the excuse for not having studied well for the exam and yet desiring a pass grade.

Virtually every appeal begs for pass marks even without the requisite answers penned by the examinee in the recently concluded UP Boards high school and intermediate examinations. Evaluators would have heavenly rewards besides blessings of the examinee as well as his family for the favour.

For example, in an answer sheet of intermediate Hindi subject evaluated at CAV Inter College evaluation center, a girl has penned an emotional appeal to the evaluator saying that if she was the latters daughter, would he or she have failed her?

With folded hands I request you to forgive me. I am from a poor family and have saved this money by stitching clothes. I did not have books for studies. I had to make do with other peoples books. I implore you to pass me, the message reads in the answer sheet.

In another answer sheet the examinee blames his love life for his poor performance. Sir I studied till high school sincerely and got good marks. But after falling in love with Pooja, I could not study well for this exam as the love story distanced me from studies. Sir, very, very sorry for writing this, writes another examinee but shies away from begging for marks.

According to Lal Mani Diwedi, state general secretary of Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh (UPMSS) and a teacher in a UP Board school in Allahabad, the Board had succeeded in its anti-copying mission and appeals to evaluators by examines in answer sheets for giving them pass marks were proof of it.

Examines have appealed for marks to evaluators citing different reasons for not having performed well. Some examines even lauded CM Yogi Adityanaths decision to check copying in UP Board exams, he said.

In an answer sheet of Chemistry at KP Inter college evaluation center, the examinee has penned a couplet-cum-appeal for the evaluator stating Chitti Chitti ja sir ke pass, sir ki marzi, fail karein ya pass. He further mentions: Guruji pass kar de.

At the Government Girls Inter College, an evaluator is greeted with a heart rendering appeal, I come from a very poor family and lost my father very early. I am forced to work and look after the needs of my siblings. I beg you to pass me. It would be a great favour to me and my family.

Appeals of all kinds are being found in answer sheets. Some appeal to your heart while others sound fake. But nothing can be done as we award marks based on just the answers they are expected to write for the questions given in the question papers, said an evaluator requesting anonymity.

Some examinees have even tried to bribe evaluators who have found currency notes of denominations from Rs 10 to Rs 100 in the answer sheets.

The evaluation of over five crore answer sheets of UP Boards high school and intermediate examinations commenced on March 17 under CCTV vigil at 248 evaluation centers in the state. Around 1.40 lakh teachers are evaluating the answer scripts. The evaluation is scheduled to be completed in a period of 15 days.

A total of 66.4 lakh candidates had registered for UP board examinations including 36.6 lakh for high school and 29.8 lakh for intermediate. However, due to strict anti copying measures, 11,27,815 examinees left the exams midway while 1,146 were caught using unfair means.American designer and celebrity DJ Virgil Abloh is take over at Louis Vuitton, the brand said Monday, in a dramatic shake-up at the top of mens fashion. The appointment of rap star Kanye Wests longtime creative director to the French luxury label shows the massive impact street style is now having on fashion.

Abloh, 37, a former architect, who has won plaudits for his own Off-White label, posted a picture of a vintage Louis Vuitton travel chest to his 1.6 million Instagram followers to announce the news. It is an honour for me to accept the position of mens artistic director for Louis Vuitton, he said in a statement released by the brand. I find the heritage and creative integrity of the house are key inspirations and will look to reference them both while drawing parallels to modern times, he added.

Abloh takes over from British designer Kim Jones, and will stage his first Vuitton show during Paris mens fashion week in June, the label said. He looks set to continue Jones high-profile hook-ups with street style labels, with Jones famously teaming up with New York street brand Supreme.

Abloh -- who has an address book full of celebrity friends that goes from the Kardashian clan to the art world -- is responsible for some of the most sought-after trainers of the moment. The Ten design his Off-White label did for Nike has reportedly sold for as much as $2,000 (1,600 euros) a pair, with his Air Jordan 1s on sale for up to 950 euros on eBay.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreA pinch of powdered chimpanzee bone, some gecko saliva, a dash of vulture brain. These are not the ingredients of a fairytale witches brew, but some of the prized substances helping drive the multi-billion dollar illegal trade in animal parts touted to cure anything from a hangover or asthma, to cancer and AIDS.

Along with better-known products, such as rhino horn, pangolin scales, and tiger bone, dealers do a brisk trade in some more obscure ones too  dried seahorse, sloth claws, manta ray gills, and macaque embryos. Many are creatures listed as endangered or threatened.

And while some of the products are key constituents in centuries-old traditional cures prescribed by healers in Asia and Africa, others are fictional cure-alls sold by cynical quacks, experts say. We do see modern-day snake oil salesman, said John Scanlon, secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

In 1960, there were an estimated 1,00,000 black rhino in Africa  today there are fewer 28,000 rhinos of all species left in Africa and Asia. (Shutterstock)

While stressing we will never criticize any traditional practices, he condemned people who are promoting certain wildlife products as having properties that have no association with traditional medicine. Theyre really preying on people in very vulnerable situations. These include peddlers of rhino horn to cure cancer  an unproven claim that has contributed to the decimation of these majestic beasts. Sudan, the worlds last male northern white rhino, died in Kenya this week.

In 1960, there were an estimated 1,00,000 black rhino in Africa  today there are fewer 28,000 rhinos of all species left in Africa and Asia, according to a 2016 UN World Wildlife Crime Report. The current rhino poaching crisis, which began around 2007... does have its origins in bogus medicinal use, said Richard Thomas of TRAFFIC, which monitors wild animal trade.

There is no scientific basis for the belief that rhino horns can cure cancer. (Shutterstock)

No evidence

A surge in demand in Vietnam is ascribed to a senior politician claiming in the mid-2000s that rhino horn cured his cancer. This has no basis in scientific fact, but was almost certainly the urban myth that led to the crisis, said Thomas.

As incomes have increased in Asia, so has demand for rhino horn, which can sell for tens of thousands of dollars per kilo. Today, rich people us it as a tonic, even for hangovers, and as a display of wealth. And although there is a popular myth in Western society (that) rhino horn is used as an aphrodisiac in Asian culture, it was never prescribed as such  ironically, it has now taken on such a use in Vietnam, said Thomas.

Now banned in China, Rhino horn originally was prescribed by traditional healers as a treatment for fever. Some scientific studies have shown that it is somewhat effective for this purpose, though not more so than aspirin. Other traditional medicines have been more successfully assimilated by westerners. Bear bile was found to contain an ingredient called ursodeoxycholic acid, effective in treating a liver disease. It is now produced synthetically.

Similarly, the antimalarial artemisinin, was originally extracted from the wormwood plant, and an ingredient of the African Cherry tree is used to make prostate medicine. But demand for many plant and animal ingredients today is driven by nothing other than superstition, experts say. The scales of the pangolin, or scaly anteater, are sold raw or fried in Asia for as much as $500 per kilogram for treating asthma and migraines, or stimulate milk production in breast-feeding women.

Of the eight pangolin species, two are listed as critically endangered, two as endangered and four as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. And according to Thomas, there is no scientific evidence to supposed any supposed properties of pangolin scales.

Between 2007 and 2013, parts from an estimated 1,50,000 pangolins were seized every year on average worldwide, but monitors say this is likely just a fraction of the illegal trade. There is similarly no support for the alleged AIDS-curing properties of Tokay geckos, or the virility boost provided by tiger bone. There may be as few as 3,000 tigers left in the wild.

Strong message

On Friday, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (IPBES) meeting in Medellin, Colombia, warned that biodiversity was declining in every world region. Superstition, traditional medicine, and viral marketing techniques are aggravating the pressure on animal species, said Charlotte Nithart of French wildlife monitor Robin des Bois.

In a recent report, the group recorded illegal trade in products such as giraffe marrow bone for curing AIDS in Africa, and powdered chimpanzee bone to boost virility. The brains of endangered vultures are smoked in South Africa to boost foresight and predict lottery numbers.

According to WWF, the illicit trade in wildlife is worth about $19 billion (15.4 billion euros) per year  making it the fourth largest illegal trade after drugs, counterfeiting, and human trafficking.

The solution?

People are increasingly being caught and prosecuted, sent to jail for illegal trade, said Scanlon. That sends a strong message. But a changing peoples minds is key, and difficult. Being culturally sensitive is important, said Thomas. If someone is brought up to believe something is a medicine, it simply doesnt work telling them it isnt, especially if that message comes from a complete outsider.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreA parliamentary panel has said that doctors who want to quit the military after being trained at the Pune-based Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) should pay an exit bond of up to Rs 2 crore, officials familiar with the matter said.

This suggested move is a bid to arrest the trend of students choosing not to serve as doctors in the military after completing their education, the officials added.

At present, doctors who quit after a post-graduate course are asked to furnish Rs 28 lakh and those who leave the armed forces after an undergraduate course have to pay Rs 25 lakh for their release.

The panel, which looks at the defence ministrys functioning, has asked that the exit bond money be increased to Rs 2 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively.

Students trained at the prestigious 56-year-old institute are required to serve as military doctors for at least 14 years (short-service commission) or at least 20 years (permanent commission) after graduating. The type of commission they get depends on the vacancies available.

The defence ministry had told the panel that 20% of AFMC students quit every year for different reasons, one of the officials cited above said.

The college inducts 130 students every year for the MBBS course and between 80 and 100 doctors pursue various PG courses at any given time, said a senior army doctor who asked not to be named.

Some of the reasons for quitting include the desire to pursue PG immediately after MBBS, family migrating abroad, practice set up for them by parents, not getting a service of choice, not getting permanent commission, and stagnation in AFMS (armed forces medical services), the doctor added.

Hiking bond money is being thought about. But if we are too stringent, theres a chance of losing out on the best talent, said a top official who is part of the AFMCs functioning.

This argument was also made by ministry representatives before the panel: if the deterrence is made too high, top students may not join AFMC. But officials said that the panel rejected this, saying that India has a high population and there is no shortage of talent vying for such courses.

The bond money needs to be increased. Frankly, even Rs 2 crore is not a big amount, considering the quality of training students get at the AFMC, said Lieutenant General SD Duhan (retd), a former commandant of the Armys Research and Referral (R&R) Hospital and a former AFMC professor.

Being a doctor in the armed forces requires selfless dedication. The moment monetary consideration comes into play and students opt to leave for greener pastures, it (serving as a military doctor) loses its relevance, Duhan added.

The parliamentary panel has asked the government to share its views on raising the bond amount to lower the percentage of students quitting from 20 to at least 10, an official said.With its 84th plenary last week, the Congress formally endorsed the elevation of Rahul Gandhi as party president. A key leader of the new Congress is Jyotiraditya Scindia, member of Parliament from Guna, chief whip of the party in the Lok Sabha, and one of its most important leaders in Madhya Pradesh, which goes to polls this year. Scindia spoke to Prashant Jha and Aurangzeb Naqshbandi on a range of issues. Edited excerpts:

What are the big takeaways from the Congress plenary?

It has been a historic plenary. We have a new Congress president who exemplifies not only youth but a new form of thinking combined with a deep respect for the tradition of secularism, unity and a belief in not only pure rapid growth but growth with equity for every citizen.

This plenary was also important because it has set the agenda for the nation. What is the Congresss blueprint when we come to power in 2019? The fundamental precepts will include an environment of peace and stability; an environment of respect and dignity for every citizen; an environment to understand differing, even contradictory, points of view; an ability to chart India back to the path of growth, bring back our agrarian communities from the depth of despair, power manufacturing to 25% of the share of the GDP, and exploring new avenues of investment in the areas of services. I had recommended two areas we should look at  one, jobs, jobs, and jobs; and second, empowerment of women.

The plenary also focused on the transition to the new generation. India is a young country and we have to be representative of that as a party, while ensuring that we have the guidance of the elders in maintaining the right balance.

You have worked with both Sonia Gandhi and now Rahul. What is the difference between them?

Every successful leader leaves her or his imprint. Mrs Gandhis contribution to the party and the country is probably unparalleled. She came in at a critical time for the party. She rebuilt it brick by brick and brought it to power twice in a row. It was due to her efforts that you could bring together a coalition of parties with a common goal of preserving not only our economic model but our age-old ethos of secularism, fraternity, equality and freedom of speech and expression. To be able to win the trust of your party and of allies, and maintain the trust over a 20-year period, is an unbelievable feat in such a large, complex, and diverse democracy like ours.

Now that responsibility has moved to Rahul Gandhi. I believe he has all the capabilities to take India into a new paradigm. He is a man who has extremely strong beliefs, ethics and values, and will not compromise on them. He is a long-term player. He believes in the richness of Indian democracy, and has a respect for every

Indian citizen. That is what India needs today.

As we move to 2019, you are facing the Bharatiya Janata Party which has a formidable election machine, which is in power in over 20 states, and has 15 chief ministers of its own. How will you take them on?

I need to give you only two examples. Example one is what Rahul Gandhi quoted in his concluding plenary speech  the story of the Mahabharata. Example two, and I am going in chronological order, is our freedom struggle. In both examples, the parties concerned were facing against impossible odds but won.

Obviously, there are a lot of tasks we need to complete. But the Congress is a phenomenal organisation. We dont need to be overawed by what you call the machine, but build our own house. If we imbibe in our workers the causes and issues I have mentioned, the strength of our workers and party will help us get to power to serve.

One of the other takeaways from the plenary was you would be open to pragmatic alliances. We are also seeing the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party come together in Uttar Pradesh. What kind of alliance can we expect before 2019?

You will see an alliance of like-minded parties coming together.

Will this be pre-poll?

A majority of it could be pre-poll. Some could be post-poll.

Will Congress serve as the principal anchor of the alliance or supplement it?

I believe that the Congress has a fundamental role in any such alliance. But that decision will be taken by the combine of the coalition.

Your resolution was silent on this

It will evolve. We are not like the BJP that it is my way or the highway. I strongly believe that the Congress will be the anchor but it is for all members of the coalition to arrive at that conclusion. That is the way you evolve a consensus.

How important are the upcoming elections in Karnataka?

It will set the trend. We have had a string of by-election successes  Rajasthan, MP, UP, Bihar. When I say we, I mean like-minded parties. I think that momentum has to be maintained with the victory of Karnataka. With the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, the track record of Siddaramaiah ji, a large team of very experienced leaders in

Karnataka, the results will be telling of the new resurgence of the Congress.

In Gujarat, a lack of a credible face may have hurt the partys prospects. Do you think the party should have a chief ministerial face in Madhya Pradesh and who should it be?

I am very clear on this. These are all decisions taken by the high command. As a loyal soldier of the Congress party, I will stand by whatever decision the party takes.

You have said in the past the party should have a face.

I have not said that about Madhya Pradesh. That is my opinion with regard to any state in India where you have capable people. But every state has its own complexities. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. I will abide by the decision of the party.

You have just won bypolls in your own area. But chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is a strong and entrenched leader. How do you see the battle ahead?

If you have had five by-elections in the past year in the state, and you have lost all five, I dont know what your definition of entrenchment is. My definition of entrenchment is of finding a place in the hearts of the people. That place is never permanent. You have to continually live up to those expectations, abide by the relationship.

I believe BJPs time is up in MP. We have had five bypolls, three directly in my area, and we have won all five. BJP has been routed. In a state where you fire bullets into the chest of innocent farmers, what have we come to? We have had a situation when farmers are taken into a jail, stripped naked and beaten only because they were asking for loan waiver, for the right price for their produce.

Is internal factionalism still the Congresss biggest problem in MP?

There is no factionalism. We are all working together. We have been doing so for the past one, one-and-a-half years.

There was great anathema for over a decade; there was factionalism; we cant get away from that fact but in the last few years, all the top leaders of MP have been working together, which is why you are seeing the turnaround in results.

We have realised that the fight in MP is not between the BJP and the Congress, but is a fight to safeguard the future of 7.5 crore citizens of the state. We are single-minded in our aim to oust the anti-farmer, anti-women, anti-youth, corrupt government in Madhya Pradesh.The Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) have told the Union government of at least five aerial intrusions by the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) helicopters this year in the sensitive Depsang sector of East Ladakh and the Barahoti plains inPeoples Liberation Army , according to officials familiar with the matter.

Two PLA helicopters entered Indian airspace for between two and 10 minutes in the two sectors and were spotted about six kilometers across the perceived Line of Actual Control (LAC), said a government official who asked not to be named. There were three intrusions in the Depsang bulge, the site of a 21-day face-off between the Indian army and the PLA in April 2013, and two in the Barahoti Plains, he added.

According to reports sent to the government, there have been at least 45 PLA transgressions this year, including the five violations, another official said. Two PLA helicopters entered the Barahoti plains on March 10, there was another aerial intrusion in the area on March 8, and two cho- ppers entered the Depsang area on February 27, the official said.

Maps of western sector have not been exchanged between India and China, but the intrusions in the Barahoti plains are being seen by the Indian security establishment as a cause for concern because maps of the middle sector have been exchanged. Aerial intrusions have been seen, with the Chinese PLA trying to emphasise its territorial claim. This could also be an ans- wer to Indian posturing since the Army and the ITBP are patrolling the LAC to its defined limits, said a senior Army commander on condition of anonymity.

Indian ambassador to China, Gautam Bambawale, told a Hong Kong newspaper last week that India would contest any unilateral changes to the 3,488-km LAC. Indian and Chinese troops were involved in a 73-day standoff in Doklam last year.With just eight days to go before the end of the current Parliament session, two Left parties  the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Revolutionary Socialist Party  served notices on Monday for no-confidence motions against the National Democratic Alliance government, joining the Congress and two Andhra parties in an attempt to corner the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Parliament will resume the budget session on Tuesday after a three-day break. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have been paralysed amid protests by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to press their demands for an increase in job quotas in Telangana and the setting up of a board to manage the Cauvery waters.

The CPI(M)s parliamentary leader P Karunakaran and RSPs sole MP NK Premachandran filed the no-confidence notices on Tuesday.

At an informal meeting on Thursday we, some opposition parties decided to give our own notices. If the notices are accepted then the discussions will see important national issues apart from regional issues like problems of Andhra Pradesh, said Md Salim, the CPI(M)s Lok Sabha leader.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said his partys no-confidence notice was an attempt to push the BJP into the psychological battle at a time the ruling side was unsure about the positions of its allies such as the Shiv Sena and the Shiromani Akali Dal.

The rule is clear that the Lok Sabha speaker has to take up the no-confidence notices before any other business. The BJP may not like it to happen, he said.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which recently quit the ruling coalition at the Centre, and the YSR Congress party have filed notices of no-confidence motions against the government over the denial of special category status for Andhra Pradesh. The Congress gave its notice last week and asked that it be taken up on Tuesday.

Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan has not taken up the notices so far as the House was not in order amid continued protests.

While BJP leaders maintain they are ready for discussions on any issue, including the no-confidence motions, the Opposition alleges that the party is tacitly propping up the AIADMK to disrupt parliamentary proceedings.

The AIADMK said on Monday it hoped the Centre would constitute the Cauvery board within the next four days. We will decide the future course of action if the Union government fails to do so, Tamil Nadu chief minister E Palaniswami said at a function.

The TDP has asked its MPs to be present in Parliament on Tuesday and TRS has asked its lawmakers to not rush to the well of the House, improving the possibilities of a debate. Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu also told his MPs in a teleconference call to attend Parliament and insist for a debate.Acrimonious exchanges between the Congress and the BJP on the issue of data theft escalated on Monday with the opposition party dubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians and the ruling party hitting back, saying even Chhota Bheem knows it is not snooping.

Apart from the cartoon character, mythological characters from the epic Mahabharata were also used by the two parties to take jibes at each other.

After allegations that data from the prime ministers official app was shared with foreign firms without the consent of users, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said the NaMo app secretly recorded audio, video and contacts.

Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians.

Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP, Gandhi said on Twitter using the hashtag DeleteNaMoApp.

He also alleged that Modi was misusing his position to build a personal database.

This data belongs to India, not Modi, he said on Twitter.

Union minister Smriti Irani retorted that Gandhi now knows what the NCC is thanks to the NaMo App and that even Chhota Bheem, a cartoon character, knows that commonly asked permission on Apps do not tantamount to snooping.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala hit back, tweeting, Ohh Ms Irani! But Kauravas wouldnt remember that Bheem represented the righteous Pandavas! Also, those who persecuted Rohith Vemula and denigrate Babasaheb Bhimraos legacy everyday can only set this level of discourse!

The Congress alleged that this regime had become a data leak government that mocks and flouts the right to privacy with brazen impunity and for it IT means identity theft.

Charges flew thick and fast on the Twitter as the debate on the prickly issue escalated and the ruling BJP accused the opposition Congress of data theft, saying it had taken off its app after the allegations came out in the open. The Congress, however, claimed it had not done so.

The site was dysfunctional and all memberships were done through the partys official website, the Congress said.

Ye kya Rahul Gandhi ji it seems your team is doing the opposite of what you asked for. Instead of #DeleteNaMoApp, they have deleted the Congress App itself, Irani tweeted.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra dubbed Gandhis allegations as a classical case of technological illiteracy never seen before in Indian politics.

Patra also claimed that the Congress president was rattled after his plan to influence the next Lok Sabha polls with Cambridge Analyticas help was exposed.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi questioned how safe was peoples money and their personal information under the BJP-led government in the wake of a string of bank frauds and allegations related to data theft.

It is an attempt like Bigg Boss of spying on Indians. Modiji is attacking the privacy. It is a data leak government, Singhvi told reporters.

He said that not only peoples money, but peoples privacy was also in question.

While Nirav Modis and Mehul Choksis dupe Indian banks of thousands of crores, data breaches in banks galore, he said and claimed that neither our identity is safe, nor is our money secure!.

Singhvi alleged NaMo App records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks location via GPS.

No wonder, Modi ji is like the Big Boss who with brazenness likes to spy on Indians. The BJP whose IT (Identity Theft?) Minister does daily press conferences on the issue of data security and democracy has much to answer to people of India on the unscrupulous means by which Narendra Modis personal App is accessing data and passing on data of more than 50 lakh Indians, Singhvi said.

Patra alleged that it was the Congress app that was stealing peoples data and as soon as the BJP exposed it, the opposition party took it down from the Googles play store, making it Congress-mukt.

He claimed that the Congress was stealing data of 20 crore Indian Facebook users with the help of Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm embroiled in charges of harvesting peoples social media profile illegally, but was caught, leaving Gandhi rattled.

The private firm was allegedly using data theft, sleaze and honey trap to influence the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he alleged.

Because of his technological illiteracy he should not deceive the people of this country, Patra said.The Delhi high court has directed social media sites Facebook, Google and YouTube to take down a video blog which allegedly disparages the atta made and marketed by Baba Ramdevs Patanjali Ayurved.

The interim order was given by Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw who directed the three social media platforms to restrict access to the links and contents of the blog.

The court also issued notices asking them to disclose the identity of the persons in whose name the blog and the urls leading to it, were registered. It listed the matter for further hearing on May 15.

The direction came on a plea by Patanjali seeking taking down of a Tamil-language video blog which allegedly disparaged the atta made by them as well as that of ITCs Aashirvaad brand.

The video had termed as rubber the atta made by the two brands, Patanjali told the court in its plea.

Appearing for Patanjali, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar told the court that ITC has already obtained an interim stay order against the blog from a Bengaluru court.

He said his client had notified the three social media platforms about the disparaging video blog and its contents and asked them to block it. But as they did nothing, Patanjali filed the instant plea, he said.Stepping up her rhetoric against the Hindutva brigade for brandishing arms during Ram Navami processions in various parts of West Bengal on Sunday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee wondered whether Lord Ram asked his followers to carry pistols and swords.

Did Lord Ram ask his followers to stage processions with pistols and swords? A group of hooligans raising a bogey are roaming around in the streets. Will the administration sit quiet? the chief minister asked during an administrative review meeting in South 24 Parganas district on Monday.

SK Sajahan, 50, was killed and five others injured in a clash between police and Bajrang Dal activists in Bengals Purulia district on Sunday when police tried to stop Bajrang Dal activists from staging the rally brandishing arms.

If police get into an understanding and dont take actions against them, I shall take action against the police, Mamata warned.

The chief minister said she saw a picture in a Bengali newspaper of a participant in a procession carrying a pistol.

We have collected videos and evidence against those creating trouble on Sunday. We are taking strongest possible action against them, said director general of police, Surajit Kar Purkayastha, who was present in the meeting.

If a person has died, I regard him as my brother. I dont need to find out his religion, said the chief minister.

The reverberations of Ram Navami celebrations continued in Bengal on Monday with a clash erupting between the police and a group of saffron supporters who were trying to take out a procession in Kandi in Murshidabad district.

In Rampurhat of Birbhum district, police suo motu lodged an FIR against BJP Mahila Morcha president Locket Chatterjee for participating in a procession with a trident. Sections of Arms Act were slapped against her.

Our procession started at 8:30 am from the Radhagobinda temple at Kandi. We had taken permission for it. But in the way, some Trinamool supporters carrying weapons entered the procession and when the rally reached a point in front of the police station, they began throwing stones, triggering caning by the police. Four of our supporters had to be hospitalised and 50 others were injured, said Iman Kalyan Mukherjee, BJP president of Bharatpur block I block.

Local Trinamool MLA Apurba Sarkar said no Trinamool supporters were involved in the procession.

The sub divisional police officer of Kandi also said that no permission was given for the procession.

Incidentally, last week, the chief minister relaxed a blanket ban on carrying weapons during Ram Navami processions, and said that only a few processions that have been organised for decades with weapons should be allowed to carry arms.A six-year-old boy died of respiratory complications on Sunday, six days after he was forgotten and left locked in a school car for hours in Madhya Pradeshs Hoshangabad district, his father has said.

A student of Sai International School in Dolariya town, Naitik Gour, died in a Bhopal hospital where he was brought on March 20 in an unconscious state, a day after the horrific incident.

The school authorities killed my son... They left my son in the car for four hours and their negligence killed him, Surendra Gour, who is a farmer, told media.

School director Nitin Gour, in whose car Naitik was locked, admitted that the boy was left in the vehicle. An attendant usually brought the boy to the classroom but that day she forgot to bring him out of the car, said Gour, who himself drove the boy and some teachers on March 19 as the school van was not available.

Nitin locked the vehicle and left for Hoshangabad, leaving Naitik in the car, Surendra Gour said. Naitik was unconscious when he was brought out of the vehicle, he said.

He was rushed to a hospital in Hoshangabad but had to be shifted to the Rainbow Hospital in Bhopal after his condition deteriorated.

The boy was in a state of shock with breathing problem and in a critical condition. We put him on a respirator but could not save him, a doctor, who didnt wish to be identified, said.

Surendra Gour said he was under pressure from his extended family as the director was a relative. But how can I forgive him? I will fight, and if the police dont do anything I will seek a CBI inquiry, he said.

Bhopals TT Nagar police station head constable Ramakant Pandey said they had a zero FIR and forwarded the case to the concerned police station.

A zero FIR can be filed anywhere by the victim, family or friends and the complaint can later be transferred to the appropriate police station for a probe.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked each Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP to get at least 300,000 likes on their Facebook page, and offered to hold a live video call with workers from their constituencies if the target is achieved, according to three leaders from the party.

The target was set on Friday in a dinner meeting that Modi and party president Amit Shah had with BJP MPs at the new party headquarters in Delhi.

A BJP MP who attended the meeting said the Prime Minister asked which of the MPs were active on Facebook, to which most people raised their hands. The PM then asked how many of them had 300,000 likes on their pages, to which only a few responded in the affirmative.

The PM offered to address, through live video call, the mandal-level workers in our constituencies if we achieved this target, the BJP MP said on condition of anonymity. He was particular that these likes should be genuine likes, and should not be bought through marketing companies offering such services, a second BJP MP said.

The PMs stress on the importance of using social media effectively comes nearly a year ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

It coincides with governments warning of consequences to Facebook if the election process in India was interfered with, in light of the political storm over alleged breach of FB data by election management company Cambridge Analytics to influence poll outcomes in other countries including the US.

At Fridays dinner, Hiren Joshi, an officer on special duty (Information Technology) in the Prime Ministers Office, made a presentation to the parliamentarians on how to use the NaMo App for dissemination of information related to the achievements of the government in different sectors, said another MP present at the meeting.

BJP MPs Poonam Mahajan, Pratap Simha and Rajiv Pratap Rudy were held up by Joshi as examples of MPs who were using social media effectively, said the first leader quoted above.Krishnaswamy Vijay Raghavan, 64, was appointed principle scientific adviser to the goverment of India on Monday, the appointments committee of the Union Cabinet issued an order regarding the posting.

VijayRaghavan will succeed physicist Rajagopala Chidambaram. This is a major responsibility. The aim is to take science to the highest global quality and make science have an impact on society. I am looking forward to working with everyone as a team towards achieving this goal, said professor VijayRaghavan.

VijayRaghavan was serving as secretary of the department of biotechnology since January 2013, succeeding Dr MK Bhan.

Earlier this year, he was also briefly assigned the additional charge of director general, Indian Council of Medical Research, and secretary, department of health research. VijayRaghavan graduated from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, with a ba- chelors degree in Chemical engineering. He also has a doctoral research in molecular biology.West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee reached Delhi on Monday, ahead of a dinner meeting hosted by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar.

Opposition parties are trying to make an anti-BJP front ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Banerjee will come to Parliament on Tuesday afternoon where she is expected to talk to leaders of different opposition parties, said a Trinamool Congress MP.

She is also expected to meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi and her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal. Banerjee was the first leader to reach out to Kejriwal and now, she has assumed the role of his guide in national politics.

Banerjee had earlier emphasised on forming a federal front to take on the BJP, which has also emerged as a strong force in West Bengal. A large section of the Trinamool Congress also wants to see her playing a key role in national politics, if the non-NDA parties are able to form a majority in 2019.Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has started preparing for the Lok Sabha election next year and she may contest from Uttar Pradeshs Ambedkarnagar, a party leader familiar with the development said.

If she does contest the elections, it will mark a tactical shift from her earlier policy of not contesting polls herself in order to focus on the party organisation.

The 2019 Lok Sabha election is crucial for the BSP to revitalise the party cadres, who are demoralised after three successive defeats  2012 assembly election, 2014 Lok Sabha poll and 2017 assembly election. The BSP chief is likely to lead the fight by contesting from Ambedkarnagar, a BSP leader said.

Mayawati had represented the seat in Lok Sabha in 1998, 1999 and 2004.

The BSP had announced that she will not contest any election to focus on strengthening the party across the country after becoming the national president of the BSP in 2003. She vacated the Akbarpur Lok Sabha seat, now renamed as Ambedkarnagar, in 2004.

The announcement will be made after the alliance with the SP (Samajwadi Party) is finalised, another senior BSP leader, who did not wish to be named, said.

Mayawati said last Saturday that the defeat in the Rajya Sabha election will not affect the SP-BSP alliance. She also made it clear that instead of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha bypolls, her party will focus on the 2019 general elections.

In view of the alliance with Akhilesh Yadavs party, the candidates will be finalised after the coalition partners decide the seat-sharing formula.

Read: New caste arithmetic in SP-BSP combine may upset BJPs calculations in Uttar Pradesh

Behenji (Mayawati) has started screening aspirants for various Lok Sabha seats. The ticket aspirants, who get the nod, will be made in-charge of their Lok Sabha constituencies, the party leader also said.

Mayawati had also indicated on Saturday that she was not averse to the Congress joining the alliance.

The BSP was the runner-up in 34 constituencies in the 2014 Lok Sabha election but failed to win a single seat. The party is likely to field its candidate on these seats and leave the remaining 46 for the alliance partners, party leaders indicated.

The BSP will also bargain for about six seats in which it was in a neck-and-neck fight with the SP in 2014, those familiar with the issue said. The SP won five seats.

Although the BSP lost the Ambedkarnagar seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, it won three assembly seats that are part of the parliamentary constituency in 2017, which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had swept.

In a departure from its stand of not allying with any party, the BSP successfully backed the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates against the BJP in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur parliamentary seats earlier this month.

It was for the first time that the BSP entered into an alliance since the 1996 assembly elections. After its alliance partner Congress failed to transfer its votes to the BSP in the 1996 polls, Mayawati had announced that her party will go it alone in all elections in the future.

The success in the bypolls has already heightened the possibility of a more elaborate alliance between the BSP and the SP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Mayawati resigned from the Rajya Sabha in July last year.

She fielded former party MLA Bhimrao Ambedkar, who went on to lose to the BJPs Anil Agarwal, although there was a speculation that she would contest the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha.

Read: Akhilesh signals solidarity with Mayawati, cancels victory celebration after BSP loses Rajya Sabha seatDays after the YSR Congress Party gave a notice to move a no-confidence motion against the BJP-led NDA government, the Congress decided to follow suit. A senior Congress leader said on Monday the move was a bid to avoid being outsmarted in Andhra Pradeshs competitive politics.

The leader said the central leadership was under pressure from its Andhra Pradesh unit to give the notice and not leave the field open for the YSR Congress Party and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in the theatre of politics that is being played out in the southern state.

The matter also came up for discussion during a meeting of the Congress MPs on Friday after which the party decided to submit its notice for Tuesday.

Having ruled united Andhra Pradesh for ten years from 2004, the Congress has been relegated to political margins after Telangana was carved out in 2014.

The party, which failed to win a single seat in the assembly and the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, has since ceded political space to the YSR Congress Party, headed by YS Jaganmohan Reddy, son of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister and late Congress stalwart YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

While both the YSR Congress Party and the TDP gave notices against the government for its failure to honour the promise of granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh, the Congress did not specify a reason.

The main opposition party has issued a three-line whip to all its Lok Sabha members to be present on Tuesday. The motion will be moved by Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, who is reaching out to other opposition parties to garner support.

Another Congress strategist, however, was of the view that the BJP was provoking the AIADMK and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) members to create a ruckus in the Lok Sabha and ensure that the motion is not taken up.

PM Narendra Modi wants to go down in the history as somebody whose government faced no such motion during its tenure, said the leader. In a game of one-upmanship, the YSR Congress Party has now announced that its MPs will resign whenever the budget session of Parliament is adjourned sine die. The assessment within the party is that the session could be cut short.The fallout of Ram Navami processions in West Bengal rocked Raniganj, 200 km northwest of Kolkata on Monday as communal clashes erupted leaving a VHP supporter dead and six policemen injured while the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP continued to trade charges.

Deputy commissioner of Asansol Durgapur, Arindam Dutta Choudhury sustained serious injuries in his right hand when a bomb was thrown at him in Raniganj in West Burdwan district. He was rushed to a hospital for surgery. Doctors said the police officer suffered multiple fractures and critical muscle injury in his right forearm.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) south Bengal general secretary Jishu Basu said in the evening that Chhote Yadav, 35, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad worker was killed in the clash. The police, however, did not confirm the death.

Ranigunj mayor and Trinamool leader Jitendra Tiwari said some groups were spreading rumours and appealed for calm. Please dont believe whatever people tell you. Apply your judgement. The administration is trying its best to control the situation, Tiwari said.

Five other policemen were also injured when they were attacked as they rushed to break up a fight. Police vehicles were damaged in the clash. Fire engines had to be deployed after several shops were set ablaze.

The situation in now under control. Policemen were attacked when they rushed to the spot to control the situation, said Laxmi Narayan Meena, police commissioner of Asansol Durgapur.

Hindutva groups insist that they were attacked first.

A clash broke out when Muslims attacked the procession organised by Bajrang Dal and associate groups on Monday morning. Bombs and stones were hurled at us, alleged Sourish Mukherjee, spokesperson of the VHP.

We were attacked by another community in the morning. The situation is tense, said Manish Sharma, a BJP leader of Raniganj.

While Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee asked the police to strictly deal with those who were trying to create mischief, CPI (M) state secretary Suryakanta Mishra alleged the ruling Trinamool Congress was responsible for ushering in competitive communalism in the state.

Clashes also broke out between the police and Hindutva supporters in Kandi of Murshidabad district where police caned a group of people in a procession after they attacked the Kandi police station with bricks and stones around 10 am.

The procession started at 8:30 am from a spot in front of a Radha Govinda temple in Kandi and proceeded through the town before it reached the police station about 90 minutes later.

Our procession started from the Radha Govinda temple. We had taken permission for it. But on the way some Trinamool supporters carrying weapons entered the procession and when the rally reached a point in front of the police station, they began throwing stones, triggering caning by the police. Four of our supporters had to be hospitalised and 50 others were injured, claimed Iman Kalyan Mukherjee, a local BJP leader.

Local Trinamool MLA Apurba Sarkar said no Trinamool supporters were involved in the procession.

The sub divisional police officer of Kandi also said that there was no permission was taken for the procession.

The administration should take action if there is trouble. But how did police fail to anticipate violence? What were they doing when the procession that had taken permission was attacked (in Kandi)? remarked state BJP president Dilip Ghosh.

On Sunday S K Sajahan, 50, was killed and five others injured in a clash between police and Bajrang Dal activists in Purulia district over an armed procession.On Sunday morning, in his monthly Mann ki Baat address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again invoked BR Ambedkar and said that new India is Ambedkars India.

The reference fit into the Bharatiya Janata Partys institutional and the Prime Ministers personal push to win over a substantial section of the Dalit electorate by paying respect to the man many Dalits deify. In 2014, the BJP swept reserved seats in north, central and western India. Data from the Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) also suggests that for the first time in Indian electoral history, the BJP won more Dalit (and tribal) votes than the Congress. Since then, Modi has symbolically sought to own Ambedkar and his legacy.

But the BJP faces some problems in its outreach to Dalits.

The first issue is that a key concern of Dalit politics -- representation -- remains largely unaddressed. Scan through a list of the BJPs top office-bearers; the Union cabinet; the council of ministers in key states where BJP is in power, including UP; or key political appointments that have been made post 2014 -- Dalits have bagged much less share of the power than their population share would suggest. Representation is not everything and there is enough in Indian politics to suggest that the benefits of representation of the subaltern are monopolised by a few representatives rather than the community. But that is a larger problem of representative democracy. For Dalits, representation is a key barometer and BJP appears to be behind on this front.

The second problem is not of BJPs doing, but institutional constraints, and the need to comply with judicial directives have affected two major policy issues in the past few weeks.

First, in line with a court order, the government had to decide that reservations of teachers would happen by considering departments, rather than the entire university as a unit. This sparked outrage among Dalit academics and students. They argued that when reservations happen at the level of the university, reserved seats are higher, and these would dip considerably under the new policy. The government also got flak from the parliamentary committee on SC/ST welfare for this. Second, the Supreme Court decided to dilute the provisions of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. This sparked concern that the act itself would be rendered ineffective, and Dalit MPs and ministers spoke out against it.

In both cases, the government is considering filing a review petition. But in terms of optics, the BJP came across as responsible for specific actions which many Dalits think are against their interests.

The third problem for the party is that the government is unable to provide and create jobs -- this affects everyone, but young Dalits even more sharply because they do not have any cushion or pathway for upward mobility. What adds to the trouble for the party is the shrinking of government jobs. A Dalit economist, who is sympathetic to the BJP and did not want to be named, reeled a list of government services where positions had been cut and said, Dalits feel that because the government does not want reserved jobs, they are doing away with jobs altogether.

And finally, the BJPs Dalit outreach is work in progress because it has, historically, had an upper-caste base. This tension is now playing out. Many upper-caste lobbies feel empowered with the BJP in power. The party leadership, for fear of antagonising its older loyalists, does not intervene sharply enough and loses credibility among the newer Dalit supporter or fence-sitters.

In 2014, and in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, the BJPs incremental vote came from subaltern communities such as Dalits. It helped that many Dalit communities were willing to give the party a chance since they were disillusioned with their own representatives. In 2019, retaining and expanding this constituency will be the PMs big challenge. Invoking Ambedkar will help but dealing with the underlying structural challenges of representation, atrocities, jobs, reservations, violence  issues which really matter to the Dalits  is more critical.President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday praised the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government for their efforts in rapidly developing the temple town, saying it is moving towards becoming a 21st century smart city.

The President was in Varanasi to lay foundation stone of two important road projects worth Rs 3,473 crore, including the four laning of NH-7 and construction of Varanasi Ring Road Phase -2 (Bypass road).

Addressing the gathering here, Kovind praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for carrying out development works in the holy city.

The President distributed appointment letters to 10 youths,who were selected during a job fair organised by the Vyavasaik Shiksha Evam Kaushal Vikas Vibhag of the state government. He also visited the stalls of various companies that recently held training and recruitment drive here.

He received the first copy of the Sanskrit translation of book 'Charaiveti-Charaiveti written by UP Governor Ram Naik..Authorities clamped prohibitory orders in Aurangabad and suspended internet services for 24 hours in a bid to check rumours to contain communal clashes and arson that began over Ram Navami processions on Sunday and spilled over on Monday.

The governments action came after mobs in the town around 140 km south east of the capital Patna, had run riot, setting shops and hotels on fire and targeted police vehicles.

According to reports reaching police headquarters, two communities had clashed in the town area on Monday afternoon when some miscreants started pelting stones at a Ram Navami procession. Over three dozen people, including some policemen, were injured in the incident.

Police said that the procession had proper permission and was passing through pre-determined route around 2 pm. When it was passing by a mosque, some anti-social elements pelted stones on the procession.

It was followed by gun fire and bomb blasts. As the news spread, it led to retaliation in other parts of the town.

A rampaging mob torched a generator set outside a hotel, and also set more than two dozen small and big shops on fire in the busy Sabzi Bazaar area. In Maharajganj locality, another mob of rioters ransacked five shops. It also attacked business establishments and residential properties located in Sinha Social club, Nawadih, Ganj Mohalla and Ramesh Chowk.

District magistrate Rahul Ranjan Mahiwal and superintendent of police Dr Satya Prakash rushed to the trouble spots to bring the situation under control. Soon, a government vehicle moved in the localities announcing the imposition of curfew and shoot-at-sight orders.

CRPF personnel also used mild lathi charge to disperse the rioting mobs.

Mahiwal, however, said curfew was not imposed. He said the administration issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 in the entire town. He also did not confirm whether a shoot-at-sight order was issued by the administration. More than 50 peoole have been taken into custody, he said, adding the situation is under control.

We have intensified patrolling in the area. CCTV footage is being examined to identify culprits and FIRs would be lodged against them, he said.

Magadh divisional commissioner Jitendra Srivastava and deputy inspector general of police Binay Kumar are also camping at Ramesh Chowk with adequate reinforcement.

Trouble began Sunday evening when rioters set ablaze more than 20 shops at Nawadih area. A similar Ram Navami procession, comprising bike borne youths, was passing through Nawadih Colony under Town police station when miscreants pelted stones at them.

Minor clashes were also reported from Gaya, Siwan and Kaimur. In Gaya, a Ram Navami procession was also attacked with stones in Kothi police station area on Sunday, which led to clashes between two communities. However, an alert administration immediately brought the situation under control.

In Siwan, a minor scuffle took between people of two communities when miscreants stopped a Ram Navami procession at Hasanpura Saturday night. Two vehicles were burnt but police succeeded in preventing the situation from flaring up.

In Kaimur, some bike borne youths raised objectionable slogans in front of a mosque at Mughalpura area triggering a protest that led to a clash between two groups on Sunday.

Bihars home department has issued an advisory, urging people to desist from posting and sharing objectionable material on social media. Advertisements were also issued requesting people not to raise slogans which would hurt religious sentiments.The political battle between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shifted to a new theatre on Monday  smart apps  with each side accusing the other over issues such as user consent, data control, server location, and third-party services.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi kept up his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modis personal app, alleging he was acting like the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians and misusing his official position to build a personal database. In turn, the BJP accused Gandhi of technological illiteracy, and said the Congress partys own app shared data with ideological bedfellows.

The controversy broke out on Sunday when Gandhi picked a news report quoting a French security researcher, who identifies himself on Twitter as Elliot Alderson (a character from the Netflix show Mr Robot), to allege the personal data of users of the NaMo App was being sent to a third party domain. The BJP insisted that this was no breach, the data was used only for analytics, and not stored by third-party services.

But the privacy policy on the PMs personal app was updated not long after Gandhis accusation. It had earlier read, Your personal information and contact details shall remain confidential... the information shall not be provided to any third parties.

The new policy states, Certain information may be processed by third party services to offer you the most contextual content, show content in your language.

On Monday morning, the debate took a turn, with the BJP making its own set of accusations against the Congress.

The BJP now picked up tweets from the same Elliot Alderson to allege that the server of the Congress app on Android was based in Singapore, and that membership data was not encrypted.

Soon after the allegation, the Congress removed its INC app. The BJPs national information and technology in-charge, Amit Malviya asked, Rahul Gandhi gave a call to #DeleteNamoApp but Congress deleted its own App from the AppStore after they were called out. What is the Congress hiding?

His counterpart, the Congresss social media and digital communications in-charge Divya Spandana said they had not had any membership on the app for the past five months. On the deletion of the app, she said: The BJP and some journalists started circulating the fake and defunct url and misleading the people into believing that there was a breach of data, and we were giving out the information to our friends in Singapore. That is why we have to remove it.

The BJP also pointed to the Congresss privacy policy and alleged the party did not guarantee the safety of personal information and said it would share it with vendors, consultants or other service providers. Malviya said, When Congress says it will share your data with other like-minded groups, the implications are grave.

The charges were rebutted by Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who said it was the National Democratic Alliance government that was mocking the right to privacy.

Earlier on Tuesday, Gandhi made two specific allegations. He first tweeted, Modis Namo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. He is the big boss who likes to spy on Indians. Now he wants data on our own children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the app.

The BJPs spokesperson Sambit Patra claimed this showed Gandhi as technologically illiterate, and there was a difference between analysis and snooping.

Gandhi also alleged that Modi was using his position as prime minister to build a personal database with data on millions of Indians via the Namo App promoted by government. He should, the Congress president said, use the official PMO app instead. This data belongs to India, not Modi.

A BJP functionary rebutted Gandhi and said that the PMs personal app was entirely different from the official app. Not a single penny of government funds go into the Namo App. The PM is extremely careful in all his digital properties to distinguish between the personal and official.

As the debate over mobile apps and its political use intensified, experts argued that India lacked the legislative framework to seal with it. Pavan Duggal, a cyber security lawyer, said, India does not have a dedicated legal framework to govern mobile applications. This entire episode is a wake-up call to protect consumers of mobile app service providers, given India does not have a dedicated privacy law.

The two parties had last week accused each other of using the services of Cambridge Analytica, which has been in the eye of the storm for allegedly mining the data of millions of Facebook users and using it to influence elections in other countries, including the US.The Supreme Court observed on Monday that the purity of democracy is eroded when convicted politicians are allowed to hold political party posts and choose candidates for elections.

A person who is convicted and disqualified; Can that person form a political party or head the party? How is the purity of democracy maintained? a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra asked the Centres additional solicitor general Pinky Anand who opposed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed to bar convicted leaders from heading a political party.

In a democracy, where purity of the process has to be maintained, persons who are disqualified from contesting, will they decide who will be the candidate? the CJI asked. His comments were verbal and not part of any written order.

Convicted politicians such as AIADMK leaders Sasikala Natrajan and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav are heading their respective political parties despite being in jail.

Anand sought a dismissal of the PIL on the ground that every individual, under Article 19 of the constitution, is entitled to form his/her own association/organisation. She submitted that even a convicted lawmaker is not debarred for life from contesting.

After six years of a disqualification period a lawmaker can again contest election. So there cannot be any ban on convicted politicians from holding party posts, Anand said.

But the CJI said the court would examine the issue.

Once they are debarred should they still hold office in a political party? the CJI asked, posting the matter for a hearing on May 3.

In its affidavit, the centre through the Union Law Ministry had said the appointment of an office-holder of a political party is a matter of party autonomy.

It may not be apposite to preclude the Election Commission from registering a political party merely because a particular post-holder is not qualified to contest elections, the centre has said in its reply to the PIL.Undeterred by a recent legal setback at the Geographical Indications (GI) registry in Chennai, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has vowed to continue fighting to acquire the GI tag for basmati rice grown in the state despite hurdles posed by Pakistan.

The coveted GI tag is a name or sign that corresponds to specific geographical locations. Usage of such a certification on a product would indicate that it possesses certain qualities exclusive to its land of origin.

The chief minister said state farmers have been producing basmati since 1908. As much as 50% of the rice exported to Canada and America comes from Madhya Pradesh. A few exporters, particularly those from Pakistan, do not want basmati rice produced here to acquire a global identity certification, a state government spokesperson quoted Chouhan as saying in a television news programme on Sunday evening. We will fight for our basmati-producing farmers and emerge victorious in the end.

Chinnaraja G Naidu, assistant registrar of the GI registry, had stated on March 15 that while the evidence filed by entities in Madhya Pradesh depicts the importance and special characteristics of rice grown in the state, it does not do the same for basmati in traditional cultivation areas. The opponent has, therefore, failed to satisfy the fundamental requirements of popular public perception of Basmati cultivation in Madhya Pradesh as mentioned by the honourable Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) in Chennai A mere plea without the backing of any corroborative evidence has no gravity in the eyes of the law, he added.

While the respondent or applicant in this case was the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), the opponents comprised the Madhya Kshetra Basmati Growers Association Samiti, Raisen; Narmada Cereals Private Limited, Mandideep, Raisen; SSA International Limited, Mandideep, Raisen; Madhya Kshetra Basmati Exporters Association, Udaipura, Raisen; the additional director of agriculture, department of farmer welfare and agriculture development, government of Madhya Pradesh; and Daawat Foods Limited, New Delhi.

A senior official of the state agriculture department said they were studying the order in detail. As there is an option to appeal against the order before IPAB within three months, we are seeking legal opinions on how best to do it, he said on the condition of anonymity.

It has been nearly a decade since Madhya Pradesh began fighting its battle for inclusion into an Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) list of basmati-growing states. It had even won a legal battle before the GI registry in 2013, but IPAB rejected the claim three years later on an appeal filed by APEDA.

Madhya Pradesh claims that it has been growing basmati rice since 1908.BJP president Amit Shah cited on Monday legendary Kannada poet KV Puttappas writings to accuse the Congress government in Karnataka of trying to divide society after it accorded minority religion status to the states influential Lingayat and Veerashaiva-Lingayat communities.

Chief minister Siddaramaiah is going against the philosophy of the poet, popularly known as Kuvempu, who called Karnataka the land where everyone lived harmoniously, Shah alleged at a rally in Thirthahalli in Shivamogga district.

In his writings Kuvempu focused on farmers and the place of Karnataka in India. The kind of politics the Siddaramaiah government is playing will remind the people that he should understand the state anthem penned by Kuvempu and learn to not play divisive politics, he said.

The BJP chiefs criticism came after the Siddaramaiah government recognised Lingayats and Veerashaiva-Lingayats, those who follow 12th century philosopher Basaveshwaras teachings, as a separate minority religion.

Shah, who is on a two-day tour of poll-bound Karnataka, visited a memorial to Kuvempu as well as the Siddaganga Math in Tumakuru  a Lingayat shrine that had approved the state governments minority religion move.

He sought the blessings of Sri Shivakumara Swami of Siddhaganga Math. The meeting with the seer is seen as an attempt to reach out to the Lingayats, who are numerically and politically influential in the state and form a major voter base for the BJP.

Shah continued his criticism during a convention of coconut growers, in which he said the Siddaramaiah governments move was aimed at preventing BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa, considered a Lingayat strongman, from becoming the chief minister.

I want to tell the people in Karnataka that if the BJP wins a majority, we will make Yeddyurappa the chief minister, he said.

Shah compared the relationship between the state and central governments to that of an electricity generation unit and a transformer.

The Siddaramaiah government is like a transformer that has burnt. Dont just change the government, uproot it and throw it away and bring Yeddyurappa to power, he said.

(With Inputs from PTI)Four women Maoists were killed by a team of Odisha police during an exchange of fire in Narayanpatna, the one-time bastion of the left wing extremists, in Koraput district on Sunday night, officials said, in the second successful action against the rebels in two days.

A joint team of the anti-Maoist Special Operation Group and District Voluntary Force raided Dokri ghat area on specific intelligence inputs that a Maoist camp was being run by Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC), one of the four special zonal committees of the rebels, leading to an exchange of fire.

Inspector general of police (anti-Maoist operations) RP Koche said the Maoists in the camp managed to escape after a few hours of the exchange of fire.

We found three bodies and several ammunitions during the search operation. All the deceased are women and are cadre Maoists. But we are yet to identify the Maoists. The search operation is still on, inspector general of police (anti-Maoist operations) RP Koche said.

The body of another woman Maoist in uniform was found at the encounter site, officials added.

Officials said police received a tip-off a few days ago about the presence of the Maoists in the Dokri ghat area. However, the Maoists managed to give police the slip.

An area committee member was killed two days ago in an exchange of fire between police and the rebels in Tulsidongar forest area in Malkangiri district.

Narayanpatna was a hub of Maoist activities in 2009-10 when the rebels through its frontal organisation Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh attempted to make it Odishas Lalgarh, the area in West Bengal where they unsuccessfully attempted to make a fortress of their own.

Maoist activities in the contiguous districts of Koraput and Malkangiri drastically came down after the joint encounter by Andhras Greyhound and Odisha police in October 2016 in which 30 Maoists of the AOBSZC were killed on the Odisha-Andhra border.

During that encounter, AOBSZC chief Akkiraju Haragopal alias RKs only son Shivaji, an area commander of the cut-off area Local Guerilla Squad, was killed.

The number of Maoist-related incidents in Odisha have come down sharply from 72 in 2015 to 11 this year along with the number of casualties among policemen. No casualties among security personnel have been reported so far this year. And compared to 26 civilian deaths in 2015, this year only one civilian killing has been reported in Odisha.Pawan Dadhich (42), a private employee in Jaipur, adopted a girl child in 2011 from Mahesh Ashram in Udaipur.

He said: For nine years, my wife Meenal and I were going from one doctor to another to treat infertility and finally decided to adopt a girl child.

Dadhich said: I went to shishugriha (child home) in Jaipur but I was asked to wait for five years. I even contacted many NGOs, but they all asked to sponsor a child rather than giving one for adoption.

Then I came to know about Mahesh Ashram in Udaipur, where abandoned newborns were taken care. I approached them and within three months, we became proud parents of Nayonkia.

The baby that time was five months and today she is 6 years and five months old and studying in class 1.

Dadhich was sharing his experience at Indira Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sansthan auditorium on Monday, where such parents who had adopted children were being felicitated.

The medical and health department had organised a state-level training and review meeting of Aashray Paalna Sthal.

He got the support from the family members for adoption, while many of his educated relatives and friends asked: How can I adopt a child of whom I do not know the caste, religion etc?

Generally, people ask about caste and other such things during a girls marriage. Asked who he will tackle such situation, Dadhich said: We will make our daughter so capable that we need not have to give any reply to anyone.

Another couple Vishnu Sharma (44), a private employee and his wife Krishna, too had adopted a three-month girl from Mahesh Ashram in 2012 and now their entire life is around Megha (6). The parents dream of making their daughter a sportsperson.

The brain child behind this concept was Devendra Agarwal, who is also the state advisor to the government of Rajasthan for Aashray Paalna Sthal Yojana.

Agarwal said in 2006, there were news of female foetus found in lakes of Udaipur and for almost a week there was continuous news, which forced him to start a Paalna Sthal at his Mahesh Ashram that was teaching yoga.

In April 2006, three babies were put in the cradle (paalna) outside his ashram. In 2010, he approached the government Pannadhai Mahila Chikitsalaya and had put two cradles there. From 2006 to 2016, total 150 children were left at Paalna Sthal of which 11 children died.

He said to save such newborns; chief minister Vasundhara Raje, in the 2015-16 budget, had announced launching of Aashray Paalna Sthal Yojana for safe abandonment of these babies.

As of today, the state has 68 Paalna Sthals (cradles) in all the government medical colleges, district hospitals, sub-district hospitals and satellite hospitals of Rajasthan.

He said since January 2016, 136 newborns were safely abandoned at these paalna sthals and the main motive behind this scheme was to save unwanted newborn babies, especially female babies, and to give them a chance to survive.

The workshop was attended by paediatrician, medical officer in-charge and nursing in-charge of 68 paalna sthals across the state.

Director public health Dr VK Mathur and state institute of health and family welfare director Dr Amita Kashyap felicitated the couples who had adopted the abandoned children.

This will give a good message in the society and people will be encouraged to adopt such children from shishugriha. These abandoned children will get parents and family and childless couples will get children, Dr Mathur said.

The scheme

Explaining about the scheme, Devendra Agarwal said any person who wants to give away any unwanted baby can safely place the baby at the Aashray Paalna Sthal located in the hospital premises of the government hospitals in his/her vicinity.

These paalna sthals are equipped with a battery and an inverter so that they work uninterrupted round the clock throughout the year.

Once a baby is left in the cradle, software operated alarm rings automatically after two minutes inside the hospital in a pre-destined room where a medical staff is always present who immediately rushes to pick up the baby.

Soon after receiving the baby, it is shifted to the neo-natal intensive care unit, where the medical care of the baby is immediately started.

After the baby recovers and is declared medically fit, it is then shifted to the nearest government recognised shishugriha.

After shifting the baby to shishugriha, a Bench of Magistrate carries out the complete legal formalities after which the baby is declared legally free for adoption.

Later, the district court, according to the legal procedure, releases the order for adoption of these babies.The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) , Jodhpur, on Monday got Rajasthans first surgical robotics system. Installed at a cost of Rs 28 crore, the machine was commissioned in front of a committee led by Dr Arvind Sinha, hospitals medical superintendent.

Dr Sinha said a training session for the surgeons will be held soon before planning the first surgery with the help of the robotics system. With the commissioning of the surgical robotics system, we can expect a massive advancement in the types of surgical procedures that can be performed here, he said.

Dr Sanjeev Misra, director, said that AIIMS Jodhpur has always strived to be at the forefront of the advance made in medical sciences. With the installation of the first surgical robotics, we bring a much needed technique for the benefit of patients here. We hope to start the surgical procedures within a week, he said.The state government planning to shift tigers to Mukundra Tiger Hills Reserve (MTHR) in the Hadauti region of Rajasthan is likely to do so by next month.

We are hopeful to shift a tiger at MTHR (from Ranthambore Tiger Reserve) by April, said Ajit Singh, the chairman of standing committee of State Board for Wildlife, after a visit to the park on Monday.

The committee members today (Monday) visited the Darrah area, which has been finalised for shifting the tiger. The preparations were inspected to assess how ready the place is to shift tiger. There are certain protocol and permission required from National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Wildlife Institute of India (WII) prior to shifting of tiger, which are in process, said Singh, who has in the past served Rajasthan as the director general of police. He said some instructions have been issued to the officials at MTHR such as developing additional 2-3 water holes.

At present, there are four water holes in the Darrah area of MTHR.

The NTCA has approved relocation of three tigers  two female and a male  which will be done in phases. This will be Indias first relocation of big cats to decongest a wildlife habitat  Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR).

A senior official, who is closely associated with the tiger shifting project, on the condition of anonymity, said the work at MTHR is in full swing and civil work are expected to be completed by March 31. The standing committee members have directed to develop two more water holes and speed up fencing work. There are two enclosures in the area. Work on 24 hectare enclosure has been completed and that on 82 sq km enclosure is in progress.

He said, The WII team is expected to visit MTHR in the first week of April to assess preparations and plan shifting operation.

The RTR official accompanying the team has been asked to be ready with identification of the tiger to be shifted.

Tigers for relocation will be selected on the basis of various parameters such as health, age, current location and territory. Besides, the tiger to be shifted should not have established territory.

On probable list of tigers to be shifted are Tiger T-91, which is in Bundi area at present, and T-95, which had a territorial fight with T-86 on March 15 night. Both the male tigers are looking for territory and are being constantly monitored. Any one of them could be shifted depending on the situation, he said.

Besides, tigress T-99 and T-102 are also being considered for the transfer, as in the coming time they might have conflict with their mothers and hunt for territory. At present, T-99 is moving in Kachidawali area and T-102 in Gudda area, he said.

The MTHR would soon also witness arrival of 110 cheetals from Delhi, which may add up to the prey base.

Third tiger park of Rajasthan

MTHR project was initiated in 2003 and notified in 2013 by joining wildlife sanctuaries of Kota region including Darrah wildlife sanctuary of Kota, Jawahar Sagar sanctuary of Bundi, Chambal Ghariyal sanctuary of Kota and Bundi districts and some forest blocks of Chittorgarh district. MHTR is spread in around 759.99 sq km area, including 417.17 sq km of core area and around 342.82 sq km of buffer area.The Deewan of the Ajmer Dargah, Zainul Abedin Ali Khan, has written letter to the CEO of the Sufi shrine demanding a probe on accused khadims (caretakers) for not allowing him to enter the sanctum sanctorum to perform a ritual on Saturday night.

Khan, who is the spiritual head of the 12th century shrine of Khwaja Moinddin Chisti, was allegedly not allowed to enter the shrine after some Khadims raised objections to his decision of declaring Nasiruddin Chisti -- Khans elder son -- as his rightful successor.

The incident took place during the 806th Urs of Sufi saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, which concluded Monday.

It is a centuries old tradition which was broken by Khadims who illegally stopped me from performing the ritual. I have demanded a probe and action against Khadims by writing a letter to the CEO of the dargah, Khan said.

Khan claimed that it was the second known occasion since 1943 when a Deewan was stopped from performing Gusl ki rasam.

However, according to Wahid Hussain, the secretary of the Anjuman committee (body of khadims) Khan wanted to perform the ritual with his son, which was unacceptable.

Deewan cannot declare his successor like this. He wanted to perform the ritual along with his son, which was unacceptable. He should have gone alone, Hussain said.

Nazim of the Dargarhs CEO, I B Peerzada has confirmed about receiving the Deewans letter and said that the matter will be probed.

On Saturday night the father-son duo was kept waiting outside the shrine for nearly two hours. And though the gates were opened after the intervention of District collector Gaurav Goyal, SP Rajendra Singh and CEO of the Dargah I B Peerzada, by then the time for performing the ceremony had already passed.There is a sudden rush among different communities to felicitate chief minister Vasundhara Raje.From Valmiki samaj and Mali samaj, to Meena community, tribals and the farmers, they have all organised functions to felicitate Raje.

While the ostensible reason for such events, as cited by the community leaders, was to show their gratitude for the welfare schemes announced during the state budget, sources say it was an apparent show of strength by the beleaguered chief minister who wanted to send a signal to her detractors both in Rajasthan and Delhi.

After BJP suffered a rout in the bypolls to two Lok Sabha and one assembly seats, talks of reshuffle in state organization and cabinet had gained ground. Rajasthan goes to polls later this year.

Amid such demands being made, Raje has held a series of meetings with state ministers and other BJP leaders close to her since the bypoll defeat. Sources said she has been firmly opposed to any change in state BJP leadership as she shares cordial relations with the current Rajasthan BJP president Ashok Parnami. She is also not too enthused about the idea of appointing a deputy chief minister floated by certain leaders.

Raje followed up a populist budget on February 12 with some further concessions to different sections of the society during her reply to the Appropriation Bill on March 6. Since then, she has met party office-bearers from different districts to understand the impact of the announcement and take feedback on the government functioning. She has also been meeting saints and religious leaders to seek their blessings. Raje also plans to launch a Vikas Yatra from tribal-dominated Udaipur on April 15 during which she will visit all the 200 Assembly constituencies.

While there are rumours about an imminent cabinet reshuffle after Navratras, state BJP leaders are non-committal. Such things happen in politics. I will not be able to comment, Parnami said. Asked whether he will continue as state BJP president, Parnami said, Hum party ke sipahi hain (I am partys soldier). I will take up any assignment given by the party. On people from different communities felicitating the chief minister, Parnami said they were expressing their gratitude following welfare schemes announced during the budget.

The BJP government has constituted Keshkala Board for welfare of barbers. This has happened for the first time in 70 years due to efforts of the chief minister. Then she has waived off the interest on loan of Rs 2 lakh as announced for the barbers in the budget. Another announcement has been about setting up of Sainji Maharaj panorama center in Pushkar, Mohan Morwal, a prominent leader of Sain Samaj and president of Keshkala Board, said. He along with other members of the community had felicitated Raje earlier this month.

The BJP is also making efforts to bring disgruntled leaders back to the party fold. The return of five-term MLA and two-time MP Kirolilal Meena has come as a booster shot for the party. Sources said attempts are being made to pacify rebel BJP MLA Ghanshyam Tiwari, a vocal critic of Raje, and appease other disgruntled MLAs too.

While talks of cabinet reshuffle refuse to die down, senior leaders of the party are touring different districts to take stock of problems plaguing the state. The aim is to work on booth management, and make people aware about the schemes launched by the state government.

A core group of BJP leaders who had analysed the partys poor performance in the byelections had cited unfavourable caste equations, rural distress and some decisions outside states control such as GST for the defeat.

While the party lost the Ajmer and Alwar parliamentary seats and Mandalgarh assembly seats in the bypolls, a party member from Kota wrote to party chief Amit Shah requesting him to change the state leadership - a demand also expressed by Ramgarh (Alwar) legislator Gyan Dev Ahuja.Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah calculated even the fractions of second-preference votes, in addition to the cross-voting of opposition members, to script success for the partys ninth candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh, according to party insiders.

The astute planning ensured victory for Anil Kumar Agarwal, the ninth candidate, although BJP had numbers only for eight candidates initially.

The elections to the upper house of Parliament are based on proportional representation and single transferable vote, which ensures surplus votes of winners are transferred to the remaining candidates as per their second preferences.

BJP VOTE ALLOTMENT STRATEGY Value of a vote in Rajya Sabha election: 100 Majority mark: 3,619 BJP president Amit Shah allotted 39 votes (or 3,900 votes) to 8 candidates who were sure to win Of the 39 MLAs allotted to the 8 candidates, 5 each were asked to give second preference votes for the ninth candidate After their first round, each BJP winner had 281 surplus points As per the calculation, the 281 votes were divided by 5, resulting in 56.2. Under the allotment strategy, this calculation led to lowest fractional loss This 56 (.2 is the minimum fraction loss) when multiplied by 5 gives 280  the extra votes each winning BJP candidate passed on to the ninth candidate When 8 winners gave 280 votes, the total transferred to the ninth candidate was 2,240 votes Add 2,240 to the 1,600 votes (got by 16 first preference votes), and the result is 3,840 The BSP candidate backed by the SP and Congress got 32 first preference votes, meaning 3,200 votes SPs first nominee Jaya Bachchan got 38 first preference votes, meaning 3,800 votes, which left her with 181 extra votes But since this would have been insufficient, there were no second preference votes allotted to the BSP candidate, who thus lost out

Two days before the high-stakes elections, the BJP chief called party leaders to Delhi and explained using a rule book for returning officers the concept of fractional loss, as per which losses are minimised by maximising the value of first and second preference votes, those privy to the meeting said.

This was why after the midnight brainstorming session in Delhi, the party decided to allot 39 votes each  including one each from ally Apna Dal  to eight of its nine Rajya Sabha candidates from UP, although a candidate required only 36.19 for victory.

This meant definite victory for the eight, whose surplus of 2.81 each was left for the ninth candidate.

Agarwal had managed to get 16 first preference votes, thanks to cross voting by four opposition lawmakers  SP MLA Nitin Agrawal, Nishad partys Vijay Mishra, independent candidate Amanmani Tripathi and BSP MLA Anil Singh  and three from allies, Apna Dal and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP).

Apna Dals nine members cast one vote each for the nine candidates, whereas the other ally, SBSPs members gave two votes for BJP and cross voted the other two for rival candidate.

Despite the cross voting by two of the four SBSP MLAs, BJP was confident that the fate of its ninth candidate would be decided by the second preference votes  a point that BJP leader Vijay Bahadur Pathak revealed midway through the poll process.

When the second-preference votes were counted, all the surplus  2.81  of the eight BJP winners went to Agarwal, ensuring he got 22.4 votes, which when added to the first 16, resulted in 38.4, higher than 36.19, the victory mark.

However, till 8am on Friday, none of the MLAs knew to whom they were allotted, a party leader said.

While one BJP team got busy getting its fraction loss right, the other team kept an eye on opposition numbers.

Contrary to the opposition charge of horse trading, the fact is that all of them admitted that they voted for us due to the clean image of chief minister Yogi Adityanath whom they referred to as Maharajji, said Mrityunjay Kumar, Adityanaths advisor.

JPS Rathore, the partys Rajya Sabha in-charge, admitted that the fraction loss aspect that Shah had emphasised was crucial in the Rajya Sabha election and added that the opposition was found lacking in their strategy in response to Shahs planning.

State BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey, general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal, general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak, JPS Rathore and Bhupendra Yadav were among those who attended the meeting.

The BJP MLAs attended three training sessions to ensure their votes did not go waste. Party leaders claimed that at least two additional votes that could have come to them were declared invalid because of technical errors.

Another independent candidate Raja Bhaiya was also in touch with Adityanath. Two opposition MLAs in jail  Mukhtar Ansari and Hari Om  were stopped by court from casting their vote, further hampering the opposition.

However, the BJP could not get its fractions right in Jharkhand, where its second candidate Pradeep Kumar Sonthalia lost to Congresss Dhiraj Prasad Sahu by 0.01 votes against the magic figure of 26.

BJPs other candidate Sameer Oraon crossed through comfortably with 27 votes.

(The value of one Rajya Sabha vote is 100. The values of votes mentioned in the report have been divided by 100.)Samajwadi Party MLA Shivpal Yadav shrugged off his pariah tag by voting along party lines in the Rajya Sabha election on Friday. Now, insiders say the patch-up between the two warring camps might culminate not only in complete rapprochement but also a Lok Sabha nomination for the once-disgruntled leader.

Shivpal, uncle of party president Akhilesh Yadav, was never a serious player in national politics. He had been contesting only in the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha elections since 1996, when he won the Jaswant Nagar seat.

A senior Samajwadi Party leader said that while the decision of fielding Shivpal in the Lok Sabha polls lay with the party president, the Yadav family feud was certainly over. He is very much a part of the party, and will play an important role in Mulayams Lok Sabha election campaign, the politician revealed on the condition of anonymity.

Although the party is yet to make a formal announcement, Akhilesh has already hinted that Mulayam  his father and former party president  will contest from the Mainpuri parliamentary constituency. While the party patriarch retained the Azamgarh seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, his grand-nephew  Tej Pratap Singh Yadav  currently holds the Mainpuri seat.

Shivpals loyalties have been a matter of speculation since last July, when he and a few loyalists defied the party whip and voted in favour of NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind on the instructions of Netaji (as Mulayam is fondly known). The Samajwadi Party had asked all its MPs and MLAs to vote for opposition nominee Meira Kumar.

The same month, three of his supporters allegedly paved the way for the election of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief minister Keshav Maurya and three others to the Vidhan Parishad by resigning from the legislative council membership.

Things did not look particularly rosy until last month either. Weeks ahead of Fridays Rajya Sabha polls, the rebel camp had indicated that it could go against the party line again. However, after the Samajwadi Party registered stunning victories in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls, Shivpal began tweeting congratulatory messages hailing Akhileshs able leadership.

The coming days witnessed renewed bonhomie between the two camps. Shivpal was invited to a dinner held by the Samajwadi Party ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections, and  for the first time  he sat alongside party MPs at any such event.

Shivpal stayed by Akhileshs side, smiling and interacting with other leaders. Soon afterwards, he tweeted pictures with the caption: Participated in the dinner with Samajwadi colleagues who are full of energy, hope, and experience.

The next day, Shivpal voted along party lines.

Cracks had emerged in ties between Shivpal and Akhilesh in August 2016, when a power struggle broke out in the family. Akhilesh won in the months that followed, replacing Mulayam as the party president on January 1 last year.The states power employee unions and consumer bodies on Sunday decided to rope in the general public in their agitation against the governments decision to privatise power distribution in five cities.

They also criticised the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) management for forcing the LESA staff to restore the electricity supply of all the government guest houses and departments, where the agitating engineers snapped connections for non-payment of arrears on Saturday.

We will now take the common people on board in our fight against privatisation of the power distribution, Vidyut Karmchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti leader Rajiv Kumar Singh said. He reiterated the decision on all power employees resorting to work boycott on March 27.

He said the power employees had decided not to disconnect smaller private consumers power supply for dues unless the UPPCL withdraws its orders for restoration of supply to government departments.

Kumar alleged the government wanted to hand over the power distribution system in five cities to some private companies. Everything is pre-scripted which is the reason why the franchisee proposal was not put to the UPPCLs board of directors for its approval, he said.

The UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad on Sunday held a BPL consumers panchayat at Sanskhera in the Para area here to enlist their support for the ongoing agitation against privatisation.

The BPL consumers were agitated over the privatisation move as well as the LESA restoring power supply to government departments without their paying dues, Parishad president Awadhesh Kumar Verma said.Lok Sabha bypoll victory had brought two estranged partners of the past, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), close. And now, the BSP candidates defeat in the Rajya Sabha poll appears to have pushed them closer in Uttar Pradesh.

A day after the Rajya Sabha polls, the SP and the BSP leaders signalled a strengthening relationship and gave indications of contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha polls together.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had visited BSP chief Mayawatis residence after the SP defeated BJP candidates in byelection to Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats (with the BSPs support), leaving behind the 23 year-old acrimony. The SP, thereafter, committed its extra votes to the BSP candidate BR Ambedkar in the biennial polls. The Congress too supported the BSP candidate, who eventually contested as a joint opposition nominee.

As the growing proximity between the SP and the BSP became a cause of increasing concern in the ruling alliance, the BJP fielded its ninth candidate to avenge the bypoll defeat.

The Rajya Sabha elections in UP have exposed BJPs true face. It has been misusing power, institutions and the money against the poor. The BJPs conspiracy against election of a Dalit (BSP candidate) has strengthened unity between the SP and the BSP for forthcoming (2019) Lok Sabha elections, said Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in a tweet.

Yadavs tweet came within minutes of BSP chief Mayawatis observations that the Rajya Sabha poll outcome will not have any impact on the growing proximity between the BSP and SP. Rajya Sabha poll outcome will not have any impact on proximity between the BSP and SP. The BJPs conspiracy (against BSP candidate) will prove costlier. The BSP and SP workers will now work even harder to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, said Mayawati, speaking to media persons here on Saturday.

As a gesture of solidarity with the BSP, the SP had called off celebrations for the victory of actor-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan as the SP candidate in Rajya Sabha elections.

Bahujan Samaj Party national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, too, had targeted the BJP for misusing the official machinery in the biennial elections. He said the BJP had a dislike for Ambedkars name and thus defeated the BSP candidate.

The BJP leaders had called the SP an untrustworthy partner and made attempts to drive a wedge between the two parties with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The BSP with 19 members needed 18 extra votes for its candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls. The Samajwadi Party with 47 members had 10 extra votes. The BSP candidate could have emerged victorious with the support of Congress (7) and RLD (1) members. The BSPs effective strength was reduced to 17 due to cross-voting by its MLA Anil Singh and denial of permission to BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari to reach Lucknow to vote.

Samajwadi Party MLA Nitin Agarwal, too, switched over to the BJP and one of the opposition votes was declared invalid.

In such a scenario, the party remained uncertain about the support of Independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya and the SPs allotment to BSP candidate came down to nine. The BSP candidate, however, got only 32 votes. The RLD has now expelled its MLA Sahendra Chauhan Ramala for not following the partys directives to vote for the BSP candidate.

This indicates the BSP candidate got only eight extra votes from the SP.

Questions are being raised about possible cross voting in the SP or the BSP amid reports that two Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party MLAs too voted for the BSP candidate.The India Meteorological Department (IMD), Mumbai, issued 32 rainfall predictions in 2017, of which 14 turned out to be incorrect. This means 44% of the predictions of heavy, very heavy or extremely heavy rainfall warnings issued by IMD were incorrect. The information was revealed by the weather bureau in its reply to a reply to right to information (RTI) query. The southwest monsoon is active over Mumbai between June and September.

Meteorologists and independent advisor to the state said international weather agencies at major cities such as London, Miami, New York, and Dubai ensure they maintain 80% to 85% accuracy throughout the year.

Based on an RTI filed by activist Chetan Kothari in December, the IMD (Mumbai) responded to his query on Friday. In a city like Mumbai, which is no stranger to extreme weather events, accurate predictions are very important for lakhs of commuters travelling daily. However, over the past two years, the accuracy for such predictions has been really poor. It is the same reason why lakhs of farmers are suffering in rural Maharashtra, said Kothari.

IMD officials said variability of weather factors plays a major role during predictions, especially in tropical areas. Every monsoon is different from the next one. It cannot be generalised as there is a difference of amount of rainfall, intensity variability of weather events and number of heavy rainfall days, among others. However, there is always scope for improvement, said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, IMD. Since it is forecast, there is a tendency that it may get deviated due to changing weather factors. This is just data from one year. Some years might not have challenges and forecasts have been 80% accurate.

The verification of weather forecasts are further based on three separate categories  correct, moderate and unusable, he said. We issue details from these three categories post our forecast for the state, citizens, commuters, and farmers. to use appropriately. As opposed to aviation forecasts which are very specific to flying zones and are more accurate, general forecasts are for larger areas or sub-divisions where the chances of variability are much more, said Hosalikar.

For weather predictions, IMD currently uses surface observations over land and sea that are received from different observatories, including that of the state government, automatic weather stations, upper air observational network where balloons are sent for data collection, satellite observations, and numerical weather predictions based weather models and surface charts. Forecasts vary from 0 to 2 hours  nowcasting, short range (12 to 72 hours), medium range forecasts (5 to 7 days), extended outlook (15-30 days), monthly forecast and long range forecast (for summer and monsoon).

Akshay Deoras, meteorologist and independent meteorological advisor to the Maharashtra government, said false alarms mainly happen in India because forecasters blindly rely on numbers instead of estimating impacts. IMD Mumbais probability of correctly issuing a rainfall warning last year has been as good as getting a head or tail on tossing a coin. This kind of forecasting is dangerous as it leads to confusion among citizens due to randomness in false alarms. In many cases, thunderstorms act as game changers as models cannot accurately tell if they will produce 50 or 100mm rainfall. However, a smart forecaster should be able to make sense by checking other parameters, he said.

Deoras added that IMD predictions on July 17, August 29 and September 19 advisories were so ambiguous that they gave all possibilities at the same time. IMDs verification is based on 24 hours rainfall accumulation and not the intensity. International agencies like the UK Met office, however, focuses more on issuing impact specific weather advisories, which are backed by regular research and assessment of changing climatic and environmental scenarios. They have an accuracy rate of 80-85%, sometimes even up to 90%, he said.A 16-year-old girl from Digha was allegedly abducted and raped by an autorickshaw driver in the MIDC area of Mahape on Friday evening.

After raping her, when the driver was allegedly taking her to some other place in his auto, the girl jumped out to save herself. She suffered injuries and fell unconscious. Some people took her to a doctor and then to the police station assuming it to be an accident. On gaining consciousness, the girl narrated the incident to the police.

According to the police, the girl is an orphan and stayed with her grandmother in Digha. After completing school, she started working in a company at Mahape, MIDC. A day before the incident, she had taken the same auto to reach home from work. Thus, the auto driver knew her timing and planned to commit the crime the next day, said an officer of Rabale MIDC police station. On Friday, around 7pm, the driver asked the girl if he could drop her home. As she knew him, she agreed to board his auto. The driver then took her to a forest area in MIDC and raped her . He asked her to not reveal it to anyone. He told the girl that he would drop her home, the officer said.

As the driver started heading towards Digha, the girl found something amiss in his behaviour. She thought he may be planning to kill her. As the auto was taking a U-turn at a signal, the girl jumped out. The driver fled the spot, he said. The police have registered a case under sections 363 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

The driver is from Solapur and stays in a rented house in Digha. The girl remembered the registration number of his auto and we reached out to its owner who gave the drivers name and address another officer said.

After committing the crime, the driver went to his house and then ran away. He has two kids and a pregnant wife at home. He also called one of his friends wives in Digha to check if the police had come searching for him. His phone has been switched off since Sunday. We have formed multiple teams to nab him. The girl is doing well now, he said.Amid protests by the opposition, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC) passed a no-confidence motion against municipal commissioner Sudhakar Shinde without any discussion on Monday.

The BJP, which has a strength of 51 in the 78-member house, held a discussion after passing the no-confidence motion.

The special general body saw a lot of drama when leader of the house Paresh Thakur introduced the motion at 11am, when the Opposition members had not reached.

Thakur read from a prepared text stating that Shinde is proving to be an obstacle for Panvels development and hence a no-confidence motion is being tabled against him.

Soon the opposition members trooped in wearing red and white T-shirts with `Ayukt Bachao Panvel Bachao printed on them. They raised slogans and demanding a detailed discussion on the motion. As the ruling and the opposition corporators started arguing, mayor Kavita Chautmal put the motion to vote.

She then declared that the motion had been passed with 50 members voting for it and 22 against it.

The voting led to further chaos in the house with the opposition still demanding discussion, which was taken up before the meeting ended around 3 pm.

While Shinde was not present in the house during the proceedings, a PCMC official said, It is unfortunate that the ruling party did not even allow the deputy municipal commissioner Sandhya Bawankhule, who was in the chair, to respond to the discussion as is customary.

The BJP has been seeking Shindes ouster for the past couple of months, saying he has not been doing anything for Panvels development.

It has been 18 months since the PCMC was formed and there is still no financial data given on what has been done for the 29 villages and other areas, said Thakur on Monday.

Last week, the party passed a resolution in the general body meeting asking for a case to be registered against him under the atrocity act for his failure to use funds for the backward classes.

Opposition leader Pritam Mhatre said, The ruling party is blaming the commissioner for its own failures over the past 10 years. We will now explore ways to ensure that Shinde stays in Panvel, in case the chief minister transfers him.

Shinde said that he has always ensured that the administration is transparent and pro-citizen. Development of Panvel and the interest of its citizens are paramount and I shall continue working for the city, he said.

WHAT NEXT?

The no-confidence motion approved by the PCMC general body will now be sent to the urban development department of the state government for final approval. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who heads the department, will have to take a call on it. If Fadnavis approves it, Shinde will have to go.Despite the massive turnout for the protest organised by Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) chief Prakash Ambedkar to demand the arrest of Shivraj Pratishthan chief Sambhaji Bhide, the state government did not yield or even give a commitment to consider their demands. This raises a question mark on not just the fate of the ongoing protests but also on Ambedkars leadership to bring disgruntled Dalits in the state together.

Right from morning crowds started teeming at Azad Maidan and by afternoon, it swelled beyond expectations. People who arrived from outside Mumbai carried placards condemning Bhide as the villain behind the Bhima-Koregaon violence who deserved to be put behind bars.

How come (Milind) Ekbote (another accused) is arrested while the main culprit roams free? questioned Amol Waghmare, who came from Palghar.

Nitin Kamble, who comes from Pune, said he had come to register his anger. How right is it to attack innocent people who just went to pay tributes to our ancestors? All we ask is to arrest him and then let the law take its own course, he added.

There were slogans raised, all aimed at Bhide, calling him a villain.

Despite the police department not allowing permission for the rally, some people reached Byculla and they marched to Azad Maidan led by Prakash Ambedkars wife Anjali and son Sujat.

The people who waited till evening were disappointed that the government did not arrest Bhide despite the protest. However, Ambedkar says he is using constitutional methods to achieve his goals. We have warned the government that if they do not arrest Bhide, we will ghereo the Vidhan Sabha and will not leave till our demands are met, said Ambedkar. He blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this impasse. He (Bhide) may be your guru but he has committed a crime and hence needs to be put behind bars, he added.

Many other Dalit leaders and political experts, however, blamed Prakash Ambedkar for the impasse. Jogendra Kawade, a Dalit leader who heads the Republican Party of India (K) faction, said Ambedkar does not take anyone into confidence. He wants to turn all agitations into a one-man show and does not consider counter views. This disunity is exploited by all and ultimately Dalit causes suffer, said Kawade.

Political analyst Prakash Bal said, Prakash commands respect for being the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar but he is just riding this wave of discontent. He does not have an organisational strength to unite Dalits. If tomorrow he fields candidates, they are not in a position to win.

Meanwhile the Shivraj Pratisthan has planned 35 morchas across the state on Wednesday. Their demand is to withdraw all cases against Bhide and an independent inquiry in this matter. On January 1, violence had erupted after some people pelted stones at cars heading towards the village for the commemoration of 200 years of the battle of Bhima-Koregaon. Dalit leaders and workers at the village had alleged that Hindutva activists Milind Ekbote of Samastha Hindu Aghadi and Sambhaji Bhide instigated the violence.A 55-year-old constable committed suicide by jumping from the terrace of his building in Virar on Saturday night.

The deceased, identified as Kishor Dalwi, lived on the fourth floor and was working with the Mumbai Polices Motor Transport department at Nagpada.

On Saturday, Dalwi, along with his wife had gone for a stroll after dinner. After he returned, he went to the terrace of his building in Amod Society, Dongarpada, and jumped off the edge.

Police said Dalwi was tired of his medical condition and ended his life due to depression.

Dalwi had been suffering from depression since July 2017, and was undergoing treatment at J J Hospital. He was on leave due to his ailment, said Gajendra Singh Patil, an officer from Virar police station.

The constables son Bhushan, along with their neighbours, rushed Dalwi to Sanjeevani Hospital, where he was declared dead before admission, Patil said.

Police have registered a case of accidental death. They are yet to get the post mortem report.Will state governments move to create a separate Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) and CEOs for the island city, suburbs and Thane, fasten the slum clearance schemes which are proceeding at a snails pace? Both builders and activists feel that these measures are inadequate and would not yield tangible results unless the fundamental issues are addressed first.

Currently the SRA schemes are plagued by issues like 70 % consent from slum dwellers for redevelopment, the infighting among them, eligibility issues, land premiums as well as approvals from various agencies.

In the last 22 years, ever since the SRA was conceived, just 1.88 lakh slum families have shifted to new homes under 1,749 schemes. According SRA, the city has nearly 12.5 lakh families living in slums that still need to be rehabilitated.

According to Anand Gupta, committee member, Builders Association of India (BAI), creating separate SRAs will not be enough.

Taking consent of slum dwellers takes years. Various groups of slum dwellers tend to push their favoured builders into the fray, and in this infighting, the whole scheme collapses.

He said the very condition of the government that any builder has to pay 25 % of the land value as premium cost, has driven off many builders from the scheme.

The SRA schemes are undertaken by medium and small builders and not by big developers. Currently, these builders are facing monetary crises and are not able to pay such a huge premium upfront, said Gupta.

Similarly Niranjan Hiranandani, managing director, Hiranandani Group, while welcoming the move said that more needs to be done on the issue of consent.

We expect the government to lower the 70 % consent clause to 51 % so that the process speeds up, said Hiranandani.

Noted housing activist advocate Vinod Sampat blamed the builders for this impasse.

The builders present an inflated number of slum dwellers, just to get more sale area. The entire scheme is mired in corruption, said Sampat.

The state government said the aim of setting up a separate SRA was to speed up the redevelopment schemes.

Creating different SRAs and CEOs to look after different regions would help in speeding up the process, as today there is huge work load on the single existing SRA. The decision was taken as it took years to solve disputes, which cause delays in schemes, said Ravindra Waikar, minister of state for Housing.

As far as consent is concerned, we have asked slum dwellers to appoint anyone even if they have 51 % consent and the rest will join eventually. Builders should not worry about monetary issues, as we have tied up with various banks, and they are ready to finance SRA schemes, said Waikar.

The SRA scheme, started in 1996, has been mired in corruption and host of other issues like manipulating slum dwellers, eligible people not making it to the list, fake consents, misleading promises, and inferior quality construction. All these issues slowed down the redevelopment work.

Problems with the SRA scheme

1) Many small-time builders tend to acquire consent and then sell the project to bigger builders

2) 70 % consent is required by builders to go ahead with the redevelopment process builders mainly tend to coerce the slum dwellers to join the scheme, and even employ high-handed tactics to obtain consents

3) Intense infighting among the slum dwellers where different groups squabble to get their favoured builders

4) Many times, the number of beneficiaries are inflated which ensures more benefits to the builders

5) The financial inability of the builder forces him to postpone the schemeTo ensure better fire safety for 2.98 lakh buildings in Mumbai, the fire brigade pans to introduce a new software to keep a tab on fire compliance norms. Last week, fire brigades building inspection system received a green signal from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations (BMC) Information Technology department. The fire brigade will soon appoint a contractor to design the software.

The system was first announced in 2016 by chief fire officer P Rahangdale. This system was planned to issue online fire compliance certificate and send automated reminders to defaulters. However, the system was stuck in red tape since 2016.

Following the Kamala Mills fire, which killed 14 people and injured twice as many, it came to light that less than 1% of Mumbais building adhere to biannual fire compliance procedures. This prodded the BMC to allocate Rs1.30 crore in the 2018-19 budget for the new system.

Deputy chief fire officer R Chaudhary said, We had drafted the software and its scope, and forwarded the proposal to the IT department for approval. Last week, the department sent it back and suggested minor changes. That should be done within a week. We will then float tenders for it.

The software will help fire brigade monitor compliance of fire safety norms in buildings regularly. It will issue reminders to defaulter and notices through e-mails. It will help the fire brigade compile data on buildings that are non-compliant.A 15-month-old baby died and seven others of a family were injured after a fire broke out in a shanty in a Chembur (West) slum on Sunday afternoon. The baby, Chandini Jatholiya, suffered 80% burns.

The injured included three children  three-month-old Tanuja, four-year-old Sakshi and five-year-old Pramod. The other injured were identified as Jagdish, 45; Geeta, 40; Prakash 30; and Parvati 23.

The 45-year-old man, Jagdish, is in a critical condition with 70-80% burns, said an official from the BMCs disaster management unit. All injured were admitted to civic-run Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar.

The fire broke out at 1pm at Thakkar Bappa Colony in Rajiv Gandhi Nagar.

Read more: Fire breaks out in godown in Mumbai; 3 women workers suffer minor injuries

The fire was confined to the hut of the Jatholiyas, which also doubled as a shoe-making unit. Another fire official said, The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. We found a large quantity of combustible material, which might have intensified the fire. There was neither any explosion nor a short-circuit. The fire was confined to one hut and did not spread to nearby settlements. 

Two fire engines, an ambulance and one jumbo water tanker brought the fire under control within half an hour.

The injured people have deep to superficial burns, said Dr Pravabin Babar, medical officer of Rajawadi Hospital.

Dr Pradip Jadhav, chief medical superintendent, peripheral hospitals, said that the Jagdish is in surgical unit, and if need be, he will be referred to a tertiary hospital for more potent antibiotics, wound dressing and intravenous fluids.

The medical officer added that they have been trying to shift Jagdish to a teritary care hospital since afternoon, but no bed was available. Dr Jadhav said he will be referred to Sion Hospital.

In a separate incident level 3 fire which is termed as major by the fire brigade broke out in a server room in a ground plus six under construction building in Andheri east. No casualties have been reported, according to BMC officials.

According to fire officials, fire and the smoke was confined to basement. As the building was under construction, no one was trapped inside. Eight fire engines, one water tankers, one breathing apparatus van and an ambulance have been pressed into service. The building on the Saki Vihar road reportedly belongs to a firm named Net magic Service Private Limited. The emergency call was made at 12:16 pm.A day after the city recorded one of its hottest March days in history; there was a marginal decline in maximum temperature on Monday. However, the weather bureau, which had issued a heat wave warning for Tuesday, removed it later with a revised prediction of 38 degrees Celsius. For Wednesday, temperatures are expected to further fall to 37 degrees Celsius.

A release issued by the weather department on Monday evening said, Heat wave conditions were observed in Mumbai and surrounding areas on Monday. Maximum temperatures are likely to drop from Monday morning onwards, but continue above normal levels in the coming days.

The Santacruz weather station, representative of Mumbai and the suburbs, recorded 38.7 degrees Celsius, 5.9 degree Celsius above normal, on Monday, and Colaba recorded 36.5 degrees Celsius, 5.2 degrees Celsius above normal. The night temperature in the suburbs was close to the normal mark, but almost 2 degrees Celsius above normal in south Mumbai.

On Sunday, the city had recorded 41 degrees Celsius, 8.2 degree Celsius above normal, which was the highest March day temperature in seven years and the second highest in a decade. Colaba had recorded 38 degrees Celsius, 6.7 degree Celsius above normal.

Independent meteorological advisor to the Maharashtra government Akshay Deoras said IMD should have issued the heat wave warning on Saturday for Sunday and Monday but failed to do so. After temperatures have marginally fallen, the department is issuing heat wave warnings, which confuses citizens even more. However, in any circumstance, citizens are advised to avoid dehydration, keep water bottles and umbrellas handy, he said.

Meanwhile, the rise in temperatures did not allow pollutants to settle close to the earths surface as Mumbai recorded the air quality index (AQI) at 199, falling under the moderate category, after two days of poor air quality. An AQI level of 192 (moderate) has been predicted for Tuesday.The state government on Monday announced that it would set up a sanatorium at the Tata Memorial Hospital in Parel for cancer patients and their relatives.

The government has identified two buildings, out of 10 vacant ones, with 300 apartments constructed by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) at Mahul near Govandi for the accommodation.

It will be free of charge for the patients and other ancillary services will be made available.

The public health minister Deepak Sawant made the announcement in the state assembly after the plight of the patients relatives at the hospital was highlighted by legislators during a calling attention motion.

Shiv Senas Parel legislator, Ajay Chowdhari, said relatives of outstation patients are often forced to take shelter on the footpaths outside the hospital, owing to the lack of affordable temporary residences in the city.

He demanded that the government make arrangement for their accommodation.

Responding to the demand, Sawant said that the government has already submitted a proposal to the urban development department for allocation of the buildings at Mahul.

The sanatorium will include facilities such as a fair-price grocery shop, creche for their children, and bus services to and from Tata Hospital. To ensure medical treatment in case of emergency, we will depute doctors and other medical staff. It will be allotted only for the period of treatment, he said.

The minister said that the government is in talks with the Tata Memorial Hospital with regard to further arrangements. He said that the department would request chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to intervene in the transfer of the buildings to the health department.

Cases of cancer are on rise in urban areas, Sawant added.The Amboli police on Monday interrogated the principal of Mumbra-based Kids Paradise School for more than three hours in connection with the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) paper leak case and found out serious lapses from the state boards side.

The principal, Zakiya Shaikh, during her interrogation informed the police that the board did not inspect or verify the details of the school before granting it permission to become a centre for SSC examination.

Daya Nayak, the investigating officer of the case said, The principal was questioned for over three hours and although we have not found her involvement in the paper leak, a series of lapses have been noticed from her interrogation. We have called her again after two days as we want to be sure before giving her a clean chit.

During the interrogation we found that the board did not verify or inspect the school. More than 300 students were supposed to take their exam at the school, but no inspection was done regarding the infrastructure, staff or other necessary issues , said a police officer also connected with the investigation.

Police have already found that the school had hired invigilators from outside as it did not have enough staff to conduct the examination. The principal had revealed that the staff was brought by Feroz Khan, the prime accused in the case and the school did not have any record or details of these five invigilators. When we get an application from a school or junior college to participate in the board exams as a centre, we verify the institute before giving our approval, said in-charge secretary, Subhash Borse, Mumbai division of the state board. Borse, however, conceded that in this particular case, the school did not go through a verification process. This school was originally an entity of another school which has been a board exam centre for some years. Therefore no verification was conducted when they approached us to allow their school to be used as an exam centre, Borse said.

The probe has revealed that the husband of the principal used to bring the examination papers to the school by an auto, which is a breach of rules.Even as his familys prime asset, Essar Steel, has been put on the auctioneers block by creditors to recover unserviced debts to the tune of Rs45,000 crore to a consortium of 22 creditors, led by the State Bank of India, word comes in that Rewant Ruia, son of Ravi Ruia, celebrated his birthday this week by flying a group of his close friends in his private jet to Miami to attend the Ultra Music Festival, known as the worlds biggest annual outdoor electronic music festival.

Incidentally, even as he kicked up his heels in another part of the planet, the birthday boys name was making headlines back home, as Makram Abboud, VC of VTB Capital, one of the main bidders, declared that although the young man was a good addition to their bid for the beleaguered steel company, if it stood in the way of their acquisition, they would not think twice before buying him out.

Thats called facing different kind of music.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Chandra Swami and Raj Babbar. (Photo: Pradeep Chandra)

His resignation as president of the UP Congress committee last week is still a bit of a mystery, following as it was with his statement that his tweet alluding to it had been misinterpreted. But then mystery has always been a part of three-time Lok Sabha member and two-time Rajya Sabha member Raj Babbars persona. From his controversial marriage to one of the film industrys most admired actresses, the late Smita Patil, to his reverence for the dodgy, self-confessed Godman Chandra Swami, to his success in the ebb and thrust of UP politics, hes always been an enigma.

This picture, shot by lensman Pradeep Chandra in 1985 at the Sea Rock hotel, in the presence of Swami (also said to be guru to former PM Narasimha Rao, acting legend Elizabeth Taylor and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim), captures the delight they took in each others company. Chandra had been asked to shoot Swami by Rajat Sharma, his editor at Onlooker. Almost a dozen people were in the room, among whom was actor Raj Babbar, accompanied by Smita Patil, he said of the shoot to which he was escorted by Swamis right-hand man, Mamaji. We shot 50 frames, which was a lot for those times and he was most cooperative, recalls Chandra. On being informed by Mamaji that there were many devotees awaiting his darshan outside, he asked for their names.When he heard Babbar was among them, he instructed he be brought in (Patil was made to wait outside) so their picture could be shot together. Swamy died last year, a shadow of his former self, with his name being linked to the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. His former disciple, Babbar, meanwhile, notched up a career of giddy success in the Congress. Until last week that is, when he may or may not have resigned.

Perhaps its time he found another guru now.

WTSWTM

What They Say 

By the time the scam was discovered, the FIR lodged and the bank complained, he had already left the country.

What They Mean 

By the time the scam was discovered, the FIR lodged and the bank complained, all his stars had aligned and he exited the country as easily as a knife through butter.

LADIES WHO LUNCH IN STYLE

The glamorous guest list at Alka Chaturvedis birthday lunch.

This picture, featuring a pride of glamorous ladies, was shot recently at the Gauri Khan-designed Arth restaurant at Bandras Linking Road, during the long, happy birthday celebrations of Alka Chaturvedi. Featuring sisters-in-law Sundari and Zarine Khan with their daughters, artist Laila Furniturewala and jewellery designer Farrah Khan Ali, along with their friends Neelu Merchant, Leena Singh and Paulomi Sanghvi, among others, it captures the easy bonhomie and high style of Mumbais prime ladies who lunch. There was tambola with the birthday girls favourite items, her husband, who was the only male present, delivered a moving speech and everyone was relaxed and happy, says a guest.

As for the collection of designer handbags in the foreground of the picture? We do not know who they belong to, but rest assured Bulgari, Chanel and Hermes are laughing all the way to the bank!The Khar police traced and arrested a 27-year-old man who had allegedly molested a 22-year-old French national in Khar (West). The police had no leads in the case but the CCTV cameras installed in Khar and Santacruz helped them trace the accused.

The accused has been identified as Abdul Khalid Sanadhi, a resident of Chimatpada in Andheri (East). The woman had come to India in January and was staying at a friends place in Mumbai.

The incident took place on March 21 around 9pm when the victim was returning to her friends house after visiting Mahalaxmi temple. She was near the Khar railway station when the accused came from behind, touched her inappropriately and ran away.

The woman was shocked but before she could ask for help, the accused had fled the spot. However, she gave his description to the police, who started checking all the CCTV cameras installed in and around the area. In the process, they spotted a man on a scooter in the same vicinity who matched the description provided by the victim.

The police then checked CCTVs in Khar, Santacruz and Chakala area, which eventually led them to the accused. Sanadhi was arrested on Sunday. Senior police inspector Ramchandra Jadhav of Khar police station confirmed the development.

We have gained his custody for one day. We are now finding out if the accused has a prior criminal record and if he is wanted in any other case of similar nature, added Jadhav.Thousands of Muslim women gathered in Mumbra, Thane, on Monday afternoon to protest against the Triple Talaq Bill, proposed by the central government. Women thronged to the Thane town from areas like Kausa and Shil.

Protesters began a march around 2 pm from Daru Falah Masjid, after which they gathered at the Jain Mandir ground in Mumbra, where members of the community would be speaking. The protest has been organised by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and Kul Jamat, a Muslim organisation based in Mumbra.

We have gathered to represent the sentiments of women from our community. We strongly oppose the Triple Talaq Bill, and so the government should not go ahead with it, said Shabana Asan, 40, a representative of the Shia community in Mumbra.

Madina Ansari, 32, a resident of Mumbra, said, We are against the Triple Talaq Bill. Hence, we have participated in this protest. We do not want any change in our Sharia law.

Protestors feel that the government is interfering in their religious affairs.

Rauf Lala, from Kul Jamat said, Triple Talaq is a part of our religion, and the government should not interfere in the Islamic law. The thousands of women who have participated in the march share this sentiment.

We respect the practice and follow it, as it is a part of our religion. We do not want any interference of the government in our religion, said Somaiya Ansari, 35, member of a Muslim community board.

Read more: Movement against triple talaq started 51 years ago in Maharashtra

The protestors will submit a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, through the District Magistrate of Thane. The memorandum will state that the Triple Talaq Bill would do more harm than good to the Muslim women.

Salamat Ullah Nadvi, convener of the protest said, We are against the bill because instead of protecting Muslim women, it would deprive them of the rights which they are getting now. Hence, the bill has more disadvantages than advantages, and will harm the Muslim women.There are 16.2 lakh girls in the country, in the 11 to 14 age group, who do not attend schools, revealed the statistics shared by Union ministry of women and child development.

The data also revealed that Maharashtra ranks seventh in the list of states with maximum girls (56,936) not attending schools. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar top the list (about 5,00,000 girls) followed by Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh (more than 1,00,000).

The government has realised the multi-dimensional needs of out-of-school adolescent girls and is implementing various schemes that support nutritional and non-nutritional needs of the children, said a statement by the ministry.

Under one of the schemes, a nutritional support of Rs9.50 per day is provided to the beneficiaries for 300 days. The scheme also aims at motivating out-of-school girls to return to schools for schooling or skill training under the non-nutrition component of the scheme.

By December 2017, various states, including MP, UP, Gujarat and Odisha, had provided funds to increase the nutritional benefits for girls. As per information from the ministry, Maharashtra has not invested much in these schemes.

We have reduced girl dropout rate by 5.6% in the past three years and this is impossible without any investment from state government, said state education minister Vinod Tawde.

He added instead of focusing on providing nutritional meals for girls, Maharashtra has also been focusing on non-nutritional aspects.

More focus has been given to building hostels for girls in the state and ensure better transport facilities for girl students in rural Maharashtra, Tawde added.

In the past three years, the state government has conducted a series of survey to ascertain the number of out-of-school children. But did little to bring the children back to the schools and enrol them under the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

Its a work in progress, and the state government will have better numbers to show in the upcoming year as more is being done to encourage students to complete their schooling, Tawde said.

States with the highest out-of-school girls

State-------------------------------Out of school adolescent girls (age 11-14 years)

Uttar Pradesh--------------------------4,96,000 (approximately)

Bihar------------------------------------4,92,609

Gujarat----------------------------------1,32,729

Madhya Pradesh-----------------------1,25,452

Assam-----------------------------------74,727

Jharkhand-------------------------------58,568

Maharashtra----------------------------56,936

Odisha-----------------------------------56,893

Karnataka-------------------------------48,971

Jammu & Kashmir--------------------15,598

Total (India)----------------------------16,28,584

*Source: Union Ministry of Women and Child DevelopmentThe Bombay high court (HC) has barred the trustee of an Andheri school from entering the school premises, after he was accused of sexually assaulting a student. The court on Monday asked the trustee to restrain himself from entering the school premises until the case is heard.

The trustee was arrested in 2017 for allegedly sexually assaulting a three-year-old student, who has since moved to another school. In May 2017, the parents of the student accused the trustee, a French national, of sexually assaulting the child.

While a first information report (FIR) was filed at the local police station, the trustee was arrested six months after the parents of the victim filed a writ petition in court. However, he was granted bail within a month and had reported back to duty by December 2017.

The minute we saw him back on campus, we went straight to the police again, seeking help in keeping our children safe from such a predator, said a parent. We were shocked when the trustee coolly walked back into the school campus, barely a couple of weeks after he was released on bail by the sessions court, said another parent.

Last week, HT had reported on the bail cancellation plea filed by the childs parents with the Bombay HC. Other parents intervened in the plea.

On Monday, Justice Revati Mohite-Dere, who was presiding over the plea also directed states officer, who had appeared before the sessions court in November, to file an affidavit on the prosecutions statement made before the sessions court during the bail hearing.

A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court is hearing the criminal case while the high court is looking at the bail application. There was no response to the emails sent to the school management on Monday.

(With inputs from PTI)Residents of Aarey Milk Colonys tribal villages on Monday protested against the death of a five-year-old boy who was stung by a scorpion in his school on March 12.

Vaibhav Sathe, a student of Marol Police Camp Municipal Marathi School, was stung by an insect, which doctors later identified as a scorpion, on March 12. He died on March 20 at Holy Spirit Hospital, Andheri. His family said the school did not inform them of the incident in time because of which he could not be treated.

Vaibhavs classmates informed the teacher that he was stung by something, but the teacher didnt pay heed. When his father reached the school to pick him up around 5.30pm, he found that Vaibhav was sleeping on one of the benches in the school. It is negligence on the part of the school authorities, said Dinesh Habale, Sathes uncle.

Habale said they have approached Powai police station and the ward authorities to look into the matter.

The school principal and the assistant officer of schools, BMC, Dipika Patil, refused to speak about the incident.

The incident took place somewhere in school premises, maybe in the playground, but no one really knows the exact location. The kid was taken to a hospital, where his treatment was on, but he later passed away, said an official of the Powai police station.

The doctors who treated Vaibhav at Holy Spirit Hospital said they tried their best to save Sathe, but failed, and called it a rarest of the rare case.

In Mumbai, one doesnt really come across scorpion sting cases, unless in remote areas, said the doctor in-charge of the paediatric ward. The doctor also said Sathe was brought almost dead to the hospital around late evening on March 12.

When the kid was brought to the hospital, no one was really aware of what stung him. However, we realised it could have been a scorpion gradually from the way he behaved. His brain was the most affected. All parts of ones body are affected when a scorpion stings. However, had the kid arrived at the hospital earlier, we could have saved him. But, even after operating on him, he succumbed to the scorpion sting, said the doctor.Three witnesses deposed before the trial court in Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter case on Monday, of which two were declared hostile by the prosecution.

So far, 62 witnesses have been examined and 44 turned hostile.

The prosecution called IPS officer E Radhakrishnan as a witness who testified before the special CBI court that Rajkumar Pandian, Gujarat IPS officer, had called him on November 21, 2005, asking for a room at the officers mess in Hyderabad. He said that later he came to know that three other people stayed with Pandian at the mess.

Pandian was the superintendent of police, anti-terrorists squad, at the time of the encounter. He was discharged by the special CBI court in August 2016. Out of the 38 people charged in the case, 15 people have been discharged.

Two panch witnesses, who were present while making a record of the cartridges used by the four officers, retracted their statement.

One of them said he is not sure if the signatures on the label of sealed evidence were his, the other identified his signature on the packet. However, the other witness said it was not true that the officers showed him the cartridges and sealed it in front of him. Both the witnesses did not support the prosecutions case and were declared hostile.

According to the CBI, on November 23, 2005, Sohrabuddin was travelling on a Hyderabad-Sangli bus with his wife Kausarbi and Tulsiram Prajapati when they were allegedly abducted by the Gujarat police anti-terrorists squad and members of the Special Task Force from Rajasthan.

Two days later, Sohrabuddin was killed, allegedly in an encounter, and Kausarbi was allegedly killed the next day.

Tulsiram, who had been arrested in connection with a case in Udaipur, was taken to Gujarat and allegedly killed in an encounter in December 2006. The case was transferred to Mumbai on orders of the Supreme Court.

.The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) have complained to the police that students had held a professor hostage on March 24.

The institute filed an incident report with the local police, alleging pressure tactics by students, including blocking the entry and exit points of the academic wing and holding a senior professor hostage . Students, who are on a protest from February 21, have called this move by the management as an act of moral deficit.

The institute is accusing us of vandalism and breaking CCTV cameras on campus, but all this is untrue. We have been continuing a peaceful protest for the past one month and ensured that no regular work is affected because of the protest, said a student, and added that their non-violent protest will continue till their demands are met.

A bandh was called by the TISS Students Union on February 20 to protest the institutes decision to withdraw the fee-waiver given to SC, ST and OBC students, eligible for last years Government of India Post Matric Scholarship (GoI-PMS). Students have not attended classes since February 21 and the protest has been going on all campuses of TISS  Mumbai, Hyderabad, Tuljapur and Guwahati.

A statement from the institute has stated that the incident report was filed so as to keep the authorities updated with all that happens on campus. The administrative wing, where students protested on March 23, also houses many important documents. By entering this space, students have put the area in risk and we appeal to students to not disrupt the normal functioning of the institute, said a senior official. A police officer was also present on the TISS campus on Monday to look into the complaint by the administration and question all parties.Mumbai: An autorickshaw driver and one of his passengers died while three others in the vehicle suffered injuries after it crashed into a BEST bus near Aksa at Malwani in Malad (West) on Sunday afternoon.

The auto driver, Jubair Khan, 40, who died on the spot, was allegedly driving the vehicle in an inebriated state because of which he lost control and crashed into the bus which was on its way from Madh Jetty to Malad station. The Malwani police said the other victim, Satish Choubey, 35, who was sitting next to the driver was traveling towards Dana Pani beach along with his friends Akbar Ali Khan, 24, Amir Shaikh, 40, and Ali Chand, 26.

The police said the four men are residents of Ekta Nagar in Jogeshwari while the driver was a resident of Malwani gate number eight. Eyewitnesses said Khan was driving the auto in a zig-zag manner.

When the vehicle was climbing a slope, because of five men in the auto, the driver could not control it and crashed into a bus coming from the opposite direction, said an officer. Owing to the impact of the accident, Khan and Choubey suffered severe injuries and were declared dead on arrival at the hospital. The passengers sitting on the back seat also suffered injuries and were admitted to Shatabdi Hospital.

Read more: TV journalist from Mumbai killed in Kurla road accident

We have registered a case of death due to negligence against the auto driver and are investigating to find out whether Khan was drunk, said the officer.Mumbai

Eight months after a city businessman lost Rs7 lakh to the thak thak gang, the police arrested two members of the gang from Gujarat.

In August last year, they stole Rs7 lakh from a businessman in Kandivli (East) by tricking him.

According to the Samta Nagar police, the complainant Bhavin Dhavda, 40, is a businessman dealing in dry fruits. On August 5, Dhavda was collecting money from his customers, going from one shop to the other in his car. He had Rs7 lakh in his bag.

When he reached Ashok Nagar in Kandivli, two men came on a bike and told him that his car had brushed past a vehicle, leading to an accident. Dhavda got out of the car to see what had happened. The duo stole his bag and fled, said senior police inspector Anil Mane of Samta Nagar police station.

The police checked the CCTV footage, traced the duo to Ahmedabad and arrested Nilesh Bogekar, 40, and Kamlesh Sonara, 32. The police have also seized the bike used to commit the crime.

An FIR has been registered against them under section 379 (theft) of the IPC. The duo was produced before a magistrate court on Monday and has been remanded in police custody.Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government for its opposition to the probe into judge BH Loyas allegedly suspicious death. Judge Loya, at the time of his death, was hearing the Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter case.

Raising doubts over the governments position, Chavan questioned who was being inconvenienced by the demand for a fair probe into the case. Chavan was speaking at the state assembly while participating in a debate over the deteriorating law-and-order situation.

The state government has appointed senior counsel, Mukul Rohatgi and Harish Salve, to defend its case in the Supreme Court on the matter, said Chavan. He asked, Who does the state government want to shield? Who is being inconvenienced by a demand of fair probe into the case?

The former chief minister further said judge Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Shaikh encounter case, in which the then home minister of Gujarat was externed from the state for six months. On the directives of the Supreme Court, the trial of the case was shifted from Ahmedabad to Maharashtra.

Judge Loya was under tremendous pressure over the case. There is a buzz that he was also offered Rs100 crore for a favourable order. He died under suspicious circumstances at Nagpur, where he had gone to attend a wedding along with two colleagues. He died due to a heart attack. He was first taken to an orthopedic hospital, which did not have an ECG (electrocardiogram) facility. He was then taken to another hospital, where he was declared dead before arrival, Chavan said.

He added the state should clarify its stand on the request to ban the Sanatan Sanstha. The request for the ban had been made to the Centre by the then Congress-NCP government in 2011. He said the state government had sent a 1,000-page dossier to the Centre over its queries on the demand.

Meanwhile, former home minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator, Jayant Patil, asked for a probe into the allegations that absconding industrialist Vijay Mallya had given a Rs35-crore cheque to the ruling BJP.Noida: Fear of encounter is making wanted criminals surrender in Gautam Budh Nagar. A wanted criminal allegedly involved in the murder of a Bharatiya Janata Party leader surrendered at the Bisrakh police station of Greater Noida on Monday afternoon.

Accused Sheru Bhati is a relative of dreaded criminal Sundar Bhati, who is presently in jail. Sheru also had a bounty of 50,000 on his head. Sheru is accused of being involved in the murder of local BJP leader Shiv Kumar.

The accused told the police that he was scared that he will be eliminated in an encounter by the UP police and that is the reason he decided to surrender.

However, the way Sheru surrendered has raised many questions about the credibility of the whole incident. Police is facing criticism for allegedly staging the whole surrender episode. Sheru is expected to have connections with the local political leaders. I was in my office when the accused came to the police station to surrender. We had no clue about his decision. Sheru has told us that he was scared of an encounter thats why he decided to surrender. We will investigate if the accused has any connections with the politicians, said Manish Saxena, station house officer.

Senior superintendent of police Ajay Pal Sharma on the issue of encounter has said that his sole focus is to maintain law and order and many more people are going to surrender in the coming days. Four more accused are going to surrender soon as they have got in touch with the police department. I dont know whether its the fear of encounter or anything else, said Sharma.

The accused Sheru has been absconding for the last four months. One more accused in the murder of the BJP leader, Amar is still at large. Police is now going to question Sheru about Amars whereabouts.

The BJP leader and his bodyguard were gunned down by two bike-borne assailants at Haibatpurs Tigri near the Vijay Nagar-Greater Noida Link Road on November 16, 2017. A minor girl, present at the spot was run over by the BJP leaders car when the driver, who was hit, tried to speed away from the spot.

On October 2, 2017 also, a man who had attacked two men with a countrymade pistol along with a friend surrendered at the Sangam Vihar police station of New Delhi as he was scared of an encounter in the jurisdiction of Uttar Pradesh.Police officials in Noida said they have recovered an AK-47 rifle from a criminal after a shootout on Sunday.

On Sunday, a man, wanted in more than 14 cases of loot and murder in Delhi and Noida, died in a police encounter at the Parthla intersection around 6.30am.

The police said they were acting on a tip-off from an informant about the movement of the accused, Shravan Chaudhary, in the area. Chaudhary was a resident of Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad.

We knew that Chaudhary, along with an accomplice, would pass through the Parthla intersection around 6-6.30am. Chaudhary and his accomplice were in a Swift Dzire and were intercepted by us. It is then that they opened fire, additional director general of police (Meerut zone) Prashant Kumar said. He added that the police chased the men when they tried to flee.

According to the police, Chaudhary got injured in the retaliatory fire and was taken to the district hospital for treatment and further questioning, but he died upon arrival at the hospital. His accomplice fled the scene and police are on the lookout for him.

The police recovered an AK-47 rifle and a .315 bore rifle from Chaudhary.

The police was not sure where the accused had procured the AK-47 from or where they were planning on taking it. Additional director general of police (ADG) Prashant Kumar said that the plan was to extract more information from Chaudhary once they reached the hospital. However, he died before that.

According to the police, the .315 bore rifle had been stolen on September 5, 2017, from Bisrakh police. Chaudhary and other assailants were in a car and had intercepted police officers who were on a motorcycle and had snatched the rifle from them.

Following the incident, a reward of 50,000 was placed on Chaudhary for his arrest. The police said another reward of 50,000 was announced for his arrest, in connection with a murder case in Delhi.

He had been involved in multiple cases and was wanted since 2014. In 2017, he had murdered a man in Seelampur, Delhi, for which there was a reward on his arrest. He was also wanted by the Bisrakh police for looting a weapon from police officers of the Bisrakh police station, Prashant Kumar, additional director general of police, Meerut zone, said.

Sundays shootout was part of Uttar Pradesh Polices raids across the state to arrest wanted criminals, which seems to have paid off according to additional director general of police (Meerut zone) Prashant Kumar.

We have arrested 180 wanted criminals, against whom there were non-bailable warrants, in Ghaziabad in the past 24 hours. More than 1,000 arrests have been made in the last year. The police is achieving success, he said.

The new SSP, Ajay Pal Sharma, said that police is aggressively pursuing criminals.

In another incident, police arrested Dinesh Singh, an alleged gangster with a reward of 25,000 on his head after shooting him in the leg on Sunday evening. A constable was injured in the shootout. The incident occurred at 8 pm at Sigma roundabout in Greater Noida when according to police, a patrol team confronted the accused and his accomplice.

ADG (Meerut zone) Prashant Kumar (left) with Noida SSP Ajay Pal Sharma addressing the media on Sunday. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

Elsewhere, three men were arrested after an encounter near the Panchsheel underpass on Noida-Greater Noida Expressway on Saturday night.

According to the police, the three were questioned during a routine vehicle checking around 8pm on Saturday during which they opened fire on the police.

They tried fleeing and fired at the police. That is when we chased and arrested them after the motorcycle they were riding skid, Vedpal Singh Pundir, station house officer, Expressway police station, said.

On Saturday night, the police arrested a man, identified as Sundar from Vijay Nagar following a gun battle. Sundar had shot and injured the station house officer of Vijay Nagar police station, Naresh Kumar Singh, and the police fired at Sundar in retaliation. Sundar died on Sunday.Arijit Shashwat, son of Union minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, said on Monday that he would move an anticipatory bail application against a warrant issued for his arrest by the Bhagalpur police in connection with the communal clashes in Nathnagar on March 17.

On the other hand, Bhagalpur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manoj Kumar said that a two-member team of cops has been carrying out intensive searches over the past 24 hours in Patna to nab Arijit. The warrant against Shashwat was issued by a court in Bhagalpur on Saturday.

Shashwat and eight others were booked by the Nathnagar police in Bhagalpur district following disturbances in Medini Chowk, a Muslim-dominated area, during a procession by workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bajrang Dal on March 17.

Shashwat, while speaking to reports in Patna, refused to surrender, saying he was in courts shelter and had full faith in the judiciary. Why should I surrender? I am in courts shelter and do whatever the court decides. I have complete faith in the Indian judiciary. I am not an absconder, he said.

Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, hit out at chief minister Nitish Kumar and questioned why Shashwat was still free despite having a warrant against his name.

Yadav claimed Shashwat had participated in a Ram Navami procession in the state capital on Sunday, a day after the warrant was issued.

Nitish (Kumars) govt has issued an arrest warrant against him (Shashwat) for inciting riots in Bhagalpur but today (Monday) he took out another procession on the occasion of Ram Navami armed with a sword accompanied by BJP MLAs, read a post on Yadavs Twitter handle.The crime branch of Chandigarh police claim to have busted a gang of cheaters involved in duping people after promising them jobs in the Chandigarh police with the arrest of a Panchkula resident.

Police said the apprehended accused, Sukhdev Singh alias Bunty, 38, was the gangs kingpin. Posing as a sub-inspector with Chandigarh police, Bunty had collected Rs 25.9 lakh from five people, promising them jobs of assistant sub-inspector (ASI), head constable and constable.

The fraud came to light when a group of youths arrived in Chandigarh on March 24 to join training. As per police, on March 24, around 7:20pm, a team of the crime branch under supervision of SI Satwinder Singh was patrolling near the exit gate of the Sector-43 ISBT parking, when five people, including a girl, approached them.

Modus Operandi Investigators said Bunty pretended to be a sub-inspector in Chandigarh Police. His relative Sukhdev Singh alias Sukha would lure gullible people claiming that his relative Bunty had close contacts with senior officers, and he could manage to recruit lots of people in Chandigarh Police on the ranks of ASI, head constable and constable. They said Bunty had confessed to have duped eight people, though police estimate the number of victims to be much be more. The accused is facing three cases in Punjab and Haryana as well.

The group claimed that they had been selected in Chandigarh Police for the posts of ASI, head constable and constable, and asked the police party when their training will start.

SI Satwinder Singh told them that currently no recruitment process was underway in Chandigarh Police for hiring ASIs and head constables. Besides, for the recruitment of constables, a written test was yet to be conducted.

He was then told by the group that one Sukhdev Singh alias Bunty, sub-inspector with Chandigarh Police, recruited them in UT Police, in exchange for Rs 25.9 lakh. They claimed that Bunty had called them to the Sector-43 bus stand to hand over their selection documents and joining letters.

Bunty arrived at the ISBT in a white Maruti Suzuki SX4 (CH01-AO-2830) around 8.35pm and was arrested.Cops recovered five envelopes from his custody that included five admit cards for the five youths bearing their photographs and logo of UT Police.

Bunty and his relative Sukhdev Singh alias Sukha, 39, resident of Tarn Taran, Punjab, have been booked under Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. Bunty was on Sunday produced before a court that remanded him to three-day police custody.

Youths wanted ASI, head constable, constable jobs

The accused took Rs 7 lakh from victim Kulwant Singh of Tarn Taran for his selection as head constable in Chandigarh Police, while Gurmeet Singh paid him Rs 3.7 lakh for selection as a constable, and another Rs 1 lakh was to be paid after his appointment.

Another Rs 4.7 lakh was paid by Bikramjeet Singh for his selection to the post of ASI, and Rs 4.7 lakh were to be paid later. Rs 9 lakh were paid by victim Shamsher Singh for the post of ASI, and Mandeep Kaur paid Rs 1.5 lakh for selection to the post of lady constable. She was to pay another Rs 1 lakh after her after getting the selection letter.He already has two films lined up for this year, Vada Chennai and Maari 2, and reports suggest that actor-filmmaker Dhanush might sign up for a third one - the Tamil remake of Needi Naadi Oke Katha.

According to the latest reports, he is most likely to star in the Tamil remake of last Fridays Telugu drama Needi Naadi Oke Katha, a father-son tale of dreams and reality. The film has opened to terrific reports, striking all the rights chords of audiences and critics alike. Apparently, producer Kalaipuli S Thanu is said to have bagged its remake rights.

Having recently completed work on Vetrimaarans Vada Chennai  a trilogy which explores three decades in the life of a gangster, he also has Maari 2 in his kitty. Dhanush is also expected to commence work on his second directorial project from August.

Following the success of VIP 2 with Dhanush, producer Thanu is keen to make Needi Naadi Oke Katha with the former. However, Dhanush is yet to give his nod for the remake and wants to take his time before taking a call. Later this year, Dhanush is also expected to reunite with filmmaker Anand L Rai for his third Bollywood outing.

Needi Naadi Oke Katha, starring Sri Vishnu in the lead, released in cinemas last Friday. The story revolves around a son who cant live up to the expectations of his father and the society. The film has been lauded for its highly relatable story.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktopThose caught up in the hustle bustle of a city life -- and craving for someplace pristine, calm and relaxed -- will fall in love with Taiwan. But along with its tranquillity and peace, there is also the effervescence of a place celebrating its culture and language with aplomb. This small island nation in the South China Sea is truly the heart of Asia - and it is fast catching the attention of Indian travellers, offering as it does a perfect combo of fabulous food, superb night life, bustling markets, hot springs, culture, history, architecture and stunning natural beauty - from gentle mountains to lovely coastal landscapes.

It was around the Taiwan Lantern Festival 2018 that we landed at Taichung International Airport here to be greeted by our tour guide, the friendly and ever-smiling Charles Tung. And he wanted all of us - a group of travelling journalists - smiling as well. Say cheese, he said as he got us to pose for a group photo before we embarked on our journey of exploration. And there is much to explore.

The Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village is a comprehensive recreational area featuring Taiwanese indigenous peoples cultural relics as well as amusement park facilities. (baem81861/Instagram)

Taiwan has a truly unique natural beauty. There are beautiful places like Sun Moon lake, Yangmingshan National Park, Black Dwarf Cave... to name just a few. These places provide an escape from the chaos of urban living, Noel Saxena, Country Head, Taiwan Tourism Bureau India Office, told IANS. Saxena said Taiwan is also very rich when it comes to art. Be it dance, music or even folk art, the Taiwanese have earned critical acclaim with an exceptional display of talent. Taiwanese hand puppetry and Taiwanese opera are two foremost examples of art forms that are authentically Taiwanese, in that they use the Taiwanese language, not Mandarin, he informed.

The Taiwanese love for music and art was evident at Ten Drum Ciatou Creative Park, located in Kaohsiung. Once a sugar processing plant, it is now the hub of a percussion group -- the Ten Drum Percussion Group that has won accolades globally, including a Grammy in the Best World Album category. While taking a walk around the former factory, we had to take a path made up of the branches of trees... Quite literally, we were walking on trees without fear of falling down -- a unique experience.

Other stops included the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, a comprehensive recreational area featuring Taiwanese indigenous peoples cultural relics as well as amusement park facilities; and the Sun Moon Lake, situated near Yuchi township, was truly mesmerising. One of the most beautiful alpine lakes in Taiwan, it is shaped like a crescent moon; hence the name.

Touching 108 metres in height, the Buddha statue is made up of 1,872 metric tonnes. (renaatravels/Instagram)

The Buddha Memorial Centre at Fo Guang Shan is a landmark in the country. Touching 108 metres in height, the Buddha is made up of 1,872 metric tonnes of copper and iron and is currently the worlds tallest bronze seated Buddha.

Taiwan is blessed with natural beauty, scenic areas, great food, astonishing history and culture -- and Taipei 101. This makes it a great destination. It is a destination for all age groups, said Saxena. The country is home to only about 20 million people and is a technology powerhouse. This was quite evident even at the traditional Lantern Festival - held earlier this month -- where all the work displayed was high-tech.

The writer was in Taiwan on the invitation of Taiwan Tourism Bureau.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreWild Wild Country

Directors - Maclain Way, Chapman Way

Rating - 4.5/5

Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache.... Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness.

- George Orwell

As you walk along the narrow streets of Rishikesh, a quiet riverside town in Uttarakhand, famous for its proximity to the Ganga, and for being nestled at the foot of the stunning Garhwal range, you notice the sort of people you wouldnt normally spot elsewhere. Theyre all mostly white, mostly European, some American. You also notice, at least if youre paying attention, posters advertising everything from mundane yoga classes to decidedly more mystical experiences - these posters are usually cheaply printed and photocopied, but they seem to get the job done. Theyre plastered with the faces of outrageously dressed old men - again, some of them are white - promising solutions to any problem - physical or metaphysical - that you might have.

Ive never had the courage to take the plunge and attend one of those sessions, but Ive seen and spoken to several of those white people, hungry for salvation perhaps -- or maybe just curious, like me -- who flock towards them in droves. They all look similar - with long, matted hair and a general air of unkemptness - and they dress the part, too - with colourful, baggy pyjamas and cloth backpacks. Theres a sense that its all a part of the illusion, more of a fashion statement than a utilitarian choice.

Rajneesh and his sannyasins in Wild Wild Country. (Netflix)

Certainly, clothes were the easiest way in which one could identify the followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who is the primary focus of a terrific new documentary series on Netflix, called Wild Wild Country. Rajneeshs was a philosophy that championed freedom - of thought, of expression and most controversially, of sex. Of course, this freedom ended the moment the question of clothes was brought up, because Rajneeshs followers did not seem to mind wearing variations of orange - or even if they did, they didnt complain. And so they arrived in their thousands to the town of Antelope, in Oregon, where Rajneesh had purchased 60,000 acres of land, much to the disapproval of the locals. Together, the master and his people set about building a utopia. They called it Rajneeshpuram.

Wild Wild Country focuses on a relatively short period in Rajneeshs life - roughly a decade - in which he uprooted his ashram from Pune - he was always more popular in the West than he was in his home country - and moved to an America just emerging from the flower power movement, with the Jonestown massacre fresh on its mind.

There, he became just as infamous for his public displays of ostentation as he had been in India for his liberal philosophies. We are no strangers to godmen in our country; if you were to fling a mala into the air, it would probably land on a spiritual gurus neck. The series tracks down voices on either side - the panicked locals and the devout followers, each of whom at different points liken the other to Hitler - years after they found themselves in the middle of one of the most unbelievable stories in modern history.

Ma Anand Sheela, perhaps the most controversial figure in the story. (Netflix)

Wild Wild Country is quite incredible. On several occasions, I found myself questioning the authenticity of what was unfolding on the screen. And in one disturbing moment that I was utterly unprepared for, I wondered whether I wanted to continue watching at all. To an outsider, which most of us are likely to be, witnessing the sort of blind devotion that Rajneeshs legions of followers displayed towards him can be unsettling. As one law enforcement official says in the show, When people are under pressure, most react out of fear.

And it was fear - of both the locals and Rajneeshs disciples - that fuelled the confrontation that Wild Wild Country recalls. Although, honestly, its not about one thing or the other. But of all the ideas it has on its mind - greed, revenge, bigotry, corruption, jealousy, betrayal - the one that makes its presence felt most forcefully has to be the fear the Americans had of these outsiders. For they, with their free love and carefree attitudes, were seen to be dismantling the very foundations upon which red-state American society seems to be built on.

To the residents of Antelope, Oregon, these strangers, these Rajneeshees were taking over their town. As one cowboy says, They had that look in their eye, like they were under some kind of influence.

Osho in a still from Wild Wild Country. (Netflix)

And they were. Theres no denying, especially after you see the sort of effect Rajneesh had on his people, that they were drugged - sometimes even literally. It went beyond intellectual and spiritual attraction - most of these sannyasins chanted and wept and danced at the very sight of their Bhagwan, as if in a trance. And this is probably as close as you or I would ever come to witnessing the secretive goings on inside quasi-religious groups such as this. I hesitate to call it a cult - even though it fits most of the requirements - because that would be displaying the sort of prejudice that caused most of the trouble depicted in the show.

And since Wild Wild Country doesnt appear to be taking any sides, neither will I. But common sense would suggest that there are elements of truth behind everyones recollections of what happened in those 5 years in Rajneeshpuram - whether or not the bioterrorism allegations made against the Rajneeshs followers were warranted, or whether or not his most devoted disciple, Ma Sheela (whom he would later publicly call a b**ch), actually attempted to murder other followers. You dont get to brag about owning 90 Rolls-Royces and having assets worth over $50 million without having taken advantage of fools, but on the flip-side, being rich isnt a crime - although a lot of what went on inside Bhagwans commune was.

The Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh would later denounce his name and take on the title of Osho. (Netflix)

In essence, the story of Rajneeshpuram - its rise and its eventual fall - is the story of humanity. What it reminded me the most of was, keeping with the general air of strangeness, the recent Darren Aronofsky movie, mother! - a parable about God and creation and how mankind has abused our planet beyond repair.

Wild Wild Country makes you wonder if perhaps god made a mistake about us when he looked out into the emptiness and declared, let there be light!. As Rajneesh, or Osho, as he went by in his final years, says towards the end of the show, Rajneeshpuram was a beautiful experiment that failed.

Perhaps were hard-wired to self destruct, perhaps were programmed to look at the success of others and feel nothing but jealousy. Perhaps we were always destined to be betrayed, the easily corruptible souls that we are. In an episode of The Simpsons, the late Stephen Hawking once joked that utopias were not possible. Id like to add an addendum: They could, without people.

Watch the Wild Wild Country trailer here

Follow @htshowbiz for more

The author tweets @RohanNaaharThe United States and its European allies on Monday expelled dozens of Russian diplomats in a coordinated action against Moscow which they accuse of poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

Here is a list of the countries and the number of Russians expelled.

US, Canada

The United States expelled 60 alleged spies posted around the country and at the Russian mission to the United Nations.

It also closed the Russian consulate in Seattle over alleged spying at the nearby Kitsap submarine base and Boeing.

The retaliation against Moscow was taken in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

Canada ousted four diplomats, calling the nerve agent attack a despicable, heinous and reckless act.

European Union

EU President Donald Tusk said 14 EU states had expelled Russian diplomats following achemical weapondecision last week to react to Moscow within a common framework.

Additional measures including further expulsions are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks, he said.

Britain itself has already kicked out 23 Russian diplomats, with Moscow retaliating with a tit-for-tat move.

Croatia: One diplomat

Czech Republic: Three diplomats

Denmark: Two diplomats

France: Four diplomats

Finland: One diplomat

Germany: Four diplomats

Italy: Two diplomats

Latvia: One diplomat

Lithuania: Three diplomats

Netherlands: Two diplomats

Poland: Four diplomats

Romania: One diplomat

Sweden: One diplomat

- Outside EU -

Ukraine: 13 diplomats

President Petro Poroshenko called for even more action to be taken.

The next step is to increase the price that Moscow has to pay for its international crimes, including the strengthening of personal, financial and economic sanctions, he said.

Russia vows strong retaliation

The Russian foreign ministry on Monday vowed to retaliate against the expulsions of its diplomats by the US and Canada, as well as 14 European Union countries and Ukraine over the poisoning of a former spy in Britain.

We express a decisive protest over the decision taken by a number of EU and NATO countries to expel Russian diplomats, the ministry said in a statement, calling the moves a provocative gesture.Mozambican media say 23 people were killed when a vehicle veered into a crowd attending a party in the capital of the southern African nation.

Radio Mocambique says the vehicle was travelling at high speed when it hit the crowd early Sunday in Maputo. The radio station describes it as an accident.

A senior police official Paulo Langa says the driver of the vehicle ignored a police order to stop just before hitting the party-goers beside a pedestrian bridge on a main road.

Radio Mocambique quotes Langa as saying the driver died.

An investigation is underway.The US expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats is not intended at sending any message to a country like India which has an equally strong relationship with both Moscow and Washington, senior Trump administration officials said on Monday.

In a decision reminiscent of the Cold War era, the US expelled 60 Russian diplomats, describing them as intelligence officers and ordered closure of the countrys consulate in Seattle over the use of nerve agent allegedly by Moscow against a former Russian spy in the UK.

A dozen of these expelled diplomats are based at Russias Permanent Mission to the UN.

This is a response to the attack in Salisbury, but its also a part of a broader set of actions that the Russians have taken for quite some time internationally: a steady drumbeat of destabilising and aggressive actions, a senior official said on the condition of anonymity.

We are not intending to send any particular message to a country like India. We have a close and effective partnership with India. This is about a specific set of actions that are coming from Moscow and our message is intended for the leaders of the Russian Federation, the official said.

He was responding to a question on the impact of the latest decision of the Trump administration could have on countries like India, which has a strong relationship with both the US and Russia.

The expulsion of Russian intelligence officials and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle will help curtail Russias increasingly aggressive intelligence activities that is seen every day in the US. With these expulsions, Russias intelligence collection capability in the US will be significantly minimise, the official said.

The Russian government used the diplomatic establishment as intelligence platforms, from which they collect information and conduct the destabilising activities in the US and around the world. They hide behind the veneer of diplomatic immunity and actively engage in intelligence operations that undermine the country which they are hosted, the democracies they seek to minimise, the official said.

There are currently more than 100 Russian intelligence officers in the US. With the expulsion of 60, about 40 would still be left, he acknowledged. The Trump administration declined to give details of the designation of those expelled.

Before the decision, the US informed the Russian Embassy in Washington. There has not been any call between President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in this regard. The two leaders spoke over phone last week.

The officials said these actions are not designated towards any particular or individual effort of collection by the Russian government.

This is a holistic look at the Russian governments collection capabilities in the US and the consulate in Seattle is just a particular location that has been designated.

This is not in any way a relative to any particular activity against any base or installation. We assess that the Russian consulate in Seattle to be a part of this broader problem of an unacceptably high number of Russian intelligence operatives in the US.

The decision sends a very clear signal, particularly since on the west coast the Russians will now have a degraded capability with regards to spying on our citizens, the official said, adding that the US is prepared to take additional steps if necessary.

Declining to speculate on the Russian response, he said the US reserves the right to respond further to any Russian retaliation against entirely justified action by the US.

The US supports the British decision not to provide samples of the nerve agent to Russia.

Sharing samples with Russia would not provide further clarification on the origin of the agent used in the attack, the official added.Polls opened on Monday in Egypts presidential election with the outcome  a second, four-year term for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi  a foregone conclusion, in what is seen by critics as a signal of the countrys return to the authoritarian rule that prevailed since the 1950s.

A general-turned-president, el-Sissi is challenged by Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a little known politician who joined the race in the last minute to spare the government the embarrassment of a one-candidate election after several hopefuls were forced out of the race or arrested.

Moussa has made no effort to challenge el-Sissi, who never mentioned his challenger once in public.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi casting his vote on the first day of the 2018 presidential elections at a polling station in the capital Cairo on March 26. (AFP Photo)

Authorities hope enough people  there are nearly 60 million eligible voters  will vote in the three-day balloting to give the election legitimacy.

Among the presidential hopefuls who had stepped forward earlier this year were some who might have attracted a sizable protest vote. But they were all either arrested or intimidated out of the race, making this the least competitive election since the 2011 popular uprising ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and raised hopes of democratic change.

El-Sissi cast his ballot as soon as the polls opened at 9 am at a girls school in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis. He made no comments, only shaking hands with election workers before he left.

A man in a wheelchair arrives to cast his vote during the presidential election in Alexandria, Egypt on March 26. (REUTERS)

There were no long lines of voters waiting in several Cairo districts, but past elections have shown many Egyptians prefer to wait for the afternoon or evening to vote. Authorities have not declared a holiday over the three-day vote. Footage aired by local television networks showed women dominating the early voters on Monday. They also showed festive scenes outside polling centers, with women and school children singing.

Tens of thousands of police and soldiers have been deployed to protect polling centers as well as key state installations during the election.

According to an Interior Ministry statement late Sunday, police killed six militants believed to be involved in a weekend bombing in the coastal city of Alexandria that killed two policemen. The statement said the militants belonged to a Muslim Brotherhood-linked group and that they were killed in a raid on their hideout north of Cairo.

Soldiers guarded the entrance from behind sandbags, weapons bristling at the ready, before polls opened at a polling station in Cairos Abdeen district.

Mohammed Ibrahim Ali, a retired engineer, patiently waited for the polls to open at Cairos bustling Sayda Zeinab, a middle-class neighborhood that is home to a much revered Islamic shrine.

Even if there are 1,000 candidates, we will vote for el-Sissi, he said, struggling to be heard over the patriotic songs blaring from nearby giant speakers. He is the one who makes life great here.

A woman poses for a photo after voting during the first day of the presidential election outside a polling site in Cairo, Egypt on March 26. (AP Photo)

Ahmed Abdel-Atti, 58, a doorman in the same neighbourhood, voiced skepticism. Do you see any other candidates? he said. A young man standing next to him added: This is a done deal, alluding to el-Sissis assured win. He refused to give his name, fearing reprisals.

During the official campaign period, instead of addressing any of the scores of rallies held by his supporters or appearing in TV ads, el-Sissi has opted for carefully scripted and televised functions. The former general has donned his military fatigues on recent occasions, highlighting the war on Islamic extremists and perhaps reminding voters that he led the military overthrow of a divisive Islamist president in the summer of 2013.

Many Egyptians welcomed the overthrow of Mohammed Morsi and the crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood group and for a time el-Sissi enjoyed a wave of popular support bordering on hysteria, with downtown shops selling chocolates with his portrait on them.

But that aura has faded over the last four years, which could explain a clampdown ahead of the election on the media and critics.

In the Sinai Peninsula, an insurgency that gained strength after Morsis overthrow and is now led by the Islamic State group has only grown more ferocious, with regular attacks on security forces and deadly church bombings. An assault on a mosque in November killed more than 300 people  the worst terror attack in Egypts modern history.

Egyptian women sing and chant while waving national flags outside a polling station on the first day of the 2018 presidential elections, in Boulaq al-Dakrour neighbourhood in the capital Cairo's southwestern Giza district on March 26. (AFP Photo)

The government has meanwhile enacted a series of long-overdue economic reforms  including painful subsidy cuts and the floatation of the currency. That improved the investment climate and earned Egypt a $12 billion bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund. But the austerity measures sent prices soaring, exacting a heavy toll on ordinary Egyptians, especially the more than 25 percent living below the poverty line.

If there have been few public signs of discontent, it is likely because of a massive crackdown on dissent.

Thousands of Islamists and several leading secular activists have been jailed, and unauthorized protests have been outlawed. The media is dominated by virulently pro-government commentators and hundreds of websites have been blocked. Independent journalists have been arrested or deported. In late February, authorities expelled The Times of London correspondent Bel Trew, arresting her after she conducted an interview in Cairos central Shoubra district, saying she did not have valid accreditation and was filming without a permit.

El-Sissi, meanwhile, has worked to cultivate the image of a folksy populist, going on at length about his devotion to God, his reverence for his late mother, and his love for Egypt. In a one-hour puff piece TV interview, el-Sissi said he wished he had one or two trillion dollars of his own money that he could spend on modernising the country.

In the interview, el-Sissi insisted that the lack of candidates was completely not my fault.

Really, I swear, I wish there were one or two or even 10 of the best people and you would get to choose whoever you want, he said. We are just not ready.A top fundraiser for President Donald Trump received millions of dollars from a political adviser to the United Arab Emirates last April, just weeks before he began handing out a series of large political donations to US lawmakers considering legislation targeting Qatar, the UAEs chief rival in the Persian Gulf, an Associated Press investigation has found.

George Nader, an adviser to the UAE who is now a witness in the US special counsel investigation into foreign meddling in American politics, wired $2.5 million to the Trump fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, through a company in Canada, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. They said Nader paid the money to Broidy to bankroll an effort to persuade the US to take a hard line against Qatar, a long-time American ally but now a bitter adversary of the UAE.

A month after he received the money, Broidy sponsored a conference on Qatars alleged ties to Islamic extremism. During the event, Republican Congressman Ed Royce of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced he was introducing legislation that would brand Qatar as a terrorist-supporting state.

In July 2017, two months after Royce introduced the bill, Broidy gave the California congressman $5,400 in campaign gifts  the maximum allowed by law. The donations were part of just under $600,000 that Broidy has given to GOP members of Congress and Republican political committees since he began the push for the legislation fingering Qatar, according to an AP analysis of campaign finance disclosure records.

Broidy said in a statement to AP that he has been outspoken for years about militant groups, including Hamas.

Ive both raised money for, and contributed my own money to, efforts by think tanks to bring the facts into the open, since Qatar is spreading millions of dollars around Washington to whitewash its image as a terror-sponsoring state, he said. Ive also spoken to like-minded members of Congress, like Royce, about how to make sure Qatars lobbying money does not blind lawmakers to the facts about its record in supporting terrorist groups.

While Washington is awash with political donations from all manner of interest groups and individuals, there are strict restrictions on foreign donations for political activity. Agents of foreign governments are also required to register before lobbying so that there is a public record of foreign influence.

Cory Fritz, a spokesman for Royce, said that his boss had long criticized the destabilizing role of extremist elements in Qatar. He pointed to comments to that effect going back to 2014. Any attempts to influence these longstanding views would have been unsuccessful, he said.

In October, Broidy also raised the issue of Qatar at the White House in meetings with Trump and senior aides.

The details of Broidys advocacy on US legislation have not been previously reported. The AP found no evidence that Broidy used Naders funds for the campaign donations or broke any laws. At the time of the advocacy work, his company, Circinus, did not have business with the UAE, but was awarded a more than $200 million contract in January.

The sanctions bill was approved by Royces committee in late 2017. It remains alive in the House of Representatives, awaiting a review by the House Financial Services Committee.

Meetings Probed

The backstory of the legislative push is emerging amid continuing concerns about efforts by foreign governments or their proxies to influence American politics. While reports about possible Russian links to Trumps campaign and his presidential administration have been making headlines since 2016, questions are now arising about efforts during the Trump era to influence U.S. policy in the Middle East.

The U.S. has long been friendly with Saudi Arabia and the UAE as well as Qatar, which is home to a massive American air base that the US has used in its fight against the Islamic State. But as political rifts in the Gulf have widened, the Saudis and Emiratis have sought to undercut American ties with Qatar.

Qatar and UAE have also exchanged allegations of politically motivated hacks. Scores of Broidys emails and documents have leaked to news organizations, drawing attention to his relationship with Nader. Broidy has alleged that the hack was done by Qatari agents and has reported the breach to the FBI.

Its no surprise that Qatar would see me as an obstacle and come after me in the way it has, he said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Qatari embassy, Jassim Mansour Jabr Al Thani, denied the charges, calling them diversionary tactics. Representatives of the UAE did not respond to requests for comment.

The timeline of the influx of cash wired by Nader, an adviser to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the de facto leader of the UAE, may provide grist for US special counsel Robert Muellers legal team as it probes the activities of Trump and his associates during the 2016 campaign and beyond. However, it is not clear that Mueller has expanded his investigation in that direction.

Muellers investigators are looking into two meetings close to Trumps inauguration attended by Nader and bin Zayed. The pair joined a meeting at New Yorks Trump Tower in December 2016 that included presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon, who was Trumps chief strategist at the time. A month later, Nader and bin Zayed were a world away on the Seychelles island chain in the Indian Ocean, meeting with Erik Prince, the founder of the security company Blackwater, and the Kremlin-connected head of a large Russian sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev.

Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, agreed to cooperate with Muellers team after investigators stopped him at Dulles International Airport, according to a person familiar with his case.

That person and others who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity said they could not be identified because of the sensitivity of the issues surrounding the Mueller investigation.

A lawyer for Nader declined to comment for this story.

Policy push

Broidy and Nader first met at Trumps presidential inauguration on January 20, 2017, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Both men have checkered legal histories. Nader was convicted in a Czech Republic court in 2003 of multiple counts of sexually abusing minors. Broidy, a businessmen and prolific Republican fundraiser, was sidelined for a few years after he pleaded guilty to bribery in a case stemming from an investment scheme involving New York states employee pension fund.

Broidy later re-emerged as a player in GOP politics. During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he raised money for US Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz. After Cruz bowed out of the race, Broidy signed on to help Trump during the 2016 election and beyond, co-hosting fundraisers across the country.

The meeting between Broidy and Nader at the dawn of Trumps presidency soon led the two to work together in an effort to shift US policies on the Middle East.

On April 2, 2017, Nader asked Broidy to invoice his Dubai-based company for $2.5 million, according to someone familiar with the transaction who spoke on condition of anonymity.

On the same day, Broidy attached an invoice for that amount from Xiemen Investments Limited, a Canadian company directed by a friend. The money was forwarded to his own account in Los Angeles from the Canadian account, the person said. It was marked for consulting, marketing and advisory services, but was actually intended to fund Broidys Washington advocacy regarding Qatar, two people familiar with the transaction said. The financial transaction and the White House meetings were first reported by The New York Times.

It was on May 23, 2017, when Royce, a 13-term Congressman, appeared at a conference on Qatars ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and announced that he was introducing the sanctions bill that would name Qatar a state sponsor of terrorism.

The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank that hosted the conference, said Broidy had approached it about organizing the event. Broidy bankrolled that conference and contributed to the financing of a second conference hosted on a similar theme in October by another think tank, the Hudson Institute.

Both organizations said Broidy said that no money from foreign governments was involved. FDD says it does not accept money from foreign governments and Hudson only accepts money from Democratic countries allied with the US.

As is our funding policy, we asked if his funding was connected to any foreign governments or if he had business contracts in the Gulf. He assured us that he did not, FDD said in a statement.

Broidy donated millions of his own money to efforts to fight Qatar, in addition to the $2.5 million from Nader, according to someone close to him, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss Broidys private finances.

Broidys behind-the-scenes efforts unfolded as animosity was growing between the UAE and Qatar. These tensions came to a head when the UAE and Saudi Arabia launched an embargo with travel and trade restrictions against Qatar less than two weeks after Royce introduced the sanctions legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Weeks later, Trump himself waded into the fracas, accusing Qatar of funding extremism in tweets on June 6.

Royce and a staff member met with Broidy at Washingtons Capitol Hill Club to discuss the bill, according to someone who was at the meeting. An associate, who Broidy paid for some of the work, also had frequent contact with congressional staff.

Strong Language

Broidys effort to cultivate allies in Congress extended beyond Royce.

Broidy has personally given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans over the past decade or more. But he gave nothing during the 2012 and 2014 election cycles and just $13,500 during the 2016 cycle. Things changed after Trumps election as Broidy ramped up his advocacy on Middle East policy. Broidy has given nearly $600,000 to GOP candidates and causes since the beginning of last year when he began his advocacy push more than in the previous 14 years combined.

Campaign finance records going back two decades show Broidy had not given any money to Royce  until he gave the lawmaker a pair of $2,700 donations on July 31, 2017.

By then, the sanctions bill was on a fast track.

The original draft considered by the Foreign Affairs Committee contained language singling out Qatar as a supporter of Hamas, a Palestinian organization that has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.

Hamas has received significant financial and military support from Qatar, the draft bill states.

Soon Qatar was lobbying hard to have that language excised. Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the United Nations, declared in a statement to the committee that Qatar does not fund Hamas.

According to two people familiar with the committee deliberations, both Republican and Democratic staff members reached a consensus that because of the tensions in the Gulf, the language would look like the lawmakers were taking sides. They agreed to take it out of the bill.

Qatari officials and lobbyists thought the matter had been settled, according to one lobbyist and a committee staffer. But just before the bill was to be put up for debate ahead of the committees vote, Royce ordered the language on Qatar not only reinstated, but strengthened, they say. The bill was approved by the committee in November with the stronger language on Qatar intact.

A Royce aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, denied that Royce had ever considered removing the Qatar language.

In January, Royce announced that he would not seek re-election, saying that he wanted to focus on his committee in the last year of his chairmanship rather than a political campaign.

In the same month, Broidys company signed the hefty contract with the UAE government for gathering intelligence, according to someone familiar with the work.The Pakistan government has rejected former dictator Pervez Musharrafs request for security on returning to the country to face a special court trying him on treason charges, according to a media report.

The Ministry of Defence has conveyed to the Dubai-based former president through his counsel that providing him security is not its job, the Dawn newspaper reported.

In a letter written to Musharrafs counsel Akhtar Shah, the ministry said provision of security in the subject case does not fall under the purview of Ministry of Defence, according to the report.

The 74-year-old retired Army general has been living in Dubai since last year when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on the pretext of medical treatment.

He was indicted in March, 2014 on treason charges for imposing emergency in 2007 in the country which led to the confinement of a number of superior court judges in their houses and sacking of over 100 judges.

He has been declared proclaimed offender by courts in the treason and the Benazir Bhutto assassination cases.

He is the first general to face trial for treason in Pakistans history and if convicted, he could be given life imprisonment or the death penalty.

An application was moved on behalf of Musharraf on March 13 that the former president be provided security by the ministry of defence on his return to Pakistan.

His team contends that he faces serious security threats, it said.

However, responding to a similar application, the Interior Ministry had earlier assured Musharraf of security and also sought his travel plan and details of stay in Pakistan. The details have not been shared with the interior ministry so far, the report said.

We are still working on the details and will make the decision public once there is something final, All Pakistan Muslim League leader Muhammad Amjad, a close aide of Musharraf, was quoted as saying by Dawn.

On March 16, the special court hearing the treason case against Musharraf authorised the government to suspend his passport as well as his computerised national identity card.

The court had also directed the interior ministry to approach the Interpol for the arrest of the former president.

On March 21, he convened a meeting of his aides in Dubai on to decide the future course of action but the meeting remained inconclusive.

The Islamabad high court had last month ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate Musharraf over charges of accumulating assets beyond his known means of income.Saudi forces intercepted seven Yemeni rebel missiles on Sunday, including over the capital Riyadh, in a deadly escalation on the eve of the third anniversary of the Saudi-led coalitions intervention in Yemen.

One Egyptian was killed and two of his countrymen were wounded by falling shrapnel in Riyadh, authorities said, with residents reporting loud explosions and bright flashes in the sky shortly before midnight.

The Iran-aligned Huthi rebels fired three missiles at Riyadh and four others at the southern cities of Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran, with the coalition saying they all targeted populated areas.

This aggressive and hostile action by the Iran-backed Huthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities, coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said.

The firing of multiple ballistic missiles towards cities is a serious development.

The Huthi-run Al-Masira television channel claimed the rebels had targeted Riyadhs King Khalid International Airport as well as other airstrips in the south of the kingdom.

The strikes come after the US defence secretary last week urged Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to Washington to pursue urgent efforts to end Yemens wrenching conflict.

The Huthi rebels have fired dozens of missiles into Saudi Arabia since last year, all of which Saudi forces claim to have intercepted, underscoring their capacity to strike deep within the kingdom amid a stalemated war in Yemen.

The latest attack could further escalate the coalitions military campaign.

A major attack targeting Riyadh international airport on November 4 triggered the tightening of a longstanding Saudi-led blockade of Yemen  already on the verge of famine.

Another strike on December 19 targeted Riyadhs Yamamah palace, the official residence of King Salman.

Humanitarian crisis

Saudi Arabia has accused its arch foe Iran of supplying the missile to the rebels, a charge Tehran strongly denied.

The Huthis expelled pro-government forces from the capital in September 2014 and went on to seize swathes of the impoverished Arabian peninsula country.

This prompted a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia to intervene in Yemen on March 26, 2015, to help the government push back the Shiite rebels.

Since then, around 10,000 people have been killed and 53,000 wounded in Yemen, triggering what the United Nations has called the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

Huthi rebel chief Abdelmalik al-Huthi on Sunday said his fighters were ready to make more sacrifices against the Saudi-led coalition, in an address marking the wars third anniversary.

The Huthis plan a huge rally in Sanaa on Monday to mark the anniversary.

The UN says living conditions in the war-scarred country have reached catastrophic levels and that 8.4 million people face imminent famine.

The UN urgently needs $350 million for humanitarian projects in Yemen, a senior agency official said on Sunday, insisting it was mere peanuts compared with the cost of the countrys war.

Saudi Arabia and its allies  aided by billions of dollars worth of military equipment from the US and Britain  could stand guilty of war crimes, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Numerous rounds of UN-sponsored peace talks have failed to stem the bloodshed in Yemen.The Donald Trump administration on Monday ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomatic and intelligence officers posted in the United States and shut down the Russian consulate in Seattle in retaliation for the nerve agent attack on a former double agent in Britain.

The expelled officials have seven days to leave the country with their families. Of the 60, 48 are from the Russian embassy in Washington and the remaining 12 from Russias permanent mission to the United Nations in New York.

The Russian consulate in Seattle was ordered to be closed, the United States has said, due to its proximity to US submarine bases and to Boeing, which manufactures civilian and military aircraft.

The US said these actions were coordinated with its Nato allies and partners around the world. Within hours, 14 European Union countries, Canada, Ukraine, Sweden and Albania had announced their own expulsions.

These actions are the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history, British Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons. Britain had expelled 23 Russian officials on March 14.

The UK and its allies accuse Russia of being involved in the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury on March 4. The two, who are still critical, were poisoned with a rare military-grade nerve gas called Novichok.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, holding Russia directly responsible for the attack, said: The United States takes this action in conjunction with our Nato allies and partners around the world in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilising activities around the world.

With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences, she said.

In a separate but simultaneously released statement, European Council President Donald Tusk announced similar expulsions by 14 member countries of the European Union and said additional measures, including further expulsions  are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks.

May called the expulsions a show of solidarity, We welcome todays actions by our allies, which clearly demonstrate that we all stand shoulder to shoulder in sending the strongest signal to Russia that it cannot continue to flout international law, said a statement from No 10, Downing street.

Russia has denied any role in the poison attack and is expected to retaliate to these expulsions. It had earlier ejected 23 British diplomats as a tit-for-tat over Londons move.

May had briefed the European Council in Brussels last week on the case against Russia as the Foreign Office lobbied western countries on its assessment that Moscow was behind the poisoning of former Russian spy and his daughter Yulia.

The expulsions by the United States are the toughest action taken against Moscow yet by President Donald Trump whose 15 months in office have been dogged by allegations that members of his campaign colluded with Russian meddling in the elections, that was intended to help him win.

Earlier March, the Trump administration announced sanctions against 17 Russian entities and individuals for meddling in the 2016 elections, that included those indicted by the team of Special Counsel Robert Mueller III that is investigating the interference.

Last August, the Trump administration had ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in San Francisco and annexes in New York and Washington in retaliation against Kremlin ordering the US to cut its diplomatic staff in Moscow by 755 employees, which, in turn, was triggered by sanctions announced against Russia by US congress for election meddling.

This predictable cycle of expulsions and retaliatory actions was broken only once before in recent memory, in December 2016 when Moscow led pass the expulsion of 35 Russian intelligence operatives by then President Barack Obama, over poll interference.

Michael Flynn, then NSA-designate, had asked Moscow to desist, assuring it clandestinely, it has been revealed during congressional investigation of the meddling, that the sanctions would be ripped up as one of the first acts of the administration.President Donald Trumps personal lawyer sent a cease and desist letter to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, Fox News reported on Monday, after she spoke in a 60 Minutes television interview about her alleged affair with Trump and the threat she said she received to stay silent.

Fox reported Michael Cohens attorney demanded in the letter sent late Sunday after the interview was broadcast that Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, apologize for implying in the interview that Trump was behind a threat she said a stranger made against her in 2011 if she did not leave Trump alone.

Cohen also demanded Daniels, an actress, dancer, and producer, refrain from making false and defamatory statements about Cohen in the future.

Daniels sued the president on March 6, stating that Trump never signed an agreement for her to keep quiet about an intimate relationship between them.

White House aides did not respond immediately to requests for comment after the interview aired.Appointment

26 March 2018

CBRE today announced that Tommy Crozier has joined Valuation & Advisory Services (VAS) as executive vice president and leader of the firm's CBRE Hotels valuation platform. Mr. Crozier will be responsible for developing, leading, and coordinating a national team of hotel appraisal specialists in key markets across the United States. An industry veteran, he has nearly 20 years' experience in specialized hotel practice. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mr. Crozier will report to Richard West, executive managing director, Valuation & Advisory Services. He will work closely work with Tom Huffsmith, senior managing director, CBRE Hotels, and with CBRE's industry-leading hotel research group.

Prior to rejoining CBRE, Mr. Crozier was a senior director within the Valuation & Advisory Hospitality & Gaming group at Cushman & Wakefield. He was previously at CBRE, where he held the position of vice president within VAS and was one of the original members of the Hospitality & Gaming specialty practice. During this time, Mr. Crozier also worked with CBRE Hotels in the capital markets group as an investment sales broker.Supplier News

26 March 2018

The new accounting standards require the entity designated as the principal in the sales transaction to record the revenue on a gross basis. The principal controls the good or service before that good or service is transferred to the customer. In the current hotel  OTA relationship, the hotel is the principal, since it is the entity responsible for providing accommodations to the guest. The price of the hotel room sold by the OTAs is determined and enforced by the hotel via rate parity clauses in the agreements with the OTAs, so that the OTAs do not take any inventory risks.

These new standards stem from The Financial Accounting Standards Board's (FASB) revised guidelines for recording revenue. A private, non-profit organization, FASB is the ultimate accounting standard setting institution in the United States. Its primary purpose is to establish and improve generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) within the United States in the public's interest. The FASB's Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") 606 contains these new revenue recognition standards, effective 1 January 2018 for public companies, and no later than 31 December 2019 for all other companies. The new accounting guidelines clarify how revenue should be recognized for goods and services. Additionally, the American Hotel & Lodging Association's Financial Management Committee has followed suit and issued guidance on the new revenue recognition standards' effect on the hotel industry. The Financial Management Committee, too, has provided a modification to the Uniform System of Accounts (USALI) related to gross versus net revenue accounting, incorporating the new revenue recognition standards.

How is OTA revenue being recognized today?

There are two prevailing OTA business models that affect how revenues are being recognized at the present:

Agency/Retail Model : The guest reserves the hotel with the OTA but pays at the hotel. This is the traditional travel agency commission model: the hotel collects the face value of the reservation (room rate + local taxes), recognizes this gross amount as revenue, and pays the OTA a commission, which is recorded as COGS (Cost of Goods Sold). The new standards will not affect this agency model.

Merchant Model: The guest both reserves and pays for hotel accommodations with the OTA. In turn, the OTA deducts its commission from the gross amount collected and pays the hotel the net amount (room rate minus commission). The hotel recognizes this net amount as revenue, and the OTA commission does not get recorded as COGS and in any way in the hotel's profit and loss (P&L). Currently, recognizing revenue from the OTAs as "net" inevitably lowers ADRs and RevPARs, but the true effect remains "hidden," since net OTA revenue is bundled with gross revenue (direct and OTA). The new standards call for the "gross" OTA revenue to be recognized in the property P&L and not the net as it is done currently, and the commission collected from the OTAs to be recognized as COGS.

How will the new OTA revenue recognition standards affect the industry?

The new OTA recognition standards will have a negative impact on hotels that are overly reliant on the OTA Merchant Model. This will result in:

Recognition of higher COGS

Higher franchise fees under the current franchise agreement model, where fees are calculated as percentage from the gross room revenue

Higher management fees under the current agreement structures

Local taxes such as occupancy and room taxes, CVB marketing contributions, etc., which are typically calculated as percentage from the gross room revenue

Ultimately, lower profitability

All of this will impact properties and lead to an increased recognition of their reliance on OTAs, since all of the OTA commissions (agency/retail and merchant) will be reflected as COGS in the property's P&L.

Why higher distribution costs are detrimental to any hotel

As one of the main cost drivers for properties, distribution costs have been rising steadily over the last six years. This is due to OTAs increasing market share by over 40%, in comparison to hotel direct bookings (Kalibri Labs). Now, adding the OTA commissions from OTA Merchant Model bookings to the COGS line item in the property P&L will show the true cost of OTA distribution; this will generate a number of issues for managers, leading to difficult conversations with ownership.

With the exception of distribution costs, hoteliers have very little leverage over the six main cost drivers in hotel operations:

Labor Costs

Debt Service

Franchise Fees

Real Estate Taxes

Utilities

Distribution Costs

The importance of these cost drivers varies, and largely depends on the size of the hotel, condition of the physical plant, whether the property is branded or independent, amount of debt, and geographic location. However, distribution costs have been rising at a rapid pace across all properties.

What can hoteliers do to soften the negative P&L impact of the new OTA revenue recognition standards?

The new OTA revenue recognition standards will force hoteliers to finally take OTA distribution costs seriously. There is only one approach to lowering OTA distribution costs: Invest smartly in the property's direct booking strategy and focus on shifting share from the OTAs to the direct channel.

Across HEBS Digital's hotel client portfolio, the average direct booking distribution cost is 4.5%, including website cost amortized over 36 months, full-service digital marketing costs (SEM, SEO, online media and retargeting, social media, email marketing, smart data marketing), consulting and strategy services. Compare this to an average OTA commission for independent properties of 18%-25%.

Here are the most important action steps for hoteliers to consider:

1. Adopt a "Direct is Always Better" Top-Down Strategy

Adopt a company-wide "Direct is Always Better" strategy with the primary goal of generating more direct online bookings and shifting share from the OTAs to the direct channel. Without such a strategy, the property ends up with under-staffed and under-budgeted direct online marketing efforts, bandwidth and focus.

Who at the property "owns" the website and its results and performance? Whose salaries and bonuses are determined by the website's revenue and ROI? Who is incentivized when the market share needle is moved from OTAs to direct online bookings? Most properties and hotel companies do not have clear responsibilities and incentives assigned to direct online channel production, resulting in a very muddled but convenient for somepicture of channel contribution, ADRs, and distribution costs.

When the property embraces a "Direct is Always Better" strategy, the on-property team sets a primary goal of generating as many bookings as possible via the direct online channel, by far the most profitable channel today. The team can then work together to seize market share from the OTAs as a united front. A comprehensive strategy should include direct booking share benchmarks and objectives, employee responsibilities, performance compensation tie-ins and bonuses, guest "book direct" value adds, and more.

Educating the property staff that direct guests are the best guests and empowering them to be responsible corporate citizens are key steps to the overall strategy. "The Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) of direct guests is far greater than CLV of guests acquired via OTA," confirms Michael Harris, VP of Ledgestone Hospitality, LLC. "Direct guests' average length of stay is greater, net profit is better, therefore CLV is also bound to be greater."

2. Start Treating Direct Online Distribution Costs as Distribution Costs:

Currently, direct online bookings and their distribution costs come from the Sales & Marketing Budget, a line item in the property budget.

Take into consideration Scenario A :

An online travel consumer comes to the hotel website, likes the property location, product and services, but finds a better rate on Expedia and books there. The distribution cost is either not reflected in the P&L at all if this is a merchant booking, or goes under COGS/Travel Agency Commissions in the case of an agency booking. The COGS line item is rarely scrutinized, and has practically no budgetary limitation. On the contrary, any increase in the COGS line item puts a dent into G&A expenses, which limits direct distribution even further. This "unlimited commission potential" allows OTA bookings to grow unrestrained by the property budget, at the expense of direct online bookings.

In Scenario B , this same online travel consumer comes to the hotel website, likes the property location, product and services, likes the rate and its inclusion of a unique value-add, and books there. The distribution cost (the prorated website and digital marketing expense required to engage, bring in and convert this travel consumer) comes out of the Sales & Marketing line item, part of the G&A expenses of the P&L, which is severely restricted and often subject to budget cuts.

Same travel consumer, same booking dates, entirely different treatment of the distribution costs. Note the contradiction: The most cost-effective bookingsfrom the direct online channel at an average distribution cost (CoS) of 4.5%are severely restricted by the property's sales and marketing budget, while the most expensive bookingsfrom the OTAs, with distribution costs of 18%-25%are allowed exponential growth.

The Sales & Marketing line item in the property budget for many properties also includes payroll for the sales and marketing staff. Why is that? "Pure" online advertising/marketing expenses necessary for generating direct online bookings should be separate from the payroll for sales and marketing personnel. Likewise, the Revenue Management team payroll should not be included in COGS/Travel Agent Commissions, but rather in the overall Payroll Expenses. Unless the property has a Digital Marketing Manager, fully dedicated to generating revenues via the hotel website and digital marketing, payroll for the sales and marketing staff should be treated as labor costs and made part of the general labor cost line item of the property budget.

If we separate the actual advertising/marketing expenses, the majority of which now go to digital, it is very easy to determine the cost per direct booking (digital advertising/marketing expenses/website bookings) and easily compare this to the OTA distribution cost. Recognizing direct distribution costs as COGS will supplement the property's ability to adequately fund direct online channel efforts, boost bookings via the property website, and drastically decrease OTA dependency. Lowering overall distribution costs will allow the property to fund payroll and staff empowerment, renovations and product/services improvements, invest in human resources, and add a hefty chunk to the bottom line.

3. Invest in Direct Booking-Generating Digital Marketing and Technology

Endemic under-investing in direct online booking-generating technology and digital marketing has led to OTAs gaining 40% of the market share over the past five years.

Have you visited your own property website lately? How did you feel about the experience? Have you visited your website via mobile and been frustrated by poor usability and download speeds? Did you know that according to Google, 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load? When was the last time you ran a multichannel digital marketing campaign for your hotel? Are you engaging your past and future guests via smart data marketing, programmatic advertising and dynamic rate marketing?

To achieve a level of real success and lessen dependence on the OTAs, hoteliers must invest adequately in the correct website and digital technology and marketing techniques to engage past, present, and future guests and drive direct bookings throughout the entire path to purchase.

HEBS Digital has a comprehensive whitepaper on the subject. The Smart Hotelier's Guide to 2018 Digital Marketing & Technology Budget Planning is available for download and provides hoteliers with a concrete roadmap to jumpstart the property's direct bookings and guide its digital marketing and distribution strategy throughout the year. With so many moving pieces in a hotel's digital budgetenhancing the property website, revenue-generating technology, smart data marketingit's important to create a strong plan that is realistic and aligned with your business goals.

4. Adopt an Effective Merchandising Strategy to "Sell on Value" Vs. "Sell on Rate"

The commoditization of the hotel product, in which hotels are forced to compete with the OTAs strictly based on rate, leaves hotels little opportunity to communicate the value of the hotel product to potential guests. The OTAs have mastered the "sell on rate" game, and hoteliers have little chance of winning this battle. To combat this, hoteliers need to re-learn how to "sell on value" as opposed to "sell on rate," and need to adopt an effective website merchandising strategy.

The direct online channel offers limitless opportunities for the hotelier to present the hotel product and value proposition directly to the online travel consumer. A strong merchandising strategy is centered on communicating the unique features of the property (hotel services, meeting and event space, the latest promotions and special offers, local attractions, and more) and focuses less on the rate alone. A strong website merchandising strategy allows the hotel to showcase merchandising content on the prime real estate of the websitefront and center of the visitor's attentionand personalize relevant content based on the user.

Implementing a strong website merchandising strategy will maximize room bookings and revenue on the property website, generate group leads and RFPs, sell and promote the hotel services (dining, spa, etc.), engage and convert potential customers, and more.

Conclusion

The new accounting standards for OTA revenue recognition call for the "gross" OTA Merchant Model revenue to be recognized and not the "net" as it is done currently, and the merchant commission collected from the OTAs to be recognized as COGS in the property P&L. These new standards will have the biggest impact on hotels that are reliant on the OTA Merchant Model and will result in lower profitability due to higher COGS, higher fees which contractually are calculated as percentage from the gross room revenue: franchise fees, management fees, etc., higher local taxes such as occupancy and room taxes, CVB marketing contributions, etc.

In light of these new OTA revenue recognition accounting standards, lowering distribution costs by increasing direct bookings and shifting share from the OTAs should become the top priority for the hospitality industry in 2018. Direct bookings' distribution costs average around 4.5% (HEBS Digital client portfolio) versus OTA distribution costs of 18%-25%.

How can hoteliers achieve that?

By adopting a company-wide "Direct is Always Better" Strategy with the primary goal of generating more direct online bookings and shifting share from the OTAs.

By recognizing direct distribution costs as COGS in the property P&L - in exactly the same way as OTA commissions, thus helping to adequately fund direct online channel efforts, boost bookings via the property website and reduce OTA dependency.

By adequately investing in website and digital technology and marketing techniques to engage past, present and future guests and drive direct bookings.

By adopting an effective merchandising strategy to "sell on value" versus "sell on rate," a strategy centered on communicating the unique features of the property (hotel services, meeting and event space, the latest promotions and special offers, local attractions, and more).Supplier News

26 March 2018

Attendees confirmed in the last week include Hyatt, TripAdvisor, Expedia, Fairmont, Hilton San Francisco, Accor Hotels, Kiwi Collection, Tourism Vancouver, Booking.com, Viceroy Hotel Group, Turkish Airlines, Diamond Resorts International and many more.

The EyeforTravel San Francisco Digital Summit 2018 will be a two-day celebration of fiery innovation, and will provide the perfect platform for your business to adapt, grow and be ahead of the curve in times of disruption and change.

The summit, just two weeks away will tackle topics such as the role of emerging technologies in travel, personalization, marketing strategies, utilizing data and technology to deliver an exceptional customer experience & morethis is just the start.

The expert speaker line-up for 2018 includes Marriott, IHG, Jet Blue Technology Ventures, Choice Hotels, Facebook, Tencent, Winding Tree, OneFineStay, Cathay Pacific Airways, Lyft, Lola, Air Canada, Hopper, Hipmunk and more!

Emerging technologies such as voice, AI, machine learning, and blockchain are all being talked about by the travel industry, but are they truly getting dissected? The San Francisco Digital Summit 2018 is the only event that will cut through the noise, separate the real use from the hype, and enable travel brands to truly come to grips with the opportunities for digital marketing campaigns.

We have so much to talk about, and have split the event into two dedicated tracks:

View the full speaker line up and agenda here

The show will be buzzing with insight on topics including:

AI Breaking New Ground

Working Creatively with Personalization  Successfully Leverage Data & AI

Redefine and Rebuild your Social Media and Digital Strategy

A Holistic Approach to Enhancing the Physical Experience with the Right Digital Technology

Blockchain Demystified

Incorporating Virtual Content and Mobile Video into Your Marketing Strategy

Successfully Pioneer the Use of Data and Technology to Improve the Customer Experience and Drive Loyalty

Reaching the Chinese Traveller

The Power of Mobile to Drive Interaction; and much more!

This summit is truly the only place you will be able to meet the cream of the crop in travel and walk away with insights you can action as soon as you get back to the office.

Don't risk losing out on insights that will catapult your business in 2018 and beyond - Does your strategy stack up? Click here to reserve your place or contact Renu on her details below.

Contact the team directly at  [email protected]Opinion Article

26 March 2018

GDPR is designed to give people better control over their personal data, so important question is does your hotel and management software comply with the recent GDPR rules?

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GDPR, what is it and why is it important for the hospitality sector?

EU and United Kingdom currently are governed by Data protection act of 1988, this law was enacted following the 1995 data protection law of the EU, which was created much before the internet and cloud that allowed ways to share data. GDPR regulations will provide people more control over how their personal data is used, today many companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, other social media and marketing companies swap user data to provide services and GDPR has been designed to protect all EU citizens' privacy. GDPR will protect all information related to name, a picture, an email address, credit card information, banking details, timeline posts on social media websites, medical information, or a computer IP address.

What is GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) is a most important regulation of the EU data protection law that will unify and strengthen data protection for individuals in the European Union. The European commission first published GDPR in the year 2012 and following 4 years of discussions, it was adopted in April 2016. This regulation will replace the existing data protection act, With GDPR in from 25th May 2018 will signify the major changes to the data protection law and harsh penalties to those who don't comply with this regulation.

What will be the impact of GDPR on the Hotel Industry?

The Hotels business is considered as one among the most exposed to data threats, according to Verizon 2016 investigations, data breach report - The Hospitality industry is accounted for the second largest share of security breaches, when it comes to lost cards following a data breach. This isn't a surprise with guests handing over card details & hotels processing information on a daily basis that attracts highly motivated financial criminals. Hotel software's will need to adhere to new GDPR rules and provide parameters along with access to management and IT admins to purge data that guest does not want hotel to retain. Things to consider before adapting the regulation

One of the Primary issues with a hotel is they need to deal with data discovery. Hotels receive guest payment card information through a website, phone, email at the time of checkout, SMS and WhatsApp chats, and fax etc. and this data has been often available in multiple locations. When the management is aware of where and what information is stored, they will be able to process the information to protect it.

Then, Hoteliers need to secure and compile their website. The business must be having access to data stored, also they must have the ability to change or delete this information. Also, they must prove to relevant authorities their use of system activity through logs in order to track and oversee action to their network resources when necessary.

Hotels should now become more cautious of their third-party partners, so they don't prove a threat to Hotels business in terms of data protection. An important regulation of GDPR is that data processors are captured by the regulations as well as data controllers. For example, if a Hotel, as a data controller is outsourcing the process of data to a third party who is not GDPR compliant, the hotel will be held responsible if any data breach occurs. Current credit card sharing practices between OTA's and hotel and other third-party service providers will need to change drastically.

In order to comply effectively with GDPR regulation, it is vital to conduct regular staff training on how to securely handle card information. Educate staff, it's unsafe to write down or email card details and sensitive information. They must also be advised on how to create strong passwords.

Under GDPR act, if you find your Hotel is attacked by a security breach, this breach must be reported to the authorities and all stakeholders with 72 hours of its discovery.

Will GDPR only apply within the European Union?

Although the fact that it's an EU regulation, GDPR act will apply to any organization, regardless of the location which is processing or holding EU citizens personal data.

This regulation is causing some confusion for British Hoteliers who do not hold any EU data or do not operate their business overseas, Given the large uncertainty surrounding Brexit. The British Government announced that all UK companies including Hotels need to comply with the regulation regardless of Britain exiting the EU.

What if I am not compliant?

If there is complaint received by an EU Citizen, the penalties are Harsh for not complying with GDPR. The maximum fine is set to 20 million Euros, or 4% of the annual global turnover (whichever is the greater). However, this loss can be easily avoided if the hotel leaves enough time to efficiently adapt to the regulation.

Hotels should start complying as soon as possible

The reality is that hotel operators tend to keep customer information in several different places like central reservation system, web booking engines, Property management system, point of sale, e-mails, and credit card authorization forms. Simply put, in there are too many places where the data is vulnerable to theft and intrusions are possible.

The need for GDPR is largely technology driven, today's guest expects a seamless experience and hence more and more technologies are sharing data, thus giving rise to data swap and possible intrusions and hacks.

It is important for organizations to start complying with the regulations as soon as possible in order to ensure they are prepared for the enforcement before May 2018.

Important facts and actual policy implementation requires.

Internal processing - Business must provide detailed information on the need to process personal data and how long they plan to keep it. This procedure involves organized retention policy, so the business knows the status of such information.

A Hotel must keep system logs, user activity logs, the technical records and obtain the necessary certificates to prove it is protecting data. These help businesses to show the supervisory and regulatory authorities the important mechanism is in place.

Hotels need to include an option on the websites that mentions "opting in," which helps hotels to store guest data. Also, they must explain the section and process to enable guest to access, modify and delete their data. This poses a significant threat to information when it is help in different places.

Malware was one of the major threat and reason for 94% of breaches in the Hospitality sector. So install better Anti-Malware security, update virus definitions on a regular basis and maintain logs.

When it comes to GDPR compliance, conduct regular staff training on how to securely handle card information. Educate staff, it's unsafe to write down or email card details and sensitive information. They must also be advised on how to create strong passwords.

Payment gateways are one of the primary ways to store guest card details. Most hotel properties need a third party vault provider. By using these vaults, the sensitive information is removed from your custody & you are given a tokenization system that can be used for billing. By using this integration, you move the risk of storing data to a third party who specializes in doing that, and have all security controls in place to keep the sensitive information safe.

Summary

All Hotels must be prepared and comply with GDPR regulation before the deadline date, i.e., 25th May 2018.

GDPR act is applicable to all the business, regardless of location who handles EU citizen Data & non-compliance will attract hefty penalties.

This act is applicable for business in the UK, despite the aftermath of Brexit.

Data processors are also under the radar by the regulation.

Certainly adapting your Hotel to comply with new regulations will be difficult. But the outcome the benefits will improve the Hotels key performance and allow management to know where all of their confidential information is stored and ensure their customer gets a secure and satisfying service.

Get subscribed to technologies that are PCI compliance and get trained so they can avoid data breaches and hefty financial penalties.

"Guests nowadays care about their privacy and they expect hoteliers to respect that".1995-2021 Hospitality Net All rights reservedHospitality Net is powered by HsyndicateSunday afternoon, ahead of a matchup between the San Antonio Spurs and Milwaukee Bucks that ended with the Bucks topping the Spurs with a score of 103-106, Gregg Popovich offered up some detailed words of wisdom when asked about his opinion on the March For Our Lives protests that took place all across the globe just the day before.

Well, the future of the country is a pretty big thing. There's not one event that is going to signal what it's going to be like in the future. But I can tell you that I'm sure most everybody is going to be unbelievably proud and excited about those students and what they've done, Popovich said. Because our politicians have certainly sat on their thumbs and just hidden. To most, it's almost like a dereliction of duty to watch all these people get killed with gunsin so many different ways, whether it's nightclubs, or schools, or cities. And it seems that the power and the money are more important than the lives. So, to see these teenagers demand this, it takes you back.

He went on to compare the visual element of these protests to that of the civil rights movement in the effect they have to make people aware of whats going on in their own backyards.

You think about it, the civil rights movement didn't flip or change until people saw things on TV," he said. "They saw policemen with fire hoses and dogs biting old black men and women, people being beaten with sticks. Then you get to the Vietnam War, and we're in it forever, and then what happens? Film starts coming back with arms and legs blown off and coffins, and I can still remember the little girl who was napalmed running down the road. Things change when that happens. And in this one, in this situation, these students are the same way. Images are important. Obviously, you can't put an image on TV of what happened in that classroom, that would be pretty horrifying."

He went on to take those thoughts and channel them into a criticism of the Trump White House, referring to the presidents choice to post up at his Mar-a-Lago resort over the weekend while the March For Our Lives protest took place in D.C.

"But if you just sit for a moment and imagine those bullets going through those bodies, and what those bodies might have looked like afterwards, how can the president of the country talk about all the things he's going to do, and then go have lunch with the NRA and change it? It's just cowardice," he said. "A real leader would have been in Washington D.C. this weekend, not at his penthouse at Mar-a-Lago. He would have had the decency to meet with a group, to see what's going on, and how important it is, and how important our children should be to us. So, for all those politicians involved, it's just a dereliction of duty."

They can talk about the age limit, and background checks and all that, but the real discussion is what kind of a country, what kind of a culture do we want? You go back and investigate the second amendment. What does it really mean today? What are we willing to give up for the safety of our children, he added, throwing a direct challenge toward the president and legislators. The people in power don't want to talk about that. The fact that our president left town, is a real indication of how much he really cares about anything other than feeding his insatiable ego.Virgil Abloh has officially been selected as the newest artistic director of mens wear at Louis Vuitton, joining the ranks of Olivier Rousteing (Balmain) and Ozwald Boateng (formerly Givenchy) as one of the few black designers to make their way to a top position at a French heritage house.

Abloh, founder of streetwear brand Off-White, has long established his creed as a respected and highly sought-after name in the realm rising through the ranks as a polished and imaginative eye, manning creative direction for Kanye West for some time now.

I feel elated," Abloh told the New York Times. "This opportunity to think through what the next chapter of design and luxury will mean at a brand that represents the pinnacle of luxury was always a goal in my wildest dreams. And to show a younger generation that there is no one way anyone in this kind of position has to look is a fantastically modern spirit in which to start."

Virgil will be replacing Kim Jones, who departed from LVMH to become the mens wear designer at Christian Dior. According to the Times, Virgils selection also points to the continued bridging of luxury and street wear sectorsa trend that contributed to a 5 percent global boost in sales of luxury personal goods.

Virgil is incredibly good at creating bridges between the classic and the zeitgeist of the moment, said Michael Burke, chief executive of Louis Vuitton. Burke and Ablohs first encounter found root 12 years ago when Virgil and Kanye West interned at Fendi, where Burke was chief executive at the time. I was really impressed with how they brought a whole new vibe to the studio and were disruptive in the best way. Virgil could create a metaphor and a new vocabulary to describe something as old-school as Fendi. I have been following his career ever since.Teyana Taylor is on a press role amid the premiere of her new reality show Teyana and Iman that details her career - both music and fashion - as well as being a mother and wife.

The 27-year-old paid a visit to The Wendy Williams Show where she explained how she and Iman first met and admits she wasn't even into when they met for the first time.

"I did not like him at first," she tells Wendy, in the video below. "When I first met him he had just got drafted, he was young, he was doing a lot, I was at a party, he was drunk, he had his shirt off - it was just too much going on." Apparently, the Sacramento Kings player approached Teyana and said "you need me in your life" where she simply told him to "calm down."

From there, they just became friends who assisted each other with their past breakups - with Teyana by his side when he was recovering from an injury.

The rest is now history and they are officially husband and wife (they got married in their bathroom) and have a two-year-old child, Junie B. Watch her full interview with Wendy below.Texas shoppers could soon buy a handle of whiskey or vodka at Walmart and other publicly traded big-box retailers if a opposing group doesnt successfully appeal a federal judges ruling.

Under state law, publicly owned retailers like Walmart Stores, Costco Wholesale Corp. and Target Corp. are prohibited from selling liquor  a rule that doesnt apply to privately held retailers.

That could change after U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin sided with Walmart late Tuesday in a federal lawsuit against the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, stating in a 50-page ruling that the ban violates the Dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Pitman also ruled against a state law prohibiting some retailers and not others from obtaining more than five permits, citing the constitutions Equal Protection clause.

We applaud Judge Pitmans order striking down Texas laws that have prevented us from fully serving our customers, Walmart spokeswoman Anne Hatfield said in a statement. Walmart filed suit because these laws are unfair and hurt our customers. We are grateful for Judge Pitmans thoughtful opinion, finding that these laws violate the U.S. Constitution.

Shoppers shouldnt expect to immediately see liquor bottles on store shelves in Walmart, Costco and Target. Pitman put a 60-day stay on any implementation of the ruling to allow defendants ample time to appeal.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is currently reviewing Pitmans ruling with the state Attorney Generals Office to decide whether to appeal, agency spokesman Chris Porter said. Porter declined to comment on the substance of the ruling but said he does not expect the ruling to be implemented until after any appeal process is exhausted.

The Texas Package Stores Association, an organization that represents 2,500 liquor store owners, has vowed to appeal the ruling. The group was allowed to intervene in the case in 2015.

The Texas Legislature put a system in place to ensure safe access to alcoholic beverages in Texas, and that system has worked for over 80 years, Lance Lively said in a statement. We will appeal the trial courts decision and continue to fight for family-owned liquor store owners against the worlds largest corporate entities that seek to inflate their profits by upending sensible state laws that protect both consumers and small businesses.

And consumers wont likely see bottles of Jack Daniels and Jose Cuervo in stores grocery aisles should the ruling survive the appeals process. State law requires retailers like Walmart to sell liquor out of a space separate from its main stores and with its own entrance.

The Tuesday ruling is the latest in a years-long tug-of-war over the states alcohol laws, some of which date back to the Prohibition era.

A series of bills signed by then-Gov. Rick Perry in 2013 allowing independent brewers to sell their beer on-site and brewpubs to boost their maximum beer production, sell off-site through distributors and sell limited amounts directly to retailers led to a boom in the states craft beer industry.

But Perry also signed a bill that year prohibiting independent brewers from selling their distribution rights to distributors. A trio of Texas brewers  Live Oak Brewing in Austin, Peticolas Brewing Co. in Dallas and Revolver Brewing in Granbury  sued the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission in 2014 to overturn the law but are awaiting a ruling in the case from the state Supreme Court.

State lawmakers passed a law last year barring brewers who produce a certain amount of beer from operating an on-site tasting room. Under the same law, brewers are capped at self-distributing 40,000 barrels of beer annually. If they want to exceed that amount, they have to pay a distributor.The key to free and fair trade is that every nation follows the rules.

From the first day China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, following President Bill Clintons encouragement, the Communist government has bent and broken the rules. President Donald Trump is correct to say, enough is enough and threaten $60 billion in tariffs.

As China made the transition from a state-controlled to a capitalist economic system, Clinton and President George W. Bush gave China some leeway in the beginning, hoping that the government would eventually see the wisdom of open markets. They were tragically naive.

Chinese leaders never conformed and instead used WTO membership to develop economic strength, expand global influence and expropriate intellectual property from foreign companies.

China is determined to maintain the states leading role in the economy and to continue to pursue industrial policies that promote, guide and support domestic industries while simultaneously and actively seeking to impede, disadvantage and harm their foreign counterparts," according to a report released by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Frequent readers know I am a globalist who believes free and fair trade creates wealth and deters conflict. Which is why I am also a critic of Chinas economic cold war on the United States.

Chinas strategy is laid out in the State Councils Made in China 2025 plan. Rather than engage in mutually beneficial trade, China aims to freeze out foreign companies in 10 advanced sectors, including artificial intelligence, robotics, electric vehicles, bio-pharmaceuticals and advanced medical products.

The United States leads in these sectors, and losing our edge would hurt our long-term economic prospects. Which is why Trumps limits on Chinese investment in these industries make perfect sense.

MIC 2025 (Made in China 2025) illustrates the states intent to leverage Chinas legal and regulatory systems to favor domestic Chinese companies over foreign ones in targeted sectors, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce concluded in a report last year. By targeting and channeling capital to specific technologies and industries, MIC 2025 risks precipitating market inefficiencies and sparking overcapacity, globally.

Containing Chinese President Xi Jinpings campaign for global economic dominance requires strong action coordinated with other regional powers, which is why Trumps misguided attacks on Asian allies and the European Union is so disabling. Equally puzzling is the administrations focus on the trade deficit, which is irrelevant compared to China stacking the deck to favor their economy, and by extension their government.

For example, unlike in free markets, China requires foreign companies to have a Chinese partner that owns 51 percent of the enterprise. Any intellectual property employed by the foreign investor, therefore, becomes Chinese property, and Chinese companies are expected to share that property with the government.

China also requires tech companies to turn over their source code. All foreign firms are required to store their data on government-accessible servers and conduct their research and development in China. Much of that technology ends up with new, government-backed competitors to the foreign company.

And while I think Trump exaggerates when he says China has cost the U.S. 60,000 factories and 16 million jobs, he is right about one thing:

Were doing things for this country that should have been done for many, many years, he said before ordering Lighthizer to produce a list of tariffs.

Since no president acted sooner, mostly because major U.S. companies did not want to lose their foothold in China, there will be significant repercussions. China is threatening tariffs on $3 billion in American goods.

China is not afraid of and will not recoil from a trade war. China is confident and capable of facing any challenge, its embassy said in a statement. If a trade war were initiated by the U.S., China would fight to the end to defend its own legitimate interests with all necessary measures.

That will likely mean less food, aircraft and automobiles bought from U.S. companies. U.S. consumers will pay more for Chinese goods. In the past, Chinese officials have retaliated by harassing U.S. companies and their executives in China.

No war is without casualties.

Given Xis escalation in military activity in the China Sea and his recent appointment as president for life, there is no sign he will soften his stance. In fact, U.S. companies report that conditions have only worsened since he took power.

After 17 years of patient cajoling, China has given the U.S. government no other choice but to enforce the rules that the Communist government never intended to follow in the first place. For the sake of fair trade in the future, Trump is right to act now.LONDON - Cambridge Analytica assigned dozens of non-U.S. citizens to provide campaign strategy and messaging advice to Republican candidates in 2014, according to three former workers for the data firm, even as an attorney warned executives to abide by U.S. laws limiting foreign involvement in elections.

The effort was designed to present the newly created company, whose parent, SCL Group, was based in London, as "an American brand" that would appeal to U.S. political clients, according to former Cambridge Analytica research director Christopher Wylie.

Wylie, who emerged this month as a whistleblower, provided The Washington Post with documents that describe a program across several U.S. states to win campaigns for Republicans using psychological profiling to reach voters with individually tailored messages. The documents include previously unreported details about the program, which was called "Project Ripon" for the Wisconsin town where the Republican Party was born in 1854.

ALSO READ: In another blow, lawyer won't join Trump's legal team

U.S. election regulations say foreign nationals must not "directly or indirectly participate in the decision-making process" of a political campaign, although they can play lesser roles.

Those restrictions were explained in a 10-page memo prepared in July 2014 by a New York attorney, Laurence Levy, for the heads of Cambridge Analytica, including company President Rebekah Mercer, Vice President Steve Bannon and Chief Executive Alexander Nix. The memo said that foreign nationals could serve in minor roles - for example as "functionaries" handling data - but could not involve themselves in significant campaign decisions or provide high-level analysis or strategy.

Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group were overwhelmingly staffed by non-U.S. citizens - mainly Canadians, Britons and other Europeans - at least 20 of whom fanned out across the United States in 2014 to work on congressional and legislative campaigns, the three former Cambridge workers said.

Many of those employees and contractors were involved in helping to decide what voters to target with political messages and what messages to deliver to them, the former workers said. Their tasks ran the gamut of campaign work, including "managing media relations" as well as fundraising, planning events, and providing "communications strategy" and "talking points, speeches [and] debate prep," according to a document touting the firm's 2014 work.

"It's dirty little secret was that there was no one American involved in it, that it was a de facto foreign agent, working on an American election," Wylie said.

Now Playing: Britain's information commissioner said on Tuesday she is using all her legal powers to investigate the handling of millions of people's personal Facebook data by the social media giant and by political campaign consultants Cambridge Analytica. (March 20) Video: Associated Press

Two other former Cambridge Analytica workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear that they may have violated U.S. law in their campaign work, said concerns about the legality of Cambridge Analytica's work in the United States were a regular subject of employee conversations at the company, especially after the 2014 vote.

The two former workers, who, like Wylie, were interviewed in London, said employees worried the company was giving its foreign employees potentially inaccurate immigration documents to provide upon entering the United States, showing that they were not there to work when they had arrived for the purpose of advising campaigns.

"We knew that everything was not above board, but we weren't too concerned about it," said one of the former Cambridge Analytica workers, who spent several months in the United States working on Republican campaigns. "It was the Wild West. That's certainly how they carried on in 2014."

Company officials did not respond to multiple queries from The Washington Post, nor did Bannon, Mercer or Nix.

ALSO READ: Trump friend: Expect another departure soon

The former workers' claims represent the latest in a series of complications for Cambridge Analytica, which was founded in 2013 by the wealthy Mercer family and Bannon, the conservative strategist who was executive chairman of Breitbart News and later became a top adviser to President Donald Trump.

The former workers' allegations center on the 2014 campaign, two years before Cambridge Analytica was hired by the presidential campaigns of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and, later, Trump.

The prospect of new legal scrutiny for Bannon comes at a turbulent time for the conservative strategist. He left his job as a senior White House strategist in August and in January stepped down from Breitbart News after harsh quotations attributed to him about Trump and family members appeared in the Michael Wolff book "Fire and Fury." The Mercer family, long Bannon's financial patrons, also have distanced themselves from Bannon.

Cambridge Analytica suspended Nix last week after a series of allegations about unethical practices at the company, including secretly recorded video that was broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 in which he talked about potentially using bribes and "honey pots" with sex workers to entrap political rivals.

Controversy for Nix and the company had begun days earlier amid reports in Britain's Observer and the New York Times that Cambridge Analytica officials had collected data from tens of millions of Facebook profiles under allegedly false pretenses and also improperly shared it. Facebook on March 16 announced it had suspended the account of "SCL/Cambridge Analytica" and two people involved in the data collection, including Wylie.

ALSO READ: Facebook ads apologize for Cambridge Analytica scandal

Cambridge Analytica, whose offices were raided over the weekend by British authorities, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing but did not reply to requests for comment from The Washington Post for this story.

Last week, Cambridge Analytica's acting chief executive, Alexander Tayler, expressed regret over the firm's handling of the Facebook data. In a tweet, he said, "As anyone who is familiar with our staff and work can testify, we in no way resemble the politically-motivated and unethical company that some have sought to portray. Our staff are a talented, diverse and vibrant group of people."

Project Ripon was described by Wylie and other workers as an ambitious effort in which Cambridge Analytica would advise American campaigns on how to use data to find "hidden Republicans." Ripon also was the name of an online campaign management tool designed for the effort and described in a company brochure produced in London that was subtitled, "WINNING BACK AMERICA."

Wylie said this initiative resembled previous SCL Group efforts to shape the outcomes of elections on behalf of candidates in several other nations, including Kenya, Nigeria and India, often through affiliated companies run out of London.

Company documents obtained by The Post show the U.S. program involved a staff of 41 employees and contractors, and spent $7.5 million between April and July 2014.

The company aggressively courted political work beginning in 2014, signing on with numerous GOP candidates in what turned out to be a successful year for the party. That year, Cambridge Analytica documents show it advised a congressional candidate in Oregon, state legislative candidates in Colorado and, on behalf of the North Carolina Republican Party, the winning campaign for Sen. Thom Tillis.

Tillis said that he expects all services provided to his campaign to be lawful and that it would be "deeply disturbing" if his campaign was misled by a vendor. Dallas Woodhouse, the North Carolina GOP's director, said that the party paid Cambridge Analytica $150,000 in 2014 for get-out-the-vote efforts and mail operations on behalf of Tillis and other GOP candidates but that he was not aware of any foreign workers involved with the effort. The party would not tolerate any unethical behavior by a vendor, he said.

"No foreign workers worked for us," Woodhouse said.

Now Playing: Facebook is proposing narrow countermeasures to address the furor over Cambridge Analytica, which is accused of lifting data from some 50 million Facebook users to influence voters. (March 23) Video: Associated Press

The company, which asserted that Republican candidates won most of the races it worked on in 2014, also advised candidates in Arkansas, New Hampshire and North Carolina through a super PAC controlled by former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, who was named last week by Trump to be national security adviser.

Bolton's spokesman, Garrett Marquis, said that Bolton, not individuals at Cambridge Analytica, made all strategic decisions related to the super PAC's work. Marquis added that the contract with the company stated that Cambridge Analytica's use of data "was in compliance with applicable laws," that Bolton's group hasn't worked with the company since 2016, and that Bolton had been unaware of any alleged impropriety by Cambridge Analytica until recent news reports. The group no longer uses any of the data.

Wylie, who left Cambridge Analytica at the end of 2014 because of rising uneasiness about its politics and the leadership of Nix, said in interviews with The Post that he was part of multiple conference calls in 2014 with Bannon and Nix, a Briton, in which strategic campaign matters were discussed.

Wylie said these conversations also often featured discussions about the legal issues raised in the July 2014 Levy memo, which was made public in recent days by Wylie. The memo was previously reported by the Guardian, a British paper, and the New York Times.

Levy did not respond to requests for comment. Cambridge Analytica had told the Times previously that "personnel in strategic roles were U.S. nationals or green card holders" and that Nix "never had any strategic or operational role" in election campaigns in the United States.

Wylie declined to comment on whether he believed that he may have violated U.S. election law while working for Cambridge Analytica.

The restrictions on foreigners working in U.S. elections are broad, election attorneys said, with the key distinctions centering on involvement in campaign decisions

Levy wrote in his July 2014 memo, "Foreign Nationals may work in a U.S. political campaign, but may not play strategic roles including the giving of strategic advice to candidates, campaigns, political parties, or independent expenditure committees. On the other hand foreign nationals may act as functionaries that collect and process data, but the final analysis of said data should be conducted by U.S. citizens and conveyed to any U.S. client by such citizens."

Brett Kappel, a campaign finance lawyer at Akerman LLP, said the accounts of Wylie and the other former Cambridge Analytica workers raises legal concerns. "If Mr. Wylie's allegations are true, the Justice Department could prosecute Cambridge Analytica and its managers for knowing and willful violations of the prohibition on foreign national contributions."

Trevor Potter, a campaign finance attorney who advised the 2008 presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that "it is permissible for campaigns to hire foreigners" as long as they are involved in lower-level activity in a campaign.

"It would be a problem for a U.S. super PAC - or any other domestic political actor - to have foreign nationals involved in running a political operation, including making decisions on strategy, targeting and expenditures for that political entity," he said. "If foreigners were involved in the senior levels of decision-making for a political organization, that would be a violation of federal law."

A 2014 Cambridge Analytica post-election report describing its work in congressional and legislative races said that the company played a central role in the Oregon congressional race for Republican Arthur Robinson. The report also indicated that it had played this role within the bounds of the law. Robinson lost that election.

"For the Art Robinson for Congress campaign, Cambridge Analytica SCL assumed a comprehensive set of responsibilities and effectively managed the campaign in its entirety, with strategic advice channeled through US nationals on the CA-SCL team," the document said.

The plan, according to the document, was to focus on "rehabilitating Dr. Robinson's image with voters by presenting him as a sympathetic family man and serious scientist rather than as the extremely right-wing, unstable 'mad scientist' caricature created by the opposition over the previous two campaigns."

Robinson, reached by The Post, said that his 2014 campaign hired the company, which provided useful services to his experienced campaign crew. He said he met Nix once and did not know about the nationalities of the other employees he encountered.

"Cambridge was very helpful," he said, noting that the company and his team "melded and worked side by side."

Former Cambridge Analytica workers said there were few U.S. citizens among their ranks. Yet they routinely worked on U.S. campaigns, developing messages, creating campaign materials such as ads and videos, and helping the campaigns decide whom to target with those messages.

"The nature of targeting is fundamentally influential to the direction of a campaign because you're deciding what messages go to whom and when," Wylie said. "There's no such thing as managing targeting in a non-influential way."

Questions about the legality of Cambridge Analytica's actions crystallized in the immediate aftermath of the 2014 vote, during which Republican candidates - including those helped by Cambridge Analytica - made significant gains.

In a video conference featuring Levy, the attorney brought up the restriction on foreigners working in U.S. campaigns, said a former Cambridge Analytica worker who heard the call and spoke on the condition of anonymity. For some company workers in the London office, it was the first indication of any potential violation of U.S. law, causing them unease at an otherwise celebratory moment.

"It only percolated down to the ranks once it was too late," the former CA employee said.

This former employee added, "CA didn't handle only data. They have decided targeting strategy. They helped decide messaging." The ranks of company campaign workers included a "small handful of U.S. citizens" but dozens of foreign workers.

The former Cambridge Analytica workers did not provide information about what transpired in 2016, when the company did work for Cruz and Trump.

Officials from those two presidential campaigns said Sunday that their organizations took pains to comply with the federal restrictions on foreigners in U.S. elections.

Catherine Frazier, spokeswoman for the Cruz team, said that data scientists from other countries "reported to their American supervisors - who then reported to our senior staff - to ensure they were not part of the ultimate decision-making by the campaign."

A Trump campaign official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak to the press, said the Cambridge team was managed by a U.S. citizen to ensure compliance.

Nix, the chief executive, has portrayed his role as central to Trump's winning effort, though others involved in the campaign have expressed doubts about this.

He told TechCrunch in 2016 that Cambridge Analytica, which federal records show was paid at least $6 million by the Trump campaign, was key to campaign decisions on data analytics, research, digital advertising, television spots and collecting donations: "Overnight [the contract] went from being originally just data, to end to end."

Nix made similar claims in secretly recorded video released in recent days by Channel 4 in Britain, saying the company "did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting, we ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign, and our data informed all the strategy."Porn star Stormy Daniels appeared Sunday on "60 Minutes" to offer her account of an affair with President Donald Trump that she says began in 2006. Here are four big takeaways from her sit-down with Anderson Cooper.

--She is highly aware of the reasons people might doubt her story

Daniels said she was not telling the truth when she denied the affair with Trump but is telling the truth now. Cooper read Daniels one of her multiple, prior denials and said, "That's a lie?"

"Yes," Daniels replied flatly.

Daniels said in 2011 that an Internet rumor about an affair with Trump was "bulls--t." She also denied the affair twice in written statements in January.

"I think there's no question that it calls into question her credibility," Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, said of the change to her story. "I also think that there's no question that when the American people take all of the facts and evidence into consideration, that they are going to conclude that this woman is telling the truth."

Daniels insisted that she is not motivated by money - she was not paid for the "60 Minutes" interview - but acknowledged that she previously considered selling her story for "large amounts of money."

"Was I tempted?" she said. "Yes."

Daniels also freely admitted to taking advantage of financial opportunities since the Wall Street Journal broke the story in January about the $130,000 payment she received to stay quiet days before Election Day 2016.

"Yes, I'm getting more job offers now, but tell me one person who would turn down a job offer making more than they've been making, doing the same thing that they've always done," she said.

Future polling will likely tell us whether Daniels and her lawyer are right about public opinion. In the meantime, they are open-eyed about the doubts raised by profiting from an altered account.

--Daniels said she was physically threatened in 2011

A blog called the Dirty published what appears to have been the first report of an affair involving Daniels and Trump in October 2011. Bauer Publishing, which prints supermarket tabloids, also reported around the same time that Trump had cheated on his wife, Melania, with Daniels.

Trump attorney Michael Cohen denied the reports and threatened to sue Bauer, which had conducted an interview with Daniels months earlier but did not publish any of her comments until January 2018, when it posted a full transcript on the website of In Touch magazine.

Daniels told "60 Minutes" that she was threatened a short time after giving the interview to Bauer.

"I was in a parking lot," Daniels said, "going to a fitness class with my infant daughter ... and a guy walked up on me and said to me, 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.' And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.' And then he was gone."

Daniels did not claim to know who the man was working for.

--Daniels won't say whether she possesses text messages or photos that would back up her account of an affair

A lawsuit Daniels filed on March 6, attempting to void a nondisclosure agreement, refers to "certain still images and/or text messages which were authored by or relate to" Trump. The contract required Daniels to turn over all such documents and not keep copies of her own. But did she keep copies, anyway? Do texts and photos even exist?

"My attorney has recommended that I don't discuss those things," Daniels said.

Cooper said to Avenatti, "You could just be bluffing."

"You should ask some of the other people in my career when they've bet on me bluffing," Avenatti said.

It is clear that Team Daniels wants Team Trump - and the public - to think there are incriminating photos and text messages. But there is no sign of them yet.

--Daniels does not want to be part of #MeToo, and #MeToo might not want her anymore, either

"A lotta people are using you for a lotta different agendas," Cooper observed.

"They're trying to," Daniels replied. "Like, oh, you know, 'Stormy Daniels comes out #MeToo.' This is not a 'me too.' I was not a victim. I've never said I was a victim. I think trying to use me to further someone else's agenda does horrible damage to people who are true victims."

If Daniels has felt pressured into representing #MeToo, she might find the pressure lifted after saying this about giving in to sex with Trump against her wishes: "I had it coming for making a bad decision for going to someone's room alone, and I just heard the voice in my head: 'Well, you put yourself in a bad situation, and bad things happen, so you deserve this.' "

Daniels' self-described mentality - that she "had it coming" - is the sort of thinking #MeToo aims to eradicate.The ACLU is calling for authorities to release the name of the deputy behind the fatal shooting of an apparently unarmed man last week in Greater Greenspoint.

Danny Ray Thomas was shot Thursday afternoon not long after he was spotted walking in the middle of the intersection at Imperial Valley and Greens Road with his pants around his ankles, allegedly hitting vehicles as they passed.

After the 34-year-old hit one vehicle, according to authorities, the driver hopped out and started fighting with him.

A nearby deputy saw the altercation and responded. According to Houston police, who are heading up the investigation, the deputy began to fear for his safety and fired a shot.

Authorities said Thomas appeared to have had "some object" in his hand, but they did not immediately recover a weapon from the scene.

READ MORE: Harris County deputy fatally shoots man while breaking up fight; no weapon found at scene

"It's difficult to imagine how this shooting could possibly be justified. We must demand that our law enforcement agencies, who are sworn to protect our communities, be held accountable whenever deadly force is used unlawfully," said Sharon Watkins-Jones, director of political strategies of the ACLU of Texas.

"But whatever the excuse, another unarmed black man has been killed by law enforcement, in the street and in broad daylight, and the only reason we know about it is because of bystander footage."

The Chronicle obtained footage of the incident from a witness - but official video has not yet been made public.

"In the immediate term, we call upon the Harris County Sheriff to release the officer's name and any audio and video recordings to the public," Watkins-Jones said. She went on to call for a "full and transparent" criminal investigation.

"In the longer term, HCSO must revisit its use of force policies to prioritize the sanctity of human life, to require patience of its officers, and to demand that lethal force only be used as a last resort," she continued. "Danny Ray Thomas should not have been killed, and with proper training in place, he wouldn't have been."

The Houston Police Department is the lead agency investigating the shooting. The Harris County Medical Examiner's Office, the Harris County Sheriff's Office and the Harris County District Attorney will also investigate.

"Our condolences go to the family of this individual," Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said afterward. "Obviously they're someone's loved one. These situations are always difficult and so the main thing we can do is to make sure that we get the facts and that we're thorough and transparent."To some, Donnie Rudd was a renaissance man who transformed himself over and over, from a chemical engineer and leading expert on condominium law to a scientist in Sugar Land working with NASA to grow human stem cells in space.

With his ostentatious belt buckles, cowboy boots and love of guns, the Texan cut a dashing figure, but not quite as impressive as his tales. He used to be in the CIA, he told family, and had jumped out of helicopters. Once, he said a politician tried to have him run over on a quiet country road. Though he survived the wreck, his beautiful young bride of just 28 days was killed. For all those he captivated with charm and intellect - he was wedded five times in all - some who know him best find what is most incredulous is that the 73-year-old evaded the law for so long, even after he was suspected of shooting a client four times in the head. That streak ended in December, when investigators finally came knocking on the door of his Sugar Land home.

"We've always wondered how you can get away with so many things," said Rudd's first wife, Louann Hart, who lives outside of Fort Worth and is 72. "The things he has done to other people  it is beyond my capability of understanding."

Rudd was born a twin in Winnie, a small oil town west of Beaumont, in 1942, and Hart met him while he studied chemical engineering at Texas A&M University.

Like most people, she was enamored at first, captivated by his confidence, charisma and IQ. They married and moved to Chicago, where he attended Kent College of Law and they had four children. Rudd rose quickly through the ranks as a patent attorney at Quaker Oats, and in his late 20s he was elected to their suburban Chicago school board.

Domestic bliss turned suddenly soap opera messy. The couple had befriended another family with small children, and soon Rudd announced he was having an affair with the woman, Dianne Marks, the school board's president. In the aftermath, both couples split and Rudd moved in with Marks, though they didn't marry right away. The two couple's divorces were finalized in August 1972 and in September, it was the jilted spouses who wed first.

"Everyone got a house, a car, and four kids but everyone was with different partners," said Lori Hart, Marks' eldest daughter, who was 13 at the time. "But from my perspective at that age, Donnie was really interesting."

A year later, in August 1973, Rudd came home and stunned Marks. He announced that he was marrying a 19-year-old co-worker. The wedding, his second, was to be the next day. Marks, who was raised a strict Baptist, was devastated and shocked.

"I made some agreement with myself that if I could have Donnie I would spend eternity burning in hell," she wrote in her journal. "I bargained with the devil for my soul, and Donnie's out getting married."

Rudd spent the eve of his wedding with Marks, then woke up the next morning and put on his suit. Photographs show him laughing at the ceremony with his bride, Noreen Kumeta, a blond, dark-eyed beauty.

Insurance beneficiary

Twenty-seven days later, in September 1973, police found Rudd cradling Kumeta's breathless body in the passenger seat of their 1972 Pinto Wagon on a rural road in Barrington Hills, an affluent suburb of Chicago.

Rudd told police that they were driving home when an oncoming car suddenly appeared in his lane. As he swerved to avoid it, Kumeta's door swung open and she flew out. When he found her, she was missing the back of her head. Rudd said she must have struck a large rock nearby that was matted with hair and blood.

By the time Kumeta reached the hospital, she was dead. No autopsy was conducted, and a coroner's inquest determined it had been an accident. Her death certificate said she had likely suffered a spinal fracture.

Within a week, Rudd had moved back in with Marks. Soon after, he received two life insurance payouts totalling $120,000, according to court documents. The bulk was contained in an extra policy Kumeta had signed up for at additional cost during their three weeks of marriage.

Rudd told Marks and her children that a well-known politician had sent a hit man to get him. Maybe Marks didn't want to know more, or perhaps she was afraid. At home, Marks and her children didn't discuss it. A few months later, in May 1974, the couple finally married, making Marks Rudd's third wife.

Meanwhile, Rudd became a star, specializing in condominium law, and in 1983 he helped Illinois legislators rewrite state laws overseeing the complexes. Soon after, he began hosting his own legal show on cable TV. At one time, his law firm had more than 2,000 clients, mostly homeowner associations.

A missing check

But it wasn't long before cracks appeared in his larger-than-life image.

By the late 1980s, clients said Rudd had promised them considerable settlements which they never received, according to complaints filed against him with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.

Rudd told one client, Joseph Massani, that he had won a $40,000 settlement from his employer, Delmar Computing Inc., in a disagreement over a patent. But Rudd didn't mention that the corporation had been dissolved, so collecting the money would be impossible.

Two other complaints followed the same pattern: Rudd told clients he had won them hundreds of thousands of dollars, but they never received their payout. He had never filed the lawsuits, the state commission found, even though he was being paid generously to represent his clients.

At around the same time, in 1988, Rudd filed for bankruptcy.

Two years later, in 1990, he met Lauretta Tabak-Bodtke, a 59-year-old interior designer who was embroiled in an argument with a former business partner. She hired him to represent her.

But after waiting for more than a year, Tabak-Bodtke was frustrated. Rudd had told her that she had won about $800,000 in her lawsuit, then disappeared for weeks, her daughter, Stephanie Tabak, said. He said he had been in the hospital receiving treatments for kidney cancer. Over the years, his relatives say that he told them he had cancer at least half a dozen times when money or other trouble struck.

In April 1991, the designer threatened to file a complaint against Rudd but agreed to meet with him first. The evening before their appointment, her husband saw a check from Rudd for $9,300, according to court documents.

The next day, two of her neighbors saw Rudd's car, unmistakable with its MR CONDO vanity plates, referring to his status as a leading expert on condominium law. Two neighbors saw Rudd leave at 3:30 p.m. The occupant of the adjoining townhouse told police he heard loud noises at about 3:20 p.m., around the time police believe Tabak-Bodtke was shot.

At 7:30 p.m. her husband found her in their kitchen in a pool of blood. She had been shot four times in the head, according to court documents. There was no sign of a break-in or a struggle. Rudd's check was missing.

Police later discovered torn pieces of what they believed to be Rudd's check to Tabak-Bodtke in his house. But the gun was never found, and a grand jury didn't indict.

In the 1991 state disciplinary review of Rudd's legal activities, he invoked the Fifth Amendment when it came to his handling of the Tabak-Bodtke case.

Return to Texas

It was a good time to return to Texas.

Marks took a job in Plano, where in 1992 she filed for guardianship of Rudd, then 50, saying he suffered from "unipolar manic-depressive syndrome." The illness caused Rudd to "enter into contracts which are detrimental to and wasteful of his estate," his application said.

Marks was granted guardianship over him. Soon after, he withdrew his name as an attorney in Illinois, rather than be disbarred. The state commission found he had been dishonest and fraudulent in his representation of clients.

Marks had been in remission for breast cancer, but it reappeared in 1995. When it became clear she did not have long to live, her children moved her to Chicago, where Rudd came to say goodbye. He pulled out documents containing the titles to her assets and tried to get her to sign them over to him, Lori Hart said.

"Nobody's signing any papers," the daughter told him.

He left.

Five months after Marks died, in November 1996, Rudd married his fourth wife. In Houston, he found a fresh start with Mary Bret, a psychiatry medical resident, and new business ventures.

He filed dozens of patents and opened several questionable Internet companies.

At one, a startup called Viatech, Rudd worked with Patrick Ferris, who had marketing experience with national technology firms. Ferris met the investors Rudd lined up and was impressed - even though his new partner at times made strange remarks.

According to Ferris, Rudd once told him, "If you ever want to get away with murder, you put the gun in the ventilation shaft, and it will suck away the fingerprints."

Their business' site was generating furious traffic. But Ferris began to suspect that it wasn't legitimate. He confronted Rudd about it, and they had an argument. Ferris quit and said the company folded.

By that time, Rudd's nine-month marriage to Bret was also on the rocks. In July 1999, she moved out and filed to annul it, saying almost everything Rudd had told her about his life was a lie. He hadn't received a congressional medal of honor for his service in the Vietnam War as he had claimed, and neither did he have the vast amount of money he told her he had. Bret asked the court for a protective order, saying Rudd had hit her twice, disguised himself to follow her and placed screws in her tires.

Within months, Rudd found his fifth wife in Sugar Land. Emma Leising told the Chicago Tribune that she met him on Match.com and that he proposed to her soon after, on the very same day that his divorce from Bret was finalized.

Estranged family

In real life, Rudd's immediate family had long been estranged.

His children barely talk to him and his twin, Ronnie, a retired managing partner for the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, said though he tried to help his sibling, over the years they drifted apart.

"It just got to the point that most of the family members said, 'We don't need to deal with this anymore,'" Ronnie Rudd said.

In the fall of 2000, he said Donnie Rudd persuaded their 91-year-old father to sell his Hill Country house and move in with him and Leising in their Sugar Land home.

On Oct. 23, 2000, his father, Eddie, changed his will, leaving all of his real estate to Donnie and appointing him executor of his estate. He left nothing to his grandchildren, "knowing that Donnie will continue to be mindful of their needs," according to the document. Six days later, on Oct. 29, he died.

Donnie Rudd did not call, text or email his relatives. Only on the day after his father's funeral did he leave a message on his twin brother's answering machine: "Dad died, and I buried him yesterday," he said.

It stunned his brother, who hasn't talked to him since.

In 2001, Rudd filed for bankruptcy again. At the time, he was gearing up for one of his most ambitious plans. In 2002, he joined Regenetech Inc., a startup formerly known as BioCell Innovations, as its chief scientist and director of intellectual property.

The company captured national attention after it acquired patents for stem cell research and secured the license to use a NASA bioreactor. Scientists at Johnson Space Center had developed the device in the 1980s to investigate the effect of micro-gravity on human tissue. The idea was that space-like conditions more accurately simulate how stem cells grow in the human body.

Regenetech had promise, but the reality, like most everything in Rudd's life, was far more complicated. Most of its former chief executives couldn't be reached or declined to comment. A former Regenetech consultant, Dr. Mehboob Hussain, who directs the Cell Biology Core of Diabetes Research Center at Johns Hopkins University, said he ended the partnership because he doubted the company's methods.

"The science was not really as rigorous as I felt it should be," Hussain said.

In 2009, Regenetech settled a lawsuit over financial disagreements and sold for $100 million. Rudd retired, and he and Leising divorced the following year, in 2010. A NASA spokesman said it ended its licensing agreement with Regenetech in 2013 after the company went bankrupt.

Body exhumed

In nearly every new iteration of Rudd's life, one constant remained. For 25 years, Stephanie Tabak, the daughter of the slain Chicago interior designer, called or sent Rudd an email on almost every anniversary of her mother's death.

"You killed her, but part of her is still here, and that's me," she told him each time. "I'm not going to give up."

Tabak, a 56-year-old insurance fraud investigator, followed Rudd online, monitored his companies and for years sent tips to police and federal agencies. In 2013, Arlington Heights police reopened her mother's case. When they asked Rudd about the 1973 car accident that killed his young bride, his conflicting, vague answers made them suspicious.

Kumeta was exhumed that same year. A pathologist in Kane County, Ill., conducted an autopsy that concluded her injuries were inconsistent with hitting her head on a rock, as Rudd had speculated, but rather the likely result of several blows to the head.

Last December, Cook County prosecutors charged Rudd with murder in Kumeta's death. In court documents they noted that he remains a suspect in Tabak-Bodtke's killing.

For the first time in his tumultuous life, Rudd is now in jail, in Cook County, Ill. He has pleaded not guilty and says he has colon cancer. In February, he was denied a reduction of his $4 million bail. His attorney, Tim Grace, didn't return multiple calls.

"My mother used to say there is a thin line between genius and madness and Donnie had a foot on each side," said Marks' daughter, Lori. "It's a relief to know that he's in jail. It takes the burden off all of us."Entrepreneur Elon Musk is helping to reinvent the battery technology, the automobile industry and space exploration, so why not flood control?

Friday afternoon, the Harris County Flood Control District announced that it's studying a longterm, multibillion idea: digging miles of drainage tunnels to carry stormwater from west Houston east toward Galveston Bay.

As it turns out, Musk -- best known as the founder of Space X and Tesla -- is also the founder of The Boring Company, a firm he aims to put to work easing traffic congestion by digging tunnels.

In a tweet Friday afternoon, science writer Maddie Stone put those two things together:

Musk replied simply,

Twitter, of course, erupted in memes and in-jokes.

READ MORE: Flood control district exploring plan to build massive tunnels to carry away stormwater

Though Twitter might seem an odd place to announce such an initiative, it wouldn't be the first time that Musk has announced news related to The Boring Company. He appears to have announced his idea for the tunneling company on Twitter.

And early this morning (Monday, March 26), he tweeted that the company will sell "Lifesize LEGO-like interlocking bricks made from tunneling rock that you can use to create sculptures & buildings."

The Harris County Flood Control District, for its part, tweeted a standing invitation to Musk to "talk tunnels."

As of Monday morning, Musk had not replied to the flood control district's invitation.

A message seeking comment from Musk was not immediately returned.Those pesky teachers are at it again.

First they balk at the idea of packing heat in their classrooms. Now they have the audacity to encourage each other to vote.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton apparently has some time on his hands, even though hes fighting security fraud charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. His office has launched a fishing expedition against school administrators he suspects of illegal electioneering.

The Texas Tribune reports the AGs office sent open records requests to more than a dozen school districts, demanding copies of communications about voting in Texas primaries. Some of those districts also got slapped with cease and desist letters telling them to stop using taxpayer money to advocate for political candidates.

EDITORIAL: Paxton should sue FCC over net neutrality

What we have here is the latest salvo in a battle between right-wing activists and school administrators encouraging teachers to vote. Educators across Texas are justifiably upset with Republican elected officials whove slashed school funding and failed to fix our broken school finance system. So anything that drives more teachers to the polls presumably would hurt GOP candidates on the ballot.

Thats what prompted the influential conservative group Empower Texans to launch a social media campaign encouraging teachers to snitch on educators engaging in electioneering. Thats also what led state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, to ask for an attorney generals opinion saying that school districts shouldnt incentivize voting by driving students and teachers to polling places.

No doubt a couple of administrators have stepped over the line. One superintendent posted a video encouraging teachers to let the Texas Legislature know youve had enough. In at least two other districts, educators wrote questionable comments on official social media accounts; they didnt name any politicians names, but they left no doubt they werent very happy with elected officials whove been cutting funding for public education.

EDITORIAL: Facing criminal probe, Paxton should step down

Still, those examples dont justify the attorney generals office wasting a lot of time and energy trolling for superintendents and principals urging teachers to cast ballots. And lets face it, theres no doubt this heavy-handed action will serve the partisan purpose of discouraging school administrators from engaging in legitimate get-out-the-vote efforts.

This is the sort of behavior that threatens to stigmatize Texas Republicans as enemies of public education. Unless it wants to alienate a generation of Texas parents, the GOP doesnt want to get stuck with that brand.

Our attorney general has more important job duties. This partisan battle against public school educators needs to come to an end.Student involvement drives educational success.

Thats a fact weve both learned, one as a member of the HISD Student Congress (StuCon) and the other as a teacher.

Through StuCon, students have helped administrators understand how the lack of internet access can significantly decrease the quality of the education a low-income student receives. After sustained advocacy from students, HISD formed partnerships with Sprint and Comcast to increase accessibility.

Even at a classroom level, student input can make for better schools. For example, Rajs former students created the Pre-Calculus Advisory Council, which was a group of 20 students who provided feedback on the previous weeks lessons and advice regarding the upcoming lessons. This group of students, who had collectively seen hundreds of teachers, provided invaluable advice that improved the outcomes in Rajs class.

EDITORIAL: Carranza bails on Houston. Good luck, New York City.

While these are just two anecdotes, there is significant research showing that schools and districts that create formal channels for student voice in school improvement achieve higher and more sustainable outcomes. The Houston Independent School District should build on this research and harness the power and insight of students as it selects its new superintendent.

This is a particularly opportune time for student involvement given HISD faces several looming challenges. We highlight two particularly salient ones.

First, due to states recapture system and Hurricane Harvey, HISD faces a shortfall of more than $115 million for the 2018-2019 year, and thus will likely have to make real cuts to balance its budget.

Second, under HB 1842, if a campus is on the Improvement Required list for five consecutive years, TEA must either close the school or take over the school district. HISD has 10 campuses that are at risk of triggering this law. While schools can get an exemption if districts partner with a non-profit, higher education institution or charter school, HISD will have to make decisions about with whom to partner or whether to risk school closure or district takeover.

While we may agree student voice is important, one question is: How should HISD involve its more than 215,000 students? We offer two specific recommendations.

EDITORIAL: HISD is moving too fast, and in the wrong direction

One, HISD should provide StuCon a vote in the selection of the superintendent. StuCon is a student-run, student-led nonprofit organization that is officially recognized as a student advisory board to the board of trustees. For years, StuCon has been leading civic engagement efforts. They lobbied in Austin, wrote an amicus cures brief, held a TedX event, wrote the preamble for the districts student code of conduct, and earned a $12,500 donation from the Simmons Foundation to create a civic engagement program.

Their clear impact on the district and strong track record for advocacy demonstrate why they ought to have a vote. If providing StuCon an official vote is not feasible, the HISD School Board could consult a student adviser. This student could serve as consultant who advises the board on major decisions, such as the next superintendent. The board could select this adviser from StuCon itself or perhaps via an application.

PARENTS: Don't shortchange HISD's neighborhood schools

In the final analysis, the exact mechanics of incorporating student voice (StuCon or a student advisor) is less critical than actually seeking student input. Students like Martha or those who served on Rajs Pre-Calculus Advisory Council prove that students have much to offer policymakers. Todays students are tomorrows leaders. So HISD, rather than neglecting them, should harness student leadership and voice to make critical decisions, including selecting the next superintendent."What service is this, you tell me. Is the McDonald's service like that?" the customer said. "Don't tell me sorry. Im very angry [sic]. He also seems to use profanities whilst slamming his hands down on the counter.

In response to the incident, McDonalds issued a statement via The Straits Times: While our employees strive to do their best every day to serve our customers with care, we also hope that any unintended misunderstandings can be resolved amicably.

"We believe that under any circumstance, our employees - just like any human being - should be treated with respect, and do not deserve to be shouted at in the manner as portrayed in the video."

Ensuring your employees feel valued within your organization is essential to retention and morale. A recent report from Targus found that over 28% of European employees feel as if their organization does not value their work-life balance.Dutch fishermen accused of trafficking cocaine for Amsterdam criminals

by Janene Pieters

March 26,2018 | Source: NL Times

Five fishermen from Urk are facing court on Monday for smuggling 261 kilograms of cocaine into the Netherlands last year. The Dutch authorities believe they did so on behalf of Amsterdam criminal Naoufal F., the Telegraaf reports.



The suspects are fishing boat owner Johannes N. (31) and his four crew members.



N. confessed to the court that he received 300 thousand euros for smuggling 261 kilograms of cocaine in June 2017. He told the court that he was intimidated by criminals. They showed him a list containing the names and addresses of his family members. "And a picture of my daughter. I was shocked."



The criminals behind the cocaine trafficking considered N. a risk and wanted to make sure he would not go to the police, according to the newspaper. Encrypted messages deciphered by the judiciary also show that the criminals were considering having N. murdered. N. refused to give the police the names of those behind the cocaine trafficking. "Then maybe I'll go home a bit earlier, but I'll have a few bullets in my head", he said in court.



The Public Prosecutor believes that Amsterdam gang leader Naoufal F. is behind the trafficking. He is currently standing trial for an attempted assassination on Peter R. in Diemen in November 2015. The Prosecutor recently demanded 20 years in prison against F. for this attempted assassination. Five other men were convicted of involvement in the attempted assassination and sentenced to up to 20 years in prison in July last year.



The other four fishermen denied involvement in the cocaine trafficking. One of them admitted that he received 30 thousand euros, but said that he did not know it was for trafficking cocaine.

 2012-2018 NLTimes.nl

Theme(s): Others.Ecuador: Judicial harassment of Amazonian defenders

March 26,2018 | Source: HRW

The government of former President Rafael Correa abused the criminal justice system to target indigenous leaders and environmentalists who protested mining and oil exploration in the Amazon, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The groups are operating more freely under President Lenin Moreno, but the abusive prosecutions set in motion by his predecessor remain unaddressed.



The 30-page report, Amazonians on Trial: Judicial Harassment of Indigenous Leaders and Environmentalists in Ecuador, shows that prosecutors in three prominent cases failed to produce sufficient evidence to support serious charges or justify the years-long continuation of a criminal investigation. On March 28, 2018, a trial court in Morona Santiago will rule on the case of a Shuar indigenous leader, Agustin Wachapa, for allegedly inciting violence through a Facebook post. On March 16, a court ordered the arrest of Pepe Acacho, another Shuar indigenous leader, to serve a prison sentence over a charge he never had an opportunity to defend himself at trial.



In the third case, a criminal investigation involving six indigenous leaders and an environmentalist has been open for four-and-a-half years, though it has produced no evidence of wrongdoing.



President Correa lashed out on national TV against indigenous leaders and environmentalists who opposed extractive industry projects in the Amazon, while his Interior Ministry sought to jail their leaders and shut down their organizations, said Daniel Wilkinson, Americas managing director at Human Rights Watch. President Moreno has ended the bullying, and the environmental groups are operating more freely, but the abusive prosecutions need to stop.



Ecuadorian authorities should ensure that none of these leaders serve prison time on charges they cannot substantiate or have not been made to prove in court.



Correa repeatedly denounced the leaders of protests against his environmental policies on his weekly TV show, calling for them to be punished. In 2013, the Correa administration arbitrarily shut down the Pachamama Foundation, one of the countrys most prominent environmental groups. In 2016, it sought to do the same with another leading environmental group, Ecological Action, but backtracked after the move provoked international criticism. Five United Nations special rapporteurs described the attempt to close down the group as part of a strategy to asphyxiate civil society.



The Interior Ministry submitted a criminal complaint against Wachapa in 2016, prompting a prosecutor to charge him with incitement to violence. Wachapa was arrested and spent four months in pretrial detention in a maximum-security prison, 300 kilometers from his family. Human Rights Watch reviewed the file, and the only piece of relevant evidence is an ambiguous statement on Facebook which, in Human Rights Watch estimation, is much too weak to support the serious charges prosecutors have chosen to bring.



In 2010, a prosecutor charged Acacho with terrorism for allegedly inciting violence during a 2009 Shuar protest against a new mining law. In 2013, a trial court found him guilty and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. Human Rights Watch reviewed the trial documents, including transcripts of the testimonies, and found no credible evidence to support Acachos conviction on terrorism charges.



Acacho appealed to the National Court of Justice, which in January 2018 overturned the terrorism conviction, but convicted him of illegally impeding the free movement of vehicles, people or merchandise and sentencing him to eight months in prison. He was never actually tried for this offense and did not have adequate reason or opportunity to contest its underlying facts at his trial on terrorism charges. A court ordered his arrest on March 16, hours after his defense lawyer submitted a constitutional challenge that could reverse his conviction. He could be forced to serve prison time for a crime for which he never had the opportunity to defend himself at trial.



In 2013, Correas government officials filed a criminal complaint against seven indigenous leaders and environmentalists who protested oil exploration in the Amazon. Correa had responded to an isolated incident of violence in the protest by berating the indigenous leaders and the environmentalist on national television, calling them bad people, violent people, often corrupt and calling on his interior minister to investigate them. More than four years later, the criminal investigation remains open, hanging over the activists heads, even though it has failed to yield any evidence against them.



Since taking office, Moreno has opened a dialogue with environmentalists, indigenous leaders and other government critics. His administration reinstated the Pachamama Foundation. In contrast to these positive steps, the abusive criminal prosecutions remain unaddressed.



Moreno should work to ensure the appointment of an independent and credible investigative body to examine how judicial authorities and the Attorney Generals Office conducted the cases Human Rights Watch documented and others begun recently under the Correa administration.



Moreno  as well as judicial and legislative authorities  need to do much more to undo the damage done by Correas authoritarian approach to the critics of his environmental policies, Wilkinson said. That means putting an immediate end to judicial harassment of indigenous leaders and environmentalists, reversing the harm that has already been done, and taking steps to ensure it can never happen again.

 2018 Human Rights Watch

Theme(s): Communities and Organisations.Infertility Isn't Always About Age: Here Are Nine Ways to Deal with This Health ProblemOutrage at Facebook has reached a boil. Over the past week, the news that Cambridge Analytica accessed data from tens of millions of Facebook accounts resulted in a wave of members deleting their profiles. Across the Web, users shared tips for improving privacy on the social network. Many debated just how much of a difference pressing "delete" would, in fact, make.

Serial entrepreneur Todd Weaver has been working for years to prevent just this kind of problem. In 2015, his then-one-year-old company, Purism, raised more than $1 million through a crowdfunding campaign to develop a line of laptops that would put the security and privacy of users first. The machines run open-source software and come armed with two "kill switches"; one immediately halts camera and microphone access, and one cuts off wireless and Bluetooth connectivity.

"We fight for digital rights for users," Weaver says. "That's the core of what we focus on."

Purism's Librem computers run on an open-source operating system called PureOS and favor other privacy-protecting open-source programs, some of which come pre-installed. Though users can add new applications as they see fit, the laptops are, by and large, not intended for software created by the likes of Microsoft.

The machines' Web browser, called the PureBrowser, is based on Firefox but comes stripped of third-party advertising trackers and equipped with additional privacy tools. It uses encrypted connections whenever possible and does not collect users' identifying information. So essentially, every time you use PureBrowser to log into Facebook, you're doing so in an environment isolated from the rest of your internet use, so the social network can't track your location or your browsing habits. This could be a refreshing change even if you're less security-minded, as pesky ads to retail sites you'd once stumbled upon will stop following you around.

"We're not going to stop someone from using Facebook if they want to use Facebook," Weaver says. "But we can make it so if you log onto Facebook, it doesn't cross-contaminate everything."

If you're wondering, Purism itself does have a Facebook page--with more than 11,000 followers. And if you're curious how the company can claim to put its users, rather than its investors, first: Purism is incorporated as what's called in Washington State a "social purpose corporation," which allows a business to prioritize social objectives over fiduciary duties. Today, Purism is based in California, which has a similar incorporation class.

In addition to crowdfunding, the 32-employee company is funded by small seed investors and revenue from its laptop sales. (Prices range from $1,199 to $1,599.) Purism now also has a Librem 5 phone in the works through a crowdfunding campaign, which has already raised more than $2 million through 3,000 orders. The company plans to ship a developer kit in June and fill orders next year.

To certain security buffs, the phone will be remarkable: It will not run on either iOS or the Android operating system--meaning it will not attempt to collect user data for Apple or Google, and its users will not be dependent on either company to purchase apps. It can also be used without a carrier as a Wi-Fi phone, using VoIP for calling. And like Purism's computers, it comes with a privacy geek's hardware dream: kill switches.

Weaver says interest in his computers has increased over the past week, and sales have increased following previous security snafus such as the CIA's Mac firmware attack. But where Purism laptops in the past sold primarily to individuals, they are also, according to the company, selling increasingly to organizations and teams. Weaver estimates 50 percent of 2018 revenue for Purism will come from enterprise sales. (The company declined to give revenue figures.)

Purism considers every computer-maker to be a competitor--but there are others making computers specifically aimed at buyers who'd like to keep their identities and personal information out of the hands of corporations and governments. German company Vikings makes desktop workstations that it says can help you "protect yourself or your business from espionage, corrupt governments, and other malicious third parties." New Jersey-based Libiquity builds custom laptops in this same vein--and they have kill switches, too.A big decision is looming on the horizon. You feel the tremor, you hear the footsteps off in the distance. Many of us don't like pulling a lever and opening a door to a new endeavor, mostly because we can't predict the future or know if anything will work out. And some of the steps you might take to make the decision--like making a pro-con list--don't help that much. In my experience, it's better to ask yourself these four tough questions.

1. Will it challenge me?

The easy decision is not always the best decision. When I first decided to be a writer in 2001, it wasn't without a lot of restless nights, wrestling with the idea of abandoning my corporate career. Other than being one of the best decisions I've ever made, the part that hooked me is that I needed a new challenge. Finding another job would have been difficult, but starting a writing career from ground zero is much more challenging (and, for me, rewarding). Challenges stretch us, make us better--they push us to greater things.

2. Will I become an example to others?

Your kids, your friends--a colleague who sits next to you. You can be an example to them of what it's like to act decisively and without regret. If you're a mother or father, sometimes a tough decision might linger for a while, but if you charge ahead, it can help your kids see what conviction to a cause looks like. I'm not saying to become a doormat who makes decisions only for the benefit of others. I am saying there are people watching what you do. Make sure it is the right decision, but act without constant hesitation and analysis.

3. Is it slightly dangerous?

Most of us like the safe route. It's just...safer. For someone who is choosing between two good job offers, or making a life decision like who to marry or whether to have kids, or even when you are planning a vacation and deciding where to go, it can be hard to know which good thing is the best thing. One piece of advice? Try picking something that's a little dangerous and even risky. Go ahead and marry that person! Pick the job that involves travel to China. Buy that plane ticket to Ecuador and head out on a mountain trail. The safe route sometimes leads to boredom...and a lot less excitement in life.

4. In five years, will I play the what-if game?Modern Meadow's animal-free bioleather, Zoa, can be grown to mimic the qualities of calfskin, alligator, ostrich, or other leather textures, at a price that's competitive with high-end leather. David Williams

Andras Forgacs started getting calls from the last group of people he imagined would be interested in his company--fashionistas.

It was 2011, and he had just stepped away from his leadership role at Organovo, a startup that 3-D-printed skin tissue for medical use. It turned out, the fashion executives told him, leather is a gnarly industry. Livestock create one-fifth of the world's greenhouse gases, and an estimated one-third of leather hides produced end up in landfills. The demand for leather goods was booming, yet there were shortage issues, and synthetic leather alternatives performed poorly.

They figured if Forgacs could print human tissue, surely he could print leather. Unfortunately, he told them, he couldn't. But, says Forgacs, "if you're an entrepreneur, you find yourself eventually saying, 'Yes. I think we could do that'--and you figure it out."

Later that year, Modern Meadow was born, a Nutley, New Jersey-based biotech startup that grows animal-free leather in a lab. In late 2011, Forgacs reunited the original University of Missouri, Columbia team that invented the bioprinting technology behind Organovo (the university licensed it to the company in 2009).

Modern Meadow's four co-founders--Forgacs and three biophysicists, including Forgacs's father--initially filed for government grants to explore animal-free meat and leather. But early on, says CEO Forgacs, "we realized that those are actually very different opportunities and businesses. You have to pick one."

They decided to bet on leather, resulting in what's been a six-year journey powered by $53.5 million in venture capital. Zoa, as Modern Meadow's product is called, looks and performs like leather, but is created in the company's lab through a process of DNA editing that grows collagen--the protein in skin--from yeast.

"Our goal is to create materials that are clearly leather but unlike anything you've seen."

Modern Meadow can custom-design the structural and aesthetic properties of the leather, whether it's stiff or stretchy, thick or thin, textured or glossy. The leather starts as a liquid, and can be poured into any shape or pattern, or even used as a glue to bond fabric. "Our goal is to create materials that are clearly leather but unlike anything you've seen," says Forgacs.

Since word got out, Modern Meadow has been approached by more than 150 companies in industries ranging from fashion to furniture to automotive. The 70-person startup's first partners include several luxury consumer-product companies, which plan to debut Modern Meadow's first commercially available products later this year.

Part of an emerging crew of startups operating in cellular agriculture--the pairing of food science with genetic engineering--Modern Meadow plans to appeal to more than just the animal-activist crowd. Leather, Forgacs points out, is a $100 billion industry--and one that has never really evolved. "At a biological level, it's definitely leather," says Forgacs, "but it's also about exploring new design, new performance, and new functionality."

How to grow leather in a lab.

Modern Meadow's strange science of creating leather from scratch takes place in a former pharmaceutical lab in Nutley, New Jersey.

Pivoting to collagen. Initially, the co-founders--Andras Forgacs, Gabor Forgacs, Karoly Jakab, and Francoise Marga--took skin cells from a cow and grew them in large quantities. This eight-week process, if scaled, would have required an entirely new type of manufacturing equipment. So instead, they put their effort into producing collagen, the main component in leather, which would allow them to utilize existing technology.

Brewing it like beer. The team gene-edited yeast to create a new strain not so different from the yeast used to brew beer--except, instead of producing alcohol, this one eats sugar and spits out collagen.As you're probably very well aware, 20 finalists for the new Amazon HQ2 headquarters have been pulling out all the stops to try to entice Jeff Bezos and his executive team to make the decision in their favor. These cities--including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York City, Pittsburgh, and others--have been offering massive tax breaks and other financial enticements, taking Amazon representatives on city tours, and emphasizing their quality of life.

But finalist Chicago just did all of its 19 competitors one better. The city enlisted the services of William Shatner--who played Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek television series--to assist in its bid for HQ2 by narrating a video pitch to Amazon.

Why? Well, as it turns out, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is a big Star Trek fan from way back. In fact, in case you've forgotten, Bezos scored a cameo role in the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond, in which he played an alien Starfleet official.

The one-minute-plus video pitching Chicago's many attributes echoes Amazon's bedrock philosophy that every day is day one. After touting Chicago's position as "an economic powerhouse," "a thriving ecosystem of transportation and tech," and "an icon of culture and community," Shatner says at the end of the video, "It's day one in the Second City. Let's get started."

Be sure to check out the Chicago Amazon video below--maybe it will inspire you to "explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; and to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before."Over the past few weeks, I had been led to believe that the vast majority of customer mayhem has been limited to airline flights. However, this particular point of view has now been proven to be false.

According to news reports, 37-year-old Jedediah Ezekiel Fulton was arrested when he tried to destroy the golden arches at a Sutherlin, Oregon McDonald's. And what got him so upset? After placing an order for 30 Double Cheeseburgers, for some reason restaurant workers decided to reject it--leaving the distraught customer burger-less.

While I don't know why the McDonald's employees decided not to honor their customer's order for 30 burgers, I do know that Jedediah Ezekiel Fulton was pretty upset about it. First, he tore apart a restaurant banner and then he turned his fury on the McDonald's golden arches, which he brutally attacked.

But Fulton was just getting warmed up.

Jedediah Fulton: Oregon man arrested after police said he attacks golden arches at McDonald's https://t.co/Vri5AxLUTv -- Peter Economy (@bizzwriter) March 26, 2018

According to the Sutherlin Police Department, a customer confronted Fulton, and Fulton grabbed the collar of his shirt. After that, a witness to the goings-on was so frightened by Fulton's actions that he pulled out a gun.

Long story short, Jedediah Ezekiel Fulton was arrested on second-degree criminal mischief and harassment, second-degree criminal trespass, and suspicion of second-degree disorderly conduct.In my work with entrepreneurs and business students, I often hear marketing strategies explained as "having social media," "having an online brand," or "advertising a lot."

These explanations make me cringe because, while they might be part of a plan, they grossly oversimplify the deeper and more complex concepts behind a truly effective marketing strategy.

In order to explain and help others understand marketing--namely the differences between marketing, advertising, and branding--I ask them to apply each of these concepts to themselves personally. When you do, this is what it would look like.

Marketing is how you see yourself.

Marketing is the image that you are trying to present to others. It starts with how you dress, the colors and patterns you choose, and how you groom. We all have a strategy for this--yes, everyone, including your unkempt second cousin who rarely showers and wears the same Star Wars shirt he's worn since college.

Even not having a strategy for your personal appearance is a strategy itself.

You choose your image to portray yourself as a business professional, a punk rocker, a tech nerd, etc., and by doing so, you are expressing to others through your appearance your character, lovable attributes, and in the end, the value you offer to others.

It isn't fun to admit that appearances are as important as they are, but let's be honest, first impressions are driven by appearance. Impressions can evolve and be molded later, but as we all know, they require time and effort to change, so we do our best to get it right up front.

For a business, a marketing strategy considers how you want others to perceive your company. It should convey the vision and values of the business and express these in a way that the public will recognize and associate with your company.

How you "dress" your company will determine how effectively your message and image will be accepted by consumers.

Advertising is how you act in public.

If marketing is how you see yourself, advertising describes your actions.

How you carry yourself, where you hang out, and what you say are just as important as how you look. All of this should be considered with your marketing strategy to assure that you have consistency between your image and your actions.

For instance, imagine that you wear a New England Patriots jersey and get a "I Heart Tom Brady" tattoo, but during the Super Bowl, you cheer for the Philadelphia Eagles and celebrate their victory. You will confound--and probably infuriate--all of your friends and likely be exiled from future Sunday game days.

Your business advertising strategy is the same. If you execute it in the wrong places, with the wrong message and tone, at the wrong times, or to the wrong audience, it will ultimately confuse consumers and could turn them away.

Branding is how others see you.

While marketing is how you want others to see you, branding is how they actually do.

Your marketing strategy should assess and consider your personal brand. If you have a strong brand, you can spend more time building on it. If you have reputation problems, however, you need to focus on rebuilding or changing perceptions.

As an example, if your professional network believes you to be a fraud or slacker, then it will require more than just dressing professionally and mastering your LinkedIn profile to change this perception.

Similarly, from a business standpoint, understanding how consumers perceive your business is crucial for how you decide to execute a marketing and advertising strategy.

Now, I understand I just oversimplified complex marketing concepts--exactly what I critiqued at the beginning. I find, however, that applying these concepts to ourselves creates an effective and simple way to explain how each concept can and should be applied to your business.When that passionate painter Vincent van Gogh came to live in Paris in 1886, he was a man in pursuit of a new vision of modernity. And where better to find it than in the art of Japan? Japan had opened up to the West in 1864, and from that moment on Paris became agog with all things Japanese. Van Gogh began to buy large quantities of Japanese woodblock prints. He even hoped to trade in them. Unsuccessfully, as it happens. His vast store  he came to own about 600 of them  were pinned up on his studio walls, and often treated with very little respect indeed. He carried them around with him. He stuck pins into them. After all, they were teaching tools. What appealed to him about the Japanese aesthetic? And what exactly did he learn?

This show at the Van Gogh Museum, which gathers together 60 paintings and drawings by Van Gogh himself and a considerable collection of Japanese woodblock prints by the likes of Hiroshige, Hokusai and Kuniyoshi, has been five years in the making, and it delves into this subject as never before.

It shows us, at first, Van Gogh the copyist, and then, a little later on  Van Goghs art always developed at great speed  Van Gogh as the great beneficiary of Japanese influence. Van Gogh saw two things: a way of making which might prove to be a model for a community of like-minded French artists. After all, did not the Japanese work harmoniously together  rather like monks? And then  of equal importance  how exactly the Japanese had produced their pictorial effects. He studied them assiduously. He learnt from their use of bold and contrasting colour. He studied their compositional clarity, their fluidity of line, their unusual croppings of natural forms. He admired their beautiful women in silk kimonos, so at one with the natural world in which they lingered and languished, the furious attention they paid to the smallest of details. These works made him happy, he wrote.

Woman Rocking the Cradle (Augustine Roulin), 1889 (Art Institute of Chicago) (The Art Institute of Chicago, Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, 1926)

By 1888, he had moved to Arles in pursuit of a countryside which would speak to him of his idealised vision of Japan, in which he too might become a monkish figure, wholly devoted to an art which would be flooded with a light which would both warm him and cheer him. He produced many great works in a very short period of time. The local postmans wife is nipponified  as is the wife of the owner of the cafe. Alas, he had not reckoned on the single greatest obstacle to his vision of an elevated worldly of fraternal art-making: his companion, Paul Gauguin.

Their relationship in the Yellow House, far too small for two impassioned and rivalrous men, became horribly fractious. Seized by a psychotic moment, Van Gogh lopped off his own ear, and that famous painting of the earless painter, bandaging a yawning absence, has been borrowed from the Courtauld Gallery in London. It demonstrates the end of a dream  and yet the dream still lingers in the image of the Japanese print at his back. Van Gogh would never rid himself entirely of Japonisme. It had done him much good  for all the hopeless dreaming about the spirit of community.

Until 24 June (vangoghmuseum.nl)This website is inclusive of tolerant people of all faiths, without exception. Neither anti-Semitism nor Islamophobia nor homophobia should ever be acceptable to anyone. We must all strive to live in peace and harmony with each other, regardless of religious affiliations, or none. Intolerance is the mother of strife and conflict.   Mark Alexander

We Britons are Europeans!Wir Briten sind Europaer! Nous, les Britanniques, sommes europeens !  Mark AlexanderEmail me at:markalexander.librabunda@gmail.comThe Wim Wenders experiment in life, ever restless, ever serendipitously globe roaming, is a studiedly impromptu affair. We could define his angle on the world by deploying a series of adjectives which begin with un-: unswanky, unposy, unglossy, unfabricated, unmanipulated, unslick. Photography and filmmaking have gone hand in hand for decades.

His films, at times, seem to consist of a concatenation of individual photographic stills, informed by an intimate relationship with some of his favourite artists  Pina Bausch, Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth. Think back to the melancholy poignancy of the closing scene of Paris, Texas, for example, when Travis sits alone in his car, bathed in an eerie pool of green light, having relinquished his son to the child's mother. That visual moment is pure Hopper in its exquisite desolation.

Wenders shifts easily from documentary to feature films, from part fact to part fiction, and when he films he always takes photographs too, sometimes as outtakes, sometimes as a species of note taking, as a way of making real, as a way of registering the importance of the presence of the actors he has worked with or of the landscapes or the cityscapes in which those films are rooted. You could call his love of realism anachronistic. He is an analogue man. The digital world is too slippery. He distrusts a technology which allows for, and even encourages, the dangerous possibility of instantaneous erasure, the buffing up, the removal of the wrinkles, of the past, that urge towards the fakeness of perfection. The world is not an illusory place. Nor is it perfect. It needs to be embraced, grasped at, snatched at, quickly, on the wing, in all its pocky rawness.

'Dennis Hopper, Hamburg', 1976 (Wim Wenders / Courtesy of Deutsches Filminstitut, Frankfurt a. M.)

He fell in love with Polaroids early, that promise of crisp fleetingness, and this new exhibition shows us some of those early experiments in this curious format. They were discovered quite recently, in cigar boxes, which had served as humidors, preserving them, by happenstance, from perishing. The pictures look so distinctively of themselves now  boxy in format, with a surface which looks and feels thickened, even a touch custardy, with queasy greens and yellows. Wenders loves blur because life itself is a blur, always on the wing, always part seen and part gone, and all the more cherishable for that very reason. Wenders drifts about the world like a windblown seed, from Montana to Iceland, from Algiers to Australia. Scenes can be both panoramic and forensically detail-attentive, simultaneously. Who else has photographed from the summit of Uluru by drawing our attention to the weather-pummelled refuse bin which sits at its centre? He sees how a waterfall can choose to resemble the sweep of a blonde's hair when caught from behind. He registers the absurdity of giving the name EDEN to a gim-crack prefabricated building in Iceland in the shadow of forbidding mountains. He is always shooting from the hip with the most harmless of weaponry.

Until 5 May (blainsouthern.com)Call Me By Your Name has been pulled by a film festival in China.

According to NewNowNext, Sony Pictures announced that the critically acclaimed gay drama starring Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer was dropped by a festival in Beijing on Monday.

However, they declined to give a reason for why the movie would no longer be shown.

The Luca Guagadnino-directed film was supposed to screen on March 16.

China's decision seems to reflect the country's "fickle relationship with LGBT themes in the media."

In China, homosexuality isn't illegal, but "abnormal sexual behaviours" have been banned which include homosexuality in TV and online media.

Violence and sexual content in movies are known to be long-censored in China.

Addicted - a popular Chinese web series portraying a gay couple in high school - was quickly removed in 2016.

But during the same year, Wang Chao's Seek McCartney - the first film with gay main characters - was approved for media consumption.

Recommended Call Me By Your Name to get sequel

The confusion around Call Me By Your Name comes alongside this month's decision by Parliament to "end term limits for President Xi Jinping" to give control of "film, news and publishing to the Communist Party's publicity department."

"There is no clear policy on this issue, so we are always confused," Xin Ying, director of the Beijing LGBT Center, explained to The Japan Times.

Hopefully there is clearer direction for China's media soon.Performing a show at Londons Brixton Academy, Niall Horan makes it clear hes intent on staying true to his folk-rock influences, and his devoted legion of fans  who have followed him since the pop group went on an indefinite hiatus in 2015  dont seem to mind in the slightest.

At the beginning of the show, Horans audience interaction consists almost entirely of the word Brixton  which still elicits screams of an astonishingly high decibel. He warms up eventually, cracking a self-deprecating joke at the reaction when he takes off his jacket, and messing around with his band and photographer onstage.

Like his former bandmate Harry Styles, Horan has a habit of wearing his influences on his sleeve; these mostly being drawn from classic Seventies and Eighties rock: hes cited Stevie Nicks as a musical heroine on more than one occasion.

Recommended Harry Styles was thrilling to watch at the Eventim Apollo in London

The steady beat of single On The Loose  one of the standouts from Horans debut solo album Flicker  is a wonderful tribute to Fleetwood Macs Dreams, with its matching bass line and yearning guitar, although it verges on overkill when that same bass line crops up in Since Were Alone.

Hes more convincing as a credible folk artist then when he tries to put a sultry spin on the night, Slow Hands still works thanks to that catchy hook but the lyric like sweat dripping down our dirty laundry never fails to get those cringe muscles twitching. Outside of that first solo, though, hes an adept  and clearly improving  songwriter who seemed to require fewer co-writes than most major pop artists: his albums title track is sensitive and endearingly romantic.

Niall Horan performing at O2 Academy Brixton (Rex)

An impressive cover of Camila Cabellos hit Crying In The Club and a slightly drab but nonetheless sincere rendition of Bruce Springsteens classic Dancing In The Dark. He delves into One Directions back catalogue too, performing a stripped-down version of their hit Drag Me Down.

Horan could easily take more risks with his voice  perhaps its because hes used to singing alongside four other bandmates  but he clearly has the capacity to be more daring, reaching the bigger notes without much effort.

While his One Direction cover still elicits one of the bigger reactions of the night, the show is a promising sign of Horans potential to carve out a lasting solo career of his own.& Other Stories has announced that it will be launching a collaboration with luxury British interiors and lifestyle brand House of Hackney.

In the past, the high street store has joined forces with the likes of Rodarte, Toms and Sonic Youth musician Kim Gordon, but this latest venture promises to be a print lovers dream.

House of Hackney transcends trends and plays in a quirky world of its own, says Anna Nyren, head of co-labs at & Other Stories.

We had a lot of fun co-creating a collection that invites women to play more and mix and match fearlessly without any restrictions.

For those unfamiliar with the print mecca, House of Hackey was launched in 2011 by founders Frieda Gormley and Javvy M Royle after they spotted a gap in the market for traditional homeware with an eclectic twist.

House of Hackney is known for creating traditional homeware with an eclectic twist

And, while the brand has experimented with clothing before  it launched a collaboration with Opening Ceremony in 2012  this latest collection looks set to be its most extravagant yet with everything from ready-to-wear, accessories and shoes that will encourage a style filled with playfulness and extravagance.

Photographed in the House of Hackney founders home, the first reveal of the collection offers a small glimpse into what we can expect with sketches and fabric swatches of zebra print, baroque florals and exotic palm leaves.

Founders Frieda Gormley and Javvy M Royle shot the new collection in their Hackney home

For now, the duo has revealed the Damas dress, priced at 69, which features a dramatic lilac floral print, but we will have to wait until the end of May before being able to shop the entire collection online and in selected stores.Google may ultimately need to be broken up to stop the tech company securing a monopoly over internet search, the EU has said.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said she harboured "grave suspicions" about the Silicon Valley giant - which currently commands a 91.5 per cent share of Europe's search engine market - and said that ordering its fragmentation into smaller companies on anti-trust grounds may be the only way to ensure fair trading conditions.

"I think it is important to keep that question open and on the agenda, Ms Vestager said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.

"We are not there yet but it is important to keep an awakened eye."

Nicknamed "the Eurocrat Who Makes America Tremble" by Bloomberg, the Dane has built a formidable reputation on her willingness to challenge the likes of Google, Amazon and Facebook since taking the job in 2014.

"There is no ban on success in Europe," she told The Telegraph.

"You get to be dominant and you get a special responsibility that you dont destroy the already weakened competition.

"We have proven their dominance in search and we have found they have misused this dominance to promote themselves and diminish competitors."

Margrethe Vestager (AP)

This last remark referred to the European Commission (EC) fining Google 2.42bn (2.1bn) last year for manipulating shopping search results to favour its own services.

"This is not competition on the merits and is illegal under EU antitrust rules," Ms Vestager said at the time.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

The EC is meanwhile reportedly drafting new regulations ordering search providers, online retailers and app stores to be more transparent about how their algorithms rank search results.

The behaviour of the world's leading tech firms remains under close scrutiny at present following the revelations about Cambridge Analytica's harvesting of Facebook data for political ends.Long before he gained a net worth of an estimated $11.9bn (9.6n), launched SpaceX and Tesla and before he became a millionaire at 28 after selling his first company, Zip2, Elon Musk lived off just a dollar a day.

Forcing himself to live mainly off hot dogs and oranges wasn't the result of poverty or some charitable movement, but an experiment to see if he had what it takes to lead a life as an entrepreneur, he told astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in the latest episode of Tyson's StarTalk Radio podcast.

As they discussed his early years, Musk explained his fascination as a freshman and sophomore at Queen's University in Ontario, with how he could help shape the future of humanity through the internet, energy efficiency and space exploration.

Tyson joked that most undergraduates are mostly focused on how they're going to get a job after graduation.

Musk said that concerned him, as well. His plan was always to go to the US  he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania  and so he imagined what it would be like as a 20-something in the United States foregoing a job to start his own technology business.

"I mean, in America it's pretty easy to keep yourself alive," he said. "So my threshold for existing was pretty low. I figured I could be in some cheap apartment with my computer and be okay and not starve."

He decided to see if a $30 food budget could get him through a month. He bought mostly hot dogs and oranges in bulk and would occasionally switch it up with some pasta and jarred tomato sauce. He pulled it off.

"So I was like, oh, okay. If I can live for a dollar a day  at least from a food cost standpoint  it is pretty easy to earn $30 dollars in a month, so I'll probably be ok," Musk said.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

It gave him the assurance that he didn't need a comfortable salary to survive, allowing him the freedom to pursue his loftier goals, he added.

"Not to put words in your mouth, but that's a starting point to launch anywhere you want to go," Tyson said.

"Yeah. Absolutely," Musk replied.

Read more:

 May tackles new Brexit Rebellion

 Philip Hammond and Mark Carney are in China to secure 1 billion of trade deals

 Facebook admits that social media can be bad for you

Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2018. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.If you cannot stand tan lines but enjoy a day at the beach, we have some good news - Ireland is set to open its first nude beach.

In what will be the nations first nudist-friendly beach, Hawk Cliff in Dalkey is set to undergo the nudist makeover - and public notices are already set to be placed around the surrounding area by the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

The signs, expected to go up next month, will warn other bathers of the likelihood of seeing naked people, according to Irish Naturist Association (INA) chief Pat Gallagher, who explained to the Irish Sun: Every other country in Europe has these kinds of signs and they will simply say nude bathers may be seen beyond this point.

Of the announcement, Gallagher said it is a milestone for Ireland, which previously did not have nude beaches.

And this may be the start of a nudist revolution in Ireland, as the INA lobbies local authorities about putting up similar signs at other beaches - which would allow nudist beach-goers the right to strip.

The announcement comes after Ireland law regarding public nudity was changed in 2017 to refer only to someone who is intending to cause fear, distress or alarm and engages in sexual activity.

But for those who would rather stay clothed, Gallagher insists that Hawk Cliff will still be open and welcoming to clothed swimmers.

And the beach isnt technically a nudist area, simply a place that is clothing optional.

According to Gallagher: We dont go out to offend anyone. We simply want to go there, lie in the sun, get in the water, have a swim but we dont want to wear anything, thats all.

If anything, Gallagher believes the new nude-friendly beach will boost tourism.

However, not everyone is happy about the announcement - Councillor John Bailey told the Irish Sun politicians were kept in the dark about the decision and he is totally opposed.

But despite the backlash, next month Hawk Cliff will officially be open to all beach-goers, swimwear or not.Miatta Fahnbulleh spent the day of the Spring Statement calling out the Chancellor on live television.

Fahnbulleh is chief executive of the New Economics Foundation, a think tank that is increasingly called upon by the media to give a voice to an alternative to mainstream economics. I wanted to see more from him, Fahnbulleh told the BBC. The economy does not feel better for people. Hes got to take that challenge on.

By that evening, after another appearance on Sky, she was even angrier. There was a level of complacency that was quite staggering, she tells me a day later. As he was cracking his jokes and performing I was thinking that the story he is telling about the economy is so dislocated from what people are feeling and the reality of families struggling to feed their kids. I dont know how you can look at the fundamentals and not see a need to act. You can see Im getting quite cross!

Fahnbulleh joined the New Economics Foundation in November. At just 38, she has spent eight years at senior level, working as head of cities in the policy unit at the Cabinet Office, leading on the formulation of strategy for everything from devolution to climate change for Ed Milibands opposition, and as director of policy and research at the Institute of Public Policy Research.

She was attracted to the top job at NEF after despairing at the disconnect between ordinary people and the politicians who have the power to change their lives. Whitehall is so dislocated from the people on the ground, she says. Its partly why so many policies go nowhere; they never get past the paper they are written on. Then the chunk of them that do dont deliver the intended consequences. If you dont start with the people on the ground, what do you expect will happen?

I ask her how she feels about the prospect of a Corbyn government, given her experience working with Ed Miliband. Jeremys got a lot of flack. But it doesnt matter what your politics is, I think his analysis of the economy was spot on and he has shifted the debate in a way that is helpful.

She notes that it was Miliband who began to talk about the idea of the many, not the few, which has become Labours slogan under Corbyn, and the similarities between the 2015 and the 2017 Labour manifestos.

In Labour, we were doing too much tweaking policy, and hes come out and said we need big change, she says. The challenge is whether you come up with a policy perspective thats bold and radical and that we can deliver. We dont have to renationalise everything, we should be thinking about how to empower local government through municipal ideas  thats where organisations like NEF are there to inspire.

The New Economics Foundation calls itself a people-powered think tank because of its focus on grass roots action. I have sat in on community development sessions with NEF consultants in various parts of the country, where local people are encouraged to voice their ideas and learn how to turn them into workable policies.

Because we have spent a lot of time working in communities, we start with the experience of the people, and there is power in that, Fahnbulleh says. It allows your narratives to be stronger and better. I say that as someone who has done a lot of spreadsheet policy-making in my life!

While her approach has changed, Fahnbulleh has always been driven by a strong sense of injustice. She grew up talking politics around the dinner table in Liberia, where her father was at the vanguard of pushing for a political system that was inclusive of the indigenous population. The family fled to Sierra Leone at the outbreak of civil war and eventually moved to the UK in 1986, where they claimed asylum.

We were lucky; my parents emigrated over here and made a great life for us, but so many people arent that lucky, she says. When you come from a country where unemployment is 80 per cent, an entire generation of kids have had their future obliterated, you think, there is something not right that this can be the reality for people. Thats just stuck. Its coloured everything Ive done.

Until about 10 years ago, Fahnbulleh thought she would end up working in Africa. She went from studying PPE at Oxford to a PhD in international and economic development. Her first job was working for a development consultancy on an economic strategy for the presidents office in Bosnia, another country with deep ethnic tensions. A young black girl going in there looking back on it, it was going in the deep end, she says.

One day she saw a job in the prime ministers strategy unit and saw the value of learning about strategy from the inside. I applied and never came back, she says. While the politics are very different in Europe and Africa, Fahnbullehs motivations are the same: Speaking up for injustice and wanting to right wrongs  I got that from my parents from a young age. That sense that you have to be counted, youve got to drive whatever change is in your power.

Its that kind of momentum she hopes to bring to NEF as chief executive. Success at NEF is three things: first, leading the debate on the alternative economy and coming up with ambitious radical ideas that can deliver change. Second, being a catalyst for a bigger movement. Change will come, but the scale of change will only come when enough people are galvanised and mobilised and that will require partners in other organisations. Third is a more internal one. I want NEF to continue being the sort of place where people look and say, Theyre doing something special. But if we do that in a way that is not just about radical ideas, but changing the process around how we do policy from this disengaged, dislocated way, then that will be success.

When shes not running one of the countrys most influential think tanks, Fahnbulleh is busy raising her three-year-old son with her husband, who works in finance. The couple have just discovered they are expecting twins. Its a pretty incredible thing to be doing in your first year in the job, but if the prime minister of New Zealand can do it, I can, she says. Somehow, you believe her.Undeterred by the uncertainty around Brexit, a pair of banks from continental Europe have agreed to provide 135m in funding to MarketInvoice, the London-based online lender.

Banco BNI Europa, a Portuguese digital bank, will make 90m available for loans distributed via MarketInvoices website, the UK company said in a statement Monday. The banks outlay comes on top of 73.3m its already provided the firm.

Varengold Bank, a Hamburg-based lender, will put 45m on MarketInvoices platform, doubling an investment made in September.

Recommended Brexit delivers longer blow to bank sentiment than financial crisis

MarketInvoice arranges working capital loans for thousands of British companies secured by money owed by debtors. Originating 2bn in loans since it was set up in 2010, the firm has emerged as one of the UKs top so-called peer-to-peer lenders. Institutional investors have funded more than half the loans on its platform.

Britains online lending industry has showed few signs of stress since voters chose to quit the European Union in a referendum in June 2016. Last year, the biggest players originated almost 3bn in loans for consumers and companies, a 53 per cent jump from 2016, according to the Peer to Peer Finance Association, a London trade group.

The volume and value of invoices were funding is higher than ever before, said MarketInvoice chief executive Anil Stocker.

This is all down to businesses choosing diversity in funding source. Our growing institutional investor base on the platform has enabled us to support a broader pool of businesses.

BloombergOil prices opened the week above the $70 (49.38) mark for the first time since January, as fears over Middle East tensions heightened.

The appointment of John Bolton as Donald Trumps national security adviser last week further strained relations between the US and various Middle Eastern states.

Recommended John Bolton brings hardline views to White House

Mr Bolton has been a vocal critic of the Iran nuclear deal, an accord brokered during the Obama administration which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for a pledge from the country to restrict its nuclear programme. The agreement must be recertified every 90 days by the US President and while he has upheld the deal so far, Mr Trump has also continuously threatened to discard the agreement on claims Iran is not upholding its end of the bargain.

A return to sanctions on Iran would lead to a cut in global oil supply, which in turn would drive prices up.

Mr Bolton has described the Iran deal as the worst act of appeasement in American history and in 2015 penned an op-ed in which he called for military action against Iran.

The inescapable conclusion is that Iran will not negotiate away its nuclear programme. Nor will sanctions block its building a broad and deep weapons infrastructure, Mr Bolton wrote, saying that only military action can accomplish what is required.

Commenting on Mr Boltons appointment, Naeem Aslam at Think Markets said: In simple terms, there would be more pressure on Iran and Trump is more likely to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal. Oil traders are not going to be reticent with their bets.

If the US imposes the sanctions once again on Iran, there would only be a one-way trade for oil. Looking at the chart, the bearish bets are at their lowest level since 2014 while bulls have ramped up their bets last week by 7.7 per cent, which is the highest level since January.

Oil prices were also boosted by statements from Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, indicating that production cuts that have been in place since 2017 may be extended into 2019.Have writer's block? Hopefully this resource will help librarians identify publishing and presentation opportunities in library & information science, as well as other related fields. I will include calls for papers, presentations, participation, reviewers, and other relevant notices that I find on the web. If you find anything to be posted, please drop me a note. thanks -- Corey Seeman, University of Michigan(cseeman@umich.edu)Uber has announced that it is selling its South-east Asian business to rival Grab, giving the latter a massive step up in the thriving region of 620 million people.

Under the terms of the deal, Grab will snap up all of Ubers operations in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, including its food delivery business UberEats.

Uber will receive a 27.5 per cent stake of Grab in return, and its chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, will join Grabs board. Grab is thought to be worth about $6bn (4.2bn).

Recommended Study finds most Uber and Lyft drivers earn less than minimum wage

Pulling out of South-east Asia gives Uber the opportunity to shore up its balance sheet ahead of a planned initial public offering on the stock exchange, pencilled in for 2019.

The company has burned through more than $10bn since it was founded nine years ago and, since his appointment to the top job last year, Mr Khosrowshahi has repeatedly signalled that hes willing to rationalise Ubers geographic presence to safeguard the companys financial sustainability.

Back in 2016, Uber already sold its business in China to Didi.

The move will likely be particularly welcomed by SoftBank Group, which is the largest investor in both companies and has for some time been pushing to reduce competition in South-east Asia.

Todays acquisition marks the beginning of a new era, Grabs chief executive Anthony Tan said in a statement on Monday.

The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region. Together with Uber, we are now in an even better position to fulfil our promise to outserve our customers. Their trust in us as a transport brand allows us to look towards the next step as a company: improving peoples lives through food, payments and financial services.

Mr Khosrowshahi said the deal is testament to Ubers exceptional growth across South-east Asia over the last five years.

It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology to create the best customer experience on the planet, he said.

Grab, which was founded back in 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, is already the regions dominant ride-hailing service. It operates in more than 190 cities and benefits from over 86 million app downloads.Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for almost six years, and there is no clear end to the saga after a court said a warrant for his arrest still stands.

Westminster Magistrates court upheld the UK arrest warrant, saying despite the fact that rape and sexual assault charges Mr Assange was originally wanted for in Sweden had now been dropped, he was still wanted for refusing to surrender to bail without reasonable cause, which is a criminal offence.

Why hasnt Julian Assange faced justice?

Mr Assange has frequently said he would happily face British and Swedish justice if he is given a guarantee he will not be extradited to the United States.

This demand has never been overtly agreed to by the UK.

It is unclear how strong the appetite to prosecute Mr Assange is in America. In the past, his organisation has been a source of deeply embarrassing revelations for the US.

But Wikileaks recent activity has benefited the current administration  including the leak of Hillary Clintons campaign emails obtained by Russian-backed hackers.

The move lead Donald Trump to declare during his presidential bid: I love Wikileaks.

But since then the tone has changed. Last year US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Mr Assanges arrest was a priority, while CIA director Mike Pompeo said: Its time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.

Despite the strong words, there remains no public criminal case against either Mr Assange or his organisation.

Mr Assanges lawyers maintain the US would seek to extradite and prosecute him.

What is next for the Wikileaks founder?

Following Tuesdays ruling, Jennifer Robinson, a member of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks legal team since 2010, said: For more than seven years we have been fighting to end the restrictions placed on Julian Assanges liberty without charge. After today, we will continue to fight to ensure his freedom.

We will also continue to seek assurances that the UK does not have a US extradition warrant, and will let him leave the country freely and without interference."

She added: We must confront the real issue in this case: if Julian Assange walks out of the embassy today he risks facing extradition to the US to face prosecution for publishing information in the public interest with Wikileaks.

"The British authorities failure to provide assurance against that risk is the reason he sought asylum in the embassy in the first place.

This is and has always been our overriding concern. This is why Ecuador has provided him with protection and why Ecuador has sought mediation with the UK government to resolve the situation.

The UK Government refuses to confirm or deny whether there is an extradition request or give an assurance against extradition, which means we cannot be confident he can walk out of the embassy without being arrested and extradited to the US.

In the immediate future, questions remain over Mr Assanges health, which along with public interest issues, will be subject to a separate judgment on Tuesday.

What are Wikileaks biggest revelations?

Mr Assange gained international notoriety after his anti-secrecy organisation published classified military documents revealing tens of thousands of civilian deaths at the hands of the US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One of Wikileaks biggest releases of information came in 2010 from US Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, who later changed her name to Chelsea.

Ms Manning leaked more than 250,000 diplomatic cables, including military logs that included footage of an Apache gunship crew shooting dead a group of men they thought had a rocket launcher. It turned out to be journalists for Reuters carrying a television camera.

At the time, Ms Clinton, then Secretary of State, said the leaks tore at the fabric of government and pledged aggressive steps to hold responsible those who stole this information.

Wikileaks later released a cache of diplomatic cables from US embassies, including embarrassing and personal assessments of international figures.

More recently the organisation has claimed the UK and the USs CIA worked together to use Samsung televisions as microphones.

Arrest

In August 2010, the first arrest warrant was issued for Mr Assange for two separate allegations  one of rape and one of molestation  after he visited Sweden. He was questioned by police in Stockholm and denied the allegations.

Later that year, an international arrest warrant was issued by Swedish police through Interpol, and in February 2011 a British judge ruled Mr Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face the charges.

After losing an appeal against the decision, Mr Assange entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London demanding asylum, which was subsequently granted.

Scotland Yard stood down the 24/7 police presence outside the Ecuadorian embassy building in 2015 but pledged to make every effort to arrest Mr Assange if he left.

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

There had been controversy over the escalating cost of the exercise, which was believed to be over 12m.

In May, Swedens director of public prosecutions said the preliminary rape and sexual assault probe was discontinued for logistical reasons.

The decision to discontinue the investigation is not because weve been able to make a full assessment of the evidence, but because we didnt see possibilities to advance the investigation, Marianne Ny added, saying no judgment on guilt or innocence could be made.Rising stabbings and shootings in London will be targeted by a new crime strategy using powers handed from central Government to the capital's mayor.

Sadiq Khans office, the Ministry of Justice and London Councils have signed a memorandum of understanding on devolved justice powers, which proposes a secure school for young offenders and overhaul of failing probation services.

David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, said London faces unique challenges while housing almost 20 per cent of all offenders in England and Wales and spending 3.3bn every year on criminal justice.

It is right that we work in close partnership with Londons regional authorities to reduce crime, stop people reoffending and look after victims, he added.

I envisage this as the first step towards a model where Londons authorities play a much more active role in managing offenders  particularly those who require the most comprehensive support.

Mr Khan said he wanted to make London safer, reduce reoffending rates and support victims better by joining up local services.

This agreement will ensure that decisions about justice services in London prioritise the interests of Londoners, and it is an important step towards the devolution of powers over criminal justice in our city, he added.

 Met Police Chief: Police will use stop-and-search powers "properly" over knife crime

The initiative was revealed after a bloody week in the capital, where a 26-year-old man was shot dead in the street on Sunday night.

Another man, 30, is fighting for his life in hospital after being stabbed in Kennington on Friday, and on Wednesday a man had his watch stolen at gunpoint in Croydon.

On Tuesday, a 21-year-old man was stabbed to death in a Stratford shopping centre, hours after a 36-year-old man was fatally assaulted on a bus in New Cross.

Recommended Knife and gun crime rockets across England and Wales

There were two unrelated murders on the previous day, when another man was killed in Walthamstow and a 48-year-old man was stabbed to death in Southall.

The latest attacks come amid a nationwide rise in violent crime, with knife and gun offences up a fifth in a year, and safety warnings over the part-privatisation of probation services.

There were more than 820,000 crimes recorded in London over the last year  17 per cent of all recorded crime in England and Wales  and a fifth of known offenders (76,000) live in the capital.

Despite the scale of demand, the prospects for people going through the criminal justice system are among the worst in the country and the memorandum warned that problems have become more acute in the wake of the significant budget challenges that all agencies have faced in recent years.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, said Londons crime wave was being driven by a core group of young offenders repeatedly committing assault and robbery with relative impunity.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA 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

Almost half of youth offenders and a third of 18 to 24-year-olds convicted of crimes in London reoffend, with the figure rising to 42 per cent for those having spent time in custody, and the phenomenon is costing 2.2bn a year.

Initiatives will target the root causes of crime and address the disproportionate number of victims and offenders from black, Asian and ethnic minority groups.

The new strategy aims to protect the public and ensure criminals are properly rehabilitated in order to break the cycle of crime.

It will review probation services, amid criticism of under-performing Community Rehabilitation Companies, and push to boost confidence in community sentences as an alternative to imprisonment.

It also aims to improve safety in London prisons, which are overcrowded and have rising rates of violence and self-harm and probe the use of custody for under-18s.

The Mayors Office for Police and Crime and local councils are researching potential sites for a Secure School for London, which would educate young offenders, and propose the creation of a dedicated young adult court.

A new London Justice Devolution Board will lead efforts to join up work by the 14 different national, regional and local organisations currently handling different parts of the fractured system.

Other aims include improving the experience for victims and witnesses and reducing the number of women in custody.

The Ministry of Justice has also struck devolution deals with authorities in Greater Manchester, Liverpool and the West Midlands, and is considering closer ties with elected Police and Crime Commissioners across the country.An alleged neo-Nazi has appeared in court charged with plotting to murder a Labour MP with a machete.

The 22-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been charged with preparing an act of terrorism by allegedly buying a Gladius Machete  a type of weapon used by Celtic tribes and Roman legions  for the purpose of murdering Rosie Cooper.

The defendant, from Lancashire, is also accused of making threats to kill a female police officer.

He has appeared with five other men at London's Old Bailey, where the Honourable Mr Justice Jay set their trial date for 11 June.

They are accused of being members of the banned neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action, which became the first extreme right-wing group to be proscribed in the UK.

Christopher Lythgoe, 31, of Greymist Avenue in Woolston, is accused of being the groups regional leader and has been additionally charged with encouragement to commit murder.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 22 September 2021 A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London EPA UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA 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. 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Mr Lythgoe and the 22-year-old defendant also stand accused of belonging to a proscribed organisation, alongside Garron Helm, 24, of Seaforth, Matthew Hankinson, 23, from Newton-Le-Willows, Andrew Clarke, 23, of Paddington and Michal Trubini, 35, from Warrington

They did not enter any pleas during a preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey on Monday, when they were remanded in custody.

National Action was banned as a terrorist group in December 2016 and two of its aliases - Scottish Dawn and NS131  have since been prohibited in an order that cited their virulently racist, antisemitic and homophobic ideology.More than 130 people could have been exposed to the military-grade nerve agent used in the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Theresa May has said.

In a statement to Parliament, the Prime Minister said 18 nations had announced they were expelling a total of more than 100 Russian intelligence officers in response to the attack in Salisbury. Since her statement the number of countries has risen to more than 20.

They include 60 spies from the United States, as well as spies operating in Canada, Ukraine, Albania and 14 European Union member states.

This is the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history, Ms May said.

Together we have sent a message that we will not tolerate Russia's continued attempts to flout international law and undermine our values.

Theresa May says Russia has advanced 21 different arguments in an attempt to distance itself from the attack (PA Wire)

Ms May said Mr Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, may never recover from the nerve agent attack.

She said the Government had evidence Russia had explored ways of exporting nerve agents over the past decade, likely for the purposes of assassinations.

Ms May said Russia has so far advanced 21 different arguments in an attempt to distance itself from the attack.

Speaking at the start of a debate on national security and Russia, she said: Sergei and Yulia Skripal remain critically ill in hospital. Sadly, late last week, doctors indicated that their condition is unlikely to change in the near future, and they may never recover fully.

This shows the utterly barbaric nature of this act, and the dangers that hundreds of innocent citizens in Salisbury could have faced.

She added: We assess that more than 130 people in Salisbury could have been potentially exposed to this nerve agent.

More than 50 people were assessed in hospital, with Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey taken seriously ill.

Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Scene of attack Members of the emergency services in hazard suits fix the tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018. Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Victim - Sergei Skripal The retired Russian colonel and former double agent for MI6 was in a critical condition in hospital for more than two months after being exposed to novichok in Salisbury. He was given refuge in the UK after being jailed in Moscow for treason. Mr Skripal came to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap in 2010 in which four men were exchanged for ten Russian "sleeper agents" in the US. In this image he is speaking to his lawyer from behind bars in Moscow in 2006. AP Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Victim - Yulia Skripal Yulia Skripal was struck down by a novichok poison alongside her father Sergei. Facebook Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Scene of attack A police officer stands guard outside a branch of the Italian chain restaurant Zizzi where the pair dined at before falling ill. It was boarded off whilst investigators worked on the building and later found traces of the chemical weapon within it. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Scene of attack Large areas of central Salisbury were cordoned off by police following the discovery of the Skripals. Traces of nerve agent were also found in The Mill pub. PA Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Victim - Nick Bailey Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, rushed to the aid of the Russian ex-spy and his daughter who were targeted with a nerve agent. He was hospitalized after aiding them and didn't leave until three weeks after the attack. Wiltshire Police/Rex Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation - Skripals home Police believe they were poisoned at home, and detectives found the highest concentration of novichok on the front door of Mr Skripals house. Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Theresa May visits scene of attack Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spokes with Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard near where the Skripal's were found. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning and suspended high-level contacts, including for the World Cup on March 14. Theresa May told parliament that Russia had failed to respond to her demand for an explanation on how a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok, was used in Salisbury. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Skripal days before attack Sergei Skripal days before he was exposed to Novichok, that has left him fighting for life. ITV News Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation - military involvement British soldiers were deployed soon after the attack to help a counter-terrorism investigation into the nerve agent attack. One of the places they were asked to help out with was Skripal's home and it's surrounding. They were asked to remove a vehicle connected to the agent attack in Salisbury, from a residential street in Gillingham. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation Personnel in protective coveralls and breathing equipment cover an ambulance with a tarpaulin at the Salisbury District Hospital. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation The investigation extended to the grave of Sergei Skripal's son Alexander in London Road cemetery. Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation The Counter Terrorism Policing Network requested assistance from the military to remove a number of vehicles and objects from Salisbury. EPA Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Home Secretary visits scene of attack Home Secretary Amber Rudd visited the scene of the nerve agent attack at the Maltings shopping centre on 9 March. Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Yulia Skripal speaks for the first time Yulia Skripal, speaking for the first time, said she felt lucky to have survived the nerve agent attack in Salisbury which left her fighting for life. Ms Skripal said her life had been turned upside down by the assassination attempt. But the Russian national added she hoped to return to her homeland one day, despite the Kremlin being blamed for the attack. Reuters

The Prime Minister went on: We know that Russia has a record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations, and that it views some former intelligence officers as legitimate targets for these assassinations.

And we have information indicating that within the last decade, Russia has investigated ways of delivering nerve agents, probably for assassination, and as part of this programme has produced and stockpiled small quantities of novichoks.

Clearly, that is in contravention of the chemical weapons convention.

Police offers at the crime scene of the nerve-agent attack in Sailsbury (Getty Images)

Ms May said no other country besides Russia has a combination of the capability, the intent and the motive to carry out such an act, adding there was no other plausible explanation.

Faced with the evidence, we gave the Russian government the opportunity to provide an explanation, but they did not do so, she said.

They provided no explanation as to why Russia has an undeclared chemical weapons programme, in contravention of international law. No explanation that they could have lost control of their nerve agent, and no explanation as to how this agent came to be used in the United Kingdom.

Instead, they have treated the use of a military-grade nerve agent in Europe with sarcasm, contempt and defiance. Incredibly, they have deployed at least 21 different arguments about it.

Police officers stand close to a bench in Salisbury where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found suffering from extreme exposure to a rare nerve agent (EPA/WILL OLIVER) (EPA)

Ms May told MPs Russia was failing to honour its responsibilities as a permanent member of the UN security council.

She added: In particular Russia has covered up for the Assad regimes use of chemical weapons in Syria. This has allowed the Syrian regime to continue to perpetrate atrocities against Syrian people.

She later said Russias behaviour in the Western Balkans was increasingly aggressive and fitted a pattern of behaviour which sought to foment and sow discord.

Ms May also went on to tell MPs her Government was calling out Russias malign behaviour in cyberspace and said it would also be reinvigorating the BBC Russia service as an independent source of news for Russian speakers.

She said the Government was cracking down on illicit and corrupt finance and bringing all the capabilities of UK law enforcement to bear against serious criminals and corrupt elites, neither of whom have any place in our country.

Jeremy Corbyn responds to Theresa Mays statement to the House of Commons on Russia (PA Wire)

Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour party, said Russia has failed to answer questions on the outrageous attack carried out in Salisbury, adding Russia has a direct or indirect responsibility for it.

He told MPs: Based on the analysis conducted by Government scientists, there can be little doubt that the nerve agent used in this attack was military-grade novichok of a type manufactured by Russia.

Since that analysis was revealed by the Prime Minister two weeks ago, the Russian state has had every opportunity to offer a plausible explanation as to how a nerve agent stock of this type came to be used in this attack.

Theyve offered nothing concrete in response except denials and diversion. Indeed, the only solid assertion that theyve offered so far in their defence was that all stocks of nerve agents were destroyed many years ago  an assertion that has been contradicted by intelligence reports.

That suggests that just over a decade ago, Russia invested in the use of nerve agents and developed new stockpiles of novichok to that end.

There is clear evidence that the Russian state has a case to answer and that theyve failed to do so, and we can therefore draw no other conclusion other than Russia has a direct or indirect responsibility for this.An imported trap approved by the Government to kill pests is lethal for Britains dwindling hedgehog numbers, experts say.

The A24 trap  branded not fit for purpose by Britains leading hedgehog charity  was approved by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in 2016 as a means of killing rats and stoats, which are considered pests in the UK.

Available for anyone to buy in shops or online, the trap attracts animals using a chocolate lure, before delivering a powerful blow to a creatures head or neck, killing them instantly every time, according to the makers website.

It can be left unattended for months and kill up to 24 animals before requiring a replacement CO2 canister. But experts say the device poses a deadly threat to hedgehogs.

New Zealand pest controllers use the gadget to kill hedgehogs, which the country considers a pest species.

Though theyre not being marketed to kill hedgehogs, they will kill hedgehogs here, Hugh Warwick, an ecologist and hedgehog expert, told The Independent. There is a reality check between what the instructions are and what will actually happen in real life.

Defra says it has no plans to ban the A24, but that so far as is practicable it must be used in a manner that minimises the likelihood of its killing hedgehogs, including by installing a wire tunnel intended to stop the animals reaching the trap.

But Mr Warwick said the Government was being slightly naive.

 Hedgehog left traumatised after spines cut off in student halls

The reality is nobody is going to be policing it, nobody is going to be out there, and hedgehogs will get caught in these traps, he said.

Branding the tunnel deeply disappointing, Mr Warwick claimed they will trap hedgehogs due to the animals spines getting caught in the wire mesh.

Fay Vass, chief executive of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, said the tunnel, which is sold separately, was hastily developed and badly designed.

Mr Warwick urged Defra to halt any roll-out of these traps until theyve been really carefully assessed by people who actually understand hedgehog biology.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA 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

But Vance Paines, manager of Goodnature, the company that makes the trap, said hedgehogs would have a massively hard time getting caught in the trap.

As far as Im concerned, our trap, its a very safe bet on controlling the problems we have, which is obviously rats, he told The Independent. And theres no poison.

If they are going to ban all traps then were left with a bigger population of rats and a huge disadvantage for people like pest controllers, because then we have to go back to poison.

In a statement, Defra said: We are confident that hedgehogs can be effectively excluded from the trap when set according to manufacturers instructions and an excluder tunnel is used. We do not, therefore, intend to remove this traps approval.

The continued availability of these traps comes as figures released last month show hedgehogs are in steep decline across rural and urban areas. There are now thought to be fewer than a million left in Britain.

Although difficult to calculate exact numbers, Mr Warwick estimated there had been a 90-95 per cent reduction since the Second World War.

Hedgehogs are a protected species in the UK, meaning anyone without a licence who kills one, even unintentionally, is at risk of prosecution.

But Ms Vass said it was likely to lead to accidental hedgehog deaths being underreported.

I think people would keep very quiet if their trap had killed a hedgehog, because theyre not meant to.

Mr Warwick added: Theyre not going to come forward and go, Hey look Im really sorry I killed this hedgehog, theyre just going to chuck it in the middle of the road and let it be run over.

Hedgehogs were crowned Britains national species in a 2013 BBC Wildlife magazine poll, and Britains favourite mammal in a 2016 Royal Society of Biology poll.Labour will have to vote for the final Brexit deal because of the risk of crashing out of the European Union with no agreement, a key shadow cabinet member has suggested.

Barry Gardiner told an event in Germany that he agreed that a chaotic Brexit would be the consequence of there being no deal, according to a transcript.

The Shadow International Trade Secretary urged members of the European Parliament to consider voting for whatever agreement Theresa May strikes  even if they do not like it  implying Labour could do the same.

The comment is at sharp odds with Labours official policy, which is to vote against the deal unless it meets six tests, including that it retains the exact same benefits of EU membership.

Furthermore, the meaningful vote secured by the Commons before Christmas means the Government cannot enact the regulations required to trigger Brexit without the consent of MPs.

However, Ms May and other ministers have continued to insist rejection by MPs would mean crashing out with no deal  because the two-year Article 50 timetable expires on 29 March next year.

Sir Keir Starmer, Labours Shadow Brexit Secretary, has said defeat in the meaningful vote should see the Prime Minister go back to the negotiating table to achieve a better deal.

Others have even suggested it would force Ms Mays resignation and a possible attempt to extend the Article 50 timetable with the agreement of other EU nations.

At the event, hosted by German political institute Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Mr Gardiner was asked about what happens if either MPs or MEPs reject the withdrawal agreement.

The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Show all 8 1 /8 The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Post-Brexit immigration workers sorting radishes on a production line at a farm in Norfolk. One possible post-Brexit immigration scheme could struggle to channel workers towards less attractive roles - while another may heighten the risk of labour exploitation, a new report warns. PA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Customs union A key point in the negotiations remains Britain's access to, or withdrawal from, the EU customs union. Since the referendum there has been hot debate over the meaning of Brexit: would it entail a full withdrawal from the existing agreement, known as hard Brexit, or the soft version in which we would remain part of a common customs area for most goods, as Turkey does? No 10 has so far insisted that Brexit means Brexit and that Britain will be leaving the customs union, but may be inclined to change its position once the potential risks to the UKs economic outlook become clearer. Alamy The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Northern Ireland-Irish border Though progress was made last year, there has still been no solid agreement on whether there should be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. To ensure borderless travel on the island, the countries must be in regulatory alignment and therefore adhere to the same rules as the customs union. In December, the Conservative Partys coalition partners, the DUP, refused a draft agreement that would place the UK/EU border in the Irish Sea due to its potential to undermine the union. May has promised that would not be the case and has suggested that a specific solution would need to be found. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Transition period Despite protests from a small number of Conservative MPs, the Government and the EU are largely in agreement that a transitional period is needed after Brexit. The talks, however, have reached an impasse. Though May has agreed that the UK will continue to contribute to the EU budget until 2021, the PM wants to be able to select which laws made during this time the UK will have to adhere to. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK must adopt all of the laws passed during the transition, without any input from British ministers or MEPs. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Rights of EU citizens living the UK The Prime Minister has promised EU citizens already living in the UK the right to live and work here after Brexit, but the rights of those who arrive after Brexit day remains unclear. May insists that those who arrive during the transition period should not be allowed to stay, whereas the EU believe the cut-off point should be later. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreement (with the EU) Despite this being a key issue in negotiations, the Government has yet to lay out exactly what it wants from a trade deal with the EU. Infighting within the Cabinet has prevented a solid position from being reached, with some MPs content that "no deal is better than a bad deal" while others rally behind single market access. The EU has already confirmed that access to the single market would be impossible without the UK remaining in the customs union. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreements (internationally) The Government has already begun trying to woo foreign leaders into prospective trade agreements, with various high profile state visits to China, India and Canada for May, and the now infamous invitation to US President Donald Trump to visit London. However the UK cannot make trade agreements with another country while it is still a member of the EU, and the potential loss of trade with the world's major powers is a source of anxiety for the PM. The EU has said the UK cannot secure trade deals during the transition period. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Financial services Banks in the UK will be hit hard regardless of the Brexit outcome. The EU has refused to give British banks passporting rights to trade within the EU, dashing hopes of a special City deal. However according to new reports Germany has suggested allowing trade on the condition that the UK continues paying into the EU budget even after the transition period. Getty

The transcript, obtained by the Business Insider website, recorded him replying: Let's look at the consequence of there being no deal. The UK will crash out of the EU. Its exactly what the far right have been pushing for.

Mr Gardiner added: The European Parliament should consider very carefully before voting against any agreement, even if its not the agreement you want.

The anti-Brexit group, Best for Britain, accused Mr Gardiner of swallowing the Brexiters scaremongering.

"The Government has been peddling Brexit by Blackmail ever since the beginning of the negotiations, and the Labour Party mustnt fall for it, said chief executive Eloise Todd.

We have two years to sort out our future relationship with the EU; if our Parliament rejects a government deal in October, we would have a few months to consider all options at our disposal, including staying in the EU.

The Independent has asked Mr Gardiner to respond to the comments made, but has been unable to reach him.

In Birmingham today, Sir Keir will set out plans to toughen up Parliaments control of the meaningful vote by tabling an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill.

Our amendment would make it clear that, should the Prime Ministers deal be defeated, it must be for Parliament to say what happens next, not the executive, he will say.

Labour has also not definitively ruled out calling for a fresh referendum on the deal  although deputy leader Tom Watson said on Sunday it was highly unlikely that Labour would back it.Lawyers acting for Brexit whistleblowers have handed a 50-page evidence dossier to the UKs election watchdog, claiming it indicates Vote Leave acted illegally during the referendum.

Chris Wylie and Shahmir Sanni both worked with Vote Leave as it fought the 2016 campaign, but now say an urgent probe is needed into key figures in the group  two of which have since become Downing Street advisers.

Speaking as the dossier was presented to journalists on Monday, Mr Wylie said the evidence cast doubt on the result of the referendum, that it should now be re-run and also called for the No 10 aides to be sacked.

But Brexiteers are set to refute his claims, after his legal representatives refused to reveal names of donors who contributed to his legal costs.

Mr Wylies lawyers said evidence in their dossier pointed to a deep collusion between Vote Leave and another pro-Brexit group, BeLeave.

They said the dossier, along with witness statements from Mr Wylie and Mr Sanni, strongly suggest a donation of almost 680,000 made by Vote Leave to BeLeave was actually used for Vote Leaves benefit.

The money was not recorded as Vote Leave expenditure, but if it had it would have taken the groups spending over the legal 7m limit, breaching electoral law.

 Theresa May refuses to sack aide for 'outing' gay whistleblower

The allegations have been denied by Vote Leave and its former officials, who reject all accusations of wrongdoing.

The dossier includes photographs, emails, messages and other documents which Mr Wylies lawyers said built a picture of complicity between key figures in the Vote Leave and BeLeave groups, which shared an HQ.

Mr Wylies legal team said the documents showed the groups were in regular contact, that Vote Leave assisted in the creation of BeLeaves branding, website and constitution, and oversaw activity of its volunteers through the campaign.

It also showed the two groups shared one Google drive where both deposited documents and campaign material.

Lawyers said messages show that after the Electoral Commission began looking into the campaign, the groups coordinated a response and a key Vote Leave figure sought to delete files from the joint drive.

In particular, they said there was circumstantial evidence suggesting the Vote Leave donation to BeLeave was eventually paid to Canadian firm AggregateIQ (AIQ) for targeted messaging services to boost Vote Leaves campaign  thought they admitted there was no direct written evidence of this.

Mr Wylie has said he was a central figure in setting up AIQ, but was also a former employee of Cambridge Analytica  now facing claims over the unauthorised harvesting of Facebook data.

 Facebook data row: What is Cambridge Analytica?

He has said the two firms are deeply linked, thought this has been denied by AIQ.

Mr Wylies layers said there are realistic prospects that Vote Leave and its senior official David Halsall might be convicted, while others including the groups strategic mastermind Dominic Cummings, and No 10 aides Stephen Parkinson and Cleo Watson, could be legally culpable  though this could only happen if the Electoral Commission recommended the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) take up the case.

With the story gaining pace ahead of select committee hearings on Tuesday, Brexiteers will undoubtedly demand to know who is funding the whistleblowers legal costs.

Brexit so far: in pictures Show all 53 1 /53 Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson led the VoteLeave campaign PA Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave Brexit Battle Bus tour on 17 May 2016. Their lead line on the tour was: We send the EU 350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead. Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Voting day A man shelters from the rain as he arrives at a polling station in London on 23 June 2016. Millions of Britons voted in the referendum on whether to stay in or leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Referendum results Leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage, reacts at the Leave EU referendum party at Millbank Tower in central London as results indicated that it was likely the UK would leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Protesting the result A young couple painted as EU flags and a man with a sign reading Im not leaving protest outside Downing Street against the voters decision to leave the EU on 24 June 2016 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures David Cameron resigns British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns on the steps of 10 Downing Street on 24 June 2016 after the results of the EU referendum were declared and the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Theresa May Becomes the new Conservative Party leader Theresa May receives a kiss from her husband Philip, after becoming the new Conservative Party leader on 11 July 2016. May became Prime Minister two days later and although she voted to remain in the referendum was keen to lead Britains Brexit talks after her only rival in the race to succeed David Cameron pulled out unexpectedly. May was left as the only contender standing after the withdrawal from the leadership race of Andrea Leadsom, who faced criticism for suggesting she was more qualified to be prime minister because she had children AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Lancaster House keynote speech on Brexit British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her keynote speech on Brexit at Lancaster House in London on 17 January 2017. Where she spoke about her offer to introduce a transition period after the UK formally leaves the European Union in March 2019. Despite repeating the pro-Brexit mantra of no deal is better than a bad deal, the Prime Minister claimed she wanted a tone of trust between the negotiators and said Britain was leaving the EU but not Europe. She said there should be a clear double lock needed for the transitional period to make sure businesses had time to prepare for changes to their trading relationships with the EU Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Triggering of Article 50 British Prime Minister Theresa May in the cabinet, sitting below a painting of Britain's first Prime Minister Robert Walpole, signs the official letter to European Council President Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 and the United Kingdom's intention to leave the EU on 29 March 2017 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Gibraltar nonsense Tensions have risen over Brexit negotiations for the Rock of Gibraltar. The European Council has said Gibraltar would be included in a trade deal between London and Brussels only with the agreement of Spain. While former Conservative leader Michael Howard claimed that Theresa May would be prepared to go to war to protect the territory. Spain's foreign minister stepped in only to assert that there was no need for the dispute Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Shock snap election Soon after triggering Article 50, Theresa May called on 18 April 2017 for a snap general election. The election would be on 8 June and it came as a shock move to many, with her reasoning to try to bolster her position before tough talks on leaving the EU AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Dissolution of Parliament for General Election Campaign Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement in Downing Street after returning from Buckingham Palace on 3 May 2017. The Prime Minister visited the Queen to ask for the dissolution of Parliament signalling the official start to the general election campaign Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Conservatives lose parliamentary majority An arrangement of British daily newspapers showing front page stories about the exit poll results of the snap general election. British Prime Minister Theresa May faced pressure to resign on 9 June 2017 after losing her parliamentary majority, plunging the country into uncertainty as Brexit talks loomed. The pound fell sharply amid fears the Conservative leader would be unable to form a government AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Labour gains Britains opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gives a tumbs up as he arrives at Labour headquarters in central London on 9 June 2017 after the snap general election results showed a hung parliament with Labour gains and the Conservatives losing their majority AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit negotiations begin Brexit Minister David Davis and European Commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations Michel Barnier address a press conference at the end of the first day of Brexit negotiations in Brussels on 19 June 2017 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May speaks in Florence British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks on 22 September 2017, in Florence. May sought to unlock Brexit talks after Brussels demanded more clarity on the crunch issues of budget payments and EU citizens' rights AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  insufficient progress German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins other EU leaders for a breakfast meeting during an EU summit in Brussels on 20 October 2017. The EU spoke about Brexit and announced that insufficient progress had been made AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures DUP derails settlement on the withdrawal part of Brexit DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds walks off after speaking to members of the media as a protester holding flags shouts after him outside the Houses of Parliament on 5 December 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to pull out of a deal with Brussels after the DUP said it would not accept terms which see Northern Ireland treated differently from the rest of the UK Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May suffers defeat over EU (Withdrawal) Bill Theresa May suffers defeat in parliament over EU (Withdrawal) Bill on 13 December 2017. The Government was defeated by Conservative rebels and Labour MPs in a vote on its key piece of Brexit legislation. MPs amended the EU (Withdrawal) Bill against Theresa May's will, guaranteeing Parliament a meaningful vote on any Brexit deal she agrees with Brussels. Ms May's whips applied pressure on Conservative rebels who remained defiant in the Commons throughout the day and in the end the Government was defeated by 309 votes to 305 Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  sufficient progress Britain's Prime minister Theresa May arrives to attend the first day of a European union summit in Brussels on 14 December 2017. European leaders discussed Brexit and announced there was finally sufficient progress at the end of the two days AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures The game moves to transition Brexit Secretary David Davis gives evidence on developments in European Union divorce talks to the Commons Exiting the EU Committee in Portcullis House, London, on 24 January 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures Trade deal is what May wants French President Emmanuel Macron gestures to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May after they hold a press conference at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, on 18 January 2018. May and Macron agreed a new border security deal, through which the UK will pay more to France to stop migrants trying to reach British shores on 18 January 2018 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Transition period agreed The UK and EU agree terms for Brexit transition period on 19 March, 2018 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures No agreement on Irish border The EU and UK however failed to reach an agreement on the Irish border during the successful talks on other Brexit issues AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU attacks Mays fantasy strategy For months after the March deal is struck there is little significant progress in talks. One senior EU official tears into Britains fantasy negotiating strategy and accuses Theresa May of not even having a position on a variety of important issue Getty Brexit so far: in pictures UK releases Ireland plan Britain releases a new customs plan to solve the Northern Ireland border but Michel Barnier says it leaves unanswered questions and would not prevent a hard border EbS Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan agreed The cabinet agrees on a plan known as the "Chequers deal" on July 6 2018. The plan seeks regulatory alignment on goods and food, divergence on services, freedom from the European Courts of Justice and an end to free movement. Many were surprised that the hard Brexiteers of the cabinet would agree to this plan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan sparks resignations Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and numerous ministers resign in the days following the Chequers agreement Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Davis out, Raab in On 9 July, Dominic Raab replaces David Davis as Brexit Secretary. Raab is a keen Brexiteer and was a housing minister before taking over from Davis Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Barnier's "deal like no other" EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier claims on August 29 2018 that they are prepared to offer Britain a trade deal like no other, though he stressed that they will not divide or change the single market to accommodate Britain AP Brexit so far: in pictures "My deal or no deal" In an interview on Panorama on September 17, the Prime Minister insists that any Brexit deal will be offered to the EU on her terms. She asserts this amongst continued attacks on her approach to Brexit by Boris Johnson and the European Research Group, headed by Jacob Rees Mogg BBC/Jeff Overs Brexit so far: in pictures EU leaders reject Chequers Quite the blow was dealt to the Prime Minister at a EU leaders summit in Salzburg on September 20. European Council President Donald Tusk stated that the Chequers deal "will not work" Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures May demands respect Following the rejection of her Chequers plan the day before, the Prime Minister voiced her anger that the EU had dismissed it without offering an alternative. She stated that throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it." Getty Brexit so far: in pictures People's Vote march As the People's Vote campaign and The Independent's Final Say campaign gain traction, 700,000 people turn out in London to demand a final say on the UK's Brexit deal on October 20 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures More resignations As the Prime Minister settles on a Brexit deal, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab resigns along with Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey and many other ministers Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Final Say petitions delivered to Downing Street People's Vote supporting MPs Chukka Umunna, Justine Greening and Caroline Lucas and The Independent editor Christian Broughton deliver over a million signatures in favour of a People's Vote to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street on December 3 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures May delays vote On December 10, the Prime Minister delayed the vote on her Brexit deal as it was near certain not to pass through the Commons due to Tory rebels and lack of DUP support AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures No confidence motion Tory MPs triggered a confidence vote in the Prime Minister on December 12. She won by 200 votes to 117 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Commons rejects the deal Following the delay, the Prime Minister's deal was rejected in the Commons by a historic 230 votes AFP Brexit so far: in pictures Corbyn tables a no confidence motion Following the rejection of the Prime Minister's deal, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in the government, which the government won by a margin of 19 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Plan B The Prime Minister won the support of the commons to return to Brussels to renegotiate the backstop on January 29. In the same sitting, MPs also voted against a no-deal Brexit in a non-legally binding motion PA Brexit so far: in pictures EU council president savages Brexit campaigners who failed to plan for departure: Special place in hell There is a special place in hell for pro-Brexit campaigners who demanded Britain leave the EU without explaining how it should happen, Donald Tusk has said. The European Council president launched the scathing attack as he accused anti-EU campaigners of pushing for Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. Mr Tusk also dismissed suggestions that the EU could reopen negotiations over the controversial Northern Ireland backstop, dealing a blow to Theresa Mays hopes of securing fresh concessions as she tries to get her exit deal through parliament. Speaking in Brussels alongside Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Tusk said: Ive been wondering what a special place in hell looks like for people who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. He also tweeted the accusation moments later Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU and UK announce talks to restart after Theresa May visits Brussels Both have agreed to restart Brexit talks to find a way through the deadlock in Westminster, following a visit by Theresa May to Brussels. In a joint statement the British government and European Commission said Ms May had had a robust but constructive meeting with president Jean-Claude Juncker, and that the pair would meet again before the end of the month. But the EU again refused to reopen the withdrawal agreement and its controversial backstop  with any negotiations expected to focus on the future relationship between the UK and EU instead Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit strategy lost MPs voted down May's Brext plans, with a majority of 45. The prime minister did not appear in parliament to see another defeat PA Brexit so far: in pictures Labour and Conservative MPs resign and create the Independent Group Back row of Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes, middle row of Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Ann Coffey and front row of Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Joan Ryan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Non-biding votes on amendments to Brexit motion On February 27 he house held a series of votes, unanimously calling for the UK and EU to guarantee citizens rights in a no-deal scenario AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Attorney General publishes legal advice A hammer blow for May as Geoffrey Cox said her renegotiated deal can still leave UK in backstop against its will. Mr Cox did say the prime ministers efforts had reduced the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop indefinitely. MPs went on to vote against her deal by 391 to 242 UK Parliament/PA Brexit so far: in pictures No-deal off the table MPs rejected a no-deal Brexit by 43 votes on March 13, with cabinet ministers rebelling in another humiliating defeat for Theresa May. A day later they voted in favour of the prime minister seeking an extension to Article 50 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures House speaker bans May from third Commons vote on same Brexit deal John Bercow sensationally told Theresa May he would stop her making another attempt to pass her Brexit deal unless she has secured changes. The Speaker said a further meaningful vote would be ruled out of order if the motion was the same or substantially the same  under an ancient convention to stop the government bullying parliament on issues MPs have rejected Parliament Live Brexit so far: in pictures May writes to Tusk The prime minister wrote to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, to ask for a three-month extension to give her more time to try to get her deal through parliament. However the European Commission advises the EU27 should offer a short extension to May 23 or a longer one meaning the UK would participate in European elections 10 Downing Street/AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures European Council summit Theresa Mays request to extend triggering Article 50 until the end of June was rejected by the EU, and instead offered a shorter time frame. She accepted the offer of a delay until May 22 if her withdrawal deal is approved by Parliament. If MPs rejected it for a third time, the EU said Britain must propose a new plan by April 12. Ms May said she will not support a long delay because it would mean Britain participating in elections for the European Parliament Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brussels confirms preparations for a no-deal Brexit are completed They warned that it is increasingly likely the UK will crash out. In a statement the European Commission (EC) said preparedness and contingency work, which the EC has been conducting since December 2017, was now finished. The announcement came days after EU leaders agreed to a request by Theresa May to extend the UKs Brexit date AFP Brexit so far: in pictures May resigns Reuters

Law firm Bindmans said it was in part pro bono work and crowdfunded, but there had also been donations from individuals who would remain anonymous.

This weekend No 10 aide Mr Parkinson revealed he had dated Mr Sanni for a year and a half, including a period when he was at Vote Leave and Mr Sanni worked as a volunteer.

Mr Wylie said Mr Parkinsons actions had put Mr Sannis family in Pakistan in danger, forcing them to take measures for their own security.

Calling for Mr Parkinson to be sacked, Mr Wylie told reporters: Mr Sanni was forced to come out to his mum in the middle of the night because No 10 Downing Street decided it was appropriate to out somebody.

It came after Mr Sanni claimed Vote Leave had cheated and that the British people had been lied to, and that the referendum wasnt legitimate.

A Downing Street source made clear that Ms May continues to have full confidence in Mr Parkinson, a political appointee who is employed by the Conservative Party.When did the row over Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism begin, and how did it develop?

During the 2015 leadership contest in which he was elected as Labour leader, concerns were raised about Mr Corbyns links to a number of known antisemites and, in particular, his previous reference to militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas as his friends.

The then candidate faced questions over his links to Holocaust denier Paul Eisen, and his description of cleric Raed Salah, who had claimed Jews drink the blood of children, as an honoured citizen. At the time, Mr Corbyns campaign team said he unequivocally condemned all antisemitism.

Since then there have been a number of incidents involving other Labour figures and antisemitism.

In April 2016, it was revealed that Labour MP Naz Shah had previously said Israel should be relocated to the US and posted a message saying the Jews are rallying. She was suspended by Labour but made a full apology, admitted her comments had been ignorant and antisemitic, and was readmitted to the party.

In the same month, former London mayor Ken Livingstone provoked fury after claiming Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had supported Zionism. He was suspended by the party but has consistently defended his comments, claiming he was simply stating historical facts.

The two incidents prompted Mr Corbyn to commission an independent inquiry into antisemitism in the Labour Party, chaired by human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 20 August Parents and a student react after checking GCSE results at Ark Academy in London Reuters UK news in pictures 19 August Tate Modern workers hold a strike outside the gallery in London, to protest the institution's announcement that it would cut more than 300 jobs from its commercial arm, Tate Enterprises PA UK news in pictures 18 August Two rescued brown bear cubs, Mish (left) and Lucy, cool off in a pool after arriving at their new home with the wildlife conservation charity Wildwood Trust in Herne Bay, Kent. 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PA UK news in pictures 16 August Wasp players take a knee as Northampton Saints stand prior to kick-off in their Premiership match at Franklin's Gardens PA UK news in pictures 15 August Piper Colour Sergeant Lil Bahadur Gurung attends the VJ Day National Remembrance event, held at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 14 August People including students hold placards on Whitehall outside Downing Street as they protest against the downgrading of A-level results. The government faced criticism after education officials downgraded more than a third of pupils' final grades in a system devised after the coronavirus pandemic led to cancelled exams yes AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 13 August Benita Stipp (centre) and Mimi Ferguson (left) react as students at Norwich School receive their A-Level results PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2020 A train derailment near Stonehaven has left three people dead. Driver Brett McCullough, conductor Donald Dinnie, and a passenger were killed when the 6.38am Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street service crashed amid heavy rain and flooding BBC UK news in pictures 11 August 2020 A woman hydrates in the sun after open water swimming at the West Reservoir Centre in north London Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 10 August 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson takes part in an archery session as he visits Premier Education Summer Camp at Sacred Heart of Mary Girls' in Upminster Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2020 People cycle through Cambridge as the heatwave continues in Britain EPA UK news in pictures 8 August 2020 Healthcare workers take part in a protest in London over pay conditions in the NHS Getty UK news in pictures 7 August 2020 Emergency services make their way along the seafront on Bournemouth beach in Dorset on one of the hottest days of the year PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2020 Alison Murphy poses for a picture by husband Peter as she walks through a field of sunflowers in Altrincham, Cheshire PA UK news in pictures 5 August 2020 Pakistan's Abid Ali being bowled by England's Jofra Archer during day one of the First Test match at the Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester PA UK news in pictures 4 August 2020 The 'Timbuktu tumblers' from Kenya perform their balancing act on the Southsea waterfront as Zippos Circus reopens in Portsmouth Rex UK news in pictures 3 August 2020 Pelicans interact with a visitor in St James's Park in London PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2020 Lewis Hamilton drives with a puncture towards the finish line to win the Formula One British Grand Prix at Silverstone POOL/AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 1 August 2020 Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang celebrates with the trophy and teammates after winning the FA Cup, as play resumes behind closed doors following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease Pool via Reuters UK news in pictures 31 July 2020 People enjoy the sunny weather at a Bournemouth Beach Reuters UK news in pictures 30 July 2020 An artist puts the finishing touches to a wax figure of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in the entrance line at Madame Tussaud's in London, as the attraction prepares to reopen to the public following the easing of lockdown restrictions in England PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2020 A member of staff stands on Ai Weiwei's 'History of Bombs' during a photocall for the Chinese artist's new work on display at the Imperial War Museum in London PA UK news in pictures 28 July 2020 Stuart Broad celebrates after taking the wicket of West Indies batsman Kraigg Brathwaite. It was a milestone wicket in his career, reaching his 500th Test Wicket for England. They went on to beat the West Indies in Manchester and therefore win the series 2-1 Getty/ECB UK news in pictures 27 July 2020 Demonstrators protest outside the Tate Modern in London over proposed job losses in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown. The group believe that the emergency money provided by the government to culture-based organisations should be used to retain all jobs and that any other use of the funding is unfair. The gallery on London's South Bank, as well as the Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives, reopened today after closing in March due to lockdown measures meant to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus Getty UK news in pictures 26 July 2020 Harry Maguire shakes hands with Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers after Manchester United beat the Foxes. The win meant they finished third in the Premier League and Leicester finished outside a Champions League place in fourth Pool via Reuters UK news in pictures 25 July 2020 Women exercise using pool noodles during an aqua fit class at a gym in Sunbury-on-Thames after gyms and swimming pools were allowed to reopen AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 24 July 2020 Mayor of London Sadiq Khan tries out a new Streetspace protected cycle lane in London at the launch a new online cycle training scheme PA UK news in pictures 23 July 2020 A customer has her hair cut outside at Blade Hairdressers in Soho in London Getty UK news in pictures 22 July 2020 Liverpool's English midfielder Jordan Henderson lifts the Premier League trophy during the presentation following the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield in Liverpool. Liverpool on Wednesday lifted the Premier League trophy at the famous Kop stand at Anfield after their final home game of the season AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 21 July 2020 Vivienne Westwood demonstrates outside the Old Bailey in support of Julian Assange in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 July 2020 Comet Neowise in the skies over the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire PA UK news in pictures 19 July 2020 Mods and rockers unite on Madeira Drive, Brighton, for a demonstration to call for the reopening of the road which Brighton & Hove City Council plans to keep closed permanently PA UK news in pictures 18 July 2020 People enjoy the sunny weather at Painshill, an 18th century landscape garden in Cobham, Surrey PA UK news in pictures 17 July 2020 Captain Sir Thomas Moore receives his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth, during a ceremony at Windsor Castle AP UK news in pictures 16 July 2020 Red Arrows do a flypast during the Graduation Ceremony of the Queen's Squadron at RAF College Cranwell, Lincolnshire The Daily Telegraph/PA UK news in pictures 15 July 2020 Jen Reid poses in front of a black resin and steel statue titled 'A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020', which is based on her by Marc Quinn, where it has been installed on the vacant Edward Colston plinth in Bristol city centre. The original statue was pulled down and thrown into Bristol Harbour during Black Lives Matter protests PA UK news in pictures 14 July 2020 Fields of echium and borage in full flower near the town of Thaxted in Essex PA UK news in pictures 13 July 2020 People ride a rollercoaster in a theme park next to Southend pier. Many businesses in tourism and hospitality have been able to reopen after some lockdown measures were eased Getty UK news in pictures 12 July 2020 West Indies's John Campbell and Jason Holder celebrate winning the test as England's Rory Burns and teammates look on dejected Reuters UK news in pictures 11 July 2020 Chicldren play in the water during a cricket match between Abinger and Worplesdon & Nurpham in Abinger Hammer, Surrey Reuters UK news in pictures 10 July 2020 People gather for the funeral of Dame Vera Lynn in Ditchling, England. During World War II she travelled to the frontlines, including Burma, entertaining British troops and boosting morale. She died on 18 June at her home in West Sussex Getty UK news in pictures 9 July 2020 Artist Anish Kapoor looks into his sculpture 'Sky Mirror' at Houghton Hall, King's Lynn, ahead of the opening of his largest UK exhibition of outdoor sculptures PA UK news in pictures 8 July 2020 Players take a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on the first day of the first Test cricket match between England and the West Indies at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 7 July 2020 A circus performer from the Association of Circus Proprietors in Whitehall, London. The association handed a petition to Downing Street to ask Prime Minister Boris Johnson to allow circuses to reopen EPA UK news in pictures 6 July 2020 Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, which re-opened to the public after being closed due to the coronavirus lockdown PA UK news in pictures 5 July 2020 People visit Columbia Road Flower Market, London, as it reopens following the easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions across England PA UK news in pictures 4 July 2020 A member of bar staff wearing PPE in the form of a face mask, pours drinks inside the The Goldengrove in Stratford AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 3 July 2020 Cardboard cutouts of fans in the stands prior to the League One play-off semi final match between Portsmouth and Oxford United at Fratton Park PA UK news in pictures 2 July 2020 A diver cleans the inside window of the seal tank at Tynemouth Aquarium in North Shields, as it prepares to open on Saturday after further coronavirus lockdown restrictions are lifted in England PA

The investigation concluded that, while there was an occasionally toxic atmosphere, the Labour Party was not overrun by antisemitism, Islamophobia or other forms of racism.

However, the independence of Ms Chakrabartis report was called into question when, two months after its publication, she was given a peerage by Mr Corbyn and appointed to the Shadow Cabinet.

Around the same time, allegations were raised about antisemitism in the Oxford University Labour Club, including claims that members had referred to Jews as Zios and suggested attacks on Jewish people in Europe were legitimate.

An investigation by Labour peer Baroness Royall found there had been some incidents of antisemitic behaviour but that there was no evidence the club is itself institutionally antisemitic.

In September 2016, Jackie Walker, a left-wing activist and vice chair of the pro-Corbyn Momentum group, was suspended by Labour after suggesting Jews were responsible for funding the slave trade. A number of other prominent activists have also been suspended for an array of antisemitic remarks.

A year later, Labours 2017 conference was overshadowed by an antisemitism row when a speaker at a fringe event proposed party members should be able to debate whether the Holocaust actually happened.A Jewish organisation has called Jeremy Corbyn a figurehead for antisemitism, as it prepares to stage an extraordinary protest outside Parliament against the Labour leader.

The Jewish Leadership Council also warned there were no safe spaces in the party for Jewish people  as it revealed Mr Corbyn had yet to invite it, or another group, to discuss the crisis.

The criticism came as the Labour leader prepared to defy a call by some of his MPs to explain himself at a meeting of the parliamentary party this evening.

Rightly or wrong, Jeremy Corbyn is now the figurehead for an antisemitic political culture, based upon an obsessive hatred of Israel, conspiracy theories and fake news, said Jonathan Goldstein, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council.

And that is doing great harm, not just to the Labour party, but to Britain in a wider sense.

Mr Goldstein added: The reality is there are no safe spaces online, or in meetings, for Jewish people within the Labour party.

Among the accusations levelled at them were that they acted on the instructions of Israel and that Zionists are the new Nazis.

Overnight, Mr Corbyn issued a lengthy apology for what he called pockets of antisemitism in Labour, vowing to stamp it out.

And he expressed regret for offering support to stop the removal of an antisemitic mural, in a 2012 Facebook post, insisting he had not looked at the painting properly before doing so.

In his statement, Mr Corbyn said: I want to be clear that I will not tolerate any form of anti-Semitism that exists in and around our movement. We must stamp this out from our party and movement.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA 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

We recognise that anti-Semitism has occurred in pockets within the Labour party, causing pain and hurt to our Jewish community in the Labour party and the rest of the country. I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused.

Mr Corbyn said Labour was determined to win back confidence in Labour among Jewish people, adding: I know that to do so, we must demonstrate our total commitment to excising pockets of anti-Semitism that exist in and around our party.

I will be meeting representatives from the Jewish community over the coming days, weeks and months, to rebuild that confidence in Labour as a party which gives effective voice to Jewish concerns and is implacably opposed to anti-Semitism in all its forms.

But Mr Goldstein said neither the Jewish Leadership Council, nor the Board of Deputies of British Jews, had received an invitation to meet with Mr Corbyn.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4s Today programme, he said: The greatest shame is that it has taken us to take to the streets for the apology to be forthcoming.

We have been reaching out to the leader of the Labour party, through his Shadow Cabinet and directly, since he was elected back in 2015 and we have been ignored.

The time for words is now over and the time for action is now important.

Several Labour MPs have urged Mr Corbyn to give a full explanation of his actions, at the weekly meeting of the PLP  to be held at the same time as the protest outside  but he is not expected to attend.The ending of Jeremy Corbyn: The Movie is still anyones guess but we have had the climactic montage scene.

It happened in fearful symmetry at ten past six on Monday night when, all around Westminster, the Labour Party went the full Les Miserables.

It was then that the Labour leader was standing at the despatch box of the House of Commons, telling Theresa May that he had been a robust critic of the Russian govt for more than 20 years.

Recommended Corbyn needs to accept that some of his followers are antisemitic

Amidst the howls of derision he permitted an intervention from one of his own MPs, John Woodcock, who told him what he was saying is just not true, and read an excerpt of an old Corbyn article in the Morning Star, warning the West is in no place to take the moral high ground over Ukraines crisis.

Outside the House of Commons, at this very moment, over the road on Parliament Square, hundreds of protesters, mainly Jewish but not all, had gathered to register their rage at Labours antisemitism crisis, the blame for which they lay at Corbyns door.

Stephen Timms was there on the green, the Labour MP for East Ham. So was Jonathan Reynolds, Labour MP for Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley, Longdendale & Dukinfield. And so were Peter Kyle, Neil Coyle, Wes Streeting, Chris Leslie, Margaret Hodge, Liz Kendall, Harriet Harman, Mary Creagh, Jess Phillips, David Lammy, to name just the ones I spotted, listening in quiet respect as speaker after speaker tore into their party and their leader.

 John Woodcock disagrees over comment Jeremy Corbyn was a robust critic of the Russian governmentt for more than 20 years

Most of them were on their way to the traditional Monday evening meeting of Labours MPs in a committee room round the corner from the Commons. There, Wes Streeting, Luciana Berger, Yvette Cooper and others gave rage-filled speeches about Labours antisemitism problem, and the leaders failure to deal with it.

It is a full-blown crisis. It doesnt need to be said that all over the world, and throughout human history, marches on parliament, indeed protests against governments of any kind, tend to be just that  protests against government. People dont gather en masse to protest against opposition. It is profoundly abnormal.

Naturally, there were not one but two protests gathered there. A second, smaller group, Jewish Voice for Labour waved Oh Jeremy Corbyn flags. The even tried  and failed  to drown out the speakers with chants of Oh Jeremy Corbyn.

It is a decent enough reminder of how Labours land lies. Jeremy Corbyn is certainly used to operating with an openly hostile parliamentary party. It is indeed the norm. He can only hope the problem will quieten down and go away. As for the moderate MPs, they know that seeking to topple him will be futile. They have tried once already.

If they are considering a new tactic, well, the evidence on a mad Monday night would intimate that the moment to use it might already be here.Hundreds of people have gathered in Parliament Square to protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party, demanding that its leader Jeremy Corbyn do more to tackle anti-Jewish feeling in his partys ranks.

Crowds joined by over a dozen Labour MPs, chanting enough is enough as the Labour leader issued a statement seeking an urgent meeting with Jewish leaders to discuss their concerns.

Organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council, speakers including the Labour MPs John Mann, Luciana Berger, Louise Ellman and Wes Streeting, as well as Haringey Council leader Claire Kober.

A number of Conservative MPs were also present, including cabinet ministers Sajid Javid and Penny Mordaunt.

Addressing the crowd, Mr Streeting said: To those Jewish members who felt enough is enough and cut up their membership cards and walked away, our commitment to you is to work with every ounce of strength to drain the cesspit of antisemitism in the Labour Party so you can come back.

We know what needs to be done. We dont need any more mealy-mouthed statements from the leader of the Labour Party, we need actions

The actions are very simple: Ken Livingstone should not be in the Labour Party. Antisemites need to be drummed out of the Labour Party. And that whitewash of a report  the Chakrabarti Report  can we at least implement every one of those recommendations. We had a wishy-washy report, it got someone a place in the House of Lords, but lets at least make sure its delivers a genuine fight against antisemitism in our party.

He told the Jewish community: We are truly, truly sorry that you had to be here to make this stand.

And Ms Berger said that antisemitism is very real and alive in the Labour Party, adding: With the Jewish Labour Movements proud 125-year history with both the labour movement and the Labour Party, it pains me to have to stand before you and say that today.

This is not a new phenomenon  it has been going on for decades. But antisemitism within the Labour Party is now more conspicuous, its now more commonplace and its now more corrosive.

A small counter-protest organised by the Jewish Voice for Labour group was attended by around 30 people.

It came as Mr Corbyn wrote to Jewish leaders insisting he is a militant opponent of antisemitism and again apologised for hurt and pain caused as he faced a wave of criticism from the Jewish community.

In his letter to the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council  responsible for organising the demonstration in Westminster on Monday  Mr Corbyn said: I recognise that antisemitism has surfaced within the Labour Party, and has too often been dismissed as simply a matter of a few bad apples.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 23 September 2021 Gabriella, the seven year old daughter of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, joins in a game on a giant snakes and ladders board in Parliament Square, to show the ups and downs of her mothers case to mark the 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran AP UK news in pictures 22 September 2021 A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London EPA UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA 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

This has caused pain and hurt to Jewish members of our party and to the wider Jewish community in Britain. I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused, and pledge to redouble my efforts to bring this anxiety to an end.

I must make clear that I will never be anything other than a militant opponent of antisemitism.

He also personally apologised for questioning the removal of an antisemitic mural in east London, by a graffiti artist known as Mear One. The mural depicted a group of businessmen and bankers playing a Monopoly-style board game and balanced on the backs of people.

Mr Corbyn added: Sometimes this evil takes familiar forms  the east London mural which has caused such understandable controversy is an example. The idea of Jewish bankers and capitalists exploiting the workers of the world is an old antisemitic conspiracy theory.

This was long ago, and rightly, described as the socialism of fools. I am sorry for not having studied the content of the mural more closely before wrongly questioning its removal in 2012.

At the gathering of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) behind closed doors in Westminster a number of MPs spoke out about antisemitism, with at least one MP expressing disappointment at the absence of Mr Corbyn, who was at the time in the Chamber responding to a statement from Prime Minister.A bill to legalise same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland is set to increase pressure on Theresa May to act, amid the failure to restore power-sharing in Belfast.

A Conservative peer will introduce the legislation in the House of Lords on Tuesday  ahead of an identical move by a Labour MP in the Commons a day later.

The move comes after the Government said it was willing to allow a free vote on matters of conscience such as equal marriage in Northern Ireland, despite the matter being devolved to Belfast.

It is almost 15 months since the collapse of the devolved administration at Stormont, with little prospect of restoring it in the near future  making it impossible for Northern Ireland to legislate.

The Love Equality campaign for equal marriage said its preference was for the Northern Ireland Assembly to act, pointing to overwhelming support from the public in the province.

But Patrick Corrigan, its spokesman, said: Without functioning devolution for the last 15 months, we now look to Westminster to legislate.

We call on the UK Government to introduce its own legislation to ensure equality can now become law for Northern Ireland couples. Discrimination against LGBT+ couples in Northern Ireland can no longer be tolerated.

The bill is being sponsored by Lord Heyward, a former Tory MP, who said it would be followed by a big petition to be handed in to No 10.

He pointed to John Henry, the brother of Ireland rugby star Chris Henry, who described not being able to tell his brother personally that he was gay as one of the biggest regrets of my life.

Mr Henry had moved away from what he perceived to be an intolerant Northern Ireland when he was just 18 years old.

The strength of public opinion for equal marriage rights in Northern Ireland will be shown by the petition they are due to present to Downing Street later this week, Lord Heyward said.

The bill will be introduced in the Commons by Labour MP Conor McGinn, but neither piece of legislation can become law without the Governments support.

Love Equality pointed out that, in November 2015, a majority of members of the Stormont Assembly voted to support equal marriage.

However, the measure was blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) using a Petition of Concern, a mechanism to veto measures without sufficient cross-community support.

The DUP has called on the Government to impose direct rule on Northern Ireland, if its political crisis cannot be solved soon. Talks broke up in acrimony again last month.

But the Prime Minister has sought to avoid that draconian step, even while setting a Budget to keep public services running smoothly  which will be voted on by the Lords on Tuesday.

Direct rule could make it impossible for the Government to avoid showdowns at Westminster on both same-sex marriage and Northern Irelands ultra-strict abortion laws.

Rape and incest are not deemed valid reasons for seeking terminations  but ministers have insisted abortion is a matter for locally accountable politicians to consider.Theresa May has refused to sack an aide blamed for outing as gay a whistleblower who claimed the Brexit campaign broke strict spending rules  insisting he does a very good job.

The Prime Minister was challenged in the Commons over a statement made by Stephen Parkinson, a senior figure in the Vote Leave campaign, about Shahmir Sanni.

In response, Ms May acknowledged that being outed could be difficult for some gay people because of their family and circumstances.

But, on the future of Mr Parkinson  now her political secretary  she insisted: Any statements issued were personal statements.

Two Labour MPs demanded tough action against Mr Parkinson, with one, Angela Eagle, telling the Prime Minister: Sack him. Ben Bradshaw, another former minister, asked how Mr Parkinsons actions could be remotely acceptable, adding: It is a disgrace. Do something.

At the weekend, Mr Sanni claimed that Vote Leave used its links with another pro-Brexit group to get around the 7m spending limit imposed by the Electoral Commission in a way that was totally illegal.

Responding to the allegations, Mr Parkinson revealed that he had been in a relationship with Mr Sanni  the first time his sexuality had been revealed, Mr Sanni's lawyers then stated.

The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Show all 8 1 /8 The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Post-Brexit immigration workers sorting radishes on a production line at a farm in Norfolk. One possible post-Brexit immigration scheme could struggle to channel workers towards less attractive roles - while another may heighten the risk of labour exploitation, a new report warns. PA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Customs union A key point in the negotiations remains Britain's access to, or withdrawal from, the EU customs union. Since the referendum there has been hot debate over the meaning of Brexit: would it entail a full withdrawal from the existing agreement, known as hard Brexit, or the soft version in which we would remain part of a common customs area for most goods, as Turkey does? No 10 has so far insisted that Brexit means Brexit and that Britain will be leaving the customs union, but may be inclined to change its position once the potential risks to the UKs economic outlook become clearer. Alamy The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Northern Ireland-Irish border Though progress was made last year, there has still been no solid agreement on whether there should be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. To ensure borderless travel on the island, the countries must be in regulatory alignment and therefore adhere to the same rules as the customs union. In December, the Conservative Partys coalition partners, the DUP, refused a draft agreement that would place the UK/EU border in the Irish Sea due to its potential to undermine the union. May has promised that would not be the case and has suggested that a specific solution would need to be found. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Transition period Despite protests from a small number of Conservative MPs, the Government and the EU are largely in agreement that a transitional period is needed after Brexit. The talks, however, have reached an impasse. Though May has agreed that the UK will continue to contribute to the EU budget until 2021, the PM wants to be able to select which laws made during this time the UK will have to adhere to. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK must adopt all of the laws passed during the transition, without any input from British ministers or MEPs. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Rights of EU citizens living the UK The Prime Minister has promised EU citizens already living in the UK the right to live and work here after Brexit, but the rights of those who arrive after Brexit day remains unclear. May insists that those who arrive during the transition period should not be allowed to stay, whereas the EU believe the cut-off point should be later. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreement (with the EU) Despite this being a key issue in negotiations, the Government has yet to lay out exactly what it wants from a trade deal with the EU. Infighting within the Cabinet has prevented a solid position from being reached, with some MPs content that "no deal is better than a bad deal" while others rally behind single market access. The EU has already confirmed that access to the single market would be impossible without the UK remaining in the customs union. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreements (internationally) The Government has already begun trying to woo foreign leaders into prospective trade agreements, with various high profile state visits to China, India and Canada for May, and the now infamous invitation to US President Donald Trump to visit London. However the UK cannot make trade agreements with another country while it is still a member of the EU, and the potential loss of trade with the world's major powers is a source of anxiety for the PM. The EU has said the UK cannot secure trade deals during the transition period. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Financial services Banks in the UK will be hit hard regardless of the Brexit outcome. The EU has refused to give British banks passporting rights to trade within the EU, dashing hopes of a special City deal. However according to new reports Germany has suggested allowing trade on the condition that the UK continues paying into the EU budget even after the transition period. Getty

Chris Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower who disclosed the Facebook data breach, said Mr Parkinsons actions had put Mr Sanni's family in Pakistan in danger, forcing them to take measures for their own security.

He was forced to come out to his mum in the middle of the night because No 10 decided it was appropriate to out somebody, Mr Wylie told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Challenged in the Commons, Ms May said: I of course recognise the importance of ensuring that we do recognise, for some, being outed as gay is difficult because of their family and circumstances

What I want to see is a world where everybody is able to be confident in their sexuality and doesnt have to worry about such things.

When urged by Ms Eagle to dismiss her political secretary, she replied: No, Im sorry that is not what I should be doing. My political secretary does a very good job as my political secretary. And, as I have said, any statements that were made were personal statements.

At the weekend, Mr Parkinson said he was saddened by the factually incorrect and misleading statements by Mr Sanni and his lawyers.

He said: I cannot see how our relationship, which was ongoing at the time of the referendum and which is a material fact in the allegations being made, could have remained private once Shahmir decided to publicise his false claims in this way.

In his response to the statement, Jeremy Corbyn has accused the Government of turning wild claims and red lines into climbdowns and broken promises in the Brexit talks.

The Government wasted months and months dithering and posturing before accepting the inevitable, said the Labour leader.

Ms May insisted the transition agreement reached with the EU at last week's summit represented significant progress, telling MPs: It is not in our national interest to ask businesses to undertake two sets of changes.

Whilst I recognise that not everyone will welcome the continuation of current trading terms for another 21 months, such an implementation period has been widely welcomed by British business because it is necessary if we are to minimise uncertainty and deliver a smooth and successful Brexit.

She acknowledged there were still key questions to be resolved around the Irish border issue.Almost 100 MPs have called on Theresa May to establish a cross-party commission to address the crisis in the NHS and in social care.

A letter sent to the Prime Minister calls for a parliamentary commission and signatories include 21 select committee chairmen and 30 former ministers.

The move is an attempt to break the political deadlock that has blocked repeated attempts to determine how to organise and fund services to cope with Britains ageing population.

The MPs say they are seriously worried the Governments promised green paper on social care will fail to make progress and instead called for an approach examining the system as a whole.

Health Select Committee chairwoman Sarah Wollaston said: We call on the Government to act with urgency and to take a whole system approach to the funding of the NHS, social care and public health.

On behalf of all those who rely on services, we need to break down the political barriers and to agree a way forward.

A similar commission was set up to reform the banking system were examined in the years following the financial crash and it allows a cross-party group of MPs and peers to look at an issue.

Dr Wollaston, a Tory MP, added: We believe this is the best way to examine what funding is needed both now and into the long term and to seek a consensus on the options for sharing the costs.

This year we mark the 70th anniversary of our NHS and we believe that the public want their vital health and care services to be given the funding needed to meet rising demand.

Dr Wollaston co-ordinated the letter with fellow select committee chairmen Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb and Labours Frank Field.

Mr Lamb, care minister in the coalition government, said: We need a fundamental review of health and care funding in order to safeguard the quality of these services in the longer-term and to finally deliver equal access to treatment for those who suffer from mental ill-health.

This will inevitably involve difficult choices which no political party has been prepared to make.

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 letter said system-wide pressures over recent weeks could not be wholly blamed on flu and the cold snap, but reflect more serious underlying issues facing the NHS, public health and social care.

They warned: Without action, patients will experience a serious further decline in services and the blame for that will be laid squarely at the door of politicians.

Mr Lamb said the commission should consider the case for a ring-fenced NHS tax.

Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt has acknowledged such a move could enjoy public support as part of the effort to find more cash for the system.

He said people would be prepared to see some of their own taxes going into the NHS but they want to know that money is actually going into the NHS and social care system.

Agencies contributed to this reportJeremy Corbyn said he was 'sincerely sorry' for the pain caused to the Jewish community

Jeremy Corbyn is facing an 'unprecedented' protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party.

The Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies, which represent British Jews, will hold a demonstration outside Parliament to demand the Labour leader do more to stamp out racism in the party.

In an explosive statement, the groups said Mr Corbyn "personifies" the "problems and dangers" of left-wing antisemitism and accused him of "issuing empty statements" while doing "nothing to understand or address it".

"Again and again, Jeremy Corbyn has sided with antisemites rather than Jews," they said.

Mr Corbyn admitted on Sunday that there remain "pockets" of antisemtism in Labour and said he was "sincerely sorry" for the pain this has caused.Aracely Meza held the childs limp body in her arms as worshippers looked on. She spoke loudly into a microphone, chanting words in Spanish as she stroked the childs hair and rubbed something on his forehead.

The scene captured in a video was a ceremony to resurrect the lifeless two-year-old boy. He died after more than three weeks without food.

Meza, a Dallas-area pastor and a self-proclaimed prophet, had claimed that God wanted the boy starved to get rid of demons inhabiting his body.

Now, three years later, she is set to spend the rest of her life in prison for Benjamin Aparicios starvation death.

A Dallas County jury found the 52-year-old guilty of felony injury to a child causing serious bodily injury, the Dallas Morning News reported. She was sentenced to 99 years in prison and ordered to pay $10,000 (8,000) in fines.

Meza and her husband, Daniel Meza, ran a church called Iglesia Internacional Jesus es el Ray out of a brick home in Balch Springs, a suburb south-east of Dallas. Public records show that Mr Meza was the churchs president and director, while his wife was the vice president. Several adults and children were living with the couple around the time the boy died in the spring of 2015.

Meza claimed to have the ability to speak with God and to perform healing miracles. She told investigators that God had told her the boy needed to fast. He was given only water four or five times a day for 25 days, the Dallas Morning News reported, while followers were told not to help the child. But even after the fast, Meza still deprived the boy of food when he did not say amen, authorities said.

The boy was reduced to skin and bones, unable to lift his own head up during his last days. He died on 22 March 2015. That day, Meza conducted a rising ceremony to bring him to life. She told police later that she believed God would wake him up, the Dallas Morning News reported. But the boy never woke up and Meza and the childs parents, who also were her followers, took the body to Mexico the next day to be buried.

Charges are pending against the boys parents, Zenon and Liliana Aparicio, an online court docket shows. Mezas husband does not appear to have been charged.

Mezas attorney, Charles Humphreys, said his client was imprisoned by her faith, according to the Dallas Morning News. But assistant district attorney Patrick Capetillo told jurors last week that Benjamins death was the result of Mezas desire for control, not her faith or religion.

The case, albeit bizarre, is not unheard of. Cult like religious leaders have previously been linked to criminal acts.

Last year, investigators in Alachua County in Florida said a woman who ran a religious boarding school there had killed a child in her care. Anna Elizabeth Young, who was known as Mother Anna, was charged with first-degree murder in December. The charge stemmed from the 1980s death of a toddler who authorities said was tortured and starved, the Gainesville Sun reported.

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

Authorities also said that Young may have had many other victims. She had been convicted in Florida for bathing a 12-year-old girl in a steel tub full of chemicals that severely burned the child. Young fled and was captured eight years later after police found her living in the attic of a relatives house in Illinois.

Young ran the House of Prayer for all People, which opened in 1983 in Micanopy, a town just south of Gainesville, Florida.

In 1992, a self-proclaimed son of God who went by the name Yahweh ben Yahweh was convicted of plotting several murders and attempted murders, as well as a terrorist bombing of a Florida neighbourhood. Six of his 15 followers were convicted of conspiracy to murder.

The Washington PostPolitical pressure on Facebook continued to intensify as a key Senator invited CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before Congress and a regulatory agency confirmed it had launched an investigation.

The scrutiny stems from revelations that a political consultancy employed by Donald Trumps presidential campaign harvested some 50 million Facebook users worth of data via a survey app.

As Facebook executives have scrambled to reassure users their personal information remains protected, elected officials have demanded Mr Zuckerberg himself appear before Congress. That push gained momentum with the embrace of Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who chairs the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee.

Paralleling the augmented attention from Congress, the Federal Trade Commission confirmed it had opened an investigation into Facebooks privacy and data security practices.

The FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook, Tom Pahl, acting director of the commissions Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.

Mr Grassley asked the Facebook founder to testify at an upcoming hearing on data privacy that would examine the protection and monitoring of consumer data, according to a press release from his office. A Facebook representative said the company was reviewing the invitation.

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

Members of the Senate Judiciary committee from both parties had urged Mr Grassley to summon Mr Zuckerberg to a hearing, saying the founders public apology and explanation was inadequate.

His acquiescence makes the Senate Judiciary Committee the second panel to formally request Mr Zuckerbergs appearance, with the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week responding to Mr Zuckerbergs statement that he would be happy to testify before Congress if he is the right person by saying as CEO of Facebook, he is the right witness to provide answers to the American people.

In noting that the FTC can hold companies to previous settlements and wields the power to bring enforcement action against companies that fail to honor their privacy promises, Mr Pahl suggested that his agency could be looking into whether Facebook is complying with the terms of a 2011 agreement stemming from FTC charges that the social media giant had misled customers about keeping their data private.

 Mark Zuckerberg on Cambridge Analytica: 'I'm really sorry'

A settlement in that case imposed a list of data management rules on Facebook, including a mandate that Facebook obtain consent before overriding privacy preferences and a ban on the company misrepresenting data safeguards.

Facebook responded to news of the FTC probe with a statement from Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman saying We remain strongly committed to protecting peoples information.

We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have, Mr Sherman said.

Facebook has said it has tightened its privacy rules in the years since researcher Aleksandr Kogan swept in the data of hundreds of thousands of users who took app-based surveys as well as that of their friend networks. Mr Zuckerberg has pledged to further fortify restrictions on how much user data third parties can access.The Russian Embassy in the US has posted a Twitter poll asking users which American outpost it should close as retaliation for President Donald Trumps expulsion of 60 diplomats and the closing of the Russian consulate in Seattle.

The UK, Germany, France, and now the US have jointly called on Russia to explain the 4 March military-grade novichok nerve toxin attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. The pair remains in critical condition as the UK and US have expelled Russian diplomats from their posts. With these steps, the US and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences, said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a statement.

The poll provided three options - US consulates in Valdivostok, St Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg. With 21 hours left in the 24-hour poll, there have been 12,260 votes. Forty-five per cent of those who answered the survey favoured closing the St Petersburg consulate and 35 per cent think Russia should close the Yekaterinburg outpost.

Recommended At least 30 people killed in fire at shopping centre in Russia

A request for comment to the Russian embassy has not yet been answered. The official Twitter account did not mention if the poll results would be taken into account in the final decision making in Moscow. Russia has denied being involved in Mr Skripals poisoning.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May was quick to blame the Russians for the incident which has left the town of Salisbury a "ghost town" as The Independent previously reported over concerns about exposure to remains of the nerve agent continue.She called it a "brazen" act, expelled 23 Russian diplomats, and cut high-level contact with Moscow for the attack on UK soil.

We consider this hostile action as totally unacceptable, unjustified and shortsighted, the Russian Embassy to the UK said in a statement, adding that all the responsibility for the deterioration of the Russia-UK relationship lies with the current political leadership of Britain.

 Donad Trump says he has congratulated Vladimir Putin for Russia election victory

Russia has, in turn, expelled British diplomats from posts in Russia.

Mr Trump's initial comments were more cautious. He said on 13 March that "as soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be".

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

It was not until after US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said during a Security Council meeting that the US "stands in absolute solidarity" with the UK, that the White House issued a statement echoing the sentiment.

She said Russia must "account for its actions" in line with her strong comments against Russia in the past. Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia, suggested the UK might have been responsible for the attack in an attempt to smear Russia. He told the Security Council that "no scientific research or development work under the title Novichok were carried out" in his country.

The US stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian governments behaviour, Ms Sanders said.

Mr Trumps move to expel diplomats comes on the heels of US sanctions placed on 19 Russian nationals, including President Vladimir Putins personal chef, for allegedly meddling in the 2016 US election.Donald Trump wont hire two lawyers announced last week as new additions to the legal team representing him in an investigation into whether Trump campaign advisers colluded with the Russian government.

The Presidents decision leaves him with a shrinking group of lawyers to defend him as Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe heats up.

The Presidents lead lawyer on the investigation, John Dowd, resigned last week, reportedly after Mr Dowds strategy for cooperating with the probe became increasingly at odds with the Presidents desire to cast doubt on the fairness of the inquiry.

Also last week, it was announced that the President would hire Joseph diGenova and Mr diGenovas wife, Victoria Toensing. Mr diGenova has accused the FBI and Justice Department of trying to frame the president with false charges of colluding with the Russian government.

But the duos role as part of Mr Trump's legal team remained in flux, sources told CNN. Mr DiGenova and Ms Toensing met with the President on Thursday, the news outlet reported.

The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the presidents special counsel legal team, Mr Trumps personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement to the New York Times on Sunday morning. However, those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the president in other legal matters. The president looks forward to working with them.

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

Just hours before the announcement on Sunday, Mr Trump declared that many lawyers want to represent him in the Russia probe.

Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case...dont believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on, Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.

He continued: Fame & fortune will NEVER be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted. Problem is that a new lawyer or law firm will take months to get up to speed (if for no other reason than they can bill more), which is unfair to our great country - and I am very happy with my existing team.

The President concluded by claiming again there was NO COLLUSION with Russia.

Along with investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and whether there was any collusion with the Trump campaign, Mr Mueller is also looking into whether Mr Trump obstructed justice.

Mr Trump and his legal team have dismissed claims that he obstructed justice.More than 100 Russian diplomats have been hit by a wave of expulsions across Europe and North America in response to the poisoning of a former spy in Salisbury.

The Trump administration was among 24 Western governments to order the removal of staff on Monday, with 60 Russian diplomats asked to leave the US alongside the closure of Russias consulate in Seattle.

Sixteen EU countries including Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland also expelled envoys, alongside Canada, Ukraine, Norway and Albania.

Recommended European nations expel dozens of Russian diplomats over spy poisoning

In the sternest move yet against Russia since he became President, Donald Trumps White House said it was working with Nato allies to punish Russia for its suspected poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia and the unacceptably high number of Russian spies in the US.

The European Council president Donald Tusk meanwhile said the blocs expulsions were a direct follow-up to last weeks European Council decision in which it condemned, in the strongest possible terms, the recent attack in Salisbury.

The White House said in a statement: The United States takes this action in conjunction with our Nato allies and partners around the world in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilising activities around the world.

Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Show all 24 1 /24 Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning United States Donald Trump has expelled 60 Russian diplomats from the US and closed the consulate in response to the Sergei Skripal spy poisoning. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Great Britain Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed Britain would be expelling 23 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Ukraine Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has expelled 13 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Germany Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning France France's President Emmanuel Macron has also expelled 4 Russian diplomats. Reuters Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Poland Poland's President Andrzej Duda has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Lithuania President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite has expelled 3 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Czech Republic Czech Republic President Milos Zeman has also expelled 3 Russian diplomats. AFP Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Netherlands Netherlands Prime minister Mark Rutte has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Latvia Prime Minister of Latvia Maris Kucinskis has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Estonia Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Croatia Croatia President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Italy Italian President Sergio Mattarella has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Canada Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Finland Finland's President Sauli Niinisto has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. Reuters Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Denmark Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Romania Romania's President Klaus Werner Iohannis has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Norway Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. REUTERS Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Spain Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Sweden Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Albania Albanian President Ilir Meta has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Australia Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Macedonia Macedonia President Gjorge Ivanov has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Hungary President of Hungary Janos Ader has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty

Todays actions make the United States safer by reducing Russias ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten Americas national security. With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences.

It added: The United States stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian governments behaviour.

Mr Trump has been criticised over a telephone call with Vladimir Putin, during which he ignored advice from his officials and congratulated the Russian leader on his recent election victory.

He also failed to raise Russias alleged meddling in the 2016 election and the Salisbury poisoning.

Theresa May has previously said that it was highly likely Russia was responsible for the poisoning of Mr Skripal and his daughter. The couple remain in a critical condition in hospital. The Prime Minister yesterday told the Commons that more than 130 people could have been exposed to the novichok nerve agent and that 50 people were assessed in hospital.

 Trump on Putin: 'We will probably get together in the not-too-distant future'

According to Reuters, senior Trump administration officials said all 60 Russians were spies working in the US under diplomatic cover, including a dozen at Russias mission to the UN in New York.

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the US, said the officials. They added that the Seattle consulate is a counter-intelligence concern because of its proximity to a US Navy base.

The US actions came as more than a dozen nations, including those in Russias neighbourhood, either announced, or were expected to announce similar steps. Poland summoned Russias ambassador for talks and its foreign ministry was among several in Europe planning news conferences.

In a special announcement to reporters on Monday afternoon European Council president Mr Tusk confirmed that EU countries were taking common measures to expel Russian diplomats.

Ukraine, which is not a member of the EU, also separately announced it would kick out 13 diplomats, alongside Albania and Canada.

Mr Tusk said more measures  including further expulsions  could follow in the coming days and weeks. He reiterated that the European Council agreed with the United Kingdom Governments assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian federation is responsible and that there is no plausible alternative explanation.

Germany, France and Poland, Lithuania, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the Czech Republic are among EU member states expelling officials.

We decided to recall the EU ambassador to Russia for consultations. As a direct follow-up to last weeks European Council decision to react to Russia within a common framework, already today 14 member states have decided to expel Russian diplomats, Mr Tusk said. Several other EU states added their names to the list on Monday.

He added: Additional measures including further expulsions within the common EU framework are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks.

Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Scene of attack Members of the emergency services in hazard suits fix the tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018. Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Victim - Sergei Skripal The retired Russian colonel and former double agent for MI6 was in a critical condition in hospital for more than two months after being exposed to novichok in Salisbury. He was given refuge in the UK after being jailed in Moscow for treason. Mr Skripal came to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap in 2010 in which four men were exchanged for ten Russian "sleeper agents" in the US. In this image he is speaking to his lawyer from behind bars in Moscow in 2006. AP Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Victim - Yulia Skripal Yulia Skripal was struck down by a novichok poison alongside her father Sergei. Facebook Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Scene of attack A police officer stands guard outside a branch of the Italian chain restaurant Zizzi where the pair dined at before falling ill. It was boarded off whilst investigators worked on the building and later found traces of the chemical weapon within it. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Scene of attack Large areas of central Salisbury were cordoned off by police following the discovery of the Skripals. Traces of nerve agent were also found in The Mill pub. PA Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Victim - Nick Bailey Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, rushed to the aid of the Russian ex-spy and his daughter who were targeted with a nerve agent. He was hospitalized after aiding them and didn't leave until three weeks after the attack. Wiltshire Police/Rex Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation - Skripals home Police believe they were poisoned at home, and detectives found the highest concentration of novichok on the front door of Mr Skripals house. Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Theresa May visits scene of attack Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spokes with Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard near where the Skripal's were found. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning and suspended high-level contacts, including for the World Cup on March 14. Theresa May told parliament that Russia had failed to respond to her demand for an explanation on how a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok, was used in Salisbury. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Skripal days before attack Sergei Skripal days before he was exposed to Novichok, that has left him fighting for life. ITV News Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation - military involvement British soldiers were deployed soon after the attack to help a counter-terrorism investigation into the nerve agent attack. One of the places they were asked to help out with was Skripal's home and it's surrounding. They were asked to remove a vehicle connected to the agent attack in Salisbury, from a residential street in Gillingham. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation Personnel in protective coveralls and breathing equipment cover an ambulance with a tarpaulin at the Salisbury District Hospital. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation The investigation extended to the grave of Sergei Skripal's son Alexander in London Road cemetery. Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation The Counter Terrorism Policing Network requested assistance from the military to remove a number of vehicles and objects from Salisbury. EPA Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Home Secretary visits scene of attack Home Secretary Amber Rudd visited the scene of the nerve agent attack at the Maltings shopping centre on 9 March. Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Yulia Skripal speaks for the first time Yulia Skripal, speaking for the first time, said she felt lucky to have survived the nerve agent attack in Salisbury which left her fighting for life. Ms Skripal said her life had been turned upside down by the assassination attempt. But the Russian national added she hoped to return to her homeland one day, despite the Kremlin being blamed for the attack. Reuters

A spokesman for the Kremlin said the decision to expel the Russian diplomats was a mistake. He added that Mr Putin would make the final decision over his countrys response to the measures.

Britain has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being undeclared intelligence agents, which led Russia to expel the same number of British diplomats. The European Union has already recalled its ambassador to Russia.In what is the first legislation of its kind in America, Utah has legalised a controversial method of child-rearing called free-range parenting that encourages self-sufficiency in children starting at a young age.

The free-range kids bill was signed into law by Republican Governor Gary Herbert and states that parents who allow their children to engage in certain activities without supervision are not considered neglectful.

Under the new law, children can legally walk to and from school alone, play outside unattended, be in a car alone, and be at home alone.

Recommended Child protection investigations more than double in 10 years

Set to take effect on May 8, the law is meant to protect parents whose children display maturity and good judgement.

However, age limits are not defined under the new law  as supporters of the bill believe that cases of abuse or neglect should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, according to the Associated Press.

The news agency also reported that Utah legislators decided to pass the bill after numerous cases where parents had their children temporarily removed after people reported seeing their children unattended.

Senator Lincoln Fillmore told Yahoo Lifestyle: I feel strongly about the issue because we have become so over-the-top when protecting children that we are refusing to let them learn the lessons of self-reliance and problem-solving that they will need to be successful as adults.

The term free-range parenting was coined by Lenore Skenazy almost a decade ago after she made headlines for letting her children take the subway alone at age nine. Regarding the free-range kids bill, Ms Skenazy told The Independent: I am thrilled.

People were so convinced that the second children were unsupervised, they were automatically in danger. I published these cases because I thought it was outrageous. Parents know their kid better than anyone and want to give them freedom, Ms Skenazy said.

The mum also pointed out that crime rate is lower than when we grew up. As the Washington Post reported, there has never been a safer time to be a kid in America.

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

Overall, Ms Skenazy, who also started the nonprofit Let Grow, wants people to know: This is not a crazy law. This is to make sure that crazy overprotection does not get made into law. It is a preventative measure. You dont want laws based on hysteria.

The law gives the rights back to parents who love their children and gives rights back to children to have a childhood.

Despite the support for the bill in Utah, the child-rearing technique remains controversial.

On Twitter, one woman wrote: This could lead to disaster. I am praying no children are lost because of this bill. Unbelievable.

And in Arkansas, a similar law drafted by Adrian Moore of the Reason Foundation failed last year after critics condemned the law for the dangers it presents to children, which included car-jacking statistics.

But on social media, advocates of the parenting method are celebrating the new law.

This is wonderful news; could be a turning point in Americas long slide into over-supervision of kids let them walk to school, play in parks, without putting parents at risk of being charged with neglect, one person tweeted in response.The FBI has identified several suspicious packages that were sent to military locations near Washington, including two that were sent to Fort Belvoir and Fort McNair.

At least one of the packages contained explosive materials, but was rendered safe by officials after it was identified.

That package was sent to the National Defence University at Fort McNair, and arrived at 8.30am, leading to the evacuation of the entire building, Army spokesman Michael L Howard said.

Recommended Airline crew member caught with four packages of cocaine taped to legs

At 12.10pm, 52nd Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal from Fort Belvoir, VA, confirmed the package tested positive for black powder and residue, Mr Howard told CNN in a statement. The X-ray conducted indicates suspected GPS and an expedient fuse were attached. The package was rendered safe. No injuries are reported.

The packages were first picked up by screening machines that process incoming mail. The packages are all being sent to be examined by the FBI in their lab in Quantico, Virginia.

The Fort McNair facilities were reopened after a K-9 sweep of the buildings. They reopened at 1.15pm.

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

Officials at the Fort Belvoir facility said that their package had also been rendered safe, but it was not clear if it contained explosive materials.

The suspicious packages follow soon after the saga in Austin, Texas anded, where several bombs were delivered to homes in packages. Those events ended last week when the suspect detonated a bomb in his car, killing him as police surrounded him.

Officials have given no indication that the packages Monday were in any way connected to those bombings.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been accused of spying on his citizens through his offices official smartphone app.

A security researcher, tweeting under the pseudonym Eliott Alderson, has said Indians personal data was sent to a third partys server in the US without prior permission and the claim has drawn the ire of the main opposition Congress Party. Mr Modis ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has denied the allegations and said in a tweet that the data was merely being used to provide users with the most contextual content.

Mr Alderson, whose name is an homage to the television drama Mr Robot, posted a series of tweets over the weekend with screenshots of code that supposedly detail the data privacy breach of the app, which has been downloaded by at least 5m Android users.

Recommended India takes down website linked to Cambridge Analytica

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Congress Party, mocked Mr Modi in a tweet, writing: Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am Indias Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies.

The BJP has denied any of the data sharing allegations and defended the app, saying the harvested data is being used only for analytics. It also accused the Congress party of using Cambridge Analytica in India in the wake of the recent Facebook scandal. Essentially, Facebook had exposed the data of 50 million users to the political consulting firm, which had at one point worked for the campaign of President Donald Trump.

Mr Alderson also tweeted later that the apps creators had quietly updated its privacy terms. Your personal information and contact details shall remain confidential, it read initially. Now the policy states that certain information may be processed by third-party services.

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

India does not have any legal position on data mining...India does not have a dedicated law on data protection. India does not also have a law on privacy, nor do we have a dedicated law on cybersecurity, digital law expert Pavan Duggal told the Associated Press.

Mr Alderson had also spent weeks needling Indian officials over security vulnerabilities in the countrys national biometric database, often drawing defensive responses from authorities.People found guilty of spreading fake news could face up to 10 years in prison under new laws proposed by Malaysias government.

Officials said the law, which must be approved by parliament, is needed to protect public harmony and national security.

But opponents have called it an attack on freedom of speech ahead of a general election which is expected to take place in the next few weeks.

Recommended Media studies at school could strengthen our democracy

Prime Minister Najib Razak has been dogged by a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal involving the 1Malaysia Development (1MD) fund, which he founded to promote economic development.

The state fund is facing money laundering investigations in at least six countries including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore.

The US Justice Department said last August that at least $4.5bn (3.17bn) was stolen from 1MDB by Mr Najib's associates, and it was working to seize $1.7bn (1.2bn) taken from the fund to buy assets in the US.

Mr Najib, who denies any wrongdoing, has fired critics and attempted to censor the press since the corruption scandal erupted three years ago.

Rights activists fear the new anti-fake news law could be used to criminalise news reports and critical opinions on government misconduct.

The bill calls for penalties against those who create, offer, circulate, print or publish fake news with a 10-year jail term and a fine of up to 500,000 ringgit (90,000) or both.

Publications containing fake news could also face penalties.

 Fake news travels much further and faster than real news on Twitter, study finds

The bill defines fake news as any news, information, data and reports which is, or are, wholly or partly false whether in the form of features, visuals or audio recordings or in any other form capable of suggesting words or ideas.

It covers all mediums and even extends to foreigners outside Malaysia as long as the south east Asian country or its citizens are affected.

This is an attack on the press and an attempt to instil fear among the [people] before the general election, opposition MP Ong Kian Ming tweeted.

He added: "Those who say that journalists have nothing to fear from the Anti-Fake News bill as long as they report accurately is clearly missing the point... the point of such a law IS to prosecute truth tellers by labelling them as purveyors of fake news."

The Government has accused the opposition coalition of using fake news as a key weapon to win votes and warned that any news on the indebted 1MDB state fund that had not been verified by the government was fake.

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

Support for Mr Najibs ruling coalition has dwindled in the last two elections. In 2013, it lost the popular vote for the first time to the opposition. Yet analysts say he is expected to win a third term due to infighting in the opposition, unfavourable electoral boundary changes and strong support for the government among rural ethnic Malays.

Critics say the anti-fake news bill will add to a range of repressive laws  including a sedition law, a press and publications act, an official secrets act and a security act  that have been used against critics, violated freedom of expression and undermined media freedom.

A coalition of human rights and civic groups has also expressed concern that the government is rushing through the legislation, without consulting key stakeholders and releasing details in advance for public scrutiny.

Other Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore and the Philippines, have also proposed laws to clamp down on fake news.

Associated Press contributed to this reportThere is speculation North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has made a secret trip to China, after reports said a special North Korean train arrived in Beijing under unusually heavy security.

Japanese media said the level of security accompanying the train suggested a senior official was onboard and that this had sparked speculation the North Korean had made what would have been his first visit outside of his country since becoming its leader in 2011. Bloomberg News it had confirmed the 36-year-old leader was the visitor.

A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said she was not aware of the situation and had no further comment. North Korea's state-run media had no reports of a delegation travelling to China, the Associated Press said.

Japanese broadcaster NHK posted an image of the train it said had appeared on Chinese social media site. It quoted diplomatic sources saying a train, apparently from North Korea, arrived in the Chinese capital on Monday.

The AP said it sparked speculation that Mr Kim may have been making a visit to China, which has traditionally had the closest regional relationship with Pyongyang.

Following what appeared to be a diplomatic breakthrough that came against the backdrop of the recent Winter Olympics in South Korea, the North Korean leader has agreed to a summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April.

 Donald Trump 'agrees to meet Kim Jong-un by May' to discuss denuclearisation

He has also requested a meeting with Donald Trump, who has said he will take part if North Korea gives certain guarantees ahead of any meeting.

Heavy security was reported at the Friendship Bridge before the train passed from North Korea to China, and there were reports of it passing through several stations on the way from North Korea to Beijing, the AP added. The NTV network said the green and yellow train appeared very similar to the one that former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un's late father, took to Beijing in 2011 and has 21 cars.

A video that aired on NTV also showed a motorcade of black limousines waiting at the train station and rows of Chinese soldiers marching on what appeared to be a train platform. The video did not show anyone getting off the train.

Japans Kyodo news service said the visit of the official - whoever it was - was intended to improve ties between Beijing and Pyongyang that have been frayed by North Koreas pursuit of nuclear weapons and Chinas backing of tough sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations Security Council.

Reuters said Chinese police tightened security along Beijings main east-west thoroughfare, Changan Avenue, on mid-afternoon Monday, closing off the entrances to some of the buildings which face the road. It said they also cleared out all tourists from Tiananmen Square, which normally only happens when important meetings are happening in the Great Hall of the People, where top Chinese leaders often meet visiting heads of state.

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

On Monday evening, the Beijing railway bureau warned on its blog, without giving a reason, of multiple train delays of up to two hours in the Beijing region. A source with ties to the Chinese military told the news agency it was not possible to rule out the possibility Mr Kim was visiting Beijing, but cautioned this was not confirmed.

Visits to China by Mr Kims late father, Kim Jong Il, were only confirmed by both China and North Korea once he had left the country. Kim Jong Il travelled by private train during his rare visits to China or Russia under tight security. Diplomats and other sources have said Kim Jong Il avoided flying for overseas trips due to security concerns.Jets from Taiwan were sent to shadow Chinese air force fighter jets flying through the Bashi Channel just south of the island on Monday, according to Taiwan's defence ministry, further escalating tensions between the countries.

According to the ministry, China was sending an unspecified number of fighter jets, bombers and transport aircraft to the West Pacific Ocean via the channel, which lies east of Hong Kong.

Taiwan jets followed the aircraft until they returned to base, the ministry said in a statement.

It follows a similar occurrence last week, when Taiwan sent ships and aircraft to shadow a Chinese aircraft carrier group that sailed through the narrow Taiwan Straight.

Taiwan is one of China's most sensitive issues and a potential military flashpoint.

The Chinese military movements come during a time of heightened tension between Beijing and the self-governed island and follow strong warnings by Chinese President Xi Jinping against Taiwan separatism.

China claims Taiwan as its own and considers the island a breakaway province. Xi said last week Taiwan would face the "punishment of history" for any attempt at separatism.

Taiwan says China has ramped up military exercises around the island in the past year or so.

While China insists it has no hostile intent, its activities around Taiwan and in the busy South China Sea waterway have touched a nerve in the region and in the United States.

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

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Alex Wong angered Beijing during a recent visit to Taiwan by saying the US commitment to the island had never been stronger.

Beijing is already furious about a law signed two weeks ago by Donald Trump that encourages the United States to send senior officials to Taiwan to meet counterparts and vice versa.

Additional reporting by ReutersA Russian airline forced five Asian-American passengers to fly to Delhi instead of New York because of their skin colour, according to a racial discrimination complaint.

Aeroflot staff warned the US citizens, all of south Asian descent, they would be deported to India if they refused to board the flight.

The Americans were travelling from Delhi to the US on 7 January but were stranded during a stopover in Moscow when their connecting flight to JFK International Airport was cancelled due to heavy snow in New York.

Aeroflot told them there were no available seats on alternative flights and they would not be provided with any accommodation in Moscow.

But the airline is alleged to have offered alternative connections to the US to white Americans who had been on the same flight.

The Asian American passengers were also denied transit visas, meaning under Russian law they could not leave Sheremetyevo Airport or remain in the country for longer than 24 hours.

An Aeroflot employee told the group they instead had to go back to India on a later flight or face being forcibly deported to India by Russian officials, according to a formal complaint filed by lawyers acting for the passengers.

The passengers rang the US embassy in Moscow and were told it would be illegal for Aeroflot to deport United States citizens to third countries against their will, the complaint reads.

It adds: Although the officer on duty at the embassy repeatedly asked to speak with Aeroflot to correct the situation, Aeroflot employees refused to speak with him, instead reiterating their threat that the passengers would be deported and that if they did not return to India, Aeroflot would make matters worse for them  including through criminal deportation and heavy fines.

A video filmed by one of the passengers shows an Aeroflot worker, identified only as Mikhail, warning the group they will be deported if they have not left the country within 23 hours. He then slams one of their US passports down on a counter in frustration and storms off after the group protest that they are American citizens.

He later returned to give them boarding passes for a flight to Delhi.

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 five passengers who brought the complaint eventually boarded the flight to India, fearing for their safety and feeling that they had no other choice after Aeroflots repeated threats, says the complaint. About 20 Asian passengers who had travelled from India were also forced to return, it adds.

After arriving in Delhi, they were informed there were no Aeroflot flights to New York for more than a week. Four of the passengers involved in the complaint spent thousands of pounds booking one-way flights to Washington DC through Qatar Airways instead. The fifth, Anshul Agrawal, flew to Miami through Aeroflot six days later.

He later wrote in a Facebook post: I have lost a week of work (I will not be allowed to vacation this year) and faced tremendous mental stress.

I have been flying for over 17+ years and never ever been harassed or treated this way.

All five passengers missed several days of work or school.

The complaint adds: What should have been a routine return flight home turned into a harrowing ordeal after Aeroflot staff steadfastly refused to allow American customers who were or who were perceived to be of South Asian descent to return to the United States, deporting them instead to India  all while providing customers on the same flight who were or who were perceived to be white Americans with accommodations and connecting flights to America.

Aeroflots treatment of American citizens was not only unjust and unfair, it also violates Aeroflots internal protocols as well as federal aviation and non-discrimination laws.

The complaint was filed to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) by civil rights legal organisation Muslim Advocates and litigation specialist law firm Lewis Baach. It was brought on behalf of passengers Marc Fernandes, Shahana Islam, Sabiha Islam, Bakiul Islam, and Mr Agrawal.

Aeroflots behaviour is appalling and beyond any justification, said Juvaria Khan, staff attorney at Muslim Advocates. DOT must conduct a full and thorough investigation and hold Aeroflot accountable for its discriminatory actions and ensure that no other travellers endure this type of mistreatment.

Although Aeroflot is Russia's flag carrier, the company has previously been fined by American authorities for violating US passenger protection rules.

Waleed Nassar, a partner in Lewis Baach, said: This complaint is to ensure that a clear and unequivocal message is sent worldwide to any airline that chooses to contract with United States citizens and to offer flights to the United States: discrimination against any United States citizen on any basis  be it racial, religious, perceived ethnic origin or sexual orientation  is simply unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

Aeroflot told The Independent: "We clearly fell short of our customary high standards of service in this incident, which occurred more than two months ago, and indeed we contacted the passengers immediately afterwards to offer our apologies. However, our thorough internal investigation established that this was not a case of discrimination based on appearance, and we do not accept this characterisation in the complaint."Five months after going on the run from Spanish authorities, Catalonia's former president was detained in Germany on an international warrant by highway police after the ardent separatist crossed the border with Denmark.

Carles Puigdemont's capture, aided by Spanish intelligence services, sparked protests of tens of thousands in Catalonia's main city of Barcelona and other towns in the wealthy northeastern corner of Spain. Some of the demonstrators clashed with riot police, leaving more than 50 civilians and police officers injured and leading to four arrests. Mr Puigdemont will appear before a German judge on Monday.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Mr Puigdemont's government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the northeastern region in October.

The Catalan parliament's subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities that they say won't be lifted until a new government that respects Spain's Constitution is in place.

Spain's state prosecutor office said it was in contact with its German counterparts to carry out its request to extradite Mr Puigdemont to Spain, where he faces charges including rebellion that could put him in prison for up to 30 years.

In Barcelona, riot police shoved and struck protesters with batons to keep an angry crowd from advancing on the office of the Spanish government's representative. Police vans showed stains of yellow paint reportedly thrown by protestors. Reinforcements were called in after several hours to clear the neighbouring streets, with protestors tossing street barriers and burning two garbage bins as they retreated.

Outside the city centre, groups of demonstrators cut off traffic on four different stretches of highways. Police also used batons to keep back a crowd of a few thousand who had gathered in front of the Spanish government's representative in the city of Lleida.

German highway police stopped Mr Puigdemont on Sunday morning near the A7 highway that leads into Germany from Denmark, police in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein said.

German news agency dpa said that Mr Puigdemont was taken to a prison in the northern town of Neumuenster. Dpa photos showed a van with tinted windows believed to be carrying Mr Puigdemont as it arrived at the prison. Video footage also showed the same van leaving a police station in Schuby near the A7 highway.

State prosecutors in Schleswig said that Mr Puigdemont will appear in court Monday in the northern German town to confirm his identity. It said in a statement that "the question of whether Mr Puigdemont has to be taken into extradition custody will then have to be determined by the higher regional court in Schleswig."

German state prosecutor Ralph Doepper told RTL Television that Mr Puigdemont has been "provisionally detained. He has not been arrested."

"We are now examining the further procedure, i.e. tomorrow we will decide whether we will file a provisional application for detention with the competent district court, which could lead to extradition detention later on," Mr Doepper said.

A Spanish police official told The Associated Press under customary condition of anonymity that Spain's National Centre for Intelligence and police agents from its international cooperation division helped German police to locate Mr Puigdemont.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge reactivated an international arrest warrant for Mr Puigdemont on Friday when he was visiting Finland. Spain has also issued five warrants for other separatist who fled the country.

Ines Arrimadas, the leader of the pro-Spain Citizens party which has the most seats in Catalonia's Parliament, said that the chaos on the streets was "of a society broken in two" by the secessionist movement.

Ms Arrimadas said: "Mr Puigdemont knew that fracturing Catalan society into two parts, spending public money on illegal activities, provoking a political and institutional crisis without precedents and confronting a 21st-century democracy of the European Union was going to have consequences."

But the Catalan parliament speaker, the highest-ranking elected official in the region until it forms a government, made a televised address on Catalan public television to call for a united "democratic front" of political parties, labor unions and civil society organizations to respond to what he called "the thirst for revenge of the powers of the state."

Speaker Roger Torrent accused Spain's central authorities of "attacking the heart of democracy making a general cause against its political adversaries."

Miquel Coca, a business owner in Barcelona, likewise vowed that the secession push wouldn't falter.

"All the negative inputs that we have received help us to unite the society even more," Coca said. "If we can't have this leader, well, then there will be another. This is a movement of the people, not of one person."

Polls show Catalonia's 7.5 million residents are equally divided over secession, although a majority support holding a legal referendum on the issue.

Mr Puigdemont, 55, is a former journalist and mayor of Girona who was thrust to the forefront of Catalonia's independence push when he was handpicked by predecessor Artur Mas to become regional president in 2016. He withstood intense political pressure from Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Spain's courts as he piloted the secession bid.

Spain had originally asked for Puigdemont's extradition from Belgium after he fled there in October, but later withdrew the request until Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena concluded his investigation this week. Mr Llarena ruled that a total of 25 Catalan separatists would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience.

In the meantime, Mr Puigdemont was free to make trips to Denmark, Switzerland and Finland, as part of his effort to gain international support for the secessionist movement.

Mr Puigdemont was also able to successfully run a campaign as the head of his "Together for Catalonia" bloc in a regional election in December in which separatist parties maintained their slim majority in Catalonia's regional parliament.

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

All told, Mr Puigdemont has become enemy number one of Mr Rajoy's conservative government and Spain's justice system.

He had wanted to be re-elected as Catalonia's regional president  albeit while remaining abroad to avoid arrest  but eventually was stopped by a Spanish court.

Separatists in Catalonia are currently trying to elect a leader for the regional government before a two-month time limit is up and new elections are called.

Spain's Constitution says the nation is "indivisible" and any changes to its top law must be made by its national parliament in Madrid.

Nine people who promote Catalan secession have been placed in pre-trial custody to prevent what Mr Llarena considered a flight risk or intention to continue with independence efforts.

Also, Spain's highest judicial authority condemned insults that appeared painted on the street near a house owned by Mr Llarena in the Catalan town of Das. They called the Supreme Court judge a "fascist" and wrote the message that he is "not welcome in Das or anywhere."

Scottish police said Sunday that the lawyer of Clara Ponsati, a former Catalan regional minister also being sought by Spain, had been in contact and is preparing to be handed over to authorities. She had moved to Scotland from Belgium earlier this month.

APTurkey still seeks to gain "full membership" of the EU, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

Joining the bloc remains a "strategic goal", he said, ahead of a meeting with EU leaders in Bulgaria.

Ankara wants deeper trade ties with the soon-to-be 27-member union, as well as visa-free travel to Europe.

Mr Erdogan said he would urge the EU to remove "political and artificial" hurdles against Turkey's membership and revive stalled accession negotiations.

A dispute between Turkey and EU-member Cyprus over energy exploration in the Mediterranean and the refugee crisis have strained ties in recent years.

The EU largely depends on Turkey to curtail the flow of migrants into Europe and is an important Nato ally but the bloc has deep concerns over the state of democracy and human rights in Turkey since the 2016 failed military coup.

Turkey remains a candidate for membership - a fact highlighted by Brexiteers during the EU referendum - but 13-year-long talks have ground to a halt.

In October, Mr Erdogan said Turkey no longer had a "need" for EU membership but refused to walk away from discussions, saying: "We will not be the side which gives up."

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

In a speech to the Turkish parliament at the time, he said Brussels had "failed us in a fight against terrorism".

However, both France and Germany have voiced strong opposition to Turkey's moves to join the bloc, with Emmanuel Macron saying in January that "recent developments and choices allow no progress".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also previously said it was clear Turkey should not join the EU and entry talks should end.

Additional reporting by agenciesThe Russian ambassadors to Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have been summoned to the foreign ministries of those countries, according to Russian media.

The RIA news agency cited a spokesman for the Russian embassy to Poland, and a representative of the embassy in Lithuania. TASS referred to unnamed diplomatic sources. The agencies did not give a reason for the summoning.

All four countries are members of the EU. The bloc recently recalled its ambassador to Moscow for consultations in the wake of the Sergei Skripal poisoning, after EU leaders said there was no plausible alternative explanation for the use of novichok nerve agent in Salisbury other than its deployment by the Russian government.

Along with Ireland and France, the four were thought to be considering the expulsion of Russian diplomats.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the attack earlier this month, which also left a police officer seriously ill and forced a number of other bystanders to seek treatment.

Last week in a joint statement, the European Council said it agrees with the UK governments assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation is responsible.

Member states will coordinate on the consequences to be drawn in the light of the answers provided by the Russian authorities. The European Union will remain closely focused on this issue and its implications, it added.

Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Scene of attack Members of the emergency services in hazard suits fix the tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018. Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Victim - Sergei Skripal The retired Russian colonel and former double agent for MI6 was in a critical condition in hospital for more than two months after being exposed to novichok in Salisbury. He was given refuge in the UK after being jailed in Moscow for treason. Mr Skripal came to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap in 2010 in which four men were exchanged for ten Russian "sleeper agents" in the US. In this image he is speaking to his lawyer from behind bars in Moscow in 2006. AP Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Victim - Yulia Skripal Yulia Skripal was struck down by a novichok poison alongside her father Sergei. Facebook Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Scene of attack A police officer stands guard outside a branch of the Italian chain restaurant Zizzi where the pair dined at before falling ill. It was boarded off whilst investigators worked on the building and later found traces of the chemical weapon within it. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Scene of attack Large areas of central Salisbury were cordoned off by police following the discovery of the Skripals. Traces of nerve agent were also found in The Mill pub. PA Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Victim - Nick Bailey Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, rushed to the aid of the Russian ex-spy and his daughter who were targeted with a nerve agent. He was hospitalized after aiding them and didn't leave until three weeks after the attack. Wiltshire Police/Rex Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation - Skripals home Police believe they were poisoned at home, and detectives found the highest concentration of novichok on the front door of Mr Skripals house. Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Theresa May visits scene of attack Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spokes with Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard near where the Skripal's were found. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning and suspended high-level contacts, including for the World Cup on March 14. Theresa May told parliament that Russia had failed to respond to her demand for an explanation on how a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok, was used in Salisbury. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Skripal days before attack Sergei Skripal days before he was exposed to Novichok, that has left him fighting for life. ITV News Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation - military involvement British soldiers were deployed soon after the attack to help a counter-terrorism investigation into the nerve agent attack. One of the places they were asked to help out with was Skripal's home and it's surrounding. They were asked to remove a vehicle connected to the agent attack in Salisbury, from a residential street in Gillingham. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation Personnel in protective coveralls and breathing equipment cover an ambulance with a tarpaulin at the Salisbury District Hospital. AFP/Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation The investigation extended to the grave of Sergei Skripal's son Alexander in London Road cemetery. Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Police investigation The Counter Terrorism Policing Network requested assistance from the military to remove a number of vehicles and objects from Salisbury. EPA Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Home Secretary visits scene of attack Home Secretary Amber Rudd visited the scene of the nerve agent attack at the Maltings shopping centre on 9 March. Getty Skripal attack aftermath  in pictures Yulia Skripal speaks for the first time Yulia Skripal, speaking for the first time, said she felt lucky to have survived the nerve agent attack in Salisbury which left her fighting for life. Ms Skripal said her life had been turned upside down by the assassination attempt. But the Russian national added she hoped to return to her homeland one day, despite the Kremlin being blamed for the attack. Reuters

Theresa Mays spokesman said on Monday morning that other countries actions towards Russia following the attack were a matter for them, but welcomed the support shown at last weeks summit.

The UK has expelled a number of Russian diplomats. A plane carrying more than 20 diplomats and their families left Stansted last week after Ms May said they were undeclared intelligence officers.

Additional reporting by agenciesMore than a dozen Western nations have announced they are to expel Russian diplomats in solidarity with Britain over the poisoning of a former Russian spy.

The group of European states were joined by the US and Canada in ordering the removal of Russian embassy and intelligence staff.

Russia has vowed to respond with expulsions of its own, including at least 60 staff from US diplomatic missions in Russia, RIA news agency quoted Russian senator Vladimir Dzhabarov as saying.

Recommended Trump expels 60 Russian diplomats from US in response to spy poisoning

An unnamed Foreign Ministry source was quoted as saying: "The response will be symmetrical. We will work on it in the coming days and will respond to every country in turn."

Theresa May said Russia had "spectacularly failed" in efforts to divide Britain's allies following the nerve agent attack.

Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Show all 24 1 /24 Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning United States Donald Trump has expelled 60 Russian diplomats from the US and closed the consulate in response to the Sergei Skripal spy poisoning. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Great Britain Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed Britain would be expelling 23 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Ukraine Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has expelled 13 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Germany Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning France France's President Emmanuel Macron has also expelled 4 Russian diplomats. Reuters Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Poland Poland's President Andrzej Duda has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Lithuania President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite has expelled 3 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Czech Republic Czech Republic President Milos Zeman has also expelled 3 Russian diplomats. AFP Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Netherlands Netherlands Prime minister Mark Rutte has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Latvia Prime Minister of Latvia Maris Kucinskis has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Estonia Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Croatia Croatia President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Italy Italian President Sergio Mattarella has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Canada Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Finland Finland's President Sauli Niinisto has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. Reuters Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Denmark Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Romania Romania's President Klaus Werner Iohannis has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Norway Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. REUTERS Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Spain Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Sweden Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Albania Albanian President Ilir Meta has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Australia Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has expelled 2 Russian diplomats. Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Macedonia Macedonia President Gjorge Ivanov has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty Countries join UK expelling Russian diplomats over spy poisoning Hungary President of Hungary Janos Ader has expelled 1 Russian diplomat. AFP/Getty

Here is the full list of countries participating in the expulsion:

Estonia

Tallinn is expelling one diplomat.

Poland

Warsaw will expel four Russian diplomats. Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz told a news conference that the diplomats were to leave the country by April 3.

"Showing solidarity with Britain and other countries is the most important thing," Czaputowicz said. "There are diplomatic costs to that but they are worth it."

Lithuania

Three Russian intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover will be expelled along with sanctions for 21 others. A further 23 will be banned from entering the country.

Latvia

Latvia said it would expel one Russian diplomat.

Romania

Romania will expel one Russian diplomat. "In solidarity with Britain and in accordance with provisions of the Vienna Convention ... the foreign affairs ministry has notified the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Bucharest that a diplomat will be declared persona non grata and is obliged to leave Romanian territory," the foreign ministry said.

Netherlands

The Netherlands will expel two Russian diplomats. The diplomats, who work as intelligence officers at the Russian embassy in The Hague, will have to leave the country within two weeks, the government said.

Denmark

Denmark is expelling two diplomats.

Italy

Two Russian diplomats must leave Italy within a week.

Spain

Madrid has also expelled two diplomats.

Norway

The counrty's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would expel one Russian diplomat.

Germany

Germany has expelled four Russian diplomats. The foreign ministry said: "After the poisoning attack in Salisbury, Russia is still not cooperating with the investigation."

France

France will expel four Russian diplomats. "In solidarity with our British partners, we have today notified the Russian authorities of our decision to expel four Russian personnel with diplomatic status from French territory within one week," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said.

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic said it is removing three staffers from the Russian embassy. Andrej Babis calls the measure an expression of solidarity with Britain.

Finland

Finland will expel one Russian diplomat.

Croatia

Croatia's prime minister says he will expel one Russian diplomat.

Sweden

One Russian diplomat will be kicked out of Sweden in response to the poisoning.

Ukraine

Kiev is expelling 13 Russian diplomats.

Albania

Two diplomats have been told to leave by Albania.

Hungary

One diplomat was ordered out by the government in Budapest.

UK

Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats and their families last week.

Non European states taking part:

US

The White House says 60 Russian diplomats will be expelled as well as the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, which will "make the United States safer", it said.

Canada

Canada says it is expelling four Russian diplomats. Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland says the nerve agent attack carried out on the soil of Canada's close ally is despicable and potentially endangered the lives of hundreds of people. Three applications by the Russian government for additional diplomatic staff will now be denied.A rebel faction in the besieged Syrian enclave of eastern Ghouta has denied reports its fighters are ready to lay down their arms and abandon the town of Douma, the last pocket of resistance in the Damascus suburb.

Russian news agency RIA quoted a Russian general staff official on Monday as saying Jaish al Islam had capitulated in talks with Russian negotiators. The claim was immediately rebuffed by the faction's political chief Mohammed Alloush, who called it a lie devoid of truth.

Syrian government forces have managed to seize 90 per cent of the former rebel stronghold after five weeks of ferocious air and ground assaults.

 White Helmet works to evacuate injured civilians after air raid in Eastern Ghouta

The campaign to retake the area - besieged since 2012 - has been one of the worst episodes of violence in the entire seven-year-old conflict, with an estimated 1,600 people killed. Rebels have retaliated with some of the worst rocket fire on government-controlled neighbourhoods in years, which has left dozens dead.

A UN resolution demanding a ceasefire on 21 February has been largely ignored by all sides.

The international community has condemned Syrian President Bashar al Assad and his allies in Moscow for the alleged use of illegal barrel bombs, phosphorus munitions and chlorine gas which have left the areas approximately 400,000 residents sheltering in basements for several weeks.

Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Show all 14 1 /14 Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A Syrian woman and children run for cover amid the rubble of buildings. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Smoke rises from buildings following the attack on the village of Mesraba in the rebel-held besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascu. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Injured children receive medical treatment. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A Syrian man carries a child injured. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures An injured child receives treatment following bombings on several areas of eastern Ghouta. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A child reacts inside a hospital after relatives were injured in the bombing. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian children cry at a make-shift hospital in Douma following air strikes on the Syrian village of Mesraba. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian Civil Defense group extinguishing a store during airstrikes and shelling by Syrian government forces. AP Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A wounded 12-year-old Syrian boy, cries as he receives treatment at a make-shift hospital. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrians carry a wounded man. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures An injured man covered with blood at a medical point. Reuters Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures People sit a medical point in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta. Reuters Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian Civil Defense running to help survivors. AP Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Injured children receive medical treatment. EPA

At least 6,500 Failaq al-Rahman faction fighters and their families have been bussed out of the enclave in recent days to Idlib province in Syrias northwest in an amnesty deal similar to those struck in several other episodes of Syrian urban warfare, such as Aleppo.

Jaish al Islam, all that is left of Ghoutas rebel fighting forces, is now making its last stand in the town of Douma, with rivalries between them widening ahead of their certain defeat.

Hamza Birqdar, the groups spokesperson, on Monday accused Failaq al Rahman of failing to mount a shared defence of Ghouta.

The in-fighting has been terrible, Dr Ataya Malik, who fled the air strikes in Douma to nearby Zamalka last week, told The Independent. It has made the situation for civilians worse.

While eastern Ghouta is technically covered by a 2017 de-escalation deal, Mr Assad says he is targeting al-Qaeda-linked factions in the area not covered by the agreement.

 Boris Johnson suggests the UK could strike Syria in response to Assad's attack on eastern Ghouta

The tide of Syrias war, which has just entered its eighth year, turned decisively in the governments favour after Russian military intervention in 2015.

The fighting has killed 500,000 people and driven more than half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes.As Yemen enters its third year of civil war, civilians are facing the prospect of another deadly outbreak of cholera, the UN childrens fund has warned.

Much more attention (needs to be paid to) the situation in Yemen. This has been rightly described as one of the worst humanitarian crises the world has ever known, Unicefs regional director for the Middle East and North Africa Geert Cappelaere told reporters in Amman on his return from a week-long trip to the decimated country.

Let us not fool ourselves. Cholera is going to come back, he said on Sunday. In a few weeks from now the rainy season will start again and without a huge and immediate investment, cholera will again hit Yemeni children.

 Devastation on the ground in Yemen displayed by International Rescue Committee in shocking video

Cholera  an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium vibrio cholera  can kill the vulnerable, such as the very old, young and otherwise sick in hours if fluids are not replaced.

More than 11 million children suffered from cholera and diptheria in 2017 thanks to the breakdown of Yemens healthcare and sanitation systems and difficulty importing vaccinations, Unicef said.

Unicef was crippled by months of negotiations with both sides for permission for an effective vaccination programme, Mr Cappelaere added.

Why Yemen's future threatens to destroy its past Show all 4 1 /4 Why Yemen's future threatens to destroy its past Why Yemen's future threatens to destroy its past Hugh McLeod Why Yemen's future threatens to destroy its past Hugh McLeod Why Yemen's future threatens to destroy its past Hugh McLeod Why Yemen's future threatens to destroy its past Hugh McLeod

In addition to the worst outbreak of the easily-treatable disease in modern history, aid organisations say Yemeni children are also killed or seriously injured at a rate of five a day thanks to fighting between government forces and Houthi rebels, as well as a Saudi-led bombing campaign on opposition areas.

We are using endless time, energy and money for issues that we should never have to negotiate. The lives of children should not be negotiable, he said.

None of the parties in this war have shown for a single second any respect to the sacred principle of the protection of children.

Recommended Saudi expulsion of thousands of Yemeni workers fuels civil war

The appeal from Unicef comes on the eve of the third anniversary of Yemens devastating civil war, which has left two thirds of the 28 million strong population dependent on aid to survive and eight million people on the brink of famine.

Since March 2015 Saudi Arabia and its regional partners have conducted an extensive bombing campaign on the Iran-backed Houthis in the capital Sanaa at the request of the exiled, internationally recognised Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

The Saudi economic strangulation, blockades on Yemens air and seaports preventing the import of food and medicine and the targeting of vital infrastructure such as roads and bridges  and in some cases civilian buildings such as hospitals, and funeral gatherings  have contributed to the dire situation.

 Jeremy Corbyn accuses UK of 'directing' war in Yemen

Western governments including the UK have been heavily criticised for selling weapons export licences to Saudi Arabia, which rights groups say are destined for use in Yemens war.

Also on Sunday, debris from a barrage of seven ballistic missiles fired at the Saudi capital Riyadh killed one civilian and injured two others, the first such death in the three-year-old conflict to date.

Rebel rockets are almost always intercepted and deflected by Saudi anti-missiles systems.

However, video shared online overnight appeared to show one missile veering off course and hitting a suburban neighbourhood.At first its a speck on the landscape, a barely tangible tangerine blur beyond tufts of alpine shrubs. I try not to get too excited. My first wolf sighting turned out to be a rock flecked with ginger moss  the perfect camouflage for the worlds rarest canid. This time, however, it seems to be the real deal. Its moving, at least.

Look, Eyob, our guide, whispers, as if the creature might hear us from 100 feet away. I roll down the car window and scan across boulders and bushes with my binoculars. Finally, I land on my target  a male Ethiopian wolf, slinking across the plateau. White-socked legs and a tail tipped in black contrast with the rich copper hue of his coat. He is strikingly beautiful  like an especially elegant fox.

There are fewer than 500 Ethiopian wolves remaining in the wild, with the majority found here on the Sanetti Plateau in Bale Mountains National Park. Its a long slog from the capital, Addis Ababa. Theres no airport, so the only option is a 200-mile or eight-hour drive. The route skims past the lakes of the Rift Valley, through villages with tuk-tuks and spearmint houses, and alongside endless fields of wheat and teff (used to make injera, the ubiquitous spongy flatbreads).

Its well worth the effort. The area is home to some of Ethiopias rarest and most fascinating wildlife. Endangered black-maned lions have been spotted in Harenna, a cloud forest carpeting the slopes below the plateau. Sage-like colobus monkeys stare behind snowy white beards, while tiny Bale monkeys hide among the bamboo.

There are fewer than 500 Ethiopian wolves in the wild (Ella Buchan)

At the heart of it all, Bale Mountain Lodge has chalets discreetly arranged around a forest clearing. My treehouse room gazes across moss-draped branches to Mount Gusharelle, plunging to a meadow where cows and donkeys graze by a trickling stream. Theres an embarrassment of beauty here, and the lodges owners aim to make it easier to discover. The wolves are the big draw, of course. But another spectacle fascinates me  the areas unique honey harvest. Tubular hives are handwoven with bamboo and smoked with beeswax, to better attract the queen, before being placed high in tree canopies, away from honey badgers. The lodge organises tours to witness the harvest, which happens around June and December. But you can have a guided walk to the hives at any time of year.

As the sun begins to dip, I follow beekeeper Said deeper into the forest. Fig trees and bushes of giant heather, clothed in velvety moss, twist their gnarly branches as if frozen mid-dance.

En route, Said stoops to gather handfuls of moss and lichen, wrapping the bundle with twine and lighting it to create a makeshift torch for smoking out the bees. Barefoot and equipped with a single rope, he shimmies around 20 feet up a huge Hagenia abyssinica tree to reach one of his hives, wafting his torch before reaching in to retrieve the honeycomb.

Bale Mountain Lodge has chalets discreetly arranged around a forest clearing

Generations have been gathering honey like that, lodge owner Guy Levene tells me later over a glass of hot wine by the fire pit. After coffee, which grows wild here, honey is the second biggest source of income for the 600 or so families who live within the forest. The abundance of endemic blossoming trees and flowers in this region produces complex, fragrant varieties. Levene is keen to help beekeepers make more money and possibly export the honey. In Rira, a village halfway between the lodge and the Sanetti Plateau, the Slow Food Foundation has founded a cooperative of local beekeepers, focusing on improving safety and quality.

The relationship between man and nature is complex here, and delicate. Rira is just outside the national park, yet other villages lie within its borders. Conservationists are working to help relocate families, concerned their presence is a threat to the wolves. The graceful creatures are already the most endangered of all African carnivores, at risk from diseases such as rabies and habitat encroachment. Agriculture and grazing animals have overtaken swaths of land, forcing the wolves to ever higher altitudes.

Despite their rarity, the wolves are pretty easy to spot on the open landscape of the Sanetti Plateau. When not hunting giant mole-rats, which are endemic and abundant here, the wolves doze among bouncy white heather. At this early hour, when a chilly mist still shimmers in the air, they are awake and on the hunt.

The park is home to some of Ethiopias rarest wildlife (Ella Buchan)

Further down the dirt path, a female emerges from her makeshift heather bed, ears pricked. The animals are even more majestic up close. She fixes us with bright amber eyes before dipping back behind the flowers. The wolves are retreating for their afternoon naps. Its our cue to leave.

We stop in Rira to try the local honey. Its a deep golden colour, fragrant and citrussy. Mopping up the syrup with ambasha flatbread, Eyob tells me about his friend Biniam, a conservationist dedicated to the wolves. In 2015, fire broke out on the mountainside and was spreading towards the plateau. Biniam fought to battle away the flames, staying when others ran for cover. The fire burnt out and the wolves survived. Biniam did not.

He sacrificed his life for the wolf, says Eyob. He always said he would die for them. They are such beautiful creatures.

Travel essentials

Getting there

Ethiopian Airlines flies daily from Heathrow to Addis Ababa from 573 return.

Bale Mountains National Park is around an eight-hour drive from Addis Ababa. Various tours including driver and guide can be booked with Dinknesh Ethiopia Tour.

Staying there

Accommodation at Bale Mountain Lodge starts from 140 per person, per night, on an all inclusive basis. One activity per day (for example walks to see the honey or visit local coffee-growing villages) is included. Wolf tours are also included, though you'll need to pay a driver (around 35).Head to the Hoxton Docks to join the famed daytime dance party crew Morning Gloryville to kick things off bright and early before breakfast at London City Airport. Flying out of City means you can start your day with a rave in East London, and youll be finishing your day raving on a beach in Mykonos.

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Wander the lanes of the Hora

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With its windmills on the overhead ridge (which were fully operational until the mid-Sixties) and Cycladic architecture along narrow lanes, the Hora (main town) of Mykonos is a joy to get lost in. This harmonious mishmash of white cubic adobe houses, cobblestone streets, whitewashed windmills and blue-domed churches makes a great beginners guide to Cycladic architecture. The most Instagrammed spot in town is the charmingly lopsided, four-chapels-in-one Paraportiani in Kastro, beyond the west jetty.

Coffee In Little Venice

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Alefkantra, or Little Venice, is named for its arcaded, balconied medieval houses looming over the waters edge, and these streets contain a large number of the towns independent boutiques and artsy cafes. The most charming spot for coffee is Kastros  order a side serving of amygdalota, a traditional almond sweet.

Go back in time at Lenas House

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This heritage house museum, right next to the Aegean Maritime Museum, offers an authentic taste of a Mykonian middle class family home of the 19th century. It hosts a collection of European and local furniture from the 19th century, and provides a fascinating glimpse of local social history.

Dive A Wreck

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Covering an area of 33 sq miles, Mykonos is one of the smallest of the Cycladic islands, yet it has a lengthy menu of adrenalin-spiking activities on offer. Dive Adventures at Paradise Beach is one of the oldest established PADI dive centres in Greece, and nearby dives include two wrecks, some caverns and various reefs.

Dine with the locals at To Maereio

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Locals flock to this homely restaurant to snack on louza (Cycladic ham), garlic mushrooms, kopanisti (fermented cheese dip) and chunks of bread, but more sophisticated fare such as pork tenderloin (psaronefri) and herby meatballs is on the menu as well. This Mykonian institution isn't really one for vegetarians, but for a meat-based hearty meal, the owners knock it out of the park.

Party on Paradise Beach

Alamy

Beach clubs, sultry sunset bars, glamorous hotel lounges, and world-renowned nightclubs luring big-name DJs  all flavours of fun are found here in Mykonos, the Aegeans party island. Paradise Beach is its premier party beach, offering watersports by day and clubbing on the adjacent headland after dark. In just over 12 hours, youve travelled from London to Mykonos, from dawn until dusk, and from party to party.

With a central location and check-in just 20 minutes before departure, youll have plenty of time to fit in a morning rave before you fly from London City Airport.

British Airways flies five times a week from London City Airport to Mykonos during the summer months. Find out more at ba.com/londoncitySeven hours after the last passenger boarded Qantas flight 10 at Heathrow, Dubai came into view.

Hitherto, an Australia-bound traveller on QF10 would be strapped in for landing at the UAE airport, followed by an hour of disconsolate duty-free shopping in the middle of the night while the plane was refuelled for the onward flight to Melbourne.

Instead, QF10 flew directly over Dubai Airport at 37,000 feet. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner would stay aloft for another 10 hours until it reached Perth, Western Australia.

Recommended First nonstop flight from Australia to UK lands after 17 hours

Sunday 25 March 2018 has entered the aviation record books as the day the aviation landscape between the UK and Australia changed.

Qantas has replaced the daily Airbus A380 SuperJumbo from Heathrow to Melbourne with a much smaller Boeing 787 Dreamliner and changed the flight plan.

Instead of refuelling in the Gulf, the plane flies direct to Western Australias capital, with an official distance of 9,009 miles.

It is the first nonstop link between the UK and Australia. Thanks to a 1.15pm departure and an arrival at 1pm local time next day, passengers can have lunch in London, dinner and breakfast at altitude and lunch beside the Indian Ocean.

The nonstop hop, scheduled to take 16 hours 45 minutes, is the culmination of almost a century of aviation between the UK and Australia. The first flight in 1919 took 28 days, 40 times longer than the new service.

The lunchtime departure of Qantas flight 10 was accompanied by celebrations at the gate at Heathrow, including someone dressed in a giant kangaroo suit.

All but a handful of the 236 seats on board were filled, which the airline hopes will long continue.

The length of the flight makes it an expensive operation. Even though the 787 is an efficient aircraft, a significant proportion of fuel is consumed carrying fuel for later in the flight. The crewing costs are also heavy. On shorter flights, the 787 operates with two pilots and 10 cabin crew. Because of the long flying time, two extra pilots and two additional cabin crew are carried to ensure all the personnel get some rest.

Last call: The departure screen at Heathrow for the first nonstop passenger flight to Australia (Simon Calder)

The route of the maiden flight initially took the aircraft east over Belgium, Germany, Austria and Romania, then south-east across the Black Sea, Turkey and Iran before reaching the Gulf. After crossing the UAE and a corner of Oman, the rest of the journey was over the Indian Ocean.

The flight arrived in Perth 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

QF10, and its inbound counterpart QF9, is not quite the longest passenger flight in the world. Qatar Airways' link between Doha and Auckland covers 9,025 miles, 16 more than the Heathrow-Perth run.

Passengers on the maiden flight were given a certificate signed by the Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, entitling them to membership of the rare and elevated order of the nonstop hop.

Competition is intense between the UK and Australia, and Qantas now has a unique product between London and Perth. British Airways has expressed no interest in joining the Australian carrier on the route.

The giant Gulf airlines - Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways - will watch the loads and fares with a keen interest. They are in the hub-and-spoke business, the antithesis of the new point-to-point link. Between them, they carry about two-thirds of the traffic between the UK and Perth.

UK-Australia nonstop: record-breaking 17 hour flight Show all 10 1 /10 UK-Australia nonstop: record-breaking 17 hour flight UK-Australia nonstop: record-breaking 17 hour flight The Qantas flight is the first nonstop UK to Australia passenger route Qantas UK-Australia nonstop: record-breaking 17 hour flight Welcome party: the scene at Heathrow Terminal 3 greeting the first non-stop passengers from Australia to Britain Simon Calder UK-Australia nonstop: record-breaking 17 hour flight Last call: departure screen at Heathrow for the first nonstop passenger flight to Australia Simon Calder UK-Australia nonstop: record-breaking 17 hour flight Qantas' Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner used for the historic flight Qantas UK-Australia nonstop: record-breaking 17 hour flight Travel appetite: Inflight breakfast on London-Perth nonstop flight Simon Calder UK-Australia nonstop: record-breaking 17 hour flight Globe shrinking: Moving map on Qantas flight 10 Simon Calder UK-Australia nonstop: record-breaking 17 hour flight World beater: The first London-Perth nonstop flight at dawn over the Indian Ocean Simon Calder UK-Australia nonstop: record-breaking 17 hour flight Chicken or ...? Beef option for dinner on flight QF10 Simon Calder UK-Australia nonstop: record-breaking 17 hour flight Long haul: Qantas Boeing 787 just arrived at Perth from London Simon Calder UK-Australia nonstop: record-breaking 17 hour flight Land fall: Simon Calder (left) grabs a selfie with two didgeridoo players who greeted the maiden flight from London Perth Airport

But the numbers involved on the daily Qantas flight each way are just a drop in the intercontinental aviation ocean: fewer than 500 a day.

In addition, the Gulf carriers enable passengers to reach any of the big Australian state capitals - Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane - cities with just one stop from Gatwick, Heathrow, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh, and soon from Stansted and Cardiff.

But Qantas does not intend to stop at a single nonstop. Before QF10 departed, Mr Joyce told The Independent that he expects to launch a nonstop London-Sydney link in 2022. Thats when we think Boeing and Airbus will have an aircraft that can do the operation, and were working closely with them to get the aircraft there.

The flying time from London to Sydney will be three hours longer than the new journey to Perth.Carles Puigdemont organised a summit soon after fleeing to Belgium  ahead of his arrest and appearance before a Madrid court on charges of treason  to plan how he can return to Catalonia and take up his position as the head of Europes newest state.

Those attending went to the Ghent opera house for a performance of the Duke of Alba before the meeting got under way. But any inspiration and hope Puigdemont and his advisors may have drawn from the tale of the 16th Century Spanish generals brutal reign in Flanders ending ultimately in defeat must now be fading away.

The leader of the Catalan separatists is under arrest in Germany on an international warrant issued by a Madrid court for alleged sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds  charges which carry a possible sentence of 25 years imprisonment. He has already announced that he had abandoned plans to return to the presidency of the Catalan regional parliament, let alone lead an independent nation.

Warrants have also been issued against other Catalan politicians who escaped Spain  Clara Ponsati, who is in Scotland teaching at the University of St Andrews, Lluis Puig, Meritxell Serret and Toni Comin, who went to Belgium with Puigdemont, and Marta Rovira and Anna Gabriel, who fled to Switzerland. Nine others, including Oriol Junqueras and Jordi Turull, a candidate for the Catalan presidency, remain in Spanish prisons.

Catalan pro-unity demonstration  in pictures Show all 6 1 /6 Catalan pro-unity demonstration  in pictures Catalan pro-unity demonstration  in pictures Pro-unity supporters take part in a demonstration in central Barcelona. Hundreds of thousands of Catalans took to the streets of Barcelona on Sunday to call for their region to remain part of Spain, two days after regional lawmakers exacerbated a political crisis by voting for the wealthy region to secede Reuters/Jon Nazca Catalan pro-unity demonstration  in pictures A woman with the Senera and Spanish flags painted on her face shouts slogans as she takes part in a rally against Catalonia's declaration of independence, in Barcelona AP Photo/Gonzalo Arroyo Catalan pro-unity demonstration  in pictures Thousands of pro-unity protesters gather in Barcelona, two days after the Catalan parliament voted to split from Spain Jeff J Mitchell/Gett Catalan pro-unity demonstration  in pictures People support a pro-unity demonstration from their balconies in central Barcelona Reuters/Rafael Marchante Catalan pro-unity demonstration  in pictures Pro-unity supporters take part in a demonstration in central Barcelona Reuters/Yves Herman Catalan pro-unity demonstration  in pictures Protesters wave Spanish flags and carry banners during a pro-unity demonstration on in Barcelona Jack Taylor/Getty

Just four months after two elections and an independence referendum, alarm over the breakup of Spain, fracturing the European Union, and claims of foreign (inevitably Russian) interference in the Catalan crisis, it is claimed, is over with the government of Mariano Rajoy holding the whip hand.

The separatist parties  having between them won the majority of the seats in the last election in December  have failed to form a regional government because, say critics, of their traditional and chronic disunity and infighting. Even Puigdemonts declaration that he would form a government in exile, a fairly meaningless concept at the outset, is now likely to come to nothing in the short term.

Spanish unionists are loudly declaring victory. The fight of the coup plotters has come to an end, declared Albert Rivera, the head of the centre-right Citizens Party. There can be no impunity for those who try to destroy European democracy, flout democratic laws, destroy peoples coexistence and misuse public funds.

They should not crow too soon. The hardline stance of Madrid has helped buttress the separatist cause in the recent past, just when it looked to be fraying.

I remember the disillusionment on the Barcelona streets on the day Puigdemont, after repeatedly assuring that he would be there to lead Catalonia as president in the struggle which lay ahead, fled to Belgium. The Rajoy government could, at that stage, have offered sympathy and reconciliation to the Catalans, aspired to the moral high ground. Instead, it took the punitive path, refusing bail and jailing those Catalan leaders who had not fled abroad, but had turned up abiding by the law to answer the charges against them in Madrid courts.

 Disputed Catalan President Carles Puigdemont claims he is being treated like a paedophile

The resultant outrage in Catalonia to what was seen as acts of vindictiveness undoubtedly strengthened the nationalist cause. There had been a similar boost when the Guardia Civil, sent in by Madrid on the day of the referendum called by the separatists, laid into the public, firefighters and even members of the local police force. Time and again I came across people, during the election which followed, who wanted to stress that they were going to cast their vote for the separatists in protest at brutal acts which brought back grim memories of Francos times.

There have been violent clashes in Barcelona and other Catalan cities after Puigdemonts arrest and demonstrations are set to continue. There is the very real risk that the separatists, seeing their leaders incarcerated, may turn towards violence, with political parties losing influence to extremists.

Puigdemont is due to appear before a German court. The German authorities have 60 days to decide whether to extradite him to Spain, the period reduced to 10 days if he surrenders to face prosecution.

There is, however, no absolute certainty that Germany will extradite Puigdemont. The Spanish government withdrew an international warrant when he was in Belgium because some of the charges against him were not compatible with the Belgian criminal code. Germany will only agree to extradite if there is similar compatibility with German law on the charges. One immediate sticking point is that there is no general offence of rebellion in the German code and one can only be found guilty of high treason if there is use or threat of force. Puigdemonts lawyers can argue that only violent force used during the independent referendum came from the Spanish state.

It should also be remembered that the Catalan independence movement is not without sympathy in a Europe going through transition and the rise of powerful regional blocs within member states.

In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, speaking about the warrant issued against Ponsati, reiterated her governments support for the Catalan people to determine their own future stressing the fact that our justice system is legally obliged to follow due process in the determination of extradition requests does not change that view. In Germany the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper called Puigdemont the countrys first political prisoner and warned that the arrest  which was not smart  may unify Catalan secessionists and drag the European Union into bitter Spanish internal politics.

It is highly unlikely that Puigdemont will be leading his supporters back in Catalonia anytime soon. But there is a long while to go yet before the fat lady sings and the dreams of Catalan independence are over.Jeremy Corbyn is right. Labours antisemitism problem is indeed confined to what he calls pockets within the party.

Those on the left of politics who lack the intellectual capacity to prevent their pro-Palestine worldview tipping over into the racist abuse of Jewish people are few in number.

The deranged opinion that, by virtue of a handful of historically influential financiers being of Jewish ethnicity, the world is therefore controlled by a Jewish master race  there are simply not enough people within Labour who are thick enough to take that to the mainstream.

These views exist in a few Facebook groups. And before Facebook, they existed in the form of pub or coffee shop conversations between strange, socially shunned activists for leftist political entities with tenuous links to Labour.

But the problem is that, look into these pockets, pockets that have long been there, and there you will find Jeremy Corbyn, claiming to be looking the other way.

Look into a Facebook group called The Labour Party Supporter, where there are outrageous and unforgivable posts about Israel secretly harvesting human organs. Or a cartoon of a fat mother pig by the name of Rothschild Bank at whose teats are suckling MI5, the CIA, Isis and al-Qaeda. Jeremy Corbyn, is a member of this group. Just as he was a member of another, where, in 2012, he defended a clearly antisemitic east London mural on the grounds of free speech.

Guilt by association is a standard political attack method and it is not always fair. Conflating someones views with others they have shared a platform with or even shared a Facebook group with is very often a cheap tactic.

Judging a person by which Facebook groups they are in is absurd. A cursory look at my own would reveal a fascination with Raef Bjayou, a 2008 candidate on The Apprentice, that year presumably being the last time I ever joined or left one.

Corbyns standard response for his proximity to people and opinions conventionally understood as appalling, is that he has spent 30-odd hitherto unnoticed years in Parliament operating as some kind of freelance diplomat. Seeking to bring about peace in the Middle East or Northern Ireland by way of cups of tea in Westminster with representatives from the Hamas and Hezbollah and the IRA. That all problems can be solved through dialogue, and that as a consequence no one can be too unpalatable to speak to.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 23 September 2021 Gabriella, the seven year old daughter of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, joins in a game on a giant snakes and ladders board in Parliament Square, to show the ups and downs of her mothers case to mark the 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran AP UK news in pictures 22 September 2021 A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London EPA UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA 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

But he must face down an extremely difficult problem. Labours mad hard left are emboldened by having a man they view as one of their own in charge. For years, decades, he has been right there with them, not saying or doing the things they do, but just there. At every mass rally he has gathered over the last few tumultuous years, there will always be at least one Palestine flag in the crowd, with an anti-Zionist message.

The reason Jewish leaders have issued furious statements about Jeremy Corbyn and will march on Westminster on Monday afternoon is because, they say, he has not done enough to stamp out antisemitism in Labour.

It is, by the way, two and a half years since Jeremy Corbyns Facebook comment about the east London mural was first reported by the Jewish Chronicle. It was written about in November 2015, without summoning forth the masses to the streets. That it has taken off now is a consequence of the Jewish MP Luciana Berger complaining about it to the leaders office, and publicising her complaint on social media. Perhaps we are all just much angrier now, than in those pre-Brexit, pre-Trump days.

Is it Jeremy Corbyns fault that those who have leapt to his defence, do so in a fashion that he may very well not wish to be defended? Ms Bergers actions are dismissed as politically motivated. A hashtag is popularised on Twitter #PredictTheNextCorbynSmear, in which his supporters turn this antisemitic anger, which Corbyn himself appears to be genuinely upset and angered by, into a joke.

Jackie Walker, who was once vice-chair of Momentum, the organisation that has essentially twice propelled Corbyn to massive leadership election victories, has been suspended from the Labour Party over antisemitism claims on two occasions. The first time followed her remark that Jews were the chief financiers of the slave trade; the second was in response to her claim that Holocaust Memorial Day didnt commemorate victims of other genocides (it does).

She, we are now told, will be attending a counter-demo on Monday night, in protest at the antisemitism protest.

The comparison between Trump and Corbyn is often made: the populist style, the delegitimising of mainstream media, the willing army of social media attack dogs. It is unfair. One man is a reprehensible racist and the other is not, and that should be enough to steer clear of glib comparison. But Corbyn is faced with a challenge Donald Trump would not and could not meet: to convince his own keyboard warriors to desist. His challenge is not just to cross the road, but to shut down the side of the street on which he used to walk.The decision to throw out more than 100 Russians working under diplomatic accreditation by 21 countries is the largest such expulsion since the end of the Cold War, and plunges relations between the Kremlin and the West into one of the worst state in recent history.

Russia denounced the provocation, and announced that it will retaliate with expulsions of its own. But the attempted assassination of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter  if indeed it was ordered by Moscow  is proving a very costly affair for Vladimir Putin.

The show of solidarity with Britain has been quite remarkable. Some of the countries, like the Baltic States and Poland, were expected to show their traditional antipathy towards Russia, but the actions of Germany, France and Italy demonstrate the level of disquiet over Russia allegedly carrying out the first nerve agent attack in Europe since the Second World War.

The most surprising punitive move, however, has come from the US, which accounts for the bulk of those expelled: 60.

This is highly significant on a number of levels. Donald Trump had to be almost dragged to make an initial statement condemning the attack, and had hardly said anything subsequently on the matter.

The US President, who is quick to criticise people across the world at a drop of a hat, had never said anything negative about Mr Putin since he got to the White House, and did not do so on this occasion either.

Instead, Mr Trump ignored his advisers to congratulate the Russian President on his election victory, while failing to mention the poison attack during the call.

Mr Trump remains, of course, under investigation for his links with Russia and the Kremlins interference in the election which brought him to power. And there is, so far, resounding Twitter silence from him about the expulsions.

The US State Department, however, was unequivocal in its condemnation, calling the attack an outrageous violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and breach of international law.

The department said: On 4 March, Russia used a military grade nerve agent to murder a British citizen and his daughter in Salisbury. The attack on our ally the United Kingdom put countless innocent lives at risk and resulted in serious injury to three people, including a police officer.

The US is expelling 48 diplomats at the embassy in Washington and 12 more at the UN in New York. In addition, it has also ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle. There have been repeated warnings from the American security and intelligence agencies that Moscow will seek to interfere in the coming mid-term elections, and there has long been concern about Russian presence in Seattle with Boeing the aerospace firm and a submarine base both close by.

France and Germany have expelled four diplomats each, and Italy two. These are significant gestures after initial scepticism about Russias involvement by all three countries.

When the Elysee was asked what steps it will take against Russia after Theresa May accused Moscow of being responsible for the Salisbury poisoning, Benjamin Griveaux, spokesman for Emmanuel Macron, was almost withering: We dont do fantasy politics. Once the elements are proven, then the time will come for decisions to be made, he said.

In Italy, Matteo Salvini, who may become the next prime minister following the recent election, responded to the allegations of Moscows involvement by suggesting we see and hear a lot of fake news and that in 2018 you dont go around poisoning people.

The German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, asked for more clarification from London and suggested that what happened was essentially a bilateral issue between Russia and Britain.

It remains to be seen what other punitive steps the West is willing to take. The European Council President, Donald Tusk, held that additional measures including further expulsion are not excluded in coming days, weeks.

One obvious and effective step would be for Mr Macron to cancel his planned visit to Russia due to take place in two months time. That would certainly be a statement of disapproval to President Putin.

Germany, meanwhile, can pull out of its involvement with Russia in a pipeline project which will take Russian gas to Germany. Berlin maintains that the 10bn (8.75bn) Nord Stream 2, will buttress Europes energy security by ensuring steady gas supplies at a time when the continents energy resources are dwindling.

But Poland and eastern European states are deeply concerned it will give Moscow great and dangerous strategic leverage over Europe.

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 also await the Russian reaction. When Barack Obama kicked out 35 Russian diplomats in reaction to Moscows election meddling, Michael Flynn, then national security advisor to the incoming President Trump, is said to have asked the Russians to sit tight: the new administration will put matters right.

Mr Putin, initially at least, did so, leading to Mr Trump reportedly endorsing the comment that Russias leader was the only adult in the room.

Mr Flynn has now gone, helping Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Mr Trump after having pleaded guilty to the charge of lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts.

But what Mr Putin and Mr Trump, the two most powerful men in the world, do next will play a large part in shaping this unfolding crisis.Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 6 Vote(s) - 5 Average

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Page: 1 2 3 4 switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision) LopDude

 Warning level 1200% 

User ID: kaput

03-26-2018 07:55 AM



Posts: 19,670









Post: #1 switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

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Switzerland hasn't had a mass shooting since 2001, when a man stormed the local parliament in Zug, killing 14 people and then himself.



The country has about 2 million privately owned guns in a nation of 8.3 million people. In 2016, the country had 47 homicides with firearms. The country's overall murder rate is near zero.



The National Rifle Association often points to Switzerland to argue that more rules on gun ownership aren't necessary. In 2016, the NRA said on its blog that the European country had one of the lowest murder rates in the world while still having millions of privately owned guns and a few hunting weapons that don't even require a permit.



But the Swiss have some specific rules and regulations for gun use.



https://www.sfgate.com/technology/busine...709383.php Let us honor the Lop fallen-never forget them Let us honor the Lop fallen-never forget them Switzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership  here's why it doesn't have mass shootingsSwitzerland hasn't had a mass shooting since 2001, when a man stormed the local parliament in Zug, killing 14 people and then himself.The country has about 2 million privately owned guns in a nation of 8.3 million people. In 2016, the country had 47 homicides with firearms. The country's overall murder rate is near zero.The National Rifle Association often points to Switzerland to argue that more rules on gun ownership aren't necessary. In 2016, the NRA said on its blog that the European country had one of the lowest murder rates in the world while still having millions of privately owned guns and a few hunting weapons that don't even require a permit.But the Swiss have some specific rules and regulations for gun use. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 08:00 AM











Post: #2 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

i am personally acquainted with both nationalities and imho they might as well be different species .

read into that what you will . LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 08:08 AM











Post: #3 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

Ah, Montreux. Beautiful. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 09:37 AM











Post: #4 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

Americans are not the Swiss, they are not the Japanese, and they are not the British, you can not compare different cultures to each other and pretend it is a valid comparison as that will not get you to the point of finding out/fixing what is causing the issues plaguing the USA.



Personally as an outsider I would put my finger on the divisive nature of US society at the moment.. and messing with existing gun laws seems as though that will only make that divisiveness worse not better..



The Swiss for example are open enough in their debates to discuss halting immigration, or stopping building mosques without it turning into a major p*ssing match, the Japanese have built up a code, which in turn causes other issues like suicide as a result, the British just end up talking about the weather, having sex and getting drunk..



So one talks about issues, another represses issues and the last just gets drunk..



Americans can't suddenly become Swiss, British or Japanese so you'll have to find an answer that is a solution for American culture that does not stoke the tensions that already exist.. It is a fine line for any country to walk, but pretending you can cut a slice of another culture and graft it onto American culture is not really a workable solution. Vlad

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 10:25 AM











Post: #5 RE: switzerland vs the unitved states (gun violence comparision)





An African tribe that has not evolved for hundreds of years and physically dismantle and sell Albinos as item's is equal to a Western mind.



In China this berkeley evil camouflaged as identity politics and affirmative actions meet proper resistance.



Eugenics will be huge in due time.

My Beloved Care will one day resurface without the bug that killed Her and the steroid lover that could not understand f*cking around ment death.



She was extremely resourceful but the manic side messed Her up so the comment from my Friend that intro me to Her long time ago comes to mind.



Never ever give that Woman a gun, little did he know She had endless supplies of them.



She lacked impulse control even if brilliant.

Was a racist as many Chinese are, and even if open to many things She never f**ked downwards like progressive liberals and activists want White Females to embrace.



Bring mexicans and blacks and arabs together with some pakistani as topping on the multicultural cake and even Switzerland will tumble. But we are supposed to be equal in the progressive liberal world viewAn African tribe that has not evolved for hundreds of years and physically dismantle and sell Albinos as item's is equal to a Western mind.In China this berkeley evil camouflaged as identity politics and affirmative actions meet proper resistance.Eugenics will be huge in due time.My Beloved Care will one day resurface without the bug that killed Her and the steroid lover that could not understand f*cking around ment death.She was extremely resourceful but the manic side messed Her up so the comment from my Friend that intro me to Her long time ago comes to mind.Never ever give that Woman a gun, little did he know She had endless supplies of them.She lacked impulse control even if brilliant.Was a racist as many Chinese are, and even if open to many things She never f**ked downwards like progressive liberals and activists want White Females to embrace.Bring mexicans and blacks and arabs together with some pakistani as topping on the multicultural cake and even Switzerland will tumble. Vlad

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 10:58 AM











Post: #6 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

I am sceptical towards reengineering but most people would benefit from it.



Lived parts of my life's under severe stress and death lurking all around.

Observed in a series it might seem exiting and all but it has permanently f**ked up my Life.



If we all get so peaceful no drama exists there is always Africa, if that too got perfect I would worry though.



Guns give Freedom but also horrors if used wrongly.



I have a Human hog that is a very potent gun against muslim rape gangs, but with thousands arriving by the month it's like fighting windmills. Richard Eldritch

Hussar!

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 11:10 AM



Posts: 2,556









Post: #7 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

At one point Switzerland was populated by vicious mountain tribes, a couple of thousand years later it's full of rich tax exiles who like abit of skiing.

America is only a couple of hundred years old and full of vicious tribes. in a few thousand years it could be full of rich tax exiles who also like a bit of skiing. "Tricky Dicky Ritchy Eldrich is indeed an asshole. You should commit yourself to a monastery and live out your dwindling days milking goats and making foul smelling cheese in some dank basement, wot." LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 11:50 AM











Post: #8 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

Vlad Wrote: (03-26-2018 10:58 AM) I am sceptical towards reengineering but most people would benefit from it.



Lived parts of my life's under severe stress and death lurking all around.

Observed in a series it might seem exiting and all but it has permanently f**ked up my Life.



If we all get so peaceful no drama exists there is always Africa, if that too got perfect I would worry though.



Guns give Freedom but also horrors if used wrongly.



I have a Human hog that is a very potent gun against muslim rape gangs, but with thousands arriving by the month it's like fighting windmills.

put someone under stress today and they will have ADHD by the morning................. and then they will have someone telling them how things are so rosey in this beautiful world we live in. put someone under stress today and they will have ADHD by the morning................. and then they will have someone telling them how things are so rosey in this beautiful world we live in. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 11:52 AM











Post: #9 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

um its also not as multicultural as us.





doesn't take on as many immigrants per year as us





has no where near the amount of legal people verse illegal people



doesn't have nearly the amount of gangs we have.



plus its cia isn't selling weapons and drugs back to the population to keep crime going ^^



and half if not all these f*cking gun psyops are obvious f*cking frauds to anyone over 80 iq. Vlad

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 11:58 AM











Post: #10 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

I not like to drink and ski downhill for a reason so avoid Swiss mountain's.

Alcohol everywhere and endless posing.



It's my problem though since an alcoholic that enjoy a bit of off piste skiing, so my issues should not limit others Freedom.



Some can drink and ski carefully I can't.

It's a fantastic place if visit the remote areas, when older I plan to return as with Bhutan.



My paranoia factor drains me when in pc sjw lands full of imported clan and tribal beard apes.



I got better impulse control then my Beloved Care though, so can stand in line for a pub visit and see "refugees" molest young girls.



It would not help anyone if I go Wild, taking on a gang and humiliate them would expose me and wake up the beast that is progressive liberal media machine.



So I operate in the dark, and trust few since been tatted on by even real Life Friends when was into robbing banks.



In fact I suspect especially one was bi and it made him weak since police offered me a deal I would not need if he kept silent.

So my sentence was mild sort off, since only confessed to the little tests I did. Vlad

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 12:01 PM











Post: #11 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-26-2018 11:50 AM) Vlad Wrote: (03-26-2018 10:58 AM) I am sceptical towards reengineering but most people would benefit from it.



Lived parts of my life's under severe stress and death lurking all around.

Observed in a series it might seem exiting and all but it has permanently f**ked up my Life.



If we all get so peaceful no drama exists there is always Africa, if that too got perfect I would worry though.



Guns give Freedom but also horrors if used wrongly.



I have a Human hog that is a very potent gun against muslim rape gangs, but with thousands arriving by the month it's like fighting windmills.

put someone under stress today and they will have ADHD by the morning................. and then they will have someone telling them how things are so rosey in this beautiful world we live in.

Yeah I've noticed sort of a feminist perspective in many young males lately.

Western mostly. Yeah I've noticed sort of a feminist perspective in many young males lately.Western mostly. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 12:31 PM











Post: #12 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

LopDude Wrote: (03-26-2018 07:55 AM) Switzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership  here's why it doesn't have mass shootings



Switzerland hasn't had a mass shooting since 2001, when a man stormed the local parliament in Zug, killing 14 people and then himself.



The country has about 2 million privately owned guns in a nation of 8.3 million people. In 2016, the country had 47 homicides with firearms. The country's overall murder rate is near zero.

No, Switerland's intentional homicide rate is 0.69 per 100,000 which is in the typical range for western European nations.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co...icide_rate No, Switerland's intentional homicide rate is 0.69 per 100,000 which is in the typical range for western European nations. idiotchild

Registered User

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 12:40 PM



Posts: 359









Post: #13 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

My partner is swiss. That is the only reason I am still alive and we are a couple. He is completely rational in all respect. I, on the other hand....have held a gun to a man's head and not shot him, but I really really wanted to. Vlad

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 01:00 PM











Post: #14 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

idiotchild Wrote: (03-26-2018 12:40 PM) My partner is swiss. That is the only reason I am still alive and we are a couple. He is completely rational in all respect. I, on the other hand....have held a gun to a man's head and not shot him, but I really really wanted to.

My Beloved Care tried to stab me once over doing the dishes no joking.

She felt a knife better odds since the berretta with silence was with Applew ha ha.



I noticed the reflection in the tv screen so asked Her if ready to die.



She panicked and ran to the bedroom, hided under the bed.

She extremely bright so still ponder if a test though!

After that She took me up North to meet Her Father most of all.



A gun to my mouth not stop me, since fast but what Then?

Sometimes doing what She did with me a wise move.



I sort off trusted Her after that, and deliverd what She wanted.

Her Apple just for Her.



The years we had was lifetimes of contrasts.

Misery during the tsunami and moments when She connected with an abuced beach Horse.



Then same day She on fire since went playing pool with Wife a Friend.

Cost me a lot of money since those papers She tear apart worth a lot to put it mildly.



Sensitive She suffered from it badly, I cheated on Her She said in my mind.



Yes so I did, but I was in control so went back when the alarm went off inside my head.



And yes my Queen was doom angry and in despair. My Beloved Care tried to stab me once over doing the dishes no joking.She felt a knife better odds since the berretta with silence was with Applew ha ha.I noticed the reflection in the tv screen so asked Her if ready to die.She panicked and ran to the bedroom, hided under the bed.She extremely bright so still ponder if a test though!After that She took me up North to meet Her Father most of all.A gun to my mouth not stop me, since fast but what Then?Sometimes doing what She did with me a wise move.I sort off trusted Her after that, and deliverd what She wanted.Her Apple just for Her.The years we had was lifetimes of contrasts.Misery during the tsunami and moments when She connected with an abuced beach Horse.Then same day She on fire since went playing pool with Wife a Friend.Cost me a lot of money since those papers She tear apart worth a lot to put it mildly.Sensitive She suffered from it badly, I cheated on Her She said in my mind.Yes so I did, but I was in control so went back when the alarm went off inside my head.And yes my Queen was doom angry and in despair. James

Registered User

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 01:06 PM



Posts: 8,418









Post: #15 RE: switzerland vs the united states (gun violence comparision)

Richard Eldritch Wrote: (03-26-2018 11:10 AM) At one point Switzerland was populated by vicious mountain tribes, a couple of thousand years later it's full of rich tax exiles who like abit of skiing.

America is only a couple of hundred years old and full of vicious tribes. in a few thousand years it could be full of rich tax exiles who also like a bit of skiing.

We can go when we want to

Night is young and so am I

And we can dress real neat

From our hats to our feet

And surprise 'em with the victory cry



- Men Without Hats, Wonderful Canadian Pop ensemble from late 70's, early 80's Advertisement

















Temperatures are set to plummet over the course of the week and forecasters have warned there is a chance of hill snow in high altitude areas by Good Friday.

Conditions will turn "noticeably colder" as the week progresses, Met Office spokesman John West told The Independent.

However, he added that it was unlikely that the "Beast from the East" will return and it was also improbable that the "screaming easterlies" that brought widespread snow to the UK at at the start of the month, would reappear.

However, the Met Office nonetheless warned that "it is going to feel cold with a risk of snow in some places, particularly across higher ground in the northeast of the UK.

"Further ahead, the weather may become more settled across northern parts for a time, but southern parts are still likely to see showers or longer spells of rain at times."

A complex low pressure system driving in cold winds from the Atlantic is currently creating "a degree of uncertainty" about Britain's prospects over the coming days, Mr West said.

Britain will be mostly dry and mild on Monday, with a chance of fog and frost in some areas, before rain sweeps in across Ireland and drenches much of the country overnight.

"This does set the scene for an unsettled second half of the week with low pressure very much in charge in our neck of the woods," said Met Office forecaster Steven Keates.

Mini beast from the East hits the UK Show all 19 1 /19 Mini beast from the East hits the UK Mini beast from the East hits the UK Cars sit covered in snow in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. PA Mini beast from the East hits the UK Horses are covered in snow on the hills surrounding Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. PA Mini beast from the East hits the UK A man digs a Landrover out of a snow drift in Coalville. Reuters Mini beast from the East hits the UK A man pulls a child along in a sledge in Salisbury. PA Mini beast from the East hits the UK A stranded coach on Blackstone Edge near Littleborough in Greater Manchester. PA Mini beast from the East hits the UK Scottie Dog Douglas in the snow in Glasgow. PA Mini beast from the East hits the UK A man walks down a hill on the Island of Portland during a weather front that has been dubbed the 'mini beast from the East'. The Met Office has issued amber weather warnings for many parts of the country as another cold weather front blows in from the east bringing snow, ice and temporary blizzard conditions. Getty Mini beast from the East hits the UK A woman walks through the snow in the village of Marsden, east of Manchester. AFP Mini beast from the East hits the UK Gardner Chris Orton tends to the Crocus garden at Wallington Hall in Northumberland. PA Mini beast from the East hits the UK A snow-covered tent covering a bench at The Maltings shopping centre in Sailsbury where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found collapsed two weeks ago. PA Mini beast from the East hits the UK Staff from Whatton Manor Stud in the Vale of Belvoir. PA Mini beast from the East hits the UK A man pushes his bicycle past cars stuck in the snow in Coalville, Britain. Reuters Mini beast from the East hits the UK Snow covers the woodland at the National Trust's Dunham Massey Park. Getty Mini beast from the East hits the UK Horses are covered in snow on the hills surrounding Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. PA Mini beast from the East hits the UK Teams walk out during a snow shower ahead of the match between Birmingham and Hull. Rex Features Mini beast from the East hits the UK Fans make their way through a Snow shower to Molineux Stadium ahead of the Sky Bet Championship match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burton Albion. PA Mini beast from the East hits the UK A man runs as snow falls in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park. Getty Mini beast from the East hits the UK Staff at Colchester United do all they can to ensure the match against Yeovil Town goes ahead after heavy snow fell. Rex Mini beast from the East hits the UK A woman pushes a shopping trolley in the snow PA

We run the risk of drawing in some cold easterly winds primarily into the far north of the country.

He added that there was "some uncertainty as to how far south this sinks but... warmth in the run-up to Easter will be somewhat at a premium.A former Boyzone star has told a court of his life with his crazy ex-girlfriend before she allegedly murdered her French nanny.

Mark Walton, who created the Irish boy band in 1993, flew in from Los Angeles to give evidence at the Old Bailey trial of fashion designer Sabrina Kouider.

The 35-year-old mother and her partner Ouissem Medouni, 40, are accused of murdering au pair Sophie Lionnet and throwing her body on a bonfire at their home in Wimbledon, south west London.

The couple had allegedly tortured the shy 21-year-old into confessing to being in league with Mr Walton.

A witness, who cannot be identified, described how she screamed and splashed in the bath as Kouider demanded she told the truth two days before her body was found.

Mr Walton said the first he knew of Miss Lionnet was when murder squad detectives contacted him in September last year.

He said Kouider had been abusive and exhibited a manipulative and controlling nature with a calculating streak.

He had previously described her as a really gentle, sweet, loving person who could become quite scary in seconds.

Expand Close French nanny Sophie Lionnet (Metropolitan Police/PA) / Facebook

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He told jurors: Sabrina shared some stories from her past.

I guess knowing that, I felt it brought us closer together at times, but it was turbulent, probably the most turbulent relationship I had ever been in.

She would go from softly spoken French accent then she would flip, get very angry, very loud and just not care where we were.

She would just go crazy over something trivial.

The wealthy music mogul supported her financially through the highs and lows of his successful career.

After leaving Boyzone, he found success with Fifth Avenue and more recently as a judge on Vietnam Pop Idol.

The softly-spoken Irishman said he met Kouider in a NatWest bank in Notting Hill in 2011 and hit it off straight away.

He said: I was in love. She was my life then so

He gave her thousands of pounds a month, paid for nannies and even covered 12,800 in rent after she had left him, the court heard.

Kouider fired her nannies, accusing them of stealing or being attracted to her friendly boyfriend, the court heard.

The musician said they lived together for two years in Queensway, London, before she disappeared and they split up.

On Kouiders outlandish accusations of a conspiracy between Mr Walton and the victim, prosecutor Richard Horwell QC said: Have you ever been party to a plot to drug the people in the Wimbledon flat and whilst unconscious sexually abuse the occupants?

Mr Walton said: Absolutely not.

Orlando Pownall QC, for Medouni, said: You must have asked yourself many times where did it go wrong?

While they were together, Kouider would fly into a rage, even shouting in Oxford Street the Boyzones broken  hes got no money as they shopped together, the court was told.

In 2012, police had been called a number of times over various accusations, including that he had photos of another woman on his phone, jurors heard.

Her complaints ranged for mistreating a cat, walking into the house with muddy shoes and stopping her from seeing friends.

After Mr Walton stopped paying her rent in 2014, she took out a non-molestation order claiming harassment, the court heard.

She also rang his mother in Dublin, contacted his business partners and created a fake Facebook page accusing him of being a paedophile, he said.

Mr Walton told jurors: I was broken, emotionally broken but I loved her.

Icah Peart QC, for Kouider, suggested Mr Walton was a very wealthy man, even being described as a billionaire in one media report.

Mr Walton denied he was that rich, but added: Im doing okay.

The court has heard there is no truth in any of the accusations against him.

Kouider and Medouni have admitted perverting the course of justice but deny murder.An ex-Boyzone pop star has told jurors of the alleged abuse he suffered at the hands of a manipulative ex-girlfriend accused of murdering her French nanny.

Pop Idol Vietnam judge Mark Walton flew in from Los Angeles to give evidence at the Old Bailey trial of fashion designer Sabrina Kouider.

The 35-year-old mother and her partner Ouissem Medouni, 40, are accused of murdering au pair Sophie Lionnet and throwing her body on a bonfire at their home in Wimbledon, south west London.

The couple had allegedly tortured the 21-year-old into confessing to being in league with Mr Walton in connection with drugs and abuse at the household.

But Mr Walton said the first he knew of Miss Lionnet was when murder squad detectives contacted him in September last year.

He told how Kouider had been abusive and exhibited a manipulative and controlling nature with a calculating streak.

He had previously described her as a really gentle, sweet, loving person who could become quite scary in seconds.

He told jurors: Sabrina shared some stories from her past.

I guess knowing that, I felt it brought us closer together at times, but it was turbulent, probably the most turbulent relationship I had ever been in.

She would go from softly spoken French accent then she would flip, get very angry, very loud and just not care where we were.

She would just go crazy over something trivial.

The wealthy music mogul supported her financially through the highs and lows of his successful career.

Expand Close File court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Ouissem Medouni (left) and his partner Sabrina Kouider (PA) / Facebook

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Having created Boyzone in 1993, he found success with Fifth Avenue and more recently as a judge on Vietnam Pop Idol.

The softly-spoken Irishman said he met Kouider in a NatWest bank in Notting Hill in 2011 and hit it off straight away.

He said: I was in love. She was my life then so

He gave her thousands of pounds a month, paid for nannies and even covered 12,800 in rent after she had left him, the court heard.

Kouider fired her nannies, accusing them of stealing or being attracted to her friendly boyfriend, the court heard.

The musician said they lived together for two years in Queensway, London, before she disappeared and they split up.

Referring to outlandish accusations levelled at him by Kouider, prosecutor Richard Horwell QC said: Have you ever been party to a plot to drug the people in the Wimbledon flat and whilst unconscious sexually abuse the occupants?

Mr Walton said: Absolutely not.

Orlando Pownall QC, for Medouni, said: You must have asked yourself many times where did it go wrong?

While they were together, Kouider would fly into a rage, even shouting in Oxford Street the Boyzones broken  hes got no money as they shopped together, the court was told.

In 2012, police had been called a number of times over various accusations, including that he had photos of another woman on his phone, jurors heard.

Her complaints ranged for mistreating a cat, walking into the house with muddy shoes and stopping her from seeing friends.

After Mr Walton stopped paying her rent in 2014, she took out a non-molestation order claiming harassment, the court heard.

She also rang his mother in Dublin, contacted his business partners and created a fake Facebook page accusing him of being a paedophile, he said.

Mr Walton told jurors: I was broken, emotionally broken but I loved her.

Icah Peart QC, for Kouider, suggested Mr Walton was a very wealthy man, even being described as a billionaire in one media report.

Mr Walton denied he was that rich, but added: Im doing okay.

Kouider and Medouni have admitted perverting the course of justice but deny murder.

Later, a witness described hearing Miss Lionnet splashing and screaming in the bathroom with the defendants a couple of days before she was found dead.

Kouider allegedly told the witness, who cannot be identified, that she would not let her out of the bath until she told the truth.

Previously, she had pushed and slapped Miss Lionnet, who was afraid that if she said one word wrong she would get even worse, the witness said in a videoed interview.Irelands deputy premier has changed his stance on potential new abortion laws for the country by backing terminations up to 12 weeks into pregnancy.

The Government intends to table legislation that would permit women to abort within 12 weeks if citizens vote to repeal Irelands strict constitutional position on abortions in this summers anticipated referendum.

While Tanaiste Simon Coveney had backed the call to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the constitution  a provision that makes abortion illegal in all but exceptional circumstances  he had voiced opposition to the Governments proposed alternative, the 12-week model.

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But he has now shifted position. Explaining his decision, he cited concern that if abortion pills were not made available in that time frame, women would continue to access them online and without the advice of a doctor.

He said he backed the 12-week proposal if it was accompanied by strict medical protocols.

When it comes to prescribing abortion pills early in pregnancy, I have struggled most with this issue, he wrote in the Irish Independent.

If we do nothing, we know pills will continue to be purchased online and taken without medical advice or supervision. We cannot knowingly allow this to continue, given the dangers involved.

On Tuesday Health minister Simon Harris will outline detailed proposals to cabinet colleagues on the potential shape of future legislation if there is a repeal vote in the referendum.

Those will include a pause period within the 12-week timeframe, so a woman would have to wait at least 48 hours after requesting a pill for it to be prescribed. The proposed laws will also outlaw late term abortions, other than in medical emergency situations.

Mr Coveney wrote: I could never support a law that allows for late-term abortions. The Government will move to close off any suggestion of that happening by stating that a baby who could survive outside the womb will not be aborted in any circumstance.

The Tanaiste also said he was concerned that anti-abortion advocates in Ireland were being dismissed as dinosaurs or anti-women in the referendum debate.

Removing the equal right to life of the unborn from our constitution is not something I easily or immediately supported, he said.

I say this as a husband and father of three beautiful young girls.As talks in Brussels turned again to the thorny issue of the Irish border, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald insisted it needed to be resolved by June at the latest.

She accused the UK government of "bluster and procrastination" on the issue and said concrete proposals on how it intended to avoid a hard border were needed.

"The reality is we should at this stage have seen some concrete proposal from the British government," she said.

"The idea of pushing this out to October is absolutely unacceptable."

Mrs McDonald, who held a number of public engagement meetings in Belfast on Monday, had a blunt message for the UK government.

"They need to understand that further delay is not acceptable, they need to show us the colour of their money, they need to put forward a concrete proposition and proposal as to how Ireland is protected, how the north of Ireland is protected, how our peace agreements are protected, how our economy is protected."

Conservative former cabinet minister Ken Clarke urged the Government to ignore "nationalist nonsense" over the decision to choose a Franco-Dutch firm to make post-Brexit blue British passports.

Speaking as MPs considered an urgent question on the issue, Mr Clarke told the Commons: "De La Rue is a very successful British company which wins fair, international, tendered contracts and earns a great deal of money for this country printing other people's currencies and official documents.

"When we negotiate trade agreements, we will be pressing other countries to open up their public procurement processes to genuine, fair, international competition.

"And it'd be totally ridiculous to abandon that principle now in order to give in to constituency pressures, which I understand, and otherwise nationalist nonsense which ought to be ignored."

De La Rue is the current provider although the Government claims it will save 120 million during the lifetime of the 11-and-a-half year contract likely to be awarded to Gemalto, which has its headquarters in Amsterdam and is listed on the French and Dutch stock exchanges.

Conservative former cabinet minister Ken Clarke urged the Government to ignore "nationalist nonsense" over the decision to choose a Franco-Dutch firm to make post-Brexit blue British passports.

Speaking as MPs considered an urgent question on the issue, Mr Clarke told the Commons: "De La Rue is a very successful British company which wins fair, international, tendered contracts and earns a great deal of money for this country printing other people's currencies and official documents.

"When we negotiate trade agreements, we will be pressing other countries to open up their public procurement processes to genuine, fair, international competition.

"And it'd be totally ridiculous to abandon that principle now in order to give in to constituency pressures, which I understand, and otherwise nationalist nonsense which ought to be ignored."

De La Rue is the current provider although the Government claims it will save 120 million during the lifetime of the 11-and-a-half year contract likely to be awarded to Gemalto, which has its headquarters in Amsterdam and is listed on the French and Dutch stock exchanges.

Home Office minister Caroline Nokes said Mr Clarke was "absolutely right" to highlight the UK's desire to be a "global, outward-looking trading nation", adding: "The reality is in a fair procurement process we had to look at quality, security and indeed price - and this was the contract that provided the best value on all counts."

Labour's Liz Twist, who asked the urgent question given that her Blaydon constituency is home to De La Rue, asked about the security implications of a non-UK company making British passports.

She also asked: "Why was it felt appropriate for the Prime Minister to open the new headquarters of Thales - the French security and defence company which has recently taken over Gemalto, one of the bidders for the passport contract - during the time of the procurement process?

"The Government must provide clarity as to whether the bid was discussed at all during the visit."

Ms Twist said she understood De La Rue's bid was "significantly less than the previous price and they operate a gain share agreement where excessive profits are returned to the Home Office".

She also said: "The best value is about more than money, it's about having a secure passport system which works for the UK and which is reliable."

Tory Peter Bone (Wellingborough) claimed French people would "rise up and want to leave the EU" when they see the blue passports.

He said: "The EU leadership group are in turmoil. They are worried about the British passport being made in France because when the French people see this symbol of freedom and independence and realise the British people are gaining control of their borders, money and laws they will rise up and want to leave the EU."

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said the Government could not be "allowed to hide behind EU procurement rules" and said they must "take responsibility for the potential fallout this may have on workers, their families, the community and their wider industrial strategy".

Prime Minister Theresa May has paid tribute to Brexit Secretary David Davis and the UK's negotiating team after they reached agreement with the EU on a transition deal.

Mrs May, giving an update to the Commons, said: "It is not in our national interest to ask businesses to undertake two sets of changes.

"So it follows that during the implementation period they should continue to trade on current terms.

"Whilst I recognise that not everyone will welcome the continuation of current trading terms for another 21 months, such an implementation period has been widely welcomed by British business because it is necessary if we are to minimise uncertainty and deliver a smooth and successful Brexit."

She added that there were still "key questions" to be resolved around the Irish border issue, saying: "I have explained that the specific European Commission proposals for that backstop were unacceptable because they were not in line with the Belfast Agreement and threatened the break-up of the UK's internal market."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn welcomed the international consensus built by the Prime Minister, saying the most powerful response to Russia was multilateral action.

But he said insecurity for families and businesses as well as confusion at the heart of Government had dogged the first phase of Brexit negotiations.

"The Government wasted months and months dithering and posturing before accepting the inevitable," he said.

"This is the consistent pattern of these Brexit talks. Wild claims and red lines quickly become climb-downs and broken promises."

Mr Corbyn also criticised the Prime Minister over the controversial UK passports contract, saying: "It seems her red, white and blue Brexit has become the blue, white and red of the flag of France.

"Time after time, the Tories sell off British assets and jobs to the lowest bidder."

Mrs May could be seen laughing when Mr Corbyn said an implementation period had first been mooted by Labour, while she also attacked his initial call to trigger Article 50 immediately after the referendum.

She added: "It's the right honourable gentleman who when the shadow home secretary backed a rerun of the referendum, kept her in her job, when the then shadow Northern Ireland secretary backed a rerun of the referendum, he was sacked."

Mrs May later insisted continued UK involvement in the Galileo programme is in the EU's interests.

Hilary Benn, Labour chairman of the Exiting the European Union Committee, asked: "Can the Prime Minister clarify whether the attempts that the EU Commission is apparently making to freeze British companies out of Galileo contracts that are due to be issued in June is consistent with the transitional arrangements or not?

"And if not, what does she propose to do about it?"

Mrs May said the UK has been clear that it will meet its obligations as an EU member for as long as it remains within the bloc and that the UK should "continue to be treated as a full member of the European Union".

She went on: "As the Business Secretary has said, the UK does have a world-leading space sector and that has contributed a significant amount of specialist expertise to the Galileo programme.

"So we believe it is not just a question of what is in the UK's interests for us to continue to be able to participate as we have done in that programme, we think it's actually in the interests of the European Union as well because of the expertise the United Kingdom can provide."In a short week, the Irish Border is set to take centre stage today in Brussels, when representatives from the EU and the UK meet.

Also today, IMF boss Christine Lagarde will give a lecture on strengthening the EU at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin.

Meanwhile, Phil Hogan, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, is due to participate in a citizens' dialogue on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The former minister for the environment is also due to receive representatives of Copa-Cogeca, the European Farmers and Agri-Co-operatives representative body, today.

Domestically, tomorrow the CSO will release the overseas travel figures for February, while on Wednesday, the retail sales figures, also for February, will be released by the CSO. The Central Bank will also publish a consultation on the moneylenders' code.

On Thursday, the Quarterly International Investment Position and External Debt figures for the final quarter of 2017 will be released.Coillte has restructured its UK office and installed a new commercial managing director there as the agency has taken "significant steps" to prepare itself for Brexit, its chief executive has said.

The commercial semi-State's financial performance is also growing strongly, with Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) surging to 17m in the first two months of this year, compared with 10m in the same period in 2017.

The forestry agency said its 2017 dividend to the State was around 24pc higher than its 2016 figure, which totalled 6.2m, according to Coillte boss Fergal Leamy.

Mr Leamy said Brexit will be a "significant challenge", but he said the UK will remain a dominant market for Coillte.

He said staffing at Coillte's UK office in Dartford has been fractionally increased, with staff from its offices in Germany and the Netherlands transferred there.

"We've made some significant steps in preparation for Brexit," Mr Leamy told the Irish Independent. "We've strengthened our UK office in Dartford. We have restructured that, and the presence it has in the market is much greater."

Coillte said it has appointed a new commercial managing director to the Dartford office, and it has also brought its Germany and Dutch offices into the UK operation.

"The majority of our business is in the UK in terms of our customers and we want to be seen as much a UK-based business as possible," said Mr Leamy.

"We essentially had offices that were doing call centre jobs anyway in terms of servicing those customers, so we brought German nationals and Dutch nationals into the UK to manage that piece. It doesn't really matter where they were but what it does do is give a greater presence in the UK and allows a much greater servicing of our UK customers as if we were a home-grown business."

Mr Leamy said the organisation's contingency plans also include the potential for having warehousing in the UK in the event of a hard Brexit, but he insisted that no decision has been made.

"We won't pull the trigger until we have to," he said, adding that the ideal answer is to have "minimal" friction between the two jurisdictions.

"But we are clearly preparing for it. We have a couple of options that are in existence that would work for us. So we would have the ability to move reasonably quickly if we had to."

Mr Leamy said that even with the preparations, Brexit will pose a significant challenge.

"The UK will always be a huge market for us. It is the second-largest importer of timber in the world and you can't change that overnight," he said.

"In our forestry business, there is the added complication that our standards are so aligned with the UK for timber. It simply is not a choice to go to merchants in France and say 'stock our product', because it doesn't meet their specifications.

"For us, it is about how do we embrace the UK in as much a way as possible, to ensure that we are present there and in there?"

Mr Leamy said he did not expect Coillte's business to be overly affected in the long term, with the UK remaining a dominant market.

"I'd say in five or 10 years' time it's hard to see it being dramatically different to [what it is now]."

He said that while the company focuses largely on east-west movements, a border on the island would impact Coillte. He said wood products supplier Balcas, in Co Fermanagh, is a significant Coillte customer, with trucks crossing the Border thousands of times a year.

"We have a nursery in Killygordon, in Donegal. It services the North, it doesn't do anything else," Mr Leamy said. "We are concerned about the ability to move that product across."In today's digital economy personal data is the new oil. Companies see immense value in gathering data about individuals to profile and influence them in their choices of brands and products.

Indeed, as we have seen from the controversy over Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, personal data can be manipulated to influence how people view the world and how they cast their vote. As this episode demonstrates, personal data as the new oil has lots of value but, just like oil, if personal data is leaked or misused it can have major toxic and negative impact on individuals and the general environment.

Click here to buy tickets for the DataSec conference which will address issues surrounding the upcoming GDPR rules

With Brexit looming, the protection of personal data within companies based in the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, is becoming more and more of a concern.

While the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into effect in May, brings in more stringent requirements on how companies protect and manage personal data entrusted to them, what guarantees will we have once the United Kingdom has left the EU and is no longer bound by the GDPR?

The challenges we have seen in the UK Information Commissioner's Office getting a warrant to investigate Cambridge Analytica does not provide much comfort or confidence.

Read More

Brexit is due to happen in March 2019 but, until then, the United Kingdom will still be a member of the European Union. As such, the GDPR will still apply to companies and organisations within the UK and we can continue to transfer personal data across those borders confident the protections applicable to the personal data here in Ireland will equally apply to that personal data within the UK.

However, once the UK leaves the European Union the situation is not so clear. Despite the recent publication of the 129-page Brexit Agreement, which outlines the terms of the UK's withdrawal from the EU over a two-year transition period, there is little or no clarification around how personal data can be transferred to and from the United Kingdom during that transition period or after it.

This lack of clarity should cause concerns for companies that rely on the flow of personal data into and out of the United Kingdom as organisations within the EU will have to ensure personal data they transfer, process, or store within the UK complies with the stringent privacy requirements outlined in GDPR.

This lack of clear guidance will make this a tough challenge.

Do companies migrate away from UK-based companies to EU based competitors? Or do they wait to see what happens during the Brexit process and hope that everything all works out?

Most people know that hope is not a strategy and this was reinforced on January 9 this year when the European Commission published a Notice to Stakeholders confirming that, post-Brexit, the UK will be considered a "third country" when it comes to the transfer of personal data into and out of that jurisdiction.

This in effect means it will not be possible for EU organisations to transfer data to organisations within the UK unless strict conditions are in place, such as contractually binding agreements between organisations or an arrangement for the transfer of personal data to and from the UK, similar to the US-EU Privacy Shield agreement in place to facilitate similar transfers to and from US companies.

The EU can of course review this position and may determine the data protection regime within the United Kingdom post-Brexit will be robust enough to meet the requirements of the GDPR.

To achieve this goal, the UK introduced the Data Protection Bill in September of last year. This Data Protection Bill, currently working its way through Westminster, is designed to implement the goals and objectives of the GDPR into UK law so that the data protection regime within the UK remains in line with that of the EU.

While the UK believes the new Data Protection Bill will be sufficient, there are several other UK laws that could undermine this.

Notably the UK's Investigatory Powers Act of 2016 could prevent the UK's post-Brexit data protection regime from being considered robust and adequate enough for the EU. The Investigatory Powers Act has also been dubbed the snooper's charter, owing to the wide range of powers given to UK security services such as the weakening of encryption, granting hacking powers to security services, and the requirements for ISPs to store the browsing history for all users for 12 months.

Of course, until Brexit happens and all the negotiations are concluded we will not know for certain what the data protection landscape will be like. Until then it is worth remembering:

 GDPR will remain in effect within the UK and Northern Ireland until Brexit happens. Until then, March 2019, there is no need to make any notable changes.

 It would be prudent to start identifying what personal data is transferred to and from the UK and Northern Ireland, either directly by your own business or by your suppliers.

 Ensure that any of your UK-based suppliers are progressing their own compliance against GDPR. Until the UK leaves the EU, GDPR will still apply to those companies.

 Monitor how the Brexit negotiations are progressing with a focus on the data protection frameworks. If it looks like the UK will not be considered an adequate country, then you need to consider different legal frameworks, such as Model Contracts, to continue to use UK-based companies. Alternatively, you may need to consider moving your business to companies located elsewhere within the EU.

GDPR and Brexit will potentially bring many challenges to organisations over the coming years, but proper planning and keeping abreast of how talks regarding data protection post-Brexit will help keep on top of those challenges.

Brian Honan, CEO of BH Consulting, is one of Ireland's foremost experts in cybersecurity and will be a speaker at Dublin Data Sec 2018 - Ireland's GDPR event - which takes place on April 9, 2018 in the RDS Concert Hall. Please visit www.independent.ie/datasec2018 for further information and ticketsJenny and Pat McNally pictured at their organic Dublin farm during the recent cold snap - their crop of kohlrabi was the only bad weather casualty.

It's been 21 years since the McNallys decided to sell their organic vegetable produce directly to the market - and recognition of their sterling efforts ever since came with last week's accolade from the Irish Food Writers' Guild in Dublin.

Dublin-based McNally Family Farm scooped the award in the business organisation category.

"It came as a complete surprise to us. It's great to be recognised and we will get another lovely plaque for the wall at home - but don't tell anyone until after the awards dinner in Patrick Guilbaud's", Jenny McNally joked when we spoke before the ceremony recently.

Jenny, while from a farming family in Kilsallaghan in North Dublin herself, began her working career as a bank clerk but gave up the money-moving business when she married Pat, a fourth-generation farmer based in Ring Commons, just outside Balbriggan.

Expand Close Jenny McNally and her husband Patrick See My Week - Ken Whelan / Facebook

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The couple switched from livestock to solely horticulture just before the economic collapse of 2009. "You must remember that the recession hit farming long before it hit everyone else," Jenny remembers.

Ever since, the whole farm has been covered in polytunnels growing vegetables of all kinds including potatoes, courgettes, white, red and Savoy cabbages, cauliflowers, artichokes, kales, beets and salads, as well as herbs of every variety - all grown organically.

Expand Close Jenny McNally winning at the Irish Food Writers Guild last week / Facebook

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Whatsapp Jenny McNally winning at the Irish Food Writers Guild last week

More than 20 years ago, Jenny started seeking out markets for their organic crops, and the first stop was the Saturday Temple Bar food market in Dublin city in 1997 - as luck would have it, they cleared their stall at the first attempt." We finished that day with 70 old pounds earned and ready for the bank," Jenny recalls.

The McNallys gradually expanded their geographical reach in the capital to include the Leopardstown food market on Fridays and the Dun Laoghaire one on Sundays.

Future expansion, however, depends on the farm's ability to keep production levels consistent with quality levels. "The quality of the produce cannot be compromised," Jenny insists.

Asked what level of production tonnage-wise is coming from McNally Family Farm, Jenny pauses and then replies, "I only think in terms of drills, which must be lifted every week from the tunnels to meet the demand at the weekend markets," she replies.

Expand Close Jenny McNally See My Week - Ken Whelan / Facebook

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The recent weather halted business temporarily, with all the farmer markets in the capital called off during the snow storm.

There was just one casualty on the McNally Family Farm - the kohlrabi, a turnip and cabbage hybrid vegetable grown outdoors; though, as luck would have it, it was just about at the end of its production season.

But their main herb and vegetable drills were unaffected, as they are grown in the polytunnels, and what plants are currently in the ground were able to resist even the huge drifts of snow which covered the country side.

The McNallys are happy with the way things have turned out and more than happy that they are not selling their organic produce through major retailers.

Supermarkets are up there with fertiliser companies in Jenny's book of "no nos" because she believes that both are taking more out of Irish agriculture than they are putting in.

In any case, she prefers the customer-producer interaction at the markets and the fact the receipts from the stall can be banked when the markets close - meaning there is no long wait for payment.

"Market shopping is different from supermarket shopping. There is something personal going on at the markets and your customers know what they are buying; it is enjoyable meeting your customers," Jenny says.

It is a precision enterprise out in Balbriggan and Jenny and Pat are helped by three of their children - twins Stephen and Patrick, who are in their early thirties, and their younger sister, Aoife.

The couple's two youngest girls work off-farm, with Sarah a manager with the Butler's Pantry group, and Niamh just after graduating in culinary entrepreneurship.

Asked about her off-farm interests, Jenny takes a deep breath followed by a long pause. "I don't have any really. It's all about the farm and the markets," she says.Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 1 Vote(s) - 1 Average

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Here's How They Can Create False Flag Against Russia LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: kaput

03-26-2018 11:38 PM











Post: #1 Here's How They Can Create False Flag Against Russia

Advertisement



Wikileaks Reveals: CIAs UMBRAGE Allows Agency To Carry Out False Flag Cyber Attacks



https://www.mintpressnews.com/cia-umbrag...ks/225638/ It was revealed last year that a false flag fingerprint could be created and uses against another country. The CIA has the capability and the technology is out there to manufacture lies of the worst kind.Wikileaks Reveals: CIAs UMBRAGE Allows Agency To Carry Out False Flag Cyber Attacks LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 11:42 PM











Post: #2 RE: Here's How They Can Create False Flag Against Russia

Pass the blame and then it gives one an excuse to attack without Public Backlash.. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 11:44 PM











Post: #3 RE: Here's How They Can Create False Flag Against Russia

PR 101.. end of..



Wars can't be started instantly.. it needs a group of liars, and media support then public brainwashing to seal the deal..



Heads are less likely to roll that way.. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-26-2018 11:53 PM











Post: #4 RE: Here's How They Can Create False Flag Against Russia

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-26-2018 11:44 PM) PR 101.. end of..



Wars can't be started instantly.. it needs a group of liars, and media support then public brainwashing to seal the deal..



Heads are less likely to roll that way..

True. This former Lt. Colonel has some first hand knowledge on how they did it. She was working in the Pentagon at the time they were cooking the false information up. She says that we were all lied to. Now Trump selected one of these treasonous neocons to run things-John Bolton.







True. This former Lt. Colonel has some first hand knowledge on how they did it. She was working in the Pentagon at the time they were cooking the false information up. She says that we were all lied to. Now Trump selected one of these treasonous neocons to run things-John Bolton. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-27-2018 12:10 AM











Post: #5 RE: Here's How They Can Create False Flag Against Russia

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-26-2018 11:53 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-26-2018 11:44 PM) PR 101.. end of..



Wars can't be started instantly.. it needs a group of liars, and media support then public brainwashing to seal the deal..



Heads are less likely to roll that way..

True. This former Lt. Colonel has some first hand knowledge on how they did it. She was working in the Pentagon at the time they were cooking the false information up. She says that we were all lied to. Now Trump selected one of these treasonous neocons to run things-John Bolton.









and thanks! and thanks! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-27-2018 12:16 AM











Post: #6 RE: Here's How They Can Create False Flag Against Russia

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-27-2018 12:10 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-26-2018 11:53 PM) True. This former Lt. Colonel has some first hand knowledge on how they did it. She was working in the Pentagon at the time they were cooking the false information up. She says that we were all lied to. Now Trump selected one of these treasonous neocons to run things-John Bolton.









and thanks!

Sure. And here is another link that reveals the REAL architect of the Iraq war.



This five star general who was there said that the worst kept secret in D.C. was that the Iraq invasion was launched on Israel's behalf.



Ex-Mideast Envoy Zinni Charges Neocons Pushed Iraq War To Benefit Israel



https://forward.com/news/5719/ex-mideast...shed-iraq/ Sure. And here is another link that reveals the REAL architect of the Iraq war.This five star general who was there said that the worst kept secret in D.C. was that the Iraq invasion was launched on Israel's behalf.Ex-Mideast Envoy Zinni Charges Neocons Pushed Iraq War To Benefit Israel LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-27-2018 12:34 AM











Post: #7 RE: Here's How They Can Create False Flag Against Russia

what does a false flag look like? I will watch for some on the flagpoles in my community.















Gordon Crockett does not wish to suffer the same fate as his great-great grandfather, who began farming near the northernmost tip of Ireland before a border was ever erected on the island.

The Crockett family farm was cut in two when Ireland won independence from Britain in 1921 and the island was partitioned.

Before partition he used to milk cows but as soon as the partition came the custom men were standing across the field and told him Thats the last time you bring cows across the border, said Gordon, the fifth generation of farmer in the family.

Like many along the 500 km (310 mile) frontier that remains one of the most intractable issues in Britains negotiations to leave the European Union, the Crocketts farm lies in both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, straddling the counties of Donegal and Londonderry.

Expand Close Farmer James Martin who lives in Northern Ireland but sells his milk in the Republic of Ireland, cleans the milking shed after tending to his cattle on his dairy farm near the border village of Forkhill, Northern Ireland. "We're less than a mile from the border, surrounded by the Republic on three sides," said Martin. "This is where you'd feel the brunt of it (a hard border)." REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Farmer James Martin who lives in Northern Ireland but sells his milk in the Republic of Ireland, cleans the milking shed after tending to his cattle on his dairy farm near the border village of Forkhill, Northern Ireland. "We're less than a mile from the border, surrounded by the Republic on three sides," said Martin. "This is where you'd feel the brunt of it (a hard border)." REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne.

At the minute there is no real problem, you can cross the border as free as you want. We could cross it six or eight times a day, the beef, sheep and cereal farmer said.

If there was any sort of obstruction it would slow down our work every day.

London and Dublin are committed to keeping the free flow of goods without returning to the kind of checkpoint that once operated below the Crocketts field. But agreeing a practical solution post-Brexit has proved elusive so far.

A hundred kilometers away in the southern border town of Clones, Brian Adamson has nothing but bad memories of the border which was transformed by a 1998 peace deal that ended Northern Irelands Troubles and by the creation of the EUs Single Market that removed barriers to trade among members.

I hated going through the border because you got enormous hassle, you could be there for 10 minutes or you could be there for two hours. If they didnt like you, itd be two hours, said Adamson who moved from Dublin 36 years ago and opened a pub in the town during the three decades of violence across the border.

I live a mile and a half out the road and when Im traveling home I have to cross the border twice. Things are grand as they are and I dont understand why they wouldnt leave it as it is.

Expand Close A bull stands in a field with a disused Customs Facilitation Office in the background on the border in Carrickcarnon, Ireland, December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne / Facebook

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Whatsapp A bull stands in a field with a disused Customs Facilitation Office in the background on the border in Carrickcarnon, Ireland, December 7, 2017. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

NORMAL LIFE

The end of customs checks was central to the establishment of an all-island economy. A recent study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) highlighted a considerable level of supply chain interconnectedness that followed.

While Northern Ireland trades mostly with the rest of the UK, the report found that it is the complexities of this integration that could make disruption so damaging.

While fewer than one in five Irish firms surveyed were two-way, cross border traders, they accounted for more than 60 percent of the countrys exports to the British province and over 70 percent of its imports in 2015.

Expand Close An abandoned shop is seen in Mullan, Ireland, March 16, 2018. The building was home to four families who left during The Troubles. The town was largely abandoned after the hard border was put in place during the conflict. Mullan has seen some regeneration in recent years, but faces an uncertain future with Brexit on the horizon. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne. / Facebook

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Whatsapp An abandoned shop is seen in Mullan, Ireland, March 16, 2018. The building was home to four families who left during The Troubles. The town was largely abandoned after the hard border was put in place during the conflict. Mullan has seen some regeneration in recent years, but faces an uncertain future with Brexit on the horizon. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne.

For Seamus McQuaid, who wholesales into the south from his autoparts garage just inside the Northern border, the possible imposition of tariffs post-Brexit would mean having to set up a company 200 meters down the road to serve the same customers.

Yet its also the simple things that could change. The current seamless border means neighbors from the south also use McQuaids garage to save on expensive postage costs by having their Amazon or eBay orders delivered to his UK address.

I dont mind that at all, as long as its locals, he said.

The removal of checks has also helped revitalize parts of the border, most strikingly in places like Mullan, a village in the southern county of Monaghan, whose one street ends exactly at the border with Northern Ireland.

The bridge linking it to the north was blown up by security forces during the Troubles to prevent smuggling and unwanted crossings, rendering the town a dead end. Most people left.

When I came back, this would have been somewhere you would have driven through and have been quite sad. It was a decrepit looking village, said Brenda McGinn, whose Busy Bee Ceramics is one of a handful of enterprises restoring life to the community.

Now this is a revitalized, old hidden village.

But like many who just want normal to continue, the locals in Mullan and elsewhere fear some of that progress could be lost as Brexit negotiations over their day-to-day lives come to a head in the coming months.

Its the last chapter that counts, said Tom Parkes, who owns a farm on a former customs post in the tiny Northern Irish village of Middletown.

Where we finish up at the end of the day. Thats what matters.The viability of beet production in Ireland has been questioned

The Carlow sugar factory was the life-blood of the south eastern town and county from its establishment in 1926 to its closure in 2005.

In the past year there have been rumours and open discussion about reviving the sugar beet industry in the region.

An Oireachtas report on the future of the tillage sector produced by the Committee on Agriculture published late last year called for a review of the opportunities in sugar beet.

Earlier this year Beet Ireland, a lobby group seeking to re-establish the Irish sugar beet industry, acquired a 200ac site for a factory at Plumperstown on the Carlow-Kildare border.

Michael Hoey of Beet Ireland believes there is a real market for Irish sugar.

As a food producer we are importing huge amounts of ingredients, there is a definite willingness in the Irish food industry to buy Irish sugar, he said.

Expand Close Vincent Hughes from Ballinkillen, Co Carlow took pulling fodder beet for farmer Paddy Brennan. Roger Jones. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Vincent Hughes from Ballinkillen, Co Carlow took pulling fodder beet for farmer Paddy Brennan. Roger Jones.

While the tillage sector is going through a tough time at the moment he nevertheless believes there are real possibilities.

Now that Beet Ireland has bought the site for a new factory at Plumperstown on the Carlow-Kildare border, and raised awareness of the potential for the industry, Mr Hoey believes that it is up to the farmers to take the opportunity.

We have the best site in the country, the quotas are gone, all it will take is a willingness on the part of farmers to make it happen, he said.

Beet tops on tillage eProfit test

Teagasc's Michael Hennessy has urged all tillage farmers to complete an eProfit monitor to "benchmark" themselves after they released the most recent figures.

Results for 2016 showed beet delivered the largest net margin for average growers of 642/ha. "You don't rush into beet unless you have that market," said Mr Hennessy, adding it was similar to some of the other break crops. Winter oats performed well with a net margin of 235/ha.

He pointed out the figures do not include labour, and beet can be very labour intensive. He said malting barley did perform well but the top one third of spring barley feed growers earned more than the average malting barley grower.

Beans deliver well but without the protein payment it did not "stand on its own two feet" and only produced a net margin of 41/ha. Mr Hennessy said the figures were having an effect on malting barley with farmers realising that it is "not the only crop out there".I'd like to present to you, The Case of the Missing Gown, also known as, 'Watch How Many Communications Lessons Gina Can Draw from One Story'. Let me set the scene.

I was in Dublin on a recent Monday evening, preparing to lead two days of presentation training, when my phone rang. It was one of the organisers for the upcoming Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards Gala I was to emcee.

We chatted and then she closed our conversation with a cheery, "See you Thursday."

"Thursday?!" I thought the event was on Friday. Oh no!

Like so many Irish events affected by that snowy Beast from the East, Deloitte was forced to reschedule its originally planned Friday night event - to a Thursday. Somehow, I had mistakenly placed the revised date in my head and on my calendar for the Friday instead.

Since I live in Cork, I had only packed for my Tuesday and Wednesday training days. I envisioned taking the train home late Wednesday.

I'd spend time with my daughter, repack for the black-tie affair with the fabulous red frock the amazing ladies at Fran & Jane boutique had found specially for me - and take the train back to Dublin early Friday.

Whoops. Now what to do?

This being Monday night, I decided to have the dress overnighted to my hotel in Dublin. My thinking went that if it were sent first thing Tuesday, it would arrive Wednesday.

Plenty of time before the gala Thursday. The wonderful person back in Cork who agreed to this scheme was at the post office bright and early.

On Wednesday morning, I left the hotel to go lead my training session. I figured by the time I returned, my box with my dress would be waiting for me. It wasn't.

Before you dismissively (and correctly) say, "First world problem", as you picture my red gown lost in limbo - stick around.

The communications lessons are kicking in.

1 Keep calm

It was about 4.45pm as the lady at the front desk of the hotel shook her head and told me nothing had arrived. I knew I didn't have long to try and sort this before closing time.

Panicking or getting angry wouldn't help. Customer service representatives deal with a variety of tense and irate people. I didn't want to be one of them. So, I sat in a comfy chair in the lobby, exhaled slowly and dialled.

2 Try kindness

When the representative, named David, answered, I didn't rush in with my problem. It had been - and still was - a really, rainy day, so I tried to create a little rapport.

"Hey there, I know it's been a downpour all day so you probably are getting more calls than usual. How's it going?"

David told me about his day and then I explained my situation. He discovered my package had somehow been mis-sorted. Instead of making it to my hotel in Ballsbridge, tracking said it was stuck in a sorting office in Blackrock. It could be delivered next morning.

3 Be persistent and proactive

Taking a chance on waiting until Thursday morning was too risky for me. I persisted and asked if there was any way to verify that my package was there at the moment.

David graciously said he would try a speed dial mechanism to ring directly. But, he'd have to hang up and call me back. I held my breath. In just a few minutes, David called me.

My box/dress was indeed there. I ran into the rain and managed to get a cab. Out to Blackrock sorting office we went.

4 Use your head

I'm not suggesting anything unethical here, of course, but if policies can be made flexible enough, sometimes a rule can be bent if it's still in keeping with your company's values.

David used his own judgement and went above and beyond to make a direct call and call me back. Later as I arrived at the sorting office, Mike at the desk initially said he was sorry but he couldn't find the package. I politely urged. "David in customer service said he talked to someone who said it was 'in a cage with about 150 other mis-sorted parcels'."

"Oh," Mike replied, "If it's in a cage, it's already been loaded on the truck for tomorrow's delivery."

He sent me outside (in the rain) to see Brian who was on the loading dock near the truck. Brian lowered one of the cages from the truck and sifted through each piece of mail inside. But didn't find it. He went to the second cage in the truck. And found it!

My taxi driver Gearoid - whom I'd told the whole story to, of course, was watching and laughing at this adventure in the rain.

I ran back to the car triumphant.

The next morning, even before my gown had returned from the hotel's laundry service for pressing, David called me to check whether I had recovered the package.

My suggestions for customer service extend to all employees. Whether you're in marketing, IT or HR - putting people front and centre of any policy helps create a customer-centric company. And when you're the customer, don't forget customer service representatives are people too.

I know it was only a dress for a dinner.

But it's a real story that shows how real customer service must be empowered to really help. That's exactly what An Post's David Hickey, Brian Whelan and Mike Murphy exemplified. Thank you!

Write to Gina in care of SundayBusiness@independent.ie

Gina London is a former CNN anchor and international campaign strategist who is now a director with Fuzion Communications. She serves as media commentator, emcee and corporate consultant. @TheGinaLondonCEO Tony Smurfit, non-executive director Liam OMahony and chief financial officer Ken Bowles at the Smurfit Kappa Group AGM. Photo: Maxwells

The board of packaging group Smurfit Kappa has said that it has rejected a revised proposal for the company from International Paper Company.

The revised proposal represents an increase in value of 1.08 per share, equivalent to less than 3pc.

Under the terms of the revised proposal  received on Thursday  Smurfit shareholders would receive 25.25 in cash and 0.3028 new shares of International Paper stock for each Smurfit Kappa share held by them, Smurfit said in a statement today.

Based on International Papers closing share price on 23 March of $50.15, the revised proposal would value each Smurfit Kappa share at 37.54, an increase on the 6 March proposal of 36.46.

In a statement to the stock exchange, Smurfit said that following careful consideration, together with its financial advisers, the board has unanimously rejected the revised proposal.

"The revised proposal does not make strategic sense for Smurfit Kappa and its stakeholders," Liam OMahony, chairman of Smurfit Kappa, said.

"The board unanimously reaffirms its belief that it is in the best interests of the groups stakeholders for Smurfit to pursue its future as an independent company, headquartered in Ireland, operating as the European and Pan-American leader in paper-based packaging."

The board of the company went on to say that it believes that the best interests of the groups stakeholders are served by pursuing its future as an independent company, operating as the European and Pan-American leader in paper-based packaging.

The board also said today that the revised proposal also "fundamentally undervalues the group and remains significantly below the valuations set by recent industry transactions."

Shares in the company are down almost 2pc this morning following the news.Job vacancies in the hotel sector have surged in the five-year period up to 2017, a recruitment website has claimed.

Analysis by jobs.ie found that there has been an increase in jobs vacancies in a number of key hotel roles - specifically hotel chefs, bartenders, waiters, receptionists, porters, mixologists and concierges.

Every role has experienced growth in the last five years, particularly since 2016.

Jobs vacancies for hotel chefs more than doubled in the period 2013-17.

Although vacancies were down by 9pc in 2017 compared to 2016, the number remains high.

Christopher Paye, general manager of Jobs.ie, said a diversified tourism sector and Ireland's continued strong economic health have helped to fuel growth.

"Despite the challenges of the last two years, Ireland's hotel sector has demonstrated remarkable resilience," Mr Paye said.

"2016, the year of the Brexit vote, was a significant turning point, insofar as we saw hotel jobs vacancies actually increase rather than diminish.

"It seems counterintuitive. The Irish tourism sector has for decades been disproportionately reliant on the UK for revenue. Thankfully, in the last number of years, we've begun to diversify our target markets to attract more European, American and Asian tourists."

Jobs.ie said the hospitality sector is worth 7.2bn to the Irish economy and supports an estimated 235,000 jobs.

However, Mr Paye said there is a mounting risk that demand for workers will outstrip supply, and this is already proving the case for chefs.

"With skills shortages left unaddressed, the growth of Ireland's tourism industry will be short-lived. Hotels will need to think outside the box to attract talented workers from overseas and encourage more Irish professionals to consider a career in hospitality," he added.

It comes just weeks after the Government announced that it was loosening the employment permits regime to allow in more qualified chefs to help plug the shortage.

Following a review of the Highly Skilled and Ineligible lists of Employment earlier this year, which included a public consultation, Business, Enterprise and Innovation Minister Heather Humphreys announced the removal of certain chef grades from the ineligible occupation list.

This, the minister said, would ensure that there is a mechanism to address the shortage of qualified chefs in the short term.

The minister also said that the Government had applied a quota to ensure that in the longer term the demand for chefs is met from a steady supply in the Irish labour market.

The industry welcomed the move to loosen the regime.HOUSE prices in the outer commuter counties have soared as people priced out of the Dublin market are being pushed farther afield in search of affordable homes.

The latest Irish Independent/ Real Estate Alliance Average House Price Index published today shows that prices in Co Laois have shot up 6.1pc since the start of the year, while prices in Co Cavan have surged by 6.7pc.

Meanwhile, strict lending controls introduced by the Central Bank are being cited as the reason for a near flatline in prices of three-bed semis in Dublin since the beginning of the year.

Aside from north Co Dublin, where affordable homes are still available in some numbers, Dublin prices have remained almost unchanged as potential buyers fell foul of lending controls.

The price of the average home in south Co Dublin has remained entirely static since Christmas, while values in Dublins postcode suburbs increased by just a half of 1pc in the same period.

In contrast, in the same period last year, prices in Dublins postcode suburbs shot up almost 10 times faster  by 4.5pc.

Meanwhile, prices in north Co Dublin, where more affordable homes are still available, continued to range upward, but by just 2.4pc since the start of the year.

After rising by 12.5pc in 2017, the average price for a semi in postcoded addresses in the capital has increased by just 2,000 in the opening quarter of 2018 and now stands at 440,000  almost twice the price of an average semi nationwide.

The average semi-detached house nationally now costs 229,111, a rise of 1.5pc on Decembers figure of 225,806.

The Irish Independent/REA Average House Price survey focuses on real sale prices achieved  rather than asking prices  for the countrys most common family home type, the three-bed semi. Overall, the average house price across the country rose by 9.1pc over the past 12 months  indicating that the market is steadying after the 11.3pc overall rise in 2017.

It also suggests that the Central Bank lending controls are keeping a lid on the Dublin market, despite tight levels of supply.

While most REA agents in the capital reported that prices in Dublins postcode areas have been static in the first three months of the year, the only notable rises were in more affordable areas such as Dublin 24 (up 2pc to 260,000) and Balbriggan (up 1.9pc to 265,000).

REA describes the situation in the capital as buyers reaching for the last of the low-hanging fruit in terms of family homes for which they can qualify for mortgages.

Conversely, some of the biggest price increases nationally have been recorded in Laois and Cavan, which are now experiencing a surge of pricedout Dubliners looking to buy affordable semis.

Laois has seen values shoot up by 6.1pc since December while Cavan has seen prices surge by 6.7pc.

Prices in Laois, where an average semi now costs 175,000, have increased by 25pc in the past 12 months and in Cavan, where a semi costs just 120,000, prices have surged by 21.8pc since this time last year.

The highest increase in the country came in Cavan town where prices have risen by 10,000, or 12pc, in the past three months.

Dublin-based buyers who are being curtailed by mortgage borrowing limits are also finding prices in adjoining commuter counties harder to afford.

The average three-bed semi in Meath, Kildare, Wicklow and Louth, now cost 241,250, 266,500, 274,393 and 202,500 respectively.

Prices in all but Co Louth are now well over the national average.

Together, Dublins immediately adjoining commuter counties continued their recent steady growth with a 1.4pc increase in the first quarter of this year, with the average house now selling for 235,900  a rise of 3,000.

The Dublin market has become quite price sensitive, even though we are seeing healthy demand and good liquidity with plenty of mortgage lending, said REA spokesperson Barry McDonald. What we may be seeing, after the rapid increases of recent years, are the Central Bank mortgage lending restrictions imposing an upper level on purchasing power for some buyers.

There has been a 3pc reduction in cash buyers in the market, with mortgage-approved house hunters now making up 74pc of purchasers, increasing the effect of the Central Bank rules on the market.

We are seeing strong demand across the board, and homes are reaching sale agreed in just four weeks in Dublin  which is good news for both buyers and vendors, he added.

In Limerick city, prices for an average three-bed semi rose by 4.2pc since December, while in Galway city they were 2.9pc higher.

Cork city saw prices rise by 1.6pc in the first quarter of the year, while prices remained static in Waterford city.

The cost of an average semi in the major cities, excluding Dublin, now stands at 243,750.There must undoubtedly be a declining number of people who can cast their minds back to the great innovations of the 1990s and the promise that the 'dot.com' bubble held out for the world. We were sure (because everyone, commentators, investors and analysts, told us) that we were in the midst of a series of technological explosions.

Unthinkable concepts, (including being able to do your shopping on the telly,) were being opened up for us all.

The bubble, of course, soon became a fond memory but I was reminded recently that there are echoes of those times past in at least one successful British online operator which now calls itself ASOS and is currently sporting an annual turnover of 1.9bn (2.2bn).

ASOS originally started out as AsSeenOnScreen and was the brainchild of two entrepreneurs, Quentin Griffiths and Nick Robertson, whose idea was to sell clothes and accessories on the internet. Looking at where ASOS is now, the idea might seem a brilliant wheeze because today the company is a very successful online fashion and beauty operation.

It offers women's wear, footwear, accessories, jewellery and beauty products, having a large portfolio of branded and own-brand products. Its website targets the UK, Australia, US, France, Germany, Italy and China.

Fashion is now one of the most popular online categories and accounts for one quarter of all UK spending on clothes. This trend towards online fashion is causing difficulty for high street chains. Marks and Spencer, New Look and Next and, across the Atlantic, Macy's and Sears are all feeling the effects of the online competitors.

Unlike high street retailers, companies like ASOS are relatively easy to run. With a large stock of products in its handful of big warehouses, it needs fewer staff to make a sale. Latterly ASOS has ploughed the proceeds of its growth into improving its critical delivery systems. It is of the opinion that the increased capacity will enable it to handle 4bn (4.6bn) worth of sales, double that of today.

Internet shopping has pretty much crept up on everyone, but there is no doubting its immense impact and the threat it poses to the old retail infrastructure.

It is hard to believe that today with a market value of 6bn (6.7bn), the 17-year-old ASOS is close to that of the 114-year-old Marks & Spencer, the UK's biggest retailer of clothing. This is in spite of the fact that ASOS has only one-fifth of Marks & Spencer's sales.

The explanation is the levels of growth. In the last decade M&S grew by a third, ASOS by almost eight times.

The company has benefited from a young core customer base and the migration of spending from the high street to the mobile phone. Anyone who has any contact with the category of the population known as millennials will find it is no surprise to learn that they spend three hours each day on their phones, and 80pc are online shoppers.

Promoted: See the latest ASOS offers and deals on Independent Discounts

The company targets the internet-savvy twentyish category looking for the designer looks of celebrities. As a result, it sells cutting-edge fashion and offers a wide variety of fashion-based content. The group has 5.4 million active customers, eight offices worldwide, three global warehouses, and 850 brands. In addition it has 20 million social media followers, customers in 230 countries and 4,000 employees.

ASOS sales last year totalled 1.88bn (2.1bn), up 34pc. The group is fast becoming an international company as two-thirds of its sales are now outside the UK.

In the UK sales are buoyant with a sizeable jump in turnover to 700m (800m) - up 16pc. But the performance in Europe has been very much more impressive, with sales at 540m (618m) - up almost a half. Sales in the US, often a graveyard for UK retailers, were a healthy 260m (297m).

ASOS was floated on the alternative market in 2001 at 20p a share. Today its shares trade at 72 (82) with an extremely high price earnings multiple of 60. This is hardly enticing and is enough to keep investors on the sidelines. However, it is a bet in the future of retailing and the fashion industry.

Nothing in this section should be taken as a recommendation, either explicit or implicit to buy any of the shares mentioned.The United States has flouted trade rules with an inquiry into intellectual property and China will defend its interests, Vice Premier Liu He told US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a telephone call.

The call between Mr Mnuchin and Mr Liu, a confidante of President Xi Jinping, was the highest-level contact between the two governments since US President Donald Trump announced plans for tariffs on up to $60bn (48.5bn) of Chinese goods on Thursday.

The deepening rift has sent a chill through financial markets and the corporate world as investors predicted dire consequences for the global economy should trade barriers start going up.

Several US chief executives attending a high-profile forum in Beijing on Saturday, including BlackRock's Larry Fink and Apple's Tim Cook, urged restraint.

In his call with Mr Mnuchin, Mr Liu said China still hoped both sides would remain "rational" and work together to keep trade relations stable, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

US officials say an eight-month probe under the 1974 US Trade Act has found that China engages in unfair trade practices by forcing American investors to turn over key technologies to Chinese firms. However, Mr Liu said the investigation report "violates international trade rules and is beneficial to neither Chinese interests, US interests nor global interests".

In a statement on its website, the office of the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said it had filed a request - at the direction of Mr Trump - for consultations with China at the World Trade Organisation to address "discriminatory technology licensing agreements".

China's commerce ministry expressed regret at the filing and said China had taken strong measures to protect the legal rights and interests of both domestic and foreign owners of intellectual property.

During a visit to Washington early this month, Mr Liu had requested Washington set up a new economic dialogue mechanism, identify a point person on China issues, and deliver a list of demands.

The Trump administration responded by telling China to immediately shave $100bn off its record $375bn trade surplus with the United States. Beijing told Washington that US export restrictions on some high-tech products are to blame.

"China has already prepared, and has the strength, to defend its national interests," Mr Liu said on Saturday.

According to an editorial by China's state-run 'Global Times', it was Mr Mnuchin who called Mr Liu. Firing off a warning shot, China on Friday declared plans to levy additional duties on up to $3bn of US imports in response to US tariffs on steel and aluminium, imposed after a separate US probe.

Zhang Zhaoxiang, senior vice president of China Minmetals, said that while the state-owned mining group's steel exports to the US are tiny, the impact could come indirectly.

"China's direct exports to the US are not big. But there will be some impact due to our exports via the United States or indirect exports," Mr Zhang said.France's public deficit shrank to a better-than-expected 2.6pc of gross domestic product in 2017, the first time it has fallen below the European Union's three percent limit in a decade, the national statistics office said today.

The result, better than the government's 2.9pc, will be good news for President Emmanuel Macron, who made respecting EU budget rules after years of delays a cornerstone of his aim to restore French fiscal credibility among EU peers.

Shortly after he was elected last May, Macron took belt-tightening measures, including cuts to a popular housing allowance, to make sure the budget deficit would not overshoot the three percent limit, costing him precious points in his popularity rating.

However, figures from the INSEE statistics office showed the better-than-expected improvement in France's public finances was also in a large part due to stronger tax receipts, boosted by brisker economic growth.

The French tax burden rose to a record of 45.4pc of GDP product in 2017 from 44.6pc the year before.

Government spending rose by 2.5pc and government revenue by 4pc, INSEE said.

France was also one of only two euro zone countries still under the European Commission's excessive-deficit procedure, with only Spain expected to have done worse in 2017, according to European Commission forecasts.

The improvement should give welcome support to Macron's quest to convince Germany, the EU's paymaster, to reform the euro zone and help overcome mistrust between northern European countries and what they perceive as profligate southern members.

But on the domestic front, the better-than-expected deficit figures could represent a headache for the president.

Calls are growing within his party for some of the windfall, as it has come to be called, to be spent, not entirely used to pay down debt, as his government has promised.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has dismissed such calls, saying France's debt, which reached 97pc of GDP last year, was unsustainable.Gemma-Leah Devereux at the opening night of Poison Pen at the Irish Film Institute in Temple Bar, Dublin

Irish actress Gemma-Leah Devereux has landed the role of Liza Minnelli in the BBCs highly anticipated biopic about Judy Garland.

Devereux will star opposite Renee Zellweger, who takes on the lead role of Miss Show Business Garland.

Devereux was not the only Irish actress to land a role in the film as Kerry actress Jessie Buckley will play Rosalyn Wilder, Garlands production assistant.

The film also stars Michael Gambon and American Horror Story actor Finn Wittrock, who will play Mickey Deans, Garlands fifth husband.

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Set in the 1960s, the film will focus on Garlands series of sold-out concerts at Londons Talk Of The Town nightclub.

Tony nominee Rupert Goold is directing the film Judy, from a script by Tom Edge who worked on Netflixs hit series, The Crown.

IFTA-winning actress Devereux has previously starred in Get Up And Go, Cardboard Gangsters and legal TV series Striking Out.

Talking about her role in the film, Devereux said it was a dream to play Minnelli.

Renee Zellweger is playing Judy Garland in a new movie about the icon's final concerts in London  get ready for the Reneessance!!! pic.twitter.com/EqmbCpnTRm  Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) March 19, 2018

I am over the moon to be playing the iconic Liza Minnelli. Being directed by the very talented Rupert Goold and to be playing opposite Renee Zellweger is every actresss dream, she told IFTN.ie.

The day my agent called to say I got the part I had just watched Discovering: Judy Garland on Sky Arts.

Video of the Day

This is a very exciting chapter in my career. I have grown up watching Liza with a Z and I feel honoured to be playing her.

The film will delve into the battles Garland had with her management team as well as the relationships she had with her son and daughters.

It will feature some of Garlands best-known songs including her signature Over The Rainbow.

It is currently being filmed in the UK, and last week, the first images of Zellweger in costume were released.

No release date has yet been announced for the project. Garland starred in classic films including The Wizard Of Oz, A Star Is Born and Meet Me in St Louis.'There's a lot of rock music that's become exclusive and it's of no use to anyone. Least of all me," Elvis Costello said in an irascible but typically forthright interview with Melody Maker in 1977.

"Music has to get to people. In the heart, in the head," added the wordsmith with the Buddy Holly glasses who emerged in 1977 as the archetype of the angry young man (as The Guardian dubbed him).

His furious first single, Less Than Zero, fitted the bill and had the aforesaid anger in spades - with Elvis giving out yards about a British fascist leader of yore...

"Calling Mister Oswald with the swastika tattoo/ There is a vacancy waiting in the English voodoo," snarled Elvis, who was born Declan Patrick MacManus in August 1954 in London; his father, Ross MacManus, who died in 2011, was a musician of some note (and of Irish descent).

Less Than Zero's bloody bile was nothing compared to the lash Margaret Thatcher received on 1989's literally blood-curdling Tramp the Dirt Down: "I'm trying so hard to behave/ Because there's one thing I know, I'd like to live/ Long enough to savour/ That's when they finally put you in the ground/ I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down."

Please note. Maggie died on April 8, 2013; Elvis is still alive and kicking - whatever about tramping the dirt down on the Iron Lady's final resting place.

I prefer the more sensitive Elvis: like We Ought to Be Ashamed, the beautiful duet with Johnny Cash on the deluxe edition of Elvis's 1981 alt.Nashville album Almost Blue; or the aching melancholia of Good Year For The Roses or Veronica, or the plain beauty of Alison; or even the plain forlornness of Shipbuilding.

The song, about the Falklands conflict, was made yet more forlorn by a Chet Baker trumpet solo. "Chet Baker, this wizened corpse on death's door, strung out, just played," recalled bassist for Elvis's band the Attractions, Bruce Thomas. "He followed this bass line and played his solo, so simple, with so much soul in it. It really touched me."

As did the anti-war Oliver's Army from 1979 - an impossibly catchy track that implores you to dance along to its vaguely Dancing Queen by Abba piano riff courtesy of Mr Steve Nieve.

Elvis, who lived in Dublin for many years when he was married to Pogue bassist Cait O'Riordan, has incorporated all manner of styles into his work every few years (sometimes seemingly out of spite for his fans who expect him to write another Pump It Up every year): punk-pop, country, reggae, Tin Pan Alley, classical, jazz, pop, r'n'b, soul, Tex-Mex, tango, new wave.

Video of the Day

His My Aim Is True album from 1977 as well as 1981's Trust remain classics of their time, as do in their way 1982's Imperial Bedroom, 1986's King Of America (with T-Bone Burnett behind the desk) and, of course, 1989's Spike.

Asked last December by Rolling Stone magazine what were his resolutions for 2018, Elvis answered: "To continue enjoying everything that still may be enjoyable in what's left of the world and in what's left of the time [in this world]. Let's hope for something better... There is a lot of stuff that needs sorting out... Don't get me started!"

"Oh, I just don't know where to begin..." Elvis sang on his 1979 single Accidents Will Happen about someone's infidelity: "She says she can't go home/ Without a chaperone." You can also hear him sing his heart (and his pain) out on Everyday I Write The Book and Nick Lowe's (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding. What's so funny about a baldy fella with Buddy Holly glasses still doing it brilliantly after over 40 years in the business?

Elvis has not left the building.

You can catch Elvis Costello on June 23 at Dublin's Bord Gais Energy Theatre (bordgaisenergytheatre.ie).Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes has launched a vicious tirade against those who took part in the March for Our Lives protest.

In a lengthy Instagram post he called the surviving students of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 of their classmates were shot dead in February, 'disgusting vile abusers of the dead' for taking part in the protest.

Hughes survived another mass-shooting, on Paris venue, Bataclan, in 2016. His band were performing on stage on November 13, 2015 when it was attacked by Islamic extremist suicide bombers who killed 89 people.

The March for Our Lives rally against gun violence took place in Washington on Saturday with more than 800 sister events across the US and around the world. Thousands of students took part in the protests along with teachers, and supporters.

Hughes' Instagram post begins, "Obviously....The best thing to do to combat chronic abusers and disregarders of the law(like the law against Murder) is to........pass another Law!.....Genius!!!...... but before we pass this law were going to denigrate the memory and curse ourselves by exploiting the death of 16 of our fellow students for a few Facebook likes and some media attention."

"And look how well civil rights abuses as it concerns firearms helped to protect me and my friends in Paris!!!!!" he continued.

Hughes did not hold back when criticising the Florida teenagers for campaigning for new laws on gun control in the US, saying it sounded "like the plan of like a kid maybe like a high school student".

"The Whitney Houston song about letting the children lead the way wasnt actually had operating paradigm for life....." he wrote.

"And when the truth dont line up with your bullsh*t narrative just hold your breath and stamp your feet and refused to except it.... then take multiple days off of school playing hooky at the expense of 16 of your classmates blood....!.... it might be funny if it wasnt so pathetic and disgusting......"

He added that the teenagers protesting and taking days off school "insult the memory of those who were killed and abuse and insult me and every other lover of liberty by your every action.....

Video of the Day

"Long Live RocknRoll..... and may everyone of these disgusting vile abusers of the dead live as long as possible so they can have the maximum amount of time to endure their shame....and be Cursed...."

Following the response to his post he posted another in which he said he should not have mixed rock'n'roll and politics.

It's not the first time he has caused controversy with his outspoken views. In the months after the Bataclan massacre he provoked anger when he suggested Bataclan security staff were complicit in the attack. However, he later apologised.Brendan O'Carroll and the cast of Mrs Brown's Boys look set to tour the US for the first time - though they said they will be "selective" about where they perform by avoiding the "Bible Belt".

The Mrs Brown's Boys creator has just returned from a sell-out tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Now his live shows could soon be heading to the US, where the sitcom is becoming increasingly popular.

However, Eilish O'Carroll, who plays Agnes Brown's best pal Winnie McGoogan in the smash-hit show, said she would have reservations about touring the more God-fearing southern states.

Eilish says she thinks the material in the shows would be too racy for the audiences there.

"I think Brendan's been asked, as there's a lot of interest Stateside to bring the show over there," said Eilish (65), who is also one of Dubliner Brendan's real-life sisters.

"I don't know whether there's a reluctance on his part, but I actually feel that part of America is a very Bible-bashing country, and I reckon we could be strung up as soon as we land.

"You know, it would be a bit risky - we'd have to be very selective on the states we went to.

"But I mean, it's hugely popular in the States. They obviously get it via the BBC channel.

"I get a lot of fan mail from people in the US who have seen it on YouTube, saying, 'When are you bringing it over to the States?'."

Video of the Day

In an interview on TV3's The Six O'Clock Show, the veteran actress added: "I would love it to go to the States, and I would imagine that it's a huge possibility."

Earlier this month, younger brother Brendan (62) revealed that he had never originally intended to play the role of Irish mammy Agnes Brown.

He said he only stepped into role of the iconic comic character after the actress he had initially approached for the part suddenly became ill.

He recalled that TV bosses were so impressed that they insisted he make the role his own.

Since being snapped up by the BBC in 2011, the show has gone on to win multiple awards and enjoy runaway success - topping the competitive Christmas ratings every year in both Ireland and Britain.Tanaiste Simon Coveney is to back abortion up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy in a dramatic change of heart ahead of the Eighth Amendment referendum.

The Foreign Affairs Minister held a series of meetings with clinicians in recent weeks aimed at establishing safeguards for the administration of abortion pills.

Proposals for a 'Clinical Protocol', including a pause period of between 48 and 72 hours before a woman is given the pill, will be brought to Cabinet by his colleague Health Minister Simon Harris tomorrow.

Writing in today's Irish Independent, Mr Coveney says: "When it comes to prescribing abortion pills early in pregnancy, I have struggled most with this issue.

"If we do nothing, we know pills will continue to be purchased online and taken without medical advice or supervision. We cannot knowingly allow this to continue, given the dangers involved."

Mr Coveney has also been assured that limiting access to pills to the first 12 weeks of gestation will rule out the potential for a child to be aborted on the grounds of a disability.

And where there is any doubt about the length of a pregnancy, a scan will be legally required.

The Tanaiste's shift in position could have a major impact on the course of the campaign as he has long opposed any form of abortion regime in Ireland.

In his article, Mr Coveney expresses concern that people who have legitimate questions about the right to life of an unborn child are "being dismissed as dinosaurs or anti-women".

"Removing the equal right to life of the unborn from our Constitution is not something I easily or immediately supported. I say this as a husband and father of three beautiful young girls," he writes.

Mr Harris will bring a significant level of detail to Cabinet this week on the type of legislation the Government will propose in the event that the Eighth Amendment is repealed.

As well as strict guidelines for access to the abortion pill, he plans to outlaw late-term abortions. This means that abortion will not be permitted after a foetus becomes viable.

The viability of the foetus would be assessed and agreed by two doctors, one of whom would be an obstetrician or a gynaecologist. If viability is established and a pregnancy is to be ended on health grounds, then it will be done through early delivery of the baby.

Mr Coveney has interpreted the safeguards now being put in place to mean that there will be no "unrestricted access to abortion at any point in pregnancy".

"I could never support a law that allows for late-term abortions. The Government will move to close off any suggestion of that happening by stating that a baby who could survive outside the womb will not be aborted in any circumstance," he said.

In cases of fatal foetal abnormalities, he says the State has a duty "to step up" for all women and couples in "these heart-wrenching situations".

"A woman who chooses to carry a baby with a fatal abnormality should have access to expert palliative care for her child, and a woman who wants to deliver a baby with a fatal abnormality early should be able to do so surrounded by support and dignity."

Mr Coveney had faced some criticism for his conflicting stance of supporting repeal but objecting to the 12-weeks proposal - but he said his approach would be based on what allows him to sleep at night.Garda frontline supervisors are to take a tougher stance on the failure of the Government to grant them the right to strike.

The move stems from rising anger in their ranks at Government inaction, and they have already sought legal advice on their options.

An EU ruling five years ago backed a complaint from the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) that its members were being denied their rights to go on strike, negotiate their own pay and take part in trade union action.

But since then, it says, it has made little progress in securing the Government implementation of the decision of the EU social rights committee.

Association leaders will today call on their members to step up their campaign to press the Government to implement the ruling.

The AGSI, led by president Antoinette Cunningham, will spell out its case to Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan at the opening of its annual conference in Tullow, Co Carlow.

This is the first time in three years that a justice minister has addressed the conference.

After a threatened strike was called off by gardai towards the end of 2016, the Government gave a commitment that the representative associations should have access to the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court and the right to participate in pay negotiations to ensure equality with other public sector workers.

However, the Government subsequently set up a working group, under former secretary general of the Department of Enterprise and Jobs John Murphy, to examine the Garda position, and the group found that gardai should not be granted the right to strike.

The conference will be told today that without the right to strike, gardai do not have equal status with other public sector workers when negotiating pay and conditions.

Association sources said last night that there had been growing resentment within its ranks at the way members were being treated, particularly the lack of consultation by the Murphy group, and the anger at the Government was now coming to a head.

In the wake of Storm Emma, the conference will also debate a motion calling for better equipment to deal with weather emergencies. In particular, it will underline the difficulties faced when looting in Fortunestown resulted in severe structural damage to a supermarket.A FORMER Anglo Irish Bank senior official has said it was a shock to him when he found out the details of the 7.2 billion interbank loans that are now at the centre of an alleged conspiracy to defraud.

Donal OConnor, who was a director of Anglo at the time the cash transfers were happening, told a jury he only became aware of their round the houses nature after he took over as Chairman.

Mr OConnor denied that he received documents outlining the transactions with Irish Life and Permanent (ILP) a month before his appointment.

He was giving evidence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in the fraud trial of Anglos former CEO David Drumm.

Mr Drumm (51) is pleading not guilty to conspiring to defraud Anglo investors by dishonestly creating the impression that the banks customer deposits were 7.2bn larger than they were.

He is alleged to have conspired with Anglos former Finance Director Willie McAteer and head of Capital Markets John Bowe, as well as then-CEO of ILP, Denis Casey, and others. The case centres on a series of interbank loans which circulated between Anglo and ILP in September 2008.

The transfers were routed through Irish Life Assurance, returning to Anglo where they were then treated as customer deposits, which are a better indicator of a banks health.

Mr Drumm also denies false accounting, by providing misleading information to the market.

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The jury heard Mr OConnor came to Anglo in June 2008. He was a non executive director, a member of the audit committee and later, became Chairman on December 18, 2008, following the resignation of Sean Fitzpatrick.

Mary Rose Gearty SC, prosecuting, asked him about an audit committee meeting of November 18, 2008.

Mr OConnor said he had been in Sydney, Australia at the time and a hotel room was organised for him to make a conference call.

He said he remembered clearly that he had the agenda for the meeting but I didnt have any other papers and when the meeting started there was a reference to papers being distributed.

Ms Gearty asked if he remembered there being an issue about whether he got the papers.

Mr OConnor said in 2009 his attention was drawn to various emails that were sent with these additions papers attached but I didnt have them or receive them.

They were sent to a PWC administrative assistant who printed out the agenda and gave it to him, but did not give him any additional papers.

Asked how that meeting went, he told Ms Gearty the main focus was on loan loss provision and it was a very difficult time.

The meeting took between two and three hours and Irish Life and Permanent was mentioned.

My recollection, which is clear, is that toward the end of the meeting when we were coming to items for noting that one of the management team, I believe it was Colin Golden, started to talk and made reference to Irish Life, he said.

As is my wont. I interrupted, butted in when I heard him talk and said Is that window dressing?

He recalled Mr Golden mentioning a figure on 7.2bn, and that he said enough to pique my concern.

Willie McAteer then immediately stepped in and said it was normal balance sheet management, Mr OConnor said. The Financial Regulator and auditor were mentioned.

I got the impression that this had been cleared, that they had been taken through, there was no issue, Mr OConnor said.

Nobody at the meeting made any further comment and they moved on to the next item, he said.

Mr OConnor said he held Mr McAteer in the highest regard.

Ms Gearty asked Mr OConnor what he had meant by window dressing.

From an accounting perspective it would be when transactions are entered into that are legal but force the organisation to disclose information in a particular way that is usually flattering to the organisation, he said.

Asked what he thought about the transaction after the meeting, he said my mind was immediately put at ease and he did not think any more about it until after I became Chairman and things began to unfold.

Mr OConnor was then shown a version of the minutes of that meeting which stated it was outlined that the transactions were in the nature of normal year end balance sheet management activity and that the Financial Regulator and auditors had no issue with them.

Ms Gearty asked him if this was accurate.

Yes, Mr OConnor replied, adding that there was a reference to the regulator and auditors, that there was no issue and that was the impression.

He agreed with the substance of it.

There was no reference to the transactions at subsequent meetings or an informal dinner in November. Mr OConnor recalled getting a draft copy of the Chairmans statement for the December 2008 preliminary results and gave some comments back on them. The comments did not relate to the ILP transactions.

The following weeks were an extremely busy time.

The jury was then shown minutes from a December 22, 2008 board meeting at which the ILP transaction was referred to. The Chairman provided an update, the minutes stated.

He referred to the balance sheet transactions at year end with Irish Life, commenting that the board needed to take time to review and consider same, the minutes stated.

Mr OConnor said while he had been aware of a big deposit with Irish Life, he only subsequently became aware of what he called the round the houses issue, at a meeting on January 13, 2009.

In the minutes of that meeting it was noted that Chief Financial Officer Matt Moran explained the details and circumstances of the ILP transactions and an extensive discussion ensued.

It was noted that Mr Moran confirmed that the Financial Regulator and Central Bank were fully aware of both sides of the transaction at the time it occurred.

The minutes stated that the Chairman commented that the board would need to consult with the Central Bank, Financial Regulator and external auditor regarding the disclosure of the IP transaction.

Mr OConnor told the jury that was when he and the non executive directors heard there were two elements to the transaction; that the bank had given money to an Irish Life company, which gave it to a non-banking sister company, which had in turn given it back to the bank.

He used the colloquial phrase around the houses to explain that.

A mail was shown to the jury that Mr Drumm sent to Matt Moran on January 14, 2009. In this, Mr Drumm said that at all board meetings, the non executive directors had referred regularly to the desirability in the prevailing market conditions to manage the balance sheet over the year end, a practice that is common in all banks, credit crunch or not.

In the mail Mr Drumm went on to say I would relish the opportunity to sit in front of Con and ask him to tell me to my face that he didnt know about this. If they insist on killing the bank with this for no reason and try to protect themselves, I will go public with it. Its not just Con, there was always a room full when you went down there to Dame Street.

Mr OConnor told the jury everyone in the bank had believed the Regulator was aware of the transaction and had been taken through it.

He said he was called to a meeting in Mr Morans office in February 13 2009. Mr Moran put down on the desk copies of the papers that had been given out at the audit committee meeting of November 18. These included the paper that had been attempted to be sent to me, including the customer accounts issue Mr OConnor said.

A newspaper statement had prompted Mr Moran to go to him and challenge him about when he became aware of the full impact of the Irish Life issue. Mr OConnor had said January and Mr Moran was challenging him on that.

Mr Moran was saying Mr OConnor was aware from the November 18 meeting. Mr OConnor denied this and being the person that I am, gathered all the information that he could and wrote down his recollection of everything that occurred.

He said a key issue was not so much a phrase or word that was used but the meaning that was communicated and he took it that the auditor and regulators had no issue with the transaction.

Nobody interjected after Mr McAteer gave his comforting words that it was balance sheet management and Mr OConnor said there might be a difference of perspective.

On February 17, Mr OConnor had sent a long email to the directors indicating that he was prepared to offer his resignation if he had been negligent or if there was that perception, as the bank had an issue of credibility. He set out the reasons he believed he was not negligent.

The mail stated if his colleagues wanted him to continue in his role he would do so to the best of his ability.

I was very upset if my credibility was questioned, he told the jury.

Mr OConnor was reassured by his colleagues and did not resign.

In cross examination, Brendan Grehan SC, defending, that even when the transaction was described in detail on January 13, 2009 it didnt seem to be a problem.

Mr OConnor replied that when directors heard the details at that meeting there was great concern at how it was going to be dealt with - how it was going to be disclosed without damaging the other parties.

It was an issue to be dealt with internally. Then, the following day Mr OConnor was at a meeting with the Financial Regulator and he told the Regulator what had happened.

At that stage the Regulator was very exercised and excited about it, he said.

Heretofore, he said, the auditors had had no difficulty with the transaction at all, because it was accounted for correctly, he said.

They were taken aback a bit by the Regulators reaction.

The court heard the former Financial Regulator Patrick Neary had announced his resignation at this stage. In relation to disclosure, events overtook them as ILP issued a press release about the transaction following media reports.

Mr Grehan asked Mr OConnor about notes and minutes of the November 18, 2008 audit committee. The company secretary Natasha Mercer had not put any reference to the transactions in the first draft because it didnt strike her as important.

He did not agree with a version of the minutes he was shown because he thought it was misleading.

In his statement, Matt Moran had said Ms Mercer told him she challenged Mr OConnor three times about changing the minutes and he told her to shut up.

However, Mr Grehan pointed out that Ms Mercer disavowed that in evidence and Mr Moran in his evidence withdrew from his statement and said it might have been metaphorical.

Mr OConnor said he had no recollection of any tension with Ms Mercer, saying he got on well with her and it had come as a surprise to him that she would have had any difficulty with him.

Mr OConnor said he would never use a phrase like that to anybody.

For anybody to say that about me is a complete untruth, he said.

Mr OConnor said he did not recall the issue of the minutes as a controversy. He remembered the draft minutes did not coincide with his recollection and he shared his views and notes with members of the committee and Ms Mercer.

Nobody was denying that he had used the term window dressing and he believed minds were put at ease by Mr McAteers answer. This was not in the first draft of the minutes.

The words that were paraphrased at the meeting were not as clear as they might have been, Mr OConnor said.

Mr Grehan then asked him about the thinking behind Mr OConnors February 2009 letter in which he said he was prepared to resign.

My natural reaction is always to do the right thing, he said. I wanted to do whats best for the bank, that is who I am.

Asked if he considered that he might have been negligent, he said there had been other very experienced non executive directors at the meeting and none picked up on the detail of it.

This gave him a lot of comfort that he was not negligent, and he read out from his mail the other reasons he believed this.

These included having participated in the call in the early hours of the morning, not having the papers in advance, the quality of the line not the greatest, the fact that the item was near the end of the agenda, not having a background in banking and not appreciating the significance of the term customer funding.

These and other factors contributed to my not having sufficient awareness of the ILP issue and its seriousness before I was appointed Chairman.

Mr Grehan said there was a suggestion Mr OConnor initially denied that the matter was discussed at the audit committee meeting.

I dont believe that is the case, Mr OConnor said.

He accepted that of the three non executive directors at the meeting, he had the most auditing experience. Mr OConnor had also been a member of the board of the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority.

Mr OConnor was then shown emails between a member of Mr Mercers department and Bonnie Cunningham, PWC meetings planner.

Ms Cunningham was asked if she received the documents emailed to her for Mr OConnor in advance of the November 18, 2008 audit committee meeting.

Ms Cunningham replied: Yes, all set. Donal received all. Thank you.

As I said, I didnt receive them, Mr OConnor told the jury.

He said he drew attention at the meeting to the fact that he did not have the papers, but the meeting continued.

Mr Grehan asked Mr OConnor why he did not ask the meeting if he could be given the documents.

I do not remember the thought process regarding that, he said.

You were happy to proceed without them, Mr Grehan said.

Well I did proceed without them, Mr OConnor replied.

He added that those who were given the documents didnt glean any more information and he was the one who raised the issue.

Mr Grehan asked if it was the case that Mr OConnor simply missed it.

In absolute terms you are right, he replied, but said he thought it was a misleading statement because he raised a query, got an answer that gave him comfort and took it for what it was worth.

Mr Golden had made his own notes about the meeting which stated: lent to ILP bank, borrowed from customer (Assurance Co) 7bn bolstered cust depos, not allowed net.

Mr OConnor said when Mr McAteer referred to the auditors and Financial Regulator I got the clear impression that they were OK with this they were comfortable with it.

I certainly didnt know the detail of the transaction because when I found out on January 13 it was a shock to me, he said.

The trial continues.Wreckage from the Vickers Viscount aircraft is brought ashore at Rosslare in 1968 Photos: Patrick Browne

Wreckage from the Vickers Viscount aircraft is brought ashore at Rosslare in 1968 Photos: Patrick Browne

Family members drop flowers in memory of loved ones who died in the crash at Tuskar Rock Photos: Patrick Browne

A woman who lost her father in the Tuskar Rock air tragedy when she was just nine years old joined with other bereaved families to pay an emotional tribute to the victims of Ireland's worst domestic aviation accident.

Hilary Nunan joined her mother Mary at the Church of the Assumption in Ballyphehane, Co Cork, for a special 50th memorial Mass for the 61 people who died when Flight 712 crashed into the Irish Sea off the Wexford coast on March 24, 1968.

Among the victims was the then parish priest of Ballyphehane, Fr Edward 'Eddie' Hegarty. The Bishop of Cork and Ross, Dr John Buckley, lost several friends in the tragedy, including Fr Hegarty.

Shock

Ms Nunan remembers going to Cork Airport that March 24 day to wave goodbye to her father, Noel, who worked for oil giant Shell. "It was such a shock. We all went to the airport and Dad said goodbye to each and every one of us individually," she said.

"When we got home, we got the news from a neighbour who had heard [about the air crash] on the radio."

She said an important part of dealing with the tragedy was getting to know the other bereaved families.

"The 30th anniversary was the first time that we met all the relatives. Because prior to that we just grieved on our own. Now it is like meeting family again," she said.

Her mother Mary revealed that she and Noel were teenage sweethearts.

"[Noel] was a wonderful husband and father - that is exactly what he was. We think of him a lot," she said.

As well as the Ballyphehane tribute, a special ceremony was organised on Saturday in Wexford.

In Cork, the famous Shandon bells were sounded 61 times - once for every life lost 50 years ago.

Another ceremony was held at Teagasc's Moorepark research centre in memory of three former staff, Michael Cowhig, Thomas Dwane and John Nyhan, who also died in the tragedy.

The precise cause of the tragedy remains unknown, with a number of theories ranging from a bird strike to catastrophic failure involving part of the plane's fuselage, and even an errant British missile.A company is looking for Irish people to fill "all expenses covered" jobs in Dubai.

The positions being advertised by the Irish Village Dubai are aimed at people who fancy living in the sunny United Arab Emirates.

They said in a post on JobAlert.ie that they are hiring Irish natives to work as waiters at their popular restaurants and pubs.

The advert read: "Irish Village Dubai are recruiting Irish natives for waiter/waitress positions for their IRISH VILLAGE in Dubai!

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"You must be at least 21 years old and have at least one year customer service experience. You must have an up to date passport and be available to travel ASAP.

"You will be working with a team of staff aged 21 to 30. Your contract will be for one year.

"Accommodation is paid for, as well as your travel to and from work everyday and visa application expenses etc. are all covered."

They said that they want people to start working as soon as possible.

Interviews are underway and they said that anyone interested in applying can email their CV to theirishvillage@cut-e.comThe widow of a man who passed away suddenly just weeks after they got married has said she still has "absolutely no idea" what caused his death more than a year later.

Father-of-two Kevin Fogarty (32) died in London in December 2016 and his devastated wife Laurena said that not knowing what he died from is stressful.

The couple, who are from Clane in Co Kildare, had been together for around 16 years after meeting in school and tied the knot in November 2016.

A month after the wedding they travelled to London for a weekend with their children Callum (9) and Layla-Jane (6) to visit Laurena's sister and her family.

Speaking on The Ray D'Arcy Show on RTE Radio One, Laurena said that Kevin, who worked as a plumber, showed little signs of being unwell.

She explained: "He was very friendly and lovable, he was all good...

"He was perfectly healthy, he had been complaining about a pain in his back from the evening before but he told me he had been working in a really tight attic space so I just gave him a bit of Nurofen and told him he would be fine.

"Apart from that there was nothing, he had been sick with a temperature at the end of September and went to the doctor, he had to be put on a drip because he was dehydrated but he got blood tests and nothing showed up.

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"He was completely perfect after that, he danced all night at our wedding and was in great form."

She continued to say: "We had a family day in London on the Friday, we went ice-skating and for pizza, the back pain was there all the time but he seemed fine.

"Friday night he was restless but at the time I didn't really think anything of it.

"The next morning he wasn't in great form, he said he didn't feel well but he couldn't describe what was wrong with him, he didn't have a temperature, he didn't have a pain.

"I asked if his back was sore and if he needed medicine, I asked him if he wanted food but he didn't eat it, he couldn't describe it.

"He said to me, 'I don't know what's wrong but I just feel like my body is shutting down,' that is exactly what he said and that wouldn't be a Kevin thing to say at all.

"I do think he described it perfectly, of course I didn't realise that at the time, I just thought if he lay down and had a rest he would be fine.

"Kevin was funny, he wouldn't have been serious but that day he was very serious."

He didn't want to see a doctor, he told them to go into town and he would follow them in later, Laurena's brother-in-law Pat stayed in the house with him.

Pat and Laurena continued to ask Kevin if he needed to see a doctor but he insisted he didn't.

When Pat was going into town later to meet up with the rest of the group Kevin decided not to go and insisted he would be fine to stay in the house by himself.

"I tried to call him a few times but no answer, initially I wasn't alarmed but as the day went on and I hadn't heard anything at all I had a feeling, I was a little bit uneasy.

"Orla was driving and as we pulled into the house it was dark outside and the house was quite dark, we thought he musn't be up.

"I ran in and dropped my bag at the end of the stairs, I ran up and I was calling out, I can't describe it but I didn't have a good feeling.

"When I walked into the room Kev was lying on the ground, I knew straight away it wasn't good, the minute I saw him I knew he was dead," Laurena said.

The emergency services were called and paramedics pronounced Kevin dead.

Laurena, who works as a teacher, candidly spoke about how her life was turned upside down by the tragedy.

She said: "It was exactly four weeks and a day since our wedding, we hadn't even our marriage registered yet, that's how short it was.

"The kids are amazing but it was really difficult, kids are resilient though.

"I didn't tell them on the Saturday night because they were asleep but first thing on Sunday morning I sat them down, as far as they had been aware dad wasn't well and had fainted.

"I told them unfortunately the doctors hadn't been able to help their dad and they were very sad but I promised them everything would be okay.

"It was hard for them but they were very good, I suppose we had them quite well prepared for seeing him, I prepared them as much as we could.

"If you had told me before that this was going to happen to me I wouldn't have believed you and I wouldn't have thought that I would be able to cope but something just kicks in"

Laurena consented for the coroner to take tissue samples from Kevin and was told it would take six to ten weeks for his cause of death to be determined, fifteen months later and she still doesn't know what happened to him.

"The coroner told us that day it was likely we would find out the cause of death after Christmas, that it would take six to ten weeks.

"We've had another Christmas since that and I've still got nothing, I have absolutely no idea.

"It's really difficult and I just feel powerless, I have no idea what else I can do.

"I haven't been plaguing them but I have rang them repeatedly and emailed them but they're very blase and just say they don't have an answer yet.

"It's another stress, you'd like some reason but we've got nothing," she said.

Laurena also said she worries that Kevin may have died from a hereditary condition which their children could also have.

She said: "There's no history of anything in his family, it was just so, so sudden, it was completely out of the blue...

"I need to know if it's something the children could have and should I get them tested or does his brother need to be tested, it's always on my mind.

"I hope it's not inconclusive, I feel there will be an answer but now that it's taken so long I'm beginning to wonder if it's in a drawer somewhere and lost."

She said that she has received support from loved ones after Kevin's death and that her children keep her going.

The 34-year-old said: "I'm okay, children keep you going and I've good people around me, I've got good friends and good family, it's tough and it's a struggle but I'm doing okay.

"The kids talk about Kevin a lot, they say things like, 'remember when Dad said this?' or 'Dad was so funny.'"

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement: "The Embassy in London and the Consular Assistance team in Dublin had not been made aware of this case.

"We stand ready to provide consular assistance if requested to do so by Mrs Fogarty."Attorney General Seamus Woulfe has faced scathing criticisms and been challenged to clarify comments he made about a pending Supreme Court ruling.

The Government's legal adviser said he expected the nation's highest court would rule against former Rehab boss Angela Kerins in her case against the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Mr Woulfe's criticisms of the Judicial Appointments Bill were also challenged by some politicians.

The Attorney General made the comments at a lunch on Friday organised by the Association of European Journalists, which was attended by 50 people from journalism, public relations and lobbyists.

His criticisms of the Judicial Appointments Bill, which seeks to reduce the role of politicians and lawyers in appointing judges, were made in a speech delivered from notes and were available to be reported in the press.

The remarks about Ms Kerins's case were during a question and answer session which was to be treated as "off the record" and this was respected by the media present.

But those comments were published in a British newspaper yesterday, attracting commentary from Fianna Fail and the Social Democrats. Fianna Fail's public expenditure spokesman Dara Calleary called for clarity following the comments predicting the possible outcome of a Supreme Court case taken by Ms Kerins against the PAC.

"The Attorney General's decision to comment on ongoing legal procedures marks a worrying new departure for his office.

"It is deeply inappropriate for the Government's legal adviser to be commenting publicly about any ongoing case," Mr Calleary said.

Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall accused Mr Woulfe of inappropriate and gross interference in legislative and judicial matters.

"The job of the chief legal officer of the State is to advise the Government - not to weigh in with his personal opinions in public," she said.

Mr Woulfe also warned that a new 'penalty points' system aimed at fishermen who engage in illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing is likely to face a Supreme Court challenge. The Cabinet signed off on legislation to enact new EU laws last week. He described the new bill as "controversial" and "difficult".

"The EU loves these things about sanctions regimes. Instead of just prosecuting people and having the criminal system and the civil system, you've something in between which is a sanctions regime," he said.

But Mr Woulfe said many people had queried whether somebody accused of wrongdoing should be entitled to have a jury trial. "The answer is 'no' under the EU system so we're going to have trips to the Supreme Court about all of that." However, he added that EU laws trump all else.Leo Varadkar was forced to intervene on Friday night to calm a furious Cabinet row after the Attorney General described proposed new laws to appoint judges as a "dog's dinner" and "unconstitutional".

The Sunday Independent has also been told that ministers were unaware in advance that the AG, Seamus Woulfe, intended to publicly criticise the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill.

It is understood, however, that the AG had previously flagged at Cabinet that several changes would have to be made for the proposed new laws to be constitutional.

Now the Opposition is lining up to torpedo the Bill, with Fianna Fail yesterday calling on Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan to "scrap" the legislation in light of the AG's warning.

The controversy has also pointed an uncomfortable spotlight on Mr Woulfe.

Yesterday, some Government sources maintained that he had "got carried away" and "spoke too freely" at a luncheon with journalists on Friday.

The legislation is being pushed by Transport Minister Shane Ross who told a "very tense" Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that there would be "serious consequences" if the Bill was not before the Dail this week.

In a remarkably frank critique, Mr Woulfe said it would be a "challenge" to ensure the Bill proceeded. It is understood this comment, in particular, incensed Mr Ross following commitments he had received from the Justice Minister last week.

Central to the proposed legislation, which is a Programme for Government commitment negotiated by Mr Ross, is to provide for a new Commission for Judicial Appointments to include a lay chair and lay majority that is not drawn from the legal profession.

As controversy over the AG's remarks developed yesterday, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan told the Sunday Independent that this "key component" of the Bill would be "maintained and preserved". He said he expected the proposed legislation to be back before the Dail after Easter.

Last night Mr Ross said he was "very confident" after discussions with the Taoiseach and Justice Minister that the Bill would go ahead "at the fastest possible speed".

However, details emerged yesterday of how Mr Varadkar was forced to intervene after a furious Mr Ross protested at the AG's remarks.

Citing a series of amendments to the Bill, which have been tabled mostly by Fianna Fail, Mr Woulfe told a lunch hosted by the Association of European Journalists in Dublin: "The whole myriad amendments that they made now make the Bill a complete dog's dinner at the moment because a number of amendments were contradictory and inconsistent and unconstitutional."

In further apparently unguarded comments, he said: "Therefore that makes it a challenge to get the Bill to report stage very soon. I'm sure under our 'new politics', a deal will be done."

The Sunday Independent has now learnt that the Taoiseach left a European Council summit in Brussels on Friday and flew straight into a political storm. Government sources confirmed that there was a "flurry of phone calls" late into the night between Mr Varadkar, Mr Woulfe, Mr Ross and Mr Flanagan.

Another source said: "It's all sorted now. Let's just say Seamus got carried away at the lunch and spoke too freely. In fairness, he actually criticised the Opposition amendments to the Bill, not the Bill itself."

However, Mr Ross will now be on his guard and may threaten to walk out of Government if the Bill is further delayed.

Last week the Government agreed to the appointment of three judges despite strong opposition expressed by the Independent Alliance ministers at a "very tense" Cabinet meeting.

Mr Ross told the meeting that he would not facilitate any more judicial appointments under what he called a "rotten system". He said he expected to see the Bill in the Dail this week or, he warned, there would be "serious consequences".

However, the Opposition is now expected to move to exploit tensions at Cabinet over the proposed new laws.

Yesterday, Mr Flanagan told the Sunday Independent: "My job is to get the Bill on the statute books. The Government is committed to getting it through. There were almost 200 amendments, of which 65 were passed. Lengthy and wide-ranging debate has taken place over five days.

"The Bill is a key plank of the Programme for Government. The key components, the non-legal chair and non-legal majority aspect, will be maintained and preserved.

"I will honour the commitment given by Enda Kenny to Shane Ross. I've been speaking to Shane over the weekend and we will continue to work to have the Bill passed.

"I expect it'll be back in the Dail after Easter. In view of the Government minority status in the Dail and Seanad, we will work with others to secure the enactment of a reforming and workable piece of legislation."

He added: "Seamus Woulfe is playing a leading role in the Bill and we'll all work together to achieve a workable result."

Mr Flanagan's reference to a commitment given by former Taoiseach Enda Kenny to Mr Ross may be taken by some to indicate that Mr Varadkar's Government is not as committed to the legislation demanded by Mr Ross.

Furthermore, Mr Flanagan's statement that it is his "job" to "get it through" highlights that, while he must sponsor the Bill, the proposed legislation is not his idea.

The effect of the legislation would be to remove the appointment of judges from the control of the Law Library.

Yesterday, Fianna Fail Justice spokesperson Jim O'Callaghan, a barrister who particularly opposes 'lay chair' and 'lay majority' control over appointments, called on Mr Flanagan to scrap the Bill.

He warned that if the AG considered the Bill unconstitutional, the Government "needs to set it aside" and the process of drafting new legislation must begin again.

Mr O'Callaghan said: "The Attorney General is correct in describing the Government's Bill as a complete dog's dinner. The reason it is a dog's dinner is because the chef is Shane Ross. The Government's Bill is deeply flawed and will not achieve any genuine reform. In fact, its sole purpose is to appease one Cabinet minister.

"The comments by the Attorney General should act as a wake-up call for the Government, especially the remarks around the constitutionality of the legislation. Minister Flanagan needs to act on the concerns of the AG and scrap this legislation that has become a vanity project for one member of cabinet.

"It is not acceptable for a government to sit back and allow flawed legislation to be introduced in a bid to keep Minister Ross on board. The European Commission has already stated that the Bill does not conform to European standards, which specify that a substantial part of the members of the judicial appointments body should be judges.

"At no stage has the Government ever explained the public policy reason for reducing judicial involvement and replacing this expertise with people who have no knowledge of which candidates are suitable, or characteristics required, for judicial appointment.

"The intervention by the Attorney General should mark the death knell for this deeply flawed Bill. The Justice Minister needs to intervene immediately and scrap this deeply flawed legislation."

Last night Mr Ross accused Mr O'Callaghan of promoting the interests of the legal profession.

"The era of political patronage of the judiciary is coming to an end despite the efforts of the mouthpiece of the Four Courts in the Dail, Jim O'Callaghan," he said.A member of the Dail's powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has expressed concern over legal costs at commissions of inquiry in the wake of a claim that as much as 100m may end up being spent on a probe into IBRC transactions.

Fianna Fail TD Marc MacSharry said the State must not be deterred from such investigations, but cannot take an "auto-pilot approach" to spiralling costs.

He suggested that the PAC may have a role in reviewing spending on legal and other professional fees.

His remarks come after former IBRC chief executive Mike Aynsley claimed that the Cregan Commission of Inquiry would cost as much as 100m.

The commission was set up to examine deals where the State booked big losses when IBRC - the former Anglo Irish Bank - sold assets, which included the sale of Siteserv to businessman Denis O'Brien.

Mr O'Brien is a significant shareholder in INM which publishes this newspaper.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last month told the Dail that it had been estimated that the probe could cost up to 25m.

Since then, Mr Aynsley issued a statement claiming that the final bill for investigating asset sales by IBRC could reach 100m and he alleged that it had been launched without firm evidence. "It wouldn't surprise me if it's up to 100m when the costs of all parties are paid and we find ourselves many years down the road," he said.

Mr Aynsley said more than 30 lawyers were now working at the commission.

He claimed the Government had been urged to begin an "extraordinarily expensive investigation on dubious grounds".

Mr Aynsley alleged that the commission was "set up based on misrepresentation of information by faceless people with an ulterior agenda".

He added: "Given the lack of validated detail and transparency around what and who has driven this outcome, I find it incredibly disappointing that the Irish taxpayer is yet again being lumped with this massive cost."

Mr MacSharry told the Sunday Independent that fears over the cost of such probes "should in no way deter the State from continuing appropriate investigations in the interests of taxpayers".

But he added: "Obviously an auto-pilot approach to these costs cannot be taken."

He said a "hands-on approach" was needed to ensure the State was getting value for money, adding: "Perhaps there's a role for the Public Accounts Committee within that."

Mr MacSharry stressed that any such intervention must not delay commission proceedings.

He said in relation to commissions of inquiry: "It's incumbent on us in the interests of the taxpayer to get to the truth of these matters [being probed]. It's also incumbent on us to do so in an expeditious, efficient and cost-effective manner."

Mr MacSharry raised concerns over sums paid to "companies between the two canals in Dublin" for legal and professional fees in relation to various inquiries.

Last month, the Government confirmed that it had refused to increase the fees paid to lawyers involved in commissions of investigation. The decision came after the judge overseeing the IBRC inquiry, Mr Justice Brian Cregan, pressed for fees paid to barristers to be almost doubled. Senior counsel working on commissions of investigation are paid 788 per day, while a junior counsel earns 394.

In an interim report to the Government last December, Mr Cregan sought for fees to be brought in line with those paid to barristers working at the separate Disclosures Tribunal.

Senior counsel at the tribunal are paid 1,500 per day, while junior counsel earn 800 per day.

Speaking in the Dail, the Taoiseach said the commission maintained the current rates were "inadequate and are becoming problematic".

But Mr Varadkar said that, following discussions with Opposition parties, his department had informed the judge that the request was being refused.

Meanwhile, a series of texts involving a PR consultant and a TD have emerged in court documents. The texts were sent before the setting-up of the inquiry. The court has been told the texts were between PR man Karl Brophy and former Fianna Fail TD Colm Keaveney.

According to court documents, the texts include parliamentary questions suggested by Mr Brophy for Mr Keaveney to ask in relation to the Siteserv sale.The Russian Ambassador to Ireland has said the Government should put the interests of the public first when responding to the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England.

Yury Filatov urged the Government to "use common sense" following the expulsion of Russian diplomats from a number of European countries and the United States today.

Independent.ie revealed earlier that it is "highly likely" the Government will announce the expulsion of a Russian diplomat tomorrow.

Speaking to The Claire Byrne Show on RTE, Mr Filatov called for "common sense" to be deployed.

"Its a real world. Every government is well within its own right to take actions, whichever it might want to do. But, my point and my concern is, whatever happens tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, we should be concerned about the best interests of the Irish public, and the best interests of the Russian public  the Irish-Russian relationship," he said.

"We have a huge amount of goodwill, weve had a very nice relationship  positive, constructive, stable, open dialogue, good business, and I dont see anything which would really point to the necessity to ruin it. Its a common sense approach."

Russia has continuously denied it was behind an attack on former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, in Salisbury earlier this month.

The pair were found unconscious on a public bench and it is believed they may have suffered brain damage due to the use of a Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent.

"My job is to be prepared in any case, but I dont have any crystal ball, and I dont know what will happen tomorrow," Mr Filatov said.

"I dont want to talk about hypotheticals. The only thing I know for sure, from the onset of the whole incident on March 4th in Salisbury  the British Government has moved away from dealing with that in a responsible manner. So, they preferred to wage a propaganda campaign, unprecedented, surely."

When asked if Russia is particularly interested in Ireland because we host the headquarters of large tech companies, he slammed that as "complete rubbish".

"Ive been reading those kinds of reports for two weeks now, and I am really amazed at the level of fantasy that people engage in, because what is the point of keeping an embassy to monitor an international company that is spread all over the world, you can do that from your home laptop computer, I mean its nonsense. We maintain business relationships  open, transparent, we assist businesses to establish contacts."

He said it "wouldn't be a good idea" to give advice to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, but urged for him to "use common sense" and "put the interests of our people first".Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly on Im A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. McPartlin has said he is taking time out from his TV commitments

I have spent the best part of 17 years hiding. You get very good at that when you are married to an alcoholic. Their whole existence is built on a tightly woven web of lies - lies which you often end up helping them to keep.

David was always very good at hiding his problem. So good that for years I couldn't even acknowledge that he had one. Once I admitted to myself that my husband has been an alcoholic for as long as I've known him, I found myself waging my own battle to keep his secrets, and keep him sober.

So while I believe Ant McPartlin, who is going back to rehab after being arrested on suspicion of drink-driving, deserves help and support, so, too, does Lisa Armstrong, the wife he is divorcing (and who he previously thanked for trying to help him beat his demons). And so, too, does his sidekick of 29 years, Declan Donnelly, who is said to be "gutted" for his best friend - and understandably worried that these demons may doom their TV partnership.

I know from experience that an alcoholic will do anything to protect their drinking, no matter who that destroys in the process. Being their partner, whether in marriage or business, makes you collateral damage.

My husband and I met while working in the City of London. Back then, long liquid lunches were routine, and the partners would sink a few bottles of wine on a daily basis. David was no different.

When we began dating, one of the partners came to me and said: "Sarah, you need to be aware that David has a problem with alcohol. We've all noticed it - I just think you ought to know." I didn't speak to her for six months, assuming she was jealous. How could he be an alcoholic? He's phenomenally successful; he couldn't do what he does if he was drunk all the time.

But that's the point about many alcoholics - they are very high-functioning, and they are rarely overtly drunk. They're as likely to be the man (or woman) in the corner office as the one swaying on the corner of the street.

When David was drinking he might slur a little to me, but then he'd pick up the phone to a client and perform. When he had to, he pulled out all the stops and put on that front.

For some time, I told myself lies, but 10 years ago, everything changed.

David, now 62, became very ill and was diagnosed with cirrhosis. He was forced to stop drinking for a while, but as soon as the doctors told him his liver was showing signs of recovery he started again. Pretty soon we were in hospital three or four times a week as his condition became more and more dangerous. He was put on the transplant list and eventually was given a new liver, and what should have been a second chance at life.

Even then, with the damage David had done to his body clear to see, our friends didn't ask any questions, didn't try to talk to either of us about his history with alcohol. The trouble is that, by then, most of our friends were his rather than mine - I'd cut my friends out so I didn't have to face the questions, because they were coming thick and fast.

His friends were very much your upper middle-class types who don't really want to know. "Oh what a shame, poor old David's in hospital again. Oh well, we'll send him a card and have them over for dinner once he's out."

You put yourself in this little bubble so you can keep protecting the lie, because you don't know how else to carry on. And I think I always thought I could do something about it. That's the hardest pill to swallow: the realisation that you can't cure them.

Soon after his transplant, David started drinking again. But by then he'd got very good at hiding it from me. He'd also begun to tell lies about me to anyone I tried to reach out to for help. He would make me out to be hysterical.

The trouble is, the more people tell you you're a mad harpy, the more you behave like that. You're so desperate, it becomes the norm to scream at your other half, to hide the alcohol from him, to need to know where he is at any given moment of the day. You help him perpetuate the lie, and the more isolated you become the deeper the lie grows. It is devastatingly lonely.

In September last year, while we were on holiday, I caught him drinking. I walked past a bar and saw him sitting there, being served a gin and tonic.

He turned, saw me and panicked. He made to run away, but when he realised it would be hopeless to escape, he ran back and began downing the drink - the thought of not being able to have it filling him with more horror than the prospect of me running after him in a public place.

I have never behaved as I did next and hope never to again. I stood in the doorway of the bar and screamed at him. People turned as I shouted: "What the hell do you think you are doing?" I ran towards him, knocked the drink out of his hand and stormed out, as he ran after me apologising profusely, all the old excuses being trotted out. It sounds so sordid now. I had become the screaming harpy he had always made me out to be.

When we got home, I phoned his grown-up daughter and told her what had happened. Together, we persuaded him to go to rehab. He didn't go willingly. He barely participated at first. But slowly, he grew to love going. Two months later, he is sober and seems to have turned a corner.

It sounds awful but, strangely, it was as hard to see him coping as it was to see him suffering. Suddenly he didn't need me to keep him alive - he had this group of sober friends from treatment who he spent all his time with.

I've found myself feeling terribly jealous and left out over the past few weeks, ridiculous as that sounds.

It has made me realise what I've shut myself off from, these past few years.

The addict has to cure the addiction. But the partner often ends up developing addictive tendencies, too - in my case, to policing his behaviour, constantly obsessing over how to keep him safe.

It has been so terribly lonely. I've been on my own on a raft, desperately trying to keep it from sinking. Now it's floating on its own and I'm left with my self-confidence in tatters. You start to believe there must be something wrong with you if you can't keep the person you love from hurting themselves. I know now that I wasn't the cause of David's drinking, nor could I cure it or control it.

One thing I've never truly doubted is that I want to be with him. In the heat of a row I've thought of leaving, but all these years later I'm still here. David is using rehab to get better, now I need to help myself, too.

As told to Eleanor Steafel. *Names have been changed

 TelegraphThe extended Thornton Park and Equestrian Centre, opened in 1990, is now one of the bigger equestrian centres in the country

'Horses run in the blood," says Suzanne Archer Murphy, vendor of Thornton Park and Equestrian Centre which launches this week. She should know - her mother is a former jockey, while her aunt ran the Malahide Riding School for many years. Suzanne herself has been in the business from the unusually early age of 18 years old. "Horses were pretty much breakfast, lunch and dinner for me," she says.

She started out by renting a yard in Cloghran just down the road from Thornton Park. "Then this business just evolved, the horses became a natural stage," she says, making it sound like running a large livery and training centre was the easiest thing in the world.

Suzanne opened Thornton Equestrian Centre in 1990 when it comprised of just the indoor arena and two barns. "Demand pushed me to build and build and build so what started off with two indoor American barns, soon became four."

Over the years she added two more barns, stables for staff horses, as well as a four-bedroom bungalow for the staff themselves, a lunge menage, and a six-bay horse walker. There are 35 walk-out paddocks, and two all-weather outdoor arenas. The indoor arena was extended and a restaurant, reception area and lecture room were added. Today the property is one of the larger equestrian centres in the country.

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Of course, the townland of Kilsallaghan has a good pedigree when it comes to the sport of kings. A kilometre down the road is Greenogue, Jim Dreaper's racing yard, which, under his father Tom, produced many a racing star, including most famously Arkle, the three-time winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Flying Bolt, and Fortria. Jim himself has trained up many a winner since he took over in 1971, including Brown Lad, who won three Irish Grand Nationals.

The house that forms part of the sale at Thornton Park is a later addition, and is accessed via a separate driveway. Suzanne and her husband Vivian Gath, who met when he signed up for riding lessons, built the comfortable four-bedroom property in 1997. It runs to 236sqm of living space and carries a BER rating of C3.

An architect originally drew up designs for the house but the couple oversaw the build themselves, adapting the plans to incorporate Gothic elements such as the arched doors and windows on the exterior, stained glass insets into some of the internal doors.

"The whole house evolved," says Suzanne. "There was never really a plan. It started off with ordinary contemporary design with square windows. We honed it. We oversaw the building so as we went along we changed it to suit our needs. I enjoyed the process hugely but it was a serious effort because everything is bespoke. It's not something that you would be able to buy in Ikea."

Suzanne trawled through auction rooms and antique shops looking for fittings and fixtures. "All the guys on Francis Street knew her by her first name," laughs Viv.

The exterior of the property is in the Gothic style, with a quaint porch leading into the main hallway. Here the banisters on the bespoke wooden staircase were fashioned from salvaged church pew ends.

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Off the hallway to the right, double doors lead into the 'good room', a large double-aspect drawing room with solid wood floors and an unusual antique fireplace. "The fireplace was from an auction," says Suzanne. "I had it gilded, and there was a painting in the centre which I got an artist to redo."

Off the other side of the hall is a cosy south-facing sitting room with a bar that was also once a piece of church furniture and has been refashioned by the owners. It has a cast-iron fireplace that is in working order.

The kitchen sits to the rear of the house and is generously sized. It has bespoke wooden units painted in cream, wooden countertops, a Waterford Stanley that can be used to heat the house, if needed, and an island with marble countertop. Off to the left is a wooden-floored family room with a large wood-burning stove that, say the vendors, provides heat and hot water at low cost.

A south-facing conservatory leads off this room with views over the equestrian centre. It allows Suzanne to keep an eye on her horses as well as the impressive private stables that she had built to the rear of the property for her own use.

Also leading off the kitchen are a guest bedroom and WC, utility room and a spacious back hall, where there is ample space for muddy riding boots and coats.

On the first floor, there are three large bedrooms, all with built-in wardrobes and under-eave storage. The master bedroom has a large en suite with Jacuzzi bath and shower.

There is a family bathroom with a cast-iron rolltop bath, as well as shower. A skyscape painted over the bath is just one of a number of murals that Suzanne commissioned throughout the house. An office, also on this floor, could easily be repurposed as a fifth bedroom if required.

The entire property, including the equestrian centre and the residence, comes to market with an asking price of 1.95m, which includes paddocks and lands of 21.87 acres. There is also the option of purchasing the centre on its own at an asking price of 1.1m and that includes lands of approximately. 17.85 acres.

They are selling Thornton Park because, Suzanne says, "I want a change before I hit the grave. I want to do something different. I've ticked all the boxes businesswise and I've done everything with the business - I've expanded everything.

"I have an amazing team in the yard," says Suzanne, who believes that the property might appeal to a buyer as a going - and, she maintains, very profitable - concern.

Thornton Park is close to Dublin Airport and roughly 30 minutes from the city centre. Horse lovers will appreciate the fact that it is located just 14km from Fairyhouse Racecourse which plays host to many National Hunt races. There is also a very active hunting community in the area with a choice of clubs, including the Fingal Harriers, Ward Union, and Meath Farmers.

Agent: Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes (01) 237 6300

Viewing: By appointment onlyHANDS OFF: Many hi-tech firms maintain regional corporate HQs in Ireland, so an EU digital tax is very much our concern. Photo:  2010 Bloomberg Finance LP

There can be no doubt that when it comes to corporate tax and Brussels, the default response from Ireland is, more often than not, 'hands off'. But when it comes to the new digital tax proposal, published last Wednesday by the European Commission, we need to box clever.

The way that European Commissioner for Taxation Pierre Moscovici has run with this initiative has been a botched job, to say the least. It has been more about personal political gain than substance.

However, a digital tax - if designed right and done at a global level - is something Ireland can fully get behind. I think that there is a genuine effort in some parts of the commission to get this right and we need to recognise that.

As Garret FitzGerald reminded me some years back, the European Commission is not only the defender of the community method, but has over the years done much to help smaller member states. Traditionally, the commission has stood up to bigger countries and has demanded fair play for all, both big and small.

They have a hard job to do in this Brexit-dominated landscape, where populism is in the ascendency and trust in EU institutions limited. They have to come forward with ideas that help to move the EU forward. I recognise fully the difficult task they face and the limitations on what can be done at EU level where there is such diversity of opinion.

But what is not needed in Europe right now are policies that pit the EU against the rest of the world and seriously make the EU anti-competitive and anti-investment.

Commissioner Moscovici's so-called 'interim measure' on digital tax has all the hallmarks of the proverbial dog's dinner. Moving ahead of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on this issue creates the idea of an EU that appears to be unwilling to work at an international level to tackle the tax problem taxing the digital economy.

We need to design a tax system internationally that takes account of the modern digitalised economy. The effective rate of tax for the biggest of the digitals is too low. They need to pay up more, but it has to be done and calculated in a way that makes sense.

We have done it for more conventional business. The OECD base erosion and profit shifting process (BEPS) is working and in Ireland's case has helped to double the tax take from corporates - from 4bn to 8bn in four years.

I genuinely fear that the EU's solo run on digital tax is a tax grab, pure and simple.

While Moscovici said the new tax will bring in 5bn in tax, he hasn't said if this is additional to current revenues - or whether it is simply a transfer of revenue from smaller member states to bigger member states.

I fear it is the latter as the very idea of a turnover tax deliberately benefits bigger countries because that is where the bigger populations are using Facebook, Google or Airbnb. This is a tax that depends on the amount of users availing of a digital service, even though those users don't pay for anything when they use Google or Facebook.

The proposal applies a 3pc levy for the biggest of digital corporates, most of whom are US businesses, many based in Ireland. I'm very concerned that this move will be seen as anti-American. Do we really want to give excuses to the current US administration to up the trade barriers and start some trade war? The current EU-US relationship is bad enough without fuelling it.

What I resent is the attempt to simply raid our taxes under the guise of "tax justice". This has nothing to do with justice but everything to do with tax transfers from small member states and sending a message to the US. This is an international problem, as digital services are provided on a global basis and that's where the issue should be fixed.

Were we to lose 1bn or 2bn, who would make up the difference? We would see reduced public services or an increase in other forms of tax. The last thing that Ireland needs now is tax uncertainty. There is a lot at stake for countries who depend on foreign direct investment and a thriving export economy.

For the moment, the interim measure is on the table for all EU leaders to discuss. There is a necessity for us to stay engaged and to remain at the table to see if the interim measure can work for us.

What we cannot accept is the EU going it alone. Placing itself outside of the global consensus is a deliberate act of international tax folly. Thankfully, all taxation measures require unanimity. It is time now to build a coalition of countries who want a sensible approach on digital tax and won't be taken along by a large member state agenda.

Brian Hayes is a Fine Gael MEP for Dublin and a member of the ECON CommitteeDoireann Garrihy and Aoibhin Garrihy at the launch of the 2017 Peter Mark VIP Style Awards at The Marker Hotel. Picture: Brian McEvoy

Fair City actress Aoibhin Garrihy is considered one of Irelands most stylish women for a reason. The reason being choices like this leather and chiffon black dress by Emma Manley at this years IFTAs. Her loose braid and natural makeup complements the look to perfection.

Radio star and influencer Doireann Garrihy knows how to put together an inspiring wedding guest look.

While attending a friend's wedding in the Austrian Alps, she chose a head-to-toe look from rising Irish fashion star Emma Manley, racking up quite the bill in the process. She updated followers on the transitional spring ensemble comprising of the Tabby Dress (390), the Sadie Coat (390) in black and finished off her look with a signature beaded Parker clutch (230).

Doireann, alongside her older sisters Aoibhin and Ailbhe, have become style stars for their collectively impeccable taste, balancing high street finds like a fuschia Zara suit alongside a bespoke piece from an up-and-coming designer like Umit Kutluk.

The Spin 1038 DJ's appreciation for Manley is well documented, explaining their relationship began in 2016 after the 30-year-old designed Aoibhin's wedding dress and their bridesmaids dresses.

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"Emma Manley has designed a good few dresses for Aoibhin and they all turn out to be stunning. She designed her wedding dress and myself and my sister Ailbhe's bridesmaid dresses which we loved. I love that lots of her pieces have collars...I'm a major collar enthusiast," she told RTE.My daughter is in second year at college. She failed first year due to a lot of anxiety and depression. She is an only child and quite spoiled by parents and grandparents alike.

She repeated first year then went on to second year. She didn't do one of the exams and got a cert from her doctor which was supposed to cover her but the lecturer disagreed and she has now failed that semester.

She was due to go on work placement this term and we were hoping she would get something paid so she could contribute to the cost of her going to college. She has no part-time job and doesn't want to get one unless it's something she likes.

Both my husband and I work full-time and we regularly see young people coming in for interviews and working their way through college.

When my daughter is in college we are giving her the food and her grandparents give her hundreds into her hand every month, which is a lot for a college student.

Now she is at home with no placement and no part-time job.

Her friends work full-time in the equestrian industry which is what she is really interested in and good at.

In fact, she has spent her whole childhood around horses and attending races and in making good contacts. She spoke to someone in charge where her friend works about getting work but nothing has come of this.

Any time we try to bring it up there is an argument. The easiest option is just say nothing but that isn't fair on us because we are paying all the bills, and any time I mention it I get "if you hold that over me I will leave and not come back".

There are times I wish she would just go. I feel so inadequate that I can't deal with this as a parent.

My daughter does tend to argue with my husband more than me and has come to expect me to defend her but I won't do that any more, I won't take his side or hers.

When I come home from work she is "I'm starving, what's for dinner?" or I get texts at work asking me to get stuff from the shop on the way home, which, most of the time, I don't do because I don't have money as all our monies go on the bills, including her college.

She didn't want for anything growing up, although she thinks she was hard done by.

The reality is we never missed parent-teacher meetings, birthday parties, drives to discos and back or trips to friend's houses. This is still going on because she has no licence.

Mary replies: It must be difficult for you as parents because your daughter is not showing any appreciation for the sacrifices you have made on her behalf. I realise it must be difficult for your daughter also and being at home all day must add to her depression.

However, while she lives in your house as a young adult she needs to respect you both, and if she cannot contribute to her own upkeep by part-time work then she should contribute to the upkeep of the home by, for instance, preparing meals and doing some housework.

Perhaps she has no idea of the family finances - lots of us didn't when we were her age - so why not draw up a realistic statement of how things are? Show her your income and outgoings for every month to let her see how tight things really are. Then ask what she is prepared to do to help.

Realistically, she cannot leave as she would be unable to support herself and she must know this, so she is just trying to stop you from asking her about a job by threatening to leave home.

I hope that whatever she is doing in college is connected in some way to working with animals. Otherwise she will have very little incentive to study as this seems to be her true passion.

Is she happy with her course? It's important that she is.

You can contact Mary OConor anonymously by visiting www.dearmary.ie or email her at dearmary@independent.ie or write c/o 27-32 Talbot Street, Dublin 1. All correspondence will be treated in confidence. Mary OConor regrets that she is unable to answer any questions privately.Twenty-three people were killed when a vehicle veered into a crowd attending a party in the capital of Mozambique.

Radio Mocambique said the vehicle was travelling at high speed when it hit the crowd early on Sunday in Maputo.

A senior police official said the driver of the vehicle ignored a police order to stop just before hitting the party-goers beside a pedestrian bridge on a main road.

The official said the driver died in the collision.

An investigation is under way.Making a birthday cake that looks like something is a lot like trying to be funny  getting it almost right can be the worst.

Thats certainly the case for Jason Bices wife, Nora. Nora attempts to make her husband, 35, from Burbank, California, a Yoshi cake every year, but the resemblance never quite hits the spot.

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So why does Nora continue this pursuit? Well, it all started four years ago and has turned into something of an inside joke.

I love video games, especially Nintendo, and have since I was a little kid, said Jason. Noras more of a Donkey Kong girl, but usually sits looking at Pinterest while I play games.

About four years ago, Nora asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I randomly said: A Yoshi cake, and she made it happen. It turned out really bad, but tasted delicious.

We both laughed about it and the following year I asked her to make one again  which was the three cupcakes/evolution of Yoshi cake  from then it just kind of became a tradition.

That tradition has been ongoing for around four years now, so have they improved, or become steadily worse?

Its funny, the first one she ever did was pretty bad, then she did the three cupcake one, which was decent, said Jason.

Then she did the square one, which showed vast improvement, and this year she tried the 3D Yoshi head that looks like she chopped off his head and put it on a plate.

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Time after time then, the cakes go wrong. But in their own way, theyre perfect in the reaction they produce.

Its one of those things where we both cant help but laugh, said Jason. I personally didnt think they looked too terrible and I appreciate her effort just the same.

Honestly, I hope they never improve.A court in the Thai capital has ordered a British labour rights activist to pay 10 million baht (226,000) in damages to a company which filed a civil defamation suit after he helped expose alleged human rights violations at its factory.

The ruling in Bangkok against Andy Hall is just the latest development involving one of four defamation suits filed by pineapple canning company Natural Fruit, which employed migrant Burmese workers who claimed the company had broken labour regulations in abusing them.

Hall has prevailed in one of the two criminal defamation suits against him, while the other is pending, as is another civil suit. He has also filed a counter-suit against Natural Fruit.

Hall left Thailand in 2016, citing intolerable legal harassment after another company, poultry producer Thammakaset Farm, sued him.

I respect the decision of the Court. But I also strongly disagree with the verdict. I have immediately instructed my trusted and experienced legal team to appeal the shocking decision. I did not expect this verdict and am very disappointed by it.  Andy Hall (@Atomicalandy) March 26, 2018

His legal troubles stem from a 2013 report he researched for the Finnish consumer organisation Finnwatch, alleging abuses at Natural Fruits facilities. They also concern an interview that he gave to Al-Jazeera on the subject, which was the focus of Mondays ruling.

Natural Fruit claimed that the report Hall helped research and his interview comments hurt their business.

Hall still works on labour rights issues concerning migrants in Thailand.

This verdict is a major setback for rights of human rights defenders, migrant workers, labour/migration activists and researchers everywhere and casts a dark shadow over recent positive progress the Thai government and Thai industry has made to improve migrant worker conditions.  Andy Hall (@Atomicalandy) March 26, 2018

This verdict is a major setback for rights of human rights defenders, migrant workers, labour/migration activists and researchers everywhere and casts a dark shadow over recent positive progress the Thai government and Thai industry has made to improve migrant worker conditions, Hall commented on his Twitter account.

The reputation of Thai companies has been tainted in recent years by allegations of labour abuse, especially in the fishing and seafood industries.

Several companies in that sector have worked with Hall to try to improve conditions, fearing sanctions from countries that take Thai exports.

I will immediately seek to engage the international business community as well as those organisations and close partners who continue to stand firmly behind me. I continue to thank Finnwatch, my legal team and all my supporters for the support they continue to provide me.  Andy Hall (@Atomicalandy) March 26, 2018

The big issue in Andy Halls case is this is an active attempt to try and discourage independent research into company supply chains in Thailand, and this should be a serious concern to all foreign investors who are sourcing production in Thailand, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

When problems in their supply chain are brought to light, companies like Natural Fruit or Thammakaset Farm can so easily sue and ruin the life of an activist to try to keep them silent, he added.

It has a chilling effect on this type of research. It has a chilling effect on the freedom of expression in Thailand.Catalonias former president, Carles Puigdemont, is to appear before a court in Germany to determine whether he stays in custody pending further decisions on extradition proceedings.

Prosecutors in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein would not say where Mondays closed-doors hearing would take place.

German news agency dpa said Puigdemont was taken to a prison in the town of Neumunster on Sunday, hours after his arrest on a European warrant as he entered Germany from Denmark.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemonts government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the north-eastern region in October.

The Catalan parliaments subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities.

Spanish authorities accuse Puigdemont, 55, of rebellion and of misuse of public funds in organising the referendum.

Spain had originally asked for Puigdemonts extradition from Belgium after he fled there in October, but later withdrew the request until Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena concluded his investigation this week.

Llarena ruled that a total of 25 Catalan separatists would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience.

In the meantime, Puigdemont was free to make trips to Denmark, Switzerland and Finland, as part of his effort to gain international support for the secessionist movement.

The international arrest warrant for Puigdemont was reactivated on Friday, when he was visiting Finland.

Spain has also issued five warrants for other separatists who fled the country.Mr Trump has approved higher tariffs on steel and aluminium imports (AP)

Chinas foreign ministry has said Beijing is open to negotiating with Washington amid a spiralling tariff dispute.

This follows a report the two sides are negotiating, with American officials submitting a list of market-opening requests to China.

A foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, did not confirm the report by The Wall Street Journal, but said at a regular briefing: Our door for dialogue and discussion is always open.

The Journal said the negotiations were led by US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinas economic czar, vice premier Liu He. It said American market-opening requests covered the car, finance and semiconductor industries.

US president Donald Trump has approved higher tariffs on steel and aluminium imports and a possible increase on 60 billion dollars (42 billion) of Chinese goods in a dispute over technology policy.

China has said it might retaliate.David Davis took part in a live interview on the BBCs Andrew Marr Show on Sunday with a sick bucket beside him, after falling ill before he was due on the programme.

Having reportedly vomited just before he went on air, the Brexit Secretary was also seen with a glass of water and a box of tissues just in case of further bouts of illness.

Despite being unwell with food poisoning, Mr Davis managed to get through a discussion that focused on the the Irish border issue after Brexit.

Commentator Isabel Oakeshott, who also appeared on the programme, said on Twitter: "Drama on #Marr as @DavidDavisMP only just made it thru interview due to serious sick bug.

"We had a bucket on set...! That SAS training.."

Drama on #Marr as @DavidDavisMP only just made it thru interview due to serious sick bug. We had a bucket on set...! That SAS training..  Isabel Oakeshott (@IsabelOakeshott) March 25, 2018

Tom Newton Dunn, The Sun's political editor, hailed the minister's "extreme heroics".

Tales of extreme heroics from the #Marr and #bbcsp green room about @DavidDavisMP. Suffering from severe food poisoning, threw up before and after his interview, hence the sick bucket on set.  Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) March 25, 2018

On the show, Mr Davis said it was incredibly probable that the UK would reach a final deal with the EU, but said you can never stop making arrangements if a deal is not reached.

He likened the issue to having insurance, saying: You dont expect your house to burn down, its less than a one in 100,000 chance, but you have house insurance anyway.

Mr Davis also said physical checks on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland could be avoided with a whole lot of technology.

He also told the BBC show the Government was committed to protecting the Good Friday Agreement at all costs and would not allow a return to the borders of the past.

There is a risk in trying to focus just on the downsides because the real likely outcome - the overwhelmingly likely outcome - is option A, Mr Davis said.

Option A is that we get a free-trade agreement, we get a customs agreement, all of those make the Northern Ireland issue much, much easier to solve.Businessmen are being given a secret MI5 handbook to help them avoid being caught in "honeytraps" when working in Russia or China. Stock photo

Businessmen are being given a secret MI5 handbook to help them avoid being caught in "honeytraps" when working in Russia or China.

Some of the UK's biggest firms have received the booklet, which warns that getting drunk, gambling or womanising could see them targeted amid talk of a new Cold War.

It warns against "risky business" and lists "inappropriate activities" which even if they are not illegal can "have a lasting impact on you personally".

Published by the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, which reports directly to MI5, the Smart Traveller booklet says substance abuse, excessive drinking, gambling, changing money on the black market, "flirtatious liaisons" and online dating could leave staff open to blackmail.

John Simpson, the BBC journalist, has revealed that he was targeted by a glamorous Czech spy during the Cold War, whilst Anna Chapman, the Russian spy, was married to a British man and said to have been on the brink of seducing a US congressman before her arrest.

Distributed to companies that do a lot of work overseas, particularly in Russia of China, the booklet warns that if they have sensitive assets, firms are "more at risk of espionage, intellectual property theft and a range of other threats".

Tips for avoiding falling victim to espionage include keeping electronic items in hand luggage so that they cannot be tampered with, turning off location services, avoiding public wifi and not posting updates about your location on social media. Whilst abroad, the booklet advises that travellers should try not to look "like a lost tourist".Spain's showdown with Catalonia's separatist leaders has moved to German courts as the region's former president Carles Puigdemont embarked on what could be a weeks-long effort to avoid extradition from Germany.

A court in the northern town of Neumuenster ruled that Puigdemont, who was arrested on Sunday in Germany, has to remain in custody for the length of the extradition proceedings.

The court said the formal requirements to detain Puigdemont had been met by a European arrest warrant issued by Spain.

In denying him bail, the court said Puigdemont posed a flight risk, concluding he had "a strong incentive" to try to travel to Belgium where his chances of avoiding extradition might be greater.

Schleswig Holstein state prosecutor Georg Guentge said the former Catalan leader appeared "calm and composed" during Monday's hearing, at times making legal arguments on his own behalf.

Mr Guentge said Puigdemont can challenge the legal basis for Spain's extradition request during the formal proceedings, which will take place before the upper court in nearby Schleswig.

He said it is not clear whether a decision on the extradition request will happen this week and in the meantime Puigdemont will remain at the prison in Neumuenster.

With tensions flaring back home, Spain's government said Puigdemont's arrest at a highway rest area south of the German-Danish border during an attempt to drive from Finland to Belgium shows that "nobody can infinitely mock justice".

Tens of thousands of people protested late on Sunday in Barcelona and other Catalan towns, and some demonstrators clashed with riot police.

Spanish authorities accuse Puigdemont, 55, of rebellion and misuse of public funds in organising an unauthorised referendum last year on independence for Catalonia.

German officials have stressed that the case is a matter for the judicial system, but declined to say whether the German government could ultimately overrule a court decision.

European rules call for a final decision on extradition within 60 days of the suspect's arrest, although a 30-day extension is possible, Justice Ministry spokeswoman Stephanie Krueger said.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemont's government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the north-eastern region in October.

The Catalan parliament's subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities.

Spain originally asked for Puigdemont's extradition from Belgium after he fled there in October, but later withdrew the request until Spanish Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena concluded his investigation last week.

In the meantime, Puigdemont was free to make trips to Denmark, Switzerland and Finland, in an effort to gain international support for the secessionist movement.

The international arrest warrant for Puigdemont was reactivated on Friday while he was visiting Finland. Spain has also issued five warrants for other separatists who fled the country.

Authorities examining a European arrest warrant must determine whether the offence a suspect is accused of committing is equivalent to a criminal offence in the country where he was arrested.

Germany's criminal code - unlike Belgium's - includes an offence that appears to be comparable to rebellion, the main accusation against Puigdemont.

It calls for prison sentences for anyone who "undertakes, by force or through threat of force" to undermine the republic's existence or change its constitutional order.

Puigdemont and other Catalan separatists argue that their movement has been entirely peaceful.

Separatists condemned Sunday's street violence in Catalonia that led to 100 people, including 23 police agents, being treated for minor injuries.An image of Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame on flowers at gates of the gendarmerie of Carcassonne in south-west France. Photo: AFP/Getty

A French far-left politician has been arrested for apparently celebrating the death of a gendarme hailed as a hero for offering himself in place of a hostage taken by an Islamist gunman.

Stephane Poussier was detained after tweets posted from his account said: "Every time a gendarme gets whacked I think of my friend Remi Fraisse," an environmental protester who died after police threw a concussion grenade during demonstrations in 2014.

"And this time it was a colonel, great! It also means one less vote for (President Emmanuel) Macron," said the tweet, which was quickly deleted and the Twitter account closed after it sparked an outcry.

Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was shot and stabbed after taking the place of a woman whom Radouane Lakdim, who had already killed three people, was using as a human shield during his attack on Friday at a supermarket in Trebes in south-western France.

Mr Poussier, who failed to win a seat when he stood as a candidate in last year's parliamentary election, was expelled from La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party led by Jean-Luc Melenchon soon after he sent out the offensive tweet on Saturday.

Yesterday police arrived at his home in Normandy and took him into custody.

He may be charged with an offence known as apology for terrorist acts, for which the maximum penalty is seven years in prison and a fine of 100,000.

Mr Beltrame, whom the French president has declared a national hero, died of a knife wound to the neck, according to 'Le Parisien' newspaper, which quoted security sources who had seen the results of a post-mortem examination carried out on the officer.

The stab wound was the blow that killed him, but he also was hit by bullets, the paper said.

Hundreds of mourners, both Christian and Muslim, came together at a service in a Catholic church in Trebes yesterday to pay their respects to the officer and the three others who died in the attack claimed by Isil.

In dozens of towns across France, people left flowers or messages outside gendarme stations to show their support.

Lakdim (25), who was armed with a gun, knife and homemade explosive devices, was shot dead as police moved in to end his siege of the supermarket. His girlfriend and a teenage friend were still being questioned yesterday in connection with the case.Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was detained in Germany yesterday, five months after entering self-imposed exile from Spain, where he faces up to 25 years in prison for organising an illegal secession referendum last year.

Mr Puigdemont had entered Germany from Denmark after leaving Finland on Friday when it appeared that police would arrest him there and begin an extradition process requested by Spain.

The detention threatens to worsen the Catalan crisis that flared last year when the region made a symbolic declaration of independence, prompting Madrid to take direct rule.

Protest

Puigdemont's capture, aided by Spanish intelligence services, sparked protests of tens of thousands in Catalonia's main city of Barcelona and other towns in the wealthy northeastern corner of Spain. Some of the demonstrators clashed with riot police.

Spain's Supreme Court ruled on Friday that 25 Catalan leaders would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state and reactivated international arrest warrants for Mr Puigdemont and four other politicians who went into self-imposed exile last year.

Expand Close People protest after former president Carles Puigdemont was detained in Germany. Photo: Reuters / Facebook

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Among those subject to the arrest order, Clara Ponsati, a former Catalan minister now living in Scotland, told authorities she would turn herself in, Scottish police said in a statement yesterday afternoon.

The other three Catalan leaders are in Belgium.

Pro-independence groups called for protests yesterday outside the offices of the delegation of the European Commission and the German consulate.

German police arrested Mr Puigdemont yesterday in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain.

Expand Close Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont. Photo: Reuters / Facebook

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In a statement, police said Mr Puigdemont was detained near a section of the A7 highway, which cuts through the state from the city of Flensburg near the Danish border.

Mr Puigdemont was later transferred to Neumuenster prison, German news agency DPA reported.

German magazine 'Focus' said that Spanish intelligence informed the BKA federal police that Mr Puigdemont was on his way from Finland to Germany. It gave no source for its report.

He had arrived in Finland on Thursday to meet lawmakers and attend a conference as part of a campaign to raise the profile of the Catalan independence movement in Europe.

The Higher Regional Court in Schleswig-Holstein will be responsible for deciding whether to grant Spain's extradition request.

Mr Puigdemont will appear in court tomorrow to have his remand extended, German prosecutors said in a statement.

Paul Bekaert, who represents Mr Puigdemont in Belgium, where he had been subject to an arrest warrant in December, said his client rang him after being detained in Germany and had appeared calm during the conversation.

Mr Bekaert told Reuters TV that his client would have to appear before a German judge within 48 hours to determine whether or not to keep him in custody. Mr Puigdemont will take German legal representation, Mr Bekaert said, with the whole legal process, including possible appeals, likely to take months.

Mr Puigdemont could take his case to Germany's highest court, which in 2005 blocked the extradition to Spain on an EU arrest warrant of a German-Syrian al-Qa'ida suspect.

The case of Mamoun Darkazanli sparked a judicial row between the two countries after Germany's Federal Constitutional court refused to turn over Mr Darkazanli, saying that EU extradition laws designed to speed up the delivery of suspects between member states violated the rights of German citizens.

Mr Puigdemont has previously made clear his preference to fight the extradition process from Belgium, where the former Catalan leader was heading at the time of his detention, according to Mr Puigdemont's spokesman, Joan Maria Pique.

"The president was going to Belgium to put himself, as always, at the disposal of Belgian justice," Mr Pique told Reuters.

The Spanish Supreme Court had issued an international arrest warrant against Mr Puigdemont last year but withdrew it in December to avoid the risk of Belgian authorities granting him asylum. Leaving Belgium had exposed him again to the risk of arrest.

Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena also sent five separatist leaders to pre-trial jail, sparking protests across Catalonia.The entrance building of the prison in Neumuenster Frank Molter/dpa/AP)

A German court has ordered Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont to be held in custody for the length of extradition proceedings, prosecutors said.

Schleswig Holstein state prosecutor Georg Guentge said the court in Neumuenster formally determined Puigdemonts identity and also heard arguments from his lawyer claiming legal flaws in Spains extradition request.

Mr Guentge said the judge on Monday rejected the motion from Puigdemonts lawyer, but the issues can be raised again during the formal extradition process which begins immediately.

Puigdemont was detained by German highway police on Sunday after entering from Denmark.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemonts government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the north-eastern region in October.Spains showdown with Catalonias separatist leaders has moved to German courts as the regions former president Carles Puigdemont embarked on what could be a weeks-long effort to avoid extradition from Germany.

A court in the northern town of Neumuenster ruled that Puigdemont, who was arrested on Sunday in Germany, has to remain in custody for the length of the extradition proceedings.

The court said the formal requirements to detain Puigdemont had been met by a European arrest warrant issued by Spain.

In denying him bail, the court said Puigdemont posed a flight risk, concluding he had a strong incentive to try to travel to Belgium where his chances of avoiding extradition might be greater.

Expand Close Media outside the prison in Neumuenster (Frank Molter/dpa/AP) / Facebook

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Schleswig Holstein state prosecutor Georg Guentge said the former Catalan leader appeared calm and composed during Mondays hearing, at times making legal arguments on his own behalf.

Mr Guentge said Puigdemont can challenge the legal basis for Spains extradition request during the formal proceedings, which will take place before the upper court in nearby Schleswig.

He said it is not clear whether a decision on the extradition request will happen this week and in the meantime Puigdemont will remain at the prison in Neumuenster.

With tensions flaring back home, Spains government said Puigdemonts arrest at a highway rest area south of the German-Danish border during an attempt to drive from Finland to Belgium shows that nobody can infinitely mock justice.

Tens of thousands of people protested late on Sunday in Barcelona and other Catalan towns, and some demonstrators clashed with riot police.

Spanish authorities accuse Puigdemont, 55, of rebellion and misuse of public funds in organising an unauthorised referendum last year on independence for Catalonia.

German officials have stressed that the case is a matter for the judicial system, but declined to say whether the German government could ultimately overrule a court decision.

European rules call for a final decision on extradition within 60 days of the suspects arrest, although a 30-day extension is possible, Justice Ministry spokeswoman Stephanie Krueger said.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemonts government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the north-eastern region in October.

The Catalan parliaments subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities.

Spain originally asked for Puigdemonts extradition from Belgium after he fled there in October, but later withdrew the request until Spanish Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena concluded his investigation last week.

In the meantime, Puigdemont was free to make trips to Denmark, Switzerland and Finland, in an effort to gain international support for the secessionist movement.

Expand Close Clashes near the Spanish government office in Barcelona (Emilio Morenatti/AP) / Facebook

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The international arrest warrant for Puigdemont was reactivated on Friday while he was visiting Finland. Spain has also issued five warrants for other separatists who fled the country.

Authorities examining a European arrest warrant must determine whether the offence a suspect is accused of committing is equivalent to a criminal offence in the country where he was arrested.

Germanys criminal code  unlike Belgiums  includes an offence that appears to be comparable to rebellion, the main accusation against Puigdemont.

It calls for prison sentences for anyone who undertakes, by force or through threat of force to undermine the republics existence or change its constitutional order.

Puigdemont and other Catalan separatists argue that their movement has been entirely peaceful.

Separatists condemned Sundays street violence in Catalonia that led to 100 people, including 23 police agents, being treated for minor injuries.A Serbian official arrested during protests in northern Kosovo has been released and expelled from the country.

Marko Djuric, Serbias chief negotiator in EU-mediated talks with Kosovo, was arrested after he illegally entered the country.

Kosovan President Hashim Thaci said police accompanied Mr Djuric to the border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia.

He called for calm, saying: This case should not violate the communication between Kosovo and Serbia  the efforts for normalisation, for good inter-neighbourly ties and reconciliation between Kosovo and Serbia.

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Video footage showed Kosovan policemen in black uniforms with machine guns and body armour leading a handcuffed man from inside a building towards an armoured car.

Video also showed a conference room inside the building in northern Mitrovica with chairs and tables upended.

The arrest triggered protests and Kosovan police responded by firing tear gas and stun grenades, reports said.

Serbian TV said a cameraman was injured and his equipment destroyed during the incident.

The brutal police action is surprising. Maybe they want to provoke a Serbian reaction, said Milovan Drecun, who heads a Serbian parliamentary committee dealing with Kosovo.

Serbian media said President Aleksandar Vucic would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the incident.

Moscow has supported the Serbian claim over its former province of Kosovo.

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Friction between Serbia and Kosovo has increased recently as the EU presses for a compromise between the two foes on a number of issues.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade does not recognise the split and is seeking to maintain influence in Kosovos north, where most of the countrys Serb minority is located.

Before the reported arrest, Kosovan police sent reinforcements to stop four senior Serb government officials from visiting Kosovos north, but two of them arrived in the Serb-part of the divided town of Mitrovica later on Monday.

Serbias state Tanjug news agency said Serbias defence minister, the chief Serb negotiator, a senior aide of Mr Vucic and the countrys culture minister were banned from entering Kosovo.

Serb officials earlier said they would hold the visit despite the decision by Kosovo authorities to prohibit their entry. Serb officials must seek official clearance from Kosovos authorities before any visit.

Kosovan foreign minister Behgjet Pacolli had warned that none of the senior Serb officials had permission to enter Kosovo.

Whoever enters Kosovo illegally will get arrested! he wrote.Kosovan police have briefly detained and then expelled a senior Serb official in a divided northern town as officers also fired tear gas and stun grenades at Serb protesters.

The incident triggered an angry reaction from Serbia and inflamed tensions between the two bitter Balkan foes.

Video footage showed police in black uniforms with machine guns and body armour leading a handcuffed man from inside a building towards an armoured car.

Footgae also showed a conference room inside the building in the Serb-dominated northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica with chairs and tables upended.

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Marko Djuric, the chief Serb negotiator in European Union-led talks between Serbia and Kosovo, was detained for illegally entering Kosovo.

The move sparked protests by Kosovan Serbs and police responded by firing tear gas and stun grenades.

A doctor at a local hospital said 32 people were injured, including five seriously, though all were discharged later.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, speaking after an urgent session of the countrys top security body in Belgrade, denounced Kosovo as a terrorist and bandit state supported by Western powers, and accused Kosovos officials of a brutal provocation.

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In a strongly worded address aired live on Serbian state TV, Mr Vucic said Serbia will prosecute those who arrested Mr Djuric.

Mr Vucic said we will not let this go unpunished, but he stopped short of pulling out of EU talks on normalising ties with the former province whose 2008 split Belgrade does not recognise.

He said: We will do everything we can to preserve peace but we will not allow anyone to jeopardise the security of our citizens, adding that Mr Djurics arrest was a brutal provocation, a senseless criminal act. He described Kosovo officials as a gang supported by the West.

Mr Vucic said he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the incident. Russia, a traditional Serb ally, has supported the Serbian claim over its former province of Kosovo. Most Western states have recognised ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo.

The EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, called for restraint. She said she spoke with Mr Vucic and his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci following the incident.

Called @avucic & @HashimThaciRKS. I deplore what happened today in #Kosovo. #Djuric now free on his way back. Need calm & preserve dialogue.  Federica Mogherini (@FedericaMog) March 26, 2018

Friction between Serbia and Kosovo has increased recently as the EU presses for a compromise between the two foes on a number of issues, as their precondition for eventually entering the 28-nation bloc.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade does not recognise the split and is seeking to maintain influence in Kosovos north, where most of the countrys Serb minority is located.

Before the arrest, Kosovan police had sent reinforcements to stop four senior Serb government officials from visiting Kosovos north., but Mr Djuric and another Serb official arrived in the Serb part of Mitrovica later.

Serbias state Tanjug news agency said Serbias defence minister, the chief Serb negotiator, a senior aide of Mr Vucic and the countrys culture minister were banned from entering Kosovo.

Kosovo foreign minister Behgjet Pacolli had warned on his Facebook page that none of the senior Serb officials had permission to enter Kosovo.

Whoever enters Kosovo illegally will get arrested! he wrote.

It was not the first tense moment on Kosovos border with Serbia, which has been controlled by Nato-led troops since an intervention in 1999 to stop a bloody Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.

In January 2017, a Serb promotional train ride, which would have been the first from Belgrade to Kosovos northern town of Mitrovica since the 1998-99 war, was turned back by Kosovo authorities.Aracely Meza held the childs limp body in her arms as worshippers looked on. She spoke loudly into a microphone, chanting words in Spanish as she stroked the childs hair and rubbed something on his forehead.

The scene captured in a video was a ceremony to resurrect the lifeless two-year-old boy. He died after more than three weeks without food.

Meza, a Dallas-area pastor and a self-proclaimed prophet, had claimed that God wanted the boy starved to get rid of demons inhabiting his body.

Now, three years later, she is set to spend the rest of her life in prison for Benjamin Aparicios starvation death.

A Dallas County jury found the 52-year-old guilty of felony injury to a child causing serious bodily injury, the Dallas Morning News reported. She was sentenced to 99 years in prison and ordered to pay $10,000 (8,034) in fines.

Meza and her husband, Daniel Meza, ran a church called Iglesia Internacional Jesus es el Ray out of a brick home in Balch Springs, a suburb south-east of Dallas. Public records show that Mr Meza was the churchs president and director, while his wife was the vice president. Several adults and children were living with the couple around the time the boy died in the spring of 2015.

Meza claimed to have the ability to speak with God and to perform healing miracles. She told investigators that God had told her the boy needed to fast. He was given only water four or five times a day for 25 days, the Dallas Morning News reported, while followers were told not to help the child. But even after the fast, Meza still deprived the boy of food when he did not say amen, authorities said.

The boy was reduced to skin and bones, unable to lift his own head up during his last days. He died on 22 March 2015. That day, Meza conducted a rising ceremony to bring him to life. She told police later that she believed God would wake him up, the Dallas Morning News reported. But the boy never woke up and Meza and the childs parents, who also were her followers, took the body to Mexico the next day to be buried.

Charges are pending against the boys parents, Zenon and Liliana Aparicio, an online court docket shows. Mezas husband does not appear to have been charged.

Mezas attorney, Charles Humphreys, said his client was imprisoned by her faith, according to the Dallas Morning News. But assistant district attorney Patrick Capetillo told jurors last week that Benjamins death was the result of Mezas desire for control, not her faith or religion.

The case, albeit bizarre, is not unheard of. Cult like religious leaders have previously been linked to criminal acts.

Last year, investigators in Alachua County in Florida said a woman who ran a religious boarding school there had killed a child in her care. Anna Elizabeth Young, who was known as Mother Anna, was charged with first-degree murder in December. The charge stemmed from the 1980s death of a toddler who authorities said was tortured and starved, the Gainesville Sun reported.

Authorities also said that Young may have had many other victims. She had been convicted in Florida for bathing a 12-year-old girl in a steel tub full of chemicals that severely burned the child. Young fled and was captured eight years later after police found her living in the attic of a relatives house in Illinois.

Young ran the House of Prayer for all People, which opened in 1983 in Micanopy, a town just south of Gainesville, Florida.

In 1992, a self-proclaimed son of God who went by the name Yahweh ben Yahweh was convicted of plotting several murders and attempted murders, as well as a terrorist bombing of a Florida neighbourhood. Six of his 15 followers were convicted of conspiracy to murder.Stormy Daniels, left, during an interview with Anderson Cooper which will air on Sunday, March 25, on "60 Minutes." (CBS News/60 Minutes via AP)

Stormy Daniels, the porn star who says she had an affair with Donald Trump, claims her years in the adult film industry will help her cope with the scrutiny after a much-anticipated interview.

Mr Trump's allies tried to play down the expected impact of the interview with CBS's flagship current affairs show '60 Minutes' which was due to be broadcast last night.

But during the run-up even the actress's lawyers said they did not know which claims and comments would be broadcast, stoking a growing sense of anticipation.

Daniels - real name Stephanie Clifford - said she was trying to take it in her stride. "Being in the adult industry, I've developed a thick skin and maybe a little bit of a dark sense of humour," she told the 'Washington Post'. "But nothing could truly prepare someone for this."

It emerged earlier this year that Daniels was paid $130,000 (105,000) by Mr Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, as part of a non-disclosure agreement before the 2016 US election, leading to allegations that the payment amounted to an illicit contribution to the Trump campaign.

She has spoken previously about the alleged affair, including tweeting recently: "Technically I didn't sleep with the POTUS 12 years ago. There was no sleeping (hehe)."

Christopher Ruddy, CEO of the Newsmax website and a friend of Mr Trump, played down its significance. "This is politically motivated to hurt or embarrass [Mr Trump] ... I think the American people are really dismissing this as political witch hunts," he said.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]The Cabinet will discuss an options paper being compiled by Garda and Defence Forces before any formal announcement is made over the potential expulsion of Russian diplomats from Ireland.

However, Independent.ie understands it is now highly likely that action will be taken.

Expand Close Tanaiste Simon Coveney is considering the options. Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook

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A spokesperson for Tanaiste Simon Coveney confirmed he will bring a full assessment to Cabinet tomorrow.

This comes as European Council president Donald Tusk says 14 member nations have also expelled Russian diplomatic staff.

A spokesperson for Tanaiste Coveney said: Donal Tusks tweet does not include Ireland. Assessments on our side are continuing.

The Tanaiste will be responsible for taking any decision as Minister for Foreign Affairs but will brief Cabinet before any announcement.

The United States is also kicking out 60 Russian diplomats and closing Russia's consulate in Seattle in response to the poisoning of an ex-spy in the UK.

Senior Trump administration officials said the expelled Russians include 12 spies who the US believes are working under diplomatic cover at Russia's mission to the United Nations.

They said the Seattle consulate is a counter-intelligence concern because of its proximity to a US Navy base.

Officials added that the actions are being taken to send a message about the "unacceptably high" number of Russian spies in the US and to respond to the attack in the UK.

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the US.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the actions would make the US safer by "reducing Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations" that threaten national security.

"With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences," Ms Sanders said.

Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, remain in a critical condition after they were poisoned with the highly lethal nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury on March 4.

The expulsions are one of the most significant actions US president Donald Trump has taken to date against Moscow and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Less than a week ago, Mr Trump congratulated Mr Putin by phone for his re-election, but did not raise the spy case, renewing questions about whether the US president is too soft on the Kremlin.

Poland, Germany and Lithuania have also announced they will expel Russian diplomats over the case.

Last week, EU chief Donald Tusk predicted that member states would introduce measures against Moscow over its suspected role in the poisoning.

The UK has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being undeclared intelligence agents, which led Russia to expel the same number of British diplomats. The European Union has already recalled its ambassador to Russia.

The UK has accused Moscow of perpetrating the attack, while the US, France and Germany have agreed it is highly likely that was the case.

More to followThey came from a place of heartbreak to claim their spot in history: hundreds of thousands of teenagers and supporters, rallying across the United States for tougher laws to fight gun violence.

The 'March for Our Lives' events on Saturday drew massive crowds in cities across the country, the kind of numbers seen during the Vietnam War era.

In Washington, DC, New York City, Denver, Los Angeles and other cities, demonstrators heard from student survivors of last month's school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

"If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking," Parkland survivor David Hogg said to roars from protesters packing Pennsylvania Avenue from a stage near the Capitol to a spot near the White House many blocks away.

"We're going to take this to every election, to every state and every city. We're going to make sure the best people get in our elections to run, not as politicians but as Americans.

"Because this," he said, pointing behind him to the Capitol dome, "this is not cutting it."

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The message at the different rallies was consistent, with demonstrators vowing to vote out lawmakers who refuse to take a stand now on gun control. Many rallies had tables where volunteers helped those 18 or older register to vote while speakers detailed the policies they wanted and the impact gun violence has had on their lives.

The fire alarm at Trenton High School is scary, said 17-year-old Gabrielle James at a march in suburban Detroit.

"We don't know if it's an actual drill or if someone's actually inside the school, going to take your life," Gabrielle said at a march.

She said government has "extremely failed" to protect students from gun violence and she wants restrictions on automatic weapons.

"I work extremely hard at my studies. Sometimes I just sit in my car before going to school, wondering if I'm going to be home to see my mother after school," she said.

Some of the young voices were very young. Yolanda Renee King, the Rev Martin Luther King Jr's nine-year-old granddaughter, drew from the civil rights leader's most famous words in declaring from the Washington stage: "I have a dream that enough is enough. That this should be a gun-free world. Period."

By all appearances - there were no official numbers - Washington's rally rivalled the women's march last year that drew far more than the predicted 300,000.

The National Rifle Association went silent on Twitter as the protests unfolded, in contrast to its reaction to the nationwide school walkouts against gun violence on March 14, when it tweeted a photo of an assault rifle and the message "I'll control my own guns, thank you."

US President Donald Trump was in Florida for the weekend and did not weigh in on Twitter either.

White House spokesman Zach Parkinson said: "We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their First Amendment rights today." He also pointed to Mr Trump's efforts to ban bump stocks and his support for school-safety measures and extended background checks for gun purchases.

Since the bloodshed in Florida, students have tapped into a current of gun control sentiment that has been building for years - yet still faces a powerful foe in the NRA, its millions of supporters and lawmakers who have resisted any encroachment on gun rights.

Organisers are hoping the electricity of the crowds, their sheer numbers and the under-18 roster of speakers will create a tipping point, starting with the midterm congressional elections this fall. To that end, chants of "Vote them out!" rang through the Washington crowd.

Emma Gonzalez, one of the first students from Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to speak out after the tragedy there, implored those of voting age to cast ballots.

In her speech, she recited the names of the Parkland dead, then held the crowd in rapt, tearful silence for more than six minutes, the time it took the gunman to kill them.

"We will continue to fight for our dead friends," Delaney Tarr, another Parkland survivor, declared from the stage. The crowd roared with approval as she laid down the students' central demand: a ban on "weapons of war" for all but warriors.

Student protesters called for a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault-type weapons like the one used by the killer in Parkland, comprehensive background checks, and a higher minimum age to buy guns.The gunman's widow is accused of helping him plan the deadly attack (AP)

Lawyers for the widow of the Pulse nightclub gunman said they have only just been told that the attackers father was an FBI informant for 11 years.

Representatives of Noor Salman are asking for a mistrial, saying this information should have been disclosed earlier by prosecutors.

Salman is accused of helping her husband, Omar Mateen, plan the June 2016 attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where he killed 49 people.

Her lawyers federal court motion said prosecutors contacted them on Saturday night and told them about Seddique Mateens relationship with the FBI.

Salman is standing trial on accusations of aiding her husband in the attack against the gay nightclub in Florida.Online estate agency Purplebricks has offloaded a significant slice of the group to Axel Springer, and seen its share price plunge after warning over sales.

The German media publisher has seized an 11.5% stake in the firm through a 125 million investment, which includes a 100 million subscription of new shares to help turbo-charge its US expansion.

It means the Die Welt and Business Insider owner would become the fourth largest shareholder behind fund manger Neil Woodford, Purplebricks founder Michael Bruce and Old Mutual, which own 26% and 13.7% and 13.6% respectively.

Despite the announcement, shares were down more than 10% in afternoon trading after Purplebricks said annual revenues would fall short of company forecasts following a financial hit from the Beast from the East.

It said the torrid weather conditions in late February and early March would shave around 5% off its group revenue predictions of 98 million.

Mr Bruce, chief executive of Purplebricks, said the firm was continuing to push boundaries and challenge conventional thinking.

He said: The strategic partnership with Axel Springer is ground breaking and will propel Purplebricks further towards our strategic goals and global ambition.

We now have the platform, funding and, through Axel Springers experience, as well as the appointment of four new leading non-executive directors, the expertise to achieve our vision.

As part of the move, Adrian Blair, Simon Downing, Mike Wroe and Axel Springers Andreas Wiele will join Purplebricks as non-executive directors. Nick Discombe and Will Whitehorn will retire from the board on June 30.

Axel Springer, which has a market capitalisation of more than 7 billion euro (6.1 billion), already operates a string of property websites including Frances SeLoger and German portals Immowelt and Immoweb.

Mr Wiele said: Under the leadership of its founder Michael Bruce, Purplebricks has created a highly innovative digital real estate platform and has become the clear market leader in the UK in a short space of time.

For Axel Springer, this minority stake offers the opportunity to participate in an innovative, fast growing business model in new markets.

Purplebricks said it would use 50 million of the subscription proceeds to bolster its US roll out, which launched in September last year.

The group has already opened bases in New York and Los Angeles and has been pushing into San Diego, Sacramento and Fresno.

Similar to the UK and Australia, buyers will be able to arrange showings, submit offers in real time and negotiate sales on properties with the click of a button.Russia expects to reach an agreement with a major Syrian rebel group to arrange its exit from the last rebel-held town in eastern Ghouta.

The defence ministrys Lt Gen Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov told Russian news agencies that Russias military is in talks with the Army of Islam, the largest and most powerful group in eastern Ghouta, for it to leave the town of Douma.

Lt Gen Gadzhimagomedov said he expects the Russian military to take them out soon and that the rebels have reportedly indicated their willingness to lay down their arms.

Thousands of rebel fighters and their families have left three eastern Ghouta pockets in the past few weeks, after years of siege and weeks of heavy bombardment by the Syrian army and Russias air force.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there are divisions within the rebel group over the negotiations, with some hardliners refusing any talks with Russians.

The Observatory said some fighters asked to be allowed to go to the southern province of Daraa, but that the Russians rejected this request.

Syrias pro-government Al-Watan daily said the Army of Islam and the Russians have reached an understanding, adding that each side will study a draft agreement within the next three days.

Al-Watan quoted Syrian legislator Mohammed Kheir Seiryoul, who is originally from Douma, as saying the understanding could lead to an agreement to dissolve the Army of Islam.

During this period, its members would hand over their heavy weapons and the Syrian government would assume control of state institutions in the town.

A civilian committee representing Douma said in a statement after meeting Russian officials that the negotiations are extremely difficult and no quick results should be expected.

Talks with the Russians will resume within three days, it said.

Douma-based opposition activist Haitham Bakkar said the town was subjected to some artillery shelling early on Monday that wounded several people.

On Monday, a convoy of 56 buses carrying 3,641 people, including 850 fighters from various rebel factions, was preparing to leave the towns of Jobar, Zamalka, Ein Terma, and Arbeen toward Idlib, state-affiliated al-Ikhbariya TV reported.

The Russian Defence Ministrys Centre for Reconciliation in Syria said in a statement that more than 400 people left Douma early on Monday. It put the total figure of civilians and rebels evacuated from the area since the Russia-sponsored humanitarian pauses were announced at 114,000.

Army of Islam spokesman Hamza Bayraqdar blasted the groups former ally, the Faylaq al-Rahman rebel group, accusing it of helping government forces capture more than 80% of rebel-held districts after they dried out artificial swamps set up by insurgents to slow down the army offensive.European Council president Donald Tusk has said 14 member nations have expelled Russian diplomatic staff over the poisoning of an ex-spy in the UK.

Mr Tusk said that there may be additional measures including further expulsions in the coming days and weeks.

In coordinated announcements of expulsions on Monday, the Czech Republic said it is removing three staffers from the Russian embassy over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

The Netherlands said it is expelling two Russian intelligence officers, while Estonia said it was expelling the Russian defence attache. The Italian Foreign Ministry announced that Italy would expel two Russian diplomats assigned to the embassy within a week.

Poland, Germany and Lithuania earlier confirmed they were among the European countries set to expel Russian diplomats.

Today 14 EU Member States decided to expel Russian diplomats as direct follow-up to #EUCO discussion last week on #SalisburyAttack. Additional measures including further expulsions are not excluded in coming days, weeks.  Charles Michel (@eucopresident) March 26, 2018

Germany and Poland both said they had asked four Russian diplomats to leave, while in Lithuania, three Russian diplomats were ordered to leave.

The German foreign ministry said in a statement that the move was part of a joint European response to the Skripal case.

It said: The expulsion of four diplomats is a strong signal of solidarity with Great Britain and signals the resolve of the Germany government not to leave attacks against our closest partners and allies unanswered.

The ministry added that the move was also a response to the recent cyber-attacks against German government networks, which according to information so far is highly likely to be attributable to Russian sources.Donald Trumps personal lawyer has challenged porn actress Stormy Daniels claim that someone tied to the president threatened her with physical harm if she went public with her story about a tryst with Mr Trump years ago.

Daniels said in a TV interview broadcast on Sunday that a man approached her in a Las Vegas car park in 2011, when she was with her daughter, and said: Thats a beautiful little girl. Itd be a shame if something happened to her mum.

She said the man told her to leave Trump alone. Forget the story.

Michael Avenatti, her lawyer, acknowledged he has no direct evidence tying the threat to Mr Trump or his lawyer Michael Cohen, but said he was holding back certain details of the alleged affair, including the contents of a CD or DVD he tweeted a picture of last week.

It would make no sense for us to play our hand as to this issue and were not going to do it right now, he said on NBC on Monday.

Mr Cohens own lawyer, Brent H Blakely, demanded that Daniels or Mr Avenatti apologise to his client for alleging intimidation.

In truth, Mr Cohen had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any such person or incident, and does not even believe that any such person exists, or that such incident ever occurred, he said, asserting that Daniels and Mr Avenatti should cease and desist from making any further false and defamatory statements about my client.

Daniels told the 60 Minutes show she had consensual sex once with the future president, providing a few salacious details but little new evidence.

She received a 130,000 dollar (91,000) payment days before the 2016 presidential election for her silence and has sought to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement.

Mr Cohen has said he paid the money out of his own pocket while asserting Mr Trump never had sex with the porn actress.

He knows Im telling the truth, Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, said of Mr Trump. She said she was not coerced to have sex and I was not a victim.

Mr Trump complained on Monday about So much Fake News, but it is unclear whether he was referring to Daniels.

Previously, Mr Cohen has said neither the Trump Organisation nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Daniels and he was not reimbursed for the payment.

However, Mr Avenatti told 60 Minutes he has documents showing Mr Cohen using his Trump Organisation email address in setting up the payment and that the nondisclosure agreement was sent by FedEx to Mr Cohen at his Trump Organisation office in Trump Tower.

In the interview, Daniels described a sexual encounter with Mr Trump that began with him talking about himself and showing her an issue of a magazine with his picture on the cover.

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She said she asked: Does this normally work for you? He was taken aback, she says.

And I was like, Someone should take that magazine and spank you with it. She says she then ordered him to drop his trousers and, in a playful manner, I just gave him a couple swats.

She said they talked some more, although he stopped talking about himself, and that she became more comfortable.

He was like, Wow, you  you are special. You remind me of my daughter. You know, he was like, Youre smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you. I like you.

She said after dinner in Mr Trumps room, they had sex. He did not use a condom, she said, and she did nst ask him to. Afterwards he asked to see her again, she said.

Daniels said that before they had sex he had broached the idea of her being a contestant on The Apprentice, and she likened it to a business opportunity.Ride-hailing giant Uber is to sell its business in Southeast Asia to regional rival Grab in a move that signals another international retreat for the US firm.

It comes after Uber also pulled out of China and Russia in recent years and as new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi attempts to turn its fortunes around.

Under the terms of the deal, Uber will take a 27.5% stake in Grab, which operates ridesharing, food delivery and financial services businesses. Uber will also have a seat on Grabs board.

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Grab functions across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and Cambodia, handling more than a billion transactions a year.

Chief executive and co-founder Anthony Tan said the Uber deal marks the beginning of a new era in using mobile businesses to provide an array of services.

Grab said it plans to expand its food delivery business to Singapore and Malaysia after integrating it with Uber Eats.

The company also plans to expand GrabCycle for shared bicycles and personal mobility devices and is planning GrabShuttle services for on-demand bus routes.

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Uber drivers will switch to the Grab online platform and the Uber app will stop working in Asia in two weeks.

Since taking the top job last year, Mr Khosrowshahi has been attempting to make the company profitable before a mooted initial public offering.

Uber booked a full-year net loss of 4.5 billion US dollars in 2017 in the wake of several scandals.

In China, Uber has sold off its local business to competitor Didi Chuxing, also taking a stake in the Asian firm. In Russia, it agreed to merge its ride-hailing business in the country with local player Yandex.The United States is kicking out 60 Russian diplomats and closing Russias consulate in Seattle in response to the poisoning of an ex-spy in the UK.

Senior Trump administration officials said the expelled Russians include 12 spies who the US believes are working under diplomatic cover at Russias mission to the United Nations.

They said the Seattle consulate is a counter-intelligence concern because of its proximity to a US Navy base.

Statement on Expulsion of Russian intelligence officers. pic.twitter.com/4uCzMOMG3f  Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) March 26, 2018

Officials added that the actions are being taken to send a message about the unacceptably high number of Russian spies in the US and to respond to the attack in the UK.

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the US.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the actions would make the US safer by reducing Russias ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten national security.

With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences, Ms Sanders said.

Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, remain in a critical condition after they were poisoned with the highly lethal nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury on March 4.

The expulsions are one of the most significant actions US president Donald Trump has taken to date against Moscow and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Less than a week ago, Mr Trump congratulated Mr Putin by phone for his re-election, but did not raise the spy case, renewing questions about whether the US president is too soft on the Kremlin.

Poland, Germany and Lithuania have also announced they will expel Russian diplomats over the case.

Last week, EU chief Donald Tusk predicted that member states would introduce measures against Moscow over its suspected role in the poisoning.

The UK has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being undeclared intelligence agents, which led Russia to expel the same number of British diplomats. The European Union has already recalled its ambassador to Russia.

The UK has accused Moscow of perpetrating the attack, while the US, France and Germany have agreed it is highly likely that was the case.It comes just days before investors cast their ballots on the Melrose deal (PA)

US firm Dana has upped its cash offer for GKNs automotive business as the UK engineering giant looks to stave off a hostile bid from Melrose Industries.

Dana, which specialises in car part manufacturing, said it had improved the terms of its agreed combination by upping the cash offer by 8.6% or 140 million US dollars (100 million).

It brings the total cash consideration to 1.77 billion US dollars (1.28 billion).

It will also double the size of its share repurchase programme to 200 million US dollars (145 million), helping sweeten the overall deal which was previously valued at around 4.4 billion.

GKN welcomed the announcement, which will see its shareholders own more than 47% of the combined company that is set to be listed on both the New York Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange.

It said 700 million would be returned to shareholders as soon as practicable after the deal is completed.

GKN chairman Mike Turner said: This transaction, which along with Project Boost was initiated prior to the Melrose bid, offers by far the best strategic route forward for GKN Driveline.

We are confident that, following the Dana transaction and the non-core disposals, GKN will become a pure play aerospace company with a strong balance sheet, our pension challenges behind us and a clear plan for delivering leading margin performance.GKN chairman Mike Turner

The challenges and opportunities of electrification mean that consolidation is required. By moving now, the Dana-GKN Driveline combination will be strongly positioned to be a global leader in this field.

He added: We believe that Melrose would find it extremely difficult to create equivalent value in the future from GKN Driveline if its offer were to be successful.

The announcement comes just days before GKNs fate could be sealed as part of a shareholder vote over an 8.1 billion bid for the British engineering firm by turnaround specialist Melrose.

GKN investors have until 1pm on March 29 to cast their ballots on the controversial deal.

GKN has doggedly rejected Melroses advances, with chief executive Anne Stevens describing Melroses takeover as high-risk and the offer not coming close to reflecting true value.

The deal to sell its Driveline division to Dana is part of a raft of counter measures meant to fend off Melroses advances  having become a takeover target following profit warnings in October and November after problems at its US aerospace division sent shares tumbling.

Mr Turner added: GKN has re-invented itself numerous times in its 250-year history.

We are confident that, following the Dana transaction and the non-core disposals, GKN will become a pure play aerospace company with a strong balance sheet, our pension challenges behind us and a clear plan for delivering leading margin performance.

We therefore expect the market to fully value this highly attractive business in line with its peers.

For all of these reasons, we believe that the true value of GKN is over 5 per share and that Melroses final offer fundamentally undervalues your company and should be rejected.

Numis analyst David Larkam said that while the Driveline deal has strategic merits, it is being sold too cheaply and too early.

We see the combination of Dana and GKN Driveline as making industrial and commercial sense as scale benefits increase. Synergy benefits also help to support a transaction.

Both have electric vehicle capabilities, although we believe GKN is more advanced, as highlighted by current auto programmes, Mr Larkam said.Former South African president Jacob Zuma has been summoned to appear in court on April 6 on charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering.

South African police confirmed the summons to a court in Durban was issued on Monday.

Earlier this month, prosecutors announced they were reinstating charges that were thrown out nearly a decade ago in a contentious decision that opened the way for Zuma to become president.

The charges relate to an arms deal in the 1990s, when he was deputy president.

Zuma, whose tenure was marked by scandals, says he has not done anything wrong.

He resigned on February 14 after he was ordered to do so by his party, the African National Congress.Patna, Mar 26 (IBNS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may accuse former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad of corruption, but its MP Shatrughan Sinha has thanked all who are providing legal support to Lalu, who has been sentenced to an imprisonment of more than a decade.

Sinha took to Twitter to congratulate several lawyers, who are also political leaders in respective parties, for providing support to the RJD supremo.

His tweet reads, "I congratulate eminent lawyers viz Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Kapil Sibal, Ram Jethmalani & Gopal Subramanium for providing rock solid support to LaluJi with expert guidance and legal backups. My salute to them for coming out so openly & boldly, that too at the time of real need."

While Singhvi and Sibal are senior Congress leaders, Ram Jethmalani is an RJD leader.

Subramanium is an independent lawyer.

Lalu has been convicted in all four fodder scam cases.

He has been pronounced a jail term of 14 years in total in the fourth fodder scam case last week.

Actor-turned politician Sinha has also referred to the four lawyers as friends of Lalu.

He said in a follow up tweet, " .....thus proving the maxim A Friend in need is a friend indeed. God bless all! Jai Bihar!"

Making the BJP uncomfortable, Sinha has come out openly against his own party multiple times.

In one of the recent examples, Sinha had lashed out at the saffron party over the twin by-poll defeats in Uttar Pradesh.

The 72-year old MP held the BJP's "arrogance" and "over-confidence" as the sole reasons behind the defeats of the ruling party.

Image: Image: twitter.com/ShatruganSinhaNew Delhi, Mar 26 (IBNS): With no sign to budge over the NaMo app row, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi likes to spy on his countrymen.

Taking a jibe at Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rahul tweeted, " Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS. Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians. Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP."

Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS.



Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians.



Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP.#DeleteNaMoApp  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 26, 2018

The Congress president's tweet is an extension of his attack on Modi on Sunday.

Rahul on Sunday attacked Modi and accused that his App was collecting data for illegal purposes.

"Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies. Ps. Thanks mainstream media, you're doing a great job of burying this critical story, as always," Gandhi tweeted.

He also highlighted in his tweet a news report which pointed to allegations of a French cyber security expert regarding data safety in the Narendra Modi App.

Speaking on the App, senior party leader Randeep Surjewala on Saturday tweeted: "IT Minister will not do a press conference on the NaMo App on these allegations of Data Chori! Will the media dare to question Modi ji on the functioning of his App? Will the brain behind this "Data Usurpation" be summoned?What about the 15 Lakh NCC cadets & their privacy?."

The BJP countered Rahul and said his comments reflected the fright he had for the App.

"We all know that Rahul Gandhi is no match for Narendra Modi. But seeing his fright about the Namo App, is very amusing. When his bots tried to trend #DeleteNamoApp day before yesterday, the popularity and downloads of Namo App only increased. Today, it will be no different!," the BJP tweeted.

"Contrary to Rahuls lies, fact is that data is being used for only analytics using third party service, similar to Google Analytics. Analytics on the user data is done for offering users the most contextual content," it said.

The BJP and the Congress have been engaged in a bitter war of words over the Facebook data breach in recent times.

Union Minister Ravishankar Prasad on Tuesday alleged that the Congress has links with Cambridge Analytica, a British consulting company, alleged to have harvested private data of Facebook, while warning the popular social networking site against any attempt to influence India's electoral process.

Prasad alleged that the Congress party committed data theft and manipulated data to win elections. He questioned the role of Cambridge Analytica, which was named in an investigative report by Britain's channel 4 for having harvested data of up to 50 million Facebook users without permission and using them to help politicians.

However, Congress said whatever is being said about the party's links with CA is absolutely false.

"News about Congress engaged/engaging with Cambridge Analytica is absolutely false," Congress party's social media head Divya Spandana tweeted.

Spandana further said the BJP is trying to distract from the controversy over the killing of 39 Indian hostages by ISIS in Iraq.

"Can you @rsprasad please tell us why your Govt lied to us about the 39 Indians who died in Iraq? You hid the information and now youre trying to divert attention from the issue by making outrageous allegations against the Congress party.," she further tweeted.

Ravishankar's attack on the Congress came hours after Hours after Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the Election Commission should investigate which party had or has links with CA.

"In this report on Cambridge Analytica there is an ostensible claim by them or the jurnos that they have worked on Indian elections/campaigns. Election Commission should enquire/recommend investigation what services & to whom they were offering in India," Tiwari had tweeted.

Image: twitter.com/RahulGandhiHyderabad, Mar 26 (IBNS) : Ten people, including six children, were killed when an autorickshaw in which they were travelling fell into an agricultural well in Mupkal area in Telengana's Nizamabad district on Sunday, media reports said.

According to reports, about 20 people were reportedly travelling in the ill-fated vehicle which veered off the road and fell into the well.

The accident occurred when the victims were returning home from workplace, about 50 kilometers north to this district headquarters town.

Minister for Agriculture Pocharam Srinivas Reddy expressed his shock over the mishap and extended his sympathies to the victims' families.

He asked the Collector to take all steps to ensure the delivery of immediate assistance to them.Kolkata, Mar 26 (IBNS): A day after the show of strength by West Bengal ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC) and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by taking out Ram Navami processions, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered the police to take strict actions against all those who have violated rules.

Banerjee has asked the police to take actions against all those who have defied government's rules by carrying swords in the processions.

At an administrative meeting on Monday, Banerjee told police, "Please take action against all those who have violated laws by carrying swords in the procession. I am saying this on a serious note. Nobody should be spared if found guilty. Law will take its own course. This is a clear message from me. I would also take actions against cops who won't take actions against the accused."

The CM had earlier granted permission of carrying swords in the processions to only few age-old organisations.

The ruling and the opposition parties were seen to carry out several processions in different parts of the state on the occasion of the birthday of Lord Rama.

The BJP held rallies on Sunday in various parts of the state with arms.

BJP leader Mukul Roy was seen to carry out a huge procession in Bagbazar in north Kolkata.

However, the ruling TMC came out with processions without arms.

In one of the clashes which occurred in the state on Sunday, a person was killed and four policemen were injured.

Hitting out at the BJP over the unrest in the state, Banerjee said, "There is only party in the state which is creating such problem. Has Lord Rama asked anyone to carry swords during processions?"

"This is not the culture of Bengal. I will not tolerate such things in the state" the CM said giving a warning to the BJP.Kolkata/New Delhi, Mar 26 (IBNS): To take the discussions over the united opposition a step further, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is set to begin her four-day visit to the national capital on Monday.

During her visit, Banerjee will attend a dinner which will be hosted by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar.

The visit gained significance as Banerjee has been hobnobbing with several non-BJP leaders at the national level to stitch an alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Days ago, Banerjee had met NCP leader Praful Patel, who visited Kolkata.

Apart from Patel, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo met Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao over the discussions of a possible third front just few days ago.

Banerjee also extended her support to Rao who had called for a third front ahead of the General Elections in the next year.Raniganj/Kolkata, Mar 26 (IBNS): A day after Ram Navami festival was celebrated to mark the birthday of Hindu deity Lord Rama, a clash allegedly broke out in West Bengal's Raniganj, media reports said.

The clash killed one person and a cop, according to media reports.

Union minister and BJP leader Babul Supriyo accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of playing 'appeasement' politics which led to the incident.

In a tweet, Supriyo said: "The severely injured hand of Deputy Commisioner of Police Arindam Dutta Chowdhury. The police officers are caught between the crossfire of having to do their duty or refrain from doing it- a result of @MamataBanerjee Diktat with Appeasement of the Minority."

Supriyo is an MP from Asansol, which is a neighbourhood of Raniganj.

Image: twitter.com/SuPriyoBabul



New Delhi, Mar 26 (IBNS): The BJP on Monday said Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was 'technologically illiterate'.

The ruling party attacked Gandhi on a day when the Congress chief slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the NaMo app.

BJP leader Sambit Patra told media: "Rahul Gandhi is technologically illiterate."

Raising his voice once again against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the NaMo App, Congress President Rahul Gandhi has said the former is misusing his position in the nation to build a personal database.

Rahul took to Twitter for the second time on Monday to attack Modi by accusing him of keeping the personal data of Indians through the app.

His latest tweet reads, "Modi misusing PM position to build personal database with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by Govt. If as PM he wants to use tech to communicate with India, no problem. But use the official PMO APP for it. This data belongs to India, not Modi."

Reacting to his tweet, Patra said it was 'classic case of technological illiteracy'.

Amid thickening charges and counter charges over sharing user data, the Congress on Monday appeared to have removed its official mobile phone application from Google Play Store.

The move followed a series of tweets by Amit Malviya, the head of the BJPs information technology cell,posting screenshots of the privacy policy of the Congress website and accusing party President Rahul Gandhi of sharing user data from the official Congress application with friends in Singapore.

Malviyas comments came after Gandhi criticised the Government after a French cyber security expert alleged that the Narendra Modi Android application shared its users private information with companies without their consent.

Gandhi on Sunday posted: "Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official app, I give all your data to my friends in American companies. Ps. Thanks mainstream media, you're doing a great job of burying this critical story, as always."

The political blamegame started over the reports that British firm Cambridge Analytica used the private data of more than five crore Facebook users to influence voters during Donald Trumps 2016 election campaign, and in several other polls around the world. Ever since, the Congress and BJP have been accusing each other of using the services of the British firm.New York, Mar 26 (JEN): Honouring those who suffered the brutalities of the Transatlantic slave trade, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the International Day set aside to remember this epically shameful chapter of human history is an opportunity raise awareness about the dangers of racism and prejudice today.

More than 15 million men, women and children from Africa were enslaved, Guterres pointed out in a video message for the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, explaining its raison d'etre to acknowledge a brutal chapter in human history, and to raise awareness of the dangers of racism and prejudice today.

Every year on 25 March, the Day of Remembrance offers the opportunity to honour and remember those who suffered and died at the hands of the brutal slavery system, borne of the largest forced and legally sanctioned movement of people in human history.

As we mark the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this year, let us honour those who perished or suffered under slavery, the UN chief continued.

To permanently honour the victims, the United Nations in 2015 erected a memorial, The Ark of Return by Haitian-American architect Rodney Leon, at its Headquarters in New York.

Also, from 5 to 28 March, UN Headquarters will host a temporary exhibition entitled Remember Slavery: Say it Loud. It features the work of 11 male and 11 female architects of African descent, whose perseverance, creativity and unique perspective have given them a voice on how public spaces are presented and utilized.

Again this year, the Day is being commemorated during the International Decade for People of African Descent, which runs from through 2024.

Let us celebrate the gains of people of African descent, Mr. Guterres concluded, and let us press, every day and everywhere, to defend the dignity of every human being.

UN Photo/Rick BajornasKabul, Mar 26 (IBNS): At least 14 Islamic State militants, including three Pakistani insurgents, have been killed in airstrikes conducted by the Afghan Air Force on Sunday, local Tolo News reported.

According to the Afghan Defence Ministry, the Pakistani insurgents were killed in Deh Bala district in eastern Nangarhar province on Sunday.

Another statement from the ministry confirmed that 11 other militants were gunned down during raids in Imam Sahib, Khan Abad and Aqtash districts of northern Kunduz province.

Additionally it said that two IS hideouts and weapons were destroyed. At least seven militants were wounded in the airstrike.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State, locally known as Daesh, claimed the suicide attack inside the Nabi Akram Mosque in western Herat province on Sunday.

The blast which occurred at around 1 pm, killed at least three people and left another nine wounded.Ottawa, Mar 26 (IBNS): Canada's House of Commons got a lesson in sartorial vocabulary from Ruby Sahota, Member of Parliament (MP) for Brampton North, Toronto, while the House was engaged in a debate over an Opposition Motion recently.

Sahota, was attending a debate and discussion on the Opposition Motion of the day on March 22.

After a Conservative MP referred to India's traditional clothing as 'costume' several times, an angry Sahota said, Mr. Speaker, I am incredibly offended by the speech given by my colleague across the aisle just now. I implore them to stick to the facts and what they are trying to achieve. This reference I have been hearing from debate to debate about costumes is incredibly offensive."

According to media reports, the Conservative MPs were discussing Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus troubled trip to India, and several, including Opposition MP Dane Lloyd, said that the only outcome of the state visit to India was for the prime minister to show off his fancy costumes and dance moves.

This irked Sahota, one of several Sikh MPs to accompany Trudeau to India.

She said the criticism was misguided, reports said.

She recalled her predicament as a child in Canada, and said, "I would like to share a little story about a girl growing up here in Canada, which was me, a child of immigrant parents, who struggled constantly to try to be proud of my culture and my heritage. I just could not help just wanting to fit in, and wonder why my parents could not just wear western clothing to my parent-teacher interview. Maybe I would fit in a little better, maybe the kids would not make fun of the clothing we traditionally wear. This reference continually made by the opposition to our clothing being costumes is outrageous."

Sahota also said, "I wonder if my colleague is offended I am wearing his costume right now. Would he call a business suit a costume? Should I ask people from around the world what they think about me wearing a white man's costume? Are you offended, because I am incredibly offended that again and again I hear reference to our clothing as costumes. It is not a costume; it is clothing we wear every day, day in and day out. Indians wear that clothing, and it is nothing compared to a uniform of a police officer."

Defending Prime Minister Trudeau, Sahota said, "The Prime Minister respected our culture and our traditions, and took part and engaged in the clothing we value so dearly. I am so happy that my child, my son, can see a Prime Minister today who respects his culture, his tradition, and where he comes from.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

Image: Ruby Sahota/FacebookMontreal, Mar 26 (IBNS): Ten-year old Quebec boy Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou, who has been missing for 14 days now, may have drowned in the Riviere des Prairies, Montreal police said on Monday.

The police said the boy may have accidentally fallen into the river and drowned.

Ariel was last seen on Mar 12 in Des Bateliers Park, which borders the river.

The police are evaluating the strategy to find the boy.

Kouadio Frederic Kouakou, the father of the child, believes his son has been abducted.

He was quoted by CBC News, "If you have our child, bring him back to us," said Kouakou. "You have our forgiveness."

Ariel's mother Akouena has said she didn't sleep since her child went missing.

"It's been six years that we have been in the neighbourhood and our son never goes too far," Akouena said.

She also believes her son to has been abducted.

Ariel went out at 12 p.m. to go to a friend's house on the day he went missing.

Though the police had issued an Amber alert in the city despite not meeting any criteria, the boy could not be found.

The police said the boy was black, has black hair and was wearing a black hoody on the day he went missing.

Police have said a lady told a passerby that he has seen a boy who could be identified with the description.



Its a strange world we are living in. If you are a celebrity you are expected to be perfect, whilst theres no definition of what perfect is. If you have little bulges pulling out, youre expected to not eat and lose some weight, if youre slim, you are expected to put on some weight.

For rich and fab, it isnt easy, especially when we are talking about online trolling. Forget embracing your blunders, you cannot be the way you want to be, if youre a popular figure on social media. Trolls, who easily sit behind their computer/phone screens and post demeaning comments, may seem harmless, but they causing a great amount of damage in the lives of many.

Remember how actors such as Parineeti Chopra, Nargis Fakhri and Shruti Haasan among others have been trolled for their weight gain? The trollers didnt spare Kareena Kapoor this time, who quite efficiently lost weight post her pregnancy. Seeing her in recent pictures from an event where she walked the ramp for designer Manish Malhotra, trollers want her to eat and put on some weight so that she doesnt look like a skeleton.

Its hard to impress your fans and easier and happier to be your own self and set an example. If one wants to be fit, he/she will be, despite social media trolling. We strongly believe that beauty lies in the eyes of beholder and perfection is subject to interpretation.

We love how she rocked the Manish Malhotra show in Singapore. You go, woman.The strenuous work hours and exhausting work pressure are killing people, figuratively if not literally. We can't stop whining that we're hitting the office early and leaving late, and before we know it the whole day has sprinted by. Truth be told, we're still better off than a LOT of people.

Unsplash

South Korea has some of the longest, most tiring and demanding working hours in the world. People in South Korea work an average of 2,739 hours a year - about 1,000 hours more than workers in other developed countries.

So, to let their people breathe in peace and have proper work-life balance, the South Korean government in the capital is introducing a new initiative to ensure that they leave work on time.

On Fridays, all the computers will be shut automatically at 20:00 hours.

Unsplash

It says it is trying to curb the "culture of working overtime".

Seoul Metropolitan Government is running and rooting for this shutdown initiative, a three-phase platform which will be rolled out over the next three months. Commencing on March 30th, under this program, all the system will shut off by 20:00 and the employees will be asked to leave.

The second phase of this initiative will start in April where computers will be turned off by 19:30 on the second and fourth Friday that month.

Overcast - Namdaemun A post shared by Jack (@jack.dancocks) on Mar 25, 2018 at 10:28pm PDT

In the third phase in May, where the program will be in its full swing, the computers will be shut off by 19:00 every Friday.

Only special cases will get an exemption from this program, otherwise, everyone has to follow this without fail. Yet, surprisingly, 67.1% of government workers have asked to be exempted from this forced shut-off.

Maybe there is a need to dig a little deeper into that statistic, before going ahead with this rule.

This isn't the first time that the government has thought about cutting some slack to its people. Earlier this month, they forcefully reduced maximum working hours from 68 to 52.

Will this really help the people? Or simply put more pressure on them to finish loads of work in a shorter period of time?Women and men standing around trees, hugging them, holding each others hands -- This was the scene in a village in Uttar Pradesh in 1973, now in Uttarakhand, where the modern Chipko Movement took birth under the aegis of Sunderlal Bahuguna, a noted Garhwali environmentalist.

This was the strongest form of resistance against rampant cutting of trees, where people asserted their rights over nature, vowing to protect it. The movement turned 45 years old today.

Chipko type movement dates to 1730 AD when in Khejarli village of Rajasthan, 363 people of the Bishnoi tribe sacrificed their lives to save khejri trees. Woman named Amrita Devi led the movement in the 18th century and laid down her life along with a group of villagers while protecting trees from being felled on the orders of the King of Jodhpur. After this incident, the king, in a royal decree, banned cutting of trees in all Bishnoi villages.

The modern movement was a collective protest that the rural folk undertook, based on the Gandhian principles of non-violence. This was a concerted way to halt the ravaging of the foothills of the Himalayas. In the name of development, forest contractors cut down acres trees, and loot timber.

The uprising against the felling of trees and maintaining the ecological balance originated in Chamoli district (now Uttarakhand) in 1973 and in no time spilled onto other states in north India.

Youtube

The name Chipko comes from the word embrace, as the villagers hugged the trees and prevented them from being cut down.

The Chipko andolan is a movement that practised the methods of Satyagraha where both male and female activists from Uttarakhand played vital roles, including Gaura Devi, Sudesha Devi, Bachni Devi and Chandi Prasad Bhatt.

A movement of the women

A few months later in 1974, the government announced the auction of 2,500 trees near Reni village in Uttarakhand, overlooking the Alaknanda river. The villagers came together to protest the actions of the government by hugging the trees.

On March 24, 1974, the day the lumbermen were to cut the trees in Reni, a local girl rushed to inform Gaura Devi, the head of the village Mahila Mangal Dal, at Reni village. Gaura Devi led 27 of the village women to the site and confronted the loggers. Confrontation happened and talking between the two groups failed. The loggers started to shout and abuse the women, threatening them with guns. The women, in a peaceful protest, resorted to hugging the trees to stop them from being felled. The women kept an all-night vigil guarding the tress from the cutters until a few of them, unable to do anything, left the village.

Pinterest

The news of resistance spread like wildfire to nearby villagers and more people joined in. Finally, the news reached the ears of the then state chief minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, who set up a committee to consider the matter. Eventually, it ruled in favour of the villagers. This became a turning point in the history of eco-development struggles in the region and around the world.

In 1977, in another area, women tied sacred threads, Raksha Bandhan, around trees earmarked for felling in a Hindu tradition which signifies a bond between brother and sisters.

India needs a Chipko-like movement again

Over the last 30 years, forests nearly two-thirds the size of Haryana have been lost to encroachments (15,000 sq km) and 23,716 industrial projects (14,000 sq km), according to government data. The government also acknowledged that artificial forests are not an answer to this.

The government figures are the just the tip of the iceberg.

TV Ramachandra, associate faculty, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, said. Our study shows dense forest areas in northern, central and southern Western Ghats have decreased by 2.84%, 4.38% and 5.77% respectively over the last decade, Indiaspend.com quoted him in its report.

The report says that presently, up to 25,000 hectares of forests  250 sq km, or more than twice Chandigarhs area  are handed over every year for non-forestry activities, including defence projects, dams, mining, power plants, industries and roads.

Indias forests now cover 701,673 sq km, or 21.34% of the country, compared to 640,819 sq km 29 years ago, according to the India State of Forest Report, 2015, the latest available.

Defence projects, dams and mining projects get most of the forest land. Compensatory afforestation is not the answer to rampant deforestation as the diversity in forest is lost when only a certain type of trees are planted as compensation. Its the collapse of an ecosystem.

The rate at which urbanisation is taking place, trees are being felled, widespread encroachment, are the factors contributing to climate change and increase in pollution, choking urban dwellers.

Perhaps it is time that we learn a little more from the heroes of such movements and be more considerate towards protecting the environment.Rolls Royce takes a lot of pride in its engines. In fact, at one point, Rolls Royce cars put out an advert stating 'At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in the new Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock'. So, when Rolls Royce decides to shift its engine production to India, it speaks volumes of the trust it has in the countrys manufacturing capabilities.

Imperimedia

According to reports, Rolls Royce Power Systems has tied up with Force Motors of India to shift the production of its 1600 series large capacity diesel engines. Unlike the petrol car engines, these power plants find application in power generation, construction equipment, agricultural equipment and even railway applications.

The joint venture company has been named Force MTU with Force Motors holding a 51% stake and Rolls Royce holding 49%.

Mining and construction guide

Force Motors though, is not a newbie when it comes to engine production. Rather, the company is currently manufacturing engines for Mercedes-Benz and BMW cars in India. This allows the two companys products to be taxed in a lower bracket thanks to the governments stipulation for locally assembled car parts.

The engines that Force Motors manufactures in India for Rolls Royce Power Systems will be exported to other countries as well.Turkey launched information war against Germany

by Robert Koening Monday Mar 26th, 2018 1:50 AM

Turkish politicians accused Angela Merkel of disrespecting obligations to ensure the security of Turkish people living in Germany. For instance, a member of the Turkish national delegation at the PACE Mustafa Yeneroglu was concerned by excessive control of the police over German Turks and unwillingness to take effective actions against 'terrorists' from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that he considers responsible for attacks on mosques and Turkish organizations in Europe. Without any actual evidence linking the PKK to the attacks, Turks continued to speculate on derogation of the rights of local Turkish citizens and moved to tactics of mass stove-piping where Germany is accused of its dislike for Muslims while German officials, namely, Peter Altmaier, are blamed for acceptance of the recent attack on Turkish cultural center in Berlin.Indianapolis, Indiana  Attorney Richard Bell of McCordsville, Indiana filed suit in the Southern District of Indiana alleging that Defendant, Merchants Bank of Indiana, infringed its rights in the Indianapolis Photo registered on August 4, 2011 with the US Copyright Office, Registration No. VA0001785115. Bell seeks injunctive relief along with statutory damages, costs and attorney fees.

Bell has filed many lawsuits on his own behalf asserting copyright infringement in Indiana federal courts. See:

According to the complaint, the Defendant used the copyrighted photo on its business website without authorization. Plaintiff states that in November 2017, he found the unauthorized use of the photo through a Google image search.

Plaintiff claims that the Defendant recklessly claimed ownership of the photo by claiming copyrights to all photos appearing on its website.

Plaintiff has formally alleged copyright infringement and violations of the Lanham Act.

The case was assigned to District Judge Richard L. Young and Magistrate Judge Mark J. Dinsmore in the Southern District and assigned Case 1:18-cv-00056-RLY-MJD.

Bell vs. Merchants Bank  ComplaintThe WA branch will see Anthony Prindiville lead its casualty underwriting business and Mark Shepard joining to lead the property underwriting division.

Expanding our footprint into Western Australia will enhance our ability to build lasting relationships with brokers and customers throughout the country, Chris Colahan, president, Australasia at BHSI said.

We are pleased to have Anthony and Mark at the helm as we build our local team in Perth. We look forward to developing a full suite of insurance products, risk management and claims services in this region.

The Perth office will underwrite the same lines as other Australian offices, with BHSI offering cover in casualty, property, mining, energy, construction, power, marine, transport and logistics, healthcare liability, accident and health, and executive and professional lines for a broad range of businesses.

Prindiville will join BHSI with over three decades of insurance experience, having most recently spent time as global distribution manager at Chubbs Australian business.

Shepard has been in the industry for more than 16 years and was most recently the underwriting manager  property technical lines and energy at Chubb.

Related stories:Overall, Lloyds in Australia in 2017 wrote $2.3 billion in premium, which was up from $2.171 billion in 2016 so continued growth, consistent with the last four or five years growth that we have had, so nothing dramatic, Mackinnon told Insurance Business.

We are not piling into high premium, high risk areas; we are just continuing a sustainable and profitable growth strategy and $2.3 billion is spot on for where we would hope to be.

Natural disasters in the US were to blame for Lloyds first loss in six years, as Mackinnon noted that Lloyds has 44% of its business placed in the North American markets, which were hammered by hurricanes and other natural disasters over the second half of the year. Despite Cyclone Debbie becoming the second largest natural disaster in Australian history, Mackinnon said that the Australian business saw a limited amount of claims as the storm was not a huge hit for Lloyds Australia.

He added that the firm has yet to analyse in full the Australian results, as syndicates report on class of business rather than on a country level, but the market looked at 2015 and 2016 data as part of the coverholder conference held in Sydney earlier this month. That data showed that the markets incurred loss ratio sat around 55% which, when acquisition and administrative costs are added, would see the local arm with a combined ratio similar or slightly below that of the market overall, which was 114%.

[In] 2017, I would suggest we would be quite a bit lower than what Lloyds was overall, obviously because of the impact of the US situation, he said.

Mackinnon also revealed the opportunity cyber insurance presents both the Lloyds market and the rest of the industry, with the market expected to continue its growth on the back of mandatory breach notification legislation.

What I can tell you on cyber for example is, in Australia over the last three years, we have gone from $6 million, to $17 million, to $30 million in premium, Mackinnon said. In 2017, we wrote about $30 million worth of premium on cyber and we would expect to see that continue obviously in the new environment we are trading in here.

Related stories:The Service NSW website said there is a minimum refund amount of $10 and each refund is subject to an administration fee," and claims less than $10 "before or after the administration fee has been applied," are not eligible for a refund, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Yasmin Catley, opposition spokesperson for innovation and better regulation, said the secret tax is a slap in the face to NSW motorists who already pay the highest green slip prices, and will bring in more than $40m for the Berejkilian government  enough to run a medium-sized government agency.''

"The government is offering a second-rate insurance scheme that will leave many innocent victims of motor vehicle accidents at the mercy of insurance companies," Catley told the publication.

Victor Dominello, minister for finance, services, and property, confirmed that the $7.87 charge will be applied to each CTP refund claim, and defended the fee saying it is in line with other Service NSW charges.

"A minimum threshold of $10 has also been applied, Dominello told Fairfax Media. The application of this threshold will leave a surplus of approximately $2.5m which the government will return to motorists by reducing next year's medical services levy."

Within the first two days of the new online reimbursement scheme, more than 200,000 refunds were claimed, SMH said.

Related stories:Creating solutions that work in various insurance markets and cater to macro differences on a regional and international stage is no simple feat. Where some brokers value price, others value service.

But which will prevail (price or services) in todays consumer-driven markets? Insurance Business caught up with Jeff Purdy, SVP of International Operations for Applied Systems to find out more.

We could characterise the UK insurance market as a single market with 60 million people and no regulation on pricing relative to insurance, said Purdy. That market dynamic has produced consumer preferences around ease of shopping, and has made price possibly the most important item in a purchase decision. Therefore, the UK market has seen lots of investment around product and panel.

In contrast, we would describe Canada as 10 insurance markets with 30 million people, two languages and strict pricing regulation. The highly regulated market means consumers are likely to get a very similar price regardless of where they shop, which means value-add services have become important differentiators. Without the ability to differentiate on price, Canadian brokers need to think about other ways to attract and retain consumers, such as self-service portals and mobile access.

The US has by far the most markets (with 50 in total), servicing 300 million people and regulation thats soup to nuts, according to Purdy. Some states are very highly regulated, while others are fairly lax in their insurance laws. These variables mean the US does not harbour the same price aggregation culture thats currently dominating the UK insurance market. What has proliferated recently is the rise of direct sellers in the US personal lines market. This has resulted in Applieds BMS customers in the US being more commercial lines oriented, and, like the Canadians, extremely focused on value-add services.

Broadly speaking, the theme would be that North American brokers are very focused on providing value-add services to their customers, which means uptake for Applieds solution components is high in those markets, Purdy told Insurance Business. In the UK, brokers (especially in personal lines) are very focused on product, panel, speed and price. At Applied, were trying to educate our UK customers about extending their vision of what they can do, and building an even greater value proposition for their customers.

Variables in the three markets have led to different broker preferences in Applied solutions. For example, Applied Mobile is very popular for personal lines providers in Canada, because it gives drivers the chance to prove their insurance documentation (a regulatory necessity) if theyre pulled over by authorities. In the US, the same solution is used by commercial providers, for example by contractors who need to show proof of insurance before going onto a work site.

Applied Rater, the providers price comparison tool, is also used more heavily by brokers in the North American markets than in the UK. Although theres less official price aggregation, its still useful for brokers and agents to measure against a pricing engine, Purdy explained.

Related stories:Chief among the issues McPeak raised was the development of global insurance standards. NAIC has been in talks with its international counterparts  the Basel, Switzerland-based Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS)  to develop such standards, but McPeak noted that these principles might not mesh well with Americas state-specific regulations.

Much time and effort has been focused on developing global standards that may be well-intentioned, but too often may be inconsistent with current US policy, the state-based system of insurance regulation and the best interests of US consumers and industry, she said, according to a transcript of her speech on the NAIC website.

McPeak also cautioned that global standards could hamper the competitive edge of US insurers.

Although international standards are advisory and non-binding, they could be implemented in many jurisdictions and ultimately impact the competitiveness of the US insurance sector.

The president also touched briefly on the Obama administrations divisive decision to allow a covered agreement with the European Union, regarding the regulation of reinsurers resources. McPeak advised that states need to consider action within the next five years or face possible preemption under the federal covered agreement rules.

Any revisions to the NAIC credit for reinsurance model, or our other areas of regulatory policy will be considered through an open and transparent process, she added.

Despite these warnings, McPeak called on state regulators to work with their colleagues overseas on matters related to insurers solvency, recognizing the interconnected nature of insurance markets across the globe.

By analyzing how the insurance sector is impacted by, reacts to and contributes to various risk exposures in the broader financial markets and economy, we can better work with companies to support a regulatory environment that fosters stable financial markets, McPeak commented.

Related stories:Weaver is a veteran of the Asian market, with over 20 years of insurance and broking experience in the region. In his new and expanded role, he is in charge of accelerating the CRB businesss growth across Asia-Pacific by coordinating the firms global capabilities and local expertise. Based in both Asia and Australasia, he will lead teams from the lines of business, sales and client management functions to attract new clients, expand existing client relationships, and capitalise on opportunities to enter new industry sectors.

Simons extensive risk management and insurance broking industry expertise, combined with his deep understanding of Asia-based clients and markets, makes him very well positioned to help us to maximise engagement with our clients and to drive business growth, said Adam Garrard, the companys international head of CRB. Simons appointment reinforces Willis Towers Watsons commitment to delivering excellent client experiences across Asia-Pacific by leveraging the companys global platform.

Related stories:The action is brought by plaintiffs Debra Julian, a former LTD claim specialist in New York, and Stephanie McKinney, a former LTD claim specialist in Connecticut. The plaintiffs are represented by Sanford Heisler Sharp and Krakower DiChiara LLC.

MetLife used to pay its LTD claim specialists hourly wages and overtime pay, but stopped this system in November 2013 after reclassifying the role. The class action suggests the insurer made the change as a cost cutting measure.

Judge Nathans conditional certification is a welcome first step in addressing MetLifes flagrant compensation practices, commented Michael Palmer, co-chair of Sanford Heisler Sharps Wage & Hour Practice. Despite consistently having to work more than 40 hours per week, LTD claim specialists are denied overtime pay. With this ruling, the class action can now proceed on behalf of hundreds of workers.

Plaintiffs have described MetLifes LTD claim specialists job as a role that involves gathering information about disability claimants, entering the information into the insurers computer systems, and consulting with supervisors and specialized staff.

The complaint alleges LTD claim specialists at the company regularly work between 45 and 60 hours per week, without receiving appropriate compensation for overtime hours.

MetLife has underpaid and overworked their employees through a reclassification scheme, said David Sanford, chair of Sanford Heisler Sharp. There are significant public interest issues at stake in this class action. All too often, companies use reclassifications to wrongfully deny their employees overtime compensation.

The lawsuit seeks to recover damages, including unpaid wages, on behalf of the plaintiffs and the class of LTD claim specialists. It also seeks an injunction against MetLife requiring the company to change its wage practices going forward.

Related stories:The insurance industry as a whole hasnt come to terms with the concept because they dont know how to charge for the particular risk, Riskguard Insurance Solutions broker Kelson Herman told the San Francisco Chronicle.

From what Ive seen, the majority of homeowners who are already doing Airbnb have not told their carriers. They are running the risk that they may not have their claims paid, because standard homeowners policies dont cover Airbnb, Herman added. The ones who are getting into it now are a little more careful, they are asking carriers beforehand.

While individuals who rent out their home or apartment to long-term tenants have the option to apply for a landlords policy, the coverage will not apply to short-term rentals.

The Insurance Information Institute has warned on its website that standard homeowners and renters insurance policies were designed with personal risks in mind, not commercial risks. The trade group remarked that some insurers will consider peer-to-peer home rental a business, and thus will require policyholders to purchase a business policy  either a hotel or bed-and-breakfast policy.

Insurers, mortgage lenders, and Airbnb all recommend customers speak with their agents regarding short-term rental activity. However, some hosts are afraid to discuss such things with their agents, for fear of having their policies revoked. Others think that they are already covered by Airbnb, but the companys policy only covers for guests suing for bodily injury or losses to the guests property.

Related stories:Its an exciting time to be in cyber insurance, according to one of Insurance Business Americas top specialist brokers of 2018.

I think that presently I find the most satisfaction in carving out solutions in emerging markets like cyber liability, said Richard Fernandez (pictured), executive vice president  professional lines at AmWINS Brokerage of Georgia.

Property, workers comp, D&O have been around for a long time and there is only so much innovation that can occur at this time. The cyber side is so fresh and new, and companies are nervous about risks they do not understand very well. We can add a great deal of value.

The history of cyber insurance goes back 20 years, if not more, Fernandez told Insurance Business America, though the market in its current form is a by-product of the past 10 years.

That being said, even in the last decade, there have been dramatic changes in the cyber marketplace, he said. Earlier iterations of cyber policies focused more on third party indemnity coverage and defense. As it continued to evolve, markets began adding first party coverage for notification, credit monitoring, identity restoration, crisis management, and public relations.

In the beginning, these first party coverages were sub-limited and now, the vast majority of markets will provide full limits on their forms. Regulatory fines and penalties, PCI fines and penalties, cyber extortion and first party business interruption followed soon after. Over the past few years, system failure coverage, social engineering, dependent business interruption and property damage to hardware and devices have been added. Typically, 12 months have not gone by without some sort of advancement in the scope of cyber coverage. It is truly amazing to watch the explosion of this product.

Digitization has allowed companies to make life easier for their customers through increased automation and more options to do business online. Yet that in turn has made companies more susceptible to cyber-related attacks, said Fernandez.

Unfortunately, the only way to avoid this rising peril is to go back to doing business the way it was done 20 to 30 years ago and that is not an option. The speed of execution and the reach afforded to companies in the digital age is too compelling even if it presents a whole new set of challenges. They have to meet their customers where they spend time and that is on the internet, he explained.

As an expert in this field, Fernandez has a few predictions for how cyber insurance will evolve in the coming years as hackers become more sophisticated.

Right now cyber is compartmentalized across operating units (financial lines, property, casualty, crime), he said. For example, theft of monies stemming from a cyber infiltration is typically covered under a crime policy. Theft of data is covered under a cyber policy, and a cyberattack that causes damage to plant and equipment would arguably be covered under a property policy. At some point, to avoid gaps in coverage, all perils will become married under one all-risk cyber form.

Related stories:Every day we get another phone call from another school district, McGowan Companies owner Paul Marshall said.

The insurance, which is backed by XL Catlin, covers expenses linked to shootings, Campus Safety reported. It can pay up to $250,000 per victim for death or serious injury, as well as provide additional medical coverage. Marshall has even developed a policy to cover construction costs for school districts that elect to demolish buildings in which a shooting has occurred.

Its a little startling to get all these calls now to say, Is there insurance for this? and How can we go about protecting ourselves? Steve DeRegis, vice president at insurance company Haylor, Freyer & Coon, told Campus Safety. But it just goes to show how much this has just become part of the norm, unfortunately, and people are realizing it can happen here.

Related stories:The saga began in 2016, on the night before Halloween. A man wearing a Michael Myers mask and carrying a plastic pumpkin boarded the trolley Lucey was driving, then reportedly pulled Lucey out of the trolley and punched him repeatedly before vanishing into the night, much like the real Michael Myers.

In the aftermath of the assault, Lucey filed for workers compensation insurance, according to the Suffolk County, Mass., District Attorneys Office. He also received long-term disability insurance, citing post-traumatic stress from the incident, the office said in a statement.

But whereas the real Michael Myers has the presence of mind to vanish completely, at least between sequels, Luceys assailant had made a critical error. To wit, hed accidentally left his plastic pumpkin at the scene. Police obtained a fingerprint from the pumpkin  a fingerprint that ultimately led to an acquaintance of Luceys, according to WickedLocal.com. When confronted with the evidence, the man allegedly admitted that Lucey had paid him $2,000 to stage the attack. His story was corroborated by bank records and phone records that showed communication between the two before and after the assault, the DAs office said.

Prosecutors requested that Lucey be held on $2,000 bail, WickedLocal.com reported. The judge, however, released the alleged criminal mastermind on his own recognizance. Lucey is due back in court April 13 for a hearing.

Related stories:A forensic pathologist testified Friday that injuries that killed a Penn State fraternity pledge last year might not have been fatal if fraternity members had summoned help more quickly.

Dr. Harry Kamerow took the stand in a preliminary hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence to proceed with charges against 11 members of Beta Theta Pi in the death of Tim Piazza of Lebanon, New Jersey.

Piazza, 19, died of severe head and spleen and abdominal injuries from falling down basement stairs the night of a pledge bid acceptance ceremony, Kamerow said, adding that Piazza had also consumed a dangerous amount of alcohol, three or four times the legal limit for driving.

He said Piazza would have had a much better chance of surviving had help been called after he was brought upstairs. Instead, fraternity members were shown on camera taking half-hearted and even counterproductive steps to address his condition, and an ambulance was not called until the next morning.

He has a much better shot at survival, if they brought him out of the basement, recognized whats going on, and called an ambulance, Kamerow testified. If hes very close to that period, hes got a good shot. As time passes on, his prognosis grows dimmer and dimmer and dimmer.

The defendants, among 26 young men accused of crimes related to Piazzas death, were not in court for the preliminary hearing.

Piazzas parents, Jim and Evelyn Piazza, were in the courtroom as Kamerow described their sons injuries, which included a fractured skull, brain bleeding, a shattered spleen and bruises.

A detective described text messages among fraternity brothers planning pledge events, and prosecutors showed the judge photos of the house and a floor plan, laying the stage for two hours of excerpts from security footage that is expected to be played in court when the hearing resumes on Monday.

Previously shown footage from the houses elaborate security camera system captured Piazza participating in a pledge drinking gauntlet, then being carried upstairs after a fall down the steps at about 11:20 p.m. He was ultimately left alone in the dimly lighted first-floor great room overnight.

In the morning, Piazza somehow ended up back in the basement, where fraternity members found him unconscious. They carried him upstairs and then waited 40 minutes to summon help. He died at a hospital less than a day later.

Five of the 11 defendants are charged with involuntary manslaughter. Other charges include hazing, reckless endangerment, conspiracy and alcohol violations.

The attorney generals office has said its review of the case is ongoing and has not indicated its plans for other defendants, but court officials said Friday they reserved a courtroom for eight days, starting May 2.

During a break in the hearing Friday, the Republican leader of the state Senate announced a proposal to make severe hazing a felony and allow for confiscation of fraternity houses where hazing occurs.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, who represents the area around Penn State, also would require schools to report all violations of the anti-hazing policies his bill would mandate.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) announced it has opened an office in Perth, Western Australia, naming Anthony Prindiville to lead its casualty underwriting and Mark Shepard to lead property underwriting there.

Expanding our footprint into Western Australia will enhance our ability to build lasting relationships with brokers and customers throughout the country, said Chris Colahan, president, Australasia. We are pleased to have Anthony and Mark at the helm as we build our local team in Perth. We look forward to developing a full suite of insurance products, risk management and claims services in this region.

Like the BHSI offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, BHSIs Perth office will underwrite casualty, property, mining, energy, construction, power, marine, transport and logistics, healthcare liability, accident and health, and executive and professional lines for a broad range of business segments.

Prindiville comes to BHSI with over 30 years of insurance industry experience, most recently as global distribution manager at Chubb Insurance Australia Ltd. He holds a senior associate designation from the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF).

Prindiville joins Mark Shepard, manager  Property, who started in BHSIs Perth office in January. Shepard has been in the industry for over 16 years, most recently as underwriting manager  Property, Technical Lines and Energy at Chubb Insurance Australia Ltd.

Source: Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI)

Topics Underwriting Property Casualty Chubb AustraliaDARAG, the European legacy acquirer, and New Nordic Advisors, a London-headquartered investment management company, announced the formation of a strategic partnership.

DARAG and New Nordic will join forces in a number of areas, including the provision of legacy, active business and restructuring solutions.

DARAGs Protected Cell Company in Malta will form the joint consolidation platform. Following this agreement, a new cell will be established, subject to regulatory approval, which will be jointly owned by DARAG and New Nordic.

DARAG will provide legacy management expertise, while New Nordic Capital will deliver asset management. The first joint initiatives are expected to conclude imminently.

New Nordic Capital is the asset management arm of the New Nordic group, specializing in Solvency II investment strategies.

This partnership signals the strong cooperation between our teams and opens the opportunity to explore further projects in a collaborative manner, said New Nordic CEO Nicolai Borcher Hansen. New Nordic is evolving its strategy to provide alternative investment strategies with a focus on Northern Europe and Scandinavia.

The partnership with New Nordic will also strengthen DARAGs tailored client offering, said Stuart Davies, executive chairman of Wedel, Germany-based DARAG. Clients today require holistic and compact solutions and we are committed to providing just that.

Alex Roth, head of M&A at DARAG said: This partnership is the result of an established close collaboration between our teams, common values and a shared commitment to provide solutions designed with a relentless focus on each individual clients needs. Our joint cell in Malta will deliver both unrivalled legacy expertise and excellent asset management. Together, DARAG and New Nordic will provide a truly exceptional client offering.

Since 2009, DARAG said it has signed 25 run-off transactions from 14 countries with a volume in excess of 700 million (US$864.6 million).

Topics MergersAlmost a month after a deadly earthquake, Papua New Guinea is struggling to get aid to desperate survivors, having allocated just a fraction of its relief funds, while a rent dispute left disaster officials briefly locked out of their offices.

The scale of the emergency is testing the finances and capacity of one of the worlds poorest countries, disaster and relief officials say, after the magnitude 7.5 quake rocked its remote mountainous highlands on Feb. 26, killing 100 people.

Thousands of survivors have walked to remote airstrips and jungle clearings, awaiting helicopters bringing supplies of food, water and medicines, aid agencies and authorities say.

To date, we do not have any money to do all the necessary things, Tom Edabe, the disaster coordinator for the hardest-hit province of Hela, said by telephone from Tari, its capital.

(The) government is trying to assist and have budgeted some money, but to date we have not received anythingwe have only been given food, and non-food items supplied by other NGOs.

Continuing aftershocks rattle residents, who have to collect water brought by daily rainstorms to ensure adequate supplies, Edabe, the disaster coordinator, said.

The biggest thing that people need, apart from food, is water, said James Pima, a helicopter pilot and flight manager at aviation firm HeliSolutions in the Western Highlands capital of Mt. Hagen, about 170 km (100 miles) from the disaster zone.

They dont have clean water to cook or drink  they are standing there staring. The expression on their faces is blank.

His firms three helicopters fly relief missions fully flat-out every day, Pima added.

Destruction to roads and runways means authorities must rely on helicopters to fly in relief. But while nimble, the craft can only carry smaller loads than fixed-wing aircraft and cannot fly during the afternoon thunderstorms.

The logistics problems wind all the way to PNGs disaster center, where officials told Reuters they had been locked out of their office in Port Moresby, the capital, for two days last week after the government missed a rental payment.

That was correct, Monday and Tuesday, a spokeswoman said.

In a joint report with the United Nations published on Friday, the agency cited lack of quality data about food shortages, limited aircraft assets and significant gaps in sanitation support as being the biggest problems it faced.

The office of Prime Minister Peter ONeill did not respond to emailed questions from Reuters.

On his website, ONeill has previously said, There will be no quick fix, the damage from thisdisaster will take months and years to be repaired.

Political Games

The government had approved relief funds amounting to 450 million kina ($130 million), ONeill said initially, but a later statement mentioned only 3 million kina in initial relief  or less than 1 percent  had been allocated to the worst-hit areas.

In its November budget, the government made plans to rein in spending and trim debt projected to stand at 25.8 billion kina in 2018.

The impoverished country is also missing its largest revenue earner, after the quake forced a shutdown of Exxon Mobil Corps liquefied natural gas project, which has annual sales of $3 billion at current LNG prices. The firm is still assessing quake damage at its facilities.

ONeill last week hit out at critics of the aid effort for playing political games, while thanking Australia and New Zealand for military aircraft that provided assistance beyond the capacity of PNGs own defense forces.

His political opponent, former Prime Minister Mekere Morauta, had called the governments response tardy and inadequate.

Relief sources say mobile medical centers and operating theaters are needed urgently, and that only international partners can supply them, Morauta said last week.

Foreign aid pledges of about $49 million have come in from Australia, China, the European Union, Japan, New Zealand and the United States, says the United Nations, most of it provided by private companies.

Exxon and its partner, Oil Search Ltd, say they have provided $6 million in cash and kind for quake relief.

Local officials say the scale of destruction, with villages buried by landslides and provincial towns flattened, has overwhelmed authorities in Papua New Guinea, which straddles the geologically active Pacific Ring of Fire.

Policemen are still struggling because there is no support flying in and out, said Naring Bongi of the quake-damaged police station in the Southern Highlands capital of Mendi.

There is not enough food to supply care centers, they need fresh water, he added. ($1=3.3445 kinas)

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook in Sydney; editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Related:

Topics AviationThe Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative (B3i) announced the incorporation of B3i Services AG in Zurich, Switzerland.

The company was formed by the founders of B3i, which previously operated as a collaborative initiative of 15 global insurers and reinsurers who came together in late 2016 to explore and test the potential of blockchain in the industry.

B3i Services AGs purpose is to provide insurance solutions on a blockchain platform that substantially improves efficiency across the value chain of the re/insurance industry  in some cases up to 30 percent, said B3i Services in a statement. These solutions will benefit both insurance companies and customers through improved speed, transparency, quality, security and cost, the company added.

B3i successfully completed its first product, a blockchain prototype for property cat excess-of-loss reinsurance contracts, in mid-2017. Throughout October 2017, a group of 38 insurers, brokers, and reinsurers tested its functionality and robustness. The prototype demonstrated that transactions could become quicker, more efficient, and more secure than with current methods.

The first live trades on the platform are anticipated by the end of 2018, with several other products being developed concurrently.

The formation and incorporation of B3i Services AG represents a significant milestone for the members of B3i. As an independent legal entity with its own capital and intellectual property, B3i Services AG can streamline the development, testing and commercialization of blockchain solutions, the company explained.

The incorporation of B3i Services AG is the starting point for the next stage of the initiative. The company will be raising additional funds from a wide spectrum of insurance industry participants over the coming months.

Gerhard Lohmann, CFO of Reinsurance, Swiss Re has been appointed as chairman of the company.

The transition of B3i from consortium to independent company is a concrete step forward to realizing the enormous potential of blockchain for the insurance industry, Lohmann commented.

Personally, I am very excited to be at the forefront of this innovation that has the capability to transform the industry and help make insurance more affordable, accessible and attractive for market segments that are currently disenfranchised, or underprivileged.

The executive management team of B3i Services AG all had key roles leading workstreams of the B3i initiative to date.

Members of the executive management team are Paul Meeusen from Swiss Re, Fei Zhang from Allianz, Sylvain De Crom from Aegon, Markus Tradt from Munich Re and Ken Marke from Ageas.

About B3i Services AG

B3i Services AG is a startup formed to explore the potential of using distributed ledger technologies within the re/insurance industry for the benefit of all stakeholders in the value chain. The company was incorporated on March 23, 2018, by the original founding shareholders: Achmea, Aegon, Ageas, Allianz, Generali, Hanover Re, Liberty Mutual, Munich Re, SCOR, Swiss Re, Tokio Marine, XL Catlin and Zurich Insurance Group.

Related:

Topics Reinsurance MarketBusiness groups are praising a bill under consideration in the Missouri Senate that would restrict when people can join together to sue over injuries.

The bills sponsor, Republican Rep. Glen Kolkmeyer of Odessa, said the proposal would keep a lot of lawsuits out of St. Louis, a city seen by many businesses as having judges and juries overly sympathetic to the people suing them.

The proposal passed the House March 15 in a 104-47 vote, prompting an upbeat statement from the Missouri Chamber of Commerce.

St. Louis courts  have a national reputation as being plaintiff-friendly, it said. This legislation would end that practice and help address Missouris perennial status atop lists of the nations worst legal climates.

Karen Buschmann, a spokeswoman for the chamber, singled out several recent lawsuits as examples, including one case against Johnson & Johnson. Only two of the 61 people suing the company lived in Missouri and Johnson & Johnson is based in New Jersey, but a judge ruled the case could be heard in St. Louis because Johnson & Johnson hired a company in Union, Missouri, to distribute some of its products. The ruling upheld a jurys $110.5 million verdict for a woman from Virginia who claimed the companys talcum powder caused her to develop ovarian cancer.

Currently in Missouri, if multiple people are hurt by the same person or business, they can file whats known as a joinder claim. The injuries might have happened in different locations or on different days, but if there is enough of a connection the individuals can sue together.

Those joining together to sue have some flexibility over where they file. If the people suing were hurt in multiple locations, they can choose which county to file in.

Its expensive to do a case on your own against a multi-billion-dollar global corporation, said Brett Emison, a personal injury lawyer who works with The Missouri Trial Lawyers Association and who supports the current law.

St. Louis judges and juries abide by the same laws as everyone else, he said, and shouldnt be shunned.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce regularly surveys businesses on how well they believe theyre treated by state courts. In 2017 Missouri was ranked 49th out of 50 states for businesses facing injury claims.

If the bill becomes law, the fact that a companys product hurt multiple people at multiple times would not alone justify the plaintiffs joining in one lawsuit. Each person would have to live in the same county, or would have to be hurt in the same way in the same place. If multiple people were hurt outside of the state, they would likely also have to file separate lawsuits.

Some exceptions would be made for Missouri residents living in many of the states smaller counties.

Many lawmakers expressed concern that, if the system is changed, smaller counties in the state will have trouble absorbing new cases and that Cole County, where some out-of-state lawsuits would be directed, is already backlogged.

In order to keep `em out of St. Louis were going to make three parties that have never been to Cole County file their complaint  in Cole County? asked Democratic Rep. Gina Mitten of St. Louis.

Lawmakers also said the restrictions could make it harder to hold companies accountable for misdeeds.

The bill is HB 1578.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Legislation MissouriABCNews.com(TRENTON, N.J.) -- State-level actions for new gun laws in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, mass shooting continue with New Jersey's voting on six measures Monday.



The New Jersey State Assembly is set to vote on bills that would curb the magazine capacity of firearms, require background checks for private gun sales and ban armor-piercing ammunition.



The vote is scheduled for this afternoon in the state Assembly, after which the measures would go before the state Senate. The measures are expected to pass both houses, which are controlled by Democrats, according to The Star-Ledger.



If approved, the bills will be sent to Gov. Phil Murphy's desk for final approval.



The newly-elected Democratic governor included tighter gun laws as part of his campaign platform last fall and released a statement supporting the new proposals Saturday, on the same day as March for Our Lives protests calling for greater gun control swept the country.



The measures up for a vote Monday include limiting magazine capacity to 10 rounds and addressing the definition of a "justifiable need to carry a handgun." Another measure would seize firearms when a health care professional determines a patient poses a threat to themselves or others.



Since the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that killed 17 students and teachers, four other states have approved new gun measures and numerous others are in the process of debating or passing gun laws.



Oregon was the first, closing a so-called "boyfriend loophole" by banning people who are under a restraining order or convicted of stalking or domestic violence from buying or owning guns or ammunition.



Rhode Island established a "red flag" policy similar to one of the measures up for vote in New Jersey today that would allow authorities to take guns from individuals deemed a threat to public safety.



Florida also passed a number of gun laws, including raising the age to buy a rifle to 21 years old, mandating a three-day waiting period for purchasing firearms and dedicating funds to arming teachers in some state schools.



Washington state banned bump-stock devices, which have been a point of controversy since the deadly Las Vegas gun massacre in October.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.



Advocates who have been pushing for renewal of the U.S. federal flood insurance programs in the wake of last years devastating hurricanes and floods praised Congress for extending the program through July 31.

But advocates remained concerned that Congress has not yet acted on a permanent solution. The SmarterSafter Coalition, a group of insurance, taxpayer, environmental and housing organizations, repeated its call that a permanent fix is needed.

The extension of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was included in the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill signed on Friday by President Donald Trump.

Legislation that would drastically overhaul the insurance program has stalled in the U.S. Senate after passage in the House of Representative. Supporters of the overhaul say it would improve the amount of choice in the marketplace and stabilize rates. Critics have voiced concern it could result in drastic price increases for some flood-prone areas.

This is the fourth time Congress has punted on much-needed reforms to the nations ailing flood insurance system  but we are hopeful that it will be the last, the coalition said in a statement.

With the NFIP now set to expire in four months, we look forward to working with lawmakers to expand these efforts and advance comprehensive reforms that save taxpayer dollars and better protect people and property in harms way, the coalition said.

Laura Lightbody, who directs Pew Charitable Trusts flood-prepared communities initiative, said the spending bill increased funding for two critical programs. One will seek to mitigate future disasters and another to improve the mapping technology to properly assess the risk of future floods.

Neither program has seen this large of an appropriation in the past 10 years, she said.

(Reporting by Ginger Gibson Additional reporting by Suzanne Barlyn Editing by Leslie Adler)

Related:

Topics FloodThe head of Alphabet Inc.s autonomous driving unit, Waymo, said on Saturday that the companys technology would have safely handled the situation confronting an Uber self-driving vehicle last week when it struck a pedestrian, killing her.

Waymo CEO John Krafcik told auto dealers at a gathering of the National Automobile Dealers Association in Las Vegas that the company was well on its way to its goal of decreasing motor vehicle fatalities.

At Waymo, we have a lot of confidence that our technology would be able to handle a situation like that, Krafcik said, referring to a scenario in which a pedestrian crosses the street at night.

The fatal collision on March 18 in Tempe, Arizona, has raised questions about the safety of autonomous technology in general, and of Ubers system specifically, of which few details are known.

An investigation by police and federal safety regulators is ongoing into the accident, in which an Uber test vehicle driving in autonomous mode hit a pedestrian at night as she was walking across a four-lane roadway with her bike.

Having worked on self-driving cars since 2009 and with 5 million miles (8 million km) driven on public roads under its belt, Waymo is generally considered to be ahead of rivals in the development of autonomous vehicle technology.

The company plans to roll out a service for passengers in coming months in the Phoenix area offering rides in a fully self-driving Waymo car with no driver, with plans to subsequently roll out the program more widely.

Companies developing self-driving technology, which also include General Motors Co, Toyota Motor Corp and a host of startups, are waiting to see whether fall-out from the accident leads to new restrictions on the relatively unregulated sector.

(Writing By Alexandria Sage; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Topics Auto Claims Tech Sharing Economy Ridesharing Autonomous Vehicles UberAt a time when the nations workers compensation system is facing an aging workforce and a pending widespread labor shortage, federal policies on immigration and health insurance promise to exacerbate these challenges and contribute to causing far more claims and higher costs in the years ahead, according to a long-time workers compensation economist and researcher.

Workers compensation claims could double, and overall costs could balloon 300 percent in a little more than a decade, by 2030  without any increase in benefits to workers, according to a scenario painted by Dr. Richard Victor, a senior fellow with the Sedgwick Institute, a risk and benefits think tank.

He said in contrast to the recent period of stable claims frequency, various external forces could bring far more cases into the system, piling on top of the normal growth in medical and indemnity costs over the next decade.

Victor maintains his dire scenario could transpire because of a number of forces including an aging workforce, an emerging widespread labor shortage, a slowdown in immigration, and more of what should be health insurance cases shifted to workers compensation.

Victor, an economist who founded the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) in 1983 and served as director until 2016, returned to his WCRI stomping ground at its annual conference last week in Boston to ask what might happen if his or a similar dire scenario came true.

He expressed concern that the approaches to reforming workers compensation that have worked for the last 100 years may not be effective or achievable in the years ahead given the external nature of the forces coming to bear as well as the polarization of politics and ineffectiveness of government today.

Is there a plausible scenario by which the systems get way out of balance and the reform process cant bring it back into balance? Then what happens? Its possible that the stakeholders at some point might say, Cant get there. Is there some alternative?' he asked, continuing, If the state governments cant solve this problem, where do we put the responsibility for a system that compensates workers for workplace injuries?

The answers to that inquiry and others could come in the book Victor is close to finishing.

2030 Scenario

In the meantime, there is his 2030 scenario to ponder.

Projecting current claims frequency trends out a dozen years to 2030, claims should actually be down to 73 percent of what they were in 2017, according to Victor. However, external factors will overtake that favorable frequency.

A long-predicted and prolonged labor shortage caused by Baby Boomers retiring will contribute to the reversal of the trend of falling injury rates.

Demographers have been writing about this, in some ways acting like Paul Revere, A labor shortage is coming for the last 20 years, said Victor. And theyve always pointed out that a labor shortage like this will be a real challenge for economic growth in this country. You cant grow if you dont have enough people to do the work.

Victor said that research indicates that while the older workforce will mean an increase in lost workdays and more injuries, the overall effect on workers compensation of workers getting older is actually not major, perhaps only a five percent increase.

But aging is not really what workers compensation needs to worry about. The real impact is the labor shortages that follow as more and more Baby Boomers retire, he said. And these labor shortages, which will be longer and deeper than anything weve experienced, will lead to significant increase in workers compensation claims and longer durations of disability.

The labor force grew at a pace of 2.5 to 3 percent through the 1970s and 1980s. But it slowed to 1.8 percent in the 1990s, 1.3 percent from 2000-2009, and grew at only 0.5 percent from 2010 to 2017 a rate thats insufficient to keep up with demand much longer.

According to Victor, this is a problem because in labor shortages, employers relax their hiring standards and hire workers they wouldnt have been hired in a normal labor market, including workers who are less capable.

He referred to recent surveys of human resource managers in which more than half said that they recently hired workers who were not exactly qualified. In another survey, more than half said they are recruiting outside of the talent pool.

You can read other surveys and interviews that have been done by various reporting organizations and youll see other euphemisms for, Were hiring people that we wouldnt have otherwise hired.'

Health and medical fields, in particular, stand to be hurt by the labor shortage, the research veteran noted. When providers have difficulty finding doctors, nurses and therapists, that leads to delays in medical care and return-to-work. This shortage also affects the workers compensation industry itself, which will have more vacant positions and less experienced hires.

The overall labor shortfall leads to more workers compensation claims. How many more? Victor cited one Massachusetts study done during the 1980s when that states workforce could not keep up with the fast economic growth. The study found 2.8 percent more indemnity claims per year over a five-year period, along with an increase in the duration of disabilities. Victor extrapolated this out to mean as much as 30 percent more claims in 10 to 12 years. But for his 2030 scenario, he reduced the effect to 20 percent, as he assumes employers will accelerate technologies to replace workers and believes that, eventually, there will just not be any people to hire.

Thus by 2030, the labor shortage will add 20 points to the 73 percent benchmark that reflects current frequency.

Immigration Factor

Economists have tended to view immigration as a mitigating factor in estimating the negative impact of the labor shortage. While they have been warning the labor shortage will make economic growth more difficult, Victor said they have typically concluded with, But its not going to be that big of a problem because the U.S. is a very attractive place for people to immigrate to.

But that was before the Trump Administration started changing federal immigration policy.

The fact is that in the past two decades, the growth in the U.S. workforce has come from immigrants and their children, not from native Americans, who have represented a declining share of the workforce for decades.

[F]rom a strictly economic point of view, he said, the U.S. could not have picked a worse time to limit the flow of immigrants into the country.

Even small reductions in immigration matter and can not only further tighten labor markets but also prolong the duration of the shortage, he said, adding that anti-immigration rhetoric can also discourage people to come to the country or convince them to leave if they feel they are not welcome.

These immigration restrictions and the rhetoric and enforcement that surrounds them will lead the shortages to be deeper and longer. Its not just legislation; the uncertainty, alone, reduces immigration, he said. So the anti-immigrant rhetoric that we hear from our elected officials, anti-immigrant acts of violence that we see on the news, unpredictable enforcement and unpredictable deportation processes all create uncertainty.

One in six healthcare workers in the U.S. is foreign-born, including 27 percent of physicians and surgeons, 15 percent of registered nurses and 22 percent of home health aides. This trend has ramifications for the workers compensation system.

More educated people, people with more income, are more mobile, he said.

He suggested there may be a lesson in the politics in the United Kingdom, where since the Brexit vote to exit the European Union, immigration has dropped 30 percent and there has been a substantial fall-off  96 percent fewer in the number of nurses from other European countries registered to work in the UK. And thats just uncertainty, Victor said.

Health Insurance

Beyond the labor shortage being exacerbated by a likely drop in immigration, Victor also sees a shortage of people with adequate health insurance as a problem for workers compensation.

Whereas years ago health insurance deductibles were near $550 or $800, today it is not uncommon for them to hit $3,000 or $5,000, even $10,000. According to Victor, studies show that this new reality causes more workers to either go without or delay getting medical care for an injury or illness. When, however, they can no longer ignore their condition, he suggests many may claim it as a work-related condition and seek workers compensation services. He cited past Rand research indicating that workers with high deductible or coinsurance plans postponed care in 36 percent of cases and that the most common cases involved soft tissue injuriesthe bread and butter of workers compensation.

[T]he moment of truth comes when the box gets checked: work-related or not? And the calculus for some people is different when their deductible is $5,000 than when its $500. So, thats case shifting, he said.

This trend could be furthered by the growing number of American workers with no health insurance at all.

[A]s millions of people unfortunately lose their health insurance as provisions of the Affordable Care Act get repealed or weakened, more of those workers will be saying, I used to be able to get care. I cant get care. I cant afford it. Where will I get that care?' Victor said.

He said that the number of workers who lose their insurance will grow as the Trump Administration and Congress end subsidies and weaken or repeal other aspects of the Affordable Care Act. He estimates that case-shifting from health insurance to workers compensation could have a major effect, ballooning workers compensation indemnity claims by as much as 35 percent by 2030.

Those are workers who have gotten used to getting healthcare and all of a sudden they really cant afford it. And so, they are highly motivated to think about, How do I continue to get something I used to have? Victor said.

Noting that in past decades, stakeholders from within the system managed to enact reforms that restored a sense of balance if employer costs got out of hand or injured workers benefits lagged. But Victor is concerned that the forces now threatening workers compensation are external, not internal, and require advocates outside of the system to restore balance but this may not be possible given todays politics and the trouble government has solving problems.

I think its tough because these are forces outside the system. Raising the maximum benefit, or putting limits on duration of benefits, thats something within the normal workers comp process, but a labor shortage, high deductibles in commercial health insurance, I think there are fewer tools within that traditional process, within the state government, in general, he said.

The effects of all these trends, including the labor shortage, an aging workforce, more case-shifting, growing cost-sharing, a larger uninsured population will introduce a doubling of what the number of injuries would have been had none of these things happened into a world where injury frequency has been dropping every year, Victor estimates.

Then he adds to those factors the growth in the average cost per claim that just happens normally because prices and wages go up, throws in the likely growing duration of disability, and accounts for a few other forces at play, to arrive at his scenario for 2030:

You end up with a 300 percent increase in workers compensation costs without increasing benefits to injured workers.

Topics USA Claims Workers' Compensation Europe TalentThousands of high school students and supporters gathered in Washington and across the U.S. Saturday to demand tougher gun laws from an older generation thats delivered little change after years of mass shootings.

Participants in the March for Our Lives rally thronged the presidential inaugural route on Pennsylvania Avenue, at times chanting vote them out as speakers from a stage at the foot of Capitol Hill proclaimed the beginning of a political movement.

If you listen real close you can hear the people in power shaking, said David Hogg, a student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a Feb. 14 attack by a gunman left 17 people dead  and spurred the movement that flowered Saturday in cities including New York, Boston, Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta.

Were going to make this a voting issue, Hogg said. We will get rid of these public servants that only serve the gun lobby. And we will save lives.

Organizers expected more than 700,000 people at the demonstration in Washington, the largest of more than 800 planned marches nationwide and overseas, according to leaders who organized under the Twitter hashtag #NeverAgain. Protesters are demanding protection from gun violence, including a ban on assault weapons such as the rifle used in Parkland, a prohibition on high-capacity magazines that let killers shoot long bursts without reloading, and more effective background checks for gun purchases.

A little girl held a pink handmade sign that said too cute to shoot. Volunteers were helping people register to vote, and speakers from the stage encouraged spectators to channel their frustration to the ballot box.

Politicians, either represent the people or get out, said Cameron Kasky, another Parkland student. Americans are being attacked in churches, nightclubs, movie theaters and on the streets. But we the people can fix this.

Fundraising

The student organizers raised more than $3 million through an online GoFundMe campaign and worked with Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates for universal background checks and other gun control measures. Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, which operates Bloomberg News, serves as a member of Everytown for Gun Safetys advisory board and is a donor to the group.

We will continue to fight for our lives, we will continue to fight for our dead friends, Parkland student Delaney Tarr said from the Washington stage, adding that the pressure is on all those in power. They know that if there is no assault-weapons ban, we will vote them out.

Alyssa Parham, a mother of four, attended the Washington march with her 16-year-old son, a student at a Catholic school in Hyattsville, Maryland. She said its distressing to see her teenage son and 91-year-old father both worried about the direction of the country.

When youre 91, youve been through a lot of history  World War II, civil rights, womens rights. Its heartbreaking to see him worried about this moment in history too, Parham said.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters said in a statement Saturday, We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their First Amendment rights today. She pointed pointed to gun-safety actions this week by Congress and the Justice Department.

Bump Stocks

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday announced a proposed rule to ban so-called bump stocks that allow semi-automatic guns to fire more rapidly, similar to a fully automatic weapon. A sniper in the Oct. 1 Las Vegas mass shooting used such a device to kill 58 concert-goers.

Marchers said they want more action.

When they give us that inch  that bump-stock ban  we will take a mile. We are not here for bread crumbs, we are here for real change, said Tarr. They know what is coming. They know that if there is no assault-weapons ban passed, then we will vote them out.

Congress also voted Friday to bolster background checks for gun purchases, spend more on school safety, and let the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study gun violence, ending what was in effect a 22-year ban that was supported by the National Rifle Association.

Small Steps

The measures  tucked into a larger spending bill signed by President Donald Trump  marked the first congressional action in years on gun legislation. But theyre small steps compared with the 1994 assault-weapons ban that lapsed in 2004. Congress seemed poised to act after the 2012 massacre of 20 six- and seven-year-olds and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, but the effort failed.

After the Washington march, a number of people left their signs at a temporary fence outside Trumps hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. The president is at his Florida home this weekend.

The street protests and growing congressional attention mean gun control could loom large in the November midterm elections. Democrats have embraced the issue, while Republican congressional leaders and Trump havent moved to adopt measures such as ending assault-weapon sales.

At one point Trump said he backed comprehensive gun-control measures, but he backed off after meeting with the NRAs top lobbyist. The president also said he wanted to allow teachers and other staff members to be armed and trained to confront shooters.

Nadine Hall, a teacher at Greenhills School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said she attended the Washington march to support her children and her students. She expressed skepticism about arming teachers as a way to keep students safe.

I dont want to carry a gun, Hall said. I want my students to be safe.

Make That Change

I have lesson plans I want to get through, Hall said. So something has to change and if we adults havent been able to do it and the kids can, lets make that change. We need strict gun control laws. Thats what we need.

A group of people wearing military-style camouflage and calling themselves the Patriot Picket stood about a block away from the main demonstration in Washington and displayed signs that said, among other things, good guys with guns stand by you.

No matter what you want to do, American freedoms are not the enemy, said Jeff Hulbert, founder of the group based in Annapolis, Maryland, that mustered about 45 people. The groups website says it mounts protests to counter anti-gun demonstrators. Looney lefties everywhere, said a posting on its Facebook page Saturday.

Saturdays march follows a nationwide student walkout over gun violence on March 14, the one-month mark since the Parkland killings. Another national walkout, organized by a different group of students, is planned for April 20, the 19th anniversary of the 1999 attack at Colorados Columbine High School that killed 12 students and a teacher and left two dozen more injured.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics WashingtonA Chevron attorney said in court last Wednesday that the company supports scientific conclusions that humans are causing climate change, a response to a lawsuit that accuses five major energy producers of misleading the public for years about their role in global warming.

At a hearing in San Francisco federal court, Chevron attorney Theodore Boutrous also said that the scientific consensus about greenhouse gas emissions did not fully form until the past decade.

The cities of San Francisco and Oakland, California sued Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, and BP PLC last year, seeking an abatement fund to help the cities address flooding they say is a result of climate change.

The companies argued in legal filings on Tuesday that the case should be dismissed, partly because Congress has given regulatory agencies, not the courts, authority over the production and emission of fossil fuels.

Big Oil to Face Questions on Climate Change as Cities Abatement Lawsuit Proceeds

The lawsuits, filed by Democratic Party politicians, are part of a larger campaign to address climate change in the courts. Worldwide, there are almost 900 lawsuits on climate change in 25 countries, a U.N. study said last year.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup invited both sides to the hearing to describe their views on the best science now available on global warming and rising sea levels.

Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office 14 months ago, domestic climate change policy has been turned on its head. Republican Trump has pushed to increase production of fossil fuels and said he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions but Washington has not disengaged from it completely.

In court on Wednesday, Boutrous said Chevron supports a 2013 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which concluded it was extremely likely humans contribute to warming. However, Boutrous also said earlier IPCC reports were not as certain.

The judge asked Boutrous if the other four companies agreed with his presentation, and Boutrous said he was only speaking for Chevron.

No attorneys for the other four companies answered questions at the hearing, though all generally acknowledge the reality of climate change.

Im going to ask them at some point if they agree with everything you said, Alsup said.

All five companies argued in court papers on Tuesday that they should not be held liable for warming, which is caused by billions of parties and complex environmental phenomena occurring worldwide over many decades.

(Reporting by Dan Levine; editing by Grant McCool)

Topics Lawsuits USA Climate Change Energy Oil GasThe effects of global warming can be seen and touched in Louisiana, where officials have begun buying higher ground to relocate an entire town in a bayou being swallowed by higher seas.

The Louisiana Office of Community Development announced Tuesday that it will spend $11.7 million on a 515-acre tract of high ground to house about 80 residents of Isle de Jean Charles, an island that has lost 98 percent of its land area since 1955 as sea levels rise due to climate change. Most are Native Americans, members of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians and the United Houma Nation.

Groundbreaking is expected next year at the resettlement project near Schriever in northern Terrebonne Parish  the culmination of many years of planning for people who long survived in isolation along Lousianas swampy coast.

Some in Isle de Jean Charles are concerned that 2019 may be too long a wait for homes to be built at the location, however.

Were going to have to go through another hurricane season, maybe two, Albert Naquin, chief of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians told NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune in December. That makes us very, very edgy.

Naquin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Messages left for tribal council members of the United Houma Nation, which also is affected by the project, were not immediately returned.

Isle de Jean Charles has been the full-time home to the band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe for more than 170 years, since Native Americans were uprooted from better lands across the young United States during what became known as the Trail of Tears. Barred by law from buying land elsewhere, these families found swampland that the state considered uninhabitable and made it their home.

In 2016, Isle de Jean Charles became the first community in the U.S. to receive federal assistance for a large-scale retreat from the effects of climate change. About $48 million was allotted to purchase land, build homes and move the islands remaining people.

Pat Forbes, who directs the states community development agency, said in a statement that a majority of the islands residents prefer the Terrebonne Parish site for what will become their new home.

This is not to say that they want to leave the island, but the island is, in effect, leaving them, Forbes said.

The proposed resettlement is closer to stores, schools and health care and is less flood-prone than the island, which has been continually battered by hurricanes and tropical storms.

Unfortunately, coastal Louisiana is experiencing subsidence, relative sea level rise and coastal land loss faster than anywhere in the country. Fortunately, were also on the leading edge of resilience-building approaches to adaptation, drawing on innovative science and technology right here in Louisiana, Forbes said.

Louisiana hopes the resettlement will serve as a model for other coastal communities facing these same risks, but we also know success depends on due consideration of the islands history, as well as the needs of the residents, said Mat Sanders, the departments resilience policy and program administrator.

The state agency hosted four community meetings for current and former residents of Isle de Jean Charles to collaborate on new communitys design. The discussions included site preferences, budget considerations and off-island housing where residents can stay during the transition. A steering committee of residents and other stakeholders meets with the planning team each month to review the resettlements progress.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics LouisianaFlorida has been trying to lure self-driving cars to the state for testing on public roads, shaping laws that are much more lax than places like California and New York. The fatal accident last week in Arizona, another state thats opted for a laissez faire approach to unproven robo-cars, appears unlikely to change the states approach.

Jeff Brandes, the Florida state senator who has led the local effort to become a hotbed of autonomous vehicles, said in an interview this week he sees no reason to add tougher regulation to self-driving cars. Florida already allows carmakers and technology companies to run autonomous vehicles without a driver, and the companies arent required to report problems such as traffic accidents.

Lax oversight of self-driving vehicles came under new scrutiny on March 18 after an autonomous car being tested in Tempe, Arizona, by Uber Technologies Inc. stuck and killed a pedestrian. As a result, Uber, Toyota Motor Corp. and self-drive startup NuTonomy have said they would suspend testing.

We have to remember that there was a safety driver in the vehicle, Brandes said of the pedestrian death in Arizona. The technology and the driver couldnt react fast enough to avoid the accident. I dont think this changes anything for the state of Florida.

A Florida law passed in 2015 allows cars to be used without drivers. California allows tests without safety drivers but, unlike Florida, requires human operators to maintain remote control of the vehicle. California also requires companies to report all accidents and so-called disengagements, the instances when a driver takes over from the cars autonomous system.

Companies would rather perfect their technology without worrying about public scrutiny, said Grayson Brulte, president of autonomous consulting firm Brulte & Co. Thats led to a migration from strict states to those with fewer rules. Arizona now has more than 600 autonomous vehicles on its road, according to the governors office, while California has about 365.

Across the U.S., 21 states have laws on the books governing the use of self-driving cars, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Another 11 have executive orders from governors. New York, one of the strictest states, requires a driver to be present in the vehicle and that tests be done with supervision of the state police. Michigan, on the more permissive end of the spectrum, allows self-driving cars to operate on any road in the state without steering wheels, pedals or human backup drivers.

Companies dont want to test vehicles in states without laws that recognize self-driving cars. If an accident happened, they could be considered negligent for operating a technology that isnt addressed by state law, said Michael Morgan, a partner with law firm McDermott, Will and Emery in Los Angeles.

You need legal cover, Morgan said, which at a minimum is a statute that recognizes it and allows you to do it.

Arizona has become a popular state to for trial runs. Alphabet Inc.s Waymo tests its vehicle there, among other places, and plans to launch its first commercial ride-hailing using autonomous vehicles service in the Phoenix area later this year. Cruise Automation, the self-driving unit owned by General Motors Co., also runs in the state.

Arizonas rules were created by Gov. Doug Ducey with a 2015 executive order. If the state legislature has other ideas, Brulte said, lawmakers could pass a provision that supersedes the order.

The fact that Florida has a law eliminates that political risk. Florida has put policies in place to usher in the future of autonomy, Brulte said.

Several companies have moved to take advantage of Floridas accommodating environment to launch pilot projects. Volkswagen AGs Audi brand has tested semi-autonomous drive systems there. Ford Motor Co. will be trying out a delivery service that handles groceries and pizza from Dominos in Miami and Miami Beach, although the self-driving cars will include humans.

Voyage, a British startup, is already running a self-driving taxi service in the Villages, a massive retirement community north of Orlando that houses 125,000 people. Starsky Robotics, a San Francisco startup, has been operating a Freightliner tractor trailer with no driver in Florida. The truck is monitored from a remote driver who watches video feed via cameras.

Brandes, the state senator, said Florida is getting a lot of interest from tech companies and carmakers about deploying in the state. Floridas laws, sunny weather and retiree populationwhich often needs transportation assistancemake it an ideal test bed.

Many major companies are eyeing Florida as a place to deploy autonomous vehicles, Brandes said. We will move forward.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics California Auto Florida InsurTech Tech Arizona Sharing Economy Ridesharing Autonomous Vehicles UberKentucky lawmakers are closing in on making the biggest changes to the workers compensation system in decades after the Senate passed the measure on Thursday.

The legislation  backed by business groups but opposed by organized labor groups  will return to the House, which will consider changes made by senators. If the House accepts the revised version, it will go to Republican Gov. Matt Bevin.

A key part of the bill would put time limits on benefits for some injured workers.

The proposed 15-year benefit cap from the date of injury would apply to certain workers filing claims for permanent, partial disability because of on-the-job injuries.

Many of those workers eventually return to the labor force. Currently, they are entitled to medical benefits for the duration of the disability.

The bill would allow those injured workers to make recertification filings that, if approved, would let them continue receiving medical benefits.

The measure, which passed 23-14, had a powerful advocate during Thursdays debate  Senate President Robert Stivers. The Manchester Republican said the bill would promote a very fair process.

It does things for  the injured worker and it gives certainty to the industry for what their costs and liabilities would be, he said.

Minority Floor Leader Ray Jones denounced the bill as anti-worker.

The Pikeville Democrat said the recertification process would put the burden on injured workers to show they should continue receiving medical benefits.

The bills opponents say those injuries often can result in nagging medical problems lasting a lifetime. They also say theres no justification for the changes because workers compensation insurance premiums paid by Kentucky employers have been dropping.

I cant see the need for such a sweeping overhaul of the workers compensation law, said Democratic Sen. Morgan McGarvey of Louisville.

He said the bill seeks to limit costs for businesses at the expense of workers.

Supporters have said the changes would not apply to people now receiving workers comp benefits. The measure would affect future cases stemming from workplace injuries.

Also under the bill, the most severely injured workers  considered permanently, totally disabled _ would still receive lifetime medical benefits, supporters said.

___

The legislation is House Bill 2.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Workers' Compensation Oklahoma Politics KentuckyPinnacol Assurance is distributing $50 million in workers compensation dividend checks this month to its policyholders.

Nearly 53,000 employers throughout the state will receive a dividend. Check amounts are calculated based on the policyholders premium size and performance. The average 2018 dividend check will be $944, and will be sent to employers in late March.

Pinnacol policyholders have earned a dividend 10 times since 2005. Pinnacol has now returned nearly $606 million in total general dividends to Colorado businesses.

Pinnacol provides workers comp insurance to 57,000 employers.

Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance ColoradoNew York opens at 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST Tokyo opens at 7:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. EST Sydney opens at 5:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. EST London opens at 3:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon EST

The markets in Japan and Europe (open 2:00 a.m.11:00 a.m.) are in full swing so part-time traders can choose major currency pairs. These include the EUR/JPY pair or the EUR/ CHF pair for major currencies or pairs that involve the Hong Kong dollar (HKD) or Singapore dollar (SGD). The AUD/JPY pair might also work well for part-time traders available during the 5 p.m. to midnight timeframe. While it is crucial to understand the best currency pairs that fit your schedule, before placing any bets the trader needs to conduct further analysis on these pairs and the fundamentals of each currency.

Stop-Loss Orders in Forex Trading

The best strategy for part-time traders may be to let your computer be your "trading partner." The ability to employ a trading program where you can let the information technology work for you could be beneficial, as the forex market is so fluid and difficult to monitor. Another common strategy is to implement stop-loss orders, which means that if the market takes a sudden move against your position, your money is protected.

Price Action in Forex

There is also a strategy for part-time traders who pop in and out of work (10 minutes at a time). These brief but frequent trading periods may lend themselves to implementing a price action trading strategy. Price action trading means analyzing the technicals or charts of the currency pair to inform trades. Traders can analyze up bars (a bar that has a higher high or higher low than the previous bar) and look at down bars (a bar with a lower high or lower low than the previous).

Up bars signal an uptrend while down bars signal a down trend, while other price action indicators may be inside or outside bars. The key to success with this strategy is trading off of a chart timeframe that best meets your schedule.

Other Forex Trading Strategies

These strategies may also serve you well as a part-time forex trader:

Take fewer positions and hold for days.

It is critical that you understand the drivers of your currency pairs and have taken the time to really understand your market. Therefore, after studying the market and narrowing down particular chosen currency pairs, selecting a few positions and holding them for a longer period of time is a prudent strategy for part-timers. Another wise strategy is to put in stop-loss orders with all your trades to minimize any losses if the market moves against you.

It is critical that you understand the drivers of your currency pairs and have taken the time to really understand your market. Therefore, after studying the market and narrowing down particular chosen currency pairs, selecting a few positions and holding them for a longer period of time is a prudent strategy for part-timers. Another wise strategy is to put in stop-loss orders with all your trades to minimize any losses if the market moves against you. Look at long-term trends.

There is value in looking at longer-term trends (daily/weekly) instead of looking at hourly or even four-hour charts. This will allow you to trade while looking at your computer only once a day.

There is value in looking at longer-term trends (daily/weekly) instead of looking at hourly or even four-hour charts. This will allow you to trade while looking at your computer only once a day. Set up trading orders.

Setting limit, stop-loss or other entry/exit orders can ensure you do not miss opportunities to enter or exit positions. Most trading platforms allow for these orders with no additional fees.

Setting limit, stop-loss or other entry/exit orders can ensure you do not miss opportunities to enter or exit positions. Most trading platforms allow for these orders with no additional fees. Use technology!

Set up automated alerts to your mobile phone or email to keep you informed of currency price movements while you are not actively trading.

The Bottom Line

The forex market is desirable for part-time traders because it runs for 24 hours and is constantly in flux, providing ample opportunities to make profits at any point in the day.

However, the forex market is very volatile. This makes it risky for all traders, particularly the part-time trader, if the proper strategy is not implemented. Strategies such as trading specific currency pairs that are at play during the times of day you can trade, looking at longer timeframes, implementing price action methods and employing technology will contribute to the success of part-time forex traders. Risk tolerance, leverage and time horizon (from hourly to weekly) must also be taken into account for any trader's broader strategy.

In sum, these elements are an important part of any trading strategy, whether the focus is on short- or long-term gains.What Is a Credit Reference?

Credit references can be a credit report or documented letter from a previous lender, personal acquaintance, or business acquaintance. Lenders use both credit reports and credit reference letters in their lending decisions for both individuals and businesses.

How a Credit Reference Works

A credit reference is generally used to determine the creditworthiness of a person or individual. Credit agencies are used most often for this purpose, though individual letters of reference are sometimes necessary. With a credit reference letter, the entity has no obligation or association with the loan. The reference letter serves only to provide examples of the individual's or businesss past history.

Key Takeaways Credit references provide information to potential lenders about the creditworthiness of an applicant.

Landlords who rent apartments or houses often ask applicants for credit references.

A credit report is an oft-used type of credit reference.

Businesses use credit references along with trade references (references from suppliers, for example) when applying for lines of credit.

1:17 Click Play to Learn the Definition of a Credit Reference

Credit reports are the most reliable form of credit reference. Credit reports include detailed line items on the borrowers credit history, the number of credit accounts a borrower has open, the number of accounts a borrower has applied for, and any delinquencies or defaults. Credit reports will also include information on other credit items specifically bankruptcy or tax debt.

Credit Reference and Credit Scoring

Additionally, a credit report will include a credit score that is generated by a credit reporting agency. Credit reporting agencies use various methodologies for generating credit scores.

Lenders will usually require a specific credit score level based on their underwriting standards for loan application approval. Situations beyond standard credit account approvals may also require a credit report. These requests may be in relation to employment, apartment rental agreements, or insurance quotes.

In some cases, lenders may request only reference contacts with the references being called by the lender during the underwriting process.

Individuals may be asked to provide credit references in a variety of different situations. Having a strong awareness of potential individuals or businesses that can be contacted as a credit reference can be helpful in expediting a credit reference process.

Individuals should also monitor their credit report activity to remain aware of any changes or additions that might affect their credit score. Credit card companies offer free monthly credit score reporting, which can also be a good way of following and tracking an individuals credit score. In addition, each of the three nationwide credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) are required to provide you with a free copy of your credit report every 12 months upon request. These reports will provide more detailed information.

For those willing to pay for some additional peace of mind as well as helpful features and tools, there are several excellent credit monitoring services that are also worth considering.

Special Considerations

Lenders require a credit reference letter when requesting individual credit references. Credit reference letters are often requested in business loans. Generally, a credit reference letter must include information on the reference such as the name, relationship, and any details pertaining to past credit history.

One example of the need for credit references might include an overseas business wishing to establish its credentials in the United States. This business may obtain a number of credit references from other businesses, banks, vendors, and customers that it has dealt with within its home country.Investopedia and our third-party partners use cookies and process personal data like unique identifiers based on your consent to store and/or access information on a device, display personalized ads and for content measurement, audience insight, and product development. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Investopedia.com, including your right to object where legitimate interest is used, click below. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. List of Partners (vendors)By Padraig Hoare

The long-mooted Northern Ring Road to unlock the economic potential of Cork citys northside is more crucial than the proposed 850m M20 motorway between Cork and Limerick, a planning expert has said.

Director of Coakley ONeill Town Planning, Dave Coakley told University College Cork Planning Society conference that the Northern Ring Road had to be made priority in any national development plan for the country.

The eastern half of the Northern Ring Road was included in the 116bn national development plan, as was the M20. The eastern half will connect the M8 Cork to Dublin motorway with the M20, according to the national development plan,

According to business leaders, the long-mooted northern ring road from the Glanmire bypass towards Poulavone in Ballincollig would open up the areas economic potential.

Mr Coakley said: We need a northern ring road more than the M20 as it is a crucial piece of infrastructure that will unlock the development potential of the northside of the city, rebalance the overall city, and assist in facilitating the redevelopment and regeneration of the city centre.

Mr Coakley questioned whether the Governments assertion that Cork would be the fastest growing region by 2020 was a realistic ambition or blind optimism.

Lecturer in urban economics and housing at DIT, Lorcan Sirr, claimed local democracy was emasculated by central Government in relation to planning.

A combination of policy-tinkering, a reluctance to use more state lands for housing and a focus on viability for suppliers, rather than on affordability for potential purchasers has meant we are not seeing the levels of housing in urban areas that we need to.

The centralisation of planning powers also removes the ability for local democracy to tailor solutions for their area. Local planning is being emasculated, which is something that should be of concern to planners and planning students across the country, he said.

Chief executive of Cork City Council, Ann Doherty told the conference that Project Ireland 2040 was a vote of confidence in Cork.Shortages of qualified staff for the hotel industry could scupper the growth of Irish tourism, with a mounting risk that demand for workers will outstrip supply, writes Padraig Hoare.

That was the claim from job recruitment website Jobs.ie, which undertook a study of positions in the sector over the past five years.

Jobs vacancies in the hotel sector have increased by nearly 200% between 2013 and 2017, said Jobs.ie. It said the hotel and guesthouse sector is worth 7.2bn to the Irish economy and supports an estimated 235,000 jobs.

There was an increase in vacancies for hotel chefs, bartenders, waiters, receptionists, porters, and concierges. Every role has experienced growth in the last five years, particularly since 2016. Vacancies for hotel chefs increased by 149% in the five years.

Jobs.ie general manager Christopher Paye said the hotel sector had shown remarkable resilience despite the negative impact of Brexit, but that it could again be threatened.

There is a mounting risk that demand for workers will outstrip supply, and this is already proving the case for chefs. With skills shortages left unaddressed, the growth of Irelands tourism industry will be short-lived. Hotels will need to think outside the box to attract talented workers from overseas and encourage more Irish professionals to consider a career in hospitality.

He called for a public consultation between the Government and hotel industry to ensure that we are pre-empting and tackling these shortages before they arise.

Earlier this month, Business Minister Heather Humphreys announced the removal of some restrictions on chefs from outside the EU working in Ireland.

The restaurant industry has said there is an annual shortage of 7,000 chefs.

Despite the restaurant industry benefiting from the reduced Vat rate, going from 13.5% to 9% in 2011, it has lobbied for more concessions, including a reduction in commercial rates, freezing the national minimum wage until 2021, and a reduction in wine excise.

The cost of hotel stays grew sharply in February. According to CSO figures, the cost of accommodation for consumers rose 5.2% last month, and was up 4.4% in the past 12 months.By Daniel McConnell

The Government looks set to expel a number of Russian diplomats as a show of solidarity with the UK, Government sources have said.

Some suggestions indicate that the Government could demand the departure of just one Russian diplomat, but this was not confirmed.

Tanaiste Simon Coveney, following a security briefing, is to make a recommendation to Cabinet tomorrow and the Irish Examiner has confirmed it will mean a number of Russian diplomats being forced to leave the country.

Simon Coveney will bring a recommendation to Cabinet on Tuesday following a review and then the Cabinet will approve it. Ireland requires a Cabinet decision. It would not be unreasonable to expect that some form of expulsions are likely, a source said.

This would be the most aggressive stance taken by an Irish Government since the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat over the use of forged passports in the assassination of a Hamas arms dealer in Dubai, allegedly by Israeli agents.

Mr Coveney was briefed tonight and he has been in touch with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar constantly on the matter and it is clear the Government is intent on continuing its hard-line stance adopted on this matter since the EU summit last week.

Formally it is up to Mr Coveney to present a recommendation to Cabinet for its approval.

His spokesperson said the assessment of alleged Russian activities in Ireland  being conducted by a high-level group  was ongoing.

Donald Tusks tweet does not include Ireland. Assessments on our side are continuing."

It is expected the Tanaiste will share his assessment at the weekly Cabinet meeting tomorrow morning. Shortly afterwards, he and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will indicate what sanction will apply.

Sources said on Sunday that given the Taoiseachs prominence in leading with this issue at the European Council in Brussels, it is highly likely that at least one Russian diplomat will be expelled tomorrow.

However, such expulsions do not require a formal Cabinet decision and are executive decisions made by the Taoiseach of the day, on the recommendation of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.Update 10.55am: The mother of Elisha Gault has today thanked the public for their efforts in the search for her 14-year-old daughter.

The remains of the 14-year-old were discovered just 8km from where she was last seen alive in Carrick-on-Suir on St Patrick's Day.

In an update to a previous, widely-shared, Facebook message appealing for information on her daughter, Grainne Gault simply stated: "Our baby girl has been recovered, thank you all for your efforts in bringing her home to us, so we can now lay her to rest".

To see this post on Facebook, click here.

Update 8.47am: Community in shock as body of missing teenager Elisha Gault found

A local Councillor says the community will rally behind the family of Elisha Gault, whose body was found in the river Suir yesterday evening.

The remains of the 14-year-old were discovered just 8km from where she was last seen alive in Carrick-on-Suir on St Patrick's Day.

Sinn Fein's David Dunne says the community is in shock.

"There's a lot of sadness and shock at the discovery of Elisha Gault last night," he said.

"Our heartfelt sympathies go out to her family, her Mum and Dad, her sisters and her wider family.

"The community is there for them, and will rally behind them over these testing few days."

12.00am: Gardai confirm body found in river is that of missing teenager Elisha Gault

Gardai have confirmed that the body found yesterday evening is that of missing teenager Elisha Gault.

They released a statement saying: "The body of Elisha was discovered this evening the 25th March 2018 and has been taken to the mortuary in Waterford University Hospital."

They thanked all the volunteers and search agencies who helped in the search operation.

Earlier

By Conor Kane

Searchers looking for missing teenager Elisha Gault have found a body in the river Suir about eight kilometres from where she was last seen alive over a week ago.

Its understood that the search and rescue Coast Guard helicopter was on its way back to Waterford airport from a routine operation but crew members saw a body floating in the water near Fiddown bridge some time after 6pm yesterday evening.

The Coast Guard have been involved in the search throughout the last week.

Divers went to the scene and the body was recovered from low water along the edge of the Suir, about seven or eight kilometres from Carrick-on-Suir.

Identification of the body has not been confirmed and the remains were brought by helicopter to University Hospital Waterford. Its understood the remains are that of a female. The family of Elisha Gault have been informed of the discovery.

Fourteen-year-old Elisha Gault was last seen alive at about 10.15pm on St Patricks night on Dillon Bridge in Carrick-on-Suir, heading towards the Carrickbeg area on the Co Waterford side of the town.

Family and friends have made numerous appeals over the last week for information on her whereabouts, while appeals were made directly to Elisha herself to contact her family or gardai if she was alive.

She was described as being between 510 and 6 in height with blue eyes and dyed blonde hair.

Many state agencies and voluntary bodies were involved in searching the area around the Suir in and near Carrick since Sunday morning including the gardai, civil defence, the Coast Guard, Carrick River Rescue, Waterford Marine Search and Rescue, Nenagh Search and Rescue, Mallow Search and Rescue, and others.

A family friend said tonight that he couldnt confirm the identity of the body found but said if it is Elisha Gault, it gives a bit of closure to the family.

Elisha is a pupil of Comeragh College in Carrick. Her mother Grainne is originally from Belfast and the family lived for some time in Piltown, just over the Tipperary/Kilkenny border from Carrick-on-Suir, before moving to New Street in the town over a year ago.

Grainne Gault said on Friday on Facebook that the family were broken-hearted with no news of Elishas whereabouts.

If you know of her whereabouts, tell her she isnt in trouble, she wont be forced to come home if she doesnt want to, we just want to know she is safe and well and we can call off all the search efforts and myself, her daddy and her three sisters love her very much, no matter what, she said.Trade union Unite today announced that a majority of its members in Irish Life have voted for industrial action.

The move centres around a dispute regarding the companys Defined Benefit pension scheme, which includes over 3,300 members, including pensioners and deferred members, according to the union.Social welfare customers will begin to receive an increase in their weekly welfare payments this week.

There will be a 5 increase in the maximum rate of all weekly payments for pensioners, lone parents, jobseekers, carers, people with disabilities, widows, and people on employment programmes.

Younger jobseekers aged 26 or younger who are on reduced rates, most of whom are living with their families, will receive the full 5 increase.

Customers receiving reduced rate payments each week and dependent adults will receive proportionate increases. A 2 increase for each qualified dependent child will be made in all weekly payments.

The increase was provided for in Budget 2018 and will be in place by Friday, March 30.

"This extra money will go to the families who need it most  every week," said Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty.

"The increases in the basic rate for pension payments in Budget 2017 and Budget 2018 is 4.3%. The basic rate increase for most other welfare payments over the two-year period is 5.3%."

In total, some 1.3 million social welfare recipients and a further 560,000 dependants will benefit from the increases.

These are the first increases in eight years that were provided by the Government for many social welfare recipients.

Also this week, the weekly income thresholds for the Working Family Payment will increase by 10 per week for families with up to three children. The income disregard for One-Parent Family Payment and Jobseekers Transition recipients will increase, by 20 to 130 per week.

"My ambition is that no child in Ireland should live in consistent poverty," said Minister Doherty.

"Under Budget 2018, the qualified child payment, which is paid each week to families with children, will increase from 29.80 to 31.80 for each child.

"This increase of 6.7% is the first increase to this payment in eight years, and will directly benefit over 400,000 children."

EFFECTIVE DATESRaped on a trip to Belfast by a 15-year-old, the vicious attack inspired Winnie M Lis widely acclaimed novel, writes Ailin Quinlan.

AT 29, life was good for Winnie M Li  a Harvard graduate and one of the first recipients of the prestigious George Mitchell Scholarship, she was steadily carving out a promising career as an Oscar-nominated film-maker in London.

It was April 2008, and Li who had studied for her masters degree at UCC between 2000 and 2001, had been invited to Belfast for a few days to join the celebrations surrounding the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Li was enjoying the opportunity to meet some of the key players in the peace process. She was also using her visit to Belfast to carry out some research for her first feature film; a movie adaptation of a book of short stories set in Northern Ireland. And then she was stalked and raped by a 15-year-old in broad daylight.

It changed the course of her life.

The day before she was scheduled to fly back to London, where she was due to attend the red-carpet premiere of a feature film she had been working on, Li decided to hike through the beautiful Colin Glen Forest Park just off the Falls Road. It was a gorgeous afternoon, she recalls, and initially, there were lots of other people around.

About 10 minutes into the hike Li was approached by a teenage boy who told her that he was lost.

He kept talking and I felt he wasnt making much sense, recalls Li, who says she eventually made her excuses and left, explaining that she had to make a phonecall.

She continued her hike, but didnt realise she was being followed by the teenager until she had reached a remote part of the park.

He became very aggressive and violent, recalls Li, a native of New Jersey, who says she tried to run away.

A physical struggle ensued and she was punched, choked and raped  according to the police report she sustained 39 injuries. I went for a walk and everything changed, she recalls now.

Li rang a friend who contacted the police on her behalf.

Severely traumatised and badly bruised, but vowing not to let her assailant rob her of her big celebration in London, she flew back to the UK the next day, and attended the premiere. But she was numb.

I was still in complete shock. I was like that for days and months after the assault, she recalls now.

The teenager was arrested, convicted and sentenced to eight years with 50% remission, in the end serving four years.

But for Li, the impact of the attack was to last much longer than that.

My life was drastically changed, recalls Li, who recently returned to UCC for a reading and discussion of her widely acclaimed, award-winning novel, Dark Chapter, which was inspired by the rape.

Following the attack she suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, which she says now, left her unable to work and made it very hard to function.

It was like I had been gutted like a fish. I went from being a self- confident woman to a ghost of the person I had been before.

Although the conviction and sentencing of her attacker helped, the overall impact on her life was enormous.

At least I was able to see that he was in jail and draw a line and move on. The conviction helped a lot  once he was sentenced, the cloud lifted to an extent.

However, I was unable to find a job. I was unemployed for two years, and this led to further depression.

I was 30 at this stage and in a very different place to my friends who were getting married and moving on. It was really hard  there was no straightforward path as to how to move on from a trauma like that.

In 2009, some months after the sentencing, in a bid to bring some normality back to her life, she backpacked through South East Asia for three months.

I knew the old Winnie would have loved that and I was essentially seeing if I could fit back into the old Winnie. It worked, she recalls: I had a great time; it helped me create the necessary distance between what had happened and where I was now. In 2013, five and a half years after the rape, she started to write Dark Chapter, a highly successful novel inspired by the assault.

I wrote it as fiction, because I wanted to weave in the perspective of the perpetrator, but the novel was inspired by the events.

The book, which has been translated into eight languages  Li was about to leave for Korea to launch the Korean edition shortly after we spoke  won The Guardians Not The Booker Prize in 2017, and is currently nominated for the sought-after Edgar Awards  Best First Novel.

THE success of the novel is heartening, if, at times, she says, exhausting.

The publicity is very much about my rape so I am constantly talking about it.

We need to have open conversations about sexual violence but it is exhausting, says Li, who is currently studying for a PhD in social media and rape narratives at the London School of Economics.

Repelled by its inherent misogyny, she never returned to the film industry, instead focusing on her studies and her work as an activist in the area of sexual violence against women and girls. She co-founded the Clear Lines Festival, which aims to challenge the silence and stigma that surrounds sexual

violence and was also one of four sexual assault survivors profiled in the TV3 documentary Unbreakable: True Lives, which aired last September. In 2017, she was nominated for the Irish Tatler Women of the Year Awards, in a Special Recognition category for her work against sexual violence.

Some of the strongest people I know are rape survivors, says Li.

Its very important to see rape survivors as people who have overcome severe trauma and have the potential to recover.

www.winniemli.comInishmaan, Co Galway, is a glorious place but it can be challenging too, writes Dan McCarthy.

Long gone are the days when supplies had to be passed hand over hand from boat to shore. The island now has a magnificent new pier which provides ample shelter for seafarers and visitors alike.

On this limestone outcrop we must adjust our topographical vocabulary: clints and grykes, nunataks and swallow holes. A huge cavern underneath the island was reputed to be the entrance to an undersea tunnel to the neighbouring Inisheer.

The flora is a botanistss dream. Spring gentian blinks in the furrows, Cranesbill waves in the ditch. Orchids idle in the pavements. Inishmaan is the middle of the three famous Aran Islands and its karstic rocks from an extension of the huge limestone platform thrusting out from the Burren.

Take a short walk from the pier past acres of shining limestone and the road rises and lifts above the heaving Atlantic. Here, overlooking the eastern side of the island sat John Millington Synge as he contemplated life on the island prior to finding the inspiration to write some of the famous plays in Irish literature: The Playboy of the Western World, Riders to the Sea.

Nowadays, visitors can place themselves in this perch called Synges Seat and gaze on the same views. The eye seeks something, anything in the sea of grey. Sweeping back and forth over the sheets of limestone in search of difference it finds nothing. Then on a final sweep, a darker shade  a road! And beside the road a house, and another and another. A wisp of smoke curls skywards: Home, warmth, life.

The tourists come and go and create employment on Inishmore and Inisheer but not so many come to Inishmaan. It evokes a bittersweet emotion as their money is of course needed but the sense of peace as a result of their absence is also to be cherished. Nevertheless, it has its own vibrant industry in the form of a knitwear factory which exports its clothing worldwide. A modern restaurant expertly blended in to the landscape escarpment

attracts a discerning clientele. In the summer, the islands population of around 220 expands with hordes of youngsters learning Irish. More than 500 people once lived there.

Synge lived for several summers on Inishmaan at the turn of the previous century. He went there on the advice of WB Yeats to experience life at the periphery and to familiarise himself with the rich folk traditions. His book, The Aran Islands, comprised of journal entries, was published in 1907 with illustrations by Jack Butler Yeats.

He was smitten when shown his cottage, now a museum, Teach Synge, and visiting his neighbours: The kitchen itself is full of beauty and distinction. The red dresses of the women who cluster around the fire on their stools give a glow of almost Eastern richness and the walls have been toned by the turf smoke to a soft brown that blends with the grey earth of the floor, he wrote.

The standout archaeological treasure is the pre-Christian fort at Dun Chonchuir of which Synge wrote: If no one comes I prop my book open with stones touched by the Firbolgs and sleep for hours in the delicious warmth of the sun.

All of the islands life, its trials and and tribulations, are expressed in his explosive description of a storm: In Inishmaan one is forced to believe in a sympathy between man and nature, and at this moment when the thunder sounded a death-peal of extraordinary grandeur above the voices of the women, I could see the faces near me stiff and drawn with emotion.

March to the western end of the island through those tall pale grey stone walls to the point where the road ends, effectively where civilisation ends. There is an old cottage there with a thatched roof where ravens like to idle. Suddenly, nature

flings open a door to a shimmering vista and you feel like you are standing at the edge of the world.A simple error, which cast Sgt Maurice McCabe in a bad light is being put forward as the main thrust of Garda managements case at the Charleton Tribunal writes Special Correspondent Michael Clifford

ITS all down to a typo. That is the thrust of the case being made by Garda management at the Charleton Tribunal. The issue examined in the last module was whether or not unjustified means were used to discredit Maurice McCabe at the OHiggins Commission of Investigation.

OHiggins was established in 2014 to investigate Sgt McCabes complaints of malpractice in An Garda Siochana. It was conducted behind closed doors and began hearings on Thursday 14 May 2015.

On the second day, a row blew up when counsel for the gardai said they would be challenging Sgt McCabes integrity, motivation and credibility in making the allegations of wrongdoing.

This was at a time when Commissioner Noirin OSullivan was publicly praising Sgt McCabe. She told the Charleton Tribunal that the decision to challenge Sgt McCabe at OHiggins put her in an almost impossible dilemma.

Yet she gave the go-ahead to her counsel. The solicitor acting for the gardai saw the significance of what was unfolding. She noted that it was political dynamite.

What happened over the following days and weeks ultimately led to a huge political row when it emerged a year later, and contributed to the environment in which OSullivan resigned from her post.

Last December, then justice minister Frances Fitzgerald resigned from the Cabinet as a result of the fall-out from what happened at OHiggins.

It also resulted in Sgt McCabe stepping down from a responsible role in the force because he believed the commissioner was out to get him. He has retained that belief since.

Now some are putting the whole thing down to a misunderstanding, a typo in a document generated in those early days of OHiggins.

The evidence heard by Charleton between January 8 and March 8 elicited much that was theretofore unknown.

However, the notion that the whole thing is down to a typo is surely disputed by a series of what are claimed to be errors and oversights that occurred at OHiggins.

And guess what? Each one contributed in some small way to the idea that Sgt McCabe, and not the complaints of malpractice he was making, was the real problem.

The following is an enumeration of the errors and oversights that occurred, nearly all of which cast Sgt McCabe in a dark light. There were no errors in his favour.

1 Tuesday 12 May 2015

Two days before OHiggins began. there was a legal consultation between chief superintendent Fergus Healy, who was OSullivans liaison officer, and the legal team for OSullivan and senior gardai.

A note from the meeting stated Sgt McCabe had said he would bring the force to its knees. This was entirely erroneous. Nobody has ever come forward to say that Sgt McCabe said any such thing.

The note, however, could have created the impression that Sgt McCabe was ill disposed towards An Garda Siochana.

That in turn may have contributed to the approach taken by the legal counsel thereafter. One way or the other, the legal team got the impression that Sgt McCabe had a grudge against the force.

This was allegedly related to how various officers had dealt with the fall-out from an allegation by the daughter of a colleague of Sgt McCabes in 2006, Ms D, that he had touched her inappropriately when she was a child. The allegation was roundly dismissed following an investigation.

Sgt McCabe was completely exonerated. Yet, some senior colleagues maintained that he bore a grudge over how the matter was handled. The inference was that this grudge contributed to him making allegations of malpractice.

2  Friday 15 May 2015: Day 2 of the OHiggins Inquiry

In the afternoon, retired chief superintendent Colm Rooney was in the witness box.

He said that in 2007 Sgt McCabe had come to him demanding that the DPP change the direction in the Ms D case to proclaim his innocence. He said Sgt McCabe was angry.

Unknown to Mr Rooney, Sgt McCabe knew the exact direction from the DPP at that time. The direction could not have been more favourable to the sergeant. Why would Sgt McCabe want the direction changed?

When Sgt McCabes knowledge at that time became clear at OHiggins, his counsel Michael McDowell questioned Mr Rooney further.

He asked: Did he express anger and annoyance at the DPP or did you just infer that he was angry? Mr Rooney replied: I would have inferred rather than him actually saying it, judge.

McDowell went on: What is more, he denies emphatically that he asked you or demanded of you that you communicate with the DPP to seek a declaration of his innocence.

Mr Rooney replied: Yes, well that was my interpretation of what he was saying. Sgt McCabe didnt express anger. He didnt demand the DPP change the direction. These issues were interpreted by Mr Rooney.

One could have drawn the conclusion from Mr Rooneys original testimony that McCabe was lashing out at various parties.

3  Friday 15 May 2015: Day 2 OHiggins Inquiry

The lawyer for OSullivan, Rooney and Superintendent Noel Cunningham was senior counsel Colm Smyth. When it became obvious on May 15 that Sgt McCabes motivation would be attacked, the judge asked Smyth was it the counsels case that he [McCabe] made these allegations not in good faith but because he was motivated by malice or some such motive that impinges on his integrity.

Mr Smyth replied: Yesthe evidence will demonstrate that, judge.

Six months later, at the latter stages of the hearing, Mr Smyth said he had made an error here. He said his instructions had been to go after Sgt McCabes motivation and credibility but not his integrity.

4  Friday 15 May 2015: Day 2 OHiggins Inquiry

Later on that afternoon, Mr Smyth was asked to reconfirm his instructions from Ms OSullivan that he was to go after Sgt McCabes integrity. This he did during an adjournment.

As outlined above, this was an error which was corrected six months later. It should be noted that Mr Smyth and barrister colleagues were appointed at a late stage, and had a lot of catching up to do on a complicated brief.

5  Weekend of 15-17 May 2015: The Letter

Judge OHiggins ordered that a written document be prepared over the weekend outlining how Sgt McCabes motivation and integrity were to be challenged.

A 20-paragraph letter was drawn up. This purported to outline the events of the allegation against Sgt McCabe and the subsequent aftermath of the investigation.

It included the meeting with Mr Rooney and led to a climax in which Sgt McCabe met Supt Noel Cunningham in Mullingar on August 25, 2008, and made a certain admission.

However, it turned out that the whole premise of the letter was apparently an error.

It didnt show any grudge. All it demonstrated was that there had been an allegation, it had been investigated, the result was not accepted by the D family, and Ms D had confronted Sgt McCabe on the street in Bailieboro. It also showed that Sgt McCabe had had a succession of problems with Ms Ds father over an extended period.

This illustrated a dispute between two colleagues. Nothing more.

At the tribunal, Judge Charleton described The Letter as a nonsense. Michael McDowell, lawyer for Sgt McCabe, put it to Supt Cunningham at the tribunal that it was all based on a gross misunderstanding.

Mr McDowell asked: Looking back, and hindsight is 20/20 vision, we know that this was no basis on which to impugn Sgt McCabes credibility or integrity, the contents of that letter.

Supt Cunningham replied: No, I dont see how it would. That infers a gross error in attacking Sgt McCabe occurred. It was to have serious repercussions for the sergeant and for the commissioner who gave the go-ahead to the strategy.

6  Weekend of 15-17 May 2015

The crucial paragraph of the 20-paragraph letter was number 19. Therein it was alleged that Sgt McCabe had said at the 2008 meeting with Supt Cunningham that he had only made complaints against Supt Mick Clancy to force Clancy to give the DPP directions given to the D family. This was to demonstrate to the D family how emphatic was the DPPs decision. The word against was the crucial typo.

The complaints against Supt Clancy were those being investigated at OHiggins. As such, a reading of The Letter might infer that Sgt McCabes motivation in making the complaints of malpractice was compromised by a grudge. A lawyer at the tribunal categorised this portrayal as Sgt McCabe being involved in blackmail.

The sentence should have read to Supt Clancy. This was the complaint Sgt McCabe made about the problems he had had with Mr D at work prior to Mr Ds daughter making the allegation.

The former would have displayed a grudge against senior officers. The latter, correct, version was about a dispute between two guards, Sgt McCabe and Mr D, hardly the basis for a grudge against the entire force.

When the erroneous letter was submitted on the following Monday, Sgt McCabe revealed he had a recording of the 2008 meeting. This was produced and showed the error in the letter.

Supt Cunningham also had a contemporaneous report from the meeting, which agreed with Sgt McCabes recorded version. This was also handed into the commission on the Monday.

Yet Supt Cunningham had been centrally involved in preparing the letter, although he did claim that he didnt spot the error casting Sgt McCabe as a blackmailer.

7  Weekend of May 15-17 2015

How could such an error happen? A note from the solicitor stated that it was of the utmost importance that the letter be factually accurate. This had to be the case as Commissioner OSullivan was being placed in an almost impossible dilemma and the matter was political dynamite.

Yet an error occurred. Supt Cunningham was sent a draft to OK it. In a statement shown at Charleton, he said he read it from his phone and he has poor eyesight. Therefore he didnt spot the error which portrayed Sgt McCabe as a blackmailer.

When he gave evidence, Supt Cunningham said he was claiming legal privilege over the document. He has claimed privilege over different aspects of his interactions with his legal team at OHiggins.

So its difficult to know how exactly the error  Mr McDowell called it a mis statement  came about.

Supt Cunningham is entitled to his legal privilege. But invoking the privlege makes it difficult to find out how such a crucial error, in a document submitted to a statutory inquiry, could have occurred.

8  Monday 18 May 2015: Day 3 OHiggins Inquiry

At the beginning of the days hearing, Supt Cunningham signed off on the erroneous letter before it was handed into the commission. The solicitor was late at the commission that day due to unforeseen circumstances.

Supt Cunningham says she gave him the letter to sign and with everything in a mad rush he didnt have a chance to read it.

This meant the error went undetected once more and the superintendent was signing off on an erroneous document being handed into a statutory inquiry.

9  Monday 18 May 2015: Day 3 OHiggins Inquiry

Later that day, Sgt McCabe was in the witness box. Mrs OSullivans counsel, Colm Smyth, put it to Sgt McCabe that he was motivated by a grudge, as per the erroneous letter.

Absolutely false, Sgt McCabe replied. Mr Smyth was acting in good faith but Supt Cunningham was in the room and had he heard the exchange he could have told Mr Smyth about the error.

I cant say I was hanging on every word, but I was present, Supt Cunningham told the tribunal. Another chance gone to put right the damning error. The inquiry was adjourned until June 24.

10  Thursday 11 June 2015

Three weeks after the row over attacking Sgt McCabes motivation and the production of the letter, counsel for the gardai made a written submission to the commission.

This related to the first case being investigated  concerning assault and threatening behaviour on a minibus in Cavan. In the submission, the gardai attacked Sgt McCabes motivation. This was done by repeating the false allegation in The Letter that he was motivated by a grudge.

Supt Cunningham told the tribunal that he viewed a draft of this submission and spotted the error. He said he emailed it back with the correction. He is claiming legal privilege over that email, so once again it is not possible to see how an error was made and why it wasnt corrected.

He was asked at the tribunal did he not review the submission after pointing out the error to check that it had been corrected.

I dont know if I did, he replied. I mustnt have.

11  Wednesday 24 June 2015: Day 4 OHiggins Inquiry

The transcript of Sgt McCabes recording was produced at the opening of the hearing. So was Supt Cunninghams report of the meeting and both were in conflict with the letter prepared over the weekend of May 15-17.

Supt Cunningham was called to give evidence. After testimony lasting over an hour, he referred to his report from the 2008 Mullingar meeting, pointing out that this coincided with Sgt McCabes recorded version.

The discrepancy was in The Letter. Supt Cunningham told OHiggins that this was the first time he has seen The Letter. This document, for which Supt Cunningham was a primary source, was prepared and submitted and even referenced in making another more explicit submission, yet the man with the facts had never actually set eyes of it.

12  May 2016

Former Garda Commissioner Noirin OSullivan arriving at the Disclosures Tribunal in Dublin Castle.

All hell broke loose in the days after the publication of the OHiggins report when it was revealed in this newspaper what had gone on during the first days of OHiggins a year previously. Ms OSullivan referred to Gsoc the issue of the Mullingar meeting.

Judge Charleton has said of the referral: That is something I wont understand until my dying day. There had been an error.

OSullivan was aware of that. So why was she referring the matter to Gsoc, where it would eat up resources and put Supt Cunningham and his colleague through another inquiry, apparently needlessly?

When asked about it at the tribunal she referred to material that had been in the media at the time.

13  May 2015 to March 2018

Nobody told Sgt McCabe. When the whole thing blew up, he believed he was under attack from the commissioner. He stepped down from his post as head of the traffic unit in Mullingar, believing that he would be exposed. He felt under threat.

Then after the error was uncovered on June 24, nobody rang to apologise. Nobody was dispatched to explain that there had been a misunderstanding. Nobody filled him in.

He was left with the impression that he had been set up by Garda management. That was the position when he and his wife Lorraine issued a statement in February 2017 about how various agencies had treated them. They demanded a public inquiry on the basis of their experience at the behind-closed-doors OHiggins commission.

Errors occur. Oversights happen. Sgt McCabe himself has made mistakes. The Charleton Tribunal received a statement from him in which he said he was shouted at in OHiggins. This was incorrect, and was belatedly corrected earlier this month.

But the errors made against him were of a different order. As in the case of the generation of false claims of child rape against him, there was a whole series of errors. None of them were in his favour.

The senior gardai involved had intimate knowledge of the whole Maurice McCabe saga. How could they have repeatedly got it wrong in a manner that cast McCabe in a nefarious light?

Why was Noirin OSullivan so detached from an inquiry? And why did she never contact him to apologise or explain the error which had occurred because she felt obliged to attack McCabes motivation?

The Disclosures Tribunal has uncovered nothing concrete that suggests a conspiracy.

So far the recurring theme in the two modules examining whether there were attempts to smear Sgt McCabe has been error upon error upon error. Perhaps its just a coincidence that all this happened to a Garda whistleblower.One in eight of our population are migrants, but our political system is woefully homogenous and would be enriched by greater diversity, writes Salome Mbugua.

Most people probably dont realise that one in eight of the Irish population are migrants. It is a little-known fact that Ireland is not a country preparing for diversity  it is already diverse. Ireland is a beautiful, heady mixture of backgrounds, faiths, skin tones, languages, and accents.

The reason so many people dont realise this is because of a lack of representation at certain levels of society. How many people from an ethnic minority background do we see teaching our children? How many hijabs are on television? How many people with non-Irish accents are running for political office? Sadly, not nearly enough.

Migrants bring additional values, enterprise and initiative, and in order to actively participate in Irish society, migrants must be visible in all spheres of Irish life. We dont just want to feel we belong, we want to be seen to belong  a central human need. We want to engage in the political systems and feel our voices are not just heard but count too.

International research has found there are three main reasons why people do not participate in politics:

Because they do not want to; Because they cannot; or Because they do not know how.

For those from a minority background, each of these three responses can be easily linked to a barrier denying participation rather than an inherent desire to disengage.

Not wanting to participate indicates a lack of political identification and interest  in Ireland there are extremely few political role models from a migrant background. Not being able to participate implies a lack of resources, such as time, money and civic skills. We know people from a migrant background are more likely to be in low paid jobs and unstable housing. Lastly, not knowing how to participate suggests an ineffective recruitment network aimed at mobilising citizens in the field of political participation.

Organisations such as the Immigrant Council of Ireland, AkiDwA, and Places of Sanctuary run political participation training and programmes tailored for migrants, but government bodies and local authorities need to do much more to engage with immigrant communities.

To date, Irish politicians have done little to reach out to immigrants during elections, although things are beginning to improve. Nevertheless, the importance of proactive policies to improve integration tends to be low on the list of priorities for political parties, and indeed barely gets a mention in too many party manifestos.

At the most basic level, many people, including migrants themselves, dont realise most people from a migrant background living in Ireland have the right to vote. Ireland is pretty progressive on this front. Since 1963, Ireland has allowed migrants to vote in local elections, and since 1974, migrants have been allowed to stand for local election.

Anyone who has been a resident of the country for six months can vote and run for local election. And anyone can join a political party. There is a job of work which must be done to promote these rights to the migrant population.

As well as exercising our right to vote, we also want to be physically represented in decision-making roles by people who look and sound like us, in proportion to our number in the Irish population.

Migrants are severely underrepresented in politics and despite mobilisation campaigns, the numbers running have not improved over the years.

Currently, just three out of 949 councillors (0.2%) are from a migrant background. Ireland has just one TD from a migrant background, who is a naturalised Irish citizen. One of the main reasons for this is a lack of interest from political parties in actively recruiting migrant candidates. For too long, and for too many parties, the default recruitment process has been through personal connections or membership drives, with no pro-active programmes focusing on recruiting migrants.

There were some attempts made in to support migrants to run in local elections in 2009, but unfortunately, none of the migrant candidates was elected, nor were they approached again for the 2014 election. This low turnout resulted in a decrease of mobilisation efforts by political parties.

However, recent initiatives from some of the political parties provide hope that the political arena is changing its mindset. In order to effectively mobilise the migrant community, both a top-down and bottom-up approach is needed. That means efforts from the current political elite to positively promote and engage migrant participation plus engagement from migrant community leaders with established political structures. Any migrant mobilisation scheme must also acknowledge the challenge of racism as a factor affecting participation, and adopt measures to pro-actively combat it.

This lack of representation is why a group of migrant-led and migrant rights organisations got together to hold a political mobilisation conference. The Migrant Mobilisation Conference was jointly organised by AkiDwA, Immigrant Council of Ireland, New Communities Partnership, Places of Sanctuary, International Organisation for Migration, Cairde, Wezesha, and Forum Polonia, with the support of Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration.

Providing a platform for mutual learning was the key to its success. Its dual goals of the event were to encourage more people from a migrant background to get involved with local politics, learn about voter registration and how to run for local elections. Concurrently, we also want those already involved in the political system to learn from the migrant community leaders who attended.

Our political system is woefully homogenous and would both benefit and be enriched by greater diversity.

Increased diversity and different perspectives will build a stronger, more diverse and ultimately more reflective political system, benefitting the whole of society. Hopefully, we will see more events like this which will inform, motivate and mobilise the migrant population to such an extent that political parties will actively recruit from the migrant community.

People from a migrant background are a permanent feature in Irish society. We belong, and we want to participate in the decision-making structures that dictate ours, and everyones, lives.Update 2.35pm: European Council president Donald Tusk has said 14 member nations have expelled Russian diplomatic staff over the poisoning of an ex-spy in the UK.

Mr Tusk said that there may be additional measures including further expulsions in the coming days and weeks.

In coordinated announcements of expulsions on Monday, the Czech Republic said it is removing three staffers from the Russian embassy over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia (pictured below).

The Netherlands said it is expelling two Russian intelligence officers, while Estonia said it was expelling the Russian defence attache. The Italian Foreign Ministry announced that Italy would expel two Russian diplomats assigned to the embassy within a week.

Poland, Germany and Lithuania earlier confirmed they were among the European countries set to expel Russian diplomats.

Germany and Poland both said they had asked four Russian diplomats to leave, while in Lithuania, three Russian diplomats were ordered to leave.

The German foreign ministry said in a statement that the move was part of a joint European response to the Skripal case.

It said:

The expulsion of four diplomats is a strong signal of solidarity with Great Britain and signals the resolve of the Germany government not to leave attacks against our closest partners and allies unanswered.

The ministry added that the move was also a response to the recent cyber-attacks against German government networks, "which according to information so far is highly likely to be attributable to Russian sources".

Earlier:

Update 2.15pm: The United States is kicking out 60 Russian diplomats and closing Russia's consulate in Seattle in response to the poisoning of an ex-spy in the UK.

Senior Trump administration officials said the expelled Russians include 12 spies who the US believes are working under diplomatic cover at Russia's mission to the United Nations.

They said the Seattle consulate is a counter-intelligence concern because of its proximity to a US Navy base.

Officials added that the actions are being taken to send a message about the "unacceptably high" number of Russian spies in the US and to respond to the attack in the UK.

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the US.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the actions would make the US safer by "reducing Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations" that threaten national security.

"With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences," Ms Sanders said.

Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, remain in a critical condition after they were poisoned with the highly lethal nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury on March 4.

The expulsions are one of the most significant actions US president Donald Trump has taken to date against Moscow and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Less than a week ago, Mr Trump congratulated Mr Putin by phone for his re-election, but did not raise the spy case, renewing questions about whether the US president is too soft on the Kremlin.

- PAPhilip Comyn described Bishopstown-based Garda Tim Twomey, who retires this week from An Garda Siochana, as key to the work of the city coroners office in ensuring the smooth and efficient holding of inquests.

He plays a very important role, not only in the operation of inquests, but also in the helping of families and public attendance, Mr Comyn said.

An inquest is a formal legal process, held in public, to establish the facts surrounding sudden deaths. It often has to explore complex and sometimes distressing evidence. Staff in the coroners office go to great lengths to support families attending an inquest.

Before formally opening inquests, last Thursday, Mr Comyn singled Garda Twomey out for the way he has interacted with families over the years. He has always dealt with them in a very kind and empathetic manner and was always available to them, the coroner said.

Garda Twomey, who dealt with several high-profile tragedies, including the Tit Bonhomme trawler accident and the Manx2 plane crash, said he always tried to put the families of the deceased first. The cases involving children were the saddest, he said.

But every case before the coroners court is a tragedy for the family involved and they are the most important people on the day of an inquest. They have to be put at ease.

Garda Twomey, originally from Kilgarvan, Co Kerry, joined An Garda Siochana in November 1983. He served in Dublin, before moving to Cork, first to Togher and then relocating to Bishopstown Garda Station 16 years ago. Given its proximity to Cork University Hospital, Garda Twomey spent most of this time liaising with the coroners office on sudden death cases.

Mr Comyn said Garda Twomey has played a key role in helping to prepare files for the coroners court, in arranging the attendance of various witnesses, and in ensuring the smooth running of each inquest. Now that his time with us is coming to an end, I would like to wish him a happy retirement and wish him and his wife, Marie, many years of happiness with their children, Ciara, Luke and Eva, he said.

Sgt Fergus Twomey, who presents evidence on behalf of the State at each Cork City inquest, said his retiring colleague is a true professional and has been a great ambassador for the gardai. He epitomises all that is good about the gardai.Members of Cork County Council will shortly seek to have the laws relating to all derelict properties tightened up after officials prepared a report, on the issue, for the Macroom/Blarney Municipal District Council.

The municipal body decided to shortly seek the backing of the entire 55-member chamber before petitioning Minister Eoghan Murphy who heads Housing, Planning and Local Government.

The report showed, in a number of cases, sites and properties acquired during the last boom were in a state of dereliction. Many are the subject of mortgage judgements.

However, there is no requirement for a financial institution to share information with a local authority or assist a council in its efforts to try and engage with the property owner.

Significantly, there is also no requirement on financial institutions to ensure the property does not become derelict or to deal with dereliction which might already exist.

The county councils legal department was quoted in the report saying Section 29 of the Derelict Sites Act 1990 was quite weak.

Its solicitors recommended the legislation should be strengthened by inserting a section which places liability on corporate bodies.

Cllr Bob Ryan said there was little point in the municipal district council seeking the minister to change the current regulations. Id be in favour of going to the full council with this instead, he said, we might have some chance with the minister if we get the full councils backing.

Many councillors have, in the past, complained that clearing up dereliction was a painfully slow process. However, the County Halls solicitor also advised there were a number of pitfalls which made it difficult.

Under the Derelict Sites Act 1990, a local authority can serve an order on a building requiring the owner to undertake work to refurbish it or demolish it, if it is a safety matter.

As a penalty, it can then hit the owner with an annual levy of 3% of the market value of the property. But some owners view it as cheaper to pay the levy than invest in refurbishment.

The councils legal department said the penalties were clearly inadequate and, as such, should be increased.

Furthermore, it can also be very difficult to establish who is the actual owner of the property or site.

Where a property or land has a Land Registry Folio, the legal owner can be established quickly.

However, in cases where it is on the Registry of Deeds, it is much more difficult and in many cases not possible to identify ownership.

Even if the owner is identified the process can be very cumbersome. The council, it emerged, must first write to the owner saying it was intending to put the property on the Derelict Sites Register. It also has to submit a report to the owner stating what measures need to be undertaken to bring the building up to a proper standard.Education and Skills Minister Richard Bruton will convene the meeting of the specialist group.

Mr Bruton established the group in a bid to realise the Governments ambition to make Irelands education and training service the best in Europe by 2026.

The specialist group will have 10 members and will be chaired by the secretary general of the Department of Education and Skills, Sean O Foghlu.

Members include University College Corks deputy president and registrar, John OHalloran.

More than 5,000 additional teachers have been successfully recruited in the last two years. However, there is concern about teacher supply.

The group will consider the issues that impact on teacher supply and demand and oversee an action programme.

These include policies and arrangements for schools and teachers that influence teacher mobility and supply. Teacher promotion will also be examined.

There has been some criticism that there is no student representative on the group but a spokesperson for the minister said they could be consulted as the groups work progresses.

Mr Bruton said they had very ambitious plans for education, in areas such as STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and digital learning, and that a key step in those strategies was to ensure that there was a steady supply of teachers.

Concerns have been raised in recent times around teacher supply, he said. I am convening this group to respond to these concerns and consider the issues which impact on teacher supply and demand.

The minister said a number of measures had been taken, including the agreement by universities to provide 280 extra training places for secondary school teachers this year.

It includes an extra 100 places in the priority areas of STEM, Irish and foreign languages  an increase of over 40% in these areas.

Mr Bruton said final-year Leaving Certificate students still considering a career in teaching could use the CAO change of mind facility up to July 1.Mostly reaching back to pre-Christian times, the ancient, penitential trails of Ireland long predate the relatively youthful Spanish Camino.

Yet, they were almost entirely forgotten until a revival of interest in recent years, when pilgrim footfall in Ireland increased dramatically.

This will increase further over Easter, when the third annual Pilgrim Paths Week offers an opportunity for all comers to reconnect with a network of ancient trails on a series of fully-guided walks.

Fr Frank Fahey, curate at Ballintubber Abbey, Co Mayo, is a driving force behind the re-awakening of the Tochar Phadraig pilgrim path, which saw a major increase in numbers following the route over the past five years.

How does he explain the modern desire to answer the mystical call to a pilgrim journey, in an avowedly secular age?

People are taking the pilgrim challenge in the 21st century for two reasons, said Fr Fahey.

First, is the modern trend towards incorporating walking the outdoors as part of a healthy lifestyle.

But, at a more profound level, people are searching for a deeper meaning that materialism is not giving them.

They are finding answers, instead, within the simple, but fulfilling, experience of walking an ancient path.

Drimoleague, West Cork-based David Ross, spokesman for the St Finbarrs Pilgrim Path Committee, has just returned from leading a group of students from Ashbury University, Kentucky, on a contemplative walk.

He speaks of a local tradition in West Cork, which holds it was along the local pilgrim route that St Finbarr journeyed to Gougane Barra, after exhorting the people of Drimoleague to return to Christ. Since then, pilgrims have assembled at the Top of the Rock on St Finbarrs feast day and walked the 37km to Gougane Barra, he said.

In recent years, however, individuals and groups have begun walking the route throughout the year and 2017 has been the busiest year, so far.

Discussing the 21st-century allure of this pilgrimage, Mr Ross said: One attraction is that it is a two-day walk, allowing plenty of time for reflection, while, at the same time, it is possible to complete it over a weekend. And while the origins of the path are rooted in ideas of early Christian spirituality, people of all religious backgrounds and none are drawn here by the timeless serenity of the journey.

It is envisaged the Pilgrim Paths of Ireland may be set for even greater footfall, with the recent introduction of an Irish Pilgrim Passport offering a unique opportunity to explore some of the most captivating scenery in the landscape.

To meet the requirements of the passport, walkers must produce stamped evidence of having completed 120km of Irelands foremost penitential trails.

So, this coming Easter, why not take a break from the stressful clutter of modern life by answering the siren call to our ancient paths?

These are 10 contemplative walks on offer over Pilgrim Paths Week, from March 31 to April 8.

www.pilgrimpath.ieHealth Minister Simon Harris is to bring a proposed general scheme of the bill, which would replace the Eighth Amendment if the upcoming referendum passes, to Cabinet tomorrow.

Among the other details expected to be contained in the bill would be a defined cooling-off period between requesting an abortion and getting one. This is likely to be around two or three days.

While abortion would be allowed up to the 12th week of pregnancy, after that terminations would only be carried out in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities, where there is a serious risk to the health of the mother, or in emergency cases.

However, the viability of the foetus would be assessed and would have to be agreed by two doctors, one of whom would be an obstetrician or gynaecologist.

If viability is established and the pregnancy is to be ended on health grounds then it would be done through early delivery and not termination, with a full medical team on hand.

Where a termination is carried out, the two doctors would be required to certify that not only is there is a risk to the life or serious harm to the health of the woman, but crucially, that the foetus has not reached viability.

This clause would make laws more restrictive here than in the UK, as this prohibition does not exist in Britain.

It comes as the latest polls indicate that the result of a referendum could be much closer than expected.

The Yes campaign has seen its lead slip, with a 10-point swing against the proposal to let the Oireachtas legislate for abortion by repealing the Eighth Amendment.

The Sunday Business Post/Red C poll showed numbers who favour repeal have dropped by four points from 60% in January to 56%.

The number of voters opposed to repeal increased by six points, from 20% to 26% in the same period.

Mr Harris is also expected to bring details on ancillary recommendations made by the abortion committee, which include increased access to contraception, sex and relationship education, counselling, and perinatal care. Mr Harris has been in discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure about funding these additional services, especially contraception.

The committee which examined the Eighth Amendment recommended the introduction of a scheme for the provision of the most effective method of contraception, free of charge. This is expected to be done in two phases, with free barrier contraception such as condoms introduced first. This would be less expensive than giving free access to other contraceptives such as the pill, which would require legislation.

It is understood that Mr Harris has been pushing to have this first phase introduced this year, instead of waiting for funding under Budget 2019.County councillors have urged Iarnrod Eireann and the National Transport Authority to change the fare structure.

Cllr Gearoid Murphy won total support from colleagues on the councils Northern Division. He said that while the inter-city MallowCork line was considered part of the Cork commuter network  which includes Midleton and Cobh  it does not have the same discounted Leap card status of the other two towns.

Cllr Murphy said Mallow is part of Cork citys commuter area for the purposes of rail travel.

This is why there is no charge, for example, to bring a bicycle onto the train going from Mallow to Kent Station, but there is a small charge if travelling long distances. However, it has been brought to my attention that, in spite of this, the commuter fare structure is not applied between Mallow and Cork, he said.

Cllr Murphy said the Leap card facility is not available for commuters between Mallow and Cork.

Leap cards can bring substantial savings and increased convenience for commuters, from reduced fares and weekly fare caps. A commuter fare structure has the potential to provide significant savings to regular commuters and make rail travel a more viable and popular option, Cllr Murphy said.

On a straight-line basis, Kent Station is around 19.5km away from Midleton Station and 29.5km away from Mallow Station. However, the track is significantly straighter between Kent Station and Midleton, which may affect matters. Even taking this into account, however, it does appear to me that day tickets are still cheaper per kilometre travelled between Midleton and Kent Station, although this doesnt hold up for weekly or monthly tickets. He said the adult, day, single fare from Midleton-Cork is 4.50 with a Leap Card, while Mallow-Cork is 11.35. Adult, day return from Midleton-Cork is 9 with Leap, but 18.70 on the Mallow-Cork route.

I believe that the introduction of Leap cards, and associated, reduced fares and weekly fare caps on trains between Mallow and Cork, would be of great convenience to all commuters, Cllr Murphy said.

Cllr Frank OFlynn said he knew of 100 children who travelled each day to school on the train to Cork who would benefit from fare reductions.From the Archive Junta Insider Recalls Dancing with Devils

Former Red Flag communist Chit Hlaing recalls working alongside infamous figures from Myanmars past including the brutal dictators Gen Ne Win and Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

The Irrawaddy revisits this story from August 2012 in which former Red Flag communist Chit Hlaing recalls working alongside infamous figures from Myanmars past including the brutal dictators Gen Ne Win and Snr-Gen Than Shwe. He died on March 24 at age 92.

In his youth, when British-colonized Myanmar was struggling to restore its independence, Chit Hlaing worked with some of the countrys most famous leaders including national hero Gen Aung San as well as the less salubrious Gen Ne Win and Thakin Soe, who led the Red Flag faction.

Now in his early 80s, Chit Hlaing, himself an ex-Red Flag communist who translated several Marxist texts into Myanmar, is still following the political intrigues of the nation. His mind remains razor-sharp and his past memories are still fresh.

As the author of the political bible of the Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP)The System of Correlation between Man and His Environment simply known as Innya myinnyaChit Hlaing worked alongside former dictator Ne Win throughout the 1960s, and remained close to later junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe during the 1990s.

The assignment to write Innya myinnya came directly from Ne Win and the two were in constant contact. Chit Hlaing worked closely with the former general throughout the 1950s and 1960s and was always ready to defend Ne Win as a pragmatist. Ne Win, a member of legendary 30 Comrades, staged a military coup in March 1962 and introduced the Burmese Way to Socialism which turned out to be an unmitigated failure.

Ne Win recruited the Marxist Chit Hlaing as he needed to introduce a political ideology in the aftermath of his coup. Chit Hlaing joined the Defense Directorate of Psychological Warfare as a civilian military official with the same rank as lieutenant-colonel in 1955. In the 1970s, Chit Hlaing left the BSPP but still often met Ne Win whenever summoned by the general.

Ne Win resigned from politics in 1988 during the upheaval caused by nationwide democracy protests and has since devoted his time to reading books and studying Buddhism as well as practicing meditation.

Chit Hlaing, who speaks French and once studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in France, recalled his last meeting with Ne Win during an interview with The Irrawaddy. In July 1995, Chit Hlaing and former Judge Tin Aung Hein, a student activist who became a prominent member of the BSPP, visited Ne Wins house.

Ne Win was alone in his residencehis wife Ni Ni Myint, a university professor of history, left for an appointment after preparing them some foodbut he looked healthy and his mind was clear.

Chit Hlaing and Tin Aung Hein wanted to bring up the current state of political affairs in the country but were unable to do so since Ne Win did not want to discuss anything related to politics. They politely listened to the former dictator as he spoke about religion and Buddhism.

They were surprised when Ne Win confessed that he would not have staged the coup in 1962 if he had studied Buddhism and meditation earlier in life. Ne Win elaborated further if he had known Anicca, Dukkha and Anattathe three Dharma aspects of lifeat the time, he would not have seized power.

Chit Hlaing said the former general was no philosopher and always remained suspicious of people. Among the three leaders of Myanmars independence struggle who he knew bestAung San, Ne Win and Thakin Soehe respected Aung San most. Aung San is just Aung San and there is no comparison, said Chit Hlaing in his Rangoon residence.

In his farewell speech to an emergency congress held by the BSPP in 1988, Ne Win stunned the nation by saying that if the disturbances continued the army would have to be called in and I would like to declare from here that if the army shoots it has no tradition of shooting into the air. It would shoot straight to hit.

Ne Win was not issuing an empty threat. Troops gunned down several hundred peaceful demonstrators during the uprising. Chit Hlaing thought it was a moment when Ne Win was facing a real political crisis and lost control.

Some of those close to the dictator claimed that he kept books of Buddhism in his study to read and contemplate. In his meditation room, visitors claimed there was a sizable gold-plated banyan leaf on the wall. Did this brutal dictator reach Nirvana. Who knows?

Ne Win was placed under house arrest in 2002 accused of plotting to overthrow the military government, with his arrest finally ending decade-long speculation that he was still in control of the regime.

He was imprisoned at his lakeside villaironically just around the corner from where democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was similarly incarceratedwith only his favorite daughter, Sandar Win, for company.

Ne Wins three grandsons and son-in-law were found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. Sandar Win was recently released from under house arrest along with her husband Aye Zaw Win and has since been seen around Rangoon. She used to own the Nawarat Hotel in the former capital and apparently plans to reopen it soon. One of their sons was also released but several alleged coup plotters remain behind bars.

Ne Win was a reclusive figure who was known to be superstitious and believe in the power of numbers. He once instructed that the national currency, the kyat, should be issued in denominations of 45 and 90 because they were divisible by his lucky number, nine.

Some said that he once asked a plane to circle his native hometown nine times while he rode a wooden horse onboard. Rumors abound that he once bathed in dolphins blood to regain his youth and his dedication to numerology was legendary.

But Ne Win was not the only Myanmar tyrant with whom Chit Hlaing rubbed shoulders. In late 1950s, he also met a young army officer who came to study political science. This student would one day become Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

From the outset, Chit Hlaing thought that Than Shwe was more like a politician than an army officer.

Than Shwe was sent to study psychological warfare in Yangon in 1958. He then became a teacher at the Central School of Political Science in Minglardon Township in Yangon. Chit Hlaing often met Than Shwe at school or social gatherings and they would make sightseeing trips outside of Rangoon together.

He evaluated Than Shwe as a pragmatist who was more interested in politics than military affairs.

From 1957 to 1960, they met often and discussed Myanmar politics. San Yu, then commander of Northern Regional Military Command and who served as Burmese president from 1981 to 1988, spotted Than Shwes potential and appointed him chief of the Psychological Warfare Department in Northern Region. Than Shwe was then a young captain.

Chit Hlaing said that Than Shwe, like many army officers in Myanmar, was always a virulent anti-communist. In the early 1990s, Chit Hlaing went to meet Than Shwe twicein 1990 and 1992.

Than Shwe became head of the State Law and Order Restoration Council, the highest political body in Myanmar, in 1992. He unexpectedly took over power from Snr-Gen Saw Maung in April of that year when the junta chief resigned citing health reasons.

Than Shwe did not reveal much at the time except to say that the current situation was a bit chaotic. He also offered Chit Hlaing some cash to publish books.

Chit Hlaing, who also used the pen name Ko Ko Maung Gyi, has since written several tomes. He usually sends his newly published work to colleagues, politicians, senior members of the ruling council and, of course, Than Shwe himself.

Last year, when he sent his latest memoirs to Than Shwe and other top leaders, he was told by officials in the Ministry of Information to address Than Shwe as head-of-state and Vice-Snr-Gen Maung Aye as deputy head-of-state.

To Thein Sein? asked Chit Hlaing of the instructions. Of course, he is the president, replied the official. Are you sure about that? Chit Hlaing insisted.

When asked whether he thinks Than Shwe is still pulling the string and remains in control as many Myanmar scholars believe, Chit Hlaing gave a wry smile. Maybe he is still in remote control mode. Who knows? he chuckled.Asia Police, Politicians Accused of Joining Sri Lankas Anti-Muslim Riots

Muslim men pray outside after a mosque burned down following a clash between two communities in Digana central district of Kandy, Sri Lanka, March 9, 2018. / Reuters

KANDY, Sri Lanka  Police and politicians backed by the countrys former strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa joined anti-Muslim riots that rocked Sri Lankas Kandy district this month, according to witnesses, officials and CCTV footage reviewed by Reuters.

Scores of Muslim mosques, homes and businesses were destroyed as mobs ran amok for three days in Kandy, the central highlands district previously known for its diversity and tolerance. The government declared a state of emergency and blocked social media platforms for a week to control the unrest.

The role of police and some local Buddhist politicians suggests the Sri Lankan government lost control of elements of its security forces, and that the violence was more than a spontaneous outbreak fuelled by fringe Buddhist extremists and hate-speech spread on social media.

Rajapaksa has denied that he or other leaders of his party were involved. Police said the allegations against officers and politicians were being investigated.

Victims and witnesses, whose accounts were partly backed by CCTV footage seen by Reuters, described members of an elite paramilitary police unit, the Special Task Force (STF), assaulting Muslim cleric and leaders. Local STF commanders declined to comment.

They came to attack, said A.H Ramees, a cleric at a mosque where worshippers say they were beaten by police who were supposed to be protecting them. They were shouting. There was filthy language. They said all the problems were because of us, that we were like terrorists.

Ruwan Gunasekera, a spokesman for the national police force, including the STF, said a special investigation unit was probing the deficiencies of the police in the incident. A second unit was examining the role of political actors, he said.

The riots were the latest example of rising Buddhist nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiment in the region and have unnerved Sri Lankas multi-ethnic coalition government, which ousted Rajapaksa in an election in 2015, according to analysts and two sources familiar with the governments deliberations.

Buddhists make up about 70 percent of Sri Lankas 21 million people. Tamils, most of whom are Hindu, account for 13 percent while Muslims make up about 9 per cent of the population.

Sri Lankas Law and Order Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara has said the violence in Kandy was well organized and pointed the finger at members of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), a political party backed by Rajapaksa that scored a huge victory in local elections last month.

At a press conference flanked by senior leaders earlier this month, Rajapaksa said the accusations were politically motivated. In fact, the government fomented the violence to get the Muslim vote and to distract from its inadequacies, he said.

Trigger for Violence

The violence in Kandy was triggered by an attack on a Buddhist truck driver, H.G Kumarasinghe, by four Muslim men after a traffic dispute on Feb. 22.

As Kumarasinghe lay in a coma, calls for retribution and anti-Islam polemics flooded social media and the government ordered the deployment of 1,000 members of the STF.

Rioting erupted after his funeral 11 days later.

An excerpt of CCTV footage from the first day of attacks reviewed by Reuters showed police letting a large group of men through the cordon protecting the Noor Jummah mosque in Digana, a Kandy township.

The men rush into a multi-story building opposite the mosque. A local SLPP politician, Samantha Perera, can be seen pointing at the higher floors of the building.

Perera confirmed he was the person shown in the footage. He said he was trying to calm the rioters and only found out later the mosque had been attacked. I am a good Buddhist. I am not instigating violence against anybody, he told Reuters.

Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said Perera was under investigation for attacking Muslim-owned shops and mosques with stones. At least three other SLPP politicians, including a national politician, were being investigated and another SLPP councillor has been arrested for setting fire to a mosque, he said. All deny any involvement in the violence.

Theres a political motive to discredit me, Mahinda Rajapaksa and the party, Perera said.

Monster Beyond Control

Anti-Muslim sentiment has surged in Sri Lanka since 2009, when a long civil war against Tamil insurgents was brutally ended by Rajapaksa amid charges by a United Nations panel of experts of human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings by the military and STF.

As in Myanmar, from where 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled an army crackdown in recent months, Buddhist hardliners in Sri Lanka have argued that Islam is a threat to the Buddhist way of life.

Though the level of violence is not comparable, the Sri Lankan Secretariat for Muslims, a civil society group, logged more than 600 attacks and threats to Muslims in the past five years, according to director Hilmy Ahamed, who added the rate of anti-Muslim violence had accelerated in the recent years.

The fear that Muslims are going to take over, are going to deprive you of your welfare, is so widespread, he said.

Veteran political analyst Jayadeva Uyangoda said Buddhist chauvinism in Sri Lanka was a monster beyond control, as local activists draw inspiration from the Buddhist extremists in Myanmar and Hindu radicals in India hostile to Muslims.

Can You Believe it?

About 10 minutes after the incident near the Noor Jummah mosque shown in the CCTV footage, the mob returned via a back road, out of the line of sight of the mosques exterior cameras, and threw a petrol bomb into the mosques first floor office, according to witnesses Mohamed Niyaskhan, who said he was beaten and left bloodied, and the mosque secretary M.I.M Shukry.

The men burned Korans during 45 minutes of looting and destruction, they said.

Niyaskhan said earlier that day he had prepared food and drinks for STF members protecting the mosque, but they had left shortly before the attack.

No STF, no police were there, he said. They had gone around the corner. Can you believe it?

Later that day, eight to 10 members of the STF rushed the Hijrapura mosque, also in Digana, according to clerics and worshippers.

The police assaulted worshippers with batons, according to Ramees, the cleric.

CCTV footage shows police in riot gear striking Ramees and another cleric, M.S.M Nizam, four times with batons. A local Buddhist monk, Gerendigala Chanda Wimala, told Reuters he saw the men being manhandled by police and successfully demanded their release.

At about the same time, a local Muslim politician, Abdul Saleem Mohamad Fazil, and a friend Mohamad Faizal, were also attacked by members of the elite police unit, according to the victims and a witness, Father Christy Paul, the prelate at Diganas Catholic church.

Three STFs came through the back entrance of the house and started beating us, said Fazil, who suffered a deep head wound and said he spent in a night in prison after being refused medical treatment.

They grabbed some bottles from the landing and put them in a bag and said we were making petrol bombs.

Father Christy said he heard the mens screams and saw the police hitting them with batons. The men were cowering on the ground and not offering any resistance to the police, he said.

A local STF commander, asked about the incidents described to Reuters, declined to comment, citing restrictions on talking to the media. The law and order ministry referred to the police special investigation into alleged abuses.

Police say they have arrested more than 300 people involved in the riots.Asia Uber Agrees to Sell SE Asia Business to Grab After Costly Battle

A view of Uber and Grab offices in Singapore, March 26, 2018. / Reuters

SINGAPORE/SAN FRANSICO  Ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian business to bigger regional rival Grab, the firms said in a statement on Monday, marking the US companys second retreat from an Asian market.

The deal marks the industrys first big consolidation in Southeast Asia, home to about 640 million people, and puts pressure on Indonesias Go-Jek, which is backed by Alphabet Incs Google and Chinas Tencent Holdings Ltd.

As part of the transaction, Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in the Southeast Asian company and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grabs board.

Expectations of consolidation in Asias fiercely competitive ride-hailing industry were stoked earlier this year when Japans SoftBank Group Corp made a multi-billion dollar investment in Uber.

SoftBank is also one of the main investors in several other big ride-hailing firms including Grab, Chinas Didi Chuxing, and Indias Ola.

Ride-hailing companies throughout Asia have relied heavily on discounts and promotions, driving down profit margins.

Uber, which is preparing for a potential initial public offering in 2019, lost $4.5 billion last year and is facing fierce competition at home and in Asia, as well as a regulatory crackdown in Europe.

It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology, Khosrowshahi said in a statement.

Grab said it will take over Ubers operations and assets in eight countries in the region, and will expand its food delivery services.Burma Army Shutters Myawaddy Checkpoint in Clampdown on Auto Smuggling

A view across the Moei River, which marks the border between Myanmar and Thailand near Myawaddy. The area, which in most days reportedly serves as a thriving market for cars smuggled in from Thailand, was largely deserted on Monday. / Lawi Weng / The Irrawaddy

Two Border Guard Force (BGF) soldiers refused The Irrawaddy permission to approach a border crossing between Myawaddy and Mae Sot, Thailand on foot on Monday, saying the area was closed. The closure reportedly followed efforts by the army to clamp down on vehicle smuggling across the Thai border.

According to Kyaw Than, an automobile trader who accompanied an Irrawaddy reporter to the area, however, the border crossing was normally open.

Local sources told The Irrawaddy that the Myanmar Army had ordered the BGF to close one of the areas two border checkpoints, which have become a major route for smuggling illegally imported cars.

At another, disused border checkpoint that is also used to smuggle cars into the country, where on most days thousands of vehicles can be seen lined up on the Thai side of the border across the Moei River, no cars could be seen lined up on Monday. Both sides appeared empty, except for a few Myanmar laborers looking for work.

Kyaw Than said he was one of the many car buyers who traveled to the border crossing to buy smuggled cars. To see the cars, buyers must cross the river to where the cars are parked on the Thai side. When a deal is made, a Thai seller brings the car to the Myanmar side. The BGF soldiers then ask for a payment for permission to cross through the border checkpoint. Most traders do business with BGF personnel, he said. BGF soldiers even offered a service to drive the black market cars to the homes of buyers. Until recently, the Myanmar Army and police did not dare to take action against the BGF, he said. They rule in Myawaddy. No one dares to make a problem for them, Kyaw Than said.

Most of the smuggled cars are second-hand vehicles from Japan and Thailand. Some are stolen cars from other countries, but buyers are not concerned about that, he said. People looking for cheap cars travel to Myawaddy from all over Myanmar. Officially, the government only allows imported cars to enter the country via ports, but it has not been able to control the smuggling of vehicles across the Thai border.

Tension between BGF, Army

On Saturday, the Myanmar Army made surprise checks of two BGF bases  including two border checkpoints without asking permission from BGF leaders. Some BGF leaders were reportedly upset about the armys move, but decided not to complain about it.

Regarding the armys action, BGF spokesperson Naing Maung Zaw told The Irrawaddy that, We are all soldiers. We should respect each other. But, they [the Army] did not respect us.

Myanmar Army and BGF leaders held a meeting in Myawaddy yesterday, according to BGF sources. The army ordered the closure of one major border checkpoint that had become a major conduit for car smuggling.

The situation was tense in some locations where BGF personnel were fully armed. Some residents of Myawaddy said both sides were to blame for the problem. Normally [the towns] restaurants are crowded, but not today, Kyaw Than said.Burma Myanmar to Elect New President This Week

Feature: Myanmars possible next president U Win Myint, acting as the speaker of Lower House of Parliament in 2016. / Reuters

YANGON  After the sudden resignation of President U Htin Kyaw last week, Myanmar will elect a new head of state on Wednesday, the countrys Union Parliament announced on Monday.

Constitutionally, Myanmar needs to have three vice presidents elected by the Lower House, the Upper House, and appointed military lawmakers from both chambers.

On Friday, Myanmars Lower House elected its former speaker, U Win Myint of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), as vice president. The other two vice presidents are U Myint Swe, who is now the acting president of the country, and U Henry Van Thio.

Parliament will vote for a new president on Wednesday morning from among the three vice presidents.

U Win Myint submitted his resignation as speaker of the Lower House soon after U Htin Kyaws resignation was announced on Wednesday, prompting speculation that he would become Myanmars next president.

If the speculation proves true, U Win Myint, a senior NLD member, will be Myanmars 10th president since the countrys independence in 1948.

The 67-year-old is believed to be one of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyis favorites among fellow senior NLD members. He became the Lower House speaker in February 2016, after the NLD won the 2015 general election.

During his time in the Lower House, the former lawyer was known for his strict discipline. He did not tolerate discussions that were off topic during parliamentary meetings. Even union ministers were not free from his stern warnings, not to mention lawmakers, including those from the military.

A Planned Presidential Reshuffle

Despite U Htin Kyaws resignation coming as a surprise to outsiders, Myanmars ruling NLD party said the change had already been discussed among senior level officials of the party and the government.

U Win Htein, one of the partys secretariat members and aide to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, told the media on Saturday after the NLD CEC meeting that U Win Myint would be chosen as the president.

U Htin Kyaw is not in good health. He wanted to leave for his health, he said.

In his resignation announcement, U Htin Kyaw simply stated that he wanted to retire from his duties.

The former president was the first head of state elected by Parliament after the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led NLD government came to power in 2016 after a landslide victory in the previous years general election. He is a close confidant of de facto leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

In his critics eyes, the soft-spoken elderly man was merely a puppet president. While he was formally the head of state and constitutionally the highest authority in the land, the amount of actual power he wielded was questionable. The Lady, as State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is known, had already made it known during the election campaign that she would be above the president, as the Constitution bans her from holding the office.

Since last year, the public knew of the 71-year-old presidents ill health due to his frail appearance and absence from some state functions. He also received medical treatments overseas.

Never a Dream Job

Daw Su Su Lwin, the former first lady, told the media on Friday that her husbands resignation was not solely for health reasons but that it had been planned in advance.

He had never thought he would be the president, she said.

When he was assigned to the post, he expected to spend three to six months at most in the position for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, she added, meaning that he thought that the Constitution that barred the state counselor from the presidency could be fixed in that time.

Contrary to what he expected, the charter amendmentone of the NLD government prioritieshas so far gotten nowhere in his two years in office.

Daw Su Su Lwin hopes the possible incoming president U Win Myint, who is four years younger than U Htin Kyaw, will be more successful given his younger age and experience.

I urge all of you to welcome and delight for U Win Myints presidency as you did for U Htin Kyaw.Burma Obituary: Junta Insider Dies at 92

U Chit Hlaing / Yan Pai / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  U Chit Hlaing, the author of the ideology of the Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP), which ruled the country for 26 years, died of natural causes at the age of 92 at Yangon General Hospital on Saturday.

After former dictator General Ne Win staged a coup on March 2, 1962, he needed a political ideology, and U Chit Hlaing composed the Burmese Way to Socialism, which became the political ideology of the socialist government that ruled the country from 1962 to 1988.

He was also the author of the political treatise of the BSPPThe System of Correlation between Man and His Environment simply known in Burmese as Innya myinnya. U Chit Hlaing worked alongside General Ne Win throughout the 1960s and remained close to later junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe during the 1990s.

The assignment to write Innya myinnya came directly from Gen Ne Win. U Chit Hlaing worked closely with the former dictator throughout the 1950s and 1960s and was constantly ready to defend the late dictator as a pragmatist.

He was one of the founders of the Central School of Political Sciencethe first of its kind in the country at the time, in July 1963. In the 1970s, U Chit Hlaing left the BSPP but still often met U Ne Win whenever summoned by the general.

Born in Sagaing Regions Katha, the Marxist was inspired during the Second World War by books written by Thakhin Soe, who led the Red Flag faction of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB).

He joined the Burma Independence Army in 1942 and became a communist after reading communist communique of Lieutenant Thein Ta, who later became the commander of the CPB Red Flag faction.

He later served as an underground soldier in the revolt against Japanese fascists, working as the messenger between Gen Aung San, Thakhin Soe, and other communist leaders like Thakhin Than Tun and Thakhin Ba Hein.

Among the three leaders of Myanmars independence struggle who he knew bestGen Aung San, Gen Ne Win and Thakin Soehe respected Gen Aung San the most. Aung San is just Aung San and there is no comparison, said U Chit Hlaing in his Yangon residence during an interview with The Irrawaddy in 2012.

After the CPB split into the Red Flag faction and the White Flag faction, he was in favor of the former faction because of Thakhin Soe, but later he had a falling out with him as he could not stand his criticism of Gen Aung San.

After Myanmar gained independence in 1948, U Chit Hlaing worked in the Peoples Literature Committee led by leading politician U Ba Swe. In 1951, he visited Eastern European countries and was stranded in France.

He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in France, and in 1954 he came back to Myanmar after Brig-Gen Aung Gyi, who was the second top brass in the Revolutionary Council, called him back.

He wrote a long article entitled While stranded in Paris about his experience in France in The Myawady Magazine.

Arranged by Brig-Gen Aung Gyi, he joined the Defense Directorate of Psychological Warfare as a civilian military official with the same rank as lieutenant-colonel in 1955, as the directorate was assigned to counter the propaganda of CPB. This marked the beginning of his ties with former dictator Ne Win.

In July 1995, U Chit Hlaing and former judge U Tin Aung Hein, a student activist who became a prominent member of the BSPP, visited former dictator U Ne Wins house.

U Ne Win was alone in his residence and U Chit Hlaing and U Tin Aung Hein wanted to bring up the current state of political affairs in the country but were unable to do so since U Ne Win did not want to discuss anything related to politics. They politely listened to the former dictator as he spoke about religion and Buddhism.

They were surprised when U Ne Win confessed that he would not have staged the coup in 1962 if he had studied Buddhism and meditation earlier in life. Ne Win elaborated further if he had known Anicca, Dukkha and Anattathe three Dharma aspects of lifeat the time, he would not have seized power.

I was taken aback when he said that, wrote U Chit Hlaing, also known by his pen name Ko Ko Maung Gyi, in his autobiography.

The funeral of U Chit Hlaing will be held on Tuesday, March 27, which is Anti-Fascist Revolution Day.Burma Report Highlights Plight of Women Survivors of Conflict, Oppression

Rights groups launch their report, Speaking Truth for Peace: Womens Experiences of War and Impunity in Myanmar, in Yangon on Saturday. / Nan Lwin Hnin Pwint / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  I didnt go to farm for fear of landmines, but even then I was hit at home, said Ei Seng, a 27-year-old Palaung woman from Shan States Namhsan Township.

She and her 4-year-old daughter were burning garbage in their yard when a mortar shell fell and exploded nearby on Jan. 14, 2016. The Myanmar military and Taang National Liberation Army were fighting near her village at the time.

She was eight months pregnant and had to have emergency surgery to deliver the baby. Her daughter suffered some hearing loss from the explosion, and Ei Seng still has shell fragments in her body from the shell. They give her pain every day, but doctors say it would be too risky to take them out.

I dont want to see any more fighting, she said, urging the government to help those affected by the countrys long-running civil war to get their lives back on track.

She is not alone in making the demand. Asia Justice And Rights (AJAR) and the Karen Womens Organization, Taang Womens Organization and Vimutti Womens Organization launched a report on the lives of women survivors of conflict and oppression in Yangon on Saturday.

Speaking Truth for Peace: Womens Experiences of War and Impunity in Myanmar captures the stories of 31 women, including former political prisoners in Yangon, Taang women living in the conflict zones of northern Shan State, female Karen village heads, and land rights activists.

I would like to urge the government, local authorities and armed organizations to consider rehabilitation for afflicted survivors if they are really building a true democracy in Myanmar, said Mai Ja, who helped compile the report.

Those who conducted interviews for the report said women survivors living in conflict areas and female advocates oppressed by authorities for their pro-democracy activities were struggling with trauma.

One-time political prisoner and former National League for Democracy (NLD) member Daw Thet Thet Lwin recounted her experiences of being arrested several times as a university student for her participation in the pro-democracy uprising of 1988.

On the last occasion, she said, she was handcuffed and beaten in public in front of her house. She said her blouse and longyi were torn during the beating and that she was not allowed to change her clothes.

Most of the political prisoners were arrested as young women, stifling their educational opportunities and putting many in financial hardship after their release.

The NLD government, which we have shouldered to the position of power, doesnt recognize political prisoners. No one can deny that the shift we have made today is due to those politicians who sacrificed their lives, said Daw Thet Thet Lwin.

AJAR director Galuh Wandita said the women have had not only their political rights violated, but their social and economic rights as well.

The full truth about what happened to them and how it continues to affect their lives is being erased or denied  not only by the state, local authorities and the national elite, but often even by their own communities and families, according to the research.

The report calls for justice and rehabilitation for women survivors and an end to impunity.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.Burma Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaings Armed Forces Day Speeches

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing takes part in a parade to mark the 72nd Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw in 2017. / Reuters

Since he became commander-in-chief of the armed forces in 2011, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing has given annual speeches on Armed Forces Day, which falls on March 27. As with his predecessors, his speeches have tended to be filled with references to building a modern armed force, repeatedly using the phrase standard army (while avoiding the term professional army) and reiterating promises to protect the military-drafted 2008 Constitution and safeguard the nation and its sovereignty. Every year he has also lashed out at fascists and colonialists and repeatedly invoked Myanmars independence struggle.

Interestingly, he has also talked about 21st century warfare technology, democracy and the Geneva Convention, and denied that ethnic cleansing or genocide has taken place in the country. He has firmly said that there are no Rohingya in the country, insisting they are Bengali immigrants.

His speech tomorrow, which will mark the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the Tatmadaw, is being keenly awaited. Will he repeat the same rhetoric of previous years or will there be new intrigues and remarks?

Here some excerpts of his speeches since 2012.

2012

In his first speech as army chief to mark the 67th anniversary of the resistance against the Japanese during World War II, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said that the military had an obligation to defend the Constitution and that it would continue to take part in politics as it had done in the past.

There was suspicion at the time that the military was opposing the democratic reforms put forward by then President U Thein Seins administration.

Min Aung Hlaing rejected such allegations, stating that while the county is marching towards democracy, the Tatmadaw will support the functions of government.

He then added that the army was following the results of peace talks between the government and armed ethnic minorities.

At the time, the military was also accused of ignoring President U Thein Seins orders to obey a ceasefire with the Kachin Independence Army rebel group in northern Myanmar.

2013

In his Armed Forces Day speech this year, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing spoke about the Geneva Convention, shortly after riots broke out in central Myanmar, where martial law was declared in four townships in the previous week to quell anti-Muslim riots that officially killed more than 40 people.

All our members are being trained in the provisions of the Geneva Convention so our Tatmadaw does not commit any war crimes, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said.

There is no such thing as genocide in the history of our Tatmadaw, he said.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, then a lawmaker, attended the Armed Forces Day parade in Naypyitaw for the first time.

2014

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing focused much of his speech on the peace process. The nationwide ceasefire is important for our eternal peace, so all ethnic armed groups must be legalized by all means in the achievement of this process.

As part of Armed Forces Day in 2014 the army reached out to old veterans and former senior members and paid their respects to them and their contributions to the country. It was the first time the generals had made such a public gesture to old soldiers.

2015

In his speech, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing again touched on the peace process and democratization as well as the coming election.

The basic needs of people are to live peacefully and to develop their lives in health of body and peace of mind. In other words, stability and peace of the state and socio-economic developments are the basic needs and true desire of the people. In order to meet these basic needs and true desire of the people, we, the Tatmadaw men, together with the government, the Hluttaw, political parties and people have to cooperate for successful implementation in accordance with enacted laws.

On the coming general election that November, he said, The general election, which is going to be held in the early days of November 2015, represents an important landmark for the implementation of democracy in our country. The Tatmadaw will work hand in hand with responsible organizations and people for the accomplishment of the general election. Peace, stability, and prevalence and enforcement of law play a vital role in systematic and peaceful accomplishment of the general election. I want to say that any disturbances to the stability of the state and prevalence of law, any armed pressure or any threats related to voting wont be allowed in the general election.

On the Constitution he stressed, The 2008 Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar was drawn up based on our geopolitical location, population, ethnic groups, culture, traditions, religion and recorded history with the aim of successfully implementing a multi-party democratic system. In accordance with the 2008 Constitution, our country is taking a path of multi-party democracy.

2016

Myanmars army chief vowed to keep the nation on the path to democracy, days before power was due to be transferred to Daw Aung San Suu Kyis mostly civilian government on April 1, after decades of military rule.

I would like to seriously say that we, the military, will cooperate to achieve success in working for the nation and the citizens interests, he said.

The Tatmadaw has to take the leading role in national politics with regards to the way we stand in history and the critical situations of the country, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said.

The two main obstacles to democratization are a failure to abide by the rule of law and regulations and the presence of armed insurgencies. These could lead to a chaotic democracy, he said.

Only if these two obstacles are properly tackled and overcome will there be advancement on the path to democracy.

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing gave the speech after Daw Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy party had won a landslide victory in elections the previous November.

2017

In the 21st century, warfare will be fought with different methods, directions and fields, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing told the nation.

To be a victor in 21st century modern warfare, we must be qualified in ICT, electronic technologies and mechanical technological know-how.

We need to study the changes in military strategies and tactics and update our technologies accordingly, he said.

It has already been announced that there is no race termed Rohingya in Myanmar. The Bengalis in Rakhine State are not Myanmar nationals but immigrants. It will be seen that the victims coming out of the terrorist attacks committed by some Bengalis in October 2016 were the result of political interference.

Things that should be done under the existing laws must be carried out with responsibility. The armed forces will be responsible for defending against all types of insurgencies based on religion or race.

Only if we can establish everlasting domestic peace, will our nation become developed.

In a transparent democracy, disagreements over political doctrine must only be solved by political means. Our Tatmadaw has participated with might and main in establishing peace throughout previous governments. On Aug. 18, 2011, the former government initiated the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and offered ethnic armed groups a peace settlement. Eight ethnic armed groups with the same view entered into agreement to achieve peace. The government invites and urges the remaining ethnic armed organizations to sign the NCA for peace.

I would like to say that our Tatmadaw will participate in establishing everlasting peace accordingly with the six peace principles laid down by the Tatmadaw under the supervision of the government.Burma Thai Court Orders Migrant Labor Advocate to Pay Natural Fruit Company $320,000

Andy Hall and supporters outside the Thai Supreme Court. / MWRN / Facebook

CHIANG MAI, Thailand  A court in Bangkok on Monday ordered British migrant rights defender Andy Hall to pay 10 million baht (US$320,000) in damages to Natural Fruit Co. Ltd., which sued him for defamation over comments he made to news network Al Jazeera regarding the 2013 report Cheap Has a High Price.

The court also ordered Hall to pay an additional 10,000 baht to cover the cost of the plaintiffs legal and court fees, including interest of 7.5 percent from the date of filing the case until the amount is fully paid, according to a statement released by Finnwatch, a Finnish civil society organization focusing on corporate responsibility, on Monday.

Finnwatch hired Hall to do field research on workers in the pineapple industry and used his findings in the report published in January 2013. The report revealed that Myanmar migrant workers were being subjected to slave labor conditions at Natural Fruits pineapple processing plant in Prachuap Khiri Khan province. Later the Thai company brought four separate lawsuits, both criminal and civil, against the researcher, seeking damages for defamation among other things.

The company filed a 100 million baht civil damages claim against the British researcher in 2014, related to an interview with Al Jazeera in April 2013, which he gave in Myanmar.

Bangkoks Prakanong Court initially dismissed the case, but the company appealed and the Appeals Court in August 2017 ordered the lower court to accept the case and hear it in full. Witness testimony in the reopened cases concluded last month.

Sonja Vartiala, the executive director of Finnwatch, told The Irrawaddy on Monday, Andy Hall will be appealing the decision. We have been informed that now following this decision he will need to pay the court fee for the plaintiff. Finnwatch will continue to support Andy in the legal cases.

Todays court ruling is one huge leap backward and it will have a chilling effect on anyone acting as a whistleblower, she said. It is very harmful for Thailand and will surely also raise serious concerns among buyers in Europe.

Myanmar migrant rights advocates condemned the Thai Courts verdict. The aim of the research is to highlight the situation facing poor migrant workers, who are not paid properly and live in misery. We are sorry to hear the news of this verdict, said U Aung Kyaw, a spokesman for the Migrant Workers Right Network (MWRN) based in Mahachai near Bangkok.

MWRN helped Hall with his research and acted as a defense witness at his court hearings. Hall has worked closely with MWRN as an international adviser.

He said Hall was a dedicated researcher who had devoted a lot of time to learning about the situation facing migrants from Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.

The migrant labor rights advocate added that Myanmar migrants continued to be preyed upon, even by the Thai judicial system, citing the example of two Myanmar migrants widely believed to have been framed in a murder case in the countrys Koh Tao resort island, for which they are now facing the death penalty.

When it comes to migrant workers  they are far less important than the economy, said U Aung Kyaw, adding that the migrant labor rights movement has continued its efforts to improve the situation for migrant workers in Thailand, even though Hall had been forced to stop his work.

The Finnwatch director said there had been some improvements in migrants workers rights in Thailand, citing a Royal Ordinance titled the Management of Employment of Migrant Workers, issued last year, which includes some important provisions relating to recruitment practices such as zero fees for migrant workers.

However there is a lack of tripartite dialogue in its implementation and migrant workers are still not allowed to unionize, added the director.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights will undertake its first official 10-day visit to Thailand, from March 26 to April 4, to examine efforts to prevent, mitigate and remedy adverse human rights impacts of business operations.

The working group has been informed about todays court decision and will hopefully take this up in their meetings with the authorities in Thailand. Thai courts are used to silencing human rights defenders and this needs to stop, added Vartiala.

Verdicts have been handed down in three of the four cases against Hall, but appeals and counter litigation are ongoing.

A criminal defamation case related to the Al Jazeera interview was dismissed in November 2016. Hall filed countersuits against Thailands Office of the Attorney General, nine Thai state prosecution officials and one senior police officer at the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct cases in the Dusit District of Bangkok, while litigation against the Natural Fruit Company Ltd., two executives and its lawyers were filed at Prakanong Court on May 31 last year. The trial of the two executives started on March 22 and is scheduled to end on March 28, but the litigation against the state officials was dismissed. Halls legal team has appealed the dismissals.

The Appeal Courts ruling on the Criminal Defamation and Computer Crimes cases is scheduled for April 24. A Civil Defamation and Damages Case over the Finnwatch report has been postponed until final verdicts in the criminal defamation and computer crimes cases are reached by Nakhon Pathom Court.Burma Who is U Win Myint, Myanmars Likely New President?

U Win Myint, the former Lower House Speaker, was elected vice president on Mar. 23, paving the way for him to assume the countrys top job. / via Global New Light of Myanmar website

YANGON After a 30-year journey that has taken him from a legal career to being a political activist, then elected lawmaker and most recently House speaker  U Win Myint has reached a big turning point in his life that now sees him poised to be named the countrys next president.

The 66-year-old has served as the Lower House speaker since February 2016, after the National League for Democracy won the 2015 general election.

As part of the process to select a replacement for U Htin Kyaw, 71, who resigned as president on Mar. 21, U Win Myint was elected as a vice president last Friday, paving the way for a vote for a new president. U Win Myint resigned as Lower House speaker on the same day that U Htin Kyaw announced his retirement.

A long-time NLD member, U Win Myint is considered to be a right-hand man of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was barred from taking the presidency under the military-drafted 2008 constitution.

Born in Danubyu in the Irrawaddy Delta in 1951, U Win Myint studied geology at Yangon University before turning to study law in the 1980s. He was working as a barrister in 1988 when nationwide pro-democracy protests erupted, leading to the founding of the NLD, which he subsequently joined.

U Win Myint has enjoyed electoral success three times: in the 1990 general election, a 2012 by-election and in the last general election in 2015.

But the successes didnt come easily. Like many other political activists and politicians, U Win Myint was arrested several times by the previous military regime.

Detained at the time that his only son fell critically ill, he spurned a military intelligences offer that he sign a promissory note to renounce politics in exchange for the chance to visit his son, who was on his deathbed in hospital. He subsequently missed his sons funeral as well.

I couldnt accept it as my constituents believed in me and voted for me, he said in a video interview with local media outlet Kamayut soon after he was elected Lower House speaker.

But the loss hurt him with his late son never being able to see his father rise to become house speaker.

I dont hold grudges against any organization for that. But in my heart, I want my son to be beside me, he said.

Regardless. the then house speaker said he would continue to pursue a path to national reconciliation as laid out by his partys leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

U Win Myint became an NLD central executive committee member in 2010. He also served as secretary of the Lower Houses Rule of Law, Peace and Tranquility Committee chaired by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was a Lower House lawmaker at the time, after being elected to represent Yangons Kawhmu township.

With his long experience in legal affairs and politics, U Win Myints possible presidency has raised hopes and expectations that he will be a more active leader than his predecessor.

He is expected to work effectively on corruption, rule of law and land conflicts, issues for which he revealed a strong eagerness to tackle while he was parliament speaker.

He was also lauded for asking for no wedding gifts for his daughters wedding last year. Breaking with local tradition, the invitations clearly stated No Wedding Gifts, Please.

The ruling NLD Lower House lawmaker Daw May Win Myint, who submitted the partys nomination of U Win Myint to parliament on Friday, told The Irrawaddy that she believed U Win Myint was the right choice for the countrys top office.

He is decisive. And as house speaker, he was able to handle the parliament very well [over the past two years]. I hope he will oversee the executive as well as he did parliament, she said.

During his time in the Lower House, U Win Myint was known to be a strict taskmaster. He often warned lawmakers to do their homework before the parliamentary session; to keep their proposals and questions specific and to the point. The lawmakers were not alone in receiving his stern warnings. Union ministers were also among those faulted for poorly prepared answers in parliament. Moreover, he has occasionally given military appointees in parliament a hard time.

NLD Lower House lawmaker Ma Zin Mar Aung said U Win Myint had a obtained good understanding of the checks and balances between the parliament and executive as well as the situation on the ground through lawmakers.

He knows very well when implementing [new government] policies which parts are blocked or difficult to handle because of the bureaucracy. As he is aware of the situations, I hope he will initiate more plans to tackle those, she said.Samsung has nabbed victory by nabbing major Aussie bank NAB in its quest to see Australia's four big banks all offering access to Samsung Pay, as ever more consumers make payments via mobile devices.

Samsung proudly boasts its Samsung Pay service "has become the first smartphone mobile wallet provider in Australia to be made available to customers of the Big Four banks in Australia, following todays partnership announcement with National Australia Bank", as part of the NAB's "NAB Pay" system.

We're told that "NABs customers  along with those of the three other Big Four banks and over 45 financial institutions in Australia  now have access to Samsung Pay and can load their Visa credit and / or debit cards to make payments via compatible Samsung smartphone devices and wearable products".

As you'd expect, Samsung says this announcement demonstrates its "pledge to making mobile wallets a convenient part of everyday life for millions of Australians", and naturally, Samsung states that todays announcement positions the company "as a leading player in the mobile payments landscape", which certainly makes it quite the Samsung Pay day!

The service is described as not only providing "users with a simple and secure way to pay, but also allows users to load their loyalty cards to capture reward points at the point of sale, which lessens their reliance on a physical wallet".

Mark Hodgson, head of Product and Services at Samsung Electronics Australia, said: Were thrilled to be able provide the Samsung Pay experience to even more Australians. Our partnership with NAB builds on our commitment to providing a simple and secure digital wallet experience to every Australian using a Samsung smartphone or wearable.

Todays announcement also represents an important milestone as we are now able to provide Samsung Pay to all major banking customers across the nation. We believe that our collaboration with partners like NAB will help further enhance our mobile experience for Australians and look forward evolving the portfolio further over the upcoming year.

Article continues below image, please read on!

The announcement comes after the very recent launch of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones which Samsung states "have received positive reviews from many technology experts and customers alike. In Australia, pre-sales results for the S9 and S9+ have broken previous records for Samsung in this market".

Angus Gilfillan, NAB executive general manager of Consumer Lending, said: "NAB is giving customers more choice when it comes to digital wallets.

In addition to our own mobile banking app and NAB Pay, we are continuing to invest in giving our customers the best digital payments experience. We know our customers increasingly want to be able to pay for their purchases quickly and conveniently, and Samsung Pay is a safe and secure digital wallet that they can now use."

Samsung reminds us that Samsung Pay "offers multiple security features; a tokenised card number for the user, which means no sensitive payment card information is stored on the device, and it also requires pre-payment authentication via PIN, iris or fingerprint".

The Samsung Pay app is housed on Samsungs "Knox" security platform, which the company says "has undergone a series of rigorous security procedures making Samsung Pay a secure and trusted payment platform".

Additionally, Samsung says, "Users also receive remote access to the Find My Mobile website to easily lock their mobile phone device and prevent access to Samsung Pay if their device is misplaced."

Samsung explains that "in order to prevent access to Samsung Pay if the device is misplaced, users must log into Samsung's Find My Mobile site using their Samsung Account login details, select Lock my Device and then click Lock.

Having first launched in Australia in June 2016, Samsung Pay has "partnered with hundreds of banks worldwide, processing millions of transactions via the Samsung Pay payments platform".

Compatible Samsung smartphones include:

Galaxy S9 and S9+, Galaxy Note8, Galaxy S8 and S8+, Galaxy S7 and 7 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, Galaxy A7, Galaxy A5, Galaxy Note5, Galaxy J5 Pro.

Compatible Galaxy wearables include:

Gear S3, Gear S2, Gear Sport.

More about Samsung Pay is here.

iTWire's coverage of CBA's Samsung Pay service is here, ANZ is here, Westpac is here, Suncorp is here, Bendigo Bank is here, with stacks of other Australian financial institutions here.The US Federal Communications Commission has unveiled a formal plan to block subsidies to Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE for gear supplied to rural and small carriers.

On Sunday, iTWire reported that this action was a possibility. The FCC move comes after Republican senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marco Rubio of Florida introduced a bill in February to block the federal government from buying or leasing telecommunications equipment from Huawei or ZTE.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai said in the proposal on Monday that the organisation sought to bar the use of money from the Universal Service Fund to purchase equipment or services from companies that pose a national security risk.

The Fund is made up of small amounts paid by telephone subscribers along with their monthly bills.

On Friday, Pai had indicated whom he meant, by releasing a letter that had been sent to lawmakers on 20 March, saying he shared concerns about espionage threats from Huawei, adding that he intended to take action.

In the proposal released on Monday, Pai said: Threats to national security posed by certain communications equipment providers are a matter of bipartisan concern. Hidden back doors to our networks in routers, switches  and virtually any other type of telecommunications equipment  can provide an avenue for hostile governments to inject viruses, launch denial-of-service attacks, steal data, and more.

"Although the FCC alone cant safeguard the integrity of our communications supply chain, we must and will play our part in a government- and industry-wide effort to protect the security of our networks.

Thats why Im proposing to prohibit the FCCs US$8.5 billion Universal Service Fund from being used to purchase equipment or services from any company that poses a national security threat to the integrity of communications networks or their supply chains.

"The money in the Universal Service Fund comes from fees paid by the American people, and I believe that the FCC has the responsibility to ensure that this money is not spent on equipment or services that pose a threat to national security.

"On 17 April, I hope that my fellow Commissioners will join me in supporting this important proposal to help protect our national security.

Huawei was contacted for comment. A company spokesperson told iTWire: "We have no comment to make on this matter."

The US began its efforts to force Huawei out of local contracts after a 2012 Congressional report alleged the company was a threat to national security, with a warning that Beijing could use its equipment for state-sponsored spying or cyber attacks.

In December, President Donald Trump signed a bill to ban Huawei and ZTE equipment from nuclear weapons systems in the US Defence Department. Last month, Trump also banned a takeover of US processor maker Qualcomm by Singapore-based Broadcom because of national security concerns; Huawei's ties to Broadcom were mentioned as a concern.

In the most recent US move against Huawei, multinational electronics corporation Best Buy said it would no longer stock the company's smartphones.

This comes after AT&T in January cancelled a deal to start selling Huawei smartphones on its plans and Verizon took the company's devices off its shelves.The European Union has raised the prospect that it may consider breaking up Google into a number of smaller units, saying it harbours "grave suspicions" about the firm's dominance of the search market.

EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager told Britain's Telegraph newspaper that the threat to split up the search behemoth must be kept as an option.

Vestager said the officials in her department harboured "grave suspicions" about Google which dominates the EU search market with 91.5%.

Google was fined 2.42 billion (US$2.7 billion) by the European Union in June last year for allegedly abusing its search engine dominance to give illegal advantage to its own comparison shopping service. The company has appealed the decision.

At the time of imposing the fine, Vestager said: "Google has come up with many innovative products and services that have made a difference to our lives. That's a good thing.

"But Google's strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn't just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals."

She added: "Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors.

"What Google has done is illegal under EU anti-trust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation."

Google also faces EU fines over its AdSense advertising system and its Android mobile operating system.

In February, the Competition Commission of India hit the company with a fine of 135.86 crore rupees (about US$21.1 million) for "abusing its dominant position in online general Web search and Web search advertising services in India".

Google and other big multinational technology companies are also under pressure over alleged tax evasion, with the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, recently unveiling a proposal to tax these companies at a rate of 3% as an interim measure.

Photo: courtesy European UnionBroadband Forum's latest "BASE" event brought together a vast array of speakers, covering an unparalleled range of topics, from NG-PON2 and Gfast to virtualisation and converged networks for 5G, with more than 300 delegates "from the entire value chain".

With members spanning some of the world's largest telcos and network equipment makers, the Broadband Forum's BASE event in Athens last week was well attended.

BASE is billed as an "all-new series of public workshops which aim to provide attendees with a whole new perspective on what is being created for broadband providers and users alike".

We're told that "a new conception of broadband is on target to be achieved as the industry experiences an era of unparalleled change and challenge, and networks transform to meet the opportunities of 5G, cloudification, the Internet of Things (IoT), gigabit access, open source solutions and the growing influence of artificial intelligence".

That was the message delivered at the Broadband Forums "sell-out BASE Athens event which brought together operators, service providers, system integrators, vendors, academia and industry bodies to discuss the entire broadband ecosystem and the technology developments needed to deliver future broadband networks".

George Stefanopoulos, general manager of Greek Mobile Operators Association (EEKT), said: "Like all the countries across Europe, my members are facing multiple challenges and opportunities as we look forward to 5G and IoT possibilities, allied to how they will interwork with new technologies such as Network Functions Virtualisation and even AI.

Whatever the technologies, the choice is always going to be finding the right balance between investment capability, generating demand for services and supporting this with a friendly regulatory and licensing environment.

BASE gave Greece the chance to host this truly international gathering and share our thoughts, ideas and experiences with colleagues from across the entire ecosystem. I was delighted to give our views and listen to what others had to say  Im sure we have all learnt a lot during the two days of the event.

Stefanopoulos was joined on the stage by "a host of operators and vendors, with subjects covered including virtualised broadband, cloud services, the managed home, 5G, wireless/wireline convergence, Wi-Fi performance and high-speed access, including NG-PON2, XGS-PON, MoCA and Gfast".

We're told that "details of the latest Broadband Forum projects were also revealed".

Nokia's Tim Carey gave an update on the Broadband Forums "Broadband Access Abstraction project which aims to drive the adoption of software-defined access networks via open source software development".

Carey said: As more operators look to agile, software-based network models, uniting vendors and operators to ensure they are aligned with industry specifications to meet the needs of operators globally is incredibly important for long-term success.

By defining a software reference implementation for an open BAA layer through standardised interfaces, software can be decoupled from the underlying hardware to isolate the core functionality from specific device implementations and limit the number of different interfaces that are needed to be supported by service providers and vendors.

BAA is part of the Broadband Forums Open Broadband initiative, a collaborative space for the integration and testing of new open source, standards-based and vendor provided implementations.

We're told that "this is just one example of the recent innovation being carried out by the Forum, as it continues to deliver on its Broadband 20/20 vision. Last year also saw the publication of its Fixed Access Network Sharing  Architecture and Nodal Requirements Technical Report (TR-370), which standardises Fixed Access Network Sharing".

At the BASE event in Athens Vodafones Fixed Access Manager, Bruno Cornaglia, set out his vision for this technology.

Cornaglia said: To create a unified access architecture, it is essential to integrate all technologies  from FttC to FttH and cable  in a single approach.

In urban areas, NG-PON2 represents the suitable solution for backhauling all other technologies, such as GPON in remote nodes, micro-nodes with VDSL2 and Gfast, DOCSIS remote devices, and mobile, but in rural areas operators face additional difficulties when deploying next-generation access.

"Here, introducing FANS on top of the unified access platform can facilitate the development of Next-Generation Access networks by giving full control to different service providers, or different divisions within the same company, enabling them to independently manage their own customers, even if there is only one physical network.

During the BASE workshop, Cornaglia also highlighted "why good network monitoring is important and how the new 'Q' metric can improve network performance and Quality of Service". According to Cornaglia, "the Q data can then be used by machine learning to enhance network operation".

The full line-up of operators, service providers and vendors taking part in the event was as follows:

ADTRAN

Arris

Boosty

Broadband Trends

BSNL, India Dept of Telecoms

BT Mobile

Calix

Cartesian

Consulting SARL

Corning

CYTA

Deutsche Telekom

Ericsson

Eulambia

European Competitive Telecommunications Association

Federation of Hellenic Information Technology and Communication Enterprises

Greek Mobile Operators Association

Huawei Technologies

inCITES

Intel

Intracom Telecom

Metanoia

Mimosa

Nokia

Sckipio

SK Telecom

Tessares

Tibit Communications

UNH-IOL

Verizon

Vodafone

Bernd Hesse, chairman of BASE and the Broadband Forums NG-PON2 Council, and senior director Technology Development at Calix, said: "This latest BASE event brought together a vast array of speakers, covering an unparalleled range of topics, from NG-PON2 and Gfast to virtualisation and converged networks for 5G.

"This ongoing discussion and collaboration, looked holistically at the broadband access network and this is absolutely vital if we are to deliver the ubiquitous next-generation access for many consumers who are already seeing broadband as the fourth utility."

More information is here.

The home page of the Broadband Forum is here.If youve ever been woken up at 3 a.m. because a server went haywire, youll understand the appeal of a buzzword like serverless. The machines can take hours, days, or sometimes even weeks to configure and then they need to be updated constantly to fix bugs and security holes. These updates usually bring hassles of their own because the new updates cause incompatibilities forcing other updates or so it seems ad infinitum.

The endless chain of headaches from running a server is one of the reasons that major cloud companies have embraced the serverless architecture. They know that the boss has heard the excusesthe server this, the server thatfor far too long. If we could only get rid of those servers, the boss must think.

Its a wonderful sales term with the only problem being its not strictly true. These apps are serverless in the same way that restaurants are kitchenless. If what you want is on the menu and you like how the cook prepares it, sitting down in a restaurant is great. But if you want a different dish, if you want different spices, well, you better get your own kitchen.

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are three of the bigger companies that are battling to host applications of the future, ones that they hope will be written to their serverless API and managed through their automation layer. If the platforms do what you wantand the new models are pretty generalthey can be the simplest and fastest way to create your own multibillion dollar unicorn web app. You write only the crucial bits of logic and the platform handles all of the details.

Serverless functions are becoming the glue or scripting language that links together all of the cloud features. The mapping or AI tools that were once fairly independent are now linked through the event-driven serverless functions. Now more of your work can be solved by requests that ripple and bounce through the various corners of each cloud, triggering and being triggered by a flow of events. If you want to explore machine learning and use it to analyze your data, one of the fastest ways to do it is to create a serverless app and start sending events to the machine learning corner of the cloud.

The implicit promise is that slicing everything thinner makes it easier to share resources in the cloud. In the past, everybody would be frantically creating new instances with, say, Ubuntu Server running in its own virtual machine. Everyone used the same OS and it was duplicated a zillion times on the same real box that was pretending to be a dozen or more virtual Ubuntu boxes. Serverless operations avoid all of that duplication, making cloud computing dramatically cheaper, especially for jobs that run sporadically and never really jammed up the old box sitting in your air conditioned server room.

Of course all of this convenience does have a hidden cost. If you ever want to leave or move your code to another site, youll probably be stuck rewriting most of the stack. The APIs are different, and while there is some standardization around popular languages like JavaScript, theyre pretty close to proprietary. There is plenty of opportunity for lock-in.

To understand the appeal of serverless options, I spent some time building out a few functions and poking around the stacks. I didnt write much code, but that was the point. I spent more time clicking on buttons and typing into web forms to configure everything. Do you remember when we configured everything with XML and then JSON? Now we fill out a web form and the cloud does it for us. You still have to think like a programmer, though, to understand whats going on behind the scenes and beyond your control.

AWS Lambda

AWS Lambda is growing into the shell script layer for Amazons entire cloud. Its a basic system that lets you embed functions that respond to events that might be generated by almost any part of the vast Amazon cloud infrastructure. If a new file is uploaded to S3, you could have it trigger a function that does something interesting with it. If some video is being transcoded by the Amazon Elastic Transcoder, you could have a Lambda function waiting to be triggered when it finishes. These functions, in turn, can trigger other Lambda operations or maybe just send someone an update.

You can write Lambda functions in JavaScript (Node.js), Python, Java, C#, and Go. Given that these languages can embed many other languages, its quite possible to run other code like Haskell, Lisp, or even C++. (Check out this story on compiling legacy C++ to a library to use with AWS Lambda.)

Writing Lambda functions often feels much more complex than you expect because Amazon offers so many options for configuration and optimization. While its technically true that you can write just a few lines of code and accomplish great things, I felt like I then had to allocate more time to configuring how the code runs. Much of this is accomplished by filling out forms in the browser instead of typing into text files. At times it feels like weve just traded a text editor for a browser form, but thats the price of retaining all of the flexibility that Amazon extends to the Lambda user.

Some of the additional steps are due to Amazon exposing more options to the user and expecting more of the first-time function writer. Once I was done writing a function at Google or Microsoft, I could point my browser to the right URL and test it immediately. Amazon had me clicking to configure the API gateway and open up the right hole in the firewall.

IDG AWS Lambdas configuration page lets you click on the source of the events that trigger a function and the destination for more events.

In the end, all of this clicking adds a layer of handholding that makes the job just a bit easier than starting with a text file. When I was creating one function, the browser had a warning, This function contains external libraries. Back in the days of pure Node, that was something that I would just be expected to know, or I would learn it by Googling the error message while crossing my fingers and hoping that the answer was out there. Now the cloud is rushing in to help.

Amazon has a number of other options that are just about as serverless as AWS Lambda, if serverless means relieving you of server management chores. It has elastic tools like Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling and AWS Fargate that spin up and shut down servers, and AWS Elastic Beanstalk, which takes your uploaded code, deploys it to web servers, and handles the load balancing and scaling. Of course, with many of these automation tools, youre still responsible for creating the server image.

One of the more useful offerings is AWS Step Functions, a sort of code-less flowcharting tool for creating state machines to model what software architects call workflow. Part of the issue is that all of the serverless functions are meant to be entirely free of state, something that works when youre enforcing pretty basic business logic but that can be a bit of a nightmare when youre walking some client through a checklist or a flowchart. Youre constantly going out to the database to reload the information about the client. Step Functions glue together Lambda functions with state.

Google Cloud Functions and Firebase

If getting rid of the hassle of configuring servers is your goal, Google Cloud has a number of services that offer various amounts of freedom from things like needing a root password or even using a command line at all.

Starting with the Google App Engine in 2008, Google has been slowly adding different serverless options with various combinations of messaging and data transparency. One called Google Cloud Pub/Sub hides the messaging queue from you so all you need to do is write the code for the data producer and consumer. Google Cloud Functions offers event-driven computation for many of the major products including some of the marquee tools and APIs. And then theres Google Firebase, a database on steroids that lets you mix JavaScript code into a data storage layer that delivers the data to your client.

Of these, Firebase is the most intriguing to me. Some suggest that databases were the original serverless app, abstracting away the data structures and disk storage chores to deliver all of the information through a TCP/IP port. Firebase takes this abstraction to the extreme by also adding JavaScript code and messaging to do almost everything you might want to do with the server-side infrastructure including authentication. Technically its just a database but its one that can handle much of the business logic and messaging for your stack. You really can get away with a bit of client HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Firebase.

You might be tempted to call Firebases JavaScript layers stored procedures, just like Oracle did, but that would be missing the bigger picture. The Firebase code is written in JavaScript so it will run in a local version of Node.js. You can embed much of the business logic in this layer because the world of Node is already filled with libraries for handling this workflow. Plus youll be enjoying the pleasures of isomorphic code that runs on the client, the server, and now the database.

The part that caught my eye was the synchronization layer built into Firebase. It will synchronize copies of objects from the database throughout the network. The trick is that you can set up your client app as just another database node that subscribes to all of the changes for the relevant data (and only the relevant data). If the data changes in one place, it changes everywhere. You can avoid all of the hassles of messaging and concentrate on just writing the information to Firebase because Firebase will replicate it where it needs to be.

IDG Google Firebase provides an error console that shows a timeline for good and bad events as theyve unfolded.

You dont need to focus on just Firebase. The more basic Google Cloud Functions is a simpler approach to embedding customized code throughout the Google cloud. At this time, Cloud Functions is largely just an option for writing Node.js code that will run in a pre-configured Node environment. While the rest of the Google Cloud Platform supports a wide variety of languagesfrom Java and C# to Go, Python, and PHPCloud Functions is strictly limited to JavaScript and Node. There have been hints that other language options are coming and I wouldnt be surprised if they appear soon.

Google Cloud Functions does not reach as deeply into the Google Cloud as AWS Lambda reaches into AWS, at least at this point. When I poked around looking at building a function to interact with Google Docs, I found that I would probably have to use the REST API and write the code in something called Apps Script. In other words, the Google Docs world has its own REST API that was serverless long before the buzzword was coined.

Its worth noting that Google App Engine keeps going strong. In the beginning, it just offered to spin up Python applications to meet the demand of anyone coming to the website, but has been extended over the years to handle many different language runtimes. Once you bundle your code into an executable, the App Engine handles the process of starting up enough nodes to handle your traffic, scaling up or down as your users send in requests.

There continue to be a few hurdles to keep in mind. As with Cloud Functions, your code must be written in a relatively stateless way, and it must finish each request in a limited amount of time. But App Engine doesnt toss away all the scaffolding or forget everything between requests. App Engine was a big part of the serverless revolution and it remains the most accessible to those who keep one foot back in the old school method of building their own stack in Python, PHP, Java, C#, or Go.

Microsoft Azure Functions

Microsoft, of course, is working just as hard as the others to make sure that people can do all of these clever serverless things with the Azure cloud too. The company has created its own basic functions for juggling eventsthe Azure Functionsand built some sophisticated tools that are even more accessible to semi-programmers.

The biggest advantage Microsoft may have may be its collection of Office applications, the former desktop executables that are slowly but surely migrating into the cloud. Indeed one accounting of cloud revenue put Microsoft ahead of Amazon, in part by lumping some of its Office revenue into the ephemeral rubric of cloud.

One of the best examples from the Azure Functions documentation shows how a cloud function can be triggered when someone saves a spreadsheet to OneDrive. Suddenly the little elves in the cloud come alive and do things to the spreadsheet. This is bound to be a godsend to IT shops supporting teams that love their Excel spreadsheets (or other Office docs). They can write Azure Functions to do practically anything. We often think that HTML and the web are the only interface to the cloud but theres no reason why it cant be through documents formats like Microsoft Word or Excel.CEOs are charged with leading all strategic planning and operations at their companies. Its a lot to be responsible for. So, they can be forgiven for mistakenly believing that they, and the bright and capable people they put in charge of their IT security, are doing the right things in the right places against the right threats, when in fact, they are wasting large amounts of their IT security budget on things that really dont work.

Why?

They have been taught to believe a set of IT security myths that border on unapproachable dogma that simply arent true. When you believe the wrong things, its hard to do the right things efficiently. Here are common myths that CEOs believe about computer security.

1. Attackers cant be stopped

Most computer defenses are so weak and ill-advised that hackers and malware can break into them at will, and thats only if the malicious intruders havent already pwned the entire environment and been in for years. Computer defenses are so bad and porous that CEOs have been told that its impossible to stop hackers and malware. The best they can do is to assume breach and work at early detection and slowing attackers down once they are in the environment.

Can you imagine a military general, under attack, telling subordinates and soldiers that there is absolutely no way they can win, no matter what they doeven if you were to give him more soldiers and weapons in the right places to defend with? Neither can I, but thats what the world of computer security wants CEOs to believe today.

While its probably true that a dedicated, nation-state funded, hacker group cant easily be stopped, most hackers and malware can be stopped from breaking in (the initial root cause exploit) by better doing a handful of things that the company is probably already doing, just not in the right amounts in the right places. A better-focused IT security strategy and a couple of key defenses could significantly reduce most of the risk of hackers or malware from getting inside your environment.

2. Hackers are brilliant

Part of the reason for the nihilistic belief that hackers and malware can never be fixed is that the world thinks that hackers are all brilliant, cant-be-stopped, super geniuses. This romantic ideal is readily promoted in Hollywood films that often show the hacker taking over the entire worlds computers by easily guessing passwords into any system they are presented with. Movie hackers outsmart everyone and can launch nuclear missiles and erase peoples digital identities with a few keystrokes.Think Bigger During All In For Wesleyan

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.  Alumni, parents and friends of Illinois Wesleyan University are invited to Think Bigger during the biggest All In for Wesleyan yet on Tuesday, April 3.

All In for Wesleyan is a 24-hour campaign which aims to make a big difference on campus and in the lives of current and future Titans. This years All In campaign will begin at midnight on Tuesday, April 3 and end at midnight on Wednesday, April 4. A website dedicated to All In for Wesleyan will go live April 3 at midnight: www.iwu.edu/all-in.

Supporters of the University are invited to visit the website to make gifts and track live progress. They are also encouraged to promote All In via their personal social media accounts by using the hashtag #AllInForWesleyan.

By John TworkThe blue shaded areas in the above map have been nominated and designated by Gov. Henry McMaster as low-income communities or "opportunity zones."Reddit Email 741 Shares

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Three years ago this month, the then 29-year-old Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia (now its crown prince) launched a ruinous war on Yemen.

Yemen had been in Saudi Arabias back pocket in the 1990s and 2000s, and was a major recipient of Saudi aid, which went into the pockets of dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yemens people remained desperately poor, and the Saudis then tried to spread their intolerant form of Wahhabism even among Zaydi Shiites, producing a backlash in the form of the Houthis.

In 2011-2012 Saleh was overthrown and Yemen began working on a new constitution and new parliamentary elections.

That process was interrupted by a 2014-2015 Houthi coup in covert alliance with the deposed Saleh. In turn that coup provoked the then 29 year old defense minister, Mohammed bin Salman, to launch an air war on the Houthi guerrilla movement, a war he was most unlikely to win.

Ive been to Yemen several times. The terrain is mountainous and rough. You cant bomb it into submission.

Bin Salman charges the Houthis with being Iranian agents. They arent, however, the right kind of Shiites for that. Iran has likely given them a little bit of aid, but it is minor compared to the billions of dollars worth of bombs from the US and the UK that Bin Salman has dropped on civilian apartment buildings in downtown Sanaa. It is rich that the Saudis wax hysterical about some small rockets aimed at Riyadh while they are daily flying bombing raids on Yemeni cities with F-16s and F-18s.

The propaganda about Iran being behind Yemen unrest rather than Salehs corruption that the Saudis enabled has roped in gullible generals in Washington, DC, who have actively been aiding the Saudi war effort. This is an old tradition. Eisenhower invaded Lebanon in 1958 because Chamoun told him that Druze villagers were part of the internatiional Communist conspiracy.

Saudi Arabia and its allies bombed indiscriminately. A third of their targets have been civilian buildings like schools or hospitals or key civilian infrastructure like bridges. Perhaps half the people theyve killed have been civilian non-combatants, including children.

Also deadly have been the public health effects of the war.

The numbers on the Saudi-led Yemen War are apocalyptic, worse even than Syria.

The total number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Yemen is 22.2 million  or 76% of the population  including 11.3 million children.

The Saudis and allies have hit Yemen with 15,000 airstrikes.

5,000 children have been killed.

8,700 civilians have been killed

50,000 civilians have been wounded

1.9 million children are not in school, and both sides have recruited children, some as young as ten, as fighters

11.3 million children need humanitarian assistance, with many on the verge of going hungry.

All in all, 22.2 million Yemenis of all ages need humanitarian assistance, 3/4s of the population.

There have been a million cholera cases and there is the threat of another outbreak.



VICE: How The U.S. Is Helping Saudi Arabia Fight A Controversial War In YemenReddit 53 Email 176 Shares

By Sam Morgan | EURACTIV.com

The Dutch government has begun to follow through on its renewable energy pledges by awarding Swedish firm Vattenfall two contracts for what will be the worlds first wind farms to be built entirely without public money.

The Dutch government has announced that its call for tender for zero-subsidy offshore wind bids had paid off and that Vattenfall would build two facilities in the North Sea by 2022.

Although the government has taken on certain risks like connecting the wind farms to the countrys power grid, the successful tender means that the farms will sell the electricity they generate on the wholesale market rather than relying on revenue stabilisation schemes.

Fresh EU analysis makes case for higher renewables, energy saving goals

A new analysis by the European Commissions energy directorate, seen by EURACTIV, updates existing scenarios for renewables and energy efficiency, taking into account the rapidly falling costs of solar and wind power.

The farms look to have a bright future as the Dutch authorities have already given some guarantees about the likely volume of power generation that will be required from the facilities.

WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson praised the government for minimising risks and committing to a carbon floor price. He added that this news shows zero-subsidy bids are possible for some developers in some markets not where governments take on a share of the project risk.

EU member states are still in the process of drafting national energy plans that will be crucial to fulfilling the Paris Agreement and calculating post-2020 targets. Negotiators are due to meet on 27 March to discuss the update to the blocs renewable energy law and national plans will play a significant role in its implementation.

Bosnias first wind farm comes online as hydropower struggles

Bosnias maiden wind farm began producing electricity on Wednesday as part of the countrys efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and meet the renewable energy standards of the European Union it aspires to join.

At trade association SolarPower Europes annual summit last week, Energy Union boss Maros Sefcovic called on member states to do your homework and start making progress on the plans. The Slovak Commissioner is currently in the middle of a bloc-wide tour to EU capitals pushing for more effort from national governments.

Dickson said that the falling price of renewables should convince member states to revise their ambition upwards in their national energy plans and offshore wind is a great way to help them do this.

Germany was actually on track to be the first to start operating subsidy-free wind, after a similar landmark tender last year. But those contracts will only be realised in 2024-2025, some three years after the Hollandse Kust Zuid farms are supposed to be online.

But both countries will still struggle to meet their 2020 renewable targets. According to Eurostat data released in January, the Netherlands only sourced 5.8% of its energy needs from renewable sources in 2015, against a target of 14%.



Renewable energy target performance across the EU. [Eurostat]

Germany is only fairing slightly better, at 14.6% with an 18% goal in mind. Luxembourg and Malta are the worst performers in terms of mere percentage but the EUs statistical office pointed out that the Netherlands is actually the furthest from its target overall.

EU law means that countries that look unlikely to meet their targets can buy surplus capacity from better-performing member states, at least at a statistical level if not in an actual energy-providing sense.

Luxembourg was the first to take advantage of this option in October 2017, when it paid around 10 million to Lithuania, which already smashed its 2020 goal in 2015.Reddit Email 141 Shares

By Hossam Shaker | (Middle East Monitor) |  

They do not want to recognise the truth. The project of an independent Palestinian state has ended forever, and any talk about a Palestinian state today remains a dead letter that does not go along with its meaning. This is what the Americans, Europeans, Israelis and the Palestinian Authority itself know. There is no possibility for an independent and sovereign state through negotiations based on the current balances.

The project, which was launched by the International Quartet, the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations during the George W. Bush era, was concluded with a Road Map for Peace that was supposed to lead to a viable Palestinian state living in peace and security along with Israel, as promised. Over time, it has become clear that the project was not about an independent sovereign state, but rather a protectorate curbed with security obligations to the Israeli occupation and restricted with the conditions of grantors who control the daily living of Palestinians who would have to bow to external dictates.

If established, this state will today be a dependable non-independent project unable to protect its people and will not enjoy geographical contact between its territories that are fragmented by the occupation. It will be a state subjected to the occupation that dominates it, and it will have to fight month after month to receive the crumbs the international funders throw in order to pay the salaries of its employees and security forces.

The expected Palestinian state is basically required to be a security authority to protect the Israeli occupation from the anger of the Palestinian generations who aspire to claim their freedom, independence and their right to return to their land and houses from which they were forcibly displaced. It is obvious that this authority has so far performed its duties best under the pretext of security coordination even during political tensions between Ramallah and the Netanyahu government.

It seems clear that the Palestinian Authority is in trouble, which explains the current rigorous tone in its speech, especially with the approach of the infamous Trump project called the Deal of the Century. The fundamental promises it has made to its people since it was founded in 1994 have not been realised, despite the slogans it has raised about successive achievements. People may have forgotten that this power was basically just a transitional phase to an independent state before the end of the last century. However, the temporary situation has become permanent, and there is no glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

To compensate for this sovereign stalemate, the Authority held on to some formal independence symbols, such as raising flags and rolling out the red carpet. It has rather remained a mere self-governance administration under the occupation, although it has denied this fact. Israeli forces are still storming Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank and carrying out daily arrests, expanding illegal settlement, and controlling Palestinian movement at crossings and military checkpoints. Several governments have been formed and sovereign positions have been taken under the Palestinian Authority. However, all of its officials remain enchained by occupation restrictions. President Mahmoud Abbas himself has repeatedly stated that he cannot leave his Ramallah headquarters without Israeli approval. Successive complaints from Palestinian prime ministers have been raised over the years from being harshly treated by Israeli soldiers who are the age of their grandchildren. If this is the case with officials holding VIP cards, what does the suffering of Palestinians who are stuck caught between walls, military barriers and settlements look like?

It is not surprising that prominent Palestinian official Saeb Erekat, who has lived the negotiations for a quarter of a century, has announced that the real ruler of Palestine is not Mahmoud Abbas, it is rather the arrogant politician Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli defence minister.

It should be admitted that any Palestinian state that will be declared under this deplorable reality will not be a truly independent state, even if the Palestinian leadership will be forced once again to celebrate void achievements with raising more flags and welcoming delegations who will congratulate it.

The fact is that a difficult stage for the Palestinian people has started since the rule of Trump, who seems to seek to impose his forced project to end the Palestinian cause at any price. This time, too, no one has asked the Palestinian people for their opinion and position on this project; neither the US administration nor the Israeli government of course, and not even the Palestinian Authority itself.

The White House master might not notice that the Palestinian cause did not emerge yesterday. It is risky that he and his administration assume that the Palestinian people will bow today and announce the end of history, even if the Palestinian leadership seems weaker and more helpless than ever before.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

via Middle East Monitor



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Attacks against Palestinians in increase by 50 percent in 2018 | Al Jazeera EnglishVANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wealth Minerals Ltd. (the Company or Wealth) - (TSXV:WML) (OTCQB:WMLLF) (SSE:WMLCL) (Frankfurt:EJZN) announces a conference call with management to discuss the Companys current operations, recently announced transaction with the National Mining Company of Chile (ENAMI) and future development plans.

The call will be hosted by Hendrik Van Alphen (CEO) and Tim McCutcheon (President) on Wednesday, March 28th , 2018 at 1:15 pm Pacific Standard Time (4:15 pm Eastern Standard time). Dial-in numbers are as follows:

Dial-In (Toll-Free US & Canada): +1 866-373-3402

Dial-In (International): +1 201-689-7825

There is no access code.

Webcast URL (archived for 6 months): Click Here

About Wealth Minerals Ltd.

Wealth is a mineral resource company with interests in Canada, Mexico, Peru and Chile. The Companys main focus is the acquisition of lithium projects in South America. To date, the Company has positioned itself to develop the Aguas Calientes Norte and Quisquiro Salars in Chile (the Trinity Project), as well as to work alongside existing producers in the prolific Atacama Salar, in addition to the Laguna Verde lithium project acquisition. The Company has also positioned itself to play a role in asset consolidation in Chile with the Five Salars Project.

The Company is transitioning from an asset acquisition phase to developing its current high potential portfolio. Lithium market dynamics and a rapidly increasing metal price are the result of profound structural issues with the industry meeting anticipated future demand. Wealth is positioning itself to be a major beneficiary of this future mismatch of supply and demand. The Company also maintains and continues to evaluate a portfolio of precious and base metal exploration-stage projects.

For further details on the Company readers are referred to the Company's website (www.wealthminerals.com) and its Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

WEALTH MINERALS LTD.

"Hendrik van Alphen"

Hendrik van Alphen

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact: Marla Ritchie Phone: 604-331-0096 Ext. 3886 or 604-638-3886 E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, anticipated exploration program results from exploration activities, the Companys expectation that it will be able to enter into agreements to acquire interests in additional mineral properties, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves, the closing and amount of the Placement, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development activities, actual results of exploration activities, the estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, the costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, requirements for additional capital, future prices of lithium, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, lack of investor interest in the Placement, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, title disputes, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents, approvals or authorizations, including acceptance by the TSX-V, required for the Placement, the timing and possible outcome of any pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, and risks related to joint venture operations, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Companys latest interim Management Discussion and Analysis and filed with certain securities commissions in Canada. All of the Companys Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Companys mineral properties.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this news release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lumina Gold Corp. (TSXV:LUM) (the Company or Lumina) is pleased to announce it has entered into a non-binding letter of intent (the LOI) for an earn-in and joint venture agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of Anglo American plc (Anglo American), on Luminas Pegasus A and B concessions in Ecuador (the Properties). Under the LOI, Anglo American, through a joint venture company, would have the right to earn a 60% ownership interest in the Properties if it invests an aggregate amount of US$50 million and makes US$7.3 million of cash payments to Lumina over a seven year period. Lumina has agreed to work exclusively with Anglo American to negotiate and complete a binding agreement (the JV Agreement) over the next five months.

Marshall Koval, President & CEO, commented: We are pleased to be partnering with a top tier base and precious metal producer such as Anglo American to help progress our early stage concessions. Between this LOI and the Companys previously announced letter of intent with First Quantum Minerals, we have secured non-binding proposals for up to US$96 million dollars in aggregate over the next seven years (up to US$82 million dollars in exploration commitments and up to US$14 million dollars in cash payments). This strategy will allow the Company to focus its balance sheet on progressing its flagship Cangrejos project and gold focused development pipeline.

Summary of Key Terms Contemplated by LOI

The LOI envisages a three stage earn-in by Anglo American where it will have the right to:

(i) a 25% interest on completion of cumulative US$10 million of exploration expenditures before the 4th anniversary of the JV Agreement and US$2.4 million of cash payments to Lumina (including US$1.3 million payable upon signing the JV Agreement) before the 3rd anniversary of the signing of the JV Agreement (First Earn-in);

(ii) an aggregate 51% interest on completion of cumulative US$35 million of exploration expenditures before the 6th anniversary of the JV Agreement and US$4.8 million of cash payments to Lumina before the 5th anniversary of the signing of the JV Agreement (Second Earn-in); and

(iii) an aggregate 60% interest on completion of cumulative US$50 million of exploration expenditures before the 7th anniversary of the JV Agreement and US$7.3 million of cash payments to Lumina before the 6th anniversary of the signing of the JV Agreement (Third Earn-in).

Under the LOI, Anglo American will have the right to assume management of the joint venture company and Properties following signing of the JV Agreement and will have the right, in certain circumstances, to accelerate the exploration program such that it may complete all the expenditure commitments and any outstanding cash payments to Lumina in a period shorter than the earn-in term.

Anglo American will have the right to earn an additional 10% ownership in the Properties (Fourth Earn-in) by solely funding all the required work up to a decision to construct a mine at the Properties, taking Anglo Americans aggregate ownership in the Properties to 70%. Post the completion of the Fourth Earn-in, Lumina would be responsible for funding its 30% pro rata share of any capital required to develop and construct a mine at the Properties (or a 40% pro rata share, if Anglo American does not exercise the Fourth Earn-in).

Entering into the JV Agreement and completing the transactions described above are subject to customary conditions for a transaction of this nature, including Anglo American being satisfied with its due diligence of the Properties within three months of the date of the LOI, the JV Agreement being approved by Luminas board of directors and receipt of all necessary governmental and regulatory approvals.

About Lumina Gold

Lumina Gold Corp. (TSXV:LUM) is a Vancouver, Canada based precious and base metals exploration and development company focused on gold and copper projects in Ecuador. The Companys Cangrejos Gold-Copper project is located in El Oro Province, southwest Ecuador, and its Condor Gold-Copper project is located in Zamora-Chinchipe Province, southeast Ecuador. The Company also holds a large and highly prospective land package in Ecuador consisting of 135 thousand hectares. The Company has an experienced management team with a successful track record of advancing and monetizing exploration projects.

Further details are available on the Companys website at https://luminagold.com/.

LUMINA GOLD CORP. For further information contact: Signed: Marshall Koval Scott Hicks This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Marshall Koval, President & CEO, Director T: +1 604 646 1890

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

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements or information include but are not limited to statements or information with respect to the completion of a binding agreement, the proposed terms of the binding agreement, and the timing of executing a binding agreement. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words such as will or variations of that word and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results will or are intended to be taken, occur or be achieved.

With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about general business and economic conditions, the prices of gold and copper, and anticipated costs and expenditures, and the ability and willingness of Anglo American to proceed with the transactions contemplated by the LOI. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive.

Although management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to: the Company may not be able to agree on a final form of JV Agreement with Anglo American, at all or on terms acceptable to the Company; risks associated with the business of the Company; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; the supply and demand for labour and other project inputs; changes in commodity prices; changes in interest and currency exchange rates; risks relating to inaccurate geological and engineering assumptions (including with respect to the tonnage, grade and recoverability of reserves and resources); risks relating to unanticipated operational difficulties (including failure of equipment or processes to operate in accordance with specifications or expectations, cost escalation, unavailability of materials and equipment, government action or delays in the receipt of government approvals, industrial disturbances or other job action, and unanticipated events related to health, safety and environmental matters); risks relating to adverse weather conditions; political risk and social unrest; changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets; and other risk factors as detailed from time to time in the Companys continuous disclosure documents filed with Canadian securities administrators. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 26, 2018) - Arctic Star Exploration Corp (TSXV: ADD) (OTCQB: ASDZF) (FSE: 82A1) ("Arctic" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that 5 drill holes have been completed at the new kimberlite discovery, called Grey Wolf, on its 100% owned Timantti Diamond Project in Finland (the "Project"). Highlights of the drilling include:

All 5 holes intersected kimberlite.

Longest intercept in this drill program was 45m.

Grey Wolf is part of an east-west 300m long chain of kimberlite open in both directions.

Core to be sampled for diamonds.

The discovery is in close proximity to the other Wolf kimberlites in the Project area. Split core samples will be sent for caustic fusion for diamonds and diamond indicator minerals.

The following table summarizes the drill intercepts on the Grey Wolf kimberlite discovery:

Hole No. Easting

(m) Northing

(m) Bearing/Dip

(degrees) Total

Depth From

(m) To

(m) Width

(m) Description GW-001 4470715 7335710 15/45 21.7 3.5 15.5 12.0 Kimberlite GW-002 4470715 7335710 105/45 42.0 3.0 38.2 35.2 Kimberlite GW-003 4470715 7335710 195/45 20.5 3.5 15.3 11.8 Kimberlite GW-004 4470715 7335710 310/45 17.5 4.4 9.9 5.5 Kimberlite GW-005 4470715 7335710 105/80 47.5 2.0 47.5 45.5 Kimberlite

Note: Co-ordinates use the KKJ system. Core diameter is 64.4mm. Maximum true widths will be approximately 70% of the drill intercepts reported if the kimberlite walls are vertical and perpendicular. The Country Rock consisted of quartzites, and greenstones, with occasional quartzite xenoliths in the kimberlite up to 1m diameter.

Visual observation of the core confirms that it contains kimberlitic indicator minerals that demonstrate that the kimberlite sampled the mantle.

As per the February 20, 2018 new release, the Grey Wolf kimberlite was discovered by excavator whilst collecting a basal till sample from the center of a 120m diameter gravity low as determined by our recently completed ground geophysical program. The drill rig was located near one of the discovery pits and commenced drilling angle holes, in the direction of the cardinal points of the compass (north-south, east-west) plus 15 degrees. The final hole was vertical. All entered kimberlite beneath a 3-4m till cover (down hole).

From the present drilling, the Grey Wolf kimberlite seems to be a 20-30m wide body on the same east-west trend as the other Wolf kimberlites to the east, and the D476 dyke to the west. The entire Wolf Pack group of kimberlites: White, Black, Grey and D476 now extend for approximately 300m. Further drilling will be required to understand the geometry and size of these bodies. There are further magnetic, EM and gravity anomalies along the same east-west trend further to the east and the west that will make interesting future drill targets.

The drill rig has now moved to the White and Black Wolf kimberlites to obtain more sample for caustic fusion micro-diamond analysis and to gain further understanding of their size and shape.

The Qualified Person for this news release is Roy Spencer, Fellow AUSIMM, a Geologist of over thirty years' experience in diamonds.

About Arctic Star

The Company owns 100% of the recently acquired Timantti Diamond Project including a 243 Ha Exploration Permit and a 95,700 Ha Exploration Reservation near the township of Kuusamo, in Finland. The project is located approximately 550km SW of the operating Grib Diamond Mine in Russia. Arctic has commenced its exploration in Finland on the Timantti Project, where four diamondiferous kimberlite bodies may represent the first discoveries in a large kimberlite field. The Company also controls diamond exploration properties in Nunavut (Stein), the NWT (Diagras and Redemption) and a rare metals project in BC (Cap).

Arctic Star has a highly experienced diamond exploration team previously responsible for several world class diamond discoveries.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF ARCTIC STAR EXPLORATION CORP.

Scott Eldridge, President & CEO

+1 (604) 722-5381

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Patrick Power, Executive Chairman

+1 (604) 218-8772

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: Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements in this press release include that the Timantti Project transaction is a pre-eminent opportunity.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arizona Mining Inc. (TSX:AZ) (Arizona Mining or the Company) announces that it has received all required permits and notices for twin exploration declines at the Taylor zinc-lead-silver project located on its 100%-owned Hermosa Project in Santa Cruz County, Arizona.

Don Taylor, Chief Operating Officer, stated: Earlier access to key platforms from underground allows for lower cost infill and expansion drilling, as well as further testing of the high-grade Trench Vein System, all of which we expect to add significant value to this world-class project.

Having the ability to start the declines four months ahead of plan is a major step for the project and keeps us solidly on track for our development schedule, added Jim Gowans, President & CEO. We are very appreciative of the comprehensive interaction with the state regulators and the support of the Governor of Arizona in achieving this important milestone. We look forward to continuing to work with them to bring employment and other benefits to Santa Cruz County from advancing the Taylor Project.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey commented: "I am pleased to see Arizona Mining's commitment to work with the appropriate state agencies to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and provide job opportunities in Arizona. Mining has a rich tradition in our state, and this project stands to diversify this highly competitive sector.

In keeping with best practices and safety protocols, the declines will be comprised of dual 18 by 18-foot ramps into the resource, each approximately 8,200 feet in length. The project has a scheduled completion date of the first quarter of 2020.

The portal preparation for the declines will take approximately three months to complete at a cost of US$4 million, said Tom Whelan, Chief Financial Officer. This earlier than expected approval to proceed does not change our plans to provide a comprehensive financing strategy to fund the overall capital cost of the project after we receive the results of our Feasibility Study in the third quarter of 2018.

About Arizona Mining

Arizona Mining Inc. (an augustagroup company) is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the exploration and development of its 100%-owned Hermosa Project located in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The Taylor Deposit, a zinc-lead-silver carbonate replacement deposit, has a resource of 15.2 million tons in the Measured Mineral Resource category grading 4.0% zinc, 4.0% lead and 1.6 opt silver, or 9.6% ZnEq, plus 85.8 million tons in the Indicated Mineral Resource category grading 4.2% zinc, 4.3% lead and 2.2 opt silver, or 10.5% ZnEq, and 43.6 million tons of Inferred Mineral Resources grading 3.9% zinc, 4.8% lead and 3.4 opt silver or 11.9% ZnEq, all reported in accordance with NI 43-101 guidelines utilizing a 4% ZnEq cutoff grade.. The Taylor Deposit remains open to the north, west and south over land controlled by the Company and will be aggressively drilled to test the limits of the resource. The Companys other project on the Hermosa property is the Central Deposit, a silver-manganese manto oxide project.

For additional information please contact:

Jerrold Annett

Senior Vice President, Corporate Development

Telephone: 416-366-5678 ext. 207

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Susan Muir

Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications

Telephone: 416-366-5678 ext. 202

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward looking statements including statements with respect to the Companys intentions for its Hermosa Project in Arizona, including, without limitation, the exploration declines, performing additional drilling, a resource update, permitting and a feasibility study on the Taylor Deposit. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as may, will, seek, anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, budget, schedule, forecast, project, expect, intend, or similar expressions.

The forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions which, while considered reasonable by Arizona Mining, are subject to risks and uncertainties. In addition to the assumptions herein, these assumptions include the assumptions described in Arizona Mining's management's discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2016 ("MD&A"). Arizona Mining cautions readers that forward-looking statements involve and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements and forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results, performance or achievement. These risks, uncertainties and factors include general business, economic, competitive, political, regulatory and social uncertainties; actual results of exploration activities and economic evaluations; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; changes in project parameters; changes in costs, including labour, infrastructure, operating and production costs; future prices of zinc, lead, silver and other minerals; variations of mineral grade or recovery rates; operating or technical difficulties in connection with exploration, development or mining activities, including the failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; delays in completion of exploration, development or construction activities; changes in government legislation and regulation; the ability to maintain and renew existing licenses and permits or obtain required licenses and permits in a timely manner; the ability to obtain financing on acceptable terms in a timely manner; contests over title to properties; employee relations and shortages of skilled personnel and contractors; the speculative nature of, and the risks involved in, the exploration, development and mining business; and the factors discussed in the section entitled "Risks and Uncertainties" in the MD&A.

Although Arizona Mining has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual performance, achievements, actions, events, results or conditions to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking information, there may be other risks, uncertainties and other factors that cause performance, achievements, actions, events, results or conditions to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Unless otherwise indicated, forward-looking statements contained herein are as of the date hereof and Arizona Mining disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.Toronto, Ontario (FSCwire) - Tsodilo Resources Limited ("Tsodilo" or the "Company") (TSX Venture Exchange: TSD) is pleased to announce that at its Annual General Meeting of shareholders held on March 23, 2018, the following directors were elected: James M. Bruchs, Thomas S. Bruington, Michiel C.J. de Wit, Jonathan R. Kelafant, Blackie Marole, Patrick C. McGinley and Mark Scowcroft.

The shareholders also approved the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP, Vancouver, Canada, as Auditors of the Company.

Grant of Stock Options

Under the terms of its Stock Option Plan, Tsodilo granted 500,000 options to seven directors, 50,000 to an employee and 50,000 to an advisor at an exercise price of C$0.55 per share. These options vest as to 25% effective March 26, 2018, and 25% on each of the sixth, twelfth and eighteenth month anniversaries of the date of the grant. The options are valid for five years.

About Tsodilo Resources Limited

Tsodilo Resources Limited is an international diamond and metals exploration company engaged in the search for economic diamond and metal deposits at its Bosoto (Pty) Limited ("Bosoto") and Gcwihaba Resources (Pty) Limited ("Gcwihaba") projects in Botswana and its Idada 361 (Pty) Limited ("Idada") project in Barberton, South Africa. The Company has a 100% stake in Bosoto (Pty) Ltd. which holds the BK16 kimberlite project in the Orapa Kimberlite Field (OKF) in Botswana and the PL216/2017 diamond prospection license also in the OKF. The Company has a 100% stake in its Gcwihaba project area consisting of seven metal (base, precious, platinum group, and rare earth) prospecting licenses all located in the North-West district of Botswana. Additionally, Tsodilo has a 70% stake in Idada Trading 361 (Pty) Limited which holds the gold and silver exploration license in the Barberton area of South Africa. Tsodilo manages the exploration of the Gcwihaba, Bosoto and Idada projects. Overall supervision of the Company's exploration program is the responsibility of Dr. Mike de Wit, President and COO of the Company and a "qualified person" as such term is defined in National Instrument 43-101.

The Company has offices in Toronto, Canada and Gaborone and Maun, Botswana. Please visit the Company's website, www.TsodiloResources.com, for additional information and background on our projects.

This press release contains forward-looking statements. 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, statements relating to the development of the Company's projects) 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 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, changes in equity markets, political developments in Botswana and surrounding countries, changes to regulations affecting the Company's activities, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, the uncertainties involved in interpreting exploration results and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration 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 the inherent uncertainty therein.

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This news release may contain assumptions, estimates, and other forward-looking statements regarding future events. Such forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and are subject to factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which may cause actual results or performance to differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.Bishopsgate, London (FSCwire) - The Board of SolGold (LSE and TSX code: SOLG) is pleased to provide an update on the drilling programs at Alpala and Aguinaga, at the Companys Cascabel project in Northern Ecuador.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Aguinaga first drill hole (AGD-18-001) intersecting porphyry style veining and visible chalcopyrite and bornite mineralisation from 295m to current depth of 537m, with drilling continuing.

Alpala drilling program discovering strongly mineralised extensions outside current inferred and indicated resource blocks along the southwestern margin of Alpala Central Deposit.

Infill drilling within Alpala Central high-grade core predicted to significantly increase high grade resource tonnage.

Commenting on progress, SolGold CEO Mr Nick Mather said, The current focus on drilling for extensions to the high-grade resource at Alpala is proceeding at pace and the mineralisation we are encountering supports this approach. A collateral outcome will of course be a likely increase in the overall resource size. Rapid developments in block-cave mining efficiencies would further enhance the economic outlook for Alpala. We note, encouraging improvements in Capex, Opex and value for Newcrests Wafi-Golpu block cave project in PNG, which augers well for the upcoming assessment of the Alpala Project. The early intersection of strong porphyry style veining and strong visible copper sulphide mineralisation confirms Aguinaga as an important second resource target at Cascabel. The diagnostic relationship between magnetic, geochemical, resistivity and chargeability data suggests that Aguinaga may represent a significant copper gold porphyry system with the potential to deliver a step-change to the magnitude and value of the Cascabel project. It obviously augers well for the untested targets at Moran, Tandayama-America, Parambas and Chinambicito.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- San Marco Resources Inc. (TSX-V:SMN) ("San Marco" or the Company) reports results of ongoing exploration at its wholly-owned Chunibas Project in eastern Sonora State, Mexico and the development of a model for copper-silver genesis on the Project that will guide exploration plans in preparation for a drill program on the high-grade copper-silver mineralization discovery.

As announced on January 10, 2018, Chunibas hosts a stratiform, volcanic hosted copper/silver zone. The stratiform, volcanic hosted style of mineralization seen at Chunibas shares remarkable similarities to productive copper-silver deposits in Chile but has no comparison in Mexico. An independent geological expert in this style of mineralization recently confirmed to San Marco that the mineralization is identical to that of the copper-silver systems in northern Chile. This suggests that the processes responsible for development of the Chilean ore deposits (such as the ones from Mantos Blancos district) may have also occurred at Chunibas.

Observed similarities between the Chunibas copper/silver mineralization and known and comparable Chilean systems include:

Mineralized top and bottoms of intermediate volcanic rock units. Mineralized volcanics at Chunibas display brecciation and vesicles similar to Chilean deposits.



High grade and stratiform-like mineralization with variable dimensions along strike and down-dip.



Non-supergene specularite-bornite-chalcocite-(digenite) and covellite assemblage and paragenesis.



Early stage alteration assemblage is comprised by epidote-chlorite-quartz-specularite.

Robert Willis, San Marcos CEO commented, Our understanding of this new discovery has rapidly advanced in the last three months. We now have a type deposit to use as an exploration guide and weve enlarged the field crew to accelerate advancement of the discovery. Its encouraging to know there are successful mines based on the same deposit type elsewhere in the world. Like Chunibas, Chilean deposits have mineralized zones that can be visually subtle and contain few accessory minerals that respond to indirect survey methods. We need to map and sample outcrop exposures in detail to maximize the effectiveness of a maiden drill campaign. Were working hard to get that done as quickly and completely as possible.

At Chunibas mineralized outcrops are difficult to sample due to their craggy and erratic nature. Where continuous chip channel sampling over stratiform units could be completed, examples assays results from the discovery zone are;

10.5 metres of 1.13% copper and 16.91 g/t silver

7 metres of 2.19% copper and 27.3 g/t silver.

Ongoing exploration in preparation for drilling includes;

Continued detailed geological mapping over the entire 1.7 km of known strike length. Mineralized volcanic units tend to have slightly varied composition and fabrics compared to less mineralized units, therefore, detailed mapping of individual units is important. In addition, mapping efforts are focused on the identification and distribution of different copper sulphides since these (similar types of Chilean systems) show specific zoning of different forms of copper mineralization.



Hand trenching outward from known mineralized outcrops with the intention of defining the continuity between and within the multiple mineralized units and between current surface exposures.



An XRF (X-ray fluorescence) rock (outcrop) analysis program for copper/silver over every outcrop within the known extensions of the mineralized corridor. Handheld XRF units provide immediate geochemical analysis (similar but more qualitative than a laboratory assay) of rock exposures. This technique is widely used by exploration companies for fast analysis of metals and pathfinder elements.

For related images, please visit the Chunibas Project on the Companys website.

About San Marco

San Marco Resources Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration company with a portfolio of promising projects in mining-friendly Mexico, including the Chunibas, Mariana and 1068 Projects in Sonora State.

San Marco actively pursues strategic project generation program focused on high-caliber, low acquisition cost opportunities in northwestern Mexico. The Company has a committed management team with extensive experience in Mexico and a proven track record of building shareholder value.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Robert Willis, P. Eng.

President & CEO

For further information, contact:

Nancy Curry Paul MacDonald

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National Instrument 43-101 Disclosure

This news release has been approved by San Marco's CEO, Robert D. Willis, P. Eng. a "Qualified Person" as defined in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators. He has verified the data disclosed, including sampling, analytical and test data, underlying such technical information by reviewing the assay reports provided to San Marco by its independent testing laboratory.

The Company has implemented quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) programs to ensure sampling and analysis of all exploration work is conducted in accordance with the best possible practices. All sampling programs are carried out in a careful and diligent manner using scientifically established sampling practices designed and tested to ensure that the results are representative and reliable. Quality control programs appropriate to the type of sample and the mineralization are implemented, including such measures as external blanks, standards and duplicate samples. The security of samples from sample acquisition to analysis is a vital component of the sampling process. Procedures include the use of secure core logging, sampling, storage and preparation facilities as appropriate and the prompt, secure and direct shipping of samples to the laboratories. Appropriate sample security procedures are employed given the geographic and topographic conditions and the logistics created by the site location.



Forward Looking Information

Information set forth in this document may include forward-looking statements. While these statements reflect management's current plans, projections and intents, by their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond the control of San Marco. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements. San Marco's actual results, programs, activities and financial position could differ materially from those expressed in or implied by these forward-looking statements.



Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nevada Copper Corp. (TSX:NCU) ("Nevada Copper" or the " Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. David Swisher as Vice President of Operations and Mr. Timothy Dake as General Manager - Surface Construction for its 100% owned Pumpkin Hollow copper project. Nevada Copper is rapidly advancing pre-construction activities for the restart of its 5,000 tons/day underground copper project (the "Underground Project") while also progressing optimization work on its large-scale open pit project.

Mr. Phillip Day, Chief Operating Officer of Nevada Copper, commented: "Mr. Swisher and Mr. Dake bring extensive project execution experience to our project owners team at Pumpkin Hollow. Nevada Copper is committed to rapidly developing North Americas next copper mine, and integral to the success of this goal is building a world-class and highly experienced team.

Mr. Swisher is a qualified professional mining engineer with over 23 years experience developing and operating both underground and open pit mines. He has held various senior operating roles at various mines in North America and overseen the development of numerous mining projects globally. Most recently he was Mine Manager at the East Boulder Mine in Montana for Sibanye-Stillwater.

Mr. Dake is a mechanical engineer with over 35 years experience in the mining and construction industries. He has held various roles at operations both in North America and internationally, including the Fort Knox Gold Mine in Alaska and Grasberg Copper Mine in Indonesia.

About Nevada Copper

Nevada Copper (TSX:NCU) is a copper company with significant production potential from its large land position in Nevada, United States. Nevada Copper is well placed to be the next North American copper producer, due to the advanced stage of its Pumpkin Hollow mine.

Its two fully-permitted projects include: the high-grade Pumpkin Hollow underground mine which is expected to move into construction shortly with a view to near-term commencement of copper production; and the Pumpkin Hollow open pit, a large-scale copper deposit which is currently undergoing an optimization program to target a reduced-capex, staged-development approach.

More information about the Underground Project is available in the Pre-Feasibility Study (the Technical Report) as filed on SEDAR on January 9, 2018, and prepared in accordance with NI 43-101.

NEVADA COPPER CORP.

Abraham Jonker, Interim CEO

Bob McKnight, CFO

We seek safe harbour.

For further information call:

Eugene Toffolo, Corporate Communications

Phone: 604-683-8266

Toll free: 1-877-648-8266

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Anfield Energy Inc. (TSX.V:AEC) (OTCQB:ANLDF) (FRANKFURT:0AD) (Anfield or the Company) is pleased to announce that BRS Engineering, Inc. (BRS) has begun work on a resource report for the Charlie uranium project (the Charlie Project) located in the Pumpkin Buttes Uranium District in Johnson County, Wyoming. BRS will utilize the data from previous exploration activities and estimates that it will complete the report within 60 days. Please see Anfields March 12 news release for further details related to the Charlie Project transaction.

Corey Dias, Anfield CEO, states, We are very pleased to begin updating the technical reports on the Charlie Project, and anticipate, based on previous reports commissioned by Cotter Corporation, that the BRS report will be positive. We view Charlie as an extremely strategic asset in our portfolio due not only to its advanced nature but also to its close proximity to two of Uranium Ones currently-producing mines and its uranium satellite processing plant where Anfield has a processing agreement. Based on the new report we would hope to quickly move into the next development phase on the Charlie Project.

The Charlie Project is located in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming near an existing uranium ISR mine and operating oilfields which have road and power line infrastructure. Previous owners and operators of the Charlie Project have conducted sufficient exploration drilling to delineate a portion of a major roll-front system which crosses the property and continues on to adjacent lands. As a result of this previous work, a database of over 1300 drill holes is available as well as several hydrological, analytical and mineralogical reports. Previous reports have shown that the uranium mineralization underlying the Charlie Project exist as narrow and sinuous multiple roll-fronts which are commonly developed in the Tertiary sedimentary formations of the Powder River Basin. Roll-fronts of this type are currently mined by ISR methods on the adjacent Christensen Ranch Project  owned by Uranium One  and further south at Camecos Highland Project.

About The Charlie Project

The Charlie Project is located in the Pumpkin Buttes Uranium District in Johnson County, Wyoming. The Charlie Project consists of a 720-acre Wyoming State uranium lease which has been in development since 1969.

Inexco Oil began exploration drilling on the Charlie Project in 1969 and over a two year period completed 215 holes, comprising 91,000 ft. of drilling. A joint venture was formed with Uranerz USA in 1974 and an additional 715 holes were completed, including 57 core holes, totaling 283,906 ft. Cotter acquired the project from Uranerz and proceeded to evaluate it for both conventional open pit and in situ mining methods. Cotter excavated a 200 ft. test pit in 1981 on a small ore zone east of the main trend. Falling uranium prices in the 1980s halted further development on the project. In January, 1995 Power Resources Inc. (PRI) completed what it defined as a feasibility study for the project under an agreement with Cotter Corporation for development as an ISR mine. PRI estimated what it defined as total geologic (indicated and inferred) ore reserves for the project. The estimate was based on a data from some 1,252 exploration drill holes using an initial cutoff of 2 feet of 0.02% eU 3 O 8 . PRI utilized both manual GT contouring and computer-aided geostatistical mineral resource estimation methods to estimate the contained pounds by blocks (42 by 42). PRI then applied economic criteria based on estimated uranium content, by ISR wellfield pattern, which resulted in range of 3.1 to 4.6 million pounds of uranium oxide total geologic ore reserve and a corresponding range of average GT of 1.64 to 2.72. PRI did not state the average thickness or grade. Anfield considers these estimates to be historical in nature and cautions that a qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves and Anfield is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resource or mineral reserves. The term ore reserve disclosed as an historical estimate is not consistent with the requirement of the definition of a mineral reserve per CIM definitions as the economic viability and technical feasibility of the project have not been established by preparation and filing of a preliminary feasibility study or feasibility study.

About BRS

BRS, Inc. is an engineering and geology consulting corporation with expertise in mining and mineral exploration. Of particular note, it specializes in uranium exploration, mineral resource evaluation, mine design, feasibility, mine operations, and reclamation. It has completed numerous uranium projects including technical reports and feasibility studies for underground, open pit, ISR, and conventional uranium mills. Representative projects include technical reports and due diligence for project financing for conventional uranium projects including the Sheep Mountain and the JAB-RD open pit in Wyoming, the Cibola Project in New Mexico, the Coles Hill, Virginia open pit and underground mine, and numerous ISR uranium projects in Wyoming and Paraguay.

Douglas L. Beahm, P.E., P.G., has approved the scientific and technical disclosure in the news release. Mr. Beahm, the principal engineer at BRS, is a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101 with 40 years of professional and managerial experience. Mr. Beahm has a proven track record in a variety of mining and mine reclamation projects including surface and underground mining, heap leach recovery, ISR, and uranium mill tailings projects. Mr. Beahms experience includes coal, precious metals, and industrial minerals, but his emphasis throughout his career has been on uranium.

About Anfield

Anfield is a uranium and vanadium development and near-term production company that is committed to becoming a top-tier energy-related fuels supplier by creating value through sustainable, efficient growth in its assets. Anfield is a publicly-traded corporation listed on the TSX-Venture Exchange (AEC-V), the OTCQB Marketplace (ANLDF) and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (0AD). Anfield is focused on two production centres, as summarized below:

Wyoming  Irigaray ISR Processing Plant (Resin Processing Agreement)

Anfield has signed a Resin Processing Agreement with Uranium One whereby Anfield would process up to 500,000 pounds per annum of its mined material at Uranium Ones Irigaray processing plant in Wyoming. In addition, the Company can both buy and borrow uranium from Uranium One in order to fulfill some or all of its sales contracts.



Anfields 24 ISR mining projects are located in the Black Hills, Powder River Basin, Great Divide Basin, Laramie Basin, Shirley Basin and Wind River Basin areas in Wyoming. Anfields two projects in Wyoming for which NI 43-101 resource reports have been completed are Red Rim and Clarkson Hill.

Arizona/Utah  Shootaring Canyon Mill

A key asset in Anfields portfolio is the Shootaring Canyon Mill in Garfield County, Utah. The Shootaring Canyon Mill is strategically located within one of the historically most prolific uranium production areas in the United States, and is one of only three licensed uranium mills in the United States.

Anfields conventional uranium assets consist of mining claims and state leases in southeastern Utah and Arizona, targeting areas where past uranium mining or prospecting occurred. Anfields conventional uranium assets include the Velvet-Wood Project, the Frank M Uranium Project, as well as the Findlay Tank breccia pipe. An NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment has been completed for the Velvet-Wood Project. All conventional uranium assets are situated within a 125-mile radius of the Shootaring Mill.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

ANFIELD ENERGY, INC.

Corey Dias, Chief Executive Officer

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contact:

Anfield Energy, Inc.

Clive Mostert

Corporate Communications

780-920-5044

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.anfieldenergy.com

Safe Harbor Statement

THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAINS FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. STATEMENTS IN THIS NEWS RELEASE THAT ARE NOT PURELY HISTORICAL ARE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND INCLUDE ANY STATEMENTS REGARDING BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS OR INTENTIONS REGARDING THE FUTURE.

EXCEPT FOR THE HISTORICAL INFORMATION PRESENTED HEREIN, MATTERS DISCUSSED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAIN FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS THAT ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES THAT COULD CAUSE ACTUAL RESULTS TO DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM ANY FUTURE RESULTS, PERFORMANCE OR ACHIEVEMENTS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED BY SUCH STATEMENTS. STATEMENTS THAT ARE NOT HISTORICAL FACTS, INCLUDING STATEMENTS THAT ARE PRECEDED BY, FOLLOWED BY, OR THAT INCLUDE SUCH WORDS AS ESTIMATE, ANTICIPATE, BELIEVE, PLAN OR EXPECT OR SIMILAR STATEMENTS ARE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES FOR THE COMPANY INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO, THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH MINERAL EXPLORATION AND FUNDING AS WELL AS THE RISKS SHOWN IN THE COMPANYS MOST RECENT ANNUAL AND QUARTERLY REPORTS AND FROM TIME-TO-TIME IN OTHER PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION REGARDING THE COMPANY. OTHER RISKS INCLUDE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH SEEKING THE CAPITAL NECESSARY TO COMPLETE THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION, THE REGULATORY APPROVAL PROCESS, COMPETITIVE COMPANIES, FUTURE CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS AND THE COMPANYS ABILITY AND LEVEL OF SUPPORT FOR ITS EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES. THERE CAN BE NO ASSURANCE THAT THE COMPANY WILL BE ABLE TO COMPLETE THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION, THAT THE COMPANYS EXPLORATION EFFORTS WILL SUCCEED OR THE COMPANY WILL ULTIMATELY ACHIEVE COMMERCIAL SUCCESS. THESE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS ARE MADE AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE, AND THE COMPANY ASSUMES NO OBLIGATION TO UPDATE THE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS, OR TO UPDATE THE REASONS WHY ACTUAL RESULTS COULD DIFFER FROM THOSE PROJECTED IN THE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. ALTHOUGH THE COMPANY BELIEVES THAT THE BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS AND INTENTIONS CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE ARE REASONABLE, THERE CAN BE NO ASSURANCE THOSE BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS OR INTENTIONS WILL PROVE TO BE ACCURATE. INVESTORS SHOULD CONSIDER ALL OF THE INFORMATION SET FORTH HEREIN AND SHOULD ALSO REFER TO THE RISK FACTORS DISCLOSED IN THE COMPANYS PERIODIC REPORTS FILED FROM TIME-TO-TIME.

THIS NEWS RELEASE HAS BEEN PREPARED BY MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY WHO TAKES FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS CONTENTS.TORONTO, March 26, 2018 /CNW/ - First Cobalt Corp. (TSX-V: FCC, ASX: FCC, OTCQB: FTSSF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce positive assay results from the first drill holes from near the Kerr Mine in the Cobalt North area of the Cobalt Camp in Ontario, Canada. Results from these holes indicate a potential zone of cobalt mineralization that can be tracked across more than 100 metres.



Figure 1. Bedrock geology and location of drilling stations. Silver-cobalt veins are compiled from historic maps and locations should not be considered exact.

Highlights

Two holes, collared over 160m apart, intersected cobalt mineralization considered to be continuous based on oriented core measurements 10.41m of 0.15% Co and 44 g/t Ag including 0.75% Co and 126 g/t Ag over 0.30m in FCC-18-0023 2.00m of 0.32% Co and 208 g/t Ag including 3.81% Co and 1,225 g/t Ag over 0.32m in FCC-18-0021

apart, intersected cobalt mineralization considered to be continuous based on oriented core measurements Three additional holes have been logged, assays are now pending, and have been interpreted to indicate a possible system that can be tracked across a zone covering more than 100m

Significant copper, lead and zinc also intersected indicating a broad mineralized zone more easily targeted for follow-up drilling than individual veins

Trent Mell, President & Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"Cobalt North showed significant promise during the 2017 surface sampling and mapping work. These initial results confirm some of the early ideas we have for the structural setting for this area that make it highly prospective. Indications of both disseminated and vein styles of mineralization across a network for more than 100 metres make this an attractive target for a future bulk tonnage operation. With zones of mineralization now identified in Cobalt South and Cobalt North, we are seeing multiple opportunities in the Cobalt Camp for future primary cobalt sources to supply the North American battery market."

Results have been received from the first two holes in the Kerr Lake area drill program in Cobalt North identifying a new mineralized zone (Figure 1). Cobalt and silver occur as minerals within both quartz and calcite veins, as well as disseminated in the wallrock. Assays from FCC-18-0023 returned 10.41m of 0.15% Co and 44 g/t Ag, including 0.30m of 0.75% Co and 126 g/t Ag, from approximately 50m below surface. Hole FCC-18-0023 was collared over 160m to the southwest of FCC-18-0021 and intersected mineralization of 2.00m of 0.32% Co and 208 g/t Ag, including 3.81% Co and 1,225 g/t Ag over 0.32m.

Mineralization is interpreted as continuous between these two holes based on core orientation measurements. Both holes were drilled using core orientation tools to accurately measure the strike and dip of veins, lithological contacts and other structures. Individual veins at various orientations have been intersected but the general trend of veining is eastward. An additional three holes have been drilled in between and along strike of the major veining trend with assays now pending. Logging of these holes indicates a potential network of mineralization across more than 100m.

In hole FCC-18-0021, anomalous zinc (>0.4%) occurs as a broad zone, from 64.85 to 73.00m, as a halo around the cobalt-silver mineralization. The occurrence of copper, zinc and lead coincident in both holes with cobalt and silver represents multiple stages of fluids carrying metals that have concentrated along a conduit as a broad zone of mineralization. This broad zone is interpreted to have developed along the limb of an antiform, folding both the Huronian sedimentary rocks and the underlying Archean volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The Nipissing Diabase is also folded along this antiform. The contrast in competency between the Diabase and the surrounding rocks may have allowed this broad mineralization zone to develop. The extensive vein network mined at the Lawson, Kerr, Drummond mines and beneath Kerr Lake is interpreted to comprise the other limb of the antiform, making the geologic setting of this entire area prospective for cobalt-silver and copper-zinc-lead mineralization.

Table 1: Summary of assay results

Hole-ID From

(m) To

(m) Length

(m) Co

% Ag

g/t Cu

% Pb

% Zn

% FCC-18-0023 102.32 112.73 10.41 0.15 44 0.19 0.39 0.50 includes 102.32 102.71 0.39 0.53 250 0.44 0.50 0.26 includes 104.18 104.48 0.30 0.75 126 0.09 0.39 0.02 includes 105.14 107.00 1.86 0.43 130 0.15 0.82 0.36 includes 111.77 112.73 0.96 0.25 20 0.97 0.71 0.03 FCC-18-0021 68.00 70.00 2.00 0.62 208 0.17 0.66 0.43 includes 69.22 69.54 0.32 3.81 1,225 0.1 2.93 0.14

Drilling lengths are as recorded downhole and do not necessarily represent true widths of mineralization as multiple vein orientations have been intersected.

For a table of drill hole locations and assay results to date, Click Here.

Historic mining was prolific from several underground operations at Drummond, Kerr, Lawson, Hargrave and Conisil. Mining began in 1905 and the most recent mining occurred at Conisil between 1961 to 1965. Over 37 million ounces silver and more than 900,000 pounds cobalt were produced from these mines. Historic mining in the immediate area of drilling focused on north-south trending veins. Modelling by First Cobalt of historic drilling and regional structural interpretations revealed an eastward trending structure parallel to the main trend of folding. Drill holes were then targeted on this interpreted structural zone where host rocks are folded and locally faulted. The lack of underground mining along this eastward trend may reflect the cobalt-rich content of mineralization.

Cobalt North

First Cobalt's properties in the Cobalt North area include the past-producing Drummond, Kerr, Silver Banner, Juno, Silverfields, Hamilton, Ophir, Lawson and Conisil mines. Cobalt has not previously been an exploration focus in this area although limited exploration activities in the 1970's and 1980's around Kerr Lake focused on Cu-Zn-Pb mineralization within the Archean rocks. Cobalt had not been assayed previously, so the potential for an extensive polymetallic mineralization system remains to be explored.

The 2018 Cobalt North drill program consists of 17,000 metres with 3,500 metres in the Kerr Lake area designed to test trends in mineralization found in historic drilling and major structures interpreted to be associated with mineralization. Disseminated polymetallic cobalt-silver-copper-zinc-lead mineralization has been recognized in samples from underground material in muckpiles from the Drummond mine showing a wide range of styles occur in this area (October 26, 2017 press release).

Quality Assurance and Quality Control

First Cobalt has implemented a quality control program to comply with common industry best practices for sampling and analysis. Samples are collected from drill core from a range of 30 to 100cm length. Half-core samples are submitted for analysis. Standards and blanks are inserted every 20 samples. Duplicates are made from quarter core splits every 20 samples. Geochemical data were received from SGS Canada in Lakefield, Ontario, Canada. No QA/QC issues have been noted. SGS has used a sodium-peroxide fusion and ICP finish for analyses on all samples. Over-range (>1%) Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Pb are determined by a separate fusion and ICP finish. High silver values (>1000 g/t) are determined by gravimetric separation and fire assay finish.

Qualified and Competent Person Statement

Dr. Frank Santaguida, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 who has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release. Dr. Santaguida is also a Competent Person (as defined in the JORC Code, 2012 edition) who is a practicing member of the Association of Professional Geologists of Ontario (being a 'Recognised Professional Organisation' for the purposes of the ASX Listing Rules). Dr. Santaguida is employed on a full-time basis as Vice President, Exploration for First Cobalt. He has sufficient experience that is relevant to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code.

About First Cobalt

First Cobalt aims to create the largest pure-play cobalt exploration and development company in the world. The Company controls over 10,000 hectares of prospective land covering over 50 historic mines as well as mineral processing facilities in the Cobalt Camp in Ontario, Canada. The First Cobalt Refinery is the only permitted facility in North America capable of producing battery materials.

First Cobalt seeks to build shareholder value through new discovery, mineral processing and growth opportunities, with a focus on North America. On March 14, 2018, the Company proposed a friendly, all-share acquisition of US Cobalt Inc. for its Iron Creek Project in Idaho, U.S. The transaction remains subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. This transaction is intended to further enhance First Cobalt's position as a leading pure-play North American cobalt company.

On behalf of First Cobalt Corp.

Trent Mell

President & Chief Executive Officer

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as "plans", "expects', "estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "occur" or "be achieved". In particular, forward-looking information included in this release includes, without limitation, (i) assumptions and expectations with regard to the plan of arrangement transaction whereby First Cobalt will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of US Cobalt Inc. ("USCO"), (ii) the future prospects of the combined company, including the resource potential of the Iron Creek Cobalt Project, and (iii) the opportunity to leverage the First Cobalt refinery. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance and opportunities to differ materially from those implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include the reliability of the historical data referenced in this press release and risks set out in First Cobalt's public documents, including in each management discussion and analysis, filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although First Cobalt believes that the information and assumptions used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed times frames or at all. Except where required by applicable law, First Cobalt disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.Tens of thousands of people turned out across Argentina Saturday to march against a policy allowing ex-military members convicted of crimes during the countrys dictatorship to be moved to house arrest.

Demonstrations were held in squares and parks to denounce setbacks in human rights policy and to demand freedom for political prisoners, according to a statement released by organizers.

The main protest was held at Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, in front of the home of the federal governments executive branch.

At the forefront of the demonstrations were organizations including Madres y Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, set up to search for relatives who were victims of forced disappearances.

Less than a week ago, Alfredo Astiz  who was handed two life sentences for crimes against humanity during the dictatorship  appeared on a government list of 1,436 inmates who could be transferred to alternative forms of imprisonment for health reasons, according to the Federal Penitentiary Service.

The list included over 100 people handed life sentences for their role during the dictatorship (1976-83).

Astiz, 67, has cancer, an illness that would make him eligible for the program.How should the International Criminal Court react after first Burundi and now the Philippines decided to withdraw their membership? Numerous African countries have also threatened to do the same.

Since withdrawal from the ICC only becomes effective after a year, ICC procedures with regard to the two countries can continue. Thus neither President Duterte, who is waging a merciless war on suspected drug traffickers, nor President Nkurunziza, accused of widespread and systematic human rights violations, are safe from prosecution.

Withdrawal does not cancel out ICC judicial procedures, writes correspondent Stephanie Maupas in The Hague. The Philippines will not therefore win easily by withdrawing. Burundi has already lost this race against time, provoking the announcement in extremis in October 2017 of an ICC investigation and so accelerating the conclusion of the Prosecutors preliminary examination.

Leiden University researcher Sergey Vasiliev told JusticeInfo.net he thinks these dramatic announcements could even help the Court by boosting its image as a principled anti-impunity agent.

The decisions nevertheless come at a time when the ICC appears weakened. The Courts adversaries love to use its failings, whether it be the weakness of its evidence  such as in the Kenya cases , the number of verdicts handed down (only seven in 20 years of existence), controversial penal strategy choices or bad governance, writes Stephanie Maupas.

The remedy, according to analysts, is a better ICC providing better justice. Its current vulnerability is not overcome by outreach and interventions by friendly NGOs and diplomats, but by the shield of quality justice, says international law professor Morten Bergsmo.

The fragility of transitional justice is also reflected in Tunisias debate about extending the mandate of the Truth and Dignity Commission.

The Commission announced on February 27 that it had decided to extend its own mandate, and parliament, which is mostly hostile to transitional justice, has been trying ever since to make sure this does not happen. Tunisian and international NGOs have mobilized to counter-attack and defend the Commission. They accuse the Tunisian parliament of wanting to destroy the whole transitional justice process, having hampered the work of the Commission throughout its four years of existence, restricted its access to State archives and judicial records, notably of the military tribunal concerning the trials of martyrs of the Revolution. Commission President Sihem Bensedrine also stresses the large number of cases that have been filed to the Commission, numbering over 63,000. This is unprecedented in the world, she says.

But like the ICC, both the Commission and its president are far from perfect. What the president does not say is that the Commission is behind schedule also because of its various internal crises, writes our correspondent Olfa Belhassine in Tunis. Amongst other things, three commissioners resigned and three were relieved of their posts between July 2014 and November 2016 (the Commission is working with only 9 of the original 15 commissioners). It is working in a climate of suspicion and bad governance.

Meanwhile in Mali, UN independent expert Suliman Baldo told our partner Studio Tamani in Bamako that the human rights situation is deteriorating. According to the independent expert, the spread of insecurity from the north to the centre and south threatens implementation of Malis good governance and development plans, writes Studio Tamani, It also means the authorities should redouble their efforts against impunity.Overnight missile attacks by Yemens Huthi rebels on arch-rival Saudi Arabia could constitute a potential war crime, Amnesty International said Monday.

Launching indiscriminate attacks is prohibited by international humanitarian law and can constitute a war crime, said Amnestys Samah Hadid.

A high death toll may have been averted, possibly due to the missiles being intercepted, but that doesnt let the Huthi armed group off the hook for this reckless and unlawful act, Hadid said in a statement.

These missiles cannot be precisely targeted at such distances, so their use in this manner unlawfully endangers civilians.

Amnesty did not say it had independently documented evidence of the attacks.

Saudi Arabia is at the helm of a military coalition that has fought alongside the Yemeni government against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels since 2015.

The coalition said Saudi Arabias air defence forces had intercepted seven Yemeni rebel missiles late Sunday night, with one Egyptian labourer reported killed by falling shrapnel in Riyadh.

The rebels confirmed they had launched missiles at Riyadh as well as the southern cities of Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran.

Both parties in the Yemen conflict have drawn harsh condemnation for failing to protect civilians in a war that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

Amnesty last week said Saudi Arabia and its allies could stand guilty of war crimes in Yemen, which is under partial blockade by the coalition.

The Saudi-led alliance last year landed on a UN blacklist for the killing and maiming of children.Hundreds of thousands of Huthi rebel supporters flooded the streets of Yemens capital Monday to mark three years of war, hours after Riyadh said it had intercepted seven missiles fired from rebel territory.

A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen on March 26, 2015 to try to restore the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after the Iran-backed Shiite Huthis and their allies took over large parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

After the missile attacks that resulted in the first reported death in the Saudi capital, Sanaas Sabaeen Square was a sea of Yemeni flags on Monday as rebel authorities ordered all schools and government offices shut for the anniversary.

Huthi supporters carried portraits of rebel chief Abdulmalik al-Huthi and speakers blasted out a fiery speech by Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanons powerful Hezbollah Shiite movement, praising the steadfastness of the Yemeni people.

War songs, poems and speeches condemning the United States, the main arms supplier for the Saudi-led coalition, echoed across the square.

No one can speak on behalf of the Yemeni people. The people taking to the streets today are the real voice, Ibtisam al-Mutawakel, head of a Huthi cultural committee, told AFP.

 Possible war crime 

About 10,000 Yemenis have been killed and 53,000 wounded since the start of the coalition intervention in Yemen, which triggered what the United Nations has called the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

The rebels remain in control of the capital, northern Yemen and the countrys largest port.

Saudi authorities announced Sunday night they had intercepted seven missiles fired from Yemeni territory, including one that caused the death of an Egyptian labourer in Riyadh, killed by falling shrapnel.

The Huthis said on their Al-Masirah television that Riyadhs King Khalid International Airport was among the targets.

This aggressive and hostile action proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities, coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said.

Abdul-Moteleb Ahmed, 38, died instantly in his bed when what appeared to be burning shrapnel struck his ramshackle room in Riyadhs Um al-Hammam district, leaving a gaping hole in the roof, according to witnesses interviewed by AFP at the site.

Three other Egyptian labourers in the same room were wounded and hospitalised, they said.

He was the father of two young children and the sole breadwinner for his family, another roommate said, standing amid smashed furniture and scattered piles of debris.

Experts have cast doubt on the near-perfect interception rate reported by Saudi Arabia, which says it relies on a US-made Patriot missile defence system.

Amnesty International, which has criticised both parties in the Yemen war for neglecting civilian safety, on Monday said the indiscriminate Huthi missile attack could constitute a war crime.

The rights group has also slammed the Saudi-led alliance for possible war crimes in Yemen.

Britain on Monday urged Iran to stop sending in weapons which prolong the conflict, with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson saying he was appalled by the attack and would stand shoulder to shoulder with Riyadh.

The US State Department also said Washington would support the Saudis right to defend their borders against these threats.

 US directing war 

Rebel leaders have sought to highlight the role of the United States in the Saudi-led intervention.

At Mondays rally, Saleh al-Sammad, head of the rebels Supreme Political Council, said the rebels were ready to reach an understanding to end the intervention and the coalitions blockade of Yemen.

It is the Americans who are directing this aggression and participating directly on a number of fronts, Sammad told the rally.

The Hadi government, for its part, said Monday that the overnight attacks on Saudi Arabia amounted to an open rejection of peace.

The US Senate last week rejected a bipartisan bid to end American involvement in Yemens war, voting down a rare effort to overrule presidential military authorisation.

The US has provided weapons, intelligence and aerial refuelling to the Saudi-led coalition.

Washington formally approved defence contracts worth more than $1 billion with Riyadh last Thursday during a high-profile visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

burs-pho-jj-atm-ny/dvUniversity wins Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools Excellence in Teaching Award for sixth time



Monday, March 26, 2018

MANHATTAN  A Kansas State University master's student and graduate teaching assistant in English is a regional award winner for excelling in teaching and mentoring.



Catherine Williams, Beloit, has received the 2018 Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools Excellence in Teaching Award for the master's level. Williams is the sixth Kansas State University graduate student to win the award. It's also the third year in a row that one of the university's graduate student has earned the honor.



The award recognizes graduate students who excel in classroom teaching and promote awareness of graduate teaching contributions to the university's scholarship and its teaching mission. Williams will receive a $750 honorarium and will represent the university at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools, April 4-6, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She also will present and discuss her teaching philosophy at the 74th annual meeting.



An award winner is selected at both the master's and doctoral levels, with each member institution of the association able to nominate one student in each category.



"I feel extremely humbled to be the recipient of this award," Williams said. "I'm surrounded by extremely intelligent and dedicated GTAs in the English department, so it feels surreal to be receiving recognition for my teaching. I'm so happy to represent Kansas State's GTAs and shine a light on the hard work they perform each day, both inside the classroom and within our community."



With a primary research focus on cultural studies and children's literature, Williams is interested in how adult anxieties over issues such as poverty, mental illness and abuse are translated into texts for children.



Williams has taught four sections of English 100 and worked at the university's Writing Center for three semesters.



"My teaching philosophy emphasizes the inherent value each student brings to the classroom," Williams said. "As an instructor, I believe that students make the most growth when they can see the results of their hard work. To that end, I take a strengths-based approach in my classroom and continually look for opportunities to highlight how each student has developed their writing skills."



"The English department is lucky to have Catherine 'Cat' Williams as one of our graduate teaching assistants," said Karin Westman, associate professor and department head. "All of our GTAs work extremely hard to assist students with all aspects of their writing  from initial ideas to drafts to final revisions. What sets Cat apart is her dual success in the expository writing classroom and in the Writing Center, where she serves as one of our tutors. Cat's rapport with a wide range of students both in the traditional classroom and in the Writing Center and her talent in lesson planning make her worthy of additional recognition. Finally, Cat's dedication to her work as a scholar and a teacher  and her excellence in both areas  recommended her for this award."



"One of the best-kept secrets at K-State is how phenomenal our English department is," Williams said. "Not only are our teachers extremely knowledgeable about their respective fields, but they are also incredible role models for learning effective pedagogy."



Williams is working on completing her master's degree this spring. Following graduation, she intends to pursue a faculty role in academia.



Williams earned her bachelor's degree from Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina.



To view Williams' teaching video, go to youtube.com/watch?v=J8QwaiP4QiU.



Since 2011, the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools has been recognizing graduate students' teaching accomplishments with its Excellence in Teaching Award. The association is a regional affiliate of the Council of Graduate Schools. Member colleges and universities are accredited institutions of higher education in the central U.S. that offer graduate programs leading to master's, specialist and doctorate degrees.





127 Shares Share

Im a default crier. I happy-cry, stress-cry, romantic-comedy-cry, regular-comedy-cry and, apparently, I even doctor-in-training-cry.

Crying is a tough response, especially for someone who wants to take care of sick patients. My default reaction poses challenges for my future career. I had my first taste of this when a patient actor brought me to tears. An actor? Thats ridiculous, you might think. It was all pretend and yet, I broke down. Im a soft person, but it wasnt a soft cry. Im talking deep heaves, snot running, mascara smeared on my glasses.

The actors role was to be a difficult patient, to pick on first-year medical students and throw us off our recently established clinical game. I was prepared. I had read the assigned articles about redirecting difficult patient encounters and had gotten a good nights sleep.

Oh jeez, not another woman, the patient said as I entered.

Hi, are you Mr. Jones? I asked in my friendly, tempered clinical tone.

Are you the doctor? he spat.

No, Im Orly Farber. Im a first-year medical student and part of your care team 

Youre a medical student! he interrupted, And a woman? I want to see the real doctor. A male doctor!

And so it went.

For a few minutes, I handled the case with about as much professionalism and composure as I could muster. I told him he could see the doctor after I collected some more information, but I couldnt promise that the doctor would be a man. He got agitated, raised his voice, and refused to answer my questions. I stayed calm. Then he pointed to my shoes.

Look at you, he sneered, wearing your stupid shiny penny loafers. Youve probably never experienced a day of struggle in your life. How could you possibly understand my pain?

Sir, I wouldnt make any assumptions, I replied sternly, Im just here to listen and learn about your pain  My voice quivered, the prodrome to my tears.

I turned to the advisor observing me and asked for a timeout; she nodded. I looked at my classmates, who were also watching the encounter, their eyebrows raised to the ceiling. Hows it going? my advisor said, Are you feeling OK?

And like every time someone asks if Im OK, like after tripping in public or receiving some bad news, I cracked. Hard.

For me, crying is a positive feedback loop: I cry because Im sad or stressed or scared. And then, after a few seconds, I cry because Im crying  because Im embarrassed or feel weak or wish I could respond in any other way.

That day, I cried because a patient actor yelled at me. He challenged my place in medicine as a woman and more so, he doubted my ability to empathize, a trait I proudly wear on my sleeve. And then, when the initial tears had been shed, I cried out of shame, for having lost my cool in public, in front of my classmates and professors, in front of an actor with fake grievances.

I dont yet know how to manage my emotionality in a clinical space. I want to be soft, but not too soft. I want to maintain my compassion, without losing my composure. And so I hope that going forward I learn how to handle my tears, not just how to redirect a difficult encounter, but how to redirect my own reactions. I hope that the next time a patient insults my favorite penny loafers or questions my place in medicine and my expertise, I wont burst into tears. Instead, Ill stoically face him and say, Sir, these loafers have saved lives.

Orly Farber is a medical student who blogs at Scope, where this article originally appeared.

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Support our mission and join our community now.On Golden Pond at the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny was excellent over the weekend and the good news is that it is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Don't miss the opportunity to see this touching drama for all ages at our municipal theatre

Mary Cradock and Brendan Corcoran, in the lead roles, carried off their roles with panache and aplomb.

Brendan has appeared in over 30 in-house productions including The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Sive and Arsenic and Old Lace.

How lovely to see Mary Cradock, who has given so much as director , writer and supporter return to the stage, in what many would say, is her rightful patch.

Although she has not appeared in an acting role for a number of years, Mary has been busy behind the scenes directing the recent Kings of the Kilburn High Road , and writing and directing a children's Christmas show for the last five years.

Alan Butler, who last appeared with Watergate Productions as William Dee in The Field turned in another strong performance. A regular performer in Kilkenny, Alan has appeared with such groups as Devious Theatre, Barn Owl Players and Kats Theatre.

For those of you who follow hurling, Dick O' Hara of Thomastown was an outstanding hurler, showing passion and commitment as he guarded the Kilkenny full-back line in the 1970s and '80s. His daughter Elaine brings a similar passion to the stage, swapping the toughness and bravery displayed by her dad, with class and charisma.

In 2016 Elaine portrayed Mairead McHenry in the Civic Theatre Dublin in a new Irish Musical 'Find your way Home '.

This was followed by three performances in the USA in 2017 when she toured to Boston, Albany and New York.

It is difficult to believe that Declan Taylor is on his 22nd cap with Watergate Productions and again he was excellent.And keeping to the tradition of The Watergate introducing new cast members for each show, it was lovely to see Oisin O'Reilly make his debut.

Well done to Don O'Connor on yet another strong production. As with Steel Magnolias, which he directed last year, this production is a credit to him and his ambition and ability to choose away from the safety net. That's his style, and it has benefited the Watergate company profile beyond words.

Don has an incredible CV of shows which he has both written an directed. These include pantomimes, musicals and drama.

Finally, yet another stunning set design by John O' Donohue complimented by a light design from Gerry Taylor. John has been a regular designer with the in house company in recent years. Costumes by Clare Gibbs and props by Sheelagh Lynch. Stage crew : Maeve O'Connor, Siobhan Cody, Rachel Madden.Members of Young Fine Gael have elected a new Vice President, Genevieve OMahony, a 25 year old trainee solicitor from Goresbridge, Co. Kilkenny.

The National Conference of Young Fine Gael was held in Ballykisteen Co. Tipperary last weekend (25 March) with members from across the country attending to debate policy, attend seminars and elect a new National Executive.

Genevieve OMahony received nominations for the position from branches nationwide, as her campaign over six weeks saw the Kilkenny woman travel to meetings in all corners of Ireland.

The position of Vice President was directly contested by a Dublin based candidate and decided by hundreds of members voting at the National Conference last weekend. The Kilkenny candidates campaign prioritised new young candidates in the upcoming local elections, rural branch development and youth focused national campaigns. As the new Vice President of the youth organisation, she will also be a member on the Executive Council of Fine Gael.

Speaking after the announcement Genevieve OMahony commented I am thrilled with the result. I joined Young Fine Gael in 2010 and graduated from college in 2013. With a recovering economy, my generation now have a future at home as opposed to forced emigration. Young Fine Gael has to speak for a new generation of young people, I believe this includes access to education and training, employment opportunities and affordable accommodation.

Genevieve OMahony will serve in her new voluntary position for the next 22 months while also working and studying to qualify as a solicitor.All of a sudden Wonder Woman is looking like just another struggling premier side-tracked by side shows.

Brand Jacinda would seem to be metamorphosing into Calamity Jacinda.The Herald reports:

An Auckland school paid nearly $20,000 to send 12 teachers to the Cook Islands for two weeks. The Auditor-General is probing the spending by Blockhouse Bay Intermediate, which saw teachers visit the archipelago  including the tourist hotspot of Aitutaki  during the July school holidays last year. The school is defending the spending, saying it was very much a working trip and not a holiday.

Yeah, Im sure it was. You need 12 teachers there for 14 days and it is just coincidence that they have the sun, the pools and the beaches.

Its purpose was to immerse staff in Cook Islands culture and teaching practices to ensure Blockhouse Bay Intermediates teaching practices benefited Pasifika pupils learning, principal Michael Malins said.

You could send one or two teachers if that really was the purpose, and they could share their findings.

Also each Pasifika country is different. Going to the Cooks wont help you with Tongan pupils. Just like going to China wont help you with Indian pupils.

According to an Education Review Offices 2016 report, pupils of Cook Island ethnicity made up about 1 per cent of the Blockhouse Bay Intermediates roll. Other Pasifika peoples made up 6 per cent.

So 20% of the schools teachers went to a country where 1% of their pupils are from. Again this screams junket.

They spent most mornings observing in classrooms or churches and afternoons on de-briefing/reflection.

I think reflection is code for cocktails at the bar.

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The Herald reports:

Carol Hirschfeld is leaving Radio NZ, effective immediately, after saga over her meeting with Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran. Hirschfeld had earlier repeatedly assured RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson a meeting with Curran on December 5 last year was coincidental, after she and the minister had bumped into each other in a Wellington cafe. The saga became public after National MP Melissa Lee asked questions Hirschfelds meeting with Curran at a Wellington cafe. Lee asked Radio NZ chief executive Paul Thompson about it by Lee at a select committee and Thompson said it had been a chance encounter between the pair. But on Sunday, Hirschfeld told Thompson the meeting had been arranged.

So the nature of the meeting was lied about. We were assured at the time they just happened to run into each other at Astoria, and this is now revealed to be a lie.

Why a lie? Who asked for the meeting and arranged it? If they tried to cover up the nature of it, that is an admission they knew it was inappropriate.

The meeting had already drawn criticism from National, which claimed Curran had tried to hide the meeting as it was not included in her diary.

And Curran failed to mention the meeting in response to written questions. You could possibly understand that for an unplanned meeting, but this was an arranged meeting.

Also why did Hirschfeld after months of lying about the meeting, suddenly tell the truth to her boss at Radio NZ. Was it about to be exposed?

So questions for the Minister are:

Who requested the meeting? Why was it requested? Why did she not include the meeting in her diary as it was pre-arranged? Why did she omit the meeting in the response to written questions on meetings with RNZ staff? What specifically was discussed at the meeting? How many other meetings had she had with Hirschfeld, before or after the election? Having seen multiple media reports describing the meeting as coincidential, why did the Minister never correct them?

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North Korea is offering negotiations with the United States in order to buy time to develop its nuclear weapons, the incoming U.S. national security adviser said Sunday.

John Bolton, a former ambassador who was tapped by U.S. President Donald Trump last week, gave the assessment as the American leader prepares to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to discuss the regime's denuclearization.

"I think we have to look at what North Korea's motivation is here," Bolton said in an interview on the "Cats Roundtable" radio show. "I think they're very worried that they've got a different president in the White House than Barack Obama. They're worried about the pressure that the president's already put on."

Bolton is known as one of the most hawkish voices in U.S. foreign policy and has recently argued for a preventive strike on the North.

Trump picked Bolton as his national security adviser shortly after he replaced Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with another hawk, Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo. Both decisions came after the U.S. president accepted Kim's invitation to a summit, which he said would take place before the end of May.











Over the last 30 days, at least four instances of Chinese choppers violating the Indian airspace has been recorded. (Image: Getty/Representational)

New Delhi, Mar 26: A Chinese military chopper violated the Indian airspace on Monday, hovering over parts of the frontier state of Uttarakhand.

According to reports, the chopper affiliated to China's People's Liberation Army breached the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and flew over the strategically crucial Barahoti region in Uttarakhand.

Barahoti is among the three border posts on the LAC, where India and China have mutually agreed in 1958 to refrain from sending troops. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawans are not allowed to carry weapons in the 80-sq-km disputed region.

Over the last 30 days, at least four instances of Chinese choppers violating the Indian airspace have been recorded.

On March 10, three PLA helicopters crossed the LAC and hovered over Barahoti region for nearly five minutes.

Two Chinese choppers on March 8 had entered into the Indian territory upto 18 -km. They were spotted hovering over the region of Ladakh.

Earlier on February 27, the Chinese violated the Indian airspace upto 19-km, with their choppers spotted hovering over the strategically crucial areas of Depsang and Trig Highway of Ladakh.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while speaking to reporters on Sunday, said the Indian forces are prepared to deal with any sort of aggression on both sides of the border.

The situation in Doklam - the flashpoint of face-off between Indian and Chinese troops last year - is normal, Sitharaman claimed. "But we are alert and ready for any unforeseen situation," she added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 26, 2018 11:05 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).Dhaka, March 26: Bangladesh is celebrating its 48th Independence Day, also called as National Day. Google has dedicated a doodle on the occasion of 48th Bangladesh Independence Day. The day in Bangladesh is celebrated with parades, ceremonies, and music and marks the liberation of the country from Pakistan. So how did Bangladesh come into existence and how did it achieve freedom? Below is a brief history of Bangladesh's freedom struggle which was previously known as East Pakistan.

The British colonial rule ended in India in the year 1947 with the partition of India and creation of two separate states, India and Pakistan. Pakistan comprise West Pakistan and East Pakistan (today known as Bangladesh after gaining Independence). In the year 1949, the Awami League is founded to campaign for a separate East Pakistan and for gaining autonomy from West Pakistan. In the year 1970, The Awami League which fought election under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won comprehensively giving them the right to form government. But the West Pakistan government refuses to accept the result which leads to large scale rioting in East Bangladesh (Bangladesh).

In the year 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is arrested and taken to West Pakistan. The leaders of Awami League, most of them in exile, declare independence from West Pakistan and proclaim the emergence of new country called Bangladesh. The Pakistani army, which begins a widespread mass killing movement to suppress the demand for independence is defeated after a 9 month-long guerilla war against the Pakistan Army. The Mukti Bahini, which played a major role in the independence struggle of Bangladesh with military help from USSR and India, defeated the Pakistan Army. The war ended on 16 December of 1971. In 1972, Sheikh Mujib returns and becomes the prime minister of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is growing despite facing many challenges that developing countries face like overpopulation and unemployment. But the country is optimistic about its future. The Doodle commemorated Bangladesh Independence Day with a depiction of the Bangladesh flag waving proudly over the landscape. Happy Independence Day, Bangladesh!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 26, 2018 11:42 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).Mar 25, 2018, 5:00pm ET

Nissan repurposes used Leaf batteries for quake recovery

They will be used in portable lighting systems that require no electrical grid or generators.

Nissan will repurpose used batteries from its Leaf electric sedan to power streetlights in areas with little access to electrical grids.

In cooperation with a company called 4R Energy, Nissan will begin tests of these retired Leaf power cells on March 26 in a project called "Reborn Light." In conjunction with solar panels, the batteries will operate outdoor lighting without any connection to a power grid.

Needing no cables nor outlets, the lights will be portable and capable of being set up in remote areas. Nissan expects to deploy the battery-powered lights in emergency scenarios, regions with little infrastructure, or even in the air.

The first tests will begin in Namie, Fukushima, a small town in northeastern Japan with a population of under 20,000. Namie was devastated by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and rebuilding efforts are still taking place there after the deadly natural disaster.

Nissan says that in addition to lighting, it should provide a solution to the issue of what to do with used EV batteries. After initial testing, it will roll out the lights sometime in 2018.Fast food tycoon, Pat McDonagh has submitted his plans to Laois County Council for the construction of a new motorway service station at Togher in Portlaoise.

The Supermac's chief intends to build a two-storey service area complete with shops, a food court and petrol pumps, adjacent to Junction 17 of the M7 at Togher, Portlaoise.

Mr McDonagh is seeking permission for a two-storey building with a retail unit, a food court and drive-thru, communal seating area, office, toilet and kitchen facilities, adjacent to Junction 17.

The development will include six filling pumps, two totem pole signs, and a new vehicular entrance and egress road, with improvement works to the existing road network at Togher.

Mr McDonagh purchased the 109-acre NAMA controlled site for a price in the region of 3.25 million.

Exactly one year ago, Laois councillors gave the go ahead to the council's management to buy 76-acres of land from Mr McDonagh, which adjoins the site earmarked for the motorway services stop.

The council reportedly paid 1.75 million to the businessman for part of the site which it wants to use to attract jobs and investment to Laois.

The entire 109-acre site was originally part of the council-backed strategy to build an Inland Port on Portlaoise's outskirts.

The project was to have included transportation and distribution businesses taking advantages of Portlaoise's location. The plans stalled, however, during the recession.Waterways Ireland is extending its Smart Card system to include lock passages on the River Shannon and Lower Bann.

The service will be tested from a technical perspective at Albert Lock on the Shannon and the Cutts Lock on the Lower Bann for a two week period beginning on the 16th of April 2018. Following the technical test period and depending on the learnings taken from it, Waterways Ireland will then begin the roll out of Smart Card usage at all locks and lifting bridges on both the Shannon and Lower Bann. Marine Notice 15/2018 has been issued to this effect.

The Smart Card is already in use along the Shannon for numerous services including showers, toilets, pump-outs and electricity and on the Shannon-Erne Waterway for lock passages. The extension of the service to include lock passages will mean a one-stop-shop for waterway customers for all waterway services. The customer provides their Smart Card to the Lock-keeper to insert into a reader which deducts the units for the lock passage. The lock-keeper will then operate the lock as usual.

The pilot at Albert Lock will run from the 16th  the 30th April 2018 and boats will have the following payment options  use their existing Smart Card, pay in cash or purchase a Smart Card. Many boaters already have Smart Cards as they use them to purchase other services along the Shannon. Hire boat companies already provide the Smart Cards to their customers. Boaters can buy Smart Cards from local retailers or order online the list of retailers is available from www.shopwaterwaysireland.org.

The remaining Shannon locks and bridges will accept payment by smart card and cash from the 1st May until the end of June 2018. From the 1st July  30th September 2018 boaters presenting with case will be able to buy a smart card from the Lockkeeper. From 1st October payment will be by Smart Card only and the boater will need to have a valid card on board. Where bridge lifting is required at Tarmonbarry and Rooskey, a combined toll payments for the lock and bridge will be taken at the Lock.

The cost of the lock passage on the Shannon will remain the same and will take two units from the smart card. The cost of the lock passage on the Lower Bann will be 1 unit. The lock passage on the Shannon-Erne Waterway will remain at 1 unit. The 10 unit card cost 6.35/5.55 and the 20 unit card 12.70/11.10.

Waterways Ireland has managed over 1000km of waterways since 1999, investing significantly in improving services and facilities along the navigations including mooring, services blocks, creating and extending boating destinations along the Shannon including Killaloe, Garrykennedy, Dromineer, Ballyleague, Carrick-on-Shannon, Boyle, and Lough Key. Further information on the pilot and the smart card system can be found at www.waterwaysireland.org or by emailing info@waterwaysireland.org.An overwhelming majority of Irelands secondary school teachers have admitted in a survey that they find their jobs stressful with 43pc saying classroom discipline is worse than it was five years ago.

The survey of 1,000 teachers from across Ireland by the online exams specialist Studyclix.ie.

The survey found that 90pc of teachers considered their job to be stressful either sometimes (51pc), a lot of the time (32pc) or constantly (7pc).

On discipline, teachers are battling to contain a huge rise in smartphone use by students with 51pc describing them as a hindrance in classrooms. A majority of 60pc want an outright ban on the devices: France recently introduced such a ban.

When it comes to pay and conditions, the picture is certainly bleaker for newer teachers who entered the profession after 2011.

The survey found their average monthly take-home pay is 2,070 compared to 2,674 for teachers who started before 2011  a massive difference of 600.

62pc of teachers said they will not be in a position to buy home within a 30 minute commute of where they work. A crumb of comfort for those earning less is that 98pc of all teachers believe pay equality should be restored.

Pay and a recruitment crisis is certain to be a big topic when the teachers conference season gets underway next week  but 56pc of respondents in the Studyclix survey believe they are not well represented by their particular union.

Other key findings include:

Almost a quarter (23pc) say they teach subjects they are not qualified to teach;

The top three challenges of being a teacher are disciplining students (25pc); preparing lessons (24pc) and lack of job security (10pc);

54pc of teachers say students should have the choice to opt-out of Religious Education;

17pc of teachers still do not have access to high-speed broadband in the classroom;

68pc of teachers use Facebook; 36pc have a Snapchat account.

Commenting on the findings, Studyclix founder Luke Saunders, a second-level science teacher, said: There are several reasons why younger teachers will get lower salaries than their colleagues who began prior to 2011. However the point remains that monthly take home pay of 2070 is simply not enough to be able to purchase a house, particularly in Dublin or any other city.

I think there is something wrong with our society when a teacher, Garda or nurse has no prospect of being able to buy a home within a 30-minute commute of where they work. 62pc of respondents reported that they felt it was unlikely that they would be able to purchase a home.

Teachers are reporting that phone use is an ever growing hindrance in their classrooms and that 60% actually favour an outright ban of phones in schools. This echoes our most recent student survey where we found mobile phone use pervasive across classrooms.

In a student survey we ran on Studyclix last year we found that 54pc of students reported to having checked their phone in class in the last seven days. In my view students having smartphones in their pockets is the biggest challenge that teachers face in todays classroom. The fact that 43pc of teachers reported classroom discipline being worse than it was five years ago is likely largely down to the conflict that phone use has created.

Studyclix is used by 24,578 Irish second level teachers across Ireland. More than 90pc of teachers use the service as part of their job to create assessments and find topic-specific resources. The service is also used by 163,000 registered students.A MAN who admitted storing cannabis herb at his home in an effort to clear his brothers drug debt has avoided a prison sentence.

Christy Hartigan, aged 32, of Rathbane Court, Roxboro Road pleaded guilty to possession of 585gramms of the drug for the purpose of sale or supply.

Detective Garda Mairead Hayes of the divisional drugs unit to Limerick Circuit Court the drugs were seized when garda searched the defendants home at around 11.15pm on March 31, 2016.

The cannabis, which had a street value of almost 8,300, was located in two plastic bags which were concealed in two separate rubbish bins.

Mr Hartigan, she said, cooperated with gardai and made admissions on the night and again during interview following his arrest.

He took responsibility for the drugs telling gardai he was in fear of his life and had agreed to hold the drugs at this home for another person to whom his brother owed a debt of around 5,500. He did not identify the owner of the drugs.

He was to get 100 credit per week (off the debt) in return for storing the drugs, said John OSullivan BL, instructed by state solicitor Padraig Mawe.

Detective Garda Hayes agreed with Eimear Carey BL that the defendant is a vulnerable individual who can be easily led.

The detective accepted the father-of-three was under duress and she confirmed he was not on the garda radar prior to the detection.

Ms Carey said her client, who has never used illicit drugs, has not come to the attention of gardai since and she submitted the contents of a probation report were very favourable.

A number of testimonials were submitted to the court in support of Mr Hartigan who has no previous convictions and who has a good work history.

Imposing sentence, Judge Tom ODonnell said it was abundantly clear the defendant was very much down the ladder and that there was a genuine element of duress in the case.

However, he said those who engage in the storage or distribution of drugs must be prepared to accept the consequences of their actions.

He said the amount of drugs seized was substantial but noted his personal circumstances and his previous record.

He imposed a two year prison sentence which he suspended for two years.FOUR Limerick companies have been named in the Deloitte best managed companies network as the awards programme marks its tenth year.

Samco Agricultural Manufacturing, Adare, Roches Feeds at the Dock Roads, Action Point Technology Group, Plassey and Collins McNicholas, in neighbouring Castletroy have been all shortlisted for the prestigious awards.

All these firms were given best managed status following a detailed qualification and judging process.

This took into consideration the complete performance of the business, looking beyond finances at other criteria such as operational excellence, strategy and human resource processes.

For Collins McNicholas, its the firms fifth time to be named in this countdown, and it comes a month after the company was named as one of the Best Workplaces in Ireland in 2018. We are delighted to be recognised for this award for the fifth year in a row. It is a testament to the commitment and dedication of our team, and the exceptional level of service they deliver, that has helped us to grow this business over the last 28 years, said Niall Murray, its managing director.

The four Limerick companies were recognised at a gala dinner in Dublin attended by more than 1,000 business leaders.

Deloitte partner Anya Cummins said: The programme represents companies from different industries with many industry-specific challenges but also characteristics such as adaptability, innovation and ambition. Their stories are the stories of Irish business this past decade, of resilience, recovery and confidence.ON January 3, 1837, a gunpowder explosion rocked Limerick city centre to its core. In total twenty people lost their lives, one of whom the Chronicle recorded as died of the absolute effects of fright.

The city was quiet on winters night with most of the inhabitants either in bed or on their way to bed at 10 o'clock at night. Little did they know that their night would be disturbed in such a dramatic fashion.

This was not the first gunpowder explosion in the city on November 21, 1813 house in Mays Lane, Thomondgate blew up, as the occupants were trying to dry gunpowder in an iron pot over an open fire.

This was the worst explosion though since 1693, when on February 12, one of the towers which defended the entrance to Merchants Quay fell down causing stones to land on the 250 barrells of gunpowder contained in the building. There were a reported 210 people killed or wounded in a shocking manner.

Several houses were destroyed and the explosion was felt as far away as Kilmallock.

In 1837, there were at least seven gunsmiths operating in the city. One of these William Richardson, ran his gunsmith on the corner of Denmark Street and George Street (OConnell Street). He had this business here for over ten years.

On the day in question, Richardson had received some caskets of gunpowder into his store. Richardson himself was not home that and the powder was received by his caretaker Gurde. Gurde slept in the house and was the last person seen entering what happened to ignite the powder is impossible to say as Gurde, the only person near it died immediately in the explosion.

The blast hit at such a ferocity that it destroyed four houses outright and blew out the windows of the buildings in the surrounding area. Even the windows in the poor-house on the Strand at the other side of the river were broken. It also blew out the public gas lamps, which plunged the city into complete darkness adding to the confusion.

The Chronicle of January 7, tells us that the flash from the scene was witnessed as far away as Castleconnell.

The Chronicle of January 4, described the scene.

The scene of this appalling calamity was the large house, corner of Georges-street and Denmark-street, inhabited by Mr. Richardson, the extensive gun-manufacturer, whose private magazine of gunpowder blew up, and brought the whole premises to the ground, exhibiting at one glance a scene of desolation, wreck, and ruin, awful to contemplate, but the extent of which was unknown for many minutes, under the cloud of darkness which enveloped every object.

It goes on to tell of the first responders on the scene Mr. William Roche, M.P., the Mayor, Aldermen Watson, Gibson, &c. repaired to the spot, with the parish watch and policemen. Piquets of the Royal Regt. and 72d depot were brought up soon after.

The scene that met them was one of death and destruction though they could not comprehend how much until the cold light of the morning.

The Chronicle continues: Such a deplorable catastrophe as this is not within the memory of the oldest inhabitant.

There were four other people in the house at the time, the housekeeper Bridget Doolan, her husband and a neighbour who were all killed instantly. While a young male apprentice called Robert Teskey, was propelled from his bed into the street. He was injured but not fatally.

Thomas McMahon, a baker, lived next door to Richardson on Denmark Street with his wife Margaret, two sons, a daughter, a niece and their servant Bridget Donoghue. The explosion was so fierce that McMahons house collapsed entirely, all but one son and the daughter perished. The McMahons were buried in Kilquane graveyard, Parteen.

A fifteen-year-old Mary Barry, Market Alley was buying a penny worth of bread at the time of the explosion and did not survive.

The other adjoining house 2 George Street a lodging-house, run by a widow, Maria Ryan was also for the most part destroyed. Amazingly, Ryan along with her two sons, a daughter and sister-in-law all survived though a number of them were buried within the house for a number of hours.

Her eighteen year old son escaped out a partially collapsed window and held on to the outside of the building until a ladder could be found to rescue him.

While the bed on which her younger son was sleeping was forced out of the house, onto the street, where the boy remain in it for the journey unharmed.

Her sister-in-law Catherine Ryan was blown out of the house, landing on a heap of rubbish fracturing her collarbone. There were two servants was also sleeping in the house. One of these Margaret Hynes, was propelled into the hall of William Wilson house, 3 George Street. Sadly, she passed away after reaching Barringtons Hospital. While the other died before reaching the hospital. The other Hanora Grady died instantly.

At the time of the explosion, Wilson was with his family in the parlour about to read a chapter of the bible when suddenly the door burst open and the room was engulfed with smoke. This was accompanied by a loud noise like a cannon being fired. His wife quickly grabbed her youngest child and called the others to follow her out the door.

A section of the stairwell had been blown away. They fell into a pile of rubble but managed to escape with only minor injuries.

The house opposites to Richardsons was owned by John Ellard, a grocer and wine merchant. Ellard was on his way home when he was suddenly lifted off the ground, thrown across the street and buried under rubble. He managed to extract himself from the rubble but so stunned he did not recognise his son.

Returning to his house, Ellard found that several tea chests were blown open and gallons of spirit flowed into the street.

Ellards neighbour, living in Burkes house, was about to get into bed when several pieces of iron, gun barrels and pistols were sent through his window and lodged in the bed. A large beam was blown in front of this house hitting a young physician, Dr John Healy of Bank Place killing him instantly.

Michael ONeill, a Watchman, was near to the young doctor when he was thrown against a wall and killed.

The houses on Patrick Street all shook, their windows shattering, their occupants ran into the darkness of the street, now covered in debris. This street was the home of Anne Ryan the daughter of John Ryan, leather merchant, was struck by flying debris in her home and although she survived the initial shock, the medical treatment at the time could not save her.

There were a number of lucky escapes including Richardson's nephew, who was due to stay in McMahons house. He had arrived in Limerick that afternoon was out visiting others in the city when the explosion occurred. Another of the McMahon children was delayed at work and luckily missed the ensuing drama at his home.

Two gentlemen who lived at the Crescent had a narrow escape after leaving Cruises Hotel on their way home. As they stood on the street, large boards flew over their heads hitting the path in front of them.

There were a number of people who were injured on the night who later succumbed to their wounds. Others identified were John OBrien, servant to Patrick Hogan, Hardware Merchant, Denmark Street; Patrick Doolan of County Offaly and John Enright a shipping pilot from Carrigaholt who was only seven weeks married.

Terence Blake survived for almost a month and was the last official death of the explosion.

The only living creature to survive more than a few hours in the rubble was a cat who sprang from a cellar after three days.

The Corporation quickly raised two proposals; firstly, that no gunpowder vender should have casts of more than 25lb on their premises and that only 5lbs should be kept on the retail floor while the remaining should be kept on an upper floor. Also, that no gunpowder should be sold by candlelight.

It was estimated in the Chronicle that the damage to the buildings was near to 13,000. It would cost 1 to replace each shattered pane of glass and some of the houses had up to 150 panes smashed each.

As for William Richardson, did he learn his lesson? It appears from a Chronicle report from January 11, 1840 that he did not.

The report details how Richardson had opened another gun manufacturing business on Patrick Street. While being inspected on suspicion of exceeding the legal limit for gun powder in the city limits, he was found in the stable hiding two casts of gun powder under the horses feet while his servant had absconded with another.

Richardson was fined 100 for this and it is hoped that he had his licence revoked soon after.

Although the explosion was extreme and the loss of twenty lives horrific, if the accident had taken place during the day that number would have been higher and we would undoubtedly be marking January 3 even today.Mar 26, 2018, 7 AM

Washington Postal Scene  By Bill McAllister

Lawyers for the United States Postal Service have urged a federal judge to reject a Nevada sculptors claims for million of dollars in damages for the unauthorized use of his Statue of Liberty sculpture on a 2010 stamp.

In a brief filed in the Court of Federal Claims, the lawyers said Robert S. Davidsons claim for more than $10 million is seriously flawed because the public and postal officials failed to recognize his statue was not the American icon on Liberty Island.

At best, Davidson has a very thin copyright that so closely resembles the original statue that the Postal Service and the public did not know that the stamp image came from a photo of a replica, the USPSs lawyers said.

Although the Lady Liberty stamp went on sale Dec. 1, 2010, the brief noted it was not until March 18, 2011, that Sunipix, a photo agency, notified postal officials that the stamp image was not the real Statue of Liberty.

The brief also pressed senior judge Eric G. Bruggink to declare that use of the Davidson statue on a 2010 forever stamp constituted fair use of a statue that stands outside the New York New York Hotel in Las Vegas.

Davidsons lawyers fired back at the Postal Services argument in a reply brief filed March 2, saying evidence presented at an eight-day September trial in Washington confirmed that Mr. Davidson has an enforceable copyright in his creation, the USPS infringed (it) and the USPSs use was not fair.

As for Davidsons Lady Liberty sculpture, his lawyers said the Las Vegas artist had artistic license to recreate his own vision of the Statue of Liberty and that his design was significantly different from the Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi original.

This was an entirely different face, the brief quotes Davidson as telling the judge. It just took on a life of its own, to be honest.

During the trial, Davidson said, I did what I thought was a little more modern, a little more feminine.

And to be honest, I cant tell you all the details, that the nose is turned up a little bit more, the eyebrows are higher or lower, he added.

The sculptors lawyers also quoted Postal Service officials as initially praising Davidsons design, calling it very different from anything [the USPS] had done before.

I cant recreate it, you know, Davidson was quoted as saying at the trial. I cant be accurate. I can give it the feel of the Statue of Liberty, but I cant recreate it.

In their brief, lawyers for the Postal Service attacked a lack of originality in Davidsons statue.

Davidsons replica of the Statue of Liberty is, at most, a derivative work because he intended to copy the original Statue of Liberty, they said.

The Postal Service lawyers said Davidsons lawyers had failed to prove that the stamp used original elements that Davidson placed in his Replica Statue of Liberty.

They charged that Davidson made a profit of approximately $250,000 creating his statue for the casino and failed to show any loss of income as a result of the stamps release, they said.

As for the Postal Service, the lawyers repeatedly pointed out it has operated at a loss. The Postal Services stamp development group has an annual budget of approximately $3.3 million, with $400,000 budgeted for the purchase of art on an annual basis, the brief disclosed.

For the image of Davidsons statue, the Postal Service paid Getty Images $1,500 for a three-year, non-exclusive license to print the photograph more than 1 million times, it said.

The brief noted that the Postal Service routinely negotiates licenses for images on stamps for a lump-sum license fee between $0 and approximately $5,000 and often in the range of $1,000 to $2,000.

When the Postal Service cannot obtain rights to an image with a mutually satisfactory license, the Postal Service does not issue the stamp, the brief said. It cited the agencys inability to agree on a price for an image of a polar bear. The chapter in the Linns U.S. Stamp Yearbook 2009 on the 28 Polar Bear stamp issued April 16, 2009, shows an early design concept based on a photograph of a side view of a bear walking. The photographer demanded $5,000 for its use of that image according to the book.

Terry McCaffery, the longtime head of stamp design at Postal Service, selected the image for the 2010 Lady Liberty stamp from photographs supplied by a photo agency.

He believed photographer Raimund Link had captured a unique and different photograph of the original Statue of Liberty, the brief said.

We never would have issued that stamp if we had known it was the Lady  the Las Vegas replica, the now-retried postal official told the judge.

The Statue of Liberty stamp was to be a workhorse replacement for the long-running Liberty Bell forever stamp series, the brief said.

During its four years of sale to 2014, the Postal Service sold 4.9 billion of the Lady Liberty stamps, raising $2.9 billion, according to the brief.

Postal Service lawyers concluded their 40-page brief by telling the judge that he should reject Davidsons claim and award no more than minimum statutory damages  $750.

But if the court wants to uphold the fair market value of a non-exclusive copyright license of Davidsons statue, that would suggest the Postal Service would have paid Davidson a lump-sum royalty of $10,000, the brief said.

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That would be the upper limit of a properly constructed hypothetical negotiation for the use of the Replica Statue of Liberty in a workhorse stamp.

It is not clear when the judge will rule on the claim.A faraway megastar that once raised questions about aliens because of its weird pattern of dimming has darkened once again.

By now, though, researchers have figured out that it's not an alien megastructure that is causing the dimming; it's just dust. Still, astronomer Tabetha Boyajian of Louisiana State University and colleagues are keeping a close eye on the far-off star, trying to figure out what the dust is and where it came from. On March 16, the brightness of the star started dipping, Boyajian and her colleagues reported on their blog. The dip in brightness was the largest observed dip in the star since 2013, Boyajian wrote.

As of March 22, the star's brightness was increasing rapidly and was almost back to normal.

Tabby's star

The vagaries of KIC 8462852, the star better known as "Tabby's star" in honor of Boyajian, have been the subject of scientific sleuthing for years. In 2015, researchers led by Boyajian reported that the Kepler space telescope had captured a completely new phenomenon at Tabby's star. At irregular intervals and for odd lengths of time, the light from the star would dim by as much as 22 percent. Nothing could really explain it. One theory was that the star might be surrounded by an alien megastructure such as a Dyson sphere, an orbiting array of solar panels designed by some intelligent life-form. [Greetings, Earthlings! 8 Ways Aliens Could Contact Us]

But a January 2018 study by Boyajian and her colleagues debunked that notion. They studied the spectrum of light coming from the star and found that different wavelengths were blocked by the mystery occlusion at different levels of brightness. What this means is that whatever passes between the star and Earth is translucent, not opaque like a megastructure would be. The best explanation for what might be causing the dimming, the researchers found, was very fine space dust.

Boyajian and her colleagues have been researching the star with funds donated via Kickstarter. Among the remaining questions: How is the dust orbiting the star  in clouds, or perhaps in a ring? And where did the dust originate?

Mystery dust

Boyajian and her team have a few ideas about what the dust is. In a 2016 paper, they suggested that it might come from collisions between larger orbiting objects in an asteroid belt; however, that explanation was hard to reconcile, they warned, because the asteroid-belt scenario should produce other detectable phenomena, like brightness dips of different depths and lengths representing collisions between objects of different sizes.

Another possibility, they wrote, is that the dust could be from a single, giant impact, like the one that broke the moon away from Earth. This theory doesn't fit well with the pattern of dimming seen, though, particularly small dips in brightness without a regular reoccurrence interval matching the larger dips. A third option might be minute planetary bodies that are themselves surrounded by dust. That's an attractive theory because the small asteroids or rocky objects would keep the dust from dispersing, but like the giant-impact theory, it doesn't fit the observed dimming patterns very well, the researchers wrote.

The final theory is that the dust is orbiting in a highly irregular, elliptical orbit, like a comet; in fact, the researchers wrote, it might even be a broken-up comet. This hypothesis matches the star's dimming patterns if you assume that whatever broke up the comet hit it with enough force to "kick" its tail forward. If the particles in the tail are large enough, they could maintain that backward-comet orientation even against the electromagnetic forces of the star, the researchers wrote.

The latest dimming event started with a slow decline and ended with a rapid increase in brightness, Boyajian and her team wrote on their blog. Dust from a backward comet tail and then larger chunks from the broken-up body would explain that uneven pattern.

Original article on Live Science.Parts of West Texas are sinking  and other parts quaking and shaking  thanks to oil and gas extraction.

A new study using satellite data to measure ground changes near Pecos, Monahans, Wink and Kermit, Texas, finds multiple disturbances, including places where the ground is sinking up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) a year. In one spot, the ground dropped so much that it formed a new lake, Lake Boehmer.

This area of the oil-rich Permian basin is relatively sparsely populated, but hydrocarbon extraction there is booming, and the area is crisscrossed with roadways and pipelines for moving oil and gas. [See These Insane Photos of Sinkholes]

"The network is enormously dense," said study researcher Zhong Lu, a geophysicist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. This infrastructure is threatened by the shifting ground, Lu told Live Science.

Man-made change

Lu and his colleagues measured the ground changes as part of a wider project examining how human activities are altering the Gulf Coast. West Texas is a big place, Lu said, and many of the hotspots for ground movement are fairly small, on the order of 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) or so across. To pinpoint these relatively small regions, the researchers turned to two satellites, the European Space Agency's Sentinel 1A and 1B. These satellites launched in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Among other things, the satellites use radar to measure changes in land surfaces over time. [7 Ways the Earth Changes in the Blink of an Eye]

The team focused on a 100-mile by 100-mile (160 by 160 kilometers) square in West Texas, just south of the New Mexico border and slightly southwest of the cities of Midland and Odessa. Within that square, they searched for changes of at least centimeters per year that covered areas of between 200 square meters and 2 square kilometers (about 650 square feet to 1.2 square miles).

They found many. In two areas, the ground was actually rising slightly. At two wells on the border of Winkler and Loving counties, the surface had risen 2.16 inches (5.5 cm) over the study period, probably because of the injection of wastewater from well-drilling below the surface. Similarly, part of the North Ward Estes Field, which is in Ward and Winkler counties, saw an uplift of just over an inch (3 cm) from 2014 to 2017, likely due to the injection of carbon dioxide into the rock to pressurize the reservoir and enhance oil recovery.

Settling down

In many other spots, the ground was not rising, but sinking. Near Wink and Imperial, Texas, old wells that have been abandoned but not properly plugged with cement have allowed freshwater to seep into the ground, dissolving salt formations deep under the surface. As voids open up underground, they can cause the surface to sink or collapse. Near Wink, a sinkhole opened up in 1980 and another in 2002; the ground around these sinkholes is still dropping down by about 1.5 inches (4 cm) a year, Lu and his colleagues found.

Near Imperial, subsidence from leaky wells that were in some cases drilled 50 years ago has caused major problems. Boehmer Lake, a brackish body of water just south of town, didn't exist until 2003, Lu said.

"Now there is a lake!" he said.

Farm-to-Market Road 1053 near the lake is sinking by 4 inches (10 cm) a year, Lu and his team discovered. That road has been closed due to its instability.

And at the Santa Rosa Spring southwest of the town of Grandfalls, the ground is also dropping. The surface level has gone down by 9 inches (23 cm) total since 2014, the satellite data revealed. This subsidence is probably also caused by the dissolution of salt formations below the surface, Lu said, though it's not totally clear how or why the salt is dissolving so rapidly.

Finally, the research team discovered about 1.7 inches (4.5 cm) of subsidence at Wolfbone Field, south of the town of Pecos. This field has also been the site of six small earthquakes, one in 2015 and five in 2017. The ground is likely slumping at Wolfbone Field because of the large amount of oil removed from the subsurface since 2015, Lu and his team wrote in the journal Scientific Reports. The same changes could make temblors more likely, they added.

Li and his team are funded by NASA to investigate the man-made geological changes along the Gulf Coast, and they still have two more years to complete that project, which will cover West Texas all the way to northern Florida. They're now attempting to get funding to study the rest of the Permian Basin in West Texas, as well. Monitoring the changing landscape will help in coming up with new methods to prevent further sinking, sliding and quaking, Lu said.

Editor's Note: This article was updated to correct the spelling of Zhong Lu's last name.

Original article on Live Science.China's Tiangong-1 space station is expected to hit Earth sometime over Easter weekend, between March 30 and April 2, according to the European Space Agency's (ESA) Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany.

Authorities aren't sure where it will hit, except somewhere under the station's orbital path between 43 degrees north and 43 degrees south latitudes. That orbital path includes the United States and most of the world's population. On the off chance a piece of Tiangong-1 hits you, is anyone liable?

While the following shouldn't be construed as legal advice, there are some general guidelines to help you understand more about space junk and liability. [In Photos: A Look at China's Space Station That's Crashing to Earth]

First, it is unlikely that many pieces of Tiangong-1 will fall to Earth. The station is just about 18,740 lbs. (9 tons), compared with the almost 100-ton defunct U.S. Skylab space station that broke up in Earth's atmosphere in 1979. NASA tried to aim Skylab at a remote spot in the ocean south-southeast of Cape Town, South Africa. However, the agency miscalculated the rate of Skylab's decay. Some parts of the space station slammed into Australia, east of Perth. Luckily, there were no reported injuries.

The Chinese space lab, Tiangong-1, is about the size of a bus, and it's currently falling to Earth. (Image credit: The Aerospace Corporation)

Even if parts of Tiangong-1 survive the descent, the odds that space junk will hit you are a million times less than they would be for winning the Powerball jackpot, or about 1 in 292 million, Live Science previously reported. Even your odds of getting struck by lightning are greater  about 1 in 1.4 million. By contrast, the top cause of death in the United States in 2014 was cardiovascular disease, with 193 deaths per 100,000 people.

The liability for space debris rests with the United Nations Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused By Space Objects, which came into force in 1972. Under the terms of the convention, damage includes "loss of life, personal injury or other impairment of health; or loss or of damage to property of States or of persons ... or property of international intergovernmental organizations." Claims typically must be launched through diplomatic channels within one year of the incident. Compensation is meted out under international law and "the principles of justice and equity," the convention states.

The nation (or nations) that launched the object is "absolutely liable" for compensating the injured party, according to the convention. Damages, however, do not apply to nationals of the launching state, or foreign nations "participating in the operation of that space object from the time of its launching or at any stage thereafter until its descent"  including if the launching nation invites the foreign nationals to attend the launch or recovery operations. [What Should You Do If You Find a Piece of China's Crashed Space Station?]

Just one person, Lottie Williams of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has ever been hit by space junk, according to news reports  but she wasn't hurt. On Jan. 22, 1997, Williams saw "a flash of light resembling a meteor," according to Wired. A few moments later, something metallic fell onto her shoulder. NASA reportedly said her incident came close to the timing of the re-entry and breakup of the second stage of a Delta rocket coming into Earth's atmosphere. Most of the rocket's debris landed in Texas, a few hundred miles away.

There is at least one precedent for damages paid out under the Liability Convention of 1972, Brian Weeden, a technical adviser with the Secure World Foundation, said in a 2013 interview with Live Science sister site Space.com. In 1978, a Soviet nuclear-powered satellite called Cosmos 954 crashed into northwestern Canada, releasing large amounts of radioactive material.

Canada asked for 6 million Canadian dollars in compensation, which works out to C$21.6 million ($16.7 million) in 2018 dollars. The case never made it to court, but the Soviet Union eventually paid Canada half of the requested amount  C$3 million ($2.3 million)  following diplomatic negotiations.

Weeden spoke to Space.com shortly after Chinese space debris apparently destroyed a defunct Russian weather satellite in January 2013. The debris arose from a 2007 anti-satellite missile test that China had launched against its own defunct weather satellite, called FY-1C.

"There's never been a court case on this topic, and there's no standard for what 'fault' or 'negligence' is in regard to collisions in space," Weeden told Space.com at the time, adding that he is not a lawyer.

"I know lawyers who could probably argue that China is at fault because they deliberately destroyed the FY-1C in an ASAT test, but plenty of other lawyers who could argue that since there have been six years of natural forces acting on the orbit of the piece of Chinese debris, it was actually caused by force majeure  All of that means it's extremely unlikely anything definitive will come of this from some sort of lawsuit," he added.

Originally published on Live Science.Space trackers are watching the skies closely this week for the end of China's Tiangong-1 space lab, which will likely fall back to Earth sometime during Easter weekend (March 30 to April 2). The one-module station is in an uncontrolled fall and will re-enter the atmosphere somewhere underneath the spacecraft's orbit, between 43 degrees north and 43 degrees south latitudes. No one knows exactly where and when yet.

Although the odds of getting hit by debris from the space station are extremely small  and only some pieces of Tiangong-1 will make it through the atmosphere  the craft's demise has some people asking why China's first space station is meeting such a seemingly reckless end.

The space station launched from China on Sept. 29, 2011, and received visits from three space missions. First came an uncrewed spacecraft (Shenzhou 8, in October 2011), which was followed by two crews (Shenzhou 9 and Shenzhou 10, in 2012 and 2013, respectively).

Tiangong-1 was a coup for the Chinese space program, which saw its first taikonaut (astronaut) mission in 2003, eight years before the space station's launch. Even when missions weren't in progress, the space station was transmitting information to Earth. Automated data was used for ocean and forest monitoring, and to gain information in support of the response to China's Yuyao flood disaster in 2013, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office. [In Photos: A Look at China's Space Station That's Crashing to Earth]

But on March 21, 2016, that office announced that it was no longer communicating with the space station. "The functions of the space laboratory and target orbiter have been disabled after an extended service period of about two and a half years, although it remains in designed orbit," read a report from Chinese state media source Xinhua. The report added that Tiangong-1 was expected to burn up in the atmosphere after the station's orbit decayed, as happens naturally due to the forces of gravity and drag from the atmosphere.

It was unclear from the report if China deliberately turned off the telemetry connection to the space station or if that connection was lost. At the time, the country was already working on a successor space station, Tiangong-2, which launched just six months after communications with Tiangong-1 ceased.

Regardless of how contact with Tiangong-1 was lost, a lack of telemetry connection means Chinese engineers cannot control Tiangong-1, including steering its path into the atmosphere. China gave a summary of what to expect in a May 2017 statement to the United Nations. The country said that there is little danger to people on the ground, because "most of the structural components of Tiangong-1 will be destroyed through burning during the course of its re-entry."

China also promised it would give information about Tiangong-1's re-entry through news reports and communication with the United Nations.

While pieces of the 18,740-lb. (9.4 tons, or 8,500 kilograms) space station are expected to make it to the ground, space experts have said Tiangong-1's re-entry likely won't leave as much debris behind as the 100-ton (90 metric tons) NASA Skylab space station did when it fell in a remote area of Australia in 1979. No injuries were reported in that event.

NASA (which could communicate with Skylab shortly before its re-entry) had attempted to steer the station into the ocean south of Cape Town, South Africa. Skylab, however, broke up at a different time than expected.

Originally published on Live Science.The Chinese space station Tiangong-1 is going to crash to Earth in an uncontrolled re-entry sometime between March 30 and April 2, and it's too soon to say where. But what will happen as the 9.4-ton (8.5 metric ton) satellite falls out of orbit?

First, Tiangong-1 will start to lose altitude. The space station launched in 2011 and has been orbiting Earth at about 217 miles (350 kilometers) above the surface ever since. Objects in low-Earth orbit  below around 1,200 miles (2,000 km)  are still subject to the drag forces of the very top layer of the atmosphere, so they need a periodic boost. This simply consists of docking a powered spacecraft to the bottom of the satellite and turning on the engines for a short period of time, said Roger Launius, a public historian and former associate director at the National Air and Space Museum. The International Space Station used to get these boosts from the space shuttle but now gets them from Soyuz capsules and private resupply missions, Launius told Live Science. [In Photos: A Look at China's Space Station That's Falling to Earth]

Tiangong-1 was put into "sleep" mode in 2013, but Chinese engineers still had some ability to maneuver the spacecraft's position in orbit, keeping it aloft at between 205 miles and 242 miles (330 and 390 km) above the planet, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). However, Chinese authorities announced in 2016 that the space station had stopped communicating data to Earth. Without a way to control the satellite, Tiangong-1's fate was sealed: It would fall to Earth as space debris.

"This is a spacecraft that's not designed to survive re-entry into the atmosphere and come down and land," Launius told Live Science.

Fiery end

As the friction of the upper atmosphere drags on Tiangong-1, it will gradually lose altitude, putting it in contact with even thicker atmosphere and creating more drag, which will pull it down farther and continue to slow its orbit, a process called orbital decay. According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, Tiangong-1 was orbiting at an average altitude of 131 miles (212 km) as of March 26. That corresponds to a flight velocity of 17,224 mph (27,719 km/h).

At that speed, the friction of the atmosphere generates enormous heat. Spacecraft can withstand this heat if they're covered with heat-shield material, but satellites like Tiangong-1 lack this shielding. In addition to the heat, the space station will start slowing rapidly as it encounters thicker and thicker atmosphere, according to The Aerospace Corporation. The deceleration will introduce loads up to 10 times the acceleration of gravity onto the structure, which begins to break up the spacecraft, peeling off parts and cracking the main body.

Most of the small parts broken off the space station will burn up from the heat generated by the friction, but experts expect that some pieces will survive the inferno of the fall to hit the ground. Close to the ground, where the atmosphere is very dense, the remaining pieces will slow and cool considerably, according to The Aerospace Corporation.

Historical precedent

Small defunct satellites and space debris fall from low-Earth orbit through the atmosphere every month, Launius said. Most of the time, this small stuff burns up, though it can be a danger in actual orbit, where it might collide with manned spacecraft. Bigger stuff has come down before, too, though. The Russian space station Mir re-entered the atmosphere  under control  in March 2001, breaking up over the South Pacific so that any large chunks fell harmlessly into the ocean.

Russia's Salyut 7 space station went into an uncontrolled re-entry in 1991, but its pieces hit the southern Pacific. Salyut 7 weighed about 22 tons (20 metric tons). Much larger was Skylab, NASA's orbiting science lab, which weighed 85 tons (77 metric tons) and went down in July 1979. Skylab's descent was under partial control, as NASA scientists were able to fire its boosters as it entered the atmosphere, aiming the giant chunk of metal at the Indian Ocean. It mostly worked, though some parts did fall over Australia.

"One of them killed a jackrabbit," Launius said.

The unfortunate jackrabbit is one of the few actual casualties of space debris, Launius said. There are no records of anyone being seriously injured or killed by falling space junk, though a woman named Lottie Williams from Tulsa, Oklahoma, got tapped on the shoulder by a soda-can-size piece of metal from a Delta II Rocket in 1997, according to Space Safety Magazine. She was uninjured.

Because no one can predict precisely the moment Tiangong-1 will tumble  and because even a moment's miscalculation of re-entry can translate to hundreds or thousands of miles on the ground  predicting the space station's fall is impossible until about a day before re-entry, according to the ESA. Even then, the estimate will cover many thousands of kilometers. The space agency is posting updates on its website as the day of the fall approaches.

Original article on Live Science.A 51-year-old San Bruno man will receive a sentence of 40 years to life in prison after pleading no contest to the slaying and dismemberment of his 77-year-old neighbor, prosecutors said Monday.

David Brian Stubblefield on Friday appeared in San Mateo County court, where he pleaded no contest to second-degree murder as part of a plea deal, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

The deal allows Stubblefield to obtain a parole hearing after serving 25 years of his 40-years-to-life sentence under the Elderly Parole Program. His sentencing comes nearly a year after the grisly murder of his neighbor, when an argument erupted between the two over the cost of a space heater.

Its an interesting case, Wagstaffe said.

In March 2017, Stubblefield, a known curmudgeon in the Pacific Heights Boulevard neighborhood in San Bruno, decided to sell his belongings and move to Oregon. His neighbor, Benjamin Roybal, attempted to negotiate the sale of Stubblefields space heater, which led to an argument  over what exactly remains a mystery.

What we cant tell you is, why did Mr. Stubblefield decide to kill this victim? Wagstaffe said.

Stubblefield told investigators he killed his neighbor in self defense. In response to Roybals escalating anger, he said, he pepper-sprayed the victim. Roybal then grabbed a 9mm handgun and was planning to shoot Stubblefield, he said, but Stubblefield was able to wrestle the weapon out of the 77-year-olds hand and shoot him dead.

We believe that this part of the story is made up, Wagstaffe said.

Officers responded to the scene on March 29, when Roybals landlord called for a welfare check after not hearing from his tenant. They reportedly arrived to Roybals home and interviewed neighbors, including Stubblefield, on the missing mans whereabouts.

During their interview with Stubblefield, an officer noticed a putrid aroma that resembled rotting flesh, Wagstaffe said. Stubblefield reportedly panicked and attempted to flee, forcing the officers to tackle him and take him into custody.

He later admitted to killing Roybal, Wagstaffe said.

Investigators found Roybals body parts in both his own house and Stubblefields home.

He had cut them into pieces and he was in the process of wrapping them, Wagstaffe said.

The coroner determined that Stubblefield had used a chainsaw to partition Roybals body parts.

Stubblefield also tried to use household chemicals to dissolve the body, investigators said. Roybals hands and teeth have never been found, but a 9mm gun was recovered at Stubblefields home.

While the motive remains a mystery, Wagstaffe said, he believes the murder was premeditated because the chemicals were purchased before the crime.

Stubblefield doesnt have any prior violent criminal history. He was previously arrested for driving under the influence and served 16 months in 1997 for possession of methamphetamine for purposes of sale.

His sentencing is May 25.

Wagstaffe called the crime a haunting reminder of a similar crime that occurred nearly 20 ears ago. In 2003, Bobby Tran, now 44, was sentenced to 26 years in prison for the murder and dismemberment of Xiu Jiang, who worked in an illicit massage parlor and went missing in January 1999. She had attempted to get Trans help in marrying to avoid deportation.

Tran killed the woman, dismembered her and placed her body parts in a large container that was hidden in a storage unit for years. He made monthly payments on the storage unit until he was arrested for an unrelated incident in San Jose.

While he was incarcerated, Tran defaulted on his payments and the storage unit company auctioned off his unit. The man who won the auction ended up discovering the womans body parts as he went through the storage units belongings.

That man was Roybal.

What an irony, Wagstaffe said.A Twitter user has set the social media platform on fire with his claim that "Monsters Inc." is the best Disney, Pixar film ever made.

The message that set Twitter off was from Jolley Rancher (@smjxmj) Sunday. In it was a March Madness-like bracket with a breakdown of Rancher's selection for best Disney, Pixar movie. In his Final Four were "Tangled," "Mulan," "Toy Story 2" and "Monsters Inc.," with the latter taking the top prize.

"For the record y'all I didn't seed this bracket I only filled it out with the correct picks," Rancher tweeted in jest after his bracket collected nearly 30,000 likes and 6,800 retweets. "Okay guys, I totally understand the Cars 3 > Coco beef. I just really connected with Cars 3 being about an injured racer trying to make it back bc I've been in the same situation. Knocking out Coco was tough though, it should've gone deeper with a better seeded bracket."

Rancher's tweet set off a chain reaction off responses from people in disbelief.

Swipe through to see some of the best responses and download your own Disney, Pixar bracket here.

Fernando Alfonso III is a digital reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on twitter at @fernalfonso.A man has ben sentenced to prison in a Laredo federal court for trafficking enough fentanyl to possibly kill nearly 6 million people, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Visiting U.S. Appellate Judge Kimberly Moore sentenced Jeffrey Layne Parker, 57, to 14 years in prison following his conviction of trafficking heroin, cocaine and nearly 26 pounds of fentanyl.

Parker, of Belleville, Illinois, pleaded guilty Aug. 31.

READ ALSO: LPD: Couple found smoking pot in car with 2-year-old

During his sentencing, prosecutors presented additional evidence indicating that fentanyl is 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin and that one gram of fentanyl can result in the deaths of between 300 and 500 people.

The fentanyl found in Parker's car could have caused the deaths of up to 5.8 million people  more than the populations of Dallas, San Antonio and Houston combined, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

Prosecutors said Parker had transported loads of narcotics at least four other times.

U.S. Border Patrol agents first arrested him March 7, 2017, at the checkpoint on Interstate 35 after agents discovered 16 packages of narcotics in the trunk of his black Chevy Impala, according to court documents.

Agents said they seized about 26 pounds of fentanyl, 4 pounds of heroin, 3 pounds of marijuana and 76 grams of cocaine. Parker was arrested but later released due to a medical issue, an affidavit states.

Border Patrol arrested Parker a second time June 7 at the same checkpoint.

READ ALSO: Investigators say missing Iowa family found dead in Mexico

This time, he was transporting about 25 pounds of heroin in a white Ford F-150. Parker told authorities he was smuggling narcotics in order to pay off a debt, the affidavit states.

The Drug Enforcement Administration conducted the investigation with the assistance of Border Patrol.

The 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment published by the DEA states that fentanyl is synthetic opioid approved for use as a painkiller and anesthetic.

The drug's extremely strong opioid properties  both analgesic and euphoric  have made it an attractive drug of abuse for opioid users. Pharmaceutical fentanyl is diverted from healthcare facilities, although usually on a small scale and for personal use or street sales, the assessment states.HANDOUT/SFC

David Lynchs great Mulholland Dr. (2001) and a rare screening of Play It As It Lays (1972) show that the #MeToo movement has been a long time coming.

Actors have much longer professional careers than actresses. It has something to do with our sexist tastes in human style. ... The thing is, you see, the real power in Hollywood always belongs to the money brokers, and they are almost always men: the executives, producers, directors.A proposal in which Shoreacres residents would have voted whether their small city should be annexed by neighboring La Porte has been removed from the May ballot after state officials warned that a key element for annexation was missing - participation by La Porte.

A petition effort in Shoreacres had gained sufficient signatures from residents to require its council to place the matter on the ballot for that city, which has a population of about 1,700. But what also would have been required in an annexation process was a similar petition effort and council authorization in La Porte to put the matter to a vote by its residents - something a La Porte official says never happened.

"We were never presented with a petition in the city of La Porte at all," La Porte City Manager Corby Alexander said. La Porte has a population of about 34,700.

No discussions occurred at La Porte City Council meetings about annexation and no residents addressed the council about it, Alexander said, adding that to his knowledge, no petition to get the measure on the council's agenda was circulated in La Porte.

Alexander said he was never contacted by Shoreacres Mayor Kimberly Sanford about the matter.

"There certainly wasn't any city staff (Sanford) was talking to, and I don't believe she was talking to any council (members)," Alexander said.

Attempts to contact Sanford were unsuccessful.

In January, 108 signatures in Shoreacres were gathered in favor of consolidation of the two cities. That number was at least 15 percent of the total number of voters in Shoreacres' most recent election, which is the legal threshold for requiring the measure to be placed on the ballot.

The Texas Secretary of State's office intervened at the request of La Porte city officials.

Although the consolidation petition in Shoreacres reached the threshold required for an election, another petition meeting state qualifications would also have to be received by the city of La Porte before an election could be ordered, said Sam Taylor, communications director for the Secretary of State's office.

After the state's determination, Shoreacres was forced to remove the measure from the ballot, Shoreacres City Councilman David Jennings said.

The matter of placing the annexation proposal before voters was first shot down 3-1 by Shoreacres' council with one abstention at a Jan. 22 meeting but later passed 4-1 at a February meeting as required by the verified petition. Sanders was not present at either meeting, according to audio recordings of the meetings.

According to a recording of the January meeting, City Councilman Ron Hoskins cast the only yes vote, saying, "All this does is put it on the ballot and basically gives the citizens the right to vote.

"It was a valid petition. For council to sit here and say that you don't want to let the citizens decide, it's not for us to decide. It takes the power totally out of council."

At a Feb. 12 Shoreacres council meeting, Jennings and other council members expressed disapproval while voting to place the proposal on the ballot. The only no vote came from City Councilman Jerome McKown, who called the matter a "complete waste of time."

Jennings later said he was against the annexation idea but had been forced to vote in favor.

"I've got too many reasons," he said of his opposition to annexation. "I like living in a small town. Shoareacres has a lot of positive characteristics that I like, and that's why I moved there in the first place."

Jennings said he was never asked to sign the petition that circulated in Shoreacres in January.

"I have not heard one reason why they wanted to do it," he said of those who conducted the petition effort. "I don't know what they were telling people they asked."March 12

At 2:30 a.m., Officer Tim Quimby observed a gray 2006 Chevrolet Impala, which was expired as of 10/2017, in the 4600 block of Bellaire Blvd Westbound. The driver was found to have a suspended TXDL with previous convictions and also two outstanding Bellaire warrants. The driver was placed into custody and transported to the Bellaire Police Jail for processing and detention.

At 3:28 a.m., Officer Clisham initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle in the 5400 block of Bellaire Boulevard. After making contact with the driver and further investigation, Officer Clisham located a baggie containing a white powdery substance, later determined to be cocaine, and a firearm inside the vehicle. The suspect in this case was charged with possession of a controlled substance and unlawful carry of a weapon.

At 8:32 p.m., Officer Schwausch was patrolling the 5400 block of IH 610 NB when he observed a gray Charger travelling in front him with an expired temporary tag. Officer Schwausch initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle at the 5400 block of IH 610 NB and found the front passenger side person was in possession of approximately 18 grams of marijuana. The driver was found to have multiple Houston Police Department warrants, the rear passenger was found to have multiple Houston Police Department warrants, and the front passenger accepted the Misdemeanor Marijuana Diversion Program offered by the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

At 6:26 p.m., an unknown black male suspect entered 4903 Bissonnet St. and stole a chainsaw. The suspect and his accomplice were last seen fleeing the area in a light gray Dodge Caravan. Bellaire Police Officers Lysack and Schwausch were dispatched to this incident.

March 14

At 4:07 p.m., Officer Lysack was on patrol when he observed two males working near the front left wheel, headlight, and bumper of a vehicle. Officer Lysack observed an elderly female in the driver's seat of the vehicle at 5320 Bellaire Blvd. Officer Lysack is aware of the common scam to take advantage of the elderly by pretending to make repairs to their vehicles. Officer Lysack made contact with all parties involved and upon further investigation the two males were placed into custody along with their female friend. One male was arrested for fail to identify - fugitive from justice, the other male was arrested for soliciting without a permit, and the female was arrested for multiple warrants out of the City of Houston.

At 7:48 p.m., officers T. Younger and D. Norman were dispatched to 5101 Jessamine St. in reference to an identity theft. Upon arrival, Officers met with the victim who advised an unknown suspect(s) stole the victim's identifying information and used it to attempt to obtain a vehicle loan.

At 11:49 p.m., Officer Barrientos observed a silver 2002 Chevy Suburban in the 7700 block of IH 610 southbound and ran a computer query on the license plate. The return on that license plate returned as cancelled since 12/06/2017. Ofc. Barrientos conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle. During the investigation, the driver of the suburban was placed in custody for Unauthorized Use of Vehicle. The passenger was placed in custody for an outstanding warrant out of McAllen, Texas.

March 15

At 6:22 p.m., Officers T. Younger and D. Norman were dispatched to the 4500 block of Pin Oak Lane in reference to a burglary of a habitation. Officers made contact with the victim who advised sometime between 2:40 p.m. March 14 and 6:21 p.m. March 15 an unknown suspect forced entry into the residence and stole two computer laptops.

At 12:20 p.m., city of Bellaire Police Communications received a 911 call in reference to a road rage incident involving a gun near the 5600 block of Bellaire Boulevard. Officers Andrade and Vorhees located the suspect vehicle and initiated a traffic stop. After further investigation, the driver was placed in custody for misdemeanor disorderly conduct-display of a deadly weapon.

At 11:53 a.m., Officer Andrade was dispatched to the Bellaire Police Department Lobby in reference to found property in the 5100 block of Elm Street. Officer Andrade met with the reportee who stated he found a cell phone eighteen months ago and wanted to turn it in.

March 16

At 10:32 p.m., Officers T. Younger and D. Norman observed a white, 2002, Honda Accord operating in the 7800 block of Chimney Rock Road. Upon a computer query of said license plate, the vehicle was shown to have expired registration (04/2015). Officers initiated a traffic stop on the said vehicle for the above violation. Upon further investigation, the driver was arrested for the misdemeanor B violation driving while license suspended.

At 12:40 p.m., Officer Santillanes observed a vehicle operating in the 5100 block of Bellaire Boulevard with an expired registration of 06/2017. Officer Santillanes initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle for the above violation. The driver was arrested for driving while license suspended-enhancement.

At 2:14 p.m., Officer Liccketto was dispatched to the parking lot of Randall's at 5130 Bellaire Blvd. in reference to a theft from a person. The suspect snatched the purse of the victim while she was in the driver seat of her vehicle. The suspect then got into his vehicle, which was parked next to the victim, and was last seen headed West on Bissonnet Street. The victim was not injured.

At 1:30 p.m., Officer Liccketto was dispatched to 6330 West Loop South in reference to a fight in progress. Officer Liccketto met with both subjects. During a struggle over a child, one subject pushed the other and one party felt pain. At the time of the incident, the subject who felt pain did not advise responding officers she felt pain, and came into the lobby of the Bellaire Fire Department at a later date to file a report.

March 17

At 10:04 a.m., Bellaire Police Officer Vorhees was approached by the owner of P-King restaurant to report a burglary of a business that occurred on March 15 at 5313 Bellaire Blvd.

At 5:36 p.m., Officers Proctor, Schwausch, and Licketto were dispatched to the area of 5002 Bellaire Blvd. in reference to a theft in progress. Officers searched the area and located the suspect at 5500 Bellaire Blvd. who had stolen the items and fled the scene on foot. The suspect was found to have a warrant out of Harris County for Theft less than $2500 with 2 or more convictions. At approximately 1803 hours, Officer Proctor placed the suspect into custody for felony theft and the Harris County warrant. The suspect was then transported to Bellaire Jail for booking.

At 7:38 p.m., Officer Schwausch was dispatched to the Valero Gas Station at 4439 Bissonnet Street in reference to a female who appeared to be intoxicated and about to take off in a car. Officer Schwausch arrived and made contact with the female, who after further investigation was not authorized by the registered owner to use the motor vehicle. The female was subsequently charged and transported to the Bellaire Jail for processing.

March 18

At 11:19 p.m., Officer Barrientos was dispatched to the 5200 block of IH 610 East Service Road for an in progress driving while intoxicated call. Bellaire Police Dispatch informed Ofc. Barrientos the reportee was following a black Ford F-150 which was driving recklessly, hitting street curbs and running multiple red lights. Ofc. Barrientos arrived and made contact with the driver who was outside the car. The driver stated he ran out of gas. Ofc. Barrientos observed the driver to have red blood shot eyes, slurred speech and the smell of an alcoholic beverage emitting from his breath and person. Ofc. Barrientos placed the driver in custody for driving while intoxicated.It is the first day of classes and adults of all ages are shaking and wondering how they will be able to complete the exercise by only speaking English, the language they do not know.

Not a word in their native language is allowed. Whether their native tongue is Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, they have to figure out who each other are and line up in alphabetical order. After some minutes of struggles and wild guesses, students finish the challenge and succeed in their first English immersion class.

Students taking English as a Second Language courses at Memorial Assistance Ministries come from all over the world, are different ages and are in different stages in their lives. ESL is just one of the services offered by the non-profit located in Spring Branch.

"MAM's mission is really to assure that families have the means to meet their basic needs," said Martha Macris, president and CEO at Memorial Assistance Ministries. "The way it plays out is that we do provide financial assistance to families who need rent, utilities, to be able to stay housed, stay at work or stay in school."

Basic needs before language

Macris said when moving to a new country, things are resolved in order of priorities.

"First people are really preoccupied with the day-to-day living, with basic needs, and once they are established, then it is time to work on their English so life can get better," Macris said.

According to a study from the Migration Policy Institute, published in the National Immigration Forum, nearly 22.8 million people in the U.S. were limited English proficient (LEP) in 2013, of whom 87 percent were immigrants.

Proficiency in English gives immigrants a better salary and they are less likely to need financial assistance, Macris said.

"It is our motivation for being able to offer these services, it is really so families can take care of themselves and build better lives," Macris said.

Macris said a person can move from speaking no English to becoming fluent speakers within two years of taking MAM classes. In 2017, MAM had 719 active ESL students.

"Our goal is that 75 percent of our students will be attending 75 percent of our classes and that they progress to the next level," Macris said.

English as a Second Language classes are held Mondays through Thursdays, in the morning or in the evening.

The 'real key to a place like MAM'

Prior to the 1983 oil bust, people were drawn from other states and countries to Texas to make their dreams come alive with oil money. But the following recession shattered the economy and changed the plans of citizens. As a reaction, people mobilized themselves throughout the city to receive assistance. Some people knocked on the doors of churches on Memorial Drive, asking for help to pay rent, mortgage, gas, or for money to move their family back to their home states.

The churches then bended together to set up some type of social enterprise, and for most of us it was a thrift store, where items could be donated and sold at affordable prices, Macris said.

"I think the real key to a place like MAM is that we have been very responsive to local need at the given local circumstances," Macris said.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the number of foreign born living in Texas has increased by an average of 125,000 people a year since 1990, rising from 1.5 million to 4.3 million.

In the '90s, as a result of new immigrant families settling in the community, Memorial Assistance Ministries added English as a Second Language and school programing, such as clothing, school supplies because there we immigrants coming into the community in order to provide children with adequate resources to succeed in school.

In the early 2000s, Memorial Assistance Ministries has been adding programing to help people build their skills and capabilities to be successful in the current economic situation, like understanding about the banking system and credit, Macris said.

Memorial Assistance Ministries was created, helped the need in the community and continued functioning, increasing the type of services offered.

Citizenship classes and Immigration legal services

In addition to English as a Second Language, Memorial Assistance Ministries offers citizenship classes and Immigration Legal Services.

The 12-week course at MAM is run by a staff member and a volunteer team, where students learn relevant material to the citizenship exam, which include an English and civics test. The first test includes: reading, writing, and speaking; and the latter, U.S. history and government topics.

Citizenship classes are held twice a week.

Memorial Assistance Ministries has two staff attorneys and a caseworker who help with the Immigration legal services on Fridays, where clients are charged a $30 consultation fee.

The services include: family-based petitions, renewal or replacement of lawful permanent residency card, adjustment of status to lawful permanent residency, naturalization or citizenship consultations, humanitarian-based petitions for victims of criminal legal consultations, community education about immigration, presentation of rights

In 2017 Memorial Assistance Ministries had 261 individuals with active case files and 410 legal filings done. In addition, there were 210 total students taking citizenship classes and 34 new citizens, in the same year.

A new citizen

With more than 4 million immigrants, Texas ranks in the top three of the number of foreign born dwellers, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

After having lived in Miami, Florida, for 22 years, Cathy Blanco was deported to her native Colombia. As Blanco's immediate family lives in Miami, she said the situation was difficult to handle.

"It was devastating. There are no words to express how I felt and knowing that my family was suffering because of it as well, but going into a country that I did not know, a country that even though it was my country, I did not fit in culturally," Blanco said.

After completing two years in a community college, Blanco's dreams shattered after she found out she could not be able to continue her education.

"After graduating high school, I was able to go to community college for two years and I wanted to continue because I had my dreams of being a professional, I wanted to be a star broker and major in finance," Blanco said.

Blanco lived in Colombia for eight years. Three years after that, Blanco found out she was eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship, so she completed the paperwork.

"For a while I felt like I was in limbo because I was nobody here and nobody there," Blanco said.

Having arrived to the U.S. as child, Blanco said she was not sure how her situation would affect her, and that as a child, all she cared about what to live in the country where Disney World was.

"As I got older, I noticed that my parents were afraid and that it was talked about immigration and the police, there was this fear that was stirred in our home, our family, that if you see the police, even if it is two miles away, you better run because they can get you deported," Blanco said.

There are several other organizations in the Greater Houston area that provide similar services as Memorial Assistance Ministries, such as: Humble Area Assistance Ministries, West Houston Assistance Ministries, Northwest Assistance Ministries, Southeast Area Ministries, Tomball Emergency Assistance Ministries, Cypress Assistance Ministries, among others.

"For 22 years I felt like I had no rights. Now I have rights, but no only do I have rights, now that I am a citizen, I have a voice, and for so long I did not have a voice, for me it is unreal," Blanco said.Missouri City officials say operating costs at the city's animal shelter are expected to more than double after new policies and procedures brought about by recent disagreements with a group of shelter volunteers were put in place.

"We are at the point that whatever it takes to make sure our animals are safe and that we have the appropriate medications and tests applied, that's what we're doing now," City Manager Anthony Snipes said Wednesday, March 22.

Currently, shelter expenditures total approximately $219,000 annually and are expected to increase by more than $250,000 next year.

The policy shift started after shelter volunteers launched an email and social media campaign to lobby for more resources for the animal shelter. A few weeks later, a confrontation between an animal control officer and a shelter volunteer was mentioned in a city news release as the "Dec. 13 incident" and soon after volunteers claim donated pet medicines kept at the shelter were confiscated and taken to the police department.

Seeking guidance, city officials contacted three different state agencies for help including the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners. The agency's enforcement director, Matthew West, eventually traveled to Missouri City and personally met with Mayor Allen Owen and other city officials. West then evaluated shelter operations and on Jan. 22 wrote a five-page letter that noted "several areas of concern" including "Xanax and Tramadol (as well as other controlled substances) being brought and/or solicited for donations by volunteers."

Possession of controlled substances violates state law and volunteers could face felony charges of delivery of a controlled substance if the drugs were given to "adoptive clients," West wrote.

Previously, volunteers managed routine care for shelter animals, such as administering intake vaccinations, flea treatments and heartworm tests. Volunteers also helped staff the shelter office and brought donated or leftover pet medicines to treat shelter animals. But Owen and others were now being warned by officials from the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners against allowing volunteers or untrained staffers to administer pet medicines.

New policies state that every dog or cat that ends up at the animal shelter receives individual care by a local vet. According to the city manager, future plans are to hire a full-time shelter manager and contract with a local vet to come to the shelter to oversee medicines, flea treatments and manage heartworm tests for dogs, Snipes said.

"I just wanted to make sure the city was doing what it needed to do to make sure the animals in our shelter were taken care of properly and legally," Owen said. "I was the one who asked the city manager to contact all the agencies we needed to make sure were doing things right."

To offset the higher costs, the city council recently voted to increase the current fee for each shelter animal adopted from $15 to $85 and $70 for dogs and cats, respectively. The council also approved increasing the annual pet registration fee from $2 to $10 for sterilized animals and from $5 to $20 for non-sterilized animals.

In addition, the shelters standard operating procedures was recently updated and a new volunteer policies and procedures manual was recently put place.

City officials say they hope to mend fences with the shelter volunteers and finally put the past behind them.

"We have a heart for the betterment and care of these animals and what we're saying to the community is: work with us, not against us, so we can move forward," Snipes said.WASHINGTON - Six weeks after rioting destroyed huge swaths of Washington in 1968, one of the city's supervisors in Congress, an unrepentant segregationist named John McMillan, convened a committee hearing to grill public safety officials about their handling of the crisis. "Johnny Mac," as folks called him, was upset that police and military troops, in his view, had been meek and ineffective in combating the mayhem.

Why hadn't looters been shot on sight?

McMillan, chairman of the House Committee on the District of Columbia, was a leader among the conservative white Democrats on Capitol Hill who governed the majority-black city like a board of aldermen in the years before municipal home rule.

As the fiery chaos raged in early April, sparked by the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, authorities in Washington had shown unusual restraint. To avoid further inflaming the disturbance and to minimize injuries, riot-control forces had been told to stand back from rampaging mobs unless adequate manpower was available to subdue them safely. And no shots were to be fired except to save a life.

The result: While property damage in Washington was worse or nearly as bad as the destruction during previous urban riots in 1960s America, the body count was relatively low, with 13 deaths attributed to the unrest. Washington police were responsible for two of the fatalities - a small toll compared with the carnage caused by police and soldiers in other cities in earlier years, when rioters had been met with reckless gunfire.

"For that I was proud of my department," Maurice Cullinane, a police lieutenant in 1968, said recently. Referring to his fellow officers, Cullinane, now 85, who later became police chief, said, "They were not going to kill somebody to save a window from getting broken or to save a liquor store."

But McMillan, a 70-year-old son of Jim Crow-era South Carolina, was annoyed at what he considered "leniency" toward brazen lawbreakers.

Before the civil rights era, even in day-to-day police work, authorities in the United States tended to tolerate the use of deadly force more readily than they do now. By 1968, however, public safety officials across the country had learned a lesson from riot-related bloodshed earlier in the decade, much of it caused by police and military gunfire that often felled innocent bystanders and incited crowds to greater havoc.

In scores of civil disturbances following King's death, authorities displayed newfound caution about using firearms. And nowhere was this restraint more noticeable than in Washington, which endured the worst rioting in America after the assassination.

The smoke had barely cleared from the violence - heavily concentrated near downtown, on commercial blocks of 14th and Seventh streets NW and H Street NE - when numerous merchants, most of them white, complained to Congress that little had been done to stop throngs of African Americans from ransacking stores and torching buildings.

Gaveling his House committee to order, Johnny Mac wanted answers.

In the hearing room that morning, May 15, McMillan said, "Each one of these property owners states that a policeman was stationed outside their doors, and they asked them to help, and they weren't permitted to touch the looters or the people setting fires."

The allegation wasn't true: Police had made about 8,000 arrests during the mayhem, which began shortly after King was slain on Thursday, April 4, and continued through the weekend. Still, compared with the brute-force tactics used by police and soldiers in prior civil disturbances elsewhere in the country, the law-enforcement response to Washington's rioting had been tame.

For example, in August 1965 in the Watts section of Los Angeles, 34 civilians had perished; 26 had died in Newark in July 1967; and 43 had been killed the same July in Detroit. Anti-riot forces were to blame for most of the casualties. By contrast, in the District in 1968, two people were fatally shot by police (one of them accidentally, according to an inquest) while most of the 11 other deaths occurred in fires.

Melvin cott, now 83, who had been a Washington police officer for 11 years at the time of the disturbance, said recently that police and soldiers were told to form a line to stop rioters from moving west into predominantly white residential areas.

"We saw the fires," recalled Scott, who is black. "Our orders were . . . let them burn, let them loot, let them do anything they want, as long as they don't go over here."

On Capitol Hill, though, back in that era when Black Lives Didn't Matter so much, some old-school law-and-order men on the District Committee, especially the white Southerners, were angry that drastic, even lethal measures hadn't been taken to protect commercial property in Washington.

At the hearing, they demanded to know why Washington police and Army, Marine Corps and National Guard troops hadn't cracked more skulls on the streets, a transcript shows. Why had the city's white public safety director, the progressive-minded Patrick Murphy, been so cautious, allowing deadly force only if a life was clearly in danger? Why had soldiers been ordered not to fire or even load their rifles unless a military officer was present and gave permission?

"Do you think that all that was done was all that . . . should have been done during the recent troublesome riots and burning?" Rep. Thomas Abernethy, D-Miss., asked Murphy, who was new to his job that year.

A former Brooklyn beat cop, Murphy had gained national prominence as a police executive in several cities who advocated strong community relations over heavy-handed enforcement as a way to curb crime - a familiar strategy today, but not then.

"Some mistakes were made," he told the congressman, "but I am generally satisfied . . . "

Abernethy cut him off. "You are satisfied? . . . So you are satisfied with the horror left in this city and the loss of all the merchandise that was carried off, and the destruction?"

"No, sir," Murphy replied. Like others who testified, he seemed to choose his words carefully, perhaps to sidestep an all-out argument.

"I am terribly dissatisfied with the destruction," he said.

The two killings by D.C. police occurred April 5, on the second night of rioting, in poor neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River.

A suspect was being held at gunpoint in front of a looted store when a 15-year-old African American boy ran out of the shop, authorities said. They said he was mortally wounded when he brushed against an officer's cocked revolver, causing it to go off. Elsewhere, a black man, 20, also running from a looted store, was shot in the back after he brandished a shiny object "menacingly," according to the officer who pulled the trigger. The object turned out to be a possible shard of glass.

All told, 11 of the dead in Washington were African Americans and two were white, including a 28-year-old electrical worker who was stabbed.

Next to burned-out Morton's department store on H Street, one of the dead, a boy of 15, lay unnoticed in a smoke-damaged warehouse that never reopened.

Not until 1971 would his bones be discovered.

Late on Saturday, April 6, with 13,600 troops and most of the city's overwhelmingly white, 3,000-member police force deployed against rioters, Murphy and other municipal officials gathered for a news briefing.

Once-thriving commercial boulevards were in ruins. Dozens of businesses large and small - Flood's Shoe Repair, Columbia Carry Out; liquor stores, pawnshops and laundromats; an F.W. Woolworth, a Peoples Drug - stood blackened by flames. Overlapping hoses from convoys of firetrucks snaked along blocks of 14th, Seventh and H streets. Maxis Mens Wear had been torched; Your Home-Town Newspapers had been ransacked.

African-American owners spray-painted "SOUL" on their windows - at Arrow TV, at Ace Sewing Center - and those places had been spared.

"We heard some complaints from merchants that their stores are not being properly protected," a reporter said, according to a transcript of the news conference. This question became a media refrain: "They feel the police were ordered to take too delicate a position and were treating the people who were making the disturbance with kid gloves. What is your answer to that charge?"

Murphy, referring to the area where looting and fires had first broken out, said, "I take personal responsibility for the decision . . . to withdraw some officers from 14th Street and U because I felt they were personally endangered and might find it necessary to use firearms to protect themselves."

If not everyone in Congress fully appreciated the perils of police and military gunfire in the cauldron of a riot, Murphy, who died in 2011, and others in Washington did. Among them were President Lyndon Johnson and former deputy defense secretary Cyrus Vance (a future secretary of state), who had been Johnson's eyes and ears in Detroit during the 1967 mayhem and performed a similar role in Washington in 1968.

Five weeks before the King assassination, the president's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission, had issued a book-length report on the plague of 1960s urban riots in impoverished black neighborhoods across the country. While the Kerner Report focused mainly on racial discrimination, economic hopelessness and other social ills, it also warned against the undisciplined use of deadly force by authorities.

To illustrate the point, it offered a litany of horror stories.

Despite "many" people who were mistakenly killed or wounded in Los Angeles in 1965, the report said, the official tally of law-enforcement gunfire in Newark two years later was 13,326 rounds of ammunition. Among the casualties: One bullet in Newark killed an innocent elderly man and another left a small girl partially deaf and blind.

An especially tragic incident occurred in Detroit in 1967 when a man standing at a window lit a cigarette. A National Guardsman mistook the light for a sniper's muzzle flash and opened fire with a tank-mounted machine gun.

"As slugs ripped through the window and walls of the apartment, they nearly severed the arm of 21-year-old Valerie Hood," the report said. "Her 4-year-old niece, Tanya Blanding, toppled dead, a .50-caliber bullet hole in her chest."

By the time the commission published its findings in early 1968, the Johnson administration already was taking steps to lessen the potential for bloodshed in future disturbances. The Pentagon had beefed up riot-control training for military personnel, emphasizing firearms restraint. Meanwhile, Murphy, who was working in the Justice Department in 1967, helped conduct similar training for police executives in big cities.

Jerry Wilson, then a top deputy to D.C. police Chief John Layton, attended one of the seminars with several Washington colleagues. "When we got back, I wrote up a pretty good riot plan for Layton," Wilson, now 90, recalled recently.

"We brought in all the commanders of the precincts and we talked to them about the things we'd learned, in case we had a riot," he said. Although the plan dealt mainly with crisis logistics, it also addressed the issue of lethal force, specifically "whether we were going to shoot people who were doing nothing but looting."

Wilson, the highest-ranking 1968 D.C. police official still living, was head of citywide field operations during the unrest. "I had put in the plan that we don't shoot looters if that's all they're doing. ... I mean, how the hell could you? If you'd ever seen one of these lootings, it's Momma, Daddy, the three kids, all carrying stuff away. I said, 'Who the hell are you going to shoot?' Anyway, nobody argued with it."

The plan was in place by December 1967, when Murphy became the city's first public safety director, and he embraced it, especially the prohibition on hair-trigger gunfire. In cooperation with D.C. officials, the military drafted a plan for deploying during a riot in Washington that also stressed minimal use of firearms.

Not every local official in America agreed with the approach.

When Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley learned his police superintendent had ordered restraint, he angrily rebuked him, telling police to "shoot to kill any arsonists" and "shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting any stores." The unrest in Chicago and other cities was less severe than Washington's. In Miami, Police Chief Walter Headley credited the post-assassination calm in his city to a "get tough" warning he had been issuing in "the Negro district" for months.

"This is war," Headley had declared in late 1967. "We haven't had any serious problems with civil uprisings and looting because I've let the word filter down that when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Yet in Washington during the rioting, soldiers toted M14 rifles with empty magazines (their ammo was in belt pouches) and were given written orders by the military brass on how to conduct themselves, including: "I will NOT LOAD OR FIRE my weapon EXCEPT WHEN AUTHORIZED by an OFFICER IN PERSON" or "WHEN REQUIRED TO SAVE MY LIFE." They carried the instructions on cards in their pockets.

- - -

The unrest occurred at a pivotal time in the city's history.

Washington had become majority black in 1957. And by 1968, with the African- American population nudging 70 percent, a strong movement was afoot for municipal self-government. Congress did not approve home rule until 1973, allowing for an elected mayor and D.C. council. But a year before the rioting, Johnson, a home-rule supporter, achieved incremental success, narrowly pushing through a bill that gave the city a presidentially appointed mayor and nine-person council.

Johnson chose a black mayor, Walter E. Washington, and the mayor - at the behest of the White House - plucked the reform-minded Murphy from Justice to be public safety director.

The president's decision didn't sit well with the chairman of the House District Committee. In their 1994 book, "Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C.," journalists Harry S. Jaffe and Tom Sherwood wrote that when Mayor Washington submitted his first proposed budget to Capitol Hill, in 1967, "McMillan thanked him by delivering a truckload of watermelons" to city hall.

A lot of unwritten racist rules were still being enforced by Congress.

Wilson, who is white, said one such edict in effect in 1968 was that the police force was not to be more than 15 percent black, despite the city's vast demographic shift. African Americans in uniform were assigned almost exclusively to black areas of the District and rarely rode in patrol cars with white partners.

The result was a department notorious for racial brutality. As police chief starting in 1969, Wilson would launch a major diversifying effort. By 2015, slightly more than half of D.C.'s 3,755 police officers were black in a city that is 49 percent African American.

Looking back, Wilson said, the fatal shooting of the young man with the shiny object "probably wasn't justified," although investigators at the time ruled that it was. Overall, he said, the department's handling of the rioting left him "proud" and "very gratified," regardless of the criticism from politicians and merchants.

He remembered standing with Patrick Murphy one night during the chaos.

"A reporter came up and asked us if we were shooting looters, and I told him, 'No, we're not doing that,' " Wilson recalled. A half-century later, a small smile crossed his face. "Afterward, Pat grabbed me. He said, 'Don't go around saying that!' He said, 'These damn businessmen will sue us!' "

On the Hill, in the District Committee hearing room six weeks after the rioting, Johnny Mac and his conservative colleagues, who still controlled key aspects of the city's affairs, were symbols of an old and threatened power structure, while Murphy, seated before them, was a sign of profound change underway in the nation's capital.

Lives are more precious than loot, was the gist of his testimony.

"Well, your position is a rather soft one, isn't it?" said Rep. Abernethy.

The answer was firm.

"No, sir."Beaumont Police Chief Jimmy Singletary recalls his early days and nights on the city's police force, working alongside Tom Scofield, finding ways to lighten the mood in a stressful job.

"We worked midnights together when we both started," Singletary said of the retired police chief, who died on Friday. "Even back then, the job came first and you did your best, but you made it fun when you could. That's the way Tom was."

Visitation for Scofield is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday at Broussard's, 2000 McFaddin, Beaumont. His funeral will follow at 5 p.m. Scofield will be cremated after the service.

Scofield, 71, who started his career with Beaumont Police in 1970, led the department from 1993 to 2005.

He was promoted to lieutenant in 1982, and worked as a special crimes commander, SWAT commander and undercover narcotics investigator, according to Enterprise archives.

Scofield was a Marine squad leader in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. He joined the Beaumont Police Department to help pay for school while he was a marketing student at Lamar University and stayed with the department for his entire career.

"He's been through a lot," said Singletary, including battling cancer in the past, though he said he thinks his death was unrelated to the disease.

"I knew he hadn't been feeling well," said former Jefferson County Sheriff Mitch Woods, who said he recently spent time with Scofield and his wife at Crystal Beach. "It was unexpected. It's a surprising loss."

When he was named chief in 1993, Scofield implemented a community-oriented policing approach, restructuring the police department based on geographic areas, something Singletary said has remained a fixture of the department.

"It's almost like taking over the Dallas Cowboys. We've got an excellent team," Scofield said at a 1993 news conference announcing his promotion. "Probably the best way to sum it up is it was a combination of joy and fear. I'm not sure which one was stronger."

He named his top three priorities early into the job: drugs, juvenile crime and gangs.

Scofield was hired amid allegations of police misconduct and brutality, and during his time as chief, the department faced criticism for its lack of diversity and recruitment.

He retired after 35 years with the department in December 2005, after a year noted for its spike in violent crime and the chaos of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"I remember him to be very calm, he wasn't an alarmist," said Beaumont mayor Becky Ames, who has been a member of city council since the mid-1990s. "I appreciated the way he dealt with the police officers."

"He tried to make it good for his officers," Singletary said of Scofield's time as chief. "He cared about his officers a lot."

In their early years on the force in the 1970s, he and Scofield would "play tricks on the rookies," he said.

"I think the only way you could sustain a long career in law enforcement is to have fun when you can. The job is important and very serious, but you can't take yourself too seriously," Singletary said. "Off-duty, he'd forget about it a little bit and have fun."

Woods described Scofield as "one of my go-to people" in Beaumont when he was a detective with the Port Arthur Police Department.

"We developed a working relationship and a friendship back in those days," he said, which continued through their careers as chief and sheriff. "As a result of that, we became good friends over the years, and that friendship has lasted."

"He was easy to like. He and his wife are two of the finest people you ever wanted to be around," Woods said.

Singletary said Scofield pushed him to apply for the chief position in 2011 and gave him advice about the job.

"He'd compliment me every now and then, or he'd say 'You screwed that one up,'" Singletary said.

He recalled Scofield's leadership of BPD through difficult times, including the conviction of one of its own officers for stealing cocaine from evidence storage.

"He called in the FBI immediately and they took over the investigation, and he led us through that," he said.

"His faith and his family carried him through that, and his sense of humor," Singletary said. "He did his job, and when he could, he had fun with it."

"He had a lot of challenging times as a police chief, and I think he did a heck of a job," he said.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/LizTeitzMOSCOW - With anger, sadness, and confusion, Russians struggled to come to grips Monday with a shocking failure of fire safety that allowed a blaze to storm through a crowded shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, killing 64 people.

An entire class of schoolchildren apparently died in Sunday's fire, some having had the chance to make desperate, futile phone calls to parents or relatives before succumbing to the smoke and flames.

Russian social networks were flooded with grief, and a measure of anger over the response. Officials said fire exits were blocked and an alarm had been turned off. The disastrous blaze joins a long list of accidents, fires and sinkings in Russia marked by apparent negligence beforehand and inept or insufficient response by emergency services. Russian prosecutors can be quick to assign criminal blame in such cases - and rapidly went to work in Kemerovo - but subsequent promises to step up safety measures often prove to be halfhearted.

"We are burning, perhaps this is goodbye," a 13-year-old named Maria posted on her social media account, according to the Rossiya-24 television channel. Hers was one of about 30 goodbyes posted by children who would not log into their accounts again.

"There are no accurate lists," the television reporter said, "but the parents are holding on to the hope that the names of their children will be moved from the list of the dead to those missing."

The fire broke out Sunday afternoon, the first day of a week-long school break. A class from a school in the small town of Treshchevsky had come to Kemerovo to see a movie at the Winter Cherry mall, eat ice cream and jump on a trampoline. On Monday, parents of the students visited hospitals hoping to find their children. The director of the school, Pavel Orynsky, broke down while describing the students on camera.

A woman named Yevgenia told the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that her niece Vika called her at 4:11, right after the fire broke out, from the movie theater where so many of the children from Treshchevsky found themselves trapped.

"She told me that everything was on fire, that all the doors were blocked," Yevgenia said, struggling to overcome her tears.

Vika told Yevgenia over the phone that she couldn't breathe. "I told her: Vika, take off all your clothes, take them to your nose and breathe through them."

"Please tell Mom that I loved her," Vika replied, "please tell everyone that I loved them."

That was the last Yevgenia heard from her niece.

In other corners of the Russian media, anger toward emergency services for their handling of the disaster found a platform.

An interview with Alexander Lillevyali published by Meduza, an independent outlet, recounted his attempts to save his daughters from the burning theater while first responders geared up and struggled to commit to a single course of action.

"They took three minutes - three f---ing minutes! - to put on their masks," Lillevyali said, with tears in his eyes.

The firefighters initially followed him to the staircase leading to the theater, he said, but they were redirected by a man who told them of another fire. He then begged them to give him a mask so he could return to the theater and save the girls himself.

"They told me: Can't do it. Everything has to be according to regulations," Lillevyali recalled. "My girls were left to burn because of the goddamn regulations."

Emergency services officials put the death toll at 64 on Monday, but local media reports suggest that many more may still be missing.

As of Monday evening, authorities said 23 of the dead had been identified. Fifty-two people required medical attention, and at least 12 of them were hospitalized. One is an 11-year-old boy who jumped out a fourth-floor window to escape the blaze.

Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said the boy was in serious condition and on a respirator, with several broken bones and emotionally traumatized.

"He lost his parents and a younger sister in this tragedy," Skvortsova said.

Videos posted on social media showed others jumping from fourth-floor windows. One showed men attempting to break out of a locked stairwell as flames encroached. Another video, apparently taken from a security camera, showed that mall patrons on the fourth floor had little time to react. The inferno erupted and spread through the children's play area in a matter of seconds.

Family and friends shared photos of children believed to have been at the mall when the fire broke out.

Russia's Investigative Committee opened a criminal investigation on Monday and detained several people involved in the mall's operation for questioning. Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said authorities were looking into several "serious violations" of fire safety codes.

Petrenko said that fire exits were blocked and that a private security guard turned off the fire alarm after receiving notice of the fire. The security firm denied the allegations in comments given to the RBC news agency.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but the Kemerovo region's vice governor, Vladimir Chernov, said the working theory is that a child may have used a cigarette lighter to ignite a foam ball in the children's play area on the fourth floor.

The fire's epicenter has been identified as the play area on the fourth floor - near the theater where many children were trapped.

Eyewitness accounts suggest that the fire alarm did not sound, leaving those in the theater initially unaware of the emergency.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, almost 300 firefighters and more than 60 firetrucks arrived to battle the blaze. It took authorities 19 hours to extinguish the flames, which covered an area of 16,000 square feet. The roof over this section collapsed.

The head of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, Vladimir Puchkov, described thick clouds of smoke and limited visibility as temperatures within the mall reached nearly 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit. The fire raged for hours before firefighters could reach the fourth floor.

In addition to theaters and a children's area, that floor featured a large petting zoo. All of the animals are reported to have died.

Smaller fires reignited Monday afternoon, and temperatures within parts of the mall were still almost 400 degrees, Puchkov told reporters.

Late Monday, attention began to shift toward Russia's abysmal fire safety record, with legislators and other officials promising swift amendments to fire safety codes and stricter code enforcement, as they typically have in the wake of past disasters.

Chernov said authorities would conduct safety checks at other shopping centers in the region.

The fire in Kemerovo is just one of several major fire disasters in Russia in the past 15 years. In 2003, a fire in student dorm at a Moscow university killed 44 and injured 156. In a 2007 nursing home fire in Krasnodar, 63 people died, and a 2009 nightclub fire in Perm killed 153. In 2015, a fire at a mall in Kazan killed 19 people and injured 61.

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Video: At least 64 people, including many children, were killed after a fire broke out in a shopping center in Kemerovo, Russia. Authorities are now investigating "serious violations" of fire safety codes.(The Washington Post)

Embed code:Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pa., won't seek reelection this year, complicating the party's chances of holding a seat in the Philadelphia suburbs after a court decision struck down a GOP-friendly map.

"It's the most difficult decision I can recall having to make," Costello told MSNBC's Kasie Hunt on Sunday night. "I have an eight-month old. I have a four-year old. And it's a very challenging job, serving in Congress with a young family.

Republicans in Costello's 6th Congressional District had been told this week that he'd abandon his campaign before the May 15 primary. The decision was first reported by City & State Pennsylvania, shocking Republicans who viewed the 41-year old Costello as a rising star.

While two other Republicans had filed to run in the 6th District, the incumbent had more than $1.3 million in his campaign account, and had won his previous races with more than 56 percent of the vote. Both Republicans were running to the right of Costello, a business-friendly legislator who had opposed the GOP's effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Democrats, who had persuaded businesswoman Chrissy Houlahan to run in the new district, now expect to face a weaker Republican nominee in November.

"Costello's exit should set off alarm bells for vulnerable House Republicans," said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Evan Lukaske on Sunday night. ["They] will also have to explain to middle class voters why they've given repeated handouts to the rich and biggest corporations."

Costello had been considering retirement since February, when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court drew a new map to replace a gerrymander that Republicans put into place seven years ago. The 6th District, which had cut through three suburban counties in an L-shape, was reshaped to include all of Costello's Chester County and part of Berks County.

That change turned a district that had narrowly backed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president into one that had given her a 10-point margin of victory over Donald Trump. Before Costello's decision, the Cook Political Report rated the 6th District a "toss-up," and the congressman had called on state legislators to impeach the judges who drew the new map. (Pennsylvania elects judges in partisan elections, and the majority that ruled on the map was mostly composed of Democrats.)

"The state supreme court, in a matter of a week or so decided to invalidate the map," Costello said on Sunday night. "The first time in the history of the republic that a state supreme court has done that."

Last week, as the filing period closed and the Supreme Court opted not to hear a Republican case against the new map, Costello filed to run. Democrats waited to see whether he'd reconsider, especially after the special House election victory of Conor Lamb, D-Pa., in a conservative Pittsburgh-area district rattled Republicans.

"If [Lamb] wins, you're probably going to see another half-dozen Republicans say they're not running again," former Vice President Joe Biden said earlier this month, after he campaigned for Lamb.

Republicans, who had waged several unsuccessful legal battles to stop the new map, now worry that it could cost them at least two seats in the Pennsylvania suburbs - the 6th district vacated by Costello, and the 5th district where scandal-plagued Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Penn., has already announced plans to retire. After Lamb's victory, Democrats are 23 seats away from taking the majority in the House. Costello is the 24th Republican congressman to retire this year with no immediate plans to seek higher office.KAGA-BANDORO, Central African Republic - On a dirt track beneath a fierce sun, three U.N. peacekeepers guard the dividing line.

On one side of a small bridge lies the rebel stronghold, where gunmen freely roam. On the other is a designated "arms-free zone" on Kaga-Bandoro's outskirts - a sliver of territory where the "blue helmets" keep the peace and thousands of displaced people shelter around a desolate airstrip.

Years of rebellion, mismanagement and sectarian violence have divided this dusty, cattle-trading town and roiled the rest of the Central African Republic, leaving the country's Western-backed government toothless and unable to exert much authority beyond the capital, Bangui. In the absence of an effective government, more than a dozen armed groups and a multitude of local militias have usurped control of about 80 percent of the impoverished former French colony. Hundreds of thousands have been uprooted from their homes, and more than half of the population is in need of humanitarian aid.

Kaga-Bandoro has, for years, shunned central authority. But even in this anarchic space, rebels here and elsewhere throughout the country are providing some show of statehood. The ruling militants run customs, charge taxes, give out fines and operate their own gendarmes.

"The region has government ministries, but all the staff are in Bangui," said an aid worker in Kaga-Bandoro who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety. "They get their salary still but can't do anything here."

These are central Africa's ministates - overlapping and unrecognized fiefdoms in a Texas-size country riven by disorder, situated in one of the world's worst neighborhoods. These lawless territories are extremely volatile and controlled by violent groups prone to infighting. With the country surrounded by Islamist insurgencies and other civil wars in Chad, South Sudan and the Congo, the spillover from these badlands can fuel - and be fueled by - the region's chronic instability.

Representatives from the Central African Republic's defense, justice and humanitarian action ministries did not respond to requests for comment.

Today's vicious turf wars stem from the nationwide outbreak of armed conflict in 2013, when the predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power and primarily Christian militias known as anti-Balaka fought back. The violence ebbed with the deployment of international troops, but the crisis has since intensified since the Seleka alliance, which lacks a unified hierarchy, disintegrated into competing factions.

"The situation is worsening, and armed groups are fighting among themselves," said Joseph Inganji, who leads the United Nations' aid-coordination agency, OCHA, in the country. "The conflict is moving into areas that were previously deemed safe."

Kaga-Bandoro, in the country's north, is held by a group called the Central African Patriotic Movement, or MPC, a former Seleka faction that Human Rights Watch says has razed villages and killed scores of civilians.

Militias are drawn to the country's mineral wealth and opportunity to levy taxes on huge cattle migrations each dry season. "It is a scramble for riches," Inganji said.

These herds are a literal cash cow for Kaga-Bandoro's local warlord, Mahamat Alkatim. His forces charge a customs tariff on each head of cattle that enters his domain from Chad. Other fees are taken at unofficial checkpoints. The lucrative trade in bushmeat - a vital source of subsistence protein in central Africa - is another profitable target for taxation to prop up a rebel statelet.

Exploitation and chaotic rule is nothing new here.

France's imperial authorities resorted to slavery and other brutal measures during the early 20th century to turn a profit in this remote backwater. Long after the Central African Republic gained independence in 1960, French advisers remained in its ministries, overseeing decadent presidents whose repressive rule promised short-term stability but alienated Muslim areas.

Porous frontiers allow a free flow of arms and mercenaries. Corruption permeates government institutions. Sex-abuse scandals have marred peacekeeping operations. And ham-handed efforts to demobilize militants have exacerbated the very grievances they sought to resolve.

This climate of mistrust and instability continues to segregate the country's diverse population along ethnic and religious lines. The collapse of institutions has led International Crisis Group analysts to brand the country not just a failed state but a "phantom state."

Within this unwieldy land, rebel groups may well possess tools for military enforcement and economic extraction, but their ministates remain combustible and profoundly limited, lacking reliable public utilities and transparent justice systems.

The task of looking after the population's most basic needs - food, water, sanitation, health care, schooling - is passed to nonprofit groups. For rebels, this is purely an expedient form of outsourcing.

"We help the population, but we are only providing security," said Mahouloud Moussa, an official with another rebel group called the Popular Front for the Renaissance of the Central African Republic, or FPRC, which controls large swaths of the country's northeast and has an outpost in Kaga-Bandoro. "Everything else is done by humanitarian organizations, so there's no need for us to do it."

His comments disregard the deadly attacks and financial shortfalls that impede crucial aid operations. Last month, six education workers were killed near the northwestern border with Chad - an impoverished area where some 90,000 civilians have fled a surge in fighting in recent months. Overshadowed by wars in the Middle East, this is a humanitarian crisis in which 1 in 4 people are displaced, with tens of thousands of children severely malnourished.

Despite his rebel affiliations, Moussa wears conventional civilian clothes - white polo shirt, black suit trousers, socks with sandals. FPRC fighters are accused of war crimes, but he says they are a force for good. "We are teaching the population about social cohesion and encourage people not to discriminate against others," he said.

People such as Olive Kpadomona would disagree. A mother of five in her early 30s, she lives in a cramped tent with her family, alongside thousands of other internally displaced people on Kaga-Bandoro's edge.

Inside her spartan shelter, grubby mattresses are laid on the bare earth. Above, the sky is hazy and gray with dust. Peacekeepers patrol the squalid camp, but fighting still flares between the Muslim rebels outside and the Christian militias within.

"I was eight months pregnant when soldiers attacked my village," Kpadomona said. "They destroyed all the houses. I ran into the forest and came here. This was two years ago. We get some food, but it's not enough for my children. We live in fear."

Besides the armed authority of rebel groups, there are other, more promising forms of governance in the Central African Republic.

The Chinko wildlife reserve - funded by a public-private partnership that includes the Central African Republic's environment ministry, USAID, the African Parks network and the Walton Family Foundation - has managed to bring some stability and development to the unruly southeast. Spanning more than 6,800 square miles, Chinko not only protects an extraordinary mix of wildlife but also offers the trappings of a working state, providing education, health care, law enforcement and an economy.

The park funds the salaries of dozens of local teachers and trains its own employees in hygiene, money management and sexual health. Its nurses make visits to nearby communities. Weekly markets supply Chinko's 450-strong workforce - a boon to this destitute region. A dedicated ranger corps patrols the reserve to combat poaching.

"A strong kernel of law enforcement can have a big impact on a larger region of anarchy," said David Simpson, Chinko's park manager. "It's not as if we set out to do all these activities - we're here for conservation - but when no one else is around, everyone looks to you for help."

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Reporting for this story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.GLEN CARBON -- The Village of Glen Carbon will soon be addressing storm water issues in the area around Cottonwood Plaza.

Trustees unanimously approved an agreement for professional services with Gonzales Companies, LLC in the amount of $114,070 for the design work associated with the work.

Village Administrator Jamie Bowden said the work will be done in TIF 1.

The TIF was created 20 years ago and takes in Cottonwood Plaza, Cassens, Bayhill drainage and the fire department property, Bowden said. We have authorized this work in a past resolution authorizing additional projects from the Special Tax Allocation Fund.

Bowden said the approval of the agreement will allow the engineers to start designing the storm water projects that were delineated in the resolution.

According to the agreement for professional services, Gonzalez Companies LLC will design work to improve storm sewer infrastructure, overland flow and increasing storm water detention capacity at several locations in the TIF district.

Bowden said there will be one road project included in the design.

We will be making drainage improvements along Whistle Stop Drive, Bowden said.

Gonzales Companies, LLC has estimated that the project would cost $128,000.

In other business, trustees approved a resolution authorizing the 2018-19 Motor Fuel Tax Municipal Maintenance Program.

Public Works Coordinator Danny Lawrence said this is a yearly resolution for the work.

This years MFT Maintenance Program only covers eight months since we are changing our fiscal year to the calendar year, Lawrence said.

In a memo to the Village Board, Lawrence said the proposed appropriation from the states Motor Fuel Tax is $300,000 and is consistent with what has been budgeted for in previous years.

Some of the work to be completed using MFT funds includes ice and snow removal, road patching, street sweeping, cleaning ditches, street sign repair, painting curbs and erosion control.

Trustees also approved a professional services contract with TWM in the amount of $38,000 for the design and engineering of the 2018 street program.

Bowden said TWM is the village roadway engineer and would design the street program.

We are looking at work on Michelle Drive, Nicole Court, North Squire Drive, Larkmoor Drive and Crestwood Drive, Bowden said.Forty years later, Reggie Toler of Franklin can still recall exactly what he was doing when the Easter weekend ice storm struck.

We had a four-unit apartment we were building in Franklin, Toler said. We were working inside. I had planted two birch trees, each about 10 feet tall, in front of the apartment. And about mid-morning that Friday, ice started building on them and bending them over.

I took a couple of sawhorses and propped against them. Several days later, I noticed that the weight of the ice had pulled the birch trees out of the ground and over the sawhorses.

March 24 marked the 40th anniversary of the beginning of that ice storm, one of the worst weather disasters to ever strike central Illinois.

The storm began its devastating attack on Good Friday. Freezing rain, strong winds and snow combined to cause widespread power outages, some of which lasted for many days.

A 60-hour onslaught of ice and wet snow left thousands of trees  with buds already showing  broken like toothpicks. Power lines were strewn about the ground and their supports bent or snapped from 50 mph winds on the storms second day.

At one point, about half of Illinois Power Co.s customers in central Illinois had no electricity. And a blackout was virtually complete in the communities of Waverly, Franklin, Murrayville, Woodson, Chapin, Concord, Bethel, Arenzville and Greenfield.

Toler said many people in the Franklin and Waverly area bought generators to supply electricity to their homes. Many of those small generators were just big enough to run a furnace or a refrigerator, but just one at a time, he said.

Illinois Power was not the only utility company in central Illinois whose customers were affected by the powerful storm. An estimated one-third to one-half of the customers served by Illinois Rural Electric were without electricity in Calhoun, Cass, Greene, Pike and Scott counties.

And some people served by Central Illinois Public Service Co., especially residents in the Franklin and Waverly area, were without power for more than a week.

We counted 26 transmission poles down on a high-voltage line between Bethel and Illinois Powers Jacksonville power substation north of the IP office on West Lafayette Avenue, recalled Lerton Krushas, Illinois Powers area manager from 1966 to 1985, in a 2003 interview.

If the weather had warmed up moderately in the first 24 hours, we would have had a better chance of getting the power back on quicker, he said. Instead, it intermittently snowed and rained. Wed get a line up and bad weather would return and take it down again.

Ultimately, Krushas said he called for 39 additional crews of linemen, or 82 linemen, to help restore power to Illinois Power customers in the Jacksonville area.

The linemen gave all they had, plus 10 percent more, Krushas said. But not only the linemen; all of the Illinois Power departments contributed to the success of restoring power to our customers.

The electrical crews came from several Illinois cities that werent as badly hit by the ice storm, according to Krushas. But housing all the linemen in Jacksonville posed a problem. Local motel rooms were filled, so Krushas called on John Wittich, who was then president of MacMurray College, for help.

I asked Dr. Wittich if we could rent some rooms in dormitories on the campus, Krushas recalled. I said Illinois Power would be willing to pay for the rooms, but he said, No. The college is part of the community, and it would be glad to do its part.

Krushas added that MacMurray students also made the linemen feel welcome.

Coeds came up and put their arms around linemen and thanked them, he said. When we released the electrical crews, I retained one forestry crew to clean up the fallen limbs on the MacMurray campus before they left town. I did this in appreciation for the use of the dorm rooms.

Wire service reports at the time said the ice storm ravaged 24 central Illinois counties and caused millions of dollars in damage.

Krushas said he never saw anything like the 1978 ice storm.

I was in three major storms during my career with Illinois Power, he said. But the ice storm here in 1978 was by far the worst.

This Way We Were story was first published March 24, 2003.WASHINGTON - The Trump administration on Monday ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian intelligence and diplomatic officers in New York and Washington and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle in retaliation of the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

Twelve Russian diplomats at the United Nations in New York and 48 at the Russian Embassy in Washington face expulsion by the U.S. government for what senior administration officials described as covert intelligence operations that undermine U.S. national security.

The U.S. government also is closing the Russian consulate in Seattle, which senior administration officials said they believe has served as a key outpost in Russia's intelligence operations.

The moves announced Monday are the Trump administration's toughest response yet to the March 4 nerve-agent attack in Salisbury by Russia that critically injured a former spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia.

"This was a reckless attempt by the government to murder a British citizens and his daughter on British soil with a nerve agent," said a senior administration official, who was only authorized to discuss the actions on the condition of anonymity. "It cannot go unanswered."

European nations were also set to announce coordinated expulsions of Russian diplomats following the nerve-agent attack in Britain.

The actions, which could prompt retaliatory strikes against U.S. diplomats in Russia, come in contrast to President Donald Trump's efforts to foster a warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a phone call to Putin last week, Trump rejected the counsel of his national security advisers and congratulated Putin on his reelection victory.

Although Trump's administration is taking action to punish Russia for the attack in Britain, Trump did not personally confront Putin on the attack during their phone call, administration officials have said.

"To the Russian government, we say, when you attack our friend you will face serious consequences," said a senior administration official. "As we have continually stressed to Moscow, the door to dialogue is open." But, this official continued, Russia must "cease its recklessly aggressive behavior."

Administration officials said the Russian government has been notified about the expulsions and that the selected diplomats and intelligence officers have seven days to leave the United States.

The expulsion of 60 diplomats is the most sweeping since the Reagan administration ordered 55 diplomats out of the country in 1986.

In December 2016, the Obama administration expelled 35 suspected Russian intelligence officers in retaliation for Moscow's interference in the U.S. presidential election.

Then last July, the Kremlin ordered the United States to cut its diplomatic staff by 755 employees in response to the passage of legislation in the U.S. Congress imposing new sanctions on Russia for its election interference.

In response to Moscow's move, the Trump administration last August shut the Russian consulate in San Francisco and diplomatic annexes in New York and Washington.

"They'll certainly retaliate," said Michael Sulick, a former head of the CIA's National Clandestine Service and a former Moscow station chief. "The Russians live by strict reciprocity. It's tit for tat all the time."

The only time they did not do so, Sulick noted, was after the Obama administration's move to expel 35 Russians. In that case, however, according to court records, it appears their restraint was prompted by calls between Trump's then-incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and then-Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Kislyak, has admitted that in December 2016 he urged Kislyak not to escalate an ongoing feud over sanctions, according to court records. The Washington Post reported that Flynn had assured Kislyak that the issue would be revisited once Trump took office.

Flynn is now cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well as possible obstruction of justice by Trump.

The Trump administration's move shows solidarity with Britain. "You have to send some kind of message," Sulick said. "You can't go around poisoning people."

But Putin likely will see this as a temporary setback, knowing that over time he can replace intelligence officers, Sulick said. If it were up to him, he said, he'd be taking more aggressive actions, such as revealing "financial information that would embarrass Putin on the world stage," or other actions that would "really cut into him" economically.

"The Russians only understand one thing - when the boot is on their neck, and you keep pressing down," Sulick said.The Trump administration says international trade sanctions are undermining the North Korean economy, and that the financial squeeze has compelled Kim Jong Un to negotiate.

"There's no question these sanctions are working and that's what brought them to the table," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

But information about the North Korean economy is scarce at best - it has never published reliable economic figures. And amid the statistical blackout, some informal indicators indicate that the country has remained stable, according to specialists working from public sources including commercial satellite photography and reports, gathered at great risk, from people within North Korea.

The value of the North Korean won has been steady, according to those reports. So, too, the prices for basics like rice and corn. The price of gasoline spiked in the fall, but it has been falling in recent months. New construction projects continued to pop up, as least through January, according to satellite photography; the lights at night in Pyongyang and the border with China, appeared relatively brighter, though the country as a whole was growing less so.

"There's certainly a lot of anecdotal evidence that growth is, if not positive, at least flat," said Daniel Ahn, who in February left his post leading the Office of the Chief Economist at the U.S. State Department, where he studied the economic effects of sanctions.

As Trump and Kim prepare to meet, the status of the North Korean economy is considered critical because it could determine the extent of U.S. economic leverage and whether Kim Jong Un comes to the negotiations as a leader humbled by sanctions or one unfazed by international financial pressure.

Few doubt that the sanctions have shrunk North Korea's trade with the rest of the world, particularly over the last nine months. What remains unclear, though, is how much that reduction has constrained the country's economy.

North Korean officials have offered conflicting views of the sanctions they have faced over the years - calling the trade restrictions both ineffective and "vicious."

"It is a foolish dream to hope that the sanctions could work on the DPRK," according to North Korean state media. "The sanctions have failed to stop it from becoming a full-fledged nuclear weapons state and making rapid progress in the building of an economic power."

The Trump administration, however, has made clear their assumption that the sanctions have been effective. Trump has said the sanctions are "very biting" and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has cited their "very big impact" on the North Korean economy.

The sanctions appear to have achieved a huge cut in North Korea's exports - its sales to the rest of the world, mainly China. Exports from North Korea have plunged from about $240 million a month in 2016 to less than $50 million a month by the end of last year, according to IHS Markit Global Trade Atlas. Anecdotal accounts from traders in Chinese cities bordering North Korea back up those figures, too. They say that North Korean factories are closing for lack of Chinese customers.

"I do believe a major reason why they're having this meeting is because the economic sanctions have a very big impact on both their economy and their ability to get pieces of material and other things they need for their weapons program," Mnuchin said.

What those trade losses have meant for the overall North Korean economy is unclear, however, because while economists expect to see a downturn, they have seen few signs of it.

"The sanctions have to be creating havoc for the regime," said William B. Brown, an economist who grew up in South Korea and who has worked in the analytical arm of the CIA, the State Department, the US Embassy in Seoul, and the National Intelligence Council. "All those coal and textile workers who were producing for export - what are they doing now?"

Brown, who now teaches Chinese and Korean economics at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, said that he's been expecting that the North Korean economy - what little we know of it - would begin reflecting that havoc.

"But," he said, "we're not seeing it yet."

To understand an economy, economists often bring to bear huge data sets. But when it comes North Korea, they must rely on tiny shreds of information.

It is a measure of the scarcity of information that one of the most widely used economic indicators from North Korea are the price estimates produced on a shoestring budget by the Daily NK, a website run out of an office in Seoul.

Roughly once or so a month , reporters at the Daily NK confer via cellphone with a network of sources in three North Korean cities. The reporters, some of them defectors, poll their sources back home on a handful of very basic questions.

What is the price of rice? Of corn? Of gasoline? What is the exchange rate ?

It is painstaking work requiring some discretion: The informants risk imprisonment. Sometimes the sources send photographs depicting prices; most times, the price is reported verbally. Each figure is checked against at least two other independent sources in that city, a spokesman said. The data is consistent with another similar survey conducted by Asia Press International, a consortium of journalists.

"We maintain contact with sources inside the country in order to help their voices reach the outside world," said Daily NK's editor-in-chief Lee Sang Yong. "Of course this work is dangerous, but our sources are well aware of the dangers, as are we. Our core goals and values are not deterred by the inherent dangers of this work, and we are able to mitigate the risks involved by adhering to strict security protocols."

For experts outside of North Korea, their price information - as basic as it is - is considered precious.

Marcus Noland, an economist at the Peterson Institute and author of a book and several studies about North Korea, said that while no economic indicator alone is perfect for measuring the impact of sanctions, the first he looks at is the exchange rate for the North Korean won.

And for that, he turns to the Daily NK. And despite the sanctions, the exchange rate for the North Korean won has remained stable for more than three years - about 8,000 won per dollar - a remarkable equilibrium given the growing trade deficit.

"The single greatest mystery in the North Korean economy is the stability of the won," Noland said.

It is a mystery because, among other things, the kind of trade deficit that North Korea is running - it is importing much more than it is exporting - normally would depress the value of the won. So what's keeping the value up?

Economists propose a number of possibilities. It could be that the government is propping up the won by buying them up using reserves of foreign currency. Or the regime could be expanding its illicit businesses - cybercrime, selling arms, counterfeiting cigarettes and currency - in order to compensate for the trade deficit. Or it could be that the growing tolerance for markets and private investment in North Korea is providing the kind of upward boost necessary to keep the economy aloft.

"We just don't know," Noland said. "It might also just be a matter of time."

Other prices detailed in the Daily NK survey also reflect stability - particularly the prices of staples like rice and corn.

One item that has fluctuated in price - wildly - is gasoline. It spiked in the fall, more than tripling in price to 24,000 won per kilogram.

That fluctuation was quickly seen as evidence that the sanctions, which limit sales of refined petroleum products to North Korea, were having an effect. But in recent months, that price, too, has fallen back, though not all the way, to about 12,000 won per kilogram.

As a result, analysts who have been waiting years for clear signs that the sanctions have harmed the North Korean economy are still mostly waiting.

The U.N. began imposing sanctions in 2006 and for years, as more and more sanctions have been issued, U.S. officials have said they were effective. Many assumed that the North Korean economy, which had undergone devastating famines in the '90s, was fragile. As far back as 2009, U.N. ambassador Susan Rice said the latest round of sanctions at the time was "unprecedented" and that they will have "teeth that will bite."

That strong rhetoric continued. But over the years, the North Korean economy and its weapons programs appears to have been undeterred - they are now producing better rockets, have conducted more nuclear tests, and have had a reportedly growing economy.

---

The central bank of South Korea, which publishes an annual estimate of the size of the North Korean economy based on scraps of public data as well as national intelligence, said that the North Korean economy grew 4 percent in 2016 - more than either the U.S. or South Korea economies. Through 2016, it had grown four of the last five years. Its estimate for 2017 is expected in July.

"While estimates vary widely, the South Korean central bank says the North Korean economy has grown... I too think the direction is likely positive," said Ahn, who is currently a professorial lecturer at Johns Hopkins SAIS.

Some satellite photography leads to similar conclusions.

Curtis Melvin, a researcher at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins SAIS, spends much of his days analyzing satellite photographs of North Korea, looking for new construction or other signs of economic activity, such as smoke from a factory. He said the pace of major building projects tapered last year, but that big projects are still going up, including a coastal tourist resort, and that the economy does not appear to be shrinking.

"I look at satellite imagery every day. I have the largest non-governmental database of North Korean factories," said Melvin, noting that his review only runs up through June of 2017. "And from the satellite imagery, I cannot point to anything that says this factory was closed since the sanctions have been adopted."

Ahn's analysis of nighttime images of North Korea, by contrast, offers mixed results. Ahn has conducted an analysis of satellite photography at night, comparing the brightness of North Korean cities over time. The measurement of brightness can be difficult because of cloud cover and the reflection of moonlight from the Earth's surface, but economists often use it as a measure of economic activity.

Ahn said the results suggest that the country as a whole has dimmed over time, though some key areas, such as Pyongyang and the border with China, have brightened relatively speaking.

"At a broad level the images of North Korea are getting darker, but parts are getting brighter," Ahn said. One explanation, Ahn said, is that "the regime is shifting what limited resources it has toward its own elites in those areas to ensure it remains in power."

It could be, several observers noted, merely a matter of timing. Despite years of strong rhetoric from the U.N. and U.S. officials, it wasn't until March of 2016 that the sanctions began to target, in a general way, the North Korean economy, analysts said. Until that point, the U.N. sanctions against North Korea were largely "targeted" - that is, they were aimed at specific individuals, firms or military items directly related to the regime.

Then, in March 2016, the U.N. issued sanctions limiting exports of North Korean coal, a key element of foreign trade, a measure that took broad aim at the North Korean economy. Follow up sanctions went further in that direction - limiting other key exports, such as textiles and seafood.

Last year, the trade statistics began to reflect the decline, particularly after China appeared to more rigidly enforce the sanctions. North Korean exports dropped steeply. (The trade figures are about the only detailed economic figures we have from North Korea, and they are available because North Korea's trade partners make them available, not North Korea.)

Anecdotally, at least, that drop has created hardship.

"Multiple sources have told us that a common phrase circulating throughout the country is: 'Those who were eating three meals a day are down to two, and those previously eating two meals have only one,'" the Daily NK representatives said by email.

It is reports like that, as well as last year's decline in North Korean exports, that has renewed hopes that the sanctions are working and putting pressure on Kim.

"Maybe Kim, now reaching out to Seoul and Washington, is all the evidence we need," Brown said.During her life, Lilia Davalos Ponce was known for her kindness as well as her compassion.

A member of St. Lawrence Catholic Church for the past 40 years, Ponce was heavily involved with the bible study groups and volunteered for church community events.

My mother was a kind-hearted person. When people needed a prayer or someone to talk to, she was always there, said her son, Jose Lopez.

Ponce died March 22, from kidney failure that she had battled for eight months. She was 84.

Born in Sandia, Ponce and her family moved to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, when she was 2 years old. At the age of 21, she returned to Texas and moved to the South Side of San Antonio in the late 1960s, making it her home for the last 50 years.

While in California, where she resided in the early 1960s, Ponce was a seamstress for 20 years for various companies. She continued working as a seamstress when she moved back to San Antonio until she retired in the mid-1980s.

Her retirement didnt last very long. In 1990, Ponce started working in home health care. As she cared for elders, she developed long-lasting friendships.

Thats one thing my mother enjoyed doing, was helping others and being around her grandchildren, said Sergio Ponce, her son.

Ponce was known for her famous Spanish rice, which she would bring to family gatherings or community events.

More Information Lilia Davalos Ponce Born: Jan. 31, 1934, Sandia Died: March 22, 2018, San Antonio Preceded by: Husband Samuel Ponce and sons, Rene Davalos and Samuel Ponce Jr. Survived by: Sons Jose Lopez and Sergio Ponce; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Services: Visitation 7 p.m. Tuesday at Alamo Funeral Chapel San Antonio, 624 N. Alamo Street; Mass 10 a.m. Wednesday, St. Lawrence Catholic Church, 236 E. Petaluma. See More Collapse

Everybody went crazy for my mothers Spanish rice, Ponce said. If anybody was having a barbecue, they would call her first to ask if she can make the rice.

She was also known for her sense of humor.

I would call my mom queen of one-liners. She always quick with a comeback if we said a joke to her, Sergio Ponce said. She was always laughing and full of life.

For 18 years, Ponce and her son Jose had a vendors table at the Old Highway 90 flea market to sell toys and candy.

That is where she created many friendships and acquaintances.

My brother and I would drive my mother down to Laredo to pick up merchandise for her to sell at the flea market, son Sergio Ponce said. My mother remained very active after she retired, whether she was helping at church or selling at the flea market.

Ponces kind-hearted character was instilled to her two sons growing up.

My mother always taught me what hard work was, good manners and to help others, son Lopez said. Her life lessons are carried with me wherever I go.A 4-year-old boy has died from wounds he sustained after being attacked by a family dog in Converse Sunday afternoon, according to Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies responded to a dog attack in the 8900 block of Twincreek Farm, in far East Bexar County, after the family called to report the boy was being attacked.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office identified the young victim as Noah Trevino late Sunday.

RELATED: Couple convicted in pit bull attack that maimed area senior sentenced

Converse emergency personnel also responded to the incident according to Converse Police Department.

The dog, whose breed was not given but is described as a large mix, grabbed the boy by the neck while the child was in the backyard, according to BCSO.

Sgt. Elizabeth Gonzalez said the family was able to free the boy from the dog's hold and began CPR until emergency personel arrived.

The boy was airlifted to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries where he later died.

The dog is reportedly in the custody of Bexar County Animal Control and is expected to be euthanized.

The last reported fatal dog attack in San Antonio occurred in 2014 when two mixed-breed pit bulls crawled under a fence and attacked Petra Aguirre, 83, while she fed her cats.

In January, Alphonso McCloud was sentenced to four years in prison and Stanyelle Miles-McCloud received 10 years of probation after being convicted of a dangerous dog attack that caused serious bodily injury.

The couple's pit bull, Bully, attacked neighbor, Doris Mixon Smith, whose arm was ripped off under her elbow and face suffered massive injuries.

aluna@express-news.net

Staff writer Chris Quinn contributed to this report.A San Antonio 16-year-old who refused an arranged marriage endured six months of beatings at the hands of her parents before running away from home, according to newly released court documents.

Her parents, Abdulah Fahmi Kala Al Hishmawi, 34, and Hamdiyah Sabah Al Hishmawi, 33, were released on $30,000 bonds Sunday after being arrested on felony charges of continuous family violence.

RELATED: Police: Man finds girlfriend fatally shot in head at San Antonio street corner

According to a search warrant from the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, the Al Hishmawi's beat their 16-year-old daughter, Maarib, almost daily from June 2017 to January 2018 because she refused to submit to a marriage arrangement with 28-year-old Mohammad Al Taie, who lives outside of San Antonio.

"[Maarib] was told that she would marry Al Taie after she turned 16 because that is the youngest a child can legally get married in Texas," the affidavit says.

At various times, Maarib was beaten with broom handles and mop handles, according to investigators. She was also beaten with a Swiffer broom handle because Abdulah Al Hishmawi discovered she had been using Snapchat, according to the warrant.

That beating left her with a 2-inch cut on her arm, which required hospitalization, authorities said. Before she was treated, Abdulah Al Hishmawi instructed his daughter "to tell the doctors that she cut herself while cutting a watermelon," otherwise he "would be arrested," according to the search warrant.

On another occasion, Abdulah Al Hishmawi allegedly choked her until she almost lost consciousness. "She could not breathe anymore, she could not see anymore and was seeing colors," the search warrant says.

Her mother, Hamdiyah Al Hishmawi, allegedly threw hot cooking oil on her hand and legs, leaving visible scars, when Maarib said she wouldn't marry her suitor.

RELATED: 4-year-old boy killed by family dog in Converse Sunday afternoon

According to the search warrant, Abdulah Al Hishmawi deposited $20,000 into his bank account on Maarib's 16th birthday, and Maarib told investigators this was part of the payment agreed to in the marriage contract with Al Taie, who had previously offered her gold jewelry and gold bars in exchange for becoming his wife.

Previously, authorities said the Al Hishmawi's were set to receive the $20,000 payment, but the search warrant says they were already in possession of the money during the alleged abuse.

Maarib Al Hishmawi ran away from her parents on Jan. 30 and was missing for about a month and a half, when she was found in the care of another organization. Authorities have not specified which organization was taking care of her.

Maarib and her five siblings, all between 5 and 15 years old, are now in CPS care. It's unknown if they've been abused.

Officials said the family is from Iraq and had been in the United States for two years on visas. The type of visas not immediately known.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Staff writer Jacob Beltran contributed to this story. | Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdownsBexar County is not doing so well when it come to health equity among its residents. Our community has never fared well in that regard, but even those numbers appear to be slipping.

The ninth annual ranking of counties by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin puts Bexar County in about the middle of pack, coming in 115th for overall health out of 242 Texas counties.

But Bexar County fared worse in some subcategories. It ranked 211 for quality of life, a measure of physical and mental health. The countys physical environment ranked 141, based on such things as air pollution, housing availability and long commutes.

RELATED: Data shows gonorrhea and syphilis cases increased in Bexar County in 2017

Bexar Countys overall health ranking used to be more in the 70 to 80 range, but now it is trailing other urban counties. Dallas County came in 54th in the rankings, and Harris County was right behind at 55th.

More troubling is what is reflected in the Bexar County data when broken down by race and ethnicity. About 22 percent of Texas children live in poverty and that statistic holds up in Bexar County. However, 2016 data indicates one-third of the children living in poverty in Bexar County  about 32 percent  are African-American, 29 percent are Hispanic and 10 percent are Anglo.

We have benefited from progress in automobile safety, better workplace standards, good schools and medical clinics and reduction in smoking and infectious diseases. But when you look closer, there are significant differences in health outcomes according to where we live, how much money we make and how we are treated, the report states.

It cites deep-rooted barriers to good health such as unfair lending practices, school funding woes and criminal justice-related policies.

Among the recommendations from the researchers for overcoming some of the barriers to health equity are investing in early childhood education, supporting education into adulthood, increasing public and private sector wages for those on the low rungs of the economic ladder, establishing mentoring programs for youth, and increasing health coverage.

The 2018 report is not all gloom and doom for Bexar County. The community scored well in some health measurement factors, such as access to clinical care and a low adult-smoking rate. Some of the researchers recommendations have been put in place, but it is clearly not enough.

The statistics in this study provide a sobering look at the impact public policy decisions have on a communitys well-being.

We must do better. Fully funding schools is a good place to start.1 Mall fire: A shopping mall fire in a Siberian city killed 37 people, and 27 are considered missing, the Russian government said Monday. The fire at the four-story Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo was extinguished early Monday after burning for hours. State news agency Tass reported that many of the dead and missing were children. An additional 43 people were injured in the blaze, the report said. The mall is about 1,900 miles east of Moscow. Tass said the fire started on the top floor but the cause wasnt immediately known, although Vladimir Chernov, a deputy governor of the Kemerovo region, said a child apparently started the fire with a lighter. A criminal investigation into the cause was begun.

2 Bus crash: A police official in Tanzania says a truck and a minibus collided, killing at least 26 people and injuring nine others. The countrys traffic police commander, Fortunatus Musilimu, says the dead in Saturday nights accident in the southern town of Mkuranga included 12 women and seven children. There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash. Road accidents are common in the East African nation, often the result of badly maintained roads and poor enforcement of traffic laws. Government statistics show that such accidents kill around 9,000 people annually.

The dates for this years 49th Kowhai Festival have been finalised. The festival movie night will be held on Friday October 26, followed by the Huge Day Out on the following day, October 27. The Great Debate will be held on November 2. The theme for the festival is still being finalised. The organising committee held its annual meeting on March 20, where Murray Chapman was re-elected chair and Diane Hopgood secretary. The committee is keen to recruit a treasurer following the retirement of Ray Harrison. Meanwhile, a sub-committee, led by Dave Parker, has been set up to start work on the 50th anniversary festival next year.









Share this storyAuckland Transport (AT) have put forward a new proposal to minimise disruption during major road repairs on Neville Street.

The original plan infuriated local retailers and cafe owners who said a road closure to facilitate repairs would devastate their businesses and cost jobs.

During a meeting between representatives from AT and the One Warkworth Business Association late last week, AT said it had revised its plans to accommodate local concerns.

The revised plan includes the following elements:

*Delay the start of the project so that work on the Oaks on Neville development will be largely complete. This is intended to lessen the burden of two major projects occurring at the same time. Work between Alnwick Street and Queen street is expected to start in early June and conclude in late June.

* Complete work on Neville Street in sections. Car parks will be unavailable in the worked-on section but will remain available in other parts of the street.

* Conduct final road sealing at night. This will mean traffic will be able to travel along much of the road during the day.

* Abandon plans to upgrade the footpath at the same time as the road. Pedestrian access will be unimpeded.

To further alleviate car parking concerns, One Warkworth Business Association chair Chris Murphy has volunteered to open car parking to the public at the old Warkworth Toyota site on the corner of Mill lane and Whitaker Road and at Mill Lane, next to Chocolate Brown, during the works. This is expected to make around 60 parks available.Three break-ins in one night resulted in a hammer flying through the window of Simon Wabys car as he attempted to catch the thieves.

On March 14, between 2am and 3am, three people broke into Gull Matakana and the Matakana Liquor Store before heading to Snells Beach where they burgled another Gull station.

All the forced entries involved the offenders throwing rocks or bricks through the building windows.

Simon, who lives 200 metres from Gull Snells Beach, says he was awoken by the sound of the alarm from the petrol station.

I rushed out to the road to see what was going on. A car went speeding by with no headlights on so I got in my car to chase them, he says.

He followed them into Virginia Circus where they did a U-turn and went back on to Dalton Road.

As I came back out to Dalton Road, I saw the offenders had left the vehicle and one came running at me before smashing my side window in with a hammer.

Simon quickly drove off to Mahurangi East Road where he alerted the police.

When they arrived at the scene, the car, a silver Honda Odyssey, stolen from Red Beach at 9pm the previous day, was abandoned at Foster Crescent.

A stolen laptop was recovered from the vehicle, but 21 bottles of spirits taken from the liquor store were not found.

This marked the second smash and grab at Gull Matakana in the past month. Three others occurred in 2016.

Owner Gay Smith says there is little more she can do to protect her store.

After the incidents two years ago, I installed a $30,000 vending machine for the cigarettes, which is a lot more secure, Gay says.

The glass is toughened already, but I am looking at getting a smoke cannon that would fog the view of any intruders.

Gay says she wouldnt consider stopping the sale of cigarettes as she doesnt believe they were the motive for the last two break-ins.

My main concern is for the staff, but luckily every incident so far has been outside of working hours.

She says the glass windows were not insured, as the $1000 excess for damage through a burglary makes it financially pointless.

Warkworth Police Sergeant Scott Sherer says there has been a small spike in the number of break-ins in the area.

Recently, police arrested three people, all from the Counties Manakau, with one responsible for seven car break-ins.

Sgt Sherer advises that all shop owners have secure premises, particularly if selling alcohol and cigarettes. These crimes are opportunistic and are occurring nationwide, he says.The forced sale of an 80-hectare property on Sandspit Road, known as the Chestnut Farm, has been confirmed.

Former owners  Hong Zhongliang, Ke Xueli, Gu Xinrong and IRL Investment Limited  bought the property in 2012 without Overseas Investment Office (OIO) consent.

Although they applied retrospectively for approval, consent was denied and the property went on the market last year.

OIO policy and overseas investment chief executive Lisa Barrett says the OIO is now in discussions with the overseas vendors.

The OIO has the power to apply to the High Court for an order that a person in breach pay a civil penalty. The maximum amount of the penalty is the larger of $300,000 or the amount of any gain, such as the increase in the value of the property since acquisition.

Just this month, the former owners of a Glendowie property, in Auckland, were ordered to pay $847,000 and costs for failing to get consent under the Overseas Investment Office Act before buying the property.

The judgment establishes that where an overseas person stands to make gain from buying sensitive land without consent, any penalty imposed will focus on the gain they make by failing to follow the overseas investment rules, Ms Barrett says.

In regard to the Sandspit Road property, an OIO spokesperson says they will not comment further until discussions with the vendors are concluded.

The property is zoned future urban/countryside living and its rateable value as at July 1 last year was just over $6 million. It was sold to the Chinese investors in 2012 for $4,480,000.Fix Hill Street Now campaigners are fuming after pouring time and thousands of dollars into presenting a petition to Parliament, which they believe has got nowhere.

The petition sought to prioritise major improvements to the troubled intersection to address current and future safety and congestion issues.

Fix Hill Street Now raised about $5,000 organised a billboard campaign, produced Hill Street Blues muffins and t-shirts and gathered more than 7000 signatures in support of their petition.

Glyn Williams along with fellow Hill Street Now activists, travelled to Wellington last July to present the petition to Parliaments Transport and Industrial Relations Committee.

But the committees recommendation in respect of the petition, released earlier this month, comprises just two lines:

The Transport Industrial Relations Committee has considered Petition 2014/115 of Glyn Williams and 7320 others and recommends that the House take note of its report.

Glyn Williams

Mr Williams told the Warkworth Area Liaison Group this month that the recommendation signalled only further inaction.

If this is not a kick for touch, I do not know what is, he said.

In presenting the petition, Hill Street Now argued that the intersection is outdated, confusing and dangerous.

During holiday weekends, traffic can back up for up to 15 kilometres along State Highway 1 and delays of up to two hours are common.

Moreover, the intersection is dangerous for pedestrians to cross, hampers emergency services, limits tourism and deters people from visiting Warkworths central business district.

Problems will only get worse with Warkworths population set to increase from 4500 to 24,500 residents in the next 15 years, the group maintains.

The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), which controls the intersection, was due to rebuild the intersection by 2008 but shelved the idea, believing other roading projects such as the Puhoi to Warkworth Road of National Significance (RoNS) and the Matakana link road, both due for completion in the early 2020s, would significantly reduce pressure on Hill Street.

Mr Williams disputes this, saying minor improvements provided by these additional roads will completely fail to compensate for the increased traffic due to population growth, and Hill Street will just get worse unless the intersection is upgraded.

The Transport Minister needs to say to NZTA get off your backside and get this thing moving now, he said.

However, NZTA told the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee that the Hill Street project was part of a national land transport programme and under the Land Transport Management Act, the Government cannot instruct the agency to alter or prioritise any part of the project.

Nevertheless, NZTA said it understood the concerns associated with the Hill Street intersection and has agreed to a joint investigation with Auckland Transport to determine the best long-term option for the intersection, and will actively engage with Hill Street Now.

It said the timing of upgrades to Hill Street would be settled once the preferred option was identified.

In its report, the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee said it was pleased that the Agency would engage with Fix Hill Street Now and said this was a positive outcome of the petition.

Rodney-based MPs Marja Lubeck (Labour) and Tracey Martin (NZ First) both blame the previous National Governments prioritising of the Roads of National Significance for delaying improvements to Hill Street.

Ms Martin says NZ First campaigned on a promise to Fix Hill Street but the Rodney electorate overwhelmingly voted for the local National Party candidate, Mark Mitchell, who had not delivered on the issue for a number of years. This makes it very difficult for me to argue as an urgent matter with the current government, as I am not the locally elected representative. The people of this area, through their vote, quite clearly said that they were happy with the previous members representation, she said.

Ms Lubeck said the Government will soon release a new policy statement for land transport, which will make safety a top priority.

Although the Government cannot directly insist what projects the NZTA will fund, the emphasis on safety would ultimately mean dangerous intersections like Hill Street would be among the first to get attention, she said.School & Education, Local News, Business & Finance

By Long Island News & PR Published: March 26 2018

53% of Full-Time SUNY & CUNY In-State Students Now Attend Public College Tuition Free.

Albany, NY - March 26, 2018 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the application for the Excelsior Scholarship for new applicants in the 2018-19 academic year is now open. SUNY and CUNY students whose families make up to $110,000 annually can now apply for tuition-free college Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the application for the Excelsior Scholarship for new applicants in the 2018-19 academic year is now open. SUNY and CUNY students whose families make up to $110,000 annually can now apply for tuition-free college here . The Excelsior Scholarship, in combination with other aid programs, allows eligible full-time students to attend a SUNY or CUNY two-year or four-year college tuition-free.

"The Excelsior Scholarship program makes the dream of higher education a reality for many New Yorkers who once felt a college degree was out of reach," Governor Cuomo said. "Access to higher education has become essential in today's economy, and I encourage all eligible New Yorkers to apply for this program that will help open the door to opportunity and equip students with the skills they need to succeed now and into the future."

The 2018-19 Excelsior Scholarship application, which became available this morning, is open to students first entering college in the fall 2018 term and current college students who have never applied for the Excelsior Scholarship. Current Excelsior Scholarship recipients should not complete this application. For students who first received an award in fall 2017 or after, no additional action is needed for 2018-19.

To be eligible for an Excelsior Scholarship, students must be New York State residents, plan to attend a SUNY or CUNY two- or four-year college, take 30 credits per year (including Summer and Winter sessions), and be on track to graduate on time with an Associate's Degree in two years or a Bachelor's Degree in four years. For the 2018-19 academic year, household federal adjusted gross income can total up to $110,000 to be eligible. In 2019-20 and beyond, New York State families can earn up to $125,000. Recipients must also plan to live in New York State for the length of time they received the award.

Approximately 53 percent of full-time SUNY and CUNY in-state students, and more than 210,000 New York residents, now attend school tuition-free thanks to the addition of students receiving the Excelsior Scholarship.

Dr. Guillermo Linares, Acting President of the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation, said, "Last year's launch of the first-in-the-nation Excelsior Scholarship program enabled an unprecedented number of New York's students access to a college education. This year, with Excelsior Scholarship's expansion, we can truly say that a college degree more attainable than ever for all New Yorkers."

To apply, students must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the NYS Tuition Assistance Program application, if applicable, and the Excelsior Scholarship application at hesc.ny.gov/excelsior

Applications will be accepted through Monday, July 23.

About the New York State Higher Education Services CorporationLocal News, Crime, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: March 26 2018

Settlement with Menacola Marketing Bars Companys Owners from Fundraising for Any Charity; Requires them to Pay $100,000 to Reputable Charities Supporting Veterans.

Brooklyn, NY - March 26, 2018 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced that his office reached a settlement that shuts down Menacola Marketing, Inc., a telemarketing company that solicited on behalf of the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation (NVVF)  a sham charity previously shut down by the Attorney General  and other shell charities that exploited popular causes in order to line fundraisers pockets. The Attorney General shut down NVVF in 2016 after an investigation by his Charities Bureau revealed that NVVF raised millions of dollars through deceptive solicitations while providing almost no help to veterans. Todays settlement is part of the Attorney Generals Operation Bottomfeeder, which has previously shut down other shell charities, such as the Breast Cancer Survivors Foundation.

Under this settlement, Menacola will dissolve and its principals, Joseph and Katherine DeGregorio, are permanently barred from fundraising for charity. The DeGregorios will also pay $100,000, which will be distributed to reputable charities supporting veterans.

We have zero tolerance for shell charities that shamelessly exploit our veterans and other New Yorkers in need in order to line fundraisers pockets. New Yorkers should be able to donate with confidence and know that their money will actually support the causes advertised, said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Through our Operation Bottomfeeder, well continue to aggressively pursue both bogus charities and the professional fundraisers who take advantage of New Yorkers good will.

Click here to read the settlement agreement.

From 2010 to 2016, Menacola raised nearly $190,000 from New Yorkers for NVVF, using paid solicitors who made telemarketing calls from phone rooms in Brooklyn. For some calls, Menacola callers said they were fundraising for NVVF. At other times, the callers used an alternative name, American Veterans Support Foundation, claiming that it was a special project of NVVF. The investigation found that there was no such special project, and that the use of two names was just a way to raise more money. Menacolas callers also told potential donors that their donations would be used to pay for help for veterans, including personal care packages, guide books of essential services, donations to food pantries, and transportation to and from medical appointments. In fact, 85 percent of the money raised went to Menacola, and an additional 4 percent went to companies controlled by Mark Gelvan, a New Jersey-based fundraiser who is banned from fundraising in New York. The little that went to the charity was squandered by abuse and mismanagement.

The Attorney Generals investigation found that Menacola took no steps to verify the claims that its callers made about NVVF. In fact, in its fundraising for NVVF, Menacola used scripts provided by Gelvan, whom Menacola knew was banned from fundraising in New York because of prior fraud. New York law prohibits fundraisers from making false statements to raise money on behalf of charities.

This settlement is part of the Attorney Generals Operation Bottomfeeder, which addresses fraud networks of shell charities, abusive professional fundraisers, and accountants and other professionals who knowingly aid and assist their activities. Menacola also raised money for other Bottomfeeder charities, including the Breast Cancer Survivors Foundation, which the Attorney General shut down in 2017 , and Cancer Fund of America, which was shut down in 2016 after a landmark suit filed by all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Trade Commission. In November 2017, the Attorney General joined 24 other AGs in shutting down VietNow National Headquarters, Inc., which used deceptive telemarketing solicitations falsely claiming the charity funded services, medical facilities, and treatment for veterans, while only sending 5 percent of donations to charitable programs.

More information about the Attorney Generals Charities Bureau and organizations regulated by the Bureau may be found at www.charitiesnys.comDemand for U.S. media inventory expanded in February, both sequentially and year-over-year, according to just released estimates from the U.S. Ad Market Tracker, a collaboration of Standard Media Index and MediaPost.

The tracker, which indexes actual media spending by ad agencies representing about 70% of all media billings, rose 14 by Steven Rosenbaum , Featured Contributor, March 26, 2018

The New York Times has a new marketing campaign: "The truth is more important now than ever."

Lets start by leaving Donald Trump out of the equation. Certainly the emergence of the Presidential Tweet and the use of the phrase fake news indiscriminately to tarnish anything that he disagrees with complicates the matter. But the current news economy was facing a crisis and a crossroad long before Trump.

Here are five ways news can be reimagined:

1. Who speaks? Until very recently, the people who had access to the tools of news publishing and distribution were the monied elite. Newspapers, radio and television were all owned by an elite class of privileged publishers and broadcasters.

This isnt to say the media was inherently owned by a single political ideology. Journalists are more liberal that conservative on a 5:1 basis (as reported by the Pew Research Center), but media organizations that reach Americans are more politically balanced.

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For example, Rupert Murdocks Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Post are clearly conservative, along with Sinclair Broadcasting, which is buying Tribune and will own 233 local TV stations. Breitbart and The Drudge Report have significant capitalization and footprints.

But the internet has removed the barrier to entry. Today, anyone with an internet connection and a keyboard can be a publisher. And while early internet innovators saw the democratization of publishing as an inherently good thing, the combination of an open publishing platform and the rapid shift from desktop to mobile consumption has had some dramatic and unanticipated consequences. Mobile reading (and viewing) has shortened the length of shared media.

In the new world of unfiltered media, the most outrageous and controversial voices are able to rise above the crowd. The democratization of publishing has created a bit of an arms race, with ideas and voices that used to operate at the fringes getting a disproportionate amount of attention.

2. What are facts? In the debate over fake news, critics have retreated to their corners and called on each other just to present the facts.

But those of us who work on the front lines know how complicated that can be. It turns out numbers are hard to come by and harder to agree on.

How many people attended Donald Trumps inauguration? It depends on whom you ask. Theres good science on how to count crowds from pictures shot from the air, but no federal government organization like the National Parks Service wants to get caught publishing facts that dont align with what the President claimed. So the facts are replaced by estimates, which vary widely.

Were living in an era of alternative facts, which is probably better. As long as every bit of information is being classified as having a political bias or POV, theres no likely way were ever going to return to the pre-internet days of authoritative news sources gathering and publishing facts without being drawn into a battle of the source, accuracy, or impartiality of facts.

Instead, weve arrived at a time when news organizations are going to have to be more transparent about their point of view, internal biases, and underlying beliefs.

Honest institutional positions will giver readers/viewers a framework. Exploring a complicated news story by reading The New York Times, Reuters, and The Wall Street Journal will provide an informed citizenry with a diversity of perspectives, and the opportunity to come to their own conclusions.

3. What is opinion? In an era where authenticity beats authority, its hard to ask journalists to be both objective and opinionated.

Defenders of Fox News go out of their way to say that Foxs news programs are produced with journalistic ethics, claiming that Foxs opinion programing is what brings critics, who suggest that shows like Hannity" blur the line between fact and fiction.

It will be up to publishers to clarify the rules of the road and how they define label news and opinion. Even as opinion gives more personal latitude to pundits and commentators, the value of opinion allows news organizations to slide down the slope of both sides, where any story has someone willing to take the opposing view.

Does climate change have a scientific basis to be denied? By any reasonable measure, no. But in the world of endless opinion, a cable news producer can always find someone to say that climate change  or more broadly, science  is biased and should be ignored.

We need strong, well-argued voices on the opinion pages, But choosing the most controversial or vociferous comments takes us down a path from thoughtful signal to overwhelming noise.

4. Who curates  and why? At this years SXSW, Apples Eddy Cue gave a talk on "Curation in Media: Why It Matters. Cue is Apples senior vice president of internet software and service, and what he had to say about news was important.

The key is to bring great articles from trusted sources. Its about curation, he noted.

"We want the best articles, we want them to look amazing, and we want them to be from trusted sources so that we dont have a lot of the issues that have been going around in the marketplace, said Cue, with a not-very-veiled reference to the fake news issues that Facebook and YouTube are addressing.

So, while Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and others work to serve advertisers who still pay for mass audience, Apple instead looks to curate for quality -- and to build revenues from the sale of hardware and subscription media. This model wins as consumers find themselves hungry for clarity and focus, not the firehose spew of unfiltered noise.

Can Apple bring subscription revenue to publishers? The companys recent purchase of Texture, a magazine subscription curator, suggests Apples interest in building revenue from quality content subscriptions is only going to grow.

5. Economics: You get what you pay for. News has been handicapped by being the free content that attracts audience, then is sold to advertisers. Advertisers buy ads to sell their products, so we cant expect them to want to have their messages next to stories that are inherently disturbing. Read about children dying in Syria, and then book a luxury vacation? Not likely.

Yet readers and viewers are interested in serious, often complicated stories about the world we live in and the lives we lead. Which is why subscriptions are growing at the Washington Post, the New York Times, and a slew of other quality journalism offerings. Theres also a trend for a new generation of high-quality, focused journalism efforts to put more of their content behind a paywall.

Journalism isnt going back to the days of limited bandwidth and publishers whose economic strength gave them the power to publish. The genie is out of the bottle. The tools to make media have been democratized.

Now readers and viewers need to vote with more than their clicks and attention. Were ready for new media models to emerge. Its time to support the voices and institutions we want to survive and thrive.

So vote with your credit card, both for big sites and small ones. Every dollar has the power to grow a new generation of solid, passionate, serious journalists.

We need them now more than ever.by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, March 26, 2018

A broadband lobbying group is vowing to fight efforts by state and city officials to restore net neutrality rules on the local level.

"Nothing could be more counter to the collective cause than everyone -- no matter how well meaning -- writing their own set of rules for how the global internet should operate in their neck of the woods," Jonathan Spalter, president and CEO of US Telecom, wrote Monday in a blog post.

He adds that the organization will "aggressively challenge state or municipal attempts to fracture the federal regulatory structure" for broadband.

Spalter's statement comes as momentum for net neutrality rules continues to grow at the local level. This year, governors in five states -- New York, New Jersey, Montana, Hawaii and Vermont -- have signed executive orders requiring state agencies to contract only with broadband providers that promise to follow net neutrality principles. Mayors in 25 cities have also pledged that they will attempt to procure broadband service from companies that don't block or throttle traffic, and don't charge companies higher fees for prioritized delivery.

advertisement advertisement

The state of Washington recently enacted a new law that requires broadband providers to follow net neutrality rules, and lawmakers in around two dozen other states have introduced similar legislation.

Three months ago, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to dismantle Obama-era net neutrality rules, which prohibited broadband carriers from blocking or throttling online traffic and from charging companies higher fees for prioritized delivery. The FCC also voted to block state governments from passing their own versions of net neutrality rules, but some legal experts have cast doubt on whether the attempt will hold up in court.

Consumer groups and other net neutrality advocates opposed the FCC's move, arguing that net neutrality rules are needed to prevent carriers from engaging in censorship and from discriminating against competitors and small companies that can't afford high fees for fast-lane service.

For his part, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says the former rules were heavy-handed and depressed investment.

The FCC's repeal is currently being challenged in court 23 attorneys general, tech companies like Mozilla, the lobbying group Internet Association and consumer advocacy organizations. Broadband providers and lobbying groups, including USTelecom, are intervening to defend the FCC's de-regulatory move.

USTelecom says in its most recent statement that broadband rules should be uniform across the country.

"If we truly believe -- as I do -- that all Americans deserve an open internet, then we should fight together at the federal level for permanent, evenhanded protections that apply across the entire internet," Spalter writes. "Protections should be no different for consumers in Minnesota or Iowa than they are in California or Florida."

Harold Feld, senior vice president at advocacy group Public Knowledge, points out that US Telecom lobbied to repeal Obama-era rules, which applied throughout the country.

"We had a national rule," Feld says. "We could have a national rule back again by supporting the CRA," he adds, referring to an effort in Congress to use the Congressional Review Act to revoke the FCC's recent move. "Instead, not only are they lobbying against that, but they have actively intervened in support of the FCC's repeal."Advertisement

The team then replicated the relevant searches and checked to see whether the resulting websites advertised mail-order marijuana."By studying anonymized, aggregate Internet searches and search results, we were able to directly observe the online marijuana marketplace," said study coauthor Mark Dredze, the John C. Malone Associate Professor of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University.The team foundMarijuana shopping searches were highest in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Nevada. However, the annual growth rate in searching for these terms increased in all but two states, Alabama and Mississippi, suggesting demand is accelerating across the nation. (The six least populated states were excluded from the study.)Moreover, mail-order marijuana retailers occupied half of the first-page results, and three out of"Anyone, including teenagers, can search for and buy marijuana from their smartphone regardless of what state they live in," Ayers said.Such online sales of marijuana are prohibited in the United States, even in states that have legalized or partially legalized the drug, "but clearly these regulations are failing," said coauthor Eric Leas, a research fellow at Stanford University.Public health leaders must immediately take action to curtail online marijuana sales, urged Theodore Caputi, the study's lead author and George J. Mitchell Scholar at University College Cork."Children could obtain marijuana online without safeguards to protect them," he said."States that have legalized marijuana might not be able to collect taxes to offset the public health costs of legal marijuana from online retailers, and the instant online availability of marijuana could increase marijuana dependence among all age groups."One solution could be for public safety officials to work with internet service providers to purge marijuana retailers from major search engine results, said Ayers. Such a move would "effectively close off illicit retailers from consumers," he said.Source: EurekalertAdvertisement

In 2017, Zika virus became a cause of concern for the Indian health officials, and in order to avoid panic, they withheld Information regarding three positive cases in Gujarat, which later came out in a report of World Health Organization (WHO). Dengue , Zika, and chikungunya all have the same vectors (disease carriers) - mosquitoes and Delhi is considered to be a favorable environment for these Mosquito Borne Diseases "Because of the prevalence of Aedes Aegypti mosquito, we are witnessing regular outbreaks of dengue and chikungunya. We should prepare ourselves to face a Zika outbreak as well," said Dr. Shama Parveen, assistant professor, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences (CIRBSc), Jamia Millia Islamia.Dr. Parveen, with her team of researchers, has been trying to identify inhibitors for some specific proteins against the Zika virus, but has not successed so far, she also said that the computational study which is essential will take a few years.Zika become a global threat in 2015 when babies were born with microcephaly in Brazil. The WHO had then declared the zika virus as a global health emergency. Even though it is no longer an emergency, high vigilance still needs to be maintained for this particular virus.According to a recent study, India has been infected with Zika virus before; It was in 1952, Zika antibodies were found in Indians.Researchers, however, explained that its very existence among the population may have caused an immunity, but due to the very nature of the virus, which keeps changing its genome (complete set of genes), immunity can become irrelevant after a time period."A positive-strand RNA virus is a very unstable molecule. Since Zika has RNA as genetic material, every time it replicates, the genome changes. This makes it a very difficult virus to produce a vaccine for," said Dr. Muneeb Faiq, Clinical Researcher, AIIMS."Since we have been seeing dengue and chikungunya outbreaks, we anticipate a Zika outbreak in the near future. The mechanism of this spread will be similar to other vectors," said Faiq.Duane J Gubler, an expert in the field of mosquito-borne diseases warned India about the genetic changes in zika virus that the country has picked up over the years as it could make the Outbreak even more uncontrollable if it occurred.Source: MedindiaThere are some movies that leave you speechless for a while, with a numbness that leaves you stunned. You wish to share the same feeling with others and can't stop yourself from watching them again and again and again.

Well, here is a list of such movies that can take one's imagination to the next level.

1. 'Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer'

 YouTube

IMDb: 7.5

'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer' is a 2006 German period psychological crime thriller that will leave you reeling. The concept and the storytelling are remarkable. The main character in the plot, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, is born(unwanted and unexpected by his own mother) with a superior olfactory sense. He later creates the world's finest perfume but his work eventually takes a dark turn as he searches for the ultimate scent that could make you sense paradise on Earth.

2. 'The Legend Of 1900'

 Amazon

IMDb: 8.1

'The Legend of 1900' is a 1998 Italian drama, with a piano rich score that will just sweep you right off your feet. Starring Tim Roth, it is an epic story of a young man (Roth) who is born on January 1, 1900, and thus his name Nineteen Hundred. He grows up having lived on an ocean liner, becoming a talented pianist.

This is what one of the viewers had to say about the movie, The antidote to all your troubles, "1900" will sweep you away.

3. 'Das Experiment'

 Wikipedia

IMDb: 7.7

'Das Experiment' is a 2001 German thriller film where 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards in a prison. The movie is based on Mario Giordano's novel Black Box and deals with a social experiment which resembles Philip Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment of 1971. It is a compelling thriller that disturbs as much as it entertains.

4. 'The Illusionist'

 Amazon

IMDb: 7.6

'The Illusionist' is a 2006 American romantic mystery film where Eisenheim (Edward Norton) who does not get to be with his lover Sophie, becomes a famous and powerful magician who uses his powers to free his lady from the royal residence. If you are looking for a wonderful, suspense-filled, sensual escape from reality then this is it.

5. 'The Butterfly Effect'

 Discogs

IMDb: 7.7

'The Butterfly Effect' is a 2004 American science fiction psychological thriller. The movie revolves around Evan(Ashton Kutcher) who gets severe headaches that cause him to suffer blackouts. While being unconscious, he is able to travel back in time and alter the past. But this causes drastic changes in his present life. The title has been derived from the butterfly effect, a popular hypothetical situation which illustrates how small initial differences may lead to large unforeseen consequences over time.The 70% quota is based on the average US import volumes from South Korea for 2015-2017, which is about 74% of 2017s total, and was imposed after the US exempted South Korea from the Section 232 import tariff of 25% on political grounds.South Korea exported 3.62 million tonnes of steel to the US in 2017, out of which was 3.56 million tonnes was carbon and alloy steel.About one-third of the steel shipped from South Korea to the US, or 1.06 million tonnes, was oil country tubular goods (OCTG), along with 697,086 tonnes of line pipe. Sources said these two markets would be most affected by the tariffs/quotas.Some 229,014 tonnes were metallic coated sheet and strip, and the US also imported 61,681 tonnes of stainless steel from South Korea in 2017, of which 23,489 tonnes were cold-rolled stainless sheet and 18,300 tonnes stainless steel tube & pipe.South Korea shipped 4.40 million tonnes of steel to the US in 2015 and 3.46 million tonnes in 2016.The South Korean steel industry is planning to implement various steel export control measures after the negotiations with the US, including a detailed export control plan and setting up a steel trading commission, which will work to limit the impact of the expected drop in steel export volumes to the US.Kisa said the current situation was better than the 63% import quota limit initially proposed by the US government.Sign up here for our free web seminar to learn how Metal Bulletins fob China hot-rolled coil and rebar indices can help protect your production and trading margins. Asia steel editor Paul Lim will give a presentation on 'Increasing trading margins and reducing spot price risks in volatile global markets' on April 10 even as the Asian steel markets face an uncertain outlook and remain heavily exposed to price volatility.Completing his stay to Dublin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Terens Quick visited the Greek Communitys school and met with the BoDs and members of Greek Community organizations based in Dublin. The school has over 50 pupils and additional classes are being started in the Irish cities where most brain-drain Greeks reside. Mr. Quick was welcomed by the President of the Community of Ireland, Stella Xenopoulou; the President of the Greek Orthodox Community based in Dublin, Thomai Kakouli-Duarte; and the Board of the school Community.



This is a very special, dynamic, enviable Community, with harmony among its members. Greeks who have resided here for decades and members of the last immigrant generation who found in Ireland a welcoming home, together with their children, and good working conditions in the various professions they practice, the Deputy Minister stated, departing for the airport and his next destination, London.



The members of the Greek Community in Ireland (mostly in Dublin) raised the following issues:



- Timely replacement, by the Ministry of Education, of the seconded teacher, whose tour is ending, so that the new school year can start smoothly in fall 2018.



- Potential for sending a second teacher for regions of Ireland where schools are being opened for students of the new immigrant generation  mainly primary-school students.



- Intervention with the Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain to find a Priest to replace Father Thomas should he retire at the sole Greek Orthodox church in Dublin, the Church of the Annunciation.



- Support for the Communitys cultural actions aimed at promoting Greek arts and letters, such as translation of literature or musical works into the Irish language.



Also raised was the issue of the shortage of space where the Greek school is housed, with Greek community organizations lacking office space. Regarding this latter issue, Mr. Quick informed the members of the Community that he had met with the Mayor of Dublin, Micheal Mac Donncha, who promised that his team, in collaboration with the Greek Community of Ireland, will try to find an appropriate building, despite the huge housing problem in the Irish capital. Mr. Quick took this opportunity to thank Mr. Mac Donncha for retaining the name Greek Street for a street very close to the citys Cathedral  a legacy of the first Greeks who went to Dublin and settled in that neighbourhood.

The Deputy Minister was accompanied to all of his meetings by the Greek Ambassador in Dublin, Katia Georgiou, and he was also accompanied to his meetings with the Greek community by Cypriot Ambassador Kostas Papadimas.MIDDLETOWN  State and local fire marshals are investigating the cause of a two-alarm blaze that claimed the life of an elderly man and injured two firefighters early Monday morning.

South Fire District firefighters were called to 8 Millbrook Road at 12:43 a.m. after a neighbor taking the dog out smelled smoke and called 911, Chief Michael Howley said.

Heavy smoke was billowing from the single-story 1927 home when first responders arrived, he said.

After about 5 to 8 minutes, mutual aid was called in from Middletown and Westfield Volunteer fire stations. Within 30 minutes, the blaze was under control, the chief said.

The home sustained significant smoke and water damage.

The fire, which Howley said was centered in the living room, burned the floor beams so badly that two firefighters trying to remove the victim fell through the floor, injuring both.

One firefighter, who landed in the basement, was taken to Hartford Hospital for treatment. He suffered bruises and smoke inhalation. He was released at 7 a.m. and is doing well, Howley said.

When he fell through, his mask broke off his face, the chief said, referring to the self-contained breathing apparatus firefighters wear to be able to breathe and not inhale smoke.

The other man, who fell partially into the hole, was taken to Middlesex Hospital for leg and hip injuries. He was released a few hours later.

The state fire marshals office is assisting in the ongoing investigation.Rep. Teodoro Baguilat Jr. of Ifugao on Monday pled not guilty at the Sandiganbayan's Fifth Division in connection with his graft case over the allegedly overpriced purchase of a second-hand vehicle in 2003. Baguilat is facing one count each of alleged violation of Sections 3(e) and 3(g) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Baguilat was arraigned as a requisite to the grant of his petition to travel to Germany and to The Netherlands from April 6 to 15. Baguilat said he is scheduled to attend a Study Visit Program organized by the Friedrich Neumann Stiftung Foundation in Berlin. The program aims to provide solutions on poverty elimination and social justice, he said. Baguilat said that he intends to go to the Netherlands for three days to visit the Filipino community. The Program aims to provide platforms for knowledge-sharing for party-building and political branding between the Free Democratic Party of Germany and the Liberal Party of the Philippines and the visit to Filipino communities in The Netherlands aims to enhance relations with Filipinos overseas, he said.The Sandiganbayan required Baguilat to post a 120,000 travel bond. Baguilat was also ordered to report to the Division Clerk of Court within five days upon his return to the Philippines. The Ombudsman accused Baguilat, then as serving as Ifugao governor, and two provincial officials of conspiring to purchase a second-hand Isuzu Wagon Trooper for P900,000 from a certain Jose Man Singh of JMS General Merchandise. The Ombudsman claimed that the purchase of the vehicle was illegal as it did not undergo a public bidding and was not covered by a budget appropriation from the Provincial Council. He earlier filed a motion to dismiss the graft charge, invoking his right to a speedy disposition of cases. He said it took almost 15 years for the Ombudsman to file the case on Feb. 9, 2018 when the alleged offense took place in 2003.STUTTGART, Germany -- The U.S. military has launched its first airstrike against al-Qaida in Libya as operations expand beyond targeting the Islamic State group.

"The United States will not relent in its mission to degrade, disrupt, and destroy terrorist organizations and bring stability to the region," U.S. Africa Command said in a statement on Monday.

The strikes on Saturday were launched near the remote Saharan desert town of Ubari, long a crossroads for bandits, various tribal groups, traffickers and militants.

Until now, AfriCom has focused its military efforts in the north around the coastal city of Sirte. In 2016, about 500 airstrikes were carried out during a four-month campaign to dislodge ISIS from the town. The airstrikes were coordinated with forces on the ground aligned with the Libyan government.

Some fighters managed to flee and AfriCom has continued to carry out occasional strikes in other parts of the country.

But the attack in Ubari is the first known strike that reached deep into Libya's isolated southwestern region, a place where al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has long maneuvered between borders with Niger and Algeria.

"These terrorists have used safe havens and freedom of movement in Libya to launch external terror attacks into neighboring countries," AfriCom said.

The command did not say if there were signs that al-Qaida affiliates are gaining in strength in the region, a development that could potentially prompt an escalation of U.S. operations.

The Saturday strike comes as AfriCom adds capabilities to carry out surveillance operations and possibility strikes in the broader Sahel region. In the central Niger city of Agadez, the U.S. military is developing a new drone site that will extend its reach into southern Libya.

The base is expected to be operational later this year. The Nigerien government authorized the armed drone flights in the wake of an October ambush that killed four U.S. soldiers.

Libya has been a source of instability across the Sahel since NATO's 2011 bombardment campaign that led to the overthrow of strongman Moammar Gadafi. When the regime collapsed, weapons stockpiles were left unguarded and eventually fell into the hand of militant groups. Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed Government of National Accord is struggling to establish a semblance of control.

Al-Qaida, which infiltrated Libya following the NATO campaign, has conducted terrorist attacks in the region since then, including the 2013 attack against an oil consortium in Algeria that killed three Americans. The U.S. also blames an al-Qaida affiliate for the 2012 attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi.

"Left unaddressed, al-Qaida could continue to inflict casualties on the civilian populations and security forces, and plot attacks against U.S. citizens and allied interests in the region," AfriCom said.

AfriCom said it has carried out two airstrikes in Libya this year, a slow pace compared to its four-month onslaught in Sirte in 2016. But the military says it will strike again if needed.

"In coordination with Libyan Government of National Accord, U.S. forces are conducting ongoing counterterrorism operations to degrade terrorist organizations' abilities to recruit, train, and plot terror attacks," the command said.1. SHULKIN ON THE OUTS?

Will he or wont he be the next to go? Controversy has surrounded Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. David Shulkin ever since a VA Inspector General last month found he had wrongly billed the government more than $4,000 on airfare for his wife on a trip to London and Denmark last summer.

The major veterans service organizations have so far supported Shulkin, saying he will stand up to the administration over efforts to privatize VA healthcare, which the VSOs oppose.

But now, days after the passage of a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that omitted funding for the VA Choice program, a confidant of President Donald Trump is saying Shulkin is not long for his post.

Shulkin, "is likely to depart the Cabinet very soon," Christopher Ruddy, a personal friend of Trump and CEO of Newsmax media, said Sunday on ABCs This Week.

Read more about Ruddys predictions regarding Trump appointees, including White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

2. VETS JOIN GUN REFORM MARCH

The anti-gun violence rally March for Our Lives Saturday in Washington, D.C. started as an idea among students who survived a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Feb. 14.

But a number of veterans have also picked up the torch, using their military and combat experience as a platform from which to argue for more aggressive restrictions on gun ownership.

While some veterans oppose any additional limits on firearm ownership, others joined the 300,000 marchers in Washington, D.C. and participated in sister rallies across the country.

One, Marine Corps veteran and Georgetown University student Cristine Pedersen, said the tragedy of veteran suicide made the issue personal to her.

"This issue of access to guns is really personal to veterans," Pedersen said. "The veteran suicide rate is really high ... a lot of it is about access to weapons."

Find out what other veterans said.

3. POLICY BANS MOST TRANS TROOPS

Ever since President Donald Trump announced his intent to ban transgender people from military service in a series of tweets last July, the military has been awaiting a final, enforceable policy.

The first step toward that new policy came late Friday night with a White House memo announcing that those with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria would not be allowed to serve, with some exceptions. The decision represents a backing off of the initial plan to ban all transgender troops and provides exemptions for some currently serving, but leaves many questions unanswered about the fate of others.

The memo cites recommendations from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who argued that a gender dysphoria diagnosis coupled with the unique, highly stressful circumstances of military training and combat operations represented a bad combination.

Read more about Mattis recommendations.

4. AIR FORCE TANKER TROUBLE

The Air Force plans to field the new Boeing KC-46 Pegasus refueling tanker and phase out the aging KC-10 Extender. But ongoing glitches with the Pegasus are resulting in blown deadlines. Some worry that the KC-10 will need to be kept on past its planned retirement because of the new tankers problems.

The two critical deficiencies still facing the KC-46 are software problems with the Remote Vision System, which allows the refueling operator to view the refueling system, and a drogue hose that wont stay connected to the receiving aircraft.

Eventually, the Air Force wants 300 KC-135 Stratotankers and 179 KC-46s. But the service doesnt know when the aircraft will all be in place at the appropriate squadrons. Meanwhile, lawmakers are holding service leaders feet to the fire over program delays.

How sparks flew at a recent hearing.

5. NAVYS CREW COUNT ERROR

The Navy just acknowledged a critical historical error: a clerical mix-up over the number of personnel aboard the Portland-class cruiser USS Indianapolis when it was torpedoed and sank in 1945.

A new report from Naval History and Heritage Command confirmed the number of survivors of the ships sinking was 316, but changed the count of personnel aboard the ship when it sunk. There were 1,195 people on the Indianapolis, not 1,196, the report found.

At the center of the confusion: Radio Technician Second Class Clarence William Donnor, a reservist from Big Rapids, Michigan, who was supposed to be aboard the Indianapolis but received orders to report to Fort Schuyler, New York before he embarked.

This was actually the second historical mix-up concerning the sinking of the Indianapolis. Read about the other one.

-- Stars and Stripes, Richard Sisk, Oriana Pawlyk and Sarah Blansett contributed to this report.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.KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Military leaders have said they're overwhelmed by unnecessary training requirements, but seasoned officers at this airfield in southern Afghanistan said they see signs of a turnaround as the Pentagon looks to streamline military policies.

To illustrate the excesses, a group of Army chief warrant officers listed some of the 23 mandatory computer-based modules they had to do before deploying here to train Afghan helicopter pilots. None had anything to do with their jobs as advisers, they said.

Standing on the flight line, the four officers said they're required to submit three times as many forms to request leave back home as they do to fly an MD-530 Cayuse Warrior attack helicopter over this largely Taliban-controlled Afghan province.

It's all part of a slew of bureaucratic demands many say has gotten out of control, in some cases affecting unit readiness and contributing to widespread dishonesty as officials "fudge" compliance reports. Now the Trump administration is seeking to lighten the load.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced a review of personnel policies, professional military education and training last summer to refocus the military on combat effectiveness. In January, the National Defense Strategy called out professional military education as stagnant.

Decisions have not yet been made on reforms aimed at honing training and education, a Pentagon official said last week.

In Kandahar, Chief Warrant Officer 3 John Cornetto, who deployed here in January, said he's already seen things "turning around," with less micromanaging and greater decision-making authority at lower levels. Soldiers are already hopeful about a renewed focus on combat, he said.

"What you see is the morale ... is greatly improved because we're finally able to do our jobs properly," said Cornetto, a Pennsylvania National Guardsman with nearly 21 years in the military.

The abundance of mandates was hampering operations, he said. He knew of helicopter crew chiefs getting just 12 hours a week to do their actual jobs. However, room for improvement remains, he said.

"You can't go out on missions until your sexual harassment training's complete or your cyber awareness training's complete," Cornetto said as an example. "Then you have to sit through that class, and they're just painful."

Part of the agony is that the class content doesn't change from year to year, said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Justin Watts, of the Hawaii-based 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, also deployed to Kandahar.

"It's one thing to do it once," he said. "It's another thing to insult someone's intelligence by telling them the same thing every year. I get it, don't put a random CD [in a government computer]."

The Ongoing Struggle

The complaints are not new. An Army War College study in 2002 found that company commanders had 256 training days to cram in 297 days' worth of requirements each year. A decade later, an Army Inspector General report said leadership at 10 bases complained of "task overload."

But Cornetto, Watts and others said things have gotten somewhat better in the past 18 months or so, with some commands doing better than others.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Brent Ely, of the 82nd Airborne Division's combat aviation brigade and a pilot trainer at Kandahar, said back in Fort Bragg, N.C., his division commander was already trying to "reduce the stupidity" and improve both the unit's effectiveness and paratroopers' quality of life.

"By far, he is one of the best general officers I have seen when it comes to listening to the troopers at all levels and then acting on that input ... all by using common sense," he said of Maj. Gen. Michael E. Kurilla.

For example, in most cases, paratroopers are no longer required to wear the widely mocked reflective belt for physical training, Ely said. Kurilla has also cut needless requirements and implemented policies to improve morale, foster innovation and gather honest feedback.

In December, the popular Facebook page "U.S. Army WTF! Moments" posted news that Kurilla had slashed the paperwork required for a leave request to one document.

The general declined to discuss his policy changes, said spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Buccino, "as he would be concerned about coming off as self-promoting."

Elsewhere in the military, relief from the "huge, overbearing level of training requirements" may not yet have come, said Andrew Swick, a research associate at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security and a former Army infantry officer.

Based on his discussions with around a dozen officers, he said soldiers face greater scrutiny through the Army's Digital Training Management System, pushing some to fudge the numbers.

Checking the Boxes

A December update to mandated training was billed as reducing the load. A Stars and Stripes review found that it dropped the frequency of some requirements, gave commanders more discretion on others and mandated some, such as training on human trafficking, prior to deployment instead of annually.

However, a unit's training burden isn't limited to what's in the regulation, and it's not just computer-based or classroom training that gets shirked.

"The system right now is incentivizing letting things fall by the wayside across the board," Swick said.

For example, a unit in the rotation to deploy to Europe recently did not have enough time to conduct annual weapons training on one of its systems, so a familiarization firing session was counted as fulfilling the requirement, even though it didn't meet Army standards.

Widespread "pencil-whipping" of requirements like that was detailed in a 2015 Army War College study, which found "rampant duplicity" among Army officers, who reported "hand waving, fudging, massaging or checking the box" to meet the time-consuming requirements. It was part of a tacit system in which Pentagon staff accepted the information they knew was often flawed.

Army War College professors and retired officers Leonard Wong and Stephen J. Gerras focused on the Army for the study, titled "Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession," but said the issues pervaded the military and extended beyond false reports of compliance with training requirements. "Bending the truth" in combat zones frequently led to dishonesty in assessments of partner forces, they found.

The authors called for restraint in issuing requirements and a willingness to accept the political risk of reducing the existing mandates.

Despite initial pushback from the Army's senior ranks and a "no kidding" from others, the services began to initiate changes, with the Army letting two-star generals cut some requirements, and the Air Force committing to slash computer-based training by 40 percent, Wong told Stars and Stripes.

"The culture change is definitely not complete," Wong said. "But I'm encouraged that leaders are feeling more empowered to use their judgment."

Many requirements were created to "cover your ass" as a unit commander, said Donald C. Bolduc, a recently retired brigadier general. But during four years as head of Special Operations Command Africa before retiring in October, Bolduc said he cut the requirements burdening tactical units by assuming more responsibility.

Such command-level decisions are personality dependent, he said, and he underscored the need for the Pentagon to issue a higher-level policy on the matter sooner than later.

"I don't think it's being done fast enough," Bolduc said.United Airlines does not plan to grant an exemption to military members and families who need to move their pets, despite an announcement from the Navy's chief of personnel to the contrary, United officials said Monday.

"We understand that there's many active military in the world that are looking toward us for assistance," said Charles Hobart, a United spokesman. "We understand that, we know that, we're looking into it -- it's a part of this top-to-bottom policy review."

United announced March 20 that it is suspending its pet moving program, known as PetSafe, until it has finished a system review after a series of recent pet transport disasters, including animals being delivered to the wrong families and the death of a small dog in an aircraft cabin.

All PetSafe reservations made before March 20 will be honored under the original policy, officials said. The review is expected to be finished by early May.

But the airline, which moved an estimated 3,000 animals for military families last year, had been the only pet transport service available to the 7,000 troops stationed on Guam's two military bases. The suspension announcement sparked panic among military families, who worry that without the service they'll be forced to abandon their animals during the upcoming busy military move season.

An announcement on the Navy's Chief of Personnel Facebook page Friday said that United had updated its policy to exempt troops on military move orders. But when military families called United to confirm the exemption, agents there said one did not exist.

Navy officials later removed the statement, instead posting an apology.

"We apologize for the confusion from today's earlier post on United's pet policy. We are getting further clarification and will update when we have obtained more information," the post said.

Hobart said he did not know where the Navy got the bad information, but guessed it came from a misunderstanding of a policy statement on the carrier's website.

"I think they may have misread," he said.

-- Amy Bushatz can be reached at amy.bushatz@military.com.YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan -- The Air Force is investigating after a Ramstein, Germany-based public affairs airman repeatedly posted a racial slur to a Facebook group for personnel at the headquarters of U.S. Forces Japan.

Senior Airman Elizabeth Baker called a person of Asian descent a "Ching Chong" several times in comments on YokotaTalk, which bills itself as a "place where current, past, and future residents of Yokota Air Base and surrounding Tokyo mingle, make friends, share stories and just have fun."

Lt. Col. Joel Harper, public affairs chief for the Ramstein-based 86th Airlift Wing, called the incident "troubling" after screenshots of the slurs were reposted on another Facebook group.

"We will take appropriate action after reviewing the details of what happened," he wrote in a post to the group. "There is no place in our Air Force for this -- we are on it."

Baker's apparent target, German-Japanese-American Air Force spouse Elizabeth Faraone, told Stars and Stripes in an email that the slurs didn't bother her much at first.

"However, I read deeper into the context of the message itself and it got me very concerned, almost frightened, that there are active duty service members stationed in Japan that show racial prejudice against local nationals," she said.

Baker apologized after Faraone -- who said she grew up at Yokota as an Air Force dependent and is now on Okinawa -- posted screenshots of the slurs.

"I don't actually have anything against Chinese or Japanese people ... I do apologize, because now people actually [think] I mean something against them," Baker wrote.

She posted a deeper apology Sunday: "I can't believe the things I said last night. It was so backwards and ignorant. I can't say how sorry I am to anyone of Asian descent. I don't know how to describe how disappointed I am in myself. To anyone I hurt, please just know I'm so sorry. I disgraced my uniform and fellow Airmen and I'm sure I will pay dearly, as I deserve."

Faraone said she found it hard to gauge the sincerity of the apology.

"Even after being confronted she held her stance on using the term 'Ching Chong' but it was only until after being reported she offered an apology," she said.

Baker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Capt. Nate Roesler, public affairs chief for Yokota's 374th Airlift Wing, confirmed in an email Monday that Baker had worked there until mid-2017.

"The 374th Airlift Wing does not condone acts or words of a discriminatory nature," he said. "That type of behavior is clearly wrong and detracts from our ability to accomplish our mission.Posted Monday, March 26, 2018 7:30 am

Multiple felonies have been filed against a Springfield man in connection to an alleged attack at an Elkland house earlier this month.

Charged with first-degree assault, armed criminal action, first-degree burglary and unlawful use of a weapon is Michael P. Wake, 41, Springfield. Wake is accused of illegally entering an Elkland residence and assaulting one of the occupants March 9.

Deputy Alan Goff with the Webster County Sheriffs Office said in a probable cause statement the alleged victim reported he was asleep in his room in the basement when he woke up to find a man he named Mike pointing a gun at him, while a second male was wearing a mask and holding a tire iron. The victim said in the statement he was asked by one of the men if he was messing around with his girl. The resident said he wasnt, and stated Mike said to him he didnt want to kill him, but wanted to beat him.

After the victim said he struck one of the males in the face, a fight ensued, and the two men got him on the ground, proceeding to hit him with the tire iron and their fists, according to the statement.

The victim told the deputy that the prior day (March 8) he had helped a female move to a new residence. He identified the female as an ex-girlfriend of Wake, and believed Wake must have found out he had helped her, according to the statement. After calling Wakes ex-girlfriend, the victim learned the suspects last name and his possible whereabouts. However, Goff said in the statement the victim was unable to obtain any information on the second male who was wearing a mask.

According to court documents, Wake was charged as a prior and persistent offender, as he has been previously convicted of multiple felonies, including second-degree assault and second-degree burglary. If convicted on the newly-filed felonies, the defendants punishment is subject to an extended prison term of 10-30 years or life imprisonment in the Missouri Department of Corrections. He is currently in the Webster County Jail on $750,000 bond, and has a bond reduction hearing scheduled for March 27.The U.S. will expel 60 Russian intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover in response to the nerve agent attack in Britain, the White House said Monday.

The Russians -- 48 at the embassy in Washington, D.C., and 12 at the United Nations -- will have seven days to leave, senior White House officials said.

In addition, the Russian consulate in Seattle near the Whidbey Island nuclear submarine base and the headquarters of Boeing, will be closed, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

The senior officials, who spoke on background, said the actions are in response to the suspected nerve agent attack in Britain on Russian double agent and now British citizen Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury on March 4.

"The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world," Sanders said in a statement.

The senior officials said they expect Russia to expel a similar number of U.S. officials from Moscow in retaliation to the U.S. action.

President Donald Trump, who returned to the White House on Sunday from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, was criticized for failing to back Britain immediately after the attack and for making a congratulatory phone call last week to Russian President Vladimir Putin following his victory in what many called a sham election.

After the phone call to Putin, Trump said he hoped to meet with the Russian leader in the "not too distant future."

The senior officials and Sanders made clear that the expulsions were the result of direct orders from Trump, who had been under pressure from Britain, other NATO allies and the European Union to take action.

The decision was one Trump "personally made after meetings with his team" of national security officials, one of the senior officials said. "This is absolutely his decision."

Earlier this month, British Prime Minister Theresa May ordered the expulsion of 23 Russians. Moscow responded by expelling 23 British diplomats in retaliation for what it called "unsubstantiated allegations" against the Kremlin.

Putin's government also warned that it would take similar retaliatory action against the U.S. for any expulsions of its nationals working in the U.S.

Earlier this month, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired a day after breaking ranks with the White House, accusing Russia of being behind the attempted assassination.

Tillerson called the attack a "really egregious act."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at richard.sisk@military.com.The Air Force Research Lab has unveiled a new video that gives a further glimpse into proposed ideas for sixth-generation fighters and various missiles, as well as drone swarming concepts and unmanned planes.

The Air Force's leading research organization touts programs such as Loyal Wingman, Gremlins and the Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project in the video, dubbed "Air Force 2030 -- Call to Action" posted on YouTube on March 22.

"Today's research is tomorrow's Air Force technology," the video narration says. "The U.S. Air Force is seeking the next great research idea that will yield the next great Air Force capability."

The five-minute video hinges on the idea that these developments are direct descendants of earlier programs, such as X-planes, which were experimental aircraft and rockets in the late 1940s that led to the first iteration of supersonic flight.

Related content:

For example, the video says data collected from the X-planes program led to the development of the F-22 Raptor and its fifth-generation flight capabilities. Similar data is being harvested today for future programs, including developments in the space and cyber domains, AFRL said.

Some highlights from the video:

Loyal Wingman, or unmanned fighters that can think autonomously, will be sent out alongside F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to scout enemy territory ahead of a strike, or to gather intel for the pilot in the formation. A flight demo is expected sometime in 2022.

Next-gen flight suits will monitor blood pressure, breathing, heart rate and muscle tension.

Gremlins, or controlled micro drones, will drop out of cargo planes to swarm enemy defenses ahead of fighters, ships or ground vehicles. AFRL and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, or DARPA, anticipate a flight demonstration in 2019.

CHAMP is a missile that emits high-powered microwaves to take out power grids and electrical systems without destroying infrastructure. The AFRL, alongside Boeing Co. and Raytheon, successfully tested the technology in 2012.

Laser weapons are in development or prototyping for various aircraft such as the AC-130J gunship and the F-15 Eagle.

The service plans to invest heavily in rapid research and testing for advanced aircraft and weapons. The Air Force's budget request for fiscal 2019 shows it is asking for $504 million next year for its next-generation air dominance research, development, test and evaluation program.

It also has a planned investment of roughly $11 billion over the course of five years for RDT&E on next-gen air dominance, according to its future years defense program.

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 and F-35, but also outlines next-generation air dominance, defined as advanced fighter aircraft, sensors or weapons -- or all of the above -- in a growing and unpredictable threat environment.

The Air Force has been keen to move away from a "one-size-fits-all" mentality, instead developing a "family of systems" approach. Officials have said it helps when the service turns to the defense industry for contributions to the program.

AFRL's video comes at a time when the service says it wants to clamp down on publicly showing or talking about its future technologies so that adversaries such as Russia and China can't capitalize on revealed secrets.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.Army maneuver officials on Monday said the service's Next Generation Combat Vehicle will allow it to team manned and unmanned vehicles and create an unbeatable overmatch against enemy armored forces.

Developing the NGCV to replace the fleet of Cold-War era M1 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles is the Army's second modernization priority under a new strategy to reform acquisition and modernization.

The Army intends to stand up a new Futures Command this summer, which will oversee cross-functional teams that focus on each of the of the service's six modernization priorities: long-range precision fires; next-generation combat vehicle; future vertical lift; a mobile and expeditionary network; air and missile defense capabilities; and soldier lethality.

"The Next Generation Combat Vehicle needs to be revolutionary," Gen Robert Abrams, commander of Forces Command, told an audience at the Association of the United States Army's Global Force Symposium.

"It's got to be 10X better than our current fleet and guarantee our overmatch into the future."

The Army will need such an increase in capability to deal with threats such as Russia's T14 Armata tank and China's efforts at improving composite armor and reactive armor combinations on its ground vehicles, said Col. Ryan Janovic, the G2 for Army Forces Command.

Brig. Gen. David Lesperance, deputy commander of the Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia, and leader of the cross-functional team in the effort, said the NGCV will consist initially of three phases of prototyping and experimentation to refine the program's requirements.

Part of the Army's intent with its new acquisition and modernization strategy is to develop requirements in two to three years rather than the traditional five-to-seven-year process.

The program will seek to develop the robotic combat vehicle and a manned combat vehicle that can be used in an unmanned role based on the commander's needs, Lesperance said.

There will be three phases for the "delivery of capability for experimentation" between 2018 and 2024, he said.

By late fiscal 2019, "we will deliver one manned versus two unmanned combat platforms that will initially go through [Army Test and Evaluation Command] testing, then will go through a six-to-nine month, extended experimentation in an operational unit in Forces Command," Lesperance said.

Army officials will take the results of that effort and use it in the second phase of the program to deliver "a purpose-built robotic combat vehicle and a purpose-built manned fighting vehicle" in 2021 to ATEC and then to operational units at the beginning of second quarter of 2022, he said.

For the third phase, the Army plans to deliver seven manned and 14 unmanned prototypes in late 2023 and into early 2024 "that allow us to look, at a company level, [at] what manned-unmanned teaming could be," Lesperance said.

"Imagine making contact with the enemy with an unmanned robot, and allowing a decision-maker to understand quicker and then make a better decision out of contact. Then move to a position of advantage to deliver decisive lethality in a way that we do not do now in 100 percent manned platforms," he said.

"Each phase of the program in 2020, 2022 and 2024 will ultimately allow us to write the best requirement we can come up with based on experimentation, and the analytics to back it up that ultimately allow us to write the right doctrine, develop the right organizations and then deliver the right capability that will be compliant with how we are going to fight differently in the future," Lesperance said.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.Military members and veterans can get up to four free months of Apple Music through the Apple Music military discount -- but...In July 2015, while working as a reporter for Marine Corps Times, I received a hot tip from a colleague: The commander of the only battalion training female Marine recruits at boot camp had just been fired from her post.

I dropped what I was doing and picked up the phone.

Over the next day or two, the astounding details of the story began to unfold: Lt. Col. Kate Germano, commander of 4th Recruit Training Battalion at Marine Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, had been relieved due to lack of trust and confidence by Recruit Training Regiment Commander Col. Daniel Haas, despite dramatic improvements to recruit range qualification scores that were made during her tenure.

I requested the scores from Parris Island. Sure enough, rifle qualification rates for the battalion shot up from 79 percent to 91 percent under Germano.

It surfaced that there was an investigation into Germano's leadership style and command climate that provided the groundwork for her firing. I requested that, too, from the Marine Corps -- and got it so quickly it made my head spin.

Typically, when I make a Freedom of Information Act request for a command investigation, it takes weeks or months for officials to complete the process of locating the documents, redacting them, and sending them back.

In this case, I got a call from the office of the commandant of the Marine Corps, recommending I ask for expedited processing. It was unusual that the office of then-commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford would reach out to me at all regarding the firing of a lieutenant colonel at Parris Island, and stranger still when I received the documents less than 24 hours later.

I heard a rumor that someone was ordered to turn it over to me as fast as humanly possible -- even if they had to stay up all night redacting privileged information from the 300 pages of documents.

I can only speculate why Germano's ouster received such high-level handling. What I do know is this: It came amid a heated debate about the future of women in the armed forces and whether they deserved a role in combat, and Germano was then, and has been since, an outspoken advocate for equality and integration who isn't afraid to break things to get her point across.

Never before or since have I received a command investigation so quickly. When Lt. Col. Joshua Kissoon, commander of Parris Island's Third Recruit Training Battalion, was relieved of his post the following year amid a hazing scandal, documents of any kind related to his firing took months to surface.

In "Fight Like a Girl," Germano's account, co-written with journalist Kelly Kennedy, of her year at Parris Island, each page is filled with details that highlight the challenges she faced as a commander of female recruits amid the macho culture of the Marine Corps.

Male officers told her she should smile more, she alleges; some, like Kissoon, appeared to make a point of not acknowledging her when they completed the same hikes during recruit training. Among some leaders at Parris Island, she writes, Fourth Recruit Training Battalion, home to all female recruits, was snidely referred to as "The Fourth Dimension."

The unit itself had serious problems, too, she writes. Because female drill instructors would become pregnant and never be replaced on the drill field, she found the unit was severely understaffed, with soaring stress levels that contributed to abuse of recruits and junior drill instructors.

And, in her telling, 4th Recruit Training Battalion had achieved contentment with mediocrity.

Female recruits arrived at the unit unable to meet the minimum fitness standard, and were informed early on that they weren't expected to excel in hikes or on the rifle range.

Germano recounts employing a bit of reverse psychological warfare: Showing the recruits video of women shooting expert, hanging range targets in the barracks for a visual reminder and encouraging shooting practice in free time.

While range qualification rates were rising, Germano was making other changes. After the Crucible hike, the last grueling ritual before a recruit becomes a Marine, she noticed that the women stood in front of a row of chairs, offered in case they felt faint, while the men stood unaided. She quickly did away with those chairs, a visual indicator of the way male and female trainees were treated differently.

She also advocated for integrated hikes for the male and female training battalions, and had some success in implementing them, despite pushback from leadership.

As she was doing all this, what kind of leader was she? The investigation and command-climate survey documents and her own account wildly diverge.

The documents that I received so quickly painted Germano as an abusive leader who would single out subordinates for humiliation, dress Marines down with sarcasm and bully those who challenged her.

In her book, Germano acknowledges that she was guilty of rolling her eyes on occasion, but casts herself as a generally understanding leader who was undermined and sabotaged by higher-ups and her executive officer at the battalion.

Regardless of which account you believe, you have to wrestle with the question she poses more than once: If she had been a man, would her leadership style have been questioned in the same way?

In the nearly three years since Germano's firing, the Marine Corps has fallen increasingly in line with the changes for which she advocated.

Though men and women still train separately at boot camp, events are more integrated. Women are now serving in previously closed infantry specialties. Last September, a female officer graduated the grueling infantry officers course for the first time in history. And Marine Combat Training, the first stop after boot camp for non-infantry Marines, just opened its West Coast location in San Diego to women for the first time.

In "Fight Like a Girl," Germano seeks to both vindicate herself and prove her premise that women can excel alongside men if given the chance to do so. In some ways, though, the changes that have happened in her wake provide their own form of vindication.

"Fight Like a Girl" hits shelves April 3.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.The Yankees announced that first baseman Greg Bird will undergo surgery on Tuesday to remove a small broken spur on the outside aspect of his right ankle. Hell miss approximately six to eight weeks as a result.

This is the latest in a growing line of injury problems for the 25-year-old Bird, who sat out the entire 2016 campaign after undergoing shoulder surgery and then missed the majority of last season with a right foot injury. He and the Yankees are left to hope surgery repairs that foot, and itll leave the club with Tyler Austin and Neil Walker among its big league first base options in the meantime. If the Yankees look for outside help, its worth noting that they had Adam Lind in camp earlier this month. New York elected to release Lind, who remains a free agent.

Regardless of where the Yankees go from here at first, its obvious this is a notable blow to both them and Bird. At his best, the left-handed hitter has looked like a perfect fit for Yankee Stadium and its short right field porch. There was optimism that a healthy Bird would break out from the get-go this year and give the Yankees a fourth fearsome slugger to join Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sanchez. But itll be yet another abbreviated campaign for Bird, who has played just 94 games since earning his first major league promotion in 2015.

Although Bird wowed during his rookie campaign with a .261/.343/.529 line (137 wRC+) in 178 plate appearances, last years injury limited him to a .190/.288/.422 showing (86 wRC+) in 170 PAs. To his credit, Bird returned in time for the playoffs to serve as one the Yankees top October performers before they fell in a seven-game ALCS against the Astros. Thatll go down as Birds last meaningful action until at least mid-May.Posted Monday, March 26, 2018 9:15 am

On March 10, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Shaelie Porter, daughter of Derrick and Tiffany Porter, participated in a seven-state honor choir.

She was one of 140 students who were selected from over 300 auditions to participate in the three-day event, sponsored by the Southwest Division of the American Choral Directors Association.

The conductor for the treble honor choir was the nationally known Christy Elsmer, artistic director of the Allegro Choirs of Kansas City. Shaelie is a seventh-grader at Marshfield and is a private voice student of Beth Burch.The Yemen-based Houthis have launched overnight seven ballistic missiles towards Saudi Arabia that were intercepted by the Saudi Royal Air Defense Forces, reported the official Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi security forces said they shot down three missiles over Riyadh shortly before midnight. Debris fell on a home in the capital, killing an Egyptian resident and wounding two other Egyptians.

Official spokesman of the coalition forces supporting the legitimacy in Yemen, colonel Turki al-Maliki said that on Sunday evening, the air defense forces of the coalition detected the launch of seven ballistic missiles from within the territories of Yemen towards Saudi Arabia. Three of the missiles were directed at Riyadh, while the four others were fired at the souther Saudi cities of Khamis Mushait, Najran and Jazan, SPA quoted colonel Turki as saying.

The missiles were launched in a random and absurd manner to target civilian, populated areas. They all were intercepted and destroyed by the Saudi Royal Air Defense forces. Interception of the missiles led to the fall of fragments on some residential neighborhoods, SPA added.

Several Saudi Arabias allies, including its Gulf neighbors and the United States, have strongly condemned the dangerous Houthi missile attacks and expressed support to the Kingdoms right to defend its borders and safeguard its security.

Meanwhile, Houthis promise more missiles if Saudis continue the Yemen war.

A top Houthi leader hailed the attack, which took place on the eve of the third anniversary of the entry into the Yemen war by Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies.

If they want peace, as we have said to them before, stop your air strikes and we will stop our missiles, Houthi political council chief Saleh al-Samad told a crowd of tens of thousands of supporters in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, Reuters reported.

If you continue your air strikes we have a right to defend ourselves by all means available, he said.Security forces Sunday killed six members of the militant group behind the killing of two people in Alexandria, in an attack targeting the Police Chief, the interior ministry has revealed in a statement.

The statement accused Hasam group that authorities consider as the armed wing of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

The group has staged urban attacks against law enforcement forces and members of the judiciary in retaliation to the ouster in 2013 of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Police Chief in the city of Alexandria survived an assassination attempt Saturday. Two police forces lost their lives in the car bombing.

The interior ministry launched a hunt of the attackers. Six men were killed in a shootout on Sunday. The ministry said it identified three of the slain, believed to have taken part in the Saturday attack.

The assassination attempt took place two days before presidential elections. Incumbent leader AbdelFattah al-Sisi is seeking a second term after winning 2014 polls. A year earlier he had deposed elected President Morsi in a coup.The United States Congress has dramatically increased its budget for the Israeli missile defense programs by $148 million, reported the Jerusalem Post, noting that the amount will include ongoing Iron Dome and Arrow 3 development.

I am pleased and excited to announce that the US Congress has approved a record sum for Israels missile defense program: $705 million in 2018! Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced on Monday, reported the daily on its website.

According to Israels Defense Ministry, the increase of funding was requested for production of the Iron Dome, Davids Sling and Arrow-3 missile defense systems.

The daily explained that the systems will enable Israel to counter threats posed by both short and mid-range missiles used by Hezbollah from Gaza as well as the threat posed by more sophisticated long-range Iranian ballistic missiles.

The increase in the budget will also be used for further trials of all systems as Israel and the US continue to develop additional capabilities for them against future aerial threats.Georgia Temporarily Bans Turkish Potato Import

The Government of Georgia has decided to ban the potato import from Turkey for 3 months. The relevant decree was signed by the Georgian Prime Minister, Giorgi Kvirikashvli.Georgias National Food Agency (NFA) stated that the reason for the ban is the potential risk of potato cancer spread in Georgia.Levan Davitashvili, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia informs that prohibition of potato import from Turkey for several months is a temporary sanitary measure.This is a sanitary measure which is relevant to the International Convention on Plant Protection and the Georgian legislation, the minister said, adding it is connected to time for potato planting.He added that potato harvest is increasing in Georgia annually, adding the temporary measure does not mean the restrictions on total import.We need to prevent spread of agricultural diseases on Georgian territory. This is a temporary measure to protect farmers, said Davitashvili.Last year the ministry said Georgia reduced dependence on potato imports as in 2017, local farmers harvested enough to meet the needs of the local market.Furthermore, Georgia also increased the export of potatoes, giving more financial benefits to farmers.According to the data of January-November 2017, 50 thousand tons of potato was harvested in Georgia, out of which 35 thousand tones were exported.This year it is expected that Georgia will have more potato harvest compared to 2017.Potato Cancer is caused by the fungus Synchytrium endobioticum, and this organism is considered to be the most important world-wide quarantine plant pathogen of cultivated potato.The potato cancer (wart) pathogen co-evolved with the potato in the Andes Mountains in South America from where it was distributed around the world by infected tubers and infested soil.Potato wart has now been variously reported in Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania, North America, and South America.If the soil is infected with the diseased potatoes, it cannot be used for 20 years.Facebook has come under the scanner for not doing enough to protect user data after it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting and data analytics firm, may have used data of users of the social media platform without consent to influence the 2016 US Presidential Elections.

This was followed by Facebook co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg tendering an unconditional apology on Sunday for "breach of trust" by placing advertisements in various newspapers.

However, this is not the first time a major company has "said sorry" after facing flak from the public. Here are some of the big companies, across sectors and countries that have expressed remorse over their failure:

Facebook in 2006

Facebook had previously issued an apology in 2006 for a security problem with one of its updates. Zuckerberg had said at the time that Facebook "really messed this one up."

General Motors

In 2014, the auto makers CEO Mary Barra apologised for the lives lost and people injured due to GMs faulty ignition switches.

The company was plagued by costly recalls, which involved millions of vehicles and numerous deaths.

BP

British Petroleums devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico due to an offshore drilling explosion in 2010 had far-reaching effects on the ecosystem. CEO Tony Hayward was forced to apologise for the spill.

News Corp.

Billionaire Rupert Murdoch-led media giant apologised to the British people and placed full-page advertisements in several national newspapers after the "phone hacking scandal" came to light.

Murdoch later appeared before a British Parliamentary committee to discuss the scandal and termed it the most humble day of [his] life.

Apple

The tech giant had to make an apology for a major glitch in the new Maps application that Apple introduced in 2012. Cook accepted that Apple had messed it up and promised to fix it.

The app gave wrong directions and locations were tagged incorrectly. Many roads remained unmapped. It also failed to provide features similar to its rival  Google Maps.

Johnson & Johnson

In September 2010, the companys CEO William Weldon admitted to lawmakers that his company had let the public down through numerous drug recalls.

Weldon also acknowledged that the pharmaceutical company secretly purchased defective drugs without informing regulators and consumers about it.live bse live

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ArcelorMittal today moved the Ahmedabad bench of National Company Law Tribunal after the resolution professional overseeing the Essar Steel auction declared its bid ineligible.

Interestingly, Numetal - the other bidder for Essar Steel  has already moved the NCLT, and its case will be taken up on Tuesday.

ArcelorMittal has always firmly believed and continues to believe that our strong and competitive bid for Essar Steel India, submitted on 12th February, was fully eligible and therefore should have been placed before the Committee of Creditors by the Resolution Professional, the company said in a statement.

It added:

However we received formal notification on 23rdMarch that our bid was deemed ineligible due to the technicality of still being a promoter of Uttam Galva on the stock exchange, even though we had sold our shareholding before submitting our offer.

Furthermore, the stock exchanges have confirmed that ArcelorMittal was declassified as a promoter of Uttam Galva. We have therefore today proposed a legal challenge to the decision of the resolution professional in the court in Ahmedabad. This is also critical in order to ensure we protect our rights in the process given the legal challenge by Numetal against the decision.

With both the companies appealing to the NCLT, industry executives are now keeping their eyes focused on the April 2 deadline for the second round of bidding for Essar Steel.The government could make it mandatory for the eventual buyer of Air India to list the airline on the stock exchanges in 3 to 5 years, an official familiar with the development told Moneycontrol. In case the majority shareholder refuses to launch an initial public offering, the government may want to keep the option of selling its stake via a public offering.

A clause giving the government the freedom to do so may also be included in the expression of interest (EoI) that will be released soon, the official said.

Most likely, the government will keep 26 percent stake in Air India and Air India Express that will be sold as one unit. The government would expect the new owner to turn around the airline in three to five years. If for some reason, the private company is not able to launch an IPO of the airline, the government will want to have the option to do the same on its own and exit, the official said.

A 26 percent stake would give the government a seat on the board of the company and thus some say, in its running.

The Specific Alternate Mechanism, a group of ministers looking into the modalities of the Maharajas divestment, met on March 20 to discuss the final contours of the EoI. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley heads the panel that is assisted by consultants EY and SBI Capital Markets. The EoI will be a document soliciting participation of private sector companies that are interested in bidding for the airline.

The government is planning the divestment of Air India group, the largest strategic sale of an Indian public sector company in phases. It will begin with that of the parent airline along with Air India Charters, one of its five arms. The divestment process of the parent and its subsidiaries will have separate EoIs, an official had earlier told Moneycontrol.

Besides Air India Charters, Air India's subsidiaries include Air India Air Transport Services, Air India Engineering Services, Airline Allied Services and Hotel Corporation of India. It has a 50:50 joint venture in Air India SATS Airport Services along with Singapore Airport Terminal Services to provide ground handling services to airlines at certain metro airports.

The parent and its subsidiaries are provided ground handling services at more than 60 airports by its arm Air India Air Transport Services as well. Another arm, Air India Engineering Services, offers maintenance, repair and overhaul services to Air India and its units besides some other carriers as well.

While the government remains committed to privatising the airline and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha has reiterated his stand in the past that Air India would be in private hands by December, time seems to be running out in the government's efforts.

The airline's 2016-17 accounts are still under audit even as another financial year  2017-18  is drawing to a close. Being an unlisted loss-incurring company, Air India has generally been late in preparing its accounts.

A new buyer will need the latest audited financial statements to decide on bidding for the airline or not. If the divestment doesnt happen by December, then it is certain that it will be deferred until the next financial year as elections are due April-May 2019.Punjab National Bank | PNB, the second largest of the 17 public sector banks, has written off Rs 44,565.59 crore as technical write-offs in a four-year period starting FY17. As against these write-offs, the bank managed to recover just Rs 12,027.97 crore, data obtained by Velankar under the Right to Information (RTI) Act revealed. (Image: PTI)

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To avoid the defaulter tag, Punjab National Bank (PNB) will reportedly work on a solution with the banks it owes Rs over Rs 13,000 crore, over the next five days.

Banks say they may approach the government and the Reserve Bank of India to intervene if the dues are not repaid by PNB. The debt is against the Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued in favour of Nirav Modis group firms and to Mehul Choksi-owned Gitanjali group firms.

In light of the scam unearthed last month, PNB owes nearly 17 other banks including Allahabad Bank (Rs 2,000 crore, State Bank of India (Rs 1,360 crore), Union Bank of India and Bank of India (Rs 1,000 crore each).

If the state-owned PNB does not pay back the amount by March 31, Union Bank (another government owned lender) will have to treat PNB as a defaulter in its books, provide for the loan, and even classify the amount as non-performing asset (NPA) if auditors insist, said a report by Economic Times quoting a banker that It would be a peculiar situation because for the first time a bank would be technically described as defaulter,.

A senior executive with one of the creditor banks said, PNB will have to pay. We are working out a solution with it and we should get our dues in the next five daysAnd also ask the government or RBI to intervene as PNB has defaulted in our books and it owes us.

Emails and calls made to PNB remained unanswered.

After the scam brokeout, Sunil Mehta, CEO and MD of PNB had said his bank will honour all bonafide commitments under Letter of Undertakings (LOUs) and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLC) as per law of the land and directions of the regulator.

PNB has attributed the loss arising out of the defaults by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi (whose clients were funded with the LoUs) as an instance of fraud. FIRs have been filed and government agencies are investigating the matter.

Since 2011, both Modi and Choksis firms allegedly misused the LoUs by illegally obtaining multiple LoUs from PNB and furnishing them to overseas branches of Indian banks to get loans.

Within a few weeks of the fraud coming to light, RBI banned the usage of LoU as an instrument to get credit, used only by Indian banks.

The Central Government has said that PNB has issued 41,178 LoUs since 2011. "PNB has apprised that 7,672 LoUs were issued with validity of 90 days, 20,078 LoUs were issued with validity of 180 days, 11,224 LoUs were issued with validity of 365 days, and 2,204 LoUs were issued with validity of more than 365 days," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informed the Rajya Sabha on March 20.

The ET report quoted a banker saying The industry has to find a replacement for LoUs. The regulator has to spell it out. Secondly, the accounting treatment and provisioning of overdue LoUs has to be addressed. While LoU liabilities are under dispute, a disputed liability does not arise in banks books on account of loans and advances. A bank may have disputed liabilities due to other claims such as tax, loss of jewellery.

Between USD 20 billion and USD 40 billion of trade finance was with LoUs. Volumes had soared in the past 7-8 years amid cheap dollar liquidity created by US Feds easy money policy, it added.Even as the country grapples with the fleeing on Nirav Modi who is accused of swindling banks of nearly Rs 13,000 crore, more than triple that amount is lying in banks unclaimed.

A majority of corporate entities that were struck off the governments companies roster following demonetisation have not come back to claim their bank deposits, which are to the tune of Rs 37,500 crore, an official in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs told Moneycontrol on condition of anonymity.

The development reinforces the governments belief that most of the companies struck off the company registry were likely paper companies used for activities such as money laundering.

Under Section 248 of the Companies Act, about 2.97 lakh were deregistered by the government in a drive to weed out defunct companies on various grounds of compliance. The MCA asked companies to comply with norms in order for their status to be restored to active  and said until such time, they would not be able to access their deposits.

Only 60,000 companies came forward wanting to be reinstated, the ministry official told Moneycontrol.

The other companies didnt come forward in the fear that they would not be able to justify how they own the assets, another official said.

The MCA had also sought a report from around 56 banks on details of transactions of the 2.37 lakh companies. The source in the ministry said banks, especially private sector ones, were initially reluctant to provide information. Only after the banking secretary met the banks did we get information as per our expectation.

The Prime Ministers Office is expecting to unearth illegal deposits worth Rs 3 lakh crore and has directed the Income-Tax department and MCA to work together to ascertain such deposits. The PMO has also shared details of listed companies with income tax department and the Securities and Exchanges Board of India for investigation.

Further, the MCA is planning to release one more list of shell companies in coming days.

The Income tax department is planning to take action under the black money law against companies who have failed to come up and claim the bank deposits.Amitabh Kant

The Indian economy is growing at 7 -8 per cent which needs to be reflected on the human development index (HDI) wherein the country stands at 131st position out of 188 nations, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant today said.

Kant further said there is need for a radical change at the state and district levels to improve the current situation.

"Industry associations should partner in attending to the huge challenge that lies in improving HDI rank and in bringing the transformation that India needs," he said at an event organised by industry body CII.

Kant asked the industry associations to look into ways to contribute to the development of districts. Transformation of 115 backward districts to middle status will add in demand generation, he said, adding education, health, and nutrition need to remain in focus, especially at district level.

Kant also pointed that NITI Aayog is capturing real-time data on the progress of the key performance indicators of the 115 districts and will rank them on regular basis.Gender Quotas in Majoritarian Electoral System?

By Vladimer Napetvaridze

On March 19, the Georgian Parliament discussed the initiative of electoral quotas, - the legislative proposal, which was elaborated by the Task Force on Womens Political Participation, a coalition of local and international organizations that advocate for gender equality and womens political participation. The draft of amendment was submitted to the Parliament with 37 000 signatures at 28th of June of 2017 and it includes initiatives about implementing so called zipper system, where male and female candidates will appear alternately on party lists of candidates for the parliamentary and municipal elections. Another point of mentioned draft concerns the issue of replacement of MP. In case if mandate is terminated earlier than the end of term, the next candidate of the same sex will take a seat in replacement.However, some changes in this initiative will be made. After discussion with the Prime-minister Kvirikashvili, authors of the amendments agreed to adjust the bill so that every third candidate on the party list (proportional system) would be a representative of different sex. As for the majoritarian electoral system, every sixth candidate presented by the party should be of different gender. This means that the political party will have to represent a different sex representative in at least 12 majoritarian districts from 73.If the bill is approved, it will force political parties to complete their list of candidates equally with female and male candidates. This will result into at least 25 female MPs in 2020, elected in proportional system of parliamentary elections, as for majoritarian system of parliamentary election Parties will represent minimum 12 different candidates in 73 majoritarian districts.According to Inter-Parliamentary Unions world classification which is based on information provided by National Parliaments by October 1, 2017, among 193 countries in Georgia with only 16% of female MP takes 128th place, although Georgian legislation considers financial incentives for political parties,which includes female candidate in their list of candidates. As statistic shows, this regulation did not give considerable results.Georgia is not only example of country, trying to solve problem of gender inequality using quotas of parliamentary mandates. Many countries used this method, while many states rejected it because of controversial attitudes within the country. Bellow will be provided table with various examples of using quotas of E.U. countries and dynamic of female MPs quantity in each of these countries.Quotas are widely used within public and political representation in EU Member States. They take a variety of forms, including voluntary and legislated quotas for candidates for election to national parliaments. Most EU Member States have voluntary party quotas, but some of EU Member States have legislated compulsory quotas for candidates for election to national parliaments:- 41% of women MPs in the Parliament. Legislated candidate quotas (Electoral Law). On electoral lists, the number of candidates of either gender cannot be greater than the other. Top two candidates cannot be of the same gender. Non-compliance leads to refusal of list by electoral authorities- 35% of woman MPs in the Parliament. Legislated quotas (Constitution and Electoral Law) and Voluntary Party quotas. Political parties instructed to contribute to equal access of men and women to elective positions. Non-compliance for national assembly lists leads to financial penalties. Non-compliance for Senate lists leads to invalidation of list- 18% of women MPs in the Parliament. Legislated candidate quotas (Electoral Law) and Voluntary Party Quotas. At least 1/3 women on lists 40% women on party list (PASOK).-25% of female MPs in the Parliament.Legislated candidate quotas (quota adopted in January 2011). Voluntary political party quotas 35% of women on lists 30% women on lists. The list will not be registered.-35%of female MPs in the Parliament. Legislated quotas (Electoral Law) Min. 33% of each sex.- 28 % of female MPs in the Parliament. Legislated quotas (Electoral Law) and voluntary political party quotas Min. 35% of each gender (in transitional period 25%) Soft quota of 40% at SD party;-39% of female MPs in the Parliament.Legislated quotas (Electoral Law) and voluntary political party quotas Min. of 40% and max. 60% of either sex. Applied to every five posts Parties adopt 40% quota for either sex;Despite the compulsory gender quota, there are no gender balances in the parliaments of mentioned countries. Political parties put the number of female candidates on the list, but the law doesn't define either these candidates should be placed in the front or at the end of the list. As a result, female candidates are placed mostly in the bottom part of the list of candidates.The issue of gender quotation is widely discussed in society. Supporters of the idea, claim that this will increase women's involvement in the political process, which leads reduction of violence, corruption and so on. Opponents the idea say that artificially increasing the number of women MPs will result in the low qualification of candidates in parliament.There is no deficit of low qualified male MPs in the Parliament of Georgia. As regards to the argument that gender quotas will increase women's involvement in politics, this is a right and acceptable opinion. A women's engagement will contribute to the development of civil society in the country.As for the opinion that women's involvement will make politics more humane and liberal, violates the principle of gender equality and underscores the advantages of woman politician over the male politician. If women's involvement in politics, can cause the reduction of the violence and corruption in the country, it turns out that the male politicians are the main problem of the state. Therefore, it would be fair to prohibit the participation of men in politics. But of course, the mentioned theory is wrong, otherwise, Rwanda (with 63.8% of Woman MPs) is supposed to be one of the most developed countries in the world.manufacturer of Titanium alloys in India.

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The Ahmedabad bench of National Company Law Tribunal will on March 27 take up Numetal's plea to declare its bid for Essar Steel, eligible.

The VTB Capital-led consortium had on March 20 moved the Ahmedabad bench seeking a declaration that its bid for the stressed steel company is eligible.

It was an preemptive move.

A day later, on March 22, bids by Numetal, and ArcelorMittal - the other bidder in the Essar Steel auction - were rejected by the lenders after failing to clear the eligibility test. The lenders have further called for a second round of bidding, with April 2 as the deadline for submission of bids.

Despite the setback, Numetal would be hoping that the NCLT gives it a patient hearing. "If the bench does take a decision in favour of Numetal, then the company could contest the eligibility decision by the lenders. Also, the decision to go for a second round of bidding will also be under scrutiny," said an executive from the industry.

Meanwhile, ArcelorMittal has got approval from exchanges to change its 'promoter' status in Uttam Galva Steels, giving it a boost ahead of the second round bidding for Essar Steel.

Exchanges have declassified ArcelorMittal as promoter of Uttam Galva.

According to a report earlier report in Moneycontrol, ArcelorMittal wrote to the exchanges and SEBI on March 9 to be declassified as a promoter in Uttam Galva. The NSE has approved the change on March 22 while BSE approved it a day later.

Second round

Second round of bidding may include five buyers who had expressed interest in the first round of bidding, including both Numetal and ArcelorMittal. All of them will be allowed to bid in the second round as well.

These include Tata Steel, Vedanta Group, SSG Capital, AION and Nippon Steel.

"A voting will be done among the lenders later this week to decide on allowing bids from companies who hadn't shows interest earlier," said a source.

Moneycontrol learned that JSW Steel will also be interested in putting in a bid in the second round. "If the lenders decide against letting new companies joining the fray, then JSW Steel may join a consortium," said sources.

The test

Ever since the bids by ArcelorMittal and Numetal were first submitted, there have been doubts about their eligibility. This was because of an amendment in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), which prevented a promoter of a defaulting company from bidding for stressed assets.

ArcelorMittal had invested in Uttam Galva, which had defaulted on loan repayments. Though the Lakshmi Mittal later exited from the company, doubts persisted.

Similarly, Numetal's minority shareholder Rewant Ruia was termed a "connected person," as his father Ravi Ruia is one of the co-founders of Essar Steel. Numetal is headed by Russia's VTB Capital, and TPE, an engineering major. Indo International Trading is a minority shareholder in Numetal.

Essar steel company was referred to the National Company Law Tribunal last year after accumulating debt of nearly Rs 50,000 crore.live bse live

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JSW Steel's US unit will invest USD 500 million to expand its Texas facility, which will now include one-million-ton-per annum steelmaking unit.

The company currently has plates and pipes in the facility, which was acquired in 2007.

JSW Steel (USA) signed an agreement with the Office of Governor, Texas on Monday.

"Access to natural gas at extremely economical prices and the abundant availability of scrap steel in Texas make conditions very conducive to manufacturing through the Electric Arc Furnace route," said Parth Jindal of JSW Group.

Jindal added the unit will cater to the oil and gas sector, and will also add customers in the defense and infrastructure industries.

" The company will invest US$ 150 million (already underway) to augment the units capabilities. This capex programme is expected to be completed by March 2020. JSW USA intends to use rest of the investment, up to US$ 350 million, to set-up a new hot end facility to make their steel melt and manufacture (subject to approvals)," the company said.

The new steel making unit will help it end its dependence on steel imports. Till now it was importing steel from Brazil, Mexico and India.

"Last year, the unit had production and sales of 300,000 tons. This will triple post the modernisation," said Parth.The Delhi government has digitised the land records of 192 villages out of 224 villages in the national capital.

According to the revenue department, the process for the computerisation of land records in the remaining villages was underway, which will be completed soon.

The move is aimed at ensuring that citizens do not have to visit the revenue offices to get land records, which also seeks to bring transparency in the system.

In a written reply to a question asked by AAP MLA Mohammad Ishraque in the Delhi Assembly, Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot said that several reasons, including urbanisation of some villages, are coming in the way of computerising land records of 32 villages, which will be resolved soon.

However, the minister said that no timeline has been fixed for digitisation of the land record of other villages.

Under the computerised system, the digitally signed records of rights is available 24x7 in public domain and can be downloaded by citizens anywhere. Through this online database, people can get a view into the property land record and its legal status.

People can then cross-check the land status through the maps put up showing the ground situation and any discrepancy can be pointed out immediately.The Hyderabad Bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has ordered the commencement of a corporate insolvency resolution process against Seven Hills Healthcare for defaulting on loans worth Rs 737.58 crore.

NCLT has appointed Abhilash Lal, the interim resolution professional for Seven Hills Healthcare and asked creditors to submit proof of their claims on or before March 29, 2018.

Moneycontrol has reviewed a copy of the NCLT order.

Axis Bank that has lent Rs 418.21 crore individually and another Rs 271.19 crore through consortium has filed petition before NLCT-Hyderabad initiating Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) against Seven Hills Healthcare.

Seven Hills Healthcare, founded by Dr Jitendra Maganti, operates two hospitals in Mumbai and Visakhapatnam, has been facing severe cash crunch and is unable to service debt obligations even after recast of its loans.

It has a total debt of around Rs 1,200 crore on its books.

Several doctors and consultants with the Hospital have not been paid their dues and salaries for the last 3-5 months on account of the shortage of funds.

Axis Bank in its petition alleged "several instances of mismanagement of the Hospital which has hampered the operations."

The petitioner alleged that till date the Corporate Debtor officials (Seven Hills) have failed to produce any concrete plan to manage the deficit in the cash inflow and the cash expenditure or for the servicing of the debts.

Debt fueled Mumbai expansion led to bankruptcy

Seven Hills Hospital which is one of the leading private hospitals in Visakhapatnam - flush with private equity money and easy access to debt - decided to set up Mumbai's largest private hospital in public-private partnership (PPP) with Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore.

JP Morgans Asia infrastructure fund invested USD 72 million in Seven Hills Healthcare in 2008.

BMC provided land 17-acre land on 60 years lease near Andheri, along with riders such as allotting 20 percent of all hospital beds both general and ICU and facilities to poor patients, and to provide medicines at BMC rates.

The Mumbai hospital has the capacity to host 1,500 beds launced in 2010, grabbed headlines when Hindi film actress Aishwarya Rai delivered a baby there.

Given the location of the hospital which is just 3 kms away from the city's international airport - Seven Hills billed its hopes on attracting the overseas patients to get higher realisations.

Despite its location advantages - the project didn't take-off on expected lines. While the debt balloned to USD 200 million - the hospital was only able to operate 20 percent of its capacity. To make matters worse it ran into troubles with BMC - for not fulfilling its contractual obligations about providing low cost medicines and treatment to poor patients.

Attempts by company and lenders to impress upon investors like JP Morgan and AION Capital Partners to take-up debt and infuse fresh capital didn't work pushing the finances in to deeper turmoil.live bse live

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Engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd today said it has won a Rs 505.22 crore highway contract in Odisha from NHAI.

"The company has been awarded a contract worth Rs 505.22 crore for six/four Laning of NH 5 (New NH 16) from Puintola to Tangi in Odisha," the company said in a filing to BSE.

The project has been won from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on engineering, procurement and construction basis, it said.

The construction period is 730 days from the start of the project, it added. PTI NAM MR .Engineers walk past a cooling system plant under construction inside Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) at Gandhinagar, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, April 10, 2015. India's push to accommodate a booming urban population and attract investment rests in large part with dozens of "smart" cities like the one being built on the dusty banks of the Sabarmati river in western India. Picture taken April 10, 2015. REUTERS/Amit Dave - GF10000057728

Amid reports that West Bengal authorities had not made much progress with regard to the Modi Government's flagship Smart City programme, the housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep S Puri has said that he would be writing to the chief minister of the state Mamata Banerjee again on the issue.

There is a project that was included in the first list. What do I say? I have not seen any progress. So, I will be writing to the chief minister again. I think we have taken this up with the state government. But all that I can do is to encourage them to take advantage, Puri told Moneycontrol.

New Town Kolkata was selected under the Smart City Mission in May last year. After three months of its selection, Mamata Banerjee had said that the state would not be part of the smart city scheme.

Kolkata suburb New Town-Rajarhat, that has earlier qualified for the smart city project, is now to be developed as a Green City. Other areas that had qualified for the smart city project were Salt Lake, Asansol and Durgapur.

You know because the selection of that city had taken place based on an application. But if there has been no action on that application, then we are at a loose end. We do not know what to do with it. As I said, I have been encouraging the government of West Bengal to move on this, Puri said.

Puri had earlier indicated that the city may be formally removed from the mission. In this case (New Town Kolkata), the process does not appear to have started. So, I think, we will have to take stock, Puri had told PTI earlier.

The government plans to develop 100 smart cities under the Smart Cities Mission that was launched in June 2015. Under the scheme, each city gets Rs 500 crore as central assistance for implementing projects. It has to be matched by an equal amount by the State. Since the launch of the Mission Rs 9,939 crore has been released by the government. Against this, 753 projects worth Rs 24,511 crore have been completed or started work on-ground. Further, about 287 projects worth Rs. 14,296 crore are in tendering stage and the works on-ground is expected to start very soon, a ministry release has said.

The ministry has so far announced names of 99 smart cities. The 100th slot has been kept on hold for Shillong, capital of Meghalaya.

vandana.ramnani@nw18.comIndiabulls Real Estate | Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte sold 47,79,929 equity shares in company at Rs 60.36 per share on the NSE.

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In order to ease its debt burden, realty developer Indiabulls Real Estate is looking to sell its Chennai commercial asset One Indiabulls Park for around Rs 1,200 crore, according to a report in The Economic Times.

The company is in advanced talks with global private equity (PE) houses like Blackstone Group, Brookfield Asset Management and Xander Group, sources said.

They confirmed that the proceeds from the Blackstone deal and the sale of Chennai properties will be used to repay the companys debt and bring net debt to under Rs 2,000 crore.

Other properties on sale

The realty major has also sold its Chennai residential development project for around Rs 300 crore as part of its asset monetisation plan.

Indiabulls Real Estate has also sold 50 per cent stake in two of its properties in Mumbai - one is One Indiabulls and the other is Indiabulls Finance Center to Blackstone Group for USD 730 million or Rs 4,750 crore. The deal is expected to conclude by the end of this month.

The developer has entered into executed definitive transaction documents with Blackstone Group LP to divest 50% stake in subsidiaries Indiabulls Properties Private Ltd and Indiabulls Real Estate Co. Pvt. Ltd at an aggregate enterprise value of $1.46 billion or Rs 9,500 crore.

Revenue generation from the sold and on sale properties

The residential development Indiabulls Greens, Chennai, has 2.07 million sq ft of saleable area and according to the companys most recent earnings release, around 63 percent of the project is sold and handover of flats has begun.

One Indiabulls Park, Chennai, is a 1.9-million-sq-ft commercial office asset and houses tenants such as Royal Bank of Scotland, YES Bank , Vodafone, BSNL and Britannia Industries . The property is 90% leased and generates annual rent of Rs 75 crore, which is expected to rise to Rs 95 crore by 2019-20 owing to rental escalation clauses.Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com told CNBC-TV18, "Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) is a sell with a stop loss of Rs 217 and target of Rs 205. Hindalco Industries is a sell with a stop loss of Rs 207 and target of Rs 194. VIP Industries is a buy with a stop loss of Rs 314 and target of Rs 332."

"Chennai Petroleum is a sell with a stop loss of Rs 317, target of Rs 302. United Breweries is a sell with a stop loss of Rs 935, target of Rs 900. Balkrishna Industries is a buy with a stop loss of Rs 1,070, target of Rs 1,135," he added.live bse live

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Cadila Healthcare

CLSA | Rating - Buy | Target - Rs 450

CLSA has upgraded Cadila to Buy from Underperform and also raised target price to Rs 450 from Rs 440 per share as it expects 16 percent earnings CAGR over FY18-20 with room for positive surprise in the US.

Improving India outlook & a strong US pipeline will drive earnings and long-term drivers include specialty products initiative in US along with novel research.

Nomura | Rating - Buy | Target - Rs 426

Nomura has upgraded its rating on Cadila to Buy from Neutral with reduced target price at Rs 426 from Rs 464 per share.

33 percent correction from 2017 peak is higher than consensus earnings cut of 10 percent for FY18, it said.

It thinks the market is adequately factoring in US market-related uncertainties. It expects launch momentum to remain strong and revised EPS estimates lower by 21/20/13 percent for FY18/19/20.

Arvind

CLSA | Rating - Buy

While maintaining Buy call on Arvind, CLSA said three-pronged strategy will grow & increase textile business value.

Advanced materials, a business with high entry barriers is gaining traction and the company is poised to gain from recent state government initiatives in favour of garmenting, it added.

Cotton price volatility remains a near-term headwind, it feels.

Coffee Day Enterprises

Citi | Rating - Buy | Target - Rs 350

Citi has a Buy call on Coffee Day Enterprises with increased target price at Rs 350 from Rs 285 per share as the company continued to deliver same-store-sales growth & average sales per day growth in mid-single digits in recent quarters.

"We see a slightly higher-than-usual price hike this April. We believe continuing expansion, lower net additions will aid operating metrics," it said.

While expansion continued, net additions are lower given 70 closures, it added.

Dr Reddy's Labs

Credit Suisse | Rating - Underperform | Target - Rs 1,865

Credit Suisse has maintained its Underperform rating on the stock with target price at Rs 1,865 per share as it expects a sharp cut in consensus earnings for FY19 & FY20.

Subaxone is a key drug & accounts for over 10 percent FY19 profit, it said.

Macquarie | Rating - Neutral | Target - Rs 2,330

Macquarie believes company's US sales will be under the weather for next few quarters. Pending quality issues at Duvvada, Srikakulam, Medak remain an overhang, it said.

The research house has maintained Neutral call on the stock with a target price of Rs 2,330 per share while lowering FY19/20 EPS estimates by 10-12 percent.

Eearly resolution of the Aloxi litigation could provide near-term relief, it feels. Optionality from big-ticket molecules is the key factor, it said.

Power Grid Corporation

Goldman Sachs | Rating - Buy | Target - Rs 226

Goldman Sachs said Power Grid has underperformed Sensex by 11 percent over last six months and this correction presents a god opportunity to add positions.

It believes the stock provides good long-term earnings visibility. Hence the research house has maintained Buy call on the stock with a target price at Rs 226 per share.

Britannia Industries

Goldman Sachs | Rating - Buy | Target - Rs 4,828

Goldman Sachs has reiterated its Buy call on the stock with a target price at Rs 4,828 per share as it continued to believe company will be able to drive margin expansion due to premiumisation.

"We forecast companys operating cost as percentage of sales will decline 19 percent in FY24 from 23 percent in FY17," it said.

Cyient

Morgan Stanley | Rating - Overweight | Target - Rs 740

Morgan Stanley has Overweight rating on Cyient with increased target price at Rs 740 from Rs 670 per share as broad-based revenue growth & traction in design led manufacturing (DLM) business should drive further re-rating.

The research house has trimmed FY19 margin estimate by over 80 bps & earnings by 4 percent, but raised FY20 EPS by 2 percent.

It sees downside to consensus but view any weakness as a chance to accumulate.

Tejas Networks

Nomura | Rating - Buy | Target - Rs 460

Nomura has initiated coverage with Buy call on Tejas Networks and set a target price at Rs 430 per share.

The company is one of the worlds leading optical networking products suppliers.

The research house estimates peg Indias optical network market to grow at a CAGR of 8 percent from CY17-22.

It expects international sales to exhibit healthy growth, FY18-20 revenue CAGR of 25 percent and fully diluted EPS CAGR of 42 percent.Syngene International has signed a R&D agreement with British drug giant GSK.

Throwing more light on the partnership Jonathan Hunt, CEO, Syngene International said it is a multi-year agreement. It is a discovery research partnership where scientist of both the companies will work together to help GSK accelerate their research projects and bring in new medicine for patients.

It is under the discovery space, where scientist will look for new breakthroughs in innovative medicines, so that they can go into the next phase of clinical testing, said Hunt.

It is in areas of chemical synthesis, medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry, said Hunt.

He also clarified that it is more supporting GSK in their research focus and not a specific drug pipeline.

Hunt said the company as of now was happy with all the strategic partnerships/collaborations they have had with BMS, Amgen, Baxter etc and are always on lookout for more.

Currently, he said the company is working with 16 of the 20 top Biotech Pharma companies in the world with around 300 active clients.

Making good progress in broadening the reach Syngene has, he added.live bse live

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Reiterating that the spirit of the law should be upheld, JSW Group's Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal on Monday said that it's not fair that a promoter exits a company just to be eligible to bid for a stressed asset.

Though Jindal didn't name anyone, it was clear that he was making a point at ArcelorMittal's attempt to declassify itself as a promoter of Uttam Galva, to be eligible to bid for Essar Steel.

"Shareholders and creditors look at promoters before they invest in shares, or lend. For instance, if Sajjan Jindal invests in a company, then shareholders may invest because of that. But if Sajjan Jindal walks out by selling shares at Rs 1/share, what happens to the creditors and shareholders? The spirit of the law is very important," said Jindal.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a conference that saw JSW Steel sign an agreement to set up a one million ton per year capacity in Texas with an investment of $500 million.

ArcelorMittal had exited Uttam Galva by selling its stake at Rs 1 per share before submitting a bid for Essar Steel, which was referred to the National Company Law Tribunal after accumulating debts of nearly Rs 50,000 crore.

But Jindal reiterated that if the law is amended, "then it's fine".

Bids of both ArcelorMittal and Numetal were rejected by Essar Steel's lenders after they failed the eligibility test. An amendment in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code had prevented promoters of defaulting company from bidding for any stressed assets. Uttam Galva had defaulted on loan repayments.

Essar Steel's lenders have now called for a second round of bidding, the deadline of which has been set as April 2. Both ArcelorMittal and Numetal, along with other companies who had initially shown their interest, will be allowed to put in their bids. Other companies include Vedanta Resources, SAIL and Tata Steel.

JSW Steel, which hadn't filed its expression of interest for Essar, was now interested in joining the race. "We had written to the lenders. But they have turned down our offer," Jindal said.

Meanwhile, market regulator SEBI has approved a plea by ArcelorMittal to declassify the company as a promoter of Uttam Galva. This will pave way for it to make a bid for Essar Steel in the second round of bidding.

But before that, the Ahmedabad bench of the NCLT will need to take decision on the plea from Numetal that its bid for Essar Steel should be declared eligible. The plea will be heard on Tuesday.Build and maintain relationships: Communication and a professional network continue to remain important  whether pre or post-COVID-19. It would add to your resume to show a potential employer the network you could provide, if your job calls for it. (Image: PIxabay)

With social media and internet becoming a very important weapon of every political party, the war of words between BJP and Congress has reached a crescendo.

The Congress partys social media head has claimed that its Android app has not been functional for a while.



The URL for membership on the INC app has been defunct for a while now. Our membership is through the INC website. How difficult is that to understand- https://t.co/UbS5vrTcNL

 Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) March 26, 2018

"The URL for membership on the INC (Indian National Congress) app has been defunct for a while now. Our membership is through the INC website. How difficult is that to understand," the Congress social media head Divya Spandana tweeted earlier.

The statement comes in place after the party said that it has deleted its app. Earlier, a Times of India report said that the Congress party has alleged that BJPs app shared the data of its users.



When you create a profile in the official @narendramodi #Android app, all your device info (OS, network type, Carrier ) and personal data (email, photo, gender, name, ) are send without your consent to a third-party domain called https://t.co/N3zA3QeNZO. pic.twitter.com/Vey3OP6hcf

 Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 23, 2018

The statement was first made by an anonymous hacker named Elliot Anderson. The Times of India report states that the user details of the app details were being sent to a US-behavioural analytics company.

Following which the BJP said that it was carrying out its actions for "analytics" purposes



Contrary to Rahuls lies, fact is that data is being used for only analytics using third party service, similar to Google Analytics. Analytics on the user data is done for offering users the most contextual content.  BJP (@BJP4India) March 25, 2018



Anderson further said that the Congress app 'With INC' was sending its users data to Singapore.

The IP address of https://t.co/t1pidQUmtq is 52.77.237.47. This server is located in Singapore. As you are an #Indian political party, having your server in #India is probably a good idea. pic.twitter.com/tbspCtOPfB Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 26, 2018

The BJP's national Information & Technology in charge Amit Malviya also joined in by tweeting that the user data from the Congress partys website is being shared with the Congress "friends in Singapore".



Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of Indias oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore. pic.twitter.com/ceCTkod17D  Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) March 26, 2018





When Congress says they will share your data with like-minded groups, the implications are grave. From Maoists, stone pelters, Bharat Ke Tukde Gang, Chinese embassy to globally renowned orgs like Cambridge Analytica, the field is extensive and wide open. pic.twitter.com/E6S8MJwgiy

 Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) March 26, 2018

Malviya also highlighted a the Congress party's privacy policy of its website, it says: "For making the use of Website effective and resourceful Indian National Congress may share your information with vendors, consultants, and other service providers or volunteers who are engaged by or working with us and who need access to such information to carry out their work for us; with candidates, organizations, groups or causes that we believe have similar political viewpoints, principles or objectives".

The remaining of the Congress's privacy policy says: "...when you give us your consent to do so, including if we notify you on the Website, that the information you provide will be shared in a particular manner and you provide such information; when we believe in good faith that we are required to do so by law, court order, as requested by other government or law enforcement authority..."The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today attached assets worth Rs 55.65 crore of a Kolkata-based computer manufacturing firm in connection with its money laundering probe in an alleged bank fraud of over Rs 515 crore, officials said.

The agency's zonal office in the West Bengal capital issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) attaching lands, plots and residential flats in Ahmedabad, Kochi, West Bengal, Bengaluru and Mumbai as part of the action against the firm R P Info Systems and its directors.

A total of 66 vehicles and bank deposits to the tune of Rs 2 lakh have also been attached, they said.

The total value of the attachment is Rs 55.65 crore, they said.

The ED had lodged a PMLA case in the matter based on a CBI FIR.

The CBI in February had booked the firm and its directors Shivaji Panja, Kaustuv Ray and Vinay Bafna for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore.

It is not the first time that the company has had a brush with the law as the CBI had booked it in 2015 for cheating IDBI Bank, once a leader of the consortium before relinquishing the position in 2013, to the tune of Rs 180 crore.

The other members of the bank consortium were State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur and State Bank of Patiala (both now part of the SBI), Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Federal Bank.

It is alleged that loans were taken on the basis of false and fabricated documents.

The bank in its complaint on February 26, now part of the CBI and the ED FIRs, has alleged that the company which manufactured computers with brand name Chirag had taken funds from the consortium from time to time from 2012 onwards.

These loans have become NPA, it said,

The banks alleged that company manipulated financial statements and did not route sale proceeds through the loan account.BJP President Amit Shah starts his visit to poll-bound Karnataka on Monday during which he will visit mutts associated with the Lingayat and Dalit communities.

The visit of Shah comes after the Siddaramaiah government's decision to accord minority religion status to Lingayats, who have mostly welcomed the move. Shah's visits to their holy places and meeting gurus is seen as part of his efforts to ensure that the Lingayat community, the largest in the state, continues to back the BJP.

In the two-day tour, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief will also address farmers' and traders' meetings, take out a road show and attend party events in the state's central region.



Looking forward to being in Central Karnataka for two days, where I will attend a wide range of programmes and interact with people of Tumakuru, Shivamogga, Davanagere and Chitradurga districts. pic.twitter.com/4sl1qDvNTJ

 Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 25, 2018

Before visiting the state, the party chief said that he is looking forward to being in Central Karnataka and interact with people of Tumakuru, Shivamogga, Davanagere and Chitradurga districts.

The Karanataka BJP welcomed the party president and shared his itinerary for the day one. Shah will kick-start his tour with a visit to Siddaganga mutt. After seeking the blessings of its seer, he will visit Coconut Growers Convention, Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Memorial and Arecanut Growers Convention.



We heartily welcome our President Shri @AmitShah to Karnataka! Over the next two days, he'll be attending meetings in various parts of Central and Malnad Karnataka. Stay tuned for all the updates.#KarunaduJagrutiYatre pic.twitter.com/BH2KzVHzT8  BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) March 25, 2018

Finishing off with it, Shah will take out a road show in Shivamogga at 4:30 pm.

At 6 in the evening, Shah will interact with trade and business community Kuvempur Ranga Mandir in Shivamogga.

Shah will end the first day of the tour with visiting Bekkinkal mutt.

The BJP is making an all-out effort to unseat the Congress from the only big state where the grand old party is in power.

(With inputs from PTI)External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today assured the families of 39 Indians killed in Iraq that the bodies would be brought to India by next week, a relative of one of the deceased said.

"We were assured all kind of assistance, including the possibility of a government job to the next of kin," Davinder Singh, younger brother of Gobinder Singh, who was among those killed in Iraq, told PTI over phone after the families of those killed met Swaraj in New Delhi.

To our demand of bringing back the mortal remains of the 39 killed as soon as possible, the minister "assured us of all possible steps", he said.

"We were assured by the minister that the mortal remains will be brought back by next week," Kumar said. The meeting with Swaraj lasted for about 45 minute, he said.

The family of the deceased sought financial help as their bread earners are dead and also government jobs for the next of kin, Kumar said.

"The minister told us that she would meet the CMs of the four states from where the Indians belonged to take a decision on possibility of providing a government job to the next of kin," he said.

Earlier in the day, the family members of the 39 Indians killed in Iraq met Punjab Congress chief and party MP Sunil Kumar Jakhar in New Delhi who assured "all possible assistance" to them.

Swaraj had told Parliament last week that all the 39 Indians, abducted by the ISIS in Iraq in 2014, had been killed and their bodies recovered.

As many as 40 Indians were abducted by the ISIS terror group from Mosul in Iraq but one of them escaped posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, Swaraj had said in Rajya Sabha.

The remaining 39 Indians were taken to Badoosh and killed, she had said.

Search operations led to a mound in Badoosh where locals said some bodies were buried by the ISIS. Deep penetration radars were used to establish that the mound indeed was a mass grave, she had said, adding the Indian authorities requested their Iraqi counterpart to exhume the bodies.

Swaraj said the mass grave had exactly 39 bodies, with distinctive features such as long hair, non-Iraqi shoes and IDs. The bodies were then sent to Baghdad for DNA testing.

DNA testing by Martyrs Foundation established the identity of 38 Indians while there has been 70 percent matching of the DNA for the 39th person, she had said.Supporters of Congress party are framed by the party's symbols installed at the venue where Rahul Gandhi is addressing a rally at Bardoli

The leading opposition party Congress deleted its 'With INC' mobile app from the Android Play Store after a security researcher which goes by the moniker Elliot Alderson pointed out security vulnerabilities in the app.

The French security researcher who has been keeping UIDAI on its toes for the last couple of months observed that the server used by the app was situated in Singapore. Moreover, the data which was sent over to the server had a weak encryption making it vulnerable to an attack.

The IP address of http://membership.inc.in is 52.77.237.47. This server is located in Singapore. As you are an #Indian political party, having your server in #India is probably a good idea, Alderson observed on Monday.



The WithINC app is a membership app & has not been in use for over 5 months since we moved membership to https://t.co/HkouqDJ8hN from 16th Nov 2017.

The URL (https://t.co/s6EcGp0Oet) quoted by the media is the defunct URL from the app. The actual membership URL can be seen below pic.twitter.com/bXFXBEdcUg

 Congress (@INCIndia) March 26, 2018

Within hours, the app was removed from the Play Store. The Congress party said the app was not in use for last five months and thus has been removed.

Earlier, Alderson had pointed out how NaMo app was sharing personal data of the users to the third party services without their express consent.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had mockingly written a tweet: Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies.

Ps. Thanks mainstream media, you're doing a great job of burying this critical story, as always.



Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS.

Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians. Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP.#DeleteNaMoApp  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 26, 2018

In another tweet, he alleged, Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS.

The Congress party has also launched a movement with #DeleteNaMoApp on social media.

The BJP, however, came back with a reply and shared a graphic that alleged that since Congress' call for #DeleteNaMoApp, the NaMo app installs had risen.Former finance minister P Chidambaram

Former finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday complained about the expensive tea on airports and was left with a bitter taste in his mouth as the Twitter users took him head on alluding to his sons alleged involvement in INX Media irregularities.

Chidambaram in a post on Twitter said, At Chennai Airport Coffee Day I asked for tea. Offered hot water and tea bag, price Rs 135. Horrified, I declined. Was I right or wrong? (Sic)

Coffee Rs 180. I asked who buys it? Answer was 'many'. Am I outdated? (Sic) he asked in another tweet.

His followers on the microblogging website rushed to troll him alluding largely to his son Karti Chidambaram's alleged involvement in the INX Media case for which he is under investigation and is currently out on bail.



Karti has enough money if he can afford Singhvi as lawyer. Moreover, his daughter is going to inherit a fortune from Karti friends

 R Jagannathan (@TheJaggi) March 25, 2018

Editorial Director of the Swarajya magazine R Jagannathan replied, Karti has enough money if he can afford Singhvi as lawyer. Moreover, his daughter is going to inherit a fortune from Karti friends.

Another user said that he was now getting a taste of his own medicine.



He is now feeling the pinch of his own cheat n loot....  Subramanian (@ssmanian61) March 25, 2018





This is being said by the person who presided over biggest scams. Trying hard to show you are so worried of inflation.

By the way, jail tea must be very cheap, please confirm with your son. March 25, 2018



Totally Wrong. You could have borrowed some money from your son to pay for it if you didn't have it in your lungi.  Durga (@pinakadharini) March 25, 2018

The Election Commission of India (EC) had turned down a request from some global internet companies who had called on it to get access to its voter database, ex-chief election commissioner, Nasim Zaidi told the Economic Times.

The companies' request was reportedly made under the pretext of encouraging democratic spirit in the country, Zaidi said.

In 2017, the EC had allowed social networking giant Facebook to release a reminder to Indian citizens who were turning 18 or those who were above 18, about enrollment and voting. No formal agreement or MoU had been signed, the former CEC told the paper.

Zaidi, who was CEC between 2012 and 2017, also told ET that information pertaining to voters, like their phone numbers, email IDs and pictures, are not visible on the ECs website, and that the database hosted on NIC and BSNL servers are highly protected by security walls.

Zaidi explained that Facebook has never been given access to any data from ECs database, but that it has helped in some ways to get the ECs message across to young voters. In January 2018, 18-19-year-olds received an alert from Facebook, which read: 'Are you a registered voter?' If the person clicked no, he/she would be redirected to the ECs website.

On January 25, which happens to be National Voters Day, Facebook issued a pledge for the batch of newly-eligible voters.

Commenting on the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica issue, Zaidi defended the ECs position, saying the organization has always stood for and will always stand for free, fair and transparent elections. He added that the ECs definition of fair is that voters must not be influenced by any external factors.

"As it has surfaced now, psychological warfare tool was allegedly used by some companies and entities abroad. Its a new menace for a fair electoral process. So, all stakeholders, including the ECI, must initiate a larger consultation process and recommend the formulation of a new legal provision, if needed, and also adopt an appropriate regulatory framework to curb this new menace," Zaidi told the financial daily.Monsoon_Rain_weather_monsoon_rain

Moneycontrol News

Nearly 44 percent of heavy rainfall predictions issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in 2017 were incorrect, the weather forecast department has said.

The Met department revealed that 14 of the 32 predictions of heavy, very heavy or extremely heavy rainfall were incorrect, in response to an RTI query filed by an activist Chetan Kothari in December reported Hindustan Times.

Stating that the data released consists of just one year, KS Hosalikar, Deputy Director General, western region, IMD stated there have been years with less challenges when the forecasts have been 80 percent accurate.

Considering the weather may vary depending on other factors, Hosalikar said, "Every monsoon is different from the next one. It cannot be generalised as there is a difference of amount of rainfall, intensity variability of weather events and number of heavy rainfall days, among others. However, there is always scope for improvement."

The percentage of wrong predictions, however, is quite high when compared to international weather agencies at major cities such as London, Miami, New York, and Dubai, meteorologists and independent advisor to the state told the paper. In these cities, the weather agencies maintain 80 to 85 percent accuracy throughout the year.

Poor accuracy may be because of the absence of high-tech prediction tools that are used by countries such as the UK, the USA and Australia.

Currently, IMD uses surface observations over land and sea collected from different observatories to forecast weather for short range (12 to 72 hours), medium range (5 to 7 days), extended outlook (15-30 days), monthly and long range (for summer and monsoon).

IMD collects these information from state government observatories, automatic weather stations, upper air observational network where balloons are sent for data collection, satellite observations, and numerical-based weather models and surface charts.

Last year, the weather body had said they would install two supercomputers and new radars in 2018 to boost data processing capacity improving their forecast accuracy.

Weather predictions hold significance as extreme weather events may severely affect day-to-day activities. Also, a majority of people  about 880 million  depend on farming, where rainfall plays a very important role on the farmer's yield. A detailed weather may help the farmers plan their cropping activities during monsoon.

In a city like Mumbai, which is no stranger to, accurate predictions are very important for lakhs of commuters travelling daily. However, over the past two years, the accuracy for such predictions has been really poor. It is the same reason why lakhs of farmers are suffering in rural Maharashtra, Kothari told the paper.China today asserted that Dokalam belongs to it and India should have "learnt lessons" from the stand-off last year, days after India's envoy blamed China for the face-off, saying it happened because Beijing tried to alter the "status quo" in the disputed area.

Reacting to India's Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale's remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, "Donglong (Dokalam) belongs to China because we have historical conventions."

"China's activities there are within our sovereign rights. There is no such thing as changing status quo," she said at a media briefing here.

"Last year thanks to our concerted efforts and our wisdom we properly resolved this issue. We hope the Indian side could learn some lessons from this and stick to the historical conventions and work with China to ensure the atmosphere in the border areas is conducive for the development of bilateral ties," she said.

The India's envoy in an interview to Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post had blamed China for the stand-off in Dokalam saying it happened because Beijing tried to alter the "status quo" which it should not have.

He had said that any change of status quo along the India-China border may lead to another Dokalam-like crisis.

He said that though "no change" has taken place in the standoff site at Dokalam after it was resolved last year, the PLA may be reinforcing its troops "well behind the sensitive area".

Asked about Bambawale's comments that the 3488-km long Line of Actual Control (LAC) should be demarcated and delineated, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on the delimitation China's position is clear and consistent.

"The east, middle and western side is yet to be officially demarcated," she said.

"China is committed to resolving the disputes through negotiations. China and India are exploring ways to resolve this territorial dispute through negotiations so that we can arrive at mutually acceptable solution," she said, referring to the boundary talks between the two countries.

The two sides have so far held 20 rounds of boundary talks.

"Pending final solution both sides should work together to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border area," she said.

Hua, however, commended Bambawale's comments that India has no concern about China's rise instead regard it as a motivation and China is not a competitor, rival or a threat but a partner in progress.

"I commend these remarks made by the India ambassador and all these positive remarks. The two countries are growing at fast pace. China and India are each other's important opportunities and to the whole world we present important opportunities," she said.

Both countries also share similar national conditions and development goals as well as common interests.

"We have every reason to be each other's partners. We would like to work with India to enhance political trust, mutually beneficial cooperation under the guidance of the two leaders to achieve common development," she said.

The 73-day standoff over China's attempt to build a road close to India's narrow Chicken Neck area connecting North Eastern states ended in August last year after Chinese troops agreed to halt the road building activities at Dokalam in Sikkim Section.Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P. Chidambaram, gestures as he leaves a court after a hearing in New Delhi, India, February 28, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi - RC1336C523F0

The Supreme Court today extended the interim protection against arrest to Karti Chidambaram, granted by the Delhi High Court in the INX Media money laundering case, till April 2.

The order came as the Enforcement Directorate sought an authoritative pronouncement from the top court in view of several conflicting orders of different high courts on the probe agency's power of arrest under section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud was told by Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the ED has been armed with the power of arrest under the statute, keeping in mind the several international conventions underlining the need to curb money laundering generated from drugs smuggling, terror financing and blackmoney routing.

Mehta referred to the 1988 UN convention and said the member countries felt the need to have a law to deal with the offence money laundering.

The advent of e-commerce has made investigation into money laundering more difficult as ill-gotten wealth have been transferred to all corners of the world very conveniently after the globalisation, he said.

The bench said the interim order of March 15 granting protection of arrest to Karti, son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, till today, is extended till April 2. The hearing, which remained inconclusive, would also continue on April 2.

On March 15, the apex court had given the interim relief to Karti in the INX media money laundering case and said it would clear the "confusion" which has crept in due to the divergent views of different high courts on ED's power to arrest.

The apex court had also transferred to itself the matters pending before the Delhi High Court relating to the power of Enforcement Directorate (ED) to arrest in money laundering cases and also a plea filed by Karti seeking protection from arrest in ED's case.

The top court had said it would answer the question about interpretation of section 19 of the PMLA relating to ED's power to arrest and also deal with the issue whether high courts can grant protection from arrest on a plea under Article 226 of the Constitution which deals with high court's power to issue writs and orders.

Karti was on March 23 granted bail by the Delhi High Court in connection with the INX Media corruption case lodged by the CBI. He was arrested by the CBI on February 28 in Chennai immediately after he returned from abroad.

In his plea before the high court, Karti has sought striking down of ED's power of arrest under section 19 of the PMLA, besides seeking quashing of the enforcement case information report (ECIR) and the probe being carried out by the agency.

He has also sought striking down the presumption codified in section 24 of the PMLA which says that when a person is accused of having committed an offence under section 3 (money laundering), the burden of proving that proceeds of the crime are untainted property, shall be on the accused.A woman constable and a head constable of the Delhi Police have been suspended for allegedly snatching the camera of a photo-journalist during a protest march organised by JNU students, the department said today.

On Friday, Jawaharlal Nehru University students had taken out the march from the varsity campus towards the Parliament Complex over various demands, including academic freedom.

They were, however, stopped near Sanjay Jheel area in south Delhi by the police, who also resorted to baton-charge and used water cannons to disperse the students participating in the march.

In the clashes that followed, journalists were targeted.

Two journalists have filed separate complaints accusing police personnel of assaulting and molesting media persons.

"On a complaint received from the photo-journalist who had alleged snatching of her camera, a case was registered and taken up for investigation. The camera has since been traced and the police is contacting the photo-journalist to facilitate its restoration," the police said.

Madhur Verma, Delhi Police PRO, said two police personnel have been placed under suspension.

"On the basis of the preliminary findings of vigilance enquiry for the unprofessional conduct of mishandling the journalist's camera during crowd control, one woman constable of the Delhi Armed Police and one head constable (male) have been placed under suspension," he added.

A group of journalists had yesterday protested outside the Delhi Police Headquarters, demanding strict action against the police personnel accused of assaulting and molesting media persons.As political campaigning is heating up in Karnataka, the ruling state government's recent move to launch a state flag to assert Kannada identity is widely being taken as CM Siddaramaiah's election tactic to compete with the Saffron party.

Siddaramaiah re-introduced the Kannada pride debate as one of the main poll agendas in the run-up to the 2018 assembly elections. The Siddaramaiah-led Congress government is up against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is making attempts to return to power in Karnataka.

The BJP has been eyeing the swing state, Karnataka, after hoisting the saffron flag in three north eastern states  Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura  earlier this year. The party succeeded to form a government in Tripura and formed coalition governments in Meghalaya and Nagaland.

Also read  Karnataka Polls 2018: BJP eyes 21/29 with a win in the southern state

Siddaramaiah triggered regional sentiments by unveiling the state flag  Nada Dwaja in Kannada  that has yellow, white and red straps with a state emblem Ganda Bherunda, a two-headed mythical bird in the middle.

There was always a debate that the state needed a separate flag. All Kannadigas aspired for this as well. The state government did not join in this debate, but also took a historic decision to get a state flag, Siddaramaiah said after he unveiled the flag.

Considering the flag bears a cultural significance among the people of the state, the chief minister's historic move brought back the memories of all pro-Kannada movements and rallies across the state that was accompanied by the state's unofficial yellow and red flag created by Kannada writer and activist Ma Ramamurthy.

Also read  BJP chief Amit Shah starts tour to woo Lingayats, traders and farmers in Karnataka

The state is also know to have Naada Geethe (state anthem), a famous composition by Kuppalli Venkatappa Puttappa (better known by his pen name, Kuvempu), which is accorded the same respect and status as the national anthem.

The new flag is an attempt to counter the Saffron party, which has not been quite favourable towards such a move. In 2009, BJPs chief minister BS Yeddyurappa rejected a demand to make the hoisting of Kannada flag compulsory on every Rajyotsava Day (state formation day) on November 1, the state's foundation day.

The BJP has dubbed the move as an effort that goes against national sentiments and also a diversionary tactic by Siddaramaiah, who has been focusing on regional sentiments.

Also read  Virtual campaigning takes centre-stage as Karnataka polls draw near

Siddaramaiah has been strengthening his Kannada identity tactic in the past few months with steps such as opposing the centre from imposing Hindi by removing sign boards on the metro.

The ruling government also granted a religious minority status to the Lingayat community, including both of its sub-sects, Lingayats and Veershaiva Lingayats.

Lingayats make up about 17-20 percent of the state's population, according to media reports.

The Opposition has criticised the Congress' move over the timing, two-months prior to the state assembly elections.

Such hyper-local campaign by the ruling Karnataka government may pose a tough challenge for the BJPs election campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, among others.Tripuras Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb made himself a laughing stock with a series of asinine statements transcending logic and facts in 2018. Whether it was claiming the existence of Internet in Mahabharat that was used by Sanjay to narrate episodes of war to Dhritarashtra or suggesting youths to rear cows instead of running after government jobs, the BJP CM gave series of chances to laugh.

Tripura assembly, where BJP toppled Left's two-and-a-half decades' rule, stood up to the national anthem for the first time when the first session of the newly elected house convened on Friday.

This was among the many firsts which assemblies in northeast states witnessed as BJP thronged to power in Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura.

A BJP legislator from Alongtaki, a constituency in Nagaland, spoke in Hindi while addressing the members. Minister for higher and technical education Temjen Imna Along asked for the permission of speaker Vikho Yhoshu and proceeded to speak in Hindi for a few sentences before switching to English, reported Hindustan Times.

Is terahwa sadan mein aa sakne ka parmeshwar ne jo mauka hum sabko ko diya hai, (uske liye) sab logo ko pranam (I thank the Lord and you all for giving us the chance to become a part of the 13th assembly of the state), Along stated.

Opposition MLAs though raised objection citing the rule which prescribes English or Naga-Assamese languages to be used when speaking in the assembly. Members who do not know any of these languages, though, with the express permission of speaker, can use his or her mother tongue. A copy of the speech in English needs to be submitted to the assembly secretary in case this option is realised.

A similar incident happened in Meghalaya assembly which saw Governor Ganga Prasad addressing the house in Hindi. This triggered protests from the MLAs. The usual business of the house is transacted in English.

Consequently, Congress legislator Ampareen Lyngdoh and Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) MLA Adelbert Nongrum spoke in Khasi. Nationalist Congress Partys Saleng Sangma used Garo to address the house in protest.

Both languages were used first time in the assembly. Though, Garo and Khasi are two prominent languages of the state spoken by two of the biggest native tribes in Meghalaya.

Hindi is not a popular language in the northeast and owing to numerous tribes who speak their own languages, English works as the lingua franca.Rahul Gandhi

The Congress and the BJP today again locked horns on the prickly issue of data sharing with Rahul Gandhi dubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi the "Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians" and the ruling party accusing the opposition party of "theft".

Taking to Twitter after allegations surfaced that data from the prime minister's official app was being shared without the consent of users, the Congress president said the NaMo app secretly recorded audio, video, contacts and even tracked location via GPS.

"Modi's NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. He's the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians.

"Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP," Gandhi said on Twitter using the hashtag "DeleteNaMoApp".

The BJP, however, rubbished the charge and alleged that the Congress chief was speaking a "lie".

Hitting out at Gandhi, BJP's IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya said it was his party's app that was sharing user data with his friends in Singapore.

"Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of India's oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore," Malviya said, mimicking Gandhi's tweet yesterday.

"Full marks to Congress for stating upfront that they'll give your data to **practically anyone** - undisclosed vendors, unknown volunteers, even 'groups with similar causes'. In theft of all forms, Congress has never been discreet!" Malviya tweeted.

Malviya went on to allege that the Congress, inspired by its leader Sonia Gandhi's "all power no accountability", will take all your data, even share it worldwide with organisations like Cambridge Analytica but will not take responsibility of it.

The party had yesterday said that contrary to Rahul Gandhi's lies, data was being used for only analytics using third party services, similar to Google Analytics.

"Analytics on the user data is done for offering users the most contextual content," it said.

The party claimed the Narendra Modi app is unique and gives access to users in guest mode' without even any permission or data.

"The permissions required are all contextual and cause-specific," the BJP stated on its Twitter handle.

The Congress chief had yesterday attacked Modi over allegations of data sharing from his official app without users' consent. Gandhi also accused the media of "burying" the story.

His attack on the prime minister was based on a media report in which a French vigilante hacker has purportedly alleged that data was stolen from his official NaMo app without the consent of the users.

"Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies, Gandhi said on Twitter.

In the tweet, he also attached a news story titled, Data theft allegations reaches PM Modi's doorstep, French vigilante hacker's stunning revelation".

The Congress and the BJP have indulged in a slinging match over data theft and the use of services of Cambridge Analytica, accused of harvesting data from Facebook.Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Pravin Togadia today slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre for not enacting a law to build the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

He also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had time to meet Pakistan's prime minister, but does not have "the courtesy to meet your childhood friend (Togadia)" .

If the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute was to be resolved through a court, then why there was an agitation in 1992 and why many people sacrificed their lives, he asked during a press conference here.

The Ayodhya case is currently being heard by the Supreme Court.

The agitation was launched to create a public opinion in favour of the Ram temple so that a pro-temple government would come to power and enact a law for its construction, he said.

Only a temple can come up on the disputed land and the surrounding 66-acre area, he said.

The BJP had promised to pass a law in Parliament for the construction of the Ram temple during its Palampur national executive meeting in 1987, he said.

But no law has been passed even in the last four years, and Prime Minister Modi is silent on the issue, he said.current-affairs-trends Our data protection framework doesnt have enough enforcement measures, says Privacy Law Expert Shereen Bhan caught up with Cyber law experts and spokespersons of both BJP and Congress Party to discuss the data breach issue.The war of words between the Congress and the BJP on data sharing spiralled today with Rahul Gandhi dubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi the "Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians" and Union minister Smriti Irani saying even 'Chhota Bheem' knows it is not snooping.

Twitter was the battleground as the debate on the prickly issue escalated and the ruling BJP accused the opposition Congress of data "theft", saying it had taken off its app after the allegations came out in the open.

The Congress, however, claimed it had not done so. The site was "dysfunctional" and all memberships were done through the party's official website, it said.

Taking to Twitter after allegations surfaced that data from the prime minister's official app was being shared without the consent of users, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said the prime minister was misusing his position and the NaMo app secretly recorded audio, video and contacts.

"Modi's NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends and family and even tracks your location via GPS. He's the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians.

"Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP," Gandhi said on Twitter using the hashtag "DeleteNaMoApp".

He added that Modi was misusing his position to build a personal database with data on millions of Indians via the NaMo App promoted by the government.

"If as PM he wants to use tech to communicate with India, no problem. But use the official PMO APP for it. This data belongs to India, not Modi," Gandhi said.

Irani hit back with a series of derisive tweets, saying that Gandhi now knows what the NCC thanks to the NaMo app.

"RahulGandhi ji, even Chhota Bheem' knows that commonly asked permission on Apps don't tantamount to snooping," she said, recalling the character from the animated series for children.

"Ye kya RahulGandhi ji it seems your team is doing the opposite of what you asked for. Instead of #DeleteNaMoApp, they have deleted the Congress App itself."

"Now that we're talking tech, would you care to answer @RahulGandhi ji why Congress sends data to Singapore Servers which can be accessed by any Tom, Dick and Analytica?" the information and broadcasting minister added.

According to BJP's IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya, the INC membership website is no longer available.

"Message you will get 'We are incorporating minor changes to the website. Please visit us again in a while to access the INC membership process...' What is the Congress party trying to hide? http://membership.inc.in," Malviya tweeted.

Congress social media in-charge Divya Spandana Ramya said the URL pointed out has been dysfunctional for a while and membership is through the INC website.

"We don't have any other membership site. Nothing is compromised...We haven't taken down anything," she said.

The Congress added on its official Twitter handle that the 'WithINC app' has not been in use for over five months since it moved membership to http://www.inc.in on November 16, 2017.

Malviya echoed Irani, saying the Congress app was sharing user data with Gandhi's friends in Singapore.

"Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of India's oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore," Malviya said, mimicking Gandhi's tweet yesterday.

"Full marks to Congress for stating upfront that they'll give your data to **practically anyone** - undisclosed vendors, unknown volunteers, even 'groups with similar causes'. In theft of all forms, Congress has never been discreet!" Malviya tweeted.

Malviya went on to allege that the Congress, inspired by its leader Sonia Gandhi's "all power no accountability", will take all your data, even share it worldwide with organisations like Cambridge Analytica but will not take responsibility of it.

The party claimed yesterday that the Narendra Modi app is unique and gives access to users in guest mode' without any permission or data.

The Congress chief had yesterday attacked Modi over allegations of data sharing from his official app without users' consent.

His attack on the prime minister was based on a media report in which a French vigilante hacker alleged that data was stolen from his official NaMo app without the consent of the users.

"Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies, Gandhi said.The News in Brief

Parliament Speaker: We Value US Contribution to Strengthening Georgias Statehood



Parliament Speaker, Irakli Kobakhidze talked about the importance of the cooperation between Georgia and the United States, saying the two countries have special relations.



Kobakhidze made the statement during the farewell reception dedicated to the expiration of the mission of the US Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly.



We highly value the contribution of the United States for strengthening of our statehood and we appreciate the personal contribution of Ambassador Kelly to strengthening of our bilateral relations between United States and Georgia, the speaker stated.



He said it is crucial for Georgia to have the United States by the side.



I am honored to thank Ambassador Kelly for all his good work done for our country. I would say that his Ambassadorship was another historic phase in terms of US-Georgia relations, stated Kobakhidze.



He also stressed that without the support of the United States, it would be very difficult for Georgia to keep the statehood strong.



While delivering speech at the event, the ambassador Kelly welcomed the attendees and expressed his gratitude for cooperation, friendship, hospitality and warmth.



I can express my mission in one phrase: your sovereign choice to join the Western community of nations and I feel very strongly that your destiny is with that Community of nations, stated Kelly.



The Ambassador wished Georgians prosperity, peace and growth. He expressed hope that Georgia will stay on this path and always insist on sovereignty. The reception was attended by legislative and executive authorities, civil sector and diplomatic corps.



Kelly made a statement about his upcoming retirement in February, bringing his 33-year diplomatic career to an end. Kelly will give lectures at Northwestern University in Chicago starting April.







440 Road Accidents Happen in Tbilisi in January-February



440 road accidents occurred in Tbilisi in January-February 2018. Moreover, the majority of the accidents in Tbilisi took place on Kakheti Highway, Davit Agmashenebeli Avenue and Tsereteli Avenue.



The information was given to Allnews.ge by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.



The data shows that this year, 21 accidents occurred on Kakheti Highway and in 2017  113.



As for Agmashenebeli Avenue, the number of road accidents was 14, and last year - 81.



The statistics show that 12 accidents took place on Tsereteli Avenue in 2018 and 72 - in 2017.



As for the other streets, Beliashvili Street counts 9 accidents, while last year 42 occurred.



Road accidents are also frequent on Guramishvili Avenue, where 8 accidents have been recorded this year and 65 cases in 2017.



In 2017, 2,934 accidents took place only in Tbilisi.

(By Mariam Chanishvili)



A Honda Jazz car owner from Hyderabad has been fined a whopping Rs 1.82 lakh during the course of the past one year.

The vehicle in question, with the registration number: TS09ER2957, has been found overspeeding 127 times between April 4, 2017 and March 10, 2018, as per the Telangana State e-challan portal.

The Telangana State Police fines Rs 1400 for overspeeding with Rs 35 user charges that makes it a total of Rs 1435. As per reports, the overspeeding incidents took place at the citys accident-prone Outer Ring Road.

Notably, in May 2017, seeing a spate of speed-related accidents on the eight-lane Outer Ring Road, the speed limit was reduced from 120 kmph to 100 kmph.

One could attribute the number of overspeeding incidents to the change in the law but even before that, as many as eight overspeeding incidents only in the month of April 2017 were recorded by the Telangana State Police cameras from the same vehicle.

Whenever a violation is recorded by the system a message goes to the vehicle owners phone number informing him about the challan.

The vehicle, whose owner has been listed as Lessee Mylan Laboratories Limited, on the Telangana State Police website, made the most number of violations in the month of July.The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has started the process to stall bankruptcy proceedings of Nirav Modis group company Firestar Diamonds in the US, sources told Moneycontrol. The economic intelligence agency is looking to do that by attaching the foreign assets of the alleged fraudster and his uncle Mehul Choksi in connection with the Rs 14,300 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.

We are in final stage of moving a US court to stall the bankruptcy proceedings and attach the foreign assets of Nirav Modi, a senior official, who did not want to be named, said.

The ED has the power to attach the foreign assets of a company accused of fraud. The ED is exercising its powers to ensure that the assets dont get liquidated during the bankruptcy proceedings.

Another source in the department added: Most of the money has been routed outside India and was used to create assets in foreign countries. In fact, most of Nirav Modis high value assets and properties are outside of India.

After the fraud came to light last month, investigative agencies attached Modis domestic assets, such as diamonds, homes and other prized possessions. However, the ED suspects that the value of these assets is far lower as compared to those created abroad.

As of now, the ED is not sure of the foreign assets and properties of Modi, but has issued letters rogatory to 15 countries seeking information about the assets held by Modi and Choksi.

It was earlier reported that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs was considering legal options to try and stop the bankruptcy proceedings of the diamantaire's group firm Firestar Diamond.

As investigations continue, the Finance and Corporate Affairs Ministry has called for a joint meeting of all agencies involved, including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the ED, Serious Fraud Investigation Office and Income Tax officials in first week of April. The ministry will seek collective information from all agencies and will look to device a way to proceed and take action against the accused.

In the Firestar Diamond bankruptcy proceedings filed in the US, a copy of which is with Moneycontrol, the diamantaire has mentioned two other firms including A Jaffe Inc.

According to the Chapter 11 filing, A Jaffe owes more than USD 6 million to unsecured creditors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A third large unsecured debt owed by A Jaffe is to another UAE-based company called Universal Fine Jewelry FZE. The US filing highlights that A Jaffe, which has a minimal revenue, issued loans of up to USD 11 million to Modi. The company has shown losses to the tune of nearly USD 14 million.

According to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, Jaffes business has been described as "its more than a 100-year-old brand which sells fine jewellery merchandise to more than hundreds of independent stores in the US."Taking on those questioning the government's Aadhaar programme, Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam has said there were people willing to "get naked before the white man" to procure an American visa but cry "privacy" when basic details have to be shared with their own government.

The minister of state for also electronics and information technology assured that information collected under Aadhaar was safe and secure and claimed that media reports about data breaches were incorrect.

Taking a jibe at Aadhaar critics, Kannanthanam said "ten pages of information which you have never even confessed to your wife ever, or to your husband, have to be passed on to a white man to get an American visa. We have absolutely no problems going and putting our fingerprints and the iris and getting your whole body naked before the white man at all".

He claimed the attitude of many people changed sharply when their own government sought basic information.

"But when the government of India, which is your government, asks you your name and your address, nothing more..there's a massive revolution in the country...saying it's an intrusion into the privacy of the individual. I mean, how far can we go? Let the Supreme Court decide, Kannanthanam said.

He was delivering a special address on Friday evening at the valedictory session of the Global Digital Summit #FUTURE organised by the Kerala government.

What is the information collected by Aadhaar today? Your name...address; you don't have to give the e-mail ID which everybody now demands," the minister said.

He said the fingerprint details and the data related to iris, was something which is in the UIDAI repository.

"Not one case has come up in the past three-and-a-half years.... (that) the bio-metric data of any Aadhaar holder has been leaked in India. The Government of India has protected the data," Kannanthanam said.U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he arrives to deliver his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress inside the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2018. REUTERS/Win McNamee/Pool - HP1EE1V06J5S3

American economy is looking "really good", President Donald Trump said today, noting that the underlying strength of companies in the world's largest economy has perhaps never been better.

Strengthening the economy and creation of new jobs have been the major focus areas of Trump as the 45th President of the United States.

As a result of his new tax laws, passed by the Congress last year, several American companies have announced to bring in their money stacked overseas and invest in the country.

"The (American) economy is looking really good. It has been many years that we have seen these kind of numbers," Trump said in a tweet.

"The underlying strength of companies has perhaps never been better," said the US President in an early morning tweet, a social media platform which he uses often to communicate with his supporters.

Unemployment rate continues to be low, hovering around four per cent, and last several months have been creating a sizeable number of new jobs; a trend which has surprised many economic analysts.

This year he has set his eyes on massive trade deficits with other countries, in particular China.

Last week Trump announced a series of steps targeting imports from China.Talk of murder, drugs and sex permeated Fridays testimony in the racketeering trial of two top former leaders of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club as a former insider shed light on the groups alleged underground conduct in San Antonio.

The insider was not an former Bandidos member, but Magenta Winans, a 46-year-old woman who testified that she helped the Bandidos murder a street gang member in retaliation for the killing of a fellow biker, aided their drug trafficking and ran the groups call girl service in San Antonio, called Platinum Escorts.

RELATED: Jury reaches verdict in TX doctor's alleged murder-for-hire plot

Her testimony was offered in support of a federal indictment that alleges the Bandidos racketeering enterprise spanned 16 years, from 2000 to 2016. Toward the end of that period, the Bandidos were headed by the two lone defendants on trial, former national president Jeffrey Fay Pike and ex-national vice president John Xavier Portillo.

Winans testimony largely implicated Portillo. Though Pike and Portillo are charged in a series of crimes related to racketeering conspiracy, including allegations that they ordered beatings or sanctioned murder, only Portillo is charged in the January 2002 murder of Robert Lara, a member of the Two Six Nation street gang.

Winans, a former meth addict, said she was introduced to the Bandidos in 2001 through a friend, the late boxer Robert Pikin Quiroga.

She said she met Richard Merla and Andrew Corky Gomez, members of the Bandidos Southwest San Antonio chapter, and had an affair with Gomez. She even went to work in his auto shop, Precision Automotive.

At the end of 2001, she heard through Gomez that fellow chapter member Javier Jay Negrete was fatally shot at Tiffanys Billiards off San Pedro Avenue. Gomez introduced her to the boss  Portillo, Winans testified. Portillo, president of the local Bandidos chapter at the time, asked her: Do you think you can take care of this for us? Our brother meant a lot to us. She agreed.

After being given an alias, she infiltrated the Two Six Nation gang and befriended Lara, who confessed he killed Negrete, Winans testified.

When she reported back to the Bandidos, they instructed Winans to lure Lara to a desolate picnic area along Interstate 37 south of San Antonio. There, Merla and fellow Bandidos member Frederick Fast Fred Cortez pulled Lara out of the car and shot him repeatedly, she testified. She assumed the same fate awaited her.

But instead, the club hailed her, and the killing also earned Portillo a promotion in May 2002 to the national chapter, as a national sergeant at arms.

Before he was promoted, Portillo told her, Well make sure youre taken care of.

He said, We can make you property; and if anything happens to you, it happens to us, Winans testified.

She said she agreed with his request to get a tattoo. The tattoo, on her hip, once read: Property of BMC SWSA  Bandidos Motorcycle Club Southwest San Antonio chapter  and was designed to look like the patches Bandidos wear on their vests, she said. She later covered it up with a larger tattoo after her friend Quiroga was killed by Merla in 2005, and she stopped being the clubs property.

The wording and patch outlines of the old tattoo are still visible, according to a photo prosecutors showed jurors.

Winans said she also managed the clubs Playmate Escorts out of an apartment on Cincinnati Avenue, where customers were charged $200 an hour. She said some of the money went to Portillo.

Winans also testified that she broke up methamphetamine for Gomez for distribution and even delivered ounce quantities to Portillo.

After Laras murder, law officers tried to interview her three times about the killing. In June 2002, when she was jailed for traffic ticket warrants, Portillo bailed her out and she lied to police by saying she knew nothing about Laras murder.

When the feds arrested Portillo in January 2016 and searched his home, they found a receipt for what Portillo paid for Winans bail. Prosecutors showed it to the jury during Winans testimony.

Winans also was arrested in January 2006 for possession of 7 grams of meth. She said Portillo her not to worry, to just go with the plan. Dont change your lies, pretty much, and that a lawyer paid by the Bandidos will take care of you.

A year later, she was arrested again for possession of marijuana. The feds, who were investigating the Bandidos, later adopted the state drug charges. Rather than go with the Bandidos lawyer, she chose a federal public defender because I wanted the opportunity to live a structured life.

As part of a plea deal, she pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor for possession of meth and got probation with a requirement for drug treatment and rehab.

For her cooperation, she will not be charged for Laras murder, she said. She will continue testifying Tuesday.Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram

In Mondays Midland Reporter-Telegram, a front page article reported that the GOP of Texas rejected my request for a recount of the votes in the recent race for Senate in Senate District 31 against Kel Seliger and Victor Leal. In the article, Sen. Seliger was quoted as saying that my request for a recount was an abuse of the system.

My reaction to the Senators statement was and still remains that I sure hope the senator doesnt make decisions that impact our district and the citizens of Texas with more knowledge of the facts than he had when he issued his vitriolic statement about the request for recount that I had submitted to the Texas GOP.A Jacksonville man was cited on a charge of improper lane use after a single-vehicle accident Sunday on West State Street.

Police said Danny R. Currier, 61, of Jacksonville was turning onto West State Street when his vehicle struck a utility pole causing damage to both the pole and the front fender of the car.How to detect cables that can ...Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus V.Makei meets the Ambassador of Italy

26-03-2018



On March 26, 2018 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Vladimir Makei, met the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Italian Republic to the Republic of Belarus, Stefano Bianchi, on the occasion of the completion of his diplomatic mission to our country.

During the meeting, the sides discussed current issues of bilateral political dialogue, as well as state and prospects for further cooperation between Belarus and Italy in economic, humanitarian, cultural fields and a number of other topics.

The Minister thanked the Ambassador for a significant contribution to the development of Belarusian-Italian relations.

   



print version@NewsbySmiley

South Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced Monday that she has introduced a bill requiring background checks for the purchase of ammunition.

Just as with firearms, federal law currently bans criminals, domestic abusers and people with mental illnesses from buying bullets. But the law does not require federally licensed retailers to background those customers. Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, says she wants to close this loophole through the Ammunition Background Check Act.

She said Monday that the law would require retailers to use the same FBI National Instance Background Check System (NICS) used to background people buying firearms at retail. The same legislation is sponsored in the U.S. Senate by Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

This common-sense legislation simply enforces existing federal law, and will make it harder for criminals to amass hundreds of rounds of ammunition without so much as sharing their first name with a gun store clerk, Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. Closing this absurd loophole will not by itself stop the next mass shooting tragedy. But this popular approach must be part of our larger strategy for ending gun violence.

Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey currently require background checks on ammunition purchases, and California and New York have recently passed legslation. Florida has no such law.

The bill is one of several targeting federal gun laws filed in recent weeks. On Thursday, Florida Reps. Ted Deutch, Charlie Crist, Carlos Curbelo and Thomas Rooney filed bi-partisan legislation to raise the minimum age requirement from 18 to 21 to purchase a rifle or shotgun from a federally licensed dealer. Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson announced last week the filing of a "red flag" law that would allow courts to issue gun violence restraining orders.President Donald Trump View Photos

President Trump was Mondays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words:

Youve heard many, many speeches by me and talks by me, and interviews where I talk about unfair trade practices. Weve lost, over a fairly short period of time, 60,000 factories in our country  closed, shuttered, gone. Six million jobs, at least, gone. And now theyre starting to come back. You see whats happening with Chrysler, with Foxconn, with so many other companies wanting to come back into the United States.

But we have one particular problem. And I view them as a friend; I have tremendous respect for President Xi. We have a great relationship. Theyre helping us a lot in North Korea. And thats China.

But we have a trade deficit, depending on the way you calculate, of $504 billion. Now, some people would say its really $375 billion. Many different ways of looking at it, but any way you look at it, it is the largest deficit of any country in the history of our world. Its out of control.

We have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on, which likewise is hundreds of billions of dollars. And thats on a yearly basis. Ive spoken to the President. Ive spoken to representatives of China. Weve been dealing with it very seriously.

As you know, were renegotiating NAFTA. Well see how that turns out. Many countries are calling to negotiate better trade deals because they dont want to have to pay the steel and aluminum tariffs. And we are negotiating with various countries  Mr. Lighthizer, Mr. Ross.

We are just starting a negotiation with the European Union because theyve really shut out our country to a large extent. They have barriers that  they can trade with us but we cant trade with them. Theyre very strong barriers. They have very high tariffs. We dont. Its just not fair.

NAFTA has been a very bad deal for the United States, but well make it better or well have to do something else. The deal we have with South Korea is a very one-sided deal. Its a deal that has to be changed.

So we have a lot of things happening. But in particular, with China, were going to be doing a Section 301 trade action. It could be about $60 billion but thats really just a fraction of what were talking about.

Ive been speaking with the highest Chinese representatives, including the President, and Ive asked them to reduce the trade deficit immediately by $100 billion. Its a lot. So that would be anywhere from 25 percent, depending on the way you figure, to maybe something even more than that. But we have to do that.

The word that I want to use is reciprocal. When they charge 25 percent for a car to go in, and we charge 2 percent for their car to come into the United States, thats not good. Thats how China rebuilt itself. The tremendous money that weve paid since the founding of the World Trade Organization  which has actually been a disaster for us. Its been very unfair to us. The arbitrations are very unfair. The judging has been very unfair. And knowingly, we always have a minority and its not fair.

So were talking to World Trade, were talking to NAFTA, were talking to China, were talking to the European Union. And I will say, every single one of them wants to negotiate. And I believe that, in many cases  maybe all cases  well end up negotiating a deal.

So weve spoken to China and were in the midst of a very large negotiation. Well see where it takes us. But in the meantime, we are sending a Section 301 action. Ill be signing it right here, right now. Id like to ask Bob Lighthizer to say a few words about the 301 and where we are in that negotiation.

And were doing things for this country that should have been done for many, many years. Weve had this abuse by many other countries and groups of countries that were put together in order to take advantage of the United States, and we dont want that to happen. Were not going to let that happen. Its probably one of the reasons I was elected; maybe one of the main reasons. But were not going to let that happen.

We have, right now, an $800 billion trade deficit with the world. So think of that. So lets say we have 500 to 375, but lets say we have 500 with China, but we have 800 total with the world. That would mean that China is more than half. So were going to get it taken care of. And, frankly, its going to make us a much stronger, much richer nation.

The word is reciprocal. Thats the word I want everyone to remember. We want reciprocal  mirror. Some people call it a mirror tariff or a mirror tax. Just use the word reciprocal. If they charge us, we charge them the same thing. Thats the way its got to be. Thats not the way it is. For many, many years  for many decades, it has not been that way.

And I will say, the people were negotiating with  smilingly, they really agree with us. I really believe they cannot believe theyve gotten away with this for so long.

Ill talk to Prime Minister Abe of Japan and others  great guy, friend of mine  and there will be a little smile on their face. And the smile is, I cant believe weve been able to take advantage of the United States for so long. So those days are over.The unemployment rate in Hale County again increased in February to 4.8 percent, a slight uptick from the 4.6 percent rate in January, which was an increase from the low of 4.1 percent in October, November and December, which was the lowest unemployment rate in the county for over 10 years.

The jobless rate again ticked upward in all of the counties in the Herald's coverage area with the exception of Swisher County, which remained stable.

Briscoe County's unemployment rate increased from 3.7 percent to 4.2 percent; Castro County moved from 3.1 percent to 3.3 percent; Floyd County also went up, from 5.8 percent to 5.9 percent; Lamb jumped from 4.5 to 4.8 percent, and Swisher maintained at 4.1 percent.

The total labor force in Hale County is 12,333, with 588 still seeking employment in the county. In January, the total labor force was 12,072, with 556 still seeking employment.

The Texas economy added 40,500 seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs in February, which marked 20 consecutive months of employment growth. Over the year, Texas added 285,200 jobs for an annual employment growth rate 2.3 percent in February. Texas' seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.0 percent in February and remains below the U.S. unemployment rate of 4.1 percent.

"We are encouraged to see the Texas economy continue to expand at a solid pace with Texas employers adding 40,500 jobs over the month for a total of 285,200 jobs gained over the year," said TWC Chairman Andres Alcantar. "Texas' continued addition of jobs demonstrates the competitive advantages and market opportunities available to our employers and world-class workforce to compete and succeed."

Industries adding jobs in February included Professional and Business Services, which added 13,200 positions followed by Trade, Transportation and Utilities, which added 11,800 jobs, and Mining and Logging employers added 6,500 positions.

"Our businesses in Texas continue to thrive and grow in a strong economy, adding 42,800 jobs in February," said Commissioner Ruth R. Hughs. "Texas has created an environment for success and continues to support additional business expansion for our broad range of industry employers."

The Midland Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) recorded the month's lowest unemployment rate among Texas MSAs with a non-seasonally adjusted rate of 2.5 percent, followed by the Amarillo MSA, which had the second lowest with a rate of 2.9 percent. The Austin-Round Rock and College Station-Bryan MSAs were tied for the third lowest rate of 3.0 percent for February.

"Our state continues to build on its successes," said TWC Commissioner Representing Labor Julian Alvarez. "We need to continue these efforts in building a better prepared workforce by continuing to offer training programs and training onsite. Our Skills Development Fund provides training grants to jobs, businesses and workers to fulfill a specific need we see in the workforce. We need to solve the problem of not having enough skilled workers by increasing opportunities for customizing job-training."

Audio downloads with comments from Commissioner Hughs on the latest labor market data are available on the TWC website press release page. Employment estimates released by TWC are produced in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. All estimates are subject to revision. To access this and more employment data, visit tracer2.com.Sue Ogrocki/STF

WASHINGTON - A 700-mile transmission line project that's supposed to deliver large quantities of electricity from Oklahoma wind farms to customers in the southeast has been another dealt a blow by the Department of Energy.

According to Reuters, the department has pulled out of a development deal with Houston-based Clean Line Energy Partners, with both sides saying the decision was mutual.JERRY LARA /San Antonio Express-News

A thriving local economy and a slate of new flights spurred passenger traffic to San Antonio International Airport to grow by double digits in February, city aviation officials said Monday.

More than 667,000 travelers passed through the San Antonio airport last month, a new record for the airport, according to the airports monthly statistics report released Monday. Traffic was up 10.5 percent from the roughly 604,000 passengers who embarked from or landed at the airport in February 2017.Authorities were searching Monday for a man who has allegedly robbed at least three Chase Banks in the East Bay over the last three weeks.

The series of bank robberies began March 10 just after 3 p.m. at a Chase Bank at 12121 San Pablo Ave. in Richmond, according to the citys police department.DANBURY  Dr. Majid Sadigh was on the brink of exhaustion as he neared the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

His right knee had been in pain for five days and he felt like he could no longer move.

The Danbury Hospital doctor had climbed Kilimanjaro three other times, but never before had he felt so much pressure to reach the top. He knew the people of Naggalama, Uganda, were counting on him.

Sadigh had promised to raise $19,341  one dollar for each foot of the climb  for a microbiology lab at the St. Francis Naggalama Hospital, one of the many places he partners with around the world through his Global Health Program.

Then he remembered the advice another climber and donor had given him: When you feel like giving up, talk to the mountain.

Sadigh did.

I dont mind to die, to be honest, he told the mountain. But if I die now, there are so many people that are going to be, really, under a lot of really emotional pressure.

All at once, the sun came out.

[It] gave me so much energy  so much energy, Sadigh said. I basically stood up and then I finished almost another 2  kilometers that I had in front of me.

Sadighs eight-day trek, completed a day or two faster than expected last month, raised more than $20,200 for the lab, which will allow the hospital to treat patients with infectious diseases. These types of diseases are common in Africa, but the hospital does not have a way to care for these patients, Sadigh said. Most patients cannot afford to travel elsewhere for treatment, so they are forced to live with their disease, he said.

They are so resilient because they have no other option, Sadigh said.

Sadigh is the director of global health and the Christian J. Trefz Family Endowed Chair in Global Health at the Western Connecticut Health Network. The Global Health Program sends medical students to provide care in Uganda, Zimbabwe, the Dominican Republic, Russia and Vietnam. Students from those countries also can spend three to six months studying in the United States.

The Global Health Program is meant to teach people that everyone is genetically related and deserves equal care, Sadigh said. We as the human, we have only one responsibility, to make the resources available to everyone, he said.

After his trek, Sadigh spent several weeks teaching at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and visiting St. Francis Hospital.

Sadigh said the gratitude from the hospital has been overwhelming.

Sister Jane Frances, the head of the hospital, and three other administrators surprised Sadigh at the bottom of the mountain. On their own dime, they flew from Uganda to Tanzania to give him a plaque and unity award.

Sadigh said the hospital administrators told him that what he had done was more meaningful than money, and that he was an important person for us now.

I would say this is a golden page of my life because it touched my heart so much, Sadigh said.

Sadigh said climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is more purposeful because he experienced and better understands the physical pain his patients could be in. He said seeing the vastness of nature is also humbling.

He said he is unsure whether he would climb Kilimanjaro a fifth time, but if he loses that humility he would need to return.

If I get a trace of arrogance, [if] I know that I have some sentiment of impurity, I need to go to Kilimanjaro, just to remind myself how privileged that I am, he said.FAIRFIELD  Hawks are again attacking residents in the Old Mill Road area.

Authorities plan to remove hawks from the area after a resident says she was attacked by one of the birds.

The resident was attacked in her yard early last week, the Fairfield Police Department said. Police warned other residents in a Facebook post to use caution when walking in the Old Mill Road, Sycamore Lane and Henry Street area.

Animal Control will patrol this area on a regular basis. Police also contacted the state Wildlife Division of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Wildlife Division) to remove the hawk or hawks found on these streets.

This is not the first time a hawk has attacked in the area. Several residents reported hawk attacks last year and in 2016, while authorities captured a hawk that injured a handful of residents in 2012.

Police said previously halks have flown at peoples heads from behind. The hawks appear to target people walking alone, police said.

Residents should contact Animal Control at 203-254-4857 if they see a hawk. To report a hawk incident, call the Fairfield Police Department at 203-254-4800.Cleveland's March 20 city council meeting began with concerns to amend the zoning ordinance to reclassify a tract of land from general commercial to specific use permit property.

The special use permit is intended for a warehouse that a company is reportedly planning to use for light industrial use. The property is located at 801 Liberty St.

Local citizen Steve Hanson, who lives near the property, asked for clarification of the property address.

"It needs to be checked out," said Fred Terrell of the Cleveland Zoning Commission.

The applicant for the special use permit, Glynna Largent, spoke on the matter and explained the situation regarding the address.

"All of this property was only identified as 226 S. Washington," she said. "So all of it was identified as such."

Largent explained that a strip center built in the block has changed some of the addressing.

"Each one of those units in that strip center had a separate address assigned to it and then when it came time to lease out that warehouse I needed a physical address," she said.

Cleveland City Attorney David Olson also expressed concerns in verifying the address and asked if mail was ever received at that physical location, which was confirmed.

The Zoning Commission met in executive session to discuss the agenda item in more depth. Terrell gave his recommendation to approve the special use permit under certain conditions.

"All work must be contained within the warehouse," he said. "Liberty Street will be the only ingress/egress allowed."

Other regulations include operation hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and closed on Sunday.

City council also discussed an item regarding an Opportunity Zone and tax reform's new economic development tool in compliance with the tax code.

"This is a part of the tax reform bill that was passed by Congress," said Mayor Otis Cohn. "There is a tax advantage given to developers who invest in certain zones that are defined as low income overall that are not fully developed or not developed at all."

The agenda item involves the City of Cleveland requesting Governor Greg Abbott to designate particular tracts of land as Opportunity Zones with one tract in consideration by the city.

"It's a tax deferral program," said Olson.

An Opportunity Zone helps developers depreciate their assets to make profits in the first few years of making their large investments without having to pay taxes.

"That should entice more developers, more investors," said Cohn.

The item was approved unanimously.A new book by Michael Burns titled "Sanctum Sanctorum" begins with an archeologist named David Graham who is leading an expedition into the Middle East to find the Ark of the Covenant.

After a long, unsuccessful journey into the desert, finally arriving at Mount Nebo, he reaches the point where he wants to fold up and go home. However, when a small earthquake reveals a small cavern, Graham and his team are fortified and continue their search.With historic growth looming at the city's doorstep, Dayton City Council continues with proactive steps to prepare the area in every facet of responsibility.

The most significant component was the approval of the traffic study to be conducted by Strand Associates.

City Manager Theo Melancon asked the firm in the study to provide a list of streets that the city could complete or expand to help alleviate traffic on major highways, ways in which the state could help with their designated highways, public input on the traffic issues and solutions, and multi-modal transportation, i.e. pedestrian and bike paths.

"One of our main goals is to get as much done by May so that we can submit to H-GAC (Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments) for grant funding for some of the improvements that we find," said Kelly Hajek, P.E. of Strand Associates.

Strand would like to get started immediately. She warned that the H-GAC committee only meets once every two years for this particular type of funding and so time was of the essence.

Some of the data collection is scheduled to begin within the next two weeks including turning movement counts, traffic counters, and include information from TxDOT and H-GAC to supplement information gathered by the city and Strand.

Strand will use microsimulation traffic modeling for the morning and evening peak periods at Cleveland Street and US 90, Cleveland Street and Clayton Street, SH 146 and US 90, Main Street and US 90, and Winfree Street and US 90.

According to their scope of work, Strand will also identify and perform crash analysis at those same intersections and try to identify contributing factors to intersection crash rates.

In addition, they will develop up to eight complete streets typical sections for arterials that address projected future traffic volumes and prepare improvement projects for submission to H-GAC's call for projects for the Transportation Improvement Program.

"We would like to have a community meeting at the beginning of the project to hear what they say is the problem and what they notice when they're driving around town," she said.

Strand would have a final meeting to let the community know their findings and solutions.

The plan would also include pedestrian and bike traffic.

"We'd like to be able to connect the schools and the parks so that people don't have to walk on the street to access those locations," she said.

The mayor also asked them to include SH 321 and FM 1960 to the list.

The findings would not only identify the problems and future growth with the Grand Parkway, but also provide cost estimates for the projects so the city can prioritize.

The cost of the traffic study is $66,900 and was approved unanimously by council members. The project is expected to get underway as soon as possible.

Council also acted on a proposal from Strand and Associates to prepare engineering specifications for utilities and streets, basically codifying standards for developments and subdivisions in the city of Dayton.

"We have codes that need to be updated, but they shouldn't be only about platting and lot sizes," Melancon said.

"It should also stress how an infrastructure is laid out in the city and that there's consistency across subdivisions," the city manager said.

Without it, Hajek said arguments between developers and the city could ensue and they do whatever they want. A standard would lessen the burden and need for negotiating every time a new subdivision is built on something that should be a standard.

Melancon wanted a standardized packet with information that makes sense for the city of Dayton construction.

"This is important," said Kimberly Judge, assistant city manager. "Every day we have engineers calling us every day asking us if we have a standard profile for our utilities and we don't have them."

They could go in and lay out the way they want the utilities to look if we don't have a profile to tell them differently, she told council members.

The update would take about five months and will cost the city $30,000. The council approved the measure unanimously.

Judge told council, "It's that time again!" - meaning it's time for more annexation. With the growth coming to the area, city officials want to be able to manage the growth and with it come annexation into the city's corporate limits. Judge laid out plans for the city to annex an additional 525.389 total acres.

According to Judge, the city is allowed to annex up to approximately 1,500 acres this year. Each year they are allowed to annex up to 10 percent of the city's total acreage.

The first area is on CR 686 and SH 321 and consists of 89.78 acres.

"This is the distribution center that sits across from the prison," she said.

The second area is on the west end of US 90 where it enters the county from Crosby. It consists of 168.65 acres and Judge wants the city to annex it because of the development taking place there over the next several years.

"This has to be growth that's desirable for our community," she said.

Since it is the entryway into the city, Judge said they want to be sure that it's more control for the city in what goes on there.

"We don't want it to be a poor development when people enter our city," she said.

The third segment is along FM 1413 west of SH 146. It is the largest area consisting of 235.60 acres and it is an area where the city has already negotiated a fuel station in the area and Judge told council she believes the growth in the area would continue.

The final area is north of the city near SH 321 and consists of 31.34 acres.

"We are looking at this area to control development," Judge said. She told council that the owners were trying to put as many as three trailers on a single lot.

The council approved the resolution setting a date, time and hearing for the annexation.

In other council action:

-- Council also approved a plan to smoke test the city's water and sewer lines. The total for smoke testing will be $101,600. To physically inspect each manhole will cost the city $65,400 based on the city system map. "If we're going to build out long term with a capital improvement plan, we have to know where our problem lines are in our water and sewer system," Melancon said. "If we don't attack the inflow that's going into our sewer plant, it won't last as long because it's processing too much water." If they go over their permitted amount, the city could face fines and expansion of the system which, in turn, could be costly. The smoke will identify cracks in the line that need repair. The process should take approximately four to six months and should begin in the next month.

-- A search for a good location for a water well in both the FM 1960 and SH 146 areas in advance of the building of SH 99. "This will handle a lot of the demand that will be created by the Grand Parkway," Melancon said.

-- The city police department has recently hired three new officers to expand their coverage and help with fighting crime in the city.

-- Municipal court fines have been updated to reflect current laws. The fines had not been updated since 2008. The city council itself cannot change the amounts. Those are only done at the discretion of the municipal judge.Dennis the Menace Park, located at 2201 W. Indiana Ave., will close beginning today for renovations to upgrade the 60-year-old facility. Construction is expected to take one year to complete.

The $2.344 million project will be done in three phases, according to a previous Reporter-Telegram article.

Phase 1 deals with park infrastructure -- sidewalk, grass, parking, restrooms and shade canopies  and should be completed in September.

Phase 2 is about the playground equipment. Officials hope to replicate some of the features of the park and mix in more modern features. Park users expressed a desire for water elements, tree house, dinosaurs, climbers and swings. Construction on this phase is expected to start in August and be completed three months later.

Work on the third phase, which will include more playground equipment and a splash pad, has not been scheduled because currently there are funds only for the first two phases, according to the previous article.

The parks new elements will be ADA-compliant, and proper lighting will be installed so the park can be used after the sun goes down.

During a meeting with residents last year, there was discussion about current park fixtures. Some residents, who grew up in Midland and played at the park, didnt want the old-school metal equipment to receive a scrap-yard burial. The hope is that the equipment will be part of a display at the park or on other city grounds. Ty F. Sisco of Parkhill, Smith & Cooper plans to salvage some artistic elements for use at the renovated Dennis the Menace Park.A Harris County jury on Monday sentenced Leon Jacob to life in prison, ending a weeklong trial in which the 40-year-old was convicted of planning the double murder of his ex-girlfriend and his new girlfriends ex-husband.

Jacob, a failed doctor, was convicted Friday of solicitation of capital murder for paying an undercover Houston police officer posing as a hit man last March.

The verdict on punishment, which came after less than an hour of deliberations, ends a yearlong saga that has riveted Houstonians and garnered international headlines.

Jacob was initially charged in the murder-for-hire plot last year with his girlfriend, Valerie McDaniel, a popular Montrose veterinarian who killed herself a short time after her arrest by jumping off a balcony at her River Oaks complex.

The two wanted to dispose of their exes  Jacobs ex-girlfriend Meghan Verikas and McDaniels ex-husband, Marion Mack McDaniel  and began negotiating with someone they thought was a hit man, prosecutors alleged during the six-day trial.

When that individual disappeared after Jacob paid him $10,000, prosecutors said, Jacob went to Michael Kubosh, a Houston city councilman who is also a bail bondsman  as it happened, he had written bonds for both men. At the time, Jacob was out on bond on charges of domestic violence against Verikas.

Kubosh thought something suspicious was going on and notified Houston police. Investigators from HPDs major offender squad then located the supposed hit man and persuaded him to introduce Jacob to an undercover officer posing as yet another hit man willing to go ahead with the executions. Jacob ultimately paid the officer $1,800 and two Cartier watches as the first installment of a $20,000 contract.

To convince Jacob and McDaniel that the executions had actually been carried shortly after their arrests, police showed them gruesome, staged execution photos of Verikas and Mack McDaniel, covered in fake blood. Members of McDaniels family now angrily contend that Jacob ensnared the veterinarian in the plot and say she had no interest in killing her ex-husband.

After the jury sentenced Jacob to life and a $10,000 fine for two counts of solicitation of capital murder late Monday afternoon, prosecutors and Jacobs defense attorneys agreed that his fate had been sealed by statements he had made on tapes recorded by the undercover agent.

At the end of the day, what made our case were the recordings, said Assistant Harris County District Attorney Samantha Knecht. They spoke for themselves.

On one of those recordings, in a conversation that took place at a lunch meeting at the Olive Garden restaurant on Kirby, Jacob can be heard saying he wanted his ex-girlfriend injected with potassium chloride to stop her heart and kill her in an untraceable way.

Jurors deliberated less than an hour before sentencing Jacob to the maximum possible sentence. He did not react.

After Jacob was sentenced, Verikas gave a victim impact statement in which she got to address Jacob directly.

I believe everything happens for a reason. While you sit in jail, I hope you think of me: the girl you called poor and uneducated. Its because of me that you will be in prison for life, she told him. You destroyed me financially and took away my sense of security, but you can do that no more. Enjoy life in prison.

Knecht and fellow prosecutor Cameron Calligan spent a week playing the recordings to prove Jacob committed the crime. Then they spent Monday calling his ex-girlfriend and ex-wife to show a pattern of abuse as they argued for the maximum possible sentence.

I think theres no doubt that if he had been allowed to remain among us, that at some point he would have killed someone, Knecht said.

He will be eligible for parole in 30 years. He will not have to pay the fine because there is no mechanism in Texas law to enforce it.

Jacobs attorney, George Parnham, said Jacob expected to be convicted.

The verdict was not a shock, Parnham said. He agreed that the audio recordings were the cornerstone of the case, and said Jacob would appeal.

I think they said it all. The audio recordings were the states case, he said. Were going to proceed accordingly and hopefully get this case reversed and back to the trial court.

Among several possible appellate issues, Parnham said, was that he was not allowed to put on an acoustics expert to testify about alternate meanings in the garbled audio.

Parnham and attorney Matthew Pospisil tried for two days to get University of Montana acoustics expert Al Yonovitz in front of jurors, arguing that the audio could be interpreted in different ways.

State District Judge Jim Wallace ruled that interpreting what Jacob said on the audio was the decision of the jury and refused to let the audio expert testify.

Jurors began the punishment phase of the trial Monday and heard tearful testimony from Verikas, then his ex-wife. Both testified about being badgered, harassed and terrorized as they tried to get out their relationships with him.

The two women joined a litany of witnesses who testified in the punishment phase of Jacobs trial.

His mother, attorney Golda Jacob, testified for the defense that Jacob spent 60 days in Houstons Menninger Clinic and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and a personality disorder.

Golda Jacob and his brother, Adam Jacob, testified that he would be a good candidate for probation.

It would be difficult for him, but I think he could do it, Adam Jacob testified. Neither the defense nor prosecutors asked him to expand on why it would be difficult for him to live up to the requirements of probation, which typically include holding a job, obeying a curfew and abstaining from using drugs or alcohol.

Earlier in the day, Verikas, Jacobs ex-girlfriend who was targeted in his murder-for-hire scheme, sobbed on the witness stand as she explained what it was like to learn that someone had been hired to kill her.

Parnham had maintained during the trial that his client was a love-sick man who wanted to reconcile with Verikas, not hurt her.

During the trial, Parnham said Jacob was trying to hire a private investigator, not a hit man, to arrange a meeting with Verikas or at least to get her to leave town so she would drop charges of domestic violence that she had filed against him.

Before Verikas took the stand, an investigator with the Harris County Sheriffs Office, brought in recordings of several telephone calls from the jail including Jacob telling someone he thought noted actor Bradley Cooper should play him in a movie about the case.

He was also chastised on the phone by his mother for getting himself in to a mess.

You dont know when to shut up, Golda Jacob told her son. You cant control yourself.

brian.rogers@ chron.com

twitter.com/brianjrogersIn my Wooster Square neighborhood, every holiday was celebrated with certain customs and foods. Christmas and Easter in particular were steeped in centuries-old observances that included preparing special foods.

As much as I always enjoy the Christmas traditions that are universally observed, I have always been drawn to the Easter celebrations, filled with the high drama of Catholic Lenten observances and the rituals of food denied and food rewarded at the end of the 40 days of penitence and deprivation.

Easter really begins with Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. In my childhood remembrances of the Lenten requirements before the modern era, the whole emphasis was on acts of denial. My mother observed two meatless meals weekly during Lent and, as children, we were encouraged to give up something that we liked.

Every week, on Wednesday and Friday, we ate macaroni that was prepared with innumerable meatless sauces, such as cannellini beans, ceci (chickpeas), fava beans, peas and clams, or fresh fish purchased right in the neighborhood that was fried or baked, and frittata made with eggs and potatoes or any other available vegetable.

St. Michaels Church on Wooster Place, the first Italian parish in Connecticut, was at the center of our spiritual lives. The Sunday Masses were numerous and scheduled to allow everyone to attend, and I remember that the homily at the 7:30 a.m. Mass was in Italian. I sometimes attended that service with my mother and was always struck at how differently the priest spoke Italian as compared with the Neapolitan dialect that was spoken throughout the neighborhood. My mother and everyone else I knew spoke that rich, sometime guttural version of the language culled from so many centuries of foreign invasions.

So we fasted and abstained and observed the church-prescribed rituals. The images of the saints would be shrouded in purple cloth, so as not to detract from the important observances relating to the Crucifixion on Good Friday and the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

The one celebratory event that interrupted all of the Lenten pallor was Palm Sunday, a very important observance for all of us. As a child, I can remember wearing a new outfit, as it was a time to welcome the feast of palms. So many attended Mass on that day to receive the palms that the church basement was turned into a chapel for the childrens Mass. The ritual of receiving and giving a piece of palm to your friends and relatives was an important representation of friendship and family solidarity.

Children were expected to visit every major relative on Palm Sunday, including aunts, uncles grandparents and godparents. The visitors were welcomed into the home where the kitchen table would be set with a tray of cookies and sweet liquors. Each child, upon offering palm to an uncle, for instance, would be rewarded with a coin or even a silver dollar.

My mothers tradition from Amalfi was to begin the Holy Week fasting on Palm Sunday. So, in the midst of the celebration, a meatless meal was eaten. We abstained for the whole week until noon on Holy Saturday, which, in the old observance, was the end of Lent.

On Holy Thursday when the ceremonial exposition of the Blessed Sacrament was the center of attention, each church would arrange a special altar for the host. Surrounded by flowers and beautifully lit, it provided a solemn setting for the church visits. It was our tradition to visit three churches to pray at the altars. We happened to have three Catholic churches right in our neighborhood: St. Louis on Chapel Street, the French church, St. Michael and St. Casimir, the Lithuanian church on Green Street.

I would go with my sisters and their husbands and then we would all go to Joe Espositos flower shop on Grand Avenue to order flowers for family members. We would all descend upon him and his wife Louise and coordinate our flower orders so that my mother, for instance, didnt end up getting a whole bunch of potted tulips.

Everyone made a pizza chiena, a pie filled with ham, cheese, salami, all encased in an egg batter. Everyone had a special version of the pie, and my mother made hers with more simple ingredients. We also enjoyed the pizza macceroni, which was my grandmothers custom, a baked casserole made with macaroni, eggs, prosciutto, basket cheese and grated cheese. This was the traditional meal that we ate to break the Lenten fast on Holy Saturday at noon.

On Easter Sunday we all sat at a table that was laden with an array of foods that were as much a tribute to our heritage as they were delicious and alluring. The holiday foods were available in our store and other places in the neighborhood: prosciutto, salami of all kinds, cheese, especially the fresh basket cheese, ricotta and eggs, of course. Dandelions were needed for the spring soup that was featured on Easter Sunday and artichokes and asparagus appeared from California. Special cream and wheat berry pies were baked in the pastry shops. Casatelli, a cake shaped into a ring and decorated with sugar frosting, and candies with an almond paste lamb in the center, were favorites for the children.

My father would bless all the food and each of us sat at the table with a piece of palm dipped in the holy water that I had procured from the church on Holy Saturday when the new water was blessed. We kept a special goblet to hold the water and I now have it as a memento of a fond childhood memory.NEW YORK -- Michael Gallin, a 34-year-old math teacher at KAPPA International High School in the Bronx, was winding his way through the cluttered aisles of his algebra classroom listening for sighs of frustration.

One girl was sitting glumly by the window, eyeballing a function she was supposed to evaluate: If f(x) = 3.2x^2 - 1.44(x+x^3), find f(2.7).

"I know these are the questions you don't feel like thinking about," Gallin said. "But these are the questions that are really going to help you."

"Take your time," he told a young man in the front row who was half-answering questions, then moving on. "I don't want you rushing through these problems because you are getting all nervous and saying, 'Nah, I'm not going to do this.' "

When a student in faded jeans and a sweatshirt shouted, "Oh my God. I'm so pathetic," after misinterpreting a graph, Gallin responded, "Who's pathetic?" as if offended by her cruel self-assessment.

A moment later, when that same student had a eureka moment, he urged her to explain how she'd discovered the answer to her seatmate. "Don't be nervous," he said.

At one point, he exclaimed: "Not so scary, eh?"

American students are bombing math. In 2015, a mere 25 percent of high school seniors were proficient or higher in the subject, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which produces the most reliable data on academic competency.

Efforts to improve these numbers have abounded. Dozens of states have incorporated more rigorous standards through the implementation of the Common Core. Many schools have tweaked math classes to include more visualization and lessons that relate more to real life.

But Gallin is part of a growing band of educators who believe that to help struggling students get ahead, teachers must also attack the emotional barriers holding them back. Repeated failures, they say, can be deeply scarring. Negative feelings spiral into damaging self-talk that eventually paralyzes students.

"They are afraid of being wrong," said Gallin. "And that fear of being wrong cripples them."

Gallin has a broad smile, a taste for trendy sneakers and a casual but direct way of communicating. His students chop off the "Mr." when talking to him, affectionately calling him simply "Gallin."

In the fall of 2016, increasingly frustrated by his inability to motivate his students despite his energetic teaching style and popularity inside the classroom, he was drawn to the idea that addressing emotional barriers might help them.

At the time, the New York City Department of Education was developing a research division focused solely on student motivation. Working with Eskolta School Research and Design, a New York education consulting firm, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a California education research center, the city's education department was testing solutions inside dozens of schools. Gallin's school was one of them.

Gallin approached Alicia Wolcott, the Eskolta adviser working at his school. They mapped out a plan, sometimes soliciting advice from other teachers. Wolcott encouraged Gallin to carefully study his students' work and look for clues.

That's when he noticed a curious trend. In homework assignments, classwork and practice tests, his students didn't actually get hard problems wrong; they didn't even attempt them.

Wolcott considered this information progress. "Then the question became: 'What's going on inside students' heads, and what do we do about that?' " she said.

During the winter of 2017, after multiple meetings, including one with the renowned mind-set researcher Chris Hulleman, a professor at the University of Virginia and director of the Motivate Lab there, Gallin began to test a run of tweaks. He started by gently encouraging students not to leave blank any classroom worksheet problems, especially the hardest ones. That didn't really work.

Next, he took a more proactive approach. Instead of waiting until the end of a lesson to introduce the hardest problem of the day, he put it on the board at the start. He began class by telling students he was confident they would soon know how to solve it. Then, after walking his students through a few easier problems, Gallin took on the challenging problem himself. Students watched. He asked key questions as he went along, soliciting their help. And always, he acknowledged what they were feeling, calling the problem "scary."

Gallin told students even though they were nervous, it was important "to stay open and vulnerable around challenges."

The message seemed to be getting through.

As the year went on, he made other tweaks. Rather than praising students for getting a problem right, he praised them for trying, often asking his class: "How many attempted it?" When a student came to the board to work out a problem and made a mistake, instead of erasing it and moving on, he relished the mistake: "What did she do? Let's look at this."

"I tell them: 'I want you to fail now! Get it wrong now. Get it wrong it now, and get feedback.' "

He hoped that once his students stopped avoiding the problems that made them uncomfortable, they would be more open to absorbing the math skills they needed to get them right. When students did a problem, he urged them to read it multiple times: once for context, once for the actual question being asked and once to determine what information was being given. He encouraged them to visualize the problem, to test a variety of different strategies for solving it, and to practice talking about their strategies and hearing the strategies used by other students.

The small tweaks paid off. After the June 2017 Regents exam, 25 of the 41 students who had repeatedly failed the state test passed - a rate of 61 percent. Another 12 students came within a few points of passing. In 2016, a mere 37 percent of the school's test-takers passed.

The approach Gallin took is not unique to his Bronx classroom. With the help of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, hundreds of teachers across the country are testing their own ways to re-energize students plagued by past failures through merging specific emotional skills with academic ones.

Researchers who run motivation labs on university campuses talk to teachers about what the most up-to-date research reveals about the root causes of their students' disinterest or avoidance. Together, the researchers and teachers come up with targeted solutions, which they then test inside real classrooms. If the solutions help, teachers share them with one another. If they don't, teachers and researchers work together to alter and retest them.

It's not always easy to tell whether the new approaches help overall student performance, because schools interested in this type of experimentation are often innovating in other ways as well: changing grading policies, moving to more project-based learning models and rethinking discipline strategies.

But as more teachers have signed on to the Carnegie program at KAPPA International, attendance and four-year-graduation rates have gone up. In 2014, 83 percent of the school's students graduated within four years; last year, 91 percent did. The school's overall average Algebra Regents exam score went from 60 in 2015 to 67 last year. The required passing rate for most students is 65.

Teachers working with the Carnegie Foundation in other schools around the country have reported similar gains.

The classroom practice embraces a quality-control process made famous in the 1950s by management consultant W. Edwards Deming, who advised business leaders to mimic the scientific method when making changes to procedures on plant floors and inside offices. First, he told them, plan a small change, do it, see if it works, and only then employ it on a large scale.

But even fierce advocates say this incremental process has limitations. It requires time, commitment and the help of someone such as Hulleman, a renowned researcher who travels around the world talking about student motivation. And perhaps more importantly, even a method that works can be quickly derailed by changes in school staffing.

The students in Gallin's class haven't discovered a new passion for numbers this year. But for some students, Gallin's approach has altered what they tell themselves when faced with their least-favorite subject.

"I don't like math," sophomore Genesis Hernandez said during a visit in the fall, lifting her hands in the air for emphasis. "I see these equations and graphs, and before I was like, 'Nope, I'm not doing that.' Now, I say, 'I can do this. I just need to look at it really hard.' "

---

This story was produced by the Hechinger Report, a nonprofit independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.The Labour Party has a long history of troubling behavior, according to Jewish leaders in Britain.

In 2016, former London mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended from the party after he said Adolf Hitler had been a supporter of Zionism in the 1930s. An internal review, conducted soon after, found that there was "much clear evidence" of "ignorant attitudes" toward the country's Jewish population.

Current Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn is a fierce critic of Israel. Since his nomination as the party leader, he has been forced to defend himself against accusations that some of his supporters are anti-Semitic. Earlier this month, Corbyn acknowledged that he had been a member of a Facebook group that has posted anti-Semitic views, though he said he had never seen the messages.

Then, on Friday, Labour lawmaker Luciana Berger, who is Jewish, challenged Corbyn's office to explain something he had posted on Facebook five years ago. In the post, he was responding to Los Angeles-based artist Kalen Ockerman, who had complained that one of her London street murals was being painted over in response to criticism that it was anti-Semitic.

"You are in good company," Corbyn wrote. "Rockerfeller [sic] destroyed Diego Viera's mural because it includes a picture of Lenin."

Luciana Berger tweeted "I asked the Leader's Office for an explanation about this Facebook post first thing this morning. I'm still waiting for a response."

The mural apparently depicted a group of Jewish bankers and financiers playing Monopoly on the backs of naked people. (Ockerman denied that the painting was anti-Semitic. In an email to Bloomberg, she wrote that "though historically several of the characters may be of Jewish [descent] or ideology, my intention was to illustrate the privileged elite upper-ruling class.")

In response to the resurfaced Corbyn post, an array of Jewish groups gathered outside Parliament on Monday. The Labour Party, they said, has shown a "repeated institutional failure" to address prejudice against Jews.

"We have had enough of hearing that Jeremy Corbyn 'opposes anti-Semitism,' whilst the mainstream majority of British Jews, and their concerns, are ignored by him and those he leads," they wrote in an open letter.

"Jeremy Corbyn did not invent this form of politics, but he has had a lifetime within it, and now personifies its problems and dangers. He issues empty statements about opposing anti-Semitism, but does nothing to understand or address it. We conclude that he cannot seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities."

Corbyn has since apologized for his 2012 message and said he regrets not looking more closely at the "deeply disturbing and anti-Semitic" mural. Labour must show "total commitment to excising pockets of anti-Semitism that exist in and around our party," he said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.

Corbyn also has said that he will meet with Jewish leaders in the coming days.Japan News-Yomiuri

NTT Docomo Inc. plans to launch a new service this year in which small drones operating on autopilot can be dispatched to inspect facilities such as solar power plants.

As its main feature, the service will use mobile phone networks to fly multiple drones on autopilot based on instructions from remote locations. The service will considerably streamline maintenance work on large-scale facilities.Jordan Grice / Hearst Connecticut Media

ORANGE  The Home Depot Plaza has been sold for $16.25 million, according to officials with the commercial real estate firm that brokered the deal.

The property was sold to a private equity group that CBREs National Retail Partners, the company which brokered the deal, declined to identify. National Retail Partners also represented the propertys owner, RPAI, a real estate investment trust-based in Oak Brook, Illinois.NEBO  A party meant to encourage teens and young adults to have fun without drugs or alcohol is stopping in Nebo on its first tour across the nation.

Victoria Rich, a founder of the Crave the Movement organization, said the idea started after a friend overdosed.

At the time of his death, we questioned what is happening among our generation and the younger generations, Rich said.  We observed others and we looked at our friends. There were so many people lost.

Rich said she saw more and more people turning to drugs or alcohol to have a good time.

While the organization has sponsored several parties over the past four years since its inception, this is the first time it is having the parties on tour with stops in 18 cities across the country.

It started in small-town Kentucky and we wanted to throw a party and end with an important message, Rich said.  We wanted them to Crave something different out of their lives.

In addition to the parties, the group shares stories of teens who have had addiction problems, have known someone who did, or were touched by Craves message.

We want them to take a step of faith, Rich said.  Its a fun night, without going out and getting drunk or high on drugs. After the party, we want people to find their purpose, to find new ideas.

While a majority of the events will take place in larger cities, Rich said the group is still adding locations and some smaller towns. She said it isnt just the larger cities that have these types of problems and said small towns can have a larger impact than some would expect.

With the motto Crave is for the one, for if that one is changed they will go change another, until a movement has begun, Rich said the group hopes it work will inspire others.

These things affect everyone, even people in small towns, she said. We go whereever we can, because as long as one person is helped, its worth it.

Rich has family ties to Nebo. Her grandfather lived there, and when he died, he asked people to donate money to the Nebo Community Center instead of sending flowers. Thats why the group chose to have a party there in his honor.

The free event will take place Saturday at the Nebo Community Center, 105 S. Carroll St. with doors opening at 8 p.m.

Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha.Transformation of the West Texas auto industry  it is a trend characterized by steady growth and some evolution of dealerships, and it has not spared Plainview. There have been benefits for the town, the economy and hopefully the auto dealers themselves.

In the past decade, dealers in general were developing new ways of doing business including Internet marketing. It included mergers of smaller dealerships into fewer, larger multi-brand super dealerships in some cases.

Such is the case with Reagor Dykes Auto Group of Lubbock, which has grown from its initial, single pre-owned car dealership in 2003 to 24 rooftops in 2018.

Plainview for instance saw a combined Ford-Toyota dealership owned by RDAG split into two locations since its purchase in 2010. The firm then went on from Plainview to acquire standalone dealerships of various brand names in Floydada and elsewhere.

Now, 7 years after opening here, its success in growing the Plainview business was formally recognized recently by Ford Motor Company.

In a joint news release, Ford Motor Company and Reagor Dykes Auto Group Headquarters announced that the Plainview Ford Lincoln dealership, 808 I-27, earned the Presidents Award for the Dallas Region based on its sales.

The Ford Presidents Award is presented to dealers that show the highest level of customer sales, service, satisfaction, and overall experience. The Presidents Award goes to roughly 6 percent of 5,000 dealers nationally eligible.

In fact, only 4 dealers in the western half of Texas  including two RDAG locations in the same year --were so honored.

Owner Bart Reagor said in an interview he feels very good about the Plainview announcement.

Its a real blessing. Rick Dykes and I are proud of our employees. Theyve done a great job. President's awards are rare and are tough to earn! It is a tribute to our employees and customers.

Reagor singled out his local managers for special accolades.

I would be remiss if I did not credit our people in Plainview for earning this award, Reagor said. We have two outstanding leaders at our Ford dealership in Plainview, guys who make it happen, and they are General Managers Lynn Johnson and Eddie Ashburn along with Ford Sales Manager Lee Peebles. He also singled out Jordan Vestal, Sales Manager of Reagor Dykes Toyota  a new, state of the art facility built in 2014 at 1200 S. I-27, for outstanding management.

I am really proud of our team, Reagor said. This means you are the best of the best in sales, service and customer satisfaction! We strive for excellence every day in the RDAG and to have both our Ford dealerships win the award in the same year is a phenomenal job by our team! Thank you to everyone at Reagor Dykes Ford in Plainview who won their first and to Spike Dykes Ford in Lamesa who won their 8th in 10 years which is amazing!



Co-owner Rick Dykes echoed Reagor.

"To win the President's Award is a great achievement but to have both of our Ford stores win this prestigious award is a testament to our employees. To win requires hard work and dedication, I couldn't be prouder of our team."

Reagor said that lots of hard work was required to grow local business was important, and part of it included growth provide by sales related to E-Commerce.

We grew our customer base in the city of Plainview and in the area but also through E-Commerce, and that is a where we are really unlimited on what we can sell, and we sell all over, Reagor said.

Reagor discussed how success benefits the local community as well as the firm  specifically funneling revenue to the city and schools and creating some added jobs for the economy, higher sales tax revenues and many other economic benefits.

A work force of about 150 is employed by RDAG dealerships in Plainview, Reagor said.

Weve become a big part of Plainview, he said. Were involved in the United Way, Wayland Baptist University, Plainview ISD and other local non-profits. I think we are good neighbors. We strive in every community to become a big part of the community.

Reagor reflected on the developments in Plainview over the past 7 years.

It has been a real blessing for all of us, he said. There are people I really care about who work in Plainview. We love Plainview and the people there and we appreciate all our supporters. We tried to make yall proud of us.

Reagors two sons worked in Plainview for a couple of years. They did a great job, Reagor said of his sons.

Reagor traced the steps that grew the dealership from its level when he purchased it in September 2010 from Jack Morris, who had been the citys Ford dealer since moving here in 1962. And Reagor said he couldnt be more pleased with the way things all turned out.

When I compare what we were doing then, to what we are doing now, we were a dealership selling 40 to 50 cars a month total. Now, the two operations -- our brand-new Toyota Dealership and our Ford Lincoln dealership do a total of 400 to 500 cars a month. We have grown the operation more than 1,000 percent.

"To win a Presidents award takes a consistent team that provides great service. It takes managers that serve their employees and employees that serve our customers every day," he said.

Joe Landin, RDAG director of marketing, remembers the day the dealership opened in Plainview in September of 2010.



When we came to Planview, we acquired a dealership that housed Toyota, Ford and Lincoln brands, he recalls. It was a place that looked a bit desolate, not a lot of inventory on the lot and the building looked like something that was state of the art in the 60's." "The thing we saw about the dealership originally is that it sat at the main corridor of the city of Plainview and we felt that it should be a showpiece for the city based on its location." "It's the first thing people see when they enter the city." said Landin.

"I assure you Mr. Reagor and Mr. Dykes saw more to it than a possibility to grow a dealership they also saw an opportunity to breathe a little life into a city that needed a little pick me up at the time." "This was a place they felt we could make a difference in and if we did that we would have a great business." Today the intersection at Highway 70 and I-27 looks a lot different than it did when we took over 7 years ago. Our Ford Lincoln dealership now stands alone and continues to grow and the city has seen an economic turn for the better in recent years.

"That is a credit to the people of Plainview and West Texas, the same people who welcomed us to town and helped us build Reagor Dykes Ford Lincoln of Plainview into a President's Award winner."



Landin said it was rewarding for him to watch the dealership grow, as it is one of the first locations he worked with after joining RDAG.Aracely Meza held the child's limp body in her arms as worshipers looked on. She spoke loudly into a microphone, chanting words in Spanish as she stroked the child's hair and rubbed something on his forehead.

The scene captured in a video was a ceremony to resurrect the lifeless 2-year-old boy. He died after more than three weeks without food. Meza, a Dallas-area pastor and a self-proclaimed prophet, had claimed that God wanted the boy starved to get rid of demons inhabiting his body.

TRAGIC: 4-year-old boy killed by family dog in Converse Sunday afternoon

Now, three years later, Meza is set to spend the rest of her life in prison for Benjamin Aparicio's starvation death.

A Dallas County jury found the 52-year-old guilty on Friday of felony injury to a child causing serious bodily injury, the Dallas Morning News reported. She was sentenced to 99 years in prison and ordered to pay $10,000 in fines.

Meza and her husband, Daniel Meza, ran a church called Iglesia Internacional Jesus es el Ray out of a brick home in Balch Springs, a suburb southeast of Dallas. Public records show that Daniel Meza was the church's president and director, while his wife was the vice president. Several adults and children were living with the couple around the time the boy died in the spring of 2015.

TEXAS CRIME: Sentencing begins in Leon Jacob's murder-for-hire trial

Aracely Meza claimed to have the ability to speak with God and to perform healing miracles. She told investigators that God had told her the boy needed to fast. He was given only water four or five times a day for 25 days, the Dallas Morning News reported, while followers were told not to help the child. But even after the fast, Meza still deprived the boy of food when he did not say "amen," authorities said.

The boy was reduced to skin and bones, unable to lift his own head up during his last days. He died March 22, 2015. That day, Meza conducted a "rising ceremony" to bring him to life. She told police later that she believed God would wake him up, the Dallas Morning News reported. But the boy never woke up, and Meza and the child's parents, who also were her followers, took the body to Mexico the next day to be buried.

Charges are pending against the boy's parents, Zenon and Liliana Aparicio, an online court docket shows. Meza's husband does not appear to have been charged.

Meza's attorney, Charles Humphreys, said his client was imprisoned by her faith, according to the Dallas Morning News. But Assistant District Attorney Patrick Capetillo told jurors last week that Benjamin's death was the result of Meza's desire for control, not her faith or religion.

TEXAS CRIME: Suspect arrested in shooting of three people at Topgolf

The case, albeit bizarre, is not unheard of. Cultlike religious leaders have previously been linked to criminal acts.

Last year, investigators in Alachua County in Florida said a woman who ran a religious boarding school there had killed a child in her care. Anna Elizabeth Young, who was known as Mother Anna, was charged with first-degree murder in December. The charge stemmed from the 1980s death of a toddler who authorities said was tortured and starved, the Gainesville Sun reported.

Authorities also said that Young may have had many other victims. She had been convicted in Florida for bathing a 12-year-old girl in a steel tub full of chemicals that severely burned the child. Young fled and was captured eight years later after police found her living in the attic of a relative's house in Illinois.

Young ran the House of Prayer for all People, which opened in 1983 in Micanopy, a town just south of Gainesville, Florida.

In 1992, a self-proclaimed son of God who went by the name Yahweh ben Yahweh was convicted of plotting several murders and attempted murders, as well as a terrorist bombing of a Florida neighborhood. Six of his 15 followers were convicted of conspiracy to murder.

---

The Washington Post's Kyle Swenson contributed to this report.It took 17 seconds from the moment a Harris County deputy ordered Danny Ray Thomas to get on the ground to the moment he fired a bullet that killed an unarmed man at a crowded intersection Thursday in Greater Greenspoint, according to a county dashcam video.

The March 22 video released Monday by the Harris County Sheriff's Office, however, does not show the fatal shot by deputy Cameron Brewer at the busy Greens Road and Imperial Valley Drive intersection, leaving authorities digging for answers.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Brewer, currently placed on administrative leave, fired because he believed his life was in danger, but an internal investigation into his actions is moving forward. Gonzalez said he will explore Brewer's decision-making and why he opted for his gun rather than his Taser.

"Any time there is an officer-involved shooting, we take these matters seriously," Gonzalez said. "I will personally see to it that our investigation is conducted fairly, thoroughly and expeditiously."

The sheriff disclosed that Brewer, who has been with the department for two years, was issued a body-worn camera less than two hours before the shooting. The camera's battery "was charging in the (deputy's) vehicle," Gonzalez said.

The sheriff's office initially said Thomas, 34, may have been carrying a weapon, but on Monday acknowledged he was unarmed and foaming at the mouth.

CAPITAL MURDER: Man charged in game room robbery shooting

The release of the dashcam video comes just a week after the airing of body camera recordings from two Sacramento, Calif., police officers who shot Alonzo Clark 20 times, video shows. Like Thomas, Clark was an unarmed black man. The incidents have rekindled the nationwide debate and scrutiny of police shootings and the use of lethal force by law enforcement. In the Houston incident, both the officer and the victim were African-American.



For Thomas' family, the video raises several questions about how their relative died, especially the way deputies are supposed to handle potentially mentally ill citizens. According to family members, Thomas suffered from depression, which was exacerbated after his estranged wife almost two years ago allegedly drowned his two young children in her bathtub.

She is awaiting trial, according to court documents.

"Whenever he got into that mind frame, thinking about his wife and his kids, he just felt like he was alone," she told KPRC.

Gonzalez said it will take about 30 days for his office to complete its internal review of the shooting, and whether or not Brewer followed officer protocol and what actions his office will take moving forward. Thomas was the third person fatally shot this year by a Harris County deputy, according to a database kept by the Texas attorney general's office.

Criminal justice experts weighing in on the newly released footage say there is clearly still a need for better training across police departments.

"The officer obviously felt his life was in danger," said Larry Karson, an an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Houston-Downtown. "But at the same time, it brings into question the officer's training in dealing with individuals with mental health problems, be it de-escalating the situation using a Taser or some form of hands-on technique."

The dashcam video begins with Thomas getting into a physical altercation with an unknown man. At about 40 seconds in, Brewer gave his first command to Thomas to get on the ground.

"Hey, get down!" Brewer yells.

Thomas, dressed in a white tee shirt and walking with his pants around his ankles, points to the deputy and begins walking toward him empty handed, the video shows. Thomas walks out of the frame, but the audio continues.

"Get down on the ground, man!" Brewer continues. "I will shoot your ass, man."

A cell phone video obtained by the Chronicle, captured by someone across the street, picks up where the dashcam left off, showing that Thomas continued walking toward the backpedaling Brewer, who had his gun drawn. A commercial vehicle pulls into the frame just before a single gunshot is heard.

After the shooting, the dashcam video shows Brewer running to Thomas to perform life-saving techniques. Thomas was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Authorities are still awaiting toxicology reports from the Harris County Medical Examiner, which will determine whether Thomas was under the influence of any substances. HPD and the district attorney's office will conduct the criminal investigation, while the sheriff's office undergoesreviews its internal review.

Once HPDHouston police completes its investigation, it will be handed off to the district attorney's office, which will go over all of the evidence and present it to athe grand jury. District Attorney Kim Ogg has made it a mandated that every officer-involved shooting go in front of a grand jury, district attorney spokesman Dane Schiller said.

The ACLU of Texas said in a statement Sunday that the Houston police investigation mustto be "full and transparent" and said the sheriff's office should "revisit" its use of force policies. The organization said Thomas should not have been killed.

"It's difficult to imagine how this shooting could possibly be justified," Sharon Watkins-Jones, director of political strategies of the ACLU of Texas, said in the statement. "We must demand that our law enforcement agencies, who are sworn to protect our communities, be held accountable whenever deadly force is used unlawfully."

Before the dashcam video was released, Watkins-Jones added, "But whatever the excuse, another unarmed black man has been killed by law enforcement, in the street and in broad daylight, and the only reason we know about it is because of bystander footage."

The increased focus on police shootings in recent year has prompted some changes in policy at the state and federal level.

The Houston Police Department under Chief Art Acevedo, for instance, created a unit to investigate officer-involved shootings and the Harris County District Attorney's office, under Kim Ogg, has a similar unit that pledges to present all shootings to a grand jury.

And in 2014, Rep. Eric Johnson, D-Dallas authored House Bill 1036, which requires Texas law enforcement agencies to report all police shootings into a new state database maintained by the Office of the Attorney General. Since becoming law was passed, the databases shows that Texas law enforcement agencies have shot and killed about 180 people in 27 months.

And soon, the Department of Justice is expected to release its findings on use-of-force data it collected nationally at the local, state and federal levels, an FBI spokesman told the Houston Chronicle.

"Demands for transparency have naturally gone hand-in-hand with greater scrutiny of police shootings and of police violence more generally," said Amanda Woog, a research fellow, at the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Woog, who is also the co-founder of Texas Justice Initiative added that it seems that the scrutiny has led departments to re-examine appropriate use of force, in particular by adopting de-escalation or sanctity of life policies.

Of course, a lot of this is conjecture and it's too early to see trends or determine cause, said Woog before the Thomas shooting.

"But I am hopeful that increased transparency, and the public scrutiny that comes with it, can help shift police culture and policy," Woog said.

Exclusive witness video obtained by Chron.com also captures the moment of the shooting.

Mihir Zaveri and Jay R. Jordan contributed to this report

John.Harden@Chron.comPolice are asking for the public's help in identifying the suspect who killed a 46-year-old woman in downtown San Antonio earlier this month.

Tammy Fudge was found dead around 10 a.m. on Sunday, March 4 in a parking lot at the corner of North Flores and West Travis streets, near the Robert E. Lee Apartments.A fight between two San Antonio men ended when one fatally stabbed the other in the neck, according to police.

On Friday, police arrested Aviet Lopez Arias, 41, on suspicion of murder. A judge set his bail at $100,000.

Officers responded to the stabbing, in the 7200 block of West Briar, around 6 p.m. Thursday, according to an arrest affidavit. They found Robert Mata, 48, in the middle of the street, suffering from a stab wound to his neck.

RELATED: Police: Man finds girlfriend fatally shot in head at San Antonio street corner

Mata was rushed to the hospital, but pronounced dead 50 minutes later, police said.

A woman approached police and told them her boyfriend, Arias, was responsible, according to the affidavit.

The woman told police Arias and Mata knew each other and Mata came to their home to talk to Arias. The woman went inside but saw both men fighting. Arias hit Mata several times before stabbing him, the affidavit says.

The woman's account was backed up by the home's surveillance system, according to the affidavit.

Footage showed the initial confrontation, although the cameras did not catch the stabbing, police said.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSAThis week marks the 80th anniversary of the Texas Department of Public Safety  the agency that combined two of the states oldest law enforcement agencies.

Before the glorified Walker, Texas Ranger series, even before World War II, Texas state police consisted of the Texas Rangers and the Texas Highway Motor Patrol.An IOU signed by one of Texas' most historic figures is expected to fetch at least $75,000 at an Texas-themed auction this week in Dallas.

The 1836 letter, signed by William B. Travis, is one of more than 360 items for auction during the Texana and Western Americana Grand Format Auction, which will take place Friday at Heritage Auctions' Dallas headquarters.

The collection of relics up for grabs includes illustrated maps dating to the 1800s, books about early life in Texas and documents signed by some of the state's most historic figures.

The 171-year-old piece of paper details the use of wood to support the cannons at the Alamo, as Travis made preparations for its defense against Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

Sandra Palomino, director of historic manuscripts and Texana at Heritage Auctions, said it's the only letter she's seen from Travis written out of the Alamo.

In the letter, Travis says he'll pay San Antonio merchant Eugenio Navarro for the 682 feet of walnut or return it in near-perfect conditions.

RELATED: Historic, glamorous Monte Vista home getting a refresh

"(Travis) is incredibly optimistic or just naive," Palomino said.

Incidentally, Navarro is the one who warned Travis of the Mexican army's plans ahead of the historic battle. But we all know how the Battle of the Alamo turned out.

"It just sort of speaks to the heroic, larger-than-life personalities that (Texans) had, even within the context of their time. Never mind the mythology we've built around them," Palomino said.

"That's what is so great about these documents," she added. "It speaks to that."

In 1941, the Texas government got around to paying back Navarro the $85.25 they owed him. The letter detailing the transaction is included in the set.

See photos of the top five items up for auction, as well as other historic S.A. and Texas maps, in the gallery above.

Another notable item up for grabs is a map depicting a bird's eye view of San Antonio in 1873, going for a minimum bid of $9,000.

"The San Antonio River dominates the view meandering diagonally across the frame, and Koch's painstaking attention for detail includes the shadows cast by buildings and trees," a description on Heritage Auction's website reads. "A reference key at bottom lists points of interest, including places of worship and schools."

Potential buyers can place bids online, by phone or by fax, in addition to in-person at the live auction, Heritage Auctions public relations director Eric Bradley said.

RELATED: You probably won't recognize these Texas cities from this collection of historic photos

erobinson@mysa.com

Twitter: @eeelizzzabethAs the drama over adult-film actress Stormy Daniels continues to unfold, conservative Christians are being accused of hypocrisy. How can so-called values voters continue to stand with President Trump despite revelations that he allegedly had affairs with a porn star and a Playboy model, and paid them for their silence?

No doubt some Christian leaders have gone too far in rationalizing Trumps past personal behavior and excusing his offensive comments while in office. He is a deeply flawed man. But Trump does have one moral quality that deserves admiration: He keeps his promises.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump pledged to defend religious liberty, stand up for unborn life and appoint conservative jurists to the Supreme Court and federal appeals courts. And he has done exactly what he promised. The abortion-rights lobby NARAL complains that Trump has been relentless on these fronts, declaring his administration the worst  that weve ever seen.

That is more important to most Christian conservatives than what the president may have done with a porn actress more than 10 years ago.

Trumps election came as religious liberty was under unprecedented attack. The Obama administration was trying to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to violate their religious conscience and facilitate payment for abortifacient drugs and other contraceptives. During oral arguments in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, President Barack Obamas solicitor general told the Supreme Court that churches and universities could lose their tax-exempt status if they opposed same-sex marriage.

Hillary Clinton promised to escalate those attacks. In 2015, she declared at the Women in the World Summit that religious beliefs  have to be changed  perhaps the most radical threat to religious liberty ever delivered by a major presidential candidate. Had Clinton won, she would have replaced the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia with a liberal jurist, giving the Supreme Court a liberal judicial-activist majority.

The impact would have been immediate, as the court prepares to decide two cases crucial to religious liberty. In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Court will soon determine whether the government can compel a U.S. citizen to violate his conscience and participate in speech that violates his sincerely held religious beliefs. In National Institute of Family Life Advocates v. Becerra, the Court will decide whether the state of California can compel pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to advertise access to abortion to their clients, in violation of their conscience. Those cases are being heard not by five liberals, but five conservatives, including Justice Neil M. Gorsuch  because Trump kept his promise to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who will strictly interpret the Constitution and not legislate from the bench.

Trump ordered the creation of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division at the Department of Health and Human Services to protect the civil rights of doctors, nurses and other health-care workers who refuse to take part in procedures such as abortion, reversing an Obama-era policy that required them to do so. And his Justice Department issued 25 pages of guidance to federal agencies instructing them to protect the religious liberty in the execution of federal law.

While Clinton promised to repeal the Hyde Amendment barring federal funds for abortion, Trump has been a pro-life champion.

Indeed, Trump has arguably done more in his first year in office to protect life and religious freedom than any modern president. Little wonder that religious conservatives stick with him despite the Daniels revelations. This is not to say that Christians dont think a culture of fidelity is important. But the culture of life is important too. So is a culture that is welcoming to religious believers rather than waging war on them.

No one upholds Trump as moral exemplar. He is not the most religious president we have ever had, but he may be the most pro-religion president. Christian conservatives are judging Trump not by his faith, but by his works. And when it comes to life and liberty, his works are good.Rose McGowan has just sold her Los Angeles home for $1.935 million, and for what many might consider a very good cause: to fund her ongoing legal battle against Harvey Weinstein.

McGowan, famed for her role in the TV series Charmed" and films such as "Scream," claims that the disgraced film mogul sexually assaulted her in 1997. Among the most vociferous of the many women to come forward and accuse Weinstein of misconduct, McGowan also detailed the alleged assault in her recently released memoir, "Brave."

Yet in early January, McGowan announced that unspecified legal action by Weinstein, whom she calls "the monster," was forcing her to sell her house to fight him in court. Later that month, she listed her 2,927-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bath mansion in Hollywood Hills for $1.9 million, which she had purchased seven years earlier for $1.39 million.

The home soon found a buyer willing to pony up over asking price: Ariel Vromen, an Israeli filmmaker best known for the 2012 film "The Iceman."

This got us wondering: What sold him on this house? In the words of listing agent Tracy Maltas, did he fall for its "groovy" Mid-Century Modern vibe? Its double-sided fireplace and spa?

Or did he also sympathize with McGowan's plight and want to help?

Rose McGowan sold her house for a cause: Can you, too?

Home sellers are often warned to keep quiet about why they're selling their home, since just about any explanation offered could be used against them by home buyers angling for a deal (e.g., "we're having a baby and need more space" reeks of desperation, which could embolden buyers to lob a lowball offer).

But McGowan's home sale suggests that sometimes, broadcasting your reason for selling can work to your advantage.

"This was a great marketing strategy for her home," says Washington, DC, real estate agent Cedric Stewart. "What people fail to realize is that stories sell, even in real estate. That's why we start each listing appointment by asking the seller to tell us their story: Why they bought, and why they're selling. This information can be used to create an attractive narrative that will entice buyers who identify with the story."

Because, let's face it, plenty of people love to hate Weinstein these days, or are supporters of the #MeToo movement. McGowan gave one sympathizer (with well-lined pockets) a way to pitch in: by buying her house.

"That's what made this so powerful for McGowan," Stewart continues. "By mentioning her reason for selling, she immediately identified with everyone who supports her cause. Who knows, Ariel may be an advocate as well!"

"It was brilliant marketing on her part," agrees New York real estate agent Dolly Lenz.

Still, Lenz believes that pulling off such a home-selling Hail Mary would work only under very specific circumstances.

"Most people agree that Weinstein's a villain," Lenz says. "So there was zero risk she'd piss anyone off."

However, if Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels) tried selling her home to fund a lawsuit even circuitously involving Donald Trumpthat might be tricky.

"You might upset that one buyer who wants your house because he sides with Trump," Lenz points out.

Yet there are other instances where advertising your reasons for selling a home would work at pulling at buyers' heartstrings and purse strings, too.

"If you're selling a home to fund an illness or to take care of your ailing parents, I think such causes would be well-received, as they bring out the best in people," says Lenz. "Selling for a charity would work, too, although you'd have to be careful and not pick anything too political or controversial."

Here are some other things to never, ever say when selling your house.

The post Rose McGowan Sells Her Home for a Good Cause: To Crush Harvey Weinstein appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.Coalition of Democrats presidential candidate Elton Mangoma has condemned in strongest terms the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Chairperson Priscilla Chigumbas trip to Russia with special adviser to the president Christopher Mutsvangwa which he said shows that the elections will not be free and fair.

There will never be free and fair elections in Zimbabwe Coalition of Democrats (CODE) have condemned Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)Chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumbas trip to Russia with Presidential adviser Christopher Mutsvangwa to observe the just ended Russian Elections. President Mangoma together with other CODE members have noted with concern that Zimbabwe will never have free and fair 2018 elections because ZEC is not indpendent as it claims to be bt its a puppet of ZANU PF, Mangoma said.

Similarly with the case of Chiefs Council Chief Fortune Charumbira who accompanied Mnangagwa to the A.U summit violating the constitutional provisions that require traditional leaders to be independent . Section 280 of the constitution clearly states that traditional leaders should not belong to any political party or act in a partisan manner in the discharge of their duties or further the interest of a political party . We hope the European Union will bring an observer mission during the election period to expose ZANU PF.

 Bulawayo24

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Related Zimbabwe Latest News- The federal government has described a statement by a former chief of army staff as an invitation to anarchy

- FG said Theophilus Danjuma's comment on ongoing killings in Taraba state is uncalled for and must be disregarded

- The spokesperson to the minister of defence said the efforts of the Nigerian Armed Forces towards restoring peace, security and order in Nigeria are evidently clear

The Presidency has replied a former chief of army staff, Theophilus Danjuma, on his allegation that the Nigerian military is conniving with killers across the country.

The federal government said Danjuma's comments against the military is an invitation to anarchy.

In a statement released on Sunday, March 25, Tukur Gusau, the spokesperson to the minister of defence, Mansur Dan-Ali said Danjuma's call for Nigerians, especially Taraba residents to defend themselves is uncalled for and should be disregarded by well meaning Nigerians.

READ ALSO: Trouble as FG discovers over 70K ghost police officers across Nigeria

Gasau said the efforts of the Nigerian Armed Forces towards restoring peace, security and order in Nigeria are evidently clear.

He added that the Nigerian military is well organised and highly professional in discharging its constitutional mandate.

"Therefore, if anyone has evidence of wrongdoings or derelation of duty against our troops, they should bring forward such evidence through the appropriate channels for necessary actions.

For avoidance of doubt, the military will not be distracted from performing its statutory duties in accordance with the rules of engagement," Gasau added.

READ ALSO: Just in: 2 people killed in Kano village protest

Legit.ng earlier reported that Danjuma while speaking at the maiden convocation of the Taraba state University, Jalingo said, there is attempt at ethnic cleansing in some rural areas in the state.

The former chief of army staff called on residents of Taraba state to defend themselves against killers in the state.

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He alleged that the Nigerian military was colluding with these killers to cleanse the state of its ethnic ownership.

Taraba is a mini Nigeria with diverse ethnic groups living together peacefully, but the peace in this state is under assault.

There is an attempt at ethnic cleansing in the state and of course, some rural states in Nigeria. We must resist it. We must stop it. Everyone of us must rise up" Danjuma had said.

Victims of herdsmen killing buried in Benue state - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit Nigeria- Minister Lai Mohammed notes that all over the world, political parties come together in collective fight against terrorists

- Mohammed reveals that 111 girls were actually abducted from Dapchi but that one person was not earlier accounted for

- He says 107 persons including two non-students were released

The federal government, through its information minister, Lai Mohammed, on Sunday, March 25, called for withdrawal of the registration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the way it reacted to the release of some Dapchi girls.

Minister Mohammed spoke at a press conference in Lagos where he gave details concerning the abduction of the girls and the circumstances concerning their release.

Gentlemen, a total of 111 girls were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary and Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi on 19 February, 2018. That means one student was not captured on the list of 110 abducted students that was compiled by the school, on the basis of which the federal government gave the number of abducted schoolgirls as 110.

Also kidnapped were two other persons, who are not students of the college. They include a primary school boy who came to the school to sell pure water and another primary school girl. That brings the total number of abducted persons on that day to 113.

So far, a total of 107 persons, comprising 105 Dapchi schoolgirls and the two non-students, have been released by the insurgents. Six Dapchi schoolgirls are yet unaccounted for. All efforts will be made to secure their release, he said.

READ ALSO: Nigerian army nabs youth leader, other suspected criminals in Taraba

Read details of Minister Mohammeds statement

HOW THE DAPCHI GIRLS WERE FREED

As I have said at many fora, we neither paid ransom nor swapped any Boko Haram member to secure the release of the girls. This is a fact, irrespective of how a section of the press has tried to spin the story.

The insurgents brought the girls back to the location of the kidnapping themselves as an apparent gesture of goodwill, following relentless efforts by the Government to find long-lasting solutions to the conflict.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed all security agencies to do everything possible to bring the girls back unharmed. That dictated the method we adopted. Back-channel talks with our international friends as mediators, and the result was the release of the girls

HOW WERE THE INSURGENTS ABLE TO RETURN THE GIRLS TO DAPCHI UNATTACKED, DESPITE TROOPS PRESENCE?

Unknown to many, we have been in wider cessation-of-hostility talks with the insurgents for some time now. The talks helped to secure the release of the police officers' wives and the University of Maiduguri lecturers recently. And the talks did not stop thereafter.

Therefore, we were able to leverage on the wider talks when the Dapchi girls were abducted. As I said earlier, the insurgents decided to return the girls to where they picked them from as a goodwill gesture. All they demanded was a ceasefire that will grant them a safe corridor to drop the girls. This is not new. Even in larger war situations, safe corridors are usually created for humanitarian and other purposes. Consequently, a week-long ceasefire was declared, starting from Monday, 19 March. That is why the insurgents were able to drop the girls. This counters the conspiracy theories being propounded in some quarters concerning why it was so easy for the insurgents to drop off the girls without being attacked by the military.

WHY THE GIRLS WERE FREED EARLY

As I have said time and again, there is no government that will not face tragedies. What makes the difference is how such tragedies are managed.

President Buhari put this in perspective when he said the response of his Administration is a marked departure from the attitude of the preceding administration in the aftermath of the kidnap of the 276 Chibok girls in 2014

Whereas it took that administration 18 days to even acknowledge the kidnap of the girls, the current administration was responsive and was not in denial. No stone was left unturned to secure the release of the girls. For the record, the following actions were taken:

1. The president sent FG's delegation twice to Dapchi and Damaturu, within four days, to engage in fact-finding and to condole with the government and people of Yobe State and the families of the abducted girls. I was on both delegations.

READ ALSO: Boko Haram expected to release last Dapchi schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu - Police IG

2. The president ordered the Service Chiefs and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to take direct charge and brief him on a daily basis on the efforts to bring back the girls.

3. The president ordered the re-strengthening of a Joint Operational Base involving relevant agencies and Services to coordinate the rescue mission. Consequently, the Service Commanders established a unified Command Centre in Maiduguri, and the Military also raised several rescue teams to comb the forests in the North East Theatre of Operation.

4. The Nigerian Air Force maintained aerial surveillance of the area all through.

It was not a surprise, therefore, that this abduction ended about a month after it occurred, and that most of the girls are free.

THE REACTION OF NAYSAYERS

You are not unaware of the reaction of the naysayers - the main opposition PDP in particular - to the release of the Dapchi girls. What called for non-partisan celebrations was rather thoughtlessly turned into politics, bad, despicable politics that has no place in any democracy. At times of national tragedies, countries unite. This is the norm everywhere.

Let me encapsulate my reaction to the disgraceful and insensitive politics, that the PDP has been playing with the Dapchi girls, by quoting the statement of the President when he received the Dapchi girls last Friday: May I also warn against those elements who have chosen to make political fortune of our citizens misfortune. Government would not tolerate any attempt by any person or group to trivialize or politicize security issues for politically motivated ends. Accordingly, security agencies would not hesitate to decisively deal with such unscrupulous characters. Those are very clear words that need no elaboration.

The PDP and its co-travelers do not understand that terrorism is a global problem. A terror attack on any country is an attack on all countries. The UN was among the first international organizations to condemn the abduction of the Dapchi girls and also among the first to welcome their release.

Perhaps we should ask the PDP what indeed the party knows about the abduction of the Dapchi girls, going by its statement that their abduction and release were stage-managed. The party made itself a laughing stock within and outside Nigeria with that statement. Don't they know that our international friends are involved in the process that led to the release of the girls? Indeed, there should be a new criterion for withdrawing the registration of a party like the PDP which has failed both as a ruling and an opposition party! If a party cannot rule and cannot be in opposition, what else can it do?

CONCLUSION

1. We thank all Nigerians for their support and prayers. We are grateful for their belief in the ability of this government to secure an early release of the girls. We will continue with the ongoing efforts to account for the remaining six Dapchi girls, and indeed to bring back our remaining Chibok girls.

READ ALSO: We were flown in planes and taken over rivers in boats - Dapchi Schoolgirl

2. In the words of Mr President, this administration remains committed to the fight against terrorism and insurgency. The security services have since been directed to put in place further measures around all schools vulnerable to attacks to ensure the safety of pupils/students and teachers and school workers. The President has also tasked all the security agencies to work to ensure that we do not witness any recurrence of these incidents.

3. Let me emphasize the government's position that while the military efforts are necessarily ongoing, we are willing to continue engaging in a meaningful dialogue which is not only about the release of hostages, but intended at a broader engagement on conflict mitigation (reduction of the violence, possibility of ceasefire, protection of civilians, increased humanitarian access). Government is therefore willing to engage on measures which can lead to stopping the bloodshed and finding long-lasting solutions to the conflict.

4 We appeal for non-partisanship on the issue of security. We all have to be safe and alive before we can even belong to any political party. And whether you are in government or in opposition, Nigeria belongs to all of us.

5. We appeal to the media to be more discerning in disseminating materials that serve no other purpose than to sabotage the ongoing efforts to end the insurgency and secure the release of the remaining Chibok and Dapchi girls. Obviously, the naysayers are growing more desperate and will stop at nothing, including disinformation and fake news, to muddle the waters.

Finally, let me use this opportunity to react to the fake news making the rounds concerning a supposed Sergeant in the Nigerian Army, named David Bako, who said he was part of an alleged conspiracy by the government to abduct the Dapchi girls.

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This is a classic example of what I have just said: Disinformation and fake news! I can tell you categorically that this David Bako is fake. There is no such soldier in the Nigerian Army. There was no conspiracy anywhere. The intention of those behind the disinformation and fake news is to cause disaffection between Christians and Muslims, and between southerners and northerners.

This administration's success in seeking an early release of the Dapchi girls has ruffled many feathers. It has upturned a lot of plans by naysayers. They have not been able to sleep since the girls came back. Their campaign to unseat President Buhari is fuelling their desperation. Nigerians should prepare to see more avalanche of disinformation and fake news. But they should not lend any credibility to such reports. They belong to the trash can!

Exclusive: Freed Dapchi Girl Recounts Her Ordeal with Boko Haram (Nigeria Breaking News) Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng- The Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) says the federal government recovered N143.89 billion

- PICA breaks the figure down to N7.8 billion, 378 million dollars and 27,800 pounds sterling

- PICA reveals that the federal government had also been able to save N208 billion through the payroll audit

The federal government, through the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), has disclosed that it recovered more than N143. 89 billion from corrupt officials through the implementation of the whistle blower policy.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that PICA disclosed this in a report made available to newsmen on Sunday, March 25, in Abuja.

READ ALSO: Nigerian army nabs youth leader, other suspected criminals in Taraba

According to NAN, the report showed that government had successfully recovered N7.8 billion, 378 million dollars and 27,800 pounds sterling.

The report added that since the policy was introduced in 2016 to fight financial crimes and corruption, PICA has received 8,373 tips.

The report said 1,231 tips received were on financial crimes adding that the federal government was able to investigate 791 cases out of which 534 were completed.

The PICA report further showed that the federal government had also been able to save N208 billion through the payroll audit of its Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs) adding that N97.94 billion was saved in 2016, while N110.46 billion was saved in 2017.

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PICA said the saving was from the recovery of salaries paid to ex-diplomats, reduction in personnel costs of MDAs and reduction in non-regular allowances of the armed forces, para-military agencies and health institutions.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, on Thursday, February 22, received an award from the Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

The award was presented to Magu in his office at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja by the coordinator of the centre, Zainab Duke Abiola.

The award was given to Magu in recognition of his contributions to the fight against corruption in Nigeria.

Jonathan replies to Buhari's allegations | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Senator Ben Bruce has supported the former chief of army staff on his call for self-defence

- The senator urged the federal government to heed to the call made by Theophilus Danjuma

- According to him, for Danjuma to have made that call, it means Nigeria has gotten to a very bad state

The senator representing Bayelsa east federal constituency, Ben Murray-Bruce has called on the federal government to heed to the call of a former chief of army staff, Theophilus Danjuma, on the killings in Taraba state and its environs.

Murray-Bruce describing Danjuma as a patriot said only a few Nigerians can match Danjuma's contribution to the country.

READ ALSO: Trouble as FG discovers over 70K ghost police officers across Nigeria

He said: "Can anyone accuse TY Danjuma of not being a patriot? How many Nigerians have done for Nigeria what TY has done for this nation? Few. Very few. When he talks like this, we should know that it has gotten to a very bad state. I call on the government to heed his call."

Danjuma had earlier said the Nigerian Army is biased in defending the masses and urged Nigerians to take up self defence while speaking at the maiden convocation of the Taraba State University.

In reaction to the statement, the Peoples Democratic Party said Danjumas statement had justified its stand that the Buhari presidency and the APC must be held responsible for the agonising state of the nation.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the federal government had accused the former chief of army staff of making comments possible of resulting to anarchy in Nigeria.

The minister of defence, Masur Dan-Ali, also urged Nigerians to ignore Danjuma's call for self-defence against armed bandits.

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He said Danjuma's advice to the people Taraba state was uncalled for.

Victims of herdsmen killing buried in Benue state - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit Nigeria- Eighteen passengers have escaped death by whiskers along Owo-Benin Expressway

- The passengers were travelling in bus when some cows ran across the road

- Two of the cows were hit in the process despite the driver's effort to avoid them

Some passengers escaped death along the Owo-Benin Expressway over the weekend when about 200 cows took to the highway in Ondo state.

Vanguard reports that 18 passengers escaped death by whiskers, and were left with various degrees of injuries after the cows ran across the expressway.

An eyewitness said the drivers of the commercial bus marked KPA 77LG did all he could to avoid the cows but two of them hit the vehicle. He said immediately the incident happened the herder said something to the other cows and they all escaped.

READ ALSO: Ben Murray-Bruce backs TY Danjuma on call to self-defence

"Despite efforts by the driver to avoid the cows, two of them hit the bus. Immediately the accident happened, the herdsmen spoke to the other cows and they escaped into the bush," the eyewitness said.

While a dead cow was seen lying on the accident scene, the wounded passengers were rushed to a nearby hospital for medical attention.

We were just saved by grace from the hands of these wicked herdsmen. It all happened with lightning speed. It was God who actually took control of the situation," one of the victims, Grace Ajayi.

Legit.ng earlier reported that a Nigerian man who had just returned from Texas, United States of America died in a car accident.

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The man simply identified as Olusesan died in a crash which happened along Ijebu-Ode.

A friend of the deceased, Adebanjo-Senbore, who shared the tragic news on his Facebook page revealed that the deceased just came back home to Nigeria from Houston, Texas in the United States.

Are Nigerian Policemen the worst in the world? - on Legit.ng TV

Source: LegitAs Christians over the world celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ which is known as Palm Sunday, ushering and preparing them into the Holy week.

A church in Uganda has gone the extra mile to depict the epic grand entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem.

The church identified as Munyonyo Martyrs Shrine in Kampala, Uganda had hired a white man to depict the story of how Jesus rode on a horse to Jerusalem.

The images flared up comments from social media as they castigated the actions of the church dragged the pastor for his inferiority.

READ ALSO: Man finds Allah's name on his Sallah meat (photos)

The pictures garnered many outrageous comments from social media as many opined why didn't the church.

Church hires white man to depict Jesus Christ. Source: Google

Church hires white man to depict Jesus Christ. Source: Google

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Many have suggested that a black well will still have done well, that there was no need to get a white man to play the role of jesus as it suggests that Africans can't live without trying much to according to the white man's narrative.

Image of Jesus Christ appears in Ikorodu Church - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- The House of Representatives committee on public accounts has instructed the Nigerian Import Promotion Council to return N477 million to the federal governments account

- The lawmakers gave the directive, based on a query by the auditor general, in 2013

- After deliberations, the committees chairman referred the matter to the EFCC for further investigation; and asked the anti-graft agency to report back within 60 days

The executive secretary of the Nigerian Import Promotion Council (NIPC), Yewande Sadiku, has been instructed by the House of Representatives committee on public accounts, to return an unremitted N477 million to the coffers of the federal government, Premium Times reports.

The funds are reportedly part of the agencys Internally Generated Revenue between 2013 and 2014; and were meant to be sent to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Legit.ng gathers that the directive was given, based on a 2013 query by the auditor-general to the federation (AuGF); and the lawmakers also asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to persecute the officers involved immediately.

During an interaction with officials of the agency on Friday, March 23, the reps stated that the issues raised by the AuGF could not be ignored.

READ ALSO: APC vows to oust PDP from Abia in 2019

However, the executive secretary pointed out even though the infractions could not be disputed, she was not in charge when they took place. She also informed the lawmakers that the agency was over-debited to the tune of about N290 million at a particular period; and that the AuGF office had promised to make a refund.

She said: This must have probably accounted for why there is a shortfall of N477 million; and when a refund is made, amendments could be effected.

Sadiku, was however, countered by the deputy chairman of the committee, Ibrahim Baba, who stated: The commission is not a private company and the money in question belongs to the federal government because what you remitted is actually 25 percent of your annual earnings.

The chairman of the committee, Kingsley Chinda, also asked which officers were in charge of the agency when the infractions were committed; and also queried why the monies were not remitted to the federation, as at when due.

He stated: We are also referring this matter to the anti-graft commission to further dig deep into this matter and report to the clerk of this committee within 60 days.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that some heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA), raised serious allegations against some federal lawmakers, saying they were demanding bribes from them as condition for passing their budgets.

The heads of the MDAs claimed that they were reluctant to honour an invitation from the Senate to come and defend their budgets, due to their demands.

Some of them reportedly claimed the lawmakers were desperate and bent on shaking them down because the 2018 budget is the last they would consider before the next general elections. Many of them need money for re-election and they see this budget approval process as a way of finding the resources to prosecute their forthcoming elections."

Top 4 corruption cases - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng News- The Nigerian Air Force said it airlifted Nigerian Army, Navy troops in support of ECOWAS Mission in The Gambia

- It said the troops airlifted officers, soldiers and ratings of the Nigerian Army and the Special Boat Services of the Nigerian navy.

- The NAF aircraft will reportedly bring back the Nigerian contingent that had completed their 6 months tour of duty in The Gambia

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Sunday, 25 March 2018, airlifted the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian navy (contingents to The Gambia in pursuance of the ongoing ECOWAS Mission in Gambia (ECOMIG).

In a statement released by the Nigerian Air Forces director of public relations and information, Olatokunbo Adesanya, the troops who were airlifted by the NAF C-130 Hercules Aircraft included officers, soldiers and ratings from 351 Artillery Regiment of the Nigerian Army as well as from the Special Boat Services of the Nigerian navy.

Legit.ng gathered that the troops and other equipment deployed for the operation were airlifted from the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport Abuja to Banjul in The Gambia.

READ ALSO: Bribe scandal hits National Assembly over election reorder

The NAF aircraft is also expected to recover home the Nigerian contingent that had completed their 6 months tour of duty in The Gambia as stipulated for troops rotation in the ECOMIG Operation.

Nigerian Air Force airlifts Nigerian Army, Navy troops in support of ECOWAS Mission in Gambia.

Officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army and the Navy as they march into the Nigerian Airforce aircraft

The statement further read: It would be recalled that the NAF was the first to deploy to The Gambia in January 2017 as part of the standby force tasked by ECOWAS Heads of State to enforce the December 1, 2016, election mandate, which restored Adama Barrow as President.

The NAF deployed 200 men and air assets comprising fighter jets, transport aircraft, light utility helicopters as well as Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms.

The NAFs timely intervention served as a deterrence to the former President Yahya Jammeh who then relinquished power on 21 January 2017 thus paving way for the restoration of democracy in the country.

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Legit.ng previously reported that the chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadiq Abubakar, charged officers of the Nigerian Air Force not to be distracted by malicious campaigns from individuals who are bent on creating anarchy in the country.

The Air Force boss gave caution on Saturday, January 28, at the NAF first quarter 2018 route march exercise for personnel serving in the Federal Capital Territory.

Abubakar reminded personnel of their constitutional duties of ensuring the peace, unity and stability of the country. He urged them to stay away from those trying to destabilize the nation.

Nigerian Air Force winged 10 flying officers - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng NewsSergey Mavrodi, the founder of MMM, a Russian company that perpetrated one of the world's largest Ponzi schemes of all time, is dead.

According to a report by Moskovsky Komsomolets, the founder of the MMM series of financial pyramid schemes, Mavrodi, died in Moscow at the age of 62.

Legit.ng gathered that Mavrodi was taken to a city hospital from a bus stop overnight Monday, March 26, after he felt weakness and pain in the chest area.

"The emergency team has failed to save his life. He died this morning," the report said.

The preliminary cause of death is a heart attack.

READ ALSO: Sergey Mavrodi's death: Was MMM genuine or a scam?

Sergei Mavrodi created the company "MMM" in 1992. It quickly gained popularity and became the largest financial pyramid in the history of Russia. The income of the members who joined it was paid out of the contributions of new arrivals, and when the flow of customers ceased to grow, non-payments began.

According to various estimates, the number of victims of the MMM has reached 10-15 million people.

In 1994, Mavrodi became a member of the Russian parliament. Then he announced that he was giving up his privileges: salaries and cars. Mavrodi stressed that he became a deputy only for the sake of immunity.

Two years later, before the presidential elections in 1996, he was stripped of his mandate.

In 2007, Mavrodi was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for defrauding 10,000 investors out of 110 million rubles ($4.3 million). All this time he left during the preliminary detention while the investigation was conducted.

Mavrodi claimed he is not the beneficiary of the donations and he is not used to flamboyant lifestyle.

His true charges of which he was later convicted of is tax fraud though he claimed that MMM scheme is not a business, but a mutual donation program of which there is no law against such.

In 2016, he announced the creation of his own crypto currency - Mavro. In the first month, 33,000 people took part in the project.

MMM stands for the first letters of the founders surnames - Sergei Mavrodi, Olga Melnikova and Vyacheslav Mavrodi.

However, some people believe that it stands for Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox. The company got a lot of money from people - it was making about 50 million USD each day.

MMM started as a company that imported office equipment. However, there were some problems. In January 1992 the company was accused of tax evasion. This led to problems with the financial support of company's operation. It struggled.

But how did MMM achieve that? The company promised annual returns for up to 1000% to private investors. It sounded quite attractive, and a lot of people were eager to invest. With strong advertising and naive people (no one heard about scams during that time), MMM became one of the most successful companies in Russia.

READ ALSO: Sergey Mavrodi's biography: What you didn't know about MMM founder

However, the success didnt last for long. Eventually, the company was shut down in 1994 and it declared bankruptcy in 1997. Unfortunately, everything didn't end there. After 14 years, the company reopened as MMM Global.

MMM in Nigeria

MMM started in Nigeria in November 2015, when it launched a new website for Nigerian audience.

In Nigeria, the company decided to lower the standards and promised profit was 30% per month.

The primary target of MMM was unemployed people. The number of people that signed up by the late 2016 was shocking - 2.4 million! They hoped that MMM would give them easy money and they had no doubts.

Unfortunately, after a year of work in Nigeria, MMM announced the freezing of all members accounts.

According to the company, the reason was systems overload and the negative attention brought on by the Government and mass media.

After the freeze of members accounts, people started to panic. Sadly, the worst thing that happened was that the panic led them to even attempt to end their lives.

Things got so serious that even the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency asked the citizens to look out for each other and call the emergency number if someone was trying to kill himself.

Surprisingly, on January 2017 MMM Nigeria reopened. Also, on February 11th the company announced the lifting of the withdrawal limits on 2017 mavro.

Investors were angry because of the delayed, and unfulfilled payments and some people left the scheme.

READ ALSO: MMM founder's death: 4 things Sergey Mavrodi told Buhari about his Ponzi scheme

The investors who stayed loyal to the company were given assurance of getting back their money. But the company stated that in order to get the pre-2017 money, investors should add new money. And the more they add, the higher their chances to get the previous money back.

Though MMM came back, it could not regain the trust of the bulk of the investors failed to make huge impact it had when it was first introduced.

About 110 countries suffered from MMM, including various African countries like Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe. People believed in the company and wanted to get a lot of money almost out of nowhere.

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Meanwhile, when MMM froze members accounts, Nigerian media warned the citizens against investing in the Ponzi scheme reporting that the scheme had collapsed, but many turned deaf ears.

Mavrodi himself wrote an open letter to Nigerian journalists whom he claimed were causing unnecessary tension in the country.

According to him, MMM will be back by January as earlier stated, hence the rumour about the scheme collapse should stop.

As the biggest online news platform in Nigeria, Legit.nglecturing him about the existence of freedom of speech and and the importance of press as one of the fundamental values of Nigeria.

MMM is 419! - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- As the war against corruption rages on, President Buhari has signed two agreements with Switzerland and Singapore

- The agreement with Switzerland will help in the recovery of stolen assets while that of Singapore is for the avoidance of double taxation

- The return of illegal assets will boost the administrations anti-corruption drive and also provide additional funds for critical infrastructure

President Muhammadu Buhari in furtherance of his anti-corruption war signed an agreement with Switzerland that will see to the return of stolen assets hidden in the country to Nigeria.

This was contained in a statement issued by Femi Adesina, the special adviser to the president on media and publicity on Monday, March 26.

The president also signed another agreement with Singapore for the avoidance of double taxation. This is expected to boost Nigerias trade with Singapore.

READ ALSO: Ekweremadu tackles APC again over allegation of corruption

Read statement below:

Following the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), President Muhammadu Buhari Monday signed two instruments namely:

The Instrument of Ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Government of the Republic of Singapore for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and Capital Gains.

The other was the Instrument of Ratification of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) among the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the Swiss Federal Council and the International Development Association on the Return, Monitoring and Management of Illegally-Acquired Assets Confiscated by Switzerland and to be Restituted to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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With the execution of these instruments, Nigerias trade relations with Singapore and income therefrom are expected to rise, while the return of illegal assets will not only boost the administrations anti-corruption drive, but also provide additional funds for critical infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the executive chairman of the Centre for Anti-corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Debo Adeniran, asked Nigerians to be very vigilant in the coming days as politicians come to them for their votes.

He, however, argued that even though President Buhari may not be the best, as claimed by some people, he had done enough within the last three years to warrant him being called a champion, especially in the area of the war against corruption.

Who is Nigeria's greatest president ever? - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit NigeriaPresident Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday, March 26, received members of the Martin Luther King Junior at the Council Chambers of the State House, Aso Rock, Abuja with some members of his government including Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

Though details of the visit were still sketchy at the time of this report, it was learnt that the family visited Aso Rock for the conferment of a title.

President Muhammadu Buhari, SSAP Hon Abike Dabire Erewa, Dr Mrs Naomi Barbara King, Mr Baba Onabanjo, Amb Erika Bennett and other members of African-American Human Activist Late Martin Luther Jnr during the conferment of The First Black History Month National Black Excellence and Exceptional African Leadership Award 2018 at the Council Chambers in Abuja, a general caption of some of the photographs by Femi Adesina, the presidential spokesperson, said.

President Buhari with the family of late Martin Luther King Jnr in Aso Rock. Credit: Sunday Aghaeze

Legit.ng earlier reported that President Muhammadu Buhari, in furtherance of his anti-corruption war, signed an agreement with Switzerland that will see to the return of stolen assets hidden in the country to Nigeria.

This was contained in a statement issued by Femi Adesina, the special adviser to the president on media and publicity on Monday, March 26.

President Buhari honoured. Credit: Sunday Aghaeze

"Following the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), President Muhammadu Buhari Monday signed two instruments namely:

"The Instrument of Ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Government of the Republic of Singapore for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income and Capital Gains.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

"The other was the Instrument of Ratification of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) among the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the Swiss Federal Council and the International Development Association on the Return, Monitoring and Management of Illegally-Acquired Assets Confiscated by Switzerland and to be Restituted to the Federal Republic of Nigeria," the presidency statement said.

Who is Nigeria's greatest president ever? - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Nigerians have reacted to the death of MMM founder, Sergey Mavrodi's death

- He was reported to have died of attack attack on Monday, March 26 in Russian hospital

- MMM was introduced into Nigeria in 2016 but it crashed in December of the same year with many Nigerians losing their savings

Following reports of the death of Sergey Mavrodi on Monday, March 26, Nigerians have gone on Twitter to mock his passing, saying he cannot just scam Nigerians and live.

The Punch reports that MMM founder reportedly died of heart attack after he was admitted to a Russian hospital.

READ ALSO: 2019: Secondus, Atiku, Sambo, Lamido, others set stage for PDP campaign

Legit.ng gathered that the scheme founded by the 62-year-old was introduced into Nigeria in 2016. It crashed in December of the same year with many Nigerians losing their savings in the process.

People had also lost money to the scheme in Russia  where it started, Ghana and Egypt.

Majority of the people who reacted to the announcement of his death are Nigerians as well as people from other parts of the world whose encounter with the Ponzi scheme had been mostly unpalatable.

Most suggested that it was Karma that caught up with Mavrodi.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Sergey Mavrodi, the founder of MMM, a Russian company that perpetrated one of the world's largest Ponzi schemes of all time, is dead.

According to a report by Moskovsky Komsomolets, the founder of the MMM series of financial pyramid schemes, Mavrodi, died in Moscow at the age of 62.

It was gathered that Mavrodi was taken to a city hospital from a bus stop overnight Monday, March 26, after he felt weakness and pain in the chest area.

"The emergency team has failed to save his life. He died this morning," the report said. The preliminary cause of death is a heart attack.

Sergei Mavrodi created the company MMM in 1992. It quickly gained popularity and became the largest financial pyramid in the history of Russia.

The income of the members who joined it was paid out of the contributions of new arrivals, and when the flow of customers ceased to grow, non-payments began.

According to various estimates, the number of victims of the MMM has reached 10-15 million people. In 1994, Mavrodi became a member of the Russian parliament.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

Then he announced that he was giving up his privileges: salaries and cars. Mavrodi stressed that he became a deputy only for the sake of immunity.

MMM is 419! - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Bill Gates wants Nigerian leaders to gear up by telling themselves the truth

- Gates laments the investment in the country's younger people

- He says he wanted to provoke a debate and he achieved that with his earlier comments when he visited Nigeria

Days after visiting Nigeria, the worlds second richest man, Bill Gates, has spoken exclusively with the Cable News Network (CNN) lamenting that the federal governments investment in the younger people was not good enough.

Gates, who owns a foundation with his wife, Melinda, specifically mentioned areas where the Nigerian government has not measured up to include health and education.

READ ALSO: Breaking: President Buhari hosts family of late Martin Luther King Jnr in Aso Rock

As a partner in Nigeria, I am saying the current plan is inadequate. Nigeria has all these young people and the current quality and quantity of investment in these young generations; in health and education just isnt good enough. So, I was very direct.

If they can get health and education right, they will be an engine of growth not just for themselves but for all of Africa, he told the CNN.

The current quality and quantity of investment in this young generation in health and education just isn't good enough. So I was very direct, Gates reportedly added saying he wanted to spark action and debate and had really done that.

Gates also tweeted late Monday, March 26, that he was excited to be in Nigeria.

Legit.ng earlier reported that Bill Gates, on Thursday, March 22, said that Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth, with the fourth worst maternal mortality rate in the world.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

Gates stated this at the expanded National Economic Council alongside the chairman of the Dangote Foundation, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and presided over by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Legit.ng also earlier reported that during his address when he visited Nigeria, Bill Gates spoke comprehensively on the country's economy and offered pragmatic suggestions on how to move the country forward.

He unequivocally tasked the Nigerian government to focus on investments in human capital development, specifically mentioning health and education.

He said: Nigeria has unmatched economic potential, but what becomes of that potential depends on the choices you make as Nigerias leaders.

The most important choice you can make is to maximize your greatest resource, the Nigerian people. Nigeria will thrive when every Nigerian is able to thrive.

If you invest in their health, education, and opportunitiesthe 'human capital' we are talking about todaythen they will lay the foundation for sustained prosperity. If you dont, however, then it is very important to recognize that there will be a sharp limit on how much the country can grow.

Jonathan replies to Buhari's allegations | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ngJerri-Lynn here: Quelle surprise! Looks like that self-regulation fairy was  and will continue to be about as effective in regulating the Alito Canyon natural gas storage facility as it has elsewhere proven to be in so many other areas and situations where its supposed to protect the public from harm.

By Justin Mikulka, a freelance writer, audio and video producer living in Trumansburg, NY. Justin has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University. Originally published at DeSmogBlog

A recent report spearheaded by researchers at the University of Southern California blames the largest greenhouse gas leak in U.S. history on dysfunctional management and poor regulatory oversight. Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) is the company that operates the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility near the Los Angeles neighborhood of Porter Ranch, which suffered a catastrophic methane leak that lasted from October 2015 to February 2016.

SoCalGas had lenient requirements for infrastructure record keeping, no comprehensive risk management plan, and no testing programs or plans in place to remediate substandard wells, concluded Najmedin Meshkati, University of Southern California professor of civil and environmental engineering and senior author on the report. The study was published in the Journal of Sustainable Energy Engineering.

In addition to its notable contribution to global warming, the massive methane leak also required the evacuation of two schools and at least 8,000 residents for months while SoCalGas tried to stop the leak.

The California Public Utilities Commission also issued a report evaluating the failed storage well at Aliso Canyon, and noted that severe external corrosion was observed in the failure areas. Based on these reports, it appears that SoCalGas had a policy of allowing its gas storage wells to operate until they failed, such as at Aliso Canyon.

DeSmog reached out to SoCalGas for comment on the University of Southern California study but did not hear back.

A History of Industry Self-Regulation

In theory, outside inspectors could have potentially caught some of these safety issues during regular evaluations of the infrastructure. But as the University of Southern Californias report details, that is not how the natural gas storage industry operates in the U.S. Instead, its description of the circumstances leading to the leak reads as much like a recipe for future disaster as an analysis of past failures. Previously, the industry has largely been allowed to self-regulate and the trend continues today.

This picture is reinforced by a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit published in November 2017. The report reveals that about half of the nations active natural gas storage sites are overseen on a variable state-by-state basis, but as for the other half, which straddle state lines:

Prior to 2017, the remaining 204 interstate natural gas storage sites were subject solely to federal oversight. However, the federal government had not issued safety standards for them.

Slightly less than half of the 415 natural gas storage sites in America have been operating without safety standards or inspections by federal regulators.

However, if SoCalGas had known that the well at Aliso Canyon was likely to fail, would the company have addressed the problem on its own? Apparently not, because according to its own company logs, SoCalGas had known about the potential for a leak in that particular well since 1992.

No current regulations require safety shut-off valves on natural gas storage wells like the one that failed at Aliso Canyon. In an interesting twist of fate, Aliso Canyons failed well actually had an underground safety valve, but SoCalGas removed it in 1979 and did not replace it, despite its own documents decades later noting the well was at risk of leaking.

Apparently, SoCalGas requested to raise customer rates in 2010 in order to make repairs and replace leaking safety valves, but its plan was to do so at a rate of only five percent of affected valves a year.

Newly uncovered information shows that Southern California Gas Company admitted five years ago it operated numerous leaking wells in Aliso Canyon, received a ratepayer increase to upgrade these wells, and yet deliberately failed to replace safety valves on its gas injection wells, said attorney Patricia Oliver, who is involved in one of the lawsuits about the incident, in January 2016.

In July 2017, James Mansdorfer, a former SoCalGas employee in charge of the wells at Aliso Canyon, highlighted additional risks associated with potential earthquakes at the gas storage facility.

My belief is that there is potential for catastrophic loss of life, and in light of SoCalGas refusal to openly address this risk, my ethics just will not allow me to stand by without making the public aware of what could happen, Mansdorfer told the Los Angeles Daily News.

Status Quo or Outlier?

According to the 2017 Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit, other natural gas storage sites may pose similar risks as Aliso Canyon due to aging infrastructure or proximity to population centers.

The audit notes that many of these natural gas storage sites are located within 3 miles of a city, town, or other populated area.

In addition, half of the 17,000 wells that inject and withdraw natural gas from storage sites are more than 50 years old, and many wells are more than 100 years old. These older wells were often drilled for other reasons, such as oil and gas production, and are more likely to have age-related degradation, according to [the Department of Energy].

Inadequate Interim Regulations

In June 2016, just months after the Aliso Canyon incident, Congress passed the Protecting Our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (PIPES) Act, which requires the Department of Transportation (DOT) to establish minimum safety standards for all natural gas storage sites by June 2018, according to the GAO report. As a result of the PIPES Act, the DOTs Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued an interim rule for safety standards and is responsible for finalizing that rule.

As the GAO audit points out, the interim rule is already potentially problematic. The first problem is that these gas storage site regulations are only voluntary and based on industry recommendations, as noted in the audit, which takes a critical look at PHMSAs regulatory oversight:

Under the interim standards, site operators are to follow industry-developed best practices to detect and prevent leaks and plan for emergencies, among other things.

This approach looks suspiciously similar to asking the natural gas storage industry, after causing the largest ever U.S.methane release, to regulate itself once again. The PIPES Act also created an Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Leak Task Force, which made several safety recommendations, including the following:

Operators of natural gas storage sites should begin a rigorous program to evaluate the status of the wells, establish risk management planning, and, in most cases, phase out old wells with single-point-of-failure designs.

Of course, recommendations outline what operators should do to prioritize safety. However, recommendations do not provide guarantees or oversight that safety actions which should be done actually are done.

Oil and Gas Industry Weighs in

The task force also recommended that operators phase out most storage wells with single-point-of-failure designs  where the failure of a single component, such as a well casing, could lead to a large release of gas  by installing multiple points of control at each well. This would translate to SoCalGas and other storage site operators installing safety shut-off valves on all natural gas wells.

Yet as detailed in the GAO audit, PHMSA did not require this practice in its proposed safety rule because the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industrys largest trade group, claimed its recommended practices do not direct operators to phase out such wells because this practice may not significantly improve safety in all cases.

As a result, regulators have chosen to ignore a federally created safety task force in favor of following the advice of oil and gas industry lobbyists. But to fully appreciate the audacity of the lobbying groups claim that shut-off valves dont necessarily improve well safety, you need to know the argument made to back up this claim.

The American Petroleum Institute cites the Aliso Canyon disaster as an example of why phasing out wells with a single point-of-failture (i.e., those without shut-off valves) should not be required because, it says, such an approach might not have prevented the accident. Instead, it recommends assessing the risks at each storage site and taking steps to reduce those risks, which could include installing multiple points of control for certain wells, among other possible mitigation steps.

Meshkati, the senior author of the University of Southern California study, has a different take on how a shut-off valve might have changed the Aliso Canyon leak, which occurred at a storage well known as SS-25.

If a functional kill valve were in place for well SS-25 in October 2015 when the leak began, the leak could have been stopped in a matter of hours or days rather than after four months, Meshkati said.

Audit Details Safety Rule Limitations

On top of this glaring example of the industry shaping its own regulatory process, the GAO found that PHMSA was doing a poor job with the new safety rules. The audit notes the steps PHMSA has been taking to improve its oversight is limited in both scope and strategy:

For example,PHMSA has not yet defined the level of performance to be achieved, fully addressed all core program activities, or used baseline data to develop its performance goal  PHMSAs goal focuses on training and does not address other core program activities, such as conducting effective inspections. For example, a goal to evaluate whether PHMSAs inspections are effective could be to annually reduce, by a certain percentage, the number of sites not meeting minimum standards.

Over two years after the Aliso Canyon disaster, the federal officials in charge of improving the safety of U.S. natural gas storage have outlined vague and incomplete aspirations for improving safety, but one point they were clear on was that, as the oil and gas industry says, shut-off valves shouldnt be necessary.

PHMSA has come under fire from safety advocates before, with Rep. Jackie Speiers (D-CA< once referring to the agency as a fluffy industry pet. And, in line with that assessment, PHMSA recently repealed regulations requiring oil trains to have modern brakes. Of course, PHMSA is now run by a former executive of freight train company CSX, and CSX is a big player in the oil-by-rail business.

How many more oil and gas disasters have to occur before a healthy culture of safety is implemented? asked Meshkati in the press release accompanying his study.

The GAO audit hints that there is plenty of time to find out: PHMSA published guidance on its website stating that it expects operators to make and implement plans to inspect and remediate risks found at their sites within 3 to 8 years following the effective date of the interim final rule.

So, business as usual.A reader was kind enough to ask for a Brexit update. I hadnt provided one because truth be told, the UK press has gone quiet as the Government knuckled under in the last round of negotiations.

It is a mystery as to why the hard core Brexit faction and the true power brokers, the press barons, have gone quiet after having made such a spectacle of their incompetence and refusal to compromise. Do they not understand what is happening? Has someone done a whip count and realized they didnt have the votes if they tried forcing a crisis, and that the result would probably be a Labour government, a fate they feared far more than a disorderly Brexit?

As weve pointed out repeatedly, the EU has the vastly stronger negotiating position. The UK could stomp and huff and keep demanding its super special cherry picked special cake all it wanted to. That was a fast track to a crash-out Brexit. But it seems out of character for the Glorious Brexit true believers to sober up suddenly.

Some observations:

The transition deal is the much-decried vassal state. As we and others pointed out, the only transition arrangement feasible was a standstill with respect to the UKs legal arrangements with the EU, save at most some comparatively minor concessions on pet issues. The UK will remain subject to the authority of the ECJ. The UK will continue to pay into the EU budget. As wed predicted, the transition period will go only until the end of 2020.

The UK couldnt even get a break on the Common Fisheries Policy. From the Guardian:

For [fisherman Tony] Delahuntys entire career, a lopsided system of quotas has granted up to 84% of the rights to fish some local species, such as English Channel cod, to the French, and left as little as 9% to British boats. Add on a new system that bans fishermen from throwing away unwanted catch and it becomes almost impossible to haul in a net of mixed fish without quickly exhausting more limited quotas of choke species such as cod.

Leaving the EU was meant to change all that.Instead, growing numbers of British fishermen feel they have been part of a bait-and-switch exercise  a shiny lure used to help reel in a gullible public. Despite only recently promising full fisheries independence as soon as Brexit day on 29 March 2019, the UK government this week capitulated to Brussels demand for it to remain part of the common fisheries system until at least 2021, when a transition phase is due to end. Industry lobbyists fear that further cave-ins are now inevitable in the long run as the EU insists on continued access to British waters as the price of a wider post-Brexit trade deal.

The one place where the UK did get a win of sorts was on citizens rights, where the transition deal did not make commitments, much to the consternation of both EU27 and UK nationals. Curiously, the draft approved by the EU27 last week dropped the section that had discussed citizens rights. From the Express:

Italys Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano, demands EU citizens rights be protected after Brexit. The comments from Italys foreign minister come after the draft Brexit agreement struck between Britain and the EU on Monday was missing Article 32, which in previous drafts regulated the free movement of British citizens living in Europe after Brexit. The entire article was missing from the document, which goes straight from Article 31 to Article 33. MEPs from the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Labour, Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru have written to Brexit Secretary David Davis for clarification about the missing article, while citizens group British in Europe said the document failed to provide them with legal certainty. A copy of the letter sent to Mr Davis seen by the Independent said: As UK MEPs we are deeply worried about what will happen to British citizens living in EU27 member states once we leave the EU.

This issue has apparently been pushed back to the April round of talks. I have not focused on the possible points of contention here. However, bear in mind that EU citizens could sue if they deem the eventual deal to be too unfavorable. Recall that during the 2015 Greece-Troika negotiations, some parties were advocating that Greece leave the Eurozone. A counterargument was that Greek citizens would be able to sue the Greek government for their loss of EU rights.

The UK is backing into having to accept a sea border as the solution for Ireland. As many have pointed out, theres no other remedy to the various commitments the UK has already made with respect to Ireland, as unpalatable as that solution is to the Unionists and hard core Brexiters. The UK has not put any solutions on the table as the EU keeps working on the default option, which was included in the Joint Agreement of December. The DUP sabre-rattled then but was not willing to blow up the negotiations then. It will be even harder for them to derail a deal now when the result would be a chaotic Brexit.

The UK is still trying to escape what appears to be the inevitable outcome. The press of the last 24 hours reports that the UK wont swallow the backstop plan that the EU has been refining, even though it accepts the proposition that the agreement needs to have that feature. The UK is back to trying to revive one of its barmy ideas that managed to find its way into the Joint Agreement, that of a new super special customs arrangement.

Politico gives an outline below. This is a non-starter simply because the EU will never accept any arrangement where goods can get into the EU without there being full compliance with EU rules, and that includes having them subject to the jurisdiction of the ECJ and the various relevant Brussels supervisory bodies. Without even hearing further details, the UKs barmy alignment notions means that the UK would somehow have a say in these legal and regulatory processes. This cheeky plan would give the UK better rights than any EU27 member. From Politico:

The key issues for debate, according to one senior U.K. official, is how the two sides can deliver full alignment and what the territorial scope of that commitment will be  the U.K. or Northern Ireland.

The starting point of the U.K.s position will be that full alignment should apply to goods and a limited number of services sectors, one U.K. official said.

On the customs issue, the proposal that Northern Ireland is subsumed into the EUs customs territory is a non-starter with London The alternative would be based on one of the two customs arrangements set out by the government in August last year and reaffirmed by May in her Mansion House speech. They are either a customs partnership  known as the hybrid model internally  or the highly streamlined customs arrangement known by officials as max-fac or maximum facilitation. The hybrid model would mean the U.K. continuing to police its border as if it were the EUs customs border, but then tracking imports to apply different tariffs depending on which market they end up in  U.K. or EU. Under this scenario, because Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would share an external EU customs border, as they do now, it would remove the need for checks on the land border between the two. The complexity and unprecedented nature of this solution has led to accusations from the Brussels side that it amounts to magical thinking. The max-fac model is simpler conceptually but would represent a huge logistical effort for U.K. customs authorities. It would involve the use of technological and legal measures such as electronic pre-notification of goods crossing the border and a trusted trader status for exporters and importers, to make customs checks as efficient as possible. While the U.K. will present both customs arrangements as possible ways of solving this aspect of the Irish border problem, one senior official said that the hybrid model was emerging as the preferred option in London.

The UK is already having trouble getting its customs IT upgrade done on time, which happens to be right before Brexit. As we wrote early on, even if the new programs are in place, they wont be able to handle the increased transactions volume resulting from of being outside the EU, and I havent seen good figures as to what the impact would be of the UK becoming a third country but having its transition deal in place. In other words, even if the mac-fac scheme were acceptable to the EU (unlikely), the UK looks unable to pull off getting the needed infrastructure in place. Even for competent shops, large IT projects have a high failure rate. And customs isnt looking like a high capability IT player right now.

So the play for the EU is to let the UK continue to flail about and deliver Ireland solutions that are dead on arrival because they violate clearly and consistently stated EU red lines. The UK will then in say September be faced with a Brexit deal that is done save Ireland, and it then have to choose between capitulating (its hard to come up with any way to improve the optics, but we do have a few months for creative ideas) or plunging into a chaotic Brexit.

The EU27 reaffirmed the EUs red lines in the most unambiguous language possible. From their Guidelines published March 23:

6.The approach outlined below reflects the level of rights and obligations compatible with the positions stated by the UK 7. In this context, the European Council reiterates in particular that any agreement with the United Kingdom will have to be based on a balance of rights and obligations, and ensure a level playing field. A non-member of the Union, that does not live up to the same obligations as a member, cannot have the same rights and enjoy the same benefits as a member. The European Council recalls that the four freedoms are indivisible and that there can be no cherry picking through participation in the Single Market based on a sector-by-sector approach, which would undermine the integrity and proper functioning of the Single Market. The European Council further reiterates that the Union will preserve its autonomy as regards its decision-making, which excludes participation of the United Kingdom as a third-country in the Union Institutions and participation in the decision-making of the Union bodies, offices and agencies. The role of the Court of Justice of the European Union will also be fully respected. 8. As regards the core of the economic relationship, the European Council confirms its readiness to initiate work towards a balanced, ambitious and wide-ranging free trade agreement (FTA) insofar as there are sufficient guarantees for a level playing field. This agreement will be finalised and concluded once the UK is no longer a Member State.

The EU also reaffirmed the obvious, Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

The EU nevertheless has relented in its negotiating tactics. The EUs initial approach was to put the most contentious issues up front: the exit tab, Ireland, freedom of movement. You will notice it has achieved closure only only one of those issues where the EUs initial position had been that they had to be concluded before the two sides would discuss the future relationship, as in trade. This is the opposite of the approach that professional negotiators use, that of starting with the least contentious issues first to establish a working relationship between both sides and create a sense of momentum, and then tackling the difficult questions later. The EU has now allowed the UK to defer resolving the messy issue of Ireland twice, and it is not clear if any progress has been made on the citizens rights matter.

The UK is clearly past the point where it could undo Brexit. There was pretty much no way to back out of Brexit, given the ferocious support for it in the tabloids versus the widespread view that a second referendum that showed that opinion had changed was a political necessity for a reversal. Pundits and politicians were cautious about even voicing the idea.

As weve pointed out, coming up with the wording of the referendum question took six months. In the snap elections last year, the Lib Dems set forth the most compact timeline possible for a Brexit referendum redo which presupposed that the phrasing had been settled. That was eight months. And youd have to have a Parliamentary approval process before and a vote afterwards (Parliament is sovereign; a referendum in and of itself is not sufficient to change course).

Spain has been making noises about Gibraltar but they arent likely to mean much. I could be proven wrong, but I dont see Spain as able to block a Brexit deal. Article 50 says that only a qualified majority vote is required to approve a Brexit agreement. Spain as a lone holdout couldnt keep a deal from being approved. And I dont see who would join Spain over the issue of Gibraltar. In keeping, Spain joined with the rest of the EU27 in approving the latest set of texts.

The UK still faces high odds of significant dislocations as of Brexit date. All sorts of agreements to which the UK is a party via the EU cease to be operative once the UK become a third country. These other countries have every reason to take advantage of the UKs week and administratively overextended position. Moreover, these countries cant entertain even discussing interim trade arrangements (new trade deals take years) until they have at least a high concept idea of what the future relationship with the EU will look like. Even though it looks likely to be a Canada-type deal, no one wants to waste time negotiating until that is firmed up.

Like it or not, May is the ultimate survivor. Politico described the method in her seeming madness:

May has lasted in office longer than many pundits predicted she would because, weak as her grip on power may have been since she lost her parliamentary majority last year, she has timed her surrenders cleverly. It looks chaotic and undignified, but the prime minister has hunkered down and let pro- and anti-Brexit factions in her party shout the odds in the media day and night, squabble publicly about acceptable terms for a deal, leak against each other and publish Sunday newspaper columns challenging her authority. Then in the few days before a European summit deadline for the next phase of a deal, she has rammed the only position acceptable to Brussels through her Cabinet and effectively called the hard Brexiteers bluff.

But what kind of leader marches her country into at worst an abyss and at best a future of lower prosperity, less clout, and no meaningful increase in autonomy? Like it or not, the UK is a small open economy, and its leaders, drunk on Imperial nostalgia, still cans stomach the idea that the UK did better by flexing its muscle within the EU that it can ever do solo.Yves here. So maybe not getting a JD/MBA wasnt such a bad idea after all

In all seriousness, this study provides yet more evidence that meritocracy is a myth and that bias is deep seated. See this article for a further discussion. I am sure readers can look past the bouquet to Hillary Clinton at the end. Since when was Clintons problem that of being too smart, and not, say, her $325,000 speeches at Goldman or her open contempt for blue collar voters?

Recall that Elizabeth Warren is far more academically accomplished than Clinton. Clinton failed the Washington, DC bar exam while Warren came up the hard way, from what was then a second-tier law school to become the top bankruptcy law professor in the US. Similarly, Clintons career at the Rose Law Firm looks to have been largely if not entirely dependent on her being Bill Clintons wife, as opposed to her having any noteworthy legal or commercial acumen. Warren is also a more popular politician despite, or maybe because, shes hard edged in Congressional hearings (shes become more impatient over time as shes faced with regularly digging through loads of steaming bull) and doesnt happen to be a relentless grifter.

By Kali Holloway, a senior writer and the associate editor of media and culture at AlterNet. Originally published at Alternet

In yet more evidence that oppression is the business model and the entire economy is based on fuckery, a new study finds that being an academic superstar might actually hurt womens job prospects. (Breaking news: Men, not so much.) The study also found that while mens employability is determined by their level of capability and dedication, women were judged on their likeability.

The conclusions of the study from Ohio State University suggest that companies are responsive to women who do well, as long as they dont do too well. Ohio State sociologist Natasha Quadlin created resumes for 2,106 recent college graduates. Using an online employment database, Quadlin sent two applicationsone from a man and one from a womanto entry-level job listings. An Ohio State article about the study notes that both applications included similar cover letters, academic history and participation in gender-neutral extracurricular activities.

Quadlin found that fictional male applicants received responses expressing interest at the same rate across GPA levels. But as the pretend womens GPAs increased, there was a correlating drop-off in the number of callbacks they received. In fact, high-grade-scoring men were 50 percent more likely to get a response from a potential employer than high-scoring women.

We like to think that weve progressed past gender inequality, but its still there, Quadlin said in a statement. The study suggests that women who didnt spend a lot of time on academics but are intelligent enough have an advantage over women who excel in school.

For women in science, technology, engineering and math fields, good grades were particularly harmful to post-collegiate career success. Men with high GPAs in those fields were three times as likely to get a response than their female academic peers.

Theres a particularly strong bias against female math majorswomen who flourish in male-dominated fieldsperhaps because theyre violating gender norms in terms of what theyre supposed to be good at, Quadlin noted.

The findings, which are as surprising as that part in a movie when the ugly girl turns into a hot chick when she takes off her glasses and scrunchie, were further driven home by the second part of Quadlins study. The sociologist surveyed 216 hiring managers and found that they looked for competence and commitment in male applicants, while prioritizing likeability in women job-seekers.

This helps women who are moderate achievers and are often described as sociable and outgoing, but hurts high-achieving women, who are met with more skepticism, the study found, the OSU article points out.

Theres no indication of intersectionality in the studys notesmeaning that indicators of race or other factors might have weighed on outcomesbut previous studies have indicated that job-seekers with names perceived to be black or Hispanic were less likely to get callbacks from hiring managers. Quadlins study more generally jibes with prior research indicating that successful women are perceived as being less likable. An oft-cited 2003 study at Columbia Business School found that when presented with a hypothetical successful male and female venture capitalist, identical in every way but their gendered names, students found the woman significantly less likable and worthy of being hired than the man.

Power and success are seen as masculine virtues, and women who possess one or both are penalized for essentially not staying in whats perceived to be their lane. This is what New York University psychology professor Madeline Heilman labels lack of fit between gender-based behavior stereotypes that leads to gender bias in judgments when those behavioral expectations are defied. Sociologist Marianne Cooper, writing at the Harvard Business Review, explains further.

What is really going on, as peer-reviewed studies continually find, is that high-achieving women experience social backlash because their very successand specifically the behaviors that created that successviolates our expectations about how women are supposed to behave. Women are expected to be nice, warm, friendly, and nurturing. Thus, if a woman acts assertively or competitively, if she pushes her team to perform, if she exhibits decisive and forceful leadership, she is deviating from the social script that dictates how she should behave. By violating beliefs about what women are like, successful women elicit pushback from others for being insufficiently feminine and too masculine. As descriptions like Ice Queen, and Ballbuster can attest, we are deeply uncomfortable with powerful women. In fact, we often dont really like them.

Somewhere, Hillary Clinton is reading about Quadlins study and sarcastically muttering, You dont say. So is Michelle Obama, maybe in a room with her Harvard and Princeton degrees hanging on the wall, only she also understands how those sexist descriptors mingle with racist onesuppity, angry black womanwhen success and power are mixed with black womanhood. In any case, the obvious answer for smart women is not to dumb it down, but to rev it up.

These are the people who will be advocates for you throughout your career, Quadlin offered as a reminder, those who support you early on and appreciate your intelligence and hard work.Downes EUROSPAR Supermarket Templemore was presented with a prestigious Customer First @ EUROSPAR Award at the annual EUROSPAR Guild, which took place at the Mullingar Park Hotel, Co Westmeath recently.

Customer First @ EUROSPAR is the retail operations standards programme that has been implemented across the EUROSPAR supermarket group. The criteria are fully aligned to the EUROSPAR six pillar Retail Strategy of Value, Freshness, Rewards, Choice, Service and Experience.

The assessment criteria are structured to focus on best practice and innovation in supermarket retailing, resulting in 13 individual assessment elements focused on all areas of store operations, with a heavy emphasis on innovation in fresh foods departments. The programme also includes the EIQA Food Safety assessment criteria. The essence of the Customer First @ EUROSPAR Programme is its departmental breakdown by strategy pillar, enabling store management to charge staff in each department with responsibility for reaching the desired standards. This is an important function of store management within the new programme.

Accepting the award Derek Downes, EUROSPAR Templemore said: We are delighted to receive this accolade which is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff. Customer First @ EUROSPAR is not only a mark of pride for our store and staff, but more importantly, it lets our customers know that we are leaders in the field. This accolade is a point of differentiation in what is a very competitive marketplace and were honoured to receive the recognition.

According to Malachy Hanberry, Managing Director, EUROSPAR: EUROSPAR supermarkets are renowned for demonstrating industry leading standards. I would like to commend Downes EUROSPAR Templemore on their achievement today. The Customer First @ EUROSPAR standards programme was developed with our retailers and for our retailers, to ensure that our supermarkets are leading the way in terms of fresh food retailing, innovation, food safety and customer service. EUROSPAR stores around Ireland are becoming Famous for Fresh Foods and the Customer First @ EUROSPAR programme works to assist retailers in achieving this aim. Congratulations to all EUROSPAR retailers who achieved the Customer First @ EUROSPAR Award today.

Downes Eurospar has been serving the locality since 2009 and employs 22 staff locally. It is open Monday to Saturday, from 7.30am to 9pm, and Sundays from 8.30am to 9pm.

Pictured above after receiving their Customer First @ EUROSPAR award at the recent EUROSPAR Guild 2018 were: Malachy Hanberry, Managing Director, EUROSPAR, Derek Downes, Lorraine Kelly (Templemore) and Willie OByrne, Managing Director, BWG Foods.From 14 to 19 March 2018, Deputy Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Lieutenant General Steven Shepro visited the United Kingdom where he met with Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, British Chief of Defence, and key senior civilian and military staff at the Ministry of Defence. Lieutenant General Shepro also spoke at the Annual Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), and Command and Control (C2) Battle Management Conference. The Deputy Chairman concluded his trip with visits to the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) HQ and the NATO Maritime Command in Norfolk.

Lieutenant Steven Shepro, Deputy Chairman of the NATO Military Committee kicked off his trip to the United Kingdom with a visit to Whitehall, the British Ministry of Defence. He met with Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach*, Chief of Defence the United Kingdoms role within the Alliance and European security. Lieutenant General Shepro thanked the United Kingdom for all its contributions to common goals and to NATO missions, operations and activities. The UK matters to NATO and NATO matters to the UK.

Echoing the recent Statement of the North Atlantic Council, Lieutenant General Shepro expressed his concern at the attack in Salisbury, this is the first offensive use of a nerve agent on Alliance territory since NATOs foundation and NATO regards any use of chemical weapons as a threat to international peace and security. NATO and Allies have expressed their solidarity to the UK and are standing by to provide any required assistance.

On 15 March, Lieutenant Shepro attended and spoke at the Annual Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), and Command and Control (C2) Battle Management Conference. During his address, the Deputy Chairman stressed that ISR is strategically important for NATO and a pillar of effective defence which is why NATO has made significant Common Funded investments to modernise its ISR capabilities to deter and to respond to a crisis more rapidly and at the speed of relevance.

While visiting the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) HQ, Lieutenant General Shepro met with Lieutenant General Radford, Commander of the ARRC. For the last 26 years, the ARRC has provided NATO with a well-manned, rapidly deployable and flexible HQ. This allows for increased speed which translates into more effective, credible and survivable deterrence and crisis response, highlighted Lieutenant General Shepro.

At the NATO Maritime Command, Lieutenant Shepro received an update on NATO Maritime activities as well as a briefing from the NATO Intelligence Fusion Centre. Lieutenant General Shepro emphasized that NATO is currently reviewing its Command Structure and discussing how to reinforce its Maritime Posture because maritime command and control will be even more critical for our future deterrence and defence.

* Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, Chief of Defence was elected new Chairman of the NATO Military Committee and is due to take over from General Petr Pavel, current Chairman, on 29 June 2018.(Natural News) Fennel flower, a food additive used since the ancient times, is effective in treating and preventing cancer, according to a review published in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine.

The fennel plant, also known as Nigella sativa, is an annual flowering plant that is native to South and Southwest Asia, but it also commonly found in Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Southern Europe as well.

The food additive goes by a variety of names: nigella, black seed, black cumin, black caraway, Roman coriander, and nutmeg flower, and it has been used in different traditional systems of medicine (e.g., Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Arabic, and Islamic). In these systems, fennel flower extracts are known to aid in the prevention and treatment of different infectious and non-infectious diseases. (Related: Nigella sativa is cancers worst nightmare)

Researchers from the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates conducted a review of studies that examined the anti-cancer properties of fennel flower. In conducting the review, the team highlighted the molecular and cellular mechanisms that intervened in the antiproliferative, proapoptotic, and antioxidant effects of fennel flower. Moreover, they also investigated the recent findings that established the effective therapeutic potential of fennel flower extracts, which indicated a potential for suppressing tumor initiation and progression.

The anti-cancer properties of fennel flower, according to the researchers, were mainly associated with its capacity to provide strong antiproliferative, proapoptotic, antioxidant, antimutagenic, and antimetastatic roles. In addition, its protective effects against tumor growth and advancement were credited to its capability to stop inflammation and provide immune-boosting effects.

In addition, the potential of the fennel flower to curb the formation of tumors and cancer was due to the enhancement of natural killer cytotoxic activity against cancer cells and regulation of signaling pathways, which included inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) pathway, p53, and caspases.

Moreover, the outcomes of in vitro and in vivo experiments indicated that the extracts of fennel flower can potentially be used in developing effective anti-cancer therapeutic agents, in terms of controlling different stages of tumor growth and treatment of many types of cancer. However, the review also suggested that more studies are needed in order to better understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the anti-cancer properties of fennel flower.

Future studies should focus on establishing a direct link between the reported anti-cancer effects of N. sativa extracts and cancer prevention/treatment in preclinical and clinical settings, the researchers wrote in the report.

In conclusion, the experimental studies conducted in the past 20 years suggested that fennel flower extracts could be used as effective agents in controlling tumor initiation, growth, and metastasis in cancer treatments.

Health benefits of fennel flower

Fennel flower is called kalonji in India, where it is mainly used to add flavor to curries, stir-fried vegetables, and samosa. The tiny black seeds of the plant come with many health benefits, as it is packed with vitamins, amino acids, saponin, crude fiber, proteins and fatty acids like linolenic and oleic acids, volatile oils, alkaloids, iron, sodium, potassium, and calcium. Some of the health benefits that kalonji provides include:

Skin health  Mixing fennel flower oil with lime juice can help treat skin problems like acne. Adding half a teaspoon of its oil to a cup of lime juice, then applying it to your face will remove blemishes as well.

 Mixing fennel flower oil with lime juice can help treat skin problems like acne. Adding half a teaspoon of its oil to a cup of lime juice, then applying it to your face will remove blemishes as well. Diabetes control  Adding half a teaspoon of the oil in a cup of black tea every morning can help diabetic people manage their condition.

 Adding half a teaspoon of the oil in a cup of black tea every morning can help diabetic people manage their condition. Asthma relief  Combining grounded nigella seeds with warm water, and then drinking the mixture for at least 45 days will help relieve breathing difficulties, such as asthma, both in adults and children.

To read more news stories and studies on natural cures, visit Herbs.news.

Sources include:

Science.news

ScienceDirect.com

Food.NDTV.com(Natural News) According to a report from EcoWatch.com, more than 100 cities around the world now rely on renewable energy for 70 percent of their electricity needs.

Data from research by the non-profit group CDP has confirmed that over 100 cities worldwide receive about 70 percent of their electricity from renewable sources like geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind. This is a huge improvement compared to the 40 cities that reported they were relying on about 70 percent clean energy back in 2015.

The list includes populous cities such as:

Auckland, New Zealand

Nairobi, Kenya

Oslo, Norway

Seattle, USA

Vancouver, Canada

Theres even more good news: out of the 100 cities, 43 cities, such as Burlington, Vermont; Reykjavik, Iceland; and Basel, Switzerland, rely on renewable energy 100 percent.

Burlington is Vermonts biggest city and it has a population of 42,000 people. In 2015, Burlington was also the first U.S. city to run only on renewable electricity. The citys electricity comes from biomass, hydropower, solar, and wind. Burlington even has its own utility and citywide grid. (Related: Renewable energy has doubled in the U.S. in the last decade; now generating nearly one-fifth of our electricity.)

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger explained that the city has witnessed how renewable energy improved the local economy. It also provides the locals with a healthier place to work, live, and raise a family. Mayor Weinberger added, We encourage other cities around the globe to follow our innovative path as we all work toward a more sustainable energy future.

The CDP, which was previously called the Carbon Disclosure Project, has access to energy information for more than 570 of the worlds cities.

In the U.S., about 58 cities and towns, along with major metropolises such as Atlanta and San Diego, have reported that they will cease using fossil fuels. The 58 U.S. cities, towns, and metropolises also revealed plans to rely solely on renewable energy.

According to the CDP, around 275 cities now use hydropower, 189 generate electricity from wind, and 184 rely on solar photovoltaics. The CDP remains hopeful that more cities around the world will soon switch to renewable energy.

The non-profit group noted that the successful switch to greener energy sources was made possible thanks to the more than 7,000 mayors who signed up to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy.

Kyra Appleby, director of cities at CDP, commented that cities produce at least 70 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, yet they have the capacity to begin building a sustainable economy.

Appleby said that data from the CPD is a reassuring testament to ambition and commitment. Cities are showing that aside from wanting to switch to renewable energy, they are also showing that it is doable.

Below is a partial list of the 100 cities that are now using 70 percent renewable energy around the world:

Akureyri, Iceland

Aracaju, Brazil

Aspen, USA

Asuncion, Paraguay

Auckland, New Zealand

Brum Kommune, Norway

Basel, Switzerland

Bogota, Colombia

Bolzano, Italy

Braga, Portugal

Burlington, USA

Chorrera, Panama

Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania

Eugene, USA

Foumban, Cameroon

Gladsaxe Kommune, Denmark

Harare, Zimbabwe

Hobart, Australia

Inje, South Korea

Kapiti Coast, New Zealand

Kisumu, Kenya

Leon de los Aldamas, Mexico

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Montreal, Canada

North Vancouver, Canada

Oslo, Norway

Prince George, BC, Canada

Quelimane, Mozambique

Quito, Ecuador

Reykjavik, Iceland

Seattle, USA

Stockholm, Sweden

Temuco, Chile

Vancouver, Canada

Wellington, New Zealand

Tips to minimize energy use

If youre living in a city that is only starting to embrace renewable energy, you can still reduce energy use by following the tips below:

Get rid of phantom loads  Your appliances and devices still use electricity even when they are switched off. Unplug devices that youre not using, or use a power strip that you can turn off.

 Your appliances and devices still use electricity even when they are switched off. Unplug devices that youre not using, or use a power strip that you can turn off. Purchase an energy saver  Energy savers help you conserve power by continuously altering the energy supply to match an appliances load.

 Energy savers help you conserve power by continuously altering the energy supply to match an appliances load. Switch to efficient lighting  Despite the higher price point, light emitting diodes (LEDs) will last at least 10 times longer than incandescent light bulbs and they only consume use 1/4 of the energy.

 Despite the higher price point, light emitting diodes (LEDs) will last at least 10 times longer than incandescent light bulbs and they only consume use 1/4 of the energy. Use less hot water  You can do this in several ways: wash clothes in cool water, buy low-flow shower heads and aerated faucets, or take shorter showers.

Read more articles about renewable energy at GreenLivingNews.com.

Sources include:

EcoWatch.com

AlaskaRenewableEnergy.org(Natural News) The face of agriculture has changed dramatically over the past century. Instead of working with what nature has provided, encouraging biodiversity and companion planting to ward off pests, farmers have been encouraged to use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, with disastrous results. Despite being promised greater crop protection and increased yields, the results have been low-yielding soil, an increase in soil pathogens, poor water utilization and devastating harm to insects, including the honeybee.

A study published in the journal Nature in 2013, found that pesticides cause broad biodiversity loss, damaging the habitats of invertebrates like mayflies and dragonflies in soil and streams, even when farmers stick to safe levels.

The tide is slowly starting to turn, however. Science Daily recently reported that farmers around the world have returned to working with nature instead of against it. (Related: Global food security at risk as crop biodiversity is lost.)

A study by researchers from Michigan State University (MSU) has determined that farmers who have taken proactive steps to increase the number of birds and other vertebrates on their land have been able to increase their crop yields, decrease their use of chemical pesticides, and provide a safe haven for endangered species. The study was published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.

Our review of research shows that vertebrates consume numerous crop pests and reduce crop damage, which is a key ecosystem service, noted Catherine Lindell, an MSU integrative biologist and the studys lead author. These pest-consuming vertebrates can be attracted to agricultural areas through several landscape enhancements.

The same research team earlier conducted a study in which they successfully lured American kestrels to some of Michigans cherry orchards and blueberry fields by installing nest boxes in strategic places. Kestrels hunt many of the species that cause the most harm on these types of farms, including European starlings, rodents and grasshoppers. They also chase away other smaller birds that damage fruit in cherry orchards.

This movement towards utilizing nature to increase crop yields is bearing fruit around the globe. (Related: Natural bacteria, fungi, found in plants boost crop yields without pesticides.)

In Indonesia, for example, farmers have been able to document increased cacao yields of 290 pounds  worth $300  per acre. They have done this by encouraging more birds and bats to make their homes on their farms.

In Spain, farmers erect roosts close to rice paddies, increasing the local bat population, thereby reducing the need for chemical pesticides by reducing pests naturally.

Jamaican farmers actively encourage birds in their fields, which in turn eat pests that destroys coffee crops. This has enabled them to save between $18 and $126 per acre, each year.

Farmers in New Zealand have taken this a step further, not only reducing the need for pesticides and increasing crop yields, but in so doing, protecting their only falcon species, which is endangered. Farmers have collaborated with the Marlborough Falcon Trust to reestablish these birds in grape-growing regions of the country, protecting their vineyards and the birds at the same time  a mutually beneficial arrangement for the farmers and the environment. (Related: If you are passionate about the environment be sure to bookmark Environ.news.)

These scientists have demonstrated a win-win situation for farmers and birds, said Betsy Von Holle, a director with the program that funded the MSU research. Increasing native predatory birds in agricultural areas can help control insect pests that damage crops, potentially reducing costly pesticide use. For declining bird species, these efforts can increase the birds reproductive success while producing fruit crops attractive to consumers.

The MSU team hopes that there will be broad interest shown by both farmers and environmentalists in refining and implementing these types of programs more comprehensively throughout the country.

Sources include:

ScienceDaily.com

Nature.com

PAN-Europe.info[PDF]

ScienceDirect.comMarin County deputies arrested one person on probation and recovered six guns from a camper van parked on a street in Southern Marin on Saturday, according to the sheriff's office.

The suspect, who was not identified, faces multiple weapons violations, sheriff's officials said.

Deputies were patrolling the Southern Marin area Saturday when they noticed the camper van, which had been involved in other recent cases. The deputies saw two people enter the van, and knocked on the van's door to talk with them, sheriff's officials said.

One person was on active Marin County probation, and the other was on post-release community supervision out of San Francisco. As a result, deputies searched the van, sheriff's officials said.

The deputies located six firearms and several power tools inside the vehicle. They arrested one person and released the second person after determining they were not involved.A woman was stabbed to death and a man was taken into custody in San Francisco on Sunday afternoon, according to San Francisco police.

At about 2:10 p.m., officers responded to reports of a domestic violence incident on Chester Avenue, near Park Merced, where they found a woman suffering from stab wounds, police said. She was taken to a hospital, where she later was pronounced dead.

The suspect also was taken to a hospital with what appeared to be self-inflicted stab wounds, police said.

The SFPD Homicide Detail is investigating the stabbing.

No further details were available.Former Chicago White Sox player Albert Belle was arrested on several charges Sunday in Arizona, authorities said.

The 51-year-old former outfielder was taken into custody during a spring training game in Scottsdale, according to multiple reports.

Belle was charged with two counts of indecent exposure, one count of driving under the influence, and one county of DUI with a blood alcohol content of .08 or more, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department.

He was released on bond and scheduled to appear in court Monday morning at 11 a.m. MT.

Belle played in the MLB for 12 seasons, with the Sox from 1997 to 1998.A person is dead and at least 16 more have been wounded in shootings across Chicago this weekend.

The first fatal shooting of the weekend was reported just after 4 a.m. Sunday morning, when a man was found on a sidewalk in the 1900 block of West 52nd Street with a gunshot wound to his head, according to police.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene, and no one is in custody, according to detectives.

Another man is in critical condition after he was shot while standing in a parking lot in the 5400 block of West Irving Park Road early Sunday morning. The 35-year-old was taken to Community First Hospital, where he is being treated for a gunshot wound to his chest, and no one is in custody, according to police.

In the 2500 block of South St. Louis Avenue, a man was shot in the left side of his face just after 6 a.m., according to police. The man was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, and the shooter fled in a black SUV.

In the citys most recent shooting, a 15-year-old boy was shot in the arm in the 5700 block of South Mozart, according to police. The shooting, which took place at approximately 7:13 p.m., occurred when a light colored sedan pulled up and an occupant fired shots. The boy is in stable condition at Holy Cross Hospital, police said.

Friday:

A 28-year-old man was walking with a group of friends in the 2400 block of South Whipple at approximately 9:24 p.m. when an occupant of a passing vehicle fired shots, striking him in the leg. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition, police said.

Saturday:

Just after midnight, a 33-year-old man was standing in an alley when a man walked up to him and opened fire, striking him in the chest. He was taken to Illinois Masonic in serious condition, according to police.

A 33-year-old man was standing in the 500 block of North Kedzie when he was shot in the leg. He was taken to Mount Sinai in good condition, according to police.

Two people were shot in the 7100 block of South State Street at approximately 3:45 a.m. The victims were walking when they heard gunfire. A 34-year-old man was taken to Stroger in stable condition with a gunshot wound to his left leg, and a 42-year-old man was taken to St. Bernards in stable condition with a gunshot wound to his right foot. No one is in custody, and police are investigating.

In the 9300 block of South Paxton, a 40-year-old man was shot at approximately 8:15 a.m., according to police. He was taken to a local hospital in serious condition.

A man was shot in the shoulder and ankle by a person in a grey vehicle in the 800 block of North Lawndale at approximately 12:35 p.m., police said. The man was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition.

In the 5100 block of West Fulton at approximately 1:53 p.m., a 40-year-old man was shot in the right shoulder and was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, police said.

Sunday:Two young children are dead after a fire in an Indiana apartment building Sunday afternoon, according to media reports.

On Sunday night, the Lake County coroner identified four-year-old Khristopher Gober and two-year-old Kailani Gober as the two victims in the fatal fire, which tore through the building.

Both children had been brought to Gary Methodist Northlake Hospital, and both were pronounced dead within minutes of one another.

Neighbors say that the two children were left home alone in the upstairs apartment.

Authorities also say that an 8-year-old boy jumped from the fourth floor of the building, and was caught by neighbors holding blankets. The boy survived the fire and was uninjured, according to the boy's mother.



The fire started on Sunday morning in the building, but officials have yet to determine what caused the blaze. Firefighters battled the flames for more than four hours.

The paper says that 113 people were displaced by the blaze, which took place in the 5800 block of Forest Court in Gary.From Washington to Warsaw, Western nations banded together Monday to expel more than 100 Russian diplomats they accused of being spies, punishing Moscow for its alleged poisoning of an ex-intelligence officer in Britain.

President Donald Trump, under constant political heat for his reluctance to challenge Russia, ordered 60 of its diplomats out of the U.S.  all of them spies, the White House said. The United States called it the largest expulsion of Russian spies in American history, and also shuttered Russia's consulate in Seattle, deeming it a counterintelligence threat.

All told, at least 21 countries have ousted more than 135 Russians, including 23 kicked out earlier by the U.K.

"Together we have sent a message that we will not tolerate Russia's continued attempts to flout international law and undermine our values," British Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament.

The American moves illustrated an increased willingness by Trump's administration to push back on the Kremlin, even as the president himself steadfastly avoids challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin personally or directly. Less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin for his re-election but didn't raise the March 4 spy poisoning, Russia's alleged election-meddling in the U.S. or its own tainted voting process, prompting dismayed critiques even from Trump's fellow Republicans.

In a choreographed show of trans-Atlantic unity, the U.S. and European allies carefully timed their announcements for maximum effect.

Within a few hours, at least 16 European Union nations expelled Russians, with more likely to follow. Germany, Poland and France each said it planned to boot four Russian diplomats, the Czech Republic and Lithuania ousted three and Italy, two. Canada also took action, kicking out four Russians and denying three who have applied to enter the country.

The list included nations in Russia's backyard that have perhaps the most at stake. Ukraine, a non-EU country with its own conflicts with Moscow, was expelling 13 Russians. All three Baltic states said they would make diplomats leave.

Almost all of the countries said publicly that those being expelled were actually Russians intelligence operatives working under diplomatic cover.

Moscow threatened retaliation of the tit-for-tat variety, suggesting it would kick out an equal number of foreign diplomats. Russia's Embassy in Washington responded to the Seattle consulate closure by asking its Twitter followers to "vote" which U.S. consulate should be shuttered in turn: St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok.

"This is an attempt on the lives of Russian citizens on the territory of Great Britain," Russia's Foreign Ministry said. "It goes without saying that this unfriendly move by this group of countries will not go unnoticed."

Yet it was unclear whether the expulsions, which may be inconvenient for Moscow but don't take aim at its economy, would be enough to alter Putin's behavior.

"There is no actual deterrence and squeeze," said James Nixey, head of the Russia program at think-tank Chatham House. "There is, so far, no cyber-response, no financial response."

Still, the dueling allegations added to a serious escalation of tension and distrust between Russia and the West, intensified most recently by a bizarre poisoning this month that evoked the spy-vs.-spy rivalries of the Cold War.

Britain has accused Moscow of using the Soviet-developed nerve agent Novichok to poison Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for the U.K., and his daughter, Yulia, on British soil. The two remain in critical condition and unconscious. The U.S., France and Germany have agreed it's highly likely Russia was responsible. Russia has denied responsibility, while accusing Britain of leading a global charge against it without proof.

The expulsions came with a chorus of condemnation for the Kremlin  for the poisoning, Russian spying and other Western grievances. Poland's Foreign Minister, Jacek Czaputowicz, called it "the right response to the unfriendly, aggressive actions of Russia." In the Czech Republic, where Russian officials have claimed the poison may have originated, Prime Minister Andrej Babis dismissed that allegation as "an utter lie."

And the United States warned of an "unacceptably high" number of Russian spies in the U.S., describing them as a national security threat. Among the 60 Russians expelled were a dozen posted to Russia's mission to the United Nations who senior U.S. officials said were engaged in "aggressive collection" of intelligence on American soil.

"When we see these espionage tactics that are taking place right here at the heart of the U.N., we can't have that," said Nikki Haley, Trump's envoy to the U.N.

In Washington, Russia's ambassador was summoned early in the morning and told his diplomats have one week to leave the U.S. and must evacuate the Consulate General in Seattle by April 2. Located on the 25th floor of a large, downtown office building, the consulate is a particular counter-intelligence concern because of its close proximity to a U.S. submarine base and a Boeing Co. facility, said U.S. officials.

The officials said they estimated Russia had roughly 100 intelligence officials in the U.S., suggesting that dozens will remain even after the 60 are expelled. The officials weren't authorized to be identified by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump has repeatedly wavered on whether he believes Moscow was behind the election meddling, despite assessments from U.S. intelligence agencies and the special counsel investigation into Russia's actions and potential collusion with Trump's campaign. But this month, Trump's administration hit Russians with its first sanctions for the campaign interference, and also accused Moscow of an elaborate plot to hack America's electric grid and infrastructure.

Even lawmakers who have scolded Trump the loudest for failing to confront Russia for spying and election meddling praised the expulsions Monday. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called it "a welcome step forward in holding Putin accountable."

The U.S. has kicked out scores of Russians before, though never a group this size. In 1986 the Reagan administration expelled 55, and in 2001 the George W. Bush administration ejected 50 Russians in retaliation for the Robert Hanssen spy case.Federal authorities deported a military veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan but was later convicted of drug crimes, an agency spokeswoman said Sunday.

In a statement, the spokeswoman, Nicole Alberico of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, said immigration agents returned Miguel Perez Jr., 39, to Mexican authorities on Friday. Perez had lived in the United States as a legal permanent resident since age 11.

He was convicted in 2010 of manufacturing or delivering more than two pounds of cocaine in Cook County, Illinois.



In an email to NBC News, Perez's lawyer, Chris Bergen, said Perez was left with no money and only his orange prison uniform.

"He was dumped in one of the most dangerous areas of the Mexican border," Bergen said. "We will continue to fight his case and appeal his citizenship denial."A Putnam man was arrested after turning himself in on Friday for multiple burglaries, according to Connecticut State Police.

Back in October, troopers from Troop D said they investigated four nighttime commercial burglaries in the Thompson and Putnam area. The affected businesses were Harvest Moon, Marika's Restaurant and Big Gary's Discount Liquors in Putnam, and Quaddick Country Store in Thompson.

On November 21, 2017, troopers from the Troop D Quality of Life Task Force interviewed several people and identified a suspect. Troopers said they later located the suspect, 33-year-old Sean Holmes of Putnam, in Hartford and interviewed him.

According to State Police, Holmes confessed to all four burglaries during the interview. Troopers then submitted arrest warrants.

On March 23, Holmes turned himself in on all four arrest warrants, police said.

Holmes faces multiple larceny and burglary-related charges and was held on a combined cash/surety bond of $60,000.

Holmes is due in Danielson Superior Court on March 26.A proposed two-step process that could lead to tolls on Connecticut highways was approved by the Transportation Committee in the Connecticut General Assembly.

The bill that passed committee, if approved by the entire General Assembly and signed into law, would authorize the Connecticut Department of Transportation, to come up with the structure and costs associated with tolling. That study would then need to be approved next year, or if the legislature didnt act, then the study would be authorized, essentially approving tolls in Connecticut.

I think this is a pivoting point right now, said Rep. Tony Guerrera, who chairs the Transportation Committee and has been the loudest supporter of tolls in the General Assembly. I think if it comes out of the committee obviously well get a vote in the House and a vote in the Senate.

Opponents have been vocal, too. They liken tolls to another tax on Connecticut residents.

What we would be doing is layering on an already overtaxed state thats driving people and jobs out, said Sen. Toni Boucher, who serves as the Senate Co-Chair of the Transportation Committee.

Gov. Dannel Malloy has endorsed tolls as a way to raise revenue for the states Special Transportation Fund which his administration projects will run out of money within the next few years.Texas is the state most in need of pro-consumer towing reforms, and Dallas ranked second in on a list of U.S. cities with the most hostile towing market for consumers, according to a new national survey by the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

The survey found that creative billing practices such as levying fees and charges simply to increase the bill and establishing high daily storage rates were the worst problems consumers and insurers face when dealing with towing companies, PCI noted in a news release.

When a shady towing company gets a vehicle on its hook, the owner and insurer may be facing staggering bills and confusing rules to reclaim the vehicle, Robert Passmore, PCI assistant vice president, said in the news release.

PCI did not respond to an NBC DFW inquiry that requested clarification of whether Dallas refers to the City or the region.

In Dallas, the maximum amount that can be charged for what is called the private property, light duty, non-consent towing fee is $121. That is the flat fee that will be assessed on someone whose vehicle is towed from a private lot within the Dallas city limits.

By the time a towing company adds on its own charges, including a daily storage rate, the amount that someone must pay in order to claim their car is typically around $165, according to a representative of a prominent auto towing business that operates in the City of Dallas.

By comparison, many other cities in North Texas allow for towing companies to charge $250 for the private property, light duty, non-consent towing fee. That is the maximum amount allowed by state law, according to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

After the addition of other fees, the charge for someone who is towed from many North Texas cities is nearly $300.

That is what Susan Allen had to pay last Friday morning to reclaim her car after it was towed from her own apartment buildings parking garage.

According to Allen, she pays for a parking permit but the permit had apparently fallen off of her rearview mirror because she found it on the passenger seat floor once she was back in her car.

I was really shocked at the price, Allen said. I live thereand for them to have told me the amount they charged was outrageous.

It is a very big inconvenience and a bad way to start your day, because I didnt do anything wrong. I didnt park where it said not to, Allen said.

The representative for the unidentified towing company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that what happened to Susan Allen would not have happened if her apartment complex was one that was monitored by their company.

They have access to a list of the license plate numbers of every vehicle that is authorized to be in the parking lots they patrol, the towing company representative said, so even if the parking permit had fallen down the license plate would have checked out.

Consumers with questions about towing laws or ways to dispute a tow, go here.

A Frisco couple was arrested at a Boston-area hotel after police found a stockpile of weapons in their room and vehicle, police said.



Adrianne D. Jennings, 40, and Francho S. Bradley, 59, were taken into custody at a Marriott Residence Inn in Tewksbury, Massachusetts late Saturday afternoon.



Bradley contacted police to report that someone was breaking into their hotel room.

Tewksberry Police Dept.

When officers arrived, they found numerous large capacity firearms and ammunition. Police then searched the couple's car, where they found more weapons and ammunition.



Bradley and Jennings were taken into custody and face multiple charges, including: 8 counts of possession of a large capacity firearm, 19 counts of possession of a large capacity feeding device, 3 counts of possession of a silencer, 8 counts of improper storage of a large capacity firearm, improper storage of a firearm, possession of a firearm without a license, possession of ammunition without a license and possession of a bump stock.



Police are investigating to determine why the couple was staying in Massachusetts and why they were in possession of so many weapons.

The NBC 5 Responds team has received more than a dozen complaints from consumers who say their Atmos Energy bills have skyrocketed, including Nancy Coleman, who has lived in her South Dallas home for 44 years.

But in all the years she's been there, she said she doesn't recall any of her energy bills getting close to where they are now.

Her January bill was $41, but her February bill soared to $539.

"I couldn't believe it," she said.

Coleman said she called Atmos and was given a case number.

She said a representative told her they'd investigate the situation and call her back, but that didn't happen.

She began looking around her house to assess the problem on her own.

Coleman told us she barely cooks, rarely cranks up the heat and doesn't take hot showers.

"There's got to be problem," she said.

After placing more calls, Coleman said Atmos sent out a technician to check her house and her meter.

She said they didn't detect a leak or any other problem and based on the meter reading, she was told her bill was accurate, so she'd have to pay.

"There's no way that this could be just from usage. There's something wrong," said Coleman.

North Texans Frustrated

Coleman's concerns are far from isolated. Ashley Hine's bill went from $84 in January to $222 in February. The Fort Worth woman said the bill caught her completely off guard.

"We were gone out of town for a week in January. So, how is it gonna go up you know $140 [or] $150 dollars?" she asked.

Atmos Energy Responds

Atmos points to the record setting temperatures across the Dallas/Fort Worth area earlier this year.

Atmos says, "January's average was 46 degrees with several days in that month where the temperature lows were well below freezing. February's average was 50 degrees with a few days at or below freezing..."

"In winter 2017 February's average was 61 with zero days close to freezing. January 2017 average temperature was 52 with only two days at or below freezing. So consumption last year vs. this year would be vastly different as the colder the temperature is outside the harder the heating appliance must work to maintain the warmer temperature inside the home."

Atmos also says that more than likely, customers who saw a larger bill in February were estimated too low in January, and that usage then caught up in February.

"That can't triple my bill. It just can't happen," said Hine.

She said she isn't buying Atmos' answer, and neither are some of her neighbors.

Many posted on a community Facebook page questioning Atmos' billing estimates.

"You're not going to try to screw me," said Hine.

Atmos' Billing System

We reached out to Atmos Energy again to learn more about it's billing system.

Atmos says "in Texas, per the rules of service, estimated bills may be submitted provided that an actual meter reading is taken at least every six months. Atmos Energy's practice is not to estimate more than two consecutive months. This is not a seasonal practice, but one we utilize year round."

Atmos tells us that estimated readings can be higher or lower than actual usage. However, bills self-correct when the meter is read, ensuring a customer never pays for more energy than actually used. If the bill is estimated higher than actual usage, Atmos says it will apply the difference to the next bill as a credit. However, Atmos says it will issue a refund if requested by a customer.

But Coleman is convinced there's something wrong.

Her March bill is $309, more than twice the amount she paid this time last year.

She plans on calling Atmos again to ensure their estimate is correct.

The NBC 5 Responds team has heard from two local organizations that assist with energy billing. They tell us they've seen an uptick in calls regarding high energy bills. Those groups believe weather could be to blame.

Atmos Energy tells us that by law, they never mark up the cost of natural gas.

"Our customers pay what we pay. We secure the most competitive prices for natural gas when we purchase gas supplies for storage to be used during cold spells."

If you've received a high energy bill, here are Samantha Chatman's Solutions:

-If a customer has a question about the accuracy of their bill, you can contact Atmos Energy at 888-286-6700 and request that the meter be read to confirm your actual consumption. For even faster results, you may take a picture of the meter and submit it to Atmos' website through its Account Center.

-Atmos Energy customers can contact Atmos Energy at 888-286-6700 to make payment arrangements, such as an installment plan.



-Eligible customers in financial need may receive assistance through Atmos' Share the Warmth program. To see if you qualify for assistance, call 211.



-The Dallas County Health & Human Services' Comprehensive Energy Assistance Program (CEAP) program assists low-income residents who are experiencing financial hardship. Residents may contact their office at 214 819-1848 or visit the DCHHS website here to learn if they are eligible for relief.Between the rapid expansion of bike-sharing across the region and a greater emphasis on staying active, it seems like there are more bikes in North Texas than ever before.

Multiple cities are busy working to make sure people have safe places to ride them.

The City of Dallas says 56 miles of new bike trails and 26 miles of new, marked bike lanes are paid for and currently under development.

They'll help expand upon the city's existing network that includes 160 miles of bike trails and 45 miles of striped bike lanes.



Meanwhile, the City of Fort Worth is putting the finishing touches on a $200,000 restriping project that will include new bike lanes all around TCU.

The project is part of the city's larger, long-term plan to add 1,000 miles of bike trails and bike lanes to their existing system.

The City of Arlington has developed a master plan that calls for and identifies routes for nearly 140 miles of new bike trails and bike lanes.

They're currently building out their trail system at River Legacy Park to connect to neighboring Grand Prairie. The $1.3 million project is expected to be complete by mid-September.

And in Irving, city officials say they're focused on adding new bike lanes as they rebuild streets, which is what is currently taking place along Las Colinas Boulevard.

While fellow classmates were taking part in March for our Lives on Washington D.C. over the weekend, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Junior Justin Irwin decided to head elsewhere. The 17 year old heard about an invitation to speak at a Dallas church, hosting a discussion on gun reform, and decided to travel to Texas instead.

I think people everywhere need to talk about it. Listen and just get the word out and start working together to fix this, said Irwin.

Irwin said he felt called by God to be at the event called Parkland Moves Us at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church.

Senior Pastor Dr. Stan Copeland said the church decided to tackle the tough topic of gun reform after hearing from Parkland survivors.

We started thinking at that time and speaking to the congregation very directly about doing more than just praying, even though we are people who believe wholeheartedly in prayer, said Copeland.

The church invited political leaders and school officials to talk policy. The group discussed the role of mental illness, violence in media and societal factors like poverty.

There was one guiding principal throughout the Sunday evening program: be kind and compassionate even if you disagree.

For us it's a Kingdom of God issue. It's beyond mere politics and we're a very diverse congregation politically, socially and in every way, said Copeland.

Irwin was not in school at the time of the shooting earlier this year when 17 people were killed. One of close friends, Nicholas Dworet, was killed.

I will push to be the best I can be because of him, said Irwin.

He says hes not much of a public speaker, but wanted to share his viewpoint. Irwin told the audience schools should have metal detectors, only allow for one point of entry and employ multiple armed and trained officers on campus.

Irwin called for raising the minimum age someone can purchase a firearm and banning bump stocks.

The teen told the group he is a future gun owner, supports the Second Amendment and hopes to join the military in the future.

The beliefs, Irwin explained, dont have to compete.

The fact that I lost someone close to me and also seeing everyone else lose people close to them, it cant happen to anyone else, said Irwin. I want to make sure of that.

We have gone through and continue go to through a lot of pain and theyve really turned that pain into inspiration, said Mike Irwin, Justins father.New Boston city officials and the Bowie County district attorney have asked the Texas Rangers to open an investigation into the city's police department.

The Texarkana Gazette reports that the request comes after allegations that the department's police chief engaged in racially discriminatory hiring, made arrests without probable cause and used city funds to purchase items not approved by the city council.

Police Chief Tony King declined to comment when contacted by the paper.

The Rangers have agreed to open an investigation.

The allegations also include sexually explicit communications between King and an employee he fired without cause. Other witnesses described incidents where King arrested people without cause, including at a local restaurant where he arrested a man for not busing his own table when he left.A South Texas judge has been acquitted on one assault charge in an alleged gun-related road rage incident but jurors were unable to reach a verdict on the second count.

A Nueces County jury late Friday returned the decisions in the case against state District Judge Guy Williams of Corpus Christi. The 68-year-old Williams was indicted in November on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in an incident last April.

Williams pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he tried to run another vehicle off the road and pointed a gun at its occupants.

Jurors found him not guilty on one count, then deadlocked on the other. The presiding judge then declared a mistrial on the second count.

Prosecutors didn't immediately say whether Williams would face retrial.The head of the United Nations food agency warned Monday that the relocation of Islamic State group members from the Middle East to Africa could trigger a massive new European migrant crisis.

David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, said many of the militants who fled Syria amid the collapse of the Islamic State group's self-described caliphate had ended up in the greater Sahel region, a belt of semi-arid land spanning east-west across Africa and home to 500 million people.

Islamic State militants are now collaborating with other extremist groups, including al-Qaida, al-Shabab and Boko Haram, to create "extraordinary difficulties" across the Sahel, Beasley said in an interview with The Associated Press.

He said he has warned European leaders that they could face a far larger migrant crisis from the Sahel than the Syrian conflict generated if they do not help provide the region with food and stability.

"You're talking about the greater Sahel region of 500 million people, so the Syria crisis could be like a drop in the bucket compared to what's coming your way," Beasley said he told them.

"What they're now doing is coming into an already fragile area, a very destabilized area because of climate impact and governance, and they're infiltrating, recruiting, using food as a weapon of recruitment to destabilize so that they can have mass migration into Europe," he said.

"Mother after mother will tell you that 'My husband did not want to join ISIS or al-Qaida, but we had no food,' and if you haven't fed your little girl or little boy in two weeks and the alternative is signing up with ISIS, you sign up," Beasley added.

The World Food Program wants to provide stability, economic growth and sustainable development as well as food to the region, said Beasley, who was in Australia for talks with the government on funding strategies.

The Sahel  which includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauritania  is vulnerable to droughts and floods and faces constant food insecurity.

Five nations have also been grappling with a growing menace from extremists, including groups linked to al-Qaida's North Africa branch.

In February 2017, the so-called "Group of Five" agreed to assemble a 5,000-strong force to combat extremist groups, organized crime and human trafficking.

U.N. experts monitoring the implementation of sanctions on Mali warned this month that the conflict-wracked West African nation and its neighbors "face intensified terrorist threats," especially in the border area between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

The experts' interim report said the militant group calling itself the official al-Qaida branch in Mali and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara extremist group have declared that "jihadist groups are working together" to fight the 5,000 troops.

In January, the U.N. Security Council threatened sanctions against parties in Mali who obstruct or delay the full implementation of the peace deal agreed to by Mali's government, Tuareg separatists and armed groups.

The experts concluded after their Mali visit in February that "all parties to the agreement are responsible for delays."

Mali has been in turmoil since a 2012 uprising prompted mutinous soldiers to overthrow the country's president. The power vacuum that was created ultimately led to an Islamic insurgency and a French-led war that ousted the jihadists from power in 2013. But insurgents remain active in the region.

The U.N. panel said "insecurity continues to rage and is now shifting increasingly toward the center of the country" from the north.

Across the country, it said, "an estimated 4.1 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance."

The experts said the extremist group Jama Nusrat Ul-Islam wa Al-Muslimin, which positioned itself as the al-Qaida branch in Mali, and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara have claimed attacks not only in Mali but in Niger, in the Tahoua and Tillaberi regions.

In Burkina Faso, the experts said, "the terrorist group Ansar Al-Islam has multiplied attacks in the last months against the government, including two attacks against Burkinabe security forces in Soum province on Dec. 2 and Dec. 21."

Beasley told the Security Council last week that the number of people around the world in danger of dying unless they get food urgently surged to 124 million last year  mainly because "people won't stop shooting at each other."

He said by video link that almost 32 million of those acutely hungry people live in four conflict-wracked countries: Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and northeastern Nigeria, where famine was averted last year.

Globally, Beasley said, 60 percent of the 815 million chronically hungry people who don't know where their next meal is coming from live in conflict areas.A crowd gathered in Balboa Park Sunday for the unveiling of the statue of Rex, whose roar inspired the San Diego Zoo more than 100 years ago.

"I think it's just iconic and the San Diego Zoo is so well known that it just really makes it stand out even more," Kat from Minnesota said.

The lion's roar was heard during The California-Panama Expo in Balboa Park by Dr. Harry Wegeforth. That gave him the idea to start the zoo.

"Who knew that a little zoo that was started with a roar and a collection of animals would one day became the world-famous San Diego Zoo," San Diego City Councilman Chris Ward said at the unveiling. Ward represents District 3, which includes Balboa Park.

The golden Rex statue is more than 27 feet tall and weighs 20,000 pounds. The statue is considered to be the worlds largest work of its kind.

"When you look at it from an engineering standpoint, he's got one touch point and it's not straight center," zoo ambassador Rick Schwartz said. "So, this is over 20,000 pounds of a statue on that one touch point. It's not only magnificent to look at but think about how they build that."

The statue certainly impressed a Wisconsin boy who was visiting the zoo.

"The thing I like about it is it's golden and it's made out of metal," he said.

Schwartz said the statue is meant to remind people where it all started and the connection between the zoo and the city of San Diego.

Lauren Albritton, a zoo member, agreed.



"It's an amazing structure and it really embodies the spirit of the zoo," she said.

A U.S. Marine Corps veteran who leads a support group for transgender veterans said President Donald Trump's transgender ban is nothing but prejudice.



President Trump on Friday issued a memo banning most transgender troops from serving in the military with some exceptions under "limited circumstances."

Paige Biron, once a Marine pilot, said the president's new memo is creating unnecessary chaos for transgender servicemembers.

Biron served for 21 years as a pilot for assault transport helicopters. She transitioned into a woman 18 years ago. She says this new policy is a step in the wrong direction.

"It's really just an appalling act of prejudice because there is no viable scientific reason to do their jobs in the military," Biron said.

The President's new policy says most transgender service members would be disqualified from military service with limited exceptions. Those needing transgender-related medical treatment or surgery could be barred.

The president believes this policy will improve military readiness.

"It's been a very confusing issue for the military and I think I'm doing the military a great favor," Trump said in August 2017.

Biron leads a support group for transgender veterans. She says many transgender active-duty servicemembers can't speak on camera but they feel angry.

"The fact that it could affect the readiness of the Department of Defense is just nonsense," she said.

The White House says it will take a while until the new rules go into effect. Biron, however, urges current servicemembers to stay strong and she expects this fight to be taken to the courts.

"Those of us who are outside the military right now care and we'll everything we can to help you," she said.What to Know Republican Gov. Rick Scott appears ready to jump into Florida's Senate race, setting up a high-profile showdown with Sen. Bill Nelson.

Scott has been mulling a run against Nelson for more than a year, ramping up his criticism of the three-term incumbent.

Republican Gov. Rick Scott appears ready to jump into Florida's Senate race, setting up a high-profile showdown against incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

A top Scott aide, Jackie Schutz Zeckman, resigned as the governor's chief of staff over the weekend and says Scott will make a "major announcement" on April 9.

Jackie has been on my team since my first year in office and has been a trusted and loyal advisor," Scott said in a statment. "She has been dedicated to implementing my agenda throughout my time as Governor and I know she will continue to do great things for our state.



Zeckman, who has worked for Scott since his first year in office, would not provide any additional details about the governor's political plans. But Scott has been mulling a run against Nelson for more than a year and has recently been ramping up his criticism of the three-term incumbent.

The two men have traded jabs over gun violence and what should be done in the aftermath of the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people.

President Donald Trump has already publicly encouraged Scott to run. Scott, meanwhile, since last year has also been raising money for a federal super PAC.

"I fully expect him to run," said Brian Ballard, a well-known lobbyist who has close ties to both Scott and Trump. "I have expected him to run for two years."

Nelson, who has already said he will seek another term, was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000 after spending time as the state's insurance commissioner and as a U.S. congressman. Nelson, who will turn 76 this fall, is the only statewide elected Democrat in Florida.

He has won his last two elections easily but Scott may be the most formidable opponent he has encountered since he lost the Democratic primary for governor in 1990.

Scott has built-in advantages for his campaign: He can rely on his own money, he can point to job growth under his watch as governor, and his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Irma has helped his poll numbers.

Scott is a multi-millionaire businessman who shocked the GOP establishment eight years ago when he jumped into the race for governor. Scott narrowly won that year by focusing on the economy and jobs, yet he was considered an underdog because back in 1997 because he had been forced out of his job as the head of Columbia/HCA amid a federal investigation into fraud.

Although Scott was never charged with any wrongdoing, the company paid a then-record $1.7 billion fine for Medicare fraud.What to Know Police in Delray Beach say a 44-year-old man shot and killed his wife, her sister and himself.

The shooting happened in front of four children who ran past their bodies as they fled the home.

The man shot the women with a semi-automatic handgun and then walked outside to shoot himself.

Florida police say a 44-year-old man fatally shot his wife, her sister and himself, leaving four frightened children to run past their bodies as they fled the house.

Delray Beach Police Department said the incident happened Sunday morning. Detective said 44-year-old Julien Techeler Rosemberg shot the two women inside with a semi-automatic handgun and then walked out to the back yard and used the same weapon on himself.

None of the four children, who range in age from 5 to 14, were injured. Officials said their mother, 43-year-old Pierrena Rosemberg, and her sister, 41-year-old Lourdine Cazeau, 41, were both shot multiple times.

Florida's Department of Children and Families was notified and the children are currently with relatives.

Delray Beach is a community on Florida's east coast, north of Miami.What to Know Organizers estimate that about 800,000 protesters packed Washington, D.C. for the March for Our Lives rally.

Students and teachers met with lawmakers after marching to push their agenda.

Students say their next step is to push politicians to propose new legislation.

Demonstrators returning to South Florida from Washington, D.C. have a renewed sense of solidarity.

It felt surreal to see everybody standing together as one; the same belief for the same cause, said Taylor Green, a participant in Saturdays rally. No matter where they came from, what they looked like, they had all been touched by gun violence.

Organizers with March for Our Lives estimate that about 800,000 protesters packed our nations capital to push for stricter gun control.

Its a chance for them to make some sense out of this horror, said Debby Miller, a teacher in Broward County.

Too young to understand, but old enough to die is the handwritten message Stoneman Douglas junior Sheryl Acquaroli held up on Saturday. She described her experience as historic, powerful and overwhelmingly emotional, especially when Emma Gonzalez stood in complete silence.

Because Ive known Emma since my freshman year, I immediately knew what she was trying to do. I stayed silent with her and that for me was so impactful, said Acquaroli.

The students and teachers boarded five planes to make the trip, courtesy of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords foundation. Some travelers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High combined marching with meaningful one-on-one meetings.

I personally met with Doug Jones' people and was trying to push the agenda that we need stronger gun laws, we need gun control, said Ariel Braunstein, a senior at MSD. We need something that will make me feel safe in school. Metal detectors and clear backpacks arent really going to do that.

The Parkland survivors want to remind everyone that their activism isnt stopping once the rally is over.

This is simply the beginning. Just going to keep going and going and going until we get what we need, said Acquaroli.

Energized teens say their next step is pressuring politicians to propose new legislation, while also urging young voters to make it count in November.

Were going to start pressing them until we get the midterm elections, said Ashley Santoro, a junior at Stoneman Douglas.

What we need to do is keep this going in our local communities and get everyone out there to vote, because we all know whats coming next, said Green.What to Know New York City is 2018's best city in the U.S. to celebrate Easter, according to WalletHub.com.

It has the most brunch restaurants, flower shops and candy stores per capita.

Americans will spend over $18 billion on Easter-related expenses this year

Boasting the most brunch restaurants, chocolate shops, and flower stores per capita, New York City ranks as the nation's best city to celebrate Easter, according to a new survey financial planning website WalletHub.

New York promises the most egg-citing time on April 1, according to WalletHub, which measured 12 key metrics among 100 U.S. cities to come up with the ranking of 2018's best places to celebrate Easter.

The Big Apple has the most brunch restaurants, the most candy and chocolate shops, and the most flower and gift shops per capita, and easily tops rankings in those categories.

It also ranks fifth out of 100 for having most Easter egg hunt events per capita, and seventh for churches per capita. And it ranks in the top 10 for percentage of Christian population.

Roughly 80 percent of the American population will celebrate Easter in some way, according to WalletHub, with total Easter-related spending expected to top $18 billion this year. Around $2.6 billion of it will be spent on candy. It's also the biggest donation day for U.S. churches, thanks to the year's highest attendance rates.

The next best cities to celebrate Easter are, acccording to WalletHub: St. Louis; Chicago; Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. Read the full findings here.Philadelphia is getting a little bit closer to Ireland.

Aer Lingus, Irelands flag-carrying airline, is now Philadelphia Airports newest nonstop carrier.

The first Aer Lingus flight arrived from Dublin at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) on Sunday.

The aircraft passed under a traditional water cannon salute as it taxied to its gate after the inaugural flight.

City and airport officials including Mayor Jim Kenney, airport CEO Chellie Cameron and local elected officials greeted the first flight while passengers awaiting to board the flight back to Ireland enjoyed music, shepherds pie, Philly cheesesteaks and cake to celebrate the event.

Aer Lingus is the second foreign flag carrier to introduce service at PHL within the past year and sixth foreign airline overall.

Aer Lingus is going to bring some much needed competition to this heavily traveled route, Cameron said. Irish born folks want to fly on the carrier from their homeland and when they see Aer Lingus they will be more inspired to visit Philadelphia than they were before.

One passenger on the flight said she is glad there are now more options for people to travel to Philadelphia from Ireland and vice versa.

Besides offering a direct route to Ireland, passengers can fly from Philly to 21 destinations in Europe and Abu Dhabi through Dublin.

Its nice knowing that they fly from here to Dublin because once youre in Dublin you can go literally across the entire world, Jenna McKinney said after taking Aer Lingus first flight to Philadelphia. Just knowing that you can go to an English speaking country, then bounce out and go back to an English speaking country makes a difference.



To start, the flight, which arrives in the afternoon in Philly and takes off for Dublin at 5:30 p.m. (arriving at 5:10 a.m. the next morning), is set for four days a week. The route will go daily beginning May 18.The Delaware Senate will vote on a bill this week that would require insurers to cover all fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization for people with diseases or conditions that prevent them from having a child.

The News Journal of Wilmington reports that Delaware would be the 16th state with such coverage if passed. But, unlike other laws, Delaware's bill doesn't specify fertility treatment limits per year or lifetime. It would also require fertility preservation coverage for people with cancer or diseases where treatment could cause infertility.

The bill was written by Sen. Bryan Townsend, D-Newark, and co-sponsored by Sens. Nicole Poore, D- New Castle, and Catherine Cloutier, R-Brandywine Hundred. National Conference of State Legislatures Research Analyst Erik Skinner says it's difficult to tell how the bill will impact premiums.A man authorities said frequently checked a teenager out of school without her parents' knowledge and fled to Mexico with her is being held on $500,000 bail.

Court documents indicate that 45-year-old Kevin Esterly was arraigned early Sunday on a felony charge of interference with the custody of a child.

The Lehigh County district attorney's office said Esterly arrived Saturday in Allentown after being extradited from Miami, Florida.

Federal agents and Mexican authorities found the married father of four and a 16-year-old girl in Playa del Carmen a week ago and flew them to Miami. They had been missing since March 5.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled April 2. The county public defender's office, listed as representing Esterly, couldn't be reached for comment.Some Wisconsin students who took their demonstration against gun violence on the road reached their destination Wednesday  House Speaker Paul Ryan's home turf.

About 50 students set out Sunday from Madison on their "50 Miles More" march. They reached their destination in Janesville and demonstrated in a park for stricter gun laws. Ryan, a Republican who has opposed gun restrictions, is in the Czech Republic on an official visit and was not there when the marchers arrived.

The march came more than a month after a gunman killed 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

As the students trekked through rural Wisconsin on Monday, organizer Brendan Fardella said they were determined to keep people passionate about their issue.

"We want to keep it going, we want to keep it in the news cycle, keep people empowered and passionate for as long as we can until there's common sense gun reform or until we get to November and all of these politicians are up for re-election and we vote them out if they don't do anything," Fardella said.

Shorewood High School senior Katie Eder told the State Journal that kids may be only 25 percent of the nation's population, but they are 100 percent of the future and committed to making that future safe for everyone.

Eder, 18, said the participating students, who are all on spring break this week, came from Eau Claire, Milwaukee, Oregon and other places around Wisconsin. They and adult volunteers are walking about 13 miles during the day and spending nights in schools along the route.

For each mile of the route, they are spotlighting on social media a victim of gun violence. The first victim was Jaelynn Wiley, a 16-year-old who died last week after she was shot by another student at Great Mills High School in Maryland.

The group said on their website that they are targeting Ryan "for his lead role in blocking and burying any chance of gun reform again and again."

The students said they want a ban on military-style guns and accessories that turn semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons. They also want a four-day waiting period for all gun purchases, background checks on all gun sales, and the legal age to buy a gun increased to 21.



Bea Windorski said she marched because gun violence "affects every single American, especially the students of America. Enough is enough."

The students carried signs reading "No more silence! End gun violence" and "Books not bullets," and they chanted "Hey hey, ho ho, the NRA has got to go."

One supporter took the podium during the demonstration and broke down in tears.

"I am standing here so my voice is heard. We are all standing here so our voices will be heard. And if Paul Ryan and other politicians refuse, then we will take our voices to the voting booth in November," said Maria Mandoza, a march supporter.

Katie Eder, one of the march organizers, said she kept moving "because despite so many people telling us that ending gun violence is impossible, it's too ambitious, it's too difficult, I believe with every bone in my very sore body that this is the time to do the impossible."

Not all the speakers were students. Pardeep Kaleka, whose father and five others were fatally shot at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, in August 2012, also spoke. He said the students were an answer to his father's prayers that he said as he was dying.

Asked to comment on the students' list of demands, their march and the hundreds of thousands of those who protested over the weekend, Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said, "the speaker respects those expressing their views."

"The House recently enacted new laws to keep children safe without infringing on constitutional rights, she added in a statement.

Last week, Congress passed a spending bill that offers additional federal grants to prod federal agencies and states to send already required records to the federal background check system. The bill also includes money for funding mental health programs, threat reporting systems, and security training for school personnel, law enforcement and students.

"The support we've been getting from people has been so amazing that it makes me want to keep going," Tatiana Washington, a student from Milwaukee, said.

"I do have a bit of blisters on my feet but other than that I'm good," Washington said. "I like it."

Adult volunteers walked with the students, who spent the nights in schools along the route.A former Toys R Us employee is accused of stealing more than $100,000 worth of toys and other merchandise, and reselling it on eBay.

Obaid Sheikh, 25, worked at the Toy R Us at the Fair Lakes shopping center in Fairfax, Virginia. He has been charged with embezzlement, selling stolen property and conducting an unlawful financial transaction.

Mike Monaghan, the store asset protection manager, began an investigation into thefts at the store last October, a search warrant affidavit revealed. He discovered that toys marketed as "Toys R Us exclusives" were being sold by an eBay account.

Monaghan tracked the eBay account to Sheikh, an employee who had been working at the Fair Lakes store for four years. His eBay account had generated $123,000 in revenue with sales of nearly 3,000 items, court documents say. When Sheikh was confronted, he admitted he'd taken the items out of the store through the back door and put them in his vehicle's trunk, a search warrant says.

Monaghan then turned the investigation over to Fairfax County police. investigators searched Sheikh's home and found a variety of Toys R Us merchandise and bags.

Sheikh told authorities he decided to steal from the store because he felt mistreated, a detective handling the case wrote. Sheikh also told the detective he had $80,000 in a bank account and was using the proceeds from the stolen merchandise sales, in part, for his college education.

The detective said Sheikh then turned over $185.88 worth of merchandise he'd just stolen that was still in his car.Five days after a shooting that stole the life of their classmate, students at a Maryland high school gathered to remember 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey.

Willey was in the hallway of Great Mills High School in Saint Mary's County on Tuesday morning when police say Austin Rollins pointed a semi-automatic handgun at her and fired. She died Thursday night after her parents announced they had decided to remove her from life support.

Students, parents, teachers and school officials gathered at a park Sunday not far from the school where Rollins opened fire.

They chanted "We are Great Mills," comforted each other and thanked the police and medics who raced to the school the day of the shooting.

"For all of our parents: Please know what's going on in your child's life," one man said at the gathering.



"It's not the phone. It's not the Xbox. Are we giving them the love that they need?" another man said passionately.

Willey's family was also at the vigil and could be seen speaking to first responders and others.



Some Great Mills High School students participated in the March for Our Lives on the National Mall Saturday to advocate for gun control and speak out against gun violence.In her widely watched "60 Minutes" interview, porn star Stormy Daniels explained why she accepted a $130,000 payment she says was intended to keep her silent about her sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006.

Trump has denied the affair, through his representatives. But his lawyer, Michael Cohen, has said he paid Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket days before the 2016 election. That has prompted questions about whether it was effectively a campaign contribution. Cohen denies the payment was related to the campaign.

Some questions and answers about the payment:

WAS THE $130K ILLEGAL?

The transaction itself does not seem to be illegal, but the failure to report it either as a campaign contribution or on government ethics forms might be.

WHO OBJECTS?

Two complaints have been filed by watchdog groups. Common Cause says in a complaint to the Federal Election Commission that the payment may violate federal campaign finance law in several respects. It said it should have been reported as an in-kind campaign contribution and was far above the $5,400 Cohen could give Trump's campaign. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington also has asked the Justice Department and the Office of Government Ethics to investigate whether the payment to Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, may have violated federal law because Trump did not list it on his financial disclosure forms.

Cohen has said neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Daniels and he was not reimbursed for the payment. However, Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti told "60 Minutes" he has documents showing Cohen using his Trump Organization email address in setting up the payment and that the nondisclosure agreement was sent by FedEx to Cohen at his Trump Organization office in Trump Tower.

ISN'T THIS JUST A TECHNICALITY?

The groups that filed these complaints say their beef isn't just about technical violations of obscure election and ethics laws. They say the complaints may open the door to more serious allegations that could force Cohen, and potentially Trump, to testify under oath. Common Cause vice president Paul S. Ryan said Cohen should be asked under oath about Trump's involvement in the payment. "Michael Cohen knows whether Donald Trump is directly involved in all of this," Ryan said.

WHAT'S THE PENALTY FOR ILLEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS?

There can be both civil and criminal penalties if investigators determine that the campaign or Cohen intended to keep the payment secret. This is not an easy standard to prove in court. Prosecutors failed to get a conviction against former presidential candidate and Sen. John Edwards on charges that he received illegal contributions and falsified documents to pay for the silence of his pregnant mistress as he campaigned for president in 2008. Ryan said a case against Trump could be stronger because the payment to Daniels was made days before the election when she was likely to go public with her story.

ANY CONNECTION TO THE RUSSIA PROBE?

Russia's election meddling and the alleged Daniels affair do not appear to be linked. But special counsel Robert Mueller has broad investigative authority, and Cohen has been linked to other aspects of the investigation, including efforts in 2015 to pursue a Trump Tower real estate development in Moscow. If Mueller believed he could leverage Cohen's testimony about Russian matters, he could have reason to look into the payment to Daniels.

WHAT OTHER LAWSUITS ARE INVOLVED?

Daniels has filed a lawsuit to free herself from the non-disclosure agreement she signed when she accepted the money. Cohen also is pursuing claims through arbitration against Daniels for violating the non-disclosure agreement. Cohen says Daniels could owe $20 million for violating the agreement. It's possible that if Cohen does not drop the effort, Daniels' lawyer could try to question Trump about the arrangement.

DOES A SITTING PRESIDENT HAVE TO TESTIFY?

Probably. The Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that President Bill Clinton was not protected from a civil sexual harassment lawsuit filed in federal court by former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones. The high court has never definitively said whether a president must answer questions in a criminal proceeding, including the kind of grand jury that Mueller has empaneled. But it has suggested he would have to comply. Trump also is facing a defamation lawsuit in a New York court that was filed by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on "The Apprentice." A judge ruled the lawsuit can move forward while the president is in office.A fight over money at a Walmart in Lebanon, New Hampshire led to the arrest of three people in the frozen food section of the store.

The altercation reportedly started when Calvin Molina, 25, came to the store to confront Juan Marin, 27, about some money he owed him, according to a statement from Lebanon police. Things eventually escalated into a fight between the two men.

By the time Lebanon officers arrived on the scene, Molina had a head laceration and Marin was being restrained by an off-duty Hartford police officer and other bystanders.

Molina was transported to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center for treatment - but not before he snapped a smiling selfie of his bloodied face and what appears to be a slashed brow.

Marin was charged with two counts of simple assault, Molina with one charge of simple assault and resisting arrest. Both are due in Lebanon District Court in May.

A third person, Yamaris Marin, 20, was charged with two counts of simple assault. She is accused of assaulting the off-duty officer who attempted to break up the fight and then interfering with Lebanon officers attempting to take Molina into custody. Her arraignment will happen in Grafton County because she received an enhanced misdemeanor for allegedly assaulting a police officer.Two University of New Hampshire researchers were charged Friday with stealing money from federal research grants, U.S. Attorney Scott Murray announced in a press release.

The indictment alleges that Hailong Zhang, 44, of Nottingham, and Jichun Zhang, 45, of Durham, used credit cards provided to them by the university - and covered by federal research grants - for personal purchases.

Hailong Zhang, a research project manager at the university, is accused of using his business card to purchase Amazon gift cards totaling more than $82,000 and using them for personal items between December 2013 and January 2018. The indictment alleges he attempted to hide this improper use of the grant money by submitting fictitious receipts to the university. His grant was provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health.

Jichun Zhang, a research assistant professor in a different department at the school, is accused of using a university-issued credit card covered by federal grant money to purchase almost $7,000 worth of personal items from various online businesses between January 2016 and December 2017. He allegedly also concealed these purchases by submitting fictitious receipts to the university. His grant was provided by the National Aeronatic and Space Administration (NASA).

The two defendants were arrested Friday and are scheduled to make their initial appearance in federal court Friday afternoon, as per the U.S. Attorney's office in New Hampshire. It's unclear if they have attorneys.

In a statement, University of New Hampshire officials said they launched an investigation after discovering irregularities in employee expense reimbursement claims during a random audit, and added both have been placed on unpaid administrative leave and have been banned from campus.A Vermont man was killed Sunday afternoon in a snowmobile crash on a trail in Lunenburg, state police reported.

Police say Richard Ramsay, 52, of Gilman, was thrown from his snowmobile after crashing into a tree that was partially crossing the trail. He was pronounced dead at the scene at approximately 4:00 p.m. Vermont state police were assisted at the scene by the Lunenburg and Lancaster fire departments.

The crash is still under investigation, but authorities said that speed, alcohol and defective brakes are all factors in the crash.

Norwich Diocese wants to build a church out of Lego Norwich Diocese wants to build a church out of Lego

The Diocese of Norwich wants to build a church out of Lego at this year's Royal Norfolk Show and is appealing for spare bricks.Organ Donation Week has been an opportunity to remember with gratitude much-loved parishioner Ermie Astorga from St Johns Cathedral, who passed away a year ago.

Organ Donation Week has been an opportunity to remember with gratitude much-loved parishioner Ermie Astorga from St Johns Cathedral, who passed away a year ago.

Norfolk Christian League hails 'fantastic spirit' As the new football season starts, the most sporting team in the Norfolk Christian League from last season have been presented with a trophy for their fantastic spirit. Read more

The power of belonging to your church Regular contributor Jane Walters has recently become a member of her local church, and is discovering the joy of Christian teamwork. Read more

Gospel choir helps Norwich church Covid-19 reflections The Norwich Community Gospel Choir helped people to reflect on the Covid-19 pandemic at a concert at St Stephens Church in Norwich on Saturday September 28 as part of the churchs After The Storm event. Read more

Trustee vacancies at Community Chaplaincy Norfolk CCN is a Christian Charity which supports men and women leaving prison in Norfolk. We currently have a Trustee Board of six and are looking to appoint two or three new Trustees over the course of 2021/22. Read more

Gorleston youth project re-starts prayer meetings The Identity Youth Project in Gorleston has re-started regular in-person prayer gatherings, and all are welcome to join with them to pray for this vital work. Read more

Vacancy for Clerk to the Trustees of Carters Trust Norwich-based charity Carters Trust is looking to employ a Clerk to the Trustees to assist in the administration of the Trust, the maintenance of financial records, compliance with Charities Acts and other legal obligations, and correspondence. Read more

Norwich event explores ministry in poor communities Sara Barron, Executive Director of the National Estates Church Network, will be speaking in Norwich about ministry in low-income communities. Read more

YMCA Norfolk - Policy, Performance and Compliance Co-ordinator YMCA Norfolk is looking for a Policy, Performance and Compliance Co-Ordinator to ensure compliance and consistency with regard to the implementation of our policies and procedures. Read more

Norwich preacher pays ultimate price for mission to the poor Tributes have been paid to a courageous Norwich Methodist preacher, who gave up everything and moved to Pakistan to follow Gods call to serve the poorest of the poor, and who has died suddenly. Read more

Tournament heralds start of Norfolk Christian league The start of the 2021/22 Norfolk Christian Football League season was heralded by the traditional 11-a-side tournament for half a dozen teams at Sloughbottom Park on Saturday September 18. Read more

N Norfolk Christian artists in Open Studios event Two faith-filled artists from the Fakenham area will be taking part in the Norfolk Open Studios event starting later this month. Read more

Nourishment for the body as well as the spirit? Robert Ashton wonders if there is scope for our parish churches to provide a further service for their local communities. Read more

Norfolk authors poems speak to the heart Christian writer Catherine Ayre has had a book of poems published to encourage people to find out more about God. Read more

Invite for Norfolk faith groups to help prisoners The Welcome Directory is a multi-faith charity that helps faith communities to offer welcome to people leaving prison. Norfolk churches are among those who are invited to register to make a commitment. Read more

YMCA Norfolk needs Business Support Administrator YMCA Norfolk is looking for a Business Support Administrator to provide business, co-ordination and administrative support for the communities team, based in Norwich. Read more

Women's Specialist Practitioner needed The Magdalene Group is seeking to employ a Womens Specialist Practitioner to provide gender and trauma-informed support to women experiencing multiple disadvantage and to provide specialist support to female sex workers and victims of sexual exploitation Read more

Norwich church art and concerts reflect on Covid-19 Until September 25, concerts and an art exhibition at St Stephen's church in Norwich city centre will continue on the theme of "After the Storm? a reflection on the Covid-19 pandemic." Read moreCisco is well known for many things. Its the worlds largest networking vendor, it has typically been the bell weather for IT spending, as its often predicted upticks or downticks in spending before other vendors, and its ability to catch market transitions has been remarkable, which is why it has a market leading position in so many technology areas adjacent to the network.

Ive always felt that one of the more under-appreciated attributes of Cisco is the work its corporate social responsibility (CSR) group does in trying to solve some of the globes biggest problems. Cisco has been very active at the World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland, where world leaders, celebrities, and business leaders gather to discuss issues such as ending hunger and creating greater equality.

Cisco pledges to positively impact 1 billion people

If you were at Cisco Live in 2015, you may remember a declaration the company made to positively impact 1 billion people by 2025 through the work the CSR team does. CSR was a big area of focus for former CEO John Chambers, and the group not only continues to thrive under Chuck Robbins, but one could argue the new CEO has accelerated CSR efforts.

As CEO, Robbins gets many of the accolades for the companys efforts in this area, but the person most responsible for the impact Cisco has had is the company's senior vice president of corporate affairs, Tae Yoo. Ive had the pleasure of meeting Yoo a number of times, and she is constantly challenging her team to be better global problem solvers and has a true passion for this kind of work.

Its been about two years since Cisco made the 1 billion people commitment, and the company claims it has impacted 232 million people in the past two years (78 million in 2016 and 154 million in 2017). I asked Cisco how they calculated that number and was given a brief overview of the methodology. And I believe that is a defensible number.

Destination: Home focuses on ending homeless in Santa Clara County

While much of the work Cisco does is global in nature, this week the company made an announcement to impact its own backyard. Through Destination: Home, Cisco has committed $50 million over the next five years toward the goal of ending homelessness in Santa Clara County. Destination: Home is a project to end homeless in Santa Clara County, and the organization will use the money and partnership with Cisco to leverage existing public resources to build more homes for low-income individuals.

Santa Clara County is in the heart of Silicon Valley and is well known for its wealth and the high cost of housing. However, not everyone works for a Cisco, Facebook, or Google, and many cant afford a home. In fact, Santa Clara County has 7,400 homeless people, with 2,000 being chronically homeless. That is the third-highest rate in the U.S. behind only New York City and Los Angeles. However, New York City provides shelter because of the cold winters, and Los Angeles has Skid Row, which offers free social services to that area. SCC has nothing like those programs, and the homeless have to fend for themselves.

Compounding the problem is that builders want to make money, so most of the new construction in Santa Clara County is focused on the above-average income group because there is such high demand for homes. The median income in Santa Clara County is currently $93,500, so if a family earns less than $75,000, it's unlikely they will find a place to live anywhere in SCC.

Further, a Cisco CSR spokesperson said that of the 665,061homes in Santa Clara County, only 348 apartments have been designated for homeless individuals and families. Thats less than 0.005 percent of the housing stock dedicated to the homeless.

Cisco funds complement existing Measure A

In 2016, the Santa Clara County voters approved Measure A, a $950 million housing bond with $700 million dedicated to increasing the housing supply for Extremely Low Income (ELI) (defined as under $28,000 annually) individuals and families and supportive housing. This funding from Cisco will complement Measure A in the following ways:

Developing and supporting ELI and supporting housing development by providing innovation on housing construction.

Support and expand existing prevention programs to prevent homelessness for at-risk individuals. This includes rent and security deposit assistance, workforce development, and employment programs.

Data and technology integration and optimization programs. The systems used by social services are often very old and outdated. Cisco certainly knows technology, and it can help modernize infrastructure and improve processes to streamline the coordination between agencies

As a watcher of Cisco, Im glad to see the company continue the great work its CSR team does. This group doesnt sell Cisco products, wont be margin accretive, and likely will not impact RFPs, but Cisco has always strived to use its size and influence to make the world a better place. If you live in Silicon Valley, or even if you dont but want to help, theres a donation tab on the Destination: Home website.

Note: Cisco is a client of ZK Research.ASAP!s Inter-District Strings Project will culminate with four in-school performances at Nonnewaug High School April 5.

In addition, a free evening performance will be held for the public on April 5 at 7 pm at Nonnewaug School Auditorium, 5 Minortown Road, Woodbury.

ASAP serves Northwest Connecticut.

The Inter-district Strings Project is funded in part by grants from Woodbury-Bethlehem Community Music Foundation, The Rene Bloch Foundation, and Jean & Julien Levy Foundation of the Arts.

The Strings Project, which was spearheaded 10 years ago by ASAP!, provides young musicians from all walks of life the chance study under professionals and play side-by-side with the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra.

Students learn a varied repertoire in small groups, focusing on fundamental techniques, ensemble skills, and music interpretation.

The project culminates in performances for more than a thousand school children each year.

Over the past several months, 24 ASAP participants from a dozen Connecticut towns met at Shepaug Valley School in Washington to study with professional musicians from the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra.

Classes were led by teaching artist and violinist Lisa Laquidara with help from cellist Mary Costanza and violinist Claudia Hafer-Tondi.

I love the enthusiasm of the students, said Laquidara. They are very motivated and give 100 percent effort and attention.

They love to play in orchestra, and it really shows in their attitude in this program, she said. I feel very fortunate to have such enthusiastic and motivated students every year.

Students in grades 6-12, and adults work collaboratively towards a common goal as they prepare to perform side-by-side with 20 professional string musicians and a percussionist from the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of WSO Music Director and Conductor Leif Bjaland.

The concert will also feature a guest appearance by David Yi, a conducting Fellow from the Yale School of Music.

Doors will open at 6 p.m. at Nonnewaug High School.

The public concert presented by the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra was made possible in part by funding from the Ruth Ann Leever Designated Music Education Fund at the Connecticut Community Foundation

For more information, call 860-868-0740.According to BBC newsreader George Alagiah, Scotland has better cancer screening procedures compared to England. Alagiah, a Sri Lankan born journalist, is 62 and is diagnosed with a stage 4 cancer of the bowel that relapsed little before Christmas. He says that his cancer would have been detected much earlier if he were being screened in Scotland rather than in England.

All women and men are offered screening for bowel cancer once in two years after they are 50 years of age in Scotland. According to the Cancer Research UK, this can help detect bowel cancers in their early stages. The chances of survival with bowel cancer diagnosis in early stages are nearly 100 percent compared to a less than 10 percent chance of survival if the cancer has reached stage 4. Alagiah said about his condition that if he were to be screened starting at the age of 50, he would have had at least three or four screenings by the time he was 58 (in April 2014) when the cancer was first detected. He said that his cancer was thus caught very late. He tweeted yesterday, Sunday, My cancer was caught late, very late. Earlier screening is the key. Simply no reason why others should have to go through all the treatment that Ive had.

Alagiah says that when he was 58he started noticing blood in his stools. He got himself tested and the doctors found that his cancer had spread to the liver and lymph nodes. He had to undergo five surgeries to remove large parts of his liver and intestines. He needed several rounds (17 to be exact) of chemotherapy. By 2015 October, he was declared to be in remission and he came back to work at BBC News at Six that he has been presenting since 2007. However he relapsed again late last year and is under treatment again.

At present Alagiah is supporting a campaign by Bowel Cancer UK to start screening all the population of England from the age of 50 like Scotland does. According to Bowel Cancer, UK, this cancer is responsible for 16,000 deaths yearly. While lung cancer is the leading killer cancer, bowel cancer comes second. More than 40000 people in the UK are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year says the charity.

Some of the early symptoms of bowel cancer that need to be wary of include blood in stool and via anus, alteration of bowel habits that lasts over three weeks, severe abdominal pain, presence of a dragging sensation or lump in the abdomen and significant fatigue and loss of weight.One potential therapeutic concept for treating heart failure besides guideline directed medical therapy, is to correct any concomitant severe mitral valve insufficiency (mitral regurgitation). Despite numerous treatment options being available, it is still not clear which patients will benefit most from such an intervention.

The long-term observational study conducted by Georg Goliasch from the Division of Cardiology, MedUni Vienna/Vienna General Hospital, observed the impact of functional mitral regurgitation (heart valve defect) on the long-term prognosis of 576 patients with chronic systolic heart failure. It was found that the increasing prevalence (occurrence) of functional mitral regurgitation is directly related to the severity of heart failure. Moreover, the results reinforce the hypothesis that functional mitral regurgitation has an adverse impact upon long-term survival of heart failure patients, irrespective of other clinical, echocardiographic or neurohumoral factors.

The exact time of the intervention is crucial

However, perhaps the most important finding in this context is that mitral regurgitation primarily influences the survival of those patients whose heart failure is not yet very advanced. This indicates that there is a particular "window of opportunity" that should be used to make an appropriate intervention.

This study underscores the growing importance of functional mitral regurgitation in the setting of chronic heart failure and indicates, for the first time, which patients can subsequently benefit from interventional treatment of functional mitral regurgitation. It was hitherto impossible to demonstrate with such clarity that there is a "too early" and "too late" for an intervention and this knowledge takes us one step further towards precision medicine.

Chronic heart failure (cardiac insufficiency) is a growing challenge for Western societies, due to its frequency and its impact in terms of hospital admissions and mortality. It is more common than a heart attack and represents a much higher risk for those affected. For this reason, heart failure is currently the major area of interest for the European Society of Cardiology. In May of this year, more than 5,000 cardiologists are expected in Vienna to attend two specialist congresses.To participate in the labor market and to have a family are things most people take for granted. Women with functional disabilities are deprived of many opportunities. The explanation may be both functional ability and gender, according to researcher.

Imagine going on a hotel holiday with your boyfriend. You inform the hotel in advance that you need adaptation for wheelchair. When you arrive at the hotel, you are assigned a twin room instead of a double room, which was what you reserved.

This is one of the stories the researchers in a European research project about the experiences of people with functional disabilities were told. Women experience that they are not expected to have a sex life, romantic relationships or children.

"Having a family is part of being a fellow citizen. Finding someone to be with, and having children, is a right other people take for granted. But it is not a matter of course for everybody," says Anna Kittelsaa.

Citizenship in light of gender

Kittelsaa is senior researcher at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU Social Research), and has participated in the international project DISCIT - Making Persons with Disabilities Full Citizens. She has investigated how people with functional disabilities experience their lives. In the project, it is formulated in the following way: how they experience to live as active fellow citizens. Already here there is a gender dimension, according to Kittelsaa.

"Active citizenship is defined in close association to participation in the labor market, public life and politics. Within this, there is little consideration for women's specific experiences."

The researchers in the project have spoken to 217 people with reduced functional abilities from nine European countries. Among these, 104 were women. The women belong to different generations. In the interviews, the researchers have asked questions about the entire life cycle.

"In this way, we can get a broad insight into their experiences and see whether there has been a development through the generations."

The nine countries covered in the project have different government systems and welfare services, but according to Kittelsaa, the similarities in the experiences are more interesting than the differences.

"We have demonstrated that they encounter obstacles, both attitudinal and practical."

The obstacles that the women experience have to do with both functional ability and gender - sometimes at the same time.

No expectations of family life

Several of the older women the researchers spoke to had gone to special needs schools.

"One girl had been in a special needs school with almost only boys. She said that she felt completely lost when she was with other girls."

"During the youth years we learn how we behave according to our gender in our interaction with other teenagers. Many people with functional disabilities miss out on this if they are deprived of the opportunity to socialize with other teenagers naturally."

Kittelsaa points to a fact from research on functional abilities: It is common that the reduced functionality becomes the primary identity marker, before gender.

"You are not expected to be attractive as a partner or to become a parent."

This is particularly common for women, although men also encounter other attitudes about sexuality and attractiveness than those without reduced functionality. The hotel that failed to give a woman in a wheelchair a double room is one example. Another example of how these expectations are expressed can be seen within the health service.

"A visually impaired woman asked her assistant if she might also help her children. The answer she got was that if you are visually impaired you must expect some challenges, also when you have children."

'Reduced functionality' may include many things, both in terms of types of functional disabilities and in terms of severity. Both physical and mental conditions may cause reduced functionality. Expectations concerning family life were particularly low when it came to people with developmental disabilities.

"Only one of the women with a developmental disability had children. We also spoke to several participants with mental health conditions, and several of them had been deprived of their children."

Those with physical functional disabilities, on the other hand, were met with attitudes that they would not be able to manage the practical sides of being a parent.

Barriers for women in education and work life

The researchers studied the women's access to education and work life. Here, they found a generational perspective.

"For the generation born in the 1950s, functional disability was not the only barrier."

"At that time you were supposed to be content with a simple job such as telephone operator. It was not only about functionality, it was about the common expectations to women in those days. They faced the same barriers as other women, just even stronger."

It could be more difficult because they needed adjustments.

"For the visually impaired, for instance, it was complicated to get special teaching arrangements with the braille printing," says Kittelsaa.

The choice of education was often connected to the expectations of starting a family.

"Some were told that they could not expect to have the education they wanted, whereas others heard that they will never get a husband, so they should at least make sure to have an education."

For the generation born in the 1970s, there were more options.

"If they wanted children, they considered this an accessible choice. They did not experience the same barriers as the older generation."

Among those belonging to the generation born in the 1990s, most were interested in getting an education.

"They expected of themselves to make something of their lives. They had support from their families and they had attended regular schools, so they were able to identify with people their own age."

Kittelsaa emphasizes that being with other people your own age during childhood is important in order to be able to participate in society on the same level as others.

"We get a lot from our family, but we fall short as gender or as people if we are deprived of the opportunity to identify with others our own age - and this does not only apply to the peculiar and the negative."

"If you're visually impaired, and everybody else has the same disability, you find yourself in a very unbalanced situation. No-one can take your arm and bring you along to do something different."

Even though the development has been positive, the young today nevertheless feel that there are many barriers.

"There are still many barriers in the education system, as there is not enough adaptation. In Norway, it is very easy to just offer people a disability allowance without checking the actual opportunities. This reflects attitudes concerning what they can and should. We seem to know what is best for them."

Involved in family and organization work

Participation in society involves access to services, but also the opportunity to contribute. Most of the informants contributes in several areas.

"Many were active in organizations, particularly special interest organizations for the rights of the functionally disabled."

Several of the informants were also recruited to the research project through such organizations.

"Many had been at the barricades. Some had worked after having negative experiences. Some had had children after having been advised against it. Now they wanted to fight for others' rights."

Contributing in the lives of families and friends is also a part of being active citizens.

"Many took care of family and looked after other people's children - the sort of things women do."

Recruiting through organizations may give an unbalanced selection with unusually resourceful representatives for the group of people that the researchers are interested in.

"We didn't only meet successful people," says Kittelsaa.

"We also met people who had fought battles they couldn't win. These battles could be about education or work, or the combination of this with children."

The time squeeze is a well-known phenomenon in many families.

"But it is extremely unpractical to have a functional disability in addition to making the daily life add up, with everything it involves. Sometimes you have to make choices, or choose to just be a mother for a period."

Attitudes are obstacles

Kittelsaa and the other researchers can see a development in their material.

"In terms of gender equality, women with reduced functional abilities are subject to the same development as the rest of us."

But there is still a way to go.

"The formal barriers are not as high neither with regard to gender equality nor equality for the functionally disabled. They have the same rights. But in practice, it is about attitudes, particularly for the functionally disabled. Society does not expect them to achieve much in life."

"What or who confines them?"

"Many are restricted because of limited access. Norway is not world champion neither when it comes to adaptation in the education system, work nor transport. This is because some people have decided, or rather not decided how it should be."

"But we all have attitudes. We have a history where people have had different value, judged by functional ability. Nobody wishes for a functional disability. And when you do not have reduced functional ability, you might not think about the fact that others who have more to carry - they are actually just like us. They are like most people. I think that the belief that they are a different breed is deeply rooted in us."

Little gender perspective in research on functional disabilities

In the project, only the female experiences have been analyzed in a gender perspective.

"We have included it in the analysis of the interview material. The questions in the project have to a small extent addressed women's specific experiences; the same questions have been asked to both men and women. Therefore, we have looked at what we can extract from the data from a women's perspective."

With women's specific experiences, she means that the research design did not include many questions about family life or children, or challenges related to gender. In this way, the project differs from other research within the field. In 2017, Kittelsaa contributed to a report on gender in research on functional disabilities in Norway. It showed that gender perspectives are lacking.

"This particularly applies to men. The little research with gender perspectives that has been done has focused on women."

"What is the most important aspect of your study?"

"It may tell us something about what it means to be man and woman. We know that men and women have different experiences. We need to knock the bottom out of the attitude that people with functional disabilities are genderless and asexual. It has to do with attitudes - these are living people, and they have a gender."Researchers in a large multicenter study develop a comprehensive map of genetic risk factors for stroke and lay the groundwork for more individualized approaches to treatment

Stroke is a serious disease affecting blood flow to and from the brain, and is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Stroke is characterized by a sudden onset of neurological dysfunction, caused by a blood clot or hemorrhage in a cerebral artery. While many genetic variants and lifestyle behaviors have been identified as risk factors for stroke, the genetic basis for the disease is unknown.

Now, in one of the largest multi-institutional studies conducted to date, researchers analyzed the genomes of over half a million individuals across the world to find mutations predicting stroke riskand to find clues to personalized treatment.

The research team performed a multi-ancestry, genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 67,162 patients who had suffered a stroke, along with 454,450 healthy individuals. The consortium, which consisted of nearly 200 research institutions, leveraged the large sample size to identify genetic differences that would be significantly more difficult to detect in a smaller study.

"The study was essentially a meta-analysis of several earlier studies," explains Masahiro Kanai, a genetic statistician from Osaka University who contributed to the data analysis. "Our goal was to use the sheer power of numbers to find new genetic variants linked to different forms of stroke."

The GWAS compared the genomes of the two groups to uncover mutations that might explain the onset of stroke. The study focused on short nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are single-letter mutations in the genome that are unique to specific populations or ethnic groups. While SNPs are not always linked to disease, they typically serve as red flags that a person may be predisposed to develop an illness. Moreover, SNPs are often located in or close to genes, which can offer hints to the genetic cause of a disease.

The researchers examined approximately eight million SNPs of the 10 million thought to exist in humans. Previous efforts to identify stroke-related factors had collectively associated 10 SNPs with a greater risk of stroke. The current analysis uncovered 22 more SNPsmore than tripling the number of known genetic risk factors for stroke.

"The depth of the data allowed us to explore risk factors with an unprecedented level of detail," Kanai adds. "We were able to assess how ancestry affects a person's risk of stroke, for example. We determined how other vascular traits are related to stroke risk, and parsed out which genetic variants are associated with particular kinds of stroke. We even started to probe for some of the more exotic features of a person's genome, like how proteins decorate the DNA of at-risk patients differently than other individuals."

The study may have broad implications beyond predicting stroke risk. For one, the findings are likely to advance the theoretical understanding of stroke, as many of the novel risk factors were found to be near genes with no previously known link to stroke. That discovery alone may open new research avenues to unravel the underlying mechanisms of the disease.

Perhaps the most salient finding of the study, however, is that many of the SNPs are linked to genes targeted by therapies that are already used to treat and prevent stroke. The ability of the study to pinpoint known therapeutic targets speaks to its predictive power, and suggests that many of the newly identified genetic variants may become promising new targets for stroke treatment.

"We're still far from the reality of personalized medicine, but studies such as this one will go a long way toward getting us there," notes Yukinori Okada, professor of statistical genetics at Osaka University and a contributing analyst to the project. "Imagine a physician being able to pull up a patient's DNA like a roadmap, and plan out the best treatment route based on their own individual genetic makeup. Our findings are still quite rudimentary in the context of that ideal scenario, but they are an important first step in the process."Karlmann King is an SUV thats touted as the worlds most expensive SUV and comes with a whopping base price tag of $2.2 million. Add to it body armor and customization and the price can cross $3.5 million. The SUV is priced more than most of the hypercars at $2 million. It's the perfect antidote for those who think all today's SUVs look pretty much the same because nothing else on earth looks like this.

Karlmann King SUV

This limited-run vehicle is based on Ford's F-550 platform, has been designed by a Chinese company called IAT, and is being built by a team based in Europe. The makers say it's a "stealth" vehicle and that it offers what they call "an unprecedented visual feast."

Karlmann King SUV

How much of a visual feast the Karlmann King provides is obviously in the eye of the beholder, and just how stealthy this monster actually is could also be open to debate. But it's probably fair to say that if Batman was looking for an SUV to add to his collection, this is where his search would begin and end.

Karlmann King SUV

The Karlmann King measures in at almost six meters from front to back and weighs in at 4.5 tonnes. But if you want to go for the optional bulletproofing (and why wouldn't you?), this mighty beast will then tip the scales at an astronomical 6,000 kg.

Karlmann King SUV cabin. (Images: IAT)

What's perhaps a little less impressive is the engine powering the KK, which is the 6.8-litre V-10 that normally powers the Ford F-550. The 395 bhp it's said to produce in this case would normally be more than sufficient for an F-550, but it could probably do with quite a bit more here, especially in bulletproof form.

Karlmann King SUV

It might be ponderously slow, but your wait to get where you're going will be a comfortable one as the interior is on a par with a Rolls-Royce. Then again, it needs to be with a price of almost $2.2 million.

Karlmann King SUV. (Images: IAT)

Also Watch: Gaurav Gill, FIA APRC Winning Rally Racer, Team MRF | InterviewJapanese carmaker Toyota is planning to launch its premium sedan Yaris in India next month and Toyota dealerships across India have started accepting bookings for the same. Unveiled at the Auto Expo 2018, the car is already available in various international markets by the name of Yaris Ativ and Vios.

Toyota Yaris Ativ. (Image: Toyota Thailand)

In terms of looks, the car gets a bold design thanks to the projector headlamps with LED light guiding, LED DRLs and 15-inch alloy wheels. Theres a big grille upfront with rectangular stretched back headlights and teardrop fog lights. Toyota has used a lot of chrome to highlight the premium sedan design.

Toyota Yaris. (Image: Toyota)

Inside the cabin, two-tone beige-black colour scheme and a large touchscreen infotainment system that supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The cabin also features automatic climate control and digital driver information display along with steering mounted controls.

Toyota Yaris to get dual tone dashboard. (Image: Toyota Thailand)

Internationally, the car is available with a 1.2-litre Dual VVT-i petrol engine, a 1.3-litre Dual VVT-i petrol engine, and a 1.5-litre Dual VVT-i petrol engine but here in India the car only gets 1.5-litre petrol engine under the hood. The engine is mated to a 6-speed manual transmission and a continuously variable transmission.

Toyota Yaris Ativ rear end. (Image: Toyota Thailand)

The Yaris will be equipped with all-wheel disc brakes, seven airbags (including a driver knee airbag), Hill-start Assist Control (HSC) and Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), front parking sensors ABS, EBD and ESP. Toyota Yaris with similar specs was awarded five stars in ASEAN NCAP crash tests.

Toyota Yaris ATIV airbags. (Image: Toyota Thailand)

Toyota Yaris also features electronically adjustable seats and roof mounted air vents.

Toyota Yaris roof mounted air-vents. (Image: Toyota)

When launched in India Toyota Yaris will compete against the likes of Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and Hyundai Verna.

Also Watch: Toyota Yaris Sedan (First Look) | Auto Expo 2018 | Cars18Berlin: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Monday proposed creating a "rainy day fund" for the euro zone to help cushion members of the currency union in future economic downturns.

In a speech in Berlin, Lagarde hailed a "sustained and broadly shared upswing" in the global economy.

"But there are other, forceful headwinds threatening," Lagarde added. "Think of the rise of populism and the short-sighted siren call of protectionism."

For the euro zone to prepare for the next economic downturn, she urged its members to develop a modernised capital markets union, an improved banking union and to move towards greater fiscal integration, starting with a central fiscal capacity.

Such a fiscal tool would reassure investors, Lagarde said.

Her proposed rainy day fund would see euro zone countries make contributions each year to build up assets in good times. They could then receive transfers during a downturn.

In extreme circumstances, countries could borrow from the fund and repay their loans with future contributions, she said.

Transfers from the fund should be conditional on members sticking to EU fiscal rules. Lagarde also recommended that countries pay a premium in good times based on the benefits they receive in bad times.

These twin steps would aim to avoid permanent transfers.

On a capital markets union, she called for enhanced regulation and upgraded oversight arrangements to handle a potential influx of financial services firms to continental Europe after Brexit.

"One of the consequences of Brexit is that many financial services will likely move to continental Europe in the months ahead," Lagarde said.

On a banking union, she welcomed signs of progress.

"Agreement on a schedule for common deposit insurance, together with a roadmap for reducing vulnerabilities in the banking sector, would be an even bigger move in the right direction," she added.New Delhi: The Centre on Monday reached out to Anna Hazare, who is on an indefinite hunger strike here since March 23, with its emissary and Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajana assuring the social activist that most of his "demands will be taken care of".

"Tomorrow, we will give a written proposal to Anna ji," Mahajan told PTI after meeting Hazare, adding "we are hopeful that he will end his indefinite hunger strike tomorrow."

The minister said he was representing both the Centre as well as the state government.

However, there was no word from the Hazare camp on the meeting.

Mahajan, who is Minister for Water Resources and Medical Education in the state, said of the 11 main demands put forth by Hazare, which include appointment of a Lokpal and giving better price for farmers for their yield, nearly 7-8 have been agreed upon.

"Most of his demands will be taken care of," Mahajan said.

"The chief minister (Devendra Fadnavis) is in loop of what is happening. Even the central leadership (of the BJP), including party president Amit Shah, is looking into the matter," Mahajan added.

He said that the Union Budget has taken care of the demand to give better price for farmers for their yield.

In case of Lokpal, two meetings have taken place and the issue is likely to be resolved in the third meeting, the minister claimed.

Hazare's demand for abolition of party symbol in elections was not accepted as it was impractical, Mahajan added.

Hazare has been on hunger strike since March 23 to press his demands, including Lokpal, better deal for farmers and electoral reforms.

He has lost four kilograms, his aide claimed, as his indefinite hunger strike continued on the fourth day.

His blood pressure, however, is normal, his close associate Datta Awari said.New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who is also a practising lawyer and represents the Sunni Waqf Board in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute, has been asked to give up the case.

Sources tell CNN-News18 that the Congress has asked Kapil Sibal to step down from the case.

According to party insiders, the party has told Sibal that it will be a politically sensible decision for him if he recuses himself from the case.

BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have time and again pulled up the opposition party and Sibal for playing a double role in the court and politics.

During the Gujarat election campaign, PM Modi trained his guns on Sibal who had then asked the Supreme Court to defer hearing in the sensitive Babri Masjid case and continue only after the 2019 General Elections gets over.

Modi had asked if it was right for Sibal to link the Ram Janmabhoomi issue to electoral politics.

Sibal, while arguing for the Sunni Waqf Board told the Supreme Court that since the court's decision in the case would have "very serious ramifications", hearing be deferred till July 2019 by which time the general election would be over.Kolkata: Trouble over Ram Navami processions continued in West Bengal for the second day on Monday as members of saffron outfits clashed with the police in Murshidabad and Bardhaman West districts, resulting in a senior police officer losing his hand when a bomb was hurled at him.

One person was killed and five police personnel were injured on Sunday in a clash between two groups in Purulia as sword-wielding BJP supporters defied the state government's ban on armed rallies on Ram Navami.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee directed the director general of police (DGP) to instruct all the superintendents of police (SPs) to take strong action against those who carried arms in the rallies.

"The law will take its own course. I will not tolerate this," she said at a meeting at Pailan, near here, adding that action would be taken against the police if they failed to take measures in this regard.

In the Kandi area of Murshidabad district on Monday, clashes broke out when the participants in a Ram Navami rally, allegedly armed with swords and tridents, tried to enter a police station, the police said.

At least 10 persons were injured when the members of the Ram Navami Utsav Committee came to blows with the police personnel during a procession in the area, a senior police officer said.

The committee, also comprising BJP and VHP activists, had organised the rally from the Kandi bus stand to the Radhaballav temple around 11.30 am, Additional SP (Sadar) Anish Sarkar said.

"A clash ensued between the two sides as a few participants of the rally hurled stones at the police station and the vehicles parked outside. The police had to baton-charge the agitators," he said, adding that no one was arrested in connection with the incident so far.

BJP leader Subhash Mondal, however, blamed the local members of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the ruckus.

"Unidentified miscreants of the TMC joined the rally to create a ruckus. It was an attempt to spoil our image before the people here," he alleged.

Refuting Mondal's allegations, TMC MLA Apurbo Sarkar accused the BJP and the VHP of trying to disturb peace in the area and claimed that the ruling party had nothing to do with the incident.

In the Raniganj area of Bardhaman West district, two police officers were seriously injured when two groups attacked each other during a rally.

One of the Ram Navami processions allegedly tried to enter a area, where members of the minority community lived in large numbers, a senior police officer said on the condition of anonymity.

The members of the two communities got into a fight even as the police tried to intervene, he said, adding that a temple in the vicinity was also attacked during the clashes.

"Asansol-Durgapur Deputy Commissioner of Police Arindam Dutta Chowdhury was injured in the incident. He lost a hand when the agitators hurled a bomb at him. He has been admitted to a private hospital," the officer said.

Officer in-charge (OC) Pramit Ganguly also received head injuries in the violence, he added.

Union minister and Asansol MP (BJP) Babul Supriyo, who was supposed to participate in one the rallies in Raniganj but backed out at the last moment, alleged that it was a "premeditated attack, meant to hurt me".

Asansol Mayor Jitendra Tiwari urged the people to maintain peace in the area.

The TMC and the BJP had organised several processions to celebrate Ram Navami in the state, with the saffron party dubbing the rallies as a first step towards "uniting the Hindus" of Bengal.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said it was an age-old Hindu tradition to conduct "astra puja" (worship of weapons) on the day of Ram Navami and that he was not aware of any ban on armed rallies.

"Where is the government order banning arms in Ram Navami processions? Where is the circular?" he asked.

A case was also registered against BJP West Bengal Mahila Morcha president Locket Chatterjee on Monday for allegedly participating in an armed Ram Navami procession in Birbhum district yesterday, Superintendent of Police (SP) N Sudheer Kumar said.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma said the police had not given permission to take out armed rallies.

The police would take legal action against those who defied the rules, he added.Bhopal: In a disturbing incident reported from MP university, a woman warden allegedly strip-searched 40 girl students after a used sanitary pad was found dumped in the hostel premises.

Acting upon the complaint from girls, the vice chancellor of the Dr Hari Singh Gour University RP Tiwari condemned the incident and said he has formed a special investigation team to probe the matter.

Around 40 girls residing in one of the hostels of the university have complained that their warden had found a used sanitary napkin outside the hostel washroom. As the warden could not ascertain who dumped it, the girls alleged, she strip-searched them one by one.

Dr Hari Singh Gour University is a Central University in Madhya Pradesh and was founded in 1946.New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday wondered as to how convicted persons, who are barred from electoral politics, can decide candidates in polls and ensure maintenance of probity in public life.

The apex court, which was hearing a PIL seeking that convicted persons be restrained from forming and holding posts in political parties for the period they are disqualified under the election law, posted the matter to May 3 for final disposal.

"Here is a person who is convicted and disqualified from contesting an election. How can he decide the candidates for election? How the purity of democracy can be maintained," the bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked.

The bench, also comprising justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, on a lighter note said the convicted persons can form an "association of convicted persons".

"They cannot contest election because they are constitutionally debarred. Can they hold the party post and can they form a political party. Of course they can form an association of convicted persons, but can they form a political party?" the court said.

The bench, asked both the parties to submit their written notes on May 3.

Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for the Centre, referred to the affidavit and said that no person can be barred from creating a party and holding posts in such an organisation.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by lawyer and BJP leader Ashwini K Upadhyay seeking that convicted people be restrained from forming political parties and becoming office-bearers during the period they are disqualified.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Upadhyay, said 40 per cent of the legislators are either convicted or facing trial. "40 per cent of legislators are either convicted or facing trial. That is why there is resistance. They do not want probity," he said.

The top court had on December 1 last year sought the response of the Centre and the Election Commission on the PIL and agreed to examine the constitutional validity of section 29A of the Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1951 (RPA), which deals with the power of the poll panel to register a political party.

The plea said convicted politicians, who are barred from contesting elections, can still run political parties and hold posts, besides deciding as to who will become a lawmaker. It has sought a direction to declare section 29A of the RPA as "arbitrary, irrational and ultra-vires" to the Constitution and to authorise the poll panel to register and de-register political parties.

The petitioner has also sought a direction to the Election Commission to frame guidelines to decriminalise the electoral system and ensure inner party democracy, as proposed by the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC).

The petition said currently, even a person who has been convicted of heinous crimes like murder, rape, smuggling, money laundering, loot, sedition, or dacoity, can form a political party and become its president or office bearer.

The petition named several top political leaders who have been convicted or have charges framed against them and are holding top political posts and "wielding political power". It said the proliferation of political parties has become a major concern as Section 29A of the RP Act allows a small group of people to form a political party by making a very simple declaration.

Presently, about 20 per cent of registered political parties contest election and remaining 80 per cent parties create excessive load on electoral system and public money," the plea said.

The plea also claimed that in 2004, the poll panel had proposed amendment to Section 29A, authorising it to issue apt orders regulating the registration or de-registration of political parties.New Delhi: Insurance regulator Irdai has extended the deadline for linking 12-digit unique identity number Aadhaar with various insurance policies until the Supreme Court decides on the matter.

The Supreme Court of India in Writ Petition (vide order dated March 13) extended the deadline of linking Aadhaar till the matter is finally heard and the judgement is pronounced.

The IRDAI decision to indefinitely extend the March 31 deadline comes in wake of the Supreme Court order.

"For existing insurance policies, the date of linking Aadhaar is extended till the matter is finally heard and the judgement is pronounced by Hon'ble Supreme Court of India," the insurance regulator said in a circular to insurers.

In case of new insurance polices, the regulator said the policy buyer is allowed six months from the date of commencement of account based relationship to submit the Aadhaar number and PAN/Form 60 to the insurer.

"In absence of Aadhaar, client shall submit any of the officially valid document as mentioned in the Prevention of Money-Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005," said Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai).

As per norms, Non Resident Indian policy holders are not required to surrender their policy for not having Aadhaar number.

In absence of Aadhaar, NRI/Persons of Indian Origin/Overseas Citizens of India too can submit any of the officially valid documents as per the PMLA.Bhind: A television journalist was killed in Madhya Pradeshs Bhind when a speeding truck strayed from the road and mowed him down on Monday. The deceased, Sandeep Sharma, had conducted a few sting operations on the local sand mafia and the alleged involvement of the police.

In a letter addressed to the police, Sharma had sought protection fearing for his life. The letter has added a twist to the death apart from CCTV footage that has also raised questions on the nature of the accident.

Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, Safety of the journalists are our top priority. The matter would be probed through high level enquiry we will ensure mediapersons' safety.

Police have formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the incident.

Sharma was associated with a national news channel and had conducted a sting operation on the sand mafia and police nexus, a month ago.

The slain journalist had recently shot to the limelight when he did a sting on SDOP Ater Inderveer Singh Bhadauria.

#BREAKING - Journalist killed in Bhind: Shocking act caught on camera. The journalist had exposed sand mafia in Bhind. pic.twitter.com/4rz8xj96D1 News18 (@CNNnews18) March 26, 2018

On Monday, Sharma who was passing by the Kotwali area on a motorbike, was mowed down by the speeding truck. He was rushed to the trauma centre in a Dial 100 vehicle, but succumbed to his injuries.

His family suspects a greater conspiracy behind the mishap while locals have alleged that the police took 15-20 minutes to reach the accident spot despite a police station being located in close vicinity.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia has demanded a CBI inquiry into the death. He said, "He was killed in broad daylight. Nothing less than a CBI inquiry should be done. Media is the fourth pillar of democracy and that is being crushed under BJP's rule."Kozhikode: Five-year-old Asna was playing with her younger brother Anand when an explosion rocked the courtyard of her house in Poovathur in Kannur on September 27, 2000. The explosion happened after alleged RSS workers hurled a crude bomb that ripped her right leg off, not her determination. Now, 20 years after the fatal incident, Asna has graduated as a doctor.

Twenty-four-year-old Asna graduated from Calicut Medical College with distinction last week and is set to do her internship for six months after which she will be accredited as a doctor.

"I was playing with my brother outside our house when the fatal incident took place. Our house was near the election booth, the bomb was aimed at the polling booth" Asna recounts the incident 18 years after.

After that ill-fated day, Asna had to spend several months in hospital after amputating her right leg. It was a difficult journey to go through with a prosthetic leg. It was only after joining medical college that I started to walk properly. I have been suffering from ulcer and my wound was also bleeding often, remembers Asna who thanked everyone who helped her during her journey.

"It was always my ambition to become a doctor, my childhood memories in hospital had made me dream of becoming a doctor," Asna told News18.com.

Earlier, the Kerala government had arranged a special lift service for Asna at Calicut Medical College.

A Kerala court had sentenced 14 people in connection with the 2000 attack case.

Kannur district in northern part of Kerala is infamous for political violence between Left parties and Right-wing organisations that has seen the deaths of a number of people.

In the latest act of violence, a Youth Congress activist, Suhaib, was hacked to death at Thyroor in Kannur district in February this year.Mar 26, 2018 13:02 (IST)

SC seeks response of Centre on PILs against polygamy, nikah halala | The Supreme Court today agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the prevalent practices of polygamy and 'nikah halala' among Muslims and sought responses from the Centre and the Law Commission. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra considered the submission that the previous five-judge constitution bench, in its 2017 verdict, had kept open the issue of polygamy and 'nikah halala' while quashing triple talaq. Today, the bench, which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said a fresh five-judge constitution bench would be set up to deal with the constitutionality of 'nikah halala' and polygamy. While polygamy allows a Muslim man to have four wives, 'nikah halala' deals with the process in which a Muslim woman has to marry another person and get divorced from him before being allowed to marry her divorcee husband again. By a majority of 3:2, a five-judge constitution bench had earlier held triple talaq as unconstitutional in its judgement delivered last year. The bench was hearing at least three petitions including some PILs challenging the practices on various grounds including that they violate Right to Equality and gender justice.New Delhi: D Roopa, the Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who exposed the alleged special privileges being accorded to VK Sasikala in a Bengaluru jail, has refused to accept the "Namma Bengaluru Award" as it carries with it a high prize money.

According to the news agency ANI, D Roopa has written to the Namma Bengaluru Foundation, a non-profit, that her conscience does not permit her to accept the award.

"Every government servant is expected to maintain neutrality and equidistance from all quasi-political bodies and associations that have even the bare minimum political overtone. Only then a public servant can maintain a clean and fair image in the eyes of the public," read Roopa's letter.

"It becomes all the more relevant now in the view of the ensuing elections," added Roopa, referencing the Assembly elections due in the state later this year.

Roopa was nominated for the Government Official of the Year category. Eight government officers, including Roopa, were shortlisted for the award, which reportedly is funded by a BJP leader.

The Namma Bengaluru Awards are given to multiple personalities across categories by the foundation funded by businessman and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar. This is the ninth edition of the awards.

Last year a Rs 20 crore defamation suit was filed against D Roopa, then Deputy Inspector General, Prisons, for exposing the preferential treatment being given to Sasikala in jail.

In her report, Roopa said Sasikala was given VIP treatment and that she was was allowed a bigger accommodation (nearly three rooms next to each other were set aside for her), a television set, a pressure cooker and other basics in her barrack, and food was specially cooked for her. There were other facilities like being allowed to wear her own clothes and not prison uniform.

Sasikala is serving a four-year prison term for corruption.Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), which has been protesting in Parliament by going into the well of the House, pressing its demand over reservation, on Monday decided against doing so.

The party has been protesting in Parliament, demanding that the power to increase the quota of reservations be given to states.

Though the TRS has been protesting for the past 15 days, the NDA government has not given any reply to the issue raised by it and the House was being adjourned, TRS Rajya Sabha member K Keshav Rao told reporters here.

"With the adjournment taking place for so many days, a misconception is coming among people as if we are letting the House to be adjourned. In fact, AIADMK is also protesting (in the Well)," he said.

Some have created a doubt or misconception that the TRS is letting the adjournments since no- confidence motion was being moved against the NDA government, he alleged.

"Such a doubt is meaningless. So we took a decision. Enough. We have protested for 15 days. We will take this forward in a democratic method, in a method of discussion. If any debate takes place, we will decide as per the situation...We will not leave this issue," he said.

"That means our protest will continue...We decided to let discussion take place by not going into the well," Rao said.

"While we continue our protest.., we will not go into the Well, which will otherwise deemed to be we are trying to stop. We are not," Rao said.

Replying to a query, he said the party would firm up its stance when a no-confidence motion is admitted in Parliament.

The TRS government in Telangana has sought increasing the reservations to backward sections among Muslims and also STs in the state, which take the quota beyond the 50 per cent cap.New Delhi:The Congress on Monday found itself on a sticky wicket after it had to take down its app amid allegations that the data captured by it was being sent to Singapore servers.

The Congress has been targeting the ruling BJP over the Narendra Modi app - the official mobile app of Prime Minister Narendra Modi  alleging that it sent user data to a US-based company without consent.

Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies. Ps. Thanks mainstream media, you're doing a great job of burying this critical story, as always.https://t.co/IZYzkuH1ZH Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 25, 2018

Earlier this morning, Rahul alleged that the PM is acting like a Big Boss spying on Indians by building a personal database via the NaMo App promoted by the government.

Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS.Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians. Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP.#DeleteNaMoApp Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 26, 2018

The BJP hit back questioning why the Congress app was sending data to servers in Singapore.

Now that we're talking tech, would you care to answer @RahulGandhi ji why Congress sends data to Singapore Servers which can be accessed by any Tom, Dick and Analytica? pic.twitter.com/U5YLTckBsf Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) March 26, 2018

Union Minister Smriti Irani took a jibe at the Congress president and wanted to know why was Congress deleting its own app on the day it gave a call to delete the NaMo app.

Ye kya @RahulGandhi ji it seems your team is doing the opposite of what you asked for. Instead of #DeleteNaMoApp, they have deleted the Congress App itself  pic.twitter.com/NrbMxz57gs Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) March 26, 2018

Joining in the debate, BJPs social media head Amit Malviya asked what is the Congress party trying to hide by deleting its own app from the App store.New Delhi: Over 600 doctors under the banner of Indian Medical Association (IMA) organised a mahapanchyat at the Indira Gandhi Stadium on Sunday to protest against the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, 2017.

The NMC Bill seeks to allow practitioners of Ayurveda and other traditional medicine to practice modern medicine once they complete a short-term bridge course, among other wide-ranging institutional reforms.

President of the IMA, Dr Ravi Wankhedkar told News18 that the representatives of three lakh medical students and ten lakh modern medicine doctors, private practitioners, government service association, resident and junior doctors took part in the mahapanchayat on Sunday.

He said, "We are protesting against the anti-poor and pro-rich National Medical Commission Bill. It is also anti-student and undemocratic."

The doctors have demanded the scrapping of National Medical Commission Bill and that the government must amend the existing MCI Act and provide for a stronger law to protect doctors from any violence.

Talking about the bridge" course, which the central government plans to introduce to allow Ayush doctors to prescribe allopathic medicines in a limited way, Wankhedkar said, It is anti-poor and there is no shortage of doctors practising modern medicine in the country. The government needs to provide incentives to fill up the gap in the rural areas.

According to Dr Vinay Aggarwal, chairman of the organizing committee of the mahapanchayat, the government must bring more uniformity in the medical examination system. Talking about the rural gap, he said that there is no shortage of doctors and the existing potential needs to be utilised properly.New Delhi: Slamming the "noise" in the media on privacy issues, UIDAI chief Ajay Bhushan Pandey on Monday said people voicing concern over data security would "happily accept" an Aadhaar-like scheme in the United States.

Addressing a seminar here, he said people in the US needed a social security number to get a driver's licence, to open a bank account, for marriage, divorce or even for a death certificate.

"So (some) people say in India, the government is making Aadhaar mandatory for (the opening of) bank accounts, pan cards or for mutual funds. Look, the same people who question this, either when they are living or when their children are living in the US, they happily accept this. They will go and use their social security number in every walk of life," Pandey said.

He added that people living in the United States "cannot breathe" without a social security number.

"And therefore people, particularly the intelligentsia here, when they question Aadhaar as an affront to democracy, affront to privacy, they must remember that...," Pandey said at the seminar on 'Aadhaar- tool for empowerment and privacy' organised by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).

His remarks came two days after Union Minister K J Alphons said there were people who were willing to "get naked before the white man" to procure an American visa but would cry "privacy" when basic details had to be shared with their own government.

Pandey allayed fears of a privacy breach and said people need not worry because Aadhaar data had been given the highest possible standards of security.

"During the last seven years there has not been a single breach from the Aadhaar system. So what you hear in the media is noise," he said, referring to reports of alleged data breach.

Aadhaar is a 12-digit identity number provided by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

"People should not be worried about privacy on account of Aadhaar," he said.

Referring to a submission made by the UIDAI before the Supreme Court, he said Aadhaar data had been "encrypted by 2,048 bits".

"It is estimated that if you deploy the fastest computer on earth, then it will require billions of years to open just one bit," he said.

The apex court is hearing matters of privacy concerns on Aadhaar-related data.

"The Aadhaar system is designed in such a way that it will not lead to any surveillance or a big brother watching (scenario)," he said.Kochi: A notorious burglar, wanted in connection with over 200 cases across Kerala, has finally been arrested.

Mariyar Pootham was arrested from a railway track by a special police team as he was preparing to rob houses in Kaloor and Lissy areas in the city, police said, adding he was wanted in over 200 cases.

The special team was formed to nab the 53-year-old man, hailing from Colachel in Tamil Nadu, following complaints from various residents' associations.

Police had in the past recovered CCTV footage from many areas, showing Pootham holding sharp weapons and getting ready to rob homes.

They had made an effort to nab him from his house in Colachel in December last year, but he gave police the slip.

Police said Pootham has been a resident of the city for the past 30 years and was in the business of selling scrap items.Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, who made her Bollywood debut with Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Raees last year, says the Hindi film industry was never her aim. Raees released in January 2017, just a few months after bilateral tensions intensified between India and Pakistan over the September 18, 2016 Uri attack that left 19 Indian soldiers dead and the September 28 surgical strikes by India on Pakistan terror camps.

Mahira spoke about the impact of the tensions on the countries' film industries on HARDtalk on BBC World News.

Raees did not release in Pakistan. And Mahira was not allowed to promote the film in India as the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena gave an ultimatum to Pakistani artistes to leave the country and to keep away from its showbiz.

"At that time I was angry. I was sad and angry and there were moments of disappointment and just hurt, you know. Now I've come to a place where I believe that anger doesn't really make me a better actor. It doesn't do anything for me as a person, so I've let go of that, because at that time I was in the mix of it," said Mahira.

Didn't it stall her career in a way?

"Bollywood was never really the aim actually. I mean sure you could argue that I could have done more films there, for sure I could have. But right after 'Raees' I had already started working on (Pakistani film) Verna', even before all of this happened. My focus was always Pakistan," she said.

She said people may perceive that it was a "big jolt" to her career -- and it was -- but she has moved on.

"Currently I just feel it's just something else to be working and be part of this movement of the film industry (in Pakistan) at the moment. Because how I look at it, is that 20 years from now when either my son or kids from today want to become actors, we would have set this industry for them, which they won't have to struggle so much," added the 33-year-old actress, who has a son named Azlaan.

Her upcoming film Verna which is based on the rape culture and politics in Pakistan, has reportedly rubbed many in Pakistan the wrong way. With a strong problem of freedom to express getting suppressed in Pakistan, has she ever considered shifting base to another country?

Mahira said, "I don't think that I can tell any story better than the story of my own country, than the stories of my own countrymen. I want to be able to bring out stories like 'Verna', as well as stories which are of the modern and new generation like 'Ho Mann Jahaan', which is a film I did of the youth of Pakistan. So I want to be that person. Also, because we are artistes, I think that's a problem we all suffer. We are dreamers, so we are constantly looking at this is going to happen, and this is honestly all I am thinking about all the time, that one day I will go to a cinema house and there just won't be enough space to fill it."

Mahira is currently filming for Saat Din Mohabbat In and Maula Jatt 2.Actor R. Madhavan says he can't be a part of Rohit Shetty's Simmba due to an injury.

Madhavan underwent a shoulder surgery last month, and since he is recuperating, he had to even withdraw from joining actor Saif Ali Khan in Navdeep Singh's historical drama, which is heavy on action scenes. Now the actor also won't be seen in Simmba, in which he was reportedly going to play the villain.

"Hey folks... So I am a huge crazy fan of Rohit Shetty and his films. As is my son. It breaks both our hearts that I'm not able to be a part of this film because of my injury. I'm well on my way to recovery but this is a huge opportunity and excitement lost," Madhavan tweeted on Sunday.

Madhavan was last seen in web series Breathe, which explores the life of an ordinary man facing extraordinary circumstances.

Check out his tweet below:

Hey folks .. So I am a huge crazy fan of Rohit Shetty and his films. As is my son. It breaks both our hearts that Im not able to be a part of this film because of my injury. Im well on my way to recovery but this is a huge opportunity and excitement lost. https://t.co/9YJBctaCJI Ranganathan Madhavan (@ActorMadhavan) March 25, 2018

(With IANS inputs)Bengaluru: The temples and Lingayat mutts in Karnataka were never in such demand. After Congress president Rahul Gandhi's whirlwind tour of temples in Malnad, coastal and south Karnataka, BJP president Amit Shah will tour south central Karnataka on Monday and Tuesday.

Keeping Siddaramaiah government's decision to accord separate religion tag to Lingayats in mind, Shah has carefully planned his tour. In the next two days, he will be visiting four important Lingayat mutts in the state.

The BJP chief will seek the blessings of Shivakumara Swamy, the 110-year-old who is the head of the Siddanganga mutt in Tumkur.

The highly respected seer is a non-controversial figure and his junior pontiff has welcomed state government's decision on Lingayats.

From Tumkur, Shah will take a helicopter ride to Shimoga, around 200km away. BJP's chief ministerial face BS Yeddyurappa hails from Shimoga and party is anything but united here. The factions backing Yeddyurappa and opposing him have been at each other's throat causing public embarrassment to the party.

The OBC leader of the BJP, K S Eshwarappa, is adamant about obtaining a ticket from Shimoga city but Yeddyurappa is not keen on fielding him from there.

Shah is likely to strike a deal between two warring factions during his visit to Shimoga, the nerve centre of central Karnataka politics.

The JDS has made inroads into Shimoga district politics and has three MLAs here. According to local JDS strongman and MLA, Madhu Bangarappa, the party will win at least four seats out of total seven this time.

The ruling Congress is up against a strong BJP and JDS in this politically important district.

Shah will also visit an ancient Lingayat mutt, Bekkina Kalmata. in Shimoga. On Tuesday, he will fly to neighbouring commercial centre Davanagere. It is a Lingayat stronghold where Yeddyurappa wields considerable clout.

The BJP chief will meet powetful Lingayat seer Dr Shivamurthy Shivacharya of Tharalabalu mutt at Sirigere seeking his support. According to Congress leaders, the seer is backing the separate religion for Lingayats movement.

On Tuesday evening, Shah will visit Dalit seer Madara Channaiah Swamy at Chitradurga. Swamy is seeking a BJP ticket in the Assembly elections.

The BJP president will then fly Kuppalli in Shimoga district to pay respects to poet laureate Kuvempu. One of Kannada's all-time greats, Kuvempu died in 1994 and the state government has converted his ancestral home into a memorial.

State BJP leaders admit that the partys top leadership is assessing the situation after the Karnataka governments decision to accord religious minorities tag to the powerful Lingayats who form about 14% of the state's population.Bengaluru: Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah calling Janata Dal (Secular) the B team of the BJP has led to a war of words between two parties.

Interestingly, some top Congress leaders are reportedly unhappy with their party president calling ex-prime minister HD Deve Gowdas party an ally of the BJP.

During his tour of Hyderabad-Karnataka and Mumbai-Karnataka regions, Rahul Gandhi had targeted only the BJP without uttering a word about the JD(S) since the Congress is in a direct fight with the saffron party in these areas. The JD(S) is in contest only in a handful of seats.

However, during his just concluded tour of Chikmagalur, Hassan, Mysore, Chamarajanagara and Mandya, Gandhi took on the JD(S) in its own stronghold. Without mincing his words, Gandhi attacked the JD(S) and called it an ally of the BJP.

Addressing well-attended public meetings in Gowdas family bastion Hassan and later at Mysore, Gandhi said, The S in JD(S) no longer stands for Secular. It now stands for Sangh Parivar. The JD(S) is actually Janata Dal Sangh Parivar.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who was number two in the JD(S) before crossing over to the Congress in 2006, also launched a no-holds-barred attack on the JD(S). The party leaders, he said, were businessmen who have joined hands with the BJP to defeat the Congress by eating into some of the traditional non-BJP votes. The JD(S) has no morality or ethics. Under Gowdas son HD Kumaraswamy, it has become a vote cutting party. They have an understanding with the BJP.

In the recently held Rajya Sabha elections, Siddaramaiah had refused to share one seat with the JD(S), forcing a vote. The Congress won three seats and the BJP won one seat. The JD(S) had suffered a humiliating defeat. By doing this, Siddaramaiah has ended speculation of a post-poll tie-up with the JD(S) in case the Assembly elections throw up a hung verdict.

But Rahul Gandhi and Siddaramaiahs attack on the JD(S) hasnt gone down well even with Congress leaders Mallikarjuna Kharge, G Parameshewara and DK Shivakumar, say party insiders.

HD Kumaraswamy added fuel to fire by claiming that Siddaramaiah does not want the JD(S) to back the Congress in case of a hung Assembly because he does not want his rivals in the party  Kharge, Parameshwara or Shivakumar  to become the next chief minister.

But the Siddaramaiah camp claims that the attack on JD(S) is a clever move on the CMs part. It says that branding JD(S) as a BJP ally would keep Muslims, Dalits, Tribals and even anti-BJP Vokkaligas away from the JD(S) as they dont want the party to help the BJP to come to power.

Insiders also claim that the core vote banks of the BJP and JD(S)  the Lingayats and Vokkaligas, respectively  distrust each other and are not comfortable with a bonhomie between the two parties.

He is too clever. He has now created a rift in JD(S) vote bank by calling them BJPs B team. If it works, it can help the Congress in getting some JD(S) votes. He knows what he is doing, says a Siddaramaiah supporter.

But the original Congress leaders claim that Siddaramaiahs personal enmity with the Gowda family is spilling over to elections and burning bridges with the JD(S) may not be a good idea as it gives legitimacy to the BJP and JD(S) to join hands after elections and have a tactical alliance before the voting.

Siddaramaiah hates the Gowda family. It is his personal problem. He should not spoil the relationship between the Congress and JD(S) for personal reasons. Worse, we may have to knock on the doors of Gowdas after elections. Siddaramaiah has been the Chief Minister for five years. He has nothing to lose. But he should not ruin us, says a leader.

Some feel that Siddaramaiah has convinced Rahul Gandhi about attacking the JD(S) and that the latter has walked into the trap without checking with original Congress leaders first.

Not taking it lightly, the JD(S) has now launched an all-out attack on Rahul Gandhi and Siddaramaiah, calling them hypocrites who had once dined with the same Gowdas". Is he saying that he is the only clean person around? Let Rahul Gandhi send me his soap. I will use the same to take bath. In 1994, as Chief Minister I had resolved the Idgah dispute at Hubli. Where were Congress people then? asked Deve Gowda.

The BJP, too, has rubbished the claims.Mumbai: The Mumbai police have refused permission to a protest march planned by a group of activists to demand the arrest of Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.

Permission for the 'Elgar Morcha' was denied as it could cause inconvenience to people on a working day, and the protesters were appealed to gather directly at the Azad Maidan in South Mumbai where they can stage their agitation, police said in a release here.

The activists wanted to take out the protest march from Ranubaug in Byculla, the release said.

Bhide is accused of instigating the violence against Dalits during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle in January. He has denied the allegation.

The violence that occurred near the war memorial at Bhima-Koregaon in Pune district on January 1 triggered a sharp reaction from Dalit organisations.

Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar had last week demanded Bhide's arrest by March 26, warning of an agitation if the government didn't oblige.Lucknow: The two BSP and SP MLAs who voted for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections have been awarded Y category security cover as a return-gift from the Yogi Adityanath government.

The crucial votes of BSP's Anil Singh, MLA from Purva (Unnao), and SP's Nitin Agrawal, MLA from Hardoi, had resulted in the defeat of BSPs lone Rajya Sabha candidate Bhim Rao Ambedkar on Saturday.

Singh, who had been suspended by BSP chief Mayawati for voting in favour of the BJP, had met UP CM Adityanath on Saturday and sought a tighter security cover. After this, the home department issued orders to provide Y category security to the legislator.

Along with him, SP MLA Nitin Agarwal was also awarded the higher security grade. Nitin Agarwal is the son of former senior SP leader Naresh Agarwal who had recently joined BJP after being denied ticket to Rahya Sabha by the Samajwadi Party.

In the recently concluded Rajya Sabha elections for 10 seats from Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won 9 seats while one seat was bagged by Samajwadi Party, with Jaya Bachchan sailing through. The polls were marred by cross-voting from both the sides, which led to the defeat of BSP candidate Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

Besides BJP's prominent winner Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, others who made it to the Upper House from the party are Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, Harnath Singh Yadav and GVL Narasimha Rao.

The partys ninth candidate was Anil Kumar Agarwal, who pulled off an upset with the help of second preference votes. He had won 16 first preference votes to Ambedkars 32 but pulled ahead in the second round. A candidate needed votes from 37 MLAs to secure a seat.

With one BSP MLA believed to have cross-voted and two others in jail being denied permission to vote, it was always going to be an uphill task for the opposition to ensure victory for their second candidate.New Delhi: As the Parliament logjam entered the 15th day, the CPI(M) on Monday submitted a notice of no-confidence against the BJP-led central government in the Lok Sabha, the fourth party to do so after the Congress and two Andhra Parties.

Parliament will resume its sitting on Tuesday after a three-day recess amid indications that the logjam may continue. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha are due to adjourn sine die on April 5.

On Friday, the Congress moved a no-confidence motion against the government in the Lok Sabha, days after the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress adopted a similar measure.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has so far said she cannot take up notices for the no-confidence motion against the government as the "House was not in order" amid protests by members of different parties on various issues.

The leader of the CPI-M in Lok Sabha, P Karunakaran, submitted the notice to the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Monday and urged the Speaker to include the no-confidence motion in the revised list of business for Tuesday.

"Under rule 198(b) of chapter XVII of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha, I hereby give notice to move the motion of no-confidence in the council of ministers in the House on March 27, 2018. I request you to kindly include the motion in the revised list of business," the notice says.

According to the Left MPs, the notice is part of an opposition strategy to step up pressure on the NDA government in the Lok Sabha.

The two parties from Andhra Pradesh had moved no-confidence motions against the government over what they called the latter's failure to honour the "promise" of granting special category status to the southern state and seeking a special financial package for it.

The government has said that it is ready to face a no-trust motion.New Delhi: A day after a number of heavyweight state BJP leaders were seen participating in the Ram Navami procession with weapons, West Bengal Chief Minister on Monday wondered if Lord Ram asked anybody to rally with arms and swords.

Stating firmly that rallying with arms is not a part of Bengal's culture, she instructed the state administration to take "strong action" against those who took out rallies with arms on occasion of Ram Navami, defying the state's directive.

"Did Lord Ram ask anybody to rally with arms and swords? Can we leave the state's administration and law and order in the hands of these hooligans, who are defaming Ram? I am instructing the DG (Director General of Police) and all the Police Superintendents to take strong action against such rallyists. No one should be spared.

"If anybody from the police force does any kind of understanding to overlook the issue, I will take action against them," Banerjee said during the district level administrative meet in South 24 Parganas.

"People got scared seeing some rallies yesterday (Sunday). This is not the culture of Bengal. I am giving out a clear message that this will not be tolerated. They are doing business in the name of religion and maligning the religion. This issue cannot be left out for future. It has to dealt with strongly," she thundered.

On Sunday, state BJP President Dilip Ghosh rallied with a sword in West Midnapore while party's state women wing president Locket Chatterjee was seen carrying a trident. Party's national secretary Rahul Sinha was also seen brandishing a weapon at a rally.

One person was killed and five police personnel were injured during a clash between two groups over a Ram Navami procession in Purulia district as sword-wielding BJP supporters came out in thousands to celebrate.

(With agency inputs)New Delhi: The Congress will not only return to power in Karnataka but will also end up improving its tally in the 224-member Legislative Assembly, a pre-poll survey conducted by C-Fore predicted.

The survey was conducted between March 1 and 25 and spoke to 22,357 voters across 154 assembly constituencies. The respondents were spread across 2,368 polling booths covering 326 urban and 977 rural locations. C-Fore said it had a margin of error of 1 percentage point. Sources told News 18 that the Congress itself had commissioned this survey.

In 2013, C-Fore had predicted that the Congress would end up winning 119-120 seats and it ended up with 122.

The Congress will improve its vote share by 9% and end up with 46% of the vote. BJP, the survey said, will have 31% of the vote and JD (S) will have 16%.

The Congress won 122 seats in the 2013 polls and this year, the survey gave 126 seats to the ruling party of the state. The BJP, too, will improve its tally in the House but at the expense of the JD (S) and not that of the Congress. The BJP is predicted to win 70 seats this year, compared to 40 in 2013. The JD (S) tally will drop from 40 to 27. Others are expected to get only 1 seat and a vote share of 7%.

Of the men that were surveyed, 44% supported Congress, 33% said they would vote BJP, 17% were with JD (S) and 6% support others. Among the women, 48% are Congress supporters, 29% are with the BJP, 14% said they would vote for JD (S) and 8% support others. Congress leads among voters in all age groups, which include 18-25 (46%), 26-35 (47%), 36-50 (43%) and 50+ (50%).

THE ISSUE

Access to clean drinking water has emerged as the number 1 problem in the state of Karnataka. 32% people have ranked it as their top-ranked problem, 26% said it was their second-biggest problem and 9% said it was the third-biggest problem. Other major problems included an inadequate drainage system and bad roads.

SIDDARAMAIAH MOST POPULAR CHOICE FOR CM

When it came to picking the most popular choice for Chief Minister in the state, an overwhelming 45% people said incumbent CM Siddaramaiah was their first preference. 26% said their first preference was BJPs BS Yeddyurappa and only around 13% preferred HD Kumaraswamy. 16% preferred others. 21% respondents said they were extremely satisfied, 54% said they were somewhat satisfied and 25% said they were not satisfied.

LINGAYATS BACK SEPERATE RELIGION STATUS

When Lingayat voters were asked whether they backed the state governments call to grant separate religion status to Lingayats, 61% said they supported the move, 32% said they did not support it and 7% said they had no opinion of the move.

Around 65% of the below poverty line (BPL) respondents said the Congress had worked more for the welfare of the poor, 19% said the Congress had done more on that front and 10% said they the JD (S) had done the most welfare work. 64% farmers said the Congress had done the most for farmers, 18% said the BJP had done the most and 15% picked the JD (S). When female respondents were asked which party had done the most work for women and child welfare, 59% said it was the BJP, 28% picked Congress and 8% picked JD (S).

About 74% Dalit voters, 57% backward caste voters and 67% Scheduled Tribe voters said the Congress had done the most work for their respective communities. 56% of all respondents felt the BJP was responsible for the Rs 12,000 crore PNB scam and Nirav Modis subsequent escape.

92% BACK REMOVING HINDI SINGS

An overwhelming 92% support removing Hindi signage from Bengaluru Metro Stations and 59% said they agreed with Siddaramaiah when he alleged that BJP was trying to impose Hindi on Karnataka. 56% thought Karnataka should have its own state flag and 58% agreed with Siddaramaiah that the BJP was misusing state institutions like CBI for political ends.

On demonetisation, respondents were evenly split with 48% supporting it and 52% opposing it. On the other hand, 64% thought the GST regime had been implemented poorly and was responsible for economic slowdown.

REGION-WISE SPLIT

Of the 28 Assembly seats in the Bengaluru region, the Congress is expected to win 19 and BJP is expected to win 9. Of the 65 seats in Old Mysuru region, consisting of Chikmangalur, Tumkur, Kolar, Chikballapur, Bangalore Rural , Mandya, Hassan, Mysore, Chamrajanagar and Ramnagaram, Congress is projected to win 33, BJP 7, JD (S) 24 and others 1. The JD (S) will win most of its seats from this region, the survey said.

Of the 50 seats in Bombay Karnataka region, consisting of Belgavi, Bagalkot, Vijayapura, Haveri, Dharwad and Gadag, the Congress is projected to win 28 and BJP will get 22. BJP will have an edge in the 22 seats of Central Karnataka, consisting of Davengere, Shimoga and Chitradurga, and will win 13 seats, compared to the Congresss 9.

The 19 seats of Coastal Karnataka, consisting of Udupi, Uttara Kannada and Dakshin Kannada, will see an even battle as the Congress is expected to carry 10 and the BJP is projected to win 9 seats. In the Hyderabad Karnataka region, which has Bidar, Gulbarga, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal and Bellary, COnrgess is likely to win 27 of the 40 seats, BJP is expected to get 10 and JD (S) 3.Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will embark on a four-day visit to the national capital on Monday, during which she will meet and dine with opposition leaders amid efforts to finalise an anti-BJP coalition for 2019 elections.

During the visit, all eyes will be on a dinner to be hosted by NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday. Sources in the Trinamool Congress said efforts are also on to arrange a meeting between Mamata and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

A meeting with current Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, however, is unlikely as Mamata has been projecting herself as a leader of a potential non-BJP front. Sources in Trinamool Congress said Mamata wanted to take the lead in opposition camp since December when Rahul succeeded Sonia at the helm of the Congress.

Recently, Mamata held a meeting with Telangana CM and TRS president K Chandrashekar Rao at her Kolkata residence where the two discussed the formation of a federal front for 2019 elections. They had also held discussions on floor strategy over the no-confidence notices given by TDP and YSR Congress in the Lok Sabha.Lucknow: After tasting success in Gorakhpur and Phulpur by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) may go for a pre-poll alignment with the Congress for Assembly elections in BJP-led states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

A key meeting of senior party leaders, including leaders from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, has been called on Monday in Lucknow.

As per BSP sources, the meeting has been called to discuss 2019 Lok Sabha elections, but the decision to fight Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan state assembly elections in an alliance with the alignment with INC might also be taken in the meeting.

After losing Rajya Sabha polls, Mayawati had said that her party has always supported Congress government in the Centre.

Giving a hint about 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BSP chief had indicated that she is ready to open the doors for the Congress. Our cooperation has extended from the days of UPA. The high command of the Congress has helped us, she said.

The BSP chief has also hinted strongly that the SP and the BSP could join hands for the Lok Sabha polls next year. If everything goes well, the SP and the BSP will now work hard to defeat the BJP in 2019, she said.

Recently, in the by-elections held for Chitrakoot seat in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress won the seat after the BJP decided not to field its candidate on the request of the grand old party.

If Mayawati's BSP goes for an alignment with Congress in BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh, then ruling party can be in trouble. Going by the data of last assembly elections, BSP polled 6.29% vote, Congress polled 36.38% while BJP polled 44.88%. BSP won 4 seats and was No 2/No 3 in 29 seats.

In BJP-ruled Madhya Prdaesh, the BSP has four MLAs and will be looking to take the figure to the double digit in the upcoming state Assembly elections.Lucknow: Taking a cue from Uttar Pradesh bypoll results, the Opposition may tweak its electoral strategy to knit state-specific alliances for 2019 Lok Sabha elections instead of building a grand national coalition against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The SP-BSP experiment could serve as the template for the anti-BJP mobilisation in the days ahead, prompting opposition parties to de-centralise Lok Sabha elections to avoid a direct 'Modi Vs Others' contest which tends to suit the BJP.

The signs of the changing algorithm were apparent in the understanding reached between the Samajwadi Party, BSP and the Congress in the last one month.

In the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, while the SP-BSP joined hands to take on the BJP, the Congress fielded its candidates in both seats to dent the saffron partys prospects in the urban and upper caste constituency. The decision to field candidates is borne out of empirical evidence in the last Assembly elections indicating the BJP benefitting from the Congress' absence since the two parties share mutually inclusive voters.

Interestingly, a week later, the Congress lent its support to the BSP in the Rajya Sabha elections in lieu of help rendered in Madhya Pradesh to bag an Upper House nomination.

This change in opposition strategy is based on renewed assessment of the political landscape. A 'presidential campaign' reminiscent of the 2014 elections tends to suit the BJP, which has a strong leader with a pan-India appeal in Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A Modi vs Others fight at the national level can easily help the BJP gloss over anti-incumbency in states where the party is in power. Secondly, a direct contest  to the advantage of the BJP  has a high probability of engendering a polarised polity.

A spurt of activities in parties not seen to be inimical to the BJP till recently has also set the cat among the pigeons. Calls to build a national coalition against the BJP have come from some unexpected quarters. Some of these parties do not have the BJP as the main challenger in their respective states.

It was interesting to note three absentees from Congress president Sonia Gandhi's dinner in Delhi for opposition leaders earlier this month  the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

With its political footprint shrinking in the east and the south, the Congress may also approach the elections by building social coalitions where it is a marginal player while relying relatively more on regional satraps to challenge the NDA in their own respective bastions.

In fact, the BJP's tally in Lok Sabha polls will depend largely on Congress' ability to wrest back seats where the party is in direct contest with the BJP.

After a prolonged intra-party debate, Kerala CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan has indicated the party's willingness to help others, including the Congress, to keep BJP out. The party mouthpiece in its latest edition has also ruled out any possibility of a pre-poll grand alliance ahead of 2019.

The idea, it seems, is to break the elections down to smaller battles at provincial levels to restrict the BJP and provide little political space to manoeuvre. The lesson from Tripura recently is loud and clear  a strong Congress in the state would have helped the CPM. A defeat at the hands of the BJP means conceding the constituency to the NDA. A loss at the hands of the Congress does not necessarily imply that.New Delhi: Congress and BJP kept up attacks on each other in the ongoing data wars, with Rahul Gandhi accusing the saffron party of spying on Indians using Prime Minister Narendra Modis official app.

Calling Modi a Big Boss, Gandhi alleged that the NaMo app secretly records audio, video and contacts of users friends and families.

Modis NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS.Hes the Big Boss who likes to spy on Indians. Now he wants data on our children. 13 lakh NCC cadets are being forced to download the APP.#DeleteNaMoApp Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 26, 2018

Gandhis tweet came just moments after the BJP accused the Congress of data theft through its official app. While Gandhi had accused the PM of leaking user data to American firms, BJPs social media head Amit Malviya said the Congress was giving data to companies in Singapore.

Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of Indias oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore, Malviya tweeted along the line of Gandhis tweet against Modi.

Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of Indias oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore. pic.twitter.com/ceCTkod17D Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) March 26, 2018

In subsequent tweets, Malviya shared screenshots purportedly from the privacy policy section of Congress website.

Full marks to @INCIndia for stating upfront that they'll give your data to **practically anyone** - undisclosed vendors, unknown volunteers, even 'groups with similar causes'. In theft of all forms, Congress has never been discreet! pic.twitter.com/FCSIv6nPMn Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) March 26, 2018

When Congress says they will share your data with like-minded groups, the implications are grave. From Maoists, stone pelters, Bharat Ke Tukde Gang, Chinese embassy to globally renowned orgs like Cambridge Analytica, the field is extensive and wide open, Malviya alleged.

When Congress says they will share your data with like-minded groups, the implications are grave. From Maoists, stone pelters, Bharat Ke Tukde Gang, Chinese embassy to globally renowned orgs like Cambridge Analytica, the field is extensive and wide open. pic.twitter.com/E6S8MJwgiy Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) March 26, 2018

The BJP IT cell head also took a dig at former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Inspired by Sonia Gandhis all power no accountability dictum, Congress will take all your data, even share it worldwide with orgs like Cambridge Analytica but will not take responsibility of it!

Inspired by Sonia Gandhis all power no accountability dictum, Congress will take all your data, even share it worldwide with orgs like Cambridge Analytica but will not take responsibility of it! Their own policy says so. pic.twitter.com/Vj2WH5UbVr Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) March 26, 2018

Rahul Gandhi had, on Sunday, accused PM Modi of data breach via his official Narendra Modi app, taking forward the war of words between the Congress and BJP over the Facebook data mining scandal.

Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies, Gandhi tweeted.

Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies. Ps. Thanks mainstream media, you're doing a great job of burying this critical story, as always.https://t.co/IZYzkuH1ZH Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 25, 2018

Gandhi's tweet was referring to a claim by French researcher Elliot Alderson, who alleged that information of those who have downloaded the app was being provided to third party US company Clever Tap without the users consent.

The claim has escalated the slugfest between the BJP and the Congress that have accused each other of using the services of Cambridge Analytica, the UK-based company at the heart of the Facebook data mining scandal.

The BJP has alleged that Gandhi used the firm to influence Gujarat elections, while the Congress has rubbished the charge and asked if the government would lodge an FIR against Cambridge Analytica and its India partner Oveleno Business Intelligence (OBI).

Gandhi had accused the Modi government of seeking to divert attention from its past "lies" about 39 Indians killed in Iraq by inventing the data mining charges against the Congress.

"Problem: 39 Indians dead; Government on the mat, caught lying. Solution: Invent story on Congress and data theft. Result: Media networks bite bait; 39 Indians vanish from radar. Problem solved," Gandhi had said.

India has issued a notice to Cambridge Analytica, giving it time till March 31 to name its clients and data source. The firm is also the subject of a similar investigation in the United Kingdom and United States.Patna: Dissident BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha met the family members of Lalu Prasad in the city, a day after visiting the jailed RJD president at a hospital in Ranchi where he is being treated.

While Sinha called on Prasad on Saturday after a CBI court handed him 14 years' jail term in a fodder scam case, he travelled to Rabri Devi's 10 Circular Road residence in Patna on Sunday to meet her and her sons.

Photographs of Sinha with Rabri and her sons -- Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav -- figured prominently in newspapers and social media much to the discomfort of the BJP whose leaders have been attacking the RJD supremo on corruption charges.

Sinha, who has been at odds with his party leadership ever since he was ignored in the 2015 Bihar polls, defended seeing Prasad and his family, saying it was a "personal" matter and was about his "sanskar" (values).

"For me, it's like once a friend always a friend," he told PTI today. "It is my principle not to consider political opponents as enemy."

He asserted his meeting should not be seen through political prims. "I went to meet Prasad and his kin to be with the family in this hour of crisis."

Sinha had some kind words for the jailed RJD supremo also, who he said was a "victim of conspiracy of circumstances".

"I hope he (Prasad) will get justice sooner or later," he said.

The BJP MP from Patna Sahib also sought to blunt criticisms that might come from any quarter for his meeting.

"If my meeting is taken as a sin what about the prime minister attending the wedding of Lalu Prasad's daughter or the wedding of Congress leader Digvijay Singh's daughter and wishing Sonia Gandhi during a personal encounter?

"This (his meeting with Prasad and his family) should be seen in the same light. When the time comes we may talk politics also ... No problem," he added.

"I have never crossed the Lakshaman rekha (limits) of my party. I always maintain discipline".

He praised Prasad's sons saying Tejashwi has a very "bright future" and that he was impressed with him. "About Tej Pratap Yadav do not try to underestimate him also."

"Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi President) and Tejashwi Yadav are people to be watched out for," the senior BJP leader said.

Tejashwi, who is the Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly, also tweeted about the meeting.

"Indomitable, the original Bihari Babu and stalwart of Indian Cinema & Politics Sh. @ShatruganSinha Ji came calling to show solidarity with us! He is appalled by #VendettaPolitics being meted out to fiesty @laluprasadrjd Ji! He always stands for genuine & honest friends."

Indomitable, the original Bihari Babu and stalwart of Indian Cinema & Politics Sh. @ShatruganSinha Ji came calling to show solidarity with us! He is appalled by #VendettaPolitics being meted out to fiesty @laluprasadrjd Ji! He always stands for genuine & honest friends . pic.twitter.com/2r4eN2d4TK Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) March 25, 2018

His brother Tej Pratap Yadav also tweeted. "A great selfie with Shatrughan Sinha ji."

"Standing with us as a guardian in the fight against feudal government, many many thanks to Shatrughan Sinhaji," he added.Tiptur: BJP President Amit Shah took on Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah in a direct attack and said that the Congress veteran must be the only socialist leader to wear a watch worth Rs 40 lakh.

How many people can afford a watch worth Rs 40 lakh? Mr Siddaramaiah is the socialist leader who wears a watch worth Rs 40 lakh and that indicates how much corruption they have done, Shah said on Monday.

He further maintained that the Congress government's move to give separate religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats was aimed at preventing BS Yeddyurappa from becoming the chief minister in Karnataka.

"This Siddaramaiah government has brought this proposal, not because it has love for Lingayats, but to prevent Yeddyurappa from becoming Chief Minister," he said addressing a Coconut Growers Convention here, as he began his two-day tour of election-bound Karnataka.

"I want to tell Karnataka people that if BJP wins a majority, we will make Yeddyurappa Chief Minister," headed.

Yeddyurappa is considered a Lingayat strongman.

The state cabinet had recently decided to recommend to the Centre to accord religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats, in a move seen as an attempt to chip away at the BJP's strong Lingayat voter base.

Shah said that the proposal, which was rejected by the then Manmohan Singh government at the Centre in 2013, was only aimed at creating confusion among people.

He, however, believed that the people of the state would not be enticed by Siddaramaiah's "divide-and-rule politics."

Congress President Rahul Gandhi should first point fingers at Siddaramaiah for dividing people before accusing BJP of it, Shah said.

He also likened Siddaramiah's divide-and-rule politics to that of the British.

"The Congress ship is sinking and to save it, the Congress is making its last efforts, and what it is doing? It is making efforts to divide people."

"The Congress Chief Minister is playing divide-and-rule politics of the British," he said.

Shah also criticised the Siddaramiah government for not bringing in the proposal earlier.

"The Siddaramaiah government has proposed to accord religion and minority status to Lingayats, but why did it not do it earlier? Because that time, there was no need for gaining votes," he said.

He also launched a scathing attack on the Siddaramaiah government for failing to prevent farmers' suicides in the state.

"In five years of Siddaramaiah's rule as many as 3,781 farmers committed suicides. I want to ask the government, who is responsible for these suicides?" he asked.

Shah said suicides in Congress-ruled states are always on the increase, whereas it dwindles in BJP-ruled states like Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

"In BJP-ruled states farmers' suicides are nigh to nothing. Wherever the Congress rules, the suicides of farmers increases, but decreases in BJP-ruled states."

"If you vote Yeddyurappa to become Chief Minister, I assure you farmers' suicides will come to a halt," he said.

(With PTI inputs)The European Union is planning to apply tougher consumer laws to social media networks and email providers like Facebook and Google's Gmail as scrutiny of data protection grows in the wake of an outcry over Facebook's handling of data. Under the draft proposal first considered last year, authorities could levy fines of at least 4 percent of turnover. Currently, EU consumer authorities can only levy small fines and some lack power to sanction companies at all for breaking consumer law.

Also Read: Apple Working on Foldable iPhone Could Release in 2020: Report

It is a fresh example of tighter EU rules for technology giants following reports that a political consultancy misused the data of 50 million Facebook users in a bid to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The proposal would extend the application of EU consumer law to "free" digital services for which consumers provide their personal data instead of paying with money, such as cloud storage services, social media and email accounts.

"Given the increasing economic value of personal data, those services are not simply 'free'", said the document seen by Reuters and due to be presented next month. The proposal would give consumers the right to pre-contractual information and to cancel contracts within 14 days. It would also require member states to ensure that their national consumer authorities can levy fines of at least 4 percent of annual turnover, in line with those foreseen under an EU data protection law set to enter into force in May.

Also Read: Mozilla, Tesla, Other Businesses Take a Facebook Pause

The European Commission is also planning a new law regulating the commercial practices of online platforms with smaller businesses, seeking to curtail their huge market power. EU consumer authorities have been pressing Facebook, Twitter and Google to improve their user terms since last year. While Google's changes were deemed sufficient, those of Facebook and Twitter only partially addressed the authorities' concerns. No enforcement action has been taken so far.

The proposal, if agreed by the European Parliament and member states, would also give consumer authorities more teeth to deal with scandals such as Dieselgate, where German carmaker Volkswagen cheated emissions tests. The Dutch regulator fined Volkswagen 450,000 euros ($554,085.00) for misleading consumers who bought its diesel cars, the maximum fine possible.

By contrast, VW has pledged billions of dollars to compensate owners of its diesel cars in the United States. "The available penalties for infringements of consumer law are very different across the EU, and are often set at a low level," the document says. "As a result, their deterrence in some countries is also low."

Watch: Samsung Flip First Look | Convert Any Space Into Smart Meeting RoomChinese smartphone maker Oppo is set to refresh its "F" series with the launch of F7 in India. The Oppo F7 will be launched at an event in Mumbai at 12 noon on Monday. A successor to the F5, the device takes the idea of all-screen front even further. The smartphone is expected to feature an iPhone-X like notch, a design pattern that is being taken up by other Chinese manufacturers.

Also Read: Google: 80 Percent of Indian Internet Users Browse YouTube

RT this tweet and tag your friends for a chance to win the spectacular OPPO F7! Watch the live streaming of the exclusive launch event at 12:00PM. pic.twitter.com/zbl3baWCic OPPO Mobile India (@oppomobileindia) March 25, 2018

The company is hosting a live stream so that one can watch the unveiling online. The live stream will be hosted on Oppo India website and official India YouTube channel.

In terms of specifications, the Oppo F7 will feature a 6.2-inch full-HD+ Super Full-Screen display bearing 19:9 aspect ratio, 89.09 percent screen-to-body ratio, and 10802280 pixels resolution. Under the hood, the mobile phone is rumoured to be powered by MediaTeks Helio P60 processor with 6GB RAM, and 64GB or 128GB storage. The Oppo F7 will run Android 8.0 Oreo-based ColorOS 5.0 with features such as face unlock and screen recording.

Also Read: Apple Working on Foldable iPhone, Could Release in 2020: Report

In terms of optics, the smartphone is said to have a 16-megapixel camera on the back, with f/2.0 aperture, 4K video recording, and dual-tone LED flash and a 25-megapixel camera in front for selfies. Oppo F7 is expected to come packed with 3,400mAh battery. On the connectivity front, the smartphone is said to offer 4G, VoLTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.

The new F7 is expected to be priced around Rs 18,000 to Rs 25,000. As far as the availability is concerned, it might be made available on March 28.

Watch: Samsung Flip First Look | Convert Any Space Into Smart Meeting RoomTo curb fake news, Egypt has announced a new hotline for citizens that will run on WhatsApp and will allow them to report news that aims to "to endanger the nations security or public interests", the media reported. Egypt's citizens can report any of the fabricated news violations by sending messages to the General Prosecution office via the WhatsApp hotline, The Next Web reported.

Also Read: Apple Working on Foldable iPhone Could Release in 2020: Report

It was launched on March 12 and the announcement was made through a statement by Egypt's General Prosecution office. "This comes to apply the orders of the Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek to monitor what is being published on different media outlets and social media websites," the statement said. This comes as the communications committee of the Egyptian Parliament has been discussing articles of a government draft law to counter IT-related crimes, the report added.

Also Read: Mozilla, Tesla, Other Businesses Take a Facebook Pause

Reports coming from Egypt were that the committee has agreed to its article seven, which regulates the blocking of websites based inside and outside of the country. Many people continue to criticise Egypt's stance regarding news websites saying it amounts to media censorship. Since 2017, Egyptian authorises have been blocking Qatar-linked online publications such as Al-Jazeera, The Huffington Post Arabic, Qatari News Agency and more, the reason given by the country's government is that the publications "fabricate news" and also incite terrorism, the report said.

This has continued in 2018 where the government has come under criticism for continue to block a number of news outlets which include The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN, these have been inaccessible to mobile users in Egypt since the beginning of the year, the report added. The new law now also likely gives authorities carte blanche on websites to ban citing fake news and state security as a reason, whether that is actually the case or not, is debatable.

It also remains to be seen how they will be able to enforce this given how citizens can use VPNs to bypass this.Varna: Fourteen EU states are expelling Russian diplomats in a coordinated response to the nerve agent attack on a former spy in the English city of Salisbury, EU President Donald Tusk said on Monday.

"As a direct follow-up to last week's European Council decision to react to Russia within a common framework, already today (Monday) 14 member states have decided to expel Russian diplomats," Tusk told a news conference in Varna, Bulgaria.

"Additional measures including further expulsions are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks."

The move came after British Prime Minister Theresa May addressed fellow European Union leaders at a summit in Brussels to urge them to support Britain's assessment that Russia was to blame.

The 28 EU states issued a statement saying they agreed it was highly likely Russia was responsible for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4, and ordered the recall of the bloc's ambassador to Moscow.

Germany, France and Poland have so far said they will each expel four Russia diplomats, the Czech Republic and Lithuania three, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands two, and Latvia one.

The United States also announced it was expelling 60 diplomats and closing the Russian consulate in Seattle.Washington: Adult film star Stormy Daniels appeared on television Sunday night to discuss her alleged affair with Donald Trump before he became President and the hush money she says she received to keep it quiet.

In her first extended television news interview since the news of her alleged 2006 affair, Daniels declined to discuss whether she had evidence of the affair and said that she was threatened to stay silent about it.

The 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper is the most detailed televised account Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has so far offered of the affair she says she had with Trump. She also said Trump told her he and wife Melania, who had just given birth to their son, Barron, slept in separate rooms.

Here's a look at the key players in this saga:

Stephanie Clifford

Daniels' legal name is Stephanie Clifford. She's gone to court to break her silence about an alleged affair she had with Trump before he became President. In the court filing, Clifford alleges their affair was more than a decade ago, and says Trump's lawyer paid her $130,000 to stay silent just before the 2016 election. The White House has denied the affair happened.

Michael Avenatti

He's the attorney representing Daniels. He has accused Trump's legal team of "engaging in thuggish behaviour" by accusing Daniels of violating a nondisclosure agreement. "Now we have a sitting US President ... who is threatening to sue a private citizen for over $20 million for talking about their relationship," Avenatti said last week. He tweeted an image of what looked like a CD or DVD on Thursday, saying the disc contains evidence proving the porn star's claims about her alleged affair with Trump.

Michael Cohen

The President's long-time attorney has accused Daniels of violating a nondisclosure agreement by talking about the alleged affair. Cohen has admitted to facilitating a payment to Daniels in 2016. News of the payment led to allegations it may have violated campaign finance laws. He recently joked to Vanity Fair that he would take "an extended vacation on (Daniels') dime."

Charles Harder

He is part of Trump's legal team, and is seeking to move the lawsuit by Daniels from state to federal court. The attorneys say that since Daniels agreed to pay $1 million for "each breach," she could owe as much as $20 million if an arbitration judge sides with Trump's attorneys. Harder is best known for representing Hulk Hogan in his lawsuit against Gawker, which resulted in its bankruptcy.

Karen McDougal

The former Playboy model says she had an affair with Trump over a decade ago, around the same time as Daniels' alleged relationship. "I didn't know he was intimate with other ladies," she said last week on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. "I thought I was the only one." The White House has denied the affair happened.Beijing: Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday China and the United States should maintain negotiations and he reiterated pledges to ease access for American businesses, as China scrambles to avert a trade war.

Li told a conference that included global chief executives that China would treat foreign and domestic firms equally, would not force foreign firms to transfer technology and would strengthen intellectual property rights, repeating promises that have failed to placate Washington.

The United States asked China in a letter last week to cut a tariff on U.S. autos, buy more U.S.-made semiconductors and give U.S. firms greater access to the Chinese financial sector, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing unidentified sources.

Alarm over a possible trade war between the world's two largest economies has chilled financial markets as investors anticipated dire consequences should trade barriers go up due to President Donald Trump's bid to cut the U.S. deficit with China.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer listed steps they want China to take in a letter to Liu He, a newly appointed vice premier who oversees China's economy, the Journal said, quoting sources with knowledge of the matter.

The newspaper reported that Mnuchin was considering a visit to Beijing to pursue negotiations.

Despite a steady stream of fierce rhetoric from Chinese state media lambasting the United States for being a "bully" and warning of retaliation, Chinese and U.S. officials are busy negotiating behind the scenes.

"With regard to trade imbalances, China and the United States should adopt a pragmatic and rational attitude, promote balancing through expansion of trade, and stick to negotiations to resolve differences and friction," Li told the conference in Beijing, state radio reported.

China has offered to buy more U.S. semiconductors by diverting some purchases from South Korea and Taiwan, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the negotiations. China imported $2.6 billion of semiconductors from the United States last year.

Chinese officials are also working to finalise rules by May - instead of the end of June - to allow foreign financial groups to take majority stakes in Chinese securities firms, the Financial Times said.

"I anticipate that for political reason it would be logical for China to respond, because countries do," Blackstone Group Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman told Reuters on Monday on the sidelines of the Beijing conference at which Li spoke, the China Development Forum.

"That's why I view this more as a skirmish, and I think the interests of both countries are served by resolving some of these matters."

Fears of a trade war mounted this month after Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, and then on Thursday specifically targeted China by announcing plans for tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese goods.

On Friday, China responded to the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium by declaring plans to levy additional duties on up to $3 billion of U.S. imports. The list of targeted goods contained no mention of soybeans or aircraft, China's two biggest U.S. import items.

China could also inflict pain on U.S. multinationals that rely on China for a substantial - and growing - portion of their total revenues, said Alex Wolf, senior emerging markets economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments.

"This could put U.S. companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Starbucks, GM, Nike, etc in the firing line," Wolf said in a note.

China can increase the regulatory burden on U.S companies through new inspections and rules; ban travel; stop providing export licenses of key intermediate goods; raise the tax burden on U.S. multinationals in China; or block U.S. companies from the government procurement market, he said.

FLOUTED RULES

Trump unveiled the planned tariffs targeting Chinese goods after a U.S. inquiry found China guilty of intellectual property theft and unfair trade, by forcing U.S. investors to turn over key technologies to Chinese firms.

On Saturday, Liu told Mnuchin in a telephone call the U.S. inquiry violated international trade rules and China would defend its interests, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

A U.S. Treasury spokesman confirmed the call, but declined to comment on the content of any letter or on a possible visit by Mnuchin to Beijing.

"Secretary Mnuchin called Liu He to congratulate him on the official announcement of his new role," the spokesman told Reuters. "They also discussed the trade deficit between our two countries and committed to continuing the dialogue to find a mutually agreeable way to reduce it."

The Trump administration has demanded that China immediately cut its $375 billion trade surplus with the United States by $100 billion.

"The U.S. has been wielding sticks worldwide over the past year. Washington needs to be taught a real lesson and such a lesson can only be taught by China, the world's second-largest economy," China's Global Times newspaper said in an editorial.

The widely read tabloid is run by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, although its stance does not necessarily mirror government policy.

Privately, Liu and Mnuchin exchanged letters in the past week on further opening China's financial services sector and cutting Chinese tariffs on imported cars, according to the Financial Times.

China has a 25 percent tariff on U.S. cars and has talked recently of lowering it.

China's imports of U.S. motor vehicles totalled $10.6 billion in 2017, about 8 percent of the country's overall U.S. imports by value, according to U.S. government data.

On the reported offer to increase U.S. semiconductor imports, it is unclear how U.S. chips would replace South Korean and Taiwanese chips, since there is minimal overlap between U.S. chips and those of the two Asian producers.

China is heavily dependent on foreign semiconductors, one of its biggest import categories by value. That said, the U.S. accounted for just 1 percent of China's total semiconductor imports last year by value, according to Reuters calculations based on Chinese customs data.Barcelona/Berlin: Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was detained in Germany on Sunday, five months after entering self-imposed exile from Spain, where he faces up to 25 years in prison for organising an illegal secession referendum last year.

Puigdemont had entered Germany from Denmark after leaving Finland on Friday when it appeared that police would arrest him there and begin an extradition process requested by Spain.

The detention threatens to worsen the Catalan crisis that flared last year when the region made a symbolic declaration of independence, prompting Madrid to take direct rule.

Spains Supreme Court ruled on Friday that 25 Catalan leaders would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state and reactivated international arrest warrants for Puigdemont and four other politicians who went into self-imposed exile last year.

Among those subject to the arrest order, Clara Ponsati, a former Catalan minister now living in Scotland, told authorities she would turn herself in, Scottish police said in a statement on Sunday afternoon.

The other three Catalan leaders are in Belgium.

Pro-independence groups called for protests on Sunday outside the offices of the delegation of the European Commission and the German consulate.

German police arrested Puigdemont on Sunday in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain. In a statement, police said Puigdemont was detained near a section of the A7 highway, which cuts through the state from the city of Flensburg near the Danish border.

Puigdemont was later transferred to Neumuenster prison, German news agency DPA reported.

German magazine Focus said that Spanish intelligence informed the BKA federal police that Puigdemont was on his way from Finland to Germany. It gave no source for its report.

He had arrived in Finland on Thursday to meet lawmakers and attend a conference as part of a campaign to raise the profile of the Catalan independence movement in Europe.

Extradition Issue

The Higher Regional Court in Schleswig-Holstein will be responsible for deciding whether to grant Spains extradition request.

The European arrest warrant system in place since 2004 makes it easier for EU countries to demand extradition from other EU states, having removed political decision-making from the process. EU nations issue thousands of such warrants each year.

Puigdemont will appear in court tomorrow to have his remand extended, German prosecutors said in a statement.

Paul Bekaert, who represents Puigdemont in Belgium, where he had been subject to an arrest warrant in December, said his client rang him after being detained in Germany and had appeared calm during the conversation.

Bekaert told Reuters TV that his client would have to appear before a German judge within 48 hours to determine whether or not to keep him in custody. Puigdemont will take German legal representation, Bekaert said, with the whole legal process, including possible appeals, likely to take months.

Puigdemont could take his case to Germanys highest court, which in 2005 blocked the extradition to Spain on an EU arrest warrant of a German-Syrian al-Qaeda suspect.

The case of Mamoun Darkazanli sparked a judicial row between the two countries after Germanys Federal Constitutional court refused to turn over Darkazanli, saying that EU extradition laws designed to speed up the delivery of suspects between member states violated the rights of German citizens.

Puigdemont has previously made clear his preference to fight the extradition process from Belgium, where the former Catalan leader was heading at the time of his detention, according to Puigdemonts spokesman, Joan Maria Pique.

The president was going to Belgium to put himself, as always, at the disposal of Belgian justice, Pique told Reuters.

The Spanish Supreme Court had issued an international arrest warrant against Puigdemont last year but withdrew it in December to avoid the risk of Belgian authorities granting him asylum.

Leaving Belgium had exposed him again to the risk of arrest.

Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena also sent five separatist leaders to pre-trial jail, sparking protests across Catalonia.London: An India-born millionaire is fighting a divorce battle akin to Britain's exit from the European Union after disputing his estranged wife's right to bring the case before a UK court.

John Pyres lived in the UK before moving to Europe to work for the European Commission in Brussels years ago, where he met his wife, Una Kelly.

He argued in the Court of Appeal in London Monday that Kelly's Irish roots made her more European than British. The couple, who got married in Italy in 2005, had only lived together in England for a year between 2001 and 2002.

Kelly, who grew up in Ireland and now works for the EU in Serbia, last year chose to bring divorce proceedings in London, despite not being a UK resident.

Pyres believes the case should be heard in Bosnia, where the couple most recently lived together.

The 73-year-old's barrister, Timothy Scott, told the court that Kelly never considered London her "permanent home", and only came to the UK in the Nineties to study for a Master's degree in Manchester.

The couple, who separated in 2015, are fighting over assets including a 2.5-million-pound home in Fulham, west London, property in Brussels and a Tuscan farmhouse in Italy, Evening Standard newspaper reported.

Scott pointed out that the judge who allowed the divorce proceedings to commence, Justice Cobb, had noted "the absence in her (Kelly's) evidence of either emotional warmth or attachment to England as a country".

He said although Kelly was born in Stoke-on-Trent in England, the family moved to Ireland before she was a year old. Despite having Irish-British nationality since 1995, she had "repeatedly presented herself to the world as an Irish national".

The court was also told that Pyres believes Italy to be his "spiritual home" and had left the UK as he did not enjoy his time in the country because of racial discrimination.

Barrister Charles Hale, arguing for 44-year-old Kelly, showed the court a paper for her Master's degree as proof of her connect with England.

"She demonstrated her passion for England by writing a thesis on English country houses, rather than Irish art or Irish cultural heritage for instance," he said.

Hale said she considered the house in west London as her home, adding that she had been paying UK taxes, has a doctor in Fulham, and had moved back temporarily to London around the time she gave birth to her first child. He also claimed that she intends to retire in England when she turns 65.

Three judges, hearing the case in the Court of Appeal, have reserved their judgment on the matter until a later date.Beijing: North Korea leader Kim Jong Un has visited China, Bloomberg reported on Monday citing three unnamed sources, in what would be his first known overseas trip since taking power in 2011 and ahead of a potential summit with US President Donald Trump.

Details of his visit including its purpose and itinerary were not yet known, Bloomberg said. Japanese media reported earlier on Monday that a high-ranking Pyongyang official appeared to have arrived by train in Beijing.

Kyodo, citing sources close to the matter, said the visit of the official was intended to improve ties between Beijing and Pyongyang that have been frayed by North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and China's backing of tough sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations Security Council.

The visit could not immediately be confirmed by Reuters.

Footage from Nippon News Network, owned by Nippon TV, showed what an announcer described as a green train carriage with yellow horizontal lines, part of a 21-car train, similar to the kind that Kim's late father, Kim Jong Il, rode when he visited Beijing in 2011.

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive and isolated North Korea. But Kim is due to hold summit meetings separately with China's rivals, South Korea and the United States.

Asked earlier at a daily news briefing about reports of an important North Korean visitor arriving at the Chinese border city of Dandong, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was unaware of the situation.

Nobody answered the telephone at the North Korean embassy in Beijing on Monday evening.

"The government is closely communicating with relevant countries and monitoring the situation," South Korea's presidential Blue House said in a statement via a messaging app earlier on Monday.

Kyodo, citing sources, reported that on Sunday, a special train that might have carried the official passed through the Chinese border city of Dandong.

Two sources in northeastern China also told Reuters that a North Korean visitor had crossed into Dandong by train.

The rail journey between Dandong and Beijing covers more than 1,100 km (680 miles). It takes at least 14 hours by ordinary service, according to Chinese railway timetables.

HEAVY SECURITY

On Chinese social media some residents of Dandong said there had been high security around the train station there and said there were rumours that Kim was passing through.

Police tightened security along Beijing's main east-west thoroughfare, Changan Avenue, mid-afternoon Monday, closing off the entrances to some of the buildings which face the road.

Police also cleared out all tourists from Tiananmen Square around the same time, which normally only happens when important meetings are happening in the Great Hall of the People, where top Chinese leaders often meet visiting heads of state.

There was a large security presence outside the Great Hall on Monday evening.

Late on Monday evening, Reuters reporters saw a lengthy motorcade, including a limousine with dark tinted windows, heading down Changan Avenue in the direction of the Diaoyutai State Guest House and away from the Great Hall of the People, flanked by a police escort on motor-bikes.

Also on Monday evening, the Beijing railway bureau warned on its microblog, without giving a reason, of multiple train delays of up to two hours in the Beijing region.

A source with ties to the Chinese military told Reuters that it was "not possible to rule out the possibility" that Kim was visiting Beijing, but cautioned this was not confirmed.

A diplomatic source told Reuters that there was heavy security around the Diaoyutai State Guest House, where some high level foreign visitors stay during visits to the city. Other diplomatic sources said they were aware of the speculation that Kim was visiting but were not able to immediately confirm it.

Visits to China by Kim Jong Il were only confirmed by both China and North Korea once he had left the country.

Kim Jong Il travelled by private train during his rare visits to China or Russia under tight security. Diplomats and other sources have said Kim Jong Il avoided flying for overseas trips due to security concerns.

The younger Kim, who was educated in Switzerland, is not known to have any fear of flying and state media have shown pictures of him aboard a plane. However, he is not known to have travelled outside the country since assuming power in late 2011 after his father's death.Islamabad: The Pakistan government has rejected former dictator Pervez Musharraf's request for security on returning to the country to face a special court trying him on treason charges, according to a media report.

The Ministry of Defence has conveyed to the Dubai-based former president through his counsel that providing him security is not its job, the Dawn newspaper reported.

In a letter written to Musharraf's counsel Akhtar Shah, the ministry said "provision of security in the subject case does not fall under the purview of Ministry of Defence", according to the report.

The 74-year-old retired Army general has been living in Dubai since last year when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on the pretext of medical treatment.

He was indicted in March, 2014 on treason charges for imposing emergency in 2007 in the country which led to the confinement of a number of superior court judges in their houses and sacking of over 100 judges.

He has been declared "proclaimed offender" by courts in the treason and the Benazir Bhutto assassination cases.

He is the first general to face trial for treason in Pakistan's history and if convicted, he could be given life imprisonment or the death penalty.

An application was moved on behalf of Musharraf on March 13 that the former president be provided security by the ministry of defence on his return to Pakistan.

"His team contends that he faces serious security threats," it said.

However, responding to a similar application, the Interior Ministry had earlier assured Musharraf of security and also sought his travel plan and details of stay in Pakistan. The details have not been shared with the interior ministry so far, the report said.

"We are still working on the details and will make the decision public once there is something final," All Pakistan Muslim League leader Muhammad Amjad, a close aide of Musharraf, was quoted as saying by Dawn.

On March 16, the special court hearing the treason case against Musharraf authorised the government to suspend his passport as well as his computerised national identity card.

The court had also directed the interior ministry to approach the Interpol for the arrest of the former president.

On March 21, he convened a meeting of his aides in Dubai on to decide the future course of action but the meeting remained inconclusive.

The Islamabad High Court had last month ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate Musharraf over charges of accumulating assets beyond his known means of income.New Delhi: The Donald Trump administration has added seven Pakistani firms to a list of entities that pose a significant risk to the United States by indulging in nuclear trade, Pakistani media reported on Monday.

The move could prove to be a setback in Islamabads efforts to enter the elite Nuclear Suppliers Club (NSG), where Indias membership has been repeatedly stalled by China.

According to a report in Dawn.com, the US Bureau of Industry and Security reasonably believes all companies to be involved, or to pose a significant risk of being or becoming involved, in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.

The seven firms were among a total of 23 entities added to the list, which also includes companies based in South Sudan and Singapore.

These companies now face curbs on their exports and international trade.

According to Dawn.com, three of the Pakistani companies have been added to the list for their involvement in the proliferation of unsafeguarded nuclear activities that are contrary to the national security and/or foreign policy interests of the United States. Two have been accused of sourcing material for companies already on the list, while the rest are allegedly fronts for such nuclear-related entities.

The move follows a series of steps taken by the United States to pressure Pakistan into taking concrete steps against terror groups that target India and Afghanistan from its soil.

The Trump administration suspended about $2 billion in security assistance to Pakistan in January. The US has been frustrated by Pakistan's reluctance to act against the terror networks on its soil.

Members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an anti-money laundering watchdog based Paris, voted last month to place Pakistan on its grey list of nations which are not doing enough to combat terror financing in June, reportedly under US pressure. That gives Pakistan three months to make enough changes to avoid the listing.Singapore: Twenty artisans from India have joined scores of local devotees in the restoration of a 164-year-old Hindu temple, a declared national monument in a nearly Rs 20 crore project.

Work has been going on for more than a year at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Little India where devotees share sacred space with the artisans and scores of other workmen.

A chief sculptor and a team of 19 highly-skilled artisans from India are "painstakingly keeping" to the colour scheme of the original temple, reported local daily 'The Straits Times'.

The biggest challenges for the restoration team is to accommodate various rituals, festivals and ceremonies while the extensive work is being done.

The temple's management committee chairman Vellayappan Karruppiah, 73, called the temple "a living monument".

"Every day, there are poojas going on and major festivals during which the work has to stop. The management committee has to plan so the work can be finished in time, and I am happy to say that we are on schedule," said Karruppiah.

The current renovations include: making more space for devotees to worship, re-painting paintings, murals and religious motifs, and re-conditioning structures like the rajagopuram (tower entrance), pillars and vimanams (temple roof).

A new multi-purpose facility for blessed meals and religious ceremonies has also been added.

At the end of the restoration process, an elaborate ceremony for the resanctification of the temple will be conducted by 39 priests on April 22, an auspicious date as per the Hindu almanac.

Rare sacred ceremonies will be performed for over five months. It is believed that the rituals will bring goodness and prosperity to the devotees, community and nation.

The iconic temple, one of the oldest in Singapore, is undergoing its fourth renovation (to the tune of some SGD 4 million) since it was declared a National Monument by the Preservation of Monuments Board of Singapore in 1978.

The last three redevelopment works for the temple were done in 1979, 1992, and 2005.

Restoration and resanctification of Hindu temples here are carried out every 12 years.

The Hindu Endowments Board funds the works and appeals for donations are made to supplement the cost.Istanbul: A Turkish daily strongly supportive of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday portrayed German Chancellor Angela Merkel on its front cover as Adolf Hitler, accusing her of having a "Nazi mentality".

The Yeni Akit daily, known for its hardline views on Turkish foreign policy, printed a photo-shopped picture of Merkel with a Hitler moustache, swastika arm band and belt diagonally across her chest in the style of Nazi militia.

"We are very worried by this mentality," it said.

Its front page came as European Union President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker were to meet Erdogan at the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna in a bid to mend ties with Turkey and the EU.

Ankara has been infuriated by a statement from EU leaders condemning Turkey's "illegal actions" towards Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea.

In particular, the EU lambasted Turkey over Ankara's arrest of two Greek soldiers who strayed into Turkish territory.

Yeni Akit alleged that while Merkel had "protected" fugitives wanted by Turkey and remained silent on arson attacks against mosques in Germany, "she is worried on the issue of the Greek soldiers who were trying to spy on us."

"It's exasperating that Merkel, with her Nazi mentality, makes comments against Turkey at every moment," it added.

This is not the first time that a Turkish newspaper has portrayed Merkel as the Nazi dictator who led the Third Reich, caused World War II and presided over the Holocaust.

Erdogan himself had accused Germany and other EU governments of showing the mentality of the Nazis for banning Turkish ministers from giving rallies in the run-up to an April referendum last year.

Then, the right-wing tabloid-style daily Gunes printed a picture of her in Nazi uniform along with the words in German: "#Frau Hitler" and called Merkel an "ugly aunt".Washington: The United States and more than a dozen European nations kicked out Russian diplomats on Monday and the Trump administration ordered Russia's consulate in Seattle to close, as the West sought joint punishment for Moscow's alleged role in poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

Warning of an "unacceptably high" number of Russian spies in the U.S., the Trump administration said 60 diplomats would be expelled  all Russian intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover, the U.S. said. The group includes a dozen posted to Russia's mission to the United Nations who the officials said were engaged in "aggressive collection" of intelligence on American soil.

The move was one of the most significant actions President Donald Trump's administration has taken to date to push back on Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin by phone for his re-election but didn't raise the spy case, renewing questions about whether the U.S. president is too soft on the Kremlin.

The American penalties were echoed by announcements in European capitals across the continent, including those in Russia's backyard.

Fourteen European Union nations were expelling Russian diplomats, EU chief Donald Tusk said, with more likely to follow. An EU official put the total from those countries at more than 30 Russians. Germany, Poland and France each planned to boot four, the Czech Republic three and Italy two.

Ukraine, a non-EU country with its own conflicts with Moscow, was expelling 13 Russians, President Petro Poroshenko said. All three Baltic states said they would kick diplomats out. Canada, too, said it was taking action, kicking out four and denying three who have applied to enter the country.

Almost all of the countries said publicly that the Russian diplomats they were expelling were actually spies.

The expulsions came with a chorus of condemnation for the Kremlin  for the poisoning, Russian spying and other Western grievances. Poland's Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz called it "the right response to the unfriendly, aggressive actions of Russia." In the Czech Republic, where Russian officials have claimed the poison may have originated, Prime Minister Andrej Babis dismissed that allegation as "an utter lie."

"The United States and many of our friends are sending a clear message that we will not stand for Russia's misconduct," said U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Trump's envoy to the U.N.

Russia's Embassy in Washington responded to the decisions on Twitter by hinting at retaliation, asking its followers to vote which U.S. consulate should be shuttered: St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok.

In Washington, Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, was summoned early Friday to the State Department and told that the 60 diplomats would have one week to leave the country, a State Department official said. Antonov was later quoted by Russian news wire Tass as saying he "expressed resolute protest to the "illegal actions" and emphasized there's no proof of Russian involvement in the poisoning.

Russia's Consulate General in Seattle must close by April 2. The facility is a particular counter-intelligence concern to the U.S. because of its proximity to a U.S. Navy base, said the senior U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to be identified by name.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the actions would make the U.S. safer by "reducing Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations" that threaten U.S. national security.

"With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences," Sanders said.

Britain has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being undeclared intelligence agents, which led Russia to expel the same number of British diplomats. The European Union has already recalled its ambassador to Russia.

The steps on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean add to a serious escalation of tensions between Russia and the West that has been building since the March 4 poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for the U.K., and his daughter, Yulia. The two remain in critical condition and unconscious. A policeman who responded to their home was also injured.

Britain has accused Moscow of perpetrating the attack using a Soviet-developed nerve agent known as Novichok. The U.S., France and Germany have agreed it's highly likely Russia was responsible. Russia's government has denied responsibility and has blasted Britain's investigation into the poisoning.GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn moreStar fly-by disturbed comets and asteroids of solar system 70,000 years ago

London : The movements of some comets and asteroids in our solar system still bear the mark of a stellar encounter that occurred 70,000 years ago when humans were already on Earth, says a study.

A small reddish star approached our solar system and gravitationally disturbed comets and asteroids, according to the study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.

The close fly-by of this star 70,000 years ago did not disturb all the hyperbolic objects (with very open V-shaped, not the typical elliptical orbit) of the solar system, only those that were closest to it at that time, the researchers found.

At a time when modern humans were beginning to leave Africa and the Neanderthals were living on our planet, the Scholz's star -- named after the German astronomer who discovered it -- approached less than a light-year from the Sun.

Nowadays it is almost 20 light-years away, but 70,000 years ago it entered the Oort cloud, a reservoir of trans-Neptunian objects located at the confines of the solar system.

This discovery was first made public in 2015 by a team of astronomers led by Professor Eric Mamajek of the University of Rochester in the US. The details of that stellar flyby, the closest documented so far, were presented in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Now, astronomers from the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain and the University of Cambridge analysed for the first time the nearly 340 objects of the solar system with hyperbolic orbits, and in doing so they detected that the trajectory of some of them is influenced by the passage of Scholz's star.

"Using numerical simulations we have calculated the radiants or positions in the sky from which all these hyperbolic objects seem to come," said study co-author Carlos de la Fuente Marcos from Complutense University of Madrid.

"In principle, one would expect those positions to be evenly distributed in the sky, particularly if these objects come from the Oort cloud; however, what we find is very different: a statistically significant accumulation of radiants," he added.

"The pronounced over-density appears projected in the direction of the constellation of Gemini, which fits the close encounter with Scholzs star," De la Fuente Marcos said.

Scholz's star is a binary system formed by a small red dwarf, with about 9% of the mass of the Sun, around which a much less bright and smaller brown dwarf orbits. It is likely that our ancestors saw its faint reddish light in the nights of prehistory, according to the researchers.Egypt's police kill 6 terrorists on election eve

Cairo : The Egyptian police killed six terrorists on Sunday during an anti-terror raid in Beheira province north of the capital Cairo, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said.

The anti-terror police raid came hours before Egypt's 2018 presidential election kicks off on Monday morning, in which incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is expected to easily win a second four-year term.

The interior ministry said the terrorist cell in Beheira was involved in Saturday's car bomb in nearby coastal province of Alexandria that killed two policemen and wounded at least four others.DANBURY  New high school graduation requirements are on the way for Danbury public school students as local district adjusts to new state rules.

The proposal will increase the number of credits needed to graduate to 25 from 21 to meet revised state guidelines and will revise the distribution of credits for subjects like world languages, health and mathematics.

The new requirements are expected to go into effect for members of the class of 2023, who are in seventh grade this year.

But Danbury High Principal Dan Donovan and Assistant Principal Meghan Martins, who have helped redesign the local requirements, say the states direction could come with a cost for both the district and students.

Theres a huge personnel impact on this to get where we need to be, Donovan said. Luckily, we get a little bit of time.

Although about half of Danbury High students already graduate with 25 or more credits, about 350 in each class would need to earn more. As enrollment continues to grow, that will require more teachers, Donovan and Martins said.

In all, the district would need the equivalent of seven full-time staff members to handle the additional classes, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the district budget, Superintendent Sal Pascarella said.

It wont all happen at once, but you have the perfect storm when you have a credit increase and student enrollment increase, Pascarella said. The two of those things come together and just exacerbate it.

The increased credit requirements also could put the squeeze on students, who could lose some of their flexibility with electives  or worse, Martins added.

If a kid has one bad class, theyre at a risk for not graduating on time in the current structure of the proposal, she said.

Other changes would add a required personal finance course, reducing the world languages requirement to one year from two, and a full health credit, up from a half-credit.

The school board will vote on the plan at its meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday night at the administrative offices at 63 Beaver Brook Road.

There is still room for tweaks to the plan, especially regarding the states so-called mastery-based diploma, in which a student would complete a project in a certain area of study as a kind of high school capstone class, Pascarella said.

But the state has given little direction on how to implement that program, so Donovan and Martins have suggested incorporating it into senior math, science or or social studies courses.

The concept was great, but the implementation was really a challenge, so (the state) kept pushing it out, Pascarella said. There were some unclear objectives they were trying to achieve with common courses that didnt make a lot of sense.

I kept saying it was like moving the chairs on the Titanic, he continued. I didnt know what they were trying to achieve. A lot of our seniors were leaving with 25 or 26 credits. Legislators just felt Connecticut had a lower requirement than nationally, even though many schools exceeded it.On March 25, 1965, Martin Luther King led thousands of protesters into Montgomery, Alabama, concluding a five-day, 54-mile march from Selma that would become a pinnacle moment in the civil rights movement.

On Sunday, inspired by the Selma marchers and the high school students from Parkland, Florida, a group of young people in Wisconsin began a march of their own, albeit not quite on a Selma scale.

More than 40 students from across Wisconsin embarked on a four-day, 50-mile march from Madison to Janesville, the hometown of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., where they will hold a rally Wednesday. Their goal? To call out Ryan for his "lead role in blocking and burying any chance of gun reform again and again," according to the group's website.

Beyond that, the students hope to show Ryan - and politicians nationwide - that although Saturday's March for Our Lives events are over, this generation of empowered young people is not going anywhere.

"We're picking up where so many marches left off," Katie Eder, an 18-year-old organizer of the Wisconsin march, "50 Miles More," said in an interview with The Washington Post.

In the 1960s, the young protesters fighting injustice were told they were "too ambitious," that achieving equality for African Americans would be impossible, Eder said while speaking to a crowd at a March for Our Lives event in Milwaukee.

"Now in 2018 we've reached a period in time where we the young people of this country are being told that ending gun violence in the U.S. is impossible, our dreams are too big and we don't know what were talking about," Eder said. "But I stand here today to say to all of you that now is the time to do the impossible."

The organizers, students at Shorewood High School near Milwaukee, said they came up with the idea for the march after seeing the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students leading the nationwide movement against gun violence. The Wisconsin students wanted to find a way to directly call out politicians within their own state. Ryan was the obvious choice.

The students plan to demand a ban on all military-style weapons and all accessories that turn semiautomatic weapons into automatic weapons, such as bump stocks. They are calling for a four-day waiting period on all gun purchases, required background checks on all gun sales, and for raising the legal purchasing age of all guns to 21.

"We want to start a conversation," said Brendan Fardella, a 17-year-old senior at Shorewood. "Clearly this is a human rights issue in our country. If that isn't such an issue in this country than I don't know what is."

AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, gave a statement to CNN on Sunday saying "the speaker appreciates those making their voices heard today."

What began as a march coordinated by a group of students from Shorewood soon drew students from across the state, from schools and neighborhoods of all political and economic backgrounds. The students - most of them strangers to one another - all gathered in Madison on Saturday night to begin their march on Sunday morning. And the march has swelled. Even in the hours since they began walking, young people following the group on social media have reached out asking how they can join in as well.

Bundled up in hats, gloves and winter coats, the high school students braved near-freezing weather on Sunday and walked a total of 17 miles, honoring a different victim of gun violence after every mile and documenting their progress on social media.

"Hey hey, NRA, how many kids have you killed today?" they chanted during their first mile. They held signs showing phrases like "you pick guns, I pick my future" and carried a banner with the words "protect kids, not guns." Accompanied by parent chaperones, the students walked down sidewalks and bike trails, and were occasionally escorted along busy roads by law enforcement. They listened to the Hamilton soundtrack, shared stories from their respective high schools, and waved at people passing by. They stopped for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and spent Sunday night sleeping on a high school gym floor in Dane County, near Madison.

"We have a lot of sore bodies," Alemitu Caldart, a 15-year-old freshman from Shorewood, told The Post. "But we are so empowered."

Caldart talked about the friends she made throughout the day, including an older student from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who encouraged her to continue being a leader in social justice causes.

"I'm more than just what people want me to be," Caldart said. "We are young but we're stubborn and we're demanding change because we're tired of seeing all these countless lives taken every single day. I'm frustrated, everyone's frustrated."

The students are encouraging groups in every state to hold their own 50-mile marches to the home towns and offices of their elected officials before elections in November.

"And if the politicians won't listen to us, if the politicians won't make the change, then come November, we are prepared to change the politicians," Eder told the crowd at Milwaukee's March for Our Lives.

Asked how it felt to be spending their spring break trekking more than a dozen miles a day, and sleeping on gym floors instead of lying on a beach, Eder fired back:

"We're trying to change the laws. We're trying to change the country. The beach can wait."Future growth in U.S. crude oil and natural gas production is projected to be driven by the development of tight oil and shale gas resources.

The outlook for domestic crude oil and natural gas production is highly sensitive to resource and technology assumptions. Higher oil prices now mean US oil frakkers can pump as much as they want and make more money to fund the development better oil technology.

If we assume that the Venezuela oil production collapse and OPEC production limitation agreement adds a $20 per barrel price premium. The US oil drillers are getting about $30-50 billion per year for profits and to fund the development of better oil technology.

Better technology will drive US frakking. This could lock in the high production scenario from the EIA where the US produces almost as much oil as the combined current oil production Russia and Saudi Arabia.

In the AEO2018 Reference case, domestic crude oil production increases over the next five years and then generally flattens after 2022, staying about 11 million to 12 million barrels per day (b/d) through 2050. Similarly, domestic dry natural gas production increases rapidly (more than 5% annually) through 2021 and then slows to an annual average growth rate of 1% through 2050, reaching 43.0 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) per year in 2050 in the Reference case.

In the Low Oil and Gas Resource and Technology case, domestic crude oil production decreases for most of the projection period, and dry natural gas production stays near 30 Tcf/year from 2018 through 2050.

EIA estimates Dec, 2017 Texas oil production to be at 3.93 million barrels per day. the Texas Railroad Commission has some incomplete data problems. Most likely, by late 2019, TRRCs published production value for December 2017 will be about 3.93 million b/d, consistent with EIAs most recent PSM estimates.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged about 16.8 million barrels per day during the week ending March 16, 2018, 410,000 barrels per day more than the previous weeks average.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.5 million barrels per day, up by 4.9% from the same period last year.

The US is producing 10.4 million barrels per day of oil. This is up over 400,000 barrels per day versus the end of 2017.

Venezuela has had a drop in production of about 700,000 barrels per day versus production in 2016.

Venezuelas drop in production and the OPEC agreement to limit production is supporting a higher oil price and enabling US oil producers to profitably develop improved technology to recover tight oil and shale gas resources.WEST HAVEN  The Haven upscale outlet mall project is alive and moving forward, although an executive for the developer acknowledged it is taking longer than expected to complete the site acquisition.

I think you can say were still very committed to the project, said Matt Armstrong, executive vice president of The Haven Group LLC.

A lot of the leasing challenges are behind us, he said. Its been a long process but its been a fair process. I think weve been very fair to the city and all the property owners.

As you know, it took us longer than expected to get the real estate locked up, Armstrong said. Were just finishing that up. We have two tenants who are vacating next month.

He was referring to holdouts Nicks Luncheonette at 423 First Ave. and members of the McGinnity family, both of which ultimately settled with the developer but are still occupying property on First Avenue.

Nicks owner Nick Milas has said that his final move-out date is now April 10. He has said that he was looking at the former Pizza Hut on Sawmill Road as one possible new location, but has yet to confirm that or any other location.

The owners of a third holdout property, S & S Mini Mart Citgo at Elm Street and First Avenue, now may or may not have to move, depending on the final plan, Armstrong said.

We dont know yet, Armstrong said.

In addition, As with every project, we are working on leasing, and leasing is going well  and we have to hit a threshold, Armstrong said. I dont know where we are exactly on that, but were getting very close. When we hit that threshold, youre going to start seeing some site work.

Armstrong agreed to discuss the status of the project amid widespread local speculation that it was either stalled or dead. Mayor Nancy Rossi, who took office in December, is among those who have suggested that it was stalled.

I wouldnt say its stalled, said Armstrong, who is based in Greenwich, with another partner, Ty Miller, based in Dallas. I would say its in pre-leasing.

This one clearly has taken a long time, but its been the result of the real estate, Armstrong said. Its taken a long time for us to reach agreement with 56 property owners.

He also acknowledged that the transfer of the city-owned Bayview Park  which was developed in part with federal funds and consequently needed federal approval to be sold for development  was an issue only in that it has taken a little bit longer than expected.

But I do believe that well have that parcel resolved in the next 60 days, he said.

The speculation has been fueled both by the length of time that has passed and the fact that Coming Soon  The Haven banners on temporary fencing around part of the site along Main Street and First Avenue recently were removed.

Thats where demolition of four vacant houses took place just before last Septembers Democratic primary, in which current Mayor Nancy Rossi defeated former Mayor Ed OBrien.

I had some temporary fencing removed last week and people saw that as us just packing up and leaving. But it wasnt, Armstrong said.

We had some issues where the temporary fencing kept falling down, and in addition, the demolition behind it was complete and it was just a flat, empty lot, he said.

Rossisaid she does not consider it stalled now.

I consider it was a stalled project until I got in and we got involved, Rossi said.

One problem her administration has been involved in resolving is the status of Bayview Park, where restrictions had to be lifted, she said.

If you werent working on it, it couldnt move forward, Rossi said.

OBrien said his administration worked hard to try to resolve the situation.

Nobody dropped the ball. ... It takes time, OBrien said. It wasnt stalled. We were working. ... For two years, every week we had conversations with the National Park Service on this. I made two trips to D.C. to try to work it out.

Rossi said that now, I dont think its dead. In all my conversations with Matt Armstrong ... hes never said that hes changed or that hes moving out of the project.

Corporation Counsel Lee Tiernan and Commissioner of Development Fred A. Messore have worked many hours to get this where its supposed to be, Rossi said, and so far, nobody has alerted my office ... that anything was going to stop.

I do have a lot of confidence that its going to go forward, she said. I just dont have a date.

Messore also said Bayview Park was stalled when he was hired. The city submitted an application to get the National Park Office in Philadelphia to sign off on the transfer the week before last, he said.

But Ive been told that this project is on track and moving forward, he said.

Since taking over for former Commissioner of Development Joseph Riccio Jr., Ive had constant conversations and meetings with Matt, Messore said.

This is a priority project with my office, and every day I try to make some type of inroads to try to move this project forward, he said.

I feel that the citys going to get an update from the developer soon, with some timelines and a schedule that I will share with the public and the media once thats given to us, Messore said.GUILFORD  Three Long Island, New York, residents were charged with two commercial burglaries Saturday of mobile phone stores following similar incidents in Greenwich and Orange, police said.

The suspects were arrested as they tried to leave the area of the AT&T Get Wireless Now store at 934 Boston Post Road in a stolen car, police Sgt. Christopher Massey stated in a news release.

According to police, officers were dispatched to the location at about 4 a.m. for an activated commercial burglar alarm. When they arrived, they discovered there had, in fact, been a burglary. They detained and arrested the three suspects as they left the area in a vehicle.

Officers subsequently discovered a second commercial burglary had occurred at the Verizon Wireless Zone at 864 Boston Post Road, Massey said in the release. In both cases, the burglars gained entry by smashing windows, and mobile phones and other merchandise was taken.

Massey stated that, prior to Saturdays burglaries in Guilford, police were alerted to recent and similar commercial burglaries of mobile phone stores in Greenwich and Orange.

Police arrested Victor Molina, 33, of Shirley, New York, and James Brewton, 48, and Victoria Deon, 36, both of Middle Island, New York.

They were charged with two counts each of first-degree burglary, conspiracy to commit first-degree burglary, first-degree criminal mischief and conspiracy to commit first-degree criminal mischief. They also were charged with one count each of first-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny, fourth-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit fourth-degree larceny and possession of burglar tools. Molina was also charged with interfering with an officer. Deon was charged with failure to obey a traffic signal.

Bail was set at $100,000 each.The world first discovered the sensational news that Wilhelm Rontgens mysterious X-rays could penetrate clothing and human skin, not through scientists but through the press.

Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen was a physicist who had little time for publicity. Like all other scientists the professor from Wurzburg University in Franconia always sought recognition from his peers, but Rontgen rarely appeared at scientific conferences or wrote papers, let alone promoted his research findings outside of his field. All this changed after Rontgens accidental discovery of X-rays sparked a media storm that meant his findings would have an impact like no other before it.

On the evening of 8 November 1895, Rontgen was in his laboratory studying how cathode-ray tubes emit light. His attention was distracted by a glowing fluorescent screen that was too far from the tube to be affected by the cathode rays. Rontgen didnt leave his lab for weeks as he tried to investigate the source of the glow. He discovered that the impact of cathode rays on the glass vacuum tube was generating a new kind of invisible ray. The rays had extraordinary penetrative power  they could travel long distances and make the screen glow, even when cardboard, wood, copper and aluminium were placed in the way  and could be recorded on photographic plates.

Rontgen knew immediately that he had to forego his natural reticence and disseminate this important discovery to the scientific community as soon as possible. Over Christmas, he wrote a 10-page article entitled On a new kind of rays, which was accepted by the Proceedings of the Wurzburg Physical-Medical Society on 28 December. Rontgen named the discovery X-radiation, or X-rays, after the mathematical term X that denotes something unknown. (He always preferred this term, even though other researchers insisted on calling it Rontgen rays.)

The article was precise and reserved in tone, with no accompanying images, and so the chances are that most scientists would have ignored the findings. A trip to the post office in Wurzburg on New Years Day in 1896 changed all that. In Rontgens hands were 90 envelopes, each containing a reprint of the article, which were addressed to physicists all over Europe. Twelve of the envelopes, addressed to friends or to distinguished scientists like Lord Kelvin, also contained nine photographs. Rontgen made several photos mainly of the interiors of metal objects, but it was another photo that led to a situation in which all hell broke loose, as Rontgen would later complain.

Since X-rays could penetrate materials like metals and wood, it seemed natural to find out if they could penetrate flesh. What Rontgen discovered was a remarkable ability to see through flesh and make bones visible. As he described in his paper: If the hand be held before the fluorescent screen, the shadow shows the bones darkly with only faint outlines of the surrounding tissues. To illustrate this effect, Rontgen took an X-ray photograph of his wifes hand, which produced an almost ghoulish image that clearly showed her bones and wedding ring.

One of the recipients of these letters was Franz Exner, a former fellow student of Rontgen and at the time professor of experimental physics in Vienna. Exner was a convivial man, regularly inviting members of the faculty to informal dinners at his home. Rontgens letter containing the photos arrived just in time for Exner to show his guests at one such gathering that upcoming Saturday, 4 January. One guest, Ernst Lecher, professor of physics in Prague, was so interested in the photos he asked Exner if he could borrow them for one day. Lecher was staying with his father in Vienna over the Christmas holidays, and knew he would be very interested in the images.

Hold the Front Page

Lecher knew his father would be interested, not because he was a scientist, but because he was the editor of Viennas leading daily newspaper Die Presse. As soon as the elder Lecher saw the images he knew he had a scoop on his hands, and immediately changed the front-page story for the next days issue. There was no time to print the photos, so Lecher asked his son for a full account of the facts, and he worked during the night to create an article that would clearly describe the findings, without considerable exaggeration.

Lechers X-ray story appeared under the headline A sensational discovery. Describing the potential of this new discovery, the article said: If we let our fantasies run freely  this could be of immeasurable help for the diagnosis of countless diseases.

The story had an instant impact. Viennese foreign correspondents cabled the article urgently to their editors at home. On Monday 6 January 1896, leading German papers covered the story. The Daily Chronicle published the first report in the United Kingdom, saying: A sensational discovery, which, if the reports are confirmed, is likely to be attended by imperial consequences for physical and medical science, is spoken of in scientific circles here. On Tuesday, the UKs Standard sought to reassure its readers that there is no joke or humbug in this matter. It is a serious discovery by a serious German professor. Rontgens photographs of human hands, the Standard wrote, were ghastly enough in appearances but from a scientific point of view they open up a wide field for speculation.

Once the UK press picked up on the X-ray story the news spread around the world within a few days. The news had spread so quickly, in fact, that few publications realised that the Die Presse had misspelled Rontgens name, attributing the new findings to one Professor Routgen.

Scientific and medical journals noticed the media coverage of X-rays, and began to report the findings too. On 11 January The Lancet published an almost dismissive comment about Rontgens findings, but one week later conceded that the new discovery will produce quite a revolution in the present methods of examining the interior of the human body. Two weeks later the journal printed X-ray photographs of a human hand and of the lower half of a frog.

Nature magazine dedicated 17 lines to Rontgen in its 16 January issue, and one week later published an English translation of Rontgens paper. The lead article in the 1 February issue of the British Medical Journal, entitled The New Photography, contained a detailed description of Rontgens method, and stated: The application of the discovery to the photography of hidden structures is a feat sensational enough and likely to stimulate even the uneducated imagination.

It did indeed. Gossip soon spread among strict and straight-laced elements of fin de siecle societies that X-rays could see through clothing and threaten privacy. Through cloak and gown  and even stays, those naughty, naughty Roentgen (sic) rays, wrote one doggerel. One opportunistic London company advertised X-ray proof underclothing  especially for the sensitive woman in the journal Electrical World, and is alleged to have made a small fortune. And in New York concerned citizens considered legislation against the use of X-rays in opera glasses.

Away from such concerns, scientists rushed to replicate and refine Rontgens X-ray images. Scientists were free to create X-rays using cathode-ray tubes because Rontgen had deliberately not patented his discovery, convinced that his inventions and discoveries belonged to the world at large.

There were few laboratories in which attempts were not immediately made to repeat the experiment, Sir Arthur Schuster recalled in his memoirs. Schuster, one of the recipients of Rontgens photos, was professor of physics at Manchester University, and he, like many other researchers, began using X-rays to identify foreign objects without surgery. My laboratory was inundated by medical men bringing patients, who were suspected of having needles in various parts of their bodies, complained Schuster, and during one week I had to give the best part of three mornings locating a needle in the foot of a ballet dancer.

X-rays were adopted worldwide at an extraordinary pace. In Montreal, Canada, a young man had been shot in the leg, but the bullet couldnt be found for weeks, until John Cox, professor of physics at McGill University, used X-rays to reveal that the bullet was lodged between the tibia and fibula. When the British Army launched an expedition to the Nile in spring 1896, its equipment included two X-ray machines to help localize bullets and diagnose bone fractures.

Reluctant Celebrity

The reaction to Rontgens X-rays made him an instant celebrity. Many honours were bestowed upon him, streets were named after him, and Rontgen received countless honorary doctorates and Prizes, including the first Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901 for his discovery of the remarkable rays.

By the end of 1896, more than 1,000 books and papers had been published on X-rays and its applications. But Rontgen himself had little to do with any of this. He published only two more papers on X-rays, and apart from one public lecture in Wurzburg he declined all offers for further lectures. Rontgen didnt even give a lecture after receiving his Nobel Prize. It was as if the exposure resulting from his findings forced Rontgen to make a greater vow of silence. In 1899, he accepted an offer from the University of Munich, and remained committed to progress in all fields of physics, but as his assistant Abraham Joffe reported, he preferred to work on less sensational areas of research.

Rontgens silence could not affect his discovery spreading far and wide within the scientific, and even non-scientific, literature. In his novel The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann (Nobel Laureate 1929) dedicated a chapter to the detailed description of an X-ray examination in a sanatorium in Davos, with philosophical discussions between doctor and patient about scientific progress and the nature of man. The title of this chapter sums up the scientific and public reaction to Rontgens discovery: My God, I see!

Bibliography

Folsing, A. Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen. Aufbruch ins Innere der Materie. Munchen, 1995.

Lentle, B. & Aldrich, J. Radiological sciences, past and present. Lancet 350, 280285 (1997).

Mould, R.F. The early history of X-ray diagnosis with emphasis on the contributions of physics 18951915. Phys. Med. Biol. 40, 17411787 (1995).

Posner, E. Reception of Rontgens discovery in Britain and U.S.A. British Medical Journal 4, 357360 (1970).

Deutsches Rontgen Museum

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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.But it would be too easy to call him a bad one. One of the most promising aspects of this series is the attempt one assumes it will make to understand the psychology of this outwardly unfeeling billionaire. Why would the man once called the wealthiest private citizen in the world show no visible sadness at the death of a son? Or refuse to pay a ransom he can easily afford? Why would he install a pay phone at his mansion just to stop guests from freeloading long-distance calls?

On the day of Georges funeral, he delivers a Shakespearean monologue that starts to gets at the heart of it. One of his mistresses walks into a room where Getty sits alone, lamenting his feckless progeny. (The writing here by Simon Beaufoy gets particularly rich.) Panic-stricken, he compares his family dynasty to the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, the Hearsts, and even the Kennedys, Irish peasants for Gods sake.

He adds: Do you think that bastard Joe Kennedy would have countenanced simpering idle wasters for children? No Sir!

We dont know it from this episode, but Gettys own father, who also made a fortune from oil, didnt just fork over wealth to his son. He paid Getty $100 each month to live and buy oil leases for cheap: If oil sprung, Getty profited 30 percent and his dad got the rest. Not a deal exactly. But by age 23, Getty had made his first million. And when his dad died, he inherited only a fraction of his fathers fortune  his father was said to disapprove of Gettys lifestyle and failed marriages (ultimately, there were five, harem not included).

Now a father himself, J. Paul Getty disapproves of his own sons, but for slightly different reasons: He was given comparatively little from his father, but he succeeded; Gettys sons were given opportunities but failed. What seems to matter most is that both his father and his sons disrespected Getty the tycoon. None have given him the appreciation that likely would have validated  and maybe softened  Getty the man.

And so, with his surviving sons mentally axed from the future of the business, Getty needs a business heir to save the family name. Enter the young John Paul Getty III, direct from Rome, in bell bottoms, a T-shirt and long, disheveled curls on the day of Georges funeral. Getty is turned off by the sight of Paul, but then he catches wind of Pauls knowledge of art history; art collecting is Gettys great tax-deductible weakness. The clouds part. Getty sees an answer to the family failings.Teachers in Oklahoma, who are threatening a walkout on April 2, have expressed similar frustrations, as have adjunct faculty members at a college in Florida and the recently unionized staff of The Los Angeles Times.

Robert Bruno, a professor of labor relations at the University of Illinois, said that while compensation and job security were often core concerns, what really generates this explosion of resistance among professional workers is when they feel theyre the last line of defense between the public they serve and others who would threaten the professionalism of their work.

Some professions, like law and medicine, began to take their modern form in the late 19th century and early 20th century, as science became more rigorous and knowledge became more specialized. Other occupations, like journalism, became more professionalized later in the 20th century by developing an agreed-upon set of norms and best practices.

In most cases, said Tracey Adams, a sociologist who studies professions at the University of Western Ontario, the workers tended to be driven by a sense that they were improving society, not just adding to the bottom line. In return, the public and government officials often deferred to them in the areas where they asserted authority. This netted them the resources to do their jobs, the independence to exercise their judgment and widespread public esteem.

That has changed in the past few decades, however. I think that most professions would find that there are a number of forces chipping away at a lot of those tangible and less tangible benefits, Professor Adams said. Increasingly people say, Im not sure I trust you more than the next person.Remington Outdoor, one of the oldest firearm manufacturers in the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday amid mounting debt and declining sales.

The gun maker had said last month it was nearing a bankruptcy filing, which it made on Sunday in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware. In its Chapter 11 filing, Remington said it had between $100 million and $500 million in debt and would continue to operate while under bankruptcy protection. It estimated that its assets were between $100 million and $500 million.

Remington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday evening.

The company, which was founded in upstate New York in 1816 but is now based in North Carolina, was acquired in 2007 by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management for $118 million. The firm rolled it up with other gun manufacturers, including the maker of the Bushmaster rifle, into a conglomerate called Freedom Group.The Chicago Police Department has a history of corruption, brutality and torture dating back decades. But the pressure for reform has ratcheted up since 2015, when a police video withheld by the city for more than a year showed an officer executing a black teenager named Laquan McDonald on the street  contradicting the official story that the young man had been killed while menacing officers with a knife. The officer was finally charged with murder  but only after a judge ordered the video released.

A Justice Department investigation has since found that the police routinely used excessive force against black and Latino citizens. The effort to remake this deeply troubled agency entered a new phase last week when a coalition of community groups  one representing families of people killed by police officers  was granted a formal role in a process that could soon produce a sweeping, court-enforceable police reform agreement. By including community groups, the city and the Illinois State attorney general  which have primary responsibility for forging the agreement  might overcome deeply held public skepticism about the departments ability to change.

The Justice Department uncovered a number of cases, like the McDonald shooting, where the department accepted police versions of events that were later undercut by video. The investigation found that the city often failed to investigate cases.

If there was ever a police department that warranted federal supervision through a court-enforceable consent decree, this was it. Mayor Rahm Emanuel initially embraced that idea, but equivocated after the Trump administration made clear that it had no appetite for such agreements. Three different parties  two coalitions of community groups and the state attorney general, Lisa Madigan  sued the city, urging it to accept court oversight. As Ms. Madigan pointed out, Chicago had never had real police reform because it had never been mandated by an enforceable order.Even if he cant be good, he at least wants to look good, to fake it to try to make it. This may be one of the reasons he is inviting so many television personalities into his cabinet.

This is all just window dressing. Trump is truly in the cross hairs, and he knows it.

Just as he is going to war on three fronts, he is being attacked on three fronts.

The Robert Mueller investigation is bearing down on him as an inevitable in-person interview with Trump  and all of its potential pitfalls  draws nearer. I have resisted predictions about what could come of the investigation because it would be little more than conjecture. Only Mueller knows what Mueller knows. But, it appears to me that the president is surely acting like a guilty man, or at least someone trying to shield another who is guilty.

Then there is the porn star, the playmate and the reality star: Three women currently in litigation over sexual contact with Trump  two admittedly consensual and one allegedly not. The most tantalizing and threatening of the three is the case with porn star Stephanie Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels. Daniels and her attorney, as well as language in the nondisclosure agreement that she signed, suggests that she has some compromising written and photographic evidence about her encounters with Trump.

Furthermore, in Daniels, Trump seems to have met his match as an internet troll. When someone on Twitter asked Clifford, What snack foods do you recommend for watching you on 60 Minutes tomorrow night? Nachos and wings feel so January, you know? Clifford responded: Tacos and mini corndogs just seems so right  and yet, so wrong. I believe the more traditional choice is popcorn, however.

Yes, the subtext of that tweet is exactly what you think it is. Note to self: Never pick a fight with a porn star.Many Democratic voters and activists are giddy about their partys chances of retaking the House in 2018. Savoring surprise victories in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Virginia, they have visions of a blue wave election.

If political history were the only guide, they would be right. Polls in recent days have shown Democrats with around a 9-point average lead on the generic congressional ballot, which asks Americans which party theyll vote for in the coming election. Under ordinary conditions, a lead that size would be more than enough to net the 24 seats Democrats need to regain a majority.

But a big reality check is in order. Even the strongest blue wave may crash up against a powerful structural force in American politics: extreme gerrymandering. Pending court cases, including one scheduled to be argued before the Supreme Court on Wednesday (in which our organization filed an amicus brief), may change the terrain going forward. But no matter how the high court rules, its decision will almost certainly come too late to affect the 2018 vote.

That means most Americans will participate in this years elections under gerrymandered congressional maps that were created in the wake of the 2010 Tea Party wave. Nearly a decade later, those gerrymanders are still tilting the House toward Republicans, particularly in a few key states.While Donald Trump once said he was very pro-choice, since the start of his presidential campaign his stance on abortion has been consistent: It should be banned, no matter the consequences to women. At times, he has even veered to the right of the mainstream anti-abortion movement, as when he said during a primary season town hall event that women who seek abortions should face some form of punishment. Most anti-abortion politicians profess to want to protect women, even when they pass laws that harm them.

Now legislators in one state want Mr. Trumps cruel vision to become reality. Ohio lawmakers have proposed legislation to ban all abortions, period, with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest or to save a womans life.

Carrying to term a pregnancy against ones will is punishment enough  in fact, it can amount to torture, according to the United Nations Human Rights Council. But the Ohio bill would not only cut off access to the procedure, it would also open the door to criminal charges against both abortion providers and women seeking the procedure. One of the Republican co-sponsors of the legislation, State Representative Ron Hood, said it would be up to prosecutors to decide whether to charge a woman or a doctor, and what those charges would be. But they could be severe. Under the bill, an unborn human would be considered a person under state criminal homicide statutes. Thus, a prosecutor could decide to charge a woman who ended a pregnancy with murder. In Ohio, murder is punishable by life in prison or the death penalty.First and foremost, Iran most likely will move quickly, without any restraint, to enrich uranium, the fissile material needed for nuclear weapons. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the leading edge of Irans nefarious actions, will declare that the West can never be trusted and will use the decision to undermine the less hard-line president, Hassan Rouhani.

The destruction of the nuclear deal will also increase the Revolutionary Guards malign activities in the Middle East, making the challenge to Israels security and to Americas other allies even more difficult. These activities, in turn, will increase American calls for military action against Iran as the only viable option, since no Iranian will be able to enter new negotiations with the United States any time soon.

The march to military conflict will be hard to stop, especially with Mr. Bolton leading the National Security Council.

Beyond this horror show, the decision to destroy the Iran deal will also pound yet another nail into the coffin of the trans-Atlantic relationship. Mr. Trump has so far laid the task of fixing the deal at the feet of Britain, France and Germany, Americas European partners in the nuclear negotiations. He has demanded that they agree to new language on Irans ballistic missile development and inspections of Iranian military installations, and he has asked for a change in the timeline of the nuclear deal so that the restrictions on Iran will not expire. In essence, he has asked Europe for help changing the terms of the deal itself.Grab was introduced in 2012 and now operates in eight Southeast Asian countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. And it has put up a tough fight.

With passengers in nearly 200 cities across the region, the company is aiming to be more than just a transportation provider. It wants its digital wallet, GrabPay, to replace cash as a way to pay for things at offline shops and restaurants. And in a region where many people lack credit histories or even bank accounts, Grab is undertaking a venture to make loans to consumers and small businesses. Data collected through Grabs app, on users movements and transactions, is used to assess their creditworthiness.

Grab also offers a wide variety of ways for people to get around. In Singapore, you can hop on a GrabShuttle that, like a public bus, will take you between points along a fixed route. In jam-packed Jakarta, you can use Grabs app to hail a nearby motorbike taxi right off the street, forgoing the usual process of prebooking and waiting for the driver to arrive at your location.

The company is generally regarded as the market leader in Southeast Asia. But in Indonesia, the regions most populous country, it is taking on Go-Jek, a local rival whose apps offer services, such as massages on demand and motorbike parcel deliveries, that go beyond just rides. Go-Jeks investors include Google and Tencent, the Chinese internet conglomerate.

In an interview, Ming Maa, Grabs president, said that the deal with Uber would help Grab move closer to profitability, although he declined to give specifics. One key benefit of combining with Uber, Mr. Maa said, is that it immediately expands Grabs food-delivery operations.

That has massive, massive benefits to our consumer base, he said, but is also a key driver for our mobile payments business.

For Uber, ceding Southeast Asia still leaves it with plenty of challengers elsewhere in the world. Didi Chuxing, based in Beijing, invested alongside SoftBank in Grab last year. It recently raised money from SoftBank and other investors at a valuation of $56 billion  higher than the $48 billion at which Uber was valued as part of last years stake sale to SoftBank.The inhabitants of Angels are as glowingly individual as illuminated fingerprints. I found it impossible not to identify or even fall a little in love with all of them, including Mr. Lanes satanic Roy.

And when characters are this vividly drawn, spending hours in their company is no hardship. Watching both parts of Angels  Millennium Approaches and Perestroika  on one Saturday, as I did, didnt feel much different from falling into a fat novel by Dickens or Donna Tartt, or binge-watching a quality soap on Netflix.

At the dinner break, I almost resented having to leave the theater for two hours. The plays second half still lacks the focus of its first part. Mr. Kushner takes it upon himself to elucidate mysteries he has set up earlier, and Perestroika has some of the water-treading frenzy of the last season of David Lynchs original Twin Peaks. But the characters remain so palpably there, in the writing and the performance, that attention never flags.

Ms. Elliott  a two-time Tony winner for her productions of War Horse and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time  has always been at home with vast canvases. But on the Nationals immense Lyttelton stage, her Angels could sometimes feel lost in space. And some of the British cast members were having trouble fitting into the American skins of their characters.

This Angels sits far more comfortably in its New York residence. And the method in Ian MacNeils shadow-shrouded stage design, with lighting by Paule Constable, is now gratifyingly apparent. The mid-1980s New York conjured here is a town of endless night.

Isolated spaces  apartments, offices, restaurants and hospital rooms  are defined by cool neon strips, with window-framed vistas as lonely as those of a Hopper painting. The real radiance comes from the people, and how they flicker, sputter and flame.

At their center is Prior Walter (a magnificent Mr. Garfield, last seen on Broadway in Mike Nicholss staging of Death of a Salesman). Having just learned that he is HIV-positive when the play begins, Mr. Garfields Prior is a mix of mortal terror, a drag queens bravado and a profound consciousness that the world is now a different place for him. He embraces his disease by making a wild, grotesque joke of it, even when hes in pain.Yet the role of leading gun control groups and advocates, and even local organizers, has plainly aggravated and frustrated critics of Saturdays marches. Breitbart, the conservative website, said the events were directed, promoted and funded by left-wing adults and adult-led organizations.

Although adults were involved in some planning  an organizer listed on the National Park Service permit for the march in Washington, for example, is a prominent activist from California  there is little doubt that students were crucial to orchestrating Saturdays events. In Washington, the area seemed to influence the program, which included Parkland students and celebrity guests but also a choir from Baltimore and remarks from a local 11-year-old girl.

The kids did everything, said Jenn Hoadley, 36, who helped students organize a march in Anchorage. All I did was say, You want a stage? Cool. Ill find one for you. You need a sound system? Cool. Ill find one for you. You want to march in the park? I do paperwork to help you get that done. They planned it all, and they should be given credit for that.

In New York, a Facebook group, envisioned to coordinate the efforts of about 30 friends and classmates to attend a march, swelled into the planning apparatus for the citys major event. The groups creator, Alex Clavering, a Columbia Law School student, was quickly regarded as the official organizer.

So that was what he became. He convened meetings and established a fund-raising effort. He applied for a city parade permit  at first, he recalled, for a turnout of 3,000 to 5,000 people. By the end of the first week, he had changed it to 30,000 people. (The mayors office ultimately estimated that nearly 200,000 people marched on Saturday.)

The early days, Mr. Clavering, 26, said, were decentralized, figuring it out, being scrappy. But more established gun control groups soon got in touch, offering to connect him to others and, eventually, to pick up expenses that included lighting, sound equipment and stages.

Mr. Claverings GoFundMe campaign raised more than $25,000, but he said the cost for the entire event was likely around $100,000.His business took off after Mr. Trumps election. Circinus has won lucrative work from around the world, including contracts worth more than $200 million to do defense work for the United Arab Emirates. And Mr. Broidy openly promoted Circinuss work in meetings with Mr. Trump and other Republican officials, according to documents and interviews.

But Mr. Broidy faces a sudden backlash.

One of his business partners, George Nader, is cooperating with the special counsel, whose investigators have asked about Mr. Naders contacts with top Trump administration officials as well as his possible role in funneling money from the U.A.E. to Mr. Trumps political efforts, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

Mr. Nader helped Circinus gain access to U.A.E.s crown prince, while also using Mr. Broidy as a conduit to shape Trump administration policy toward the Persian Gulf on behalf of the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia, both American allies. Mr. Broidy, in turn, appears to have helped Mr. Nader get his photograph taken with Mr. Trump at a fund-raiser, over the unspecified objections of the Secret Service. Mr. Nader has been convicted on charges related to child pornography and sexual abuse of minors.

Hundreds of pages of Mr. Broidys emails, proposals and contracts were provided to The Times by an anonymous group critical of Mr. Broidys advocacy of American foreign policies in the Middle East. Mr. Broidys representatives say they have proof that the documents were stolen by hackers working for Qatar in retaliation for his efforts to rally opposition in Washington to Qatar, a regional nemesis of the Saudis and the Emiratis. The Qataris dismiss this charge.

The documents reveal that Mr. Broidy, a vice chairman of the finance committee for Mr. Trumps inauguration, arranged invitations to parties celebrating the event for foreign leaders with whom Circinus worked to sign contracts that could have been worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Mr. Broidy in some cases presented the invitations in a manner that suggested they were linked to their countries willingness to do business with Circinus.

For instance, Mr. Broidy invited Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the longtime president of the Republic of Congo, to a handful of inauguration week events, including the candlelight dinner featuring Mr. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and their wives. Your name has been submitted and approved, Mr. Broidy wrote to Mr. Sassou-Nguesso in a note on Broidy Capital Management letterhead. Mr. Broidy stressed that the invitation was from Mr. Broidy and is not coming from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which oversees the swearing-in and a luncheon at the Capitol.

The day after the letter was dated, Mr. Broidy asked his team at Circinus to prepare an invoice for $2 million to Mr. Sassou-Nguessos office for military capabilities assessment and review/services, according to emails and documents.As President Trump heads into one of the most critical phases of the special counsels investigation, his personal legal team has shrunk to essentially just one member, and he is struggling to find any top lawyers willing to represent him.

Working for a president is usually seen as a dream job. But leading lawyers in Washington and New York have repeatedly spurned overtures to take over the defense of Mr. Trump, a mercurial client who often ignores his advisers guidance. In some cases, lawyers firms have blocked any talks, fearing a backlash that would hurt business.

The president lost two lawyers in just the past four days, including one who had been on board for less than a week.

Joseph diGenova, a longtime Washington lawyer who has pushed theories on Fox News that the F.B.I. made up evidence against Mr. Trump, left the team on Sunday. He had been hired last Monday, three days before the head of the presidents personal legal team, John Dowd, quit after determining that the president was not listening to his advice. Mr. Trump had also considered hiring Mr. diGenovas wife, Victoria Toensing, but she will also not join the team.Yemens civil war has carved the country into battling factions. And now its virtually sealed off from the outside world, because of a blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia. This is Yemens main port and shipyard, now almost empty of containers. That means essential goods are not reaching a nation that relies almost entirely on imports for food, fuel and medicine. Eight million people, one-fourth of the population, are at risk of starvation. Heres how a blockade compounds a crisis in a country already strangled by war. First, why is there a blockade? Yemen is essentially the battleground for a regional proxy war. On one side Is Yemens official government, backed by Saudi Arabia. On the other is a rebel group called the Houthis, backed by Iran. In November, Houthis fired a missile at the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The Saudis retaliated by imposing a total land, air, and sea blockade on Yemen. It effectively locked in 28 million people and locked out ... everything. The blockade was partly lifted to allow in humanitarian aid, but not commercial imports. But the vast majority of essential goods come in on commercial ships. So today, there isnt nearly enough food or fuel coming in or going around. Where is the effect of the blockade most visible? Lets look again at Yemens largest port, Hodeida. Around 80 percent of imports arrive through it. And two-thirds of the population live in the areas directly served by it. But because its in an area controlled by the rebels, the Saudis have it tightly controlled. A review of marine traffic shows the arrivals of ships in Hodeida dropped by half in November. And these satellite photos show an active shipyard one year ago, right before the blockade. And now, the port is almost empty. One key shipment not getting through Hodeida is fuel. Aid organizations we spoke to say the fuel shortage is setting off a vicious circle of suffering. These aid groups are warning of a reduced ability to deliver food and aid, reduced access to pumped and purified water, and a struggle to keep generators on at hospitals. Fuel prices have doubled since the start of December. Fuel is especially needed to deliver water across one of the driest countries on earth. Earlier this year water shortages triggered a cholera epidemic that affected nearly one million. And now, water is unaffordable for two-thirds of the country, prompting fears of other disease outbreaks. Yemens war is a humanitarian crisis. Is it also a crime? Thats what N.G.O.s and humanitarian groups are examining. Its against the laws of war to restrict humanitarian assistance and destroy objects essential to survival. And using starvation as a method of warfare is also a war crime. What is the U.S.s role in all of this? The U.S. isnt directly striking Yemen. But its the main supplier of arms to Saudi Arabia. Yemenis have often found fragments of American-made munitions after deadly airstrikes. In a short statement this month, President Trump called on the Saudis to allow essential goods enter Yemen. It was a rare rebuke to a key ally. But for now, there appears to be no end in sight to the blockade  or the conflict.When the art fair Art Basel Hong Kong rolls into town for its sixth presentation from March 29 to March 31, about 248 galleries will be showing their wares in a marketplace that has been expertly primed for selling art.

Among the most business-focused cities in Asia and certainly the most Western, Hong Kong has had outlets of the international auction houses for decades, and, although 20 years past its days as a British colony, it now enjoys special status from the Chinese government to encourage commerce.

But it has had a major art fair only since 2008. Art Basel, which takes places at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, took over the fair Art HK and has, for the past five years, steadily turned it into a destination for international collectors hungry for paintings, sculptures, videos and installations of all stripes.

[READ MORE: Whats Trending at Art Basel Hong Kong]

The dealer Pearl Lam  who will be showing works by Liu Wentao, Huang Yuanqing, Robert Motherwell and others in her booth at the fair  has seen a huge transformation in the Asian collecting landscape. Few people have a more global view of the market as a whole: She has galleries in Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong.Mr. Mauss has a historical mind: He has had previous exhibitions based on work by two artists known for ballet design, Christian Berard and Leon Bakst. His title, Transmissions, has multiple implications. It refers, in part, to migration. The exhibition includes the European-born sculptors Gaston Lachaise and Elie Nadelman, the painter-designers Pavel Tchelitchew and Eugene Berman, and the choreographer George Balanchine, all of whom worked in the United States. Many wanted to continue the Diaghilev tradition: none more so than Lincoln Kirstein, the titanic young American patron of several arts, who commissioned works from all the above.

Kirsteins taste, often controversial  he was strongly opposed to both Manet and Matisse  is a common factor in much of this show. He championed Tchelitchew as well as Nadelman; he had caught the final seasons of the Diaghilev company in Europe and, four years later, brought Balanchine (Diaghilevs last choreographer) to America. High among the realist artists he praised was his brother-in-law, the painter Paul Cadmus. Paintings by Cadmus and by PaJaMa (a collective name for Cadmus, Cadmuss lover Jared French and Frenchs wife, Margaret French) hang on the Transmissions walls. One of the people shown is the dancer Jose Martinez, Kirsteins lover.

Although Kirstein made ballet the central part of his vast operation, Nadelman and the photographer Walker Evans (also represented here) were two of the many artists he admired who had no connection to ballet. Transmissions, like Kirstein, does not stay in one box. Other photographers here, often depicting dance as Evans did not, are Carl Van Vechten and George Platt Lynes.Les lunettes de marque ne sont pas ce qui manque dans les commerces. Il y en a de toutes les sortes dont les lunettes de []For decades, visitors to the world-famous tomb of King Tutankhamen in Egypt have noticed ugly brown spots covering the wall paintings lining the burial chamber. And for years the Egyptian authorities worried that these blotches might be microorganisms fueled by humidity and the sweaty bodies of tourists. Now, scientists from the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles have completed an analysis  determining that the spots are not alive and not a threat to any of the tombs illustrious attractions.

This study was part of larger, multimillion-dollar, nine-year-long collaboration between the Getty and Egypts Ministry of Antiquities designed to assess the condition of the tomb and help prevent further deterioration. Their work has led to the creation of a new ramp and railings to better control visitor access; guidelines for maximum numbers of visitors to control humidity and carbon dioxide levels; and the installation of a filtered air supply and exhaust ventilation system.

Scientists also analyzed the flaking of paint on the murals, which was worse in areas of black and red pigments. There has been a loss of pigment historically but thats been stabilized, said the projects director, Neville Agnew, from the Getty Conservation Institute. Weve been very careful to insert material below the flake to hold it in place  we couldnt push it back because its so brittle. Over all, he added in an interview, the paintings are not in as bad a condition as some have claimed; they are pretty stable.

He said that conservation studies and treatment took place without restricting normal visiting hours of the tomb except for a period of one month in 2016. They closed the tomb that October to temporarily move the mummy  an enormous undertaking, he noted  and install new flooring and railings.AMSTERDAM  In the soft, clear light of Provence, France, Vincent van Gogh saw the crisp skies of Japanese woodcut prints. The almond blossoms, gnarled trees and irises that dotted the French landscape reminded him of nature scenes painted in Kyoto. And in the locals who drank in cafes of Arles, he saw resonances with the geishas and Kabuki actors of a country hed never visited.

My dear brother, you know, I feel Im in Japan, van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo, on March 16, 1888, not long after he had settled in Arles, an ancient city built on Roman ruins by the Rhone River in France.

By June he was urging Theo and other Impressionist artists in Paris to join him in there. Id like you to spend some time here, youd feel it, he wrote. After some time your vision changes, you see with a more Japanese eye, you feel color differently.The ecstatically reviewed Netflix series One Day at a Time has been renewed for a third season.

The show may seem out of place with the current television landscape in many respects: Its an earnest multicamera comedy based off Norman Lears 1975 sitcom. But it has built a rabid following online and in particular received strong support among Latinos. The show follows three generations of a Cuban-American family, which includes a divorced veteran with PTSD (Justina Machado), her widowed immigrant mother (Rita Moreno) and her lesbian teenage daughter (Isabella Gomez).

The second season arrived on Netflix in January, without an indication of whether it would get renewed again. The silence prompted organizations like the National Hispanic Media Coalition as well as critics at Vulture and The Hollywood Reporter to call for the shows renewal.

In her New York Times review, Margaret Lyons wrote that the show radiates delight and cultivates an intimacy and sense of belonging that goes a step further, introducing a level of genuine human happiness into the experience.Roseanne returns to ABC on Tuesday looking much as you probably remember it. Theres that couch. Theres that quilt. And there are Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) and Dan Conner (John Goodman), lovingly busting each others chops.

Granted, theyre older and achier, and Dan now sleeps with a mask for sleep apnea. But hes alive, so hes got that going for him. The original sitcoms 1997 finale killed him off, an ending the revival laughs off as the two wake up in bed. I thought you were dead! Roseanne says. You looked happy. I thought maybe you moved on.

Oh, Roseanne! In TV today, no one moves on and nothing truly dies. Weve resurrected Will & Grace, Twin Peaks and American Idol, with Murphy Brown on the way. If all you need from the new Roseanne is Ms. Barrs materfamilias sarcasm, the crack team of comedy actors surrounding her and an update of the shows working-class gallows humor, it has you covered.

But the new Roseanne also has the potential to do something a little deeper and more ambitious than your average nostalgia-fest. Welcome to the revolution.

That was a survivor of the recent Florida school massacre addressing the leaders, skeptics and cynics who told us to sit down and stay silent at the March for Our Lives against gun violence in Washington on Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets around the world for sister marches in support of gun control, including in Paris, above, Berlin, London, Mumbai and Tokyo.

Many Americans can buy a gun in less than an hour. Here are the basic steps for how most people buy a gun in 15 countries across the globe. Meanwhile, Remington, one of the oldest U.S. gun makers, has filed for bankruptcy.Despite having no formal fashion education (his mother was a seamstress and taught him her trade; he studied architecture and civil engineering), Mr. Abloh founded Off-White  a reference to his belief that old barriers are breaking down  in 2013, almost a decade after he first meet Mr. West and became his creative partner. In 2015, Off-White was a finalist for the LVMH Young Designers Prize. (Mr. Abloh will be the first LVMH finalist to take on a major design role in an LVMH brand.)

Off-White currently has 3.1 million Instagram followers (Mr. Abloh alone has 1.6 million), and Mr. Abloh received the Urban Luxe award at the British Fashion Awards last year. During the just-past womens wear season, there was almost a riot in the Rue Cambon outside the Off-White show as fans crowded to get in.

A champion of the cross-branded collaboration, Mr. Abloh has worked with names as varied as Nike, Jimmy Choo, Moncler and, with an upcoming project, Ikea. Most recently, he teamed up with Takashi Murakami, a frequent Vuitton collaborator, for a show at the Gagosian Gallery in London.

In a way, all of my output has been to make a compelling case for me to take on a role such as this, Mr. Abloh said. I think of it as kind of the ultimate collaboration.

It also presumably made a compelling case that Mr. Abloh could be the man to make Louis Vuitton mens wear more relevant  and more visible  to the millennial generation. He will build on the foundation laid by Mr. Jones, who also gave classic mens wear and Vuittons history as a luggage expert an urban edge, and recently engineered a sellout collaboration with Supreme, another street-wear success story.

For the last eight to 10 years weve been having this conversation about whats new, and for me, that has to do with making luxury relatable across generations, Mr. Abloh said, adding that he had been putting together an eight-page brand manual defining the new ethos of his Vuitton. The first thing I am going to do is define new codes. My muse has always been what people actually wear, and I am really excited to make a luxury version of that.

Mr. Burke added, Louis Vuitton was not a couture house. From the mid-19th century to the 1920s and beyond it always sought to cater to the new wealthy class, not the old aristocrats.WASHINGTON  President Trump is on the verge of securing his first major trade deal, leveraging the threat of tariffs to gain concessions from South Korea on exports of steel and imports of American cars.

The deal, which the White House could announce on Tuesday, would come at a moment of heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula as the Trump administration prepares to hold talks with North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un. Ties between Washington and Seoul had become strained over disagreements about trade, including Mr. Trumps steel tariffs, and threatened to further complicate the already fraught discussions with North Korea.

The finalization of a trade agreement with South Korea would hand Mr. Trump a victory in his America First approach to trade, in which he has threatened to take tough trade action unless other countries agree to concessions, including a reduction in the gap between what they export to the United States and what America exports to their shores. The blanket steel and aluminum tariffs announced by the White House earlier this month are the most recent example of that blunt approach, with the White House using exemptions and revisions as a carrot to avoid the tariff stick.

I think the strategy has worked, quite frankly, Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, told Fox News in an interview on Sunday. We announced the tariff. We said we were going to proceed. But, again, we said wed simultaneously negotiate.There was once a chain of New York restaurants called Brass Rail. But at several new restaurants, the richly glowing golden metal is on the surface of the bar, not just the foot rail. Brass is nudging aside zinc, the traditional metal for bar tops. At Legacy Records near Hudson Yards, the main curved bar and a utility bar are both covered in burnished brass. Robert Bohr, an owner, said he wanted it for warmth and for how well it complemented the midcentury style of the restaurant, designed by Ken Fulk. At Harrys, a venerable steakhouse on Hanover Square that was recently redecorated for about $1 million by Antonio Tadrissi of PDLab in Toronto, the 36-foot bar is covered in brass. Brass ages beautifully and gracefully, just like Harry, Mr. Tadrissi said, referring to Harry Poulakakos, the founder of the 46-year-old restaurant, which is now owned by his son, Peter Poulakakos. At Brasserie Seoul in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, brass is the focus on a bar in the center of the room. Youll also see brass in accents, like the trim throughout the new Simon & the Whale in Gramercy. And its not just a New York trend. Henriettas at the Dewberry in Charleston, S.C., is another room with brass on the bar.

Follow NYT Food on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. Get regular updates from NYT Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice.It was one of those findings that would change medicine, Dr. Christopher Lewandowski thought.

For years, doctors had tried  and failed  to find a treatment that would preserve the brains of stroke patients. The task was beginning to seem hopeless: Once a clot blocked a blood vessel supplying the brain, its cells quickly began to die. Patients and their families could only pray that the damage would not be too extensive.

But then a large federal clinical trial proved that a so-called clot-buster drug, tissue plasminogen activator (T.P.A.), could prevent brain injury after a stroke by opening up the blocked vessel. Dr. Lewandowski, an emergency medicine physician at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit and the trials principal investigator, was ecstatic.

We felt the data was so strong we didnt have to explain it in the published report, he said.

He was wrong. That groundbreaking clinical trial concluded 22 years ago, yet Dr. Lewandowski and others are still trying to explain the data to a powerful contingent of doubters.

The skeptics teach medical students that T.P.A.is dangerous, causing brain hemorrhages, and that the studies that found a benefit were deeply flawed. Better to just let a stroke run its course, they say.Before reading the article:

Did you attend an anti-gun violence rally on Saturday? If so, what was it like? Did you see news reports of rallies that took place around the United States and in other countries? What do you think about when you look at the images from the protests?

Watch the video above. What is your reaction to what you saw and heard? Do you agree with the idea stated by one of the speakers that only teenagers could have started the movement to end gun violence? Why or why not?

Now read the article, Students Lead Huge Rallies for Gun Control Across the U.S., and answer the following questions:

1. Roughly how many rallies took place on Saturday? Where are some of the places mentioned?

2. Why does the article suggest that the political awakening these events may serve for their participants may be a rude one?

3. Who is Naomi Wadler?

4. What does the author mean by the sentence, Calls like Naomis stood in stark contrast to action on Capitol Hill and at the White House in the hours before the rallies?Senior administration officials say the governors recent activity has nothing to do with Ms. Nixon and everything to do with the state budget, due next week, where the governor is seeking to mobilize black support for some of the thorniest remaining issues, including on public housing and school funding. Mr. Cuomo has appeared at black churches during past budget seasons.

Mr. Miller, the pastor of Brown Memorial Baptist Church, said that after he hung up with Mr. Cuomos team, he sent text messages to another 30 black pastors across New York City to ask that they not reflexively acquiesce. I requested that they think carefully about hosting the governor until he becomes responsive to our concerns, Mr. Miller said.

Mr. Cuomo has had a complex relationship with black leadership in the state dating back to his first failed run for governor, in 2002, when he challenged H. Carl McCall, then the state comptroller who was seeking to become New Yorks first black governor, for the Democratic nomination.

But in recent years, black voters have provided him a bulwark of support. Mr. Cuomos last challenger, Zephyr Teachout, never penetrated Mr. Cuomos political standing in minority communities. She finished with an abysmal 14 percent of the vote in the Bronx.

Clearly, Cynthia Nixon understands that if she cant break through Andrew Cuomos African-American firewall, she has no shot at being competitive, said Representative Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn, a Cuomo ally.

Before she launched her campaign, Ms. Nixon gave a quick heads-up call to the Rev. Al Sharpton, the influential civil-rights leader and media figure. She also sat down privately with the Rev. Michael A. Walrond Jr., senior pastor at the 10,000-member First Corinthian Baptist Church in Central Harlem; she showed up to services unannounced the following Sunday. Bertha Lewis, president of the Black Institute and a longtime community activist, said Ms. Nixon also called her days before announcing a run to solicit her opinion.Li Ao was born on April 25, 1935, in Harbin in what was then the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. His father, Li Dingyi, was an educator and school principal who had eight children  six daughters and two sons  with Mr. Lis mother, Zhang Kuichen.

When Li Ao was 2, the family moved to Beijing, where his father took a position in an opium-suppression bureau. In a memoir, published in 1998, Mr. Li recalled an incident in which his father was accused by his superiors of being a traitor to the party. Though his fathers name was later cleared, it was Mr. Lis first taste of what would become a lifelong loathing for the Kuomintang, or Chinese Nationalist Party.

To be patriotic, you must follow the Kuomintang, and only the Kuomintang, forever, Mr. Li wrote. Regardless of how many contributions you may have made, the party is benevolent simply for not calling you a traitor. This is a lesson my father learned painfully.

Following the victory of the Communists over the Kuomintang in 1949, a teenage Mr. Li and his family joined the wave of defeated Nationalists retreating to Taiwan. Not long after, he began to make his name as a writer while he was a student at National Taiwan University.

In 1961, Mr. Li, then 26, had graduated and completed a brief stint in the Taiwanese military when he began writing for a popular, liberal literary magazine called Wen Hsing, or Apollo.

At the time, Taiwan was more than a decade into a nearly 40-year period of political repression known as the White Terror, during which the Kuomintang imposed authoritarian rule and arrested and tortured tens of thousands of Taiwanese accused of spying for Communist China. At least 1,000 were executed.

Despite the immense pressures on intellectuals, the young Mr. Li emerged as a rare voice of dissent, railing against traditional Chinese culture and the Kuomintang government while advocating for the adoption of Western cultural values like liberalism and democracy. Under Mr. Lis editorship, Apollo became one of the most influential reformist magazines in Taiwan.Nine days ago, we learned that Cambridge Analytica, the firm engaged by the Trump campaign to lead its digital strategy leading up to the 2016 United States presidential elections, illegitimately gained access to the Facebook data of more than 50 million users, many of them American voters. This revelation came on the heels of the announcement made last month by the Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller of the indictment of 13 Russians who worked for the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm tied to the Kremlin, charging that they wielded fake social media accounts to influence the 2016 presidential elections.

But as Facebook, Google, Twitter and like companies now contritely cover their tracks and comply with the governments requests, they simultaneously remain quiet about a critical trend that promises to subvert the nations political integrity yet again if left unaddressed: the systemic integration of artificial intelligence into the same digital marketing technologies that were exploited by both Cambridge Analytica and the Internet Research Agency.

According to the F.B.I.s findings, the tactics used to date by Russia have, technologically speaking, not been particularly sophisticated. Those tactics have included the direct control of fake social media accounts and manual drafting of subversive messages. These were often timed for release with politically charged incidents in the real world  including, for instance, the suicide bombings in Brussels, the declaration of Donald Trump as the Republican nominee and Mr. Trumps staging of a town hall in New Hampshire, each of which occurred weeks before election night in 2016. Further, according to various experts, Cambridge Analyticas targeting efforts likely were tame and ineffective.

Each step of the digital campaigns seems to have been orchestrated by a human working from a computer terminal. To be sure, we know that the Internet Research Agencys deception campaigns altogether enjoyed broad reach and were viewed by many Americans; more than 126 million of us may have unwittingly viewed the Russians egregious and misleading content on Facebook alone. And if Cambridge Analytica did indeed make use of the rich trove of sensitive data it acquired from Aleksandr Kogans firm Global Science Research, Cambridge Analyticas content too likely reached tens of millions of American voters. But because their digital messaging was largely controlled directly by a bottleneck of human propagators, its spread necessarily was relatively uncoordinated and ad hoc.To the Editor:

In Missing in the Fight Against Anti-Semitism (news analysis, Sunday Review, March 18), my friend Jonathan Weisman asserts that the Jewish Federations of North America has been remarkably quiet about the alarming increase in anti-Semitism. For our 148 Jewish federations and more than 300 network communities, we believe that our actions show otherwise.

Our Jewish federations and community relations councils build bridges with our non-Jewish neighbors and elected officials, because we know that the fight against anti-Semitism is also the fight against injustice. With increased threats, we have fortified communities with our Secure Community Network initiative, which provides tools to protect against violent attacks.

On college campuses, Jewish federations work with Hillels to help protect students from hateful anti-Semitism, often masquerading as anti-Israel activism. After hate-motivated events erupted in Charlottesville, Va., federations nationwide convened local law enforcement and faith and government leaders to prevent similar incidents from happening in their communities.

We also work on Capitol Hill and in state capitals to ensure that laws reflect the overwhelming public consensus that anti-Semitism should have no place in our society.This contrast of manly types could be seen as akin to the Freudian battle between self-assertion and social control. A shaven man was perceived as a team player, disciplined and sociable. A man with facial hair, by contrast, was more impulsive and independent, playing by his own rules.

It was for this reason that voters, from the 1920s onward, regarded mustachioed politicians with suspicion. If two-time presidential runner-up Thomas Dewey, whom one admirer dubbed the Clark Gable of candidates, had shaved his upper lip, history might have been kinder to him. In 1944, journalist Edith Efron wrote about Deweys mustache in The New York Times Magazine: It fascinates. It amuses. And it repels. His lip adornment helped Dewey achieve a reputation for toughness, but also for arrogance. After his 1948 defeat, Dewey only half-jokingly told some visiting boy scouts, remember, fellows, any boy can become president unless hes got a mustache.

In subsequent years, facial hair was a feature of the rebellious left. In our times, it is still nonconformist in business and politics, though today one is just as likely to find it on the political right, which has increasingly developed its own rebellious counterculture. For every Che Guevara, there is a Geraldo Rivera; for every hairy hipster, a hirsute hunter. This brings us back to Mr. Bolton, and to Mr. Trump himself.

Mr. Boltons disregard for shaving norms is a faithful reflection of his fierce independence, and his general disdain for established political ground rules and diplomatic norms. His vitriolic language and passion for conflict prevented him from winning Senate confirmation in 2005 as ambassador to the United Nations. He is the ego in conflict with the super-ego of the political establishment: Negotiations and treaties are for wimps, and so are razors.

Reporters have noted that early in his presidency, Mr. Trump felt tentative, and inclined to listen to the advice of people around him. Today he is increasingly going with his gut, and worries far less about convention or conventional looks. As he throws off the shackles on his own ego, he has turned to a similarly liberated national security adviser. Even if he still does not like Mr. Boltons mustache, Mr. Trump may be drawn to the pugnacious manliness it represents.

In historical context, Mr. Boltons mustache fits perfectly for a man who follows no rules. No wonder he has vowed never to shave it off. And no wonder that, in spite of initial misgivings, the Disruptor-in-Chief has turned to him. Perhaps Mr. Trump will consider growing one himself some day.Sharon Burns is a former Army combat medic from North Carolina whose 22-year-old son committed suicide in 2009 with a gun she owned. She understands that the Second Amendment is enshrined in the Constitution but, as she points out, it includes the word, regulated. Everybody needs to go through a background check.

Mark Soukup, a 61-year-old former member of the National Rifle Association from Gap Mills, W. Va., uses a gun to hunt. Guns do have a place, but theyre efficient killing machines, Soukup told us. I shouldnt be able to use my guns until Ive passed some kind of test that proves Im a responsible gun owner. Im plenty willing to do that. Whatever it takes, really, to save peoples lives.

Katie Graham is a high school senior from Columbus, Ohio, whose 17-year-old friend was shot and killed last year. Ive never been to any kind of rally or march before, Graham said. If we want change, we have to make it happen. And this is us making it happen.

Keyona Smith, a junior at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, who wore a Black Lives Matter button to the march, said simply: I just want a solution. Whatever it takes to get a solution.

If you havent read this op-ed in The Times by Steve Israel, a former member of Congress, please do. He makes a crucial point: The solution that the marchers want almost certainly depends on winning elections.We dont have the details of the new policy. But dont be fooled by this talk of transparency. He and some conservative members of Congress are setting up a nonexistent problem in order to prevent the E.P.A. from using the best available science. These studies adhere to all professional standards and meet every expectation of the scientific community in terms of peer review and scientific integrity. In the case of the air pollution studies, a rigorous follow-up examination was done by the Health Effects Institute, a nonprofit research group that studies air pollution. The institute corroborated the findings.

In taking this action, Mr. Pruitt appears to be adopting the policies of the Honest and Open New E.P.A. Science Treatment Act, a bill aimed at the agency. Conservative lawmakers have tried to pass versions of this bill before to shackle the agencys rule making. That law would prohibit the E.P.A. from taking any action unless all scientific and technical information relied on to support it is specifically identified, and publicly available in a manner sufficient for independent analysis and substantial reproduction of research results.

An analysis of a similar bill introduced in 2015 by the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost $250 million a year over the first few years to carry out because it would require new data collection, correspondence and coordination with study authors, construction of a database to house necessary information, and public dissemination of the information.

The analysis, which did not appear to take into account the cost of redacting details like trade secrets or personally identifiable medical information, also predicted the agency would reduce by half the number of studies it relies on in developing policies and regulations because of the cost of complying with the law.

The quality of the agencys work would be compromised if that work relies on a significantly smaller collection of scientific studies, the analysis found.

This approach would undermine the nations scientific credibility. And should Mr. Pruitt reconsider regulations now in place, this new policy could be a catalyst for the unraveling of existing public health protections if the studies used to justify them could no longer be used by E.P.A.LONDON  In the early spring of 2014, the world watched, astonished, as soldiers without insignia took over government buildings in Ukraines Crimea peninsula, surrounded Ukrainian military bases and installed new leaders in the region. President Vladimir Putin of Russia claimed at the time that these were not Russian soldiers. Instead, he said, these were local self-defense units. Less than a month later, Russia annexed Crimea. And a year after that, Mr. Putin admitted what everyone had suspected all along: Yes, Russian soldiers had been involved.

That was when the term plausible deniability became a standard part of Western discussions about Russia. The practice of carrying out dubious deeds through the hands of proxies or other hard-to-identify agents has since become something of a trademark of Mr. Putins. Sometimes, the agents are indeed Kremlin actors in disguise, as they were in Crimea. But in the years since, Mr. Putin has pushed this tactic even further, implicitly or explicitly encouraging independent agents to act on their own, keeping the Kremlins hands clean. On many occasions, this has left the West a helpless bystander, unable to force Russia to account for its actions.

But time may be running out on this tactic. The attempted murder of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent who was found unresponsive in southwest England earlier this month, poisoned with a deadly nerve agent, may be the moment when plausible deniability has reached its limits. In fact, it now looks as if it is turning against its masters in the Kremlin. The United States decision on Monday, alongside Canada and a number of European countries, to expel Russians in retaliation for the poisoning makes clear to Moscow that its actions have consequences, whether it denies them or not.

Since the annexation of Crimea, Russia has resorted to plausible deniability again and again. The interference in the American presidential elections was a classic case: Mr. Putin has repeatedly emphasized that Russia has not intervened at the level of the government, but he admits that some patriotic hackers or trolls with Russian citizenship might indeed have been active. The Russian president has also attempted to reap policy benefits from the denied action, steering the conversation toward his own priorities: accusing the United States of interfering in Russia and making the case for cooperating to regulate the internet and social media.Politicians often escalate drug war rhetoric to show voters that they are doing something. But it is rare to ignore generations of lessons as President Trump did earlier this month when he announced his support for the execution of drug traffickers.

This idea is insane. But the war on drugs has never made any sense to begin with.

Executing a few individual smugglers will do little to stop others because there is no high command of the international drug trade to target, no generals who can order a coordinated surrender of farmers, traffickers, money launderers, dealers or users. The drug trade is diffuse and can span thousands of miles from producer to consumer. People enter the drug economy for all sorts of reasons  poverty, greed, addiction  and because they believe they will get away with it. Most people do. The death penalty only hurts the small portion of people who are caught (often themselves minorities and low-level mules).

Indeed, on the ground, the threat of execution will even help those who arent caught because they can charge an increased risk premium to the next person in the smuggling chain. The risk of capture and punishment increases as drugs move from farm to processing lab, traversing jungles, through cities, across oceans, past borders, distributed by dealers and purchased by consumers. The greater the risk to smugglers in this chain, the more they can demand in payment.

Without the drug war, substances like cocaine, heroin, marijuana and meth are minimally processed agricultural and chemical commodities that cost pennies per dose to manufacture. But lawmakers have invented a modern alchemy called drug prohibition, which transforms relatively worthless products into priceless commodities for which people are willing to kill or die.By 1972, the idea that Vietnam posed a threat to Cold War America was so discredited, it sometimes sounded as if Americas only remaining war aim was to get back its P.O.W.s (President Richard Nixon bizarrely claimed that Hanoi was using them as negotiating pawns). Even more mind-boggling were Nixons historic 1972 trips to Beijing and Moscow. Many Americans wondered how Nixon could offer toasts of peace to Mao Zedong and Leonid Brezhnev while still waging war in Vietnam. As the journalist Jonathan Schell put it, If these great powers were not, after all, the true foe, then the war in Vietnam really was a civil war in a small country, as its opponents had always said, and the United States had no business taking part in it.

But alongside the civil war interpretation, a more radical critique developed  the view that Americas enemy in Vietnam was engaged in a long-term war for national liberation and independence, first from the French and then the United States. According to this position, the war was best understood not as a Cold War struggle between East and West, or a Vietnamese civil war, but as an anticolonial struggle, similar to dozens of others that erupted throughout the Third World in the wake of World War II. When the French were defeated by Vietnamese revolutionaries (despite enormous American support), the United States stepped in directly to wage a counterrevolutionary war against an enemy determined to achieve full and final independence from foreign control.

This interpretation was shared by many on the antiwar left, including Daniel Ellsberg, the once-hawkish defense analyst who turned so strongly against the war that he was willing to sabotage his career by making public 7,000 pages of classified documents about the history of the Vietnam War, the so-called Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg made his argument most succinctly in the 1974 documentary Hearts and Minds.

The name for a conflict in which you are opposing a revolution is counterrevolution, he said. A war in which one side is entirely financed and equipped and supported by foreigners is not a civil war. The question used to be, he added, might it be possible that we were on the wrong side in the Vietnamese war. We werent on the wrong side; we are the wrong side.

In the decades since 1975, all three major interpretations have persisted. Some writers and historians have embraced President Ronald Reagans view that the war was a noble cause that might have been won. That position has failed to persuade most specialists in the field, in large part because it greatly exaggerates the military and political virtues and success of the United States and the government of South Vietnam. It also falls short because it depends on counterfactual claims that victory would have been achieved if only the United States had extended its support for Diem (instead of greenlighting his overthrow), or tried a different military strategy, or done a better job winning hearts and minds. However, the war as it was actually conducted by the United States and its allies was a disaster by every measure.

In recent decades, a number of historians  particularly younger scholars trained in Vietnamese and other languages  have developed various versions of the civil war interpretation. Some of them view the period after the French defeat in 1954 as post-colonial, a time in which long-brewing internal conflicts between competing versions of Vietnamese nationalism came to a head. As the historian Jessica Chapman of Williams College puts it, The Vietnam War was, at its core, a civil war greatly exacerbated by foreign intervention. Others have described it as a civil war that became internationalized.Vous etes confrontes a une infestation par la puce, la punaise de lit ? Voici plusieurs actions qui sont a mettre en uvre pour faire []Aint no justice. Aint no justice. We are the change. We are the change. I am exasperated by what the Parkland students had to endure. I am agitated that this is what had to be done to unite us. I think you should arm us with books, instead of arming us with weapons. Im angry that I have to worry about losing another brother to gun violence. Im angry that as we walk down the street, we talk about it as if its a regular thing, but its not. Every one of us in here has experienced violence in our community. So how has this affected us and our goals and our hopes and our dreams. I lost my brother to a shootout. And Ive been in countless occasions of just violence about trying to be robbed. Or just trying to get away from a dangerous situation. I know its different for me. I come in here as your teacher, but Ive lost three students over the past years. You can go outside one day and not know whats going to happen to you. Like you could be innocent and all that other stuff. You could be in the middle of something and just get shot. Thank you for engaging it. This is a hard conversation. Im really proud of you. Hes just 15 years old, but KeShon Newman has had to grow up fast. Two years ago, his brother was shot and killed around the corner from his house. He was walking back from taking his girlfriend to the bus stop. And he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And there was a shootout down the block. And he was shot. He was shot nine times, and was killed at the hospital. His brother Randall was 16 years old when he was killed. He didnt even deserve to have his life taken away. I thought I would have had enough time to still hang out with him, still just have fun, just grow up with him. To have it cut so short is a tragic thing. The South Side of Chicago is a world away from Parkland, Fla., where 17 people were killed in a mass school shooting. But young people here say that the country is finally waking up to a reality they face every day: Gun violence. In my school, I dont really think of it as a place for a mass shooting cause most  most stuff, that happens outside of school. But what I have in common with the kids in Parkland is that I know how it feels to lose someone thats close to you. KeShon lives in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood of Chicagos South Side. Its one of the citys most dangerous areas, but theres a strong sense of community here. The homicide rate in this area is 10 times that of the national average. And gun violence in this community is mostly gang related. You will not hear about a kid going into a Chicago high school and shooting up a school. Thats not our reality of gun violence. But they can leave school and on the block where they live, and they can get caught in the crossfire between rival gangs. Lamar Johnson mentors KeShon and other kids at a violence prevention program he runs at St. Sabina, a church in the area. Its a jungle. You have to be alert. You have to be aware, because theres a lot going on. Its a lot of good people here. But at the same time, its a lot of dangers as well. I have to make sure that Im not in the wrong place at the wrong time because a situation can come out of nowhere just from the wrong person, having the  a terrible mindset to actually want to kill someone or to shoot down a block. Lamar took some kids from the South Side of Chicago to Florida to meet with the Parkland survivors. They went to share their stories and their collective grief. We was talking about the differences between how gun violence has affected them that day versus the everyday reality. So I was sitting there with a smirk on my face like, well, I was  I basically told them I said, Well, no disrespect. Welcome to our world. And I mean this with true sincerity. And when I said that one of the students was like, Well, I want to apologize to you because I understand the reason why we have this platform is because were privileged. So yall, I can tell yall alright, yall good? Ever since the Florida shooting, hes led his youth group through some difficult conversations. First of all, lets name some of the similarities and differences, we have apart. Yeah. To the Parkland kids this happened one time. But to the people of Chicago, here, this happens a lot. So if somebody you know got shot, and somebody they know got shot, the feelings going to be the same. Regardless of how many times you experience it, if they experienced it one, two times they still going to feel traumatized because that was a moment that happened. So let me ask, do you feel we get the same attention? No. Not at all. So you think Chicago doesnt get attention for its gun violence? That area was nice and had, like, wealthy  it was nice. It was suburban. You wouldnt have expected it. Youre not  youre not angry at Parkland. You want to know why? Parkland is with us. Young people like Rieonna Holmon say that the threat of violence is always around them. What happened in Florida happens here every day 17, more than 17 people die a year here. More than 17 people die a week here. And I think now they understand that connection is going on. Shes 15 years old and says the dangers in her community marked her entire childhood. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago is really fearful. We cant go outside and just sit on our porch, or just ride around our neighborhoods on our bikes like they can in different neighborhoods. Rieonna, KeShon and others are all heading to Washington to take part in the national march against gun violence. Its probably going to choke me up. Im probably going to cry mostly because its a bunch of youth all working together to achieve one goal. And thats never happened before. Just a week before the march, a conversation born out of tragedy between young people more than a thousand miles apart came to life. Survivors from the Parkland shooting traveled to Chicago for a chance to see firsthand what life is like on the South Side. When Im with these other students and people from Chicago, I feel their pain. This isnt just in schools. This is anywhere and everywhere. There shouldnt be no fear inside someones heart just for them to live their life every day. Pain is pain. It doesnt matter what ethnicity you are, where you come from, where you live, how much money you make. What happened in Parkland, was injustice, and injustice there is injustice here.The sky is falling. Again.

Chinas first space station, Tiangong-1, abandoned and out of control, is expected to drop out of orbit around this weekend, with pieces of it likely to survive the fiery re-entry and crash somewhere on Earth.

Dont worry.

According to space debris experts, the chances that you personally will be hit by of a chunk of space metal are essentially zero  less than one in a trillion.

Its really very, very, very tiny odds, said Andrew Abraham, an analyst leading efforts to track and predict the demise of the space station at the Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit that performs research and analysis for the United States Air Force. I certainly would worry about things like crossing the street far more than debris from Tiangong.

[Read The Timess coverage of Chinas Change-4 mission to the moon.]

Tim Flohrer, a space debris analyst at the European Space Agency, said the risk is significantly smaller than being hit by lightning.Beetle wings are often hidden. Nestled behind armored shields on the beetles back, they unfurl in whirring sheets, whisking their clumsy owners from danger. Beetles dont have more than two sets of wings  unless theyre in Yoshinori Tomoyasus lab.

In research recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Tomoyasu and co-author David Linz genetically engineered beetle larvae with wings on their abdomens, part of an ongoing attempt to unpack one of evolutions greatest mysteries: how insects gained the ability to fly.

Insects took to the empty skies sometime between 300 and 360 million years ago, long before birds, bats or pterosaurs. Wings allowed them to conquer new habitats and ecological niches, and Insecta quickly established themselves as one of the most diverse and successful animal classes, a position they still hold today.

The vast majority of living insects either have wings or evolved from flying ancestors, said Dr. Linz, an evolutionary biologist now at Indiana University.Welcome to the Smarter Living newsletter. The editor, Tim Herrera, emails readers with tips and advice for living a better, more fulfilling life. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

Weve all been there: Your boss asks for a meeting, and you know its not going to be great. You messed up a project, or dropped the ball on a presentation, or whatever else goes wrong in the modern office, and its time for you to hear about it.

The anxiety leading up to that meeting is almost paralyzing, and you already can tell that this conversation is going to wreck your week.

But what if we could train ourselves to crave that negative feedback? And that instead of anxiously worrying about those meetings, we could excitedly anticipate them?In her Highland Park, Dallas, home, the facialist Joanna Czech has an arsenal of skin-care products for every need: vegetal placenta serums for lightening dark spots, green algae face masks to decongest pores  to name a few. But the most important regime is your evening one, she says emphatically. Your skin absorbs a higher level of nutrients while your body is resting. Czech is not alone in her devotion to nighttime rituals. Indeed, many facialists reserve their most potent, effective elixirs for their after-hours routines.

Cleanse and Cleanse Again

As a first step, skin-care experts agree that cleansing and toning should never be skipped (or rushed) at night. Danuta Mieloch, the facialist and founder of Rescue Spa, swears by a double-cleanse with Biologique Recherches Lait U ($33) using a muslin cloth to remove any last traces of makeup. Crystal Greene, a facialist at CAP Beauty, prefers to keeps things simple at night, and balances her acne-prone complexion with a few sweeps of In Fiores Treate ($70). For toner, both Mieloch and Czech use Biologique Recherche P50, which exfoliates, hydrates and balances the pH of the skin, Mieloch says. Czech then whips out her Environ Gold Roll-CIT ($298), a microneedling tool studded with tiny needles that puncture the skin, a (slightly painful) practice that she says stimulates collagen and helps topical ingredients absorb better. If youre trying this at home, roll the device over your face multiple times but only do one to two passes on delicate skin around the eyes.

Personalize Your Serum

Next, according to all of the facialists we polled: an overnight serum. These concentrated liquids contain the highest doses of nutrients, and facialists often combine them to create customized, targeted tinctures. Currently, Czech favors a medley of Dr. Barbara Sturms firming Super Anti-Aging Serum ($350), mixed with the brands anti-inflammatory Calming Serum ($250), and a drop of Environs C-Quence Serum 1 ($137), which Czech says improves cellular turnover, skin tone, hydration, and keeps your complexion youthful and healthy looking. Britta Plug, a facialist with Mama Medicine in New York City, is so into nighttime serums that she makes her own: blending together hydrating jojoba, toning frankincense and purifying lavender oils. She works in this brew using facial gua sha  a traditional Chinese medicine technique that involves gliding a flat crystal over the meridians of your face with gentle pressure to stimulate circulation and release blockages (the result, Plug says, is a serious glow that lasts).

The Manhattan facialist Negin Niknejad, meanwhile, applies multiple, light layers of her vitamin-E-rich Rejuvenating Facial Oil ($65) in the colder months, pressing it in with a kansa, a domed bronze-and-wood tool used in ayurvedic practices, to draw out acidity in the skin and body, she explains.At Industrial Perception, Mr. Rublee helped develop computer vision for robots designed to perform tasks like loading and unloading freight trucks. Not long after Google acquired the start-up, work on neural networks took off inside the tech giant. In about two weeks, a team of Google researchers trained a neural network that outperformed technology from the start-up that had taken years to create.

Mr. Rublee and Mr. Bradski collected a decade of rotoscoping and other visual effects work from various design houses, which they declined to identify. And they are adding their own work to the collection. After filming people, mannequins and other objects in front of a classic green screen, for example, company engineers can quickly rotoscope thousands of images relatively quickly to be added to the data collection. Once the algorithm is trained, it can rotoscope images without help from a green screen.

The technology still has flaws, and in some cases human designers still make adjustments to the automated work. But it is improving.The Federal Communications Commission is joining the Trump administration, Congress and other government agencies that have targeted Huawei, Chinas giant telecommunications equipment maker, as a national security risk.

Ajit Pai, chairman of the commission, on Monday proposed a rule to tighten restrictions on companies building internet infrastructure in the United States. Part of the rules impact may be to further crimp Huaweis meager sales in America by potentially affecting some deals with small and rural carriers, analysts said.

The proposed F.C.C. rule would prohibit carriers from using money from the Universal Service Fund to buy gear from companies deemed to pose national security risks. The $8.5 billion fund subsidizes phone, wireless and broadband service to poor and remote communities. Its money comes from small monthly fees on consumers phone bills.

A first draft of the proposed rule will be published on Tuesday, starting a public comment period. An initial vote on the proposed rule will take place at an agency meeting on April 17.If you look at the delete Facebook hashtag, people are really angry. And I think theyre sort of becoming aware of the extent to which theyre being watched and tracked. This feels like its a turning point for many of the people who use Facebook and arent happy about how their data is being used. And the more they find out, the less happy they are. I think people underestimate how hard it is to untangle ourselves from a social network like Facebook. So before you delete your Facebook account, just remember that its not just Facebook that youll be losing access to. Its also all of the third-party apps that you use Facebook to log in to or that are connected or plugged into your Facebook account. So its important before you make this choice to go through those apps, see which ones you still need access to, and if there are any, to switch your login from Facebook to something else. So you can still access it even after youve deleted your Facebook account. And there are just some apps that you wont have access to if you delete your Facebook account. Facebook has a lot of ways to track your activity even if youre not logged in or if you delete your account entirely, and it uses what it calls the social graph to track the activity of people across the internet beyond just Facebook.com. This accounts for everyone who uses the internet, and you dont have to have a Facebook profile to be tracked by Facebook. For example, if your friends have Facebook accounts or Facebook Messenger accounts and if theyve uploaded their contacts to Facebook and if youre one of their contacts, then Facebook knows your name and your phone number and can track you. When you deactivate or delete your Facebook profile, your profile disappears and people cant see what you posted or search for you. But all of the data that you gave over to third-party app developers is still out there. And those developers are not required to delete it or do anything with it. They can use it however they want. For as long as they want. Theres a whole list of ways that Facebook will track you outside of Facebook.com. To do the full cleanse, you would have to actually manually block a list of URLs that they use to track you. These are the lengths youd have to go to if you truly wanted to get off of Facebooks grid.Asked about Senator Duckworths letter, the Department of Homeland Security said Monday that its Citizenship and Immigration Services division had denied Mr. Perez-Montess request for naturalization on March 15 because of the felony conviction.

After his two tours of duty with the special forces, he came back a broken man due to the horrors he witnessed in Afghanistan and the physical brain injury he suffered while there, said Christopher Bergin, Mr. Perez-Montess lawyer.

He said Mr. Perez-Montess role was to repair vehicles in Kandahar, and that his brain injury occurred after a grenade went off near his vehicle.

Mr. Perez-Montess family was not alerted before he was deported, Mr. Bergin said.

His family was never able to hand him some money and some clothes before they deported him in his prison clothes, Mr. Bergin said. He had nothing else.

Mr. Perez-Montes lived in Mexico until he was 8, when he came to the United States on a petition through a family member. He was raised in Chicago and has been a permanent legal resident since age 11, according to a statement on Senator Duckworths website. He was never in the country illegally, Mr. Bergin said.

Mr. Bergin said that Mr. Perez-Montes, who has two children who are citizens, was afraid that if he returned to Mexico he would become a target of cartels that would try to recruit him because of his military experience, or kill him if he refused. Mr. Bergin said last week that he planned to appeal the denial of citizenship as far up the court ladder as we must climb.Seddique Mateen, the father of the Pulse nightclub shooter, was an F.B.I. informer for over a decade before facing an investigation into financial transfers abroad, a lawyer for the shooters widow said in a weekend court filing.

The lawyer, Fritz Scheller, said in a Sunday motion that the case against the wife, Noor Salman, 31, should be dismissed because prosecutors waited until Saturday, after they had rested their case, to reveal to him the relationship that Mr. Mateen had with the authorities.

It is apparent from the governments belated disclosure that Ms. Salman has been defending a case without a complete set of facts and evidence that the government was required to disclose, Mr. Scheller wrote in the motion.

Ms. Salman faces charges of aiding and abetting her husband, Omar Mateen, in the shooting in Orlando, Fla., in which he killed 49 people and wounded 53 others. Her trial began this month. If convicted, she faces life in prison.WASHINGTON  It has been practically a given that anyone nominated for a federal judgeship by a Republican president had to pass an unspoken litmus test  usually on abortion but often on any number of divisive social issues.

The Trump administration has a new litmus test: reining in what conservatives call the administrative state.

With surprising frankness, the White House has laid out a plan to fill the courts with judges devoted to a legal doctrine that challenges the broad power federal agencies have to interpret laws and enforce regulations, often without being subject to judicial oversight. Those not on board with this agenda, the White House has said, are unlikely to be nominated by President Trump.

The criteria were first used last year in his Supreme Court selection of Neil M. Gorsuch, an appeals court judge who became something of a hero on the right for chastising his fellow jurists for being too deferential to government functionaries. And antipathy to regulations has been a factor in the selection of the dozens of judicial nominations since then.Over the last two years, at least five young activists who gained national prominence amid the Black Lives Matter movement have died. The causes range from suicide to homicide to natural causes. Most recently, Muhiyidin Moye, a well-known activist from Charleston, was fatally shot last month in New Orleans in a crime that remains unsolved.

The deaths have their own unique causes. But with each fallen comrade, activists are left to ponder their own mortality and whether the many pressures of the movement contributed to the shortened lives of their colleagues.

Along with the long hours, constant confrontation and frequent heartbreak they experience, activists work for little or no pay and sometimes struggle for basic needs like food and shelter even as they push for societal change.

An essential part of activism these days, those on the front lines say, is ensuring that they and their comrades work through all the stress, whether its with meditation, therapy or just taking breaks from the struggle.

Its much more front and center than it ever was when I was coming up as a young organizer 20 years ago, Cat Brooks, an Oakland-based activist, said of self care.

In many ways, Ms. Garners story represents the perils activism can inflict on a life.

She grew up poor in New York. Her father died a very public death in 2014, one she would witness through bystanders videos of a police officer on Staten Island confronting her father on the street, putting him in a chokehold and tackling him to the ground. Mr. Garner lost consciousness and died after crying out in distress, I cant breathe.

Ms. Garners activism, like that of many new to a cause, was initially driven more by passion than polished ideas. She held weekly protests on Staten Island, demanding that the officers involved be punished. Yet she doubted that race played a role in her fathers killing, she said in a CNN interview.On Monday, Jeffrey W. Henry, a co-owner of Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, was arrested in Texas near the border with Mexico on multiple charges in connection to the boys death. On Friday, the office of the Kansas attorney general announced that Schlitterbahn Waterpark and Tyler Austin Miles, its former operations director, had been charged with 20 criminal counts, including involuntary manslaughter, aggravated endangering of a child and aggravated battery.

Verruckt is German for crazy or insane, and the slide was built to thrill.

Riders climbed 264 steps to the top before sitting in a raft that plummeted from a high point of about 17 stories and then soared over a crest on their way to a runoff pool at the bottom. Netting covering the length of the slide, supported by metal poles, was meant to keep riders from falling off.

The indictment portrayed a company that ignored its own warnings and hurried to construct a towering water slide in an effort to impress the producers of a Travel Channel show, Xtreme Waterparks, which featured the slide in an episode.

In that pursuit, Schlitterbahn rushed to build a prototype without proper testing, did not involve engineers in all phases of its design and opened the slide to riders of all ages despite concerns about weight limits, the authorities said.

Mr. Henry, who was also one of the water slides designers, expressed concerns before the slide opened that he could be hurt or killed riding it, according to records obtained by investigators.HONG KONG  For eight years in a row, an international survey of nearly 300 cities has named Hong Kong the worlds least affordable housing market.

It is not hard to see why. Located on a group of hilly islands and a corner of the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong has always been short of places to build. The governments reliance on land sales for revenue creates an incentive to keep prices high. Money pouring in from mainland Chinese investors pushes them even higher.

The extremes can be staggering. A single parking spot sold for $664,000 last year. Apartments only slightly bigger, and in much less desirable parts of town, go for more than $380,000. Living spaces have shrunk so much that a new term has emerged: nano flat, for apartments measuring around 200 square feet or less.

Many Hong Kongers have been priced out of the housing market, including young people forced to live with their parents. Their discontent is said to have contributed to recent street protests like the 2014 Umbrella Movement.LONDON  European nations united in a rare coordinated rebuke of Russia on Monday, joining the United States and Canada in expelling scores of Russian diplomats. The expulsions, which were denounced by the Kremlin, were a show of solidarity with their ally Britain, which has accused the Kremlin of being behind the use of a nerve agent to poison a former Russian spy and his daughter.

By Monday evening, 16 European Union member nations said they were expelling dozens of Russian diplomats in solidarity with the government of Britain, which two weeks ago ejected 23 Russian diplomats who it said were engaged in espionage.

Ukraine, which is not part of the European Union but is fighting a Moscow-backed insurgency in its east, said it was expelling 13 Russians. Albania, Macedonia and Norway, which also are not members of the bloc, also expelled Russian diplomats.

Together with the expulsion on Monday of 60 Russians by the United States and four by Canada, the European moves constituted a broad swipe at Russias diplomatic capabilities and  if Western assertions about the nature of Russian intelligence are correct  at its ability to conduct spying operations. It also demonstrated remarkable European unity behind Britain, at a time when Britains pending exit from the European Union and other tensions have been threatening the continents cohesion.The coordinated expulsion on Monday of 60 Russians from the United States and more than 30 from across Europe in response to the March 4 poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain echoes past espionage feuds between Washington and Moscow.

For the United States, such moves are rooted in the spying between Russia and the West that has endured since the end of the Cold War.

Here is a look at some of the best-known expulsions in recent years between the United States and Russia:

July 2017: Delayed Retaliation

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ordered the United States diplomatic mission to reduce its staff by 755 employees in response to American sanctions, including the expulsion of 35 Russian officials, imposed in the final weeks of the Obama administration. Mr. Putin had delayed such a move, hoping for an improved relationship under President Trump, but, judging by everything, if it changes, it will not be soon.BRUSSELS  When leaders of the European Union gathered last Thursday night for a working dinner inside their lavish new headquarters, the conversation turned to Russia. Over scallops and lamb, Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain shared intelligence detailing the high probability that the Russian state had carried out the poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil.

Usually, Mrs. May is the odd woman out at European Union gatherings, given that she is trying to negotiate Britains departure from the bloc. But not this time.

By the next morning, European Union leaders agreed that a coordinated response was needed, according to four senior European officials. Then President Emmanuel Macron of France said everyone should go home and consider expelling Russian diplomats.

Lets do it on Monday at 3 p.m., the French president said, according to one of the senior officials, all of whom asked for anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue.WASHINGTON  President Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States on Monday, adding to a growing cascade of similar actions taken by western allies in response to Russias alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

Poland, Italy, Denmark, France and Germany were among 14 European Union member nations announcing plans to expel Russians from their countries in solidarity with Britain, which previously expelled 23 Russian diplomats after the poisoning. Canada also said it would expel four.

The American expulsion order, announced by administration officials, includes 12 people identified as Russian intelligence officers who have been stationed at the United Nations in New York, and also closes the Russian consulate in Seattle. The Russians and their families have seven days to leave the United States, according to officials.

The expulsions are the toughest action taken against the Kremlin by President Trump, who has been criticized for not being firm enough with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. The officials said the action was a coordinated effort with other allies. Poland announced it would expel several Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning. And Germany announced plans to expel four Russian diplomats within the next week.The Iran nuclear accord, assailed by President Trump and his revamped retinue of advisers, received a strong endorsement Monday from a bipartisan group of more than 100 national security veterans, who said the United States gains nothing by scrapping it.

The group, including 50 retired military officers and at least four former American ambassadors to Israel, added its voice to a fractious debate over the accord, which Mr. Trump has called the worst deal ever.

In a statement, the group, which calls itself the National Coalition to Prevent an Iranian Nuclear Weapon, enumerated 10 reasons that, in its view, preserving the accord is in the best interests of the United States.

They included the determination by United Nations inspectors that the accord is working; the importance of preserving close relations with major European allies, which all support the accord; and the possibility of reaching a nuclear agreement with North Korea, which might not negotiate if it believes that the United States abrogates international pledges.Democrats hope to ride a wave of liberal enthusiasm and anti-Trump sentiment to a House majority in the midterm elections in November. All 435 House seats are up for grabs, but only about 48 seats are considered competitive (rated tossup or leaning toward one party), based on an average of estimates from three organizations.

Ratings for Each House Race Democratic Republican Solid Likely Lean Tossup Lean Likely Solid 182 7 10 22 16 26 172

Note: There are currently five vacancies in the House whose seats are placed based on their past occupants: Arizonas Eighth, Ohios 12th and Pennsylvanias 14th (the old 18th district) are shown as Republican seats, while Michigans 13th and New Yorks 25th are shown as Democratic seats. *Each of Pennsylvanias districts, which were redrawn last month , is represented by the new district for that area and the new districts race rating.Note: There are currently five vacancies in the House whose seats are placed based on their past occupants: Arizonas Eighth, Ohios 12th and Pennsylvanias 14th (the old 18th district) are shown as Republican seats, while Michigans 13th and New Yorks 25th are shown as Democratic seats.

Democrats, who have been sidelined as the House minority party since 2010, need to flip 24 Republican seats while keeping the 194 seats they currently hold.

Two indicators that are considered good predictors of the midterm vote have given Democrats hope. First, the party is performing better than Republicans in generic ballot polls  surveys in which people are asked which party they would support in a congressional election. Second, President Trumps approval rating is relatively low. But congressional races are inherently local elections, and the individual candidates on the ballot will matter in November.

Most competitive races are in Republican districts.

The math favors the Democrats: 41 of these competitive seats are held by Republicans, while only 7 are held by Democrats. Most of these races are in districts where Hillary Clinton and Mr. Trump barely outperformed the other in the 2016 presidential race, and many of the incumbents won with smaller margins as well.

Even some Republican seats in Trump country are in jeopardy. On March 13, Conor Lamb, a Democrat and former Marine, won a razor-thin upset in a special House election in southwestern Pennsylvania, in a district that Mr. Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016.

Competitive districts Democrat-held Republican-held

These competitive districts are found from Maine to California, in red and blue states, in cities and in rural areas.

Democrats are likely to target the 25 G.O.P. districts that voted for Clinton, plus the 12 red districts where theyve raised the most money.

There are 25 Republican districts where Hillary Clinton outperformed Donald J. Trump in the 2016 presidential election and 12 districts where a Democratic candidate had raised the most money in 2017 in an upcoming House race, excluding districts with special elections.

Democrats will surely look first to flip the 25 districts where Mrs. Clinton outperformed Mr. Trump. Six are leaning toward Democrats, including Martha McSallys open seat in Arizonas Second District. Two, however, are likely to remain Republican, including New Yorks 24th District, where John Katko won 60 percent of the vote in 2016 and is unlikely to face a strong Democratic challenger.

Fund-raising plays a major part in elections, and several Republican incumbents are being outraised by Democratic challengers. Several of these districts are still considered safely Republican, but some, like New Yorks 19th  where Antonio Delgado had raised $287,000 more in 2017 than the incumbent, John Faso  are viewed as competitive because of the Democrats fund-raising advantage.

Republicans are likely to target Democrats in Trump country.

There are 12 Democratic districts where Mr. Trump outperformed Mrs. Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Republicans can still go on the offensive and will look first to flip seats in districts that voted most strongly for Mr. Trump. Two of the 12 Democratic districts, both of which Mr. Trump won easily, are rated as tossups.

But half of the seats in these districts are solidly or likely Democratic, and Trump voters might not turn out for Republicans without the president on the ballot.

Many Republican representatives have chosen not to seek re-election, but most of the open seats are tough to flip.

All Open House Seats Vacant seats, which will be filled by special elections, are not included in the list of open seats.

More than 30 Republicans have announced that they will not be running for re-election in their district, a far greater number than in previous years. But most of those races are still rated solidly or likely Republican, so they are unlikely to flip to a Democrat.

However, six of the Republican seats are currently leaning toward the Democrats, including Darrell Issas southern California seat, which he narrowly won in 2016, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinens Miami-area seat where Mrs. Clinton carried the vote by more than 19 percentage points.

Competitive Open Seats District Retiring Rep. 2016 pres. margin Kan. 2 L. Jenkins (R) R+18 Lean Rep. Minn. 8 R. Nolan (D) R+16 Tossup Minn. 1 T. Walz (D) R+15 Tossup Mich. 11 D. Trott (R) R+ 0 4 Tossup N.J. 11 R. Frelinghuysen (R) R+ 0 1 Tossup Wash. 8 D. Reichert (R) D+ 0 3 Tossup Calif. 39 E. Royce (R) D+ 0 9 Tossup N.J. 2 F. LoBiondo (R) R+ 0 5 Lean Dem. N.H. 1 C. Shea-Porter (D) R+ 0 2 Lean Dem. Nev. 3 J. Rosen (D) R+ 0 1 Lean Dem. Pa. 7* C. Dent (R) D+ 0 1 Lean Dem. Ariz. 2 M. McSally (R) D+ 0 5 Lean Dem. Nev. 4 R. Kihuen (D) D+ 0 5 Lean Dem. Calif. 49 D. Issa (R) D+ 0 8 Lean Dem. Fla. 27 I. Ros-Lehtinen (R) D+20 Lean Dem. *Pennsylvania districts are from the states new map . Representative Charlie Dent currently represents the old 15th District, which most closely resembles the new Seventh District.

Democrats will also have to defend 16 open seats. Representatives in the five most competitive races won by fewer than five percentage points in 2016; three of them earned less than 50 percent of the total vote.

Democrats got some unexpected help from a new congressional map in Pennsylvania.

Last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court released new district boundaries after ruling the states gerrymandered map unconstitutional. Over all, the new map is great news for Democrats because it pushed multiple districts to the left, inching the party closer to the 24 seats needed to retake the House.

District Rating Old New Old New 0 3 16 Solid Rep. Solid Rep. 0 5 15 Solid Rep. Solid Rep. 0 9 13 Solid Rep. Solid Rep. 10 12 Solid Rep. Solid Rep. 11 0 9 Solid Rep. Solid Rep. 0 4 10 Solid Rep. Likely Rep. 12 17 Solid Rep. Tossup 16 11 Likely Rep. Solid Rep. 18 14 Lean Rep. Solid Rep. 0 8 0 1 Lean Rep. Tossup 15 0 7 Lean Rep. Lean Dem. 0 6 0 6 Lean Rep. Likely Dem. 0 7 0 5 Lean Dem. Solid Dem. 17 0 8 Likely Dem. Likely Dem. 0 1 0 2 Solid Dem. Solid Dem. 0 2 0 3 Solid Dem. Solid Dem. 13 0 4 Solid Dem. Solid Dem. 14 18 Solid Dem. Solid Dem.

Flipping 24 seats is not unprecedented, or even uncommon.

There have been swings of 24 seats or more in half of the midterm elections since 1994. The last time Democrats took the House with that kind of swing was the 2006 midterm election, when they picked up 32 seats. In 2010, as the Tea Party movement against President Obamas policies shifted the political landscape, Republicans took control of the House by flipping 64 seats. They have held the chamber ever since.urjoint is a subscription based start-up that gives renters the benefits of Airbnb but at long term prices. Founded by Kiwi Nick Teulon, who started the company in Melbourne, the business is rethinking traditional ways of managing property. NZ Adviser discusses the business model with Teulon, and what gets him out of bed in the morning.

Tell us a bit about your company? What makes you different?

urjoint (soon to be renamed) is rental solution where renters pay one bill a month that covers everything including utilities and broadband. Were removing the two main friction points in renting with; instant applications and no contracts.



On the property owner side, we sign 3-5 year lease agreements and guarantee rent regardless of market conditions or vacancies giving investors peace of mind.

How does it work?

Once our platform is fully operational renters will be able to view a 360 degree video of property and instantly secure it once identity, credit and reputational checks are completed through API integrations with respective partners. Under the current model it can take up to four weeks to secure a rental, with us it will be less than four minutes.



Why did you decide to get into the rental market?

Firstly, its a massive market and there is room for multiple players and business models but ultimately we feel renters are getting a very poor experience under the status quo and weve got a burning desire to change that.



What do you think is the major difference between the New Zealand and the Australian rental markets?

I think both markets have almost identical issues facing them. The historical Australian and New Zealand dream of property ownership is no longer a reality, therefore those privileged to own a property portfolio have a moral obligation to ensure a great experience for the renter as the home is the centre-point of a functional society.

Currently, property investors and property managers arent doing a lot more than the bare minimum. If the industry doesnt evolve to be more customer-centric, governments will step in and we are already seeing signs of that in New Zealand and Australia.Too many Aucklanders are suffering because of the housing crisis. This government will not sit around while children are living in cars and families are cramped into overcrowded housing. We need bold action to solve this.

There will be a mix of affordable KiwiBuild homes for first homebuyers, public housing and open market houses.

This is a beautiful and historic piece of land with natural features such as the Oakley Stream running through it. Its close to education, employment and public transport. This new community will have open spaces, new parks and shops.

We want to create a place for people to put down roots and to live, work, learn and play, for generations to come.

Were looking forward to working with the Iwi of the Nga Mana Whenua o Tamaki Makaurau collective on this development, consistent with the agreements in their Treaty settlement, Twfyord added.Showcasing value can be difficult for any library, but it's essential when funding depends on competing with many other community interests. Dr. Annie Norman, State Librarian and Director of the Delaware Division of Libraries, looked to business models to support libraries in her state. "Businesses have a true focus on the customer, to provide value to the customer in order to survive," she said.

After studying many business books and theories, Annie came up with a model to map and measure "informal learning while also documenting the libraries' contributions." She uses tools that library staff would recognize from the methodologies they use in collection management. "Since Delaware libraries use the Dewey Decimal Classification System for their collections and circulation, we now use that same taxonomy to track and align with program attendance and reference questions," as well as with community partners and professional development attendance. They map the Dewey subject areas against a modified version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, since libraries provide many levels of service to their users. This helps Annie and others focus on the customer. "What are the services, the subjects that they're using?" Annie asked. "What are they trying to do?" By starting with circulation statistics and layering other user and staff services, libraries can identify trends, gaps, and areas for improvement.Third wave? Over 20 children in Puducherry hospitalised after testing positive for coronavirus

3 lawmakers denied entry into Puducherry assembly, Kiran Bedi says, 'law will take its own course'

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

High drama unfolded in Puducherry on Monday after three BJP MLAs, nominated to the House by the Centre were stopped from entering the state Assembly.The Madras High Court had recently upheld the nomination of the three legislators - V Saminathan, KG Shankar and S Selvaganapathy.

The nominated legislators staged a protest outside the Legislative Assembly after Speaker V Vaithilingam denied entry. One of the protesting lawmakers, K G Shankar, fainted and had to be hospitalised.

Chief Minister V Narayanaswamy's parliamentary secretary K Lakshminarayanan had moved the Madras High Court last July seeking to quash the recommendations sent by the Lt. Governor to the Union government.

The complainant argued that the Puducherry government was not consulted for the nomination.

On March 22, the Madras High Court upheld the appointment of three MLAs to the union territory's assembly by Lt Governor Kiran Bedi. The nominations had created a controversy as two of the MLAs were from the BJP while one was a pro-BJP educationist.

Responding to it, Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi said that law will take its own course, according to ANI.

"It's been brought to our notice that 3 nominated BJP MLAs have been obstructed from coming into the assembly despite clear orders of the Madras High Court. I am calling for a report from the Chief Secretary and will take required follow-up action," she said.

OneIndia NewsAnti-Modi front? Mamata Banerjee to attend Opposition meet in Delhi

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to attend a meeting of Opposition parties in New Delhi, convened by NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday.

Banerjee's Delhi visit has turned to be crucial, as she already had a meeting with K Chandrasekhar Rao, Chief Minister of Telangana. Both had agreed on the need for a "federal front" to uproot BJP from the Centre in 2019 elections.

Banerjee has also extended her support to BSP supremo Mayawati on Saturday, over the latter's statement on BJP's "design" to create a rift between her party and SP.

Banerjee is expected to meet rebel JDU leader Sharad Yadav, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and representatives of TDP and Shiv Sena. Meanwhile, reports say that the Bengal chief minister is unlikely to meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi unless he approaches her.

"To initiate talks for a federal front, she will visit Delhi on March 26, and also attend a meeting of Opposition parties convened by NCP. She is likely to hold meetings with Congress' Sonia Gandhi. However, nothing has been finalised. But the process to reach out to other parties has started," a party leader said.

Earlier in the month, NCP leader Praful Patel had met Mamata at Nabanna and invited her to attend Pawar's meet. Pawar had called a meeting of all Opposition leaders, including Congress, to discuss a strategy for the Lok Sabha elections.

OneIndia NewsIndia's first bad bank or NARCL is here to tackle NPA, free up lenders: Details here

Banks to remain shut for 2 days from March 29; Saturday to be working

India

oi-Madhuri

Banks will remain closed for two days this week starting from 29th March, on account of holidays due to Mahaveer Jayanti followed by a holiday on Good Friday. Banks will, however, work on Saturday, which is the last day of the financial year.

However, some media reports suggested that banks will remain closed for five consecutive days from 29th March to 2nd April 2018. Banks will be shut for Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday, which fall on 29th March and 30th March, respectively. Then 31st March (that is Saturday) is the year closing day and then comes Sunday (1st April).

However, when contacted, bank spokespersons said that it is just a rumour that banks will be continuously closed for five days. They said that while banks will remain closed on 29th March and 30th March, respectively, for Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday holidays, while some of them will work full time on Saturday.

Some banks may also make some special arrangements for the convenience of their customers, like working for, say, two hours for customers. Thus, it may vary from bank to bank.

Meanwhile, many bankers said that they are waiting for an announcement to be made whether banks would work on Saturday, till then it is presumed that they would work on Saturday.

OneIndia NewsBhima Koregaon violence: Prakash Ambedkar meets Fadnavis, seeks action against Sambhaji Bhide

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Dalit activist Prakash Ambedkar on Monday (March 26) met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and sought action against Right-wing leader Sambhaji Bhide, who has been accused of inciting Bhima-Koregaon violence in January this year. Ambedkar, a leader of Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, also submitted what he claims to be evidence in Bhima Koregaon Violence case to the CM.

"We have been assured that actions will be taken within 8 days and therefore, the government is trying to reach Sambhaji Bhide," Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, told the media after meeting Fadnavis.

Ambedkar had earlier today said that Sambhaji Bhide should be arrested within a week for inciting the January 1 riots in Bhima-Koregaon.

Addressing the 'Elgar Morcha', taken out with the demand to arrest the Shiv Prathishthan founder, at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai, Ambedkar said, "the BJP-led government in Maharashtra should not protect Bhide and arrest him in seven-eight days for inciting the anti-Dalit violence. The government should do its duty and not that of a court".

"If the number two accused in the case-- Hindu Ekta Parishad leader Milin Ekbote--has been arrested, why has Bhide been let off the hook? I am aware that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is shielding Bhide," he was quoted as saying by a PTI report.

[Bhima Koregaon violence: Protests spread to Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat]

Bhide and Ekbote are in the spotlight for allegedly "orchestrating" violence in January against Dalits during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Anglo-Maratha War where the army of Peshwa Bajirao II was vanquished by a small force of the East India Company that comprised a large number of Dalits. A youth was killed during the caste clashes, triggering protests across Maharashtra.

What was Battle of Koregaon all about?

The Battle of Koregaon was fought on 1 January 1818 between the British East India Company and the Peshwa faction of the Maratha Confederacy, at Koregaon Bhima. The 28,000-strong Marathas, led by Peshwa Baji Rao II intended to attack Pune. On their way, they were met by an 800-strong Company force that was on its way to reinforce the British troops in Pune. The Peshwa dispatched around 2,000 soldiers to attack the Company force stationed in Koregaon.

Led by Captain Francis Staunton, the Company troops defended their position for nearly 12 hours. The Marathas ultimately withdrew, fearing the arrival of a larger British force led by General Joseph Smith. The Company troops included predominantly Mahar Dalit soldiers belonging to the Bombay Native Infantry, and therefore the Dalit activists regard the battle as a heroic episode in Dalit history.

The 'Mahars' were considered untouchable in the contemporary caste-based society. They see the Koregaon battle as a symbol of their victory over the high-caste oppression. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar visited the site on 1 January 1927. To commemorate his visit to the site, now thousands of his followers visit the site every New Year's Day.

OneIndia News with PTI inputs

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, March 26, 2018, 20:30 [IST]Mosque in Ayodhya will be of same size as Babri Masjid: Trust

Congress asks Kapil Sibal to withdraw from Babri masjid case: reports

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Senior Congress leader and advocate Kapil Sibal, who represents the Sunni Waqf Board in the Babri Masjid case, has been asked by the grand old party to withdraw from the contentious land dispute case, reported CNN-News 18 while quoting sources.

Ramjanamabhoomi-Babri Masjid case is not only decades old but also a controversial issue in the sense that it has significant political, historical and socio-religious impact. Congress has reportedly told Sibal that it makes political sense to recuse himself from the case.

Sibal was in the eye of the storm last year in December when he requested the Supreme Court not to hear the case till 2019, as the verdict could influence the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The apex court, however, turned down the plea.

The Sunni Waqf Board immediately distanced itself from Sibal and said it would want the issue to be resolved at the earliest.

"Yes Kapil Sibal is our lawyer but he is also related to a political party, his statement in SC yesterday (December 5, 2017) was wrong, we want a solution to the issue at the earliest," Sunni Waqf Board member Haji Mehboob had said in December 2017.

Sibal also came under the attack from the BJP and since Gujarat Assembly elections were round the corner then, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cornered the Congress over Sibal's plea.

"What the Congress has done so far is 'atkana, latkana and bhatkana' (Delay and mislead). They will either stall, keep an issue hanging or try to divert it," Modi had said, adding that it is not interested in solving people's problems.

[Babri Masjid case: Modi lauds Sunni Waqf Board for disassociating with Sibal]

Under attack, Sibal claimed he did not represent the Sunni Waqf Board in the Ayodhya case in the Supreme Court, and mounted a counter-offensive against Modi, saying he should have checked the facts before criticising him.

Even Sunni Waqf Board had then said that it was not aware why Kapil Sibal was pressing for a delay in the hearing as no such direction was given by the board.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, March 26, 2018, 23:13 [IST]Who will be new Punjab Chief Minister? Congress' decision likely by afternoon after CLP meet

Congress deletes official mobile phone app from Google's Play Store?

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Congress party deleted its official mobile phone application from Google's Play Store after reports that the data from the app was being routed to servers in Singapore. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) media cell in-charge Amit Malviya on Monday alleged data leak to Singapore on downloading the Congress application. The Congress and the BJP have been engaged in a bitter war of words since the news of Facebook data breach became public last week.

After the Congress deleted its app, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya, said, "Rahul Gandhi gave a call to #DeleteNaMoApp, but Congress deleted its own App from the App store after they were called out. What is the Congress party hiding?"

Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of Indias oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore. pic.twitter.com/ceCTkod17D  Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) March 26, 2018

The development comes hours after researcher Baptiste Robert, who is known by his Twitter username Elliot Alderson, tweeted," The IP address of http://membership.inc.in is 52.77.237.47. This server is located in Singapore. As you are an #Indian political party, having your server in #India is probably a good idea."

When you apply for membership in the official @INCIndia #android #app, your personal data are send encoded through a HTTP request to https://t.co/t1pidQUmtq. pic.twitter.com/6RH0ORYrQd  Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 26, 2018

The BJP claimed Facebook data has been misused not just in the US elections in favour of Donald Trump, but also by the Congress in last year's assembly elections in Gujarat. Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress also planned to use it to boost the image of its chief Rahul Gandhi, and for the 2019 general elections.

The Congress accused the BJP and its ally JD(U) of getting help from disgraced British data research firm Cambridge Analytica to win elections in 2010 and 2014.

OneIndia NewsMadhya Pradesh: Girls stripped in Sagar hostel, VC apologises

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

The Vice-Chancellor of Dr Hari Singh Gaur University, Sagar has ordered a probe into the allegations of girl students being stripped by the warden after a used sanitary pad was found in the premises of the hostel.

The move comes after a group of girls at the University complained to vice-chancellor that they were allegedly body searched after a used sanitary napkin was found in the hostel premises. More than fifty students were made to take off their clothes.

The VC has visited the hostel, talked to the students and inquired about the matter. However, Vice-chancellor has ordered an inquiry into the students' allegation.

"It's unfortunate and condemnable. I told students that they're all like my daughter and I apologise to them. I also assured them that an action will be taken in this regard. If warden is found to be at fault an action will definitely be taken against her," said Vice Chancellor RP Tiwari.

"The girls alleged that the warden did so after she found sanitary pads in the washroom and veranda of the hostel. I have formed a three-member inquiry committee and it will submit its report within three days. We will take action accordingly," the VC said. However, the warden has "vehemently" denied the incident, the VC added.

Found in 1946, Dr Hari Singh Gour University was formerly known as Sagar University. Its name was changed to that of Hari Singh Gour after the university's founder by the state government. It is said to be the oldest university in Madhya Pradesh.

OneIndia NewsGoogle Doodle celebrates 45th anniversary of Chipko Movement, a forest conservation initiative

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Google on Monday celebrated the 45th anniversary of Chipko Movement with a Doodle. Today's Doodle portrays a colourful design where a group of women are standing around a tree, representing their fight against deforestation which was the main objective of Chipko Movement.

Started in the 1970s, the Chipko movement or chipko andolan was primarily a forest conservation movement in India that began in 1973 and went on to become a rallying point for many future environmental movements all over the world; it created a precedent for non-violent protest started in India.

The word Chipko means 'to stick' or 'to hug' and the name of the movement has been derived from these words. The success of this nonviolent, grassroots resistance was felt around the globe, serving as the inspiration for future environmental movements. The Chipko Andolan also stands out as an eco-feminist movement. Women formed the nucleus of the movement, as the group most directly affected by the lack of firewood and drinking water caused by deforestation.

On the 45th anniversary of Chipko Movement, let's know what the forest conservation movement was:

The original Chipko Movement dates back to the 18th century Rajasthan.

A large group of people from the Bishnoi community resisted felling of trees by hugging them. The trees were being cut on the order of Jodhpur's Maharaja.

In modern India, Chipko Movement started in April 1973 in Uttar Pradesh's Mandal village in the upper Alaknanda valley.

The Chipko Movement was triggered by a government decision to allot forest land to a sports goods company. Angered by the move, villagers formed circles around the trees to prevent them from being cut.

The Chipko Movement, led by local women, was spearheaded by Chand Chandi Prasad Bhatt and his NGO Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh.

Dhoom Singh Negi, Bachni Devi and many other village women were the first to save trees by hugging them. They even coined the slogan 'What do the forests bear? Soil, water and pure air'

Gandhian activist Sunderlal Bahuguna gave a direction to the movement and his appeal to Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, resulted in the ban on cutting trees.

His appeal resulted in a 15-year ban on chopping of green trees in 1980.

Google said, "The Chipko Andolan also stands out as an eco-feminist movement. Women formed the nucleus of the movement, as the group most directly affected by the lack of firewood and drinking water caused by deforestation."

OneIndia NewsIn its debut election in Karnataka, Swaraj India party to field 10 farmer leaders as candidates

India

oi-Maitreyee

Bengaluru, March 26: This election season in Karnataka, small and new parties are all set to give a stiff competition to the biggies. After the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) recently announced its first list of 18 candidates for the elections, the Swaraj India party is all set to enter the poll fray in the state by announcing 10 candidates in the next week in Bengaluru.

Manohar Elavarthi, a senior member of the Swaraj India party in Karnataka, told OneIndia that next week the party will announce the names of at least seven to ten candidates for the upcoming polls. This will be Swaraj India party's first election in Karnataka. Elavarthi said that all the seven to ten candidates are farmer leaders.

One of the main candidates of the party to contest the elections is the son of deceased farmer leader KS Puttannaiah, Darshan Puttannaiah. Techie-turned-politician Darshan will be contesting elections from Melkote, the constituency from where his father won the 2013 Assembly polls. Senior Puttannaiah, a two-time MLA from Melkote, passed away last month.

"We have a strong base among the farmers in the state. Our leaders are mostly farmers and activists working with the farming community in the state," said Elavarthi. While announcing the name of the candidates, the party will also unveil its manifesto for the elections. The event will see a gathering of hundreds of farmers from across the state in Bengaluru.

Leaders of the Swaraj India party said that it's the time to fight against corruption, lack of development, injustice and agrarian crisis, to name a few problems plaguing the state. "That is why we are contesting the elections," said a young leader of the party.

Members of the party said that they would have loved to field candidates in all the state constituencies, but could not do so because of various problems. "We are a small party trying to build our cadres across the state. We don't even have money to contest the elections. All the selected candidates of the party are spending money from their own pockets," said transgender leader and member of Swaraj India party, Nisha Gulur.

The Swaraj India party was founded last year by political expert Yogendra Yadav and Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan. Both Yadav and Bhushan were among a group of founding members of the AAP, but later they were expelled from the party. Yadav, Bhushan and AAP convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal were the three main faces of Anna Hazare led anti-corruption movement in 2011.

On Sunday, Bhushan spoke about--"Political Corruption and Dangers to Democracy"--organised by the Swaraj Abhiyan and the Jana Sangrama Parishat at a Bengaluru auditorium. He called both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress corrupt. Advocate, politician and anti-corruption activist added that the BJP was a far greater evil than any other political parties in the country because it is systematically destroying all the reputed institutions of India, including the judiciary.

The Swaraj India party, the political wing of Swaraj Abhiyan, a socio-political organisation, recently launched an all-India farmers' agitation from Yadgir in Karnataka. Yadav is leading the agitation.

Along with fielding its own candidates, the Swaraj India party is going to support a couple of independent candidates in the upcoming elections. The elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly are likely to take place between the last week of April and the first week of May.

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On the dusty roads of Ballari, why has the M word gone silent?

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

In Ballari, M stands for mining and surprisingly the word is silent today. No political party is raking up the issue and each one is hurling charges at each other.

The explosive report by the Lokayukta followed by the Supreme Court ruling and then a CBI probe has brought about some amount of semblance in Ballari which had seen illegal mining galore thanks to the sudden demand from China.

The official colour of Ballari had become red thanks to the scores of lorries carrying iron ore whizzing past the street. Houses had become red thanks to the dust and health of the people had taken a beating big time.

The mining issue raised the heat in the already hot Ballari in 2013, when the Congress romped home with an impressive victory. The party had gained big in Ballari, which was once a bastion of the BJP. It went to town with the illegal mining issue.

The Congress had taken out a 320-kilometre yatra on the illegal mining issue. This was the turning point for the Congress as it helped the party lead the charge against the BJP which was in disarray in 2013 with both B S Yeddyurappa and Ballari strongman, B Sriramulu walking out.

This year around with the Karnataka Assembly Elections just around the corner, the mining issue is not being spoken about much at least in the political circles. Street vendors and the general folk of Ballari refer to it in passing context, but it is not the main thing on their mind. After all, mining had done both good and harm to them. The good being generation of employment and the bad was the deterioration of Ballari and the bad name it got.

While the Congress bettered the BJP in 2013 while riding on the mining scam, this year around there is not much talk about it. The BJP is silent and has been targeting the corruption by the Congress.

The Congress, on the other hand, is completely silent about the mining issue owing to a large number of tainted persons it has taken into its fold. Former BJP MLAs, Anand Singh and B Nagendra who were arrested in the illegal mining case are with the Congress. The others who were hit by the mining scam who are in the Congress include Anil Lad, Santhosh Lad, Abdul Wahab and E Tukaram.

It is in fact quite ironic to note that the Congress President, Rahul Gandhi did not once refer to illegal mining when he kicked off Siddaramaiah's campaign with a rally in Hospet. Both Singh Nagendra who were implicated in the Lokayukta report on illegal mining shared the stage with Rahul Gandhi. The speech by Rahul Gandhi lasted a good half an hour, but the 'M' word was missing.

OneIndia NewsWith killing of 2 more Lashkar operatives, number of terrorists gunned down in J&K this year is 78

Lashkar terrorist from Pakistan sentenced to 7 years in jail for plotting attacks in India

In UP Lashkar case, transaction of Rs 1 crore found, bank officials under scanner

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad has unearthed a huge module of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba which was responsible for funding the outfit. Transactions to the tune of over Rs 1 crore have also been unearthed by the ATS.

The revelation came to light after the ATS arrested 10 persons linked to the outfit.

"Ten persons were arrested from Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Pratapgarh and Rivan (MP) on Saturday by the ATS. These persons were involved in terror-funding on the directives from Pakistan," ATS IG Asim Arun said.

The arrested men were identified as Naseem Ahamad, Naeem Arshad, Sanjay Saroj, Niraj Mishra, Sahil Masih, Uma Pratap Singh, Mukesh Prasad, Nikhil Rai alias Musharraf Ansari, Ankur Rai and Dayanand Yadav, he said.

"A member of Lashkar-e-Tayiba used to remain in contact with them and ask them to open bank accounts in fake names and direct them as to how much money is to be transferred to which account. Indian agents used to get 10 to 20 per cent commission for this. Till now transactions of over Rs one crore have come to the fore," he said.

He claimed the arrested persons had links with the LeT and some of them even knew what was happening.

"Some of them clearly knew what they were doing, while some considered it as a lottery fraud," the officer said, adding a detailed probe was on and more arrests will be made likely.

"The role of the bank staff too would be probed. ATM cards, Rs 42 lakh cash, swipe machines, magnetic card readers, three laptops, passbooks of different banks, a country made pistol and cartridges were recovered from the possession of the accused", he added further.

OneIndia NewsInspiring story of Assams rickshaw puller who has built 9 schools for poor children

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

Guwahati, March 26: He never got a chance to finish his school and rode a rickshaw to earn his livelihood since he was in his teens. Today, Ahmed Ali, the 82-year-old rickshaw puller from Assam's Karimganj, is a proud man as he has been instrumental in building nine schools for poor children in his area.

Ali's astonishing feat to provide education to poor children in the state got a mention in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's monthly radio broadcast, Mann ki Baat, on Sunday. Hailing the man for his contribution to society Modi said, "When I got to read in your letters how a rickshaw puller from Karimganj in Assam, Ahmed Ali, has built nine schools for underprivileged children, it gave me a glimpse into the nation's willpower."

When I read in letters sent by you that how a rickshaw puller from Assam's Karimganj, Ahmed Ali built 9 schools for poor children, it gives me a glimpse into the nation's willpower: PM Modi #MannKiBaat pic.twitter.com/B3hgLUxWnF  ANI (@ANI) March 25, 2018

Since Modi praised Ali for his "willpower", his tiny village, Madhurbond, near Bangladesh border is in a celebratory mood. The poor man with a big heart after building nine schools, which include three lower primary schools, five middle schools and a high school in Madhurbond and its adjoining areas, now wants to build a college for his village students.

Ali first gifted his village a school in 1978. In the last 40 years, he has built eight more schools and dreaming to build more educational institutions in the coming years. Before starting his first school, Ali, who himself is poverty-stricken, sold his land and collected money from his fellow villagers to build the school.

"I worked hard and saved as much as possible. People also helped me in my dream of building schools," smiled Ali. According to reports, Patherkandi MLA Krishnendu Paul sanctioned Rs 11 lakh for the development of Ahmed Ali High School recently.

Ali says he does not want any monetary gain from his schools. "My biggest reward is to see all children going to school, getting education and finding jobs for themselves," he said. You can also read more about Ali's feat in this Facebook post:

OneIndia NewsWho will be new Punjab Chief Minister? Congress' decision likely by afternoon after CLP meet

Karnataka elections 2018: Congress to release candidates' list before April 15

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Home Minister G Parameshwara on Monday said names of all the incumbent MLAs will be sent to the party high command for the approval. Today, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and other Congress leaders were present at party's screening committee meeting in Bengaluru.

Parameshwara said Shamanur Mallikarjun and Bidar South Ashok Kheny's names will also be sent. He said the Congress candidates for all the 224 assembly seats list will be announced before April 15.

Before that final meeting of the screening committee will be held on April 9-10. Also, The committee will interview the candidates. In the last meeting, the screening committee had discussed candidates who had lost the assembly elections in 2013.

AICC General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry heads the screening committee. Lok Sabha members Tamradhwaj Sahu and Gaurav Gogoi are among the other members. Based on recommendations of the panel KPCC and AICC leaders will finalise the candidates.

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Swachh Survekshan 2021: Indore, India's cleanest city is now the country's first 'water plus' city

Madhya Pradesh: Rape accused paraded through streets in Bhopal

India

oi-Madhuri

Four men who were accused on Sunday of raping a 20-year-old college student were on Monday paraded through Bhopal's busy streets in Madhya Pradesh.

The accused were paraded through busy streets, and some women among the onlookers were seen thrashing them.

Shailendra Dangi, the woman's senior in college, had an argument with her at a restaurant in Maharana Pratap Nagar locality, after which he took her to his friend Sonu Dangi's room nearby, said Deputy Inspector General of Police Dharmendra Choudhary. Sonu Dangi and two others - Dhiraj Rajput and Chiman Rajput - were already present in the room. According to the woman's complaint, Shailendra Dangi and Rajput raped and threatened to kill her while the other two helped them.

While the alleged incident took place on Saturday evening, the woman lodged a complaint with the Maharana Pratap (MP) Nagar Police Station this morning, and all four accused were arrested within an hour, Deputy Inspector General of Police Dharmendra Choudhary said.

Meanwhile, Members of Madhya Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee staged a protest in Bhopal against the rise in crimes against women in the state.

OneIndia NewsMahavir Jayanti 2018 falls on March 29: Know about the festival

India

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

In 2018, Mahavir Jayanti will be celebrated on March 29 and like every year, the occasion is expected to be celebrated with fanfare this time as well. The festival is observed by the Jain community across the world to mark the birth anniversary of Mahavir, the 24th and last Tirthankara in Jainism. As per the Hindu calendar, the occasion falls on the 23rd day of the month of Chaitra while the Gregorian calendar says it comes in March or April.

As per the Jain tradition, Lord Mahavir was believed to be born in the early part of the 6th century BC in a royal family in what is now Bihar. His real name was Vardhamana and his parents were King Siddhartha and his queen Trishala. He gave up all mundane possessions when he became 30 and left home in search of spiritual awakening. He immersed himself in intense meditation and undertook severe austerity measures for the next 12 years or so to attain Kevala Jnana. There are also opinions that Mahavir lived in the 5th century BC and was a contemporary of Lord Buddha. The Shwetambar and Digambar sects of Jainism differ over Mahavir's actual birth date. Nevertheless, he is revered by all for promoting non-violence and preaching love for all kinds of living beings.

Celebrations of the auspicious day include taking out processions, even featuring elephants, horses and chariots. The followers offer prayers and recite the lord's sermons. They also consume special vegetarian dishes.

On this day, the statue of Mahavir is washed with fragranced oil and people visit Jain temples to offer prayers. The Gomateshwara statue in Shravanbelagola in Karnataka is particularly visited by scores of followers on the occasion. States like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab and others celebrate the occasion on a grand scale. Madhuban in Jharkhand, Girnarji in Gujarat, Mangi Tungi and Gajpantha in Maharashtra also see a huge footfall of the followers on the occasion of Mahavir Jayanti.

Here are the dates of Mahavir Jayanti till the year 2025:

2019: April 17 (Wednesday)

2020: April 6 (Monday)

2021: April 25 (Sunday)

2022: April 14 (Thursday)

2023: April 4 (Tuesday)

2024: April 21 (Sunday)

2025: April 10(Thursday)

OneIndia NewsForces inimical to India trying to create atmosphere of instability: Rajnath Singh

Want solution to border dispute with China through talks, won't allow unilateral action on LAC: Rajnath Singh

No major terror attack in India since PM Modi became PM, says Rajnath; calls it major achievement

Media delegation meets Home Minister Rajnath Singh

India

oi-Shreya

A delegation of journalists on March 26 met Home Minister Rajnath Singh to demand strict action against Delhi Police officials who manhandled a woman journalist while she was covering a protest by students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

A video which went viral on social media showed six Delhi Police officials manhandling photojournalist Anushree Fadnavis and later her camera was also attacked.

Journalists in the National Capital today gathered in front of the Press Club to register their protest and raise their voice against the growing incidents of brutality on the Press.

Journalists said that in their meeting with the Home Minister they asked for stricter laws to protect the press.

This was the second such protest held by the media after the first protest Delhi Police had tendered an apology and today morning two police officials involved in the incident was suspended.

However, journalists claim that the suspension is a mere eyewash, there should be an FIR registered and that the officials should be demoted and strict action should be taken.

OneIndia NewsSwachh Survekshan 2021: Indore, India's cleanest city is now the country's first 'water plus' city

MP: Petrol tanker catches fire in Narsinghpur, alert driver averts tragedy

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

A major tragedy was averted on Sunday when a petrol pump caught fire while it was being emptied at a petrol pump in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur. The driver drove it away from the pump and abandoned it.

The massive fire created panic among the people present there. But thanks to the driver of the tanker showed both presence of mind and exemplary courage in quickly steering away from the pump and into a vacant area nearby.

Meanwhile, the driver of the tanker suffered burns. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he is undergoing treatment.

The incident took place in MP's Narsinghpur - around 220 kilometres from the state capital of Bhopal - when petrol was being transferred to the pump.

#WATCH A petrol tanker caught fire while it was being emptied at a petrol pump in MP's Narsinghpur. In an attempt to save lives, the truck driver drove the burning truck to a location away from the petrol pump. Truck driver suffered burns, admitted to hospital (25 March) pic.twitter.com/YBchJ5YsZh  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

It is reported that had the fire reached the underground bunkers, the resulting explosion could have caused significant casualties as the pump is located on a busy stretch of road.However, the cause of the fire is yet known.

OneIndia NewsSurvey being done on NaMo App is costing sleep of the night to many BJP MPs

NaMo app row: Rahul Gandhi is technologically illiterate', says BJP

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

"Rahul Gandhi is technologically illiterate" is what the BJP said to counter the Congress party's relentless attack on the Narendra Modi app (or NaMo app). BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra questioned Congress' technical know-how about the working of smartphone apps and said that most of the applications these days ask for permission to access 'contacts', 'SD Card', 'pictures' and 'location' in the phone.

Patra was responding to Rahul's tweet in which he said "Modi's NaMo App secretly records audio, video, contacts of your friends & family and even tracks your location via GPS..''

"This is a classic case of technological illiteracy of Rahul Gandhi...Even News apps by leading media companies ask for several permissions when downloaded and installed on phones. He lacks the basic understanding of how apps work," Patra said.

Patra also said that data collected by the NaMo app is used analysis, adding, "Data Analytics is not snooping."

"This new age is the age of information which Rahul ji will not understand," he said.

The NaMo app, which takes its name from the first two letters of the Prime Minister's name and second name, allows users to receive messages and emails from Modi. It has been downloaded over five million times, according to industry estimates.

In a bid to corner the Prime Minister over the NaMo app, Rahul accused Modi of misusing his position "to build a personal database with data on millions of Indians", hours after the BJP alleged that the main opposition party shared users' information to a Singapore-based firm.

['Rahul ji, even 'Chhota Bheem' knows commonly asked permission on apps': Smriti Irani]

The war of words between the two national parties erupted two days after French security expert Elliot Alderson pointed out that the NaMo App, used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office to interact with citizens, was sharing users' profile data with third-party domains without the users' consent.

Congress was on Monday left embarrassed with Alderson alleging that the Congress's official Android app lacked the latest security safety certificate and its data could potentially end up being illegally accessed.

"When you apply for membership in the official @INCIndia #android #app, your personal data are send encoded through a HTTP request to http://membership.inc.in. .. the personal data are encoding with base 64. This is not encryption! Decode this data is very easy as shown in the example. The IP address of http://membership.inc.in is 52.77.237.47. This server is located in Singapore. As you are an #Indian political party, having your server in #India is probably a good idea," Alderson said in series of tweets.

['NaMo app secretly records audio, video of your family', says Rahul Gandhi]

As the issue escalated, the BJP said the Congress had taken down its app called 'With INC' after it emerged that the app's server was based in Singapore. The Congress, on its part, said that the app was "dysfunctional" and all members were added through the party's official website.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi is technologically illiterate. He does not know that data analysis is not equivalent to spying. This new age is the age of information which Rahul ji will not understand: Sambit Patra, BJP pic.twitter.com/LgWKwb5XdI  ANI (@ANI) March 26, 2018

OneIndia NewsNo confidence motion: Congress issues three line whip to Lok Sabha MPs

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The Congress party on Monday (March 26) issued a three line whip to its Lok Sabha MPs asking them to be present in the house tomorrow for no-confidence motion. The Congress gave a no-confidence notice on Friday almost a week after the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress led the way.

After the Congress, the CPI(M) submitted a notice of no-confidence against the BJP-led central government in the Lok Sabha earlier today. The leader of the party in Lok Sabha, P Karunakaran, submitted the notice to the Lok Sabha Secretariat and urged Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to include the no-confidence motion in the revised list of business for tomorrow.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has also announced that it would support the 'No Confidence Motion' moved by opposition parties against the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre.

[CPI(M) moves no-confidence against government in Lok Sabha]

On Friday, the Congress became the third political party to move a no-confidence motion against the government in the Lok Sabha, following the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress. Both the parties from Andhra Pradesh had moved no-confidence motions against the government recently for the latter's failure to honour the "promise" of granting special category status to the southern state and seeking a special financial package for it.

OneIndia NewsNow, BJP alleges data leak to Singapore on downloading Congress app

India

oi-Madhuri

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) media cell in-charge Amit Malviya on Monday alleged data leak to Singapore on downloading the Congress application.

Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of Indias oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore. pic.twitter.com/ceCTkod17D  Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) March 26, 2018

Taking to Twitter, Malviya said, ''Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of India's oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore.''

However, the Congress was quick to counter the claim.

We dont collect any personal data through the INC app. We discontinued it a long time ago. It was being used only for social media updates.

We collect data for membership and this is through our website https://t.co/Mi3BWOK9Z0, this is encrypted. https://t.co/9r0EXWwU4Z  Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) March 26, 2018

Earlier on Sunday, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi mocked the Prime Minister on Twitter, claiming the Narendra Modi app was collecting data for illegal purposes.

Hi! My name is Narendra Modi. I am India's Prime Minister. When you sign up for my official App, I give all your data to my friends in American companies.



Ps. Thanks mainstream media, you're doing a great job of burying this critical story, as always.https://t.co/IZYzkuH1ZH  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 25, 2018

The app has been in news recently after the National Cadet Corps asked nearly 13 lakh cadets to install the app ahead of a planned interaction with the Prime Minister. On Friday, #DeleteNamoApp was one of Twitter's top trends.

The Congress has been highlighting the allegations of a French cybersecurity expert regarding data safety in the Narendra Modi App.

The Congress and the BJP have been engaged in a bitter war of words since the news of Facebook data breach became public last week.

The BJP claimed Facebook data has been misused not just in the US elections in favour of Donald Trump, but also by the Congress in last year's assembly elections in Gujarat. Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress also planned to use it to boost the image of its chief Rahul Gandhi, and for the 2019 general elections.

The Congress accused the BJP and its ally JD(U) of getting help from disgraced British data research firm Cambridge Analytica to win elections in 2010 and 2014.

OneIndia NewsLessons the country can learn from Odisha

Odisha should brace for more rainfall as fresh low pressure system likely over Bay of Bengal

Odisha encounter: Four Maoists killed by security forces at Koraput

India

oi-Madhuri

Four Maoists including three women were killed in an encounter with security forces at Dokra Ghat within Narayanpatna police limits in Koraput district on Sunday evening.

Though the identity of the slain rebels is yet to be ascertained, police sources said the trio belonged to Koraput division of Andhra-Odisha Special Zonal Committee of CPI (Maoists).

As per reports, a joint team of District Voluntary Force (DVF) and Special Operations Group (SOG) launched combing operation in the Dokari ghati area after getting a tip-off on Maoists presence.

A huge cache of arms and ammunition were also seized from the spot.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Monday, March 26, 2018, 11:40 [IST]'My last': Anna Hazare to launch protest for farmers in Jan

Farmers' Protest: Former Maharashtra CM to meet Anna Hazare ahead of his hunger strike

On indefinite hunger strike, Anna Hazare has lost 4 kg: Aide

India

oi-PTI

Social activist Anna Hazare has lost 4 kg since he began his indefinite hunger strike at the Ramlila Maidan here on Friday, but his blood pressure is normal, his aide said on Sunday.

Hazare has been on an indefinite hunger strike since March 23 to press for his demands, including the appointment of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states.

His 2011 agitation had led to the passing of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013, but the Centre is yet to appoint an ombudsman.

This time Hazare is also demanding the government give better Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) to farmers to address agrarian distress.

Few turn up on Day 3

Less than 1,500 people turned up at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday - Day Three of Anna Hazare's indefinite hunger strike.

Around 3,000 people had turned up at Ramlila Maidan on Friday with the crowd steadily dwindling ever since.

On Saturday, there were around 2,000 people, and on Sunday, less than 1,500 people turned up at the ground. This is only a fraction of the number of people who had turned up for India Against Corruption agitation in 2011, which had witnessed a packed ground, reports Hindustan Times.

Villagers protest in 'Sholay' style

As Anna Hazare continued his indefinite hunger strike in Delhi, people in Ralegan Siddhi replicated actor Dharmendra's protest atop a water tank in the iconic film "Sholay", to support the social activist's demands.

A group of residents of the village, located in Parner tehsil of Ahmednagar district, climbed atop the water tank, and shouted slogans demanding that the government should accept Hazare's demands, which include the appointment of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayukta in states.

Some protesters were carrying the national tricolour, and they threatened to jump off the tank if their demands were not accepted, an aide of the activist said.

PTIPerched at an arms length from Ballari, the Reddy brothers look to roar again

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

As the state of Karnataka gears up to vote in the assembly elections, all eyes would be on Ballari or the erstwhile Bellary. The dust has not settled, although back in 2013, one witnessed a mellow campaign in this mining district which was hit by scams and taint.

While 2018 promises to be more hectic, it is nowhere close to what it used to be in 2009. The campaign that year when the BJP won the elections was a flamboyant one with wealth flowing as if there were no tomorrow. It was the Reddy brothers- Somashekhara, Karunakara and Janardhan who ruled the roost. There were choppers, fancy cars and men on speed bikes chasing down anyone who tried to get close to a mine.

This time around the most flamboyant Reddy, Janardhan is missing in action, at least directly. The man who epitomised the illegal mining syndicate has been barred from entering Ballari owing to a Supreme Court verdict. However, that has not prevented him from throwing his hat in the ring. He wants to regain hold over Ballari which he had lost in the previous elections.

To beat the SC order and yet remain close to the mining district his men have been scouting for houses just outside Ballari.

Reddy's team had first identified a plot at Chitradurga. After this was finalised, it was decided that he would run his camp office from here. Two other farmhouses have been identified in Hampi on the western side of Ballari and another at Thammenahalli which is around 25 kilometres from Ballari city.

The heat is on:

Ballari can be a difficult terrain to cover for anyone especially during the summer as the sun stares down at you mercilessly. However, for the politicians, it is a big gamble and winning Ballari once a stronghold of the BJP is a matter of pride and prestige.

In 2013, the BJP was hit by all sort of problems. It was termed responsible for the mining scam. One of its top leaders, B Sriramulu had quit the BJP to form a new party. The Reddy brothers were sidelined on account of the mining scam. Overall it was a nightmare for the BJP and the Reddy brothers who would without batting an eye-lid challenge anyone to come to this place and contest.

Today Sriramulu is back in the BJP. The Reddy brothers, especially Janardhan is testing his strength once again. He wants to gain control over Ballari at any cost says an aide close to him.

The distribution of tickets would also be crucial for both the Congress and BJP. In the queue are a host of persons who are either miners or connected to the lobby who are eyeing for tickets. There are at least 13 of them who have been seeking tickets.

Will the Tiger roar:

The clout that the Reddy brothers enjoyed in Ballari is no secret. At the snap of a finger, they could back in 2009 get an officer transferred. When it was refused, they would stage a coup to topple the government. The countless trips that B S Yeddyurappa made to Delhi when he was chief minister of Karnataka were proof of that.

However, a lot of that clout started to wane post the mining scandal. They were like three Tigers, the people would say. Now the fight for the Reddy brothers is not just about making the BJP win, but also regain that lost aura, clout and charm they enjoyed.

The Karnataka Lokayukta then headed by Justice N Santhosh Hegde in his explosive report that cost Yeddyurappa his chair had detailed the manner in which the Reddy brothers would function. Mining permits would be given only at their insistence. He also went on to detail how they had a firm grip over the district.

In 2013, everything changed. The Supreme Court came down heavily on the mining issue. This led to a CBI probe coupled with the Lokayukta report. The same year, Yeddyurappa walked out of the party and so did Reddy's right-hand man, B Sriramulu. The BJP was in disarray and the Reddys no longer a force to reckon with. The Sriramulu factor did have a major bearing on the BJP's prospects in Ballari. The BSR Congress floated by Sriramulu garnered nearly 28 per cent of the votes in the elections and caused a major dent to the BJP. Overall that year in 2013 none but the Congress gained.

As the elections get nearer, the heat and dust in Ballari are not looking to settle. The Congress has decided to go all guns blazing and the Reddy brothers have promised a come-back for the BJP. Will the BJP get back its bastion and will the Reddys roar? Time will tell.

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PU results 2018 Karnataka results date

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The PU results 2018 Karnataka would be announced soon. Last year the PU results were announced in May.

The Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, Tanveer Sait said that the results this year would be announced in April. According to the report shared by the Minister on his Twitter handle, more than 690000 students had appeared for the exam. Along with 53 new evaluation centres, 23980 evaluators have been appointed this year for the assessment process. Soon after the declaration of the results, supplementary exams will be held in May. SSLC exam results are also expected to be announced in the first week of June.

This year, students shall have to apply for revaluation online by paying fees. Karnataka 2nd PUC exam was held from 1 March till 16 March. There are 1202 Government Pre-University colleges, 637 Aided Pre-University colleges, 1936 Unaided Pre-University colleges, 165 bifurcated Pre-University colleges and 13 Corporation Pre-university colleges under Karnataka Pre University Education (PUE).

'The decision of announcing the results by the end of April has been taken in the interests of the students so that they can pursue their higher studies and also, since Karnataka is likely to go for elections in the first week of May, we do not want to inconvenience the student community,' Star of Mysore quoted the Minister saying.

OneIndia NewsSharad Yadav expresses confidence in Opposition unity to stop Modi govt from coming to power in 2019

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

Lucknow, March 26: Former Janata Dal (United) (JD (U)) member of Parliament (MP) Sharad Yadav is confident that all the opposition parties will join hands to dethrone the ruling Narendra Modi government at the Centre during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The senior politician stated that all the opposition parties in the country are coming together. He added that several opposition parties are working towards the formation of a grand alliance to overthrow the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.

Yadav, who had to lose his Rajya Sabha seat last year after he opposed the JD (U) joining the BJP to form the government in Bihar, expressed fear that the country is in danger and the present government should be out of power in 2019. "The opposition parties in the country are uniting and we are working towards it. The country is in danger and the present government should be out of power in 2019. Our effort for the coming elections in 2019 is that a big alliance should be formed by uniting the opposition parties," Yadav told reporters in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

Opposition parties in country are uniting & we are working towards it. Country is in danger & present govt should be out of power in 2019. Our effort for coming elections in 2019 is that a big alliance should be formed by uniting the opposition parties: Sharad Yadav in Kanpur pic.twitter.com/1xyxj4NfKr  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 25, 2018

Since the last few weeks, several opposition parties including the Congress are trying to forge an alliance against the ruling party at the Centre before the 2019 General elections. The opposition parties' attempts to forge an alliance began after the BJP's massive win in the Tripura Assembly elections. The BJP also managed to form governments in Meghalaya and Nagaland after the elections recently.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao came up with the idea of a national political formation without the BJP and the Congress. He immediately got support from his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee and a few others, including Hyderabad lawmaker Asaduddin Owaisi.

Last week, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief KCR met Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Banerjee in Kolkata. The meeting between the regional satraps holds great political meaning, say experts. The very fact that KCR took a private flight to flew to Kolkata to meet his Bengal counterpart created political ripples. After the meeting, both the CMs pitched for a non-BJP, non-Congress "federal front" to counter the political powerhouses ahead of the 2019 General elections.

After the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) left the NDA government at the Centre recently over the issue of grant of special status category to Andhra Pradesh and the saffron party had to bear the brunt of humiliating defeat in the three Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the regional parties have taken the centre stage.

There are clear political indications that the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will form an alliance to fight the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 after their combination succeeded in winning the prestigious Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls recently in Uttar Pradesh. Moreover, 20 opposition parties came together at a dinner hosted by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in the national capital a few days ago.

The dinner politics by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson has been billed as the first concrete attempt to forge an anti-BJP alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

OneIndia NewsAs investments from India dry up, Nepal looks to China

International

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Nepal has started to look at alternatives for investment due to a vacuum of investment from India.

The communist government in Nepal is not pro-China but a vacuum of investment from India has led the Himalayan nation look for alternatives even as India is a natural partner, SAARC CII President Suraj Vaidya said.

"Nepal would always want to work with India, but I think India right now is looking at getting investment in India at the moment so there is a vacuum of investors in Nepal," Vaidya, who is a Nepalese entrepreneur, told PTI in an interview.

He said Nepalese people also need jobs and want investment to come up but investment from India has dried up since long.

"So if no Indian investment is coming to Nepal, we have to look for other investments...Chinese are bound to become the largest investor in the world. What I want to tell India because we are a communist party, we are not pro-China," Vaidya said in an interaction on the sidelines of SAARC CII Business Leaders Conclave held between March 16-18.

"We should not fall into a death trap like Sri Lanka is falling into. We should be careful about that we should not allow Nepal to be used as a territory to go against India. My prime minister made this amply clear that we want to work with India and give us that space to work with India," Vaidya said.

Highlighting the need for investments, specifically after the deadly earthquake that rocked the country in April 2015, he said Nepal is squeezed between India and China and wants funds to come in.

"I speak this for Nepalese people that we are not brains one against the other. That politics is gone and dead, it doesn't exist today, but what exists is the investment.

The last investment from India was when the likes of Dabur, ITC and Unilever entered Nepal, but after the mid-1980s there have been no large Indian investors.

"The large investors have been Chinese and what's, even more, worrying for us is because Nepal is getting a very bad name for this. For most of the hydropower projects, licences are taken up by Indian companies, but today those large companies are selling the licences to the Chinese people and this is not something that Nepal wants," he stressed.

He said Nepal wants India to invest in the country but the selling of business licences to the Chinese is earning a bad name for the country and giving the impression as if Nepal is encouraging Chinese investment which is not the case.

Talking about the eight-nation South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) grouping, he said a leadership role by India will be critically important at this point where there is a growing sense of protectionism across the globe.

Last one year has seen a lot of inward looking protectionism affecting the international trade, specifically with the US pulling up some very major important regional cooperation which has sent a very wrong message.

With Brexit, it also sends a terrible message for regional cooperation, the eight-nation SAARC has much to achieve as the private sector is keen to invest in the region.

However, he said it is unfortunate that the regional political agenda overshadow the economic agenda of South Asia.

Vaidya emphasised for a greater political will amongst the SAARC countries to remove trade barriers to allow free movement of trade, services as well as people.

It is a hindrance that goods cannot move from India to Afghanistan through Pakistan, it is also a hindrance when Nepal cannot take goods from Bangladesh to trade with them directly because of the absence of motor vehicle act, he said.

"It is also a problem when Nepal cannot send power to Bangladesh which requires power because we don't have a transmission agreement. The governments have taken bilateral trade agreements at most of the times than multi-lateral agreements which is a problem," he said giving instances of problematic areas.

Speaking on the escalating tensions between Pakistan and India, Vaidya said there is no alternative to dialogue between the two nations to resolve tensions which will bode well for the rest of smaller nations such as Nepal and Bhutan in the region.

OneIndia NewsWill do according to principles: Bangladesh on Chinas warning against joining Quad

Bangladesh is celebrating a special independence day in 2018: Here's why

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina accompanied the president of the country, Mohammad Abdul Hamid, to pay tributes to the martyrs of the 1971 war on Monday, March 26, which marked the 48th independence day of Bangladesh. They reached Jatiyo Smriti Soudho (National Martyrs' Memorial) in Savar early in the morning to pay the floral tributes in remembrance of the souls that were sacrificed to earn Bangladesh liberation from the then West Pakistan after a bloody war.

The leaders also observed silence on the occasion and the three wings of the country's military also played homage to the martyrs. Earlier, 31 gun salutes were offered to start the ceremony. Hasina also paid tributes to the chief of the ruling Awami League party along with its other leaders. Other dignitaries - including parliamentarians and army officers -- followed suit. The memorial was later opened to the common people to pay their respects.

US President Donald Trump also congratulated Bangladesh on its independence day.

Bangladesh achieved its liberation after a prolonged struggle with the political and army leadership of West Pakistan after the latter refused to acknowledge its democratic popularity proved in the 1970 war.

The suppression led to a horrific civil war in erstwhile East Pakistan in which several thousands were killed and attained international focus. It was India led by Indira Gandhi who came to Dhaka's rescue by taking on the West Pakistani army, leading to the third Indo-Pak war since independence.

Countries like the US and China backed Pakistan while India got the support of the former Soviet Union and eventually succeeded in pushing Islamabad back. East Pakistan later emerged as an independent nation of Bangladesh.

Two reasons why Bangladesh is celebrating a special independence day in 2018

This year, Bangladesh is celebrating its independence day with an extra enthusiasm and fanfare as the historic March 7 speech delivered by Bangladesh's founding father Sheikh Mujibar Rahman was honoured with a special place in the world heritage list.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) included the speech in the Memory of the World International Register in October 2017. The register is a list featuring the world's significant documentary heritage.

Besides, the UN's Committee for Development Policy officially declared on March 15 Bangladesh's leap from the category of the Least Developed Countries to Developing Countries, giving yet one more reason to the people of the country to celebrate the occasion.

A growing economy

Bangladesh in recent years has shown an impressive economic growth despite its small size and population pressure. While the World Bank has reported that its poverty has declined from 31.5 per cent to 23.2 per cent, it has also overtaken Pakistan in terms of GDP per capita.

Today, Bangladesh exports more garment than that done by India and Pakistan together and that has made it a major destination for the international apparel giants.

The country is also inching forward to launch its own satellite Bangabandhu-1.

OneIndia NewsCollapse of Kabul will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history: Donald Trump

Signing mammoth federal spending bill: Trump defends the job that displeased him

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

US President Donald Trump on Sunday, March 25, tweeted from his lavish Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to defend his signing a $1.3 trillion federal spending bill on Friday, March 23, to reopen the federal government which faced a partial shutdown for the second time in less than one month.

Although Trump signed the bill grudgingly for there were items in the deal that he did not want, he defended it mentioning the billions that went to the military and national security. According to him, it is because of the massive military funding that more jobs were created and the military became richer. He also made a mention of the border wall with Mexico saying it was all about national defence.

Trump glorifies the nationalist aspect of the bill

This defence could be Trump's own way of dealing with the backlash he faced from the conservatives who accused him of surrendering before the congressional Democrats by signing the deal. Trump said he himself was not pleased with the package because it did not fully pay for the border wall he has been eyeing for long but he was helpless to sign it because funding the military was key for the country.

Trump had sought a whopping $25 billion for the border wall but the plan spoke of just $1.6 billion for setting up new sections and replacing the older ones. The president, however, exhibited his non-relenting mood on Sunday saying much could be done with the amount and that it was just a "down payment".

The US president also took a dig at the Democrats accusing them of abandoning young immigrants who are need of protections. He said the bill could not protect them because of an inappropriate coverage under a program that he wanted to get rid of.

US president caught between the devil and deep blue sea

Trump's dilemma was evident as, on the one hand, his threat of a veto displeased the administration and Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan while on the other, the conservatives did not support the mammoth spending plan, saying it would only make America's debts heavier.

The president nevertheless warned the Congress that he would not sign a similar bill. He also requested the Congress to give him a line-item veto to see his preferences prevail but as per a Supreme Court verdict in 1998, a congressionally passed line-item veto lacked constitutional validity.

That Trump as an outsider in the political circles is finding it difficult to unite all interests became amply clear in this federal funding spending bill signing episode. The president, lost in the maze of administrative politics, therefore found the easier solution to justify his position: to glorify the nationalistic fervour in the bill as that guarantees universal acceptance.

OneIndia NewsEgypt goes to elections: President el-Sissi set to score on empty goal

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

After Russia, it's the turn for Egypt. The north African country went to elections on Monday, March 26, which the experts believed would only be a one-sided affair with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi set to win his second term.

For observers, this tendency in Egypt's politics was indicating to a return of authoritarianism, something which had prevailed over several decades till Mohammad Morsi became the country's first democratically elected president in 2012. Morsi's rule, however, did not last for more than just over a year as the military interfered to overthrow him after public protests.

It was el-Sissi, an army man-turned-politician- who had overthrown Morsi and he is being challenged by a little known Moussa Mustafa Moussa after several aspiring candidates were either forced out of the race or held. Moussa also looks to complete the formality more than throwing any substantial challenge to el-Sissi, who also has made no mention about the latter in public.

Nearly 60 million eligible voters would cast their ballots during the three-day affair to choose an elected leader of the country which was once seen as a balancer in Arab politics but has been hit by political instability and uncertainty now.

Egypt saw a ray of hope over its political future after the popular uprising of 2011 saw the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak - a dictator ruling Egypt for three decades - to pave way for a democratically elected regime. But the election of 2018 looks to have stolen all the hope and gives an impression that Egypt is heading back to the Stone Age.

El-Sissi cast his ballot early in the morning on Monday and shook hands with the election workers. During his campaign for this election, Sissi was careful. Instead of addressing several rallies organised by his loyalists or appearing in television ads, el-Sissi went for carefully scripted programmes.

He also reminded the voters about the war on Islamic militants and that he played a crucial role in overthrowing a divisive Islamic president in Morsi in 2013. El-Sissi's action in overthrowing Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group had earned him public accolades but that his support has faded in the last five years and that was understandable from the strict steps taken against the media and his critics.

The growing strength of an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula which became prominent after the toppling of Morsi which has turned out into a serious terror threat to Egypt as well as the government's strong austerity measures to bring the country's economic fortunes have not left the population entirely happy with the administration even if the austerity measures have made Egypt a country conducive for investment.

OneIndia NewsCoronavirus pandemic: WhatsApp calls to now support up to 8 people, here's how to use it

Will fee be charged to send money through WhatsApp? Here is what Zuckerberg has to say

Facebooks data privacy scandal: Mark Zuckerberg says sorry in full-page newspaper ads

International

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

New York, March 26: Under attack from various corners after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal rocked the whole world, Facebook founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Mark Zuckerberg, took out full-page advertisements in several British and American newspapers on Sunday to apologise to millions of users.

"I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time," the advertisement, signed by Zuckerberg, read. However, there is no mention of Cambridge Analytica in the "apology" advertisement published in top American and British dailies.

Cambridge Analytica is the British firm at the heart of the controversy. The British firm allegedly used the private data of more than five crore Facebook users to influence voters during United States President Donald Trump's election campaign in 2016.

"This was a breach of trust, and I am sorry," said the back-page ads that were featured in newspapers including the Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Observer, Sunday Mirror and Sunday Express in the UK, and in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal in the US, BBC reported.

Facebook took out full page ads in the NYT, WSJ, WashPost, and 6 UK papers today https://t.co/kMA822kTpU pic.twitter.com/CUEYwyWuTT  Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 25, 2018

"We've already stopped apps like this from getting so much information," wrote Zuckerberg. "Now we're limiting the data apps get when you sign in using Facebook."

The social networking giant also said it was investigating every app that had access to data "before we fixed this". "We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected," added the advertisement.

A few days ago, Zuckerberg admitted the mistake on the part of his company for failing to save the data of its users across the globe. However, at that time he did not apologise. The apology also comes at a time when people across the world have expressed serious concern over "breach of trust" by Facebook. Recent polls have stated that Facebook's popularity has hit a record low post the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

The data scandal has a worldwide implication as reportedly Indian political parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress used the service of Cambridge Analytica during past elections. Both the top Indian political parties have denied having any links with the now disgraced British firm but accused each other of hiring services of Cambridge Analytica.

OneIndia NewsNo alliance with US anymore, says Pakistan foreign minister

Blackbuck poaching case: 'Salman Khan was jailed because he is Muslim', says Pak foreign minister

Pakistan, India in talks over harassment incidents: Asif

International

pti-PTI

Pakistan and India are in talks over the issue of alleged harassment of Pakistani diplomats stationed in New Delhi, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has said.

Pakistan has claimed that there had been as many as 26 instances of harassment and intimidation of its diplomats since March 7, following which Islamabad called back its high commissioner Sohail Mahmood for discussions on the issue. He returned to New Delhi on March 22.

"Higher authorities in both India and Pakistan are in talks to handle harassment incidents of Pakistan High Commission," Asif told Associated Press of Pakistan.

He hoped that efforts in this regard would bear fruit and relationship between the two neighbouring countries would improve, the report said.

The foreign minister also said that Pakistan is keen on establishing cordial relations with its neighbouring countries on the basis of equality for maintaining regional harmony.

"Our top priority is establishing peace in the country as well as in the region in larger interest of the people," he said.

Asif also said that Pakistan was making all-out efforts to develop healthy and durable relations with Afghanistan, Iran, India, Russia, and other countries of the region.

He said Pakistan wants peace in Afghanistan.

"We want to see Afghanistan as a peaceful and stable country because Pakistan would benefit the most from a peaceful Afghanistan," Asif added.

The minister also said that the government has been making serious efforts for purging the country of the menace of terrorism and make it a safe place for its people.

In August, US President Donald Trump had unveiled his Afghanistan and South Asia policy in which he had hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to "agents of chaos" that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has "much to lose" by harbouring terrorists.

Pakistan regularly denies that it hosts terror groups fighting the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.

Asif also stated that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would play an instrumental role in bringing revolutionary changes across the country.

He said that the resulting economic stability and prosperity would not only benefit the people of Pakistan but of the region at large.

PTIFriend's enemy not my enemy: Why Japan is getting closer to Russia

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to visit Russia on May 26 to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin who recently won his fourth presidential term. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets told Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko, said reports.

Golodets and Seko met on Saturday, March 25, whereby they agreed to speed up coordination to facilitate economic cooperation in the run-up to the Abe-Putin talks. The two sides also emphasised on people-to-people contact through exchanges between universities on both sides and cooperation in the field of information technology.

Japan has come closer to Russia in recent years

Japan and Russia, despite their historical conflicts, have come closer in recent times. In 2016, Japan agreed to give Russia assistance in fields like energy development, industry, healthcare. In the latest Seko-Golodets meeting, Japan also showed an eagerness to give shape to as many projects as possible to help the people of Russia.

Russia also mentioned that Putin will continue to back the eight-point economic cooperation that Abe had proposed to the Russian president two years ago in Russia. Moscow and Tokyo reiterated their support for the same in December 2016 in Japan.

Last September, during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Putin and Abe also took time out to attend a judo competition together which shows the personal warmth the two leaders have developed.

Alarming for West but not rational from Japan's perspective

From the perspective of the democratic West, this is not a good news but international politics is more defined by pragmatic national interests than idealism.

Although countries like Japan and South Korea are linked more with the distant West than the geographically more closer regimes in Russia and China because of their belief in democratic principles and liberal economic values that eventually shape their common security concerns against authoritarian powers, recent developments in international relations also explain why Tokyo and Seoul have gone closer to Moscow.

These developments started more after 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea in eastern Ukraine, leaving the West flummoxed. Despite the historical reasons of conflicts over territorial claims, Japan did not hesitate in increasing economic cooperation with Russia.

While Moscow increased its oil and liquefied natural gas supply to Tokyo, the latter also focused on investing in Russia's Sakhalin gas projects. South Korea also followed suit and it bettered Putin's relations with the two East Asian powers even though they are two functional democracies.

Geo-strategic reason

A major reason why Japan has shown interest towards improving relations with Russia is geostrategic. As the US of President Donald Trump has become reluctant in supporting allies abroad, countries like Japan and South Korea have turned apprehensive because they are located in a volatile region.

To counter China and North Korea, Japan and South Korea needed a support and with the US in a retreating mood, Russia became the second best option to rely on. Japan can't make afford to make more enemies in its neighbourhood and thus the Abe leadership has decided to pursue pragmatism over idealism.

Geo-economics, the other reason

The other reason for the betterment of Japan-Russia relation is geo-economics. Japan is a country with little natural resources while its large economy requires a high quantity of energy to prosper.

Though it has focused on nuclear energy in recent times, the Fukushima disaster reduced public approval for that and Tokyo has to fall back on the conventional sources of energy.

Japan depends on West Asia for its energy supply but given the region's growing restlessness because of political reasons, Tokyo has counted Russia as the alternative source of energy. Siberia, which is home to large quantities of oil and gas reserve, is also closer to Japan and politically more stable than west Asia.

Russia also benefits from this for its economy too has faced hardships because of western sanctions imposed in the wake of the annexation of Crimea. Japan's interest in Russian natural reserves means more foreign investments and the Putin government wouldn't mind it.

To conclude, therefore, realism serves national interests better than high ideals and Japan has shown exactly that by prioritising relations with Russia when seeing its alliance with the West less beneficial.

OneIndia NewsA day after US marched against gun violence, country's oldest gun maker files for bankruptcy

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

Just a day after the US saw 'March For Our Lives' protests against gun violence which has killed several in the country over the years, Remington - the USA's oldest gun manufacturer - has sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

After being in business for 202 years, the filing by the Remington Arms Company and its parent Remington Outdoors was revealed on Sunday night on the website of the US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The details of the filing were not known immediately but the company had on Friday, March 24, informed to its investors about a negative operating cash flow of $7.4 million as of Sunday, March 25.

Trump's US saw a slump in gun sale

Remington Outdoors, which owns gun manufacturers like Bushmaster and Marlin, said the sales in 2017 were down by 30 per cent since 2016, standing at just over $600 million. Gun manufacturers in the US have seen a sharp decline in their sales following the 2016 presidential election which brought Donald Trump to power.

The reasoning is that people found less urgency in stockpiling firearms under his gun-friendly regime and the industry has been hit by what is being described as a "Trump slump".

Remington's problems have been worsened by factors like heavy debt and product liability involving its signature product Model 700 bolt-action rifle which was probed by the media in 2010.

In February, Remington said that the bankruptcy would be pre-packaged under a settlement with the lenders and it was not clear when the firm is hopeful about emerging from the shadow of bankruptcy.

Private equity firm Cerberus, which started to buy gun firms a decade earlier, owns Remington and soon after the media probe of 2010, it abandoned the plans for an initial public offering of what was then called the Freedom Group.

Cerberus even revealed its plan to drop the gun business following the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut but did not find any buyer.

OneIndia NewsCarles Puigdemont detained in Germany: Who is this Catalonia separatist leader?

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan secessionist leader, was detained in Germany on Sunday, March 25, on an international arrest warrant issued by Spain.

The 55-year-old controversial leader's lawyer informed about it, Reuters reported.

Puigdemont reached Germany from Denmark after exiting Finland on Friday, March 23, when it looked that the police would arrest him and begin an extradition process to hand him over back to the Spanish authorities.

Puigdemont was en route to Belgium where he has been in a self-imposed exile since the latter half of 2017, Reuters added. His lawyer did not reveal where exactly was Puigdemont was held in custody in Germany, Reuters also added. The leader faces up to 25 years in prison in his home country on charges of rebellion for organising a referendum for Catalonia that led to its unilateral declaration of independence in October last year. The referendum was held despite the court's ruling that it breached the Spanish constitution.

Last Friday, Spain's Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena gave the ruling that 25 politicians seeking Catalan separation would face charges of rebellion and be disobeying the state by organising a vote of secession.

A former journalist and the mayor of the city of Girona in northeastern Spain, Puigdemont called for a referendum after he became the president of the Catalan province in January 2016. He did so after the separatists won a majority in the regional parliament for the first time in an election held in September 2015. The movement was back on the track culminating in the independence referendum in on October 1, 2017. Puigdemont did not care for the court ban and went ahead with the referendum, triggering a huge political crisis that the police and administration failed to contain.

On October 27, the Catalan regional parliament voted to declare the province's independence from Spain, pushing Madrid to approve direct rule over it. The Spanish government dismissed Puigdemont's government and called fresh elections on December 21. Puigdemont lashed out at the central government and accused the Spanish Prime Minister Mariana Rajoy of illegally dismissing the Catalan parliament.

In this election as well, the pro-independence parties maintained their majority with Puigdemont describing it as a slap in the face for Prime Minister Rajoy. Puigdemont remained Madrid's main enemy since then.

Carles Puigdemont: A man with a steel resolve for independence

Born in a family whose members were outright pro-independence and the second of eight siblings, Puigdemont is known to be a convinced separatist in Amer, where he was born and brought up and Girona, where he served as a mayor between 2011 and 2016.

He was never apologetic about his call for separation from Spain, even not in 1980 when he joined former Catalan president Artur Mas's CDC party seeking to fulfil his goal although the party was more focused on negotiations to secure greater autonomy for Catalonia and not a complete secession.

Puigdemont left journalism to join politics in 2006 when he became a member of Catalan parliament and in 2015, he became the president of the Association of Municipalities for Independence which worked as a platform to unite local groupings to promote the idea of self-determination.

That the man is hell-bent to Catalonia's cause also became evident in 1991 when he launched a campaign to change the name of the city of Gerona to Girona which is about the Catalan spelling, one of his acquaintances revealed later.

OneIndia NewsYemen: Saudis intercept 7 Houthi militia missiles; how did the war start?

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

The Saudi Arabia-Yemen conflict made the headlines again on Sunday when the air defence of the former intercepted seven ballistic missiles fired by the latter's Houthi militia fired at various targets. The Arab Coalition backing Yemen's legitimate government informed about it.

The missiles, three of which were fired towards Riyadh, were aimed at residential areas and the attack killed one Egyptian civilian worker besides injuring two others, Saudi Arabia's state news channel Al Ekhbariya quoted a spokesperson of the coalition as saying. Two missiles were fired at Jazan while one each at Khamis Mushayt and Najran.

The Houthi militants of Yemen, backed by Iran, have fired several missiles into Saudi Arabia and the latter has successfully prevented from causing damages. The militants even tried to devastate the King Khalid International Airport on November 4 but could not overcome the Saudi resistance. A United Nations-appointed panel later confirmed that the missile was made in Iran, along with some others. Iran is known to be a fierce opponent to Saudi in the region.

Although the international media has not attended to Yemen's devastating war as compared to those in Syria or Iraq, regular aid has been reaching Yemen, even from Saudi Arabia. However, that hasn't minimised the war and its effects.

When and how did Yemen war start?

The conflict in Yemen has its origin in a failed political transition which was expected to bring stability to Yemen in the wake of the Arab Spring uprising which forced the country's long-serving president Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over power to Abdrabbuh Mansour Saleh, his deputy, in 2011. President Hadi struggled to manage the reins of power, especially the separatist menace posed by al-Qaeda in the South. Besides, the loyalists to the previous president and factors like corruption, food insecurity and unemployment also made life difficult for the new ruler.

It was then when the Houthis, who back Yemen's Zaidi Shia Muslim majority and fought the opponents to Saleh earlier, eyed an opportunity in Hadi's weakness and took control of the northern heartland of Saada province and the adjacent areas. Even ordinary Yemenis soon became disillusioned with the Hadi regime and started supporting the Houthis - even the Sunnis. This strengthened the rebels and they took over capital Sanaa in 2015.

The Houthis and the forces loyal to Saleh, who later befriended his former enemies and assassinated as a result in December last year, then tried to take control of entire Yemen, forcing Hadi to flee in March 2015. A number of Sunni Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, feared that Shia Iran was plotting a design to lengthen its shadow in the region by influencing Yemen and jumped into Hadi's rescue, triggering the bloodshed. The coalition also received support from western countries like the US, UK and France.

OneIndia NewsPoland to Receive Special Attention at This Week's Prague Gaming Summit 2018

Published March 26, 2018 by Ivan P

Latest speakers announced for the Prague Gaming Summit 2018, Kamil Popioek and Zdenek Lang, will be able to offer some invaluable insights about the new market situation in Poland.

Prague Gaming Summit 2018, taking place on March 29 at Andel's by Vienna House, Prague, will be kicking off in just a few days. As such, most details for the conference have been wrapped up. However, the organizer has just announced two new speakers who will be joining the "Focus on Poland" panel, who should bring a lot of value to the discussion. These are Kamil Popioek and Zdenek Lang, representatives of Superbet Poland.

Excellent Learning & Networking Opportunities

The second edition of Prague Gaming Summit will provide everybody in attendance with more than 12 hours filled with learning and networking opportunities. The Summit is divided into different panels focusing on a variety of relevant topics, and the "Focus on Poland" discussion panel, scheduled for 12:00 PM, is one of the more important ones.

The panel will focus on the current situation in the Poland gambling market and the newly created regulatory situation, in which many operators have found themselves either blacklisted or having to deal with a heavy paperwork load to keep up with the changes.

Dissecting Key Aspects to Consider

In this light, "Focus on Poland" will try to offer answers about what key aspects the operators should focus on to make the transition period as smooth as possible. This is where Superbet representatives should be able to offer a lot of valuable insights.

Kamil Popioek is a very experienced attorney who currently represents Superbet Poland. Thus, he is perfectly positioned to shed some light on the latest legal situation in the country and offer some answers the operators are probably eager to hear. Zdenek Lang, also a law graduate, currently works as the Marketing Consultant for Superbet, and he will share his knowledge and experience regarding the marketing side of things.

Of course, this is just a fraction of Prague Gaming Summit 2018 has to offer. With a number of panels focusing on other countries in the region as well as some of the hottest industry topics, such as innovation, regulation, and conversion, as well as scheduled and casual networking opportunities, the event will offer real value to everybody in attendance.Mercy Nungari, 45, is the nominated MCA for Limuru East ward. Hailing from a humble background, Nungari has been through it all; poverty, being a mother at the age of 16, and an abusive marriage.

All these forced her to seek work as a housegirl before she got into politics by chance.

She talks about how life has changed:

You grew up in tea plantation. Was it any fun?

My childhood life was full of difficulties. I was born in Limuru and my parents used to pick tea in the plantations to eke a living.

We were given a house there, though we would often relocate to different plantations. The houses were in bad shape and when it rained, the roofs leaked a lot.

I assume that despite all this you went to school, right?

Yes. Being the only girl in a family of six, I was tasked with cooking for my five brothers after school. My parents used to work for long hours. I was enrolled at Rwaka Primary School.

Sometimes, we would go to school without having breakfast because my parents didnt have money. I remember we sneaked out with the Maziwa ya Nyayo from school so that we could have something to eat for breakfast. We were dirt poor, I didnt even have shoes for school.

What about secondary school?

I was admitted at Tigoni Secondary School. I was always out of school due to lack fees. I was forced to wash peoples clothes in the village after school to supplement my parents income.

How did you juggle schooling and vibarua?

I used to wash peoples clothes from 5 pm to 7 pm, and then struggle to finish my homework later at night. Of course, it got to a point where I was so tired and my school work was really affected. After finishing secondary school, I was employed as a housegirl.

I had to be aggressive and support my family. I saved money and joined Smart Media College, from where I graduated with a diploma in mass communication. I would skip exams because I had not paid school fees. But I kept my spirits high.

Being a housemaid at a tender age must have been tough. How much did you earn?

Poverty drove me to work as a maid. We were six kids and my parents salary was hardly enough. I was paid Sh1,500 per month for the job.

What was your most memorable moment?

In 2015, I started visiting prisoners at Kamiti Prison as a preacher to give them a word of hope. I noticed that there were inmates who had been abandoned by their families. I used the little money I had to buy them essential items like soap.

I was touched when I saw how the sick, disabled and the aging were struggling in prison. The prison officials noticed how passionate I was and they asked me to offer mentorship programmes to the inmates, which opened many doors. Working with the inmates moved me to tears.

Was it that emotional?

Yes it was. I witnessed family members reconciling with the inmates, accepting and forgiving them. That really touched me.

How did you end up in politics?

I became an MCA by chance. Deep down, I wanted to be the voice of the poor and the prisoners. I think my work at the Prisons is what opened doors. I was recognised and people urged me to vie for the seat. I was lucky to be nominated.

Now that youre an MCA, do you still visit the prisoners?

Yes. I go there three times a week. I have not stopped my mentorship programmes. I have partnered with other stakeholders to improve the prisoners lives by donating food and other basic items.

You are a domestic violence survivor

I became a mother at the tender age of 16. After finishing Form Four, a man took advantage of me and made me his wife. I was taking care of his six kids, who had been left by his first wife after she died. The man used to beat me mercilessly and bring women to our matrimonial home. I even tried to commit suicide, but I am lucky I survived.

What lessons have you learnt from your experience?

Never get tired of doing good. Always strive to change someones life. You dont require a lot of wealth to touch someones life; all you need is love.Kush Tracey has finally addressed reports flying around that she is now dating her exs pal, Otile Brown.

Speculation was rife after the two were spotted getting cozy with each other during Kush Traceys 24th birthday at the Blend Lounge. Otile was also pictured grinding hard on Kush Traceys sizeable behind as they danced the night away.

But according to Kush Tracey, people read too much into it.

I am not dating Otile, we are just friends. That night, my ex Timmy was also in attendance. It was all good vibes, said Kush.

She added: They are both my friends and people should stop reading too much into it. I danced with everyone, not only Otile.

Otile Browns camp has also denied any romantic involvement between the two. His manager Noriega said: It was just Kush Traceys birthday. They were just having a good time. Hamna issue.

During the bash, Kush Tracey also received a Sh300,000 cheque as a birthday gift from a secret admirer. However, Kush Tracey maintains that she is single.

He is also a friend. I am single but I have many potentials. I will use the money to invest in my music.

The rapper broke up with Timmy Tdat in June 2016 after the Kasabun hitmaker got physical with her following a misunderstanding at a Nairobi club.

Timmy Tdat was also involved in another physical confrontation with Otile Brown earlier in the year.Tony Wanaswa is the Digital Marketing Manager, Nation Media Group.

He spoke with myNetwork about everything digital marketing:

Is being a digital marketer what you aspired to be or have your career aspirations evolved over time?

When I was younger, I wanted to be a chef. Funny, I know. I admired how chefs can take the simplest of ingredients and turn them into a masterpiece. Cooking, to me, is an art and a science, and in many ways, so is Digital Marketing.

What would you say is the hardest part of your job  how do you work around this?

Being able to find the right audience at the right time and place. This is a challenge for any marketer. Consumer behaviour in the digital world is constantly changing, compounded by the fact that there are multiple platforms where these audiences exist, platforms which are very diverse in nature and highly dynamic.

For instance, Facebook constantly changes their newsfeed algorithm, these changes mean the marketer has to figure out new ways to reach his target audience. In my line of work, you need to be able to predict trends way before they become mainstream.

Is there a difference between digital marketing and digital influencing?

Digital influencing is part of digital marketing. Influencer marketing mainly leverages social media as a channel for distribution of content.

Digital marketing, however, is the bigger picture, it has a number of channels, tools and strategies under it. Worth noting is that it extends beyond the Internet.

The digital space evolves very quickly, what do you do to stay on course?

It does. Every day there are different ways to target consumers, there are new algorithms that come up that affect how you would target your potential customers, at the same time user behaviour is constantly changing. To stay on course, I read a lot about digital marketing and have subscribed to a number of amazing newsletters like those by MOZ, Digiday and Hubspot.

I also follow a number of thought leaders in the industry to stay informed with the changing digital world. I also attend many local and international marketing conferences where I get to learn about new trends and at the same time network with other digital marketers.

What courses would you recommend for a young person hoping to become successful at digital marketing?

It depends on which aspect of digital marketing you are interested in, for instance social media marketing, search engine marketing or email marketing. I can recommend a course for each. In general, however, taking a Google AdWords certification course is a great start.

Hubspot, an inbound marketing platform, provides some great beginner courses. Locally, I know there are some colleges that offer some diplomas and certificates in Digital Marketing, like ADMI (Africa Digital Media Institute) and CIM, (Chartered Institute of Marketing).

What does it take to be the digital marketing manager of an organisation as big as Nation Media Group? What steps can a young person intending to start building their profile while still in school take?

Id advise anyone to first get the fundamentals of marketing locked down. Digital Marketing doesnt exist in a vacuum, therefore, it is also important to have a keen interest in many other forms of technology.

Be passionate about growing trends, both in digital marketing and digital news provision. It also goes without saying that you need to have excellent communication and presentation skills.

What learning/training opportunities exist for young people who would like to improve their skills in this area? Any training programs that you would recommend apart from a university education?

The Internet can be the greatest tool one needs when it comes to driving your own self-learning. A simple search can open a whole new world for you, you just need to be keen and know what exactly it is youre looking for. There are tons of webinars that one can attend, and you can subscribe to newsletters and watch videos that would be able to teach you the various aspects of digital marketing.

Do you have young people that you actively engage with and train on digital marketing as a mentor? How can youth interested in connecting with you get in touch?

I am not as active as I would like, though I have trained a few people who are now heading performance marketing divisions and running digital marketing campaigns within their respective companies. I intend to be more deliberate in my mentoring this year.

Tell us about your first job, how did it prepare you to become the digital marketing manager that you are today?

I was a product ambassador (Sales executive) for an online business directory by Naspers Group called Mocality, back in 2009. My task was mainly to meet business owners across the country and convince them to sign up with the online directory, which was starting up.

This was very challenging, especially at a time when online businesses were not as popular as they are today. The experience in sales, analytics and marketing that I got from this role gave me a great foundation for my digital marketing career.

Which organisations would you recommend for internship in the area of digital marketing?

I will go with Google Kenya  it provides various digital internship opportunities every year.

What is your fondest memory of university?

It has to be all the AIESEC events we used to attend and sometimes facilitate. Especially those outside Nairobi.

Who do you look up to in your career?

There are many people who I admire in the digital marketing world. I will mention a few here: Samantha Barry, Head of social media, CNN, Rand Fishkin, CEO Moz, and Jessica Stiles, CMO Ringier Africa.

Locally, there are a couple of individuals who are making great strides in demystifying digital marketing and are looking towards providing a platform where young people can learn about digital marketing. These include Mark Kaigwa, Nendo CEO, Odanga Madung, OdipoDev, and Sam Gichuru, Nailab Founder.Call ahead to reserve a campsite, yurt, or cabin, as weekend sites often fill up quickly. The park also is one of only two state parks in the state that has a pool on-grounds; however park visitors will have to wait until after Memorial Day to swim at Bothe.

One trail of particular interest is the History Trail. The 1.2 mile long trail is of moderate difficulty. Head left from the Visitors Center and walk past the Pioneer Cemetery, which has recently been restored to the way it would have looked in the 18th century, and you will find the trailhead.

This trail begins with a fairly steep incline but then levels out a fair amount, giving you time to catch your breath and enjoy the scenery. In early spring, purple wild irises are in bloom, and contrast beautifully with the lush green vegetation and the deep red bark of the manzanita trees. While the creek was dry at the time I visited in the end of February, the much-needed rainfall that the area has received in March so far might mean that the creek is now rushing with fresh water.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 piece was reprinted by OpEdNews with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Big Lies become embedded in our collective consciousness, they grow roots, metastasize, and become the hardest to dislodge.

The notion that the war on Syria is "humanitarian" (predicated on fabricated atrocity stories falsely attributed to "Assad" who, propagandists would have us believe, "kills and gasses his own people") is absolutely ridiculous. But people believe it nonetheless. Historical memory (if it ever existed) is totally obliterated from their consciousness and it is displaced by the Lie[1].

Those who create the lies hold broad-based, infantilized populations, in contempt.

The war on Syria is anti-humanitarian[2] in every imaginable sense. Evidence on the ground has dismantled the Lie, every day, for the last seven years, but the Big Lie remains ascendant.

Right now, Syrians are celebrating a victory over NATO terrorists in East Ghouta, terrorists who have been targeting school children and innocent civilians in Damascus for years.[3] It is a victory for human rights and for peace as the remaining terrorists are bussed out of the area.

*

Mark Taliano is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and the author of Voices from Syria, Global Research Publishers, 2017.

Notes

[1] Jeremy Salt, "BBC Betrays the Most Basic Journalistic Principles When It Comes to Syria." American Herald Tribune. 15 January, 2018.( https://ahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/syria-crisis/2096-bbc-journalistic-principles.html) Accessed 24 March, 2018.

[2] Tim Anderson, "Syria: the human rights industry in 'humanitarian war'." Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies Research Paper. January 2018. (https://counter-hegemonic-studies.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/TA-hum-war-18-1.pdf) Accessed 24 March, 2018.

[3] Mark Taliano, "Syrians Have Names And Faces." Global Research. 21 March, 2018. (https://www.globalresearch.ca/syrians-have-names-and-faces/5632982 ) Accessed 24 March, 2018.

Order Mark Taliano's Book "Voices from Syria" directly from Global Research.

Taliano talks and listens to the people of Syria. He reveals the courage and resilience of a Nation and its people in their day to day lives, after more than six years of US-NATO sponsored terrorism and three years of US "peacemaking" airstrikes.

Mark Taliano combines years of research with on-the-ground observations to present an informed and well-documented analysis that refutes the mainstream media narratives on Syria.

ISBN: 978-0-9879389-1-6

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(Image by Egberto Willies) Details DMCA



This time just may be different. The message articulated by this conservative woman should scare not only politicians owned by the NRA but the National Rifle Association themselves.

I attended the March For Our Lives rally as KPFT 90.1 FM's Politics Done Right reporter. I interviewed many people about their reasons for attending the rally. The person that gave me the most hope other than this groundbreaking work by high schoolers was Gill Hoffman, a staunch Conservative.

This Conservative woman had a lot to say as she called out the National Rifle Association as a failed organization that does not care about the interest of the people. I asked her given the stance of Conservatives on the gun control issue why she was there. Her answer was thoughtful and profound.

"The narrative has resulted in most people thinking that generally speaking Conservative are aligned with the NRA," Jill Hoffman said. "In my experience, most Conservatives are not aligned with the NRA. But the NRA speaks for all Conservatives, and that is just not what we need to represent. The NRA is not a good actor. They are deceptive. They are a 501.C4 organization, and they should have limitations on how much they could lobby for their tax status. They clearly have much more influence than a 501.C4 organization should have. And I think that Conservatives like myself believe that this is an issue where there is a lot more common ground than not. And we need to be the ones speaking up and neutralize the NRA's influence."

The polls agree with Ms. Huffman. Most Americans do not support the policies of the NRA. Jill Hoffman was not alone. Many people at the rally wanted others at the rally to know they were no bleeding heart Liberals trying to take America's guns away. They said they wanted sensible gun control like everyone else.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.

China on Monday (March 26) asserted that Doklam belongs to it and India should have learnt lessons from the stand-off last year.



Reacting to India's Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale's remarks blaming China for the stand-off, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, "Donglong (Doklam) belongs to China because we have historical conventions.

"China's activities there are within our sovereign rights. There is no such thing as changing status quo. Last year thanks to our concerted efforts and our wisdom we properly resolved this issue. We hope the Indian side could learn some lessons from this and stick to the historical conventions and work with China to ensure the atmosphere in the border areas is conducive for the development of bilateral ties," she said.

India's envoy in an interview to Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post had blamed China for the stand-off in Doklam, saying it happened because Beijing tried to alter the "status quo", which it should not have.

He had said that any change of status quo along the India-China border may lead to another Doklam-like crisis. He also said that though "no change" has taken place in the standoff site at Doklam after it was resolved last year, the PLA may be reinforcing its troops "well behind the sensitive area".

Asked about Bambawale's comments that the 3488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) should be demarcated and delineated, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on the delimitation China's position is clear and consistent.

"The east, middle and western side is yet to be officially demarcated. China is committed to resolving the disputes through negotiations. China and India are exploring ways to resolve this territorial dispute through negotiations so that we can arrive at mutually acceptable solution," she said, referring to the boundary talks between the two countries.

The two sides have so far held 20 rounds of boundary talks. "Pending final solution both sides should work together to maintain peace and tranquility in the border area," she said.

The Doklam Standoff

In August 2017, both New Delhi and Beijing, with days to go before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the BRICS summit and G20 meeting in Xiamen, announced a mutual "disengagement" at Doklam. In the days after, observers of the stand-off celebrated what was seen as the conclusion to the Doklam affair.

However, nothing could have been further from the truth, the Diplomat said last October.

Today, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) remains on disputed territory in Doklam, as does the Indian army. August's "disengagement" was a reduction in tensions. In practice, troops on both sides retreated their positions from the stand-off point by 150 meters each.

New Delhi successfully attained an outcome where the PLA was unable to extend a road that terminated just 60 meters from the Indian border post at Doka La, but an extended and increasingly robust PLA presence at Doklam is foreboding, according to the Diplomat.

While Xi and Modi were able to maintain face during their meeting in Xiamen at the BRICS and G20 meetings, the mistrust generated in India over the duration of the Doklam crisis will linger, with implications for the development of bilateral ties, the magazine said, adding:

"For China, there are good reasons to keep up the heat at Doklam. First, the stand-off made plain to Beijing its quantitative and even qualitative disadvantages against the Indian armed forces in the Himalayas.

"Beijing's slow but steady build-up on the disputed plateau can serve as an opportunity to rectify this imbalance along this sector of the border, where Indian strategic planners remain particularly concerned given the proximity to the vulnerable Siliguri Corridor -- a geographic choke point between northeast India and the rest of the country measuring just 23 km at its narrowest point.

"The silver lining is that despite China's insistence that India withdraw before diplomacy could take effect, the 'disengagement' itself was the result of hard-fought negotiation. The mutually agreed sequential withdrawal was no doubt a positive reduction in the temperature at Doklam, but it remains unclear what concessions either side may be willing to offer to reach a more comprehensive agreement to put an end to the stand-off once and for all."

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From Counterpunch

Under the regime of Donald Trump, the role of education in producing the formative cultures in and out of schools necessary to support critical thinking, civic courage, and critically engaged citizens appears to be disappearing. Words that speak to the truth and hold power accountable are in retreat as lies become normalized and the relationship between the truth and the citizen is treated either with disdain or simply ignored. The democratization of information has given way to the democratization of disinformation as disimagination machines proliferate and corporate controlled cultural apparatuses colonize the media and political landscapes.

One consequence is that historical memory is not only vanishing in a culture of immediacy, sensationalism, and "fake news," it is also being rewritten in school textbooks so as to eliminate dangerous memories and align the past with narratives that reinforce anti-democratic ideologies and social relations. [1] In the current historical moment, memory has no place in the dark cave of civic depravity -- a space where freedom is abandoned in an educational ecosystem where nothing is true, and the basis for criticizing power collapses under the spectacle of presidential bomb throwing-like tweets, endless spectacles of diversion, and high-level stretches of newspeak illiteracy.

At a time when political extremists and war mongers have moved from the margins of politics to the center of power, a culture of fear and cruelty becomes the essence of politics reinforced by the denigration and erasure of any viable notion of morality and personal and social responsibility. As notions of social justice and political visions fall prey to draconian notions of unchecked self-interest, greed is elevated to a national virtue, and the ethical imagination withers along with the public spheres that make it possible.

In the age of "fake news" everything that matters disappears, and institutions that were meant to address crucial social issues and problems begin to vanish. Notions of honesty, honor, respect, and compassion are increasingly policed and those who advocate them are either muzzled or punished. How else to explain the collective silence of Vichy-like Republicans supporting Trump's reign of horror and the cravenly actions of the mainstream media, which refuses to engage critically a society that has fallen into the abyss of fascism?

This flight from the ideal and promise of a substantive democracy is especially dangerous at a time in which a broad-based notion of authoritarian education has become central to politics, particularly in a digital age in which there is an overabundance of information and a proliferation of educational platforms from schools to the social media. In the age of Trump, education has lost its alleged role in cultivating an informed, critical citizenry capable of participating in and shaping a democratic society. Lost also is an educational vision that takes people beyond the world of common sense, functions as a form of provocation, teaches them to be creative, exposes individuals to a variety of great traditions, and creates the pedagogical conditions for individuals to expand the range of human possibilities. Under the influence of corporate power and a growing authoritarianism in the United States, education in multiple informal and formal platforms operates increasingly in the service of lies, racism, unadulterated market values, and a full-fledged assault on critical consciousness and public values. Under such circumstances, democracy is cast as the enemy of freedom, and politics turns dark.

These anti-democratic tendencies are evident in the ways in which neoliberalism since the 1980s has reshaped formal education at all levels into a site for training, inundating market values, and imposing commercial relations as a template for governing all of social life. Every idea, value, social relationship, value, institution, and form of knowledge runs the risk of being economized, turned into either a commodity, brand, or source of profits, or all of the latter. Increasingly aligned with market forces, public and higher education are mostly primed for teaching business principles and corporate values, while university administrators are prized as CEOs or bureaucrats in an audit culture. [2]

In addition, students are viewed as clients and customers while faculty are treated like service workers. Public education is especially under assault with the appointment of Betsy DeVos as the Secretary of Education. DeVos hates all things public and believes that beyond privatizing public education, her role is to "advance God's Kingdom" through the school system. [3]

Under the Trump administration, the role of education as a medium of culture is reduced to a tool of management, conformity, and repression. Operating through a conservative social media and right-wing radio and television platforms, education under Trump has become a powerful weapon to produce and distribute hate, bigotry, and reactionary policies. Moreover, it has become a commanding tool to legitimate a range of right-wing policies that constitute an assault on the environment, transgender people in the military, and undocumented immigrants, among others. It has also become a bullhorn for spreading conspiracy theories including the ridiculous and caustic claim by a number of right wing pundits that the student leaders and survivors of the Parkland mass shooting are either "crisis actors," bankrolled by George Soros, or pawns of left-wing gun control advocates. [4]

Operating in the service of a strictly instrumental rationality that erodes the boundaries between economic power and politics, enables a culture of racial exclusion, and furthers a politics of repression, education in a range of formal and informal sites is used to empty politics of any substance. With regards to higher education, students are not only inundated with the competitive, privatized, and market-driven values of neoliberalism, they are also punished by those values in the form of exorbitant tuition rates, crippling astronomical debt owed to banks and other financial institutions, and lack of meaningful employment. [5]

At the level of public education, too many students especially those marginalized by class and race are subject to disciplinary measures and oppressive forms of pedagogy that kill the imagination and increasingly criminalize student behavior. Solidarity, critical thought, and shared values are the enemy of Trump's notion of education and pedagogy, which serves largely to disdain public values while canceling out a democratic future for too many young people. All of these forces are exacerbated in the wider society through a notion of popular education that accelerates a modern day pandemic of fear, anxiety, anger, and despair.

What is often lost on the part of the left and progressives is that the educational force of the wider culture functions through a range of what the sociologist C. Wright Mills termed cultural apparatuses, which extend from the mainstream and conservative media to digital and online platforms that largely operate in the service of a commodified and authoritarian political media sphere that has become what Mort Rosenblum calls a "cesspool of misleading babble."[6] Trump has managed to shape the cultural landscape in ways that have unleashed a poisonous public pedagogy of sensationalism, easy consumption, bigotry, fear, militarism, and distraction. For instance, insightful and critical reporting is dismissed as "fake news," while corporate profiteers accelerate a culture of instant gratification and feed off spectacles of violence.

Against this backdrop of civic illiteracy lies Trump's 2018 budget, which adds $80 billion to the military's bloated machinery of death. All the while, Trump fills the Twitter world with an ongoing bombast of emotional drivel. Simultaneously, he appoints cabinet and other high ranking officials whose chief role is to dismantle those institutions central to a democracy: "its schools, courts, civil liberties, environment, natural wealth, and underlying morality."[7] Former chief strategist Steve Bannon makes visible and boasts about Trump's racist politics as he travels the globe proclaiming to his fascist friends that they should not be troubled if called a racist. In fact, he announced to a gathering of the National Front party in 2018 at their annual congress in France, "Let them call you racists. Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honor."[8]

Squandering America's moral authority, whatever is left, comes easy for Trump given his well publicized celebration of state violence and his endorsement of the use of torture. The latter provides a context for his nomination of Gina Haspel as the head of the CIA. Haspel once headed a secret "black site" prison in Thailand where Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was waterboarded three times. [9] Haspel "also participated in the controversial decision to destroy evidence of interrogation sessions in which detainees were subjected to waterboarding."[10] Another egregious example of Trump's militaristic and morally vacuous mind set can be seen in his appointment of John Bolton as Trump's National Security Advisor, whom Juan Cole has called a "war criminal."[11] Bolton is a jingoistic hawk and warmonger of the first order and resembles a mix between Brig. General Jack D. Ripper, the trigger-happy war loving character out of the film, Dr. Strangelove and the psychopathic, Patrick Bateman, the main character in American Psycho. Trump's facile appointment of militarists, war criminals, and his ruthless "law and order" policies point to both a rhetoric and set of practices that provide the ideological and political foundation for acts of domestic terrorism.

Domestic terrorism, defined in part as acts designed by the state "intimidate or coerce a civilian population"[12] now operates unapologetically at the highest levels of power as Trump rails against undocumented immigrants, advises police officers to rough up people they are arresting, and relentlessly cultivates "fear and contempt among ... white citizens against immigrants, indigenous people and people of color, who are placed on the other side of 'the law'."[13] In addition, Trump undermines the rule of law by attacking the courts and other legal institutions if they don't pander to his policies. Moreover, his implementation of his "law and order" agenda is highly selective, depending upon who is the perpetrator of the alleged crime, or who is considered a friend or enemy. If it is "illegals" or anyone in his target audience of "criminals," they should be roughed up by the police but if it is a friend such as Rob Porter, a former White House senior aide charged with abuse by both of his ex-wives, such accusations are simply dismissed by Trump.

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The Maldives' ambassador to China Mohamed Faisal says that the country would push ahead with Chinese projects and seek more investment from the country, regardless of concerns raised by regional power India.

His statement to South China Morning Post came after Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen lifted a state of emergency on Thursday March 22 after 45 days.

Rivalry between China and India has been playing out amid political turmoil in the Indian Ocean archipelago that erupted in early February. It has seen President Yameen ordering the arrest of two former leaders who staged a coup ahead of a presidential election to be held in September, with one of them seeking military intervention from India, and accusing the government of letting China "buy up" the Maldives.

"We have been caught up in this new way that the world is looking at China," Faisal said adding: "It is part of a global trend now -- a lot of people are seeing what China is doing because in terms of both economically and global power, China is rising."

"There has been tension and pressure on the Maldives " the talk of debt traps, land grabs in the nation is because we have been working with China. If we were working with India or the US, people would not be talking."

Since Chinese President Xi Jinping's first state visit to the Maldives in 2014, investment from China in the nation has boomed. Apart from the two biggest projects -- the airport expansion and a bridge connecting the airport to the capital Male -- other Chinese investments range from social housing to island resorts.

The two nations in December agreed to build an ocean observation station, a project initiated by China. It has triggered concerns in India that it might be intended for more than environmental monitoring, and could have military uses too.

China's growing investments in South Asia have fuelled security worries in India, which sees ports acquired by China in Sri Lanka and Pakistan as representing "a string of pearls" to contain its regional power in the Indian Ocean.

More than 70 per cent of the Maldives' foreign debt is owed to China, but Faisal said it was not having trouble making payments, adding that the country had some concessional loans it would be able to repay as its tourism market expanded.

Political crisis

Traditionally the archipelago of 1,200 islands and a population of 390,000 Muslims has been firmly in New Delhi's sphere of influence, with India even intervening in 1988, when a group of mercenaries tried to seize power. Its support helped keep former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom in power for three decades and later aided Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected leader who became famous when he used his low-lying island nation to highlight the risk of rising sea levels and climate change.

But Male began tilting toward Beijing after Yameen, the half-brother of Gayoom, came to power in 2013 by defeating Nasheed.

In 2015, in a trial Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison. He later received asylum in Britain.

China now sees the Maldives as a crucial part of its "One Belt One Road" project along ancient trade routes through the Indian Ocean and Central Asia. The initiative envisages building ports, railways and roads to expand trade -- and China's influence -- in a swathe across Asia, Africa and Europe.

China's massive lending to poor nations for such projects has raised concerns about their ability to repay. Already, Beijing has taken over ports it developed in Sri Lanka and Pakistan on long-term leases, according to western media reports.

Nasheed claims China is "buying up the Maldives" under Yameen, accusing the president of opening up the floodgates to Chinese investments with little or no oversight and transparency. China has dismissed those allegations.

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From Paul Craig Roberts Website

Among Western political leaders there is not an ounce of integrity or morality. The Western print and TV media is dishonest and corrupt beyond repair. Yet the Russian government persists in its fantasy of "working with Russia's Western partners." The only way Russia can work with crooks is to become a crook. Is that what the Russian government wants?

Finian Cunningham notes the absurdity in the political and media uproar over Trump (belatedly) telephoning Putin to congratulate him on his reelection with 77 percent of the vote, a show of public approval that no Western political leader could possibly attain. The crazed US senator from Arizona called the person with the largest majority vote of our time "a dictator." Yet a real blood-soaked dictator from Saudi Arabia is feted at the White House and fawned over by the president of the United States.

The Western politicians and presstitutes are morally outraged over an alleged poisoning, unsupported by any evidence, of a former spy of no consequence on orders by the president of Russia himself. These kind of insane insults thrown at the leader of the world's most powerful military nation -- and Russia is a nation, unlike the mongrel Western countries -- raise the chances of nuclear Armageddon beyond the risks during the 20th century's Cold War. The insane fools making these unsupported accusations show total disregard for all life on earth. Yet they regard themselves as the salt of the earth and as "exceptional, indispensable" people.

Think about the alleged poisoning of Skirpal by Russia. What can this be other than an orchestrated effort to demonize the president of Russia? How can the West be so outraged over the death of a former double-agent, that is, a deceptive person, and completely indifferent to the millions of peoples destroyed by the West in the 21st century alone. Where is the outrage among Western peoples over the massive deaths for which the West, acting through its Saudi agent, is responsible in Yemen? Where is the Western outrage among Western peoples over the deaths in Syria? The deaths in Libya, in Somalia, Pakistan, Ukraine, Afghanistan? Where is the outrage in the West over the constant Western interference in the internal affairs of other countries? How many times has Washington overthrown a democratically-elected government in Honduras and reinstalled a Washington puppet?

The corruption in the West extends beyond politicians, presstitutes, and an insouciant public to experts. When the ridiculous Condi Rice, national security adviser to president George W. Bush, spoke of Saddam Hussein's non-existent weapons of mass destruction sending up a nuclear cloud over an American city, experts did not laugh her out of court. The chance of any such event was precisely zero and every expert knew it, but the corrupt experts held their tongues. If they spoke the truth, they knew that they would not get on TV, would not get a government grant, would be out of the running for a government appointment. So they accepted the absurd lie designed to justify an American invasion that destroyed a country.

This is the West. There is nothing but lies and indifference to the deaths of others. The only outrage is orchestrated and directed against a target: the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Iran, Assad, Russia and Putin, and against reformist leaders in Latin America. The targets for Western outrage are always those who act independently of Washington or who are no longer useful to Washington's purposes.

The quality of people in Western governments has collapsed to the very bottom of the barrel. The British actually have a person, Boris Johnson, as Foreign Secretary, who is so low-down that a former British ambassador has no compunction in calling him a categorical liar. The British lab Porton Down, contrary to Johnson's claim, has not identified the agent associated with the attack on Skirpal as a Russian novichok agent. Note also that if the British lab is able to identify a novichok agent, it also has the capability of producing it, a capability that many countries have as the formulas were published years ago in a book.

That the novichok poisoning of Skirpal is an orchestration is obvious. The minute the event occured the story was ready. With no evidence in hand, the British government and presstitute media were screaming "the Russians did it!" Not content with that, Boris Johnson screamed "Putin did it." In order to institutionalize fear and hatred of Russia into British consciousness, British school children are being taught that Putin is like Hitler.

Orchestrations this blatant demonstrate that Western governments have no respect for the intelligence of their peoples. That Western governments get away with these fantastic lies indicates that the governments are immune to accountability. Even if accountability were possible, there is no sign that Western peoples are capable of holding their governments accountable. As Washington drives the world to nuclear war, where are the protests? The only protest is brainwashed school children protesting the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment.

Western democracy is a hoax. Consider Catalonia. The people voted for independence and were denounced for doing so by European politicians. The Spanish government invaded Catalonia alleging that the popular referendum, in which people expressed their opinion about their own future, was illegal. Catalonian leaders are in prison awaiting trial, except for Carles Puigdemont who escaped to Belgium. Now Germany has captured him on his return to Belgium from Finland where he lectured at the University of Helsinki and is holding him in jail for a Spanish government that bears more resemblance to Francisco Franco than to democracy. The European Union itself is a conspiracy against democracy.

The success of Western propaganda in creating non-existent virtues for itself is the greatest public relations success in history.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 Truthout

Over the past week, nearly a year after he tried to have Robert Mueller fired, Donald Trump went on a tweeting rampage against the special counsel. Trump's escalating Twitter attacks may be a harbinger of Mueller's impending dismissal -- or the president could be trying to preemptively discredit and delegitimize Mueller's eventual findings against him.

Mueller was appointed special counsel in May 2017. The following month, Trump ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller. McGahn refused and threatened to resign. Trump backed down but has been champing at the bit to end Mueller's investigation, apparently restrained by his lawyers' promises that the probe is coming to an end. In addition, GOP heavyweights like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) warned that firing Mueller would spell "the beginning of the end of [Trump's] presidency."

But Mueller's investigation shows no signs of abating. He continues to secure grand jury indictments, as well as plea bargains that make those pleading guilty into cooperating witnesses. And now he has subpoenaed financial records of the Trump Organization.

Although the Department of Justice regulation empowers the Attorney General to appoint a special counsel, that task fell to Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last year, since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation.

Rosenstein appointed Mueller to investigate "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump" as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation."

The Justice Department regulation allows for discipline or removal of the special counsel only in the event of "misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause, including violation of Departmental policies."

Rosenstein recently told USA Today that he sees no justification for terminating Mueller as special counsel, stating, "The special counsel is not an unguided missile."

Trump cannot personally fire Mueller. He could order Rosenstein to do it, and if Rosenstein refuses, Trump could fire Rosenstein or force his resignation. Since Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand is about to retire, the next person in line who could fire Mueller would be Solicitor General Noel Francisco, a right-winger with ties to the conservative Federalist Society. Francisco may be amenable to giving Mueller the axe.

Last week, the special counsel issued subpoenas to the Trump Organization for financial documents, some of which relate to Russia. NBC News reported that the subpoena seeks emails, work papers, text messages, telephone logs "and other documents going back to Nov. 1, 2015, four months after Trump launched his campaign." According to The New York Times, "The order is the first known instance of the special counsel demanding records directly related to President Trump's businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president."

Last July, Trump told the Times that Mueller would cross a "red line" if he investigated any Trump business unrelated to Russia.

A few days after the subpoenas were served, Trump's lawyers met with Mueller's team "and received more details about how the special counsel is approaching the investigation, including the scope of his interest in the Trump Organization," the Times reported.

Mueller's investigation is apparently pursuing three issues, according to Timothy L. O'Brien at Bloomberg:

"First, it is seeking information as to whether Trump or his campaign worked with Russia to help Trump win the election. Second, it is looking into whether Trump or his advisers engaged in obstruction of justice to end the investigation. And third, it is investigating a possible quid pro quo that Trump and family members, particularly son-in-law Jared Kushner, may have sought in return for political favors, such as lifting sanctions on Russia or altering US policy on the Ukraine."

After the meeting between the special counsel's team and his lawyers, Trump let loose with his tweet storm, calling out Mueller by name for the first time on Twitter since the special counsel was appointed. According to CNN, the meeting "unleashed a new level of Trump's public hostility toward Mueller, even while some of the President's advisers show a willingness to negotiate Trump's testimony."

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War

(Image by david_shankbone) Details DMCA



If anyone channel surfed yesterday, well into the evening, ALL the channels covered the massive demonstrations by our youth for gun control. For my activist eyes this was impressive, with tens of thousands of good and decent young folks, in many cities throughout America, taking to the streets. Oh how I wish their parents and grandparents were out there with us after this empire illegally and immorally invaded and occupied Iraq. For years we anti empire and anti war advocates stood on the street corners of many cities and towns, almost in a vacuum! At least this new generation is getting back to the basics of our First Amendment right of free speech. One recalls how the Bush/Cheney cabal made many of us actually stand in ' caged in areas ' relabeled Free Speech Zones , always far away from the target of our protests.

This writer has never even fired a gun in my baby boomer years of existence. Although I do agree with most of the demands of these gun control advocates, a part of me doesn't want eligible fellow citizens to be totally forbidden from owning any such weapon. Background checks, both for criminal and mental problems, are a necessity, as is not allowing many of the crazy sort of ' Overkill ' weapons to be sold. So, all in all, seeing those caring young folks out there did bring some level of joy to me. However, we need them out there for a far greater demand: The pullback of this Military Empire before it bankrupts us all economically, morally and spiritually! We have military personnel, many of them but a year or two older than many of yesterday's marchers, who are occupying areas of the world we have NO business being in! Some of them have been or will be killed over there, while many more innocent civilians of those countries have been or will be killed by them. Enough already!

Do yesterday's young marchers realize ( along with their teachers, parents and relatives ) that over half of their federal taxes goes down the rabbit hole of military spending? Do they realize that the cost of keeping one soldier in the Arab desert for one year ( over $ one million ) could pay for 20 teachers or school psychologists for one year at $ 50k each? Imagine if young Mr. Cruz had gotten the care he needed years ago, when he was screaming out to the system for mental help? Proper gun control may have hindered his search for a weapon, and may have not. Food for thought. Do yesterday's caring and dedicated young folks understand that we have over 800+ military bases in close to 100 different countries, and enough nukes to destroy the world a thousand times over? Have these young kids gotten the proper teaching about 9/11 alternative theories ( with a myriad of facts ) to question the story that our government's commission gave out? Ditto for our pre-emptive illegal invasion of Iraq?

The mainstream , and even many alternative media feels safe to over cover events like yesterdays. Why? Well, it is of NO concern to this empire, so long as the focus of the protests is NOT directed at taking away the many lethal weaponry that our empire possesses and uses. Gun control will do nothing regarding the hundreds of billions ( more like a trillion ) of dollars that is being spent by the Pentagon... and of course delegated to them by a compliant ' bought and paid for ' Two Party political con job. Meanwhile, many of yesterday's kids will have problems paying for their higher education in a year of two or three. Many of those same kids will, as adults, realize that they cannot get the proper health care coverage, or other parts of the once cherished safety net , because their localities just don't have the financial funding that Uncle Sam used to send along to them... NO MONEY!!!

This writer for one would love to be able to reach out to those young demonstrators and offer them the facts they will need to grasp what is happening. Perhaps others of my mindset will do the same. Just imagine if we had those numbers out there to show the empire's handlers and the ' embedded media ' how our young patriots feel about what is needed to save our great nation from the greedy war mongerers.Returning to 1859 and Deyaerts arrival in Napa, he quickly gained a notable reputation as documented by a long-time Napan, Frank Leach who wrote that Father Deyaert was exceedingly popular with all classes.

Leach continued, He was fond of outdoor life, especially tramping the neighboring hills and shooting quail. I met him on such excursions several times, when we enjoyed one anothers company very much, as people generally do when the source of their amusement lies in the same direction.

Leach also recalled, He would frequently go into saloons, not to scold or preach to those who happened to be in there, but simply to be social, conversing on ordinary topics such as would interest those he might meet. He would drop into stores and the hotels, meeting acquaintances and making friends.

Leach added, He was a very intelligent man, and his generous, charitable disposition and genial manners were the secret of his universal popularity.

This sentiment was echoed in Deyaerts obituaries printed by the local newspapers following his death from pneumonia on Jan. 1, 1876. One ode to 58-year-old Deyaert said, in part, no man in this valley was more beloved...endearing himself to this community by generous unselfish acts, by kindness bestowed without regard to station or religion, until his name became the synonym of what we consider good and noble...There was nothing bigoted, or partial about him. He was in fact a Catholic in the broadest sense of the term. Protestants, Jews and Catholics loved him, and he loved them.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.



Anyone ready to move into the Weston Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum?

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The following is a very intriguing story which reveals how people like I who believe that they have a fair grasp of say, what's going on in Syria with regards to journalism, can accept certain statements as facts because they support one's own reality of a situation is barely substantiated as it is interwoven with facts and lies.

Eva Bartlett, who is Canadian and an "independent" journalist initially supported the CIA script that Assad used chemical weapons, and Iran supplied Syria with Iranian drones, and now writes a blog for the state-funded Russian media outlet Russia Today and is candid about her support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who is fighting Syrian rebels with Russian and Iranian help.

Vanessa Beeley, British, also initially supported the western version of the war on Syria but apparently changed her stripes to supporting the Assad and becoming very critical of the UN and role of the White Hats. Of course I am thinking, the White Hats were terrible actors, hanging out in rebel held territory, being fund by the UK and US governments, right? So how can Ms. Beeley be a bad person?

After all the Syrian government provided security for both of these individuals when they visited Syria to report on the situation there. Unfortunately they separately created false stories in an attempt to paint the Syrian government in a favorable light, until the wheels came off. Of course the Syrian authorities must feel like fools and initiating an investigation into the two individuals.

In the meanwhile Siebel Edmonds of NewsBud, author of Classified Woman, a whistleblowing tale of her time at the FBI, was approached by Eva Bartlett to be on NewsBud. Siebel did some digging which revealed the lack of credentials and the subsequent activities they engaged in without retracting the lies they wrote.

This story left me a bit topsy turvy and wondering how many shortcuts I have taken without getting the corroboration required by those who practice journalism. How much unreal is mixed in the real? And who has the time to vet every story? - Perhaps a statement about my own laziness. Is this an evolutionary step of MSM and Intelligence fakery as suggested by Siebel Edmonds? A psyop?

Anyway, here it is 1:14:07

NewsBud's Syria Under Siege: Guarding Against Wolves in Sheep Clothin g

NewsBud Home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 Consortium News

When the "War on Terror" was launched in 2001, mainstream media -- especially cable TV news -- started a parade. It was a narrow parade of hawkish retired military and intelligence brass promoting war as the response to the crime of 9/11, predicting success and identifying foreign enemies to attack.

We can look back at this parade and laugh at the total nonsense dispensed. But the more human response is to cry -- over the toll, still mounting, of hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths from Afghanistan to Iraq and beyond, and violent instability across the region, including countries that were relatively stable and prosperous on Sept. 10, 2001. (Not to mention militarization and loss of civil liberties at home.)

I witnessed the parade of disinformation from inside cable news, where I worked as an on-air contributor at Fox News and MSNBC at the beginning of the War on Terror. In fact, this parade eventually knocked me off the air -- and out of my job at MSNBC, three weeks before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

It's now been 15 years since the tragic invasion of Iraq. The huge mainstream media failure in the run-up to the invasion is taught in college journalism courses, including mine.

Who can forget CNN's Chief News Executive boasting that, before the Iraq invasion, he'd sought prior approval and received "a big thumbs up" from the Pentagon on the ex-generals that CNN featured as allegedly independent analysts?

Who can forget David Barstow's 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning expose for the New York Times -- based on 8,000 pages of internal Pentagon emails and transcripts -- showing that network TV's hawkish retired generals were not only being paid by big military contractors, but were being spoon-fed talking points and spin by the Pentagon month after month as they paraded on TV?

Who can forget that NBC/MSNBC's top military analyst, ex-Gen. Barry McCaffrey, relentlessly pushed for war based on falsehoods ("thousands of gallons of mustard agents, sarin, nerve agent VX still in Iraq"), offered continuously ridiculous punditry (like praising Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's advance-planning of the Iraq occupation), and famously crowed on MSNBC, "Thank God for the Abrams tank and the Bradley fighting vehicle" -- without mentioning his role at military contractor IDT that made millions for doing God's work on the Abrams and Bradley?

Who can forget all these things?

MSNBC, apparently.

I turned on the "progressive" news channel a few nights ago to see Chris Hayes politely interviewing Gen. McCaffrey. Did Hayes -- during the week marking the 15th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq -- press McCaffrey on his role in that disaster? Perhaps demand an explanation or an apology? No. The topic was Trump's weird attraction to Putin. That's a worthy topic. But Barry McCaffrey as expert and arbiter! Still?

Just as they did in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, MSNBC and CNN now serve up a steady parade of war hawks, spies and liars, presenting them as credible and almost heroic as long as they criticize the despicable man in the White House.

I'd turned to MSNBC that night after disgustedly turning off Anderson Cooper softly interviewing a CNN contributor who seems to appear every hour: ex-National Intelligence Director James Clapper. You remember Clapper? Five years ago this month, Clapper infamously perjured himself before the U.S. Senate by denying NSA bulk surveillance. His perjury is not a topic that CNN asks Clapper about -- while he discusses the lack of ethics and honesty in Team Trump.

When it comes to Trump critics, CNN and MSNBC regularly serve up a basket of elite deplorables from the military/intelligence establishment -- for example, the appalling ex-CIA Director John Brennan and horrific former acting CIA Director John McLaughlin. The hollowness of their Trump critique on "liberal cable news" was on display last week when both men endorsed Trump's choice for CIA chief, torture-overseer Gina Haspel.

I'm worried about anti-Trump activists, even some quite progressive, who've come to see corporate news channels like CNN and MSNBC as their saviors. It's a dangerous illusion.

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From The Hill

In my opinion there is a 95 percent probability that a desperate President Trump will soon move to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, or issue pre-emptive pardons against defendants or suspects in the scandal surrounding the continuing Russian attack against democracy in America and Europe.

First, a warning to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). They have the capability, today, to prevent a new Saturday Night Massacre and an ugly constitutional crisis for America by supporting bipartisan legislation that would protect Mueller from being fired by Trump.

McConnell and Ryan both claim to believe that Mueller should not be fired and will not be fired. Taking them at their word that they believe these things, their protestations against providing protection for Mueller from events they believe should not happen and claim with confidence will not happen are inherently disingenuous and absurd.

What possible downside exists from protecting Mueller from a danger they claim does not exist? If they continue to take this stand, when Trump does fire Mueller, the Republican leaders of both houses of Congress will be complicit in the constitutional crisis that will result, and the crime of obstruction of justice that this would constitute, as a result of their inaction.

It is no exaggeration to state that this outcome will have disastrous consequences for the nation and the Republican Party they lead. McConnell and Ryan would be well advised to support today the bipartisan protection for Mueller that is now on the table.

Second, a blunt warning for the inspector general of the Department of Justice. Parts of his upcoming report have already been subject to an unethical and unauthorized leak to the media, which should be formally investigated, to justify the firing of former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who stands accused of engaging in unauthorized discussions with the media.

Whatever is ultimately concluded by the inspector general in his final report, there is strong reason to suspect that the report will be dishonestly distorted by the president to justify his firing of Mueller and others pursuing justice that he treats as political enemies.

Any credible report by the inspector general of the Justice Department should include a fact-based discussion of the systematic, aggressive, sweeping and continuing attacks by the president against the independence of the Justice Department and the fair administration of justice in America.

The president has fired virtually every leader of every investigation of the Russian attack against America. Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was fired. Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates was fired after she warned the White House of potential blackmail by Russia. Former FBI Director James Comey was fired after he refused presidential entreaties that were so questionable that other presidential aides were asked to leave the room.

At various times the president insulted, berated, threatened, bullied or attacked every agency of American justice, law enforcement and counterintelligence that protects America from continuing attacks against by a foreign enemy. At times the president has waged his attacks like personal vendettas.

Trump has repeatedly humiliated and threatened Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who appears to be a material witness for the obstruction of justice investigation involving the firing of Comey, and he sought to intimidate and bully the inspector general himself by personally attacking him as well in a tweet.

The president pressures the Justice Department on matters involving criminal cases and civil cases. He pressures the Justice Department to investigate two former Democratic presidents and his Democratic opponent for president in 2016.

The president continues to wage systematic and aggressive political war against the FBI. He pressures the Justice Department to abandon investigations that involve him or his associates and initiate unwarranted investigations of those he considers political enemies.

All concerned about justice in America should be angry, outraged and alarmed. Republican leaders should act now and support bipartisan legislation to prevent Trump from firing Mueller, which the president could sign to national applause if he truly intends to not fire Mueller.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 Our Future

"Snowpocalypse." "Robo-apocalypse." "Retail apocalypse."

Casual references to annihilation pop up every day in American life. That makes it harder to communicate the danger posed by Donald Trump's appointment of John Bolton as National Security Advisor.

Bolton has poor judgement, a mean spirit, and an intellect that's weaker than he thinks. He spreads ethnic hatred and argues for sending others to fight and die.

This weekend, young people around the country stood up against gun violence in their schools. Bolton's appointment tells us that senseless violence may soon dominate our foreign policy, too, even more than it already does.

Bolton seems to pursue Machiavelli's dictum that "it is much safer to be feared than loved." But it's not safer. As we've learned from Bolton's past mistakes, foolish wars bring fresh dangers as well as needless tragedies.

Machiavelli also said, "The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him." This appointment confirms what many of us already thought about Trump's intelligence.

But Bolton's no Trumpian deviation from social or political norms. He's a political insider, beloved by think-tankers and mainstream media outlets alike. They're already clucking their tongues in disapproval at Bolton's appointment, but it's all for show.

Bolton's one of them.

Progressive social media and discussion groups were burning with news of Bolton's appointment. Many notes were variations on a theme: "Goodbye, everyone, it's been nice knowing you."

Could North Korea really launch a nuclear strike on the United States? Apparently, it's possible. But most of the people sending those notes are probably safe. The Korean Peninsula is the likeliest target, with the Middle East second. Kim Jong-un would need some luck to reach the West Coast of the United States, although that will be of scant comfort to Seattle or Portland residents if it does come to pass.

But every war death is a personal apocalypse. With or without nuclear weapons, there are likely to be many more deaths now that Bolton has been appointed. His proposed attack on nuclear-armed North Korea would almost certainly bring war to South Korea as well. He also advocates preemptive war against Iran. Either action would lead to mass death and chaos.

But then, Bolton is the ambassador of chaos. He was an enthusiastic backer of both the Iraq invasion and the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, two moves that destabilized the entire Middle East and led to the formation of ISIS.

Bolton has been associated with Mujahidin e-Khalq (MeK), an Iranian terror-linked insurgent group that has reportedly been very generous with its friends in Washington. He is also, incontestably, a bigot. Bolton is closely associated with fellow Islamophobes Pamela Geller, who once asserted that Barack Obama is "the love child" of Malcolm X and "was involved with a crack whore," and the alt-right white supremacist Richard Spencer. Charming.

Bolton is the chair of a fake-news source, the Gatestone Institute, which publishes false, hate-filled screeds against Muslims. "The fact-checking website Snopes has found multiple false viral stories originating with Gatestone," writes The Intercept's Lee Fang.

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See original here

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

SUBJECT: Request to Withdraw Nomination of Gina Haspel

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

With respect, we veteran intelligence officers from CIA and other agencies urge you to withdraw the nomination of Gina Haspel for CIA director. From what is already known of her leading role in CIA torture 16 years ago, she has disqualified herself.

In 2002 Haspel supervised the first CIA "black site" for interrogation, where cruel and bizarre forms of torture were applied to suspected terrorists. And when the existence of 92 videotapes of those torture sessions was revealed, Haspel signed a cable ordering their destruction, against the advice of legal counsel at CIA and the White House.

Does Torture "Work?"

We are confident that if you set aside some time to read the unredacted portions of the Senate Intelligence Committee report of 2014 on the torture ordered and supervised by Haspel and other CIA managers, you will change your mind about her nomination. The five-year Senate investigation was based primarily on original CIA cables and other sensitive documents.

In addition to revealing clear violations of the UN Convention Against Torture, the Senate investigation shows that claims by senior CIA officials that torture is effective are far from true. The US Army -- in which many of us have served -- has been aware of the ineffectiveness of torture for decades.

General John Kimmons, head of Army Intelligence, drove home that point on September 6, 2006 -- approximately an hour before President George W. Bush publicly extolled the virtues of torture methods that became known as "enhanced interrogation techniques." Gen. Kimmons stated: "No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices. I think history tells us that. I think the empirical evidence of the last five years -- hard years -- tell us that."

We believe that Defense Secretary James Mattis' lack of enthusiasm for torture reflects lessons drawn from the historical experience of the Marine Corps, as well. Not to mention the twin reality that torture brutalizes the brutalizer, and that US use of torture puts our own troops in serious jeopardy when captured. Moreover, there is no more effective recruitment tool than torture to attract more terrorists.

International and Domestic Law

Please also be aware that many signatories to the UN Convention Against Torture take seriously their obligations under the principle of "universal jurisdiction," which applies when those who authorize or practice torture are not brought to justice by authorities in their home countries.

George W. Bush experienced a precarious brush with this reality in 2011, when he had to abruptly cancel a visit to Geneva, Switzerland, after discovering that plans were in place to arrest him as soon as he stepped onto Swiss soil. [See "America's Stay-at-Home Ex-President"] The widely respected European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights already has made no secret of its intention to proceed quickly against Haspel, should she set foot in Europe.

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(This is a reprint from NewsBred).



Minister's call go unheeded

(Image by Newsbred) Details DMCA



There is a good reason to believe that mainstream English newspapers in India keep masses uneducated. Most of it stems from bias. A lot has also to do because journos themselves are uneducated. They can't speak or write on any subject coherently. At best they are quote-renters. At worse, remotely controlled by compromised bosses, politically aligned. The whiff of money and power also keeps them drugged.

Look at the data issue currently clouding our mornings. Aadhaar of course is unpalatable to these journos. In the name of data breach, for months at end, the mainstream media is trying to discredit it. So when Union Minister of State, KJ Alphons made a spirited defence of it, Hindustan Times on its front page accused him for kicking up a "fresh row." The stable of Times of India called it "bizarre." Indian Express buried it on Page 10.

What Mr Minister has done is to ask a few simple questions:

(a) Aadhaar only asks for your name and address to go with identification. When a telephone directory can have your name and address, why not Aadhaar?

(b) When you apply for US Visa, everything of yours, including your body, is laid bare, so why object Aadhaar?

(c) Not a single breach of Aadhaar data has occurred in the past three-and-a-half years.

A sensible and responsible media ought to have reflected and posed these questions to its readers in response:

(a) When you give your personal details to earn loyalty points and discounts in a shopping mall, why not Aadhaar?

(b) When you give your personal details for mobile numbers, Facebook, banks and passports, why not Aadhaar?

(c) When in order to get a blue tick on twitter, you give all your personal information, why not Aadhaar?

Yet, all we get is the minister being accused of being "bizarre" and "kicking up a row." Row? Who's in opposition? Obviously the mainstream media itself is offended and nobody else.

Never would you see an English mainstream media applauding Aadhaar for ostensibly eliminating fake subsidies, throwing out middlemen out and; securing direct subsidies to poor and needy. Damn it, I would let government put every bit of me under a scanner if the rampant corruption could be rooted out.

Those in support of corrupt practices are obviously corrupt. The implication is clear for mainstream media. Yet in the name of privacy, they are using hammers and axes of lies everyday to dismantle Aadhaar. And to keep us "uneducated" on Aadhaar's overwhelming benefits.

Since "data breach" is the current flavour, in the wake of Facebook outrage,the English mainstream media has gone berserk on the NaMo App. Indian Express has spilled over columns and pages in ugly multi-layered headlines on NaMo App to convey private information of its users are being passed on to US companies. This has followed on Rahul Gandhi claiming that the Prime Minister is "spying" on "personal data" of users.

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Sometimes, authors delete their quicklinks after publishing them.



To see if the quicklink was renamed or re-published, please click here.Progressive Content Not Found

Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing.



To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here.In a statement released last month, Vernon M. Billy, CEO and executive director of the California School Boards Association, highlighted a startling fact: Our state ranks 41st in the nation in school funding, according to the California Budget and Policy Center.

Thats right. Billy made the point quite well when he wrote, California has a reputation as a land of opportunity and creativity, a place where innovation lives and where dreams are made. That reputation was built, in no small part, because this state invested in the public schools that drive its social, economic and civic life.

In 1970, when our public schools were the envy of the nation, California funded schools at $400 per student above the national average  roughly $2,600 in todays money. California now provides nearly $2,000 less per pupil than the average state, which ranks us 41st in school funding. The question we have to ask ourselves is whether 41st place is good enough for California, good enough for our schools or good enough for our 6.2 million students.

His answer is no, and the elected members of the NVUSD Board agree.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.

Fifteen years ago last week, the U.S. invasion of Iraq began. It was to be beyond glorious. It was to signal the start of an unprecedented new era in which a single imperial superpower, left alone on the planet, would organize more or less everything to its own taste for the first time in history -- and by force of arms, if necessary. There had never been such a moment in this world of ours. And don't forget, for the top officials of George W. Bush's administration and their neocon backers, geopolitical dreamers of the first order, the invasion and occupation of Iraq was just a starting point, while all those protesters out in the streets insisting that such an invasion would be catastrophic were obviously fools of the first order. No question about it, the invasion would be a "cakewalk" with even better to follow.

Well, what a piece of cake that walk would turn out to be, inaugurating as it did a rolling catastrophe of sprouting terror movements, failed states, and uprooted populations across the Greater Middle East and then Africa -- and only 14 years later, the Trump era. After all, without the invasion of Iraq, the pouring of staggering numbers of American dollars into disastrous, never-ending wars, and the subsequent "invasion" of this country by (fears of) an onslaught of terrorism, ISIS, and refugees, President Trump would have been unimaginable.

Standing at the side of some highway to hell, he is the American equivalent of a failed state and, as TomDispatchregular John Feffer, author most recently of Aftershock: A Journey into Eastern Europe's Broken Dreams, suggests today, he's in the process of making everything oh-so-much worse. Think of Donald Trump as the invasion of Iraq raised to a global level. In the years after the 9/11 attacks but before he arrived on the scene, the U.S. helped unsettle parts of the planet stretching from Pakistan to at least Libya. As Feffer so vividly points out, President Trump now seems intent on unsettling the rest of the planet by going to war, in his own unique fashion, with the international community. Consider his approach the latest version of the shock-and-awe or "decapitation" tactics which began that 15-year-old invasion. What could possibly go wrong? Tom

Trump to the International Community: Drop Dead

Washington Takes on the World

By John Feffer Donald Trump has a plan to solve America's drug crisis: kill the drug dealers. "We have pushers and drugs dealers, they are killing hundreds and hundreds of people," Trump said at a recent White House summit on opioid abuse. "Some countries have a very, very tough penalty -- the ultimate penalty -- and by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do." Trump claims he got the idea for killing drug dealers from his pal, Chinese president for life, Xi Jinping. That's a first: an American president openly borrowing a criminal justice program from an autocrat (and a Communist one, to boot). To be fair, Trump clearly also had in mind the experience of a democratic country. In the last two years, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has encouraged a spree of extrajudicial police executions aimed at the drug trade that, according to Human Rights Watch, has left more than 12,000 Filipinos dead. Although the International Criminal Court has launched an inquiry into Duterte's "crimes against humanity," Trump has praised him for doing an "incredible job" with his anti-drug program. The president's embrace of the death penalty for drug dealers is but one example of his across-the-board scorn for human rights as he buddies up with the world's most notorious autocrats and directs the Pentagon to ensure that ongoing human rights catastrophes around the world grow even worse. Meanwhile, he's proposed slashing State Department programs promoting democracy and human rights, while trying to roll back movements for rights and freedoms in the United States. Think of him as a driver who's been licensed to operate the world's largest vehicle despite his utter contempt for the rules of the road. Not surprisingly, the traffic forecast is bleak: with hardliner Mike Pompeo about to take over as secretary of state, his department will prove even less of a speed bump in the president's dangerous game of chicken with the global community. Two Cheers for Hypocrisy U.S. foreign policy used to be reliably two-faced. Washington would regularly call out its adversaries on human rights abuses while largely ignoring the egregious violations of its closest friends. During the Cold War, for instance, the U.S. routinely lambasted the Soviet Union for its appalling record on human rights but handed out free passes to Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, the Shah of Iran, and others of their ilk. Sure, the State Department has been issuing an exhaustive annual report on human rights violators that, for half a century, provided grim details on repressive governments like those of the Saudis and Egyptians. But that didn't stop successive administrations from supplying those same autocracies with virtually all the weapons and military aid they claimed they needed, even as Washington maintained an arms embargo on China instituted after Beijing cracked down on the Tiananmen Square protests in June 1989. And when the United States does lift such embargoes, as with Vietnam in 2016, it has everything to do with geopolitics (containing China) and nothing to do with human rights. Now along comes Donald Trump, a thoroughgoing hypocrite on practically every subject -- except human rights. There, he has extended the blind eye of American policy to just about everyone. With a few exceptions that prove the rule, he could care less about such abuses, even when they involve his own administration -- including wife-beaters, Nazi sympathizers, and the incorrigibly corrupt, not to mention U.S. military personnel abroad (or ICE employees in this country). Consider these telling changes in the Trumpian era. When the State Department released last year's human rights report, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson didn't even bother to hold the traditional press conference or present the findings himself, though he was in Washington at the time. This year's report, unreleased and overdue, will reportedly give shorter shrift to women's rights and discrimination of various kinds, prompting an outcry from more than 170 human-rights organizations. "This sends a clear signal that women's reproductive rights are not a priority for this administration, and that it's not even a rights violation we must or should report on," an unnamed State Department official typically told Politico. The writing has been on the wall in big block letters from the earliest moments of the Trump era. In May 2017, in his first town hall meeting with State Department staff, Tillerson warned that human rights should not become an obstacle in the U.S. pursuit of national interests, a shot across the department's bow that contributed to a wave of subsequent resignations. Similarly, the administration's first National Security Strategy barely mentioned human rights.

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The global production printer market is expected to experience considerable growth due to demand of high speed printing. The high demand of production printers from media and advertising industry and the increased adoption of production printers in publishing application are expected to drive the market during the forecast period.Request for a free sample of this research report:Production printers provide high volume printing within a short period of time. On a global level, books and magazine publishers are shifting from offset to digital production printing to make their processes more economical. This shift is further resulting in the growth of production printer market.Nowadays, production printers are extensively used for the large-scale printing of transactional documents, including bills, statements, invoices, checks, insurance documents, and other transaction-related documents. Production printers are reliable, cost-effective, high-speed print engines with robust finishing capabilities.Explore report at:The increased demand for printing of transactional documents with less cost is driving the production printer market for the transactional application. The market for the label & packaging application is expected to grow at a high rate. The label & packaging application includes the printing of packages, boxes, cartons, bags, tags, labels and others. High quality and low printing cost are the key factors driving the adoption of production printers in this market.Geographically, North America is expected to hold the largest share in the printer production market, while the market is expected to witness highest growth in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) because of the growing usage of production printers, especially in Japan and other countries. The other reasons for the growth of this market in APAC are the on-going development in this region, thus offering huge potential and lucrative opportunities for this market to flourish. The increasing demand for the production of books, magazines, catalogues, manuals and others at a low cost is expected to drive the demand for production printers in Asia-Pacific.Make enquiry before buying the report:The key players in the production printers market are Canon Inc., Xerox Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, Ricoh Company Ltd., Konica Minolta, Inc., Agfa and Gevaert N.V. Agfa-Gevaert N.V., EFI Electronics Corp., Eastman Kodak Company, Inca Digital Printers Ltd. and Miyakoshi Co. Ltd.About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide market research reports, industry reports, business intelligence and research based consulting services across a range of industries.With the help of our professional corporate relations with various companies, our market research offers the most accurate market forecasting. Our analysts and consultants interact with leading companies of the concerned domain to substantiate every single data presented in our publication. Our research assists our client in identifying new and different windows of opportunity and frame informed and customized strategies for expansion in different regions.Contact:P&S Market Research347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:Automotive Brakes Market - Challenges and Opportunities for Players during 2017 - 2025

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Global Automotive Brakes Market: SnapshotBrakes are central in the safe operation of a motor vehicle. Without the ability to stop or slow down our vehicles, accidents would be a fairly common phenomena across the world. The design of the automotive braking system has evolved overtime, and modern day automobiles feature emergency brakes, parking brakes, and service brakes. A typical automobile braking system includes a piston, rotor, brake pads, caliper, brake shoes, brake drum, vacuum servo or brake booster, and master cylinder. Proper maintenance of these components is essential for the efficient working of the automobile brakes. Brake failure can be avoided by the prevention of corrosion, sticking, and piston failure.As the hydraulic and mechanical systems are increasingly being replaced by electronic systems in automobiles, the global market for automotive brakes is slated for a sturdy growth over the oncoming period. 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The leading companies operating in the global market for automotive brakes have been assessed in detail in the report, wherein their key product portfolios and business strategies have been discussed.Global Automotive Brakes Market: SynopsisThe global automotive brakes market is anticipated to grow at a rapid rate with the augmenting concern of vehicle safety. The functions of automotive brakes are chiefly related to causing a vehicle to come to a complete stop and helping it to slow down. During the process, the design of automotive brakes allows the transformation from kinetic energy to heat energy to take place. The two main functions of automotive brakes are evident in the usage of parking brakes and service brakes. While service brakes are used to stop a vehicle when in motion, parking brakes can hold the vehicle when it is parked. With a range of sophisticated, economical, and present-day brake system technologies prevailing in the automotive brake system market, the automotive sector has emerged as a vital contributor to the world economy.Request TOC of the Report @Global Automotive Brakes Market: Trends and ProspectsBesides the worldwide worry about safety of vehicles and passengers, the constant dwindling of automobile maintenance lifecycle is expected to add to the growth of the global automotive brakes market. One of the reasons that the vehicle maintenance lifecycle is witnessing a low globally is the rising length of trips in both intra-city and inter-city applications. The market is also predicted to take massive leaps on the back of the unplanned growth rates of M&HCVs, LCVs, two-wheeled and three-wheeled vehicles, and passenger automobiles. 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Among others, the important companies studied in the report are Akebono Brake Industry Co., Ltd., Robert Bosch GmbH, Accuride Corporation, Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd., Aisin Seiki Co., Automotive Components Europe S.A., Nissin Kogyo Co., Ltd., Continental AG, Zhejiang Asia-Pacific Mechanical & Electronical Co., Ltd., TMD Friction Group S.A, Knorr - Bremse AG, Halla Mando Corporation, and Federal-Mogul Corporation.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comAutomotive HVAC Market Robust pace of Industry by 2025

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Global Automotive HVAC Market: SnapshotWith the escalating demand for cab services such as Uber, Sidecar, Ola, and Lyft, the global market for automotive HVAC is expected to expand at a healthy clip. These car rental services have been acknowledging the importance of customer experience, and have therefore made air conditioning a key part of their services. As several manufacturers have been working to bring down the weight and size of car components, the market for automotive HVAC systems is likely to advance at a substantial pace. Moreover, pressure sensors are also being developed for air conditioning control. This is expected to bring about a reduction in manufacturing costs of HVAC systems.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The demand for passenger cars worldwide has been multiplying rapidly. Automotive manufacturers are installing highly efficient HVAC systems in luxury and mid to entry level cars alike. The growing disposable incomes of consumers in countries such as Brazil, India, China, Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand is aiding the expansion of the global market for automotive HVAC systems. Favorable government initiatives aimed at reviving the automotive industry are making it easier for manufacturers to extend their presence. For example, the government of India announced that it will allow 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) via automatic route in the automotive sector. Leading automotive companies including BMW, Audi, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mercedes, Porsche are focusing on furnishing customer friendly and customized HVAC systems. Mergers, partnerships, product innovations, acquisitions, and collaborations are gaining traction among the market players. These business strategies will amplify the overall revenue of the global automotive HVAC market.Global Automotive HVAC: General OutlineThe global automotive heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) market was formerly driven by the premium feature of having an air conditioning and heating system inside cars. However, with the advancement of automobile technology and demand for high-end cars, the HVAC system became a more standard equipment already provided by automobile manufacturers. Introduced to the market in the 1960s, the HVAC systems are installed to take control of the temperature inside a car cabin, although they are also used indoors. The automatic climatic control provided by an HVAC system caters to the demand of automobile owners for luxury and comfort during the cool and hot weathers.Request TOC of the Report @Global Automotive HVAC: Key SegmentsWith regard to components, the international automotive HVAC market is classified into expansion device, receiver or drier, heat exchanging equipment, and compressor. By vehicle type, the segmentation follows as heavy commercial vehicles (HVCs), light commercial vehicles (LCVs), and passenger cars. Manual and automatic are the two important segments that the market is divided into in terms of technology. Geographically, the market can be segregated into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and Rest of the World.Global Automotive HVAC: Significant Growth Factors and Few ChallengesThe augmenting demand for value for money in respect of luxury automobiles and fuel efficiency are envisaged to emerge as prominent growth factors for the global automotive HVAC market. On similar lines, the inflating adoption of premium cars and demand for unprecedented comfort are expected to further the growth rate of the market. Moreover, the increasing amount of time spent by owners inside their automobiles and the swelling traction gained by private vehicles compared to those used for public transportation have added to the market growth level.On the other hand, the complexity associated with the technology of HVAC systems and transformations in technology have checked the growth of the global automotive HVAC market to some extent.However, an expanding population base worldwide is becoming familiar with HVAC systems through increasing awareness about technology. This will significantly help the automotive HVAC market to rise above its restrictions.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Automotive HVAC: Geographical OutlookThe Asia Pacific region is foreseen to be the land of opportunity for vendors in the automobile sector, owing to the colossal levels of vehicle production in China, India, Japan, and other nations. In fact, Asia Pacific is anticipated to develop as the largest region of the global automotive HVAC market. With fastest growing segments such as India and South Korea and leading countries such as China and Japan in terms of automobile manufacture, Asia Pacific is foretold to secure its numero uno position in the market for the coming years. While Asia Pacific is predicted to grow at a towering CAGR, North America will show a stable growth on account of increasing income levels of consumers and speedy recovery from economic crisis.Global Automotive HVAC: Company ProfilingNew entrants in the global automotive HVAC market have elevated the curiosity and interest of end consumers, although there were only a few players dominating previously. Some of the crucial companies expected to lead the market are Calsonic Kansei Corporation, Inalfa Roof Systems Group B.V., Eberspacher Climate Control Systems Gmbh & Co. Kg, Toyota Industries Corporation, Johnson Electric Holdings Ltd., Air International Thermal Systems, Keihin Corporation, Japan Climate Systems Corporation, Brose Fahrzeugteile Gmbh & Co. Kg, Delphi Automotive Plc, Denso Corporation, Sanden Corporation, Gentherm Inc., Behr Gmbh. & Co. Kg., and Imasen Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.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Physician Office Laboratory (POL) Market Dynamic Business Environment during 2017 - 2025

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Global Physician Office Laboratory (POL) Market: SnapshotThe global market for physician office laboratory (POL) has been expanding substantially over the last few years. Supported by the technological advancements, the market is likely to remain proliferating over the next few years. POL testing has its base in developed regions as emerging economies still rely on hospital infrastructure for the diagnosis of acute and chronic medical conditions. Developing regions, however, has been demonstrating a significant potential for decentralized testing, thanks to the rising support from nongovernmental organizations and the increasing number of public health programs, intended towards spreading awareness for high-burden diseases such as hepatitis, acquired immuno deficiency syndrome (AIDS), diabetes, and tuberculosis (TB).As of now, the substandard care present at primary care facilities and community health organizations in most of the emerging countries lead a number of patients to hospitals. However, the rise in the disposable income of people in these nations have encouraged leading healthcare providers to invest heavily in western style physician practices, leading to the installation of a large pool of physician office laboratories and clinics, especially in India and China.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Since POL testing is not prevalent globally, as its counterparts (hospital laboratories, commercial or private reference labs, and hospital POCT), its future growth is seemingly uneven. Also active restriction on specified services from physicians or healthcare professionals over the primary care visits in some countries may also reflect negatively on the growth of this market in the near future.Global Physician Office Laboratory (POL) Market: OverviewClinical and hospital laboratories presently account for a massive chunk of the total number of diagnostic, monitoring or screening tests undertaken across the globe. However, a constantly rising number of physicians and physician groups are preferring to undertake part or entire volumes of lab testing in-house as an excellent way of improving patient care and boosting their operative incomes. Such in-house lab practices are called physician office laboratory (POL). The term is diverse and covers physicians practices as small as 2 to 5 physicians to large practitioners with 200 or more physicians that operate labs similar to laboratories in small hospitals.In-house testing practices facilitate physicians to become self-reliant and obtain results in a much faster manner than possible in outsourced lab tests. POLs also reduce the chances of loss or deterioration of test samples, enhancing the confidence regarding the accuracy of results. Broadly, POL refers to tests performed in: physicians office, conducted at the same time of consultation or with other healthcare professional, wherein results are mostly provided during the medical visit itself, and are used for monitoring, screening or diagnosis purposes.Request TOC of the Report @This report on the global physician office laboratory market presents a thorough overview of the present growth dynamics of the market and its key segments. Several insightful projections regarding the growth trajectory of the market over the period between 2017 and 2025 are also included in the report. The report also includes a detailed analysis of factors such as growth drivers, restraints, regulatory scenario, competitive landscape, and trends and opportunities, expected to have a notable influence on the growth prospects of the market over the said period.Global Physician Office Laboratory (POL) Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global POL market is chiefly driven by the vast advancements observed in the field of testing technologies and supporting instrument and equipment in the past few years. The emergence and easy availability of easy to use microelectronic and microfluidic instruments that offer excellent accuracy and control is making POL feasible for smaller offices and is also enabling some physicians to perform tests for other doctors.The demand for such in-house laboratories is also significantly rising globally owing to the rising prevalence of infectious and chronic diseases and associated public health issues. However, the cost of meeting compliance requirements for local, state, and federal regulations, especially in developed economies, may hamper the markets growth to some extent.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Physician Office Laboratory (POL) Market: Geographical and Competitive DynamicsOn the basis of geography, the global physician office laboratory market is segmented into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and Rest of the World (RoW). Of these, North America and Europe are presently the leading contributors to the revenue of the global physician office laboratory market. In the North America, the number of POLs increased at a phenomenal rate from nearly 95,000 in 2000 to 111,000 in 2010. The number of POLs has also significantly in Europe over the said period. Across both the regions, the constantly rising number of POL tests approved by the respective healthcare authorities will help drive the POL market in the next few years as well.However, the POL market is expected to witness the most lucrative growth market across emerging economies in Asia Pacific in the next few years. Several factors, including the vast rise in prevalence of infectious diseases, the rising population of elderly, and a significant rise in focus on quality health care are expected to fuel the growth of the Asia Pacific POL market in the next few years.Some of the most influential companies in the global physician office laboratory market are Accriva Diagnostics, Akers Biosciences, Axis-Shield, Chembio Diagnostic Systems, Boule Diagnostics, Alfa Wassermann Diagnostic Technologies, Diazyme Laboratories, Polymer Technology Systems (CHEK Diagnostics), Carolina Liquid Chemistries Corp., 3D Medical Diagnostics, Magellan Diagnostics, Biomerica, Inc., Accumetrics, Vital Diagnostics, and Nanosphere, 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Digital English Language Learning Market 2018 Overview, Share, Research, Analysis & Development

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In this report, the global Digital English Language Learning market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate of Digital English Language Learning in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringThe major players in global Digital English Language Learning market include Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, Fluenz, Rocket Language, Babbel, Simon&Schuster , Transparent Language, Living Language Platinum, English Live, Exceller, FluentlQ, Instant Immersion, Learn it Now, Merit Software, Side by Side, Wordsmart, PCMag, Softonic, Cafe English, Speed Learning Languages.On the basis of product, the Digital English Language Learning market is primarily split into Speaking, Reading etc. with production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, coveringOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report covers Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced etc. This report focuses on consumption, market share and growth rate of Digital English Language Learning in each application, coveringRequest a Sample Report @Table of ContentsGlobal Digital English Language Learning Market Research Report 20171 Methodology/Research Approach1.1 Research Programs/Design1.2 Market Size Estimation1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation2 Data Source2.1 Secondary Sources2.2 Primary Sources3 Disclaimer1 Digital English Language Learning Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Digital English Language Learning1.2 Digital English Language Learning Segment by Types (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Digital English Language Learning Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Digital English Language Learning Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Speaking1.2.4 Reading1.2.5 Listening1.2.6 Writing1.2.7 Grammar1.3 Global Digital English Language Learning Segment by Applications1.3.1 Global Digital English Language Learning Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Applications (2012-2022)1.3.2 Beginner1.3.3 Intermediate1.3.4 Advanced1.3.5 Others1.4 Global Digital English Language Learning Market by Regions (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Digital English Language Learning Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Regions (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Digital English Language Learning Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Digital English Language Learning Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Digital English Language Learning Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Digital English Language Learning Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Digital English Language Learning Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Digital English Language Learning Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Digital English Language Learning (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Digital English Language Learning Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Digital English Language Learning Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)2 Global Digital English Language Learning Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Digital English Language Learning Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Digital English Language Learning Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Digital English Language Learning Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Digital English Language Learning Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Digital English Language Learning Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Digital English Language Learning Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Types2.5 Digital English Language Learning Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Digital English Language Learning Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Digital English Language Learning Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Digital English Language Learning Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Regions (2012-2017)3.1 Global Digital English Language Learning Capacity and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)3.2 Global Digital English Language Learning Production and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)3.3 Global Digital English Language Learning Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)3.4 Global Digital English Language Learning Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Digital English Language Learning Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Digital English Language Learning Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Digital English Language Learning Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Digital English Language Learning Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 Southeast Asia Digital English Language Learning Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 India Digital English Language Learning Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Digital English Language Learning Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2017)4.1 Global Digital English Language Learning Consumption by Regions (2012-2017)4.2 North America Digital English Language Learning Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Digital English Language Learning Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Digital English Language Learning Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Digital English Language Learning Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Digital English Language Learning Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Digital English Language Learning Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Digital English Language Learning Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Types5.1 Global Digital English Language Learning Production and Market Share by Types (2012-2017)5.2 Global Digital English Language Learning Revenue and Market Share by Types (2012-2017)5.3 Global Digital English Language Learning Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Digital English Language Learning Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Digital English Language Learning Market Analysis by Applications6.1 Global Digital English Language Learning Consumption and Market Share by Applications (2012-2017)6.2 Global Digital English Language Learning Consumption Growth Rate by Applications (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/Countries7 Global Digital English Language Learning Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Duolingo7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Digital English Language Learning Product Category, Application and SpecificationContinuedAccess 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Survey: Friction Stir Welding Equipment Market Size 2018-2025 ESAB, Beijing FSW, PaR Systems, Hitachi

Friction Stir Welding Equipment Market

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https://www.globeinforesearch.com/report/global-friction-stir-welding-equipment-market-690

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Friction Stir Welding Equipment Market Research 2018Globel Info Research Recently added detailed market study on the "Global Friction Stir Welding Equipment Market" Research Report 2018-2025 which provides an outlook of current market value of Friction Stir Welding Equipment Market as well as the expected forecast of Rate on Investment (ROI) with growing CAGR of XX% in Friction Stir Welding Equipment Market by the end of 2025. The report on the global Friction Stir Welding Equipment market uses the top-down and bottom-up approaches to define, analyze, and describe the Friction Stir Welding Equipment market 2018 trends for the next five years up to 2025.Globel Info Research added latest industry research report Friction Stir Welding Equipment Market Outlook" focuses on Industry News, Size, Share, Growth Rate, Strategies, Market Position, Trends Across The World. This report on the Global Friction Stir Welding Equipment Market 2018 provides extremely useful and in-depth perception of the worldwide industry and it covers all the aspects which are highly important in deciding the future of Friction Stir Welding Equipment industry. This report is an accurate research of the Global Friction Stir Welding Equipment industry which features the latest technological enhancements, new opening, modern industrial issues and advancements, future policy alterations and all basic and important information about the market.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Friction Stir Welding Equipment Market 2018 : ESAB, Beijing FSW, PaR Systems, Hitachi, General Tool Company, PTG, Nitto Seiki, BTI, Sooncable, Gatwick, ETA Technology, OthersFriction Stir Welding Equipment Market : By Type Desktop Equipment, Gantry Equipment, OthersFriction Stir Welding Equipment Market : By Application Aerospace, Automotive, Shipbuilding, Railways, OthersThe Global Friction Stir Welding Equipment Market Provides comprehensive understanding of the market with the help of Friction Stir Welding Equipment market outlook, opportunities, challenges, trends, Friction Stir Welding Equipment Market size, share and growth, competitive analysis, major competitors and Porter analysis. Friction Stir Welding Equipment market report further provides production, capacity, Friction Stir Welding Equipment market price per region, gross margin for all major regions and countries listed in Friction Stir Welding Equipment report.The report is very much made with charts, graphs, and practical figures which show the status of the particular Friction Stir Welding Equipment industry on the global and regional stage. The execution and features of the Friction Stir Welding Equipment market are assessed in view of the quantitative and qualitative techniques to give a clear picture of the present and future forecast trend.Browse Full Report:Finally, Friction Stir Welding Equipment market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About US:"GlobeInfoResearch.com" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@globeinforesearch.comIts by no means the only example of how the Legislature operates by its own rules, rather than those it imposes on others.

The Brown Act dictates what local governments can and cannot decide in private, basically limiting closed meetings to personnel matters and pending lawsuits. A similar law governs most state agencies.

The Legislature, however, routinely conducts closed meetings, called caucuses to work out how they will handle issues in their public sessions  a practice that would send city council members and county supervisors to jail.

More than four decades ago, the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown decreed that public employees have the right to have unions bargain salaries and other working conditions. It also passed a similar law for farm workers, because they were exempt from the National Labor Relations Act.

However, the Legislature exempted its own employees from unionization and collective bargaining. They are also exempt from civil service rules, can be hired and fired at will, and lack the workplace protection laws that cover those in other private and public employment  which is why harassment could be covered up so easily.Artificial Lift Systems Market Expected to Grow upto 2025

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Global Artificial Lift Systems Market: SnapshotIt has been observed that at some point in their workable life, almost all oil wells need artificial lift systems. Of the nearly 2 mn operational oil wells across the globe, more than 90% which require some variety of artificial lift system to transport hydrocarbon to the surface at economical prices. As production capacities of most mature oil wells decline over the years, many forms of artificial lift systems can be implemented in unison to maximize recovery.However, owing to common challenges related to the process of retrofitting, including deployment of a workover rig, deferring production, and incurring nonproductive times, the profit of a slightly economic well can decline, compelling operators to devalue the asset or even abandon it. The dynamic field of artificial lift systems witnesses the introduction of innovative solutions to reduce the numbers of such shutdowns. Schlumberger's new artificial lift production lifecycle management service is an instance of such attempts to finding ways of optimizing artificial lift systems.Request Sample Copy of the Report @This lifecycle management service gathers, transmits, analyzes, and monitors data from consumer well and helps in improving the production efficiency, reduce operating costs, and extend equipment longevity of artificial lift systems on a real time basis. The new artificial lift system lifecycle management service includes four tiers to execute various requirements of consumers in terms of well visualization, real-time diagnostics and surveillance, field optimization, and well optimization.Global Artificial Lift Systems Market: OverviewArtificial lift is used to provide sufficient pressure to push crude to the surface in a low reservoir pressure well. The artificial lifting of crude oil comprises two methods, the first method involves usage of a gas lift to induce the upward movement of produced fluids and the other method involves the utilization of downhole pumps that function with electricity.Conventional methods of crude oil recovery need to be revived to parallel production to meet the current levels of demand. Most of the crude oil production across the world is derived from mature fields, of which, most display reservoir pressure insufficiency, which is a major production parameter. This exhibits the need for artificial lift systems.Currently, the oil and gas industry is focused on lowering the operation cost and optimizing well performance. Moreover, the focus is on monitoring, communicating, and analyzing well performance and production data in a timely manner. Huge investments by oil exploration and production companies for the development of small and matured oil fields and the development of unconventional hydrocarbon reserves in countries such as Russia, Venezuela, U.S., Canada, and China is presenting growth opportunities for the growth of the artificial lift systems.Request TOC of the Report @Global Artificial Lift Systems Market: Drivers and RestraintsIncreasing production of unconventional hydrocarbons such as shale and rising production of oil and gas from mature oilfields are some of the major factors driving the global artificial lift systems market. Moreover, escalating energy demand along with rising initiatives for deep and ultra-deep offshore oil production is furthering the growth of the artificial lift systems market. However, factors such as complexities in oil and gas production from mature fields and environmental considerations are challenging the markets growth. Nevertheless, the rehabilitation and redevelopment of fields are expected to present growth opportunities to this market. Moreover, subsea operations are exhibiting an increased utilization of artificial lift systems and are expected to continue in the long run.Global Artificial Lift Systems Market: Market SegmentationThe artificial lift systems market is segmented on the basis of geography and actuation mode. By actuation mode, the market for artificial lift systems is segmented into gas assisted and pump assisted artificial lift system. The sub-segments of pump assisted artificial lift system are Electric Submersible Pump (ESP), Gas Lift, Rod lift, and Progressive Cavity Pump (PCP). Further, the sub-segments of gas assisted artificial lift systems are Gas Lift and Plunger Lift. Each category of lift is suitable for specific reservoir conditions that they are used for.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Artificial Lift Systems Market: Regional OutlookNorth America dominates the global artificial lift systems market. Increasing exploration of unconventional hydrocarbons such as shale holds promise for the markets growth. Europe holds a substantial share in the global market. This is mainly due to the re-development of mature oil fields in Russia that depend on artificial lift systems.Major Companies Mentioned in ReportSome of the leading companies operating in the global artificial lift systems market are Sclumberger Ltd, GE Energy, National Oil Varco Inc., Lufkin Industries Inc., Tenaris S.A., Weatherford International Ltd, Baker Hughes Incorporated, JSC Alnas, Kudu Industries Inc., and J&J Technical Services among others.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Survey: Hair Dye Market Share 2018-2025 Garnier, Henkel, Liese, Goldwell, Wella

Hair Dye Market

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https://www.globeinforesearch.com/report/global-hair-dye-market-694

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Hair Dye Market Research 2018Globel Info Research Recently added detailed market study on the "Global Hair Dye Market" Research Report 2018-2025 which provides an outlook of current market value of Hair Dye Market as well as the expected forecast of Rate on Investment (ROI) with growing CAGR of XX% in Hair Dye Market by the end of 2025. The report on the global Hair Dye market uses the top-down and bottom-up approaches to define, analyze, and describe the Hair Dye market 2018 trends for the next five years up to 2025.Globel Info Research added latest industry research report Hair Dye Market Outlook" focuses on Industry News, Size, Share, Growth Rate, Strategies, Market Position, Trends Across The World. This report on the Global Hair Dye Market 2018 provides extremely useful and in-depth perception of the worldwide industry and it covers all the aspects which are highly important in deciding the future of Hair Dye industry. This report is an accurate research of the Global Hair Dye industry which features the latest technological enhancements, new opening, modern industrial issues and advancements, future policy alterations and all basic and important information about the market.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Hair Dye Market 2018 : L'Oreal Paris, Garnier, Henkel, Liese, Goldwell, Wella, Clairol, HOYU, Shiseido, Godrej, OthersHair Dye Market : By Type Temporary Hair Dye, Semi- & Demi-Permanent Hair Dye, Permanent Hair Dye, OthersHair Dye Market : By Application Home Use, Commercial Use, OthersThe Global Hair Dye Market Provides comprehensive understanding of the market with the help of Hair Dye market outlook, opportunities, challenges, trends, Hair Dye Market size, share and growth, competitive analysis, major competitors and Porter analysis. Hair Dye market report further provides production, capacity, Hair Dye market price per region, gross margin for all major regions and countries listed in Hair Dye report.The report is very much made with charts, graphs, and practical figures which show the status of the particular Hair Dye industry on the global and regional stage. The execution and features of the Hair Dye market are assessed in view of the quantitative and qualitative techniques to give a clear picture of the present and future forecast trend.Browse Full Report:Finally, Hair Dye market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About US:"GlobeInfoResearch.com" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@globeinforesearch.comSurvey: Forklift Trucks Market Share 2018-2025 Toyota, Kion, Jungheinrich, Hyster-Yale, Crown

Forklift Trucks Market

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https://www.globeinforesearch.com/report/global-forklift-trucks-market-701

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Forklift Trucks Market Research 2018Globel Info Research Recently added detailed market study on the "Global Forklift Trucks Market" Research Report 2018-2025 which provides an outlook of current market value of Forklift Trucks Market as well as the expected forecast of Rate on Investment (ROI) with growing CAGR of XX% in Forklift Trucks Market by the end of 2025. The report on the global Forklift Trucks market uses the top-down and bottom-up approaches to define, analyze, and describe the Forklift Trucks market 2018 trends for the next five years up to 2025.Globel Info Research added latest industry research report Forklift Trucks Market Outlook" focuses on Industry News, Size, Share, Growth Rate, Strategies, Market Position, Trends Across The World. This report on the Global Forklift Trucks Market 2018 provides extremely useful and in-depth perception of the worldwide industry and it covers all the aspects which are highly important in deciding the future of Forklift Trucks industry. This report is an accurate research of the Global Forklift Trucks industry which features the latest technological enhancements, new opening, modern industrial issues and advancements, future policy alterations and all basic and important information about the market.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Forklift Trucks Market 2018 : Toyota, Kion, Jungheinrich, Hyster-Yale, Crown, Mitsubishi Nichiyu, UniCarriers, Anhui Heli, Hangcha, Komatsu, Clark, Doosan, Hyundai, OthersForklift Trucks Market : By Type Electric Motor Rider Trucks, Electric Motor Narrow Aisle Trucks, Electric Motor Hand or Hand-Rider Trucks, Internal Combustion Engine Trucks - Cushion Tires, Internal Combustion Engine Trucks - Pneumatic Tires, Electric and Internal Combustion Engine Tractors, Rough Terrain Forklift TrucksForklift Trucks Market : By Application Factories, Warehouses, Stations, Ports, Airports, Distribution centers, OthersThe Global Forklift Trucks Market Provides comprehensive understanding of the market with the help of Forklift Trucks market outlook, opportunities, challenges, trends, Forklift Trucks Market size, share and growth, competitive analysis, major competitors and Porter analysis. Forklift Trucks market report further provides production, capacity, Forklift Trucks market price per region, gross margin for all major regions and countries listed in Forklift Trucks report.The report is very much made with charts, graphs, and practical figures which show the status of the particular Forklift Trucks industry on the global and regional stage. The execution and features of the Forklift Trucks market are assessed in view of the quantitative and qualitative techniques to give a clear picture of the present and future forecast trend.Browse Full Report:Finally, Forklift Trucks market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About US:"GlobeInfoResearch.com" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@globeinforesearch.comDigital Storage Oscilloscope Market Key Segments & Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Digital Storage Oscilloscope Market: SnapshotDigital storage oscilloscopes are able to capture and keep a log of electronic events, which has occurred in the absence of anyone or in times when observation is not possible. Thus, they are highly useful devices. Digital storage oscilloscopes are especially used for electronic devices. Since the recent times have seen a massive growth in the electronics industry, the demand for digital storage oscilloscopes is also expected to increase, driving the market towards growth in the period from 2017 to 2025. The report captures the various trends that recently sprung up, which are helping the market for these oscilloscopes to grow. It takes into account the various macroeconomic factors such as the rise in the economy of nations, increase in disposable incomes, technological advancements, and rapid urbanization.Request Sample Copy of the Report @While the analog oscilloscopes were unable to store wave forms for later study or even for comparison purpose, digital storage oscilloscopes enable the wave forms to be saves by making use of memory chips. Technicians are able to probe each component within an electronic device to detect malfunctioning of any part. Moreover, digital storage oscilloscopes also allow technicians to measure and detect even the slightest variation in operation of components, thereby alerting the technician to the need for fine tuning or replacement of the component. This prevents the device from working erroneously altogether and also saves cost. Thus, greater risks can be avoided by making use of digital storage oscilloscopes. Players are investing extensively towards improving the accuracy of these devices. This is anticipated to drive the growth of the market further.Global Digital Storage Oscilloscope Market: OverviewThe global market for digital storage oscilloscopes is deriving much of its growth from the rising intelligence of electronic devices. Digital storage oscilloscopes are extensively utilized in various electronic devices, such as broadcasting equipment used in radios and televisions, to measure signals for capturing and logging electronic events, which are otherwise impossible to determine.As of now, manufacturers of digital storage oscilloscopes are actively concentrating on extensive research to extend the bandwidth of oscilloscopes to enable then to measure signals with high frequency. Analysts expect this factor to support the worldwide digital storage oscilloscopes market in the long run.Request TOC of the Report @This research study offers an in-depth assessment of the global market for digital storage oscilloscopes on the basis of its current and historical performance. The key trends, driving forces, opportunities, challenges, and the future prospects of this market have also been studied thoroughly while leading this research. The prime objective of this report is to assist the market players in gaining a clear insight into this market.Global Digital Storage Oscilloscope Market: Growth Drivers and RestraintsThe intense competition among the leading vendors to provide additional efficient features, such as user interfaces and integration skills, is creating a ground for innovations, which is likely to boost the global market for digital storage oscilloscopes in the forthcoming years. These players are keeping up with the technological advancements and are constantly investing in research in order to develop and introduce new products. Apart from this, they are also offering additional services, such as installation, warranty, and technical support, to customers, differentiating themselves from their competitors.The market is also anticipated to be heavily influenced by the increased modular instrumentation of oscilloscopes in the coming years since modularization enables advanced inbuilt features in oscilloscopes, such as advanced timing and synchronizations and powerful software automation. However, the limited screen display capacity of hand-held digital storage oscilloscopes, which constrain their applications, will affect the growth of this market in the near future.In addition to this, the economic volatility, such as recession, which restrict the production of oscilloscopes with innovative features, owing to the lack of capital, will also affect this market over a longer period of time.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Digital Storage Oscilloscope Market: End-use AnalysisDigital storage oscilloscopes find a widespread application in the electronics, medicines, and the telecommunications sectors. The accuracy in measurements provided by digital storage oscilloscopes compared to their traditional counterparts has increased their usage in the electronics sector. The demand for these oscilloscopes has also been increased in the medicines industry, thanks to the augmented usage of electrocardiograms, fueled by the rising prevalence of cardiovascular disorders across the world.In the telecommunication industry, digital storage oscilloscopes are likely to gain impetus from growing need for advanced triggers that are utilized to debug a communication problem efficiently at a quicker pace.Global Digital Storage Oscilloscope Market: Companies Mentioned in the ReportTektronix Inc, Teledyne LeCroy, Agilent Technologies, and Rohde & Schwarz GmbH are some of the key players functioning in the global market for digital storage oscilloscopes.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Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) Market to Record Sturdy Growth - 2025

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SNG is a fuel gas that can be produced from renewable sources and fossil fuels such as biofuels and coal. It serves as a substitute for natural gas, and is ideal for transmission in natural gas pipelines. It is produced via gasification of coal and or biomass followed by methanation. SNG is also known as green gas and can be converted from coal through five processes: steam-oxygen gasification, catalytic steam gasification, hydrogasification, underground steam-oxygen gasification, and underground hydrogasification.Read Report Overview @Restricted supply and high price of natural gas are driving the demand for SNG. Increase in government initiatives to invest significantly in the production of renewable energy sources to curb carbon emissions and ensure a stable supply of energy and inventiveness pertaining to waste management are estimated to propel the global SNG market. However, high cost involved in establishing an SNG plant and increase in prices of fossil fuel are expected to hamper the SNG market during the forecast period. SNG is a solution for medium to long term and has wide scope in bio-SNG production. Bio-SNG is produced in a manner similar to SNG; however, it is made through the gasification of biomass such as forestry residues or energy crops.Based on source, the SNG market can be segmented into coal, biomass, solid?waste, and others. Synthetic?natural?gas?or?substitute?natural?gas?is?an?artificially?produced?version?of?natural gas. SNG can be produced from coal, biomass, petroleum coke, and solid waste. The?carbon?containing?mass?is?gasified, resulting in?syngas?that can be?then converted?to?methane, the?major?component?of?natural?gas. The coal segment is anticipated to dominate the SNG market, as coal helps lower natural gas imports and stabilizes fuel prices.In terms of application, the SNG market can be split into residential, commercial, and industrial. SNG has a vast potential market; any application that currently uses natural gas could use SNG. Gasification is widely used on-site in industrial applications to produce SNG and electricity, allowing continued operation of natural gas equipment but from a coal source. Thus, the industrial segment is also projected to account for key share of the SNG market during the forecast period.In terms of region, the SNG market can be segregated into Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. Rise in demand for SNG in countries such as China, Japan, and India is significantly boosting the market in Asia Pacific. Latin America and Middle East & Africa also account for major share of the SNG market. This can be ascribed to the increase in demand for SNG in key applications such as industrial and commercial. The SNG market in North America is estimated to expand at a considerable pace during the forecast period owing to the rise in adoption of alternatives and renewable energy sources in the U.S. and Canada.Request to view Sample Report:Global players are adopting research and development strategies and engaging in technological advancements in order to produce SNG and bio-SNG. Prominent companies operating in the SNG market include Dakota Gasification Company, ZSW, Air Liquide, and TransTech Energy, Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Fixed Crash Barrier System Market Rising Demand, Growth & Insights for next 5 years

Fixed Crash Barrier System Market

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HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Fixed Crash Barrier System market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Global and United States Fixed Crash Barrier System market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for managers, analysts, industry experts and other key people get ready-to-access and self-analyzed study along with graphs and tables to help understand market trends, drivers and market challenges. The study is segmented by Application/ end users [Roadside Barriers, Median Barriers, Work Zone Barriers, Bridge Barriers & Others], products type and various important geographies like United States, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America & Middle East and Africa].Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the Global and United States Fixed Crash Barrier System market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data along with company profile of key players/manufacturers. The in-depth information by segments of Fixed Crash Barrier System market helps monitor future profitability & to make critical decisions for growth. The information on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the Global and United States Fixed Crash Barrier System Market.The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Global and United States Fixed Crash Barrier System Market, some of them listed here are Tata Steel Limited (India), NV Bekaert SA (Belgium), Trinity Industries, Inc. (U.S.), Nucor Corporation (U.S.), Valmont Industries, Inc. (U.S.), Lindsay Corporation (U.S.), Hill & Smith Holdings PLC (U.K.), Transpo Industries, Inc. (U.S.), Arbus Limited (U.K.), Avon Barrier Corporation Ltd. (U.K.), Rigid Barriers, Semi-Rigid Barriers, Flexible Barriers & Others. The market is growing at a very rapid pace and with rise in technological innovation, competition and M&A activities in the industry many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new manufacturer entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology.Global and United States Fixed Crash Barrier System (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as . Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Roadside Barriers, Median Barriers, Work Zone Barriers, Bridge Barriers & Others with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Fixed Crash Barrier System in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering United States, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America & Middle East and Africa and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2017 to 2022.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @Following would be the Chapters to display the Global and United States Fixed Crash Barrier System market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Fixed Crash Barrier System, Applications of Fixed Crash Barrier System, Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Fixed Crash Barrier System, Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes United States, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America & Middle East and Africa, Fixed Crash Barrier System Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Fixed Crash Barrier System Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Fixed Crash Barrier System;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [], Market Trend by Application [Roadside Barriers, Median Barriers, Work Zone Barriers, Bridge Barriers & Others];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global and United States Fixed Crash Barrier System;Chapter 12,13, 14 and 15, to describe Fixed Crash Barrier System sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Enquire for customization in Report @What this Research Study Offers:Global and United States Fixed Crash Barrier System Market share assessments for the regional and country level segmentsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersStrategic recommendations for the new entrantsMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional marketsMarket Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsCompetitive landscaping mapping the key common trendsCompany profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developmentsSupply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsBuy this research report @Reasons for Buying this ReportThis report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamicsIt provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growthIt provides a six-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to growIt helps in understanding the key product segments and their futureIt provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitorsIt helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segmentsThanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218sales@htfmarketreport.comElderly Care Services Market Overview with detailed analysis, Competitive landscape Forecast 2021

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The report titled "Global Elderly Care Services Market (2017-2021 Edition) " provides a detailed analysis of the elderly care services market with description of market sizing and growth segmentation of market by products & services and major markets top market players etc. The report recapitulates the factors that will be responsible for the growth in the market in the forecasted period.The report also provides country analysis of the US Canada Europe and India in terms of market sizing and growth. The US and Canada (in North America) are the market leaders followed by European countries. Among Asia-Pacific countries India has been emerged as the market leader in elder care services. In coming years Asia-Pacific would be the key market player as the growth of ageing population is more than other nations worldwide.To get SAMPLE of the report including table of contents, please clickFurthermore the report also profiles key market players such as Extendicare Inc. Brookdale senior Living Inc. Kindred Healthcare Inc. and Genesis Healthcare Inc. on the basis of attributes such as company overview recent developments strategies adopted by the market leaders to ensure growth sustainability financial overview and recent developments.Company CoverageExtendicareBrookdale Senior Living Inc.Kindred Healthcare Inc.Genesis Healthcare Inc.Executive SummarySenior citizens need assistance with daily activities as well as healthcare requirements who needs a quality life. Due to all these requirements there emerged a market known as 'elder care services market' which specifically came into existence to serve the ageing population worldwide. Elder care services market has been divided into various segments. Elderly care business includes in home care assisted living nursing home facilities by skilled professionals hospital care and pharmaceuticals. Among these in-home care assisted living and home healthcare segment are getting popularized day by day and provide quality life to senior citizens. Adult day care centres are designed for older adults who are no longer managing independently or who are isolated or lonely. Home care services are provided by family members and close relatives.Global elder care market has shown positive trends over the past few years. The primary reasons behind the growth of the market are increased ageing population worldwide increasing demand for quality life by senior citizens positive government regulation in healthcare segment to provide cost-effective medical treatment to the aged population technological advancement and chronic illness among old age population etc. the market is expected to achieve a moderate growth in the forecasted period. Global elder care services market continued to expand at a swift pace from 2017-2021.For more information about this report:Company Profiling6.1 Extendicare6.1.1 Business Overview6.1.2 Financial Overview6.2 Brookdale Senior Living Inc.6.2.1 Business Overview6.2.2 Financial Overview6.3 Kindred Healthcare Inc.6.3.1 Business Overview6.3.2 Financial Overview6.4 Genesis Healthcare Inc.6.4.1 Business Overview6.4.2 Financial OverviewReportsWeb.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Global Hearing Care Devices Industry 2018 Market Research Report

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SummaryIn this report, the global Hearing Care Devices 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 Hearing Care Devices in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Hearing Care Devices market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingAmerican Hearing AidsAmplifonCochlearIntriConMED-ELSivantos PteSonovaStarkeyWilliam DemantOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoBehind-the-Ear (BTE) AidsIn-the-Ear AidsReceiver-in-the-Ear (RITE)Canal Hearing AidsOn 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, includingHospitals & ClinicsHome SettingsAmbulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs)If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.The Global Hearing Care Devices Industry 2018 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Hearing Care Devices industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Hearing Care Devices market analysis is provided for the international market including competitive landscape analysis, and major regionsdevelopment status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (America, Europe and China), and other regions can be added.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Product website link:Sample request,please email: sales@qyresearchglobal.comTable of Contents1 Industry Overview of Hearing Care Devices2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Hearing Care Devices3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Hearing Care Devices4 Capacity, Production and Revenue Analysis of Hearing Care Devices by Regions and Manufacturers5 Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Hearing Care Devices by Regions and Manufacturers6 Consumption Volume, Consumption Value and Sale Price Analysis of Hearing Care Devices by Regions and Applications7 Supply, Import, Export and Consumption Analysis of Hearing Care Devices8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Hearing Care Devices9 Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Hearing Care Devices10 Industry Chain Analysis of Hearing Care DevicesMain chapter showed:4 Global Hearing Care Devices Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2018)4.1 Global Hearing Care Devices Consumption by Regions (2011-2016)4.2 North America Hearing Care Devices Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2018)4.3 Europe Hearing Care Devices Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2018)5 Global Hearing Care Devices Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Hearing Care Devices Production and Market Share by Type (2011-2018)5.2 Global Hearing Care Devices Revenue and Market Share by Type (2011-2018)Related reportGlobal Hearing Care Devices sales Industry 2018 Market Research ReportUnite States Hearing Care Devices Industry 2018 Market Research ReportEurope Hearing Care Devices Industry 2018 Market Research ReportAsia-Pacific Hearing Care Devices Industry 2018 Market Research ReportEMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Hearing Care Devices Market Report 2018Thank you for reading the essay.If you are interested in it or have any questions,plesase contact me.QYRESEARCH CO., LTDJosephine Luo - QYResearch Report Global SalesEmail:sales@qyresearchglobal.com or josephine@qyresearch.comWeb:QYResearch, established in 2007, focuses on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, and data base &seminar services. The company owns large basic databases (such as National Bureau of Statistics Database, Customs Import and Export Database, Industry Association Database, etc.), expert resources (including industry experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D in industries of energy, automotive, chemicals, medical ICT consumer goods, etc.), professional survey team (the team members obtained more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years deep expert interview experience), and excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team).Room 2905, Vili International, 167 Linhe West Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, ChinaGuangzhou 510000 ChinaGlobal Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation Market Key Drivers, Restraints and Opportunities

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 to its huge collection of research reports.The international market for Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation has been thoroughly studied with every detail in the publication with augmented emphasis on various important factors such as restraints, market opportunities, and growth drivers. 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 Free form to gain deeper insights on this market @This report studies the global Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation market, analyzes and researches the Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeSiem Offshore ASVallianzMcDermott InternationalStoltoff shoreSaipemSkandi NavicaAllseasThe study of market segmentations that has been offered with the publication that explores some of the most significant categories of the world Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation 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 international market. Segments that have been analyzed in the publication could be related to product, end use, application, and geography.Market segment by Type, the product can be split intoInspectionMaintenanceRepairTo Browse a Full Report with TOC:Market segment by Application, Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation can be split intoOil & GasSubmarine CommunicationsPowerOthersIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of ContentsGlobal Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation1.1 Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation Market Overview1.1.1 Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation Market by Type1.3.1 Inspection1.3.2 Maintenance1.3.3 Repair1.4 Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Oil & Gas1.4.2 Submarine Communications1.4.3 Power1.4.4 OthersTo Get Discount Of This Report Click here @2 Global Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Siem Offshore AS3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Inspection, Maintenance and Repair (IMR) Vessel Operation Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent DevelopmentsRead More....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:Advanced Technologies Of Financial Risk Management Software Market in Global Industry 2018 to 2025 - IBM, Oracle, SAP And KPMG

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Albany, NY, 26th March : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Global Financial Risk Management Software Market Size,Status and Forecast 2025" globally.This report studies the global Financial Risk Management Software market, analyzes and researches the Financial Risk Management Software development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeIBMOracleSAPKPMGMisysExperianGet PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @RiskdataFiservKyribaInvestopediaActive RiskSoftTargetProtecht'CreditPoint SoftwareTFG SystemsPalisade CorporationGearSoftZementisResolverOptialRiskturnXactiumZoot OriginationMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoCloud Financial Risk Management SoftwareDesktop Financial Risk Management SoftwareWeb-based Enterprise Risk Management SoftwareView Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Market segment by Application, Financial Risk Management Software can be split intoSmall BusinessesMidsized BusinessesLarge BusinessesBanksTable of Contents1 Industry Overview of Financial Risk Management Software1.1 Financial Risk Management Software Market Overview1.1.1 Financial Risk Management Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Financial Risk Management Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Financial Risk Management Software Market by Type1.3.1 Cloud Financial Risk Management Software1.3.2 Desktop Financial Risk Management Software1.3.3 Web-based Enterprise Risk Management Software1.4 Financial Risk Management Software Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Small Businesses1.4.2 Midsized Businesses1.4.3 Large Businesses1.4.4 BanksBrowse Report @2 Global Financial Risk Management Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Financial Risk Management Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in FutureResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on :But there are big caveats to Acemoglu and Restrepo's paper. The kind of robots they look at constitute only a small fraction of the automation technologies being deployed across the world today. Economists from the Economic Policy Institute looked closely at Acemoglu and Restrepo's results and found that investment in computers is associated with job gains rather than losses.

An accurate picture requires a very general definition of automation. Economists Katja Mann and Lukas Puttmann of the University of Bonn have a new paper in which they observe the march of automation-related technology by looking at patent records. The authors use text algorithms to classify patents into automation patents and others, using their broad definition of "a device that carries out a process independently." This includes things like automated taco machines and hair dye applicators, but not hand-held scanners.

It's not clear that this is the best way of defining automation -- after all, using a hand-held scanner could involve only a little more human input than pressing the button to start an automated taco machine. But since there's no unique and satisfying definition of automation, Mann and Puttmann's method is probably as good as most. They find, unsurprisingly, that the share of patents related to automation has climbed steeply -- from 25 percent in 1976 to 67 percent in 2014.Biopesticides Market Size, Share, Trend, Key Vendor Analysis and Forecast to 2022

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The Global Biopesticides Market is valued at $66.57 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach $104.7 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 6.7% between 2015 and 2022. The factors contributing for the market growth include increasing market for organic products, and growing number of environmental and health concerns. Joint ventures in the bi- pesticides sector and increasing investments from private sector are contributing to the market growth. However, factors such as barriers in adoption of biopesticides, and variable efficacy of biopesticides are inhibiting the market growth.Furthermore, factors such as lack of knowledge to the farmers regarding the benefits of biopesticides and lack of enthusiasm among farmers to alter the existing chemical crop protection practices are restraining the market growth. North America is likely to acquire the highest market share during the forecast period due to increasing demand for organic food. European region is projected to be the fastest growing market. The growth is attributed to growing demand from organic products and stringent regulations for pesticides.To get SAMPLE of the report including table of contents, please clickSome of the key players in global market include Bayer CropScience, AgraQuest, Inc., BASF SE, Dow Chemical Company, Marrone Bi- Innovations Inc., Koppert Biological Systems, Novozymes Ltd., Valent Biosciences Corporation, Certis USA LLC, Marrone Bi- Innovations Inc., Becker Underwood Inc., AgBiTech Pty Ltd, Bioworks, Inc., Syngenta Crop Protection, Arysta LifeSciences, Isagr- S.p.A, W. Neudorff GmbH Kg, and Camson Bi- Technologies Limited.Types of crop covered:- Permanent Crops- Arable Crops- OthersProducts Covered:- Bio-fungicides- Bio-insecticides- Bio-herbicides- Bio-nematicides- OthersActive Ingredient:- Microbials- Macrobials- Botanical Biopesticides- Semiochemicals- Natural Products- OthersRegions 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- EgyptComplete Report is Available atCompany Profiling10.1 Bayer CropScience10.2 AgraQuest, Inc.10.3 BASF SE10.4 Dow Chemical Company10.5 Monsanto Company10.6 Koppert Biological Systems10.7 Novozymes Ltd.10.8 Valent Biosciences Corporation10.9 Certis USA LLC10.10 Marrone Bio Innovations Inc10.11 Becker Underwood Inc.10.12 AgBiTech Pty Ltd10.13 Bioworks, Inc.10.14 Syngenta Crop Protection10.15 Arysta LifeSciences10.16 Isagro S.p.A10.17 W. Neudorff GmbH Kg10.18 Camson Bio Technologies LimitedReportsWeb.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Moissanite Market to Reach an Estimated Value of US$ 48.84 Mn by 2025

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According to the latest market report published by Persistence Market Research, titled Global Market Study on Moissanite: North America to Be the Most Lucrative Region and Also To Witness Highest Growth By 2025, the global moissanite market is estimated to be valued at US$ 26.80 Mn by the end of 2015 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 6.2% from 2015 to 2025, to account for US$ 48.84 Mn by 2025.Request for Table of Contents @Moissanite is a lab-created gemstone that is generally perceived as a diamond substitute by consumers. Moissanite is composed of silicon carbide and is created through a thermal process that is patented by Charles & Colvard Ltd., the only manufacturer of moissanite across the globe. Moissanite, a synthetic diamond, has been estimated to account for around 1.6% share of the overall gemstone market by 2015 end.Currently, the global moissanite market across the world is mainly driven by factors, such as resemblance of the product as diamond, rising consumer awareness about the product, and increasing consumer inclination towards luxurious jewelry products.However, factors such as the emergence of new technologies for creating other similar gemstones may restrain the market growth over the forecast period. The global moissanite market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 6.2 % from 2015 to 2025, to account for US$ 48.84 Mn by 2025.On the basis of application, the moissanite market has been segmented into rings, earrings, bracelets, and pendants. The rings segment is expected to account for 80.4% share of the global moissanite market by 2015 end, and is expected to register a moderate CAGR of 6.5% in terms of value over the forecast period (20152025).There has been a stupendous rise in adoption of moissanite in rings, which are the most preferred products among consumers, who buy them as gifts for their partners or mothers, in turn driving the segment growth in the near future. Earrings segment has been estimated to account for 9.8% value share of the overall market by 2015 end and is expected to register a CAGR of 6.0% in terms of value over the forecast period.Request to View Sample of Research Report @On the basis of region, the moissanite market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East & Africa. Among these, North America is expected to account for 88.2% value share of the global moissanite market by 2015 end. The market in the region is expected to expand at CAGR of 6.3% in terms of value during the forecast period. Increasing consumer preference for pocket-friendly luxurious jewelry products is expected to fuel the growth of the market in the North America region over the forecast period.The report provides detailed information about the various trends driving each market segment and offers analysis and insights into the potential of the global moissanite market in specific regions.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.comAutomotive Door Handles Market Is Studied By Production, Revenue & Market Share Of Each Manufacturers Till 2025

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Automotive Door Handles Market Research Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.The global Automotive Door Handles market was valued at 2.56 billion USD in 2017 and is expected to reach 3.99 million USD by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 5.67% between 2017 and 2025. Market size of the global Automotive Door Handles is driven by the huge production of automotive.This report studies the Automotive Door Handles market status and outlook of global and major regions, from angles of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top manufacturers in global and major regions, and splits the Automotive Door Handles market by product type and applications/end industries.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @The major players in global Automotive Door Handles market includeITW AutomotiveAisinHuf GroupU-ShinVASTMagnaALPHA CorporationGrupo AntolinThe report unravels several factors that contribute to the growth of the market for Automotive Door Handles. It uses authentic data to foretell a growth graph that the market is expected to follow over the coming years. Key performance indicators such as market value, share of competitors, and CAGR have been estimated and thoroughly explained within the report. The market for Automotive Door Handles engulfs several market players who compete for a greater market share. The report sheds light on the strategies of these market players and also prophesizes their future moves. Encompassing the trends that have existed in the market in the past years, the report draws analogies between the historic and contemporary trends.On the basis of product, the Automotive Door Handles market is primarily split intoExterior Door HandlesInterior Door HandlesAccess the Report and full TOC @On the basis on the applications, this report coversPassenger CarsCommercial VehicleTable of Contents1 Automotive Door Handles Market Overview11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Automotive Door Handles11.2 Automotive Door Handles Segment by Types (Product Category)21.2.1 Global Automotive Door Handles Production by Types21.2.2 Global Automotive Door Handles Production Market Share by Types in 201731.2.3 Exterior Door Handles41.2.4 Interior Door Handles41.3 Global Automotive Door Handles Segment by Applications51.3.1 Global Automotive Door Handles Consumption Comparison by Applications51.3.2 Passenger Cars61.3.3 Commercial Vehicles72 Global Automotive Door Handles Market Competition by Manufacturers162.1 Global Automotive Door Handles Production and Share by Manufacturers (2016 and 2017)162.2 Global Automotive Door Handles Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2016 and 2017)182.3 Global Automotive Door Handles Average Price by Manufacturers (2016 and 2017)192.4 Manufacturers Automotive Door Handles Headquarters and Established Date21Get discount copy @3 Global Automotive Door Handles Production by Regions (2013-2018)243.1 Global Automotive Door Handles Production and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)243.2 Global Automotive Door Handles Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)263.3 Global Automotive Door Handles Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)283.4 North America Automotive Door Handles Production (2013-2018)294 Global Automotive Door Handles Consumption by Regions (2013-2018)374.1 Global Automotive Door Handles Consumption by Regions (2013-2018)374.2 North America Automotive Door Handles Consumption (2013-2018)394.3 Europe Automotive Door Handles Consumption (2013-2018)404.4 China Automotive Door Handles Consumption (2013-2018)414.5 Japan Automotive Door Handles Consumption (2013-2018)42List of Tables and FiguresFigure Global Automotive Door Handles Market Size (M USD) Comparison by Regions (2013-2025)7Figure North America Automotive Door Handles Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)8Figure Europe Automotive Door Handles Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)9Figure China Automotive Door Handles Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)10Figure Japan Automotive Door Handles Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)11Figure Korea Automotive Door Handles Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)12Figure India Automotive Door Handles Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)13Figure Global Automotive Door Handles Revenue (M USD) Status and Outlook (2013-2025)14Figure Global Automotive Door Handles Production (M Unit) Status and Outlook (2013-2025)15Table Global Automotive Door Handles Production (M Unit) of Key Manufacturers (2016 and 2017)16About 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:Welding Equipment Market Expected to AccountUS$ 19,200 Million by 2024

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The manufacturing and fabrication industries are evolving constantly. This is resulting in the companies seeking out new technologies to stay ahead of competitors. Use of new materials in various industries is driving the need for welding automation. Companies are also moving towards acquiring new solutions to offer quality product and increase productivity.In response to this, welding equipment manufacturers are bringing in advanced technologies to help companies better serve their customers. Manufacturers are developing welding solutions that can serve both small scale and large scale companies. Modified short-circuit MIG is being integrated into welding machines, ensuring better control and to create high-quality and uniform welds.Request for Table of Contents @New materials such as high strength steels, advanced high strength steels, and increased use of stainless steel and aluminum in fabrications are creating the demand for new welding technology as per the material being used. Hence, a welding system for specific materials is also being developed by manufacturers in the global welding equipment market.Rising trend towards automation is also resulting in the development automated welding equipment for wide range of application. Information management system for welding is also gaining popularity. This system collects and provides information arc-on time, and performance based on voltage and amperage. This help companies to collect data on the performance of welding in real-time and track both quality and productivity.Persistence Market Research report on the global welding equipment market expects the market to witness strong growth during the forecast period 2017-2024. The global market for welding equipment is estimated to reach close to US$ 19,200 Million revenue.Arc Welding Technology to Lead the Global Welding Equipment MarketBased on the welding technology, arc welding technology is expected to see a significant growth in the market. By the end of 2024, arc welding technology is projected to surpass US$ 8,500 Million in terms of revenue. Meanwhile, resistance welding is also projected to witness impressive growth during 2017-2024.On the basis of a level of automation, compared to the manual welding equipment, automatic welding equipment is likely to register the highest growth during 2017-2024. Automatic welding equipment is expected to exceed US$ 13,000 Million revenue by 2024 end.Based on the application of welding equipment, automotive & transportation sector is expected to gain maximum traction in the global market for welding equipment. Towards 2024 end, the automotive & transportation sector is estimated to reach nearly US$ 3,800 Million revenue.Asia Pacific to Lead the Global Welding Equipment Market Between 2017 and 2024Asia Pacific is likely to dominate the global market for welding equipment during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is estimated to reach close to US$ 6,600 Million in terms of revenue. Increasing infrastructure and construction activities in the countries like India and China are driving the demand for welding equipment.Moreover, the automotive industry in Asia Pacific is also witnessing a substantial growth, thereby, fueling the demand for welding equipment. Growth in the steel industry owing to the increasing demand for steel in for product manufacturing in different industries is resulting in the growth of the welding equipment market in the region.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Some of the prominent players active in the global market for welding equipment are DAIHEN Corporation, Colfax Corporation, The Lincoln Electric Company, Fronius International GmbH, Obara Corporation, voestalpine AG, Arcon Welding Equipment, Panasonic Corporation, Sonics & Materials, Inc., Rofin-Sinar Technologies, Nelson Stud Welding (Doncasters Group, Ltd.), Amada Miyachi, Inc., and Illinois Tool Works, Inc.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.comGlobal Library Automation Management Software Market Applications & Trends 2025

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Library Automation Management Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.The intensive report here gathers the numerous points of view to be considered with regard to the general Library Automation Management Software market which verbalizes the present-day information and future predictions with reference to the dynamic forces at play. The prime purpose behind the study is to offer the reader with a broad configuration and make available the required materials and records. The quantifiable and testing explanations behind the analysis, besides elucidating information on factors, for instance, drivers, restraints, and projections to gage the cumulative result of the general Library Automation Management Software market over the mentioned period in the report. The report additionally provides a brief and in-depth analysis of the predefined market, which combines some current events of the industry at work which are liable to trigger a change in the market or may cause any negative impact.This report studies the global Library Automation Management Software market, analyzes and researches the Library Automation Management Software development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeExLibrisInnovative InterfacesLibrary Automation TechnologiesLibsysPrimaSoftSirsiDynixAmple TrailsAuto GraphicsAxiell GroupBook SystemsCR2 TechnologiesCapitaCybrosys Techno SolutionsEnter your information below to receive a sample copy of this report @This report inspects the overall Library Automation Management Software market by instigating the previous market trends and occurrences. This is required to figure out the current competitive landscape and how it is prone to change. The analysis of the report is carried out in several layers starting with primary research parameters, followed by secondary research. Each segment and sub-segment of the market is exhaustively perused and studied. Various market influencing factor at both local and global levels are considered. The report thus segments the overall Library Automation Management Software market based on geography, its type, and by end-use.The report uses a few demonstrated industry analysis contraptions. They allow the examination to gather a succinct evaluation of the general Library Automation Management Software market and help the reader and market players to be directed regarding theory and business judgments. The broad coverage of the market gives this report a distinct edge. It gathers significant and discretionary research structures in this manner. Seasoned analysts have made a note of the recorded experiences and derived from it a way to change predict and to design a structure for the general Library Automation Management Software market in the years ahead.Table of ContentsGlobal Library Automation Management Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Library Automation Management Software1.1 Library Automation Management Software Market Overview1.1.1 Library Automation Management Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Library Automation Management Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.2.1 United StatesRead Complete Table of Content @2 Global Library Automation Management Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Library Automation Management Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 ExLibris3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Library Automation Management Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Innovative Interfaces3.2.1 Company ProfileGet discount copy @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Global Library Automation Management Software Market Size (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2013-2018)Figure United States Library Automation Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure EU Library Automation Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Japan Library Automation Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure China Library Automation Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure India Library Automation Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Southeast Asia Library Automation Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)About 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: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comNew Research Examined Global Document Imaging Market  Key Trends and Opportunities till 2025

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A latest research report titled as Document Imaging Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025 has been recently added to the vast portfolio of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) online research offerings. This report is a professional and in-depth analysis on the present state and future prospect for the global market. It provides valuable information to the industry insiders, potential entrants or investors. It includes an exhaustive enquiry with the reliability of logic and the comprehensiveness of contentsRequest Free Sample Report @Document imaging services continue to gain popularity across all areas of business as it provides better security and confidentiality of critical information. Document imaging is an information technology solution which uses advanced and modern equipment such as scanners, software, and camera. Document imaging also helps to control large volumes of documents. The document imaging market is segmented on the bases of three categories: by service, component, and end use. In terms of service, the market for document imaging is segmented into cloud and on-premises. By component, the market is segmented into software and hardware. Hardware component segment can be further bifurcated into scanners, printers, microfilm, readers and others. In terms of end use, the document imaging market is segmented into government organizations, law firms, physician practice, and educational institutions among others.Document imaging solutions are becoming an integral part of a business entity for big data handling or analytics. The document imaging market is anticipated to witness significant growth during the forecast period owing to the rising demand for big data handing and analytics in many organizations. Big data technology is a new potential revenue generating source of an organization. Therefore, the demand for document imaging is booming in recent times and is anticipated to witness significant growth during the forecast period. Currently, the impact of this factor has been analyzed to be high, and can be expected to remain high during the forecast period. However, advanced technology such as IT and manufacturing hubs are facing challenges from short supply of skilled operators. Document imaging solutions are complex to handle and require skilled operators. Advanced scanners come with software that makes scanning and saving documents possible. Operators not only require having knowledge about how to operate the equipment, but also know how to operate associated programs in order to modify and store electronic files. These operators usually lack technical education and skills, and hence require specialized training which is time consuming. Rising demand for document imaging due to its benefits, organizations are ready to invest in training the operators. The impact of this restraint is medium in recent times and is expected to be low during the forecast period.Browse Full Report with TOC @By Service the global document imagingmarket has been segmented into cloud and on-premises. On-premises service is initially dominating the global document imaging market. However, cloud service is expected a robust growth during the forecast period and is anticipated to be the largest market share holder in document imaging market. Cloud helps to accommodate large scale information and scanning and printing online data. In addition, cloud deployment better structured than centralized systems to process large constant data streaming produced across the value chain.By region the global document imagingmarket has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. North America which includes U.S. and Rest of North America (Canada and Mexico) captured the largest market share in 2016 due to growth in production facilities and rising demand of digitalized documentation. Europe which includes countries such as Germany, U.K., France, Italy and Rest of Europe captured the second largest market share in 2016. Asia Pacificshowed the fastest growth in 2016 due to its high penetration rateand coupled more high adoption rate of digitalization in document management solutionover the years.The global market of document imagingreport provides company market share analysis of the various key participants. Key players have also been profiled on the basis of company overview. Global key participants of the document imaging market include Fujitsu Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan), Hewlett-Packard Company (California, U.S.), Canon Inc. (Tokyo, Japan), Kodak Alaris (Hemel Hempstead, U.K.), Xerox Corporation (Connecticut, U.S.), Qorus Software (Pty) Ltd (Cape Town, South Africa), CBSL Group (Delhi, India), Epson America (California, U.S.), Aramex (Dubai, U.A.E) and Newgen Software Technologies Ltd (Delhi, India) among others.Enquire about this Report @About Market Research Reports Search EngineMarket 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:Global Wood Activated Carbon Market: In-depth Evaluation and Growth Assessment Until the End of 2024

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been acting as an impressive data source when it comes to evaluating various industrial verticals. The research report titled "Wood Activated Carbon Market" offers a clear insight about the "chemical" assessed over the global platform. This analysis proves beneficial for readers & new investors who are aiming to enter the market for "chemical" in the near future.Get Free Sample Report @Wood activated carbon is manufactured by the steam activation process of wood products such as saw dust, wood chips, and wood flour. Activated carbon derived from wood has high porosity and defined internal structure. Furthermore, good mechanical strength and density are other important attributes of wood activated carbon. Thus, wood activated carbon is widely used as an adsorbent to treat polluted water and air.The report analyzes the wood activated carbon market on the global, regional, and in major countries. The study provides forecast from 2016 to 2024 based on volume (kilo tons) and revenue (US$ Mn).The study offers a widespread view of the wood activated carbon market by dividing it into key application segments such as removal of impurities, gas adsorption, decolorization, and others. Application segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends of the market demand. The global wood activated carbon market is further segmented in terms of key geographical regions. The regional segmentation includes current and forecast demand for wood activated carbon in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). The report includes country-level analysis in terms of volume and revenue for application segments. Key countries such as the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, China, Japan, Brazil, South Africa, as well as ASEAN and GCC regions are included in the study. Market segmentation includes demand for individual applications in all the regions and their respective countries.The report encompasses detailed value chain analysis that provides an expansive view of the market. The analysis further provides detailed information about value addition at each stage of the value chain. The report covers major drivers and restraints of the global wood activated carbon market along with their influence on demand during the forecast period. Additionally, it includes the study of opportunities in the wood activated carbon market at the global level.The report comprises Porters Five Forces Model to estimate the degree of competition in the global wood activated carbon market. The report also comprises qualitative description on market attractiveness analysis in two sub-sections. The first sub-section consists of applications of wood activated carbon that are analyzed based on their attractiveness, growth rate, market size, raw material availability, profit margin, impact strength, technology, competition, and other factors. The second sub-section provides market attractiveness by analyzing key countries of each geographical region. The report also includes price trend analysis of raw materials such as saw dust, wood flour, wood pellets, and other pretreatment chemicals required during the manufacture of wood activated carbon.Secondary research sources that have been typically referred to include, but are 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.In-depth interviews and discussions with a wide range of key opinion leaders and industry participants were conducted to assemble this research report. Primary research represents the bulk of the 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 the validation and reinforcement of our secondary research findings. Primary research further aided in improving the overall expertise and market understanding of the analysis team.The report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include Cabot Corporation, Calgon Carbon Corporation, Carbo Tech AC GmbH, Carbon Activated Corporation, CECA SA, Donau Chemie AG, Fujian Zhixing Activated Carbon Co, Ltd., Ingevity Corporation, Kuraray Chemical Corporation Ltd., Osaka Gas Chemicals Co. Ltd., Oxbow Activated Carbon LLC, and Zhejiang Xingda Activated Carbon Co., Ltd. Company profiles include fundamental pointers such as company overview, number of employees, key competitors, business overview, business strategies, recent/key developments, acquisitions, and financial overview.Outlook Complete Report with Table of Content @This report segments the global wood activated carbon market as follows:Wood Activated Carbon Market - Application AnalysisGas adsorptionRemoval of impuritiesDecolorizationOthers (Including recovery of organic solvents, etc.)Wood Activated Carbon Market - Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.Rest of North AmericaEuropeGermanyFranceU.K.ItalySpainBelgiumRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaJapanASEANRest of Asia PacificLatin AmericaBrazilRest of Latin AmericaMiddle East & Africa (MEA)GCCSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaAbout 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:Power Distribution Cables Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2018 2022

Power Distribution Cables Market

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Market HighlightsPower Distribution cables are typically used to deliver the electric power; it carries the electricity from transmission tower & delivered it to individual consumers. Due increasing need of electricity, power transmission networks are increases rapidly which ultimately boost the distribution cables market and is expected to register a significant growth of 6% in the next six years.Asia-Pacific region is a major contributor to the Power Distribution cables market and expected to retain its majority during the forecast period. Middle East market is expected to grow at good pace during the forecast period.Global Power Distribution Cables Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 6% during the forecast period, 2016 to 2022Get Sample of Report @Key PlayersThe leading players in the Power Distribution Cables Market are Brugg Kabel AG (Switzerland), Spina Group (Italy), Prysmian Group (Italy), General Cable Corporation (U.S.), CAE Groupe (France), Cavotec (Switzerland), SAS Brockskes (Germany), and ConCab Kabel Ltd. (Germany).Regional Analysis of Power Distribution CablesAsia-Pacific region is a major contributor to the Power Distribution cables market and expected to retain its majority by 2022. Rapid expansions in the industrialization, construction & infrastructure activities as well as growing renewable sector in this region, increase the demand for Power Distribution cables. North America held the second position, followed by Europe, South America, Middle East & Africa.Intended Audience Power Distribution Cables manufacturers Power cables manufacturing companies Utility companies Power sector consultants and Investment bankers Energy & Power Associations Government as well as Independent Regulatory AuthoritiesStudy Objectives of Power Distribution Cables Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 6 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Power Distribution Cables Market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To Analyze the Global Power Distribution Cables Market based on various factors such as supply chain analysis, and Porters five force analysis To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to regions and their respective key countries To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by Installation, by Voltage, and by UsersGet Complete Report @Table of Content1. Report Prologue2. Introduction2.1. Definition2.2. Scope Of The Study2.2.1. Research Objective2.2.2. Assumptions2.2.3. Limitations2.3. Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3. Research Methodology3.1. Research Process3.2. Primary Research3.3. Secondary Research3.4. Market Size Estimation3.5. Forecast Model4. Market Dynamics4.1. Drivers & Oppurtunities4.2. Challenges & Restraints4.3. Value Chain Analysis4.4. Porters Five Forces Analysis5. Power Distribution Cables Market, By Installation5.1. Introduction5.2. Overhead5.3. Underground5.4. SubmarineContinueAbout 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.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comCanada Nasal Splints Market Analysis & Forecast 2017 to 2025

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Canada Nasal SplintsOverview:"Canada Nasal Splints Market Outlook to 2025", provides key market data on the Canada Nasal Splints market. The report provides value, in millions of US dollars, volume (in units) and average prices (USD) within market segments - Nasal SplintsThe report also provides company shares and distribution shares data for each of these market segments, and global corporate-level profiles of the key market participants. Based on the availability of data for the particular market and country, information related to pipeline products, news and deals is available in the report.Click here for sample report @Top Companies mentionedMedtronic plcOlympus CorporationInnovia Medical, LLCBoston Medical Products, Inc.Major Scope of the Report:- Market size and company share data for Nasal Splints- Annualized market revenues (USD million) and volume (units) data for each of the market segments. Data is provided from 2015 to 2025.- 2017 company share and distribution share data for Nasal Splints market.- Global corporate-level profiles of key companies operating within the Canada Nasal Splints market.- Key players covered include Boston Medical Products, Inc, Innovia Medical, LLC m Medtronic plc and Olympus Corporation and Others..ContinuedFor Detailed Reading Please visit @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.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaIn his recent letter to the editor, Mr. Stuart Smith expressed his views on Measure C, the Oak Woodland Initiative. He wrote the initiative discriminates against an entire group of stakeholders and is anti-agriculture in a right-to-farm county. He accuses Measure C supporters of trying to seize the watershed rights of others, so they can have more water themselves.

Here are some facts:

-In California, according to the California Department of Water Resources, agriculture uses 80 percent of the states water.

-According to a recent Napa County Ground Water Report to the State, the Napa Valley subbasin has an annual sustainable yield of between 17,000 to 20,000 acre-feet of groundwater. During the recent drought, groundwater pumping averaged about 17,506 acre-feet. Vineyards accounted for pumping 12,263 acre-feet of the water and municipalities 317 acre-feet. It is important to note that the countys groundwater report did not include the Coombsville, Carneros or hillside areas, where many of the areas groundwater problems have been reported. The fact is, we dont know how much water the hillside vineyards are currently pumping.Americas Companion Diagnostics Market to Witness an Outstanding Growth of 15.6% by 2023

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Americas Companion Diagnostics Market, is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15.6% and is expected to reach US$ 5,093.2 million by 2023. In Americas Companion Diagnostics Market, North America accounted for the largest market share in 2016.If You have Any Query, Ask To our Experts @:The Americas is further segmented into the North America and South America. The North America includes the U.S., and Canada; and presently, they together dominate the global companion diagnostic market. Further, South America comprises of countries such as Brazil, Peru, Columbia, and Panama among others, and they all contribute a very small share in the global companion diagnostic market. Among all the regions in the world, the U.S. has been the first choice for a suitable deployment of companion diagnostic solutions due to the availability of established healthcare system and technological advancement. Substantial number of ecosystem players which include big pharmaceuticals and biotech companies are collaborating and entering partnerships in order to trap the ongoing market expansion. This inventiveness will help the companion diagnostic market to leverage genomic advancement and to analyse huge data sets ensuring the privacy concern. Moreover, several CDx initiatives, research & development programs, product launch and diagnostic tools have emerged and lot many are still in the pipeline. The U.S. has gained significant pharmaceutical developments along with FDA approvals; patents and licensing that enable it to position itself in the global companion diagnostic market.Americas Companion Diagnostics Market statistical report published by Market Research future contains a brief overview of market of Companion Diagnostics in Americas region. By region, the market has been segmented as North America, and South America. North America is the largest market and from that, United States commands largest share and is expected to grow continuously during the forecasted period of 2017-2023. The report analyzed the Americas Companion Diagnostics Market and present systematic data of market share based on segments and countries, and its growth rate for 2014 to 2017, along with forecast till 2023.Key Questions Answered In This Report:What will the market size and what will the growth rate be?What is driving this market?What are the key market trends?What are the challenges to market growth?Purchase Complete Americas Companion Diagnostics Market Report at $299:Market Research future through this report aims to provide understanding of the Americas Companion Diagnostics Market based on segments & countries, and also assists identification of ongoing trends along with anticipated growth during the forecasted period. For this report, extensive primary research was conducted to gain a deeper insight of the market performance. Various industry experts and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) were contacted and interviewed to get an idea of Americas Companion Diagnostics Market.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), Statistical Report, 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 Us:Market Research Future Office No. 528,Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar, Pune  411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comAutomotive Engine Market 2018-2022 Global Key Players: Cummins Inc., Fiat S.PA., Volkswagen Group, Ford Motor Company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

Automotive Engine Market 2018

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Automotive Engine Market 2018Automotive Engine Market Share, Size, Trends, And Business Opportunity Analysis Report 2018 include historic data, with forecast data to 2022. Automotive Engine Market report is helpful for future strategy development, and to know about Market Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, And Global market size, share, Growth, Trends, key players forecast to 2022Global Automotive Engine Market by placement (In-Line Engine and V-Type Engine), Vehicle type (Passenger, LCV, HCV), by Fuel (Gasoline, Diesel and Others) and by Region (North America, South America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa and Middle East).Get Sample Report of Automotive Engine Market @Market Synopsis of Global Automotive EngineAutomotive Engine is one of the most integral parts in any vehicle. It enables the vehicle to function efficiently and run smoothly without any trouble. Overall performance, Vehicle emission and efficiency of every vehicle depends on the condition of automotive engine.With the advent of recent technological developments, the automotive engine market is expected to grow substantially. Owing to the Factors such as rigid fuel economy regulatory norms and growing demand for technologically advanced powered engines for the better performance of vehicles. Furthermore, rising disposable income can also be attributed to the growth of the automotive engine market which will ensure to spend more on high-end cars and commercial vehicles by consumers.Recently the automobile giant Audi, has developed a TFSI 4-cylinder engine which the company claims to be the most efficient 2-litre gasoline engine on par. Such technological developments will certainly boost the market growth which will pave the way for better fuel-efficient vehicles.Key PlayersCummins Inc., Fiat S.PA., Volkswagen Group, Ford Motor Company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, AB Volvo, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai Motor Company and Scania AB are some of the leading players operating in this market.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:Jan 2018- Ford Motor Co significantly increased its planned investments in electric vehicles to USD 11 billion by 2022 and have 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles. The company shifted capital investment away from sedans and internal combustion engines to develop more trucks and electric and hybrid cars.Sep 2017- The Volkswagen Group launched the most comprehensive electrification initiative in the automotive industry with Roadmap E. There will be at least one electrified version of each of the 300 or so Group models across all brands and markets. The latest Euro 6 diesel engines deliver above-average performance in the new WLTP cycle under real-world conditions. All new gasoline engines will be equipped with a particulate filter across the board.Aug 2017- Sweden's Volvo Cars agreed to make some engines available for Geely-branded vehicles. The car will be equipped with a new 1.5-liter turbo charged gasoline engine which Volvo has been developing for smaller cars.Feb 2010- Fiat S.p.A. is taking engine downsizing to a new level with the introduction of its new 900cc, two-cylinder TwinAir unit. Automakers are removing cylinders and lowering the displacement of their engines to meet tougher CO2 emissions rules that take effect in Europe in 2012. The TwinAir engine is a key part of Fiat brand's aim to remain Europe's leader when it comes to fleet CO2 emissions in Europe.Regional Analysis of Global Automotive Engine MarketAPAC is the leading market and estimated to grow at the forecasted period and it accounts for the largest share of the global automotive engine market. With rapid expansion in the automotive industry of the developing nations in the APAC region such as china, India and japan, the OEMs have been focusing on developing technologically advanced powered engines to gain high torque and performance. It is followed by Europe and North America due to the presence of long established original equipment manufacturers which provide strong base for the robust development and growth of automotive engine market in the regionThe report for Global Automotive Engine 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 and volume, 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.Send an Enquiry Before Buying @Table of Contents1 Executive Summary2 Research Methodology3 Market Dynamics4 Global Automotive Engine Market, By Placement5 Global Automotive Engine Market, By Fuel6 Global Automotive Engine Market, By Vehicle7 Regional Market Analysis8 Competition Analysis.ContinuedAbout 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 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 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.comRecent Study Explores Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) Industry Pipeline Review, H1 2017

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OverviewCervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), also known as cervical dysplasia is characterized by abnormal appearance of cells on the surface of the cervix. Cervical dysplasia usually occurs in women aging twenty five to thirty five. Most cases of cervical dysplasia are caused by human papilloma virus (HPV). Factors contributing to cervical dysplasia include using immunosuppressants and smoking. Signs and symptoms include genital warts, abnormal bleeding, spotting after intercourse, vaginal discharge and low back pain.Click here for sample report @Report HighlightsThe Pharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) - Pipeline Review, H1 2017, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) (Women's Health), complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases.The Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) (Women's Health) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Phase II and Phase I stages are 7 and 4 respectively. Similarly, the Universities portfolio in Phase II and Preclinical stages comprises 3 and 1 molecules, respectively.Major Scope of the report:- The pipeline guide provides a snapshot of the global therapeutic landscape of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) (Women's Health).- The pipeline guide reviews pipeline therapeutics for Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) (Women's Health) by companies and universities/research institutes based on information derived from company and industry-specific sources.- The pipeline guide covers pipeline products based on several stages of development ranging from pre-registration till discovery and undisclosed stages.Table of ContentsList of FiguresIntroductionGlobal Markets Direct Report CoverageCervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) - OverviewCervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) - Therapeutics DevelopmentPipeline OverviewPipeline by CompaniesPipeline by Universities/InstitutesProducts under Development by CompaniesProducts under Development by Universities/InstitutesCervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) - Therapeutics AssessmentAssessment by TargetAssessment by Mechanism of ActionAssessment by Route of AdministrationAssessment by Molecule TypeCervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) - Companies Involved in Therapeutics DevelopmentCEL-SCI CorpCritiTech IncGenexine IncPDS Biotechnology CorpShanghai Fudan-Zhangjiang Bio-Pharmaceutical Co LtdTHEVAX Genetics Vaccine USA Inc.ContinuedFor Detailed Reading Please visit @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.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaWhat to expect from the Market of Global Electrical Panels and know the Market by 2025?

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In this report, the global Electrical Panels 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 Electrical Panels for these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGet PDF with Technological trends atGlobal Electrical Panels market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Electrical Panels sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingSchneider ElectricABBSiemensGENSISIMONLevitonKBMCPaneltronicsPenrbo KelnickKonark AutomationB&B AssembliesPandAriaObtain Report Details with Technological advancement atOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, and market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoMain Breaker PanelMain Lug PanelSub PanelOn 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, includingResidentialCommercialIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.About Future Genic ReportsFuture Generic Reports is a market research and consulting organization, offering premium collection of market research reports, custom research and consulting services to corporations, no-profit organizations and government institutions across the globe.The wide range of information is presented by a team of well-trained researchers of specific sectors through exhaustive research. We deliver premier market research services that cover all industry verticals, including chemicals and material, automotive, healthcare, electronics & semiconductor, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and technology and media.We believe in building an eternal bond with our clients through offering them inclusive research study meeting their specific requirements. Our services are tailored specifically to our clients by proposing them the potential outcome, based on our in-depth analysis and insights for exploring the growth strategies through providing the best possible decision for quality production.Contact Us:244, Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861E-mail: sales@futuregenicreports.comBeauty Supplement Powders and Drink Mixes Market Primary Research, Risk Analysis, Product Research, Trends and Forecast by 2022

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SummaryThe study of Assessing Global Beauty Supplement Powders and Drink Mixes Sales Market 2017 Industry Trend and Forecast 2022 is very important to enhance business productivity and for the study of market forecast. This New Report presented by Orbis Reseach contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to a SWOT analysis of the key vendors.DescriptionOrbis Research always aims to bring their clients the best research material and in-depth analysis of the information for any market. This new report Global Beauty Supplement Powders and Drink Mixes Sales Market for 2017 aims to fulfil the needs of the clients looking for a fresh outlook towards the Global Beauty Supplement Powders and Drink Mixes Sales Market, or fill in the knowledge gaps with the data available in the report. The well-presented and curated report is compiled by seasoned and professional research experts and subject matter experts in the field. The clients will find the report complete in all aspects as it covers all key components with valuable statistics and expert opinions in all regards.Get a PDF Sample of Report at:The Global Beauty Supplement Powders and Drink Mixes Sales Industry report contains a complete product overview and its scope in the market to define the key terms and provide the clients a holistic idea of the market and its tendencies. This is followed by the classification, applications, and the regional analysis of the market to ensure the clients are well informed about each section. The report also contains key values and facts of the Global Beauty Supplement Powders and Drink Mixes Sales market in terms of value and volume, sales and its growth rate, and revenue and its growth rate.One of the major mainstays of the Global Beauty Supplement Powders and Drink Mixes Sales Industry report is the coverage on the competition. The report covers all key parameters such as market share, revenue generation, new products or marketing strategies of the competition, latest R&D, and market expert comments, along with the contact information. Key market trends, expert opinions, and a well curated forecast are all included in Global Beauty Supplement Powders and Drink Mixes Sales Market report.Also, some key information such as the cost analysis, industrial chain, sourcing strategy, distributors, marketing strategy, and factor analysis of the Beauty Supplement Powders and Drink Mixes Sales Market are all a part of the report. The report concludes with the customary SWOT analysis and the analysis on investment feasibility and returns.To Browse the Entire Report, Visit :Some Points Of Table Of Content:Chapter One: Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes1.2 Classification of Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes by Product Category1.2.1 Global Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Anti-Aging Supplements1.2.4 Hair, Skin & Nail Supplements?1.2.5 Bone and Joint Health SupplementsChapter Two: Global Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes (Volume and Value) by TypeChapter Nine: Global Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data9.1 21st Century9.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.1.2 Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Product Category, Application and Specification9.1.2.1 Product A9.1.2.2 Product B9.1.3 21st Century Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.2 Applied Nutrition9.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.2.2 Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Product Category, Application and Specification9.2.2.1 Product A9.2.2.2 Product B9.2.3 Applied Nutrition Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.3 Aviva9.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors.Got any Query? Feel free to ask us at :As always has been the aim at Orbis Research with every report put up, the information on offer is complete and true knowledge seekers will benefit from it. Irrespective of the interest, academic or commercial, the Beauty Supplement Powders and Drink Mixes Sales Industry report curated and compiled by domain experts will definitely shed light on key information which the clients require.No. of Report Pages: 112List Of Tables:Figure Product Picture of Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink MixesFigure Global Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Sales Volume Comparison (K Units) by Type (2012-2022)Figure Global Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Sales Volume Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2016Figure Anti-Aging Supplements Product PictureFigure Hair, Skin & Nail Supplements? Product PictureFigure Bone and Joint Health Supplements Product PictureFigure Skin & Nail Supplements Product PictureFigure Global Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes Sales Comparison (K Units) by Application (2012-2022)Figure Global Sales Market Share of Beauty Supplement Powders & Drink Mixes by Application in 2016Figure Male ExamplesPlace a Purchase Order for this Market Report at: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 Information:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas  75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +9164101019Follow Us on LinkedIn:Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Market is Determined to Cross US$ 20.0 Billion By 2025

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New York, March 26, 2018:Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Market 2018Global Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) market is expected to cross US$ 20.0 Billion by 2025 growing at a CAGR of more than 10.0% during given forecast period from 2016-2025.The scope of the report includes a detailed study of global and regional markets for various types of Non alcoholic steatohepatitis with the reasons given for variations in the growth of the industry in certain regions. The report covers detailed competitive outlook including the market share and company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market.The Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis market is segmented on the lines of its Therapeutics such as GFT505, Obeticholic Acid (INT-747) Simtuzumab and Liraglutide (Victoza)Vitamin EPioglitazonePlacebo. The Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis market geographic segmentation covers various regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa.You Can Find Full Report:Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis market is segmented into therapeutic types and geography.BY THERAPEUTICSGFT505Obeticholic Acid (INT-747)Simtuzumab and Liraglutide (Victoza)PioglitazonePlaceboVitamin EBY GEOGRAPHYNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificLAMEAThis report provides:1) An overview of the global market for Non alcoholic Steatohepatitis and related technologies.2) Analyses of global market trends and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2025.3) Identifications of new market opportunities and targeted promotional plans for Non alcoholic steatohepatitis market.4) Discussion of research and development, and the demand for new products and new applications.5) Comprehensive company profiles of major players in the industry.The major driving factors of Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) market are as follows:1. There is a great increase in the cycles of the clinical trials with increased success rates. Hence there are increased chances of getting a commercial approval by 2017.The restraining factors of Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) market are as follows:1. The unexplained and complex physiological structure.2. Inefficient diagnostics technology which lengthen the commercialization of NASH therapeutics.Request Sample Report:Table of Contents1. INTRODUCTION2. Assumptions and Research Methodology3. Executive Summary: Global Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Biomarkers Market4. Market Overview5. Global Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Biomarkers Market Analysis and Forecasts, By Marker Type6. Global Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Biomarkers Market Analysis and Forecasts, By End User7. Global Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Biomarkers Market Analysis and Forecasts, By Region8. North America Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Biomarkers Market Analysis and Forecast9. Europe Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Biomarkers Market Analysis and Forecast10. Asia Pacific Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Biomarkers Market Analysis and Forecast11. Latin America Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Biomarkers Market Analysis and Forecast12. Middle East & Africa Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Biomarkers Market Analysis and Forecast13. Competition Landscape13.1. Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Biomarkers Market  Competition Matrix (By Tier and Size of companies) (2015)13.2. Company Profiles (Details  Overview, Financials, Recent Developments, Strategy)13.2.1. BioPredictive S.A.S13.2.2. One Way Liver S.L.13.2.3. Genfit SA13.2.4. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated13.2.5. Prometheus Laboratories Inc. (Part of Nestle Health Sciences)13.2.6. Siemens Healthcare Private Ltd. (now Siemens Healthineers)13.2.7. Shenzhen New Industries Biomedical Engineering Co. Ltd. (SNIBE Diagnostics)13.2.8. Exalenz Biosciences Ltd.About UsMarket Research Engine (MRE) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. MREs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each Market Research Engines research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Media ContactCompany Name: Market Research EngineContact Person: John BayEmail: john@marketresearchengine.comPhone: +1-855-984-1862Country: United StatesWebsite:Address: 3422 SW 15 Street, Suite #8942, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442, United StatesCCTV Camera Market Revenue, Sales, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Global CCTV Camera Market: OverviewCCTV cameras offer a secure medium to monitor and record images and video. The demand for CCTV cameras for the purpose of surveillance has soared globally. This demand is attributed to the rising threat to public security due to criminal and terrorist attacks. Apart from public security surveillance CCTV cameras are used to monitor areas such as shopping malls, hotels, streets, banks, and government buildings.CCTV cameras vary on the basis of technology and model type. The CCTV camera market consists of a large number of software and hardware providers. The CCTV camera market value chain is characterized by system integrators and service providers. The CCTV camera market is highly competitive since it has a large number of hardware, software, and technology providers. Intense competition in the market affects the pricing strategy adopted by the players in the CCTV market. Investments in research and development initiatives is largely prevalent in the CCTV camera market.Request for sample copy of report:Global CCTV Camera Market: Regional SegmentationBased on geographical regions, the report segments the global CCTV camera market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America, which are analyzed in terms of revenue generation. The report provides country level revenue for CCTV camera market. The U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, India, China, Japan, GCC, South Africa, Brazil, and Argentina are the countries covered in the report. The report also provides the country level data of each of the market segments for all the countries mentioned above.North America is expected to lead the CCTV camera market during the forecast period. The region houses a large number of CCTV camera system and solution providers. The Asia Pacific region is expected to witness the highest growth rate of 14.6 percent during the forecast period.The Middle East and Africa and South America are in the early phases of large scale installation of CCTV cameras. The anticipated growth of tourism sector of the Middle East and Brazil is expected to support the market growth of the CCTV camera market of these regions during the forecast period. The CCTV camera market comprises large number of medium and large players. Product innovation, mergers and acquisition, and research & development investments are the key growth strategies adopted by the players in the CCTV camera market. The market is expected to be hit by a huge wave of mergers and acquisitions in the coming years.Global CCTV Camera Market: SegmentationThis research report provides an in-depth analysis of the global CCTV camera market based on model type, technology, end-use application, and geography. The global CCTV camera market is categorized based on model type into PTZ camera, box camera, dome camera, bullet camera, and others (hybrid, etc.). The technology segment for the global CCTV camera market consists of analog CCTV systems, wireless CCTV systems, IP-based CCTV systems, and hybrid CCTV systems. The end-use segment is classified into retail, hospitality, BFSI, home security, government, and others (transportation, healthcare, etc.). The report analyzes each of these segments for the various geographies considered under the scope of the study.Request for complete TOC of this report :Global CCTV Camera Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report includes analysis of the factors that drive and restrain the growth of the CCTV camera market. It discusses the prevailing market trends and prospective growth opportunities in the global CCTV camera market. It provides market estimates and forecasts for all the segments in terms of revenue. Also provided in the report is the market positioning of the companies in the CCTV camera market.Major business strategies adopted by key players, their SWOT analysis, and competition matrix has also been identified in the research report. Axis Communications AB, Bosch Security Systems, Inc., Geovision Inc, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co Ltd, Hanwha Techwin Co. Ltd, Honeywell International Inc., Panosonic System Network Co. Limited, Pelco Inc, Toshiba Corporation, and Zhejiang Dahau Technology Co. Ltd. are major players profiled in the global CCTV camera market report.Global CCTV Camera MarketBy Model TypePTZ cameraBox cameraDome cameraBullet cameraOthers (Hybrid, etc)By TechnologyAnalog CCTV SystemsWireless CCTV SystemsIP-based CCTV SystemsHybrid CCTV SystemsBy ApplicationRetailHospitalityBFSICommercial InfrastructureHome SecurityGovernmentOthers (Transportation, Healthcare, etc.)By GeographyNorth AmericaThe U.S.CanadaRest of North AmericaEuropeGermanyThe U.K.FranceRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & AfricaGCC CountriesSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaSouth AmericaBrazilArgentinaRest of South AmericaView full report :MRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizGlobal Tattoo Removal Market by Treatment Method, is Projected to Grow at a CAGR of 15.6% and is Expected to Reach US$ 4,794.9 Million by 2023

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Global Tattoo Removal Market by Treatment Method, is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15.6% and is expected to reach US$ 4,794.9 million by 2023. In Global Tattoo Removal Market by Treatment Method, Laser Therapy accounted for the largest market share in 2016.Globally, Tattoo Removal market is dominated by North America region. The global Tattoo Removal market comprises of treatment methods such as Laser therapy, Surgical method, and Topical Creams & Others. Laser therapy captures maximum market share in 2016 and it is expected to continue its growth at the highest rate during the forecasted period of 2017 to 2023.About Any Report Related Query Enquire @:There has been a tremendous growth in the number of people getting their skin inked and so do in the number of people getting it removed. Many of the people regret of being tattoo done on their body. There are many reasons behind removing the tattoos. Current employment policies do not expressively prohibit the tattoos but the presence of tattoo on an employ can leave a differentiating impression, mostly negative as a result, persons professional life is affected by it. The reality of todays employment market is fueling the laser tattoo removal market significantly. Moreover, the poor art work, personal makeover has driven market for tattoo removal. Globally the tattoo removal market is growing rapidly.Global Tattoo Removal Market By Treatment Method statistical report published by Market Research future contains a brief overview of market of various treatment methods of tattoo removal. The report analyzed the global tattoo removal market by treatment method and present systematic data of market share based on segments and countries, and its growth rate for 2014 to 2017, along with forecast till 2023.Key Questions Answered In This Report:What will the market size and what will the growth rate be?What is driving this market?What are the key market trends?What are the challenges to market growth?Purchase This Report Here @ just $299:Market Research future through this report aims to provide understanding of the global tattoo removal market by treatment method based on segments & countries, and also assists identification of ongoing trends along with anticipated growth during the forecasted period. For this report, extensive primary research was conducted to gain a deeper insight of the market performance. Various industry experts and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) were contacted and interviewed to get an insight about various treatment methods in tattoo removal business.Similar Research ReportEurope Tattoo Removal Market, is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15.8% and is expected to reach US$ 1,371.2 million by 2023. In Europe Tattoo Removal Market, Germany accounted for the largest market share in 2016.European market for tattoo removal consist of major countries such as Germany, France, UK, Italy, and Spain, and rest of Western European countries and all the Eastern European Countries. European region is the second largest market for tattoo removal in the world after North America. Germany is the leading market for tattoo removal in the European region due to the availability of the advanced aesthetic services, and Laser centers in the country. Tattoo making has become a universal phenomenon now and the market for the tattoo removal is more of less but in the same range in the countries of the Europe. There is no drastic difference in the market share in the countries like France, UK, Italy, and Spain. However, it is expected that UK will be the fastest growing country in Europe in the tattoo removal market during 2017 to 2023.Europe Tattoo Removal Market statistical report published by Market Research future contains a brief overview of market of tattoo removal methods and end users in Europe region. By Country, the market has been segmented as Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, Rest of Western Europe, and Eastern Europe. Germany commands largest share and is expected to grow continuously during the forecasted period of 2017-2023. The report analyzed the Europe Tattoo Removal Market and present systematic data of market share based on segments and countries, and its growth rate for 2014 to 2017, along with forecast till 2023.Access This Report For in Depth Information @:Market Research future through this report aims to provide understanding of the Europe Tattoo Removal Market based on segments & countries, and assists identification of ongoing trends along with anticipated growth during the forecasted period. For this report, extensive primary research was conducted to gain a deeper insight of the market performance. Various industry experts and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) were contacted and interviewed to get an idea of Europe Tattoo Removal Market.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), Statistical Report, 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 Us:Market Research Future Office No. 528,Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar, Pune  411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comAdvanced Authentication Market 2018 Leading Players: IBM Corporation, CA Technologies, CSC BSS, Versasec AB, Atos Corporation

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Market Highlights:In todays digital world, most of the transactions are being made online. Data security is a major concern for enterprises, government organizations, and individuals. Hackers are finding new ways to steal sensitive information from enterprises and daily users by developing new viruses. These factors are driving organizations to install advanced authentication solutions, which help in convenient and secure access to information. Advanced authentication adds an additional layer of security to standard username and password authentication method. Nowadays, cyber-criminal activities are increasing such as hacking of identity badges, and numeric pins, resulted in developing authentication techniques such as OTP (one-time password) authentication, phone-based authentication, and biometrics. These factors resulted to boost the growth of the global advanced authentication market.On August 08, 2017 WatchGuard, a leading provider of UTM (Unified Threat Management) & firewall hardware acquired Datablink Company, a leading provider of advanced authentication solutions. This acquisition extends WatchGuards security portfolio beyond network & wireless security, enabling the company to deliver advanced authentication to small & midsize businesses (SMB) and distributed enterprises.The increasing security threats these days and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy are the major factors that are driving the global advanced authentication market. Supportive government regulations and the ever-expanding usage of advanced authentication across different industry verticals are some other factors responsible for the rising demand for this particular market.Request a Sample Report @Major Key Players: CA Technologies (U.S.) IBM Corporation (U.S.) HP ESSN (U.S.) CSC BSS (India) Oracle Corporation (U.S.) MasterCard Inc. (U.S.) Atos Corporation (France) Versasec AB (Sweden) Gemalto (the Netherlands) Datacard Group (U.S.)Regional Analysis:The global market is segmented on the basis of region into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the world. North America leads the global advanced authentication market owing to concentration of leading players in this region.In February 2017, Leadership Compass report from KuppingerCole, a leading analyst firm for identity and access management, named CA Technologies a Leader in adaptive authentication. EGNYTE (U.S.) an American software company, which provides software for enterprise file synchronization and sharing, is offering advanced authentication bundle that provides users EGNYTE account with additional control and security over user login and password management. These optional features help companies adhere to a higher standard of business regulations and compliance.Europe holds the second position in the global Advanced Authentication Market. In 2016, Gemalto (the Netherlands), an international digital security company, launched the Gemalto Assurance Hub, which is a revolutionary approach to fraud prevention in online banking. Powered by machine learning, Gemalto Assurance Hub analyses the profile and the behavior of customers in real time. The platform only activates additional authentication measures when required, providing a smooth user experience. Atos Corporation (France), a leading digital transformation company, is planning to launch a new ultra-secure authentication method in its Evidian Enterprise SSO solution. It now uses the Nymi Band, an authentication wristband based on a person's heartbeat, to enable Always-On-Authentication. In partnership with Nymi, the leader in wearable authentication devices and creator of the Nymi Band, Atos is now offering users a new way to securely access their data and critical applications via multi-factor authentication.Since Asia Pacific is at a growing stage and moving towards digitalization, many of the market players like Mastercard, CA Technologies and others are expanding their operations in the Asian region.Segmentation:The global advanced authentication market is segmented into solution, product, deployment, and end-users. The product segment is sub-segmented into software, hardware, and services. The hardware covers a wide range of hardware tokens, biometrics, smart cards, and others. The hardware token sometimes referred as security token. It is a physical device given to an authorized user of computer services to ease authentication. The hardware token is used in addition to or in place of a password to prove that the customer is genuine.The token acts as an electronic key to access payment services. The biometrics is an authentication method that uses fingerprint, facial scans, and IRIS, or voice recognition technology to identify users. It is most often used as a form of authentication in a broader two-factor or multifactor authentication system since most biometric implementations also require employees to enter user IDs and passwords. Biometrics can be used for both physical access to corporate buildings and internal access to enterprise computers and systems.By Solution: Single Factor Authentication Multi-Factor AuthenticationBy Deployment: On-Premise CloudBy Product: Hardware- Biometrics- Smart cards- Hardware Tokens- Mobile Smart Credentials Software ServicesBy Industries: BFSI Government Retail Engineering & UtilitiesBy Region: North America Europe Asia Pacific Rest of the worldAccess Report Details @Intended Audience: Software Developers Testing Cloud Providers Banks Database Solutions IT EnablersTable of Contents1 Market Introduction1.1 Introduction1.2 Scope of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions1.2.3 Limitations1.3 Market Structure2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Global Advanced Authentication2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research2.4 Forecast Model2.4.1 Market Data Collection, Analysis & Forecast2.4.2 Market Size EstimationContinuedList of TablesTable 1 Global Advanced Authentication Market, By SolutionTable 2 Global Advanced Authentication Market, By DeploymentTable 3 Global Advanced Authentication Market, By ProductContinuedList of FiguresFigure 1 Research DeploymentFigure 2 Global Advanced Authentication Market, By Solution (%)Figure 3 Global Advanced Authentication Market, By Deployment (%)ContinuedAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our clients 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 Solutions, 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 FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comRubber Tracks for Defense and Security Market Segment by Applications, Manufacturers, Regions and Forecast to 2025

Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Market Segment by Applications, Manufacturers, Regions and Forecast to 2025.Description:In this report, the global Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security 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 Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGet a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comGlobal Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingSoucy InternationalOcean Rubber FactoryCOECA SAWilliam Cook HoldingLS Mtron LtdGMT RubberMetal Technic...On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoRubber Band TrackRubber Pin TrackOn 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, includingTankAPCIFV/AIFVReconsOthersComplete Report Details @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsGlobal Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Market Research Report 20181 Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security1.2 Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Rubber Band Track1.2.4 Rubber Pin Track1.3 Global Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Segment by Application1.3.1 Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Tank1.3.3 APC1.3.4 IFV/AIFV1.3.5 Recons1.3.6 Others1.4 Global Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security 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 Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)7 Global Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Soucy International7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Soucy International Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Ocean Rubber Factory7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Ocean Rubber Factory Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 COECA SA7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 COECA SA Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 William Cook Holding7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 William Cook Holding Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 LS Mtron Ltd7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 LS Mtron Ltd Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 GMT Rubber7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 GMT Rubber Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Metal Technic7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Metal Technic Rubber Tracks for Defense and Security Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business OverviewContinueFor more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.An open letter to city and county leaders: On Nov. 28, I wrote to you about the growing number of homeless encampments along the Napa River, throughout the city of Napa. Your response was swift and the dozen or so encampments stretching from the Third Street Bridge down to the Imola Avenue overpass on the eastern side of the riverbank were removed.

Unfortunately, over these past three months, the same volume of homeless encampments have resurfaced again, along the Napa River and behind the area where the new Clinic Ole facility is being built, along the railroad tracks.

I have notified the city three times over these past three months about the continuing spread of homeless encampments and the spread of trash on the perimeter of each of those encampments. A few weeks ago, I called the office of (police department homeless outreach coordinator Brandon Gardner) to report a campfire at one of the encampments on the west side of the Napa River bank, just off of South Coombs Street, opposite the CVS drug store.

While the fire was extinguished, that encampment has returned and spread along the riverbank along with six others from underneath the Imola overpass, to up the South Coombs Street side of the riverbank. Recently, I counted at least six such encampments, with garbage strewn along the river in an environmentally sensitive area.IoT Chip Market Forecasting CAGR of 14.75% From 2018 to 2024 by Top Key Players MediaTek Inc., Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Texas Instruments Incorporated and More

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The report covers the current scenario and the future growth prospects of the IoT Chip Market for 2018-2024. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.Global IoT Chip Market accounted for USD 7.07 billion in 2016 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 14.75% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2014, 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.Request For Free Sample Report @Global IoT Chip Market By Hard ware (Sensor, Processor, Memory Device, Connectivity IC, Logic Device), End User (Wearable Devices, Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Building Automation, Industrial, Agriculture, Oil & Gas, Automotive & Transportation, Retail), Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa) and Forecast to 2024.Competitive Landscape:The global IoT chip market is highly fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market.Major Market Competitors:Some of the major players in global IoT chip market include Intel Corporation, MediaTek Inc., Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Texas Instruments Incorporated, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Renesas Electronics Corporation, Microchip Technology Inc. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., NXP Semiconductors, NVIDIA Corporation, Cypress Semiconductor Corporation and STMicroelectronics among others.Market Definition:IoT chip includes sensor, different types of processors, interface IP, ASICs in cloud for packaging and many more. These are meant for security and safety concerns which comes in the application of medical devices, consumer electronics, wearable devices, automotive and transportation.Inquiry Before Buying @Major Market Drivers:Expansion in the wearable device marketGrowing demand for flexible Soc type designs and application specific MCUsGovernment funding and increase in the investment of IoTMajor Market Restraints:Rising concern in regards of security concernScope of the Report @On the basis of hardware, global IoT chip market is segmented into sensor, processor, memory device, connectivity IC and logic device. Sensor is sub segmented into heart rate, blood glucose, blood oxygen, flow, level, temperature, pressure, inertial measurement unit (IMU), humidity, chemical and gas electrocardiogram (ECG), ambient light, motion and position, accelerometer and image sensor. Memory device is sub segmented into static random access memory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Processor is sub segmented into microcontroller (MCU), digital signal processor (DSP) and application processor (AP). Connectivity IC is sub segmented into bluetooth, zigbee, Wi-Fi, cellular network, ANT+, bluetooth smart/bluetooth low energy (BLE), near-field communication (NFC), ethernet, ISA100, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) module, enocean, thread and wireless highway addressable remote transducer (WHART).On the basis of end user, global IoT chip market is segmented into wearable devices, consumer electronics, healthcare, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), building automation, industrial, agriculture, oil and gas, automotive and transportation and retail. Wearable device is sub segmented into smartwatches, smart glasses activity monitors and wearable cameras. Consumer electronics is sub segmented into refrigerator, washing machine and Hi-Res television. Healthcare is sub segmented into wearable injector blood pressure monitor, blood glucose meter, pulse oximeter, multi-parameter monitor, fitness and heart rate monitor, programmable syringe pump, continuous glucose monitor and automated external defibrillator. Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) is sub segmented into mobile point of sale (mPOS) and kiosks.Building Automation is sub segmented into daylight sensors, smoke detectors, occupancy sensors, IP cameras, lighting control actuators, smart locks, smart thermostats, gateways and smart meters. Industrial is sub segmented into self-learning industrial robots and industrial motes. Oil and Gas is sub segmented into wireless sensors for oil and gas. Automotive & Transportation is sub segmented into connected cars and intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Retail is sub segmented into smart beacons.On the basis of geography, the global IoT chip market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies such as North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East and 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.View Full Report @Related ReportGlobal Data Center Interconnect Market Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Data Center Interconnect market, By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa), By Type {Product (Packet Switching Networking, Packet Optical Transport/Packet Optical Networking, Converged Packet Optical), Software, Services (Professional Services, Managed Services)}; By Application (Real-Time Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, Shared Data and Resources/Server High-Availability Clusters (Geoclustering), Workload (VM) and Data (Storage) Mobility) By End-Users (Communication Service Providers, Carrier Neutral Providers/Internet Content Providers, Government, Enterprises)  Industry 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.comEthyl Linalyl Acetate Market to Record Study Growth by 2024

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Ethyl linalyl acetate is a colorless, clear liquid chemical used as a perfuming agent and fragrance ingredient. It is a more refined alternative to linalyl acetate. Ethyl linalyl acetate is one of the most versatile and useful esters. It is softer, floral, more bergamot and less lavender than linalyl acetate and has an elegant, refreshing effect in floral bouquets. Ethyl linalyl acetate is increasingly being in perfumery, and seems not only to substitute linalyl acetate in many cases, but is useful in many applications. On the other hand, linalyl acetate has limitations in soaps and floral fragrances. The compound has greater stability, richer odor, and better tenacity. It also blends excellently with the conventional perfume and soap perfume materials with almost no limits of application. To the perfumer, ethyl linalyl acetate represents a source of fragrances, which no other material can provide. A good grade of ethyl linalyl acetate has soft sweetness quite different from its isomeric primary alcohols, geraniol, or citronellol. Furthermore, it serves as a natural and desirable top note in perfumes as it has lower boiling point than these alcohols. Its esters, particularly the acetate, impart predominant note in essential oils such as bergamot, and lavender. Ethyl linalyl acetate is an excellent base for old-fashioned but still popular cologne-type fragrances.View Report Preview:Ethyl linalyl acetate is used in large quantities in soap and detergent products, and has been found to be stable and non-discoloring. Additionally, its mellow character and fresh odor are of value in giving a natural character to perfumes based on synthetic aromatics. These properties extend the use of ethyl linalyl acetate to a wide range of floral and non-floral fragrances. Ethyl linalyl acetate is also employed in large quantities in soaps and detergents, including liquids of high alkalinity. Furthermore, fragrance compositions add fresh smell of pine to exotic top notes to fine perfumes and household cleaning products. The ethyl linalyl acetate market is expected to experience healthy growth during the forecast period. It is primarily driven by the demand from companies that manufacture food and beverages, cosmetics, perfumes, toiletries, and household products. Additionally, emerging middle class in developing countries is a key driver boosting the ethyl linalyl acetate market. Growth in the market is dependent on the availability and geographical distribution of flavors and fragrances among consumers. Furthermore, manufacturing aroma chemicals by chemical synthesis has opened up a branch of chemistry.Based on end-use type, the global ethyl linalyl acetate market has been divided into soaps and detergents industry, cosmetics and toiletries industry, fine fragrances industry, and household cleaners and air fresheners industry. The global ethyl linalyl acetate market has been witnessing growth in recent years due to the increasing demand for natural ingredients. Additionally, several factors contribute to the growth of the flavors and fragrances market, including worldwide rise in industrialization, which is leading to large-volume production of flavored or scented products such as processed foods and beverages, personal care products, soap, detergents, oral hygiene products, and household cleaners. Despite the various advantages offered by flavors and fragrances, some restraining factors hamper the market. These include fluctuation in raw material prices.Asia Pacific dominated the global ethyl linalyl acetate market in terms of revenue in 2015. India and China are projected to exhibit rapid growth, boosting the usage of flavors and fragrances in the region. Furthermore, developing regions continue to acquire an increasing share of the global market. This creates vast market opportunities. Leading flavor and fragrance manufacturers are expected to continue to make investments in these areas. The ethyl linalyl acetate market is expected to expand at a rapid pace in developing countries; however, industrialized countries are slated to continue to account for the majority of demand. For instance, the U.S. alone accounted for around one-third share of total demand in 2015. Other countries with significant share of the market include China, Japan, France, Germany, and India.Key players operating in the ethyl linalyl acetate market include BASF, Bell Flavors & Fragrances, China Flavors & Fragrances, and CPL Aromas.Request to view Sample Report: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.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Global Commercial Greenhouse Market - Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2013-2016 and Forecast 2017-2024

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Global Commercial Greenhouse Market: By Greenhouse Type (Plastic Greenhouse and Glass Greenhouse), By Equipment (Cooling Systems, Heating Systems, and Others), By Crop Type (Nursery Crops, Flowers & Ornaments, Fruits & Vegetables, and Others), and Geography - Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2013-2016 and Forecast 2017-2024Market Outline: Commercial Greenhouse MarketCommercial greenhouse is a structure made chiefly with roof and walls by using transparent material such as glass, where plant requiring climatic conditions are developed. The size is varied from small shed to industrial-sized buildings. Majority of these greenhouses have high technology production facilities for flowers and vegetables. These are filled with equipment such as heating, cooling, screening installations, and lighting among others. Commercial greenhouses provide better yield compared to traditional agriculture methods.Market Dynamics: Commercial Greenhouse MarketIncrease in the demand for food consumption, decrease in arable land due to increase in population, sudden changes in environmental conditions, and rise in demand for vertical or rooftop farming are anticipated to fuel the commercial greenhouse market. Moreover, higher yield of products compared to traditional agriculture, rapid urbanization, and technological advancements are propel the commercial greenhouse market over the forecast period. However, high cost of greenhouse set up especially for HVAC systems and LED grow lights, and lack of awareness about commercial greenhouse in undeveloped regions are impede the growth of commercial greenhouse market over the forecast timeframe.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Scope: Commercial Greenhouse MarketCommercial greenhouse market segmented based on greenhouse type, equipment, and crop typeBased on the greenhouse type, commercial greenhouse market segmented into the following: Plastic greenhouse Glass greenhouseBased on the equipment, commercial greenhouse market segmented into the following: Cooling systems Heating systems OthersBased on the crop type, commercial greenhouse market segmented into the following: Nursery crops Flowers & ornamentals Fruits & vegetables OthersMarket Summary: Commercial Greenhouse MarketCommercial greenhouse market is expected to expand at a significant CAGR owing to increase in urbanization coupled with decrease in arable land. Increase in preference for rooftop farming in developed countries, rise in demand for food consumption, and technological advancements in the greenhouse farming are expected to propel the revenue of commercial greenhouse market. Moreover, companies are focused on the acquisitions and mergers, collaborations, and innovative products are the strategies followed by the companies for increasing their revenue in commercial greenhouse market. For instance, in October 2016, Gibralter Industries, Inc. acquired Nexus Corporation for strengthening its position in United States commercial greenhouse market. In addition, in February 2013, Rough Brother Inc. and Golden Pacific Structures have inked an agreement to merge their business under Rough Brother Greenhouse line.Regional Analysis: Commercial Greenhouse MarketGlobal commercial greenhouse market segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. North America commercial greenhouse market is growing due to increase in the preference for rooftop farming, changes in environmental conditions, and innovation of modern technologies in greenhouse equipment. Europe commercial greenhouse market is rising due to adoption of greenhouse automation technologies, rise in R&D activities in Europe. Greenhouse automation, material handling, and lighting, and increase in agriculture production in France, UK, and Germany are witnessed to boost the market. Asia-Pacific commercial greenhouse market has a significant growth attributed to adoption of greenhouse farming techniques, increase in food consumption due to rise in population, and rapid urbanization are fuel the market. Latin America commercial greenhouse market is projected to grow due to sudden changes in environmental condition leads to crop damage, better product yield comparable with traditional agriculture methods, and adoption of newer technologies are increase the revenue of commercial greenhouse market. Middle East and Africa commercial greenhouse market is upsurge due to government support for greenhouse farming. For instance, in August 2017, Taraba state government (Nigeria), launched greenhouse farming and harvesting of exotic vegetables for sale in within and outside Nigeria.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Competition Assessment: Commercial Greenhouse MarketKey player profiles in the global commercial greenhouse market include: Argus control systems ltd. (U.S) Lumigrow (U.S.) Richel Group SA (France) Logiqs (The Netherlands) Rough Brothers, Inc. (U.S.) Heliospectra AB (Sweden) Certhon (U.S.) Hort Americas, LLC (U.S.) Gibralter Industries (U.S.)Notable Market Developments: Commercial Greenhouse Market In October 2017, Rough Brothers, Inc. launched HopsHouse, a greenhouse designed for hopes productionKey Features of the Report: The report provides granular level information about the market size, regional market share, historic market (2013-2016) and forecast (2017-2024) The report covers in-detail insights about the competitors overview, company share analysis, key market developments, and their key strategies The report outlines drivers, restraints, unmet needs, and trends that are currently affecting the market The report tracks recent innovations, key developments and startups details that are actively working in the market The report provides plethora of information about market entry strategies, regulatory framework and reimbursement scenario The report analyses the impact of socio-political environment through PESTLE Analysis and competition through Porters Five Force Analysis in addition to recent technology advancements and innovations in the marketCommercial Greenhouse Market Report Description:Commercial Greenhouse market report gives a comprehensive outlook of greenhouse farming and adoption across the globe with special emphasis on key regions such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). This report on commercial greenhouse market gives historical, current, and future market sizes (US$ Mn) of greenhouse type, equipment, crop type, and geographic regions. This report studies commercial greenhouse market dynamics elaborately to identify the current trends & drivers, future opportunities and possible challenges to the key stakeholders operating in the market. In addition, commercial greenhouse market report covers newer product introductions and competition analysis with vividly illustrated competition dashboard to assess the market competition. Moreover, PBI analyzed commercial greenhouse market to better equip clients with possible investment opportunities across the regions (Regional Investment Hot-Spots) and market unmet needs (Product Opportunities). Key stakeholders of the commercial greenhouse market report include suppliers, manufacturers, marketers, policy makers engaged in manufacturing and supply of greenhouse and equipment.Need more information about this report @Detailed Report ScopeBy Greenhouse Type Plastic greenhouse Glass greenhouseEquipment Cooling systems Heating systems OthersCrop type Nursery crops Flowers & ornamentals Fruits & vegetables OthersGeographyo North America U.S Canadao Europe Germany France U.K Italy Spain Russia Poland Rest of Europeo Asia-Pacific Japan China India Australia & New Zealand ASEAN (Includes Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Others) South Korea Rest of Asia-Pacifico Latin America Brazil Mexico Argentina Venezuela Rest of Latin Americao Middle East and Africa (MEA) Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries Israel South Africa Rest of MEAGet access to full summary @About Precision Business InsightsPrecision Business Insights is one of the leading market research and business consulting firm, which follow a holistic approach to solve needs of the clients. We adopt and implement proven research methodologies to achieve better results. We help our clients by providing actionable insights and strategies to make better decisions. We provide consulting, syndicated and customised market research services based on our client needs.Contact to Precision Business Insights,Kemp House,152  160 City Road,London EC1V 2NXEmail: sales@precisionbusinessinsights.comToll Free (US): +1-866-598-1553Website @Florol Market Growth to be Driven by Technological Advancements 2024

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Florol is a group of fragrance chemicals with the IUPAC name 4-methyl-2-(2-methylpropyl)oxan-4-ol. It is used in the manufacture of perfumes and other odorous products. The molecular formula for florol is C10H20O2 and the molecular weight of the compound is 172.26. Florol is a member of the hydroxypyran chemical family and is structurally related to rose oxide. Florol is found as a colorless to pale yellow oily liquid. It is also commercially known by its other names including muguetol, floriffol, floral pyranol, and floros. Florol is part of the group of odorous chemicals with the floral scent that is found in flowers such as lily of the valley. There are four types of florol isomers, each having a slightly different odor and intensity. Florol compounds do not require a stabilizer when used in perfumes and show tenacity for around three days on a smelling strip. Florol is soluble in alcohol and water, either of which can be used as a base carrier for the compound in its applications.View Report Preview:Florol can be isolated from flower petals; however, the source material for its commercial manufacture is petrochemicals. Florol is generally manufactured by the Prins reaction, which involves the reaction between isoprenol and isovaleraldehyde. Alternatively, the compound can be prepared by the cyclization of derivatives of the reactants used in the Prins reaction. Florol can also be used as a building block in the manufacture of another fragrance compound called Clarycet. Clarycet has the scent of herbal-floral with a hint of dried fruit. Florol can also be used to replace volatile odorous chemicals such as floral aldehydes, as the compound is a stable and substantive chemical building block. Florol is used in the manufacture of several perfumes of well-known perfume brands such as Romance (Ralph Lauren8) 3%, XS for her (Paco Rabanne) 0.5%, LEau dEden (Cacharel) 0.16%, Dazzling Gold (Estee Lauder) 8.5%,O oui (Lancome) 5.5%, Jadore (Dior) 5.6%, LEau de Kenzo masc (Kenzo) 1%, and Fragile (Jean Paul Gaultier) 2.7%. Apart from perfumes, florol is also used to impart fragrance to products such as shampoos, shower gels, body soaps, and detergents.The global demand for florol is anticipated to increase in the next few years due to the growth in the perfume industry across the world. Increase in usage of soaps and detergents in many parts of the world is also expected to boost the demand for florol. Demand for florol is high in the large perfume manufacturing industry in Western Europe. Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, and the Benelux are the key consumers of florol in this region; several top perfume brands have their manufacturing facilities in Western Europe. However, environmental concerns about the chemicals used in the manufacture of perfume are expected to pose significant threat to the florol market in the region. Asia Pacific is anticipated to be one of the rapidly growing markets for florol during the next decade. The perfume manufacturing industry is expanding rapidly in countries such as China, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. This is likely to fuel the demand for florol. The use of florol in soaps and detergents is also rising in Asia Pacific. Demand for florol is also high in developed countries in Asia Pacific such as Japan and South Korea. Growth of the florol market in the U.S is likely to be sluggish, as the market in this country is at a mature stage. GCC is a key consumer of florol due to the high demand from the large perfume industry in the region. Other important countries in the global florol market are Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa.Key players operating in the florol market are Ernesto Ventos, Firmenich SA, Givaudan, Indukern F&F, Penta Manufacturing Company, The Good Scents Company, BASF SE, and Vigon International.Request to view Sample Report: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.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Linalool Market size in terms of volume and value -2024

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Linalool Market: OverviewLinalool belongs to the class of terpene alcohols, which are widely present in the plant kingdom. It is found in over 200 species of plants, particularly in the Lamiaceae family. This family of botanical plants includes mints and scented herbs. Linalool is also found in the Lauraceae family (rosewood, cinnamon, and laurels) and Rutaceae plant family (citrus fruits). These families are typically found in the tropical to boreal climate zones.View Report Preview:Linalool show intense effects on the nervous system. Hence, it is widely employed by herbologists and aroma therapists as a sedative, reliever of spasm of smooth muscle, and local anesthetic. It is also used for various skin ailments, such as skin inflammation, usually in the form of tea tree oil.Linalool is one of the most common terpene alcohol chemical found in spice plants. It is used in various commercial applications. It has also been found in some fungi and in the family Cannabaceae. Linalool offers pleasing aroma, similar to that of a floral fragrance, with a hint of spiciness.Linalool is also known as linalyl alcohol, p-linalool, -linalool, linalyl oxide, allo-ocimenol, and 3,7-dimethyl-1,6-octadien-3-ol.Linalool Market TrendsLinalool is commonly used as chemical intermediate. It is subsequently used as scent ingredient in most perfumed hygiene and cleaning products including soaps, lotions, detergents, and shampoos. It is also used by pest exterminators as an insecticide against insects such as cockroaches, fleas, and fruit flies.Linalool was also thought to be used in reducing anxiety. However, a study in 2008 showed unsuccessful results in proving linalool as an anxiolytic agent. It, instead, showed strong evidence of its sedative qualities.Vitamin E is a common downstream product of linalool.Linalool Market SegmentationBased on plant source (genus of the plant), the market for linalool can be segmented into Lavandula, Cinnamomum, Cannabis, Ocimum, Solidago, Artemisia, and Humulus.Based on product, the market can be divided into natural and synthetic.Based on application, the market for linalool can be segregated into essential oils, anti-inflammatory, anti-epileptic, sedative, analgesic, and others.Based on end-user industry, the market can be divided into spices, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics.Linalool Market: Region-wise OutlookThe market for linalool is well established and widespread across the world. North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe are the dominating regions in the global linalool market. The linalool market in countries in Southeast Asia such as Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines is anticipated to expand significantly during the forecast period. Budding economies of Asia Pacific and Latin America is one the major drivers for the development of linalool market. The local market in India holds significant share in the regional market and is said to be the strong suit for growth of the linalool market. Asia Pacific is alleged to dominate the growth in fragrance and flavor space during the forecast period. Latin America is likewise anticipated to promote the demand of linalool in the market. The rising demand for cosmetics, foods, household care and personal care products is projected to be one of the key factors propelling the demand for linalool market forward.Linalool Market: Key PlayersKey players operating in the linalool market include BASF, DSM, Arora Aromatics Pvt. Ltd., Menthaallied, Chemical Point UG, Axxence Aromatic GmbH, Fleurchem Inc., Ernesto Ventos S.A., Phoenix Aromas & Essential Oils LLC, The John D. Walsh Company Inc., Robertet Group, Elan-Chemical.com, and Aroma Chemical Services International GmbH.Request to view Sample Report: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.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Tridecyl Alcohol Market to Register Substantial Expansion by 2024

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Tridecyl alcohol can be classified under the category of isomers. More specifically, it can be called an isomer mixture. It is also known as tridecanol. It is commonly found in solid form and is combustible in nature. Physical characteristics of tridecyl alcohol include low melting point, which is normally close to the standard room temperature. Tridecyl alcohol is white in color and has pleasant aroma, which makes it useful for different applications. It is produced by hydrogenation of decanoic acid, which is found in significant quantities in coconut oil and palm oil. Tridecyl alcohol can also be synthesized using ethylene and an aluminum catalyst. Owing to toxic and combustible nature of tridecyl alcohol, special care is taken while handling it. It decomposes upon burning and produces irritable fumes. It also reacts violently with other chemicals such as chlorides and anhydrides.View Report Preview:Tridecyl alcohol can get absorbed in the body either by skin contact or by inhalation of its fumes. Short-term exposure to tridecanol can lead to irritation of skin and eyes, whereas high levels of tridecanol can have adverse effects on the central nervous system. Long-term exposure can cause skin degradation. There exist numerous applications of tridecyl alcohol such as industrial cleaners, stabilizers, pigment dispersers, de-foaming agents, and detergents. Based on product, the market for tridecyl alcohol can be segmented into wetting agents, surfactants, and emulsifiers. Based on enduse, the market has been segregated into cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, drilling products, plastics, textile, metallurgy, and paper.The market for tridecyl alcohol is anticipated to witness significant growth during the forecast period. This is owing to characteristics of the compound, which are utilized in several industries. The surfactants segment of the tridecyl alcohol market held a major share in 2015 and is projected to witness promising growth in the next few years. Surfactants are compounds employed to reduce the surface tension between a solid and a liquid or between two liquids. Surfactants can achieve this due to their amphiphilic nature, which makes them water-soluble as well as oil-soluble. Surfactants can be used as emulsifiers, foaming agents, detergents, wetting agents, and dispersants. This gives them an advantage over other products of tridecyl alcohol. The emulsifier segment held a low share of the tridecyl alcohol market in 2015. However, the segment is likely to expand during the forecast period, due to various uses of emulsifiers in industries such as pharmaceuticals and drilling products. In the drilling products industry, emulsifiers are used in the manufacture of several products such as drilling fluids, completion fluids, and workover fluids. Among enduses, the cosmetics segment holds a significant share of the tridecyl alcohol market. The segment is anticipated to expand at a significant rate during the forecast period, owing to the usage of tridecyl alcohol in the perfumes industry. As tridecyl alcohol has pleasant aroma, it is extensively used to manufacture perfumes across the globe.Geographically, North America held a significant share in the market for tridecyl alcohol in 2015. The market in the region is expected to expand at a significant rate in the next few years, owing to presence of major end-use industries in the region. Presence of major manufacturing companies in textile, pharmaceuticals, and drilling products industries is estimated to fuel the demand for tridecyl alcohol in North America during the forecast period. Europe follows North America in the market for tridecyl alcohol, owing to the robust cosmetics industry in Europe. Perfumes produced in Europe witness high demand all over the world. Thus, growth of the cosmetics industry would inadvertently boost the demand for tridecyl alcohol in the region. Asia Pacific is projected to offer high growth potential for the tridecyl alcohol market during the forecast period, owing to the increasing population of the region. This rise in population would boost the consumption of different end-use products of tridecyl alcohol including cosmetics, paper, plastics, and pharmaceuticals. Presence of robust plastic production industry in Asia Pacific is likely to further fuel the demand for tridecyl alcohol in the region during the forecast period.Key players operating in the market for tridecyl alcohol are BASF SE, Universal Preserv-A-Chem Inc., and Clariant International AG.Request to view Sample Report: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.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Image Sensor and Color Sensor Market by Manufacturers,Types,Regions and Applications Research Report Forecast to 2025

Image Sensor and Color Sensor Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Image Sensor and Color Sensor Market by Manufacturers,Types,Regions and Applications Research Report Forecast to 2025.Description:In this report, the global Image Sensor and Color Sensor 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 Image Sensor and Color Sensor in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesEUChinaJapanSouth KoreaTaiwanGet a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comGlobal Image Sensor and Color Sensor market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingSharp MicroelectronicsRohm SemiconductorTT ElectronicsOmronVishay Semiconductor Opto DivisionIntersilMaxim IntegratedAvago TechnologiesHitachi Ltd.Aptina ImagingOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoImage SensorColor SensorOn 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, includingAutomotiveConsumer ElectronicsDefense & AerospaceSurveillanceOthersComplete Report Details @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsGlobal Image Sensor and Color Sensor Market Research Report 20181 Image Sensor and Color Sensor Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Image Sensor and Color Sensor1.2 Image Sensor and Color Sensor Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Image Sensor and Color Sensor Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Image Sensor and Color Sensor Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Image Sensor1.2.4 Color Sensor1.3 Global Image Sensor and Color Sensor Segment by Application1.3.1 Image Sensor and Color Sensor Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Automotive1.3.3 Consumer Electronics1.3.4 Defense & Aerospace1.3.5 Surveillance1.3.6 Others1.4 Global Image Sensor and Color Sensor Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Image Sensor and Color Sensor Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 United States Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 EU 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 South Korea Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 Taiwan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Image Sensor and Color Sensor (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Image Sensor and Color Sensor Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Image Sensor and Color Sensor Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)7 Global Image Sensor and Color Sensor Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Sharp Microelectronics7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Image Sensor and Color Sensor Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Sharp Microelectronics Image Sensor and Color Sensor Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Rohm Semiconductor7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Image Sensor and Color Sensor Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Rohm Semiconductor Image Sensor and Color Sensor Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 TT Electronics7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Image Sensor and Color Sensor Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 TT Electronics Image Sensor and Color Sensor Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Omron7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Image Sensor and Color Sensor Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Omron Image Sensor and Color Sensor Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Vishay Semiconductor Opto Division7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Image Sensor and Color Sensor Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Vishay Semiconductor Opto Division Image Sensor and Color Sensor Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Intersil7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Image Sensor and Color Sensor Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Intersil Image Sensor and Color Sensor Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Maxim Integrated7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Image Sensor and Color Sensor Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Maxim Integrated Image Sensor and Color Sensor Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 Avago Technologies7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Image Sensor and Color Sensor Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 Avago Technologies Image Sensor and Color Sensor Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.8.4 Main Business/Business OverviewContinueFor more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.Potassium heptadecanote Market to increase rapidly by 2024

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The IUPAC name of potassium heptadecanoate is heptadecanoic acid. Potassium heptadecanoate has various synonyms such as heptadecanoic acid potassium salt (C17H33KO2). Heptadecanoic acid is a saturated fatty acid, and is also known as margaric acid (CH3(CH2)15COOH). Potassium heptadecanoate occurs as a component of fat and milk fat of ruminants. It does not occur in any natural vegetable or animal fat in much concentrations. Salts and esters of potassium heptadecanoate (heptadecanoic acid) are called heptadecanoates. Heptadecanoic acid (margaric acid) can also be used through the analysis of medium chain fatty acids from biomaterials such as seed oils and animal and plant oil.View Report Preview:Potassium heptadecanoates is primarily used in fatty acid from animal and plant oil or seed oil. Fatty acid is an unsaturated or saturated carboxylic acid, and is derived from triglycerides and phospholipids. It is said to be a vital source of fuel. As a source of fuel, several types of cell are use fatty acids. Fatty acids are also used in human nutrition, as deficit of fatty acids may lead to adverse biological effects in human body. Particularly brain, heart, and skeletal muscle are used fatty acids as a driving source. There are two types of fatty acids: those based on carbon bonds and length of free fatty acids. Fatty acids accounted for more than 40% of human fat, which is said to be unsaturated fatty acids. Fatty acids endure reactions similar to carboxylic acids such as esterification and acid base reactions.The potassium heptadecanoate market has been segmented based on application and region. In terms of application, the market has been divided into pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, paints, varnishes, synthetic organic detergents, rubber compounding, insecticides, textile chemicals, plastic fabrication, pulp and paper products, synthetic rubber formulations, and others. Pharmaceuticals are used as inactive ingredients in the preparation of drugs and for lipid formulation. Complex lipids are used in the manufacture of soaps, cosmetics, emulsions, and fat liposomes. These are also used in personal hygiene products.Rise in demand for personal and home care products in emerging economies in Latin America is expected to drive the potassium heptadecanoate market. Increase in demand for food and beverages in North America and Europe is also anticipated to boost market growth. On the other hand, occurrence of biological effects due to deficiency of fatty acids is estimated to hamper the potassium heptadecanoate market. Deficiency of fatty acid can lead to blood pressure problems, stroke, coronary artery disease, inflammation, etc.Based on region, the potassium heptadecanoate market has been segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is a key consumer and producer of potassium heptadecanoate. The market in the region is projected to expand significantly during the forecast period. Countries such as China, India, and Malaysia hold major share of the potassium heptadecanoate market in Asia Pacific. China accounts for more than 50% share of the market in Asia Pacific due to the high consumption of soaps and detergents in the country.Europe also constitutes prominent share of consumption of potassium heptadecanoate. The market in the region is likely to expand at a moderate pace due to saturation, price fluctuation, and changes in trends. Demand for potassium heptadecanoate is moderate in North America; therefore, the market in the region is expected to expand at a sluggish pace during the forecast period due to the presence of well-developed and established industries. Brazil holds key share of the market in Latin America. Emerging economies such as India, China, Indonesia, and Brazil are expected to account for prominent share of the potassium heptadecanoate market during the forecast period. The market in Europe is likely to expand moderately, due to the high imports mostly in Turkey.Key players operating in the potassium heptadecanoate market are Chengdu HappySyn Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd., 360 Reagent, Shanghai Yolne Chemical Co., Ltd., BePharm Ltd, BIOTREND Chemikalien GmbH, American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc., Angene International Limited, Lead Biotech (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd., and Bide Pharmatech Ltd.Request to view Sample Report: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 andAbout UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Methanesulfonic acid Market show exponential growth by 2024

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Methanesulfonic acid, also called methane sulfonic acid, is a colorless liquid considered to be an intermediate compound between sulfuric acid and methylsulfonylmethane. It can dissolve a wide range of metal salts. Methanesulfonic acid is a non-volatile and strong acid which is soluble in organic solvents and therefore used as an acid catalyst in organic reactions. It occurs in a liquid form at ambient temperatures, which adds a wide range of applications to its repertoire.View Report Preview:Based on application, the methanesulfonic acid market has been divided into the electroplating, medicine, and organic synthesis categories. Electroplating accounted for a significant share in the global methanesulfonic acid market due to the rising demand for electroplating in the fabrication sector. Medicinal applications of methanesulfonic acid are expected to experience a high growth rate, led by developments in the pharmaceutical sector. Industrial advancements are anticipated to drive the methanesulfonic acid market during the forecast period. It is a primary ingredient in rust and scale removers and also employed to clean the surfaces of tiles and ceramics.In terms of region, the global methanesulfonic acid has been distributed over Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Asia Pacific was a major market for methanesulfonic acid in 2015 and is estimated to expand due to the rising number of industries. The growing demand for methanesulfonic acid in the pharmaceutical sector is also likely to boost the need for methanesulfonic acid in Asia Pacific in 2015. Its applications are driven by the rising need for metal work and fabrication in industries. China and the U.S. are likely to constitute major shares in the methanesulfonic acid market in Asia Pacific and North America respectively due to the evolution in fabrication. The market is anticipated to witness a shift from developed countries to the developing economies of Asia due to the fewer stringent environmental regulations in the latter. China and India are projected to register a high growth rate in the methanesulfonic acid market due to the advancements in end-use sectors, technological developments, and new innovative products launched in these countries. Thus creating a huge demand for methanesulfonic acid in Asia Pacific for the forecast period.The global demand for methanesulfonic acid is anticipated to rise significantly in the near future, thereby offering immense growth opportunities for the market. The rapid rise in demand for this product in end-use applications, competitive manufacturing costs, and high economic growth rates are propelling the methanesulfonic acid market in Asia Pacific. These factors are attracting companies to adopt expansions and R&D strategies in the region. Market players are focusing on Asia Pacific to gain substantial market shares. Producers of methanesulfonic acid have been compelled to adopt expansion and acquisition strategies to meet the global demand. Several producers are shifting their plants to countries such as China and India due to the high demand and low raw material and labor costs there. The developments in various end-use sectors in the region have fuelled the requirement for methanesulfonic acid during the forecast period.Key players operating in the global methanesulfonic acid market are BASF SE, Oxon Italia S.p.A, Arkema Group, Langfang Jinshenghui Chemical Co.,Ltd, Zhongke Fine Chemical Co., Ltd, SHINYA CHEM, and HEBEI YANUO Bioscience Co., Ltd.Request to view Sample Report: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.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Dithianon Market to observe high growth by 2024

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Dithianon, a fungicide belonging to the quinone family, is used to control various pests. It acts as a conventional, protective, broad spectrum fungicide for apples, pears, and other fruits. The different types of pests it keeps a check on include Venturia, Plasmopara, Coryneum & Monilia & Taphrina, Botryosphaeria & Glomerella, and Podosphaera & Venturia. Dithianon is applied as a foliar spray on a surface to which it adheres well and offers excellent persistence when dried. This fungicide is generally consumed farming of fruits, crops and vegetables.View Report Preview:Based on disease, the dithianon market has been segmented into the following categories: scab, mildew, fruit rot, and others. Fruit rot accounts for a significant share in the global dithianon market due to rising prevalence of gloeosporium and penicillium expansum. The scab segment is expected to experience a high growth rate, led by the growth in bacteria such as venturia inaequalis and venturia pirina. Growing demand for apples and peers farming is predicted to boost the need for dithianon during the forecast period.Geographically, the global market has been distributed over Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Asia Pacific was a major market for dithianon in 2015. The market for fungicides in this region is estimated to expand due to the ever-increasing requirement for agriculture and farming. Scab held a large share in the dithianon market in Asia Pacific in 2015. There has been a surge in diseases caused by plants increased exposure to different types of bacteria. Rising disposable incomes in North America and Europe are projected to propel the dithianon market in these regions, especially in the U.S. and U.K., apart from new product launches. The product is anticipated to garner high demand in Europe, Asia Pacific, and Australia due to the widespread fruits market in this region. Developing economies in Asia Pacific, namely China and India, are also projected to register a high growth rate in the dithianon market due to the rising incomes of consumers. Promotional measures taken by the government to push the agricultural sector are also likely to fuel the demand for dithianon in developing countries, besides research and development advancements and innovation in terms of new products.Global demand for fungicides is anticipated to rise significantly in the near future, thereby offering high growth opportunities for the dithianon market. The rapid rise in demand from end-use applications, competitive manufacturing costs, and high economic growth rates are propelling the market in Asia Pacific. These factors are attracting companies to adopt the strategies of expansion and R&D in the region. Market players are focusing on Asia Pacific to gain larger market shares. The high agricultural growing in Asia Pacific region is expected to boost the demand for dithianon market for the forecast period. Producers of dithianon have been compelled to adopt acquisition strategies to meet the global needs. Several of them are shifting their plants to countries such as China and India due to the high demand and low raw material & labor costs there. This trends are expected to continue in the near future propelling high demand for dithianon market.Key players operating in the global dithianon market are AgChemAccess Limited, SIMAGCHEM, Haihang Industry Co., Ltd., Parchem fine & specialty chemicals, Krishi Rasayan Group, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC., and BASF ES.Request to view Sample Report: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.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:The vibrant colors of two side-by-shops in St. Helena are a feast for the eyes at Ottoman Art at 1226-1228 Main St. in St. Helena. There are Oriental rugs, hand-crafted Turkish ceramic plates, bowls and vases, exquisite Turkish boots and handbags, Turkish lamps, and many other Turkish imports such as Turkish towels, scarves, jewelry and soaps.

Ibrahim Agirman, who owns this mini-emporium, travels frequently back to Turkey on personal buying trips to renew his inventory and to renew his ties with the craftsmen of his native Turkey. But these days he calls the Napa Valley home, and his greatest desire, he said, is to share his love of the arts of Turkey. A visit almost always leads to stories of the artists who provide the unique crafts for his stores.

Agirman said he was born in Sivas Central Turkey, which is famous for the breed of large livestock guardian dogs called Kangal, and he quickly pulled up a photo on his computer to show their majestic stance. They are used to guard the sheep, he said with a smile.

It is also where he watched his mother and sisters weave beautiful rugs as a child, leading him to a career in the Oriental rug industry. Once you smell the dust of the rugs, he said. Its impossible to leave the business.

He moved to Istanbul, Turkey when he was 12 years old, graduated from high school, and formally entered the Oriental rug trade. By 1990 he had opened his first Oriental rug store in Istanbul near Hagia Sophia. He still owns that store in Istanbul, as well as a hotel which he manages from afar.

Agirman came to California 2011 and opened his second store in St. Helena, bringing with him the handmade Turkish Oriental rugs and Kilim rugs, handmade Iznik ceramics, Turkish mosaic lamps, Turkish Ottoman jewelry, and handmade Susanni boots. He said he also has clients in the eastern part of the United States, but he was drawn to St. Helena by the warmth of its climate. Istanbul can be cold, he said. It is, after all, on the same latitude as Chicago.

Wandering through Ottoman Art is a bit like prying open the history of Turkish craftsmanship. The display of the brightly colored Iznik plates is just one example.

These are replicas of Iznik ceramics that today reside in museums around the world, Agirman said. Then he cracked open a book showing the brightly colored fritware pieces in the British Museum, the Louvre in Paris, and numerous museums in Athens. The replicas in his store, handmade in Istanbul, represent periods stretching back to the glorious Ottoman Empire of the 15th-17th centuries.

Meanwhile, the mosaic and copper-clad lamps in the store radiate a spectrum of meditative light that seems to meld and calm the air.

Next door is the other half of Ottoman Art in St. Helena: the Ottoman Art Oriental rug shop.

Agirman explains that the nomenclature of Oriental is a bit of a misnomer, merely denoting only that it is from the East. Ottoman Art features wool and silk rugs from Turkey and some from Iraq, with distinctive patterns that are both traditional and what Agirman called a complete language.

In general the same regions use the same motifs, Agirman said. It is like people talking the same language. The motifs depend on the period which they belong in history and the place where they live. They are live words. The intricacy and beauty of the carpets, according to Agirman, are a testament to the skill and dexterity of the weavers, and a single small carpet may take up to two years to complete.

Rugs and carpets at Ottoman Art are hand-woven with natural fibers and dyes, according to Agirman. The quality of each piece is partially determined by the number of hand-tied knots. The more knots per square inch, the better the quality of the rug.

According to Ottoman Arts website, 150 knots per square inch is an average number, while a fine Oriental rug may have a knot count of 500 or more. The higher knot count allows permits greater density in the design, allowing leaves, flowers and curvilinear patterns to be woven in a complex manner. Typically Turkish rugs are double-knotted while Persian rugs are flat woven with a single knot called a Senneh knot. Its the combination of design, materials, technique, and size that differentiate the value of Agirmans Oriental rugs.

Of course, seeing the rugs laid out in a natural setting of the home is the ultimate test, according to Agirman. He says that often customers come in multiple times over weeks and months to experience first-hand the designs, feel their textures, and smell the rug dust before making a final selection.

And perhaps just as often they come to hear his stories about his homeland and maybe even a tale or two about the carpets that brought him to the Napa Valley.

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Nematicides Market

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Market Outline: Global Nematicides MarketNematicides are the chemical pesticides used in crops to control the growth of nematodes, which are a major reason for the crop loss. Nematicides increases the quality and yield of the agriculture products. Nematicides are available in the two forms which include fumigant and contact application. Apart from the protection of plants from parasites, nematicides also help in the increasing of soil fertility. The most commonly used nematicides are the fumigants, carbamates, and organophosphates among others.Market Dynamics: Nematicides MarketRapid industrialization leads to decrease in arable land, increase in global population demanding for quality food products, rise in the incidence of diseases caused by nematodes, technological advancements in organic farming practices are anticipated to fuel the nematicides market over the forecast period. Moreover, increasing the R&D activities for the innovation of newer nematicides, low cost of the products, and increase in awareness about the nematicides among farmers are expected to propel the revenue of nematicides market over the forecast period. However, stringent regulatory policies on synthetic nematicides, use of alternative products such as bionematicides, adverse effects associated with the nematicides, and high product development and registration cost are the factors hampering the growth of nematicides market.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Scope: Nematicides MarketNematicides market is segmented on the basis of nematicides type, product form, mode of application, and application areaBased on the nematicides type, it is segmented into the following: Organophosphates Fumigants Carbamates OthersBased on the product form, it is segmented into the following: Liquid SolidBased on the mode of application, it is segmented into the following: Spraying Irrigation Seed Treatment FumigationBased on the application area, it is segmented into the following: Industrial Agricultural OthersTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Market Summary: Nematicides MarketNematicides market is growing at a significant CAGR owing to increase in the prevalence of plant diseases and adoption of newer organic farming practices. Increase in the R&D activities for the development newer products and product approvals from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are the factors expected to propel the revenue growth of the market over the forecast period. Moreover, acquisitions and mergers, product launchings, and expanding the business around the globe are the strategies followed by the companies for increasing their revenue share in market. For instance, in May 2013, Syngenta AG launched Clariva, a seed treatment nematicide used to control the growth of nematodes in agricultural crops. Moreover, in August 2015, Bayer CropScience AG launched Velum Prime in Malawi market to destroy the parasites present in the plants.Need more information about this report @Regional Analysis: Nematicides MarketGeographically, nematicides market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. North America nematicides market driven by decrease in arable land, and increase in the production of fruits and vegetables in the region. Europe nematicides market occupies significant share due to increase in agriculture farming in Spain, France, and Germany, adoption of newer organic farming practices, and rise in R&D activities for the innovation of newer products. Asia Pacific nematicides market is an emerging region for market players due to high dependence on agriculture farming, increase in preference for high yield with better quality products, and decrease in arable land.Market Participants: Nematicides MarketSome of the players in market are Monsanto Company (U.S), BASF SE (Germany), The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), FMC Corporation (U.S.), E.I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company (U.S.), American Vanguard Corporation (U.S.), Valent Corporation (U.S.), Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd. (Israel), Syngenta AG (Switzerland), and Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha Ltd. (Japan) to name a few.Notable Market Developments: Nematicides Market In September 2017, American Vanguard Corporation has acquired Grupo Agricenter for the diversification of nematicides business in Latin America region In August 2017, Nufarm launched Saddler 350 SC, a nematicide used for the seed treatment in BrazilKey Features of the Report The report provides granular level information about The market size, regional market share and forecast from 2017-2024 The report covers in-detail insights about The competitors overview, key findings and Their key strategies The report outlines drivers, restraints, challenges, and trends that are currently faced by The industry The report tracks recent innovations, key developments and startups details that are working in The industry The report provides plethora of information about market entry strategies, regulatory framework and reimbursement scenarioGet access to full summary @About Precision Business InsightsPrecision Business Insights is one of the leading market research and business consulting firm, which follow a holistic approach to solve needs of the clients. We adopt and implement proven research methodologies to achieve better results. We help our clients by providing actionable insights and strategies to make better decisions. We provide consulting, syndicated and customised market research services based on our client needs.Contact to Precision Business Insights,Kemp House,152  160 City Road,London EC1V 2NXEmail: sales@precisionbusinessinsights.comToll Free (US): +1-866-598-1553Website @Oilseed Processing Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2013-2016 and Forecast 2017-2024

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Market Outline: Global Oilseed Processing MarketOilseed processing is carried to extract the edible and inedible vegetable oils used for human consumption, and preparation of cosmetics, lubricants, and biofuels. Edible oils are most commonly used in food industry and households. However, from last few years, due to decrease in non-renewable sources vegetable oils are used as biofuels. Oilseed processing is carried by either chemical extraction or mechanical extraction. Oilseeds are classified into low oil content seeds which have 20% oil and high oil containing seeds which have 60% or more oil. Generally, soybean, peanuts, poppy seeds, and hazelnuts are used for the extraction of oils.Market Dynamics: Oilseed Processing MarketIncrease in the household consumption of oil coupled with rise in global population, growth in number of food processing industries, and technological advancements in the oilseed processing are the factors driving the global oilseed processing market. Moreover, increase in the preference for biofuels usage in machinery and vehicles, wide range of applications in pharmaceutical industries, and change in lifestyle such as food preferences are anticipated to propel the oilseed market over the forecast period. However, stringent government regulations for production, exportation, and marketing of oil, change in environmental conditions, and fluctuations in the pricing of raw materials might restrain the growth of the market.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Scope: Oilseed Processing MarketOilseed processing market is segmented on the basis of seed type, process type, and applicationBased on the seed type,it is segmented into the following: Palm kernels Groundnuts Rapeseed Cottonseed Copra Sunflower seed SoybeanBased on the process type, it is segmented into the following: Mechanical process Chemical processBased on the application, it is segmented into the following: Feed Food Industrial Bio-fuelsTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Market Summary: Oilseed Processing MarketIncrease in the number of food and feed industries, rise in global population, and growing demand for biofuels are anticipated to drive the oilseed market. Companies are focusing on the modernization of plants to increase the capacity of oilseed processing. For instance, in 2016, Richardson International Ltd. invested approximately US$ 120 Mn in its plant in Lethbridge to modernize the facilities and raise the capacity of canola crush capacity. In addition, Increase in the exportation of edible oils and biofuels around the globe is a major factor driving the oilseed market. For instance, in 2017, Efko group, boosted its soybean oil exports to China about 6 times. In addition, in July 2015, CHS, Inc. acquired Northstar Agri Industries canola processing plant to reach more customers.Need more information about this report @Regional Analysis: Oilseed Processing MarketGeographically, oilseed processing market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America oilseed processing market is driven by increase in the farming of vegetables, modernization of oil processing plants, and huge number of food and feed industries presence in the North America region. Europe oilseed processing marketexpected to hold significant share due to increase in the demand for biofuels for vehicles and machinery, changes in lifestyle such as food habits, and rapid industrialization in food and feed industries. However, Asia Pacific is an emerging region for oilseed processing market due to demand in China and India for oilseed processed products such as soybean meal, growing demand for biodiesel, and rapidly growing economies in the Asia Pacific region might fuel the market.Market Participants: Oilseed Processing MarketSome of the players in market are Wilmar International Ltd. (Singapore), Archer Daniels Midland Company (U.S.), Richardson International Limited (Canada), CHS Inc. (U.S.), EFKO GROUP (Austria), Cargill (U.S.), ITOCHU Corporation (Japan), Bunge Limited (U.S.), and Ag Processing Inc. (U.S.) to name a few.Notable Market Developments: Oilseed Processing Market In March 2017, Bunge Ltd. acquired Cargills two oilseed processing plants in Netherlands and France to strengthening its business in Europe, Middle East and Africa In November 2016, Archer Daniels Midland Company reopened its oilseed processing plant in Ukraine to expand the business in sunflower seed processingKey Features of the Report The report provides granular level information about The market size, regional market share and forecast from 2017-2024 The report covers in-detail insights about The competitors overview, key findings and Their key strategies The report outlines drivers, restraints, challenges, and trends that are currently faced by The industry The report tracks recent innovations, key developments and startups details that are working in The industry The report provides plethora of information about market entry strategies, regulatory framework and reimbursement scenarioGet access to full summary @About Precision Business InsightsPrecision Business Insights is one of the leading market research and business consulting firm, which follow a holistic approach to solve needs of the clients. We adopt and implement proven research methodologies to achieve better results. We help our clients by providing actionable insights and strategies to make better decisions. We provide consulting, syndicated and customised market research services based on our client needs.Precision Business Insights mission is to provide high-quality market research reports and generate key insights to our clients. PBIs approachable strategies are to help clients to make key decisions for business growth.Precision Business Insights vision is to become most valued partner to fortune 500 companies by providing agile, accurate, and actionable market insightsContact to Precision Business Insights,Kemp House,152  160 City Road,London EC1V 2NXEmail: sales@precisionbusinessinsights.comToll Free (US): +1-866-598-1553Website @Swedish Healthcare Market Is Expected To Reach SEK 47.9 Billion ($5.15 Billion) In 2021

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An up-to-date research report has been disclosed by Market Research Hub highlighting the title CountryFocus: Healthcare, Regulatory and Reimbursement Landscape - Sweden which provides an essential source of information and analysis on the healthcare, regulatory and reimbursement landscape in Sweden. It identifies the key trends in the healthcare market and provides insights into the demographic, regulatory, reimbursement landscape and healthcare infrastructure of Sweden. Most importantly, the report provides valuable insights into the trends and segmentation of the pharmaceutical and medical device markets. It is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, secondary research, and in-house analysis by MRHs team of industry experts.Request For Free Sample Report:Sweden is one of the largest healthcare market, with a strong focus on pharma R&D. It spends approximately 11% of its GDP on healthcare. The pharmaceutical market increased from SEK36.2 billion ($4.76 billion) in 2009 to SEK42.6 billion ($4.98 billion) in 2016, at a CAGR of 2.4% in terms of Swedish Krona and 0.7% in terms of US dollars .It is expected to reach SEK 47.9 billion ($5.15 billion) in 2021. The Swedish medical device market was valued at $1.96 billion in 2009, which increased to $2.60 billion in 2016.The main segments in 2016 were in vitro diagnostics, ophthalmic devices, cardiovascular devices, healthcare IT and orthopedic devices. Introduction of new medicines for the treatment of Hepatitis C and reduced savings associated with patent expirations are the contributors to pharmaceutical market growth.ScopeThe report provides information on the healthcare, regulatory, and reimbursement landscape in Sweden, and includes -- An overview of the pharmaceutical and medical device markets, comprising market size, segmentation, and key drivers and barriers- Profiles and SWOT analyses of the major players in the pharmaceutical market (Novartis, Pfizer, Merck, Orifarm, AstraZeneca and Orexo) and profiles and SWOT analyses of the major players in the medical device market (Roche Diagnostics, Essilor, Medtronic, DePuy Synthes and GE Healthcare)- Detailed analysis about recent completed deals in the pharmaceutical and medical device market of Sweden- Porters five forces analysis for pharmaceutical and medical devices market of Sweden- An insightful review of the reimbursement and regulatory landscape, of which analysis includes details of the healthcare reimbursement process, the regulatory agencies and the approval processes for new medications and medical devices- Information regarding recent healthcare policies along with healthcare infrastructure and healthcare expenditure- An overview of the opportunities for and challenges to growth in the Swedish healthcare market.Browse Full Report with TOC:Reasons to buyThis report will enhance your decision-making capability by allowing you to -- Develop business strategies by understanding the trends shaping and driving the Swedish healthcare market- Drive revenues by understanding the key trends, reimbursement and regulatory policies, pharmaceutical market segments, and companies likely to impact the healthcare market in the future- Formulate effective sales and marketing strategies by understanding the competitive landscape and analyzing the performance of various competitors- Organize your sales and marketing efforts by identifying the market categories and segments that present the most opportunities for consolidation, investment, and strategic partnership- Identify, understand, and capitalize on the opportunities and challenges in the Swedish healthcare market.Table of Contents:Executive SummaryOverview of Pharmaceutical MarketOverview of Medical Device MarketDeals AnalysisPorters Five Forces ModelMarket AccessCountry Healthcare LandscapeOpportunities and ChallengesAppendixContinue@.......Enquire About This Report:About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of pharmaceutical market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News at -Soil Treatment Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012-2016 and Forecast 2017-2024

Soil Treatment Market

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Market Outline: Global Soil Treatment MarketSoil treatment is the process carried to improve the physical and biological content of soil which is degrading due to soil pollution. Soil pollution may also occur due to usage of agricultural chemicals, industrial activity, and improper disposal of wastage. Pollution of soil may leads to infertile soil and decrease in the quality and yield of the crops. Soil treatment is carried to overcome the difficulties caused due to the pollution and makes the soil fertile by balancing pH, increasing the moisture intention, and inducing the microbial growth. Various techniques are carried for soil treatment such as biological, chemical, and thermal are used individually or in combination.Market Dynamics: Soil Treatment MarketDecrease in the arable land around the globe due to increase in population, rise in demand for quality food products with better yield, government initiations for improving the crop production, and rapid industrialization leads to soil contamination are the factors expected to drive the soil treatment market over the forecast period. Moreover, increase in the awareness about the advantages of soil treatment and technological advancements in the soil treatment process are propelling the soil treatment market. However, stringent regulatory policies, lack of knowledge and information about soil treatment in underdeveloped countries, and emergence of biotech seeds into the market are expected to restrain the growth of soil treatment market over the forecast timeframe.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Scope: Soil Treatment MarketSoil treatment market is segmented on the basis of treatment type and technologyBased on the treatment type, it is segmented into the following: Soil Protectiono Weed Controlo Pest Control pH Adjusterso Aglimeo Gypsumo Others Organic Amendmentso Crop Residueo Sewage Sludgeo Animal Dungo Composto OthersBased on the technology, it is segmented into the following: Biological Treatment Thermal Treatment Physiochemical TreatmentMarket Summary: Soil Treatment MarketSoil treatment is necessary to improve the quality and yield of agriculture products. Government initiation for improving the crop production is expected to drive the treatment market. Moreover, competitors focusing on the development of novel soil treatment procedures with bioproducts. For instance, in March 2017, Insecticides India launched Kayakalp, a biological product transform the soil health to improve the productivity and plant health. In addition, acquisitions & mergers and product approvals are the strategies followed by the company for increasing the revenue of soil treatment market. For instance, in October 2013, Isagro S.p.A. received the U.S. Environmental protection agency approval for Dominus, used as a biopesticide and pre-plant soil treatment.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Regional Analysis: Soil Treatment MarketGeographically, soil treatment market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. North America soil treatment market is driven by increase in the preference for quality food products with better yield, rise in the production of fruits and vegetables, government initiations for improving the yield of products are factors driving the treatment market. However, a notable share observed in Europe soil treatment market, which is attributed to shrinkage of arable land due to rise in population, high dependence on exporting agriculture products in Europe region. Asia Pacific soil treatment market exhibiting significant growth due to increase in the agriculture farming coupled with rise in demand for quality food products, adoption of novel technologies in agriculture sector, and increase in the soil pollution due to industrial wastage.Market Participants: Soil Treatment MarketSome of the players in market are Syngenta AG (Switzerland), Arkema S.A. (France), Monsanto Company (U.S.), Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd. (Israel), BASF SE (Germany), AMVAC Chemical Corporation (U.S.), The Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), Soil Technologies Corp. (U.S.), Solvay S.A. (Belgium, Insecticides India Ltd. (India), Isagro S.p.A. (Italy), and Clean Earth, Inc. (U.S.) to name a few.Need more information about this report @Notable Market Developments: Soil Treatment Market In May 2016, Clean Earth, Inc. acquired Phoenix soil, LLC to strengthen the soil treatment service portfolioKey Features of the Report The report provides granular level information about The market size, regional market share and forecast from 2017-2024 The report covers in-detail insights about The competitors overview, key findings and Their key strategies The report outlines drivers, restraints, challenges, and trends that are currently faced by The industry The report tracks recent innovations, key developments and startups details that are working in The industry The report provides plethora of information about market entry strategies, regulatory framework and reimbursement scenarioGet access to full summary @About Precision Business InsightsPrecision Business Insights is one of the leading market research and business consulting firm, which follow a holistic approach to solve needs of the clients. We adopt and implement proven research methodologies to achieve better results. We help our clients by providing actionable insights and strategies to make better decisions. We provide consulting, syndicated and customised market research services based on our client needs.Precision Business Insights mission is to provide high-quality market research reports and generate key insights to our clients. PBIs approachable strategies are to help clients to make key decisions for business growth.Precision Business Insights vision is to become most valued partner to fortune 500 companies by providing agile, accurate, and actionable market insightsContact to Precision Business Insights,Kemp House,152  160 City Road,London EC1V 2NXEmail: sales@precisionbusinessinsights.comToll Free (US): +1-866-598-1553Website @Industrial Boilers Market Strategic Focus Report Growth by Top Global Leader-Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, 3M Company, Sika AG, H.B. Fuller, Ashland and Others

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Industrial Boilers Market Analysis to 2023 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Industrial Boilers industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Industrial Boilers market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Industrial Boilers market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Industrial Boilers players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Publisher projects that the Wood Adhesives market size will grow from USD 3.91 Billion in 2017 to USD 4.76 Billion by 2023, at an estimated CAGR of 0.033. The base year considered for the study is 2017, and the market size is projected from 2018 to 2023.Expansion of the furniture, woodworking, and construction industries, rising urban population, increase in remodeling & renovation activities, and recovery of the global economy are significant factors contributing to the growth of the global wood adhesives market.Request a Sample Report atIndustrial Boilers Market Players: Henkel AG & Co. KGaA 3M Company Sika AG H.B. Fuller Ashland Inc. Bostik SA Akzonobel N.V. The DOW Chemical Company Pidilite Industries Jubilant IndustriesBy Resin TypeNatural Resin Adhesives, Synthetic Resin Adhesives,By TechnologySolvent-Based, Water-Based, Solventless, Others,By ApplicationPlywood, Flooring & Decks, Particle Board, Windows & Doors, OthersThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Industrial Boilers market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2023 for overall Industrial Boilers market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Inquire before Buying atAlso, key Industrial Boilers 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 Industrial Boilers 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.Inquire for Discount atContact Us:Call: +91-20-67278686Email: info@reportsweb.comReportsWeb 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 Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Artificial Intelligence in Security Market Strategic Focus Report Growth by Top Global Leader-Nvidia, Intel, Xilinx, Samsung Electronics, Micron, IBM, Cylance, Threatmetrix, Securonix, Amazon and Others

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Artificial Intelligence in Security Market Analysis to 2023 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Artificial Intelligence in Security industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Artificial Intelligence in Security market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Artificial Intelligence in Security market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Artificial Intelligence in Security players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Publisher projects that the Artificial Intelligence in Security market size will grow from USD 3.92 Billion in 2017 to USD 20.01 Billion by 2023, at an estimated CAGR of 31.22%. The base year considered for the study is 2017, and the market size is projected from 2018 to 2023.High usage of the Internet and the constant need for employees to be online are contributing to the increasing incidents of cyberattacks as more number of computing devices are being connected to the Internet of Things. The artificial intelligence in security market, in this report, has been segmented on the basis of offering, deployment type, security type, security solution, technology, end-user industry, and geography. Among all offerings, software holds the largest share of the overall AI in security market owing to the developments in AI software and related software development kits.Artificial Intelligence in Security Market Players: Nvidia Intel Xilinx Samsung Electronics Micron IBM Cylance Threatmetrix Securonix Amazon Sift Science Acalvio Skycure Darktrace Sparkcognition Antivirus Companies High-Tech Bridge Deep Instinct Sentinelone FeedzaiRequest a Sample Report atBy OfferingSoftware, Hardware, ServicesBy Deployment TypeCloud Deployment, On Premise Deployment,By Security TypeEndpoint Security, Network Security, Application Security, Cloud Security,By TechnologyMachine Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Context Awareness Computing,The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Artificial Intelligence in Security market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2023 for overall Artificial Intelligence in Security market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Inquire before Buying atAlso, key Artificial Intelligence in Security 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 Artificial Intelligence in Security 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.Inquire for Discount atContact Us:Call: +91-20-67278686Email: info@reportsweb.comReportsWeb 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 Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Digital Signage Market by Top Manufacturers with Production-LG Display, Samsung Electronics, AU Optronics, BOE Technology, Innolux Corporation, Sharp, Japan Display and Others

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Digital Signage Market Analysis to 2023 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Digital Signage industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Digital Signage market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Digital Signage market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Digital Signage players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Digital Signage Market Players: LG Display Samsung Electronics AU Optronics BOE Technology Innolux Corporation Sharp Japan Display Panasonic HannStar Display Chungwa Picture TubessRequest a Sample Report atMajor applications are as follows: Banking Corporate EducationMajor regions are as follows: United States Europe China Japan IndiaThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Digital Signage market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2023 for overall Digital Signage market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Inquire before Buying atAlso, key Digital Signage 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 Digital Signage 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.Inquire for Discount atContact Us:Call: +91-20-67278686Email: info@reportsweb.comReportsWeb 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 Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Solar Cable Industry Global Production,Growth,Share,Demand and Applications Forecast to 2023

Solar Cable Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Solar Cable Industry Global Production,Growth,Share,Demand and Applications Forecast to 2023.Description:Solar Cable-Global Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 offers a comprehensive analysis on Solar Cable industry, standing on the readers perspective, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. No matter the client is industry insider, potential entrant or investor, the report will provides useful data and information.Key questions answered by this report include:Worldwide and Regional Market Size of Solar Cable 2013-2017, and development forecast 2018-2023Main manufacturers/suppliers of Solar Cable worldwide, with company and product introduction, position in the Solar Cable marketMarket status and development trend of Solar Cable by types and applicationsCost and profit status of Solar Cable, and marketing statusMarket growth drivers and challengesGet a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThe report segments the global Solar Cable market as:Global Solar Cable Market: Regional Segment Analysis (Regional Production Volume, Consumption Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate 2013-2023):North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanRest APACLatin AmericaGlobal Solar Cable Market: Type Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2013-2023):Copper coreAluminum alloy coreGlobal Solar Cable Market: Application Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume and Market Share 2013-2023; Downstream Customers and Market Analysis)ResidentialCommercialGlobal Solar Cable Market: Manufacturers Segment Analysis (Company and Product introduction, Solar Cable Sales Volume, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin):LAPP GROUPAllied Wire & CableGeneral CableEldraHUBER+SUHNER AGKBE ELEKTROTECHNIK GMBHLUMBERGMulti-ContactPHOENIX CONTACTAmphenol Industrial Products GroupNingbo Pntech New EnergyRam Ratna GroupTBEAReneSolaTaiyo CableAtkoreComplete Report Details @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsChapter 1 Overview of Solar Cable1.1 Definition of Solar Cable in This Report1.2 Commercial Types of Solar Cable1.2.1 Copper core1.2.2 Aluminum alloy core1.3 Downstream Application of Solar Cable1.3.1 Residential1.3.2 Commercial1.4 Development History of Solar Cable1.5 Market Status and Trend of Solar Cable 2013-20231.5.1 Global Solar Cable Market Status and Trend 2013-20231.5.2 Regional Solar Cable Market Status and Trend 2013-2023Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions2.1 Market Development of Solar Cable 2013-20172.2 Production Market of Solar Cable by Regions2.2.1 Production Volume of Solar Cable by Regions2.2.2 Production Value of Solar Cable by Regions2.3 Demand Market of Solar Cable by Regions2.4 Production and Demand Status of Solar Cable by Regions2.4.1 Production and Demand Status of Solar Cable by Regions 2013-20172.4.2 Import and Export Status of Solar Cable by Regions 2013-2017Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types3.1 Production Volume of Solar Cable by Types3.2 Production Value of Solar Cable by Types3.3 Market Forecast of Solar Cable by TypesChapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry4.1 Demand Volume of Solar Cable by Downstream Industry4.2 Market Forecast of Solar Cable by Downstream IndustryChapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Solar Cable5.1 Global Economy Situation and Trend Overview5.2 Solar Cable Downstream Industry Situation and Trend OverviewChapter 6 Solar Cable Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers6.1 Production Volume of Solar Cable by Major Manufacturers6.2 Production Value of Solar Cable by Major Manufacturers6.3 Basic Information of Solar Cable by Major Manufacturers6.3.1 Headquarters Location and Established Time of Solar Cable Major Manufacturer6.3.2 Employees and Revenue Level of Solar Cable Major Manufacturer6.4 Market Competition News and Trend6.4.1 Merger, Consolidation or Acquisition News6.4.2 Investment or Disinvestment News6.4.3 New Product Development and LaunchChapter 7 Solar Cable Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data7.1 LAPP GROUP7.1.1 Company profile7.1.2 Representative Solar Cable Product7.1.3 Solar Cable Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of LAPP GROUP7.2 Allied Wire & Cable7.2.1 Company profile7.2.2 Representative Solar Cable Product7.2.3 Solar Cable Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Allied Wire & Cable7.3 General Cable7.3.1 Company profile7.3.2 Representative Solar Cable Product7.3.3 Solar Cable Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of General Cable7.4 Eldra7.4.1 Company profile7.4.2 Representative Solar Cable Product7.4.3 Solar Cable Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Eldra7.5 HUBER+SUHNER AG7.5.1 Company profile7.5.2 Representative Solar Cable Product7.5.3 Solar Cable Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of HUBER+SUHNER AG7.6 KBE ELEKTROTECHNIK GMBH7.6.1 Company profile7.6.2 Representative Solar Cable Product7.6.3 Solar Cable Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of KBE ELEKTROTECHNIK GMBH7.7 LUMBERG7.7.1 Company profile7.7.2 Representative Solar Cable Product7.7.3 Solar Cable Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of LUMBERG7.8 Multi-Contact7.8.1 Company profile7.8.2 Representative Solar Cable Product7.8.3 Solar Cable Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Multi-ContactContinueFor more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.Herbal Supplement Market 2018  Global Sales,Price,Revenue,Gross Margin and Market Share

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Herbal Supplement Market 2018  Global Sales,Price,Revenue,Gross Margin and Market Share.Description:Herbal Supplement-Global Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 offers a comprehensive analysis on Herbal Supplement industry, standing on the readers perspective, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. No matter the client is industry insider, potential entrant or investor, the report will provides useful data and information.Key questions answered by this report include:Worldwide and Regional Market Size of Herbal Supplement 2013-2017, and development forecast 2018-2023Main manufacturers/suppliers of Herbal Supplement worldwide, with company and product introduction, position in the Herbal Supplement marketMarket status and development trend of Herbal Supplement by types and applicationsCost and profit status of Herbal Supplement, and marketing statusMarket growth drivers and challengesGet a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThe report segments the global Herbal Supplement market as:Global Herbal Supplement Market: Regional Segment Analysis (Regional Production Volume, Consumption Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate 2013-2023):North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanRest APACLatin AmericaGlobal Herbal Supplement Market: Type Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2013-2023):LeavesBarksFruits & VegetablesRootsGlobal Herbal Supplement Market: Application Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume and Market Share 2013-2023; Downstream Customers and Market Analysis)PharmaceuticalsFood & BeveragesPersonal CareGlobal Herbal Supplement Market: Manufacturers Segment Analysis (Company and Product introduction, Herbal Supplement Sales Volume, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin):Gaia HerbsHerb PharmNature's BountyNutraceuticalRainbow Light Nutritional SystemsArizona natural productsArkhopharmaBio-BotanicaBlackmoresi-HealthMegafood (FoodState)New ChapterPharma Nord APSPharmaviteRicola USASolgarSundown NutritionComplete Report Details @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsChapter 1 Overview of Herbal Supplement1.1 Definition of Herbal Supplement in This Report1.2 Commercial Types of Herbal Supplement1.2.1 Leaves1.2.2 Barks1.2.3 Fruits & Vegetables1.2.4 Roots1.3 Downstream Application of Herbal Supplement1.3.1 Pharmaceuticals1.3.2 Food & Beverages1.3.3 Personal Care1.4 Development History of Herbal Supplement1.5 Market Status and Trend of Herbal Supplement 2013-20231.5.1 Global Herbal Supplement Market Status and Trend 2013-20231.5.2 Regional Herbal Supplement Market Status and Trend 2013-2023Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions2.1 Market Development of Herbal Supplement 2013-20172.2 Production Market of Herbal Supplement by Regions2.2.1 Production Volume of Herbal Supplement by Regions2.2.2 Production Value of Herbal Supplement by Regions2.3 Demand Market of Herbal Supplement by Regions2.4 Production and Demand Status of Herbal Supplement by Regions2.4.1 Production and Demand Status of Herbal Supplement by Regions 2013-20172.4.2 Import and Export Status of Herbal Supplement by Regions 2013-2017Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types3.1 Production Volume of Herbal Supplement by Types3.2 Production Value of Herbal Supplement by Types3.3 Market Forecast of Herbal Supplement by TypesChapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry4.1 Demand Volume of Herbal Supplement by Downstream Industry4.2 Market Forecast of Herbal Supplement by Downstream IndustryChapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Herbal Supplement5.1 Global Economy Situation and Trend Overview5.2 Herbal Supplement Downstream Industry Situation and Trend OverviewChapter 6 Herbal Supplement Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers6.1 Production Volume of Herbal Supplement by Major Manufacturers6.2 Production Value of Herbal Supplement by Major Manufacturers6.3 Basic Information of Herbal Supplement by Major Manufacturers6.3.1 Headquarters Location and Established Time of Herbal Supplement Major Manufacturer6.3.2 Employees and Revenue Level of Herbal Supplement Major Manufacturer6.4 Market Competition News and Trend6.4.1 Merger, Consolidation or Acquisition News6.4.2 Investment or Disinvestment News6.4.3 New Product Development and LaunchChapter 7 Herbal Supplement Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data7.1 Gaia Herbs7.1.1 Company profile7.1.2 Representative Herbal Supplement Product7.1.3 Herbal Supplement Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Gaia Herbs7.2 Herb Pharm7.2.1 Company profile7.2.2 Representative Herbal Supplement Product7.2.3 Herbal Supplement Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Herb Pharm7.3 Nature's Bounty7.3.1 Company profile7.3.2 Representative Herbal Supplement Product7.3.3 Herbal Supplement Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Nature's Bounty7.4 Nutraceutical7.4.1 Company profile7.4.2 Representative Herbal Supplement Product7.4.3 Herbal Supplement Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Nutraceutical7.5 Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems7.5.1 Company profile7.5.2 Representative Herbal Supplement Product7.5.3 Herbal Supplement Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems7.6 Arizona natural products7.6.1 Company profile7.6.2 Representative Herbal Supplement Product7.6.3 Herbal Supplement Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Arizona natural products7.7 Arkhopharma7.7.1 Company profile7.7.2 Representative Herbal Supplement Product7.7.3 Herbal Supplement Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of ArkhopharmaContinueFor more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.Chemical Protective Wear Market 2018 Global Share,Trend,Segmentation and Forecast to 2023

Chemical Protective Wear Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Chemical Protective Wear Market 2018 Global Share,Trend,Segmentation and Forecast to 2023.Description:Chemical Protective Wear-Global Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 offers a comprehensive analysis on Chemical Protective Wear industry, standing on the readers perspective, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. No matter the client is industry insider, potential entrant or investor, the report will provides useful data and information.Key questions answered by this report include:Worldwide and Regional Market Size of Chemical Protective Wear 2013-2017, and development forecast 2018-2023Main manufacturers/suppliers of Chemical Protective Wear worldwide, with company and product introduction, position in the Chemical Protective Wear marketMarket status and development trend of Chemical Protective Wear by types and applicationsCost and profit status of Chemical Protective Wear, and marketing statusMarket growth drivers and challengesGet a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThe report segments the global Chemical Protective Wear market as:Global Chemical Protective Wear Market: Regional Segment Analysis (Regional Production Volume, Consumption Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate 2013-2023):North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanRest APACLatin AmericaGlobal Chemical Protective Wear Market: Type Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2013-2023):AramidPolyamidesPETPEEKPTFEPVDFOthersGlobal Chemical Protective Wear Market: Application Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume and Market Share 2013-2023; Downstream Customers and Market Analysis)Military and DefenseOil and Gas IndustryNuclear & Thermal Power PlantsMedicals and PharmaceuticalMiningFire Fighting IndustryAgricultureOthersGlobal Chemical Protective Wear Market: Manufacturers Segment Analysis (Company and Product introduction, Chemical Protective Wear Sales Volume, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin):DuPontLakeland IndustriesHoneywell InternationalMicrogard3M CompanyTejinRoyal Ten CateBulwark Protective ApparelKapplerDelta Plus GroupAnsellHelly HansenComplete Report Details @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsChapter 1 Overview of Chemical Protective Wear1.1 Definition of Chemical Protective Wear in This Report1.2 Commercial Types of Chemical Protective Wear1.2.1 Aramid1.2.2 Polyamides1.2.3 PET1.2.4 PEEK1.2.5 PTFE1.2.6 PVDF1.2.7 Others1.3 Downstream Application of Chemical Protective Wear1.3.1 Military and Defense1.3.2 Oil and Gas Industry1.3.3 Nuclear & Thermal Power Plants1.3.4 Medicals and Pharmaceutical1.3.5 Mining1.3.6 Fire Fighting Industry1.3.7 Agriculture1.3.8 Others1.4 Development History of Chemical Protective Wear1.5 Market Status and Trend of Chemical Protective Wear 2013-20231.5.1 Global Chemical Protective Wear Market Status and Trend 2013-20231.5.2 Regional Chemical Protective Wear Market Status and Trend 2013-2023Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions2.1 Market Development of Chemical Protective Wear 2013-20172.2 Production Market of Chemical Protective Wear by Regions2.2.1 Production Volume of Chemical Protective Wear by Regions2.2.2 Production Value of Chemical Protective Wear by Regions2.3 Demand Market of Chemical Protective Wear by Regions2.4 Production and Demand Status of Chemical Protective Wear by Regions2.4.1 Production and Demand Status of Chemical Protective Wear by Regions 2013-20172.4.2 Import and Export Status of Chemical Protective Wear by Regions 2013-2017Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types3.1 Production Volume of Chemical Protective Wear by Types3.2 Production Value of Chemical Protective Wear by Types3.3 Market Forecast of Chemical Protective Wear by TypesChapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry4.1 Demand Volume of Chemical Protective Wear by Downstream Industry4.2 Market Forecast of Chemical Protective Wear by Downstream IndustryChapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Chemical Protective Wear5.1 Global Economy Situation and Trend Overview5.2 Chemical Protective Wear Downstream Industry Situation and Trend OverviewChapter 6 Chemical Protective Wear Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers6.1 Production Volume of Chemical Protective Wear by Major Manufacturers6.2 Production Value of Chemical Protective Wear by Major Manufacturers6.3 Basic Information of Chemical Protective Wear by Major Manufacturers6.3.1 Headquarters Location and Established Time of Chemical Protective Wear Major Manufacturer6.3.2 Employees and Revenue Level of Chemical Protective Wear Major Manufacturer6.4 Market Competition News and Trend6.4.1 Merger, Consolidation or Acquisition News6.4.2 Investment or Disinvestment News6.4.3 New Product Development and LaunchChapter 7 Chemical Protective Wear Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data7.1 DuPont7.1.1 Company profile7.1.2 Representative Chemical Protective Wear Product7.1.3 Chemical Protective Wear Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of DuPont7.2 Lakeland Industries7.2.1 Company profile7.2.2 Representative Chemical Protective Wear Product7.2.3 Chemical Protective Wear Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Lakeland Industries7.3 Honeywell International7.3.1 Company profile7.3.2 Representative Chemical Protective Wear Product7.3.3 Chemical Protective Wear Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Honeywell International7.4 Microgard7.4.1 Company profile7.4.2 Representative Chemical Protective Wear Product7.4.3 Chemical Protective Wear Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Microgard7.5 3M Company7.5.1 Company profile7.5.2 Representative Chemical Protective Wear Product7.5.3 Chemical Protective Wear Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of 3M Company7.6 Tejin7.6.1 Company profile7.6.2 Representative Chemical Protective Wear Product7.6.3 Chemical Protective Wear Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Tejin7.7 Royal Ten Cate7.7.1 Company profile7.7.2 Representative Chemical Protective Wear Product7.7.3 Chemical Protective Wear Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Royal Ten Cate7.8 Bulwark Protective Apparel7.8.1 Company profile7.8.2 Representative Chemical Protective Wear Product7.8.3 Chemical Protective Wear Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Bulwark Protective ApparelContinueFor more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.In "Buried Truths," a new six-episode podcast, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Hank Klibanoff explores the case of Isaiah Nixon, an African American man killed for voting in Georgia in 1948. Photo courtesy WABE.

Editor's note: This article contains information that was reported by Emory Report and other media at the time, but will not be discussed until later episodes of the podcast.



A recent Emory College graduate was working as freelance producer at WABE Radio when she told a colleague about a wonderful course she had taken at Emory that was still on her mind: Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project, taught by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Hank Klibanoff. An idea sparked by that conversation has now grown into "Buried Truths," a new podcast series featuring Klibanoff and the project's work.

The class, which began in 2011, allows students to take an in-depth look at racially motivated murders that went unpunished in the Jim Crow South. It mixes journalism with history and African American studies, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Atlanta Magazine.

In fall 2015, students took a deep dive on the case of Isaiah Nixon, a 28-year-old farmer and father of six who dared to vote in Georgias Democratic Party primary in 1948, just two years after the U.S. Supreme court ruled Georgias all-white primaries unconstitutional.

Upon returning home from the polls, Nixon was killed in front of his wife and children. The perpetrators were brothers Jim and Johnnie Johnson, two white men who drove up to the Nixon house and coaxed Isaiah off his front porch to ask him two questions: Had he voted? And, Who for?

Then they shot him three times, one of them a fatal bullet to his abdomen. The brothers would be arrested, only to later be acquitted by an all-white jury.

Klibanoff, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for his book, The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation, talks at length and in-depth about this important cold case in Buried Truths, a six-episode podcast produced by WABE Radio that began airing March 26.

"At that time in our history, an act of voting was an act of protest," says Klibanoff. "It was a right that was deprived him, and he paid the price for voting, and that is something I think we are all resolved to never let happen again."

A pivotal time in Southern history

With Buried Truths, Klibanoff set out to explore the tragic death of Isaiah Nixon and also the South at a pivotal time in history. The podcast tells a story about elections, voting rights, intimidation, courage and violence that is as relevant today as it was 70 years ago.

It chronicles the sacrifices black citizens in rural Georgia made to exercise their right, and the lengths that others  including those in power and those who lived down the street  would go to suppress it.

Georgias track-record of equal treatment for African Americans under the criminal justice system is murky at best. There was, in the case of the Johnson brothers, the absolutely slam-dunk reliability in Georgia and throughout the South, to use the self-defense alibi whenever there was a white man was accused of killing a black man, says Klibanoff.

In court, the brothers claimed they were at Nixons house that day merely to hire him for a job, only to end up having to shoot him in self-defense. Despite the fact that the white sheriff even said the brothers were there to kill Nixon for voting, an all-white jury let one walk, then charges against the other were dropped.

I think people will come away from this with an understanding of how the people of the South, in particular, were far too easy when it came to listening to demagogues who were leading them down the wrong road, says Klibanoff. Demagogues need someone to bully, and they picked black people.

Eugene Talmadge, who Klibanoff talks about in Buried Truths, was a populist politician elected governor of Georgia four times by the mid-1940s, despite being a well-known segregationist with ties with the KKK. In his newspaper, The Statesman, Talmadge would write in all caps: This is a white mans country and we must keep it so.

I think we all know, but we dont really know, says Klibanoff. We know there was discrimination, and I can imagine talking to friends in the South who are right-minded, conservative people, and they would say, Yeah, we absolutely discriminated and that was an awful time, but they dont really understand the trouble that the white supremacists would go to build in all these trap doors for blacks. To make it impossible for them to get out of their circumstances.

Compelling questions

The Nixon family  including Dorothy Nixon Williams, who was six-years-old when she watched her fathers murder  fled Georgia for Florida not long after the killing. Williams, now 76, would grow up to marry and have children and become a psychiatric nurse.

The Nixons, like all of the families mentioned in Buried Truths who fled persecution in the South during that time, are devoted to this nation, says Klibanoff. They are optimistic, positive, religious and hell bent on never, ever failing to vote.

These families struggled, but as Klibanoffs story will show, against all odds they came out the other side. After the family left Georgia, Isaiah Nixons grave was lost to a past of injustice. In 2015, three students from Emorys Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project, along with Klibanoff, found Nixons final resting place.

One of the most uplifting discoveries of this whole process has been getting to know the Nixon family, says Klibanoff. The transformation of Dorothy Nixon, who carried so much anger for so many years, but as she said at her fathers gravesite, after she came to Emory and met the students and told the story, a lot of that anger went away. And when our students found her fathers gravesite? She said, Now its all released.

Klibanoff says that he doesnt have an agenda with the podcast beyond telling important, compelling stories, but people are absolutely linking it to present times. Those stories that deal with police action and police overreaction, people immediately connect to current times. Some of them are eerily related.

Buried Truths is a six-episode opportunity to connect with people outside of the walls of the classroom and allow them access to what Klibanoffs students have  the chance to revisit Georgias sordid racial and judicial past and see all of the white men and women in the pages of history who sat on the sidelines, watching it all happen and doing nothing.

Who were we as a people that we allowed this to happen? Thats the question we always have to ask ourselves, says Klibanoff. Thats always worth asking. Can I be a bystander on this, or do I need to engage?

The first episode of Buried Truths debuted on March 26 and new episodes will be released on Mondays. You can listen here and subscribe using your favorite podcast app.European healthcare Market is Forecast to Cross US$ 224 Billion By 2022

European healthcare Market Share

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New York, March 26, 2018:European Healthcare Market 2018The European healthcare Market is expected to exceed more than US$ 224 Billion by 2022 at a CAGR of xx% in the given forecast period.The scope of the report includes a detailed study of European healthcare Market with the reasons given for variations in the growth of the industry in certain regions.The report covers detailed competitive outlook including the market share and company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market.Key players profiled in the report include:Philips Healthcare (The Netherlands), Fresenious SE & Co KGaA (Germany), GE Healthcare (U.K.), B. Braun (Germany), Baxter International (U.S.), Roche (Switzerland), Air Liquide (France), Bupa Home Healthcare, Ltd (U.K.), Healthcare at Home (U.K.), and Linde Group (Germany). Company profile includes assign such as company summary, financial summary, business strategy and planning, SWOT analysis and current developments.Browse Full Report Here:The European healthcare Market has been segmented as below:By Product Type:o Home Care Testing, Monitoring and Screeningo HIV Kitso BP Monitorso Blood Glucose meterso ECG/EKG Deviceso EEG Deviceso Apnea and Sleep Monitorso Holter Monitorso Event Monitorso Drug & Alcohol Test Kitso Coagulation Monitorso Cholesterol Monitoring Deviceso Colon Cancer Test Kito Home Hemoglobin A1c Test Kitso Fetal Heart Rate Monitorso Pregnancy BP Monitorso Ovulation and Pregnancy Testo Home Healthcare Therapeutic Equipmento Home Respiratory Therapy Equipment Oxygen Delivery Systems Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Products Medical Nebulizer Kits and Devices Medical Ventilators and Accessorieso IV Equipmento Insulin Delivery Deviceso Dialysis Equipmento Mobility Assist & Other Deviceso Wheelchairs And Related Deviceso Walking Assist Deviceso Nutritiono Enteral Nutritiono Parenteral Nutritiono Fitnesso Heart Rate Monitorso Cardiovascular Exercise Equipmento Body Composition AnalyzersBy Regional Analysis: North America Europe Asia-Pacific Rest of the WorldThis report provides:1) An overview of the global market for European healthcare Market and related technologies.2) Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2015, estimates for 2016 and 2017, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2022.3) Identifications of new market opportunities and targeted promotional plans for European healthcare Market.4) Discussion of research and development, and the demand for new products and new applications.5) Comprehensive company profiles of major players in the industry.Request Sample Report:Table of Contents1 Introduction2 Report Summary3 Market Overview4 European healthcare Market Analysis, By Product Type4.1 Home Care Testing, Monitoring and Screening4.1.1 HIV Kits4.1.2 BP Monitors4.1.3 Blood Glucose meters4.1.4 ECG/EKG Devices4.1.5 EEG Devices4.1.6 Apnea and Sleep Monitors4.1.7 Holter Monitors4.1.8 Event Monitors4.1.9 Drug & Alcohol Test Kits4.1.10 Coagulation Monitors4.1.11 Cholesterol Monitoring Devices4.1.12 Colon Cancer Test Kit4.1.13 Home Hemoglobin A1c Test Kits4.1.14 Fetal Heart Rate Monitors4.1.15 Pregnancy BP Monitors4.1.16 Ovulation and Pregnancy Test4.2 Home Healthcare Therapeutic Equipment4.2.1 Home Respiratory Therapy Equipment4.2.1.1 Oxygen Delivery Systems4.2.1.2 Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Products4.2.1.3 Medical Nebulizer Kits and Devices4.2.1.4 Medical Ventilators and Accessories4.2.2 IV Equipment4.2.3 Insulin Delivery Devices4.2.4 Dialysis Equipment4.3 Mobility Assist & Other Devices4.3.1 Wheelchairs And Related Devices4.3.2 Walking Assist Devices4.4 Nutrition4.4.1 Enteral Nutrition4.4.2 Parenteral Nutrition4.5 Fitness4.5.1 Heart Rate Monitors4.5.2 Cardiovascular Exercise Equipment4.6 Body Composition Analyzers5 European healthcare Market Analysis, By Region6 Competitive Overview7 Company Profiles7.1 Philips Healthcare7.2 Fresenious SE & Co KGaA7.3 GE Healthcare7.4 B. Braun7.5 Baxter International7.6 Roche7.7 Air Liquide7.8 Bupa Home Healthcare, Ltd7.9 Healthcare at Home7.10 Linde GroupAbout UsMarket Research Engine (MRE) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. MREs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each Market Research Engines research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Media ContactCompany Name: Market Research EngineContact Person: John BayEmail: john@marketresearchengine.comPhone: +1-855-984-1862Country: United StatesWebsite:Address: 3422 SW 15 Street, Suite #8942, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442, United StatesHealthcare IT Integration Market is Expected To Be Worth US$ 3.50 Billion By 2022

Healthcare IT Integration Market Share

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New York, March 26, 2018:Healthcare IT Integration Market 2018The Global Healthcare IT Integration Market is expected to exceed more than US$ 3.50 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 10.0% in the given forecast period.The scope of the report includes a detailed study of global and regional markets for Global Healthcare IT Integration Market with the reasons given for variations in the growth of the industry in certain regions.The report covers detailed competitive outlook including the market share and company profiles of the key participants operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include Interfaceware, Avi-Spl Inc., Ibm Corp., Intersystems, Liaison Technologies, Orchestrate Healthcare, AGL Hospital Consulting, Siemens Healthcare, Cerner Corporation, Burwood Group, Oracle Corporation, The Sandino Group, LLC, and Boston Software Systems Inc. Company profile includes assign such as company summary, financial summary, business strategy and planning, SWOT analysis and current developments.You Can Browse Full Report:The Global Healthcare IT Integration Market has been segmented as below:By Type Analysis Services ProductsBy Product Analysis Interface/Integration Engines Media Integration Solutions Medical Device Integration Software Other Integration ToolsBy Service Analysis Support and Maintenance Services Training Services Implementation ServicesBy Application Analysis Hospital Integration Lab Integration Medical Device Integration Radiology Integration Clinics Integration Other ApplicationsBy Regional Analysis North America Europe Asia-Pacific Rest of the WorldThis report provides:1) An overview of the global market for Healthcare IT Integration and related technologies.2) Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2013, estimates for 2014 and 2015, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2022.3) Identifications of new market opportunities and targeted promotional plans for Global Healthcare IT Integration Market.4) Discussion of research and development, and the demand for new products and new applications.5) Comprehensive company profiles of major players in the industry.Request Sample Report:Table of Contents1 INTRODUCTION2 Research Methodology3 Executive Summary4 Premium Insights5 Market Overview5.1 Introduction5.2 Market Segmentation5.2.1 By Solution5.2.2 By Application5.3 Key Market Dynamics5.3.1 Market Drivers5.3.1.1 Integrated Healthcare Environment Will Enable Healthcare Providers to Curtail Healthcare Costs5.3.1.2 Strong Government Support and Initiatives5.3.1.3 Growing Need to Integrate Healthcare Systems5.3.1.4 Improvement in Patient Care and Safety5.3.2 Restraints5.3.2.1 Interoperability Issues5.3.2.2 High Cost of Healthcare Integration5.3.3 Opportunities5.3.3.1 Ehr Market Growth Provides Significant Opportunities for Integration5.3.3.2 APAC Region Offers Huge Potential for Healthcare IT Providers5.3.4 Challenges5.3.4.1 Integration of Healthcare IT Solutions Within Healthcare Organizations5.3.4.2 Data Security Concerns6 Industry Insights7 Global Healthcare Integration Solutions Market, By Type8 Healthcare Integration Market, By Application9 Global Healthcare IT Integration Solutions Market, By Region10 Competitive Landscape11 Company Profiles11.1 Introduction11.2 Infor, Inc.11.3 Cerner Corporation11.4 Quality Systems, Inc.11.5 Intersystems Corporation11.6 Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc.11.7 Interfaceware11.8 Orion Health11.9 Summit Healthcare Services, Inc.11.10 Epic Systems Corporation11.11 Oracle Corporation11.12 IBM11.13 Corepoint HealthAbout UsMarket Research Engine (MRE) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. MREs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each Market Research Engines research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Media ContactCompany Name: Market Research EngineContact Person: John BayEmail: john@marketresearchengine.comPhone: +1-855-984-1862Country: United StatesWebsite:Address: 3422 SW 15 Street, Suite #8942, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442, United StatesMacrolide Antibiotics Market Surpass 12.5% CAGR by 2023 | Says MarketResearchFuture.com

Macrolide Antibiotics Market

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The International Macrolide Antibiotics Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.5% during the forecast period from 2018-2023. Macrolides are a class of antibiotics derived from Saccharopolyspora erythraea. They inhibit protein synthesis in bacteria by binding to the 50S ribosomal element and effective against gram positive bacteria and intracellular pathogens such as Legionella, Mycoplasma, and Chlamydia. It primarily act as a bacteriostatic agent against many strains of Corynebacteria, Listeria, Moxicella, Streptococci, Neisseria meningitides, Staphylococci, Clostridia, and Haemophilus sp.The Global Macrolide Antibiotics Market exhibits a significant growth across the globe owing to the increasing prevalence of skin infections and growing demand for drugs against bacterial skin infections. Major concerns involved in the use of macrolide antibiotics are GI disturbances and inhibition of hepatic metabolism. According to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, macrolide antibiotics may increase the risk of sudden cardiac death, ventricular tachyarrhythmias, and cardiovascular death in patients, which may hinder the growth of the market over the review period.Get Exclusive Sample Copy @Regional Analysis of the Global Macrolide Antibiotics Market:The American region accounted for the largest share of the global market due to increasing prevalence of skin infections, and presence of prominent market players. The prevalence of bacterial skin infection increasing in the US from the last few years. Also, the number of visits to the emergency department has increased. Furthermore, increasing dose of antibiotics in number of out-patient settings in the U.S, which will drive the growth of the market over the forecast period.Europe is the second largest market that holds a noticeable share of the global macrolide antibiotics market. In France, prevalence of symptomatic cat-scratch disease has been increasing from the last few years.In Asia Pacific, prevalence of skin disease is found to be increasing in Japan. Rising prevalence of skin diseases, and growing awareness about the use of macrolides for the treatment of uncomplicated skin infections drives the market in Asia Pacific.The Middle East and Africa show steady growth in the macrolide antibiotics market.The Major Key players profiled in the report are Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp (U.S.), Pfizer Inc. (U.S.), Neo Quimica (Brazil), Macrolide Pharmaceuticals (U.S.), Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel), Fresenius Kabi USA (U.S.), Sandoz International GmbH (Germany), Gland Pharma Limited (India), Mylan N.V. (U.S.),and WOCKHARDT (U.S.).Browse Complete 200 Pages Premium Report Enabled with Respective Tables and Figures is Available @Major TOC for Macrolide Antibiotics Market Research Report - Global Forecast Till 2023:1 Report Prologue2 Market Introduction2.1 Introduction2.2 Scope of Study2.3 Research Objective2.4 Assumptions & Limitations2.4.1 Assumptions2.4.2 Limitations3 Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research4 Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restraints.TOC ContinuedFor Any Queries, Ask 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Multi-layering SMD Inductor Market Overview, Opportunities, In-Depth Analysis Overview, Growth Impact and Demand Forecast to 2023

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This statistical surveying research report on the Global Multi-layering SMD Inductor Market is an all-encompassing study of the industry sectors, up-to-date outlines, industry development, drivers, and restraints. It provides market projections for the coming years. It contains an analysis of late augmentations in innovation, Porters five forces analysis and progressive profiles of hand-picked industry competitors. The report furthermore articulates an analysis of trivial and full-scale factors indicated for the new and tenured candidates in the market along with a methodical value chain exploration.Top Key Vendors in Market: TDK, Murata, Taiyo Yuden, Vishay, Sumida, Sunlord, Bourns, Misumi, AVX, Chilisin, Sagami, Microgate, Fenghua Advanced, Zhenhua Fu Electronics.Get Sample Copy Of this Report @The initial section presents the industry overview of the Multi-layering SMD Inductor Market. This part of the study encompasses the specifications and definition of the market. In addition, the types of the machines have been detailed. The application areas of the market come next in the study. The dynamics impacting the development of the Global Market such as the drivers, challenges, opportunities, and trends are also described in detail in this research surveying report.The competitive landscape of the Global Multi-layering SMD Inductor Market is discussed in the report, which also includes the players market share. The report profiles some of the leading players in the global market for the purpose of an in-depth study of the challenges faced as well as growth opportunities in the market. The report also considers the approaches implemented by the main corporations to sustain their hold on the industry. The business synopsis and financial synopsis of each of the companies have been examined.Get Reasonable Discount on This Premium Report @The report provides both, qualitative and quantitative research of the Global Multi-layering SMD Inductor Market, as well as incorporates worthy insights into the balanced scenario and favored development methods adopted by key competitors. Distinctive distribution channels and slants inclined to bear fruit in the 2018-2023 forecast period have been bestowed in the report to permit readers to plan captivating strategies.On the basis of geographical regions, the Global Multi-layering SMD Inductor Market is segmented broadly into Latin America, Europe, 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 Europe are estimated to hold more than half of the market shares, collectively in coming years.In the last sections of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the Multi-layering SMD Inductor 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.Table of Content:Global Multi-layering SMD Inductor Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Multi-layering SMD Inductor 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 AppendixAbout QYReports:We at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Contact:QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.comUSS Ralph Johnson was commissioned at the Columbus Street Pier in Charleston on Saturday.With recent headlines of school shootings in Florida and Maryland, local educators are tackling the questions face-to-face to answer what they are doing to keep students safe in Gladwin County.

"We want to let parents, grandparents and caregivers know what the district has in place to keep their children safe," said Beaverton Rural School Superintendent Susan Wooden referring to last week's Safe and Secure Schools Community forum.

Wooden said the safety objectives continued to the Beaverton Activity Center, which the school owns.

Wooden also encouraged safety suggestions at safetysuggestions@beavertonruralschools.com.

Beaverton school officials were happy with the turnout of parents and guardians. There were even grandparents in attendance. Wooden said there has not been a threat, but recent headlines inspired school officials to provide the forum.

Beaverton Schools Transportation and Facilities Director Marietta Andrist said the district has implemented keyless entry into the buildings, fencing around the playground, at least three cameras on the buses and organized a bus loading and unloading, that keeps students riding the bus as well as those being dropped off by parents -- safe.

They have also added additional lighting, going from two lights to 35 lights, surveillance cameras and technical improvements. Secretaries also have monitors to see who is entering the schools' secure entrances and they ask them who they are and what business they have in the building. The Beaverton district has 25 surveillance cameras and 80 motion activated cameras that will hold data for up to two months.

Andrist said they do drills for tornado, bus evacuations, fire evacuations and lockdowns. The students don't know if the drills are real until after. In the case of a lockdown drill, where there may be a "bad person" in the school, students can lock the classroom.

"They can flip a switch," Andrist said.

Jason Wentworth of Michigan's 97th House District recently said that all schools could take a page out of Beaverton Rural School's emergency operation. Wooden said that was quite a compliment.

"We aren't doing any of this for praise," Wooden said. "We want to keep our students safe. Your kids are our kids."

Teachers weighed in during the breakout discussions. When asked if they get questions from students about the school shootings, second-grade teacher Alex Smith said she surprisingly doesn't. While teacher Stacie Lyons said, when she does, she tells them, "That was a terrible thing that happened. As your teacher I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you safe."

Sixth-grade teacher Valerie Bruner hasn't fielded many questions and is shocked more students haven't questioned it.

In August 2018, Gladwin County schools will host a full-scale emergency exercise in Beaverton schools. They will simulate an event, in hopes of helping people be prepared should something unfortunately happen for real. It will include shooting with blanks, officers and ambulances present.

Beaverton Police Chief Brad Davis and Gladwin County Sheriff Mike Shea and Undersheriff Ray Hartwell were present at the forum.

All agreed that the forum was helpful in letting parents know that safety was not shoved aside.

Parents and faculty broke into small groups, to discuss safety issues. Board of Education President Adam Zdrojewski listened into all the breakouts and he said the common thing discussed was a school officer. Zdrojewski said that is often discussed in board meetings, along with metal detectors -- but the funding is not there, yet.

When asked about parents rushing to the school when something happens, Beaverton Elementary School Principal Mike Bassage and assistant principal Jared Goff agreed that is not a good idea. They won't be releasing students right away in such a situation.

"The worst things a parent can do is rush the school at the same time when something is happening," Bassage said.

Gladwin Community Schools are also making changes to enhance safety in their buildings.

Gladwin Superintendent Rick Seebeck announced those visiting will see changes.

"In light of the most recent school tragedy in Florida, we have decided that it is time to increase the security at each of our school buildings," Seebeck said.

"I want to be very clear that we have not received any type of threat and that this change is only part of our normal security review that takes place after significant events like those that occurred last week in Florida," Seebeck added. "In the near future you will find each building's front entrance to be controlled by a buzzer system that will require an office attendant to electronically open the door for visitors to enter."

School staff is locking the front doors and requiring visitors to call the front office to be admitted during the day, with the number posted on the building.

"We are aware that this will cause some inconvenience but are committed to providing the safest possible environment in which our students can learn," Seebeck said.

For questions regarding Beaverton schools, call 989-246-3000. For questions regarding Gladwin Community Schools, call 989-429-0610.Delta College Public Safety has been made aware of a drawing located inside of a bathroom stall door on Delta's Main Campus, according to a Nixle alert sent at 12:40 p.m. Monday. The drawing depicts an image of a handgun with the apparent date 3/26 written under it.

Delta College Public Safety is investigating this incident as a potential copycat of the incident that occurred on March 20, 2018 involving a similar drawing.Community leaders looking at making a difference in Midland Countys child abuse and neglect caseload met late last week to talk data and solutions.

The group, including leaders from the courts, law enforcement, schools, public health and community organizations, and more, convened at The H Hotel for the forum, hosted by Midland County Probate Judge Dorene S. Allen. It was facilitated by Midland Kids First, and funded by the Strosacker Foundation.

I do not believe you can have a solution without understanding what the problem is, Allen said about the reason for the forum.

She pointed to a lowering of juvenile delinquency rates over the years, with the 2017 numbers showing an 86.6 percent reduction. Its because we have come together as a community, she said. You need the whole community coming together.

Thursday provided just that for child abuse and neglect, which is an area in the courts where the number of cases really hasnt changed since 2004. That year saw 100 children from 48 families involved in abuse and neglect cases; in 2017, there were 91 children from 46 families.

The morning featured presentations from Fred Wulczyn, senior research fellow at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago; Joseph P. Ryan from the University of Michigan Child and Adolescent Data Lab; and Dick Dolinski of The Legacy Center for Community Success.

The simple objective here is how to make it better, in both public and private systems, Wulczyn said to begin his talk on the national perspective of using evidence to do so.

Improvement is a process beginning with a question, and requires careful use of evidence, he said. He also pointed out, while presenting national data on child abuse and neglect, that problems faced in each case are interconnected.

Overall, Midland County ranks sixth for child well-being, in the state, Ryan said.

Before presenting statewide data, Ryan pointed out that each agency dealing with children uses its own data set to define the problem, when those agencies should combine their data for a more complete look at the challenges.

Are we trying to solve these big, complex problems with very narrow data sets? he asked, giving the example that no one in child welfare knows how children are doing in school.

Another problem is that the timing on issues families may face, such as recovery from drug addiction and placement in child welfare cases, differ. Addiction recovery occurs one day at a time for the rest of a persons life, while child welfare cases run on a one-year permanency plan.

A question posed to Ryan from the room dealt with the idea of child welfare concerns being a multigenerational problem, as well as the challenges posed by Midland Countys small sample size  there were 1,200 investigations in Midland County in 2017 which resulted in 64 children being removed from their families. That doesnt mean 64 families, however, since multiple children could be removed from one family, Ryan said.

One of the areas Ryan suggested the county explore was the recurrence of maltreatment, an area in which Midland County trends higher than the national standard. Statistics he presented show 24 out of 211 children experienced a recurrence of maltreatment within 12 months in 2015.

The forum concluded with statistics presented by Dolinski (see related story) and an afternoon work session during which groups of participants used the numbers to devise community-based solutions.In Midland during the 1920s and early 1930s, many residents did not have a telephone in their home. Homes in the rural areas and some in the city were on two, four or more party lines and people answered by the count of rings designated to them. However, some people on the line picked up their phone and listened in.

In the early 1930s, Mom and Dad decided we needed a house phone, since Dad was on-call at the Dow plant and the Dow plant protection was going to discontinue the practice of sending a scout for call-ins.

I was still trying to work out the idea of voices coming though that skinny black telephone wire. My older brother said someone was at the other end of the line and talking through it. Wow! How did they find our house and where was that lady that said "number pleee-azz" and how did she know when to say it?

Dad was doing some remodeling in the kitchen and left an opening in a wall until he finished the electrical update.

An electrician from Consumers Power came and installed a larger circuit box. I was watching him and when he finished, he handed me a large magnet from the old unit.

After tying a long cord to the magnet and dangling it into the kitchen wall opening, I came up with several pieces of eating utensils, a giant Buck Rogers squirt gun, a handfull of coins, a red handled butcher knife and lots of nails. What a treasure trove. Later, I had the plan to make more openings, but was told to forget it.

The miracle of the radio was way beyond my comprehension. I enjoyed listening to The Lone Ranger, Gang Busters and Harry Heilmann broadcasting the Detroit Tigers games.

Grandpa had his ears glued to that old Philco radio, listening to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights while drinking a home-brewed beer and munching popcorn. If he were with us today, he would be a big fan of television; enjoying live country music and watching Detroit Tigers games with his cold brew.

Thanks to my daughter's insistence, I usually have a cell phone in my pocket. It's great for telling time and keeping in touch with people. I know that phone is somehow affiliated with a satellite somewhere up in space.

Having achieved the 90s level of age, I don't have the desire to know more about phones or radios and gratefully leave it to the younger and smarter people.

Ronald Sears is a former Midland County resident now residing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.Donald Trump, facing criticism for his non-reaction to the poisoning and attempted murder of a former Russian spy in the UKwidely believed to be the work of Russian state forceshas finally made a move. Sixty Russian intelligence officers will be expelled from the country, and the Russian consulate in Seattle will also be closed. This follows an incident one week ago when Trump congratulated Vladimir Putin on his victory in an election that was demonstrably corrupt, and comes in the shadow of Robert Muellers investigation of White House collusion with Russia during the campaign. Per Politico, heres the makeup of the ejected officers:

On a conference call with reporters, a senior administration official said all 60 of the expelled officials are in the U.S. posing as diplomats, 48 at the Russian embassy and 12 at the Russian mission to the United Nations. They and their families will have seven days to leave the U.S.

The move follows the expulsion of 23 diplomats by UK prime minister Theresa May, who has taken a tough line from the beginning. According to the White House, this move will trigger further actions in Europe and the western world:

The administration official said Monday that we do not act alone, adding that the steps announced by the Trump administration would be taken in coordination with more than a dozen allies in Europe and beyond.

Trumps act has already had echoes in other parts of the world:

We have decided to expel 13 Russian diplomats from Ukraine. We have been preparing for this for some time, but have decided to act now in co-ordination with our friends and partners in the democratic transatlantic community of which we are part.  Pavlo Klimkin (@PavloKlimkin) March 26, 2018

Additionally, Germany and France announced Monday that they will expel four Russian diplomats each, with Poland and Lithuania to follow suit.

A White House official said Trump made the call to expel the diplomats personally, and was involved in the decision from the beginning.The Killers were headlining Lollapalooza Brazil on Sunday night, and they received a mid-set, surprise visit from a high-profile guest: Liam Gallagher.

The Las Vegas band were performing their hit All These Things That Ive Done, taken from their 2004 album Hot Fuss, when frontman Brandon Flowers was met by none other than Gallagher, who had performed earlier that night.

In the video below, you can see Gallagher wander onto the stage at around the 20-second mark. Flowers is clearly spooked by his appearance and later wraps his arm around the bright orange jacket-clad Gallagher, laughing and introducing him as fucking Liam Gallagher. The duo later get on one knee and bow down in respect towards each other as Flowers continues singing the songs chorus. Then come the confetti cannons as Gallagher quietly exits the stage.

The Killers have announced an extensive set of upcoming U.S. festivals, including headlining slots at Bonnaroo, Panorama NYC and Hangout Festival. Gallagher, meanwhile, recently announced a U.S. headlining tour alongside fellow Brit-pop frontman Richard Ashcroft of The Verve. The pair will make six stops in cities including Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto. Revisit Gallaghers recent interview with Paste here as he chatted about his debut solo album As You Were.

Watch Gallagher stage-invade The Killers Lollapalooza Brazil set below.Petoskey's early lead holds off Gaylord for fourth straight win

Petoskey and Gaylord met on the pitch for the first time at Northmen Stadium.Once again the dust was flying on the slopes of La Parva to kick off day 2.

Ruaridh Cunningham switched gears this weekend after suffering a shoulder injury and joined the ranks of the media squids.

Those morning smoke trails.....

Wheels. Many a riders race was ended by wheel failure this weekend. This race was as much about taking care of the bike as it was being fast.

After finishing 4rth more than a few times, Robin Wallner finally landed himself on the podium today.

Chilean rider Antonio Ovalle pins it to the finish of the weekends final stage.

Marco Osborne rode to eighth place this weekend. It seems his plan of being smooth and consistent may have something to it.

Jesse Melmed pushed through a rough four days with a pretty bad crash and still finished fifth.

Another order to keep an eye on this season in Dimitri Tordo who would finish up 9th in the opening round.

Lewis Buchanan drifts it down stage 6.

Cody Kelley on the final stage of the day.

Pedro Burns, the local hero took 13th this weekend.

Shawn Neer had an incredible ride and finished the weekend in tenth.

What a ride for Gusti Wildhaber!

A mixed weekend for Richie Rude. Bad luck on stage two set him back too far to recover, but with a couple stage wins it's good to know he's back.

Richie Rude had another strong showing today finishing second on the final stage and pulling himself back to 52nd overall.

The last time the EWS visited Chile, Martin Maes finished 2nd. This weekend he repeated that performance.

Jesse Melamed was running in third for most of the days until a flat tire pushed him down to 5th.

Big views, big crowds, and Sam Hill smashing loose corners. Could there be anything finer.

Sam Hill blasts his way through the mob to take the win at the opening round of the EWS in Chile.

There's no better way to defend the number one plate than winning.

Huge crowds lines the finish area as racers took to the final stage of the day,

4th for Bex Baraona as she starts her season knocking on the door of that elusive podium.

Total stage domination for Cecile Ravanel this weekend in Chile.

Katy Winton powers through the Devils Backbone on stage four. Winton finished in third.

Dominant. Cecile has shown no signs of letting up. Another win for the fastest woman in the world.

Isabeau took second this weekend upon her new Intense.

Ines Thoma would suffer a mechanical at the close of the day to finish 9th.

Bex Barona had a real breakout ride this weekend and finished fourth.

Starting this season just as he left off last season. On top.

Nigel was all smiles after Sam crossed the line in first.

The moment Shawn Neer food out he finished 10th at the opening round of the 2018 Enduro World Series.

Loose Dog, Mark Scott, and Rat Boy with the fans at the end of an amazing race.

All smiles after anther win for Cecile Ravanel.

It was a long hard battle out there, but the number one plate will remain on Sam Hill's Nukeproof.

The racing is over, now it's time to drink up.

The top three ladies wash off the dust on the podium.

The only rain falling in the Andes was champagne.

Ruaridh was out cheering on teammate Katy Winton.

Isabeau had yet another solid weekend and nowlooks toward Colombia next week.

Chile, you have been a real gem. Thank you.

Until next time Chile. It's been incredible.

It was one of the hardest days out we can remember. The sheer brutality of it all still boggles the mind. Six stages that took their toll mentally, physically, and mechanically. Wheels destroyed, derailleurs torn off, dust inhaled, bones broken, and skin shredded. This opening round of the Enduro World Series was truly something special. If you pushed hard these tracks would bite, and bite hard.We started day two with Sam Hill in first place and Adrien Dailly withing striking distance but there were 2,600 meters of vertical descent over 16 kilometers of racing to go. Disaster struck early for Dailly when just after the start of stage four he suffered a flat and ending his weekend early. Martin Maes came out swinging to take the win on stage four, and put considerable time into Hill, only for Hill to take it right back on stage five. Sam then went on to take stage six and the race. For Hill it was all about picking up where he left off, racing his own race, and keeping his bike together. Robin Wallner held it together to take third, and Gustav Wildhaber was absolutely on fire riding to fourth place.Cecile Ravanel Took a commanding lead of the race from the start and never relented. She won all of the stages except for stage four, but it wasn't enough to cost her the race. Isabeau Courdurier took second, and Katy Winton put in a solid performance to take third. Bex Barona had a massive weekend riding to an impressive fourth place for the women. Duncan Nason took the win in the junior men. This was one of the wildest weekends of racing in recent memory, and a hell of a way to kick off the Enduro World Series season. Looking back all we can say is that it was a low down and dirty good time. See you next week in Colombia.Mentions: @EnduroWorldSeriesNo Cashes, No Problem: Nathan Trenkamp Wins MSPT Meskwaki

March 26, 2018 Mo Nuwwarah

Nathan Trenkamp didn't let a lack of live poker results stop him on Sunday night.

He made his first live cash a big one, taking down Mid-States Poker Tour Meskwaki in Central Iowa for $88,018. The Iowa native did not have a recorded live cash according to The Hendon Mob database, but now he's got 88,000 reasons to keep going after taking down a final table that included MSPT Team Pro Blake Bohn, who was trying to win his second MSPT event in the venue and third overall.

While Bohn did not secure first place, he did inch within $10,000 of old-time legend Lyle Berman for tops in another list and a long-time goal: the all-time money lead in Minnesota.

Official Final Table Results

Place Player Hometown Prize 1 Nathan Trenkamp Grand Mound, IA $88,018 2 Reg Powell Elk River, MN $54,416 3 John Orfanos Park Ridge, IL $39,608 4 Shem Yusuf Kansas City, MO $29,206 5 Blake Bohn Eden Prairie, MN $22,004 6 Steven Pike Madison, WI $16,803 7 Theodore Lee Des Moines, IA $13,203 8 Chad Ellis Lansing, MI $10,402 9 Josh Smith Bettendorf, IA $7,602 10 Ken Komberec Grafton, WI $6,401

While numbers were a bit depressed by an unseasonably fierce snow storm that hit the region, 414 players still showed up for the $1,100 event. Among the 45 who cashed: Craig Trost, Josh Reichard, Mike Lang, and 2016 WSOP Main Event 12th-place finisher Mike Shin.

Final Table Action

Bohn was the clear favorite coming in second in chips with about 80 big blinds after winning kings over jacks just before the final table, according to the live updates. However, he ran into some big hands early and short stacks would repeatedly double, resulting in effective stacks continuing to shorten.

With nine players left, Trenkamp got in a raising war with chip leader and longtime MSPT regular Reg Powell after flopping top two with . Powell wouldn't let go of his and paid for it when a ten hit the turn to lock it in for Trenkamp with a boat, and Trenkamp doubled into the lead with 2 million at 20,000/40,000/5,000.

Bohn had been reduced to the shortest stack but did find a double for his last six big blinds with against the ace-queen of Josh Smith, who busted his last few crumbs in ninth.

Theodore Lee made a big call for nearly all of his chips against former leader Powell, who tried pushing Lee off pocket fours on a board. Powell held merely but hit a miracle ace on the river to double and see Lee reduced to a short stack that he'd soon lose.

Steve Pike then had a chance to take a commanding lead when he found aces and got stacks in preflop against John Orfanos' queens. However, a queen-high flop saw Orfanos instead move into the lead while Pike had to settle for sixth in short order.

Bohn, meanwhile, tried to build it back, but the cards simply wouldn't cooperate. He lost two flips in a row, the second to Trenkamp when sevens didn't hold against . At that point left gambling with peanuts, he bowed out in fifth.

Trenkamp then got a fortunate runout when he opened and flopped zilch against Powell, who defended his big blind and flopped top pair of kings. Running two pair gave Trenkamp a disguised hand that he barreled off though, and Powell couldn't find the fold button on the river.

Shem Yusuf came into the final table under 10 big blinds and never really got significantly above that but made a short stack work with a number of timely doubles. The end of the line came when he got it in dominated against Orfanos, though, flopping a leading pair only to fall to a runner royal flush.

Orfanos still didn't have many chips though and busted in third when he lost a flip to Powell.

With only about 70 blinds in play heads up, it seemed things were destined to end early. Powell and Trenkamp did joust for a bit but Powell tried setting a trap limping and inducing a raise from Trenkamp. The subsequent all-in shove received a quick call though as Trenkamp had . He held on to make his first cash double as his first win, while Powell had to settle for $54,416, still over double his previous best cash.

Photo courtesy of MSPT4.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

A Nashville newspaper has reported that there is a new poll in Tennessee showing former Democratic governor Phil Bredesen holding a lead over his likely U.S. Senate race opponent, Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn who is leading in all of the states Republican primary polls. Bredesen is not facing a Democratic primary challenger.

Bredesens lead gives hope to Democrats that they have a realistic chance to win not only the Senate seat now held by Republican Bob Corker, who is retiring, but also control of the U.S. Senate itself.

Forty-six percent of the people who responded to the survey indicated they would vote for Bredesen while just forty-one percent said they would vote for Blackburn if the election were held today. Thirteen percent of the survey respondents said they were not sure who they would vote for.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points which means Bredesens lead is greater than the margin of error, so it is significant. This poll reportedly shows the same result as a survey that was taken by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) before Bredesen formally entered the race.

So this shows that the DSCC and Bredesen both think he has an excellent chance to turn a red seat blue. And this result would have major national implications since it will affect which party is in control of the government in Washington.

In a television ad Bredesen ran after announcing his candidacy, he stressed his business experience as the CEO of a Fortune 500 company that he founded. He said he has the practical experience to bring common sense back to government, and his main priorities would be education, bringing down healthcare costs, and dealing with the opioid crisis.

Tennessee has not elected a Democratic senator since Al Gore, Jr. was re-elected in 1990. President Trump won the state by 26 points in 2016, but as shown by Democrat Doug Jones Senate victory in Alabama a lot has changed since then.

If the Tennessee senate seat goes blue, it is likely that the U.S. Senate will go blue also, and Chuck Schumer would replace Mitch McConnell has Majority Leader. If the House of Representatives goes to the Democrats in November, and Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House again, then President Trumps enablers will be gone and it will be a very hostile atmosphere for him to try to get anything done. In fact, this may mean that there will be impeachment hearings in Washington a year from now. This may be just the thing that our country needs to set it back on a positive course.The requested page is currently unavailable on this server.

Back to [RTHK News Homepage]British Prime Minister Theresa May said 18 countries have announced plans to expel Russian Intelligence officers in response to Moscow's suspected involvement in a nerve agent attack in England on a former Russian spy this month. The United States said it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe.

Two Russian ambassadors, on at the United Nations and one in Washington, DC accused the U.S. of acting improperly.

In Washington, Russian Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov called the U.S. actions unlawful, repeating Kremlins denial of Russias involvement in the poisoning of the ex-GRU spy and his daughter in Britain on March 4.

Anatoly Antonov as a Russian senior diplomat represents one of the 60 countries that are signatories of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Signed in April 1961, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is an international treaty that sets the rules of diplomatic relations between independent countries. The original equally authentic texts of the Convection were presented and signed by all parties in five languages, including Russian.

The Article 9 of the Vienna Convention reads:

1.The receiving State may at any time and without having to explain its decision, notify the sending State that the head of the mission or any member of the diplomatic staff of the mission is persona non grata. In any such case the sending State shall, as appropriate, either recall the person concerned or terminate his functions with the mission.

Thus, Russian Ambassadors claim that the United States acted unlawfully when expelling Russian mission staff does not stand a basic fact-check and is false.

At the U.N., Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said, Washington has abused its power as the host of the UN headquarters when it moved to expel 12 staffers from Russias mission at the UN, Russia Today reported on Monday.

The United States Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley said in statement the expulsions were in accordance with the 1947 US-UN Headquarters Agreement.

"So, contrary to what the Russian ambassador said, the U.S. has acted in accordance with the international laws and regulations," the U.N. statement said.

The U.N.'s statement laid down the conditions under which the U.S. could expel a diplomat.

In early March, Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a park bench in the English town of Salisbury and rushed to the hospital, where they remain in serious condition.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement, announcing the expulsion Monday:

"The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world."

Antonov also states there is not a single bit of evidence of Russias involvement in the Skripal poisoning. Polygraph.info has previously examined and debunked a similar Russian claim. British experts at the Porton Down research facility identified the nerve agent as the one developed on Russian soil in the former Soviet Union.

Another Russian claim is that any country with at least some chemistry could have synthesized Novichok. Given that a scientist who admitted to involvement in Novichok development published formulas for the nerve agent, Polygraph.info found that is possible but that Britain had submitted its findings to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is conducting an independent evaluation.If Sergio Leones first installment in the Dollar Trilogy, A Fistful of Dollars (1964), defined the future of the spaghetti western genre, his second installment, For a Few Dollars More (1965), guaranteed the genres future. It not only competed the vision that the first film started, but it also surpassed it at the box-office. In fact, out of all his masterpieces, For a Few Dollars More is Leones highest grossing film in the Italian market. Plus, in spite of its mediocre reviews from the confused American critics, it took in $5 million on its initial US release, a large sum for an international flick at the time.

But as impressive as its sales were, the impact that For a Few Dollars More had was even more impressive. It is one of the few sequels in the history of cinema that is better than the classic film it follows. Leone pulled this off by not just retaining those elements that made the first so good, but also by both expanding and enhancing upon them. In the process, he answered the question that was raised with A Fistful of Dollars: would Clint Eastwood have what it takes to become an international star? The answer, as it is known now, was resounding yes.

Leone also launched the spaghetti western career of Lee Van Cleef, who would go on to become the genres most productive and recognizable star. Perhaps most importantly, he proved himself to be that rare auteur who could consistently turn a profit.

Following the success of For a Few Dollars More, Italian filmmakers from every B-movie genre tried to make their own spaghetti westerns. Naturally, they all tried, with varying degrees of success, to replicate Leones stylized depiction of a American West drenched in blood from an existential-Catholic form of violence. On the other hand, composers, after experiencing for a second time the unparalleled creativity that Ennio Morricone let loose in composing for Leone, realized that they didnt have to emulate the hokey folk songs and sleep-inducing orchestral pieces of the classic American westerns, and could make music that suited the genre rather than popular taste. Then audiences called for more violence and action, screenwriters cut-down on unnecessary dialogue, and cinematographers started shooting landscapes with wide-shots and faces with close-ups.

Meanwhile, small and large studios alike wanted a piece of the action. They wanted a taste from Leones golden-teated cash cow. Bad rip-offs appeared, like For a Few Bullets More (1966) which features characters dressed exactly like the leads in For a Few Dollars More: the iconic Mortimer (Van Cleef) and the Man With No Name (Eastwood). It didnt take long for that well-dressed, weapon-savvy character of Van Cleefs to inspire the enjoyable and enormously popular Sartana films (1968-70), while this second appearance of the Man With No Name practically forced every actor to ever take on the role of a spaghetti western protagonist to use the character as their anti-hero model.

The superiority of For a Few Dollars More over Leones fantastic first installment in the Dollars Trilogy, A Fistful of Dollars, is obvious from the very first shot of the film. We are looking across an enormous desert at an ant-sized man from the perspective of one of our bounty hunters, who then shoot the ant off his horse with a single shot just as Morricones title music kicks in. This opening title shot makes it clear that Leone was going into this film with a sense of control and confidence that he didnt have in the first one. In A Fistful of Dollars, he is like Muhammad Ali in his first fight against Sonny Liston, a relatively unknown fighter brimming with talent who shocked the world and took out the champ. In For a Few Dollars More, he is like Ali in the rematch, the new champ who proves to the world that hes here to stay by executing a seemingly easy knockout.

As this opening shots suggests, the action scenes in this Dollar film are more innovating and exhilarating than the first. Theres the scene where Mortimer takes his time to assemble what the Man With No Name calls a contraption of a weapon before using it to kill the wanted man who all the while is frantically shooting and missing at him across town with single shot to the head. The fun yet intense hat-shooting contest between our two bounty-hunters also stands out. Then theres the El Paso bank robbery, perfectly organized by El Indio (Gian Maria Volonte) and his gang, as well as the brilliant concluding showdown between Mortimer and El Indio as the Man With No Name referees and the chimes of their pocket-watches sing until draw-time. Leone makes every one of these scenes fresh and exciting.

But great action is meaningless without a great story, and the story Leone tells with For a Few Dollars More is what allows him to fully realize his vision of the American West this time around. With the first movie, he created an icon with the Man With No Name and then inserted him into a preexisting story, based on Akira Kurosawas Yojimbo (1961), which in turn was based on Dashiell Hammetts hardboiled crime novel, Red Harvest (1929). But with this second Dollar film, he had the freedom of creating a story around an already established character. This results in a more fluid and better structured film, one that highlights Leones visual and thematic genius.

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Eastwood as the Man With No Name is again a bounty-hunter trying to capture a murderous madman  named Ramon Rojo the first time, and El Indio this time  who is again played by the convincing and charismatic Volonte. But this time there is also Van Cleefs bounty-hunter, an ex-confederate arms-specialist named Mortimer, who is also after the reward money. It doesnt take long for the two bounty-hunters to realize that they must combine their resources, abilities, wit, and knowledge if they are to track-down and kill El Indio and his gang.

Leone wrote this story with Fulvio Morsella, who would later help him write My Name Is Nobody (1973), for which Luciano Vincenzoni and Sergio Donati put together the screenplay. Between the two of them, these writers were responsible for the screenplays of many of the genres greatest films, including Death Rides a Horse (1966), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), The Big Gundown (1966), Face to Face (1967), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), and Duck You Sucker (1971). Perhaps more than any of their other films, For a Few Dollars More is a testament to their talent because it not only lives up to but surpasses the greatness of its predecessor.

For example, the dry, at times dark, humor in A Fistful of Dollars is also present in For a Few Dollars More, but this time around the writers scattered it throughout the film and into the characters mouths more naturally. The Man With No Names quips in the first movie sometimes come across as forced one-liners. While they work out greatly and give it that comic-book feel that would set the tone for the Dollar films to follow, as well as the entire spaghetti western genre, the jokes sometimes take you out of the story and relieve tension unnecessarily. But in For a Few Dollars More, the writers have the Man With No Name make his quips while exchanging essential lines of dialogue with Mortimer and, as a result, the humor seems to come from the characters rather than the writers and we therefore arent distracted.

The real key to this films success, however, is the presence of Van Cleef and his character of Mortimer. While the directing of Leone, the score of Morricone, and the acting of Eastwood and Volonte (as well as the supporting cast such as Klaus Kinski as a hunchback) are improvements upon, or at least equal to, what they did in the first film, Van Cleef is an entirely new force. Whether it is because of the plot twist at the end involving his backstory or the coolness of his demeanor, he is arguably the most memorable force in For a Few Dollars More.

His inclusion is not only a result of the screenwriters imagination, but also the bigger budget that resulted from the success of the first film. With the extra financing, Leone was able to add another name actor to the cast, and he went with the Dutch-American Van Cleef, who had made a name for himself in the States working in every cowboy series from Annie Oakley in the 50s to The Rifleman in the 60s. Leone made this choice not so much for his acting ability, but because he thought he channeled the great impressionist painter, Vincent van Gogh. Leone reportedly thought he had the same brand of hopelessness, the hint of genius, the same intense eyes, eagle-like nose and clear forehead as the painter. Since Van Cleef was at the time, as the spaghetti western gods would have it, making a meager living as a freelance painter, he jumped at the opportunity. And the rest, as they say, is history.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.Reproductions of dog tags bearing the names of South Carolinians who died or went missing during the Vietnam War are among the exhibits at the Vietnam Experience at the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum. File/Grace Beahm Alford/StaffArticles

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular articles.Andrew Knapp is editor of the Quick Response Team, which covers crime, courts and breaking news. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor at Florida Today, Newsday and Bangor (Maine) Daily News. He enjoys golf, weather and fatherhood.Deanna Pan is an enterprise reporter for The Post and Courier, where she writes about education and other issues. She grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati and graduated with a degree in English from Ohio State University in 2012.Abigail Darlington is a local government reporter focusing primarily on the City of Charleston. She previously covered local arts & entertainment, technology, innovation, tourism and retail for the Post and Courier.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.Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski arrived on island Monday morning to meet with military and civilian leaders.

She chairs the Senate Energy Committee, and is leading a congressional delegation that will also visit Saipan this week.

Late Monday afternoon Murkowski went to Adelup to meet with Gov. Eddie Calvo. Before her meeting with the governor she told The Guam Daily Post that she looks forward to learning about the military buildup and its impact on Guam.

Murkowski said she wants to gain "a better understanding in terms of the federal government's role" and "how we're doing on timelines." She also said she is interested in learning about the impact of the buildup "not only on the military side, but the impact to the local people here as well."

The senator was accompanied by Del. Madeleine Bordallo, Rear Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, commander of Joint Region Marianas, Northern Marianas Del. Gregorio "Kilili" Sablan, and American Samoa Del. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen.

Among the governor's talking points, said Communications Director Oyaol Ngirairikl, were the importance of increasing Compact impact funding  for the cost of public services to regional immigrants  and the medicare reimbursement rates for Guam Memorial Hospital.

She also said the governor would underscore that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' needs to grant more skilled foreign worker visas for civilian-construction projects, and not just for military construction projects inside the military fence.

Heading to Saipan

Today, the delegation is headed for Saipan for meetings with Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Gov. Ralph Torres.

"The goal there," said Murkowski, is "to understand how labor and workforce issues are being handled," as well as to find out "how some of the policies we're putting in place in Washington, D.C., are impacting those islands and their people."

Over the past year the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been active in cracking down on alleged labor law violations in the CNMI. In April 2017, hundreds of Chinese laborers who worked on the Imperial Pacific Resort were found to have entered as tourists under the visa waiver program.PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-27 00:02:01

Federal Recruitment and Performance Management Cloud SaaS Solutions Add to Security Credentials by Meeting NISTs Requirements of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability

Acendres Federal Talent Management Suite Advances to Meet NIST High High Moderate Security Standards

Acendre

Joe Abusamra, +1 703-350-4496 ext. 113

Joe.abusamra@acendre.com

Acendre, a worldwide leader in secure, cloud-based talent management software, today announced that its automated, modern, secure Acendre Talent Management Suite has been enhanced to meet the National Institute of Standards and Technologys (NISTs) High High Moderate security classification. This classification specifies NISTs baseline of stringent requirements of confidentiality, integrity and availability. By meeting these requirements, Acendre now provides an even higher level of security assurance to its customers by meeting the highest standards of data protection.

NIST is a measurement standards laboratory, and a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce, with a mission to promote innovation and industrial competitiveness.

The NIST impact definitions for each security objective and Acendres alignment to these objectives are as follows:

Confidentiality: preserving authorised restrictions on information access and disclosure, including means for protecting personal privacy and proprietary information.



Acendre protects against any unauthorized disclosure of information that could have severe or catastrophic adverse effects on organisational operations, organisational assets or individuals.

preserving authorised restrictions on information access and disclosure, including means for protecting personal privacy and proprietary information. Acendre protects against any unauthorized disclosure of information that could have severe or catastrophic adverse effects on organisational operations, organisational assets or individuals. Integrity: guarding against improper information modification or destruction, and includes ensuring information non-repudiation and authenticity.



Acendre protects against unauthorised modification or destruction of information that could have severe or catastrophic adverse effects on organisational operations, organisational assets or individuals.

guarding against improper information modification or destruction, and includes ensuring information non-repudiation and authenticity. Acendre protects against unauthorised modification or destruction of information that could have severe or catastrophic adverse effects on organisational operations, organisational assets or individuals. Availability: ensuring timely and reliable access to and use of information.



Acendre protects against the disruption of access to or use of information or an information system that could have a severe adverse effect on organisational operations, organisational assets or individuals.

Following the recent announcement of achieving In Process status with the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), Acendre continues to separate its HR and human capital solutions from other offerings in the federal talent management market. FedRAMP leverages the NIST security classifications to define applicable baseline security requirements.

Acendre is committed to meeting the federal governments high standards for protection and integrity of agencies data and systems, said Franco Antico, vice president, architecture and security for Acendre. By meeting these security requirements from NIST and following our recent announcement of achieving In Process status with FedRAMP, we further validate our ongoing commitment to the security of our customers. Acendre continues to separate itself in the federal recruitment, hiring and performance management spaces.

About Acendre

Acendre is a worldwide leader in secure cloud-based talent management software. The companys solutions address the unique needs of organisations that require a high level of configurability to manage complex workflows and interoperability challenges. Acendre serves both public and private sectors, including Government, Education, Healthcare & Community Services, Utilities and Mining.

With offices in three continents, the companys solutions are deployed in over 200 organisations around the globe, including almost 100 federal agencies, helping these organisations recruit, engage, retain and develop their employees to improve workforce performance. A recipient of numerous awards and with almost 400,000 users, Acendre processes over two million resumes a year and over two million transactions every week.

To learn more about Acendre, visit www.acendre.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus and YouTube.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005

Acendres Federal Talent Management Suite Advances to Meet NIST High High Moderate Security StandardsPR-Inside.com: 2018-03-26 20:43:01

KISA to Contribute to IoT Security and Resiliency and Global Standards

ADDING MULTIMEDIA Trusted Computing Group Welcomes Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA) as a Government Liaison Member

Anne Price, PR Works, Inc.

+1-602-330-6495

anne@prworksonline.com

Twitter: @TrustedComputin

Trusted Computing Group (TCG), a global security standards organization and an approved Publicly Available Specification Submitter for ISO/IEC JCT 1, today announced the Korea Internet and Security Agency [..] has joined TCG as a government liaison member.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180325005

TCG Vice President Jing de Jong-Chen, Microsoft (right), welcomes the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA) as a government liaison member. (Photo: Business Wire)

As a leading agency to manage cybersecurity policy and strategy in South Korea, KISA will participate in the Trusted Computing Group for security specification development, including specifications for IoT security and resiliency. A signing ceremony was held at the IoT Innovation Center of KISA located in the Pangyo Techno Valley near Seoul, South Korea, attended by Wan S. Yi, vice president of KISA and head of Information Security Industry Group and Jing de Jong-Chen, vice president of the TCG.

The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0, a technical specification developed by TCG, was officially adopted as an international standard (ISO/IEC 11889:2015). Other specifications include self-encrypting drives and network security specifications deployed in millions of enterprises, IoT and embedded systems.

KISA is committed to strengthen the competitiveness of Internet and information security industry by developing and adopting advanced security technologies in Korea, said Mr. Wan S. Yi, vice president of KISA. KISA is very pleased to have the opportunity to work with members of the TCG as a government liaison in support of global security standard development in the era of fourth industrial revolution.

Korea is a world leader in technology innovation. KISA has been a great contributor to global cybersecurity. As the world is going through digital transformations, it becomes even more important for the TCG to strengthen its partnership with public sector agencies like KISA to develop technical specifications, promote global standard adoption and support community development in various parts of the world, said TCG vice president Jing de Jong-Chen. We welcome the opportunity to work with professionals in Korea and in Asia at large to bring benefits of trusted computing to the new world of connected devices and cloud.

TCG membership includes experts from industry, academia and governments worldwide and is governed by a board comprised of Promoter members Advanced Micro Devices; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Dell; Fujitsu Limited; Hewlett Packard Enterprise; HP Inc.; Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.; IBM; Infineon Technologies AG; Intel Corporation; Juniper Networks; Lenovo Holdings Ltd.; and Microsoft. Elected contributor member advisors to the board include representatives from General Electric and Raytheon Cyber Solutions.

TCG is a not-for-profit organization formed to develop, define and promote open, vendor-neutral, global industry specifications and standards, supportive of a hardware-based root of trust, for interoperable trusted computing platforms. More information is available at www.trustedcomputinggroup.org. Follow TCG on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

Brands and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Tweet this: @kisa118 joins @TrustedComputin #TPM #SED #netsec to contribute to worldwide standards, specs & #IOT security & resiliency http://ow.ly/6XlY30j7sEE @ISOstandards

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180325005

@kisa118 joins @TrustedComputin #TPM #SED #netsec to contribute to worldwide standards, specs & #IOT security & resiliency http://ow.ly/6XlY30j7sEE @ISOstandardsPR-Inside.com: 2018-03-27 00:03:01

- Former Pegasystems Managing Director, Scott Leader, joins Box as Regional Vice President of Australia and New Zealand -

Box Appoints Australia, New Zealand Leader as it Accelerates International Expansion

Box

Titus Thomson, +44(0)7598029952

titus@box.com

Box (NYSE: BOX), a leader in cloud content management, today announced it has appointed a regional leader for Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). Following the launch of Box Zones and Box KeySafe Box is better placed than ever to expand into ANZ and accelerate its international growth.

We are on a fast trajectory and weve seen great opportunities to grow our business in overseas markets, said Stephanie Carullo, Box chief operating officer. Weve appointed an ANZ leader to help us capture the enterprise market as it transitions to a digital workplace. Scott is a seasoned enterprise veteran, and Im thrilled hes joined Box to help us maximize our opportunity in an exciting new territory.

Today Box has a physical presence in ANZ with offices in Sydney and Melbourne. Mr Leader, the companys first local Vice President, will be responsible for business activities across the region. Based in Sydney he will focus on building the ANZ business with a particular emphasis on large enterprises.

Ive watched Box grow in the US, across Europe, Japan and Canada, and theres a huge opportunity to build the business in ANZ, said Scott Leader, Box VP of ANZ. Im thrilled to join Box at this exciting time, and Im looking forward to helping to bring the power of its cloud content management capabilities to enterprises across Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Leader has more than 25 years of experience in revenue and growth roles across finance and software at companies such as Reuters, Bloomberg, Australian Securities Exchange, NYSE Euronext and SunGard. Prior to joining Box, he held the role of Managing Director of ANZ at Pegasystems for four years, where he was responsible for directing the revenue and growth strategy for the entire ANZ region.

Mr Leaders appointment in ANZ follows continued international expansion. Today Box has multiple offices outside of the US including in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada, and Japan.

Box makes it easy for more than 82,000 organisations around the world to manage their content in the cloud. The company serves multinational enterprises like AstraZeneca, General Electric, Komatsu, Spotify.

About Box

Box (NYSE:BOX) is the cloud content management company that empowers enterprises to revolutionize how they work by securely connecting their people, information and applications. Founded in 2005, Box powers more than 82,000 businesses globally, including AstraZeneca, General Electric, P&G, and The GAP. Box is headquartered in Redwood City, CA, with offices across the United States, Europe and Asia. To learn more about Box, visit http://www.box.com/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005

Box Appoints Australia, New Zealand Leader as it Accelerates International ExpansionPR-Inside.com: 2018-03-26 09:43:03

This is a correction of the announcement from 16.03.2018 at 09:39 CET. The record date and payment date of the recommended dividend has been updated.

Based on the Company's 2017 results, including the profit from the sale of the Singapore terminal, the Board of Director recommends a dividend of NOK 1.50 per share. The dividend is subject to shareholders approval and will be voted on at the Company's Annual General Meeting, scheduled for 8 May 2018 in Bergen, Norway.

Dividend amount: 1.50 per share

Declared currency: NOK

Last day including right: 08.05.2018

Ex-date: 09.05.2018

Record date: 11.05.2018

Payment date: 23.05.2018

Date of approval: 08.05.2018



This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

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: Odfjell SE via Globenewswire

Afro-Latinx panel urges students and faculty to engage in ten seconds of courage

More than 100 students and faculty attended the I Am Enough: Afro-Latinx panel at Pugh Hall on March 20 to learn about the experiences and challenges of the Afro-Latinx community. The nearly three-hour event explained the common misconceptions and obstacles faced by black Latin Americans who are often forced to take a side on their own mixed culture. The event also served as a call to action for black and Latinx communities to find unity in their commonalities and remember that although there has been progress made, there is still a long way to go.

We are a society of forgetting . . . our struggles and our triumphs, said Paul Ortiz, director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and associate professor of history, who began the event by discussing his observations and studies, having recently published his book, An African American and Latinx History of the United States. The main issue with instituting change, he says, is people forgetting the struggles that led up to them in the first place, primarily due to the gaps in the education students receive about American history. Key factors omitted from the education system are the influences from Latin American, African and Caribbean histories that forged social, political and cultural advancements in the U.S., he added.

Building from our progress, Ortiz said, is how people can channel their anger into action at both UF and in their own homes when educating others about diversity. The panelists, which included faculty members and students from both the black and Latinx communities, also agreed with this contention.

For panelist Shania Stephens, a student, being part of the Afro-Latinx community means not only claiming the identity, but being proud of it. Edward Hiraldo, another student, corroborated that message, saying that it was hard to feel that pride when growing up because of the negative connotations people impose of their cultures characteristics, including narrow definitions of acceptable hair styles and parental pressures of avoiding ghettoness.

The Afro-Latinx identity also has it hand in influencing higher education experiences. At UF, student organizations and programs help students from all backgrounds find a home, along with an avenue to promote initiatives that expand awareness of diversity issues and increase inclusivity across campus.

Franesa Brown, student, shared how student organizations at the university helped her find herself and learn about the commonalities between different ethnic groups. She said that higher education exposes people to the varying backgrounds of black culture.

Shortfalling representation is at the core of the obstacles created by lack of awareness of multicultural history and experiences. Panelists concur that the movie and television industry have a clear preference for using lighter-skinned, glamorized Latinx figures.

People forget that theres more than one type of Spanish, said Alyssa Estrada, another student panelist. The Latinx community is composed of 20 Caribbean and South American countries, yet many nationalities and races, including Peruvians and Ecuadorians, are not represented in the media, Estrada said.

The concluding theme of the night was that the Afro-Latinx community needs more than just allies; it needs solidarity.

Correcting others and holding people accountable, despite how intimidating it may be to do, can help realize the popular notion of being woke, by turning it into proactive dialogue, said Bryce Henson from the Center for African American Studies.

Focus on 10 seconds of courage, repeated behavior can change your lives and others, Hiraldo said.

Diego Castillo, a Warrington graduate student who served as the main organizer of the event, ended the night by stressing the importance of keeping the conversation going with similar events that give people opportunities to understand one another.

It is important to open the door for dialogue and conversation especially in this day in age where everything and everyone attacks each other instead of listening to each other, Castillo said.

The Latino-Hispanic Organization for Graduate Students hosted this event, and co-sponsors included Multicultural and Diversity Affairs (MCDA), Hispanic-Latino Affairs, Black Affairs, HSA, Shes The First UF, the Center for Latin American Studies, and the Center for African American Studies, and the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.

Other speakers at the event included Tanya Saunders from the Center for Latin American Studies, Diana Moreno from the MCDA division and student panelist Deionte Harvey.

A full video of the event can be found on the UF Multicultural & Diversity Affairs Facebook page. Photos from the event can be found on the Latino Hispanic Organization of Graduate Students Facebook page.PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-26 18:21:15

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Gungnir Resources Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Gungnir Resources Inc. (TSX Venture:GUG). has issued a press release with the following headline:Gungnir Receives Permits and Outlines Detailed Drill Plans for SwedenTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Gungnir Resources Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Gungnir Resources Inc.Source: Gungnir Resources Inc. (TSX Venture: GUG, OTC Pink: ASWRF, FWB: AMO1, WKN: A116WL, ISIN: CA40281L1094)Date: March 26, 2018Time: 12:20 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Gungnir Resources Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-26 15:00:37

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for International Zeolite Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - International Zeolite Corp. (TSX Venture:IZ). has issued a press release with the following headline:International Zeolite Corp. Announces Binding Agreement to Acquire 55% of Ichaana Indo-Can Zeolite Private LimitedTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on International Zeolite Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/International Zeolite Corp.Source: International Zeolite Corp. (TSX Venture: IZ, ISIN: CA1368001097, WKN: A2AEE1, OTCQB: CNZCF, FWB: ZEON)Date: March 26, 2018Time: 9:00 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of International Zeolite Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-26 21:28:14

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Khot Infrastructure Holdings, Ltd.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Tortola, British Virgin Islands (FSCWire) - Khot Infrastructure Holdings, Ltd. (CSE:KOT). has issued a press release with the following headline:KHOT Announces Private Placement of up to CAD$500,000To view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Khot Infrastructure Holdings, Ltd., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Khot Infrastructure Holdings, Ltd.Source: Khot Infrastructure Holdings, Ltd. (CSE: KOT)Date: March 26, 2018Time: 3:26 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Khot Infrastructure Holdings, Ltd. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-27 00:00:00

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Lincoln Mining Corporation--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Lincoln Mining Corporation (TSX Venture:LMG). has issued a press release with the following headline:Lincoln Mining Terminates Option Agreement on the Oro Cruz Gold Project in CaliforniaTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Lincoln Mining Corporation, or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Lincoln Mining CorporationSource: Lincoln Mining Corporation (TSX Venture: LMG, OTC Pink: LNCLF, FWB: ZMG1)Date: March 26, 2018Time: 5:59 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Lincoln Mining Corporation and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-26 11:29:01

Unique, responsive and multi-lingual

MetLife Career Agency Portal Benefits Existing and Prospective Career Agents in Asia

MetLife

Yvette Marmur, +852 2277 4172

M. +852 5716 8533

Assistant Vice President, Global Communications,

ymarmur@metlife.com

MetLife announced the launch of the MetLife Career Agency Portal for the Asia region. The unique, mobile responsive and multi-lingual platform, developed and designed in Asia, provides access to a wide array of resources and capabilities to educate, enable and inspire existing and prospective agents through their career cycle. Intuitive and easy to navigate, visitors to the platform are able to find information based on their respective career stage along with advice and insights from some of MetLifes top performing agents in Asia.

Bharat Kannan, Senior Vice President and Chief Distribution Officer, MetLife Asia said, MetLife is investing heavily in growing its distribution advantage globally and agency forms a key part of this in Asia. Over the last two years we have taken significant steps to transform our distribution channels driving productivity and efficiency. The MetLife Career Agency Portal is among many steps we are taking to empower career agents.

By showcasing best practices and sharing their experiences via the platform, we believe agents will inspire their peers and new agents alike to service their customers better, adds Kannan.

The MetLife Career Agency Portal is device agnostic allowing users to browse on their smartphone, tablet or desktop without having to download an app. Simply by visiting www.metlifeagency.com, the platform is available to any career agent (outside of MetLife too) to learn more about the profession.

Key features of the MetLife Career Agency Portal include:

Gear up for success section carries many stories about how career agents deliver value to customers across the region. This not only helps existing agents but also people exploring a career in this space.

Shine with us gives one an overview about MetLifes regional initiatives such as MDRT partnerships and Asia Presidents Council.

Career Opportunity section provides an overview of various benefits of being a Career Agent and how MetLife agents are diversified in terms of skillsets and background.

Agents can choose the language they are comfortable in from English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Asia is home to MetLifes largest agency business. MetLife has operations in 10 countries in Asia employing over 45,000 career insurance agents.

About MetLife

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates ("MetLife"), is one of the largest life insurance companies in the world. Founded in 1868, MetLife is a global provider of life insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management. Serving approximately 100 million customers, MetLife has operations in 44 countries and holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.metlife.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180326005PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-27 00:30:14

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for NexgenRx Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - NexgenRx Inc. (TSX Venture:NXG). has issued a press release with the following headline:NexgenRx Announces 2017 Annual ResultsTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on NexgenRx Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/NexgenRx Inc.Source: NexgenRx Inc. (TSX Venture: NXG)Date: March 26, 2018Time: 6:30 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of NexgenRx Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-26 14:04:01

CARLSBAD, Calif., March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Proficio, a world-class managed security services provider (MSSP) delivering managed detection and response (MDR), proudly announced that they've received eleven top honors by several industry award outlets in the first quarter of 2018. Each awards program highlighted Proficio's services offerings for managed cybersecurity services, Splunk services, their global expansion efforts in North America, EMEA and APAC, and their security team's depth of expertise.

The eleven awards include three Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, five Info Security Product Guide 2018 Global Excellence Awards, a Cloud Computing Excellence Award and a spot on CRN's Security 100 list. These prominent award programs are focused on recognizing companies that demonstrated excellence, innovation and leadership in the information security sector.

"It's an honor for our company to be recognized by so many prestigious organizations this quickly into 2018," stated Tim McElwee, co-founder and president of Proficio. "These awards are an absolute testament to the passion, drive and quality work our team produces daily. Combatting today's advanced persistent threats requires a level of expertise and vigilance that our employees in North America, EMEA and APAC consistently demonstrate. This commitment to excellence is what makes Proficio a world-class organization."

In the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, Proficio won gold in the Best Managed Security Services and Cybersecurity Team of the Year - North America categories. The company was also recognized with a bronze award in the Best Cybersecurity Company category, where they had competed against forty other cybersecurity companies.

Proficio secured top honors in the Info Security PG's Global Excellence Awards, placing in four different categories. The company won gold in the Cyber Security Vendor Achievement of the Year category for significantly expanding its operations in North America, EMEA, and APAC, silver for Best Security Company of the Year (Services), bronze in the Best Overall Security Company of the Year category, silver in the Managed Security Services category for its SOC-as-a-Service offering, and bronze in the Managed Security Services category for its Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Enterprise Security services. Proficio was the only cybersecurity company to be recognized with two awards in the Managed Security Services category.

In the Cloud Computing Excellence Awards, Proficio was recognized for excellence and innovation in their SOC-as-a-Service offering. Proficio was one of only nine companies selected for this award which honors vendors that have most effectively leveraged cloud computing in their efforts to bring new, differentiated offerings to market.

Proficio was once again awarded a placement on the Security 100 of CRN's 2018 MSP 500 list as well as San Diego Business Journal's Top Cybersecurity Organization List. The CRN Security 100 list is designed to help partners wade through the ever-expanding security market, from the long-standing legacy vendors to the niche players, and navigate the fast-growing security vendor market.

"Our focus has always been on providing the most innovative and advanced cybersecurity solutions that keep our client's networks completely secure. Being recognized for these efforts means we are doing what we set out to do," shared Brad Taylor, CEO of Proficio. "In the year ahead, we plan to continually enhance our monitoring and response services, along with launching new products that will give our clients total visibility into their security environments. In fact, we are on the precipice of launching a new solution at RSA that will create a new standard of value within the MSSP industry and give clients clear insight into their overall security posture."

About Proficio

Founded in 2010, Proficio offers the full range of cybersecurity services including managed detection and response (MDR), 24/7 monitoring and alerting, security assessments, and consulting through global security operations centers in San Diego, Barcelona and Singapore. Proficio's innovative approach to managed cybersecurity services uses proprietary processes, experienced security analysts, and the industries most advanced technologies to help organizations defend against advanced threats. www.proficio.com

Media contact:

media@proficio.com

800-779-5042

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/34700335-81cd-45cb-b0d7-4ebb2ebb1251PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-26 14:50:16

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Centamin plc--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Perth, Australia (FSCWire) - Centamin plc (TSX:CEE). has issued a press release with the following headline:Results of the Annual General MeetingTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Centamin plc, or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Centamin plcSource: Centamin plc (TSX: CEE, LSE: CEY)Date: March 26, 2018Time: 8:48 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Centamin plc and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)A series of explosive eruptions has been observed at a volcano in southwestern Japan, after a lull of 10 days. The Meteorological Agency is warning people to stay away from Mount Shinmoe, and is maintaining an alert level of 3, on a scale of 1 to 5.

The volcano straddles the prefectures of Kagoshima and Miyazaki. The agency says Shinmoe sent a plume of smoke about 3,200 meters into the air on Sunday morning. Large rocks were shot into the air and landed about 800 meters from the crater.

A current of hot gas, ash and rocks hurtled about 800 meters downhill. This is the first time for officials to observe the phenomenon known as a pyroclastic flow since the explosive eruptions began early this month. - NHKPR-Inside.com: 2018-03-26 16:45:16

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for RHC Capital Corporation--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (FSCWire) - RHC Capital Corporation (TSX Venture:RHC). has issued a press release with the following headline:RHC Capital Corporation Adds New Target Area Frontier to Its Initial Drill ProgramTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on RHC Capital Corporation, or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/RHC Capital CorporationSource: RHC Capital Corporation (TSX Venture: RHC)Date: March 26, 2018Time: 10:45 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of RHC Capital Corporation and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)ADVERTISEMENT

South African police would this week issue former President Jacob Zuma with a court summons relating to corruption charges over a $2.5 billion arms deal, a spokesman for the Hawks investigative crime unit said.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Thursday said it would seek to prosecute Mr. Zuma on 16 charges, including fraud, racketeering, corruption and money laundering.

Mr. Zuma could not be reached for comment.

He has repeatedly denied the allegations.

A court appearance would be a dramatic development on a continent where former presidents rarely face their accusers in court.

We are of the view everything will be finalised soon. Hopefully this week, Hawks spokesman Hangwani Mulaudzi

told Reuters.

News24, citing sources close to the case, reported that Mr. Zuma would be summoned to appear in the Durban High Court on April 6.

Mulaudzi declined to comment.

Mr. Zuma, who was forced to resign by his ruling African National Congress in February, was at the centre of a 1990s deal to buy European military kit that has cast a shadow over politics in South Africa for years.

Mr. Zuma was deputy president at the time of the arms deal. Schabir Shaikh, his former financial adviser, was found guilty and jailed in 2005 for trying to solicit bribes for Mr. Zuma from a French arms company.

The 16 counts were filed against Mr. Zuma but then dropped by the NPA shortly before he successfully ran for president in 2009.

Since his election nine years ago, his opponents have fought a lengthy legal battle to have the charges reinstated.

Mr. Zuma countered with his own legal challenges. (Reuters/NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

Spanish police have arrested the suspected leader of a gang of cyber criminals that stole as much as one billion Euros ($1.2 billion) from banks by altering account balances and instructing automatic teller machines to issue cash, Europol said on Monday.

The person suspected of being behind malware attacks known as Carbanak and Cobalt was arrested in Alicante after cooperation between police forces in the U.S., Asia and Europe, Europol said.

It did not give any information on the suspects identity.

Europol said the group had operated since 2013, with members in 40 countries, carrying out attacks on 100 financial institutions.

They targeted bank employees with emails infecting their computers and then using them as a base to gain control of bank network and servers.

With that level of access, the nefarious individuals authorise fraudulent bank transfers, raise the balances of mule accounts or command affected ATMs to spit out the money for them.

They then take the money and convert it into crypto currencies, Europol said.

Europol said the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Romanian, Belarussian and Taiwanese authorities and private cyber security companies assisted in the case.

(Reuters/NAN)The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday in Abuja, apologised to Nigerians for mistakes the party made while in power.

The National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, made the apology at a public national discourse on Contemporary Governance in Nigeria.

The PDP lost the general elections to the now ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2015.

The then incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, conceded victory to APC candidate Muhammadu Buhari. Ever since Nigerians have been inundated with the perceived excesses perpetrated by officials of the former ruling party while in office.

Mr Secondus apologised to Nigerian for impunity, the imposition of candidates and other mistakes made in the past.

He assured that under his watch, there would be no imposition of candidates or any form of impunity in the partys activities.

I hereby, as the National Chairman, do admit that the PDP made a lot of mistakes; we are humans, not spirits and the ability to admit is key in moving forward.

We admit that we have made several mistakes; we have passed through all our challenges and have acquired the experience no other party can boast of.

We were sanctioned by Nigerians at the polls in 2015; let me use this opportunity to apologise for our past mistakes.

It is the honest thing to do, a legacy to transfer to our children; we cannot continue like that.

When we make mistakes, we should come out boldly to the people and apologise.

It is important to do so because we have learnt from our mistakes unlike the All Progressive Congress (APC) that will make mistakes and lie to cover it.

We apologise to Nigerians that we have made mistakes, we have learnt our lessons and we are ready to begin on a new agenda; experience is the best teacher, no other party has it, he said.

According to Mr Secondus, when things are not positive and the mindset is negative, it is then time to reset it.

He said that the public discourse was an ample opportunity for the party members to collectively press the reset button and set a new agenda for the nation.

In his contribution, a chieftain of the party, George Bode, said that the position of the party leadership rekindled his loyalty.

Mr Bode called on members of PDP who left the party as a result of its past mistakes to return home from wilderness.

According to him, to err is human and forgive is divine, it was time to walk the talk for the repositioning of the country.

One of the panelists at the event, Toyosi Ogunshiji, commended the party for toeing the line of honour.

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She said that Nigeria must move from praying to taking more serious actions for the progress of the country.The National Assembly has challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to entertain a suit seeking to compel the lawmakers to suspend the amendment of the Electoral Act.

But the federal government and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) countered, arguing that the court can entertain the suit filed by Accord Party.

The suit is seeking an interpretation by the court of an amendment by the federal lawmakers to the Electoral Act.

The plaintiff had also obtained an order of the court preventing the lawmakers from proceeding with overriding the veto of the amendment by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Both chambers of the National Assembly passed the bill which adjusted the electoral timetable by placing the presidential election last on the third and final day of polling, after those of the National Assembly on the first day and governorship and state legislators elections on the second day.

After the bill was passed by the legislature, however, Mr Buhari vetoed it by declining assent to the bill on the ground that it negates the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution.

Both chambers of the Nigerian Assembly can invoke the provisions of section 58 (1) of the Constitution to override the presidents veto.

After the lawmakers took a step in that direction, the Accord Party, one of Nigerias 68 registered parties, approached the court through Wale Olanipekun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, for a declaration on the amendment to the Electoral Act.

Mr. Olanipekun also secured an order of the court restraining the National Assembly from further deliberations on the matter, until the determination of the suit.

The trial judge, Ahmed Mohammed, on Monday granted his second adjournment on the matter without lifting the restraining order on the National Assembly.

At the continuation of the hearing on Monday, counsel to the Accord Party, Mr Olanipekun, said the court had adjourned till Monday to entertain arguments by counsel on the originating summons.

Mr Olanipekun explained that his clients request as contained in the originating summons was not new in law.

What we have submitted before the court is a constitutional issue for consideration, not a political issue, My Lord, Mr Olanipekun told the court.

Responding, counsel to the National Assembly, Joseph Daudu, disagreed that Mr. Olanipekuns motion contains a constitutional issue.

Mr. Daudu said according to Section 4 (8) of Constitution, the case by the plaintiff could only be brought to court after the bill becomes law.

He said until the bill becomes an Act, it cannot be compared to the provisions of the law, because it is non-existent.

Mr Daudu questioned the locus standi (the constitutional right) of the plaintiff, adding that the court lacks jurisdiction on the matter. The senior advocate cited previous rulings to back his claim

In his submissions, however, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, said the court has full jurisdiction on the matter.

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For the purpose of determining whether your jurisdiction can be properly invoked or otherwise, I wish to humbly submit that what is presented before Your Lordship for consideration is a legislative conduct that is constitutionally recognised and wholeheartedly consummated, Mr. Malami said.

Also speaking on behalf of the Independent National Electoral Commission, another senior advocate, Femi Falana, said the question of locus standi brought against the plaintiff by Mr Daudu was pointless, since the party was duly registered by INEC and therefore has the right to make the said application.

Mr Falana also submitted that the previous rulings cited by Mr Daudu were wrongly quoted.

Speaking later on the points of law, Mr Olanipekun countered an earlier claim by Mr Daudu that section 4 (8) of the Constitution makes it mandatory for a bill to become an Act before an application can be brought against it.

Reading through the said provisions, Mr Olanipekun said the powers of the legislature, which the application deals with, begins at the very inception of a bill in the National Assembly.

The case was adjourned till April 25 for ruling on the application.ADVERTISEMENT

President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday extended his condolences to the Government and people of Nasarawa State on the death of Hassan Lawal, a former minister and member of the Board of Trustees of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

President Buhari, who was represented at the burial by a delegation led by the Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibril, described the demise of the strong political ally as painful.

The president noted that the statesman, who at various times served the nation as minister of works and housing, minister of labour and productivity and health minister, was a strong pillar of support in Nasarawa State and the North Central geopolitical zone.

I was shocked to hear of the passing of Dr Lawal. He will be missed by thousands of people whom he had assisted in one way or the other.

His role in politics and the development of his community, State and nation will remain an inspiration for other political actors.

My condolences to his family, close associates and the people of Nasarawa State, the president said.

The presidential delegation to the burial included Sarki Abba and Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistants and Lawal Kazaure, the State Chief of Protocol.

Governor Umaru Tanko Almakura of Nassarawa State, who received the government delegation at the palace of the Emir of Keffi, Shehu Yamusa ,thanked President Buhari for sharing this moment of grief with the people of the state.ADVERTISEMENT

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has asked the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Import Promotion Council (NIPC), Yewande Sadiku, to return to the coffers of the federal government, an unremitted N477 million.

The funds are part of Internally Generated Revenue by the agency between 2013 and 2014, meant to be sent to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The committee also called on the EFCC to immediately persecute the officers involved.

This development was based on an Auditor-General to the Federation (AuGF) query in 2013.

The lawmakers during an interactive session with officials of the commission on Friday had observed that the infractions raised by the AuGF cannot be ignored.

Responding to the committee, Mrs Sadiku admitted that though she was not in charge when the infractions were committed, she would not dispute the position of the AuGF.

She also pointed out that at a particular period, the commission was overdebited with about N290 million and the AuGF office had promised to make a refund.

This must have probably accounted for why there is a shortfall of N477 million and when a refund is made amendments could be effected.

The deputy chairman of the committee, Ibrahim Baba (Bauchi-APC), countered her saying: the commission is not a private company and the money in question belongs to the federal government because what you remitted is actually 25 per cent of your annual earnings.

Also responding, chairman of the committee, Kingsley Chinda, asked who the officers in charge of the commission were when the infractions were committed.

He also insisted to know why the money was not remitted as at when due to the federations purse.

Mr Chinda said the committee had no other option than to uphold the AuGFs audit report.

We are also referring this matter to the anti-graft commission to further dig deep into this matter and report to the clerk of this committee within 60 days, he added.Own fight against HIV/AIDS, U.S. urges Nigeria

The U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Joint United Nations Programme for HIV/AIDs (UNAIDS), have urged the Nigerian government to own the HIV response programme by assisting in reducing the cost of placing people living with HIV/AIDs on treatment.

Speaking at the 4th National Council of AIDs, the country coordinator of PEPFAR, Shirley Dady, said it will be more cost effective when the government of Nigeria takes over the HIV programme at all levels.

This, she said, will enable PEPFAR locate and place 150,000 more people living with HIV on life saving treatment in the coming year.

Nigerias locally-produced vaccines ready within next 3  4 years

Locally-produced vaccines in Nigeria will be ready in about four years, Oyewale Tomori, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Biovaccines Nigeria Limited, has said.

Mr. Tomori, a Professor of Virology, said the Board is taking calculated steps to ensure they get everything right.

Usually, a Greenfield project will require five to eight years gestation period. But we cannot wait that long.

We are engaging our experts and relevant government agencies to see how we can shorten this process without making quality compromise. It is our hope that we can achieve production within the next 3  4 years. he said

Nigerian government inaugurates committee on basic healthcare fund

In compliance with the National Health Act and towards increasing funding for the health sector, the Nigerian government has inaugurated a National Steering Committee on Basic Health Care Provision Fund.

The committee will seek more resources and ensure smooth operation of the Basic Health Healthcare Provision Fund.

The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, who is also the Chairman of the Committee, during the inauguration said Niger, Abia and Osun had been selected as the first set of states for commencement of the implementation of the Programme in the second quarter of 2018.

NMA introduce doctors stamp to remove quacks

In order to eradicate quackery in the medical profession, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) says doctors will commence full usage of doctors stamp with effect from April 1.

The president of the association, Mike Ogirima, said the rate of quackery in medical profession has increased disease burden and mortality rate in the country.

He said certain security features will be embedded in the stamp which will help differentiate professionals from quacks and any doctor that does not possess or have the stamp latest April 1 would be regarded as a quack.

JOHESU to begin strike April 7

Health workers in Nigeria under the aegis of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), and the Assembly of Health Care professionals (AHPA), would begin an indefinite strike April 7.

The Vice President JOHESU, Chimele Ogbonna said that the health workers had explored all avenues for an amicable settlement of their grievances and are left with no other option to embark on an indefinite nationwide strike.

He said the action is against their wish but the government has failed to honour the agreements with the workers from 2009 to 2017. The Union gave a 30 day ultimatum since March 5 and will end April 7.

Bill Gates, Dangote sign MoU with 6 governors on immunisation funds

Bill Gates and Aliko Dangote have signed a memorandum of Understanding with six northern governors on improved access to immunisation in the states.

The governors are; Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, Kashim Shettima of Borno State, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, Muhammed Abubakar of Bauchi State, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State and Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe State.

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According to Mr. Gates, all partners are committed to ensure that maximum number of children were reached.

He said the partners are projecting to reach at least 80 percent coverage in 2019 and the MoUs are intended to enable the states achieve targeted coverage.

Treat malaria with combination of drugs, NMEP pleads

The National Coordinator, National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), Audu Mohammed has appealed to Nigerians to discourage anti-malarial treatment with a single medicine  monotherapy.

He said the Artemisinin based Combination Treatments (ACT) for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria remained efficacious, therefore Nigerians should use the ACT adopted by Nigeria, for the treatment of malaria.

He described the therapy as the best and said eliminating malaria requires a multi-pronged approach and change in behaviour

Scientists find miracle gel that kills cancer tumours

A medical research has produced a biodegradable gel that has the capacity to kill cancer tumours.

The gel, created by scientists at the Department of Cancer Immunology and Virology Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, was designed to deliver immunotherapy directly to the area from which a cancerous cell has been surgically removed.

The results of the study was reported by Michael Goldberg and colleagues in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Upon testing the gel on mice during the surgical removal of breast cancer tumours, the scientists found that it not only helped to prevent tumour recurrence at the primary site, but that it also eliminated secondary tumours in the lungs.Nigeria spent about N400 billion on the importation of raw sugar from 2013 to 2016, the head of a House of Representatives committee investigating sugar waivers has said.

Abiodun Olasupo, APC-Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Kajola/Iwajowa Federal Constituency, told journalists in Iseyin on Sunday evening that this was in spite of the waivers to enhance local production.

Mr. Olusupos committee is investigating the waiver given to some companies on sugar importation from 2013 to 2016.

This is paid in dollars, encouraging the outflow of our hard earned foreign exchange, he said.

From the record at our disposal now, the three companies licensed to import raw sugar are in a deficit of about N322 billion as waivers with nothing on ground.

The effort of the waiver is to have 70 per cent production of sugar locally, he said.

Mr. Olasupo said the situation has impacted negatively on the nations economy.

He said local production of sugar would create jobs for the unemployed and reduce outflow of foreign exchange.

Mr. Olasupo said it was also meant to ensure that 80 per cent of materials were sourced locally by 2018.

He said based on presentations made at the panels first public hearing, Nigeria has yet to achieve 10 per cent of the requirements on sugarcane production.

He added that the task ahead of his committee was huge, noting that his members would give their best to ensure things were put in order and on the right track.

On the outcry over the reordering of election sequence, he said the exercise was the constitutional duty of the National Assembly.

What we have done is to re-order the sequence of election and for INEC to put the dates.

The sequence which INEC has been working on since was established through an Act by the National Assembly and there should be no problem in amending it.

NASS is the theatre of democracy. The constitution empowers it to make laws, executive to implement and when there is disagreement on its interpretation, it goes to the judiciary, Mr. Olasupo said.

Commenting on President Muhammadu Buharis stance in withholding assent on the Peace Corps Bill, he said that such agency, when created, would amount to duplication of duties.

He said the government had been complaining about funds and there was no reason for creating new agency which it cannot fund.

(NAN)

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The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says it has registered 1.5 million students to write its 2018 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).

The Councils Director of Public Affairs, Damianus Ojijeogu, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.

He said the council had concluded arrangements for the conduct of the examination for school candidates, popularly refers to as May/June WASSCE.

We have concluded all arrangements and deployed logistics in every part of the country for the conduct of a hitch-free examination.

We have also taken cognisance of the upsurge of insecurity in some parts of the country.

We are working in collaboration with the Federal Government and security agencies to ensure safe and conducive environments for the conduct of the examination.

On our part, we will deploy professional examiners and supervisors that will protect the integrity of the examination, he told NAN.

According to him, the examinations will begin with the regular subjects on March 28.

(NAN)Mild panic broke out at approximately 1:20 p.m. on 23 March at the Arakawa Amusement Park in Arakawa Ward, Tokyo.

While in operation, the "Family Coaster" - purported on the park's website to be the "slowest coaster in Japan" - suddenly derailed, leaving the seven adults and twelve children suspended about five meters (16 feet) above the ground.

It was reported that a wheel on the first car had disengaged with the rail, causing the entire train to grind to a halt. A woman in her 30s and her six-year-old son who were on the ride at the time of the accident explained to Asahi Shimbun, "The coaster was moving so slowly, I didn't notice it had stopped."

However, things got kind of "scary" when park staff began trying to push the train and hitting it with hammers, all the while not explaining what had happened to the riders. Customers began to call the emergency police number 110 and rescue crews eventually arrived at the scene. After about 50 minutes, everyone was safely evacuated from the Family Coaster and no injuries were reported. - soranews24.comADVERTISEMENT

An Ikeja Magistrates Court on Monday remanded an unemployed man, Yusuf Olatunji, 28, for allegedly attempting to rape a 65-year-old woman in her sleep.

Mr Olatunji, whose address was not provided, is facing a charge of attempted rape.

The Police Prosecutor, Rachael Williams, said Mr Olatunji committed the offence on March 21 at 11.30 p.m. at No. 23 Bode St., Iyalode, Agege, near Lagos.

The accused attempted to commit felony to wit: rape a 65-year-old woman by removing her pant with intent to have carnal knowledge of her while she was asleep.

The complainant was fast asleep in a kiosk when the accused came from nowhere and attempted to rape her.

The complainant raised alarm and with the help of passers-by, the accused was arrested and brought to the police station, the prosecutor told court.

Mr Olatunji, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the offence contravenes Section 262 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

Section 262 prescribes 14 years imprisonment for offenders.

The Chief Magistrate, O. I. Raji, granted Mr Olatunji bail in the sum of N100,000 with two sureties in like sum.

She said that the sureties should be gainfully employed with evidence of two years tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

Mrs Raji said that the accused should, however, remain in Kirikiri Prisons, pending when the bail conditions would be met.

The matter was adjourned until April 2.About 92 persons have finally been given letters of awards under the 2017/2018 Postgraduate Scholarship programme of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

The head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations Unit of the agency, Hadiza Umar, said this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

PREMIUM TIMES had late last year reported how 43 young Nigerians, whose post-graduate scholarship awards were cancelled by NITDA, were asked to undergo a new selection process.

PREMIUM TIMES exclusively reported how the awardees had been left in a state of shock after the awards were withdrawn by the agency which had cited the paucity of funds for the development.

The applicants who applied in 2016/2017 exercise had their dreams cut short as the offers awarded to them after successfully navigating the months-long intensive selection process were withdrawn by NITDA under circumstances the applicants claimed were unclear and unsettling.

But in an apparent move to calm frayed nerves, the agency after the report by PREMIUM TIMES sent letters by email to the applicants inviting them to take part in the 2017/2018 exercise. It said they will be added to those who would be offered scholarships in the 2017/18 set.

The letter obtained by PREMIUM TIMES said that a committee had been set up to handle their matter and that they (43 awardees) would not be expected to take part in processes for the award such as verification of credentials, supplementary assessment, evaluation of character, etc.

The letter signed by Eniola A.A. on behalf of the Director-General, read: Im directed to inform you that the Director General/CEO has already constituted a committee to conduct interviews (which includes Verification of Credentials, Supplementary Assessment Test, Evaluation of Character etc) towards accommodating you as part of the 2017/2018 NITDEF Scholarship Scheme.

Accordingly, you will be contacted next week for the date and time of the interview. However, please note that no award letter has been issued to anyone and none of the previous stages of exercise will be repeated.

The letter did not however, explain how the 43 already successful candidates would be accommodated in a scheme that attracts thousands of applicants on a yearly basis.

Despite the assurances then, the applicants had expressed doubts that they would be captured. The applicants to push their demands also formed a WhatsApp group to pressurise the agency.

Mrs Umar, had said then that decision was necessitated due to serious budget deficit experienced in the Agencys 2016 budget year which the scheme was appropriated for but no money was released to fund it.

But on Monday, via a release on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mrs Hadiza said, in a statement that the awards had finally been issued.

NITDA has awarded 92 scholarships in the 2017/2018 session for Masters and Doctorate degrees in relevant areas of ICT and ICT Law.

This is in the efforts of the agency at assessing and addressing ICT skills requirements to support President Buharis sustainable economic growth and development strides. The scholarship scheme was expanded to cover diverse areas including Masters in ICT Law through the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the agency.

Mrs Umar said that a total of 5,504 candidates applied out of which 2,188 sat for the computer-based aptitude test.

She said that the final selection was based on academic merit, exceptional character traits that would enable them maintain the highest level of values and be worthy ambassadors of the country.

She disclosed that each scholar studying abroad received an average package of over N17 million per annum comprising tuition fees, personal allowance to cover accommodation, living expenses and other allowances.

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She said that in-country scholars received an average of over N3 million, while about N752 million was spent annually on the scheme.

Mrs Umar said that since inception of the scheme to date, the agency has successfully sponsored 341 Nigerian Graduates in various ICT fields at universities in the UK, USA, Canada, Germany and Australia.

The scholarship scheme is highly competitive and candidates are selected based on academic excellence and leadership qualities after going through a fair rigorous process.

Beneficiaries of the scheme are fully employed, while others have set up viable IT businesses that are providing employment opportunities contributing to the countrys economy, she said.

One of the 43 initially aggrieved candidates confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that they had indeed received their letters (alongside the new set) but said they would finally lay the matter to rest when the disbursement of funds for the scheme commences in earnest.

We are grateful that PREMIUM TIMES stood by us through the struggle. We appreciate your reports. However they are yet to disburse funds. We are grateful. We will wait until they pay, the applicant whose identity is protected said.

The scholarship scheme which was established in 2010 is aimed at bridging the digital gap through human capital development with emphasis on creating and supporting a knowledge-based economy.

The scheme usually selects two persons per state, including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT at masters level and 1 person per geopolitical zone of the country at the doctorate level.ADVERTISEMENT

Many Nigerians have continued to react to the death of founder of the MMM Ponzi scheme, Sergey Mavrodi.

Mr. Mavrodi passed away on Monday, Russian media reported.

The Russian businessman, 62, was reported to have died of a heart attack at a hospital in Moscow, the Russian capital.

Many Nigerians lost huge amounts of money before the crash of the scheme in 2016. Reports said an estimated N18 billion went down the drain through the Ponzi scheme in Nigeria alone.

On Monday, Nigerians took to the social media to comment on the death of the late Russian national.

Lori Uwayemi, commenting on PREMIUM TIMES website said, His soul will know no peace. He will die over and over again.

Anasieze Donatus threw up a somewhat rhetorical question saying, WILL THIS MAN REST IN PEACEJUST ASKING.

Another commenter with the name Ojomaje Ijato wondered if he was indeed dead. Hmmmm. Is he really dead? This man is / was a first class crook and criminal. He may be working on an identity change stunt to get people off his back. Anyhow, this news means some fools and their money had parted permanently, the commenter wrote.

Amarachi, on her part said Mr. Mavrodi has Finally pierced himself with many sorrow, just as 1Timothy 6:10 says it. Lesson number one.

For Papis Cruz, the man does not deserve to rest even after dying. His dead body should be flogged, kicked, then hanged on a tree upside down, then burnt after which the dust will be sent bit by bit to the millions of people he rendered financially useless all over the globe, he wrote.

Abdullah Musa took shots at Nigerians who lost money in the Ponzi scheme, saying: The gullibles investment gone with the winds.

On Twitter, a trending and hilarious tweet by one Buharis sister reads: MMM, Sergey Mavrodi founder dies of attack in Moscow So Amadioha Can Kill Someone In Moscow?

One Uncle Ezrel, tweeting at @ezrelaja said the man died with his money.

Sergey Mavrodi is dead! The Man died with my MMM money! May his soul not rest in peace. .

Before MMMs final collapse, the Central Bank and other regulatory agencies warned Nigerians of such investments.Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) has provided reasons for allowing the police to drag five of its students to court.

The university accused the students of assaulting and holding hostage one of its officials assigned to enforce an order evicting them from the hostels.

The five students, Gbenga Olaniran, Oyedeji Samson, Olajide Adedamola, Jimoh Oladipupo and Adeniji John, were on Thursday arraigned at the Ife Magistrate Court a day after their arrest.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the students, civil groups and staff of the university condemned the schools management for handing over its own students to the police for prosecution.

In a statement it issued on Monday through its spokesperson, Abiodun Olarewaju, the university authorities debunked the claim that the students were arrested and arraigned for protesting an alleged illegal eviction of students from their hostels.

The statement said the university would not condone the staff and students breaching the laws of the land and the universitys motto of For Learning and Culture.

It said the management had given a directive that all students resident on campus should vacate halls of residence to enable renovation works and repairs to be carried out before the commencement of the next academic session.

It further said allocation of bed spaces in the hostels is always for one academic session, and students are expected to vacate the hostels at the end of each session.

We are aware that some students would be on SIWES, IT, Teaching Practice and other compulsory academic programs during the period, the university had designated two hostels on the campus, one each for male and female students, for the accommodation of these groups of students, the statement by the spokesperson read.

The spokesperson said some students refused to vacate the hostels in spite of several notices to them and contrary to the directive of the university.

On Wednesday, March 21, 2018, the Hall Warden and Porters at Moremi Hall (a Female Hostel) moved round the hostel and reminded students unlawfully occupying the hostel to move out.

The students were complying when all of a sudden, some men came out of nowhere and forcefully moved the belongings of the female students back into the hostel on the ground that the university had no right to ask them to pack out, the statement read.

It further alleged that the students were extremely rude to a hall warden, harassed and physically assaulted the hall staff and also held them hostage.

According to the statement, the men who assaulted the university staff were reported to the police and upon investigation, (the police) decided that they had a case to answer and consequently filed charges against them in the law court.

It subsequently turned out that these men are students of the university who are not on any academic program and do not belong to the group exempted and accommodated in Akintola and ETF Halls as earlier pointed out, contrary to the rumours making the rounds, the students charged to court were not charged for protesting or for dissent, the university said.

According to Mr. Olarewaju, the university as one of the leading academic institutions in Nigeria, respects dissent and would not punish any member for expressing their opinions.

The university enjoined parents and guardians to impress it on their wards to respect the laws of Nigeria and the rules and regulations of the university.

Meanwhile Dunsi Samuel, the acting co-ordinator, Education Rights Campaign, OAU chapter, said none of the wardens was harassed or assaulted, faulting the managements statement as false.

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There was nothing like protest on that day. But in the early hours of today during the mass awareness, the NASU and SSANU confirmed to us that the hall warden which the authority claimed was assaulted said nothing of such happened, she even said that was not what she wrote in her statement, he said.

According to Mr. Samuel, everything transpired in an open space, I was there and no one was held hostage.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the students are yet to be released.

The bail terms for each of the students include N500, 000 bond and provision of two sureties, who must be civil servants of level 11 and above and who are tax payers.ADVERTISEMENT

A carpenter, Nnana Ononaku, was on Monday brought before an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrates Court in Lagos, for allegedly strangling his wife to death and throwing her body into the lagoon.

The accused, 45, resident of No. 89, Oke Eri St., Oworonshoki, Lagos, was charged with murder.

His plea was not taken.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Cousin Adams, had told the court that the accused committed the offence on February 15, at about 11.00 p.m. at Oke-Eri in Oworonshoki.

Mr Adams said that the accused strangled his wife, Iyabo Akinpelu, 48, before throwing her body into the lagoon.

Her body was found floating in the lagoon with her hands tied with a rope, the prosecutor alleged.

He said the offence contravened Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 which stipulates a death sentence for convicts.

The Chief Magistrate, A.O. Adegite, remanded the accused at the Ikoyi Prisons, pending an outcome of legal advice from the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

She adjourned the case until April 30 for the legal advice.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

A new group, Grand National Political Coalition (GNPC), led by a former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba and Abduljalil Tafawa Balewa, has called for the immediate redefinition of the present governance structure of Nigeria to make it more democratic and citizen inclusive.

It also said the country was tilting towards social and political harmony and anarchy and that urgent political actions should be put in place to stem the drift and rebuild social cohesion among Nigerians.

The group stated this in a communique issued after its summit last Wednesday in Abuja.

The communique, signed by its Deputy Director General, Naseer Kura, was sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday.

It listed those at the summit to include an economist and politician, Pat Utomi; a former Finance Minister, Idika Kalu; a former military governor of the old Plateau State, Dan Suleiman; President of Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, Shettima Yerima; former senator, Bassey Ewa Henshaw; former Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka; Buba Galadima, a former ally of President Muhammadu Buhari; and Debe Odumegwu-Ojukwu, son of the leader of the defunct Biafra, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

Also in attendance were representatives of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) led by Isa Aremu; Northern Elders Forum (NEF) led by Sheriff Ashir; National Youth Movements led by Abayomi Rotimi Mighty and Wale Ajani; Coalition for New Nigeria (CNN) comprising 35 opposition political parties led by A.A. Salam; and the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties led by Tank Yinusa.

There were also representatives of civil society groups, women groups, youth movements and the coalition of persons with special needs.

Mr. Agbakoba, who leads the GNPC, is the leader of the Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM) which, earlier in the year, indicated its plan to form a broad-based coalition with other groups ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Mr. Tafawa Balewa is the son of Nigerias former prime minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

There must be a concerted drive to bring about a new Nigeria that would work for all and that such new Nigeria must guarantee the

safety and freedom of each citizen of Nigeria, the group said in the communique.

The wanton killings in whatever guise of Nigerians is unacceptable and viewed in serious terms as pure failure of governance and political system at both the national and subnational strata.

The group urged every Nigerian adult to, as a matter of social responsibility, obtain a voters card and participate in the recruitment process of public office holders, who seek for elective offices.

GNPC, which said it received nod and backing of the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, said, as an interventionist force, it would interface with all willing political forces who share its stand towards developing standards for all aspirants or candidates aspiring for elective office in the 2019

elections.

The communique said all the groups in attendance resolved to work in unison towards overthrowing the current decadent pauperising political order in Nigeria and to replace it with a prospering democratic and inclusive political system and culture.

It also said it would embark on nationwide sensitisation, advocacy and public awareness program on the need for every adult citizen of Nigeria, irrespective of class and creed, to obtain a voters card and engage in the emerging ballot based-PVC revolution to democratically dislodge the entrenched corruptive political order in the country.

The group, which claimed it has five million members across the federation, said it would identify and recruit more national change agents and credible leading lights of Nigeria, who would become champions towards the actualisation of a new Nigeria of its collective dreams.

It said it would engage in grassroots and mass media mobilisation at all levels with special focus on local communities and the youths ahead of the 2019 elections.Nigeria has restated its earlier made announcement that its airport security personnel will be allowed to carry arms.

The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, says aviation security personnel of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, will soon be licensed to carry arms at airports across the country in other to complement other relevant agencies.

Mr. Sirika, who made this known in Katsina on Monday at the 2018 AVSEC retreat, said discussion was at its final stage for approval saying it will further strengthen the integrity of the airports in view of the growing threats to the aviation industry.

The federal government approved for AVSEC to bear arms which is a notable achievement in this administrations effort at improving the general safety of its citizenry and passengers passing through our airports, he said.

The announcement was first made in 2016 and also last year, but is yet to be implemented. Nigeria, which suffers from Boko Haram terrorism, particularly in the North-east, has not suffered any major attack on its airports outside the North-east. But the government says the move is to further secure the airports.

The minister who was represented by the Rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Zaria, Mohammed Abdulsalami, said arming AVSEC will ensure proper policing of the airports by AVSEC personnel.

He said rebranding of AVSEC was important in the building brand identity and creating a recognisable corporate identity for officers with the aim of making them much more professional and customer friendly to meet up with the initiative of the Ease of Doing Business.

Mr. Sirika said most countries have shown keen interest in the countrys growing and expanding aviation industry stressing that aviation security was seen as a pivotal tool to sustaining safety in all the airports which remained a model to the integrity of the nation.

The minister noted that the United Nations decision to establish two aviation security training colleges in the country was another notable achievement of the present administration.

According to him, this was aimed at assisting not only in the war against terrorism but to provide a special class of professionally trained AVSEC unit through the training of 30 selected aviation security master trainers who will in turn train others.

The minister said the certification of FAAN training centre by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority was apt as it will further strengthen and boost the capacity and technical know how of aviation security personnel in the country.

In his good will message, the Managing Director of FAAN, Saleh Dunoma, said FAAN was investing in aviation to create enabling environment that will encourage efficiency in tackling emerging security threats to civil aviation.

Mr. Dunoma explained that FAAN recently procured 10 additional patrol vehicles to boost the current fleet of vehicles for effective coverage and patrol while additional screening machines were being procured and old ones being replaced.

He explained that the agency successfully recruited and trained over 230 AVSEC officers. He said the management and the minister were poised to equip the AVSEC directorate to enable them discharge their responsibility effectively and efficiently.

He called for total commitment, determination and cooperation by all to achieve the desired objectives for FAAN, aviation industry and the entire nation.

He urged them to put their best and respond to all emerging threats in timely manner while constantly reviewing and upgrading their system holistically.

The director of security services at FAAN, Usman Sadiq, noted that the industry was at a critical juncture in global aviation where terrorism was assuming a new dimension. He said aviation security remained the pivotal in the actualisation of a safe and secure aviation industry in the war against terrorism.

Mr. Sadiq said securing the airport with CCTV and detecting equipment will enhance the function of AVSEC.

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President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to attend the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting coming up on Tuesday.

Governors elected on APC platform, members of its Board of Trustee and National Working Committee (NWC) members among others, are also expected attend the meeting.

It is going to be a routine NEC meeting which is a final leg of the meeting that was held last month.

If you recall after the NEC meeting last, month, I told you that two issues were outstanding and that members asked for more time to study those issues.

These are the issues of constitutional amendment and the True Federalism committee report.

These are the two key items on the agenda for tomorrows NEC meeting, Bolaji Abdullahi, the APC spokesperson told journalists in Abuja on Monday.

It would be recalled that the APC NEC at its meeting of February 26, extended the tenure of the party`s National Working Committee (NEC) and other executive members across all levels by one year starting from June.

While John Odigie-Oyegun, the APC National Chairman, said the decision was in good faith, some party members, who were not comfortable with it, had taken the party to court over the issue.

The APC Forum of non-National Working Committee (NWC), had however, said that members who took the party to court out of grievance without exhausting its internal mechanism should be disciplined.

The forum while reaffirming the position of the partys NEC to extend the tenure of all its executives, said such members should be disciplined by the party`s leadership in consonance with its constitution.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed at the national secretariat of the party in readiness of Tuesdays meeting.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

Some suspected Boko Haram gunmen on Sunday night attacked a Borno community located along the Maiduguri-Bama road.

The road was on Saturday reopened by the Nigerian military four years after it was taken by Boko Haram.

The gunmen stormed the village in their dozens at about 10 p.m.

Sources said the gunmen opened fire on the sleeping residents who scrambled out of their houses into the bush.

Some lives were said to have been lost, while some others sustained injuries.

The spokesman of the military in Maiduguri, Onyema Nwachukwu, confirmed the attack, but said it was repelled.

At about 10.09 pm yesterday , elements of Boko Haram insurgents who had been routed out of the Sambisa forest following troops offensives and clearance operations attempted to loot Mashumari village, a remote settlement under Konduga Local Government Area for food and other logistics, he said.

Our troops swiftly moved in and engaged the insurgents killing one insurgent, while others fled in disarray.

A civilian who was wounded in the encounter is currently receiving medical attention.

He added that the troops are still trailing the fleeing insurgents.

The theater commander of the military operation in the North-east, Roger Nicholas, had on Saturday during the opening of the Maiduguri-Bama highway said the insurgents had been significantly degraded as such cannot pose any threat to the civilian users of the road. He, however, said military escorts would be provided for each trip through the 75km road.ADVERTISEMENT

A year two senior student of the Government Girls Science Technical College, Dapchi, has said she will not return to the school even after Boko Haram returned nearly all 110 students kidnapped from the school.

Rakiya Adamu, SS2, who was among the lucky few that escaped on February 19, when dozens of her friends and schoolmates were kidnapped, said, I will not go back to Dapchi again.

Although Rakiya had a lucky escape when the terrorists struck, she shared her horrific experience in the current edition of The Interview magazine, We were in school waiting for the Magrib prayer when we started hearing gunshots. We started running with our teachers, looking for where to hide. We ran and ran and jumped the fence. We became tired and ran into a nearby village where we asked for help.

Rakiya described how the terrorists arrived and entrapped them. They wore army uniforms and were begging us to come. They said, Come to us, we will help you!

The MD/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview, Azu Ishiekwene, described the story as one that would prick the conscience, even if one had eaten the head of a tortoise.

In a series of interviews conducted before and after the girls were released, the magazine spoke with parents, including the chairman of the parents of the abducted girls, Bashir Manzo, the Dapchi youth leader, security men, and residents of town, especially those living close to the school.

Mr Manzo, chairman of the abducted girls parents, said he knew something bad was going to happen on February 19: I felt somehow throughout the day. I knew something bad was going to happen to me. But I prayed to God to protect me from evil and other bad things.

As it turned out, his daughter, Fatima, was abducted as she went to fetch water to break her fast that evening.

Another parent, Abdullahi Kawi, and father of kidnapped JSS2 student, Aisha, said the most traumatic part of the kidnap saga was the misinformation given the parents by Yobe State Governor, Ibrahim Gaidam.

The father of five  one boy and four girls  said, People like me stoned the governors convoy because he lied to us when he knew how terrible we were feeling. Ill never regret stoning him.

After the return of the girls, the parents have been divided on whether or not they would return their children to the school, despite assurances by the government that the school is now safe.

Also in this edition, good governance activist and former House of Representatives contestant, Aisha Osori, shared first-hand experience on how elections work in Nigeria; while member of the US Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, Bukola Oriola, spoke on how traffickers prey on the victims.

The Confidential section of the magazine returned to the Abuja bike accident scene of the Presidents only son, Yusuf Buhari.ADVERTISEMENT

Students of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, (MAPOLY), on Monday embarked on a protest over the delay in release of their results, which they said has affected their mobilisation for the mandatory National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC), programme.

The students, in their hundreds, shut the gate of the institution preventing academic and management staff from accessing the institution. They threatened to continue to distrupt activities daily until the release of the results.

Lecturers and the state government have been at loggerhead for some months, over the administration of the institution, and an alleged nonchallant attitude of the government towards their welfare.

Part of reasons for the faceoff was the controversy surrounding the establishment of another polytechnic, and conversion of the present state polytechnic into a university. The process was faulted by the lecturers.

Both the state government and the academic staff union agreed to temporarily softpedal on the issue, in the interest of the students, but with a condition that the lecturers may resume strike, if government failed to adhere to the agreement.

However, on Monday, the president of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Ogun State, Olawale Balogun, described the situation as unfortunate.

It is just unfortunate that we found ourselves in this mess as students because we are suffering for what is none of our business. We have carried out our own part. I will use this medium to appeal to ASUP in MAPOLY to be fatherly and human to us as students because none of us is a child of the governor or commissioners. More so, the government should also do the needful, he said.

When contacted, the chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic, (ASUP) MAPOLY Chapter, Kola Abiola declined comments.

I have no reaction, he said.Worried by perceived violation of the states Public Private Partnership (PPP) Act, the Lagos State House of Assembly on Monday summoned the Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Wale Oluwo, among others.

Also summoned are the states Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem; General Manager, Lagos State Electricity Board and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

They are to appear before an ad-hoc committee of the House in seven days.

The resolution followed a motion moved by Gbolahan Yishawu, the Chairman, House Ad hoc Committee on Budget and Economic Planning under Matters of Urgent Public Importance.

Mr Yishawu had informed the House of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Contract on street lights signed by the Lagos State Government with a UK company, which he read about in Punch newspaper dated March 6.

According to him, the government had carried out the exercise without recourse to the Assembly.

Mr Yishawu said: I read from Punch Newspaper of March 6 that our government signed an agreement, MoU (Memorandum of Understanding, contract with a company in UK called Low Emission Designed.

This is with respect to supply, installation and maintenance of 10, 000 street lights over 300 kilometres in our dear state.

This I believe is unknown to this House of Assembly because

agreements are signed with the process which is known to the law that governs the procedures for signing of agreements.

Also, unknown to this Assembly is where the money will come from.

With the 2018 budget, the appropriation for anything in respect to street lights was moved to the special expenditure account and we are still expecting the appropriate ministry to come over and explain in detail what the money is meant for, he said.

The lawmaker said there was the need to avoid giving room for rumours and speculations.

We read that the sum of money is N2.52 billion. There is no clear cut information on exactly what this is all about.

This is very fearful because I remember last week we talked about Visionscapes contract and agreement.

I am sure in that case money is being spent,, and if you check our constitution, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria section 120, sub-section 123 says that all funds that should be spent in the state should be appropriated for by the House of Assembly.

This House resolves to call on the Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Attorney-General of the state and General Manager, Lagos State, Electricity Board to come and explain to the House what is happening with respect to street lights in Lagos State.

Reacting, Adedayo Famakinwa, (APC-Ajeromi Ifelodun I), described the situation as worrisome.

He said that the executive arm decided to embark on a contract not known to the House and not complying with the PPP Act of the state.

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I think this act should be totally condemned by each and every one of us. We are in democracy where all arms of government have roles to play.

Probably, the executive arm of government needs a little bit of tutorial in ensure keeping to rules and regulations, he said.

Rotimi Olowo (APC-Somolu I) added:If the House is in the know, we will be in the better position to defend the state.

According to him, the project is not bad, as light is needed in Lagos for economic and security reasons.

He, however, said the commissioner needed to come forward to provide the lawmakers with information.

Some other lawmakers who took turns react to the matter said that the House should have first hand information on such matters.

The assemblymen, who noted that the issue bothers on the state resources, said that the executive could not be working without the understanding of the parliament.

Tunde Braimoh, Chairman, House Committee on Information, Strategy and Security, who thanked Mr Yishawu for bringing the news to the knowledge of the House, however, called for caution in working with what was read on the pages of newspapers.

Mr Braimoh said: The rules of the House state very clearly that when matters like this are raised on the basis of newspaper report, the newspaper report must be produced.

Also, there is a big difference between the words contract and MoU.

If there is an MoU, it is not a contract, it is an invitation to treat; it cannot qualify because there has not been offer acceptance and considerations.

So, if the executive has embarked on having an MoU, that cannot totally equate to a contract.

However, we should seek clarifications on this matter from the commissioner.

I want to call for restraint in making hasty comments on this matter until all secrecy is properly explicated.

In his ruling, Mudashiru Obasa, the Speaker of the House, said that such project could not have been considered to have the House approval.

He said this was because the parliament in 2018 budget had set aside the fund in the special expenditure account until the executive had recourse to the House.

We should know, so that when our constituents engage us, we would have something to say.

It has become necessary to emphasise that any MoU, or contractual agreement that has been entered into without the support of the House is not binding until due process has been followed.

It is better to clear this so that we wont have issues over what the

executive is doing.

Whatever agreement  we have always been in support and will continue  the law has to be respected.

Our position is that such must be brought to the House for the approval of the House, he said.

After a voice vote by the Speaker, the House set up a five-man ad-hoc committee to attend to the summoned public officers.

The committee has Moshood Oshun, Chairman, Public Accounts (State) as its chairman.

Other members are: Jude Idimogu (APC-Oshodi-Isolo II), Rasheed Makinde (APC-Ifako-Ijaiye II), Lanre Ogunyemi (APC-Ojo II) and Mr Famakinwa.

(NAN)This year's gourmet gathering on the sands of Miami Beach featured an array of fan-favorite highlights from chefs and mixologists taking home top honors at events like the Heineken Light Burger Bash presented by Schweid & Sons hosted by Guy Fieri, King's Hawaiian presents the Taste of Aloha and Art of Tiki Cocktail Showdown hosted by Anne Burrell, and more; to featured musical guests like the Grammy nominated group Smash Mouth treating attendees to a live performance, courtesy of Magic City Casino, at Barilla's Italian Bites on the Beach sponsored by HCP Media and the Miami Herald Media Company hosted by Giada De Laurentiis, BACARDI presents Walshy Fire's Rum & Bass Beach Party welcomed special guest DJ Irie, and sounds by ALESSO hit the stage during the David Grutman Experience at the Goya Foods' Grand Tasting Village, there were plenty of ways to enjoy beats and eats throughout the weekend.

One of most anticipated events of the weekend was the annual Tribute Dinner presented by Bank of America part of The NYT Cooking Dinner Series at Loews Miami Beach, honoring chef, restaurateur, author and beloved Food Network personality Bobby Flay and Treasury Wine Estates managing director and chief executive officer Michael Clarke. Top-rated, national morning show radio host Elvis Duran served as the evening's master of ceremonies, while more than a dozen chefs hand-selected by Flay himself served up their widely touted cuisine. The highlight of the evening was during Flay's speech, where he gave special acknowledgements for each of the participating chefs, his team and daughter Sophie, who was in attendance.

Another celebrated component of this year's events was the sold-out, newly expanded CRAVE Greater Fort Lauderdale Series. The featured series consisted of more than 10 events, including dinners, tastings, seminars, and more that took place at various locations throughout Broward County. Personalities like multi-year World BBQ Champion Chris Lilly and celebrity chef and restaurateur Emeril Lagasse hosted events set amongst the elegant backdrop of the new Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach, while television personalities like Kristin Cavallari and Andrew Zimmern also hosted featured events during the series.

SAVE THE DATE: The Festival returns to EAT. DRINK. EDUCATE. for its 18th annual edition February 20  24, 2019. Next year's Festival will honor chef and restaurateur Nancy Silverton and chief executive officer of Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery Rhonda Carano at its annual Tribute Dinner at Loews Miami Beach, as well as welcomes back longtime partner Goya Foods in an expanded capacity as its official spice and olive oil partner.

Between SOBEWFF and its sister NYCWFF, which takes place each October in New York City, more than $39 million has been raised to benefit the respective charities for each Festival. Beyond the funds raised, both Festivals draw attention to the vibrant dining culture in their respective cities, provide economic stimulus in their communities, and serve as an invaluable platform to drive awareness, engaging and inspiring people to get involved in philanthropic activities.

About the Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival

EAT. DRINK. EDUCATE. All proceeds from the Festival benefit the students of the Florida International University Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management who also assist Festival organizers with sponsorship fulfillment, restaurant and exhibitor recruitment, logistics, and inventory as well as working alongside some of the world's greatest celebrity chefs and winemakers. To date, the Festival has raised more than $28 million for the School. In September 2017, BizBash named the Festival the #1 Food & Restaurant Industry event in the United States for the fifth year in a row.

The Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival is produced by Florida International University and Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, with the support of the Miami Beach Visitors & Convention Authority and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs. For more information about the Festival, visit sobewff.org or call 877-762-3933. For more information about Florida International University visit fiu.edu, for the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management visit hospitality.fiu.edu and for more information about Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits visit southernglazers.com.

PRESS CONTACTS:

National Media: Florida/Hispanic Media: The Door Brustman Carrino Public Relations (646) 340-1760 (305) 573-0658 Adeline Benge ([email protected]) Larry Carrino ([email protected])

Andrea Moreno ([email protected])

SOURCE Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival

Related Links

http://sobewff.org/

CHENGDU, China, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- China International Alcoholic Drinks Expo (CIADE 2018) on March 25 kicked off in Luzhou, a city located in southwest China's Sichuan Province and also known as the "city of Chinese wine".



More than 1,200 enterprises from 38 countries and regions joined this year's expo bringing more than 5,000 alcoholic products and it's expected to see over 3 million visits online and offline and 40 contracts signed worth 35.1 billion yuan.



During a speech at the opening ceremony, Vice Governor of Sichuan Province Zhu Hexin said that as a core Chinese wine production area, famous brands from Sichuan such as Wuliangye, Luzhou Laojiao and Langjiu sold to more than 60 countries and regions. In 2017, large liquor companies in the province recorded 27.15 billion yuan of profits with a year-on-year growth of 29.1 percent.



Zhu encouraged alcoholic companies to meet consumers' demand and market adjustment and develop products with high quality and cultural heritage.



China National Light Industry Council Chairman Zhang Chonghe said in a speech that China's alcoholic industry earned over 100 billion yuan of profits in 2017. He added that alcoholic producers should take the CIADE as a platform to showcase fine products and inherit craftsmen's spirit to promote the industry.



Luzhou is one of the world's top ten hard liquor production areas. According to Liu Qiang, Mayor of Luzhou, the city's annual primary business revenues stood at 80.78 billion yuan, up 20 percent year on year.



The four-day exposition includes 2018 China International Alcoholic Industry Development Forum, investment and trade fair & contract-signing ceremony for South Sichuan Port Area of China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone, assessment of 2017 "Qingzhuo Awards" for new alcoholic products and so on.

With an exhibition area of more than 80,000 square meters, the venue has five pavilions including a special pavilion for companies from countries along the Belt and Road.



The CIADE 2018 is hosted by China Alcoholic Drinks Association, supported by the People's Government of Sichuan Province, China National Light Industry Council and China Economic Information Service, and co-organized by Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce, Sichuan Bureau of Expo Affairs and Luzhou Municipal People's Government.



Contact:

Huang Qian

[email protected]

+86-139-8055-4298

SOURCE China Economic Information ServiceInsight by Subramanya C, Global Chief Technology Officer, HGS

CHICAGO, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- (Feature Article) - Undoubtedly e-commerce is key to meeting today's customer expectations of personalized interfaces, interactions, and providing Unified Customer Engagement. The e-commerce industry is a primary area of technology innovation, especially given the growing popularity of e-commerce. According to a Pew Research Center survey, approximately eight-in-ten Americans are now online shoppers: 79% have made an online purchase of any type, while 51% have bought something using a cellphone and 15% have made purchases by following a link from social media sites.

Characterized by lightning fast analysis and promotions, these e-commerce solutions support industry demands and helping both companies and customers keep up with the pace.

Essential components of an e-commerce platform include the following:

1. Large data storage to support inventory management Managing inventory through your e-commerce platform not only makes information more accessible to sales and customer care, it also enables you to offer more efficient and informed customer experiences.

Inventory tracking capability, especially in a cloud environment, also enables better product tracking and customer complaint management with data sharing across regions.

2. Application of analytics Your e-commerce solution should allow for enhanced and cutting-edge analytics and accessibility to all available data. This leads to increased sales through deeper insight and better understanding of customer browsing habits and journeys. Studying this data helps in making better product recommendations and offering customer preferred payment options. Hosting customer databases provides easier and streamlined data linking opportunities that enable optimum usage of customer volunteered information such as preferred payment options, browsing and shopping trends. Your e-commerce platform should allow for a deep dive into reasons for purchase abandonment by a potential customer.

Additionally, they can develop and provide solutions tailored to abandonment. As a result of this type of business intelligence, HGS, for example, provided a consumer goods client partner a chat discount option to avoid cart abandonment. This feature to prompts the customer with a message once they abandon the cart that says "Would you like a coupon?" If the customer hits "yes" then it pops open a chat with a team member who will give the customer a coupon code and help them finish making their purchase. The ROI for the client? This proactive chat innovation supported by HGS has helped the client increase conversions by over 40%.

3. Ability to track customer spend trends With your e-commerce application and customer database hosted on a single platform, all the data you need is available to you in one place. This helps provide analysis on more comprehensive data, generating results that are more effective. Businesses can map customer spending trends and preferred payment options with implementation of analytics that can access and analyze data from all sources. This trend information can be employed to offer discounts and cash back policies for those payment modes contributing to more sales and revenue.

4. Personalized product recommendations More informed and personalized product recommendations improves customer experience and enables faster decision making by potential customers contributing to increased sales and revenue. For example, a customer who has repeatedly viewed a product but has not bought may inform you in your survey that the price was a barrier to purchase. Your e-commerce platform should automate price adjustments and offers to the customer, without losing profitability. Your e-commerce platform should enable this through powerful data linking and analytics capabilities that help offer real-time personalized experiences and interactions to customers.

Finally, don't forget the final step of e-commerce the collective wisdom of online reviews and ratings related to purchasing decisions. BPOs can support with this function, as team members can read each social mention and determine whether it's actionable or non-actionable. If it's actionable, then team members route to the correct party internally to engage. This ensures that all posts get read and followed up on.

About HGS

A global leader in business process management (BPM) and optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, HGS is helping make its clients more competitive every day. HGS combines technology-powered services in automation, analytics and digital with domain expertise focusing on back office processing, contact centers and HRO solutions to deliver transformational impact to clients. Part of the multi-billion dollar conglomerate Hinduja Group, HGS takes a true "globally local" approach, with over 46,000 employees across 69 delivery centers in seven countries making a difference to some of the world's leading brands across nine key verticals. For the year ended 31st March 2017, HGS had revenues of US $555 million.

Log in to https://www.teamhgs.com/ to know how we can help make you more competitive.

SOURCE HGS

Related Links

https://www.teamhgs.com

adidas invites individual and institutional investors, as well as advisors, to log-on to view the presentation.

HERZOGENAURACH, Germany, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- adidas (XETRA:ADS.DE,OTCQX:ADDYY), today announced that their March 22, 2018, presentation from Senior Manager Investor Relations, Adrian Rott, is now available for on-demand viewing in the dbVIC Deutsche Bank American Depositary Receipt (ADR) Virtual Investor Conference.

LINK: https://tinyurl.com/dbvic03postpr

adidas' presentation will be available 24/7 for 90 days. Investors may download shareholder materials from the virtual trade booth in the Exhibits section of the event.

About adidas

adidas is a global leader in the sporting goods industry with the core brands adidas and Reebok. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the company employs over 50,000 people across the globe and generated sales of over  21 billion in 2017.

SOURCE adidasSAN DIEGO and NANJING, China, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Agena Bioscience (Agena) and Simcere Diagnostics (Simceredx), the subsidiary of SIMCERE Pharmaceutical Group, announced today the signing of a strategic partnership agreement focusing on expanding the use of Agena's MassARRAY System for companion diagnostics and pharmacogenetic testing in China.

As a leading pharmaceutical company with strong connections to China's top tier hospitals, Simcere Diagnostics will concentrate on plans to expand into the field of pharmacogenetic testing, and to develop panels to support companion diagnostics for their drug development pipelines. Supported by a sales organization of 2,000+, Simcere Diagnostics will utilize Agena's high throughput 384-automated system to support anticipated volumes.

"The MassARRAY System's flexibility, throughput, and low operational cost is ideal for the needs of our business, which is to reach more patients in China and improve outcomes with high quality diagnostics and medicines," said Yong Ren, Chief Executive Officer of Simcere Diagnostics. "We were particularly impressed with the coverage and performance of Agena's pharmacogenetic applications and see great synergy with our business to advance targeted therapies for patients."

"We are proud to have been chosen by Simcere Diagnostics, a highly-respected pharmaceutical innovator with strong channels to China's hospital networks," said Peter Dansky, Chief Executive Officer at Agena Bioscience. "There is great synergy between the goals of our organizations, and we look forward to seeing the commercialization of new companion diagnostics and the growth of PGx testing in China through Simceredx's strength and expertise in this market."

Simceredx will be supported by Agena's commercial operations team in China, which recently doubled in size due to the growth in the region.

About Agena Bioscience

Agena Bioscience develops, manufactures, and supplies genetic analysis systems and reagents, including the MassARRAY System. The system is a highly sensitive, cost-effective, mass spectrometry-based platform for high-throughput genetic analysis, and is used globally in diverse research fields such as cancer profiling for solid tumors and liquid biopsies, inherited genetic disease testing, pharmacogenetics, agricultural genomics, and clinical research. For more information about Agena, visit www.agenabio.com.

About Simcere Pharmaceutical Group

Simcere Pharmaceutical Group (Simcere) is a research and development-driven Chinese pharmaceutical company committed to bringing high quality and more effective therapies to patients by combining in-house R&D with global strategic partnerships. Through its State Key Lab of Translational Medicine and Innovative Development, Simcere focuses its efforts on innovative pharmaceuticals and branded generic drugs in the therapeutic areas of oncology, neurology, inflammation/immunology, cardiovascular and infectious diseases. By leveraging partnering experience with multinational pharmaceutical companies and innovative biotech companies, Simcere continues to advance and create value for partners in China. For more information, visit www.simcere.com.

About Simcere Diagnostics

Founded by Simcere Pharmaceutical Group in 2017, Simcere Diagnostics is a precision medicine company based in China and led by a team of highly experienced professionals in medical genomics and informatics. Utilizing various state-of-the-art technology platforms including Next Generation Sequencing, Nanopore sequencing, MassARRAY genotyping, digital PCR, as well as advanced bioinformatics, Simcere Diagnostics is committed to fulfilling the unmet medical needs in disease diagnosis, treatment guidance, and progress monitoring via cost-effective and personalized solutions. Simcere Diagnostics is dedicated to developing cutting-edge diagnostic products in the clinical areas of cancer, central nervous system diseases, infectious diseases, pharmacogenomics, and autoimmune disorders.

SOURCE Agena Bioscience

Related Links

http://agenabioscience.com

LORRACH, Germany and SAINT LOUIS, France, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Allecra Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of novel antibiotics for the treatment of drug resistant bacterial infections, today announced positive top-line results from the Phase 2 study of its lead antibiotic candidate, an extended spectrum -lactamase inhibitor known as AAI101. The Phase 2 CACTUS study (Randomized, Double-Blind, Multi-Center Study of C efepime/ A AI101 in hospitalized adults with C omplica t ed U TI s ) met all study objectives. AAI101 was given intravenously to patients in combination with cefepime for the treatment of cUTI including acute pyelonephritis (AP). At doses tested, target blood levels associated with the efficacy of both cefepime and of AAI101 were reliably achieved in patients. These results will be used to select the optimal dose. Furthermore, cefepime/AAI101 was safe and well-tolerated with no discernible connection between administration of AAI101 and either treatment emergent adverse events or laboratory abnormalities with the exception of certain skin reactions that occur frequently with injectable -lactam antibiotics. High rates of microbiological eradication and clinical cure were achieved in patients receiving cefepime/AAI101, consistent with treatment targets. In microbiological assessment, all tested pathogens were susceptible to cefepime/AAI101 including those not susceptible either to cefepime alone or to the market leader, piperacillin/tazobactam. These results provide strong rationale for initiation of a Phase 3 registration study.

"These compelling results strongly suggest that cefepime/AAI101 has broad and potent activity against Gram-negative bacteria, including those expressing ESBLs, the most common resistance mechanism to -lactam antibiotics seen in hospitals. I believe cefepime/AAI101 promises a major advancement in the ongoing fight against serious and difficult-to-treat hospital-acquired bacterial infections," said Dr. Yehuda Carmeli, Head of the Israeli National Institute for Antibiotic Resistance and Infection Control at Tel-Aviv Medical Center, and a scientific advisor to the company.

In December 2014, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published data1 showing that, for certain Gram-negative bacterial species, the ESBL-mediated resistance rates in US hospitals are 21% overall, with corresponding ESBL rates as high as 45.7% in hospitals within urban areas. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has published comparable figures2 for the rates of drug-resistant bacterial pathogens expressing ESBLs seen in hospitals across Europe.

"The urgent unmet medical need is compelling Allecra and other like-minded development companies to come up with solutions to the epidemic of antibiotic resistance seen in hospitals. The results from Allecra's Phase 2 CACTUS study solidify Allecra's plans to advance cefepime/AAI101 into Phase 3 later this year," said Nicholas Benedict, co-founder and chief executive officer of Allecra.

In November 2017, cefepime/AAI101 was granted Fast Track designation by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of cUTI, complicated Intra-abdominal infections (cIAI) and hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia/ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia (HABP/VABP). FDA has also granted cefepime/AAI101 Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) status.

Phase 2 CACTUS Results Show Target Dose, Favorable Safety and Tolerability for cefepime/AAI101, as well as Signals of Efficacy

The study was designed to determine the optimal dose of cefepime/AAI101 to be taken forward into future Phase 3 studies. The trial used state-of-the-art population pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) modelling to assess the probability of achieving cefepime/AAI101 blood levels pre-determined to be efficacious against target Gram-negative bacteria in a prior series of rigorous experiments. This Probability of Target Attainment (PTA) was assessed at two dose levels in hospitalized adults with cUTI including acute pyelonephritis (AP). Secondary objectives included assessment of the safety and tolerability of cefepime/AAI101 combination therapy, as well as an exploratory evaluation of efficacy.

Forty-five patients were randomized 2:1 into two cohorts, each with a separate control. Patients randomized into Cohort 1 received either 500mg of AAI101 combined with 1g of cefepime (n=15), or 1g of cefepime monotherapy (n=7). Patients randomized into Cohort 2 received 750mg of AAI101 combined with 2g cefepime (n=15), or 2g of cefepime monotherapy (n=8). Dosing was conducted intravenously three times daily for seven to ten days.

Signals of efficacy demonstrated

83% of patients (20/24) receiving cefepime/AAI101 experienced complete microbiological eradication 3 , versus 73% (11/15) receiving cefepime alone across both treatment cohorts

, versus 73% (11/15) receiving cefepime alone across both treatment cohorts 97% of patients (29/30) receiving cefepime/AAI101 experienced clinical cure 4 , versus 93% (14/15) receiving cefepime alone across both treatment cohorts

, versus 93% (14/15) receiving cefepime alone across both treatment cohorts 100% of the Gram-negative bacteria identified in enrolled patients were susceptible to cefepime/AAI101 compared to 67% susceptibility to cefepime alone and 83% susceptibility to piperacillin/tazobactam

Allecra plans to submit the full data set from the Phase 2 CACTUS trial for presentation at an upcoming scientific meeting and publish the results in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

For further information please contact

Allecra Therapeutics GmbH

Nicholas Benedict

+41 79 592 2005

[email protected]

About Allecra Therapeutics

Allecra is a biopharmaceutical company established in 2013 in the European BioValley Life Sciences cluster located in the Upper Rhine valley around the Basel region of northwest Switzerland including southwest Germany and the Alsace Region of France. Allecra is focused on the development of novel treatments to combat multi drug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections. Allecra's mission is to contribute towards the global effort to combat antibiotic resistance by developing new treatments which overcome emerging resistance mechanisms, thereby saving lives of patients whose infections may otherwise be inadequately treated. Allecra is supported by existing investors Forbion, Delos Capital, EdRIP, Xeraya Capital, EMBL Ventures, BioMed Partners and Nicholas Benedict. Allecra's wholly-owned French subsidiary is a beneficiary of financial support from the French public bank Bpifrance and from the Region Alsace. For more information on Allecra please visit www.allecra.com or email [email protected].

1 Source: US Center for Disease Control and Prevention December 2014. Hospital Acquired Infections include Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI), Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI), Surgical Site Infection (SSI)

2 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control Surveillance Atlas of Infectious Diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance. http://atlas.ecdc.europa.eu/public/index.aspx

3 Defined as baseline qualifying bacterial pathogen reduced to <103 CFU/mL

4 Defined as complete resolution of the baseline signs and symptoms of cUTI or AP such that no further antimicrobial therapy to treat the cUTI/AP is warranted

SOURCE Allecra Therapeutics

Related Links

http://www.allecra.com

BOSTON, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Amazon is getting into healthcare  and healthcare may never be the same.

The internet giant has the right skills and capabilities to follow through on its big healthcare-industry ambitions and will launch offerings that range from mail-order pharmacy to AI-based diagnostics, says global management consulting firm L.E.K. Consulting.

In a new report, the firm describes five healthcare-industry scenarios that show how Amazon is likely to enter and dominate the field.

"Anyone who thinks of Amazon as just a very big digital retailer needs to think again," says Rob Haslehurst, Managing Director at L.E.K. and report co-author. "They have continually expanded their business model and today they are a leader in cloud computing, a provider of in-home services and a bricks-and-mortar food purveyor in addition to their ecommerce offerings. They have repeatedly shown that they have the capabilities, the patience, and the deep pockets to disrupt industry after industry. Healthcare is no exception."

Amazon in late January announced its entry into the healthcare field through an ambitious alliance with JP Morgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway.

Amazon has the right core competencies to succeed at healthcare

Amazon already has many of the core competencies needed to compete in healthcare: ready access to capital, a massive distribution infrastructure, a strong technology base, a robust data analytics capability, and a deep, talented executive bench that, "like Bezos himself, is relentless, resourceful, fast, inventive and customer-obsessed," says Haslehurst.

Amazon is already making healthcare inroads

Amazon's healthcare ambitions aren't just aspirational. The company is already making inroads. In Japan, Amazon will begin offering Prime Now drug deliveries directly to consumers with pharmacist approval. In the U.S., the company has been recruiting for multiple healthcare-related positions.

Five scenarios show how Amazon could enter and dominate healthcare

What will Amazon's assault on the healthcare marketplace look like? "There are five scenarios," says L.E.K. Managing Director and report co-author Joseph Johnson. "They're not mutually exclusive  in fact, they represent a roadmap that Amazon can follow to move continually deeper into the healthcare industry. All of them illustrate Amazon's ability to drive down prices and margins while fundamentally transforming customer behavior."

Amazon's possible points of entry are:

Durable medical equipment and medical supplies. "This is a no-brainer, because Amazon is already there," says Johnson. "It currently sells a broad array of general medical supplies and durable medical equipment (DME) to consumers." Amazon's core competencies in logistics and distribution, and its existing B2B ecommerce platform, will allow it to easily expand into hospital and provider supply, disrupting the traditional group purchasing organization (GPO) contract model. Amazon has already obtained licenses to distribute medical supplies to providers in 43 states.





"This is a no-brainer, because Amazon is already there," says Johnson. "It currently sells a broad array of general medical supplies and durable medical equipment (DME) to consumers." Amazon's core competencies in logistics and distribution, and its existing B2B ecommerce platform, will allow it to easily expand into hospital and provider supply, disrupting the traditional group purchasing organization (GPO) contract model. Amazon has already obtained licenses to distribute medical supplies to providers in 43 states. Mail order and retail pharmacy. Amazon has secured approval as a wholesale distributor from 12 state pharmaceutical boards. Drug storage is a hurdle, and there are regulatory challenges. But Amazon can work through them. It can also build pharmacies into its recently-acquired Whole Foods stores. The company can also take advantage of its predictive analytics and customer data capabilities to build digital health tools that track and influence patient behavior  giving it a leg up over traditional pharmacy in working with the most challenging areas of healthcare delivery.





Amazon has secured approval as a wholesale distributor from 12 state pharmaceutical boards. Drug storage is a hurdle, and there are regulatory challenges. But Amazon can work through them. It can also build pharmacies into its recently-acquired Whole Foods stores. The company can also take advantage of its predictive analytics and customer data capabilities to build digital health tools that track and influence patient behavior  giving it a leg up over traditional pharmacy in working with the most challenging areas of healthcare delivery. Pharmacy benefit manager. Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) drive prices down by taking advantage of the combined purchasing power of health plan enrollees. That's something Amazon knows how to do. Amazon's most likely move into the field will be by partnering with a large PBM such as Express Scripts or by buying a smaller player like Prime Therapeutics. Amazon would gain a pharmacy network and a claims adjudication capability, and its partner would gain access to millions of Amazon Prime members.





Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) drive prices down by taking advantage of the combined purchasing power of health plan enrollees. That's something Amazon knows how to do. Amazon's most likely move into the field will be by partnering with a large PBM such as Express Scripts or by buying a smaller player like Prime Therapeutics. Amazon would gain a pharmacy network and a claims adjudication capability, and its partner would gain access to millions of Amazon Prime members. Telemedicine or in-home healthcare. Amazon's Echo smart speaker (with 20 million units sold to date) and Alexa, its voice-controlled personal assistant service, give it an enormous platform for new voice-activated services. Healthcare could easily be among them. Bezos has talked publicly about the role for Alexa in the future of healthcare delivery. Alexa's first step would be to help book physician visits. But thanks to Echo Show's video capabilities, the next move might be in-home virtual house calls.





Amazon's Echo smart speaker (with 20 million units sold to date) and Alexa, its voice-controlled personal assistant service, give it an enormous platform for new voice-activated services. Healthcare could easily be among them. Bezos has talked publicly about the role for Alexa in the future of healthcare delivery. Alexa's first step would be to help book physician visits. But thanks to video capabilities, the next move might be in-home virtual house calls. AI-powered diagnostics and continuous care. Amazon's "final frontier" in healthcare could be fully automated, AI-driven, in-home healthcare and diagnostics. "Amazon has deep AI capabilities  machine-learning already drives many of its offerings, from its customer recommendation engine to its service centers," says Johnson. "It would be only logical to harness that capability to diagnostics. And in fact, this has already started  Alexa now delivers first-aid information and voice driven self-care instructions in an offering introduced by the Mayo Clinic. It wouldn't be a stretch to add first-line diagnostic information, provide medication reminders, and auto-refill prescriptions."

"There are three reasons to believe that Amazon is serious about healthcare," says Johnson. "One, they are one of the largest private employers in the U.S. and would reap huge financial benefits from lowering healthcare costs. Second, the U.S. healthcare system is notoriously inefficient, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos loves to attack inefficiencies. And third, healthcare is the kind of big, complex opportunity that Bezos likes to sink his teeth into."





For more information, please contact Katarina Wenk-Bodenmiller of Sommerfield Communications at +1 (212) 255-8386 or [email protected].

About L.E.K. Consulting

L.E.K. Consulting is a global management consulting firm that uses deep industry expertise and rigorous analysis to help business leaders achieve practical results with real impact. We are uncompromising in our approach to helping clients consistently make better decisions, deliver improved business performance, and create greater shareholder returns. The firm advises and supports global companies that are leaders in their industries  including the largest private and public-sector organizations, private equity firms and emerging entrepreneurial businesses. Founded in 1983, L.E.K. employs more than 1,200 professionals across the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe. For more information, go to www.lek.com.

SOURCE L.E.K. Consulting

Related Links

http://lek.com

ROHNERT PARK, Calif., March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Paperwork and "adulting" go hand in hand, but many adults find the paperwork to be challenging. People fear making mistakes, and this can cause a delay in processing, while others may simply be prone to procrastinate. However, when it comes to student loans, struggles to repay those loans may be eased by applying for an income-driven repayment plan. Ameritech Financial is a private document preparation company that helps borrowers select an appropriate federal income-driven repayment plan and prepare the necessary paperwork for application and yearly recertification.

Income-driven repayment plans calculate monthly payments as a percentage of discretionary income, which takes into consideration income and family size. Therefore, the application to enroll in such a program requires income documentation and accurate family size numbers. Because income and family size can change over time, the Department of Education requires borrowers in IDRs to resubmit their paperwork each year to remain enrolled.

"Borrowers shouldn't put off applying for an IDR that could improve their financial situation just because of the paperwork required," said Tom Knickerbocker, Executive Vice President of Ameritech Financial. "In fact, most applications are pretty simple once you know what's required."

The most common income documentation used in IDR applications is the previous year's tax information. When that information is inaccurate, which can happen if employment is lost or if income drops due to inconsistent workload, applicants must submit alternative documents. Such documents usually consist of recent pay stubs or sometimes a statement of income or loss of income.

Ameritech Financial has experience with such situations and knows what documents will most likely be accepted by the Department of Education. They know when a supplemental statement describing income or family size may help the application process. They use all this information to help each client individually based on their unique situation.

"Our primary goal is helping struggling borrowers apply for IDRs that may make life a little easier for them," said Knickerbocker. "We work closely with each client to collect and submit all supporting documents as well as the application that will hopefully give them the highest chance of approval. We do this year after year as long as they wish to remain in the program."

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

[email protected]

Related Links

Ameritech Financial home page

SOURCE Ameritech Financial

Related Links

https://ameritechfinancial.com

BOSTON, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aquavolve, LLC (the U.S. based global, exclusive dealership of the world's best atmospheric water generation systems) announces the installation of a Fountain Royale water-making machine at the St. Augustine's Orphanage (BP 185 Nkoulou, Yaounde, Cameroon, Africa). With funding and collaboration from The Marie & John Zimmermann Fund of New York, Aquavolve (https://www.aquavolve.com/projects/) installed the machine (which makes eight gallons of clean water per day from the humidity in the air) and eliminated the St. Augustine children's daily two kilometer walk to obtain clean, drinkable water.

After traveling in Tanzania in 2017 and witnessing the global water crisis, Gae Savannah, Zimmerman Fund Board Member, reached out to Aquavolve. Aquavolve's mission partner in Cameroon, Jordan Cone, identified the orphanage as having a severe need.

Gae Savannah stated, "The Marie and John Zimmermann Fund strives to help children in diverse ways: through mentoring programs for disadvantaged kids, arts education, summer program scholarships, and in the case of St. Augustine's, by providing a basic human need. I'll never forget the children singing to celebrate the gift of water! My experience working with Aquavolve has been life changing and we are so pleased to be in a position to support Aquavolve and its partners in spreading water independence. We look forward to our second machine which will be installed at a school for the blind in Yaounde, Cameron later this month."

Since 2012 Aquavolve has lead the water independence revolution by providing clean water through atmospheric water generation machine technology, and bottling the clean water produced from the humidity in the air in countries where clean sources of water have either become polluted or have run dry (Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa, North Carolina, Texas, Puerto Rico; and more).

"Aquavolve is dedicated to helping the global community through our ongoing philanthropic projects program. The recent news about Cape Town, South Africa grimly counting down to DAY ZERO (the day the taps run dry) means our mission to lead the water independence revolution is more urgent than ever," explains Dan Konstanty, Founder & CEO of Aquavolve, LLC. "My hope is that more foundations like The Zimmermann Fund will join our water independence revolution and help us provide clean water for all through sustainable, environmentally friendly technology. Our goal is to build economies of water to ensure the long-term elimination of the water crisis."

SOURCE Aquavolve, LLC

Related Links

https://www.aquavolve.com

The rapid increase of global food demand perks up the extensive utilization of IoT and bio- technology to provide the total solutions on agriculture, aquaculture and livestock industries. Ms. Sabine Liu, General Manager of UBM Taiwan remarked, "Intelligent, automatic, circular and eco-green products are the future trend of the food system. The unique market demand will be growing fast in 5 years. We've expanded the exhibition scale to meet our exhibitors' need to display large systemic equipment at the Asia Agri-Tech Expo 2018. This would draw efficient buyers' attention and be expected to generate about USD 27 million transactions."

The smart agriculture and farming products showcased this year include facilities with IoT function, apps, metal analysers, swine & poultry house control systems, water testers, temperature sensors, and smart farming solutions. Taiwan exhibitors, Blutech, Environmental Management Consultant Technologies, Emperor Penguin Ent. (known as Chin Jung Iron Works), ChenWei, MIC Meter Industrial, GOnDO Electronic, Fu Chen Automatic Control, Clientron Corp. are ready to display the state-of-the-art merchandise and grab the business opportunity to receive orders. UBM Taiwan also promotes the recruitment to China, Japan, South Korea, Europe, USA, India and Southeast Asian countries to look for advanced facilities.

Due to Southeast Asia governments' investment and promotion on biomass and biogas energy, UBM Taiwan has planned a biogas technology pavilion to meet Asia-pacific countries' renewable energy policy. The topical conference of Circular Economy: Biogas Reuse and Products will also be delivered synchronously. In addition, the cold chain and package suppliers from Japan, India, South Korea and China are also the hunting targets. UBM Taiwan tends to provide diverse and plentiful livestock and aquaculture technology to response overseas buyers' enquiries, such as anaerobic fermentation technologies, solid-liquid separation equipment, biogas power generators, culture chambers, flow tanks, oxygen equipment, water cooling systems and so on.

The Asia Agri-Tech Expo & Forum 2018 is concurrently held with Aquaculture and Livestock Taiwan Expo & Forum. The triple show is supported by the local authority, Council of Agriculture (COA), UBM Malaysia, 25 international associations and 18 professional media. In order to draw effective buyers, UBM Taiwan is releasing the accommodation subsidy program. At present, the online registration is open now.

For more exhibition information and details, please refer to the official website http://www.agritechtaiwan.com or contact Ms. Sophia Lu (TEL: +886-2-2738-3898; FAX: +886-2-2738-4886; Email: [email protected]).

About news release, please contact

Ms. Joy Chou For exhibitor inquiry, please contact

Ms. Sophia Lu For visitor inquiry, please contact

Ms. Natasha Chiang UBM Asia Ltd., Taiwan Branch

TEL: +886-2-2738-3898

FAX: +886-2-2738-4886

Email: [email protected]

Website:

www.agritechtaiwan.com

www.aquaculturetaiwan.com

www.livestocktaiwan.com

SOURCE UBM Asia Ltd., Taiwan Branch

Related Links

http://www.ubmasia.com

BOSTON, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Aspera, the leading provider of Software Asset Management solutions and services, has released a new version of LicenseControl for Salesforce, their industry-leading solution that reduces a company's costs and consumption across all Salesforce Orgs. The most important new feature is Automatic License Re-harvesting, which automatically deactivates unused or rarely used Salesforce accounts to free up and reuse licenses.

Other powerful new features include tracking account inactivity per profile, monitoring storage over-limits, and protecting user data with global hosting options. LicenseControl for Salesforce is a fully cloud-based tool, so current and new customers always have the latest version without installation or system updates.

"SaaS cost is like an elevator that can only go up," comments Jochen Hagenlocher, Global Head of SAM for a Fortune 100 company. "With this new version of LicenseControl for Salesforce, Aspera found the switch to bring the elevator, in other words the cloud cost, down again. Dormant user accounts are an issue across industries. Eliminating them automatically will create continuous savings."

"Optimizing your Salesforce licenses is all about automatization," says Dr. Matthias Vianden, Head of Solutions Development at Aspera. "I am particularly happy about the fact that our users can take advantage of this automation in a lot of different ways. From automatic warning mails that can be freely configured to whitelisting of important accounts."

Benefits of Automatic License Re-harvesting

LicenseControl helps a company to strategically control their Salesforce licensing costs and make informed decisions about purchases and contracts. The benefits of its new automatic re-harvesting include:

Automatic deactivation. Set a time threshold of inactivity after which accounts are automatically deactivated.

Set a time threshold of inactivity after which accounts are automatically deactivated. Detailed view of inactivity. Set the threshold up to 360 daysover Salesforce's 90 day viewwhich aligns account usage with business reality.

Set the threshold up to 360 daysover Salesforce's 90 day viewwhich aligns account usage with business reality. Automated emails. Notify users of their license status with emails that are customizable per Org and sent automatically.

Notify users of their license status with emails that are customizable per Org and sent automatically. Whitelist accounts. Mark accounts as exceptions, avoiding deactivation for stakeholders who use their accounts sporadically or people who are temporarily absent.

Mark accounts as exceptions, avoiding deactivation for stakeholders who use their accounts sporadically or people who are temporarily absent. Activity log. Get a full overview of LicenseControl's activity per Org, including account deactivations and alert emails.

Get a full overview of LicenseControl's activity per Org, including account deactivations and alert emails. Extra data privacy. Add security to the customer data in Salesforce by deactivating non-authorized accounts and avoiding a breach of GDPR regulations.

New Features for Salesforce Costs and Privacy

The hurdles for users to create Salesforce accounts are low, so licensing and usage fees can easily climb. LicenseControl puts important tracking and monitoring systems in place so companies can:

Track usage by Salesforce profile to inform business decisions such as team training or department access.

Track Org license count to see if the company is paying for unneeded or unused accounts.

Monitor storage limits on data and files to avoid increased fees.

Protect your data using secure Aspera data centers in zones such as Germany , Canada , UK and US.

, , UK and US. Get more security with the Aspera Cloud platform and its automatic disaster recovery.

Get data privacy by running multiple LicenseControl instances for silos between business units.

For more information, please visit www.aspera.com.

Aspera contact

Heike Lorey, International Public Relations

Tel.: +49 241 963-3261

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Aspera Technologies Inc.

Related Links

https://www.aspera.com

Like the other 787 Dreamliners, the 787-10 is designed with strong, lightweight composites, the most advanced systems, and comfortable cabin features. The 787-10, though, features a longer fuselage which allows it to carry about 40 more passengers or a total of 330 seats in a standard two-class configuration.

With the additional capacity, the 787-10 provides airlines the lowest operating cost per seat of any widebody airplane in service today.

"It is an honour for us to be the world's first airline to take delivery of this amazing aircraft," said Mr. Goh Choon Phong, chief executive officer of Singapore Airlines, the 787-10 launch customer. "The 787-10 is a magnificent piece of engineering and truly a work of art. It will be an important element in our overall growth strategy, enabling us to expand our network and strengthen our operations."

Goh added that "the 787-10 underscores Singapore Airlines' longstanding commitment to operate a modern fleet, and marks the start of a new chapter in our shared story with Boeing."

Singapore Airlines  through its subsidiary Scoot  already flies the 787-8 and 787-9 Dreamliners. With today's delivery the group will be the first to operate all three Dreamliner models. Singapore Airlines has 68 additional Boeing widebody jets on order, including 48 additional 787-10s, and 20 of the new 777-9s.

"This is a big day for all of us at Boeing and for our global supplier partners. We are thrilled to deliver the first 787-10 Dreamliner to Singapore Airlines, one of the world's leading carriers. And we are honored by Singapore's partnership and trust, as reflected by their repeated orders for the Dreamliner," said Kevin McAllister, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive officer. "The 787-10 will extend the Dreamliner effect that we are seeing across commercial aviation as the 787's superior passenger experience and unmatched fuel efficiency helps airlines open new routes and achieve significant fuel savings and emission reduction."

The 787-10's superior performance and high commonality with its Dreamliner siblings have attracted strong interest from around the world, including in Asia where the jet can connect all points within the region. The 787-10 also offers Asian operators the flexibility to fly to Europe, Africa and Oceania.

Singapore Airlines plans to puts its 787-10s into scheduled service in May, with flights from Singapore to Osaka, Japan and Perth, Australia. Prior to the introduction of these services, the aircraft will be operated on selected flights to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur for crew training purposes.

About the 787 Dreamliner family

The 787 Dreamliner is an all-new, super-efficient family of commercial airplanes that can fly long distances while offering 20 to 25 percent better fuel efficiency per seat and lower emissions than the airplanes they replace. The combination of long range and low operating costs allows airlines to operate more flights profitably.

Since 2011, more than 640 Dreamliners have entered service, flying more than 230 million people on more than 680 unique routes around the world, saving an estimated 23 billion pounds of fuel.

As a stretch of the 787-9, the 787-10 retains over 95 percent commonality while adding seats and cargo capacity, setting a new benchmark for fuel efficiency and operating economics at 25 percent better fuel per seat and emissions than the airplanes it will replace.

Contact

Joanna Pickup

Boeing Communications

Mobile: +1 425-879-6077

[email protected]

SOURCE Boeing

Related Links

http://www.boeing.com

NEW YORK, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Brite Media Group ("Brite Media") www.britemedia.com, a leading out-of-home advertising company, today announced the acquisition of Mesmerize Marketing ("Mesmerize") www.mesmerizemarketing.com. Based in New York City and founded in 2006, Mesmerize is an established leader in patient education at the point-of-care and the largest provider of static media in high prescribing physicians' offices. Gregory Leibert, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mesmerize, and Craig Mait, Chief Operating Officer, will join Brite Media in leadership roles and will continue to operate the Mesmerize business along with their existing team.

Brite Media's Chief Executive Officer Joe Puglise notes, "We are thrilled to gain access to the point-of-care space with a partner who has the expertise, tenure, and reputation of Mesmerize. The efficacy to advertisers, proven ROI, and explosive growth in the channel drew our attention to Mesmerize. We look forward to helping Mesmerize lever their impressive growth in the years to come."

Mesmerize provides targeted educational materials including wallboards, literature distribution, branded medical essentials, and mobile integration to patients and care givers in waiting rooms, exam rooms, and other high traffic areas of doctors' offices, dental offices, community-based organizations, AIDS service organizations, and independent pharmacies. The company's network reaches over 60,000 physicians and 7,500 pharmacies nationwide. Mesmerize's editorial content in English, Spanish and Chinese speaks directly to patients across multiple demographics within specialty practices including diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, oncology, women's health, pediatrics, mental health, cardiology, and infectious disease.

"The partnership with Brite Media gives Mesmerize Marketing the resources necessary to scale our rapidly growing point-of-care networks," said Gregory Leibert. "Mesmerize will look to expand our patient education and deliver significant results to our customers, by supplementing our industry-leading static media presence with new static and digital media platforms. As we continue to build the company, we will maintain our commitment to transparency and accountability."

Brite Media has pioneered several creative advertising products, historically focused on hand-delivered marketing messages. In July 2017, Brite Media acquired Clean Zone Marketing, one of the Midwest's largest transit agencies, further diversifying the media portfolio while providing additional marketing solutions for advertising partners. Brite Media's team believes that Mesmerize will complement its existing product portfolio with a point-of-care platform and a renewed focus on healthcare. Point-of-care media educates patients in an environment where they are empowered to communicate with their care providers about disease specific conditions.

"We believe in the power of point-of-care media," said Michael Ellis, Brite Media's President and Chief Operating Officer. "Mesmerize will perfectly complement Brite's current media platforms. The combined companies will leverage the strengths, creativity, and human capital of both businesses to continue delivering outstanding results to our customers."

The Beekman Group ("Beekman"), a leading private equity firm based in New York, acquired Brite Media in 2014 with the goal of building an out-of-home media platform with a diversified product offering. In less than four years, Brite Media has more than doubled in size through organic growth and acquisitions led by Beekman and management. Brite Media now has a robust offering of five complementary media products and services that together make the company a leading media services business in the attractive out-of-home advertising industry.

About Brite Media Group

Brite Media is a specialty out-of-home advertising company focused in three primary areas: Hand-to-hand, transit, and now point-of-care advertising. Brite Media also produces customized coffee sleeves for cafe vendors and other distribution customers. Brite Media is headquartered in New York and Oakland, California. For more information, please visit www.britemedia.com

About Mesmerize Marketing

Mesmerize Marketing is a point of care media company dedicated to educating health conscious consumers within our national network of doctors' offices, dental offices, AIDS service organizations, community-based organizations, and independent pharmacies. As a leader in patient education since 2006, Mesmerize continues to deliver brands directly to patients throughout their treatment journey from the waiting room, to the exam room, and again at the pharmacy. Our media stimulates patients to discuss brands directly with their physicians and pharmacists while providing the coveted implied endorsement of the healthcare professional. Our growing network of over 60,000 medical practitioners is segmented by specialty, catering to our clients' specific target audiences by health condition and prescribing habits. For more information, please visit www.mesmerizemarketing.com

About The Beekman Group

The Beekman Group is a leading private equity firm, based in New York, dedicated to bringing financial and operations resources to lower middle-market companies. Beekman's team consists of experienced private equity professionals, as well as a select group of Industry Advisors, who are leading executives in Beekman's targeted industry segments. This Industry Advisor focused approach to investing is the cornerstone of Beekman's investment strategy  creating value through accelerating growth and transformational change in partnership with small and middle-market management teams. For more information, please visit www.thebeekmangroup.com

Contact: Debby Fireman

Fireworks

[email protected]

610.547.2229

SOURCE Mesmerize MarketingATHENS, Greece, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new conception of broadband is on target to be achieved as the industry experiences an era of unparalleled change and challenge, and networks transform to meet the opportunities of 5G, 'cloudification,' the Internet of Things (IoT), gigabit access, open source solutions and the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

That was the message delivered at the Broadband Forum's sell-out BASE Athens event which brought together operators, service providers, system integrators, vendors, academia and industry bodies to discuss the entire broadband ecosystem and the technology developments needed to deliver future broadband networks.

"Like all the countries across Europe, my members are facing multiple challenges and opportunities as we look forward to 5G and IoT possibilities, allied to how they will interwork with new technologies such as Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and even AI," said George Stefanopoulos, General Manager of Greek Mobile Operators Association (EEKT). "Whatever the technologies, the choice is always going to be finding the right balance between investment capability, generating demand for services and supporting this with a friendly regulatory and licensing environment."

"BASE gave Greece the chance to host this truly international gathering and share our thoughts, ideas and experiences with colleagues from across the entire ecosystem. I was delighted to give our views and listen to what others had to say  I'm sure we have all learnt a lot during the two days of the event," added Stefanopoulos.

Stefanopoulos was joined on the stage by a host of operators and vendors, with subjects covered including virtualized broadband, cloud services, the managed home, 5G, wireless/wireline convergence, Wi-Fi performance and high-speed access, including NG-PON2, XGS-PON, MoCA and Gfast.

Details of the latest Broadband Forum projects were also revealed. Tim Carey, of Nokia, gave an update on the Broadband Forum's Broadband Access Abstraction (BAA) project which aims to drive the adoption of software-defined access networks via open source software development.

"As more operators look to agile, software-based network models, uniting vendors and operators to ensure they are aligned with industry specifications to meet the needs of operators globally is incredibly important for long-term success," said Carey. "By defining a software reference implementation for an open BAA layer through standardized interfaces, software can be decoupled from the underlying hardware to isolate the core functionality from specific device implementations and limit the number of different interfaces that are needed to be supported by service providers and vendors."

BAA is part of the Broadband Forum's Open Broadband initiative, a collaborative space for the integration and testing of new open source, standards-based and vendor provided implementations.

This is just one example of the recent innovation being carried out by the Forum, as it continues to deliver on its Broadband 20/20 vision. Last year also saw the publication of its 'Fixed Access Network Sharing  Architecture and Nodal Requirements' Technical Report (TR-370), which standardizes Fixed Access Network Sharing (FANS).

At the BASE event in Athens Vodafone's Fixed Access Manager, Bruno Cornaglia, set out his vision for this technology.

"To create a unified access architecture, it is essential to integrate all technologies  from FTTC to FTTH and Cable  in a single approach," said Cornaglia. "In urban areas, NG-PON2 represents the suitable solution for backhauling all other technologies, such as GPON in remote nodes, micro-nodes with VDSL2 and Gfast, DOCSIS remote devices, and mobile, but in rural areas operators face additional difficulties when deploying next-generation access. Here, introducing FANS on top of the unified access platform can facilitate the development of Next-Generation Access networks by giving full control to different service providers, or different divisions within the same company, enabling them to independently manage their own customers, even if there is only one physical network."

During the BASE workshop, Cornaglia also highlighted why good network monitoring is important and how the new Q metric can improve network performance and Quality of Service. According to Cornaglia, the Q data can then be used by machine learning to enhance network operation.

The full line-up of operators, service providers and vendors taking part in the event was as follows:

ADTRAN

Broadband Trends

BSNL, India Dept of Telecoms

Cartesian

Consulting SARL

CYTA

Ericsson

European Competitive Telecommunications Association

Greek Mobile Operators Association

Huawei Technologies

Intel

Metanoia

Nokia

SK Telecom

Tibit Communications

Verizon Arris

Boosty

BT Mobile

Calix

Corning

Deutsche Telekom

Eulambia

Federation of Hellenic Information Technology and Communication Enterprises

inCITES

Intracom Telecom

Mimosa

Sckipio

Tessares

UNH-IOL

Vodafone

"This latest BASE event brought together a vast array of speakers, covering an unparalleled range of topics, from NG-PON2 and Gfast to virtualization and converged networks for 5G," said Bernd Hesse, Chairman of BASE and the Broadband Forum's NG-PON2 Council, and Sen. Director Technology Development at Calix. "This ongoing discussion and collaboration, looked holistically at the broadband access network and this is absolutely vital if we are to deliver the ubiquitous next-generation access for many consumers who are already seeing broadband as the fourth utility. We couldn't have achieved such a successful event without our sponsors  Huawei, Intracom Telecom, Go Foton, Lightron, Hisense Broadband and Calix  thank you."

For more information, visit: https://www.broadband-forum.org/what-s-happening/meetings-events-webinars/base-2018-athens

About the Broadband Forum

Broadband Forum, a non-profit industry organization, is focused on engineering smarter and faster broadband networks. The Forum's flagship TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol has now exceeded 350 million installations worldwide.

Our work defines best practices for global networks, enables new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establishes technology migration strategies, engineers critical device, service & development management tools, in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models interoperability and certification in the Broadband market.

Our free technical reports and white papers can be found at www.broadband-forum.org. Twitter @Broadband_Forum.

For more information about the Broadband Forum, please go to http://www.broadband-forum.org or follow @Broadband_Forum on Twitter. For further information please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or [email protected] or Jayne Brooks on +44 (0) 1636 704 888 or [email protected].

About BASE

Run by the Broadband Forum, BASE is an all-new series of public workshops which aim to provide attendees with a whole new perspective on what is being created for broadband providers and users alike. Delivered by the leaders in the industry, many of whom are active participants in the Forum's work, the workshops cover a wide range of subjects including virtualized Broadband, cloud services, the managed home, 5G wireless/wireline convergence, and the latest in high speed access technology, enabling providers to deliver a new generation of differentiated services.

For more information, please go to https://www.broadband-forum.org/.

SOURCE Broadband Forum

Related Links

https://www.broadband-forum.org

The Council's third report, titled Attracting Women Entrepreneurs, Encouraging Women to Start Businesses, expresses confidence that such a campaign would boost the two countries' competitive advantage in the global economy. "We believe that a campaign along the lines of Canada's Own the Podium program ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver could lay the foundation for a huge increase in the number of female-led global enterprises headquartered in our two countries," the report says. We need to show the same boldness when it comes to women in business. As part of the campaign, a goal of achieving the highest-ever growth of female-led businesses within 10 years should be set.

The campaign is one of four recommendations proposed by Pillar Three of the Council's mandate, co-chaired by Dawn Farrell, President and CEO of TransAlta Corporation, and Deborah Gillis, President and CEO of Catalyst. Previous pillars have reported on supporting and growing women owned businesses, and expanding the role of women in science, technology, engineering and math.

Download the full Pillar Three report here https://advancingwomeninbusiness.com/pillar-three. Its recommendations are as follows:

A You Are Ready campaign to inspire and bolster confidence of women entrepreneurs

campaign to inspire and bolster confidence of women entrepreneurs Cross-border collaboration through the creation of a Canadian equivalent to the U.S National Women's Business Council and the U.S. Office of Women's Business Ownership, and a clear mandate for a linkage between the two countries.

Targeted education for women and girls, of all ages, in schools and universities, including greater awareness of the opportunities that entrepreneurship has to offer.

A focus on tools and programs to encourage and equip women entrepreneurs to access capital and pursue high growth enterprises.

The report acknowledges the tremendous strides made by women entrepreneurs over the past few decades. Whether measured by number of businesses, revenues, employees or taxes paid, their contribution to the U.S. and Canadian economies has grown phenomenally. According to the latest State of Women-Owned Businesses report, published by American Express, an estimated 11.6 million businesses in the U.S. are at least 51% owned, operated and controlled by one or more women. These firms employ nearly nine million people and generate $1.7 trillion in revenues each year.

But the report notes: "We cannot rest on our laurels. The story of women-owned businesses is one of unrealized potential. While women start businesses at almost the same rate as men, they struggle to turn those ventures into sizeable corporations."

Women-owned businesses are generally small, with limited growth prospects, and heavily concentrated in a handful of sectors. Just three sectors  healthcare and social assistance; professional and technical services; and other retail services  make up half of all women-owned businesses.

Vast opportunities remain for women to start and lead more high-growth businesses with national and global ambitions. A high priority should be to expand the presence of women-owned businesses in sectors that are set to dominate the emerging digital economy, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and the internet of things.

The report underlines the importance of encouraging girls  of all ages  to take an interest in entrepreneurship. "Only by acquiring an entrepreneurial mindset from an early age will girls gain the vision and the tools needed to savor fully the risks and rewards of setting up, running and expanding their own businesses," it says.

"The evidence is striking," said Mrs. Farrell. "Women are proven business leaders in small and mid-sized business. Canada and the U.S. can make much better use of their competitive instincts, skills and entrepreneurial spirit to accelerate economic growth and prosperity. Imagine the power in attracting, engaging and inspiring a generation of confident women leaders, armed with their personal vision and the tools for success."



Ms. Gillis added: "Research proves there is a strong economic advantage to having more women in leadership roles in the workforce. Women-owned businesses are already creating and or maintaining millions of jobs in the U.S. and Canada, with an economic impact of trillions of dollars for both countries. It's time to create equal entrepreneurial opportunities for everybody in the communities we live in and serve. It's not just good for business, it's good for society: for women, men, families, communities, and economies."

About the Canada-U.S. Council

The Canada-U.S. Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders was established jointly by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump in February 2017. The Council aspires to expand women's participation in the economy and the number of women business leaders and thereby contribute to the growth, integration, and competitiveness of both the U.S. and Canadian economies. The Council comprises ten of the top female business executives in the United States and Canada. Their mandate is to develop recommendations that can reduce barriers that limit women's participation in business, support and develop women's professional advancement, and assist women in starting and scaling their businesses. The Council will release the remaining two pillar reports by July 2018. www.advancingwomeninbusiness.com

Dawn Farrell is President and CEO of TransAlta Corporation. She sits on the boards of Chemours, The Conference Board of Canada and the Business Council of Canada, and is a member of the Trilateral Commission and The Canada-U.S. Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders. Dawn has 30 years of experience in the electricity industry, spanning finance, business development, strategic planning, commercial operations, energy marketing and sustainable development. Dawn holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree with a major in Finance, a Master's degree in Economics from the University of Calgary, and has attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.

Deborah Gillis is President & CEO of Catalyst, a leading global nonprofit dedicated to advancing women at work. The fourth President in Catalyst's 55-year history, Ms. Gillis advises world leaders, CEOs, and corporations on how to accelerate gender equality globally. In 2016 Ms. Gillis was named as one of Canadian Business magazine's 10 most influential Canadians, and received the Foreign Policy Association Medal. In 2017, she accepted an honorary Doctor of Laws honoris causa from Cape Breton University for dedicating her life's work to advocating for women's rights and equality. Ms. Gillis serves on the Board of Governors of St. Francis Xavier University.

SOURCE Canada-United States Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business LeadersMIAMI, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Paradise returns to year-round cruise service today from Port Tampa Bay following an extensive month-long dry dock that added a variety of spaces and innovations, including a spectacular water park, 38 new staterooms, 98 balconies added to existing accommodations, and an array of exciting food and beverage concepts.

Carnival Paradise departs this afternoon on a five-day Caribbean cruise to Cozumel and Grand Cayman  part of the ship's year-round sailings from Tampa that also include four-day cruises to Cozumel and five-day cruises to Cozumel and Mahogany Bay (Roatan), Key West or Grand Cayman. The ship also offers four- to eight-day cruises to Cuba featuring day-long and overnight calls in Havana, as well as visits to popular ports throughout the Caribbean.

"We can't wait for our guests to check out the fantastic new features aboard Carnival Paradise, which returns to service better than ever offering an exciting combination of itineraries featuring top destinations in the Caribbean, Mexico and Cuba," said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line.

The new features added during dry dock include:

Guy's Burger Joint : a free-of-charge poolside venue developed in partnership with Food Network personality Guy Fieri serving hand-crafted burgers and fresh-cut fries enjoyed amidst a decor that celebrates the chef's California roots and love of car culture.

a free-of-charge poolside venue developed in partnership with Food Network personality serving hand-crafted burgers and fresh-cut fries enjoyed amidst a decor that celebrates the chef's roots and love of car culture. RedFrog Rum Bar : a poolside watering hole offering the quintessential Caribbean vacation vibe with refreshing Caribbean rum-based frozen drinks and beers, including Carnival's own private label draught brew, ThirstyFrog Red.

a poolside watering hole offering the quintessential vacation vibe with refreshing rum-based frozen drinks and beers, including Carnival's own private label draught brew, ThirstyFrog Red. BlueIguana Cantina : a complimentary poolside Mexican eatery where guests can enjoy authentic freshly made burritos and tacos on homemade tortillas, as well as an elaborate toppings and salsa bar.

a complimentary poolside Mexican eatery where guests can enjoy authentic freshly made burritos and tacos on homemade tortillas, as well as an elaborate toppings and salsa bar. BlueIguana Tequila Bar : a fun and festive outdoor bar offering a laid-back Mexican-themed atmosphere and tequila-based frozen drinks and beers, perfect for chillin' by the pool.

a fun and festive outdoor bar offering a laid-back Mexican-themed atmosphere and tequila-based frozen drinks and beers, perfect for chillin' by the pool. Camp Ocean : a colorful marine-inspired play area designed for kids ages 2-11 that showcases the wonders of the sea through engaging interiors and more than 200 ocean-themed activities and science-oriented programming.

a colorful marine-inspired play area designed for kids ages 2-11 that showcases the wonders of the sea through engaging interiors and more than 200 ocean-themed activities and science-oriented programming. Circle "C" : designed for the 12- to 14-year-old set, this colorful space offers the perfect space for kids to chill and connect as well as enjoy dance parties, video games and more.

designed for the 12- to 14-year-old set, this colorful space offers the perfect space for kids to chill and connect as well as enjoy dance parties, video games and more. New Staterooms and Enhancements : Thirty-eight staterooms have been added  two Grand Vista suites offering floor-to-ceiling windows, 22 junior suites, two scenic oceanview and 12 interior accommodations. Private verandahs have also been added to 98 existing accommodations, creating spacious new 230-square-foot balcony staterooms. All staterooms offer new island-inspired interiors with bright colors and soothing pastels inspired by the ship's tropical itineraries.

Thirty-eight staterooms have been added  two Grand Vista suites offering floor-to-ceiling windows, 22 junior suites, two scenic oceanview and 12 interior accommodations. Private verandahs have also been added to 98 existing accommodations, creating spacious new 230-square-foot balcony staterooms. All staterooms offer new island-inspired interiors with bright colors and soothing pastels inspired by the ship's tropical itineraries. WaterWorks Aqua Park : Located on Verandah Deck, this expansive all-ages water park features an enclosed 300-foot-long Twister water slide full of exhilarating twists and turns, two 82-foot-long racing slides, and a kiddie splash zone.

Located on Verandah Deck, this expansive all-ages water park features an enclosed 300-foot-long Twister water slide full of exhilarating twists and turns, two 82-foot-long racing slides, and a kiddie splash zone. Miniature Golf Course : A nine-hole miniature golf course has been relocated to Deck 14, providing a fun and relaxing pastime for families to enjoy in the fresh sea air.

A nine-hole miniature golf course has been relocated to Deck 14, providing a fun and relaxing pastime for families to enjoy in the fresh sea air. Retail and Photo Enhancements: The retail shops have been completely reimagined with a new design and enhanced product offerings with multiple branded boutiques, including Pandora and Guess. The printed photo gallery has been replaced with a digital Pixels-branded platform that allows guests to identify and purchase images via their smartphones or at a nearby kiosk.

In addition to Carnival Paradise's short cruise program, Carnival's Tampa-based offerings include Carnival Miracle's year-round six- and seven-day cruises visiting beautiful ports throughout the western Caribbean, as well as eight-day voyages that include a partial transit of the Panama Canal.

Reservations are currently open for all of Carnival's departures from Tampa.

For additional information and reservations, contact any travel agent, call 1-800-CARNIVAL or visit carnival.com. Carnival also can be found on: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Journalists also can visit Carnival's media site, carnival-news.com or follow the line's PR department on Twitter at twitter.com/CarnivalPR.

About Carnival Cruise Line

Carnival Cruise Line, part of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL;NYSE: CUK), is "The World's Most Popular Cruise Line" with 25 ships operating three- to 16-day voyages to The Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, New England, Bermuda, Europe, Cuba, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Two 133,500-ton Vista-class ships are currently scheduled for delivery - Carnival Horizon in 2018 and Carnival Panorama in 2019. Additionally, two new 180,000-ton ships are scheduled to enter service in 2020 and 2022.

SOURCE Carnival Cruise Line

Related Links

http://www.carnivalcorp.com

Maoli states Amazon wanted to build another distribution center on this piece. However Maoli states he has bigger plans. "Burlington, New Jersey has an amazing history and my plan is to re-purpose the irreplaceable existing buildings that once housed U.S. Pipe. It will be a hub for families to live, learn, discover and enjoy. The first day I walked the site I had a vision to use the historic buildings and make it like the Wynwood business district of Miami, Florida. I visited Wynwood with my daughter and you can't get in the place, people come from all over Florida to be a part of it, and I see the same for this site".

Maoli is already in talks with the Tesla Science Institute, Maker Depot, The New Jersey Train Museum, and several high-end restaurant chains who all want to be part of this exciting project. Maoli also says there are some major corporate donors who want to support the gentrification. Maoli has met with Assemblyman Jim Kennedy and plans on meeting with Governor Phil Murphy about this pivotal project. This former U.S. Pipe site will also potentially house museums, a luxury boutique hotel that has a conference room, restaurant and banquet center.

The city of Burlington, steeped with U.S. history, is New Jersey's first capital on the Delaware River that has been known for its manufacturing and historic landmarks. The streets where famous men of the past such as Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant walked is a part of the gentrification. As you drive through the city of Burlington, you feel the energy of change happening to New Jersey's newest residential hotspot. The city of Burlington has already begun its transformation. Lyceum Hall Center for the Arts is opening up for Summer programs, and the riverfront concerts are being set to begin. New Jersey River Line, the light-rail that runs through the city, is taking passengers to Philadelphia and Trenton.

About Tom Maoli: Mr. Maoli is the president and CEO of Real Estate Opportunity Investments, LLC, a residential and commercial real estate company. In addition to his growing real estate empire he is also the President and CEO of Celebrity Motor Cars, LLC a luxury dealership group based in New Jersey and New York. Tom also hosts the "Go Big Or Go Home" radio show Sunday evenings at 7pm on WABC. Listeners may reach him directly by calling 1-800-848-9222 during the show, or can contact him via email him through his website at http://tommaoli.net/

MEDIA CONTACT:

Melanie Borden

(973)319-7900

[email protected]

SOURCE Tom Maoli

Related Links

http://tommaoli.net

NEW YORK, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In partnership with the Instituto de Ciencia Politica Hernan Echavarria Olozaga, Fenalco, Noticias RCN, and NTN24, Concordia, a global nonprofit, nonpartisan convener, idea incubator, and partnership broker, has established its 2018 Americas Initiative, to include roundtable discussions, a presidential debate, and the 2018 Concordia Americas Summit.

As the 2018 Colombian elections shape up to be one of the most important national and regional elections of the century, citizens of Colombia are expected to approach election day with widely differing perspectives around proposed visions for the country. Bringing together leaders from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, the 2018 Americas Initiative kicked off with a series of roundtable discussions on topics such as economic and education policies, and the rule of law.

The volatile political and economic environment in which the new president will assume power makes it even more critical for citizens to vote in a responsible and informed way by basing their decision on verifiable information, rigorous analysis of government programs, and a clear understanding of the platforms of the various candidates on a myriad of issues. On April 19, the Concordia 2018 Americas Initiative will host a Presidential Debate featuring the leading candidates in the 2018 Election. The invited candidates, Sergio Fajardo, German Vargas Lleras, Humberto De La Calle, Ivan Duque, and Gustavo Petro Urrego, will be asked a variety of questions from Noticias RCN journalists in order for the citizens of Colombia to better understand their positions and visions for the future of the nation.

The following day, the Initiative will convene a panel of nationally- and internationally-recognized experts to react to the debate and the answers given. This will result in a highly-informative document that will outline all the recommendations from the roundtables, debate, and the panel of experts, and will be given to each candidate.

These discussions will flow naturally into the 2018 Concordia Americas Summit, to take place in Bogota in July. The Summit will build on the success of the Americas Initiative and Concordia's previous Americas programming. Concordia's inaugural Americas Summit, The 2016 Americas Summit, welcomed hundreds of leaders from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to Miami to discuss solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing the region. In 2017, the Concordia Americas Summit moved to Bogota, Colombia and continued to build on the momentum and progress made, welcoming Colombian Presidents Juan Manuel Santos, Andres Pastrana Arango, and Alvaro Uribe Velez together at the same forum for the first time in five years.

Uniting the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, the Summit will have a renewed focus on building partnerships to solve the region's greatest challenges. Concordia's dedication to radical inclusivity and its mission to elevate voices that too often go unheard will bring new actors to the table in order to create real outcomes and opportunities for the nation.

ABOUT CONCORDIA:

Concordia is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to actively fostering, elevating, and sustaining cross-sector partnerships for social impact. Concordia was founded in 2011 by Matthew A. Swift and Nicholas M. Logothetis.

Media Contact: Sam Matino, [email protected]

SOURCE ConcordiaENCINITAS, Calif., March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CycloPure, Inc., a developer of next-generation water purification adsorbents, announced today that the National Institutes of Health has awarded the company a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant in the amount of $149,000. The company will use the funds to accelerate development of its CD-PFAS High-Affinity Cyclodextrin Polymer (HACP) adsorbent that safely removes hazardous perfluorinated (PFAS) compounds in drinking water and waste water treatment applications.

Contamination of drinking water by PFAS compounds such as PFOA and PFOS represent major health threats because of their link to multiple cancers, endocrine system disorders, and thyroid disease. Recent studies estimate that drinking water systems which serve tens of millions of Americans currently contain high concentrations of these contaminants resulting in communities across several states advising residents to avoid using tap water for drinking and cooking purposes.

"We are pleased to receive this award from the National Institutes of Health," said CycloPure co-founder and Chief Science Officer Will Dichtel. "It attests to our technology's promise to deliver important health benefits in water treatment by sequestering heavily fluorinated organic pollutants that often pass through water treatment systems into the public's drinking water."

CycloPure's fluorine-selective CD-PFAS polymer was first profiled in a 2017 study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, reporting on the polymer's superior performance in the removal of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) compared to activated carbon which is the most commonly used adsorbent in water treatment applications.1 "CD-PFAS has more than ten-fold higher affinity to PFAS compounds compared to activated carbon, which allows for lower dosing requirements to achieve non-detect or advisory limit removal," Dichtel added. "Importantly, our CD-PFAS adsorbent is made in a single-step process using cyclodextrin, a readily available sugar molecule derived from sustainable corn starch."

"We've made a lot of progress with our CD-PFAS polymer in field trials over the past 12 months and have demonstrated its superior performance to activated carbon under various conditions including simulated groundwater, AFFF solution, and contaminated well water," said Frank Cassou, CycloPure CEO. "The NIH funding will help accelerate our development activities and bring us closer to making our technology commercially available to help communities remove toxic PFAS compounds from their drinking water."

Making Water Safe - About CycloPure

Founded in 2016, CycloPure is a materials science and technology company that is commercializing a new class of selective adsorbents called High-Affinity Cyclodextrin Polymers (HACPs). The company's pioneering technology allows the conversion of renewable cyclodextrins (derived from corn starch) into highly adsorbent materials ideally suited for water treatment applications.

Government and other studies have shown that trace contaminants (measured in parts per billion and less), including industrial chemicals, pesticides, and pharmaceutical residues, are pervasive in water and can retain toxic effect at low concentration. Using its novel polymer technology, CycloPure has developed two novel adsorbent formulations, CD-MP and CD-PFAS, for the removal of harmful contaminants from water, including the perfluorinated compounds PFOA and PFOS.

CycloPure's patented HACPs can be produced in varying particle sizes, tailored to filtration and water flow requirements, allowing for flexible use across a broad spectrum of water purification applications. CycloPure is working with global partners to produce and distribute its proprietary HACPs to meet growing worldwide interest from water treatment managers, food and beverage companies, government agencies, and manufacturers of point-of-use consumer water purification products.

For more information about CycloPure, Inc. and our mission to make water safer with novel adsorption technology, please visit www.cyclopure.com or follow CycloPure at twitter.com/cyclopure, and facebook.com/cyclopure/. For Media Inquiries, contact Roy Berger at [email protected]

NIH Disclaimer: "Research discussed in this release is supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R43ES029401. The content is solely the responsibility of CycloPure and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health."

1 "-Cyclodextrin Polymer Network Sequesters Perfluorooctanoic Acid at Environmentally Relevant Concentrations"; J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 76897692. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.7b02381 (open access)

Contact: Roy Berger

Phone: (203) 858-3839

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE CycloPure, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.cyclopure.com

This first volume of the band's complete recorded output comes in both limited-edition 180-gram heavyweight vinyl and CD box sets , each featuring Def Leppard's first four studio albums  along with some choice bonus live and studio material  all spread across 8LPs and 7CDs , respectively.

The Volume One collection includes bonus material including Live At The LA Forum 1983, originally released as a bonus disc in the deluxe CD version of Pyromania, making this the first-ever vinyl offering of the complete show. This 2LP version comes with a new sleeve and inner bags.

Rarities Volume 1 has been specially compiled by Joe Elliott, containing rare B-sides and recordings from Def Leppard's early years, all in a newly commissioned sleeve. Finally, rounding out this collection is the 7-inch vinyl single and 3-inch CD of Def Leppard's original, self-titled EP.

The fiery Volume One collection contains all of Def Leppard's iconic 1980s recordings with reproductions of the original packaging in both formats, plus the added bonus of a replica 7-inch single and 3-inch CD of the band's original independent EP, the self-titled The Def Leppard E.P.

Each album in the box set was mastered by longtime band producer/soundmaster Ronan McHugh and cut by Greg Moore.

Housed in rigid boxes, the Volume One collection also contains a hardback book with rare photos by longstanding band confidant Ross Halfin and liner notes by Classic Rock's Paul Elliott. Def Leppard bandmembers Joe Elliott, bassist Rick Savage, drummer Rick Allen, and guitarist Phil Collen have all also contributed their personal introductions to the collection.

Volume One is an extraordinary early chronicle of a band whose global impact only continues to grow. Def Leppard have a cumulative sales tally of over 100 million albums worldwide, not to mention putting on consistently sold-out world tours. Def Leppard recently authorized their entire recorded catalog for access on streaming and download platforms, a move that resulted in a nearly 400 percent surge in catalog sales on the first day alone, as well as appearances in the iTunes Top 10 charts in over 30 countries worldwide.

Volume One kicks off with Def Leppard's 1980 debut album On Through The Night, which immediately put the rock world on notice that the band were destined for big things, having charted at No. 15 in the U.K. and No. 51 in the U.S. Produced by Tom Allom (Judas Priest, Black Sabbath), On Through The Night features many of the band's live favorites ("Rock Brigade," "Hello America"), along with updated versions of early singles ("Rocks Off"). The album achieved platinum status in 1989, and the version included here is the rare Australian gatefold-sleeve version.

Released in 1981, High 'N' Dry was Def Leppard's second platinum album and the first to be produced by Robert "Mutt" Lange (AC/DC, Foreigner). It reached No. 26 in the U.K. and No. 38 in the U.S., having garnered much impactful FM airplay with the propulsive "Let It Go" and one of the band's most popular signature tunes to this day, "Bringin' On The Heartbreak."

Pyromania, released in 1983, saw the band become indisputable rock legends. It was the first record to feature guitars by Phil Collen, who had replaced Pete Willis. The album contains massive MTV hits "Photograph" and "Rock Of Ages," as well as fist-pumper "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop),". Pyromania reached No. 2 in the U.S. and went Diamond, with over 10 million album sales.

Def Leppard released Hysteria in 1987, the band's best-selling record to date having sold over 25 million copies worldwide. It went to No. 1 in the U.K., U.S., and Australia, and is also the band's second album to achieve Diamond status in the U.S.. Notes Collen, "Not many people even get Platinum albums anymore! Going Diamond is going 10 times Platinum in America, which is a huge deal  and we've got two of those. We're really pleased that we got them. It's pretty cool that we've achieved that."

Produced by Mutt Lange, Hysteria took over three years to make, ultimately featuring seven charting singles (including No. 1 smash "Love Bites" and "Pour Some Sugar On Me"), and has been rightly nicknamed as "heavy metal's Thriller." Clocking in at just over 62 minutes, Hysteria was then one of the longest albums ever issued on a single vinyl record  but for this special box set release, it has been made into a double LP for maximum sound-quality purposes.

Def Leppard's collective vocal prowess is but one of the many things that helped cement their unparalleled standing in rock history, as Joe Elliott explains: "The way we did our harmonies was based on the multitracking abilities of a band like Queen, but we took what they did to the next level. Queen maybe tripled or quadrupled their backing vocals  but we did it like 20 times! We wanted it to sound like the quality of Queen but have the size of Slade. The way we did it gave us a unique sound. And that's the whole point of an album, really  capturing a band's unique dynamics." Adds Phil Collen, "The American bands had beautiful vocals, with all those wonderful harmonies. But we added a bit of a punk ethos in there with ours, where it became a bit more charming and anthemic with screaming and shouting. And that was a very British thing, I think, that made us different from a lot of the American bands."

Def Leppard's Volume One is but the first hot, sticky-sweet taste of an impressive career that remains ever on the rise. Can you feel it, do you believe it?

Preorder Def Leppard's The Vinyl Box Set: Volume One here:

Preorder Def Leppard's The CD Box Set: Volume One here:

Full Tracklisting, here:

Tour dates, here:

defleppard.com

twitter.com/DefLeppard

facebook.com/defleppard

Instagram.com/defleppard

Def Leppard - Joe Elliott (vocals), Phil Collen (guitar), Rick "Sav" Savage (bass), Vivian Campbell (guitar) and Rick Allen (drums) - continue to be one of the most important forces in rock music. Over the course of their career the band has produced a series of classic ground-breaking albums that set the bar for generations of music fans and artists alike. The group's spectacular live shows and arsenal of hits have become synonymous with their name, leading Def Leppard to be heralded as an institution in both the music and touring industry. The band's most recent self-titled studio album debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top Rock Albums and Top Independent Albums charts. The album also took the #5 spot on Billboard's Top Current Albums and #10 spot on the Top 200, as well as claiming 15 top 10 debuts around the world .

SOURCE UMeThe gift recognizes the significant achievements of USC's Saks Institute, said Amelia "Lee" Marks, a Bry trustee. Bry, a leading authority on the works of Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe, worked for Time-Life magazine as a science researcher and was an agent for Georgia O'Keeffe.

"As trustees of the Doris Bry Trust, we were given a general mandate to support qualified charities in the field of mental health. In our research for this particular grant, we learned of Elyn Saks, and her story resonated with our mission," said Marks. "We read Elyn's memoir, we watched her TED Talk more than once, we read about her various symposia, and we came to admire her capacity for conveying schizophrenia as a condition that didn't necessarily preclude someone from having a full life."

Saks, a professor at USC Gould since 1989, said she is thrilled and honored for the institute to receive the gift.

"This will truly change how the Saks Institute is able to study and make policy recommendations for those who suffer from mental illness," said Saks. "I am over the moon with excitement and looking forward to our next chapter."

Saks launched her institute in 2010 with funding from the MacArthur genius grant. Her mission is simple: stimulate discussion, develop solutions and change the way society addresses mental illness.

"I am in a unique position  I have schizophrenia and I study mental illness," said Saks, who was recently named a USC Distinguished Professor for accomplishments that brought special renown to USC.

"My goal has always been to bring hope to those who suffer from schizophrenia and understanding to those who don't," she added.

"Each year, the Saks Institute focuses on a mental health topic, bringing together cross-disciplinary faculty members, student scholars and experts to present at symposia. Her work has been called "transformative scholarship of consequence."

Past symposium themes have included mechanical restraints, psychotropic drugs, mental health on campus, stigma in the media and the criminalization of mental illness. She is currently tackling civil commitment, holding a spring symposium on the topic on April 16. Each one of these topics has personally affected her.

"This gift represents just the latest illustration of the impact and importance of Professor Saks' work on mental health law and policy," said Andrew Guzman, dean of USC Gould. "We are remarkably proud to have her on our faculty. She is a true inspiration, leader and hero in the mental health field."

In 2006, Saks disclosed her lifelong secret in her award-winning memoir, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness. Saks put a new face on mental illness, showing that people can be successful and have schizophrenia.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't petrified to tell the world about my mental illness," said Saks, referring to when she first went public. "What if my colleagues looked at me differently? What if my friends abandoned me? What if my students were scared to take my class?"

But she soon discovered that sharing her experience not only lifted a personal burden, but also humanized the disease.

Since then, Saks has been greeted with an outpouring of admiration from scholars, speaking requests from around the world, an invitation to deliver a TED Talk, and messages from Vice President Joe Biden's office, mental health advocate Kitty Dukakis, actress Glenn Close and Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who called her "one of the leaders in the new civil rights movement of mental health." She was recently appointed to serve on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee.

Awards and honors have also poured in  the New York Times Extended Bestseller List, Time Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of the Year and Presidential Commendation from the American Psychological Association. She gave a Toulmin Lecture in Law and Psychiatry at King's College London, and a hospital ward was named after her in Dorking, England. Saks' life story recently inspired a chamber opera.

Saks said the Bry gift will not only help propel her work  and hopefully encourage others to support her institute  but also shine a light on the struggles and triumphs of people with mental illness. "I am so grateful to receive this support from the Doris Bry Trust and eager to get going on the work this gift will make possible," Saks said.

SOURCE USC Gould School of Law

Related Links

http://www.LAW.USC.EDU

TAMPA, Fla., March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DSM Technology Consultants, one of Florida's largest private cloud providers, is excited to be a proud supporter of Synapse Innovation Summit in Tampa, FL March 28th-29th and announce that it is a Silver Sponsor. According to Synapse, the Innovation Summit will bring together innovators from all industries and stages of development to connect technology, regionally-based innovation, and entrepreneurial ecosystems throughout Florida.

In just a few days the Amalie Arena will be buzzing with 2500 attendees, 30 speakers, 56 breakout sessions, 60 showcases, and 250 exhibitors. And not only is DSM excited to learn from the thousands of attendees, and industry leading experts that will attend, they are also excited to contribute industry knowledge while there. DSM CEO David Robinson and VP of Marketing & Channel Brian Sallee will both speak in sessions while attending the Synapse Innovation Summit.

While many conferences are limited to those already experienced in the field the conference specializes in, that is not the case with the Innovation Summit as college students are highly encouraged to attend. Synapse and ConnectWise teamed up to provide Florida College students with opportunities to win scholarships to attend the event. They will provide 50 students with $1,000 to attend and are offering options for others to volunteer their time to attend the summit free of charge.

Another reason that DSM is proud to be a sponsor at the Innovation Summit is because of the benefit it will provide our community. All proceeds from the lunches served at the event on the 28th and 29th will go directly to feeding the hungry in Tampa Bay. Companies that strive to make the communities they work in better than they found them is important to DSM. With one of their core values being community-minded, they applaud Synapse for doing the same.

With hands on demonstrations of local innovators such as drones & defense innovations, blockchain, fintech, cryptocurrency, & AI/machine learning robotics, 3D printing, AR/VR, urban tech, energy/renewable tech, and medtech/biotech/digital health/wellness, there will be something for everyone at the summit.

About Synapse:

The Innovation Summit is a production of Synapse. The overall vision of Synapse is to be an all-encompassing, interactive, and flexible methodology for building, facilitating, and exposing the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of Florida.

About DSM:

DSM is a cutting-edge cloud solutions firm focused on delivering peace of mind to customers across the nation. Business growth is enabled by DSM's amazingly flexible, secure and reliable cloud solutions. DSM is certified compliant with CJIS, SSAE16, SOC 1, SOC 2 and HIPAA standards with an inland datacenter network and 99.999% uptime, and clients receive 24 x 7 x 365 support. To learn more, visit www.dsm.net.

Media Contact:

Tori Pazda

[email protected]

863-904-6947

SOURCE DSM Technology Consultants

Related Links

http://www.dsm.net

NEW ORLEANS, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, during the Association of PeriOperative Nurses (AORN) Global Surgical Conference and Expo in New Orleans, Ethicon*, part of the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies**, is demonstrating its commitment to support health care systems in accelerating adoption of smoke evacuation plans. With the addition of MEGADYNE core energy offering to its portfolio, Ethicon now offers smoke evacuation capabilities that are designed to reduce the exposure of patients and OR teams to surgical smoke.

Surgical smoke can decrease site visibility and impact air quality in the OR. Electrosurgical smoke has been shown to contain many potentially harmful components including: toxic gas and vapors1; bioaerosols, including dead and living cell material, blood fragments and viruses2; and mutagenic and carcinogenic compounds1. The smoke condensate from burning 1 gram of tissue has been shown to be equivalent to that of up to six unfiltered cigarettes3.

"At the entrance of every hospital is a smoke free icon indicating that the hospital is smoke free. However, in the operating room the use of electrosurgical equipment may create hazardous smoke. There is a realization that reducing electrosurgical smoke in the operating room is important," says Andrew Ekdahl, President, Ethicon US. "With our MEGADYNE portfolio, Ethicon is working with hospitals to support their plans to reduce surgical smoke for the benefit of every patient and every member of the operating room team."

Across the U.S., awareness and advocacy is growing to address surgical smoke. Both AORN and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommend surgical smoke be removed by use of a smoke evacuation system in both open and laparoscopic cases4.

During AORN, Ethicon will offer continuing education courses on surgical smoke reduction presented by Kay Ball, RN, PhD, a leading nurse educator. Nurses will be invited to sign a signature wall in the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices booth to pledge their commitment to a smoke free OR. For each signature, Ethicon will make a donation to the American Lung Association.

Ethicon will also feature new products from its energy, biosurgery and wound closure portfolios, including:

MEGADYNE ACE BLADE 700 Soft Tissue Dissector  in ACE Mode had significantly less thermal damage vs. standard monopolar electrosurgery 5 https://www.ethicon.com/na/products/electrosurgical-devices/energy-sealing-and-dissecting/megadyne-ace-blade-700-soft-tissue-dissector

in ACE Mode had significantly less thermal damage vs. standard monopolar electrosurgery https://www.ethicon.com/na/products/electrosurgical-devices/energy-sealing-and-dissecting/megadyne-ace-blade-700-soft-tissue-dissector EVICEL Laparoscopic Airless Spray Accessory  designed to deliver a rapid adherent clot in both open and minimally invasive procedures 6 , and may save valuable OR time 7 https://www.ethicon.com/na/products/adjunctive-hemostasis/sealants/evicel-fibrin-sealant-human

designed to deliver a rapid adherent clot in both open and minimally invasive procedures , and may save valuable OR time https://www.ethicon.com/na/products/adjunctive-hemostasis/sealants/evicel-fibrin-sealant-human DERMABOND PRINEO Skin Closure System (42cm)  a new configuration that expands the portfolio to provide secure, protected closure of incisions up to 40cm8 https://www.ethicon.com/na/products/wound-closure/skin-adhesives/dermabond-prineo-skin-closure-system

These products will be demonstrated in the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices exhibit booth (1113) along with a comprehensive portfolio of product innovations, education and training, and support programs from Ethicon, DePuy Synthes and Advanced Sterilization Products, as well as CareAdvantage from the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies**** and its infection risk management capability https://www.careadvantagejjmdc.com/featured-capabilities/infection-risk-management. In its 65th year as a sponsor of AORN, the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies is continuing its commitment to helping nurses ensure the best care and outcomes for their patients. Follow us on Twitter @Ethicon for the latest updates from the conference.

About the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies

The Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies' purpose is to reach more patients and restore more lives. Having advanced patient care for more than a century, these companies represent an unparalleled breadth of products, services, programs and research and development capabilities in surgical technology, orthopaedics, cardiovascular and specialty solutions with an offering directed at delivering clinical and economic value to health care systems worldwide.

About Ethicon

From creating the first sutures, to revolutionizing surgery with minimally invasive procedures, Ethicon, part of the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies, has made significant contributions to surgery for more than 60 years. Our continuing dedication to Shape the Future of Surgery is built on our commitment to help address the world's most pressing health care issues, and improve and save more lives. Through Ethicon's surgical technologies and solutions including sutures, staplers, energy devices, trocars and hemostats and our commitment to treat serious medical conditions like obesity and cancer worldwide, we deliver innovation to make a life-changing impact. Learn more at www.ethicon.com, and follow us on Twitter @Ethicon.

EVICEL Fibrin Sealant (Human) IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Indication

EVICEL Fibrin Sealant (Human) is indicated as an adjunct to hemostasis for use in patients undergoing surgery, when control of bleeding by standard surgical techniques (such as suture, ligature, or cautery) is ineffective or impractical.

Contraindications

Do not inject directly into the circulatory system. Intravascular application of EVICEL may result in life-threatening thromboembolic events.

Do not use in individuals known to have anaphylactic or severe systemic reaction to human blood products.

Do not use for the treatment of severe or brisk arterial bleeding.

Do not use EVICEL for spraying in endoscopic or laparoscopic procedures where the minimum recommended distance from the applicator tip to the target site cannot be ensured.

Warnings and Precautions

Life-threatening air or gas embolism has occurred with the use of spray devices employing a pressure regulator to administer EVICEL. This event appears to be related to the use of the spray device at pressures higher than recommended and/or at distances closer than recommended to the surface of the tissue.

Monitor changes in blood pressure, pulse, oxygen saturation, and end-tidal CO2 when spraying EVICEL because of the possibility of gas embolism.

To reduce the risk of potentially life-threatening gas embolism, spray EVICEL using only pressurized CO2 gas at the pressures and distances recommended for the specific tips.

Use EVICEL spray application only if it is possible to accurately judge the spray distance, especially during endoscopic or laparoscopic procedures.

Prior to applying EVICEL, dry surface areas of the wound by standard techniques (e.g. intermittent application of compresses, swabs, use of suction devices). Prepare and administer EVICEL according to the instructions and with only devices recommended for this product.

May carry a risk of transmitting infectious agents, e.g. viruses, the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) agent and theoretically, the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) agent.

The most common adverse reactions reported in clinical trials are peripheral edema, abdominal abscess, infection, hematoma, incision site hemorrhage, vascular graft occlusion, postoperative wound complication and decreased hemoglobin.

For complete indications, contraindications, warnings, precautions, and adverse reactions, please reference full package insert.

*Ethicon represents the products and services of Ethicon, Inc., Ethicon Endo-Surgery, LLC and certain of their affiliates. Ethicon, LLC is the legal manufacturer of EVICEL and DERMABOND PRINEO. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

**The Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies comprise the surgery, orthopedics, and cardiovascular businesses within Johnson & Johnson's Medical Devices segment.

***DePuy Synthes represents the products and services of DePuy Synthes, Inc. and its affiliates.

****CareAdvantage from the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies is offered through Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems, Inc.

*****Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP) is a division of Ethicon US, LLC, part of the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies.

 Kay Ball is a paid consultant for Ethicon.

1 Al Sahaf OS, et al. Chemical composition of smoke produced by high-frequency Electrosurgery. Ir J Med Sci (2007) 176:229232.

2 Control of Smoke from Laser/ Electric Surgical Procedures, NIOSH, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 96128.

3 Tomita Y, et. Al., Mutagenicity of smoke condensation induced by CO2- laser irradiation and electrocauterization. Mutat Res. 1981; 89:145.

4 Perioperative standards and recommended practices. Electronic release: July 2009. Association of PeriOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

5 In a preclinical porcine model on abdominal wall dermis that measured thermal damage via histology (p<0.05).

6 STAR ASA coverage area test using corium tissue on a 45 degree tilted plane. September 2014.

7 ASA Design Validation Marketing Claims, August 2017, pg157

8 DERMABOND PRINEO 42cm Sell Sheet 082927_171024

Ethicon, Inc. 2018

088995-180323

SOURCE Ethicon

Related Links

http://www.ethicon.com

NEW YORK, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pursuant to a competitive bidding process, the Commonwealth of Kentucky chose FAIR Health to help analyze, revise and update its workers' compensation fee schedule, FAIR Health announced today. FAIR Health, a national, independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information, will work closely with Kentucky to update the ground rules and rate tables for the workers' compensation fee schedule for physicians, including medical, anesthesia, transportation, HCPCS and dental procedures.

The fee schedule will be informed by data from FAIR Health's repository of billions of privately billed claims, the largest such collection in the country. FAIR Health also will assist Kentucky officials from the Department of Workers' Claims in presenting the fee schedule to workers' compensation stakeholders before finalization.

The new contract marks the third time FAIR Health will be supporting Kentucky in updating its workers' compensation fee schedule. FAIR Health was awarded the contracts for these services for Kentucky's two prior fee schedules (released in 2013 and 2016), also as a result of competitive bidding processes.

FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated: "We are pleased to assist again the Commonwealth of Kentucky and its Department of Workers' Claims in their efforts to maintain a current, geographically relevant and comprehensive fee schedule that continues to meet the needs of injured workers and all stakeholders. Our experience shows us that states are best served by a fee schedule that is specific to the needs of their jurisdiction and developed using data that have been validated by an independent, neutral organization to satisfy the interests of all parties."

FAIR Health is working with and in discussions with a number of states relating to the development of their workers' compensation fee schedules. For example, FAIR Health also is assisting Georgia with its upcoming fee schedule, which will be effective April 1. Our data are not only the basis for fee schedules in some states, but also serve as a primary data source for private companies that process workers' compensation claims in the absence of a state fee schedule. In addition, FAIR Health data are referenced in statutes, regulations and official memoranda around the country as the designated source of cost information for a variety of state health programs.

Follow us on Twitter @FAIRHealth

About FAIR Health

FAIR Health is a national, independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 25 billion claim records contributed by payors and administrators who insure or process claims for private insurance plans covering more than 150 million individuals. FAIR Health also holds separate data representing the experience of more than 55 million individuals enrolled in Medicare. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a Qualified Entity, FAIR Health receives all of Medicare Parts A, B and D claims data for use in nationwide transparency efforts. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data productsincluding benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics, episodes of care analytics and market indicesto commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. FAIR Health has earned HITRUST CSF and Service Organization Controls (SOC 2) certifications by meeting the rigorous data security standards of those organizations. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish and an English/Spanish mobile app, which enable consumers to estimate and plan their healthcare expenditures and offer a rich educational platform on health insurance. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Elisabeth Rosenthal's book, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org.

Contact:

Dean Sicoli

Executive Director of Communications and Public Relations

FAIR Health

646-664-1645

[email protected]

SOURCE FAIR Health

Related Links

http://fairhealth.org

SHANGHAI, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Federal-Mogul Powertrain and Dong Feng Motor Parts and Components Group Co., Ltd. (Dong Feng Parts and Components Group), a subsidiary of Dong Feng Motor Corporation, today announced an agreement to establish a new piston joint venture in Shiyan, China, with Federal-Mogul being the majority shareholder. The new engine component joint venture will operate as a piston manufacturer for Dong Feng Motor Corporation and other customers; the current piston business under Dong Feng Pistons and Bearing Co., Ltd. will also be integrated into the new joint venture company.

"We have established over the years a significant partnership with Dong Feng," said Felix Cheng, Vice President and General Manager, China and Korea, Federal-Mogul Powertrain. "Today's announcement will further strengthen that relationship, as we work together to develop world-class piston solutions that support Dong Feng in meeting the increased demand for engine components that improve fuel economy and reduce emissions."

The new joint venture operation will be located in Shiyan, part of Hubei Province, China. As a global leader in piston technology, Federal-Mogul will design, engineer and manufacture high-performance pistons for passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles under the Dong Feng Motor Corp., helping them to meet current and future emissions regulations in China.

"Dong Feng Parts and Components Group is a subsidiary and key parts supplier to Dong Feng Motor Corp. We have nearly 50 years experience in research and manufacturing," said Chen Xinglin, General Manager, Dong Feng Parts and Components Group. "Our cooperation with Federal-Mogul Powertrain in pistons is a win-win strategy and takes full advantage of each other's strengths to drive rapid business growth for pistons and will bring innovative technologies and breakthrough products to Dong Feng vehicles. It also paves the foundation for both companies to further expand the business scope of the joint venture in the future."

Federal-Mogul established its first manufacturing operations in China in 1995. With globally networked engineering and localized production capabilities, the company has established itself as a leader in the Chinese OE market, providing sustainable, high-performance engine components for its customers there. Today, the company operates 12 wholly-owned or joint venture companies, with the Shiyan facility marking the second piston manufacturing center there. Federal-Mogul Powertrain's Shanghai Technical Center is one of the company's five globally networked engineering and technical centers, providing leading edge technologies and services to OEMs throughout Asia.

About Federal-Mogul

Federal-Mogul LLC is a leading global supplier of products and services to the world's manufacturers and servicers of vehicles and equipment in the automotive, light, medium and heavy-duty commercial, marine, rail, aerospace, power generation and industrial markets. The company's products and services enable improved fuel economy, reduced emissions and enhanced vehicle safety.

Federal-Mogul operates two independent business divisions, each with a chief executive officer reporting to Federal-Mogul's Board of Directors.

Federal-Mogul Powertrain designs and manufactures original equipment powertrain components and systems protection products for automotive, heavy-duty, industrial and transport applications.

Federal-Mogul Motorparts sells and distributes a broad portfolio of products through more than 20 of the world's most recognized brands in the global vehicle aftermarket, while also serving original equipment vehicle manufacturers with products including braking, wipers and a range of chassis components. The company's aftermarket brands include ANCO wipers; Beck/Arnley premium OE quality parts and fluids; BERU* ignition systems; Champion lighting, spark plugs, wipers and filters; Interfil filters; AE, Fel-Pro, FP Diesel, Goetze, Glyco, National, Nural, Payen, Sealed Power and Speed-Pro engine products; MOOG chassis components; and Abex, Ferodo, Jurid and Wagner brake products and lighting.

Federal-Mogul was founded in Detroit in 1899 and maintains its worldwide headquarters in Southfield, Michigan. The company employs nearly 55,000 in 24 countries. For more information, please visit www.federalmogul.com.

*BERU is a registered trademark of BorgWarner

About Dong Feng Parts and Components Group

Dong Feng Parts and Components Group is one of the largest auto parts suppliers in China, winning trust from international and Chinese customers with innovative auto parts and system solutions. Located in Shiyan, Hubei, the group has16,000 employees and 34 companies and branch companies, and is committed to be the most competitive auto parts supplier, providing value-added service.

CONTACT:

Jane Yuan

Federal-Mogul Powertrain

86 21 6182 7515

[email protected]

SOURCE Federal-Mogul Powertrain

Related Links

http://www.federalmogul.com

NADI, Fiji, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fiji Airways Group has announced its highest ever profit before tax of F$95.8 million for the fiscal year that ended December 31, 2017, a 13.4% increase over the previous financial year. The Group (legally known as Air Pacific Limited) comprises of Fiji Airways, Fiji's National Airline; its subsidiaries Fiji Link & Pacific Call Comm. Ltd; plus a 38.75% stake in the Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa on Denarau Island. The announcement was made at the airline's Head Office in Nadi by the Fijian Attorney General and Minister responsible for Civil Aviation, the Honourable Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

Results Highlights :

Group revenue was F$929 million compared to F$825.3 million for the previous year ended 31st December 2016 (up by 12.5%)

(up by 12.5%) Group profit before tax was F$95.8 million compared to F$84.5 million for the previous year ended 31st December 2016

The Group carried 1.6 million passengers compared to 1.4 million for the previous year ended 31st December 2016 (up by 14.3%)

(up by 14.3%) Profit-share for non-management staff and minimum bonus for management increased by 10% compared to the previous year.

Mr. Andre Viljoen, Fiji Airways Managing Director & CEO, said: "To achieve a fourth year of successive record profits is a massive achievement by the entire team of the Fiji Airways Group. I couldn't be more proud of the way the team surpassed all key metrics for revenue, passenger and network growth, efficiently navigating through a challenging operating period in which cost control was crucial. 2017 saw the achievement of numerous milestones for the Group. The team increased the size of the fleet, launched a new route, increased frequencies on key long-haul routes and opened a world class lounge at our home airport  Nadi."

About Fiji Airways: Founded in 1951, Fiji Airways Group comprises of Fiji Airways, Fiji's National Airline and its subsidiaries: Fiji Link, its domestic and regional carrier, Pacific Call Comm Ltd, and a 38.75% stake in the Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa on Denarau Island, Nadi. Fiji Airways has a fleet of brand new wide body A330s and refreshed B737 aircrafts. Fiji Link has a fleet of ATR72, ATR42 and DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft. From its hubs at both Nadi and Suva International Airports, Fiji Airways and Fiji Link serve 108 destinations in 17 countries (including code-share). Destinations include Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, the UK, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. The Fijian Government is the major shareholder (51%), followed by Qantas (46%). The rest of the shares are divided between Air New Zealand, and the Governments of Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati and Nauru. The Fiji Airways Group brings in 64 percent of all visitors who fly to Fiji, employs over 1300 people, earns revenues of over FJD$929 million per annum, and directly contributes a significant portion of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Fiji Airways rebranded from Air Pacific in June 2013.

CONTACT: Mandi Hefflinger, [email protected]

SOURCE Fiji Airways

Related Links

http://www.fijiairways.com

TORONTO, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - First Quantum Minerals Ltd. ("First Quantum" or the "Company", TSX Symbol "FM") today confirmed that, following the resolution of the industrial action at Cobre Panama, it is now conducting the necessary preparations to allow the return of workers to the affected areas of the site. The return to work process is expected to take place over the next two to three weeks.

Cobre Panama wishes to thank government officials for their efforts in achieving this successful resolution.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of First Quantum Minerals Ltd.

G. Clive Newall

President

For further information visit our website at www.first-quantum.com

SOURCE First Quantum Minerals Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.first-quantum.com

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- GP Catholic Services, a division of Graham-Pelton Consulting, announced today the appointment of Sharon Kucia as senior vice president. Kucia will provide senior-level leadership, developing relationships with clients as well as designing and leading fundraising campaigns for dioceses, parishes and other Catholic organizations.

"Sharon Kucia is a professional fundraising executive with a real passion for advancing our clients' missions. She cares deeply about the people we serve as stewards of the gift of philanthropy," said Dan Conway, senior vice president of GP Catholic Services.

Founding president of Charlotte Legatus Chapter, an organization for Catholic CEOs, Kucia has spent most of her distinguished career at the intersection of business and faith, using her development and management skills to help advance the mission of the Catholic Church. Prior to joining GP Catholic Services, Kucia served in an executive position at another consulting firm where she formed and led an outstanding leadership team responsible for delivering exceptional client service. Kucia recently worked with an archdiocese amid parish closures and mergers to successfully raise more than $120 million.

"Sharon is a consummate professional with a heart for the Church. She is well-versed in the full spectrum of Mission advancement, bringing a versatile, unique skill set," said Elizabeth Zeigler, president and CEO of GP Catholic Services.

GP Catholic Services is a leading, national fundraising consulting firm serving the Catholic Church. A division of Graham-Pelton Consulting, GP Catholic Services specializes in designing and managing fundraising campaigns for (arch)dioceses, schools, parishes, religious orders and congregations.

SOURCE GP Catholic ServicesDEARBORN, Mich., March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- GTB, an industry-leading advertising and communications company, is hosting a Returnship Symposium on April 10 to elevate women professionals who have paused their careers and are now ready to reconnect with the industry. The one-day event will feature GTB's own Global Chief Operating Officer Kim Brink and 3% Movement Partner and Chief Operating Officer Lisen Stromberg among other industry professionals.

"We recognize that those re-entering the workforce often face unique obstacles," said GTB's Kim Brink. "We want to help talented women overcome these challenges by giving them the confidence and tools they need for a successful return to a rewarding career."

GTB hosted its first symposium in 2016 with the launch of a 10-week paid returnship program. Since then, GTB has hosted 11 Returnship professionals, some of whom now work for the agency across different disciplines.

A symposium highlight will be author, journalist and diversity advocate Stromberg's keynote address on how trailblazing women are innovating for work/life integration.

The Symposium -- which will also include networking opportunities, a panel discussion with industry-leading women, break-out sessions and access to on-site interviews for the GTB Returnship program -- is free of charge and includes lunch.

The event is from 10 am to 4 pm at 550 Town Center Drive, Dearborn, Michigan. To register, click here or contact [email protected] for more information.

About GTB

Headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan and founded in 2007, GTB is an industry-leading advertising and communications agency. Formerly known as Team Detroit, Blue Hive, and Retail First, the agency unified under the single name GTB in May 2016 and acquired Zubi Advertising Services in January 2017. A WPP company, GTB has 52 global offices across six continents. Clients include Ford Motor Company, Johnson Controls, and Aptiv, among others. Visit http://www.gtb.com for more information.

SOURCE GTBCHICAGO, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A week-long summer program significantly improves students' medical knowledge and understanding of medical school, which researchers say could increase the likelihood that those students become physicians.

A study published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association evaluated the summer enrichment experience (SEE) at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine-Carolinas. Researchers say the program's ultimate goal is to address physician shortages by encouraging more future physiciansparticularly under-represented minoritiesto practice in underserved communities.

The program selects applicants from three counties around Spartanburg, South Carolina, where 40 percent of the population lives in medically underserved areas. SEE is open to all rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors with a minimum cumulative 3.0 grade point average.

"We have a problem finding doctors who will work in medically underserved areas," says Joel Atance, PhD, lead author of this study and director of the SEE program. "The best way to fix this is by recruiting doctors from those communities because we know they are most likely to return home when they're ready to practice."

Researchers quizzed and surveyed participating students at the beginning of the program to assess their biomedical knowledge and determine how much they knew about medical school and careers in medicine.

After taking the quiz and survey at the end of the week-long program, students showed significantly improved scores. On average, students scored 38 percent higher on the biomedical knowledge quiz. They also expressed markedly increased confidence in understanding the process to becoming a physician and what the job entails.

Survey questions Average end of week scores I know what steps I must take in order to get into medical school 34 percent increase I understand what students do day-to-day in medical school 89 percent increase I understand what faculty and staff do day-to-day in medical school 101 percent increase I understand what physicians do day-to-day in their job 41 percent increase

Students were also surveyed on their attitudes toward their current education and showed a notable increase in enthusiasm about a medical career.

Survey questions Average end of week scores I like anatomy and physiology 19 percent increase I am looking forward to school next fall 14 percent increase I am looking forward to my science classes next year 5 percent increase

A critical need for physicians of color

According to a study by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the number of black males in medical school in 2014 was 51527 fewer than in 1978, when the number of black male students enrolled in medical school peaked.

The SEE cohort comprised 45 high school students in grades 1012. Reflecting the racial demographics of the surrounding community, the group was split nearly even between white and black students, and included a few Hispanic participants. The gender split was 33 female to 12 male participants.

"Diversity is crucial to the medical workforce. It promotes cultural competency, which is essential to quality of care," says Atance. "It also creates representation of minorities as role models for future potential physicians, which is essential to perpetuating and increasing diversity. We hope our program can help kick start that virtuous cycle."

About The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association

The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association (JAOA) is the official scientific publication of the American Osteopathic Association. Edited by Robert Orenstein, DO, it is the premier scholarly peer-reviewed publication of the osteopathic medical profession. The JAOA's mission is to advance medicine through the publication of peer-reviewed osteopathic research.

SOURCE American Osteopathic AssociationAUSTIN, Minn., March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL), a multinational marketer of consumer-branded food and meat products, announced today that its quarterly dividend on the common stock, authorized by the Board of Directors at eighteen and three quarter cents (18.75) a share on March 26, 2018, will be paid May 15, 2018, to stockholders of record at the close of business on April 16, 2018.



The May 15 payment will be the 359th consecutive quarterly dividend paid by the company. Since becoming a public company in 1928, Hormel Foods Corporation has paid a regular quarterly dividend without interruption.

ABOUT HORMEL FOODS - Inspired People. Inspired Food. 

Hormel Foods Corporation, based in Austin, Minn., is a global branded food company with over $9 billion in annual revenues across more than 80 countries worldwide. Its brands include Skippy, SPAM, Hormel Natural Choice, Applegate, Justin's, Wholly Guacamole, Hormel Black Label and more than 30 other beloved brands. The company is a member of the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, was named one of "The 100 Best Corporate Citizens" by Corporate Responsibility Magazine for the ninth year in a row, and has received numerous other awards and accolades for its corporate responsibility and community service efforts. In 2016, the company celebrated its 125th anniversary and announced its new vision for the future - Inspired People. Inspired Food.  - focusing on its legacy of innovation. For more information, visit www.hormelfoods.com and http://csr.hormelfoods.com/.

SOURCE Hormel Foods Corporation

Related Links

http://www.hormel.com

TEL AVIV, Israel, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Hysolate has been named one of 10 finalists for the 2018 RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox Contest for its work to create a comprehensive endpoint solution for security and productivity. On Monday, April 16, Hysolate will present its information security technology to a panel of industry veteran judges and a live audience in a three-minute quick-pitch, competing for the coveted title of "Most Innovative Start Up" at RSA Conference 2018 in San Francisco.

RSAC Innovation Sandbox Contest is the leading platform for entrepreneurial cyber security companies to launch their ground-breaking research and innovation in front of venture capitalists, industry experts, senior-level business practitioners and thought leaders. The event gives startups the kind of visibility and validation that turns into rapid growth and increased funding.

"If you look at RSAC Innovation Sandbox contestants from the last five years alone, you'll see more than $1.38 billion in combined investments and 12 acquisitions, proving the businesses that take this stage gain exposure to the right people at the right time to launch them to success," said Sandra Toms, vice president and curator for RSA Conferences. "The submissions this year were noticeably competitive as we received exceptional entries from across the globe. I have no doubt this year's presentations will be a must-see at RSA Conference."

Hysolate has rebuilt the endpoint from the ground up, transforming it into the secure and productive environment it was meant to be. Hysolate introduces a new platform, layered below the OS, that delivers high-grade security to the enterprise and simultaneously facilitates increased productivity. Hysolate makes it easy for enterprises to instantly convert legacy endpoints of any hardware model into fully virtualized Software-Defined Endpoints (SDE). The architecture protects the organization from compromise by keeping attack vectors separated from valuable assets. Everything the user interacts with - including all applications and the operating systems - is virtualized, running in one of the virtual machines. These VMs are completely segregated and isolated from each other with Hysolate's virtual air-gap. The system reinforces productivity by eliminating the numerous policies restricting employee access to external resources.

"Many people don't realize that endpoints have essentially the same architecture they had 20 years ago; it's still a piece of hardware running a single bloated OS with a huge pile of software agents, legacy middleware and applications, making them vulnerable by definition," said Tal Zamir, co-founder and CEO, Hysolate. "That's why our approach is to create a fresh, secured revision of the endpoint. We are honored to have the opportunity to present our innovations to the judges."

Hysolate SDEs can be applied into the organization's existing IT environment. The structure of these endpoints can now be easily shaped and controlled through a central enterprise management console, including advanced security and IT controls that weren't possible before. With Hysolate, CISOs can be sure that whatever happens in the operating system is confined to its own virtual environment, making the organization's most sensitive assets completely isolated from other work environments.

"Software-Defined Data Centers have become a generally accepted principle," said Dan Dinnar, co-founder and COO of Hysolate. "It's simply the next logical step to transfer it to the endpoint, without having to wait for a revolution in endpoint hardware. Our customers are already seeing the potential impact of Hysolate's technology for both security and productivity."

Hysolate will be presenting its Software-Defined Endpoints technology at the Marriott Early Stage Expo #ESE - 17, site of the Sandbox. Please contact us at https://www.hysolate.com/contact/ to schedule an appointment.

The RSAC Innovation Sandbox Contest will begin at 1:30 p.m. PT on April 16 at the Marriott Marquis in the Yerba Buena Ballroom. Dr. Herbert (Hugh) Thompson returns to emcee the contest, and the panel of five judges includes Asheem Chandna, partner at Greylock Partners; Gerhard Eschelbeck, vice president of security and privacy engineering at Google; Niloofar Razi Howe, tech investor and entrepreneur; Patrick Heim, operating partner and chief information security officer at ClearSky; and Paul Kocher, entrepreneur, researcher and IT security expert. The winner will be announced in front of a live audience later that day at 4:30 p.m. PT.

More information regarding RSA Conference 2018, taking place at the Moscone Center and the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco from April 16-20, can be found at: http://www.rsaconference.com.

About Hysolate

Hysolate's mission is to create a future-ready endpoint platform that provides the highest levels of both security and productivity. The team includes cyber-security and IT experts with a founding team of veterans from VMware, CyberArk and Unit 8200 (Israel's NSA). Customers include leading financial and technology enterprises worldwide. Hysolate was launched by Team8, a cybersecurity company creation platform and is led by veterans of elite technology units in the Israeli Defense Forces and enterprise software experts. The company has offices in New York and Tel Aviv. http://www.hysolate.com

About RSA Conference

RSA Conference is the premier series of global events where the world talks security and leadership gathers, advances and emerges. Whether attending in the U.S., the EMEA region, or the Asia-Pacific region, RSA Conference events are where the security industry converges to discuss current and future concerns and get access to the people, content and ideas that help enable individuals and companies to win, grow and do their best. It is the ultimate marketplace for the latest technologies and hands-on educational opportunities that help industry professionals discover how to make their companies more secure while showcasing the most enterprising, influential and thought-provoking thinkers and leaders in security today. For information on events, online programming and the most up-to-date news pertaining to the information security industry visit http://www.rsaconference.com.

AVAILABLE LOGOS

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Media contacts:

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SOURCE HysolateNEW YORK, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of an effort to raise awareness of wealth management firms that go above and beyond to create workplaces where advisers and support staff feel valued, InvestmentNews and the Best Companies Group have unveiled the first-ever industry listing of the best places to work for financial advisers.

For InvestmentNews' exclusive coverage on this ranking, please visit: http://www.investmentnews.com/BestPlacestoWork.

"Financial advisers and wealth managers work really hard to do a great job for their clients, regardless of what business model they operate under," explained Suzanne Siracuse, Vice President/Publisher, InvestmentNews. "Either as entrepreneurs or enterprises, these firms have built supportive cultures where advisers can thrive while helping clients plan for the future. By shining a spotlight on those firms, we seek to help boost the morale, engagement, and retention of employees across the industry, as well as attract next-gen advisers and career-changers."

To help bring about this much-needed recognition of the financial advice and wealth management industry firms with the best practices and internal cultures, InvestmentNews partnered with Best Companies Group (BCG), an independent research firm specializing in identifying great places to work, to compile the inaugural survey and recognition program. BCG has a 14-year track record of compiling lists of firms with the best human resource practices in a wide range of industries throughout the US, Canada and UK.

"Making this list is no accident. Creating environments where employees love to come to work is the direct result of a very deliberate and intentional strategy to prioritize employee engagement," said Peter Burke, President, Best Companies Group. "The winners have just strengthened their employer brand and will enjoy the benefits of lower turnover, higher-quality job applicants, and a huge boost to employee morale."

The inaugural list of top firms in the financial advisory industry spans the nation and includes 33 Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), four independent broker-dealer advisory firms, and 12 hybrids. The 50 firms excelled most in employee engagement by staff communication and transparency. They also beat the competition by providing outstanding benefit packages.

To participate in the program, firms needed to be an RIA or affiliated with an independent broker-dealer (IBD), in business for a minimum of one year, and have at least 15 full-time employees.

BCG uses a two-part process to gather detailed data about each participating company, and share this independent data with InvestmentNews to report the ranking. The first part is an Employer Questionnaire filled out by each firm detailing company policies, practices, benefits and demographics. The other component is an employee engagement and satisfaction survey with an in-depth set of 78 statements requiring employees to respond on a one- to five-point Likert scale of agreement, as well as two open-ended questions and seven demographic questions.

On May 15, 2018, InvestmentNews will host an awards luncheon to announce the numerical rankings and top firms in each size category. The honorees are listed in alphabetical order below. For more information about the awards luncheon, please visit http://www.investmentnews.com/BPTWevent.

2018 Best Places to Work for Financial Advisers

(Listed Alphabetically)

Accredited Investors Wealth Management, Edina, MN

Adviser Investments LLC, Newton, MA

AEPGS Wealth Strategies, Warren, NJ

Armstrong, Fleming & Moore, Inc., Washington, DC

Axial Financial Group, Burlington, MA

Balasa Dinverno Foltz LLC, Itasca, IL

Bartholomew & Company, Inc., Worcester, MA

Berman McAleer LLC, Timonium, MD

Bronfman Rothschild, Rockville, MD

BSW Wealth Partners, Boulder, CO

Carson Wealth Management Group, Omaha, NE

Cassaday & Company, Inc., McLean, VA

Cedar Brook Group, Cleveland, OH

Center for Financial Planning, Southfield, MI

CIC Wealth, Rockville, MD

CJM Wealth Advisers, Ltd., Fairfax, VA

Covington Capital Management, Los Angeles, CA

Exemplar Financial Network, Crystal Lake, IL

Fragasso Financial Advisors, Pittsburgh, PA

Greenspring Wealth Management, Towson, MD

Gurtin Municipal Bond Management, Solana Beach, CA

Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors, LLC, Long Beach, CA

JMG Financial Group, Downers Grove, IL

Lassus Wherley, New Providence, NJ

Legacy Wealth Management, Inc., Memphis, TN

Merit Financial Advisors, Alpharetta, GA

Miracle Mile Advisors, Los Angeles, CA

Modera Wealth Management, LLC, Westwood, NJ

Moneta Group, Clayton, MS

MRA Associates, Phoenix, AZ

NCA Financial Partners, Cleveland, OH

Pell Wealth Partners, Rye Brook, NY

Pensionmark Financial Group, Santa Barbara, CA

Per Stirling Capital Management, LLC, West Lake Hills, TX

Petersen Hastings Investment Management, Kennewick, WA

Private Ocean LLC, San Rafael, CA

Private Vista, LLC, Chicago, IL

Provise Management Group, LLC, Clearwater, FL

RegentAtlantic, Morristown, NJ

Richard P. Slaughter Associates, Inc., Austin, TX

Savant Capital Management, Rockford, IL

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors, Los Angeles, CA

Signature Family Wealth Advisors, Norfolk, VA

SignatureFD, LLC, Atlanta, GA

SYM Financial Advisors, Winona Lake, IN

The Colony Group, Boston, MA

Tolleson Wealth Management, Dallas TX

True North Advisors, Dallas TX

West Financial Services, McLean, VA

About InvestmentNews

InvestmentNews is the leading source for news, analysis and information essential to the financial advisory community. Since 1998, our standard of editorial excellence and deep industry knowledge has allowed us to educate, inform and engage the most influential financial advisers. Through our weekly newspaper, website, newsletters, research, events, videos and webcasts, InvestmentNews provides exclusive and up-to-the-minute news, as well as actionable intelligence, that empowers financial advisers to serve their clients and run their businesses more effectively whenever, however and wherever they need it.

The InvestmentNews headquarters are located in New York, with offices in Chicago and Washington D.C. InvestmentNews is part of Crain Communications, Inc.

For more information, please visit www.investmentnews.com.

About Best Companies Group

Best Companies Group (BCG) is dedicated to establishing "Best Places to Work," "Best Companies" and "Best Employers" programs in an effort to distinguish companies who demonstrate and are superior in workplace excellence. The very mission of Best Companies Group is to "identify and recognize" places of employment that are leading the way in defining the employee experience of the 21st century.

BCG is a division of BridgeTower Media, a multi-title publishing and events company located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. BridgeTower Media publishes the Central Penn Business Journal, Central Penn Parent, Lehigh Valley Business, NJBIZ, Next Magazine, and a host of other well-respected publications.

For more information, please visit www.bestcompaniesgroup.com.

Media Contact: Dana Taormina

JConnelly

973-850-7305

[email protected]

SOURCE InvestmentNews

Related Links

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WASHINGTON, March 25, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Col. Turki Al Maliki, the Spokesperson for the Coalition Forces to Support the Legitimate Government in Yemen, stated that, according to the Coalition Air Defense Forces, seven ballistic missiles were shot towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from within the Yemen this evening.

Colonel al-Maliki, further iterated the 7 missile's target directions: three were centrally poised in the direction of Riyadh, one towards the Southwest in Khamis Mushait, one along the Southern border targeting Najran, two aiming for the southern city of Jizan, and one was randomly launched with the intent of hitting a densely populated civilian area. With credit to the Saudi Royal Air Defense Forces, all seven ballistic missiles were intercepted and destroyed. According to preliminary information, the interception resulted in fragments raining on a few residential neighborhoods and, at the issuance of this statement, the loss of life of an Egyptian resident, in addition to material damage to civilian objects-the details of which will shortly be announced by the relevant authorities.

Col. Al Maliki iterated that this hostile action by the Houthi militia, which indiscriminately targets the Kingdom's civilian areas, proves the continued involvement of the Iranian's regime that supports and increases the military, quality capabilities of the Houthis.

These aggressive actions are in blatant violation to the UN Security Resolution 2216 and 2231. These hostile acts continue to pose a direct threat to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and threaten regional, as well as, international security. The firing of ballistic missiles towards populated cities and villages is also in direct violation of International Humanitarian Law. These actions by the Houthi Militia highlights the increased capacity of terrorist organizations and those who stand behind them, as state sponsors of terrorism like the Iranian Regime.

Video Footage of the Interceptions:

https://youtu.be/gb6YaLm9K5I

https://youtu.be/uBk6obiuf6o

https://youtu.be/2IsMSRZNgF0

https://youtu.be/nRPOO_N0ZhU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2aEd2nDa9o&feature=youtu.be

https://youtu.be/-RPU1DDLpGA

On Monday, 1PM EST and 7PM Riyadh time, the Coalition Spokesperson will be conducting a press conference to provide more details on these aggressive acts.

SOURCE Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Information OfficeMENLO PARK, Calif., March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the operator partners leading the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) announced a new strategic plan for the ONF to help the industry move open source, next-generation SDN solutions into production in their networks. The ONF operators, AT&T, China Unicom, Comcast, Google, Deutsche Telekom, NTT Group, Telefonica, and Turk Telekom jointly developed and unanimously approved this plan.

The ONF's work is having a significant impact across the networking landscape. The open source projects ONOS, Trellis and CORD have gained significant traction with operators. Eighteen tier-1 operators are actively testing and trialling, and at least two tier-1 operators are moving into production with projects in 2018.

At the same time, operators have recognized a lack of clarity on common platforms. Unnecessary customization drives variants and unique requirements into the ecosystem, which in turn drives complexity and cost. There is a need to help identify common platforms that will be deployed across multiple operators and to help the industry rally and benefit from shared investment.

"The ONF is pleased to share our new 2018 strategic plan for market transformation," said Andre Fuetsch, President and Chair of the ONF Board, and Chief Technology Officer and President, AT&T Labs. "This plan will position ONF as a premier, operator-driven community and will better align and accelerate open systems solutions to the marketplace. The plan is highlighted by two major components: 1) operators and ONF will work together to create common modular reference designs using components such as white boxes and open source platforms, and 2) operators and ONF will work on driving the components of the reference designs to be production-ready, and in selected areas will create integrated implementations of the designs."

Reference Designs

Operators are organizing to address the need for common platforms by working together inside the ONF to create Reference Designs (RDs) to serve as "gold standards" for combining component projects into common platforms upon which operators will build solutions. Each RD will be championed by a select group of operators, and will be designed with participation by invited supply chain partners sharing the vision and demonstrating active investment in building open source solutions.

RDs will describe how a collection of projects can be assembled to address specific needs as a deployable platform. The components can come from across the industry and are not limited to ONF projects. Each reference design is to serve as a blueprint for the industry, backed by specific operator interest. More mature RDs will also be backed by operator plans to move an implementation of the RD towards production. Operators are currently considering a few areas of focus, including: fixed and mobile broadband access, leaf-spine data center fabrics, multi-access edge, 5G solutions at the edge and a continued push with SDN so our industry can realize the full potential of software-defined.

By investing in reference designs, operators intend to make clear to the industry what solutions they plan to procure and deploy. Additionally, by providing opportunities for like-minded suppliers to participate in reference design creation and in building of the open source platforms, forward looking companies will be positioned to serve the emerging market for solutions based on open source platforms.

"Operators' commitment to take open source solutions into production represents the next big step in realizing the full potential of software-defined, disaggregation and open source. It is also heartening to see operators' determination to enable a new supply-chain that is well aligned with their goals. Clearly this is a landmark moment and it will set our industry on a new course for years to come. I am delighted that operators consider the ONF their partner in pursuit of this important agenda," said Guru Parulkar, Executive Director for the ONF.

"The ONF has come a long way since its founding in 2011. Like all the best disruptions, SDN changed who is in control, putting network owners and operators firmly in charge of their networks for the first time," said Nick McKeown, Professor, Stanford University and ONF Board Member. "Today, we take it for granted that if you own a network you can write, edit, commission or simply download the software that controls your network. One of the ONF's lasting contributions has been to drive an open-source software ecosystem for networking  including ONOS, Trellis and CORD  and rallying those who own and operate big and small networks alike. While transformation takes time, the keys are steadily being handed over, allowing a Cambrian explosion of new ideas to take root, and breaking the stranglehold of the old ways."

Component Projects

Reference designs outline how various component projects can be combined in a modular way to craft platforms. ONF community will continue to advance projects such as ONOS, Stratum, Trellis and VOLTHA as these are viewed as important components to be used when building Exemplar Platforms.

Exemplar Platforms

The ONF's work on platforms like CORD will be enhanced to reinforce RDs. The ONF community, with operator support, will expand in size and scope as necessary to build exemplar platforms for more mature RDs in order to flush out the platform using a 'software before standards' mindset that has proven so successful with CORD. Each platform will create an instantiation of an RD that can easily be trialed and then customized by operators as they build solutions to suit their particular needs. Platforms may be focused on a range of outcomes, from proof-of-concept for more exploratory work to field-trial-ready where operators and the community pool resources to invest in a platform with significant shared traction.

Open Source Supply Chain

The ONF operator leadership is invested in the emergence of a new open source supply chain, backed by companies prepared to cooperatively deliver production-ready solutions based on open source and white boxes.

The operators envision a new ecosystem emerging that embraces these new approaches to building and deploying solutions. The operators leading the ONF are committed to showing a path forward and a road to revenue for companies that step up to play an active role in this new open source era.

Reference designs will clearly indicate to the market what operators are planning to deploy. With specific operators backing specific RDs, there should be no doubt about what platforms are gaining traction in the industry. In turn, exemplar platforms will provide a starting point for building solutions aligned with any particular RD. This will provide a proof-of-concept, thus speeding time to market while reducing the R&D expense of building a solution. In this way, working through the ONF, the operators will be giving the industry clear direction and the tools to rapidly innovate and deliver solutions.

New ONF Governance

The ONF is also announcing an updated governance structure to enable execution of the strategic plan. A new Technical Leadership Team (TLT), Reference Design Teams (RDTs) and a Supplier Advisory Team (SAT) now augment the existing Project Technical Steering Teams and Use Case Steering Team.

The TLT works globally across the ONF setting the technical direction, identifying specific Reference Designs to be pursued, and bringing resources to bare for across the ecosystem from operators, the ONF, and supply-chain companies.

RDTs each focus on a particular usage scenario, identifying both open source and closed source options for the various components of the RD. Each RD is to serve as a blueprint for the industry outlining how a selection of components can be assembled into platforms to address specific operator needs.

Additionally, a new Supplier Advisory Team is to be recruited from ONF Partner suppliers to help inform and drive the activities being pursued under this new strategic plan.

Further details on the new governance can be found in the New ONF Strategic Plan.

Operator Commentary

"To support broad adoption of SDN, Google is contributing seed source code to jumpstart Stratum, and we are looking forward to using Stratum in our production network. The Stratum project, with its next gen SDN interfaces P4, P4Runtime, OpenConfig/gNMI and gNOI, will help the industry realize the full potential of SDN."- Amin Vahdat, Engineering Fellow, VP and Technical Lead for Networking at Google

"Turk Telekom has embraced open source and specifically CORD and ONOS as critical building blocks for our journey to network transformation. Our association with ONF precedes our joining as a partner last year. Turk Telekom subsidiary, Argela/Netsia has been an active collaborator with ONF/ON.Lab for the past three years in developing public safety and Secure WAN solution based on the ONOS. These applications are now deployed in live field trials across Turkey. Our teams have also realized and jointly demonstrated RAN and Core slicing with M-CORD. With support from Turkey's Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications, we have initiated planning for Mobile CORD based deployments. Lastly, we are excited to commit resources to the Stratum project to enable a truly programmable network with P4. Turk Telekom is committed to ONF's new strategic direction and will do its best to make its mission successful, which is in full alignment with our interests."  Dr. Paul Doany, CEO of Turk Telekom

"At Telefonica, we have been deploying CORD concept as part of our OnLife residential field trials, and are continuously developing our design as we move towards a vendor selection process. In UNICA, our leading core virtualization project, and with OSM (Open Source Mano) we have seen the positive industry impact of RFPs mandating vendors' adoption of open platforms. We are supporting the ONF's strategy of building reference designs to guide RFPs targeting the operator edge cloud. This will give vendors clear direction and the ability to leverage their investment in open source platforms across a multitude of opportunities."  Patrick Lopez, VP Networks Innovation, Telefonica

"NTT Communications is committing to ONF's strategic plan and direction. In addition, NTT Group, that comprises of multiple operators in Japan, is actively contributing to ONF's activities. NTT Communications is championing the ONOS based reference design and implementation for Open and Disaggregated Transport Network (ODTN) within ONF with the support of several other operators. We are motivated to build and nurture an ecosystem that allows us to deploy and operate ODTN-based production networks. Similarly, NTT-East is driving some trials for evaluating R-CORD as a Network Edge Platform. Finally, NTT Labs is a founding member of ONF's recently announced Stratum project."  Dai Kashiwa, Director of NTT Communications, and ONF board member representative of the NTT Group

"China Unicom, as one of the leading service providers of China, has to constantly upgrade its infrastructure for scale as well as to achieve Capex and Opex efficiencies. ONF open source platforms leveraging white boxes and cloud technology will provide a very good solution to help China Unicom to transform its infrastructure and China Unicom is looking for the supply-chain to step up and deliver open source solutions that we can use. We plan to jointly work on Reference Designs with our peers at the ONF. Our teams have already conducted the field trial of virtual RAN (vRAN) and Service Orchestration with M-CORD. We also plan to jointly work with ONF and the related partners for initial M-CORD based deployments to meet industrial IoT requirements. We believe this will create the critical mass needed to get the supply chain to start building solutions based on an open platform that we need."  Dr. Xiongyan Tang, Chief Scientist, Network Technology Research, China Unicom

About the Open Networking Foundation:

The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) is an operator led consortium spearheading disruptive network transformation. Now the recognized leader for open source solutions for operators, the ONF first launched in 2011 as the standard bearer for Software Defined Networking (SDN). Led by its operator partners AT&T, China Unicom, Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, Google, NTT Group and Turk Telekom, the ONF is driving vast transformation across the operator space. For further information visit http://www.opennetworking.org

SOURCE Open Networking Foundation

Related Links

http://www.opennetworking.org

WASHINGTON and ATLANTA, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Evolving threats of terrorism, drug abuse and human trafficking will be the top three challenges impacting U.S. law enforcement in 2018, according to recent predictions by LexisNexis Risk Solutions. While these problems are familiar, new techniques and technologies used by perpetrators will require agencies to share data, employ new intelligence technologies and work together more closely to combat the threats effectively, the company said.

Prediction 1: Terrorism will move into local communities

Local communities are becoming the new battleground for both domestic and foreign-led terrorists, according to the latest data trends from the U.S. Extremist Crime Database1&[2]. Not counting last year's high-profile attacks, there have been 85 deadly attacks by violent extremists in the U.S. since 9/11 linked to both radical Islamist and far right ideologies, killing 225 citizens.

From Sayfulo Saipov who used a truck to run down people along a Manhattan bike path to the Orlando nightclub shooting to the Las Vegas massacre, terrorists are increasingly targeting soft civilian venues within local communities to strike fear into the population. Some are lone wolf attacks; others orchestrated by foreign-based extremist groups bent on carrying out attacks in the west. Local communities will also continue to grow as breeding grounds for radicalizing future terrorists, fueled by local extremist groups operating under the radar as well as the use of the Internet and social media to recruit and train individuals.

"Local communities will increasingly become a first line of defense against violent extremism in 2018," said Tom Sizer, Senior Director, Law Enforcement Solutions, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. "Local, state and federal law enforcement will need to quickly adapt to the changing landscape of terrorism and partner more closely in sharing and analyzing intelligence to combat the threats. For example, there is great promise in Records Management System data to identify ties between suspects and known extremist networks."

Prediction 2: Millennial mortality rates continue to rise due to drug addiction

Despite intensive efforts by local, state and federal organizations, the opioid crisis will continue to worsen in 2018 before we see reversing trends. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)3&4 indicate that the opioid epidemic is the deadliest overdose crisis in U.S. history, killing an average of 115 per people day.

A key cause is the increasing heroin and fentanyl addiction among millennials, who have become the first generation since Vietnam to face higher mortality rates in young adulthood than the generation that preceded it5. Recent research6 suggests that better access to healthcare among millennials has had an unfortunate side effect of increased use of prescription painkillers to treat injuries, which then develops into over-prescribing and ultimately addiction to narcotics.

Combining multiple data sources and being able to gain insights from connections and intersections is becoming an increasingly important tool that law enforcement, health and human services and other organizations can use to understand where drug abuse and drug crimes are occurring in the community so they can develop more effective strategies to contain it.

Prediction 3: Human trafficking will continue to grow

Human trafficking is one of the world's fastest growing crimes according to data from the advocacy group Polaris Project7, with more than 20 million victims trapped into forced labor and forced sex crimes. That global trend will continue to impact local U.S. communities in 2018 as criminal organizations and gangs expand their enterprises beyond drug and firearm trafficking to profit from the sales of human beings, often young children.

Because of the frequent movement of criminals and their victims from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, law enforcement data sharing and analytics platforms are proving to be effective weapons to counter the trend. For example, the Accurint Virtual Crime Center from LexisNexis Risk Solutions enables multiple law enforcement agencies across jurisdictional lines to share law enforcement data and link it with public records to discover criminal patterns that human traffickers follow.

Leading IT market research and advisory firm IDC8 recently included the Accurint Virtual Crime Center in its IDC PlanScape: Real-Time Intelligence Centers report, citing its value as a virtualized intelligence center that enables law enforcement agencies to amalgamate, analyze and share data and insights across agencies and jurisdictions in a single platform. "LexisNexis' Accurint Virtual Crime Center is an example of this type of offering that links available data sources in context. LexisNexis has a virtualized offering for data collection, ingestion, discovery and cleansing, integration, analysis, delivery, and sharing," the report said.

"Our top three predictions indicate local communities are increasingly becoming home to new kinds of terrorist threats, drug crimes and human trafficking enterprises," said Sizer. "It's urgent that we give law enforcement agencies greater visibility into crime within their communities as well as state- and nation-wide so they can better target investigations, identify patterns, predict upcoming events and deploy resources more efficiently."

Editor's Note : LexisNexis Risk Solutions for Government. By linking our public records and unique data sets with customer data and displaying it visually, we help customers see non-obvious relationships between people, businesses and assets. We help law enforcement connect with other agencies for crime solving through Accurint Virtual Crime Center; we support health and human services agencies in helping benefits go to those who need them, as well as helping ensure provider and patient data validation; and we help tax and regulatory agencies connect people, businesses and assets for tax revenue management. Every day, we help customers meet their agency missions to find missing children, prevent fraud in government programs, recapture lost revenue, keep communities safe and to further national security initiatives.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions

At LexisNexis Risk Solutions, we believe in the power of data and advanced analytics for better risk management. With over 40 years of expertise, we are the trusted data analytics provider for organizations seeking actionable insights to manage risks and improve results while upholding the highest standards for security and privacy. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, LexisNexis Risk Solutions serves customers in more than 100 countries and is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. For more information, please visit http://www.risk.lexisnexis.com/.

Media Contacts

Mary Alice Johnson

LexisNexis Risk Solutions

Phone: (202) 394-7325

[email protected]

Neema Hakim

Brodeur Partners for LexisNexis Risk Solutions

Phone: (617) 587-2851

[email protected]

1 The Terrorism and Extremist Violence in the United States (TEVUS) Database, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START)

2 Numbers from 2015 through 2016 are still being verified by the ECDB

3 Increases in Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths  United States, 20102015, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dec, 16, 2016.

4 Drug Overdose Death Data, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

5 The Unseen U.S. Heroin Epidemic with Millennials, Press Web Media Digs Deeper to Determine the Root Cause, PressWeb Media and CoupleRehab.org, Aug 31,2017

6 The Unseen U.S. Heroin Epidemic with Millennials, Press Web Media Digs Deeper to Determine the Root Cause, CouplesRehab.org., Aug 31, 2017

7 Human Trafficking, Polaris

8 IDC, IDC PlanScape: Real-Time Intelligence Centers, IDC #US41441717, August 2017

SOURCE LexisNexis Risk SolutionsSAN ANTONIO, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lilis Energy, Inc. (NYSE American: LLEX), an exploration and development company operating in the Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico, announced today its third party operated midstream system has commenced operations. In addition, the Company announced that its current production is in excess of 5,000 Boepd (75% liquids) and growing as the midstream system reaches maximum efficiency and additional wells currently in flowback and completion stage achieve peak production.

"Completing the implementation of our new midstream system operations and reaching our 5,000 net Boepd target are key milestones for the Company. These achievements exemplify the quality and dedication of our team. The implementation of our new midstream solution provides full take away capabilities to meet our current and future natural gas transportation needs across our properties while eliminating recent production curtailment constraints. In addition, we expect production to continue increasing in the near term once our midstream system reaches full operational efficiency and with the addition of new production from wells currently flowing back and undergoing completions," said Ron Ormand, Lilis' Executive Chairman.

"The Company remains focused in 2018 on delineation and de-risking of our acreage both geologically and geographically. We are currently in the process of flowing back and completing seven wells, including two Wolfcamp B wells in the eastern portion of our acreage, one Wolfcamp A and one Wolfcamp XY in our New Mexico acreage, a Wolfcamp XY well in Texas and two Wolfcamp B wells in the western portion of our Texas acreage. We expect to begin completing a well in the Bone Springs and an additional Wolfcamp B well in the western portion of Texas acreage by the end of the month. These wells will add to our production volumes and cash flow as well as provide important delineation benchmarks for the Company. Based on our operational capabilities, increasing production, and backlog of drilling and completion activities, we are very confident in our ability to reach our targeted 7,500 net Boepd exit rate for 2018," Mr. Ormand concluded.

Note: Production exceeded 5,000 boepd on March 24, 2018

About Lilis Energy, Inc.

Lilis Energy, Inc. is a San Antonio-based independent oil and gas exploration and production company that operates in the Permian's Delaware Basin, considered amongst the leading resource plays in North America. Lilis' current total net acreage in the Permian Basin is over 19,000 acres. Lilis Energy's near-term E&P focus is to grow current reserves and production and pursue strategic acquisitions in its core areas. For more information, please visit www.lilisenergy.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. These risks include, but are not limited to, risks related to the consummation of the Acquisition and the Company's ability to achieve the anticipated benefits of the Acquisition; the Company's ability to finance its continued exploration, drilling operations and working capital needs; the Company's anticipated future cash flows and ability to access other sources of liquidity; all the other uncertainties, costs and risks involved in exploration and development activities; and the other risks identified in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Readers are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date hereof, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update the forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Lilis Energy, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.lilisenergy.com

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/658842/LYNK_CO_02.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/658839/LYNK_CO_02_Launch.jpg )

In Amsterdam, the third model in Lynk & Co's stunning line-up of cars - 02 - was revealed at an urban adventures themed launch party in the Netherlands' capital.

In Ghent, European Lynk & Co production was confirmed from 2019 at the long-standing and award-winning Belgian manufacturing base for sister company, Volvo.

In Gothenburg, plans were revealed for Lynk & Co's European market roll-out along with the brand's innovative retail approach.

Lynk & Co Senior Vice President, Alain Visser, said:

"As a global brand with a strong European identity, these announcements in our home nations fill me with pride. From our headquarters in Sweden, we will roll-out sales with an initial focus on key European cities for our target audience of globally connected urbanites. We will manufacture in Europe, for Europe, focusing initially on hybrid-only electrified derivatives of our new range of cars - further expanded today with the youthful 02."

Lynk & Co Head of Design, Andreas Nilsson, said:

"Sporty, adventurous, dynamic, daring, confident and fun, the 02 sits at the absolute centre of our brand. A shorter wheelbase, lower ride height and centre of gravity - combined with two-tone colour-schemes and softer, voluptuous surfaces, muscular haunches and wheel-arches - give 02 a solid and confident stance while being agile and sporty in character."

Lynk & Co's first European store will open in Amsterdam, quickly followed by new locations in Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels and London as the first cities adopted by the brand. These 'Offline Stores' will be located in central fashion districts as easy-to-navigate, sociable and fun brand boutiques.

At the core of the Lynk & Co brand is connectivity. Customers will find a range of connected technologies on offer in the vehicles, from a sharing function with the world's first in-car share button to wireless charging and a dedicated Lynk & Co app store. Described as a 'smartphone on wheels', all models come with a large central touchscreen and advanced telematics systems - always connected to the internet and the car's own cloud.

Also confirmed was Lynk & Co's first design collaboration with Tictail. Entitled The City Dweller Series, this first fashion and homewear collection will be launched in the summer and will be available exclusively through global social shopping leader, Tictail.

Media contact details:

[email protected]

http://www.lynkco.com/press

M +44(0)7391-01-51-51

SOURCE LYNK & COLONDON, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Market Introduction



Mass notification systems is defined as a broadcast communications tool that helps in communicating with large number of people in less time. It is an integral component of an organization and is used in case of emergencies and routine communication. Thus, these systems deliver time sensitive information in an emergency situation.







Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5328092







Inconsistent policies on disclosure of threats across various organizations and growing industrialization across the globe are major factors driving growth of the global mass notification systems market. Rapid growth of various industries across the globe, especially developing countries such as India, and China, is expected to increase number of various manufacturing plants.



Several companies are focusing on deploying certain systems to protect employees and the general public from unanticipated disasters and also improve business processes. This in turn, is anticipated to drive demand for such systems across various industries.



Various industries such as retail, financial services, transportation, food, energy & utilities, manufacturing and healthcare are focusing on implementing risk and emergency management in order to ensure uninterrupted business process flow. In this regard, mass notification systems can offer various benefits in terms of productivity gain.



This in turn is expected to increase the adoption of mass notification systems across these industries. However security concerns and lack of standardization is restraining the market growth of Mass notification systems market.



According to the report mass notification systems market published by FMI, the revenue generated by global mass notification systems market was estimated to reach a valuation more than US$ 11 Bn Mn by 2027.



Global mass notification systems market is categorized on the basis of solution, application, verticals, product and region. On the basis of solution, the market is segmented as in-building solution, wide-area solution and distributed recipient solutions. The revenue contribution from the wide-area solution segment is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 11.6% during the forecast period.



The in-building segment is expected to reflect high market share in the global mass notification system market throughout the forecast period

On the basis of solution, the global market is segmented into in-building segment, wide area segment and distributed recipient segment. The in-building segment is anticipated to lead the global market from a high market share and value perspective. In 2017, this segment reflected a valuation of more than US$ 2 Bn and is likely to continue with this trend in the coming years, by the end of the year of assessment, the in-building segment is estimated to touch a value of around US$ 6300 Mn growing at a significant CAGR of 10.5% throughout the period of forecast (2017-2027).



Wide area segment to show high growth potential in the years to follow

The wide area segment in the solution category is anticipated to be the second largest segment. The wide area segment is valued at around US$ 1100 Mn in 2017 and is anticipated to reach a valuation higher than US$ 3300 Mn by the end of the assessment year. This segment also shows higher speed than the in-building segment and is projected to register a CAGR of 11.6% throughout the period of assessment. The wide area segment radiates high growth potential thus significantly contributing to the growth of the global market for mass notification systems.





Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5328092



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

http://www.reportbuyer.com

Mina stood out in a crowded field for her dedicated work with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) at Koinonia Homes. As a DSP, Mina serves clients with a variety of needs and takes an individual-focused approach with each person.

"At Koinonia Homes, we have no shortage of caring, dedicated DSPs. Mina leads the pack with her commitment to person-centered support. She encourages and enables clients to make their own choices and honors their preferences," said Diane Beastrom, President and CEO of Koinonia. "Her many success stories of clients achieving goals and cultivation of meaningful relationships is at the core of our mission."

Mina is part of an elite group, this year the Direct Support Professional Recognition Award will be presented to one national recipient  and one District of Columbia, two international, 47 State and 10 special category recipients who embody the ideal qualities of the DSP. The awards will be presented at ANCOR's 2018 Annual Conference in New Orleans.

"My clients are like my family. I'm lucky to be a part of their lives," said Mina of her role at Koinonia. "If my clients are happy, I am happy. That's most important to me."

"Reading about the work these exceptional DSPs as they support people with disabilities in living full lives is always inspiring," said Barbara Merrill, ANCOR CEO. "This year's recipients are truly exemplary examples of their profession, but we know that there are many like them across the country, oftentimes working quietly and without recognition, whose compassion and dedication to their hard work deserves gratitude and appreciation."

About Koinonia Homes

Koinonia (coin-o-NEE-yah) is a leading 501(c)(3) organization in Northeast Ohio that provides residential services, day programs and employment services to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Its service portfolio includes 21 licensed group homes and more than 50 supported living arrangements, transportation services and shared living options in safe and healthy settings. For more information, visit www.koinoniahomes.org.

Media Contact:

Jessica Studeny

216-409-9319

[email protected]

SOURCE Koinonia Homes

Related Links

http://www.koinoniahomes.org

On the heels of this impressive achievement, the company has also been attracting outstanding leadership talent to its core. Due to the company's accelerated growth initiatives, partnerships and acquisitions, Fleet Complete now boasts one of the most experienced leadership teams in the industry, welcoming Alex Armanious as the new Chief Operating Officer and Robyn Scott as Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Seasoned experts within the international telecom circles, Scott and Armanious  both hailing from Toronto  will help propel the company's success in its rapid business expansion and ensure long-term profitability.

As Fleet Complete's COO, Alex Armanious will drive the progressive evolution of global operations and services. He is set to ensure the harmonious alignment between the company's continuous international growth and tailored customer experience across all regions. Armanious was most recently Senior Vice President Product & Technology at Mosaic and Chief Information Officer at LafargeHolcim before that, driving new business process models and transforming operations that saw $300MM in cost reduction. Armanious will bring a combination of extensive IT experience, efficiency improvement and global go-to-market expertise to his work in ensuring Fleet Complete's customer success initiatives.

Robyn Scott, the new EVP General Counsel, joins Fleet Complete as a critical member of the executive team in meeting the company's strategic business goals for the future. With a diverse legal expertise in the technology and venture capital sectors, she oversees all legal and regulatory governance, steering Fleet Complete's international success in compliance with guidelines and protocols. Over the past 11 years, Scott has worked at established public companies, such as Rogers Communications, World Gaming, Moneris Solutions and Sigma Systems, where she most recently served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. She also consulted for companies in India, Brazil, China, Europe, and Hong Kong during her EMBA in Switzerland.

"We are thrilled to have Robyn and Alex join our executive ranks, and excited that such high caliber professionals chose Fleet Complete as their next step in career development," comments Larry Indovina, EVP Human Resources at Fleet Complete. "Toronto anchors the highest concentration of innovative and progressive employers that compete for top-rated talent, and the fact that we have been recognized yet again as one of the Greater Toronto's Top Employers means we are moving in the right direction."

About Mediacorp

Founded in 1992, Mediacorp Canada Inc. is the nation's largest publisher of employment periodicals. Since 1999, the Toronto-based publisher has managed the Canada's Top 100 Employers project, which includes 19 regional and special-interest editorial competitions that reach over 13 million Canadians annually through a variety of magazine and newspaper partners, including The Globe and Mail. Mediacorp also operates Eluta.ca, the largest Canadian job search engine, which includes editorial reviews from the Canada's Top 100 Employers project. Together with Willis Towers Watson, Mediacorp also hosts Canada's largest conference for senior-level HR professionals, the Top Employer Summit.

About Fleet Complete

Fleet Complete is a leading global IoT provider of mission-critical fleet, asset and mobile workforce management solutions. The company is servicing over 400,000 subscribers and over 30,000 businesses in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. It maintains key distribution partnerships with AT&T in the U.S., TELUS in Canada, Telstra in Australia, and Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) in multiple European countries. It remains one of the fastest-growing companies globally, having won numerous awards for innovation and growth. For more information, please visit fleetcomplete.com

SOURCE Fleet Complete

Related Links

www.fleetcomplete.com

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 11:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday, March 27, to provide an update on the agency's James Webb Space Telescope  what will be the world's premier infrared space observatory and the biggest astronomical science telescope ever built. Audio of the call will stream live on NASA's website.

The briefing participants are:

Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot

Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Thomas Zurbuchen

Deputy Associate Administrator of SMD Dennis Andrucyk

To participate in the call, media must send their name, affiliation and phone number to Felicia Chou at [email protected] no later than 11 a.m. March 27.

The most technically demanding and powerful space observatory ever developed, Webb will solve mysteries of our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb will complement the scientific discoveries of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and other science missions. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

For more information about NASA's Webb Telescope, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/webb

SOURCE NASA

Related Links

http://www.nasa.gov

"The alternative data space is extremely interesting and of growing importance to investment managers, and I am excited to join Neudata," said Mahony. "I have seen first-hand how new datasets and analytical tools are profoundly changing the world of investing and how Neudata is positioned to help asset managers to navigate these changes."

Mahony earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Oxford. He previously worked as a European equity research analyst at Fidelity International.

"Simon brings us a breadth and depth of analytic expertise as we continue to strengthen our research team," said Rado Lipus, Founder and CEO of Neudata. "His strong background working on the buy-side of the industry will help us expand our offering of use-case research, which we recently launched as part of our Neudata Scout intelligence platform. Our newly launched use-case content is expanded regularly with new alpha evidence and research sourced from academia, the sell-side and independent research firms."

About Neudata

Neudata, headquartered in London, with offices in New York City and Geneva, vets alternative data for investment managers. Neudata's expertise lies in scouting and evaluating alternative data and assisting investment managers in selecting relevant sources for backtests and research. Neudata is uniquely equipped to provide metadata and up-to-date objective research through its ever-expanding network of data vendor relationships.

Unlike data brokers, Neudata does not sell data. Instead, Neudata aligns interests with clients in finding sources that are the most promising for alpha generation. As such, Neudata's clients are often among the first in the industry to be made aware of new data launches and use-case examples. For more information, visit: http://www.neudata.co

You can also follow us on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/neudatalab

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/neudata

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC45eYGfZyKbThDUgWrBPeQ/featured

SOURCE NeudataDENVER, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Northstar Commercial Partners congratulated Colorado Springs' newest school, New Summit Charter Academy, on its approval by the local District 20 school board.

New Summit is set to open in August 2018 for the new school year, and its campus will be in Northstar's building at 7899 Lexington, in the heart of the Briargate neighborhood. The school signed a long-term lease with Northstar for the property, and will occupy approximately one-half of the 76,000 SF building in August 2018, with additional expansions yearly until they occupy the entire facility.

Northstar and its founder Brian Watson have been highly supportive and deeply involved in helping the school obtain official approval as a K-6 alternative, choice-based public education option for students and their parents. In fact, Northstar originally purchased the vacant building for another charter school that was not approved, and has been working since that time to find another tenant.

"We are all very eager to continue to come alongside New Summit to promote and advance quality educational options for local families as they seek out the best fit for their kid's needs," Brian Watson, Chairman and CEO of Northstar said.

"Northstar has always focused on converting vacant buildings into productive positive environments, whether for businesses, schools, business incubators, or philanthropic causes and we are thrilled to create such an environment at Lexington for all involved with New Summit."

New Summit Board Member Rick Van Wieren said, "As the first charter approved in Academy School District 20 in 20 years, New Summit is excited to have such an amazing facility made available to us -- This is an opportunity that hundreds of families have been waiting for."

This is not the first public charter school that Northstar has been involved with. The company has helped a variety of schools throughout the United States find the space they need to facilitate positive and healthy educational environments.

The Northstar team is now working hard to build out the space at Lexington for New Summit for the start of the 2018-2019 school year. The estimated date of completion is July 2018.

To learn more about Northstar, please visit www.northstarcp.com, and to see information about its founder and CEO Brian Watson and his philanthropic endeavors, please visit www.brianwatson.us.

Media contact: Kyle Forti - [email protected]

SOURCE Northstar Commercial Partners

Related Links

http://www.northstarcp.com

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The online tool that IPRO developed on behalf of the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) to help consumers learn which providers participate in which health plans has been greatly expandedit now includes information to assist more than 4.3 million individuals accessing physicians and hospital services across the state of New York.

Initially rolled out last summer to support individuals covered by NYSDOH's NY State of Health Marketplace (including Qualified Health Plans, the Essential Plan, Child Health Plus and Medicaid managed care), the look-up tool now includes information on more than 100 additional commercial insurance provider networks, and includes dental and vision provider information. The tool was developed by IPRO's Health Informatics Department.

"Rather than requiring consumers to rely on stacks of print directories that are quickly outdated, this online resource assures access to the accurate real-time information individuals need to make effective healthcare choices," says IPRO Chief Operating Officer Harry M. Feder. "We view this product as an industry prototype."

The New York State Provider & Health Plan Look-Up tool is now available in English and Spanish at http://pndslookup.health.ny.gov. A tutorial video is available at https://info.nystateofhealth.ny.gov/LookUpTutorial. The only networks not accessible via the tool are self-funded plans, which aren't regulated by New York State.

A nationally recognized nonprofit organization, IPRO works with government agencies, providers and consumers to implement innovative programs that bring policy ideas to life. For more than 30 years, IPRO has made creative use of clinical expertise, emerging technology and data solutions to make the healthcare system work better.

An ISO-certified organization, IPRO is headquartered in Lake Success, NY, with offices in Albany NY, as well as Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio and California.

For more information, please visit IPRO at ipro.org.

SOURCE IPRO

Related Links

http://www.ipro.org

iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- President Trump is expelling 60 Russian intelligence officers from the United States and ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, the White House announced Monday.



The expulsions are in response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury, U.K., earlier this month, and done in conjunction with up to 16 other Western countries, including Germany, Canada, France, and Ukraine -- the "largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever," according to British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.



Of the 60 Russians in the U.S., 12 are stationed at the Russian mission to the United Nations, where senior administration officials said they were operating under the guise of diplomacy but were deemed to be conducting covert activities. The other 48 are from the embassy in Washington and other Russian missions across the U.S.



"Todays actions make the United States safer by reducing Russias ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten Americas national security," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. "With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences. The United States stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian governments behavior."



A senior administration official said the expulsions will remove a "large number of the unacceptably numerous Russian intelligence officers who abide in the United States" but noted that more Russian intelligence operatives remain on U.S. soil. The officials didn't rule out future actions to address the remaining operatives.



The Russian government was notified of the expulsions, but the issue did not come up when Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone last week. Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia is analyzing the move, and will decide on retaliatory measures "guided by the principle of reciprocity."



The U.S. and other countries who took action today are "blindly following the principle of Euro-Atlantic unity at the cost of sanity and the norms of civilized international dialogue," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. "It goes without saying that this unfriendly step will not pass unmarked, and we will react to it."



The Russian operatives being expelled will be given seven days to leave the country, according to senior administration officials.



Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, were found slumped over, unconscious on a park bench in the southern English town of Salisbury. The U.K. has accused Russia of bearing responsibility for the March 4 attack, which British officials say involved a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed secretly by Russia -- an assessment shared by the U.S.



U.S. officials defended the administration's delay in announcing the move, saying that time was necessary to make sure the actions were taken properly and in coordination with other allies who are also announcing disciplinary responses to the Russian attack in the United Kingdom.



Canada, Ukraine, and 14 European Union countries each expelled at least one Russian diplomat from their country. Ukraine expelled 13 Russians, followed by seven from Canada. France, Germany and Poland each expelled four diplomats.



More expulsions could be coming from other EU countries, according to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, as well as other "measures."



"We do not act alone, we take these actions in concert with similar steps by our allies and partners around the world," said one U.S. official.



"It's been three weeks since the attack, and we're looking at this point at more than a dozen allies who are acting in coordination with us," the official noted. "That takes time and it needed to be done the right way, so I think the way that we've gone about it is the way it needed to be handled."



The expulsions are the second in less than two years. In December of 2016 President Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats and intelligence officials and shut down two diplomatic compounds in response to Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. Just eight months later, the Trump administration shut down two Russian facilities in New York and Washington as well as the Russian consulate in San Francisco after Russia expelled hundreds of American diplomats and capped American mission employees.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.WASHINGTON, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) will host a workshop in Glendale, Calif., at the Hilton Los Angeles North/Glendale, May 1-2, for directors, senior management team members, and other key executives of national community banks and federal savings associations supervised by the OCC.

The Building Blocks: Keys to Success for Directors and Senior Management workshop combines lectures, discussion, and exercises to provide practical information on the roles and responsibilities of board participation. Taught by seasoned OCC supervision staff, the workshop focuses on duties and core responsibilities of directors and management, discusses major laws and regulations, and increases familiarity with the examination process.

The workshop fee is $99. Participants receive course materials, assorted supervisory publications, and a Dictionary of Banking Terms. The workshop is limited to the first 35 registrants.

The workshops are two of the 25 offered nationwide to enhance and expand the skills of national community bank and federal savings association directors. To register for this workshop, visit www.occ.gov/occworkshops.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") charters and oversees a nationwide system of national banks and federal savings associations and assures that these banking institutions are safe and sound, competitive, and capable of serving the banking needs of their customers in the best possible manner. OCC press releases and other information are available at http://www.occ.gov. To receive OCC press releases and issuances by e-mail, subscribe at http://www.occ.gov/subscribe/occ-email-list-service.html.

SOURCE Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Related Links

http://www.occ.gov

Last year's Month of Giving initiative raised more than $5.5 million for local charities nationwide and the company hopes to raise even more this year. (See new commercial)

As part of the campaign, Jersey Mike's, known for its authentic fresh sliced/fresh grilled subs, has collected donations from customers all month.

"On March 28, Day of Giving, we give to give by donating 100 percent of sales to our more than 170 charity partners nationwide," said Peter Cancro, founder and CEO, Jersey Mike's. "The opportunities to give are all around us so please seek out your opportunity to give and make a difference in someone's life."

The more you order, the more Jersey Mike's gives. Proceeds from every single sale including subs, chips, drinks and catering orders go to the charities this Wednesday.

"Givingmaking a difference in someone's life" has been the mission of Jersey Mike's from the beginning. Since 2010, Jersey Mike's locations throughout the country have raised more than $28 million for worthy local charities and have distributed more than 2 million free sub sandwiches to help numerous causes.

For more information about Jersey Mike's Month of Giving, please visit: www.jerseymikes.com/mog

About Jersey Mike's

Jersey Mike's, a fast-casual sub sandwich franchise with more than 1,500 locations open and under development nationwide, believes that making a sub sandwich and making a difference can be one and the same. Jersey Mike's offers A Sub Above, serving authentic fresh sliced subs on freshly baked bread  the same recipe it started with in 1956  and is passionate about giving back to its local communities. For more information, please visit www.jerseymikes.com or follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/jerseymikes) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/jerseymikes).

Contact: Kyle Potvin, [email protected], 917-838-4500

SOURCE Jersey Mikes Subs

Related Links

http://www.jerseymikes.com

NEW DELHI, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Small and mid-sized companies are facing manpower issues worldwide. Optimal Group has started virtual employee services with the launch of http://www.optimalvirtualemployee.com to solve this issue. The company has been serving enterprises of all sizes based in Australia, New Zealand, and the US for the last decade.

"We have seen that many companies, specifically those in the information technology industry, are facing challenges in skilled manpower management. They are unable to hire the talent they are looking for at their local level and at an affordable cost. Keeping this in mind, Optimal Group has introduced this exciting new initiative. We offer world class software developers, app developers, web designers, data scientists and digital marketing experts in a cost effective manner. This will help companies facing IT manpower issues in the western world. It will also help workers in developing nations get jobs sitting in their own countries. The virtual staff will get international exposure while living in and working from their own countries," said Dharmesh Shah, Operations Director, Optimal Virtual Employee.

"Our cost effective solutions offer customized and flexible engagements. We provide services across multiple time zones without the issues of handling staff physically. We handle IT manpower management issues of companies while letting them focus on their core business. Our website http://www.optimalvirtualemployee.com provides details of our services. We follow monthly rolling contracts, which ensures that there is no additional burden on manpower outsourcing companies. We work as a bridge between the global talent pool and companies looking for talent," explained Shantanu Dublish, Marketing Director, Optimal Virtual Employee.

About Optimal Group

Optimal Group has been providing custom made solutions to clients, working with all major companies in the IT and financial sector in Australia, New Zealand and the US, for more than 10 years.

Contact Details:

KV Gautam

Mobile: +91-9811952340

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Optimal GroupLIVONIA, Mich., March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Contrasted against the shutdown of traditional retailers like Toys "R" Us, Pet Supplies Plus is celebrating the first weekend of April with five new store Grand Openings in four different states across the country.

Named one of the Fastest-Growing Franchises, Pet Supplies Plus opened 33 new franchise stores and 12 new corporate stores in 2017, exceeding 425 locations, including a presence in three new states. This year, the brand is on track to open 50 new stores. Grand Opening celebrations will be celebrated over the weekend of April 7-8 at new Pet Supplies Stores in the following markets:

Winter Park, Florida

Davenport, Iowa

Katy East , Texas

, Bailey Boswell , Texas

, Mount Vernon, Illinois

The 30-year-old pet product retailer remains a strong competitive player in the $69 billion pet industry by providing a wide selection of natural pet foods, goods and pet services at low prices, and by focusing on a unique, rich in-store experience for "neighbors" (the term Pet Supplies Plus uses for customer). Pet parents traditionally shop with their dogs at the store, where knowledgeable team members are on hand to answer questions, offer tips or just get on their hands and knees to play with the pets.

Entrenched in the community, Pet Supplies Plus franchisees partner with local animal shelters, non-profits and rescue organizations to host year-round adoption events, fundraisers and donate pet food and products. Stores also are known for fun, pet-bonding events designed to socially connect pet parents in the community. Other neighbor-centric features include self-pet wash stations, new pet parent education and carry-out service in which team members carry heavy items to neighbors' cars.

"Major retailers are closing because they haven't given consumers a compelling reason to come to their stores versus ordering online," said Pet Supplies Plus CEO Chris Rowland. "We have loyal, repeat business because our neighbors truly look forward to the experience we provide them when they walk through our doors. Pet parents shop with their pets not just because it's convenient, but because they want social interaction for them and their pets. You can't get that by shopping online."

To satisfy a need for socialization, the new Winter Park, Florida location will be among the first to roll out a community room, a meeting space where neighbors are encouraged to reserve free of charge to network with pet parents of similar breed dogs, host birthday parties, adoption events or community group meetings.

Pet Supplies Plus has figured out the ideal formula to blend the convenience of e-commerce into its experiential, personal-service store model with its You Click. We Fetch order online and in-store pickup program, currently being tested in multiple locations. Neighbors can order online, have items ready for easy pickup at the store and carried out to their car. Online shoppers will also receive special offers on products and services (grooming, pet washes) and invitations to local store events.

"Everything we do goes back to our passion for pets, celebrating the fun of pet ownership and connecting with like-minded people," Rowland added.

About Pet Supplies Plus

Pet Supplies Plus is focused on making it easier to get better products for your pet. With over 425 locations in 33 states, the stores have a streamlined design making it easy to navigate a wide assortment of natural foods, hard goods and pet services. Headquartered in Livonia, MI., Pet Supplies Plus is ranked #32 in Entrepreneur magazine's 35th Annual Franchise 500 list as the Top Full-Service Pet Supplies Franchise for its exceptional performance in areas including financial strength and stability, growth rate and system size. For more information about Pet Supplies Plus franchising opportunities, visit www.petsuppliesplus.com/franchise or contact Christine Schultz on (734) 793-6656 or [email protected]

Media Contact: Debra Vilchis, Fishman Public Relations, (847) 945-1300, ext. 227 or [email protected]

SOURCE Pet Supplies Plus

Related Links

https://www.petsuppliesplus.com

With this intuitive, easy-to-use integrated system, clinicians can begin their Reacts session with a face-to-face conversation on their Lumify ultrasound system. Users can switch to the front-facing camera on their smart device to show the position of the probe. They can then share the Lumify ultrasound stream, so both parties are simultaneously viewing the live ultrasound image and probe positioning, while discussing and interacting at the same time. In addition to clinicians seeking virtual guidance, Philips Lumify with Reacts is a valuable tool for teaching institutions, medical students and residents, emergency medical service providers, disaster relief providers and hospitals with satellite clinics.

"By combining exceptional mobility and reliability, Philips Lumify with Reacts will open up new doors for the way clinicians collaborate, educate and train," said Randy Hamlin, Point-of-Care Business Leader, Philips. "This all-in-one tele-ultrasound solution will enhance care delivery by bringing even more confidence to ultrasound clinicians and removing longstanding barriers in education, support and training."

Breaking down barriers in a wide range of care settings

Lumify with Reacts can help advance patient care by bringing experts into an ultrasound exam anywhere in the world:

A professor can go on virtual ultrasound rounds with students, helping them learn anatomy and probe positioning quickly and efficiently, unrestricted by location.

A doctor can consult a colleague and receive expertise and guidance using live streaming ultrasound.

A midwife in a remote location can call upon an obstetrician in a different location to receive perspective and guidance, discussing the ultrasound exam as if they were in the same room.

An emergency medical technician in an ambulance can stream the live ultrasound exam and discuss a patient's condition with an emergency department physician, expediting care delivery upon arrival.

"Philips was the ideal partner for this revolutionary collaboration. Reacts' secure, versatile and interactive collaboration platform deployed on technology solutions like Philips Lumify can change education and patient care models and enable a positive disruptive change to healthcare," said Yanick Beaulieu, MD, CEO and founder of IIT. "For years, clinicians in the field have been trying to piece together systems that offer real-time, interactive tele-ultrasound capabilities. Now it has truly arrived."

Philips is a leader in ultrasound solutions with a large global installed base and strong track record of industry-first innovations in areas such as 3D imaging of the heart, quantification tools driven by Anatomical Intelligence, and ultra-mobile, portable ultrasound solutions. Philips' ultrasound portfolio supports the effective and efficient delivery of care across a broad range of clinical specialties including radiology, cardiology, point-of-care and OB/GYN.

Experience Lumify with Reacts at AIUM 2018

Customers interested in learning more about Lumify with Reacts, which is available globally everywhere Lumify is sold, can visit: www.philips.com/lumifywithreacts. Stop by the Philips booth #1108 at the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) Annual Convention, in New York City, from March 24-28, to experience Lumify with Reacts and the latest innovations from Philips Ultrasound. Follow @PhilipsLiveFrom and @PhilipsLumify for updates throughout the conference.

For further information, please contact:

Mark Groves

Philips Group Press Office

Tel: +31 631 639 916

Email: [email protected]

Sarah Haeger

Philips Ultrasound

Tel: +1 206 920 8726

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @sarahhaeger

Pauline Ferrand

Prospek for Reacts

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +1 438 777 2642

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips' health technology portfolio generated 2017 sales of EUR 17.8 billion and employs approximately 74,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.

About Reacts

Reacts (Remote Education, Augmented Communication, Training and Supervision), is a secure, integrated, collaborative platform with unique and unparalleled interactive tools designed to suit the multiple collaborative needs of healthcare professionals and patients. It incorporates innovative tools, like augmented reality, for remote virtual guidance, supervision and training. It was created by Quebec-based Innovative Imaging Technologies Inc. (IIT). Its President, Dr. Yanick Beaulieu, leads a multi-disciplinary team specialized in multimedia and software development. Reacts is being used in 28 countries and has been deployed across various disciplines in both clinical and educational settings for uses going from secure messaging, remote wound care, tele-ultrasound, teleconsultations, to interactive tele-surgical assistance and remote procedural supervision. IIT is currently collaborating with several major hospitals in Quebec, Canada and abroad, as well as innovation and health care focused organizations like Joule, a Canadian Medical Association company. For more information, visit: www.reacts.com.

SOURCE Royal Philips

Related Links

http://www.philips.com

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) is beginning work on a contract to sustain and modernize missile defense and other strategic systems operated by the U.S. Army, combatant commands and other government agencies.

The $600-million, three-year contract was first announced last June and a protest was withdrawn in February. Within the next 30-60 days Raytheon will begin accepting directions from the Army to conduct software sustainment and system engineering services for critical systems including THAAD, AN/TPY-2 radars, the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System, the Sea-Based X-Band Radar and Upgraded Early Warning Radars.

Raytheon will use the company's expertise in commercial software practices to speed delivery of software upgrades across the supported systems to improve them without interrupting critical missions.

"We're bringing state-of-the-art, commercial software practices, such as DevOps and Agile, to make sure the systems the Army depends on stay ahead of evolving threats," said Todd Probert, vice president of Mission Support and Modernization at Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services.

Work will be conducted at the Systems Simulation, Software and Integration Directorate, U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center at Redstone Arsenal. The contract is expected to directly employ approximately 800 people in the Huntsville, Ala., area and Raytheon will begin transitioning and or hiring experienced software and hardware engineers, program managers, and other professional services experts in the coming months.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2017 sales of $25 billion and 64,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 96 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5I products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. Follow us on Twitter.

About AMRDEC

U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center provides increased responsiveness to the nation's Warfighters through aviation and missile capabilities and life cycle engineering solutions.

Media Contact

Raytheon

Chris Johnson

571-250-3418

[email protected]

SOURCE Raytheon Company

Related Links

http://www.raytheon.com

Full-time employees in the United States, with the exception of executives and upper management, will each receive a $1,000 bonus (USD), and full-time employees outside of the United States will receive an equivalent supplement. Part-time employees will also receive a bonus payment of $250 USD or an international equivalent. These investments will impact the majority of Southwire's nearly 7,500 employees.

"Building organizational capability is one of the key components of our company's strategy, and it is vital that we make the right decisions as we continually enhance Southwire's great culture," said Rich Stinson, Southwire's president and CEO. "We're off to a good start in 2018, and I am pleased to be able to share this benefit, both monetarily and through the extension of new and existing programs and partnerships, with the Southwire family."

In addition to the one-time bonuses, Southwire will expand its parental leave policy to assist eligible parents.

"At Southwire, our desire is for all employees to focus on "The Whole You," a concept which goes beyond standard benefits and provides access to resources that touch many aspects of an employee's life," said Kathleen Edge, EVP of Human Resources. "In doing so, we must offer programs and total rewards like these that reflect this commitment."

Southwire will also offer a bridge scholarship program for eligible hourly employees seeking to further their education through a two-year degree, four-year degree or technical certification. The company also announced that plans are in the works to make strong investments into new and existing industry partnerships. The purpose of these investments is to accelerate the attraction of diverse candidates into Southwire's manufacturing and STEM careers. More information on these new programs will be available soon.

"As we continue to grow, we're also looking at significant modernization and safety improvement efforts into our manufacturing and distribution facilities," said Stinson. "Our goal is to be a generationally sustainable business for the next century and beyond, and to get there, we must make considerations and investments like these. It is an exciting time to be part of Southwire!"

A leader in technology and innovation, Southwire Company, LLC is one of North America's largest wire and cable producers. Southwire and its subsidiaries manufacture building wire and cable, metal-clad cable, portable and electronic cord products, utility products, OEM wire products and engineered products. In addition, Southwire supplies assembled products, contractor equipment and hand tools. For more on Southwire's products, its community involvement and its vision of sustainability, visit www.southwire.com.

 2018 Southwire Company, LLC.

Contact: Ashley Bush

Director, Media and Community Relations

Phone: (770) 832-4577

[email protected]

SOURCE Southwire

Related Links

http://www.southwire.com

TEL AVIV, Israel, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SQream, developer of a GPU database that consistently provides fast access and analysis of extremely large and growing data stores at a fraction of the cost, today announced its first technological collaboration with X-IO Technologies, an innovation leader in enterprise data storage and advanced computing systems. The collaboration brings a complete GPU-based edge computing solution, with database and storage together in one converged appliance for extremely rapid data analytics of massive datasets.

SQream and XIO will host a special briefing entitled, "Benchmark review: Delivering the fastest data analytics available on massive data stores." The briefing will be held on the 10th of April, 2018 at 11am ET. Please register here.

To learn more about SQream and Axellio download the free solution brief here.

The dynamic combination of technologies gives businesses new access to insights from their data that are simply infeasible with current MPP and cloud computing approaches. Enterprises can use SQream DB with business intelligence tools like Tableau to make informed decisions about critical business aspects. Business users can ask more questions about more data, without limiting scope, cutting down, aggregating or forcing DBAs to remodel the database. This allows users to expand their query windows from weeks to years to find trends, query trillions of rows of data and get results faster.

SQream DB and the X-IO Axellio Edge Micro-Datacenter platform were integrated and benchmarks performed on hundreds of terabytes, resulting in very fast analysis and short query times. When testing with just a single node of the 2-node Axellio solution on NVIDIA Tesla GPUs, results included:

Significant resource savings in terms of hardware, man-hour costs, and data center space, usingthe converged solution.

SQream and Axellio SQL analytics benchmark reaching 11.5 TB per hour

Ingesting and analyzing up to 1PB, queries ran up to 2.5 times faster than other flash-based hardware solutions.

Data rates were consistent at 3.2GB/s per GPU, which is more than double the peak performance measured with other solutions.

"The combination of SQream DB and Axellio represents a leap forward in offering enterprises more resources to better and more quickly understand their business and give them an edge over the competition," said SQream CEO Ami Gal. "Together, organizations are able to analyze even larger data stores, gaining new insights faster, at much lower cost and in a green solution that requires less hardware and energy resources to maintain the systems."

"With its flexible PCIe/FabricXpress architecture, unequalled I/O capabilities, and NVIDIA GPU support, the Axellio Edge Micro-Datacenter platform provides the best, integrated compute and storage platform in a single 2U package," stated Bill Miller, X-IO Technologies CEO. "Axellio's affordability and simplicity bring new levels of performance to SQream solutions."

With a compact 2U form factor, the Axellio edge platform can be easily deployed and running in a fraction of the time and effort traditionally required while offering plenty of headroom to handle current quantities and grow with data needs. The platform is designed for extreme data processing requirements, where the speed of the answer is the key for generating value and insight. By introducing NVIDIA Tesla P100 GPUs, a single Axellio system processes data at teraflop speeds and gigabytes per second.

About SQream

SQream Technologies develops and markets SQream DB, a GPU database designed to enable unparalleled business intelligence from massive data stores. Global enterprises use SQream DB to analyze more data than ever before, while achieving improved performance, reduced footprint, significant cost savings and the ability to scale the amount of data they analyze to hundreds of terabytes and more. SQream DB is available both on premise and on the cloud. To learn more, visit sqream.com or follow us on twitter @sqreamtech.

About X-IO Technologies

X-IO Technologies develops and markets both Axellio Edge Computing Platforms and ISE  Intelligent Storage Elements. X-IO Technologies is an emerging leader in edge computing technologies for real-time analytics on high-volume and high-velocity data while simultaneously maintaining a 10-year pedigree of high reliability and performant data storage. X-IO's Axellio edge processing performance enables the leading application solution providers and OEMs in cybersecurity, financial markets, defense and intelligence, healthcare, telecom and industrial IoT, while its Intelligent Storage Element (ISE) storage platform offers the industry's highest levels of performance, ease of use, functionality and reliability, all at the lowest cost. To learn more, visit x-io.com, follow us on Twitter @xioedge and LinkedIn.



Media Contact:

Gina Shaffer

+1(707) 533-1504

+(972) 54-649-3485

[email protected]

David Leichner

+972-54-779-9888

[email protected]

SOURCE SQream Technologies

Related Links

http://sqream.com

MALVERN, Pa., March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TELA Bio, Inc., a surgical reconstruction company leading the development and commercialization of OviTex Reinforced BioScaffolds (RBSs) for soft tissue repair, today announced that ProMedica, a mission-based, not-for-profit healthcare organization serving northwest Ohio and southern Michigan, has agreed to invest $1 million in TELA Bio through the ProMedica Innovations Venture Fund.

Under the agreement, TELA Bio and ProMedica Innovations plan to explore a strategic partnership in research and education with the surgical specialists at the ProMedica Hernia Center. The first half of the investment closes immediately, and a second tranche will close pending revenue milestones outlined in the agreement.

"We are pleased to announce the agreement with ProMedica Innovations and look forward to partnering on new research and education programs," said Antony Koblish, president and CEO of TELA Bio. "Integrated delivery networks that have adopted OviTex products in place of other biologic and resorbable synthetic products have consistently experienced significant cost savings. This investment is further validation of our mission to improve patient care and surgical outcomes while reducing costs."

OviTex RBSs are a distinct class of surgical implants that integrate biologic and synthetic materials in a unique embroidered construction that allows free movement of fluid and cells through the construct. The biologic material, derived from ovine rumen, allows for functional tissue remodeling, while the polymer provides additional strength and improved handling. TELA Bio first commercialized OviTex RBSs in July 2016 and over 1,700 implantations have been completed to-date in a wide range of hernia procedures using a variety of surgical techniques.

"ProMedica Innovations is constantly seeking investments in healthcare companies that are positioned to improve clinical outcomes while reducing healthcare costs," said Dr. John Pigott, chief innovations officer of ProMedica. "We are eager to explore opportunities to partner on research and education with TELA Bio, which is a great example of such a company."

About TELA Bio, Inc.

TELA Bio, Inc. is a privately-owned company focused on bringing innovative, cost-effective, surgical reconstruction solutions to surgeons, hospitals and patients. The company's OviTex Reinforced BioScaffolds (RBSs) products, designed for hernia repair and abdominal wall reconstruction procedures, integrate polymer and biologic materials in a uniquely embroidered construction using novel engineering design principles. The OviTex portfolio is supported by high-quality, data-driven science and extensive pre-clinical research that has consistently demonstrated the advantages of an RBS over commercially available products. OviTex RBSs are commercially available in the U.S., and TELA Bio plans to launch OviTex RBSs in the European Union. The company is collaborating with leading surgeons to drive rapid product development and establish TELA Bio as a leader in surgical reconstruction. To learn more about TELA Bio visit http://www.telabio.com.

About OviTex Reinforced BioScaffolds

OviTex Reinforced BioScaffolds (RBSs) are intended for use as a surgical mesh to reinforce and/or repair soft tissue where weakness exists. Indications for use include the repair of hernias and/or abdominal wall defects that require the use of reinforcing or bridging material to obtain the desired surgical outcome.

Do not use OviTex RBSs in patients known to be sensitive to materials of ovine (sheep) origin. For additional important safety information, please see the OviTex RBSs Instructions for Use.

The statements made or results achieved by TELA Bio customers described herein were achieved in their specific setting. Due to variations in clinical experience and technique, there is no guarantee that these results are typical. Bench testing may not be indicative of clinical performance.

Caution: Federal (US) law restricts this device to sale by or on order of a physician.

TELA Bio, Inc. owns or has applied for the following trademarks or service marks: OviTex, TELA Bio.

Media contact

Adam Daley

Berry & Company Public Relations

212-253-8881

[email protected]

SOURCE TELA Bio, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.telabio.com

NEW YORK, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- At this year's AMCP Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy Annual Meeting, The Kinetix Group's Senior VP of Business Development, Merissa Oliver, will lead the "Real-world initiatives from inside the health care system  How your customers are driving change" panel from 2:15-5:00 pm on Monday, April 23rd as part of the conference's Corporate Training Program. Participating panelists include the following health system and pharmacy experts:

Edward C. Allie , PharmD, BCPS, DPLA, Senior Manager of Pharmacy and Wellness, Steward Health Care Network

, PharmD, BCPS, DPLA, Senior Manager of Pharmacy and Wellness, Steward Health Care Network Christina Barrington , PharmD, Vice President, Pharmacy Programs Priority Health

, PharmD, Vice President, Pharmacy Programs Priority Health Amanda Brummel , PharmD, BCACP, Director, Clinical Ambulatory Pharmacy Services, Fairview

, PharmD, BCACP, Director, Clinical Ambulatory Pharmacy Services, Jeffrey Dunn , PharmD, MBA, Vice President, Clinical Strategy and Programs and Industry Relations, MagellanRx

, PharmD, MBA, Vice President, Clinical Strategy and Programs and Industry Relations, MagellanRx Greg Low , RPh, PhD, Program Director, MGPO Pharmacy Quality & Utilization Program, Performance Analysis & Improvement, Massachusetts General Hospital

, RPh, PhD, Program Director, MGPO Pharmacy Quality & Utilization Program, Performance Analysis & Improvement, Massachusetts General Hospital Eric Newman , MD, Vice Chairman for Clinical Innovations, Division of Medicine and Chief, Specialty Care Innovation and Population Health, Geisinger Health System

, MD, Vice Chairman for Clinical Innovations, Division of Medicine and Chief, Specialty Care Innovation and Population Health, Geisinger Health System Robert Schoenhaus , Pharm D, Pharmacy Director, Sharp Healthcare

The panel is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the latest innovations and best practices in promoting customer-centric, value-based care. For details on the conference and to register to attend, click here.

In addition to the AMCP conference events, The Kinetix Group will be hosting a Managed Markets Insights Advisory Panel on Tuesday, April 24, which will feature a discussion among 12 industry-leading advisors from national and regional payers, clinically integrated networks, pharmacy benefit managers, and specialty pharmacies on emerging trends in managed markets.

For more information on The Kinetix Group, visit thekinetixgroup.com. For details on the Managed Markets Insights Advisory Panel, contact William Owen at [email protected].

SOURCE The Kinetix Group

Related Links

http://thekinetixgroup.com

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, the Small Business Council of America (SBCA) sent a letter to members of Congress to express the group's concerns about Section 501 of the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act of 2018 (RESA) that has been introduced in the House and Senate.

"While most of the provisions in RESA would help ensure the continued viability of the retirement plan system, Section 501 of the proposed bill would have an unintended and out of proportion negative impact on this system" said SBCA Chair, Paula Calimafde.

As Ms. Calimafde explains "this provision would basically require that all funds in defined contribution plans and IRAs over $450,000 at the time of the owner's death be brought into the income of most beneficiaries (other than spouses) within five years. We are concerned that this dramatic change in the treatment of inherited plans will trigger the freezing or termination of hundreds of thousands of small business retirement plans."

The SBCA highlighted that, if the proposal becomes law, accountants and other advisors will tell their clients to not save any more in a retirement plan than what they are sure to use during their lifetimes. Most small business owners regard the contributions they make for their staff as the price of being able to have a qualified plan to save in for their own retirement. Thus, once they reach the advised amount of savings, small business owners will close or freeze their plans. For the employees, this will mean that they will not receive the retirement plan contributions (or the option to save in a plan) nor will they get the foregone contributions as additional salary.

The SBCA noted there are also principles of fairness in play, particularly for older Americans who have saved in retirement plans for years and will be informed that the tax treatment available to their children has suddenly been drastically changed for the worse. To lessen this unfairness, the SBCA urged Congress to, at a minimum, provide children with at least 20 years to remove funds from an inherited plan in order to be able to spread out the income taxation.

The SBCA is a national nonprofit organization which represents the interests of more than 100,000 privately-held and family-owned organizations exclusively on Federal tax, employee benefit and health care matters.

SOURCE Small Business Council of AmericaNEW YORK, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Vision III Imaging Inc. announced today that it has entered into a sales promotion agreement with Screenvision Media, a national leader in cinema advertising. Together they will make the revolutionary v3 glasses-free, three-dimensional imaging technologies available for advertisers to engage moviegoers nationwide.

Vision III is a Reston, Virginia based company that has developed unique parallax visualization technologies that enhance the three-dimensionality of commercial and military imaging. Vision III has pioneered the concept of "parallax over time" to create spatially enhanced viewer perceptions on standard displays like theatrical screens and in-lobby monitors. The Vision III technologies are marketed under the v3 and Real Shot brand names (collectively the v3 technologies).

Real Shot is a patented technology that creates a dramatic three-dimensional appearance with picture elements "POPPING" off the screen. Real Shot advertising and promos can be distributed, displayed and viewed as easily as any standard video imagery without the necessity of any additional software, special glasses/screens or other equipment.

Vision III has also developed patented v3 optical technologies for capturing and displaying three-dimensionally enhanced, live-action imagery. v3 creates a three-dimensional "window" appearance with enhanced shapes and textures. Similar to its companion Real Shot, v3 imagery can be distributed, displayed and viewed as easily as normal video.

"In the competitive landscape of differentiating your brand, we are enthusiastic about the prospects of providing a frictionless and glassless experience for consumers to engage with brands within 3D," said John McCauley, chief strategic development officer, Screenvision Media. "The v3 technologies are perfect for differentiating brand advertising from all the surrounding 2D content. We're excited to offer advertisers this opportunity starting within our exhibitor lobbies, and are interested in the potential future possibilities to utilize this technology on the big screen."

Screenvision Media plans to make the v3 technologies available in-lobby to advertisers across the company's 2,300+ theater network starting in the 2nd quarter of 2018.

https://vimeo.com/260771289 v3 Intro (:45 sec)

https://vimeo.com/260919751 Mobile video of Real Shot advertising display (1 min)

https://vimeo.com/260835371 Real Shot Demo (2 min)

https://vimeo.com/260885599 v3 Live-Action Demo (1:30 min)

ABOUT VISION III IMAGING INC.

Vision III Imaging, Inc. is based in Reston, Virginia and is the developer of the v3 advanced, immersive three-dimensional, visualization solutions that create spatially enhanced video content (programming and advertising) viewable on any regular screen or display, without the need for special glasses/screens or additional software. Vision III has focused its R&D efforts on an area of human perception that is unique and been largely overlooked by the imaging industry. The v3 technologies have so far received 24 issued US patents and numerous foreign patents. More information on Vision III Imaging, Inc. can be found at www.inv3.com.

ABOUT SCREENVISION MEDIA

Headquartered in New York, N.Y., Screenvision Media is a national leader in cinema advertising, offering on-screen advertising, in-lobby promotions and integrated marketing programs to national, regional and local advertisers and providing comprehensive cinema advertising representation services to top tier theatrical exhibitors presenting the highest quality movie going experience. The Screenvision Media cinema advertising network is comprised of over 14,950 screens in 2,300+ theater locations across all 50 states and 94% of DMAs nationwide; delivering through more than 150 theatrical circuits, including 6 of the top 10 exhibitor companies. For more information: http://screenvisionmedia.com/.

Media Contacts:



Caitlin Wiig  Olson Engage

[email protected]



Molly Dedham - v3 Public Relations

[email protected]



Contact:

[email protected]



Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12699171



Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE Vision III Imaging, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.inv3.com

BEIJING, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 25th, the Information Office of Guangzhou Municipal People's Government hosted a Round Table for "Global Conversations between Guangzhou and the World," under the China Development Forum 2018 held in Beijing, attracting many political or business leaders, experts and world-renowned media to a heated discussion on how Guangzhou will better engage with the world in its future development.

Wen Guohui, Mayor of Guangzhou, told the attendees about the history of this millennia-old commercial city. Looking forward, it's turning into a truly world-class city of greater appeal and vitality through a host of action plans, including optimized strategic planning, in-depth participation in both the Belt and Road Initiative and the development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, a strengthened role as a hub of aviation, shipping and technological innovation, enhanced innovation-driven growth, and a better physical and business environment.



"The development of the Greater Bay Area calls for coordination and all-round consideration. In fact, regional coordination is crucial," said Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize laureate in economics. He added that to transform a city requires powerful guidance and assistance from the government, citing Guangzhou's impressive transformation into a vibrant city in the 40 years of reform and opening-up. Guangzhou has been committed to making it a most livable city with its critical efforts in urban design and infrastructure, said Stiglitz.



With more extensive ties with the rest of the world and stronger connectivity and collaboration, a city better attracts, distributes and shares global high-end resources. Through major international events at home and abroad to have its voice heard across the world, Guangzhou has facilitated the continuous innovation and transformation of the city.



"New economy is based on innovation and creativity, rather than mere industry or hard work," emphasized John Flint, Group Chief Executive of HSBC Holdings. He added that HSBC took a panorama of Guangzhou on the cover of its 2017 Annual Report in recognition that Guangzhou epitomizes a new China and new economy.



"Active and sustained external communication can help keep the rest of the world updated about Guangzhou and China," said Ms. Li Jia, Director of China at the Wall Street Journal.



According to Liu Qian, Managing Director of Greater China at The Economist Group, the best way of external communication by Guangzhou, as seen among the world-class cities, is to participate in influential international events or to have such world events held in Guangzhou.

In their view, Guangzhou represents Chinese cities in the new wave of global conversations. With increasing global industrial competition, the image of a city has become an important factor in attracting mid- to high-end industries and innovative professionals in science and technology. More and more Chinese cities have already been making conscious efforts in promoting their global image.



It remains a big challenge for many cities in China, though, to carry out in-depth exchanges between different cultures, to reach mutual understanding and tolerance, and to attain inter-connectivity in human and other resources. In this regard, what Guangzhou has been doing in its development has not only sparked that heated discussion among the Round Table attendees but also provides valuable experience for many other Chinese cities, with the same global aspirations as Guangzhou, to draw upon.

SOURCE The Information Office of Guangzhou Municipal People's GovernmentSydney is the region that recorded the highest proportion of sales of at least $1 million throughout 2017. Over the year, 49.3% of all houses sold were at least $1 million which was up from 45.4% at the end of 2016 and 18.8% at the end of 2012.

Over the 2012 calendar year, 5.4% of all Sydney units sold over the year were at least $1 million, by 2016 the share had increased to 18.7% and 25% then by the end of 2017 it was up to 22.3%. More recently, values have begun to fall in Sydney, particularly for higher value properties, so there is a possibility in2018 Sydney will see a decline in the share of sales of at least $1 million. The share of $1 million plus sales in Melbourne has climbed significantly over recent years.

Throughout 2017, 28.3% of all houses and 8.3% of all units purchased were at least $1 million. The share of $1 million sales was up from 23.7% for houses and 7.2% of units a year earlier. The share of $1 million sales has risen substantially from five years ago when 9.7% of houses and 3.5% of units sold for at least $1 million.AFL veteran Jarrad Waite failed to sell his 1980 Strathmore investment townhouse property, which The Herald Sun reported passed in with no bids.

Nelson Alexander auctioneer David Mogfords sole vendor bid of $700,000 saw the start and finish of the auction of 3/242 Woodland Street.

Waite  who was in Cairns for his sides Round 1 clash with Gold Coast  and his wife Jackie had set a $755,000 asking price.

The two storey two bedroom townhouse was bought for $790,000 last October when auctioned with $680,000 to $730,000 guidance.GUEST OBSERVER

Despite predictions of doom and gloom by some property pundits, a buoyant Melbourne housing market is leading to healthy long-term investment options for savvy home buyers.

Solid auction results, strong population growth (the highest in Australia), good economic growth and APRAs decision to lift home-loan restrictions on investor lending make the Melbourne housing market far less risky than its alternatives.

While this appears at odds with recent research by one real estate and investment group, which is predicting unit prices to fall less than 5% and house prices to flatline, RiskWises most recent Residential Opportunities & Risks Report, clearly shows that the housing market in Melbourne is in a far more healthy position than many experts believed.

Auction clearance rates  which are a strong short-term indicator to buyer sentiment  remain, overall, solid, in the beginning of 2018, particularly considering the end of the housing boom, negative media coverage and the beginning of autumn.

The city enjoys strong population growth and exceptional overseas and interstate migration, meaning houses there are likely to continue having sustained demand, particularly in the middle suburban rings and affordable areas with good access to Melbourne CBD, such as the Western Suburbs.

This is coupled with strong gross state product growth rate of 3.3% and increasing private capital expenditure.

While the residential property market had cooled recently in Melbourne, overall houses in the Victorian capital city carried a low-medium level of risk and were projected, in the long-term, to deliver healthy capital growth.

Click here to enlarge.

The Melbourne property market is being looked at unfavourably by many so-called experts and this is having a dramatic impact on mum and dad investors as well as policy makers.

However, our research has shown that, in fact, Melbourne is a good option for investors, particularly the housing market in affordable areas, such as the western suburbs.

The report based its conclusions on the analysis of 30 variables grouped into seven categories to assess the short and long-term risk for houses and units in each state in Australia.

While it was true the Melbourne unit market carried a relatively high level of risk, housing in key areas, particularly the western suburbs, would enjoy healthy capital growth.

However, it seems the perception appears to be one of negativity due to people making generalisations about the market, over-reacting to slight fluctuations and taking a short-sighted approach instead of a long-term view.

While many property experts are tipping price weakness in 2018, they fail to acknowledge there are many different markets, all with their own idiosyncrasies.

Click here to enlarge.

They also fail to distinguish between houses and units, rather using the term dwelling for an all-encompassing view, ignoring that these property types are so different that RiskWise had to create separate heat maps for them.

It also doesnt help that some commentators are suggesting there will be 5 to 10% price falls in 2018. This just causes an over-reaction by investors who then become afraid to enter the market.

In addition, some forecasters were ignoring that about 78% of the houses in Melbourne were owner-occupied and had an estimated median net equity of $467,000.

It is far more likely that with such equity they will get finance for an investment property, rather than being forced sellers. Therefore, the likelihood that houses in Melbourne will experience a significant correction is low.

Many property investors were looking to exotic investment opportunities, such as North Queensland and Perth that carried a high level of risk and were projected to deliver a lower level of return.

Others have a short-sighted approach focusing on quarterly, and in one case even weekly, data, applying principles that are common in the share market of short-term transactions.

That approach ignores the fact that a typical house in Melbourne is held for 11.9 years.

Doron Peleg is CEO of RiskWise Property Research.



I took a look through those numbers in a bit more detail, including at the state level,



Population growth tends to be pro-cyclical, and over the year to September 2017 the annual growth in Australia's estimated resident population picked up to +395,600, for the quickest annual increase since 2013 in absolute terms, if not in percentage terms.



The estimated rate of population increase through net overseas migration is a bit faster than might be implied by the issuance of permanent residency visas, with the growth international students accounting for some of the difference.



I'll take a look below through where and why that's happened in 4 short parts.



Part 1: By natural causes...



Figures out recently showed Australian employment growth tracking at all-time record levels , with a stunning +420,700 year-on-year increase in employment, including an eye-watering +166,200 increase in New South Wales.I took a look through those numbers in a bit more detail, including at the state level, here Population growth tends to be pro-cyclical, and over the year to September 2017 the annual growth in Australia's estimated resident population picked up to +395,600, for the quickest annual increase since 2013 in absolute terms, if not in percentage terms.The estimated rate of population increase through net overseas migration is a bit faster than might be implied by the issuance of permanent residency visas, with the growth international students accounting for some of the difference.I'll take a look below through where and why that's happened in 4 short parts.

As the population grows and ages the number of deaths each year tends to climb steadily, now up to +161,100 over the year to September 2017.



The trends for births are a bit more complicated, and often vary quite significantly around the regions of Australia and by culture.



Generally speaking, we're still having babies, but on average we opt to do it later in life than was the case over the preceding decades.



I'm not a bad case study myself for Australia's population trends, being a capital city immigrant to Sydney that worked in professional services, then mining, then real estate...before relocating to Brisbane, and leaving having children about as late as nature would allow.



I've yet to get divorced.



You might say I'm following the herd, but in fact my plan has been to be ahead of the crowd on all fronts, and indeed with the benefit of hindsight I probably got out of the mining industry a few years too soon (bubbles can have a second wind and run for much longer than you think they will...but you live and learn with these things!).



Anyway, back to the demographic statistics, there was previously a bit of a blip in the births figures - the error was administrative and related to slow record-keeping rather than the number of babies actually popping out - but the backlog now seems to be fixed and total births have stabilised at around +306,500.



Thus, the natural increase in Australia's population over the year to September was +145,500, a bit lower than the +151,500 a year earlier as the number of deaths continued to increase.





Certainly the number of deaths will continue to rise (that's one prediction you can hold me to) and as the Baby Boomer population ages for the past decade I've consistently recommended some exposure to the healthcare sector for that very reason, while there will be a chronic shortage of aged care facilities and, in some locations, retirement living options.



Future births I can't reliably predict - nobody can - but by dicing up the population pyramid I do like to construct the argument that the growth in births will be much stronger than many expect, due to immigration being focused on younger arrivals, and the



The births boom will just come a bit later down the track than previous trends might imply, that's all.



Unfortunately more divorces and separations will also ultimately result in an unprecedented spike in demand for inner-suburban apartments and townhomes, but that's all a while away yet.





Part 2: Immigration nation



It's hard to predict what will happen here.Certainly the number of deaths will continue to rise (that's one prediction you can hold me to) and as the Baby Boomer population ages for the past decade I've consistently recommended some exposure to the healthcare sector for that very reason, while there will be a chronic shortage of aged care facilities and, in some locations, retirement living options.Future births I can't reliably predict - nobody can - but by dicing up the population pyramid I do like to construct the argument that the growth in births will be much stronger than many expect, due to immigration being focused on younger arrivals, and the corresponding explosion in the 25-34 year old cohort.The births boom will just come a bit later down the track than previous trends might imply, that's all.Unfortunately more divorces and separations will also ultimately result in an unprecedented spike in demand for inner-suburban apartments and townhomes, but that's all a while away yet.





Furthermore, earlier studies by the ABS have found that many Australians migrating overseas 'permanently' or purportedly for the long term end up returning to these shores within a remarkably short space of time, suggesting that for many the grass is not greener elsewhere.



Incidentally,



Looking at the net figures, then, we can see that net overseas migration increased by +15.4 per cent over the year to +250,100. Australia's permanent migrant intake is capped at around 200,000 per annum, but the overall pace of net overseas migration was faster than this, partly accounted for by international students.Furthermore, earlier studies by the ABS have found that many Australians migrating overseas 'permanently' or purportedly for the long term end up returning to these shores within a remarkably short space of time, suggesting that for many the grass is not greener elsewhere.Incidentally, I wrote in 2015 how these 'boomerang departures' would be one factor leading to a population growth rebound, inadvertently dragging me into a quagmire of social media ridicule (in the end I was right, though).Looking at the net figures, then, we can see that net overseas migration increased by +15.4 per cent over the year to +250,100.

The next slide tells its own story: immigrants still love Sydney and Melbourne, and now in record numbers.

Concerningly for the regional centres of Australia, the Characteristics of Recent Migrants survey showed that not only do migrants uniformly head to the capital cities, they also now overwhelmingly remain there

I know a bit about this, because I'm one of the said migrants, although like many I've made a couple of internal capital city moves since my first arrival in Australia in the 1990s.

During the mining boom years through until 2012 immigrants also flocked to the resources states.

I recall Simon Reeve's BBC documentaries revealing to stunned Britons that expat truck drivers in Western Australia were earning salaries that most working class Poms could only dream of, and to rub further salt into their wounds the truckies were living in houses with swimming pools you could actually swim in!

Although Queensland has experienced something of a rebound, the drawcard for the resources states is not nearly as strong as it used to be, and South Australia has at least half a foot in that camp too.



Going forward Sydney, Melbourne and south-east Queensland are projected to capture the bulk of population growth.



Perth will now have direct flights to Europe in its favour, but my analysis here previously has shown that in the future almost all of the net growth in the overseas born population will be driven by migrants of Asian origin.



European-born Baby Boomers are set to drop off the perch and more Asian migrants and international students from China and India are dominating the intake (with many expected to become permanent residents later).



This in turn has a strong impact on future demographic pull-factors, including for family visas and future international students.



Part 3: Upping sticks



One of the main trends to watch for me at the moment is internal movements as the two most populous capital cities adjust to the latest influx.



Sydney in particular can be wearisome at times with the delivery of the CBD & South East Light Rail project still seemingly an age away, although testing on the Randwick section is at least now underway.



This is scant consolation, I expect, for the commuting residents of Randwick and Coogee currently experiencing near-unfathomable gridlock on their short 6 to 8km journey to the city, only to discover that when then arrive in the city the key CBD thoroughfares are being dug up there too.



For this reason and others, Queensland has now usurped Victoria as the typical interstate migrant's destination of choice with net inflows hitting a decade high of above +19,000.



About 12,000 of those came from New South Wales on a net basis, with the ratio of Sydney's house prices to those in Brisbane tracking at the highest level we've ever seen at above 2.2. One way or another that ratio will likely close back below 2.





Net interstate migration away from struggling South Australia is not a new thing, and indeed the ABS figures record that well over 100,000 South Australians have relocated elsewhere on a net basis since the early 1980s.



South Australia now has the slowest population growth of all the states in percentage terms at +0.6 per cent, but it's the composition of demographic change rather than the absolute headcount that should be of most concern.



The present speed of the outflow is somewhat alarming, especially because interstate migration can have an irritating tendency to sap a capital city of its potential best and brightest.



Since the peak of the mining boom in late 2012, South Australia has lost more than -23,000 residents interstate, with many skipping in a south-easterly direction to the brighter lights of Melbourne.



I don't know how that trend gets arrested, but someone needs to have a deep think about it.



Part 4: Totting it up



Totting it all up, then, strength in net interstate migration takes Queensland's population growth all the way back up to +81,300, from a cyclical nadir of below +60,000 in 2015.



Brisbane typically accounts for 60 to 65 per cent of that growth with Queensland being the one Australian state with diverse and thriving regional centres including Gold Coast (which is set to benefit imminently from the 2018 Commonwealth Games) and Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast.



I looked



But even this rate of state population growth growth pales into insignificance next to Victoria (+147,400) and New South Wales (+123,100). Although not included here because it would simply be a long, flat, green line on this Y-axis scale, Tasmania is now attracting more than a smattering of interstate migrants at +1,000 net over the year to September.Net interstate migration away from struggling South Australia is not a new thing, and indeed the ABS figures record that well over 100,000 South Australians have relocated elsewhere on a net basis since the early 1980s.South Australia now has the slowest population growth of all the states in percentage terms at +0.6 per cent, but it's the composition of demographic change rather than the absolute headcount that should be of most concern.The present speed of the outflow is somewhat alarming, especially because interstate migration can have an irritating tendency to sap a capital city of its potential best and brightest.Since the peak of the mining boom in late 2012, South Australia has lost more than -23,000 residents interstate, with many skipping in a south-easterly direction to the brighter lights of Melbourne.I don't know how that trend gets arrested, but someone needs to have a deep think about it.Totting it all up, then, strength in net interstate migration takes Queensland's population growth all the way back up to +81,300, from a cyclical nadir of below +60,000 in 2015.Brisbane typically accounts for 60 to 65 per cent of that growth with Queensland being the one Australian state with diverse and thriving regional centres including Gold Coast (which is set to benefit imminently from the 2018 Commonwealth Games) and Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast.I looked in a bit more detail here at where the main population flows are headed in the Sunshine State.But even this rate of state population growth growth pales into insignificance next to Victoria (+147,400) and New South Wales (+123,100).

A significant intercensal difference emerged in the 2016 Census and found that the nadir in population growth in Western Australia was considerably lower than previously believed, partly accounting for the dwelling stock overhang, though population growth is now picking up again and the housing market is rebalancing.

Western Australia's annual population growth was up to +22,000 or +0.9 per cent.

Finally, the Northern Territory experienced a small population decline in the September 2017 quarter, which is fairly unusual, though not unheard of.

I've even lived in Darwin myself, which says something about what a cyclical type of place it can be.

Through recent episodes of disruption there have been strong correcting factors such a once-in-150 year resources boom or the Cyclone Tracy rebuild to drive the Territory forward.

I'm not sure what comes next for the NT through the Ichthys/INPEX construction phase wash-up, but then again I haven't been to Darwin for a couple of years and it's the sort of place that likes to deliver surprises.

The wrap

Overall, then, estimated growth in the resident population at +395,600 was comfortably stronger than a year earlier, when it was +370,400.

Australia's estimated resident population will accordingly pass 25 million within just a few months from today, with Queensland's population projected to surpass 5 million in May.

After accounting for the concentration of migrants into the capitals Greater Melbourne is growing at about the fastest pace ever.



Sydney is losing some residents internally to the NSW regions, to the south, north, and west, as Baby Boomers take their new-found housing equity elsewhere for a lifestyle change.





South-east Queensland population growth will pick up as the magnetic north does its thing, and in fact it already is as anyone living in inner Brisbane will testify.

Next I'll get around to posting my mapping population growth versus dwelling completions, which will reveal an interesting outcome or two, especially for Melbourne and Brisbane.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.News

World news

Britain stops a new coal mine project on climate grounds

AUTHOR: publics.bg



 banksgroup.co.uk



Britain has rejected plans for a new open cast coal mine in northeastern England. According to the minister for local government the project could hinder Britain in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and curb climate change, Reuters cited.

Proponents of the project stated it would create jobs which were necessary in the region, while environmental campaigners said it would go against Britains commitment to reduce greenhouse gases.

Britain plans to phase-out coal use at its power stations by 2025 as a part of its efforts to meet its climate targets. The country is also part of an international alliance pushing other countries to do the same.

Northumberland County Council agreed last year that the mines developer The Banks Group could extract 3 million tonnes of coal by cutting an open cast near Druridge Bay, Highthorn.

On Friday, however, local government minister Sajid Javid rejected the application following a public inquiry, government documents show. The project was said to be likely to have adverse effect on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change of very substantial significance.

Gavin Styles, managing director at the mines developer Banks Mining, said the decision had been taken for purely political reasons since Britain still depended on coal for a number of purposes. He added that it was very important to secure investment in North East England which would create dozens of high quality local jobs and would enable regional suppliers to win contracts.

According to companys representatives, the project could employ 100 people and generate almost 50 million pounds ($70.43 million) in related contracts. They added that there would be other benefits to the local community as well.

Styles said the company would carefully review the decision before coming up with a statement what next steps they were going to take.

Environmentalists had opposed the plans because it would destroy an area of natural beauty. Besides, extracting more coal is at odds with international pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris climate pact.

This is the first coal mine ever to be rejected in the UK because of climate change impacts  a vindication for everyone who has been calling for fossil fuels to be left in the ground, Rose Dickinson said, a campaigner with environmental group Friends of the Earth.

Reuters reminded that Britain had a legally binding target to cut emissions of harmful greenhouse gases, such as those produced by fossil-fuel-based power plants, by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050. The country also signed up to the international Paris agreement to curb emissions.Abrams has announced plans to publish the 13th book in Jeff Kinneys internationally bestselling middle grade series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The book will be released on October 30 by Amulet Books. Here, PW presents an exclusive teaser image for the new book. The title and cover of book 13 will be revealed in a national TV commercial and online at wimpykid.com on May 1.

The publisher also revealed today the news that the Wimpy Kid series has sold more than 200 million copies across the globe. In honor of the series, Kinney will pay a visit, along with Abrams president and CEO Michael Jacobs, to Worzalla, the U.S. printer of the books, in Stevens Point, Wis. The plant has been printing the Wimpy Kid books since the series premiered in 2007.

Once again, more than 20 international publishers will simultaneously release the latest installment in protagonist Greg Heffleys story. The book will be available in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Turkey, Greece, Taiwan, Poland, Japan, Brazil, Spain, Catalonia, Portugal, Hungary, Romania, Sweden, Latvia, Norway, Finland, Israel, Korea, and the Czech Republic.

Last year marked the 10th anniversary of the Wimpy Kid series. To date, the books have been released in 65 editions, 56 languages, and in more than 140 countries worldwide.

Wimpy Kid in Naples

In addition to the forthcoming release of book 13, the Cheese Touch is coming to the land of formaggio, in the first-ever edition of Diary of a Wimpy Kid in the Neapolitan language. Abrams held a press conference at the Bologna Childrens Book Fair on March 26 in celebration of O Diario e nu Maccarone (Il Castoro), which will be available in bookstores across Italy beginning May 10. The first book in Kinney's series was also translated into Latin by Il Castoro in 2015.

Author-illustrator Kinney was present for the event, during which he revealed an exclusive preview of the cover and galley, along with a dedicated drawing. Joining Kinney were Francesco Durante, writer and translator of the Neapolitan edition; Pico Floridi, president of Il Castoro; and Abrams's Jacobs.Independent booksellers are expressing frustration and disappointment with Chronicle Books for its handling of comedian John Olivers Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Presents a Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo. Oliver announced the immediate availability of the book at the end of his Sunday, March 18 show, but to the surprise of independent booksellers, Oliver said that the book was only available at that time through Amazon.

The illustrated childrens book about a gay bunny parodies the newly released Marlon Bundos Day in the Life of the Vice President by Vice President Mike Pences wife Karen and daughter Charlotte, which is told through the eyes of the familys pet rabbit.

I didnt even know there was a vice-presidential bunny, said Laura Cummings, owner of White Birch Books in North Conway, N.H., and president of the New England Independent Booksellers Association. Cummings, who was caught unaware by the release of both books, received word from her Chronicle books rep morning after Oliver's program aired.

Last Friday, Chronicle president Tyrrell Mahoney sent an e-mail apology to regional indie bookseller association board members about the rollout. We had to ensure that the book was a complete surprise for the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver audience, wrote Mahoney.

[A]fter much deliberation and exploration of other options, we ultimately agreed to make the book available for purchase at the time of the on-air surprise by allocating a percentage of the print run to Amazon and making the rest of the first print run available to all our other retailers as soon as possible.

By that time, Mahoney said demand had risen from an initial print run of 40,000 copies to 400,000. To meet the surge in interest, Mahoney said Chronicle is working with multiple printers to print additional copies, while talking to its distributor, Hachette Book Group, about speeding delivery to all accounts. "Our #1 goal right now is to get this book into your store," Mahoney wrote. Her explanation, however, fell flat with empty-handed booksellers.

Michael Hermann, owner of Gibsons Bookstore in Concord, N.H. called Mahoneys argument very weak. Hermann pointed to booksellers, years and years of experience respecting embargoes and on-sale dates, adding that, there are tried and true ways of ensuring secrecy until a book is launched.

The entire affair is evidence of deeper problems, said Harvard Book Store head buyer Rachel Cass. There's no excuse for how poor the initial communication was, nor for how slow the distribution has been in our channel, said Cass. I worry that this type of thing does long term damage to our industry as a whole. If there were customers who called their local indies to get the book this week, and found we couldn't supply it, they may be less likely to try us first next time.

ABA CEO Oren Teicher noted that the association "has spoken at length with Chronicle over the past few days" about its failure to ensure that all channels had the book at the same time. "We hope it's a teachable moment for all in our business," Teicher said. "Indie bookstores are used to taking all necessary steps to protect the confidentiality of title information, including signing of afadavits, and would certainly have done that in this instance given the chance. ABA firmly believes that our industry is stronger when we can all compete on a level playing field, and, conversely, that providing one channel a competitive advantage is, in the end, bad for everyone."

Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association president Kate Schlademen, owner of the Learned Owl Bookshop in Hudson, Ohio, said Chronicle had breached a fundamental relationship with booksellers. It is unfortunate that Chronicle does not see us as professionals capable of doing our jobs, or as trusted partners in the business, especially as so many of our stores have carried their product in good faith over the years, said Schlademen.

The issues go far beyond supply and demand for James Conrad, owner of the Golden Notebook Bookstore in Woodstock, NY. Proceeds from the LGBT-themed book are going to the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention nonprofit for LGBTQ teens. In an open letter, Conrad blasted Chronicle, calling the Amazon-only release a slap in the face.

I am a gay man who co-owns an independent bookstore, Conrad wrote, These stores, in the tradition of gay and lesbian bookstores that are now nearly extinct, tirelessly work to promote a range of issues from freedom of speech, womens rights, immigration issues, diversityI can go on. We donate money, public space and our heart to causes on a daily basis.

Despite their feelings, booksellers grappled over the weekend with how to find a way forward. Hermann said he was looking to begin a dialogue. Weve been very pleased with the directness and helpful attitude exhibited by Chronicles sales force in the wake of the original mistake, he said. We dont hold grudges. We want our industry partners to learn from their mistakes and continue to publish excellent books.

Cummings agreed, and rejected calls from some in the bookselling community to boycott Chronicle. What does that serve? she said, Youre going to boycott the gay bunny? I dont think we can do that. But we can have a constructive conversation about how we can do this better the next time.

She added, John Oliver should have a bunch of independent booksellers on his show and talk about how awesome independent bookstores are.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated. Chronicle also supplied more details on how the rollout took place last week. According to the company,its distributor, Hachette, began shipping books last Thursday to accounts whose orders had been keyed in by Tuesday afternoon. Those accounts included independent bookstores, national wholesalers and national chains. Chronicle also had B&N and IndieBound buy buttons up on BetterBundobook.com (hosted by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver) by Tuesday in time for John Olivers appearances on Ellen and Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Chronicle also had the books listing go live on Edelweiss at the time of the show airing on Sun. March 18.As it did last year, Congress has voted to continue to fund the National Endowments of the Arts (NEA) and Humanities (NEH), along with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), despite calls from President Donald Trump to gut the budgets of all three institutions. Trump signed the $1.3 trillion spending bill on Friday which included a roughly $3 million increase in the budgets pf both the NEA and NEH while the IMLS saw a $9 million increase.

Noting that the fiscal 2018 Omnibus spending bill includes $152.8 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, the NEA said in a statement. "The National Endowment for the Arts is deeply appreciative of the support of members of Congress for the agencys mission of providing all Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities."

NEH senior deputy chairman Jon Parrish Peede added: "With this funding, NEH will be able to aggressively support essential cultural infrastructure projects across the country. Our federal dollars play a catalytic role in generating local investment and sustainable economic development."

The IMLS's $9 million increase will be distributed, the institute said, in the following manner:

Grants to States (+$4,700,000)

Native American Library Services and Native Hawaiian Library Services (+$1,000,000)

Museums for America (+$1,750,000)

Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services (+$500,000)

Museum Grants for African American History and Culture (+$750,000)

Research, Evaluation, Data Collection (+$300,000)

Funding levels for IMLS administration and other programs remain at their current enacted levels.

"The increases in IMLS's Fiscal Year 2018 appropriations are an acknowledgement of the enduring value of our nation's museums and libraries," IMLS director Dr. Kathryn K. Matthew said in a statement. "We are honored to be able to carry out our strategic role in support of Americas museums and libraries and their transformative work for communities."COMPLETE NEW JAPAN STRONG STYLE EVOLVED REPORT: GOLDEN LOVERS VERSUS YOUNG BUCKS, IWGP US TITLE MATCH, REY MYSTERIO APPEARS, NEW CHALLENGES MADE, AND MORE

We are in Long Beach, California for New Japan Pro Wrestling's Strong Style Evolved show at the Walter Pyramid.

Jim Ross and Josh Barnett talk about strong style wrestling. Josh says it focuses on the martial arts and a more hard hitting style.

We have a video package showing footage from last year's New Japan shows from Long Beach.

They run through the card for tonight's show in a video package.

Match Number One: Sho, Yoh, and Rocky Romero versus Scorpio Sky, Frankie Kazarian, and Christopher Daniels

Romero and Sky start things off and they lock up. Romero with a wrist lock and Sky with a reversal into an arm bar. Romero with a forearm but Sky with a forearm. Rocky with a chop but Sky chops back. They go back and forth and Romero with more strikes. Sky with a double leg take down into a neck breaker. Kazarian tags in and so does Yoh. Kazarian with a kick and side head lock. Kazarian with a shoulder tackle but Yoh kips up. Kazarian with a kick but Yoh with a flying forearm. Sho tags in and Yoh knocks Sky and Daniels down on the apron. Yoh with a drop toe hold and Sho with a kick to the head. They hit a double drop kick on Daniels to send him to the floor.

Kazarian with a rake of the eyes and Sky tags back in and he punches Sho and kicks him. Sho with a drop kick. Sho with a knee to the midsection and he tags in Yoh. Yoh with a forearm to the back and then Yoh with a suplex for a near fall. Yoh kicks Kazarian and Daniels with a kick to the back but Yoh knocks Daniels off the apron. Sky trips Yoh and then Kazarian goes for a springboard leg drop but he slips on the ropes but still hits the leg drop. Daniels tags in and he hits a leg lariat.

Kazarian tags back in and he is limping. Sky with a boot to the back followed by an STO from Daniels and a near fall from Kazarian. Romero makes the tag but the referee did not see it so he sends Romero back to the apron while Kazarian has Yoh in a front face lock. He puts Yoh on the apron for a springboar leg drop. Daniels with an Arabian press and then Sky with a slingshot cutter for a near fall. Kazarian tags back in and Sky sends him into the turnbuckles. Sky misses a Stinger Splash and Kazarian misses. Romero tags in and he hits a cross body on Kazarian followed by a double rana on Sky on and Daniels. Romero with Infinity Clothesline.

Romero misses Kazarian but he hits a double clothesline on Kazarian and Daniels. Romero with a punch to Kazarian followed by an Irish whip but Kazarian goes to the apron and goes for a shoulder but Romero wit a knee. Romero with a springboard drop kick to Kazarian who was hanging on the middle rope. Daniels breaks up the cover and then all six men are in. Romero goes for bulldog. Sky with a plancha onto Yoh and Sho while Kazarian and Daniels hit the Best Meltzer Ever but it is broken up by Yoh. Sky accidentally hits a cutter on Daniels.

Romero is pulled into the corner and Sho tags in and he kicks Kazarian and punches him. Sky makes the tag and Sho and Yoh with clotheslines to Kazarian and SKy. Yoh with a pescado onto Kazarian. Sho with two rolling German suplexes but Sky blocks the third. Sho and Yoh with a double knee strike to Sky and then they hit a flatline and dominator combination for a near fall. Yoh with an uppercut and Sho with a lungblower. Yoh with a kick. They hit the 3K for the three count.

Winners: Sho, Yoh, and Rocky Romero

Match Number Two: David Finlay and Juice Robinson versus Gedo and Hirooki Goto

Robinson and Goto start things off and Goto with a waist lock. Robinson with a standing switch but Goto with a wrist lock. Robinson with a reversal. Goto with a reversal into a side head lock. Robinson with a few shoulder tackles with no effect but Robinson with a back elbow and a back senton for a near fall. Robinson with a chop but Goto with an Irish whip and he runs into a boot. Goto bleeds from the mouth as both men go for clotheslines. They do it a second time. Robinson misses a jumping leg lariat but Goto hits a clothesline and then he suplexes Finlay onto Robinson when Finlay comes in without a tag.

Goto with forearms to the back of the head. Goto with a rear chin lock. Gedo tags in and he rakes the eyes and mouth. Gedo grabs Robinson by the hair and he sends Robinson into Goto's boot. Goto tags back in and he punches Robinson but Juice punches back. They go with forearms and Robinson is down. Gedo tags back in and they hit a double shoulder tackle. Gedo with a rake of the eyes when the referee was focused on Finlay. Gedo with jabs but Robinson with a kick and Juice Jabs. Gedo with a thumb to the eye and then Robinson does the same.

Finlay punches Gedo from the apron and Gedo goes down. Finlay tags in and he connects with forearms on Goto. Finlay floats over and hits a flying back elbow on Goto. Finlay with running European uppercuts and elbows in the corner on both men. Finlay with a corkscrew back elbow off the turnbuckles on Gedo for a near fall. Goto gets Finlay up for the Ushigoroshi and Gedo with a kick but Robinson breaks it up.

Goto gets Robinson up but Robinson gets to his feet and he hits a uranage on Goto. Robinson with a forearm to Gedo and then he hits a pescado onto Goto. Finlay with a cutter on Gedo for the three count.

Winners: David Finlay and Juice Robinson

Match Number Three: Chuckie T and Toru Yano versus Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.

Smith and Archer attack befroe the bell rings and Smith with an Irish whip to Taylor while Archer works over Yano on the floor. Smith chokes Taylor in the ropes. Taylor with Sole Food and then he goes for an Octopus but Smith escapes. Taylor misses an enzuigiri and Smith with a German suplex. Smith kicks Yano off the apron. Smith with a forearm to the back and Archer tags in and he punches Taylor in the corner. Archer runs into a boot but Archer blocks a power bomb attempt with a back body drop and he hits a clothesline on Taylor.

Archer with a punch and he goes to the turnbuckles and he walks the ropes like the Spoiler and he tags in Smith before hitting the forearm. Taylor with punches but Smith with a slam for a near fall. Taylor with punches but Smith with a kick and a belly-to-belly suplex for a near fall. Smith with a Boston Crab and he turns it into a Liontamer for a moment. Smith with an elbow drop to the back. Smith punches Taylor and then Archer tags in and he approaches Yano and Yano decides to go to the floor and walk up the aisle. Archer sets for a shoulder tackle and he hits it.

Archer scares Yano back up the aisle while Yano tells some fans to get on the apron if they want him up there. Smith tags in and he punches Taylor. Smith with a butterfly suplex and he gets a near fall. Smith with a side head lock and Archer tags in and he punches Taylor. They go for the Hart Attack but Taylor ducks down and hits a DDT on Smith. Yano tags in and he connects with forearms to Archer but Archer with a forearm. Yano pulls Archer by the hair and Archer goes after Yano but Yano gets into the ropes and demands a break.

Yano with a reverse atomic drop but Archer does not go down and Yano retreats into the ropes. Archer with a knee and Yano goes to the floor. Archer goes over the top rope to the apron and Yano pulls Archer to the floor. Smith collides with Archer when Yano moves. Taylor with a plancha onto Smith and Archer. Yano sets for a dive to the floor, but he goes to the turnbuckle pad and removes. it. Archer swats it away and then he goes back into the ring.

Yano with punches and Archer grabs Yano by the hair. Yano does the same and he pulls Archer to the mat. Yano avoids an Archer clothesline and Archer goes into the exposed turnbuckle. Archer blocks a power bomb but Taylor with a sunset flip for a near fall. Taylor with a knee and piledriver for a near fall. Yano sends Smith to the floor. Taylor goes up top and he misses a moonsault but lands on his feet. Archer grabs Taylor by the throat but Taylor blocks it. Archer with a POUNCE and choke slam but Taylor counters the cover into a crucifix for a near fall.

Taylor with a super kick to Archer and then he hits a clothesline on Smith and Archer. Archer and Smith hit the Killer Bomb for the three count.

Winners: Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.

Coverage Continues on Next Page

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!Indian police have detained five people after TV ratings agency BARC India filed a complaint in Kerala over alleged tampering with audience meters.





The complaint, lodged in conjunction with the Malayalam channel trade body Kerala TV Federation (KTF), came after BARC Indias vigilance team received complaints regarding attempts to retrieve addresses of BARC India panel homes and influencing them.The BARC India team says that it has gathered what it calls conclusive evidence of multiple efforts to tamper with BARC Indias television viewership measurement system in favour of certain channels. The organisation claimed that ground inquiries confirmed that some individuals had attempted not only find out addresses of BARC India panel homes, but also to incentivise them and influence what they viewed.BARC has removed the homes involved from its TV ratings measurement system and the police are now investigating.TV industry trades on the currency released by BARC India and we understand how important every rating point is to the broadcaster. We have evidence of a couple of broadcasters trying to tamper with our panel homes to improve ratings. We have taken steps to quarantine the affected panel homes, said Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India While we have filed a complaint this time, we want the industry to be aware that going forward BARC India will stop publishing ratings for those channels found involved in such activities.In the new series, detective Antoine Verlay (Nicolas Gob, who starred in Chefs, Un Village Francais, Les Bleus) will work closer than ever with art historian Florence Chassagne (Eleonore Bernheim) to unveil intriguing mysteries of French cultural and historical heritage. Artistic clues planted by a murderer will lead the duo on a chase throughout the cultural landscape of Paris.Series one debuted in November 2017 with over four million viewers, and the new series of six one-hour episodes, which will be showcased at MIPTV, is set to air in the autumn of 2018. This will make a total of 12 one-hour episodes now available. "Season one of The Art of Crime was well received in France and around the world. Viewers and media alike enjoyed the sweeping backdrop of world-renowned monuments and the captivating storylines," commented Vanessa Shapiro, president, worldwide TV distribution and co-productions. Gaumont has also confirmed several buyers around the world for season one, including Germany's ZDF, Poland's TVP, Japan's NHK enterprises , Mexico's Canal 22 and MHz Networks in the US.From 3 April, Telefonica, Speedy and Movistar packages and services will be only sold as Movistar products, though the three brands will keep operational independence for the moment.However, the video-on-demand (VOD) and streaming service OnVideo won't be aligned with Telefonica's over-the-top (OTT) operation in Latin America, Movistar Play. It will be rebranded as Movistar Cine. According to the telco , service conditions will remain the same for every broadband, voice and mobile subscriber.The move could anticipate an imminent launch of a pay-TV operation in the country , following the granting of a cable TV licence for Buenos Aires city and province, and the announced plans to release the premium network Movistar Series in Argentina.The telco has previously undertaken similar rebranding strategies in other markets, such as Spain, where pay-TV, fibre, ADSL and mobile services, both residential and corporate, are sold under the Movistar brand.It is highly improbable that Iran will compromise on demands from the U.S. and its allies that it halt the expansion of its ballistic missile capabilities or extend critical provisions of the current nuclear agreement. Considering that its motives for expanding these capabilities are both defensive and offensive in nature, the U.S. and EU should devise a strategy that alleviates Irans defensive concerns and also attempts to pacify their offensive motivesparticularly Irans aggressive behavior toward Israel.

In his February 2017 report, Iranian Concepts of Warfare: Understanding Tehrans Evolving Military Doctrines, J. Matthew McInnis, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and formerly senior expert on Iran at U.S. Central Command, writes that the searing experience of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War generated the initial impetus for the Islamic Republic of Irans ballistic missile program.

Saddam Hussein initiated the war of the cities in 1984 by sending ballistic missiles into western Iranian cities to terrorize the population. The Iranian leadership eventually responded in a similar manner but struggled to develop a missilecapability on par with Iraqs. The psychological effect of Iraqi missiles, though, ensured that Iran would continue to focus on its missile program as the centerpiece of its conventional military power long after the war ended.

The [conventional Iranian militarys] inability to maintain an effective or modern air force after the revolution also left Iran with missiles as its primary option to overtly strike its distant adversaries, such as Israel, if needed. The program is now the centerpiece of Irans retaliatory deterrence and is considered an existential element of Irans defenses.

Iraq aside, no power has threatened the IRIs existence like the United States has. The Persian Gulf War in 1991 and [the Iraq War] in 2003instilled the centrality of developing doctrines to defend against, dissuade, and undermine the inherent advantages of the American way of war.

The U.S. is once-again expanding its military presence in the Middle East, motivated to a great degree by Irans openly acknowledged support for the Houthis in Yemen. Also, Irans aggressive expansion of its military presence in Syria in pursuit of the annihilation of Israel will only reinforce Irans lack of cooperation on international security issues unless difficult policy compromises are made on both sides.

For the U.S., such compromises must include a demonstrated sincere commitment to achieving a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem, which must necessarily include exerting substantive pressure on Israel to make hard compromises vital to any conceivable agreement. It must also include basic acceptance of Irans interests as a Muslim country in the outcome, especially as it pertains to freedom of peaceful religious expression in Jerusalem.

On the Iranian side, it must initially include a commitment to accept Israels fundamental right to exist, contingent upon Israels recommitment to the two-state framework. It must also include limitation of Iranian support in the interim only to groups that have eschewed terrorism in the most basic definition of the term and that are also willing to support a two-state solution.

It remains to be seen what plan the Trump administration will present to the international community to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian issue, but diplomatic signals to date do not give one cause for confidence; nor does the current bipartisan consensus of Congress. Such moves reinforce the Supreme Leader of Irans belief, frequently emphasized in his speeches that communication of weakness on Irans part will invite bolder challenges to the security, sovereignty, and dignity of Iran and the broader Muslim world.

The U.S. needs to lead efforts to guide the region to a more stable and peaceful equilibrium, which will require it to build a regional consensusincluding Iranon what a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem would entail, however inherently imperfect this will be. Those who say it cannot be done need only look to the evolution first of Egypts and Jordans policies, followed by the broader Arab and Muslim worlds disposition toward Israel.

It should also be made clear that it is highly improbable that Iran will agree to enter into serious negotiations on this issue without some application of coercive leverage to complement constructive diplomatic engagement. Iranian leaders will protest that they will not negotiate under threat, but their negotiating behaviors on the nuclear and Syria issues demonstrates the necessity of such measures as elements of an overarching strategy.

Sanctions and calculated application of military force against Iranian individuals and entities organizing for a war of annihilation against Israel in Syria and Lebanon will probably remain necessary for some time to bring Iran to the negotiating table. The U.S. should also recognize the moral hazard of making its military forces the first line of Israels defense, however. It is abundantly clear at this point that if Israel also does not feel some pressure to compromise, it will not.

Thomas Buonomo is the Humanist Studies Coordinator with the American Humanist Association. His views are his own and do not represent an official position of the American Humanist Association. @thomasbuonomoFor Ivanka Trump, the evening of November 28 was supposed to be the culmination of nearly six months of careful planning, both political and personal. In late June, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi had flown to Washington, D.C., for an official state visit with President Donald Trump that included a meet-and-greet with American C.E.O.s, a tour of the Indian-American diaspora in northern Virginia, and a wide-ranging White House conversation that touched on immigration, Pakistan, defense alliances, the changing locus of power in the Indo-Pacific region, and various pleasantries and vagaries surrounding their countries strategic relationship. The two leaders will look to outline a common vision for the partnership thats worthy of Indias 1.6 billion citizens, noted Sean Spicer, then the White House press secretary, incorrectly inflating the countrys actual population by nearly 300 million people. Trump and Modis meeting was consummated by a gropy man hug. And, as if to further seal their union, before he had even returned to New Delhi, Modi invited Ivanka Trump, 36, to speak at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad that winter.Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe penned an op-ed for The Washington Post to contest the allegation of his lack of candor with federal investigators. I have been writing (here and here and here) on the contrast between the treatment of McCabe and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. McCabe has been erroneously portrayed as losing his pension but has not been charged. Flynn was charged and accepted a plea deal under 18 U.S.C. 1001 for making a false statement to investigators. Now McCabe is raising virtually the same defense that did not work for Flynn: that there was a lot going on and he was confused and distracted.One afternoon last April, Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, travelled to the Harvey Mine, in Sycamore, Pennsylvania, to declare that the agency had a new direction, which he called Back to Basics. It was an unusual place for the nations chief steward of clean air, land, and water to set out a policy agenda. Consol Energy, the owner of the Harvey facility, which is part of the largest underground coal-mining complex in North America, has been fined repeatedly by the E.P.A. for violations; in 2016, it had to pay three million dollars for having discharged contaminated wastewater into the Ohio River and its tributaries. Past E.P.A. administrators have spoken of creating jobs as a welcome potential by-product of the agencys work, especially if they are green jobs, but creating or protecting energy jobs is not supposed to be the missionprotecting human health and the environment is. As the speech that Pruitt gave at the mine demonstrated, he seems to have these priorities reversed.President Donald Trumps decision to appoint former UN Ambassador John Bolton to serve as his National Security Advisor is arguably the most significant single step he has taken to date toward implementing his America First foreign policy.

The news hit Americas enemies and competitors  from Pyongyang to Teheran to Moscow to Beijing  like a wall of bricks Thursday night.

Early criticisms on the political right of Boltons appointment have centered on two points. First, it is argued that Bolton, who has been involved in U.S. foreign policymaking since the Reagan administration, is a creature of the Washington foreign policy swamp.

While it is true that Bolton is from Washington  or Baltimore, to be precise  and although it is true that he held senior foreign policy positions in both Bush administrations, he has always been a thorn in the side of the establishment rather than a member of that establishment.

For the better part of three decades, Bolton has bravely held positions that fly in the face of the establishments innate preference for appeasement. He was a vocal critic, for example, of then-President Bill Clintons disastrous nuclear diplomacy with North Korea.

The 1994 Agreed Framework that Clinton concluded with Pyongyang was touted as a peaceful resolution of the nuclear crisis with North Korea. In exchange for shuttering  but not destroying  its nuclear installations, North Korea received light water reactors from the U.S. and massive economic relief. As Bolton warned it would, North Korea pocketed the concessions and gifts and continued to develop its nuclear weapons. In other words, far from preventing North Korea from developing nuclear weapons, the Agreed Framework preserved the North Korean nuclear program and enabled the regime to develop it effectively with U.S. assistance.

For his warnings, Bolton has been reviled as a warmonger and a superhawk by the foreign policy elite, which has gone out if its way to undercut him.

President George W. Bush appointed Bolton to serve as UN ambassador in 2005 in a recess appointment. Three moderate Republicans on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Lincoln Chafee (RI), Chuck Hagel (ND), and George Voinovich (OH), signaled that they would oppose Boltons confirmation, blocking it.

At the time, rumors surfaced that then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had quietly undercut Boltons confirmation in private conversations with senators. Those rumors were denied, and Rice publicly supported Boltons confirmation. But in 2016, Rice, along with her mentor, former secretary of state James Baker, and her deputy and successor as National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley, openly opposed President Trumps intention to appoint Bolton Deputy Secretary of State. At the same time, all three lobbied Trump to appoint outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Bolton was a vocal opponent of Rices nuclear diplomacy with North Korea, undertaken after Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. He also opposed Rices pursuit of diplomatic ties with Iran through negotiations in Iraq. In both cases, as events showed, Boltons criticisms were all in place.

Rices nuclear diplomacy with North Korea emboldened the regime, and enabled its continued testing of nuclear weapons and development of ballistic missiles.

In Irans case, Rices negotiations with the Iranians in 2007 and 2008 set the stage for president Barack Obamas nuclear talks with Tehran, which led to the 2015 nuclear deal. That deal, like the 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea, preserves, rather than dismantles, Irans nuclear program while providing Iran with the financial means to expand its regional power through its terrorist proxies.

On the other hand, Boltons actions while in office brought extraordinary benefit to US national security. For instance, as Bushs undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, in 2003 Bolton conceptualized and launched the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). The purpose of the PSI was to empower nations to interdict ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction, delivery systems, and related materials from states and non-state actors of proliferation concern. Originally launched with 11 state members, today the PSI has 105 state members. Its members have interdicted multiple ships suspected of transferring illicit weapons systems to other states and to non-state actors.

Like Trump, Bolton is an opponent of international treaties that bind the U.S. in a manner that may be antithetical to its national interests, and prefers bilateral agreements that are tailor-made to defend Americas national interests. Bolton was a firm opponent of the Rome Treaty, which established the International Criminal Court. He worked avidly to vacate Americas signature from the treaty. Due largely to his cogent opposition, the Bush administration decided not to submit the treaty to the Senate for ratification. Bolton concluded 100 bilateral treaties with nations committing them never to present complaints against U.S. military personnel before the tribunal.

Boltons nationalist convictions, and his refusal to join the foreign policy elite in its adoration of diplomacy, whatever the substance, over a firm, fact-based pursuit of Americas national interests lies at the heart of the foreign policy establishments opposition to him.

Indeed, the level of hostility the foreign policy establishment has directed towards Bolton over the years has been so ferocious, it is a testament to his diplomatic skills, and success, that he has managed to persevere in Washington, in and out of office for forty years.

As to the second charge by conservative critics, that Bolton is a neoconservative interventionist, the fact is that he is neither a neoconservative nor is he a knee jerk interventionist. Rather, Bolton supports the judicious use of American power in the world to advance U.S. national security and economic interests when the use of force is the best way to achieve those interests.

It is true that Bolton supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. But it is also true that he opposed the nation-building strategy that stood at the root of Americas failure to achieve its aims there.

It is also true that like many of the neoconservatives, Bolton is a firm supporter of Israel. However, Bolton is actually far more supportive of Israel than the neoconservatives are. As a nationalist, he supports U.S. allies because he understands that the stronger Americas allies are, the better able they are to defend their interests. Since American allies  particularly Israel  share Americas interests, the more powerful they are, the more secure Americas interests are, and the less the U.S. needs to assert its power abroad. Bolton supported  indeed, urged  Israel to destroy Irans nuclear installations during the Obama presidency. Rather than treating Israel as what Rice referred to patronizingly as Americas special friend, Bolton views Israel as Americas most powerful ally in the Middle East. He opposes Palestinian statehood and an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.

The neoconservative movement asserts that Americas values of liberal democracy are universal, and that as a consequence, when given the opportunity to choose their leaders in open elections, everyone everywhere will choose leaders that are liberal democrats.

This view, for instance, stood at the root of Rices demand that the Hamas terrorist group participate in the Palestinian elections in 2006. It was also the root of her decision to pressure then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to permit the Muslim Brotherhood to participate in parliamentary elections in Egypt in 2005.

Since the neoconservatives asserted that all people believe in American values, they assessed that at the end of the day, even Hamas would govern responsibly. Bush famously raised what became known as the pothole theory of the moderating power of elected office.

Bush said, I like the idea of people running for office. Theres a positive effect when you run for office. Maybe some will run for office and say, vote for me, I look forward to blowing up America. I dont know, I dont know if that will be their platform or not. But I dont think so. I think people who generally run for office say, vote for me, Im looking forward to fixing your potholes, or making sure you got bread on the table.

Rice heartily concurred.

Bolton, in contrast, rejected the notion that American values are universally applicable, and argued that nation building and humanitarian intervention are both antithetical to American national security interests. In other words, while he agreed with certain policies that neoconservatives also supported, he opposed the basic assumptions of the neoconservative outlook.

Boltons opposition to nation-building and humanitarian interventionism was all borne out by events. As the so-called Arab Spring showed  and indeed, as Turkeys democratic transformation into an Islamic theocracy also demonstrates  American values are not universal values at all. Supporting democratic processes with no concern about the values and culture those processes empower is unwise and irresponsible, and as the rise of Islamist regimes in Gaza, Egypt, Turkey, and beyond make clear, it is also antithetical to American national security interests.

Boltons healthy skepticism for international agreements; his support for a foreign policy that prioritizes the advancement of American national interests over multilateral diplomacy; and his belief that Obamas signature diplomatic achievement, the nuclear deal with Iran, is a disaster, all make him the senior diplomat most aligned with President Trumps America First agenda in Washington.

The combination of Trump and Bolton no doubt puts fear in the hearts of Americas enemies, and heartens Americas allies. Given the hatred Bolton inspires in the Washington swamp, it took great courage for Trump to appoint him. America and its allies will be the primary beneficiaries of this bold move.After a hard-fought victory in last weeks primary to select the Democratic candidate for Congress in Illinois 3rd District, I returned to Washington to be overwhelmed by hearty congratulations from my colleagues. Some of that was expected. But one progressive members greeting was particularly striking: Congratulations might be unexpected coming from me, but if theyd taken you out theyd be coming after everybody.

They are the ideological purists -- individuals and outside groups who do not believe that compromise is ever acceptable.

The fear of being primaried has gripped Republicans since 2010. Ideological purists on the right  often referred to as the Tea Party  claim simply to be making sure that their representatives are not going soft. But their real message is clear: Dont compromise, ever, or we will make you pay. As a result, many of my Republicans peers reflexively reject any idea that emerges from across the aisle, compounding the political gridlock that frustrates so many American voters.

Democrats have not been immune to these same forces. But President Trumps victory fueled a new desire among some to counter the Republicans with a Tea Party of the left. Illinois was the second state to hold primary elections this year and I was this new Tea Partys first target. Thats why so many Democrats were relieved to see me win  they know that a never-ending battle between extremists in both parties would almost inevitably prevent Congress from addressing the nations big challenges.

Before I ran for Congress, I taught American politics to college students. Our system of government was explicitly set up to make policymaking difficult. As James Madison stated in the Federalist Papers, differences of opinion between groups of people will always exist in our nation, driving the creation of factions. Those framing the Constitution wanted to prevent any single faction from having the leverage to force the entirety of their agenda on the whole of the country. Our system explicitly demands compromise.

So the problem on Capitol Hill isnt that members hold different views. The founding generation presumed Congress would be rife with disagreement. Rather, the difficulty has arisen because those who represent different points of view are failing to work together  were not willing to compromise in the name of solving big problems.

That was most clear last year when, in the face of the prospect of skyrocketing health care premiums in the individual marketplace, most of Washington devolved into finger-pointing. Many on the right were obsessed with root-and-branch repeal of Obamacare, happy enough to see citizens pay more, and convinced that voters would blame former President Obama.

Some on the left saw this as an opportunity to tout the virtues of government-run, single-payer health care, while others simply didnt want to be seen as making any changes to Obamacare. In the face of a very real consequence for people, Congress appeared unable to forge a workable compromise. And that, I believe, is why the American people have so little faith in politics.

In the face of that failure, my colleagues in the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, a bloc of 48 representatives evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, came together to hammer out a bipartisan way forward. It took weeks, with hard bargaining on both sides. But among my proudest moments in office was when we released our plan  the only bipartisan blueprint released in this Congress designed to address the challenges facing the individual health care marketplace  to the public.

We accomplished something many believed impossible: A group of elected officials with different points of view came together to forge a collaborative solution to a divisive problem. What do the American people want? They want us to do that more often. But the work is not over on this plan, which now has been turned into bipartisan legislation. We still need to persuade enough of our colleagues on both sides to stand up to the voices on the extremes and make this common-sense solution law.

My victory proves that elected leaders willing to work hand-in-hand with peers who hold different points of view  across party lines, or even beneath a single party tent  can and should take that risk. Grassroots organizations frustrated by Washingtons inability to work in a bipartisan fashion  outfits like No Labels and its allied political operation  have put a stake in the ground, making clear that they are prepared to provide the air cover required when committed problem solvers come under attack from the partisan extremes.

I understand that my determination to work across party lines is seen by some as unacceptable in the face of President Trumps policies and pronouncements. But I continue to believe that American democracy is miraculous explicitly because it demands that the great bulk of us  public leaders both to my right and to my left  work together. Better ideas emerge because of Congresss ideological diversity. And as before, Im eager to collaborate with anyone determined to solve the nations problems. That is what Americans want.On two separate occasions, two individuals reported being filmed or photographed by an unknown individual while using a bathroom on the first From couches to batteries, almost everything can be sent to the landfill. Rather than throwing things away, though, the people of Athens should find ways to properly recycle or dispose of no longer used items to benefit the environment.The One UGA executive ticket has been sanctioned for violating the Student Government Associations Code of Ethics and is now prohibited from The whole world has heard about the constitutional amendments made at the recent session of the National People's Congress (NPC). One of them enshrined Xi Jinping Thought for a New Era into the constitution, making it the sixth political thought-form listed there after Marxism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Thought, [Jiang Zemin's] Three Represents and the scientific outlook on development [of Hu Jintao].



Sadly, this is meaningless. In what way? It is legally meaningless.



The entire purpose of the constitution is to provide legal meaning. A constitutional amendment with no legal meaning is devoid of any meaning at all.



The original text of the constitution, before it was amended, read: "All Chinese citizens enjoy freedom of religious belief and freedom of expression."



This tells us that all forms of political thinking are protected in law; they are all legal, whether they have been entered into the constitution or not.



Here's an example which may clarify things:



If the only legal ideologies are those that have been entered into the constitution, then surely Xi Jinping Thought was illegal until such time as it was written into the constitution?



Of course not! Xi Jinping Thought was legal long before it was enshrined in the constitution. So, putting it in the constitution makes no difference at all to its legality.



Actually, putting the thought of Marx, Mao, Deng, the Three Represents and the scientific outlook on development into the constitution made no difference to their legality, either.



Civilized countries don't have thought criminals. As Mao Zedong, also a civilized person, once said and wrote: "Those who speak aren't criminals." Well, if those who speak aren't criminals, what about those who think?"



You might want to counter my argument by saying that "those who speak aren't criminals" is old hat, and that we're now in a New Era which is guided by six ruling principles: those of Marx, Mao, Deng, the Three Represents, the scientific outlook on development and Xi Jinping Thought; that contravening those principles is unconstitutional; and that's why the suppression of thought crimes is right and proper, and must now be on the national agenda.



I'll pretend that what you have just said is in keeping with all six of those ideologies. But I must ask this: is there an Ideology Law of the People's Republic of China? Do thought crimes fall under the category of criminal offenses or civil disputes? Who decides when such crimes have been committed: our scientific institutions or our courts? How long are the sentences? How big are the fines?



What's more, I know for sure that your argument is already guilty of contravening Marxist principles.



By the first article in the first chapter of The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Marx has already clearly and unambiguously condemned the censorship of books and periodicals as being completely beyond the bounds of civilized behavior.



Therefore, if you think that because Marxism has been enshrined in the Chinese constitution, contravening it is a crime, it gives me great delight to announce that you yourself are the first ever thought criminal in the history of the People's Republic of China.



This isn't a joke. I'm serious.



Enshrining political ideologies into the constitution has no legal meaning at all, actually, nor does it refer to anything that is true.



And for a sense of what is true, we can only rely on what is factual, not on the personal decisions of judges. Trials must rely on criteria set by the law, not by ideology. If cases were tried and investigated according to the six ideologies, this would inevitably result in chaos and mayhem, and frequent fisticuffs.



Here are some well-known facts:



President Xi was only able to catch so many "tigers and flies" [corrupt officials] because President Jiang had bred them in countless numbers. So, did Xi contravene Jiang's ideology, or did Jiang contravene Xi's?



Mao once said that no good would come of suppressing student movements; yet Deng deployed hundreds of thousands of troops in a calculated massacre of unarmed students who were protesting about corruption.



Did Mao break the principles of Deng's thought, or did Deng break those of Mao Zedong Thought? Deng is certainly guilty of a crime, according to my knowledge, but not of a thought crime against Mao; he was guilty of a crime against humanity.



Deng Xiaoping once insisted on "hard reasoning," while Hu Jintao said reasoning shouldn't break away from scientific knowledge. Was Hu a thought criminal in terms of Deng, or was Deng a thought criminal according to Hu's thinking?



Marx wanted the proletariat to rise up; yet in Beijing, the [ruling] Communist Party secretary has been driving the low-income population out of the city with great vigor. Is Marx wrong by his standards, or is the party secretary a thought criminal in Marxist terms?



President Xi warned us against making "rash comments on party policy;" yet his father, the venerable and respected Xi Zhongxun, continued to struggle his whole life for legislation protecting the right to hold different opinions.



So, President Xi, is your father a thought criminal?



Marx stated on three occasions that he was not himself a Marxist.



What crime would he be charged with under the constitution of the People's Republic of China, the very person to whom our ruling party owes its existence, for disrespecting its legally endorsed ideology?



That's why I think these constitutional amendments are pure hot air and a lot of fuss about nothing.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.



Bao Tong, former political aide to the late ousted premier Zhao Ziyang, is under continual surveillance and frequent house arrest at his home in Beijing.The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and rights groups on Monday expressed concerns over a new deal between Cambodia and Thailand they said could be used to target critics of Prime Minister Hun Sens government who have sought refuge across the border.



Last week, Cambodias Defense Minister Tea Banh met with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha in Bangkok and approved a deal in principle on the exchange of foreign fugitives using their territories as a base for sowing chaos and incitement.



On Monday, CNRP working group member Kong Measwho is currently based in Thailand amid a crackdown on the opposition, media and civil society ahead of Cambodias general election in Julytold RFAs Khmer Service the deal was intended to prevent members of his party from regrouping, following its dissolution by the Supreme Court in November.



Upon dissolution of the opposition party, we saw many opposition officials flee the country to take refuge abroad, he said.



As we wouldnt agree to defect [to the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party], they adopted a new law  to force us to end our activities. Now they have entered into new deal in order to persecute opposition party officials until the end. They dont want to let us escape.



Since the Supreme Court ruled to dissolve the CNRP for its alleged involvement in a plot to topple Hun Sens government, several of the partys officials and activists have fled to Thailand fearing arrest. Others who remained in the country have been subjected to harassment and bullying by authorities.



Kong Meas concerns about the new deal came as the Phnom Penh Post quoted Mao Vibol, a former CNRP exile living in Bangkok, as saying that a vehicle with Royal Cambodian Armed Forces license plates had been following him and other opposition members in the Thai capital over the last two weeks, causing him to change apartments, and some to leave the city.



Dy The Hoya, a program officer of labor rights group CENTRAL, told RFA Monday that the new deal could be used to target human rights defenders, politicians, and government critics.



He called on the governments of both Cambodia and Thailand to define who is subject to deportation, noting that political refugees should not be persecuted because of their activities or affiliation.



For those who have been accused or become victims of political issues, the government should consider their cases to ensure they adhere to international law on human rights, he said.



If they simply deport everyone without clearly specifying who is subject to extradition, our citizens will become victims. Should this deal be properly adopted, more challenges will be faced by those who hold opposing views and who are critical of the government, especially rights activists and politicians.



Earlier deportation



In addition to the wave of CNRP members who have fled there since the dissolution of their party, many Cambodian journalists and human rights, environment, and social affairs activists are currently living in Thailand amid fear of possible arrest and persecution by Hun Sens regime. Around 100 Thais have also sought refuge in Cambodia from legal proceedings following a military coup in 2014.



Concerns over the deportation of political refugees from Thailand mounted in February when CNRP supporter Sam Sokha was arrested by Thai authorities and returned to Cambodia, despite having earlier been granted refugee status by the United Nations refugee agency. She was later tried for throwing a shoe at a CPP billboard and is now serving two years in prison.



Cambodia has ratified the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and civil society groups have said the new deal is in contravention of both domestic and international law, as well as a violation of human rights.



While Thailand is not a signatory to the convention, its governmentand that of Cambodiais obliged to adhere to the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the forcible repatriation of those who fear persecution in their home country.



In January, London-based Amnesty International called on Thai authorities not to deport UNHCR-recognized refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam.



Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday ruled out canceling general elections slated for July, despite questions about the legitimacy of the vote in the wake of his governments dissolution of the countrys only significant opposition party, the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP). The strongman ruler of 33 years also refuses to hold talks with the CNRP, most of whose leadership is in exile or in jail. Amid the standoff, former CNRP leader Sam Rainsy, who has been in exile since November 2015, has repeatedly called for dialogue in the name of national reconciliation. Reporter Vuthy Huot of RFAs Khmer Service spoke to Sam Rainsy in a Skype interview on Monday.

RFA: You recently posted on your Facebook page, asking Hun Sen to set aside his personal feelings and put the national interest at the core. What are the reasons behind this?

Sam Rainsy: I noticed that some individuals placed their own personal feelings and angers at the forefront, without thinking about the national interest. This requires us to set aside our personal feelings. We must think about common interests, public interest and national interest, if we are real leaders. We should not employ personal issues, which cause criticism and anger, as a barrier to prevent any possible sound resolution of our national problems.

RFA: According to Prime Minister Hun Sens remarks upon returning from attending the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit recently held in Sydney, he has shut the door on any talks, since the opposition party was campaigning behind the burning of his effigy at protests that angered him. This suggests that he at one time wanted talks. What do you make of this?

Sam Rainsy: If we want to have a talk, if we have mutual honesty, in order to serve the national interest, we must learn to forget for a while any personal issues or individual issues. And we should not turn to label others by accusing them or having them arrested... or use them as political hostages. A bad worker should not always blame his tools! A culture of dialogue has been practiced around the globe. In all civilized countries, and democratic countries, they practice a genuine culture of dialogue. But in Cambodia, everything is fake, including democracy, rule of law, and development. And now the culture of dialogue was also a fake since no honesty and commitment existed and there was only threats and intimidation. A dialogue must be held with equality and no party should be subject to threats to jail them if they dont follow their orders. They have fabricated cases using their own rubber-stamp courts to pile pressure on us. This is not a culture of dialogue. Yet, I believe that sooner or later, Cambodians from all walks of life will clearly understand that only a genuine culture of dialogue is the basis for genuine democracy and the basis of sustainable peace. We must change our mindset. The present mindset stemmed from the old culture which is a culture of violence, a culture of posing threats, a culture of impunity. Such a cruel culture is the legacy of the Khmer Rouge regime. One day if we cleanse ourselves so that we no longer have remaining traces from the Khmer Rouge regime, then we will turn to adopt the genuine culture of dialogue.

RFA: Earlier you mentioned that the other side appears not to have any honesty for such culture of dialogue. But Hun Sen used to say that it was you who shakes his hand while stepping on his foot. How do you employ experience learning from past unsuccessful efforts at fostering a culture of dialogue and implement it, should there be any possible talks, in order to ensure its success and that it is held with integrity?

Sam Rainsy: I am not using Hun Sens language. All Hun Sens words are about personal issues, accusing others of this and that, of shaking hands while stepping on feet. If we are to hold a dialogue in the name of a leader, we must hold a dialogue for the national interest  not on personal anger, feelings, and envy, or any tricks to eliminate others. I dont have anything to say. If he does not want to speak with Sam Rainsy, he can still speak with Kem Sokha, with Eang Chhay Eang, with Mu Sochua, with civil society or journalists, including you. But, he used a pretext saying that I was the one who annoyed him. This is not about an individual named Sam Rainsy or Hun Sen. Individual issues are not crucial. We must uphold national interests at first, and talk about the countrys problems. If he is dissatisfied with Sam Rainsy, he still can practice such genuine culture of dialogue with many other Khmer nationals who love the nation and yearn for democracy and prosperity. Please exercise this culture of dialogue with integrity and stop talking about personal issues.

Translated by Sovannarith Keo.China's internet censors are deleting online references to an article posted by a senior academic hitting out at those who cave in to the growing politicization of university life under President Xi Jinping.



The article was reportedly posted by Li Chenjian, vice dean of Peking University's Yuanpei College, and hit out at "shamelessness and cynicism" in academic circles, saying that freedom doesn't just rain down from the sky, but has to be bought at a heavy cost.



An objective look at the past 5,000 years of history shows that those with any real backbone have been few and far between," the article, a copy of which was posted to the U.S.-based China Digital Times website, said. "Most people have been supine in the face of power, or have fought on its behalf."



"During the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, how many people served as collaborators, suppressing their consciences and slandering their colleagues in a cynical bid to protect themselves?"

the article, which comes as Chinese universities scramble to launch research institutions for the study of Xi Jinping Thought, said.



"Freedom is never free," the article said. "It never rains down from the sky, but must be won at great cost by people of courage and spirit."



Online searches for the article behind the Great Firewall on Monday yielded no results. Some Twitter account-holders said their accounts on the WeChat social media platform, which is tightly controlled by government censors, had been deleted after they posted about the article.



Written in memory of Peking University's founder Cai Yuanpei, for whom Yuanpei College is named, the article recalled Cai's own struggles against the Qing dynasty authorities of his time, during which he resigned eight times.



"Our education system cultivates astute and well-behaved liars, not defenders of the truth: it has nothing to do with knowledge and is all about the personalities involved," Li wrote.



"We should use the pen as our banner to make humble, but uncompromising protests," the article said. "At the very least, we shouldn't sell out on our dignity and independence."



Resignations rumored



Unconfirmed online reports said Li and other senior leaders at Yuanpei College had resigned.



An employee who answered the phone at Peiyuan College on Monday declined to comment on the reports.



"I don't know about this, but Li Shenjian isn't here," the employee said. "I haven't seen [Peiyuan College dean E Weinan and fellow vice dean Zhang Xudong] today either."



Repeated calls to the Peking University press office rang unanswered during office hours on Monday, as did calls to the offices of Li Shenjian, Peiyuan College dean E Weinan, and fellow vice dean Zhang Xudong.



But an employee who answered the phone at the office of the dean of Peking University on Monday declined to confirm or deny the reports.



"Sorry, but I don't know the details," the employee said.



More than 10 lecturers at the college contacted by RFA on Monday hung up without uttering a word as soon as the callers identified themselves as an RFA journalist.



Posts deleted



A Beijing-based academic who gave only his surname Zhao said posts relating to the rumored resignations are being rapidly deleted on Chinese social media platforms.



"I heard these reports in the past couple of days, but I don't know what's really going on," Zhao said. "I did make some posts related to this topic to my friend groups during the past couple of days, but they have all been deleted."



An internet user in the southwestern region of Guangxi surnamed Tan said people are curious about what really happened, but are currently too frightened to pursue the matter.



"Even one comment can easily get you [in trouble] right now," Tan said. "There is no room whatsoever for freedom of expression at the moment."



In an article on Sunday, Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily newspaper quoted vice dean Zhang Xudong as vehemently denying the rumors of his resignation, saying he would be "receiving foreign guests" along with dean E Weinan on Monday.



Crackdown on expression



President Xi, who recently succeeded in removing term-limits from the post of president, enabling him to rule indefinitely, launched a crackdown on freedom of expression soon after he assumed the presidency in 2013, and recently placed the ruling Chinese Communist Party in direct control of all mainstream and social media, as well as academia.



While the party's central propaganda department now directs the operational side of the media, the crackdown goes hand-in-hand with a new task force, the " Leading Group For Centralized Education Work, "located in the ministry of education, which gives the party more control over higher education and in schools, to "deploy ideological and political work."



Peking University, also known as Beijing University (Beida), announced the opening of a new department to study "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" after Xi's brand of political theory was enshrined in the party constitution at the 19th party congress last October.



It aims to "explain the rich connotations, essence and scientific system of Xi Jinping's socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era," according to a statement issued at the time.



Reported by Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Qiao Long for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.Karaoke bars, formerly a reliable money-maker for North Koreas sanctions-hit regime, are now being closed in the capital Pyongyang amid falling business and concerns over crime and other antisocial behavior, sources in the country say.



The bars, which came equipped with high-quality sound systems, had charged foreign businessmen and other guests steep prices for drinks and the attentions of female employees, who would often dance with patrons and pose for photos, sources told RFA in earlier reports.



Now, however, authorities have ordered the bars closed, and the bars are being shuttered one by one in a campaign launched at the beginning of the year, a resident of the capital told RFAs Korean Service during a recent visit to China.



No reason has been given for why they are being closed, so there are rumors going around, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



One rumor is that the bars have been associated with violent criminal incidents, he said, adding that others say the move is related to a campaign against anti-socialist culture, and that the karaoke bars no longer bring in money for the regime.



There have been fewer foreign visitors recently, and instead the bars are attracting domestic customers, and there is a strong possibility that the authorities have ordered them closed because of this, he said.



Wealthier North Koreans sometimes keep karaoke machines in their home to enjoy with their families and friends, and some are now wondering whether their personal machines are going to be taken away as well, the source said.



'Capitalist punk culture'



Also speaking to RFA, an ethnic Korean businessman living in China who visited a karaoke bar in Pyongyang last year said that business in the bars has recently dropped, with fewer foreign businessmen coming to Pyongyang.



North Korean authorities are also concerned about what they call capitalist punk culture spreading if they leave the bars open, especially if they arent bringing in foreign money, the source said, also speaking on condition he not be named.



In September 2011, former national leader Kim Jong Il criticized karaoke bars as decadent, and all bars outside Pyongyang were closed, a North Korean resident of Chongjin city in North Hamgyong province said.



Back then, people said that karaoke bar owners would make a fortune, but investors had a hard time [when the bars shut down], the source said.



Now, the owners of karaoke bars in Pyongyang are facing the same fate that the others did seven years ago, he said.



Reported by Joonho Kim for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Richard Finney.Myanmar traders meet to discuss bank accounts frozen by Chinese authorities along the 105-mile border trade zone in Muse township in Myanmar's northern Shan state, June 17, 2017.

Chinese authorities have frozen seven bank accounts owned by Myanmar traders who do business along the border in northern Shan state, claiming that the funds they contain are linked to illegal gambling activities, a Myanmar government official said Monday.

The banks began freezing the accounts of businesspeople who operate in the 105-mile Muse border trade zone across the Shweli River from southwestern Chinas Yunnan province on March 23, blocking deposits worth more than an estimated 200 million kyats (U.S. $148,300), said Yan Naing Tin, director general of the Department of Trade.

Authorities from the 105-mile trade zone and representatives from the Chinese side discussed the issue on Monday, he said.

We know that these accounts are watched by Chinese authorities and are considered to be linked to gambling activities, he told RFAs Myanmar Service. They are not totally frozen. Authorities from both sides are still talking.

Last June, three Chinese banks with local branches in Myanmars border area froze 132 bank accounts owned by Myanmar businesspeople who traded in the area, claiming that their funds were linked to illegal activities such as smuggling, gambling, and drug dealing.

At the time, local residents contended that the Shweli branches of the Agricultural Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China had frozen about 1,000 accounts.

Without warning, Chinese authorities blocked deposits worth an estimated 40 billion kyats (U.S. $28.8 million), making it difficult, if not impossible, to do business, the traders said.

Despite days of negotiations between Myanmar and Chinese officials and diplomats to unfreeze the assets, more than 100 Myanmar traders and residents in the border town of Muse publicly protested against Chinese authorities, demanding the immediate reopening of their bank accounts.

The banks then reopened the accounts two weeks after the negotiations.

Reported by Thiri Min Zin for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.Former Myanmar President Htin Kyaw (C), flanked by Vice Presidents Myint Swe (L) and Henry Van Thio (R), is sworn into office by the speaker of the upper house of parliament (not shown) during a ceremony in Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw, March 30, 2016.

As the two-year anniversary of the ruling National League for Democracys (NLD) ascension to power in Myanmar approaches, positions in the party are being reshuffled. President Htin Kyaw stepped down on March 21, citing the need to take a rest from politics. Also last week, Win Myint, speaker of the lower house of parliament, was elected one of three vice presidents, positioning him as the favorite to take Htin Kyaws place when lawmakers vote for a new president in a secret ballot on Wednesday. Deputy speaker Khun Myat was elected to replace him as speaker of the lower house.



Meanwhile, the NLD has appointed Myo Nyunt, a member of the NLDs Central Executive Committee, and Zaw Myint Maung, chief minister of Mandalay region and a regional lawmaker representing Amarapura township, as party spokesmen. They replace all but one of the current spokesmen as the civilian party under the leadership of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi gears up for further changes. Reporter Nay Rein Kyaw from RFAs Myanmar Service spoke with Myo Nyunt about the possible role of a new president under Aung San Suu Kyi and the direction of the NLD in the future. What follows is an edited version of their conversation.

RFA: The NLDs Central Executive Committee met a few days ago and appointed you and Zaw Myint Maung as the new spokesmen. Will there be any changes in the party in the future?

Myo Nyunt: We are always trying to change our party to make it more active and stronger.

RFA: Are the previous NLD spokesmen still serving in their capacities?

Myo Nyunt: Only Zaw Myint Maung is still serving [as spokesman], and I will speak on behalf of all NLD representatives. But local NLD leaders can speak as representatives of the NLDs information committee for their local news.

RFA: What would you say have been the most obvious changes that have occurred in the past two years?

Myo Nyunt: The NLD has eliminated peoples fear of speaking out. The obvious change is that people can report to authorities anytime when they feel an injustice has occurred. As for the economy, I think we are controlling the stability of countrys budget system and the currency exchange rate.

RFA: What about the NLD not implementing its major goals?

Myo Nyunt: The NLDs major goals are pretty high, such as amending the constitution, ending civil wars, and ensuring the rule of law. The NLD cant accomplish this alone. The NLD has been working on anti-corruption efforts and has reformed the government and reshuffled top administrative level leaders who couldnt perform their duties well.

RFA: If Win Myint becomes president, will the situation improve?

Myo Nyunt: I think it will be better because Win Myint has been working with the NLD since 1988. He knows about NLD members qualifications and abilities very well. Because he knows a lot about laws, he can organize and control those who work in government service so that they understand the governments policies and objectives.

RFA: How much will Win Myint will be able to accomplish without Aung San Suu Kyis influence if he becomes president?

Myo Nyunt: I dont want people to worry that much about it. Daw [honorific] Aung San Suu Kyi has great influence with the Myanmar people because of her own qualifications, background, and roots. But she always thinks about teamwork. We now are thinking about reforming the NLD according to Aung San Suu Kuis guidelines. As far as I know, she lets her colleagues work as much as they can. She usually tries to control someone if he or she needs to be controlled. For example, she gives Yangon Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein as well as many others a lot of authority. She might try to control Win Myint if he needs it, but it will not be a barrier to his authority [to run the country].

RFA: Aung San Suu Kyi is now 72 years old. Has the NLD discussed what its future will look like in the next five to 10 years?

Myo Nyunt: Yes, the NLD is thinking about reforming its leadership roles and about continuing what Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is working on now. We will issue one or two announcements soon, so people will know the details.

RFA: The NLD government still has three more year to go. Do you think you will gain more trust from people during this time?

Myo Nyunt: Yes, I believe we can do more to gain more peoples trust during those three years.

Reported by Nay Rein Kyaw for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.Britain's defense chief says that many countries are united behind Britain over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter and are pushing back against Russian efforts to divide the West.

"What [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin wishes to do is to divide Britain from its allies," Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson told reporters during a visit to Estonia on March 26.

Former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain hospitalized in critical condition after they were found collapsed on a bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

Britain accuses Putin's government of using a military-grade nerve agent that was developed during the Cold War, part of a series known as Novichok, to attack them with intent to kill.

On March 23, the EU collectively condemned the attack, said it was "highly likely" that Moscow was responsible, and agreed to take further punitive measures.

Several EU countries are expected to expel Russian diplomats this week, after Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats it said were spies.

"The fact that right across the NATO alliance, right across the European Union, nations have stood up in support of the United Kingdom...I actually think that is the very best response that we could have," Williamson said.

Based on reporting by ReutersU.S. Congressman Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives, told RFE/RL that the White House's decision to expel dozens of Russian diplomats was "the right call" and a gesture of solidarity with Britain, Canada, and other European allies. Ryan spoke in an interview with RFE/RL Senior Correspondent Carl Schreck on March 26.Dozens of people arrested in Minsk at a public demonstration is hardly something that grabs our attention.

This, after all, is pretty much par for the course in authoritarian Belarus.

But this weekend, the dozens of people arrested in the Belarusian capital serve as important reminders of a world that could have been -- but that never was.

And those brave souls are also an important reminder that everybody hasn't given up on that world.

Because a century ago this year, as most of Europe's empires crumbled in the aftermath of the First World War, some brand-new countries appeared in Europe.

Some of them lasted and some of them didn't.

Belarus, of course, was one of the ones that didn't.

The dozens of people arrested in Minsk this weekend were commemorating the 100th anniversary of Belarus's declaration of independence on March 25, 1918.

The new Belarusian People's Republic, of course, barely survived a year before it was forcefully absorbed into the Soviet Union.

Like the new Ukrainian and Georgian states that also appeared on the scene in 1918 and suffered similar fates, most of the world forgot that it ever even existed.

But it did exist.

And the reason that they ceased to exist is that because of all of Europe's empires that collapsed -- or began to collapse -- in 1918, only one, the Russian Empire, fought and succeeded in reconstituting itself in the form of the Soviet Union.

And today, a century later, we are revisiting that history as Vladimir Putin's regime seeks again to put that empire back together again.

Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia, the current war in Ukraine, and a small demonstration in Minsk this weekend are all reminders of the ongoing ambitions of Europe's last empire -- and the ongoing resistance to it.

Keep telling me what you think on The Power Vertical's Twitter feed and on our Facebook page.The European Union has called on Belarus to immediately release all the opposition activists who were arrested at the weekend as they attempted to hold an unsanctioned rally in the capital.

A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini made the call on March 26, the day after Belarusian authorities detained more than 30 activists ahead of a banned march in Minsk.

By the evening, most of those arrested had been released, but former presidential candidates Mikalay Statkevich and Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu remained in detention, the Viasna human rights center reported.

In a statement, Mogherini's spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said the response of the Belarusian authorities was "disproportionate."

"Democratic principles and fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly, association and of the media must be fully ensured in any democratic society," she also said.

"Steps taken by Belarus to respect universal fundamental freedoms, rule of law, and human rights will remain vital in shaping the European Union's future relationship with the country," Kocijancic added.

The planned rally in Minsk was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Belarus's 1918 proclamation of independence from Russia. The Belarusian People's Republic lasted until 1919, when it was effectively taken over by Soviet Russia.

Known as Freedom Day, the anniversary is traditionally a day for opponents of the authoritarian government of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to stage protests.

The Belarusian opposition accuses Lukashenka, who has been in office since 1994, of attempting to erase Belarusian identity and of "Russifying" the former Soviet republic.

During his two decades in power, Lukashenka has systemically quashed opposition parties, independent media, and civil society groups. Outbursts of political protests have been met with violence.

Kosovo police briefly detained a senior Serbian government official who had traveled to the north of the country, defying a ban by Pristina. Marko Djuric, the head of the Belgrade government's office for Kosovo, was transferred to a court in the capital, before being expelled from the country. He had planned to meet with Serb minority representatives in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica. (RFE/RL's Balkan Service)Kosovar authorities have deported a senior Serbian government official who had traveled to the north of the country, defying a ban by Pristina.

Kosovar special police units detained the head of the Serbian governments office for Kosovo, Marko Djuric, in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica on March 26.

Officers also fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of ethnic Serbs protesting against the arrest.

Djuric was transferred to a court in Pristina, before being expelled from the country.

Police earlier said they had sent reinforcements to northern Kosovo to stop Djuric and other Serbian officials from entering the country.

High Tensions

The incident added to already high tensions between Kosovo and Serbia.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the Kosovar police's use of force and the detention of Djuric amounted to a "brutal provocation and a criminal act."

"We will not let this go unpunished," Vucic said in an address aired live on Serbian media.

However, he also called on Serbs in northern Kosovo to remain calm and stopped short of pulling out of European Union-mediated talks on normalizing ties with Kosovo.

Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci also called for calm, saying the incident should not violate the communication between Kosovo and Serbia."

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini wrote on Twitter, Djuric now free on his way back. Need calm & preserve dialogue."

The U.S. ambassador to Pristina, Greg Delawie, expressed concern over the incident and said there was no alternative to dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.

Kosovos Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade has refused to recognize the former province's statehood despite its recognition by 116 other countries.

EU-brokered normalization talks have stalled in spite of a framework deal signed in 2013.

Tensions remain high, both between Belgrade and Pristina and between Kosovo's dominant majority ethnic Albanian population and its minority Serbs.

It was not clear how Djuric and another official from Serbia -- the Serbian Presidencys Secretary-General Nikola Selakovic -- entered North Mitrovica, where the two attended a roundtable discussion on how to strengthen "Serbian institutions" in Kosovo.

"For Serbia, Kosovo and Metohija, the north of Kosovo and Metohija, is not and will never be part of the so-called independent Kosovo or part of the so-called Greater Albania," Djuric told the gathering.

"Just as we did not give up today, despite all the threats, bans, cordons, and controls, just as they did not manage to stop us, as we did not give up, we will not give up our fight for a search for a solution that does not destroy or humiliate Serbs and Serbia," Selakovic said.

'Fomented Hatred'

To visit Kosovo, Serb officials must first seek official clearance from Kosovo's authorities.

Earlier, Kosovar Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli told a press conference that Djuric was not allowed to enter the country because of recent statements which he said "fomented hatred."

"We have asked him to respect the rules and submit the request 72 hours before the visit. Therefore, he cannot enter Kosovo today," Pacolli said.

The minister later wrote on Facebook that "anyone who enters Kosovo illegally will be arrested."

A day of EU-brokered negotiations between the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia broke up late on March 23 without any reported progress on efforts to normalize relations.

Vucic did not appear at a news conference immediately after the meeting but later on Serbian TV Pink accused Kosovo of stalling the implementation of a 2013 agreement on special rights for municipalities with a majority Serb population.

Thaci stressed the urgency for the two countries to reach an agreement on normalization this year.

Mogherini in a statement stressed that a comprehensive normalization agreement between two countries is a key condition for both countries to further their bids to join the EU.

The EU is pushing for completion of the normalization agreement by the end of 2019.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP

His company once raked in millions of dollars a day. He owned enough cash to pack several rooms full with banknotes. He was elected to the Russian State Duma and even attempted a run for president.



Today, Sergei Mavrodi, the man behind the infamous MMM financial pyramid that cheated millions of Russians out of their savings in the 1990s, is broke and in prison for nonpayment of a 1,000-ruble ($33) fine.



A Moscow court jailed him for five days on March 14 after he failed to pay the fine, slapped on him for an unspecified administrative offense. A court representative said he faced 10 identical charges.



For many, the jailing of a figure seen as Russia's biggest con man marks just another tumble in his spectacular fall from grace.



But several years on the run and a four-and-a-half year stint in prison have not tamed Mavrodi.



'The System Must Be Destroyed'



On the contrary, the trained mathematician last year launched a new pyramid scheme, MMM-2011, which he claims will eventually bring down the entire global financial system.



"My goal is a financial apocalypse, a destruction of the global financial system," he told RFE/RL just hours before his March 14 arrest. "I consider the current financial system unfair; it's not fair that some people own billions while others have nothing. The system must be destroyed and something else must be built in its place. That's precisely what I'm working on."



The principle behind MMM-2011 is the same as in any Ponzi scheme -- earlier investors receive their profits from subsequent investors. Mavrodi promises fantastic returns of 20 percent to 75 percent a month, as well as lotteries and bonuses for investors.



What sets this new scheme apart is that unlike the original MMM, which was presented as a financial institution with offices selling vouchers bearing Mavrodi's picture, the new version is entirely Internet-based. Investors have their money converted into a virtual currency called the "mavro dollar" that is supposed to increase in value.



Mavrodi describes MMM-2011 as a "financial social network" in which citizens give each other money.



Devout Followers



The scheme is also more up-front than its predecessor -- the website warns investors of the risks, and its founder openly admits it is a pyramid scheme.



Mavrodi says his new brainchild already has 20 million members, a claim that is impossible to verify due to the scheme's opacity.



One thing is for sure: his charisma and his efforts to portray himself as a modern-era Robin Hood are earning him devout followers.



Aleksei Muratov, a former legislator in the Russian city of Kursk, abandoned his political career to devote himself exclusively to promoting MMM-2011.



He firmly believes in Mavrodi's stated mission to bring about a new financial era.



"He isn't doing it for money, Muratov says. "I believe that his intentions are noble. Will he succeed? Considering the speed with which MMM-2011 is growing, I think I will see this new life. I think it will happen soon. Even if I go bust, I will have invested my money in his project, I will have supported him as a strong personality."



Authorities Reluctant To Act



So far, MMM-2011 has been able to operate largely unhindered, largely because Ponzi schemes and financial pyramids are legal under Russian law.



And despite numerous pledges to crack down on the pyramid after its creation in January 2011, federal authorities appear reluctant to take action.



Russia's financial ombudsman, Pavel Medvedev, is one exception. He has written to the Prosecutor-General's Office but he claims prosecutors are in no rush to look into Mavrodi's activities.



"The prosecutor-general told me that measures will be taken if violations are committed," he said. "Why aren't prosecutors acting against him? Because the Prosecutor-General's Office is not interested, it has a life of its own.



"If a big, big boss gives orders then it will act, otherwise it won't bother. It will take the trouble if there's a serious disaster, of course, if someone is murdered. That's its sensitivity threshold."



Medvedev doesn't believe MMM-2011 has millions of members. If this were the case, he says, he would long have been flooded with complaints from defrauded investors.



In his opinion, MMM-2011 probably operates on a very modest scale.



"MMM no longer exists," he says. "What we have here is a wretched person, Mavrodi, who has always been very active. Even in Soviet times he traded jeans, which was a very lucrative business.



"Now he is idle, he must pay the court and defrauded citizens fantastic amounts of money, which he doesn't have, so he can't start any business. I think he's bluffing."



Confident Of Success



Mavrodi, however, is confident of his success and is now seeking to export MMM-2011 to Western Europe, Canada, and Latin America.



His website is currently available in 17 languages, including English, French, Spanish, Czech, Greek, Turkish, Swedish, and Hebrew.



It also lists phone numbers of representatives in a dozen countries.



Mavrodi says he is about to launch a massive advertising campaign in Europe. His agents have already been spotted in London distributing Russian-language leaflets promoting MMM-2011.



His foray into the West, however, may prove tricky. Russia's porous legislation and the population's inexperience with capitalism at the time enabled MMM to defraud millions of Russians in the early 1990s.



Western citizens, well-seasoned in the principles of a market economy, may prove tougher to persuade. Western laws could also be an obstacle.



MMM-2011's biggest prospective foreign market, the European Union, bans all types of financial pyramids on its territory. Running such a scheme is punishable by a fine, a ban, and in some countries with a prison term.



According to Mavrodi, that's a risk he's willing to take.



"Absolutely nothing will stop me -- not threats, not intimidation, regardless of whom they come from, even from the very top," he says.



"Of course I don't want to go to jail. But I'm doing what I have to do, and what will be will be."Pakistani police have arrested 12 people for allegedly ordering a man to rape a girl in revenge for the rape of his sister.

A police officer in the eastern city of Pir Mahal, in Punjab Province, said the 12 people arrested included members of a village council, or jirga.

Rehmat Ali said that following the rape of a girl, the family of the alleged rapist, Wasim Saeed, sought pardon from the girl's family.

He said both families agreed to settle their dispute with the so-called revenge rape of the suspected rapist's sister.

The unlawful actions, called "wani" in Urdu, are still practiced in parts of rural Pakistan, where village councils often settle disputes.

Village councils have been condemned for a series of controversial rulings in the past, including ordering so-called "honor" killings.

Based on reporting by AP and Dawn

PRAGUE -- The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives said President Donald Trump made the "right call" in deciding to expel dozens of Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy on British soil.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (Republican-Wisconsin) made the comments in a March 26 interview with RFE/RL in Prague less than an hour after the White House announced the expulsion of 60 Russian "intelligence officers" and the closure of Russia's consulate in Seattle.

Numerous EU member states, Canada, and Ukraine almost simultaneously also announced expulsions of Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, who remain in critical condition in Britain.

"I think it was the right call. This is done in solidarity with our allies in Britain. I think it's fantastic that other European nations, including the Czech Republic right here, followed suit as well," Ryan said of the U.S. action.

"I think it was an entirely appropriate action to take," added Ryan, who met with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis on March 26.

Sergei and Yulia Skripal were discovered unconscious on a bench in the southern English town of Salisbury on March 4. Britain says they were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent and, along with its allies, has blamed Russia.

The Kremlin denies involvement and has suggested that the United States, Britain, or other countries could have been the source of the toxin. It said Russia would be "guided by the principle of reciprocity" in response to the expulsions announced on March 26.

Asked whether it was premature to expel Russian diplomats given that the ongoing British investigation into the poisoning -- and evidence that nerve agents were sold on the black market in Russia in the 1990s -- Ryan told RFE/RL that "the evidence is fairly clear in this particular case."

"I think the British have made their case pretty clear," he added. "And this is something that Russia has been doing, and this is something that we think that Russia has done. This should not be tolerated. This is not something that civil nations do."

British Prime Minister Theresa May has said that there was "no alternative conclusion, other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr. Skripal and his daughter, and for threatening the lives of other British citizens."

The poisoning of Skripal and his daughter has raised comparisons with the 2006 poisoning death of former Russian security officer Aleksandr Litvinenko in London. A British inquiry found that Russias government was responsible for Litvinenkos death by a radioactive isotope, though Moscow denies involvement.

Extradition Tug-Of-War

Ryan said that during his meetings with officials in Prague, he intends to raise the case of a suspected Russian hacker accused of a massive 2012-13 breach of U.S. companies, including LinkedIn.

The cybercrime suspect, Yevgeny Nikulin, is currently in Czech custody and is at the center of an extradition tug-of-war between Russia and the United States. A Czech court has ruled that he can be extradited to either country.

Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikan, who will make the decision on where to send Nikulin, has said that Czech President Milos Zeman -- known for his relatively pro-Kremlin views -- has advocated handing the suspected hacker over to Russia.

"Of course Ill raise this issue," Ryan said. "It is a high priority of our government, simply because we want to respect the rule of law. And we have every bit of confidence that the Czech government will respect the rule of law."

Nikulin, who has been in Czech custody since October 2016, denies the U.S. allegations. His lawyers have said that he will not receive a fair trial in the United States and should be returned to Russia, where he is suspected of online theft involving around $2,000.

'Calling Russia On It'

Ryan told RFE/RL that he supports ratcheting up sanctions on Russia, accusing Moscow of attempting to "sow chaos" and "undermine democracy" in the United States and elsewhere.

Russia has repeatedly rejected Washington's allegations that it conducted a hacking-and-propaganda campaign aimed at influencing U.S. elections.

"It is something that cannot and should not be tolerated by Western democracies. And so that is why it is important for us to call Russia on it," Ryan told RFE/RL.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants better ties with Moscow, and he triggered bipartisan criticism recently over his decision to congratulate Putin on his reelection in a March 18 presidential ballot that opponents called nothing more than democratic window dressing.

But Trump has left in place U.S. sanctions targeting Russia for its 2014 seizure of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and backing of armed separatists in eastern Ukraine -- policies launched under his predecessor, Barack Obama.

He has also hit Russia with new sanctions, though critics have accused him of failing to sufficiently carry out congressionally mandated punitive measures against Moscow.

Mueller Probe 'Assurances'

Ryan repeated his assertion last week that he had received "assurances" that there were no plans to fire U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating both the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether there was collusion between Russia and Trump associates.

Trump has been fiercely critical of Mueller's probe, insisting that his campaign did not collude with Russia.

Ryan said he does not believe it's necessary to pass legislation to protect Mueller's Russia investigation -- a position Republican members of Congress voiced last week.

"You are getting into constitutional issues with respect to powers of the executive branch versus powers of the legislative branch. I wont go into that debate other than to say: We must respect the rule of law, [Mueller] should be allowed to do his job, and I have absolutely no reason to believe they are even considering firing him," Ryan told RFE/RL.The Russian ambassadors to Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have been summoned to meetings at those countries' foreign ministries, Russian news agencies report.

The reports on March 26, which cited various named and unnamed Russian diplomats, did not say whether reasons were given for the summonses.

They came amid signs that several European Union countries are preparing to expel Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a nerve toxin in England.

The two remain in critical condition after being found gravely ill on a bench in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4.

Britain accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin's government of using a military-grade nerve agent that was developed during the Cold War -- part of a series known as Novichok -- to attack them with intent to kill.

On March 23, the EU collectively condemned the attack, said it was "highly likely" Moscow was responsible, and agreed to take further punitive measures.

Officials in the three Baltic states, Poland, and the Czech Republic said they are considering expelling Russian diplomats.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on March 23 that his country would "probably" expel Russian diplomats and would announce a decision on March 26.

Meanwhile, several media outlets are reporting that U.S. President Donald Trump could be on the verge of expelling at least 20 Russian diplomats.

Citing unnamed sources, CNN and the Reuters news agency reported that a decision could come as soon as March 26 and would probably depend on moves by European countries.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Raj Shah told Bloomberg on March 24 that the "United States stands firmly with the United Kingdom in condemning Russias outrageous action."

"The president is always considering options to hold Russia accountable in response to its malign activities," Shah said. "We have no announcements at this time.

Asked about the possibility of U.S. expulsions, Putin's spokesman said the Kremlin has seen no official announcements but suggested that Moscow would retaliate in kind if Washington kicks Russian diplomats out.



"Of course, in each such instance, the principle of reciprocity will be employed," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Expulsions would display EU solidarity with Britain, which has expelled 23 Russian diplomats it said were spies in part of its response to the poisoning.

Speaking in Estonia on March 26, Britain's defense chief said that many Western countries are pushing back against Russian efforts to divide the West.

"What President Putin wishes to do is to divide Britain from its allies," Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson told reporters.

"The fact that right across the NATO alliance, right across the European Union, nations have stood up in support of the United Kingdom...I actually think that is the very best response that we could have," Williamson said.

Russia denies that it was behind the poisoning.

Moscow retaliated against the British expulsions by expelling 23 British diplomats, as well as taking other measures.

Skripal, 66, is a former Russian military intelligence officer who was convicted of treason in 2006 after a court found that he passed the identities of Russian intelligence agents to Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.

He was one of four Russian prisoners released in 2010 in exchange for 10 Russian sleeper agents uncovered in the United States in one of the biggest spy swaps since the Cold War.

He and his daughter fell ill one day after Yulia Skripal, 33, arrived on a visit from Moscow, where she had been living.

With reporting by CNN, Reuters, AP, Bloomberg, Interfax, TASS, and RIA NovostiRussians took to social media in the wake of a deadly shopping-mall fire to allege that national TV channels avoided coverage of the March 25 event because Moscow was not keen to highlight "bad news" -- a suggestion the Kremlin has dismissed as "absurd."

As the death toll mounted -- reaching 64 on March 26 -- some social-media users faulted mainly state-run TV for failing to break into their normal Sunday broadcasting to report on the tragedy that was unfolding in the Siberian city or Kemerovo.

Calling the coverage "disgraceful," journalist Ilya Varlamov posted a snapshot of some of the TV fare on offer on March 26, including a game show, a film, and what appears to be a clip with Russian President Vladimir Putin playing a grand piano.

Writing on Facebook, Yelizaveta Aleksandrova-Zorina accused TV stations of avoiding the "negative news" of the Kemerovo fire and of carrying on with normal programming, including a talk show hosted by Rossia TV channel presenter Vladimir Solovyev about "how America hates us."

Facebook user Natalia Gevorkyan compared the scant coverage of the Kemerovo fire with widespread reporting of the Kursk submarine disaster in 2000, arguing that journalism standards in Russia had sunk in the interim.

When asked by a journalist on March 26 about the apparent thin coverage of the Kemerovo fire on national TV, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by TASS as saying it was "sheer foolishness" and "absurdity" to suggest the Kremlin was blocking "bad news."

Some social-media users defended Russian national TV's coverage of the Kemerovo blaze. A Twitter user identified as "Alexey" posted a screen shot of coverage on Rossia-24, which he said "was broadcasting everything" from Kemerovo.

The Russian-language news site Meduza reported that Rossia-24 featured nearly nonstop coverage from the Siberian mall, with its first report coming at 2 p.m., Moscow time, when casualties were first being reported.

Meduza also pointed out that NTV was the only nationwide Russian TV channel with a scheduled Sunday afternoon news program. NTV's news broadcast at 4 p.m. began with a report straight from Kemerovo.

Rossia-1 and Channel One first reported on the blaze on March 25 during their regularly scheduled Sunday evening news broadcast, according to Meduza. The independent news outlet that focuses on Russia also said that state-run TV had shied away from unscheduled live news reporting since the Beslan hostage crisis.

More than 330 people -- most of them children -- were killed in a botched rescue by Russian security forces after militants stormed a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, on September 1, 2004.Russian businessman Sergei Mavrodi, whose MMM pyramid scheme deprived millions of Russians of their savings in the 1990s, has died of a heart attack, according to Russia media.

Reports said the 62-year-old was rushed to the hospital late on March 25 with pain in his chest and died several hours later.

Mavrodi's MMM financial pyramid was a typical Ponzi scheme in which earlier investors receive their profits from subsequent investors. Mavrodi promised returns of 20 percent to 75 percent a month, as well as lotteries and bonuses for investors.

As soon as the number of new clients stopped growing, the pyramid collapsed, causing huge financial losses for at least 10 million people, in some cases leaving them destitute.

In 1994, Mavrodi was elected as a lawmaker, a decision he later said was to ensure he received immunity from prosecution. In 1996, he lost his parliamentary mandate.

In 2007, a Moscow court found him guilty of financial fraud and sentenced him to 4 1/2 years in a penal colony.

In 2011, Mavrodi launched another pyramid scheme called MMM-2011, calling on investors to purchase so-called Mavro currency units in a bid to get rid of the "unfair" financial system. Some 15 months later, Mavrodi halted the project.

From 2011-16, Mavrodi launched Ponzi schemes under the MMM brand in India, China, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria.

In many of those countries, Mavrodi's operations were subsequently shut down or suspended.

Based on reporting by Moskovsky Komsomolets and RBKThe United States, European Union member states, Ukraine, and Canada have ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in England -- a move the Kremlin vowed to match with "the principle of reciprocity."

The nearly simultaneous announcements on March 26 signaled a united front in the face of what Britain and other Western countries say was the use of a military-grade nerve toxin against Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury earlier this month.

U.S. President Donald Trump "ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian 'intelligence officers' -- including 12 at the United Nations in New York -- from the United States and the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and [plane maker] Boeing," a White House statement said.

"The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world," the statement added.

In a Twitter post, Jon Huntsman, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, called "it the largest expulsion of Russian intelligence officers" in U.S. history.

In an interview with RFE/RL, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, said the expulsion was the "right call."

The sweeping expulsion of Russian officers from the United States also drew applause from a frequent White House critic, Senator John McCain, who called it "a welcome step forward in holding [Russian President Vladimir] Putin accountable."

Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on March 4. They remain in critical condition.

The Kremlin, which has denied responsibility for the attack and has already retaliated against Britains expulsion of 23 Russians by ordering out the same number of Britons, characterized the March 26 moves as a "mistake."

"We strongly regret the decision made by several countries to expel Russian diplomats," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Putin will make the ultimate decision on Russias response.

"We will be guided by the principle of reciprocity," he said.

European Council President Donald Tusk said that half of the EUs 28 nations were expelling Russian diplomats, adding that "further expulsions within this common EU framework are not to be excluded in the coming days and weeks."

'Great Solidarity'

Within that framework, 31 Russians were being kicked out of EU countries, including four each from Germany, France, and Poland. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Moscow had failed to answer any of the questions around the attack nor shown a willingness to play a constructive role in clarifying the circumstances around it.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said 18 countries have announced plans to expel more than 100 Russian intelligence officers, adding the coordinated action was a message against Russian "attempts to flout international law."

"I have found great solidarity from our friends and partners in the EU, NATO, America and beyond... Together, we have sent a message that we will not tolerate Russia's continued attempts to flout international law and undermine our values," she told parliament.

"President Putin's regime is carrying out acts of aggression against our shared values and interests within our continent and beyond," May said.

Three Russian diplomats were being expelled by the Czech Republic and Lithuania; two from fellow EU members Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Italy; while Hungary, Sweden, Croatia, Romania, Finland, and Estonia announced plans to expel one Russian diplomat. Latvia also said it would expel a Russian diplomat, plus a representative of a blacklisted Russian company.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said late on March 26 that his country will announce "appropriate" action on March 27 to "show solidarity with our closest neighbor."

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in a message on Twitter that the "extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever & will help defend our shared security."

"Russia cannot break international rules with impunity," he added.

House Speaker Ryan (Republican-Wisconsin) told RFE/RL in Prague that "the evidence is fairly clear in this particular case."

"I think the British have made their case pretty clear," he added. "And this is something that Russia has been doing, and this is something that we think that Russia has done. This should not be tolerated. This is not something that civil nations do."

At the UN in New York, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the United States was expelling 12 Russian UN diplomats because of action they had taken outside their official capacity that was an abuse of their privileges of residence.

"When we see these espionage tactics that are taking place right here at the heart of the UN, we can't have that. This is really not just us but multiple countries saying all of these actions have to stop," Haley told reporters.

In Washington, a White House spokesman said the United States would like to have a "cooperative relationship" with Russia but actions like Moscow's alleged "brazen" attack on the ex-Russian spy in Britain prevented that.

"Our relationship with Russia is frankly up to the Russian government and up to Vladimir Putin and others in senior leadership in Russia," Raj Shah told a news briefing.

Ukraine, which is not an EU member, said it would expel 13 Russian diplomats and reiterated that its diplomatic ties with Russia "are de facto frozen" because of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"Russia once again confirmed its dismissive attitude not only to the sovereignty of independent states, but also to the value of human life," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement, adding that sanctions against Moscow should be tightened further.

'Despicable, Heinous Act'

Canada said it was also expelling four Russian diplomats who have been identified as intelligence officers or individuals who used diplomatic status to undermine the countrys security or interfere with its democracy.

Ottawa added that it was denying the applications of three more Russians seeking to become diplomatic staff.

The nerve agent attack in Salisbury, on the soil of Canada's close partner and ally, is a despicable, heinous, and reckless act, potentially endangering the lives of hundreds," Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement.

Norway, Albania, and Macedonia were also among non-EU countries to announce plans to kick out Russian diplomatic staff.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced early on March 27 that he was expelling two Russian diplomats who he said were undeclared intelligence officers. He said it was "reckless" for Russia to commit "the first offensive use of chemical weapons in Europe since World War II."

Iceland said its leaders will not attend the World Cup in Russia this summer, and announced a "temporary postponement of all high-level bilateral dialogue with the Russian authorities."

In a statement on March 26, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the expulsions would not help "find those who are guilty" in the poisoning.

The ministry accused "Britain's allies" of "blindly following the principle of Euro-Atlantic unity at the expense of common sense."

"It is self-evident that this unfriendly step by this group of countries will not pass without a trace, and we will react."

Skripal, 66, is a former Russian military intelligence officer who was convicted of treason in 2006 after a court found that he passed the identities of Russian intelligence agents to Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.

He was one of four Russian prisoners released in 2010 in exchange for 10 Russian sleeper agents uncovered in the United States in one of the biggest spy swaps since the Cold War.

He and his daughter fell ill one day after Yulia Skripal, 33, arrived on a visit from Moscow, where she had been living.

With reporting by RFE/RL Correspondent Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels, Reuters, AP, dpa, and BBC.Europe's law enforcement agency says Spanish police have arrested the alleged mastermind of a cybercrime syndicate that stole more than 1 billion euros ($1.24 billion) from banks over more than four years.

Europol said on March 26 that the alleged gang leader was arrested in the coastal city of Alicante, without giving the person's name or nationality.

The gang used pieces of malware known as Carbanak and Cobalt to target more than 100 banks in more than 40 countries since late 2013, a statement said.

It said the gang sent e-mails with a malicious attachment to bank workers. The software gave the cybercriminals remote control of infected machines, providing them with access to the internal banking network and infecting servers controlling ATMs.

Europol said the investigation was conducted by the Spanish National Police with the support of Europol, the FBI, Romanian, Belarusian, and Taiwanese authorities, as well as private cybersecurity companies.

With reporting by AP

ON MY MIND

I am using the On My MInd section of The Daily Vertical today to make an announcement.

Basically, I have some bad news and some good news.

As many Power Vertical followers may know by now, I have accepted a new position as a senior fellow and director of the Russia program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington, D.C., where I begin on April 1.

This week will, therefore, be my last at RFE/RL, where I am privileged to have worked for 11 years. The bad news, of course, is that this week will also be the last week that Power Vertical products (Power Vertical blog, Power Vertical Podcast, Daily Vertical, Morning Vertical) will appear in their current form.

And now for some good news. The Power Vertical will continue, albeit in a new form and under a new flag.

Thanks to RFE/RL's generosity, I will retain the Power Vertical brand name and take it with me to CEPA. There are currently plans to revive the blog, the Daily Vertical-style videos (albeit with less frequency), and the weekly podcast as CEPA products. I will also keep the Power Vertical Twitter feed (@PowerVertical) and Facebook fan page.

I will be providing details about the timing of all this on Facebook and on Twitter in the coming weeks.

IN THE NEWS

At least 64 people are dead after a fire raced through a busy shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, prompting panicked visitors to jump from windows as flames and smoke filled parts of the building.

U.S. President Donald Trump could be on the verge of expelling at least 20 Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, U.S. and international media are reporting.

Dozens of people have been arrested in Belarus as opposition activists attempted to hold an unsanctioned rally in the capital, Minsk.

A plan to place a 4-meter bronze monument to honor Soviet World War II aviators in a local park has been rejected by officials in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

About 1,000 people have protested again in Volokolamsk, some 100 kilometers west of Moscow, demanding the closure of a landfill that has been leaking toxic gas that harmed dozens of children this week.

Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Yevtukhov has said Russia will challenge stiff new tariffs that the United States imposed this week on aluminum and steel imports before the World Trade Organization.

A Soyuz capsule carrying two U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut has docked with the International Space Station.

LATEST POWER VERTICAL PODCAST

In case you missed it, the latest Power Vertical Podcast looks ahead to Russia during Putin's fourth term.

WHAT I'M READING

Farewell To A Friend And Colleague

I'm deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my friend and colleague Ruslan Gelischanow, one of the most colorful, passionate, and interesting people I have ever had the honor of knowing. Rest in peace, Ruslan. You'll be sorely missed.

Hearts And Minds

In Novaya Gazeta, Vladimir Pastukhov writes that Putin has won the battle for Russia's "collective unconscious."

Lessons From A Fire

In his column for Republic.ru, opposition journalist and political commentator Oleg Kashin weighs in on this weekend's fire at a shopping mall in Siberia and what it says about the "low cost of life" in Russia.

Excerpt From The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia

The Guardian has published an excerpt from The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia, the new book by Mark Galeotti of the Institute of International Relations in Prague and longtime co-host of The Power Vertical Podcast.The women fighting to preserve Ukraine's Soviet murals.

Throughout the former Soviet Union, almost unlimited public money was spent on mosaics to try and liven up the gray, boxy suburbs of the communist world, like this 1975 work, titled Environmental Protection, in Kyivs eastern suburbs.

Mosaics became Soviet officials' public art of choice after 1918, when leader Vladimir Lenin realized the giant public paintings he had originally envisioned to decorate his "utopian" cities would fade away in the brutal winters of the U.S.S.R. Here a Soviet-era mosaic rests on a post office in the abandoned town of Pripyat, near Chernobyl.

Following Russias 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and the subsequent violence in the Donbas, most of Ukraines overtly communist murals were removed during the decommunization process that began as a spontaneous street movement that was signed into law in 2015. (Reuters photo)

Most of Ukraines mosaics are made from pieces of opaque colored glass, called smalto, that hold their vibrance through any weather. The smalto for the mosaics that dot cities across the former Soviet Union was produced in eastern Ukraine.

A mosaic relief in eastern Kyiv.

The Soviet-era mosaics that remain, like this 1970 one outside Kyivs National Cancer Institute, face an uncertain future with many such murals disappearing and little popular support for their protection.

But an initiative to preserve, or at least document, the murals is gaining traction. Kateryna Filyuk, is one of the curators of Izolyatsia (Isolation), a platform for cultural initiatives in Ukraine. In August 2017, Izolyatsia issued a call to "help us save Ukrainian mosaics." The appeal created a small but active community of contributors from around Ukraine who are locating and photographing Soviet murals.

A mural over the entrace to a school in Kyiv. The problem is [the Soviet Union is] gone but we have this heritage, and whos going to take care of it? Despite [the murals'] ideological meaning there's a heritage that we have to take care of and maintain, Filyuk told RFE/RL.

But many Ukrainians disagree, and some property owners have taken it upon themselves to demolish murals tainted by their Soviet origin. Or, in some cases, the unpopular art has been destroyed through simple expedience. These fragments of a mosaic were scraped off the wall of a school during a renovation and are now held in storage by Izolyatsia members.

A snow-dusted mosaic decorating a Kyiv jewelry factory. Lubava Illyenko, one of the founders of the initiative to preserve Soviet-era mosaics, says the group was among the first to look into the origins and authorship of Ukraines Soviet mosaics.

The facade of Budmo, a restaurant in southern Kyiv. Illyenko says she has plans to eventually launch an app that people can use to locate Ukraines remaining mosaics, and Izolyatsia hopes one day to be able to remove threatened mosaics and mount them on mobile panels -- though one curator of the program admits that may be a pipe dream.

A relief inside the Budmo restaurant depicting Ukrainian village life. Illyenko has applied for several grants for her work, but as the war with Russia-backed separatists grinds on, she says its horribly difficult to finance anything to do with Soviet art.

A mosaic inside the Kyiv metro.

A relief inside the Kyiv metro that was, until recently, hidden behind a metal fence. The mural has had its hammer (in the Soviet hammer-and-sickle motif) removed and is now back on display (behind scaffolding).

The mosaic, Blacksmiths Of The Present, at the entrance to a nuclear research center in Kyiv. When asked how she felt while standing in front of a Soviet mosaic, Illyenko told RFE/RL I feel only sadness because this art is so, so hard to preserve.

------------------Iran has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to appoint former UN Ambassador John Bolton as national-security adviser, with a senior official saying that it is shameful and is a sign that Washington hopes to overthrow the government in Tehran.

A spokesman for Bolton dismissed such remarks as "propaganda."

Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, made a reference to Bolton having attended a 2017 meeting of Iranian opposition People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), an exiled dissident group that backs the overthrow of Iran's leadership.

The semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Shamkhani as saying on March 25 that for an "apparent superpower, it is a matter of shame that its national-security adviser receives wages from a terrorist group."

The report did not indicate that he provided any evidence of his claim, and MEK denied that it has funded Bolton or any other U.S. official.

Also on March 25, Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, a spokesman for the influential parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, told the semiofficial ISNA news agency that Bolton's appointment, as well as that of former CIA chief Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, "proves that the final U.S. purpose is overthrowing [the Iranian government]."

Hosseini alleged that the United States will use the MEK to attempt to overthrow the theocratic regime in Tehran. He did not provide evidence.

Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for Bolton, on March 25 said that Bolton "doesn't respond to propaganda from a government long included on the United States' list of state sponsors of terrorism."

In Paris, MEK spokesman Shahin Ghobadi said that the suggestion that his group "has funded Ambassador Bolton or any other American officials is simply a lie and is a mere joke."

Bolton in the past has advocated for regime change in Iran and is vehemently opposed to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which provided Tehran with sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

In a July speech to the MEK in Paris in July, Bolton expressed hopes that Iran's government would be overthrown "by 2019."

Trump announced on March 22 that Bolton would take over from H.R. McMaster as national-security adviser beginning on April 9.

Bolton, 69, has long been a hawkish voice on foreign policy for the Republican Party. He has advocated for preemptive military strikes against North Korea and military strikes on Iran.

He served in the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and George W. Bush.

His views on Iran appear to be in line with those of Trump, who has adopted a tough stance against Tehran since taking office in January 2017.

Trump has repeatedly denounced the 2015 nuclear deal and in January said the accord must be "fixed" by May 12 or Washington will withdraw.

Meanwhile, a former Israeli defense minister on March 25 said Bolton once tried to persuade him to strike Iran.

"I knew John Bolton since he was United States ambassador to the United Nations," Shaul Mofaz, who served as defense minister from 2002-06, told a conference in Tel Aviv.

"He tried to convince me that Israel needs to attack Iran," Mofaz said, according to the Ynet news site.

"I don't think this was smart, not on the side of the Americans today and not on the side of anyone until the threat is real," Mofaz said of a potential attack on Iran.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, Fars, and ISNAU.S. President Donald Trump could be on the verge of expelling at least 20 Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, U.S. and international media are reporting.

CNN and the Reuters news agency on March 25 said the decision could come as soon as March 26 and would likely depend on any moves by European allies in reaction to the nerve-agent attack in the British city of Salisbury.

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found on March 4 on a bench in the city center and taken to a hospital, where they remain in critical condition.

British officials said it was highly likely Moscow was behind the attack, a view also expressed by the European Union.

London expelled 23 Russian diplomats in reaction to the poisoning. Moscow denied involvement and responded by ordering 23 British diplomats out of Russia.

The EU said it was considering its actions, with expulsions expected from European capitals.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said Washington was considering its options but did not provide details.

"The United States stands firmly with the United Kingdom in condemning Russias outrageous action. The president is always considering options to hold Russia accountable in response to its malign activities. We have no announcements at this time," he said.

News agencies on March 20 quoted State Department sources as saying Trumps National Security Council had given the president a range of measures to take against Russia. The reports said Moscow would be expected to retaliate in a similar manner should expulsions take place.

Any U.S. moves could conflict with Trumps stated desire to improve ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump last week in a phone call congratulated Putin on his reelection victory -- a vote considered by Western critics to be tainted by irregularities-- and did not mention the poisoning attack.

With reporting by Reuters, CNN, The Washington Post, and The TelegraphPakistan defended its record on nuclear nonproliferation after the United States imposed sanctions on seven Pakistani companies over suspicions that they have engaged in nuclear trade.

Pakistans efforts in the area of export controls and nonproliferation as well as nuclear safety and security are well known, Islamabad's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on March 26.

The sanctions could potentially damage Pakistan's ambition to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a group of countries that can trade nuclear technologies.

Relations between the United States and nuclear-armed Pakistan have been strained in recent years over Islamabad's alleged support for militant groups fighting Afghan and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan denies the claims.

The U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security imposed the sanctions on the Pakistani companies on March 22 by placing them on its "Entity List."

The bureau said in a report that the Pakistani companies had been "determined by the U.S. government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States."

Companies placed on the entity list will not suffer asset freezes but will need special licenses to do business in the United States.

A total of 23 companies were added to the list last week, including 15 entities from South Sudan and one from Singapore.

Pakistan has a poor record on nuclear proliferation.

A UN nuclear watchdog said in 2008 that the network of Abdul Qadeer Khan, known as the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, smuggled nuclear weaponization blueprints to Iran, Libya, and North Korea and was active in 12 countries.

Based on reporting by Reuters, dpa, and DawnA notorious, nearly 130-year-old jail in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, will be replaced by a park.

Under a resolution adopted by the cabinet on March 22, the Tashtyurma detention center will be demolished in three months, the Justice Ministry said.

It said a park with recreation facilities and other amenities will be created in its place.

Tashtyurma prison was built in 1891 on the order of Imperial Russian Governor-General Aleksandr Vrevsky and is one of the oldest jails in Central Asia.

Human rights defenders have been saying that jail, whose official name is Detention Center No. 1, was dilapidated and that conditions there were extremely poor.

The inmates of Tashtyurma were moved to a newly built jail in the Zangiota district outside the capital in January.

Uzbekistan has a dire human rights record, with torture and politically motivated prosecutions widespread under late President Islam Karimov, who ruled with an iron fist for more than a quarter-century.

President Shavkat Mirziyoev, the longtime former prime minister who was handed the helm after Karimov's death in 2016, has taken steps to reform the country's justice and law-enforcement systems.Uzbek human rights activist Musajon Bobojonov has been handed a suspended three-year prison sentence after being convicted on extremism-related charges that he rejects.

At a March 26 hearing, the Quva District Court in the Ferghana region found Bobojonov guilty of preparation, possession, distribution, and publication of materials threatening public security and order. It sentenced him the same day.

Bobojonov, the leader of the Ezgulik (Compassion) human rights group's branch in the eastern city of Andijon, told RFE/RL that he will appeal the ruling.

Bobojonov went on trial on February 5 after investigators claimed that some materials they found in his computer had been defined by experts as containing elements of religious extremism and fundamentalism.

Bobojonov rejects the accusations, saying that he has never promoted religious extremism.

The activist, a graduate of the Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies and Cairo University, has said he is "aware of all negative impacts that wrong teachings can cause to our sacred faith."

On February 26, the prosecutor in the trial asked the court to sentence the 51-year-old rights defender to four years in prison.Investor buys Cozumel lobster for Canada, Hong Kong

Cozumel, Q.R.  A Canadian investor has made a deal with a cooperative in Cozumel to buy live lobsters that would be shipped to Canada and Hong Kong.

Members of the Cozumel Fishing Cooperative are about to become the first to export live lobster to Canada and Hong Kong. Jose Angel de la Cruz Canto Noh, president of the Board of Directors of the cooperative, says that the negotiation is very advanced and that live lobsters could start being shipped by the middle of the year.

He says that in Hong Kong, one kilo of lobster can fetch a market price of up to $52 USD adding that the Canadian investor is interested in acquiring all the production from the cooperative, noting that the agreement stipulates that the buyer buys to the extent of availability.

De la Cruz Canto Noh says that the cooperative has already invested in additional infrastructure and logistics to increase production to meet the new export demands.

He said that last year, 48 tons of lobster were captured in the Bahia del Espiritu Santo with another two in the Rada de Cozumel. Lobster season for the Mexican Caribbean runs July 1 of this year until February 28 of 2019.

To be able to deliver live lobster to Hong Kong, four members of the cooperative will be trained in special handling and packaging, taking into account that after their capture, a lobster only has 42 hours to live.She was a student at Taft High School in Bexar County. The girl, Maarib Al Hishmawi was told that a 28-old man will pay $20.000 to the family and she will become his bride. They beat her with broomsticks almost to the point of unconsciousness. She suffered such abuses multiple times in 2017. On Jan. 30, she than was gone from home and later, in mid-March, she was found alive. An underground organization that rescues women in abusive family situations was able to get her out of where she was being held, according to law enforcement officials.



The abused girl

The teen showed her scars to police. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar called the details very disturbing. Hishmawi denies the abuse allegations surrounding his only daughter. Nobody abused my daughter. I have nothing to hide. Im not scared about this., he says. Hishmawi moved his family from Iraq to San Antonio more than two years ago. Now. the teenage girl and her five siblings, between the ages 5 and 15, were placed under Child Protective Services custody.Sachin Tendulkar has long shown concern for the alarming road conditions in our country and the total apathy towards road safety. He had earlier written to the Union Road Minister, Nitin Gadkari urging him to take action against manufacturers of low quality helmets.

He stated that good quality helmets were the need of the hour as it was the non use or lack of quality helmets that caused the most road accidents in the country. Tendulkar has stated that only good quality ISI helmets should be used and has even suggested that prices should be lowered so that all riders could afford these quality helmets and not choose from cheaper and more dangerous options.

Tendulkar has cited alarming statistics with regard to road accidents. A report suggests that 85% of helmets sold in India are of poor quality and do not comply with ISI standards. There are over 2.75 lakh helmets produced per day by over 275 helmet manufacturers in the country that should be made available to customers at more attractive prices.

Tendulkar has even uploaded a video on his Facebook page approaching a couple on a two wheeler, requesting them to wear a helmet. He has even urged the pillion rider to wear a helmet so as to be protected in the event of an accident. In response to these concerns, Nitin Gadkari has approached Tendulkar to be the new Road Safety Ambassador.

Gadkaris letter to Tendulkar  As you had indicated in your letter, it is an undenying fact that the road safety is matter of serious concern for all of us. Almost one and a half lakh people lose their lives every year in road accidents. despite various road safety improvement programmes are in place, the road traffic injuries leading to deaths, disabilities and subsequent hospitalisation causing severe socio-economic costs, still remain a cause of grave concern in our country.

Tendulkars reply to this is yet awaited, but it is hoped that he will take up the offer specially considering the immense impact that the Master Blaster has on the minds of the public. This could go a long way in easing the number of two wheeler accidents and calamities in the country.[MEDELLIN] The planet's biodiversity is being lost faster than it recovers, with developing regions expected to bear the brunt of future soil degradation, warns a global assessment report produced by hundreds of scientists, government officials and civil society.

Forty per cent of the biodiversity in the Americas will be lost by 2050, according to figures released during the Sixth Plenary session of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which brought together some 550 researchers and officials from 129 countries this month (March 17-24) in Medellin, Colombia.

Four regional assessment reports were approved at the meeting, covering biodiversity and ecosystem services in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Central Asia and Europe. The work took three years of collaboration between hundreds of researchers, decision makers, and civil society.

If we continue to lose biodiversity we will not meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Sir Robert Watson

A fifth report, due to be presented today, dealt with land degradation and restoration. The IPBES says soil degradation undermines the well-being of at least 3.2 billion people globally, with most future degradation expected to occur in Central and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Sir Robert Watson, the chair of IPBES, recognises the progress made in preventing biodiversity loss but says it is not enough. Although there are knowledge gaps, we know enough to manage our biodiversity much better than we currently are.

The time for action is now, said Watson at a press conference. Actually it was yesterday and the day before yesterday.

"If we continue to lose biodiversity we will not meet the Sustainable Development Goals," he stressed.

The figures spell out an alarming situation in the Americas, which host seven out of the 17 most biodiverse countries of the world. In just 50 years, since 1960, the amount of potable water available per person across the continent has been reduced by 50 per cent; and the ecological footprint of human activities in the region grew between 200 and 300 per cent.

Since the time of European colonisation, 88 per cent of the Atlantic forest has been destroyed by human activity, according to the assessment.

A person walking through a natural area today is going to see 30 per cent less biodiversity than they would have at a time of the European settlement, said Jake Rice, co-chair of the IPBES assessment for the Americas. By 2050 it will go up to 40 per cent, under a business as usual scenario. There is where we are heading.

Overfishing, for example, has reduced fish stocks by 20-70 per cent in the last few decades, altering ecosystems productivity and functions in many marine and some freshwater systems.

Rice also pointed out that the distribution of benefits from use of natural resources is uneven among the people and cultures of the Americas. The Americas account for 23 per cent of the global ecological footprint, and North America is responsible for 63 per cent of that proportion even though it represents only 36 per cent of the population across the continent.

Less than a quarter of Earth's land surface remains free of substantial human impacts, and the report estimates that by 2050 this will drop below 10 per cent. "The desert of La Guajira, in Colombia, will be uninhabitable in a few years," Brigitte Baptiste, a member of the IPBES Multisectorial Panel, told SciDev.Net.

Loss of biodiversity and degradation of soils, both due to human activity, are pushing the planet towards a sixth mass extinction of species, according to the report. And by 2050, land degradation and climate change are expected to reduce crop yields by an average of 10 per cent worldwide. This will likely force some 50 to 700 million people to migrate.

Despite the gloomy scenarios, there was some optimism in Medellin, which delegates attributed to the inclusive process of producing and disseminating the documents approved by the IPBES.

Christopher Anderson, a representative of the Argentine government and one of the authors of the assessment from the Americas, told SciDev.Net that it was "a process of co-production of knowledge" that began with questions raised by governments and gathered input from other sectors, such as NGOs and indigenous groups.

Marcos Regis da Silva, director of the intergovernmental organisation Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), said the IAI, is supporting the IPBES to take the results of the research and  make them digestable to policy makers for them to be able to make more effective policy decisions.

Watson told SciDev.Net that the IPBES will continue to disseminate the results of the assessment, including at the level of children in schools: "We are only starting a journey to make sure that we can get these messages into the public, into governments, into the private sector."

A summary for policymakers of each of the reports has been made available online, with the complete reports expected later this year.

IAI is one of SciDev.Nets donors.

This article was produced by SciDev.Nets Latin American & Caribbean desk.There are two war veterans, both with penetrating traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by a gunshot. One of them tends to donate his own money to societal entities he believes in, and the other one punishes institutions that don't represent him. The answer for these behavioral differences rely on brain areas, that after being damaged during the Vietnam War are no longer working as they are supposed to. In order to elucidate these mechanisms, neuroscientists investigated altruistic behavior -- actions that benefit others -- in Vietnam veterans. The study was published in Brain.

For at least 150 years, we know that TBI can change several domains of behavior, impairing social behavior or memory, for instance, depending on which brain areas have been damaged. However, mapping the relation between brain areas and behavior can be tough, especially for complex behavior such as altruism. War veterans constitute a unique opportunity to reveal causal relationship between how specific brain areas are involved in social behavior.

This study -- part of an initiative that investigates the brain of war veterans since the 1980's -- included 94 war veterans with penetrating TBI and 28 controls that also served in combat in Vietnam but had no history of brain injury. All participants had their brains examined with a Computed Tomography (CT), a non-invasive method that allows investigation of brain damage.

Also, veterans participated in an altruistic decision task in order to capture their intuitions of justice and morality. In this test, each participant was required to donate or punish 30 charitable organizations involved in salient societal issues, such as abortion and gun control. Each decision (either donate or punish) costed them $1, while avoiding them resulted into savings.

In the altruistic decision task, donate and punish are typically altruistic decisions: they involve giving away from their own money in order to benefit third parties. "This test is different than others because it allows us to go deep in their moral intent, since they donate or punish to what they believe is right or wrong," explains Ricardo de Oliveira-Souza, neurologist from D'Or Institute for Research and Education and author of the study.

Altruism in the brain

When linking participants' performance on the test to their brain lesions, scientists found out that those veterans who have made more decisions to punish showed bilateral lesions in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. On the other hand, less punishment was associated with lesions in the left temporo-insular and right perisylvian cortices.

However, decisions to donate to a given organization were associated with lesions in other areas of the brain. Increase in donations was linked to bilateral lesions in the dorsomedial parietal cortex, while decrease in donations was observed in the veterans who had suffered damage in posterior parts of the right hemisphere, including superior temporal sulcus and middle temporal gyrus.

"Our findings reveal that we have two distinct brain circuits that come into action under a moral situation: one of them punishes, the other one donates," highlights Oliveira-Souza.

Previous studies have pointed to the importance of these brain areas to determine the sense of morality and justice towards individuals or social groups. According to the authors, the present study reinforces the notion that altruistic decisions emerge from complex cognitive process that come into action during a moral decision, for instance if one is for or against civil rights.

"We hope that learning more about the brain mechanisms of altruistic behavior and its related social behaviors we can promote the positive social behaviors that families desire; particularly in patients under rehabilitation for different forms of neurodegenerative disorders or brain injury," says Jordan Grafman, from Brain Injury Research Program, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Chicago, USA.

In the future, the authors expect to evaluate younger people and women with the altruistic decision task in order to investigate whether there is any differences in the brain circuits of morality related to sex and age.And then there were... 44. Eight bison -- four calves and their mothers -- were released in mid-March on public lands in northern Colorado, bringing the total number of animals in the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation Herd to 44.

A 10-month-old calf known as IVF 1 was among the newcomers. She is the first bison calf conceived using in vitro fertilization, or IVF, at Colorado State University.

Jennifer Barfield, a reproductive physiologist with the CSU Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology Laboratory, was beaming with pride as she described the landmark moment.

"It's a really good feeling to see a herd grow and to know that the animals from our research are going to have a real impact, not only in our herd but as we produce animals in this herd and help support other conservation herds," she said.

Project partners also heralded the breakthrough.

"CSU and the research being conducted by Dr. Barfield has always been a cornerstone to this project," said Daylan Figgs, senior environmental planner for City of Fort Collins Natural Areas. "The IVF calf represents not only a research milestone, but a great success story in the conservation of this iconic grassland species."

The herd was established at Soapstone Prairie Natural Area and Red Mountain Open Space in November 2015, and is managed jointly by the City of Fort Collins, Larimer County and CSU.

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"We are pleased to see the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation Herd thriving and the public response so positive for this collaborative effort," said Meegan Flenniken, planning and resource program manager for Larimer County Department of Natural Resources.

In vitro fertilization in bison

Using any type of reproductive technology can be challenging. The IVF process for bison is similar to that for humans, and in women under age 35, the live birth IVF success rate is 40 percent. The success rate of IVF in bison is not known.

"Just because we bring an egg into the lab and we fertilize it, it doesn't mean that the result will be a baby bison," said Barfield.

Barfield said her research team had previously focused on using in vivo produced embryos, ones that were fertilized inside a bison, and subsequently moved to a different animal. For this project, researchers used eggs taken from bison from Yellowstone National Park and fertilized them with sperm from bulls with Yellowstone genetics in the lab.

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Seven days after fertilization, the eggs were put through a rapid cooling process known as vitrification, similar to freezing. Scientists use vitrification to preserve the embryos and transfer them during breeding season.

The research team thawed a small number of embryos in 2016, and transferred them to nine female bison.

The research team collects reproductive material from Yellowstone bison outside of the breeding season, which means the quality of the eggs may not be as good compared with collecting eggs when an animal is in the breeding season and ready to get pregnant.

Barfield said the result, or IVF 1, was unexpected.

"I didn't have a lot of hopes for this particular embryo, because she didn't look that great," she said. "But she defied the odds and survived."

Barfield said the team will transfer more IVF embryos later this year. She and the project partners hope to one day have 100 bison in the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation Herd.

Dr. Mark Stetter, a wildlife veterinarian and dean of the CSU College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, said the bison's reintroduction is a "phenomenal" conservation story which demonstrates how cutting edge research and collaborative relationships can really make a difference in helping nature.

Step forward for conservation efforts

The use of this reproductive technology in American bison also opens up another avenue for conservation efforts. Barfield's lab at CSU has approximately 1,500 frozen embryos that could be used in a year, or even in a hundred years. "That gives us the opportunity to access these Yellowstone genetics for a very long time," she said.

So, if something were to happen to the herd in Yellowstone National Park and the bison's numbers dwindled, the frozen embryos could become quite valuable. It also means the risk of extinction is greatly decreased.

"Not only do the embryos carry the Yellowstone genetics, but they're also brucellosis-free, which is really important for the Yellowstone bison," she said.

Brucellosis is an infectious disease that can cause abortions and plagues bison in the Greater Yellowstone Area. Its presence typically makes it challenging to move the bison beyond those geographic confines.

"Dr. Barfield's innovative research is having a major impact across the country, from the Bronx Zoo in New York to the prairies of the West," Stetter added. "This unique partnership is really special and will make a difference for generations to come."Skin melanoma, a particularly insidious cancer, accounts for the vast majority skin cancer deaths and is one of the most common cancers in people under 30. Treatment for advanced melanoma has seen success with targeted therapies -- drugs that interfere with division and growth of cancer cells by targeting key molecules -- especially when multiple drugs are used in combination. While the combination of targeted therapies improves patient outcomes, any remaining cancer cells can lead to drug resistance. Recently research published in Cancer Discovery showed that changing the schedules of drug administration can improve outcomes leading to more complete responses in mouse models of the disease.

"We are looking to optimize the combinations of targeted therapies and the scheduling of those therapies so we can improve tumor shrinkage and minimize potential toxicities for a patient," said Andrew Aplin, PhD, Associate Director for Basic Research and the Program Leader for Cancer Cell Biology and Signaling (CCBS) in the NCI-designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health.

Dr. Aplin and Jessica Teh, PhD, his senior postdoctoral researcher at Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University), examined the effects of a combination of two FDA-approved targeted agents on human melanomas grafted onto mice. While one drug, MEK inhibitor, is usually used in advanced-stage melanoma, the other drug, CDK4/6 inhibitor, palbociclib, is currently FDA-approved for treatment of Estrogen Receptor-positive breast cancer patients. While MEK inhibitors are part of treatment protocols for melanoma, palbociclib is entering clinical trials for use in melanoma populations.

When both drugs were given intermittently, tumor growth increased after a one-week drug holiday, and tumors became resistant to the therapy after about eight weeks. However, if one drug was provided continuously while the other given intermittently, the tumors shrank and remained small, no matter which drug was continuous.

Exploring that result further, the researchers noticed that with continuous MEK inhibition, tumors were consistently smaller, with some shrinking to undetectable levels. Whereas continuous CDK4/6 inhibition showed some toxicity not observed on the other schedules. Thus, a combination of MEK inhibitor given continuously with intermittent CDK4/6 inhibitor was the most effective schedule in mice.

After initially responding to the optimized drug schedule, some tumors showed resistance and began growing back despite the presence of the drugs. However, the researchers uncovered several mechanisms leading to tumor resistance, giving them insight into which drugs could combat the resistant cancer.

"The surprising part was that the mechanisms of resistance all funneled through one signaling pathway, ultimately, but the way that they start is frequently different," said Dr. Aplin. When that common pathway was blocked with a new drug, mTOR inhibitor, in addition to continuing the optimized therapies, resistance was effectively turned off, and the tumors resumed shrinking. Though it still has to be shown effective in humans with the disease, this paper provides a testable method of optimizing currently available drugs for melanoma treatment. Because these drugs have already passed FDA-safety tests, it could be available to patients on the order of a few years, rather than decades.

To that end, in collaboration with the University of Zurich and MD Anderson Cancer Center, the researchers tested melanoma tumor samples from human patients undergoing treatment with the same targeted therapies. The common pathway found in mouse models was also found in human tumors, suggesting that resistance could indeed be blocked in patients with the same drug as in mice.

Dr. Aplin credits support from the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center as well as external support from the Melanoma Research Alliance with launching this ambitions project. "They supported us at the start of this project and without this grant, we wouldn't have done this work," Aplin says.

"Dr. Aplin's major research advance is part of a larger effort by the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center to develop new strategies for treating melanoma. Research teams focused on both cutaneous and uveal melanoma are fast-tracking discoveries into the clinical setting, and bringing novel therapeutic options to patients in the Philadelphia region," said Karen Knudsen, Director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.Water holds a special place among liquids for its unusual properties, and remains poorly understood. For example, it expands just upon the freezing to ice, and becomes less viscous under compression, around atmospheric pressure. Rationalizing these oddities is a major challenge for physics and chemistry. Recent research led by The University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) suggests they result from the degree of structural ordering in the fluid.

Water belongs to a class of liquids whose particles form local tetrahedral structures. The tetrahedrality of water is a consequence of hydrogen bonds between molecules, which are constrained to fixed directions. In a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), the researchers investigated why the physical properties of water -- as expressed by its phase diagram -- are so remarkable, even compared with other tetrahedral liquids, such as silicon and carbon.

Tetrahedral liquids are often simulated by an energy potential named the SW model. The liquid is assumed to contain two phases -- a disordered state that has high rotational symmetry, and a tetrahedrally ordered state that does not -- in thermodynamic equilibrium. Despite its simplicity, the model accurately predicts anomalous liquid behaviors. The two-state property is controlled by the parameter lambda (), which describes the relative strength of pairwise and three-body intermolecular interactions. The higher  is, the degree of tetrahedral order increases.

"We realized that , which is rather large for water, was key to the uniqueness of these liquids," study co-lead author John Russo says. "Effectively,  controls the degree of tetrahedrality: as  increases, tetrahedral shells forming around each molecule become energetically more stable. Hence, these shells overcome the unfavorable loss of entropy that accompanies the creation of order." The local tetrahedra resemble solid-state structures, which is why high- liquids crystallize more easily.

By continuously adjusting , they simulated a set of phase diagrams to model what happens when a "simple" liquid becomes progressively more water-like. With increasing , the various thermodynamic and dynamic anomalies of tetrahedral liquids -- such as expansion at low temperature and the breaking of the standard Arrhenius law for diffusion -- became more pronounced.

However, it was not as simple as "more tetrahedra equals weirder behavior." The influence of tetrahedrality was maximized for water, which has  = 23.15. Above here, the behavior of density as a function of temperature approached normal again, because the difference in volume between ordered and disordered states began to drop. Thus, water has an exquisitely fine-tuned or "Goldilocks" value of  that lets it shift easily between order and randomness. This gives it high structural flexibility in response to changing temperature or pressure, which is the origin of its unique behavior.

"Linking observable properties, such as viscosity to microscopic structures, is what physical chemistry is all about," co-lead author Hajime Tanaka says. "Water, the most abundant and yet most unusual substance on earth, has long been the final frontier in this respect. We were delighted that a simple, well-known model can fully explain the strangeness of water, which arises from the delicate balance between order and disorder in the liquid."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.On September 29, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged a New York businessman and his two companies with defrauding investors in a pair of so-called "Initial Coin Offerings" ("ICOs") purportedly backed by investments in real estate and diamonds.

The SEC alleges that Maksim Zaslavskiy and his companies have been selling unregistered securities, and that the digital tokens or coins being peddled don't really exist. According to the SEC's complaint, investors in REcoin Group Foundation and Diamond (also known as Diamond Reserve Club) have been told they can expect sizeable returns from the companies' operations when neither has any real operations.

Zaslavskiy allegedly touted REcoin as "The First Ever Cryptocurrency Backed by Real Estate." Alleged misstatements to REcoin investors included that the company had a "team of lawyers, professionals, brokers, and accountants" that would invest REcoin's ICO proceeds into real estate when in fact none had been hired or even consulted. Zaslavskiy and REcoin allegedly misrepresented they had raised between $2 million and $4 million from investors when the actual amount is approximately $300,000.

According to the SEC's complaint, Zaslavskiy carried his scheme over to Diamond, which purportedly invests in diamonds and obtains discounts with product retailers for individuals who purchase "memberships" in the company. Despite their representations to investors, the SEC alleges that Zaslavskiy and Diamond have not purchased any diamonds nor even identified any storage location. Yet they allegedly continue to solicit investors and raise funds as though they have.

The SEC obtained an emergency court order to freeze the assets of Zaslavskiy and his companies.

The SEC's complaint, filed in federal district court in Brooklyn, N.Y., charges Zaslavskiy, REcoin, and Diamond with violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 ("Securities Act"). The complaint also alleges that Zaslavskiy, REcoin and Diamond violated the registration provisions of Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act, and that Zaslavskiy aided and abetted REcoin's and Diamond's violations. The complaint seeks permanent injunctions and disgorgement plus interest and penalties. For Zaslavskiy, the SEC also seeks an officer-and-director bar and a bar from offering digital securities.Even the hotties and hunks of the human race would likely have oblong-shaped bodies, great rolls of blubber and sleek bullet heads if Homo sapiens had adapted to the ocean like aquatic mammals did eons ago, Stanford University researchers said Monday.

Thats because certain changes, including insulating layers of fat and a fish-like physique, would have been necessary to keep the body warm and moving fast enough to find food in the cold water. It means the real-life version of Aquaman would weigh close to 1,000 pounds, said Jonathan Payne, a Stanford professor of geological sciences.

I would expect that a hominin that began evolving an aquatic lifestyle would need to acquire a decent layer of blubber for insulation, would not need large ears, and would likely modify its limbs to improve locomotion in water, Payne said. It appears quite likely that the selective pressures would initially favor size increase.

His research, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that oceangoing mammals, including seals, sea lions, manatees, dolphins and whales, gravitated toward an ideal, ample weight and made adaptations to improve their insulation or feeding ability after their ancestors entered water millions of years ago.

We found that living in the water requires a minimum size so that heat loss isnt so dramatic, Payne said. About 1,000 pounds allows for an energy surplus, and thats what you want to be a successful species. That appears to be the size at which its easiest to be a marine mammal.

Red Huber/TNS

The study started as an attempt to learn why most of the largest creatures in the sea  blue whales, orcas, walruses and elephant seals  are mammals. Payne and graduate student Will Gearty, the reports lead author, joined with Craig McClain of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium to compile the body masses of 3,859 living species and 2,999 fossil species, 25 percent of them extinct, and analyze how they changed over time.

The researchers followed the ancestral histories of seals and sea lions, which are closely related to dogs; manatees, which share ancestry with elephants; and whales and dolphins, which are related to hippos and hoofed land mammals. They found that the primary rule governing the size and shape of seagoing creatures is the need to stay warm in cold water and maintain enough energy to find food.

The study of aquatic mammals tells a story about evolution after the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Todays aquatic mammals began as terrestrial animals. They were almost certainly semiaquatic  wading and swimming along the coast  but could not fully commit to the sea because they would have been eaten by huge reptiles and giant squid-like cephalopods.

Once these carnivores were killed off, the mammals began entering the water. The whale, Payne said, evolved over the next 10 million years from a partially adapted swimming mammal to a fully aquatic species. Bones that were once legs still exist in whale skeletons.

Payne said humans primate lineage goes back to about the time the ancestral whales entered the water. But as aquatic mammals diversified, many of them grew larger than their closest land-dwelling relatives. In fact, most of the reptile and arthropod species that entered the water after the dinosaur extinction also grew to be larger than their land-based cousins.

The general consensus has been that the buoyancy of living in water removed the need to fight gravity and enabled unlimited growth as long as animals found enough to eat, but Payne and his colleagues found that wasnt true. Their hypothesis is that, at some point in the evolutionary process, the water constrained growth and pushed aquatic mammals toward a more uniform size.

The key thing is that when you evolve to become a fully aquatic animal, the range of sizes appears to be smaller than land animals, Payne said.

Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

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The researchers concluded that land animals evolved quickly once they took to the water, bulking up if they started out small and trimming down if they were large, but not always at the same pace. For instance, the dog relatives grew faster than the hippo relatives shrunk, suggesting that larger, more blubbery animals have a slight evolutionary advantage in aquatic environments.

Its not that water allows you to be a big mammal, Payne said. Its that you have to be a big mammal in water  you dont have any other options.

Still, all of the creatures tended to converge up or down toward the 1,000-pound sweet spot, an example of how different species evolve shared traits when they live in similar environments. The exceptions to the 1,000-pound rule were whales on the large side and sea otters on the smaller end. Thats because they evolved defenses against the harsh realities of the sea, according to the study.

Blue whales, the largest animals that ever lived, can strain massive amounts of food from seawater through their baleen filters, allowing them to expend less energy hunting and thus grow larger than their toothed counterparts. Sea otters, on the other hand, retain more heat because of their dense fur, which has the unique ability to trap air bubbles and insulate the body from the cold.

Although the study doesnt address human evolution, the results could alter our understanding of Homo sapien history. Some scientists have hypothesized that humans were once on the cusp of being aquatic.

In 1960, marine biologist Alister Hardy suggested a branch of human ancestors may have been forced by competition to leave the trees and live off shellfish by the sea shore. The theory, called the aquatic ape hypothesis  which has been mostly derided by mainstream academics  could explain human characteristics like upright posture, hairlessness and the regression of the olfactory organ.State and federal officials turned up the heat on Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday as they sought answers about the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and his counterparts in 36 states and territories sent a letter to Zuckerberg saying revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm, obtained information on more than 50 million Facebook members raised many serious questions that the Menlo Park company needed to answer.

Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, invited Zuckerberg, along with the CEOs of Google and Twitter, to Capitol Hill on April 10 to discuss Facebooks past and future policies regarding the protection and monitoring of consumer data.

And the Federal Trade Commission confirmed that the agency has opened an investigation of Facebook, possibly including whether the company violated a 2011 settlement relating to data privacy.

Mondays developments intensified what analyst Daniel Ives called the hurricane-like storm swirling over Facebook since the disclosure about the data obtained by Britains Cambridge Analytica, which was hired by Donald Trumps presidential campaign.

This has just created more worries around the Nightmare on Elm Street week that Facebook and Zuckerberg encountered, said Ives, head of technology research at GBH Insights.

On Sunday, Facebook took out ads in major newspapers apologizing for the Cambridge Analytica scandal. But the apologies werent enough for Becerra, who joined a long list that included attorneys general from Oregon, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, D.C, Hawaii, Guam and American Samoa.

Facebook has made promises about users privacy in the past, and we need to know that users can trust Facebook, the letter from the attorneys general said. With the information we have now, our trust has been broken.

Will Castleberry, Facebooks vice president for state and local public policy, said in a statement that attorneys general across the country have raised important questions and we appreciate their interest. Our internal review of the situation continues and we look forward to responding.

The letter asked the company for an update about how Facebook will allow users to more easily control the privacy because its members still dont know their personal data is available to third-party companies.

Cook County, the Illinois County that includes Chicago, filed a suit Friday claiming Facebook and Cambridge Analytica violated that states consumer fraud and deceptive business practices laws.

Facebook stock posted a slight gain in trading Monday, although the overall market surged. The stock price initially slumped after the FTC confirmed that it has opened an investigation into Facebooks privacy practices.

Tom Pahl, the FTCs acting director of consumer protection, issued a statement saying that the agency is probing whether the company has engaged in unfair acts that cause substantial injury to consumers.

Pahl noted that in 2011, Facebook agreed to a settlement of an FTC complaint about its use of users information. The commission said the company deceived consumers by failing to keep promises to protect the privacy rights of its then-800 million members. Facebook now has more than 2 billion members.

Reports surfaced last week that the FTC had started an investigation, but the agency did not confirm the probe until Pahl issued his statement.

Companies who have settled previous FTC actions must also comply with FTC order provisions imposing privacy and data security requirements, Pahl said. Accordingly, the FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook.

Rob Sherman, Facebooks deputy chief privacy officer, said in a statement, We remain strongly committed to protecting peoples information. We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have.

The 2011 action settled an eight-count FTC complaint citing Facebook for privacy violations that occurred between October 2008 and May 2010. One complaint cited Facebook for allowing third-party apps access to more personal data than they needed.

Facebook represented that third-party apps that users installed would have access only to user information that they needed to operate, the FTC said. In fact, the apps could access nearly all of users personal data  data the apps didnt need.

Facebook, which in 2011 had not yet become a public company, agreed to tighten its privacy controls and submit to an independent audit every two years for the next 20 years. Jon Leibowitz, then chairman of the FTC, said that future violations of the terms of the settlement would carry a fine of up to $16,000 per day per violation.

When asked about those audits, an FTC spokeswoman declined to comment beyond Pahls statement.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center complained that the case showed the FTC failed to enforce the settlement to prevent incidents like Cambridge Analytica from occurring.

Bart Lazar, a privacy attorney with Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago, said the FTC may have difficulty finding that Facebook was liable for the actions of a third party.

I suppose the FTC could craft an argument thats based on the fact that Facebook knew or should have known what was going on with respect to the use of the data, Lazar said. He also said the U.S. does not have a baseline law covering privacy protections, just a hodgepodge of federal and state laws.

And if the FTC finds there were violations, determining the amount of civil penalties Facebook could have to pay could depend on whether the violations apply to each of the 50 million members whose data was misused or to just one instance of Cambridge Analytica misusing the data, Lazar said.

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Besides Grassley, several House and Senate members have invited Zuckerberg to testify before various committees. Grassley, however, scheduled a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, specifically to discuss privacy standards and data use.

Grassley also invited Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to discuss the future of social media data privacy and developing rules of the road.

Facebook confirmed the company received the invitation, but did not say whether Zuckerberg would accept. Google declined to comment, while Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tim Cook, Apples CEO, said over the weekend at a conference in Beijing that well-crafted regulations may be needed to govern data privacy.

Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bevangelista@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChronicleBenny

Questions for Facebook from state attorneys general

Were those terms of service clear and understandable, or buried in boilerplate where few users would even read them?

How did Facebook monitor what these developers did with all the data that they collected? What type of controls did Facebook have over the data given to developers?

Did Facebook have protective safeguards in place, including audits, to ensure developers were not misusing the Facebook users data?

How many users in our respective states were impacted?

When did Facebook learn of this breach of privacy protections?

During this time frame, what other third-party research applications were also able to access the data of unsuspecting Facebook users?Last week Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo encouraging federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for certain drug trafficking offenses.

Federal law allows for capital punishment in drug trafficking cases involving murder or homicide. But the attorney general also specifically called out one provision that allows for capital punishment in cases involving "extremely large quantities of drugs."

That provision, 18 U.S.C.  3591(b)(1), lays out quantities of drugs that could trigger capital punishment even in the absence of any accompanying violent crime. Experts say that no cases have ever been tried under this provision, and that it's almost certain that it would be declared unconstitutional if any such case were to be appealed to the Supreme Court.

"The Supreme Court has never upheld the death penalty for a crime that did not involve death," said Tamar Todd, director of the Office of Legal Affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that advocates for decriminalizing drug use.

Still, for the time being, a zealous federal prosecutor could seek the death penalty for certain drug traffickers on the basis of drug quantity alone. In the accompanying graphics, we visualized those quantities relative to a 6-foot-tall American man.

Just under 0.6 kilograms of LSD could trigger the death penalty in a federal drug trafficking case, the lowest such threshold in the statute. While such a pocket-size quantity may not seem like much, it works out to about 6 million standard (100-microgram) doses of the drug.

For meth, the threshold is three kilograms. Similarly, six kilograms of PCP, or angel dust, would trigger the death penalty. PCP use is relatively uncommon - the number of Americans reporting use in 2016 rounded to zero, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

The capital threshold for fentanyl is 24 kilograms, enough to squeeze into one or two backpacks. With a lethal dose of three milligrams for a typical adult man, 24 kilograms of fentanyl could kill approximately 8 million people. Fentanyl analogs, which can be even more powerful, are treated more strictly under federal law.

The capital threshold for heroin is 60 kilograms - small enough to move in a few suitcases or the trunk of a small car.

Three hundred kilos of pure cocaine is enough to trigger the death penalty, but as in many areas of federal law crack-cocaine ("cocaine base," in statutory parlance) is treated much more harshly, with a threshold of 16.8 kilograms. The two substances are chemically identical, but crack is treated 18 times more severely under federal law - a relic of racial drug sentencing disparities that have traditionally treated African American drug users much more severely than white ones.

Finally, there is a federal capital punishment on the books for large quantities of marijuana - a substance with no known lethal dose that is legal for recreational use in nine states plus the District of Columbia. The threshold is huge - 60,000 kilograms, or 60,000 plants, enough to fill several shipping containers.

The quantity-based capital punishment provision is of particular concern to state-legal marijuana businesses. The plant remains illegal under federal law, regardless of what state laws say. Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, a trade group, said in an email that "there are many state-licensed cannabis businesses cultivating 60,000 plants or more."

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But again, experts say it's unlikely that any individuals trafficking in any drug, much less state-legal marijuana, would be tried or sentenced under the quantity provision of federal law.

"No one has been sentenced to death under that provision," Todd said. "People have long thought that the provision would be unconstitutional, but it hasn't been challenged because there have been no cases."

Why, then, would the attorney general specifically highlight that provision in his memo?

Todd thinks the memo is more about messaging than anything else. "To me it's the message of 'we're going to be tough, and we don't view these people as fully human and deserving of life,' " Todd said. "It's an opportunity to look really tough by dehumanizing people."WASHINGTON - The Trump administration on Monday ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian intelligence and diplomatic officers in New York and Washington and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle in retaliation of the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

Twelve Russian diplomats at the United Nations in New York and 48 at the Russian Embassy in Washington face expulsion by the U.S. government for what senior administration officials described as covert intelligence operations that undermine U.S. national security.

The U.S. government also is closing the Russian consulate in Seattle, which senior administration officials said they believe has served as a key outpost in Russia's intelligence operations.

The moves announced Monday are the Trump administration's toughest response yet to the March 4 nerve-agent attack in Salisbury by Russia that critically injured a former spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia.

"This was a reckless attempt by the government to murder a British citizens and his daughter on British soil with a nerve agent," said a senior administration official, who was only authorized to discuss the actions on the condition of anonymity. "It cannot go unanswered."

European nations were also set to announce coordinated expulsions of Russian diplomats following the nerve-agent attack in Britain.

The actions, which could prompt retaliatory strikes against U.S. diplomats in Russia, come in contrast to President Donald Trump's efforts to foster a warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a phone call to Putin last week, Trump rejected the counsel of his national security advisers and congratulated Putin on his reelection victory.

Although Trump's administration is taking action to punish Russia for the attack in Britain, Trump did not personally confront Putin on the attack during their phone call, administration officials have said.

"To the Russian government, we say, when you attack our friend you will face serious consequences," said a senior administration official. "As we have continually stressed to Moscow, the door to dialogue is open." But, this official continued, Russia must "cease its recklessly aggressive behavior."

Administration officials said the Russian government has been notified about the expulsions and that the selected diplomats and intelligence officers have seven days to leave the United States.

The expulsion of 60 diplomats is the most sweeping since the Reagan administration ordered 55 diplomats out of the country in 1986.

In December 2016, the Obama administration expelled 35 suspected Russian intelligence officers in retaliation for Moscow's interference in the U.S. presidential election.

Then last July, the Kremlin ordered the United States to cut its diplomatic staff by 755 employees in response to the passage of legislation in the U.S. Congress imposing new sanctions on Russia for its election interference.

In response to Moscow's move, the Trump administration last August shut the Russian consulate in San Francisco and diplomatic annexes in New York and Washington.

"They'll certainly retaliate," said Michael Sulick, a former head of the CIA's National Clandestine Service and a former Moscow station chief. "The Russians live by strict reciprocity. It's tit for tat all the time."

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The only time they did not do so, Sulick noted, was after the Obama administration's move to expel 35 Russians. In that case, however, according to court records, it appears their restraint was prompted by calls between Trump's then-incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and then-Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Kislyak, has admitted that in December 2016 he urged Kislyak not to escalate an ongoing feud over sanctions, according to court records. The Washington Post reported that Flynn had assured Kislyak that the issue would be revisited once Trump took office.

Flynn is now cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well as possible obstruction of justice by Trump.

The Trump administration's move shows solidarity with Britain. "You have to send some kind of message," Sulick said. "You can't go around poisoning people."

But Putin likely will see this as a temporary setback, knowing that over time he can replace intelligence officers, Sulick said. If it were up to him, he said, he'd be taking more aggressive actions, such as revealing "financial information that would embarrass Putin on the world stage," or other actions that would "really cut into him" economically.

"The Russians only understand one thing - when the boot is on their neck, and you keep pressing down," Sulick said.We learned last week that what happens on Facebook doesnt stay on Facebook. But the exploitation of your personal data by Cambridge Analytica is just the tip of the iceberg. Now that weve had our rude awakening to the fact our seemingly innocuous social media chitchat can be weaponized against us and our democracy, its time to get serious and adopt the kind of strict data privacy protections taking shape in Europe.

This May, European Union officials will begin formal enforcement of the long-anticipated General Data Protection Regulations, which set strict boundaries on the way personal information is bought and sold.

Backed by the threat of multimillion-dollar fines, these data regulations give people specific rights over how their personal data is collected and shared. It provides an enviable level of transparency and requires companies to disclose what information they are gathering and why.

The regulations enacted in Brussels will affect Internet businesses worldwide. Even the giants of Silicon Valley will adopt best practices to keep from running afoul of the regulations, because no one will voluntarily abandon a developed market with a half-billion consumers.

And because no one in their right mind would walk away from Californias giant economy, we are in an ideal position to demand similar commonsense privacy rights for our residents. It would be difficult for any company to argue that they cant comply with stricter rules here, since they already comply with them overseas.

Weve done it before with notable success. Although auto companies may have balked initially at Californias strict emissions regulations, they did figure out how to abide by them. The glaring exception to that rule, of course, was Volkswagen, but in the end it was Californias air regulators who discovered the company had programmed its cars to cheat on emissions tests.

The Volkswagen case illustrates how the regulatory decisions of one state can make an impact far beyond its borders. More importantly, though, it shows that regulations are only as effective as the enforcement infrastructure behind them.

Right now, California doesnt speak with a single authoritative voice to monitor and regulate Big Techs growing marketplace of personally identifiable data. Ive introduced legislation to change that.

AB2182 establishes the California Data Protection Authority, answerable to the Legislature and ultimately to the people of California. It will be tasked with the critical mission of protecting the personal information of California residents by holding Big Tech accountable to the law by way of reasonable regulations. The expertise developed in the data protection authority will ensure that our regulations evolve in parallel with the inevitable advancements in data collection and analysis.

AB2182 is an important step on a long journey. We have a lot of work ahead and thats why its crucial that we get the ball rolling now. After all, replacing their long-standing privacy rules with a much more comprehensive new set took Brussels regulators more than six years.

During that time, weve learned how breathtakingly vulnerable our personal data can be. Yahoo told us not long ago that 3 billion accounts had been compromised. More than 400 million users of the adult dating site Friend Finder learned in 2016 their personal info had been hacked. The same is true of 165 million LinkedIn users and 145 million consumers whose information had been entrusted to consumer-credit reporting agency Equifax. In a surprise to many Americans who spend countless hours each day sharing with friends on Facebook, we learned how Cambridge Analytica exploited personally identifiable data from the platform to create psychographic profiles of 50 million Americans to influence the presidential election. Our surprise was the permissive complicity of Facebook, which allowed our data to be shared with Cambridge Analytica when it was expressly prohibited.

The companies we are talking about are the most profitable corporations in history. But that doesnt place them above the reach of regulators. We must tell the keepers of our data exactly what we expect them to do when they detect a breach. We must also compel them to protect intimate information about our personal lives. Establishing the California Data Protection Authority moves us in that direction.In an age when property owners in every neighborhood struggle to fill empty storefronts, a quiet renaissance is taking shape on the most unlikely of stretches: San Franciscos perennially down-on-its-luck Sixth Street.

The two-block corridor between Market and Howard streets is attracting a wave of entrepreneurs who see urban vitality and density, not to mention affordable rents, where others see blight and human suffering. Over the past year, Sixth Street, and the alleyways adjacent to it, have added a new cafe and art gallery, a new bar, a Jewish bakery, a grilled-cheese shop, a milk-tea spot, and a wig store.

And theres more to come: An additional five retailers and food establishments are building out spaces, including Thrasher, the pioneering San Francisco skateboard magazine and apparel company that has never had its own store in its 37-year history despite cultivating a brand known around the world. Also coming this spring and summer: a store from Create Skate, another local skateboard brand; a Nepalese restaurant; a kosher falafel place; and a Greek restaurant.

Thrasher owner Tony Vitello said hed been thinking about opening a brick-and-mortar venue for a few years  a small store that doubles as an archive. But despite having plenty of options  he was courted by landlords in the city as well as Los Angeles and Las Vegas  nothing quite fit the creative, antiestablishment, DIY culture Thrasher has been cultivating since publishing its first magazine in 1981.

In the end, Vitello fell in love with a spot that few real estate professionals might have recommended: a dingy, hole-in-the-wall storefront at 66 Sixth St. Vitello liked the address  the sign-of-the-devil triplet of sixes  and appreciated that it was about as far as you could get from a trendy retail corridor like Haight Street or Valencia Street.

It was on Page 12 of this real estate website, and there wasnt even a photo, he recalled. I went down to the real estate office. ... They were like, Why do you want this place? We dont even understand why you want to be in the area. Have you looked in the Mission?

Vitello had and wasnt interested. Thrasher is set to open later in the spring.

Sixth Street serves a crucial role in the citys housing and social service infrastructure, a refuge for the citys poor in rapidly gentrifying South of Market. The two blocks south of Market Street are home to 24 residential hotels with 1,507 rooms, with hundreds more low-income units in apartment buildings such as the Bayanihan House at 88 Sixth St. and the new Bill Sorro Community at 200 Sixth St.

Hotels like the Knox, the Rose and the Dudley all house formerly homeless people. There are places both for intravenous drug users to get clean needles and for drug recovery services. There are rooms set aside for former prison inmates.

But the concentration of poverty, social services and housing density fuels the perception  sometimes warranted, sometimes not  that Sixth Street is out of control, its sidewalks clogged and rancid, its alleyways littered with human waste and needles. Many San Francisco residents avoid the street unless its to visit Tu Lan, the classic Vietnamese greasy spoon that opened in 1977.

While acknowledging the challenges, the new business owners say they embrace the street, flaws and all. Bobby Valentino Sanchez, who opened the cafe and art gallery Pentacle right next to the future Thrasher, said he was drawn to Sixth Streets eclectic liveliness.

For me, this is the spot where I get to live out my dream, said Sanchez, who has spent 20 years in the coffee business, including a decade at Four Barrel. Its the part of the city that feels the most like a city. Its denser. If you are going to be a new business, it makes sense to be where there is more foot traffic.

Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

Its also the spot where the rents are among the most affordable in the city. Rents for unimproved commercial space on Sixth Street can be as little as $1.50 or $2 a square foot  about one-third of what a similar space on Valencia Street would cost, according to Nancy Conover, who handles leasing for Mercy Housing, which owns several properties on Sixth Street.

Sanchez allows that Sixth Street is pretty intense, but says, The neighborhood has been welcoming.

The residents who live in the SROs (single-room-occupancy hotels) dont want to walk past empty storefronts, he said. I do get some people from the SROs. Thats the great thing about coffee, even fancy coffee  $3 might be more than the $1.50 cup down the street, but its still pretty accessible.

A few doors to the south is the Rumpus Room, a new bar that opened this month with an Art Deco theme in keeping with the interiors 1935 design.

It has a half door open to the street, and, unlike the other drinking establishments on Sixth Street, which open at 5 p.m. or later, the Rumpus Room starts pouring at noon, said co-owner Roxzann De Marco.

I wanted to be open every day at noon, even if nobody is here, said De Marco, a graphic designer and video artist. I definitely wanted to open a neighborhood-feeling bar. I didnt want to open something too fancy.

The influx of new businesses comes as much more housing is planned for the area. Four developments totaling 400 units have been approved along Sixth Street between Harrison and Howard streets. Meanwhile, the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. is close to opening 83 affordable units on Mission near Sixth, and a market-rate building recently started leasing 47 new lofts at 570 Jessie near Sixth. An additional 1,500 units are planned on the Market Street blocks adjacent to Sixth Street.

Conover said the influx of new businesses  along with the prospect of more residents  is starting to make recruiting businesses to Sixth Street a bit easier. She recently signed leases with two new tenants at the Bill Sorro Community building: a place owned by Binita Pradhan, a Nepalese chef who has a loyal following at her kiosks in the Financial District, the Ferry Building and Fort Mason; and Falafel Ness, a casual kosher Middle Eastern spot.

We probably had 50 different tenants look at those spaces, Conover said. Sixth Street is still tough, but I really do feel like its turning.

Falafel Ness will be part of a fledgling cluster of Jewish businesses and community spaces. In the past year Chabad SoMa Shul: Positively Sixth Street, a community center and synagogue, opened, as well as Frena, a kosher bakery started by Israeli transplants who bemoaned the Bay Areas lack of savory treats such as the bureka and sambusak that are found in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Falafel Ness owner Ariel Erik Sharabi, a native of Israel who in the 1980s owned a falafel place on Geary Boulevard in the Richmond and a pita bakery in Walnut Creek, said he was persuaded to open up by his friends from Chabad and Frena.

Im going to tell you were going to have the best products, the biggest sandwiches, the best hummus and reasonable prices, Sharabi said. Chabad is pushing. Frena is pushing. Were all going to work together to make Sixth Street better.

Rabbi Yosef Langer of Chabad said the relocation from the Richmond District onto Sixth Street has forced him to confront some stark problems. Every day, he sees crack pipes and needles strewn all over the ground, addicts shooting up against his building,vulgarity and screaming at all hours. He said the street can be unpleasant, but he sympathizes with the folks who have no place better to go.

It is not easy, he said. The security is tough. You have to keep your eyes open. But most people down there just want a smile and a good morning. Even the dogs need a smile and a good morning.

Before he died in December, Mayor Ed Lee often talked about Sixth Street, making its revival a priority of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, which provided lease negotiation services for the majority of the new businesses, and helped fund facade and sign improvements.

Mayor Lee was deeply committed to seeing new neighborhood-serving businesses open on Sixth Street, said Joaquin Torres, deputy director of the agency. He would have been thrilled to celebrate all of these small-business owners making the choice to open on Sixth Street.When Border Patrol agents stop people who are trying to enter the United States without legal documents, theyre supposed to find out whether the person is afraid of returning home and refer all such migrants to officers who will consider their eligibility for political asylum.

But in a lawsuit filed Monday in San Francisco federal court, an advocacy group says it has seen evidence that the Border Patrol has abused asylum seekers and misrepresented their statements, but the government is refusing to disclose records of its actions.

The Trump administration, and the Obama administration before it, have repeatedly run roughshod over asylum seekers rights at the border, said Clara Long, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, which filed the suit. The public deserves to know when its own federal agencies are failing to follow the law.

The suit, under the Freedom of Information Act, says U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has provided only a small fraction of the documents in holds from 2012 onward on the Border Patrols treatment of immigrants who may have been eligible for asylum. Asylum requires proof that an immigrant would face persecution if deported.

Long said the groups initial demand for records, filed in 2015, focused on actions under President Barack Obamas administration. The suit also seeks documents from the Trump administration.

Most of the pages the government released had much or all of their contents blacked out, the suit said. But Long said there were some documents alleging abuse:

In May 2015, a woman told an asylum officer that a Border Patrol officer with green eyes hit her in the head, kicked her breasts, pulled her hair and threw her on the floor.

In July 2014, a man who had told the Border Patrol he was not afraid of returning to his native Ecuador testified that he had made that statement out of fear, because of what he had seen when he was first stopped and questioned: Two men were standing in line ahead of him when an officer put some kind of electricity on them and they started shaking all over.

In several cases, asylum seekers said the Border Patrol falsely reported that they had expressed no fear of returning to their homeland. When they managed to get a hearing before an asylum officer, Long said, government lawyers used their purported statements to discredit them.

This is about people being turned away in situations of serious risk, Long said.

She said other records showed asylum officers sending emails to one another, or filing complaints to a government civil rights office, expressing serious concerns about the way asylum seekers were treated at the border.

Long also cited a report by another organization, the American Immigration Council, which used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain government records of 809 complaints against Border Patrol agents in the Southwest from January 2009 to January 2012.

Forty percent of those complaints alleged physical abuse, the report said, and only a handful resulted in disciplinary action.

The Department of Homeland Security, lead defendant in the lawsuit, declined to comment.NEW YORK  Some of Wall Streets heaviest hitters are stepping into the national debate on guns as investment firms ask firearms makers what they are doing about gun violence.

The firms speak softly, but because they own trillions of dollars worth of stock, their voices travel far. And theyre now joining forces with some unusual allies, including smaller and untraditional investors. In this context, investment fund BlackRock, which owns big stakes in three gun makers, might end up working alongside a group of nuns.

Sister Judith Byron, the director and coordinator of the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment, says her group and BlackRock appear to have similar ideas when it comes to gun manufacturers and retailers. Following the killing of 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., funds like BlackRock started asking gun manufacturers what they are doing to reduce the risks of violence, and asking retailers how much they make from selling guns.

Byron says her group, a coalition of religious communities and health care systems, invested in firearms makers a decade ago and has been working on safety issues for years. In the last few months, the coalition introduced resolutions pushing American Outdoor Brands, Sturm Ruger and retailer Dicks Sporting Goods to give reports to investors about the steps they are taking to reduce the violence.

Were hoping we can engage these big investors and encourage them to vote for our resolutions, she says.

Some larger investors have similar views. The biggest public pension funds in the U.S., CalPERS, recently refused to sell its investments in companies that sell assault rifles. It says that by remaining an investor, its been able to get those companies to make positive changes.

The nuns arent protesters, and they dont carry props or signs to disrupt board meetings, although they sometimes work alongside groups that use those tactics. Byron says some of the shareholder meetings shes attended have been downright pleasant, with investors and board members thanking her for asking questions.

Support from investment firms was crucial to the coalitions big success last year when, after decades of work, it backed a successful resolution that required ExxonMobil to disclose the effects climate change is having on its business.

Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigans Ross School of Business, said companies are often reluctant to risk any sales in order to do the responsible thing. But it does sometimes happen, as when CVS stores stopped selling cigarettes in 2014. He said activists deserve most of the credit for getting the funds to speak out.

BlackRock didnt wake up one morning and say, We are going to take a different approach to investing, its the right thing to do, he said. Its a reaction to the activists.

The top priority of firms like BlackRock, State Street and mutual fund company Vanguard is to make as much money as possible for their clients. But because they own so much stock, they can wield a lot of influence. They can support new directors who want to change the direction of the company and back proposals that change the way it operates.

BlackRock is a major shareholder in gun makers Sturm Ruger, American Outdoor Brands and Vista Outdoor Brands. About a week after the shooting in Parkland, BlackRock said it wanted to speak with the three firearms makers about their responses to the tragedy. The fund said it is looking into creating new investment funds for investors that exclude firearms makers and retailers, and if many funds and investors followed suit, that would affect the price of those stocks.

In a letter to BlackRock, American Outdoor Brands said it supports steps that will promote gun safety while protecting the rights of firearm owners. The company said it backs measures including improved background checks and improved support for people with mental illnesses, but said its opposed to politically motivated action that wont improve public safety. Sturm Ruger did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In other words, there are limits to the funds power. They arent choosy investors and wont dump the gun makers no matter what they say. Thats because their main investment strategy to invest in huge numbers of companies, including every stock listed on the Standard & Poors 500 index.

According to Todd Rosenbluth, CFRAs director of research into funds and exchange-traded funds, that means BlackRock and Vanguard dont have that much leverage compared with activist investors or hedge funds. Those investors can have more dramatic effects on individual companies because they can buy up the stock, run for seats on the board themselves, or threaten to sell the shares if they dont like the companys choices.

They can use their wallet and sell the shares or they can pressure the companies and threaten to sell the shares if actions arent taken, said Rosenbluth. So far, he said those investors arent really getting involved in the debate.

Still, there have been changes: Dicks, Walmart, Kroger and L.L. Bean have all said they will no longer sell guns to shoppers under age 21. Rosenbluth said that has more to do with the ongoing national debate about gun safety and regulations than anything the investment firms have said, and he believes laws will ultimately have a larger effect.

But Byron, who also wants new gun laws, says she is encouraged by the response from corporate America.

We see companies taking leadership roles in environmental and social issues, which is encouraging, said Byron, adding that as shareholders, theyre our companies. We own them.Twitter has joined Facebook and Google in banning advertisements for initial coin offerings of bitcoin-like tokens. We know that this type of content is often associated with deception and fraud, both organic and paid, and are proactively implementing a number of signals to prevent these types of accounts from engaging with others in a deceptive manner, a Twitter representative said in an email. Regulators have cast an increasingly wary eye on cryptocurrency markets globally, and bitcoin has been struggling, falling below $8,000 Monday.

Number of the day

$50 million

Thats how much Cisco Systems will donate to Destination: Home, a public-private partnership that focuses on combatting homelessness in Santa Clara County, the San Jose company announced Monday. CEO Chuck Robbins said in a blog post that homelessness in the region has reached a crisis level, and called on other local companies to help. About 7,400 people are homeless in the county, and 2,000 are considered chronically homeless.

A few jabs from Silicon Valley

Ah, Juicero, we hardly knew you  but Silicon Valley remembers. CNBC reported that the HBO comedy changed its opening sequence Sunday night, including the failed startup in its own building. Other jabs included a Russian version of Facebooks logo, self-driving Tesla trucks and a Coinbase tower.Uber, which for years spread across the globe with command-and-conquer rapaciousness, is pulling back from another major ride-hailing market.

The San Francisco company is selling its Southeast Asia ride and food-delivery businesses to Grab, a rival from Singapore, in the latest move to shore up its finances and refocus its business ahead of a planned public listing.

Uber will get a 27.5 percent stake in Grab in exchange. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grabs board. Further financial terms of Sundays deal were not disclosed.

The detente in Southeast Asia, which is similar to deals Uber has made in China and Russia in recent years, comes at a time of larger changes at the company.

SoftBank, the Japanese conglomerate that recently took a big stake in Uber, has also backed a host of its competitors, including Grab, Ola in India and Didi Chuxing, which bought Ubers China business in 2016. That means SoftBank would rather these companies did not spend too much money competing against one another.

Ubers exit from Southeast Asia, a region of more than 600 million people, also reflects the new direction the company is taking under Khosrowshahi, who replaced Travis Kalanick last year.

Khosrowshahi has forsworn his predecessors infamously pugnacious way of doing business. And with a mandate to take Uber public, he has set out to repair relations with regulators, fix a troubled workplace culture and calm Wall Street about the companys financial prospects. Uber said it lost $1.1 billion in the last three months of 2017, somewhat less than in the preceding quarter.

It is fair to ask whether consolidation is now the strategy of the day, Khosrowshahi wrote in an email to staff. The answer is no.

He continued: One of the potential dangers of our global strategy is that we take on too many battles across too many fronts and with too many competitors. This transaction now puts us in a position to compete with real focus and weight in the core markets where we operate.

Grab, which was introduced in 2012 and now operates in eight Southeast Asian countries, has put up a tough fight.

With passengers in nearly 200 cities across the region, the company is aiming to be more than just a transportation provider. It wants its digital wallet, GrabPay, to replace cash as a way to pay for things at shops and restaurants. And in a region where many people lack credit histories or even bank accounts, Grab is undertaking a venture to make loans to consumers and small businesses. Data collected through Grabs app, on users movements and transactions, is used to assess their creditworthiness.

Grab also offers a wide variety of ways for people to get around. In Singapore, you can hop on a GrabShuttle that, like a public bus, will take you between points along a fixed route. In jam-packed Jakarta, Indonesia, you can use Grabs app to hail a nearby motorbike taxi right off the street, forgoing the usual process of prebooking and waiting for the driver to arrive.

The company is generally regarded as the market leader in Southeast Asia. But in Indonesia, the regions most populous country, it is taking on Go-Jek, a local rival whose apps offer services, such as massages on demand and motorbike parcel deliveries, that go beyond just rides. Go-Jeks investors include Google and Tencent, the Chinese Internet conglomerate.

For Uber, ceding Southeast Asia still leaves it with plenty of challengers elsewhere in the world. Chinas Didi Chuxing invested alongside SoftBank in Grab last year. It recently raised money from SoftBank and other investors at a valuation of $56 billion  higher than the $48 billion at which Uber was valued as part of last years stake sale to SoftBank.

Now Didi wants to go global. The company recently took control of 99, an Uber rival in Brazil, and is recruiting on LinkedIn before a planned opening in Mexico.

Didi is also aiming to expand soon into Japan  a market in which Uber, too, will make a big push this year, according to Khosrowshahi. SoftBank, despite being an investor in both Uber and Didi, announced recently that it would partner with Didi in Japan.A man drove to 7-Eleven to get help after being shot Saturday night during an argument in Santa Rosa, authorities said.

Officers received a report of gunfire about 6 p.m. on the 2300 block of Corby Ave., said Sgt. Josh Ludtke, a spokesman for the Santa Rosa Police Department.

Moments later, authorities received a report of a gunshot victim in his car at the nearby 7-Eleven at 1779 Corby Ave. The man, who was not identified, was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Miguel Angel Sanchez Aleman, 20, of Santa Rosa, and Crystal Sanchez Lemus, 19, of Windsor, were arrested not far from the reported shooting.

An early investigation determined that people in two different cars began arguing for unknown reasons, police said. The argument escalated when one person reportedly fired their gun at a person seated inside a car.

During the arrest of the two suspects, a firearm believed to be used in the shooting was recovered, police said.

Aleman was booked on charges of accessory to an assault with a deadly weapon. Lemus was booked on accessory charges and assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a loaded firearm.

Both suspects are being held on a $100,000 bail and are expected to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.More than a week after the deaths of a man and woman who were pulled from Oaklands Lake Merritt, police on Monday recovered the mans SUV from the water after spotting it with a drone, providing a clue in the case.

Early on March 15, police responded to Lakeshore and Hanover avenues after reports that a man and woman appeared to be drowning after arguing.A rapper who defended Second Amendment rights in an interview with NRA TV apologized for the timing of the interview, which was released on the same day as the March for Our Lives protests across the country.

Killer Mike of the rap duo Run the Jewels shared two videos to social media Sunday, in which he told followers he supports the student movement. The rapper, nee Michael Render, said the release of his comments by the National Rifle Association was done in a way that was disparaging "a very noble campaign that I actually support."Padraig OMalley first used alcohol to solve the worlds problems  and his. Now, he essentially uses a 12-step program to solve the worlds problems  and his.

James Demos documentary The Peacemaker is about a self-appointed diplomat whose goal is to end conflict, and yet cant quite seem to solve the conflict within himself.

Do you love anyone? he is asked.

After a few moments of thought, OMalley answers, No. The answer, it seems, includes himself.

And yet OMalley, who was born in Dublin and has been based in Boston for a half century or so, was instrumental in the achievement of lasting piece in Northern Ireland and South Africa, and has set his sights on Iraq and other trouble spots through his Forum for Cities in Transition, a series of conferences that bring together people from opposite sides of conflict.

OMalley is not an official representative of any country. He came to the United States to study, is now a professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston and ended up owning an Irish bar in Cambridge, the Plough and Stars. He was essentially his own best customer in the mid-1970s when he got the idea to host a summit between leaders of Northern Irelands troubles. His strategy: a week of drinking, the theory being that drinking will help people who would otherwise be enemies bond.

It worked. OMalley began what would become a 20-year peace process.

Meanwhile, OMalley was a raging alcoholic. He speaks in the film of threes and twos  a period of his life when he would spend two solid days drinking and three days sleeping it off. Eventually, at about the age of 60, OMalley decides to get sober.

Some of the most moving passages of The Peacemaker show OMalley at his Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, baring his soul.

As he goes through the 12 steps, OMalley realizes this could be applicable to a peacemaking process. Specifically, that cultures in conflict are best helped by other cultures in conflict. For example, representatives from both sides of the conflict in South Africa  a problem that has mostly been solved  are uniquely positioned to help ethnic conflicts in Iraq.

OMalley, for all his world traveling and wealth of contacts, seems to be a lonely man. Aging  he is now 76  he is worried that he is losing his memory. He is helped by a former girlfriend who appears to manage his schedule. He has an adopted child from Africa with another ex-girlfriend, and yet doesnt seem very present in their lives.

The Peacemaker is absorbing, and OMalley is a fascinating character. I wish the movie delved more into his specific diplomatic techniques  it would have been interesting to see him in a negotiating session, for example.

Nonetheless, it is a pretty amazing story. Were all taught that everyone has the potential to change the world. One small pub owner in Boston did just that.

OMalley and Demo will appear in person at the 7 p.m. Friday, March 30, screening at the Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St. S.F. (415) 863-1087. www.roxie.com.

G. Allen Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ajohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BRfilmsAllen

Movie newsletter

Get the latest movie reviews, Mick LaSalles views, critics picks and more film news each week in the San Francisco Chronicles revamped movie newsletter! Sign up here for Popcorn Picks and other Chronicle and SFGATE newsletters like the Taploid, Chronicle Commuter, and breaking news alerts.Matias Tarnopolsky, the visionary arts impresario who has guided Cal Performances through a diverse schedule of music, dance, theater and spoken-word presentations, has been named president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra, beginning in August.

Tarnopolsky, 48, has been director of Cal Performances, the presenting organization affiliated with UC Berkeley, since 2009, when he succeeded longtime director Robert Cole. During that time, he has created a multidisciplinary program titled Berkeley Radical with an emphasis on education and community outreach, brought some of the worlds leading orchestras to Berkeley for weekend-long residencies, and played a role in several prominent commissions.

The more I learned about the Philadelphia Orchestra and its music director, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, and the community, the more I felt what an incredible opportunity this is, Tarnoposky said in a brief phone interview.

This is an organization that is poised to embrace the future, and Im very excited to have the chance to help author the next chapter in its history.

Although the offerings at Cal Performances include a range of performing arts, Tarnopolsky has never concealed or downplayed the fact that classical music  and the orchestral world above all  is his primary area of interest and expertise.

Born in Buenos Aires and raised in London, he studied music at the University of London, Kings College, and after moving to the U.S. in 1999, held artistic planning posts with the Chicago Symphony and the New York Philharmonic.

In recent years, he is rumored to have been in contention for several top orchestral jobs before landing the post in Philadelphia.

Im genuinely happy to go back to working with an orchestra, he said. But the range of artists Ive worked with at Cal Performances has helped put the symphonic world in context for me.

Tarnopolsky has agreed to a five-year term with the orchestra, succeeding Allison Vulgamore, who stepped down in December after eight years at the orchestras helm. The orchestra is currently led by two interim co-presidents, Ryan Fleur and Matthew Loden.She lay curled in bed for days, paralyzed by the stresses of a life that she felt had chosen her as much as she had chosen it.

About three years earlier, the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., had spurred Ashley Yates into activism. She would evolve from street protester in her hometown of St. Louis to Black Lives Matter organizer in Oakland.

But Yates would also feel the pressures of a job that seemed unrelenting: responding repeatedly to the deaths of black residents in communities across America, struggling to win policy reforms that would benefit black people and rallying others to support her causes.

And then, as last year wound down and Yates felt so depressed that she could not get out of bed, she was reminded of the most dire consequence of an activist life  untimely death.

A fellow activist, Erica Garner, who fought unsuccessfully for years to hold police responsible for the death of her father, Eric, died in December from a heart attack. She was three years shy of her 30th birthday.

And as Yates, 32, remembered Erica Garners radicalism and youth, her problems with money and stress, she saw herself. If someone as widely recognized as Garner could meet such an early demise, then who in the movement was safe, Yates wondered.

Its absolutely scary, she said. Its enough to make you want to quit.

Next month, the world will commemorate the 50th anniversary of one of the most prominent premature deaths in the history of the black liberation struggle, that of Martin Luther King Jr. And whereas he died from an assassins bullet at the age of 39, dying young continues to rock social justice activists today.

Over the past two years, at least five young activists who gained national prominence amid the Black Lives Matter movement have died. The causes range from suicide to homicide to natural causes. Most recently, Muhiyidin Moye, a well-known activist from Charleston, S.C., was fatally shot last month in New Orleans in a crime that remains unsolved.

The deaths have their own unique causes. But with each fallen comrade, activists are left to ponder their own mortality and whether the many pressures of the movement contributed to the shortened lives of their colleagues.

Along with the long hours, constant confrontation and frequent heartbreak they experience, activists work for little or no pay and sometimes struggle for basic needs like food and shelter even as they push for societal change.

An essential part of activism these days, those on the front lines say, is ensuring that they and their comrades work through all the stress, whether its with meditation, therapy or just taking breaks from the struggle.

Its much more front and center than it ever was when I was coming up as a young organizer 20 years ago, Cat Brooks, an Oakland-based activist, said of self care.WASHINGTON  The United States and more than a dozen European nations kicked out Russian diplomats on Monday and the Trump administration ordered Russias consulate in Seattle to close, as the West sought joint punishment for Moscows alleged poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain.

Warning of an unacceptably high number of Russian spies in the U.S., the Trump administration said 60 diplomats would be expelled  all Russian intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover, the U.S. said. The group includes a dozen posted to Russias mission to the United Nations who the officials said were engaged in aggressive collection of intelligence on American soil.

The move was one of the most significant actions President Trumps administration has taken to date to punish Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin, especially over its intelligence activities. The last time they spoke, less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin for his re-election but didnt raise the March 4 spy poisoning, Russias alleged election-meddling in the U.S. or its own tainted voting process, prompting dismayed critiques even from Trumps fellow Republicans.

This is the largest expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in United States history, said U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman.

The American penalties were echoed by announcements in European capitals across the continent, including those in Russias backyard. All told, 18 countries were ousting more than 100 Russian spies, British Prime Minister Theresa May said, in addition to 23 already kicked out by the United Kingdom.

The list included at least 16 European Union nations, with more likely to follow. Germany, Poland and France each planned to boot four, the Czech Republic three and Italy two. Ukraine, a non-EU country with its own conflicts with Moscow, was expelling 13 Russians, President Petro Poroshenko said. All three Baltic states said they would kick diplomats out. Canada, too, said it was taking action, kicking out four and denying three who have applied to enter the country.

Almost all of the countries said publicly that the Russian diplomats they were expelling were actually spies.

The expulsions came with a chorus of condemnation for the Kremlin  for the poisoning, Russian spying and other Western grievances.

Polands Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz called it the right response to the unfriendly, aggressive actions of Russia. In the Czech Republic, where Russian officials have claimed the poison may have originated, Prime Minister Andrej Babis dismissed that allegation as an utter lie.

In Washington, Russias ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, was summoned early Friday to the State Department and told that the 60 diplomats would have one week to leave the country, the State Department said. Russias Embassy in Washington responded on Twitter by hinting at retaliation, asking its followers to vote which U.S. consulate should be shuttered: St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok.

Russia will probably respond quid pro quo using the principle of reciprocity, the Kremlin said  a suggestion that Russia may expel an equal number of diplomats.1 Protest reaction: Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Sunday that students who have rallied for gun control should instead learn CPR or find their own way to prevent a school shooting. How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that, the Republican said on CNNs State of the Union. Santorums comments prompted outrage on social media a day after hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied across the U.S. to push for tougher laws to fight gun violence.

2 Red-state Riot: Idaho isnt the most obvious place to see the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot. But the band carved out time Saturday to swing by the Republican stronghold for a show in Boise on its first North American tour. The 40-minute performance was more political rally than traditional concert, with videos of political and protest images played on a dark stage. Many fans raised their fists in solidarity with the groups anti-fascist, anti-Trump messages. The women of Pussy Riot rose to prominence with their daring outdoor performances critical of President Vladimir Putin in 2012 that sent two members to prison for nearly two years. The band performs at San Franciscos Rickshaw Stop on Wednesday.The government has revealed only now that the Pulse nightclub shooters father was an FBI informant for 11 years before the attack, lawyers for his widow said Monday.

They said prosecutors also told them in an email Saturday that the government found evidence on the day of the attack that Omar Mateens father, Seddique Mateen, had been sending money to Afghanistan and Turkey, and that he had been accused of raising money to fund violence against the government of Pakistan.

Noor Salmans lawyers said the new information  shared only after prosecutors rested their case  should result in a mistrial or an outright dismissal of the charges against her. The judge didnt immediately rule on the defenses motion, and the U.S. attorneys office declined to comment on the developments.

Salman, now 31 and the mother of a small child, is being tried in federal court in Orlando. She is accused of helping her husband plan his June 2016 attack at the gay nightclub in Orlando, where he killed 49 people.

In court on Monday, an FBI agent testified that they considered trying to develop Omar Mateen as an informant, like his father, after investigating him in 2013 and finding he didnt have ties to terrorism.

Salmans lawyers say the governments belated disclosure about Mateens father and his ties to the FBI has prevented them from exploring the possibilities that Seddique Mateen was more directly involved, and that Salman may have been framed to hide the governments mistakes.

What is clear is that the federal governments failure to disclose these details is keeping the former Rodeo resident from getting a fair trial, her attorneys said.

The governments violations in this case have placed Ms. Salman, the jury, and this Court in a dark wood where the search for truth has been thwarted, they wrote, paraphrasing and citing 15th century Italian poet Dante Alighieris The Divine Comedy.

Her lawyers federal court motion filed Monday says U.S. Attorney Sara Sweeney sent them an email Saturday revealing some details of the FBIs involvement with Seddique Mateens activities leading up to the Pulse attack.

I have just received authorization to disclose the following information about Seddique Mateen, her email said. Seddique Mateen was a FBI confidential human source at various points in time between January 2005 and June 2016.

This email was sent after jurors heard Shahla Mateen, Omars mother, deny during cross-examination that her husband had any relationship with the FBI.

The email also revealed other details the prosecution didnt tell jurors, including the discovery in the hours after the shooting that receipts for money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan made in the days and weeks before the shooting were found at Seddique Mateens home, and that in 2012, an anonymous tipster had accused Seddique Mateen of seeking to raise $50,000-$100,000 via a donation drive to contribute toward an attack against the government of Pakistan.South Korea has agreed to further open its auto market to the United States as the two countries prepare to amend their 6-year-old trade agreement following complaints by President Trump.

South Koreas top trade negotiator said Monday that the revised agreement calls for delaying the earlier agreed-to elimination of tariffs on South Korean-made pickup trucks to 2041 from 2021.

The U.S. side agreed that annual exports of up to 2.7 million tons of South Korean steel products will be exempted from recently announced 25 percent tariffs.

The auto sector is among the most contentious issues in South Koreas trade dealings with the U.S. Yet, the revised agreement will probably have little immediate impact on South Koreas exports to the United States. Nor is it likely to have much impact on U.S. exports to South Korea.

Though South Korea made some concessions to U.S. demands on the key auto trade issues, the revision of the free trade pact aligns with South Koreas own interests, experts said.

South Korean negotiators managed to avoid changes in treatment of its agriculture sector, a highly sensitive area in domestic politics.

Overall, its a relief, said Cheong Inkyo, a professor of international trade at Inha University in Incheon, South Korea. The United States achieved most of its goals while we made some concessions in the auto sector. But the outcome falls within our national interest.

South Koreas Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said although the United States will end 25 percent tariffs on South Korean-made pickup trucks 20 years later than earlier planned, no local auto companies export pickup trucks made in South Korea to the United States.

Conversely, South Korea agreed to allow the number of U.S.-made vehicles to be imported without being subject to local safety regulations to double to 50,000 a year. However, no American car brand sold more than 10,000 vehicles in South Korea last year.

South Korea also will ease emission standards for American cars shipped from 2021-25, when the country is due to set new import regulations.

South Korean automakers did not comment on the postponement of eliminating tariffs on their trucks. The Korean Automobile Manufacturers Association praised the governments efforts to protect South Korean automakers and avoid major changes on sensitive issues such as adjusting tariffs.

The third-largest steel exporter to the United States after Canada and Brazil, South Korea was among 12 countries whose exports of steel and aluminum Trump recently said would be hit with heavy tariffs.

The United States ran a $10.3 billion trade deficit with South Korea last year.A crop duster swapped chemicals for candy at a city-sponsored Easter celebration in Arizona this weekend, spurring officials to later issue a rotten-egg warning.

Each year the city of Mohave Valley in western Arizona holds an "Easter Eggstravaganza," hallmarked by a plastic egg hunt for the children. A crop duster airplane, normally used to dispense herbicide, was employed as the honorary egg dropper this year.A 4-year-old Texas boy has died from wounds he sustained after being attacked by a family dog in Converse Sunday afternoon, according to Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies responded to a dog attack in the 8900 block of Twincreek Farm, in far East Bexar County, after the family called to report the boy was being attacked.CHICAGO  An Army veteran from Chicago who served two tours in Afghanistan and had been in the U.S. since age 8 has been deported to Mexico because of a 2008 drug-trafficking conviction.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confirmed Monday that Miguel Perez Jr., 39, who had a green card, was deported Friday. The move came after he lost an appeal to remain in the U.S. and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner refused to pardon him.The US Army launched this weekend a drone strike targeting jihadists in southern Libya. According to the US militarys Africa Command, the attack killed two militants belonging to Al Qaedas branch in northwestern Africa wherein mix of Al Qaeda and other extremist groups operate. These terror groups are also active in the Sahel region of Niger, Chad, Mali and Algeria.

A missile fired by the American drone struck a house in Ubari, 435 miles south of Tripoli, in an area close to major oil fields that was wracked by violent ethnic feuding in 2015.

Ubari is at the intersection of the powerful criminal and jihadist currents that have washed across Libya in recent years. Situated between Libyas borders with Niger, Chad and Algeria, the areas seminomadic tribesmen are heavily involved in the smuggling of weapons, drugs and illegal migrants through the lawless deserts of southern Libya.

Some have allied with Islamist militias, including Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates across Algeria, Mali, Niger and Libya.

The area erupted into conflict in 2014 when a century-old peace treaty between the Tuareg and Tebu ethnic groups collapsed over a dispute about control of the fuel smuggling trade.

The US militarys Africa Command said the strike had targeted militants with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an affiliate also known as AQIM, and had been carried out in coordination with the United Nations-backed unity government in Tripoli. At this time, we assess no civilians were killed in this strike, the statement said.

The strike came as the Trump administration has been reassessing the American military commitment in North and West Africa after the ambush in Niger last fall that killed four American soldiers.

The Pentagon has been preparing to fly armed drone missions from Nigers capital, Niamey, a step that diplomats and analysts say could further widen the Pentagons shadow war in this part of the continent.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Dozens of people wearing T-shirts that read "Justice 4 Mr. Tobar" packed a San Francisco courtroom this morning to support a former elementary school teacher accused of dangling a student from a second-floor balcony earlier this year.

Andres Tobar, 47, has been charged with felony child endangerment/abuse for the alleged incident, which occurred at Marshall Elementary School at 1575 15th St. sometime in early January, according to police.

Tobar was initially placed on administrative leave, but he has since been let go from the San Francisco Unified School District after teaching with the district for 21 years, according to his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Vilaska Nguyen.

Today, Nguyen sought to have the charge dismissed or reduced to misdemeanor child endangerment/abuse. Nguyen described the alleged incident as a "playful mistake" and "isolated incident that snowballed."

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Stephen Murphy said he would need more information, including watching a cellphone video of the incident, before deciding whether to dismiss or reduce the charge. The pretrial hearing was set to be continued on April 12.

Tobar turned himself in to police on Jan. 30 in connection with the case.

Following his arrest, SFUSD spokeswoman Gentle Blythe said in a statement, "Tobar was seen cradling a student and holding the student over the balcony on the second floor."

Outside of court this morning, dozens of Tobar's supporters denounced the charges, saying he's a well-liked teacher who has helped many young people in the Mission District.

"He's a good teacher. He's never been mean to me," former student Freddy Ochoa, 10, said.

"What they are accusing him of, that's not true," said Tobar's cousin Damaris Orozco. "He's helped the community. He's not that kind of person."

SFUSD officials were not immediately available for comment.

###The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Facebook Inc. for alleged privacy violations that may have affected millions of users, the agency announced today.

The FTC opened the investigation in response to news that political data firm Cambridge Analytica obtained personal information from nearly 50 million Facebook users without their consent.

"The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers," FTC director Tom Pahl said in a statement. "Foremost among these tools is enforcement action against companies that fail to honor privacy promises."

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, part of a coalition of 37 attorneys general, also sent a letter today asking Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to explain how the company was involved in Cambridge Analytica's "manipulation of users' data."

"Facebook left millions of Californians' personal information vulnerable," Becerra said in a statement. "My fellow Attorneys General and I demand answers in behalf of all those whose trust and personal data has been compromised."

Last week, Facebook was hit with four lawsuits in federal court in San Francisco and San Jose.

Facebook, which has more than 2 billion users worldwide, had no immediate comment on the lawsuits.

But in a statement posted in its online newsroom on Wednesday, the company said, "Protecting people's information is the most important thing we do at Facebook.

"What happened with Cambridge Analytica was a breach of Facebook's trust. More importantly, it was a breach of the trust people place in Facebook to protect their data when they share it," the company said.

Facebook said it is "taking action on potential past abuse and putting stronger protections in place to prevent future abuse."

###WATSONVILLE (BCN)

The Santa Cruz County Chief's Association announced their gun buyback program hosted on Saturday was a success, resulting in several hundred guns taken off the streets, including assault-type weapons, according to Watsonville police.

The event was held at Watsonville Fire Department station No. 1 and the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office in Santa Cruz. The association accepted firearms that community members no longer wanted or needed, police said. A total amount of guns purchased back was not given.

Officers from the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office, Watsonville police, Santa Cruz police, Capitola police, UC Santa Cruz Police and Scotts Valley police all participated in the program.

###The San Mateo County Sheriff's Office is looking for two inmates who left the Glenwood Camp correctional facility on Sunday night.

Sheriff's officials said they were notified of two "walkaways" from the camp at 9:45 p.m. Sunday. The facility is located at 400 Log Cabin Ranch Road in La Honda.

Deputies are looking for a young adult man and juvenile boy who walked away from the camp, according to a San Mateo County alert.

The first inmate is an 18-year-old black male adult who is 6 feet, 1-inch tall, weighs 210 pounds and was last seen wearing gray sweatpants and a gray sweatshirt. The second inmate is a 17-year-old Polynesian juvenile male who is 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighs 200 pounds and was also wearing gray sweatpants and a gray sweatshirt.

If anyone sees either inmate, sheriff's deputies ask they call (650) 363-4911, and to not try to apprehend them.

One woman died and a man was taken to the hospital after a stabbing in San Francisco's Ingleside Heights neighborhood Sunday afternoon, police reported.

Police responded to a domestic violence incident at 2:11 p.m. on Chester Avenue.

They said a woman was taken to the hospital and later declared dead.

The man was taken to the hospital for what appears to be self-inflicted stab wounds, police said.

A police homicide detail is investigating the stabbing, and the victim's name has not yet been released.

Police are not providing any further information at this time.

A 47-year-old Santa Rosa man was arrested Friday for attempting to lure a 13-year-old girl into his car as she walked home from school, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office reported.

The girl was walking home at 2 p.m. in the unincorporated area of Larkfield in Sonoma County on Wednesday when a man allegedly pulled up next to her in a silver Pontiac Grand Prix.

Sheriff's deputies said the man told the girl she was pretty and asked if she wanted a ride.

The man reportedly opened his car door for her, saying his window was broken. The girl refused, deputies said, but the man continued talking to her and asked for her phone number.

The suspect noticed an AT&T technician nearby and left the scene, deputies said. The worker was able to provide a license plate but it did not turn up a record.

After trying a few different combinations, deputies matched the license plate with a 90's Pontiac vehicle from Sebastopol.

The owner of the car was brought in for questioning, and he said he recently sold the car to 47-year-old Timothy James Kottler.

Deputies said they eventually found Kottler, who is homeless, at a rescue shelter in Downtown Santa Rosa at 5 p.m. on Friday.

After questioning, police arrested Kottler for annoying or molesting a victim below 18 years of age. He has been released on bail, deputies said, but he is believed to be a possible threat to the community.

A sheriff's deputy arrested a Cloverdale man on suspicion of animal abuse after finding a dead horse and several emaciated horses on the man's property, sheriff's officials said.

Joseph Rafael, 65, was arrested at his property in the 25800 block of River Road and booked on suspicion of felony animal abuse, according to sheriff's officials. He has since been released on a $10,000 bond.

The case began when a neighbor who had been sporadically feeding the horses out of concern for their condition visited Rafael's property Wednesday, allegedly found the dead horse and called police.

The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office investigated and found that the dead horse was so emaciated, bone was showing through its skin, sheriff's officials said. Eleven other horses were on the property standing in knee-deep mud, according to sheriff's officials.

Neighbors told a sheriff's deputy that Rafael had a longtime pattern of underfeeding the horses, sheriff's officials said. An Animal Control officer photographed the horses and shared the photos with a veterinarian, who said the animals were emaciated and in immediate jeopardy.

Working with a nonprofit called Coins to Help Abandoned and Neglected Equines, the deputy and Sonoma County Animal Control moved the 11 remaining horses to a shelter, according to sheriff's officials.

The dead horse was taken to UC Davis for a necropsy to determine the cause of death, sheriff's officials said.

A pedestrian died in a collision with an SUV on northbound Interstate Highway 880 south of 98th Avenue in Oakland Saturday morning, the California Highway Patrol said.

The man was walking on the freeway in the third-from-the-left lane for an unknown reason when he was hit by a silver Hyundai SUV, according to the CHP. The man was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:04 a.m., the CHP said.

The driver of the Hyundai stayed at the scene and cooperated with officers, the CHP said. No driver impairment is suspected and no arrests were made, according to the CHP.

Officers shut down all lanes of northbound I-880 in the area for 20 minutes while they inspected the scene, the CHP said.

California's attorney general spoke out in opposition to an order issued by President Donald Trump that supports a ban on many transgender troops.

Xavier Becerra, California's attorney general, Friday said his team at the Department of Justice will continue to defend the rights of transgender individuals.

"California will take every measure available to prevent Donald Trump's discriminatory action that harms or marginalizes transgender servicemembers or any other transgender Americans who wish to courageously defend our nation," Becerra said.

The attorney general said those who sacrifice their lives to fight for the nation's safety must be honored.

The director of the Palm Center, a gay rights nonprofit research institute in San Francisco, also released a statement opposing the order.

"There is no evidence to support a policy that bans from military service patriotic Americans who are medically fit and able to deploy," said Aaron Belkin of the Palm Center.

A South San Francisco resident pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money wiring service in San Francisco federal court on Friday.

Subhash Jay, 59, admitted that he made over $800,000 in commission while running the unlicensed Force Services, Inc., but did not report this income on his taxes.

In his plea, Jay agreed that he took $817,734 in commission from at least $4.5 million in international wire transfers for a client using two domestic bank accounts.

He operated the business between 2010 and 2014 and a federal grand jury indicted him on April 6, 2017. He was originally charged with 13 counts of financial crimes.

On Friday, he pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and one count of filing false tax returns.

An Internal Revenue Service investigation brought about the prosecution. Jay faces a maximum sentence of eight years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 18.

Two people were arrested after police responded to a disturbance involving weapons Sunday afternoon in San Leandro.

Police went to the 300 block of Belleview Drive after receiving a report of the disturbance at about 4 p.m. and began speaking with two suspects.

The two suspects threw a knife and a bat at each other while the officers were there, according to police.

Officers said it was clear that one of the suspects was having a mental health crisis.

Police said they used several tactics to diffuse the situation, and officers trained in crisis intervention were present. Two suspects were arrested after several hours of negotiation, police said.

Police said limited information will be released because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

###SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

One woman died and a man was taken to the hospital after a stabbing in San Francisco's Ingleside Heights neighborhood this afternoon, police reported.

Police responded to a domestic violence incident at 2:11 p.m. on Chester Avenue.

They said a woman was taken to the hospital and later declared dead. The man was taken to the hospital for what appears to be self-inflicted stab wounds, police said.

A police homicide detail is investigating the stabbing, and the victim's name has not yet been released.

Police are not providing any further information at this time.

###

837-7395A 22-year-old San Francisco man was arrested on suspicion of brandishing a knife at a BART employee at the Colma BART Station in unincorporated San Mateo County on Friday afternoon, according to BART police.

Police arrested Delbert Hayes, 22, just after 2 p.m. on Friday. He was given a BART prohibition order before being booked into the San Mateo County Jail on suspicion of brandishing the knife, along with other outstanding warrants for his arrest.It seemed like he was having so much fun. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a new map to replace the gerrymandered version that favored the GOP, U.S. Representative Ryan Costello was among the handful of Republicans who called for the judges to be impeached. A month later, with even the Republican majority leader of the state House criticizing the impeachment effort, Costello has decided to withdraw from the midterm race instead.

Costello, who was first elected in 2014, was already facing a difficult reelection campaign before the new congressional map shifted his district from being an area where Hillary Clinton won by one point to one she would have taken by ten points. However, Costello denied that he was retiring from Congress because he was afraid of losing. In addition to considerations for his young family, he cited the political environment for his decision.

Whether its Stormy Daniels, or passing an omnibus spending bill that the president threatens to veto after promising to sign, its very difficult to move forward in a constructive way today, Costello told the Daily Local News.

Plus I think there is a lot of hate out there, from the left especially, and its a very angry environment, he said. It is a sad commentary on the state of our culture and political environment. Its not me doing it, but I am the one who gets the brunt of it.

In an interview with MSNBCs Kasie Hunt on Sunday night, Costello was candid about the pressure on Republican lawmakers heading into the midterms.

What Ive found is that no matter how much you speak out, those who dont support the president, its not going to be enough for them, he said. At that moment in time, you get really stridently pro-Trump Republicans bothered at you because youre not defending the president. Im not so sure theres an easy answer to that conundrum.

Costellos exit will likely make it harder for Republicans to hold on to the suburban Philadelphia district. He had already filed for reelection, and said he needs to talk to party leaders about how to proceed. If he withdraws from the race in the next 48 hours, attorney Greg McCauley will be the only Republican candidate for the nomination. If Costello remains on the May 15 primary ballot, state and local GOP officials could name a replacement candidate.

The Democratic front-runner, Chrissy Houlahan, fits the Conor Lamb mold: the political newcomer is an Air Force veteran, MIT grad, and businesswoman. Houlahan has already raised more than $1 million and secured the endorsement of a number of Democratic leaders.

After former vice-president Joe Biden campaigned for Lamb, the Democrat who narrowly won in a conservative Pittsburgh-area district two weeks ago, he predicted, If [Lamb] wins, youre probably going to see another half-dozen Republicans say theyre not running again.

Costello is the 24th House Republican, and the first since Lambs win, to announced that they are retiring from Congress at the end of the term and not seeking higher political office. Democrats need to pick up 23 seats to win the chamber.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A South San Francisco resident pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money wiring service in San Francisco federal court on Friday.

Subhash Jay, 59, admitted that he made over $800,000 in commission while running the unlicensed Force Services, Inc., but did not report this income on his taxes.

In his plea, Jay agreed that he took $817,734 in commission from at least $4.5 million in international wire transfers for a client using two domestic bank accounts.

He operated the business between 2010 and 2014 and a federal grand jury indicted him on April 6, 2017. He was originally charged with 13 counts of financial crimes.

On Friday, he pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and one count of filing false tax returns.

An Internal Revenue Service investigation brought about the prosecution. Jay faces a maximum sentence of eight years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 18.

###Alameda County firefighters rescued a Cooper's hawk in the unincorporated area of Cherryland on Saturday afternoon.

They received a call at 2:16 p.m. about the hawk entangled in either a kite thread or fishing wire. The bird had trapped itself in a tree about 50 feet off the ground in Cherryland Park.

The firefighters requested PG&E to the scene because of heavy wind and the height of the tree and the agency arrived on the scene in a telescoping vehicle.

A California Department of Fish and Game worker was lifted into the tree, and he freed the hawk from the wire and captured the bird.

No one was injured in the incident, according to Alameda County fire.

###

(510) 693-3439SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A pedestrian was sent to a hospital after she was struck by a San Francisco Municipal Railway bus on Market Street this morning.

The collision occurred around 11 a.m. on Market Street at Fourth Street, according to police Sgt. Joseph Tomlinson.

The woman appeared to be crossing the street when a 5-Fulton Muni bus made contact with her, Muni spokesman Paul Rose said.

The woman was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening.

No passengers onboard the bus were injured, according to Rose.

###Beijing bound. Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Since taking the reins of his fathers dictatorship in 2011, Kim Jong-un has been a bit of a homebody. As of last week, the North Korean leader hadnt made a single (known) trip beyond his nations borders.

As of this afternoon, hes made one. On Monday, an armored train made its way through northeast China, disrupting the railway schedule and sparking social-media speculation that high-ranking North Korean officials were making their way to Beijing. Such rumors intensified when an elaborate motorcade appeared on the streets of the Chinese capital shortly after the trains arrival.

Intriguing images from Beijing, captured by Japan's Nippon TV. A 21-car train, similar to one used by Kim Jong Il in 2011, pulled into Beijing Station around 3pm. Met by honor guard and line of VIP cars. Speculation is that Kim Jong Un could be in Beijing. https://t.co/OR40pYEcgG pic.twitter.com/1G5jndciIr  Martyn Williams (@martyn_williams) March 26, 2018

Whoever has arrived in Beijing got quite a motorcade: pic.twitter.com/qL1Q55Hnma  Stephen McDonell (@StephenMcDonell) March 26, 2018

Not long after that, Bloomberg reported that North Koreas highest-ranking official was, in fact, bound for Beijing.

Few details about the nature of Kims visit are currently available. But the extraordinary trip is (almost certainly) connected to Donald Trumps unprecedented decision to accept a meeting with the North Korean leader earlier this month.

Relations between Pyongyang and Beijing have soured in recent years, as North Korea has conducted nuclear tests that expose parts of China to the risk of radioactive contamination, and China has backed U.N. sanctions targeting the North Korean economy. But with direct talks between Trump and Kim tentatively scheduled for May, Xi Jinpings government is likely eager to ensure that any potential peace agreement aligns with its interests. China has historically opposed both the unification of the Korean peninsula, and a U.S. military presence in North Korea  developments that a peace agreement could theoretically bring about.

Regardless, Chinese buy-in is likely a prerequisite for any successful diplomatic solution to the standoff over Pyongyangs nuclear program: Given the power imbalance between the United States and North Korea  and Americas history of breaking its promises to rogue regimes  Kim may be reluctant to agree to any deal, absent some assurance from China that it will hold Washington to its end of such a bargain.

Then again, all these considerations may soon be moot. After all, the presidents top national security adviser is now a man who has publicly called for the immediate bombing of North Korea  and argued earlier this month that Trumps meeting with Kim was bound to end in failure.

For now, though, Kim is poised to make the rounds necessary for securing some kind of deal. Following his trip to Beijing, Kim is scheduled to meet with South Korean president Moon Jae-in next month near the border between their two nations, and then with Trump shortly thereafter.We may learn the limits of Michael Cohens loyalty to Trump. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc.

The saga of Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels ultimately has very little to do with sex, and in a sense is only incidentally about Stormy Daniels at all. The most important figure in the new 60 Minutes report on the episode is Michael Cohen, Trumps lawyer and fixer. Cohen might be facing significant legal jeopardy, and this could expose Trump himself as deeply as anything related to Russia.

As Daniels and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, recount, Cohen was the point of contact in Trumps negotiations to keep Daniels quiet about their affair. Cohen paid her $130,000 to sign a nondisclosure agreement. This could well be an illegal campaign expenditure on Trumps behalf  Cohen was paying Daniels for the purpose of aiding Trumps campaign. Cohen claims he paid the money out of his own pocket, which would make Cohen the perpetrator of the campaign finance violation. But Avenatti has documents showing that the payment was sent to Cohen at his Trump Tower location, and communicated through his official Trump Organization email. That strongly indicates, and perhaps even proves, Cohen was making the payment on Trumps behalf.

A second aspect of the story contains even more danger for Trump. Daniels describes being approached by a man in a parking lot who threatened her:

I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter. T taking, you know, the seats facing backwards in the backseat, diaper bag, you know, gettin all the stuff out. And a guy walked up on me and said to me, Leave Trump alone. Forget the story. And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, Thats a beautiful little girl. Itd be a shame if something happened to her mom. And then he was gone.

Daniels says she would recognize the man if she saw him again, but does not know who it was. There is a lot of reason to suspect Cohen had something to do with the threat. Cohen is a Trump cultist, whose legal skills, such as they are, compose a small portion of his value to the Trump organization. His true value is as a goon. If somebody does something Mr. Trump doesnt like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trumps benefit, Cohen said in 2011. If you do something wrong, Im going to come at you, grab you by the neck and Im not going to let you go until Im finished. In 2015, he told a reporter, Im warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what Im going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me?

Intimidating and threatening people who get in Trumps way seems to be a recurring theme in his business interactions. There are many documented instances of this behavior. One victim of Trumps shady financial maneuverings in Atlantic City received a phone call and was told, My name is Carmine. I dont know why youre fucking with Mr. Trump but if you keep fucking with Mr. Trump, we know where you live and were going to your house for your wife and kids.

The Washington Post has already reported that Robert Mueller has requested documents and interviewed witnesses about incidents involving Michael Cohen. What could those incidents involve? The Stormy Daniels episode suggests the list starts with campaign finance violations and may end with making threats, or ordering others to do so. When Trumps allies warn that Mueller is conducting a Gambino-style roll-up of his organization, this is the sort of thing they may have in mind.

It may be difficult to imagine Cohen, the ultimate Trump loyalist, turning on his patron and idol. But mafiosos turn on their friends and mentors all the time. And Trumps organization was run in many respects like a crime family, with a sprawling web of shady and probably illegal activity, including but not limited to dealings with Russia. If Stormy Danielss account holds up, then it opens a vast new avenue for potential risk to Cohen, and ultimately Trump.Things fall apart. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Last week, Donald Trump congratulated Vladimir Putin on winning a rigged election, over the strenuous objections of his senior staff. During that same conversation with the Russian leader, the president declined to mention the fact that a former Russian spy and his daughter  and at least 38 British bystanders  had recently been poisoned by a nerve agent thats exclusively produced by the Russian government.

After that call, Trump defended these actions by arguing that getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, and that Putins government could help solve problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, ISIS, Iran and even the coming Arms Race [sic].

But Russia failed to solve any of those problems over the weekend. And now, the presidents patience has (ostensibly) worn out: On Monday, Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States, including 12 whom the U.S. government believes to be intelligence officers. The order also shutters the Russian consulate in Seattle, a move motivated by the institutions proximity to a U.S. naval base.

Trump intends the broader order to root out Russians actively engaging in intelligence operations against the country, and to project solidarity with Americas NATO allies in the wake of this months nerve-gas attack in Salisbury, England, senior White House officials told the New York Times. Americas response to the Salisbury attack was slower than that of Germany, France, or Britain, the last having expelled 23 Russian diplomats earlier this month. But Trumps punitive action is nonetheless robust  and thus, difficult to square with the tenor of his public remarks about Russia and its authoritarian leader.

And yet, this discrepancy between the presidents rhetoric on Putin and his administrations policies toward Russia has been a consistent feature of this White Houses Russia policy. Even as Trump has stubbornly insisted on giving Moscow the benefit of the doubt on its role in the 2016 election  and floated forming a joint cybersecurity task force with the government that had just launched cyberattacks against both major U.S. political parties  his administration has approved lethal arms sales to anti-Russian forces in Ukraine, imposed new sanctions on Russian organizations and individuals suspected of election interference, and slaughtered dozens of Russian soldiers in Syria.

Donald Trump has betrayed many of his 2016 voters substantively, while paying unceasing tribute to them, rhetorically. This has proven more than satisfactory to most of his supporters  but the Kremlin might well prove an exception.Stormy Daniels on 60 Minutes. Photo: CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images

The Stormy Daniels 60 Minutes interview provided just what youd expect from a woman who knows how to handle the media as well as she does: a few revelations to fuel the scandal surrounding her alleged 2006 affair with Donald Trump, and a promise that theres more to come.

Trump probably wouldnt have been able to block CBS from airing the interview (though he reportedly considered trying), and it seems Daniels is confident that her nondisclosure agreement will be voided  though Trumps attorneys claim she already owes him at least $20 million. She told Anderson Cooper that shes willing to accept the legal risks to clear up the rumors that have been circulating since the story broke in January. I was perfectly fine saying nothing at all, but Im not okay with being made out to be a liar, or people thinking that I did this for money, she said.

The interviews biggest revelation was Danielss claim that after sharing her story with In Touch Weekly magazine in 2011, a man approached her and made what she interpreted as a physical threat, telling her to leave Trump alone, then looking at her infant daughter and saying, Itd be a shame if something happened to her mom.

If true, there could be serious legal consequences for Trump and his lawyer, Michael Cohen. And while Cooper later revealed that there are many, many tawdry details which we did not include in the story because its just, you know, thats not our interest, there were a few more tidbits about the presidents alleged sexual proclivities. Here are the wildest new claims:

Spanking Trump With His Own Magazine Cover Wasnt His Idea

Daniels confirmed the report that she spanked Trump with a copy of Forbes featuring him and his adult children, but apparently this isnt part of his usual sexual repertoire. She told Cooper that during her first dinner with Trump in July 2006 in Lake Tahoe, he kept showing off the magazine cover, so she jokingly spanked him with it.

Stormy Daniels: I was like, Does this does this normally work for you? And he looked very taken taken back, like, he didnt really understand what I was saying. Like, I was does, just, you know, talking about yourself normally work? And I was like, Someone should take that magazine and spank you with it. [Laughs.] And Ill never forget the look on his face. He was like Anderson Cooper: What what was his look? Stormy Daniels: Just, I dont think anyones ever spoken to him like that, especially, you know, a young woman who looked like me. And I said, you know, Give me that, and I just remember him going, You wouldnt. Hand it over. And so he did, and I was like, turn around, drop em. Anderson Cooper: You you told Donald Trump to turn around and take off his pants. Stormy Daniels: Yes. Anderson Cooper: And did he? Stormy Daniels: Yes. So he turned around and pulled his pants down a little you know had underwear on and stuff and I just gave him a couple swats.

He Does Have a Habit of Comparing Women to Ivanka

Just 72 hours after Karen McDougal, another woman suing so she can talk about her relationship with Trump, said he told her she was beautiful like Ivanka, Daniels said the same thing.

Stormy Daniels: [After the spanking] he quit talking about himself and he asked me things and I asked him things and it just became like more appropriate. Anderson Cooper: It became more comfortable. Stormy Daniels: Yeah. He was like, Wow, you you are special. You remind me of my daughter. You know he was like, Youre smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you. I like you.

Trump Didnt Seem That Concerned About Melania

Anderson Cooper: Melania Trump had recently given birth to to a son, just a few months before. Did that did he mention his wife or child at all in this? Stormy Daniels: I asked. And he brushed it aside, said, Oh yeah, yeah, you know, dont worry about that. We dont even we have separate rooms and stuff.

In news that definitely isnt related, the president headed back to the White House just before the 60 Minutes interview aired on Sunday, but Melania stayed at Mar-a-Lago. The First Lady will be staying in Florida as is their tradition for spring break,  said Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters.

Daniels Didnt Really Want to Sleep With Trump  But Considers Their Encounter Consensual

Daniels said that after having dinner with Trump in his room, she used the restroom, and when she emerged he was sitting on the bed.

Stormy Daniels: I realized exactly what Id gotten myself into. And I was like, Ugh, here we go. [Laughs.] And I just felt like maybe [laughs] it was sort of I had it coming for making a bad decision for going to someones room alone and I just heard the voice in my head, Well, you put yourself in a bad situation and bad things happen, so you deserve this.

While that statement raises several issues related to the recent anti-sexual-harassment movement, Daniels made it clear that in her view, This is not a Me Too.

Anderson Cooper: You were 27, he was 60. Were you physically attracted to him? Stormy Daniels: No. Anderson Cooper: Not at all? Stormy Daniels: No. Anderson Cooper: Did you want to have sex with him? Stormy Daniels: No. But I didnt I didnt say no. Im not a victim, Im not Anderson Cooper: It was entirely consensual. Stormy Daniels: Oh, yes, yes.

They Did Not Use Protection

Days after McDougal told Cooper about Trumps dislike of condoms, Daniels said they didnt even discuss the matter.

Anderson Cooper: You work in an industry where condom use is is an issue. Did did he use a condom? Stormy Daniels: No. Anderson Cooper: Did you ask him to? Stormy Daniels: No. I honestly didnt say anything.

Some noted that Danielss nondisclosure agreement referenced alleged children, but her attorney, Michael Avenatti, told the Wrap that this was boilerplate language common to NDAs. He said Trump did not impregnate Daniels, and had no knowledge of children whose existence he was trying to keep quiet.

Trump Offered to Put Daniels on Celebrity Apprentice

Daniels said that during their first meeting, Trump asked her if shed like to be a contestant on his reality show. She said NBC would never allow it, but he countered, Thats why I want you. Youre gonna shock a lotta people, youre smart and they wont know what to expect.

A year after they met, she went to Trumps bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel to discuss the idea further  but wound up watching Shark Week instead.

Stormy Daniels: I remember arriving, and he was watching Shark Week. He made me sit and watch an entire documentary about shark attacks. Anderson Cooper: It wasnt at that point a business meeting, it was just watching Shark Week. Stormy Daniels: Yeah. Anderson Cooper: Did you have sex with him again? Stormy Daniels: No. Anderson Cooper: Did he want to? Stormy Daniels: Yes. Anderson Cooper: How do you know he wanted to? Stormy Daniels: Because he came and sat next to me and, you know, touched my hair, and put his hand on my leg, and r referenced back to how great it was the last time. Anderson Cooper: How did you get out of it? Stormy Daniels: Well, Id been there for, like, four hours. And so I then was like, Well, before, you know, can we talk about whats the development? And he was like, Im almost there. Ill have an answer for you next week. And I was like, Okay, cool. Well I guess call me next week. And I just took my purse and left.

Daniels Was Physically Threatened After Telling Her Story

Trump called a month later to say Celebrity Apprentice wouldnt work out, and they never spoke again. In 2011, Daniels agreed to sell the tale of her one sexual encounter with Trump to a sister publication of In Touch for $15,000, but the story never ran and she was never paid. Former employees said the story was killed because Cohen threatened to sue. Daniels said she was threatened by an unknown man in Las Vegas several weeks later.

Stormy Daniels: I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter. T taking, you know, the seats facing backwards in the backseat, diaper bag, you know, gettin all the stuff out. And a guy walked up on me and said to me, Leave Trump alone. Forget the story. And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, Thats a beautiful little girl. Itd be a shame if something happened to her mom. And then he was gone. Anderson Cooper: You took it as a direct threat? Stormy Daniels: Absolutely. Stormy Daniels: I was rattled. I remember going into the workout class. And my hands are shaking so much, I was afraid I was gonna drop her.

Daniels Accepted the Hush Money Offer Because She Was Scared

Daniels said that when Trump won the GOP nomination she began receiving substantial offers to tell her story, but then Cohen said he would pay $130,000 if she remained silent. Daniels said that was appealing because she would receive some money, without subjecting herself and her child to negative attention.

Anderson Cooper: Was it hush money to stay silent? Stormy Daniels: Yes. The story was coming out again. I was concerned for my family and their safety. Anderson Cooper: I think some people watching this are going to doubt that you entered into this negotiation because you feared for your safety. Theyre gonna think y that you saw an opportunity. Stormy Daniels: I think the fact that I didnt even negotiate, I just quickly said yes to this v very, you know, strict contract. And what most people will agree with me extremely low number. Its all the proof I need.

Cohen Used Trump Organization Addresses When He Was Ostensibly Working Independently

In response to allegations that the $130,000 payment to Daniels was an illegal campaign contribution, Trumps attorney has insisted that it came out of his own pocket, and had nothing to do with Trumps business or campaign. Danielss new attorney said Cohens use of his business addresses at the Trump Organization suggest otherwise.

Anderson Cooper: Hes found documents that show Michael Cohen used his Trump Organization email address in setting up the payment. He also says the nondisclosure agreement Stormy Daniels signed in 2016, when she was represented by a different lawyer, was FedEx-ed to Cohen at his Trump Organization office in Trump Tower in New York. Michael Avenatti: That is a copy of the Federal Express confirmation. Anderson Cooper: The cover letter from Danielss previous attorney also identifies who he thought Michael Cohen was working for. Michael Avenatti: To Mr. Cohen as executive vice-president and special counsel to Donald J. Trump, the Trump Organization, again listing the Fifth Avenue address. This idea that theres a separation now between Mr. Cohen, individually, and the Trump Organization or Mr. Cohen, individually, and Donald Trump, it it its nonsense.

Daniels Felt Pressured Into Signing False Statements

While Cohen has denied that he ever threatened Daniels, she said she felt she had no choice but to sign the statements released earlier this year in which she denied the affair and the hush-money payment.

Anderson Cooper: So you signed and released a statement that said I am not denying this affair because I was paid in hush money Im denying it because it never happened. Thats a lie? Stormy Daniels: Yes. Anderson Cooper: If it was untruthful, why did you sign it? Stormy Daniels: Because they made it sound like I had no choice. Anderson Cooper: I mean, no one was putting a gun to your head? Stormy Daniels: Not physical violence, no. Anderson Cooper: You thought that there would be some sort of legal repercussion if you didnt sign it? Stormy Daniels: Correct. As a matter of fact, the exact sentence used was, They can make your life hell in many different ways. Anderson Cooper: They being Stormy Daniels: Im not exactly sure who they were. I believe it to be Michael Cohen.

If the Trump Sexts Exist, Daniels Isnt Ready to Release Them

Danielss NDA says she must hand over certain still images and/or text messages, and on Twitter, Avenatti has fanned speculation that she may have compromising images of the president. If it exists, theyre saving it for the next blockbuster interview.

Anderson Cooper: Did you [hand over the material]? Stormy Daniels: I cant answer that right now. Anderson Cooper: You dont want to say one way or the other if you have text messages or other items? Stormy Daniels: My attorney has recommended that I dont discuss those things. Anderson Cooper: You seem to be saying that she has some sort of text message, or video, or or photographs. Or you could just be bluffing. Michael Avenatti: You should ask some of the other people in my career when theyve bet on me bluffing.

This post has been updated throughout.The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has set June 30, 2018, as the deadline for phasing out airtime scratch cards.

In its communication dated March, 23, 2018, UCC says telecom companies should from July commence the use of electronic airtime.

UCC wants all airtime bought electronically

UCC executive director Godfrey Mutabazi in the release says telecom companies are also supposed to submit the current stock of airtime scratch cards including the scratch cards already purchased and enroute to Uganda.



The telecom companies are also supposed to provide UCC with a weighted average period in which they would have consumed all scratch cards available in the market and also begin sensitizing the vendors about the phase off of scratch cards.

It is unclear what prompted UCC's decision especially given that there are very few point of sales (POS) and shops for electronic airtime even in the city centre itself.

Like with so many impromptu economic and policy orders, speculation is rife on social media that perhaps some 'powerful' people in government are using state institutions to recoup back their investment.Anaheims Hampus Lindholm scored 1:21 into overtime as the visiting Ducks, who erased two third-period deficits, beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-4 on Sunday.

Though Anaheims five-year run as Pacific Division champion likely will end  the Ducks trail first-place Vegas by 10 points with six games remaining  a sixth straight playoff berth is within reach.

Anaheim moved into sole possession of third place in the Pacific, two points ahead of Los Angeles. The Ducks trail the second-place Sharks by four points, and San Jose has a game in hand.

The Ducks erased deficits of 3-1 and 4-3 in the third, forcing overtime when Adam Henrique scored at 18:31.

In overtime, Anaheim controlled the puck from the opening face-off, then Lindholm scored on the first shot of the extra period after a pass from Rickard Rakell.

Jets 5, Predators 4: Mark Scheifele scored the only goal in the shootout as host Winnipeg clinched a playoff spot. Juuse Saros stopped 43 shots for Nashville, which has a five-point lead on the Jets for the Central Division and Western Conference leads.

Bruins 2, Wild 1: Brad Marchand scored 28 seconds into overtime as visiting Boston won, moving two points behind first-place Tampa Bay in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference races. Minnesota remained third in the Central, three points ahead of Colorado.

Penguins 5, Flyers 4: Bryan Rust redirected Sidney Crosbys feed past Petr Mrazek 2:25 into overtime as host Pittsburgh pulled three points back of first-place Washington in the Metropolitan Division and three points clear of Philadelphia, which is tied with Columbus for third. The Flyers fell to 4-6-3 in March after going 10-1-2 in February

Canucks 4, Stars 1: Reid Boucher and Nic Dowd scored power-play goals to help visiting Vancouver win for the second time in 10 games. Dallas, which has lost eight in a row, is five points behind St. Louis for the second wild-card in the West.

Briefly: Blues defenseman Carl Gunnarsson has a torn ACL in his left knee and will need surgery, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported. He was injured Friday, when he was hit by the Canucks Bo Horvat. Gunnarsson and Alex Pietrangelo had been St. Louis top defensive pairing. ... Calgary forward Johnny Gaudreau has left the team to deal with a family matter and will miss Mondays game against the Kings, NHL.com reported.

Sharks on Monday

Who: Sharks (43-23-9) at

Chicago (31-36-9)

When: 5:30 p.m

TV/Radio: NBCSCA/98.5If you have ever visited an ancient ruin only to leave unimpressed by piles of stones and maybe a Doric column or two, Expedia has just the thing to rekindle your interest.

The travel site partnered with NeoMam and This is Render to illustrate what seven monuments of the ancient world looked like in their glory days. The group created animated GIFs that erase centuries of decay and restore the missing facades, statuary and, in the case of Roman temples, the marble that was scavenged to build the Christian basilicas.California's Highway 139 that stretches through vast swaths of untouched land between Susanville and the Oregon Border ranked No. 5 in a list of America's quietest scenic roads.

Within the highly populated Golden State, where traffic becomes gridlock at rush hour, it's hard to imagine any highway would make the list from Geotab, a technology company that analyzed national road traffic data to identify the least-traveled routes in America.Locals woke up to what could be some of the last snow hitting the tops of Bay Area mountains this season.

Mount Diablo was hit with snow overnight, and park rangers shared photos of snow covering areas of Mount Diablo State Park. Snow covered parts of the ground, water fountains and the sides of the road, which became icy and slick for anyone attempting to visit the park Sunday morning.Winnie Nakanjako, the deputy headteacher of Marto nursery school in Kamwokya has been arrested for child abuse.

Nakanjako was arrested by Kira Road Police Child and Family Protection Unit this morning, on the basis of a video which showed a parent beating a four-year-old boy who allegedly lost his way to school. The video went viral after it was posted by The Observer. The video was obtained from URN.

Winnie Nakanjako being interviewed by Kira Road Police detective last week

In the video, Daniel Kibuye, 32, is seen severely beating the boy who was pleading for mercy as Nakanjako and other pupils stood by. The father was indiscriminately hitting the child's legs, the back and the head. It is reported that Nakanjako sanctioned the punishment after administering the first round of beating.



Prior to the incident, the child was usually delivered to the school by his six-year-old brother. However, on the fateful day, the brother who goes to St Martin primary school in Mulago, did not drop the sibling. As a result, the four-year-old lost bearings of where his school is, followed other children and ended up at Mulago School for the Deaf.



The guard at Mulago School for the Deaf took him to Old Mulago police post upon realising that he was not a pupil of the school. The boy was later dropped to his school by a police constable. Marto nursery school is situated on Mawanda Road, few metres from Mawanda Road police station.



In the aftermath, Kibuye, a resident of Nsooba zone was arrested on charges of assault and child abuse contrary to provisions of the Children's Act. In his statement at police, Kibuye said he had received a call from school that his child had gone missing and when he reached the school and found him, he was overcome with anger so he beat him.



Kibuye's file was taken to City Hall (KCCA) court resident state attorney Jackie Kasimiire on Thursday. Kasimiire advised that the child be taken for medical examination and the teacher be arrested on child abuse charges.



Article 106 (a) of Children's Act, as amended in 2016, prohibits corporal punishment in schools. It states that a person of authority in institutions of learning shall not subject a child to any form of corporal punishment.



It describes it as an offence punishable by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to a fine not exceeding one hundred currency points or both. A currency point in Uganda is twenty thousand shillings.KANDAHAR, Afghanistan  The U.S. military has been flying UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter missions in Afghanistan for years, but the storied aircraft will soon take to the countrys battlefields manned by pilots and crews from the Afghan military.

The first group of Afghan trainees is in the final phase of instruction by U.S. advisers at an air base in southern Kandahar province, as part of the process of transitioning Afghanistans military from Soviet-era Mi-17 helicopters to the U.S.-made Black Hawks. They are scheduled to begin flying missions in May.

The Mi-17 that the UH-60 is going to replace is not sustainable as a helicopter, so what we are doing, we are giving to the Afghan Air Force sustainable, very highly capable and battle-proven helicopters so that they can take the fight forward as they continue to safeguard this country, said U.S. Air Force Maj. Ted Rogers, director of operations for the 441st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron. He called the transition hugely important.

According to the Afghan Air Force, it has 46 of the Russian Mi-17 multi-mission helicopters, of which 25 are active. The rest are unusable either because of scheduled overhauls or major repairs.

The transfer of the Black Hawks is part of broader plans for the expansion of the Afghan Air Force. The Afghan government and the international community, including the United States and NATO, have stepped up efforts to bolster its capacity and capabilities and the U.S. is spending $814 million on the seven-year effort.

Along with the Black Hawks, the plan includes the introduction of AC-208 light attack and surveillance aircraft, A-29 attack aircraft and additional MD-530 attack helicopters to the Afghan Air Force.

Since November, 11 Black Hawks have arrived at Kandahar Air Field. By the end of the year, a total 28 copters will be handed over to the Afghan military, with a total 159 transferred by the end of the program in 2023. The aircraft have or will undergo engine upgrades, U.S. military officials said.

The primary purpose of the aircraft will be for troop and cargo transport, including evacuating casualties and remains. However, many of the aircraft will be weaponized to provide close air support in battle.

The UH-60 Black Hawk manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft was first entered into service in the late 1970s as the U.S. Armys tactical transport helicopter. Now a mainstay in militaries around the world, a version of the aircraft was modified for stealth in the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Ladens compound in Pakistan in 2011.CAIRO  Egyptians began voting Monday in an election that virtually guaranteed another term for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who faced only a token opponent in balloting that resembled the referendums held by autocrats for decades before the Arab Spring briefly raised hopes of democratic change.

El-Sissis only challenger was Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a little-known politician who joined the race at the last minute to spare the government the embarrassment of a one-candidate election after several hopefuls were forced out or arrested.

Authorities hope enough of Egypts nearly 60 million eligible voters will participate in the three-day election to give it legitimacy. Local media, which are dominated by pro-government commentators, have portrayed voting as a national obligation and the only way to prevent foreigners from sowing instability.

There were only modest lines at most polling places Monday, and some were empty for most of the day.

Officials overseeing four polling centers in the greater Cairo area said turnout hovered around a lowly 7 percent by 6 p.m., three hours before their scheduled close for the day. They said they expected a dramatic increase on the final day Wednesday.

El-Sissi, a general who led the 2013 military overthrow of Egypts first freely elected president, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi, voted at a school in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis as soon as the polls opened at 9 a.m. He made no comment before heading for a meeting with his campaign team.

Moussa, who supported el-Sissi until he joined the race, made no effort to mount a challenge, and the president never mentioned him once in public.

Replying to a reporters question about his chances of winning, Moussa said: It all depends on your prayers and your votes.

Today we want the people to come out and vote. ... It doesnt matter who wins as long as Egypt remains safe, he said after casting his ballot.

Some potential candidates might have attracted a sizable protest vote, but they were all either arrested or intimidated into withdrawing, making this the least competitive election since the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The vote came amid the harshest crackdown on dissent in Egypts modern history, with thousands of Islamists as well as several prominent secular activists in jail. Unauthorized protests are banned, most critical voices in the local media have been silenced, and hundreds of websites, including those of independent media and rights groups, have been blocked.NEUMUENSTER, Germany  Spains showdown with Catalonias separatist leaders moved Monday to German courts as the regions former president, Carles Puigdemont, embarked on what could be a weeks-long effort to avoid extradition from Germany.

A court in the northern town of Neumuenster ruled that Puigdemont, who was arrested Sunday in Germany, has to remain in custody for the length of the extradition proceedings.

The court said the formal requirements to detain Puigdemont had been met by a European arrest warrant issued by Spain.

In denying him bail, the court said Puigdemont posed a flight risk, concluding that he had a strong incentive to try to travel to Belgium where his chances of avoiding extradition might be greater.

Schleswig Holstein state prosecutor Georg Guentge said the former Catalan leader appeared calm and composed during Mondays hearing, at times making legal arguments on his own behalf.

Guentge said Puigdemont can challenge the legal basis for Spains extradition request during the formal proceedings, which will now take place before the upper court in nearby Schleswig. Guentge said it isnt clear whether a decision on the extradition request will happen this week and in the meantime Puigdemont will remain at the prison in Neumuenster.

With tensions flaring back home, Spains government said Puigdemonts arrest at a highway rest area south of the German-Danish border during an attempt to drive from Finland to Belgium shows that nobody can infinitely mock justice.

Tens of thousands protested late Sunday in Barcelona and other Catalan towns, and some demonstrators clashed with riot police.

Spanish authorities accuse Puigdemont, 55, of rebellion and misuse of public funds in organizing an unauthorized referendum last year on independence for Catalonia.

European rules call for a final decision on extradition within 60 days of the suspects arrest, though a 30-day extension is possible, Justice Ministry spokeswoman Stephanie Krueger said.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Puigdemonts government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the northeastern region in October.MEXICO CITY  Mexico City has existed in one form or another since the Aztecs settled here in 1315, but the colonial city founded by the Spanish with a grid system of streets was born out of the bloody conquest of 1521.

As those streets  among the oldest in the hemisphere  near their 500th birthday, two Mexican writers are trying to peel back the layers of change that have hidden their colorful history.

Three years ago, Hector de Mauleon and his main ally, Rafael Perez Gay, persuaded the city government to erect plaques on downtown street corners to give passersby some description of famous past residents or notable events.

The plaques are made of a decorative colonial-style pottery known as Talavera and are carefully affixed to oft-historic facades of buildings.

In a metropolis where so much occurred and still happens on the streets  markets, protests, art, performances  it is a way of recovering the citys history.

So far, they have plans to create 200 of the plaques, but the process of installing them is just starting and may expand to other neighborhoods, like the southern district of Coyoacan, where Spaniard Hernan Cortes set up his government soon after conquering the city.

De Mauleon recalls walking when he was young along the downtown streets with his grandfather.

He very much liked to take walks and remember what had been there before, De Mauleon said. I would accompany him and it was like taking two trips at once: the one we were on at that moment, and the one about things that had happened long ago, or were no longer there.

But its hard if you dont know what youre looking for. Starting around 1921  the 100th anniversary of Mexicos independence  the government changed most of the old street names.

Many of the streets were named for Latin American countries like Brazil, Chile or Argentina in a sign of the governments gratitude for them sending representatives to meet embattled President Alvaro Obregon during the centennial, at a time the country was still roiled by periodic uprisings in the wake of Mexicos bloody 1910-17 revolution.

The original name of Brazil Street, for example, was the Sepulcher of Santo Domingo. That was a beautiful name, De Mauleon said.

Other streets were renamed to honor fallen heroes of the revolution or dates of key battles. The original names gradually were forgotten.

When they did that, they severed the collective memory, De Mauleon said.

Not surprisingly for a city this old, it isnt the first attempt to put historic markers downtown. In 1928, a group of intellectuals asked authorities for permission to set up plaques  some of which are still visible  often with just the original names of the thoroughfare.

But memories of more than just nomenclature have faded. One planned plaque will mark the location of a hotel that was taken over by U.S. troops during the 1846-48 Mexican-American war.To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.

We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.

A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!Bendigo and Adelaide Bank managing director Mike Hirst will retire after nine years running the regional lender, to be replaced by long-serving executive Marnie Baker.

Mr Hirst, who took the reins at Bendigo in 2009 in the tail end the global financial crisis, has helped steer the bank through a period in which big banks have extended their dominance in the lucrative mortgage market.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank's next managing director, Marnie Baker, has worked at the lender since 1989.

With trust in banks under fire after a series of scandals in recent years, chairman Robert Johanson also highlighted Bendigo's stronger performance in customer satisfaction, and its growth following the merger between Bendigo Bank and Adelaide Bank in 2009.

"Mike has helped build a business that is now the fifth biggest retail bank in Australia  one that is strongly funded, well capitalised, and with a Net Promoter Score that leads the way among Australian

banks, Mr Johanson said.Communications Minister Mitch Fifield is looking for new directors for the ABC board, with well-known Melbourne business personality and property investor Joseph Gersh believed to be among those approached for the job.

Sources say businessman Joseph Gersh is among those in discussions for a role on the ABC board. Credit:Jesse Marlow

Mr Gersh is the founder of boutique investment bank Gersh Investment Partners, has an Order of Australia and is director of not for profit current affairs forum The Sydney Institute.

Non-executive directors for the ABC board are required to have experience with media, business and financial management, corporate governance or cultural policy.

Mr Gersh, a former board member of the Reserve Bank of Australias Payment Systems Board and previously a senior partner of law firm Arnold Block Leibler, easily fills these requirements.Firefighters work at the scene of a overnight fire where firefighter Michael R. Davidson died. Credit:AP Davidson of Engine Company 69 was assigned to the nozzle on the lead hose-line and pushed into the burning basement. But the blaze was too much. Firefighters had to back out, and the 15-year fire department veteran was separated from his colleagues. Firefighters searched desperately for him, and he was found unconscious after suffering severe smoke inhalation, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. Davidson was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after midnight. "I have never witnessed firsthand that kind of bravery," Norton posted. "Im in awe of that kind of selfless courage.

"Its devastating to contemplate that one of the men we watched charging in there lost his life. Please send a prayer of thanks for the spirit and courage of Michael Davidson." Firefighter Michael R. Davidson was a 15-year department veteran and is survived by his wife and four children. Credit:New York Fire Department via AP Mayor Bill de Blasio said, "Our city lost a hero", in a tweet before visiting the fire scene Friday evening. The Democrat called Davidson's death "a heartbreaking tragedy for the entire city". Davidson, a second-generation firefighter, had been cited four times for bravery during 15 years on the job. He leaves behind a wife, Eileen, and four children under the age of eight. Neighbours described him as a salt-of-the-earth guy, a great friend, father and husband.

"He was a great guy - he went up and down and did everybody's sidewalk in the snow. He was playing with the kids in the snow yesterday," said Joanne Caldon. Shauna Robertson with Edward Norton in New York in 2017. Credit:AP Norton has pledged that his film will somehow honour Davidson, and in the meantime he has used his star power to promote the scholarship fund set up to help the firefighter's children. "Our team is committed to honouring him and assisting his family and, in due course, when we can determine with his family what form theyd like that to take, Ill pass along any information I have about a verified way people can contribute."

The building was being used to film the adaptation of the Jonathan Lethem novel of the same name. Norton was directing and starring, along with Bruce Willis, Willem Dafoe and Alec Baldwin. Neighbourhood resident Daquan Evans, 28, told the New York Post he saw Norton at the scene. "He looked pretty upset," Evans said. "This is crazy, this fire. You think a movie comes up here and it is good for the neighbourhood. Not a fire ... damn." The cause of the five-alarm fire was under investigation. The building, built in 1920, is a landmark and was home to the former St Nick's Jazz Pub, a venerable bar that was closed in 2011.

Neighbour Joan Adams said she saw white smoke, then black, billowing from basement windows in the front of the building. But when she went into her backyard, two buildings away, she could see flames. "It was really scary," she said. The movie's producers said crews immediately called the fire department when they noticed smoke coming into the set and other parts of the building. Firefighters battling the fire in the Harlem neighbourhood of New York, where firefighter Michael R. Davidson perished. Credit:AP "We watched first-hand with astonishment as they charged into the smoke to make sure all were safely out and then fought to contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading, putting their lives on the line as they do every day," the producers said in a statement sending condolences to the firefighter's family.

Background actor Ambroise Ironfence said the movie crew wasn't using any open fire during the shoot and the building's power wasn't on. "All the equipment we were using ... the power came from the truck outside," he told WCBS-TV. The movie crew didn't need a city film production permit to work at the building because it was a private residence. The filmmakers did need a street parking permit and had one, officials said. The building owner's phone number wasn't accepting messages on Friday; nor was the phone for a lawyer who has represented him in real-estate cases. An email message to the owner failed. Neighbours said the movie crew had set up a sign that read "King Rooster Jazz Club" and began filming about two weeks ago. Cars from the 1950s era lined the street.

Douglas Miller, who lives across the street in a second-floor apartment, said the fire travelled fast and went all the way to the roof. He saw firefighters carry out one of their own, on a stretcher, and try to resuscitate him and give him oxygen. "They tried to save him, but they couldn't," Miller said, and soon the firefighter was being rushed to a hospital. Later Friday, Davidson's body was taken to a suburban funeral home in a procession of fire trucks, getting sombre salutes from firefighters stationed along the route. Davidson was the son and brother of New York City firefighters. His father is now retired. "You haven't heard a scream until you've heard the scream of a mother who's seen her son give his life to protect us," tweeted the mayor's spokesman, Eric Phillips.More than 250 high-profile film and television figures have signed an open letter pleading with the federal government to strengthen local content rules on the small screen and to increase tax breaks to attract overseas movie producers.

A who's who of Australian TV and movie talents is supporting the call, including actors Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Anthony LaPaglia and Yael Stone, as well as directors Kriv Stenders, Rolf De Heer and Rachel Perkins.

"Our voices [are] in danger of being drowned out by a deluge of overseas content," it says.

"And if our nation's stories aren't told, they die. And when they die, future generations won't know who we are and what makes us us."Kitgum Municipality MP Beatrice Anywar is demanding for a fast trial of a United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) team leader Khemis Ali, who's accused of sodomising more than five girls in Kitgum, Lamwo and other neighbouring districts.

Anywar told a news conference at parliament today that Khemis, who is attached to Lamwo Refugee Camp, is now under custody at Jinja Road police station following her intervention.

MP Beatrice Anywar addressing the media

According to Anywar, her intervention forced the UNHCR bosses in Geneva to respond by sending a private investigative team in the country that has since confirmed that indeed Khemis is an official of UNHCR but not a diplomat.

I am glad that after we exposed this beastly act by the UNHCR staff, a team of senior investigators led by a one Ian Hamilton from Geneva came here for fact-finding mission. They talked to the victims and indeed confirmed that Khemis is one of their staff and added that he has no diplomatic protection and must face the laws of Uganda, Anywar said.

The investigators advised us to take any legal actions of the land against Khemis which prompted me to make contacts with the CID director, Grace Akullo prompting the file to be brought from Kitgum [to Kampala], although it had been shelved, Anywar added.

Khemis, an Arab of Tanzanian origin, is accused of sodomising among many girls 22-year-old Jenefer Acan who was working at Little Palace hotel in Lamwo before he convinced her to leave for better pay.

He convinced her to leave where she was working that he was taking her to work for him and he would pay her Shs 200,000 doubling her pay at the hotel. Being the caretaker of her sick mother, Acan found that to be an opportunity, Anywar said.

According to Anywar, Khemis went home with another woman and forced the duo into sexual intercourse on the same bed but when Acan tried to resist, he resorted to sodomising her.

It was then that Acan ran to police but the file had been shelved. Acan needs urgent medical and psychological attention. She uncontrollably passes out stool; we demand that Khemis compensates her for the damage that he caused to her life and other girls, Anywar said.

Khemis is said to have, on several occasions been accused of sexual offences but has been shielded by the police authorities in the land.

Police deputy spokesperson Patrick Onyango confirmed that Khemis was being held at Jinja Road police station over unnatural offences.

The charge at the moment is unnatural offence but his file is with the DPP for perusal, Onyango said.

How it started

Onyango said that while in Lamwo district, Khemis fell in love with Acan who was a waitress at Little Palace hotel in Lamwo.

After the hotel management learnt of their relationship, they terminated Acans duties and it was then that Khemis rented for her a house and the two started living together.

Around January before Khemis went to UK for his leave, he promised to buy her a car and enrolled her into a driving school for her to learn driving but Acan reportedly fell in love with the driving school instructor and when Khemis leant of it, he ended their relationship.

namuloki16@gmail.comAn Australian Defence Force Academy cadet accused of sexually assaulting a Canberra university student told her what happened on the day in question was "probably the worst thing I've ever done in my life", but maintains he did nothing wrong.

Sebastian Crago Ellis, 22, is on trial before Justice John Burns in the ACT Supreme Court, charged with committing an act of indecency and unlawful assault. He was acquitted on Friday of a further four charges, including rape and two of attempted rape.

The remaining accusations relate to Mr Ellis allegedly sitting on top of the student, who cannot legally be identified, and ejaculating onto her chest while she tried to wriggle out from underneath him. Mr Ellis has pleaded not guilty and says the woman consented, saying it would "be cool".

On Monday, a covert recording made by the Australian National University student after the alleged assault was played to the jury for a second time.

In the recording, the student confronted Mr Ellis about what happened in his room at the academy after a night out at Mooseheads nightclub on July 24, 2016.A former public servant who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from some of Canberra's most vulnerable citizens was jailed on Monday for at least four years.

For more than 10 years, Timothy McLeod, 36, was a trusts officer at the ACT Public Trustee, the organisation responsible for managing the money of people not legally capable of managing it themselves.

Timothy McLeod, 36, enters court before he was jailed on Monday for stealing more than $1 million from the ACT Public Trustee.

But McLeod abused his position to defraud the trustee and its clients, only stopping when he was caught in around 2014.

In a scam devised between himself and three others, McLeod and his co-offenders stole more than $1.1 million over five years, with McLeod's share amounting up to $700,000.The federal government should be censured for questioning the details surrounding the death of Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd's father, his deputy says. Federal opposition workplace relations spokeswoman Julia Gillard said politicians' families should be off limits from the usual cut and thrust of politics. "That's the line the Howard government has crossed in the past fortnight," Ms Gillard told the Nine Network. "That does deserve censure." Health Minister Tony Abbott has expressed doubt about Mr Rudd's childhood story that his family was evicted from a Queensland farm immediately after his father's death.

Mr Rudd has also suggested there may have been neglect in the hospital treatment of his father before he died. "The circumstances of ... Kevin's father's death should not be the subject of political questioning," Ms Gillard said. "You may want to question what it meant to him, you may want to question the Labor values he says he holds, you may want to question his competence in terms of policies. "But I actually think flogging through the details of the loss by an 11-year-old boy and his siblings and his mother of their father is an inappropriate level of questioning." The Labor deputy leader said the government had been hurt by its smear campaign against Mr Rudd.Drug-addicted minors could be ordered into rehabilitation programs under a radical plan, backed by the NSW opposition, to intervene early in the lives of people with substance abuse problems.

A trial of "drug-treatment orders" for children with substance-abuse problems and whose parents consent to the intervention has the backing of opposition health spokesman Walt Secord.

The plan would reflect a European approach to drug policy that emphasises a health-based and not punitive response to individual users, Mr Secord said.

Illicit drug use requires a broader policy response than just policing, Mr Secord said. It should be managed as a health challenge.

The Childrens Court already has powers to sentence young people found guilty of criminal charges to complete rehabilitation programs.A developers proposal to rezone an industrial estate in Sydneys inner west has been rejected by the NSW government after a vocal campaign to oppose it.

The developer had argued the one-hectare site in Leichhardt was no longer suitable for industrial purposes and sought to rezone it from industrial to residential to build 315 apartments housed in buildings up to eight storeys high.

Colin Cranson and Rob Meyers outside their homes close to the controversial Lords Road industrial estate in Leichhardt. Credit:Christopher Pearce

But the NSW Department of Planning and Environment turned down the proposed rezoning of 67-73 Lords Road because it did not protect employment land.

The DPE also noted the significant objection of the community, Inner West council and the Sydney Central Planning Panel, which rejected the proposed rezoning more than six months ago.A woman has been charged after allegedly throwing drain cleaner in her ex-husbands face in Sydneys west.

Police said the 55-year-old went to her ex-husbands workplace on Skarrett Street in Silverwater about 1.30pm on Monday, and the pair argued.

The woman then left the room and walked into the kitchen at the office, before allegedly returning with a mug of corrosive fluid, understood to be drain cleaner. Its alleged she then threw the fluid into the face of the 58-year-old man.

The man was taken to Concord Emergency Burns Unit with burn injuries to his eye. He remains in a stable condition.

Police later arrested the woman at a home in Belfield and took her to Auburn Police Station, where she was served an Appended Domestic Violence Order.A pair of dated former Queensland Government buildings in Brisbane CBD will merge and be increased in height by six storeys as part of a new commercial development.

Ashe Morgan and DMANN Corporation submitted a development application to the Brisbane City Council in December 2017 proposing the re-purposing and redevelopment of the former Forestry and Health building at 163 Charlotte Street.

The Midtown Centre at 155 Charlotte Street and 150 Mary Street has been approved by the council.

The council gave the development the green light on Friday.

The development, called Midtown Centre, involves in-filling the two towers from level seven to 20 and incorporating an additional six storeys to create a single integrated tower.People are calling triple zero to check what is on TV and order a pizza, with Queensland police warning the nuisance calls are clogging the emergency line.

Among the unnecessary calls made to police recently were:

A caller asking when Blue Heelers would be on TV

A caller asking "What day is it? ... I've just woken up."

A caller reporting a person playing loud music on the train

A man asking the call taker to guess their name and serial number

A person having difficulty with a pay phone and wanting to order a taxi

A caller trying to order a pizza Nuisance calls to the triple zero line include one from someone who wanted to know when Blue Heelers, which starred Lisa McCune, would be on TV.

For reference, the Australian police drama series Blue Heelers ran on the Seven Network from 1994 to 2006.

In 2017, more than 5830 nuisance triple zero calls were recorded at police communication centres and more than 5870 calls were deemed to be false or hoax calls.Chapel Street, South Yarra, 4.30am, Monday.

Two men dash down the footpath near Malvern Road as people in a convenience store watch on, puzzled, as a third man follows them seconds behind.

Moments later the motivation for their flight is made apparent.

A masked man storms along the street after them, pointing what appears to be a handgun and repeatedly pulling the trigger.Sustainable Development Goal number 5 talks about gender equality and empowerment to all women and girls globally.

According to the United Nations, gender equality is not only a fundamental human right but, rather, a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.

Giving equal access to education, healthcare, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes to women and girls can usher in sustainable economies, which in turn benefits humanity and societies.

In Uganda, our efforts towards women emancipation and empowerment are more theoretically successful than practically. I think this is the reason we still have violence against women, discrimination by sex and gruesome murders of women and girls in addition to the injustices against women that are endemic in our societies today.

Our communities strongly believe that women are "weak vessels", a misnomer that renders them as primary targets in the minds of miscreant persons. The golden question, however, should be: they may be weak vessels, but in what context? I think that God created man and woman uniquely and differently, and placed them to occupy separate spaces.

It must be unequivocally construed by all and sundry that the two don't occupy the same space even if they live as husband and wife.

It is, therefore, unfair and not proper to compare man and woman in terms of their physical strength and tag a woman as a weak vessel. I think that the best comparison, if any, should have been based on what each can do when availed with equal opportunities.

Most of the injustices against women occur because the perpetrators imagine that they are stronger and, therefore, shouldn't let the "weak" be; they forget or perhaps don't know that each person occupies a different space. I strongly believe that changing the mindset of society members can make wonders in aiding women emancipation.

I am convinced that women in Uganda can do whatever men can do or even more, if they are psychologically emancipated. Currently, most women emancipators are focusing their efforts on liberating women from a life of servitude by encouraging them to physically resist dominion of men.

They do this without freeing them (women) from mental slavery to attitudes created by "True African Cultures", abstractly established to facilitate servitude and subservience of women to men.

It should be noted, however, that servitude involves forced fidelity towards someone while in subservience, one's fidelity is willingly given to whoever the person deems fit to receive it.

Well, it is not bad for women to resist dominion of men but I think that in order to avoid physical retaliation and also in pursuit of a lasting solution, it is better to deal primarily with peoples' "software" (mindset) before physical encounter because it is human to reciprocate physical resistance with physical resistance.

Just recently, Uganda was celebrating the International Womens day in Mityana Municipality, a constituency I represent.

I received many phone calls from my NRM friends inviting me to attend, but I couldn't attend such a function not because I am from the opposition but because such functions lost meaning. They are always used as avenues for praising President Museveni as the pioneer of women emancipation in Uganda, forgetting compatriots like Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada.

Amin opened doors for women into forces (police and army). If it were not for Amin, Judith Nabakooba, who was actually the master of ceremonies on that day, would have not been recognized. Such patriotic Ugandans are not recognized; it is always the chief women emancipator being worshipped like a god.

I couldn't join them in worshiping a man who creates political positions for women in disguise of emancipating and empowering them, but only ends up using them to further his desires.

Museveni appoints non-independent-minded women to leadership positions, makes toadies out of them and thrives on their true African culture syndrome to manipulate them to dance in accordance with his tune.

The presence of such a leader in my constituency couldn't make me budge.

The author is the Mityana Municipality MPA 15-year-old boy who raped an elderly woman in Waikiki last year was sentenced to six years and four months in detention for the brutal crime on Monday.

The boy, who cannot be named, faced Perth Children's Court after pleading guilty to a string of charges stemming from the October 2017 incident.

The court was told the teenager had been released from Banksia Hill Detention Centre just six weeks before he smashed his way into the home of an 83-year-old woman and terrorised her.

The boy's sentenced will be backdated. Credit:Louie Douvis

After demanding cash from the woman the boy hit her, before launching into a sustained sexual attack which left his victim hospitalised for six weeks with severe internal injuries.A Perth woman has told of the heartbreaking moment she witnessed a little boy ask a police officer if he'd seen his missing three-year-old sister, just moments after she had been hit by a car on Albany Highway on Friday morning.

Sharon Arkwright, 46, was driving east towards Gosnells in busy traffic about 6.30am when she saw the girl, dressed in her pyjamas, run out in front of her car in the middle of the four-lane road.

She told 9 News Perth she quickly stopped her car, and went to go retrieve the girl - but it was too late.

She was hit by a white 2005 Toyota Hilux utility driving east, and she was unresponsive.A pedophile who repeatedly raped a Perth girl, pimped out by her own father in the so-called "Evil 8" case, has been sentenced to nine-and-a-half years in jail.

Alfred John Impicciatore, 48, chatted with the girl's father online, then visited their home in March 2015.

Alfred John Impicciatore is the final abuser of the girl to be sentenced for his involvement in the notorious case. Credit:LinkedIn

He sexually penetrated the girl four times, with her father also participating in the abuse.

Impicciatore was found guilty after a judge-alone trial in the WA District Court."I have decided that as a discretionary and humanitarian act to an individual with ongoing needs it is in the interests of Australia as a humane and generous society to grant this person a [visa]." An immigration official familiar with the visa cancellation process at the airport was "very surprised at this unusual set of events". "It is hard to see how the grant of the new visa ... was genuinely in the public interest," the source told AAP. "It is not very common for visas to be granted at the border after the visa a person arrived on is cancelled." The source said that, usually, such people were put on the next available flight home.

Analysis of ministerial discretion statements for 2015 tabled in Parliament shows the bulk of these visas are granted to asylum seekers requiring bridging or temporary humanitarian visas or former residents returning to Australia. A former department official told AAP under the ministerial discretion powers "the minister is God. He can do whatever he likes." Ministerial submissions concerning the au pair did not involve consultation with the department secretary nor the head of customs. Mr Dutton has declined to explain why it was in the public interest to grant a visa to the woman and refused to shed light on her "ongoing needs". Mr Dutton has denied he knew the au pair and that she worked for him or his family. The minister and his wife, Kirilly, have three young children.

Mr Dutton again rejected on Monday having ever acted outside the Ministerial Code of Conduct. "For the wider record, I do not personally know the individuals concerned nor does my wife. They have never been associated with us in any way. We have never employed an au pair," he said. "In my capacity as minister I have intervened on hundreds of cases to either grant or cancel visas." Ministerial standards under the Turnbull and Abbott governments state: "It is critical that ministers do not use public office for private purposes. "Ministers are required to ensure official decisions made by them as ministers are unaffected by bias or ... considerations of private advantage.

"Ministers must ensure they act with integrity - that is through the lawful and disinterested exercise of statutory and other powers available to their office." During the Administrative Appeals Tribunal hearing this month, AAP's lawyer Surya Palaniappan argued the news outlet was not seeking the woman's name and that releasing details that might relate to her employer would not specifically identify her. She said there were strong public interest grounds for disclosing further information from the FOI documents. "Even if the minister has somewhat of an unfettered discretion under the Migration Act, he's nevertheless subject to these [ministerial] standards," she told the hearing. The department's lawyer Brooke Griffin argued that disclosure of personal information of the au pair - including country of origin, employer and conversations with Border Force officials - would be unreasonable because it would breach privacy and make her identifiable.Former Liberal minister Bruce Billson is set to be censured by Federal Parliament after a bipartisan inquiry found he failed to uphold proper standards by taking a paid lobbying job while he was still an MP.

Parliament's powerful privileges committee has also criticised Mr Billson for failing to properly disclose his business interests and "manifestly misunderstanding" his obligation to avoid perceptions of a conflict of interest.

While stopping short of finding Mr Billson guilty of contempt, the committee has recommended a rewrite of parliamentary rules to expressly forbid serving MPs from engaging in any paid lobbying work.

Former small business minister Bruce Billson is helming the franchise industry's peak body. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Billson announced his retirement from Parliament in November 2015, after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull dumped him from the frontbench, but officially stayed on until the election was called the following May.Mogadishu: Three explosions over four days in or near the Somalian capital have left a trail of carnage, killing nearly 20 people and injuring dozens of others, as Islamic militants unleashed a wave of attacks on the country.

On Sunday, a car bomb exploded at a security checkpoint near the Interior Ministry on a road leading to the presidential palace in the capital, Mogadishu. At least three people, in addition to the bomber, were killed, a police chief said.

The blast sent a plume of black smoke billowing above the skyline.

A Somali soldier walks past the wreckage of a three-wheeled motorcycle taxi at the scene of a car bomb explosion near the parliament building in the capital Mogadishu. Credit:AP

The police chief, General Bashir Mohamed Jama, said that five other people had been injured in the blast and that authorities had thwarted two other suicide bombing attacks Sunday morning.Dubai: Roadside bombs disguised as rocks in Yemen bear similarities to others used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and by insurgents in Iraq and Bahrain, suggesting at the least an Iranian influence in their manufacture.

The allegation by Conflict Armament Research comes as the West and United Nations researchers accuse Iran of supplying arms to Yemen's Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who have held the country's capital since September 2014.

In this photograph provided by Conflict Armament Research, an independent London-based group that researches battlefield weaponry, an explosive disguised as a rock is on display in Yemen. Credit:AP

Those weapons allegedly included ballistic missiles used to target Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition of Arab nations backed by the US that is stuck in a stalemate war with the Houthis. A barrage of Houthi missile fire late Sunday killed one person in Riyadh and wounded two others.

Iran has long denied supplying arms to the Houthis, and its mission to the United Nations is dismissing the new report. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has derided such weapons research as "fabricating evidence".Washington: Stormy Daniels sued Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen on Monday for defamation, according to court documents, escalating a legal battle between the American president and the porn star that the White House was struggling to contain.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, made the claim a day after her widely watched TV interview on "60 Minutes" on CBS. Daniels said she was threatened with violence to keep quiet about her alleged 2006 tryst with Trump.

At the White House, a spokesman in a briefing with reporters cast aspersions on her account. The White House has denied allegations that Trump had a sexual relationship with Daniels.Washington: The Trump administration have ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian intelligence and diplomatic officers in New York and Washington and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle in retaliation of the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

Fourteen European countries and Canada followed suit in the largest global push-back against Russia following the March 4 nerve-agent attack in Salisbury that critically injured a former spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia.

Twelve Russian diplomats at the United Nations in New York and 48 at the Russian Embassy in Washington face expulsion by the US government for what senior administration officials described as covert intelligence operations that undermine US national security.

The US government also is closing the Russian consulate in Seattle, which senior administration officials said they believe has served as a key outpost in Russia's intelligence operations.Robert Lightfoot, seen here testifying at a House Science Committee hearing on NASA's fisal year 2019 budget proposal in March 2018, has served as the space agency's acting administrator since January 2017. Lightfoot has announced that he will retire from NASA on April 30.

NASA has been without a permanent administrator for almost 14 months, which is a record.

Earlier this week, NASA's acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot, announced that he will retire from NASA on April 30. If no permanent NASA chief is appointed before then, the associate administrator, Steve Jurczyk, will take the reins. (Jurczyk's current position would ordinarily make him third in line, but NASA has no deputy administrator at the moment.)

This lengthy vacuum of permanent leadership hasn't hamstrung the space agency, but it does make it harder for NASA to get things done, space policy experts said. [In Photos: President Donald Trump and NASA]

"The current situation is clearly unacceptable, because a person who is acting  he or she has less legitimacy, less political influence," John Logsdon, professor emeritus of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, told Space.com.

"Congress doesn't have to take them seriously," he added. "You can execute policy if the White House gives direction, but it's hard to take the initiative."

The White House has given NASA direction recently, for what it's worth: In December, the Trump administration tasked the agency with sending astronauts back to the moon, as a precursor to crewed Mars missions.

Possible NASA administrator still unconfirmed

A quick history: NASA's last official administrator was former space shuttle commander Charles Bolden. He and his deputy left office on Jan. 20, 2017, the day that Donald Trump was sworn in as president . Lightfoot, then NASA's associate administrator, began acting in Bolden's place. The White House did not nominate a permanent successor  former Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla.,  until Sept. 1, 2017.

Meanwhile, NASA's No. 2 position also remains vacant. The agency's last deputy administrator, Lesa Roe (who was an acting rather than permanent deputy), left the position in September. Bridenstine is still awaiting confirmation. With Lightfoot leaving, no deputy administrator in place and Bridenstine not confirmed yet, Jurczyk is set to assume the leadership position.

"The NASA administrator position has to be confirmed by the Senate. So that requires a Senate committee to first screen the candidate, and vote on whether they want that candidate to be heard by the entire Senate. And then the Senate needs to vote and approve the position," said Robert Pearlman, editor of the space history and memorabilia website collectSPACE, which is a Space.com partner.

"In this case, the White House's nominee, Jim Bridenstine  he is a congressman from Oklahoma, and there have been some concerns raised about having a politician serve as NASA administrator," Pearlman told Space.com. He added that some concerns may have partisan roots  namely, that Democrats in the Senate may not want to confirm a Republican politician to run NASA. [From Ike to Trump: Presidential Visions for Space Exploration]

Bridenstine's office declined to speak with Space.com, saying that the former congressman is not doing interviews during the confirmation process.

A representative from Lightfoot's office at NASA did not respond to interview requests before this article's deadline. But in remarks to the House Science Committees Subcommittee on Space on March 7, Lightfoot said that his access to policymakers hasn't been unduly restricted.

From my perspective, as the one sitting in that chair, it is always of value to have the person the president wants in this position, said Lightfoot in his testimony, Spaceflight Now reported.

"And I think that would be important for us all from that standpoint," he continued. "But I can tell you for the past year I've had no trouble having access to the people I need to have access to. I've been to both [National] Space Councils. I haven't had to sit in the back row. I've sat right at the table as the administrator would be. But there is value in having the approved presidential nominee in the chair."

Apollo 8 and the space shuttle

The longest-serving acting administrator before Lightfoot was George Low, who held that title from September 1970 to April 1971  a span of 222 days, Pearlman said.

On average, it takes just 40 days to appoint a permanent NASA administrator, Jason Davis, a digital editor for the nonprofit Planetary Society, wrote in September 2017. The shortest confirmation time was just 15 days, for James Webb back in 1961, he added. (The average appointment time is now 53 days, according to Davis' calculations. Lightfoot, whose tenure was included in the average, has served for much longer now than he had back in September.)

Acting administrators have served in interesting times, however. Perhaps the most famous example was Thomas O. Paine, who was one of the players in authorizing the Apollo 8 moon-orbiting mission in December 1968. He became acting NASA administrator on Oct. 8, 1968, less than three months before Apollo 8's launch.

At the time, NASA was in a race to get humans to the moon first, before the Soviet Union. NASA had a mandate to land a human on the moon before the end of 1969. (Spoiler alert: It succeeded.) Apollo 8 was originally supposed to be an Earth-orbiting mission, but it was sent on a moon-orbiting mission instead  in large part because it was feared the Soviet Union would also attempt a human moon-orbiting mission before the end of the year.

"It was Tom Paine that gave the approval to Apollo 8," Logsdon said. "He had become enthusiastic about it when he heard about the idea in August, as deputy. Webb was skeptical. Webb left before the final decision was made. Paine made sure there was an exhaustive review, and approved it." [Lunar Legacy: 45 Apollo Moon Mission Photos]

Paine eventually became permanent administrator and served until 1970. At the time, an ad hoc committee called the Space Task Group (chaired by then U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew) was looking at options after the Apollo moon program. Paine left after proposing an ambitious plan for NASA to explore space. Paine wanted a space station, a space transportation system and a mission to Mars, according to Roger Launius, who recently retired from his curatorial position at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

"The Nixon administration basically said 'No' to all of Paine's ideas, so Paine resigned in September of 1970," Launius told Space.com. Low became acting administrator in his place. While acting as administrator, Low's approach was more modest; in the NASA budget he submitted to the White House that September, he recommended building a space transportation system first. That was the first baby step toward the space shuttle program, which flew between 1981 and 2011.

How big of a problem is it?

NASA has now been tasked with sending humans back to the moon, likely toward the end of the 2020s. As is typical of these discussions, critics worry that the agency is not allocating enough budgetary resources to accomplish this goal in this timeframe. The larger question, however, is whether an acting administrator could effectively shepherd this policy long enough for it to take hold.

Having an acting administrator "is a problem in the sense that you don't have direction from somebody who's a representative of the president," Launius said. While the agency's operations continue, the acting administrator has the delicate job of reflecting the Trump administration's priorities while acting as a voice for NASA to the White House, he added.

"That interchange of information is obviously taking place, but it's taking place at other levels," Launius said. Such interchanges are occurring between senior-level NASA officials, the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House, and the committees in Congress tasked with overseeing parts of NASA, he added.

Logsdon pointed out that Lightfoot's resignation in April will come at an interesting moment. Typically, NASA administrators spend the summer working on the budget for the coming year. This means it likely will be Lightfoot's successor who will be working on policy for the 2019 NASA budget, Logsdon said.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.WASHINGTON  A new National Space Strategy announced by the White House March 23 fits into an "America First" theme of the Trump administration, seeking to protect American interests in space through revised military space approaches and commercial regulatory reform.

The strategy was announced in a statement released by the White House. The strategy document itself has not been released, and an administration source says the release is intended to serve as the primary fact sheet for the strategy.

The statement says the strategy is intended to outline how the administration will protect American interests in space, fitting into a broader "America First" theme of policies by the current administration. [From Ike to Trump: Presidential Visions for Space Exploration]

"President Trump's National Space Strategy works within his broader national security policy by putting America's interests first," the statement reads. "The Trump administration's National Space Strategy prioritizes American interests first and foremost, ensuring a strategy that will make America strong, competitive, and great."

The strategy features four "essential pillars" that constitute "a whole-of-government approach to United States leadership in space, in close partnership with the private sector and our allies," according to the document.

Three of those pillars are related to national security activities in space, including a shift to more resilient space architectures, strengthening deterrence and warfighting options in space, and improving "foundational capabilities, structures, and processes" that include space situational awareness, intelligence and acquisition issues.

The document emphasizes the threats that American space assets face, an issue that predates the administration. "President Trump's National Space Strategy recognizes that our competitors and adversaries have turned space into a warfighting domain," the document states, echoing language that Trump himself used in a March 13 speech where he also suggested the creation of a "space force." The strategy itself does not endorse or discuss that issue.

"The strategy affirms that any harmful interference with or attack upon critical components of our space architecture that directly affects this vital interest will be met with a deliberate response at a time, place, manner, and domain of our choosing," the release states. [In Photos: President Trump and NASA]

The fourth pillar of the document is devoted to developing "conducive" environments for working with commercial and international partners. "We will streamline regulatory frameworks, policies, and processes to better leverage and support U.S. commercial industry, and we will pursue bilateral and multilateral engagements to enable human exploration, promote burden sharing and marshal cooperative threat responses," the release states.

The administration had already been moving to streamline commercial space regulatory issues. The National Space Council, at its most recent meeting Feb. 21, endorsed several recommendations on topics ranging from launch licensing to enhancing the role of the Office of Space Commerce within the Department of Commerce.

While the strategy backs cooperation with international partners, it also emphasizes that the U.S. will do so only on terms the administration deems favorable. "The new strategy ensures that international agreements put the interests of American people, workers, and businesses first," the document states.

The release says little on civil space activities beyond stating the strategy is laying the groundwork for the next generation of American exploration in space. It does note the signing of Space Policy Directive 1 by President Trump in December. That directive modified existing national space policy, issued by the Obama administration in 2010, to make a human return to the moon a goal for NASAs human spaceflight program, while maintaining human missions to Mars as a long-term goal.

The National Space Council discussed the development of a National Space Strategy, part of a broader national security strategy, at its first two public meetings. At the second meeting Feb. 21, H. R. McMaster, the national security advisor, discussed the important progress made to develop the space strategy. That included the development of four interrelated lines of effort that match the pillars listed in the March 23 release.

The strategy will not only advance the benefits of space for ourselves, but also ensure the peoples of all nations can benefit from the tremendous potential that space offers, McMaster said at that meeting, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence. With your endorsement, Mr. Vice President, and the presidents approval, we are prepared to begin implementing this national strategy for space and periodically access progress and recommend adjustments to you and the council and the president, he said.

McMaster, though, will not be able to provide those updates. President Trump announced March 22 that McMaster would be stepping down as national security advisor effective April 9, to be replaced by John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.NASA's Kepler space telescope captured a dying star's final moments, revealing a violent explosion unlike any other supernova.

A new study from the Australian National University (ANU) examines the death throes of the star, which was cocooned inside a dense shell of gas and dust. As a massive star nears the end of its life, a bright explosion expels stellar material into space, in what is known as a supernova.

In this case, when the massive amounts of energy released from the cocooned star slammed into the shell of gas and dust, nearly all the kinetic energy was immediately converted to light. The star's demise lasted only a few days, so its death was about 10 times faster than that of a typical supernova, according to a statement from ANU. [Supernova Photos: Great Images of Star Explosions]

"We've discovered yet another way that stars die and distribute material back into space," Brad Tucker, a researcher from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, said in the statement.

This NASA animation depicts a rare supernova type known as a fast-evolving luminous transient, or FELT. NASA's Kepler space telescope has found such an object. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech )

This kind of speedy supernova is a rare event known as a fast-evolving luminous transient (FELT). Due to the brief duration of these events, astronomers know little about FELTs, compared to traditional supernovas.

The Kepler space telescope is designed to hunt for exoplanets outside our solar system. The instrument detects these exoplanets by watching for stars dimming as planets pass in front of them. Astronomers have also used Kepler to find black holes, supernovas and other explosions in space.

Traditional supernova models do not easily explain the rapid evolution of FELTs. However, the Kepler space telescope can make precise measurements of sudden changes in starlight, allowing astronomers to create a new model for FELTs, according to the new study's statement.

The new findings suggest that FELTs represent "a new kind of supernova that gets a brief turbo boost in brightness from its surroundings," said the study, published March 26 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The evolution of a Fast-Evolving Luminous Transient (FELT), a rare, intense supernova where a star dies 10 times faster than an ordinary supernova. (Image credit: NASA)

"Using Kepler's high-speed light-measuring capabilities, we've been able to see this exotic star-explosion in incredible detail," Tucker said. "With the imminent launch of NASA's new space telescope, TESS, we hope to find even more of these rare and violent explosions."

The new work sheds light on the different life cycles of stars, as well as how violent explosions like this one may affect planets orbiting those stars. Tucker said in the statement.

This NASA infographic shows the four different ways that stars can explore, including the rare FELT supernova type. (Image credit: NASA)

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Welcome To SpoilerTV



We bring you a comprehensive and up to date spoiler service on all the major US TV shows and Movies. You can find specific show content by clicking the menu system at the top of the screen. We scour the Internet for spoilers as well as posting our own exclusive spoilers (Scripts, Casting Calls, Set Photos etc) as well as recaps and other fun articles and polls. We hope you enjoy your stay.



El-Aaiun (Occupied Zones) March 25, 2018 (SPS) - Sahrawi political prisoners has continued their unlimeted hunger strikes on their 16th day from the prisons of Quneitra, Ait Melloul and Tata, amid deteriorating health conditions resulting from the absence of the necessary health care and the lack of any serious dialogue by the Moroccan prison administration to meet their demands.



The Sahrawi political prisoners who are on unlimited hunger strike and who are deprived of all the rights guaranteed by international covenants and conventions, demand to be transferred to prisons in Western Sahara and be brought closer to their families to be in contact with them.



On this occasion, the Association for the Protection of Sahrawi Prisoners in Moroccan Prisons appealed to international organizations to intervene urgently to exert pressure on the Moroccan state to stop their suffering and to enjoy their full legitimate rights as prisoners of conscience. (SPS)

062/SPS/TRA



Republican gubernatorial hopeful Tim Herbst of Trumbull has won his attempt to hold the State Democratic Party responsible for free services it received from a Stamford law firm that represented it in a case of illegal campaign expenses in Gov. Dannel P. Malloys 2014 re-election.

The State Elections Enforcement Commission on Friday dismissed Herbsts 2016 complaint, after the firm of Silver, Golub & Teitell, LLC showed it billed the party for nearly $30,000 in services, of which more than $25,000 in related legal expenses remains unpaid. The firm said that some of its services for the Democratic State Central Committee, or DSCC, were voluntary under state election law.

My representation of the DSCC is, in fact, ongoing, said David Golub.

Golub represented state Democrats in a case involving their use of money from the partys federal account for Malloys re-election. The transfer of those funds was prohibited because they included contributions from state contractors who are banned under the states clean elections law from giving to statewide candidates and because Malloy accepted $6.4 million in public campaign financing with the pledge of foregoing all other money.

The state Democrats, in a June 2016 agreement, promised to avoid such funding transfers in the future, and pay the SEEC a $325,000 fine.

Herbst then filed a complaint charging that the Democrats essentially received an unlawful benefit from the law firm and Golub. A total of $4,704.59 was paid by the DSCC to the firm, for a court reporter, video depositions and other costs, but the $25,248.28 remains unpaid.

Attorney Golub and other partners were free to volunteer their time without such constituting a contribution to the DSCC, said the SEEC decision, signed Friday by Anthony J. Castagno, chairman of the commission. However, no subordinate attorneys could be volunteered by the firm, or any cost incurred by the firm without such an act creating an obligation foe the DSCC to reimburse the law firm or incur an unlawful benefit from a business entity.

Herbst, in a statement Monday afternoon, said that after fighting the SEEC subpoena and delaying the issue in court as a federal grand jury investigated the issue, Democrats then waited to produce a bill until Herbst filed a complaint.

This is a perfect example of the culture of entitlement in Hartford and the backwards priorities of Malloy and his insider allies that I talk about on the campaign trail, Herbst said.STAMFORD  While students from Newtown and Parkland met in a dramatic show of resolve in Washington Saturday, thousands of others their age stood in solidarity, in places as far away as Vietnam and as close as Stamford, to demand an end to gun violence.

Isaac Bragg, a sophomore at the Pinnacle School in Stamford, was one of them. Bragg, 16, became good friends with a survivor of the Florida school massacre when they previously attended the Villa Maria School together in North Stamford. His friend was close with Alyssa Alhadeff, 14, and Alaina Petty, 14, both of whom were killed in the Feb. 14 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

paShe told me the saddest thing was five minutes before, they were in the bathroom talking, Bragg told the 2,000 people gathered in Mill River Park at the Stamford March For Our Lives rally. She didnt know in five minutes theyd be killed.

Bragg was one of nearly a dozen students who spoke at the Stamford event. They were joined by New Canaan resident and music legend Paul Simon, who performed The Sound of Silence as a comment on Congress inaction in the face of ever-mounting student deaths.

The afternoon event, which drew people from across Fairfield County, was one of more than 800 like it to take place across the country and world. In New York, Hartford and Miami, Tel Aviv, Mumbai and Rome, students, families and activists took to the streets to demand lawmakers pass gun legislation to make schools and communities safer.

The movement was sparked by Douglas High students after one of their former classmates killed 17 people and injured many others.

Never again

Im hoping the march itself does make an impact and we do see legislation and policy come out of the march, said Westhill junior Alyssa Goldberg, who was student speaker coordinator for the Stamford event. I hope it sets the stage for future activism and people know were not going to give up on this issue until we do see more gun safety laws in place.

Students from Westhill, Stamford High, the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering, Darien High School, Norwalk High, Brien McMahon High School, Rippowam Middle School, Trinity Catholic High School and Our Lady of Fatima School in Wilton gave speeches, performed songs and read poems. They were introduced by local leaders including Stamford Mayor David Martin, state Sen. Carlo Leone and state Rep. Caroline Simmons, D-144.

Goldberg was the first student to speak, her voice cracking with emotion as she addressed an equally moved crowd. Her speech touched upon not only her own fears as a student, but how gun violence affects suicide rates and those with abusive partners.

Today we are here saying never again, she said, sparking a never again chant from the crowd.

Some students performed songs or read poetry.

The lead in the bodies of the fallen could have been used to write the law that saved them, read Westhill senior Marcos Pinto Leite in his piece Childrens Constitution. The people in charge didnt inherit the Earth. They only borrow it from us.

Victoria Iparraguirre, an AITE senior, sang Imagine by John Lennon, as well as Rise Up by Andra Day, with a short speech between the two numbers.

I thought both of them spread the message were kind of done imagining, the 18-year-old said. Were ready to make the dream happen.

Signs and symbols

While students spoke, attendees showed support by waving handmade signs, many on orange poster board, which is the color used by activists to represent gun safety.

Many signs were adorned with rallying cries such as Enough and Never Again. One used lyrics from the musical Hamilton, to make its point: This is not the moment, its the movement while another sought to do so through humor: I go to school for As and Bs, not PTSD.

Others were chilling in their directness. Many signs held by students asked Am I next? while one begged Fix it before Im texting my mom under two desks.

In the hour leading up to the protest, as people filled the park, students from Stamford High and Brien McMahon lay on the ground with signs touting the names and ages of the Parkland victims. Two memorials were set up in the park, one to commemorate victims of gun violence and the other, a blank wall with markers for people to share their feelings.

Ninety-six T-shirts hung on clothes lines to greet people as they walked in to the park. The shirts represented the 96 lives lost to gun violence in America every day.

Shira Tarantino, a leader of the Stamford-based ENOUGH campaign, said race and gender also play a role in gun violence which expands beyond school shootings. According to the Everytown Survivor Network, an average of 50 women are shot to death by a partner every month, and black men are 13 times more likely to be shot and killed with a gun than white men.

Not everyone was in agreement with the march and its purpose. Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, said in an interview before the event he feels guns can do a lot of good protecting people when in the right hands.

Our Constitution is a marvelous thing, Wilson said. It allows people to have the ability to go out and use free speech. I do find it ironic in this instance that they are using free speech to help diminish their own rights  not just the rights of gun owners who currently own guns and Second Amendment supporters. But there may come a day in some of their own lives where they want to exercise Second Amendment rights. There they are clapping and cheering for the elimination of their own rights.

Geraldine Uribe, a student speaker from AITE, disagreed.

It needs to stop happening, she said before taking the stage. Were old enough to speak up and use our First Amendment rights. Were not trying to take away the Second Amendment. Were trying to make rules and policies to make it stronger.

The Stamford march was held in partnership with SUPER, a statewide student organization that began in Stamford to promote school safety. Moms Demand Action Stamford, Everytown Survivor Network, Women on Watch, Connecticut Against Gun Violence and the Stamford-based ENOUGH campaign also teamed up to host the march.

Solidarity in D.C.

While people young and old demonstrated the world over, the main March for Our Lives event took place in Washington, D.C.

Students from Newtown High School carried a message of solidarity to Washington for their counterparts at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

After Parkland, we feel hope, Jackson Mittelman said, as he and others presented a banner Saturday to students from the Florida town, where grief has galvanized into youth activism. After the media trucks leave, we will stand by you.

Along with hundreds of thousands, the students had come together in D.C. in a call for action.

The banner read: Newtown High School stands with Stoneman Douglas, and featured the image of a red ribbon.

Student survivors of shooting at the Florida high school were the primary speakers and motivators at the D.C. rally.

We hope our message from Newtown High School will help you through your darkest days, Mittelman, who is co-chairman of the Jr. Newtown Action Alliance, said to the Parkland students.

Young people from Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles and elsewhere also stepped to the podium in D.C., recounting lives in turmoil after acts of gun violence.

If you listen real close you can hear the people in power shaking, said David Hogg, a Stoneman Douglas student. Were going to make this a voting issue. We will get rid of these public servants that only serve the gun lobby. And we will save lives.

Recalling a dark day

When it was their turn, Mittelman and fellow co-chairman Tommy Murray recalled being in lockdown in sixth grade on Dec.14, 2012, the day Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 children and six adult staff members with a Bushmaster AR-15 variant, before killing himself.

It was one of the worst days of my life, said Murray, whose mother, Po Murray, is the chairwoman of Action Newtown Alliance.

While there were rallies Saturday in Hartford, Stamford and elsewhere in Connecticut, Newton students made their case on the days biggest stage, in Washington. The demonstration appeared likely to draw 500,000 participants  a massive outpouring by D.C. standards.

Sandy Hook was not the nations first mass shooting at a school. But it has stuck in the nations collective consciousness because the 20 childhood victims were ages 6 and 7. Similarly, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting stimulated a movement among teenagers that is widely seen as rejuvenating the push for greater regulation and restriction of guns.

The Newtown group chartered eight buses that left before dawn and arrived in downtown Washington just in time for the noon rally on the Mall, four blocks west of the U.S. Capitol.

Virtually all of the speakers were high school students whose calls for action guns were punctuated by performances of stars including Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Inaction by Congress was a common theme, even though the just-passed Omnibus spending bill included Fix NICS, co-authored by Sen Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and language clarifying authority for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct research on gun violence.

Together, our stories will create the change we need, Tommy Murray told the cheering crowd, which chanted never again, never again.

If these shootings can happen in Parkland and Newtown, they can happen anywhere, he said.

Never again

The first wave of D.C. arrivals from Newtown was greeted by Avery Gardiner, co-director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which sponsored the Washington march.

Among those in the Newtown contingent was Sue Lach, who stepped off the bus holding a Sandy Hook Promise sign and shouting, Never again, never again!

Sandy Hook Promise co-founder Nicole Hockley, whose son, Dylan, was killed in the 2012 shooting, reflected on how far the movement for more gun control has come since then.

Im just excited that all these people are here, Hockley said. We havent had a march like this for this issue. Its good to know so many people are here demanding change.

Hockley noted a sea change in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High shooting.

Sandy Hook started this (movement) and its been growing ever since, but now the kids are raising their voices, she said.

Three busloads of students came from the University of Connecticut, Portland resident Isabelle Guilmett among them.

I want people to stop dying, she said. Its time something happened.

Guilmett pointed to the failed 2001 shoe bomb attempt that occurred on an American Airlines flight. Security procedures at U.S. airports have since asked people to remove their shoes before proceeding through scanners. But nothing has happened similarly in the wake of mass shootings in schools, Guilmett said.

Connecticut Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Murphy have credited youthful vigor for re-stimulating the movement for gun-violence prevention, which has most often faded away after galvanizing in the wake of mass shooting incidents.

The National Rifle Association was mostly silent leading up to Saturdays rallies. But there were some counter-demonstrators in Washington. A group of people wearing military-style camouflage and calling themselves the Patriot Picket stood about a block from the main demonstration, holding signs that said, among other things, good guys with guns stand by you.

No matter what you want to do, American freedoms are not the enemy, said Jeff Hulbert, founder of the group based in Annapolis, Md., that brought about 45 people. The groups website says it mounts protests to counter anti-gun demonstrators. Looney lefties everywhere, said a posting on its Facebook page Saturday.

Since the Florida shooting, President Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill have called for greater focus on mental health and early pinpointing of troubled students. And they coalesced with Democrats around Fix NICS.

But Murphy and other Democrats have insisted that tougher restrictions on guns must be part of any effort to reduce gun violence. At a meeting with lawmakers from both parties last month, Trump appeared to embrace much of the Democratic agenda, only to back off after subsequent a subsequent meeting with NRA leaders.

erin.kayata@stamfordadvocate.com; @erin_kayata; (203) 964-2265L ets get some perspective into the tide of twaddle criticising the hedge funds betting on a GKN takeover.

Protectionists have been railing against the short-term funds who have built up stakes hoping to force the deal to go ahead.

How can we have got into a position where these sharp-suited New Yorkers can dictate the future of this great British company, they ask?

Surely it should be down to reputable, long-term investors to decide GKNs fate, not these get-rich-quick opportunists; these robber barons, as Tory MP Robert Halfon describes them.

To these critics I ask the question: who do you think sold the hedgies the one-in-four shares they now own in the first place?

Long-term investors, of course.

The truth is, GKN shareholders have been angry about the companys mismanagement and poor share price performance for years. Those who have sold 25% of the stock to hedge funds had just been waiting for a chance to sell at a decent price.

Armchair generals like Halfon seem to think such trading should be stopped, but whats the alternative? If you ban shareholders from selling stock in certain companies, they would avoid them like the pox, deflating the share price and leaving them even weaker. After all, who wants to own an asset you cant sell?

There are alternatives to the stock market for big-company ownership: direct holdings by big pension and sovereign wealth funds, for one.O il traders shrugged off turmoil in the Middle East today as Saudi Arabia intercepted a raft of rocket attacks at the kingdom from rebels in Yemen.

Brent crude eased 30 cents a barrel to $70.14 but remains close to Januarys highs.

Oil posted its biggest jump in six months last week, thanks to US President Donald Trumps appointment of hawk John Bolton as his national security adviser.

Bolton has previously advocated bombing Iran.

The Saudis have intercepted seven ballistic missiles fired at Riyadh and other cities by Houthi forces in Yemen. The attacks mark an escalation from previous launches at the kingdom.

But despite the latest attacks, Thinkmarkets analyst Naeem Aslam said: If the US imposes sanctions once again on Iran, there would only be a one-way trade for oil.Meanwhile the Facebook saga rolls on for a second week.

Opinion polls published n the United States and Germany by Reuters has cast doubt over the level of trust people have in Facebook over privacy, as the firm ran adverts here in the UK and in US newspapers apologising to users.

Fewer than half of Americans trust Facebook to obey US privacy laws, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, while a survey published by Bild am Sonntag, Germanys largest-selling Sunday paper, found 60% of Germans fear that Facebook and other social networks are having a negative impact on democracy.

The full page adverts said: "You may have heard about a quiz app built by a university researcher that leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014.

"This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to ensure this doesn't happen again." I sincerely regret not looking more closely at the image I was commenting on, the contents of which are anti-Semitic.

Jeremy Corbyns statement is a rare mea culpa, but the words could almost sum up his career. Too often he didnt look, he didnt see or he didnt hear. He didnt treat accusations of anti-Semitism with the due diligence that is a pre-requisite for an anti-racist. And that is the best-case scenario.

The blind spot afflicting the hard-Left and parts of the pro-Palestinian movement, for which Corbyn was a leading flag-bearer, has long been obvious. Cases of those who saw themselves as pro-Palestine activists but crossed the line into anti-Semitic tropes account for the vast majority of suspensions and expulsions for anti-Semitism in Labour. Thats not in doubt. The only question is the reason for this widespread affliction, ranging from a lack of understanding of contemporary anti-Semitism to wilfully ignoring and cheering it on.

One of the most concerning cases involving Corbyn was his praise in 2012 of cleric Raed Salah, who had been accused of a blood libel. Even after he was barred from the UK, Corbyn publicly called him an honoured citizen and looked forward to welcoming him to tea. Challenged on the matter in 2015, he just said Salah hadnt made any anti-Semitic remarks to him personally.

His infamous friends greeting to representatives of terrorist, anti-Semitic groups Hamas and Hezbollah could be seen as another outcome of that rose-tinted, tunnel-vision approach to a complex conflict. I dont believe he actively sought out anti-Semites with whom to partner but, in his crusade for justice, that inconvenient part of the picture was either secondary or could be actively overlooked. It was for this reason the revelations that Corbyn was previously a member of the hate-filled Palestine Live group came as little surprise. Likewise that he claims not to have seen anything untoward.

Now its the scandal over his questioning the removal of Kalen Ockermans mural in 2012. Once again we hear words to the effect of I didnt see, despite the reasons for its removal being well known at the time and Lutfar Rahman, the then mayor, saying he shared concerns.

Tom Watson says Jeremy Corbyn has expressed deep regret for comments

Corbyns latest shame will no doubt add to those ready to attach the a word to him. Im not one of them.

Corbyn has taken some important initial steps to deal with the issue, despite Labour often falling short of the promise of zero tolerance, and it has taken a disgracefully long time to deal with the likes of Ken Livingstone.

Under intense pressure, he last night went further than ever before in recognising the problem, but those were words we should have heard two years ago. Its time for a proactive, unequivocal approach to the past and todays reality. Its time to show he has learned something over the past two years. Time to say: My name is Jeremy Corbyn and for too long I had a blind spot to anti-Semitism.

Labour MP Andy McDonald says that the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has stood against anti-Semitic behaviour for decadesB ill Murray has announced plans to perform live in the UK later this year.

The legendary actor is teaming up with classical musicians for two nights of live performance and discussion, in London and Edinburgh this June.

Bill Murray, Jan Vogler & Friends: New Worlds will see Murray appear with cellist Jan Vogler to celebrate the ties between American music and literature.

Murray will visit the Southbank Centre as part of the run. The dates are as follows:

June 4 - London, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre

June 18 - Edinburgh, Festival Theatre

Tickets go no sale at 10am on Thursday March 29 and can be bought here.

Murray and Vogler first developed a creative partnership after meeting on their travels. They later became friends in New York and teamed up with violinist Mira Wang and pianist Vanessa Perez for the upcoming live shows.

Speaking about the project, Murray said: "I am bathing in this experience, really. I cant get enough of it."'

Long-running daytime dance party crew Morning Gloryville run chaotic, booze-free raves for a pre-work crowd out of a wonderful new venue at Hoxton Docks. Get your healthy hedonism out of your system bright and early, before breakfast at London City Airport. Flying out of City means you can start your day with a rave in East London, and finish your day raving on a beach in Mykonos.

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Wander the lanes of the Hora

Mykonos

With its windmills on the overhead ridge (which were fully operational until the mid-Sixties) and Cycladic architecture along narrow lanes, the Hora (main town) of Mykonos is a joy to get lost in. This harmonious mishmash of white cubic adobe houses, cobblestone streets, whitewashed windmills and blue-domed churches makes a great beginners guide to Cycladic architecture. The most Instagrammed spot in town is the charmingly lopsided, four-chapels-in-one Paraportiani in Kastro, beyond the west jetty.

Coffee in Little Venice

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Mykonos

Alefkantra, or Little Venice, is named for its arcaded, balconied medieval houses looming over the waters edge, and these streets contain a large number of the towns independent boutiques and artsy cafes. The most charming spot for coffee is Kastros  order a side serving of amygdalota, a traditional almond sweet.

Go back in time at Lenas House

Mykonos

This heritage house museum, right next to the Aegean Maritime Museum, offers an authentic taste of a Mykonian middle class family home of the 19th century. It hosts a collection of European and local furniture from the 19th century, and provides a fascinating glimpse of local social history.

Dive a wreck

Mykonos

Covering an area of 33 sq miles, Mykonos is one of the smallest of the Cycladic islands, yet it has a lengthy menu of adrenalin-spiking activities on offer. Dive Adventures at Paradise Beach is one of the oldest established PADI dive centres in Greece, and nearby dives include two wrecks, some caverns and various reefs.

Dine with the locals at To Maereio

Mykonos

Locals flock to this homely restaurant to snack on louza (Cycladic ham), garlic mushrooms, kopanisti (fermented cheese dip) and chunks of bread, but more sophisticated fare such as pork tenderloin (psaronefri) and herby meatballs is on the menu as well. This Mykonian institution isn't really one for vegetarians, but for a meat-based hearty meal, the owners knock it out of the park.

Party on Paradise Beach

Mykonos

Beach clubs, sultry sunset bars, glamorous hotel lounges, and world-renowned nightclubs luring big-name DJs  all flavours of fun are found here in Mykonos, the Aegeans party island. Paradise Beach is its premier party beach, offering watersports by day and clubbing on the adjacent headland after dark. In just over 12 hours, youve travelled from London to Mykonos, from dawn until dusk, and from party to party.

With a central location and check-in just 20 minutes before departure, youll have plenty of time to fit in a morning rave before you fly from London City Airport.A Romanian gangmaster who forced seven men to work for him like slaves while living in cramped conditions in a one-bedroom east London flat has been jailed for seven years.

David Lupu, 29, plucked the men from poverty in their native Romania, promising them a 50-a-day wage in the UK as well as a decent place to live.

In reality, they were barely paid at all for working on a demolition site in Lancaster Gate, stripped of their identity cards, and treated like animals in appalling living conditions.

Inner London crown court heard Lupu controlled the mens movements, fed them poor quality food while eating luxury meals himself, and at times had 15 men packed into his one-bedroom flat in Leyton.

Following a month-long trial, Lupu was convicted of seven charges of holding a person in slavery or servitude, under the Modern Slavery Act.

Cramped: the tiny flat in Leyton

Passing a seven-year sentence on Friday, Judge Owen Davies QC told him: The offences were deliberate and involved a degree of planning, and they were motivated by greed pure and simple. You promised these men the earth when they came to this country, you organised travel and you kept a record of debts that were simply added to all the time, to justify the fact you wouldnt pay any money to any of them.

He said Lupu had tried in his evidence to denigrate these complainants as liars, people who didnt care about their families, people who drank to excess  all of which was untrue.

Prosecutor Emma Smith said the victims were being kept and treated like slaves and not allowed to leave the house in a group of more than two. She said the men were forced to share bunk beds, while others were reduced to sleeping on the kitchen floor, in a storage room, and on mattresses they had found in the street.

Lupu punched one of the men and threatened to beat them to death when they asked for more money.

The men, who were driven into the UK in a van through Dover in July last year, eventually went to the police to complain about their treatment, telling detectives their families in Romania had been threatened.

Detective Constable Marie Marshall, from the Mets Modern Slavery and Kidnap Unit, said. When interviewed by officers, the men said they felt like they were treated like animals.

Lupu, from Leyton, denied all the charges against him. His brother, Stefan Lincan 31, also from Leyton, was acquitted of the same allegations.D etectives launched a murder hunt today after a man was shot dead in the street in east London.

The 26-year-old victim was treated by paramedics after he was shot in a residential street in Hackney but died at the scene.

Scotland Yard said officers were called to Ferncliff Road after residents reported the sound of gunshots at around 11.1opm yesterday.

Paramedics and police - including specialist firearms officers - raced to the scene where they found the victim suffering from gunshot injuries.

The scene of the fatal shooting in Hackney

Despite efforts to save him, he died at the scene.

A neighbour, Layla, 52, who did not want to give her full name, said: I was just sitting on the couch and heard this huge bang that made my dog go crazy. The windows shook, it was so close.

I am petrified now.

Another resident said: The man lives around here. I saw his mother come out on the street and was crying. She was so upset, just sobbing. It is devastating.

Police cordoned off a large area and forensic officers were at work inside a blue forensic tent on the pavement this morning.

There have been no arrests.

Detective Chief Inspector Larry Smith, who is leading the investigation, said: It is vital that those out there with information who havent yet done so contact the police. Your call will be treated in the strictest confidence.P olice are hunting a man suspected of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl.

A man followed the girl on to a bus in Dollis Hill, north west London, before sitting near her on the top deck and trying to speak to her.

Worried, she got off but her attacker followed, grabbed her and sexually assaulted her, police said.

The schoolgirl screamed and struggled and managed to outrun the predator even though he chased her.

She had been waiting for the bus at around 4.20pm on January 11 in Alder Grove when the man started a conversation with her.

She got on a route 182 bus, which was travelling towards Bannister Playing Fields, and got off at Brook Road.

Detective Constable Chris Tester of the Metropolitan Police said: "The young victim is very shaken by this incident and I would appeal to the public to help us identify the man responsible.

"Thankfully incidents of this nature are rare, but when they do happen it is understandable that there are concerns. Following the incident, extra patrols have been carried out in the area and the public are asked to report any concerns."

The suspect is a bald, black man with scars under both eyes. He is more than 6ft, was wearing a gold or yellow jacket and black trousers, and was carrying shopping bags. He spoke with an African accent.J ewish leaders today dismissed Jeremy Corbyns apology for pockets of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party and urged him to take real action to deal with the problem.

The Labour leaders defence of an anti-Jewish mural in London in 2012 has sparked fury among the Jewish community and plunged the party into another major row over fostering a climate of anti-Semitism.

Today a rally will take place outside Parliament with Jewish leaders calling on Mr Corbyn to confront the issue.

Jonathan Goldstein, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, told the BBC: Rightly or wrongly, Jeremy Corbyn is now the figurehead for an anti-Semitic political culture based upon obsessive hatred of Israel, conspiracy theories and fake news and that is doing great harm not just to the Labour Party but to Britain in a wider sense.

Im afraid its time for action rather than words.

Jonathan Arkush, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: I want him to stop talking about it and I want him to take some real action to deal with it. Hes got to do a lot of things to confront the people in Labour who are making life impossible for a lot of MPs and local councillors. Complaints keep on coming.

He said Mr Corbyn must take disciplinary proceedings against former London mayor Ken Livingstone, activist Jackie Walker and Chris Williamson MP, and slap down Unite leader Len McCluskey and those around him for what he described as trivialising anti-Semitism within the party.

In an apology released last night Mr Corbyn said anti-Semitism exists in pockets within the Labour Party and that he would meet Jewish leaders within days. He said: I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused.

However, Jewish leaders remain outraged that he has not apologised personally for defending an anti-Semitic mural in east London, which was due to be painted over.

Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: Our leaders shouldnt have to be put in a corner to say sorry.

Labour MP Wes Streeting, who is chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Jews, was sent deselection threats over Twitter last night for speaking out against the Labour leader.

Others online described the row as an attempt to smear the Labour leader.

Mr Streeting said: Threats of deselection will not deter me from speaking out in support of this unprecedented statement from the Jewish Community, It is the responsibility of every MP and decent minded Labour member to do the same.J eremy Corbyn's apology in a row over an anti-Semitic mural is not enough, leaders from the Jewish community have said as Labour MPs prepared to rally against him.

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said the Labour leader's apology for "the pain which has been caused" by "pockets of anti-Semitism" may be too little too late.

She told Radio Four's Westminster Hour: "It doesnt, by the way, mention anything to do with his own issue regarding the mural depicting global conspiracy delivered by Jews and caricatures of Jewish people, but I think theres something else worth saying.

"When there were examples of Labour party members saying Jews kill and kidnap their way around the world, or referring to the Holocaust Educational Trust as the Holocaust indoctrination programme, or Zionist fairy-tales.

"Was that not bad enough? Was that not enough to make the leader of the Labour party say its disgusting and this has to stop? Because I think it should have been ringing alarm bells from the very beginning.

She added of Mr Corbyn's statement issued overnight: "But I wonder, and its a personal view, whether this might be too late."

Mr Corbyn's apology came amid a growing backlash in the row over his 2012 comments on Facebook about an east London mural by street artist Mear One which was due to be removed.

His response suggested the artist was "in good company" because the Rockefeller family had covered over a mural featuring Lenin in their New York development.

As the furore grew, the Labour leader said he had made a "general comment about the removal of public art on grounds of freedom of speech" but acknowledged he should have looked more closely at the controversial image.

He has regretted having made the remark that he did says Andy McDonald on Corbyn's comments

Sunday night's statement said: "Labour is an anti-racist party and I utterly condemn anti-Semitism, which is why as leader of the Labour party I want to be clear that I will not tolerate any form of anti-Semitism that exists in and around our movement."

It added: "We recognise that anti-Semitism has occurred in pockets within the Labour Party, causing pain and hurt to our Jewish community in the Labour Party and the rest of the country.

"I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused."

'Solidarity': Yvette Cooper said anti-Semitism is 'vile, corrosive and shames us all' / EPA

But Labour politicians on Monday prepared to join an "enough is enough" protest organised by the Jewish Leadership Council and Board of Deputies of British Jews in Parliament Square at 5.30pm.

Stewart Wood, Baron of Anfield, who is a Labour life peer, tweeted: "The anger against Labour for indulging anti-Semitism won't be appeased by telling Britain's Jews that they're wrong to feel it.

"Nor is it only felt by those who want a Blarite restoration. Both are excuses not to confront a cancer in parts of our party that needs to be cut out."

Yvette Cooper MP tweeted: "Solidarity. Appalling it has come to this. Antisemitism is vile, corrosive & shames us all.

"Was asked about this on @Channel4News yesterday & said Jeremy shd now invite @BoardofDeputies in from demonstration & listen to what must be done to tackle all antisemitism & rebuild trust."

Mike Gapes, Labour and Cooperative MP for Ilford South, wrote on Twitter: "As a non Jew I am proud to stand with the Jewish Community #EnoughisEnough.

"Words of understanding or generalised apologies are not enough. Jeremy Corbyn must personally confront this issue and take action to answer the justifiable concerns of our British Jewish Community."

John Mann and Liz Kendall were among other Labour MPs due to march in solidarity.

The march comes after the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council issued an extraordinary open letter criticising the Labour leader for his stance on anti-Semitism, writing that Mr Corbyn "cannot seriously contemplate antisemitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities".

They wrote: "Again and again, Jeremy Corbyn has sided with antisemites rather than Jews. At best, this derives from the far lefts obsessive hatred of Zionism, Zionists and Israel. At worst, it suggests a conspiratorial worldview in which mainstream Jewish communities are believed to be a hostile entity, a class enemy."P assengers on board the historic first non-stop commercial flight from Australia to the UK have delivered their verdicts - sharing their mixed views on the trip along with their social media posts.

Customers on board the 17-hour long-haul Qantas flight between Perth and London said they were impressed with the array of food and legroom - but some said they were reduced to the state "of a zombie" after the epic voyage.

The inaugural leg of the extraordinary new Q9 route on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner saw travellers treated to generous legroom and wide TV screens.

As the return leg Q10 from London touched down in Perth, passengers took to social media.

Amenity bags contained toothbrushes with a tiny tube of toothpaste, while the diverse menu offered colourful arrays of fresh fruit and cocktails.

One passenger, Wayne Kwong, led the reviews on Twitter, writing: "Decided to celebrate this flight #QF9 with a Bloody Mary instead of champagne!

"All the research that went into the design of the meals has proven to work," he added in reference to the fact scientists at the University of Sydney helped design the menu to hydrate weary passengers.

Mr Kwong also tweeted a picture of his "light breakfast" on the 9,009-mile journey - a vivid spread of melons, orange and strawberries.

The elaborate menu included a cumin-spiced beef salad, cheese ravioli and chicken with red rice and Mediterranean vegetables.

Historic: Cabin crew smile as they wait to board / AFP/Getty Images

For dessert, a vanilla bean panna cotta was served alongside peppermint tea.

"Specially designed meals for this ultra longhaul flight. Tasty, filling but not heavy on your stomach! Well Done Qantas," wrote the self-confessed aviation enthusiast.

"Legroom feels fine," he added and also noted there was a pillow to prevent knee injury for taller passengers.

A free-for-all self-service pantry at the end of the cabins provided extra drinks and snacks for passengers to take at their leisure.

However passengers slammed the WiFi available onboard, saying it "wasn't good enough". "Tweeting failed in flight mode," one unimpressed customer complained.

One passenger, JT Genter, said meanwhile that he didn't sleep and compared his state to that "of a zombie" when he disembarked.

"For me, after 17 hours without sleep, it was more the walk of a zombie," he wrote on Twitter alongside the zombie emoji.

The Australian's aviation editor Annabel Hepworth meanwhile reported that her vision was "slightly blurry" and eyelids "heavy" from jet lag after the trip.

Qantas has tried to offer comfort on board the epic new journeys between the UK and Australia.

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner has lower cabin noise than the 747, and comes with improved air quality systems as well as anti-turbulence technology.

But the flight was 24 per cent longer than the previous longest flights from the UK between Heathrow and Jakarta, Indonesia, which is 7,275 miles.

Qatar Airways runs one of the only slightly longer direct commercial flights, between Doha and Auckland, which comes in at 9,025 miles.

The plane took off with 212 passengers and 24 empty seats, with the pilot saying the first few flights on this routes were deliberately not completely full, according to The Points Guy.

On arrival, the plane was met by ground staff waving Australian flags and the Union Jack in a jubilant celebration.

Business class passenger Robert Williamson, from Perth, said the flight was "was surprisingly good, above my expectation", according to the Independent.

However economy passenger Peter Robinson, from Liverpool, said the food was only "ordinary", although he conceded the flight time was "good, quicker than I thought."

Checking in: Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce before the direct Perth to London flight / EPA

The 17-hour journey requires four pilots on board, with one or two taking a rest at any one time.

According to the MailOnline, Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce, who was on board the inaugural Perth-London route, said: "This is a truly historic flight that opens up a new era of travel. For the first time, Australia and Europe have a direct air link."T wo millionaires are staging a Brexit battle of their own as they fight over whether they use the English courts for their divorce.

Una Kelly, 44, and John Pyres, 73, met while working at the European Commission in Brussels in the Nineties and had a lavish Italian wedding in 2005.

They split in 2015 and are now fighting over their assets, including a 2.5 million house in Fulham, property in Brussels and a Tuscan farmhouse. Ms Kelly, who grew up in Ireland and now works for the EU in Serbia, last year chose to bring divorce proceedings in London, despite not being a UK resident.

Indian-born Mr Pyres is fighting a judges decision to grant permission for the divorce battle to take place in Britain, arguing his former partner has only spent a brief portion of her life here.

He told the Court of Appeal they had only lived together in England for a year between 2001 and 2002.

Mr Pyres, who lived in the UK before joining the EU but says he did not enjoy his time here because of racial discrimination, wants the divorce case heard in Bosnia, where the couple most recently lived together. His barrister, Timothy Scott QC, argued that Ms Kelly never considered London her permanent home, and only came to the UK in the Nineties to study for a masters degree in Manchester.

Mr Scott said the judge who allowed the divorce proceedings to commence, Mr Justice Cobb, had noted the absence in her [Ms Kellys] evidence of either emotional warmth or attachment to England as a country.

He said although Ms Kelly was born in Stoke-on-Trent, the family moved to Ireland before she was a year old. Despite having Irish-British nationality since 1995, she had repeatedly presented herself to the world as an Irish national. The court heard Mr Pyres believes Italy is his spiritual home.

Charles Hale QC, for Ms Kelly, showed the court a paper for her masters. She demonstrated her passion for England by writing a thesis on English country houses, rather than Irish art or Irish cultural heritage for instance, he said.

Mr Hale said she considered the Fulham house as her home. He pointed out that she had been paying UK taxes, has a GP in Fulham, and had moved back temporarily to London around the time she gave birth to her first child. He said she intends to retire to England at 65.T hree top barristers have concluded there is a possible case for criminal prosecutions in the scandal over alleged cheating in the Brexit referendum, it is revealed today.

A 46-page legal opinion prepared by the trio has been handed to the Electoral Commission, which is already looking into allegations of rule-breaking, with a call to investigate whether the law was broken.

A whistleblower at the heart of the claims said it raised questions about whether the June 2016 referendum that voted narrowly for Brexit was won fairly.

Solicitor Tamsin Allen, partner at Bindmans LLP which represents two whistleblowers who have made allegations of the misuse of data and illicit co-ordination between supposedly separate campaign groups, told the Standard: We have now analysed a substantial body of evidence and instructed leading counsel Clare Montgomery QC, Helen Mountfield QC and Ben Silverstone to advise.

Whistleblower claims 'Vote Leave' Brexit campaign was 'totally illegal' under referendum spending rules

They have prepared a 46-page opinion which states that, on the evidence they have seen, there is a prima facie case that criminal offences were committed by Vote Leave during the Referendum Campaign.

Shahmir Sanni, who helped run BeLeave, a group that aimed to get young people to vote Brexit, said he believed the 2016 vote was now tainted. They take away your medal if you are caught cheating at the Olympics, he said.

Because its about making sure the process is fair. If Vote Leave cheated in the referendum, we have to ask ourselves if we want to trust a vote that wasnt won fairly.

Vote Leave strongly denies any wrongdoing. But Mr Sanni has alleged that there continued to be co-ordination with them after his group split off and received 625,000 from Vote Leave. If true, that could suggest Vote Leave used BeLeave as a conduit for cash that it could not spend itself without breaching spending limits.

Information provided by whistleblowers provides grounds to suspect that the Vote Leave campaign broke electoral law during the 2016 EU referendum campaign

Vote Leave supporters countered by saying Mr Sanni was in a relationship during the campaign with then senior Vote Leave figure Stephen Parkinson, who is now the Prime Ministers political secretary at No 10, and any campaign talk between them was as friends.

Todays edition of The Times reported that Mr Parkinson was under pressure to resign after a row at No 10 over who authorised the statement that effectively outed Mr Sanni as gay.

Christopher Wylie, who last week alleged that personal data was hijacked from Facebook users for campaigning, said the key question now was why BeLeave decided to spend the 625,000 from Vote Leave with an obscure Canadian data firm called AggregateIQ

Two No 10 sources told the Standard that he was not expected to quit. Mr Sanni insisted today it was a red herring: Regardless of what Downing Street said, this is not about a personal relationship. Its about binders full of documented evidence that calls into question whether Vote Leave cheated.

The second whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, who last week alleged that personal data was hijacked from Facebook users for campaigning, said the key question now was why BeLeave decided to spend the 625,000 from Vote Leave with an obscure Canadian data firm called AggregateIQ. After what we saw last week, we should be asking what AggregateIQ was actually doing in the referendum, he said.

British authorities cant get evidence from AIQ because they are based in another country outside of UK jurisdiction. Mr Wylie, who worked for Cambridge Analytica, the firm that obtained the Facebook data in 2014, said: People should know that AggregateIQ was set up to support Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica and AggregateIQ deny any wrongdoing.

Further details of a BeLeave Google drive that Mr Sannis supporters regard as a smoking gun in the affair were revealed today.

A screenshot of the drive, used by BeLeave to store documents, was published on the Fair Vote UK website which suggested a document was accessed by a senior Vote Leave official on June 19, 2016, days before the referendum. Fair Vote project director Kyle Taylor said: If they werent co-ordinating their work after the payment then why did Vote Leave staff, BeLeave volunteers and AggregateIQ staff all have access to their files and folders?

Mr Sanni was BeLeaves secretary and treasurer, while Mr Parkinson was head of Vote Leaves ground campaign. Under limits monitored by the Electoral Commission, Vote Leave was not allowed to spend more than 7 million during the referendum campaign.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who played a leading role in Vote Leave, has dismissed as ludicrous the allegation that the campaign broke election spending rules.

Mr Parkinson and Vote Leave have also strongly denied wrongdoing and said the 625,000 donated to BeLeave was within the rules which allowed money to go to other, independent, campaigns.

Darren Grimes, who was in charge of BeLeave, has denied there was any collaboration with Vote Leave on campaign material or spending.B ataclan survivor Jesse Hughes has branded the March For Our Lives demonstration for increased gun regulation in the US as pathetic and disgusting.

The Eagles of Death Metal frontman ranted about the students leading the protest in series of posts on social media.

Mr Hughes accused survivors of the Valentines Day massacre in Florida of exploiting the deaths of those who died in the attack for a few Facebook likes and some media attention.

His comments came after thousands marched on the White House on Saturday for the rally, which was organised by survivors of the mass shooting at the Parkland school which left 17 dead.

In one of the posts, Mr Hughes shared an illustration of a woman telling a man: I turned in my gun to do my part in ending violence, to which the man responds: I chopped off my own d*** to stop rape.

Jesse Hughes shared a pro-gun illustration that compared handing in weapons to men chopping off their own genitals to stop rape / Instagram

In a caption beneath the post, Mr Hughes, whose bands concert at the Pariss Bataclan music venue was targeted by terrorists in November 2015, questioned the efficacy of passing new gun legislation.

He wrote: The best thing to do to combat chronic abusers and disregarders of the law (like the law against Murder) is to........pass another Law!.....Genius!!!

But before we pass this law were going to denigrate the memory and curse ourselves by exploiting the death of 16 of our fellow students for a few Facebook likes and some media attention....and look how well civil rights abuses as it concerns firearms helped to protect me and my friends in Paris!!!!!

The Standard has approached Mr Hughess representatives for comment.

Crowds and celebrities attend the March for Our Lives Rally on March 24 in Washington / Getty Images North America

After his social media rant, some of which has been deleted, Mr Hughes pledged to start a second Instagram account for his political views.

People gather for March For Our Lives gun control protests across the globe

In his latest post, he wrote: Ive made a rule and my musical life that everyone should check their politics at the door...... Ive always believed in the motto I may not agree with what youre saying but Ill die for your right to say it.

Saddens me to see so many not have this motto for the same..... but this is my Instagram for RocknRoll and I think Im going to keep it that way..... im going to start a second Instagram for where I shall put my political beliefs.

The March For Our Lives movement is urging Congress to ban assault-style, high-capacity rifles which have been used with deadly efficiency in recent mass shootings.

'March For Our Lives' protests - in pictures 1 /21 'March For Our Lives' protests - in pictures Sir Paul McCartney joins thousands of people, many of them students, march against gun violence in Manhattan during the March for Our Lives rally Getty Images Crowds and celebrities attend the March for Our Lives Rally on March 24 Getty Images North America Ariana Grande performs "Be Alright" during the March for Our Lives rally on March 24, 2018 in Washington, DC Getty Images Protesters participate in the March for Our Lives rally at Las Vegas City Hall Getty Images Thousands of protesters line the streets in Washington Getty Images North America Miley Cyrus sings during the March for Our Lives Rally in Washington Getty Images Lin-Manuel Miranda performs "Found/Tonight" during the March for Our Lives rally on March 24, 2018 in Washington, DC Getty Images Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Student David Hogg addresses the March for Our Lives rally on March 24, 2018 in Washington, DC Getty Images Thousands of protesters in Seattle Getty Images North America The March for Our Lives rally at Las Vegas City Hall Getty Images Rita Ora performs at the March for Our Lives Los Angeles rally Getty Images Thousands of people joined the protest in Washington AFP/Getty Images Getty Images People hold signs as they participate in the March For Our Lives event at Pine Trails Park before walking to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a mass shooting took place, in Florida Getty Images Marchforourlives1 Protesters during the London March For Our Lives anti-gun rally outside the US Embassy in London PA Wire/PA Images Marchforourlives2 Protesters during the London March For Our Lives anti-gun rally outside the US Embassy in London PA Wire/PA Images Marchforourlives3 Protesters during the London March For Our Lives anti-gun rally outside the US Embassy in London PA Wire/PA Images Marchforourlives4 Protesters during the London March For Our Lives anti-gun rally outside the US Embassy in London PA Wire/PA Images Marchforourlives5 Protesters during the London March For Our Lives anti-gun rally outside the US Embassy in London PA Wire/PA Images Protesters during the Edinburgh March For Our Lives anti-gun rally outside the US Consulate in Edinburgh. PA Wire/PA Images Protesters during the Edinburgh March For Our Lives anti-gun rally outside the US Consulate in Edinburgh. PA Wire/PA Images

They also want "background check loopholes" closed that allow dangerous people to "slip through the cracks and buy guns online or at gun shows".

Protesters chanted "not one more" and "books not bullets" before they staged a three-minute silent "die-in" in remembrance of shooting victims.D ozens of children are among more than 60 people confirmed to have been killed when flames tore through a Russian shopping mall.

Flames swept through the upper floors of the Winter Cherry complex in Kemerovo, which houses a cinema and softplay centre and was packed with families on the first weekend of school holidays.

Horrifying footage showed terrified survivors leaping from windows as black smoke billowed from the top floors and roof.

One group were filmed trying to batter their way of out a staircase through a jammed emergency exit.

The official death toll overnight from the Kemerovo inferno in Siberia stands at 64

It has been claimed that staff routinely locked fire doors to prevent gatecrashers from entering without paying.

Survivors told how the fire started on the fourth floor play area yesterday afternoon, with intense heat causing bouncy castles to burst into flame.

Two of three cinemas collapsed from the fourth to the third floors.

Dozens of children are missing and feared dead following the fire

Russian emergency services said a team of 600 rescuers, who spent 17 hours fighting the flames, were still struggling to reach upper floors this morning.

Vladimir Puchkov, Russias emergency situations minister, said at least 64 people were confirmed to have been killed.

41 children are still unacounted for, like Viktoria Pochankina, pictured

Six bodies have yet to be recovered and 41 children remain unaccounted for.

The Investigative Committee, which handles major incidents, said 44 survivors had sought medical help, of whom 10 were still in hospital.

Viktoria Arkhipenko is also among those missing

The mall, a converted Soviet-era sweet factory in the eastern industrial city, was described as a labyrinth with few windows, one main staircase, one lift shaft and one escalator.

Witnesses said fire alarms failed to go off and there were no sprinklers.

Fire broke out in a play area on the fourth floor. Veronika Trusova is among the missing children

It opened in 2013 and also included a petting zoo, bowling alley and trampolines.

Nadezhda Suddenok, the owner of the shopping mall, is among four people detanied for questioning by officials investigating the cause.

People queue to donate blood to survivors

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his deep condolences to the relatives and loved ones of those who died.

A firefighter at the scene of the massive inferno

A mother, Yulia, said: It all was happening right in front of my eyes, I was sitting at the sofa opposite the play zone. The fire was grew within seconds, smoke covered all around.

Fire engines at the scene of the blaze at the shopping centre in Siberia

It was a miracle that we survived.

One girl, Maria Moroz, 13, messaged from the cinema: We are on fire, adding: Looks like this is farewell from me.

Kemerovo high school teacher Tatiana Darsalia was confirmed dead in the fire

Among the missing are eight girls from one class in Treschevsky village - all 11 or 12 years old.

In a heartrending final phone call Viktoria Vika Pochankina told her aunt: Everything is burning.

The doors are blocked. I cant go out, I cant breathe.

Her aunt Evgenia said: She told me Auntie, tell all my family I love them. Tell mum that I loved her...

Loading....

Local MP for Kemerovo, Anton Gorelkin, said: This is horrendous. I find it very hard to find words to speak about children who were burned alive. People who are guilty in this must be punished.

Locked fire exits which turned the shopping mall into a trap. Children that died next to fire exits.

They knew where to run, they were going in the right direction, but doors were locked.

Firefighters spray water onto the inferno at the mall in Russia

He added: People whose pockets were filling with millions from this shopping mall knew that one day this money will smell of blood.T he oldest gunmaker in the United States has filed for bankruptcy following years of falling sales and lawsuits tied to the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Records from the bankruptcy court of the district of Delaware show that Remington Outdoor Company, founded more than 200 years ago, filed papers on Sunday.

It comes amid fresh demands for greater gun control and huge protests, including the March for Our Lives event, across the US at the weekend.

The firearms company, founded in 1816, makes the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle used in the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 which left 26 dead.

Thousands of anti-gun protesters in Seattle on Saturday / Getty Images North America

The company was cleared of wrongdoing in the shooting, but investors distanced themselves from the company's owner, investor Cerberus Capital Management.

Remington, America's oldest firearms manufacturer, announced the deal in February to reduce its $950 million debtload in a deal that would transfer control of the company to creditors, before filing for bankruptcy protection on Sunday.

The filing comes after the Valentines Day shooting at a school in Florida that killed 17 and spurred an intense campaign for gun control by activists.

Donald Trump provokes outrage after claiming he 'would have run into Florida school unarmed' to tackle gunman

And the papers were submitted after a weekend of gun control protests which were the culmination of a month of campaigning and mounting public pressure.

US mass gun violence protest 1 /7 US mass gun violence protest Thousands of local students sit for 17 minutes outside the White House AFP/Getty Images Students at Philadelphia High School of Creative And Performing Arts participate in a walkout to address school safety and gun violence Getty Images Students participate in a protest against gun violence on Capitol Hill in Washington Getty Images Students from Montgomery Blair High School march down Colesville Road in support of gun reform legislation Getty Images Students from Montgomery Blair High School march down Colesville Road in support of gun reform legislation Getty Images Students from Montgomery Blair High School march down Colesville Road in support of gun reform legislation Getty Images Students from surrounding schools gather at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan Getty ImagesT hese harrowing images show the aftermath of a fire at a shopping mall in Russia that claimed scores of lives, including children.

Over 60 people were killed when flames swept through the upper floors of the Winter Cherry complex in Kemerovo, Siberia.

It houses a cinema and soft play centre and was packed with families on the first weekend of school holidays when the 700C inferno took hold.

Footage showed terrified survivors leaping from windows as black smoke billowed from the top floors and roof.

Devastation: the smouldering remains of the mall

One group was filmed trying to batter their way of out a staircase through a jammed emergency exit. It has been claimed that staff routinely locked fire doors to prevent gatecrashers from entering without paying.

Survivors told how the fire started on the fourth floor play area yesterday afternoon, with intense heat causing bouncy castles to burst into flame.

64 people died in the fire at the shopping centre in Russia

Two of the three cinemas collapsed from the fourth to the third floors.

Emergency services said a team of 600 rescuers, who spent 17 hours fighting the flames, were still struggling to reach upper floors this morning.

Firefighters spray water onto the inferno at the mall in Russia

Vladimir Puchkov, Russias emergency situations minister, said at least 64 people were confirmed to have been killed. Six bodies are yet to be recovered and 41 children remain unaccounted for.

The Investigative Committee, which handles major incidents, said 44 survivors had sought medical help, of whom 10 were still in hospital.

Kemerovo shopping centre fire- Up to 100 people including dozens of children feared dead in mall inferno in Russia

The mall, a converted Soviet-era sweet factory in the industrial city, was described as a labyrinth with few windows, one main staircase, one lift shaft and one escalator. Witnesses said fire alarms failed to go off and there were no sprinklers.

Kemerovo high school teacher Tatiana Darsalia was confirmed dead in the fire

It opened in 2013 and also included a petting zoo, bowling alley and trampolines.

Nadezhda Suddenok, its owner, is among four people who have been detained for questioning by officials investigating the cause. Russian president Vladimir Putin expressed his deep condolences to the relatives and loved ones of those who died.

Fire broke out in a play area on the fourth floor. Veronika Trusova is among the missing children

A mother, Yulia, said: It all was happening right in front of my eyes, I was sitting at the sofa opposite the play zone.

"The fire grew within seconds, smoke covered all around. It was a miracle that we survived.

Viktoria Arkhipenko is also among those missing

One girl, Maria Moroz, 13, messaged from the cinema: We are on fire, adding: Looks like this is farewell from me.

Among the missing are eight girls from one class in Treschevsky village  all 11 or 12 years old. In a heartrending final phone call Viktoria Vika Pochankina told her aunt: Everything is burning. The doors are blocked. I cant go out, I cant breathe.

Dozens of children are missing and feared dead following the fire

Her aunt Evgenia said: She told me, Auntie, tell all my family I love them. Tell mum that I loved her...

The MP for Kemerovo, Anton Gorelkin, said: This is horrendous. I find it very hard to find words to speak about children who were burned alive.

A firefighter at the scene of the deadly inferno

"People who are guilty in this must be punished. Locked fire exits which turned the shopping mall into a trap.

"Children that died next to fire exits. They knew where to run, but doors were locked.

People whose pockets were filling with millions from this shopping mall knew that one day this money will smell of blood.S hocking footage has emerged of desperate shoppers fleeing the Kemerovo mall fire as it ripped through the building, killing at least 64 people.

The CCTV video shows children playing innocently by brightly-lit games machines at the Winter Cherry shopping centre in Kemerovo, a coal-mining town in central Russia.

Then it shows panicked shoppers running for their lives as a thick cloud of grey smoke rapidly fills the room.

The footage comes as local and state-level officials aired concerns about fire safety at the shopping centre.

Kemerovo mall fire 1 /8 Kemerovo mall fire Dozens of children are feared dead after flames tore through the mall in Western Siberia Instagram/The Siberian Times Flames swept through the upper floors of the Winter Cherry complex in Kemerovo, Siberia Instagram/The Siberian Times Survivors told how the fire started on the fourth floor play area yesterday afternoon Instagram/The Siberian Times Emergency services said a team of 600 rescuers, who spent 17 hours fighting the flames, were still struggling to reach upper floors this morning Instagram/The Siberian Times Vladimir Puchkov, Russias emergency situations minister, said at least 64 people were confirmed to have been killed Instagram/The Siberian Times It has been claimed that staff routinely locked fire doors to prevent gatecrashers from entering without paying Instagram/The Siberian Times Russian president Vladimir Putin expressed his deep condolences to the relatives and loved ones of those who died Instagram/The Siberian Times Harrowing images have revealed the aftermath of the blaze Instagram/The Siberian Times

Local politician Anton Gorelkin wrote on Facebook that "fire exits were shut, turning the complex into a trap" and "there was no organised evacuation".

Kemerovo's deputy governor, Vladimir Chernov, meanwhile said "this is the question: why were the doors shut?"

Russia's Investigative Committee meanwhile warned of "serious violations" including an allegation that fire engineers "switched off the alarm system" after being told about the fire.

The shocking allegations come early in the investigation, which began on Sunday evening after the fire at about 5pm.

Kemerovo high school teacher Tatiana Darsalia was confirmed dead in the fire

The shopping centre, which houses a cinema, petting zoo and soft play centre, has been gutted by the 700C inferno that began on the fourth floor before tearing through the complex.

One group of frantic customers were filmed trying to batter their way of out a staircase through a jammed emergency exit.

One girl, Maria Moroz, 13, messaged from the cinema: We are on fire ... Looks like this is farewell from me.

Fire broke out in a play area on the fourth floor. Veronika Trusova is among the missing children

In a heartrending final phone call Viktoria Vika Pochankina told her aunt: Everything is burning. The doors are blocked. I cant go out, I cant breathe.

It has been claimed that staff routinely locked fire doors to prevent gatecrashers from entering without paying.

Viktoria Arkhipenko is also among those missing

So far, 17 of the 58 bodies recovered from the site have been identified, of which at least nine are children.

Fire safety infringements have been blamed for high casualties in previous catastrophic fires on Russian soil.P resident Donald Trump has ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the United States and closed the Russian consulate in Seattle over the nerve agent attack on a former double agent on UK soil, US officials have announced.

The order includes 12 Russian intelligence officers from Russia's mission to the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The move comes as France and Germany announced each country would expel four diplomats.

The Czech Republic, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, the Netherlands, Estonia and Poland were also among 14 EU states to expel officials.

US President Donald Trump (L) chats with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in November / AFP/Getty Images

In an official statement The White House said: "Today President Donald J. Trump ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian intelligence officers from the United States and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing."

It added that the US had taken the action in conjunction with Nato allies and global parters "in response to Russia's use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom."

Russian spy poisoning: Military forces work on a van in Winterslow / AP

Officials added that the actions are being taken to send a message about the "unacceptably high" number of Russian spies in the US and to respond to the attack in the UK.

Russian spy poisoning: Sergei and Yulia Skripal remain in hospital / PA

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the US.

President of the European Council Donald Tusk tweeted: "Today 14 EU Member States decided to expel Russian diplomats as direct follow-up to #EUCO discussion last week on #SalisburyAttack. Additional measures including further expulsions are not excluded in coming days, weeks."

Following the move the Russian ambassador to Washington accused America of "destroying what is left of relations with Russia".

Theresa May visits Salisbury / PA

It comes following the poisoning for former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, in Salisbury earlier this month.

The pair were found collapsed on a bench following an attack with nerve agent believed to have been administered by Russian agents.

They remain in a serious condition in hospital.

Theresa May accused Russia of the attack and announced that 23 diplomats would be expelled from the UK shortly after the March 4 incident.Y emen's Houthi rebels have fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia, killing one man and wounding two in the capital Riyadh.

Saudi forces say they shot down seven missiles fired at their territory last night by the Shia militia they are fighting in neighbouring Yemen.

Three targeted Riyadh, and one Egyptian national was killed and two injured when fragments plunged to the ground in a suburb. The casualties were the first in the capital since the kingdom launched a military offensive against the Houthis in March 2015.

The Houthis said they had been aiming at a number of locations including Riyadhs international airport. Two rockets also targeted the coastal city of Jizan while one each was fired at Najran and Khamis Mushait.

The attack came on the third anniversary of Saudi Arabias intervention in Yemens civil war. Saudi-owned news channel Al Arabiya aired footage it said showed Patriot missile batteries firing at the incoming rockets. Online videos captured what appeared to be a missile fuselage on a Riyadh street.

One Egyptian national was killed and two other Egyptians suffered wounds when a fragment fell on a residential neighbourhood, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said. More than 10,000 people have died in the Yemen war, which began after the Houthis and their allies seized the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014. A Saudi-led coalition of several Arab states aims to restore the government that the Houthis ousted.

The US and Britain have provided logistical support and arms to the coalition, which has been criticised for airstrikes that have killed Yemeni civilians and destroyed infrastructure, and for blockading Yemeni ports, bringing the country to the edge of famine.

The conflict has fuelled the largest cholera epidemic in modern history, with a million cases and more than 2,000 deaths. Some two million people are homeless and almost 20 million are in need of humanitarian aid.

Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of supporting the Houthis military campaign, a claim Tehran denies. The latest barrage is likely to spark new criticism of Irans role, as the Houthis identified some of the missiles as a type the UN and the West say comes from Tehran.

Houthi ballistic missiles have in-creased in range, with the first to target Riyadh fired in May 2017, according to the UN. A previous launch aimed at King Khalid International Airport in November showed a range of over 620 miles.O nePlus is gearing up to release its next smartphone and it looks set to be a big one.

So far, we know the new device will be named the OnePlus 6, replacing the hyped OnePlus 5T as the companys next flagship phone.

The new device will be unveiled next week on 16 May in London. But before then, OnePlus fans have the change to trade in their old device to make way for the OnePlus 6.

If you live in the UK, you can trade in a OnePlus 3 smartphone or newer until the end of May via the phone maker's official site. In return for an old phone, you will receive a voucher up to 205 to put towards your new smartphone.

But until then, here's all the rumours and leaks that have come out so far.

OnePlus 6: what will it look like?

Design-wise, the OnePlus 6 is thought to have a larger, longer screen than previous iterations.

As well, that means it is going to be copying the iPhone X with a notch at the top of the screen, moving away from the thin bezels the OnePlus 5T.

Some new leaked images from GSMArena show the new phone compared to the latest iPhone and the two devices look pretty similar.

Following a leaked spec sheet, it appears the new phone is going to have a 6.28 inch AMOLED display with 2280 x 1080 resolution.

Thats pretty big.

The new device is going to be around 7.5mm thin and weigh only 175g. This means it will have a screen bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S9+, as well as being thinner and weighing less than Samsungs newest device.

It will have a glass rear, complete with a fingerprint scanner, as confirmed by leaks from IT Home.

As well, it's thought the OnePlus 6 will be keeping its headphone jack.

A leaked image of the OnePlus 6 to Chinese website IT Home / IT Home

What will the new OnePlus 6 camera be like?

Let's be honest, a decent camera is one of the main things people look for in a smartphone.

OnePlus always pulls it out of the park with a mega camera and the OnePlus 6 looks to be no exception.

On the back, the OnePlus 6 will have dual-lens cameras with F/1.7 apertures. The two cameras will be 20-megapixels and 16-megapixels. This is the same as the OnePlus 5T for reference.

One the front, the selfie camera will be a whopping 20-megapixels.

If its the camera you care about when it comes to smartphones, then the OnePlus 6 is really trying to compete with the new Samsung device.

The OnePlus 6 will have the same camera specs as the 5T (pictured here) / OnePlus

How will the OnePlus 6 work?

The new device is going to be powered by Android 8.1 Oreo, the latest Android OS, so no surprises here.

In a blog post, the company's CEO Pete Lau confirmed how the new smartphone will work. We now know that the OnePlus 6 will be fitted with the Snapdragon 845 process, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.

Lau says OnePlus wants to create a "truly fast and smooth user experience" with the OnePlus 6 to give customers a "burdenless experience".

These specs will work together to ensure the OnePlus 6 is working hard to give the best power possible, whether that's recording 4K video, or browsing Facebook.

As well, Lau says OnePlus wants to ensure there is a 1/1000 per cent likelihood of your phone freezing, even under constant heavy use.

Sign us up.

Its likely the device will have a 3,450 mAh battery, as well as OnePluss dash charge technology, which fully charges the smartphone in around 30 minutes. However, this hasnt been confirmed in the leaks just yet.

How much will the OnePlus 6 cost?

OnePlus has always positioned itself as a high-end smartphone at a mid-range price.

The latest device, the OnePlus 5T which was released last year, was priced at 449.

According to some price leaking, the OnePlus 6 64GB could cost anything between 374 and 405.

Whilst the largest version, the 128GB model, could cost between 431 and 438.

We'll have to wait for the pricing to be confirmed later this month.

What is the OnePlus 6 release date?

OnePluss CEO Peter Lau confirmed the new smartphone would be coming in the second quarter of 2018. This means it could be anytime between the start of April and the end of June.

In April, it was revealed that the OnePlus 5T is no longer on sale in North America. OnePlus has done this before  selling out stock of its current flagship, and not putting any more on sale in anticipation of a new device.

As well, the company is holding global pop-up events around the world for early birds who are keen to get the new phone before anyone else.

Get your hands on a new OnePlus 6, get exclusive OnePlus goods and celebrate with the team who made the exciting new device.Countries & Areas

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An H-E-B-anchored shopping center in fast-growing Northeast Austin has been sold to Edens, a retail real estate owner, operator and developerSomewhere deep in the bowels of the Israeli intelligence-surveillance-military complex  perhaps, in a dozen or more highly-secured computer systems laboratories in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Ramat Gan, and Petach Tikva  the idea was first stumbled upon. Borrowing from the psychographic tools developed by online marketing firms and coupling them with age-old propaganda methods and more-modern psychological warfare techniques used by military and intelligence services, it was determined that elections can be manipulated, not at the ballot box, but by influencing the voters. Welcome to the world of psychographic outcome-based warfare or POW.

It is no longer vogue to interfere with vote counting. Instead, psychographic warfare experts have decided that it is much more advantageous to influence the voters before they cast their votes. This form of information warfare was initiated in 2006 after the development of the Megaphone Desktop Tool, a software program designed to respond to what was considered anti-Israeli content on the web. Using RSS (Rich Site Summary) news feeds, Megaphone and an umbrella propaganda organization called Give Israel Your United Support (GIYUS) were able to martial support for Israeli policies by automatically casting votes in on-line polls, respond to comments deemed negative toward Israel in chat rooms and on-line forums, and directing email to various news organizations, including the BBC, Independent Television News (ITN), and Reuters. According to The Register in the United Kingdom, what Megaphone provided was a high-tech exercise in ballot-stuffing. Megaphone received the nickname of lobbyware.

In 2007, Megaphone was re-programmed for other uses and a revised version was marketed by Collactive, a firm that was at the center of providing spamming software to unscrupulous on-line marketers. The seed money for Collactive was provided by Sequoia Capital, a Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm active in financing high-technology ventures in Israel. It is no coincidence that Sequoia Capitals headquarters is located a mere 7.5 miles from Facebooks headquarters in East Palo Alto. The nexus of spamming software developers and deep data mining firms like Facebook and Google, the latter just 10 miles from Sequoia, would soon pose a significant threat to the conducting of democratic elections in over 100 countries and regions and provinces around the world.

It is now known that Facebook was permitting Cambridge Analytica, a UK-based company, to mine the ubiquitous provider repository of personal data, to develop software to geo-demographically target, and thus influence, the decisions of voters around the world. Far from tampering with voting machines or vote tabulation machines, what Cambridge Analytica did, along with its US-based subsidiary  Cambridge Analytica LLC  was to tamper with the minds of voters. This was accomplished using sophisticated psychographic programs. After several dubious elections in the United States, including the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, both rife with election fraud in Florida and Ohio, respectively, the new method for throwing elections resided at the voter decision level. By psychographically profiling voters based on their web activity and behavior, interests, attitudes, values, Cambridge Analytica  armed with weaponized election outcome-based software  was able to conduct mass psychological warfare campaigns to steer voters away from certain political candidates, their political parties, and popular referendum choices. Microtargeting 230 million American voters using as many as 5000 different data vectors harvested from the massive databases of Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other social media applications was the determining factor in Trumps election victory. In almost every case where elections were influenced by these manipulation operations, parties and candidates favorable to Israel and Israeli interests were the victors. GIYUS and Megaphone had been transformed from an influence-peddling operation to a full-blown election behavioral change outcome determiner. Instead of on-line polls succumbing to the purveyors of such malfeasance, it was actual polls that became the target for Made in Israel psychological manipulation.

Donald Trumps upset election victory in 2016 was helped along by Long Island, New York hedge fund tycoon and computer scientist Robert Mercer. Mercer, a right-wing product of the military-intelligence complex, owing to his early work on artificial intelligence for the US Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. Mercer was able to transform artificial intelligence used for weapons systems to predict winners and losers in the stock market. The programs developed by Mercer made him a multi-billionaire.

Mercers Renaissance Technologies was a major investor in Cambridge Analytica. Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah Mercer were also major financiers of the pro-Trump alt-right news site Breitbart News. Cambridge Analytica, working hand-in-glove with Breitbart and the Trump presidential campaigns digital operations unit, engaged in a psychographic and psychological warfare campaign unseen in US history and preceded virtually-unreported election interference operations in in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Latin America.

Cambridge Analyticas parent company, SCL Group of London, formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL)  a firm with links to the British Ministry of Defense, Britains MI-6, and the US Departments of Defense and State  was founded in 1993 by a former executive with the advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi. The advertising giant was founded in 1970 by brothers Maurice and Charles Saatchi, who hailed from a very wealthy Jewish family in Baghdad, Iraq. The Saatchi brothers, both Orthodox Jews, as are Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump, are strong supporters of Israel. The connections between SCL and Cambridge Analytica to prior web-based propaganda operations developed by Israeli intelligence, therefore, should be of no surprise.

A Cambridge Analytica psychologist, Michal Kosinski, was involved in research by a private firm that concluded that Internet users who liked Nike shoes and KitKat chocolate bars were also anti-Israeli. Some of Kosinskis funding came from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a notorious research laundering operation for the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency.

Nor should it be surprising that Cambridge Analytica employed the services of two rabid pro-Israeli officials in the Trump campaign and early administration, indicted former Trump National Security Adviser, Lt. General Michael Flynn, and former Trump chief strategist, Steve Bannon. Jared Kushner, whose ex-convict father Charles Kushner has close ties with Israeli intelligence, personally oversaw the use of Cambridge Analytica by the Trump campaign. In fact, the classic intelligence tradecraft employed by Cambridge Analytica, under the direction of its former CEO, Alexander Nix  starting vicious rumors about political candidates sexual orientation and other sexual habits, as well as trying to compromise candidates with attractive female Ukrainian prostitutes  are favored tactics of Israels Mossad.

Charles Kushner employed such entrapment tactics in helping to set up, in an Israeli intelligence-led homosexual honeytrap, the former Democratic Governor of New Jersey, Jim McGreevey. Charles Kushner was also criminally charged with trying to use prostitutes to entrap his accountant and brother-in-law, government witnesses in the federal corruption case brought against him. Cambridge Analytics had at least 10 employees embedded in the Trump campaigns digital operations, which was led by Brad Parscale, recently named as the head of Trumps 2020 re-election campaign.

There are also connections between Cambridge Analytica and Palantir, the firm established with CIA venture capital funds and headed by Trumps close friend and economic adviser Peter Thiel. Headquartered only a few miles from Facebook and Google in Palo Alto, Palantir uses deeply-mined personal and geo-spatial data to assist the Pentagon and US intelligence community in conducting micro- and macro-targeted psychological warfare and information operations. Palantir is only 10 miles from another firm that started with CIA seed money, Oracle, Inc., the grandfather of relational databases.

In an expose on Cambridge Analytica aired by Britains Channel 4, Nix revealed the firm used some Israeli companies, which he noted were very effective in intelligence gathering. The developer of the application used by Cambridge Analytica to collect and mine personal data on 50 million American Facebook users, alone, for political and other purposes is Aleksandr Kogan, a colleague of Kosinski. Born in what was the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, Kogan and his family were among hundreds of thousands of Jewish residents of the Soviet Union who emigrated to the United States during the final years of the USSR. In a move worthy of a James Bond villain, Kogan briefly legally changed his name to Dr. Alexander Spectre. It is noteworthy to point out that a malicious program that breaks down the security of secure computer applications is also known as Spectre.

Many Moldovan Jews serve as kingpins in what the Federal Bureau of Investigation calls the Eurasian Mafia. Russian President Vladimir Putin was absolutely correct when he recently told NBC News in an interview that Russians may not have been involved in US election meddling, but that they could be Ukrainians, Tatars, or Jews with Russian citizenship Maybe they hold dual citizenship, or green cards. Or maybe Americans paid them for this job.

Based on the origins of Cambridge Analytica, SCL Group, Renaissance Technologies, Saatchi & Saatchi, Sequoia Capital, Facebook, Google, Palantir, Collactive, and Megaphone/GIYUS, there is no maybe about the involvement of Ukrainians and Soviet Jews in psychographic election manipulation. One could add to President Putins list, Moldovans, Israelis, and British and American nationals, not to mention Latvians, Estonians, Romanians, Turks, and Macedonians.

SCL Group conducted classified research for Britains Ministry of Defense and NATO on Target Audience Analysis (TAA), a subset of what Western intelligence agencies call Population Intelligence. Rather than having ties to Russian intelligence or the Russian government, Cambridge Analyticas and SCL Groups links beat a direct path to Whitehall, the Pentagon, Foggy Bottom, the US Defense Intelligence Agency while under the command of General Flynn, UK Conservative Party headquarters, NATO headquarters in Brussels, and most particularly, the Mossad and Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv.

The former Australian Privacy Commissioner, Malcolm Crompton, summed up the way companies like Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group interfere with elections on a massive scale. He told the Brisbane Times that political parties, themselves, were to be primarily blamed. Crompton said that parties use very sophisticated machines in the electorate that collect information from contact with voters. He added that such information sources could then be combined with Facebook data to build a profile of voters.

The extent of Cambridge/SCL Groups election interference around the world is staggering. In addition to the United States, conglomerate has been active in elections in Kenya, India, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Moldova, St. Lucia, Argentina, Czech Republic, Ghana, Latvia, Italy, Nigeria, St. Kitts-Nevis, Mexico, Jamaica, Poland, Scotland, Lithuania, German, France, Hungary, Romania, Thailand, South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia, Northern Ireland, Kedah, Bihar, Colombia, Dominica, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Iceland, Nepal, Iran, Malaysia, and the Brexit "Leave" campaign in the United Kingdom.

In 2015, Cambridge Analyticas Israeli hackers operating from its London office hacked the emails of then-Nigerian presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari to dig up embarrassing personal information about the candidate, a Muslim. This was to benefit incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian who supported close ties to Israel. That same year, Israeli hackers hacked the email and medical records of St. Kitts-Nevis opposition leader Timothy Harris of the Peoples Labor Party. The Israeli government was known to oppose Harris for his policy of strengthening ties with Venezuela, a bitter opponent of Israel. Harris, against the odds imposed by the Israeli hackers and Cambridge, won the election.

Cambridge Analytica struck again in 2017, when it helped President Uhuru Kenyattas re-election campaign in Kenya to spread on-line malicious rumors and gossip about his opponent, using Facebook and its application, Whatsapp. Kenyatta has maintained strong intelligence and military relations with Israel. In practically every election in which it interfered, Cambridge Analytica and SCL did so on behalf of leaders and parties favoring close ties with Israel. This was no coincidence.

With all the attention on election integrity, now comes along a firm offering block-chaining technology to audit and authenticate vote counts. Agora, a Swiss-based firm blockchain technology company issued the following press release on March 8, 2018: Sierra Leones 2018 presidential elections, which took place on March 7th, represents the first time in history that blockchain technology has been used in a national government election. West Districts results were registered on Agoras unforgeable blockchain ledger, and the tally made publicly available days before the usual manual count. Block-chain technology is at the core of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. It is also no coincidence that behind the introduction of cryptocurrency in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a close diplomatic ally of Israel, are Israeli technology firms. The manipulation and penetration of global elections to benefit Israel will not end in the foreseeable future nor will politicians, afraid of the Israeli Lobby, point fingers at the true culprits behind election malfeasance in over 100 countries.

Photo: vice.comFormer French President Nicolas Sarkozy is now under formal investigation over corruption charges that could see him end up behind bars for five years if found guilty. After 48 hours of police questioning last week, Sarkozy said the scandal was making his life hell. Critics would say its a fate deserved.

The combative Sarkozy, who was known as Mr Bling-Bling for his lavish lifestyle, is being investigated by French prosecutors for taking $60 million in illicit bribes from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The money was allegedly used to bankroll Sarkozys presidential election campaign in 2007.

It is increasingly suspected that covering up the money-trail was a primary motive for why then President Sarkozy became the main architect for the NATO bombing campaign on Libya in 2011. That military onslaught led to regime change and the murder of Gaddafi by NATO-backed militants.

During the region-wide Arab Spring uprisings in early 2011, relatively minor protests in eastern Libya against Gaddafis rule were blown up by the US and European NATO states. In retrospect, the manipulation of events in Libya by NATO powers bears a striking similarity to the same ploy for regime change that nearly unfolded in Syria.

Frances President Sarkozy was the chief advocate for sanctions on Libya during February 2011, and for a NATO no-fly zone over the country to supposedly prevent Gaddafis forces massacring the Western-lionized uprising in Benghazi.

It was Sarkozy who, along with Britains Prime Minister David Cameron, galvanized the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to join in the plan for NATO military intervention in Libya. On March 17, 2011, the United Nations Security Council mandated a NATO no-fly zone. Russia and China were blindsided. The so-called humanitarian right to protect turned into a seven-month NATO blitz on Libya.

On October 20, 2011, Colonel Gaddafi was lynched by a mob in his hometown of Sirte after his fleeing convoy was bombed by NATO warplanes. He was dragged from a roadside drain by the mob who then beat him to death. One militant thrust a knife up his anus. Clinton notoriously gloated over Gaddafis gruesome death recorded in a macabre video. There have also been unconfirmed reports that French military intelligence operative were present on the ground among the frenzied killers.

Seven years later, the once stable and developed North African country is still reeling in chaos from internecine tribal conflict and a hotbed for Islamist terror groups, with no functioning central government. NATO created a failed state which is destabilizing Europe as a conduit for mass migration of desperate people from all over Africa.

The bitter irony is that Nicolas Sarkozy in the early 2000s was a principal Western political figure who participated in the apparent rehabilitation of the former Libyan wild child  the revolutionary Col Muammar Gaddafi who seized power in 1969. Gaddafi  also nicknamed Mad Dog by the Americans  had been the bane of Western imperialism for decades, supporting various revolutionary groups, such as the Irish Republican Army against British rule in Northern Ireland.

Gaddafi eventually tried to normalize relations with the Western powers, giving up his countrys weapons programs. The brutal US-led war disposing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2003 may have been a factor in swaying Gaddafi to placate the Western powers.

During the French presidency of Jacques Chirac (2002-2007), Sarkozy was the finance minister, as well as interior minister. It was Sarkozy who acted as the mediator to restore commercial links with Libya and apparently to rehabilitate Gaddafi as a Libyan leader acceptable to Western powers. Britains Tony Blair was another supposed peace tribune. In the end, Gaddafi was disposed of like Saddam.

When Sarkozy made a bid for the presidency in 2007, it is alleged that Gaddafi funneled up to 50 million ($60m) to Sarkozy for his election campaign. Soon after gaining the Elysee Palace, Gaddafi was hosted in Paris by President Sarkozy, where the maverick Libyan leader was permitted to pitch his Bedouin tent on the grounds of a landmark luxury hotel.

However, the smiles, handshakes and bonhomie would soon turn sour.

Sarkozy denies the claims that he received money from Gaddafi. Last week, he said he was determined to clear his name. Tellingly, the former French head of state  the only French president ever to be held in custody  contended that there was no physical evidence against him. It was a strange formulation of words.

Still, the claims against him are formidable. The allegations of graft first surfaced in March 2011 when Gaddafis son, Saif al-Islam, angrily demanded that Sarkozy give back the alleged Libyan donations for his earlier election campaign. Sail al-Islam made the claim around the time of the UNSC resolution being passed and the beginning of the NATO bombing campaign.

But its not just Gaddafis family making claims against Sarkozy. Libyas former oil minister Shukri Ghanem also noted in his diary that massive payments were made to Sarkozy in 2007. French prosecutors are believed to be in possession of the diary. Suspiciously, in 2012, Ghanem was found drowned in the River Danube in Vienna.

The money trail was also corroborated by Libyas former state wealth fund manager Bashir Saleh. He was known as Gaddafis banker.

Then in November 2016, a French-Lebanese businessman named Ziad Takieddine told French media that he personally acted as the courier transporting suitcases of cash from Libya to Paris during 2007, where he says he delivered up to $5 million to Sarkozy at the ministry of interior.

Sarkozy (63) dismisses the charges as emanating from bitter former associates of Gaddafi.

Nevertheless, the stench of corruption is hard to dispel. Since the end of his presidency in 2012, Sarkozy and members of his former inner-circle have been investigated in multiple other corruption probes. He is currently awaiting trial over the Bygmalion scandal in which he is accused of misusing up to 20 million in public funds for his failed re-election campaign in 2012.

If the investigation over Libyan money embezzlement goes to trial, Sarkozy could be facing five years in jail if found guilty.

If he does go to prison, some might say that Mr Bling-Bling gets off light considering the trail of death and destruction in his wake. Because the potentially bigger scandal is that Sarkozy mobilized an illegal NATO war on Libya in 2011 which led to the murder of its head of state.

During that blitzkrieg on Libya, NATO carried out some 26,500 bombing sorties over seven months. To put that in perspective, recent figures show that the Saudi-led bombing campaign on Yemen has carried out 16,000 sorties over three years.

Notably too, of the 19 nations that participated in the pulverizing of Libya, it was the French who most prominently led the highest number of air strikes. French warplanes were responsible for some 35 per cent of all attacks.

What happened in Libya was a veritable war of aggression  a supreme war crime. Americas Obama and Clinton, as well as Britains Cameron, are certainly foremost subjects for war crimes prosecution. But the chief culprit for NATOs devastation of Libya is Nicolas Sarkozy.

If he thinks 48 hours of police questioning in Paris last week over corruption is hell, Sarkozy should spare a thought for the thousands of innocent lives he obliterated over his money-grubbing schemes.John Bolton, a Yale-educated lawyer known as a foreign policy hawk, has been appointed National Security Adviser (NSA), in a major reshuffle of President Trumps administration. He officially takes office on April 9. No Senate confirmation is required. Welcome back, Mr. Straight Talker!

Mr. Bolton has a long history of government service, including in the positions of Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and ambassador to the UN, the organization he once described as no such thing and wants to be defunded. John Bolton scorns international institutions and does not believe that engaging much with the world is in keeping with US interests.

This soon-to-be NSA is an experienced lawyer and think tanker, as well as a foreign-policy pundit who has written a multitude of books and articles. Hes a deft and ready speaker whose gift of gab can win over an audience at any time. The National Security Advisor-designate even considered entering the presidential races in 2012 and 2016.

In his frequent television commentaries, Mr. Bolton has always advocated tough approaches and never missed an opportunity to support using force rather than wasting time on fruitless diplomacy. For instance, he has advocated for a military option to solve the problem with North Korea and for boosting cooperation with Taiwan in order to irk China. He takes a very hard line on Iran. "To stop Iran's bomb, bomb Iran," sums up his position.

Mr. Bolton believes the JCPOA was a blunder. He wants the US to push Iran out of Syria and topple President Assads Tehran-friendly government. With his appointment, the chances of the US certifying the Iran nuclear deal appear to be somewhere between zero and zilch. Mr. Bolton has always been pro-Israel and backed the idea of a unilateral Israeli strike against Iran to knock out the facilities there related to its nuclear program.

The late Jesse Helms, a well-known hawk, once claimed Mr. Bolton would be the right man to stand with at Armageddon.

The newest appointee has championed the idea of raising tariffs to unleash trade wars.

With these two very hawkish Republicans  John Bolton and Mike Pompeo  Donald Trump will be under strong pressure to adopt a get-tough approach to all major issues. Gina Haspel, another hawk, will have frequent access to Donald Trump in her role as the newly appointed CIA director. The spirit of Barry Goldwater lives on.

John Bolton has always been critical of Moscow and it is almost unanimously believed that his appointment does not augur well for US-Russia relations.

In response to President Putins speech in which he unveiled the existence of his new super weapons, Bolton emphasized the need for a strategic response. He has called on NATO to offer a strong reaction to what is known as the Scripal case, expressing his conviction that the POTUS was considering such a response. The latest choice for National Security Advisor endorses the idea of providing Ukraine with lethal weapons and wants the West to take a much tougher stance on Russia. John Bolton will certainly advocate for expediting Georgias and Ukraines membership in the North Atlantic alliance, as well as granting those nations the status of Major NonNATO ally of the US.

He strongly criticized President Obamas reset policy. Yet despite all that, he never launched personal attacks against Vladimir Putin. He always seemed to genuinely enjoy his visits to Russia, including press conferences and visits to think tanks. Despite his tough talk, he has always been amicable and ready to communicate. He has a long list of personal acquaintances, including many in senior government positions and academia. John Bolton worked with Sergey Kiriyenko, Russias First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration, back when the latter headed Russias State Commission on Chemical Disarmament.

Mr. Bolton is an experienced negotiator on strategic arms-control issues. John Bolton was a strong advocate of the US withdrawal from the 1972 BM Treaty. He took part in the talks over the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) that was in effect until the New START went into force. John Bolton sees the New START as a unilateral disarmament agreement that is at odds with US interests. President Trump has also decried that treaty.

Being a hawk does not make him a hopeless prospect. He views the interests of his nation in his own way, but he wants America to lead, not perish in a war it cant win. His experience in strategic arms talks is invaluable. Mr. Bolton has a good understanding of security-related issues.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan was a Russia hawk, a tough guy no one could make a deal with. Remember his joke about dropping bombs on the USSR in five minutes? Or his Evil Empire speech? During his second term, the landmark INF Treaty was signed and the friendly environment of the US-USSR summits were proof that bilateral relationship had clearly evolved beyond its Cold War roots.

The former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev believes that "He has already entered history as a man who was instrumental in bringing about the end of the Cold War." President Reagan ended the Cold War and made it possible to ease the nuclear tensions in the 1990s.

Agreements will remain elusive on many issues and negotiations on some key matters may even break down, but dialog on arms control will probably continue because it meets vital US interests and Mr. Bolton knows that well.

In the end, the decisions are made by the president, and while advisers may have influence, they only advise. President Trump has many people around him to help him see issues from different viewpoints.In January 2018 a Texas businessman (Peter Zuccarelli) was sentenced to 46 months in prison for conspiring to smuggle radiation hardened integrated circuits (microchips that can operate despite the increased radiation found outside the atmosphere) to China and Russia. These microchips were falsely labeled as touch screen components as the activities went on from June 2015 to March 2016. There were others involved, including an unnamed Pakistani man who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and was described as the middleman for this deal and similar schemes with others. The Pakistani agent apparently sought out Americans in a position to legitimately buy equipment that require an export license that the foreign customer knew they could not get. Zuccarelli owned an eyeglass lens coating company that was having financial problems and the Pakistani middleman got in touch and arranged the deal, which included paying Zuccarelli $1.5 million to cover the cost of the chips and profit for undertaking the illegal transaction.

These radiation hardened microchips were apparently needed for Chinese and Russian space probes which spend long periods in deep space and similar Chinese microchips were not up to the task. Russia had much less ability to design and manufacture these items and has to smuggle them in or do without. These microchips are also needed in ICBM guidance and control systems. Some of the mislabeled microchips shipped to China were also being sought by Russia and any other country needing such export restricted components for space systems or other types of advanced military technology. In the case of China the hardening technology could be developed and manufactured in China but that would be very expensive and time consuming and it was simply cheaper to use the existing network of smugglers to obtain the components faster and at much less cost. The Chinese government is shielded from involvement via the use of Chinese companies that have contracts to deliver certain components for a larger projects and as part of Chinas new (since the 1980s) market economy these firms are free to get it done any way they can. At the same time the Chinese government is not particularly cooperative in assisting foreign governments investigating these smuggling schemes.

There continues to be a lot of this smuggling via China in part due to the role China has played as a smuggling conduit for all sorts of illegal tech going to a large number of countries. Heavy users of the China Connection included North Korea, Iran, Pakistan and Russia. Citizens of all those countries were often found (and frequently arrested) by Western nations that were being plundered for export restricted tech.

Until 2015, when most economic sanctions were lifted, Iran was a heavy user of the Chinese Connection. Even as Iran was negotiating the mid-2015 treaty they were still actively smuggling tech. For example, at the end of 2014 a Chinese citizen (Sihai Cheng) flew into Boston from Britain, under guard, and was arrested for organizing a smuggling operation to obtain thousands of components (mostly American pressure transducers) Iran needed for enriching uranium (for nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons). Sihai Cheng was caught attempting to buy these items for a Chinese company and then smuggle them into Iran. Sihai Cheng was arrested in Britain in early 2014 and indicted for espionage in the U.S. two months later. Cheng fought the American extradition effort but lost and was sent to America for trial. Cheng was accused of working with an Iranian citizen and two Iranian companies to carry out the plan. The Iranians told Cheng that the transducers (made in China by an American company) were to be smuggled into Iran for a secret project. Cheng was caught, in part, because of help from the U.S. firm that makes the transducers. By 2014 the U.S. and Western nations had become well aware of the Chinese Connection and cooperated with each other to spot and shut down these smuggling operations.

Because of decades of economic sanctions Iran came to depend on China to help smuggle forbidden items into Iran. China opposed the sanctions but went through the motions of observing them. Despite official sanction support China has always been the ultimate source of forbidden military and nuclear research items for Iran. This included Western gear, especially stuff from the United States that the rapidly growing Chinese economy had legitimate buyers for. These American items are usually obtained by Chinese trading companies, who served as a one-stop-shopping source for many countries. The trading companies break American laws when they ship some types of restricted (by American regulations) gear to embargoed nations. This is done using forged documents and bribes that can mask these operations for years.

These Chinese exporters have little fear of punishment at home because the Chinese government refuses to discipline its wayward firms. But these trading/smuggling companies can be hurt in other ways. Thats because U.S. regulators can reach just about every other country (even China) using the enormous U.S. presence in the international banking system. But the Chinese traders consider occasional fines and business interruption a cost-of-doing-business and pass these extra costs onto customers like Iran. Thus as the sanctions on Iran grow more formidable, prices Iran must pay go up and the Chinese profits increase even more.

This kind of smuggling employs techniques that Iran has used successfully for a long time and apparently shared with some allies. Many Western suppliers will simply charge a much higher price to cover the risk of being found out and prosecuted. There are, as the Iranians know well, a lot of Western suppliers who are willing to take the risk. But as the risk of getting caught, and the penalties, increase a growing number Westerners abandon this lucrative business to the Chinese.

The war on Iranian arms smuggling had been intensifying in the decade before the 2015 treaty. Most countries cooperated, but not all. While Turkey has been getting cozy with Iran, the Turks still enforced international trade sanctions against Iran. But as Turkey encourages its companies to do more business with Iran, there are more opportunities to smuggle forbidden goods to assist Iranian nuclear weapons and ballistic missile projects. Iran takes advantage of this whenever possible.

Ever since the U.S. embargo was imposed in 1979 (after Iran broke diplomatic protocol by seizing the American embassy), Iran had sought, with some success, to offer big money to smugglers who can beat the embargo and get needed industrial and military equipment. This became a risky business, and American and European prisons are still full of Iranians, and other nationals, who tried, and often failed, to procure forbidden goods. The smuggling operations are currently under more scrutiny, and attack, because of Irans growing involvement in wars throughout the region and Islamic terror operations worldwide. The Iranians have found they can still profit from this smuggling network they have nurtured over the decades and continued access to an international smuggling network is useful to keep the goodies (tech or information) coming.TICKERS: BRC; BKRRF,

Source: Bob Moriarty for Streetwise Reports (3/26/18)

Bob Moriarty of 321 Gold comments on a company that has claims on land in the North Nevada Rift, the same formation as the Hollister Mine, which Hecla just acquired from Klondex Mines for $462 million.



Gold companies often work for years and spend millions of dollars before hitting the jackpot. Today I'm going to talk about a company that did a deal on a project and hit the jackpot right out of the box.

Years ago I wrote a short piece about some people I named the heroes of mining. By chance the first person I talked about is named Carl Pescio from Nevada. At one time, he owned more claims in the U.S. than anyone else.

Blackrock Gold Corp. (BRC:TSX.V) announced an agreement with Carl Pescio last October on 552 mining claims near Elko, Nevada, located on the North Nevada Rift. The company calls the project the Silver Cloud. The North Nevada Rift contains two operating mines, the Midas Mine and Fire Creek. The Hollister Mine is in development stage.

On March 19th Hecla Mining announced an agreement to take over Klondex Mines for $462 million in a deal that represents a 52% premium over the previous day's price for Klondex. That will give ownership of Hollister to Hecla Mining. You may safely assume investors paid attention to the announcement and realized the potential in Northern Nevada. You can't beat that timing.

On March 22, Blackrock Gold announced the TSX has accepted the documentation for the agreement between Blackrock and Pescio Exploration on Silver Cloud. The agreement calls for total payments over ten years of $6.65 million, issuance to Pescio of one million shares and 125,000 feet of drilling over the ten-year period.

The deal looks expensive at first but it's rear end loaded with payments of only $300,000 in the first three years. While the Silver Cloud property is in elephant country, frankly the only options are they hit or they don't. If they don't hit in the first three years, it will be time to more on to better ground and if they do hit, the cost is pretty meaningless.

Like Midas, Fire Creek and Hollister, Silver Cloud is a low-sulfidation epithermal banded calcite vein system. Hollister is five miles to the east, Midas a dozen miles to the north. I have been on the Silver Cloud project years ago; it was home to mercury mines and is a sinter similar to Midas and Hollister.

Silver Cloud has not been systematically or extensively drilled. In 1999 Teck drilled ten holes and came up with one intercept of 145 g/t gold over 1.5 meters and another of 22.8 meters of 5.67 g/t Au. Place Dome tested the property in 2002 with a single drill hole and reported 12 meters of 5.53 g/t gold. Those would be home run holes today but twenty years ago was just after Bre-X and gold was 25% of what it is today.

Blackrock management just completed a $1.3 million private placement. The timing of Hecla paying a 52% premium for a mine only five miles away from Silver Cloud couldn't possibly have been better timed if you appreciate luck. There will be renewed interest in the North Nevada Rift and even a sniff of gold in new drill holes will interest potential investors to buy a lottery ticket.

Blackrock has 36 million shares outstanding, which gives them an enterprise value of about $2.5 million given the cash they have on hand. That's pretty cheap given the quality of the neighborhood. There are 59 million shares on a fully diluted basis with 16.5 million warrants at $0.15 and 6 million at $0.20. The warrants can be accelerated so given any success on the ground, Blackrock should have sufficient cash on hand to move the project forward.

It's a lottery ticket. I liked it so I bought into the PP, having walked the ground before. Blackrock is an advertiser so you should do your own due diligence and take responsibility for your own investment decisions.

Blackrock Gold Corp

BRC-V $0.125 (Mar 26, 2018)

BKR-OTCBB 36 million shares

Blackrock website

Bob and Barb Moriarty brought 321gold.com to the Internet almost 16 years ago. They later added 321energy.com to cover oil, natural gas, gasoline, coal, solar, wind and nuclear energy. Both sites feature articles, editorial opinions, pricing figures and updates on current events affecting both sectors. Previously, Moriarty was a Marine F-4B and O-1 pilot with more than 832 missions in Vietnam. He holds 14 international aviation records.

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Disclosure:

1) Bob Moriarty: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Blackrock Gold. Blackrock Gold is an advertiser on 321 Gold. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector.

2) The following companies mentioned are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Klondex Mines. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees.

3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.

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5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article, until one week after the publication of the interview or article.The debrief of Pakistan Navy Operational Exercise RIBAT-2018 was held in Karachi today (Monday). Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi graced the occasion as Chief Guest.

In his remarks, Chief of the Naval Staff expressed his complete satisfaction over the combat readiness of PN fighting units and emphasized that joint operational exercises are essential to achieve desired level of training and readiness for defence of motherland. In this regard, special emphasis was laid on joint operations by Pakistan Navy in sync with Pakistan Air Force to achieve higher level of synergy between the two services.

Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi appreciated the efforts put in by exercise participants who proved their mettle while practically manifesting war plans at sea.

The Naval Chief during interaction with officers and men also appreciated their morale, level of preparedness and resolve to defend maritime frontiers of the country.

Challenges at hand necessitate a constant review of our operational plans through extensive war gaming and brain storming processes, he said.

The Admiral emphasized that Pakistan Navy is a professionally capable and potent force, fully capable to thwart any act of aggression by our adversary.

We must train hard, strategize well and refine our tactics regularly through frequent exercises an drills, he further asserted.The former convener of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Farooq Sattar has said that ECPs decision regarding his convenor-ship is managed.

Talking to media in Islamabad he said that todays day will be considered as Black Day. Farooq Sattar lashed out against the Election Commission of Pakistans verdict which led to his disqualification as the party convener.

The ECPs verdict against me is a dark verdict, he said, adding that the decision was unjust and unconstitutional. The decision is a black stain on Pakistans electoral and judicial history, he remarked.

He claimed the decision is managed, and a result of his standing up to the party founder after the controversy surrounding the MQM in August 2016

I have been punished for standing up to MQM founder and support states Constitution and institutions.

Sattar also deemed that verdict against him to be part of a conspiracy to target MQM. The MQM which I helped rescue is being dissolved now.He alleged that the partys votes are also being divided so as to give them to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and Pakistan Sarzameen Party.

These seats have been snatched from MQMs workers and given to our brothers in Bahadurabad, he remarked, adding that the Bahadurabad faction of the party does not have the majority.

MQM without its founder and Farooq Sattar will have the same value as PSP, he added.

The dispute between party members over nominations for the upcoming Senate elections had earlier resulted in the emergence of splinter groups  Dr Farooq Sattar led PIB Colony faction and the Bahadurabad group consisting of Amir Khan, Nasreen Jalil, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui among others.Earlier, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had ruled on Monday that Farooq Sattar will no longer serve as the convener of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).

A five-member bench of ECP had also dismissed Sattars petition challenging the jurisdiction of ECP in the case and nullified the intra-party elections of MQM, in which Farooq Sattar was elected as the party chief.

In its short verdict announced today, the ECP annulled the intra-party polls conducted by PIB faction and the resolutions passed by the general workers meeting.

The commission also accepted the plea from Kanwar Naveed Jamil and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui of removing Sattar as the MQM-P convener and also rejected Sattars plea against the case.Bay of Plenty

Do you want the opportunity to work on one of the busiest ports in New Zealand? Then read on! We have an exciting role for...



View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nzClick the image above to watch the video

Today we are expecting the weather to be cloudy with some drizzle in the morning and evening, otherwise sunny spells. with a chance of showers. Also light winds.

Its a two-clothing-layer day today with a high of 23 and an overnight low of 17 degrees. Humidity is 99 per cent.

Low tide is at 9.50am and high tide at 4pm. Theres a sea swell of about .3m, with a sea temperature of 21 degrees. Sunset tonight is at 7.15pm.

If youre going fishing today the best fish bite time is between 8,30am and 10.30am and between 9pm and 11pm.

In NZ history on this day in 1883 the Sallies came to New Zealand, Two English Salvation Army officers landed at Port Chalmers to set up a New Zealand branch of the Christian evangelical movement.

In 1984 caretaker and unionist Ernie Abbott was killed on by a bomb at Trades Hall in Wellingtons Vivian Street. The crime remains unsolved.

In world history on this day in 1866 President Andrew Johnson vetoed the civil rights bill, which later became the 14th amendment.

In 1884 the first long-distance telephone call was made from Boston to New York.

In 1899 the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi achieved the first international radio transmission between England and France.

In 1912 the first cherry blossom trees, a gift from Japan, were planted in Washington, D.C. In 1933 some 55,000 people staged a protest against Hitler in New York.

In 1944 one thousand Jews left Drancy, France for the Auschwitz concentration camp.

In 1958 the United States announced a plan to explore space near the moon. In 1977, 583 died when a KLM 747 collided with a 747 flown by Pan Am on the island of Tenerife.

Today is the birthday of German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen. Born in 1845, he accidentally discovered X-rays.

He once said "If the hand be held between the discharge-tube and the screen, the darker shadow of the bones is seen within the slightly dark shadow-image of the hand itself... For brevitys sake I shall use the expression rays; and to distinguish them from others of this name I shall call them X-rays."

Its also the birthday of Sir Henry Royce, who was born in 1863 and was the cofounder of the Rolls-Royce automotive company. And today is the birthday of Edward Steichen who was born in 1879 and was the pioneer of American photography.

Its also the birthday of John Robinson Pierce. Born in 1910, he was the father of communications satellites.

To get involved in some of the many activities happening around the Bay, please check out our Whats on page.

Have a great day!Australia Consults Taxpayers On Virtual Currency Taxation

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

26 March 2018

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has launched a new consultation on potential reforms to ease the complexity for taxpayers of complying with their virtual currency tax obligations.

The consultation  Substantiating cryptocurrency taxation events, which will run until April 20  is intended to support the ATO to develop additional guidance for taxpayers following a number of inquiries, in particular on how taxpayers should approach specific tax events.

The consultation is also intended as an opportunity for taxpayers to engage with the tax agency about the evolution of business models and processes as a result of digitalization.China's New FM Confirms Tax Cut Plans

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

26 March 2018

China's new Finance Minister, Liu Kun, has announced plans to reform the nation's taxation system, including value-added tax rate reductions.

Liu said the value-added tax cuts would benefit manufacturing firms and transportation providers this year.

He also confirmed plans to reform China's personal income tax system to increase tax breaks in relation to spending on children's education and critical illness.

The tax cuts are an extension of tax reforms, which began in 2013 when the government slashed more than CNY3 trillion in taxes and fees on companies, a process Premier Li Keqiang said was vital to improve the country's competitiveness and protect entrepreneurship.Crunch Time For Australia's Corporate Tax Cuts

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

26 March 2018

Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison has said that the Government will "see what the week brings" as negotiations continue on its proposed package of company tax cuts.

When asked during a doorstop interview if he was confident the Government could get its Enterprise Tax Plan Bill passed through the Senate by Wednesday, Morrison replied that the Government is "not counting anything," and is "just going through the process."

Morrison said that the Government is working with crossbench senators and that negotiations will be conducted "in a private way." He added that the Government is having to conduct these negotiations because of the Labor Party's opposition to lowering business taxes.

Morrison said that Australia must "continue to take a strong stand on keeping taxes low so businesses can compete and invest and employ people and lift their wages as their productivity continues to improve."

The legislation proposes increasing the turnover threshold for access to the lower, small business company tax rate each year to 2023-24 and reducing the headline rate to 25 percent for all businesses by 2026-27.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann is leading negotiations in the Senate. According to Cormann, should the Senate not pass the legislation, "it would be a deliberate move to put our businesses here in Australia at a competitive disadvantage compared to businesses in other parts of the world."

Cormann told reporters that the Government has 30 seats in the Senate but needs 39 votes to pass legislation and therefore continues to talk to "all non-Government Senators that are prepared to talk with us." He accused Labor of taking "an incredibly reckless position" and of failing to "act in the national interest."

Cormann would not provide reporters with "a running commentary" on the numbers it had on side in the Senate.IRS Warns Taxpayers On Virtual Currency Tax Compliance

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

26 March 2018

The US Internal Revenue Service on March 23 warned taxpayers that they must report income from virtual currency transactions in their income tax returns.

The IRS said: "Virtual currency transactions are taxable by law just like transactions in any other property. The IRS has issued guidance in IRS Notice 2014-21 for use by taxpayers and their return preparers that addresses transactions in virtual currency, also known as digital currency."

"Taxpayers who do not properly report the income tax consequences of virtual currency transactions can be audited for those transactions and, when appropriate, can be liable for penalties and interest."

"In more extreme situations, taxpayers could be subject to criminal prosecution for failing to properly report the income tax consequences of virtual currency transactions. Criminal charges could include tax evasion and filing a false tax return. Anyone convicted of tax evasion is subject to a prison term of up to five years and a fine of up to USD250,000. Anyone convicted of filing a false return is subject to a prison term of up to three years and a fine of up to USD250,000."

Notice 2014-21 provides that virtual currency is treated as property for US federal tax purposes. General tax principles that apply to property transactions apply to transactions using virtual currency.

Among other things, this means that:The Trump administration expelled 60 Russian diplomats on Monday and ordered Russia's consulate in Seattle to close, as the United States and European nations sought to jointly punish Moscow for its alleged role in poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.

Senior Trump administration officials said all 60 Russians were spies working in the U.S. under diplomatic cover, including a dozen at Russia's mission to the United Nations. The officials said the administration was taking the action to send a message to Russia's leaders about the "unacceptably high" number of Russian intelligence operatives in the U.S.

The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the U.S, said the officials. They weren't authorized to be identified by name and requested anonymity. They added that the Seattle consulate is a counter-intelligence concern because of its proximity to a U.S. Navy base.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the actions would make the U.S. safer by "reducing Russia's ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations" that threaten U.S. national security.

"With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences," Sanders said.

The move was one of the most significant actions President Donald Trump's administration has taken to date to push back on Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin by phone for his re-election but didn't raise the spy case, renewing questions about whether the U.S. president is too soft on the Kremlin.

The U.S. actions came as more than a dozen nations, including those in Russia's neighborhood, were expected to announce similar steps to reduce Russia's diplomatic presence in their countries or other actions to punish Moscow. Poland summoned Russia's ambassador for talks, and its foreign ministry was among several in Europe planning news conferences later Monday.

Britain has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being undeclared intelligence agents, which led Russia to expel the same number of British diplomats. The European Union has already recalled its ambassador to Russia.

The steps on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean add to a serious escalation of tensions between Russia and the West that has been building since the March 4 poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for the U.K., and his daughter, Yulia. The two remain in critical condition and unconscious. A policeman who responded to their home was also injured.

Britain has accused Moscow of perpetrating the attack using a Soviet-developed nerve agent known as Novichok. The U.S., France and Germany have agreed it's highly likely Russia was responsible.

Russia's government has denied responsibility and has blasted Britain's investigation into the poisoning. There was no immediate reaction from Russia on Friday to the U.S. announcement.Ukraine Wins Praise For New Corporate Tax Reform Plans

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

26 March 2018

Ukraine's announcement that it will shift the corporate tax burden from company profits to distributions has been welcomed by investors from Europe.

Earlier, during a meeting with representatives of foreign and domestic businesses on March 12, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the proposals as a "new philosophy" in taxation that would simplify tax for small businesses and lead to higher rates of investment.

"We are protecting small and medium businesses with this bill. It means significant simplification of accounting: you pay taxes for the sum you withdraw. What is left goes to the investment in business," he said.

Poroshenko suggested that the reforms could be phased in so they would apply to small firms before being extended to other businesses. "On the first stage we can spread this on small and medium business only in order to find compromise with foreign investors," he said. Poroshenko said: "This worked 100 percent positively in many countries, including Georgia, Estonia."

The announcement was welcomed by the European Business Association, endorsing proposals for the regime to be extended to small firms first. However, it recommended that the changes should serve to reduce the corporate tax burden, rather than being offset by other revenue measures, and that, at least initially, large companies should be allowed to elect whether to be subject to the new system of taxation.

The association supported the idea of piloting the system, noting that it will be important for authorities to review whether the system has been successful and whether it has a negative impact on voluntary compliance rates.

The association said that the corporate tax reform efforts should be coupled with tax cuts on labor. It said that a reduction to the labor tax burden will improve voluntary compliance rates and reduce the size of the shadow economy.

"We share the desire of the Head of State to a greater rate of economic growth. We hope that a balanced taxation system will be an important factor in achieving these goals," the association said.The Cambridge Analytica scandal has led to a number of users, such as WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, joining the #deletefacebook campaign. But by removing themselves from the social network, people are finding out just how much data it holds about them, including detailed logs of calls and SMS messages stretching back years.

As anyone who has ever tried to erase their presence from Facebook knows, the company doesnt make exiting the platform easy. It pushes users to deactivate their accounts, leaving their data on the servers so everything can be instantly returned to normal should they change their minds. When permanently deleting an account, Facebook suggests users download a copy of their info. Its the extent of this data harvesting that has shocked people.

Oh wow my deleted Facebook Zip file contains info on every single phone cellphone call and text I made for about a year, tweeted Mat Johnson. somehow it has my entire call history with my partners mum, wrote Dylan McKay, another Twitter user.

Downloaded my facebook data as a ZIP file



Somehow it has my entire call history with my partner's mum pic.twitter.com/CIRUguf4vD  Dylan McKay (@dylanmckaynz) March 21, 2018

Ive just looked at the data files I requested from Facebook and they had every single phone number in my contacts. They had every single social event I went to, a list of all my friends (and their birthdays) and a list of every text Ive sent.  Emma Kennedy (@EmmaKennedy) March 25, 2018

This prompted Ars Techinca to look into the matter. The publication reports that the data Facebook has been collecting from Android devices, which includes information on contacts, is used to improve its friend recommendation algorithm. Facebook uses the Messenger app, which asks for permission to access calls and text logs on Android devices, to gather the data.

Ars notes that even those who refused Messenger permissions may still have had their information gathered by the company. It discovered that in pre-Jelly Bean (v4.1) versions of Android, allowing the Facebook app access to phone contacts also let it access call and text logs. Google later made Android permissions clearer, but apps that were already granted access could bypass this until Google deprecated version 4.0 of the Android API in October 2017. No such data collection has been discovered on iOS devices.

Since the article and tweets were published, Facebook has released a fact check post on the matter. It says the company never sold the data, and that the call and text logging is an opt-in feature in Messenger and Facebook Lite on Android. Facebook will continuously log the information if you do opt-in, but the feature can be turned off in settings.

Ars says the fact check contradicts several of the details it uncovered. The post doesnt delve too deeply into why Facebook wants the data, other than to find friends and to improve the user experience. Theres also no mention of why, in older versions of Android, it accessed the logs when the app only requested access to a phones contacts, or why it holds onto specific information such as call times, dates, and lengths for so many years.If youre looking to splash out on an OELD TV and are a Sony fan, heres some good news: the companys latest lineup is a lot cheaper than last years models, which started at $5000.

Sony has announced that its 2018 A8F OLED television starts at $2800 for the 55-inch model, with the 65-inch version coming in at $3800. It features an all-new one slate design that makes it easy to mount close to the wall, and comes with an X1 Extreme processor to deliver an exquisite contrast and 4K HDR picture.

While there are other companies that offer OLED TVs at a lower price point, Sonys Acoustic Surface technology that could help justify the A8F's cost. The feature, which is also found in last year's OLEDs, lets sound emanate from the entire display. Vibrating units behind the panel allow the sound to move from side to side within the picture and be isolated to certain parts of the screen, so effects such as dialogue appear to come directly from characters mouths.

For those who want most of the benefits the A8F offers but would rather pay less by opting for an LCD screen, theres Sonys XBR-X900F line. These TVs start at $1100 for a 49-inch model, reaching $5300 for the largest, 85-inch version. You can save even more by choosing one of its X850F sets, which lack the X1 Extreme processor; these start at $1800 for a 65-inch and reach $4500 for an 85-inch.

While the A8F and other Sony 4K TVs do support HDR10 or Hybrid Log-Gamma, buyers who want the Dolby Vision HDR standard will have to wait until it arrives via an update later this year.

Some X900F and X850F models are available through Amazon and Best Buy now, while the A8F is can be preordered from both companies.

Here is the full price list:

Sony XBR-A8F 4K HDR Ultra HD TV Series Line Models

Sony XBR-55XA8F 55 class (54.6 diag) 4K HDR TV, $2,799.99 msrp

Sony XBR-65XA8F 65 class (64.5 diag) 4K HDR TV, $3,799.99 msrp

Sony XBR-X900F 4K HDR Ultra HD TV Series Line Models

Sony XBR-49X900F 49 class (49.6 diag) 4K HDR TV, $1,099.99 msrp

Sony XBR-55X900F 55 class (54.6 diag) 4K HDR TV, $1,499.99 msrp

Sony XBR-65X900F 65 class (64.5 diag) 4K HDR TV, $2,199.99 msrp

Sony XBR-75X900F 75 class (74.5 diag) 4K HDR TV, $3,799.99 msrp

Sony XBR-85X900F 85 class (84.5 diag) 4K HDR TV, $5,299.99 msrp

Sony X850F 4K HDR Ultra HD TV Series Line Models and Prices

Sony XBR-65X850F 65 class (64.5 diag) 4K HDR TV, $1,799.99 msrp

Sony XBR-75X850F 75 class (74.5 diag) 4K HDR TV, $2,999.99 msrp

Sony XBR-85X850F 85 class (84.5 diag) 4K HDR TV, $4,499.99 msrpFollowing an outcry over the decision to let two of its movies compete for the Palme dOr last year, Netflix has been banned from the competing at the Cannes Film Festival. The streaming services refusal to release its films in theatresbarring the very rare simultaneous online and offline launchesis behind the decision.

Two Netflix titlesBong Joon-hos Okja and Noah Baumbachs The Meyerowitz Storieswere entered into Cannes last year despite criticism from French filmmakers, among others, who said their lack of theatrical runs in France meant they shouldnt be able to compete. Netflix did try to obtain temporary permits for the movies to get one-week theatrical releases, but French media regulators prevented it and the pair couldnt reach an agreement.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Cannes festival head Theirry Fremaux said: Last year, when we selected these two films, I thought I could convince Netflix to release them in cinemas. I was presumptuous, they refused.

The Netflix people loved the red carpet and would like to be present with other films. But they understand that the intransigence of their own model is now the opposite of ours.

While Netflix will be able to show its originals at Cannes, it wont be able to enter the running for the Palme dOr. It was implied that its films wont be eligible for any of the festivals other awards, either. The new rules state that starting with this years event, films entering the competition will need to have a French theatrical release.

Cannes organizers arent the only ones who have a problem with Netflixs movies. Steven Spielberg recently told the UKs ITV news that they shouldnt be eligible for Oscars, while The Dark Knight and Dunkirk director Christopher Nolan said the company has a bizarre aversion to supporting theater releases

I think the investment that Netflix is putting into interesting filmmakers and interesting projects would be more admirable if it werent being used as some kind of bizarre leverage against shutting down theaters, Nolan said last year. Its so pointless. I dont really get it.Today Acer has revealed the first-ever tablet designed with education in mind running Chrome OS. The Acer Chromebook Tab 10 is meant for K-12 classrooms and provides out-of-the-box security and simplicity.

Teaching students with modern hardware offers unprecedented access to new experiences. Seeing new concepts on a clear and crisp display that allows for easy interaction with touch and stylus input can make a huge difference in understanding. The Tab 10 has a 9.7-inch, 2,048 x 1,536 IPS touch display with a Wacom EMR stylus for a more natural writing feel.

Weighing in at 1.21 pounds, the Tab 10 easily slides into a backpack, bag or desk and can be comfortably carried around in just one hand. Although thin and light, the Tab 10 has a dual-core Cortex-A72 and quad-core Cortex-A53 paired with 4GB of LPDDR3 memory to easily handle standard productivity tasks.

In addition to cloud storage on Google Drive, the Tab 10 has 32GB of eMMC flash memory. Standard connectivity includes 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, a USB Type-C 3.1 port, a microSD card reader and headphone jack. The USB-C port functions as a charging port, performs data transfer up to 5Gbps and also allows the connection of an external display.

Communication is key between students and educators. The inclusion of a 2MP front-facing webcam and 5MP rear camera allows for easy sharing of photos and videos. Dual speakers help make Google Hangouts video conferencing a valuable tool. Full support for Google Play is enabled, allowing for access to the millions of existing Android apps.

The Acer Chromebook Tab 10 provides up to nine hours of battery life to make it through a full day of use, making it an ideal choice for schools with 1:1 initiatives that provide every student with their own device.

Acer also has plans for supporting Google's Expeditions AR. The augmented reality tool allows mapping of classrooms and can then place different objects around the room for students to study and virtually interact with.

North American education and commercial customers will be able to purchase the Chromebook Tab 10 beginning in April for $329. Units will arrive in European, Middle Eastern and African nations in May for 329.Uber has undergone its share of problems and they still are not over. In a mutual decision to lower the fierce competition in Southeast Asian markets, Uber has agreed to sell its regional business to Singapore-based Grab.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will receive a seat on Grab's board of directors. As part of the deal, Uber now has a 27.5 percent equity share in Grab. Before the deal can officially be approved, the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) must give its stamp of approval. If it is determined that there will be too few competitors, parts of the deal could be modified or overturned.

The sale of Uber's regional business marks the first major consolidation efforts among ride-hailing companies in Southeast Asia. With over 640 million residents in the area, the region is a hotbed for growth and investment. Both Google and Tencent Holdings have considerable investments into Indonesia's Go-Jek that will have to work even harder to compete.

Grab plans to make use of the acquired Uber services by merging with Uber Eats to directly compete with Go-Jek. Consolidation efforts are leading up to a potential initial public offering in 2019 where Uber hopes to raise enough capital to further expand its operations in developing nations.

Uber's next heavy focus area is likely to be India where it would compete with Ola. Although Uber may hold as much as 60 percent of the market there already and India accounts for more than 10 percent of Uber's global rides, it still is not making any money because rides are being substantially subsidized.

SoftBank's chief executive of its Vision Fund has strongly pushed for Uber to leave the Asian market behind and turn focus to known profitable regions such as Latin America. Despite being a major backer of Uber, SoftBank is not actively involved in the daily operations and decision-making at Uber.It seems the US government's efforts to keep Chinese companies from spying on American citizens are continuing. In January, Verizon dropped Chinese phone maker Huawei's devices from their line-up following government pressure.

Later in February, we reported six intelligence chiefs warned US residents not to purchase devices from either Huawei or ZTE due to alleged close ties to the country's government.

Now, it seems the FCC will be following those officials' lead. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal last week, the FCC was considering rolling out a plan to dissuade US wireless providers from acquiring equipment made and sold by companies like Huawei and ZTE.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai issued a statement today seemingly confirming The Wall Street Journal's findings, though he did not name Huawei and ZTE specifically. The following statement excerpt offers a few details on Pai's proposal:

Specifically, the draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, if adopted, would propose to bar the use of money from the FCCs Universal Service Fund to purchase equipment or services from companies that pose a national security threat to United States communications networks or the communications supply chain.

"Threats to national security posed by certain communications equipment providers are a matter of bipartisan concern," Pai said in a statement. "Hidden back doors to our networks in routers, switchesand virtually any other type of telecommunications equipmentcan provide an avenue for hostile governments to inject viruses, launch denial-of-service attacks, steal data, and more."

Pai recognizes, however, that the FCC's efforts are but one small part of a bigger picture - they won't be able to stop Chinese companies from allegedly jeopardizing the US' national security alone. However, Pai believes the upcoming proposal is an important first step in the right direction.

"The money in the Universal Service Fund comes from fees paid by the American people, and I believe that the FCC has the responsibility to ensure that this money is not spent on equipment or services that pose a threat to national security," Pai adds. The vote on these new restrictions is expected to take place on April 17.A former deputy Minister of Interior, Mr James Agalga has suggested that the United States of America (USA) can exploit clauses in the Ghana-US defence cooperation agreement to ship nuclear weapons to Ghana.



Speaking on Joy FM's news analysis programme, Newsfile on Saturday, Mr Agalga said such destructive weapons could be used to attack the country or launched by United States forces from Ghana to attack other countries.



Parliament on Friday approved the agreement.



As part of the agreement, the US government will be spending $20 million in training and supplying equipment for the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), the US Embassy in Ghana has said.



Mr Agalga who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa North constituency in Upper East explained that one of the reasons for the vehement opposition to the agreement by the Minority in Parliament is the fact that certain clauses give the US unimpeded access to Ghanas installations which could be to the detriment of the country.



According to him, Article 7 of the new agreement which is in relation to pre-positioning and storage of equipment, supplies and material indicates that: The United States Forces are hereby authorised to preposition and store defence equipment, supplies and materiale at agreed facilities and areas. Reposition materiale of United States Forces and the agreed facilities and areas or portions thereof designated for storage of such preposition materiale shall be for the exclusive use of United States Forces. United States Forces shall retain title to and control over the use of preposition materiale and shall have the right to remove such item from the territory of Ghana.



He explained that the materiale has not been defined in this agreement even though there is an interpretation article and the big danger is that what we have done [approval] could allow the Americans to bring into this country nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and you know the dangers associated with thatYou know what is happening in Syria with chemical weapons.



Mr Agalga was emphatic that the government cannot go into an agreement that has terminology that you know next to nothing about and I interrogated the Generals who appeared before us and nobody has a clue, including the Honorable Minister, regarding the exact meaning of materiale, so, this is a fundamental difference between this and the previous agreement that we went into.



He insisted Ghana can be used as a launch pad to invade other countries or governments in this country could even be toppled [and] we have seen that happen elsewhere.



In all truth and sincerity, you know what happened in Cote dIvoire? The French military based in Abidjan overthrew a sitting government. So, today, things could be rosy but think about tomorrow.



That is why the Minority thinks taking all these into consideration our sovereignty is at stake here, he stated.

Source: Graphic.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"They kidnapped Alex Saab and have done everything possible to destroy the CLAPs, which is the food of the people," the head of state said. | Read MoreThailand started restructuring its labour migration policy in 2014 to regulate the 3.8 million migrant workers that have fuelled its export sector for decades, following criticism over human trafficking, forced labour and other abuses.

The country is currently in the process of legalizing all migrant workers, by encouraging them and their employers to undergo the proper registration process, which also involves nationality verification.

Out of about 3.8 million foreign workers working in Thailand, more than two million entered the workforce legally, while the remaining workers are waiting for completion of their national verification process.

The Labour Ministry started the registration of migrant workers on February 5 with a deadline to be completed by March 31. The registration enables migrant workers who have not come to Thailand under MoU (memorandum of understanding) to legally register for two-year work permits.

3.8 million foreign workers are working in Thailand

The Labour Ministrys One Stop Service (OSS) centres are now processing migrant workers from three neighbouring countries more quickly to meet the governments March 31 deadline for all of them to be registered.

During a trip organized by the Thailands PRD, the foreign press was invited to visit the Samut Sakhon OSS.

There is a massive influx migrant workers in Samut Sakhon and we were the first one stop Center to open four years ago. Samut Sakhon is also known as Myanmar city because a lot of Burmese work there in the fishing industry.

said the Director of the OSS Immigration Center

In January, Human Rights Watch released a report saying that forced labour and other rights abuses remained widespread in the Thai fishing industry despite the government reforms.

The foreign ministry rejected the report, accusing it of intentionally overlooking the numerous steps the government has taken towards the promotion and protection of human rights.

Why does the government has to register every migrant workers ? Migrant workers are an important part in Thailand economic growth. We also need to set up an official register process to fight illegal human trafficking especially in Fishery. Our goal is to set a proper legal process of entering the country to fight human trafficking.

said Mr. Sombat Nivesrat, Deputy Director General of the DOE (Department of Employment).

The registration process includes a medical check-up with a blood test, blood pressure test, urine screening and lung X-ray.

After completing the registration process, migrants are provided a pink ID card and a two year work permit allowing them to work legally in Thailand.

They are also entitled to receive basic social security and health-care and to be paid according to minimum wage regulation on the same level as Thai workers which is 325 bahts per day in the Samut Sakhon province (about $10.5).

Thailand has also been using Iris scanning technology to capture data in order to track identities of migrant workers because after several years working in the fisheries fingerprints were no longer reliable.

The scans have been especially important in documenting fisheries industry workers with 160,000 so far scanned and about 2,600 left to be documented.

The European Union has recently commended the Thai government for its management of foreign laborers, noting significant progress in their registration.

The EU envoy lauded the government for its latest legislation concerning foreign workers and for its efforts to register all migrant laborers in the Kingdom.

The centre is now treating the migrant documentation process focusing on two groups.

Migrant workers who have already had their nationalities verified must report to a centre to receive a visa to remain in the country until March 31, 2020, and a temporary work permit valid until June 30 this year.

They must also undergo a health check to register for a formal work permit valid until March 31, 2020.

The other group entails those whose nationality has not yet been verified. They must complete processing by March 31 so that verification is done by June 30. They would then be allowed to stay and work in Thailand until March 31, 2020.There has been a plethora of public debate about the international competitiveness of Australian businesses, as the Coalition government struggles to get its signature policy of company tax cuts through a hesitant Senate. However, there has been a lack of public debate about the leniency, by international standards, of Australias sanctions against companies that breach cartel laws and/or defraud consumers.

That imbalance could be offset by the financial services royal commission, which in its initial weeks has heard a litany of egregious malfeasance. But a fresh report from the respected Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reveals Australias corporate fines are so low they fail to be effective punishments, let alone a deterrent.

Credit:Sasha Woolley

There are signs this nations corporate watchdogs want to be unleashed. The Australian Securities and Investment Commissions new chief, James Shipton, has made it clear he intends to go harder on white-collar crime. This is welcome. The Age has long chastised ASIC for being ineffectual, one of the contributing factors to the need for the royal commission.

And now the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission looks like it is going to be more punitive when prosecuting corporate wrongdoing. ACCC chairman Rod Sims is using the OECD report to signal he is coming after fraudulent and manipulative behaviour by closing the gap between Australias sanctions and those in other industrialised nations.A whistleblower who worked at a Woolworths-owned pub has described how staff meetings were held to discuss how to encourage a grieving woman nicknamed Queen Bee by management to put her inheritance into poker machines after the loss of her parents.

The woman had previously worked in a professional job, but began to gamble heavily while on workers compensation after the death of her parents, the staff members said.

The allegation is one of several made by two staff members who worked at different pubs owned by Woolworths pub subsidiary, ALH.

We basically had a staff meeting straight out saying  When she comes in, day or night or whatever, just treat her like Queen Bee. Like she will get this, that, free drinks, free food. They kept her there. If the music was not to her liking, in the gaming room, bang bang bang. We would go there and change the music back to hers, one of the woman told a staff member of the anti-pokies campaigner and MP Andrew Wilkie in video-recorded interviews.

Anything she said, complained about, or wanted, she got. It was always to her liking, always. And even if she was wrong, she was right.A Ghanaian born Switzerland base artist 2Tweny has released another single Stamma off his yet to release album.



2Tweny born Michael Larbi is making waves in Switzerland where he double as a disk jockey (DJ) in highly celebrated popular night clubs in Switzerland and Austria.



His first single Dance Floor 3D received massive air play in Switzerland and was listed among the top 5 most downloaded songs in December last year.



2Tweny latest single which was produced by Fimfim is currently the number Afro-Dancehall genre hit track in Switzerland and is expected to make a huge wave in Ghana soon.



He is currently shooting a video to his banger in Ghana.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoThe growing recognition of Australian female writers has been measured in two book industry firsts  their dominance of the nation's biggest annual readers' poll and Australia's independent booksellers naming a bestselling children's fantasy book as the 2018 book of the year.

Nevermoor: The trials of Morrigan Crow, the debut work by Queenslander Jessica Townsend, has become the first children's book to be named overall winner in the 10-year history of the Australian Independent Booksellers' Award.

Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend wins Australian independent booksellers\' book of the year. Credit:Emma Naylor

Townsend's Nevermoor beat category winners The Choke by Sofie Laguna Saga Land by Richard Fidler and Kari Gislason, Wimmera by Mark Brandi, Wilder Country by Mark Smith and Native: Art & Design with Australian Plants by Kate Herd and Jela Ivankovic-Waters.

The first national literary honours of the award's season, the Indies are often regarded as a reliable guide to the books that go on to become contenders for other prizes. Past winners include The Dry by Jane Harper, The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood, The

Bush by Don Watson and The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.Elsa Pataky, the real-life partner of Thor himself Chris Hemsworth, will play Adrielle Cuthbert, the "darkly enigmatic and keenly intelligent leader" of the Tidelanders.

Charlotte Best, best known as Home and Away's Annie Campbell, will lead the show as Cal McTeer, a young woman who returns home after ten years in juvenile detention to find her hometown is overrun by mysterious outcasts known as Tidelanders.

Netflix has revealed the stars of Tidelands, the streaming giant's upcoming first original Australian production.

Aaron Jakubenko (The Shannara Chronicles), Peter O'Brien (Underbelly), Mattias Inwood (Will) and Madeleine Madden (Redfern Now) will also star.

The supernatural crime drama will feature eight 50-minute episodes, written by Stephen M. Irwin (Secrets & Lies) and directed by Toa Fraser (Marvel's Daredevil).

Home and Away star Charlotte Best will lead the cast of Netflix's Tidelands.

Produced by Netflix and Brisbane's Hoodlum, it starts production in south-east Queensland on Monday.

First announced by Netflix last May, the series is the first original local production for the streaming giant, which has faced endless questions about its committment to local content since launching in 2015."Breaches of safety and security pose a genuine risk, not only to the individual, but to the university," the tender said.

Publicly the ANU's response has focused on student safety. But background notes prepared for consultants make clear the institution's concerns that student demand, residence tenancy numbers and staff recruitment could suffer should the university "gain a reputation as providing an unsafe environment".

The university was last year revealed as one of the nation's worst for sexual violence in a survey of students released by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Tender documents released ahead of a review into the Australian National University's student residences reveal the institution's fears that attention on sexual assault and harassment could hurt its reputation and finances.

"Students subject to acts of violence or aggression are at risk of academic failure, or of dropping out of their degree program. This impacts on the academic reputation of the university but also on revenue ... where a student fails to complete his or her program."

" ... [potential impacts include] student demand may fall, resulting in a drop in student revenue and a decline in the quality on enrolling students; difficulty in filling the student residences, noting that the university has a high proportion of students in residence on campus; and difficulty in recruiting staff."

ANU pro vice-chancellor for university experience Richard Baker said student safety was at the forefront of the university's response to the Change the Course report and pointed to the review's nine draft terms of reference, which focus on residences' culture, alcohol abuse and existing education and intervention strategies.

"Our focus is always on the safety of students and that's the foremost thing driving us in this regard, but we have an obligation when we're drawing up contracts to be explicit about all the possible risks and threats to the university and that's obviously one, so we can't pretend that's not an issue," Professor Baker said.

"Our focus has always been on trying to stop incidents occurring and then to respond as quickly and as most appropriately as possible when incidents do occur so we always have those two focuses on what we do."The mother of a teenage boy who had a brain bleed and was sent home by Calvary Hospital in February says she has lost faith in the ACT health system.

Jocelyn Askew's son, Patrick, fell off his skateboard at high speed, hitting his arm and head on February 19. He was treated for a broken wrist and sent home without being checked for head injuries, Ms Askew said.

Jocelyn Askew and her son Patrick, who had a brain bleed and was sent home by Calvary Hospital, and daughter Kelsey. Credit:Jamila Toderas

It is one of two cases the hospital has confirmed it has recently reviewed in which a brain bleed or aneurysm was possibly missed.

Ms Askew said following the incident she contacted minister for health Meegan Fitzharris' office seven times over the space of a month to get answers.As for the scandals  where to start? UN peacekeepers caused a cholera epidemic in Haiti that so far has taken 10,000 lives. Yet it took UN headquarters six years to acknowledge responsibility. An Associated Press investigation found nearly 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and other personnel around the world over a 12-year period, including 300 allegations involving children. But only a fraction of the alleged perpetrators served jail time.

My question is: Why is the remark even controversial? The UN is a never-ending scandal disguised as an everlasting hope. The hope is that dialogue can overcome distrust and collective security can be made to work in the interests of humanity. Reality says otherwise. Trust is established by deeds, not words. Collective security is a recipe for international paralysis or worse. Just ask the people of Aleppo.

In 1994, John Bolton said that if the UN Secretariat building in New York lost 10 storeys, it wouldnt make a bit of difference. The quote makes an appearance nearly every time Boltons critics compile a hit parade of his alleged infamies.

John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, is the new US national security advisor. Credit:Bloomberg

In Rwanda in 1994, UN peacekeepers all but abandoned the country at the outset of genocide that took at least 500,000 lives. In Bosnia in 1995, UN peacekeepers stepped aside in Srebrenica and allowed more than 7,000 men and boys to be killed and countless women raped. Its a similar story in Sri Lanka in 2009 and South Sudan in 2016.

And then there are comparatively lesser scandals. Like Oil for Food, the multibillion-dollar program intended to feed hungry Iraqi children and used by Saddam Hussein in a kickback scheme involving a rogues gallery of international enablers. Or the use of UN schools in Gaza to store weapons aimed at Israel. Or the 2016 admission by a UN oversight body that some UN agencies continue to remain in a state of near denial with regard to fraud.

Confronted with the record of failure, UN defenders typically deflect and demand: the former, by pointing to the bad behavior of individual states as the cause of UN failures; the latter, by insisting that the UNs core problem is a dearth of financial resources and legal authorities.

The arguments arent baseless. More permissive rules of engagement might have helped prevent some atrocities. Less obstructive behaviour by Security Council members might have prevented others. But theyre also misleading. Contrary to the belief that the UN runs on a shoestring, the total expenditure for the UN system in 2016 was around $Us49 billion. Thats up 22 percent since 2010. And the abuse of the UN system by states such as Russia to protect clients like Bashar Assad is a feature of the system, not a bug.Tech giant Microsoft is continuing its aggressive pitch for more government business, announcing that it will offer subsidised training in its cloud technology to 5000 public servants.

Along with training companies DDLS, New Horizons and Advanced Training, Microsoft has developed specialised cloud computing courses at different levels, with the company saying they are designed to line up with the government's Secure Cloud Strategy.

Some 800 public service employees are expected to take part in the training in the next four months, with 5000 people in the public sector set to go through a Microsoft course by 2020.

Microsoft Australia managing director Steven Worrall said that while the government had not asked Microsoft to develop the courses specifically, they were developed in response to the government's strategy document, which was released in February.

"We've responded to the extent that we've always viewed that it's a collaboration between government and industry that's going to be the most effective way forward, which is why this announcement today is very much part of a sequence of announcements we've made."A mentally ill woman likely gripped a knife because she was afraid and confused when police shot her dead outside a Hungry Jack's in Sydney's west, a psychiatrist told an inquest.

Dr Kerri Eagle said Courtney Topic, 22, showed signs of "a severe episode of psychosis" when she was gunned down 41 seconds after police arrived near a West Hoxton intersection.

Ms Topic died from a single bullet to the chest after three police officers surrounded her with their weapons drawn as she ignored their demands to drop the knife on February 10, 2015.

Dr Eagle told the NSW Coroner's Court on Monday Ms Topic's medical records and behaviour in the lead-up to the shooting indicated she had schizophrenia and had been psychotic.A cyclist has died after a crash in Paddington on Tuesday morning.

In a bizarre and tragic set of circumstances, emergency services were already at the scene attending to an earlier crash nearby when the fatal incident occurred.

Police and ambulance crews had been called to Moore Park Road near Lang Road about 6.50am to reports of a two-vehicle crash.

While treating the drivers of the vehicles for minor injuries, there was a second crash just metres from the first.Colombia Hoy



Para nunca olvidar



Paginas vistas en total

'Parasite' painted on a statue of Queen, Elizabeth in Kent, England



Sin palabras



La UE le apunta a la paz



Cada vez mas solo



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LULA y su Pueblo



Bye Bye



Homenaje al genial Quino



Fueron ellos



Una imagen que resume



Tan bajo ha caido que se deja tocar el trasero?



Porky y el Nene (archiconocido narcotraficante)



Ladrones al poder



Asi mira el perrito a su amo



Crazy



Clamor popular



La nueva inquisicion



Bolivia



Chile Hoy



Eso es todo amigos!



Piensalo!



Pinerachet



No More Trump



Adios Macri, hasta nunca



La Marioneta se desinfla



Asi o mas cinico



Almugre



Mexico en 1794



Mas arrastrado imposible



Hasta cuando!



La pura verdad



Solidaridad con Palestina



Serie Capitalismo



Espejismos de la clase trabajadora



Asi es!



Comerciantes o delincuentes



No pasaran!



Asi es la vida



USA HOY



01/01/1959



La avaricia no tiene limites



AYUDA HUMANITARIA?



Chile Hoy



Asi son las cosas



Mapa Electoral de Venezuela



Patagonia argentina?



Un aniversario mas del mayor genocidio de la Humanidad



Retrato del franquismo en Espana



Visca Catalunya!



El Chulo de Madrid



Cuando la policia se roba la democracia



Una imagen dice mas que mil palabras



La purita verdad



Asi gobierna la maldita burguesia



Mi pobre clase media



Como Chavez nadie



Comparte La Colmena via twitter Twittear

Programa de la MUD



Asi o mas clarito



Por que Trump no ataco Corea del Norte?



Hace 15 anos Por que la OEA no se pronuncio?



Una verguenza nacional



La luz que nos guia



La Union Europea Premio Nobel de la Paz?



Feudalismo ayer y hoy



Obama, el mentiroso



Curiosa coincidencia



Un mundo de cerdos



No es extrano?



La Marioneta



Los ricos protestan, los pobres celebran



MARICORI Y OBAMA



Cuantas muertes este ano?



USA TODAY



USA HOY 6



USA HOY 5



USA HOY 4



USA HOY 3



USA HOY 2



USA HOY (1)



Insaciable



Cronologia de un agresor



Guarimbear en USA



Mexico hoy



Bolivar y Chavez



Primero Amargado



Dios los cria y ellos se juntan



USA hoy (III)



USA hoy (II)



USA hoy



Mexico hoy



Mexico hoy



Mexico hoy



Obama



La verdad sea dicha



Los ricos



Que no nos vea Obama



Pobre Obama



SOS PALESTINA



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LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares?



























Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano...



Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos:



Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias.



Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera.



No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje.



En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio.



Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida.



Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella.



Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal.



Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista.



Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen.



Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che?



Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio.



Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora.



Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo.



Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo.



Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania.



No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar.



Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga.





Alguna duda?



Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino



Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia.



OZ1



OZ2



OZ3



OZ4



Homenaje a Jason Galarraga



La Victoria de Samotracia



Odalisca



Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008



























La Sierra Nevada de Merida



Nuestro precioso Churum Meru



Homenaje a Picasso



Autoretrato



Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola?

La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.

Mi profesion?

Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.

Sal en la Coca Cola?

A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.

De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:

Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto

Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)

azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)

Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas

Mucha Cafeina

Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio

Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe

Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion

El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.

Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.

Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.

En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).

Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.

La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.

Bebidas Light?

Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el

Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.



Publicado por loretahur



En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur

MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina:

1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias.

2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina.

3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard.

4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos.

5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla.

6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos.

Ahora... sobre la margarina:

1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) .

2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias.

3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno).

4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer.

5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna.

6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo.

7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina.

Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas:

* No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo).

* No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!!



No a la guerra, Si a la Paz



Misterios de la ciencia...



Los costos de la guerra



medicos y capitalismo...



Capitalismo...



medicos (2)



Quien educa a nuestros hijos?



Los Medios...



Sin Palabras...



Chistes feministas

- Cual es el problema, Eva?

- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz...

- Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.

- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...

- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.

- Que es un hombre?

- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.

- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.

- Cual es el truco?.

- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.

- Cual?

- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.





Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Ellas...



Ellas (2)...



Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1

Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije:

-Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro.

Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria.

Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre?

-Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa!



VENGANZA NUMERO 2

Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris.

A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita:

- Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!!

Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta.

La mujer paso quince dias en Francia.

El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla.

Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es:

- Y amor me trajiste mi francesita??

- Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina.



VENGANZA NUMERO 3

El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion.

- No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo.

- Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz.

Te quiero confesar algo.

- Esta bien, esta bien. Habla!

- He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga.

- Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!!



machismo y cibernetica



Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston.

-Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide.

-Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!.



.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.

Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos.

Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco.

Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas



Gol !!!!



Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso!



Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy!

The "30-minute city" where residents can get to major job hubs and key services within half an hour remains out of reach for most of Sydneys population.

A new 30-minute Index for Sydney which ranks the city's best connected localities is dominated by neighbourhoods in and around the CBD although the south-western suburbs of Kogarah, Lakemba and Liverpool were ranked among the city's 50 most accessible areas.

The index ranks suburbs according to accessibility to jobs, shops, hospitals and schools to show which areas "make the best '30-minute neighbourhoods'".

The map below shows how neighbourhoods across Greater Sydney were ranked:A driver, who allegedly fled the scene of a fiery crash in Blacktown that left one man in a critical condition, has been charged.

Police allege a Honda Civic drove over a raised concrete median onto the wrong side of Bungarribee Road before it crashed into a power pole and caught alight about 3.30am on Sunday.

When police from Bankstown Police Area Command arrived, they found three men with serious injuries. They had been pulled from the car by members of the public.

The injured men - aged 18, 19 and 21 - were taken to Westmead Hospital.Danica Leys is appalled by the banner that hangs above the Country Womens Associations tea room at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

It depicts a plate of scones, cut in half, spread with cream and topped with jam.

#jamfirst, she said, laughing. Were going to blame the [Royal Agricultural Society] for that one. Throw them under the bus because were all about jam first.

CWA volunteer Dianne Innes puts a tray of scones into the oven to cook for 16 minutes in the kitchen of the CWA tea room at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The majority of customers at the CWA tea room on Monday were daubing jam on their scones before adding a dollop of cream.The vexed question of who can access social media and other digital accounts after a person's death will be the subject of a comprehensive review in NSW, as Attorney-General Mark Speakman flags an overhaul of a broad sweep of laws including wills and estates and privacy law.

Social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, along with a range of other digital accounts, are likely to outlive their owners but laws governing access to the accounts after death or incapacitation are unworkably complex.

In an Australian first, the NSW government has commissioned a review of laws governing access to social media and digital accounts after death or incapacitation. Credit:Michael Mucci

In an Australian first, Mr Speakman has asked the NSW Law Reform Commission to review existing laws, including a comparison with developments in the US and Canada, and make recommendations for reform.

Mr Speakman said "an unprecedented amount of work and socialising" now occurred online but "few of us consider what happens to our digital assets once were gone or are no

longer able to make decisions".Cairns and Port Douglas are mopping up after torrential rain from ex-cyclone Nora caused flash flooding in Queensland's far north.

Low lying parts of Cairns have flooded and in the tourist town of Port Douglas water has crept up to the doors of some holiday apartments.

The aftermath of Cyclone Nora in Pormpuraww, on the western Cape York Peninsula.

Landslides and debris also closed roads in the region, including the Captain Cook Highway north of Cairns.

Hundreds of kilometres to the west, remote communities on Cape York Peninsula's western coast were also cleaning up after Nora made landfall as a category three storm early on Sunday.Australia's defamation laws were built for a different age.

The last comprehensive national review of defamation laws was in 1979, almost 30 years before Facebook was launched in February 2004 and the first tweet was sent in March 2006.

The laws are increasingly unworkable and in desperate need of overhaul as slurs on social media and other digital platforms take off as a growing source of defamation claims.

Defamation cases brought by celebrities and public figures, such as Rebel Wilson, do not account for the bulk of cases. Credit:Penny Stephens

A five-year review of Australian defamation cases covering the years 2013-17, released this month by the Centre for Media Transition at the University of Technology, Sydney, found 51.3 per cent of the 189 cases involved digital publications such as tweets, emails, Facebook posts and news websites.Health authorities suspect five adults and a very young baby who were collecting their luggage from a carousel at Melbourne Airports international baggage area three weeks ago also picked up a dose of measles from an infected fellow passenger.

The man believed to have infected the others, an Australian in his 40s, became unwell on AirAsia flight D7214, which arrived in Melbourne at about 9.30am on March 7.

While the man went straight to hospital, according to the Victorian health department, it is now believed that a number of people became infected while in the airport's baggage collection area that day, between 9.30am and midday.

The new cases include a baby too young to be immunised (the first measles vaccine is not given until 12 months in Australia) and five adults between 20 and 60.Aged-care residents and students from three schools are being relocated as peat fires continue to emit toxic smoke in south-western Victoria.

Several peat bogs caught fire in the St Patrick's day fires near Cobden, east of Warrnambool. They've now been burning for more than a week, creating a carbon monoxide poisoning risk for people in the area.

Cobden Primary, Cobden Tech and Hampden Specialist schools will relocate students to nearby Camperdown and Terang for the last week of term, ahead of a predicted wind change increasing the noxious gas threat.

Cobden Primary principal Peter Lee said the move was disruptive but necessary given the health risks involved. Ten per cent of students had asthma and others families had already lost homes and property in the bushfires.Loading "For us, every day is a waiting game really, to know what the impacts are going to be," she said. Cr Beard said she held concerns about the long-term health effects of the smoke on locals and urged all those who had been exposed to it to seek treatment in Terang, where an emergency relief centre had been established. "I know that a lot of farmers in that area have had to go back to milk cows and such, against the advice of medical experts," she said. "These people need to get back to their livelihood ... and farming is their livelihood."

Farmers in the area have essentially faced three emergency events in one. Last Saturday's fire was whipped up by strong winds which caused significant damage, before the fires ripped through leaving many farmers not only homeless but without farming equipment, fences, sheds and food for their surviving livestock. Cr Beard said she was concerned the hazardous smoke could be a last straw for farmers. "The community is doing it tough already, they're going through enough and now this is ongoing," she said.

"It is a real concern, it's a worrying time for everybody." Irrewarra farmer and Country Fire Authority captain John Martin said the fires had been the most destructive for the agricultural community in the south-west since the 1983 Ash Wednesday fire. Mr Martin travelled the 50 kilometres from his farm to visit friends affected in the Cobrico area on Saturday when he captured footage of the peat fire. You see no flames, just smouldering and smoke, incredible amounts of smoke, he said. The lake bed is smouldering ... the surface of the swamp is white hot, like white ash.

The 35-year veteran of the CFA said he suspected firefighters would be able to do little to put out the pear fire. My gut feeling is it will be left for nature to take its course and it will require significant rainfall, he said. The farmer and firefighter said the peat lakes would need to flood to douse the flames, something which could take three months of rain in a good year. If we have a dry winter  that thing could easily be going next summer, he said. In the meantime he said affected farmers would require tremendous support.

Theyre trying to rebuild a lifetime of infrastructure, he said. But the dairy and cattle farmer said rural communities were already rallying to support those in need. "There's been people getting up at the crack of dawn to milk their own cows and then driving down to help out complete strangers," he said. Health authorities say people with lung and heart conditions, children aged under 14, people aged over 65 and pregnant women should stay indoors when there was peat smoke about. Windows should be shut, airconditioners should be put on a recycle mode and people in the risk groups should not exert themselves.Police have seized massive amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine during raids on a Perth hotel room and an apartment last week.

Detectives from the National Anti-Gang Squad (NAGS) have charged two people over the drug seizure, which was uncovered last Monday.

More than seven kilograms of meth and more than a kilo of cocaine was found.

Australian Federal Police and WA Police make up the NAGS. Credit:AFP Media

The drugs were discovered as part of the final phase of an anti drug operation inside an apartment and a hotel room in Perth.Here is what you should know if you are planning to dispute parenting or argue about property in this country. Use mediation. The court system meant to deal with your devastating problems is in chaos  better to keep well away from it and keep your money for setting up your separate households.

We usually attribute the Family Court's ambient misery to work it does - dealing with devastated people whose relationships have unravelled, who can't or don't want to respond to mediation. The sacking of beloved West Australian judge Stephen Thackray, from his position as unofficial head of the court's appeals, has unleashed bickering previously unseen among the judges in the Family Court; and a flurry of emails ensued, accusing other judges of being bullies. Even the Law Council of Australia has pitched in.

Chaos in the courts means mediation is a better option for divorcing couples. Credit:Shutter Stock

This turmoil is the responsibility of successive governments who have refused to fund the court according to its needs or legislate to improve the process. In comparison with 2010, there now appear to be three fewer Family Court judges. Of the 28 who appear on the list, only 20 hear new cases. The rest deal with endless appeals from families in crisis. In October last year, the sun set on the only regulation which spelt out the appropriate number of judges the Family Court should have  54. Now there is no requirement for a particular staffing level. As Justice Thackray said In his speech at his last sitting on the Appeal Division of the Family Court, "There are simply not enough judges and registrars and those judges we do have are either not replaced or replaced after inordinate delay."

The court needs more money. Make that plural  the courts need more money. A quick survey of how parenting and property disputes in family law are resolved in Australia will reveal one surprising number. It is not the Family Court of Australia, nor its cousin the Family Court of Western Australia, which deals with most family law matters. Instead, it's the Federal Circuit Court, once run by magistrates and now by judges, who are not necessarily specialists in family law, which deals with 87 per cent of all family law work filed at a federal level.The Barr government has quietly shelved a 2016 election pledge for a new community-driven master plan for the Manuka Oval precinct until at least the start of next year, as concerns grow about a potential major development next to the oval.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr pledged to develop the plan, to be advised by a panel of community representatives, in the wake of failed GWS-Grocon bid to develop the oval, weeks out from the October 2016 election.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr quietly shelved a 2016 election promise for a master plan for Manuka Oval until at least 2019. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos

At the time of the killing of the unsolicited bid, Mr Barr said the panel would determine the new master plan and that he received a "clear message from the community" for a "desire to be more involved in the future of the oval and its surroundings".

But since then, the government has quietly shelved the plans, to be revisited once its planned multimillion-dollar media centre is built, which is not expected to be complete until January 2019.Labor has buckled to pressure in the political row over its $59 billion revenue grab on dividend payments, staging a sudden retreat to exempt all Australians on the age pension from a policy it unveiled just two weeks ago.

Bill Shorten will vow to exclude 306,000 pensioners from his original plan in a bid to calm the storm over the impact on retirees who stand to lose tax refunds worth thousands of dollars a year.

The dramatic backdown comes after sharp criticism of the Opposition Leader for announcing the original policy without allowing for the harm to older Australians on low incomes, which has raised doubts about his political judgement.

The Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and shadow treasurer Chris Bowen. Credit:Louie Douvis

The revised policy, cleared by the Labor shadow cabinet on Monday afternoon, offers a complete exemption for 277,000 Australians on the full or part pension as well as another 29,000 people on allowances such as war widows pensions.Greens Senator Andrew Bartlett has been preselected as the party's federal candidate for Brisbane, opening up the possibility of Larissa Waters returning to the Senate.

Mr Bartlett won preselection against Kirsten Lovejoy - who has run for state, federal and council elections - and human rights lawyer Benedict Coyne late last week, with the decision ratified by the campaign committee at the weekend.

Senator Andrew Bartlett has won preselection in the federal seat of Brisbane for the Greens. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Bartlett replaced Ms Waters in the Senate in November after she resigned, following revelations she was a dual citizen.

Anti-Adani activist Ben Pennings has also challenged Ms Waters for the Senate spot, with pre-selection closing on Thursday.Brussels: The European Union harbours "grave suspicions" about the dominance of Google and has not ruled out breaking it up, the bloc's competition commissioner has warned.

Margrethe Vestager told The Daily Telegraph that the threat to split the internet giant up into smaller companies must be kept open.

In June last year, the Danish commissioner hit Google with a record 2.1 billion fine - which the firm is appealing against - for giving its own comparison shopping service an illegal advantage in search results.

Google logo at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California. Credit:AP

Google now faces two other separate cases. Mrs Vestager admitted her officials had "grave suspicions" about the firm, which has a 91.5 per cent share of the search engine market in Europe.LAS VEGAS, March 25, 2018; The American International Automobile Dealers Association (AIADA) today announced that Salt Lake City, Utah, dealer Brad Strong will serve as its 2018 chairman. Strong, who is the co-dealer principal of Strong Volkswagen, Audi Salt Lake City, and Porsche Salt Lake City, took over the position in February of this year, but was recognized at AIADA's 48th Annual Meeting and Luncheon, held today in Las Vegas. During his remarks, he emphasized the role dealers like him play in the U.S. economy and what dealers must do to defend their businesses.

"We need to work with AIADA to hold congressional visits at our dealerships where we can share our investment numbers and our employment stats. That's the best shot we have at convincing lawmakers that trade wars aren't abstract fights between nations and political parties. Trade wars have real consequences, and unfortunately for us, they can have real casualties," Strong said.

Strong is a third-generation dealer. With his brother, Blake, he runs a stable of dealerships in Salt Lake City that have been in operation since the 1940s. Last year, they opened a new downtown Volkswagen store. Strong is an active member of the auto retail industry, having served on AIADA's Board of Directors since 2009, and is taking on the role of chairman as international nameplate dealers are facing new trade and tariff policies that stand to impact the price of the vehicles they sell to millions of American customers.

"Washington has no sense of how price sensitive this industry is, and just how easily their tax and tariff schemes could send annual auto sales into a tailspin, costing thousands of jobs," Strong said.

Serving alongside Strong in leadership positions on the AIADA Board of Directors are Paul Ritchie, Immediate Past Chairman (Hagerstown, M.D.); Howard Hakes, Chairman-Elect (City of Industry, Calif.); Jason Courter, Vice-Chairman (Bellevue, Wash.); and Steve Gates, Secretary/Treasurer (Richmond, Ky.).

Also during its Annual Meeting, AIADA presented Chicago dealer Mike McGrath with the 2018 David F. Mungenast Sr. Lifetime Achievement Award. For more about AIADA, visit AIADA.org.Ford Motor Companys U.S. Dealers Gave More Than $110 Million To Charitable Causes In 2017

Six dealers from around the world are being honored for exceptional community service as part of the companys annual Salute to Dealers awards

LAS VEGAS - March 26, 2018: Ford dealers in the United States contributed more than $110 million and 50,000 hours to charitable causes and nonprofits in 2017  according to Ford Motor Companys annual survey on dealer giving. The survey coincides with the 18th annual Salute to Dealers awards being held at the 2018 National Automobile Dealers Association Convention and Expo in Las Vegas.

Ford launched its Salute to Dealers awards program in 2001 to demonstrate a commitment to its thousands of dealer owners who step beyond their showroom doors to make a difference in their communities. The generosity of dealers participating in the survey reflects Ford Motor Companys commitment to community and sets Ford and Ford dealers apart from the competition.

More than 90 percent of dealers said their teams give both time and money to local causes, according to the annual dealer giving survey. Most say they are driven to make a difference in their communities because giving is a part of their dealership tradition.

Ford dealers are the best in the world, said Edsel B. Ford II, who chairs the Salute to Dealers awards program and serves on the companys board of directors. Their level of commitment to bettering the communities in which they operate is not only commendable, it also helps to strengthen the Ford and Lincoln brands in communities across the world.

Contributions to police, firefighter and other first responder initiatives topped the list last year, with 17 percent of dealers reporting giving to those causes. Dealer donations to childrens causes totaled 13 percent, while contributions to educational programs and scholarships also totaled 13 percent; 10 percent reported giving to veterans causes.

This year, Edsel B. Ford II and four other judges selected six winners from a total global field of more than 60 nominees from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Europe, Asia Pacific, Mexico, Africa and the Middle East regions. As part of the awards program, Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services is donating $10,000 to a charity of the dealers choice.

A painted portrait of each honoree features a montage of the philanthropic and volunteer activities that led to the award. Duplicates of the portraits will join a Salute to Dealers display in the lobby of Ford World Headquarters.

Ford Motor Companys 2017 awards recognize the following dealers for their unparalleled generosity and commitment to their communities:

Charlie Diers, Diers Ford Lincoln, Fremont, Nebraska

Quietly, Charlie Diers has consistently given back to his community for decades. His outreach extends to St. Patricks Catholic Church and Archbishop Bergan School with the donation of 20 acres of family farmland for one of Nebraskas largest Catholic churches. He was a lead donor and fundraiser for building the church and adjacent new elementary school.

Additional land surrounding the church is being developed as part of a long-term plan to help grow Fremont. Along with his wife Mary Lou, Diers has donated a new vehicle for the past 47 years to the annual St. Patricks Fun Festival, raising more than $1 million. Through the Diers involvement in the Archdiocese of Omaha, hundreds of educators have been rewarded with grants and significant dollars have been raised for low-income students to attend Catholic schools.

The Diers have established endowed scholarships at three major universities in the region, demonstrating their unwavering commitment to education. Through Fords test drive programs, the dealership has completed more than 5,000 drives for area schools and charities.

Diers leadership and impact on his community is unparalleled and inspiring. Im a farm kid who learned early that its not work when youre doing something you enjoy, he said. From sitting on my grandfathers lap steering a Model A to driving one down Main Street in a parade in my hometown, Ive found joy in this business. One of the most remarkable parts has been what its enabled us to do in the community.

Dan Hay, Jim Burke Ford, Bakersfield, California

Dan and Michele Hay believe in the spirit of generosity, promoting the concept of service over self and encouraging civic responsibility. In 1975 they started a youth leadership program called Ford Dimension. In gratitude, alumni of the program established the Jim Burke Education Foundation.

The foundation provides opportunities for students to excel through grants, scholarships and the Ford Dream Builders program. It accepts 32 high school seniors into a yearlong class that provides career and leadership training through student-led projects designed to improve the lives of people in the community, while tackling issues such as bullying, literacy, human trafficking and college attainment.

Jim Burke Ford employees are champions of philanthropy. Each year they vote on a company charity, then support it through fundraisers and volunteering, consistently donating more than $10,000 annually. The Boys & Girls Club of Kern County was the lucky recipient last year.

The Hay family is engaged in providing financial and board level support for local hospitals, schools, the state university and Boy Scouts programs.

Don Jenkins, Jenkins and Wynne Ford Lincoln, Clarksville, Tennessee

Don Jenkins commitment to his community runs deep. He can be found donating to numerous charitable organizations and projects, all focused on improving the quality of life in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Jenkins has a passion for giving back to a local army base. As a member of Citizens for Fort Campbell, he has lobbied federal legislators for increased funding to improve the overall fitness of soldiers stationed there. He has been instrumental in securing funds for the Wounded Warrior Project, which connects wounded service members with programs and services that empower them to live their lives on their own terms.

Jenkins devotes countless hours fundraising for Austin Peay State University. He has helped to raise nearly $40 million to support enrollment for economically disadvantaged students, and to build new dorms, a recreation center and university center. His leadership and generous spirit of giving and caring sets an exemplary example for others in his community.

My dad taught me that I must give my time and money to the community where I make my living, Jenkins said. No one will remember how many vehicles we sold. They will, however, remember our passion for helping our community.

Siegfried Ernst, Ernst + Konig GmbH, Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

Siegfried Ernst and his wife Tanja support their community by engaging in activities focused on improving the lives of others. Each of their 14 dealerships has ongoing involvement with at least one community cause and every employee contributes in some way. Ernst + Konig supports its many nonprofit causes through its motto: A Thing from the Heart. Since its creation, a substantial amount of money has been raised, with thousands of hours donated by employees.

House Johannes, a nonprofit that provides a home for physically and learning-disabled residents, gets ongoing support from the group. Ernst + Konig provides funds and transportation, while employees donate their time to support events that enrich the lives of residents.

Dealership employees volunteer their time to local soup kitchens as well, offering access to vehicles to collect and provide food for the needy. The continuous support from the Ernsts and their employees exemplifies an unwavering commitment to nurturing the well-being of their community.

Zukunft gemeinsam erfolgreich gestalten, said Ernst, which translates to Creating together a successful future.

Al MacPhee, MacPhee Ford, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

Al MacPhees unwavering passion for his community can be seen in his commitment to supporting education, culture, the environment and health care. Active in community-based organizations, MacPhee has provided ongoing support to the local health sciences center and Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation.

The MacPhee Centre for Creative Learning empowers youth to access their individual creativity and a path to success. The organization provides an alternative education model for youth in disadvantaged circumstances, focusing on those who are disengaged in the traditional school environment and are at serious risk of abandoning their education.

MacPhee is honorary chair of IDLE-FREE for our kids, a homegrown organization that has become Canadas leading sustainability campaign in decreasing excess vehicle emissions. He also is governor and a longtime financial supporter of Junior Achievement of Nova Scotia, providing hands-on learning in the classroom and through extracurricular activities. Programs focus on financial literacy, workplace readiness and entrepreneurship.

MacPhee is an inspiration for all, consistently giving of his time and resources to enrich and make a difference in the lives of others. My community has served me very well and I think its important to serve my community, he said.

Ivo Luiz Roveda, Ford Center, Curitiba, PR, Brazil

Along with his employees, Ivo Roveda personally engages in numerous educational and social initiatives focused on improving diversity in the workplace. This includes a one-year professional training program for hiring people with disabilities into his business. Psychological support, meals and skill development are provided while trainees earn a salary. Roveda has gone to great lengths in restructuring company software and operating systems to accommodate the visually impaired he employs.

Through his Second Chance Project, Roveda provides automotive mechanic training to individuals who have fallen on hard times, including people who have been addicted to alcohol and drugs, have lived on the streets or are ex-prisoners. As trainees, they are provided with food, clothing, transportation and other necessary resources to aid them as they work through the course requirements. Upon successful completion of the program, graduates are hired to work at one of Rovedas dealerships, giving them the opportunity to restart their lives with a sense of worth and dignity.

Rovedas leadership and involvement with sustainable social initiatives offers great hope and opportunity where there once was none. I believe that every person, regardless of their social or economic standing, deserves an opportunity to rediscover themselves and live their lives with a sense of purpose and dignity, he said.Daimler and BYD Reveal New EV DENZA For Chinese Market

Daimler and its Chinese partner BYD continuously invest in DENZA product development for Chinas New Energy Vehicle (NEV) market

New DENZA electric vehicle brings a refreshed exterior design and extended range of around 500 kilometers

Locally sourced and produced, DENZA brand combines Daimlers vehicle architecture expertise with BYDs leading battery technology

Stuttgart / Shenzhen  Daimler and BYD Automotive Industry Co., Ltd. today launched the new DENZA 500 battery electric vehicle from their joint venture, Shenzhen DENZA New Energy Automotive Co., Ltd. Engineered and produced in and for China, the new DENZA 500 offers Chinese customers a comprehensive upgrade through a refreshed exterior design and extended electric range. The DENZA model combines Daimlers vehicle architecture expertise and advanced safety engineering with BYDs leading advantages in battery technology. Through continuous investment in DENZA product development, Daimler is dedicated to contributing to the further development of electric mobility in China.

The DENZA 500 adopts a refreshed and unique exterior design, featuring tiger eye LED headlights and rippling LED taillights, while inside sees a larger 9-inch touchscreen. Upgraded connectivity services include charging solutions and the DENZA smartphone application. Via the DENZA application, WeChat account, or car navigation system, DENZA owners can quickly locate over 112,000 charging piles across the country. A new battery and additional weight reductions allow increased energy efficiency, providing an extended range of around 500 km. The new DENZA 500 was tested in a wide range of harsh conditions, including severe winter testing at temperatures of as low as 40 degrees Celsius.

In 2017, DENZA achieved its best sales performance to date, with retail sales volume increasing by 85% year-on-year, outpacing the industry average, thanks to the strong customer reception of the DENZA 400 model. The brand also expanded its reach through selected Mercedes-Benz dealer partners, which now offer sales and after-sales service for DENZA vehicles. Through cooperation with Chinese ride hailing platforms, DENZA has allowed even more Chinese customers to experience the brands environmentally-friendly mobility.

About Shenzhen DENZA New Energy Automotive Co., Ltd.

Shenzhen DENZA New Energy Automotive Co., Ltd. (DENZA Auto) is a 50:50 joint venture of Daimler Greater China Ltd. and BYD Automotive Industry Co., Ltd. Established in 2011, DENZA Auto was the first Sino-German joint venture dedicated to battery electric vehicles. Combining Daimlers renowned engineering expertise in safety and quality with BYDs leading battery technology, DENZA Auto was the first electric vehicle manufacturer in China to conduct crash tests according to the C-NCAP standard, receiving a 5-star rating. DENZA is one of the key pillars of Daimlers New Energy Vehicle strategy in China, contributing to its NEV offensive as a homegrown brand.Discovering delicious surprises always provides a large part of the fun in drinking and sharing wines. Surprises keep you honest as a wine drinker while refreshing the senses and expanding the palate.

Such is the case with the N.V. South Shore Wine Company, Sparkling Pinot Noir, Pennsylvania ($19.95; available online and at the winery). from veteran Pennsylvania winegrower Robert Mazza. Made from 100% Pennsylvania-grown Pinot Noir fruit, the wines eye-catching salmon pink color offers a persistent mousse of fine beads of bubbles. On the nose, delicate red fruit and floral aromas lead to fresh flavors of black cherries and plums. Crisp acidity and a touch of creaminess balance a dry, elegant finish.

To create the sparkle, Mazzas winemaking team uses the traditional method (a.k.a., as the methode champenoise in Frances Champagne region). Secondary fermentation takes place directly in the bottle to create more elegant, refined sparkle. This labor intensive process takes more time, but it clearly delivers superior results in the N.V. Shore Wine Company, Sparkling Pinot Noir which offers world-class quality at a terrific price.

For Mazza, growing grape and making wine in Northeast, Pennsylvania on the shores of Lake Erie is a family tradition. His love for the vine came from his father, Joseph, a native of Calabria, Italy, who emigrated to the United States in 1954. Mazza and his brother, Frank, founded Mazza Vineyards as a commercial enterprise in 1972. They built the winery themselves and opened to the public in 1973.

From the start, the brothers focused on learning the potential of the terroir of the Lake Erie Shore vineyards. As in the New York State Finger Lakes, vineyards planted close by the lake, itself, enjoy moderating effects in the spring and fall. This plays a critical role in combating frosts and properly ripening Vitis Vinifera grapes as well as French-American hybrids such as Chambourcin and Vidal Blanc.

The Mazzas also emphasized quality winemaking and hired a German-trained winemaker. Today, the winemaking team consists of Roberts son, Mario Mazza, along with Hungarian-born Peter Szerdahelyi and Carolina Damiano Cores from Uruguay.

In 2007 when Bob Mazza and his wife Kathie purchased the South Shore Wine Company, they revived an illustrious history. William Griffith and Smith S. Hammond founded the winery in 1864 and created a stone wine cavern fashioned after French wine cellars.

In 1867, the South Shore Wine Company sent their wines to the famous Exposition Universelle better known in English as the Paris World Fair of 1867. Also in 1867, the South Shore Wine Company hosted a lunch for more than 300 grape growers and guests in the big hall above the wine cellar. Unfortunately William Griffin passed away early, but the winery continued in various incarnations until 1920 when prohibition dealt a death blow.

After the purchase in 2007, the Mazzas restored the wine cellar and added a seasonal cafe and year-round banquet hall. In addition to the Sparkling Pinot Noir, South Shore offers a Pennsylvania Gruner Veltliner (a dry white that has consistently won national awards as well as a Double Gold at the Pennsylvania Farm Show) and a peppery, dry red blend made primarily from Pennsylvania grown Lemberger grapes.

As we roll into spring, surprise and refresh your taste buds with a sip of the delicious South Shore Wine Company Sparkling Pinot Noir along with the winerys other well made, terroir-focused table wines.All week, were building to Saturdays full moon in Libra, when Venus enters Taurus, too. You might find yourself seeking a feeling thats solid. You might find yourself reaching out in love. If something blooms under this bright full moon, how will you know it, and how will you tend to it?

Aries

This is your season, this is your time, and theres a fire here worth keeping. You cant yet know whats possible, you can only know what your arms want to reach for. You cant yet know whats beyond your grasp, you can only know what you long for, and what youre bold enough to travel toward.

Taurus

This is a week to reach toward bright colors, toward all the skys vivid golds and blues, toward the lush green of the approaching spring. Gray skies come too, sometimes, and whole cities can feel colorless, empty and flat. Theres no way to go a whole life without feeling boredom, but that doesnt mean its wrong to keep searching for the brightness, to keep growing toward whats vivid and good.

Gemini

This might be one of those weeks where your inner power stretches thin, where your attention and love are pulled from all sides. This is also a week to push back against forgetting: forgetting who you are, or what you came here for, or what youre trying to do with your time on Earth. Its a week for remembering the order of your bones and the balance in your dreams.

Cancer

Think about who you miss, and think about who you love. If theres loneliness this week, its a loneliness you can face head-on  not the kind of aloneness that will kill you, or even that will make you weak. This is just a quiet feeling thats a part of this world as much as the moon, as much as the tides. You cant stop it from existing, but you arent helpless against it, either.

Leo

You might find yourself seeking a love you can touch, a love you can know through your body, through your skin. Its okay, good even, to believe your own eyes, to trust your own hands, to live in the world you can see. Just dont forget about all the worlds mystery, real as anything else. A feeling doesnt have to be solid to be real.

Virgo

Even when youre seeking clarity, even when youre seeking order, sometimes the world has nothing to offer but wildness, beauty too weird to predict, melodies that jump in all directions. You dont always have to turn all chaos into order. It takes another kind of courage to be still, to be watchful, to let the world move you.

Libra

You might find yourself overwhelmed by some unknown feeling, overwhelmed by the earth and the sky, overwhelmed by unnamed desire. But youve always been good at moving through complexity. Youve always been good at weaving threads and stories together, at holding the worlds full complicated mess carefully, thoughtfully, without flattening it or tearing it apart. You dont have to reduce every mystery into something known.

Scorpio

It might be useful, as this week begins, to focus on moving as slowly as possible. You can move slowly enough to choose your words with care, slowly enough to really see where youre going, slowly enough to notice your own muscles moving, your own blood pumping. It takes a certain stubbornness to refuse to meet somebody elses pace, because this, too, is a kind of rebellion. Its good to remind yourself of your own power.

Sagittarius

This week, try to let yourself live however your body needs to live, without any guilt and without any shame. If your energy needs to be loud right now, its okay to let yourself be loud. If your energy flows fast and careless, its okay to move too quickly. Freedom means making some missteps, and there are worse things than this. You can try to be good, but you dont always have to be appropriate.

Capricorn

Dont force yourself to make the decisions you arent yet ready to make. Dont force a choice just for the sake of choosing. This is a week to avoid destroying anything. It isnt yet time to burn the bridge. You dont yet know what can be safely left behind, and what youre still going to need. There are strange decisions up ahead, and theres magic waiting for you in the springtime earth, but for now, just keep going.

Aquarius

Its so easy to imagine what you would do if you were smarter than this, or if you were wiser, or more courageous. Its so easy to imagine how the world would open up to you, offering gifts and light and a blossoming future. This week, try to remember that youre already wiser than you know. You already have a courage thats carried you through fog and fire. Theres a spark in you  dont forget to tend it.

Pisces

Imagining you need to be everything, all the time, is a terrible trap. You can start expecting yourself never to waver and never to fall and never to speak a wrong word, and this is no way to live at all. This is a week for resisting all that would box you in. You dont have to be perfect, you only have to be a person. You dont have to have a plan to weather all imaginable futures, you only have to be ready for change.Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The most important day of the year (or possibly, our lives) is quickly approaching  the upcoming wedding between California queen Meghan Markle and British ginger Prince Harry. In the days leading up to the May 19 affair, the question on everyones minds is: Where will these two crazy kids (by that we mean, incredibly wealthy and attractive royals) go on their honeymoon? Luckily, the British tabloids think theyve cracked the case.

The Daily Mail and the Daily Express are reporting that the soon-to-be-married couple has decided to honeymoon in Namibia, Africa. Sources told the tabloids that Prince Harry and Markle will stay at several luxury lodges during their stay  switching locations quite a bit to keep their trip as private as possible.

The pair is reportedly booking their trip through luxury lodging company Natural Selection, whose newest location in the Hoanib Valley Camp of Namibia, a four-hour drive from the nearest town, goes for around $710 a night and will be completed in May (convenient timing!). Apparently Prince Harry picked the spot to avoid tourists with cameras.

We remain skeptical of some of the reports coming out about Markle and her prince, but this honeymoon spot seems plausible. The couple has already been to Africa together at least twice that we know of  they went to Botswana on one of their first dates (as one does) and later returned to Africa for a three-week holiday  and Markles engagement ring includes a diamond from Botswana. So, it makes sense that theyd want to return to Africa to decompress after their (our) big day. Rude of them not to invite us along, though.The Chuppah and The Shaman, 2017. Photo: Rachel Monosov, Admire Kamudzengerere. Courtesy of Catinca Tabacaru Gallery

Rachel Monosov and Admire Kamudzengerere are an interracial couple living on two separate continents: TK and TK, respectively. Last year, when Rachel visited Admire in Harare, Zimbabwe, the two were married by a shaman in a traditional Zimbabwean ceremony. Now, at the Catinca Tabacaru Gallery in New York, the artists exhibition 1972 is on view, documenting the couples wedding and imagining their subsequent life together in Harare  if they werent apart.

I take a seat in the Lower East Side gallery as 1972 is getting installed. Photos of a blonde woman hang on the walls. Scenes of her wedding in Zimbabwe, under a chuppah, in front of a house, with her husband and kids, surround me. I turn to the same woman, who is sitting next to me in the gallery. She is brunette now, and there is no ring on her finger.

Are you and Admire married? I ask Rachel, the artist behind the exhibition and the woman in the photos. It depends from which point of view youre looking at, she answers. In Zimbabwe, if youre married with a shaman, youre married. Your soul, your ancestors are connected and its a bond forever. Yet there are no legal documents, no tax breaks to speak of.

Before the Ceremony, Aug. 20, 1972, 2017. Photo: Rachel Monosov, Admire Kamudzengerere. Courtesy of Catinca Tabacaru Gallery

Rachel, a 31-year-old artist born in St. Petersburg, raised in Jerusalem, and now living in Berlin, loves to explore the line between fact and fiction. In the photos, Rachel stands alongside Admire as they depict scenes from their life together. All of these events happened, but none of them did. Rachel insists this is not staged photography, its documentation. These are archival photos from Harare in 1972, they just happen to be made in 2017.

The idea for the series came to Admire and Rachel when the two recently visited the national archives of Zimbabwe. A lot of questions came up, like, Who took these photos? said Rachel. What did they choose to show and what is this point of view? Is it Zimbabwean? Is it British? Who is behind the camera and what are they trying to represent or reveal at this time?

Before long travel, August 23, 1972, 2017. Photo: Rachel Monosov, Admire Kamudzengerere. Courtesy of Catinca Tabacaru Gallery

Construction, Aug. 24, 1972, 2017. Photo: Rachel Monosov, Admire Kamudzengerere. Courtesy of Catinca Tabacaru Gallery

A. with his first son on Friday afternoon, Aug 31, 1972, 2017. Photo: Rachel Monosov, Admire Kamudzengerere. Courtesy of Catinca Tabacaru Gallery

The two artists decided to make their own set of archival photos, choosing 1972 as their setting. Back when the country was still called Rhodesia and when the guerrillas of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army initially attacked, starting the Rhodesian bush war. It was a time of great racial unrest, and interracial marriage was still illegal. We took the most problematic moment in history, and were changing it and saying, this existed as well, said Rachel.

Rachel wants the viewer to question everything. Usually, a photo means fact: A wedding happened, a photo was taken, the married couple exists. The works descriptions cant be trusted either. Rachel and Admire got the information for the images captions from Wikipedia. I think this is something we live with now, Rachel said. We learn about other cultures, but we dont know if this information is true or not because were not doing enough research, so a lot of time we are learning false facts.

As I leave the gallery, I ask Rachel one last time about the state of her relationship with Admire  is it real?

We will hold a place for each other in our hearts forever, she replies. I think that answers the question.4-Year-Old Boy in Texas Killed by Family Dog

A 4-year-old Texas boy was fatally attacked by his familys dog, authorities said.

The boy, Noah Trevino, was killed on Sunday afternoon, March 25, in Converse, the Bexar County Sheriffs Office announced.

Sheriff Javier Salazar told KSAT that the child may have wandered too close to the dog, which was tied up when the attack happened.

It appears that the child may have gotten too close to the dog, Salazar said. One of the relatives of the child actually looked out into the backyard and saw that the dog had his mouth around the little boys neck and was shaking him.

Sheriffs Sgt. Elizabeth Gonzalez told the San Antonio Express-News that family members freed the boy from the dogs hold.

Family members then tried administering first aid before emergency personnel arrived but were unsuccessful.

Noah was declared dead at the hospital.



The incident happened in the backyard of the boys home in the 8900 block of Twincreek Farm.

The breed of the dog was described by animal control as a mixed large breed. Twitter users responding to a picture of the dog shared by a reporter said that it appeared to be part pit bull. David Caltabiano, the reporter, said he could not be sure whether the dog was male or female.

I was a Humane Officer & a licensed Vet Tech. Its a Pit Bull, or enough of a one to count, said one user.

But others said it wasnt clear. It says mix breed so yes it can be part pit bull but also mixed with something else it does not mean that it was the pit bull side of him, said one user.

This type of news is hard to cover. BCSO says this family dog attacked and killed a 4-year-old boy in a Converse neighborhood today. pic.twitter.com/Sgq6mtfByd  David Caltabiano (@DavidCaltabiano) March 25, 2018

BREAKING: @BexarCoSheriff confirm identity of 4 year old killed by this family dog as Noah Trevino. pic.twitter.com/TQ2eEQfQQ4  David Caltabiano (@DavidCaltabiano) March 26, 2018

The dog was scheduled to be euthanized on Monday after tests were run.

Family members said the dog had never attacked anyone, reported News4.

But Sheriff Salazar warned that children should never be left alone with dogs even if the animals are not known to be vicious.

This was a family dog, Salazar said. Even if the dog doesnt show any outward signs of aggression, sometimes they can be unpredictable. So, its best to always be vigilant when youre dealing with a small child and a dog like that.

From NTD.tv

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Father Who Lost Child Tells Trump: I remember the hug you gave meBlast Near Mosque in Western Afghan City of Herat

HERAT, AfghanistanA suicide attack near a Shiite mosque in the Western Afghan city of Herat killed at least one person and wounded eight others, police and health officials said on Sunday.

The ISIS terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed another blast claimed by the group in Kabul last week, which killed around 30 people near a Shiite shrine as the city celebrated Nawruz, the Persian new year.

Deputy police chief Aminullah Amin said two bombers had tried to enter the mosque but were challenged by guards at the site who opened fire on them.

Health officials said one person was confirmed dead, with eight wounded but the final casualty figure may change.

Herat, one of the most prosperous cities in Afghanistan, has seen periodic episodes of violence but has not suffered the same level of attacks as the capital Kabul.

While sectarian violence in mainly Sunni Muslim Afghanistan was previously rare, a series of attacks over recent years, many claimed by ISIS, have killed hundreds of Shiites, many from the Hazara ethnic minority.

The violence has gone on alongside a general deterioration in security in Afghanistan as Taliban insurgents have fought government forces across much of the country, killing thousands of civilians every year.

By Jalil RezaeeCatalonia's deposed leader Carles Puigdemont gestures during an interview on the sideline of the International film festival and forum of the human rights (FIFDH) on March 18, 2018 in Geneva. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

Catalan Ex-head Puigdemont to Appear in German Court After Protests Flare

MADRID/BERLINFormer Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was due to appear in a German court on Monday as Spain sought to extradite him over the regions independence fight after a night of protests there in which dozens of people were hurt in clashes with police.

Puigdemont was detained in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday, five months after going into self-imposed exile from Spain, where he faces charges of sedition, rebellion and embezzlement which could lead to 25 years in prison.

Puigdemont had entered Germany from Denmark after on Friday leaving Finland, where he had attended a conference.

A demonstration in Barcelona against his arrest by tens of thousands of Catalans tipped over into clashes on Sunday night.

Outside the central government offices in the Catalan capital, riot police beat flag-waving protesters back with batons, leaving several with blood streaming down their foreheads. Three protesters were arrested and 50 suffered minor injuries, police said.

Spains Supreme Court ruled on Friday that 25 Catalan leaders, including Puigdemont, would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state relating a referendum held in Catalonia last October which called for the wealthy northeastern region to separate from Spain.

The referendum went ahead despite having been ruled illegal by the constitutional court and was widely boycotted by opponents of independence. The government took over direct rule of Catalonia following a symbolic declaration of independence by the Catalan parliament.

The court has also reactivated international arrest warrants for four other politicians who went into self-imposed exile last year. Puigdemont and fellow separatists have all denied any wrongdoing.

It ordered five separatist leaders, including the latest candidate to become regional president, Jordi Turull, to be jailed pending their trial.

The Madrid governments forceful legal moves deal a potentially fatal blow to the independence movement and signal an end to one of the countrys worst political crises since the return of democracy four decades ago, although separatist sympathies are likely to simmer.

Days If Not Weeks

Puigdemont will appear before a regional court in the northern German town of Neumuenster where a judge is expected to decide whether he will remain in custody.

Another court, the Higher Regional Court in the town of Schleswig, will be responsible for deciding whether to grant Spains extradition request. German prosecutors have said the whole legal process, including possible appeals, could take several days if not weeks.

Puigdemont, who has been living in Brussels since leaving Spain, does not plan to apply for political asylum in Germany, his lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas told Catalan radio on Monday.

The 55-year-old former journalist is unlikely to find much support among German politicians who have largely backed Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoys crackdown on Catalan separatism.

In comments published on Monday, Elmar Brok, a German member of the European Parliament and close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkels conservatives, said that Puigdemont had clearly violated Spanish law and the Spanish constitution.

He would be well advised to end the matter peacefully, Brok told regional newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.

.

Brok said that the quest of the Catalans for independence was hopeless and that Madrid and Barcelona should instead start negotiations about an improved autonomous status.

German Justice Minister Katarina Barley told ARD broadcaster on Sunday the extradition question would be handled by regional courts and she saw no need for Berlin to intervene for now.

European governments, some of whom face separatist movements of their own, have generally been supportive of the Spanish government.

In Edinburgh, the Scottish government, which advocates independence from the United Kingdom, said it would co-operate with Madrid over a request to extradite former Catalan education minister Clara Ponsati.

The drawn-out crisis has also hit the regional economy and caused a business flight. But S&P Global said its upgrade for Spain reflected a positive outlook for the economy and budgetary consolidation.

It was the second upgrade for Spain into single-A territory this year. Spanish bond yields were at close to 15-month lows on Monday morning.More Details Revealed on Iowa Family of 4 Found Dead in Mexico

Gas inhalation has been blamed for the deaths of an Iowa family of four who visited Mexico last week, according to reports. Meanwhile, relatives of the family have spoken out.

The state attorney generals office in the state of Quintana Roo said that investigators were trying to determine the gas that was involved, NBC News reported. They had been vacationing in the resort town of Tulum.

So sorry to read about the Sharp familys passing. They were proud supporters of the #2crew and will be missed dearly by friends, family and the community; Very sad story. My sincere condolences. https://t.co/3quWjHPddn  Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) March 24, 2018

Kevin Sharp, 41, and Amy Sharp, 38, as well as their children, Sterling, 12, and Adrianna, 7, appeared to have been dead for 36 to 48 hours when their bodies were discovered.

Officials said that after examinations, their cause of death was hypoxia, or lack of oxygen. Investigators ruled out foul play or suicide, the report said.

The bodies  showed no evidence or traces of violence, nor evidence of anything being disturbed inside the room, so violence from a possible theft was discarded, said the local attorney generals office.

A relative, Jana Weland, the cousin of Amy Sharp, said that the U.S. Consulate in Mexico told the family that the gas leaked from a water heater or gas stove, the Des Moines Register reported.

Its been very stressful but the consulates been good about helping us, Weland said. Even the funeral home in Mexico has been good at helping.

Weland said the family is hoping to hold a funeral at Southwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa.

My mother is holding up, doing the best she can. Were all supporting her each other, Amy Sharps sister, Renee Hoyt, told ABC News. For my mother, it was just me and my sister. So she feels that she lost half her family.

Ive never felt a hurt this bad. Rest in peace Sharp Family. pic.twitter.com/OiAsfgzTi1  Zackary Schaefer (@Z_man83) March 23, 2018

We definitely have an amazing community. This has had a huge impact on all of us, Hoyt said.

The family rented their condo through VRBO, which is a website that homeowners use to rent properties to travelers.

Our most heartfelt condolences go out to the loved ones of the Sharp family. We are monitoring this devastating situation closely and have removed the property from our site for any future bookings while we wait for more details, VRBO told ABC News in a statement.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersChinese Regime Mouthpiece Threatens to Remove United States From WTO

In display of hostility, regime that has never followed WTO rules in 17 years wants to oust a founder of the organization

As President Donald Trump announced tariffs and sanctions aimed at rebalancing U.S.China trade, a Chinese regime media mouthpiece published an opinion piece saying China should remove the United States from the World Trade Organization (WTO) in retaliation. The provocative article displays not only the hostility toward the United States found among some inside the regimes bureaucracy, but also their lack of understanding of the nature of the WTO, observers say.

[China] should take bolder measures, such as considering a legal move to possibly remove the U.S. from the world body [of the WTO] for instigating trade disputes time and again by violating WTO rules, wrote Mei Xinyu, a researcher at the Ministry of Commerce of the Peoples Republic of China.

The March 23 piece was published as an opinion by China Daily, an English-language newspaper that is a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party and is controlled by the State Council Information Office, a propaganda arm of the Chinese regime.

Mei also said that China should not be confined to the dispute-settlement mechanism of the WTO in its retaliation for the U.S. trade sanctions on China, and that an attempt to expel the United States from the WTO could force the country to exercise self-restraint.

The WTO currently does not have a mechanism for removing or expelling a member state. The intergovernmental organization is responsible for the regulation of trade in goods, services, and intellectual property among its 164 members. The United States played a critical role in the creation of the WTO in 1995, as well as its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, in 1948.

Observers say that the article published by the Chinese regimes flagship English propaganda newspaper reflects the underlying thinking of at least some Chinese decision-makers, or at least the threat they seek to convey to the outside world.

Video: How Industrial warfare has occurred between USA and China

China Daily would never carry anything that undercuts the opinion of the Chinese government, said China and East Asia analyst Gordon Chang. [Meis] article reflects the thinking of the Chinese bureaucracy and exposes its growing hostility toward the United States.

Xia Yeliang, a former professor of economics at Peking University, said Mei is well-known in China as a far-left agitator who makes comments on state media from time to time when the Chinese regime finds the political need to showcase his anti-American views.

If anything, it was China that repeatedly violated WTO rules, said Xia, who now resides in the United States and frequently criticizes the Chinese regime. China has never fulfilled its WTO obligations in the last 17 years. If WTO is serious about enforcing rules, it should consider sanctioning China instead.

Trump has previously blamed the WTO for enabling Chinas rise at the expense of the United States. Among other things, the Trump administration has blamed China for failing to follow through on promises of moving toward a market-oriented economy and playing by international trading rules.

According to Trump administration officials, such as the recently empowered White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, Chinas economic model combined with the U.S. decision to allow it into the WTO in 2001 led to the rapidly growing trade deficit between China and the United States in the last two decades, and as a result enabled the Chinese regimes authoritarianism and military aggression around the world.Drug Shortages Cripple Angolas Health Service

OKANAUTONI, AngolaApart from a few packs of medicine and plastic jars, the shelves at the Okanautoni health center in southern Angola are bare and lack basic drugs for saving lives.

Hours from the nearest town in Cunene province, the clinic has no first-line tuberculosis drugs, no antiretrovirals for HIV, no general antibiotics and just three anti-malarial pills.

Okanautoni is remote but the provincial director for health says clinics without drugs are no exception. The public health system is losing credibility, said Mendes Esteves at his office in the sleepy provincial capital Ondjiva.

Joao Lourenco, Angolas first new president in 38 years, has vowed to tackle corruption, attract foreign investment and improve public services such as healthcare, which the government acknowledges suffers from a lack of doctors and medication.

Crippled by 27 years of civil war, healthcare improved after the conflict ended in 2002 as the oil-fueled economy surged and new hospitals and clinics were built. But experts say the country failed to develop a robust system for buying and distributing medicines, or training doctors and nurses.

When the price of oil tumbled in 2014, the economy stalled and the government slashed spending, exposing cracks in the public health service and leaving the population at risk.

Diseases that should be disappearing after more than 15 years of peace are spreading. Tuberculosis has been declining worldwide but in Angola the incidence of TB rose 16 percent from 2002 to 2016, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Angola suffered the worlds worst yellow fever epidemic in a generation in 2016 with about 4,000 suspected cases and 380 deaths, and the country is now in the grip of a malaria outbreak with more than 300,000 cases so far this year.

International health workers say the country is leaving itself open to further outbreaks, with some warning of cholera spreading from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and others of a potentially devastating epidemic like ebola  a strain of which struck Angola in 2005.

In 2018, the government committed 4 percent of government expenditure to health, down from 4.3 percent in 2017. By comparison, South Africa spent about 14 percent on health in 2015 and Kenya 6 percent, according to WHO data.

Never Enough

At the clinic in Okanautoni, plastic gloves, syringes and disinfectant are in short supply. Theres no running water and the only electricity is from a generator that runs sporadically.

At night, births are guided by the light of a cell phone. If something goes wrong, patients are driven for two hours down bumpy bush tracks to the nearest hospitals in Chiulo or Xangongo  where conditions too can be precarious.

We ask for medicine but they dont send us anything, said nurse Penitencia Goreti, 33, who said she had repeatedly asked for fresh stock from the municipal government.

The situation is getting worse, she said, as a child, blurry-eyed with malaria, lay on the floor nearby.

Provincial health director Esteves said the sick were starting to shun health centers because they didnt expect them to have any medicine. He said he hoped a batch of first-line TB drugs would come in the next few months, but deliveries had failed to show up before. We will see, he said with a sigh.

Nearly 1,000 km away in the capital Luanda, ranked the most expensive city in the world for expatriate workers and home to a luxury-loving Angolan elite, public hospitals are similarly stretched.

At Cacuaco hospital on the capitals outskirts, two doctors see 400 to 700 patients per day. The hospital suffers power outages, there is no functioning X-ray machine and only the most basic medication. Anti-malarial drugs frequently run out.

We just have so many cases, its never enough, one nurse said as hundreds waited in the humid heat under broken fans.

Poorer residents in Luanda frequently say they have to pay for medication that should be free at public hospitals. The cost means patients often cut their treatment short, increasing the risk of resistant strains developing.

The Ministry of Health did not respond to requests for comment on the state of the healthcare system. It provided data showing 304,410 cases of malaria had been reported in Angola between Jan. and Feb. 4, with 984 deaths.

After a tour of the northern Zaire province, Health Minister Silvia Lutucuta, said the lack of drugs was being addressed.

We cant come here and affirm that we have resolved all the medication problems, but the basics and essentials for the functioning of centers is there, local media quoted her saying.

Red Tape and Delays

However, senior medical professionals working in the system said the situation had got worse since Lourencos new government was appointed. They described severe delays in decision-making and project approvals since Lutucuta took charge in October.

They said the response to the malaria outbreak had been hamstrung by increased red tape, which slowed the distribution of preventative measures such as mosquito nets.

Most sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issues.

They described flaws in the way drugs, that are not supplied by international agencies, are procured and distributed.

Sources said purchases at the local level were not in enough bulk to secure competitive prices while the central procurement system, known as CECOMA, lacked the information and budget to keep the system fully supplied. Drugs also often go missing, they said.

According to one former government source, the Ministry of Health has estimated that half the drugs it buys do not reach their intended destination.

In the one-road town of Chiulo, Cunene, basic medication regularly runs out at the hospital. While Reuters visited wards the last tablets of a vital antibiotic were handed out.

The hospital struggles without mains electricity and has a generator that cuts out at 11 p.m. Water is pumped from a dry river bed but ageing equipment often fails.

Chiulo receives assistance from the Italian charity Medici con LAfrica (CUAMM), which has worked there since 2000. Laura Villosio, a wiry indefatigable doctor from northern Italy, said the water and drugs situation had deteriorated since she first worked in Chiulo a decade ago.

In July, the hospital diagnosed cases of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis but medication to treat it did not arrive until four months later, despite increasingly desperate requests.

For such emergencies, the hospital is supposed to have a small budget of its own to buy drugs, but clinical director Ivo Makonga described the money as a fiction.

Payment, which is centrally controlled in Luanda, takes more than eight months to be processed, if at all, meaning suppliers increasingly refuse to accept orders, Makonga said.

The lack of drugs means Emilio Txikussa faces a bleak future. Five years old, he weighs just over 10 kg, his eyes sunken and belly swollen with severe malnutrition.

He also has HIV and tuberculosis.

For now, the doctor is pleased that he has put on 300 grammes after three days on therapeutic milk. With a big smile she asks if he is feeling better. Beaming, she asks again.

Tell the doctor, yes, his father urges. Say yes  say yes. Emilio only stares.

By Stephen EisenhammerFinal Evil 8 Child Abuser Sentenced to Prison for Raping 13-Year-Old Girl

The final member of the so-called Evil 8 child abuse ring involved in the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl has been sentenced to nine-and-a-half years in jail.

Alfred John Impicciatore, 48, was convicted in November 2017 for the sexual assault of a Perth girl who was offered up to strangers for sex by her paedophile father, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, back in 2015, reported The West Australian.

Impicciatore was finally sentenced on Monday, March 26 in the Western Australian District Court.

He was one of the six people who abused the young girl after making contact with the childs father through online advertisements. He was invited to the victims home after striking up a friendship with the girls father through the messaging app Kik, reported the West Australian.

The girls father was present and also participated in the abusewhich occurred over a two year period and started when the girl was just 11-years-old, reported ABC.

When Impicciatore was arrested he confessed to police but later pleaded not guilty, saying that he thought the girl was 17-years-old, according to The West Australian.

His case was delayed for more than a year when he failed to show up in court, changed lawyers, and even fled the state. He was eventually extradited back from New South Wales.

FOUND: Evil 8 accused Alfred John Impicciatore's been arrested in NSW. WA police will apply for extradition in court tomorrow @TenNewsPerth pic.twitter.com/FchdpbLASi  Dougal Wallace (@DougalWallace) May 26, 2017

During sentencing, Judge Mark Herron told Impicciatore that he took advantage of a girl who was extremely vulnerable, reported 9News.

Your actions were depraved and were entirely for your own sexual gratification, the judge said.

You knew what you were doing was unlawful and morally wrong, he added, reported ABC.

The judge also said during sentencing that Impicciatore showed no remorse for his crime, failed to accept responsibility for his offending and showed no empathy for the victim.

He was the only person out of the six people to plead not guilty and therefore, his penalty was not reduced. The other offenders received sentencing discounts for guilty pleas and other factors.

His sentence of nine-and-a-half years in jail will be backdated to October 2016 and he will be eligible for parole in 2024. He was also given an additional sentence of six months in jail for breaching bail in 2017 when he fled the state.

The other five offenders who were involved in the child abuse ring received sentences ranging from three years to 12 years behind bars, reported The West Australian.

Ryan Trevor Clegg was sentenced to 12 years and nine months; former pastor David Volmer was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years; Nicholas Adam Beer was sentenced to seven years; Troy Phillip Milbourne was sentenced to five years and three months, and photographer Benjamin Simon Clarke was sentenced to three years.

Another man was also implicated in the police investigation but he was not charged with offences relating to the girl. The unnamed man was subsequently jailed for using an online chat forum to engage in sexual conversations and exchange nude photographs of other children, reported the newspaper.

The girls father pleaded guilty to a number of charges and was sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in jail in June 2016. His earliest release date is October 2035, reported ABC. He is reportedly appealing against the length of his sentence.

From NTD

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersAlfred Hunt knew a good idea when he saw it. And Charles Martin Hall had one. In 1886, the 23-year-old chemist had discovered a smelting process to make aluminum inexpensively while working in a lab he cobbled together in a shed behind his parents house in northern Ohio.

Hunt, a Pittsburgh metallurgist, realized its commercial potential and was willing to take a risk. He put up $20,000 of his own money and investments from colleagues to launch a startup that later became Alcoa, an international manufacturer of aluminum that today has $16.7 billion in assets, 14,000 employees and its headquarters on the citys North Shore.

Its the kind of success story that builds industries and economies and one that southwestern Pennsylvania hopes will spin out from the knowledge and expertise at its research universities and the technology companies gathering around them. And developments over the past decade provide reasons for optimism.

The key pieces that define a major technology hub have fallen into place. The region long has been fertile ground for ideas. Its seen a robust network of entrepreneurial support evolve. Major tech companies, such as Google and Uber, have set up shop in Pittsburgh. And an increasing number of young companies are attracting venture capital on the strength of their potential.

Our total investments have grown because the quality of the investment has improved and companies are getting great ground support, said Catherine Mott, president and CEO of the Wexford angel investor group, Blue Tree Allied Angels, and founder and CEO of Blue Tree Venture Fund.

But soft spots in the regions tech ecosystem remain. Chief among them is that emerging tech companies needing later-stage capital to finance their growth have to look outside the region to find it.

Gaining momentum

Total venture capital investments in a region tend to fluctuate year over year, sometimes significantly. Lately, at least, southwestern Pennsylvania companies have been on a roll.

Local companies managed to buck the national trend in 2016, the most recent year for which complete data are available. Nationally, venture capital financing fell from $77.3 billion the previous year to $52.3 billion, a 32 percent decrease. At the same time, the Pittsburgh area attracted $235 million in funding, an increase of more than 8 percent, according to a report by the professional services firm Ernst & Young and Innovation Works, a source of seed-stage funding and business support for Pittsburgh startups.

And 2017 appears to have been another strong year. Preliminary data suggest local companies raised more than $324 million in 115 venture deals.

Recent data are incomplete, however, and dont include several major deals. The largest is Ford Motor Co.s five-year, $1 billion investment in Argo AI, a local artificial intelligence company the automaker is banking on to develop a virtual driver system for future autonomous vehicles. Other deals not included are Providence Strategic Growths $35 million investment in Pineapple Payments, a local payment processing technology company, and a $63 million investment by Pfizer Venture and others in University of Pittsburgh spinout Complexa, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies for treating inflammatory-based and metabolic diseases.

Petuum, a Carnegie Mellon University spinout in the citys Strip District, also grabbed headlines in 2017 when it attracted $93 million in venture capital from the investment arm of Tokyo-based Softbank and others.

Such interest has helped the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area move up in the rankings of Pittsburgh Todays 15 benchmark regions to sixth best in total venture investments last year. Pittsburgh is still well shy of the $3.3 billion raised in Boston and the $1.4 billion raised in Seattle, but is nudging closer to other top-tier regions, such as Denver and Charlotte, NC.

The number of new startups formed continues to increase, and these companies are successfully attracting investment from local and national investors, said David Lishego, senior investment associate at Innovation Works. This indicates that local startups are solving important problems and have potential to scale into significant businesses.

A better greenhouse

Local tech sector growth is the result of long standing regional attributes, economic trends, the quality of emerging companies and resources to help them survive early-stage challenges.

Carnegie Mellon and Pitt have strong research credentials and established cultures for moving ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace. Their strengths in artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous vehicles and biomedical technologies are becoming critical to the national economy. And they attract talent ranging from top students and scholars to major tech players that thrive on them, such as Google, Amazon, Uber and Facebook.

The presence of such companies tends to attract more talent, broaden the support network, and generate entrepreneurs and angel investors. The founders of Argo AI, for example, had worked for Google and Uber and have ties to CMU. And a large concentration of well-paid talent is a defining characteristic of the tech ecosystem in the Silicon Valley, where venture capitalists invested $16.5 billion last year.

But bright ideas and talent dont guarantee success in an industry where the failure of startups is common. For early-stage tech companies, mentorship, networks, seed funding, office space and free or discounted support services are critical to avoiding the pitfalls of business development.

Growth in those resources over the past decade is a key reason the regions tech industry has enjoyed recent success in attracting investors, those familiar with the industry say. About 30 business accelerators and incubators tailored to the tech industry have sprung up with names such as Blast Furnace, Ascender and Alloy26.

Some are university-based, such as Pitts Innovation Institute, which offers services ranging from mentoring to protecting intellectual property. CMUs Project Olympus incubator offers startups advice, small grants and faculty connections. Innovation Works, the regions state-funded Ben Franklin Technology partner, runs two Alpha Lab accelerators.

Were seeing them bear fruit, Mott said. Startups can be three people in a garage who say, We have a great idea, lets build a company and see what we can do. What they find is they dont know what they dont know. These resources help them understand what they dont know, avoid obvious mistakes and navigate obstacles. For them, thats critical.

Local money

Attracting growth capital becomes a top priority as companies mature. But later-stage funding is scarce in southwestern Pennsylvania, which lacks venture funds large enough to provide it.

The health of the venture capital environment in the Pittsburgh area continues to improve. The amount of uncommitted capital at Pittsburgh-based venture firms rose for a fifth straight year in 2016 to nearly $141 million, a 14-year high, according to an Innovation Works survey.

But available funding in the region still only slightly exceeds the median venture capital fund in the United States. and Pittsburgh lacks local growth-stage investors,Innovation Works Lishego said.

Local venture capital is mostly limited to seed and Series-A funding rounds. Series A funding supports new companies for a year or two as they develop their products, workforce, marketing and other early business operations. When companies reach a stage when they need tens of millions of dollars or more, they have to look elsewhere. Last year, the major deals involving Argo, Petuum and Complexa were all made with out-of-state or overseas investors.

For growing companies, that means working long distance with investors. And local companies looking for growth capital have to compete for the attention of investors concentrated on the west and east coasts to get noticed, when a local fund would already have them on its radar.

But local venture capital funds find it difficult to get traction. When trying to raise a fund from traditional sources, such as pensions, theyre often competing with large established firms with a national reach and a resume of solid returns on investment.

Investing in startups is different from investing in publicly traded companies. There is no public market to buy and sell stocks. Investors usually dont realize a return until the company reaches an exit, which comes as an initial public offering or merger/acquisition. But big, splashy exits dont come often in Pittsburgh.

You have to have an outstanding track record if you are going to attract institutional money, said Blue Trees Mott, whose company raised its venture fund from individual investors instead. Its been a long time since Pittsburgh has had a home run.

In some cities, corporations have raised joint venture funds to support local entrepreneurs and growing companies. Pittsburgh is not one of those cities. Cincinnati is. Its $57 million Cintrifuse venture fund was created five years ago with 15 partners including Procter & Gamble, Kroger and the University of Cincinnati.

We need our own VC funds, and not small onesfunds that know the local people, know who the next smart person is with a great idea, and the ability to build a team and create a company, Mott said. I think with the companies we have, were going to see some big exits in the next 5-10 years that will help quite a bit.Flat-Earth Astronaut Launches Home-Made Rocket to Prove Science Is Fake

A man trying to prove Earth is flat tried to launch himself high enough in a rocket to see the edge.

Not too surprisingly, he failed.

The would-be astronaut, Mad Mike Hughes, made a braver effortlaunching oneself into space in a homemade rocket certainly takes a lot of braverybut he crash-landed in the Mojave Desert, without the evidence he sought about the planets planar nature.

Hughes, 61, started his venture in 2017, but suffered numerous setbacks and delaysbuilding a rocket is, well, rocket science, after all.

And science and Mad Mike are not on speaking terms.

I dont believe in science, Hughes said, according to VT.com.

I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But thats not science, thats just a formula. Theres no difference between science and science fiction, he said.

Despite knowing all the formulas, Hughes only managed to hit 1,875 feet of altitude before his craft malfunctioned.

No scientist is safety-averse, Hughes equipped his unguided missile with a pair of parachutes, so his landing was only a minor crash.

Still, he needed to be rushed to the hospital.

After the flight, Hughes said he was satisfied with the results.

Am I glad I did it? Yeah. I guess. Ill feel it in the morning, he said. I wont be able to get out of bed. At least I can go home and have dinner and see my cats tonight.

Rocket Made From Scrap

The most dangerous part of space flight is the inevitable explosion. Most rockets are propelled by a sustained, controlled explosion occurring in a very stout pressure vessel, designed to let the force escape in one direction only.

Anyone who has watched films of failed rocket launches has seen the sorts of conflagrations, which often ensue.

Hughes avoided all that by powering his rocket with steam. He calculated that he could build up enough pressure to launch himself a mile into the skyat which height he would be able to see whether the planet was flat or curved.

He built his rocket out of scrapdiscarded parts he repurposed and reworked into whatever he needed them to do. According to Facebook, Hugheswho drives a limousine for a livingspent $1.8 million on this flight.

He planned a launch in 2017 but the rocket just sat on the pad. He planned again for March 6, but he had problems with the pressure vessel and nozzle.

Finally, on March 24, he was ready to launch. He trucked the device out into the desert 200 miles east of Los Angeles, dug a pit, propped up his launch rail, and steamed off into the sky.

The rocket headed up, then heeled over in a flat arc almost parallel to Earth. After six seconds or so, the parachutes deployed.

A Solid Record of Failure

This is not Mad Mikes first attempt at flight. In 2014, VT reports, he launched another rocket, this one over Arizona.

That flight also ended badly. Hughes was incapacitated for several weeks after that crash.

If youre not scared to death, youre an idiot, Hughes said in an interview. Its scary as hell, but none of us are getting out of this world alive. Id like to do extraordinary things that no one else can do, and no one in the history of mankind has designed, built and launched himself in his own rocket.

Hughes forgot to add, and survived.

From NTD.tv

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Lost World War I Submarine Found 103 Years LaterHuman Rights Threatened in Todays Turkey

For almost a century, Turkey has been an internationally-admired Muslim-majority democracy. Under its World War 1 hero and founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turks obtained full independence in 1923, and later the rule of law, universal literacy, separation of state and religion, rights for women, and NATO membership.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP party were for years impressive. He was elected mayor of Istanbul (1994), prime minister (2003-2014) and president (2014). The economy improved markedly from 2003-2008; he temporarily wound down a 30-year conflict with Turkeys 15-million-strong Kurdish community, which had cost an estimated 40,000 lives; and accepted 2.5 million refugees from Bashar al-Assads Syria.

Tragically, Erdogan has since severely undermined Turkeys democracy and rule of law. In 2013, when a corruption scandal broke involving him and his cabinet, no-one was charged. Judges, prosecutors and police were quickly re-assigned. Fethullah Gulen, the cleric and founder of the Gulen Movement/Hizmet (GM), who had supported him when they both sought membership in the EU and further democratization of Turkey, broke with him over corruption and has since been declared a terrorist by Erdogan.

Read More Will the West Lose Turkey?

American academic Sophia Pandya describes the GM:

[It] defines itself as a Sufism-inspired, civil society humanitarian organization  (with) thousands of educational, charitable, and cultural organizations (globally)  Gulen has  denied any personal or institutional involvement [in the attempted July 2016 coup by saying] If there are  officers among the coup plotters who consider themselves  sympathizer(s) of Hizmet [Gulen] movement,  [they committed treason against the unity of [Turkey] by (participating) in an event where their own citizens lost their lives.

A packed forum on Turkey hosted by the Anatolian Heritage Federation was held recently within Canadas Parliament.

Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International (AI) Canada, noted that Taner Klc, president of AI Turkey, remains in prison for allegedly supporting the so-called terrorist organization FETO (of Gulen), adding, (AI) in its 57 years never experienced anything like this beforeanyone can be detained and arrested for having a communication app Bylock or sending their child to a Gulen Movement affiliated school or having a bank account in Bank AsyaTurkey [now has)] the highest number of jailed journalists Why silence from Canada and the rest of the world?

Government MP Michael Levitt, chair of the House of Commons human rights sub-committee, said: Families are torn apart. Academics, media professionals, students, and ordinary people  are being  [detained] without chargeThe repression of democracy [is] something that [concerns us deeply]

Green Party leader Elizabeth May declared, I am horrified by the behaviour of the Turkish government This has not been raised by the United Nations or traditional allies we as allies of Turkey cannot accept this behavior to go on; we need to be speaking out more forcefully.

According to a report issued by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Al Hussein last week (March 20):

The numbers are just staggering: nearly 160,000 people arrested during an 18-month state of emergency; 152,000 civil servants dismissed, many totally arbitrarily; teachers, judges and lawyers dismissed or prosecuted; journalists arrested, media outlets shut down and websites blockedOne of the most alarming findings of the report is how Turkish authorities reportedly detained some 100 women who were pregnant or had just given birth, mostly on the grounds that they were associates of their husbands, who are suspected of being connected to terrorist organizations. Some were detained with their children and others violently separated from them. This is simply outrageous, utterly cruel, and surely cannot have anything whatsoever to do with making the country safer.

The ongoing and renewed state of emergency allows Erdogan and his ministers to bypass Parliament in enacting new laws, further limiting basic rights. Their goal appears to be to remove all elements of Ataturks secular state, which Turks have defended with their lives over the past nine decades. Turkeys global friends can only hope that Erdogan will accept the real lessons of July 15 and move back towards national reconciliation, democracy, and the rule of law.

David Kilgour, a lawyer by profession, served in Canadas House of Commons for almost 27 years. In Jean Chretiens Cabinet, he was secretary of state (Latin America and Africa) and secretary of state (Asia-Pacific). He is the author of several books and co-author with David Matas of Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Indiana Boy Jumps to Safety to Escape Apartment Fire That Killed 2 Children

At least two children died after a fire broke out at a Gary, Indiana, apartment building over the weekend.

Kailani Gober, 2, and her brother, Khristopher Gober, 4, were trapped in a fourth-floor apartment, reported ABC7 in Chicago. They both died.

It is always difficult because most of the guys and women on our department are parents, grandparents so loss of a life is never a good thing, especially when you are trying all you can to save a life, Gary Fire Department Chief Mike Jones told the ABC affiliate.

Two children were killed yesterday, when their apartment in Gary, Indiana, went up in flames. A third child survived by jumping from the fourth floor as neighbors held out a blanket to catch him. https://t.co/nPuxMLlixB  CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) March 26, 2018

Witnesses said that an 8-year-old boy was screaming for his life when crews arrived on the scene.

Hes yelling help me, help me, help me, said the boys aunt, Nicola Simmons. And as hes yelling help me some lady came out with a blanket and said just tell him to jump, just tell him to jump.

CBS Chicago identified the boy as Monty Spencer, who was watching TV when the fire broke out. I was laying on the bed. When I came out my mommas room, it was a lot of black smoke, he said.

Then he reacted to the smoke. Thats when I tried to go out the door, and it was super black. I couldnt see nothing. Thats when I put my head out the window, and I called for help, he said.

Neighbors below held a blanket to catch him.

We grabbed this cover, and we told him to just jump, and they told him 1, 2, 3, 4, and he jumped, neighbor Earl Stiff told CBS Chicago. It was like 20 people holding the blanket.

It was hard, because we dont have credentials for this, but we had to do what we had to do, neighbor Tevin Thompson added.

Montys uncle, Paul Reedus Sr., said that he never could have made the jump. I think hes a hero, Reedus said. I looked way up there. I said, He jumped from up there? I said, Oh my God, what a brave little boy.

His mother, Judy Spencer, said the child is fine.

I sure do appreciate everybody who helped my son, I thank yall a lot, Spencer said.

It took firefighters around four hours to contain the blaze.

At least 100 residents were displaced due to the fire, and theyre now getting assistance from the Red Cross, NBC Chicago reported.

The cause of the fire was not been revealed. Investigators told ABC7 that there were working smoke detectors in the building.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersMan Attacks Golden Arches at McDonalds After Employees Refuse to Make Him 30 Double Cheeseburgers

A man tried to destroy McDonalds golden arches after staff refused to make him 30 double cheeseburgers.

Police said Jedediah Ezekiel Fulton, 37, became upset while waiting at the fast-food restaurant in Sutherlin, Oregon, on March 16.

They said Fulton destroyed a banner and then attacked the arches after staff turned down his large order.

Sutherlin Police also say after Fulton grabbed a persons shirt, another person pulled out a gun in fear.

Fulton is charged with second-degree disorderly conduct, second-degree criminal trespass, second-degree criminal mischief and harassment, according to the News-Review.

Its unknown whether Fulton has an attorney.Man Wielding Machete Tried to Kidnap Children at Walmart

A man was arrested after he walked into a Walmart in Kenner, Louisiana, and used a machete to try and kidnap children.

Billy Yoe Budier-Herrera, 33 first tried to take a 2-year-old boy and then an infant, as he brandished his blade.

He was charged with two counts of second-degree kidnapping of a child, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of illegal carrying of weapons and disturbing the peace, according to the Kenner Police Department. He was arrested on Friday, March 23.

Police said he could possibly be an illegal immigrant, according to FOX5 NY.

Budier-Herrera entered the Walmart at approximately 2 p.m. with his backpack. He first approached the mother of a 2-year-old child and told her if she did not obey him, she would die.

The mother tried walking away but he blocked her path and placed his hand on the handle of a machete. At that moment the mother, fearing for her life, asked for help from store employees.

At the same time, Budier-Herrera grabbed the 2-year-old and attempted to flee with the child. But the victims mother held onto her child as a struggle followed.

The victims mother ran behind the counter with her child in the deli section of the store, as store employees arrived to intervene, a police press released said. Budier-Herrera then fled from store employees into the meat/poultry section of the store, which caused alarm to other customers.

As he was fleeing, he turned around and aggressively swung his machete at the employees chasing him.

Still running, he then saw another mother and her infant child strapped in the child seat of a grocery cart. He tried removing the infant from the cart but couldnt because of the seat strap.

Tonight at 10 on WDSU Kenner Police say

A man with a book bag

A gun

And a machete Tried to snatch

2 different kids

From the

Veterans Highway Walmart@wdsu #Tammy@10 pic.twitter.com/IOHHT9qaPH  TAMMY ESTWICK (@ESTWICKwdsu) March 24, 2018

Budier-Herrera was then tackled by store employees and a Kenner police officer who was working on an off-duty detail inside the store.

At the time of the arrest, police said they found a 10-inch machete, pepper spray, and a makeshift shiv made out of a plastic handle, razor blades, and duct tape.

As of Friday, he remained in custody with no set bond. He was also charged with an immigration detainer.

Any witnesses are asked to contact Kenner Police Detective Vincent Miranti at (504) 712-2330, Sgt. Jeff Adams at (504) 712-2310, or Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.

From NTD.tv

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Corvette ChaseDemonstrators listen to speakers during the March for Our Lives rally March 24, 2018, in Washington. (Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

March for Our Lives Crowd Much Smaller Than Organizers Estimates

The crowd at the March for Our Lives demonstration in the nations capital on Saturday, March 24, was much smaller than estimates from the organizers of the event, according to an imaging company.

The gun control march in Washington peaked at 202,796 people, according to Digital Design & Imaging Service.

The Virginia-based company starts with aerial photos and uses a proprietary method for calculating crowd size based on the photos, according to CBS News.

Organizers for the march claimed approximately 800,000 people attended the event, reported NBC News.

March organizers told ABC 7 that they couldnt comment on the exact figure but cited reports published by major news organizations [that] put the crowd size at 850,000 people.

Metrorail said that total ridership was 558,735 for the entire day, which includes people who were not attending the march.

The agency reported a total ridership of 1 million on the day of the Womens March in Washington last year.

That march was the largest single-day demonstration in U.S. history, according to Digital Design & Imaging Service. That event drew 440,000 people, the company said.

An impressive crowd gathered today in DC for the #MarchForOurLives rally pic.twitter.com/hiPRYcb7OJ  DigitalGlobe (@DigitalGlobe) March 24, 2018

Marcel Altenburg and Keith Still, crowd scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University in Britain, estimated that at least 470,000 people attended the march last year, reported The New York Times.

A city official told The Associated Press that participation in the march likely surpassed half a million.

The National Park Service, though, said an anti-Vietnam War protest in 1969 drew 600,000 people, reported The Associated Press.

Participation estimates in gatherings on the National Mall and nearby areas used to be provided by the service, but the agency stopped after the Million Man March in 1995.

Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan, known for his racist comments against white people and his disparaging comments against Jews, threatened to sue the park service after the agency estimated that 400,000 attended the march, while organizers believed they had reached their goal of 1 million participants, according to AP.

Researchers at Boston University later estimated that the crowd was actually in between the figures, around 800,000 people.

No lawsuit ended up being filed but it ended the official estimates from the park service. The following year, Congress barred the agency from spending money to count crowds, and the practice has continued to this day despite the language disappearing from subsequent budgets.

No matter what we said or did, no one ever felt we gave a fair estimate, U.S. Park Police Maj. J.J. McLaughlin said.

From NTD.tv

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Wranglers Wrestle With Alligator to Remove Eggs From NestA worker checks steel wires at a warehouse in Dalian City, Liaoning Province of northern China, on May 15, 2017. (Stringer/Reuters)

News Analysis: Why China Is Hitting Back at Trumps Proposed Tariffs With $3 Billion Duties on American Goods

The targeted goods are mainstay of economies in Trump voter bases

After U.S. President Donald Trump announced $50 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese imported goods, the Chinese regime announced it would hit back with tariffs of its own. The day after Trumps proposals, Chinas Ministry of Commerce announced on March 23 that it would impose about $3 billion worth of tariffs on U.S. imported goods.

A 15 percent import tariff would be levied on 120 types of U.S. products, including fruits, wine, ginseng, and steel pipes. Another tariff, at 25 percent, would target another eight categories, including pork products and recycled aluminum. The Ministry said the tariffs are a direct response to the U.S.-issued tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum announced earlier this month.

It is interesting to note that the Chinese regime has chosen to attack agricultural products, the mainstay of economies in the heartland states that make up Trumps voter base.

The Chinese embassy in the U.S. released a statement early on March 23, noting that while China does not want to start a trade war, the country is not afraid of and will not recoil from a trade war. China is confident and capable of facing any challenge.

But by the numbers, Chinas retaliation is rather weak, at less than 10 percent of the United States proposed $50 billion worth of tariffs.

Perhaps China does not wish to escalate because it has more to lose in a trade fight. Xia Yeliang, economist and former visiting fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, postulated in an interview that China would suffer more in the end, since it largely copies and steals American intellectual property and will likely have to pay for its offenses.

Video: How Industrial warfare has occurred between USA and China



For the United States, the tariffs would affect American low- to middle-income consumers who buy most of the made-in-China products, but they have an insignificant impact on American national interests, Xia added.

He believed the only effective tool in Chinas arsenal would be to restrict market access to U.S. goods. However, such a move would not go over well with Chinese consumers who enjoy using American products.

Unfair Practices

Chinas foreign ministry has called the tariffs unfair, but the Chinese regime has long engaged in trade practices that put others at a disadvantage. According to a 2014 World Trade Organization (WTO) report, China is the subject of 27 percent of all WTO members anti-dumping investigations. India, Brazil, and Australia issued the most probes.

With regards to U.S.China trade relations, China has historically enacted higher tariffs on U.S. imports than vice versa.

In the category of meat products for human consumption, for example, the most-favored-nation tariffthe lowest possible tariff a country can assess on another countryfor U.S. imports into China is 18.93 percent, compared to 6.01 percent for Chinese imports into the United States, according to WTO data.

Trump also recently cited tweets made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk that illustrated the imbalance: an American car going to China is charged a 25 percent import duty, compared to a Chinese car coming into America that is charged a 2.5 percent import duty.

And for many raw materials that China is the leading producer of, the country has leveraged its position to enact export restraints such as duties, quotas, and minimum export pricesmany of which are key materials for manufacturing American products such as wind turbines, steel, cars, petroleum, and advanced electronics, according to the U.S. Trade Representatives 2017 report on foreign trade barriers.

China charges a 6.87 percent tariff on American copper, compared to 2.07 percent for Chinese copper to enter the United States. Copper is among a list of 11 raw materials that the United States has sought to challenge at the WTO for Chinas continued export restraints.

New Tang Dynasty Television contributed to this report.

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Trump Describes Border Wall With Mexico as a Military AssetSeddique Mateen (C-red ball cap), whose son shot and killed 49 people and injured 53 others inside the Pulse nightclub in June, sits with supporters at a rally for Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, Florida on August 8, 2016. (GREGG NEWTON/AFP/Getty Images)

Officials Reveal Secret About Orlando Nightclub Shooters Father

The father of the Orlando nightclub shooter was a secret FBI informant, officials revealed over the weekend.

Seddique Mateen was a FBI confidential human source at various points in time between January 2005 and June 2016, lawyers for Noor Salman, the wife of the Pulse nightclub shooter, revealed in a court document that was filed on Sunday.

The lawyers quoted Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Sweeney.

Salman, 31, has been charged with obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting her husband, Omar Mateen, in his allegiance to radical Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

Authorities searched the home of the elder Mateen in June 2016 and found receipts for money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan in the months leading up to the attack at the nightclub in Orlando, which left 49 people dead, according to Sweeney.

As a result of the discovery of these receipts, an FBI investigation into Seddique Mateen was opened, she said in the letter quoted by Salmans lawyers. S. Mateen has not been informed by the FBI about the investigation.

FBI Special Agent Juvenal Martin considered developing Omar Mateen into a confidential informant for the FBI after investigating him and not finding a tie to terrorism.  Krista M. Torralva (@KMTorralva) March 26, 2018

The letter also stated that Mateen was fundraising to contribute toward a planned attack on the government of Pakistan, the lawyers said.

Salmans attorneys cited the letters revelations as to why there should be a mistrial, accusing the government of violating Salmans rights to due process and a fair trial.

It is apparent from the Governments belated disclosure that Ms. Salman has been defending a case without a complete set of facts and evidence that the Government was required to disclose, the court document said. If the Government had provided this information, the Defense would have investigated whether a tie existed between Seddique Mateen and his son, specifically whether Mateens father was involved in or had foreknowledge of the Pulse attack.

U.S. District Judge Paul Byron said he would consider the motion on Monday evening.

UPDATE: A worried Noor Salman texted her husband ???? What happened?! just after he massacred Pulse nightclub patrons, jurors were shown https://t.co/O17owwIPBp pic.twitter.com/xOn8DKfYlr  Orlando Sentinel (@orlandosentinel) March 21, 2018

The lawyers have denied Salman had anything to do with the attack.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that Seddique Mateen was not called to testify despite being on the prosecutors witness list.

The defense lawyers started presenting their case on Monday.

Salman has apologized for what her husband did, telling The New York Times in 2016 that she was sorry.

I dont condone what he has done, she told the newspaper, reported WFTV. I am very sorry for what has happened. He has hurt a lot of people.

In opening arguments, Linda Moreno, one of the defense lawyers, claimed that Salman has a low IQ, reported The Sentinel.

Moreno sought to portray Salman as a trusting and simple person who had no idea that she would wake up a widow, and Omar Mateen a martyr for a cause that she didnt support.

From NTD.tv

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First Lady Melania Trump Meets with School Shooting Survivor Kyle KashuvParents Accused of Beating, Burning Daughter With Hot Oil After She Refused Arranged Marriage

The parents of a 16-year-old girl who went missing in late January have been charged for allegedly abusing their daughter after she refused to submit to an arranged marriage leading her to run away from home.

Maarib Al Hishmawi was last seen on Jan. 30 after leaving Taft High School in San Antonio, Texas, where she was a student.

The teen was found in mid-March alive and safe. She has been living in the care of child protective services since then, said police.

After questioning the teen, police learned of some quite disturbing details that had led to the teen running away from home.

Parents of once missing teen Maarib Hishmawi now charged with continuous violence against family, authorities say teen was beaten with broom & hot cooking oil poured on her because she was refusing an arranged marriage @News4SA @KABBFOX29 Maarib is safe in CPS custody pic.twitter.com/dg570gNAi0  Melissa Vega (@melissamvega) March 24, 2018

The teens parents  Abdulah Fahmi Al Hishmawi, 34, and Hamdiyah Saha Al Hishmawi, 33  allegedly tried to arrange a marriage for the teen, who was 15-years-old at the time, with a 28-year-old man living in another city in exchange for a sum of $20,000 in May 2017, police said. When Maarib refused to go through with the marriage, her parents allegedly subjected her to physical abuse where they beat her with a broomstick, choked her, and even burned her with hot oil, according to police.

This young lady, at various times over that time period, was subjected to some pretty bad abuse because she didnt want to be married to this person, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said in a statement on Friday, March 23.

Several times it was reported to us that this young lady was abused with hot cooking oil being thrown on her body. She was beaten with broomsticks. At least at one point, she was choked almost to the point of unconsciousness.

Its really heartbreaking to hear, he added.

Police said Maarib then agreed to the marriage in order to stop the abuse. However, when the marriage was going to take place, the 16-year-old decided to run away from home to avoid getting married.

Her parents have been charged with continuous violence against a family member and were taken into custody on March 23. Salazar said the Federal Bureau of Investigation is also looking into the girls disappearance. He believes other charges may be filed pending the investigation.

Maarib is accompanied by her siblings  aged between five and 15  in the custody of child protective services, police said. Salazar said during the news conference that it is unclear whether the other siblings were abused as well.

Authorities said the 28-year-old man who was involved in the arranged marriage will likely face charges.

Bexar County Sheriff deputies have arrested the parents of Maarib Al Hishmawi, the S.A. student who went missing in January. Were told the girl has been found alive and in CPS Custody. #kens5eyewitness pic.twitter.com/1wGRFaoBd1  Roxie Bustamante (@RoxieBTV) March 24, 2018

The teens father Abdulah denies the allegations, saying that nobody abused his daughter, reported NBC 4.

He told police about the possible arranged marriage between his daughter and a family friend who lives in Dallas. He said that he was not going to force his daughter to marry the man, but if his daughter agreed, he would give parental consent through the courts to allow the marriage to take place, reported the news station.

He never touched her. He never go to her room. She never go to where he live in Dallas. I have nothing to hide. Im not scared about this. My daughter and this guy  we help those together to build a family,  he said, reported the news station.

Police are investigating the matter. No further information has been provided.

From NTD.tv

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersPoland Detains Energy Official Suspected of Spying for Russia

WARSAWPolands security agents have detained a government official on suspicion of providing Russia with secrets about tactics Warsaw planned to use to try to block the construction of a gas pipeline, the Polish government said on Monday.

Stanislaw Zaryn, spokesman for the minister responsible for the secret services, told state broadcaster TVP Info that the man had been detained on Friday, and that a court had approved his detention the following day for up to three months.

The official, who has been identified only as Marek W., held a position responsible for energy projects and was providing the Russians with information on how Warsaw intended to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Zaryn said.

Poland opposes the construction of Nord Stream 2, which would connect Russia to Germany through a pipeline across the sea and allow Moscow to pump more gas to its main markets in Western Europe while bypassing states further east.

Warsaw says the pipeline would strengthen Gazproms dominant position on the gas market in central and eastern Europe, limit competition and increase Europes dependence on Russian gas.

Polish state news agency PAP said the suspect had been in contact with Russian intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover at the Russian embassy in Warsaw.

The case comes as Britain and the European Union have clashed with Moscow, accusing Russia of being involved in the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in England.

The Russian ambassadors to Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were summoned to the foreign ministries of those countries on Monday, Russian news agencies reported.

The Russian ambassador in Poland declined to comment on the reason for the meeting at the Polish foreign ministry.Police: Florida Man Shot Wife and Her Sister Before Killing Himself

Police in Florida said a man shot his wife and her sister before killing himself.

The mans three children and his sister-in-laws child witnessed the shootings and ran past the bodies of their mothers to exit the house, authorities said, although some reports indicated that all four of the children were siblings.

Julien Techeler Rosemberg used a semi-automatic handgun to kill the two women before walking out to his backyard and killing himself, reported the Sun-Sentinel.

None of the children were injured, police said. They range in age from 5 to 14.

Officials said the wife, 43-year-old Pierrena Rosemberg, and her sister, 41-year-old Lourdine Cazeau, were both shot multiple times by Techeler Rosemberg.

The children were transported to the home of relatives and the state Department of Children and Families was notified.

Relatives from throughout South Florida gathered near the home in Delray Beach where the murders occurred.

She was a strong woman, she would stand up to him, she always said that God would never let him do that to her, a cousin of the sisters, referring to Pierrena Rosemberg, told the Sun-Sentinel.

Rosemberg had told various relatives that her husband threatened to kill her in recent years before the tragedy unfolded on Sunday.

Pearlie McMiller has lived across the street from the home where incident occurred for 3 years. Never had a bit of problem out of them, she said of the people who lived in the home. pic.twitter.com/GVRnFzFAVN  Jennifer Sorentrue (@JenSorentrue) March 25, 2018

But neighbors said the family seemed fine.

I never saw them arguing, their kids would come and play in my sisters yard, they used to come and sit in my sisters yard  never thought something was going on like this, said Pearlie McMiller, who lives across the street. I never knew anything like this happen in this neighborhood, nothing.

The Rosembergs immigrated from Haiti, with Pierrena living in the country for around five years before returning to Haiti and bringing Julien back with her.

She later brought her sister from Haiti to live with her.

A relative told the Palm Beach Post that Pierrena Rosemberg was a hard worker.

She was always working, a woman who identified herself as Pierrena Rosembergs cousin said. She took care of the kids, herself, the family.

The family often had events with relatives, with Rosemberg playing the hostess and cooking for them.

She is very strong, even when she goes through hard times, she laughs a lot, the cousin said. She is full of joy.

Anyone with information is urged to call Detective Oscar Leon at 561-243-7845.

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Texas Sheriff Talks About Why Sanctuaries Dont Help Public SafetyThe iPhone 5s is pictured at a product launch, with the first fingerprint ID system incorporated in an iPhone, in 2013. (Glenn Chapman/AFP/Getty Images)

Police Using Dead Peoples Fingerprints to Unlock iPhones is Relatively Common

Unlocking the iPhones of dead people with their fingerprints is becoming common practice for police in the United States, according to Forbes.

Police have sought warrants to unlock the iPhones of living suspects in the past, and are thought to shell out $1,500-3,000 for each unlocking.

But according to legal expertise and the police themselves, pressing a dead persons digit onto the scanner to unlock a phone does not violate any law, and so far, there are no reports of any legal challenges setting any kind of precedent.

Citing anonymous sources close to local and federal police investigations in New York and Ohio, the Forbes report says the police claim that the practice is relatively common.

We do not need a search warrant to get into a victims phone, unless its shared owned, Ohio police homicide detective Robert Cutshall told Forbes.

According to Marina Medvin, owner of Medvin Law, a deceased person no longer has a privacy interest in their dead body and thus can no longer assert privacy rights in a court.

According to Medvin, relatives or other parties also have no legal mechanism to block police from accessing fingerprints or other body parts to access smartphones.

Once you share information with someone, you lose control over how that information is protected and used, Medvin told Forbes. You cannot assert your privacy rights when your friends phone is searched and the police see the messages that you sent to your friend.

In 2016, biomedical researchers developed a relatively simple technique to unlock iPhones using a 2D fingerprint scan: they printed the victims fingerprints on conductive paper and used the copies to unlock the device.

Facial recognition is now being ushered in as the new biometric security for mobile devices, but according to Forbes, there is no evidence yet that police have opened victims iPhones via Face ID.

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What You Need to Know About Earths Poles Shift 2018

Simon Veazey Freelance Reporter Follow Simon Veazey is a UK-based journalist who has reported for The Epoch Times since 2006 on various beats, from in-depth coverage of British and European politics to web-based writing on breaking news.

deo]Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce (2nd L) and chief financial officer Tino La Spina (2nd R) test out the premium economy seat for the airline's new 787-9 Dreamliner after a press conference in Sydney on Feb. 23, 2017. (WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images)

Qantas Airways Makes First Non-Stop Flight Between Australia and Europe

A Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner made its first non-stop flight between Perth and London in on Saturday, March 24. The historic journey for the Australian airline is the first to connect the two continents of Australia and Europe directly, and is one of the longest commercial flights in the world.

The inaugural flight carried more than 200 passengers and 16 crew members, and took around 17 hours and 20 minutes to complete.

The flight touched down in London at 5:05 a.m. on Sunday, March 25, and covered a distance of approximately 14,484km (9,000 miles), reported 7News.

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce, who was on the inaugural flight, described it as a major milestone for Australia as well as global aviation, according to a statement released on March 24.

This is a truly historic flight that opens up a new era of travel. For the first time, Australia and Europe have a direct air link, Joyce said.

The original Kangaroo Route from Australia to London was named for the seven stops it made over four days back in 1947. Now we can do it in a single leap.

The response to the flight has been amazing, both for the attention its received since we announced it and the bookings weve seen coming in. Its great for Australian tourism, for business travellers and for people visiting friends and family on both sides of the world.

In an historic aviation first @Qantas has safely flown from Australia to the UK, non stop, for the first time. Which is good news, because Im on the return flight later today. 230 years after the First Fleet did the trip in 250-ish days, well do it in 17 hours. #QF9 #QF10 pic.twitter.com/FX9d2TuhJZ  Shannon Deery (@s_deery) March 25, 2018

Joyce said a lot of work had gone into creating an experience that would help passengers cope with a 17-hour flight.

Economy passenger Wayne Kwong documented his flight and shared his experience on social media.

Specially designed meals for this ultra longhaul flight. Tasty, filling but not heavy on your stomach! Well done @Qantas #QF9 pic.twitter.com/Uk9jI5njXM  Wayne Kwong (@waynewykwong) March 25, 2018

Economy class amenity bag for this flight. A thoughful touch #QF9 @Qantas pic.twitter.com/02JEywT4Ra  Wayne Kwong (@waynewykwong) March 25, 2018

Self Serve pantry by rear galley. A very popular inflight meeting place for all! #QF9 @Qantas pic.twitter.com/wNZg8PhAs9  Wayne Kwong (@waynewykwong) March 25, 2018

I chose this light breakfast. Really good to be given this choice on this long flight #QF9 @Qantas ! There was also a midflight hot snack, which I did not have. pic.twitter.com/hu6m6NEZGJ  Wayne Kwong (@waynewykwong) March 25, 2018

Kwong complimented different aspects of the long flight, such as the food and services provided.

All the research that went into the design of the meals has proven to work, he wrote on Twitter.

Qantas said the aircraft was operated by four pilots across the 17-hour journey  with one or two pilots resting at any one time  and seats 236 passengers.

The Dreamliner carries around 92 tonnes or 110,000 litres of fuel and burns approximately 20 percent less than traditional aircraft of its size.

According to the statement, the flight is the third longest commercial flight currently in operation and the worlds longest Dreamliner flight. The longest commercial flight currently available can be taken between New Zealand and Qatar at 17 hours and 40 minutes, according to CNBC.

Congratulations to @Qantas and thanks to the 100,000 people who followed #QF9 with us to London! Didn't catch the live flight? Check out full playback here: https://t.co/O4wMahy4I7 Playback goes much faster than 17 hours, we promise. pic.twitter.com/IjKrG3X3NF  Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 25, 2018

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Taiwan Scrambles Jets as Chinas Air Force Holds Drill Near Island

TAIPEITaiwan sent aircraft on Monday to shadow China air force fighter jets as they flew through the Bashi Channel to the south of the island, its defense ministry said.

China sent an unspecified number of Xian H-6 bombers, Su-30 fighter jets and Y-8 transport aircraft over the waterway on their way to the West Pacific Ocean, the Taiwan ministry said.

They were followed by Taiwan jets until the mainland aircraft returned to base, it said in a statement.

Taiwan on March 21 sent ships and aircraft to shadow a Chinese aircraft carrier group that sailed through the narrow Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan is one of Chinas most sensitive issues and a potential military flashpoint.

The Chinese military movements come during a time of heightened tension between Beijing and the self-governed island and follow strong warnings against Taiwan separatism.

China claims Taiwan as its own and considers the island a breakaway province.

Chinas hostility towards Taiwan has grown since Tsai Ing-wen from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party won presidential elections on the island in 2016.

Meeting New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu in Shanghai on Monday, the newly appointed head of Chinas policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office, Liu Jieyi, said China was clear in its opposition to Taiwan independence, Chinese state television said.

China hopes both sides of the Taiwan Strait can work together for the peaceful development of relations and jointly promote the process of the peaceful reunification of the motherland, Liu told Chu, state television added.

The New Taipei City government said in a statement that Chu, from the China-friendly opposition Nationalist Party, told Liu they hoped for peaceful cooperation.

Although the political situation has changed, what people hope for most is peace, said Chu, who Tsai defeated for the presidency two years ago.

While China insists it has no hostile intent, its military exercises and patrols around Taiwan, and in the busy South China Sea waterway, have touched a nerve in the region and in the United States.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Alex Wong angered Beijing during a recent visit to Taiwan by saying the U.S. commitment to the island had never been stronger.

Two weeks ago by U.S. President Donald Trump signed a law that encourages the United States to send senior officials to Taiwan to meet counterparts and vice versa.The Fast Foods Industry Is Ditching Antibiotic-Laced Chickens

The growing threat of antibiotic resistance has spurred chains to take action

Eating out is a part of American life and becoming more so year-by-year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But the next time you have a craving for a burger or chicken sandwich, ask if the meat and poultry served at the fast food chain is antibiotic free. Knowing whether or not the meat you eat comes from animals fed antibiotics is important.

The reason why is simple: antibiotic resistance.

About 80 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Antibiotic resistance is becoming more frequent. The World Health Organization classifies it as one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today. WHO cites the misuse of antibiotics among animals as one of the main causes of antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotic resistance can make infections untreatable as the bacteria have encountered antibiotics enough to adapt and become resistant. This then forces doctors to prescribe stronger or different antibiotics, which can be hard on a patient.

The good news is that many fast foods have pledged to go antibiotic free. Fourteen of the top 25 companies surveyed in 2017 have taken at least some steps to limit antibiotic use in some or all of their supply chains.

Antibiotic resistance can make infections untreatable as the bacteria have encountered antibiotics enough to adapt and become resistant.

The 14 companies account for two-thirds of all fast food industry revenue. The survey, conducted by Consumers Union, also found that five companies made a commitment for the first time to limit antibiotic use. They include KFC, Burger King, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and Jack in the Box.

Most of the progress made by fast food companies to decrease or eliminate antibiotic use among their supply chains has been in chicken production, the survey found. That is big progress considering that a quarter of all chicken produced in the United States is sold at fast food restaurants.

There are a few companies that already follow better practices. Chipotle and Panera Bread serve pork, beef, and chicken from animals raised without antibiotics. Both companies earned an A grade from the Consumers Union report compiled from the survey. Subway adopted an antibiotic policy that addresses antibiotic use in meat and poultry. However, implementation of the policy in pork and beef is on a timeline, which is why the company earned a B grade.

Nationwide fast food chains are not the only ones to set an antibiotics policy. Pollo Tropical, a chain in Florida and Georgia owned by Fiesta Group, recently announced that all of its chicken menu items will be made with antibiotic-free chicken. The chain will be informing its customers of the change through all forms of advertising, social media, and in-store communication, said Fiesta Restaurant Group President and CEO Rich Stockinger.

Jack in the Box, a West Coast fast food chain, committed to phasing out the use of antibiotics from its poultry supply chains by 2020. Shake Shack, a chain in the Northeast and Florida, sources beef, pork, and poultry from antibiotic-free suppliers.

Gina-Marie Cheeseman is a freelance writer. This article was originally published on NaturallySavvy.comTrump Calls for Border Wall Construction via Military, Cites National Defense

President Donald Trump proposed on March 25 to use the recently approved giant military budget to fund the wall on the border with Mexico, emphasizing the barriers function for national defense.

Trumps proposal comes at a time of increased tensions with Iran. Hezbollah, the Iranian regimes terror proxy, has built up an ominous presence in South America, especially in Peru. The threat of armed terrorists crossing the border is likely to increase if the president delivers on a campaign promise to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. Trump is scheduled to visit Peru next month, his first visit to South America as president.

Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich, Trump wrote on Twitter on March 25. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!

Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2018

Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill on March 23 that included $654 billion in funding for defense but only $1.6 billion in funds for work on the border wall, his signature campaign promise.

The importance of funding the wall was made clear when Trump briefly threatened to veto the spending bill because it didnt include adequate funding. The $1.6 billion is far short of the estimated $25 billion needed for the wall, and the funds come with strings attached, prohibiting Trump from building the kind of wall he wants.

Before casting the wall as a military structure, Trump promoted it as a way of stemming the flow of illegal drugs and aliens across the border. Opioids killed 42,000 people in the United States in 2016, a five-fold increase from 1999. Meanwhile, illegal alien households drain an estimated $55 billion from American taxpayers every year, according to a study by The Heritage Foundation.

I want to address the situation on border security, which I call national defense. I call it stopping drugs from pouring across our border. And I call it illegal immigration. Its all of those things.  President Donald Trump

I want to address the situation on border security, which I call national defense, Trump said at the signing ceremony for the spending bill on March 23. I call it stopping drugs from pouring across our border. And I call it illegal immigration. Its all of those things. But national defense is a very important two words. Because by having a strong border system, including a wall, we are in a position, militarily, that is very advantageous.

Before signing the spending bill, the president attempted to cut a deal with Democrats, offering concessions for beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in exchange for $25 billion for the wall. The White House rejected the deal after the Democrats asked for far more.

Trump had hinted at the signing ceremony that the military could be used to build the wall. The president brought up Gen. James Mattis to speak immediately after he remarked on the walls military significance. In Mattiss brief comments, he mentioned that the Pentagon will use the money granted in the spending bill wisely.

In 1790, in George Washingtons first annual address to Congress, he stated, To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving the peace, Mattis said.

Now, its our responsibility in the military to spend every dollar wisely in order to keep the trust and the confidence of the American people and the Congress.

The military could fund the wall by generating 3.8 percent in cost savings. The armed forces are also well staffed and equipped to carry out the work. The Army Corps of Engineers employs more than 37,000 members skilled in building critical infrastructure. The Navy Seabees have 7,000 personnel on the construction force, with 6,297 in reserves.

The Army Corps of Engineers had already done preliminary work for wall construction by July last year. Engineers drilled and took samples in California, New Mexico, and Texas to determine which type of wall would be needed in different areas along the border.

A change in how the military spends its budget would require 60 votes in the Senate, and Trump would need to swing Democrats to do so. Former President Barack Obama circumvented Congressional approval for a spending bill in 2009 by issuing a signing statement, a practice presidents have used since the 19th century. Former President George W. Bush signed more than 140 such statements. Obama signed dozens.Trump, EU Leaders, and Ukraine Expel 99 Russians Over Nerve-Agent Attack

President Donald Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian intelligence and shuttered the Russian consulate in Seattle in response to Russias alleged use of a military-grade nerve agent to attack a Russian ex-spy in the United Kingdom.

The White House coordinated the expulsions with Americas NATO allies. On Monday, 14 members of the European Union, along with Ukraine, announced the expulsions of 40 Russians.

Germany, France, and Poland expelled four diplomats each. Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Italy, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland also announced expulsions. Ukraine, which is not a member of the EU, expelled 13 diplomats. In total, 100 Russians were expelled on Monday.

American authorities chose the Seattle consulate because it is located next to United States submarine bases and a Boeing plant, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, who described the nerve agent attack as the latest in Russias ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world.

Russia denies allegations that it is behind the UK attack.

Todays actions make the United States safer by reducing Russias ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten Americas national security, Sanders said.

With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences, Sanders said. The United States stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian governments behavior.

According to White House officials, 48 of the Russians expelled worked for the Russian embassy. Twelve others worked at the United Nations. All were given seven days to leave the country, Fox News reported.

Ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a Soviet-made military-grade nerve agent on March 4. Both remain unconscious and in critical condition.

Trump had previously joined British Prime Minister Theresa May and the leaders of France and Germany to condemn Russia for the attack.

It is an assault on the United Kingdoms sovereignty and any such use by a state party is a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law, the leaders said in a statement. It threatens the security of us all.

Russia denies having any role in the attack and said it will only cooperate with the investigation if UK authorities provide samples of the agent used in the attack. Chemical warfare experts say that Russia has no right to the samples.

Russia has no right to have access to the samples, Professor Alastair Hay, a chemical warfare expert from Leeds University, told EuroNews.

I suspect, but may be wrong, that the UK would not want to run the risk of Russia investigating the samples and claiming it had either found nothing or something quite different. That would then develop into an unhelpful argument.

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Trump Describes Border Wall With Mexico as a Military Asset

Ivan Pentchoukov Follow Ivan has reported for The Epoch Times on a variety of topics since 2011. IvanPentchoukov

ragment=1>[/epoch_video]Two Firefighters Killed While Responding to Deadly Crash in West Virginia

Two firefighters were killed in West Virginia late Saturday while responding to a deadly car crash in West Virginia.

A woman from Kentucky, 77-year-old Beatrice Patrick, was driving her Chevrolet Malibu northbound in the southbound lanes of I-77 when she struck a Buick sedan being driven by James and Tonya Platte of Michigan.

The crash sent the Buick off the road and into a box truck that was being towed.

The Plattes, and Patrick are dead, reported WCHS. The driver of the truck was sent to the hospital with minor injuries.

A long line of first responders still on scene where the Pratt volunteer fire dept. truck crashed this evening. Two firefighters were killed. Three more are in the hospital tonight. @Ashleyb_WCHS will have the latest on @wchs8fox11 at 10 and 11. pic.twitter.com/t3H7EQlBzD  Jessi Starkey (@JessiWCHS) March 25, 2018

Firefighters from Pratt were rushing to the scene of the crash when their fire engine left the edge of the roadway and hit the rock face that borders the highway, reported WSAZ.

Firefighters Michael Edwards and Tom Craigo were killed in the accident. Edwards had served 25 years as a firefighter while Craigo had served about 15 years as a firefighter.

Three other firefighters were injured in the accident.



Deputy Chief Rod Pratt said in a statement that he had never seen such a horrific event.

In all my combined 60 years of service with EMS and the Fire Service I have never been involved in such a horrific and tragic event as this. I, like others, are lost for words to describe our pain and sorrow for our lost brothers and their families, Johnson said.

He thanked all the agencies that sent people to help with the accidents and urged prayer for the firefighters who survived as well as the families of those who were lost in the accidents.

The chief of the Pratt Volunteer Fire Department is still in intensive care after the accident, reported WCHS.

Timmy Walker passed several neurological exams on Sunday night and Monday morning.

Family members said he was able to give a thumbs up when asked, although initially it was discovered Walker had some skull fractures and bleeding on the brain.

A candlelight vigil was held on Sunday night in Pratt, with firefighters from across the state coming in to show their support.

The fire service is like a brotherhood, Chesapeake Fire Chief P.J. Johnson told MetroNews following the vigil. When things like this happen it hits hard.

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Uber Sells Southeast Asia Business to Grab After Costly Battle

SINGAPORE/SAN FRANCISCORide-hailing firm Uber has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian business to bigger regional rival Grab, the firms said on Monday, marking the U.S. companys second retreat from an Asian market.

The industrys first big consolidation in Southeast Asia, home to about 640 million people, puts pressure on Indonesias Go-Jek, which is backed by Alphabet Incs Google and Chinas Tencent Holdings Ltd.

A shake-up in Asias fiercely competitive ride-hailing industry became likely earlier this year when Japan-based SoftBank Group Corps Vision Fund made a multi-billion dollar investment in Uber.

It was really a very independent decision by both companies, Grab President Ming Maa told Reuters, adding that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son was highly supportive.

Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in Singapore-based Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grabs board. Grab was last valued at an estimated $6 billion.

It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology, Khosrowshahi said in a statement.

For Grab, the deal will help its meal-delivery service, which will now merge with Uber Eats, compete with Go-Jek, according to a person close to Grab.

Go-Jek is a dominant player in Indonesia, the regions biggest economy, and has rapidly expanded beyond ride-hailing to digital payments, food delivery, on-demand cleaning and massage.

Go-Jek is such a different app, with different behaviors, it is something I cant see Grab competing with well in Indonesia for a long time, like at least a year, said Vinnie Lauria, partner at Southeast Asias Golden Gate Ventures.

Ride-hailing companies throughout Asia have relied heavily on discounts and promotions, driving down profit margins and increasing pressure for consolidation.

Uber, which is preparing for a potential initial public offering in 2019, lost $4.5 billion last year and is facing fierce competition as well as a regulatory crackdown in Europe.

Uber invested $700 million in its Southeast Asia business, less than the $2 billion it burned through in China before ceding its operations there to Didi.

More Consolidation

Uber anticipated making more deals with rivals, but said it had no plans to do another sale in which it consolidates its operations in exchange for a minority stake in a rival.

It is fair to ask whether consolidation is now the strategy of the day, given this is the third deal of its kind  The answer is no, Khosrowshahi said in a note to employees that was shared with Reuters.

One of the potential dangers of our global strategy is that we take on too many battles across too many fronts and with too many competitors.

A source familiar with Ubers strategy said the company was going to step up its battle with Ola in India, another competitive and costly market where rivals have heavily subsidized rides in an effort to gain market share. Uber has close to 60 percent of the market there, by some estimates.

India accounts for more than 10 percent of Ubers trips globally, but the company is not making money there yet.

Southeast Asia was really difficult for Uber. In India, that competition is not across so many different fronts, Lauria said.

Uber previously retreated from China and Russia under former CEO Travis Kalanick. The deal with Grab is the first operations sale by Khosrowshahi, who started in September.

Rajeev Misra, chief executive of SoftBanks Vision Fund, had urged the company to focus less on Asia and more on profitable markets such as Latin America, according to a person familiar with the matter.

He saw opportunities for mergers and joint ventures between SoftBank-backed ride-hailing companies, particularly for collaborating on R&D, but the investor would never get actively involved with management decisions, the person said.

SoftBank is also one of the main investors in other ride-hailing firms including Chinas Didi Chuxing and Indias Ola.

Uber includes the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America among its core marketsregions where it has more than 50 percent market share and is profitable or sees a path to profitability.

A Grab spokeswoman said all Uber employees in its Southeast Asia operations would be offered employment in Grab.Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (C), flanked by President of the Central Tibetan Administration Lobsang Sangay (R) and Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile Penpa Tsering (L), greets the audience during the 52nd anniversary of Tibetan Democracy Day at the Tsuglakhang Temple in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala on Sept. 2, 2012. (STRDEL/AFP/GettyImages)

US Congress Affirms Support for Tibet With $17 Million in Aid to Exiled Government and Tibetans Worldwide

Amidst an escalating diplomatic and economic standoff between the United States and the Chinese communist regime, the U.S. Congress has approved a massive spending bill that includes $17 million that will be used to support Tibetans in and out of Tibet. This includes the Tibetan government-in-exile, which is vehemently opposed by the Chinese regime that currently rules over Tibet.

The funds were earmarked through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, and include $8 million for Tibetans inside Tibet and $6 Million for Tibetan community in India and Nepal. On top of that, Congress created an additional new line of funding of $3 million to strengthen the capacity of the Tibetan government in exile and Tibetan institutions.

We remain thankful to the U.S. government and Congress for their generous financial assistance towards the Tibetan community, said Dr. Lobsang Sangay, president of the Tibetan government-in-exile, officially known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).

The CTA is headquartered in Dharamshala, India, and effectively represents the Tibetan exile community in India, which numbers around 100,000. It also claims to represent the people of the entire Tibet region, which has been occupied by the Chinese regime ever since its military invasion of Tibet in 1950.

The increase of funds granted by Congress alleviates concerns that U.S. support for Tibet might be dwindling, as the Trump administrations slashing of State Department budgets in 2017 had at the time raised fears that funding for Tibetans might be cut or terminated completely.

The funding is consistent with the decades-old U.S. policy of providing support for the Tibetans and the Tibetan exile government, despite the Chinese regimes consistent opposition to such aid, which it sees as meddling in Chinas domestic affairs.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersSaudi women wait for their drivers outside a shopping mall in Riyadh on Sept. 26, 2011 a day after King Abdullah granted women the right to vote and run in municipal elections, in a historic first for the ultra-conservative country where women are subjected to many restrictions. (FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images)

US Religious Freedom Body Urges Saudi to Prioritize Textbook Reform

DUBAISaudi Arabia has made little progress in removing textbook content that promotes violence and hatred towards religious minorities and others, a U.S. government watchdog said, encouraging Riyadh to take the issue more seriously.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, currently on his first visit to the United States as heir apparent, has promised to promote a more moderate form of Islam in the deeply conservative Muslim kingdom. The kingdom became ultraconservative during the 1980s at a time when politicized Islamic movements were sweeping through the Arab world. In 1992, Saudi Arabias Basic Law, based on Sharia law and the Quran, was adopted by royal decree under King Fahd.

The Saudi education minister last week said the country was revamping its education curriculum to eradicate any trace of Muslim Brotherhood influence and dismiss anyone working in the sector who sympathizes with the banned group.

In a new study of select textbooks in use in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in a statement on Saturday it had compared twelve 2017-2018 high school religion textbooks with versions from 2012-2014 and found that the current books contained not only numerous intolerant and inflammatory passages but also several passages specifically thought to have been removed from earlier books.

It said examples of intolerant content included passages extolling jihad  or holy war  as fighting against non-Muslims, prescribing execution of apostates and those who mock God or the Prophet Mohammad, and demeaning non-Muslims and warning Muslims against associating with them.

The Saudi government information office did not immediately respond when asked for comment.

The USCIRF review matches a report last year by Human Rights Watch that said a review of religion books produced by the Education Ministry for the 2016-2017 school year found that the curriculum promotes intolerance.

The commission said such passages demonstrate how little progress has been made over the last 15 years in textbook reform in the kingdom whose late King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz launched an overhaul of state schools and universities in 2005 as part of reforms that were designed to ease the influence of religious clerics, build a modern state and create jobs.

USCIRF urges (the U.S.) Congress and the administration to make textbook reform a priority in its engagement with the Saudi government, especially in light of that governments progress in other areas of reform, USCIRF Chairman Daniel Mark said, referring to the recent wave of progressive reforms under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Prince Mohammed is visiting the United States to attract investment and drum up support for domestic economic reforms.

On a visit to Britain earlier this month, the crown prince met the head of the Anglican church in London and promised to promote interfaith dialogue as part of reforms.

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Archaeologists Discover Ancient Necropolis in EgyptVaccine Injury Payouts: Consumers on the Hook for over $3.8 Billion as Vaccine Makers Rake in Profits

The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) that went into effect in 1988 stipulated that vaccine manufacturers cannot be held liable for injuries or deaths that occur from use of their vaccines which are recommended for every child in America by the Centers for Disease Control. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) or vaccine court created with this Act is not a court at all but actually a consumer-funded government claims program that uses special masters, employees of Health and Human Services (HHS), rather than judges to make decisions on compensation to victims.

The vaccine manufacturers are defended by government-funded, Department of Justice lawyers. The petitioners on the other hand, while suffering from and paying for their or their childs injuries, become embroiled in a litigious system where cases, according to the U.S. Government Accounting Office, are known to drag on for years.

Vaccine makers are in a win-win position that no other industry in America enjoys. While profits go to vaccine companies, the monetary amounts awarded to the vaccine-injured from vaccine court are paid for by consumers. As vaccine makers arent held accountable for unsafe products intended for children, theres no incentive for them to ensure the vaccines they manufacture are safe.

If the numbers from VAERS and HHS are correct  only 1% of vaccine injuries are reported and only 1/3 of the petitions are compensated  then up to 99% of vaccine injuries go unreported

The total awards distributed to vaccine injury victims are updated monthly by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). World Mercury Project will be sharing these updates with our followers.

Since 1988, over 19,178 petitions have been filed to HHS. Over that 30-year time period, 17,079 petitions have been adjudicated, with 5,928 of those determined to be compensable (approximately 30%), while 11,151 were dismissed.

As astronomical as the monetary awards are, theyre even more alarming considering HHS claims that only an estimated 1% of vaccine injuries are even reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). If the numbers from VAERS and HHS are correct  only 1% of vaccine injuries are reported and only 1/3 of the petitions are compensated  then up to 99% of vaccine injuries go unreported and the families of the vast majority of people injured by vaccines are picking up the costs, once again, for vaccine makers flawed products.

By the World Mercury Project Team. Visit worldmercuryproject.org for more information.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Will the West Lose Turkey?

Relations between Turks and Western Europeans have always been fraught.

It takes a bit of historical perspective to remember that Europeans encountered Turks as one of the invading groups that regularly boiled out of Asia seeking conquest on their way to the English Channel.

With desperate fighting, Europeans stopped the Turkish onslaught at Vienna in 1683. Although little by little the Turkish monarchy became less dynamic and effective, the Ottoman Empire retained control of good portions of southern Europe and the Middle East.

Love was not lost between Europeans and Turks.

And, while by the beginning of the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire was dubbed the sick man of Europe, its control of the Dardanelles and thus Russian exit to the Mediterranean continued to give it strategic significance.

Read More Human Rights Threatened in Todays Turkey

But with the outbreak of WWI, the Ottomans made a fatal error: they aligned with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Although German-organized Turkish forces repulsed British/Allied forces at Gallipoli, defeat of Germany and its allies resulted in disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the Ottoman domestic political structure.

Therewith followed an extended period of confused fighting, including a Greek invasion of Turkey (1919-22) and massive exchanges of populations between Greece and Turkey. Included in the chaos were the still historically disputed military and political actions regarding the Armenian population.

Ultimately modern Turkey emerged from the ruins in 1923. Led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the successful military leader in post-WWI fighting, this new country took a firmly pro-Western stance. Ataturk secularized society and politics, repressing Islamic activity, ending use of Arabic script, emphasizing Western clothing, providing education for all, giving women a more prominent role in society, and designing a political structure with democratic trappings but a strong presidency. The armed forces were placed in oversight to assure the continuation of the Ataturk structure.

And it worked. Turkey edged steadily closer to the West throughout the Cold War. A Turkish brigade fought in Korea; Ankara joined NATO in 1952. Although Greek-Turkish animosity remained boiling, acerbated by the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 following an attempted Greek-inspired coup and Ankaras fears for Turkish Cypriots, NATO-Europe accepted Turkey, despite these warts.

As part of the U.S. global presence, Washington maintained military bases in Turkey and provided the Turkish armed forces with high quality military equipment and training to assure an effective counter to potential Soviet excursions in the region.

But with the end of the Cold War, Turkey began to appear superfluous so far as European interests were concerned. Ankaras efforts to join the EU (for its obvious political benefits) starting in 1987 were delayed/sidetracked through 2016 when they were de facto suspended. Significant European leaders regarded Turkish westernization as veneer and were uninterested in giving tens of millions of Muslims free entry to the EU. Ankara remains frustrated with this cold shoulder.

And Now the Kurds

It is difficult to explain the Kurdish-Turkish passions to Americans. Imagine, perhaps, an insurgent Hispanic movement seeking to create an independent Hispanistan incorporating Southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico. U.S. efforts to repress the movement stimulate greater violenceincluding terror bombings killing hundreds in major U.S. cities. An element of U.S. armed forces attempts a coupwhich loyal forces suppress (and the suppression includes massive arrests of participants and prominent citizens not sympathetic to the Hispanics, but hostile to the government). No compromise appears possible.

In Turkey a longstanding Kurdish minority has sought greater autonomy; nationalistic Turks have been unresponsive. Efforts at accommodation have failed, and Turkish military efforts to suppress Kurds in border regions as well as discrimination against Kurdish citizens has generated ever greater domestic tension, including bombings killing hundreds.

The most prominent Turkish political leader of our era, Recep Erdogan, through a series of elections has gained ever greater power, depending for support increasingly on rural and Islamic-oriented citizens. Step by step, he has marginalized the westernized political elite.

The proximate cause for current Turkish political turmoil was the unsuccessful military coup in July 2016demonstrating that when you strike at the king, you must kill him. Erdogan responded with massive arrests, incarcerations, and repression of media, democratic institutions, and every element that might be regarded as hostile. The upshot has been intense criticism and denunciation by humanitarian and other organizations, albeit not the United Nations.

Consequently, we face conundrums. Turkey is not run by League of Women Voters rules, and Erdogan is a brutal autocrat. Ankara, however, remains a vital player in Middle East politics whose support for U.S. objectives is vital.

These facts lead to this conclusion: Human rights have to go on the backburner.

David T. Jones is a retired U.S. State Department senior foreign service career officer who has published several hundred books, articles, columns, and reviews on U.S.Canadian bilateral issues and general foreign policy. During a career that spanned over 30 years, he concentrated on politico-military issues, serving as adviser for two Army chiefs of staff. Among his books is Alternative North Americas: What Canada and the United States Can Learn from Each Other.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.NORWALK  Roma Stibravy is hopeful solar power will be Norwalks defining contribution to the newly formed, multi-town green energy cooperative known as Sustainable Fairfield County.

My input to Sustainable Fairfield County is that Manresa Island should be a solar-energy site for Norwalk, said Stibravy, a Norwalk resident and member of the new cooperative. It could make an energy contribution for all of Fairfield County.

Solar energy is one of several ideas proposed for the 125-acre waterfront property owned by NRG Energy and home to an oil-burning power plant that was decommissioned in June 2013.

As a Norwalk member of Sustainable Fairfield County, Stibravy said her first task will be to reach out to any and all groups and individuals interested in making Norwalk a sustainable and renewable energy city with clean air and better health.

On Thursday, Daphne Dixon, executive director and co-founder of Norwalk-based Live Green Connecticut!, announced that 10 Fairfield County communities had joined together to help advance environmental sustainability and responsibility countywide by forming Sustainable Fairfield County.

The groups mission is to work collaboratively to educate the public on ways to enhance its member communities, using approaches that are economically viable, socially beneficial, and environmentally responsible, according to a statement released by Dixon.

At this point, the member communities are Westport, Darien, Easton, Fairfield, Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk, Trumbull, Weston and Wilton. Dixon and other founding members, however, are actively seeking to include representation from all other towns throughout the county.

Fairfield County is distinguished by some of the most effective, locally driven initiatives to advance environmental preservation and sustainability in the nation, said Dixon, the groups chairwoman. But we believe we can take those initiatives to another level by linking the efforts of our communities and their many dedicated, knowledgeable environmental advocates, toward the goal of enlisting a greater number of our residents in the cause of creating a more healthful, sustainable Fairfield County.

Norwalk is among a number of Fairfield County municipalities that have already taken steps to reduce their carbon footprints.

Under the Mayors Energy & Environment Task Force, Norwalk has retrofitted municipal buildings, provided home energy assessments, sponsored light-bulb swaps at City Hall, installed solar panels at Calf Pasture Beach and is proceeding with panel installation at Norwalk High and Naramake Elementary schools.

Were trying to get all the communities that are active involved, said Norwalk Common Council President John Kydes, task force chairman and Sustainable Fairfield County member. All the communities are trying to work as a group to help one another to get the word about sustainability and the benefits to the environment.

Westport First Selectman Jim Marpe said his town is proud of its longtime leadership as a sustainable community.

From being the first municipality east of the Mississippi to introduce a plastic bag ordinance in 2009, to its goal of being NetZero by 2050, we are committed to adopting policies and processes that will leave our town environmentally better than we found it, Marpe said. Joining Sustainable Fairfield County is another important step in that commitment.

Sustainable Fairfield County was launched at the first-annual Regional Convening for Sustainable Development held at Grace Farms, New Canaan, on Feb. 7. The event featured discussions of the local integration of global sustainable development goals and showcased a wide-range of local projects and initiatives.

The next Sustainable Fairfield County meeting will be from 7:15 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, April 16, at Earthplace, 10 Woodside Lane, Westport. The public is encouraged to attend.

The primary focus of Sustainable Fairfield County will be the promotion and coordination of annual green events focused on specific issues, and supported by member towns throughout the year, to encourage countywide participation. The current event calendar includes:

 Sunday, March 25, Zero Waste Faire, Wilton High School Field House, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

 Saturday, April 28, Westport Green Day, Earthplace & Wakeman Town Farm, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

 Weston Farm to Table Festival - summer, date and location to be determined

 Saturday, September 8, Fairfield Electric Vehicle Showcase, Fairfield Warde High School, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information on Sustainable Fairfield County, visit sustainablefairfieldcounty.org.For some entrepreneurs, working without an office space is unthinkable. And thats understandable because for them, an office space is synonymous with work -- and it may boost their productivity too.

Nowadays, outlandish office perks -- ranging from gyms to restaurants -- are the norm, and a desire to fit in with changing times influences some entrepreneurs into getting office space they dont need. Peer pressure aside, some may feel theyre not really running a business if they have no physical office. Is that the case? Of course not.

If youre on the verge of renting office space, here are reasons you may reconsider such plans.

1. Remote work is also trending.

While the office perks mentioned earlier (and more) are trending in the startup space, working remotely, a viable alternative to renting an office, is in vogue too. According to a Gallup poll, the number of people working four or five days a week rose from 24 percent in 2012 to 31 percent in 2016. Gallups State of the American Workplace Report also shows that 43 percent of Americans spent at least some time working remotely in 2016, a four percent increase from 2012.

Related: How Start-Ups Are Empowering Women to Work From Home

Following the crowd isnt always the best idea, so forget for a moment the numbers on how popular remote work has become. Remote work also has several benefits including boosting productivity, increasing efficiency, reducing operating costs (like costs of office rent) and improving employee engagement.

Whats more, allowing remote work gives you access to talents from all over the world, talents you wouldnt get otherwise, and sometimes at cheaper rates. One field that can benefit from this is the Blockchain technology sector, where local professionals may be difficult to find or too expensive, and companies often have to look overseas for talent.

Showy office perks are cool and trendy. But so is remote work. And the latter could be just what you need.

2. Youre in debt.

According to a study by the National Association of Realtors, student loan debt stops 40 percent of people from even starting a business. For others who are in debt but manage to start a low-cost business, they need to constantly watch their spending so that they can avoid getting into more debt or swiftly pay off old debt.

If youre in debt, a physical office is definitely an unnecessary expense. Your focus should be on paying off your debt first. Its necessary because lets face it, not every entrepreneur is great at money management. And when youre in debt, spending money on an office is frivolous.

3. The costs can strain your budget.

Alluring office perks are not the only extras youll spend money on if youre planning to rent a new office space.

First, you need to remember that there are several kinds of offices, from the complete office where everything youll need to run your business is included, to an office where youll buy your own furniture and pay for other utilities. Obviously, the former is usually more expensive, but you will likely spend more on the latter depending on what you need to set up your office.

Still, aside from costs based on the type of office youre renting, theres the cost of decorating it for maximum productivity. Psychologists reckon that the colors used for decorating offices trigger different moods in employees. The end goal is that your office shouldnt be too drab to inspire you or your employees creatively. Because theres a thin line between an office thats inspiring for work and one thats too distracting to allow any sort of focus.

Nevertheless, even without all these extras, renting an office can already be too expensive for you. The money can be better used to solve other problems in your business.

Related: A Co-working Space vs. a Private Office: How Do You Choose?

4. Outsourcing is an option.

I mentioned this briefly earlier, but it deserves its own blurb. There are many benefits of outsourcing, including, but not limited to, saving on office space, higher efficiency, access to skilled workers and lower overhead costs.

Nevertheless, youll need to weigh this carefully.

Are the operations youre planning to outsource a core part of your product or service offerings? Will it require purchasing additional equipment before it is done successfully? What are the cost implications of having someone do it in-house versus outsourcing it?

While youre considering the potential advantages, consider the drawbacks side-by-side. Issues like revealing confidential information about your business, loss of control in the business procedures or communication problems can rear their ugly heads when you outsource work. Can you deal with such difficulties? Is the stress of getting and setting up an office greater than the stress of dealing with or managing outsourced workers?

The size of the global outsourcing industry is huge at $88.9B, but it may not be the solution to your need of office space. Or it could be. Youll decide.

5. There are other alternatives.

If youre working from home already and contemplating getting office space, there are other options youve probably not examined.

Related: Where Are You Gonna Work Today? The Death of the 8-Hour Desk.

Co-working spaces can eliminate the need for a traditional office. They are affordable and you pay monthly membership fees to use them. Depending on how much youre paying or available offices in your area, you may get access to a conference room too if youre building your startup and need to meet regularly with your employees.

If you operate your business in an area where there are small-business incubators, you can apply to one to enable you set up office space for your startup at discounted rates. The downsides here include limited or no availability of incubators in your area, undergoing a tedious application process to be accepted in an incubator and restriction of available incubators to certain industries. Additionally, though leasing arrangements with small business incubators may not be as expensive as getting office space, theyre often pricier than membership fees for a co-working space.

After all considerations, if you eventually decide you need office space, youre not limited to a traditional office, but can benefit from using a co-working space or leasing from a small business incubator at cheaper rates.

There are substitutes to office space.

Dont spend a fortune renting an office when you can do without one at least for a while or maybe until youre more profitable. And if youre profitable, you can still save money by examining other alternatives discussed here. Whatever your final decision, choose an option that suits your needs or the needs of your business.

Related:

6 Ways to Pay the Bills When Pursuing Your Passion

Why You Should Think Twice Before Getting Office Space

Sales Lessons From My Solopreneur Dad Upon His Retirement



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

9 hours ago

Another rally on Wall Street erases losses for the week

Stocks on Wall Street rallied for the second straight day Thursday and have now reversed the markets sharp pullback at the start of the week. The S&P 500 rose 1.2%, with more than 85% of companies in the benchmark index notching gains.

Read ArticleBCE Inc., a telecommunications and media company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. It operates through three segments: Bell Wireless, Bell Wireline, and Bell Media. The Bell Wireless segment offers wireless voice and data communications products and services. The Bell Wireline segment provides data, including Internet access and Internet protocol television; and local telephone, long distance, satellite TV service, and connectivity, as well as other communications services and products. This segment also buys and sells local telephone, long distance, data, and other services from or to resellers, and other carriers. The Bell Media segment provides conventional TV, specialty TV, pay TV, and streaming services; and digital media, radio broadcasting, out-of-home advertising services. It owns and operates approximately 35 conventional TV stations; 27 specialty and four Pay TV channels; 3 direct-to-consumer streaming services; 109 licensed radio stations; and websites. The company was formerly known as Bell Canada Enterprises Inc. BCE Inc. was founded in 1880 and is headquartered in Verdun, Canada.

Read MoreEVRAZ Highveld Steel and Vanadium Limited is a vertically integrated steel and vanadium slag producer. The Company mines titaniferous magnetite ore at its Mapochs Mine operation at Roossenekal, Limpopo, which is located approximately 140 kilometers north east from Witbank (Emalahleni). Its structural mill offers rolled steel profile products, such as universal columns, parallel flanged beams, channels, angles, rounds and billets. Its structural mill is equipped to produce rails till a mass of approximately 60 kilograms per meter and till approximately 20 meters in length. It also offers various rolled steel flat products. Its iron and steel works annually produces approximately one million tons of steel blocks. The steel works consists of an iron making division; a steel plant equipped with over four shaking ladles for vanadium extraction; approximately three basic oxygen furnaces and four continuous casting machines; a universal structural mill; a plate mill, and a hot strip mill.

Read MoreGlencore plc produces, refines, processes, stores, transports, and markets metals and minerals, and energy products in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. It operates through two segments, Marketing Activities and Industrial Activities. The company produces and markets copper, cobalt, nickel, zinc, lead, chrome ore, ferrochrome, vanadium, alumina, aluminum, tin, and iron ore. It also engages in the oil exploration/production, distribution, storage, and bunkering activities; and offers coal, crude oil and oil products, refined products, and natural gas. The company markets and distributes physical commodities sourced from third party producers and its production to industrial consumers in the battery, electronic, construction, automotive, steel, energy, and oil industries. It also provides financing, logistics, and other services to producers and consumers of commodities. The company was formerly known as Glencore Xstrata plc and changed its name to Glencore plc in May 2014. Glencore plc was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland.

Read MoreNew YorkBMW AG will begin a car-subscription pilot in Tennessee next week, joining the ranks of automakers experimenting with new ownership models as ride hailing and smartphones upend traditional auto retailing.

The service, called Access by BMW, will be offered by a local BMW dealership in Nashville starting April 2, according to a person familiar with the companys plans who asked not to be named because the information isnt yet public.

Automakers are searching for ways to reach younger consumers whose shopping and transportation habits have been shaped by Silicon Valley giants such as Uber and Airbnb. BMW is following in the footsteps of General Motorss Cadillac, which launched its Book subscription service in January 2017, and Care by Volvo, which combines lease, insurance and maintenance into one monthly payment.

Read more:

Uber suspends self-driving vehicle testing in Toronto after pedestrian killed in Phoenix

How to decode an Airbnb listing

Uber starts offering rides to the doctor, health care providers

BMWs North American chief Bernhard Kuhnt said the company was contemplating such a service at the Detroit Auto Show in January. A spokesperson for BMW said the company is planning a subscription pilot program for 2018 but declined to give further detail.

Subscription services allow consumers to flip between different car models as often as they want, instead of committing to one vehicle that they buy or lease. The monthly payments are usually higher than traditional lease contracts, because they also cover things such as insurance and maintenance.

This isnt BMWs first foray into new models for transportation. In January, its captive finance arm introduced a flexible lease program that allows owners of its BMW and Mini brand vehicles in California, Washington and Oregon to share their cars with peers or use them to drive for ride-sharing services. The leases are designed to help BMW integrate itself into the fabric of the sharing economy, the company said at the time.

Read more about:SydneyQantas Airways Ltd. started direct flights between Australia and London this weekend, passing a major milestone by reducing to 17 hours a trip that once took 12-1/2 days.

Flight QF9 landed at London Heathrow at 5:02 a.m. Sunday following a 14,498-kilometre trip from Perth. The route marks the first non-stop passenger service between the continents, putting Europes financial centre one nights sleep from the centre of Australian mineral wealth and the operations of companies including BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group.

For Qantas, the Perth flight is a high-profile test for a planned ultra-long-haul network that the airline hopes will span the world by 2022. To succeed, the route must defy the boom-and-bust commodities cycle that has preyed on Western Australia. And Qantas needs business travellers to pay up for the shorter flight to London rather than make a stop in Asia or the Middle East.

You have the resources sector on both sides, you have banks, you have lawyers that all want to fly fast and reliably and comfortably, said Rico Merkert, professor of transport and supply-chain management at the University of Sydneys business school. I think theyre prepared to pay the premium.

Mining companies in Western Australia dig up more than a third of the worlds iron-ore and bring in some of the largest hauls of gems and rare earths. The sector also supports financial-services firms such as Hartleys Ltd., whose Perth-based director of corporate finance Steve Kite was booked on Sundays departure -- the second direct to London -- for just a four-day trip.

Its effectively an overnight flight for me and that feels like Im saving a lot of time, said Kite.

Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce is betting he can make money from the daily service, operated as the continuation of a flight from Melbourne, by stripping excess weight from a Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner and stacking it with top-tier passengers.

Publicity surrounding the flight has aided forward bookings and the London route should make money from day one, Joyce said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Monday after travelling on the service.

Provided the operation pays its way, Qantas plan to offer similar flights to Paris and Germany and aims to convert options to buy more 787s into firm orders later this year, the CEO said.

Not everyone is convinced of the routes commercial future.

Aircraft leaving Perth for London will need feeder passengers from around Australia, said Volodymyr Bilotkach, author of the book The Economics of Airlines. But flying from Sydney to London via Perth saves little time over a transfer in Asia or the Gulf, he said.

Andrew McGinnes, a spokesperson for Qantas in Sydney, said corporate clients in eastern Australia have indicated theyll stop in Perth for meetings on their way to London. Its a very competitive market but this is a unique flight, he said.

An analysis of flight times and prices highlights the challenges Qantas faces.

Flying business class from Perth to London with Qantas in mid-June would cost A$6,614 ($5,121). Opting for Singapore Airlines via Singapore would take an extra 2 1/2 hours but cost just A$4,843, according to fares on Webjet.

Success on the Perth-Heathrow service would lay the foundations for even longer routes. Qantas has challenged Boeing and Airbus to build a jet by 2022 that can fly fully loaded from Sydney to London without a break, and Joyce said direct operations to New York, Chicago and Washington are also on the agenda.

Its really just the beginning, said Merkert at the University of Sydney.If youre not a regular Airbnb user, it may take trial and error to interpret the language in the listings.

You dont always know what youre getting, and listings sometimes dont deliver what you expect. But the possible benefits  saving money and experiencing a destination like a local  are worth the gamble for some travellers.

Heres how to prevent Airbnb aches and pains, with tips from frequent guests to help you read between the lines of listings.

Reading for red flags

Search for listings with four- or five-star ratings and comprehensive reviews about the property, the host, the neighbourhood, etc. It also helps to seek experienced superhosts, who earn five-star reviews 80 per cent of the time.

As you scan the listings, heres what to look out for:

Keep to yourself

Not all landlords or homeowners associations allow hosts to rent out their places on Airbnb. Your tip-off might include a request for discretion or for avoiding communication with building staff.

Ive straight up seen people say that you have to be very quiet because the building doesnt actually allow this, says Allison Bieller, travel blogger who runs The Endless Adventure with her husband. They said, Dont talk to the doorman.

Regulations for short-term rentals vary by area, but per Airbnbs terms of service, the onus is on hosts to ensure they comply with local laws. Still, guests who unwittingly walk into such a situation might find it awkward.

Near restaurants or bars

Places close to nightlife arent for everyone.

That might be a big attraction to, say, like a backpacker who is looking to party in the city, says Jake Littlefield, blogger and photographer at Jake and Dannie. If youre travelling with a family, that just means that its going to be too loud to put your kid to sleep at 8 p.m.

If the host provides earplugs or offers a rental in what they call an energetic neighbourhood, the location might be noisy.

A quick ride from the city

You could save money by staying farther away from your destination, but transportation costs will eat up your travel budget. Even if the area has transit choices, these might not be an option late at night or in bad weather.

I recently stayed in Montreal and it was negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit, says Christian Lowery, a travel writer and filmmaker who runs the blog Beyond Your Bubble. My criteria for this Airbnb was to be as central as humanly possible because Im not going to be commuting and walking for 10 minutes outside.

Host was really friendly

If a listings reviews focus on tangential features  such as the host or the neighbourhood  instead of the property, that could be a clue that the rental didnt match a guests expectations, Littlefield says.

Guests may find it difficult to write reviews that focus on the negative parts of their stay, especially if the host was kind. Littlefield says the decorative baskets in a damp and poorly ventilated Airbnb sprouted mould  yet he didnt write a negative review because his host picked up Littlefield, his wife and child from the bus station. As well, he says the host felt terrible after hearing about the mould and tried numerous ways to correct the problem.

Even we went out of our way to say how great the host was, Littlefield says.

Searching in photos

Listings and reviews only tell so much. Knowing how to read pictures can reveal even more about a space. Seasoned Airbnb travellers offer these suggestions:

If its not in the photo, dont assume its there. If youre not seeing chairs, a table or other must-haves, there might not be any.

Amenities in photos arent always accessible. Just because a pool is in a photo doesnt mean you can use it whenever you would like.

Attractions and knickknacks might be a distraction. If photos focus on local sights and decor instead of the rental, it could be small or unsightly.

Wide-angle shots can make spaces look larger. If a picture has stretched corners or if its taken from above the corner of a room, ask about the rentals size.

Ask the right questions

Make a list of must-haves in a rental, then consider whether whats missing in the pictures, reviews or listing is a deal-breaker. Bridge that gap by asking the potential host questions.

___________________________________Buying a car is one of the biggest purchases a person can make  especially if youre purchasing a vehicle for the first time. Do you buy new or used? How do you avoid scams? What are your rights as a buyer?

To demystify the process, the Star reached out to Terry OKeefe, director of communications and education at the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council (OMVIC) and Jim Davidson, president & founder of CarSmart a Toronto-based car-buying service and consulting firm.

Here are their top tips when it comes to buying a car for the first time:

Do your research

When buying a car from a dealer, Davidson says many people start backwards by visiting the dealership before doing research.

That is the worst thing to do, because people often succumb to pressure from a salesperson, misinformation about a car, and today only deals that are never real, he says. You really need to do your research first, because this process can be a tricky thing.

OKeefe agrees, noting the importance of avoiding pushy salespeople at car dealerships.

If youre not being listened to by salespeople, OMVIC says shop elsewhere, OKeefe says. You want to buy the car thats best for you, for your needs, and for your familys needs  not necessarily what the dealer wants to sell that week. If theyre not listening, move on.

When doing your homework, keep in mind that online car reviews can be biased or fake. Davidson recommends consulting Consumer Reports, a non-profit organization that works to help consumers make the most informed decisions they can. The New Car Preview is dedicated to vehicles, he notes, and is a very helpful guide.

Its really tough to find genuine reviews that arent negative or fake, he adds. Just go straight to Consumer Reports, because theyre really, really good.

Know your rights

Whether you buy new or used, a car buyers rights in Ontario depends entirely on where the vehicle is purchased.

If you purchase from a registered car dealer, you are protected by Ontarios consumer protection legislation, by OMVIC, who enforces that legislation, and you have access to the Motor Vehicle Dealers Compensation Fund, which protects consumers for up to $45,000 per transaction, he says. Consumers who buy privately forgo all those protections, so its really important to be educated if youre planning to take this route.

Its also important to know your rights when it comes to signing contracts for car purchases. Eighty-five per cent of the car-buying public in Ontario incorrectly believes there is a cooling off period (or window of time to get out of a contract) after buying a car, OKeefe says.

People assume that theres a cooling off period for all kinds of interactions, but theres not one for vehicles, he says. Do not sign a contract unless you are certain you want to complete the sale.

Go for a spin

Once youve settled on the make of car, Davidson says visiting a minimum of three dealerships is critical to getting the best deal  and be clear you want to test drive a car before you consider buying it.

Its a total drag and an effort to do this, which is why people get lazy and often pay way too much for their car, leaving thousands of dollars on the table, he said. If you want a great deal and a great car that suits your needs, you have to work for it  its like anything in life.

And dont just take the car for a spin around the block: take any cars you might buy onto the highway, especially if its a used vehicle. Bringing a car up to higher speeds can help identify any problems  just make sure you bring someone with you in case you encounter challenges.

Go to a mechanic

If youre buying a used car, OKeefe says its critical to bring it to a mechanic before making the purchase. Asking for or purchasing a history report is important too, but a mechanic can find things a seller didnt disclose, or even know about.

It would be a huge risk to turn money over to a private seller especially without getting a history report or a mechanical inspection, he says. If something goes wrong, who are you going to turn to after the fact?

Taking a car to a mechanic before finalizing a sale can also help weed out scams from curbsiders, or unlicensed car dealers who often pose as private sellers. Curbsiders frequently buy cars from salvage auctions, and dont register the vehicle in their name to avoid tax, as well as making it harder for them to be traced to the vehicle in the future.

OKeefe recommends consumers ask some serious questions to ensure they are not being scammed. These include how long the seller has owned the car, if they have maintenance records and why they are planning to sell the car.

Anyone selling a car in Ontario is required by law to provide the buyer with a Used Vehicle Information Package (UVIP), which includes details about the car, including whos owned the car, its condition and outstanding liens on it.

You want to make sure that the person who is selling the car is actually the registered owner, so ask to see the ownership for the vehicle and the sellers drivers licence, OKeefe says. One of the telltale signs of a curb sider is not to register a car in their name  so make sure you ask for proof.

Other things to keep in mind

The OMVIC website (https://www.omvic.on.ca/portal/) has a database of all licensed car dealers, as well as any entity they have ever charged, convicted and even put in jail. If in doubt, check it out.

When youre researching the kind of vehicle you want to buy, think about how quickly its value depreciates if youre planning on trading it in regularly. This can help you avoid wracking up significant negative equity.

Do your homework when it comes to financing your car to make sure youre getting the best rate. Its always a good idea to ask your own bank or lender what their rate is before accepting whats offered by the dealer.To delete or not to delete, that is the question Facebook users are now asking while weighing the pros and cons of breaking up with the social-media giant.

For any other product, this would be a cinch. If you have a pair of shoes that always give you blisters, they quickly get mothballed. You dont keep stumbling around town in agony. You realize the shoes are a bad fit and you move on.

But the fact millions of users cant bring themselves to erase their Facebook accounts shows just how deeply this behemoth has wormed its way into our lives. Facebook is hurting us and we dont care. When a company such as Cambridge Analytica is able to secretly harvest personal data from 50 million FB users, my first thoughts should be: Wow, I need to protect my privacy. I need to escape this cesspool of fake news. I need to flee the mind-control marketing and ads that are often targeted with such eerie precision, its as if Mark Zuckerberg was hiding behind my couch and heard my wife say we need to steam the carpets. I need to get out before I become a stooge in a future Russian propaganda campaign that tricks me into believing my neighbour is a satanist or Justin Trudeau is the greatest prime minister ever. I need to be free.

But what I actually think is, I cant delete my Facebook!

That right there is the FB Paradox. Its why the new #DeleteFacebook movement, however noble, will never reach critical mass. Maybe we were fools to voluntarily surrender our data in the first place. Maybe we should have realized sharing personal details with a global corporation was a terrible idea.

But the truth is, its too late now. I cant quit you, Facebook, not when leaving feels like abandoning family and friends.

How will I keep tabs on distant relatives with whom there are no other established lines of contact? What am I supposed to do  pick up a phone and call? How will I see the photos of nieces at Disney or learn a former colleague is off to a new adventure in the Middle East? How will I know when someone I havent seen since Grade 11 is poking me? How will I add a smile emoji when my dad accidentally wishes someone a happy birthday by writing on his own wall?

So instead of to delete or not to delete, is there a third option?

I believe the answer here is a resounding maybe.

Now, look. Im no tech expert. I wont pretend to grasp Facebooks proprietary algorithms, or even know what proprietary algorithms means. But if the central fear is that Facebook is now treating our data like a rented mule, what if we changed the rules? What if we corrupted our own data to make it useless?

Stay with me. What if you tinkered with your settings and monkeyed with your birthday, your sex, your city, your job, your relationship status? What if you started Liking stories you hated and clicked on ads for products youd never buy? What if you fictionalized your digital existence until the Real You and the Facebook You became strangers?

If you did that, your data would be worthless.

Which would make it priceless.

Granted, this may be confusing to those on the periphery of your friends list.

I mean, if I suddenly tell the world I am actually a Caucasian lesbian senior who lives in Albuquerque and volunteers with the NRA, my inbox is sure to clog up with a few baffled messages. But for the people who really know us  the inner circle nobody wants to lose  this act of personal disruption would be obvious. Our loved ones would know this was just a clever ruse to throw off any evil and faceless data miners who may be inclined to aggregate and weaponize our info in the years ahead.

Why did you just say youre now single? my wife will ask.

I did it, I will reply, to protect you!

Ultimately, this is all about managing the FB Paradox.

On Monday, despite the ongoing scandal, the Angus Reid Institute released a survey that found only 10 per cent of Canadian FB users plan to delete their accounts. But 73 per cent want to make at least some change to how they interact online.

I can think of no better way to change than to don a disguise. Go nuts and turn into someone else. Do it for the peace of mind.

As always, Facebook only knows what you tell it.

Mark Zuckerberg took out full-page ads to apologize for the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. (The Canadian Press)

Read more about:VANCOUVER  When Jeanine McDonald heard a pop in her lower back as she bent down to pick up a lid from a box, she had no idea shed ruptured a disc and would wait three months for surgery. Then a second disc ruptured and left her in more debilitating chronic pain, the kind that millions of Canadians live with daily.

In McDonalds case, a condition called cauda equina syndrome, involving a bundle of spinal-cord nerves, causes severe neuropathic pain in her lower legs and feet, forcing her to wear leg braces and forearm crutches so she can walk.

Her neurosurgeon told her theres no known reason why the two discs ruptured three years apart, in 2005 and 2008, leaving her able to work only one day a week for a non-profit organization helping families of special-needs kids.

Theres super sharp pins-and-needles type of pain and what I call fire feet, which is a burning type of pain that happens, McDonald said. And theres what I refer to as Charlie horses on steroids. You have to find humour in it or you just lose your mind.

McDonald spent two years in search of a specialist who prescribed her current cocktail of medications including opioids so she could function. She also gets treatment from a psychiatrist, a doctor who specializes in conditions including those affecting the spinal cord, and counts on support from a patient-advocacy and health professionals group called PainBC.

Its considered the most patient-focused group in the country among several organizations that are pushing for a national pain strategy, which would see the federal government establish a framework for provinces and territories to deliver programs addressing awareness, education for health professionals, early access to care and research.

Dr. Fiona Campbell, president-elect of the Canadian Pain Society consisting of clinicians, patients and educators, said groups involved in chronic-pain initiatives, including in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Nova Scotia, want better services for acute pain as well, before people develop chronic pain, which changes the central nervous system and could affect mental health.

The society announced a national pain strategy at a summit in Ottawa in 2012 but the federal government did not adopt it.

Were now at what one might call a tipping point, where the ducks are aligning, said Campbell, an anesthesiologist and co-director of the Pain Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Theres more of an appetite and awareness about pain, which has probably arisen related to the opioid crisis, which is not the same as saying all people with chronic pain are taking opioids or affected by the opioid crisis. It just means its become more sentient in the public mind.

Dr. Norman Buckley, scientific director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Pain Research and Care at McMaster University, also heads the Chronic Pain Network through a five-year funding arrangement with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He said the aim is to train researchers and translate that knowledge into policy action.

Guys come in, they sit in my office and cry because they cant pick up their grandchildren, Buckley said of patients with back pain, one of the most common chronic-pain conditions, along with arthritis.

While groups including PainBC and SaskPain are working to get provincial funding for multidisciplinary pain clinics, Quebec leads the country with a strategy that incorporates care as well as research.

Jacques Laliberte, immediate past president of the Quebec Association of Chronic Pain Patients, said that in 2010, the province established centres of expertise at hospitals linked with four of its universities before creating regional centres to provide chronic-pain services.

Our main activity right now is to have support groups throughout the province of Quebec and we have about 17 of them, said Laliberte, who nearly broke his neck in a snowboarding accident in 2003 before taking on the role of leading the association he helped form at the urging of a doctor.

More regional centres are needed in Quebec, Laliberte said, adding: Were still striving to get chronic pain understood by decision makers.

In Ontario, the provincial government enhanced funding in 2016 for its current 18 multidisciplinary clinics as part of a pain management plan that includes a strategy to prevent opioid addiction. It also expanded training for primary care providers via case-based learning and video-conferencing sessions to manage chronic pain, the provinces Health Ministry said in a statement.

A data-driven national pain strategy would help inform ministry work in Ontario, it says.

Dr. Owen Williamson, president of the Pain Medicine Physicians of B.C. Society, said chronic pain affects one in five Canadians, many of whom develop anxiety and depression.

Theres more disability associated with chronic pain than with hypertension, diabetes, HIV and even cancer, he said.

Its a $60-billion drain a year on our economy, said Williamson of visits to doctors offices, emergency room and surgeries.

Williamson, who treats patients at a clinic in Surrey as part of a team of health-care providers including physiotherapists, psychologists and social workers, said Australia has led the way with its national pain strategy.

For example, in New South Wales, theyve shown greater access to pain management services, pain and disability outcomes are better, the use of opioids has been reduced, deaths through suicide are reduced and theres been a reduced impact of the cost of managing pain.

Canada needs political champions in order to create its own pain strategy, he said.

Health Canada has not committed to any action. It said in a statement its aware of recent calls for a national pain strategy, including those proposed by the Chronic Pain Network and the Canadian Pain Society, and understands the importance of a responsible approach to pain management for Canadians.When Shelley Wigham suffered a heart attack last summer, she was prescribed various cardiac medications. But the 64-year-old widow never took them.

She doesnt have a drug plan, was already paying $125 a month for meds to treat depression and high blood pressure, and, despite juggling two jobs, couldnt afford to tack $300 onto her already pricey pharmacy bill.

I was a mess, recalls Wigham, who did not tell anyone money was tight. I was embarrassed. Its a dirty little secret. Nobody wants to admit they cant afford their drugs.

She hoped the heart attack was a one-off. It wasnt.

Share Your Thoughts!

Last month, Wigham had another heart attack. At the hospital, she told doctors she had not taken the meds because she couldnt afford them. Three days later, she was discharged with a prescription for the same costly drugs.

Doctors dont have access to drug costs, so they were disempowered to talk to her, says her family physician, Dr. Iris Gorfinkel. Theyre managing a heart attack, but not managing the primary problem, which is that she cant afford the drugs.

Thats why Gorfinkel is spearheading an initiative urging the province to mandate drug cost transparency  having prices pop up in the electronic medical record (EMR), so when doctors and nurse practitioners are writing prescriptions, they can discuss affordability with patients.

Right now, when doctors write prescriptions, they see the name of the drug, but not the price. This means patients may be prescribed more expensive meds when there are equally effective and cheaper alternatives. As a result, people can experience sticker shock at the pharmacy, leading some to forgo their meds and become sicker, contributing to downstream health-care costs.

Gorfinkels initiative is gaining traction. The Ontario Medical Association, representing 33,000 practising physicians, the Nurse Practitioners Association of Ontario, representing 3,300 nurse practitioners, and the Ontario Pharmacists Association, representing more than 10,000 pharmacists, pharmacy students and pharmacy technicians, support the idea. And an online petition has more than 5,400 signatures.

Shes met with government officials who appear to support the idea, yet Gorfinkel says theres tremendous inertia at the health ministry to implement it.

When reached by the Star, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care says it is considering the option. Currently, no jurisdiction in Canada has real-time access to drug costs in electronic form.

The province is exploring and prioritizing a large number of potential enhancements to provincial standards for Electronic Medical Records, in addition to the inclusion of drug pricing information, Laura Gallant, press secretary for Health Minister Dr. Helena Jaczek, said in an email. Other opportunities include integration with provincial immunization systems, electronic consultation and referral systems, and home and community care information, and the Ministry is working with its partners to develop a long-term approach to sequence these enhancements.

But proponents of the plan say now is the time to act, as EMR systems currently are being updated and better integrated into the health-care system.

The impact would be huge, health critic France Gelinas says. The NDP MPP for Nickel Belt says drug cost transparency is crucial for physicians and long overdue.

Does the technology exist? Absolutely. Will it save the health-care system money? Yes, absolutely.

Is this something that has been talked about that has the potential to be a game-changer? Yes, absolutely.

Last month, after Gorfinkel received Wighams discharge summary from the hospital, she spent two hours on the phone with a pharmacist figuring out drug prices and which of Wighams seven medications  prescribed by herself, a psychiatrist and a cardiologist  could be switched for cheaper versions. Gorfinkel was shocked to discover she had prescribed a brand-name drug for high blood pressure, that costs $170 for a three-month supply, when a generic version is $35. Gorfinkel shakes her head, saying she failed Wigham.

If I give a prescription, I owe that patient an explanation of how much a drug costs, she says. A standard of care is not actually met if Im not making sure that the patient can afford that drug.

How much patients pay can vary by the pharmacy, but Gorfinkel wants doctors to see the Ontario Drug Benefit (ODB) formulary price. Thats how much the province pays for prescription drugs for those covered by the ODB program  this includes people older than 65, younger than 25 and those receiving financial assistance through Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program. Because the province buys in bulk, it pays less for meds than private insurers and those without coverage. But at least it gives doctors a ballpark figure.

In Wighams case, Gorfinkel was able to get her patients monthly costs for medication down to $200, which shes now able to manage thanks to a loan from a friend.

The ODB prices are available on a government website, but the site is very cumbersome, Gorfinkel says from her office at Yonge St. and Davisville Ave. But in a busy practice, doctors dont have time to navigate an online database or call up a pharmacist to do price checks, she says. Some doctors and nurse practitioners may know approximate prices of frequently prescribed drugs, but there are about 10,000 drugs on the market.

Right now, we dont know cost; we dont even know relative cost. Theres a complete lack of knowledge  Thats frightening.

She recalls once prescribing a patient a brand-name anti-depressant, which cost about $280 for a three-month supply. He didnt have a drug plan and skipped the meds, which exacerbated his depression. He eventually confided in Gorfinkel that cost was a concern and was switched to a different generic drug that cost about $50.

Another patient, a 26-year-old university student, went to Gorfinkel seeking a birth-control pill and was prescribed a brand-name drug. She had no insurance, and when she got to the pharmacy, she learned a three-month supply was about $90, which was too costly, so she didnt get it. The woman became pregnant and had an abortion.

Ending up with an unwanted pregnancy resulted in numerous costs to the health-care system. There were visits to her family doctor, blood work, counselling, and the abortion. And, says Gorfinkel, the emotional costs are tremendous. I dont think a person can put a price on that.

After that ordeal, Gorfinkel prescribed a different generic birth-control pill that cost $30.

Hoda Mankal, a nurse practitioner and spokesperson for the Nurse Practitioners Association of Ontario, supports the initiative. She works at a community health centre in Ottawa where many patients have no insurance.

Too often, we hear of patients splitting pills or taking a dose every other day trying to ration the medication they have, or maybe forfeiting the purchase of something else  a household item or food  to be able to afford the medication, Mankal says.

A recent study found for many Canadians, cost is a barrier to obtaining prescription medicines. The study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that about 1.4 million Canadians in 2016 cut spending in other areas  such as food, heat, and transportation  to afford their drugs. About 1.7 million Canadians didnt fill prescriptions because they couldnt afford them. As a result of that, 303,000 people reported seeing their family doctor, 93,000 ended up in emergency, and 26,000 were admitted to hospital.

According to provincial legislation, pharmacists are supposed to replace a brand-name prescription with a generic version of the exact same product, if it exists unless the patient, prescribing doctor or nurse practitioner, or private drug plan specifies otherwise. Pharmacists cant substitute one drug for another that has a different molecular makeup.

Allan Malek, the executive vice president and chief pharmacy officer for the Ontario Pharmacists Association, says the lack of awareness of drug costs, among prescribers and patients, is an age-old issue.

Pharmacists would love to get out of that conversation of price and (drug plan) coverage and whats cheaper, he said. We spend more time on that than we do on talking about the actual medication and how it works and why its important.

Gorfinkel says making drug costs transparent extends beyond generic versus trade medications. Its about trying to choose the best affordable option from several choices within a drug category.

Helen Stevenson agrees. The former assistant deputy minister of health who is now the CEO of the Reformulary Group  it works with companies to ensure drug plan sustainability  applauds the move and wants it to go even further by updating EMR systems to include the price for comparable drugs as well.

Stevenson says having drug prices pop up in the EMR for a particular drug isnt very useful if a doctor doesnt know what other comparable drugs treat the same condition, she says. For example, there are many sleeping pills on the market, which all pretty much work the same way. The approximate monthly cost for generic doxepin is $7, for generic zopiclone is $14, and brand name Silenor is $36, she says. If a doctor looked up the price for the $14 drug, they might not even know that there is another that costs half.

If you could have both, that would be the magic, the golden ticket.

So, whats the holdup? Health critic Gelinas believes a big part of it is money. In a cash-strapped health-care system, where hospitals are grappling with flatline budgets, she says investing in an outdated information-technology system has been put on the back burner.

But implementing prices into electronic records is pretty straightforward from a technical perspective, according to OntarioMD, a provincial agency that manages and certifies EMRs. And, the timing is right. Thats because OntarioMD currently is integrating into EMR systems something called the digital health drug repository, which will list a patients medical history, including all the drugs taken.

Yet, it cant implement Gorfinkels proposal without a green light from the ministry.

Making the formulary available in conjunction seems like a logical parallel, or next step, says Sarah Hutchison, the CEO of OntarioMD, adding she doesnt think it would be a costly undertaking. The timing is really good and the opportunity is right in front of us.Toronto doctor Javad Peirovy was found guilty three years ago of sexually abusing four female patients.

He inappropriately touched their breasts, they reported to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), the self-regulator of doctors in the province.

A college prosecutor argued Peirovy should lose his licence in the name of patient safety. But a disciplinary panel instead gave him a much lighter penalty, which included a six-month suspension.

The prosecutor successfully appealed and the Ontario Divisional Court agreed the penalty was too lenient: It was inadequate to protect the public and vindicate the integrity of the profession ... The publics confidence in the medical profession demands more from the disciplinary process than recent sexual abuse discipline cases suggest.

Its cases like this that have placed Ontarios oversight system for health professionals under the microscope. The self-regulatory system  which governs everyone from doctors, nurses and dentists to homeopaths, naturopaths and Chinese medicine providers  is considered by many to be too protective of professionals, outdated, and not robust enough to achieve its central mandate: to serve and protect the public.

There have long been calls for major reform and they are growing louder. They include demands to scrap self-regulation.

The four patients in the Peirovy case visited walk-in clinics where the general practitioner worked in 2009 and 2010. The women, between the ages of 18 and 32, were seeking treatment for relatively minor ailments  a sore throat, cold, sinus and ear infections. Peirovy performed chest examinations on them. They emerged from their appointments shaken.

The patients reported to college investigators that Peirovy did not seek permission to touch their breasts. Their accounts of the examinations, contained in court documents, describe him sliding his hand under clothes, cupping breasts and touching nipples. Two women said he listened to their chests by placing his stethoscope directly on their nipples. Another told of him pinching her nipple.

The four women  plus two other patients  also took their complaints to police. Peirovy was charged with six counts of sexual assault and later pleaded guilty to two counts of simple assault.

Meantime, he continues to practise, with restrictions, as a legal tussle over the fate of his medical licence wends its way through the courts. Peirovy last year took the case to the Ontario Court of Appeal and a decision on whether he will face a new penalty hearing is pending.

This case is one of many that, over the years, have raised doubts about the oversight system. Appetite for significant reform is growing, even among regulators, who are now looking at a radical paradigm shift. Ideas for change are also coming from experts in regulatory governance, critics of the existing system, patient advocates and a think-tank commissioned by the province to look into oversight modernization.

Under the system of self-regulation, professions govern themselves through 26 colleges, which get their legislative authority from the provincial government. They investigate complaints, discipline wrongdoers, set practice standards and administer quality assurance programs to ensure professionals are up to snuff.

Leading the charge on reform is the largest health regulator: the College of Nurses of Ontario. It governs 175,000 nurses, or 58 per cent of Ontarios entire regulated health workforce of 300,000-plus professionals.

Its boldest recommendation is to eliminate elections from within nursings ranks to the colleges governing council, its main decision-making arm.

College councils comprise both public members and professional ones, the latter usually forming the majority. Public members are appointed by government via Orders-in-Council from the lieutenant-governor. Most professional members are elected by peers though some are appointed by academic institutions.

The term self-regulation refers to councils being controlled by professionals, most of them elected.

Critics have long called for an end to council elections, charging they create an inherent conflict of interest.

Medical malpractice lawyer Paul Harte, one of the most outspoken critics and a long-time advocate of reform, charged that elected regulators often put the interests of peers who elect them first: This is the main reason that Ontarios self-regulated colleges have been consistently resistant to change and slow to respond to demands for (improved) regulation in the public interest.

The nurses college decided back in 2014 to explore whether it could do a better job of serving the public. Its council voted in favour of a governance review and a task force was subsequently established to do the legwork. Casting a wide net, it looked at best practices around the world, studied literature on regulatory governance and took note of international trends.

The task force presented its findings and recommendations to the colleges council in 2016. Council endorsed the package, now known as Vision 2020, in reference to the year it hopes the provincial government will pass legislation to enable the most ambitious of its recommendations, including the elimination of council elections.

In the meantime, the nurses college plans to make headway on recommendations it already has authority to act on. Additional proposals in Vision 2020 include:

Replacing the 37-member council with a much smaller, 12-member board of directors, half of whom would be nurses and the other half members of the public. Research shows smaller entities are better decision-makers.

Appointing all directors based on competencies  areas of expertise such as risk management, finance and patient safety  through a process yet to be determined.

Establishing advisory groups to provide the college with more expertise in areas, for example, such as remote nursing and mental health.

In the end, they (task force) decided on a governance model that was a radical paradigm shift away from what Ontario is doing now, explained Anne Coghlan executive director of the nurses college.

The nurses college report has attracted much attention. College officials have made presentations about it to other regulators in Ontario and other provinces. The report will be on the agenda this fall at a meeting of the Federation of Health Regulatory Colleges of Ontario  an umbrella group for the 26 colleges.

Federation members also plan to look at reform ideas being advanced by a subgroup of six large regulators, the Advisory Group for Regulatory Excellence (AGRE). Comprising the colleges of dentistry, medicine, nursing, optometry, pharmacy and physiotherapy, AGRE was formed in 2012 to improve how transparent regulators are about errant members. Since then, it has also been exploring ways for colleges to improve the calibre of their governing councils and various committees.

AGRE is chaired by Irwin Fefergrad, registrar of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario. Like nurses, dentists also embrace oversight modernization.

The world is changing. There is more and more focus on the public interest and giving that priority over the professional interest. The public is more informed and we are trying to meet their higher expectations, Fefergrad said.

The dentists college has over the years diluted the role of elected professional members. Unlike most other colleges, its council has a majority of appointed people rather than elected ones.

Back in 2001, the dentists adopted a two-year-cooling-off rule aimed at lessening the potential for conflicts of interest. It requires dentists planning to run for council to first recuse themselves for at least two years from any involvement in advocacy work for the profession, for example, with the Ontario Dental Association.

Nobody is under any illusion as to why they are here, Fefergrad said. We have only one mandate and that is to act in the publics interest. We dont represent, at all, the profession.

He said the rule has been so successful that he doesnt see the need to nix council elections.

To further ensure elected members are aware of their role, the dentists college is now creating a boot camp course for dentists planning to run for council. Its a primer that spells out that the mandate of the college is to protect patients.

Over at the CPSO, progress is also being made, though not as fast or to the extent that critics such as Harte would like. CPSO spokesperson Tracey Sobers highlighted the following:

CPSO council in February initiated a governance review.

Some recommendations made by the college were incorporated last year into new patient protection legislation aimed at improving transparency and further combating sexual abuse.

The college continues to push the province to make legislative and regulatory changes to improve the disciplinary process. It wants access to a broader pool of public members to serve on disciplinary panels. And it wants to prevent council members from sitting on its disciplinary committee, which is supposed to act independently of the college.

Preventing the overlap of members on council and the disciplinary committee is significant in light of the controversial Peirovy case. The chair of the disciplinary panel that handed down what has been criticized as a light penalty for sexual abuse was Dr. Marc Gabel, a Toronto general practitioner who practises psychotherapy. At the time, Gabel was also a member of the colleges governing council. And prior to that he had served as president of college, elected to the position by fellow council members.

In 2014, while serving as president, Gabel appeared on TVOs The Agenda as part of panel discussing the effectiveness of the CPSO in holding doctors accountable. He locked horns with Michael Decter, chair of Patients Canada and former deputy minister of health for Ontario. Decter said the college was not doing enough to keep patients safe, especially from repeat sexual abusers. Gabel argued it was.

Coghlan concedes the idea to eliminate council elections is raising the most eyebrows: When we talk to other councils, this is the most controversial part of our vision. From a public interest perspective, our council decided that it is imperative that there be no appearance of professional interest.

Eliminating elections would clear up any confusion about who the college is there to serve, she argued.

The college mandate is focused on public safety, yet the evidence is very clear that elections give the perception  to the voters, the public, the media  that your role on the board is to represent those who elected you. Whether that is real or perceived, it is the perception, she said.

The nurses ideas are resonating with some in medical community. Dr. Rocco Gerace, the recently retired registrar of the CPSO, said he expects that the nurses college recommendations will come to fruition.

I believe it is only a matter of time before we see these types of changes introduced in professional health-care governance in Ontario, he wrote in an parting essay to doctors, titled Reflections and Predictions.

The governance structure of professional regulation will look a lot different in future, he stated.

I believe the term self-regulation is well on its way to the dustbin of history. In the future, college work will no longer be described as the privilege of self-regulation, but instead the responsibility of medical regulation, he continued.

Gerace also wrote that he expects medical regulation will evolve to be more proactive rather than reactive, with more emphasis on education and promotion of continuous quality improvement.

His essay has caused a stir among some in the profession. Dr. Shawn Whatley, president of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), responded to it on his personal blog in a post titled Is Self-Regulation Dead? He wrote: If self-regulation is dead, then the college is dead. If self-regulation is dead then we have a government regulator ... We should insist on clear boundaries between those who create the laws, those who enforce the laws, and those who mete out punishment.

Harry Cayton, chief executive of the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), an umbrella oversight body for health and social regulators in the United Kingdom, said its not surprising to see such tensions as the role of regulators evolves.

A lot of regulation is about professional power. If you think about the history of regulation, it grew out of the guilds. That was about who became a goldsmith and who became a baker, he explained. These bodies have basically grown out of a 19th century structure that, in my view, is not fit for purpose in the 21st century.

Cayton is considered an international authority on risk management and regulatory governance. With the PSA, he has published a number of papers on reform and has been commissioned by jurisdictions around the world to undertake reviews of their regulatory systems.

The UKs regulatory system has undergone significant reform over the last two decades, largely in response to a number of scandals including the killing of at least 250 patients by the notorious Dr. Harold Shipman. The family doctor injected patients with lethal doses of morphine.

Professions essentially lost the authority to self-regulate, the number of regulatory bodies was cut, and the PSA was created as an independent body accountable to the UK parliament. In overseeing regulators, it assesses their performance, holds them to standards, conducts audits, scrutinizes disciplinary decisions and reports to government. The PSA also oversees the recruitment and selection of individuals to serve on regulatory bodies.

Cayton has visited Ontario five times in as many years to consult with regulators and government officials about reform. He was here in February which is when he took time from his busy schedule for an interview with the Star.

When asked what shortcomings he sees in Ontarios system, Cayton immediately seized on the legislation that governs colleges, the Regulated Health Professions Act. It was seen as pioneering when it was passed more than a quarter of a century ago, but today its rigidness is holding back health-care transformation, he said.

If you embed regulatory rules into the law, you get stasis, you get stuck. Its impossible to change things, Cayton explained, adding that the framework is a bad fit for a world of rapidly and continuously evolving technology, science and medicine.

A reformed oversight system would ideally have flexibility to adapt to new innovations and new ways of delivering care, he said.

Cayton noted that health care is increasingly delivered by teams of workers yet the regulatory framework is siloed, focusing on individual categories of workers, for example, nurses or doctors. It restricts what activities they can perform and holds them back from embracing broader scopes of practice.

As well, the legislation does not cover categories of health workers who play increasingly important roles, such as personal support workers and paramedics, he remarked.

We need it to be more fluid. We need a different range of skills, Cayton said.

Fefergrad would like to see Ontario follow the UKs lead and create an equivalent of the PSA, a body to ensure health regulators are doing their job. It need not be created from scratch, he emphasized, noting there are a number of organizations already in existence in the province that could take on the role.

Accountability is really key and I think creating a kind of model that they have in the UK that would hold our feet to the fire would be terrific. We would welcome it, Fefergrad said.

He would also like Ontario to reduce the number of regulatory bodies as the UK has done. Its not necessary to have 26 colleges, he said, noting the number could be drastically cut with those remaining overseeing multiple categories of workers.

More thoughts about oversight reform have come from the McMaster Health Forum, a think-tank based out of McMaster University. The forum released a report in February identifying the existing governance structure as outdated and ill-suited for a future of aging patients with multiple chronic conditions, growing public expectations and changing models of care delivery.

Ontarios health system has evolved substantially in the past two decades, however, the way in which the health workforce is governed has not kept pace with these changes, states the report, commissioned by the provincial government.

The report contains no recommendations. Instead it identifies problems and observations from two groups: a panel of citizens representing a cross-section of Ontarians; and a group of stakeholders, including regulators, professional associations, health ministry policy-makers, and representatives from various health sectors.

There is no consensus and there are areas of disagreement.

The forum report states that the coming provincial election could serve as a good opportunity to get the issue of improved oversight on the public agenda. It cites an abundance of literature showing a connection between large-scale policy reform and electoral processes in Canadian provinces such as: new government or government leaders, campaign commitment to reform, appointment of a champion once in power, and a policy announcement in the first half of a mandate.

A highly placed source who works closely with the colleges expressed optimism that the time is ripe for reform in Ontario. Taken together, the election and mounting interest from different quarters, could serve as the impetus to spark comprehensive change, specifically in how regulators are structured and their governing arms selected, said the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. A skilled, independent oversight body could benefit everyone including patients, the public and even regulators, added the source, who is not authorized by the colleges to speak publicly.

This constellation of events might be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fundamentally rethink the regulation of health professions, the source said.

Health Reporter Theresa Boyle can be reached at tboyle@thestar.caVICTORIA  British Columbias attorney general wants the federal government to help the province prevent money laundering.

Former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German has been reviewing B.Cs policies to fight money laundering.

Based on his findings, David Eby says there are specific concerns he plans to raise with the House of Commons finance committee in Ottawa on Tuesday.

Eby says better resources are needed for police to follow leads on illegal activity provided by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada.

He says that six years ago the RCMP eliminated its proceeds of crime and commercial crime sections and moved to task-force- based investigations.

Eby says the RCMP is rebuilding its expertise on financial crime, but that has shifted responsibility for white-collar crime to provincial and municipal police forces, which generally did not have resources or expertise in that area.

The attorney general would like to see better communication between law enforcement and the financial transactions centre, because police dont use the system now due to privacy concerns.

As well, Eby would like to track the purchase of luxury cars in certain geographic areas, such as Greater Vancouver, because those transactions can be used to reintroduce illegal cash into the economy.

British Columbias insight on this pressing issue will allow the federal committee to better understand the unique challenges and impacts that we face on this side of the Rockies, he said Monday in a news release. We must all be better equipped to take action in the fight against criminal gangs profiting from crime.

Germans review of money laundering policies in B.C.s gambling industry began in September and some changes have been made based on his interim recommendations.

The B.C. Lottery Corp. now requires anyone spending $10,000 or more at casinos within a 24-hour period to prove where the money came from. Gamblers must show a transaction receipt from a financial institution for all cash, bank drafts and certified cheques used for buy-ins.

Players must also sign a source-of-funds declaration form. If any information appears suspicious or is missing, casinos must refuse the transaction and investigate.

The lottery corporation also supported having investigators on site at high-volume casinos in the Lower Mainland at all times. The on-duty regulators have the power to monitor and discipline gaming employees and casino owners.

The province began the review after a report was released saying the River Rock Casino in Richmond, B.C., had accepted $13.5 million in $20 bills within one month, which police said could be proceeds of crime.

The Great Canadian Gaming Corp., which runs River Rock, has said compliance procedures are strictly followed and the company is committed to preventing illegal activities at all its locations.

Read more about:OTTAWAThe Canadian government is expelling four Russian diplomats they accuse of espionage, after spending the weekend speaking with western allies to co-ordinate a response to the Kremlins alleged involvement in a poisoning in the United Kingdom.

The move is the result of backroom diplomatic talks between London, Washington, the European Union and Ottawa over the weekend.

The Russian Embassy in Ottawa called the expulsions "highly deplorable and outrageous," and accused Canada of "obediently" following the U.S. and Britain amid "baseless" allegations against Moscow.

"This unfriendly move under false and biased pretext delivers yet another serious blow to Russian-Canadian relations and will be met with resolve and reciprocity," it added in a statement.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland accused four Russians, who have not been identified, of using their diplomatic status to undermine Canadas security or interfere in our democracy. The Canadian government did not make specific allegations against the four, and Freelands office declined an interview request on Monday. The diplomats will have 10 days to leave the country.

In a statement, Freeland explicitly tied the move to the recent nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England, that has left a Russian ex-intelligence officer and his daughter in critical condition.

The nerve agent attack represents a clear threat to the rules-based international order and to the rules that were established by the international community to ensure chemical weapons would never again destroy human lives, the statement read.

This is part of a wider pattern of unacceptable behaviour by Russia, including complicity with the Assad regime (in Syria), the annexation of Crimea, Russian-led fighting in eastern Ukraine, support for civil strife in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other neighbouring countries, interference in elections, and disinformation campaigns.

Canadas actions were part of a larger, co-ordinated effort by western countries to show solidarity with the U.K. British Prime Minister Theresa May has accused Russia of orchestrating the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy.

Canada, along with the United States, Australia, Ukraine and 14 EU countries, ejected about more than 100 Russian diplomats and foreign service members on Monday. The countries allege that the diplomats were intelligence officers, although Ottawa has provided no evidence to support that claim.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Donald Trump, who recently announced the U.S. will be kicking out 60 Russians, discussed the matter by phone Monday night.

Britain announced March 14 it will expel almost two dozen Russian diplomats, sever high-level bilateral contacts with Moscow and take both open and covert action against Kremlin meddling after the poisoning of a former spy. (The Associated Press)

The leaders discussed measures taken by Canada and the United States to support our common ally against Russia, the Prime Ministers Office said in a statement.

The U.S. expulsions were particularly noteworthy given that Trump has been accused of being soft on Moscow, especially in light of allegations it interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The four Russians who were ordered out of Canada were based in Ottawa and Montreal. Canada also rejected the applications of three others identified as intelligence officers.

Neither Freeland nor Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale offered further details, including the nature of their activities or why the Russians had been permitted to stay in Canada if they posed a threat to the country.

The selection of the individuals is a selection thats done with great care by the Global Affairs department in consultation with other relevant agencies across the government of Canada, Goodale said outside the House of Commons.

And its done in a manner to make the point very clear to the Russian government that we are deeply concerned and were also very alert to the activities to be unacceptable.

Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned on March 4 and remain in critical condition in the hospital. Skripal had served as a double agent for British intelligence. British authorities have described the poison as a military-grade nerve agent and a British police officer who was exposed to the agent was hospitalized, but later released.

The Kremlin has denied involvement. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the poisoning as a tragedy, according to media reports, but denied any involvement.

The Russian Embassy did not respond to an interview request. In a statement, the embassy called Freelands comments reprehensible.

The comments overlook the basic principle of due process given that the investigation is ongoing and no evidence so far has been produced, the statement read.

(The) U.K.s continuous denial of Russian requests for concrete data, including the sample of an alleged substance, as well as for consular access to Russian citizen Yulia Skripal, are especially troubling.

The Canadian measures also appeared to put another nail in whatever little hope there still was about a pending reset in relations with Russia, which the Liberals promised during the last federal election.

It's not the first time Canada has expelled a Russian diplomat; such measures weren't uncommon during the Cold War, including one instance in February 1978 when 11 Russians were forced to leave.

A handful have been expelled since the current tensions between the West and Russia began in 2014, but most have involved one or two Russians  without the type of language or co-ordination involved in Monday's action.

Seva Gunitsky, a University of Toronto political science professor who follows Russia closely, said the expulsion of Russian diplomats may help Putin domestically.

It allows him to keep hammering home the message that Russia is under siege by outside forces, but internationally I think it does send a strong signal, perhaps more strong than Putin had expected or Russia had expected about the unity of NATO states in response to any potential aggression, Gunitsky told the Star.

We only see whats on TV (in Russia) and the perception on TV is that this is totally unfair and just reinforces what Putin has been saying, so thats the perception inside Russia. And my sense is that reflects real sentiment. The polling inside Russia thats been done recently is a minority of Russians actually believe the official British story. ... Im not sure if this will have much of an impact on Putins security, lets say.

With files from Bruce Campion-Smith and Star wire servicesOTTAWAAccess to treatment for opioid addiction is about to get easier as the federal government promises changes to drug laws that would do away with some of the obstacles preventing doctors from offering prescription heroin and methadone.

Forthcoming legal changes will allow patients to access, when appropriate, prescribed heroin outside of a hospital setting, such as addiction clinics, making it easier for them to balance their treatment with daily responsibilities.

The government is also making methadone more accessible, allowing health-care practitioners to prescribe and administer it without needing to apply for an exemption from federal law.

Read more:

Opinion: Flying under the radar of the big opioid crisis is another opioid crisis

Doctors release national guideline for treating opioid addictions

Patients need more support to manage opioid prescription use, report states

Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor said Monday that removing barriers to treatment is crucial to combat what her department describes as a national public health crisis that continues to devastate families and communities.

We know way too many parents, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons or loved ones who have died because of opioids, Petitpas Taylor said. I believe we can turn the tide on this crisis. And we can do it together.

Health Canada estimates about 2,900 people died in 2016 as a result of the crisis; estimates slated to be released Tuesday suggest the epidemic claimed more than 4,000 lives last year.

The Controlled Drug and Substances Act currently requires that physicians apply for an exemption from federal law to be allowed to prescribe, administer, sell or provide methadone.

The governments announced changes will mean doctors no longer require an exemption, something Petitpas Taylor called a barrier that discourages the treatment from being offered.

Nurse practitioners who work in one of the six provinces that already allows them to prescribe methadone will also no longer be required to apply for an exemption  those include Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.

The new regulations are expected to come into effect in May and stem from a guideline released earlier this month by the Canadian Research Initiative in Substances Misuse.

The collection of best practices, put together by a network of 43 health-care practitioners, includes suggestions on how best to manage opioid-use disorder, including recommendations around what replacement medications should first be used to treat people addicted to powerful narcotics.

A network of doctors has developed a new Canadian guideline for managing opioid use disorder, including a recommendation that the opioid replacement Suboxone, a treatment considered to have safer side effects than methadone, should be the first medication used to treat those addicted to the powerful narcotics.

Last months federal budget earmarked $231 million to improve access to treatment, address stigma and gather data on the opioid crisis.

That includes $18.7 million over five years to tackle the stigma faced by people who use drugs, which includes a public education campaign aimed at changing stereotypes.

Stigma is a huge barrier for people getting the treatment that they need. And its not acceptable, Petitpas Taylor said.

She did not provide a date for when the education campaign would roll out, but emphasized it would happen as soon as possible.

Dr. Jeff Turnbull, director of Ottawa Inner City Health, which provides health care to the homeless community, said improving access to opioid-addiction treatment is welcome news, but much more remains to be done beyond stabilizing a medical condition.

You have to find stable housing, you have to find support, you have to treat their underlying mental health problems and their addiction is all part of that, Turnbull said. The real work begins now.

Deirdre Freiheit, head of the Ottawa-based harm-reduction organization Shepherds of Good Hope, applauded the announcement and stressed the importance of tackling stigma.

Our clients have been vilified often by many rather than supported, she said. Theyve been judged for being in crisis rather than being supported. People have placed barriers in front of them  physical, emotional, systemic  rather than broken them down.

Of the $231 million set aside in the federal budget for the opioid crisis, $150 million will go to provinces and territories to improve access to treatment, about $32 million will help border security intercept fentanyl and other illegal substances and nearly $18 million will improve research and access to public-health data and analysis.A suspect sought in the unprovoked beating of a 29-year-old man with autism has turned himself in to police.

Police began searching for three suspects after surveillance video surfaced showing the attack. Ronjot Singh Dhami, 25, was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant. He turned himself in Monday morning to Peel police, and is facing a charge of aggravated assault.

In the March 16 video, the victim is seen sitting on the bottom step of a bus station staircase near Square One shopping centre when three men appear in the frame, walking down the steps towards him. The man with autism notices their approach and shifts slightly to make more room, but appears taken by surprise when the three men abruptly start punching and kicking him. The attack left him with a bleeding head, and he was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

A lawyer representing Dhami told reporters last week that his client isnt guilty of the attack and said that he was planning to turn himself in. Dhamis bail hearing was expected to take place later Monday.

On Friday, police arrested 21-year-old Parmvir Singh Chahil in Windsor, along with two others who were charged with accessory after the fact. Hardip Padda, 44, is the suspects mother, and Harmanvir Chahil, 18, is his younger brother. Both are from Windsor.

The third man seen in the video is still unidentified. Police say he may go by the name Jason.

Read more about:The union representing school bus drivers in Durham and Kawartha regions said members have voted to accept new collective agreements, ending a three-day strike.

Drivers from Unifor Local 4268, which represents more than 120 members, voted 94.5 per cent in favour of a new three-year agreement on March 25. Full service to schools in the Durham and Kawartha regions will resume on Monday.

Unifor Local 4268 said last week bargaining was over unpaid work hours and wages. The drivers were working without a contract since Aug. 31, 2017, and were in a legal strike position since Dec. 10, 2017.

These were difficult negotiations but the drivers stood firm in the demand for compensation that matches their responsibilities, Unifor Local 4268 president Debbie Montgomery said in a statement. This contract achieved a major pay raise, with more than a 15-per-cent increase in year one, as well as a significant reduction in unpaid work.

Unifor Local 1285 also voted in favour of its first collective agreement that will cover about 450 drivers in the Brampton region. The three-year contract includes a 17-per-cent average wage hike in the first year and a key-to-key pay structure.

This is a major gain for these drivers and will help to address the ongoing practice of unpaid driving time in the industry, said Vito Beato, vice-president of Unifor Local 1285.

Both agreements also include signing bonuses, access to paid education leave and Unifors Womens Advocate Program, which trains union members to assist women with issues of harassment in and outside of the workplace, domestic violence and abuse.They were rebels without a cause.

At least not a clear one.

They were anti-Nazi and pro-Muslim. A few liked the police, but most didnt. They were in favour of Canada, but they had varying ideas of who should be Canadian. Black Lives Matter to some, but not others. They didnt say much about gentrification, but some believed that Capitalism sucks. They were patriots who had to stick to sidewalks because they didnt apply for demonstration permits. The media were vultures, but everybody played to their cameras. This land was stolen, but it belongs to everybody. We should fight for what we believe in or we should all just get along. They wanted their voices heard, but kept their faces covered.

In all, it was a protest comprising a confusing variety of causes and groups which wandered up and down Hamiltons Main St. W. a couple of times looking for a place to go. The 150 or so participants were aiming for Locke St. S., but walls of police officers at every corner easily kept them back. Eventually, the protesters returned to Victoria Park, where they had started from, to shout at each other. They were angry, loud and ornery, but lacking in clarity.

Is he one of us or one of them? a protester asked pointing to a guy ranting about taking back the city.

The whole muddled and bewildering thing lasted 90 minutes before a Hamiltonians Against Fascism (HAF) guy with a bullhorn told everyone it was time to go home.

Hamilton police say there were no arrests or injuries.

It was billed as a Patriot Walk on Locke on social media, apparently instigated by far-right groups wanting to demonstrate against a recent vandalism spree on Locke St. by a masked mob. In online postings leading up to Sundays walk, the Patriots seemed to include Soldiers of Odin, the Proud Boys and the Ontario Northern Guard.

A half-dozen or so Soldiers of Odin members, wearing jackets with their logo, were on Locke St. Sunday morning waving small Canadian flags outside Donut Monster  one of the businesses damaged by the earlier vandalism.

It didnt take long after the Patriot Walk was announced for HAF to organize a counter rally to oppose the patriots, whom it says are an anti-immigrant hate group.

HAF said its members would cover their faces to protect themselves from patriot harassment.

At 11 a.m., about 20 members of the HAF marched through Victoria Park toward Locke St. with red bandanas over their lower faces and carrying red banners reading Revolutionary Communist Party and Never Again Means Never Again.

No racists, no fascists, all power to the masses, they chanted. But also, Cops and Klan go hand in hand.

Their group got bigger as they marched, though who was joining in on the action is hard to say.

Across the road from them were members of the Hamilton and District Labour Council who carried signs saying Shut Down Hate.

The patriots are here to exploit the situation that happened on Locke Street, said Barry Conway, second vice-president with Hamilton and District Labour Council. Regardless if youre coming in peace, youre still a hateful group and thats not welcome.

The labour council promotes inclusion in our community and knows that when we come together, united, we are vibrant and sustainable, Conway said.

In the end, there never was a big showdown between the patriots on Locke St. and the counterprotesters. Police did not allow that to happen.

The police presence in the protest area was immense and included Hamiltons own patrol, ACTION, mounted and public order units. There were also officers from Toronto and Waterloo.

The mounted unit patrolled the sidewalks. Bike cops flanked the marching protesters. Yellow-jacketed patrol officers blocked off every side street. At one intersection, as protesters approached, doors rolled open on several unmarked white vans and dozens more police jumped out.

Meanwhile, police were also keeping watch over the Tower, Hamiltons anarchy headquarters at Cannon and Victoria Sts., according to Const. Lorraine Edwards. There were some protesters in that area, she said.

While all of that was going on, there were roughly 9,000 runners competing in the Around the Bay Road Race just a few blocks away.

Hamilton had much to be proud of Sunday.

Things could have turned ugly, but we kept our cool.

Susan Clairmonts commentary appears regularly in the Hamilton Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.comWhen the shooting began, Henry Dryden had been gone two hours from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

I had made a doctors appointment three months beforehand that was miraculously on that day, said the sophomore at the school in Parkland, Fla.

That doesnt mean he didnt suffer, and is not suffering still.

But, like many of his schoolmates and millions of students around the world, Dryden is determined to draw some good from the slaughter of 17 people on Feb. 14, by a gunman armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

Thats why Dryden, 16, was there Saturday in front of a Toronto rally that  like hundreds of others  was called to demand action on the school shootings that have plagued the U.S. over the past two decades.

And he, too, calls BS on any argument that would keep weapons of war in the hands of civilians.

The solution is to get rid of these ... assault rifles that we dont need, says Dryden, who was in Toronto on a March Break visit to his aunt and cousin here.

You cant even hunt with an assault rifle because if you tried to kill a deer with an assault rifle, then you destroy all the meat, he said.

And just because Dryden was away from school during the shooting which also left 17 wounded  doesnt mean he was spared its horrors.

Read more:

NRA host taunts Parkland teens: No one would know your names if classmates were still alive

March for our lives gun control supporters rally in Toronto

Vote them out! U.S. students demanding gun control fill the streets of Washington

I live next to my school, so I could hear all the sirens and shots fired, said the teen, who, like so many of his classmates, has become a thoughtful and articulate advocate.

And Im connecting with my friends on social media and everybody was (sending out) what was going on, so I saw the bodies and the blood on the floor.

Even now, the school where 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz is accused of carrying out the killings remains fenced off.

And theres still bullet holes in the windows and the walls, Dryden said.

The student, though, is heartened by the support from high schools around the world. While the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., drew more than half a million people on Saturday, smaller events took place on every continent but Antarctica.

It means so much to us, Dryden said.

Even though our own country seems to be ignoring us ... belittling us a lot, we have the support from people from all over the world, and thats amazing that our voices have reached that far.

Dryden said the suggestion by gun rights advocates that teachers should be armed is ridiculous, and that banning the sale of assault weapons is the only practicable solution.

Speaking from his Florida home on Sunday, Henrys father, James Dryden, said that during the school attack, Henry was on the phone conversing with many of his friends who were in closets and not knowing if the shooter was still shooting.

We are just so proud of him, said the senior Dryden of his sons advocacy.One lunchroom supervisor monitoring 100 children. Students who need an educational assistant to learn, but dont get one. Schools without teachers for music, drama and the arts.

These are some of the daily challenges facing children at school and getting parents fired up. Harder to grasp is the complex formula that determines how much money is spent on the many aspects of education in Ontario.

But the public needs to pay attention to that complicated funding formula because its at the heart of serious inequities and shortfalls in the provinces schools, argues a new report.

Share Your Thoughts!

And that flawed and one-size-fits-all tool must be overhauled and replaced with a new plan based on student need, rather than a system that divvies up a pre-set and inadequate pool of money, says the paper released Monday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Until we fix the way Ontario funds public education, chronic problems such as aging schools, portables, and avoidable school closures will keep rearing their ugly head, says Erika Shaker, director of education and outreach for the think-tank.

Economist and report author Hugh Mackenzie says parents and students experience the impact of a broken funding model every day. He cites deteriorating buildings, overcrowded classrooms, children forced to travel for hours on school buses, and shortages of essentials like teacher librarians and breakfast programs.

His report notes the 20-year-old funding formula, introduced by cost-cutting former premier Mike Harris, centralized control of education decisions and dollars with the government and created a situation where school boards and educators wrestle over a fixed pot of insufficient funds.

Instead, he proposes a blueprint to turn that approach upside down, beginning with a new set of principles and objectives, and followed by funding based on students needs.

A key piece is a recommendation to link special education dollars directly to each student diagnosed or identified as needing supports through an assessment. This would replace the current rationing of arbitrarily-limited resources, says the report.

In the current cash-strapped system, many children are entitled to support under the special education act, but they are not entitled to the financial resources required to deliver that support, Mackenzie told the Star in an email.

Other recommendations include:

Targeting students most at risk based on demographics with more resources for special ed, second-language funding and other learning;

Ensuring teachers and education workers on the frontlines are involved in revamping the system and how its funded;

An investment to eliminate the $16-billion repair backlog in Ontario schools for problems like aging roofs, windows and furnaces.

The Liberals have come under fire for failing to fix the funding formula despite pouring billions of dollars into the school system over the last 15 years. The province currently spends about $24 billion a year on education, or $12,100 per pupil, fifth among provinces in per-student spending. Last year, with most school boards investing more in special education than the province allocates, the government announced an extra $219 million for teachers and education workers.

Similar calls to overhaul the funding formula  which hasnt been updated in 15 years  have come from groups like the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, the grassroots group Fix Our Schools and People for Education, a research and advocacy organization.

But its a topic that doesnt necessarily grab busy parents or other voters because of the daunting effort required to make sense of its labyrinthine parts.

Tangible concerns like the alarming lack of supervision and chaos during many school lunch hours reported in the Star last week spark uproar but dont always get to the heart of the problem.

However, advocates stress those conditions are a barometer of something bigger  the chronic underfunding plaguing the school system for years.

The provincial government has made the funding formula extremely complicated, says Mackenzie. But that complexity masks a lack of focus and direction that is important to address, he adds.

Issues like ensuring kids are fed, exercised, socializing and safe at lunchtime resonate with parents because they know school is about much more than academics, adds Erika Shaker.

These are things that parents can picture, these are things that parents remember from when they were in school and these are things they want for their kids too.

Andrea Gordon can be reached at agordon@thestar.ca.El Al now has four direct flights from Tel Aviv to Mumbai, but it must take a circuitous to skirt around Saudi Arabia, and a flight that should take just under five hours, ends up taking about eight.

The airline said its maiden flight 139 took off from New Delhi on Thursday and landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv after flying over the Islamic kingdom, heralding a new shift in diplomatic policy of Riyadh that does not recognise Israel as a state.

"This is a historic moment", Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz told AFP on the tarmac as the Boeing Dreamliner rolled to a halt.

Without the fence, "we would be faced with ... severe attacks by Sinai terrorists, and something much worse, a flood of illegal migrants from Africa", Netanyahu said.

There will now be three flights weekly in each direction, ending a decades-long Saudi ban on the use of its airspace for commercial flights to Israel.

The flight approval comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described relations with the Arab world as the "best ever", with common concerns over Iran drawing them closer together.

Ejecuta grupo armado a cuatro jovenes en zona de bares de Iguala

Las victimas reconocidas hasta el momento son Victor Manuel Leyva "N", de 20 anos , y Eduardo Mendoza "N", de 19 anos . Los otros dos jovenes asesinados fueron trasladados al Servicio Medico Forense ( Semefo ) en calidad de desconocidos.

Australia could be in serious trouble for actions vs South Africa

Elgar and Rabada frustrated the Australians for 50 minutes as they took South Africa's overnight total from 266 for eight. They deserve better than what we put up yesterday.

Senate Passes $1.3 Trillion Spending Bill In Late-Night Vote

The bill would deprive Trump of some of his border wall money and take only incremental steps to address gun violence. Senator Bob Corker also egged Mr Trump on. "But I say to Congress, I will never sign another bill like this again".

"The significance of this is clear to everyone", he said. "I think the long term significance for Israel will become clear later, but now there is no need to talk more about it, in order to ensure other similar developments".

During a May 2017 Middle East tour, US President Donald Trump flew from Riyadh to Tel Aviv on Air Force One in a rare direct flight between the two countries.

Israel's supreme court earlier this month suspended the controversial government plan to deport thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese migrants in response to a challenge from those opposed to the move.

The self-styled moderniser who has sought to project a liberal image of Saudi Arabia to investors has, however, also consolidated power to a level unseen by previous rulers.

"Presumably it fits in also with the more general rebranding that Mohammed Bin Salman is trying to achieve for the Saudis".Popular ice cream brand Sweet Jesus may have come under fire recently for allegedly promoting blasphemy, but the company is not melting under the pressurethey say they have no plans to change their name.

The heat was turned up on the soft serve company earlier this week when right-wing bloggers analyzed the branding, and a petition on CitizenGo came to light, claiming Sweet Jesus is all about trashing Christianity and is totally offensive, asking that the company issue an apology to the Christian community at large, and change their name and branding.

We want (Sweet Jesus) to consider how they have attacked the Christian community, and how they have attacked God, the petition reads. At the top of the page, the headline exclaims, Toronto-Based Ice Cream Parlours Serve Up Blasphemy.

The brand, founded in 2015 by Andrew Richmond and Amin Todai, uses some religious imagery in their branding, but says their name is an exclamation.

It was created from the popular phrase that people use as an expression of joy, surprise or disbelief, Richmond said in a statement. We found this firsthand, often using it while testing new items in our kitchens.

We are conscious of the fact that, to some, our name can be off-putting. That fact is something we struggle with because we sincerely do not wish to give offense or show disrespect in any way toward anyones personal beliefs. Neither is it our intention to be exploitative or flagrantly provocative.

The petition had reached over 8,500 signatures by Monday. CitizenGo, a conservative advocacy site, has been scrutinized in the past by groups such as GLAAD for homophobic and anti-choice rhetoric.

A second petition started on Change.org called for a boycott of the ice cream chain for their Anti-Christ agenda, saying that the sweet treat brand had declared open season against Christianity. They say an ice cream parlour using names and imagery from other religions would not be permitted.

But it looks like avid Instagrammers of the colourful cream will not be having to change their hashtags anytime soon.

After a lot of thought, we have decided that we will not make a change, said Richmond. The best brands come from an honest place. Sweet Jesus is an honest reflection of our experiences and that of our customers and how they react when they try our product. In our experience, the majority of people understand that were not trying to make a statement about religion.

A disclaimer has been added to their website to clarify that their aim is not to offer commentary on anyones religion or belief systems. Our own organization is made up of amazing people that represent a wide range of cultural and religious beliefs.

With files from Jenna MoonCouncil has committed to the creation of 18,000 new supportive housing units over the next 10 years as the city looks to deal with an ongoing crisis of available shelter space and recognize a shortage of mental health services.

Most of the recommendations approved at a meeting Monday followed earlier motions from downtown councillors Joe Cressy and Kristyn Wong-Tam after they and city staff scrambled to find space for vulnerable residents during a record-breaking cold snap.

There was a wall of resistance, some of it at the staff level, some of it at the political level, that refused to take a look at the crisis before us, Wong-Tam said. We had to have a coming to terms and a coming to the truth moment where the political leadership had to rethink what was happening and think about what a proper response would be to a crisis that was not named.

Today, the city has space for 6,600 people, including motel rooms. The system is consistently over 90 per cent capacity, a target set by council that has never been met.

The city now plans to create 1,000 more shelter beds over three years after frontline advocates and prominent Torontonians demanded leaders do better in responding to the lack of available space and open at least 1,000 beds immediately.

On Monday, Wong-Tam thanked those on the ground for holding officials feet to the fire.

Council also heard from the citys ombudsman on Monday after she tabled a report that outlined how misinformation about available space in winter respite services caused some people to be told there was no space. Emails obtained by the Star showed behind-the-scenes officials struggled to deal with that communication breakdown while blaming journalists and activists.

City staff have accepted all of ombudsman Susan Oplers recommendations and are currently working to implement them.

Earlier in the day, Councillor Gord Perks moved that council debate a long-awaited report from outgoing city manager Peter Wallace on a long-term financial plan. That report was tabled at Mayor John Torys executive committee earlier this month and then punted to the new term for further discussion.

I can think of no more urgent conversation for this council to have, said Perks. I can think of no more important debate for Torontonians to have then whether we are a bare-bones government that just delivers services to property like sewer hook-ups and fire trucks and police and thats about it, or whether we deliver the suite of services that a modern city has to deliver to be inclusive, to be fair, to be livable.

By moving the procedural motion to take the item from executive committee and place it on the council agenda this week, Perks created the opportunity for members of council to speak on the issue.

His allies took that opening to take both the mayor and his executive team to task.

Some people have criticized this mayor for kicking the can down the road, said Councillor Josh Matlow, who tried to get council to prioritize infrastructure projects based on value for money. I think what this mayor has done is far worse. No other city is spending over $3 billion on one subway stop. No other city in the world is rebuilding elevated expressways.

In five years time, Wallaces report said, the operating gap council would have to close to balance the budget would reach $1.42 billion  a significant challenge for a council which yearly approves a nearly $15-billion budget and has frequently closed the gap using one-time, unsustainable strategies like pulling money out of shrinking reserve funds.

An attempt by Councillor Stephen Holyday to end the discussion failed. The debate on the motion lasted an hour and a half.

In the end, council voted down Perks motion, 13 to 27, meaning the decision of executive to have a new city manager, who has yet to be selected, return with an implementation plan in 2019 stands. Tory and every member of executive voted against Perks motion. That meant that city councillors not on executive were not able to ask staff any questions or move motions related to that future report.

The direction is not binding on a future term of council. If a plan was brought forward, it is likely it would not have any effect until the 2020 budget process.A Toronto Police officer has been found not guilty of sexual assault after a judge ruled that inconsistencies in the complainants testimony meaningfully challenged her credibility and reliability, casting doubt on the issue of consent.

Const. Vincenzo Bonazza had pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault in relation to the 2008 incident. The complainant reported him in 2015, and a charge was laid one year later following an investigation by Ontarios police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit.

In her lengthy decision Monday morning, Justice Anne London-Weinstein said she could not be sure, beyond a reasonable doubt, on the issue of consent during the sexual encounter.

We live in a culture where a phrase like Netflix and chill is understood to be a cultural euphemism for sex. I understand why the complainant may have feared she would not be believed because she had a glass of wine with the accused, or because she watched a movie with him in her home, she said.

If I were to assume consent based on that type of evidence, I would be committing an error in reasoning by relying on stereotypes about how women are expected to behave in order to have their evidence regarding consent accepted.

Rather, the judge found it was the womans wariness during cross-examination, which included sometimes asking to see transcripts before responding, and her evolving evidence to fill in perceived gaps in memory, that affected the complainants credibility and reliability.

The complainant  identified by the judge only as C.T. in her decision  was an actress at the time the incident occurred about 10 years ago.

C.T. testified at Bonazzas trial in February that she did not think anyone would believe her if she came forward with her allegation of being raped by a Toronto cop. But after becoming a police officer herself, years later in another jurisdiction, and working on a sexual assault case, she decided to come forward with the allegation.

Now I can write that a Toronto cop raped me, no problem, but I couldnt write that then, she previously testified.

C.T. and Bonazza met in the summer of 2008, after she had been in contact with Toronto police upon filing a criminal harassment complaint against an ex-boyfriend.

After the ex-boyfriend was charged and released from custody, the woman thought she saw him driving in her neighbourhood. She approached a marked Toronto police vehicle nearby, where Bonazza and another officer were parked, to ask if they could run the licence plate of the car she believed her ex-boyfriend was driving.

The officers said they could not run the license plate, but that initial encounter led to further communication with Bonazza which included, C.T. claimed, a surprise phone call from Bonazza a few days later, although she did not recall having given him her phone number.

Bonazza, who was married at the time, said he asked for her phone number and she gave it to him. The officer said he used police databases to run her file and conduct a history of her. He later called her to say that he had read her file on her complaint with her ex-boyfriend, despite the fact that he was not involved in the investigation.

On the night of the alleged assault, not long after their initial meeting, C.T. testified that the officer came to her home without notice to bring her sushi and watch a film in which she had a role. She told the court she did not believe that it was a romantic get-together and that she was not interested in Bonazza, who was wearing plain clothes.

C.T. alleges he told her that she was the kind of girl where if I kiss you right now, youd be totally cool with it, she testified, and said he began kissing her and unbuttoned her pants.

When Bonazza didnt stop, despite her body language and her clearly telling him his touching was unwanted, she began to fear for her safety, she said. She then submitted to intercourse and oral sex against her will, she said, out of fear.

The complainant in this case impressed me as someone who very much wanted to get things right in regard to the accuracy of her evidence, London-Weinstein said in her decision.

However, C.T.s express desire to get it right, led the judge to conclude that two issues  her weariness during cross-examination and her evolving evidence  affected the complainants credibility and reliability.

Weariness or defensiveness in and of itself would not necessarily prevent me from assessing credibility and reliability, the judge said, elaborating that, Her refusal to commit to a suggestion until she had seen her prior evidence on the point hampered my ability to assess her independent memory of events.

With regards to gaps in memory, the judge cited a few incidents including the question of where or whether Bonazza ejaculated during the sexual encounter, or if she mentioned liking sushi, as instances in which she believed the complainant substituted what she thought must have happened in the absence of an actively held memory.

London-Weinstein said she disbelieved some Bonazzas testimony as well, and found him to be evasive. She said the fact that both parties were police officers did not play a part in her analysis of their credibility.

However, she could not be sure beyond a reasonable that the sexual activity was not consensual.

Bonazza and the Crown attorney declined comment after the verdict.

The complainant was not in court for the decision.

With files from Wendy Gillis and the Canadian PressThe City of Toronto wants to know how people feel about the prospect of having to walk through metal detectors to enter city hall.

The online questionnaire that closes April 10, however, is itself being questioned by some who say the wording appears aimed at eliciting support for the controversial security proposal.

The specific questions are in my view heavily biased toward a particular outcome, Councillor Gord Perks said in an interview Monday. Saying The police should do this, what do you think?, without offering any other points of view or evidence, really does a disservice to providing council and the public with a good sense of where public opinion lies here.

Perks also noted people can respond anonymously. In a multiple-question format, the survey asks how long respondents have lived in Toronto, their postal code and family income, without a request for proof or any apparent way to stop a person from registering the same opinion multiple times.

The online survey was produced by a third-party, full-service public opinion and market research firm, with input from city staff, said city spokesperson Erin McGuey.

The city is also commissioning a 1,000-respondent opinion poll, conducting in-person survey with 100 random city hall visitors and survey city staff members for their opinions on new security measures, McGuey said.

Last November city councillors received a city staff report endorsing new security provisions for city hall amid international terror attacks including the 2014 fatal attack on Parliament Hill.

Recommendations included metal detectors for visitors, bag searches and glass walls separating city councillors and staff from the public. They were made public only after the Star reported details in a confidential attachment to the politicians.

The report cites threat assessments from Toronto police and Public Safety Canada that the famed curved towers and Nathan Phillips Square are a target for serious threats from lone wolf terrorists, organized terror groups, and other individuals with grievances.

But councillors asked city staff to gather public opinions and report back with options after some Torontonians expressed concerns a security crackdown could restrict access to the landmark building that contains a daycare and wedding chapel as well as council chamber and city offices.

Among the online questions: Recently, two independent security assessments, one completed by the Toronto Police Service and one completed by Public Safety Canada, recommended that the city install metal detectors to screen all visitors as they enter city hall at 100 Queen St. W. With the awareness that the recommendation to install metal detectors is supported by these law enforcement agencies, does this change your support or opposition to the installation of metal detectors?

While some councillors including Perks say a clamped-down city hall would be less democratic, others said they feel like sitting ducks and that city staff and public visitors also need protection.

Were democracy, were the symbol of government, were a symbol of freedom, were a symbol of Canada . . . that people want to disrupt, Councillor David Shiner told executive committee last fall. They want to bring down a system thats here that they dont agree with.An online guerrilla campaign attacking Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is causing a buzz at Queens Park.

While the June 7 election campaign does not officially kick off for another six weeks, the new grassroots group, Not Doug, has launched a slick website aimed at the rookie Tory leader.

There are many reasons why Doug is a bad choice for premier, the website says before listing a litany of Fords controversial statements about autistic children, abortion, women, racism and drugs, among other topics.

Under each is a link to a mainstream media story that is the source material for the quote, including the Star, the National Post, the Globe and Mail, Global News, and Toronto Life.

Read more:

Doug Ford, PCs find traction with affordability, accountability message: poll

Ford says he will cut red tape to revive Ontario manufacturing jobs

Liberals and Tories fling accusations at each other as the 2018 election campaign heats up at Queens Park

This isnt about the Progressive Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, or Green party; its about preventing incompetent, unqualified individuals from taking power, just because theyre the loudest ones in the room. A Doug Ford government would be a disaster for Ontario, the site says.

The Toronto-based website also features anti-Ford posters that can be downloaded and printed off at home. Copies have been springing up on public bulletin boards and construction sites over Toronto since last weekend.

Liberal campaign co-chair Deb Matthews said the governing party has no connection to the website.

No. In fact, Id love to know who it is; its very good, Matthews said Monday.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwaths office said it has nothing to do with it, either.

Fords spokesperson, Melissa Lantsman, emphasized the Tories are remaining focused on the looming election, instead of getting sidetracked by online attack ads.

We know that insiders will say and do anything to make this election about anything but (Premier) Kathleen Wynnes abysmal record on the economy, said Lantsman.

Have your say

The Not Doug organizers, who want to remain anonymous because they all have day jobs, insisted Monday that are genuinely just a few concerned citizens that put together our own resources and time to make this campaign happen.

We are not affiliated with any political party, union, business, taxpayer group, or interest group otherwise, the Not Doug team said via email.

Its kind of funny seeing people talk about how we look like were backed by some greater interest; our campaign was built in hours on a laptop. A staple gun, some design skills and a printer helps, too, they wrote.

We encourage and welcome anyone to join us, to challenge us and to have discussions with us. We plan to have a presence at key events and we will be releasing new facts up to the election.

While some are former PC voters, they worry Ford would be like mercurial U.S. President Donald Trump, they said in a phone interview with the Star.

After seeing what has happened south of us and in other parts of the world, we really want to avoid populism and a blatantly false rhetoric from taking hold of Ontario.

We dont think the public understands what the consequences of a Doug government really are.

Unlike 18 other organizations, including the Liberal-friendly Working Families coalition of unions and the PC-boosting Facebook campaign Ontario Proud  Not Doug has yet to register as a third-party group with Elections Ontario.

Very little money has been spent on this, said the organizers, who added that they are diligently keeping records to ensure they stay within provincial spending limits.

To some people, it might look expensive, but technology and a bit of design skill can help you make a really polished campaign for next to nothing; its really something anyone can do on a weekend with some friends.

Read more about:The Liberals are pledging to spend an additional $300 million over the next three years to hire teachers and assistants to work with special education students  an area parents and school boards have long complained is underfunded.

Premier Kathleen Wynne made the announcement Monday at a Toronto elementary school, saying the roughly $100 million a year will also put an end to wait lists.

What were hearing from teachers at this moment is that they have to find the balance between making sure their classroom is a safe and supportive place for all of their students to be able to learn, Wynne said at Kimberley Junior Public School.

What I want to say to teachers is that we are listening to you ... We know that we need to do more so that children with special education needs are getting the right support.

The way to do that, she added, is putting more people, more helping hands, more caring professionals in our classrooms.

The first instalment for the 2018 school year is $102 million, and school boards expect to create an additional 600 full-time positions by the 2019 school year.

Education Minister Indira Naidoo-Harris said the funding will be permanently added to the budget, and will be enveloped, mandating boards spend it on special education and not move it to other underfunded areas.

The government also announced a bump in education grants  $625 million more for the 2018-19 school year, up to $24.5 billion  including a small raise of $400 a year for trustees.

In total, the government is adding 2,000 education jobs, including more guidance counsellors for middle schools, mental health workers and speech-language pathologists.

Wynnes education announcement comes just two days before Wednesdays budget. Opposition critics said the additional dollars wont make much difference to special education students, and questioned the governments motives in making the announcement two months before the June election.

But Naidoo-Harris said this funding is going directly where its needed and I think it is going to have a massive impact on the school system  and the impact it is going to have is going to be felt for years to come.

The Ontario Public School Boards Association welcomed the news.

Special education continues to be an area in which boards have been requesting more supports and resources, said president Laurie French. This has been a consistent and ongoing challenge, and weve been sounding the alarm on this issue for years.

People for Education, an advocacy group, estimates that 35,000 students across the province are on wait lists for special education assessments.

If we can get rid of some of the backlog on these things, thats terrific, said Robin Pilkey, chair of the Toronto District School Board.

But opposition parties said the government has ignored parents concerns for years.

NDP Education Critic Peggy Sattler (London West) said the funds are unlikely to have an impact on reversing the years of special education cuts that we have experienced.

Progressive Conservative MPP Todd Smith (Prince Edward-Hastings) said in his riding, education assistants have been cut and teaching positions cut in classrooms. There are a lot of schools now where they just arent accepting children with special needs and (parents) have to try and find someplace to put their kids.

We have people coming to my constituency office in Belleville all the time. They are at their wits end.

Wynne also has an announcement planned for Tuesday morning that is expected to address child care.

Last fall, the Liberals struck a strategy group to come up with a plan to ensure there are enough trained early childhood educators to oversee the 100,000 spaces they have already said they will create.

A recent government survey of licensed child-care centres found more than 60 per cent of full-time registered early childhood educators earn less than $20 an hour.

The Association of Early Childhood Educators is calling for a $25-an-hour starting rate for registered ECEs  equal to what most ECEs in the classroom earn.

Wednesdays budget is also expected to eliminate the wait list for developmental services for children when they turn 18, meaning they wont be cut off while transitioning to adult funding.

With files from Laurie Monsebraaten

Read more about:BENGHAZI, LibyaThe U.S. military carried out its first ever drone strike against Al Qaeda militants in southern Libya this weekend, signalling a possibly significant expansion of the American counterterrorism campaign in the North African nation.

Until now, the Pentagon had focused its counterterrorism strikes in Libya almost exclusively on Daesh fighters and operatives farther north  eight since U.S. President Donald Trump took office. In 2016, the military conducted nearly 500 airstrikes in the coastal city of Sirte over several months to destroy Daeshs stronghold there.

But the attack Saturday that the militarys Africa Command said had killed two militants  later identified by a spokesperson as belonging to Al Qaedas branch in northwestern Africa  took place in the countrys southwest, a notorious haven for a deadly mix of Al Qaeda and other extremist groups that also operate in the Sahel region of Niger, Chad, Mali and Algeria.

This appears to be the continuation of expanding AFRICOM activity in Libyas ungoverned areas, said Deborah K. Jones, who served as U.S. ambassador to Libya from 2013 to 2015, referring to the Africa Command.

A missile fired by the U.S. drone struck a house in Ubari, 700 kilometres south of Tripoli, in an area close to major oilfields that was wracked by violent ethnic feuding in 2015. Pictures in Libyan news media outlets showed a mutilated corpse lying in the rubble of a house, and a pair of shrapnel-ridden vehicles nearby. Local residents were quoted by the media outlets as saying the house had been frequented by foreigners.

In a statement, the militarys Africa Command said the strike had targeted militants with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an affiliate also known as AQIM, and had been carried out in coordination with the UN-backed unity government in Tripoli. At this time, we assess no civilians were killed in this strike, the statement said.

The strike came as the Trump administration has been reassessing the U.S. military commitment in North and West Africa after the ambush in Niger last fall that killed four U.S. soldiers. The Pentagon has been preparing to fly armed drone missions from Nigers capital, Niamey, a step that diplomats and analysts say could further widen the Pentagons shadow war in this part of the continent.

In a sign of how the Pentagon has sought to obscure its operations in Libya and other parts of northwestern Africa, the Africa Command did not announce the strike Saturday.

It responded to questions from the New York Times late Saturday with a terse statement after media reports about the strike circulated in Libya. The statement did not identify where the drone had originated.

Earlier this month, in response to a Times query, the Pentagon acknowledged for the first time that Green Berets working with government forces in Niger had killed 11 Daesh fighters in a firefight in December. No Americans were hurt in that fight, the Pentagon said.

Ubari is at the intersection of the powerful criminal and jihadi currents that have washed across Libya in recent years. Roughly equidistant from Libyas borders with Niger, Chad and Algeria, the areas seminomadic tribesmen are heavily involved in the smuggling of weapons, drugs and illegal migrants through the lawless deserts of southern Libya.

Some have allied with Islamist militias, including Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates across Algeria, Mali, Niger and Libya.

The area erupted into conflict in 2014 when a century-old peace treaty between the Tuareg and Tebu ethnic groups collapsed over a dispute about control of the fuel smuggling trade. The fighting, which occurred independently of the broader struggle for control of Libya after the 2011 overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi raged for a year, killing hundreds and leaving many families displaced.

The Tebu and Tuareg eventually struck a peace agreement, and a neutral militia currently keeps the peace in Ubari, but tensions remain. In November, Turkish engineers working at the city power station were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen, as was a Pakistani engineer at the station who went missing this month, according to local news media reports.

While some Tebu groups have allied with the UN-backed government in Tripoli, Tuareg factions have allied with Al Qaeda, which is also believed to have profited from the trade in smuggled fuel.

In the statement Saturday, Robyn M. Mack, a spokesperson for the U.S. Africa Command, said that it was still assessing the results of the strike and that the purpose had been to deny terrorists freedom of action and degrade their ability to reconsolidate.

But the command did not answer several other questions: Who were the two dead militants, and why were they important enough to kill with an airstrike? What role, if any, did France play in a region of Libya in which it has also conducted counterterrorism operations? And, most significantly, to what extent is the attack the start of an escalating campaign against a broad spectrum of extremists in northwestern Africa, or a one-off strike against high-profile Al Qaeda operatives?

Beginning a concerted strike campaign against AQIM or other AQ elements in the Sahel, akin to what we are doing in Yemen and Somalia, would mark a significant expansion of our counterterrorism efforts, said Luke Hartig, a former senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council during the Obama administration.

If this is going to be the start of a broader campaign, it would be helpful to hear more from the administration about the threat posed by AQIM and why it merits putting our people in harms way and conducting strikes, Hartig said.

A senior French security official said France had played no role in the strike, but added that Paris was very happy of this continued commitment of the U.S. to counterterrorism in Libya.

Questions about whether the U.S. military, under the Trump administration, is seeking to blur the expanding scope of operations in Africa were raised this month when it was revealed that the United States had carried out four airstrikes in Libya between September and January that Africa Command did not disclose at the time. The military has said it will acknowledge such missions if asked about them, even if it does not affirmatively disclose them in a news release.

Mack said that Saturdays attack was the first airstrike the United States had conducted against Al Qaeda in Libya. In fact, the United States conducted an airstrike in eastern Libya in June 2015 against Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the mastermind of the 2013 terrorist seizure of an Algerian gas plant that left 38 foreign hostages dead. Belmokhtar was a longtime Al Qaeda operative with ties to senior Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan. Western intelligence officials today remain divided over whether he is dead.

U.S. efforts to hunt down Islamists in Libyas vast deserts rely heavily on surveillance and air power but also on alliances with the armed groups vying for control of Libya. Mohamed El Sallak, a spokesperson for the UN-backed unity government, said on Twitter that the attack in Ubari Saturday was part of the strategic co-operation between Libya and the United States in the fight against terrorism.

But in Ubari, armed Tebu and Tuareg groups have sided with different sides in Libyas chaotic struggle, and the unity government is by no means the dominant player.

Some control a stretch of southern border, while others have allied with militias from the coastal cities of Misrata and Benghazi. The rising force now in the south is Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter, the commander of the Libyan National Army based in Benghazi.

Since his forces ousted the last Islamist militias from Benghazi in December, Hifter has focused on the south, where he exerts influence through his fleet of aging warplanes and alliances with local armed groups.

In Sebha, the largest southern city, Hifter and the rival UN-backed government are vying for control through local proxies. In Ubari, 177 kilometres to the west, Hifter has allied with an ethnically mixed militia that is composed of former Gadhafi loyalists and more recent recruits.

Read more about:Aracely Meza held the childs limp body in her arms as worshippers looked on. She spoke loudly into a microphone, chanting words in Spanish as she stroked the childs hair and rubbed something on his forehead.

The scene captured in a video was a ceremony to resurrect the lifeless 2-year-old boy. He died after more than three weeks without food. Meza, a Dallas-area pastor and a self-proclaimed prophet, had claimed that God wanted the boy starved to get rid of demons inhabiting his body.

Now, three years later, Meza is set to spend the rest of her life in prison for Benjamin Aparicios starvation death.

A Dallas County jury found the 52-year-old guilty on Friday of felony injury to a child causing serious bodily injury, the Dallas Morning News reported. She was sentenced to 99 years in prison and ordered to pay $10,000 in fines.

Meza and her husband, Daniel Meza, ran a church called Iglesia Internacional Jesus es el Ray out of a brick home in Balch Springs, a suburb southeast of Dallas. Public records show that Daniel Meza was the churchs president and director, while his wife was the vice president. Several adults and children were living with the couple around the time the boy died in the spring of 2015.

Aracely Meza claimed to have the ability to speak with God and to perform healing miracles. She told investigators that God had told her the boy needed to fast. He was given only water four or five times a day for 25 days, the Dallas Morning News reported, while followers were told not to help the child. But even after the fast, Meza still deprived the boy of food when he did not say amen, authorities said.

The boy was reduced to skin and bones, unable to lift his own head up during his last days. He died March 22, 2015. That day, Meza conducted a rising ceremony to bring him to life. She told police later that she believed God would wake him up, the Dallas Morning News reported. But the boy never woke up, and Meza and the childs parents, who also were her followers, took the body to Mexico the next day to be buried.

Charges are pending against the boys parents, Zenon and Liliana Aparicio, an online court docket shows. Mezas husband does not appear to have been charged.

Mezas attorney, Charles Humphreys, said his client was imprisoned by her faith, according to the Dallas Morning News. But Assistant District Attorney Patrick Capetillo told jurors last week that Benjamins death was the result of Mezas desire for control, not her faith or religion.

The case, albeit bizarre, is not unheard of. Cultlike religious leaders have previously been linked to criminal acts.

Last year, investigators in Alachua County in Florida said a woman who ran a religious boarding school there had killed a child in her care. Anna Elizabeth Young, who was known as Mother Anna, was charged with first-degree murder in December. The charge stemmed from the 1980s death of a toddler who authorities said was tortured and starved, the Gainesville Sun reported.

Authorities also said that Young may have had many other victims. She had been convicted in Florida for bathing a 12-year-old girl in a steel tub full of chemicals that severely burned the child. Young fled and was captured eight years later after police found her living in the attic of a relatives house in Illinois.

Young ran the House of Prayer for all People, which opened in 1983 in Micanopy, a town just south of Gainesville, Florida.

In 1992, a self-proclaimed son of God who went by the name Yahweh ben Yahweh was convicted of plotting several murders and attempted murders, as well as a terrorist bombing of a Florida neighbourhood. Six of his 15 followers were convicted of conspiracy to murder.PARISThe brutal murder of an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor has outraged Frances Jewish community as leaders warned the country on Monday against the ongoing nightmare of murderous anti-Semitism.

Mireille Knoll, 85, was stabbed multiple times and set on fire in her Paris apartment on Friday, in what Jewish advocacy groups are calling anti-Semitic hate crime.

The murder took place Friday, the same day as the terrorist attack in the southeastern city of Trebes, in which four people, including one French police officer, were killed in a hostage standoff at a local supermarket.

For now, French authorities have taken two suspects into custody, according to a judicial official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the case and would only tell The Washington Post that one of the suspects was born in 1989.

A murder investigation was formally opened, but authorities have not commented on the motives of either suspect at this stage.

Speaking on French radio Monday morning, Francis Kalifat, the head of Frances largest Jewish advocacy organization, the Representative Council of French Jewish Organizations, or CRIF, bristled at the suggestion that investigators use caution before considering the murder an anti-Semitic attack.

Prudence? Obviously, he said. But prudence doesnt mean we should exclude the possibility that this could have been an anti-Semitic act.

In France, authorities have often formally hesitated to ascribe a clear motivation of anti-Semitism to any number of similar attacks on Jews in recent years. This has often been a point of contention between Jewish leaders and the French government, even as French President Emmanuel Macron has recently sought to improve relations.

The Knoll case bears striking similarities to the murder of Sarah Halimi, a 66-year-old Orthodox Jewish physician and kindergarten teacher whom authorities suspect was murdered by her Muslim neighbour, Kobili Traore, in April 2017.

This was the same Paris arrondissement, several streets apart, said Noemie Halioua, a French journalist with Actualite Juive and the author of a new book on the Halimi case. And both victims were elderly women who lived alone and who had both previously complained of threats.

Like Knoll, Halimi also lived alone in an apartment in the 11th arrondissement (or district) on the eastern side of Paris, an area traditionally home to immigrant populations but that in recent years has seen tremendous amounts of gentrification.

There is also the barbarity of the crimes, and the fact that in both cases the victims were fragile women, Halioua said.

After the attack in her modest flat, a public-housing project, Halimis body was thrown out the window into the courtyard below. Knoll, meanwhile, was reportedly stabbed 11 times and then left to burn, according to accounts given by Jewish leaders, citing her family members.

The Halimi murder became a national scandal when French authorities initially declined to investigate it as an anti-Semitic attack, despite revelations that her family had testified that the suspect had confronted her with verbal slurs on a regular basis.

The same was true in the 2006 murder of Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Jewish cellphone salesman who had no relation to Sarah Halimi and who was murdered by the so-called Gang of Barbarians, a band of immigrant criminals from the Paris suburbs.

In that case, the gang had targeted Halimi because he was Jewish  and had even demanded massive ransom sums from his middle-class family, whom the gang members assumed would be wealthy because they were Jewish. For months, French authorities refused to consider that case anti-Semitic.

In the Sarah Halimi case, public outrage reached such a level that Macron intervened in July 2017 and it has now been investigated as an anti-Semitic act.

Earlier this month, in a speech at the CRIF annual dinner, Macron brought up the case again.

I took a stand by calling on justice to shed light on the anti-Semitic dimension of Sarah Halimis murder, he said, and I am glad that this dimension could finally be recognized. That is what an investigation must be used to do, to establish the circumstances of a crime and to qualify it precisely.

But in a time when Holocaust survivors are disappearing, the brutal murder of Knoll proved a dark addition to a general narrative that has already provoked considerable concern among many European leaders, especially as instances of historical revisionism take root across the continent.

As a child, Knoll apparently survived the infamous Vel dHiv roundup of Parisian Jews in July 1942, according to Meyer Habib, a right-leaning French parliamentary deputy and confidante of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Habib issued a statement on the case Sunday, drawing on a conversation with Knolls relatives.

Two years into Nazi occupation, French police forces carried out mass arrests of approximately 13,000 Jews living in the capital, who were then deposited in the now-demolished Velodrome dHiver stadium near the Eiffel Tower. Most of those arrested were subsequently deported to Auschwitz.

Read more about:WASHINGTONFrom Washington to Warsaw, Western nations banded together Monday to expel more than 100 Russian diplomats they accused of being spies, punishing Moscow for its alleged poisoning of an ex-intelligence officer in Britain.

U.S. President Donald Trump, under constant political heat for his reluctance to challenge Russia, ordered 60 of its diplomats out of the U.S.  all of them spies, the White House said. The United States called it the largest expulsion of Russian spies in American history, and also shuttered Russias consulate in Seattle, deeming it a counterintelligence threat.

All told, at least 21 countries have ousted more than 135 Russians, including 23 kicked out earlier by the U.K.

Together we have sent a message that we will not tolerate Russias continued attempts to flout international law and undermine our values, British Prime Minister Theresa May told U.K. Parliament.

The American moves illustrated an increased willingness by Trumps administration to push back on the Kremlin, even as the president himself steadfastly avoids challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin personally or directly. Less than a week ago, Trump congratulated Putin for his re-election but didnt raise the March 4 spy poisoning, Russias alleged election-meddling in the U.S. or its own tainted voting process, prompting dismayed critiques even from Trumps fellow Republicans.

In a choreographed show of trans-Atlantic unity, the U.S. and European allies carefully timed their announcements for maximum effect.

Within a few hours, at least 16 European Union nations expelled Russians, with more likely to follow. Germany, Poland and France each said it planned to boot four Russian diplomats, the Czech Republic and Lithuania ousted three and Italy, two. Canada also took action, kicking out four Russians and denying three who have applied to enter the country.

The list included nations in Russias backyard that have perhaps the most at stake. Ukraine, a non-EU country with its own conflicts with Moscow, was expelling 13 Russians. All three Baltic states said they would make diplomats leave.

Almost all of the countries said publicly that those being expelled were actually Russians intelligence operatives working under diplomatic cover.

Moscow threatened retaliation of the tit-for-tat variety, suggesting it would kick out an equal number of foreign diplomats. Russias Embassy in Washington responded to the Seattle consulate closure by asking its Twitter followers to vote which U.S. consulate should be shuttered in turn: St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg or Vladivostok.

Britain announced March 14 it will expel almost two dozen Russian diplomats, sever high-level bilateral contacts with Moscow and take both open and covert action against Kremlin meddling after the poisoning of a former spy. (The Associated Press)

This is an attempt on the lives of Russian citizens on the territory of Great Britain, Russias Foreign Ministry said. It goes without saying that this unfriendly move by this group of countries will not go unnoticed.

Read more:

Theresa May says its highly likely Russia is behind poisoning of ex-spy

Russian diplomats leave Britain after expulsion over spy poisoning

Russia demands U.K. provide proof of ex-spy poisoning  or apologize

Yet it was unclear whether the expulsions, which may be inconvenient for Moscow but dont take aim at its economy, would be enough to alter Putins behaviour.

There is no actual deterrence and squeeze, said James Nixey, head of the Russia program at think-tank Chatham House. There is, so far, no cyber-response, no financial response.

Still, the dueling allegations added to a serious escalation of tension and distrust between Russia and the West, intensified most recently by a bizarre poisoning this month that evoked the spy-vs.-spy rivalries of the Cold War.

Britain has accused Moscow of using the Soviet-developed nerve agent Novichok to poison Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for the U.K., and his daughter, Yulia, on British soil. The two remain in critical condition and unconscious. The U.S., France and Germany have agreed its highly likely Russia was responsible. Russia has denied responsibility, while accusing Britain of leading a global charge against it without proof.

The expulsions came with a chorus of condemnation for the Kremlin  for the poisoning, Russian spying and other Western grievances. Polands Foreign Minister, Jacek Czaputowicz, called it the right response to the unfriendly, aggressive actions of Russia. In the Czech Republic, where Russian officials have claimed the poison may have originated, Prime Minister Andrej Babis dismissed that allegation as an utter lie.

And the United States warned of an unacceptably high number of Russian spies in the U.S., describing them as a national security threat. Among the 60 Russians expelled were a dozen posted to Russias mission to the United Nations who senior U.S. officials said were engaged in aggressive collection of intelligence on American soil.

When we see these espionage tactics that are taking place right here at the heart of the UN, we cant have that, said Nikki Haley, Trumps envoy to the UN.

In Washington, Russias ambassador was summoned early in the morning and told his diplomats have one week to leave the U.S. and must evacuate the Consulate General in Seattle by April 2. Located on the 25th floor of a large, downtown office building, the consulate is a particular counter-intelligence concern because of its close proximity to a U.S. submarine base and a Boeing Co. facility, said U.S. officials.

The officials said they estimated Russia had roughly 100 intelligence officials in the U.S., suggesting that dozens will remain even after the 60 are expelled. The officials werent authorized to be identified by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump has repeatedly wavered on whether he believes Moscow was behind the election meddling, despite assessments from U.S. intelligence agencies and the special counsel investigation into Russias actions and potential collusion with Trumps campaign. But this month, Trumps administration hit Russians with its first sanctions for the campaign interference, and also accused Moscow of an elaborate plot to hack Americas electric grid and infrastructure.

Even lawmakers who have scolded Trump the loudest for failing to confront Russia for spying and election meddling praised the expulsions Monday. Sen. John McCain called it a welcome step forward in holding Putin accountable.

The U.S. has kicked out scores of Russians before, though never a group this size. In 1986 the Reagan administration expelled 55, and in 2001 the George W. Bush administration ejected 50 Russians in retaliation for the Robert Hanssen spy case.

Read more about:About Me Scott Because prophetic scriptures are found throughout the bible, it is obvious that a comprehensive, systematic approach would be useful, if not necessary, for the understanding of prophecy. Past prophecies have been fulfilled in a literal manner, as confirmed by the dating of these writings and historical records of confirmation. These past prophecies also serve as a model of how to interpret future prophecies. A literal view of prophecy clearly indicates a certain sequence of events will occur within a single generation, concluding with the Tribulation and Second Advent and these events will be obvious. The prophetic signs appear to be present in this generation and we believe these signs are revealed in the news from around the world. View my complete profileHARARE, ZimbabwePolice in Zimbabwe are investigating a case of alleged ivory smuggling linked to the wife of former leader Robert Mugabe, a police spokesperson said Monday.

Authorities opened an investigation after a whistleblower came forward with information and no one has yet been charged, according to spokesperson Charity Charamba.

We are still investigating; maybe after the investigations we can ascertain the exact role of the former first lady, Charamba said. The Mugabes could not immediately be reached for comment.

Read more:

Zimbabwe remains under military control weeks after Mugabes era ended: This is a military government

Zimbabwes Emmerson Mnangagwa sworn in as new leader, vows to return prosperity to country

Robert Mugabe wont face prosecution in Zimbabwe, ruling party says

Grace Mugabes political ambitions intensified the national discontent that led to a military takeover and her 94-year-old husbands resignation in November. A former confidant of Robert Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, became president and has promised more transparency and accountability in the government.

Zimbabwes national parks and wildlife agency has provided police with documents in the alleged ivory smuggling case, agency spokesperson Tinashe Farawo said. When her husband was president, Grace Mugabe and senior members of her staff allegedly forced parks officials to sign export permits for ivory pieces without following procedure, Farawo said.

For example, in October last year, one of our senior officers was threatened after refusing to sign a permit for pieces that were not physically there. He was hesitant to sign for ivory that he had not seen, but he ended up signing after intense pressure and threats from the former first ladys office, he said.

The ivory would be smuggled under the guise of being gifts for dignitaries, but in many cases the so-called gifts were never shown to national parks. National parks has to physically see the ivory before the export permit is issued, Farawo said.

He said the exact quantity of ivory that was allegedly smuggled was being verified.

Zimbabwes national parks teem with elephants and other big game. The wildlife agency says close to 900 elephants have been poached since 2013. The southern African country is estimated to have more than 82,000 elephants.Allegations about the misuse of the personal information of 50 million Facebook users are shaking the very foundation on which our digital economy is based. Not only is consumer trust at risk, so too is trust in our democratic processes.

The global headlines weve seen in recent days also highlight a growing crisis for our privacy rights.

Before this incident, it might have been easy to think: Who cares if my personal information is out there and being used to try to sell me things?

Now its plain to see that personal information may be analyzed for far more insidious purposes. This past week, we learned it was allegedly used to political ends  what next?

My office has launched a formal investigation into Facebook. We must of course be impartial and cannot pre-judge our findings. The allegations nonetheless shine a spotlight on weaknesses in our privacy laws.

Canadians want to enjoy the many benefits of the digital economy, but they rightly expect they can do so without fear that their rights will be violated and their personal information will be used against them. They want to trust that rules, legislation and government will protect them from harm.

Canadas archaic privacy laws are not up to that task. Modern laws are urgently needed to protect us, as both citizens and consumers.

At the moment, for example, federal political parties are not subject to privacy laws. This is clearly unacceptable. Information about our political views is highly sensitive and therefore particularly worthy of protection. We must take action in the face of serious allegations that democracy is being manipulated through analysis of the personal information of voters. Bringing parties under privacy laws would be a step in the right direction.

Privacy risks are also growing in the business world. Our personal information is at the heart of the digital revolution transforming virtually every aspect of daily life. It is central to new online business models, and advances in the use of Big Data and artificial intelligence, which are necessary for Canadas economic development.

Trust needed to allow the digital economy to flourish hinges on having an appropriate legal framework.

First and foremost, a modern law would better protect Canadians. But it would also offer companies the legal certainty they need in an increasingly complex environment, a certainty they do not have when relying on a notion of consent that is so stretched as to become meaningless.

We need legislation that ensures Canadians provide meaningful, informed consent for the collection and use of their personal information. But consent will not always be possible in the new world, where data may be used for multiple purposes not always known when it is collected. In these situations, organizations have an important role in responsibly managing personal information.

With that in mind, the law should allow my office to go into an organization to independently confirm that the principles in our privacy laws are being respected  without necessarily suspecting a violation of the law. These inspection powers exist in other regulated industries; why isnt our personal information worthy of the same protection?

The time has also come to provide my office with the power to make orders and issue fines, helping us to more effectively deal with those who refuse to comply with the law.

Im very pleased that a Parliamentary committee recently issued a report calling for comprehensive changes to the federal private sector privacy law. I call on the government to act on that report.

An overwhelming majority of Canadians are concerned about how the digital revolution is infringing on their right to privacy. Recent events will only reinforce these concerns. Canadians deserve better. They deserve privacy laws adapted to the realities of the 21st century.

Daniel Therrien is the privacy commissioner of Canada.

Read more about:I am sitting in a courtroom at the Old City Hall courthouse in Toronto watching a trial for someone well call Jim.

I dont know Jim. Theres a high probability he was homeless because its provincial offences court, which covers public nuisance charges under the Provincial Offences Act, such as panhandling, but the consequences are real: they can include jail time.

However, Jim, the accused, is not present and has no idea the trial is taking place.

There is no defence counsel. The prosecutor calls witnesses to provide evidence. The statements they provide are unquestioned as there is no one to conduct cross-examinations.

There are no defence witnesses called. The prosecutor makes closing submissions but there is no one to make closing submissions on Jims behalf. If Jim is found guilty, the prosecutor will make sentencing submissions. There is no one in the courtroom to shed light on Jims background, the circumstances surrounding the commission of the alleged offence or any mitigating factors. And if this a second offence, Jim could be sentenced to jail.

This is what a trial in absentia  without the accused being present  looks like.

The right to be present at ones trial and to conduct a defence is enshrined in international law. Surprisingly, these procedural protections do not exist in Ontario for accused persons charged with provincial offences even when there is a possibility of incarceration.

The Provincial Offences Act permits these types of trials to occur under certain circumstances. If you find this shocking, you are not alone. This could happen to any of us. Yet there is one segment of our society who are disproportionately impacted by these proceedings. In Toronto alone, hundreds of homeless accused have been tried and convicted of provincial offences without having ever stepped foot in a courtroom.

We dont have statistics on how often trials in absentia happen in Ontario  though such stats would be useful for everyone. However, I have seen them occur in provincial offence courts with surprising frequency.

As a staff lawyer with Legal Aid Ontario I facilitate a project at the Old City Hall courthouse that provides legal representation to homeless accused who have been summoned to Provincial Offences court and are facing nuisance charges. Our project has intervened on trials being conducted without the accused present at least 150 times over the past two years, and thats in just one courthouse.

My clients live with mental health disabilities and are struggling to survive. More than 20 per cent self-identify as Indigenous. In the face of the current housing crisis, many cannot find a bed in a shelter. They are charged for sleeping on the street or for asking for help from a passerby.

For every homeless accused I represent, there are a many others who are tried and convicted in absentia. The stakes for accused people who are being charged with provincial offences can include imprisonment, exorbitant fines or probation.

Shockingly, on second conviction a defendant charged with panhandling under the Safe Streets Act can face up to six months in jail. Burdened with unpaid fines, totalling tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars, my clients will find it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain a drivers license, employment, credit or a criminal record suspension in the future.

In the wake of the citys budget talks and in the face of an ongoing housing crisis, we might question why we invest limited resources into policing, prosecuting and punishing people living in extreme poverty rather than allocating resources to lift them out.

We also might question what we lose as a democratic society that claims to uphold the rule of law when hundreds of homeless accused are tried and convicted in their absence.

As for Jim, if hes sentenced with incarceration, the next time he interacts with the police he will be possibly picked up and then sent directly to jail to serve his sentence. No bail. No trial.

Amy Slotek works as a staff lawyer for Legal Aid Ontario.When I knocked on doors before and during election campaigns, it was fascinating to speak with people, especially women, about their political concerns. Each person expresses themselves differently, and often in surprising ways.

When it came to women, I found them to be passionately interested in a range of political issues. But they seem less engaged than men in political debates.

Yet women have so many concerns  gender violence, pay equity, the lack of and the cost of childcare, job insecurity, the state of schools, to name just a few. Because we experience these issues on a personal level, we dont always connect them to political decisions. But we need to do that, and here are three reasons why:

Budgets matter: women tend to use more public services, from health care to transit to libraries. Women live longer and may need assisted care later in life. Women are also under-represented in the public workforce where they dont often have access to better jobs, better pay and union representation. Moreover, government budgets dictate how much tax we pay, what kinds of services we receive and what infrastructure we have.

Representation matters: According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Canada ranks 59th in the world with women making up 27 per cent of our MPs. Why does this matter? When womens voices join the debates in the corridors of political power, they tend to raise more issues of concern to women such as gender violence, healthcare funding, mental health, childrens welfare, and general social well-being. They make these more of a priority.

Womens power matters: Women had to fight for the right to vote in Canada and worldwide. Federally, many women won this right in 1919, while Indigenous women were forced to wait until the 1960s to vote. Womens votes represent their voice in government. If women dont use that vote, theyre giving it away to others who do vote and they might not like the outcome. Wherever women are on the political spectrum, the right to vote is something that needs to be cherished and exercised.

The issues women care about are expressed in politics through elections, and between elections, in budgets, bills and other government decisions.

With an Ontario election on the horizon and a Toronto municipal election in October, we need to be informed on the key issues that affect us as women  and make our voices heard at the ballot box.

Peggy Nash is a distinguished visiting professor in Ryerson Universitys Faculty of Arts and Community Services. She was Member of Parliament for Torontos Parkdale-High Park riding from 2011 to 2015.

Ryerson University will hold a panel discussion on why elections matter to women on Monday March 26 at 6 p.m.Gussie Bennett, a 14-year-old Inuit boy from Nain, Labrador died last week from tuberculosis, something you might have thought doesnt happen anymore.

Indeed, in most parts of the country it doesnt. But in northern communities the disease remains a persistent threat. An Inuit person is about 300 times as likely as a non-Indigenous Canadian to become infected with tuberculosis. And once infected, they must contend with linguistic and cultural barriers to timely diagnosis and treatment that most other Canadians do not.

Gussie did not die because transmission of the disease is impossible to control. (It has been contained in most developed nations.) Or because the disease is incurable. (It can be treated with medication.) Rather, he died in part because chronic poverty, inadequate housing and undernourishment in the North have contributed to the spread of TB and its deadly consequences in Inuit communities. And in part because the health system has failed to effectively respond.

The federal governments promise, announced last week, that it will eradicate tuberculosis from Inuit communities by 2030 (and reduce its occurrence by 50 per cent by 2025) shows a welcome and overdue seriousness about a tragic problem that has for too long been ignored. But to succeed the government will have to make a real dent in socio-economic problems on which it has often talked big but failed to deliver.

The task of eradicating tuberculosis is enormous, both in its significance and its challenge. As Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott and Inuit leader Natan Obed wrote in an opinion piece in the Star last week, the story of tuberculosis in the North is part of the story of colonization in this country.

Brought here by Europeans in the 18th century, the disease was the leading killer of Inuit people within 100 years. Housing was often promised to Inuit as an incentive to live in sedentary communities, writes Philpott. Instead, scarce and inadequate housing was provided which created ideal conditions for the spread of TB and other illnesses, as well as social challenges related to overcrowding.

These problems persist to this day. Overcrowding, poverty and undernourishment are major risk factors for contracting TB. And these are all endemic in northern communities. Nearly half of all homes in Nunavut, for instance, are overcrowded and more than 2,000 residents of the territory are on a waiting list for public housing. In Nain, where Gussie Bennett lived, housing is perpetually and dangerously sparse.

In the 1940s, when the federal government finally took some action to stop the spread of TB in northern communities, authorities transported those suspected of having the disease thousands of kilometres away to be treated. Their family members were not always informed. Some never returned. This understandably led to mistrust of the health system in many Inuit communities, and the relationship remains precarious.

Last year, a 15-year-old girl from Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut named Ileen Kooneeliusie died after a two-year struggle with tuberculosis. She was finally diagnosed only an hour before her death. Her family said the health-care professionals in her community could not speak Inuktitut and so she could not convince the doctors of the severity of her situation.

While the cases of Gussie and Ileen show the need for improved diagnostic techniques, which will rightly be a focus of the federal plan, their stories also shine a light on the trickier problems the government will have to deal with - cultural and socio-economic injustices at the heart of the reconciliation challenge.

The governments promise on TB is especially encouraging because, unlike so many previous ones, it is backed by a meaningful budgetary commitment: $109 million for tackling bacterial disease in Inuit communities over 10 years. But of course the Indigenous affairs department, in its various past incarnations, has a dismal record of actually spending the money allocated to it. One key milestone, as always, will be whether the cash actually finds its way into these communities more or less on schedule and for its intended purpose. But to measurably improve the health and welfare of Inuit people, this important initiative must be seen as only a first step.

Read more about:Some 20 years ago this city region embarked on a forced journey with a latent promise to establish Toronto as a city that is the envy of North America, if not the world.

The forced amalgamation of downtown with the suburban cities of East York, Scarborough, North York, Etobicoke and York was undemocratically conceived, brutishly executed and painfully delivered by a hostile provincial government.

The pain and despair is only now dissipating  and never will disappear for front-line opponents, especially those who fear that, given time, the suburban ethic will subsume downtown progressive sensibilities.

Its been an uneasy shotgun marriage. But the new Toronto is such a vibrant, unstoppable force with so much going for it that even the savagery of the Mike Harris government was unable to destroy it. Stultified and hampered and encumbered, yes. But, as the late, great African American author Maya Angelou would say, Still we rise.

The city is at another crossroads.

Silently, unheralded, we approach the intersection. This is a moment of great opportunity and nascent danger. Mayor John Tory has no real challengers to his title, with a campaign coming this summer and a vote in October. And a new premier with unfriendly intent could soon be ensconced at Queens Park.

A few months ago the horizon presented so differently. Incumbent Tory was preparing to face a challenge from Doug Ford, the guy he beat in 2014. In fact, Torys entire four-year mayoralty has been conducted with the Ford challenge in mind.

For example, Tory supported the building of a one-stop Scarborough subway in addition to his Smart Track stations in Scarborough  an overkill that does not best address the transit needs  specifically to short-circuit Fords subways, subways, subways mantra.

And rarely has a Toronto politician spent so much time and capital purporting to move traffic (and largely failing)  all in an effort to blunt Fords war on the car message.

Instead of spending more to reduce poverty, improve the citys housing stock and help the most vulnerable, Tory staunchly restricted property tax hikes at around 2 per cent. This was strategically designed to mute Fords claims that the city was flushing taxpayers money down the drain.

Surprise. We turned the corner, and an unexpected vista opened. Suddenly, Ford is on the verge of heading to Queens Park as premier and, by extension, Torys boss. Fords mad musings will then have to be heeded instead of ridiculed and ignored. Strategic, strident resistance from civic leaders, backed by an informed populace will be essential.

But whats the cause? What are we trying to preserve, to incubate, to propagate, to grow? At what cost? We dont know. Our mayor has not made the case and drummed it home. He has not rallied the troops to protect the homeland. And now he may be forced to do it under duress, with reflex urgency rather than logic and resolve that takes root deep in the citys consciousness.

If Tory had not spent his entire mayoralty fending off the potential ghost candidacy of Doug Ford, he would have mapped out a powerful long-term vision for Torontos future. We would already know the sacrifices we have to make, the cost of getting there, the timeline, and the challenges. Sadly, we dont. In fact, fearful of exposing the impact on our pocketbooks and the unpalatable political decisions he would have to make  Tory refuses to let city council debate the future needs of the city.

Last week his executive committee considered the future fiscal demands as prepared by the citys top bureaucrats. City manager Peter Wallace told a familiar story. The status quo will land you with a $1.4 billion annual hole in five years. Chop spending in ways few city councillors will stomach, or find new revenue, or increase property taxes.

This sounds like the type of discussion and debate and wrangle that city councillors should have  with the public observing and taking notes. Then residents would go into the October municipal elections knowing what vision to endorse. And, armed with that mandate, the victorious mayor would be in a strong position to push back against inimical initiatives the province might want to impose.

But no. Tory sidelined Wallaces report back to staff for more massaging that will arrive in 2019, well after the municipal election. Tory chickened out when a bold, enterprising outlook is required.

But wait. Tory might suddenly find the gumption to summon his nerves. In fact, if Tory had known that his potential nemesis Doug Ford would have been out of the picture this summer, he might have gone about this differently. So, maybe now he can grow some spine.

The citizens that appeared before the executive committee last week demanded exactly that. Adina Lebo, speaking for the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, urged council to take this on NOW because the alternative is unacceptable.

Solutions must be found for the 101,000 that are on social housing wait lists, and solutions to the dangerous and critical situation of TTC during rush hour, the 189,000 on the recreation waiting list and the three-year waiting list for vulnerable seniors to get dental care, 15,000 children waiting for child care spaces, the 27 per cent child poverty rate (highest in Canada) and the... you get the idea.

Why put off a council debate on these critical matters? Must we wait until a new Pharaoh presides at Queens Park with edicts to convert appropriately placed LRT lines into subways, cut spending on social services to the vulnerable, sell off public assets, denude our environment and become a meaner, nastier municipality?

The risk of losing the mayoralty to a right-wing axe man is gone. To reclaim the moral authority he abandoned, Tory must act now and establish a City Vision, a beachhead from which Toronto can defend itself against the coming tumult from Queens Park.

Royson James is a former Star reporter who is a current freelance columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @roysonjames

Read more about:The Kfar Shaul Hospital in Jerusalem is often overcrowded. Its expected to be particularly busy in the next couple of weeks when the city will receive many tourists and pilgrims: Jews celebrating the Festival of Passover and Christians marking Easter.

The hospital specializes in treating people, almost exclusively visitors, mostly Christians, who suffer from the so-called Jerusalem syndrome. This is how Wikipedia describes the condition: A group of mental phenomena involving the presence of either religiously themed obsessive ideas, delusions or other psychosis-like experiences that are triggered by a visit to the city of Jerusalem.

Psychiatrists report that the syndrome affects primarily individuals who already suffer from a psychotic illness or are prone to idiosyncratic ideas. But therere reports that people who havent been ill and havent fallen victim to strange phantasies in other places have also been affected to the point of delusion by the inexplicable magic of the city.

Unfortunately, not all who suffer from the syndrome receive psychiatric treatment. Some lose their lives in the process. A few months ago a 29-year old British tourist described as a devout Christian, Oliver McAfee, took his bicycle to southern Israel and hasnt been seen since. He left several traces that suggest that he sought to imitate Jesus forty days in the desert.

In 1969 an Australian tourist, Denis Michael Rohan, believed that he was preparing for the Second Coming by trying to set fire to the Al Aqsa Mosque located on the hill where the ancient Israelite Temple once stood and is today also one of Islams holy places. Had he not been stopped in time, he would have triggered a major war with untold consequences.

There are reports that people have experienced delusions similar to the Jerusalem syndrome in other cities. Muslims are said to have had them during pilgrimages to Mecca, Islams holiest place. Some visitors, particularly Japanese, have been similarly affected in Paris.

Many years ago, a stranger came to tell me what he had experienced during a visit to Jerusalem. As a result, he now claimed to be the Messiah and wanted me to proclaim him thus acting as John the Baptist to his Jesus. He believed himself to be the unacknowledged son of Israels first prime minister, David Ben Gurion and one of his successors in office, Golda Meir, with obvious reference to Jesus genealogy in the Gospel that goes back to the Biblical David. He was dismayed when I refused to cooperate.

Though the reason for President Donald Trumps decision to move the United States embassy to Jerusalem to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel was primarily political  as seems to be the declared intention of the leader of the Conservative Party in Canada, should he become prime minister  analysts believe Trump may have also wanted to please American evangelicals who voted for him. Many of them are said to be influenced by Messianic ideas linked to Israel.

However, you dont have to be mentally unstable, have Messianic delusions or use Jerusalem in political decision-making to be deeply touched by the city. Reflecting Jewish tradition, Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the giants of 20th-century religious thought, described Jerusalem as the place where heaven and earth meet.

I first came to Jerusalem in 1957 and have spent much time there, particularly in the last 20 years, occasionally in the company of Christian pilgrims. I know you dont have to be crazy or affected by Messianic speculations to be deeply moved by the history of this city, its beauty and its seminal influence on Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Dow Marmur is rabbi emeritus of Torontos Holy Blossom Temple. His column appears every four weeks.MONTREALIf Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had it in his power to save just one of the two Central Canada allies whose re-election is less than certain this year, which of Quebecs Philippe Couillard or Ontarios Kathleen Wynne would he pick?

Up until this election year the answer would have been a no-brainer and not just for a Liberal federal government.

From Ottawas perspective, the defeat of a federalist government in Quebec was considered a bigger national concern than any regime change in Ontario for the better part of four decades.

Indeed, Trudeaus predecessors were often expected to go the extra mile to try to prevent the advent of a sovereigntist government in Quebec. As recently as four years ago, then-prime minister Stephen Harper implored his opposition rivals and the other premiers to avoid providing Pauline Maroiss PQ minority government with referendum and re-election ammunition.

Things are strikingly different this year.

The Parti Quebecois is running in third place. Its referendum plans are on the backburner until at least 2022. With support for sovereignty in decline, the party is struggling to keep a central place on the political landscape. Whatever the result of the Quebec election, it will not herald a resumption of the unity wars.

But even the improbable prospect of a PQ resurrection in the Quebec fall vote has less cause to inspire trepidation in the Liberal backrooms of Parliament Hill than the possible advent of a majority Tory government in Ontario in June.

By and large, Trudeaus Liberals wish Couillard well. By comparison to his predecessors, he has been a remarkably easygoing partner for the federal government.

But when all is said and done, Trudeau does not really have a dog in the Quebec Liberal battle against the currently leading Coalition Avenir Quebec party.

CAQ Leader Francois Legault renounced sovereignty on the way to founding his party. He cannot win the fall election without convincing federalist voters his conversion is real. He is not about to sow doubts in their minds by turning the Quebec campaign into a battle-by-proxy against a popular federal government.

Satisfaction with Trudeau in his home province remains high. His Liberals enjoy a double-digit lead on the competition in Quebec voting intentions. That is not true in the other three more populous provinces.

Trudeaus team has little or no connection to Legaults nor has there so far been a flood of bad blood between them.

The two have a profound disagreement on the accommodation of religious minorities. But then that is one issue on which the Quebec and federal Liberals also disagree. In the end, the courts will probably sort out the issue. On the morning after a CAQ victory, the two governments would be writing on a relatively blank page.

Compare that with Ontario, a province where the Trudeau magic seems to be wearing off this spring.

Ontario is ground zero of the current decline in federal Liberal fortunes. Widespread voter fatigue with Kathleen Wynnes Liberals may be contaminating the federal voting intention numbers. But the Ontario premier has been unpopular for a long time and that did not until now affect Trudeaus standing in the province. On that basis the alternative, i.e., that the prime ministers performance is compounding Wynnes troubles, is just as plausible.

In contrast with Legault, Ontario Tory leader Doug Ford is more than happy to campaign as the anti-Trudeau.

A Tory victory in June would not just put the two governments on a collision course on carbon pricing and climate change. With Ford in the premiers office, Trudeau would probably have no Ontario buy-in for his plan to create a national pharmacare program or for his signature promise of a different relationship with Canadas Indigenous peoples.

And then from the PMO on down to the Liberal ministerial suites, Queens Park veterans populate Trudeaus government backrooms. Former provincial health minister Eric Hoskins, who was tasked last month with drawing a roadmap for the federal pharmacare plan, is only the latest high-profile import from the Ontario team.

A Couillard defeat next fall would force Trudeau to deal with a less familiar and more conservative Quebec partner. But a Tory victory in Ontario in June would leave most of the bridges between the current federal government and those in charge of Canadas largest province in ruins.

Chantal Hebert is a national affairs columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @ChantalHbert

Read more about:Whether it's a smash hit or a financial disaster, McDonald's never does anything quietly. Here are some of the greatest and worst menu additions in the history of its menu.

Is there a larger constant in the world than McDonald's (MCD) - Get McDonald's Corporation (MCD) Report ? If you're trying to eat right, probably. But even then, the massive number of McDonald's near you and the constant barrage of marketing campaigns mean that it's entirely possible you've never gone a day without being reminded of McDonald's.

It's that level of ubiquity that has kept McDonald's a must-own stock. The first quarter of 2018 was sluggish for the fast food giant to be certain, but it's weathered far worse storms before. Many analysts have attributed the decline to the new $1, $2, $3 value menu, which hasn't taken off quite yet. It may be affecting other simultaneous promotions.

This combination of promotions and menu additions may not be giving McDonald's the numbers it's looking for, but don't expect them to stop anytime soon. A lot of the success of McDonald's can be attributed to how often it tries new things. It's not going to work all the time, but if it wasn't for trying something new, you might not have your favorite McDonald's menu item. Without a failed first attempt at nuggets, we might not have McNuggets. Without a seemingly random promotion coming out at just the right time, we might not have McDonald's Monopoly, now a success for decades.

Trial and error has brought McDonald's some great triumphs - but some decisions really make you stress the word error.

5 Surprisingly Successful McDonald's Menu Items

The greatest successes of the McDonald's menu are, unsurprisingly, the first things you associate with the brand. The Big Mac, the fries, the quintessential classic McDonald's order. But you already knew that. Here are some popular items, past and present, that may surprise you.

1. All Day Breakfast

Perhaps you recall when people were demanding McDonald's bring all-day breakfast right; you may have been one of those people. In October of 2015, the company listened and brought it back out and returned the breakfast menu to its 24/7 glory.

Some may have worried about whether the sales could ever live up to the hype, but the promotion helped spark a big 2016 for the company. And as sales started to lag in late 2016 and early 2017, they smartly rolled out an expansion of the all-day breakfast. Analysts attributed this decision as playing a significant role in helping turn the first quarter of 2017 around; considering the McGriddle and Egg McMuffin were already two of their highest selling items, it makes sense that this would work out.

2. Premium Salads

Surprising, yes? Sales aren't exactly what they used to be - CEO Don Thompson in 2013 said salads make up 2-3% of sales in the U.S. - but the premium salad has been a continued moneymaker for McDonald's. At it's best, they sold over 170 million premium salads in 2004 and 2005 in the midst of a health food craze. They're not reaching those heights again anytime soon, but with the relative lack of expense salads cost to make, combined with the premium price, you'd be hard-pressed to call them a failure even now. Some of them are so densely caloric that it's basically like eating a burger anyway.

3. Snack Wrap

Part of what has helped McDonald's last so long is that even items no longer on the menu could be successes. Just ask the snack wrap. It was recently taken off the menu to make room for other promotions like all-day breakfast, but don't let that fool you; the snack wrap was a massive hit right out of the gate in the mid-2000s. Sales demolished early projections, and the company raked in profits. Even when the expanded McWrap was phased off of menus (to the outcry of many a McDonald's fan) it wasn't about profits; they were simply taking too much time to make. With its popularity, don't be surprised if one of these days they bring it back as a promotional item.

4. McCafe

McDonald's coffee is a classic. But there was concern that their expanded McCafe would be little more than a second-rate Starbucks and would suffer as a result. But its affordable prices, combined with its natural pairing with the beloved McDonald's breakfast menu, helped make it a hit, one of the reasons McDonald's had such a profitable 2017. More people, it seems, are making McDonald's their first stop in the morning before work.

5. Filet-O-Fish

The Filet-O-Fish may be a punchline for some people, but it's an item that has continued to thrive for over 50 years thanks to some brilliant marketing. In 1962, Cincinnati franchise owner Lou Groen created it so that practicing Roman Catholics, who wouldn't eat meat on Fridays, still had reason to come by for dinner. It was an instant hit, and today it's not only a mainstay for those who refrain from meat but Catholics; to this day, sales of the Filet-O-Fish increase during Lent.

5 McDonald's Menu Items That Failed

The $1 $2 $3 value menu has underwhelmed for sure in its initial stage, but don't fear it too much. It's still early, and there have been far, far worse disasters for McDonald's (Remember when someone found a human tooth?) Here are five failed items you may have forgotten, or maybe you just wish you had.

1. Arch Deluxe

The Arch Deluxe was a burger aimed at adults in the mid-90s, known for its mustard-mayo combination sauce. It failed, despite an astonishing marketing budget of nearly $200 million for it! How could this go so awry? Well, part of that marketing budget went to nationwide commercials where, to prove it was for adults, kids looked at the burger with disgust and revulsion. Decades later, there was talk that McDonald's may be trying to reboot this idea. Maybe this time the ad campaign won't include entire commercials where people look at your food like it's inedible.

2. McLean Deluxe

Though the premium salad succeeded in its launch and continues to this day, in the past McDonald's has struggled to capitalize on healthy trends. The McLean Deluxe was a 1991 burger advertised as having much less fat than the Big Mac. Unfortunately, that fat was replaced with water, and the attempt to bind the new patty together with seaweed extract turned the burger dry and disgusting.

3. McHotDog

How does a hot dog fail at a burger joint? It seems impossible; it's such a simple and classic idea. But consumers were not willing to associate McDonald's with hot dogs. Perhaps blame Ray Kroc, the businessman who made McDonald's what it was. When he was around, he made sure McDonald's didn't have hot dogs, as he found them disgusting and of a lower quality. Years after his passing, they finally rolled out hot dogs, but few people seemed interested in the idea anymore, and they're not sold outside of a few international markets anymore.

4. Italian Food

Though a couple of franchises kept making them for years after, McDonald's pizza is now a relic of the early 1990s, an expensive attempt to switch things up that did not last long in the U.S. They never sold well enough to keep them on the menu, took forever to make, and the expenses required to put pizza ovens in the kitchens made it a pricey failure. And if people didn't want pizza, they certainly didn't want spaghetti - and they definitely didn't want to eat something called McSpaghetti. This was at least less of a failure than the pizza though; not only did it not require expensive new equipment, but it's actually still served in the Philippines.

5. McAfrika

Of course, mediocre pasta as a failure doesn't compare with a worldwide PR disaster. Such is the story of the McAfrika, a burger on a pita they tried to sell in Norway in 2002. One small problem: at the time, many in Africa were facing terrible starvation, and people found the burger tremendously insensitive, especially with how well Norway was doing financially. It was a major marketing blunder. The only thing that could've made it worse is if they had tried to do it again - which they did, in 2008.

That is something for investors to consider next time they see McDonald's stock taking a downturn. If your shares can survive them trying the McAfrika twice, they'll survive just about anything.WOOD RIVER  Police continue investigating after drug-related raids in East Alton and Wood River led to several arrests, including a woman found hiding naked in the wall of the East Alton residence.

Wood River and East Alton police executed two search warrants Friday morning, one in the 300 block of Bowman, East Alton; and one in the 400 block of Penning, Wood River.

A total of three people were taken into custody at the East Alton residence.

Jonathan C. Metz, 34, of the 300 block of Bowman, East Alton, who was the primary subject of the raid, was charged with unlawful delivery of methamphetamine and unlawful delivery of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school.

Michael Overy, 54, of the same address, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for driving on a revoked license, and made a court appearance Monday, according to the Madison County Circuit Clerks Office.

A third person, Alyssa Vinson, 28, of the same address, was arrested on an outstanding fugitive from justice warrant from Missouri, according to East Alton Police Det. Adam LeGette.

He said Vinson was discovered some time after the other two had been taken into custody. She was discovered hiding naked in the wall behind a shower unit.

LeGette said she had apparently been taking a shower when officers first entered the house, and someone yelled down there for her to hide. She was able to squeeze behind the shower unit.

He said she was very well hidden and was discovered after she apparently got tired and stretched out her legs.

LeGette noted that some methamphetamine as well as drug paraphernalia was seized at the home.

One person, who has not been charged, was taken into custody at the Wood River location, according to Wood River Police Chief Brad Wells.

Obviously the investigation is still ongoing at the house on Penning, Wells said. Any charges issued will come when the investigation is complete.

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.Romantic Spencer Matthews has revealed just how much detail he put into creating an extra-special engagement ring for his fiance, DJ and presenter Vogue Williams.

Spencer popped the question to his bride-to-be Vogue, who has since announced that she is pregnant, after the couple enjoyed a production of Disney's The Lion King at the West End in London.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close Vogue Williams and Spencer Matthews (Ian West/PA) Vogue and Spencer in Amsterdam. PIC: Vogue Williams Instagram / Facebook

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And while much of the talk was on the beauty and size of the estimated 170K diamond, it was the little detail that the former Made in Chelsea star added to the ring that made it so special - when he had the date of their engagement inscribed into the band before he got down on one knee.

"Vogue is fascinated by bridges and architecture," he told Hello!, "so I designed it to look like a bridge."

Expand Close Spencer Matthews and Vogue Williams (Yui Mok/PA) | Inset: Vogue's engagement ring via Instagram.com/voguewilliams / Facebook

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"And it was a slightly confident move, I suppose, engraving the date of the engagemenet into the ring, especially because Vogue had asked on the morning of The Lion King if we could reschedule because she didn't feel well!"

The couple have since announced that they are expecting their first child together, and Vogue revealed that she suffered terrible morning sickness in her first trimester.

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"It was very hard," she said, "At about five weeks I started feeling sick. And whoever said it's morning sickness clearly undersold it."

The couple said they had spoken about getting engaged in January or February this year, and began trying for a baby in November, however they say they were surprised at how quickly they managed to become pregnant.

Spencer got down on one knee to ask his 'best friend' to marry him, and said he wasn't nervous at all, settling his nerves with a whiskey during the interval of the show.

"The Lion King is one of my favourite stories ever," he said.

Expand Close Vogue Williams and Spencer Matthews in R.I.O.T in Aston Quay Dublin. Photo: Brian McEvoy / Facebook

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Whatsapp Vogue Williams and Spencer Matthews in R.I.O.T in Aston Quay Dublin. Photo: Brian McEvoy

"I'd arranged for it [the proposal] to be just the two of us on stage where the magic had happened previously - Simba had just reclaimed Pride Rock, and now here I was, proposing. And she did me a favour and said yes right away."

Bride-to-be Vogue is clearly delighted with her diamond, joking: "I thought 'yep that looks big enough for my giant hands'. I love it more every day."According to sources in the ministry of defence, poor timing of the launch of initial public offering (IPO) of two defence public sector undertakings (PSU), including the profit making and largest defence company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), is one of the key reasons why it failed to attract investors. Earlier this month, defence PSU Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) hit market with an aim to divest a portion of stakes in these defence PSUs and raise about Rs 5,200 crore as part of its Rs 1 lakh crore disinvestment programme for 2017-18.



"IPOs were launched towards the end of the financial year and at a time when the cluster of other IPO options were available with the investors. Moreover, the HAL's IPO was over-priced," a senior official in the defence ministry told THE WEEK, on condition of anonymity. Bengaluru-based HAL, designs and develops a wide range of fixed wing and rotary wing aircrafts, aero-engines and avionics.

Eventually, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) had to come in to rescue HAL, as the LIC invested Rs 2,900 crore by subscribing 70 per cent of HAL's Rs 4,200 crore initial public offering.

Similarly, BDL, which manufactures guided missile systems including SAMs (surface to air missiles) and ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) to the Indian armed forces, came out with an offer of 12 per cent shareholding to fetch the exchequer up to Rs 960 crore, also did not do well in the stock market.

"Last year, eight out of ten public sector undertakings, failed to achieve good results, which led to hesitation in the minds of the investors. Moreover, market was not at its peak and sentiments were not in favour of investors. Interestingly, Cochin Shipyard, another defence PSU attracted good huge response from the investors and did really well," said another officer in the ministry.

Aiming to raise money, the government has also planned to disinvest some of its stake in BEML. The government has given an in-principle approval of strategic disinvestment of 26 per cent shareholding of BEML out of the government shareholding of 54.03 per cent with transfer of management and in BEL, during 2017-2018, the government has sold 2,98,84,329 equity shares through Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) of market transaction.

Moreover, the government has decided to disvest shares of 17.5 per cent in GRSE, 10 per cent in MDL, 25 per cent in MIDHANI through IPOs and a reservation of upto 5 per cent in issue shareholding to eligible employees of GRSE, MDL and MIDHANI.Ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian business to bigger regional rival Grab, the firms said in a statement on Monday, marking the US companys second retreat from an Asian market.

The deal marks the industrys first big consolidation in Southeast Asia, home to about 640 million people, and puts pressure on Indonesias Go-Jek, which is backed by Google and Chinas Tencent Holdings Ltd.

As part of the transaction, Uber will take a 27.5 per cent stake in the Southeast Asian company and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grabs board.

Expectations of consolidation in Asias fiercely competitive ride-hailing industry were stoked earlier this year when Japans SoftBank Group Corp made a multi-billion dollar investment in Uber.

SoftBank is also one of the main investors in several other big ride-hailing firms including Grab, Chinas Didi Chuxing, and Indias Ola.

Ride-hailing companies throughout Asia have relied heavily on discounts and promotions, driving down profit margins.

Uber, which is preparing for a potential initial public offering in 2019, lost $4.5 billion last year and is facing fierce competition at home and in Asia, as well as a regulatory crackdown in Europe.

It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology, Khosrowshahi said in a statement. Grab said it will take over Ubers operations and assets in eight countries in the region, and will expand its food delivery services.

Reuters"Lahorethe ancient whore, the handmaiden of dimly remembered Hindu kings, the courtesan of Mughal emperors, bedecked and bejeweled, savaged by marauding hordes, healed by the caressing hands of successive lovers," this is how noted Pakistani novelist Bapsi Sidhwa described her dearest city in her debut book The Pakistani Bride. This historic city of poets and lovers has served as an inspiration to artists and writers for centuries, and hence it was only a matter of time before the city had its own art biennale. The inaugural edition of the two-week Lahore Biennale ( LB01) got off to an effervescent start on March 18, and will foreground the vibrant Pakistani contemporary art scene on a global stage, from its home turf.

Landmark venues which exemplify the Mughal, colonial and modern architectural traditions of the city have been roped in for the artists' melange. In sites from Bagh-e-Jinnah, Alhamra Art Centre, Lahore Fort, Shahi Hammam, Mubarak Haveli, Teshil Park, Lahore Museum to Canal Road, the biennale (which resembles to some extent the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in its ethos and intentions) will host over 50 artists from SAARC countries along with Europe, Iran and the US.

The art festival seeks to bring together artists, curators, academicians and intellectuals to pry open the intricacies of contemporary Pakistani art for the general public and introduce them to the works of some of the most compelling artists from the country and the south asian region at large. The organising team at LB01 includes artist and curator Qudsia Rahim as its director, and an advisory committee which has contemporary artist Iftikhar Dadi and author Mohsin Hamid, among others. Government of Punjab, department of information and culture, is the primary sponsor for the event. There are academic forums, talks and performances along with many collateral events.

Some of the exciting artists on the radar include: Amar Kanwars 2017 video installation, Such a Morning; Naeem Mohaiemen who is interested in leftist histories of Bangladesh by combining films and essays; Shazia Sinkander whose modern, experimental interpretations of Indo-Persian miniature paintings infused new energy into this ancient art form; contemporary Iranian artist Shirin Neshat who has been living in exile since the 1979 Islamic revolution and uses photography, video, feature film, and opera to explore the place of Muslim women in middle-eastern societies.Actor Varun Dhawan said that giving in to the vision of director Shoojit Sircar is one of his "biggest achievements" till date.

The 30-year-old actor, who is collaborating with the filmmaker for the first time in the upcoming film October, said he has grown as an individual after working with the "talented" helmer.

"I would do nothing different. Surrendering to @ShoojitSircar vision and being directed by him has been one of my biggest achievements.

"We can only grow when we work with people more talented then us and this experience for me has been just that. #October," Varun tweeted.

This is the director's first full-fledged attempt at a love story.

October is a slice-of-life film written by Shoojit's frequent collaborator Juhi Chaturvedi.

Debutante Banita Sandhu has been cast opposite Varun in the film.

The movie is scheduled to be released on April 13.Saudi Air Defence forces have intercepted seven missiles over northeastern part the country's capital city of Riyadh, according to reports. The Saudi-led coalition earlier said that just one missile had been launched from Yemen before being intercepted and destroyed.

Reports claim that seven ballistic missiles launched from territories inside from Yemen were intercepted by Saudi Arabian air defense forces over the capital of Riyadh late Sunday night, according to state television.

Several loud explosions were heard by local witnesses, according to multiple reports. Social media users are sharing footage of what is believed to be missile interceptions.

The Saudi-led coalition said that seven missiles launched from Yemen toward Saudi territory have been intercepted, Al Arabiya broadcaster reported.

According to the media outlet, debris from the missiles has reportedly killed one person.Former Bihar deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav said the arrest warrant issued against Union Minister Ashwini Choubey's son by the state government is a mere show-off.

Taking to his twitter handle, Yadav said that Arjit Choubey, against whom an arrest warrant has been issued, has carried out another procession where he can be seen armed with a sword.



Arjit Chaube son of Union Min Ashwini Chaube is Wanted in a case. Nitish govt have issued arrest warrant on him for inciting riots in Bhagalpur but today he took out another procession on the occasion of Ram Navami armed with a sword accompanied by BJP MLAs, read a tweet.

Arjit Shaswat Choubey had allegedly incited communal clashes in Bihar Bhagalpur on March 17, during a procession that was carried out by workers from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), RSS and Bajrang Dal.

Earlier on Saturday, Ashwini Choubey refuted the charge, saying his son did not do anything wrong.

I am proud that he is my son. I am proud that my son did not do anything wrong, he was raising slogans in tribute of Bharat Mata, the people from Bharatiya Navvarsh Jagran Samiti and Bhagalpur took out a procession for Hindu New Year. No one was hurt during the procession, Choubey said.Social activist Anna Hazare has lost 4kg, his aide claimed, as his indefinite hunger strike entered its fourth day on Monday.

Hazare's blood pressure, however, is normal, his close associate Datta Awari said.

Hazare has been on an indefinite hunger strike since March 23 to press for his demands, including the appointment of a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states.

His 2011 agitation had led to the passing of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013, but the Centre is yet to appoint an ombudsman.

This time, Hazare is also demanding the government give better minimum support prices (MSPs) to farmers to address agrarian distress.

Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan met him at the venue of his protest in Delhi on Monday to discuss his demands.

Meanwhile, as Hazare's stir continued, residents of his village of Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra on Monday showed support to him in a unique way.

A group of residents replicated actor Dharmendra's protest atop a water tank in the iconic film Sholay, to support the social activist's demands.

They climbed atop the water tank and shouted slogans demanding that the government accept Hazare's demands.

Some protesters were carrying the tricolour, and they threatened to jump off the tank if their demands were not accepted, an aide of the activist said.After a nationwide criticism, Bhind Police arrested the truck driver who crushed a journalist to death, a few hours after registering the case.



On Monday morning, a television reporter working for a regional channel, who expressed fear of being killed by sand mining mafia, was run over by a truck in Bhind town of Chambal region in Madhya Pradesh.

Journalist Sandeep Sharma was working for News World TV channel and has recently conducted a sting operation to expose the sand mining mafia in Chambal. Sharma has conducted sting operations on police officers exposing their links with mafia.

After the sting operation Sharma was under threat and has written a letter to senior police officials seeking police protection citing a threat to his life.

In the letter, Sharma had accused a Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDOP) of threatening him of dire consequences. He wrote that Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDOP) was part of the mafia engaged in illegal sand mining.

Congress leader of opposition Ajay Singh accused the government of not allowing journalists to work freely. He also said that the journalist was murdered due to the apathy of police administration,It is time for a positive spin on foreign policy. The ministry of external affairs has been on a mission to tell since this year. Definitely not a tell-all, but the ministry has decided to go out in the old-fashioned way to spread the messages of their successes. Titled SAMEEP, this outreach initiative is targeted at schoolchildren.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External affairs retired general V.K Singh said, The objective is to familiarise school and college students with the role and functions of MEA, key elements of Indias foreign policy and success stories and achievements on the foreign policy front.

The initiative is undertaken with the help of officers of MEA and involves their visit to schools and colleges in their hometowns/states during leave and is voluntary in nature, the statement read.

Four programmes have already been organised in Jalandhar, Delhi, Trichy and Sonepat. And according to Singh, there are many more in the pipeline.

While the MEA has been active on social mediaTwitter being the favourite means of communicationthe timing of the mission to spread the message does seem geared towards a more tangible end than just spreading awareness.

And the 'E word' (elections) seems to loom. The ministry has been making similar overtures to the regional media. Another initiative was launched on March 22, Videsh Aaya Pradesh ke Dwaar, in Hyderabad to communicate foreign policy priorities in simple terms and highlight the benefits accruing to the common people and bring foreign policy closer to people.

The ministry will probably need many such sessions to find a way to spin External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's declaration of the deaths of 39 Indians in Mosul. Iraq, on the floor of Parliamenta move that has been severely criticised, rather than reaching out to the familiesinto a win.The slugfest between the BJP and Congress is continuing unabated. Both the parties attacked each other for misuse of users' data. As the Congress accused the BJP for collecting user data through the mobile app in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi  NamoApp. The BJP countered the Congress's accusations by calling it Rahul Gandhi's lack of digital knowledge.



The Congress also sought to widen the ambit of its attack on the BJP for its use of big data. The Congress said that the biggest assault on privacy has occurred under the watch of Modi government. India's grand old party also said that the government has been unable to convincingly answer questions on the safety of Aadhaar data.

Data leak has so many diverse forms. It is actually leaking like a sieve. Not only is our money unsafe in banks, data is insecure everywhere, said AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi.

Specifically targetting the BJP over NaMo app, Singhvi claimed that it sought access to user data on 22 scores. He raised the issue of the government seeking data of NCC cadets, including their phone numbers and email IDs. He also raised the issue of the book Exam Warriors, authored by PM Modi, for urging people to download the NaMo app.

There have been 50 lakh downloads of the NaMo app, and it accesses user data on 22 points, Singhvi said.

The BJP launched a counter-offensive saying Rahul Gandhi's accusation of "data theft" against Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a case of technological illiteracy.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said that the Congress president was rattled after his plan to influence the next Lok Sabha election with the help of Cambridge Analytica was exposed.

No wonder if Rahul Gandhi will tweet tomorrow that NaMo app is connected to EVM machines, and EVM tampering happens through it, Patra said taking a jibe at the Congress leader.

The BJP have also accused the Congress for misusing information through its membership app. Singhvi replying to the allegations on the Congress' app  With INC  said that the app had failed to take off since it was downloaded only 15,000 times. We found that the Congress supporters prefer offline or physical membership...the figure speaks for itself, said Singhvi added.

The issue is unlikely to die anytime soon as the Karnataka elections are around the corner.BJP president Amit Shah on Monday commenced a two-day tour of Karnataka in which he aims to reach out to Lingayat and dalit religious leaders as the state is set to hold Assembly polls in the coming months.

On Monday, Shah visited Shivakumara Swami, leader of the Siddaganga Mutt. Shah, paying obeisance to Swami, described him as a Walking God.

Today I had the good fortune to seek blessings from the 'Walking God' Sri Sri Sri Shivakumara Swamiji of Siddhaganga Mutt, Tumakuru. His tireless work even at his advanced age is inspiring. His life is a living lesson and guiding light for all of us. pic.twitter.com/QVDYOSgpAE  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 26, 2018

On Tuesday, Shah will visit the Madara Chennaiah Mutt, which is associated with dalits.

He will visit mutts in Bekkinkal, Sirgere and Muruga. The BJP president will also meet farmers and traders.

Shah's visit comes a week after the Congress government of Siddaramaiah forwarded a recommendation to the Centre to confer the status of separate religion on the Lingayats, a move which has been politically contentious. Shah's visit is perceived to be aimed at attempting to win back support of the Lingayats.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had made it a point to interact with Hindu religious leaders during his frequent visits to Karnataka in the past two months.

(With agency inputs)With just three more days to go for the six-week deadline set by the apex court to set up the Cauvery Management Board to end, protests, both in Tamil Nadu and Delhi, have reached new heights.

As a last ditch effort to press for the board, Tamil Nadu Public Works Department secretary Prabhakar and Tamil Nadu Cauvery Technical Cell chairman Subramaniam will meet Union ministry of water resources officials in Delhi on Tuesday. They will submit a rejoinder to Karnatakas reply over the constitution of CMB and insist on the setting up of the board.

The Centre will constitute the CMB. If they dont, we will make them constitute, Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar said on Monday.

Meanwhile, farmers from the state, led by P.R. Pandian, leader of the Coordination Committee of All Tamil Nadu Farmers Association, began an indefinite hunger strike in Delhi, demanding the constitution of CMB. Our hunger strike will continue. We will not accept any action by the Union government to replace the management board with a scheme, said Pandian.

Earlier, the farmers from the state had staged an agitation in Delhi for over 100 days, a loan waiver for the drought-hit Tamil Nadu.

The AIADMK MPs too have been protesting since March 5, stalling the Parliament proceedings, demanding constitution of CMB, despite being ridiculed by their own counterparts from other parties from across the country.

While the TDP and YSRCP MPs have gone a step further to move a no-confidence motion and have even resigned from the Union cabinet while fighting for their demands, the AIADMK MPs in the Parliament have turned themselves into a laughing stock. The no confidence motion brought by the YSRCP is different and Cauvery issue is different. These two cannot be linked. Our MPs have been protesting only to put pressure on the Centre for setting up of the CMB, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisami explained in the state assembly.

Meanwhile, the DMK had upped the ante on the Cauvery issue, calling for its executive committee meeting on Friday to discuss and decide on the future course of action if the CMB is not set up. Earlier, during its two-day conference at Erode, the DMK passed a resolution saying setting up of any other panel in the place of CMB is unacceptable.

With just three more days to go for the deadline set by the Supreme Court, the politics and protests over CMB has increased manifold.

How does the Cauvery Management Board work?

In the last 27 years, since the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) gave its verdict in June 1991, Tamil Nadu has received less than its share of Cauvery water for 18 years, during the crucial four months of June to September. In all, Tamil Nadu received its share in full only for nine years since 1991. And in 12 out of these 18 years even the annual realisation was much less than the tribunals order.

The deficit in water sharing had always been attributed to failure of the South West Monsoon. And now, the water share has been reduced from 192 tmcft to 177.25 tmfct by the Supreme Court. Farmers and political parties feel that only the setting up of CMB can ensure timely release of water to for a lower riparian state like Tamil Nadu.

The Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal, in its final order in 2007, mandated the setting up of Cauvery Management Board. As per the tribunal award, CMB will consist of a full-time chairman and two members appointed by the Centre. The chairman will be an irrigation engineer in the rank of a chief engineer, with not less than 20 years experience in water resources management. And out of the two full-time members, one member will be an irrigation engineer with field experience in operation, management, maintenance of reservoirs and large irrigation projects. The second full-time member will be an agricultural expert, particularly agronomy.

Apart from these two-full time members, the ministry of water resources and ministry of agriculture will nominate a part-time member each respectively, in the rank of chief engineers. Along with these three full-time and two part-time Central government officials, the board will also have representatives from each stateKarnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pudcherryas part-time members nominated by the respective states. Besides, the board will also have a secretary.

The CMB will devise methods to determine the sharing of waters from Kabini and its tributaries, to Tamil Nadu and the other states. It will also monitor the situation with the help of the Cauvery Regulation Committee and the state authorities, focusing on the storage position, rainfall, inflows and make way for distribution as per the water delivery schedules.Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has agreed to meet a delegation of dalit protesters who gathered in South Mumbai on Monday to demand the arrest of a rightwing activist accused of fomenting caste violence near Pune in January.

The 'Elgar Morcha' is being organised by the Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh under the leadership of dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar, who is also the grandson of B.R. Ambedkar. At least 10,000 people are estimated to be participating in the protest, which disrupted traffic in many parts of South Mumbai, including the vicinity of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.

The protesters are demanding the arrest of Sambhaji Bhide, who along with Milind Ekbote, another rightwing leader, has been accused of orchestrating an attack on dalits at Bhima-Koregaon near Pune in January. Prakash had issued an 'ultimatum' to the government to arrest Bhide by March 26; Ekbote was arrested earlier this month.

Prakash had earlier claimed Bhide was being protected by the Prime Minister's Office, alluding to Bhide's proximity to Narendra Modi.

Dalits had gathered at Bhima-Koregaon to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the victory over a Peshwa army by an East India Company unit that consisted of a large number of dalits. One person was killed in the violence at Bhima-Koregaon.Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was detained in Germany on Sunday, five months after entering self-imposed exile from Spain, where he faces up to 25 years in prison for organising an illegal secession referendum last year.

Puigdemont had entered Germany from Denmark after leaving Finland on Friday when it appeared that police would arrest him there and begin an extradition process requested by Spain.

The detention threatens to worsen the Catalan crisis that flared last year when the region made a symbolic declaration of independence, prompting Madrid to take direct rule.

Tens of thousands of Catalans, many of them wearing yellow in support of jailed separatist leaders, demonstrated in Barcelona on Sunday afternoon, chanting Puigdemont, our president and freedom for political prisoners.

In a smaller parallel protest outside the central government delegation in the Catalan capital, three people were arrested and 50 suffered minor injuries after protesters clashed with riot police.

Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent called for a broad coalition in defense of civil liberties and sovereign rights in a televised address on Sunday evening.

No judge, no government and no civil servant has right to charge and pursue the president of all Catalans, he said. Torrent called for calm and responsibility following the scuffles.

Spains Supreme Court ruled on Friday that 25 Catalan leaders would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state and reactivated international arrest warrants for Puigdemont and four other politicians who went into self-imposed exile last year.

Among those subject to the arrest order, Clara Ponsati, a former Catalan minister now living in Scotland, told authorities she would turn herself in, Scottish police said in a statement on Sunday afternoon.

The other three Catalan leaders are in Belgium.

German police arrested Puigdemont on Sunday in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain. In a statement, police said Puigdemont was detained near a section of the A7 highway, which cuts through the state from the city of Flensburg near the Danish border.

Puigdemont was later transferred to Neumuenster prison, German news agency DPA reported.

German magazine Focus said that Spanish intelligence informed the BKA federal police that Puigdemont was on his way from Finland to Germany. It gave no source for its report.

He had arrived in Finland on Thursday to meet lawmakers and attend a conference as part of a campaign to raise the profile of the Catalan independence movement in Europe.

Extradition issue

The Higher Regional Court in Schleswig-Holstein will be responsible for deciding whether to grant Spains extradition request.

The European arrest warrant system in place since 2004 makes it easier for EU countries to demand extradition from other EU states, having removed political decision-making from the process. EU nations issue thousands of such warrants each year.

Puigdemont will appear in court tomorrow to have his remand extended, German prosecutors said in a statement.

Paul Bekaert, who represents Puigdemont in Belgium, where he had been subject to an arrest warrant in December, said his client rang him after being detained in Germany and had appeared calm during the conversation.

Bekaert told Reuters TV that his client would have to appear before a German judge within 48 hours to determine whether or not to keep him in custody. Puigdemont will take German legal representation, Bekaert said, with the whole legal process, including possible appeals, likely to take months.

Puigdemont could take his case to Germanys highest court, which in 2005 blocked the extradition to Spain on an EU arrest warrant of a German-Syrian al-Qaeda suspect.

The case of Mamoun Darkazanli sparked a judicial row between the two countries after Germanys Federal Constitutional court refused to turn over Darkazanli, saying that EU extradition laws designed to speed up the delivery of suspects between member states violated the rights of German citizens.

Puigdemont has previously made clear his preference to fight the extradition process from Belgium, where the former Catalan leader was heading at the time of his detention, according to Puigdemonts spokesman, Joan Maria Pique.

The president was going to Belgium to put himself, as always, at the disposal of Belgian justice, Pique told Reuters.

The Spanish Supreme Court had issued an international arrest warrant against Puigdemont last year but withdrew it in December to avoid the risk of Belgian authorities granting him asylum.

Leaving Belgium had exposed him again to the risk of arrest.

Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena also sent five separatist leaders to pre-trial jail, sparking protests across Catalonia.

-ReutersA top fundraiser for President Donald Trump received millions of dollars from a political adviser to the United Arab Emirates last April, just weeks before he began handing out a series of large political donations to US lawmakers considering legislation targeting Qatar, the UAE's chief rival in the Persian Gulf, an Associated Press investigation has found.

George Nader, an adviser to the UAE who is now a witness in the US special counsel investigation into foreign meddling in American politics, wired $2.5 million to the Trump fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, through a company in Canada, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

They said Nader paid the money to Broidy to bankroll an effort to persuade the US to take a hard line against Qatar, a long-time American ally but now a bitter adversary of the UAE.

A month after he received the money, Broidy sponsored a conference on Qatar's alleged ties to Islamic extremism.

During the event, Republican Congressman Ed Royce of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced he was introducing legislation that would brand Qatar as a terrorist-supporting state.

In July 2017, two months after Royce introduced the bill, Broidy gave the California congressman $5,400 in campaign gifts the maximum allowed by law.

The donations were part of just under $6,00,000 that Broidy has given to GOP members of Congress and Republican political committees since he began the push for the legislation fingering Qatar, according to an AP analysis of campaign finance disclosure records.

Broidy said in a statement to AP that he has been outspoken for years about militant groups, including Hamas.

"I've both raised money for, and contributed my own money to, efforts by think tanks to bring the facts into the open, since Qatar is spreading millions of dollars around Washington to whitewash its image as a terror-sponsoring state," he said. "I've also spoken to like-minded members of Congress, like Royce, about how to make sure Qatar's lobbying money does not blind lawmakers to the facts about its record in supporting terrorist groups."

While Washington is awash with political donations from all manner of interest groups and individuals, there are strict restrictions on foreign donations for political activity. Agents of foreign governments are also required to register before lobbying so that there is a public record of foreign influence.

Cory Fritz, a spokesman for Royce, said that his boss had long criticised the "destabilising role of extremist elements in Qatar."

He pointed to comments to that effect going back to 2014. "Any attempts to influence these longstanding views would have been unsuccessful," he said.

In October, Broidy also raised the issue of Qatar at the White House in meetings with Trump and senior aides.

The details of Broidy's advocacy on US legislation have not been previously reported.

The AP found no evidence that Broidy used Nader's funds for the campaign donations or broke any laws. At the time of the advocacy work, his company, Circinus, did not have business with the UAE, but was awarded a more than USD 200 million contract in January.

The sanctions bill was approved by Royce's committee in late 2017. It remains alive in the House of Representatives, awaiting a review by the House Financial Services Committee.Welcome Guest! You Are Here:Nigerias government is in talks with Islamist militant group Boko Haram about a possible ceasefire with the ultimate aim of securing a permanent cessation of hostilities, the countrys information minister said.

It is the first time in years the government has said it is talking to Boko Haram about a ceasefire in an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people since 2009. President Muhammadu Buharis administration has repeatedly said it is willing to hold talks with the group.

Unknown to many, we have been in wider cessation-of-hostility talks with the insurgents for some time now, said Information Minister Lai Mohammed in an emailed statement outlining the background to the release of more than 100 schoolgirls freed last week by the group.

They had been kidnapped on February 19 from the northeastern town of Dapchi. The kidnap of about 110 schoolgirls was the biggest mass abduction since around 270 girls were taken from the northeastern town of Chibok, in 2014.

Boko Haram fighters stunned Dapchis residents on Wednesday when they drove into the town and released the girls, who said five of their group had died in captivity and one had not been freed.

Mohammed said a week-long ceasefire, starting on March 19, had been agreed to enable the group to drop off the girls. Mohammed said 111 girls were taken from the schoolone more than previously thoughtand six remained unaccounted for.

The freed girls were returned home to Dapchi on Sunday after meeting Buhari in the capital, Abuja, last week, according the parents of at least two girls.

Factions

We were able to leverage on the wider talks when the Dapchi girls were abducted, said Mohammed.

The ultimate aim is the permanent cessation of hostilities, he later said. A presidential spokesman declined to comment. A spokeswoman who purportedly represents the insurgents could not immediately be reached.

Boko Haram aims to create an Islamic State. Its campaign has spread to neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger but the group has been severely weakened in recent years by regional military pressure and it has lost most of the territory it once held.

Antony Goldman, of Nigeria-focused PM Consulting, said it would be difficult to negotiate with the group due to its divisions.

Boko Haram split when Islamic State named Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the groups leader in August 2016. The other main division is led by Abubakar Shekau, Boko Harams most recognisable figure. He is known for videos taunting Nigerian authorities and his faction uses girls as suicide bombers.

There are many factions, some of which have committed terrible atrocities and have a world vision incompatible with the rule of law and constitutional democracy, but other elements may be ready to settle, said Goldman.

Security is a politically sensitive issue ahead of an election next February because Buhari was elected in 2015 in part because of his promise to improve security. For years he has said Boko Haram is defeated.

Nigeria has also seen several recent outbreaks of communal violence and it is trying to maintain a fragile peace in the Niger Delta where militant attacks on oil facilities helped push Africas biggest economy into a recession in 2016.

Buhari has in the last few weeks toured areas hit by security problems but has not said if he will seek re-election.

ReutersPresident Donald Trump is considering the expulsion of some Russian diplomats in the United States in solidarity with Britain over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday.

The move may be contingent on how European capitals respond to the nerve agent attack, the source said.

An announcement of the US decision could be made as early as Monday, the source said.

European Union member states agreed on Friday to take additional punitive measures against Russia for the nerve-agent attack on the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who have been critical in hospital since they were found unconscious on March 4 on a bench in the city of Salisbury.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said the United States is considering how to respond but would not provide details.

The United States stands firmly with the United Kingdom in condemning Russias outrageous action. The President is always considering options to hold Russia accountable in response to its malign activities. We have no announcements at this time, he said.

Moscow has denied responsibility for the attack and has retaliated against Britains move to expel 23 Russians by ordering out the same number of Britons.

The United States joined with Britain in blaming Russia for the attack.

Trump has sought to improve ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and last week in a phone call with Putin congratulated him his disputed re-election victory.

-ReutersThe following companies are subsidiares of AON: 6824625 Canada Ltd., 7193599 Canada Inc., A.B. Insurances Limited, ADIS A/S, AIB Services Limited, AIS Affinity Insurance Agency Inc., AIS Insurance Agency Inc., AMXH LLC, ARM International Corp., ARM International Insurance Agency Corp., ARMRISK CORP., AS Holdings Inc., ASPN Insurance Agency LLC, Access Plans USA Inc., Acumen Credit Insurance Brokers Limited, Adm Administradora de Beneficios Ltda., Administradora Aon C.A., Admiseg SA, Admix, Admix - Administracao Consultoria Participacoes e Corretora de Seguros de Vida Ltda., Aeropeople Limited, Affinity Group Insurance Services Limited, Affinity Insurance Services Inc., Affinity Risk Partners (Brokers) Pty Ltd, Agenion N.V./SA, Agility Credit Insurance Brokers Limited, Alexander & Alexander Holding B.V., Alexander Clay, Alexander Insurance Managers (Netherlands Antilles) N.V., Alexander Reinsurance Intermediaries Inc., Allen Insurance Associates Inc., Alliance HealthCard Inc., Alliance HealthCard of Florida Inc., American Insurance Services Corp., American Special Risk Insurance Company, Aon (Bermuda) Ltd., Aon (CR) Insurance Agencies Company Limited, Aon (DIFC) Gulf Limited, Aon (Fiji) Ltd., Aon (Isle of Man) Limited, Aon (Thailand) Limited, Aon 180412 Limited (in liquidation), Aon ANZ Holdings Limited, Aon APAC Holdings B.V., Aon Acore Sarl, Aon Adjudication Services Limited, Aon Affinity Administradora de Beneficios Ltda., Aon Affinity Argentina S.A., Aon Affinity Chile Ltda., Aon Affinity Colombia Ltda. 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KG, Aon Bolivia S.A. Corredores de Seguros, Aon Botswana (Pty) Ltd., Aon Brazil Holdings LLC, Aon Broking Services SA, Aon Broking Technology Limited, Aon CANZ Holdings B.V., Aon CANZ Holdings N.S. ULC, Aon Canada Holdings N.S. 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Corredores de Reaseguros, Aon Re Canada Holdings SARL, Aon Real Estate B.V., Aon Realty Services Inc., Aon Reed Stenhouse Inc., Aon Retirement Plan Advisors LLC, Aon Retirement Solutions Limited, Aon Risiko & Unternehmensberatungs GmbH, Aon Risk & Asset Management Pty Ltd, Aon Risk Consultants Inc., Aon Risk Insurance Services West Inc., Aon Risk Management (Pty) Ltd, Aon Risk Services (Chile) Corredores de Seguros Limitada, Aon Risk Services (Holdings) of Latin America Inc., Aon Risk Services (Holdings) of the Americas Inc., Aon Risk Services (NI) Limited, Aon Risk Services (PNG) Ltd., Aon Risk Services (Thailand) Limited, Aon Risk Services Argentina S.A., Aon Risk Services Australia Limited, Aon Risk Services Canada Inc., Aon Risk Services Central Inc., Aon Risk Services Colombia SA Corredores de Seguros, Aon Risk Services Companies Inc., Aon Risk Services EMEA B.V., Aon Risk Services Ecuador S.A. Agencia Asesora Productora de Seguros, Aon Risk Services Holdings (Chile ) Ltda., Aon Risk Services Inc. of Florida, Aon Risk Services Inc. of Hawaii, Aon Risk Services Inc. of Maryland, Aon Risk Services Inc. of Washington D.C., Aon Risk Services Northeast Inc., Aon Risk Services South Inc., Aon Risk Services Southwest Inc., Aon Risk Services Venezuela Corretaje de Seguros C.A., Aon Risk Solutions (Cayman) Ltd., Aon Risk Solutions Agente de Seguros y de Fianzas SA de CV, Aon Risk Solutions of Puerto Rico Inc., Aon Riskminder A/S, Aon Romania Broker de Asigurare - Reasigurare SRL, Aon Rus Insurance Brokers LLC, Aon Rus LLC, Aon S.p.A. Insurance & Reinsurance Brokers, Aon Saver Limited, Aon Securities (Hong Kong) Limited, Aon Securities Investment Management Inc., Aon Securities LLC, Aon Securities Limited, Aon Service Corporation, Aon Services (Guernsey) Ltd, Aon Services (Malta) Ltd, Aon Services Group Inc., Aon Services Hong Kong Limited, Aon Services Pty Ltd., Aon Sigorta ve Reasurans Brokerligi ve A.S., Aon Soluciones S.A., Aon Soluciones S.A.C., Aon Southern Europe UK Limited, Aon Sp. z o.o., Aon Special Risk Resources Inc., Aon Superannuation (PNG) Limited, Aon Superannuation Pty Limited, Aon TC Holdings Inc., Aon Taiwan Ltd., Aon Treasury Ireland Limited, Aon Trust Company LLC, Aon Trust Corporation Limited, Aon Trust Services B.V., Aon UK Group Limited, Aon UK Holdings Intermediaries Limited, Aon UK Limited, Aon UK Trustees Limited, Aon US & International Holdings Limited, Aon US Holdings 2 Inc., Aon US Holdings Inc., Aon Ukraine LLC, Aon Underwriting Agencies (HK) Limited, Aon Underwriting Managers (Bermuda) Ltd., Aon Underwriting Managers Inc., Aon Versicherungsberatungs GmbH, Aon Versicherungsmakler Deutschland GmbH, Aon Vietnam Limited, Aon Ward Financial Corporation, Aon-COFCO Insurance Brokers Co. Ltd., Aon/Albert G. Ruben Insurance Services Inc., Asevasa Argentina S.A., Asevasa Caricam S.A., Asevasa Chile Peritaciones e Ingenieria de Riesgos S.A., Asevasa Mexico S.A. de C.V., Asevasa Panama S.A., Asian Reinsurance Underwriters Limited, Asscom Insurance Brokers S.r.l., Association of Rural and Small Town Americans, Associacao Instituto Aon, Assurance Licensing Services Inc., B E P International Corp., B.V. Assurantiekantoor Langeveldt-Schroder, BMS Insurance Agency L.L.C., Bacon & Woodrow Partnerships (Ireland) Limited, Bacon & Woodrow Partnerships Limited, Bain Hogg Group Limited (in liquidation), Baltolink UADBB, Bankassure Insurance Services Limited, Bayfair Insurance Centre Limited, Beaubien Finance Ireland Limited, Beaubien Finance Limited, Beaubien UK Finance Limited, Becketts (Trustees) Limited, Becketts Limited, Beech Hill Pension Trustees Ltd, Bekouw Mendes C.V., Benefit Marketing Solutions L.L.C., Benfield Advisory Inc., Benfield Corredores de Reaseguro Ltda., Benfield Finance (London) LLC, Benfield Group, Benfield Investment Holdings Limited, Benfield Juniperus Holdings Limited, Benfield do Brasil Participacoes Ltda. (dormant), Benton Finance Ireland Limited, Benton Finance Limited, Blanch Americas Inc., Bowes & Company Inc. of New York, CEREP III Secondary Manager LLC, CFSSG Real Estate Partners I LLC, CFSSG Real Estate Partners II LLC, CIF-H GP LLC, Cammack Health LLC, Cananwill Corporation, Cananwill Inc., Cardea Health Solutions Limited, Casablanca Intermediation Company Sarl, Celinvest Amsterdam B.V., Chapka Assurances SAS, Citadel Insurance Managers Inc., CoCubes, CoSec 2000 Limited, Coalition for Benefits Equality and Choice, Cocubes Technologies Private Limited, Coles Hewitt Partnership, Contingency Insurance Brokers Limited, Contractsure Limited, CoverWallet, Coverall S.r.l. Insurance and Reinsurance Underwriting Agency, Credit Insurance Brokers (Reynolds) Limited, Crion N.V., Custom Benefit Programs Inc., Cut-e, Cut-e (UK) Limited, Cut-e Assessment (Hong Kong) Limited, Cut-e Assessment Solutions Europe Limited, Cut-e Australia Pty Limited, Cut-e Consult DMCC, Cut-e Danmark A/S, Cut-e Finland Oy, Cut-e GmbH, Cut-e Ireland Limited, Cut-e Nordic AS, Cut-e Norge AS, Cytelligence, Delany Bacon & Woodrow Partnership, Dempsey Partners, Denney O'Hara (Life & Pensions) Limited, Doveland Services Limited, E. W. Blanch Holdings Limited, E. W. Blanch Investments Limited, E.W. Blanch Capital Risk Solutions Inc., E.W. Blanch International Inc., EW Blanch Limited, Elysium Digital IP Products LLC, Elysium Digital L.L.C., Ennis Knupp Secondary Market Services LLC, Essar Insurance Services Limited, Exploitatiemaatschappij Beukenlaan 68-72 B.V., Farmaseg - Solucoes Assistencia e Servicos Empresariais Ltda., Farmsure Limited [In strike-off], Finaccord Limited, Financial & Professional Risk Solutions Inc., Futurity Group Inc., GTCR/AAM Blocker Corp., Ge.f.it. S.r.l., Gefass S.r.l., Glenrand M I B (Mocambique) Corretores de Seguros Limitada, Global Safe Insurance Brokers S.r.l., Globe Events Management, Gotham Digital Science LLC, Gotham Digital Science Ltd., Grant Liddell Financial Advisor Services Pty Ltd, Grant Park Capital LLC, Groupe-Conseil Aon Inc., Grupo Innovac Sociedad de Correduria de Seguros SA, HIA Insurance Services Pty Ltd., Hall Rhodes Holdings Limited, Hall Rhodes Limited, Hamburger Gesellschaft zur Forderung des Versicherungswesens mbH, Harbourview West Lake Co-Invest (GP) LP, Health Index Advisors LLC, Healthy Paws Pet Insurance, Henderson Corporate Insurance Brokers Limited, Henderson Insurance Brokers Limited, Henderson Insurance Partnership Limited [In strike-off], Henderson Risk Management Limited, Hewitt Amalco 3 ULC, Hewitt Amalco 4 ULC, Hewitt Amalco 5 ULC, Hewitt Associates (a partnership), Hewitt Associates Administradora e Corretora de Seguros Ltda., Hewitt Associates Corp., Hewitt Associates Outsourcing Limited, Hewitt Associates Pty Ltd, Hewitt Associates S.C., Hewitt Associates SAS, Hewitt Associates Servicos de Recursos Humanos Ltda., Hewitt Beneficios Agente de Seguros y de Fianzas S.A. de C.V., Hewitt Holdings Canada Company, Hewitt Insurance Brokerage LLC, Hewitt Insurance Inc., Hewitt International Holdings LLC, Hewitt Management Ltd., Hewitt Risk Management Services Limited, Hewitt Western Management Amalco Inc., Hogg Group Limited, Hogg Robinson North America Inc., Huntington T. Block Insurance Agency Inc., I. Beck Insurance Agency (1994) Ltd., IAO Actuarial Consulting Services Canada Inc., INPOINT INC., IRM/GRC Holding Inc., Impact Forecasting L.L.C., Inspiring Benefits, Inspiring Benefits Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Insuractive Limited [In strike-off], Insurance Broker Aon Kazakhstan LLP, International Risk Management (Americas) Inc., International Risk Management Group Ltd, International Space Brokers Europe Limited, International Space Brokers France, International Space Brokers Inc., International Space Brokers Limited, Inversiones Benfield Chile Ltda., J H Minet Puerto Rico Inc., J. Allan Brown Consultants Inc., JDPT Manager LLC, Jenner Fenton Slade Limited, John Reynolds & Company (Credit Insurance) Limited, John Reynolds & Company (Insurances) Limited, John Reynolds & Company (Life & Pensions) Limited, Johnson Rooney Welch Inc., K & K Insurance Brokers Inc. 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Bradley & Co Limited, PGOF Manager 1 LLC, PRORUCK Ruckversicherungs Aktiengesellschaft, PT Aon Benfield Indonesia, PT Aon Hewitt Indonesia, PT Aon Indonesia, PWZ AG, Paragon Strategic Solutions Inc., PathWise Solutions LLC, Penn Square Manager 1 LLC, Penn Square Manager II LLC, Portus Consulting, Portus Consulting (Leamington) Limited, Portus Consulting Limited, Portus Online LLP, Praesidium S.p.A. - Soluzioni Assicurative per il Management, Premier Auto Finance Inc., Private Client Trustees Ltd., Private Equity Partnership Structures I LLC, Probabilitas N.V./SA, Protective Marketing Enterprises Inc., Randolph Finance Unlimited Company, Rasini Vigano Limited, Redwoods Dental Underwriters Inc., Richard Kiddle (Insurance Brokers) Limited, Risk Laboratories LLC, Riskikonsultatsioonide OU, Ronnie Elementary Insurance Agency Ltd, SA Special Situations General Partner LLC, SG IFFOXX Assekuranzmaklergesellschaft mbH, SLE Worldwide Limited, SN Re S.A., Salud Riesgos y Recursos Humanos Consultores Ltda. (former Aon Corporte Advisors Ltda.), SchneiderGolling IFFOXX Assekuranzmakler AG, SchneiderGolling Industrie Assekuranzmaklergesellschaft mbH, Scritch Inc., Shanghai Kayi Information Technology Co. Ltd, Sheppard Netherlands B.V., Specialty Benefits Inc., Sports Insure Limited [In strike-off], Strategic Manager-III LLC, Stroz Friedberg (Asia) Limited, Stroz Friedberg Inc., Stroz Friedberg LLC, Stroz Friedberg Limited, Stroz Friedberg Risk Management Limited, Superannuation Management Nominees Limited, Suresport Limited [In strike-off], Swire Blanch MSTC II SA, Swire Blanch MSTC SA, TTG BRPTP GP LLC, TTG Cayuga Bavaria Intermediate 2 S.a.r.l, TTG Core Plus Investments LLC, TTG German Investments I LLC, TTG Investments II LLC, TTG Irish Investments I LLC, TTG Manager LLC, Tecsefin S.A. en liquidacion, The Aon Ireland Mastertrustee Limited, The Aon MasterTrustee Limited, The John Reynolds Company Limited, The Key West Saxon Group LLC, The Townsend Group Inc, The Townsend Group LLC, Townsend Alpha Manager I LLC, Townsend Alpha Manager II LLC, Townsend Alpha Manager III LLC, Townsend Group Asia Limited, Townsend Group Europe Ltd., Townsend HWL GP Ltd., Townsend Holdings LLC, Townsend Lake Constance GP Limited, Townsend REF GP LLC, Townsend Re Global GP Limited, Townsend SO Manager I LLC, UAB One Underwriting, UADBB Aon Baltic, UK Credit Insurance Specialists Limited, UNIT Versicherungsmakler GmbH, US Underwriting Solutions S.r.l., USLP Underwriting Solutions LP, Underwriters Marine Services Inc., Unidelta AG, Unirobe Meeus Groep, UnitedPensions Deutschland AG, Univers Workplace Solutions, VERO Management AG, Ventiv Technology, WT Government Services LLC, WT Technologies LLC, Wannet Speciale Verzekeringen B.V., Wannet Sports Insurance GmbH, Ward Financial Group Inc., West Lake General Partner LLC, West Lake II GP LLC, Wexford Underwriting Managers Inc., White Rock Insurance (Americas) Ltd., White Rock Insurance (Europe) PCC Limited, White Rock Insurance (Gibraltar) PCC Ltd., White Rock Insurance (Guernsey) ICC Limited, White Rock Insurance (Netherlands) PCC Limited, White Rock Insurance (SAC) Ltd., White Rock Insurance Company PCC Ltd., White Rock Insurance PCC (Isle of Man) Limited, White Rock Services (Bermuda) Ltd., White Rock USA Ltd., Willis Towers Watson, Worldwide Integrated Services Company, Wrapid Specialty Inc., Zalba-Caldu Correduria de Seguros SA, and cut-e USA Inc..Associated British Foods plc operates as a diversified food, ingredients, and retail company worldwide. It operates through five segments: Grocery, Sugar, Agriculture, Ingredients, and Retail. The Grocery segment manufactures and sells grocery products, including hot beverages, sugar and sweeteners, vegetable oils, balsamic vinegars, bread and baked goods, cereals, ethnic foods, and meat products to retail, wholesale, and foodservice businesses. The Sugar segment is involved in growing, processing, and sale of sugar beet and sugar cane to industrial users. The Agriculture segment manufactures and sells animal feeds; and provides other products and services for the agriculture sector. The Ingredients segment manufactures bakers' yeast, bakery ingredients, enzymes, lipids, yeast extracts, and cereal specialties. The Retail segment is involved in buying and merchandising clothing and accessories through the Primark and Penneys retail chains, which offer womenswear, menswear, children's wear, footwear, accessories, homeware, and skincare products. The company was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Associated British Foods plc is a subsidiary of Wittington Investments Limited.

Read MoreIlion

Remington Outdoor Co., a historic firearms manufacturer founded in Herkimer County, has filed for bankruptcy protection as it grapples with a hefty debt load and a nationwide slump in gun sales.

The filing, made in bankruptcy court in Delaware late Sunday, comes after the company announced last month it would be filing for reorganization under Chapter 11. Remington is owned by Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm that bought the struggling company in 2007 and has attempted to sell it in the past. The company currently has between $100 million and $500 million in debt and plans to continue operating, the New York Times reported.

Gun sales under the Trump administration have also affected the company's status. Remington anticipated an uptick in sales if Hillary Clinton was elected president because of the possibility she would seek stricter gun control measures, but in the first nine months after Donald Trump's election the company's sales fell 27.5 percent, according to the Times. In 2012, Remington found itself in the spotlight after the 2012 school shooting in Sandy Hook, Conn., when a shooter used a Remington Bushmaster assault rifle to kill 20 children and six adults.

News of the company's reorganization came during the same weekend students and others rallied in cities across the U.S. at "March for our lives" events, demanding stricter gun laws after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida in February left 17 dead.

Remington was founded in 1816 in Ilion, a village of around 8,000 in Herkimer County. The company is currently based in North Carolina but employs around 1,000 people at a plant in Ilion. Remington also has facilities in Alabama, Arkansas and Kentucky.

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It's unclear what impact the bankruptcy reorganization might have on employment at the plant. A call and email to a Remington spokeswoman were not immediately returned; neither was a call to a union that represents workers at the plant. An official at the Herkimer County Industrial Development Agency declined to comment.

Ilion Mayor Terry Leonard said rumors of layoffs at the facility "are constant," but he's hopeful that the company will be able to reorganize effectively. He was let go from the plant in 1991 after spending 21 years there in various positions. More downsizing would affect people in the village he oversees but also across Herkimer County and the Mohawk Valley, he said.

"The company is located within the limits of Ilion, but its impact is region-wide," Leonard said. "They've been a stable employer here for more than 200 years. It would certainly have an impact."President Donald Trump's policies have sharply cut the number of refugees coming to Albany and other cities across the nation, according to an AP analysis.

Starting early last year, Trump's ban on arrivals from several, mostly Muslim, countries put the cap on refugee admissions and suspended a program to reunite families split in the resettlement pipeline.

In Albany, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants resettled 36 refugees and 79 Special Immigrants Visas from Oct. 1, 2017 to March 15  about 30 percent of the 390 the agency predicted in December. The AP analysis did not include the Special Immigrant Visas, a program for Iraqi and Afghan people who worked with or on behalf of the U.S. government.

In a typical year, USCRI-Albany resettles about 400 refugees and immigrants  second only to Houston within the nationwide USCRI network, USCRI-Albany Director Jill Peckenpaugh said. That is almost 10 percent of the more than 5,000 refugees New York resettles each year.

Peckenpaugh said the final numbers of refugees resettled in Albany are unfortunate.

"We just haven't been getting that many refugees, only about 20 percent of what our capacity is," she said. "Albany remains such a welcoming place of refugees and immigrants."

The entire U.S. is on track to take in the smallest number of refugees since Congress passed a law in 1980 creating the modern resettlement system. At the current rate, the country will take in about 21,000 refugees this fiscal year, well below the cap of 45,000 set by the administration and roughly a quarter of those granted entry in the final year of Barack Obama's presidency.

The administration is also cutting the resettlement system itself, telling executives of nine private agencies they must close any office expected to place fewer than 100 refugees this year.

More Information Trump's refugee policy Late last year, the Supreme Court temporarily ruled to allow full implementation of the third version of Trump's travel ban. The ban restricts citizens from six Muslim-majority countries - Iran, Libya, Chad, Somalia, Syria and Yemen - as well as North Korea and Venezuela, from obtaining visas to work, study or visit the U.S. Unlike previous iterations of the travel ban, the latest ban also restricts those with bona fide relationships to U.S. citizens. A federal appeals court ruled in February that the latest travel ban is unconstitutional for discrimination against Islam, echoing another federal appeals decision in December. The Supreme Court is set to hear another case on the travel ban in April, but the ban can be fully implemented in the meantime, the effects of which have been seen nationwide. See More Collapse

For thousands of refugee families already building new lives in the U.S., Trump's policy changes are playing out in decidedly unnerving and uneven ways. The restrictions have kept many families apart, while allowing some to reunite, sorting people by country and, effectively, by religion.

When Somali refugee Fadumo Hussein and her daughters joined protesters at an airport in Columbus, Ohio, last January to protest the administration's restrictions on arrivals, they did so for very personal reasons.

Weeks before the ban was announced, Hussein's parents, who are 75 and 76, had been approved for entry to the U.S. Their arrival was scheduled for last February. More than a year later, they remain stuck in Uganda, their case on hold.

Watching neighbors welcome their own family members from the predominately Buddhist country Bhutan, Hussein's been "happy for them because they were able to reunite," but also confused.

"What is different about us, like Somalis or the other countries that are being banned," her daughter, Afnan Salem, asked, "when we are all coming for the same reasons?"

In citing security concerns to exclude refugees from certain countries, the administration has skewed the ethnic and religious makeup of the much smaller number allowed entry, said Kathleen Newland, a fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

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In the first two months of this year, the U.S. accepted 49 refugees from Somalia, 19 from Iraq and five from Syria. That is down sharply from the 1,094 Somalis, 1,860 Iraqis and 1,991 Syrian refugees admitted in the first two months of 2017.

U.S. officials say there is no preference for refugees of one religion over another: "The United States is committed to assisting people of all religions, ethnicities, and nationalities who are fleeing persecution, violence, and other drivers of displacement," a State Department spokeswoman said in a written response to questions. The administration resumed the program to reunify refugee families in December, she said, responding to a judge's injunction.

In the last four months, New York has seen only two refugees from Somalia, six from Syria and two from Iraq. In the same four-month period a year ago, New York state received 412 refugees from Somalia, 334 from Syria and 181 from Iraq, according to the AP analysis.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan stressed the economic value of refugees and immigrants to the city, where one out of every 10 residents was born in a foreign country.

Last year, Sheehan declared Albany a sanctuary city, which instructs government and law enforcement officials not to investigate or report someone's immigration status to federal agencies without a compelling reason, protecting immigrants and refugees from deportation if they are picked up for minor infractions or make a police report.

"I am told time and time again, 'I can't find people to fill jobs.' And we have an aging population," Sheehan said. "If we want a healthy and thriving region, we need to encourage immigration."

Times Union staffers Massarah Mikati and Cathleen F. Crowley contributed to this report.An Albany lobbyist who spent nearly two decades working in the New York State Legislature died Monday after a brief illness.

Cynthia Shenker, 62, served as founding partner of Shenker Russo & Clark LLP after years of experience in New York legislative and regulatory affairs, according to Shenkers biography on the lobby firms website.

State Senators on Monday took a moment of silence to remember Shenker, who one lawmaker said "epitomized what it meant to be a really valued public servant."

"She was a lobbyist for many years, and quite successful, but one of the reasons she was quite successful was because of who she was," said Sen. John Flanagan, temporary president and Majority Leader. "A fabulous smile, a joie de vivre that could be unparalleled in many ways."

Shenker began her career in the state Legislature, serving as counsel to three Assembly majority leaders. She then joined Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker, where she was a founding member of the firms Albany Government Relations practice.

She represented a variety of clients over the years, from Fortune 500 companies to small not-for-profits, encompassing a range of topics and issues.

Colleagues described Shenker as bold, fun and hard-working.

"She was one of these women who have paved the way for other women in politics in Albany and the state," said Libby Post, a political consultant and co-founder of Capital Women.

Shenker was born in the Bronx and grew up in Rockland County, graduating from Spring Valley High School, and later attending Cornell Universitys School of Industrial and Labor Relations, according to her obituary.

During her senior year in college, Shenker served as an intern for the state Assembly Labor Committee and upon graduation was hired as a committee clerk, setting her up for decades of work with the state.

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Shenker lived in the Capital Region for over 40 years, participating in several local and statewide boards and organizations ranging from Eleanors Legacy to Family Planning Advocates and Jewish Family Services.

She was recognized by the Albany County Legislature as a Trailblazing Woman who has shown an outstanding commitment to our community and changed our history. She won a Woman of Distinction Award presented by the state Assembly for making a difference, showing leadership and continuing to inspire all. And she was included in City and States Albany Power 100 in 2015 and 2016.

Services will be held at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at Congregation Beth Emeth.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that contributions be made in memory of Shenker to Eleanors Legacy at https://www.eleanorslegacy.com/contribute, or the Shenker/Campbell Clergy Development Fund at Congregation Beth Emeth.ALBANY - Cynthia Nixon will make her first appearance in Albany since announcing her plans to challenge Gov. Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination in this year's gubernatorial contest.

Nixon,a liberal activist and actress most known for her role as Miranda Hobbes in the television series "Sex and the City," will be joined Monday by members of the Alliance for Quality Education at a noon press conference at the Hilton on Lodge Street.In the five weeks since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, more than a dozen reported threats have been made against schools and students in the Capital Region.

The cases follow a typical pattern: a threat is made in person or on social media, police are called, schools and homes are searched and a student is arrested and charged with making a terroristic threat, a felony.

None of the cases in those five weeks has been publicly deemed a credible threat.

But in todays hypervigilant society, no one is taking chances. Students themselves are taking steps to reach out to authorities when observing possible threats.

The cases also create issues for school districts and law enforcement on how to handle the students making the threats.

The students making the threats are typically dealing with mental health, relationship or bullying issues, said Philip Rainer, the chief clinician at Capital Counseling in Albany.

Many times well see kids who dont have well-developed problem-solving skills, he said. Sometimes its a cry for help.

And authorities say none of the students in the recent cases have had the actual intent or capabilities to carry out the threats.

George Conway, the assistant Saratoga County attorney who handles the cases in the countys Family Court, said one issue is that the state does not have a specific law on threats of violence against schools and the threats dont meet the legal threshold for the felony charge to stand up in court.

The system is not perfect, it does need to be fixed, he said.

In most cases the students end up in Family Court facing a charge of falsely reporting an incident, which is a misdemeanor, rather than the original felony charge, Conway said.

Attorneys across the state have been discussing the issue and are starting to ask state legislators to pass a statute specifically for these types of threats, Conway said.

Attorneys and law enforcement officials say its unclear whether the increase in the number of reported threats is because more students are making them or if students and others reporting incidents are more vigilant and less likely to let a comment pass.

Either way, it is something that law enforcement takes seriously every time and the felony charge sends a message that the issue is not one taken lightly, Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo said.

We have to be able to hold them accountable, Zurlo said.

Albany County District Attorney David Soares compared the rise in the number of reported threats to a series of swatting incidents in Watervliet several years ago. Swatting is when a prank call is made, often referencing an armed person, with the intent of bringing law enforcement SWAT teams to the scene.

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These cases we take very seriously, he said. I think people are more aware and conscientious about these issues.

Conway noted in one recent case, a student convinced an autistic classmate to blurt out a threat of shooting up a school. Other students overheard it, took the threat seriously and reported him.

The path forward after a student makes a threat is a complicated one that can depend on the seriousness of the threat and a students history with the district or police.

Accused students undergo a mental health evaluation. Based on the results, the student may get counseling, a recommendation for medication and are typically sentenced to probation. Students with more serious behavior or mental health issues may be sent to an in-patient facility.

Students are also assessed to determine if they should return to classrooms after making a threat, said Schenectady Superintendent Larry Spring.

If the district thinks the student should return, it works with them to develop a plan that helps them with the transition back in to school.

A large chunk of the time it is some course of therapy, he said.

Schools are also being proactive in their communication to parents. On March 20, Bethlehem Superintendent Jody Monroe sent a five-part message to parents on the districts existing and planned security precautions, including an anonymous police tip line for students.

Two days later a 14-year-old Bethlehem middle school student was charged with making a terroristic threat. He was referred to Albany County Family Court.Albany

In New York state government news: It's crunch time for lawmakers looking to put together a new state budget before the April 1 deadline, and the state Senate votes to take funds away from so-called sanctuary cities.

Budget looms

"We've held approximately 100 hours of public budget hearings," said Senate Leader John Flanagan, a Long Island Republican. "Now we must finish the job."

First, however, lawmakers must come to agreements on a long list of issues, including many policy proposals that have little to do with state finances. The Senate's Republican leaders want new funding for armed officers in schools while the Assembly's Democratic majority favors new restrictions on firearm ownership.

The Assembly backs the Dream Act, which would extend financial aid to students who entered the country illegally as children; the Senate opposes the idea and instead wants to crack down on local governments that refuse to fully cooperate with federal immigration officials.

Meanwhile, a measure that would extend the statute of limitations for child molestation  and allow victims to sue over decades-old abuse allegations  is supported by the Assembly and Cuomo, but has been held up in the Senate.

Depending on the negotiations, some of the proposals could make it in the budget or be dropped entirely if compromise proves elusive.

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Sanctuary cities

A bill penalizing cities that don't cooperate with federal immigration authorities is heading to the Assembly.

The measure would cut off state funding for cities where officials have enacted policies prohibiting them from sharing information about the immigration status of people in custody. It passed the Senate Wednesday.

New York City, Rochester, Syracuse and other local communities around the state have all adopted sanctuary city policies and could stand to lose billions of dollars in state aid if the measure is signed into law.

That's unlikely to happen, however, as the Assembly's Democratic majority and Cuomo both oppose the idea.The following is from a San Jose Mercury News editorial:

Buyers beware. The biggest losers in President Donald Trump's tech tariff war will be consumers.

Say goodbye to those low-priced laptops. And if you think the cost of an iPhone X is high, wait until China retaliates over Trump's plan to impose $50 billion worth of tariffs and other penalties for its theft of technology and trade secrets.

Makers of cell phones and laptops Americans buy are dependent on Chinese factories for production. Apple's iPhones, for example, are put together by the world's largest electronics manufacturer, Foxconn Technology Group, which has an estimated 400,000 workers at its state-of-the-art plant in Zhengzhou.

Trump tweeted March 2, "trade wars are good, and easy to win."

The opposite is true. The president's grasp of history is weak, but even he should know that the 1930 Smoot-Hawley protectionist trade policies exacerbated the U.S. recession into a global depression.

Of all of Trump's blunders, this could be one of the worst. China is without question a bad actor. But neither Trump nor the tech industry have done the work necessary to successfully pressure China to accede to U.S. demands.

That requires building a united front with our allies to fight Chinese policies that force tech companies to surrender billions of dollars in intellectual property in order to do business there.

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Trump's "America First" approach has instead repeatedly angered the European and Southeast Asian countries the United States needs most to help counter China. The president pulled out of the Paris Accord and the Trans Pacific Partnership, dissed NATO and NAFTA, and initiated a foreign policy approach that's nearly impossible to decipher.

The tech industry has been equally inept in cultivating support for its cause. Tech is increasingly seen as the root of all that is wrong with America.

Lawmakers are looking to force regulations on an industry that would prefer to be left alone. Two of the most knowledgeable members of Congress on tech issues, Bay Area Reps. Ro Khanna and Zoe Lofgren, agree that the better approach for reining in China is taking the case to the World Trade Organization.

More than 7 million Americans work in tech and the industry's revenues are projected to reach a record $351 billion in 2018. The president must stop playing high-stakes poker with one of the biggest drivers of the U.S. economy.Roscrea Credit Union was delighted recently to receive a Roscrea People Of The Year Award Citation in recognition of their service to the community over the past 50 years.

The Chainman Sean Hogan, asked the Manager Brian King to accept the award with him on the night in recognition of his dedicated service to the credit union.

On the night the Manager gave a passionate plea to the hundreds gathered for the awards awards when he said its your credit union, use it, support it, be an ambassador for us and help play your part, however big or however small in ensuring that we have a credit union fifty years from now celebrating 100 years of great service to the local community.

Roscrea Credit Union would like to thank Roscrea People for the award and in particular they would like to thank George Cunningham the organiser of the prestigious event.

George was very vocal on the night on Roscrea Credit Unions past and the credit union would like to acknowledge his kind words for the departing Manager Brian King who he credited with making the credit union an organisation that members could be proud of once again.

The credit union would like to remind members that it is actively lending and open for business. The credit union would also like to remind members about the production of a beautiful video to promote Roscrea and its surrounds. The video is available to download from our Facebook page which can be found at www.facebook.com/roscreacreditunion. Alternatively check out www.youtube.com and search for My Hometown Of Roscrea Roscrea Credit Union would like to congratulate all the award winners and were delighted to be once again associated sponsors for the awards.The mother of Carrick-on-Suir teenager Elisha Gault has paid tribute to her "beautiful, funny, intelligent" daughter following the recovery of her body from the River Suir last night.

In a message posted on social media last night, Grainne Gault thanked all those who had helped in the search for her young daughter who was last seen on St. Patrick's Day, March 17.

"Our baby girl has been recovered, thank you all for your efforts in bringing her home to us, so we can now lay her to rest"

The discovery was made by Waterford based Rescue 117 shortly after 7pm on Sunday, March 25 on a section of the River Suir near Killowen, Portlaw.

A book of condolences in memory of the teenager has opened at the Edge YDP youth resource centre on New Street in Carrick on Suir.

Elisha Gault was last seen at about 10.15pm on St Patricks day on Dillon Bridge in Carrick-on-Suir, heading towards the Carrickbeg area on the Co Waterford side of the town. The family of the missing teen made several heartbreaking appeals in the days that followed Elisha's disappearance on social media for help in tracing the whereabouts of their beloved daughter.

Hundreds of volunteers supported the massive search operation for the Comeragh College student including the gardai, civil defence, the Coast Guard, Carrick River Rescue, Waterford Marine Search and Rescue, Nenagh Search and Rescue and Mallow Search and Rescue.

If you have been affected by any issues raised in this article, please contact The Samaritans free helpline on 116 123 or by email to jo@samaritans.ie

Childline is available 24 hours for children and young people (up to 18) who may have any concerns or who would like to talk about anything which may be on their mind. Childline can be contacted in the following ways: Call 1800 66 66 66, Text Talk to 50101 or chat online at Childline.ie

ECI holds a meeting with CEO/DEOs to instruct SOPs related to First Level Checking (FLC) of EVM-VVPAT

Counting of votes for 3 city corporations in K'taka under wayThe mother of the Carrick-on-Suir teenager Elisha Gault, whose body was recovered from the River Suir last night, has paid an emotional tribute to her "beautiful, funny, intelligent" daughter.

In a message posted on social media, Grainne Gault thanked all those who had helped in the search for her young daughter who was last seen on St. Patrick's Day, March 17.

"Our baby girl has been recovered, thank you all for your efforts in bringing her home to us, so we can now lay her to rest"

The discovery was made by Waterford based Rescue 117 shortly after 7pm on Sunday, on a section of the River Suir near Killowen, Portlaw.

Elisha was last seen at about 10.15pm on St Patricks day on Dillon Bridge in Carrick-on-Suir, heading towards the Carrickbeg area on the Co Waterford side of the town. The family of the missing teen made several heartbreaking appeals in the days that followed Elisha's disappearance on social media for help in tracing the whereabouts of their beloved daughter.

Hundreds of volunteers supported the massive search operation for the Comeragh College student including the gardai, civil defence, the Coast Guard, Carrick River Rescue, Waterford Marine Search and Rescue, Nenagh Search and Rescue and Mallow Search and Rescue.

If you have been affected by any issues raised in this article, please contact The Samaritans free helpline on 116 123 or by email to jo@samaritans.ie

Childline is available 24 hours for children and young people (up to 18) who may have any concerns or who would like to talk about anything which may be on their mind. Childline can be contacted in the following ways: Call 1800 66 66 66, Text Talk to 50101 or chat online at Childline.ie

On Friday 23rd March 2018 Tipperary Excel Art Centre Board hosted the launch of TDP18, Tipperary Dance Platforms programme of activities for the coming year. Tipperary Dance Platform, which is an internationally recognised contemporary dance residency, curated by Alexandre Jazmin Iseli-Chiodi is celebrating 10 years of residency at Tipperary Excel.

As part of the launch the audience was treated to a short video presentation on the work of Tipperary Dance Residency and TDP18 programme of activities, which was well received by everyone. Full details of TDP18 Dance Programme, including Activities, Events and Festival can be found onwww.tpd.danceplatform.ie

The launch, which took place in the Art Gallery drew an enthusiast audience, including representatives from Tipperary Co. Co., Melanie Scott, Tipperary Arts Officer, local councillors, Michael Lowry, TD, Damian Dullaghan, Head of Tipperary Library Services, Tipperary Excel board members, members of staff as well Tipperary Excel Volunteers. Also in the audience were Petronella Clifton Brown, Ex Assistant Garda Commissioner Jack Nolan and his wife Tina, members of Tipperary Musical Society and Joe Mulcahy and his wife Edel of Mulcahy Construction, the company who completed the works at Tipperary Excel to facilitate the relocation of Tipperary Town Library to the library.

During the evening, Tipperary Excel Board took the opportunity to officially welcome Tipperary Town Library to the art centre by presenting Damian Dullaghan with a trilogy of books on Tipperary Town and its people. This 21st century, state of the art flagship library is due to open its doors to Tipperary Town and its surrounding communities in the coming days. It will house cutting edge technology, the first of its kind in Europe. To commemorate the launch of TDP18 and welcome Tipperary Town Library, Tipperary Excel displayed its unique photographic collection by Lady Clementina Maude. The collection, which is on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum was brought to Ireland by Tipperary Town and Tipperary Country Museum a numbers years ago.

Tipperary Dance Residency Background

Tipperary Dance Residency was created in 2008, as a result of a collaboration between four partners working towards the emergence of a contemporary dance culture in South Tipperary; namely Tipperary Excel Arts Centre, Arts Council of Ireland, Tipperary County Council Arts Service and the two artists in residency Jazmin Chiodi and Alexandre Iseli. Over the last ten years, great strides have been made by Tipperary Dance Residency is terms of developing an understanding and interesting of contemporary dance at local, regional and national level under the direction of Jazmin Chiodi and Alexandre Iseli. In addition to promoting contemporary dance in Ireland, both Jazmin and Alex have toured extensively at international level performing pieces, which have been created and crafted in Tipperary Excel. They created and performed a piece of work entitled Embodied at the GPO, Dublin in 2016, which was especially commissioned for the 1916 Easter Rising Commemorations.

Lady Clementina Maude Collection

Lady Clementina (1822-1865) was an Englishwoman who has been recognised as a pioneer in early photography. She and her family lived at their Dundrum Estate, now Dundrum House in the mid-1850s before returning to London and it was while she was in Dundrum that Clementina took up an interest in photography. Clementinas photographic work mainly involves her family and herself in various poses, including many photographs of her daughters at play. However she also photographed the other side of life at Dundrum Estate. For example, men hard at work in the fields and in the stables pause for her camera, perhaps not unwilling but slightly puzzled by this unfamiliar form of attention. In 1863, Clementina exhibited her work for the first time with the Photographic Society of London. She received a silver medal for the best contribution by an amateur and she was elected to the society. This exhibition is an opportunity to view a unique collection of photographs; a collection that forms part of our Tipperary heritage.Eyes watered and tears flowed when Volkswagen announced that it wasnt going to build a next-generation version of the Volkswagen Beetle. But fear not, fans of the beloved Bug. The current-generation model isnt going away anytime soon. Volkswagen spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said as much to USA Today , quelling fears that the iconic model is on borrowed time.

Volkswagen still intends to keep selling the current-generation Volkswagen Beetle in the U.S.

It doesnt soften the blow of knowing that a next-generation model isnt arriving, but it is reassuring to know that Volkswagen still intends to keep selling the current-generation Volkswagen Beetle in the U.S. How long thats going to be is anybodys guess at this point, but for fans of the iconic ride, Im pretty sure theyll take their victories any way they can get them.

The recent sales trend of the Beetle does point to some concerns that even if its going to stick around, it might not be as long as people hope itd be. Sales last year of the Beetle dropped to 15,166 units, a 3.2-percent decline from its previous numbers in 2016. Its still a healthy sales total, but as more people become enraptured with crossovers and SUVs, not to mention hybrids and electric cars, the Beetles place in the party is becoming more tenuous. If sales continue to decline, then that could give incentive Volkswagen to pull the plug on the Bug in the coming years. Lets all hope then that Ginivans assurance has some weight to it.

When the time comes that Volkswagen thinks that the Beetle isnt profitable anymore, it wont have any issues pulling its plug.

Ultimately, though, the Beetle is going to be what it is until Volkswagen decides that its not worth it to it sell anymore. When that time comes, and it will, it could be the last time we see one of the oldest and most popular models in the history of the auto industry. When thats going to be is still unclear, but even with the reassurance that the car will still be around for a while, its days really are numbered. The auto industry is still a business at its core. When the time comes that Volkswagen thinks that the Beetle isnt profitable anymore, it wont have any issues pulling its plug.

So, as we wait for that inevitable day to come, enjoy the Volkswagen Beetle for everything it is to the industry. Its legacy is in place, and theres no amount of revisionist history thats going to change that. If you want to be a part of that history in your own way, you can still score a Beetle for as low as $20,200 for the base Model S version and $26,790 for the top-of-the-line Dune unit.

References

Check out what we said about the Volkswagen Beetle in our full review.

Read up on the 2017 Volkswagen Beetle Carbriolet

Read more Volkswagen news.The McLaren Senna GTR is a shining example of what happens when a company attains the pinnacle of automotive engineering. To say that its one of the most impressive track-only vehicles in the world is an understatement. Apparently, people have been so impressed with the Senna GTR that over 150 of them have expressed interest in paying the 1 million price ($1.4 million) for the track-day speedster. Unfortunately, McLaren only plans to build half of that total, and as expected, all 75 units of the Senna GTR are now accounted for.

McLaren announced plans to develop 75 units of the Senna GTR

A lot of people didnt know what to expect when McLaren rolled out the Senna GTR at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. On its own, the McLaren Senna was already considered an achievement in automotive engineering, and yet, there it was, the Senna GTR, hanging out in Geneva as admired from all over the world stopped dead in their tracks at the mere sight of it.

Soon after its debut, McLaren announced plans to develop 75 units of the Senna GTR. Its not that many, but for a car with the kind of capabilities that the Senna GTR has, its more than enough to make 75 owners scream for their lives when theyre behind the wheel of one. In case thats not clear, the Senna GTR is a more extreme version of an already extreme hypercar.

Its expected to carry at least 825 horsepower from a 4.0-liter Biturbo V-8 engine. Thats an improvement from the 789 horsepower output of the regular Senna. Its got a carbon fiber body, a race-spec transmission, a revised double wishbone suspension, and a set of Pirelli slicks that, all together, combine to help keep its weight down to a skinny 2,641 pounds (1,198 kilos), exactly the same weight as the Senna. The Senna GTR will also rely on cutting-edge racing technology similar to the P1 GTR. One such tech is the advanced adjustable traction control system, which would certainly be of good use when the Senna GTR is blasting along the worlds best race tracks. Altogether, the Senna GTR is capable of accelerating from 0 to 62 mph in less than 2.4 seconds on its way to a top speed of God-knows-what. 217 mph seems like a conservative estimate, dont you think?

The McLaren Senna GTR is the kind of car people will spend $1.5 million on at the drop of a hat

Needless to say, the McLaren Senna GTR is the kind of car people will spend $1.5 million on at the drop of a hat. Its no surprise, then, that all 75 units sold out as quick as it did. The Senna GTR is the latest  and perhaps greatest  performance car McLaren has to offer. Judging by the reception surrounding it, the British automaker nailed this one out of the park.

References

McLaren Senna

Read our full review on the 2018 McLaren Senna GTR.

Will Debut at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show

Read our full review on the 2019 McLaren Senna.

Read more McLaren news.Unless youre a tree-hugging hippy or one of those smug, be-green types, the fact that driving an EV could help stop global warming is vaguely insignificant. Whats more important is the fact that, with enough range, you can actually save a decent chunk of money on your daily commute since you dont have to pay for gas. Well, leave it to Porsche to ruin that  the German brand wants its charging networks to be profit centers and will, effectively, charge gasoline-like prices for charging. In fact, Porsche wont even warm up to you before bending you over as it plans to stick it to customers right from the very start.

Because God forbid it not cost us an arm and a leg to drive anymore

So Much for Saving a Little Money with your Reduced Emissions

Porsche is working, in collaboration with BMW, Rolls-Royce, Mini, Audi, VW, Daimler, and Ford to bring charging to Europe on a broad scale as well

Yes, we want to earn money with new products and services. Of Course, Yes. Yes, we try to do this [bill from day one] of course. We can invest in the beginning, but after two or three years you have to be profitable with new services, of course. Those words were said by none other than Lutz Meschke, the Deputy Chairman of Porsches Executive Board to GearBrain. The worst part is that the brand isnt even going to charge a reasonable rate. Instead, it will charge gasoline-like prices for its 800-volt car chargers.

Those charges, by the way, will be capable of delivering enough charging capacity to get you 250 miles down the road in about 15 minutes. Furthermore, Porsche is working, in collaboration with BMW, Rolls-Royce, Mini, Audi, VW, Daimler, and Ford to bring charging to Europe on a broad scale as well. This move is quite the opposite of Tesla which offers free charging in some cases; it could spell some serious trouble for the EV industry.

Part of the significant advantage of an EV is lessening our dependence on the black gold, which ultimately saves us money.

At this point, were shelling out money to oil companies to get around. Part of the significant advantage of an EV is lessening our dependence on the black gold, which ultimately saves us money. Should other automakers follow Porsches greedy tactics and begin charging gasoline-like prices for EV charging, then whats the point?

For now, its only the Mission E sedan that will make use of the charging stations  you know, the model that Porsche claims isnt benchmarked against the Tesla Model S, but was testing next to one?  and it will be followed by the Mission E Cross Turismo (based on the Cross Turismo Concept that was shown off at Geneva.) Lets just hope only Porsche customers will be forced to shell out all this extra money and that other automakers keep charging reasonable or at least at a fair rate.

References

Read our full speculative review on the 2020 Porsche Mission E.

Read our full speculative review on the 2020 Porsche Mission E GTS.

Read our full review on the 2015 Porsche Mission E Concept.

Read our full review on the 2018 Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo Concept.

Read more Porsche news.

Source: GearBrainTreehugger and our third-party partners use cookies and process personal data like unique identifiers based on your consent to store and/or access information on a device, display personalized ads and for content measurement, audience insight, and product development. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Treehugger.com, including your right to object where legitimate interest is used, click below. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. List of Partners (vendors)They are changing the architectural preservation rules to permit replacement with concrete or diamond plate steel.

Two hundred years ago, ships designed to carry coal had glass bricks in their decks so that crews could check out the holds without blowing up the boat. This evolved into Prism Glass, which were cast glass lenses designed to spread light through the room below.

Glass floors in Pennsylvania Station/Public DomainPennsylvania Station in New York had floors of prism glass that lit the platforms below during the daytime. But it was also installed in the sidewalks of cities to bring light into basements and delivery areas for goods and coal that were often below.

 Vault lights in SoHo via 6Sqft

They are a wonderful historic feature that is still visible in much of New York City, often surrounded by cast iron. Rebecca Paul explains in 6Sqft:

In 1845, Thaddeus Hyatt, an abolitionist and inventor, patented a system of setting round pieces of glass into cast iron sidewalks. His Hyatt Patent Lights, as they were often called, were technically lenses, since their underside had a prism attached to bend the light and focus it to a specific underground area. Hyatt eventually moved to London and brought his lights with him, opening a factory there and having them produced in cities throughout England. The lights brought him great wealth, and he went on to also patent several designs for reinforced concrete floors.



Paul notes that many have disappeared:

The use of vault lights decreased when electricity arrived and they became expensive for property owners to maintain. And with years of neglect, some of the metal frames began to corrode, and the tiny glass windows were deemed hazardous.



And now, the few that remain might be lost, as the City of New York does a major overhaul of its heritage regulations. The Historic District Council complains:

Vault lights are a defining feature of former manufacturing districts like SoHo and Tribeca, providing evidence that these districts were once industrial powerhouses, as opposed to the domain of wealthy property owners, shoppers and tourists that we see today. This rule change states that the staff will approve the removal of up to two panels of exposed vault lights that are deteriorated beyond repair if no other vault lights exist on the same side of the block. They may be replaced with diamond plate steel or concrete/granite to match the adjacent sidewalk.



Susan Babbitt on Flickr/CC BY 2.0

The shame of it all is that vault lights and other types of prism glass are exactly the kinds of products that we should be using more of, because they bend and direct natural light, reducing the need for electric light. Not only is that light free, but it is becoming more evident that a bit natural light is important for our health, for maintaining our circadian rhythms. We should be learning from this stuff, not ripping it out.

If these regulation changes pass, it is likely that New Yorkers will be walking on diamond plate steel, because of course it is cheaper than fixing cast iron and glass vault lights. And anything involving heritage preservation these days is seen as an expensive frill and a tool of NIMBYS. Why should this be any different?

ad for prism glass /Public DomainAs our country celebrates 45 years as a republic, let us highlight the two avian species which represent our twin-island nation. Our two national birds, the Scarlet Ibis and the Cocrico, stand proudly on our countrys coat of arms. Today, let us learn more about these two feathered national symbols.Do you have a news tip?

Want to share good news story, or do you have information that should see the light of day? Then we want to hear from you.

More hereFlaskback: Relatives of murdered retired schoolteacher Michael Scott, during the funeral at the La Brea Seventh-Day Adventist Church. From left are Scotts son Kevyn, his wife Evelyn and daughter Khadija. Scott and three others were killed two weeks ago at an apartment owned by Scott in La Brea. Photo: DEXTER PHILIP-:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:-

Tripadvisor staff removed this post because it did not meet Tripadvisor's forum posting guidelines with prohibiting self-promotional advertising or solicitation.

We ask all of our members to keep their forum messages free of self-promoting advertisements or solicitation of any kind - members affiliated with any tourism-related business should not include commercial contact information or URLs in their forum messages.

To review the Tripadvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html

We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.Hi,

I am traveling to Vietnam for the first time. I do have some friends there. I want to take one brass Gautam Buddha idol (Indian style) 6"(inches) in height, one stone statue of Buddha 4"(inches) in height and one silver pen (fountain pen). Also want to take some dry sweets , biscuits and chocolates for their family and three cotton embroidery pieces of cloth.

I want to know how can I take them there? Do I need to give any tax? Do I will get any problem at the airport while leaving Netaji Shubash Chandra Bose International Airport Kolkata and at arrival at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, Ho Chi Minh city?

Thank you.I plan to go for 2 nights stay in Hakone from Kyoto in April.

On the 1st day, arriving from Kyoto, i will do a roundtrip in Hakone itself (cable car, ropeway, lake Ashi..etc. ).

2nd day, plan to visit 5th station, grinpa & the famous 5 lakes.

Question;

1.is it worth it if i buy the fuji hakone pass?

2. Not sure if the time is enough as probably will arrive at Hakone in the afternoon.

3. Is the pass still can be bought at odawara station counter?We'll be in Kyoto in early July and would like to visit the Iga Ninja Museum. I'm trying to figure out the best way to get there. We'll have JR passes, so according to Hyperdia we can get as far as Igaueno on (3 different) JR trains, then have to switch to the Iga Railway for Uenoshi. If we do that, it looks like we'll have just a few minutes at Igaueno before the train comes.

How do we buy tickets for that last leg?

Can we buy them on board, or at Kyoto station?

Has anyone done this and have any tips for a smooth trip?

Any opinions on whether or not the museum is worth the hassle of getting there?

Is it possible to get there by bus easier?

Anything else we should try to see while we're there?

Thanks!When it comes to the payslip, most working Kenyans are concerned more with what they get at the end of the month (net salary) than by the deductions made every month. In Kenya, anyone that earns an income must pay a mandatory income tax through a deduction known as Pay As You Earn (PAYE). This income tax which is deducted from the gross pay is calculated according to the amount of salary your employer pays you on a monthly basis and paid directly to the Kenya revenue authority (KRA). The income tax guidelines can be confusing and challenging to calculate. Lucky for you, the net pay calculator Kenya will compute all your dues to KRA based on recent PAYE requirement and give you an accurate estimation of your net pay. Whether youre in a formal work sector, retiring or self-employed, this post will cover how to calculate the final net pay figure including the various tax deductions involved.

Source: Portugal Resident

Difference between gross and net income

Gross salary is the total amount you earn before tax deductions while net pay is the amount you take home after all mandatory deductions have been made. A net pay salary calculator Kenya can simplify the whole process of calculating your net salary.

The calculations generally first start with your gross salary then mandatory payments such as PAYE, NHIF and NSSF are deducted. This will give you a rough estimate of your net pay. To do gross calculations, use the gross net pay calculator in Kenya which will make it easier for you as the system will do accurate calculations.

Statutory deductions in Kenya

While income tax is the common yet not the only tax that is deducted from a payslip, tax often contributes to a large chunk of the deductions. Knowing the amount and what type of deduction is made from your salary will ensure that you notice or know when an employer takes advantage of you.

Also, with the knowledge, you can be able to understand how much money needs to be deducted when it comes to insurance and taxes. Additionally, its important to remember that statutory deductions and a payslip are compulsory for every working Kenyan. Apart from PAYE which can be calculated using PAYE calculator Kenya from net pay, some of the top statutory deductions in Kenya that you can expect to get from your payslip include:

National Social Security Fund (NSSF)

NSSF can be termed as more of an insurance for retirement or when you get laid off as compared to the standard deductions that you pay the government. Every working Kenyan citizen whether in formal or informal work sector must save part of their salary with NSSF.

The withdrawal benefit can be given to you when you attain 50 years and above or retire from your regular source of employment. To access your pension, you will need to have your letter of termination or resignation as proof.

National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF)

Paying NHIF will enable you as a Kenyan citizen to access affordable healthcare services. Whether you are in a formal or informal sector, as long as youre registered with NHIF, you can enjoy the various health benefits including using the NHIF card to pay for hospital bills.

Those in the informal sector, retirees or self-employed have to pay Sh500 per month to access the NHIF benefits. People working in the formal sectors are required by law to be members of the NHIF from which a deduction shall be automatically done on their gross salary based on the new premium NIF rates.

Filling and calculating all your statutory deductions can be challenging especially for those who lack financial skills. Net pay calculator Kenya helps you easily fill in all the required details and allow the system to do all the necessary calculations.

Value Added Tax (VAT)

You are expected by the government to pay VAT if your business deals with taxable products and services. You must know how to pay this tax because failure to remit can have dire consequences. The due date to file returns is before or on 20th of the month. VAT amount is calculated by obtaining the difference between purchases and sales of the month.

Source: Square Root Financial

Rental income tax

Rental income tax is a recent tax introduction which requires all business or individual that receives a rental income to pay 10% of the rental income. Landlords or anyone with a residential property who is eligible for this tax must file their tax by 20th of every month through the iTax system. Unlike when filing tax on the old system, the new way of calculating this tax doesnt involve deducting all expenses first.

As a landlord, because you will be filing returns on a monthly basis, you will not have to keep on producing records of the expenses on a yearly basis. This factor prevents so much hustle as creating and printing these records required landlords to have certified accountants. However, as a landlord, you can use a simplified net pay calculator for Kenya to evaluate your rental income tax based on the new tax rates.

READ ALSO: How to Get EACC Clearance Certificate in Kenya Without Much Hustle

Other permitted deductions

Other permitted deductions that can be made from your payslip include:

Loans, salary deductions for days when the employee was absent without consent or leave and union dues.

Salary advance

Most working people assume that they have a right to ask and receive a salary advance from their employer.

However, according to the employment act, this is not a mandatory thing for the employer. If you take a salary advance, the amount will be deducted from your gross pay which in turn ends up reducing the final net amount that you receive.

Tax relief

Tax relief is a form of discount that the Kenyan government gives taxpayers to reduce the monthly tax rate burden for all low-income earners. The reliefs which were announced during the 2016/2017 budget was a good welcome to the Kenyan citizens in the lowest income bracket as they provide more comfort especially in the rapid change of living cost.

In Kenya, workers who receive an income are eligible to receive tax relief in the form of insurance relief and personal relief. The government also grants mortgage relief to encourage housing growth and development. Tax relief covers your childrens education. Through the tax relief, disabled persons who receive an income are exempted from taxable income.

Personal relief

Personal tax relief is granted to employees by employers irrespective of their marital status. A monthly personal relief (MPR) for all working individuals has increased from Sh1, 162 per month to sh1280.

When computing PAYE using Kenya net pay calculator, personal relief has to be considered while the insurance relief is anticipated to be zero. To compute PAYE combine the basic salary and benefits given and then include the correct personal reliefs.

Insurance relief

All Kenya employees are eligible for an insurance relief on insurance policies such as education policy for their children, as well as life insurance for yourself or spouse. According to the income tax act, a person who has a life insurance policy gets a tax relief.

For example, if you have a gross salary of Sh35, 000 you will pay NSSF of Sh1080, personal relief of Sh1280, a tax deduction of about Sh3,945, NHIF of Sh950. With all these deductions you can expect your net salary to be around Sh29, 027. However, the rate of this tax relief is reviewed from time to time, so its best to confirm the percentage with KRA.

Who will benefit from income tax change?

The recent changes in income tax law in Kenya will enable employees to enjoy lower taxes which includes a higher personal relief. You can use online net pay calculator Kenya to determine how your income tax has changed. But who exactly will benefit from a lesser tax burden.

Workers who earn Ksh.10,000

Employees such as cleaners, general laborers, messengers, domestic workers, caretakers, artisans and other subordinate staff who earn Sh10, 164 on a monthly basis will be exempted from paying an income tax as the lowest taxable brackets payable per month has been increased to sh11, 180. The minimum pay increment also applies to those paid an hourly, daily or monthly wage.

Workers who earn Ksh.38,000

Any worker that earns a salary of Sh38,893 per month will also enjoy and benefit from the reduction as the highest income tax rate applies to all employees that earn Sh42, 782 and above.

How dues are calculated after job resignation or retirement

The dues you are to receive after resigning from a job will depend on several factors like the total amount of unpaid salary, overtime, leave days, payment in lieu of notice, statutory deductions and staff account deductions. An employee is expected by law to pay a worker in lieu of notice period but not when the employee resigns. Through the NSSF pension funds, a retiring individual may opt to either receive a lump sum payment or an annuity.

Gratuity or service pay can also be given when a worker resigns or retires. Other circumstances that can make an employee qualify for gratuity is death or disability caused by a work-related issue. While in most cases gratuity is given with discretion its often calculated by multiplying the number of years served with a specific percentage of the gross salary.

Though similar to gratuity, service pay is only given at the end of your employment and refers to payment given after a job is terminated. Using a net pay calculator for Kenya, service pay is calculated based on the period the employee has worked and the monthly net earnings they have been receiving. You will not be eligible for service pay if your registered member of a pension fund.

How dues are calculated when a company is changing its name

If a company youre working for is closing down, you will be paid based on the number of days worked, notice period and leave acquired. However, if the company is just changing its name or ownership, you will be given a review of the employment contract which can alter your final net pay.

How the salaries of part-time workers are calculated using net pay calculator Kenya

Casual or part-time employees with a contract that extends to more than 30 days must be added to a payroll as their salary is calculated based on whether they are paid daily, weekly, biweekly or monthly. To calculate the exact amount an employee is paid using an online net pay calculator Kenya, the monthly salary net figure is divided by the number of times the worker is paid during that particular month.

Knowing how to calculate net pay will help you clearly understand your monthly income and expenses which makes the budgeting process so much easier and better. On the other hand, failure to pay the right amount for all your taxes can result in heavy penalties. Therefore, to ensure you have paid the right amount of tax, get the relevant tax rates from KRA and use a net pay salary calculator Kenya to calculate your tax liability and to confirm accuracy.

Source: Tuko Newspaper- The suspects were arrested after being found with fake KDF documents

- They had reported to Moi Barracks Recruits Training College (RTC) for admission

- The youths narrated how they parted with huge amounts of money only to be handed fake letters

Hundreds of hopeful youths are bearing the brunt of massive deception and corruption that is rife in the recruitment of military personnel.

At least 150 aspiring soldiers were locked up in police cells barely days after they presented fake documents.

According to earlier reports, TUKO.co.ke understands the would-be-recruits were turned away for having fake Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) calling letters at the Moi Barracks Recruit Training School (RTS) in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County.

READ ALSO: Wavulana 5 wakamatwa Bungoma kwenye bweni la shule ya wasichana

At least 150 hopeful youths were arrested for having fake calling letters. Photo: Stabdard

READ ALSO: Former Dortmund boss turns down Bayern job, set to replace Arsene Wenger at Arsenal

KDF Chief Personnel Brigadier Martin Ong'oi said the suspects had presented fake letters upon arrival for admission at the college where they were immediately arrested.

"The letters cannot be authoritatively confirmed to have been issued by KDF. We have handed the suspects to civil police for investigations," said Ong'oi.

The victims narrated how they were duped into dishing out as much as KSh 400,000 to join the forces.

READ ALSO: Matatu operators up in arms against cheap NYS buses

They had letters, which they claimed to have been sent to them by contacts posing as senior military officers of the rank of Major.

The youths narrated how they were duped into buying fake calling letters.

I had applied to join the military as a tradesman after I saw an advert in one of the local dailies. I was called later by a man who promised to enlist my services if I paid him, said a young man who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The man divulged he quit his job as a security guard in one of the universities in Nairobi as he was sure of joining KDF.

The man who promised me a slot in the forces asked me to pay him KSh350,000 to secure a slot as a late replacement for someone who did not honour the calling letter, he said.

READ ALSO: Raila regrets after joining Uhuru, Sonko to watch 2018 Kenya Barclays golf tournament

The unfortunate youths had parted with amounts ranging between KSh40,000 and KSh450,000 to secure fake letters as revealed by different accounts.

The suspects were handed over to police. Photo: Citizen tv

The suspects were handed over to the police and taken to the Eldoret police station where Ong'oi said investigations will be done to determine if they will be charged in court or not.

"When we started the recruitment on Monday, March 12, it was made clear that the recruitment is free and no money or corruption would be allowed", said Ong'oi.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news

Kalonzo Musyoka dismisses removal of Moses Wetangula from Senate | TUKO TV

Source: Tuko- The self-proclaimed NRM general arrived in Nairobi on Monday, March 26

- Miguna arrived at around 3 pm from Canada and was received by friends, family and supporters

- The 'general' has been away for nearly two months since his controversial deportation

- He was deported to Canada amid claims he had renounced his Kenyan citizenship

- The government also held Miguna was a threat to national security

- High Court later reversed the government's decision to revoke his citizenship

- The court also directed the government to return Miguna's passport and facilitate his return

The self-styled National Resistance Movement (NRM) general, Miguna Miguna, on Monday, March 26, arrived back in the country from Canada.

TUKO.co.ke can confirm Miguna touched down at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) at around 3 pm and was welcomed by his lawyers, supporters, family and friends.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Wavulana 5 wakamatwa Bungoma kwenye bweni la shule ya wasichana

National Resistance Movement's self-proclaimed general Miguna Miguna expected back in the country at 2:30 pm. Photo:David Junior/Twitter.

READ ALSO: Miguna expected to touch down at 2:30 pm today

The NRM general is however yet to leave the airport even as his supporters patiently wait for him at the facility's main entrance to receive him.

Unconfirmed reports indicated he was asked to surrender his Canadian passport but he refused, leading to the delay as the airport officials consulted with the immigration department.

It is alleged the government wanted to admit Miguna on a tourist visa which will bar him from engaging in politics or business, but his lawyers refused.

"Miguna Miguna landed at 2.30 pm but has been denied re-entry until he applies for a Kenyan visa. With a Kenyan ID, he does not require a visa or any condition to come back to his country of birth. There is no legal basis for the demand in view of the court orders," his lawyer Nelson Havi said.

READ ALSO: Miguna expected to touch down at 2:30 pm today

Miguna was dramatically deported to Canada on February 6, 2018, after the government revoked his Kenyan citizenship and confiscated his passport.

The government argued the NRM general had renounced his Kenyan citizenship and never bothered to formally reapply for it.

READ ALSO: Judge suspends criminal proceedings against Miguna Miguna

The government also claimed Miguna, who was arrested and detained for participating in the contentious swearing-in of NASA leader Raila Odinga on January 30, 2018, was a threat to national security.

Miguna moved to High Court to challenge the government's decision to deport him and the court ruled in his favor.

READ ALSO: Court orders police to produce Miguna Miguna in court or face punishment

The court not only suspended all criminal proceedings against the barrister but also ordered the government to return his passport and facilitate his return to Kenya.

While abroad, Miguna criss-crossed the world in attempts to sell NRM's agenda, which included radical electoral reforms and justice.

The NRM general has also been critical of the Raila-Uhuru meeting and it will be interesting to see how the two will relate moving forward upon Miguna's return.

Top 5: Woes of Miguna Miguna after Raila's Odinga "Inauguration" - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko- Interior Ministry refuted claims Miguna was denied entry into the country

- The ministry claimed the lawyer refused to present his passport which is a legal requirement

- Miguna arrived in the country at 2:30 pm but failed to leave JKIA due to the stand-off

- The government asked Miguna to surrender his Canadian passport and apply for a tourist visa

- He refused to apply for the visa saying it will waive rights which will never be restored

The government has denied claims that self declared general of National Resistance Movement (NRM) Miguna Miguna was declined entry into the country.

According to an online post on Monday, March 26, the Interior Ministry clarified the combative lawyer became adamant when he was asked to present travel documents upon arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

"The government has not denied Miguna Miguna entry into the country. Upon arrival at JKIA, he was asked to present the passport he traveled in. He declined. It is a requirement under law and IATA regulations for travelers to show the documents they traveled in at the point of entry," read the post by Spokesman Mwenda Njoka.

READ ALSO: Mwanahabari wa Citizen TV ajeruhiwa wakati wa kizazaa cha polisi na Miguna, JKIA (picha)

Miguna arrived in the country from Canada at 2.30 pm. Photo: David Junior/ Twitter

READ ALSO: Wetangula, Mudavadi, Kalonzo have been babysat for too long by Raila - Duale

As reported earlier by TUKO.co.ke, Miguna touched down at JKIA at around 3 pm and was welcomed by his lawyers, supporters, family and friends.

However, the the self styled general refused to leave the facility even as his supporters waited patiently for him at the main entrance to receive him.

READ ALSO: Uhurus cousin asks ODM to keep President out of Tibim,Tialala slogans

Unconfirmed reports indicated he was asked to surrender his Canadian passport but he refused, leading to the delay as the airport officials consulted with the immigration department.

It is alleged the government wanted to admit Miguna on a tourist visa which will bar him from engaging in politics or business, but his lawyers refused.

READ ALSO: Safaricom warns of service interruptions as it upgrades systems

"Miguna Miguna landed at 2.30 pm but has been denied re-entry until he applies for a Kenyan visa. With a Kenyan ID, he does not require a visa or any condition to come back to his country of birth. There is no legal basis for the demand in view of the court orders," his lawyer Nelson Havi said.

Top 5: Woes of Miguna Miguna after Raila's Odinga "Inauguration" - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko- Immigration department opted to deport Miguna to Dubai as an undocumented national

- The decision came after he refused to surrender his Canadian passport to authorities

- He had demanded to have his Kenyan passport as ordered by the High Court in February

- The 8-hour stand-off saw Raila Odinga unsuccessfully try to intervene but left without a word

- The combative lawyer dramatically disembarked from an Emirates plane, delayed for an hour

- He had been hauled to the plane by several GSU officers who tore his clothes in the process

Combative lawyer Miguna Miguna resisted a second deportation by disembarking from a Dubai-bound plane early morning Tuesday, March 27.

The self-declared NRM leader insisted no one was going to fly him out of Kenya without a Kenyan passport which the High Court in February ordered he be given, days after he was deported to Canada.

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READ ALSO: Richest man in Kenya

Upon landing, immigration demanded to have his Canadian passport but his lawyers claimed there was a secret plot to retain the passport. Photo: Miguna Miguna/Facebook

"I am not going anywhere. I am not a terrorist, there is no way you can force me to Dubai where I have no relatives. I have court orders mandating the government to process and facilitate my return (from Canada)," shouted Miguna in an exclusive video captured by Citizen TV.

The Dubai-bound plane had 400 passengers and was delayed for more than an hour just to fly Miguna so he can possibly connect another flight to his second home Country, Canada.

After several minutes of push and pull with the captain trying to talk Miguna into settling down, a decision was made to leave him behind.

In a statement on the same day, the government claimed the combative lawyer refused to present travel documents upon arrival as it is standard procedure world over. Photo: Miguna Miguna/Facebook

It is not clear what will happen next with insiders having told TUKO.co.ke earlier that Miguna's Canadian passport was sneaked out of JKIA moments after he landed in a bid to complicate matters for immigration officials.

Upon landing, on Monday, March 26, Immigration demanded to have his Canadian passport but his lawyers claimed there was a secret plot to retain the passport and issue him a tourist visa instead.

Miguna believed the intention of giving him a six-month tourist visa was to inhibit him form legally participating in any form of politics or business in the country.

Raila Odinga's presence at JKIA did not help matters as Miguna was forced onto the Dubai-bound plane. Photo: Miguna Miguna/Facebook

He cried foul and claimed the Immigration department was acting against a court order issued by Justice Luka Kimaru on February 15, 2018.

The orders mandated immigration to provide him with an alternative travel document or allow him enter Kenya on a Canadian passport.

In a statement on the same day, the government claimed the combative lawyer refused to present travel documents upon arrival as it is standard procedure world over.

Raila Odinga's presence at JKIA did not help matters as Miguna was forced onto the Dubai-bound plane.

Raila, who recently signed a unity deal with President Uhuru Kenyatta, left visibly angry without a word to the media.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

Kalonzo Musyoka dismisses removal of Moses Wetangula from Senate. TUKOTV

Source: Tuko Kenya- The late Sudan's memorial ceremony will be held on Saturday, March 31

- The service will be at Ol Pejeta conservancy, Sudan's home

- It will begin at exactly 10 am and CS Balala will grace the event as guest of honour

- Sudan was pronounced dead on Monday, March 19, after suffering age related complications

- He left behind a daughter and grand-daughter

A memorial service will be held for Sudan, the worlds last male Northern White Rhino who died on Monday March 19.

The event will be held at Ol Pejeta conservancy at 10 am on Saturday, March 31, with Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala attending as the guest of honour.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

It will be a tribute to honour Sudan's life and the shimmering hope he bestowed upon the world through his very own existence.

As TUKO.co.ke formerly reported, Sudan passed away after suffering old-age complications.

The vagaries of aging led to degenerative changes in muscles and bones which combined with extensive skin wounds.

Sudan put up a brave fight but eventually, it was too much to bear and he was sadly euthanised.

The rare rhino will be remembered for his unusually memorable life.

READ ALSO: Last male Northern White Rhino, Sudan, is dead

In the 1970s, he evaded extinction of his kind in the wild when he was moved to Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic before coming to Kenya.

READ ALSO: Emotional photos of Sudan, the last male Northern White Rhino, dying at Ol Pejeta Conservancy

A photographer managed to capture the last moment of Sudan. Photo: Ami Vitale/National Geographic

READ ALSO: Mike Sonko, please take charge - Nairobians demand

Doctors attending to him managed to collect his genetic materials which they hope will enhance reproduction of the Northern White Rhinos through advanced cellular technology.

READ ALSO: Wetangula's arrogance cost him his Senate position - Edwin Sifuna

A wildlife ranger had a memorablemoment with Sudan before he died. Photo: Ami Vitale/National Geographic

His death left only two of his kind on the planet, his daughter, Najin and grand-daughter, Fatu both of whom are surviving at Ol Pejeta.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

Kalonzo Musyoka dismisses removal of Moses Wetangula from Senate | TUKO TV

Source: TukoStudents of Forms four, five and six are given the all clear to resume classes but school prUkrainians possess unique combat experience, which has no analogues in the world, says Major Radoslaw Krawiec, commander of the Polish military contingent of NATO.

As ZIK news agency reports, the Major expressed this opinion having observed the battalion tactical exercises of one of the brigades of the Operational Command West under the program of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine (JMTG-U) with the participation of foreign instructors from NATO member countries. The exercises were held at the International Center for Peacemaking and Security of the Hetman Petro Sahaidachny National Academy of the Land Forces.

"Ukrainians possess unique combat experience, which currently has no analogues in the world. We observed those exercises. We assessed the skillfulness in organization of training places, accurateness of training conduct, careful consideration of security issues on part of Ukrainian military personnel. To sum up, I highly appreciate the efforts of Ukrainians," Major Radoslaw Krawiec said.

Spokesperson for the Hetman Petro Sahaidachny National Academy of the Land Forces Taras Gren told the agency that during the period of their stay in Ukraine the servicemen of the Republic of Poland "highlighted the very friendly attitude of the people, who experienced real fighting, to the representatives of the armed forces of other states. Ukrainians shared their experience gained in battles with the colleagues."

olDuring the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) in eastern Ukraine, 794 soldiers of the National Guard have been wounded, and 212 have been killed.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko stated this while speaking at the solemn events on the occasion of the National Guard Day of Ukraine on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"A total of 794 soldiers of the National Guard were wounded during the anti-terrorist operation," he said.

The head of state also emphasized that 212 soldiers were killed.

According to him, 182 national guardsmen were posthumously awarded with state awards.

The Day of the National Guard of Ukraine is marked on March 26.

ishThe Trilateral Contact Group has agreed on the establishment of a ceasefire regime starting from March 30.

This is said in a statement issued by the Trilateral Contact Group on recommitment to the ceasefire on Monday.

"The Trilateral Contact Group with the participation of the representatives of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regionsre-affirmed their full commitment to a comprehensive, sustainable and unlimited ceasefire, starting from March 30, 2018 at 00 hrs. 01 min. (Kyiv time)," the statement reads.

The TCG participants noted the positive impact of the ceasefire of March 2, 2018, stressing the importance of ensuring peace and calm for the population during the forthcoming Easter celebrations.

They underlined the importance of the issuance of, and compliance with, the respective ceasefire orders; the effective use of disciplinary measures for ceasefire violations; avoiding forward movements and reconnaissance missions; no firing, including to return fire; strictly forbidding, in particular, firing to and from populated areas, the presence and use of heavy weapons in and close to populated areas and the targeting of civilian infrastructure, including schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and public premises.

The TCG parties recalled their joint and firm commitment to the full implementation of the Minsk agreements.One Ukrainian soldier was killed and another one was wounded in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) area in eastern Ukraine over the past day.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Spokesman for ATO issues Dmytro Hutsuliak said this at a briefing on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Unfortunaly, one Ukrainian soldier was killed as a result of enemy attacks in Donetsk direction. Our deepest condolences to the relatives and friends of our defender. Another serviceman was wounded. He was immediately taken to the hospital where needed medical assistance was provided to him," Hutsuliak said.

He also noted that Russian-backed militants launched two targeted attacks on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Luhansk direction, and 34  in Donetsk direction. In general, 44 attacks were recorded over the past day, Hutsuliak said.

iyHead of the IMF Resident Representative Office in Ukraine Goesta Ljungman spoke about the price paid by Ukraine for unfinished reforms

The International Monetary Fund prefers not to assess macroeconomic risks for Ukraine if the IMF-supported program is put on hold, or avoids talking about it...

An Ukrinform reporter heard this message in a short conversation with IMF Resident Representative in Ukraine Goesta Ljungman. The opportunity to talk came after the lecture that he delivered to the students of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Obviously, such a scenario is not considered. At least for now... And this is really reassuring news.

One can find absolutely polar estimates of Ukraine's cooperation with the International Monetary Fund from experts and journalists in the Ukrainian information space. From accusations of the country's economic problems to the universal remedy for all the troubles. However, many of them are emotional, rather than solidly justified.

It is extremely difficult for photographers to catch emotions on Goesta Ljungman's face, but he can articulate clear messages using a language well understood, even by students. Especially since it was not an academic theorist who told them about the economic future of Ukraine, but a person who has practical experience in implementation of fiscal reforms from Kuwait to Georgia, and who sees the slow wheels of Ukrainian reforms and, most importantly, the mechanisms that should put these reforms in motion.

If there was a topic that went through the lecture all the way - it's the price paid by Ukraine for unfinished reforms. It is not always possible to calculate it down to one hryvnia, but the scale of lost opportunities is striking both for the students and the lecturer himself.

FLASHBACK TO 2014-2015: FREE FALLING ECONOMY

"The situation was really very complicated, the economy was in the state of free fall. However, the reason was not only the crisis that occurred then. It was the culmination and accumulation of a very long period of ineffective policy and total absence of reforms," said Goesta Ljungman, giving an assessment of the gloomy picture of 2014, when the Ukrainian economy was facing difficult times.

He recalled how rapidly GDP had been declining and that it had been preceded by an unsupported increase in the level of payments to the population, artificially and consciously overvalued exchange rate, which made Ukrainian exports uncompetitive in foreign markets, and imports into the country - on the contrary, too affordable.

"There was a lack of trust in the economy; in fact, there was no trust at all. To complete the picture, it's worth adding a high level of corruption, a banking crisis and unfavorable business conditions," Ljungman says.

WILL THERE BE A LONG PAUSE IN FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO UKRAINE?

What was the basis for the IMF program for Ukraine to recover from the economic crisis? Goesta Ljungman explains in detail that there were several key elements, in particular, the projected financing of $17.5 billion, which is provided in separate tranches, to replenish foreign reserves and create financial strength, as well as macroeconomic stabilization ensuring sustainable economic development that is achieved through the implementation of sound financial and economic policies.

But in the situation when more than half of the economy is actually a continuation of the state itself, there was a need for a detailed program of structural reforms. Not minor ones but deep, those, which would eliminate the sources of destabilization and create grounds for the growth of the private sector in the first place.

So the task of this program was exactly to stabilize the economy and launch the process of radical reforms, which should have become the basis for stable development for many years. And despite all the problems with achieving such an ambitious goal, according to Goesta Ljungman, the IMF does not yet consider the scenario of suspending support to Ukraine, and the IMF Representative prefers not to talk about macroeconomic risks under the scenario when the Ukrainian economy is cut loose and charts its own course.

UKRAINE LOSING BILLIONS OF HRYVNIAS EVERY YEAR BECAUSE OF CORRUPTION

Students challenged the financier with sharp questions. However, these questions were rather pleasant stimuli, as the speaker got visibly excited and mobilized - although the habit of weighing every publicly articulated word had its effect.

The young people were interested in how to make public administration transparent and more effective, which path to take to be among the world leaders tomorrow. Or, maybe, it is necessary to take some radical steps or use unique formulae and recipes?

But it turned out that the future economists were the most concerned by the fact that unbeatable corruption becomes an obstacle for strategic investors when they decide to enter Ukraine. Why?

Because, as Mr. Ljungman explained, they are plainly afraid of risking their assets and building long-term strategies in the situation when even basic rules of law continue to be ignored. "The level of corruption in Ukraine is higher than in other states of Eastern and Central Europe. Yet another worrying trend is that in other countries this indicator is steadily declining, and in Ukraine it is growing," the head of the IMF Resident Representative Office says.

It turns out that the IMF has calculated how much corruption costs to our economy and society. "If Ukraine could bring the level of corruption to the average level of EU countries, its GDP would grow faster by 2%. Every year," the speaker reinforces his argument.

The indicator is more than conspicuous, because it would be the case of, depending on the pace of development and the nominal GDP, billions of hryvnias  that are now under-received by pensioners, schools, hospitals, and not spent to repair hundreds of kilometers of roads with potholes that are doomed to cause accidents.

Goesta Ljungman mentioned the achievements in creating anti-corruption institutions. "However, their effectiveness is very low, since the most resonant cases investigated by the NABU are stuck in courts and end there, and senior officials always have the opportunity to avoid unbiased justice," says the financier.

LAND MARKET WILL ADD 2-5% of GDP

"There is a lot of talk about the need for land reform, which is among the key requirements under the program of cooperation with the IMF. How critical is the fulfillment of this requirement?" someone in the audience asked the financier.

The point is, says Ljungman, that Ukrainian chernozemic soils known worldwide are used only by 30% compared to the indicators of the European countries. "The problem is that there is a lack of investment in agriculture, no irrigation systems are being built, a park of agricultural machinery is not being modernized, and the development of the whole sector is hampered," the head of the IMF Resident Representative Office emphasized. According to various expert estimates, the creation of the land market will trigger mechanisms that will ensure continued additional GDP growth by another 2-5 percentage points per year.

WHEN MR. LJUNGMAN SMILES

"I would not call what I've seen and heard today optimistic, rather it was very realistic. But there was an impression that we were frankly spoken to without standard phrases and this is the main thing," Daria Liubchenko, the second-year student of the Faculty of Economics, said, sharing her impressions.

The lecture is over, but Mr. Ljungman is not leaving the audience for a long time, he is not in a hurry, joins another discussion, and takes pleasure in being photographed with students.

And in a personal conversation, the guest wishes the new generation of future reformers not to miss the promising future that their country may have. "Ukraine has enormous potential and for this purpose it is necessary to continue those reforms, which, in fact, have just begun to be implemented. I would like to wish you to be active in the private sector, not to be afraid to start new companies. But I would also like to see young people with fresh thinking and progressive ideas in the public sector," the speaker says and, maybe for the first time during the lecture, smiles with relief.

Nataliya Bukvych, KyivThe Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) condemns the illegal occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and its violation of international law during the conduct of presidential elections on the occupied territory of Ukraine.

UWC President Eugene Czolij said this in a statement, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The Ukrainian World Congress condemns the illegal occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in blatant violation of international law and calls to increase international pressure on the Russian Federation until Crimea is returned to Ukraine and all Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian political prisoners are released, stated UWC President Eugene Czolij.

He also welcomed the refusal by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and other international bodies to delegate their observers to the illegal elections held by the Russian Federation on the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol. The conduct of these elections on the occupied territory of Ukraine was another attempt by the Kremlin authorities to legitimize Crimeas illegal occupation, Czolij said.

A reminder that presidential elections were held in the Russian Federation on March 18, Vladimir Putin received more than 76% of the vote.

iyPrime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman says that the termination of the economic cooperation program between Ukraine and Russia, approved in 2011, will balance the Ukrainian energy policy and make the country stronger.

The prime minister stated this on a Ukrainian national TV channel, the governments press service reported on Sunday evening

We were forced to make such a decision. Our exports to Europe and Asia are growing. We are becoming stronger due the termination [of the program], he said.

At the same time, the prime minister stressed that Ukraine should focus on the development of own production. "We have a huge potential, Groysman stressed.

As Ukrinform reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine terminated the program of economic cooperation between Ukraine and Russia for 2011-2020. The respective decision was adopted without any discussion at a government meeting on March 21.

The economic cooperation program with Russia was approved on July 7, 2011 in Moscow. The document had to expire in 2020.

iyFormer Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who is suspected of treason, has again been invited for questioning, but in another criminal case, according to Ukraine's 24 Channel.

"The former president is suspected of organizing shootings on the Maidan. A summons to court was sent to him at all possible addresses of residence - in Rostov-on-Don, Mezhyhiria and an apartment in the Obolonsky district of Kyiv," the statement reads.

Previously, the court granted permission to the Prosecutor General's Office to conduct pretrial investigation in this case in absentia. The Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) summoned Yanukovych for interrogation on Monday, March 26.

opOn March 28, a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission will take place at the level of the ambassadors of NATO member countries in Brussels.

Ukraine intends to present the main provisions of the Annual National Program for 2018, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said at a briefing on Monday, March 26, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"On Wednesday, March 28, the Ukraine-NATO Commission will be held at the level of the ambassadors of NATO member countries in Brussels, where we will be able to present the main provisions of the Annual National Program for 2018," Klympush-Tsintsadze said.

She recalled that at the end of February the Government approved a draft of the Annual National Program for 2018 and expressed hope that the president would sign it in the coming days.

The vice premier also stressed that the National Program for 2018 contained several new tasks, in particular, the creation of a national system for preventing and responding to today's threats to national security.

ishUkrainian-Italian movie IZI has entered the top five finalists of the Italian David di Donatello Award.

This is reported by the press service of the State Film Agency of Ukraine.

"The Ukrainian-Italian movie IZI, created with the support of the State Film Agency of Ukraine, entered the top five finalists of the David di Donatello Award in the nominations Best Debutant Director and Best Actor," the statement reads.

As a reminder, the full-length movie IZI is the first official co-production of Ukraine and Italy. The movie was created with the support of the State Film Agency of Ukraine, the Ministry of Culture of Italy and the Friuli Venezia Giulia audiovisual fund (Italy).

olA state agency for Ukrainian migrants that would protect their labor rights is proposed to be established in Poland.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Bartosz Cichocki said this in an interview with the Yevropeiska Pravda online newspaper.

"Perhaps it would be appropriate to establish a state agency which could work both in Ukraine and in Poland, inform Ukrainians about the vacancies and at the same time protect their labor rights and monitor the observance of obligations "in connection with the payment of the pension contribution," he said.

According to Cichocki, about two million Ukrainians work in Poland, and Polish firms need Ukrainian workers. However, he added, these two groups are not related.

There is no crisis in relations between Poland and Ukraine, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland stated. In particular, he pointed to the extensive cooperation in security, historical politics and humanitarian assistance.

olIf Kyiv fails to lift its moratorium on the exhumation of Polish tombs, bilateral relations will be "burdened", the official says.

Poland does not seek to choose historical heroes for Ukrainians, according to Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Bartosz Cichocki.

In an interview with PAP, the diplomat called unfounded allegations that Poland intends to "choose heroes" for the Ukrainians, at the same time noting that Warsaw will not agree with losing its citizens' right to bury their dead  the key right in Christian culture. He added that no one in Poland deprived Ukrainians of such opportunity, wPolityce.pl wrote.

Read also"In Kremlin's interests": Kyiv reacts to Polish nationalist rally outside embassy in Warsaw (Photo, video)At the same time, according to the diplomat, if Kyiv fails to lift the moratorium on the exhumation of Polish tombs, this will "burden" bilateral relations.

Also, Cichocki said that in addition to historical issues, there are plenty of areas of cooperation between Ukraine and Poland.The agency would be engaged in protecting their labor rights.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Bartosz Cichocki has said Poland is mulling creating a state agency for Ukrainian labor migrants.

Read alsoPoland says does not seek to choose historical heroes for Ukrainians

In an interview with the Ukrainian news outlet Europeiska Pravda, he said there were about two million Ukrainian workers staying in Poland, while Polish firms need Ukrainian employees, but these two groups are not related to each other.

According to Cichocki, it might be advisable to create a state agency that would work both in Ukraine and Poland, to inform Ukrainians of new vacancies and wages.

At the same time, the agency would be engaged in protecting the labor rights of Ukrainian migrants and would monitor compliance with pension payment obligations, he said.The official said it is necessary to sit down and use any opportunity for dialogue, but without crossing any of the red lines at the same time.

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze has branded as "manipulation" the reports on the alleged willingness by Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to the introduction of an interim international administration in Donbas, as was the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or Kosovo.

"I believe we have a large number of red lines, which in no case we can afford to cross," she said at a briefing, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

"And I will believe in the sincerity of Putin's intentions to really move toward a peaceful settlement in Donbas only if we stop seeing all these manipulations around the issue of either the deployment of peacekeepers on some absolutely surreal conditions set by the Kremlin, or the introduction of an interim administration. I believe this will also be offered by the Kremlin amid some surreal intentions and principles," she said.

Read alsoPutin might agree to introduction of international administration in Donbas  Time"It's impossible. Therefore, it is necessary to sit down and use any opportunity for dialogue, without crossing any of those red lines that we have at the same time," Klympush-Tsintsadze said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, sources in the Russian foreign ministry say Putin is ready to make Eastern Ukraine an area controlled by an interim international administration  as was the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or Kosovo. However, he is not ready to make concessions on the Crimean issue.During the presidential elections in Cyprus, Theocharous backed Nikolas Papadopoulos who called on the EU to lift sanctions against Russia since the very beginning of Moscow's aggression against Ukraine.

MEP Eleni Theocharous became the only observer directly related to European institutions in the so-called "Russian presidential elections" in Crimea on March 18, 2018.

According to Information Resistance, a Ukrainian non-governmental project on information security, she had earlier been in focus over her contacts with Russia.

In 2000, she visited the territory of the Republic of Komi (Russian Federation).

In 2013, she called on to recognize the breakaway unrecognized area of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Read alsoRada resolution: "Putin's election" in occupied Crimea illegitimateIn 2014, she became the head of the EU-Armenia friendship group and not only actively spoke for the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh, condemning the Azerbaijanis, but also tried to make everything possible to "whitewash" Russia, stating that it did not in any way support tensions in the region.

The culmination was her visit together with two other European deputies to attend at the so-called constitutional referendum in Karabakh, opposed by the official Baku.

Later, at the end of 2017  in February 2018, during the presidential elections in Cyprus, she backed Nikolas Papadopoulos, who called on the EU to lift sanctions against Russia from the beginning of the aggression in Ukraine.The official is convinced that the case will not affect Ukraine.

Ukraine will explain to international partners the situation with the court decision on the arrest of MP Nadiia Savchenko.

"It is very important for us that the investigation follow the rule of law. If the trial is transparent and in line with the law, I think that this situation will not affect Ukraine," Vice-Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze told journalists, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

"I think that now it will take a little time to explain to our partners what has actually happened, and what evidence was provided by the Prosecutor General's Office in order for such a decision regarding both stripping her of immunity and bringing her to responsibility, and arresting her was taken by the Verkhovna Rada. We see that the court's decision should be explained. If you remain silent, nobody will hear you," she said.

Read alsoSavchenko may face life imprisonmentAs UNIAN reported, the Verkhovna Rada on March 22 greenlighted Savchenko's arrest.

Savchenko is charged with committing a crime under Part 1 of Article 109 (actions aimed at the forcible change or overthrow of the constitutional order or seizure of state power); Part 1 of Article 14 (preparations for a crime), Part 2 of Article 28 (committing a crime by a group of persons, a group of persons by prior agreement, an organized group or a criminal organization), Article 112 (an attempted attack on the life of a public figure), Part 3 of Article 258 (an act of terror); Part 1 of Article 258-3 (creation of a terrorist group or organization) and Part 1 of Article 263 (illegal possession of weapons, ammunition or explosives) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

She has been arrested by a Ukrainian court for 59 days without bail.In 2008, Kaczynski traveled to Georgia in the face of Russia's invasion of that country and said that "Georgia will be first, then Ukraine, and then maybe the Baltic states and Poland."

Former Polish President Lech Kaczynski was right when he warned in 2008 that Vladimir Putin's Russia would attack Ukraine, ex NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said.

Rasmussen, who was secretary-general of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014, said he was recently going through some old notes from a 2008 NATO-Russia summit in Bucharest and discovered that Putin's statements about Ukraine and Crimea at the time were similar to what he said in public after his country illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Radio Poland reported.

"If the Western defense alliance had taken those statements by Putin seriously back then, perhaps it could have predicted what happened in 2014, when Putin attacked Ukraine," Rasmussen told Polish public broadcaster TVP Info in an interview.

Rasmussen noted that the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski warned the international community over Russia's intentions regarding Georgia and Ukraine.

Read alsoEx-NATO chief urges allies to boost help for Ukraine  mediaIn 2008, Kaczynski traveled to Georgia in the face of Russia's invasion of that country and said that "Georgia will be first, then Ukraine, and then maybe the Baltic states and Poland," TVP Info reported.

Lech Kaczynski was right about Ukraine, Rasmussen said, but added that the three Baltic states are well protected by NATO under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, which guarantees collective defense by stating that an armed attack against one member state "shall be considered an attack against them all."

Rasmussen also told TVP Info that NATO has deployed troops to the Baltic states and Poland, so Putin "will not dare" to think of attacking any of these countries.The TCG and the representatives of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions re-assert their joint and firm commitment to the full implementation of the Minsk agreements.

The Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) for the settlement of the situation in Donbas has agreed on a comprehensive, sustainable and unlimited ceasefire from March 30, 2018.

"The Trilateral Contact Group, with the participation of the representatives of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, acknowledging the positive impact of the recommitment to ceasefire of 2 March 2018, stressing the importance of ensuring peace and calm for the population, keeping in mind the forthcoming Easter celebrations, and guided by earlier agreements and obligations of the sides, re-affirm their full commitment to a comprehensive, sustainable and unlimited ceasefire, starting from 30 March 2018 at 00 hrs. 01 min. (Kyiv time)," the OSCE said in a statement.

Read alsoUkraine reacts to Putin's plans to "agree to int'l administration in Donbas"The parties also underline the importance of the issuance of, and compliance with, the respective ceasefire orders; the effective use of disciplinary measures for ceasefire violations; avoiding forward movements and reconnaissance missions; no firing, including to return fire; strictly forbidding, in particular, firing to and from populated areas, the presence and use of heavy weapons in and close to populated areas and the targeting of civilian infrastructure, including schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and public premises.

In addition, the TCG and the representatives of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions re-assert their joint and firm commitment to the full implementation of the Minsk agreements.The release is planned through Sharoiko's exchange for a citizen of Belarus Yuriy Politika, who is also suspected of espionage, but in Ukraine.

Ukraine may ensure the return of a Belarusian-based correspondent of UA: Ukrainian Radio and former UNIAN correspondent in Minsk, Ukrainian citizen Pavlo Sharoiko, who was detained in Belarus on October 25 on suspicion of espionage.

According to Belarus Partisan, a certain agreement was allegedly reached "at a meeting of high-ranking representatives of Belarus and Ukraine" and documents have already been prepared signed by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

In addition, it is reported that the release is planned through Sharoiko's swap for a citizen of Belarus Yuriy Politika, who is also suspected of espionage, but in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda asked Politika's lawyers for comments. However, they have not yet commented on this report, noting that a trial against the Belarusian citizen will take place on March 27 and it would be wrong to speak up on anything ahead of time.

Read alsoBelarusian KGB recruits Ukrainian man to spy on border guards, law enforcers  mediaAs UNIAN reported earlier, it became known on November 17 that the Belarusian KGB detained Sharoiko on October 25. According to Ukrainian Ambassador to Belarus Ihor Kizim, Sharoiko was accused of espionage and kept in custody at the KGB remand prison. The Belarusian security agency claimed that Sharoiko is a career staff employee of the Ukrainian intelligence service. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Department confirmed that Sharoiko had headed the department's media liaison office but he resigned in 2009 for health reasons.

Read alsoUkrainian journalist Sharoiko detained in Belarus officially charged with espionageUkrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin later said that recent attempts to detain Ukrainian citizens in Belarus and accuse them of espionage were absolute nonsense.

On November 27, 2017, Sharoiko was officially indicted on charges of espionage.The High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine seeks to have all 6,000 Ukrainian judges reappointed in less than a year.

Ukraine's Public Integrity Council (PIC) says it is terminating participation in the re-evaluation of judges.

"At the 'conveyor belt' of judges, the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine (Commission) sets up pseudo-evaluation of their professional level and integrity. To prevent the public from interfering, the Commission, by passing amendments to the evaluation Rules, has technically 'ousted' the PIC from one of the main stages of judicial reform  re-evaluation of judges," the PIC wrote in a statement.

Therefore, the PIC decided to "cease its participation in the quasi-process of cleansing the judiciary".

It is noted the Commission seeks to have all 6,000 Ukrainian judges reappointed in less than a year.

Read alsoNew Supreme Court launches work in Ukraine, 3 new codes put into force"On March 23, one of the Commission boards managed to interview nine judges within 90 minutes. This only confirms that the qualification tests is a conveyor belt, set up with a single purpose of keeping the judges in their posts and reporting on the 'successful completion' of reform," the PIC said.

PIC members believe that due to this fact, the updated courts "will see anti-Maidan judges; judges who often visit the occupied territories, which threatens Ukraine's national security; judges whose wealth does not correspond to the income declared; judges involved in the adoption of arbitrary decisions that were subject of consideration at the European Court of Human Rights".

The Public Integrity Council is a body supposed to assist the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine in assessing the suitability of judges or candidates for judiciary posts to the requirements related to professional ethics and integrity.

Its negative opinions are to be included in the judges' dossiers.

The Public Integrity Council consists of 20 members, elected for a term of two years.Two shellings of the Ukrainian positions were recorded in the Luhansk sector.

Russia's hybrid military forces mounted 44 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas in the past 24 hours, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as killed in action (KIA) and another one as wounded in action (WIA).

Read alsoDonbas update: Terrorists shell Ukrainian positions from grenade launchers

"In the Donetsk sector, the aggressor fired banned 120mm mortars at our fortified positions in the villages of Opytne, Lebedynske and Shyrokyne, as well as 82mm mortars and tank shells near the village of Pisky. The enemy also employed 82mm mortars attacking the defenders of the village of Talakivka, grenade launchers of various systems -- against the defenders of the town of Avdiyivka, and the villages of Bohdanivka, Novotroyitske and Vodiane, and Butivka coal mine, as well as heavy machine guns -- against our positions near the villages of Verkhniotoretske and Pavlopil," the press center of the headquarters of Ukraine's military operations reported on Facebook on Monday morning.

Moreover, the Ukrainian troops in the village of Hnutove came under fire from infantry fighting vehicles, while small arms were used near Butivka coal mine, the village of Kamianka, and the towns of Maryinka and Krasnohorivka, according to the report.

Two shellings of the Ukrainian positions were recorded in the Luhansk sector.

Russian occupation forces opened fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms on the Ukrainian positions in the village of Novhorodske, as well as from heavy machine guns near the village of Troyitske.The official will assess the security situation along the contact line.

Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine Alexander Hug will visit eastern Ukraine on March 26-31.

Read alsoDonbas militants fire at OSCE observers' UAV"Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine Alexander Hug will be in eastern Ukraine from 26 to 31 March 2018. He will assess the security situation along the contact line and its impact on civilians, and engage with communities on the ground," according to the OSCE's website.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) for the settlement of the situation in Donbas on March 26 agreed on a comprehensive, sustainable and unlimited ceasefire from March 30, 2018.Britain has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high level diplomatic contacts with Russia.

The United States and a number of EU member states will announce their decision to expel Russian diplomats as a response to a spy poisoning on British soil.

"Source: Expecting a coordinated annoucement between US and multiple European countries tomorrow, expelling Russian diplos in droves. A "significant number" likely getting the boot," a CNN correspondent at covering the U.S. State Department, Michelle Kosinski, tweeted in the early hours of Monday.

As Bloomberg reported on Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to expel dozens of Russian diplomats from the U.S. in response to the nerve-agent poisoning of a former Russian spy in the U.K.

At the EU Foreign Affairs Council last week, European leaders agreed with the UK position that it is "highly likely" that Russia stands behind the Salisbury attack.

Read alsoBBC: Putin most likely behind spy poisoning  JohnsonAccording to media reports, Poland, Baltic states, and France could pass a decision to expel Russian diplomats.

Britain has already expelled 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high level diplomatic contacts with Russia.The former deputy of the Russian Duma and one of the most prominent fraudsters in Russia's modern history was 63 years old.

According to media reports, founder of the MMM series of financial pyramid schemes, Sergei Mavrodi, died in Moscow.

Mavrodi was taken to a city hospital from a bus stop overnight Monday after he felt weakness and pain in the chest area, reports Moskovsky Komsomolets.

The emergency team has failed to save his life.

"He died this morning," the report said.

Read alsoCambridge Analytica: links to Moscow oil firm and St Petersburg university  mediaIn 2007 Sergei Mavrodi was convicted in a Russian court of defrauding 10,000 investors out of 110 million rubles ($4.3 million).

Mavrodi claimed he is not the beneficiary of the donations and he is not used to flamboyant lifestyle. His true charges of which he was later convicted of is tax fraud though he claimed that MMM scheme is not a business, but a mutual donation program of which there is no law against such.The Kremlin has not yet heard or seen any official statements from Washington about the alleged expulsion of diplomats, Peskov said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said the mirror response will be applied if Russian diplomats are expelled from the United States.

"We are used to not be guided by media reports. We have not yet heard or seen any official statements from Washington about the alleged expulsion of our diplomats. We will be guided by facts and statements voiced by officials, not by media reports. Of course, the mirror response will be applied in each such case," Peskov told journalists, according to an UNIAN correspondent in Russia.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the United States and a number of EU member states will announce on Monday their decision to expel Russian diplomats as a response to a spy poisoning on British soil.(@FahadShabbir)

Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing called on National Security Advisor Lt Gen (R) Nasser Khan Janjua on Monday and discussed matters pertaining to bilateral relation and China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing called on National Security Advisor Lt Gen (R) Nasser Khan Janjua on Monday and discussed matters pertaining to bilateral relation and China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

The advisor said that both the countries shared very special and close relationship and Pakistan always considered China as most reliable friend and partner, said a press release. The envoy expressed satisfaction over the growing mutual cooperation and said that the Chinese government was keen to enhance bilateral cooperation with Pakistan in multidimensional spheres.

Both the sides discussed different aspects of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Yao Jing said that China believed that building of economic corridor was conducive for promoting connectivity and sharing prosperity in the entire region.

"The CPEC is key to regional prosperity and sustainable peace in the region" he said. The two sides expressed support for constructive efforts for peace and stability of the region.(@rukhshanmir)

Growing presence of women in employment sector of the country demand meaningful efforts to help them balance their role as primary care givers and competent professionals, ultimately paving their way to retain their jobs and continue contributing to the economy.

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Growing presence of women in employment sector of the country demand meaningful efforts to help them balance their role as Primary care givers and competent professionals, ultimately paving their way to retain their jobs and continue contributing to the economy.

Speakers addressing a seminar," Corporate Best Practices for Advancing Women's Economic Empowerment," jointly organized by American Business Council and US-Pakistan Women Council, here Monday recommended need for flexible working policies to help women workers balance their act in the essential capacities.

Economic compulsions coupled with growing presence of women in educational as well as professional training institutions in the country were said to be catalyst in economic empowerment of women.

It was observed with concern that Pakistan with 68% of its graduates comprising women comes very low in terms of women work force crucially needed for economic development and poverty alleviation.

Amna Mubashar, representing PepsiCo extensively referred to practices in her organization leading to the fact that 15% of all leadership positions in Pakistan are held by women as against 36.5% in the Asia -pacific region.

The global head of PepsiCo itself was said to be a woman. Acknowledging that much more is required to be done to increase the presence of women in senior managerial cadre, Amna said flexible working hours coupled with adequate utilization of technology enabling women to work from home and provision for day care centres has markedly helped retaining the women employees at varied levels.

Amman ul Haque from Engro Foundation said under the corporate culture there is need to mainly train men to contribute towards creation of an enabling working environment for women colleagues.

In particular context of projects initiated by his organization for rural women, mainly related to dairy as well as other agro based ventures, Haque said satisfaction in context of safe working environment along with regular and adequate salary largely paves way for economic empowerment of women.

Transportation, he said was identified as a major hurdle for many of the women, pertaining to urban as well as rural areas, keen to join work-force that needed to be addressed by the organizations interested to hire their services.

Anum Akram associated with S&P Global, Pakistan discussed measures being adopted to hire services of women with equal attention towards their retention. Amna Dawoodi from American Business Council (ABC) introduced the speakers mentioning that ABC itself comprises 66 member companies, majority included in the list of Fortune 500.

The event itself was attended by more than 60 participants representing major financial institutions of the country. Acting Consul-General of US in Karachi, John Warner on the occasion said US government and people were committed to strengthen Pakistan's economy.

"Today's event was about March Women Movement focused on the fact that women participation in economic activities lead to prosperity of every one," he said adding that empowering women strengthen fabric of society that binds people.

This was said to be equally critically important in braving the challenge of extremism. He appreciated that business case for investing in women's success at the work place was duly highlighted by the speakers who also discussed how economic empowerment of women helps companies to grow.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan said India was scared of growing economic stability and prosperity of Pakistan and her objection that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was passing through a disputed territory was unfounded and irrelevant

MIRPUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan said India was scared of growing economic stability and prosperity of Pakistan and her objection that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was passing through a disputed territory was unfounded and irrelevant.

He underlined that international conventions do not prohibit economic development and foreign investment in disputed areas. The AJK President made these remarks during a call on by Laura Schuurman a researcher and writer on Monday.

Masood Khan said CPEC is a part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is a mega project aimed at economic inter-connectivity. Speaking about India's objection over the CPEC, he said that India hardly objected to the Karakoram Highway passing through Gilgit-Baltistan but this time around, India feels threatened by China's growing economic and political influence in the region.

President Masood Khan said that CPEC will revolutionize economic activity in this region by not only connecting Pakistan to China but also establishing access routes to Central Asia; making Pakistan a trade conduit and an economic destination.

He informed that in AJK, 4 major projects under CPEC including two hydropower projects (Kohala and Karot), a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Mirpur and an Expressway connecting the SEZ to the Central CPEC route have been approved which are under different stages of planning and implementation.

President AJK while discussing the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) said that 700,000 armed forces personnel have been deployed in IOK, making it the highest military concentration of any country in a conflict zone.

These forces, he said, were terrorizing the unarmed Kashmiris by openly murdering innocent protestors, maiming the youth, harassing the Hurriyat leadership and illegally incarcerating the people whose only demand is to exercise their just right to self-determination.

He added that India is using sexual violence as an instrument of war by blatantly dishonoring, molesting and raping Kashmiri womenfolk. "The human right situation in IOK is dismal", he said. Even though, in its constitution, India has claimed Kashmir to be its integral part, yet after 70 years of coercive tactics, political machinations and economic blandishment it has failed to win the hearts of Kashmiris and has been unsuccessful in quelling the freedom movement in IOK.

Kashmir being an unfinished agenda of the United Nations obligates the UN to resolve the conflict in amicable, democratic and diplomatic manner according to the UN Security Council's resolutions.

He added that the UN Secretary General must not wait for India's concurrence to talks, as it will never agree and instead he must use his good office to mediate and persuade India to the dialogue table.

He said that the situation needs an early resolution, as any escalation between Pakistan and India which are also nuclear powers can jeopardize world peace and security. He said Pakistan over the past 70 years has kept the issue alive through its diplomatic and political support for the peaceful resolution of the conflict.

He said we would continue to raise our voice against the human right violations taking place in IOK.Formed in November 2012, Greentech is among top leading mobile distributor in Pakistan

Lahore (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) Formed in November 2012, Greentech is among top leading mobile distributor in Pakistan. With a mission of delivering high-quality products to the end user, Greentech has initiated, developed and managed a comprehensive system of distribution.

Global mobile Phone giant; Meizu Pakistan, has signed Greentech to become its sole distributor in Pakistan. Chinese brand Meizu Technology (meizu), one of the fastest-growing Chinese smartphones is showing strong footprint After in Europe, Russia, middle East and other regions, Pakistan is its next key market.

With Pakistan emerging as the largest smartphone market in the world, MEIZUs Pakistan entry re-energizes the sector and sets a benchmark for smartphone design and performance. Speaking on the occasion, Mr.

Fraz M Khan Country Head, Pakistan said Meizu, is an international brand and one of the largest mobile supplier across the globe. We are super excited to start the operations in Pakistan. We see Pakistan as a high growth market and with 3g and 4g penetration our aim would be to connect the Pakistanis with the best in class innovative mobile devices at affordable prices. Speaking on the occasion management Green Tech stated: Meizu as a fastest-growing brand in the telecommunications industry.

We are pleased to officially introduce to our customers their latest innovative smartphones with affordable pricing options.

 He further stated For the last 10 years we have been serving our customers in Pakistan with our distribution network and customer care network.

Customer satisfaction and facilitation is our top priority and this partnership has been established with the aim of improving customer services. Meizus smartphones resonate with the millennials, thereby catering to a personal and authentic approach.

The company delivers customized user experiences with innovative, high-performance mobile devices that allow consumers to explore and magnify the joy in their daily lives as a result of the devices feature-rich capabilities.

Green Tech is already an official distributor of other brands in Pakistan and it has a great track record of distribution and after-sales services of other brands of Mobile handsets in Pakistan.

Green Tech has expanded its portfolio by adding Meizu smartphones under its umbrella. Meizu is the rising global mobile phone company and in 2015 the global giant Alibaba invested 590 million US Dollars in Meizu.

Since then, Meizu has experienced accelerated growth thanks to the backing of Alibaba. This milestone partnership signifies a great achievement for Meizu Pakistan and the organization is eagerly looking forward to the success of this partnership.Punjab Land Records Authority (PLRA) will soon start computerization of urban land record with the prior approval of committee formed under Planning and Development Department.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Punjab Land Records Authority (PLRA) will soon start computerization of urban land record with the prior approval of committee formed under Planning and Development Department.

PLRA Director General Capt (R) Zafar Iqbal expressed these views while talking to the media during Doing Business Reforms Exhibition here Monday. The seven-member committee formed in this regard was headed by chairman P&D.

The members of committee included Senior Member Board of Revenue, DG PLRA, member Urban Unit, Secretory P&D, Secretory Housing and Secretory Local Government. PLRA, would by 15 April this year also start mailing registry to the house addresses of the property owners.

For this purpose, the project 'Register of deeds' was initiated in September 2016. The project Registry of Deeds (RoD) is for computerization of manual record of Sub Registrar, which would be subsequently linked with all 151 Arazi Record Centers.

Under RoD project over 10 million files were scanned to computerize the record. This project has successfully reduced property mutation time from 56 day to 18 days, providing ease and conveniences to the masses.

In addition to that seven steps earlier required for property mutation have also been reduced to four steps. It's worth mentioning here that PLRA has already successfully computerized land record of more than 2300 revenue states of Punjab, covering almost all the rural areas of the province.

Computerization of land record of the province has greatly improved business index for foreign investment and for ease of doing business, according to the recent Word Bank report. PLRA during Doing Business Reforms Exhibition organized by Planning and Development Department, real time presentation of property registration process and demonstrated RoD web portal.

The exhibition was attended by Minister for Finance Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, Chairman P&D Board Jahanzeb Khan, Secretory P&D Iftakhar Ali Saho, President Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries Malik Tahir Rasheed, Country Director World Bank Patchamuthu Illangovan and officer from Trade & Industries Board, Planning Board and IT board.

For providing further connivances to public, Punjab Land Record Authority has recently launch Express Counters in Faisalabad and Gujranwala. These Express counter would allow the citizens to pre book their turn at the ARCs.

Express Counters will be launched at Divisional Level throughout the provincein Punjab. Other than these two cities, these Express Counters would be setup at Lahore, Multan, DG Khan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Rawalpindi and Sahiwal soon.

To avail the service from Express Counters, citizens can call Punjab Land Record Authority Help Line to obtain advance booking. It is worth mentioning here that Punjab Land Record Authority has signed an agreement with NADRA.

According to this agreement, 3700 E-Shaulat Centers of NADRA around the province would also issue Fard for Record along with 151 ARC. This would greatly ease to the citizen who will be able to retrieve Fard for record from the nearest E shaulat.

This intiative will help more than 90% of the visitors who just have to collect 'Fard for Record'. In this way 90% of the hustle and rush at all the centers across the Punjab will reduce and share with 3700 NADRA e-Sahulat Centers.The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan organised a two-day International Seerat Conference, which concluded at Seerat Study Centre Sialkot Cantt here on Monday.

SIALKOT, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :The Higher education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan organised a two-day International Seerat Conference, which concluded at Seerat Study Centre Sialkot Cantt here on Monday.

While presenting their research papers, international scholars said that islam is a religion of peace which gives lessons of respect of humanity, tolerance, peace, brotherhood, unity, faith and discipline as well.

They said that Islam is a complete code of life, adding that the Holy Quran offers solutions to all problems facing the Muslim Ummah. International scholars from more than 21 national and international universities attended the conference and presented their papers.

Prof Dr Hafiz Bin Zikaray (HoD Religious Studies International Islamic University Malaysia), Prof Dr Muhammad Yaseen Mazhar Sadiqui (Aligarh University-India), Prof Dr Muhammad Suhaib Hassan (England) and Prof Dr Taki Sufjan (Advisor for Religious Studies Indonesia) also highlighted almost all aspects of Seerat-e-Nabvi (PBUH).

Masud Akhtar Khawaja, Secretary General of Seerat Study Centre Sialkot Cantt, said that the international Islamic research scholars also thanked the HEC for holding the conference here.(@FahadShabbir)

Another batch of 150 Ph.D and L.L.M scholars of the University of Sindh have received laptop computers under Prime Minister's Laptop scheme for less developed areas in a ceremony held at the Senate Hall on Monday.

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Another batch of 150 Ph.D and L.L.M scholars of the University of Sindh have received laptop computers under Prime Minister's Laptop scheme for less developed areas in a ceremony held at the Senate Hall on Monday.

The laptops have been given to scholars belonging to various departments of the varsity jointly by the State Minister for food Security and Research Ayaz Shah Sheerazi and Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr.

Fateh Muhammad Burfat. The scholars were shortlisted by higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad on the basis of their academic proficiency in their last and recent-most examinations through a rigorous, competitive and fool-proof mechanism and process.

Expressing his views on the occasion, State Minister Ayaz Shah Sheerazi declared youth as shining stars of national firmament of Pakistan, who, he said were the cynosure of their hopes. He said only intelligent section of society could significantly contribute towards success and prosperity of the country.

The Federal government was making all-out efforts to facilitate meritorious, hardworking and diligent youth in the country, he said. He said that the Prime Minister's Laptop Distribution Scheme was one such important advancement in the given context in addition to creation of countless scholarship opportunities.

Furthermore, two hundred thousand laptops would be awarded in the ongoing financial year, he informed. The VC Prof. Dr. Fateh Muhammad Burfat said that progress was not possible without education and research.

He expressed delight over increasing interest of youth in research and opined that use of laptop would greatly assist young researchers in execution of their studies. He also complimented the scholars on their rightful achievement and urged them to convey to their other counterparts also to work diligently to become able to qualify for the same lucrative incentive.

He appreciated the indefatigable efforts of Dr. Wazir Ali Baloch and his dedicated team towards timely, smooth and efficient distribution of laptops. The Regional Director, Higher Education Commission Karachi Javed Ali Memon also spoke on the occasion.

Those who attended the ceremony included Focal Person, Sindh University Thatta Campus Prof. Dr. Sarfaraz Hussain Solangi, Focal Person for Laptop Scheme Prof. Dr. Wazir Ali Baloch and Technical Monitoring Officer Laptop Scheme, HEC Islamabad.CHITRAL, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Tourists from across the country thronged Chitral to attend a cultural festival organized to promote and keep cultural values of the district alive.

The district administration, district sport officer and Chitral Scouts jointly organized the festival where different stalls were set up including embroidery, handicraft, local art, books and literature providing information about wildlife of the district.

Caravan Vocational School has also set up a separate stall, displaying embroidery and handicraft and different item including decoration pieces made by women getting training at the school. Talking to this scribe the school's principal Farida Sultana Faree said that hundreds of poor girls have been learning different skills like sewing, embroidery and beauty parlor courses at the school.

She said that around 60 women were enrolled in the school and learning skills mostly free of cost that would enable them to earn a respectable living for themselves as well as for their families.

It should be noted that around 18 persons including 16 woman committed suicide for last six months in Chitral. A girl and a boy committed suicide in two separate incidents in Chitral last Wednesday.

The first incident happened in Booni area, where 14-year-old girl Tayyeba committed suicide by jumping into Chitral River.

Later on her body was recovered from Janali Koch area. The second incident happened in Barok village of Laspur valley where a 17-year-old boy Muhammad Hussain committed suicide by shooting himself down with a gun.

The reasons behind these incidents could not be known but local people say that honor, poverty and domestic violence among others are main factors responsible such incidents. Farida Sultana lamented over increasing suicide cases mainly involving women in a peaceful district like Chital, and claimed that vicious poverty was behind these incidents, as these women have no job and economic opportunities.

She urged the provincial government and international aid organizations to extend financial assistance and open vocational training centers throughout the district where locals could learn various skills.

She said that the government could contain incidents of suicide by enabling youth, including male and females, to support their families. BBC, while quoting a human rights organization, reported that around 150 women have committed suicide during last six years. The district government has opened a center where women could lodge their complaints against domestic violence.ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is ramping up its efforts to help countries in the Asia and Pacific region combat money laundering and terrorism financing, which is key to achieving inclusive and sustainable development, according to ADB's Office of Anticorruption and Integrity (OAI) 2017 Annual Report released Monday.

ADB's support in anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) include a $2 million technical assistance grant approved in December 2016, as well as steps to improve the countries' overall compliance to anti-money laundering policies through closer coordination between relevant parties, such as banks and financial institutions, and governments.

"ADB remains a steadfast partner of countries in the Asia and Pacific region in fighting corruption and money laundering, and improving governance," said John Versantvoort, Head of OAI. "All of us at ADB are committed to helping our developing member countries better position themselves to achieve more inclusive and sustainable development." The report highlights some of the efforts ADB--through OAI--has implemented over the past year, particularly in increasing its knowledge sharing activities.

In 2017, ADB helped the Philippines strengthen regulations to combat money laundering, which now include casinos under the Anti-Money Laundering Law. ADB also held a training session for local officials to better understand money laundering and terrorism financing in the casino sector.

In Mongolia, ADB is helping the government roll out a program that would support local banks, money service businesses such as pawnshops and remittance companies, as well as real estate agents develop anti-money laundering and customer due diligence programs.

It is also supporting the Financial Regulatory Commission's efforts to develop operating procedures for its new anti-money laundering unit and anti-money laundering regulations for non-bank financial institutions.

In addition, ADB is helping Bhutan and Papua New Guinea address vulnerabilities in AML/CFT, strengthen both countries' policies, and improve their implementation. ADB's anticorruption and integrity driveboth on enforcement and preventionremained robust last year, according to the report, with 30 firms and 22 individuals debarred for integrity violations, along with cross-debarment for 153 firms and 36 individuals.

ADB also submitted 3 firms and 4 individuals for cross-debarment to other multilateral development banks and provided integrity due diligence advice on 777 entities involved in sovereign and nonsovereign transactions to ensure that integrity, money laundering, and terrorist financing risks are identified and mitigated.

Last year, ADB also increased outreach to the broader public about its anticorruption efforts, conducting 41 training sessions for audit institutions, anticorruption commissions, executing and implementing agencies, money service businesses, nonbank financial institutions, civil society, and the private sector.

As part of its efforts to champion integrity within ADB, OAI launched a mandatory e-learning course, called Anticorruption and Respect at Work, for ADB staff in May 2017, while conducting 68 staff training sessions with 1,436 participants last year.

It also conducted 474 pre-employment screenings of potential candidates for staff positions in ADB and strengthened internal controls on employment. ADB's Respectful Workplace Unit provided 47 advisories and assessed 20 complaints about concerns of bullying and harassment, misconduct, and sexual harassment. It also conducted 51 training sessions to improve ADB's working environment.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) Election Commission announced on Monday that AJK citizens upto the age of 18 years on March 31, 2018 would be eligible to caste their vote in the forthcoming local bodies elections in the state.

MIRPUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) Election Commission announced on Monday that AJK citizens upto the age of 18 years on March 31, 2018 would be eligible to caste their vote in the forthcoming local bodies elections in the state.

Secretary Election Commission AJK Ayaz Bashir said this while addressing news conference on Monday. He said that newly grownup eligible persons can get themselves registered with the election commission as voters till April 30.

"This date is tentative and expected to be extended further if required", he added. "After the AJK general elections held in 2016, the period of two years had passed since then many youngsters were grown to the age of 18 years and resultantly stand eligible to exercise their right to vote in the elections", the Secretary EC said and added that their Names are still required to be added in the voters lists as registered voters".

Ayaz also stated that a stipulated qualifying date is mandatory for the preparation / updating of the voters list, so hereby the qualifying date is set (31st March).

He said, "it is mandatory according to Azad Jammu and Kashmir electoral rules ordinance 1970 (section 10) that a voter must be AJK national and above 18." Secretary AJK Election Commission said newly eligible voters can poll their vote only in their parent electoral constituency of the place of their permanent residential address mentioned in their computerized National Identity card (CNIC) issued by NADRA.

He also mentioned that if any person found registered as a voter in more than one ward, such person would be awarded one month imprisonment along with Rs 5000 fine. According to the electoral rules of AJK, voters list used in general elections would be used for civic elections besides up-gradation of the registration of newly eligible voters, he underlined.The international magazine Cancer World has invited applications along with outstanding pieces of journalism published between October 2016 and April 2018 for its journalism award.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :The international magazine Cancer World has invited applications along with outstanding pieces of journalism published between October 2016 and April 2018 for its journalism award.

The Cancer World Journalism Award encourages, celebrates and rewards journalists who deliver insights into the personal and social impact of the disease, and efforts to change policy, practice or advocacy, said a press release on Monday.

The journalists have been asked to submit one or more items of their work whether in print, online, on radio, video or television into different categories.

The categories included patient and carer experience research, science and treatment policy, services and affordability.

according to press release, a prize of 1500 is available for the winner in each category. The journalist, judged the overall winner, will also be funded to attend the 2018 ECCO Summit in Vienna (7th-9th September 2018), where he/she will be presented with their award. Applications are now open and closing date for entries is 1st May 2018.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Unknown armed robbers entered a house in Rahmat Colony area of Bahawalpur city and looted cash, jewelry and other valuables from the house.

BAHAWALPUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Unknown armed robbers entered a house in Rahmat Colony area of Bahawalpur city and looted cash, jewelry and other valuables from the house.

Police sources said here on Monday that the complainant, Muhammad Hassan lodged complaint with police, submitting that two armed bandits looted cash and jewelry from his house in Rahmat Colony.

The robbers took away cash Rs 150,000 and three tola gold jewelry on gunpoint and managed to flee from the scene,the police said.

The police have registered a case against unknown accused and launched investigation into the case. Further probe was underway.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Mar, 2018 ) ::On the directions of the Punjab government, Rs3.97 million financial assistance cheques have been distributed among 794 deserving persons of the Christian community.

Deputy Commissioner Salman Ghani distributed the cheques at a ceremony held at DC Office Committee Room on Sunday.

He said the financial assistance was being provided on the directions of Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Minister for Minorities Khalil Tahir Sindhu.

The Christian community representatives thanked the chief minister and the minister for minorities and appreciated the welfare steps of the incumbent govt. Earlier, prayers were also offered for development and progress of the country, national solidarity, peace and fraternity. APP/aar/ia/rsdDirector General Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor on Monday said that there is an immense potential for joint promotion of tourism between Tajikistan and Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Director General Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor on Monday said that there is an immense potential for joint promotion of tourism between Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Managing Director PTDC during a meeting with Ambassador of Tajikistan in Pakistan Jononov Sherali, said that the brotherly relations between Pakistan and Tajikistan can be further enhanced by promoting each other's tourism destinations among nationals of both the countries.

He further added that PTDC and Tajikistan Tourism Authority may enter into a Memorandum of Understanding, in which, the articles for possible areas of joint tourism promotion will be added. He said that being one of the most blessed tourism destinations of the World, Pakistan can truly be a most favourite destination for Tajik nationals.

Pakistan is completely safe and secure tourism destination for tourists from all over the world. We have opened our doors for the tourists from around the world to come and enjoy our hospitality, see and believe that we have the most of nature blessed treasures spread all over Pakistan from Khunjerab to Karachi.

Ambassador of Tajikistan Jononov Sherali, said that the in order to strengthen the tourism relations between Pakistan and Tajikistan, a establishment of a working group on tourism is already under consideration.

Once Names of the members are nominated by Pakistan, the working group will start functioning. Negotiations are underway with Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan to operate direct flight to Pakistan from Dushanbe.

Flight operations will be started shortly once approval is received. He said that entering into MoU on tourism cooperation will definitely increase tourist flow between the two brotherly countries.

Since its independence in 1991, Tajikistan has developed its tourist industry within a span of only 5 years. He also invited Managing Director PTDC to visit Tajikistan and experience the development and environment maintained by Tajikistan. Managing Director accepted his invitation.(@rukhshanmir)

Following the successful achievement of the Bonn Challenge target by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, the Chair of the KP Green Growth Initiative (and IUCN Vice President and Regional Councillor, Asia) Malik Amin Aslam announced that on behalf of the Initiative yet another pledge of 250,000 ha was made at the 3rd International High Level Roundtable held from 16-17 March 2018 in Foz do Iguacu, city of Brazil

Islamabad,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) Following the successful achievement of the Bonn Challenge target by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, the Chair of the KP Green Growth Initiative (and IUCN Vice President and Regional Councillor, Asia) Malik Amin Aslam announced that on behalf of the Initiative yet another pledge of 250,000 ha was made at the 3rd International High Level Roundtable held from 16-17 March 2018 in Foz do Iguacu, city of Brazil.

This was announced by Mr. Malik Amin Aslam on his return on 24th March 2018 after attending the Bonn Challenge 3.0 International High Level Rontable held from 16-17 March in Brazil. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had previously been a trailblazer by becoming not only the first sub-National entity to take up a pledge under the Bonn Challenge in 2014 but also became the first entity to successfully meet its pledge in 2017.

This new announcement also made Pakistan the first country to significantly renew and enhance its pledge. The Bonn Challenge is a global forum aiming to restore 350 million ha of global forests and, todate, has successfully attained 160 million ha commitments from 47 entities.

The participants at the High Level Bonn Challenge roundtable including Germany and the hosts Brazil welcomed this renewed commitment by KP province. During the 3rd International Roundtable on the Bonn Challenge, the prominent restoration leaders from around the world moved the Bonn Challenge agenda into the next chapter along the path to its 350 million hectare restoration goal.

The event was hosted and co-organized by the Federal Government of Brazil and Federal Government of Germany, supported by IUCN and Itaipu Binacional.SIALKOT, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Mar, 2018 ) ::Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif Sunday said that Pakistan is a peace-loving country and keen on establishing cordial relations with its neighboring counties on the basis of equality for maintaining peace in the region.

Talking to APP at his residence, the minister said that our top priority is establishing peace in the country as well as in the region in larger interest of people of the region. But this flexibility and the efforts in this regard should not be underestimated, he added.

Answering a question, the minister said that all-out efforts were being made to develop healthy and durable relations with Afghanistan, Iran, India and Russia as well as other countries of the region.

To another question, the foreign minister said that high-ups of Pakistan and Indian governments are in touch to handle harassment incidents of Pakistani High Commission. He hoped that efforts in this regard would bear fruit and relationship between the two neighbouring countries would become normal.

Pakistan and Russia are enjoying highly cordial relations and Russia is extending cooperation and support to Pakistan in different fields, the foreign minister said, adding that relations between these two countries would be further strengthened with passage of time and both the countries would become closer.

"We want to see Afghanistan as a peaceful and stable country because Pakistan would benefit the most from a peaceful Afghanistan, he added. The minister said Pakistan was making hectic efforts for purging the country of menace of terrorism to make it a safe place for its people, adding that Pakistan had rendered great scarifies in the form of precious human lives and suffered economic losses in the war against terrorism.

He said the world should recognise the scarifies rendered by Pakistan in war against terrorism and ignoring the scarifies would be unjust. No country in the world has done more than Pakistan to check the menace of terrorism, he said.

The foreign minister said that mega project, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), would play an instrumental role in bringing revolutionary changes in the country. He said that the economic stability and prosperity in the country would not only benefit the people of Pakistan but of the region at large. APP/sar/rsd(@ChaudhryMAli88)

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Federal government has expedited work on construction of Expo Center in Peshawar to facilitate traders and business community of the province.

A spokesman of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry told Radio Pakistan that the expo center will be completed at a cost of rupees two point five billion by the end of this year.

The spokesman said the expo center will comprise a convention Center and two exhibition halls with necessary facilities.

The expo centre will enhance trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian States besides promoting business activities and creation of jobs in the province.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has refused meeting Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani on Monday

Lahore (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018) Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has refused meeting Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani on Monday. According to details, newly appointed Senate Chairman Sanjrani had asked for some time from Prime Minister Abbasi for a meeting.

A letter was also sent to the prime minister in this regard. However, Abbasi has expressed his refusal to meet Sanjrani. It is pertinent to mention here that Prime Minister Abbasi had termed the appointment of Senate Chairman Sanjrani as controversial.(@rukhshanmir)

China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Project Director, Hassan Dawood Butt said Monday that 660 megawatt electricity would be added in the national grid from Port Qasim plant during current month.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Project Director, Hassan Dawood Butt said Monday that 660 megawatt electricity would be added in the national grid from Port Qasim plant during current month.

Talking to APP he said, "First unit of the Karachi Port Qasim added 660 megawatt electricity in the national grid station, while its second unit will start generation of 660 megawatt during the current moth." "Work on all the CPEC power projects is in full swing, till date about 10,400 mw electricity has been added in the system ," he added.

He said Sahiwal power plant having installed capacity of 1,320 MW and Port Qasim power project were the important projects under the CPEC.

The project director said that world super environment-friendly technology had been used in the Port Qasim project.

He said around 3,500 Pakistani workers along with 120 technical and mechanical engineers were performing duties in the project. "We are hoping that the strength of the technical and mechanical engineers will reach 450," he added.

He said China's huge investment had also encouraged foreign investors to invest in Pakistan. He said in the second phase under CPEC, work on hydro projects had been started. He expressed the hope that after overcoming of energy shortfall, the country's industries would progress and create thousands of jobs for youth.Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday expressed immense confidence in the preparations of Pakistan's armed forces to neutralize and defeat complete spectrum of threats and challenges.

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday expressed immense confidence in the preparations of Pakistan's armed forces to neutralize and defeat complete spectrum of threats and challenges.

The Prime Minister expressed these views during his visit to the Joint Staff Headquarters (JSHQ) here. He was also accompanied by Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, a press release issued by the PM's Media Wing here said.

The Prime Minister was briefed on the operational preparedness of armed forces.

He paid rich tributes to the sacrifices of the armed forces, specially the Shaheeds. The Prime Minister assured that the nation will provide necessary resources to meet requirements of Pakistan's defence forces.

Earlier, upon arrival at the Joint Staff Headquarters the Prime Minister was welcomed by General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. A smartly turned out tri-services contingent presented 'Guard of Honour' to the Prime Minister.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Punjab Governor Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana has directed officers concerned to complete all ongoing development projects on time and ensure use of good quality material.

MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Punjab Governor Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana has directed officers concerned to complete all ongoing development projects on time and ensure use of good quality material.

Presiding over a meeting to review progress on development projects here on Monday, the governor said that there would be no compromise on quality of material being used in development projects.

He said that all ongoing development projects would be completed on time.

On the occasion, Commissioner Bilal Ahmed Butt gave detailed briefing to the governor regarding development projects across the region.

Regional Police Officer (RPO) Muhammad Idrees Ahmed informed him that different heinous crimes had been solved by using latest technologies by the police department and criminals had been apprehended. The governor lauded the police department across the province for excellent investigation into Zainab murder case in Kasur and Asma Bibi murder case of Lodhran.Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Monday urged upon the parliaments across the world to become influencers through setting the positive migration narrative and embarking on facilitative policy-making and legislation.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Monday urged upon the parliaments across the world to become influencers through setting the positive migration narrative and embarking on facilitative policy-making and legislation.

"We can achieve better national, regional and global migration governance frameworks through dialogue and understanding", he added. According to a message received from Geneva, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq expressed these views while addressing 138th Inter Parliamentary Union Assembly at Switzerland.

The Speaker said that democracies around the world were facing a complex mix of opportunities and challenges at present. Democracy is not holding elections alone; it is about developing a new socio-economic culture of mutual respect, understanding, rule of law and accountability, the Speaker said.

He further added that democracy fails when it turns its back to the needs of the vulnerable and bows to populist demands of seclusion, prejudice and pride. Talking about the theme for this year's IPU General Assembly's debate "Strengthening the Global Regime for Migrants and Refugees: The Need for Eevidence-Based Policy Solutions" the Speaker said that at present, when the public discourse on migrants and refugees is often marked by increasing hatred, discrimination and xenophobia, this discussion is both timely and critical.

The Speaker said that more than 258 million people, were living as foreigners, including those migrants, who immigrated in search of a better future while on the other hand, there were also unfortunate victims of terror, prosecution and fear.

He said that the last IPU, Assembly held in St. Petersburg, has adopted the emergency item pertaining to the grave human crisis, persecution and violent attacks on the Rohingya and called it a threat to international peace and security and called for ensuring the unconditional and safe return of the Rohingyas to their homeland in Myanmar.

He said that despite elapsing five months, the plight of the Rohingyas remains the same.

"The same situation in the middle East from the Syrian Refugee Crisis to Yemen, there was new centres of human civilization's devastation while the 4th generation of the Palestinians has grown up in the refugee camps, awaiting their return to their independent homeland", the Speaker added.

Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said that Pakistan has vast experience of hosting of refugees for decades. "Today, more than 80 percent of the world's refugees are being hosted by the developing countries, which are already facing their own socio-economic challenges" he added.

He said that in such contesting times, providing protection and assistance to refugees should be the responsibility of the entire international community. However, the burden is not shared equitably, he said.

He said that for continued asylum space, it is of paramount importance that perennial responsibility-sharing gaps in the international system for protection of refugees are addressed through increased funding, technical support, expanded resettlement in third countries and complementary pathways.

The Speaker said "despite stressing enough on the need for durable solutions and addressing the root causes of forced displacement, we should maintain peace and security and early resolution of conflicts to ensure that refugees could return in safety and dignity." He said that International immigration is a driver for growth which they have brought opportunities, experiences and new ideas for all.

He said that Pakistan has a strong, vibrant and skilled Diaspora of 2.7 million working in the developed countries and their remittances are an important contribution for the development of Pakistan.

He stressed the need for the elected leaders to change the narrative and their cooperation on migration governance should be based on mutual respect, understanding and spirit of accommodation.Warsaw, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Poland and Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania on Monday summoned the Russian ambassadors to their countries, as international pressure builds on Moscow over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England.

Latvia on Friday had said it would expel "one or several" Russian diplomats over the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, while fellow NATO and EU members Lithuania and Poland were also expected to follow suit.

The moves come after Britain, which blames Russia for the poisoning, expelled 23 Russian diplomats they said were spies and pressed EU allies to follow suit despite Moscow's warning against confrontational steps.

"The Russian Federation's ambassador has been summoned to the Latvian foreign ministry today, and later there will be a public announcement," ministry deputy press secretary Vita Dobele told AFP.

In Poland, Russian ambassador Sergei Andreev was called to the foreign ministry in Warsaw, which has announced a press conference for 1300 GMT.

"No comment. The information will be conveyed by the Polish foreign ministry," a smiling Andreev told reporters while leaving the ministry.

Pressed by journalists, he added that he was staying in Poland but said "we'll see" when asked about the fate of other Russian diplomats in Warsaw. Lithuanian foreign ministry spokeswoman for her part told AFP: "I can confirm Russian ambassador is summoned to the foreign ministry," but refused to elaborate.

No press briefing is planned in Vilnius, but diplomatic sources say the ambassador will be informed of the expulsion of several diplomats. Fellow Baltic country Estonia refused to confirm or deny whether its Russian ambassador was summoned, but foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Belovas said the minister would give a press conference on the Salisbury attack later Monday.(@rukhshanmir)

Denmark said Monday it had ordered the expulsion of two Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former spy and his daughter in England, as EU nations step up the pressure on Moscow.

Copenhagen, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Denmark said Monday it had ordered the expulsion of two Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former spy and his daughter in England, as EU nations step up the pressure on Moscow.

"There is no doubt about our solidarity with Britain," Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said. Denmark, the only Nordic country to be both a member of NATO and the EU, was one of 14 EU countries to announce the expulsion of Russian diplomats over the brazen nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4.(@FahadShabbir)

Niamey, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :At least five civilians were killed and several others wounded in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants in southeast Niger, near the border with Nigeria, according to local sources.

"The BH (Boko Haram) came to the market place early Friday evening, they shot the crowd and took food," said a resident of Toummour, in the southwest Diffa region, which was targeted by the attack. A local official on Sunday confirmed the toll of "five dead, all civilians", adding that several were also wounded in the attack.Police in Niger have arrested 23 people after a demonstration against new taxes in one of the world's poorest nations turned violent, the interior minister said Monday.

Niamey, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Police in Niger have arrested 23 people after a demonstration against new taxes in one of the world's poorest nations turned violent, the interior minister said Monday.

The arrests came after a protest on Sunday, Bazoum Mohamed told AFP, adding that the organisers had defied a ban and then clashed with the police. "They incited (the public) and disrupted public order and were arrested for rebellion for describing the ban as illegal," he said.

A radio and television network owned by Ali Idrissa, one of four leading civil society members arrested, was also closed on Sunday. "They aired live images of tyres burning on the streets ... asked people to take to the streets and carried a subversive message of revolt," the minister said.

"They will remain closed until further notice.

" Protests have been regularly held in Niger against the new taxes and concessions to telephone companies to the tune of 30 million Euros ($37 million), according to the opposition.

More than 80 percent of Niger is covered by the Sahara desert. Its economy has been affected by falls in both oil prices, which it officially began exporting in 2011, and uranium, of which it is a major exporter.

The government says it is cash strapped as it has to spend resources to combat attacks by Boko Haram, whose Islamist insurgency has spilled over from Nigeria, as well as from jihadists, including the Daesh group, near the border with Mali.

Finance Minister Hassoumi Massadou said in February that the 2018 budget hardly affected people in the countryside, where more than 80 percent of Niger's 20 million people live.(@FahadShabbir)

Niamey, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Police in Niger have arrested 23 people after a demonstration against new taxes in one of the world's poorest nations turned violent, the interior minister said Monday.

The arrests came after a protest on Sunday, Bazoum Mohamed told AFP, adding that the organisers had defied a ban and then clashed with the police. "They incited (the public) and disrupted public order and were arrested for rebellion for describing the ban as illegal," he said.

A radio and television network owned by Ali Idrissa, one of four leading civil society members arrested, was also closed on Sunday. "They aired live images of tyres burning on the streets ... asked people to take to the streets and carried a subversive message of revolt," the minister said.

"They will remain closed until further notice.

" Protests have been regularly held in Niger against the new taxes and concessions to telephone companies to the tune of 30 million Euros ($37 million), according to the opposition.

More than 80 percent of Niger is covered by the Sahara desert. Its economy has been affected by falls in both oil prices, which it officially began exporting in 2011, and uranium, of which it is a major exporter.

The government says it is cash strapped as it has to spend resources to combat attacks by Boko Haram, whose Islamist insurgency has spilled over from Nigeria, as well as from jihadists, including the Daesh group, near the border with Mali.

Finance Minister Hassoumi Massadou said in February that the 2018 budget hardly affected people in the countryside, where more than 80 percent of Niger's 20 million people live.(@rukhshanmir)

United Nations, United States, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Mar, 2018 ) :Russia's UN ambassador on Monday called the US decision to expel 12 diplomats working at the Russian mission to the United Nations a "very unfortunate and very unfriendly move." Vassily Nebenzia told reporters that the 12 diplomats will have to leave by April 2, although the Russian government will protest the US decision that comes amid a British-Russian row over the nerve gas attack on an ex-spy.

The United States informed the United Nations on Monday of the expulsions, invoking a 1947 US-UN agreement that allows such action for "abuse of privileges of residence." The United States ordered 60 Russians to leave in a coordinated move that also saw European Union countries, Canada, Ukraine and Albania expelling scores more.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters that Russia was "increasingly" showing "bad judgment". "When you see these espionage tactics that are taking place right here at the heart of the UN, we can't have that," she said.

"Unfortunately, Russia is now being held accountable for a lot of things and they have a decision to make.

" Nebenzia declined to give details of the 12 diplomats who are among a staff of about 95 who work at the mission.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that the United States had informed the United Nations of the decision under the US-UN agreement. "Given the sensitivity of the matter, which is ongoing, we will not comment further at this stage other than to confirm that the secretary-general will closely follow this matter and engage as appropriate with the governments concerned," said Haq.

President Donald Trump also ordered the closure of the Russian consulate general in Seattle. "Here in New York, Russia uses the United Nations as a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders," Haley said earlier in a statement announcing the expulsions from the Russian mission.

Britain had urged allies to take strong action in response to the March 4 attack in England that left former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in critical condition.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Sierra Leone's High Court on Monday lifted an order that had halted the country's presidential runoff because of a complaint of electoral fraud.

Freetown, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Sierra Leone's High Court on Monday lifted an order that had halted the country's presidential runoff because of a complaint of electoral fraud. The order that the electoral commission should be "restrained" from conducting Tuesday's vote is no longer in force, the court in Freetown said.Hong Kong, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :From murals made famous by Instagram to painting battles, Hong Kong's once largely underground street art scene has exploded in recent years, and is now blossoming across the city's walls and alleyways.

The commercial high end of the art world is at the fore in March, with gallerists, collectors and celebrities descending on Hong Kong for the annual Art Basel fair. But English mural artist Dan Kitchener, drawn to the city's unique geography and energy, made his third visit to Hong Kong this month to depict atmospheric urban scenes with spray paint in its narrow and steep streets.

"Hong Kong's got that feel to me -- the epic scale and the skyscrapers, and then it's got these little tiny alleyways," Kitchener told AFP while balancing on bamboo scaffolding as he painted on the outside wall of a city bar.

Trained for many years in watercolour and acrylic painting, 43-year-old Kitchener is particularly fond of portraying neon lights, reflections and rain -- sights that first captivated him in Tokyo.

He had just finished a detailed mural of a street market in the bustling Wan Chai district, before moving on to paint outside a watering hole in downtown Central. Just opposite the bar is a mural by graffiti artist Alex Croft said to be the city's most photographed wall, featuring rows of old townhouses on a bright blue background.

Hong Kong lacks a world-class art museum and marquee exhibitions rarely make a stop in the southern Chinese city, where it can be difficult to secure permission for public shows. But street art has enjoyed a boost from growing demand in Asia and an increasing number of exhibitions in recent years, giving it a higher profile and more commercial spin in the city.

In 2015 a mosaic of 1970s American cartoon character Hong Kong Phooey by French artist Invader sold at auction in Hong Kong for HK$2 million ($258,000). The popular piece of street art had been destroyed by the city's authorities, infuriating residents, and was later recreated for sale.KHARTOUM, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Sudan and Qatar on Monday signed a $4-billion agreement to develop the former Ottoman port city of Suakin in northeastern Sudan. "The agreement was signed in line with instructions of the leaderships in both countries on the necessity to boost joint cooperation in the fields of transport and communications," Sudanese Transport Minister Makkawi Awad told reporters.

"We seek to establish twinship between the ports of Suakin and Hamad" in Qatar, he said. The cost of the project's first phase amounts to $500 million and will be completed by 2020. On Sunday, Sudan unveiled the agreement to develop the Red Sea port, following talks with Qatari Minister of Transport Jassim bin Saif al-Sulaiti in Khartoum.

According to Awad, Khartoum will get 51 percent of the project's returns while Doha will receive 49 percent.

"This project aims to get the Suakin port play its vital economic role as a gateway to Africa," he said.

The port of Suakin is Sudan's second largest port after Port Sudan in northeastern Sudan. Al-Sulaiti, for his part, said Doha will send Qatari ships next month to Port Sudan with a view to reviving trade exchange between the two countries.

Suakin, one of the oldest seaports in Africa, was used by African Muslims who set out for pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Ottomans used the port city -- which was under Ottoman rule between 1555 and 1865 -- to secure Hejaz province -- present-day western Saudi Arabia -- from attackers in the Red Sea.(@rukhshanmir)

BISHKEK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :The Turkish state-run aid agency has established two health centers in Naryn region of Kyrgyzstan. According to the statement issued by Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA), the health centers were built in Atbasi town of Naryn district which is 400 kilometers away from capital Bishkek A total of 10,000 people would benefit from the center, it said.

Mehmet Sureyya Er, TIKA's vice president; Almazbek Baatirbekov, a Kyrgyz lawmaker; Amanbay Kayipov, Governor of Naryn; TIKA officials and local people attended the opening ceremony.

Er underlined that the agency attaches great importance to health sector activities in Kyrgyzstan.

"TIKA and Turkey will continue to support Kyrgyzstan's socio-economic development and its citizens' welfare. TIKA has donated more than a-billion-dollar aid to Kyrgyzstan in the last 10 years," Er said. Kayipov, for his part, thanked TIKA for its contribution. TIKA has carried out numerous significant projects to boost the health sector of various countries around the world.(@rukhshanmir)

Ukraine is to expel 13 Russian diplomats as part of a coordinated effort by European nations and the US to punish Russia over an attack on a former Russian spy in England, President Petro Poroshenko announced Monday.

Kiev, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2018 ) :Ukraine is to expel 13 Russian diplomats as part of a coordinated effort by European nations and the US to punish Russia over an attack on a former Russian spy in England, President Petro Poroshenko announced Monday.

"In response to a cynical chemical attack in Salisbury, Ukraine, in the spirit of solidarity with our British partners and transatlantic allies and in coordination with EU countries, decided to expel 13 Russian diplomats from the few that remain (in Kiev)," Poroshenko said in a statement.

He said Ukraine's diplomatic relations with Russia had been "de facto frozen" since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and began to support separatists in country's east. Kiev and the West accuse Russia of deploying troops and arms to the rebels in eastern Ukraine and fuelling the armed conflict that has claimed more than 10,000 lives.

The diplomats to be expelled are "Russian special service agents whose activities are not compatible with their diplomatic and consular status," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa told AFP.

Currently there is no Russian ambassador in Ukraine. But after the expulsion, "dozens" of Russian diplomats will still work in the Russian embassy in Kiev and in its three consulates in Odessa, Kharkiv and Lviv, Betsa said.

Kiev also replaced its own ambassador to Moscow with a temporary representative. The next step is to increase the price that Moscow has to pay for its international crimes, including the strengthening of personal, financial and economic sanctions," Poroshenko said.

Sergei Skripal, a former Russian officer who sold secrets to Britain and moved there in a 2010 spy swap, remains in critical condition along with his daughter, Yulia, after they were found unconscious on a park bench in the sleepy English city of Salisbury on March 4. Britain says a military-grade nerve agent was used to poison them.The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently took action to advance innovative personalized medicine for Medicare patients with cancer. CMS finalized a National Coverage Determination that covers diagnostic laboratory tests using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) for patients with advanced cancer (i.e., recurrent, metastatic, relapsed, refractory, or stages III or IV cancer). CMS believes when these tests are used as a companion diagnostic to identify patients with certain genetic mutations that may benefit from U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatments, these tests can assist patients and their oncologists in making more informed treatment decisions. Additionally, when a known cancer mutation cannot be matched to a treatment then results from the diagnostic lab test using NGS can help determine a patients candidacy for cancer clinical trials.This decision was made following the parallel review with the FDA, which granted its approval of the FoundationOne CDx (F1CDx) test on Nov. 30, 2017. At the same time, CMS issued a proposed NCD for NGS cancer diagnostics. F1CDx is the first breakthrough-designated, NGS-based in vitro diagnostic test that is a companion diagnostic for 15 targeted therapies as well as can detect genetic mutations in 324 genes and two genomic signatures in any solid tumor.We want cancer patients to have enhanced access and expanded coverage when it comes to innovative diagnostics that can help them in new and better ways, said Seema Verma, CMS Administrator. That is why we are establishing clear pathways to coverage, while at the same time supporting laboratories that currently furnish tests to the people we serve.In addition to covering the FDA-approved F1CDx, CMS is covering FDA-approved or cleared companion in vitro diagnostics when the test has an FDA-approved or cleared indication for use in that patients cancer and results are provided to the treating physician for management of the patient using a report template to specify treatment options.These tests can help doctors consult with patients about more targeted care or enrollment in a clinical trial, said Kate Goodrich, M.D., CMS chief medical officer and director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ). The expanded coverage in this final NCD now includes additional tests for relapsed, refractory, and earlier stage III cancers to aid in the treatment of these cancer patients.This NCD recognizes the importance of analytical and clinical validation of the diagnostic laboratory test that is part of FDA approval or clearance and provides national coverage after demonstration that use of the diagnostic laboratory test guides the management and treatment of the patient improves health outcomes. Tests that gain FDA approval or clearance as an in vitro companion diagnostic will automatically receive full coverage under this final NCD, provided other coverage criteria are also met. Coverage determinations for other diagnostic laboratory tests using NGS for Medicare patients with advanced cancer will be made by local Medicare Administrative Contractors. In addition, after considering all public comments, this final decision expanded coverage to patients with relapsed, refractory or stage III cancers. The final decision also extends coverage to repeat testing when the patient has a new primary diagnosis of cancer.After reviewing all the public comments for this specific determination, we have removed coverage with evidence development in this final NCD. Many commenters reported that they are already developing or have developed the evidence to demonstrate these diagnostic laboratory tests using NGS to improve health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries with cancer  or are equipped to conduct their own studies to generate evidence that use of the test guides management and treatment, and improves health outcomes for the Medicare population. We strongly encourage continuing and publishing the results of these important studies, especially on the endpoints of overall survival, progression free survival, objective response, and patient reported outcomes relevant to the quality of life for Medicare beneficiaries. This is not only important to ensuring that patients, caregivers and their providers can make informed decisions, but also to continue to develop and publish results to develop new technologies in the healthcare system.The CMS, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, directs the planning, coordination, and implementation of the programs under the Social Security Act and related statutes, to administer Medicare, Medicaid, the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Health Insurance Marketplace. The agency also directs the development of effective relationships between these programs and private and federally supported health-related programs.The clinical application for prostate cancer patients is currently limited, however click the attached link to learn more. Read Charles J. Ryan, MD. Blog on his experience with an MSI High patient - "Riding High on MSI"

Last night (March 24, 2018) celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis was spotted attending Mat Franco  Magic Reinvented Nightly in the Mat Franco Theater at The LINQ Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

After enjoying the awe-inspiring performance of the twice-voted Best Magic Show in Las Vegas, De Laurentiis and her family were treated to an exclusive VIP meet and greet with Mat Franco for photos and to express their enjoyment of the show.

On Saturday at Beauty & Essex was gossip journalist Perez Hilton, who continued his 40th birthday celebration with dinner at the hot spot followed by Marquee, where he was surprised with a birthday cake presentation (Photo credit: Woody Hugh).

Photo credit: Woody Hugh

Also on Saturday night, Drake, French Montana and friends were spotted having a late night dinner in the exclusive private dining room at Beauty & Essex at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

The music stars feasted on dishes including tuna tacos, yellow tail sashimi, filet and more, while drinking Beauty Elixir signature cocktails and shots of Ciroc French Vanilla. After dinner the group headed to Marquee for the next installment of French Montanas residency at the club.

French took over the stage, wowing the crowd with his top hits, before Drake surprised club-goers, treating them to a performance of Gods Plan. The two stars partied the rest of the night away at a VIP table with a group that included Nicole Scherzinger.

Photo credit: Andrew Dang

Earlier in the day Gucci Mane was spotted at TAO Beach at The Venetian before taking over TAO Nightclub Saturday night. Taking in his performance was his wife Keyshia KaOir, who was decked out in Fendi and diamonds. When Gucci wasnt on stage he danced with his wife at a VIP table.When a Silicon Valley company in northern California asked Sumat Lam to transfer to Austin, Texas, common stereotypes came to mind.

I definitely was confused when I was offered the role out of college for Austin. You think about cowboys. You think a little bit about the barbecue. Everything is bigger in Texas, Lam, a Cambodian-American, recalled.

Texas could have seemed like another country for Lam, who grew up in California as the son of immigrant parents. He is from the Greater San Francisco Bay Area and went to Stanford University, in the Silicon Valley technology corridor. His friends encouraged him to give Austin a try. He moved and has been working in Austin for the last four years.

WATCH: Why is Austin an Attractive Hub for Many Tech Companies?

I definitely love Austin more after four years here. I was really taken aback by how small it was. I was expecting a much larger metropolitan area, but me, I actually love the size of Austin.

Its not as embedded in the Texas stereotype as people presume, Lam said. People from all over are coming, people are bringing in the culture, their influences from Boston and New York and Philadelphia.

Characteristics of a tech hub

While Austin is not Silicon Valley, technology companies from that area and other major U.S. hubs are taking notice of Austins growing tech scene. The lower cost of living and doing business, combined with a smaller size, are among the reasons that people and companies are attracted to Austin.

I look at all the companies that have already moved here or in the process of moving here. Google, Apple, two of the big leaders in the tech already have large offices down here, Lam said.

Ive heard people call it Silicon Ranch. I think its kind of hilarious, said Austin native Meghan Berry, who also works for a tech company.

Start-ups and big companies are taking up office spaces downtown and more are being built.

Offices influenced by Silicon Valley tech culture, featuring ping pong tables, catered meals and massage therapists, can be found in Austin. Lam also noticed the areas transient culture.

Ive come to realize its such a transient place. People tell me they do a few years at a given tech company and look for the next role at another company, he said.

What fuels Austins tech industry?

Many Texans consider the Austin-based computer company Dell, as the flagship firm that gave birth to an entire tech ecosystem in the city.

There was a thing called Dellionaires, and so people who became millionaires after they worked at Dell, then went out and they started a bunch of companies, said Chris Valentine, event manager and producer for a technology event called the SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event.

The University of Texas, plus the annual SXSW (South by Southwest) technology conference and music festival increase the citys tech presence on the map by attracting tech experts and entrepreneurs from around the globe. People in the music business also fuel the tech industry in Austin.

A lot of my friends are musicians. They also work in the tech field so theres a huge overlap, Berry said.

Theres a strong foundational tech base thats here. Theres that creative aspect and really bringing that all together is a powerful combination, said Lou Kikos, general manager of Los Angeles-based web hosting provider Media Temple. The company has had a presence at SXSW in Austin for the past 11 years.

A lot of companies are coming here. They have access to capital; its a very open community. Thats one of the wonderful things about Austin; people just seem to be kind of very open, kind of wanting to help each other, Valentine said.

Culturally, Lam said that while Austin is home to people from Latin America and Europe, there are not that many people who look like him in town.

When I walk out on the street, lets just say Im more than likely to be one of the only minorities, sort of, on any given street or any given room, he said.

While Lam misses Cambodian food, he would recommend Austin to anyone who wants to relocate because the standard of living is high, and Austin has all the benefits of a big city without being too big. Another perk, Lam said, is the people.

Ive never felt unwelcome here, he said.The exotic Tasmanian tiger once roamed Australia and New Guinea. It looked like a cross between a tiger and a dog, and is believed to have become extinct in the wild in the 20th century. The last one died in a zoo in the 1930s. Using preserved Tasmanian tigers, Australian scientists did 3D scans of the animal, which they hope will explain why it evolved to look so much like a canine. VOAs Deborah Block has more.Turkey has declared complete control of the northern Syrian area of Afrin after a two-month-long offensive to oust a Kurdish militia. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Sunday that the next target is the nearby town of Tal Rifaat. Erdogan has vowed to remove Kurds from power in all areas of Syria and Iraq where they took control after defeating Islamic State militants. As VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports.More than 100 Nigerian girls recently released by the extremist group Boko Haram have been reunited with their parents.

The jihadist group abducted the girls from the town of Dapchi in February.

After their release Wednesday and a brief emotional meeting with their parents, the schoolgirls spent three days in the national capital Abuja, where they met with President Muhammadu Buhari.

The girls were among 111 seized last month, of whom five died during the ordeal. One girl, Leah Sharibu, still remains in the hands of the kidnappers because she is a Christian and refused to convert to Islam.

Buhari on Friday pledged to do "everything in our power" to obtain Leah's freedom.

Buhari's administration had been under pressure to resolve the Dapchi abduction, which revived painful memories of the 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls from the town of Chibok.

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan was criticized for his handling of the abductions from a Chibok school, some 275 kilometers southeast of Dapchi.

More than half of those girls have been returned, but 100 remain missing.A Brazilian appeals court rejected on Monday final procedural objections raised by lawyers of former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva against his conviction for corruption, raising the possibility that he will soon be jailed.

However, Lula will not be imprisoned until the country's Supreme Court decides on April 4 whether to accept his request that he be allowed to exhaust his appeals process before landing in jail.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that defendants should begin serving prison sentences after their conviction was upheld on a first appeal. However, several members of the court are pressing to revisit that decision and perhaps reverse it.

Lula, Brazil's first working-class leader, remains the most popular politician in Latin America's biggest nation. He oversaw years of robust growth and falling inequality during a commodity boom last decade, and wants to run again for president.

Whether he is jailed or not, Lula is barred from running due to his conviction for receiving as a bribe a seaside apartment from an entrepreneur awarded government contracts during his presidency.

In January, the appeals court in Porto Alegre upheld Lula's conviction and increased his sentence to more than 12 years.

Despite that conviction and Lula facing six other corruption trials, he continues to enjoy wide popularity and leads all early polls for the October 7 vote.

His supporters maintain he is being persecuted politically with dubious accusations aimed at keeping him out of the race.

Lula's critics say his economic policies ruined Brazil and his situation has polarized the country. While touring the southern state of Santa Catarina over the weekend, Lula's bus was pelted with eggs and stones that broke a window.A German court said on Monday it was likely to take several days to decide whether to extradite former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to Spain to face rebellion charges over the region's campaign for independence.

But despite a night of protests across Catalonia in which dozens of people were hurt in clashes with police, Puigdemont's arrest Sunday in northern Germany leaves the independence movement weaker than it has been in years. Almost its entire leadership is now either behind bars ahead of trial or in exile.

Puigdemont, who fled Spain five months ago for Belgium after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismissed his regional administration and imposed direct rule from Madrid, faces charges of rebellion that could lead to 25 years in prison.

On Sunday night, a demonstration in Barcelona against Puigdemont's arrest by tens of thousands of Catalans tipped over into clashes with police.

Outside the central government offices, riot police beat flag-waving protesters back with batons, leaving several with blood streaming down their foreheads.

About 100 people were hurt across the region, including 23 members of the Mossos d'Escuadra police force, and nine people were arrested, authorities said.

The protests followed a Spanish Supreme Court ruling Friday that 25 Catalan leaders, including Puigdemont, would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state relating to a referendum held in Catalonia last October that called for it to separate from Spain.

The Madrid government deemed the referendum, which was widely boycotted by opponents of independence, illegal and took over direct rule of the wealthy northeastern region following a symbolic declaration of independence by the Catalan parliament.

Reactivated warrants

The court on Friday also reactivated international arrest warrants for four other politicians who went into self-imposed exile last year. Puigdemont and fellow separatists have all denied any wrongdoing.

Five separatist leaders, including the latest candidate to become regional president, Jordi Turull, were ordered jailed pending their trial. The Catalan parliament's failure last week to vote in Turull as president started a two-month countdown to elect a new leader before a regional election is triggered.

The forceful action by the government and courts appeared to be bringing a close to what had been one of Spain's worst political crises since the return of democracy in the 1970s.

"Looks like the separatist movement is falling apart," Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Adrian Zunzunegui said in a note Monday. "We expect a few more months of uncertainty, and most likely new elections to be called then."

Another election could swing the government either way, with separatist sympathies still simmering across Catalonia, though polls have shown support sharply down in recent months.

On Monday, the Catalan parliament, where pro-independence parties hold a majority, called a session for Wednesday in support of Puigdemont.

The proposal includes a debate over Puigdemont's right to be invested as regional head of the Catalan government. Spain's Constitutional Court has already said he could only become regional leader if he was physically present in the parliament and had a judge's permission to attend.

Puigdemont appeared on Monday before a regional court in the northern German town of Neumuenster, which extended his detention pending a decision on extradition.

Another court, the Higher Regional Court in the town of Schleswig, will be responsible for deciding whether to grant Spain's request. The court is unlikely to make a final decision on Puigdemont's extradition before Easter, a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor said.

Puigdemont, who has been living in Brussels since leaving Spain, does not plan to apply for political asylum in Germany, his lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas told Catalan radio.

He had entered Germany from Denmark on Friday after leaving Finland, where he had attended a conference and was caught off-guard by the Spanish Supreme Court's unexpected decision to reactivate his arrest warrant.

Leaning toward Spain

The 55-year-old former journalist is unlikely to find much support among German politicians who have largely backed Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's crackdown on Catalan separatism.

A German government spokesman said on Monday the case was being handled according to German laws and European arrest warrant provisions, and that the Catalan question could only be resolved within the framework of Spanish law.

Elmar Brok, a German member of the European Parliament and ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Puigdemont had "clearly violated Spanish law and the Spanish constitution."

European governments, some of whom face separatist movements of their own, have generally been supportive of the Spanish government.

The Scottish government, which advocates independence from the United Kingdom, said it would co-operate with Madrid over a request to extradite former Catalan education minister Clara Ponsati, although it still believed Catalans had the right to self-determination.

Ponsati's lawyer said Monday she would contest her extradition and called it "political persecution."

The drawn-out crisis has also hit Catalonia's economy and caused a business flight. But rating agency Standard & Poor's last Friday upgraded its rating for Spain, reflecting a positive outlook for the economy and limited impact from Catalonia.

Spanish bond yields were at close to 15-month lows Monday morning.Countries should spend more on schooling and less on weapons to ensure that children affected by war get an education, a child rights summit heard Monday.

The gathering in Jordan was told that a common thread of war was its devastating impact in keeping children out of school.

Indian Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, who founded the summit, said ensuring all children around the world received a primary and secondary education would cost another $40 billion annually  about a week's worth of global military expenditure.

"We have to choose whether we have to produce guns and bullets, or we have to produce books and pencils to our children," he told the second Laureates and Leaders for Children Summit that gathers world leaders and Nobel laureates.

Global military expenditure reached almost $1.7 trillion in 2016, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The United Nations children's agency UNICEF said last year 27 million children were out of school in conflict zones.

"We want safe schools, we want safe homes, we want safe countries, we want a safe world," said Satyarthi, who shared the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai for his work with children.

Jordan's Prince Ali bin al-Hussein told the summit, which focused on child refugees and migrants affected by war and natural disasters, that education was "key," especially for "children on the move."

"Education can be expensive, but never remotely as close to what is being spent on weapons. ... They [children] are today's hope for a better future," he told the two-day summit.

Kerry Kennedy, president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a nonprofit group, described the number of Syrian refugees not in school in the Middle East as "shocking" as the war enters its eighth year.

Kennedy cited a report being released Tuesday by the KidsRights Foundation, an international children's rights group, which found 40 percent of school-aged Syrian children living in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq cannot access education.The former head of a federal agency helping U.S. states protect election systems from hackers has been hired for a similar role within the Trump administration after being passed up for reappointment by Republican Speaker Paul Ryan and the White House.

Matthew Masterson, a member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission who until recently served as its chairman, has accepted a senior adviser position within the Department of Homeland Securitys cyber wing to continue working on election security and related issues, the department said in a statement on Monday.

The hiring means Masterson, widely viewed as a key election security official, will continue to work with states and federal agencies on the issue heading into Novembers midterm contests, which some intelligence specialists fear may be targeted by Russia or others.

Masterson praised

In a statement, Chris Krebs, a senior cybersecurity official at DHS, praised Masterson as instrumental in bridging gaps between federal, state, and local governments to improve election cybersecurity.

Matt is one of the most equipped to advise on this non-partisan issue and will be an asset to the organization, Krebs added.

Masterson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Popular figure to many

Reuters reported last month that Masterson was being replaced by Ryan and the White House for a second four-year term as one of the election agencys four commissioners despite being a popular figure among state election officials, many of whom praised his expertise and leadership on cyber security issues.

Masterson, a former election official in Ohio, had been picked for a commissioner post by former Republican House Speaker John Boehner and formally nominated by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in 2014.

News of his pending departure led some state election officials, security experts and Democrats to accuse Republicans of not taking the issue of election cybersecurity seriously enough, despite repeated warnings from senior U.S. intelligence officials that Russia and others are likely to interfere in this years November midterm contests.

Intense scrutiny

There is intense scrutiny of the security of U.S. election systems after a 2016 presidential race in which Russia interfered, according to American intelligence agencies, to try to help Donald Trump win with presidency. Trump in the past has been publicly skeptical about Russian election meddling, which DHS has said included initial probing of at least 21 states' networks.

Trump last week signed a federal spending bill that includes nearly $400 million in funding to help states safeguard voting systems from cyber attacks.Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is running virtually unopposed in this week's elections after a series of potentially serious candidates were arrested or withdrew from the race under pressure.

The vote will be the least competitive of the three presidential elections held in Egypt since the 2011 uprising ended Hosni Mubarak's 29-year reign and raised hopes of democratic change.

El-Sissi's only opponent is Moussa Mustafa Moussa, a little-known politician who supports the president and has made almost no effort to campaign against him.

Here is a look at more serious contenders who failed to make the ballot.

AHMED SHAFIQ

A former air force general and Mubarak's last prime minister, Shafiq lived in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates since shortly after finishing a close second in the 2012 presidential election won by the Islamist Mohammed Morsi. In December, he was deported from the Emirates, a close Egyptian ally, and flown back to Cairo after he announced he intended to run. He was met at the airport by unidentified security men and whisked away to a suburban hotel. Government representatives persuaded him to abandon his presidential ambitions, raising the specter of legal proceedings over alleged corruption during his tenure as civil aviation minister, according to numerous, unconfirmed reports. In January, he said did not believe himself to be the "ideal" man to lead the country at this stage.

SAMI ANNAN

The former general quietly served as the military's chief of staff under Mubarak, drawing national attention only in the 17 months of military rule after Mubarak's ouster. As the deputy head of the then-ruling Supreme Military Council, he negotiated the transfer of power to Morsi in June 2012. Two months later, Morsi removed him. In January, he announced his intent to challenge el-Sissi and posted a video on social media that berated the president for involving the military in civilian affairs and urging civilian and military institutions to stay neutral in the race. On Jan. 23, the military detained him over charges that included incitement against the armed forces and forgery.

KHALED ALI

The prominent rights lawyer was the last potentially serious challenger until Jan. 24, when he announced he was quitting the race. He complained that authorities targeted his supporters and that poor Egyptians had been bribed by el-Sissi loyalists to sign documents supporting his candidacy. His own supporters faced delays and intimidation at notary offices, where they needed to register 25,000 "recommendations" for him to qualify as a candidate. A key left-leaning figure in the 2011 uprising, Ali had the potential to win protest votes and revive interest in street politics by fellow "revolutionaries" whose ranks have been depleted by imprisonment, exile or marginalization.

MOHAMMED ANWAR SADAT

The former lawmaker said he quit the race because the climate was not conducive for campaigning and because he feared for the safety of his supporters. A nephew of Egypt's assassinated leader Anwar Sadat, he was thrown out of parliament amid allegations of leaking sensitive documents to foreign diplomats.

AHMED KONSOWA

The army colonel declared his intention to run, only to be court-martialed and convicted of breaching military regulations prohibiting political activism. He was sentenced to six years in prison in December.Many European Union countries joined the U.S. Monday in expelling dozens of Russian diplomats in a coordinated retaliation for the March 4 nerve-agent poisoning in Britain of a former Russian spy, which the British government blames on Russia and has accused the Kremlin of having approved.

The coordinated expulsions  unprecedented since the Cold War  drew instant condemnation from the Kremlin, which warned it would respond in kind and order like-for-like expulsions. The first expulsions announced were in Washington, with the Trump administration ordering 60 Russian diplomats to leave, closely followed by Germany, which gave four their marching orders.

The Netherlands expelled two Russian diplomats; Estonia ordered out the Russian defense attache; the Czech Republic announced it was expelling three Russian embassy staff.

Lithuania said it is expelling three Russian diplomats and banning 44 other Russian officials from entering the country. Latvia said it was ejecting one Russian diplomat. France said it is also expelling four Russian diplomats. Poland's foreign minister said four Russian diplomats in the country have been expelled.

In Brussels, European Council president Donald Tusk said a total of 14 members of the EU were participating in the collective reprisal. He said further action could be taken in the coming days.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said: We welcome todays actions by our allies, which clearly demonstrate that we all stand shoulder to shoulder in sending the strongest signal to Russia that it cannot continue to flout international law. She described move as the biggest expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.

And British foreign secretary Boris Johnson tweeted: Todays extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever & will help defend our shared security. Russia cannot break international rules with impunity.

Tony Brenton, a former British envoy to Moscow, said he thought the expulsions would have shocked Moscow, arguing the Kremlin appeared to have calculated that British would get rhetorical support from allies but not much more.

By the evening in Moscow more than 100 Russian diplomats had received their marching orders.

On Facebook, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova launched a rhetorical preemptive strike to the expulsions, disdainfully describing Western states as behaving like loyal subjects eager to do the bidding of London.

Kremlin officials said Putin would decide how to respond but that it would be symmetrical.

Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian parliaments upper chamber, told state-run RIA news agency that Putin would respond by ordering out at least 60 staff from U.S. diplomatic missions in Russia.

Privately, some Russian officials admitted they were surprised by the scale of the action, complaining the British hadnt yet proved the Kremlin was involved in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a Russian spy who had been recruited by Britains MI6, and his daughter.

After the British won unexpected strong diplomatic support last week at a meeting of EU leaders, who agreed with the British position that Russia was highly likely to have been behind the nerve-agent poisoning, the odds of collective reprisal increased.

Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats in the wake of the poisoning, and Russia responded by ejecting the same number of British diplomats.

Eager to shield their relations with Russia, several other countries, including Austria, Greece and Italy, indicated their reluctance to participate in collective retaliation. Splits within the EUs own bureaucracy was on show last week when EU council president, Donald Tusk, withheld congratulations to Vladimir Putin on his re-election as Russian president, while European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker sent Putin a note of congratulations.

As the explosions unfolded, Britains defense secretary, Gavin Williamson, said Western backing of Britain was itself a defeat for President Putin. Speaking while visiting British soldiers stationed in Estonia, he said: The worlds patience is rather wearing thin with President Putin and his actions, and the fact that right across the NATO alliance, right across the European Union, nations have stood up in support of the United Kingdom. I actually think that is the very best response that we could have.

The Russian government hit back, saying Britain's accusations over the nerve-agent attack on the former spy border on banditry.

In January 2017, Putin ordered the expulsion of 755 U.S. diplomats after Congress passed legislation increasing sanctions against Russia for its annexation of the Crimea, and for interfering in the U.S. election.

Russias embassy in the U.S. capital Sunday tried to stave off U.S. action, urging the White House not to believe what is said was British propaganda about the Skripal poisoning.A top Pakistani government official argues that the crisis in relations with the United States stems from Washingtons focus on military partnership rather than engaging Pakistan as a democracy and addressing mutual concerns.

In an exclusive interview, Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir tells VOA, that as a consequence, Islamabads ties, have massively deepened with traditional ally China, and intense re-engagements are also bringing Pakistan closer to Russia.

Pakistan, a major recipient of military assistance as a non-NATO U.S. ally in the now 17-year-old war in Afghanistan, has been repeatedly criticized for its alleged support for the Taliban and Haqqani networks carrying out attacks on international and Afghan forces.

In January, U.S. President Donald Trump suspended military assistance to Islamabad on the grounds that the U.S. had received nothing but lies and deceit in return. That withering attack has plunged a traditionally roller coaster bilateral relationship to historic lows.

"We are still very serious in maintaining our engagement with the United StatesUnfortunately, the Trump administration has chosen to focus on the transactional part of the relationship, Dastgir said while referring to U.S. military assistance for counterterrorism operations.

A renewed diplomatic reengagement with Pakistan has been underway since Trump suspended the aid but it has yet to produce desired results on the ground in terms of eliminating sanctuaries inside Pakistan, say U.S. officials.

Dastgir says despite U.S. adverse actions, Pakistan has not impeded or blocked its ground and airlines of communications being used for ferrying vital supplies to international troops in Afghanistan. But he asked whether a productive partnership with the U.S. is still possible under the circumstances.

You cant have a country whom you would accuse of being deceitful and simultaneously being a major non-NATO ally. So, the contradictions in 2018 have become too large, noted the Pakistani minister.

Dastgir rejected allegations as illogical that Pakistan harbors safe havens and cited the U.S. militarys latest assessments that the Taliban controls or contests a large chunk of the Afghan territory.

[Nearly] half of the country is a safe haven but your [U.S.] focus is on remnants in PakistanWhen you dont control 45% of Afghanistan and dont know what is going on there, who is there, who is moving in and out of that safe haven, but you keep blaming us, he lamented.

Pakistan maintains that years of counterterrorism operations have cleared its land of all terrorist groups and in the process the country suffered more than the U.S., with tens of thousands of casualties caused by retaliatory militant bombings.

Moreover, officials insist persistent security concerns scared away much-needed foreign investment for overcoming a crippling energy crisis in Pakistan and inflicted billions of dollars in economic losses.

That was the time when Pakistans democracy needed consolidation and it was at that time that the U.S. chose to begin pulling away, Dastgir said of the year 2013 when his Pakistan Muslim League party won the elections and took power.

The quantum of U.S. military and economic aid had become insignificant by the time 2018 rolled around, he said, and explained why China has since increased its influence in Pakistan.

China acted first and Pakistan needed support very seriously and grievously. Now that we have it five years later, we have nearly resolved the energy crisis, we have nearly resolved the terrorism crisis. So, now that people of Pakistan and the government of Pakistan, which represents the people, look back, we see China as standing with us and the U.S. is constantly receding.

Beijing has invested billions of dollars in the last three years under a massive cooperation deal with Islamabad, known as China-Pakistan Economic Cooperation, or CPEC. China is building infrastructure projects and power plants under CPEC.

The unprecedented Chinese investment will have added 12,000 additional megawatts of electricity in the national grid by June this year, effectively overcoming the countrys once crippling energy crisis.

Minister Dastgir called for the U.S. to revisit its Pakistan approach for a stable and productive partnership.

The U.S. has not made, in our view, a serious effort to engage Pakistan as a democracy, and a democracy which has an elected government, he insisted.

It is widely perceived that the powerful Pakistan military directly influences the foreign policy decision making process when it comes to dealing with the U.S., Afghanistan and archival India.

Yes, the [Pakistan] military has its own influence and its own operations. But if this relationship is to become long lasting, if this relationship has to have firm basis it has now to become no longer a military-to-military relationship, which it currently is. It has to become a relationship between two democracies. That is the way forward, asserted the Pakistani defense minister.The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Monday it is investigating the privacy controls of social media giant Facebook in the aftermath of reports that the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users was compromised by the British voter profiling firm Cambridge Analytica.



The consumer agency's announcement sent Facebook's stock price down another 2 percent, after a 14 percent plunge last week cut the company's market value by $90 billion.



The FTC normally does not announce its investigations, but confirmed the probe after numerous news accounts last week said it had been opened.



Acting consumer protection chief Tom Pahl said the FTC "is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers. Foremost among these tools is enforcement action against companies that fail to honor their privacy promises," including adherence to a joint U.S.-European privacy accord, "or that engage in unfair acts that cause substantial injury to consumers in violation" of U.S. consumer protections.



Facebook's privacy practices are being questioned on both sides of the Atlantic after revelations that Cambridge Analytica got the cache of information about Facebook users from British researcher Alexsandr Kogan, who had been authorized by Facebook to collect the data as part of an academic study.

Kogan developed an app on which 270,000 Facebook users supplied information about themselves. In all, because of extensive links of friends and associates to the 270,000 Facebook users, 50 million Facebook users may have had their personal data compromised.



Britain has opened an investigation of Cambridge Analytica and seized data from its London headquarters.



German Justice Minister Katarina Barley met Monday with Facebook officials, later calling for stricter regulation and tougher penalties for companies like Facebook.



"Facebook admitted abuses and excesses in the past and gave assurances that measures since taken mean they can't happen again," she said. "But promises aren't enough. In the future we will have to regulate companies like Facebook much more strictly."



Facebook said Monday it remains "strongly committed" to protecting people's information and would answer the FTC's questions.



Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday apologized to Facebook users in full-page ads in nine British and U.S. for the massive "breach of trust" by the company.



Zuckerberg did not mention Cambridge Analytica, which was paid $6 million by U.S. President Donald Trump's successful 2016 presidential campaign for the White House to develop voter profiles.



Zuckerberg said in the ads, "This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time" when Kogan passed on the Facebook data to Cambridge Analytica."We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again."



"We have a responsibility to protect your information," Zuckerberg said. "If we can't, we don't deserve it."Indonesia's strict crackdown on illegal foreign fishing boats is paying off, according to new research.

Kicking out interlopers has relieved pressure on the country's overtaxed fisheries at no cost to its domestic industry, the study says, and may point the way for other countries to make their fisheries more sustainable.

About a third of the world's commercial fish populations are overfished, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

One study estimated that restoring depleted fisheries would ultimately generate $53 billion in additional annual profits.

But reducing overfishing usually means putting unpopular restrictions on local fishers to allow populations to recover.

"Telling fishers to stop fishing for a few months or years would be something that's not that realistic," said study lead author Ren Cabral at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Violators will be sunk

But in Indonesia, as in many developing countries, locals are only part of the equation. Many foreign vessels fished the country's waters, often illegally.

The study notes that the country lost an estimated $4 billion per year to illegal fishing before 2014, when the government banned foreign fishing vessels in its waters.

Since then, more than 300 ships found violating the ban were evacuated and sunk.

Cabral and colleagues wanted to see what the impact had been.

Using government registries, vessel tracking data and satellite imagery, they saw a drop of more than 90 percent in the time foreign vessels spent in Indonesian waters. That meant at least a quarter less fishing activity overall.

"That's huge," Cabral said.

The study is published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

"You have a large benefit, but the cost to local people is zero," said marine biologist Boris Worm at Dalhousie University, who was not involved with this research.

Do this first

"This paper argues, I think convincingly, that this is the first thing you should do: if you want to fix fisheries in your country, first, kick out the fishers that don't need to be there," he added.

Worm notes that the study could only account for large vessels that are required to carry tracking equipment. It could not assess what smaller vessels are doing.

"You're really only seeing the tip of the iceberg," he said. "The tip of the iceberg is getting smaller, which is good in this case. But there are a whole lot of problems below."

With foreign fishing boats out of the way, local fishers are filling in the gap. If not managed properly, they could undo the benefits of fighting illegal fishing, Cabral said.

If Indonesia continues to ban illegal fishing and also manages local fishing sustainably, the study estimates profits would be 12 percent higher in 2035 compared to today.

On the other hand, if local fishing remains unchanged, 2035 profits would drop by half as fish populations declined.



"The next step would be Indonesia managing their local fishing effort," Cabral added. "If they do that, they can definitely get the benefit from their policies."On March 23, TV viewers in Pakistan saw something they had never seen before a transgender anchor presenting the news in prime time.



Despite this giant leap, Marvia Malik, the first and only transgender news anchor in the country, said the difficulties faced by people like her in Pakistan are far from over.



"I am a journalism degree holder, but I faced the same difficulties [as] the transgender people who simply beg or dance in the streets," Malik told VOA in a phone interview.



In a country such as Pakistan, it is common to mock transgender people, who are expected to earn their livelihood mainly by dancing, begging or working in the sex trade.



The most daunting task for them is getting a respectable job. But Malik said if more entrepreneurs and businesses showed more courage in breaking the social taboos as her employer, "Kohenoor News," things can change.



"Like other trans people, I did not get any support from my family.On my own, I did some menial jobs and continued my studies. I had always wanted to be a news anchor, and my dream came true when I got selected," she said.



Junaid Ansari, owner of the TV station, told VOA that Malik was not selected because the station wanted to make a point about breaking taboos. Ansari said he instructed his team to make the selection on the basis of merit and not gender.



"We had asked aspiring news presenters to come for the auditions. I got a call from one of my team members who said that one of the applicants was a transgender," Ansari said.



There was some pushback from his team, but Ansari stuck to his decision.



"They are human beings, too, and they should be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. I purely made the decision on the basis of treating all humans equally.The thought of challenging the social norms or breaking taboos did not even come to my mind," Ansari said.



Ansari said feedback regarding Malik's hiring has been mostly positive, though the station has received some negative feedback.



In Pakistan's Twittersphere and other social media platforms, people are praising Malik's selection, calling it a step in the right direction.



Earlier this month, Pakistan's Senate approved a bill for the protection of transgender rights. The bill asked the government to ensure employment opportunities and easy installment loans for transgender people.



According to the 2017 census, there are over 10,000 transgender people in Pakistan, a number some people say is much higher.



In the meantime, Malik is enjoying her instant fame.



"There is a lot of difference between the pre- and post-March 23 Marvia. It had to happen.The change had to come," she said.

Kenya has agreed to accelerate a health agreement it signed with Cuba last year and bring 100 doctors from the country to fill gaps in Kenyan hospitals. Fifty Kenyan doctors will also be sent to Cuba for specialized training.

The Kenyan government says the deal to import Cuban doctors would help counter gaps in Kenya's medical facilities.

Kenya Cabinet Secretary for Health Sicily Kariuki explains.

The target is to bring 100 specialized doctors from Cuba. One is because of the HR resource gap that we have," said Kariuki. "We are careful not to crowd the place with general doctors and therefore the aim of my ministry is to bring forward critical care physicians at that level - family physicians, physicists, oncologists and surgeons dealing with plastic reconstructive surgery, dealing with orthopedic surgery and dealing with neurosurgery.

Each Kenyan county is expected to get at least two of the specialist doctors.

But Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union chairman Samuel Oroko says the move will not address the systemic dysfunction in Kenya's health system.

There are no drugs, theaters are not functioning, laboratories are not functioning, so even if they come and the systems are not functioning, they are coming just to be idle and they may not get equipment to use to train our own," said Oroko. "So we need to look at all angles of our health system, not just bringing them because of bringing, but to ensure the system is functional so that they can operate.

The agreement will also see Kenya work with Cuba on collaborative research projects, training for healthcare workers, and collaborations in fields such as genetic engineering and biotech work.

Former Kenyan Minister of Medical Services, Professor Anyang Nyongo, visited Cuba and says Kenya will benefit from the agreement.

As health minister I came here and we were trying to work things together and I actually proposed some things that we needed to do, for example malaria vector control, collaborating with teaching, engineering, and a biotechmology center, but unfortunately we did not get far," said Nyongo. "What gives me satisfaction this time is that the president is determined we implement these long standing proposals of collaboration between us and Cuba.

Oroko says the medical union is not against any collaboration or partnership with other governments.

Our appeal and advice is that as we consider bringing expertise from other countries, we need to exhaust what we have locally," said Oroko. "And if we lack capacity locally we should focus on training our own so that they can be able to manage the patients in Kenya.

The union says more than 1,200 Kenyan doctors have been unemployed since May 2017.

Equally we do have a number of doctors who have qualified, both general practitioners and specialists, who have not been employed and they are Kenyans," said Oroko.

Kariuki says there are plans to absorb the graduate doctors into the healthcare system, but she says Kenya would still not be able to meet the recommended doctor to patient ratio.

Oroko says about 4,300 doctors work in the public sector for Kenya's 38.6 million people.

There is the required number of doctors we are supposed to have per facility, and it is public knowledge, the WHO requires that we have one doctor per 1,000 patients in any given population, currently in Kenya we have one doctor per 24,000 patients," said Oroko. "... Where are they going to get the money to employ the ones coming from Cuba?"

The union blocked attempts by the government to bring in doctors from Tanzania at the height of its three month strike last year. The agreement ending the strike called for pay increases and medical rick allowances.Ousted President Robert Mugabe won't be on Zimbabwes election ballot this year for the first time in many years, but analysts say President Emmerson Mnangagwa will still have to campaign in the shadow of the 94-year-old's lasting presence.

At his first press conference this week since being ousted last November, Zimbabwes former president, Robert Mugabe, spent most of his time attacking his successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who he accused of betrayal and removing him through a coup.

"I do not hate Emmerson. I brought him into government, I would want to work with him, but he must be proper," he said. "He is improper where he is, illegal. We must undo this disgrace, which we have imposed on ourselves. We dont deserve it. Zimbabwe doesnt deserve it. We must obey the law. People must be chosen to be in government in a proper way. I am willing to discuss, but I must be invited in a proper way. 

Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe for 37 years, said he was lonely and ruled out running in this years elections, expected between July and August. President Mnangagwas office dismissed claims Friday that Mugabe had been forced to resign.

At his 94th birthday celebration, Mugabe complained about the way he was being treated by his predecessor. That led President Mnangagwa to say, The former president, we see in the media about speculation about his various activities. In no time, the facts and reality will be known. But currently, we arent happy with what the media is saying. But its an issue we are examining.

Since then ZANU-PF, the party Mugabe formed in the 1960s, has denounced him.

Those are ruling ZANU-PF youths, saying Down with Mugabe, something similar to what Mugabe would say about his political enemy just a few months ago.



But analyst Alexander Rusero of Harare Polytechnic College School of Journalism has this advice for President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, who is affectionately known as E.D. in Zimbabwe.

The best advice I can give to E.D. is to remain calm," he said. "Not to engage in reactionary politics. Because when Mugabe sneezes, they catch cold. They will be playing into his hands. His strategy will be working. Because they [Mnangagwa] have made regional, international community consent, regardless of the way they took power. And any form of reaction would jeopardize what they have achieved in a short period of time.

Mnangagwa came to power in November riding on military pressure that forced Mugabe to end his rule of Zimbabwe. Mugabe has since said he will back Mnangagwa's opposition made up of Mugabe's allies within the ZANU-PF party.A delegation of Indian CEOs visiting Myanmar and the launch of a new India-Myanmar business chamber in Yangon have sought to inject life into stagnant economic ties between the two neighboring countries.

Since 2011, when the military junta launched political and economic reforms, Myanmars future prosperity has been predicated on its strategic location between India and China, two giant economies and population centers.

Yet, while China has poured billions into mega infrastructure and energy projects and continues to dominate trade with Myanmar, flagship Indian infrastructure projects in western Myanmar have run behind schedule and over budget.

Bilateral trade  topped by beans and pulses from Myanmar and sugar and medicines from India  has hovered around the $2 billion mark since 2011, less than a fifth of the trade volume with China and falling well below targets set by a Joint Trade Committee. Though Myanmars fourth largest trade partner, India is only its eleventh largest investor.

At an India-Myanmar Business Conclave on March 22 in Yangon, Myanmars commercial capital, Indian company directors mingled with Myanmar business leaders while senior government officials mixed frank acknowledgements of underperformance with affirmations of Myanmars potential.

Indias Minister of Commerce and Industry C.R. Chaudhary said, Myanmar is our gateway to Southeast Asia, recalling two pillars of Indias foreign policy, Act East and Neighborhood First, and stressed the need to remove trade barriers.

Next at the podium, Myanmars Deputy Minister for Commerce Aung Htoo, talked of boosting India-Myanmar trade to 5 billion over the next three years, as part of a Myanmar government plan made in 2016 to triple all exports by 2020.

Taking time

Speaking to VOA on the sidelines, Gaurav Manghnani, the Myanmar country head of Credera, a trading and investment company with roots in Myanmars Indian diaspora, said he didnt share in the growing pessimism of other foreign investors over the slow pace of economic reform in Myanmar.

If theyre taking time to get the reforms underway and making sure these reforms are here to stay and forward looking, they wont make the mistakes other countries have, he said, citing the lengthy delay in the implementation of the new Companies Act, a law that allows for larger foreign stakes in local companies, as the best thing that could happen.

He acknowledged that India-Myanmar trade has been stagnant at this level for a while now. To push it beyond the current volume of 2 billion requires something different to be done.

Yet, beyond the formal launching of the new India-Myanmar Chamber of Commerce  aimed at speeding up interaction between Indian and Myanmar businessmen and advising on tie-ups  the March 22 conclave did not feature announcements of new investments or major breakthroughs in deepening ties.

Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Vikram Misri said that work was nearing the final stage in two separate infrastructure projects being built on Indian government grants.

These are a section of the Trilateral Highway, running from northeast India across Myanmar to Thailand, and the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, linking Indias eastern seaport of Kolkata to its landlocked northeastern states via ports, inland water terminals and roads in Myanmars Rakhine and Chin states.

Speaking separately to VOA, the ambassador said he expected both projects, conceived respectively in 2002 and 2008, to be finished in 2021. Meanwhile, agreements on the legal movement of people and vehicles across the land border are still under negotiation.

Protectionism

One obstacle to closer ties is the measures taken by India to prop up its own market. In August last year, when monsoon rains produced a bumper harvest in India, causing local prices to plummet, the government imposed quotas on Myanmar beans and pulses, which account for more than 75 percent of Myanmars exports to India.

Myanmars Deputy Commerce Minister said at the conclave, Due to recent restrictions by quota from India, Myanmar farmers have suffered a lot this year. Id like to ask the Government of India to increase the quotas for Myanmar pulses and beans.

Ambassador Misri defended the move to VOA, saying, Its not protectionism for the sake of being protectionist. It is something that is in fact foreseen under the WTO mechanisms in terms of protecting against surges and adverse market conditions.

It would have been a calamitous situation for imports to have continued and for the market price to fall even further, he said, adding, The longer term answer to this is a diversification of the trade basket that Myanmar has with regard to India.

Vikram Nehru, a professor at the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, told VOA he was skeptical Indian investment in Myanmar would take off.

India is an inward looking economy. Its one of the most protected markets in the world. India is not part of the global or regional value chain, unlike China or Japan, he said.

Most Indian investments abroad, he explained, are designed to tap into their host markets, and the Myanmar market remains comparatively small and risky.

Why would Indian firms be interested? Theyd much rather set up in the Indian market of 1.3 billion people, with a per capita income that is higher than Myanmars, he said.Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont appeared in a German court Monday after he was arrested in compliance with an international arrest warrant issued by Spain over his region's campaign for independence.

German lawyers said that the court's decision on whether to extradite Puigdemont to Spain could take days.

Puigdemont spent the night in jail after he was arrested by German police Sunday while crossing the border from Denmark.

Puigdemont's lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, confirmed the arrest on Twitter, adding Puigdemont was traveling to Belgium, where he initially fled after an arrest warrant was issued against him for his role in an independence referendum in October.

Sunday was also marked by violent protests in the semi-autonomous region of Catalonia, where nearly 100 people were treated for minor injuries following clashes between pro-separatists protesters and riot police.

The arrest follows a Spanish Supreme Court decision Friday to charge 13 Catalan separatist leaders with rebellion and other crimes for their attempt to declare independence from Spain last year. The ousted Catalan leader could face up to 25 years in Spanish prison.

Madrid invoked special powers to take over the regional government after the Catalan administration declared independence in October.Adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Donald Trump before he was elected president, told the CBS news show 60 Minutes that she was threatened when she tried to tell her story and accepted hush money through a Trump attorney because she was scared for her family.



Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said in the highly anticipated interview Sunday that she was on her way to a fitness class with her infant daughter when she was approached by a stranger.



"A guy walked up on me and said to me, Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,' " Daniels told journalist Anderson Cooper. "And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.' And then he was gone."



The incident, in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011, occurred shortly after she first tried to sell her story to a tabloid magazine. She said the incident made her fearful for years and that she thought she was doing the right thing when she accepted $130,000 from Trump attorney Michael Cohen to stay quiet.



After The Wall Street Journal reported on the payment, Daniels told Cooper that she lied when she signed a statement denying the affair. When asked why, Daniels said she was bullied into it. "They made it sound like I had no choice," she said. While there was not any threat of physical violence at the time, she said, she was worried about other repercussions. "The exact sentence used was, They can make your life hell in many different ways.'"



She said she didn't know who could make her life hell, but that she believed "it to be Michael Cohen."



Cohen has denied threatening Daniels, and refused a request to appear on 60 Minutes.

Late Sunday, a lawyer representing Cohen issued a letter demanding a retraction and an apology by Daniels, saying Cohen "had absolutely nothing whatsoever" to do with someone threatening her and that he "does not even believe that any such person exists."



Daniels' appearance represents back-to-back trouble for Trump after an interview broadcast last week on CNN with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who described a 10-month long affair with Trump starting in 2006.



McDougal has sued to break free of a confidentiality agreement that was struck in the months before the 2016 election, for which she was paid $150,000.



Daniels sued the president on March 6, stating Trump never signed an agreement for her to keep quiet about their relationship.



Both women say their relationships with Trump began in 2006 and ended in 2007 and that they were paid for their silence in the months before the 2016 presidential election.



Representatives of Trump have dismissed the allegations of McDougal and Daniels, saying that the affairs never happened and that Trump had no knowledge of any payments.



Ahead of the interview, the president and first lady have opted to be in different states. Trump returned to Washington from Palm Beach on Sunday, while Melania will remain in Florida on a pre-scheduled spring break, her communicators director said.Police in Ethiopia have arrested several prominent dissidents, some of whom were released from prison just weeks earlier.



Journalist Eskinder Nega, blogger Befekadu Hailu and opposition politician Andualem Arage were among those detained Sunday, according to lawyer Ameha Mekonnen.



Mekonnen, who has represented some of the detainees in the past, said the arrests occurred at a social event outside the capital, Addis Ababa.



He said the group was accused of displaying an outdated Ethiopian flag that is popular among people opposed to the ruling EPRDF coalition, and gathering in violation of an official state of emergency.



Authorities declared the state of emergency in mid-February after Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced he will resign. The EPRDF is expected to soon announce his successor.



Ethiopia has been rocked by three years of large, sometimes violent anti-government protests, mainly in the Oromia and Amhara regions.



Rights groups accuse the EPRDF of repressive, one-party rule. The coalition controls all the seats in Ethiopias 547-member parliament.



The government recently released more than 6,000 prisoners arrested under a controversial anti-terrorism law in an effort to halt the demonstrations.U.S. firearms and ammunition manufacturer Remington has filed for bankruptcy protection in order to reorganize its operations and put in place a debt reduction deal with its creditors.

The company filed its petition for the so-called Chapter 11 bankruptcy Sunday, six weeks after announcing an agreement to reduce its $950 million in debts while transferring ownership.

Remington's filing listed both its debts and assets between $500 million and $1 billion.

The company is one of the largest firearms makers in the United States and has been in business for 200 years.

But its sales have been slumping, dropping from $865 million in 2016 to $602 million last year. In 2013, it reported more than $1.2 billion in total sales.

A February document describing the restructuring plan estimated sales will rebound in the coming years, returning to more than $800 million by 2021.

A company report released in October of last year said the decline was due to a number of factors, including "reduced consumer demand and excess inventories," as well as changes in buying behaviors and a rise in imported products.

It also discussed various government proposals to increase gun regulations, warning that if they were to become law "the cost to the company and its customers could be significant."

That report, and Remington's restructuring plan, came before the most recent mass shooting in the United States, a February attack at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead.

Since that shooting, there has been an increase in calls for more gun control. Several major retailers have instituted changes in gun sales policies that range from stopping gun sales to raising the minimum age of those eligible to purchase firearms.

Banking giant Citigroup also announced it would require new retail clients to insist on background checks for gun purchases as well as a ban on sales to people under the age of 21. The state of Florida similarly enacted a new law limiting gun purchases to those age 21 and older.

Many Americans believe current gun laws are appropriate or too strict, while a new poll indicates growing support for stricter measures.

The poll by the The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released Friday said 69 percent of Americans support stricter gun control, up from 61 percent in October 16 and 55 percent when the poll first asked the question in October 2013.A reshuffled Slovak government led by Peter Pellegrini won a parliamentary confidence vote Monday, a month after the murder of an investigative journalist sparked mass protests and forced long-serving leader Robert Fico to resign.

The new government won 81 votes in the 150-member parliament.

Fico, prime minister for 10 of the last 12 years, bowed out this month amid protests and calls for an early election, handing the three-party ruling coalition to Pellegrini, a long-time senior member of the ruling Smer party.

The new cabinet has adopted its predecessor's agenda, including plans to reach a balanced budget by 2020. It underwent six personnel changes but only added two people who have not previously held any government post.

Pellegrini has pledged to keep Slovakia on a pro-European and pro-NATO path.

Fico had sought to position Slovakia  a country of 5.4 million that is a European Union member since 2004 and part of the eurozone monetary club  as a pro-EU bastion in a euroskeptic region.

The protests in the last month, the biggest since the end of Communist rule in 1989, have been a blow to Fico although he remains Smer party chairman and has vowed to stay in politics.

Kuciak, 27, and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, 27, were killed last month at their home outside Bratislava. A prosecutor said on Monday the murder was likely to have been a contract killing. No one has been charged in the case.

Their killings and Kuciak's last report, which investigated suspected mafia links to Italian businessman in the central European country, swelled public anger over alleged corruption.

In his final report, published posthumously, Kuciak said one of the Italians had past business links with two Slovaks who later worked in Fico's office.

The Italian was briefly detained in the investigation with six others. He was taken into custody March 13 in an unrelated case of suspected drug trafficking.

Both of Fico's aides have resigned but deny connections to the murder. Their Italian former business partner has denied having connections with the mafia and the murder.

Pellegrini's government, which includes the ethnic Hungarian centrist Most-Hid party and center-right Slovak National Party, has already faced public protests though their numbers have fallen. Hundreds protested outside parliament before the vote.

Protesters regard the cabinet shuffle, in which former health minister Tomas Drucker replaced unpopular interior minister Robert Kalinak, as insufficient to safeguard a fair investigation of Kuciak's murder. Smer was often a target of the reporter's journalism.The controversy over the British-based data mining company, Cambridge Analytica, which faces allegations of using the personal data of millions of Facebook followers to influence the U.S. election, is reverberating in India, which is due to hold national elections next year.

The website of the Indian affiliate of Cambridge Analytica, Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI), has been taken down amid a dispute between the countrys two major political parties over using its services.

Both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main opposition Congress Party have denied doing so. However Ovleno's site had listed the BJP, the Congress and a regional party known as the Janata Dal (United) among its clients.

Indias Information Technology Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, last week warned of tough action against social media giants if the data of Indians was misused.

He said India supports freedom of speech, expression and exchange of ideas on social media, but any attempt, covert or overt, by the social media, including Facebook, of trying to influence Indias electoral process through undesirable means will neither be appreciated nor be tolerated.

He said that in the wake of recent data theft from Facebook, the stern warning should be heard across the Atlantic, far away in California.

Minister Prasad asked Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi, to "explain" the role of Cambridge Analytica in his social media outreach and whether the party had engaged in data trade with the firm.

Congress Party spokesman Randeep Sujrewala called the accusation a fake agenda and a white lie. He said it was the BJP that had used the companys services.

Gandhi is expected to be the main opponent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019. Although Modis BJP won a sweeping victory in 2014, many analysts expect next years elections to be a much tighter race.

Domestic media reports have said that Cambridge Analytica and its India partner have been in talks with both the Congress and the BJP for a possible collaboration for their 2019 Lok Sabha election campaigns.

On its website, the Indian affiliate of Cambridge Analytica had said it offered services such as "political campaign management," which includes social media strategy, election campaign management and mobile media management.

Internet experts say India is extremely vulnerable to the misuse of personal data during elections.

It's become a source of micro-targeting. At scale when you can dissect this data and customize messages to individual people to prey on their fears, that kind of campaign is always possible, said Nikhil Pahwa, a digital rights activist and founder of digital news portal MediaNama.

The problem is not with one entity [such as Cambridge Analytica] but a system which allows it," Pahwa said, pointing out that there is too much data floating around.

In an interview with CNN, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said Facebook was committed to stopping interference in the U.S. midterm election in November and elections in India and Brazil.Britain and Russia have been waging a fast and furious information war since former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found poisoned March 4 in the provincial English town of Salisbury.

Not a day has gone by without at least one fierce exchange between British and Russian officials  and both governments have turned to social media, from Twitter to Facebook, to make accusations and counter-claims in their efforts to convince a global audience of guilt or innocence.

And the barbs flying have been getting more personal. The British narrative has been more consistent, demanding an explanation from Moscow for why a Soviet-developed nerve agent, Novichok, was used to poison the Skripals and arguing the only plausible one is that the attempted assassination was sanctioned by the Russian government, a view endorsed by European Union leaders last week and by the U.S. government.

Russian officials have offered more than 20 different explanations about who might have been behind the nerve-agent poisoning of the Skripals or why Russia is innocent of the charge of being behind the assassination attempt. Western officials charge this changing of stories is designed to muddy the waters and sow doubt.

Russian explanations have ranged from claims the British might have done it themselves to accusations that the whole incident was made up. Kremlin officials have insinuated also that Sweden, Slovakia or the Czech Republic may be to blame, earning sharp rebukes from the governments of all three European countries. The Russian finger has pointed at Uzbekistan and Ukraine, too.

The authorities of UK are not interested in finding the truth about the Skripal case, they have other motives, lamented the Russian Mission to the United Nations on Twitter last week. They are using propaganda war tools to influence an uninformed and impressionable public. There are no facts, only allegations about the 'Russian trace, the mission added.

On Saturday, the Russian emphasis returned once again to implying that Britain itself was behind the assassination bid, with officials noting that Porton Down, the British military research facility, is only about 10 miles from where the Skripals were discovered. The shifting Russian narratives give Moscow some advantages in the information war, say analysts.

Russia feels free to say whatever it wants, it doesnt feel need to tell truth, be consistent, or stick to any norms or rules, says a communications strategist, who has worked for the British government. These are handicaps in a battle like this, he adds. Britain doesnt have the same centralized, aggressive messaging machinery the Kremlin has, he notes.

Social media battle

Moscow has also launched an extensive social media-based disinformation campaign to buttress it claims of innocence as well as to press its accusations that London is in the grip of Russophobia, say Western analysts.

Twitter has become a battleground, says Ben Nimmo, an analyst with the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council, a New York-based think tank. Supporters and defenders of the Russian government have clashed over who was to blame, and which side to believe; politicians and diplomats have joined in on both sides with much of the invective organic and driven by angry users and officials, he says.

But Russias so-called troll factories have also been at work using fake and automated social media accounts able to spread rapidly memes and messages.

Atlantic Council researchers have been plotting the activity of accounts that have been used in other Kremlin disinformation campaigns  notably during the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine. One tactic they have spotted is the large-scale amplification by Russias troll accounts of doubts or criticism posted by genuine British critics of the British government or conspiracy theorists in a bid to show that Britons did not believe Russian leader Vladimir Putin was behind the poisoning.

British officials estimate at least 2,800 robotic troll accounts have posted messages or re-tweets about the attempted assassination of the Skripals reaching at least 7.5 million people in Britain. Facebook also has witnessed a large volume of postings of English-language content produced by Russian state-owned media.

Russias Twitter campaign shows the power which anonymous trolls with demonstrably falsified profiles continue to wield online, says Nimmo.

British officials have sought to expose the methodology behind what they say is Russias online disinformation campaign, posting on social media sites last week a video mocking the shifting narratives their Russian rivals have offered for what happened to the Skripals.

Not that Britains information approach is receiving unblemished praise. On Saturday, a former British envoy to Moscow, Tony Brenton, said while he supported the actions taken by the British government over the Skripal poisoning, he worried the language use, especially by Britain foreign secretary Boris Johnson, who has compared Putin to Adolf Hitler, was unnecessarily virulent.

He told a British newspaper: Obviously we have to react robustly and firmly to deal with the Skripal outrage, but at some point we are going to have to get back to doing business with Russia. We should certainly be taking action that minimizes the recurrence of [a similar] attack, but we should not be burning our bridges so much that we cannot re-establish lines of communication.

There is also criticism of Johnson in the Russian capital from British expatriates who say his comparisons of Russia now with Nazi Germany of the 1930s and 1940s is deeply offensive, noting that the Great Patriotic War, as Russians describe the Second World War, is something people from across the spectrum here celebrate.Freedom of the press and freedom of expression are among the most controversial issues in Turkey.

In the past decade, some mainstream media outlets have been sold to businessmen and groups with ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is also the head of the ruling AKP party. AKP has been ruling Turkey for 15 years.

After the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, some of the remaining media outlets, critical of Erdogan, were shut down, allegedly for having ties with terror groups.

The Turkish Journalists Association said that as of January 2018, 154 journalists had been jailed in the country, making it one of the largest jailers of journalists.

The recent sale of the largest media group in Turkey  Dogan Media Group  to a conglomerate with close ties to Erdogan has heightened concerns about the future of an independent media in Turkey.

Dogan Media, which has an operating value of $1.1 billion, was sold last week to Demiroren Holding for an undisclosed sum.

Dogan Media also owns a number of TV and radio stations, which include CNN Turk, as well as one of the highest-circulating newspapers, Hurriyet. CNN Turk has a license agreement with U.S.-based CNN International to carry its brand.

After the sale, media reports questioned if CNN would withdraw its brand name from CNN Turk.

Asked about the controversy, Jonathan Hawkins, CNN vice president for communications, told VOA Turkish Service, "We will be meeting with the new owners in due course to discuss the implications of the sale."

CCNN Turk was established in 1999 as a joint venture of Turner Media and Dogan Media Group. CNN Turk and CNN+ in Spain are two joint ventures CNN has taken outside of the U.S. with the CNN logo. Both of these TV stations can use the CNN logo and some of the contents provided by CNN Network via their license agreement with the CNN International. CNN Turk is broadcast under the Dogan Media Group umbrella.

Hawkins did not comment on the future relationship between CNN and CNN Turk once they are under Demiroren's management.

Demiroren had also purchased two major newspapers  Vatan and Milliyet  from the Dogan group in the past. When Dogan acquired the daily Vatan in 2008, the state-run Turkish Competition Authority ruled that Dogan Media had to re-sell Vatan within two years because the purchase violated antitrust laws regarding print media.

The purchase of Dogan Media by Demiroren, however, will create a new monopoly over print and visual media in Turkey.

"This sale means the death of pluralism and independent journalism in Turkey's mainstream media," said Erol Onderoglu, the Turkey representative for media freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.

Another daily newspaper, Cumhuriyet, whose editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu recently was released from jail after being held 496 days, ran the headline: "One man, one voice."

CNN vs. Fox News

Meanwhile, the sale of CNN Turk to a pro-government group has also become the focus of a clash between CNN and Fox News.

CNN president Jeff Zucker last week in New York criticized Fox News for its alleged pro-Trump coverage.

"It is really state-run TV. It is a pure propaganda machine, and I think does an incredible disservice to this country," Zucker said.

When responding to CNN's criticism, Fox News pointed to CNN Turk as an example of state-run media.

"Today, probably as Zucker was speaking, controlling interest in CNN Turk, CNN's cable station in Turkey, was sold to an arm of the regime," Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson said. "Jeff Zucker's network is now, in effect, in business with an authoritarian, Islamist and highly anti-American Erdogan government."

Carlson said with that sale, CNN Turk literally became state-run TV.The son of Angola's former president was charged Sunday with fraud related to a $500 million transfer from the country's central bank to Britain.

Jose Filomeno dos Santos, former head of Angola's $5 billion sovereign wealth fund and son of former longtime president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, was charged with fraud. He has been barred from leaving the country.

Valter Filipe da Silva, former governor of the central bank, was also charged with fraud.

Dos Santos is the highest-profile figure to be charged since his father, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, left office in September after ruling the oil-rich Southern African nation for over three decades.

British authorities who froze the $500 million in the U.K. because they found the transaction suspicious have said that the money can be returned to Angola, Reuters reported.

Current president Joao Lourenco succeeded Jose Eduardo and promptly removed Jose Filomeno from his post as board chairman of Angola's sovereign wealth fund. Lourenco also fired the former president's daughter from her position as chair of the powerful state-owned oil company.Former South African President Jacob Zuma is to appear in court on April 6 to face corruption charges.

Police said Zuma was issued a summons Monday, continuing a dramatic fall for the former president who was forced to leave office last month after his party turned against him.

South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority said earlier this month it would seek to prosecute Zuma on 16 charges, including fraud, racketeering, corruption and money laundering.

The charges relate to an arms deal in the 1990s and were originally thrown out nearly a decade ago before Zuma successfully ran for president in 2009.

Zuma was deputy president at the time of the arms deal. His former financial adviser, Schabir Shaikh, was found guilty in 2005 of trying to solicit brides for Zuma from a French arms company. Zuma has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Lawyers for Zuma said they will appeal the reinstatement of the charges.

Zuma's presidency was marred by scandals, allegations of corruption and an economic slowdown, leading to his forced resignation Feb. 14.The Taliban has destroyed a major electricity tower in northern Afghanistan, disrupting imported power supply to five provinces, including Kabul.

The pre-dawn insurgent subversive action occurred in the province of Baghlan, plunging a vast area into darkness, including much of the Afghan capital.

Residents, businesses and offices in Kabul, a city of nearly five million people, faced frequent power cuts Monday and used private generators to run essential operations.

Provincial governor, Abdul Hai Naimati, told VOA a team of technicians was at the site and repair work was underway.

Afghanistan imports about 300 megawatts of electricity for these provinces from neighboring Central Asian states of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Officials at state-run De Afghanistan Breshna Shirkat electricity providing authority told VOA the Taliban attack disrupted supply to Kabul, Parwan, Maidan Wardak, Ghazni and Ningarhar provinces.

The Taliban had warned last week it would cut the electricity transmission if power supply to insurgent-controlled areas in Baghlan was not restored.

The insurgents had destroyed a major tower in Baghlans Dand-i-Shahabuddin district in about two years ago, cutting power supply to Kabul and other areas for nearly six weeks.

The Taliban currently controls or contests nearly 45 percent of the Afghan territory, according to latest U.S. military assessments.

Monday's insurgent activity occurred as delegations from regional and countries around the world gathered in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, for a conference on peace building efforts in Afghanistan.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will address the meeting his country is co-hosting with Uzbekistan.

The Taliban has ignored Ghani's unconditional offer of peace talks he announced last month at the Kabul Process international meeting.Dozens of high school students in Wisconsin have a message for U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and they are going to his hometown to deliver it.

The teens set off from Madison to march more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) to Janesville to tell Ryan: Pass meaningful gun reform legislation now.

The four-day march organized by Shorewood High School students is called 50 Miles More.

They will walk about 12 miles a day during their spring break, starting Sunday and ending with a rally outside Ryan's office Wednesday.

The march "is directed toward Paul Ryan for his lead role in blocking and burying any change of gun reform again and again, the 50 Miles More website says. "We are ready to keep up the pressure on our nation's top leaders until gun reform is a priority for Republicans and Democrats. We are not afraid.

It is no coincidence that the march began Sunday, exactly 53 years after Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. led thousands into Montgomery, Alabama to conclude a five-day. 54-mile march that began in Selma.

We looked to history and an earlier generation of young leaders who fueled real change, the website says. In 1965, civil rights leaders organized the multi-day, 54-mile Selma to Montgomery marches. Those 54 miles took us a long way toward progress, and are the inspiration for this march.

The march had swelled to more than 40 people by Monday.

Ryan, who along with other members of Congress is on a two-week recess, was out of the country on Monday on an official visit to the Czech Republic.

Last month he told a news conference that congressional Republicans were not interested in preventing Americans from owning certain types of weapons.

We shouldn't be banning guns from law-abiding citizens, he said at the time.U.S. stocks surged Monday as fears eased about the possibility of an all-out trade war with China over competing tariff increases.

Wall Street's three major indexes had their greatest one day gains in two-and-a-half years, erasing some of the market's huge losses last week.

The closely watched Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 key stocks jumped by more than 2.8 percentage points in Monday's trading, the S&P 500 gained more than 2.7 percentage points, and the Nasdaq Composite added nearly 3.8 points.

Earlier, Asian stocks were mixed, while European indexes were down for the day.

Global markets plummeted last week after U.S. President Donald Trump announced tariffs on $60 billion worth of Chinese imports in an effort to trim $100 billion off the $375 billion trade deficit the U.S. recorded last year with China. Beijing immediately vowed to retaliate with higher import duties on U.S. goods.

But there were signs Monday of easing of tensions between the world's two biggest economies.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told CNBC that U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer are talking with Chinese officials about trade issues between the two countries. Mnuchin told Fox News he was "cautiously hopeful" that the U.S. would reach a deal to keep China from imposing tariffs on $50 billion worth of U.S. exports.

The Trump administration is asking China to lower tariffs on U.S. car exports and open its markets to U.S. financial service companies. Bloomberg News reported that Mnuchin called China's Liu He to congratulate him on his appointment as China's vice premier for economic policy and that the two officials discussed ways the two countries could mutually agree to close the wide trading gap between the two countries.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said China would be willing to meet with U.S. officials to work out the two countries' trade issues, while China's foreign ministry urged the U.S. to "stop economic intimidation" over tariffs.

While avoiding mention of the tariff dispute and last week's sharp drop in stock prices, Trump boasted about the performance of the U.S. economy.

"The economy is looking really good," he said in a Twitter comment. "It has been many years that we have seen these kind of numbers. The underlying strength of companies has perhaps never been better."Taiwans chief trade negotiator is fighting for an exemption to the import tariff hikes announced this month by U.S. President Donald Trump, a testament to how the measures targeting China would spill over to at least one other major Asian industrialized economy.

John Deng, chief negotiator of the cabinet Office of Trade Negotiations in Taiwan, visited Washington last week to seek exemption from steel tariffs of 25 percent and aluminum tariffs of 10 percent. As of Monday the two sides had not reached agreement.

Taiwan-based producers of parts sold onward to China for final assembly of other goods may pay more as well for exports to the United States, analysts in Taipei say. That scenario will come true if Washington goes ahead with plans announced last week to raise tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese products.

Once the big Sino-U.S. trade war starts, not just the (Taiwan) presidents national security units but also related cabinet departments will all closely monitor it and make good responses, Taiwan Premier William Lai told reporters Friday.

The most important follow-up is that our economic development measures definitely need to be carried out, he said.

Steel in the spotlight

China was the worlds biggest steel producer in 2016, when it churned out half a global total of 1.63 billion tons, World Steel Association data show. Chinas steel imports to the United States total about 0.01 percent of the Chinese GDP that's worth about $12 trillion.

But the U.S. steel tariffs do not target only China. Taiwanese manufacturers would take a hit as exporters of finished steel goods to the United States, analysts say. The United States was Taiwans third largest steel market in 2016, taking 1.1 million metric tons.

Canada and Mexico received temporary exemptions on U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs earlier in the month. Taiwan is trying for the same.

Taiwan might have a harder case because it gets much of its raw material from China, analysts say. Even if Taiwan got an exemption from the United States, raw materials suppliers in China might raise prices to offset U.S. tariffs aimed their way.

Because Taiwan has a lot of companies of that type -- manufacturers of steel and aluminum -- they import raw material from China, and thats the thing that the United States minds the most, said Lin Nan-chun, economist with SinoPac Securities in Taipei.

Sothe firms that import for production in Taiwan and then export to the United States will be rather heavily impacted if exported to the United States," she said.

After returning from the United States Sunday, Taiwans trade negotiator said he was optimistic about getting an exemption, the local Central News Agency reported.

Consumer electronics sourced from Taiwan

Trump's government moved on Thursday from steel to an announcement of increases in tariffs on Chinese imports, across categories, valued at $50 billion. Washington will publish a tentative list of products and seek public comment for 30 days.

The U.S. government may pick consumer electronics from China as part of its tariff-hike phase announced Thursday, analysts in Asia say. That move could affect Taiwanese tech hardware firms -- a pillar of the island's economy -- that are located in China and export to the United States. Hon Hai Precision, for example, assembles iPhones for Apple.

Taiwanese firms also sell precision parts to Chinese electronics developers, which in turn may sell finished goods to the United States.

Semiconductors made up 62.6 percent of Taiwans total high-tech exports in the first 10 months of 2017, according to Ministry of Finance data. Flat panels and wireless transmission devices were the second and third highest of all types of tech hardware. Half of those parts for consumer electronics landed in China, including Hong Kong, during that period.

The main issue is that Taiwans degree of participation in the global supply chain is high, and high participation in the supply chain means we make a lot of intermediate goods, said Liang Kuo-yuan, president of Taipei think tank Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute. So the biggest problem now is that Taiwans intermediate materials used for electronics are extremely high.

If the Trump government raises tariffs on made-in-China petrochemicals, Liang added, it would indirectly hit Taiwan the same way.

Petrochemicals were worth about $60 billion, just under one-third of Taiwans overall manufacturing sector, in 2016.Jean-Pierre Kalamba waved his hand over a map of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African nation that has delayed elections for two years since the president, Joseph Kabila, refused to resign after his term ended in 2016.



Kalamba, an election official, said the government is struggling to raise the $1.8 billion the electoral commission says it needs to run the next poll, set for December 23. The commission's budget goes through the legislature, controlled by Kabila's party  the same people the opposition accuses of delaying the elections.



He added, mistrust between politicians is at fever pitch, nearly every step the commission takes is scrutinized and criticized.



Kalamba said bogging down the process is that Congo is the size of Western Europe, has few paved roads, low literacy levels, and chronic insecurity. He said thousands of candidates are vying for a slice of power, and the 2011 ballot was 53 pages and weighed more than 300 grams.



Anger against the current administration recently bubbled up in city streets, and the government's harsh response, which left at least six protesters dead, has further inflamed tensions.

"We encourage the political process to be open to all and call for citizens to be allowed to assemble without fear of violence or arrest," U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said earlier this year.



But even with election officials saying they're confident they can hold the poll on time, it is likely to be complicated and contentious.



Young, angry voters



Kabila won the 2011 poll, which was criticized by international observers for alleged rigging and violence.



This time about eight million people are first-time voters. Young people have been a visible component of anti-Kabila protests, and in the capital, every young voter VOA encountered spoke of change.



But Kabila's People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy says it's confident of winning the youth vote.



"It's a party that empowers youth, and it's a party that has a rather clear vision of the role youth should play in the development of our country," presidential aide Patrick Nkanga told VOA.



Pressure from the parishes

About of half of Congo's population is Catholic, and the recent Church decision to throw its support behind anti-Kabila protests has ratcheted up tensions.



The church has long provided services the state often fails to provide, like schools and medical care.Church leaders mediated a 2016 political agreement that called for Kabila's resignation and elections in late 2017.



And so, Priest Come Tshamala said he is telling churchgoers Kabila needs to go.



Parishioners have embraced the message. At Saint Francois de Sales parish, congregant Paul Buka says political leaders violated the people's trust by reneging on the church-mediated agreement, giving the faithful no recourse but to protest.



But that has come at a price.At his parish, choir director Manu Bakutu said he watched as his friend, 24-year-old trainee nun Therese Kapangala, was shot by police and died on the street outside the church "in a pool of blood."



Her death, he said, has turned her into a symbol of non-violent resistance.



Suspicions and hopes



Opposition parties are gearing up to draw votes, but cynicism shines through their rhetoric.



"We are the party of hope," Vital Kamerhe, leader of Union for the Congolese Nation told supporters at a Kinshasa rally. But he told VOA afterwards, that hope doesn't extend to faith that the poll will be fair.He noted the electoral commission's Korean-made electronic voting machines are plagued with malfunctions.

Top opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi told VOA at his Kinshasa home, "The voting machines, for us, are cheating machines. These implements are designed to let the candidate who is chosen by Kabila or by the legislature to fabricate a fake majority like they did in 2011."



Who's on top?



Much of the drama also centers around Kabila's next move.



Last month, the nation's communications minister told VOA's French service Kabila would not seek another term. Instead, Lambert Mende said Kabila will announce the name of his chosen successor in July.



But it's that very style of top-down leadership the opposition says needs to end.



Nkanga, the president's aide, says it won't play out like that.



"The next president will be chosen by the people," he said."So we can't say who it might be, right now."



But as Kalamba, the fatigued election official said, mistrust overshadows every step of the elections. When asked whether he thought Kabila might make an appearance on the 2018 ballot limits, Kalamba grew quiet and sighed.



"No comment," he said.The United States on Monday ordered 60 Russian diplomats it accuses of being spies to leave the country within a week. Twenty-two other countries, including France, Germany and Poland, have also expelled a total of 77 Russian "intelligence personnel," according to the White House.

The White House list does not include Australia, which announced (Tuesday) it is expelling two "undeclared intelligence officials."

WATCH: Russian diplomats expelled

The U.S. move, along with the closure of a Russian consulate in the country, is in response to Moscows outrageous violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and breach of international law, involving the nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain, according to the State Department.

Britain, other Western nations and NATO also blame Russia for the March 4 chemical attack in Salisbury.

Russia has been sounding a drum beat of destabilizing and aggressive actions, said a senior U.S. official, explaining the White House actions.

The United States is ordering the closure, by April 2, of Russias consulate in the Pacific port city of Seattle in the state of Washington, noting its close proximity to the Boeing aircraft plant and the Kitsap Naval Base, the home port for some ballistic nuclear missile submarines.

The consulate is part of this broader problem of an unacceptably high number of Russian operatives in the United States and we are prepared to take additional steps, if necessary, a senior administration official told reporters shortly before Mondays announcement.

President Donald Trump, who spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Tuesday, has been involved in the discussions to expel the diplomats, according to officials.

This is absolutely his decision, emphasized a senior U.S. official in the call with reporters.

The president spoke with many foreign leaders, our European allies and others, and encouraged them to join the United States in this announcement, White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told reporters. He added the action is significant in degrading their intelligence capabilities around the world, not just in the United States.

Shah repeatedly stated the Trump administration stands ready to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian governments behavior.

Some, however, want Trump, considered by his critics to be too soft on Russia, to take a more assertive public role.

The top Democratic Party member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engel, says Mondays strong U.S. response to the attack makes even more bizarre the Administrations weak response to Russias ongoing attack right here in the United States. He says the administration needs to stand up for our own democracy.

Republican Senator John McCain says that while the Trump's decision sends an important signal to Moscow, the only way to ensure Putin and his cronies feel the consequences of their brazen actions is by punishing them financially.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, an Atlantic Council distinguished fellow, agrees, telling VOA: Russian fingerprints were clearly on this attack, and a stiff response was necessary. I personally think an even tougher response is still justified, including some of the targeted sanctions on the big oligarchs that are close to Putin to show that those who support a system that sponsors aggression of this kind will pay an increasing price if this keeps, if this keeps going.

The expulsion order covers 48 Russians at embassies and consulates in the United States and 12 assigned to Moscows mission at the United Nations in New York City who abused their privilege of residence, according to a senior U.S. official.

When we see these espionage tactics that are taking place right here at the heart of the UN we cant have that, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told reporters. This is really not just us, but multiple countries saying all these actions have to stop.

All those being expelled are considered spies who hide behind the veneer of diplomatic immunity while engaging in espionage activities, according to a senior administration official.

If Russia retaliates against the United States for the expulsions, Washington could take further action, according to a senior U.S. official, hinting that some of the dozens of other suspected Russian spies allowed to remain in the country could also face banishment.

Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a Salisbury park bench. They remain hospitalized in serious condition.

We assess that more than 130 people in Salisbury could have been potentially exposed to this nerve agent, British Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement delivered Monday to parliament.

Moscow denies any involvement. The Russian foreign ministry on Monday accused powerful forces in the United States and Britain as being behind the attack.

This unfriendly step by this group of countries wont pass without impact and we will respond, said the Russia's Foreign Ministry in a statement posted on its website.

Margaret Besheer at the U.N. and the VOA Russian Service contributed to this report.Zimbabwes National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority says they have given the police relevant documents linking former First Lady Grace Mugabe to the poaching of protected animals in the country.

Parks spokesperson, Tinashe Farawo, told VOA Studio 7 that the police would use the documents to investigate allegations that Mrs. Mugabe intended to ship wildlife material to the Middle East, America and China.

We have provided the police with information with some of the documents which the office of the president then was requesting for the shipment of alleged gifts to countries like China and the United Arab Emirates and also the United States of America  I think the matter is under investigation.

Asked how the so-called gifts were linked to Mrs. Mugabe, Farawo said efforts were once made for the former first lady to discuss the shipment with top officials of the Parks Department, which blocked it.

 One particular Sunday, Im sure it was on the 29th of October last year when a request was made from the office of the president to ensure that those things are shipped out of the country but when the director general refused to sign (shipment papers), he was asked by one of the directors, Im not sure of the name  The director asked the director general that do you want the first lady to phone you directly so that you can process that shipment.

 It was after the director general had expressed reservations on what was happening because he wanted to verify the products and the papers which he was supposed to sign.

Farawo dismissed suggestions that the Parks Department is being used as a political tool to fight against former president Robert Mugabe and his wife.

He said the Parks Departments mandate is to protect wildlife, including lions and elephants, for the benefit of future generations.

We have nothing to do with politics. Our job and mandate is to ensure that we sustainably utilize our wildlife. Our mandate is to make sure that generations to come can benefit from these animals.

He said the poaching of elephants has gone down following the removal of Mr. Mugabe from the office of president by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in a military intervention, which the former president calls a coup.

I want to emphasize the fact that if you look at poaching statistics since the coming in of the new leadership when His Excellency President Mnangagwa took over the presidential office in November, poaching statistics have drastically gone down  It is making our work easier and now we can sustainably utilize our wildlife.

Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said investigations on the poaching allegations are in progress.

"Investigations are in their infancy ... We have received a report (from parks authority) and we have initiated investigations. It's a long process and might take a long time."

Some critics say Mrs. Mugabe, who together with her husband are linked to the National Patriotic Front, is being allegedly victimized by Mnangagwas government for supporting the opposition ahead of the forthcoming crucial general elections.

National Patriotic Front leader Retired Brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri said, These allegations have just risen soon after the coup and I think its political. It those things were happening why were they not brought up at the time (when Mugabe was in power).

Last December, Zimbabwe's parks agency seized 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of ivory worth $500,000 destined for Malaysia and no one was arrested over the shipment.

Poaching is rife in Zimbabwe's national parks, which teem with elephants and other big game.



The agency says close to 900 elephants have been poached since 2013. The southern African country is estimated to have more than 84,000 elephants.Emperor Trajan is celebrated on the 1,900th anniversary of his death with a multimedia exhibition at Trajan's Markets in Rome.

By Martin Bennett

To begin at the end. Passing the black curtain of the gold portal that forms the entrance of the exhibition Traiano. Costruire lImpero, creare lEuropa at Trajan's Markets, you find yourself inside the facsimile of Trajan's tomb, the real version being some 100 m away in the pedestal of Trajans Column.

The late emperor (53-117 AD) addresses you from the hereafter, courtesy of a video screened overhead. He gives a brief life history: how, past 40, he was a general and legate in lower Germany when he received news of the death of Emperor Nerva, his adopted father, and was summoned to Rome to succeed.

Lifetime of firsts

He lists a lifetime of firsts  first emperor to be born outside Rome (he was born in Spain), first to cross the Danube, and so on, culminating in the first emperor to have extended the empire to its utmost limit before or afterwards. Reaching Babylon hed offer sacrifices in the house where Alexander had died. Were I still young, I wouldve crossed to India also, Trajan, via Latin historian Dion Cassius, quotes himself. Only for time and death to catch up with him while out on campaign. His second (Parthian) triumph he would attend posthumously after dying of a stroke; his ashes, having been brought from the east, were duly deposited under his column.

Trajan's Column

The second room of the exhibition or, one might say, the show (its curators use the word pop) echoes with cheers of the crowd mingling with a non-stop shower of roses; the model of the triumphal procession stretching across the floor almost comes alive. A written commentary notes the three qualifications for a triumph decreed by the senate: to have killed in battle 5,000 enemies, to have brought the soldiers safely home, to have extended the imperial frontiers. Bringing home adulations limits, in the rooms corner is Constantines marble head, once in the imperial portrait gallery of Trajan's Forum. Archaeologists found it blocking a public sewer. One theory goes that, following a revolt in 326 AD, insurgents added insult to injury by using it as a cleaning device, a sort of upmarket, out-size pumice stone.

Imperial dress-code

The next section stars a bronze mask on loan from Hollands Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen, once the site of a Roman army camp, the head having been dredged up from a nearby river. Heres someone, it suggests across millennia, not to mess with. Every intrepid, hard-won wrinkle is powerfully intact. The sidewall video meanwhile elaborates imperial dress-code: purples, gold, magenta, a reminder that the trans-European selection of busts in the photographs to the left would have once been coloured too.

But glory costs. Farther on are four funeral stones of soldiers or officials who died during Trajans campaigns (Dacian, Syrian, Parthian). Trajan is present only in part. A massive fragment of heroic jaw and chin, his sculpted head stops above the upper lip.

Busto di Traiano (Musei Capitolini, Palazzo Nuovo, Sala Imperatori  Archivio Fotografico dei Musei Capitolini, foto Zeno Colantoni)  Roma, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali.

Next door is a model of Tropaeum Traiani, the Roman worlds largest triumphal monument, celebrating the emperor's subjugation of Dacia. Above us is a wheeling video of a bleak Romanian landscape stretching far away as muffled drumbeats and a searing wind complete the effect of the Dacian campaign. Triumph, and, as evinced by the sculpted Dacian captives on the monuments roof, perhaps a way of rubbing the faces of the vanquished in the scale of their defeat.

Roman engineers

Across the museum atrium, lest victory be forgotten, appear more Dacians. The four marble figures with their Dacian headwear once decorated the Basilica Ulpias facade, the building which Dacian slave-labour made possible in the first place. Not to mention a Roman war chest of 250,000 kg of gold and twice that in silver, a motive for the five-year campaign. From the presently-closed Museo di Civilta Romana in Rome's EUR district come plaster casts of six of the 155 scenes of Trajans hill-high column. Heres a citadel topped with the skewered heads of Roman legionaries. Here soldiers ford a river and Trajan delivers an adlocutio on the far bank. Primitive clubs versus honed steel, another cast shows Dacians getting the worst of it; actually their 200,000 army deployed cavalry, archers and siege weaponry thanks to Roman engineers who had defected to the Dacian camp under former Emperor Domitian. Then we see Dacians in their besieged capital: Give me freedom or give me death. Some are being handed poison by their leader. Last up is Dacian king Decalabus, slitting his throat beneath a tree with scythe-like dagger or falx. The same newsreel does not show Trajan sending the head of Decalabus to the senate back to Rome as proof of victory.

Trajan's Women

Greeted by a giant female head from Trajans Forum, one reaches a section dedicated to Trajans Women. Plotina, wife of Trajan and first lady, would accompany him on campaigns and later, in death, share his funeral chamber. Her image also shared the same coins, here deified as Vesta, the hearth goddess while on the other side presides Caesar Augustus Germanicus Dacius consul VI Pater Patriae, a.k.a. Trajan. Busts of sister Marciana and niece Matidia included, the fashion links are there not only in the ornate hairstyles, but even more spectacularly in a Bulgari necklace. 20th century moda incorporates three ancient coins of gold (aurus), silver (denarius) and bronze (quadrans) in its platinum. Arguably though, the star here, and a good mentor for female empowerment in the first century AD, is Matidia Minore, Matidias daughter: high tech equips her illuminated marble head with a voice narrating in both Italian and slightly unrealistic American-English a gamut of business and charity activities.

Trajan at home

In the section Trajan at home, archaeology meets speleology. A partly drone-filmed video takes you down, down, down a manhole on the Aventine hill to what was probably Trajans Domus before he became emperor. For his private imperial villa he chose Arcinazzo Romano, about 50 km east of Rome. In a veering video taken from a helicopter, a section of its palatial brickwork is just visible among luxuriant foliage and a tumbling waterfall. While the interior decoration of the Aventine Domus is almost miraculously unchanged, that of the imperial villa is a jigsaw of countless pieces which the archaeologists are still in the throes of re-assembling.

The exhibition runs until 16 September at Trajan's Markets.

One last treat remains. Venture down into Trajan Markets piccolo emisfero, and a short film explores how Trajans reputation was elaborated upon through to mediaeval and Renaissance times. There is Trajan, optimus princeps, simply the best, who, to cite Pliny the Younger: ordered us [Romans] to be happy, and so we will be. On Gregory the Greats prayerful intercession, theres Trajan elevated from hell to paradiso where Dante places him next to King David as an archetype of the just ruler. 1,900 years after his death, in the catalogue theres Trajan recast as Constructor of Empire, Creator of Europe. Any number of great works, not just completed against the odds but which have lasted millennia.

Yet one cant help feeling a pang for those unsung Dacian captives  50,000 marched in chains to Rome, 10,000 dying in the Colosseum along with 11,000 animals in 123 days of celebratory games. Historian Edward Gibbon puts it rather more majestically. The same Trajan who in Dante stops his march to war to humbly honour a widows appeal for justice was also, cautions Gibbon, ambitious for fame. As long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst for military glory will ever be a vice of the most exalted characters. The film concludes, Now its your turn to continue the story? A good question. This exhibition/show/history lesson par excellence gives ample and fascinating food for thought.

The exhibition Traiano. Costruire lImpero, creare lEuropa runs until 16 September at Trajan's Markets, Via IV Novembre 94.Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue.

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By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy PolicyBut publicly, Trump was uncharacteristically silent after the 60 Minutes interview, in which Daniels recounted having unprotected sex with Trump in 2006 and described being verbally threatened five years later by a man she didnt know to stay silent about her allegations. Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford and who was 27 years old during the alleged encounter, also said that she did not find Trump, then 60, attractive and that she viewed the encounter simply as a business deal. She said that Trump had floated the idea of her appearing on his reality TV show, The Apprentice.



By Dr. S. Chandrasekharan



In an earlier update we had referred to PM Olis statement on Indo-Nepal Relations. We had said that what was more troubling was the open, brazen and arrogant declaration of Oli that he would be able to get more leverage from India by getting closer to China. Though we criticised the statement, it looks that Oli was perhaps right in his assessment on relations with India.





The Economic Times of 21st March reported that the Centre had decided to hike its aid to Nepal by 73 percent from previous allocation while expressing concern over increasing Chinese presence in some of the neighbourhood countries. The heading of the news item was more direct that said that Indias aid to Nepal is up by 73 percent to check Chinas infra push. It is also said in the report that the reasons for the hike are because of security concerns on the India- Nepal border.





This report has not been denied by any official sources and should be deemed as correct.





What is important to note is that neither China nor Nepal will ever be influenced by the hike in Indias aid to Nepal. On the other hand, it is likely to be assessed by the new dispensation in Nepal that getting closer or even threatening to get closer to China would bring in more benefits to Nepal.





After the experience on the blockade, Nepal is certainly expected to diversify its trade to the extent possible. This is nothing new and it is hoped that the Indian establishment does not show its concern or panic. On the other hand it should encourage such diversification. Even from Panchayat days Nepal has been trying to diversify its trade but given its geographical location and population centres spread horizontally, it has perhaps not been so easy.





There was a talk that within a decade, a rail link from Keirung ( formerly Kyirong?) to Kathmandu will be established by Chinese aide and that Nepal does not have to depend on India fully. It is said that a Chinese technical team had visited Kathmandu but had concluded that a rail link may not be feasible. First was the uneven terrain and unstable geological formations. Second was the viability as the wagons that come to Nepal will go back empty all the way!





Third, was the enormous cost involved. Unless Nepal wants to join the additional list of eight countries who are already vulnerable to debt distress in connection with the Belt Road initiative, a rail link may not be possible. ( The seven most vulnerable countries are said to be Tajikistan, Laos, Maldives, Djibouti, Kyrgystan, Pakistan, Mongolia and Montenegro).





Take for example China-Laos Railway line under the BRI initiative. The total cost of the project is said to be US $ 6 billion or about half the countrys GDP which Laos cannot afford.





The fear is that in trying to diversify, Nepal does not get into a debt trap as Pakistan has already got into.





Another bit of news though not directly related to aid is that India will be approaching Nepal to bring the surplus waters of Mahakali River to Yamuna. It is also said that India had already approached twice the previous government in Nepal in August and September last year and that it would approach the new government once again.





Given the general negative response of past governments of Nepal on projects which would be mutually beneficial and the fact that new Oli government succeeded to get elected overwhelmingly on an anti Indian-nationalistic platform, it is doubtful whether Nepal would in the near or medium term ever agree on sharing the surplus waters of Pancheswar project or for that matter any other project. The increase in aid to Nepal is not going to help Indias case!





Olis approach towards reconciliation with the Madhesi groups has also hardened. While he gave a general commitment to amend the constitution to enable the FSF-Nepal led by Upendra Yadav to join the government earlier, it appeared now that he is not for any amendment in the near future. In an address to a reception at his residence on 14th March, Oli told the legislators of his alliance, that the constitution would be amended as per the need of the time. He also added that amendment would be done to strengthen and unite the country. In other words, it would mean no separate concession for the Madhesis for the present.





All the important slots in the ministries have also been filled up in the reshuffle Oli made two days later thus making it more difficult even for Upendra Yadav who was very keen to join the government at any cost.





It is now left to the Madhesi groups to join the government on Olis terms and not otherwise.



With Sissi running unchallenged, voter turnout will be a key barometer of whether he receives a credible mandate from Egyptians for a second term. Most analysts say a turnout of at least 40 to 45 percent is essential. Over the past few weeks, many Egyptians have said in interviews that they do not intend to cast ballots. With voting unfolding over three days, the final turnout is far from clear.Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.In this case, PhishLabs collected several email lures that were used by the hackers to compromise university accounts. The most notable thing about them was that they were incredibly realistic-looking, said Crane Hassold, PhishLabs director of threat intelligence, and a former FBI analyst. Their spelling and grammar was perfect. They were thematically relevant, naming the university in the lure.This is a way for the SEC overall to gather information and learn about important new technology and products, Marc Elovitz, a partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP who advises hedge funds, told the Journal.

The initiative, which will commence within the next few months, will have examiners seeing whether fund managers have bought the types of assets they advertised to investors in disclosure documents. Regulators are also concerned about the possibility of crypto assets being stolen by hackers, as well as the accuracy of risk disclosures, which include explanations of a funds cryptocurrency- or token-trading strategy.

While the SEC has identified at least 100 private fund managers whose holdings are concentrated on cryptocurrencies, it could inspect a much lower number should examiners discover that many funds only dabble in digital currencies or collect all the information needed from a sample of that population.

The effort could also expand to private-equity firms whose funds own digital assets, whether directly or through stakes in companies that are involved in the crypto industry.

On another front, examiners have also sought information from investment advisors working with retail clients on whether they are purchasing digital currencies or tokens on their clients behalf. According to the Journals source, the inquiries are being made during the course of regular exams to get a better sense of the role regulated advisers play in the market.Grand Valley State University Student Wins $30,000 In Outdoor Weber National Business Idea Competition

March 26, 2018

OGDEN, Utah Two Grand Valley State University (GVSU) student teams are taking the first and second place prizes back to Michigan in the first Outdoor Weber competition hosted by Weber State Universitys Hall Global Entrepreneurship Center. A Utah State team won third place in the competition. The winning team received $30,000 toward funding their outdoor product idea. The second place team received $7,500.

The first place product, the Orindi mask by Jordan Vanderham and Jared Seifert of GVSU, enables easier breathing in cold weather by warming the air for the user. Second place product, Locker Lifestyle by Katarina Samardzija of GVSU, provides users with a place to keep small valuables when being active. Locker Lifestyle products are designed to be worn on the head or wrist.

Grand Valley State University students Jordan Vanderham and Jared Seifert accept the $30,000 grand prize at the first Outdoor Weber competition hosted by Weber State Universitys Hall Global Entrepreneurship Center at Union Station in Ogden on March 23. (Photo credit: Nic Heslop/Ogden Peak Communications)

We couldnt do this without pitch contests, Vanderham said. This was the most organized event we have ever been to, he said.

Kyle Moore, Cody Merrill and Parker Atkinson of Utah State University in Logan, Utah, won third place and $5,000. Their product, LIMID, provides consumers with water-activated beacon lights for life jackets. The honorable mention prize went to Zach Skoheim of GVSU whose product, the Trail Tracker, helps prevent off-road vehicles from colliding.

Marcus Lemonis, CEO of Camping World and host of CNBCs The Profit, mentored the winning students while on stage. Lemonis challenged the winning contestants, making them prove their ideas have the potential to be successful. Lemonis provided them with the same high-caliber opportunities that he would offer the participants on his television show in real time.

This was a life-altering experience, Samardzjia said. Lemonis offered Samardzjia an opportunity to visit his manufacturing facility in New Jersey to help develop her product.

More than 80 contestants nationwide submitted a 90-second video pitch of an outdoor-product idea. The top 10 met in Ogden from March 21-23 where they were mentored by Utah business leaders, entrepreneurs and outdoor recreation specialists. On March 23, the finalists pitched a panel of judges to compete for the $30,000 grand prize. This final pitch event was held at Union Station in Ogden in partnership with RecConnect, a hybrid outdoor innovation expo and networking event, spearheaded by Weber State Universitys Outdoor & Community Recreation Education program.

RecConnect and the Outdoor Weber Pitch competition merged the innovative and entrepreneurial talents being incubated at college and universities across the United States with the booming outdoor recreation industry, positioning Utah as the true outdoor recreation capital.

For more information, visit outdoorweber.org.

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.

https://www.weber.edu/entrepreneurship/Outdoor_Weber.html

https://weber.edu/WSUToday/013018_OutdoorWeber.html

https://weber.edu/WSUToday/031918_RecConnect.html

https://www.weber.edu/WSUToday/121317_CampingWorld.htmlThe 30th Annual James Jones First Novel Fellowship awarded first place and $10,000 to Rose Whitmore of San Leandro, Calif., for her novel titled Feats of Strength in the Time of Hoxha. Whitmore was selectedIt was an extraordinary glimpse into the mind of the man who leads the province.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/3/2018 (1277 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

It was an extraordinary glimpse into the mind of the man who leads the province.

After a week of political controversy, Premier Brian Pallister authored a commentary that was published in the March 24th edition of the Winnipeg Free Press. Such contributions are not unprecedented; the Free Press regularly makes space for political leaders to speak directly with the public. Even so, this piece was one of the most unusual ever penned by a first minister.

First, some context for his commentary.

Last week, nine of 10 members of the Manitoba Hydro board of directors resigned to protest against the very government that appointed them two years earlier. On the same day, the resignations became public, Pallister revealed that he had vetoed a $67.5-million settlement between Hydro and the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF) that was designed to ensure a new transmission line to Minnesota would not be interrupted by a land claim or environmental challenge.

In his Free Press commentary, Pallister tried to explain what happened and what role he played in the drama. What we got was a somewhat alarming picture of just how muddled the premiers thinking can be at times.

Pallister said the boards resignation was triggered when his government killed the agreement with the MMF, a deal that set a "troubling" precedent, while providing no guarantee the Metis would not try to derail other projects, including a much-needed floodwater outlet for Lake Manitoba. And without completion of that outlet, Pallister said the province might have to spend "a billion dollars of taxpayers money" to cover flood-related costs.

Pallisters reference to the Lake Manitoba flood channel was particularly confusing, given that the MMF has never suggested it would try to interrupt work on that project. Similarly confounding was the premiers assertion that signing a deal on the Manitoba-Minnesota transmission line could somehow result in a billion dollars or more of flood costs.

The premier is correct on the first point. Theoretically, it is possible the MMF could make additional, future demands involving other government infrastructure projects. But to claim that a future, as-yet-unidentified MMF claim could cost the provincial treasury a billion dollars is a bizarre leap in logic.

Also confusing is the premiers description of the events that led to the Hydro boards resignation. Pallister wrote in his commentary that the resignations were a direct result of his decision to kill the deal with the MMF. In fact, the premier was already trying to get rid of the chair and some of the other board members prior to that decision.

Government sources have confirmed that Pallister had become fed up with Sanford Rileys alarmist rhetoric about the precarious state of Hydros finances because of escalating debt levels. Riley had previously asked Pallister for a controversial "equity investment"  a cash infusion from general revenues  to help stabilize the utilitys debt-to-equity ratio. When Pallister refused, Riley then directed the utility to apply to the Public Utilities Board (PUB) for a series of 7.9 per cent rate increases, a strategy that caused the premier political grief.

When the PUB turned down the first of those requests last year, it was obvious that Riley and the board had become a political liability. Although the premier may want to lay the blame on the MMF deal, that was only one of a number of board decisions causing political headaches for the premier, and which put in motion the efforts to get rid of them.

Most troubling, however, is the complete lack of accountability in Pallisters article.

The premier did not, for example, take any responsibility for the performance of the Hydro board. This was a group of supposedly like-minded citizens, many of whom were also prominent supporters of his own Progressive Conservative party. If, as the premier seems to think, they were not up to the task, then Pallister has to take the blame for appointing the wrong people.

There is a similar lack of accountability about the deal with the MMF.

Thanks to a 2016 Supreme Court decision, the Metis have a right to be consulted on land and resource development. Metis activists believe this opens the door to land claims, but to date, that theory has not yet been fully tested.

Metis groups have been negotiating some form of land claim with Ottawa for nearly two decades, compensation for a failure to properly execute land distribution to Metis people. The deal between Hydro and the MMF would have been among the first reached at the provincial level that acknowledge the right of Metis people to make similar claims.

Dan Lett | Not for Attribution A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world that is sent every Tuesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

In his commentary, however, Pallister wrote that Hydro "was using millions of ratepayer dollars to buy rights they had no right to buy, from a person who has no right to sell them." If the premier doubts the right of Metis people to seek compensation for land claims, he had an obligation to make all that clear well before a formal agreement was reached.

In the final paragraph of his commentary, the premier argued that his only concern was protecting the interests of all Manitobans.

"When there is a conflict between an arm or an agency of government and the interests of all Manitobans," the premier wrote, "this government will stand up for Manitobans every time."

Remarkably, the premier seems to have forgotten that he is, in fact, the leader of that government. Yes, Hydro is an arm's-length entity, but he is still ultimately accountable for all it does. We know that because Pallister has made it clear he believes the leaders of the former NDP government are fully accountable for any and all bad decisions made at Hydro under their watch.

The premier set out to write an article that demonstrated his deep commitment to protecting Manitobans. All he ended up demonstrating is that he has very little knowledge about, and control over, the very government he claims to lead.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.caHey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/3/2018 (1277 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Editorial

Maybe its time to update your Facebook status to "compromised."

Recent revelations about the social-media giants failure to protect data from being used for nefarious purposes have raised concerns among users and spawned a new hashtag-propelled trend to #deletefacebook.

Matt Dunham / The Associated Press Files Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie

More importantly, perhaps, the scandal involving the data-mining firm Cambridge Analyticas theft of data connected to 50 million Facebook users  which was subsequently used to influence public opinion and behaviour in the 2016 U.S. presidential election  has forced social-media users to reconsider the consequences of all the friending and following they do on a daily basis.

The controversy surrounding Cambridge Analytica has been fuelled in large part by information provided by whistleblower Christopher Wylie, a Canadian who worked for the British firm as head of research and was deeply involved in its activities related to the U.S. election and Britains "Brexit" vote.

Mr. Wylies revelations about the dark realities of data mining and the manner in which online information can be used to influence attitudes and behaviour are nothing new to those who understand the realities of the digital age. But for the vast majority of computer users, who click "Agree" on any number of terms-of-service declarations without ever reading a single word of them, the controversy has served as a wake-up call about what theyre risking when they engage in social-media activities.

Every website you follow, every social-media post you like, every person or thing you friend or follow, every online purchase you make  its all information that is recorded, compiled and distributed across various platforms and used to craft messages designed specifically to influence your future behaviour.

Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Maybe the intention will be to get you to buy another pair of sneakers, based on the sites youve visited in the past. Or perhaps the plan, decidedly more nefarious in its intent, will be to capitalize on attitudes, interests and political inclinations revealed by your online behaviour by crafting messages and/or misinformation that might push you toward a specific ballot-box choice.

Either way, your every online move is being watched. The Facebook/Cambridge Analytica firestorm has pushed a large number of mostly ignored concerns into front-and-centre status for the computer-using public, and its a reminder we would all be wise to heed.

As many observers of media technology have noted, if youre doing something online and its free, you arent the customer; youre the product. Someone else is paying for the information your activity is helping to create.

Look at it this way: Facebook is free to its friend-seeking users. Facebook is also a company with a value that has topped half a trillion dollars. The share-value losses incurred by the company in the wake of the recent scandal topped US$60 billion, but Facebook is still worth more than US$470 billion.

Those arent numbers one could clear-headedly associate with a "free" service. Which is why logging onto Facebook  or, perhaps, making the hashtag-inspired decision to delete it  makes you more than a social-media user; it makes you a valuable statistical commodity.

So now you know. And if you happen to be reading this online, someone out there probably knows you know.MasTec, Inc. engages in the provision of infrastructure construction services. It operates through the following segments: Communications; Oil and Gas; Electrical Transmissions; Clean Energy and Infrastructure; and Other. The Communications segment performs engineering, construction, maintenance and customer fulfillment activities related to communications infrastructure, primarily for wireless and wireline/fiber communications, and install-to-the-home customers. The Oil and Gas segment offers services on oil and natural gas pipelines and processing facilities for the energy, and utilities industries. The Electrical Transmission segment deals with the energy and utility industries. The Clean Energy and Infrastructure segment serves energy, utility and other end-markets through the installation and construction of power generation facilities, including from clean energy and renewable sources such as wind, solar and biomass, as well as various types of heavy civil and industrial infrastructure. The Other segment comprises of equity investees, other small business units that perform construction, and other services for a variety of international end-markets. The company was founded by

Read MoreYext, Inc. is an emerging growth company engages in software development. It offers a cloud-based digital knowledge platform, which allows businesses manage their digital knowledge in the cloud such as financial information, resources and performance of these resources on a consolidated basis and sync it to other application such as Apple Maps, Bing, Cortana, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Instagram, Siri and Yelp. It offers the Yext Knowledge Engine package on subscription basis, which has an access to Listings, Pages, Reviews and other features. The Listing feature provides customers with control over their digital presence, including their location and other related attributes published on the used third-party applications. The Pages feature allows customers to establish landing pages on their own websites and to manage digital content on those sites, including calls to action. The Reviews presence enables customers to encourage and facilitate reviews from end consumers. The company was founded by Howard Lerman, Brent Metz, and Brian Distelburger in 2006 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given China Gerui Advanced Materials Group a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but China Gerui Advanced Materials Group wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA engages in the traditional banking businesses of retail banking, asset management, private banking, and wholesale banking. It operates through the following segments: Spain, the United States, Mexico, Turkey, South America, and Rest of Eurasia. The Spain segment includes mainly the banking and insurance business that the group carries out in Spain. The United States segment consists of the financial business activity of BBVA USA in the country and the activity of the branch of BBVA SA in New York. The Mexico segment refers to banking and insurance businesses in this country as well as the activity of its branch in Houston. The Turkey segment reports the activity of Garanti BBVA group that is mainly carried out in this country and, to a lesser extent, in Romania and the Netherlands. The South America segment comprises of operations in n Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The Rest of Eurasia segment includes the banking business activity carried out by the group in Europe and Asia, excluding Spain. The company was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.

Read MoreBoyd Group Income Fund operates as an unincorporated open-ended mutual fund trust. The company, through its operating company, The Boyd Group Inc., operates non-franchised collision repair centers. Its collision repair centers offer automotive collision and glass repair, and related services. The company operates its autobody/autoglass repair and related services facilities, as well as auto glass retail facilities under the Boyd Autobody & Glass, Assured Automotive, Gerber Collision & Glass, Glass America, Auto Glass Service, Auto Glass Authority, and Autoglassonly.com trade names in the United States and Canada. Further, it provides Gerber National Claim Services, a claim administrator service, which offer glass, emergency roadside, and first notice of loss services with approximately 5,500 glass provider locations and 4,600 emergency roadside services providers. The company is headquartered in Winnipeg, Canada.

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.Imperial Brands PLC, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, imports, markets, and sells tobacco and tobacco-related products. It offers a range of cigarettes, fine cut and smokeless tobacco, papers, and cigars; and next generation product (NGP) portfolio, such as e-vapour products, as well as oral nicotine and heated tobacco products. The company sells its products under various brands, including Davidoff, Gauloises, JPS, West, L&B, Bastos, Fine, Winston, News, Parker & Simpson, blu, Kool, Horizon, Jade, Cohiba, Montecristo, Romeo Y Julieta, Backwoods, Skruf, Golden Virginia, Rizla, and Knox in approximately 160 countries worldwide. It also provides logistics services that include the distribution of tobacco and NGP products for tobacco and NGP product manufacturers; and various non-tobacco and NGP products and services. In addition, the company is involved in the management of a golf course; marketing of papers; restaurant business; distribution of pharmaceuticals, POS software, and published materials and other products; printing and publishing activities; and provision of long haul transportation, industrial parcel and express delivery, advertising, and support management services. Further, it owns the trademarks; and retails its products. The company was formerly known as Imperial Tobacco Group PLC and changed its name to Imperial Brands PLC in February 2016. Imperial Brands PLC was founded in 1901 and is headquartered in Bristol, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreVivint Solar, Inc. provides distributed solar energy primarily to residential customers in the United States. It owns and installs solar energy systems through long-term customer contracts. The company also sells photovoltaic installation products, as well as solar renewable energy certificates. As of December 31, 2019, it had an aggregate capacity of 1,294.0 megawatts covering approximately 188,300 homes. The company was formerly known as V Solar Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Vivint Solar, Inc. in April 2014. Vivint Solar, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Lehi, Utah.

Read MoreIG Group Holdings plc operates as a multi-platform trading company worldwide. It offers CFDs (contracts for difference), are derivative contracts that enable clients to take advantage of changes in an asset's price; and spread betting that allow clients to take advantage of changes in an asset's price without owning the asset itself, and to use the same range of risk-mitigation measures. The company also offers clients access to a range of risk-mitigation measures, including stops and limits and a limited risk account; and stock trading service, ISAs, and SIPPs. In addition, it provides a range of portfolios, which include commodities, equities, and fixed-income assets designed to match the degree of caution or aggression desired by the client; and exchange traded derivatives, as well as offers foreign exchange, market risk management, data distribution, nominee, finance, software development, publication, domains registry, foreign exchange trading, and translation services. The company was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreHannover RAck SE, together with its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance products and services worldwide. It operates through Property & Casualty Reinsurance, and Life & Health Reinsurance segments. The Property & Casualty Reinsurance segment offers specialty lines comprising marine, aviation, facultative and direct business, credit, surety, and political risks reinsurance products; and treaty, catastrophe XL, and structured reinsurance, as well as insurance-linked securities. This segment also provides risk solutions for agricultural, livestock, and bloodstock businesses; aviation and space business; and marine and offshore energy business. The Life & Health Reinsurance segment offers group and individual credit life, enhanced annuities, group life and health, and Sharia-compliant Takaful reinsurance products. This segment also provides risk solutions in the areas of critical illness, disability, health, longevity, long term care, and mortality and morbidity, as well as underwriting services. In addition, it offers various financial solutions, including new-business financing; monetization of embedded value; reserve and solvency relief; and divestiture of non-core businesses. The company was formerly known as Hannover RAckversicherung AG and changed its name to Hannover RAck SE in March 2013. The company was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Hanover, Germany. Hannover RAck SE is a subsidiary of Talanx AG.

Read More "Prison Crime and the Economics of Incarceration" | Main | "Deviancy, Disability, and Dependency: The Forgotten History of Eugenics and Mass Incarceration" 

March 26, 2018

High-profile New Jersey case highlights many challenges of sentencing drunk drivers who kill (and appellate review of sentences)

This local article, headlined "Former 'Melrose Place' actress to be re-sentenced -- again -- in fatal drunken crash," reports on yet another notable sentencing opinion from a high-profile state sentencing case. Here are the basics from the article, with the full opinion and follow-up thereafter:

Former "Melrose Place" actress Amy Locane who was convicted of killing a 60-year-old woman in a drunken 2010 crash will be re-sentenced -- for the second time. An appellate court ruling issued Friday lambasts the judge's lenient three-year sentence for Locane, calling it "striking." "We expect our colleagues will agree that the sentence in this case, a hair's breath away from illegal, shocks the conscience," the appellate ruling states. In August 2016, the state's Appellate Division ruled that the leniency granted by state Superior Court Judge Robert B. Reed in sentencing Locane in the Montgomery Township crash that killed Helene Seeman lacked enough explanation. Locane returned to court for resentencing on Jan. 17, 2017. Reed did not give her any additional jail time, angering the victim's family and leaving prosecutors bewildered. It appears a three-judge appellate court panel is just as confused. "(Locane) went unpunished for the injuries inflicted upon Seeman, despite the fact she could have easily made alternative arrangements the night of the accident and could have easily avoided driving, was extremely intoxicated, and was engaging in risky maneuvers before the crash," the appellate ruling states. "That is an error we cannot correct." Locane, who was driving with a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit during the June 27, 2010, crash, was cleared of the manslaughter charge but found guilty of vehicular homicide and assault by auto. Locane faced up to 15 years in prison. Reed imposed a sentence that was about a fifth of what she faced under the maximum penalty. He cited the former actress' two small children, including one with Crohn's disease, as a reason for the lenient sentence. Locane was out of prison in two-and-a-half years. In a sit-down interview with NJ Advance Media in November, Locane said she hadn't touched alcohol since the crash. "I know Judge Reed went out on the limb for me and I'm not going to let him down," she said. "When someone sees the good in you like that and gives you a second chance, you don't want to disappoint them." But Locane's fate this time around won't be up to Reed. "We are thus compelled to remand this matter for re-sentencing before a different judge," the appellate ruling says. Locane's attorney, James Wronko, said the comments made by the appellate division about Reed "were simply unwarranted." "Judge Reed is an excellent judge," he said. "We intend to file with the New Jersey Supreme Court to have them review the matter and then we'll proceed from there." Ironically, Wronko said, Locane was in Steinert High School in Hamilton speaking to students about the dangers of drinking and driving as the appellate court issued its ruling Friday morning.

Hard-core sentencing fans should take some time to check out the full opinion of the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division in NJ v. Locane, which runs 43 pages and is available at this link. Though a bit dense with Jersey-specific cites, this Locane opinion remarkably covers in various ways so many intricate issues of modern sentencing policy and practice.

Most fundamentally, this case highlights the challenging balance between offense and offender factors in sentencing, as the appellate court is concluding the trial court wrongfully downgraded the severity of the offense by being unduly moved my the defendant's remorse and rehabilitation. But is also, obviously, raises issue about the discretion of sentencing courts and review of that discretion on appeal. In addition, Sixth Amendment and double jeopardy issues arise in the Locane opinion. So too does the role of concurrent and consecutive sentencing, as well as punishment theory as it relates to sentencing drunk drivers (with a little hint to concerns about race, gender and class). And the opinion's final paragraph highlights still other matters the opinion engages:

In the beginning of this opinion, we referred to the statements made by the victims during the State's presentation, pursuant to the Crime Victim's Bill of Rights, N.J.S.A. 52:4B36[n]. Their comments dovetailed the sentencing goals embodied in the Code, which in this case were not met. In Liepe, the defendant was sentenced to, in real time, life. In this case, defendant was sentenced to a NERA term of three years. The lack of uniformity is striking and in derogation of the Code.

Put slightly differently, anyone teaching a sentencing class might readily build a number of real interesting exam questions around this case and opinion.

March 26, 2018 at 10:04 AM | Permalink

Comments

The trial judge's decision is validated by the results over 5 years. Future resulst are the ultimate validation of a decision.

Mother. Still in recovery, as verified by parole officers. Lecturer to students. No prison cost. Those are good utilitarian outcomes.

The sentence is a replacement for the blood lust of the victim's family, and a substitute for endless rounds of vendettas. It is for the protection of the public. So far, the trial judge's decision has been valid for that purpose.

Appellate court judges. No more need be said.

Posted by: David Behar | Mar 26, 2018 1:00:58 PM

"The sentence is a replacement for the blood lust of the victim's family..."

Normally I would agree with this kind of sentiment except for the fact of ...

"In Liepe, the defendant was sentenced to, in real time, life. In this case, defendant was sentenced to a NERA term of three years. The lack of uniformity is striking and in derogation of the Code."

THAT is a problem. It is an especial problem when race, class, and gender are figured in.

Posted by: Humdinger | Mar 26, 2018 1:35:43 PM

For those interested, tonight's "Landmark Cases" episode on CSPAN will over Gideon v. Wainright with Katz in a couple weeks and Gregg v. Georgia later on.

One interesting aside in the opinions is Justice Clark [who showed his conservative side in various cases but joined other Warren Court opinions, including writing Mapp v. Ohio, including its right to privacy language] separately arguing:

I must conclude here [case cited] that the Constitution makes no distinction between capital and nonncapital cases. The Fourteenth Amendment requires due process of law for the deprival of "liberty," just as for deprival of "life," and there cannot constitutionally be a difference in the quality of the process based merely upon a supposed difference in the sanction involved.

But, that repeatedly was well recognized in various respects. Still, it shows the line drawn is open to debate.

Posted by: Joe | Mar 26, 2018 1:37:09 PM

I would think the life sentence far more problematic in terms of uniformity than three years. As much as we might hate drunk drivers and think them horrible and their crime horrific, it is, ultimately, an accident (and if it isn't, there are plenty of other applicable statutes).

As far as I know, intoxication manslaughter statutes are all a product of MADD-generated hysteria and craven attempts by politicians to placate them.

Posted by: Fat Bastard | Mar 26, 2018 2:24:43 PM

I see the results of drunken driving as being well within the bounds of deliberate indifference. The person may not intend the result but they are reckless as to the foreseeable danger. And I see that being very different from the typical sorts of fact-pattern used to illustrate manslaughter (for example a defender killing a home invader without being placed in a life or death situation in non-castle doctrine states).

I see a great deal more culpability attaching to drunk driving; That it is far closer to 2nd or even 1st degree murder than manslaughter. Culpability-wise I really don't see much difference from someone who performs a drive-by shooting along a house.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Mar 26, 2018 3:31:55 PM

In driving simulation studies, impairment from alcohol over the legal limit, texting, and sleepiness have been shown to be the same. There is plenty of notice to this effect, in huge billboards warning against texting.

Life sentences all around? Life sentence for the diabetic whose insulin was a little excessive by mistake, and hypoglycemia is now impairing consciousness and driving.

If I could persuade people here of anything it would be of utilitarian analysis. Return to your doc, adjust the insulin schedule. Do not text. Pull over and nap for 10 minutes. Make people sleep at work before driving, including police officers. Those are cheap and effective remedies.

Sleep catastrophes: deadly train derailments, deadly ferry boat crashes, Exxon-Valdiz, Challenger disaster, Chernobyl blew top off nuclear plant, blasting a guy taking out his wallet at night by 6 officers firing 50 shots, and a $6 million payout in damages.

Life sentences for sleepiness?

Posted by: David Behar | Mar 26, 2018 4:25:59 PM

"we might hate drunk drivers and think them horrible and their crime horrific, it is, ultimately, an accident"

It is a result of intentionally doing something that the actor knows will increase the chance of horrible things happening. Not causing problems in this respect is as "accidental." The framing suggests an emotionally misguided sentiment by those who "hate" them that I continue to find misguided.

Posted by: Joe | Mar 26, 2018 5:29:16 PM

Screw it. Summary death for epileptics behind the wheel!

Posted by: Fat Bastard | Mar 26, 2018 6:06:03 PM

Post a commentSolium Capital Inc. provides cloud-enabled services for administration, financial reporting, and compliance related to equity-based incentive plans in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company offers Shareworks software-as-a-service platform that provides financial record keeping, trade execution, and reporting services; Global Compliance, which offers regulatory information and tax rates and rules applicable to global equity incentive plans through online databases; and Executive Services, a solution for companies to manage executive-level plan transactions. It also provides Shareworks Scenarios that offers tools to determine the effect that new financings and liquidity events have on capitalization structure and distribution waterfall; and Solium Analytics, a valuation practice that provides 409A valuation opinions. In addition, the company offers Capshare, a cloud platform for capitalization table management, electronic-share tracking, modeling and waterfall analysis, and compliance; and Advanced-HR, a compensation data and planning solution. Solium Capital Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Read MoreDeckers Outdoor Corp. engages in the business of designing, marketing, and distributing footwear, apparel, and accessories developed for both everyday casual lifestyle use and high performance activities. It operates through the following segments: UGG Brand, HOKA Brand, Teva Brand, Sanuk Brand, Other Brands, and Direct-to-Consumer. The UGG Brand segment offers a line of premium footwear, apparel, and accessories. The HOKA Brand segment sells footwear and apparel that offers enhanced cushioning and inherent stability with minimal weight, originally designed for ultra-runners. The Teva Brand segment focuses on the sport sandal and modern outdoor lifestyle category, such as sandals, shoes, and boots. The Sanuk Brand segment originated in Southern California surf culture and has emerged into a lifestyle brand with a presence in the relaxed casual shoe and sandal categories. The Other Brands segment includes the Koolaburra by UGG brand. The Direct-to-Consumer segment comprises of retail stores and e-commerce websites. The company was founded by Douglas B. Otto in 1973 and is headquartered in Goleta, CA.

Read MoreMass protests have erupted against the arrest by German police of Catalonias former regional premier Carles Puigdemont.

The arrest warrant was requested by the Popular Party (PP) government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. But the PPs repression has the full support of the Socialist Party (PSOE) opposition. PSOE leader Pedro Sanchez said of Puigdemonts arrest, We live in a social and democratic state governed by the rule of law in Spain and in Europe. Nobody is above the law. [We] Respect judicial decisions and support our security forces.

Puigdemonts arrest, carried out on the basis of a European Arrest Warrant issued Friday by Spains Supreme Court, saw tens of thousands assemble in the centre of Barcelona, Sunday. Between cries of Puigdemont, our president, This Europe is a shame and calls for a general strike, the protesters cut the traffic lane for vehicles going down the citys main avenue in Las Ramblas and four other highways.

The Catalan National Assembly convened a demonstration in front of the EU headquarters in Barcelona to march to the German consulate. Protests have also been called in Girona, Lleida and Tarragona. Protesters clashed with riot police, leading to numerous injuries.

Puigdemont has been living in exile since October, when he fled to Belgium along with four other regional ministers after declaring Catalan independence. In response, Spains right-wing Popular Party government invoked Article 155 of the Constitution, dissolving the Catalan government, implementing direct rule from Madrid and imposing snap elections.

Fearing sedition and rebellion charges that led to the imprisonment of three deputies, including vice-premier Oriol Junqueras (Republican Left of Catalonia, ERC), Puigdemont remained in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

Last Friday, Spanish Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena reactivated an international arrest warrant for Puigdemont when he was visiting Finland for talks with lawmakers. He also jailed five leaders of Puigdemonts deposed government without bail as they await trial.

In total, 25 Catalan leaders are to be tried for rebellion, misuse of public funds or disobeying the state. Convictions could result in up to 30 years in prison.

The whole case is built around spurious grounds that the Catalan secessionist movement has used violence to achieve independence, therefore justifying the charge of rebellion, which according to Spains penal code may apply only to those who violently and publicly try to abrogate, suspend or modify the Constitution, either totally or partially.

According to sources of online newspaper, eldiario.es, the police operation resulting in the detention of Puigdemont was led by Spains National Intelligence Centre (CNI), in coordination with the General Information Office of the National Police. According to the same sources, Puigdemonts movements have been monitored at all times since he left Belgium.

Puigdemont was heading to Belgium to surrender to the judicial authorities, according to his lawyer in Spain, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, when he was intercepted. According to German news magazine Focus, the Spanish intelligence services informed the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA)responsible for national and international terrorismthat Puigdemont was moving towards the German border. The BKA then informed the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) of Schleswig-Holstein which arrested Puigdemont.

The decision to arrest Puigdemont in Germany is significant. The German Criminal Code punishes the alteration of the constitutional order and attempts to secede from Germany with a sentence of up to life imprisonment. This is indicated in Article 81 of the German Criminal Code, in the section, High treason against the Federation, which states, Whosoever undertakes, by force or through threat of force, to undermine the continued existence of the Federal Republic of Germany; or to change the constitutional order based on the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, shall be liable to imprisonment for life or for not less than ten years.

German law is closer to Spanish law than the existing statutes in Belgium, facilitating Puigdemonts transfer to Spain.

According to sources of El Pais, the police had assessed whether to call for his arrest in Finland or Denmark, but this was ruled out having the conviction that the former regional premier was going to continue his journey by land into Germany. This country is considered by Spain one of the EU states with which there are better relations of police collaboration.

Last November, the German government expressed its full support for Madrid following the detention of eight former Catalan ministers over their role in the regions independence drive.

Government spokesperson Steffen Seibert told reporters, From the federal governments point of view, Spain is of course a state governed by the rule of law and as government spokesman I see no reason at all to comment on decisions made by Spanish courts. We continue to support the clear position of the Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, adding that Whats important to us is that the unity and constitutional order of Spain are maintained.

The role played by the German government again exposes the politically bankrupt efforts of the Catalan nationalists to promote the illusion that the European Union and its members states would intervene in the Catalan crisis to preserve democratic values by brokering a deal with the Popular Party government in Madrid. Instead, the EU and government leaders in Germany, Britain and France have repeatedly backed PP Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and insisted he is the only person with whom they will negotiate.Approximately 80 immigrant men from Kenya, Somalia and Sudan held at the West Texas Detention Center in Sierra Blanca, Texas have been subjected to horrific physical abuses, alleged hate crimes, and sexual abuse, according to a report recently cited by the Intercept.

Within one week of their arrival in late February at the immigration jail near the US-Mexico border in Sierra Blanca, Texas, many of the men were beaten, pepper-sprayed, taunted with racial slurs and sexually abused.

The chilling report released last week by Texas A&M University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, the University of Texas School of Law Immigration Clinic, and RAICES, a Texas-based advocacy group, outlines multiple violations of federal law, human rights abuses, and alleged hate crimes.

The report was based on interviews with 30 Somali men, ranging in age from their 20s to their 50s, who were held at the West Texas facility from February 23 to March 2 this year. Some were recent arrivals, while others were married to US citizens or have children who are citizens.

LaSalle Corrections privately operates the West Texas Detention Facility along with another 17 other prisons in Texas, Louisiana and Georgia, with a total inmate population of 13,000.

While the backgrounds of the detainees varied, the report noted that all the men abused at West Texas were in ICE custody for the sole purpose of effectuating deportation after receiving final orders of removal...Some came to the U.S. as refugees when they were children. Others entered recently with visas or without status.

It is worth noting that all the detainees are from a region of Africa that has been torn apart by wars and conflicts facilitated by US imperialism. Somalia in particular has become site of increasingly intense American military operations and drone strikes in recent months. It is not surprising that many of the detainees are trying to escape the war zones by seeking asylum.

One detainee, Dalmar, explained that the warden struck him four times in the face while he was in the nurses office. Dalmar attempted to appeal to the medical staff, saying, Are you going to let this happen? The staff member allegedly responded, We didnt see anything.

Dalmar told legal advocates he was then placed in solitary confinement, where I was forced to lie face down on the floor with my hands handcuffed behind my back while I was kicked repeatedly in the ribs by the warden....When I told him, Ill get a lawyer to sue you, the warden responded, Weve got enough money.

In other instances, the men either witnessed or were subjected to physical force such as officers throwing detainees to the floor or slamming a mans head against the concrete even though he did not resist.

All detainees were pepper-sprayed at least once and many on multiple occasions, which led to cases of difficulty breathing and coughing up blood. Some were placed in solitary confinement or administrative segregation as a form of punishment, including after being pepper-sprayed. There were also many complaints of racial abuse. They called them niggers. They called them boy. Theyve said things like, Were sending you boys back to the jungle, Lisa Lehner an attorney for the group, told the Intercept.

The report also notes sexual abuse, stating, One of the detainees, Sharmaarke, alleged that LaSalle corrections officers sexually assaulted him by fondling his penis and groin area over his clothes while he was pushed against the wall.

Advocates for the men have filed complaints with local authorities and the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, which have been forwarded by the US attorneys office to the FBI.

Conditions in the West Texas Detention Facility have come under scrutiny numerous times over the years. In 2016, the ICE Office of Detention Oversight found that the facility had numerous problems with the maintenance of standards, including the fact that staff did not consistently receive required training on the use of non-lethal equipment. In addition, the report noted major gaps in required medical services in the facility, leading to numerous problems such as long delays in intake screenings and the absence of timely receipt of sick call requests or completion of sick calls.

In the same year, Fronteras Magazine published an article detailing the inhumane conditions in the detention center, this time caused by the lack of running water supply. The article quoted Efrain Chavez, a detainee held for six months while he awaited news on his petition for US asylum: The toilets were all full of human waste...You can't imagine the smell. It was awful. In a closed-door meeting held in the El Paso courthouse with the US Marshall Service, Chavez described the horrifying spectacle that ensued once the toilets became unusable and the guards told the detainees to use plastic bags instead.

Public defenders who had gathered at the 2016 courthouse hearing told reporters that the situation in the West Texas facility had been deteriorating for over a year, and that in addition to being threatened and kept in inhumane conditions, the detainees were also being deprived of other constitutional rights. Maureen Franco, head of the federal public defenders office in El Paso, pointed out that Attorneys were having a very difficult time seeing their clients...They were given arbitrary rules as to when they could show up and if they showed up late then the visit was cancelled.

In 2017, Martin Mendez Pineda, the Mexican journalist who had been seeking asylum in the United States, wrote a blistering expose in the Washington Post of the conditions in the facility, where he had been detained by ICE agents.

Mendez Pineda found that the West Texas detention center, known to detainees as el gallinero (the henhouse), was small, with metal bunks, worn-out rubber mattresses, wooden floors, bathrooms with the walls covered in green and yellow mold, weeds everywhere, and snakes and rats that come in the night.

Originally built to house 60 people, at the time of Mendez Pinedas incarceration it held more than 100 detainees, who were exposed to all kinds of diseases and dont have access to adequate medical attention. The guards treatment of the detainees was brutal, and at best dismissive. It was, Mendez Pineda stated the worst days of my life...Honestly, it is hell. In fact, the experience so traumatized him that Mendez Pineda asked to be deported back to Mexico, despite knowing that his life would be in danger.

Responding to the latest allegations, ICE officials told the Intercept, ICE maintains a strict zero tolerance policy for any kind of abusive behavior and requires all staff working with the agency to adhere to this policy. All allegations are independently reviewed by ICEs Office of Professional Responsibility. ICE has not been made aware of any allegations prior to this initial reporting from RAICES.

In 2009 Obama oversaw the implementation of the Detention Bed Quota, which was a congressional mandate that 34,000 detention center beds must be filled at all times, in a handout to for-profit prison companies such as LaSalle. The Trump administration is seeking to increase this mandate to 51,000.

Emboldened by the administrations vile anti-immigrant chauvinism in addition to racist remarks by the president referring to Africa as a continent of shithole countries, fascistic elements within the state apparatus and ICE are increasingly at ease acting with violent impunity towards immigrants.The Socialist Equality Party (Canada) is holding a public meeting in Montreal this eveningWednesday, March 28to advance the struggle to build a global, working class-led movement against imperialist violence and war. For meeting details, please scroll to the bottom.

Behind the backs of the population, Canadas ruling elite is supporting and integrating Canada ever more fully into Washingtons reckless drive to maintain its global hegemony through aggression and imperialist war.

The Trudeau Liberal government is hiking military spending by 70 percent over the next decade, to more than $32 billion per year, so as to buy new fleets of warplanes and battleships and develop cyber-war capabilities. Following on from Harper and his Conservatives, the Liberals have also expanded Canadas role in Washingtons principal military-strategic offensivesagainst Russia and China and in the Middle Eastand they have repeatedly pledged their readiness to serve as the closest international ally of the Trump administration, the most rightwing and bellicose in US history.

Canadas capitalist elite, including its Quebecois component, are determined to uphold and expand their more than seven-decade military-security partnership with Washington, because they view US global dominance as vital to asserting their own predatory interests on the global stage.

Meanwhile, the other imperialist and great powers have responded to the series of illegal wars that the US has mounted over the past quarter-century and the intensified struggle for markets, profits and strategic advantage provoked by the 2008 financial crisis by developing their own plans for rearmament and aggression.

This turn toward militarism is accompanied by an ever-widening assault on the social and democratic rights of working people.

The international working class is the only force that can prevent crisis-ridden capitalism from plunging humanity, as it twice did in the last century, into a catastrophic global conflagration.

Wednesdays meeting will elaborate the socialist internationalist perspective that must animate the struggle against imperialist war and the Trudeau-Trump alliance. We encourage all WSWS readers to attend and participate in Wednesdays discussion.

Montreal

Wednesday, March 28 at 7PM

Centre St.-Pierre, Room 203

1212 Rue Panet (Between Ste. Catherine Est and Rene Levesque Est)

Near Metro Beaudry on the Green Line.In an extraordinary intervention, Britains High Commissioner to New Zealand, Laura Clarke, fired a public warning shot at the Labour-led government over its plans to seek a free trade deal with Russia. Following the Skripal poisoning in the UK, Clarke successfully pressured NZ to join the sanctions that Britain and its allies have imposed on Russia.

War tensions in Europe have spiked as the UK government has escalated accusations that Moscow attempted to kill British spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Julia, on March 4 in Salisbury. European Union (EU) foreign ministers last week pledged unqualified solidarity with the UK in condemning the reckless and illegal poisoning.

The case hinges on the unsubstantiated assertion that Moscow targeted the Skripals with a Novichok-style nerve agent developed in the former Soviet Union. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats and is promising further measures against the Kremlin.

There are, however, divisions within European ruling elites over Russia. UK Prime Minister Theresa May has pressed European leaders to expel Russian agents, in a bid to dismantle Kremlin networks across Europe. Britain is pushing allies such as New Zealandwhich, along with the UK, is part of the US-led Five Eyes intelligence networkto fall into line.

Speaking on Radio NZ on March 15, Clarke warned that efforts to pursue a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Russia would jeopardise future deals with both the EU and the UK. Clarke declared that New Zealand had to prioritise its FTAs, and trade negotiations with the EU and UK never happen in a vacuum.

The high commissioner earlier invited a group of selected journalists to a private briefing on the issue. According to journalist Richard Harmans POLITIK web site, the meeting was intended to soften up New Zealand public opinion to join in any sanctions Britain might try and impose on Russia. Harman concluded that the British felt they needed to make a strong case in Wellington.

The day after Clarkes radio interview, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the government had rescinded moves to restart trade talks with Russia. The government had intended to resume the talks, which were suspended in 2014 over the annexation of Crimea.

Ardern said the situation [with Russia] has changed. She and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters now agree that efforts to restart negotiations should be suspended. Ardern added that in the light of the Salisbury incident she did not know when, or if, the government would be in a position to resume trade talks.

Ardern supported the joint statements by British, US, German and French leaders on the nerve agent attack. Outrage at the brazen and callous use of chemical weapons in a UK town is fully justified, Ardern declared. She agreed with the British governments claims that there was no plausible explanation the attack could have come from anywhere other than Russia and Russia had serious questions to answer.

The about-face came after months during which Peters, who is also deputy prime minister and leader of the right-wing New Zealand First Party, had reiterated his plans to develop Russian trade. He claimed this was necessary to reduce New Zealands economic reliance on China, the countrys second most important trading partner. A commitment to pursue a FTA with the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan customs union was included in NZ Firsts coalition agreement with Labour following last Septembers election.

In a television program on March 10, Peters declared New Zealand was deadly serious about a free trade deal and defended Russia. He said there was no evidence Russia had a hand in shooting down flight MH17 over the Ukraine or that it meddled in the US election. We have a lot of allegations, but we do not have the facts laid out clearly, he said. When you start talking about those moral judgments, you might not be trading with anybody, Peters added.

Ardern downplayed Peters comments, telling the media he was simply making the point that other countries had been trading around sanctions applied to Russia, and New Zealand deserved fair access relative to other countries. She declared that a free trade deal with the EU had always been New Zealands top priority.

Clearly, there are tensions between Labour and NZ First. Dominion Post political reporter Stacey Kirk wrote on March 18 that it took Ardern more than a week to pull rank on her foreign minister and suspend efforts to restart trade talks with Russia.

According to Kirk, once Britains ultimatum to New Zealand was black and white, Peters finally put out his own strongly-worded statement condemning the chemical attack, calling it repugnant. He said NZ shared the concerns expressed by other nations and he would continue to consult with the UK and other partners.

The move to join the build-up to war against Russia follows Arderns statement in November that New Zealand was prepared to support a US attack on North Korea, and an intensifying anti-Chinese campaign by the government and intelligence agencies.

The Labour-NZ First coalition government was formed following US ambassador Scott Browns public intervention after last Septembers election. Brown criticised the previous National Party government for failing to fully endorse Trumps threat to annihilate North Korea, and indicated that Washington wanted greater NZ support for its build-up to war against China.

Arderns pro-war stance against China, Russia and North Korea exposes the fraud perpetrated by a layer of petty bourgeois peace groups, pro-Labour commentators such as the Daily Blog and pseudo-left outfits like the International Socialist Organisation, that the new government represents a progressive alternative to National.

While anti-war sentiment has strong traditions within the working class, the ruling class in New Zealand, a minor imperialist power, always has been ready to join the major powers in inter-imperialist wars and neo-colonial military ventures. The alliance with Britain, the US and Australia is the quid pro quo for their support for New Zealands own neo-colonial operations in the Pacific region.

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[18 October 2017]Saturdays March for Our Lives demonstrations mark a significant development in the growth of social opposition in the United States and internationally. In the midst of a wave of strikes and protests among teachers in the US, the UK, Africa and South America, as well as railroad workers in France, Uber drivers in India and Amazon workers in Spain, the mass demonstrations in the center of world imperialism are a sign of an intensification of social conflict worldwide.

Just over a month after 17 people were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, broad anger over mass shootings and gun violence has triggered one of the largest mobilizations in US history. Well over 1 million people participated in more than 800 demonstrations in all 50 states and 390 of the countrys 435 congressional districts, plus several protests overseas.

Protest organizers report that over 800,000 people attended the march in Washington, DC, far above their initial expectations and surpassing the size of the 2017 protest against President Donald Trumps inauguration. Tens of thousands more demonstrated in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Denver and other major cities. Hundreds of protests also took place in smaller cities and towns encompassing areas of diverse cultural and demographic composition.

The large turnout and prominent role of high school students is a powerful sign of political radicalization among a generation of youth whose lives have been overshadowed by war, state repression, and rampant social alienation and dysfunctionality produced by the extreme growth of social inequality.

The attempt by the Democratic Party and the media to present the protests as limited to calls for gun control is fraudulent. While the Democrats intervened as much as they could to block demonstrators from drawing broader conclusions, protesters who spoke to the World Socialist Web Site and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality readily connected violence within the US to imperialist war and the social crisis.

To the extent the Democrats calls for gun control won a hearing, it is because millions oppose the immense political influence of the fascistic National Rifle Association (NRA) and of the gun manufacturers who profit on the proliferation of military-grade weapons. In the United States, an 18-year-old can purchase an AR-15 assault rifle (the type used by the Parkland shooter) with fewer restrictions than required to obtain a drivers license.

Regardless of the pandering from Democratic officials, the chasm between the demands of the demonstrators and the actions of the political establishment is stark. In the days before the demonstration took place, Democrats and Republicans agreed to pass a $1.3 trillion budget that will drastically increase funding for the military, the deportation forces and the police.

Both factions of the American ruling class are seeking to drag the American population into new wars with ever more devastating consequences. Trump has appointed John Bolton, US ambassador to the UN during the Bush administration, as national security adviser, effective next month. Bolton has advocated for war against both Iran and North Korea.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are waging a ruthless campaign to portray Trump as a stooge of Russia, demanding an escalation of the US war in the Middle East and preparations for a direct conflict with the nuclear-armed Eurasian power. While the Democrats mouth empty phrases about opposing violence, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer says the party will not oppose the nomination of black-site torturer Gina Haspel to head the CIA.

The demonstrations proved that a new generation has arrived on the political scene. Many high school youth gave moving speeches, their voices filling with justifiable anger as they related stories of losing friends and relatives to mass shootings, police murder and street violence.

These are increasingly common parts of the American experience, particularly among working-class youth. American capitalism has unleashed an unprecedented degree of violence on the population of the US and the world. Since 2000, before most high school students were born, there have been 270,000 murders, 600,000 drug overdoses, 650,000 suicides, 85,000 workplace deaths, 12,000 police murders and 850 prisoner executions in the US.

Over roughly the same period, the US-led wars, launched for corporate profit and justified by lies, have killed well over one million people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.

Millions were motivated to participate in Saturdays demonstrations out of a profound sense that something is terribly wrong with an American society so marred by extreme violence and a degraded political and cultural life. This explodes the official narrative of the Democratic Party, according to which the American population should be chiefly concerned with questions of racial and gender identity. All other social problems, according to this narrative, are invented and/or magnified by the sinister machinations of Russia to sow divisions in an otherwise serene American society.

None of these issues played a significant role at Saturdays demonstrations. No speaker sought to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin for the uniquely American phenomenon of the high school mass shooting. When student speakers in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles shed light on the extreme violence and police repression in impoverished African-American and Latino neighborhoods, they did so without presenting the violence in chiefly racial terms. One working-class Latina student, Edna Chavez, told the march in Los Angeles that addressing mass shootings required getting to the root causes of social violence. This meant changing the conditions that foster violence, she said, including joblessness, inequality and a deteriorating public school system.

In the United States, under conditions where the trade unions have suppressed the class struggle for the past 40 years, the fact that economic and social questions are beginning to predominate has immense international significance. The demands of students for an end to social violence coincide with the demands of their teachers in West Virginia, Arizona, Oklahoma and New Jersey for higher wages and more funding for public education.

The grievances of different layers, age groups and geographical segments of the working class are beginning to coalesce. The ruling class is terrified that the various demands of workers across the country and across the world will crystallize into a mass movement independent of the two capitalist parties. For this reason they seek to choke the avenue of communicationsocial media and the Internetand censor left-wing websites from reaching a broader audience.

What is necessary above all is to develop within this objective radicalization a conscious, socialist leadership to organize the growing opposition of the working class, in the United States and internationally, into a revolutionary movement against the capitalist system. This is the task of the Socialist Equality Party and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality.Workers and young people must oppose the stepped-up state repression of the leadership of the Catalan secessionist movement directed by Spains Popular Party (PP) government.

Friday saw the Supreme Court jail another five separatist leaders and order international arrest warrants for six exiled secessionists, including ousted regional premier, Carles Puigdemont.

Puigdemont was arrested yesterday in Germany while attempting to cross the border from Denmark.

The jailed leaders include Jordi Turull (former Catalan government spokesperson), Carme Forcadell (former Catalan parliament speaker), Raul Romeva (former regional external affairs minister), Josep Rull (former Catalan development minister) and Dolors Bassa (former Catalan labour minister).

They join Oriol Junqueras, leader of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) and former regional vice-premier, and the leaders of the secessionist lobby groups Catalan National Assembly and Omnium Cultural, Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, in jail since October.

The Spanish ruling class is intent on beheading the secessionist movement, as the Madrid-based media now routinely refers to the repression of the Catalan nationalist movement. The Supreme Court decapitates the [independence] process, wrote El Pais. The Supreme Court decapitates the process: Without leaders, without investiture and without a road map, declared El Espanol.

In addition to Puigdemont, Judge Pablo Llarena reactivated international arrest warrants against five more Catalan leaders living in self-imposed exile, and four former regional ministers, Toni Comin, Meritxell Serret and Lluis Puig, all of whom are in Belgium, as well as Clara Ponsati, who is in Scotland. Police have said arrangements were being made for Ponsati to hand herself in. The judge issued a warrant for Marta Rovirathe interim leader of the ERC, after Junqueras was sent to prisonwho fled abroad with her daughter Thursday night.

In total, 25 Catalan leaders are to be tried for rebellion, misuse of public funds or disobeying the state. Convictions could result in up to 30 years in prison.

The 69-page judicial statement presents the most spurious charges against the Catalan leaders.

Judge Llarena highlights every incidence of conflict since 2012, no matter how minor and without reference to the provocative role of the police and state forces, to assert the existence of a strategy of confrontation with the Spanish government. He states that the Supreme Court characterizes violence by its physical nature, by personal expression, and for its appropriateness, adding that violence must be of a physical nature requiring the use of force and must be exercised against a person. But he then claims that the capacity for intimidation is also violence.

Llarena also invents a new term, acting violently, which is doing something in a violent manner, which does not present a typical content fully in agreement with acting with violence.

Accusations of violence, directed against a largely peaceful civil protest involving the calling of an election, are a key element of the states prosecution, as rebellion charges only apply to those who violently and publicly try to abrogate, suspend or modify the Constitution, either totally or partially.

The judicial action is the result of a criminal conspiracy between the Popular Party government, the Prosecutors Office, the National Court and the Supreme Court, supported by the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the Citizens party.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy refused to accept the results of the December election last year, called after his government sacked the regional administration and imposed direct rule under Article 155 of the Constitution.

Rajoy hoped to install pro-Spanish-unity parties in power on December 21, but this backfired after the separatist parties, Puigdemonts Together for Catalonia (JxCat), the ERC and the small pseudo-left Candidatures of Popular Unity (CUP) won a slim majority. The PP was almost wiped out and lost the anti-separatist vote to Citizens.

Rajoy has since extended Article 155 and said the he will only accept a Catalan government which accepts the rule of law, i.e., repudiates the perspective of unilateral separation. JxCat and the ERC both agreed to this diktat, but this has not saved them.

Puigdemont, the first choice for regional premier of JxCat and the ERC, was forced to withdraw his candidature after the Constitutional Court, in an unprecedented action, passed a resolution to preventively suspend the investiture. The second option announced last week was Jordi Sanchez, the former leader of the Catalan National Assembly. He too was forced to withdraw his candidacy after the Supreme Court rejected his request to be freed from jail to attend the investiture ceremony. This contradicted a 1987 resolution by the same court allowing Juan Carlos Yoldi, militant of the Basque armed group ETA, to attend the Basque parliament to present himself as candidate for regional premier.

The third attempt was dashed on Friday. Once the rumors circulated that Jordi Turull would be the next candidate, the Supreme Court fast-tracked its decision summoning all accused parties to an arraignment hearing on Friday.

The secessionists reacted by calling for a parliamentary vote Thursday to ram through the election of Turull. Minutes before the parliamentary session started, however, the pseudo-left CUPwhich plays a kingmakers role in the secessionist camp with its four lawmakerssaid it refused to back his bid arguing that Turulls proposed programme did not press hard enough for independence. On Saturday, the speaker of Catalonias parliament suspended a scheduled run-off vote to elect Turull.

The crackdown on the secessionist movement provoked protests in Catalonia on Friday night. Thousands convened in the centre of Barcelona and major Catalan cities, in protests called by the CUP-dominated Committees for the Defence of the Republic, the Catalan National Assembly and Omnium Cultural.

Riot police used batons to keep the demonstrators away from Spains government offices in Barcelona. Emergency services said 35 people were injured in clashes with police. Protests also spread in the Basque-speaking regions, with protests held in Pamplona and Bilbao calling for the release of the political prisoners.

The minority PP government is in deep crisis, incapable of passing this years budget without the support of the Basque Nationalist Party and according to the latest polls, was overtaken by Citizens as the main right-wing party. It has only been able to proceed on its repressive path thanks to the supportive role of nominal left parties.

Socialist Party leader Pedro Sanchez responded to the arrests by describing the independence movement as a bet for chaos, stressing that, Nobody has done so much damage to Catalan institutions as the secessionist movement.

Irene Montero, spokesperson for the main pseudo-left group, Podemos, called for dialogue between the Catalan nationalists and the Spanish government, claiming that the judicial path will not facilitate satisfactory outcome and lasting solution neither for Spain nor for Catalonia  even in these difficult times we have to find the path toward dialogue and negotiation.

Such calls for moderation serve to demobilize opposition to Rajoys repression and conceal its implications for the entire Spanish working class.

The repression against the Catalan nationalists takes place amid acute social tensions in Spain, revealed in last weeks nationwide mass protests of pensioners, the clashes in Madrid Wednesday between police and migrants after the death of a street vendor and strikes like that by Amazon workers last week. Under conditions of mounting economic crisis, the ruling elite have no answer to social and political dissent other than a turn to authoritarian forms of rule.On March 16, New York City yellow cab taxi driver Nicanor Ochisor, 65, hanged himself at his home in Maspeth, Queens because of financial distress. He was the fourth taxi/livery driver to commit suicide in the New York area in as many months because of impoverishment brought about by the deregulation of e-hailing services such as Uber.

Ochisor was the first yellow cab medallion owner to take his life over the growth of poverty conditions among taxi and livery drivers. Medallions were coveted licenses that permitted a person to own and lease a yellow cab taxi in New York City. Many are owned by small operators who drive their cars and who may also lease them to another driver. Other medallions are owned by large companies.

After immigrating to the United States from Romania, Ochisor purchased his medallion in 1989. He was able to finance his home mortgage with it and earn a decent living for his family.

In 2014, before the city permitted e-hailing taxi services such as Uber, a medallion could cost as much as $1 million. Since then, Uber, Lyft and other companies have swarmed the city with nearly 100,000 vehicles, and medallions now go for as little as $175,000.

Ochisor did not rent out his cab but did share driving duties with his wife. A longtime friend, Dan Nitescu told the New York Daily News, His wife was driving in the morning, he was driving in the afternoon to midnight. Since Uber came to town  the whole taxi business was almost destroyed. The medallion value went to almost zero.

For the last six, seven months that whatever he makes together with his wife, he was making by himself alone, before the Uber  He was making the payments, but it was very hard. He struggled himself. It was bothering him all the time.

In February, livery driver Douglas Schifter, a prominent voice in the industry, killed himself with a shotgun outside the gates of City Hall. He wrote in his suicide note: The government is continuing its strong drive to enslave us with low wages and extreme fines. Its a nightmare, and one cant help but wonder: When will this stop?

In December, livery driver Danilo Castillo also wrote a suicide note about the disastrous state of the industry before jumping off the roof of his apartment building in Manhattan because he was facing a crippling fine for picking up fares who hailed him on the street. A fourth driver killed himself in February, according to the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. His name has not been released.

The living standards of drivers who work for taxi and livery services have fallen precipitously since the introduction of ride-hailing apps. Uber has made a concerted effort to buy politicians and lobby for the deregulation of the industry in cities across the United States.

The result has been to turn car transportation workers into casual labor, working without benefits and for low wages. The distress of these workers, both those working for companies such as Uber and Lyft as well as those taxi and limousine drivers, who are being displaced by deregulated e-hailing services, is only one of the sharpest expressions of the broad attack on the working class aimed at destroying the rights to decent working conditions, wages and benefits which were won in the last century.

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[2 February 2016]Cities: Skylines, The Surge, and ESO All Free to Play This WeekendAfter saying a few words at Saturdays March for Our Lives protest in Washington D.C., Emma Gonzalez, one of the survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school massacre last month, began an unannounced moment of silence.

Six minutes and about 20 seconds, she began. In a little over six minutes, 17 of our friends were taken from us, 15 were injured, and everyone, absolutely everyone in the [Marjory Stoneman] Douglas community was forever altered.

Everyone who was there understands. Everyone who has been touched by the cold grip of gun violence understands, she added, before naming the victims of the school shooting.

Afterwards, Gonzalez stood silently in front of the microphone for several minutes with tears streaming down her face as the crowd was at turns silent and filled with scattered applause and calls of encouragement for the 18-year-old.

At one point, the crowd even began chanting, Never again.

RELATED: Thousands of Students Rally Against Gun Violence in March for Our Lives Demonstrations Across the World

Emma Gonzalez

 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.

After Gonzalez had been onstage for 6 minutes and 20 seconds, a timer went off and she resumed speaking.

Since the time that I came out here, it has been 6 minutes and 20 seconds. The shooter has ceased shooting, and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape, and walk free for an hour before arrest. Fight for your lives before its someone elses job, she remarked before concluding her speech.

 For more compelling true crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard.

The March for Our Lives protest in Washington D.C. was planned by Gonzalez and fellow Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students Jaclyn Corin, Cameron Kasky, David Hogg, and Alex Wind within days of the Feb. 14 mass shooting. The event went on to inspire hundreds of sibling marches worldwide.

Story continues

In addition to the student speakers in D.C., a group of celebrities joined them, including George and Amal Clooney, Miley Cyrus, Common, Jennifer Hudson, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

RELATED: Jennifer Hudson Closes March for Our Lives with Emotional Performance After Losing Family to Gun Violence

But the March for Our Lives was not about star power.

As Stoneman Douglas Student Ryan Deitsch said in his D.C. speech, Movie stars in the crowd, we might have videos on these screens but this is not the Oscars. This is real life, this is reality, this is whats happening in our country and around the world today.

Were done hiding, were done being afraid, he said. Though I know we March today, this isnt the end. This is the beginning. Its time to fight for our lives.March for Our Lives demonstrations across the country brought out scores of stars, who offered their talent, support and praise for the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who are calling for Congress to enact stricter gun-control laws in response to the string of campus shootings.

Here are just a few of the celebrities who joined in the spirit of the event:

I stand with the brave, indomitable kids who galvanized a nation, a world, &did not take inaction as an answer. You have put the adults in DC to shame. CS gun laws with finally be enacted, &you will be the Heroes of a generation. TODAY you lead us all. #MarchForOurLives  Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) March 24, 2018

Backstage at the March, with our future pic.twitter.com/fz8616MKY1  Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) March 24, 2018

Surrounded by heroines! Lucky to be here at this moment in history with the ones I love! #MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/xVF4sDVofh  Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) March 24, 2018

Woke up today w/hope in my heart

cuz of u.

On my way 2lift my voice 4a safer America

cuz of u.

Never let anyone tell ur voice is small or too young or doesn't matter:

u ARE the future. U are leading the way.

&I am so happy to be in ur hands.#Letters2Kids#MarchForOurLives  Bellamy Young (@BellamyYoung) March 24, 2018

Marching for the future of my children, our children and future children. Enough is enough. #stopgunviolence #weneedchange #marchforourlives ???????? pic.twitter.com/J3x6R0AN6i  Molly Sims (@MollyBSims) March 24, 2018

Today: March

Tomorrow: Register everyone wholl be 18 in November to Vote.

November: VOTE  Zach Braff (@zachbraff) March 24, 2018

Today our nation's youth are demanding their basic human right to go to school without dying in the name of greed. It's time for Congress to act like adults worthy of their office. PASS TOUGHER GUN LAWS! BAN THE AR-15! STOP TAKING NRA BLOOD MONEY! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! #neveragain pic.twitter.com/Hhg0Qltnjr  Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) March 24, 2018

Hey @GOP, you are being replaced. Not only in November 2018, but by an entire generation who will not stand for your corrupt subservience to special interests like the gun lobby. Get on board with change or get out of the way. The future is here.#MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/iabhTbVKVY  Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) March 24, 2018

I'm marching today in honor of my friend Ronni Chasen, a victim of gun violence  Diane Warren (@Diane_Warren) March 24, 2018

I stand in solidarity with students, teachers, parents, friends and families across the country! #MarchForOurLivesLA Now you marchnext we VOTE! #MarchForOurLives @AMarch4OurLives pic.twitter.com/aB1FFwKfP1  Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) March 24, 2018

The Los Angeles March for Our Lives is beautiful. Our children did this. All around the country. They cant be stopped.  ???? Lena Dunham ???? (@lenadunham) March 24, 2018

This is how my loving mom is celebrating her 84th birthday today. #marchforourlives #notonemore. If our elected officials dont act to prevent gun violence, we will #throwthemout. Make sure youre ready to show up at the polls in November. Text FIGHT to 788-683 pic.twitter.com/zc5jEgdysY  Julia Louis-Dreyfus (@OfficialJLD) March 24, 2018

Proud of all the kids sharing their message of peace 2day ???????? Protect kids, not guns! Use your voice n lets fix this #IWillMarch #MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/gYZwBj14cS  Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) March 24, 2018

Out marching with the kids and families. And thinking. 60 years ago schoolchildren were trained to get under their desks and hide from the Russians. Now we're training them again to hide. And this time from Americans. Something's wrong here. My heart and hopes are with the kids. pic.twitter.com/bmKxWOrEER  Alan Alda (@alanalda) March 24, 2018

I am proud to support the amazingly brave, strong and incredible students behind #marchforourlives as they march today in Washington, DC to end gun violence in schools and communities around the country. Please join them and learn how to help https://t.co/S0b1RtMiui  Abigail Breslin (@yoabbaabba) March 24, 2018

Heres to the girls and boys that want to make a difference. Heres to the kids who value each others lives. Heres to change. #MarchForOurLives  Laurie Hernandez (@lzhernandez02) March 24, 2018

Proud to march in solidarity. pic.twitter.com/S7nikUz6km  Billy Crystal (@BillyCrystal) March 24, 2018

For all those marching don't let anyone tell you that what you are doing isn't important. My heart is with you. My body is in transport from Sarasota to Daytona Beach. Thanks so much for #MarchForOurLives Sent to all of you with my deepest admiration and respect.  Lewis Black (@TheLewisBlack) March 24, 2018

You are wrong, Chris Mathews, this #MarchForOurLives is not just about keeping our SCHOOLS safe from gun violence. It is about keeping our COMMUNITIES safe from gun violence.  Paula Poundstone (@paulapoundstone) March 24, 2018

George Bernard Shaw said, Youth is wasted on the young. He should have met these inspirational young people. Theyre not wasting anything. https://t.co/haJlWoKEcu - Tom Bergeron (@Tom_Bergeron) March 24, 2018

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Story continues

Scene From the March for Our Lives in Santa Monica  Anger, Passion, Hope

How to Watch Saturday's March for Our Lives in Washington D.C.

Paul McCartney Remembers John Lennon, Best Friend 'Killed in Gun Violence' (Video)Stormy Daniels appearance on tonights 60 Minuteswas not only a fascinating piece of television, but also an all-out media event that had the country glued to their television. As Anderson Cooper sat down with the adult film star to talk about her alleged affair with Donald Trump, many people  including figures in Hollywood  grabbed the popcorn and watched her tell her story.

From Lena Dunham to George Takei, the reactions were very mixed with serious takes and clever jabs among Hollywood. Being the thoughtful journalist he is, Dan Rather tweeted, One has a sense that the Stormy Daniel interviews tonight was but the first squalls of a gathering tempest while others like Bill Maher cracked jokes about the situation saying, First Karen McDougal this week, now Stormy Daniels  poor Anderson Cooper hasnt been made to think about p*ssy this much his entire life!

Alec Baldwin criticized the interview and encouraged everyone to organize and vote Trump out of office. Guardians of the Galaxy director tweeted out a joke, but countered that with a sincere tweet saying, Lots of Stormy Daniels jokes over the last few months, but seeing her talking about how difficult this has been for her child is heartbreaking.

Read more tweets below.

One has a sense that the Stormy Daniels interview tonight was but the first squalls of a gathering tempest.  Dan Rather (@DanRather) March 26, 2018

First Karen McDougal this week, now Stormy Daniels  poor Anderson Cooper hasnt been made to think about pussy this much his entire life!  Bill Maher (@billmaher) March 26, 2018

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No offense to Stormy Daniels, but that interview provides no worthwhile insights into the problem. Nothing.

The only solution to the problem  is to organize.

And then vote his lying, corrupt, incompetent ass out of office.

November is coming  ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) March 26, 2018

60 minutes reveals more of same -trump a gangster  engages world through gangster ethics  totaly unfit for office  not worth mentioning all the laws he breaks as theres too many to number- a vast pattern /picture of a deranged criminal who must be removed from power -now  John Cusack (@johncusack) March 26, 2018

With the countrys fate hanging in the balance it feels very wrong to ask for no Stormy Daniels spoilers and yet here I am  Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) March 26, 2018

Lots of Stormy Daniels jokes over the last few months, but seeing her talking about how difficult this has been for her child is heartbreaking.  James Gunn (@JamesGunn) March 25, 2018

At this point theres a 40% chance Putin has video of Trump having sex with a blonde Russian prostitute he calls Ivanka.  James Gunn (@JamesGunn) March 26, 2018

The Stormy Daniels story isn't about Trump having an affair with a porn star. That's not news. It is about his campaign trying to threaten, intimidate and illegally use campaign funds to buy her silence just weeks before the election. Don't let the lurid details overshadow this.  George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) March 25, 2018

trump is shitting his brains out  on his gold plated toilet right now poop soup #60minutes  ROSIE (@Rosie) March 25, 2018

Hearing Stormy Daniels talk about how she didnt want to sleep with Trump but did made me feel sad. Going to someones room with them is not an agreement to have sex. Consent has no point of no return. You can say no whenever it stops being fun.  amber ruffin (@ambermruffin) March 26, 2018

Stormy Daniels is the seven episode arc on The Practice we never knew we needed  Ira Madison III (@ira) March 26, 2018

To be honest, I'd be more interested in hearing Stormy Daniels interview Anderson Cooper about wild sexual shenanigans.  Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) March 26, 2018

in Stormy Daniels Non Disclosure agreement, "She is referred to as Peggy Peterson (PP) and Trump as David Dennison (DD)" WHY OF EVERYTHING DOES THIS DETAIL GROSS ME OUT THE MOST?  Whitney Cummings (@WhitneyCummings) March 26, 2018

Video: What Stormy Daniels Revealed on '60 Minutes'

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Stormy Daniels Gets Cease-&-Desist Letter; Melania Trump Rep Breaks Silence

Stormy Daniels And Michael Cohen's Attorneys Slug It Out On 'GMA' Morning After '60 Minutes' InterviewWe don't know what they have in store, but it's looking pretty good.

It appears the Carters know how to mix business with pleasure.

Earlier this week, Beyonce and Jay Z were spotted in Jamaica where theyre reportedly shooting a promo for their upcoming On the Run II Tour. Locals immediately posted photos and videos of the power couple traveling through the town of Kingston with a production crew in towpretty much confirming that some sort of project was on the way.

NEW PHOTOS: Beyonce & JAY-Z on the set of a new video in Jamaica (Mar. 20) https://t.co/H6aJPLDMMO pic.twitter.com/UVbwmOu3l8  BEYONCE LEGION (@Bey_Legion) March 20, 2018

Beyonce & JAY-Z shooting a new video in Jamaica today. pic.twitter.com/qA8M0brdJQ  BEYONCE LEGION (@Bey_Legion) March 20, 2018

This weekend, more images of Bey and Jays Jamaica trip surfaced on the web. And theyre looking carefree and opulent AF.

You can see the duo on the beach posing in front of a camera and decked out in some fittingly bold ensembles. Jay is rocking a bright red suit with a pair of gold-framed shades, while Beyonce is wearing a multi-colored pantsuit with a wide-brimmed hat. Theres also some Red Stripe beer in the shot because, well, Jamaica.

You can check out the newly surfaced photos below.Stormy Daniels Says She Felt Threatened to Keep Quiet About Alleged Trump Affair: 'I Was Rattled' Stormy Daniels Felt Threatened to Keep Quiet About Alleged Trump Affair

Stormy Daniels, the porn star who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Donald Trump in 2006, is telling her side of the story in her first interview detailing everything from the hush agreement to her brief past with the now-president.

It was very important to me to be able to defend myself, Daniels told Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes on Sunday of why she chose to talk to him about the alleged affair that occurred months after he and wife Melania welcomed son Barron, now 12.

People are just saying whatever they wanted to say about me, I was perfectly fine saying nothing at all, but Im not okay with being made out to be a liar, or people thinking that I did this for money and people are like, Oh, youre an opportunist. Youre taking advantage of this. Yes, Im getting more job offers now, but tell me one person who would turn down a job offer making more than theyve been making, doing the same thing that theyve always done? she said.

I have no reason to lie. Im opening myself up for, you know, possible danger and definitely a whole lot of s, Daniels said of how people can tell she is telling the truth.

RELATED: Stormy Daniels Sues Trump, Says Hush Agreement Is Invalid Because He Never Signed

Michael Cohen; Donald Trump; Stormy Daniels

Daniels 60 Minutes interview comes days after former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal opened up to Cooper about her alleged relationship with Trump that began in June 2006 and ended in April 2007.

Similar to how McDougal recalled Trump comparing her to his daughter Ivanka, Daniels also told Cooper that she was also compared to the now-first daughter. He was like, Wow, you are special. You remind me of my daughter. He was like, Youre smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you. I like you,  said Daniels, who also admitted she was not physically attracted to Trump during their consensual affair.

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The mother of one also clarifies that her alleged relationship with Trump does not make her a part of the #MeToo movement. This is not a Me Too. I was not a victim. Ive never said I was a victim. I think trying to use me to further someone elses agenda, does horrible damage to people who are true victims, Daniels said.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed a civil lawsuit against Trump earlier this month, in which she claimed that the nondisclosure agreement she signed to allegedly keep quiet about their affair is invalid because it was not signed by Trump, but rather by his lawyer Michael Cohen.

Stormy Daniels

Trumps lawyer has threatened to sue Daniels for allegedly violating a nondisclosure agreement 20 times, according to The Washington Post.

According to Daniels, she was threatened by a man in Las Vegas after she told detailed the alleged affair to In Touch magazine in May 2011 for $15,000 dollars.

I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter.  And a guy walked up to me and said, Leave Trump alone. Forget the story. And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, Thats a beautiful little girl. Itd be a shame if something happened to her mom. And then he was gone, she recalled to Cooper.

Adding, I was rattled.  And my hands are shaking so much, I was afraid I was gonna drop her.

After initially denying a payment had been made to Daniels in 2016, Cohen admitted last month to making a private transaction of $130,000 out of his own pocket to silence her at the time.

The White House and Cohen have denied the allegation of an affair, telling the Wall Street Journal in January: These are old, recycled reports, which were published and strongly denied prior to the election.

Not long after the magazine story was killed, Stormy Daniels says she was threatened by a man who approached her in Las Vegas. A guy walked up on me and said to me, leave Trump alone. Forget the story. pic.twitter.com/JMskKQiYCi  60 Minutes (@60Minutes)

March 25, 2018

Want to keep up on the latest from PEOPLE? Sign up for our daily newsletter to get our best stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.

Earlier today, we filed this complaint seeking a ct order voiding the alleged hush agreement between our client S. Clifford aka Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump. https://t.co/upa9u10MqR  Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti)

March 7, 2018

RELATED: Donald Trump Returns to White House Without Melania Ahead of Stormy Daniels Tell-All Interview

When asked why she signed the non-disclosure agreement in the first place, Daniels recalled, Because they made it sound like I had no choice.  As a matter of fact, the exact sentence used was, They can make your life hell in many different ways. 

Earlier this week, CNN shared a polygraph report they obtained in which Ron Slay, the polygraph examiner who administered the test to Daniels in May 2011, said Daniels was truthful about having unprotected vaginal intercourse with Donald Trump in July 2006.

Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti told CNN in a statement that he bought the video to ensure that it would be maintained and kept safely during the litigation and not be altered and destroyed. We did so after learning that various parties, including mainstream media organization, were attempting to acquire the video and the file and either destroy it or use it for nefarious means.

RELATED VIDEO: PEOPLE Writer Natasha Stoynoff Breaks Silence, Accuses Donald Trump of Sexual Attack

In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, Avenatti said, There is no question Ms. Clifford is telling the truth. The American people will come to their own conclusion this Sunday after watching 60 Minutes.

The New York Times also reported earlier this month that Daniels lawyers offered to return the $130,000 payment in exchange for dissolving the so-called hush agreement.A New York City firefighter lost his life on Thursday night, after battling a five-alarm fire that broke out on a film set in upper Manhattan. The New York City Fire Department identified the firefighter as Michael Davidson, 37, who had 15 years of experience with the department. He was a father of four children. Officials say the fire began at around 11 p.m. in the basement of a five-story building where "Motherless Brooklyn" was being filmed. The crime drama stars Bruce Willis and Edward Norton. Norton is also the director of the film. "Our city lost a hero tonight," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a tweet, adding: "The prayers of 8.5 million New Yorkers are with his wife, his four children and his loved ones."In the wake of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schoolwhere 17 students and faculty members were murdered by a 19-year-old with an assault riflethe discourse in America has again turned to the topic of gun control. It remains one of the most divisive issues in the United States. What can be agreed upon: The statistics of gun violence in America are chilling. In high-income nations, 91 percent of children younger than 15 who were killed by gunfire lived in the US, according to the World Health Organization. That same report found 82 percent of all people killed by firearms in high-income nations were from the United States. The United States is approximately four percent of the worlds population, and we have 42 percent of the worlds civilian-owned guns. Below, we look at important ideas relevant to the gun control debate. If you are concerned or feel threatened by someone who has access to a gun, contact your local law enforcement agency or call 911.If you're looking at pictures of the March for Our Lives, you might be wondering why students are wearing price tags. There's a chilling reason behind it.

Last month in Emma Gonzalezs powerful anti-gun rally speech, the 18-year-old Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school student cited that the National Rifle Associations donation to Donald Trump, and divided that by each student killed in the past 18 months  it equates to roughly $5,800. This is part of the reason students in todays March For Our Lives gun reform protest are wearing price tags on their bodies, with the price tags also pointing to the number of donations Florida Senator Marco Rubio received from the NRA.

Rubio reportedly received $3,303,355 from the NRA, and dive that by the number of students in Florida, that equates to each student being worth $1.05. These free printable price tags are available on the March For Our Lives website, and protesters are encouraged to wear them. On March 24th wear this price tag to protest politicians who accept NRA blood money and demand they pass meaningful gun control legislation now, the site reads.

Fellow Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Sarah Chadwick explained in her speech at todays rally that that $1.05 would equate to the 17 students killed in the Parkland high schools massacre being worth less than $20. Is that all were worth to these politicians? A dollar and five cents? Was $17.85 all it cost you that day, Mr. Rubio, Chadwick demanded. Well I say, one life is worth more than all the guns in America.

Print out and wear your own price tag bracelet for the March!!! Ill be wearing my own :) pic.twitter.com/T3dZYsM5PB  Sarah Chadwick// #NEVERAGAIN (@Sarahchadwickk) March 21, 2018

Oriana Dunn, who will be 15 on Monday, wearing a $1.05 price tag on her pigtails. Shes a student at McCallum HS in Austin. The Parkland students designed the tag to say that $1.05 was the price of a student life to Marco Rubio. pic.twitter.com/in0k2BlubE  Blake Montgomery ???? (@blakersdozen) March 24, 2018

This little boy wearing the NRA price tag will be the image I remember of today. #MarchForOurLivespic.twitter.com/7ywkqkQCel  ella dawson (@brosandprose) March 24, 2018

MSD student @Sarahchadwickk with a $1.05 price tag, which are being passed out at #MarchForOurLives. The price represents the number of students in Florida divided by the amount of money Marco Rubio has taken from the NRA. pic.twitter.com/8tDCVMHXq4  marilyn (@marilynicsman) March 24, 2018

The Nonpartisan Center For Responsive Politics estimated that the NRA spent $54 million securing Republican control of the White House and Congress in the 2016 election. Of that money $30.3 million went to electing President Donald Trump.

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We commend these students for courageously speaking out because every life deserves to be protected.

Related Video: Who are you marching for?Dear Emma, Lauren and Rebecca,

Thank you for your note and congratulations on the incredible work you and all of your fellow students are doing to make the country a safer place.

Its terrific that youre editing the Guardian. Its a stellar newspaper and they must feel honored to be working with you.

Amal and I are 100% behind you and will be marching in DC on the 24th, but we both feel very strongly that this is your march. Your moment. Young people are taking it to the adults and that has been your most effective tool. The fact that no adults will speak on the stage in DC is a powerful message to the world that if we cant do something about gun violence then you will. The issue is going to be this, anyone you ask would feel proud to be interviewed by you but its so much more effective if its young people.

You could talk to a dozen kids like the young kids from Chicago and LA that Emma met with. You could take over the Guardian and make it tell the stories of children by children. Its a once in a lifetime opportunity to point to this moment and say it belongs to you. You certainly should do what you want but that would be my hope for you.

Amal and I stand behind you, in support of you, in gratitude to you.

You make me proud of my country again.

Thank you.

All the best,

GeorgePhoto credit: Allison Zaucha

From Cosmopolitan

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of people turned out to their local March For Our Lives on March 24 to fight for gun control. Many of them were moved by decades of frequent mass shootings, and the powerful statements from the survivors of the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, FL. But many of them also have had personal experiences with gun violence - a brother was shot, or a friend, or a cousin. Cosmopolitan went to the March For Our Lives in Washington D.C. and asked people marching about their personal connections to gun violence. Here are their gut-wrenching responses.

Tatianna Duperier, 18

A senior at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach, FL

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

When I was 12 years old, my brother fired a gun in the house and it was kind of traumatic for me. When it happened in Parkland, it really hit close to home because I live less than 20 minutes away. Me and all my fellow students at Blanche Ely High School and in the county, we organized the march and things of that sort to stand up against it, because yes were young, but we still have a voice. We have a right to say our opinions and stuff.



Ariana Gonzalez, 20

A sophomore at Broward College in Coral Springs, FL

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

"Well, I mean, it's weird because my brother was in the military so I kind of felt comfortable around guns. I've gone to shooting ranges with him and stuff, but it was under control. Seeing this happen, like since Columbine and even before it, it's just like, 'Why haven't we stopped it yet?' Yes we have the right to bear arms, and yes you can have guns, but you shouldn't just kill people. I don't have a problem with guns. But definitely ban assault weapons because no one needs that unless you're in the military. I mean, if you want to shoot one just use it in a shooting range.



"I lost three friends in the Marjory Stoneman Douglass shooting. I found out through Snapchat and I was in total disbelief, because Parkland is such a nice, wealthy area. I thought it was a food fight, senior prank, whatever. Then I turn on the news and I saw everyone running. I walked those halls, I know those kids, I know the guy who did. It kind of shocked me and I was frozen for a long time. It's just heartbreaking but it's also really comforting seeing how many schools have supported us, and seeing the whole country supporting this movement. I have a new network of people and it's crazy because it's people who I didn't think I would really get along with, but these people support the things I support so we can talk about it. It's a beautiful thing unite for one beautiful movement."

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Kaiana Evans, 14

A freshman at Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center in Columbus, OH

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

"So just about a year ago my aunt got shot and she passed away. Her boyfriend I guess wasn't liked by certain people that were in gangs, so when they find out the general area he was in they went to get him. They ended up shooting my aunt. So that's another reason why I really wanted to come to this march, because it has affected me and I know how it feels. It's hard so to know that my aunt was taken away like that, and these people think their kids are going to school and are just trying to learn. I just don't understand why anyone thinks this is OK. No one should be proud to support that. My sister, she's in first grade and she has to know that her aunt is dead because our government can't control us from this."



Tekelia Black, 15

A sophomore at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach, FL

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

My aunt, she died to a gun, and I grew up with guns. I want to be able to feel more safe and I want the people to take control of the gun violence and stop it from happening. I hear police sirens every day. I hear gun shots everyday. Its to the point where Im used to it. It will keep me up at night and I cant get sleep for school. It affects me because I say, What if it was my school? And how my mother would feel if she lost one of her children? I hope that it would be way harder to purchase a gun and that the president will understand that its not good to give teachers guns. They should give people more school supplies instead of a gun.

Meron Campbell, 15

A sophomore at Hamden High School in Hamden, CT

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

"A family friend recently lost her boyfriend to gun violence, and its really sad watching her child grow up because she doesnt know how to handle it and doesnt know what happened.



"Its just scary going to class because, unconsciously, you always think, What if something happens? If someone knocks on the door too loud youre like, What if something bad is about to occur?' You always have to have that thought in mind. For the people who think that their guns are so much more important than peoples lives: if you think a gun is keeping you safe, you arent one of the people who need to be saved. The people who are actually at risk of gun violence arent the people who are trying to keep them there."

Gisele Campbell, 8, and her mother, Simone

From Chantilly, VA

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

Simone: My sister texted me while it was going on. She goes to [Marjory Stoneman] Douglass. We didnt know where the shooter was at the time. It was pretty crippling. Gisele really understands whats going on, and she said to me, When I go to high school Im not going to go everyday. She said, I dont want to get shot when I get older. Thats how I knew she knew what was going on. She is eight.

Ixchel Pedroza, 16

A freshman at Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center in Columbus, OH

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

I have lost people. Not by gun shots, but by other things, and I understand where this movement is coming from. Its a really painful place. I just want them to know that Im going to be there for them, stand with them, and fight with them because everybody has the right and everybody has a voice.

Aryn Woods, 17

A senior at Thurgood Marshall Academy in Washington, D.C.

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

In 2008, my brother passed away from gun violence in our own community. In 2017, one of my closest friends passed away from gun violence. I am here today to represent my community because I feel that gun violence is one of those layered topics that is more than just passing laws. I am sick of the government's lukewarm advances at reform.

Ariel Sepulveda, 27

An activist from Miami, FL

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

I talk to students and I hear stories everyday of gun violence. Im getting tired of not having an answer for them. I went to Homestead Senior High School. Its an F rated school by Florida which means it doesnt get invested in. The school itself is on lock down every other week and it was very normalized to have police trucks outside and police roaming the halls with dogs and guns. It feels like a prison. In Homestead, we would talk about how normal it was to go to the flea market and get a shirt with your friend's name on it with RIP, and were tired of putting our friends' faces on shirts.

Young women from the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, in Sterling, VA, one of the largest mosques in the United States

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

This past summer, our Muslim community in our mosque experienced the traumatic death of a girl in our community who was murdered. That came as a shock. Hearing about it from my parents alone was traumatizing, so seeing how these kids have experienced this and are able to go up and speak and really make a change is so inspiring. I started crying. Them having to comprehend it is sad enough, but them having the passion, the courage to go up there is just outstanding."

Alena Hiebert, 15

A sophomore at Hamden High School in Hamden, CT

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

Down the street from where we live, so many people have died from gun violence, its crazy. It makes us more aware of stuff happening."



Lydia Makondo, 18

A freshmen at Hampton University in Hampton, VA

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

I'm from Coral Springs, FL, and I actually knew a freshmen who was supposed to be in that building at the time of the shooting. When I found out about it, it was crazy because it was so close to home and I knew people who were personally affected by it. And she actually lost four of her friends and had to go to funerals back, to back, to back.



I was actually able to speak to a former member of the NRA today, and he feels as if this momentum that happened from this these movements across the country are going to be that spark that we need to get the NRA demolished. I think that these baby steps are really big, momentous steps for this country. I'm just glad to be here with all these people who had one mind, one voice, and were unified, because we need unity in America right now. That's the strongest weapon that we have."

Serena Rush, 15

A sophomore at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, MD

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

"My cousin's friend who I know very well was shot with an assault rifle in a domestic assault situation. It made me feel like, Wow, this is real. It made me realize that my friends are actually experiencing the gun violence. I want adults to know we have a voice and we cannot be stopped. And every one of their votes matter and will change the world."

Skyla Cuffy, 16

A sophomore at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach, FL

Photo credit: Allison Zaucha

My brother got shot and his mom got killed two years ago, when I was fifteen. I try not to cry, but for me, seeing other people die and their innocent lives taken for no reason, thats what hurts me the most. I dont know what causes people to have such negativity in their heart to come in and shoot people. Its saddening and it hurts. I want to see a change happen before Im next.

You Might Also LikeThe public outrage over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the largest data breach in Facebook's history, has not dulled in the week since the news broke. On Sunday, Facebook took the unusual step of buying full page ads in several prominent U.S. and British newspapers in an effort to combat the PR nightmare. The apology, signed by Zuckerberg himself, gives a vague outline of how Facebook plans to move forward.

We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't, we don't deserve it.

You may have heard about a quiz app built by a university researcher that leaked Facebook datat of millions of people in 2014. This was a breach of trust, and I'm sorry we didn't do more at the time. We're now taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again.

We've already stopped apps like this from getting so much information. Now we're limiting the data apps get when you sign in using Facebook.

We're also investigating every single app that had access to large amounts of data before we fixed this. We expect there are others. And when we find them, we will ban them and tell everyone affected.

Finally, we'll remind you which apps you've given access to your information--so you can shut off the ones you don't want anymore.

Than you for believing in this community. I promise to do better for you.

Facebook's leadership has reason to be nervous. Politicians in the U.S. and the U.K. are calling for hearings into how the company failed to address this leak before the news became public. The falloutassuming Congress actually follows through and demands Facebook be held accountable for their blunder with the data of 50 million peoplecould be huge, with new laws requiring Facebook to give users the option to make their data available rather than making that the default.

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Individual Facebook users are also making their own data public to show the extent of the information that Facebook has access to. Many are reporting that the company has their contacts and phone calls: not contacts and calls made through Facebook, but the records stored directly on their phones. Sara Ashley O'Brien downloaded 14 years worth of her own data and wrote about it for CNN:

It had the phone number of my late grandmother who never had a Facebook account, or even an email address. It preserved the conversations I had with an exsomeone with whom I thought I had deleted my digital ties. It even recalled times I was "poked," a feature I had forgotten about. I also learned that Kate Spade New York and MetLife have me on their advertiser lists.

At a glance this seems like innocuous stuff: creepy, definitely, but maybe nothing that would cause people to sharpen their pitchforks. But the Cambridge Analytica debacle is only one example of how companies can manipulate and abuse that information. And it's not hard to find others.

In 2016, ProPublica discovered that Facebook's algorithms allowed advertisers to exclude users based on race when posting housing ads, and as recently as the end of last year the company hadn't changed that. And Roger McNamee, a high-profile, early investor in Facebook, wrote recently that Facebook is essentially an "unguarded platform" and an ideal target for abuse. He offers as an example a firm that was harvesting data on users interested in Black Lives Matter and selling that data to police departments; Facebook didn't do anything until the news became public, and essentially slapped the firm on the wrist. McNamee also points to the proliferation of political ads leading up to the Brexit vote, and how Facebooks algorithms easily helped Leave campaigners construct bubbles of likely voters and flood them with ads. Because the voters most likely to vote to leave were low-income, it was much cheaper to target them.

None of this seems like the activity of a trustworthy company. And as Mark Zuckerberg said himself, if Facebook can't be trusted with user data, then they don't deserve to have it.Photo credit: ITV

From Cosmopolitan

The wedding invitations for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's royal wedding are officially in the mail, and if you're feeling super bitter that you didn't get one-it's chill, Meghan didn't even invite her nephew.

During a not-at-all attention-seeking/thirsty appearance on Good Morning Britain, Meghan's nephew Tyler Dooley (who called in from Oregon with his mom) said, "Weve not got anything yet. At this point, who knows? This all goes back to Meghan, its her day and her happiness."

Meghan and Harry sent invites to around 600 guests, and while Thomas (who Meghan used to babysit as a child) seemed more hopeful, his mom Tracy (who was married to Meghan's half-brother Thomas Markle Jr) said, "I dont think we are getting invitations, but that is fine, we are so proud of her."

Meghan Markle's nephew and his mum have not received an invitation to the Royal Wedding but say they're proudly supporting her. pic.twitter.com/LrMb8WCszh

- Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 26, 2018

At this point, host Richard Madeley straight up asked when the family had last seen Meghan, and seemed full of eye-rolls when Tyler said it had been three years since they'd spoken (while Tracy hasn't seen her in 20). Richard's reaction? A full shut down.

"Well then it doesn't seem unreasonable for you not to be invited, does it?" he asked. "I mean, if it's 20 years, you're pretty much on the fringes, aren't you, of the family, to be honest?"

In other less awk news, Tracy said she was "sure" Meghan's father Thomas Markle would be giving her away on her wedding day. "I've heard that he's going to be over there and I'm sure that he will be giving her away," she explained. "The arrangements are being made... I don't think he's waiting for his invitation, because I'm sure they already have the plans in place, and for me talking to him, he's very excited to be a part of it."

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Related: Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Just Released Their Royal Wedding Invitations

You Might Also LikePhoto credit: Getty

From Cosmopolitan

Celebs all over the world have been joining forces with students and activists to take part in March For Our Lives this weekend.

The global events have been an important opportunity to speak out on gun violence, following the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, which claimed the lives of 17 students and teachers.

But one celebrity that people might not have expected to express a public opinion about the anti-gun rallies is Tiffany Trump. But the president's daughter liked a post on Instagram yesterday which promoted the March For Our Lives protest in New York.

The photo's caption reads, "Today we participated in the #MarchForOurLives and I feel SO proud! #EnoughIsEnough #NeverAgain #StudentActivists."As he plunged the White House into fresh chaos following a series of staffing upheavals last week, Donald Trump took equal liberties with the team of lawyers constructing his defense in Robert Muellers Russia probe. As The Hives Gabriel Sherman reported, Trump hit the roof when Mueller subpoenaed Trump Organization records, and pressured top lawyer John Dowdwho had so far advocated for a get-along approachto resign. (In a statement to The New York Times, Dowd said he wished the president the best of luck.) In Dowds place, Trump was said to have hired combative former U.S. attorney Joe diGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, signaling his desire to take a more aggressive stance against Mueller. But on Sunday, the White House revealed that diGenova and Toensing would not be joining Trumps legal team.

According to sources who spoke to the Times, Trump met with diGenova and Toensing, and did not believe he had sufficient personal chemistry with either. The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the presidents special counsel legal team, Trumps personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement. However, those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the president in other legal matters. The president looks forward to working with them.

Per the Times, the conflict referred to by Sekulow may concern Toensings representation of Mark Corallo, who was a spokesman for Trumps legal team in 2017, and who has told investigators that he believes Hope Hicks may have planned to obstruct justice when news broke of Donald Trump Jr.s meeting with a Russian official. (Hickss lawyer has denied this.) However, Corrallo told The Los Angeles Times that hed signed a waiver on Monday, when Toensings firm first started discussing working for Trump. There were no conflicts as I could see them, he said.

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The announcement that diGenova and Toensing would not be joining the team came just hours after Trump tweeted early Sunday morning that he was having no trouble building up his legal defenses.

It remains unclear whether the president will seek to replace Dowd, even as his team enters crunchtime in attempting to field a potential presidential interview with Mueller.Whether its acne, braces, or a rough growth spurt, your adorable baby is doomed to grow into an awkward adolescent phase one day. But dont panic. With the right support from parents and caretakers, these experiences can help kids build resilience  the secret ingredient to thriving despite adversity. Forrest Gumps childhood leg braces really did make him a better person. Its science.

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There are actually hardiness and resilience genes that can be turned on and off with that, Joyce Mikal-Flynn, who teaches a course on neuroscience and post-traumatic growth at Sacramento State University, told Fatherly. And adolescence is the perfect time for those genes to get moving.

It has to start early and often.

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Resilience seems to be a result of several adaptive changes in the neural circuits of the brain, research has shown. And, while scientists have yet to find a resilience gene, they have identified a gene linked to lack of resiliencegene NR3C1, which influences how individuals respond to cortisol. Those with a specific NR3C1 variant are 75 percent more likely to develop issues with substance abuse, aggression, antisocial personality disorder, and other psychological problems if they do not seek professional help following a traumatic event. But unlike other traumatic childhood experiences, teenage awkward phases present kids with low-grade opportunities to get those resilience reps in, Mikal-Flynn says.

These unfortunate adolescent phases could not come at a more convenient time, developmentally speaking. Although piling acne on top of already heightened emotions and poor impulse control doesnt seem like a great idea, Mikal-Flynn says, it could be just what their developing brains need. Mature adults lead with their frontal lobes, which control reasoning and help with impulse control. If you have a teenager at home, you know thats not how adolescent brains work.

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But even primitive teenage brains can learn. When teens remember socially traumatic experiences, they are forced to reflect and engage their frontal lobes. Of course, trauma teens endure from bullying about their appearance can have negative psychological consequences. But with the right support from their parents and friends, teenage trauma becomes less psychological burden and more the first bridge between the rational brain of an adult and the impulsive brain of a child. One way parents can help is by validating their teens painful experiences, Mikal-Flynn says, but then telling him or her that how we choose to respond to adversity is what defines usnot the adverse experience itself.

Parents dont want their children to be in pain and I understand that, but theres another way to deal with that between letting them hurt all the time and not letting them feel it at all, Mikal-Flynn.

Theres a middle ground.

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The post Yes, Awkward Adolescent Phases Actually Build Character appeared first on Fatherly.The parents of three sisters have described receiving desperate phone calls from their trapped daughters just minutes before they died in a locked cinema as flames engulfed a Russian shopping centre.

On Monday, a litany of fire safety violations were blamed for the death toll in the fire in the industrial Siberian city of Kemerovo reaching as high as 64.

Investigators said fire exits were blocked and the fire alarm system was switched off by a security guard shortly after the fire broke out.

Authorities launched a criminal investigation into the fire.

Four people were arrested and questioned by police on Monday, including the head of the company responsible for servicing the fire alarm system and the technical director of the company that owned the shopping centre.

Our children burned while we just watched, said Olga Lillyevyali, who rushed to the shopping centre as the fire was underway, Russian news website Meduza reported.

Her three daughters, twins aged 11 and their five-year-old sister, had been dropped off at the cinema by their father, Alexander Lillyevyali, to see childrens film Sherlock Gnomes earlier that afternoon.

A view of the smoldering shopping centre from above on Monday morning Credit: Kirill Kukhmar/ TASS

When he got a phone call an hour later from one of his daughters to say she was stuck behind locked doors as the fire spread, he raced upstairs.

Russian media reported local people saying that the cinemas in the shopping centre locked their doors to stop people entering without a ticket.

I started to crawl but I realised I had no strength, Mr Lillyevyali.

I had inhaled so much smoke that I was on the verge of fainting. My daughter was ringing and ringing me. I could only shout down the phone that she should try and get out of the cinema but I couldnt do anything  there were flames in front of me.

Media reports suggested the initial blaze broke out on the fourth floor of the building, possibly at a trampolining centre, and spread rapidly, generating huge clouds of billowing black smoke.

Eyewitnesses said that staff did not arrange for evacuation from the building, which was converted from a former confectionery factory in 2013.

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Some were quick to blame lax regulations on Russias fire safety inspection authorities, who have been accused of taking bribes to turn a blind eye to breaches.

The Winter Cherry shopping centre, in Kemerovo, engulfed in flames on Sunday Credit: Danil Aikin/TASS via Getty

Opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny wrote on Monday: the whole system of fire safety oversight has become a huge trough of corruption. It hasnt had any other goals for a long time.

The Prosecutor General's Office on Monday ordered all shopping malls in Russia to be checked for fire safety features.

President Vladimir Putin, re-elected last weekend, has yet to speak publicly about the tragedy, which has stirred deep anger in Kemerovo, a coal-producing region about 3,600 km (2,200 miles) east of Moscow.

The Kremlin published a statement, saying Mr Putin "expressed his deep condolences to the relatives and loved ones of those who died."

It was not immediately clear how many other children had died in the blaze, with authorities saying 8 of the 23 victims so far identified were kids, but the shopping centre was full of families enjoying the first weekend of the Easter school holidays.

A young girl from the central Russian city of Kazan, Maya Yerokhina, believed to be among the victims, updated the status on her profile page on Russian social networking site Vkontakte during the fire to read: this is the end.

Video showed people jumping from windows to escape the flames Credit: Danil Aikin /TASS/Getty

An eleven-year old boy was in intensive care on Monday after jumping from a third-floor window to escape the thick smoke during a dramatic escape caught on camera.

Both his parents and a sibling were reported to have died.

One piece of footage aired by state television showed people desperately trying to escape by battering down a closed door as flames crept closer.

Eight children, mostly aged between 11 and 12, from the same school in the local village of Treschevsky perished in the blaze while on a trip marking the end of the school term.

One of the girls from the group, 12-year old Viktoriya Pochankina, reportedly got through to her aunt from the burning cinema and asked her aunt to tell her mother she loved her.

The ceilings of two cinema theaters in the mall reportedly collapsed

Some 200 animals, including rabbits, turtles, pigs, goats are also believed to have died in the shopping centre's petting zoo.

As Russia tried to process what had happened, an official period of mourning was declared and locals brought flowers and candles to the blackened remains of the shopping centre.

One sign left at the site read: "Forgive us, children." Local hospitals reported an influx of people wanting to donate blood for the victims.

Stories of feats of bravery also emerged.

Local schoolteacher Tatyana Darsaliya, 36, reportedly led her own daughter to safety and then returned to the burning building to try and save other children.

Darsaliyas daughter, Eleonora, wrote on Monday that her mother had died like a hero.

Flames lick a window frame at the shopping centre, where some witnesses said the fire alarm did not go off Credit: Danil Aikin/TASS/Barcroft Images

Roof collapsed in two cinemas at shopping centre

Preliminary findings of an inquiry said the fire started in one of the cinema halls and destroyed more than 10,700 square feet (1,000 square metres) of the centre, news agencies reported.

"The roof collapsed in two theatres in the cinema," the Investigative Committee said.

Hundreds of firefighters battled the blaze for hours Credit: Danil Aikin/TASS via Getty

Around 120 people had been evacuated from the burning centre, rescuers said.

"This shopping centre on several floors was packed with people mid-day Sunday," said Alexandre Eremeyev, an official with the local Russian emergency services ministry.

Burnt debris outside the shopping centre Credit: Maxim Grigoryev /TASS/Getty

He added: "No one knows exactly how many people there were inside when the fire broke out.

"Where to look for people? How many are there? That has greatly complicated the work of the firefighters."

Hundreds of firefighters spend hours tackling blaze

Around 300 firefighters and rescue personnel rushed to the scene and tackled the blaze for more than 17 hours.

Russia's minister of emergency services, Vladimir Putchkov has gone to Kemerovo, RIA Novosti said.

Hundreds of firefighters were scrambled to the scene Credit: Danil Aikin /TASS/Getty

Deadliest blaze in Russia for almost a decade

The Winter Cherry shopping centre fire was the deadliest blaze in Russia in recent years:J. Michael Cole

Security,

Bringers of hell?

5 Futuristic (And Terrifying) Weapons That Could Change Warfare Forever

The military implications of such developments are self-evident, as invisibility cloaks would make it possible for fightersfrom ordinary soldiers to special forcesto operate in enemy territory undetected, or at least buy them enough time to take the initiative. Such capabilities would reduce the risk of casualties during military operations while increasing the ability to launch surgical and surprise attacks against an opponent, or conduct sabotage and assassination.

Predicting which five weapons will have the greatest impact on the future of combat is a problematic endeavor, as the nature of warfare itself is fluid and constantly changing. A system that could be a game-changer in a major confrontation between two conventional forcessay, China and the United Statescould be of little utility in an asymmetrical scenario pitting forces in an urban theater (e.g., Israeli forces confronting Palestinian guerrillas in Gaza or Lebanese Hezbollah in the suburbs of Beirut).

The worlds best fifth-generation stealth combat aircraft might be a game-changer in some contexts, but its tremendous speed and inability to linger makes it unsuitable to detect and target small units of freedom fighters operating in a city, not to mention that using such platforms to kill a few irregular soldiers carrying AK-47s is hardly cost effective. Special forces equipped with hyperstealth armor and light assault rifles firing intelligent small-caliber ammunition would be much more effective, and presumably much cheaper.

Another challenging aspect is choosing how we define revolution in the context of weapons development. Do we quantify impact using the yardstick of destructiveness and casualty rates alone? Or conversely, by a weapons ability to achieve a belligerents objectives while minimizing the cost in human lives? What of a weapon that obviates kinetic warfare altogether, perhaps by preemptively disabling an opponents ability to conduct military operations?

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(This first appeared in 2014.)

Keeping in mind the scenario-contingent nature of warfare, we can nevertheless try to establish a list of weapons systems, most of which are already in the development stage, that will, if only for a brief instant, change the nature of warfare. By trying to strike a balance between conventional warfare and irregular operations, our list is inherently incomplete but shows trends in the forms of warfare that are likely to affect our world for decades to come.

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5. Hyper Stealth or Quantum Stealth

Using naturally occurring metamaterials, scientists have been designing lightwave-bending materials that can greatly reduce the thermal and visible signatures of a target. The science behind it is relatively straightforward, though skeptics remain unconvinced and say they will believe it when they dont see it: The adaptive camouflage renders what lies behind the object wearing the material by bending the light around it.

The military implications of such developments are self-evident, as invisibility cloaks would make it possible for fightersfrom ordinary soldiers to special forcesto operate in enemy territory undetected, or at least buy them enough time to take the initiative. Such capabilities would reduce the risk of casualties during military operations while increasing the ability to launch surgical and surprise attacks against an opponent, or conduct sabotage and assassination.

A Canadian firm has reportedly demonstrated the material to two command groups in the U.S. military and two groups in the Canadian military, as well as to federal counterterrorism teams.

Of course, this technology would also have a serious impact on operations should it become available to nonstate actors like guerrilla forces and terrorist groups.

4. Electromagnetic Rail Guns

EM rail gun launchers use a magnetic field rather than chemical propellants (e.g., gunpowder or fuel) to thrust a projectile at long range and at velocities of 4,500 mph to 5,600 mph. Technology under development has demonstrated the ability to propel a projectile at a distance of 100 nautical miles using 32 megajoules.

The extended velocity and range of EM rail guns provides several benefits both in offensive and defensive terms, from precision strikes that can counter even the most advanced area defense systems to air defense against incoming targets. Another advantage of this technology is that it eliminates the need to store the hazardous high explosives and flammable materials necessary to launch conventional projectiles.

A naval EM rail gun system has been in development since 2005 by the U.S. Office of Naval Research. The current phase of the project, initiated in 2012, seeks to demonstrate sustained fire, or rep-rate capability.

The U.S. Navy hopes to eventually extend the range of EM rail guns to 200 nautical miles using 64 mega-joules, but as a single shot would require a stunning 6 million amps (bigger than the currents that cause the auroras), itll be years before scientists find a way to develop capacitors that can generate such energy, or gun materials that will not be shredded to pieces at every shot.

Not to be bested, the U.S. Army has been developing its own version of the EM rail gun. China is also rumored to be working on its own version, with satellite imagery emerging in late 2010 suggesting ongoing tests at an armor and artillery range near Baotou, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

3. Space Weapons

Despite international pressure against the weaponization of space, major countries continue to explore technologies that would turn the sky above us into the next battleground. The possibilities are as limitless as they are outlandish, from moon-based missile launchers to systems that would capture and redirect asteroids towards a target on the surface of the Earth. Evidently, not all scenarios are technically feasible and will forever remain the stuff of science-fiction novels. But some breakthroughs are within the grasp of current science and would have a deep impact on the nature of warfare as we know it.

One possibility is the arming of space orbiters with nuclear or non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons. By detonating a satellite-launched EMP weapon at a high altitude, a belligerent could initiate a decapitation attack against an enemys electrical grids, satellites, as well as the command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) architecture that are necessary to conduct military operations. Depending on the size of the EMP weapon utilized, the attack could blanket an entire country, or be more surgical, targeting an area of operations. An assassins mace weapon of this type could theoretically end war before a single shot is firedat least against a heavily information-reliant adversary such as the U.S. (much less so against, say, the Taliban or Hamas).

EMP weapons fired from lower-altitude platforms or via land-based missile systems (e.g., ICBMs) are vulnerable to intercepts or preemptive strikes. Satellite-mounted EMP weapons, on the other hand, would be beyond the reach of most countries, except those with ground- or air-to-space-based antisatellite capability or space-based weaponized orbiters. Furthermore, the reaction time to a space-based blackout attack would be much shorter, which diminishes the ability of a targeted country to intercept the EMP weapon.

Another technology, interest in which has waxed and waned over the decades, is the use of high-energy space-based lasers (SBL) to target ballistic missiles fired by an enemy during the boost phase (known as boost-phase intercept, or BPI). The advantage of BPI is that the attempt to deactivate a ballistic missile occurs during its slowest phase, thus making a successful intercept likelier.

Unlike the theater defense systems currently used for BPI (e.g. Aegis), which must be deployed close to enemy territory, space-based laser platforms can operate at altitudes that, as discussed above, are well beyond the ability of the targeted country to shoot down or deactivate prior to a launch. As more countries and rogue states acquire the means to deliver long-rangeand possibly nuclearballistic missiles, interest in SBL interceptors, and the willingness to fund such costly programs, will likely grow. However, challenges remain in developing chemical megawatt-laser systems for orbiters.

2. Hypersonic Cruise Missiles and Prompt Global Strike

Had hypersonic cruise missiles existed in the mid-1990s, the U.S. might have rid itself of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden much earlier than it did, and would have accomplished the feat in Afghanistan rather than in Pakistan.

With their ability to accurately deliver warheads over long distances, cruise missiles have had an extraordinary impact on modern warfare. But in an age where minutes can make a difference between defeat and victory, they tend to be too slow. It took eighty minutes for land-attack cruise missiles (LACM) launched from U.S. ships in the Arabian Sea to reach Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in 1998 following the terrorist attacks against U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Using hypersonic missiles cruising at speeds of Mach 5+, the same targets would have been reached within as little as 12 minutes, short enough to act on intelligence which had placed the terrorist mastermind at the location.

The desire to be able to strike anywhere, and to do so quickly, has led to the creation of a program known as prompt global strike, which the U.S. military initiated in 2001. Efforts have centered on the X-51A hypersonic cruise vehicle (HCV) under a consortium involving the U.S. Air Force, Boeing, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, and the USAF Research Laboratorys Propulsion Directorate. Russia, China and India have made strides in developing the technology to achieve similar feats using conventional warheads, leading some defense analysts to warn of a looming global strike arms race.

The U.S. Navy is now reportedly exploring the possibility of developing submarine-launched hypersonic missiles.

As the 1998 example shows, global strike can serve multiple purposes, from decapitation attacks against heads of state, command-and-control systems and other high-value targets to surgical attacks against mobile terrorist groups under short timeframes offered by on-the-ground actionable intelligence. The extraordinary speeds achieved by hypersonic cruise missiles and the terrain-hugging nature of cruise missiles, meanwhile, will pose additional challenges in efforts to intercept them using existing air-defense systems, thus giving them an extra advantage in conventional-warfare scenarios.

1. Sentient Unmanned Vehicles

Perhaps the single-most important development in the defense industry in the past decade is the emergence of unmanned vehicles. As the technology evolves, drones, as they are often called, are quickly taking over duties that have traditionally been the remit of human beings. Such has been their rise that some commentators have argued that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) could one day render human pilots obsolete.

But todays drones, from bomb-removal buggies to undersea mini-subs, from ship-based surveillance helicopters to high-altitude assassination platforms, remain dumb and for the most part require a modicum of human intervention. Not only are most platforms piloted remotely by human beings (though with increasing automation), but key mission elements, such as target acquisition and the decision to fire a Hellfire missile at a target, continue to necessitate human supervision.

This could soon change as scientists push the boundaries of artificial intelligence, which could one day open the door to drones that make independent decisions that have life and death implications. Of course, unmanned vehicles, or robots in general, are not intelligent in the human sense of the word, nor can they be said to be sentient. But advances in computing power are giving machines greater situational awareness and adaptability. As those capabilities continue to improve, drones could one day become fire-and-forget weapons, with much greater attention spans and durability than human beings, capable of lingering over a target for several hours and making split-second decisions to strike when an opportunity occurs. Moreover, the incentives for giving combat roles to machines and endowing them with life-and-death decisions will continue to increase as the costs associated with training and retaining soldiers continue to rise (another disadvantage of using soldiers: they have grieving families and loved ones).

Giving robots license to kill is only the logical next step in the increasingly videogame-like nature of warfare. Their deployment adds yet another a layer of distance between the perpetrator of violence and the victim, which lowers the psychological threshold for using force. Once the decision is made to give drones combat duty, the incentive will be to make them as free as possible, as the side that acts the quickest, with the least decision chokepoints and human input, will likely prevail in a confrontation.

J. Michael Cole is a Taipei-based journalist, a Senior Fellow at the China Policy Institute University of Nottingham, a graduate in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada and a former analyst at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Read full article(Reuters) - An Air Canada passenger jet with 67 people aboard made an emergency landing on Sunday evening at an airport outside Washington after pilots observed smoke in the cockpit, but no injuries were reported, the airline said.

The twin-engine Embraer 175 aircraft, bound for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport from Toronto, landed safely at nearby Washington Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia at 6:18 p.m. EDT, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

All 63 passengers and four crew members aboard Air Canada Flight 7618, operated by Sky Regional, exited the aircraft onto the tarmac unharmed, the airline said.

An FAA spokesman, Rick Breitenfeldt, also said he was not aware of any injuries.

The FAA said it would investigate the incident. Neither the agency nor the airline provided any information about the origin of the smoke reported in the cockpit.

Photos posted on Twitter by a passenger showed a group of travelers huddled on the airfield at Dulles, and an emergency vehicle parked next to the plane on the tarmac.

(Reporting by Denny Thomas in Toronto; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Paul Simao)Founded in 1816, the company owns some of the worlds best-known firearms brands, including Marlin and Bushmaster: Shutterstock

After more than 200 years in business, Americas oldest gunmaker has filed for bankruptcy.

Remington Outdoor Companys chief financial officer, Stephen Jackson, said the companys sales had fallen significantly in the last year, in court papers filed over the weekend.

The announcement comes amid mounting pressure for greater gun control following the Florida school shooting in February, and just one day after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in anti-gun protests in cities across America and the world.

Founded in 1816, Remington is one of Americas largest gunmakers and owns some of the worlds best-known firearms brands, including Marlin and Bushmaster.

But its reputation was damaged after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, when Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15 style rifle to kill 20 children and six staff members.

Within months of the murders, Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity firm that owns Remington, tried unsuccessfully to sell the company, which is facing legal action from the families of the victims.

Katie-Mesner Hage, an attorney representing some of those families in a lawsuit against the firm, said in a prepared statement that she did not expect the gunmakers bankruptcy would affect their case.

Remington has also faced accusations that several of its models  including its signature Model 700 rifle  contained a design defect that allowed them to fire without the trigger being pulled.

Major US companies and retailers have also taken some steps to restrict firearm sales.

Citigroup last week announced that it will require new retail-sector clients to sell firearms only to customers who pass background checks and to bar sales of high-capacity magazines.

Citi also said it was restricting sales for buyers under 21, a move adopted by other large retailers, while Krogers superstore chain Fred Meyer said it will stop selling firearms entirely.

Along with many other gunmakers in the US, Remington has also suffered from falling sales in the last year as fears of gun law reform have faded with the election of Donald Trump as President. The Republican leader was endorsed by the National Rifle Association.

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The plan to file for bankruptcy was first announced last month, when the company said it would transfer control of the company to creditors in a deal to reduce its $950m (670m) debt.

Remington filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The bankruptcy could be completed by early May.

Agencies contributed to this reportDave Majumdar

Security,

And more.

America Just Sold Nearly 7000 Tank Killer Missiles to Saudi Arabia

The State Department has notified the U.S. Congress that is has approved of a potential sale of nearly 7000 TOW 2B anti-tank missiles to Saudi Arabia as the Middle Eastern monarchy continues its military campaign in Yemen.

The sale, which would be concluded under the Pentagons Foreign Military Sales vehicle, is worth an estimated cost $670 million. In addition to the missiles, the Saudis are requesting additional maintenance and logistical support for American-made combat vehicles such as Abrams main battle tanks and Apache helicopter gunships under separate contracts worth $300 million and $107 million respectively.

This proposed sale will support U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives by improving the security of a friendly country which has been, and continues to be, an important force for political stability and economic growth in the Middle East, the U.S. State Departments Bureau of Political-Military Affairs said in a statement. This potential sale is consistent with U.S. initiatives to provide key partners in the region with modern systems that will enhance interoperability with U.S. forces and increase stability.

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The Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has requested to buy up to six thousand six hundred (6,600) TOW 2B missiles (BGM-71F-Series) and ninety-six (96) TOW 2B (BGM-71F-Series) fly-to-buy lot validation missiles, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs statement reads. The proposed sale of TOW 2B missiles and technical support will advance the Kingdom of Saudi Arabias efforts to develop an integrated ground defense capability. A strong national defense and dedicated military force will assist Saudi Arabia to sustain itself in its efforts to maintain stability.

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The other two contracts are to support Saudi Arabias fleet of M1A2 Abrams Tanks, M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs), Light Armored Vehicles (LAVs), M198 Towed Howitzers, AH-64D/E, UH-60L, Schweizer 333 and Bell 406CS helicopters.

Perhaps not coincidentally, all of the hardware has seen heavy use during Saudi Arabias conflict with Houthi rebels in Yemen. While Saudi Arabia holds an overwhelming technological advantage over the rebel Houthi forces, the Shia militants have bloodied the noses of the poorly trained and motivated Saudi forces on more than one occasion. Indeed, Houthi rebels published a video in recent days that purport to show a Saudi F-15 Eagle being shot down by a Russian-made R-27 air-to-air missile launched as an improvised surface-to-air missile, though the veracity of the Houthi claims remain unconfirmed.

Thus far, the Saudis ineptly managed campaign has proven to a humanitarian disaster where civilians have often found themselves in the crossfire.

Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar.

Read full articleDuring the final American Idol audition Sunday night, Ada Vox wowed the judges with her range. However, Vox wasn't always this confident. In fact, some fans may recognize Ada as former season 12 contestant, Adam Sanders. "Being told no, it was heartbreaking," admitted Sanders. "But the truth of the matter is that I wasn't ready." Sanders revealed that after being eliminated from the top 50, he began to receive hate messages on social media from people attacking his weight and sexuality. "I let it get to me in a wrong way," explained Sanders. "It killed me inside. It killed me inside almost as much as people were telling me that I should kill myself. I was contemplating lots of things that I shouldn't have." Sanders also admitted that he "disappeared from the world for a while," which ended up making him hurt even more. However, through all of the negativity, Sanders found a way to build himself up as a new, stronger person and, five years later, he's ready for a shot at redemption. As the fabulous drag queen Ada Vox entered the audition room and killed her rendition of "House of the Rising Sun," Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan were all amazed. In fact, Perry was speechless. But Richie spoke for the group, as he told Vox, "What I'm very happy about is that you are owning your talent, you're owning who you are. We have had a lot of artists who come on here, talented, but a bit confused. What you're giving us right now is a clear understanding of who you are, coming with an amazing amount of talent." And before Vox received the final golden ticket to Hollywood, she made a point to let the judges know that this time around, she means business. "I'm not here to play with anybody, and I'm here to chase my dreams and make them come true."The Malaysian government proposed a bill imposing hefty fines and jail sentences on those found guilty of willfully publishing fake news on Monday.

The bill defined "fake news" as any form of written, audio or visual publication "wholly or partly false," concerning Malaysia or a Malaysian citizen, published by anyone, anywhere.

The law would punish such offenders with fines of up to 500,000 ringgit (equivalent to around $128,000), up to 10 years' imprisonment, or both. The proposed Act seeks to safeguard the public against the proliferation of fake news whilst ensuring the right to freedom of speech and expression under the Federal Constitution is respected, it read, as quoted in Reuters.

Trending: School Providing Buckets of River Stones To Students To Defend Against Potential Shooters Adds Extra Armed Security

After the bill received a first reading in Parliament on Monday, it raised concerns that it could stifle political debate ahead of the general election, which is expected to take place by the end of August, although there is no official date as of yet.

03_26_Fake_News

Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images

Malaysia, a country that ranked 144th of 180 countries in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders, previously was criticized for its handling of the press coverage of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) banking scandal.

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Prime Minister Najib Razak created the 1MDB fund in 2009 with the goal of promoting economic development in the country, but according to investigators, the financial enterprise became a vehicle for fraud and money laundering. The government restricted access or blocked news websites and arrested several journalists covering the scandal in 2015, Freedom House reported.

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Critics of the new law fear it could be used to silence the free press. "Those who say that journalists have nothing to fear from the Anti-Fake News bill as long as they report accurately is clearly missing the point... the point of such a law IS to prosecute truth tellers by labelling them as purveyors of fake news," opposition lawmaker Ong Kian Ming wrote in a series of tweets criticizing the bill.

Most popular: Donald Trump Tweets About 'Fake News' After Stormy Daniels Interview, Still Doesn't Mention Her By Name

The lawmaker's concerns were echoed by human rights groups. Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, said the bill echoed President Donald Trump's strategy of seeking to undermine the validity of negative press reports by labeling them as "fake."

"By passing this law, the Malaysian government is using Trump-style scare tactics to grant itself powers to arbitrarily determine what its people can say about Malaysia, and what the press can report," Robertson told Newsweek in an emailed statement. "This is Prime Minister Najib's most crude election tactic, aimed at intimidating independent media, and activists and rights watchdogs everywhere.

"Malaysia, like many rights repressing governments in the region, bogusly believes that only its line is true, and dissenting views are fake. Malaysia's actions today should be condemned globally as a blatant attempt to create a new frontier of media censorship," Robertson continued.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekThe 23-year-old man behind the deadly Austin bombing spree described himself as a psychopath in a confession tape he made before killing himself.

Mark Conditt, who was unemployed and lived in the suburb of Pflugerville, Texas, showed no remorse for his actions in the video, US congressman Michael McCaul told a news conference.

The 25-minute clip was recovered from a mobile phone after Conditt blew himself up as police officers closed in to arrest him.

Police had not previously revealed details of the confession, in which Conditt admitted being responsible for the bombings that began on 2 March, other than describing him as a very challenged young man.

Two people were killed and five others wounded in a series of parcel bombings in the Texan city of Austin.

I think the best evidence we have at this point in time is the confession itself ... He did refer to himself as a psychopath, Mr McCaul said.

It's hard to imagine someone whose mind is so sick that they could commit bombings like this and feel absolutely no remorse.

He added there did not appear to be anything in Conditts confession that was sort of racially motivated but said it was still part of the ongoing investigation.

Several bombing victims, including the two who died, were either African-American or Hispanic.

Three of the devices were left as parcels outside victims homes, two were shipped as FedEx parcels and another was placed on a pavement and attached to a tripwire mechanism.

Police traced the devices back to Conditt via several pieces of evidence, including unusual screws and batteries.

An investigation is underway to find out whether anyone helped him build or plant the devices and to uncover his motives.(Photo: Alissa Scheller/HuffPost)

Every minute, three people die of tuberculosis, the worlds top infectious killer, even though the scourge is treatable and curable.

And usually on World TB Day on March 24, the global health community rallies around that point. Then another year goes by.

But this year, advocates agree, the energy is different.

Ive been at this a long time and seen issues like HIV be a focal point and a rallying point, and theres a point where an issue reaches a critical mass, Dr. Eric Goosby, the U.N. special envoy on tuberculosis who previously served as the U.S. Global AIDS coordinator, told HuffPost. I think were at that moment.

David Bryden, a TB advocate for the nonprofit Results, also stressed the importance of the groundswell in attention and the resulting political will surrounding TB.

The shift is real, Bryden told HuffPost. This is real momentum that were seeing.

Top world leaders have begun to rally around the fight to end TB in the past year, kicked off in November by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia faces some of the highest rates of multidrug-resistant TB  a deadlier form of the disease. Putin spoke of the need to address TB not only at home but also globally, saying, I am convinced that only together by closing the ranks will we be able to counter the threat which has acquired truly global character.

Then in March, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the countrys plan to eradicate tuberculosis by 2025  a bold move that global health experts hailed as a game-changer in the fight against the disease that is one of the top five causes of death.

Putin and Modis commitments will hopefully spur other world leaders to do the same, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, told HuffPost in an email two weeks ago.

We hope this produces a snowball effect and that other world leaders step up and commit to an ambitious plan of action to rapidly drive down TB deaths and suffering.

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All of this is part of the build-up to Sept. 26, the first U.N. high-level meeting on tuberculosis, which global health experts consider to be the pivotal moment the movement has been working toward.

Only four other such meetings have been held: one for HIV/AIDS in 2001, one for noncommunicable diseases in 2011, one for Ebola in 2014 and one for antimicrobial resistance in 2015.

We have no more time anymore to wait, Dr. Tereza Kasaeva, the new director of the World Health Organizations Global TB Programme, told HuffPost. If we do not succeed in this period, we will have failed.

And the language itself around the fight against TB has begun to shift, according to Irene Koek, the senior deputy assistant administrator in the U.S. Agency for International Developments Global Health Bureau, who has worked on TB for decades.

She pointed to USAID head Mark Greens repeated public insistence that this is a fight we can win.

USAID also received an added $20 million to fight TB globally in the federal omnibus signed by President Donald Trump on Friday. The spending package also includes language from Congress asking the Department of Health and Human Services to prioritize the 2016 national action plan for combating multidrug-resistant TB.

Goosby also highlighted the change in attitude toward the fight against TB, saying it was pivotal in attracting top political leaders to the fight.

Its an opportunity for political leadership to see this as their personal legacy in each country, as ending TB is doable, Goosby said. We are within the point where you can see progress in two to three years, which is well within a politicians tenure.

And those kinds of promises from world leaders lead to a trail of accountability that leads to progress, according to Goosby  a sentiment that Kaseava echoed.

The idea is that we should not only be active on World TB Day, Kasaeva said. A day should become a week, a week should become month, a month should become a year.

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U.S. Tuberculosis Cases Are The Lowest In Years, But It's Still A Threat

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.(Photo: Max2611 via Getty Images)

Everyones pee smells like asparagus after they digest it. Deny this all you like, but those green stalks contain something called asparagusic acid, among a couple other compounds, that gives urine that unique odor.

As your body digests food, it breaks down different compounds through the enzymatic process. In the case of asparagus, its compounds are volatile and released as a vapor through the urine. Thats the aroma you smell when the compound exits your body, according to HuffPosts conversation with Dr. Anish Sheth, a gastroenterologist at Princeton Medical Group and author of Whats Your Babys Poo Telling You?.

If you insist youve never before smelled whats been informally dubbed asparagus pee, its because you lack the ability to detect the odor. The smell is there, you just cant smell it. The digestive process is pretty constant from person to person, but a persons ability to detect these odors varies, Sheth says. This is because our perception of smell  just like our perception of color  is completely personal. We all have our own idiosyncratic smell perception of the world, Dr. Ian Davison, a biology professor at Boston University, explains to HuffPost. Our experience of different smells is completely unique. The inability to smell this asparagus pee is an instance of specific anosmia, where a specific scent cannot be detected by a specific nose.

Illustration by Eva Hill

There are about 400 different genes for the different receptors in every nose. Some people have a mutation in one of these genes that affects the ability of that receptor to respond to the chemical that makes pee smell funny. The defect seems a bit arbitrary  Sheth chalks it up to an odd quirk of human evolution; up to 50 percent of people can detect the smell. Davison guesses the mutation happened over time. He says that for many animals, sense of smell is key for survival. Humans, on the other hand, rely so strongly on their visual sense that smell devolved, and these random errors  like not being able to smell asparagus pee  started creeping through.

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Asparagus pee is not the only scent for which people experience specific anosmia. Every two or three people out of 100 have a tough time detecting vanillin, the main compound found in vanilla. Some are particularly sensitive (or insensitive) to androstenone, a component of sweat. It flips between weak and pleasant to powerful and quite nasty, Davison says.

We cant control much of this. But if your asparagus pee is really getting to you, Sheth suggests cutting off the tips of the vegetable before consuming it. Thats where the bulk of the compounds are found. He, personally, sees no reason to take this step, as he finds the tips to be most delicious and worth the consequences.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.London (AFP) - Brexit campaigners breached UK law to channel more funds to a data analysis firm ahead of the EU referendum, according to evidence outlined on Monday by whistleblowers' lawyers.

"There is a prima facie case that the following electoral offences were committed by Vote Leave in the EU referendum campaign," said a 50-page document presented by London law firm Bindmans.

The case centres on a A625,000 ($889,300, 714,150 euros) donation by Vote Leave to the smaller pro-Brexit group BeLeave, which lawyers argue was made by the lead campaign group to mask a payment to Canadian data firm AIQ.

"There are strong grounds to infer that Vote Leave was involved in the decision by which the AIQ payment were made," said the legal opinion, written by three independent barristers at Bindmans' request.

Shahmir Sanni, who worked for BeLeave, earlier told British media of the campaign's close ties to Vote Leave, "in effect they used BeLeave to over-spend, and not just by a small amount".

"They say that it wasn't coordinated, but it was. And so the idea that... the campaign was legitimate is false," he told Channel 4 News.

Vote Leave ultimately declared campaign costs of just over A6.7 million -- under the A7 million legal limit -- of which nearly A2.7 million was spent on services by AIQ.

Lawyers argue witness statements by three people close to the two campaigns demonstrate their "extremely close relationship", including staff from the two groups sharing an office.

The case requires "urgent investigation" to decide whether to refer it to state prosecutors, they said.

The overspending accusation comes as the role of data analysis companies in political campaigns come under greater scrutiny, following allegations that British consulting group Cambridge Analytica harvested data on tens of millions of Facebook users.

Christopher Wylie, who worked for Cambridge Analytica, blew the whistle on the scandal and appeared at the Bindmans press conference where he said there should be a second Brexit referendum.

Story continues

"This is about the integrity of the fundamental process... It is important that we enforce the law where over-spending happened," he said, declaring himself a eurosceptic.

The legal opinion said top Vote Leave figures "must have known about BeLeave's campaign activity", including Stephen Parkinson who is now Prime Minister Theresa May's political secretary.

Vote Leave has denied the accusations and is backed by British foreign minister Boris Johnson, a Brexit figurehead, who on Sunday dismissed the claims as "utterly ludicrous".By Angus Berwick and Michael Nienaber MADRID/BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court said on Monday it was likely to take several days to decide whether to extradite former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to Spain to face rebellion charges over the region's campaign for independence. But despite a night of protests across Catalonia in which dozens of people were hurt in clashes with police, Puigdemont's arrest on Sunday in northern Germany leaves the independence movement weaker than it has been in years. Almost its entire leadership is now either behind bars ahead of trial or in exile. Puigdemont, who fled Spain five months ago for Belgium after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismissed his regional administration and imposed direct rule from Madrid, faces charges of rebellion that could lead to 25 years in prison. On Sunday night, a demonstration in Barcelona against Puigdemont's arrest by tens of thousands of Catalans tipped over into clashes with police. Outside the central government offices, riot police beat flag-waving protesters back with batons, leaving several with blood streaming down their foreheads. About 100 people were hurt across the region, including 23 members of the Mossos d'Escuadra police force, and nine people were arrested, authorities said. The protests followed a Spanish Supreme Court ruling on Friday that 25 Catalan leaders, including Puigdemont, would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state relating to a referendum held in Catalonia last October that called for it to separate from Spain. The Madrid government deemed the referendum, which was widely boycotted by opponents of independence, illegal and took over direct rule of the wealthy northeastern region following a symbolic declaration of independence by the Catalan parliament. The court on Friday also reactivated international arrest warrants for four other politicians who went into self-imposed exile last year. Puigdemont and fellow separatists have all denied any wrongdoing. Five separatist leaders, including the latest candidate to become regional president, Jordi Turull, were ordered jailed pending their trial. The Catalan parliament's failure last week to vote in Turull as president started a two-month countdown to elect a new leader before a regional election is triggered. The forceful action by the government and courts appeared to be bringing a close to what had been one of Spain's worst political crises since the return of democracy in the 1970s. "Looks like the separatist movement is falling apart," Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Adrian Zunzunegui said in a note on Monday. "We expect a few more months of uncertainty, and most likely new elections to be called then." Another election could swing the government either way, with separatist sympathies still simmering across Catalonia, though polls have shown support sharply down in recent months. On Monday, the Catalan parliament, where pro-independence parties hold a majority, called a session for Wednesday in support of Puigdemont. The proposal includes a debate over Puigdemont's right to be invested as regional head of the Catalan government. Spain's Constitutional Court has already said he could only become regional leader if he was physically present in the parliament and had a judge's permission to attend. "FALLING APART" Puigdemont appeared on Monday before a regional court in the northern German town of Neumuenster, which extended his detention pending a decision on extradition. Another court, the Higher Regional Court in the town of Schleswig, will be responsible for deciding whether to grant Spain's request. The court is unlikely to make a final decision on Puigdemont's extradition before Easter, a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor said. Puigdemont, who has been living in Brussels since leaving Spain, does not plan to apply for political asylum in Germany, his lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas told Catalan radio. He had entered Germany from Denmark on Friday after leaving Finland, where he had attended a conference and was caught off-guard by the Spanish Supreme Court's unexpected decision to reactivate his arrest warrant. The 55-year-old former journalist is unlikely to find much support among German politicians who have largely backed Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's crackdown on Catalan separatism. A German government spokesman said on Monday the case was being handled according to German laws and European arrest warrant provisions, and that the Catalan question could only be resolved within the framework of Spanish law. Elmar Brok, a German member of the European Parliament and ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Puigdemont had "clearly violated Spanish law and the Spanish constitution". European governments, some of whom face separatist movements of their own, have generally been supportive of the Spanish government. The Scottish government, which advocates independence from the United Kingdom, said it would co-operate with Madrid over a request to extradite former Catalan education minister Clara Ponsati, although it still believed Catalans had the right to self-determination. Ponsati's lawyer said on Monday she would contest her extradition and called it "political persecution". The drawn-out crisis has also hit Catalonia's economy and caused a business flight. But rating agency Standard & Poor's last Friday upgraded its rating for Spain, reflecting a positive outlook for the economy and limited impact from Catalonia. Spanish bond yields were at close to 15-month lows on Monday morning. (Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo, Inmaculada Sanz and Jesus Aguado in Madrid, Elisabeth O'Leary in London and Paul Carrel and Thorsten Severin in Berlin; Editing by Mark Bendeich)By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - It might be called Cappuccino Catholicism. Young Catholics told their Church elders on Saturday that the faith should be spread in the places where they like to hang out, such as coffee bars. "We would like the Church to meet us in the various places in which she currently has little or no presence," reads part of a 12-page document written by some 300 young Catholic delegates from around the world, who met for a week at the Vatican. "The Church should try to find creative new ways to encounter people where they are comfortable and where they naturally socialize: bars, coffee shops, parks, gyms, stadiums and any other popular cultural centers," it said. The delegates met in Rome to share their ideas and concerns with Vatican officials ahead of a synod, or meeting of bishops, in October, on the theme of "Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment". At a news conference presenting the paper, which will feed into a larger working document to be used by the bishops, participants said they wanted their Church to be more open and transparent and less severe. The document called for a greater role for women in the Church, which bars them from the priesthood. "What are the places where women can flourish within the Church and society? The Church can approach these problems with real discussion and open-mindedness to different ideas and experiences," it said. "If it is difficult for young people to feel a sense of belonging and leadership in the Church, it is much more so for young women," the document said. They said they wanted to "encourage the Church to deepen its understanding of the role of women and to empower young women ..." Earlier this month, Catholic women led by former Irish president Mary McAleese, demanded a greater decision-making role for women in the Church, urging the pope to tear down its "walls of misogyny". The document said the 1.2 billion-member Church "oftentimes appears as too severe and is often associated with excessive moralism". It called for a Church that is "welcoming and merciful ... and which loves everyone, even those who are not following the perceived standards". (Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Andrew Bolton)The Chinese air force conducts drills in South China Sea - Barcroft Media

China's air force and navy have announced drills in the South China Sea to help develop preparedness for war, military leaders said, after the British defence secretary indicated the UK would sail a warship through the disputed region.

The Chinese military's latest fighters and bombers were involved in the exercises over the disputed region, as China continues to flex its muscles on the world stage.

The drills come after Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, gave a nationalist speech last week when he warned of Beijing's willingness to fight a "bloody battle" against its enemies.

They also come after Gavin Williamson, British Defence Secretary, said last month that the HMS Sutherland, an anti-submarine frigate, would sail through the South China Sea to assert freedom of navigation rights.

The drills took place over the weekend Credit: Barcroft/Xinhua

The warship was expected to make the patrol during March. However, Chinese military officials said its recently announced drills were not aimed towards any country.

China's airforce carried out a "high-sea training mission" in the West Pacific and a joint combat patrol mission in the South China Sea, according to the airforce's social media account, which did not say when the drills took place.

The exercises tested China's latest military hardware, such as its H-6K bombers and Su-30 and Su-35 fighters.

Meanwhile, the PLA Navy also said last Friday it was planning to hold drills in the South China Sea to test the navy's "combat readiness".

The Air Force said on its social media account that the exercises were "rehearsals for future wars and are the most direct preparation for combat."

Meanwhile, Chen Liang, commander of a naval air force, said: "Pilots will all march ahead without fear, no matter how complicated the drill environments are and how unfamiliar the drill regions are.

"They always maintain mentally prepared for wars," he told the Chinese language website of the Global Times newspaper.

Story continues

The exercises tested China's latest military hardware, such as its H-6K bombers and Su-30 and Su-35 fighters Credit: Barcroft/Xinhua

China claims nearly all of the strategic South China Sea, despite partial counter-claims from Taiwan and several south-east Asian nations including the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Observers say China is developing its military capabilities by fortifying and building infrastructure on what were previously reefs and partially-submerged islets in the sea, where more than $5 trillion (3.8 trillion) of trade passes every year.

The US Navy has conducted a series of freedom of navigation patrols in the region.

The latest, last Friday, saw a US Navy destroyer come within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island China has built in the South China Sea, sparking anger from Beijing.

Additional reporting by Christine WeiBy Shu Zhang and Ryan Woo BEIJING (Reuters) - Guo Shuqing, head of China's new regulator for the banking and insurance sectors, has been appointed the Communist Party chief and deputy governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), official publication Financial News reported on Monday. As PBOC party chief, Guo will exert the widest influence at one of the world's most powerful central banks, which unlike its peers in some countries is not fully independent. Its decision-making is broadly subject to the political influence of the Communist Party and the government. Sources had told Reuters on Sunday that an announcement on Guo's appointments was imminent. Having the same person serve as both the PBOC's party chief and a deputy governor is unusual in China and has surprised economists and financial markets. As PBOC's party chief, Guo outranks new PBOC Governor Yi Gang politically, but as a vice governor he is one step below him. For 15 years, Zhou Xiaochuan, Yi's mentor, had served as both PBOC's governor and party chief. Guo himself is both chairman and party head of the newly established China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC). Both men will support Liu He, China's new vice premier and a key economic adviser and trusted ally to President Xi Jinping, to push the central government's development and reform agenda. "Liu He is actually the one who outlined the big theme in terms of economic and financial policies. Both Guo and Yi will be implementing this economic policy outline," said Betty Wang, senior China economist at ANZ in Hong Kong. Guo's unique role will allow him to coordinate policymaking and implementation between PBOC and CBIRC, and help advance Beijing's financial reforms, sources said. As PBOC's party boss, he will ensure the central bank is aligned with the Communist Party's agenda, which puts the party at the core of China's economic leadership, sources said. Guo is a full member of the Communist Party's Central Committee, the largest of the party's elite ruling bodies, while Yi is an alternative member. However, Yi is still expected to be in charge of the PBOC's day-to-day operations, sources said. Yi, a U.S.-educated economist, 21-year central bank veteran and previously Zhou's right-hand man, will be able to ensure the consistency of monetary policy, sources said. Simultaneously holding the positions of party boss and deputy ministerial head is not without precedent in China. Zhang Yesui is currently party chief of the foreign affairs ministry and a vice foreign minister at the same time. But the economy and the party have become more intertwined since a party congress in October when President Xi Jinping consolidated his grip on power. Party control is deemed necessary to help push reforms through a massive bureaucracy and into action on the ground. SUPER-REGULATOR The top-level arrangement of Guo and Yi's positions is expected to improve inter-agency coordination in China's monetary and financial policymaking process, and close regulatory loopholes as authorities work to contain systemic financial risks, sources said. China's regulators are trying to rein in risks from an increasingly complex financial system and a rapid build-up in debt without jolting markets or hurting economic growth. The new leadership team is also facing pressure to follow through on China's long-standing pledge to further open its financial sector to foreign investors as the U.S. steps up pressure on China for what it calls unfair trade practices. President Xi has made it clear that financial security is key to China's national security, and control of financial risks is a top government priority. Economists and regulators say the previous regulatory regime was too fragmented to curb such risks, especially shadow banking and excessive financial leverage. Speculation that Beijing was considering creating a super financial regulator had been rife since the Chinese stock market crash of 2015, blamed in part on poor inter-agency coordination. Last year, China created the Financial Stability and Development Committee (FSDC) under the State Council, giving it a higher political ranking than the various government ministries already involved in financial oversight. The committee has its office installed at the central bank and has the authority to supervise and question financial regulators and local governments. REGULATORY WINDSTORM Guo has developed a reputation for being willing to take tough and aggressive action, and his appointment at the central bank comes after China earlier this month revealed its biggest government structural overhaul in years. Guo only returned to Beijing last year to helm the banking watchdog, which has since merged with the insurance regulator. As head of China's previous banking regulator he started what was dubbed a "regulatory windstorm", implementing a flurry of new measures to tackle the sector's most complex problems. During his 17 months as chief stock market regulator from 2011 to 2013, Guo drew up 80 new policies, fought widespread insider trading, advocated reform of the initial public offering system, promoted the delisting of loss-making firms, and boosted the participation of foreign investors. Guo was once a PBOC deputy governor in the early 2000s, overlapping with Zhou. Guo also previously served as China's top foreign exchange regulator. (Reporting By Shu Zhang and Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Elias Glenn and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill)Earths Mightiest Heroes will be teaming up with just about every Marvel Cinematic Universe do-gooder in this Aprils Avengers: Infinity War. Before that saga arrives in theaters, however, a couple of the companys most famous superheroes are aiming to use their powers for genuine good  by making a dying boys wish come true.

Chris Evans attends the Lobby Hero Broadway press meet and greet at Sardis in New York on Feb. 16, 2018. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)

On Sunday, Fox News anchor Shannon Bream tweeted a request for help getting in touch with members of the Avengers, all so a young boy could realize his dream of meeting one of Marvels icons:

Need your help Twitterverse  trying to help a young boy who is dying. He probably has just days and all he want is a greeting from one of the Avengers. If you have a celeb connection, please let me know. Otherwise, could you help out with a RT? Thank you in advance!  Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) March 25, 2018

The Internet immediately came to the rescue, retweeting Beams message over 22,000 times, a coordinated effort that soon attracted the attention of none other than Captain America himself, Chris Evans, who let it be known that he was interested in getting involved:

Happy to! DM me  Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) March 26, 2018

Though Deadpool isnt technically part of the Avengers (hence the joke below), Ryan Reynolds, whose Deadpool 2 is set to hit theaters in May, also pledged his support:

Im more of a Reserve Avenger. But happy to help. DM me.  Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) March 26, 2018

The altruistic commitment of Evans and Reynolds to brightening a sick childs spirits is nothing short of inspiring  and its in keeping with the Marvel crews longstanding history of using their superheroic clout for noble purposes. Back in 2015, as a consequence of a Super Bowl bet, Evans donned his Captain America outfit and brought along Star Lord himself, Chris Pratt, to visit Seattle Childrens Hospital  this after Pratt had stopped by Christophers Haven cancer charity in Boston dressed as his Guardians of the Galaxy leader. And that same year, a young boy received a new bionic 3D-printed arm (designed to resemble Iron Mans own arm) from none other than Robert Downey Jr.  an event that can be witnessed below:

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The weekend efforts of Evans and Reynolds prove once again that Marvels stars ably recognize the great responsibility that comes with their Hollywood power. Meanwhile, theyll be back in cinematic action shortly, since Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on April 27, and Deadpool 2 follows on May 18.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:By Karen Freifeld (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will not hire two lawyers to his legal team handling the special counsel's probe despite announcing their addition last week, Trump's personal lawyer said on Sunday, adding to uncertainty about the president's legal representation in the Russia investigation. "The president is disappointed that conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the president's special counsel legal team," Jay Sekulow said in a statement. "However, those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the president in other legal matters. The president looks forward to working with them.' The announcement came nearly a week after Sekulow said diGenova would join the legal team handling Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 presidential election. The quick reversal is likely to add to the perception that Trump's legal representation is in disarray as his lawyers have been negotiating the terms of a possible interview with the president. Trump's lead lawyer in the special counsel investigation, John Dowd, resigned Thursday. "Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case...dont believe the Fake News narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on," Trump tweeted on Sunday. Trump has denounced the investigation as a "witch hunt." Russia denies meddling in the election. DiGenova has appeared on Fox News accusing the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Justice Department of trying to frame Trump with false charges of colluding with Russia during the campaign. Trump wanted to hire diGenova after seeing him on television, but the conflicts were obvious, said a person familiar with the matter, who added that it was surprising that consideration for adding diGenova to Trump's team had gotten so far. "We thank the president for his confidence in us and we look forward to working with him, on other matters, Toensing said in a statement on behalf of both her and diGenova. The married pair work together at their namesake law firm. Toensing declined to comment on what specific conflicts may have led to the work on the Russia legal team falling through. DiGenova & Toensing has represented Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for Trump's legal team, and Sam Clovis, a former campaign aide. Corallo was the spokesman for Trump's outside lawyers until last summer, when he resigned during another legal team shake-up. Since then, Corallo has spoken with Mueller about what he viewed as a false statement dictated by Trump from Air Force One about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York City that included several Russians, according to a person familiar with the matter. That meeting was attended by Trump's son, Donald Jr. Clovis, a former Pentagon official, was a campaign supervisor who wrote "great work" in an email after Trump's foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos discussed efforts to broker a meeting between the campaign and Russian leaders. Corallo told Reuters on Friday that he had signed a waiver of potential conflicts last week. Clovis could not be reached for comment, but a person familiar with the matter said appropriate waivers had been signed. DiGenova was at the White House on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Trump has had trouble finding outside lawyers to assist him in the Russia probe. Major firms such as Williams & Connolly and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher turned him down in the last year, citing conflicts, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters. Trump representatives have reached out to some of those firms again more recently, sources said. (Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York; Writing by Dustin Volz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech President Milos Zeman has ordered the country's counter-intelligence service to see if the type of nerve agent used in an attack in Britain could have been made in the Czech Republic. Zeman's request followed strong government rebuttals of Russian allegations that the nerve agent could have come from the Czech Republic, among other countries. The Czech Republic joined the United States and governments across Europe to expel more than 100 Russian diplomats on Monday in response to the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain. Moscow has denied being behind the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury on March 4. Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia remain critically ill in hospital. Zeman's request to look into whether the Czechs produced the nerve agent Novichok was announced by his spokesman after the president met the head of the BIS counter-intelligence service. "The president has tasked the BIS to find out whether or not the nerve gas 'Novichok' was developed or stored on the Czech Republic's territory, be it at industrial or scientific facilities," Zeman's spokesman said in a statement. The spokesman later said on Twitter, in reaction to a news website headline that interpreted the decision as siding with Russia: "Fake news. The tasking of BIS is a reaction to Russia's repeated allegations against the Czech Republic." Zeman has often taken pro-Russian positions in the past. Under the Czech constitution, the government is in charge of foreign policy but the president wields certain powers as well as the ability to ask the BIS to carry out tasks. Commenting on the expulsion of three Russian diplomats, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said it was in solidarity with Britain and he denied Moscow's suggestion the nerve agent could have originated in the Czech Republic. "The Russians breached all boundaries when they said the poisonous substance Novichok may have come from us, that is a total lie, we have rejected this assertion right from the start when the Russian side put it out." The government's spokeswoman had no immediate comment on Zeman's request for the counter-intelligence service to investigate the claim. (Reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Michael Kahn and Robin Pomeroy)A mom says her pediatric dental office is threatening to report her for parental neglect because of a dispute over an appointment.

On Friday, Trey Hoyumpa, a mother in Stroudsburg, Pa., posted a letter she received from Smiles 4 Keeps, a pediatric dental office in Bartonsville, after her children, ages 12 and 9, were diagnosed with a total of seven cavities.

A Pennsylvania dental office allegedly is threatening to report a mother for neglect for not having her kids cavities filled. (Photo: Getty Images)

Got this letter in the mail today. Smiles4Keeps bullies the parents, controls the care behind closed doors, and turns parents into villainsand I will not stand for it anymore!!! Hoyumpa wrote in a Facebook post that received 228 comments, almost 800 shares, and more than 400 likes.

In the letter, a photo of which was also shared, the dental office states, According to law, failure to bring your child for dental care is considered neglect. Pennsylvania Act 31 (Child Abuse Reporting and Recognition Requirements) states that health care providers must report your failure to bring your child to the dentist for evaluation and care.  To keep your child as healthy as possible and avoid a report to state authorities, please call Smiles 4 Keeps immediately to schedule a treatment appointment within the next 30 days.

The moms post has sparked much debate. One commenter wrote that she visited Smiles 4 Keeps as a child and hated it, then had a similar experience there with her own child. Others slammed the mom for publicly complaining and defended the office policy. And many encouraged Hoyumpa to keep sharing her story.

In November, Smiles 4 Keeps said that my kids had seven cavities between them, which sounded outrageous, Hoyumpa tells Yahoo Lifestyle. She added that the practice does not allow parents inside examination rooms and that she was not shown X-rays to prove that her children have cavities.

I asked the receptionist to schedule both kids appointments on the same day so I wouldnt have to take off work twice, and she refused, says Hoyumpa. I got really angry because it showed that they didnt care about their patients.

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Admitting that she got into a confrontation with the front office  I was screaming  Hoyumpa informed the desk that she would seek dental care elsewhere. Three months later, she received the letter in the mail.

A representative from Smiles 4 Keeps sent Yahoo Lifestyle the following statement: We make multiple attempts to reach the parent or guardian of children who have outstanding dental treatment that may pose a threat to the childs overall health. This letter is a last resort to give parents 30 days to either bring the child in to use for care or seek care from another provider. If the parent or guardian chooses another provider, we ask the name of the provider so we can close out the patient record in our office and send medical records (if requested and authorized by the parent or guardian). This is our legal responsibility, and we take it seriously. These laws are intended to protect children.

The rep further clarified that despite social media claims to the contrary, Outstanding dental treatment differs from cleanings. We have not and would not report anyone for changing dentists or missing a cleaning appointment and It would be ludicrous to report a parent or caregiver for missing a dental cleaning.

On Wednesday, the office also addressed the controversy on its Facebook page, writing in part, Letters that refer to dentists mandate to report failure to seek necessary treatment are sent under specific conditions. Letters are intended to remind parents and caregivers of the need for dental treatment for the child in question, and the letters are not sent unless attempts at multiple communications with the parents or guardians are unsuccessful or messages from our office remain unanswered. Letters are not sent after one missed treatment appointment.

The practice clarified that it tries to accommodate families with multiple children, and if a parent wishes to change practices, it asks for the name of the new provider to update and transfer dental records.

Smiles 4 Keeps is suggesting that Hoyumpas failure to schedule her childrens fillings falls under dental neglect as outlined under the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistrys Guideline on oral and dental aspects of child abuse and Neglect.

The AAPD doesnt clarify a timeline in which parents are required to respond to treatment, stating only that The point at which to consider a parent negligent  occurs after the parent has been properly alerted by a health care professional about the nature and extent of the childs condition, the specific treatment needed, and the mechanism of accessing that treatment.  If, despite these efforts, the parents fail to obtain therapy, the case should be reported to the appropriate child protective services agency.

Hoyumpa is in the process of seeking a new dentist  and a second opinion  and has no intention of keeping Smiles 4 Keeps informed of her familys whereabouts. I understand that dentists are mandated reporters, but this is bullying, she says, adding that local low-income families that depend on state insurance may not have flexible options for alternative dental care.

Yahoo Lifestyle did not hear back from the Pennsylvania Dental Association or the Pennsylvania Department of State for comment.

Smiles 4 Keeps is the source of the dental controversy. (Photo: WNEP)

John Rutkauskas, the CEO of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, sent the following statement to Yahoo Lifestyle: Dental care providers are required to report injuries that are concerning for abuse or neglect to child protective services in accordance with local or state legal requirements. In terms of dental neglect in particular, the AAPD defines it as willful failure of parent or guardian, despite adequate access to care, to seek and follow through with treatment necessary to ensure a level of oral health essential for adequate function and freedom from pain and infection. To the best of his or her ability, the pediatric dentist should be certain that the caregiver understands the explanation of the disease and its implications and, when barriers to the needed care exist, attempt to assist the family in finding financial aid, transportation, or public facilities for needed services. If, despite these efforts, the parent fails to obtain therapy, the case should be reported to the appropriate child protective services agency.

Rutkauskas also noted that dentists have the ethical obligation to provide dental records to a new provider, and if the dentist believes the informed refusal violates proper standards of care, he/she should recommend the patient seek another opinion and/or dismiss the patient from the practice.

He also noted, Dentists must inform the patient/parent about the consequences of not accepting the proposed treatment and obtain a signed informed refusal. An informed refusal, however, does not release the dentist from the responsibility of providing a standard of care. If the dentist suspects dental neglect, appropriate authorities should be informed.

On Monday, local news station WNEP reported that a Smiles 4 Keeps spokesperson admitted in an email, Its been a tough week, suggesting that the letter was grossly misinterpreted and that its dentists have been threatened over the letter. The rep also confirmed that the practice had reported 17 cases of neglect in 2017 and plans to revise the letter due to the backlash, a sentiment the office confirmed in a Facebook comment. A major complaint has been that the letter suggests that parents will be found neglectful if they dont visit Smiles 4 Keeps versus another provider.

Im being accused of abuse without foundation, says Hoyumpa. I wasnt in the exam room, no one showed me any cavities, and I havent seen X-rays. Yet they have the gall to send me this letter.

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Saudi Arabia has claimed to have intercepted seven ballistic missiles fired by Houthi forces from Yemen, using the U.S.-made MIM-104 Patriot missile defense system.

However, footage has emerged suggesting that at least two of the Patriot missiles missiles failed. Videos posted to social media show one exploding in midair and another performing an abrupt U-turn before slamming into the ground.

The interceptions resulted in one death after debris fell on residential areas in Riyadh, Saudi military officials said. This is the first fatality in the capital related to a Houthi missile attack, according to Reuters.

Three of the missiles were aimed at the Saudi capital Riyadh, one at Khamis Mushait, one at Najran and two at Jizan. A military statement said that the interception of the missiles led to fragments raining on a few residential neighborhoods, which led to the death of an Egyptian resident and material damage to civilian property. Two other civilians were injured.

Despite Saudi claims of success, it is possible that at least two missiles failed catastrophically, according to Jeffrey Lewis, Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. Lewis noted that one missile seemed to fail in midair and that a second quickly turned around and crashed into the ground.

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Lewis went as far as suggesting the casualties may have been inflicted by the Saudi interceptors rather than the Houthi missile, though he noted that more information about where debris fell, impact points, and where people were killed/injured would be required before conclusions could be drawn.

Saudi Arabia uses the American MIM-104 Patriot system for its missile defense. If last nights intercept was a failure, it would be a significant question mark over the effectiveness of the system, and it would not be the first.

In November 2017, Saudi Arabia claimed to have intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile over Riyadh. In the days after, President Donald Trump boasted about the success of the weapon, telling reporters, Our system knocked the missile out of the air.

However, analysis produced by Lewis and his colleagues at the Middlebury Institute suggested that the missiles warhead got through Saudi defenses and almost hit its target; Riyadh airport. According to the New York Times, the warhead exploded so close to one of the airports terminals that customers jumped out of their seats.

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Houthi ballistic missile

Houthi Military Media Unit via REUTERS TV

Saudi officials cited debris of the missile body found in downtown Riyadh to be evidence of a successful interception. However, remnants of the explosive warhead were missing. A missiles body and warhead generally separate close to the target, the body falling away and the warhead continuing to its destination.

The lack of warhead debris suggests it made it to the airport some 12 miles away, where an explosion and plume of smoke suggested an impact. Saudi officials claimed the explosion was caused by debris from the destroyed missile landing, but such a large impactfelt by travelers in the terminaland the 12 miles between the main missile body debris and the explosion make this unlikely.

Lewis told the Times, Governments lie about the effectiveness of these systems. Or theyre misinformed And that should worry the hell out of us.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek- AFP or licensors

Theresa May has claimed that Russia's western spy network has been "dismantled" after 23 nations, including the US, joined with Britain to expel more than 130 "diplomats".

The Prime Minister told Vladimir Putin the attempt to "intimidate" Britain with the Salisbury poisonings had "spectacularly backfired" as she hailed "the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history".

Mrs May vowed never to allow President Putin's espionage machine to be rebuilt after the US and other Western allies announced the expulsion of dozens of Russian intelligence officers.

President Donald Trump ordered 60 suspected Russian spies to leave the US - including 12 from the United Nations in New York - while 16 EU countries and six other non-EU members also gave Russians notice to leave. At least two other EU members will follow suit on Tuesday, taking the total to 25 countries.

Mrs May said the unprecedented show of solidarity, which outstripped even Downing Street's expectations after days of intense diplomacy, sent the "strongest signal" to the Kremlin that Russia "cannot continue to flout international law and threaten our security".

Theresa May leaving Downing Street on Monday Credit: Hannah McKay/Reuters

The White House said Mr Putin could no longer be in any doubt that "actions have consequences". A total of 114 Russian diplomats were expelled by Britain's allies, adding to the 23 already sent home by the UK last week.

The international response to the Salisbury attacks was described by experts as a "heavy blow" to Russian intelligence gathering.

Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, said "additional measures" - including more expulsions by more countries - could not be excluded in the "coming days and weeks".

Mrs May said: "President Putin's regime is carrying out acts of aggression against our shared values and interests within our continent and beyond. If the Kremlin's goal is to divide and intimidate the Western alliance, then their efforts have spectacularly backfired."

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However, Jeremy Corbyn remained isolated in refusing to directly attribute responsibility for the poisonings of Sergei and Yulia Skripal to the Kremlin, saying only that Moscow was "directly or indirectly" to blame.

Mapped: Russian diplomats expelled from West

He was also accused by one of his own MPs of lying when he said in a Commons debate that he had been a "robust critic" of the Russian government for 20 years.

Labour MP John Woodcock pointed out that after Russia's annexation of part of Ukraine, Mr Corbyn wrote that the invasion was "not unprovoked".

As Australia became the latest country to expel Russian diplomats in a show of support for Britain, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called the Salisbury poisoning a "disgraceful" and "brazen" attack and said his country "cannot and will not stand by and watch when the sovereignty of our allies and partners is threatened".

Mrs May said police investigating the Salisbury attack had now established that 130 people could potentially have been exposed to the Novichok nerve agent, which had been "stockpiled" by Russia in recent years following work on "delivering nerve agents, probably for assassination".

The mass expulsion was greeted with fury in Moscow, which said Britain's allies had "blindly" followed Mrs May's lead, which resulted in "escalating the confrontation".

Russian President Vladimir Putin drinks champaigne during a meeting at the Kremlin last week Credit: Mikhail Svetlov /Getty

Mr Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, hinted that the Kremlin would respond with tit-for-tat expulsions, saying Russia would proceed from the "principle of reciprocity".

A Kremlin spokesman said she had a "surprise" for Boris Johnson, who compared Russia's hosting of the 2018 World Cup to the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany.

Maria Zakharova said Mr Johnson "doesn't know any history" and referred to British athletes joining in with Nazi salutes at the Games while the Soviet Union stayed away.

President Trump's tough action, which also included the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle because of its proximity to a Boeing facility and a submarine base, was welcomed by the Foreign Office particularly after Mr Trump had insisted on congratulating Mr Putin by phone on his recent election win, against his team's advice.

Germany, France and Poland will each expel four Russians, with others deported from Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Latvia, Romania, Croatia, Hungary and Estonia. Canada, Australia, Norway, Macedonia, Ukraine, Sweden, Finland and Albania will also expel suspected spies, with Belgium and Ireland confirming they will announce expulsions on Tuesday.

sleepy salisbury murder plot

The Czech ambassador to the US, Hynek Kmonicek, said Russia clearly saw Britain as a "security weak link" because while Russian defectors typically went to the UK, the US or Israel, "they only die in the UK".

Britain had also been hoping Nato would consider expelling Russian officials, but the plans hit a roadblock when Belgium, which only has a handful of diplomats in Moscow, vetoed the move.

Prof Anthony Glees, the director of security and intelligence studies at Buckingham University, said: "It is a heavy blow to the Russia intelligence gathering. They are more on their own than they have ever been."

Mrs May scored a diplomatic victory at a Brussels summit of EU leaders on Thursday. Heads of state and government criticised the Salisbury attack and agreed it was highly probable Russia was responsible.

The action comes after more than a fortnight of mixed messages over Americas willingness to take a tough line on Russia for the Salisbury poisoning.

Donald Trump is expelling 60 Russian diplomats Credit: AFP

The White House declined to point the finger at Russia explicitly the day Mrs May linked the Kremlin with the attack during an address in the House of Commons.

Mr Trump also failed to mention that attack during a phone call with Mr Putin last week and at times has not matched critical rhetoric of cabinet colleagues and officials.

Senior US administration officials pushed back on the suggestion they had been sending mixed messages on Monday, saying that they stood with Britain over the attack.

A No 10 spokesman said: "We welcome today's actions by our allies, which clearly demonstrate that we all stand shoulder to shoulder in sending the strongest signal to Russia that it cannot continue to flout international law."

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, visiting Estonia, also welcomed the expulsions. "I think that is the very best response that we can have because their intention, their aim, is to divide and what we are seeing is the world uniting behind the British stance," he said. "That in itself is a great victory and that sends an exceptionally powerful message to the Kremlin and President Putin."In 2003, when George W. Bush was president, the White House undertook a new effort to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program. It did so by working with four other countriesSouth Korea, China, Japan and Russia. These so-called six-party talks were a yearslong, often frustrating diplomatic effort, and in the middle of it, I sat down with a negotiator from one of the parties, a diplomat who had become one of my best sources in the region.

Normally, he was calm. But when I mentioned John Bolton, the former Bush administration official who had helped scuttle a previous nuclear agreement between the U.S. and Pyongyang, the diplomats equanimity evaporated. John Bolton, he spat, is the reason North Korea has multiple nuclear weapons today.

The diplomat was overstating his case. But the mere fact that he said it was revealingespecially now that President Donald Trump has appointed Bolton to be his national security adviser. The move, which becomes official in early April, will come roughly a month before one of the most audacious diplomatic gambits in American history: Trumps agreement to meet with Kim Jong Un, the young leader of North Korea.

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Bolton, the articulate, Yale-educated lawyer who replaced H.R. McMaster, remains extremely polarizing. A former State Department official and United Nations ambassador under Bush, he has been a Fox News analyst for several years, which means Trump has seen him on TV long enough to know he is a hawk on almost all national security issues. A month ago, he wrote an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal titled The Legal Case for Striking North Korea First. Those in Washington frantically trying to prevent a pre-emptive U.S. military strike against Pyongyang found Boltons piece extremely concerning.

Now, his ascension has much of official Washingtonnot to mention all of East Asiaworried. Their fears? That he will snuff out Trumps meeting with Kim before it even happens, much as he tried to derail a nuclear deal more than a decade ago. Signed when Bill Clinton was in office, the deal provided Pyongyang with two light water reactors and monthly deliveries of fuel oil, in return for the North denuclearizing.

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But with Bolton as the point man, the Bush administration complained that Pyongyang had been cheating on it. The Clinton-era agreement had dealt with the Norths effort to build nukes using plutonium, but Pyongyang was secretly trying to build weapons using highly enriched uranium. It was an egregious violation, but diplomats in various capitals had wanted to see if they could quietly get the North Koreans to stop the uranium program. The Bush administration said no, confronted Pyongyang (which copped to what it was doing) and the deal died. The North then said it was going to build several nuclear weapons, and they now have.

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For more than a decade, analysts have been debating the wisdom of the Bush administrations response. Whats clear, however, is that for a diplomat, Bolton can be very undiplomatic. Yet even his bureaucratic enemies will concede he is smart, detail-oriented and tenacious. (Bush hired him for the State Department after Bolton played a critical role in fighting the recount battle in Florida following the 2000 election, when the final vote there between Bush and Al Gore decided the outcome.)

11_29_Bolton_State_01

Joshua Roberts/reuters

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The issue now is to what end is Bolton going to use those skills as the historic Trump-Kim summit approaches. Already Boltons critics insist hes in favor of pre-emptive war, which he maintains is legal. And he may have some help in Washington. Weeks before announcing Boltons appointment, Trump shifted another hawk, Mike Pompeo, from CIA director to secretary of state, replacing Rex Tillerson.

Taken together, the moves, critics say, are a sign that the hawks are now in charge and that a conflict with Pyongyang may be in the offing. Yet months earlier, the administration had already been considering a bloody nose strategy against the Northa limited pre-emptive strike against some of its nuclear sites to show Kim the U.S. is serious about denuclearization. This idea grew out of McMasters National Security Council. Only recently did the administration, in the face of fierce objections from Defense Secretary James Mattis and former Secretary of State Tillerson, disown the strategy.

Boltons defenders say his appointment makes sense; with him and Trump at the helm, the U.S. has two unpredictable, hawkish leaders facing off against Kim and can now effectively execute a Mad Bomber strategy. Leaders in Seoul and Tokyo may worry that Trump and Boltons heated rhetoric will lead to war, but thats perhaps the point. They want Kim and his toadies in Pyongyang to tremble.

Well see in May how forthcoming Team Kim will be. Its likely the president is too prideful to back away from the summit now, even if Bolton presses him to do so. The key will be what happens after Trump and Kim meet. As a self-styled dealmaker extraordinaire, the American president is unlikely to walk away disappointed, as Ronald Reagan famously did at the 1986 nuclear summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Trumps instinct will be to proclaim it the best, the most incredible, the most important deal ever in the history of the world.

Then, as the months go by, if the U.S. finds evidence that Pyongyang is not abiding by whatever they agree to, Bolton will be all over it. Should that day come, the prospect of war with North Korea will become all too real.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekDonald Trump, the US President - Getty Images North America

Donald Trump is poised to expel more than 20 Russian diplomats from the US in the wake of the poisoning of a former spy in Salisbury.

In a significant boost for Theresa May, the US President could take action as soon as Monday following the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

Britain has thrown out 23 Russians that the Government says were using diplomatic cover to spy on the UK. Up to European 20 nations, including Germany, France, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and the Czech Republic are now considering following Britains lead.

The European Union has also recalled its ambassador from Moscow following the poisoning. A US Government spokesman said: [We are considering] a range of options in response to Russias outrageous actions in the UK, both to demonstrate solidarity with our ally and to hold Russia accountable for its clear breach of international norms and agreements.

Sergei Skripal with his daughter Yulia

It comes as Mr Trump is under pressure from both Republicans and Democrats to take a tougher line against Russia following its interference in the US elections in 2016.

Mr Trump, however, has refrained from criticising Vladimir Putin, the Russian President. In a congratulatory phone call last week following Mr Putin's re-election, Mr Trump did not mention the Salisbury poisoning.

Mrs May made significant progress in winning the support of European leaders at a summit last week. She discussed material gathered by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, along with the findings of Porton Down scientists about the use of the Novichok nerve agent.

British experts have now isolated the precise type of Novichok used in the attacks, and the likely location of the laboratory that made it.

The findings enabled Mrs May to assert Mr Putins involvement with significant authority. In a sign of mounting tensions, Mr Putins spokesman yesterday claimed that the UKs assertion that Russia was behind the poisoning were bordering on banditry.

British officials are understood to be hopeful that Mr Trump will expel Russian diplomats in a show of solidarity with the UK. However they are wary as Mr Trump and his officials have previously taken different positions on Russia.

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Ahead of his call with Mr Putin, he was told by his staff that he should not congratulate Mr Putin, while his briefing pack also recommended he should raise the Salisbury issue.

In the event he did neither. According to CNN, the National Security Council has recommended that he should expel Russian diplomats. The Polish Government last week warned that Nato and the EU must check for Russian spies at their headquarters.

As relations with Moscow have grown more chilly in recent years, Britain and its allies have become increasingly concerned about the activities of Russian delegates to Nato and the European Union.

A Whitehall source said: In light of Salisbury, theres going to be a lot of close monitoring. There have been concerns about them and options are being looked at.

Mr Skripal and his daughter, who are being heavily sedated, may have permanent brain damage. Yulia Skripal, 33, is thought to have regained consciousness soon after being admitted to Salisbury district hospital on March 4 before slipping back into a coma. Her father, Sergei, 66, remains unconscious and unable to communicate.

Front Bench promotion - end of articleErrol Musk, the father of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, with a Tesla Model S - Denver Post

The father of Elon Musk, the billionaire tech entrepreneur, says it was Gods plan for him to have a baby with his own stepdaughter.

Errol Musk, 72, described the 10-month-old baby boy he had with Jana Bezuidenhout, 30, as exquisite.

He married her mother Heide when Jana was four but told The Sunday Times he did not consider her to be his stepdaughter because she had been raised away from the family for long periods of time.

Jana Bezuidenhout, 30, who had a child with her stepfather Errol Musk

He had two children with Ms Bezuidenhouts mother before divorcing after 18 years of marriage.

He said Jana had contacted him last year after splitting up with a boyfriend.

We were lonely, lost people, he said from his home in South Africa. One thing led to another  you can call it Gods plan or natures plan.

Two months later Jana told him she was pregnant. After assuming the father was her ex-boyfriend, Mr Musk demanded a paternity test only to discover it was his baby.

Jana is a delightful girl and a wonderful mother. She said I had changed her life, he added.

Elon Musk railed against his father in a recent interview Credit: Reuters

His story may explain months of hostility between father and son, who have reportedly not spoken in more than a year.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Elon Musk  who is though to be worth about $20 billion  described his father as a terrible human being but stopped short of talking about specific examples.

In quotes | Elon Musk

You have no idea about how bad, he said. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done.

Mr Musk senior, who is a millionaire and made his fortune through engineering, disputed that characterisation but has admitted shooting dead three intruders in his home in South Africa. He was charged with manslaughter but said he was acting in self-defence and was acquitted.Doctored images showing Florida school shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez ripping up the US constitution are being shared on social media.

The original image featured the teenager tearing up a poster of a gun target, like those used at a firing range.

Taken for Teen Vogue and turned into a GIF, it showed Ms Gonzalez standing alongside three of her classmates.

They have been edited out of some of the doctored versions, and the gun target changed to the US constitution. Parts of Ms Gonzalezs face have also been darkened to show shadows under her eyes, while her nose also appears to have been made broader.

There is a compelling short video of Emma Gonzalez tearing up a target (used for shooting). Gun extremists have doctored the video so it looks like she's tearing up the Constitution. Some wacko might believe she did that! Propaganda like this is very dangerous to us all. pic.twitter.com/hKZmai1kAw  Cornelia (@PaladinCornelia) March 25, 2018

It is unclear who created the new images or how many times they have been shared online.

(Twitter)

A separate series of images, memes and videos have also emerged, comparing another survivor, David Hogg, to Adolf Hitler. Many of those were also doctored.

The edited image and GIF showing Ms Gonzalez were posted anonymously on controversial forum 4chan.

They were later shared by several high profile figures on the right, including actor Adam Baldwin, who posted the GIF with the German hashtag #Vorwarts (#forwards).

The posts emerged on the same day as Ms Gonzalez  a leading figure in the gun reform movement that developed after the shooting at her Florida high school last month  took to the streets with hundreds of thousands of protesters across America to call for stricter gun laws.

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While Mr Baldwin later defended the images as political satire, some Twitter users appeared to accept them as genuine.

Watching Emma Gonzalez tear my Constitution in half make my blood boil! wrote Anna Eddy.

Watching Emma Gonzalez tear my Constitution in half make my blood boil! #MAGA#POTUS#2A  Anna Eddy (@AnnaEddy1) March 24, 2018

Others accepted they were fake, but approved of the symbolism.

The picture of Emma Gonzalez is photoshopped, if you didnt know, wrote Irma Hinojosa. It stands true as she is ripping the Constitution with her words Be mad shes rallying people to take away the right to defend yourself.

Many others came to the teens defence and criticised those who were sharing the images.

The right is passing around a photoshopped clip and pic of Emma Gonzalez tearing up the Constitution (she actually tore up a shooting range target), wrote Hurst4Spd. What this tells you is that they have no response to the substance of her message. So they've decided to lie about her instead.

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One user suggested people should follow Ms Gonzalezs Twitter account and called for an end to attacks on the shooting survivors.

Since they first entered the global media spotlight in the days after the shooting, the students leading the charge for stricter gun laws have faced insults and accusations of dishonesty from some prominent figures defending existing gun laws.

Leslie Gibson, a Republican candidate for the Maine House of Representatives, called Ms Gonzalez a skinhead lesbian on Twitter and referred to David Hogg as a bald-faced liar".

He later quit the race following widespread criticism.

Mr Hoggs speech at this weekend's rally in Washington DC sparked a new wave of online attacks, with countless memes and videos now circulating online.

Some have compared a fist pump he gave at the end of his speech to the Nazi salute.

Others have suggested he looks like Adolf Hitler and has similar mannerisms and speech style.

David Hogg is Hitler, wrote one Twitter user alongside a picture of Mr Hogg with his fist held aloft, doctored to include a Hitler-style moustache and a Nazi armband.

David Hogg is Hitler pic.twitter.com/wmjsuBN4jC  Patriots of Truth (@Patriots_Truth) March 24, 2018

However, the comparisons to the Nazi leader and doctored images were criticised by some people who opposed gun reform.

"I disagree with Hogg's view on gun control but you're literally comparing him to Hitler and that is insane," wrote Sarah Rumpf, who described the comparison as "vile".

She also spoke out against the fake images of Ms Gonzalez, writing, "I sure as heck don't endorse making up lies to attack these students."SheKnows

While much has been written about Jan. 6 and Donald Trumps reaction while it was going down, Bob Woodwards new book, Peril, is giving readers more insight into what happened behind closed doors. The day was fraught with a lot of drama, and as we know, much of the burden of getting through to the []By Tulay Karadeniz and Alissa de Carbonnel VARNA, Bulgaria (Reuters) - The European Union holds an uneasy summit with Turkey on Monday, when it is likely to provide Ankara with fresh cash to extend a deal on Syrian refugees but deflect Turkish demands for deeper trade ties and visa-free travel to Europe. With the bloc critical of what it considers to be Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's growing authoritarianism at home and his intervention in Syria's war, Brussels had hesitated to agree to the summit. But host Bulgaria viewed the meeting at the Black Sea port of Varna as a rare chance for dialogue with the country that remains a candidate for EU membership despite years of stalled talks. EU leaders also cited Turkey's importance as a NATO ally on Europe's southern flank and in curbing immigration to Europe from the Middle East and Africa. "I am looking with mixed feelings towards the Varna summit because the differences in views between the EU and Turkey are many," said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who will represent the bloc along with European Council President Donald Tusk. "It will be a frank and open debate, where we will not hide our differences but will seek to improve our cooperation," Juncker told reporters on Friday after a two-day EU summit that discussed Turkey. At that meeting in Brussels, leaders condemned what they said were Turkey's illegal actions in a standoff over eastern Mediterranean gas reserves with bloc members Greece and Cyprus. But in a familiar pattern of public recrimination, Turkey's minister for EU affairs, Omer Celik, said Ankara viewed the summit as "an important opportunity to move our relations forward" and that he expected "the same positive and constructive approach from the EU". Erdogan will seek more money for Syrian refugees, a deeper customs union and progress in talks on letting Turks visit Europe without visas, a Turkish foreign ministry spokesman said. 'LAST CHANCE' EU money is likely to be forthcoming, but little else, EU officials and diplomats said. The bloc is set to grant Turkey a second 3 billion euro ($3.7 billion) tranche to provide for the Syrians it hosts under a March 2016 deal to take in migrants fleeing the country's war. However, EU diplomats said that Erdogan's invitation to Varna will come at the price of more sharp criticism from EU counterparts who say that Turkey has been backsliding on democracy and human rights since a failed coup in July 2016. Some 50,000 people, including journalists, have been arrested while a further 150,000, including teachers, judges and soldiers, have been sacked or suspended from their jobs since the attempted coup. "The meeting in Varna is likely to be one of the last opportunities to maintain dialogue," said Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, whose nation holds the EU's rotating presidency. Despite the need for Turkey's cooperation on security and foreign policy, the EU should maintain a tough line, said Marc Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Turkey, now at the Carnegie Europe think-tank. "It's quite tempting for EU politicians to go for a transactional relationship with Turkey, but Erdogan is not going to stop EU-bashing for his nationalist agenda," he Pierini. (Additional reporting by Robin Emmott; Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel @AdeCar; Editing by David Goodman)VARNA, Bulgaria (Reuters) - The European Union is worried over President Tayyip Erdogan's adherence to the rule of law at home and his actions in Syria and in the east Mediterranean but will go on offering its support for Syrian refugees, the bloc's senior officials said. "Our meeting today demonstrated that while our relationship is going through difficult times, in areas where we do cooperate, we cooperate well," European Council President Donald Tusk told reporters after an EU-Turkey summit in Varna. "We reconfirm our readiness to keep up the dialogue and conversation and work together to overcome current difficulties with a view to unleashing the potential of our partnership." (Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel @AdeCar; Editing by Gabriela Baczynska)VARNA, Bulgaria (Reuters) - European Union leaders on Monday said they received no concrete answers from Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to a long list of concerns including Turkey's operation in Syria to the jailing of journalists. "We didn't achieve any kind of concrete compromise today," European Council President Donald Tusk told reporters after talks with Erdogan in the Bulgarian costal town of Varna. "But I still hope that will be possible in the future... Only progress on these issues will allow us to improve the EU-Turkey relations, including the accession process." (Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel @AdeCar; Editing by Gabriela Baczynska)President Donald Trumps expulsion of Russian diplomats and spies in response to the Skripal poisonings is not enough to punish Vladimir Putin, the former U.S. ambassador in Moscow said.

The U.S. said it would expel 60 diplomats and has ordered the closure of Russias consulate in Seattle after the attempted murder Sergei Skripal, an ex-colonel in Russian military intelligence who turned double agent for the British, and his daughter, Yulia.

Alexander Vershbow, who was U.S. ambassador to Russia between 2001 and 2005, told Newsweek that the expulsion of Russian diplomatswhich is also happening in the U.K. and across Europeis not enough to deter Putin.

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Russia Putin

MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP/Getty Images

I think what is needed is to go beyond thatto include some of these targeted sanctions that single out Putins cronies for sanctions in terms of limiting their access to international markets, possibly banning their travel, pressing for more transparency about the sources of their wealth, said Vershbow, who was deputy secretary general of NATO between 2012 and 2016.

He continued, If youre really going to hit Putins power base, you have to go beyond the expulsion of some diplomats and spies, who can be replaced.

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If the West does not respond robustly, Putin will continue to get the impression that he can do these kinds of provocative actions at acceptable cost, Vershbow said, referring not only to the Skripal attack but also the annexation of Crimea, Russias 2008 war in Georgia and other recent assassinations linked to the Kremlin.

Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a Russian-developed novichok nerve agent on March 4 in Salisbury, England, where they live. The U.K. and its allies blamed the Russian state for the chemical attack, which also made the first police officer on the scene seriously ill. The Kremlin denies any involvement.

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"I think it has been an important wake-up call for some of the more reluctant allies, who continue to either been in denial or try to compartmentalize issues like Ukraine, from their desires to have a partnership with Russia," Vershbow said. "This affair has at least injected more realism into the debate, though I dont think its going to settle the issue."

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Announcing the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the U.S., a White House spokesperson said the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle was due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing.

The United States takes this action in conjunction with our NATO allies and partners around the world in response to Russias use of a military-grade chemical weapon on the soil of the United Kingdom, the latest in its ongoing pattern of destabilizing activities around the world, the spokesperson said.

Todays actions make the United States safer by reducing Russias ability to spy on Americans and to conduct covert operations that threaten Americas national security. With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences.

The United States stands ready to cooperate to build a better relationship with Russia, but this can only happen with a change in the Russian governments behavior.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekWashington (AFP) - A US consumer protection agency said Monday it has opened an investigation into Facebook's privacy practices, in another blow to the social network struggling to deal with a growing crisis on misuse of private data.

The Federal Trade Commission confirmed news reports from last week that it had opened an inquiry over the harvesting of Facebook data on tens of millions users of the social network by the British consulting group Cambridge Analytica.

While the FTC normally refuses to comment on its probes, it took the unusual step of confirming a "non-public investigation" into Facebook over whether it mishandled private data or violated a 2011 agreement which settled an earlier probe.

"The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers," said acting consumer protection chief Tom Pahl.

"Foremost among these tools is enforcement action against companies that fail to honor their privacy promises, including to comply with Privacy Shield (the US-EU privacy accord), or that engage in unfair acts that cause substantial injury to consumers in violation of the FTC Act."

The FTC suggested that Facebook could face new legal problems if it violated the consent decree with the consumer agency in 2011 settling charges that it deceived consumers on how it handled private data.

"Companies who have settled previous FTC actions must also comply with FTC order provisions imposing privacy and data security requirements," Pahl said in the statement.

"Accordingly, the FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook."

Related: Fallout over Facebooks Cambridge Analytica scandal continues

For more news videos visit Yahoo View.

Facebook shares slumped 2.3 percent in mid-afternoon trade Monday after the FTC announcement, having lost some 14 percent last week over a crisis which has wiped out some $90 billion in market value.

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Separately, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley said he had asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear at a hearing April 10 "to discuss Facebook's past and future policies regarding the protection and monitoring of consumer data."

Grassley said he also invited Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey "to discuss the future of data privacy in the social media industry."

- Raid in London -

The world's biggest social network is also facing calls on both sides of the Atlantic for more information on how its user data was leaked.

A public apology by Zuckerberg has failed to quell outrage over the hijacking of personal data.

Separately, Facebook disputed reports that it had been logging call and text data surreptitiously from its users.

A Facebook statement said call and text history logging "is part of an opt-in feature" for those using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android.

"This helps you find and stay connected with the people you care about, and provides you with a better experience across Facebook," the statement said, while pointing to ways users can turn off the feature.

British authorities, meanwhile, said they were assessing data seized in a raid on the London offices of Cambridge Analytica as part of their investigation.

About 18 enforcement agents from the Information Commissioner's Office participated in the raid late Friday after getting a court order.

"This is one part of a larger investigation by the ICO into the use of personal data and analytics by political campaigns, parties, social media companies and other commercial actors," the agency said.

Cambridge Analytica, which worked on US President Donald Trump's election campaign, has been accused of illegally mining tens of millions of users' Facebook data and using it to target potential voters.

Facebook took out full-page ads in nine major British and US newspapers on Sunday to apologize to users.

"We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can't we don't deserve it," Zuckerberg said in the ads.The maiden flight of a new non-stop regular service between Australia and the UK has arrived at London Heathrow.

Qantas 9 (QF9) touched down at Terminal Three at 5.02am on Sunday, just over 17 hours after setting off from Perth at 7pm local time (11am GMT) on Saturday.

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner completed the 9,226-mile journey to arrive slightly earlier than the scheduled arrival time 5.10am.

The UK's longest non-stop regular passenger flight will set off back for Perth at 1.15pm on Sunday.

The route is 24 per cent further than the UK's existing longest service, operated by Garuda Indonesia between Heathrow and Jakarta (7,275 miles).

The new link with Perth is around three hours quicker than routes that involve stopping in the Middle East to change planes or refuel. It also enables faster journeys to Sydney and Melbourne than flying via Dubai.

Western Australia's premier, Mark McGowan, was among more than 200 passengers to arrive on the flight.

He tweeted a picture of the Australian delegation of politicians and officials, the flight's pilots and a didgeridoo player in Aboriginal dress and body paint at the terminal.

History made. 

The @Qantas Dreamliner has landed in London, carrying more than 200 passengers. A new era of travel and opportunities for Western Australias economy has officially begun. pic.twitter.com/mlrHGV1h7X  Mark McGowan (@MarkMcGowanMP) March 25, 2018

Perth is officially the western gateway to Australia. Now connected directly to London in just over 17 hours. Congratulations @Qantas on a perfect flight, lots of happy passengers along the way. #QF9pic.twitter.com/341nRMj0RU  Mark McGowan (@MarkMcGowanMP) March 25, 2018

The flight marked a "historic day for aviation", said airline Chief Executive Alan Joyce.

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"From today it will be the first link between Australia and Europe that has ever occurred non-stop in aviation," he told reporters at a launch event. "We are so excited."

About 730,000 British tourists visit Australia every year and the new service could boost interest in the state of Western Australia, often overlooked in favour of the country's east coast, said Tourism Minister Steven Ciobo.

"There will be more opportunity than ever before for us to continue to showcase and highlight all the very best parts of Australia, including some of the most magnificent and iconic parts of Western Australia," he said.

Top 10 | The worlds longest flights

The service was a "game-changer", said Mena Rawlings, Britain's high commissioner to Australia.

"To have the opportunity to get on a plane at Heathrow and step out in Perth is just phenomenally exciting and I'm sure we are going to see lots and lots of people taking advantage of that."

Qantas plans to introduce non-stop flights from Australia's east coast to Britain in the next few years.Niamey (AFP) - At least five civilians were killed and several others wounded in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants in southeast Niger, near the border with Nigeria, according to local sources.

"The BH (Boko Haram) came to the market place early Friday evening, they shot the crowd and took food," said a resident of Toummour, in the southwest Diffa region, which was targeted by the attack.

A local official on Sunday confirmed the toll of "five dead, all civilians", adding that several were also wounded in the attack.

Diffa governor Mahamadou Laoualy Dan went to Toummour on Saturday to "offer his condolences" to relatives of the dead and "encourage" the army who "routed" the attackers, Niger television reported.

"We ask the people to hold on... 2018 will be a decisive year in the war against Boko Haram," he said in front of Toummour residents.

In January, seven Niger soldiers were killed and 17 wounded in an attack in Toummour, which is located in the east of Diffa close to the Lake Chad basin, a strategic area where the borders of four countries converge.

Diffa has suffered several Boko Haram attacks since the insurgency spilled over from Nigeria in 2015.

On June 3, 2016, the militants killed 26 soldiers and left an unknown number of civilian casualties in a massive attack in the town of Bosso, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Toummour.

Between 2015 and 2017, UN monitors recorded 582 civilian casualties in 244 raids blamed on Boko Haram in Diffa.Paris (AFP) - The latest attack in France by a gunman who was known to be a potential threat has led to renewed focus on how the country keeps track of suspected Islamist extremists.

France's interior ministry compiles something known as the "S file" (the "S" stands for security) which contains anyone suspected of being a radical, including potentially dangerous leftist and far-right activists.

There is also a separate list, the File for the Prevention of Terrorist Radicalisation (FSPRT), for people judged to be terror threats.

Radouane Lakdim, the gunman involved in last Friday's shooting spree in the southern French towns of Carcassonne and Trebes, was listed in the S File in May 2014 and the FSPRT in September 2015.

- How many are flagged as a threat? -

A total of 19,745 were listed in the FSPRT as of February 20.

The file includes people who represent varying degrees of threat, from someone who is reported by his boss for not shaking hands with women to a minor who has recently converted to Islam.

But there are more serious cases of people in contact with members of the Islamic State (IS) group, or others who have left for or wanted to travel to areas controlled by IS in Iraq or Syria.

Once listed, a person will remain on the list for five years but might not be actively monitored. The file also contains records of potential links between suspects.

It updates gradually, as cases are reported by the security services or via calls to the toll-free tipline that launched in April 2014

- Who is on it? -

Most suspects are from four regions in France: the region around Paris known as the Ile-de-France, the area around Lyon known as Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes in the east, the southern Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrenees region and the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur in the southeast.

People from most socio-professional categories appear in the files, but the majority are young men from the suburbs around French cities where low-income immigrant communities, many from Muslim countries, are concentrated.

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The problem for French security services is that most of the attackers in France over the previous four years had not been flagged by the security services.

"You have to remember that this is just the tip of the iceberg," said Jean-Charles Brisard, president of the Center for Terrorism Analysis (CAT).

"Since 2014, 60 percent of the attacks in France were carried out by people who weren't in the file. The files are good, but even they don't show the full scale of homegrown threats."

- How are suspects tracked? -

French security services manage the list of suspected extremists. Individuals on it are ranked by descending threat level.

The names at the high end of the spectrum are put under closer surveillance and brought in for questioning at the slightest suggestion they might be considering action.

But security experts have warned for years that France does not have the resources needed to put all of its suspected jihadists under round-the-clock surveillance. Following one suspect full-time can take around 20 police officers, experts say.

Investigators therefore depend on phone or internet interceptions to keep track of the highest risks.

"It keeps me up at night," an anti-terrorist officer told AFP, "not having the right people at the top of the list and getting surprised by a kid we misjudged."Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday that the expulsion of Russian diplomats by EU states over the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain was a display of "European solidarity".

"Our posture is, firstly, a posture of solidarity, but at the same time, it is a show of determined rejection of the use of any sort of chemical weapon," Le Drian said during a visit to Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

"I believe that the expulsions which have been decided upon are the proof of strong European solidarity," he said, standing next to his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Malki.

London last week kicked out 23 Russian diplomats and urged allies to respond to the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Sixteen European Union countries, including France, responded on Monday by giving at least 30 Russian envoys notice to quit.

The United States ordered out 60 alleged Russian agents working under diplomatic cover.

Britain says the poison attack used a highly-potent nerve agent called Novichok, developed by the Soviet government towards the end of the Cold War.

Moscow denies it was responsible for the attack.Rennes (France) (AFP) - A left-wing French politician has been arrested over a tweet apparently celebrating the death of a policeman who was hailed a hero after he took the place of a hostage and was killed by a jihadist gunman.

Police arrested Stephane Poussier at his home in Dives-sur-Mer, northwest France, on Sunday after he sent two tweets welcoming the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame.

"Whenever a policeman is shot... I think of my friend Remi Fraisse," Poussier said on Twitter, referring to an environmental activist killed by a stun grenade fired by police during a 2014 protest over a dam.

"And this time it was a colonel, great! Additionally, it means one less Macron voter," he added.

Beltrame was shot and stabbed to death after offering himself in exchange for a woman being used as a human shield by Radouane Lakdim who had already killed three other people in a rampage on Friday.

A national tribute is to be held for Beltrame, who President Emmanuel Macron said had "died a hero".

Poussier's remarks provoked strong reactions and his Twitter account was disabled.

"Stephane Poussier is in custody since 11:30 this morning for justifying acts of terrorism after comments published yesterday on his Twitter account," local prosecutor David Pamart confirmed to AFP late Sunday.

He could face up to seven years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros ($124,000).

Poussier stood unsuccessfully in elections last year as a candidate for the La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party of radical leftwinger Jean-Luc Melenchon.

His comments were condemned by the party and Melenchon, who said on Twitter that it would on Monday file a complaint against him for justifying terrorism.Douma (Syria) (AFP) - More than 3,500 Syrian rebels and civilians prepared to leave Eastern Ghouta on Monday after the largest exodus yet from the opposition enclave, as talks stalled over the final pocket of resistance.

Five weeks since government troops launched a ferocious offensive on Ghouta, they hold more than 90 percent of the long-besieged opposition stronghold on the doorstep of Damascus.

The area has been ravaged by heavy bombardment and emptied by an exodus of tens of thousands of residents and negotiated withdrawals of rebels.

A convoy of more than 5,400 fighters and civilians left a pocket of territory held by Islamist rebel group Faylaq al-Rahman late Sunday and reached northwest Syria the following day.

It was the single largest one-day evacuation yet from Eastern Ghouta, after nearly 1,000 people were bussed out from the same area on Saturday.

Syria's ally Russia has been deeply involved in the process, negotiating with rebels and placing masked military escorts aboard buses leaving Ghouta.

More evacuations were expected from the towns of Arbin and Zamalka and the neighbouring district of Jobar, according to Faylaq al-Rahman spokesman Wael Alwan.

"We don't have clear numbers, but we're expecting 7,000 fighters to leave, as well as their families and some civilians," Alwan told AFP.

"This could bring the total number to around 30,000," he said, in a marked increase from state media's reports that 7,000 in total would be evacuated.

- Mass exodus -

On Monday, more than 3,600 people, including hundreds of rebels, piled into more than 50 buses to leave the Faylaq-held pocket, state television said.

The departures are part of a deal reached last week that resembles others used by the government to recapture territory throughout Syria's seven-year war.

Eastern Ghouta lies within mortar range of Damascus, and rebels there had threatened to seize the capital from President Bashar al-Assad.

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The regime responded with a crippling half-decade siege on the suburb's 400,000 residents, sealing off access to food, medicine and other goods.

On February 18, the regime, its ally Russia and loyalist militia launched an all-out assault, using air strikes and a sweeping ground assault to corner rebels in three isolated pockets.

More than 1,600 civilians have been killed in the operation, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.

To help the regime capture the rest, Moscow began talks with the rebels in each area.

The first agreement, with hardline Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, saw more than 4,500 people including rebels leave the town of Harasta last week.

According to state media, the deal with Faylaq al-Rahman on Friday has so far seen some 10,000 people leave the pocket it controls, putting Assad within reach of securing the second-last part of the former rebel stronghold.

The convoy of 81 buses that left late Sunday began arriving at a staging ground on the edge of opposition territory in northwest Syria on Monday afternoon.

Dozens of people had been waiting since early morning for the arrival of relatives and friends who were bussed out of Ghouta.

"I'm waiting for my wife's parents who were besieged. We've missed them so much," said Abu Laith, who himself was evacuated 10 months ago from another Damascus district.

As the buses pulled in, long-lost relatives broke into tears and hugged each other emotionally.

A third set of talks over the final pocket -- controlled by Jaish al-Islam and including the largest town in the area, Douma -- may not end in evacuation.

"The ongoing negotiations with Russia are to stay in Douma, not to leave it," said Jaish al-Islam spokesman Hamza Bayraqdar, without providing further details.

- Dilemmas in Douma -

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the deal could see Jaish al-Islam lay down heavy weapons in exchange for government-provided water and electricity returning to the town.

Russian military police, but not Syria's army, would deploy there.

But divisions within opposition ranks were holding up the talks, Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"Jaish al-Islam's commanders are divided and some are opposed to a deal," he said.

Syria's pro-government Al-Watan daily reported similar terms and said the parties had three days to study the offer.

It said a "preliminary understanding" had been reached that would see the "dissolution of Jaish al-Islam, the handover of its heavy weapons and the return of state institutions to the city."

In Douma, residents were torn.

"I've spent my whole life here and lived the revolution. My father died here. How could I abandon his grave?" said Abu Ayman, 30.

"But I could never live alongside regime forces," he added.

Some had already fled into government-held zones, using a corridor opened by regime troops.

About 16,000 people have fled Douma using the route in recent days. Some 200,000 people, including many who fled other parts of Ghouta, are estimated to remain in the town.The Facebook page for a Republican congressman's campaign attacked Emma Gonzalez, a Cuban-American Parkland survivor who has become a poster child for the gun control movement, for wearing a Cuban flag patch on her jacket at Saturday's March for Our Lives demonstration.

Representative Steve King of Iowa mocked the 18-year-old for the patch on Sunday, one day after hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C., and worldwide, to protest gun violence.

"This is how you look when you claim Cuban heritage yet don't speak Spanish and ignore the fact that your ancestors fled the island when the dictatorship turned Cuba into a prison camp after removing all weapons from its citizens, hence their right to self defense, the @KingforCongress Facebook page wrote in a post that included a photo of Gonzalez on stage on Saturday, her eyes closed and a tear running down her cheek. Gonzalez, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, has emerged as one of the most recognizable faces advocating for gun control after a gunman killed 17 people there in February.

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The post quickly gained the attention of other mass shooting survivors, like Brandon J. Wolf, who was at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, when a gunman armed with a high-powered military-style rifle, attacked. The Stoneman Douglas shooter also used a military-style weapon.

"Are you SERIOUSLY mocking a school shooting survivor for her ethnicity?!" Wolf wrote. "Do you losers have NOTHING else to do anymore? Have you lost the will to govern? Do you need a safe space from these teenagers?"

The page responded to Wolf's comment, doubling down. "Pointing out the irony of someone wearing the flag of a communist country while simultaneously calling for gun control isn't 'picking' on anyone. It's calling attention to the truth, but we understand that lefties find that offensive," the post read.

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Newsweek's calls to King's office went unanswered Monday morning.

Gonzalez's father immigrated to the United States from Cuba in 1968, according to Univision. She has not publicly shied away from much since the shooting, including her heritage.

In an essay published in Harper's Bazaar, Gonzalez wrote: "Im 18 years old, Cuban and bisexual. Im so indecisive that I cant pick a favorite color, and Im allergic to 12 things. I draw, paint, crochet, sew, embroideranything productive I can do with my hands while watching Netflix.

"But none of this matters anymore," she said. "What matters is that the majority of American people have become complacent in a senseless injustice that occurs all around them."

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King wasn't the first to go after Gonzalez. A GIF posted Friday that originally showed the teen tearing a shooting target bull's-eye in half was doctored to appear that she was tearing up the U.S. Constitution.

King has long been a controversial figure and an immigration hard-liner. Last April, he tweeted a photo of a beer and toasted a border patrol for deporting a DACA recipient, part of the group known as the Dreamers.

The day before the Parkland shooting, The Des Moines Register published an editorial calling on Iowan Republicans to vote King out in the 2018 primary.

"He makes outlandish statements that seem intended to generate controversy, knowing they will provide him with a larger platform from which he can spew even more of his incendiary observations," the paper stated. "Given Kings longstanding record as one of the least effective members of Congress, the GOP should have no difficulty finding a more thoughtful and qualified individual to represent the people of Iowas 4th District."

The King campaign's Facebook page promised the Republican wasn't going anywhere soon.

"Congressman King will win re-election in a landslide," read the post, which included a smiley-face emoji.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPort-au-Prince (AFP) - Haiti's national police said Monday it fears a "fatal outcome" in the case of a photojournalist, Vladjimir Legagneur, who has been missing for 12 days.

The 30-year-old was last seen March 14 when he left home on a reporting assignment in Grand-Ravine, one of Port-au-Prince's poorest neighborhoods and in recent years the scene of violent gang wars.

"We have for the moment no trace or sign of him," said Frant Lerebours, the spokesman for the national police.

"In these kinds of cases, where there have been no demands for ransom, we fear a fatal outcome," he said.

Legagneur's wife, Fleurette Guerrier, began looking for her husband on the evening of March 14 when she had not heard from him.

After two days, she filed a report with Haitian authorities.

Rumors he may have been assassinated have circulated in media cricles, but his family and friends are pressing the authorities for action.

"I ask the authorities to activate the dossier to find out what happened to him, because so far I do not know if my husband is alive or dead," Guerrier said, in tears.

Lerebours said police were investigating a decapitated body that was found in Martissant, the Port-au-Prince neighborhood where Grand-Ravine is located.

"The police continues to investigate to establish the circumstances," he said. "We have several units working on that."

"The situation is very worrying but we cannot presume (Legagneur's) death with having recovered his body," he added.Stephen Hawking.

During my life with disability I have been in many a debate with others about it  motivation, ability to work, education, benefits and so on. Occasionally, people will use Stephen Hawking as an example of someone with disability who did well with their life, and there is no doubting that. He was an incredible man with an amazing mind and contributed massive advancements to science and society. But this use of Stephen Hawking annoys me greatly, because by every measurement he was extraordinary. Very few of us can be like him. There were things about his life that contributed to his success, and privileges others do not have.

First of all, Stephen Hawking developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis during his post-graduate years at Cambridge University in England. He wasnt born with it, and although developing his condition was traumatic, he had an able-bodied childhood and education, which many people with disabilities do not have. Who can say how things might have been different if he was born with a disability?

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As someone who has had a condition my whole life, although not as debilitating as ALS, I know it impacted my early years and affects who I am today. With Aspergers syndrome I struggled socially and school quickly became something I dreaded. I seemed different, and I felt different on the outside. Although I was not diagnosed until much later, I think I became depressed as early as 8 or 9. I remember crying on the bench during every break time in school. I felt isolated and alone, and although I did well during my education on paper, I could never muster the social skills to do anything with it.

Moreover, Hawkings condition did not directly attack what makes Hawking so brilliant  his mind. There are many conditions both mental and physical that impact the brain. While Hawking did naturally struggle with depression because of his condition, he still had a social life and his intelligence was never taken from him.

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Stephen Hawking had two well-educated parents who were very interested in his education. A lot of people, whether able-bodied or not, do not have this. Hawking took exams to get scholarships for private schools and probably would not have done this if his parents werent interested. Many people live in a reality where they do not have the head space, time or finances to spend a lot of time with their children, and so their education can go by the wayside. Some people do not have good families and have abusive parents, ranging from violent to neglectful. This is not an environment that could easily foster brilliance.

I had an incredibly turbulent relationship with my parents, and remember times where I would be on the floor of the living room in tears, struggling with my math homework on my own and my mum wouldnt help. I never got a grip on math; it was always a source of pain for me, perhaps because of this, and I had to work really hard to just get a passing grade in my final years of school. This impacted my ability in the sciences, too. I thoroughly enjoyed them and would have loved to have taken biology in my later educational years, but because I didnt do so well in science as a whole at school I was barred from doing so.

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Along with support from family, Hawking also had a supportive wife. Hawking himself said she gave him something to live for. She managed the housework and raising of their children alongside her own education, and the pair later got help from a number of post-graduate student doctors. Many people with disabilities dont manage to have romantic relationships, and even then the disability can cause direct or indirect interference in the relationship, as it did with Hawking himself.

Hawking also had the support of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, something he states he would not be alive without. Universal health care is still not available for many around the world, even in developed places like the United States. Other support came from those working on technology, both hardware and software that goes into Stephen Hawkings wheelchair so he was able to communicate. Thankfully Hawkings brilliant mind still had an outlet to connect with the rest of us, but technology cannot solve many symptoms of other disabilities.

Without these other elements of Stephen Hawkings life, we do not know where he would have ended up, but many people live with disability and without these things. All of this goes to show how valuable support from family and society is, especially to those with disabilities. Not to mention of course, there is no way I am as intelligent as Stephen Hawking, nor could I ever hope to be! The comparison is absurd; it would be like if I compared anyone with working legs to Usain Bolt.

I often wonder what Stephen Hawking would have thought of people using him as a measuring stick for other disabled people. Simply put, Stephen Hawking was an amazing person, and no one else can be him. Nor should we be expected to be.

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What I Feel This New York Times Article Gets Wrong About DisabilityThe murder of a Holocaust survivor in her Paris home shocked France's Jewish community, which is demanding justice and clarity from the authorities.

The victim was identified as 85-year-old Mireille Knoll. Her charred body was stabbed 11 times and found Friday in her apartment in Paris' 11th arrondissement, according to the anti-Semitism watchdog Protection Service for the Jewish Community (Service de protection de la communaute juive, SPCJ). SPCJ works closely with the French Ministry of the Interior and shared the news of the murder on social media on Sunday.

Two men in their twenties, both previously known to the authorities, were detained in connection with the murder in the past three days, French publication Le Parisien reported. Investigators have opened an investigation on Monday including anti-Semitism as a possible motive for the woman's murder, according to French media.

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03_26_Jean-Yves Le Drian

Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who was on a trip to Israel on Monday in which he visited the World Holocaust Remembrance Center Yad Vashem, confirmed to reporters that the murder was likely motivated by anti-Semitism.

"I had just completed my visit to Yad Vashem and I heard about the horror of the murder. We currently cannot say the reason for the murder was anti-Semitism, but it is plausible, and it will not be surprising," he said, quoted in Israeli newspaper Haaretz, adding that the crime highlight the continuous struggle to fight anti-Semitism.

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French-Israeli center-right lawmaker Mayer Habib shared more information about Knoll on his social media profiles on Sunday, after speaking to her Israeli relatives who were visiting the woman in the French capital for the Passover holiday. Habib said Knoll escaped the 1942 mass arrest of more than 13,000 Parisian Jews ordered by Nazi authorities, remembered as Velodrome d'Hiver (or "Vel d'Hiv") roundup, who were then deported to concentration camps.

"She died in 2018 in the face of hatred and barbarism of an Islamic extremist," he wrote, even though the authorities have yet to release the identity of the suspects.

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The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) called for a "white march" in Knoll's memory set for the evening of March 28 after appealing to the authorities to carry out the ongoing investigation with maximum transparency "so that the motives for this barbaric crime are known to everyone as soon as possible."

"The inhumanity of this murder sends us back to that of Sarah Halimi just one year ago," CRIF's statement added, referring to the murder of a 65-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman who, like Knoll, lived in Paris' 11th arrondissement and was killed last April. The murder suspect is her neighbor, who shouted "Allahu Akbar" before throwing her off a balcony, who is currently undergoing treatment at a psychiatric facility, as Le Monde newspaper reported in January.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekTehran (AFP) - Iran accused Britain of hypocrisy on Monday for saying it should stop supplying weapons to Yemeni rebels.

"Britain undoubtedly has direct responsibility for the war crimes committed over the past three years in Yemen by selling arms and providing logistical and intelligence support to the countries attacking Yemen," said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi on the ministry's website.

"This country is in no position to accuse other countries and it would be better for it to end as soon as possible its opportunistic and profiteering approach to this blind war," he added.

Saudi Arabia has been engaged for the past three years in an aerial bombing campaign against Yemen's Huthi rebels, who it says are being supplied by Iran.

Tehran has repeatedly denied the allegations, but Riyadh again accused Iran of supplying the seven missiles that were fired by the Huthis into Saudi territory on Sunday, killing one person.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt on Monday called on Iran to "stop sending in weapons which prolong the conflict, fuel regional tensions, and pose threats to international peace and security."

Britain and the US have supplied billions of dollars' worth of arms to Saudi Arabia in recent years.

London is close to signing another multi-billion-dollar deal to supply Typhoon fighter jets to Riyadh.

"If Britain is honest in its claim to want a political solution to the crisis in Yemen, it would be better to ask those large buyers of British weapons in the war coalition against Yemen to stop the conflict and end the siege of the oppressed people of that country," said Ghasemi.

On Friday, Amnesty International said all parties in the conflict were guilty of neglecting civilian safety.

But it said the Saudi-led coalition -- armed by the US and Britain -- may be guilty of war crimes.

"There is extensive evidence that irresponsible arms flows to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition have resulted in enormous harm to Yemeni civilians," said Lynn Maalouf, head of Middle East research at Amnesty.Jerusalem (AFP) - Investigators on Monday questioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over one of several graft cases that threaten to topple him, a police statement said.

Several Israeli media reports said the longtime premier was questioned at his official Jerusalem residence over a case of alleged corruption involving local telecoms giant Bezeq.

The reports said he could for the first time have faced questions over information provided by Nir Hefetz, a longtime Netanyahu aide who has turned state witness.

Netanyahu's wife Sara and son Yair were questioned separately at fraud squad headquarters near Tel Aviv, as was Shaul Elovitch, Bezeq's largest shareholder, media reported.

The police statement confirmed that the Netanyahus were interviewed by investigators from the national fraud squad and the Israel Securities Authority, without giving further details.

"The prime minister, his wife and son were questioned for a number of hours," it said.

"The investigation is being carried out with the supervision of the state attorney and with the approval of the attorney general."

This is the ninth time Netanyahu has been questioned in various cases directly or indirectly concerning him.

It was the first time Yair Netanyahu had been questioned, media reports said.

Netanyahu maintains he is innocent and has denounced allegations against him as a media and police witch hunt.

On February 13, police recommended he be indicted in two cases, though the attorney general has yet to decide whether to do so.

In the Bezeq case, Netanyahu is alleged to have sought favourable coverage from Elovitch's Walla news site in exchange for government policies that may have benefited the mogul's company by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Hefetz, a former spokesman for the Netanyahu family, agreed to turn state witness earlier this month, becoming the third former Netanyahu associate to cut such a deal in recent months.

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Israeli media said he was believed to have been the intermediary between Netanyahu and Elovitch in the case.

Against the backdrop of the allegations, Netanyahu's government narrowly survived a crisis last month as rival parties in his coalition fought over conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews into the army.

Critics accused Netanyahu of seeking to bring down the government to prompt fresh elections, with opinion polls showing his party likely to remain the largest in new elections.

So far his coalition partners have stood by him despite the allegations and Netanyahu is not obliged to step down even if officially charged.

However Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon recently said if that were to occur he thinks the premier would have to resign or face being forced out by his coalition.By Ori Lewis

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile shield was launched on Sunday against Palestinian machine gun fire originating in the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip, and not against incoming militant rockets, the Israeli army said.

Flaming streams of about 10 Iron Dome rockets could be seen rising into the night sky in a spectacular light show, but there was no indication that Islamist militants in Gaza had fired rockets, a military spokeswoman said.

A subsequent army statement said: "Following reports of sirens sounding in southern Israel, unusual machine gun fire towards Israel was identified. No rocket launches were identified. The (military) is looking into the circumstances which led to the activation of the Iron Dome system."

Abu Ubaida, spokesman of the Hamas armed wing, said no rockets were fired into Israel.

Earlier, Israeli media had reported that Iron Dome had intercepted a number of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. Sirens had sounded around the border area in Israel and smart phone applications that warn of incoming rockets delivered a number of alerts in quick succession.

During the Gaza war in 2014, Iron Dome interceptors largely protected Israel's heartland from thousands of incoming rockets fired by Gaza militants. Israeli media said Sunday's multiple launchings were the most intense since then.

Heightening tension around the border, Hamas began a military exercise on Sunday in which its fighters set off explosions and test-fired rockets into the sea. Gunfire echoed across Gaza as hundreds of fighters were deployed for the exercise, which is due to continue on Monday.

"The enemy (Israel) bears responsibility for any escalation and we will not stand handcuffed against any aggression," Abu Ubaida said in a statement.

The army's statement said that, in response to the machine gun fire into Israel, a tank targeted two observation posts in the northern Gaza Strip. It said it held Hamas responsible "for any terror emanating from the Gaza Strip".

Palestinian residents of Beit Hanoun said the tank fired two shells into their area at about the same time of the Iron Dome launches, but that there were no casualties.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Amir Cohen and Ran Tzabari in Ashkelon; Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Daniel Wallis)President Donald Trump should not be impeached even if Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation turns up wrongdoing by the president, according to former commander-in-chief Jimmy Carter.

Carter expressed faith Sunday in the United States government and its checks and balances, adding that he believed Trump would serve out his full four-year term unless Mueller brought criminal charges against him.

"You know, I have confidence in the American system of government," Carter told CBS' Sunday Morning. "I think ultimately the restraints on a president from the Congress and from the Supreme Court will be adequate to protect our nation, if he serves a full term.

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Carter continued: "And I think he will serve a full term unless the special investigator, Mr. Mueller, brings some criminal charges against him."

The 39th president added he could not predict whether Trump would serve his full term, stating he hoped the secretive Mueller would make it clear to the country if Trump was in legal peril.

"I don't have any idea," Carter said. "I think Mueller's been very successful in keeping his cards close to his vest and not revealing any plans. But my wish is that Mr. Mueller would go ahead and make a decision, even if it's not anything personally that President Trump has done to violate the law; then I think he ought to make that obvious. And if he has violated the law, that ought to be revealed as well.

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GettyImages-696385288

Canadian American Business Council via Getty Images/Rick Diamond

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Carter went on to explain that impeachment was not his preference and that he believed Trump wanted to do a good job while in office. He also offered to help the president should he ask.

"But my own preference would be that he not be impeached, but that he be able to serve out his term, because I think he wants to do a good job. And I'm willing to help him, if I can help him, and give him the benefit of the doubt, Carter said.

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Trump has dealt with cries for his impeachment throughout his 14 months in office. Some of the presidents critics have challenged his legitimacy by accusing his former campaign of colluding with Russia in order to win the White House in 2016.

Muellers probe, which began in May of last year under the wide scope granted by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, has reached deep into the presidents former campaign and flipped several officials. Most recently, former campaign official Rick Gates pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the special counsel.

According to multiple reports, Trump is also being investigated for possible obstruction of justice over his attempts to wade into the probe.

But what Mueller may have on the president, if anything, remains open to speculation.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekSeoul has agreed to a quota for steel exports to the US 30 percent below current sales and accepted extended tariffs on pick-up trucks to secure a revised trade deal with Washington and escape its steel duties, the government admitted Monday.

South Korea and the United States are security allies both threatened by the nuclear-armed North but since taking office US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to tear up their free-trade agreement, raising concerns about undermining the economic leg of their alliance.

The Trump administration instigated talks in July to renegotiate the free-trade treaty, known as KORUS, and the US last week imposed duties on steel imports from multiple countries including China, raising fears of a trade war.

South Korea and the United States have agreed "in principle" on the revisions of their free-trade agreement (FTA) and steel tariffs, Seoul's trade minister said Monday.

The South's economy is heavily dependent on trade, with the US as its second-biggest partner and Seoul's trade minister said Monday they had reached agreement on revising the KORUS deal after weeks of negotiations.

Under the pact, Seoul will further open its auto market to US manufacturers, while accepting a 20-year extension until 2041 to a 25 percent US tariff on Korean pick-up trucks.

On steel, South Korea accepted an annual export quota of 2.68 million tonnes to the US, 70 percent of its average shipments in the past three years.

That amount will be exempted from the US steel tariffs, trade minister Kim Hyon-chong told reporters, but any excess will be liable to penalties.

He described the negotiations as "fierce" but insisted: "As a negotiator, I can say it was a negotiating table where I had nothing to feel inferior about."

But Sogang University international trade professor Heo Yoon told AFP: "The US got what it wanted."

"The Trump administration needed to harvest an outcome from the negotiation to show its supporters," he added, warning that Washington could in future "slap tariffs on semiconductors" -- a crucial South Korean export.

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"I don't know what bargaining chips we have left to withstand trade pressures from the US."

- 'Horrible' deal -

Trump has long called the 2012 KORUS agreement a "horrible" deal and a job killer, arguing it was lopsided on the grounds that the US trade deficit had ballooned since it was signed.

The number of auto imports to South Korea from the US that will not have to meet Seoul's safety regulations was doubled to 50,000 vehicles, Kim said.

Apart from the steel tariffs exemption for the quota exports, he did not identify any other concessions on Washington's part.

He insisted that Seoul had been able to defend its "red line" on farm goods, obligatory use of US auto parts and avoid any backtracking on already exempted tariffs.

But he expected more turbulence in the relationship under the current US president.

"There are always risks in trade," Kim said.

"I think President Trump will be a two-term president and be at the White House for eight years and in my opinion, I think there will continue to be risks during this time."

The two sides will meet in the coming days to finalise the updated pact, Kim said.

All three major US automakers -- General Motors, Chrysler, Ford -- each shipped fewer than 10,000 vehicles to South Korea last year, Kim said, adding: "This is an important fact."

There were at present no South Korean pick-up truck exports to the US, he added, implying that no currently existing sales would be affected.

Trump said Friday the two sides were "very close" to a final agreement, adding: "We're going to have a wonderful deal with a wonderful ally."

Despite fears of a tit-for-tat trade war with China that have sent global markets tumbling, Trump said many countries are now coming to the table to negotiate "fair" trade deals with the United States.

South Korea was one of seven economies temporarily exempted from the steel duties that went into effect Friday and were mainly aimed at targeting Chinese production.

According to figures from the US commerce department, the country's total trade deficit with South Korea jumped from $7.7 billion in 2012 to $18.6 billion in 2015, before declining to $10.3 billion last year.Linda Brown, the young girl at the center of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case, died on Monday at the age of 76.

Browns sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson, confirmed the death to the Topeka-Capital Journal. Peaceful Rest Funeral Chapel of Topeka independently confirmed Browns death with HuffPost.

Sixty-four years ago a young girl from Topeka brought a case that ended segregation in public schools in America, Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer tweeted Monday. Linda Browns life reminds us that sometimes the most unlikely people can have an incredible impact and that by serving our community we can truly change the world.

The children involved in the landmark civil rights suit Brown v. Board of Education: Vicki Henderson, Donald Henderson, Linda Brown, James Emanuel, Nancy Todd and Katherine Carper. (Photo: Carl Iwasaki via Getty Images)

It was Browns father, Rev. Oliver Brown, who sued the Topeka school board to allow his daughter the right to attend an all-white school in the Kansas capital city. Four other school segregation cases were combined with Browns to be heard by the Supreme Court, but the justices unanimous ruling was named for Brown.

Brown, who was also known as Linda Carol Thompson after her marriage in the mid 1990s, was forced to attend an all-black school far away from her home even though an all-white school was only blocks away.

Linda Brown (left) with her parents, Leola and Oliver, and little sister Terry Lynn in front of their house in Topeka, Kansas, in 1954. (Photo: Carl Iwasaki via Getty Images)

Brown told MSNBC in 2014 that she remembered the embarrassment of being separated from her neighborhood friends and the long walk to the bus stop.

I remember a couple of times turning around and going back home because I  you know, it was a small town, she said. I got really, really cold and would get home and be crying. And mother would, you know, she would try to warm me up and tell me it would be all right and everything.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Brown. In its decision, the court overturned the 1896 separate but equal ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, marking the case as one of the biggest legal victories of the civil rights era. It was due to Brown v. Board of Education that the federal government could force states to integrate schools, allowing children of color the opportunity for an equal education to white children.

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Brown credited her father and the other families who took their cases to court for removing the stigma of not having a choice during a 1985 interview for the PBS documentary series Eyes on the Prize.

I feel that after 30 years, looking back on Brown v. The Board of Education, it has made an impact in all facets of life for minorities throughout the land, Brown said during the interview. I really think of it in terms of what it has done for our young people, in taking away that feeling of second class citizenship. I think it has made the dreams, hopes and aspirations of our young people greater, today.

Even with the decision, it took years of protest and legal battles before segregation would end. Only three years after the Brown case, nine black students had to be escorted by federal guards in order to safely attend the previously all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Sherrilyn Ifill , president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, called Brown heroic for her role in helping to end ultimate symbol of white supremacy.

The life of every American has been touched by Linda Brown, Ifill said in a statement released to HuffPost. This country is indebted to her, the Brown family, and the many other families involved in the cases that successfully challenged school segregation.

Linda Brown (center left) in 1984. (Photo: New York Post Archives via Getty Images)

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Governments in several countries, emboldened by US President Donald Trump's fulminations against "fake news", are considering such legislation. But rights groups warn that authoritarian regimes are likely to use such laws to silence opposing voices.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has already been targeting critics in politics and the media who have attacked him over allegations that huge sums were looted from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

The proposed law, introduced in parliament Monday, fuelled fears the government is seeking to intensify a clampdown before a general election, which must be called by August but is widely expected sooner.

Opposition MP Charles Santiago said the bill was "a powerful weapon for the government to silence dissent in the country".

"It is timed for the elections and to silence discussions on 1MDB," he told AFP.

The bill, which described fake news as a "global concern", includes a maximum 10 years in jail or fine of up to 500,000 ringgit ($130,000) for anyone guilty of creating or disseminating what authorities deem to be fake news.

It said anyone -- including foreigners -- who breaks the law outside the country by publishing fake news can face punishment in Malaysia, as long as what is published concerns Malaysia or a Malaysian citizen.

Fahmi Fadzil, spokesman for the opposition People's Justice Party, said it suggested the government was seeking to target foreign media, which have led the coverage of 1MDB.

Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director for Human Rights Watch, accused the Malaysian government of employing "Trump-style scare tactics to grant itself powers to arbitrarily determine what people can say about Malaysia in the world".

Story continues

Amnesty International said the bill was "nothing but a blatant attempt to shield the government from peaceful criticism".

It was no coincidence that it had been tabled with general elections just around the corner, said Amnesty's regional director James Gomez in a statement.

- Taking aim at fake news -

Malaysia's traditional pro-government media have reported on the 1MDB controversy only occasionally and in a muted and largely uncritical fashion.

Despite the concerns, cabinet minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar insisted the law "will not be abused", adding: "It is not aimed at silencing critics."

The bill must be approved by a majority in the 222-seat lower house and also in the upper house, and this is likely as both chambers are controlled by the ruling coalition. It needs to go through several readings in parliament before it passes.

Malaysia is ranked 144th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index.

The government has the power to revoke newspapers' printing permits and regularly attacks critical media, particularly online news sites that have gained a following by reporting on official malfeasance and corruption.

Other countries in Southeast Asia have also been taking aim at what they claim is fake news.

Philippine lawmakers are mulling an anti-fake news bill introduced last year by a supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has done battle with media outlets critical of his deadly drug war.

The proposed legislation reserves its harshest penalties, up to $382,500 and imprisonment of up to 20 years, for mass media organisations that refuse to take down fake news items.

In tightly-controlled Singapore, a parliamentary committee has been holding hearings this month as it examines potential measures to combat false online information, including legislation.Bandiagara (Mali) (AFP) - Mali's prime minister promised the creation of specialist anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday on a visit to the country's restive centre, along with a disarmament campaign for militias operating in the area.

Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga is on a tour of Mali's most dangerous regions after being appointed in December to bolster security ahead of a presidential election in July.

"We will soon set up a special judicial section to investigate and judge terrorist crimes," Maiga said in Bandiagara, a former tourist destination abandoned by foreign visitors after the rise of a jihadist insurgency.

Mali's unrest stems from a 2012 Tuareg separatist uprising against the state, which was exploited by jihadists in order to take over key cities in the north.

Although French forces removed the Al-Qaeda-linked groups from places such as Timbuktu, the groups have morphed into more nimble formations operating in rural areas, sometimes winning over local populations by providing basic services and protection from bandits.

That insurgency has also spread to the country's centre, where local grievances are exploited by the Islamists in a region awash with guns trafficked from Libya.

On Sunday, Maiga tackled another deadly issue facing Mali: clashes between farmers and herders driven south to feed their animals in recent years.

Simmering clashes between the Fulani herders and the agrarian Dogon community have claimed at least 25 lives since the beginning of the month.

At a reconciliation meeting in the town of Koro, the prime minister promised to disarm, "willingly or not", militias which have carried out ethnic attacks.

The tour is also aimed at boosting confidence in the government, which few believe can keep such areas secure enough to hold a democratic vote.

"One of the essential challenges that we must overcome together this year is without a doubt the organisation of free, credible, transparent and peaceful elections," Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said on Sunday.

"It is up to us to create the best conditions for the organisation of these elections across the country with the participation of all Malians," he added, insisting they would be held within the planned timeframe.Hundreds of thousands of people, many of them students, have joined anti-gun protests across America and around the world in one of the largest expressions of popular opposition in years.

The focal point was the March for Our Lives rally in Washington DC, but tens of thousands also turned out in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Minneapolis in demonstrations sparked by the survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Valentines Day. Beyond America  where there were about 800 events  there were protests in London, Belfast, Geneva and a number of other cities across the globe.

The marches felt like the culmination of more than a month of political pressure led by the survivors of the massacre in which 17 people were killed  including 14 students  and more than a dozen others injured. There have been some successes in that time, with some gun control measures having been signed into law in Florida, but the main message was that this was the start of something, not the end.

Cameron Kasky, one of the students who lost classmates in the Parkland shooting, told the crowd in Washington: Welcome to the revolution.

[This] is the springboard that my generation and all who stand with us will use to jump to a safer future, he said of the call for change. He said that what the students want is action on gun violence, including a federal law banning the sale of assault weapons, a law prohibiting the sale of high-capacity magazines for ammunition and universal background checks for gun sales. Dont worry, we got this, he added.

In the weeks since the shooting, the Parkland students have re-energised the call for gun law reform and have rejected the mantra of the powerful gun rights lobby spearheaded by the National Rifle Association (NRA)  and a number of the politicians it supports with funds  that control is not needed.

Bringing signs reading We Are the Change, No More Silence and Keep NRA Money Out Of Politics, protesters packed Pennsylvania Avenue between the Capitol and the White House and cheered every speaker, including Parkland student Emma Gonzalez, the leader of the student organisers, who spent six minutes in silence to illustrate the time it took for the 17 to be killed. Tears streamed down her face as she did so.

Story continues

The marches across the country attracted a diverse range of protesters, young and old, as well as a cross-section of society no matter race or gender identity. Lisa Valley, 59, had come from Grove City Pennsylvania to attend the Washington DC march and praised the student leaders that had organised the rally.

The students have inspired me about something Ive felt strongly about for a long time Sensible gun control is a good thing. Its not even something we should think twice about, she said.

Sydney Nadler, 21, came from Ohio. She told The Independent she was one of the 50 students and staff her school, Ohio Wesleyan University, sponsored to attend the event in Washington.

I find it disturbing how our elected officials are more concerned about receiving finances to be re-elected than those who are electing them.

On stage, there was also a push to show that it is not just school shootings that is the issue, but gun violence as a whole.

Naomi Wadler, 11, led a walk-out at her elementary school in Virginia on 14 March as part of another nationwide action. She told the rally in Washington that she was there to speak up for the African-American girls whose stories dont make the front page of every national newspaper, whose stories dont lead on the evening news. She ended her speech by quoting Toni Morrison: If theres a book that you want to read and it hasnt been written yet, you must be the one to write it.

Yolanda Renee King, nine, the granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr, made a surprise appearance and told the crowd: I have a dream that enough is enough. Seventeen-year-old Edna Chavez from Los Angeles, who lost her brother to gun violence, also gave a powerful speech.

There were celebrities on stage, with Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande in Washington and Amy Schumer in Los Angeles. But others also joined the marches, including Kim Kardashian-West and Kanye West in Washington and Paul McCartney in New York. McCartney told CNN he had a personal stake in gun control as one of my best friends was shot not far from here, referring to Beatles bandmate John Lennon, who was gunned down in 1980.

Jamie Motley, 18 another marcher in New York is a budding activist, his aunt Cindy Finch said. He has autism, which makes it hard for him to complete some tasks, like tying his shoes. But, Ms Finch said because he is 18 and has no criminal record, he can go into a store, act relatively normal and legally buy an AR-15 in many states. The sale of the weapon, which was used in the Parkland shooting, is why they were there.

Sanjana Jaiswal, 13, who attends Edgemont High School in Scarsdale, New York, said she was marching because being in a huge group of people who care so much about these incredibly important topics and issues is a wonderful thing for any person.

Justine Ravis, a special education teacher at Castle Hill Middle School in the Bronx, told The Independent, that she wanted to to show the kids were proud of them.

Back in Washington, the last time an event attracted so much fanfare was in January 2017, when around 500,000 people gathered in the nations capital for the Womens March. That march, which took place the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated, was largely viewed as a protest against the new President. Organisers expected a similar number on Saturday, while in New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted that the March of Our Lives rally in the city today drew 175,000 people.

March for Our Lives took place as Mr Trump spent time at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, almost 1,600 km (1,000 miles) away from Washington. While the White House put out a statement applauding the many courageous young Americans protesting across the country, Mr Trump himself was silent on Twitter about the rally as it was going on. His predecessor, Barack Obama, tweeted a message of support.

In the wake of the Parkland shooting, Mr Trump had floated several possible ideas to tackle gun violence  including arming teachers. But the President, who has received notable support from the NRA, later appeared to bow to the gun lobby by backing away from loftier gun control bills and his calls for raising the age to buy semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21.

The students said they are aware change may have to come at the ballot box  on Saturday Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida commended the Parkland students and their supporters, but added that many other Americans do not support a gun ban and called any such move an infringement on the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens. During the afternoon there were a number of pro-gun rallies in places such as Salt Lake City in Utah, which were attended by thousands of people, but their numbers were small compared to the gun control demonstrations.

Another Parkland survivor, David Hogg, said such attitudes towards gun control may not last long. Were going to make sure the best people get in our elections to run not as politicians, but as Americans. Because this  this  is not cutting it, he said, pointing at the white-domed Capitol. We can and we will change the world!

Wrapping up the Washington rally, Ms Gonzalez made their point clear: Fight for your lives before it is someone elses job.The Miami Marlins may have shed a ton of payroll during the winter, but they arent desperate for money. The team reportedly rejected a $200,000 check from Marlins Man, who was trying to renew his season tickets behind home plate, according to Andy Slater of Slaterscoops.com.

Marlins Man, whose real name is Laurence Leavy, told Slater he sent the team a check for $200,000 for season tickets. He even sent Slater a picture of the letter and the check he sent to the Marlins.

[Batter up: Join a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for free today]

While the team rejected the deal, theres a catch. Leavy wanted to put a downpayment on multiple seasons. That $200,000 was meant to cover four season tickets behind the backstop for 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Slater notes that the team sent Leavy two counter offers, and that the Marlins were willing to negotiate. Leavy turned down those deals.

The exchange continued the rising feud between Leavy and the Marlins new ownership group. In December, Leavy appeared at a season ticket holder meeting and spoke with Derek Jeter. It was  interesting.

Theres a lot we dont know about the situation, so it seems foolish to take sides. We dont know what offer the Marlins countered with, and we dont know if this type of deal is something the team does regularly. We also have no idea if its normal for a super fan to send in a letter like this, making specific requests for seats and length of contract.

What we do know, however, is that this feud has already produced some excellent quotes.

I wish the Marlins much success, Leavy says. I look forward to becoming a Diamond Club member again when they have a winning product, if that happens in my lifetime.

And 

Im disappointed they didnt take almost a quarter-million dollars for empty seats, Leavy says.

Whether you love or hate Leavy, he has become a face people associate with the Marlins. His absence, combined with the losses of Giancarlo Stanton, Dee Gordon, Marcell Ozuna and Christian Yelich, seems to indicate this is a new era for the team  not just on the field, but off it as well.

Story continues

Given Leavys dedication to showing up in front row seats at sporting events, we imagine hell find a way to appear in the stands in 2018.

Marlins Man might not be at Marlins games in 2018. (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire)

      

Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik

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 Heres a ranking of every MLB opening day starterImportant question: would you go on television just to announce you haven't received an invitation to the royal wedding?

That's exactly what Meghan Markle's nephew did. In a painstakingly awkward interview with Good Morning Britain, Meghan's nephew, Tyler Dooley, and his mom, Tracy, confirmed they were not one of about 600 people to be invited to the service on May 19.

Meghan Markle's nephew and his mum have not received an invitation to the Royal Wedding but say they're proudly supporting her. pic.twitter.com/LrMb8WCszh  Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 26, 2018

With a not-at-all-bitter tone, Tyler said "who knows" whether they'll receive invitations. (Sure, maybe they're just stuck in the mail.) He did make sure to emphasize his love and support for Meghan, just in case, ya know, she's watching Good Morning Britain with two extra invitations in hand.

"So you havent ruled it out?" The host Susanna Reid ask, determined to drag out this torture. Tracy, who was married to Meghans half-brother Thomas until 2001, is a bit more realistic saying I dont think were going to get the invitation and thats just, thats fine

SEE ALSO: The super sweet detail in Harry and Meghan's wedding invitations that you might have missed

Later on the broadcast it's revealed that Tyler hasnt spoken to Meghan in three years, and Tracy hasnt seen her in twenty. This reasonably leaves host Richard Madeley incredulous. Well then it doesnt seem unreasonable for you not to be invited, does it? He asks. I mean, if its 20 years, youre pretty much on the fringes, arent you, of the family, to be honest?

We agree Richard, you should only go on television to subliminally beg for a wedding invite to St. Georges Chapel if youve talked to your ex-husbands half-daughter within 5 or less years. It's simple etiquette! Tyler obviously doesn't watch The Crown.(Photo: HuffPost)

(Photo: CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images)

TOP STORIES

(And want to get The Morning Email each weekday? Sign up here.)

Hello! Eliot Nelson here, covering for Lauren Weber, who is on a reporting trip this week and misses you all terribly.

STORMY DANIELS: TRUMP KNOWS IM TELLING THE TRUTH Stephanie Clifford, the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels, opened up about her alleged affair with President Donald Trump during an interview broadcast on 60 Minutes. Daniels is suing to have a non-disclosure agreement she signed nullified. [HuffPost] [Tweet | Share on Facebook]

GUNMAKER REMINGTON FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY The announcement comes as Americans protested across the country this weekend for stricter gun control. [Reuters]

DOZENS KILLED IN MALL FIRE IN RUSSIA At least 64 people are dead after the blaze erupted in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. [Reuters]

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA ALLEGEDLY SENT FOREIGN NATIONALS TO WORK ON U.S. CAMPAIGNS The data firm mostly employed foreigners to work on electing Republicans, the Washington Post reported Sunday, in violation of a U.S. law stipulating that foreign nationals cannot directly or indirectly participate in the decision-making process. [WaPo]

GOP REP WONT SEEK RE-ELECTION, BOOSTING DEMOCRATS Rep. Ryan Costello (R-Pa.) made the announcement following the redrawing of the Keystone States congressional districts and Conor Lambs recent upset special election victory to fill another House seat in the state. [Reuters]

WHATS BREWING

THE WORLD MARCHED FOR OUR LIVES, TOO There was strong international support Saturday for the gun control rallies in the U.S. [HuffPost]

ARE NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS ANTI-DEMOCRATIC? Stormy Daniels lawsuit against Trump over her non-disclosure agreement raises serious questions about whether the agreements violate basic First Amendment protections. [HuffPost]

DOCTORS SLAM RICK SANTORUMS GUN COMMENTS The former Republican senator from Pennsylvania said students should learn CPR to help mitigate the effects of school shootings. [HuffPost]

Story continues

WHEN WILL KACEY MUSGRAVES BE LOVED? Despite critical and commercial success, country radio wont play the musicians work. [HuffPost]

BEFORE YOU GO

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Paris (AFP) - French investigators on Monday quizzed the radicalised girlfriend of the Islamist gunman who shot dead four people last week in southern France, including a heroic policeman killed after taking the place of a hostage.

Policeman Arnaud Beltrame was the fourth person killed during Radouane Lakdim's rampage in the towns of Carcassonne and Trebes that also left three people injured.

Beltrame's mother Nicole said she was not surprised that her 44-year-old son offered to be swapped for a woman held hostage by Lakdim at a supermarket in the sleepy town of Trebes.

"I know Arnaud: loyal, altruistic, and since he was small, working for other people, committed to the country," she said, adding the practising Catholic would have wanted his act to make people "a bit more tolerant".

Lakdim, a 25-year-old Moroccan-born French national who was on a watchlist of suspected extremists, also killed a butcher and an elderly shopper when he stormed the Super U supermarket after firing at police and shooting dead a man when hijacking a car in Carcassonne.

During the siege he said he was acting on behalf of the Islamic State group and demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam, the prime suspect in the November 2015 Paris terror attacks.

On Monday, police continued to question his 18-year-old girlfriend, who converted to Islam at 16 and had also been on the watchlist of potential radicals.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters that she shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) while in custody but denied any prior knowledge of Lakdim's attack plans.

A 17-year-old man described as a friend of Lakdim's who was under his sway, is also in custody over the attack. He too denies any involvement, Molins said.

Under France's anti-terrorism laws, the two suspects can be held for up to 96 hours without charge.

- Papal tribute -

Over 200 officers are probing the latest in a string of jihadist attacks that have claimed the lives of over 240 people around France since January 2015.

Story continues

President Emmanuel Macron will lead a national commemoration to Beltrame at Invalides military museum in Paris on Wednesday, his office said.

Pope Francis, in a message to the Catholic Church in Carcassonne, saluted "the generous and heroic gesture of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, who gave his life in trying to protect others."

Richard Lizurey, the head of France's gendarmes police service, said Beltrame took the initiative to swap places with a woman being used by Lakdim as a human shield at the Super U supermarket in Trebes.

Beltrame's widow Marielle told the Christian weekly La Vie that his actions were "the act of a gendarme and of a Christian."

- Suspects under surveillance -

Lakdim came to France with his family in 1992 as an infant and gained citizenship 12 years later.

He dabbled in drugs and petty crime and in 2016 spent a month in prison but prison authorities "detected no visible sign of radicalisation", Molins said.

But investigators have found notes at his home in Carcassonne referring to the Islamic State group, a legal source said, including a handwritten letter in which he claimed allegiance to the jihadists.

Armed with a gun, knife and homemade explosive devices, he remained holed up for over two hours at the Super U supermarket with Beltrame, who took the place of a female hostage.

Beltrame was fatally stabbed in the throat by Lakdim shortly before police stormed the store, ending the siege.

- 'Photos of heroes, not killers' -

Hundreds of mourners packed a church service Sunday for the victims of France's latest Islamist attack.

Asked if she felt hatred towards Lakdim, Beltrame's mother replied: "Not at all. I feel indifference and the greatest sense of contempt."

She also suggested not even talking about him, "not showing his photo. We should show the photos of heroes, not killers and monsters."Niamey (AFP) - Police in Niger have arrested 23 people after a demonstration against new taxes in one of the world's poorest nations turned violent, the interior minister said Monday.

The arrests came after a protest on Sunday, Bazoum Mohamed told AFP, adding that the organisers had defied a ban and then clashed with the police.

"They incited (the public) and disrupted public order and were arrested for rebellion for describing the ban as illegal," he said.

A radio and television network owned by Ali Idrissa, one of four leading civil society members arrested, was also closed on Sunday.

"They aired live images of tyres burning on the streets ... asked people to take to the streets and carried a subversive message of revolt," the minister said. "They will remain closed until further notice."

Protests have been regularly held in Niger against the new taxes and concessions to telephone companies to the tune of 30 million euros ($37 million), according to the opposition.

More than 80 percent of Niger is covered by the Sahara desert. Its economy has been affected by falls in both oil prices, which it officially began exporting in 2011, and uranium, of which it is a major exporter.

The government says it is cash strapped as it has to spend resources to combat attacks by Boko Haram, whose Islamist insurgency has spilled over from Nigeria, as well as from jihadists, including the Daesh group, near the border with Mali.

Finance Minister Hassoumi Massadou said in February that the 2018 budget hardly affected people in the countryside, where more than 80 percent of Niger's 20 million people live.By Felix Onuah ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's government is in talks with Islamist militant group Boko Haram about a possible ceasefire with the ultimate aim of securing a permanent cessation of hostilities, the country's information minister said on Sunday. It is the first time in years the government has said it is talking to Boko Haram about a ceasefire in an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people since 2009. President Muhammadu Buhari's administration has repeatedly said it is willing to hold talks with the group. "Unknown to many, we have been in wider cessation-of-hostility talks with the insurgents for some time now," said Information Minister Lai Mohammed in an emailed statement outlining the background to the release of more than 100 schoolgirls freed last week by the group. They had been kidnapped on Feb. 19 from the northeastern town of Dapchi. The kidnap of about 110 schoolgirls was the biggest mass abduction since around 270 girls were taken from the northeastern town of Chibok, in 2014. Boko Haram fighters stunned Dapchi's residents on Wednesday when they drove into the town and released the girls, who said five of their group had died in captivity and one had not been freed. Mohammed said a week-long ceasefire, starting on March 19, had been agreed to enable the group to drop off the girls. Mohammed said 111 girls were taken from the school - one more than previously thought - and six remained unaccounted for. The freed girls were returned home to Dapchi on Sunday after meeting Buhari in the capital, Abuja, last week, according the parents of at least two girls. FACTIONS "We were able to leverage on the wider talks when the Dapchi girls were abducted," said Mohammed. "The ultimate aim is the permanent cessation of hostilities," he later told Reuters by telephone. A presidential spokesman declined to comment. A spokeswoman who purportedly represents the insurgents could not immediately be reached. Boko Haram aims to create an Islamic state. Its campaign has spread to neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger but the group has been severely weakened in recent years by regional military pressure and it has lost most of the territory it once held. Antony Goldman, of Nigeria-focused PM Consulting, said it would be difficult to negotiate with the group due to its divisions. Boko Haram split when Islamic State named Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the group's leader in August 2016. The other main division is led by Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram's most recognizable figure. He is known for videos taunting Nigerian authorities and his faction uses girls as suicide bombers. "There are many factions, some of which have committed terrible atrocities and have a world vision incompatible with the rule of law and constitutional democracy - but other elements may be ready to settle," said Goldman. Security is a politically sensitive issue ahead of an election next February because Buhari was elected in 2015 in part because of his promise to improve security. For years he has said Boko Haram is defeated. Nigeria has also seen several recent outbreaks of communal violence and it is trying to maintain a fragile peace in the Niger Delta where militant attacks on oil facilities helped push Africa's biggest economy into a recession in 2016. Buhari has in the last few weeks toured areas hit by security problems but has not said if he will seek re-election. (Additional reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Ahmed Kingimi in Maiduguri; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Kevin Liffey)Emma Gonzalez's arresting speech at the March for Our Lives is one we won't forget for years to come.

But, as Gonzalez and millions of people marched to demand legislation to prevent gun violence, fake images of the activist ripping the U.S. Constitution were being circulated by self-professed NRA supporters.

SEE ALSO: Emma Gonzalez's March For Our Lives speech will go down in history

The image was debunked by Don Moynihanprofessor of government at University of Wisconsinwho tweeted the doctored image alongside the original image, which showed Gonzalez tearing up a gun-range target. The original image is a screenshot of a video produced by Teen Vogue to accompany an op-ed penned by the 18-year-old, entitled "Why This Generation Needs Gun Control.

According to Moynihan, the doctored image was one of the first images to appear after searching for the #EmmaGonzalez hashtag on Twitter.

Justy a sample of what NRA supporters are doing to teenagers who survived a massacre (real picture on the right). pic.twitter.com/czX7IHD8ur  Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) March 25, 2018

The fake image was tweeted out by an account named "Linda NRA Supporter" and gained over 65K retweets. Moynihan wrote in a Twitter thread that the self-professed NRA supporter could well have been a "Russian troll seeking to sow division."

Moynihan later added that the eight digits in the account's Twitter handle suggested that "Linda NRA Supporter" was likely a bot. Twitter subsequently suspended the account.

Account now suspended. Most likely a bot (the eight digits in the name is a tell apparently - thx @RiffChick). Original post one of the first to come up when under #EmmaGonzalez. Again, things would be a lot easier if @twitter blocked bots in the first place. pic.twitter.com/MFKZpyJZBa  Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) March 25, 2018

"Linda" wasn't the only account responsible for distributing the fake image of Gonzalez.

Story continues

According to The Washington Post, Gaba "popular refuge for the alt-right"also posted a GIF showing the activist ripping up the Constitution, gaining 1.5K retweets and nearly 3K likes. This GIF is still live on Twitter.

Not gonna happen. pic.twitter.com/4kKBcSqdCl  Gab: Free Speech Social Network (@getongab) March 24, 2018

Hours later, Gab posted a follow-up tweet to state that the GIF was "obviously a parody/satire."

This is obviously a parody/satire. Youre all mad because its believable, isnt it? Thats the best type of satire. Its a comedic reflection of reality.  Gab: Free Speech Social Network (@getongab) March 25, 2018

But, by the time Gab posted its second tweet informing its 100K followers that the GIF was a "comedic reflection of reality," scores of users had already taken the GIF at face value and believed it to be true.

To depict the destruction of the Constitution is the most in-American act that one can display, it surpassed the burning of the flag and dishonors every person who has served to protect this country. You are truly deplorable and without respect for what makes this country great.  LR (@Gunslinger2929) March 24, 2018

"Nothing says 'I am NOT a fascist' like tearing up the greatest symbol of freedom that the world has ever known," replied one Twitter user.North Korea blasted the U.S. over a recent report showing it to be by far the world's largest arms exporter, potentially fueling new tensions as supreme leader Kim Jong Un prepares to meet President Donald Trump.

A commentary published Monday by official ruling Korean Workers' Party Central Committee newspaper Rodong Sinmun highlighted the findings of a Stockholm International Peace Research Institute study earlier this month. Already leading the world in weapons sales, the U.S. reportedly increased its exports by 25 percent between the 2008-2012 and 2013-2017 periods, accounting for 34 percent of the world's sales.

Related: U.S. War With North Korea and Iran More Likely With John Bolton Running National Security

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"More than 70 years have passed since the end of the world war and scores of years elapsed since the end of the Cold War. But, the danger of war is increasing and another cold war is imminent rather than peace on this planet," the commentary read, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

"It is due to the U.S., the top class war merchant that spawns war and massacre in different parts of the world through large-scale arms sale, going against the desire of mankind for peace and stability," the commentary continued. "The warmonger is not in a position to talk about peace."

GettyImages-929484894

JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images

For once, peace was exactly what was being discussed on the restive Korean Peninsula, where the Cold War was still very much alive. North Korea and U.S.-backed South Korea have never formally ended a war that killed well over 1 million Koreans and tens of thousands of Chinese and U.S. troops in the early 1950s. After a year of breakthroughs for his nuclear and missile programs, Kim surprised the world this year with diplomatic moves that included sending his own sister across the border, meeting with high-level South Korean officials and, most recently, reportedly agreeing to meet Trump face-to-face.

Story continues

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Trump said he would meet the North Korean ruler by May, making him the first sitting U.S. president to ever do so. While Pyongyang and its tightly controlled media outlets have so far kept silent over the upcoming summit, a KCNA article alluded to a "sign of change" in relations with Washington. Officially, notwithstanding, North Korea continued to defend its nuclear weapons as necessary for defending against a potential U.S. attack and has pointed to U.S. involvement in the Middle East as an example.

The recent SIPRI report found that more than half of U.S. arms sales were in the Middle East, where Washington has had a hand in a number of major conflicts.

By law and longstanding policy, the United States exports defense equipment when they contribute to the ability of our partners to defend themselves against threats and regional security. Partners buy these arms to meet legitimate defense needs, and because American companies make the best equipment on the planet," a State Department spokesperson told Newsweek in an email statement responding to the SIPRI report.

Over the years, North Korea has closely followed the examples of Iraq and Libya, whose leaderships abandoned nuclear weapons only to be later attacked by the U.S. and its allies.

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Echoing a suggestion he previously made in 2004, prospective National Security Adviser John Bolton suggested last week in an interview with Radio Free Asia that in dealing with North Korea, the U.S. should follow the same model by which late Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi agreed to give up nuclear weapons in exchange for better relations with the West. Like Iraqi President Saddam Hussein eight years prior, Qaddafi was detained and killed after being forced out of power in 2011. That same year, Kim succeeded his late father.

All three generations of North Korea's Kim dynasty have been deeply critical of U.S. foreign policy, and in his seven years in power the youngest Kim has witnessed the fall of a number of authoritarian governments, even as the heads of neighboring Russia and China consolidated control over their own countries.

GettyImages-51088326

Chung Sung-jun/Getty Images

Bolton's support for U.S. wars in the Middle East and preemptive airstrikes against North Korea and Iran have raised concerns over Trump's intentions in choosing him ahead of two important nuclear-related events in May: the meeting with Kim and a deadline for renegotiating the Iran deal.

Widely seen as more hawkish than outgoing security chief H.R. McMaster, Bolton was the second hard-liner to be appointed in a recent White House shuffle. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly found out via Trump's Twitter that he was out of a job earlier this month and was to be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who has also advocated for a more aggressive stance on North Korea and Iran.

Tillerson's ouster came after mounting criticism from both major political parties and seemingly conflicting positions coming out of the White House and the State Department. When asked whether Pyongyang's recent statements could have an effect on the upcoming meeting between Trump and Kim, a State Department spokesperson declined to speculate in an email statement sent to Newsweek.

"I dont have anything for you on this," the spokesperson said.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekThe former US president said his nonprofit foundation could create up and coming leaders to take on the baton of human progress

Video image of former president Barack Obama at a conference in Tokyo, on Sunday. The single most important thing I could do is to help develop the next generation, he said. Photograph: AP

Barack Obama has said he would like to create a million young Barack Obamas to take on the baton of human progress, during a discussion in Japan about his post-presidential life.

The single most important thing I could do is to help develop the next generation, he said.

The former US president said his nonprofit the Obama Foundation could create a platform for young, up-and-coming leaders to exchange information with each other about projects they were working on.

If I could do that effectively, then  you know  I would create a hundred or a thousand or a million young Barack Obamas or Michelle Obamas, Obama told a conference in Tokyo. Or, the next group of people who could take that baton in that relay race that is human progress.

Obama also talked about the potential for young people to bring about change, hailing Saturdays March for our Lives gun-control demonstrations.

This was all because of the courage and effort of a handful of 15- and 16-year-olds, who took the responsibility that so often adults had failed to take in trying to find a solution to this problem, and I think thats a testimony to what happens when young people are given opportunities, and I think all institutions have to think about how do we tap into that creativity and that energy and that drive.

Because its there. Its just so often we say: Wait your turn.

Obama had also tweeted his support on Saturday, writing: Michelle and I are so inspired by all the young people who made todays marches happen. Keep at it. Youre leading us forward. Nothing can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change. Donald Trump has yet to comment personally on the marches, although the White House praised the demonstrators for exercising their right to free speech.

Obama also discussed the problem of social media walling off readers according to their political views.



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One of the things were going to be spending time on, through the foundation, is finding ways in which we can study this phenomenon of social media and the internet to see are there ways in which we can bring people from different perspectives to start having a more civil debate and listen to each other more carefully, he said.

The former president also told the conference that denuclearisation negotiations with North Korea were difficult because the countrys isolation meant other countries had little leverage over it.

North Korea is an example of a country that is so far out of the international norms and so disconnected with the rest of the world, he said.

Obama has been cautious about criticising his successor, although he has made an exception for issues such as the travel ban on Muslim-majority countries and Trumps heavily criticised remarks equating neo-Nazis with the protesters opposing them in Charlottesville, Virginia.

He was speaking at an event sponsored by a Japanese nonprofit group in Tokyo on Sunday.Critics of President Trump worry that he doesnt listen to anybody any more. Moderate advisers such as Gary Cohn, H.R. McMaster and Rex Tillerson are gone, replaced by nationalist hard-liners more likely to tell Trump what he wants to hear than what might be good policy.

But Trump still has one master: the stock market, which he regards as a barometer measuring how hes doing as president. He views the stock market as the ultimate arbiter of his policies, Greg Valliere of Horizon Investments tells Yahoo Finance. He believes that his tax cuts and regulatory reform are a big reason for last years explosive rally.

Trump has tweeted about the stock market at least 47 times since being elected, often taking credit for handsome gains. But he hasnt tweeted on the stock market since Feb. 7, when he complained that stocks should be going up, not down. His silence of late makes sense: stocks have been volatile and are slightly negative for the yearin part because of Trump himself.

Stocks sold off on the two occasions so far this year when Trump announced new tariffsthe steel and aluminum tariffs he announced March 8, and a broader set of tariffs against Chinese imports announced March 22. And guess what: In the aftermath of those selloffs, Trump modified his policies, perhaps in response to the poor marks the stock market gave to the protectionism he promised as a candidate.

Trump has significantly dialed back the steel and aluminum tariffs, issuing exemptions for many countries that leave just one-third of imported steel and 45% of imported aluminum subject to the new tariffs. They now only apply to imports from Russia, China and a handful of other Asian countries.

Spooked investors

The S&P 500 stock index fell 5% in the two days following the announcement of new tariffs on $50 to $60 billion worth of imports from China. Then came news that American and Chinese negotiators were engaged in fresh talks to tamp down trade tensions and avoid a trade war. Voila! Stocks rebounded, recovering some of the losses caused when Trump first announced the China tariffs.

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Markets still seem cautious about Trumps protectionist leanings. Of all Trumps economic policies, tariffs, protectionism and the risk of trade wars spook investors and economists the most. Trump famously said earlier this month that trade wars are good, and easy to win. The markets are schooling him otherwise.

China has already announced one set of retaliatory tariffs on American imports, as a proportionate response to the impact Trumps steel and aluminum tariffs are likely to have on Chinese imports to the United States. China has not yet responded to the China-only tariffs Trump announced on March 22. But most trade experts expect that to happen within a few weeks, probably after the Trump administration specifies which Chinese imports will bear the new tariffs. Assuming the China retaliation is proportionate, market reaction could be severe, since the new China tariffs cover at least 17 times as much trade with China as the steel and aluminum tariffs do.

One question markets are wrestling with now is what will Trump do if theres no deal on trade with China, and retaliatory measures ensue? I think an ugly, persistent selloff would prompt Trump to change his policies, or at least consider changing, Valliere says. The market is that important to him.

Despite a bumpy start, most forecasters still expect stocks to end higher this year, thanks to strong economic fundamentals and the stimulative effect of the tax cuts. Still, were late in a long bull market, and Trump seems destined to face this quandary: Sometimes theres nothing a president can do to stem a stock market correction or bear market, which occurs as naturally as the earth orbits the sun. If Trump gets accustomed to goosing stocks with policy announcements, it might even make a selloff worse if he tries to stop a slide and the whole world discovers he no longer has a hand on the rudder. But for now, the market seems willing to let Trump believe he can guide it up, or down.

Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com. Encrypted communication available.

Read more:

Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman

Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedInTelevision news crews set up outside the home of Mark Anthony Conditt following the police investigation at the property last week in Pflugerville, Texas. (Photo: Scott Olson via Getty Images)

AUSTIN, Texas  In the hours after Mark Anthony Conditt blew himself up, people in need of an immediate scapegoat for the bombings that terrorized this city for nearly three weeks found one in a group called RIOT.

We learned of Conditts involvement with the group from BuzzFeed, which had interviewed a woman, Cassia Schultz, who ran in the same conservative survivalist circles as Conditt in high school.

According to that article:

Schultz said they were both involved in a group called Righteous Invasion of Truth (RIOT), a Bible study and outdoors group for homeschooled kids, created and named by the kids and their families, that included monthly activities such as archery, gun skills, and water balloon fights. Conditt and his younger sister would usually attend the activities along with 15 to 20 other kids, according to Schultz. A lot of us were very into science; we would discuss chemicals and how to mix them and which ones were dangerous, said Schultz. We were into weapons and stuff. A lot of us did role-playing, and RPG [role-playing games]; wed have foam weapons and act out a battle.

This seemed irresistibly sinister as it became clear Conditt, 23, was the bomber, and others quickly latched onto the detail.

Austin bomber Mark Anthony Conditt was part of Christian survivalist group that discussed dangerous chemicals, read a headline on the Independent. Social media went further, with some users claiming that RIOT served as some sort of white supremacist breeding ground or an education center for aspiring chemical weapons experts.

Austin bomber Mark Conditt was RADICALIZED by a neo-Nazi Christian group that teaches members about dangerous chemicals & guns, one woman wrote on Twitter, linking to the Independent story. The group is called RIOT - Righteous Invasion of Truth. No difference between this & ISIS.

So what exactly goes down at these RIOT events?

Water balloons, cream pies, frisbee, etc., said Pamela Crouch, a parent in the homeschooling community in the Austin suburb of Pflugerville who knows the Conditt family well. Thats what it is.

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And that conservative survivalist circle mentioned in the Buzzfeed article? It was a small group of children into camping, tying knots in ropes and climbing, said Crouch, who also knows Schultz. Very tame stuff.

Crouch was moved to speak out by what she felt were mischaracterizations of RIOT and of Conditts family. She worried the sensational rhetoric surrounding either would probably continue until the next disaster or the next outrageous tweet from President Donald Trump.

I cannot sit idly by while my friends and loved ones are being unjustly accused, Crouch told HuffPost.

Conditt and his family were part of a tight-knit homeschooling community in Pflugerville, which is home to a variety of Christian camps and other activities for homeschooled kids. If youre looking to find strains of violent extremism in Conditts upbringing, youll have a hard time finding any within RIOT, a standard-fare Bible study group.

A RIOT recruiting mailer sent out to parents in 2016 advertises such activities as swimming, potlucks, bowling and boffer melee, a popular live-action role-play game in which kids simulate medieval warfare by bonking each other with padded pipes.

The mailer, released to HuffPost in the form of a Facebook posting, reads in part:

Some fun RIOT events in the past included: Game Night, Murder Mystery party, Movie Night w/Pizza, Bowling, Swim Party, Games in the Park, Fun at the Beach (Lake Pflugerville), Skating, Boffer Melee, etc. Food for these events is usually a shared effort - the teens can bring a few dollars each and you can buy it, or everyone can bring snacks/potluck to share. You can also plan an event at Jumpoline, Jumpstreet, Main Event, Spare Time, a movie (in a theatre) followed by dinner nearby, etc. If you can call ahead and get a group rate, thats best!

Nonetheless, a community of parents in Pflugerville has been upended largely because of a single quote in a single story. The media glare was harsh enough that even the Texas Home School Coalition felt compelled to distance itself from Conditt via a press release.

Raised by both parents in a Christian home, Conditt reportedly walked away from his faith several years ago, Tim Lambert, president of the association, said in a statement after Conditts death. Todays revelations about the Austin bombings provide a stark reminder that we live in a fallen world. Unfortunately, no form of education, public or private, can ensure a tragedy like this will never happen.

Crouch moved to the area in 1995 and began homeschooling her son in 2004. Her family attended church alongside the Conditts and even went to home group  which is like Bible study, she said  at the Conditt household.

In Crouchs telling, those services, like other Christian events in the community, were as normal as they come, not to mention racially and ethnically diverse, which she appreciated.

Austin is actually one of the most tolerant cities in the South, she said. That is one of the reasons I feel comfortable raising my children here.

Crouch, like several of her neighbors, was upset about questioning from reporters that seemed to blame Conditts parents and the homeschooling community in general for his bombing spree that killed two and injured several others.

Homeschooling, she said, is a good option for anyone who is not satisfied with the school system. We try to protect our kids from being hurt in the schools, with all the shootings and stabbings and rapes, but we are somehow the dangerous ones?

As for Conditts father and mother, she called them good folks.

Mark is dead  so everyone wants someone to blame, but I dont think they should blame the parents, she said. They did not teach Mark hate.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.The parents of a girl who refused to enter into a forced marriage, have been arrested for allegedly pouring hot cooking oil over their daughter and beating her with broomsticks.

Maarib Al Hishmawi, now 16, ran away from her home in San Antonio, Texas, after months of abuse in order to avoid marrying an adult man in another part of the state, Bexar County sheriff Javier Salazar said.

She was later found safe and sound, and is in protective custody along with five siblings aged between five and 15, he added.

We became aware of the fact that mid-last year, mid-2017, there had been a marriage arrangement made between the family of this young lady and an adult male living in another city, whereby approximately $20,000 (14,000) was going to exchange hands," Sheriff Salazar said.

This young lady at various times over that time period was subjected to some pretty bad abuse because she didnt want to be married to this person. Several times, it was reported to us, this young lady was abused with hot cooking oil being thrown on her body, she was beaten with broomsticks.

At least at one point she was choked almost to the point of unconsciousness, and its really heartbreaking to hear. The only way this young lady could bring an end to this abuse was to verbally agree to become a party to this marriage. At that point that the marriage was going to take place, the young lady left home and she ran away.

He added: My understanding is that both parents are involved in the physical abuse. We dont know if those other siblings are victims of any abuse.

Maaribs parents Abdulah Fahmi Al Hishmawi, 34, and Hamdiyah Sabah Al Hishmawi, 33, now face charges of continuous family abuse.

Her mother is understood to be the one who threw cooking oil on her, Sheriff Salazar said.

The man to whom Maarib was intended to be married may also face charges, he said. adding: We do know who he is, my understanding is that we have talked to him, at least, the FBI has talked to him. Its highly likely that he will be facing charges as well.With the March for our Lives rally fresh in the minds of hundreds of thousands of gun control supporters who took to U.S. streets in protest this weekend, the leader of the Catholic Church has called on young people not let themselves be silenced.

Kicking off Holy Week services on Palm Sunday, in the lead up to Easter, 81-year-old Pope Francis addressed the tens of thousands of people who had gathered in St. Peters Square, Vatican City, and referenced a number of bible passages including lessons that could be learned from the story of the crucifixion.

Young people, you have it in you to shout. Francis said. It is up to you not to keep quiet. Even if others keep quiet, if we older people and leaders keep quiet, if the whole world keeps quiet and loses its joy, I ask you: Will you cry out?

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His comments came the day after widespread demonstrations took place in response to the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida. He did not directly address the rally but repeatedly called on youthful voices to be listened to. The marches were organised and promoted by teenage survivors of the attack.

Pope Francis

Franco Origlia/Getty Images

Dear young people, the joy that Jesus awakens in you is a source of anger and irritation to some, since a joyful young person is hard to manipulate, Francis continued. The temptation to silence young people has always existed.

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There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible. Many ways to anesthetize them, to make them keep quiet, ask nothing, question nothing, he added. There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive.

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Referencing the Sunday speech on his official Twitter profile, which has amassed more than 17 million global followers, Francis account wrote: Dear young people, never get tired of being instruments of peace and joy among your peers!

The church leader has been known to speak out about political issues and in the past has waded into debates on nuclear weapons, sex crimes and fake news.

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Last year, in a Twitter post widely believed to have been a subtle jab at U.S. president Donald Trump over his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he wrote: Political activity must truly be conducted at the service of the human person, with respect for creation and for the common good.

The two men have clashed over several issues in the past, and Trump blasted Pope Francis over a visit to Mexicos border back in 2016.

Trumpthen president-electwrote on Facebook: If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISISs ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPope Francis is cheered by faithful after celebrating a Palm Sunday Mass at the Vatican - AP

Pope Francis on Palm Sunday urged young people not to be silent and let their voices be heard, even in the face of corrupt or silent elders.

The Pope's message yesterday came on the heels of a meeting of young Catholics who told the Vatican they want a more transparent and authentic church, and a day after hundreds of thousands marched in youth-led rallies across the United States to demand greater gun control.

"The temptation to silence young people has always existed," Francis said. "There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible.

"There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive."

But he told youths in his homily that "you have it in you to shout," even if "we older people and leaders, very often corrupt, keep quiet."

Pope Francis encouraged young people to voice their concerns Credit: REUTERS/Tony Gentile

As the Roman Catholic Church enters Holy Week, retracing the story of the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection three days later on Easter Sunday, Francis urged youth to join those who offer praise, and not the masses calling for crucifixion.

"Dear young people, the joy that Jesus awakens in you is a source of anger and irritation to some, since a joyful person is hard to manipulate," the pontiff said.

Some 300 youths meeting at the Vatican this week prepared a document for next October's synod of bishops at the Vatican focusing on to help youths better find their way in the church.

Pope Francis held palm as he lead the Palm Sunday Mass in Saint Peter's Square Credit: REUTERS/Tony Gentile

The document, which was presented to Francis on Sunday, asked church leaders to address the unequal roles of women in the church and how technology is abused.

Before his traditional Sunday prayer at the end of Mass, the Pope recalled the importance World Youth Day, marked this year on Palm Sunday at a diocesan level rather than as a big international gathering.

The Pope's message also resonated with the Saturday protests across the United States for tougher laws to fight gun violence, a movement galvanized by the school shooting last month in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead.

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Thousands marched on Washington DC for the anti-gun-violence demonstration, March For Our Lives Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

At the end of Mass, the Pope and cardinals in red robes led a solemn procession clutching elaborately braided palm fronds as they walked through the throngs, followed by the papal blessing of palm fronds and olive branches.

The processions recalls the bittersweet nature of Holy Week, with the faithful clutching simple palm fronds and olive branches to commemorate Jesus' triumphant entrance into Jerusalem only to be followed later by his death on a wooden cross.

The Pope concluded by greeting the faithful in St. Peter's Square, getting out of the popemobile to shake hands as many cheered and took pictures.Paris (AFP) - The mother of a French policeman killed in an attack last week after he swapped himself for a hostage said Monday she was proud of his actions, and did not feel hate towards his killer.

Speaking to RTL radio on Monday, Nicolle Beltrame said she was not surprised by her 45-year-old son Arnaud's selfless act at a supermarket in southwest France on Friday, saying he was a fierce patriot and proud serviceman.

"Arnaud would not have wanted us to give up," she said. "I'm here to honour him and I'm speaking to honour him, so that his act has some purpose, that we're a bit more human, a bit more tolerant."

She added: "We need to realise that we can't accept everything either."

Arnaud was killed on Friday during a shooting spree and hostage-taking around the towns of Carcassonne and Trebes by Radouane Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French national, that left four people dead and three injured.

Beltrame said when she heard that a policeman had been killed on Friday, she knew it was her son.

"I know Arnaud: loyal, altruistic, and since he was small working for other people, committed to the country," she explained.

It also emerged Monday that Lakdim's girlfriend, like the gunman himself, had been on a watchlist of suspected extremists, sources close to the inquiry told AFP.

The 18-year-old woman, who has been in police custody since Friday evening, was under surveillance by intelligence services, one source told AFP.

A legal source had told AFP on Sunday that the woman was answering questions during her detention, and had "shown signs of radicalisation".

A 17-year-old man has also been detained for questioning.

Lakdim, 25, a drug dealer with a criminal record, was on France's extremist watchlist but authorities had concluded that he did not pose a threat.

- 'Show photos of heroes, not killers' -

Asked if she felt hatred towards Lakdim, Nicolle Beltrame replied: "Not at all. I feel indifference and the greatest sense of contempt."

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She suggested not even talking about him, "not showing his photo. We should show the photos of heroes, not killers and monsters."

Investigators have found notes at Lakdim's home in Carcassonne referring to the Islamic State group, a legal source said, including a handwritten letter in which he claimed allegiance to the jihadists.

Lakdim, armed with a gun, knife and homemade explosive devices, hijacked a car in Carcassonne and shot the two people inside, killing the passenger and leaving the Portuguese driver in a critical condition.

He also shot and wounded a police officer out jogging before heading to Trebes, where he killed the butcher and a customer at the Super U supermarket.

Lieutenant-Colonel Beltrame then offered to take the place of a woman being used as a human shield.

Lakdim was shot dead as police moved in to end the siege, but not before Beltrame had already been shot and stabbed.

He died of his wounds early Saturday, prompting an outpouring of emotion across the country.

President Emmanuel Macron's office has said a national tribute will be organised in the coming days.Moscow (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Syria conflict with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Moscow Monday, as Syrian regime forces, backed by Moscow, close in on the last vestiges of rebel resistance around Damascus.

The talks, the first between Putin and the Qatari leader for two years, were focussed on "boosting bilateral cooperation in various fields... and on the situation in Syria," the Kremlin said in a statement.

More than 2,500 Syrian rebels and civilians prepared to leave Eastern Ghouta on Monday after the largest exodus yet from the opposition enclave, as talks stalled over the final pocket of resistance.

Russia has been militarily involved in support of the forces of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime since 2015.

Last June Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates broke off diplomatic ties with Qatar which they accuse of supporting radical Islamists.

To counter its regional isolation, Qatar has sought to deepen trade, military and technological ties with the broader international community.

"We count on our Russian friends, with whom we have a cooperative relationship, knowing that Russia plays a significant role in the problems of the Arab world," the emir said at the start of the talks with Putin.

"Even though we have solid ties and mutual trust, we must go further to reinforce our relations in all areas," he added.

In January, Qatar's ambassador in Moscow, Fahad bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah, told the official TASS news agency that Qatar is finalising a deal to buy Russian S-400 air defence systems.Thon Peter Athian, aka Nile Shadow, during Artem Shumovs runway show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. (Photo: Courtesy of Artem Shumov/Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week)

Meet 23-year-old South Sudanese fashion model Thon Peter Athian (aka Nile Shadow), who lives in Moscow. Yahoo Lifestyle first spotted him during Artem Shumovs runway show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. Out of more than 50 runway shows during the week, Athian was just one of only a handful of black models who were cast. This is his story on working as a model of color in the Russian fashion industry.

Athian is originally from South Sudan, where his family still lives. He had moved to Moscow to earn his degree studying petroleum engineering at the Russian State Geological Prospecting University. His focus on education is still a priority. He never planned on becoming a model, but one fateful event two years ago changed it all. Athian participated in a small indie shoot where he got connected to the modeling agency Look Models Russia. Soon afterward, he was signed.

Since then, Athian has not booked any jobs outside of Moscow, but he has been able to do a few small-scale shoots in addition to select catwalk appearances for emerging designers like Artem Shumov. Shumov is a designer with whom Athian has worked since the beginning of his career and someone he considers to be seriously embracing diversity.

When asked what was it about Athian that struck him, the designer tells Yahoo Lifestyle that it was never about the color of Athians skin  it was about his beauty both inside and out: Hes incredibly beautiful  his face, his smile. He has such good vibes.

But in the grand scheme of things, Shumov is the exception. How do other designers treat Athian? Though I havent yet experienced any sort of racism, it has always been hard getting selected in castings, especially by the local designers with exceptions of very few, he says.

He adds candidly, The truth is that theres not much diversity in the fashion industry here. Sometimes I dont even waste my time going to castings because I am always certain they wont take me. Unfortunately, he doesnt expect to see a change in this perception soon, as ultimately, Russians like seeing things that look like them.

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Despite this outlook, Athian says he will continue to model for now, as it helps fund a portion of his tuition. I am not sure if I can have reliable pay from modeling in [the] future, so I prefer engineering, he says. I dont make enough money here. Besides, my parents know that I am here for [my] studies.

While modeling is prestigious work in places like New York or Paris, dont expect a black model to make enough here in Russia, he says. If God [will] help me to finish my engineering [degree] successfully, that will be enough for me.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.MOSCOW (Reuters) - Rebel fighters with the Jaish al-Islam group in the Syrian town of Douma, near the capital Damascus, have expressed readiness to lay down their arms and leave the town, Russia's RIA news agency quoted a Russian General Staff official as saying. The official, Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov, said the group was in touch with Russian officers handling the negotiations and that the question of their departure was likely to be settled in the near future, RIA reported. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Gareth Jones)Singapore-based ride-hailing firm Grab announced Monday it has bought US rival Uber's business in Southeast Asia, ending a fierce battle for market share in the region.

Grab said in a statement it is buying Uber's ride-sharing and food delivery operations in the region. In exchange, Uber will receive a 27.5 percent stake in Grab.

The statement did not disclose the value of the deal.

"Today's acquisition marks the beginning of a new era," said Grab chief executive Anthony Tan. "The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region."

Grab and Uber were locked for years in a turf war in the region of about 650 million people with an increasingly affluent middle class.

But Grab, which operates in 195 cities in eight Southeast Asian countries, became the dominant force in ride-hailing, leaving its troubled US rival struggling.

The sale is Uber's latest withdrawal from a market where the ride-sharing titan had faced fierce competition, as new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi seeks to stem huge losses and move past a series of scandals.

After a fierce battle, Uber sold its China operations to rival Didi Chuxing in 2016 in return for a stake, and last year the US firm merged in Russia with the taxi-hailing app of internet giant Yandex.

The deal with Grab is similar to the one struck with Didi.By James Macharia JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's new president Cyril Ramaphosa will need to call on all his dealmaking skills to overhaul ailing state-owned firms and tackle land reform if he wants to capitalize on Moody's decision not to downgrade the country's debt to junk. Moody's said its decision to keep South Africa's rating at investment grade reflected its view the country's institutions would regain strength under more transparent and predictable policies - though the new government had to stay on track. Since replacing Jacob Zuma in February, Ramaphosa has reappointed the finance minister his predecessor fired in 2015, sacked some ministers allied to Zuma, put another respected former finance minister in charge of struggling state-owned firms and suspended the head of the revenue service. "It's a big deal," political analyst Ralph Mathekga said about Moody's decision. "What he has been able to achieve in two months is to reverse some of Zuma's influence in key sectors. The message he sent is: 'I can do more'." After his whirlwind start, Ramaphosa's challenges now include keeping the unions on side as the government overhauls cash-strapped national carrier South African Airways (SAA) and heavily indebted state power utility Eskom. Perhaps his stiffest test will be to push through land expropriation, as promised, to address racial disparities in ownership - while keeping the left wing of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) on board and not scaring off investors. Parliament passed a motion last month seeking to change the constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation. Ramaphosa has promised to speed up the transfer of land to black people, but has stressed the need to preserve food security. "A big deliverable is to initiate the land debate under his leadership to control the narrative and discourse. Should he fail to do this, he runs the risk of undoing the good work already done," said Daniel Silke, director of Political Futures Consultancy. Ramaphosa's negotiating skills have been respected for decades, ever since Nelson Mandela turned to the former trade union boss to lead the successful negotiations to end white minority rule. More recently, Ramaphosa had to strike a fine balance between applying pressure on Zuma to go, while still affording him a dignified exit. Now, same analysts say land reform is Ramaphosa's litmus test. "Are we over-estimating Ramaphosa's ability to deal with this land issue? It is undoubtedly one of his biggest challenges. Investors are worried about this and watching him very closely," said independent political analyst Nic Borain. 'GOOD NEGOTIATOR' When it comes to South Africa's struggling state-run companies, Ramaphosa will need to perform a similar balancing act and he has already named respected former finance minister Pravin Gordhan as minister of public enterprises. Eskom and SAA are both weighed down by massive wage bills but the country's powerful unions are likely to dig in their heels at any attempt to cut jobs, especially with elections looming in 2019. Influential labor leaders, sections of the ANC and the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters are also likely to balk at any moves to partially privatize the companies, which is one strategy backed by the Treasury. South African Airways runs one of Africa's biggest fleets but years of operational losses have left it on the brink of bankruptcy. It needed a bailout in July to repay debt and 20 billion rand ($2 billion) in state guarantees to keep it afloat. Eskom received a 5-billion rand loan in February from the state's Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which holds a large amount of government bonds and ranks as Africa's biggest investment fund, or it would have defaulted on its debts. "There is going to be some tension when these job cuts are announced. It is a delicate balance because it could impact the support base of the party ahead of next year's elections," said Borain. Still, Ramaphosa has already taken the politically risky step of raising value-added tax (VAT) for the first time since apartheid to try to reduce the budget deficit and analysts say he is unlikely to back down on reforms. "He did not give in to populism on the VAT; this was a good example of him having to do something unpopular but necessary," Borain said. "He is known to be a good negotiator." Finance minister Nhlanhla Nene expressed hope on Monday that S&P Global Ratings and Fitch might also look favorably on South Africa during upcoming reviews, saying investors he had met at a roadshow in London before Moody's decision were upbeat. S&P downgraded South African local currency debt to "junk" in November citing a deterioration in the economic outlook and public finances. Fitch cut its rating in April to sub-investment grade after Zuma fired Gordhan as finance minister. S&P will publish its review on May 25. Fitch has not given a date. "I want to call this a honeymoon phase - and it is for that reason that we cannot be complacent about it," Nene told Talk Radio 702. ($1 = 11.6627 rand) (Editing by David Clarke)Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on March 26, 2018

2018/03/26

As the Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay a working visit to Russia from March 27 to 28.

Q: According to reports, US Vice President recently said that the new tariffs the US is going to impose on Chinese goods indicate that the era of America's economic surrender is over. US Commerce Secretary said that what they are starting is a prelude to negotiations rather a trade war. What's your reaction to this?

A: I have seen relevant reports. Certain American official's remarks that "the era of economic surrender is over"sounds quite awkward and it seems that they were trying to shift the blame. In fact, it would be more appropriate to say that it's time for the US economic intimidation and hegemony to end. The US side should be clear that what international trade needs in the 21st century is rules rather than power.

China has all along followed the WTO rules and upheld the transparent, non-discriminatory, open, inclusive and rules-based multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core and based on rules. It always maintains that divergences, including those frictions in trade, should be resolved through negotiation in the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit. In fact, China and the US have been in consultations on trade issues. Indeed, we have confidence and capability to defend our nation's legitimate rights and interests under any circumstance. Now the ball is in the US court, and we hope it will make rational and cautious decisions and choices.

Q: Last Friday, the US delegation in Geneva, while discussing a human rights draft resolution China formulated, said that China was seeking to glorify the vision proposed by itself through relevant draft resolution and the US voted against it. How does China respond to this?

A: The remarks of the US official in Geneva mentioned by you do not hold water at all and also reflect their habitual ignorance and arrogance of certain people in the United States as always. Actually, the resolution titled "Promoting Mutually Beneficially Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights" jointly submitted by China and relevant countries to the 37th Session of the UN Human Rights Council was adopted by an overwhelming majority. The resolution calls on all relevant parties to promote mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of human rights, step up dialogue and cooperation, support the building of a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice and mutually beneficial cooperation and foster a community with a shared future for mankind. The international community has reached an important consensus that only through dialogue and cooperation can the human rights cause of all countries be better promoted and protected. Therefore, When making comments at the Session, a number of countries said that the China-sponsored resolution gives full expression to the shared aspirations of the international community and will help to increase the say and the agenda-setting right of the developing countries in the field of international human rights and promote the sound development of global human rights cause.

I do not know whether the US official mentioned by you has made clear such a fact that the UN Human Rights Council's voting on the above-mentioned resolution was requested by the United States itself. There were 28 for and 1 against it. Amid the green "Yes" on the vote-tallying screen, the red "No" by the United States stood out, alone. I do not know what explanations would the US make on this.

I would like to stress once again that building a new type of international relations and fostering a community with a shared future for mankind is the overarching goal of the major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics. China stands ready to work with the relevant parties of the international community to actively implement the relevant UN resolutions. We are still willing to enhance communication and exchanges with the United States and other relevant parties so as to inject positive energy into the development of the global human rights cause.

Q: In an interview with the South China Morning Post, India's Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale repeatedly stressed that India has no concerns about China's rise. India looks at China's rise as something that encourages it to develop rapidly and it doesn't look upon China as a competitor, rival or threat. Instead, it treats China as partner in progress and development. What's China's response to that? How does China comment on Mr. Bambawale's remarks?

A: We have noted relevant reports and applaud Ambassador Bambawale's positive remarks. The fast development of China and India presents important opportunities to each other and the world at large. China and India face similar national conditions and development goals and are in similar development stages. We also share extensive common interests and should be each other's partner in the course of development and progress. Under the guidance of the important consensus of the leaders of the two countries, we stand ready to work with the Indian side to enhance political mutual trust, improve mutually beneficial cooperation, properly manage differences and achieve common development.

Q: On March 25, Chairman of the US House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes said that his committee will investigate China's efforts to gain military and economic power in Africa. He believes that China is looking at investing in ports and infrastructure around the world, not just for military capabilities but also to control those governments. What is your comment?

A: There is a Chinese saying which goes "one's mentality will determine how he perceives the world". There is also another proverb that "if one suspects his neighbor of stealing his ax, all the behaviors of that innocent neighbor appear suspicious to him", which refers to someone that harbours groundless suspicions in disregard of facts. We hope that relevant people in the United States can be more open-minded, and aboveboard and refrain from viewing normal cooperation with tinted glasses or interpreting other countries' goodwill to pursue win-win outcomes with a hegemonic mindset.

China always conducts cooperation with African countries in accordance with the vision of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith and the principle of upholding justice while pursuing shared interests. China's considerations for its cooperation with African countries, if there are any, are fairly simple and transparent. As its good brother, good partner and good friend that share weal and woe, China welcomes African countries aboard the express train of its development and is willing to make positive contributions to promoting the peace, security, development and rejuvenation of African countries.

Q: According to the Wall Street Journal, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is considering coming to China for negotiations on the issue of trade. Is China willing to invite him?

A: Regarding the China-US trade issue, we always emphasize that China is willing to engage in consultations with the US side under the principle of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit to properly resolve differences. The door for dialogue and consultation always remains open.

Q: What are the special considerations for Special Envoy Wang Yi's visit to Russia? Please brief us on the arrangements and expected outcomes of this visit.

A: State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Russia as the Special Envoy of President Xi demonstrates the uniqueness of China-Russia relations which are operating at a high-level. President Putin has just been reelected as the President of Russia and China-Russia relations now face new opportunities for development. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will meet with Russian leaders and hold talk with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, during which they will have an in-depth exchange of views on the arrangements for the exchange of high-level visits within the year and stepping up bilateral cooperation in key areas.

Q: In the interview, Indian Ambassador Bambawale made the observation that the status quo on the China-India boundary should not be changed so as to avoid future Dong Lang incidents. He also suggested that the borderline should be demarcated in order to properly settle this issue. What is your response?

A: I just responded to the positive remarks concerning China-India relations by Ambassador Bambawale in his interview with the South China Morning Post. You mentioned his other remarks on Dong Lang and the border issues, and I would like to make some responses.

China has been committed to upholding peace and stability in the China-India border areas. The Sikkim section of China-India boundary has been demarcated by historical agreements and Dong Lang is China's territory. There is no such an issue as the change of status quo since China is exercising its sovereignty and conducting other sovereign activities on its own territory. Last year, the two sides worked together to peacefully resolve the Dong Lang incident with diplomacy and wisdom. We hope that India will draw lessons from that, abide by historical boundary treaties and basic norms governing international relations, and work with China to safeguard peace and stability of border areas in an effort to create good atmosphere for the positive development of bilateral relations.

As to the China-India boundary issue, China's position on that remains consistent and unequivocal. The eastern, central and western sections of the boundary has never been demarcated officially. China is committed to settling territorial disputes through negotiation, and China and India are in discussions for resolving territorial disputes through negotiation in an attempt for a fair and reasonable solution that is acceptable to both sides. Pending final settlement of the boundary issue, the two sides should work together to uphold peace and stability in the border area.

Q: According to reports, American officials expressed concerns over China's decision to stop imports of "foreign garbage" on March 23 at the WTO Council for Trade in Goods meeting, saying that China's import restrictions on recycled commodities have caused a fundamental disruption in global supply chains for scrap materials. China seemed to be violating WTO obligations, treating domestic and foreign garbage with discrimination and taking excessive trade restrictions. The US asked China to stop implementing relevant measures immediately. What's your comment?

A: During the Two Sessions this year, Minister of Environment Protection Li Ganjie already took relevant questions on "foreign trash". I would like to say that the so-called "concerns" of relevant US officials are unjustifiable, illegitimate and have no legal basis.

Prohibiting the imports of foreign garbage and reforming the management system of solid waste imports are a major measure the Chinese government has taken in order to follow through on the new concept of development, improve the ecological and environmental quality and safeguard national ecological security and the health of people. This is also a right China is entitled to under international law and has been firmly supported by the people. The US officials are so hypocritical as they try to make an issue out of China's legitimate and lawful actions and accuse China of "seemingly violating WTO obligations". How could they claim that their restrictions on its exports of high-tech and high value-added products to China are legitimate while China's lawful restrictions on its imports of foreign garbage are illegal?

In fact, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal launched in the late 1980s fully confirms that all countries are entitled the right to prohibit foreign hazardous and other wastes from entering their territory. The Convention also stipulates that countries have the obligation to ensure that hazardous wastes and other wastes within it are minimumized and disposed as close as possible to their place of generation. We hope that the US side could focus on reducing, disposing and treating the hazardous wastes and other wastes it generated in accordance in the spirit of the Basel Convention and fulfill its due responsibilities and obligations for the world.

After the press conference, the following question was raised by a Russian journalist: What's China's comment on the fire that broke out at a shopping mall in a Siberian city of Kemerovo in Russia on March 25?

A: We have noted relevant reports. We are deeply saddened by the major casualties resulted from the fire in the Siberian city of Kemerovo and would like to send our heartfelt condolences to Russia. We mourn for the victims and wish all the injured a speedy recovery.Eagles of Death Metal's Jesse Hughes, a survivor of a mass-shooting incident, called the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School "disgusting vile abusers of the dead" for participating in the March for Our Lives protest. Hughes' band was onstage during the Paris Bataclan terrorist attack that killed 89 people. He criticizes stricter gun laws in both France and America. He slams the student survivors from the Parkland, Florida shooting for protesting. Hughes made controversial statements suggesting that the Bataclan shooting was an inside job perpetrated by the venue's security. Although Hughes later apologized for his "baseless" comments, Eagles of Death Metal were still dropped from the lineup of numerous French music festivals.By Natalia Zinets KIEV (Reuters) - A Washington-backed body set up to vet judges in Ukraine as part of the battle against corruption quit its role on Monday, saying the process to screen a judge fit for office was a sham. The row spotlights Ukraine's troubled efforts to tackle corruption, including in the judiciary, which it needs to do to qualify for more aid from the International Monetary Fund which supports Kiev with a $17.5 billion bailout package. According to mandatory public wealth declarations, many judges own property, luxury cars or cash which far exceeds their stated income. The Public Integrity Council (PIC), set up in 2016 and supported by the USAID which provides technical expertise and support, has worked with the High Qualification Commission of Judges in ensuring around 6,000 judges are qualified and not involved in corrupt practices. "All our attempts to set up cooperation with these bodies were a complete fiasco," said Halyna Chyzhyk, a member of the Council, which is made up of lawyers, activists and journalists. "The reasons for PIC's decision to leave ... are the steps taken which only confirm their (the commission's) real intentions not to clean up the judicial system but preserve the old order and rules," she said at a news conference. "PIC will not participate in this process," Chyzhyk said. The Council said the commission was simply going through the motions while vetting judges. Only 0.2 percent of judges have failed an exam which is meant to prove they are qualified, while interviews to determine their honesty lasted 3-6 minutes. The Commission in a later press conference said the Council had not followed correct procedure, leaving the vetting process vulnerable to legal challenges further down the road. "We will continue to ask for information from the PIC," said Stanislav Shchotka, Secretary of the Qualification Chamber of the Commission. "We would like our colleagues to help us and not be things for the Commission to trip up on." Corruption has plagued Ukraine's judicial system for years and deters investment the country needs to grow an economy scarred by a separatist insurgency in the Donbass region and a prolonged standoff with Russia. The U.S. embassy did not immediately reply to a request for comment. (Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Richard Balmforth)Unconfirmed reports circulated on Monday that the travel-averse North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be visiting China.

Speculation swirled after video footage surfaced that appeared to show the arrival in Beijing of a green train carriage of the sort Kims late father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, rode when he visited the capital in 2011.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing a Japanese report, said Monday that a high-ranking North Korean official was visiting China ahead of summits with South Korean and American leaders.

Citing three unnamed sources, Bloomberg later reported that Kim himself was making the visit. It would be his first overseas trip since taking power in 2011.

Asked about the rumors during a news briefing on Monday, White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah said he couldnt confirm the reports.

I dont know if theyre necessarily true, Shah told reporters.

The office of Moon Jae-in, South Koreas president, said in a statement about the reports: We are closely monitoring any related movements, using various channels to try to confirm them.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was unaware of the situation, Reuters reports.

China and North Korea are historical allies but have experienced strained relations in recent years. Beijing has backed sanctions against its neighbor that have reduced the countrys exports of coal and other key sources of foreign currency. Chinese leaders have also harshly criticized Kims aggressive pursuit of a nuclear arsenal capable of striking the U.S.

Kim has not met with any major world leaders since assuming leadership of North Korea in 2011. However, he met with South Korean envoys on March 5 and agreed to meet with Moon in the border town of Panmunjom in late April.

In a subsequent visit to the White House, South Korean envoys reported that Kim had offered to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss denuclearization. Trump agreed, saying he would meet with Kim by May.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.On Monday, the United States, 14 European Union countries, Canada, and Ukraine expelled Russian diplomats in a coordinated response to the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, prompting Russia to vow retaliation.

Mondays move is apparently the largest-ever expulsion of foreign diplomats from the United States. The country also closed Russias consulate in Seattle, allegedly because of its proximity to a U.S. submarine base.

The move comes just weeks after the poisoning on British soil of Skripal, who spied for the United Kingdom, and his daughter. A police officer also was sickened in the attack, which involved a deadly nerve agent.

The United States calls on Russia to accept responsibility for its actions and to demonstrate to the world that it is capable of living up to its international commitments and responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Monday.

Most of the EU countries kicked out but a handful of diplomats. France, Germany, and Poland will each expel four; Lithuania and the Czech Republic are kicking out three each; and Italy, Denmark, and the Netherlands are all sending away two. Canada joined in, too, kicking out four, and Ukraine is set to expel 13.

The United States expelled 60, including 48 members of the Russian Embassy and 12 alleged intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission to the United Nations, which Russians have reportedly been using as a spy nest for years.

Here in New York, Russia uses the United Nations as a safe haven for dangerous activities within our own borders, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement Monday. Today, the United States and many of our friends are sending a clear message that we will not stand for Russias misconduct.

Mark Simakovsky, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, says that on top of last years closure of the Russian consulate in San Francisco, the latest move has restricted Russias presence in the United States, which will have commercial, intelligence, and diplomatic ramifications for Russia. The administration didnt have to go this far, he says. It should be seen as significant.

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But the coordinated move signifies that the United States, Canada, Ukraine, and the European Union stand together against Russias alleged attempts to destabilize their countries. But the joint effort also guarantees retaliation, escalates the situation, and comes at a time that is likely to offend not just the Kremlin but the Russian people.

Moscow already vowed to expel no less than 60 U.S. diplomats. Simakovsky predicts that two-thirds will be from Moscow while the rest will be taken from consulates around the country. He also says he wouldnt be surprised if they chose to close maybe [the consulate] in Vladivostok, a city in Russias far east  a sort of coastal diplomatic tit for tat.

Indeed, the Russian Embassy in Washington is currently polling Twitter as to which U.S. consulate should be closed. (Vladivostok is the first choice listed.)

That means both sides  Russia and the West  will have fewer diplomats working to lower tensions. I think the challenge here is were in this world of signaling without talking to each other, says Olga Oliker, a senior advisor and director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Another concern, along with retaliation, is that the expulsions may do little to change Russian behavior. The U.S. has expelled Russian diplomats before, and it hasnt deterred the Kremlin from continuing its destabilizing activities abroad, Rachel Rizzo, a research associate for the transatlantic security program at the Center for a New American Security, wrote to Foreign Policy in an email. Its unlikely this time will be different.

The move is also unlikely to dispel the Kremlin myth that the Western world is out to get Russia. After all, in this case, European and North American countries quite literally did coordinate against Russia.

There is no doubt that the Kremlin will use the expulsion of diplomats to continue exploiting its besieged fortress image, which, based on the results of the last elections, sells well, says Maria Snegovaya, an adjunct fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis.

That is particularly true given the timing of the expulsions: On Sunday, a fire at a shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo left at least 64 people, many of them children, dead.

Samuel Greene, the director of the Russia Institute at Kings College London, suspects that perhaps there were too many countries involved to call off or delay the diplomatic expulsions a day after one of the deadliest fires in modern Russian history.

That strikes me as a rather poor excuse, though, he says.Russian media outlets are pulling out correspondents from the countrys parliament, in solidarity with multiple accusers of alleged sexual harassment who have accused a top official of propositioning them for sex, trying to kiss them or even groping them.

The accusations against Leonid Slutsky, who heads the lower houses Foreign Affairs Committee, gathered momentum last month when no fewer than three female journalists shared stories that allege he made persistent advances at them during work. Two of the women made their case in front of parliaments Ethics Commission on Wednesday, which threw their case out in one sitting. Instead, Slutskys colleagues cast suspicion on the allegations, asking why the women had come forward around the same time and in two cases, several years after the alleged incidents.

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The decision has now spurred 19 outlets to suspend work with the lower house in some form or another, including top liberal news radio Echo of Moscow, the countrys most esteemed investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta and a triumvirate of independent business publications RBC, Vedomosti and Kommersant.

If the rights of citizens are protected selectively, if the members of parliament are allowed to neglect the dignity and security of people counting on the corporate solidarity of the lower house, then the rights of everyonenot just journalistsare under threat, the statement from the Vedomosti daily newspaper read.

The RTVI channel also joined the boycott and underlined that it will remain out of the lower house for as long as Slutsky remains in office. In some cases, the boycott centers entirely on speaking to Slutsky specifically or lawmakers in the Ethics Commission that made the ruling.

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03_22_Russia_journalist_boycott

Vasily Maximov/AFP/Getty Images

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The accusations follow a broadly similar pattern and two of the alleged incidents took place in Slutskys office. The BBC Russian Service's Farida Rustamova accused Slutsky of segueing their interview last year from the topic of the French elections into offers for her to work for him, leave her partner and become his mistress. Then, she accused him of groping her.

RTVIs deputy editor Ekaterina Kotrikadze claimed she went to Slutskys office seven years ago when he allegedly pinned her against a wall in order to kiss her. TV channel Dozhds producer Daria Zhuk accused Slutsky of trying rudely and persistently to kiss her while he visited her studio as a guest in 2014, after she had ignored his emailed offer to go for a meal with him.

The countrys larger, state-owned media outlets have shied away from the debate and, in the case of Russias Channel One, abstained from reporting on Thursdays verdict entirely, the Meduza news site reported.

Reaction in the countrys parliament, full almost entirely of Kremlin loyalists, has been strongly in Slutskys favor and house speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Thursday all outlets who have joined the boycott will be stripped of their accreditation anyway, the Interfax news agency reported.

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Volodin famously warned journalists when the allegations against his colleague came to light that if they find their work in parliament unpleasant, they should change jobs.

Following the announcements of the boycott on Thursday, a female member of the Ethics Commission Raisa Karmazina defended the verdict, accusing the press of making a mountain out of a molehill.

Nobody ever harassed me, Karmazina told The Insider news website, which noted that the lawmaker repeatedly mispronounced the word. I was three hundred times more beautiful than them and I was not any stupider either.

I have been working for 50 years. It will be 49 years of service on July 1, since I was aged 18 and nobody harassed me. Nobody harassed. I did not give them a cause or anything, she added.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekYoel Guzansky, Ari Heistein

Security, Middle East

Yemeni soldier, pictured through a vehicle's windscreen, which was damaged by a bullet, gestures out of the window, in Marib, Yemen

The Saudi-led coalition cannot win the war but it can settle the conflict on favorable terms, and the United States should help it do just that.

Saudi Arabia's War in Yemen Has Been a Disaster

This month marks three years since the start of the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, but that is unlikely to be an occasion for celebration in Riyadh. The war is estimated to have cost the Saudis upwards of $100 billion, eroded the international image of the kingdom and failed to achieve its objectives of eliminating Iranian influence from Yemen. At the same time, the people of Yemen have suffered immensely from the U.S.-backed Saudi campaign, which killed thousands of Yemeni civilians, destroyed the countrys infrastructure, and has led to widespread disease and hunger. With Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's (MbS) visit to Washington, the U.S. administration has an opportunity to bring this harmful campaign to an end.

For the Saudis, Yemen is a historical target of influence, but also a critical arena for security and stability, if only because Yemen shares a long and porous border with it and also commands the entrance to the Red Sea. For Iran, on the other hand, Yemen is a secondary arena, certainly when compared to Iraq and Syria. However, for a relatively low investment in the Houthi militia, Iran was able to exact a significant economic, military, and diplomatic price from its main regional rival.

In its campaign against the Houthis, Saudi Arabia enjoys intelligence and logistical aid from the Americans, and has the fourth largest security budget in the world as well as advanced weaponry at its disposal. Yet, the kingdom is finding it difficult to defeat a determined enemy on its doorstep. In fact, in addition to holding on to the Yemeni capital Sanaa and other key areas, the Houthis have fired over one hundred missilesallegedly manufactured in Irandeep into Saudi territory and have captured over one hundred square miles within the kingdom.

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The gap between the investment in security and military performance led the Saudi king Salman and his heir, Crown Prince Mohammed, to replace the top level of the security establishment, including the chief of staff, the commander of the ground forces and the commander of air defense. These replacements were presented as part of a modernization process, but actually reflect growing frustration in the Saudi elite with the army's performance. It is too early to say whether these personnel changes will also bring about essential changes in strategy, and what effect, if any, they will have on the continued fighting.

Notwithstanding its image of (comparative) success, Iran is also encountering difficulty in operating in Yemen. The maritime blockade imposed by Arab countrieswith Western aidis restricting Irans ability to dictate events on the ground and demonstrating the limits of its power. Since Teheran is unable to break the blockade, it has no choice but to smuggle much smaller quantities of "advisors," money, and various kinds of weapons, including missile parts, to the Houthis.

At the same time, the war in Yemen exposed the tenuous nature of Saudi Arabias relationships with its principal Muslim allies. The most important of them, Pakistan, surprisingly refused to send its army to assist the kingdom. The Sisi government in Egyptin which Riyadh had invested many billions of dollars and which was considered the kingdoms strategic depthalso reportedly refused to send large numbers of ground troops to participate in the fighting. Instead, Cairo sent a small contingent of several hundred soldiers and three to four ships to assist Riyadh. And in some instances, even those countries that agreed to participate in the Saudi-led campaign developed conflicts of interest with Riyadh over the course of the fighting; for example, the Saudis and the Emiratis are backing forces that are at odds over the future of Yemen and this created friction that has at times erupted into violence between local actors.

Washington should see President Trumps close relationship with Crown Prince MbS and the Saudi royals visit to Washington as an opportunity to end this disastrous war: The Saudi-led coalition cannot win this war but it can settle the conflict on favorable terms, and the U.S. should help it do just that.

In exchange for increased U.S. support for the Saudi campaign for a limited period, President Trump should demand that the Saudis take further precautions to prevent civilian casualties and increase the aid provided to Yemeni civilians at risk of disease or hunger. Knowing that U.S. support will be withdrawn should incentivize the Saudis to reach a political solution as soon as possible, while dealing a blow to the Houthis and the momentum that U.S. support provides (and keeping the deadline secret) will place pressure on the Iranian-backed group to end a war that's tides appear to be turning. With both sides incentivized to end the war, it seems possible that some sort of political agreement can be reached.

The war in Yemen has been a disaster for all involved parties, and so ending it is both the smart thing to do as well as the right thing to do. And because Iranian interference is most successful in regions that suffer from conflict or insecurity, ending the war has the added benefit of potentially weakening the Islamic Republics ability to meddle in regional affairs.

Dr. Yoel Guzansky is a Research Fellow specializing in Gulf politics at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Israel. Ari Heistein is the Special Assistant to the Director of the INSS.

Image: Reuters

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Read full articleRIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi air defenses shot down seven ballistic missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi militia on Sunday, with debris killing a man in what was the first death in the capital during the Saudi-led coalition's three-year military campaign in Yemen. Saudi forces destroyed three missiles over northeastern Riyadh shortly before midnight, as well as others fired at the southern cities of Najran, Jizan and Khamis Mushait, the coalition said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA. Debris from the missiles fell on a home in Riyadh, killing an Egyptian resident and wounding two other Egyptians, said coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki, according to SPA. Reuters reporters in Riyadh heard several booms and saw smoke in the air. Another witness said he saw a long stream of light followed by additional explosions. In al-Malqa neighborhood, emergency personnel gathered near a crater in the ground and inspected shattered glass in nearby homes. The United States, which provides support to the coalition, said in a State Department statement it condemned the missile attacks and backed the right of Saudi Arabia to defend itself against such threats. The attack marked the third time in five months that missiles have flown over Riyadh, as the Houthis step up efforts to demonstrate they can reach the Saudi capital, and threatened to escalate a regional rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Houthi-run SABA news agency reported the group's missile force had targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a Burkan H2 missile. The group also fired other types of missiles at airports in Jizan, Najran and Abha, another southern Saudi city, according to the SABA report. The Saudi-led coalition of Gulf Arab states launched military operations against the Houthis in Yemen in March 2015, after the Iran-aligned Shi'ite militia seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa and forced President Abd Rabbu Mansour al-Hadi to flee. Riyadh saw the ouster as a regional power grab by arch-foe Iran, although the Houthis deny any help from Tehran, and has described Iran's alleged supply of rockets to the Houthis as "direct military aggression." The United States has also displayed what it said were Iranian-made weapons supplied to the Houthis, calling them conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating U.N. resolutions. The conflict in Yemen has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than 2 million, unleashing a humanitarian crisis in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country. Nearly 1 million people have been infected with cholera. Coalition forces have made modest territorial gains over the course of the war but appear far from seizing back the capital. (Reporting by Sarah Dadouch, Marwa Rashad, Mostafa Hashem and Stephen Kalin; Additional reporting by Makini Brice in Washington; Writing by Katie Paul; Editing by Grant McCool and Paul Simao)People check the damage created by debris, after ballistic missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi militia, fell at house in Riyadh - REUTERS

Houthi rebels in Yemen fired ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia overnight Sunday, claiming their first casualty in the capital city since the kingdom intervened in the conflict three years ago.

Saudi Arabian forces said their air defences intercepted three missiles fired at Riyadh and four others at the southern cities of Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran.

One Egyptian was killed and two of his countrymen were wounded by shrapnel that fell on a house in Riyadh, with residents reporting loud explosions and bright flashes in the sky shortly before midnight.

Video taken by motorists showed the remains of a missile fuselage smoking in the middle of a highway in Riyadh.

"This aggressive and hostile action by the Iran-backed Houthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities," Turki al-Malki, spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition, said.

New angle suggests this is actually a spectacular failure of a #Saudi interceptor and not the missile fired at #Riyadhpic.twitter.com/TejVbA8fh3  Strategic Sentinel (@StratSentinel) March 25, 2018

"The firing of multiple ballistic missiles towards cities is a serious development."

The war in Yemen has pitted the rebels and their Iranian allies against Yemeni factions aligned with a military coalition which includes Saudi, the US and Britain.

While it is not the first such attack on the kingdom, Houthi ballistic missiles have increased in range over time.

A November 4 launch previously targeted King Khalid International Airport in the capital, showing the missiles had a range of over 620 miles.

Western analysts identified it as being based on the Qiam missile type, an Iranian variant of the Scud system.

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Saudi Arabia has blamed Iran in the past for supplying the rebels with weapons, a charge Tehran has denied.

Unclear if this is the remains of the Saudi interceptor or the Houthi missile fired from Yemen: pic.twitter.com/t57vP12ADb    (@faisaledroos) March 25, 2018

The November attack saw the Saudi-led coalition escalate its attacks in response as well as a tightening of a blockade on the countrys ports and airports, aggravating an already dire humanitarian situation for millions.

However, some experts raised questions over whether the missiles fired on Sunday were successfully intercepted and suggested the kingdom could have been overstating the capability of its missile defense system.

A fighter from the separatist Southern Transitional Council gather on February 25, 2018, at the site of two suicide car bombings Credit: AFP

One video appears to show a Patriot missile launch go rapidly wrong, with the missile changing course mid-air, crashing into a neighborhood in Riyadh and exploding. Another appears to detonate shortly after being launched.

Saudi Arabia has faced criticism over its role in Yemen's civil war, with warnings that it was "orchestrating what will potentially become the worst famine in the last 50 years".

Britain, which has sold billions of arms to Saudi since its bombing campaign began in 2015, has been criticised for its support of the ultra-conservative country.

People check the damage created by debris, after ballistic missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi militia, fell at a house in Riyadh Credit: Reuters

Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary, and Penny Mordaunt, International Development Secretary, said yesterday that Saudi Arabia has "the right to defend itself against security threats including missiles launched from Yemen".

"If Iran is genuinely committed to supporting a political solution in Yemen - as it has publicly stated - then it should stop sending in weapons which prolong the conflict, fuel regional tensions, and pose threats to international peace and security," the two Cabinet ministers said in a joint statement.

Amnesty International said the attack may be a war crime.

Launching indiscriminate attacks is prohibited by international humanitarian law and can constitute a war crime," a spokesperson for the human rights organisation said.

A high death toll may have been averted, possibly due to the missiles being intercepted, but that doesnt let the Houthi armed group off the hook for this reckless and unlawful act.

"These missiles cannot be precisely targeted at such distances, so their use in this manner unlawfully endangers civilians."FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's delayed presidential election run-off will go ahead on March 31, the National Electoral Commission said in a statement on Monday, after a delay caused by allegations of fraud in the first round. The face-off between opposition leader Julius Maada Bio and ruling party standard-bearer Samura Kamara was supposed to take place on Tuesday but was delayed after a complaint from a member of Kamara's All People's Congress. The NEC had requested that the elections be pushed back four days because its preparations had been interrupted by a High Court injunction imposed on the election on Saturday. That injunction was lifted on Monday. President Ernest Bai Koroma is stepping aside after his maximum two terms in office. The March 7 vote to replace him unfolded mostly peacefully, but was marred by allegations of fraud in some districts and complaints of police harassment against the electoral commission,. Still, the peaceful nature of the election, and the fact that outgoing president Ernest Bai Koroma is stepping down while other African presidents seek to extend their mandates, is seen as a positive sign for a country whose 1990s civil war was characterised by the sale of conflict diamonds and the recruitment of child soldiers. (Reporting By Umaru Fofana; Writing by Edward McAllister and Sofia Christensen; Editing by Kevin Liffey)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.Sia Alexia Cooper, aka blogger Diary of a Fit Mommy, wants her fans to know that social media appearances are often deceiving.

In side-by-side photos shared on Instagram, Cooper defines the difference between a real boty and an Instagram boty. The real photo shows off cellulite, and the lumps and bumps of normal life. In the Instagram photo, Cooper hiked up her underwear and leaned forward, creating the illusion of a flawless behind and a tiny waist.

Photo: Instagram

Its amazing what a little bending forward, hiking up your underwear, arching your back, and sticking your boty out can do.. even whilst sitting down. Check out that waist, even! Cooper writes. She explains how the photo is completely altered by the way shes sitting and holding her posture.

[Butts] flatten out and your cellulite tends to show because the skin is being pressed upon. However you see these chicks in bikinis who are sitting and its like magic or sorcery that their butts dont flatten! she writes. But as Cooper points out, both of these photos are of the same body.

Cooper decided to share her side-by-side photos to expose the truth of the perfect photos we see on social media. Perfect pictures plastered on Instagram 24/7 can do so much damage to a womans self esteem, Cooper tells Yahoo Lifestyle. But little does the regular gal know that so much goes into these perfect images such as posing, lighting, editing, and more. People actually believe that these woman look the way they do on their feeds all the time and the truth is far from that.

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Fans wrote in to thank Cooper for using her platform to celebrate authenticity and difference. Sometimes I, like so many other women, get so busy comparing myself to those girls, I forget to appreciate the progress Ive made so far. Thanks for keeping it real, wrote one fan. They motivate me by showing the real stuff that i see everyday in the mirror, another said of Cooper.

Anna Victoria, another fitness blogger, also recently explained the role that angles play in the perfect photos so many post to Instagram.

A lot of the boty pics you see on Instagram are flexed, pushed out, back arched so much it actually hurtsplus high waisted pants that accentuate a small waist and lift the boty too, Victoria writes. In her side-by-side photo, she shows off the difference a few angle tweaks can make to her own behind. Her Instagram boty is round whereas her real life boty is flat. The photos may look completely different, but all she did was shift her body. In response, over a thousand commenters have written in thanking her for keeping it real.

As Victoria tells Yahoo Lifestyle, her goal is for fans to understand that life (and bodies) arent as perfect as they appear on social media. Whether its photos of someones body, or the status of someones seemingly perfect relationship, everyone has struggles and ups and downs, even if it doesnt seem like it by the looks of their Instagram account, she says.

Next time youre working to snap the perfect selfie, keep Coopers motto in mind: We are all equally worthy in all our photos.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

The best photos from March for Our Lives around the world

Ashley Graham shuts down real woman responses to her latest swimsuit shoot

This teens sharing a prom dress with a girl in need sparked a movement

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.



Johannesburg (AFP) - Former South African president Jacob Zuma is set to appear in court on April 6 to face corruption charges, police said Monday, in a case that could see him jailed.

Zuma is accused of taking kickbacks before he became president from the $5 billion (4.0 billion euro) purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and military equipment manufactured by five European firms.

He resigned as president on February 14 after the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party turned against him following a nine-year reign marred by corruption allegations, an economic slowdown and diminished popularity.

"We can confirm that the summons has been served to the former president," Hangwani Mulaudzi, spokesman for the Hawks police investigation unit, told AFP.

"The case is going to be heard on April 6 at the Durban High Court. It is the formal charging."

Mulaudzi added that the former president would have to be present in court for the hearing.

Local media said Zuma's lawyers would appeal against the reinstatement of the charges, which date back to the 1990s.

Prosecutors dropped the charges in 2009, just months before Zuma became president.

They said that tapped phone calls between officials in then-president Thabo Mbeki's administration showed undue official interference in the case.

French firm Thales was also issued with a summons on Monday over the allegations and is due in court on the same day.

Zuma, 75, denies any wrongdoing, while Thales has declined to comment.

Zuma will face one count of racketeering, two counts of corruption, one count of money laundering and 12 counts of fraud -- all of which are punishable by lengthy custodial sentences.

- From high office to high court -

The charges relate to arms procurement deals struck by the government in the late 1990s and from which Zuma is accused of profiting corruptly to the tune of four million rand ($345,000, 280,000 euros).

In 2005, Zuma's former financial adviser Schabir Shaik was convicted for facilitating bribes over the contracts and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was later released on medical parole.

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Zuma was deputy president from 1999 to 2005, when he was sacked by Mbeki.

The previously loyal ANC last weekend distanced itself from its former leader, saying that it was determined "to put the sad chapter of systemic corruption" behind the party.

Once in office, many of the graft allegations against Zuma centred on the Gupta business family, who are accused of unfairly obtaining lucrative government contracts and even influencing Zuma's ministerial appointments.

Zuma's successor Cyril Ramaphosa, a multi-millionaire former trade union leader, has admitted graft was a major problem in the previous government and vowed a clean-up.

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.

Zuma's hold over the ANC was shaken in December when his preferred successor -- his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma -- narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in a vote for the new party leader.TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan sent aircraft on Monday to shadow China air force fighter jets as they flew through the Bashi Channel to the south of the island, its defense ministry said, the latest such incident to add to tension between Taipei and Beijing. China sent an unspecified number of Xian H-6 bombers, Su-30 fighter jets and Y-8 transport aircraft over the waterway on their way to the West Pacific Ocean, the Taiwan ministry said. They were followed by Taiwan jets until the mainland aircraft returned to base, it said in a statement. Taiwan on March 21 sent ships and aircraft to shadow a Chinese aircraft carrier group that sailed through the narrow Taiwan Strait. Taiwan is one of China's most sensitive issues and a potential military flashpoint. The Chinese military movements come during a time of heightened tension between Beijing and the self-governed island and follows strong warnings by Chinese President Xi Jinping against Taiwan separatism. China claims Taiwan as its own and considers the island a breakaway province. Xi said last week Taiwan would face the "punishment of history" for any attempt at separatism. China's hostility towards Taiwan has grown since Tsai Ing-wen from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party won presidential elections on the island in 2016. Meeting New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu in Shanghai on Monday, the newly appointed head of China's policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office, Liu Jieyi, said China was clear in its opposition to Taiwan independence, Chinese state television said. China hopes both sides of the Taiwan Strait can work together for the peaceful development of relations and "jointly promote the process of the peaceful reunification of the motherland", Liu told Chu, state television added. The New Taipei City government said in a statement that Chu, from the China-friendly opposition Nationalist Party, told Liu they hoped for peaceful cooperation. "Although the political situation has changed, what people hope for most is peace," said Chu, who Tsai defeated for the presidency two years ago. While China insists it has no hostile intent, its military exercises and patrols around Taiwan, and in the busy South China Sea waterway, have touched a nerve in the region and in the United States. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Alex Wong angered Beijing during a recent visit to Taiwan by saying the U.S. commitment to the island had never been stronger. Beijing is already furious about a law signed two weeks ago by U.S. President Donald Trump that encourages the United States to send senior officials to Taiwan to meet counterparts and vice versa. (Reporting by Fabian Hamacher and Twinnie Siu; Writing by Christian Shepherd and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)Pristina (AFP) - Kosovo police on Monday arrested a senior Serbian official in the flashpoint town of Mitrovica, raising fresh tensions between the former foes who are trying to relaunch a dialogue.

Marko Djuric, Belgrade's chief negotiator for Kosovo -- a former Serbian province that proclaimed independence in 2008 -- was arrested after he crossed into the disputed territory and travelled to Mitrovica in defiance of a ban, a police spokesman said.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci in a statement called for calm and said Djuric was escorted by police to a "border crossing point between Kosovo and Serbia."

Shortly before 7:00 pm (1900 GMT) Serbian state-run RTS television announced Djuric's return to Serbia.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic labelled the arrest an abduction.

"All those who have participated in this abduction will be held accountable before Serbian state bodies," he told reporters in Belgrade.

"They beat him ... dragged him on the streets of Pristina under boos to complete the humiliation."

After the arrest, Djuric was taken to a police centre in Pristina, a police spokesman told AFP. Kosovo authorities said he had not obtained entry authorisation.

Serbian officials visiting Kosovo commonly seek Pristina's approval before visiting areas with an ethnic Serb population.

Hooded police holding automatic weapons and accompanied by armoured vehicles, were deployed from the Serbian border to Mitrovica to prevent several Serbian officials from entering Kosovo, according to an AFP corespondent.

Nearly 20 years after the 1998-1999 war between Serb forces and Kosovo pro-independence ethnic Albanian guerillas, Mitrovica remains divided between ethnic Serbs, living north of the Ibar river, and ethnic Albanians, south of it.

International forces are still deployed in the town.

Today Kosovo, which has a population of 1.8 million, is home to some 120,000 ethnic Serbs.

- Serious incident -

A public round-table in Mitrovica attended by Djuric was aimed at "internal dialogue" over the Kosovo issue, which is key to Belgrade's bid to join the European Union.

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In the hall where it was held a Serbian flag was on display.

Police had to battle their way through the hall where Djuric was attending the meeting, using tear gas to disperse dozens of residents trying to intervene.

He was then taken to the police station in Pristina, where he was dragged by police in front of the cameras and insulted by residents, according to AFP journalists.

Although there have been no serious inter-ethnic incidents in Mitrovica in recent years, the town remains tense.

The fragile situation was illustrated by the murder of moderate Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic in January.

A probe has failed to shed light on the murder.

Monday's arrest is the most serious incident since Belgrade sent a train to Kosovo in January 2017 painted in the Serbian flag's colours with a sign reading "Kosovo is Serbia" in multiple languages.

Pristina labelled it a "provocation", but Vucic halted it before the border.

The arrest and expulsion of Djuric took place after Vucic and Thaci met in Brussels on Friday to restart the EU-sponsored talks on normalisation of ties, which have been deadlocked for the past two years.

Thaci said the incident "should not interfere with ... the dialogue between the two countries, the efforts for normalisation, good neighbourly relations and reconciliation between Kosovo and Serbia."

About 115 countries have recognised Kosovo's independence over the past 10 years. However, Serbia and dozens of other states, including its ally Russia, have not.

The 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict claimed 13,500 lives.Penang (Malaysia) (AFP) - A leading Malaysian opposition politician and vocal critic of Prime Minister Najib Razak went on trial for corruption Monday as elections loom, in a case critics say is politically motivated.

Lim Guan Eng, who has repeatedly demanded that Najib explain a massive financial scandal that has engulfed his administration, appeared in the High Court in the northern state of Penang.

Supporters gathered outside the court, shouting "Support Guan Eng" and "Arrest Najib", as Lim denied two counts of abuse of office at the start of the trial.

Lim, who has been chief minister of Penang state since 2008 and has led the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) since 2004, faces one charge relating to the purchase of a house, allegedly below market price.

The second relates to the improper change of use of public land to allow development. He faces up to 20 years in jail if found guilty.

At Monday's hearing the prosecution called several witnesses. The first was blogger Muhsin Latheef, who lodged reports with anti-corruption authorities and the police about the house purchase that triggered the probe into Lim.

Under cross-examination by Lim's lawyer Gobind Singh Deo, Muhsin said he did not know what the appropriate price for the property was but denied that he made inaccurate statements in his report to the police.

Also standing trial was businesswoman Phang Li Koon, who is accused of abetting Lim in the purchase of the bungalow. She denies the charge.

Najib faces allegations that billions of dollars were plundered from a state-owned investment fund, 1MDB, he founded. Najib and 1MDB deny any wrongdoing.

Lim's DAP is a member of four-party opposition coalition, the Pact of Hope. Their candidate for the forthcoming polls is veteran ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad, 92, who has come out of retirement to take on former protege Najib.

The general election must be called by August but is widely expected sooner.Beijing (AFP) - Japanese media reported on Monday that a train possibly carrying a high-level official from North Korea has arrived in Beijing, sparking speculation that the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, may have been aboard.

The Kyodo news agency, citing unidentified sources close to the matter, said the visit -- if confirmed that it was a North Korean official -- would likely be to improve ties between North Korea and China.

Kim has not conducted an official trip abroad since taking power in 2011 and relations between China and North Korea are frosty as Beijing has backed UN sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile tests.

China is North Korea's only diplomatic ally and its most important trade partner, but Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping have never met.

Kim, however, is expected to hold historic summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April and US President Donald Trump in May. Talks between North and South Korean officials to plan the rare inter-Korean summit are expected to take place on Thursday.

Chinese state media did not report the train's arrival in Beijing, or any North Korean visit to Beijing. There was also no mention of a visit on North Korean state media either.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman earlier told a regular press briefing that she was unaware of reports that North Korean officials were spotted at a train station in the northeastern Chinese city of Dandong, which borders North Korea, at the weekend.

Japanese broadcaster NNN showed images of a green train with yellow stripes arriving in China. Kim's father, the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, used a similar-looking train to travel abroad.

There was nothing out of the ordinary at the Beijing railway station when an AFP reporter visited it on Monday evening.

But the manager of a store at the plaza outside the station said there had been "unusual" activity in the afternoon.

"There were a lot of police officers outside and along the road in front of the station. The station was blocked inside," the man said.

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Other shopkeepers declined to comment, saying they were not allowed to give interviews.

Train delays had fuelled speculation that a special train had arrived in Beijing.

The delays were posted on one of the railway network's accounts on Twitter-like Weibo, prompting users to post comments speculating about Kim's presence, which were later censored.

The North Korean embassy did not appear to have extra security. A police car stood idle outside one of the side entrances. The compound was quiet except for birds chirping.It's a big decision for a vehicle manufacturer to call time on a longstanding model in its range, so Toyota's decision to end production of its British-built Avensis could have repercussions for other midsize sedan cars in Europe.

Both in Europe and across the Atlantic in America, sedan cars from many brands are struggling to remain relevant in the face of the unrelenting sales onslaught from crossovers and SUVs. In North America the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200 have already bitten the dust, and the likes of the Ford Fusion could be next in the firing line. The Fusion's European equivalent, the Ford Mondeo, is already experiencing dwindling demand, and it's a similar case with the likes of Vauxhall and Opel's Insignia.

In the UK where the Toyota Avensis is built, sales fell last year to just 3,473 units, which is a drop of 1,660 sales on the previous year. Across Europe, a mere 25,319 units of the Avensis were snapped up by consumers in 2017, which is only around half the number of Mondeo models Ford managed to sell in the same period. The UK's Autocar publication cites a source saying that disparity between Avensis and Mondeo sales across Europe is what has encouraged Toyota to say goodbye to the Avensis sedan and Avensis Touring Sport models.

Toyota Europe boss Johan van Zyl quite recently told Autocar that the company was "not decided yet" what the future would hold for the Avensis, and a Toyota Europe spokesman has confirmed "we are monitoring the D-segment as it declines and suffers from heavy discounting." Those comments suggest that as well as the Avensis being taken out of production, there's unlikely to be any sort of direct replacement for the midsize sedan and estate wagon.

It has been suggested the gap could be filled by a sedan version of the Auris, which makes sense because just such a model is already sold in North America under the Corolla name. However, that more compact segment is also under threat due to falling sales which is why the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200 are now no more.

The Japanese auto giant is being particularly ruthless in culling slow-selling models at the moment, with diesel versions of the RAV4 and Auris already getting the chop recently. In fact, Toyota has announced that all diesel models will be dropped from its portfolio by the end of this year as it continues to invest in hybrid and electric technology.By Michael Holden and Roberta Rampton LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe in punishing the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that they have blamed on Moscow. It was the strongest action that U.S. President Donald Trump had taken against Russia since coming to office. He has been criticized by Democrats and members of his own Republican Party for failing to be tough enough on Russia over U.S. allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. electoral system including the 2016 presidential campaign. British Prime Minister Theresa May, welcoming the show of solidarity, said 18 countries had announced plans to expel Russian officials. Those included 14 European Union countries. In total, 100 Russian diplomats were being removed, the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Twitter that Monday's "extraordinary international response by our allies stands in history as the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers ever and will help defend our shared security." May said the coordinated measures sent the "strongest signal to Russia that it cannot continue to flout international law." Britain had evidence Russia has investigated ways of distributing nerve agents for assassinations, May told parliament. Russia's Foreign Ministry called the expulsions a "provocative gesture." The Kremlin spokesman said the West was making a "mistake" and that President Vladimir Putin would make a final decision about Russia's response. Moscow has denied being behind the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the southern English city of Salisbury. Skripal, 66, and Yulia Skripal, 33, were found unconscious on a public bench in a shopping center on March 4 and remain critically ill in hospital. "We assess that more than 130 people in Salisbury could have been potentially exposed to this nerve agent," May said. Monday's wave of expulsions followed EU leaders saying last week that evidence presented by May of Russian involvement in the attack was a solid basis for further action. The staff expelled by Washington includes 12 people identified by the United States as intelligence officers from Russia's mission to the United Nations headquarters in New York. They were involved in activities outside their official capacity and an abuse of their privileges of residence, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said. Russian U.N. ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called it "a very unfortunate, very unfriendly move." Trump also ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle because of its proximity to a U.S. submarine base and planemaker and defense contractor Boeing Co, a senior U.S. official said. Seattle was a hub of Russian cyber espionage, both political and commercial, according to two U.S. intelligence officials. The administration officials said "well over 100 intelligence officers" operated in the United States, and Washington's action cuts 60 of them. ONE WEEK TO LEAVE The envoys and their families have been given a week to leave the United States, according to one U.S. official. Trump, who before he took office in January last year promised warmer ties with Putin, last week congratulated the Russian leader on his re-election, drawing criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. Trump said the two leaders had made tentative plans to meet in the "not too distant future." He did not bring up the poisoning attack in his phone call with Putin. Trump himself was silent on Monday on Twitter, where he often comments about his policy decisions. But the White House later said it would like to have a "cooperative relationship" with Russia. "The president wants to work with the Russians but their actions sometimes don't allow that to happen," White House spokesman Raj Shah told a news briefing. "The poisoning in the U.K. that has kind of led to today's announcement was a very brazen action. It was a reckless action." U.S. lawmakers largely welcomed Trump's move on Monday. Washington had already imposed sanctions on Russian citizens and firms for U.S. election meddling and cyber attacks but put off targeting oligarchs and government officials close to Putin. "Punishing diplomats is not a direct threat to Putin's power or money. Further, our previous efforts to kick out diplomats has done little to change Kremlin behavior," said former CIA officer John Sipher, who served in Moscow and ran the agency's Russia operations. U.S. officials said the scale of the expulsions was based not only on the expansion of Russian espionage in the United States, but also on its increasing focus on critical infrastructure targets such as electrical grids, financial networks, transportation and healthcare. Trump has been criticized in the United States for doing too little to punish Russia for the election meddling and other actions, and U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether Trumps campaign colluded with the Russians, something he denies. Moscow denies interference in the campaign. Skripal's poisoning, which Britain said employed the Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent Novichok, is the first known offensive use of a nerve toxin in Europe since World War Two. The Foreign Ministry said "powerful forces" in the United States and Britain were behind the attack, RIA Novosti agency reported. European Council President Donald Tusk said further measures could be taken in the coming weeks and months. Russia said it would respond in kind. "The response will be symmetrical. We will work on it in the coming days and will respond to every country in turn," the RIA news agency cited an unnamed Foreign Ministry source as saying. The Kremlin has accused Britain of whipping up an anti-Russia campaign and has sought to cast doubt on the British analysis that Moscow was responsible. Russia has already ordered 23 British diplomats out of the country after Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats. (Reporting by Michael Holden and Elizabeth Piper in London, John Irish in Paris, Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber, Vladimir Soldatkin and Christian Lowe in Moscow, Alissa de Carbonnel in Bulgaria, David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Johan Sennero in Stockholm, David Mardiste in Tallinn; Roberta Rampton, John Walcott, Warren Strobel, Patricia Zengerle, Matt Spetalnick and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Writing by Guy Falconbridge and Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Frances Kerry; and Grant McCool)Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohens $130,000 payout to adult actress Stormy Daniels for her silence over an alleged affair with President Donald Trump violated election law, according to a former top U.S. election official.

During an interview on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper Sunday, Republican election law expert Trevor Potter said the payout potentially represents an illegal, in-kind contribution. Potter served as chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) under George H.W. Bush.

The payment was made to Danielswhose real name is Stephanie Cliffordjust days before the 2016 presidential election in return for her silence over her allegations she had sexual relations with Trump back in 2006 when he was a reality TV star. She appeared on 60 Minutes Sunday to talk about the relationship, payment, and the non-disclosure agreement she signed in return for the money.

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03_26_Cohen

Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters

In February Cohen told The New York Times that he paid Daniels with his own money. The payment was made through a shell company called Essential Consultants LLC.

Potter said Sunday that, to him, the payout looks like an in-kind contribution to benefit a political campaign in violation of election law.

Its a $130,000 in-kind contribution by Cohen to the Trump campaign, which is about $126,500 above what he's allowed to give, Potter said. If he does this on behalf of his client, the candidate, that is a coordinated, illegal, in-kind contribution by Cohen for the purpose of influencing the election, of benefiting the candidate by keeping this secret.

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Story continues

Read more: Stormy Daniels lawyer did not say she has pictures of Trump's penis

According to the FEC, a contribution is anything of value given, loaned or advanced to influence a federal election. Goods and services, such as computer equipment, count as in-kind contributions. These contributions are subject to spending limits.

Potter now heads the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for transparency and works to enforce campaign finance laws and rein in election spending.

Cohen has complained to friends that Trump has not reimbursed him for the money he paid to Daniels, The Wall Street Journal reported in early March. The article indicates Cohen's bank reported the wire transfer to the Treasury Department because it appeared suspicious.

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Potter said that Cohen could be in more trouble because he has not been reimbursed by the president.

Yet even if he was then reimbursed by the president, that doesn't remove the fact that the initial payment violated Cohen's contribution limits, Potter said. I guess it mitigates it if he's paid back by the candidate because the candidate could have paid for it without limit.

What I did defensively for my personal client, and my friend, is what attorneys do for their high-profile clients, Cohen told Vanity Fair magazine last week. I would have done it in 2006. I would have done it in 2011. I truly care about him and the familymore than just as an employee and an attorney.

The FEC could potentially launch an investigation of Cohens payment. An investigation would need the sign off of each of the bodys four commissioners, a group made up of two Republicans, one Democrat, and an independent.

Yet an investigation would take time and only result in financial penalties, Potter said.

Watchdog groups have filed complaints about Cohens payment to Daniels with the Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission. The commission has not said whether they have launched an investigation.

This article was first written by Newsweek

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